Three! Three! Three!

Yes, my little Bo-Ba turned three over the weekend. I can't believe how fast he is growing up! I love this little boy and all the adventures we have with him. He has a great imagination and loves to tell stories and play pretend. He loves playing pirates, playing with cars, reading books, and he is unfortunately addicted to television. His favorites right now are "Bubble Guppies" and "Team Umizoomi." He is glad that the weather is getting a little warmer because he also loves being outside playing on his tricycle.
For his birthday he asked for birthday candles and a "Cars" cake. I kept asking what kind of toys he wanted, but he would just say, "I want candles and a cars cake." So I made him this cute cars cake. I borrowed the pan from my friend and I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Since he LOVES pirates right now we decided to take him to Pirate Island for his birthday. It is a restaurant/arcade with a pirate theme. His favorite part was getting this balloon sword from one of the workers. He ran around trying to stick all the other kids at the restaurant with the sword. I finally found someone it was okay kill. 

 Our waiter came and sang him Happy Birthday. Arrrr!

 His sisters ate the ice cream for him. What three year old boy doesn't want free ice cream? He was too busy to worry about eating it. Thank goodness his sisters were willing to help out!

 Opening some presents. He got a lot of "Cars" themed toys. A new nite light, a look and find book, and a large puzzle.

 With his new remote control truck!

 Blowing out the birthday candles. He was so excited to blow them out we had to keep telling him to wait until after we sang Happy Birthday.

Today I took him for his 3 year well baby check and he is doing great. He is 31 lbs. and 37.8 inches tall. He knows all his letters, shapes, colors, counts to 20, he talks very well and is just developing the way he is supposed to. We are so proud of him and just love him to pieces.
Happy Birthday Holland!

Finding Time

I keep thinking that I will find the time to get up to date and tell about all the fun things we have been doing, but the longer I wait the more I have to talk about and the more I have to talk about the more I put it off because I don't have the time to talk about everything. Well yesterday I decided that I just needed to write about what was happening and then if I ever get time, I would go back and fill in the missing gaps. Well today my family had a wonderful experience that made this decision a really good one, because I don't want my kids to forget about it. Today we had the opportunity of meeting our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson.
We went to my friends baby blessing today. Her husband Chris grew up in President Monson's ward. They now live in Idaho and were in town for their spring break and it worked to bless their cute new baby boy, Asher at Chris's parents ward. Well president Monson was there and was gracious enough to shake hands and talk with visitors. It was so cool! Kory, Skylar, Kortnie, and I all got to shake his hand and say hello. He was very friendly and had a great sense of humor. He told me that my girls were beautiful and that I should have 10. I laughed at this, but Kory thinks it sounds pretty good! Kory was wearing a football tie and he told him he was more of a basketball man himself. He talked and chatted with our other friends that were there and his wife was such a good sport to put up with it all. I don't think my girls realize how amazing it is to meet the prophet, but as we explained that this was the first time Kory or I had ever met a prophet I think they started to understand that this isn't an everyday occurrence for most people.
After church we had a wonderful luncheon at Chris's parents home. They were kind enough to host and of course everything was going wonderfully until we found Holland and two other little boys playing in the bathroom with running water and using cleaning supplies as water guns. It was mortifying! I was so embarrassed and I know that Chris's mom was not too happy, but the only thing that makes me feel a little better is knowing that two of the boys were her grandkids. I felt so bad, and she wouldn't let us help clean it up.
In other news we are having a lot of changes around our house. I got a new job and it is making things a little crazy. Right now I am working three, part-time jobs, and although combined it is only about 12 hours it feels like a lot more because I am now gone every night of the week Monday through Friday. It is going to be stressful, but after this term my schedule will change and so I won't be gone so many nights. I am liking my new job so far though and hope that it will be a good place for me. This job kind of fell in my lap, and although I wasn't looking for something new, it is very exciting to be doing something new.
The kids are getting so big too. Skylar has lost another tooth. She started piano a few months ago and is doing a great job. She is still doing tumbling and dance and loves that also. She is hoping to audition for one of the dance teams at the studio in June. She is loving school and has made some great friends.

Kortnie is my little social butterfly. It is not a good day unless she spends every waking hour playing with friends. She likes to help around the house (but only if it is her idea!), she just had her kindergarten orientation on Friday and is very excited about starting this next school year. She is also in tumbling and dance and loves them both, although she likes ballet a little more.

