3/52

Kessler went from this to this (below)

This week has been the week of the stomach bug for everyone except me. It was a 24-36 hour bug, it would come on fast and furious and almost leave about the same.

 Alivia has been working on a book report, she read about Pocahontas and has really liked studying and putting her report together. She is also working on her times tables and has passed off her, 1's, 2's and 3's.

 Me and a few ladies in my neighborhood and going up to Idaho Falls March 16-17 for a Girls weekend.  It is held by Deseret Book and called TOFW I am super excited for the line up and I think it will be an amazingly-fun weekend with some great friends. Plus we are staying at a beautiful hotel right across from the falls and the Temple.

I have been working quite a few hours and been having fun at the same time, I love my job and thank my lucky stars everyday. I was in the right place at the right time and been so blessed. 

I always get a little itch to start planning a vacation in January-February sometime and have been looking on the internet at night after the kids go to bed for amazing deals. I have for sure found some, and have hovered my finger above the submit button to confirm the reservation but never did. Well thankfully I decided to organize some paperwork the other day and remembered we have a reservation in May in Miami for 7 days. The last few years we have bought these vacations from timeshares who take a small amount (30.00$) a month for us and so when you go it is paid for. So glad I didn't end up signing us up for two vacations, we couldn't afford that.

I posted this pic on here and thought it was weird not to introduce you to my good friend Melvin, he has been a flight attendant a little longer than myself and he is married to Natalie a former SkyWest flight attendant. He is such a great dad, and such a nice hubby to his wife, she fell and hit her head about 2 years ago and she was walking out to the employee parking lot. She suffered from a head injury. She can do small household functions, but cannot work and struggles still today. He just sent his son on a mission to Africa! I keep telling him, if he needs travel companions to go pick him I volunteered Ben and I to keep him company!

Ben is still in stress mode, he has meetings this week and then traveling to Ontario, California in two weeks. He is still practicing his "interviewing" skills. I personally think he just needs to work on his conversation skills He can practice on our neighbors, I think they would like to hear him speak more than two words. They might actually think something is wrong:)

GO MITT!

2/52

Second week of January with still no snow......(sad face). We had a small little family party for Alivia's birthday. 9 years old! wow! she got lots of presents, mostly clothes and a gift card to Target to buy what ever she wants. 

This week has also been very busy for me, I had my annual training and passed...whew! employed for another year. I had to prepare an aircraft cabin for and emergency landing in water, evacuate the aircraft as if we landed in the water, using the AED on a pregnant passenger, practiced CPR on an infant, did a mock of a slow decompression of an aircraft cabin. And some joint training with the pilots, that always provides lots of entertainment!

Ben also had a very stressful week and I don't see it slowing down for him at all. He did go to Denver on Tuesday for a day of interviews. He also had a full day of interviews, personality tests, IQ tests, and scenarios on Friday. So he has a few more grey hairs to blend in with the rest.

 Kessler will be getting his tonsils out this next week and not soon enough, you should hear him speak. His tonsils are so huge right now and he snored so loud last night...poor kid!

Cooper is in love with the movie Rango right now.

Alivia is having a friend "late night" or "later nighter" tonight for her Birthday! (it is the same thing as a sleep over without the sleep over part). She is having two friends and a cousin come over and they are going to make headbands for their hair. Should be fun!

 Bauer had a pretty uneventful week, he is the pretty predictable one around here!

Project 52.

Last year I tried 365 and it was fun at first, and did reconsider doing it again this year but quickly talked myself out of it. I think I made it to May?
Anywhoo, I will being doing the project 52 this year which is a little more doable for now.
School break was fun, I always think I am not ready for them to go back to school, but the first day I catch my self thinking "Oh yeah this is how quite it can be."
Alivia- has been sick the last few days and is finally on the mend and back to her usual, texting (yes she texts her friend and cousin), back to bossing her brothers around and collecting things, she is the collector in the family. We find that out every time we go down to her room to help her get it re-organized again.

Cooper- first few days back at school have been good, he has a hard time finishing his work and gets distracted and frustrated very easily. (Maybe he got that from me?) He also loves riding his scooter and playing video games.

Bauer- LOVES kindergarten and was so HAPPY to go back. 

"Creddy"

The snow really sucks around here, for December Utah was about 1% of average, my motto if it is going to be cold, SNOW!!

We got some awesome presents from Nana and Papa and the kids fell in love with this one and many others.

Kessler is still Momma's boy and it sometimes it is cute and sometimes it kills me! He still won't get in the car unless I am in the car in my seat, as soon as we pull  in the garage he is jumping out of his seat and climbing on my lap to make sure I don't leave him in the car.

Every night he starts in his bed but always ends up in our bed. Usually with one arm over my chest on one leg over my hips and breathing on my cheek.

He is in Sunbeams now, and the first week didn't go so well, well we 12 months to work on it.

Ben is super busy this week, with interview prep. on Monday, interview prep in Denver on Tuesday, psychological tests/personality tests on Wednesday. Close Thursday and back to normal on Friday.

I go for my annual training to remain a flight attendant and keep my "airman" certificate so I can keep flying!

Post Christmas {WRAP} Up!

Christmas gets more exciting every year for me and the kids, and I am getting better about patiently waiting about gift giving.

Alivia's main gifts were a "bitty baby" and an electric scooter.

Cooper's main presents was a nintendo 3ds and an electric scooter.

Bauer and Kessler got a car hopefully you can see it in the video above, that was a fun secret because they didn't ask for it and suspected nothing.

Here are some recent pictures of Addilyn, oh my goodness she is cute!!!

January's schedule is filling up fast. I have my annual recurrent training for work. I am also thinking about going back full time, which through the holidays I have been working full time hours and it hasn't been so bad. It turns my schedule from 1-2 days a week to 2-3 days a week. Not a huge change.

Ben is stressed out almost to his max. His store did well this 4th quater and he is also trying to prepare for some interviews that he has to go through in January.

The kids are still out of school their last day was December 16th and will return on the 3rd of January.

Kessler gets registered for pre-school in January and Alivia starts her second semester of choir.

Cooper and Bauer love being out of school, I have been working with Cooper about 1 hour every day on math and reading trying to get him caught up and maintain what he knows.

Ben and I didn't do the Christmas buying for each other this year, although he did get a birthday present he has been putting to good use (ps3 game).

 Now if it would only SNOW!!

37 years young!

 happy birthday ben!!

 In honor of tradition I would list 37 things about Ben that I appreciate, love and admire!

But I am going to skip that tradition this year, and just send a big Happy Birthday to the Daddy of our four kids and the man that I fell in love with many years ago.

Annual Gingerbread decorating

 Liv had her annual Christmas concert at the American Fork Tabernacle. It was a really cute year, they did songs from different countries, a few were in Hebrew, Navajo and Swahili.

Below is the pics from the annual Gingerbread making night, Ben made the forms for the boys the other day and we decorated them tonight. As I type this the kids are running around like crazy people. They would put one strip of frosting on their decoration and then take a big lick of frosting. Oh well.

Cooper's Robot, the arms broke before he even decorated it. 

         

 Ben's boat, the kids named it the black pearl.

 Bauer has a rocket.

 One candy on the house, one in her mouth:)

 Kessler made it about 5 minutes and then had to be hosed down in the shower.

 I thought the "peep" snow man head was funny, Ben ripped off the body and stuck the head on there.

Whew....how many more days of Christmas break:)