After loosing six babies during pregnancy, I was so blessed to have to beautiful, healthy babies. I want every parent to know the joy of having a full-term healthy child. Unfortunately every single day thousands of babies are born too early, too small, and often very sick. Many families know the heartache of loosing a baby during pregnancy or soon after birth. I want to help change this.
Please join me in the fight to give every baby a healthy start at life. Click the link below to join my team, make a donation, or start your own team in the 2010 March for Babies.
Not only is this a great cause, but it’s also a VERY fun activity for families.
Jaycee turned 5 just 3 days after Christmas. I can’t believe how grown up she has become. Just turning 5 made her act a little older. She literally woke up taller (according to Grandma’s marked yard stick), and she tried her best to act more polite and talk more adult all day. Becoming a five year old meant growing up. She also decided that since she is 5 she needed her own bedroom, and since Chenylle moved out, Jaycee took it upon herself to move her things into Chenylle’s old room and claim it as her own.
On the day of her Birthday Jaycee wanted to celebrate by going to the Treehouse Museum with some of her friends. Brianna and Brooklyn came along and then joined us for lunch at McDonald’s. They seemed to have a great time. I really hate going to those playlands, but I made an exception for Jaycee on her special day.
After lunch we came home and the girls spent the afternoon playing and doing crafts as I decorated the house. Then Emily and Lindsay joined us for dinner. Jaycee picked her favorite meal - Chicken Enchiladas. We ate, opened presents, and then had cake (Hello kitty with Strawberry filling). Emily and Jaycee taught Lindsay the Hoedown Throwdown, and then we played the Disney Sing It on the Wii. Everyone had a blast singing to Disney’s pop hits and High School Musical tunes.
It was a fun day.
Jaycee’s birthday party was held on New Years Day. She invited 17 of her cousins and friends and had a great turn out to her party. Jaycee wanted a “movie star” theme, so we invited guests to dress in their Hollywood best. We had a red carpet photo shoot, made picture frames, served pizza for lunch, decorated costumes, had a stage for karaoke, and a bounce house with a slide. It was a ton of fun and lot of craziness. Jaycee loved her party and was sad to see the bounce house taken down (even though it stayed up for 2 hours after the party was over). The party was a hit and everyone had a great time. Thank you to all of our guests for coming and for the fabulous gifts. Jaycee couldn’t ask for better friends.
(click on the picture to see more). We had a fabulous Christmas this year. The girls were both so excited and could hardly contain themselves for weeks before the big day.
My family celebrated Christmas the Sunday before. Everyone came for dinner, exchanged presents, and had a great time together.
Christmas Eve Aunt Jana and Uncle Jason came for a traditional steak dinner (mmmm) and Jaycee told us all the story of Christmas. Then Jaycee and Rylee got to open one present (traditional pajamas) and then we went to see the drive-through lights in Layton. They weren’t quite as good as the ones we saw the week before in Willard Bay with Tammy, but they were still great, and the girls enjoyed it. We were a little bummed not to be able to see the lights at Temple Square this year, but Rylee’s asthma is really bad and the inversion is horrible for her. We figured it wasn’t worth an asthma attack.
Christmas Day was great. The girls slept in until after 9 - which I should have been grateful for, but since I couldn’t sleep past 7 it was hard to wait for them. When they finally got up they rushed for the presents and had a great time opening them all. They got mostly the same things: Pillow Pets and Puzzles from Santa, Princess barbies, new barbie cars, new clothes, crafts projects, new microphones with stands, wii games, and some other things. Jaycee has been talking about getting a Pillow Pet for months and she was so excited to get the one she wanted (even though a few days later she and Rylee traded). We didn’t have to rush off to visit family this year so after eating a delicious scone breakfast the girls got to try out all of their new toys. Then we had a yummy lunch with Grandma and Grandpa House.
In the late afternoon we went to visit Grandma Wales and eat dinner with her. She fixed us a yummy Ham dinner. We had a great time visiting with her.
The Sunday after Christmas the Wales/Hamer family got together for our Christmas celebration and annual Bingo Party. I always look forward to this party, and this year was a great one. We had some yummy soups, got some great gifts, had a fun visit from Santa, and a great game of Bingo. Who could ask for more?
