The Fessler Five

Elf Yourself!

2011-12-14T12:59:00.002-07:00

I do this every year. I don't know why it's so funny to me, but it is.
This first one I think is funny because at the end Jaxon's elf goes crazy, and I think it fits Jaxon perfect!

This next one is of us surfing. Joye and Braden shimmy toward each other, it cracks me up!

Enjoy!

We're Still Alive!

2011-12-08T12:55:00.006-07:00

Well I am still alive, the blog was the last thing on my worry list. And then after a while I didn't want to go back and catch up, so you get the short version. A lot has happened since Kael was born.

- I got 2 new great-nieces.

- We moved from Brigham in with Braden's parents for a few months, then in with Ricky for a few months, then we stole Ricky's house, and he moved down the road.

-Braden got a new job (yay!!!) Great pay, and benefits!

- We had a great Easter.

- Joye turned 3.

-We had a crazy summer full of moving, dancing, and fun.

-We got church callings. Me a primary teacher, and Braden in the Young Mens.

-Back to school, in a new school.

*Jaxon was sad and nervous, he didn't want to leave his friends, or Grandma. He has done great, and made lots of new friends, and girl friends. He brings home love notes all the time.

*Alek started Kindergarten, and loves it. His teacher is so fun. We all love her.

*Joye was jealous that she didn't get to go to school this year, so we got her a workbook and I'm her teacher. She separates, mom and teacher it's so funny. When we went to SEP Conferences, we had to come home and sit down and have Daddy talk to her teacher and tell him how Joye was doing.

-The boys played soccer this fall. They loved it! Braden was the coach. He didn't love it.

-Braden and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary.

-Jairon got home safely from his mission! We missed him so much. Joye was scared for the first hour or so then couldn't get enough of Jair. We also painted the wall in Brigham, and got caught by the cops.

-We have been so "lucky" and our cat has given us 2 batches of kittens. The second batch is ready to go if anybody wants a kitten!! PLEASE!!

-We had a fun Halloween. Jaxon was a cowboy, but he didn't want the moustache like last year. Alek was a Zombie with a heart that blinked, and Joye wanted to be a kitty, until Alek got his make up on, then she wanted to be a zombie kitty. So Joye was a zombie kitty, she was Alek's pet and Jaxon was the good guy trying to kill them.

-Alek turned 6.

-We had a great Thanksgiving.

- And the biggest most exciting news of the year...

A new Fessler!!! I'm due July 2nd. We are all so excited. We all want a girl, so that means it will probably be a boy :) And I'm hoping in a few weeks I will be done with all the morning sickness, and be able to live again.

The Newest Fessler!!!

2011-02-07T17:24:00.003-07:00

Introducing the newest member of the Fessler family

Weighing in at a whopping 9lbs 10oz

and stretching out to 21 1/2 in

Kael Wyndal Fessler!!

Keenan and Calee welcomed this little guy on Saturday the 5th. Boy was everyone excited!

Jaxon holding his new cousin

Then Alek
And Joye

He is such a cutie, but how could he not be? He is a Fessler! Congrats Keenan and Calee!

Blankets and Babies!

2011-01-31T13:53:00.002-07:00

Well my time as been consumed with crocheting. Braden is so sick of it, but I love it. The reason I have been crocheting so much is because my dad is getting 3 new great grand-babies, and I am making blankets for each of them.

Here is my 1st blanket ever! It turned out pretty good I think.

And here is the 1st Great Grandchild for the Smith's!

Braycen!!!
Great Grandpa Ronald and Braycen

4 Generations

Great-Grandpa Ronald, Grandpa Frankie, Mommy Kelsey, and Baby Braycen.

P.S. My new camera is definitely a better video camera than picture camera, these are all a little blurry.

Our Dancer Joye!

2011-01-15T09:44:00.003-07:00

Joye has been going to dance and doing awesome. I have been looking up music and starting choreographing for the recital. Joye wanted to hear her song, so I found it and she did the entire thing, all by herself with no help! She loves it. I think I got me another dancer!!

Speaking of dancing, I'll give you an update on the boys too. Jaxon is still in the girls class and loving it! The theme this year is Welcome to the Jungle, Jaxon's song is called Tarzan and Jane. It is such a cute song, I think we're going to look for a muscle man suit for him to wear! He also takes tumbling, he is getting closer and closer to his backhand spring

Alek is also taking dance and tumbling. He does dance with the boys class, and is doing great. It's really good for them to be in different classes, no competition. Alek is a natural tumbler. On Wednesday, he had his backhand spring pretty much by himself. We were working with him at home and he did a few by himself, the last one his arms gave out and he rug burned his nose, we did a few more after that so he wouldn't be scared, but on Thursday at dance, he was and regressed. Hopefully next Wednesday he'll get back on track and I can post a video of him on here doing his "hand backhand springs", as he likes to call them.

Jaxon and Alek's Birthdays

2011-01-15T09:25:00.003-07:00

The boys birthday's have come and gone. We now have a 5 year old and a 6 year old. For their birthday's we've decided to take just them on a date with mom and dad at a restaurant of their choice. After we hear the groans when we tell them not McDonalds, they pick pretty good places.

Alek's birthday:
For Alek's birthday we went and got everyone's hair cut. That afternoon I made a cake, and took it with us. Alek wanted a Transformer cake, so after he got his hair cut I sent him with Dad to go get some Transformers. Braden had to slam on the brakes, and dumped the cake :( The kids still enjoyed it. After we were all done, we took Jaxon and Joye to Ricky's and Alek chose to go to The Pizza Factory. He was lucky enough to have Uncle Nick working, and Uncle Nick made him a special birthday pizza...

He was so excited!

Jaxon's Birthday:

On Jaxon's actual birthday, we went to Ricky's and had a New Year's Eve bash. We had cake and ice cream for the birthday boy. We spent the night, so Jaxon had 2 days straight of playing! I told him we would take him out to dinner the week after his birthday, because I wasn't going out with all the crazies. He decided to wait and open his presents from us then. Grandma Fessler gave him his presents first and it ended up being the same thing we got him, Cowboy boots. So we took Jaxon to the store and let him pick something out, he chose...
A McQueen guitar! Now he plays with Dad all the time! Jaxon chose Chili's and ate too many chips with queso before his meal got there and only ate 2 bites, oh well he enjoyed himself.

Christmas!!

2011-01-13T14:50:00.003-07:00

We used our little camera for Christmas morning, and the pictures came out blurry, oh well.

Joye was so fun this year. She was so excited about all her presents.

Jaxon loving his Pillow Pet
Alek got Airbender

Here they are with all their loot.

Joye got a Cabbage Patch doll with a carrier, a tea set, a stick horse, a Pillow Pet, a Princess game and Beauty and the Beast

Jaxon got a Pillow pet, Nerf guns that you can play tag with, Pixos, a game, and Shrek 4

Alek got a Pillow Pet, a memory game, moon sand, a Nerf gun with a dart board, and The Last Airbender.

Braden got a Crossbow. And I got a new camera. It's a video and digital camera, that is waterproof. Since I'm a dropper and repel technology, Santa thought it would be the best camera for me.

On Christmas Eve we went with the Smith's and had soup and bread bowls. Then Christmas morning we opened what Santa had brought, then Grandma and Grandpa Anderson came over to see what we got from Santa. Then we went up to Wolf Creek with the Fessler's to spend a few days there, and talk to Jairon. We even got Joye to talk, she was so cute. She just rambled off what Santa had brought her, then babbled a few more things, said I love you and Bye. She always talks to him on her play phones, I'm glad that he actually got to talk back. We had a busy but great Christmas break!

My Best Friend's Wedding

2011-01-13T14:39:00.002-07:00

My best friend Katelyn got married on 12-11-10!!! In preparation for the wedding, I took 3 trips to St. George, with no family to go help and support Katelyn and Nick! The first time down we went for some bridal showers, the second time we went down for Nick and Katelyn to get their Endowments in the St. George Temple, and the third time I went down for the open house! Congrats Nick and Katelyn!!!

Me and Katelyn at the 1st bridal shower!

Katelyn getting ready for some racy honeymoon presents. She wasn't too excited.
What do I do with this??

Her Family at the reception

We decorated their car

Halloween 2010

2011-01-13T13:46:00.006-07:00

Well I have been a slacker the last few months. I would forget my camera, or just not take pictures, then I didn't want to blog, so that's why I am posting Halloween in January.

Alek wanted to be a vampire. He thought his face paint and teeth were awesome!

Jaxon wanted to be a cowboy, imagine that. Here is what he wore to the dance party.

Then Grandma Fessler helped out and made him chaps, eyebrows and a mustache. He looked awesome!

Joye wore one of Raimee's old dance costumes. I didn't get a very good picture of her. She was apparently very tired.

Here is a little bit better picture from her dance party.
This year we painted pumpkins at Grandma Fessler's

And carved pumpkins and Aunt Sherin's

Don't mind my crazy eyes

Jaxon carved a monkey

Joye carved Elmo

And Alek, picked the hardest stencil, the Count. They turned out cute

Joye always wanted to wear some of Alek's vampire makeup. Well apparently we left it where she could get it. She got it while I thought the kids were on my bed watching a movie. She put it on then fell asleep. Braden got home and freaked, "What happened to Joye!!!" He thought she had crashed on her bike and got road rash. If she had road rash this bad, I think I would have told him about it.

Joye's Big Girl Bike

2011-01-13T13:41:00.002-07:00

On Oct 29th, we got Joye her bike for going to the potty. As you can see she was super excited!

Joye's A Big Girl Now!

2010-10-26T10:44:00.003-06:00

Joye decided that going to the potty was her idea. She does awesome, she hasn't had one accident in her unders (I hope I don't jinx her). I put a diaper on her at night when we started using the potty just in case. After about 2 nights she wouldn't wear a diaper, she just wanted her unders. She has done so good, no new sheets! It is so nice not having anymore diapers!!!! I had to do some bribing though. I took her to Wal-Mart and bought some princess pull-ups. I told her I wasn't going to buy anymore diapers, these were her last ones. She cried and said she wanted Princess! So I told her we would buy her princess unders (I had already tried Elmo and Mickey Mouse unders, so I wasn't banking on these princess unders) Then I took her to the bikes, (She always wants to ride with the boys) and told her if she uses the Big Girl Potty, I'll buy her a bike. I took the bike off the rack, put her on it, and let her ride it up and down the aisle. Then I took her off and put the bike back, and told her when she uses the big girl potty it's hers. She of course was screaming, "My Bike!!! My Bike!!!" as we walked away. Every time we were in Wal-Mart we'd walk past the bikes, she'd tell us which one was hers. Wanting that bike is what did it for her. Aunt Mi-A gave Joye, Raimee's old elbow pads and knee pads. They have princesses on them. One morning Joye got up with her princess unders on and made me put on her pads, and kept asking me for her bike. She's ready! We need to get to the store to get her that bike. Yay Joye!!! We are so proud of you!

My Big Girl Joye!

(Don't mind the nakedness, and the bed head)

UEA Weekend

2010-10-26T10:26:00.002-06:00

UEA this year we went to Idaho to Ricky's cabin. We took Braden's parents and his sisters. We had fun. I didn't get many pictures, I forgot my camera when we did the fun stuff. Grandma and Grandpa went hiking with the kids everyday. They went every where, the kids loved it. Grandma and the kids made this awesome teepee.
We had bought the boys yoyo's before we left. Grandpa and Daddy, got lots of use out of them.

Our Smartie Pants

2010-10-07T09:53:00.002-06:00

Jaxon's teacher came up to me while I was at school the other day, and told me Jaxon was so smart. I knew that he was smart, but she told me how smart. She told me on the Kindergarten Assessments, he had the highest scores in the class. Awesome! Then the first of this week Jaxon went and read with the Literacy Coach. She said that Jaxon is the best reader in the entire Kindergarten! He is where he should be for 1st grade!! Nice job Jax!! What a smartie! Jaxon's teacher also tells me how sweet he is. There are a few kids in his class that get extra attention from Jaxon. One little girl in a wheelchair, Jaxon loves her and helps her. And another little girl, her parents are going through a divorce, and she is a mess. But if she is with Jaxon she is happy. So Jaxon always does stuff with her so she won't be sad. What a stud!! Watch out ladies...Brains, sweetness, and looks...Triple threat!

A Fessler Update

2010-09-30T10:05:00.003-06:00

Well I haven't updated for a while, and nothing real big has been going on, so I'll just let everyone know what's going on with us.

