Jenna's first Hair Do

I know it's not a very good picture but I could not get her to smile or hold still so this was the best I could do. Branon comes from all boys he has 4 brothers so I thought for sure I would have all boys but I was sure wrong. I thought for sure Jonas was going to be a girl though because I thought the cycle would certainly have to end soon, he already had two nephews at the time and no nieces. When we found out Jonas was a boy I thought from that moment on I would just have boys, and I was okay with that. One of the positives I never have to worry about doing hair, and I loved that idea. For those that knew me when I was a little girl I hated more than anything having my hair brushed or done. I screamed bloody murder, well Bella is that same way so there are days where I just don't want to face it and let her go looking a little raggedy, I wonder if my mom ever did that with me? I really hate the stage where Jenna's hair is but yesterday I tried for the first time doing her hair, and wished I had all boys!

Goals for the Year

I thought I would write my goals down so when I need help I can come back to this post. I'm glad 2008 is over all though it wasn't a bad year we added Jenna to the family and it's been a joy to have her but going to three has been a little harder for me. My goals for this year is to ...

1) Be happier

2) Love my children more, by doing this not yelling at my children(I already broke the one, but I'm trying harder). Spending more quality time with them.

3) Read my scriptures everyday

4) Exercise more(I still have a lot of baby fat to lose, for some reason I gain a lot of weight 50lbs with each pregnancy but it gets harder with each child to lose it).

5) Clean my house more, I wouldn't say I'm a dirty person but I just have a lot of clutter everywhere so my goal I should say is be more organized and put things where they go, maybe I won't lose so much stuff.

Those are it for now but I think it's a good start and I don't want to make a huge list because then I will be overwhelmed and won't do any of them.

I noticed I haven't blogged for awhile so here is a review of the last few weeks. Christmas was wonderful. Christmas Eve we had a ton of people over in our tiny house but I thought it was a lot of fun. Christmas was wonderful, it didn't take to long for the kids to rip open the presents. After they were all open Jonas said "Where are more?" Let's say we had to teach him how to be grateful for what we get. Plus he got his storm trooper helmet that he asked for. Bella got everything she wanted princesses and ponies. Jenna had fun watching Jonas and Bella open presents and she just went for the paper. I was very spoiled this year and got a nice Camera so I need to learn how to take better pictures and to use the camera. Branon's brother Haldon and his family and other brother Kellen came up a couple of days after Christmas to watch Branon's basketball games, it was a lot of fun to have them here. Then I and the girls went down to St. George for a few days and stayed with my parents for New Years Eve. I actually stayed up past midnight and played games with my dad, which was fun because I kicked his butt. Branon and Jonas went with his brother Haldon and his son Kodiak to Salt Lake to watch the Utah and Gonzaga basketball game. School started back up last Monday so we are trying to get back into a normal schedule what ever that may be. Here are some random pictures of the last month.

The kids thought it would be funny to put the cat up on Jenna's chair, as you can see she is really hungry!

Bella is still scared of Santa Clause and this is the closes she would come and that's because I forced her. Jonas was quite embarrassed by her when we went to visit the Santa Claus at the grocery store. Jenna did great and was very amused!

I just wanted to throw in this funny story of Bella. She has done a lot better then I expected to adjusting to Jenna but their are occasional moments where she doesn't and one being this morning. When I had to go nurse Jenna before I put her down for a nap Bella started to cry and tell me that I can't feed Jenna. Then she told me "mom I need to go pee" so I told her she is a big girl you can go in and do it. Her reply was "No, I need you to come squeeze me, so I can pee." I laughed and then she got mad and ended up going pee. Then she said "Maylynn come wipe me now" It just sounded funny having her say my name instead of Mom. Usually she doesn't want me to help her go to the bathroom and especially when she is going number 2 she tells me to go away.

Venting

I don't even know where to begin. I'm horrible at trying to put my feelings down on writing and to think when I was younger I wanted to be a writer, until I realized how bad I was at English, so sorry for all those English professors! The idiot that I am went and got umbilical hernia surgery last Monday, yea that's right in December. It wasn't anything major but I had to do it before the end of the year due to insurance purposes. I never had been put out before so I was horrified. Let's just say I hope I never have to do that again. A couple of days later Branon had to be gone all day for Basketball but lucky to some really good friends I was able to survive. Then of course the next I had to be fine because Bella was now sick. She was up all night Tuesday and Wednesday and by Thursday she couldn't stop crying. Finally I took her to the Doctor because I couldn't take in any longer. I'm not suppose to lift more then 20lbs but that was thrown out now. She ended up having a really bad ear infection. I asked the doctor if I could have that miracle shot for her because trying to shove medicine down her throat is impossible especially when she is sick. Lets just say by that night she was doing much better and she finally was sleeping through the night again.

