slacker

yes... i have been such a slacker on my blog.... so i will play a little catch-up. in august i started working part time again, about 24 hours a week. i changed positions and now work in the lab 2-3 days a week for 11 hour shifts. i will just say it has been a rough adjustment for me. i really just wanted to quit right when i started, but we really need the money. we kind of killed ourselves this summer with brad not working and going to school instead and used a credit card (which i swear we will never ever do again). needless to say we kind of got into a bad situation. well, i am just trying to pay off that debt as fast as possible and never ever do it again. so... right after i started working again, brad and i both started school. i took this class that was so stinking hard that halfway through the semester i decided to drop it. i haven't ever dropped a class before and it was a really big deal to me. but i was really struggling with it and i didn't need it for my degree. which by the way i finally declared: health promotion. also right after i started working i found out i am am pregnant with our precious number three! yay! so all of a sudden, i went from having a wonderful most amazing relaxing summer to working a lot of hours, (more than i wanted to), taking three hard classes and being completely exhausted and sick. it was hard. i went home crying several days and even cried at work. i felt really pathetic. i just hit sixteen weeks and i am feeling SO much better. i am so happy about that, and my stress has fallen since i dropped that class too. the only unfortunate thing is that i feel like we still aren't in a good place financially, but i guess if that's the worst of my problems i will survive.

reese just had his fifth birthday yesterday. on saturday we took him down to the build a bear store in salt lake and he picked out his own puppy. he named it troy and has happily been toting it around ever since. i really adore reese. he is so sweet and so soft spoken. in the car he will try to talk to me and tell me things and i always have to tell him to talk louder because i can barely hear him. he is an amazing big brother. he is so patient with jovi. he seriously lets her do anything to him, and is a good example. he shows her how to eat food and play with toys, jumps with her on the tramp and takes her down the slide. he started going to head start about a month ago and is doing really well. he loves playing video games, he would ALL day if i would let him. he played soccer this season for the first time and did pretty good. i would say he was one of the best players on the team and scored quite a few goals. i love this little man.

first soccer game

jovi is a hoot. she says the funniest things... lately she has been waking up in the night.. i hear her jabbering and ignore her until she fakes a cry. last night i went up at five a.m. knowing full well that she was fine. i opened the door and she fake sneezed! and then said, that's funny mommy!!!!!

the night before that i went up at three and she asked me about her "bod-whys" aka ballons... mama, where'd the bod-whys go???

brad told me that today she said: where's the bebe (binky)? the bebe's hiding. 
she adores reese and follows him everywhere. she also loves her stuffed animals and treats them like they are babies. she loves to feed them and tuck them into blankets and give them kisses. she refuses to eat anything. and is starting to fight naps, but i am making her push on through. i need them!

jovi insisted on wearing reese's spider man unders

big yellow slide at the state fair. jovi loved it this time.

we went to park city for a night

jackson, jacob, reese & josh "the lil' grasshoppers"

first day of preschool

brad and i celebrated our TEN year anniversary in september! can you believe it???? time just goes by so fast. we went and spent the night in salt lake. brad surprised me and we went and rode go carts and went to a comedy club. we really had fun spending time just the two of us. i just wish it had lasted a little longer. we are SUPER lame and this was the first year we did not write ten things about the year... we were both just so overwhelmed with school and everything. we are still planning on doing it. we just need to set down a date, and pronto or else it won't ever happen. none the less, it has been an amazing ten years and i wouldn't trade them for the world.

well that's it! i am going to be better. i wan to remember things that have been going on... no more waiting months in between.

it's been a summer!

i fell off the blog planet for a while. but oh my gosh. we have had such a fun summer. i usually spend a ton of time keeping my house really clean and laundry done, but this summer i have just let it go and it has been awesome. we have been going swimming non stop, playing in the sprinklers, going down the slide and swinging everyday. i think there has only been one real day we have stayed in and watched TV all day. which i am happy about.

best buds

huntsville park

 we went to kanarra at the beginning of the summer. we brought bentley with us because bryce and sal were in samoa visiting her parents. it was a pretty good trip. we went to the indian ruins on kanarra mountain and did the kanarra falls hike. we brought lady with us on the hike and it was so hot on the way back. she kept sitting down and we couldn't figure out why. turns out the ground was so hot she had to stop because her paws were burning. she would sit down and put all her paws in the air. brad was a good man and carried her part of the way back and then ran down to get the car for all of us to drive back home in.

at the petting zoo on the way to kanarra

you can't really see it, but there is a zebra right there..

dad on kanarra mountain

at the indian ruins

hiking kanarra falls

 we have been swimming a lot this summer. probably twice a week. since the beginning reese has gotten so brave. he goes down water slides, jumps of the diving board and even does flips off the side of the pool. i am proud of him, because he really isn't the bravest kid. jovi has turned into a little fishy too. we bought them these life jacket things called puddle jumpers and now jovi and reese can both swim by themselves. (of course we stay right there with them). but seriously it is amazing!

first time swimming this summer. now she is a little fish

same with him. he asks to swim everyday.

 brad and i each did a race this summer too. i did the color run with whitney, and he did the spartan. brad and the kids came down to my race to support me. love them for it.