Jaxon: He has been doing so good at his new school! His teacher told me yesterday, that he is so smart! He's one of the top in the class. This new schedule has him so tired, but he loves it! I think Grandma loves it too. He is still in dance and loving it. He dances on Wednesday's, he is in a girls class, and is doing awesome! He has a few girlfriends in there. Then after his dance class he is in tumbling. He is getting closer and closer to a backhand spring! He is also going to start doing the boys class again, which is on Thursday's. He is a busy boy!

Alek: He loves going to preschool. And I love when he goes, then I get 2 hours of no fighting (him and Joye fight pretty much all day). He is such a good helper around the house. He hardly ever complains when I ask him to help with something. He is also in the tumbling class with Jaxon on Wednesday's. He loves it and is so good. He's so flexible, it's easy for him. He catches on really fast. His newest accomplishment is his headstand. He practiced and practiced, and finally got it. He can balance for quite awhile now. He is also pretty close to his backhand spring.

Joye: She is getting too big! She is a good helper when she wants to be. We are trying to potty train her, with not much luck. She is very stubborn, when it's her idea to go on the potty, she does great, but if we want her to go, no such luck. Hopefully she'll decide soon that it's her idea, and go all the time. I'm so sick of diapers!!!! Any potty training ideas are welcome. She still loves books, and she is becoming such a little mother. She loves taking care of her dolls, and bossing the boys around. When she is talking about the boys she either says, "My boys" or "My brothers" I think it's so cute when she asks where her boys are.

Me and Braden: Pretty much the same old. Braden still works at Logan Coach, and is working on a new house as a side job. He is so excited about hunting this year! Braden has found a new friend, and now I never see him. His name is James and he is a cowboy, for all intents and purposes. He has started teaching Braden how to train and shoe. Braden gets to go riding and roping. He is in seventh heaven! I am still working at the studio, and staying home with the kids. As soon as this side job is over, we are going to start back up again on our basement, and other things around the house to try to get ready to sell!

I guess I should update you about our horse situation. We finally got rid of Tipsy, the crazy horse that landed on Braden. Braden's friend James, found someone who was willing to trade a horse for her. Braden took Tipsy down to Woods Cross Wednesday. Our new horse is a 19 year old pregnant quarter horse. Braden says she is a really good horse, she should be really great for the kids to ride. He even says she's a red head! I haven't seen her yet. We can keep the colt if we want it, and the best part is; if we do keep it, James will help train it! I think we got the better end of this deal!

Well that's about it for around here. Hopefully something exciting will happen soon and a good post will show up here.

Another Year...

2010-09-21T11:57:00.003-06:00

Well it's our 3 year anniversary today. I can't believe that it has been 3 years, they have flew by. We're not doing anything too exciting tonight. Just dinner and a movie. We'll be together so that's all that matters.

I love you Braden, and all that you do for me and the kids. You are a great father and husband. We couldn't ask for anything better!

Jaxon's 2nd First Day of School

2010-09-15T09:18:00.002-06:00

You read right. These pictures are of Jaxon's 2nd first day of school. We have been debating about moving up to Garland for a while now. When we sent Jaxon to school here, we had our minds made up. We didn't really like Jaxon's teacher. She was kind of a weirdo, and wasn't too worried about school work, or reading. Then on the 3rd day of school I went to pick Jaxon up and I couldn't find him. I asked his teacher where he was and she acted like she didn't even know who he was. After thinking for a minute about who he was, she said, "Maybe he just went out another door." She wasn't worried, and didn't really help me look for him. So we talked to Grandma, and she made all the arrangements for Jaxon to move to her school. He was so excited. He is in All Day Kindergarten, and in a group of kids that are already starting to read. He is so excited to start reading, he always wants to read to Joye. The only down side is that in order to keep our family together, we try to bring him home every night. Braden and Jaxon wake up at 4:45 every morning to get Jaxon to Grandma's before Braden goes to work. Jaxon will stay up there some times too. He loves school up there. He has already made lots of friends and maybe even a girlfriend. She is a little girl in his class in a wheelchair. He was her helper on his first day. I went to his classroom on the first day and she kept putting her arms around him. Then he came home yesterday and said that he yelled at some kids on the play ground because they kicked sand in her eyes. "Next time they do it, I'll just stand in front of her." He is so sweet. One of his other favorite parts about going to this school is he gets to play with Sara! He loves it. Rylee doesn't get the same recesses yet. But I think soon he'll have another play friend.

Here's Jaxon outside the school.

In his classroom
Sitting at his table. Happy to be there!

Grandma may kill me...

Jaxon's first day was the Welcome Back Assembly. Grandma was a rock start that sang about reading books! I think she looks awesome!

Our Newest Addition!

2010-09-09T14:03:00.003-06:00

This is Galaxy our new kitty. We named her Galaxy so we could continue on with our Ford vehicles. She is a good kitty, we already got her potty trained, and we're going to go get her de-clawed soon. Joye has lots of battle scars already, she isn't the nicest to our new kitty. Imagine that ;)

Alek's First Day of Preschool!

2010-09-09T13:56:00.002-06:00

Alek started Preschool on Tuesday. This year he'll go Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. He was so excited to go to school, since he was so sad that Jaxon got to go to school and he didn't.

He's getting ready to run in.

Running through the gate

Flipping his name around so it says that he's here.

Playing with Play-do waiting for all the kids to show up!

Labor Day 2010

2010-09-09T13:20:00.004-06:00

We went up to Ricky's cabin over labor day. I was really fun. I love it up there because it's so peaceful, and you don't have to do anything. Just relax! We went to Hooper Springs, and let the kids drink some yummy water. And we let them play on the playground.

Before they drank the yummy water!

Being goofs on the bridge.
Here is the scary teeter-totter. That not only bruised my bum, but also bucked me off. That's right, I fell off the tetter-totter!

Joye was terrified to get on with us.

Alek holding his own on the other side, waiting for Daddy

Boys doing it them selves

Me and Braden tried to get Jaxon all the way down. Neither one of us succeeded, but we had a lot of fun trying.

Joye didn't like the slide, we had to trick her to get her down.

The boys on the other hand, tried to see how much air they could catch.

We didn't want to go out to the fire pit to roast hot dogs, so we just did them in the stove. The kids still had so much fun.

Every night we went out to look for deer. This is one of the only good pictures. We saw 60-70 deer this trip, not bad for only 3 days.

A Day of Firsts!

2010-08-31T16:13:00.004-06:00

We started our day out yesterday, with a drive down to South Weber. Joye had her 1st dance class!! She was so excited all morning. Her crazy mother, thought class started at 10, but really it started at 10:30. We killed the time at Ricky and Mi-A's, Rusty came early to drop Lydia off, and brought Joye a surprise....DANCE SHOES!! Joye loved them, she made me put them on her right then, and cried when I made her take them off, so they wouldn't get wet. She went right in without crying and sat with Michele. They started dancing and she was AWESOME! She stayed right on her sticker, and listened the whole time. She even did the dance pretty good. When we got home I asked if she wanted to show the boys her dance. She wanted to but she needed her dance shoes on first. She wears her dance shoes all the time. She even took them to bed with her. I won't let her wear them outside, so when she's outside she carries them. I think I've got me a dancer!!!!

Here she is going in!

Finding stickers to stand on.
Her splits.

Sitting in the circle talking.

After dance class we rushed home so we could take Jaxon to his first day of KINDERGARTEN!! He was so excited. He had his backpack, pencil box, and water bottle, and he was ready to go. He ran right to his classroom, and went right in. He never said it, but I don't think he wanted me there. In fact he didn't want me to walk him in today. He got out, and didn't want to really tell me anything that he did, he was too cool for that. He did say "Guess what Mom! R-E-D That spells red." And he had that smug look on his face. I couldn't help but laugh. He is going to do great.

Ready to leave the house

Running across the grass to get to the front doors.

Outside his classroom.

After he found his cubby and put his backpack away, they got to do some puzzles. He was ready for me to leave, and stop taking pictures of him.

Here we are picking him up. Look at that big smile! I can't believe that we have a Kindergartner, and I really can't believe that Joye is already big enough for dance. Time sure flies. Alek starts preschool next week. He can't wait. He has a really hard time when Jaxon gets to do things that he doesn't.

All Better

2010-08-26T15:14:00.002-06:00

We took Joye to the doctor yesterday, and NO MORE SLING! They took another x-ray, and the doctor said that there was enough bone growth around the break that she would be fine. After a while the excess bone that wasn't needed, would go away and as Joye grows the bone will straighten out. So no more bump either! I was so worried that she was going to have an ugly bump forever, so yay! She was so brave this time at the doctor, she stood without as many tears this time for her x-ray. The doctor gave her a token to put in one of the prize machine's in the lobby. She wanted a ring. Lets hope this is our last injury for a while.

Until We Meet Again

2010-08-19T20:29:00.005-06:00

My Grandma Johnson passed away last week. She was 87. We will all miss her very much. But she was ready to go. She had pretty much been house bound for about 2 years. She would go get her hair done every week, but other than that not many other trips. I didn't cry because she was gone, I cried because she was the lucky one. Now she gets to be with my mom, and love on her all she wants. At the funeral, my Uncle Dick said that Joyce was happy now, because she gets mom all to her self for awhile. That's when I lost it. They are the lucky ones. When we told the boys about grandma, they couldn't really remember who she was, until we said she was the one that gave you ice cream. They knew exactly who she was after that.

Here is Grandma and Grandpa's headstone.

Me and the kids. Braden had to work.

My Dad

Grandma's great-grandchildren from our family

Renee, Cambree, Raimee, Lexie, Sierra

Ryten, Alek, Jaxon, Lydia, Joye

Grandchildren

Ricky, Me, Rusty

Here are pictures from January.

We love you Grandma! Give Mom a hug for us. Until we meet again.

Weber County Fair

2010-08-19T19:56:00.002-06:00

The Studio danced at the Weber County Fair. Braden worked so he couldn't be there with us. So I took the kids, and went with Ricky's family.

Here is Joye and Me standing by a huge horse. This wasn't even the biggest one.

Jaxon was the only one that wanted to go to the rodeo. So we had some one-on-one time.

And the kids got to meet SpongeBob!!!
I think Joye has a little bit of my fear of mascots. She wasn't so sure about him.

South Weber Days

2010-08-19T19:40:00.005-06:00

South Weber Days has come and gone. This year we decided that we would take our tents and camp in Ricky's back yard. Mother Nature had a plan of her own and dumped some rain on us. So we ended up sleeping on their basement floor. The kids still had fun, so that's all that matters I guess. We went to the parade in the morning, the fair in the afternoon, and the fireworks at night.

Nick and Katelyn joined us in front of Ricky's for the parade. Here are the kids who weren't in the parade, getting ready to catch some candy. It wasn't the easiest for 1 armed Joye it get her candy. Uncle Rusty helped out, and gave her all of his.

See Renee really does like me

The kids on the float!

Joye and Grandpa watching the dancers.

Here are the boys dancing.

The biggest highlight of mine and Braden's day though was getting to drive this...

A Can-am Spyder! It was so fun!

I had to put this picture of Renee on. He loved the Jamba Juice booth. He had like 4.

We love South Weber Days!

Update on Broken Joye

2010-08-10T09:56:00.002-06:00

Well it's been 2 weeks today since the incident. Joye is doing better. She doesn't have as much pain anymore, so she tries to use her arm. She has been really good about wearing her sling and bandage, she doesn't fight it. She has just found a way to get around it. She will pull 2 layers of her wrap up around her neck, then one layer down around her waist, so she can use her arm. She will pull the sling back far enough for her hand to stick out and use it. Then after awhile her whole arm is sticking out and we have to put it back on right. We tell her, "Joye you have to put your arm back in." She will reply, "Ok, in a minute." "No Joye, now" "Fine", with a little eye roll, she will pull her sling back over her arm. In the instance where she doesn't say fine, I'll try to put it back on and then she screams, "No! Mom! I do it. I do it" Then she'll pull it over. She is so funny. If she gets her arm out too much, she will start to hurt, and then she wants her wrap on right. She knows what makes it feel better. Since we are at the 2 week mark, the doctor said that we could just let her wear her sling. We'll see what we do. I am definitely going to wrap her up at night, but if she doesn't hurt I'll leave the wrap off of her during the day. 2 more weeks left to see if it's healing. Wish us luck.
I don't think I put this on the last post, but i wanted to get it on here so I could remember. The morning we were going to take her to the Doctor, she was laying in bed with us. She was having some pain, and kept complaining. I kept telling her that we were going to go to the doctor and he would make her feel better. She kept saying, "No, I no want to." "Joye, he'll make you feel better." "No, I no want to. I feel better. All better" And she'd pat her collar bone. She was so funny. I don't know why she didn't want to go to the doctor.

