Flood Update

They took out all but 2 fans from my kitchen today, and all but 2 fans and the dehumidifier from the basement. The noise is driving me crazy! We do have to replace the floor in the kitchen because it buckled. I'm not real upset about the flooring, because I have hated it since I moved into the house. Although I would rather have replaced it when we were ready instead of having a flood.

Fun times in Utah

We had a great time in Utah visiting Grandma and Grandpa and especially getting to see Rachel and the kids! We miss them terribly now that they live in Arizona!
The kids were able to play with all of their cousins that live close to Grandma and Grandpa, I know they had a great time! Thanks Rex and Nicole for inviting us to Chuck E Cheese, the kids had a blast!
We all can't wait for Wednesday to get here so that we can see Rachel and the kids again!

Do we need to build an ark?

On Friday Joe and I and the girls left our house at about 10 am to go buy some things for me to take our little trip to Utah for the weekend, and then we went to lunch. On the way home I told Joe to stop at home and I would pick up Josh's book that needed to be re turned to the library and I would pick up the one that he had requested, so at about 1:15 pm we get home and I get out of the van and go into the house to get the book and guess what I find in my kitchen? 2 inches of water and another 5 inches in my basement. While we were gone the hose to the drinking water broke under our sink. Oh how joyful that was. I got my first taste of dealing with the insurance company. Not that I am going to complain they have been really helpful. I will say that it is a good thing that me and the kids were going down to Utah for the weekend because our upstairs is really hot and noisy. We have about 8 fans in our kitchen and about 8 in our basement along with a dehumidifier down there. They put that it because Josh is highly allergic to mold! They also pulled out the carpet pad under all the wet carpet. Oh and it stinks to high heaven!

The cleaning company did say that the damage wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, because we found it quickly.

More from Jacey

So today we are driving home from the grocery store and here is the conversation Jacey and I had:

Jacey: "Mom remember when Grandma and Grandpa had the cat and Frosty?" (Frosty is my mom and dad's dog)
Me: "Yes I remember."
Jacey: "And then the cat died and now they have Frosty"
Me: "Yes"
Jacey: "Frosty is an old dog. Now Grandma and Grandpa have Frosty an old dog and they are old too."
Me : "Yes they are getting old too!"

She is so funny! I was telling my sister Rachel all about this conversation and the one we had yesterday, and Jacey is in the backseat of the van covering her ears. I guess she was embarrassed, but I just thought it was funny and wanted to share it with Rachel.

Jacey

We went out to lunch this afternoon, but before we went to eat we stopped at Walmart. Jacey's says to me" you are spoiling my appetite". Then we get to the restaurant and she orders a taco and when they bring it out, she says "surely they know I don't like tomatoes. " I then had to explain to her that we have to tell them not to put them on her taco they don't know what we like or don't like if we don't tell them. Then before we leave I ask Joe if he needs a box for his leftovers and Jacey says "I'm surely going to take mine home with me." I don't know where she got the word surely from but it became a favorite of hers today! She cracks me up.

6 Months Old

Jena turned 6 months old on Saturday, where is the time going? Today turned out to be a very traumatic day for her. I decided it was time for some professional portraits, well she didn't like that very well. I do have to say though the pictures turned out pretty cute! We also had her 6 month check up today she had to get shots which isn't very fun! I don't know what I was thinking when I set up the portrait appointment it ended up being too much for her today! She weighs 14 pounds 1 ounce and is 24 1/2 inches. The doctor is very happy with her development. He was quite impressed when I told him she gets up on all fours and rocks. Give her a few weeks and I'm sure she will be crawling! The doc says she is reaching milestones now that kids usually reach at 9 months! She is just following in her brother Jakob's foot steps. He crawled at 6 months and walked at 9!

