With Mine Own Hand

I have the opportunity to be part of a musical production of the life of Nephi. We are performing for BYU Education Week in August, and are currently rehearsing the music that will be recorded to CD in March. It has been a very exciting experience so far, and already I feel so much closer to Nephi and his family. I am playing the role of Nephi's wife, and there is the most beautiful love song that Nephi and I sing. When I first heard it, I though to myself "of course it's a love song, they were in love" I had never thought of that before. Check out the website to find out more about it. I even have a head shot and bio on it! How crazy is that?

http://www.nephi-story.com/

Happy Birthday Jake!

Yesterday was a big day in our little family. Jake turned 30 years old. WOW! I remember thinking he was old when we were married and he was 24!! I guess I was wrong though, because as often reminds me, "you're only as old as the woman you feel" : )

Of course we had a rockin' party, because I love a good party, and my husbands 30th just had to be the best! We had a Casino Night, complete with blackjack, poker, roulette, craps, karaoke and bingo! The chips were flowing freely and the lucky couples with the most chips at the end of the night won awesome prizes! (okay, they were from the dollar tree, but don't tell!) Most of Jake's dental buddies were there to party the night away, and it was said by many that it was the best party they had ever been too!! Woo hoo! It was a great night.

These are some of the dental school widows! These girls are awesome!

Karaoke!!!

Five card draw

Now for a few words regarding the man who we spent the weekend celebrating.

My husband is amazing. Hummm...I wish there were a better word than that. Maybe I should say phenomenal! Or unbelievable, or incredible....he's just fantastic!

I love him so much. He is always everything that I ever need him to be. He is level headed and SO smart, he is hilarious, and can make me laugh even when I am determined to have a bad attitude! His kids are head over hills in love with him because he is so good to them. He comes home from 12 hours of school and spends an hour playing batman with Jaxon and cuddling with Sage. When Jake walks in the door at night the kids are overjoyed. It's really cute. Today we went to surprise Jake at school and he just beamed with pride as all of his friends told him how cute his kids were. My kids don't know how lucky they are.

Did I mention that he is so stinking smart? He is the #1 student in his dental class at OHSU, and has been ever since the first semester. Every now and again I really think about that and it blows me away. He is such a hard worker, and I can't count how many times he has stayed up all night long studying for a big test. He knows how important it is to be a good provider for his family, and he is determined to be the best.

More important than that though, is how much Jake loves me!! : ) He tells me on a very regular basis that he loves me, that I am so beautiful, and that he is the luckiest man on earth to be married to me. And I'm not even making this stuff up!! I love that we have been married long enough to feel like we've been married forever. I just can't remember him not always being around. He is the love of my life, and I'm so happy that he chose me to be the love of his life.

Happy Birthday Jake!

I love you!

Day at the beach!

We spent Presidents Day at the beach. It was not quite as warm as we had hoped for, but the kiddies just loved it, and that's what counts. We went to Seaside, and realized once we got there, that we had never been before! It was fun to walk down the mainstreet and go in all the candy and toy stores. We even played a few games in a huge arcade. Jaxon just kept saying, "What a fun day at the beach!"

There's nothing like sun, sand, popcorn, taffy, and ice cream to make a day kids dream about!

Things that made me laugh out loud this week

1. Jaxon busting up at the burp on the bird video. He was sure the bird was burping! We had to play it over and over and over and over......

2. Jake making the comment "any man worth his grain in salt......." rather than the correct term, "any man worth his weight in gold." I'm still laughing.

3. Heidi very adamantly letting Heather know that she was NOT prettier than an old flings new fling. It was all a misunderstanding of course. Still funny

4. Jake placing a small stuffed cat at the window in hopes of scaring away the STUPID bird

5. Your comments about the poor bird. There was no sympathy!

6. Checking on the kids last night to find Jaxon like this


7. Jake finding what he thought was a list of complaints that I had made about him. Really it was a chapter review my sister had written about the book Dandelion Wine for book club. Here are some of the 'complaints'..."lying in bed makes everything alright" hehe "sleep, cry, ice cream-good medicine" haha, "mad the machine work." I couldn't stop laughing most of the night. What strange complaints!

8. This didn't happen this week, but when I think of it, I still laugh. Heather calles me and tells me how she was in downtown Portland in SUPER bad traffic. No one was moving. It was a standstill. She then notices that the cars in the lane next to her are moving along pretty well, and a few moments later realized that she is waiting behind a line of parked cars. Oh, I love that story!