Broken Joye

2010-07-28T20:13:00.002-06:00

Yesterday the kids and I were at my dad's house. Alek threw a ball for my dad's dog and the dog's chain caught Joye at the ankles. It lifted her up off the ground, and she fell hard. I was more worried for head, that I saw smack off the ground. She cried for a while, but who wouldn't. She took a nap, and when she woke up she was favoring her right arm, so I looked at it and I thought she might have broken her collar bone. There was a little bump and I thought it was out of line. My dad just thought it was sore and I called Braden, and he said that he had broken kids' collar bones in wrestling and that they were in a ton of pain. He didn't think Joye would be so calm and be able to move her arm as much as she was. Well by the time we got home, she was in a little more pain, and couldn't lift her water bottle. We gave her some Motrin and she slept really good, 9 hours. This morning, she was swollen with a little bruise.

When we took her to the doctor, he said that he didn't think it was broken, maybe just a ripple fracture. When collar bones are broken, they stick out. He sent us over to x-ray. When we got back he came in and said, "I can't believe it. It is broken clear through." He showed us the x-ray and it was broke through and it had only shifted 1mm. He sent us home with a sling and an ace bandage to wrap around her to keep her arm close by her. He said it would take 4-6 weeks to heal. She needs to wear the sling and bandage for 2 weeks, then we can take the bandage off, and just let her wear the sling. In 4 weeks we need to go back in and get some more x-rays. The doctor said by then, it should have started to heal. If it hasn't we may need to do surgery, and put a plate on her collar bone. So please keep Joye in your prayers, that she can heal quickly, and not need surgery.

Joye was so tough. She only cried from pain, right after it happened. Every other time it would hurt, she would only whimper. She cried 3 times at the doctors. 1-She didn't want to stand or sit on the scale. 2-She didn't want to get her x-ray. 3-She didn't want the nurse touching her, to put her sling on. So in other words, she's just really stubborn. She is such a trooper. Braden needs to find those wrestlers from back in high school and tell them that his 2 year old daughter just showed them up ☺

This is a picture right before we went to the doctor. Her right, your left, you can see a little bruise, and if you look close a little bit different angle. Don't mind her crazy eyes.

Waiting for x-rays

The nurse getting her sling on.

Tonight. All smiles with her new accessory for the next 6 weeks!

Anderson Reunion

2010-07-25T14:22:00.013-06:00

The weekend of the 24th was the Anderson Reunion. Joni was in charge this year, so we went to her house and set up tents in her backyard. It was so fun. There were lots of crafts for the kids and fun things to play with. We also went to a parade on the 24th and had fireworks that night it was such a fun weekend. We missed Erick, Leslie, Bryn, Kyler & Koby.

The first crafts we did were cups and bags. I didn't get a picture of the cups, they were cute though. The kids took their bags to the parade to keep their candy in.

Joye hard at work.

The boys taking a second to smile for the camera. Grandpa hard at work cooking his "secret recipe beans"

Jaxon and Rylee being friends.
Joye played most of the time by herself. She's really good like that, she can entertain herself. She was riding around on this little toy, and she figured out there was a little compartment in the front. She knew it was for dirt.

When she wasn't playing by herself, she was playing with Taylor. Shocking! They usually don't get along.

Getting ready to go to the parade with their new bags.

Walking to the parade. Joye and Taylor hand-in-hand.

The kids waiting anxiously for the parade.

Dallas driving the fire truck in the parade. He took Mark and 4 of the kids with him.

The water truck was the last one in the parade, soaking everyone behind it.

Joye eating parade candy off the front steps.

The dad's had more fun than the kids. The night before a bunch of us played horse and lightening. Then after the parade, the men played horse, granny shot style. It was so funny to watch. The men also played the Saltine game. They had to try to eat 6 Saltine's in one minute. Sounds easy but it's not.

Joye and Taylor being friends again.

Kyrie. This is one of the nicer faces I got from her this weekend. She only likes mom and dad.

Avery's favorite thing was to eat sidewalk chalk. Yum!

Uncle Dallas took the kids on a fire truck ride.

Joye was not having anything to do with that big truck.

After the fire truck rides, the kids decorated visors and t-shirts.

After all the fun over the 2 days Alek fell asleep on the couch while the other kids played Wii.

Joye was all tuckered out too.

After dinner Bruce & Shirley and Mark & Sherin headed home. The rest of the adults played games. Nerts was the game of choice, although Dallas said he couldn't remember the name so he changed it to something else. Lets just say it was a lot funner yelling out his title instead of Nerts ☺

After games we did fireworks. Joye is terrified, everyone else had a great time.

Thanks Dallas and Joni for the great weekend! And everybody else! We had a great time

Little Miss Joye

2010-07-19T13:28:00.003-06:00

I just wanted to post an update on Joye. She is 2 years and 2 months now. She is tall, skinny, and full of spunk. She wants what she wants, and will do anything to get it. Anything usually involves a shriek, and some violent outburst. Outburst's are usually hair pulling, pinching, scratching or biting. When she gets mad, she stomps her feet as fast as she can. But she can also be so sweet. She will give lots of loves, and kisses. But only if she is in the mood. She gets embarrassed really easily, and cries. She loves her dolls, she carries them all over, she rocks them, feeds them, reads, and sings to them. She still loves books. We will be watching a movie as a family, and she will be off away from us reading her books. She thinks she is just as big as the boys, and gets so frustrated when she can't do what they are doing. Her hair is growing back pretty fast. So that's good. She is finally getting her vampire teeth in. I was beginning to think she didn't have any. She has three poking through. Potty training is going ok, but not as good as I was hoping. She does really good some days, and horrible the other days. She is talking so good. I can understand her better than Jaxon sometimes. Her favorite thing to do is stick her hands in the peanut butter jar, and lick all the peanut butter off. It drives me nuts, that's probably why she loves it. She loves my phone, she'll take it and pretends that she is talking to someone. She'll have a whole conversation. I'll ask her who she is talking to, she usually says grandma or daddy. The other day she was talking away on the phone, I asked her who she was talking to, and she said "Jairon". I said "You're talking to Uncle Jairon?" "Yep, Uncle Jairon!" Ever since then, she talks to him almost everyday. It makes my heart melt. What a sweet girl. I hope she continues to remember Jairon, so when he gets home she won't be scared.

Riverdale Splash Pad

2010-07-19T13:17:00.003-06:00

On the 10th we had our July birthday party at the Riverdale Splash Pad. The boys had so much fun playing in the water with their cousins. Joye got 2 drops of water on her and she was done, she doesn't like water.

Alek

Jaxon And Miss Joye, dry as a bone, with a dirty face.

After we were done with the party, we were packing up. Alek kept bugging me, to take their pictures, by the bears. After they changed their clothes, Braden took their pictures.

Big Kid Alek

2010-07-19T12:57:00.002-06:00

Ever since Jaxon started riding a two wheeler, Alek has been having a hard time. Alek wants to do the same things. When Jaxon could ride, Alek cried. When Jaxon lost his teeth, Alek cried. I held him and told him, that sometimes Jaxon would do things first and sometimes he would do things first. This didn't help. As most of you know, the boys have trouble saying their r's. They would come out as e's. For example water is watie, there is they, bear is bay. You get the idea. One day the boys were in the tub, and Jaxon yelled, "Mom, I don't want to wash my hay." Alek looked at him and said, "It's called hair. You can't say it right." Alek came out and said that he could say hair. So we tested him: year, bear, water etc. All of them came out right. He taught himself how to say r's. I told him that this was one of the things that he did before Jaxon. Well a few days ago, he was determined to ride that two wheeler. He did it! He got on and with a little help from dad he was off. They are both so excited that they can ride big two wheelers.

A Visit From The Tooth Fairy!

2010-07-19T12:41:00.002-06:00

Jaxon had 2 loose teeth, forever. He never played with them or wiggled them. Finally, on July 6th, they were so wiggly that Braden convinced him to let him pull them out. Jaxon wouldn't let Braden just pull them out, so we told Jaxon we could get some fishing line, and tie it to the door and slam the door. Jaxon was a little nervous, but he agreed.

Here he is with the string tied around the first tooth.

Braden tying the string around the door.

After 2 slams, here is the end result.

After it was all over Jaxon was so excited. He wanted to call his Grandma's and tell them. He kept telling everybody that his dad pulled his tooth out with a fish string. The we put his teeth in a baggy and he ran right to his room and put them under his pillow for the tooth fairy to come. He slept in our basement that night and at 5 in the morning, he came up to use the bathroom. Braden was getting ready for work and Jaxon found his money. "Mom, Dad the tooth fairy came! HE HE HE HE!! I can't believe it, she brought me a green money! HE HE HE HE!" He was so excited he couldn't go back to sleep for a while, he slept holding his green money. I can't believe that we have such a big kid. His new teeth are just starting to peek through. He keeps telling me that he needs to brush his new teeth really good, cause they are his big teeth. I think he only brushes the tips of his new teeth, I have to remind him that his other teeth still need to be brushed.

4th of July Weekend

2010-07-19T11:44:00.005-06:00

On Friday and Saturday of our weekend, we just worked. Then on Sunday the 4th, our next door neighbors invited us over for fireworks. The boys had so much fun. Joye was asleep the entire time. Jaxon's leg was hurting after fireworks, so he went into bed. Alek just decided that he would sleep on the driveway. And dummy me, I didn't get a picture.

This is our neighbors little girl. This is where she spent most of her night, on my lap.

Then on Monday, Ricky and his kids came up and we went with Bruce to the Bear River to go fishing. It was a fun day.

Here is Joye, trying to go potty in the weeds. She only wanted to because all the other kids went.

Joye helping Daddy reel in his fish.

Joye played with the worms all day. She would switch them from one container to another, pick them up and hold them.

Raimee was the best fisherman or shall I say fisherwoman. She caught 6 fish. 4 Carp, and 2 Bass. She caught the biggest carp I have ever seen.

The huge fish, swallowed the hook and Ricky wanted it, so he cut it open. Joye was so interested. She squatted there the entire time, just watching everything that Uncle Ricky was doing.

While Ricky was cutting, some blood squirted Raimee, almost in her eye.

Here's Alek with his little fish, he was a little disappointed that he couldn't keep it.

Joye and Raimee, with one of Raimee's many fish.

After we went fishing we went to the Riverside Parade. Joye didn't like the sirens at the first.

After the parade we went to Bruce and Shirley's for dinner and to let the kids play. Mark and Sherin stopped by for a minute, Mark caught a baby bird, and Alek was brave enough to hold it.

Joye playing in the sand. No wonder she was so sandy. I love her face.

After dinner we went to the Riverside fireworks.

Renee, Alek & Ryten

Raimee and Joye

Here is one of the fireworks. We were really disappointed this year in their fireworks, but with the economy, what can you expect from a little town.

Joye's Toe Update

2010-07-19T11:21:00.003-06:00

When we went to Arizona, Joye got her toe caught under the door and ripped her toenail off. While we were there the toenail laid down so we just left it on. When we got home and Joye started playing it started lifting up, so Dr. Daddy took charge. We put an Elmo movie on the computer, I held her and Daddy went to work. She was so brave. The only time she cried was when we got down, the nail was a little connected still. This is a picture of her toenail right after we cut the nail off. There is just a little sliver of a nail left. After a week or two, Joye started to play with the little sliver and made it lift up and she finally pulled it off. So right now her toe has no nail and is just scabbed over. I think I am starting to see the new nail starting to grow in. What a tough girl!

Arizona!

2010-06-29T10:39:00.007-06:00

Well we headed off to Arizona Friday morning. We took our Suburban and crammed it full. We had us 5, and Braden's Dad and 2 sisters, plus every ones luggage and coolers. It was tight, but good. We hit about the center of Salt Lake and Joye threw up! So we had to stop at a gas station, Braden took Joye, I took the car, and Grandpa took the carseat. After that ordeal, we were back on our way. We stopped again in Circleville to eat lunch. We stopped at the Veterans Memorial. It was really neat.

This mangy dog came by and the girls befriended it. Then we were back on the road.
We crossed the Arizona border. I thought Arizona was supposed to be bright and sunny :)

After driving about 14.5 hours, and stopping by Braden's cousin Brenda's house. We finally made it to our hotel, and got to bed.

The next morning we were recharged and ready to go. Joye climbed up onto the window sill and sat there forever playing with her Elmo.

After we got everyone ready, we drove for another hour and arrived here...

The Mesa, Arizona Temple!

Where we went in and saw this family sealed together, forever! It was so special, I cried like a baby.

