Do-It-All Dad

I feel so lucky (and grateful and blessed) that he's mine.  I hope my girls marry someone who's as hardworking and kind and handsome as their daddy.  If they do, they'll be happy forever.

Katelyn Turns 10 (5/9/13)

I can't let myself focus on the number too much or I get weepy and start to freak out.  My baby girl is 10 years old!  Good-bye to single digits! As I was lying in bed the night before her birthday, I reminded Jason that she is over halfway done living at home with us.  My mind started racing, wondering if I was doing everything right by her.  Am I teaching her enough?  Have I showed her and told her enough just how much she means to me?  Because she means the world to me.  She changed me, for the better, the day she was born. I can still remember that day like it was yesterday....waking up to my water breaking, all the hours of labor, the sickness afterwards, falling in love with Jason even more (which I didn't think was possible) as he held my sleeping baby on his chest all night long, staring at my angel fresh from the presence of our Heavenly Father and thinking she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.  Yep, there I go getting all teary-eyed.

Katelyn Ann Bischoff is one of the sweetest girls you'll ever meet.  She is always thinking of others and tries to help people in anyway she can.  She loves to do and say things that put a smile on someone's face or makes them feel good about themselves.  She loves to do what's right and realizes the importance of her choices...even the small ones. She is always so happy...constantly smiling and looking on the bright side of things.  She is very responsible and I know I can depend on her. She is the best big sister a kid could ask for. She is Jacob's best friend, Dallin's buddy, and Kinlee's 2nd mom.  Actually she is a second mom to all of them.  Just the other day Dallin fell asleep and got a sucker stuck in his hair.  When he woke up, she took him back to the bathtub, washed the sucker out of his hair, sat on the edge and put her feet in the water so she could play toys with him, got him dried off and dressed and ready to go outside....all without me having to say a word to her. I know I am too hard on her at times, and I make way more mistakes than I do good. I yell too often and seem to always have a shortage of patience. Yet she forgives me time after time and constantly tells me that I am the best mom in the world. I feel so lucky and blessed to be the mother of this precious girl!

 Jason originally had her birthday off work, but due to an emergency with the other pharmacist he ended up working open to close. I knew that she was bummed, but she kept a positive attitude about it and just rolled with the punches. 

 She is the easiest kid to please.  Anything you get her is "the coolest thing ever". 

Katelyn had her music program that night. She did such a good job singing and looked so beautiful sitting on the front row. 

 Then it was back out to our house for cake and ice cream and more presents. 

Happy 10th Birthday Katie Bugs!

Warm Weather

The weather has been beautiful the past couple of days, and from the looks of the 10-day forecast it may be safe to say that winter is behind us. Why is it that I always feel like I've accomplished some big feat by making it through winter?  I love the snow and cold until the day after Christmas, then I'm on the count down to Spring.  Anyways...I hope the forecast is right because Jason left work a little early today to put the garden in and I potted some flowers.   I wasn't sure if I wanted to do flowers this year because the cutter bees from the alfalfa field next to us destroy them, but I'm glad I did. I love looking out my window and seeing all the beautiful colors.  They make me so happy!

Here are a few random pictures of other "things" that make me so happy.

Things that made me happy today...

After I got Dallin dressed today, he asked where we got the pants I put on him. When I told him that they used to be Jacob's, he said, "Oh these were Jacob's pants when he used to be me...when he used to be Dallin."  :)

Kate, Jake and Dallin sat down to play Sorry this morning. I reminded Katelyn that she needed to do some work on her science fair experiment so her and Dallin rushed off to finish that up...leaving Jacob all alone at the table.  I went about cleaning the kitchen and putting the groceries away for the next 10-15 minutes or so. I was almost done when I heard Jacob say, "I won!  I was playing myself, but I won!  :)

I had to take something down to Dolores today.  While we were standing out in her yard visiting, I could see my kids playing kickball out on the front lawn...and then Jacob wandered away...over by the ditch...to relieve himself.  I'm sure he was just trying to help irrigate. :)

Katelyn loves watching 4 Weddings and Say Yes to the Dress.  Today she explained the kind of wedding dress she wants. NOT poofy, but something that is fitted and kind of tight all the way down, with some ruffles or something at the bottom and maybe some "gems" around the waist. She's even got the lingo down. She thinks it's good to take picky people with you when you go dress shopping so they can give you their opinions and help you pick a beautiful dress. 

Speaking of a beautiful dress, tonight I got to watch my baby sister get ready for her very first prom.  She did her own hair and make-up and looked drop dead gorgeous.  Here are some pictures from our evening.

 make-up

 cooling the curls

 trying to put her dress on (which fit her like a glove by the way) without messing up the hair

 ^HA HA!^

 She was ready way before her date got there so she texted or instagrammed or tweeted.  My dad said he thinks this is the first time one of his girls was ready and waiting for their date.

Picture Time

Dani, brought it to my attention that she also had a year where was ready before her date go there. She was ready so early that we were able to take pictures outside while it was still light.  Sorry Dan, didn't mean to forget about you.  Here's the link to the post of Dani's junior prom where she was ready and waiting when her date got there. :)

Just Another Day in Paradise

Jacob woke up and started getting ready for school this morning just like he does every morning.  His eyes told me that something was a little off, but I chalked it up to him being tired. He said he was fine, but I wasn't too surprised when Katelyn came out to tell me that Jacob was throwing up (in the toilet, thank goodness).  When I got back to the bathroom, he was leaning over the toilet with a stomach ache. Poor little guy. He was so disappointed that he wasn't going to be able to go to school....not because of actual school but because of kickball and football at recess.  Thankfully he only threw up the one time, but he made up for it out the other end (TMI :))  Other than having to run back to the bathroom every 10 minutes, he was a fun, happy boy to have around.  

When I mentioned that I was grocery shopping tomorrow, he ran and got a piece of paper to make a menu for the next two weeks.  He did such a good job planning it, with very little help from me. He thought it was cool because he got to choose the dinners he wanted to eat, and I thought it was cool because deciding what to cook/eat is the worst part for me. After he got the menu all figured out, he wrote the meals on my menu organizer.  Now I'm all set to grocery shop tomorrow morning. 

He is such a big help to me.

When Katelyn got home from school, she asked if she could make cupcakes for an after school snack. She knows how to make them by herself in her little babycakes machine, and I was craving cupcakes so I thought it was a splendid idea...and so did her brothers.  Dallin reminded me of cookie monster the way he was shoving one after another in his mouth with pieces flying all over the place, and nothing had sounded good to Jacob's stomach all day, but he was able to choke down about 10 of Kate's cupcakes :)  She was pleased as punch with everyone ooohhing and aahhing over her creations. They really are delicious!

 So my 2 week menu is planned out and an organized for me,  my belly is full of cupcakes, and I didn't have to do hardly anything.  I might just hang on to these kids after all.  I'm going to tag this post and revisit it every so often when they are teenagers to remind me why I kept them :)

This next series of pictures cracks me up

Don't worry, Kinlee wasn't left out.  She wandered around the house with a cupcake in her hand and trail of crumbs behind her. 

Emi came out for a visit tonight. 

 I'm not sure who talked who into playing the game, but they had a good time playing SORRY with Aunt Emi. 

Kinlee is more of a destroyer than a player of board games, so I set up Wac-A-Mole to entertain her.