Randomness from the last 2 months

So here's Rissy Roo at 10am Monday morning. She'd had a fever all night but wanted to play with her friend soooo bad. "I'm all better." Well after a 10 minute crying fit in the hall she came to her room where Brielle and I were playing toys, climbed in her bed and cried some more. And suddenly it was quiet - and this is what I found. Poor girl - slept for 3 hours more. Yeah - I'm not sick - yeah right - mommy knows best! Funny thing when she woke up, she asked why she had slept in those clothes (tights, skirt, and shirt) and if she could have a bowl of cereal!

Toodles the Poodle (a few weeks ago).

Ahh, the girls playing together - love these moments.

Toodles the TOOT SNIFFER. So our sweet little puppy loves bad smells - lovely! If you are ever sitting on the floor and she smells a toot - she goes right to the source. She climbs and starts digging right where she thinks the smell is coming from (yep that means the crouch). It is actually the funniest thing ever. We've all been got passing some gas now and then. Best story was when we were all kneeling for family prayer, all the sudden the dog goes to this person and starts digging at the knees - uh oh caught! Everyone was laughing soooo hard - ok it was me and that just mad it all the more funny - cuz when mom toots it's such a rarity!

Pudding! YUMMY! Daddy gave this to them and then mommy cleaned it up!

Toodles and the bath! She doesn't like it too much and she looks like a wet rat. But when the girls are in the tub - she barks and tries to get in! Weird.

This dog is such a toddler! I swear she a Brielle do the exact same things. Especially the following me around everywhere I go.

I love this baby so much. She melts my heart everyday. She loves wearing necklaces and hats and carrying around babies! OHHHH - please don't grow up.

Look closely - that is a stuffed animal but on top of that stuffed animal is a real animal. Toodles and Tanner share a bed and she loves sleeping by his head!

BON JOVI - WOW

AMAZING

LOVE this picture! Jon and Richie - oh yeah!

They rocked - seriously. JD and I have been to 3 concerts in the last 10 years and this by far was the best.

I talked to a lady in our stake who travels all over the country to see Bon Jovi, and she was in the 2nd row in Salt Lake. She said this was the best she's seen in a long time. She said Jon was in a great mood and she thinks it was the crowd!

The boys had a great time! This is before the concert started. Tanner actually fell asleep during the last 15 minutes (it was pretty late for a 7 year old). We had a good laugh about that. It was so fun to watch the boys singing to every song (of course JD and I were singing too)! Such a fun time.

Now - that's what I'm talking about!

Great Grandma Hanks sent our family a thank you card yesterday. We had sent her some letters and pictures and she loved it so much that she sent us a card and $15 to go and get some ice cream! What a sweetheart. Grandma Pat had written the card herself and it just about brought me to tears. See Grandma is legally blind (macular degeneration). I know she can see some but not much. To see her handwriting and her thoughtfulness and her thanking each child by name, it was awesome!

The awesomeness doesn't end there. So we took our family out to Baskin Robbins for our special treat from Grandma. Let me tell you that taking our family out all together somewhere is usually quite an adventure and not in a good way. There is usually fighting and crying and not so nice things said to each other, even when it's a fun place to go. JD and I get really frustrated and vow to never take everyone to a store or something ever again.

Well, we went off to Walmart first to get a few things, with only minor difficulties (Brielle falling and hitting her mouth on the floor and bleeding all over my shirt and her shirt). There was relative peace as we left the store (wow). Brielle was not happy in the car until I was sitting by her and holding her face to my face, with JD telling me, "I'll go home with her and you take the kids to ice cream". No! We were going to go as a family - we headed on.

Baskin Robbins, it was quite a pain getting everyone's orders in but not because the kids were fighting, just because the store is small and lots of people were there. Anyway, we all huddled around a little table enjoying our sweet treats, everyone was laughing and actually having fun! Brielle had a little sample spoon in hand and kept reaching for each person's ice cream. So she'd get some from me, then Marissa, the boys, Daddy! It was the CUTEST thing ever. I wished I had a camera. It's a mental picture I hope I never lose! But the true awesomeness was when I was holding Brielle on my lap and everyone was smiling at her, so they were looking at me, I had a picture of how heaven will be. I truly had JOY - the kind the fills your heart to the brim. The kind that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time! Even if it was for just a few minutes - it was awesome! Now that's what I'm talking about!

Toodles the Toy Poodle

WE GOT A PUPPY! Anyone who knows JD will not believe this miraculous event! My husband is what I would call a non-dog person. It's not that he hates dogs (though he has claimed that from time to time), it's the fact that they poop. Ok - so he has a running list in his mind of all the reasons why we would never get a dog. If something happened that was negative about a dog, JD would say "ok that's number 136 in my reasons to not have a dog." But me - I love dogs! Ok - I love dogs that don't bark all day and all night without ceasing. Yes we did have some neighbor dogs that would do that from time to time. There were enough complaints from neighbors that the people got rid of their dogs. I love dogs that are taken care of and get the attention they need so that they don't feel the need to bark excessively when you play with your kids in your own backyard! Ok - that's getting a little bit off topic. But it really is a miracle that JD let us get a dog. We are all thrilled as can be! We are loving our toy poodle - TOODLES! She is a great dog. And the most amazing part is that JD is LOVING her too! Never thought I'd see the day! I love JD for giving our family the chance to be dog owners - it was very unselfish of him, he had to go out of his comfort zone!