Of course lots of pictures were taken

All the Fessler's that came to support Kris and Brenda on their special day

After the temple we got in the car and the temperature was 113. Crazy hot. We followed Braden's Aunt Kaylynn to get back to Brenda's because we thought she knew the way. Well she didn't and instead of driving an hour to get back we ended up driving like 2.5 hours. We had 3 cars driving around lost. I thought it was fun. Well during our little lost outing, Braden trying to catch up with the group, pulls out in front of a cop. The cop is clearly thinking about pulling us over, then we catch up to Kaylynn and she pulls out in front of us and crosses all the lanes of traffic trying to get onto the freeway. The cop also sees this and is now trying to decide which one of us to pull over. He can't get behind either one of us, so at the stop light he is right next to us and makes Braden roll down his window so he can tell him to be more careful. Neither one of us got a ticket, thank goodness, but it was sure eventful. We got back to the hotel and to keep the kids quiet in the car, we bribed them with swimming when we got back. Joye was excited and started running to the front door of the hotel. Braden yelled at Grandpa to be careful, he didn't hear so he turned around while opening the door and got Joye's toe under the door. It ripped her toenail off, and some skin. She is so tough! She didn't cry for very long, then played the rest of the day without complaining. After changing and relaxing for a few hours, we went to Kris and Brenda's and partied!

The next day we headed home. We stopped here to eat lunch

We parked on one side of the dam and walked across, which was so scary by the way. The wind and the cars driving across would make the bridge bounce. Joye is fearless, she was leaning up against the fence and looking straight down, at one point she would just lean her head against it with no hands.

Here are some pictures, Braden took while we were driving home.

We finally got home, we dropped Braden off about 1 am so he could get some sleep in before he had to go to work. I ran Braden's dad and sisters home. Then I finally got home around 1:45 am. When I got home I looked at the mileage from the entire trip it read 1651.3 That is way to many miles in 3 days. Even though it was a short trip we loved it. Thank you Kris and Brenda for inviting us to share your special day. Congrats!

Our Son, The Barber

2010-06-29T09:13:00.005-06:00

Last Thursday were dance pictures, and we were leaving for Arizona either that night or early Friday morning, so a lot was going on. I let the kids play outside all day while I was busy packing and trying to get things ready to go. When it got closer to pictures, I brought the kids in so I could shower. I sat them down with a movie, so I could shower quick with no interruptions. I got in showered, washed my hair, and got out. I went to my room and got dressed then I came out in the living room and found some hair on the floor. My first thought was that Joye had gotten the scissors and cut one of her dolls hair, then I couldn't think of which doll she had that has hair. That's when the light bulb clicked on...it was Joye's hair!!! I asked who did and Jaxon owned up to it. I lost it! I screamed, I yelled, I cried (uncontrollably). Dumb I know, it's just hair it'll grow back. But I waited 2 long years, for my baby girl's hair to be long enough to do something with, and now we're back to square one. After I had calmed down a tiny bit I took a look at the damage. Joye had 5 piggy tails, and Jaxon took the scissors and cut all but one piggy tail off at the elastic. Then took the scissors and cut all of her long hair in the back not in piggy tails, and her bangs. This is when I locked the boys in their room and I locked myself in my room. After I had calmed down a little bit more, I went and asked if Alek had helped. Of course Alek said no and Jaxon said yes. I pointed at Jaxon and said don't you lie to me. He replied, "Well he kind of helped." How do you kind of help cut somebody's hair you ask? "Well he didn't tell me not to, or to stop." I asked him why he did it. Jaxon told me that Joye asked him to. Later he told Braden that he asked Joye if she wanted her hair cut, and she said yes. After a little while longer, I notice something weird about Alek's hair, I take a closer look, and sure enought Jaxon got Alek too. Not very bad, just a little chunk out of the front. So I go look at Jaxon's head and he has taken the scissors to his own hair about a million times right on top. Braden finally got home and helped with the situation. Jaxon got buzzed completely, Alek got left alone, and Joye, well she got butchered.

Here are some before pictures of her hair.

Here are the pictures after Jaxon got a hold of her.

And these are after Braden got through with her. The back isn't so bad, other than she looks like a boy. The front and top are really choppy and hard to cover.

With a lot of hairspray and an awesome comb over, complete with headband. It doesn't look too bad.

I guess I should look on the bright side and say at least it was just hair and not a limb that he cut off or an eye poked out or something. Hopefully this will send a message to the hair and it will grow super fast.

Smith Family Pictures

2010-06-28T12:15:00.005-06:00

We have never taken family pictures with my side of the family. I have tried over the years, but never got them done. So enough was enough, I persisted, and got them done. We were only missing 2 my brother, Mark, and my niece, Kelsey. We just took them with my camera, and I haven't had time to edit or crop any of these, so don't judge. I just wanted to get these posted before June is over, I'm so behind.

Here is the whole crew.

My Dad with his kids and their spouses
Grandpa and his grandkids

Mark's kids

Chaz, Brandi, and Cody

Jeff's family with Dad

Jeff, Lisa, Tyler, Brady, and his girlfriend (I don't remember her name. My bad)

Brendan and Frankie. (Kelsey couldn't make it)

Cory's family

Sarah, Mona, Cory and Brooke

Ricky's family

Mi-A and Ricky

Raimee, Ryten and Renee

This is my favorite picture of Raimee and Mi-A

Rusty's Family

Lexie, Sierra, Lydia, Cambree, Becky and Rusty

Their girls

We took Lexie's baptism pictures too that day. Here are 2 of my favorites

And last but not least, us!

And our cute kids

It was a hard day, the lighting wasn't the best, the mosquito's were awful, most of us were ornery. But it was so good to have the whole family together, we don't ever get all of us together.

2 Wheeler~Recital 2010

2010-06-28T11:49:00.001-06:00

I'm combining these 2 posts because neither one of them have pictures, and I haven't posted anything for June. The other day the kids were playing outside and Jaxon comes running in and says, "Mom and Dad! Come out and see what I can do on my 2 wheeler!" Neither one of us thought anything of it, because last year he started to ride a 2 wheeler and decided that he was too scared and wouldn't do it anymore. So we told him we would go out in a minute and see. Well we got busy and I was getting ready to go some where so we forgot. When I walked outside to leave, Jaxon said, "Mom, you forgot to come watch. Watch now!!" So he walked his bike up by the front steps and got on, put his feet on the pedals and took off! I about fell over. He was riding over the grass and dodging the suburban in the driveway. I yelled at Braden and told him to come out right then. It was crazy, he just decided that he was going to ride a 2 wheeler and taught himself. Riding a 2 wheeler just had to be his idea, and not ours.

On to recital. It was so good this year. About a month ago, Alek came up to me in class and told me that he didn't like dance. I told him that was fine, and he didn't have to take it next year. He also said all he wanted to do was take tumbling. I did tell him that he had to do the recital, we were so close and it would screw things up if he wasn't in it. I also told him if he didn't dance on the stage he had to take dance next year. I was going to try anything to get him to dance on that stage, he was too scared last year and wouldn't. We got to recital and the boys were up and Alek went out and danced great. He had so much fun! After recital was over, he told Braden that he loved it and wanted to take dance again. We'll see what he says next year though. Jaxon did great as usual, he is such a performer. The audience doesn't scare him at all, he thrives! As for me, dress rehearsal made he want to shoot myself. Not only did I mess up, but the stage was so slippery it got me scared of falling in front of everyone. And we did each dance 2 times all in a row. I decided that I was too old and fat. Well at recital I was so nervous for my second dance. The first one was hip hop and I knew it frontwards and back. The second one had turns and things in it that made me nervous. We did both dances and I was so surprised, I don't know how they looked, but I felt so good. I think this was my best recital ever. The best thing about this recital being over and the next season starting soon, is Joye gets to start dancing!!

Update On Braden

2010-06-02T20:55:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to put up a picture of Braden's bruise today. Owie!!

Our Long Crazy Weekend!

2010-06-01T11:10:00.008-06:00

We spent our weekend up at Braden's parents. Grandma Fessler bought a huge play set for the grand kids that we had to put together, which by the way had a bazillion pieces, they also were putting up a fence for the horses. Saturday Keenan and Calee came up and helped me and Nesha with the playset, while Doug and Braden started the fence. Wendy moved from helping with the fence, to helping with the playset, and making meals for everyone.

Here we are working hard.

While the fence crew were just standing around
Then it started to rain, we're still as happy as can be.

The rain didn't stop us we just kept going

and going

On Saturday it got dark and we weren't finished, so we just left it. On Sunday we went down to Ricky's for a BBQ. After we ate we all went up to the cemetery to see Mom. Then Braden and I and the kids went to Syracuse to see Braden's sister Jamara. After we drove home we grabbed clothes and went back up to Braden's parents so we could get up bright and early and start working again. After working most of Monday we were finally putting the finishing touches on the play set. Teonna got to help us today. She had a big date on Saturday so she couldn't help ;)

Then the kids hopped on. They loved it. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Fessler!

On Monday we ran up to Cal Ranch and Grandma and Grandpa bought the kids cowboy hats. Then we went back and they got to ride Sunny.

Alek was so excited

Jaxon was a little scared

Here Alek is being a true cowboy with a piece of wheat grass in his mouth. What a cutie.

And our animal lover Joye. She loves those horses. She didn't want to get off, she threw a little fit when she got off.

So Grandma put Alek and Joye back on.

These are some cute pictures of our little cowboys

While the kids were riding the horses, Braden, his Dad and me were working on the fence. Braden wanted to ride his horse after we were done. Background on this horse, she is skiddish. I think she was beat by the people who owned her before us. Braden rode her last week and she was pretty good. We did the same thing yesterday as we did before. He got on and she started acting up. She lifted her front feet off the ground a few times then stood up on her back legs and fell over backwards on top of Braden. I was holding onto the lead rope trying to keep her calm and keep her down but of course she was too strong. I got rope burns, ripped some skin off and hurt my pinky pretty bad. Braden on the other hand was pretty hurt, but also pretty lucky. He landed on his tail bone first so he is pretty sore there, and the horses head hit his head so he got a bloody nose and the one side of his face is sore, but the worst injury is his leg. We are assuming he got the saddle horn jammed into his leg. He has a huge bruise and its really swollen. So unlucky that it happened, but lucky that he only has some pain and some minor injuries. We are truly blessed.

Here is a picture of Braden's leg, it's not the best picture but you can kind of see it. This was taken after we got him inside.

Well it was a long, hard working, eventful weekend.

Preschool Graduation!

2010-05-24T14:18:00.004-06:00

Wow! I can't believe how fast this school year has flown by. On Friday it was Preschool graduation, although it seems like we just dropped them off for their first day.

Here's the boys with Miss Steffanie.

Side note: I think Jaxon looks a lot like Jairon in this picture.

The kids painted pictures on their last day, and they were hung up around the room.

Jaxon told me that he used orange and black paint and that made brown!
Here is Alek's. His looks like some Chinese painting.

All the kids sat on this table and sang all the songs they learned at school.

My favorite was 5 fat turkeys.

...When the cook came around, only one could be found...

Miss Steffanie spotlighted each child. They each got a special award.

Alek got the Mr. Manners award. He was always saying please and thank you and helping out.

Jaxon got the Starburst award. Because he was the star singer, and would burst out into song at random times. That our Jaxon!

It looks like we had 2 more graduates.

Aunt Nesha, Grandma and Grandpa Fessler came

So did Aunt Katelyn and Nick.

Alek was terrified of Nick and sobbed the entire time we tried to take pictures with them.

And Grandpa Ronald was there

Last but not least Grandma and Grandpa Anderson.

Here's the fam!

Here are the boys with their awards and diplomas.

We are so proud of our boys. They loved preschool and learned so much. Jaxon is so excited to go to Kindergarten and Alek is excited to go to preschool again, because he gets to go with our next door neighbor Alyssa.

Joye's Birthday Celebrations

2010-05-24T13:36:00.005-06:00

Joye had a great 2nd birthday! On her actual birthday Grandma Anderson came over in the morning and gave Joye a cute outfit, and a book.

Joye was super excited showing Daddy her book.

When Braden got home from work we let Joye open one of her presents. It was a Kiss Me Elmo. She loved it! She just kept kissing him and kissing him.

After Braden got home, Grandma and Grandpa Fessler, Teonna, and TaNesha came over. They gave Joye an Elmo book with a little cd player on it, a bear backpack, and some books.

On Joye's birthday I made an Elmo cake. It turned out pretty good I think.

Then on Saturday we had a party for Joye with my side of the family. And Braden helped me make Elmo cupcakes!

Joye is really excited! She is such a goof ball.

Joye was so hyper before we opened presents. She kept pretending to be asleep, then she would turn around and scream at the other kids. It was so funny.

She sat in that purple chair the entire time opening presents. She would lean over as far as she could so she wouldn't have to get out.

