Kitty

The story of how Kitty came to be:

When we get to Utah literally the first thing we do when we walk in the house is open a present from my little brother Isaac. He is so eager to give it to her and he didn't want to wait until Christmas. So we let her open it and inside was "kitty". Immediately I hear a cry from my 14 year old brother Brigham- "FRECKLES??" 

I knew that cat looked familiar! Apparently Isaac decided to wrap up Brigham's childhood treasure and give it to Lucy for Christmas. How generous of him. 

Well, Lucy feel in love with "kitty" instantly so at that point Brigham had no choice but to give ole Freckles up. So not sure if we should be thanking Isaac or Brigham...but a big thanks to one of you because she is in love! These two are inseparable. Kitty is the first thing she looks for in the morning and the last thing she kisses goodnight!

*please excuse the poorly edited pictures, I'm still learning! ;) 

Pity Party Over

I'm done. Pity party over. Today I am choosing to be more grateful. I know many people who are enduring much worse and frankly I would be embarrassed for them to see my previous post. My life is pretty good.

I have one child. She is alive, she is healthy, she is growing properly and she really is a joy to have around. She is such a sweetheart.

I am married. To the man of my dreams...yet he is real. He loves me and I love him. We are both happy and healthy.

I'm a stay at home mom. I have the best job in the world. My husband works hard so I can stay home.

I love where we live. I love Richmond. I love my house. There is no where else I would rather be right now.

I have amazing friends. They are so thoughtful and kind. They make me laugh everyday and I love how close I live to many of them.

All our family members are healthy and doing well. They love us and would do anything for us.

I am capable of getting pregnant and having a baby.

And, last of all and most importantly I have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that I have a Heavenly Father who cares for me and loves me more than I even know. I know that he wants whats best for me and he is here to help me through my trials. I am so grateful for this knowledge. It gives me comfort, hope and somewhere to turn.

Thanks for your kind words and prayers in our behalf. We are praying for you and your trials as well. Prayer is great, isn't it?

I forgot this feeling.

I forgot how hard this is. I am beyond sad and frustrated right now! You get so comfortable and confident and then the Lord put's you right back in your place and lets you know that he is in charge. I am trying to cope better this time. My beautiful and wonderful daughter helps and I am sooo grateful for her- don't get me wrong. But I can't help it.

 I forgot the heartache, the emotional roller coaster, questioning the unknown, the pain when your let down, the wondering if it will ever work.   

Infertility is the pits. My heart breaks for everyone who has to endure this in some manner or another. And for those who don't, please count your lucky stars! 

I am sorry for being a complainer. I realize everyone has there crap. I have just reached the end of my rope this time around and I needed to vent. Too personal? Maybe. But dead honest. And that's how I roll. 

Thanks for listening.
And now you know, in case you were wondering. 

Absentee Blogger

Where have I been? What have I been doing?

realized later how funny this looked...no i am not pregnant. keep scrolling! 

Oh just scrapbooking the first year of my daughter's life in under 3 weeks. 

Note to self- next groupon for a photo book start a year before the deadline! :) 

I {Heart} Pigtails

Terrible Two's Already?

In the last week Lucy has had 2 grocery store meltdowns. These are really the first ever and if it's a sample of what's to come we are in trouble!

I gave her a mini Elmo Balloon to hold while we got the 2 things we needed in the grocery store. I even let her walk. Well when it was time to say "buh bye" to Elmo she flipped! I mean full out, fall to the ground (ew), kicking and screaming while I am checking out. It was awesome.

Today at Target it was one thing after another!
Freaking out about sitting in the cart unless she had a snack in her hands
Taking her shoes off, wanting them back on, then taking them off again
Freaking out loading her in and out of her car seat
Reaching and pulling at the clothes racks
Falling out of the cart- I caught her upside down by her arms! (scared me to death)
When I let her out for a break she pushed the cart all over and wandered away
So back in the cart (buckled)- screaming at the top of her lungs through the store.

I got so many looks. Many out of pity. One woman said "hang in there!"- which was appreciated

So besides not taking her at all (which I do avoid) what are your tricks Mom's? I don't like just pumping her with sugar because it makes her even worse and ruins her appetite. I know I shouldn't let her hold a toy from the store then make her put it back (learned that with the balloon). I hate taking her in and out of the cart but what do I do when she is screaming and crying like crazy!? Help! No smart phone games suggestions- no smart phone here. I know so deprived!

Maybe this was all a fluke and she will start being good again, but I'm started to doubt that. So I need some major advice!

Oh and apparently food is where I  find comfort because in my frustration I bought cheese puffs. Yep that whole big tub of them. I immediately regretted it and am disgusted with myself! So if anyone wants some cheese puffs, please come take them off my hands. It was a moment of great distress and weakness! ;)

The End

Every year not only do we make and decorate beautiful gingerbread houses. On New Years Day we DESTROY them!!! 

