Back to Normal...

Finals are officially OVER! I got my grades Tuesday and finally felt the sigh of relief I had been missing since August!

This was the best semester for my GPA! I just have to announce 4 As & 2 Bs! It feels really good to get through a semester without that one slacker class in which I obtain the dreaded C!!!

After finals I felt like the little character Dr. Seuss told
"Your mountain is waiting so get on your way!"

My LAUNDRY mountain was waiting for me on the couch! My tests were two weeks ago and TODAY I put the last item of clothing away!!! It is so hard to recover from a week of NO cleaning!!

Disclaimer: If you have only seen my messy house in December and/or May just note that its not necessarily the way it looks all year round!

The semester is over...
Christmas is less than a week away...
I think the kids, my husband & myself are okay...
One more to go...

Pictures...overwhelmingly more pictures

I think I have a problem!!!

I take pictures of the kids all the time and I'm obsessed with getting professional pictures every so often but I don't have time to do anything...and I mean nothing...with them!!! I have a million-and-one pictures on our computer that have never been printed. I started an online album on Shutterfly but O MY! it takes countless, I feel, wasted hours to complete and not worth the money... I used to scrapbook my photos...but again...takes too much time.

I need ideas!
What do you "normal" chickas do with your kiddos photos?!?

I am glad I have them, of course, but oh, my A.D.D. comes out when I think about organizing them... While your thinking check out their latest smiles! so sweet!

Trick or Treat!!!

Happy Halloween!!! What a fun time for the kiddos! We had a blast. This picture was taken at the end of the night and the kids were exhausted! Can you tell?!? Corbyn was Tigger and Elyna was Princess Aroura (Sleeping Beauty) Which was not her first choice. I just could not bring myself to letting her be Jasmine with the mid-drift stuff going on or Little Mermaid with the bikini top...boy are we going to have troubles with our growing young girls! yikes!

Anyway our family had a great Halloween and made many memories.

Our kids trick-o-treating in style! We walked around our neighborhood with Tiffany Queen and her kids Madison and Garrett. At one of the first houses we went to, the girls went up to a opened door. They were so excited running quickly to ring the door bell to their suprise a small yippy dog jumped out at them barking wildly and scared them to death. Elayna is not afraid of dogs normally and It was the tiniest little thing! It was a 'had-to-be-there-moment' but seeing their faces in horror was actually very funny. They quickly calmed down but almost every house in our neighborhood has small house dogs and it was funny to see the girls jump a little every time they heard a dog bark and nobody wanted to ring the door bell if they could see a dog or hear a dog. It was fun to watch. But here they are (Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Batman and Tigger!) getting some candy from a neighbors house. Corbyn was adorable walking up to the door. He knew exactly what his goal was when he got up to the door. candy! Everyone who saw him gave him 2 pieces- one for each little paw! who could resist?! and after they handed it to him he said "Tank- ooo!" It was absolutely TOO sweet!!!

I'm gonna make it!

Yesterday I entered my advisors office to enroll for my last semester of school, hopefully, ever and as of May '09 I should be a college grad! yeah!

After getting married in 2003 I worked full time to get Chad started in school and I did school part-time and after we got pregnant with Elayna I made the decision to go back to school since Chad and I didnot know if we would ever be near a school againg and I knew I wanted to finish school. 4 years later I cannot believe I am actually graduating. I love my kids and it has been a hard 4 years. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision in finishing school but I think as a mom I will feel guilty either way...

Here's a couple things I have learned (not from the books) over the last 4 years...

• I do my best thinking (and singing) in the shower!
  
• I put my foot in my mouth all too often!
  
• I forget things and loose things more often during the school semesters... so its not my fault...its because I have too much going on!
  
• Elayna and Corbyn the best thing that has come out of these last 4 years!
  
• and I am very thankful Heavenly Father blesses us with the things that will make us truely happy and of course its not usually what we think we want.
  
  I hope everyone a great fall season! I love this time of year!
  
  PS the best part of a blog is the photos and sadly our brand new camera got stepped on at the walk around at Homecoming. sad but our new camera is coming to Walmart site to store. gotta love free shipping :)

Happy 1st Birthday Corbyn!!!

I canNOT believe it has been a year since our little Corbyn was born. I look back at his birth as one of the best experiences of my life. Corbyn is very sweet and silly. He loves to charm the ladies and says "hi" to everyone and everything. He is walking and dancing and loves to be entertained by big sister.

After weeks of semi-regular contractions I had no idea what my body was doing! I went to my doctor Wednesday morning and he said "no change" He scheduled me to be induced in a week but I really wanted to go into labor on my own since i was induced for my first baby...

long story short- I did go into labor on my own the next Tuesday evening. We were at Wal Mart (Stillwater's 24 hr Mall ;) and I started having contractions very steady and strong enough that I had to stop walking for it to pass. We finished our shopping and called the hospital. They said I could wait an hour and then come in so I straitened my hair (it was hideous) and organized plans with the Queens who were like family the whole week. They took Elayna over night since our parents were not in town yet. Then we went to the hospital. They nurses were suprised to see that I was a "6" and everything went really smoothly and we had a big baby boy very early the next morning.