Men At Work

Joe had a birthday on Thursday, he turned the big 35! Happy Birthday Honey! He decided that he wanted a new grill for his birthday, so we had been out looking for grills for a couple of days. We found the one that he wanted yesterday, so here are some pictures of the boys putting it together. Joe can't wait to try it out, an neither can I (We don't care how cold it is out side I think we will be using it for dinner tomorrow night!) We can't today, because I have to go buy something to grill first!

Guitar Hero

We got Guitar Hero III for Christmas, the boys liked it so much that they wore the batteries out on the controller on Christmas Day, so we got rechargeable batteries, and they continued to love the game. A week or two after Christmas they did something to the Guitar, and it hasn't been working so they have been playing with the regular PlayStation 2 controllers, well the Circuit City here is down to its last few days before they are closed for good, so we went in to check out the deals the other day and found a new guitar for really cheap. The boys were so excited and hoped that Dad would be able to fix the broken one so that they could have two. Well dad couldn't figure out what is wrong with the broken one, so the boys decided to pool their money together and went and bought another one yesterday. Now they each have a guitar to use. We gave Jacey the broken one to play with, but don't tell her that it is broken. She thinks that she is the best Guitar hero there ever was! (I will readily admit that I stink at this game I just don't have the hand, eye coordination that is required to play the game!) I am posting some pictures so you can see them having lots of fun with their favorite game enjoy!

Jena's latest accomplishment

Jena can now sit up by herself. She can't sit herself up yet, but if we sit her up she can balance and stay that way for a couple of minutes. We decided to advance her from the car seat carrier to a regular rear facing car seat over the weekend. Every time we would put her in the carrier she would try and sit up to see, so we figured that it was time to let her sit up. It seems to be working out well so far. She hasn't cried as much as she used to. I think it is because she can see Jacey sitting next to her and the boys sitting in the back.

Family Day

Joe had the day off today, so we had a family day! Joe is hardly ever off on Saturday's so it was really nice having him home. We took the kids to see The Tale of Desperaux. The boys liked it but said it was totally different than the book. Jacey also really liked it. Jena on the other hand started crying the minute we walked into the theater. I spend half of the movie standing in the back of the theater so she wouldn't cry. She did finally go to sleep so I could sit back down. We have decided that she doesn't like being in noisy crowds, because she did the same thing when we went to the Lion's Club meeting Monday night.
We had a really nice time having family day today!

The Jena Boogie

This is Jena dancing for us at dinner! It was really funny to watch! She thinks that it is great that she gets to sit at the table with us while we eat.

Proud to Be an American

Jakob's teacher had each of her students enter the Iona Lions Club Proud to Be an American Contest. Each of the kids were asked to write and essay, draw a picture or write a poem on why they are proud to be an American.

Jakob entered an Essay, and a Drawing, and he won honorable mention in both categories. The awards ceremony was last night. Each of the people who entered an essay or a poem were asked to get up and read their entry to the audience. Jena didn't like all of the clapping and would cry every time that people clapped, so her and her dad spent the whole time out in the hallway!

Good Job Jake on both of your entries!

I don't like to put other peoples picture up on my blog because I don't know how they will feel about it being on the Internet, but these are the only pictures I have from the ceremony, so sorry Lion's Club lady!

My Valentine's Present!

This is my early Valentine's present. It is a 2000 Chrysler Town & Country Limited. It is most likely my Valentine's, Anniversary, Birthday, Mother's Day & Christmas presents combined. We actually just bought it on a whim! This is the type of van we have been looking at for a while now, and they are actually really hard to find! My other van still had some life left to it, but it has become unreliable at times. I am really excited to have this new one. My favorite feature at the moment that it has is the heated seats! I am sure when summer comes I am going to love the air conditioning. I have forgotten what it is like to have a car with air!

Making Cookies

Jacey and I decided to make Valentine's Cookies the other day. We tried to get the boys to help us, but they didn't want to. They did want to eat them when they were done though. I think Jacey's favorite part was decorating them!

Hair Salon

On Saturday I put Jena in the highchair while I made lunch for the other kids. Jacey felt that it was the perfect time to play hair salon with Jena.