Holland is my momma's boy. He wants to be with mom all the time and I think this new job has been hard on him. The first day I went he cried for 10 minutes for the babysitter until I called and got him settled down over the phone. He loves playing cars and trucks and unfortunately is addicted to watching television.

 

 Lukas is growing and changing all the time. He is so busy! He loves to play with Holland and take away any cars Holland might be playing with. He loves to get into the dishwasher whenever it is open. He is pulling himself up on everything and walks around the furniture. He has even stood a few times unassisted, although as soon as he realizes he is not holding something he will go down to the floor. He got his first tooth on March 28th and has two others that should break through any day now. He is babbling like crazy and says Momma, although only if he is crying. He makes the Dadda and Bobba sounds although I don't think he associates them with anything. Sometimes it also sounds like he is saying Hi or Hey. He also has a big appetite, every time we feed him solids he cries because we don't feed him fast enough. He will eat almost anything we give him and wants to be eating everything he sees us eating. I can't believe he is already 9 months old! 

Proud Mommy Moments

Skylar is growing up SO fast. She is smart and funny and FULL of ATTITUDE! This last week I had two little moments with her. The first one made me laugh the second one made me proud.
Moment 1 -

I was teaching her how to make pancakes and she was working on "flipping" the pancakes over on the griddle. She had a mishap with one of the pancakes and then looked at me and said:
"Mom, when I grow up I am going to be the best flipper EVER!"
The look on her face was priceless, she was so serious about learning how to make the pancakes.

Moment 2 -
We were coming home from school yesterday and the girl that we carpool with is not a member of the church. I don't even know how the conversation started, but the next thing I know Skylar is explaining to her friend all about the church. She told her about the Holy Ghost and the Prophet and about primary. She was being a great missionary and I could feel the spirit in the car. It was amazing to hear her answer her friends questions - most of the time with better answers then what I was thinking in my head. I am so grateful that she has a testimony of the gospel and is not afraid to share what she knows to be true. It gave me a great opportunity to talk to her about being a missionary and listening to the Holy Ghost. I was so impressed by her and wish I had her courage! 

Small Changes

This last weekend was BEAUTIFUL! The sun was shining and the temperatures were warmer than usual. It seemed like a small change that lifted my spirits! Last week I took Kortnie shopping for new shoes. I was a little nervous about how it would go because this girl is VERY picky and she LOVES shoes - so I thought we might be there for a little while. She surprisingly chose a pair of shoes very quickly and since the kids were still being good I thought I would look around the store for a little bit. My mother-in-law just got a new table and she wants some new table clothes so I went to look for one for her. I didn't find anything that would fit her table, but I happened to find some new digs for my bathroom. I have been wanting to update it for a while, but it just never seems like I have money for decorating the house so I always put it off. Well I found a new shower curtain and some towels all on sale and thought I would create a change.

Before

After. 

 

It is a small change, but I love walking past and seeing the change. Now I want to paint and do more, but that will have to wait until another day.

This is my favorite picture of the week. These two are becoming such great little buddies. They love to play with each other and they make each other smile. It warms my heart.

This and That

Nothing much to say, but I am trying to update more often so here is the scoop on the Denos Family this last week.
This Saturday was my second Saturday not working and I was able to go to the baptism of one of my primary girls. It was so nice to be able to be there and feel like I was fulfilling that part of my calling. I have been really sad that I have not been able to participate in baptisms up to this point. This is one of the blessings of having my hours cut. After the baptism I got to come home and do Saturday chores. It was AWESOME. Those that really know me understand that I am NOT a good housewife. With eight people living in this house and four of them seven and younger, my house is rarely clean. I know it sounds silly, but I have missed being able to do Saturday chores with my family. It is a good opportunity to teach the kids how to clean and we get the WHOLE house clean at one time (although this only lasts for a short time!). It was nice to have lunch with my family and just hang out. I think it will be hard to actually go back to work on Saturday's if my work is ever able to give us the hours back.
Saturday night, my mom kept the kids for Kory and I and we got to go on a date! Hurray! We went with his sister Shelley and her boyfriend Clint and his other sister Stephanie and her husband Bryan. We had dinner at Joe Morley's and then went and saw "Back from the Future" at Desert Star Playhouse. It was fun and Kory and I both got to reminisce about old jobs, since he used to work at Joe's and I used to work at Desert Star. The show was fun and the food was great, but we really enjoyed getting to spend time with each other and his family.
Here are a few random picks from the last week or so. 