Brielle is 1

Our little angel turned 1 on February 17. It was a beautiful day. We had lots of family over and enjoyed celebrating this sweet baby in our lives.
I think she is a beauty!


Just a few of the cute faces that showed up at her party! Brielle sure had a lot of help opening her presents!
Sisters - Marissa was so excited all day about Brielle birthday but when everyone got to our house she pretty much broke down. She had a rough time sharing the lime light.
So we gave her the cake and tried to get her to eat it but nope she wasn't interested. And she ended up gagging when we tried. So we gave up but had a really good laugh while we watched her. Later, after dinner we tried again - and sure enough when no one was paying attention - she loved it!
Brielle loves her new wheels!
Unfortunately by Sunday night Brielle was pretty sick. She came down with RSV. It's been one horrible week for her. Her first week of being 1 year old was spent in misery. Poor girl. Finally after 7 days of needing to be held all the time, not eating, coughing like crazy, feeling yucky, she showed us her happy self again! We are so happy she is better.
Ok - so Josh was trying to get a good shot of her doing her new "uh oh" face. It's simply adorable. But this shot isn't so great but if you look close you can see my face is doing it perfectly!
Her we are holding each other. It's basically how we hung out all of last week. Not fun at all. Okay - I guess it is a little bit nice to snuggle with your baby but it's not so nice we she feels so awful.

What I wish I had a picture of.

Brielle is so into books lately. Seriously she brings me books all the time, she hands them to me and then says "uh uh uh", till I pick her up and read. And she has her favorite too. She loves Dr. Suess' The Toothbook. We could read for hours - but it sure makes me sleepy!

She is also just getting so fun. She lets everyone know when she is unhappy - like when she gets something taken away from her by her sister - yeah she screams. Also - she loves to play and be chased by her daddy and brothers. It is so fun to watch. She's a great bootie shaker - loves dancing. And today when JD came home from work, he came into to the kitchen and Brielle says "DA". Awesome!

I LOVE my little Brielle!

THANKFUL

THANKFUL

Today I am feeling so THANKFUL.

I crawled back in bed this morning after I got Brielle down for a nap and Marissa watching a show. As I was laying there, looking out my window at beautiful Mt. TImpanogas with its snow covered peaks, I was struck with how grateful I am to be alive.

I have a huge amount of things I am grateful for, but for today I just want to mention a few.

1. My health - physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually feeling good. I have dealt with some low times in my life where I didn't feel like this.
2. My healthy kids - I have seen some sad things with family and friends and the heartache it brings to have sick kids - I'm so grateful that mine are healthy and happy
3. My husband -JD- I am so blessed to be his wife. So glad he still loves me and even more than he did 13 years ago. So grateful that he still finds me sexy and hot even though after 5 kids things aren't exactly they way they used to be. :) So grateful for the poem he wrote to me for Valentines Day and the songs he's written for me and our kids!
4. The Beautiful Earth - I LOVE being outside and enjoying the beauty God has given us. The sunshine this morning after the snow was perfect!
5. My testimony - it's still growing and developing but I know God loves me and I know His son, Jesus Christ, died for me and I have a great love and need for them in my life.

January 2011

So it's been FREEZING lately. I do NOT like it much. I guess I was outside playing on Friday - it was nice out - high 30s. But now it's getting into the single digits at night - bone chilling cold. Makes me so THANKFUL for a nice warm home to live in; with good windows, good front door, and lots of blankets. I am also thankful for my cute family. I'm posting a few pictures of what's been happening around here in January!
Tanner turned 7 years old on the 14th of January! Here is is with his Kisebach cousins! Tanner got a new bike for his birthday. It's a pretty sweet ride! As I was waiting in line to buy it - I had a dad tell me how cool it was and that someone was going to be pretty happy. And he was right.
JD was growing his hair out - he loves it long. Anyway, his goal to not get it cut till the Bon Jovi concert in March was just not a possibility. His work calls for the more clean shaven, short hair look. His boss at the district was talking to him one day and stopped mid sentence and told him, I really don't like your hair - it's just not you. Funny - she must not really know him :) I doubt she would have said that to a bald guy! I was actually liking JD's hair longer - but he looks good to me no matter what.
Brielle has been having a hard time lately. This picture was taken at 6:30 in the morning. Brielle had woken up around 5:30 and then fell back to sleep in our bed. Then Marissa woke up (highly unusual for her). So JD and I got up and I asked Marissa to stay with her while I made lunches. When I came back to check on them, Brielle had cuddled up to her sister. It was the sweetest thing.
Pretty girl!
Marissa and her friend Mara. They play just about everyday. Mara is 4 but they get a long great. Sundays are funny because Marissa is always asking if Sunday is over yet so she can play with Mara.
My little helper. Marissa loves to help me cook.
Brielle is loving her spaghetti. She kept reaching over and pulling the noodles off of Josh's plate. It was quite the mess.

And lastly, Daddy's little girl. Marissa is in love with her Daddy. It's so sweet. They were dancing and Marissa was making these cute lovey eyes at JD. I was cracking up. So now we like to ask her to show us her lovey eyes and she does this funny look. JD's been so busy at work lately. So many responsibilities at school and the district. So last week he was gone a lot - some days Marissa would only see him for a few minutes in the morning. She woke up one morning and came to me and asked "Is Daddy at the district or school?" First of all how she says district is just cute and second she is just so perceptive. Anyway she then saw a picture of JD on the computer and says "Daddy is my best buddy". So precious!