So we got hit with a pretty bad Snow Storm Saturday, then Sunday was freezing cold, and then Monday we got hit with another bad snowstorm. I don't mind it so much if I didn't have to go out in it but since we don't have a garage it really sucks. I've been trying to quit drinking soda and I think I learned my lesson on Monday. I got four packs of soda since they were on sale but never got them out of my car. Monday morning when I went to go start the car in the front passenger seat and dashboard there was ice with coloring. Thought that's strange. Look back and it's all over the place because 4 cans had exploded. Still haven't cleaned it up because I've been so busy trying to catch up plus it's too DAMN cold to go out there.

Tonight I had to go to when of those dreadful work party's. Actually there usually not that bad but Branon's work is Celebrating their 20th year so they went all out. First, we had to dress up and normally we just wear whatever. Second, we had to listen to this guy give some speech of how it all started. I thought he would never end so it made the party go that much longer. You know when your at those Fast Sunday meetings and when the Bishop has to get up there to tell the person to wrap it up. Yea, I was wishing someone would do that to him. The plus side of it they had really good food.

Because of this one I've been able to survive the last couple of weeks. She is at the most amazing age and would love to be able to freeze it. She by far as been the easiest of the three at this age. She went to my friend Sarah's house when I got my surgery done. She has a boy that is just a few days older than her and he is crawling all over and I'm sure will be walking way before he is one. I think watching him move all over gave her inspiration to start moving so she now can do the army crawl. She is happy 99.9 percent of the time and loves to pull this face(above), which I get a crack out of. When I put her in her highchair she starts getting all excited and yelling at me because I'm not getting the food fast enough. She eats 3 times as much as Jonas and Bella ever did.

Jonas is a pretty good boy for the most part but when he wants to throw a tantrum he can throw one. Last night he wanted to go to his friends house and when I told him that he couldn't he starting yelling and hitting me(have no idea where he got that one from). He ended up in his room for like an hour because he wouldn't stop. Every time he came out he would start back up. Finally I told him that he needed to get his pajamas on and if he didn't stop he will go to bed without any dinner. Finally he stopped and was a very very good boy the rest of the night.

Now for this one she gives me a run for my money. As soon as Jonas stopped his tantrum she started hers. Who ever thinks 2 is bad I think 3 is way way worse(the age, not how many kids you have). This girl cries over everything especially when she doesn't get her way, or when Jenna is playing with something that she doesn't want her too. I'm pretty sure there are going to be some nasty fights in the future between those two but I'll try not to think about it and deal with the problem that I have now. When she isn't crying she is so happy and sweet. As you can see she loves to help me cook, hopefully she will turn out better than her mother. She is so fun to watch her play with her toys and how she talks to them, I really need to get it on camera. She also hates having her toys picked up. The other day I was putting some of her toys away so I can vacuum in her room and she came unglued because she wanted them out even though she wasn't playing with them. Like I said she cries over everything. Oh, did I mention Branon is gone Monday nights so he missed out on the fun.

Now that I have most of my venting off my shoulders I only have one more. The Saturday before my surgery we went the the community festival of trees. This was the second year they did it and last year was so much fun. They had tons of trees and seemed to be a lot of people for a small town. This year was a disappointment. They had like 5 trees but I guess that's what happens when you live in a small town. I would like to also know where they got their Santa. Doesn't Santa usually have the kids come sit on your lap? He wasn't the most friendly Santa I've seen. Yeah, Bella is finally not screaming her head off either but she also didn't sit on his lap, and as you can see is holding tight to me.

One thing good that happen over the couple of last weeks was that I got to go with some good friends to see "Twilight" for the second time. I know can you believe it they have a theater here, and they are already showing twilight. It's only a one screen theater but at least they have one. The first time I went and saw it with some of the same people but we had to drive 3 hours to see it opening day. Although I thought it was a real disappointment the first time I had a lot of fun talking and laughing with friends on the long drive. Second time thought it was much better, probably because I knew all the cheesy parts like "you Spider Monkey"!