Kortnie found that she likes to wear Holland's hat.

"P" day. She got to wear pajama's to school and eat pancakes!

I was trying to take a picture of Holland chillin' to some cartoons -This kid is ADDICTED to TV - he saw me at the last moment and gave me this cheeser!

Boys and big Trucks! Holland got this big Tonka dump truck for Christmas but Lukas loves it too!

Look Ma I'm Standing! Yes this little goober is already pulling himself up to standing and trying to walk around once he does. I want him to slow down and stay my little baby a little longer, but no dice!

Now that Lukas is mobile we have been working really hard to teach our kids that the door at the top of the stairs always needs to be shut. He loves to book it over to the top of the stairs if he sees the door open because he wants to see what is happening everywhere. Well yesterday we had a little neighbor girl over and they were playing downstairs. I was in the kitchen and Lukas  was playing in the living room. I came around the corner from the kitchen to get Lukas and saw that the kids had come up. I look around and there is no Lukas, I start to ask the kids "Where is Lukas" when I hear the thud, thud, thud! Our little neighbor girl was at the top of the stairs and didn't realize that Lukas would fall down. I started screaming and chasing him down the stairs, but to my horror he went down all 14 steps! Luckily he was fine - a little shaken up - but I think more scared by my reaction then what actually happened. Ugh! I felt like the worst mom in the world and I think I scared the poor neighbor girl to death. He is fine, but I am still shaken up about it! I guess all's well that ends well, but you better believe I am a going to be a freak about having that door shut until he learns how to go up and down them!
On a side note. I spent two and a half hours working on a school project for Skylar yesterday. I am so irritated about it. The assignment was to do a biography on a famous person. They have to write it out and do a side project that goes with it. Everything had to be supervised by an adult. I HATE parent homework. The skills needed to do this project were WAY above what a first grader can do on their own. Their teacher knew this and told them they would need their parents help. WHY DO TEACHERS GIVE HOMEWORK TO PARENTS? I am a teacher and I have to say I do have one assignment I give to my health students where they have to interview their parents about dating rules. I feel it is a very useful assignment and helps to open communication between parents and kids where sometimes it doesn't happen. I don't understand however, giving a project that is in a skill set where the parents have to do the work? Has anyone dealt with this before? Do I talk to the teacher about it, or should I just let it go? This is the third project like this that Skylar has had to do this year, and she had a few last year too. It is not that I mind helping my kids do homework, I read with them, I will help them with math worksheets or whatever is needed, but the key word is help.
Okay, I need to end on a positive note so that I am not bugged all day. I am thankful for all that I have. I am so blessed with an amazing family, wonderful friends and neighbors, a job that I love, a home to live in, food to eat, and most important the gospel in my life! I can't count all of my blessings.

Fun and Not so Fun!

So my goal was to stay better up to date after spending an entire day working on updates. Then I got sick - SIGH - and the updates all stopped!

For the last week I have been the sickest I ever remember being. Last Saturday I was fine, went to work, then an extra dance practice, then I cut Matt's and Kory's hair, made dinner, etc. I was putting the girls to sleep when it HIT me. I don't remember having anything hit me so hard and so fast in my life. In a matter of just a few minutes I was SHAKING like crazy, I couldn't get warm and I was in tears I felt so CRUMMY. I went to bed at about 8:30 as soon as the girls were in bed. I only got up to feed Lukas through the night and then the next day I stayed home from church and was in bed ALL day long. I determined that it was probably mastitis, so Kory called my midwife and got some antibiotics for me while I slept. I started them that afternoon and thought I would be on my way to being better in no time. WRONG! I spent all day on Monday in bed, I kept Kortnie home from preschool and she helped with the boys so that I could take it easy. I felt terrible, but I had a meeting at my work that evening and felt it was important to attend (They recently cut everyone's hours and I wanted to make sure that I was there in order to hear anything that might relate to what has been happening.). I came home and crashed. Tuesday and Wednesday I was in bed as much as possible. With four kids it is pretty hard to spend all day sleeping, but I did the best I could. Thursday, was a hard day. It was Kory's BIG Birthday. I wanted to celebrate with him and make it special, but because I had been so sick all week, I was not very prepared and did not feel much like doing anything. Still I woke up and made him a birthday breakfast, then we went to his mom's house to visit with her and then I made a nice dinner that night. It didn't seem like much, but physically it was hard to do. 