I don't know if she was excited or not for her new pants.

Singing happy birthday. She blew these candles out all on her own.

Thanks everybody for all the presents and love for Joye. She loves everything!

Our Vegas Trip.

2010-05-24T12:38:00.006-06:00

Raimee had a dance competition in Las Vegas a few weeks ago and since Ricky couldn't go, Braden and I drove Mi-A and the kids down. We had so much fun, and it was fun just to go without the kids.

Here is Braden and I in the hot tub with Renee, Connor and Carson

Us in front of the MGM

The crocodile in the MGM tried to eat me!

Starting into the M&M Factory

At the end of the M&M Factory we ran into Red! I was not afraid of him!

But I was afraid of the Coco-Cola Bear. I almost cried. No lie.

In front of the Bellagio

There was a Momma duck with her babies there

When we walked past this statue of Siegfried and Roy. Raimee asked us if they were Adam and Eve. It does kind of look like Adam and Eve.

Raimee did something to her ankle at the first of the day, so Uncle Braden carried her along the strip.Our last night there Mi-A gave us all face massages. Braden said he wasn't going to get his done, it's too girly. Finally he gave in. He loved it! He didn't want to get up.

Happy Birthday Joye!

2010-05-17T14:03:00.002-06:00

Wow! I can't believe it's May 17th again. My Baby Joye is getting too big too fast. Her hair is coming in great now, finally. She usually holds pretty still while I do her hair. She still loves to read, sing and of course Elmo. She loves all books and will even sit still long enough for Jaxon to read her books. Her favorite songs are Popcorn Popping, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and ABC's. She also loves to play Ring Around the Rosies. Her favorite thing to do is jump on the tramp. We usually have a fight when we leave to go for a ride, she never wants to get in the car. If we can't find her, she is on the tramp. If we can't find her shoes or her jacket, they are usually on the grass by the tramp. Joye still has her temper, I think its getting worse. If she doesn't get her way she freaks. If it's not that big of a deal, she will stomp her feet as fast as she can, and scream. She's a good screamer. She will attack the boys by scratching, biting, or pulling hair. When she gets mad at me or Braden, she flaps her arms like a bird, and hopes that she'll hit us. Lets just say that she gets sent to her room to sit on her bed a lot. Joye is super smart. She can sing her ABC's and has for quiet awhile. She can also count to 13. She is talking up a storm and speaking most of the time in complete sentences. I can't get over how big she is. We love you Baby Joye!

Field Trip To Zundel's Dairy

2010-05-13T14:32:00.006-06:00

The boys had their last field trip today. They got to go to Zundel's Dairy. They had so much fun.

They got to pet and feed a calf. The calf was born yesterday morning.

Joye was so brave, she walked right up to the calf. She never wanted me to hold her hand, she was too big.

This is the machine they load the cows into to cut their hooves.

Wow Cows

He took them into the building they have all the different things they put into the cows feed. He let all the kids touch all the different things.

Jaxon holding cotton seeds

They got to eat a piece of corn

Here's Joye picking up the corn

Here is the salt container.

Getting ready to milk

After they had been milked he showed us that they still have a little milk in them so they don't dry up. He squirted us with the milk. Joye didn't know what to think about that. I kept telling Jaxon to open his mouth. He thought that was the most discusting thing ever.

Afterward they got milk and cookies. Yum!

St. George Weekend

2010-05-09T08:55:00.008-06:00

Katelyn graduated from Dixie this last weekend, so Monica and I drove down to see her, and go to Graduation. We had 2 graduations. One was a pinning ceremony just for the nursing students, and one was for Dixie. We left on Thursday morning so we could make it there for her first one that night. We drove with Katelyn and her room mate Leigh. It was at Zion's National Park. It was beautiful, I want to go on a family trip down there soon.

Monica and Leigh excited to be going to the Pinning Ceremony

And Me and Katelyn
Beautiful Scenery. It was kind of weird to see blue skies all day long, after it being overcast pretty much everyday up here.

This was the site from the amphitheater where Katelyn got her pin.

Here is one of the Nursing teachers. She was a Doctor and I don't think I'd ever let her touch me, considering when she welcomed everyone she said it was 2002. I said I knew it was a long drive, but it must have been longer than we thought because it took us 8 years backwards.

Here's Katelyn's Pizza Factory Supporters

Chelsea, Nick, Katelyn, and Chris

After Graduation we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then to the mid-night showing of Iron Man 2. It was pretty good. It was fun to be with Katelyn and her friends.

Friday was Dixie's graduation. Here's the Graduate!

Here's the Three Amigos, or Charlies Angels as we are sometimes called.

When the 3 of us get together, you never know what's going to happen.

Katelyn and her family

Then we went to the Olive Garden for dinner. Yum!

Katelyn's Dad took this picture. Me and Monica are in deep conversation, and Katelyn is just excited about graduating I guess. When we saw this picture, we couldn't stop laughing.

The whole group.

After dinner we went Mini golfing with Katelyn's friend Chris, and her soon to be boyfriend, Nick. We had so much fun. If you saw us you would have never guessed I was married with 3 kids, or that we had two college grads in our group. It was like we were all back in High School. It was so much fun.

Nick and Chris. Chris was in charge of keeping score, he won so we were all concerned for his math skills.

Monica shooting some pool. We didn't have the heart to tell her she was playing the wrong sport.

Cute Katelyn

While we were golfing, little baby cockroaches kept crawling out of the holes and running across the greens. Nick kept doing his cockroach impression.

It scared me and Monica

Attack of the killer golf clubs

Oops Travis don't look! At least it's not the other way around :)

Monica got a hole in one, because she screamed and chased her ball in.

Yay!

I lost something fierce. It made me sad.We told Nick if Katelyn made a hole in one on the last hole, he had to do a dance and buy us ice cream. Well here we are at Wal-Mart. Yay Katelyn!!

My flip flops gave me blisters so I took them off. Nick was such a gentleman, that he took his shoes off right away and gave them to me. They were a tad too big, considering they were a size 13.

But so it would be an even trade I let him wear my flip flops.

After we got our ice cream we went back to Katelyn's. And ended up staying up all night playing games and talking. Chris and Monica didn't make it and fell asleep, but rest of us held strong. We had a great time. Thanks Leigh and Chad for letting us stay at your house. And Congrats Katelyn!!

Potty Training Update

2010-04-28T10:40:00.003-06:00

Joye has been wearing her Elmo unders for 2 days without a #1 accident! And has only had one #2 accident! The last 2 days I have just been asking her every few hours if she needs to go potty, she'll tell me yes or no. But this morning, I was a little more tired, and didn't take her right to the bathroom when she woke up. We put diapers on her at night just in case, she usually wakes up dry, so I wasn't worried about clean up. An hour passed and I decided to get everyone dressed for the day after they had breakfast. I told the boys to start getting dressed while I got dressed, Jaxon yells at me from his room that Joye needs to go potty. Then Joye comes in and keeps telling me potty. So we run into the bathroom and I unzip her jammies, and low and behold, she is standing there in a dry diaper!! All night and an hour after she woke up, and she came to tell me she needed to go potty! I don't want to jinx it, but I think we're pretty close to NO MORE DIAPERS!

Learning Experience

2010-04-26T09:16:00.003-06:00

The other night we sat down to read scriptures. The boys are usually always good, Joye is another story. But this night Joye was pretty good. We were reading about the Tree of Life and the Iron Rod. Since the kids were being so good, we decided to turn nightly scripture reading into a little family home evening. Braden went out into the garage and got one of his long ropes, and tied it through the kitchen and down the stairs. Then we shut all the lights off, made the kids close their eyes and carried them down stairs. Once we got down we told them they had to keep their eyes shut and hold onto the "Iron Rod". The boys did really good going up the stairs, but the rope was tied to the doorknob at the top and they couldn't find the other part of the rope to keep going. We reminded them that, Lehi asked Heavenly Father for help when he couldn't find his way. So Jaxon said, "Hey I'll ask Heavenly Father to help!" So he bowed his little head and said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help him find the other part of the rope. After he was done, Braden helped him grab the other part of the rope. Then it was Alek's turn. When he couldn't find the other part of the rope, he got scared. So Braden turned into the little devil on his shoulder and I turned into the little angel. Braden kept telling him just to let go and come to him, I kept telling him to keep holding on so he could get to the Tree of Life, and eat the yummy fruit. After he wasn't going to let go, we tried to get him to pray for help. He said he was too scared. I knew that he was getting close to crying, so instead of ruining this neat experience Braden got down next to him to help him pray. He asked Heavenly Father to help him not be scared, and to help him find the rope so he could get to the "tree". During this time I am of course crying. Braden helped Alek find the other part of the rope and keep going. Our Tree of Life was our refrigerator. Once the boys got to the end of the Rod, we opened the freezer to show the boys the brightness, and our fruit was inside. We all got ice cream for holding onto the rod, and making it to the end. While we were eating our ice cream we talked to the boys about prayer, and that they can always ask for help, where ever they are.
I am so thankful for my little family, and all that we get to do together. I'm also thankful that the boys love when we read scriptures. They always ask me if we get to read scriptures when dad gets home from work. It makes it easy to have scripture study when there isn't a fight. I'm grateful for scriptures and prayer, and that we get the chance to teach our children about them, and how important they are. I think I cry every time that Joye folds her arms and prays. 1. because she is learning how to pray and she loves it and 2. because she is too big, she shouldn't be big enough to pray. The boys know how important it is to pray for safety. Every prayer they say they ask for Dad to drive safe when he's going to and coming home from work. They also pray for Uncle Jairon (if this doesn't get done, who ever said the prayer gets a talking to after, from the boys) They usually say, "Thank you for Uncle Jairon on his mission, bless him to be safe." I'm sure Uncle Jairon is very appreciative of their sweet prayers. They think we are teaching them about prayer and scriptures, but really I think Braden and I learn more from them, than they will ever know.

Easter Weekend 2010

2010-04-05T10:57:00.005-06:00

Our Easter Weekend was full of fun! We had Fessler Friday, Anderson Saturday, and Smith Sunday. Busy Busy. Since we were so busy we colored eggs at Braden's parents.

Jaxon happy as can be. Look at Braden in the background sporting his new glasses. Handsome!
Alek hard at work

Joye had to be Miss Independent. Not much help at her station.

Cheese

Here are Miss Independent's eggs after she was done with them. Not many survived.

Joye didn't want to leave her carton out, she put stickers on that too.

Alek finished with his eggs

And Jaxon

Saturday was the Anderson's. Since the weather wasn't good, we had an indoor Easter Egg Hunt. The Kids each had 10 eggs hidden around the house. Then Grandma had a silver egg and a golden egg with big money inside of it.

Here's Taylor taking a break from hunting eggs, to find a different kind of golden egg ☺

Jaxon found the Golden Egg!! He was so excited.

Here are all the babies, well youngest anyway. Below is the picture from last year about this same time.

What a big change!

Easter Sunday!

The kids walking into the Living Room to see what the Easter Bunny had brought

Alek was our champion egg finder. He found all of his and then had to help Jaxon and Joye find theirs. The Easter Bunny had forgotten where he had hid one egg (which happens every year by the way) and we all looked for about 3 or 4 minutes, until Alek started helping, it only took him a second to find it.

Jaxon on an egg hunt

Joye found one under the piano. So cute with her bum up in the air.

Playing with Alek's game from the Easter Bunny.After 1st session of Conference we headed down to Ricky's for dinner. We couldn't get the grills to work so we were waiting around. I got bored and made a cup tower!

Here's Jaxon, Renee, Alek, and Grandpa waiting for dinner. I didn't even have to force Renee to smile in this one.

We had such a fun and busy Easter. It was good to get together with all of our families and celebrate.

Fun At The Jazz Game

2010-04-03T08:35:00.005-06:00

The Studio I work/dance at got to perform at a Jazz Game as a pre-show. Ricky wasn't able to go down so Braden and I got to go down and use his and Ryten's tickets. It was so much fun. The guy that was in charge of the show, told us that he does these shows every game all season, and that our girls were very well behaved, and one of the best groups he has seen!! Way to go girls!!!

Here's Raimee with 2 friends from dance

Raimee dancing.
In the middle of her backhand spring

Stupid camera man. Right in the way of Raimee's awesome Scorpion

All the teams with 2 of the Jazz Dancers

We had nose bleed seats, but we had so much fun. I noticed some people clear across the court and we were more intrigued by them instead of the game.

Here they are. Right in the middle of the picture there is a man in a yellow shirt, next to him is a white haired lady wearing purple and a man in brown, then another man in a dark blue shirt.