Total opposites

Jonas and Bella play really well together(for the most part) but that's probably the fact that they are two very opposite kids. I have no idea where Jenna will fit in the picture yet. I'm pretty sure I'll be lucky if the girls get along since Bella does freak out when Jenna rolls over to all her toys and starts grabbing. Here are some of the things that Jonas and Bella do that are totally opposite. Jonas screams when he has to go to school, Bella screams because she wants to go to school. Jonas hates going to bed, Bella goes to bed when she is tired. Jonas will brush is teeth, Bella cries when brushing her teeth. When I get mad Jonas gets mad back, Bella starts to cry "Mom to be angry" it's harder to get after Bella without her crying. The list could go on and on but I'm hoping Jenna will be something in between to make for my perfect child!

Today this one drove me insane. It started at 10 in the morning and lasted until Branon came home at 5. She got her backpack on and cried all day to have me take her to school. When I told her that she didn't have school today she cried even harder. So I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted done today.

So after all my cleaning and making sure everything was off the floor in the living room it didn't take much for few peanut M&M's to make it on the floor. She was on the floor rolling all around and before long Branon looks down and sees that she has chocolate all over her mouth. As you can see it made a huge mess. Not long after this picture was taken she threw up all her dinner plus two peanuts. Hopefully she will be okay!

Sick, Sick, Sick

Really how many times can you get sick in 2 in half months. It all started on our anniversary and it seems like I'm sick every other week. This time it was probably due to the lack of sleep I got last weekend on my Scrap booking weekend with my friends. Plus all my kids have a runny nose which probably contributed to being sick this time. A month ago I got strep and for those that have not had it pray that you never get it. I had a fever and could not swallow, and luckily to the miracle shot I was better in a couple of days. I have a sore throat now and I hope I don't get strep again.

Last weekend we went to Olive Garden and got horrible service. My friend Heidi is not afraid to say how she fells and got a free dinner out of it, plus a gift certificate for our next scrap booking weekend. Jenna did pretty good but she is at that age that she grabs everything in sight. Jenna dumbed water all over my friend Amy(who is pictured below). I wished she would have slept in since I was the idiot that I was and stayed up until wee hours in the morning. Oh yea ask me how much I got done? None! However I did get my digital programs working again.

8 months and counting

Jenna was 8 months on Monday, it feels like I just had her. Besides not sleeping through the night she has been are best baby, also best nursing baby too. By now I'm done and dried up but since the fact that she doesn't take a bottle very well I'll be going until she is one. She doesn't have any teeth so it's not too bad. Jonas and Bella didn't get teeth until they were one so we should be fine. She doesn't crawl yet but that doesn't stop her from going one side of the room to the other(she doesn't have very far to go since the room is so small). I can see the future from this picture. Jenna will be trying to take things from Bella, then Bella crying. I might actually have a tough one, that would be weird since the others cry over spilled milk. When Bella is throwing a tantrum, Jenna laughing, it makes Bella even more mad, and I'm with Jenna laughing. Oh can I tell you this time change is killing me. I hate when people say "I'm so excited for that extra hour of sleep." It's more like I get up an hour earlier so this morning I'm up at 5:30.

My friend says Jenna is one of the loudest babies she's seen. She really isn't that bad but when she is hungry or tired then that's when she gets loud. She never really cries is more of yelling and once feed then she is quiet, either she is playing or asleep.

We had activities yesterday and the girls new more then I did about the presidents. I'm sure they will be very disappointed when they wake up and find out that Obama won, because everyone of them wanted McCain to win. The reason why was because he wants school to be year round. I will support Obama but please don't make school year round because I'm with the girls I do not like it.

We had our first Snow storm yesterday and woke up to a couple of inches of snow on the ground. This is just the start of the long winters here. Last winter was brutal and I heard we are in for another one. Winter also means basketball season so hopefully I will be able to survive. For those that don't know Branon is an assistant coach for the High School Boys Basket Ball team, so he is gone a lot.

Trick or Treat

For some reason I wasn't too excited about Halloween this year, but I'm not a huge holiday person either. I've been quite down this last week thinking a lot about my mom. I remember she used to love the Holidays and make them so much fun. Then when she died and my dad took over they became depressing. I remember one Halloween my dad offered us money NOT to go trick or treating. Now having kids I try to get into it more but I'm afraid I'm more like my dad, but I did get my kids costumes and we did do the Trunk or Treating. Then we went to one friends house and as you can see Jonas played on the toys. We couldn't do trick or treating since the houses are too far apart where we live.

Jenna did alright but as you can see she's not to thrilled.

I was trying to get a good picture of Bella but she said she had enough.