The Birthday boy with his new fathead.

Look at all those candles!

Friday I was starting to feel better, but it was a LONG day. I was still not feeling great, but I had to be a mom and I had to go to work. This Friday was the first day of my new schedule at work. I am now only teaching one 3 hour class. It is nice because I have Saturday's off, but not so good for the budget. It is also hard to keep anyone's attention for 3 hours - even I was bored. It is going to be an adjustment. 
Saturday was another long day. We had our review for the dance studio where I teach. I have five classes this time and they all did great. The girls also had their performance. They did a great job.

Here is a picture of me and my girls before the review.

It has now been nine days since I got sick and I am still not 100% better but I am on my way (or at least I hope!). 

POST OVERLOAD!

Okay, so I spent all day updating my blog, but I am all caught up! I completed 18 posts counting this one. It feels so good to be all caught up! I need to dedicate more time to posting and hopefully I will be able to stay more up to date!

6 months and Growing

Lukas turned six months old on January 6th. He is growing so fast and getting so BIG (okay still small, but big to us!)
Stats -
15 lb. 3 oz. (10th percentile)
26+ inches (50th percentile)

Development Growth

Learning to splash in the water. He finally likes his bath!

Sitting up on his own. Trying to clap!

Making faces and blowing raspberries!

Crawling! Mostly he moves backwards, but is just figuring out how to move forwards now.

 I also just gave him his first hair cut. You can't tell the difference in these pictures very well, but you can in person. His hair wasn't real long, but it was very uneven and so I was trying to even things up.

My boys before the hair cut.

My boys after their hair cuts! So handsome.

Potty Training

So my first goal for the new year was to try and potty train Holland. So on New Years Day I took him to the store and he got to pick out his own big boy underwear, a potty chair, and candy that he would get when he went potty.

Potty training started first thing Monday morning and Kory was home from work to give me extra help. He was about 50% the first day and 75% the second day. Ever since the second day he has only had a few accidents. He is still not telling us all the time, so he is more "mommy" trained than potty trained, but he is doing AWESOME. He has even stayed dry the last few nights - which for us is a big deal!

Day 1 - Sporting the new "car" undies!

Welcome to 2011

For the New Year, Kory and I went to an '80s party at his brothers house.

We had fun getting dressed up.

And even the girls joined in.

We celebrated by eating pizza, playing games, visiting, and of course dancing the night away to great hits from the 80s. It was fun to ring in the new year with Kory's family and the kids were glad they got to stay up late and join the fun.

Sharp Family Christmas Party

 The night of the 26th was the Sharp family Christmas party. We had a turkey and ham dinner, a talent show and then presents. It is very much like Kory's family party but just smaller in number.

Holland listening to Uncle Matt share his new computer program.

Daddy and Lukas

Jess, Koko, and Bella

Breanna, Skylar and Ammon

Uncle Mike reading his book "Rusty Saves Christmas"

The Rich Families musical talent.

The Ramirez Family sharing the good and bad of Christmas.

Grandma Ann getting ready to sing "Baby's Boat" My mom usually sings Hardrock, Cocoa and Joe, but this year found the music to a lullaby she used to sing to us and so she sang that.

After the talent show it was time to open the presents. We all loved our gifts! It was a great night.

Christmas

Christmas Eve we spent the night at Kory's Mom's visiting and playing games with his family. Then we came home to finish up our own family traditions.

We let Santa fall into the chimney.

We opened up our Christmas Eve Pajama's.

And we took our family photo in front of the tree.

The next morning the kids woke up and came in our room. We have a family prayer together before we come out and open presents. Then we line up in the hall way from youngest to oldest.

Lukas opening his first present.

Holland got TRUCKS!

Kortnie got a walking puppy.

Skylar opening her MP3 player.

Then we all had breakfast together. I made biscuits and gravy, and cinnamon rolls.

 The rest of the day was very low key and we enjoyed hanging out as a family. We played with our new toys and watched Christmas movies. It was a great day.