The white haired lady and the man in the brown are innocent bystanders. Every time the Jazz would do something good the man in yellow and man in blue would stand up and high-five over top of them.

Here they are high-fiving, the guy wearing purple in front of them felt left out so they did a three way high five. Look at the poor lady in purple, she is covering her ear. So funny!

Me and Brade at the Jazz game

Renee, Raimee and Mi-A. Haha Renee got one of you smiling.

While we were walking out we found Lil Bear. I told Raimee to go get a picture with him. Guess what I wasn't afraid of this mascot.

Fessler Family Home Evening

2010-03-28T09:48:00.008-06:00

This weekend we went up to Braden's parents for Family Home Evening. Braden's Mom wanted all of us to get together Friday do dinner, play games, then spend the night. Then on Saturday it would be work day, doing whatever project needed to be done. Then the next month we would go to someone else house. Which means we get to spend time together, and get things done around the house. Our project this weekend was digging a new fire pit in the backyard, and burning. Fire=Hot Dogs!!

Digging the fire pit. There were more people helping dig but Braden was being a goof and decided to show us a sweet move he called "The Reverse Shovel" He jumped onto the shovel and busted the handle right off. It was so funny.

After digging the dirt it was transferred to another part of the yard, to try to even it out.

Jaxon and Aunt Teonna

We had to move rocks around the yard, so Alek used his dump truck to help.

Joye helping with the shoveling

Here I am. It doesn't look like I'm doing much, but I really did help

After the pit was dug. We lined it with all the rocks that Alek helped move.

We're admiring our nice hard work

Ta-Da! Group shot!

Grandpa said it was his grave so he laid down in it. Joye didn't like this one little bit. Braden had to chase her and hold her for the group picture.

Grandpa in front, Teonna, TaNesha, Joye, Braden, Rindi, Alek, Grandma, and Jaxon

Next it was fire time!

We had to move all the weeds and tree trimmings over to the fire pit.

Joye helping Daddy carry his big tree

Pyro Teonna starting our fire.

After the work was done the kids went inside to help Grandpa get lunch ready. While they were in there Grandma and the girls had gotten an Easter Egg Hunt ready for the kids.

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, GO!

All the kids with their loot

Joye is such a goof

After the Easter Egg Hunt, we roasted hot dogs, and ate lunch. Then we sat around the fire and talked for a while. During that time we said how funny it was that we were sitting around a fire in the middle of the afternoon. I should have gotten a picture but I didn't.

After a long day of work and playing by the fire, you can guess how great we all smelled, so it was tub time. The kids love bathing in Grandma's big tub.

After bath time we had a little lesson about being different. We sang lots of songs, which our kids loved! Then it was time for the kids to go to bed and the adults stayed up and played games and had a great time! What a fun weekend. Thanks Grandma, Grandpa, Teonna and TaNesha!!!

Momma Tina's Birthday

2010-03-26T09:36:00.003-06:00

Well Tina's birthday was Wednesday. Happy Belated Birthday! The Boys had Preschool on Tuesday and Bruce and Shirley were watching Sherin's girls while Sara got her tonsils out. So Shirley made cupcakes for Tina's birthday and let the kids decorate them. Then Wednesday the kids were so excited to go see Momma Tina all day. They decided that they wanted to color her a picture. They got their crayons and paper and went to work. Tina always traced their hands on things, so I traced their hands. The boys wanted to be creative so I had to use different colors. Then I wrote Happy Birthday Momma Tina on a paper and the boys copied it down on their paper's. Then on the back they drew whatever they wanted. Alek drew something crazy. Jaxon drew flowers, which were really good, and he drew them in a color pattern. He is getting so smart. Joye was pretty much done, but she insisted that I traced her feet on her paper too. So Momma Tina got Joye's hands and feet. All day I was trying to decide how to keep their papers on the headstone. Finally, I decided to get a big Mason jar and put them inside. I got a paper and wrote We Love You Momma Tina, and stuck it in the jar. But I didn't have the lid, so we just put the jar upside down. Now every time that we go up the kids can draw her pictures and leave them there for her. The kids loved it.

Every time we go the cemetery the boys will kiss the headstone and tell Tina that they love her and miss her. Joye didn't want anything to do with that. She said love you, but wouldn't kiss the headstone. Thursday while I was at Bruce and Shirley's we went over to the cemetery, because Shirley had a lid for the note jar. Right before we left, Joye looked over at the headstone, walked cautiously over to it, leaned over and kissed it, then ran back to me. It was so cute! She just had to get a little bit of courage built up.

Our Fun Weekend

2010-03-13T20:01:00.006-07:00

Every time we are at Ricky and Mi-A's the kids beg to have a sleepover. Well this weekend we gave in and went to Ricky's for a sleepover! We went down Friday afternoon, and Ricky called saying that he was going to race at track practice. So we jumped in the car and headed over to good 'ole Northridge. It was a little chilly, but we all had a lot of fun. I just realized that I didn't take pictures of Ricky running because Joye was asleep in my arms and Braden was down shooting the the gun to start the races. Sorry Ricky.

Here are the 4 trouble makers.

Joye, Jaxon, Ryten and Alek Fun on the hill
Joye's legs are too short to keep up with the big boys. She sure tried hard all day.

Alek got up to the top of the fence and then realized he couldn't get down.

Joye has a goofy face in this picture, but this picture shows that I don't have a baby anywhere to be found. This picture shows how tall she is. I think she looks like she is around 3 in this picture.

When practice was just about over, we let the boys go on the football field and play.

They decided to play "Tag You're It"

It must be a lot of fun to circle around the goal post. The boys did this for a long time.

" We have Ryten Smith in lane number 3

Alek Fessler in lane number 4 and

Jaxon Fessler in lane number 5."

Jaxon and Alek got creamed, but they all had so much fun.

After all the fun at Northridge, we headed back to Ricky and Mi-A's and had yummy Korean food for dinner and then stayed up late watching The Dream Team. It's such a good movie. 4 out of 10 of us made it all the way to the end. Then we had a full day of play today. It was fun just to let the kids play with Ryten and for Me and Braden to spend time with Ricky and Mi-A and play lots with Renee and Raimee. Braden and I are both big kids at heart. We could have played games and Wii the entire time we were there. Thanks Ricky and Mi-A for a great weekend!

Alek's Latest Injury

2010-03-13T19:51:00.002-07:00

This kid gets hurt pretty much everyday, some are just better than others. This was a good one. Friday is Dad's day off so it's play day. Last Friday the boys were chasing Daddy around the house trying to beat him up. Braden ran into our room, turned and tried to shut the door before they could get to him. Well Alek was too fast or Daddy was too slow, because Braden shut the door right on Alek. Alek would have been fine if the door jam hadn't been there. The force of the door threw him into the door jam, and that's what did the damage. Alek ended up with a pretty good goose egg.

Our Sweet Jaxon

2010-03-01T10:58:00.005-07:00

Jaxon had to give a talk in primary yesterday. His topic was Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. Braden was writing his talk, as I was going through our Gospel Art Kit looking for pictures for him to take. I pulled out a picture of Jesus, and Jaxon said, "That's Jesus!" I said, "Yep, How'd you know that?" I just wanted to see what he would say. I was expecting something like, "Because you told me that." or "I learned it in primary." But instead he responded, "Because I love him." Tears welled up in my eyes, I was speechless. What a smart little boy. What an example to Braden and I, and to his siblings.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

2010-02-27T13:14:00.004-07:00

It's Braden's birthday today! He's is 24, just to clarify. Most people think he's 30. Braden has had a pretty good birthday. If I do say so myself. His parents took the kids last night for a sleepover, and we just got to stay home, relax and be with each other, with no crying, or screaming kids climbing all over us. Thanks Mom and Dad Fessler! Then this morning I let him sleep in and I made him breakfast in bed. French toast cut into I♥U with some eggs. Mmm Mmm Good!I love you sweetheart! Thank you for all that you do for me and the kids. You are wonderful. You always make me laugh, and you are always so thoughtful. I love you and I hope that you have a great birthday!

Another Post About Joye

2010-02-27T12:50:00.006-07:00

Joye is growing up so fast, I want to try to document some of the funny things that she does. She loves her picture taken. I think she likes it more for the fact that she can look at them after on the camera. I can't get her to wear clothes anymore, all she wants to be in is a diaper. So most of these pictures she is in her diaper. She has a Blue's Clues backpack, and that's all she would wear. She had that thing on all day. She kept going up to the boys saying backpack and pointing to her back then turning around so they could see it. I had the camera out, and she cried and cried until I took a picture of her and her backpack. She is eating lunch, naked, with her backpack on.

"Backpack"

Then she turned around to show the camera.
Joye loves sugar. If I forget to shut our big drawer all the way she is into the sugar, and I have a floor to sweep. The other day was the worst one yet, her one hand was completely covered, along with her face and dress. This is her Uh Oh face.

Joye also loves make-up. I have way too much help when I'm trying to get ready. I usually let her have some eye shadow, but lately that's not cutting it, she wants mascara. So the other day, I gave her some, then she thought it was her turn to put make-up on Mommy.

Here she is hard at work. She did a pretty good job.

Had to pause, and give the camera a cheesy grin.

Here is Joye with her make-up on. Isn't she gorgeous? I love those blue eyes, and look at those long beautiful eyelashes.

Joye's A Big Girl Now...Well Almost.

2010-02-20T22:03:00.003-07:00

So I was in the bathroom, minding my own business, doing my business. When Joye comes busting in. She stands there and looks at me, and jabbers something. She then leaned over and picked up her potty seat, and kept saying potty. So I finished up, got up, put her seat on and sat her down. Well we have done this many times, she loves to sit on the potty (she usually gets a few books), but no matter how long she sits there nothing ever happens. So this time I was expecting the same, I turned around to take her diaper to the garbage, and I hear a TRICKLE! I spun around so fast, that she stopped. I said, "Joye did you just go potty?!?" "Uh Huh", she said with a head nod. So I asked, "Are you done?" "NO!" Then she finished going! When she was all finished she said, "All done." And grabbed her some toilet paper. I clapped and cheered for her, then ran and got Braden, who came and cheered for her. The boys heard and couldn't be left out, so they cheered. Braden went and got the camera and snapped a few shots.

Joye loves toilet paper, she's getting plenty to do the job.

So proud of herself, while she's getting her round of applause.

I hope this is wasn't just a one time thing. I hope that she will start telling us more when she needs to go, so we can get rid of those DIAPERS!

Braden's Make-Over!

2010-02-15T13:01:00.002-07:00

On Friday, we went down to Rusty and Becky's to help them with some computer things, and then we had dinner. The whole night the girls were teasing Braden, that he was going to go to their Girls Night Out. They wanted to paint his nails. He kept saying no. Well they went and got their nail polish out. While Braden was distracted talking to me and Becky, Sierra leaned over the table and started painting. He tried to fight it at first then just settled down and let them finish. Sierra was doing his make-up and Lexie ran to get the wig (which matches his hair color perfect) He was such a good sport, one ugly woman, but a good sport. He went to show Joye his look, she was terrified!

As you can see he's not too happy as Sierra is getting her make-up out.

Showing off his new look
So happy, we should have gone out to show off the girls art work.

Joye's First Hair Cut!!!

2010-02-13T12:07:00.003-07:00

Well the time has come for us to cut Joye's hair. I didn't think this day would ever come. I was tired of her little mullet so we chopped it off. We also cut her bangs, just a little bit. I was fine until she came up to me after and I ran my fingers through her non-existent hair. I almost cried. I hope cutting it, sends a message to her roots and tells them to kick into gear. I was a dummy and didn't take a before shot.

Starting off. Joye's not quite sure of this

I told her to smile, so she closed her eyes. Remember she's a goof.

Then she finally gives me a smile, while Daddy was finishing up.

Look close at Braden's finger nails. They are pink!! That post coming up!!!

Here's her locks. It's not much, but when she doesn't really have much, it's a ton.

Here is the after shots.

Who Wouldn't Love This?

2010-02-07T09:55:00.002-07:00

Here is another post about Joye. I know there has been a few lately, but she is growing up so fast. When I look at her she doesn't seem that big or grown up, but then I look at the pictures that I have taken and she is a little girl. No baby to be found. Joye has a mind of her own, and will be listened to. If you don't comply you will be told about it. She is so silly. She has such a goofy little personality, she makes me laugh everyday. She insists on dressing herself. Hence 2 posts ago, her leotard, beanie and socks. She loves socks and shoes. She will wear her own shoes sometimes, but she loves putting on mine or Braden's socks.

Here is the outfit she picked out the other day. Shorts, a T-shirt (a girl from my own heart) and my fleece socks. She wore these socks all day, until I put her jammies on her. Look how tall she looks in this picture, I can't get over it.

