Happy Birthday...Better late than never?

Monday was Jordan's birthday. She was born on 2/22/02. Yes, very cool birthday but it gets better. On the day she was born we joked about all the different "cool" times she could be born. I was induced that morning and as the clock ticked we passed quite a few of those times. Then the time came...Jordan was born and we all stopped in shock as the nurse announced the time: 2:22. Needless to say, if you ask her, her lucky number is 2.

Jordan is such a joy to have in our house. After having 2 boys EVERYONE asked if the new baby was a girl were we going to be done. I just told them to ask me again when I was the crazy lady down the street with 8 boys. Truth be told 3 was our number regardless but I was SUPER excited to be having a girl. When the ultrasound tech said "most likely" a girl I went 100%. I never even mentioned to anyone the "most likely" part. Good thing she was a girl because I had never seen a closet so full of pink in my life. I think when she was born she had more clothes than I probably ever will.

Jordan is just fun - she's a bit of a tom boy since she has to keep up with two older brothers but she also loves to dress up and be girlie. Not that there weren't times after church when I would have to tell her to quit climbing trees in her church clothes. She's also ruined a dress or two while skateboarding - but what can you do?

Jordan is also my sidekick. She tends to keep the house in order - even though she's the biggest culprit of leaving her snack wrappers on the couch. I was sick once and could barely get off the couch. I remember hearing Jordan tell the boys that it was time for bed. When asked if "mom said??" she responded YES and the boys brushed their teeth and went to bed. I just smiled to myself and went back to sleep. She also loves to take the lessons she learns at church and use them at home. Of course she has to TELL me she learned about being a peacemaker as she will walk in to the other room and tell the boys to "get along". Of course she's also the one jumping in and stirring the pot 99% of the time.

She loves to read, rollerblade, design dresses, and just about anything else. She is one of those kids that will try anything and she has no fear. I am thankful for her every day.

Look for the update in April when she gets baptized. And yes - she has to wait because of family schedule conflicts. She did suggest getting baptized now and then doing it again when everyone can come and was a bit disappointed when I said it didn't work that way but she is SUPER excited for April!!

Hair today gone tomorrow?

Can you tell if this is a boy or a girl? Apparantly the hair on this child was getting so long that at Chuck E Cheese's on Saturday Jordan had to say to another child "That's not a girl! That's my BROTHER!"

I'm not really bothered by what my kids want to do with their hair. There are so little freedoms for kids that hair really isn't something I make a fuss over. (I will also admit I get some sort of pleasure from people asking about his hair and those that just don't think it's "appropriate") Jared had decided a while back that he wasn't going to cut his hair until summer. Fine, let's see what happens. He then changed his mind a month ago because he "saw himself in the mirror and didn't realize it was that long". We still didn't get it cut mostly because we just didn't get over there to cut it.

On Saturday, after the "That's not a girl" comment and the fact that his older brother wanted a haircut we went to Great Clips. Jared still wasn't sure if he wanted to cut it or not so he decided on a trim. They did take 3 inches off - if you call that a trim.

The Deal

My mom was here last week and when we stopped for lunch before I took her to the airport to go home she put an offer on the table. I've been wanting to lose weight for a while. In fact there were 2 New Years in a row that I joked that my resolution was to become anorexic. I don't need comments about how insensitive that is and all that other stuff. I'm not really choosing to have an eating disorder to lose weight. And anyways, it obviously didn't happen, so you can relax. So, after trying to figure out what would REALLY motivate me an offer came. A deal was made. (Doesn't hurt that I saw my picture on two different blogs and that might have encouraged me just enough!)

The deal: lose 20 pounds before my cousins wedding May 15th and get a $500 shopping spree for a new wardrobe.

Now I'm not a style maven and I'm pretty much most comfortable in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt but those things wear out too. So - we'll see how the next few months go and what kind of fun things I can buy.

So, I now have to figure out how to get this done. I can't run because I have a bad knee. A floating patella - if you want to see it I'll show you sometime. Haha. Mainly I think I need to start on my diet. Cutting out the soda, the junky snacks and the second helpings. I'm also hoping to go pick up an elliptical from a friend who doesn't use hers. Just have to find someone with a truck to pick it up for us and then I'll be on my way to a skinnier me.

Let's Talk About Change!!!

I haven't blogged in a while and part of that is because my Mom was here visiting for two weeks. We did all sorts of things including looking at houses. Not for me but for my parents. They put their house on the market in California and we were just seeing what was out and about in Tucson. It has been on the market several times in the last 4 years but nothing ever came of it. This time they have had more people look at it in the first 2 weeks then probably the last 4 years combined. And then the offer came in. THE HOUSE SOLD! It has gone from "someday" we might come live by you in Tucson to "it looks like this is it!"

Of course we looked at house after house finding nothing up to her specifications. Single level, living room and family room, not trashed, and not squished in between 2 other houses. We might have found a couple if it were not for the "not trashed part". You do have to wonder in some of these houses how the children colored so high on the walls and if they touched the wall with dirty hands EVERY time they walked down the hallway. So, we found nothing....until.

Until what you ask? Until we walked around the corner from my house. Literally 3 houses down and one street over. An empty, brand new, smaller home. It's on a corner and the lot is huge. All of a sudden the idea of my mother moving in to a home that I can see from my back yard got a little crazy. 7 hours is the closest we have ever lived to family (oh wait at USU we were 2 hours from my sister in law.) Obviously in England we were an Ocean away. This is walking distance. Exciting and scary all at the same time. No offers have been made though as they are waiting for the sale of their home to be finalized. It should be an interesting couple of weeks ahead of us.

Happy New Year!

Yes - I know I'm 4 days late. That seems to be the trend lately. We had a fantastic 2 weeks off just hanging out with the kids and working on things around the house. I guess we were so happy not going to school and work that we figured we would skip it today. Well, almost. I managed to wake up 5 minutes before Jackson needed to be on the bus and 25 minutes before the other 2 needed to be to school. Great start!

I'm also a bit late with the goal setting. Not really sure what goals I have. I know I would like to lose weight - this has been a goal 4 years running...so far with no success. I suppose if I was out walking the dog instead of sitting here in my jammies while he is sleeping on the floor next to me that might help.

So, before the day gets away from me and it's time to get the kids from school I suppose I better get on that walk.

Merry Christmas!!

So far we've had a great Christmas Holiday. My mom's for a few days of California sun and Disneyland. Now we're at home spending Christmas with Stew's parents. Never a dull moment around here.

Bad Habit?

Last night the youth at church went Christmas carolling. I am always finding Jackson a ride home from these activities as I hate to drive back and forth all night long to drop him off and pick him up. So, as the activity was about to start I went inside the house they were meeting at to find someone who would give him a ride. This is where my "bad" habit took over. I walked in to see a couple people sorting gift baskets. Trying to match up the baskets with the correct address and then group them together. I could have walked in, found a ride, walked out. But I couldn't. I have this problem. I see something that needs to be done or something that needs an extra hand and I just have to jump in. I stayed for a good 20 minutes making sure everything was set up so they could easily grab their baskets and get going when the time came. Seriously - why am I not one of those moms who drops their kid at the curb and goes back home? Is it my way of payback for begging someone else to make sure my kid gets back home at the end of the night? Actually I know what the cause of my problem is. It's genetic! My mom is the same way and as much as we would like to sit back and enjoy or socialize you'll often find us jumping up to take care of something else. I'll continue to blame the bad habit on her. Oh well, guess there are worse things.