It was a wonderful Christmas, and I hope the rest of you enjoyed yours as well.
Jaycee has been performing throughout the Wastach front with her singing group, the Choral Collection. She loves to sing! If any of you care to see, here are some clips of her performances.
Okay, so this is quite late, but I can’t believe my baby turned three years old! Time sure goes by fast. Rylee had a great birthday and is so proud to be growing up. Here are some things I think are great about Rylee:
She has the most beautiful smile. She is constantly smiling with that big smile and those big beautiful eyes. Her smile is absolutely contagious.
When she isn’t smiling, Rylee is doing a 180 and is completely grumpy and scowly. Not that I like this side of her, but I think it is cute how extreme her moods seem to be.
Rylee loves to cuddle - she loves everything about cuddling. She gives lots of hugs and kisses and always wants to snuggle with someone while she is sleeping.
She LOVES to cook. She is always asking is she can make something. Any time anyone is in the kitchen cooking she quickly grabs her stepstool and climbs on up to help. She can crack an egg perfectly (has been doing that for a while), can scoop and pack a cup of flour, and even remembers what ingredients go in homemade bread and pizza dough. Her favorite things to make are cookies and pizza (go figure).
Rylee is tough. Maybe it’s because of her painful first year, but she can withstand a lot. Of course she has her moments, but when she’s not just looking for attention she is one tough little chick.
Rylee loves music, just like her big sister. She loves to dance and sing and is constantly performing for all of us.
For some reason, whenever Rylee sees her grandpa she goes up and slaps him on the butt. I have no idea where this came from, but it is pretty funny. She can wack him pretty hard.
Rylee loves everyone. She is nice to everyone and is constantly telling me about all of the people she loves. I think this is genuinely a special gift of hers.
I love my little Rylee and am so proud to be her mother. She makes me happy every day and reminds me to be happy and to remember the reason we are all here.
Here are some clips of her 3 birthday parties (one with friends, one with our little family, and one with Craig’s fam):
I have been such a slacker on blogging lately. Not because I didn’t want to do it, but because life has been crazy. I’ve been running kids around, working from home (which is so much harder then I thought it would be), and of course battling a million diseases! Since our trip to SC we’ve been sick every single week with only a few days in between of being well. Especially for poor Rylee who has had croup for over 3 weeks now, been on rounds of steroids and antibiotics and still hasn’t gotten over it! I’ve had 3 doctors tell us she’s not contageous, but I sure get looks when I take her places and she coughs that nasty sounding hack of hers! It was especially fun at chuch on Sunday when she drank her sacrament water and then immediately coughed it all back up all over the rest of the sacrament tray! we were on the front row and the first ones to take it - so we got some chuckles and wasted a whole tray of water.
We have had some fun in the past month though. We went to Black Island Farm with Janette, Brooklyn, and Brianna and Alli and Peyton.
And the girls threw Craig a great birthday party. They asked him what kind of party he wanted - then THEY decided he wanted a fish party because he likes fishing. But that turned into an under-the-sea party. They came up with the whole thing and did a great job!
Craig and Rylee went with his mom to visit her hometown and see some of their family homes.
Rylee got to go on her first train ride! She was so excited.
Jaycee was jealous so we took her on the train the next day.
We also had our first snow of the year…
And the girls got to go to the Treehouse to play a few times (once with their cousins!)
This was one of these moments I couldn’t resist taking a picture. I LOVE how much the girls love each other. They really are best friends. It’s so sweet to see them snuggling with each other like this. They are the sweetest things in the world and I feel so blessed to be their mother.
The month was a busy one - full of lots of sickness and cramming everthing else in-between. We also fired our property management (hooray! - they were so horrible), and got our house in Chapin back on the market with a new realtor who seems perfect for us. We’re hoping we can finally sell the house and move on with our lives. In other news, I am officially a licensed heath and life insurance agent and specializing in Medicare and senior benefits (but I can do anything). So anyone who has questions or needs help figuring out their Medicare, let me know! Craig is keeping himself busy at work and doing extra projects and always helping other people with things they need. Jaycee is gearing up for 6 singing performances during November and December and her dance recital in January, and Rylee is loving preschool (when she can go).