Yes we handed our child a (butter) knife and let her be destructive until her heart was content. Which took quite a bit of coercing...she is too good. 

It can be dangerous and really messy, but it's the funnest part! When we were little we used to even eat the old hardened candy off and get baggies to save every little piece in! 

Oh the funny traditions that develop. This was the end of our fabulous vacation. Rather appropriate I guess. So sad. 

Ringing in the New Year

I realize this is probably more pictures than anyone cares to see...but I like them. For New Years Eve this year we had a party and had our friends the Howlands over. We played Minute to Win It games, and had a chocolate fondue fountain. It was a really fun night! 

Danielle and Nate even surprised us and showed up late! Yay! we continued to wait for midnight by playing more Just Dance and just being silly. 

He gets me. 

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! WAHOOO! 

Poppa's Birthday

We celebrated my Dad's birthday on the 30th with a little family party at the Institute building. We played in the great rec room, played bball and even brought Just Dance 3. Afterwards we headed to Red Robin to eat a yummy dinner! Thanks for treating us on your birthday! We all had a great time! Happy Birthday Poppa! We Love you! 

Trip to the Zoo

While in Utah the Hogle Zoo had a free day. So we braved the cold and went to check out the animals. It was a really fun outing. 

The Monkey's were super active! They were mine and Lucy's favorite! She would just point and laugh at them! The zoo is so exciting with a kid. 

Love the cute sweater Nate brought Lucy back from Chile. 

A Day in the (Vacation) Life.

People always ask "what did you do?" when you get home from a vacation. After a trip like this I usually reply "Not much of anything, just hung around" Which sounds awfully boring. But here is what I mean when I use that answer. Here is what a typical (vacation) day looks like at the Jewkes home. It's anything but boring! 

Playing on Poppa's new ipad 

Taking Brigham (and any other willing members) all over the house by there finger 

Going "up" 

Lucy asked for this constantly between Noah and Brigham she got to "go up" quite a bit. I can't keep up these days now that we are back home. 

I would say Lucy spent about 70% of her waking hours in this room. Either playing the keyboard, piano, drumming with Noah, or dancing to music being played. This girl loves music! I need to set up our keyboard as the new babysitter. (Also staying in our pj's all day is another regular, especially on vacation!) 

Lucy watching movies with Isaac. 

Lucy loved family scripture study. She even got her own book and followed along. 

Lucy wasn't the only one interested in Poppa's new ipad. We messed around taking silly pictures of ourselves with "photo booth" quite a bit. 

We played lots and lots of games! Cranium was a favorite on this trip. I bet we played it at least 6 times. We also played monopoly deal, Truth be Told, Celestial Pursuit (oh yes we did),Sequence, and Mad Gab. I love that my family loves games. 

We also played a lot of Wii. Including family favorites such as Mario Cart, Super Smash Brawl, Mario Strikers,Wii Sports, Band Hero and our new favorite....

Just Dance 3!!!! It's my new favorite (not so much Erik's). I love it! We played it so much that we started to be able to do the dances without the game. Pretty pathetic. And our Korean friend put us all to shame and won EVERY TIME! 

We played basketball ball, pickle ball and swam at the gym a few times as well. We always have so much fun with the crazy Jewkes clan! It's always a party! These kids keep me young! :) 

Temple Square

(not sure what day this was- but it was actually before Christmas) 

We had to squeeze in a night to go see the lights at Temple Square. I am always in awe at how many lights there are and how well they are done. Verrrry different than the Tacky Light Tour! Luckily, it actually wasn't too cold. But maybe that's just because I had on so many layers! ha ha! I did NOT want to be cold. I also love that although there was no snow we put Lucy in her full out snow suit! ha! We figured it would be warmest. She looked like a little oompa loompa, and I loved it! 

Oh how we love to see the Temple! 

Get Air

Monday December 26th 2011

The day after Christmas we got to take advantage of some of our Christmas gifts. First of all we played more "Just Dance" on the Wii then you can imagine (and continued to play daily until we left.) My parents also bought us passes to "Get Air" an indoor trampoline gym in Roy Utah. The Simpsons also joined us. We had a ton of fun! 

Lucy and I loved the foam pit. It was really fun to jump into it but not so fun to get out. ( I am just grateful we didn't get a picture of that!) 

The boys loved the section with the bball hoop. They showed off there dunking skills. I gave it a whirl but I was awful! It was embarrassing. We did get a picture of that, I just choose not to post it! ha! 

Lucy got some bonding time with "aunt" Lauren. She now calls her "La La" 

We were all sore the next day from this place! We played that hard!