Poor Bird

This poor bird has spent the last 2 days banging it's poor little beak against my window. And as much as I try and scare the poor little fellow away, he contines to repeat his, what I now consider, suicidal attempts. I added some food to my makeshift birdfeeders in hopes that other birds will flock around him and help the poor soul out, but who knows. Even at this very moment as I type, he's banging his poor little wings and feet in attemt to break through the window. And when he's not at that, he just sits on the branch and stares at me with those poor beady little eyes. Keep this poor little bird in your thoughts today, because I'm not sure he's going to be around tomorrow. Poor bird.

Okay, and just a note on the video, I choose this one because it displays my preshool bird feeders so well, and because of Sagie's burp at the beginning. It's hilarious! Listen for it. And and you can hear the bird chirp too.

My two babies-both at one year

Well, I'm finally updating Sagie's b-day fun! It was a pretty low key day for the most part. I had decorated the house with lots of hearts and heart balloons, so she loved looking around at everything. Most of my day was spent making her cake! (photo courtesey of Jaxon)
Actually, I'm not really sure what my kids were doing the whole time! : ) I had activity days at 6:00pm, so the family came over around 7:15 for the party. We did some dancing, because my sweet baby Sage loves to dance. Even if it's just to my phone ring tone! We then opened her many presents. She got lot's of cute clothes. Heidi always says that part is actually for me. It's true. And then came the fun part. Although it took Sage quite awhile to really figure out that she had a huge hunk of goodness in front of her, she eventually made a decent sized mess out of the cake and herself. That's what it's all about right? I love the look on her face.
She got a bath, and the party ended not too long after that. Then she was off to bed, probably completly confused about the night that just had happened!

This first year of Sage's life has been a challanging one. I'm not going to lie, I'm not sad to see it gone. I love the girl to pieces, but with her RSV at 2 months, and then her consistent ear infections after that, she was a tough one to live with. Especially compared to Jaxon, who was easy! Not anymore of course. Okay, this is very negative...I promise I'm going somewhere with it all. These past few months as Sage get's older I can't believe what a sweet and funny little girl she is. I'm finally really able to see her personality shine through. She'll laugh at anything and loves her mom and dad so much. Anytime I sit down on the floor she'll run over until she's a few feet away, turn around, and then back into my lap. It's really cute. She loves her little brother and is so excited anytime she see's him. She's got the wild side that I'm afraid all my kids will have, and I just love it. I absolutly love having a little girl to dress up and to be my little princess. She's such a blessing in my life and I'm so grateful that she is mine.

I LOVE YOU BABY SAGE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

This is a video of Sage just being cute on her birthday. Enjoy!

I just had to show this off. More fun party details to follow...

Another reason to celebrate!

All this fuss about my birthday, and then I don't even mention Sagies until the day before! I'm so sorry baby girl.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW BABY SAGE!!!

The boy who spit

Today I was at the mall letting my little kiddies play in the play area there. I was just minding my own business, when Sagie came up to me. She had something on her face that somewhat resembled snot, and she is a little sick, so I wiped it off and sent her on her way. Well, a couple next to me then informed me that one of the boys (who was too tall to be there anyway! ) had spit on my baby girls face!!! Well, because I hadn't seen it, I was a little wary to believe, but when I looked over at him, he proceeded to do the same thing to another little girl. "What the crap!" I thought. I began watching the kid like a hawk. And where was his parent? No kid alive is going to spit in my baby girls face and get away with it. Finally at one point the mom of the other spit victim found the gaurdian...looked like a granpa, and told him. He brushed it off with an annoyed look on his face. By this point I was steaming! So here comes little gray shirt boy over to my baby Sage again, and proceedes to hit (not hard) her. So what did I do? I grabbed the abnoxious kids arm and told his as forcefully as I could without yelling that he is NOT to hit other kids, especially babies, and that spitting was completly innapropriate. Then I told him that I would be watching him. He proceeded to stick his tounge out at me and mumble something unitelligible, but behaved the rest of our stay, and even offered Sage his toy he had been holding onto. I apologized to the mom next to me, because seriously, it's not okay to dicipline other kids right? Or is it? I felt bad for this little boy. Where was his mom? Did he have anyone around his life that cared enough to set rules for him? Was everyone in his life too selfish, so he has to revert to spitting on other kids for attention? My next thought was....I am SO grateful for my son, and the good boy that he is becoming. Sure he's crazy, but he knows right from wrong, and respects that. I just hugged and kissed him, after I'd washed their hands and faces and told him that I loved him. I am so blessed to have their sweet little spirits in my home. Sometimes you just need a good spitting in the face to realize how blessed you are!