color run

me and whitney

 we got a condo the night before the spartan. amber and andy stayed with us and of course bryce, sal, matt and jenn too.

night before the spartan race

spartan runners

 i was the only one that was up there that didn't run the spartan. i got tired of waiting around for everyone so i drove up to the course. you have to pay to get in and i was way too cheap for that so i ended up volunteering. it was awesome, because i got to work at the finish line and hand out the medals to all the people coming across the finish line. it is such a hard race that by the end lots of the contestants are really emotional. i loved getting to hug each one of my family/friends as they crossed the finish line. none of them were expecting it either. i loved it... that's it, i just loved it.

 we did our usual thing on the fourth of july.

my favorite picture ever

 after the parade we spent major time swinging on this swing. jovi loved it. she was like a little super hero. she bawled both times we made her get off it.

 then we went to debbie's for swimming and a bbq.

 so that is pretty much our summer so far. it's been pretty astounding. i am so glad that i have lightened up a little on myself and on my kids. life is happier. i used to want them to look and be perfect all the time. now i let them make messes, eat dirt, color on themselves and lots of other things that used to stress me out. i love them so much and i just want them to know that. especially despite my expectations, that i am trying not to have.

jovi is a little obsessed with ladders lately.

So, the last week has been really good! The weather has warmed up and it has done wonders for all of us! brad and i have started exercising and i have worked out 4 times this week and it's only friday! that's pretty dang amazing for me! we have also started to read our scriptures together before we go to bed and i am actually enjoying it. it's kind of nice to discuss these things together and brad is so smart about it all that he answers all of my silly questions. i think we have reached the point in our marriage where we have stopped pretending for the most part. we each know who the other person really is and we have mostly stopped trying to change one another. instead we encourage each other instead of pushing. it's a beautiful thing.

last week jovi was really sick with a fever and this week she is not sleeping because of teething. it's seems like there is always something going on with her to keep us up at night. but her sweet little spirit makes up for it all. she has exploded with saying words. she says: dad-dy, eeese (reese), puppy, ipad, nonono, all gone (and lifts her little hands in the air to show it. and lots of other little things that i can't think of. she also babbles on and on all the time. i love this stage.

this face makes me laugh!

Reese is my challenge. I don't know why. He is just as sweet as can be, but he has a hard time doing what he is told. If I tell him to get his shoes on he will dilly-dally until I ask him five times and end up yelling. I really hate yelling... so we made a deal recently that I would try and give him more time to do things, and he has to actually do them in a timely manner. It's going ok. I am trying to control my temper and I guess that is the best I can do.

and that's that!

so i just wanted to tell you....

yes, all of my faithful readers... oh wait, i don't think i have one reader anymore, but still. i wanted to tell you, that this week i have done a couple of things that are sort of awesome and a few more things that were rather awkward. Here we go:

1. I fell down twice this week. TWICE!!!! the first time i was rushing down the drive-way, wheeling the fullest garbage ever (because they hadn't picked it up in 2 weeks), to try and actually get it on the curb before the garbage truck drove up. So as i am dashing in my slippers I feel my feet go right under me, luckily i caught myself and totally avoided injury (high five, sav!). I was totally relieved that the rest of my responsible neighbors took their garbage cans out the night before and i had no witnesses, awesome, right? Wrong, just then i here my neighbor's door swing open, and he hollers to me, "savannah! you ok?" in a truly concerned voice.....

the second time wasn't nearly as humiliating, because at least no one saw it and i kind of caught myself before i hit the ground. i did however twist both my ankles just enough that driving was a little, shall we say, awkard?

2. I bucked up and asked my neighbor if she would want to trade babysitting once a week, and she said yes! So i watched her kids while she ran errands, and i went off to a blissful hour of yoga at weber state. it was really kind of wonderful. i hadn't done yoga since high school, for those of you who can't count, that is twelve years. my downward dog needed some serious adjustments and luckily my instructor was nice enough to help me a couple of times. we are going to keep doing it and i am so happy to kind of have an hour to myself.

3. i have yelled at my kids, (really my kid), so much this week. i feel like a terrible mom, i don't know why i am feeling so short with him. i just feel irritable and he knows how to push my buttons. but still i need to find a better way to get my point across to him that makes us both feel better. :( ideas anyone? We were doing a sticker chart but it just doesn't have the same incentive as it used to.

4. we moved bedrooms, and i mean we totally rearranged our house! reese moved upstairs to our room, we moved to the extra downstairs bedroom and made his downstairs bedroom a playroom. things are still a little bit of a mess, like, there  is so much crap stuffed under my stairs i am surprised the door hasn't busted open. but so far i think it will be a good change. it's a little weird to have my kids so far away, but i think it will make life easier on reese. except AFTER we moved him upstairs he told us he wasn't scared anymore and he liked his bedroom down there, i think he just wants to be close to his momma and dad! little stinker.

so there's my list. there is my week. and it felt good to write about it.

A couple of Funnies courtesy of Reese

Grandpa Ace: Those bastards!....
Reese: No Grandpa, those aren't the bastards. The zombies are the bastards!


Jovi was about to roll off of the couch and Reese jumped off and caught her just before she fell. A little while later her came up to me and whispered: Remember when Joves almost fell off the couch and I got her before she fell. Does that make me a hero????? Absolutely!!!!