I love my baby boy. I wish he could stay just the way he is forever. I love having two little ones running around. I love that they play together and laugh together. They are such blessings in our lives!

"We Gonna feed the Ducks..."

We love feeding the ducks and we rarely take the time to plan a picnic when we go out. It is usually a spur of the moment thing, but this day we did, and we had such a good time...

It was beautiful outside and the kids enjoy just being out doors.
The pictures say it all...Sometimes I am not much of a "journaler."
Corbyn Stuffing the banana in his mouth... This pictures reminds me of Madison Queen saying "Corbyn's so cute...and squishy!" Don't you just wanna squeeze him!
Everyone gets their picture taken today! Elayna and I got cold so we were using our picnic blanket to cover up.
Although we do not have any evidence we really did feed the ducks.. They were very hungry and got, oh so close to us so we concentrated on getting them fed and forgot all about photo opportunities. Next time we'll get pictures. It was definitely more fun to have a picnic anyway.

Laughing till our tummys hurt...

I just wanted to share this video for all to see. First of all I love when the kids interact like this together and the laughter of a child is priceless. Corbyn is so funny and this went on for about an hour! We laughed so much...This month has been the month of cute videos for little Corby. It seems everyday he is doing something cute and the camera is handy... so more keep posted more videos to come...

August 2008

Summer's Over (tear!)

Our summer is over and school has started for me as well as the the kids. Corbyn and Elayna are both going to 1st Christian Preschool while I finish my schooling. Elayna loves learning and loves to play at school. Corbyn is doing pretty well, He only fusses alittle as I start to leave but Katy, one of his teachers picks him up and cuddles him and before I leave he stops crying, which is such a comfort for me. I secretly love how attached my baby boy is to me. The bond between mom and son...and his teacher is very good to him.

August was a really busy month for us. The kids and I went to Dallas to see all the new babies born into the family: Jace Baugh, my sisters new little baby and Shauna's Twins Jackson and Joshua Downs. They were all so tiny and cute! Elayna wanted to be the little mommy and constantly asked to hold of feed the babies. It was really nice to spend time with Sarah and baby Jace. We had a lot of fun in Dallas (see slide show above) Our camera was shorting out so we got a lot of random pics.

We spent 2 weeks in Dallas and then Chad and I went on a mini vacation without the kids to Washington DC for Chad's brother Brett's Wedding. It was a lot of fun! It was so relaxing and such a beautiful part of the country to be in and great weather!!! We had a blast! Brett and Alyssa got married in the amazing Washington DC Temple and the wedding was really beautiful. Again our camera stopped working on the DC tour bus so we did not get pictures of the wedding ourselves.-we are still needing to get some pics from family! Directly after the wedding we flew home Sunday and we started school the next day....so summer's over...Bring on Fall...I can't wait!

Hair Cut Saturday

Earlier tonight, Elayna and Corbyn got their hair trimmed by mom. We have been working really hard to grow Elayna's hair out and one bad hair cut after another has made it all that much harder so of course you can imagine just exactly what happened. Yes, Elayna cut her hair! (After I cut it and it was I must say, PERFECT!) She cut about a 2 inch chunk out of the front. Her hair was getting long so 2 inches puts it at her chin, BUT it has taken a year since the last chin length hair cut! I give up with this girls hair! I told her for punishment I was going to put her hair in a ponytail everyday for a year! and she was like "NOoooo!" OH well I guess it is so typical. Corbyn, sweet Corbyn on the other hand sat on my lap eating a graham cracker while I trimmed his hair. On Sundays we gel it and I guess he will be my only child with good hair!

May 2008

These pictures are from May but I love them so much and I wanted to create a slide show for the blog since not much has changed since the last post.

Summer 2008

I have been trying to start a blog for a long time and this is the very first blog for Chad & Jess Family blog. This summer has flown by! I cannot believe Corbyn is 9 months old and Elayna is
3 1/2. Alot of things are going on as always... I am working this summer at a local furniture store. Chad has many projects going on and he works very hard. On the days I work the kids go to our very good friends house down the street and they love it. It is like a second home for them.
On my days off we have been going to the library for the summer "catch the reading bug" events. Last week we saw a funny songwriter and performer and the week before we saw a juggler. This week we will see a magician. Elayna loves it and it keeps her so entertained! We like to swim in the backyard and play with our friends down the street.
We are expecting 3 baby boy cousins this summer! Chad's sister Shauna is expecting twins and has been bedridden and hospitalized for almost two months and is hanging in there amazingly. My sister, Sarah is expecting her first at the end of July. We are so excited for more cousins on both sides. On Chad's side there are 13 (plus 2) and on my side we just have my 2 kids (plus Sarah's 1).