*Side note, I'm a little biased, but I think she has the prettiest little smile.

Joye doing her favorite, favorite thing. Reading books! I hope she always loves to read. She sat on her bed this day for about 30 or 40 minutes, just reading. Notice the pile of books by her, that is her already read pile. I was a little surprised when she didn't have her baby or Elmo with her, she usually reads them stories.
Joye getting into mischief. She is tall enough to reach into the candy bowl on the counter, if it's not pushed back all the way. She decided that she was having some candy. She has a Laffy Taffy, Sweet Tarts, and Nerds. The Nerds box was the easiest to open I guess, so she went for those first. As you can see she dumped them all over the floor. She decided that is was easier to suck them up off the floor with her mouth than pick them up with her fingers.
Don't mind her little bum cheek hanging out of her diaper.

Yay Joye!

2010-02-01T09:42:00.002-07:00

At church I get the privilege of taking Joye into the Nursery. Why you ask. Because Braden is a big softy. Joye doesn't like nursery the first few minutes, and she screams. She usually starts crying down the hall, when you start to get closer to the door. When inside the nursery, she screams while having a death grip on your clothes, trying to undress you. I must be too mean. Braden can't take her and let her cry for a minute. He stands outside the door, and keeps telling me, "If she keeps crying, I'm going to go get her and take her with me." Then I reply, "No you're not! She is fine. You big baby." Joye will stop crying within 2 or 3 minutes, and then she plays and participates in all the activities. Well yesterday at church Braden handed her over, and we headed off toward nursery. Only yesterday, there was no crying down the hall. We walked into nursery, I put her down on the floor, and started to walk away. There was no crying, no ripping of clothes, nothing! YAY!! Since I am the Relief Society Secretary I take roll, so I peeked in the nursery to see what sisters were there, and they were just finishing up their lesson, and having prayer. There was my Baby Joye sitting in her chair, arms folded on the table and her little head bowed down resting on her arms. How sweet. When church was over, a nursery leader brought all the kids to me in the Relief Society room. The boys are always so excited to show me what they got from Primary, and Joye followed suit. She came running in screaming "Look! Look!" And holding her picture that she colored in Nursery. Hopefully this is the new routine for church, it was wonderful! And maybe Braden can take Joye into nursery!

Joye's Sweet Style

2010-01-21T13:04:00.003-07:00

Last night when we went to see Nesha's play, Grandma had crocheted the kids some beanies. They loved them. I have never seen Joye leave something on her head for so long. This morning I asked Jaxon to go get me a diaper for Joye, she went with him and brought back a leotard, and she was wearing her beanie. She insisted that this was what she was wearing.

Here she is.

Beanie, leotard, and to complete the ensemble, socks!

I wanted to take the kids pictures in their beanies, and Joye was being goofy. She pulled this face. Then the next picture she is laughing at herself. She's so funny

Joye likes to pull her hat down over her eyes, but she won't let me get a picture. The boys wanted to get their pictures taken with theirs over their eyes too.

When Alek pulled his down, all I could think of was Dumb Donald, from Fat Albert.

What Great Helpers!!

2010-01-21T12:36:00.002-07:00

Tuesday it snowed and the boys wanted to go out and shovel the snow. OK! That means that I don't need to. I got them all bundled up and out they went. They did a pretty good job, I still had to go out, but that was ok. Jaxon only did half of what Alek did. Jaxon got tired and decided to make a slide with snow instead. Now if I could get them out there today.
Alek has been such a great helper this last week. I was doing the dishes the other day and he walked in and said, "Well, I just cleaned up the living room, all by myself. There was just a little bit. You didn't even have to ask me, huh Mom." He did such a good job. I went in to look and he had done everything except sweep. A few minutes later he came and got the broom and told me he was going to sweep. Then we all got sick and he was the first one sick, so he was the first one to get better. I was the worst, I had it for the longest. So while I was sick, laying on the couch, he did everything. He would ask me if I needed anything. When Joye would need more in her sippy, he would go and get the milk out of the fridge, and fill it up. He made himself a sandwich for lunch and made one for Joye too. He took such good care of us. He even did the laundry! I was in heaven, too bad I wasn't feeling good. He got the clothes out of the dryer, brought them upstairs, went back down and put the clothes from the washer into the dryer, put a dryer sheet in and shut the door. He wasn't quite tall enough to hit the start button, so I did have to go do that but he did everything else. I have also tried to get the boys to rinse their dishes off and put them in the dishwasher, without fail Alek does this every time, and he usually does Joye's too, since she can't. What a good kid!! I love you Alek J! Thanks.

Nesha's Play

2010-01-21T10:44:00.003-07:00

TaNesha was in her school play and we went to see it last night. It was Twinderella. It was Cinderella, but there was also Bob (her twin). They were separated and adopted out to the Evil family and the Cruel family. It was so cute, and funny. Nesha was Bob's Godfather's Tailor. She did a great job! Every time they would change the scenery, they would turn the lights out. About half way through Jaxon had had enough, he said (rather loud) "Is it over? Can we go home yet?" Great job Nesh, we loved it!

Grandpa and Joye waiting for the show to start.
TaNesha!

The King was hilarious! He didn't know how to tie his shoes, so the entire show he was trying. He would blurt out random, things about his shoes. It was so funny

A Big Girl Bed!

2010-01-18T15:52:00.002-07:00

Ricky and Mi-A were getting rid of Renee's bed, so they gave it to us. We didn't know where we were going to store it, so we decided that instead of putting Joye in a toddler bed that we would just go straight to a big bed. We got it home and set it up. Rusty and Becky gave us Pooh Bear comforters and pillowcases, that were their girls, so we threw those on and Joye was in love. She jumped up there and played all day. She slept really good the first 2 nights in it, but then I tried to lay her down for a nap, and she was not having that. She cried herself to sleep in front of the door. Ever since then she won't even sit on it unless it's her idea. So at night she either has to be asleep before we get her in bed or we have to lay with her until she falls asleep.

Joye loves books and Elmo. We have put some of her favorite books on her head board, and of course her big Elmo is on her bed. She usually always has an Elmo close by. Our whole ward knows that Joye loves Elmo. We will be sitting in Sacrament Meeting and Joye will want her Elmo book and she will scream "ELMO!!! ELMO!!!" over and over until she gets her book, then she'll point to Elmo and say, not in a whisper, "Elmo...Elmo...Elmo." She is getting so big. She can sing her ABC's, count to 5, and spell her name with help. She is talking more and more everyday. I wish she would learn how to express herself with words instead of her high pitched squeal. She has been playing with the boys more. Their favorite game is Joye is a monster and the boys need to get away from the monster. She will chase them all over the house growling and screaming at them. It's so fun to watch. Becky and the girls came up the other night, the girls wanted to play Duck, Duck, Goose. They would sit on the floor in a circle and they would help Joye run around and touch people's heads. As a usual game of Duck, Duck Goose, it was quiet as the person was going around the circle until, they scream goose and everybody screams. Well Joye decided that she didn't need help anymore, she knew how it worked. She got up and walked around the circle, She said duck...duck...duck... then started running and screaming. We all thought it was so cute and funny. She got embarrassed and stopped dead in her tracks and tucked her head down. How come they have to grow so fast?

Oops!

2010-01-18T15:46:00.003-07:00

The boys were getting ready for bed the other night. They love footie pajamas, we have 1 pair that has the feet cut off of them. Alek chose this pair to wear. He came into the living room and said, "Look Mom, I forgot to take my shorts off." I laughed and looked at him and sure enough, jammies over shorts. Then I noticed something else, he had his jammies on sideways. He had one arm through an arm hole and the other arm through a leg hole. I laughed so hard. I don't know how he even got them on.

To Grandmother's House We Go.

2010-01-11T20:57:00.003-07:00

We ventured up to Idaho to visit my Grandma Johnson. We stayed quite a while and had a great visit. My Aunt Jan was there too. It was so good to catch up. When we first got there Grandma was at her hair appointment, so we went to a little restaurant named Bergy's. Braden fell in love. He said they had the best Mushroom Swiss Burger he has ever had. He wants to go up all the time and get one.

While I was looking through some picture books, I found this picture of my mom, that I made Braden take a picture of. I'm not positive, but I think this was her senior picture.

Smith Family Picture

2010-01-04T12:49:00.004-07:00

I just wanted to post this picture. At Sally's Christmas Breakfast we got all of our family together, that was there, and took a picture. It's missing my brother Mark and his kids, my brother Frankie and his kids, and my brother Jeff's kids. So we're missing 9. My Dad has 7 kids and 19 Grandkids.

Sorry Sierra that I picked the picture with your mouth open, but it was the only one that Grandpa was smiling in.

Jaxon's Birthday

2010-01-04T12:34:00.003-07:00

Well our camera was on a weird setting, so most of the pictures from Jaxon's birthday turned out blurry or weird. So these were the good ones. Braden took Jaxon to the store to pick out his cake and frosting, and while they were gone, Alek, Joye and I wrapped Jaxon's presents. Braden and I had gotten Jaxon's presents a few weeks before Christmas. When I brought them out to wrap, Alek was very concerned about when we got these, and how come he wasn't there. Alek can't be left out.

Here's Jaxon opening up his presents from us. This kid never has his shirt on. He's a crazy.

" Lion King!!!"
"Alligator Golf!! That's what I wanted!!!"

After he opened presents, Grandma and Grandpa Anderson came over to see the birthday boy! Jaxon was so excited to show them his Gator Golf. Then after we ate dinner, we went up to Grandma and Grandpa Fessler's to celebrate the rest of Jaxon's birthday and spend New Years playing games and eating junk!

Jaxon and his cake. Him and Alek decorated it!

Then Jaxon got to cut his own cake. It started off pretty good, then he started making sounds like a race car and the cake became a disaster. Those pictures didn't come out. But lets just say nobody got the same size piece as their neighbor.

Happy Birthday Jax! You're so big!

Wow...A Five Year Old!

2009-12-31T09:03:00.003-07:00

I can't believe that we have a 5 year old. Time flies, he was 2 1/2 when I met Braden. Jaxon is getting so tall. Ever since I've been with Braden the boys will be pretty much the same size, then Jaxon will have a growth spurt and be taller, then Alek will shoot up and they'll be the same size. Lately its been Jax growing and growing and growing, he hasn't let Alek catch up. He's probably growing so much, because he eats more than I do. Jaxon is a tank. He always claims that he's starving. Never hungry, starving! If I'm not fast enough getting him something to eat, he'll go and make his own sandwich. His favorite "peanut butter on peanut butter". We don't have many left overs, Jaxon takes care of those. When we get done eating, Jaxon usually has 3 plates in front of him his, Alek's , and Joye's. Waste not!

Jaxon loves school and learning. He knows all of his letter's and number's. He goes through every book and tells us the letters. He loves to tell us what letter words start with. But when he tells us he usually gets them backwards, he'll say, "P starts with the letter piggy" He gets them right most of the time. He loves to do homework, but it's all about quantity, not quality. Everything is like this Jaxon goes as fast as he can, and Alek wants to take his time. When I pick them up from Pre-School, they always have a cute little craft that they have done. Jaxon's usually breaks on the way to the truck, I could never figure it out. But it must be the quality of work put into them.

Jaxon loves everyone. Him and Joye have a special bond. She loves him so much. She'll let him pick her up and carry her every where. They'll get up on the couch together and play or read books, or just cuddle. It's so cute. When they read books they'll take turns reading to each other, and Joye will reach out and put her arm around Jaxon's neck and pull him into her. He is so caring and worried about everybody. He is our compliment giver, Nobody feels bad about themselves when Jaxon is around. For example I was wrapping some Christmas presents, and Jaxon walks up and out of no where he says, "Wow! Great cutting Mom. You're a great cutter" Then it's followed by a big smile and a reassuring head nod. It's so funny, even if I'm in a bad mood, it always brings a smile to my face. My favorite is when we are playing ball, he will drop catches and not be able to make contact, but almost every time that Braden or I will catch or hit, he'll say, "Good catch Mom!" or "Great hit Dad!" He's such a good kid.

Jaxon is still our dancer. He loves it. Whenever there is music, no matter where we are, he's dancing. He'll hear music and start dancing, then yell at Alek and Joye to get up and dance. Joye will usually comply but Alek's too cool for that. He loves Thursday's. He gets to go to school, then go to dance, and then go to Aunt Mi-A's to play with Ryten and Renee. Ahh a perfect day!

