The Birthday Girl

First, a little humor regarding my previous post...

Now onto the Birthday girl.

She's 5!

And beautiful.

 

Love you Jade.

Guardian Angels

Lately, I am absolutely convinced in the reality of guardian angels.  I imagine that an angel assigned to watch over Everest and Calder must be something like this...

Only bigger and more menacing looking.

Or more than likely something like this...

 I am beyond grateful for these men.

I really am not sure how little boys (including little boy Aaron McKee) make it past the age of 2.  And this week I finally realize what people mean when they say I'll be in "survival mode" for a while.  I've been in it for at least the last 2 years but probably longer.

Here's whats been happening:
•Calder smashed his toe pretty good and will eventually lose the toenail
•Just days later he got 2nd degree burns all over his hand from leaning on the fireplace
•The same day as the burns, the boys escaped our eagle eyes and filled our bathtub up all the way to the top with hot water and played in it with their clothes on
•Calder (again) now climbs out of his crib (Everest has been doing it for months)

So my point is, I don't even know who I am anymore.  I don't feel human.  We've been watching a terrible (or awesome?) show called The Walking Dead which is obviously about Zombie's.  I think the reason its so scary to me (besides all of the people getting eaten) is how much the zombie's remind me of myself (in personality and appearance).  But I don't really have a choice with all that is going on every single day, and on very little to no sleep. 

I'm just hoping I have my own guardian angel, to protect my sanity from moments like this...

[warning: some images may be disturbing to young children and mothers alike]

10 More Days

With just 10 days left (including today) until Halloween...

We've got paper doll witches made

  The porch is decorated

 {Close up of Hello Kitty pumpkin made by Jade and I}

 Hermione is hung (that's what Jade and Aaron named "her")

 Jade's birthday presents are wrapped, and displayed to tease her for the next 6 days

The boys' hair is cut (no more mullets, thanks daddy)

 

And we don't have any snow yet!

 Oh, and in case you were wondering, we didn't sell the Fresh Beat tickets so we still get to go!  Don't tell Jade, the tickets are in one of those wrapped gifts :)

Fall Ventures

I got a kick out of this picture because it reminded me of when we went to a timeshare presentation and I was so jealous that the couples who were buying timeshares were getting their pictures taken in front of tropical backdrops with fancy drinks.  This is the man version of that (Aaron just got a new truck).

 I'm crazy and I added teaching preschool to my list of things to do while I'm pregnant.  Its me and 5 other moms so I only teach once in a while. 

 The other day Calder got his toe smashed by a heavy bench.  Here is Everest trying to cheer him up.

 Add getting an early start on Christmas to my list of undertakings.  I'm really excited about this tray I made for Santa :)  fyi, the bubbles went away after it dried.  I'm too much of a perfectionist to allow for that.

 And I made these stocking stuffers for all FOUR of my kids.  I am now done with Christmas shopping.

 The following are a whole lot of pictures of my kids playing happily together, which I love, and I can't choose between any of them.

And finally, if you're LDS and interested in taking this on (or if you're not lds but have always wanted to read this book...) Aaron and I are finishing the Book of Mormon before Christmas and we just started last month.  If you start now you'll have a little catching up to do but it IS doable.  I'm listening to it on the scriptures I downloaded free from iTunes and it is so much easier that way.

Good luck :)

Mmm, candy...

Mom, hope you have a SWEET birthday :) I love you, you're the best.

And I really am craving a tootsie roll now...

Worth it

Remember that quote about "happy snapshots" getting you through life??

Also, sadly I am trying to sell these tickets that I got for Jade's birthday.  I haven't given them to her yet so it won't be as heartbreaking for her as for me.  My doctor has advised me not to travel so close to my due date, and he's probably right.  So here are the details in case anyone is interested...

Fresh Beat Band Live!

SLC, UT

Monday Nov. 5th @ 5:30

2 VIP tickets which include:

•4th row orchestra seats

•Meeting the band and getting a picture with them

•Snacks and activities in the party room

•Fresh Beat Poster

•VIP laminated pass

I paid $276 for these tickets because from the reviews I read the VIP experience is just the coolest thing ever and totally worth paying extra for.  If I can't sell them well then I guess I'll just go against my doc's wishes and take her anyway.  It would make for a pretty cool story if I went into labor in front of the band right?? If you're interested I'll give them to you for $250.

On a different note, General Conference was awesome (from what I was able to hear over all the screaming babies) and I've got a post about that coming soon.

The Spirit of Elijah

In 2002 I started a journey to find out more about my extended family.  I was enrolled in a Family History class at college.  We started with just a basic family tree that included myself, my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents.  Easy right? Except that I'd never met one of my grandfather's, and I had no idea what my great grandparents names were.  So the search began.

7 years later, I found out that the grandfather I'd never met had actually been married previously and had a son (a half brother my dad never knew he had).  I wrote a letter to George Moranz and received a real handwritten letter in response.  He knew his dad's parents names!  So I could finally finish that family tree.

Present time: Recently I've felt like I still didn't know enough about where I come from.  So I started doing a little more research but I took a different approach.  Instead of looking backwards, I thought there have got to be living relatives of some sort out there still, and maybe they know more than I do.  I happened to come across an obituary of a nephew of my grandfathers, and this listed ALL surviving relatives of the deceased.

Through the process of googling contact info for all of these relatives (scary right? Its amazing how easy this is) I have now been in contact with 4 relatives.  Three of my 2nd cousins, and one of my dad's first cousins, who actually lives in Salt Lake City! What are the odds?

Here are some pictures they shared with me

 My dad's first cousin Sheila (who lives in SLC) with her husband and kids.  Her daughter Eva is around my age and also has MS.

 My 2nd cousin Evan (who used to be a professional ballet dancer) with his wife and daughters

 The Engel family (grandchildren/great grandchildren of my great uncle Meyers)

My 2nd cousin Susan with her husband Isaac, and their niece.

2nd cousin Marshall and his wife Janice.

I spoke with Susan and Marshall on the phone, and got emails from Sheila and Janice, along with Susan's brother Alan.

This post is mostly for me to stay organized and remember who people are, I don't expect it to be very interesting to everyone else.  But I definitely feel drawn to finding out where I come from, and preserving it for my kids so they know where they come from too.

If you want to read a pretty straight forward talk from Elder Russell M. Nelson that explains why I believe I've been working so hard for so long at this, you should look at this.


"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers..."

                   Malachi 4:5-6