Happy Birthday Jax! We love you so much. You are such a special part of our family. You make us laugh everyday. You are a great big brother, you always look out for Alek and Joye. And will give up any thing for them, if it makes them happy. Momma Tina will be looking in on you today! So remember to give her a smile!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-30T09:42:00.005-07:00

Well better late than never. I decided I better get these up before tomorrow so I can post for Jaxon's birthday. I have combined all of our Christmas activities into one post so there are tons of pictures. There should be more but I have been such a slacker about taking pictures, or even remembering the camera when we go places. The Saturday before Christmas was the Anderson Christmas Party. I didn't take the camera, but the kids had a blast, and made cute snow globes.

Then on Christmas Eve we let the kids open their presents from us, before we went down to my brother's for the Smith Christmas Party.

Joye knew what she was doing this year, she ripped open her presents.

Braves Blankets!!!

Jaxon has a special place in his heart for blankets, especially the ones that are tied.

Joye has got Jaxon's enthusiasm for gifts, she was so excited.

And Alek doesn't like to show emotion, so I had to beat him to smile, even though he really liked his blanket.

And Braden opening our blanket. He's making fun of Joye and Jaxon, but he really loved it!

The Smith Party

We had traditional bread bowls and soup. My Favorite! Then we opened presents. We draw names, and then start with the youngest, so Joye got to go first.

She doesn't look very happy but she loved it!

Jaxon so excited! "This is just what I always wanted!!!" I don't think he even knew what it was. Notice Joye in the picture. She loves Uncle Ricky, most days. She sat with him a lot, and she is eating cereal. Every time she's there, she goes for the cereal. Aunt Mi-A gives her a little bowl and she's content.

Alek barely showing emotion. He went into the corner and played with it all night.

Braden and I got matching hoodies

I had to put this picture up. This is my niece Cambree, she loves ladybugs. Alek had her name so we got her a CTR necklace that is a ladybug. She was so excited when she opened it. She carried it around with her on the cardboard. I asked her if she wanted me to put it on for her, she was so excited and said yes. After I had put it on her she went up to her sister Sierra and said, "When I die I want to be buried with this on!" I'm glad that she enjoyed her present. But I hope she doesn't get her wish for a very very long time :)

Christmas Morning!

Here's Joye opening her first present. She was so fun this year, every present she opened she would OO and Ah, and get so excited. It was an Elmo Potty Video. Elmo is her favorite. She was so excited she ran over to show her brothers.

Joye also got some blocks!

Here are the boys opening their presents. They got puzzles and card games, little Disney Ipods, and movies.

They opened everything on the couch, and then asked, "Is this it?" I wanted to say yes, little ungratefuls. But Santa had left something in mom and dad's room.

Here's Jaxon's reaction when I rolled out the Razor Scooters! Of course Alek no expression.

Grandma and Grandpa Anderson gave Joye a doll. I'm so glad that Joye has taken to dolls!

After we opened presents from Santa and Grandma and Grandpa Anderson came over, we packed up and went to Wolf Creek to see Braden's family. The kids got spoiled from everyone this year. We went and played racquetball and went hot tubbing, and played games. All Jaxon wanted to do was go to the hot tub. I didn't have my camera yet again. I wish I had. The boys got their own rackets and goggles and got to play. They were so cute playing together and trying to hit the balls. The best part of Wolf Creek though was getting to talk to Jairon. We all miss that kid so much. It was good to hear him.

Merry Christmas To Us!

2009-12-23T10:23:00.004-07:00

I went down to Riverdale yesterday to go to breakfast with some friends. It started to snow so I decided that I better get home before it got too bad. I got on the freeway at 31st street. And the roads weren’t the best, as I passed the 24th street exit I thought maybe I should have taken the back roads. That’s when it happened. As I came up on the 21st street exit, there was a red car that had spun out of control in front of me in my lane. I slowed down and moved over so I wouldn’t hit them; I had control of the Jeep for a split second then I hit ice and started to fish tail. I tried to get control but as I got closer and closer to the median with cement barriers, I knew I was done for. I smashed the driver’s side front end into the cement, and both air bags deployed. I hit with so much impact, that it bounced me back into traffic, and another vehicle hit me. At this point I didn’t see what hit me. The Jeep rolled (on its tires) to a stop in the area between the exit and the freeway. The first thing I did was check my face; it’s what hurt the worst. I thought that maybe the airbag burned me or my nose was bleeding or something. I was fine, my knee hurt, but other than that I felt fine. While I was still in the Jeep I called the Anderson’s because Braden was supposed to be there, and he had forgotten his cell phone. Next I called Ricky because he was the closest and he could come get me. I got out of the Jeep and everyone was concerned but after awhile they seemed overly concerned, I couldn’t figure out why. The driver of the other vehicle that hit me came up and asked, “Are you ok?” I said, “Yeah. Are you?” He replied, “Yeah, I didn’t feel a thing.” Then I got really confused, and why didn’t he feel a thing? Oh yeah he was driving a dump truck! I about passed out, no wonder everybody was overly concerned, I had just gotten out of a smashed to pieces Jeep, after being hit by a dump truck. I couldn’t believe it; I kept asking myself how am I standing here. Well the cops and fire truck came. I warmed up in the fire truck and then was moved to the back of the police cruiser like some criminal. Ricky got there right as the wrecker did, and the cop wanted to go down to the Pilot on 12th street to finish all the paper work. The dump truck had driven down there to wait. Well I just stayed in the cruiser, and after I got there Ricky informed me that he was driving with his lights on like he was transporting a prisoner. No wonder everyone was staring. Well we went over to the dump truck as the cop was finishing up the paperwork. I did a pretty good number on it, considering. I was surprised I thought that he was just going to drive away. I pushed in his bumper and caused the left front tire to go flat. I also broke a metal thing on his truck; I think it’s for when they cover their load. Anyway, then we were talking to him and we got the story about what happened after I hit the wall. I remember being hit again and that’s about it. He said I bounced back and he was trying to move over. He hit my passenger front end with his driver’s side front bumper, which then caused me to swing around and hit the back passenger side of the Jeep right by his back tires on the driver’s side. Well I didn’t get a ticket but blame was put on me, because I should have stayed in my lane. The red car that caused the problem got off the exit and drove away. Nice! There were so many other accidents at this same time, that the cop would call in to check on stuff or see about the wrecker, and they had to keep saying are you talking about the truck that hit the sign, or the car that rolled. The dispatchers couldn’t keep it straight.

So I walked away with 1 really hurt knee, some other bruises on my legs, a bruise on my chest from my seat belt, and a little mark/skinned chin from the air bag. And of course I’m so achy this morning I can barley move. I was very blessed. On our way home last night Braden told me that this was either a blessing in disguise or just another trial, either way we’ll get through it.
I totaled the Jeep. Braden has wrecked it twice before, apparently third time’s a charm. When I called the Anderson’s, while I was still in the car, Bruce answered. I was still really shaken up. I told him I was in a really bad car accident. He didn’t know who I was; he thought I sounded like Sherin. He asked and I told him who I was, he asked me if I was ok, and where I was. I said I was fine, but I totaled the Jeep. And that I was on I-15. I didn’t know for sure that I had totaled the Jeep; I hadn’t gotten out yet to even look at the damages. But there was no doubt in my mind, after hitting the cement and someone else hitting me that it couldn’t be. Here are some pictures of our poor Jeep that will be gone forever.

I know that my mom was there with me helping me through, and calming me down enough to make calls and talk to the police. I couldn’t believe how fast I had calmed down. I was still shaken, but I could function. Last night while I said my prayers and thanked Heavenly Father that I hadn’t decided to take Joye with me that day, and thanked him for blessing me and letting me get out and walk away with only minor, minor injuries. Our family has been so blessed this Christmas, we may be down to only 1 working vehicle, but at least I will be spending Christmas with my kids, and Braden, conscious, in my own home and not unconscious in the hospital

Ricky and my dad went with us over to the tow truck place to clean the Jeep out. Joye was not happy about staying in the truck. It was cold and snowing, my hair froze. Braden and I went inside to sign some paperwork and Ricky stayed with Joye. Look at that lip. Ricky said she was way worse but every time he would try to take a picture of her, she would stop.

Joye's 5 Dollar's

2009-12-20T08:44:00.007-07:00

We all know who's on the 5 dollar bill. Guess what. Joye does too! She got $5 from Great-Grandma Johnson for Christmas. She ripped the envelope open and took the money out and studied both the front and the back for a very long time. After a while she pointed to good Ole Abe and said, "Grandpop" I said, "Who is it Joye?" "Is Grandpop" she replied. Apparently after much study and review Joye has discovered that Grandpa Anderson (Bruce) is on the 5 dollar bill. He does look like Abe, if you squint and tilt your head to the side. You try!

Temple Square

2009-12-07T10:04:00.002-07:00

On Saturday we went down to Temple Square to see the lights, with my brother Ricky and his family. We had a good time, except for how cold it was. And I don't know if it's because we went early this year or if they cut back this year, but a lot of the big trees didn't have lights on them. it wasn't as cool. Oh, and we lost Jaxon. You would think the oldest kid would know to stay by us. Therefore we would lose a younger one. This is the third time we've lost him. He gets a leash next time we go out. We were in the South Visitors Center listening to the singers. All the kids were standing in front of us watching. Joye was tired of sitting in her stroller so she got out to walk around. My eyes were scanning from Joye to the boys, making sure they were still with us. He was there one second then gone the next. Braden took off one way and I the other. We met up outside with no luck. I went back inside to see if Ricky had found him, he had. He said that he found him down by one of the doors, trying to keep the automatic, sliding doors open. I thought that since he was there one second and gone the next that someone had taken him, and when we couldn't find him, I thought he was gone! It was awful!! Anyway we had a fun time and Jaxon and Alek had a great time with Ryten, they are best friends.

Here's Me and Braden

Our family.

Ricky and his family

Pretty Joye. I love her dimples!

Alek J

And Creeper Jaxon.

I hope he either grows out of this weird smiling phase. Or let us at least teach him how to smile better.

The Girls

Wednesday Night Excitement!

2009-12-02T22:35:00.005-07:00

Braden and I were sitting on the couch while the kids were playing in the boys room. Joye was coming down the hall, whining. We didn't think anything of it. She had a play saw that makes a cutting sound, I looked up to see what she was cutting. She didn't have it in her hands, I looked down she had gotten her foot through the handle and was stuck. I laughed and told Braden to help her. He bent down and started to pull and nothing happened. We tried to tag team it and the saw wouldn't even budge. We decided that we were going to have to cut it off. Our hack saw didn't have a good blade on it so Braden got this...

His reciprocating saw (which is silly and ironic, because that's the type of saw that was stuck on her leg) I held Joye's legs down, we got Jaxon to come hold the play saw, and Braden went to cutting. Joye did not like this, not one little bit. It took us a few tries to cut through. We got one side cut enough that Braden broke it, but he couldn't break it all the way through because it was digging into her ankle. Well after a few more cuts we got it off!

Here is her leg after we finally got it off.

You can't really see it very good in these pictures, but I think Joye might have a nice little bruise on her ankle.

Our Thanksgiving!

2009-11-28T17:35:00.002-07:00

One picture sums it all up!

After a long day of eating and playing with cousins at Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Fessler's for more fun. After playing hard with the puppies, eating lots of crackers and a grueling game of Scum, Joye zonked out!

We had a busy day, but we had tons of fun. The kids got to spend time with cousins that they don't see very often. Then at the Fessler's Keenan and Calee brought their new puppy and the kids had a blast! We played Scum and a killer (literally) game of Spoons which Braden won against me in the finals.

Alek's Birthday Celebrations

2009-11-25T19:54:00.001-07:00

Better late than never right? Well Alek had a great birthday! We went down to my family's and had a birthday party for Alek and my brother Rusty. He got his favorite present there. Aunt Mi-A gave him a zip-up hoodie (the one in the pictures below) He thinks it's a Braves jacket. I can't even get him to wear his winter/snow coat when it snows. He just wants to wear his Braves jacket. Then on his birthday Grandma and Grandpa Anderson came to see him and then Grandma and Grandpa Fessler. We took Alek to the store a few days before his birthday and let him look at the toys to see what he wanted. He wanted Legos,the biggest box for $100, which he didn't get. And a Transformer, but not any Transformer the one that turns into a motorcycle. So I had Braden go and buy a smaller Lego set, and the Transformer and go hide them in the truck, while I finished some shopping. Alek was distraught. We didn't buy my presents...When are we going to get my presents?On his birthday I hid in my room and wrapped his presents and brought them out for him. He was so excited! He ripped them open and the first thing he said was, "When did you go to the store to get these!?"

While Braden was at work, we made Alek's cake. The boys wanted to help so bad. I iced it and wrote on it, then handed over the frosting and let the boys take over. They had so much fun!

Alek said he was big enough now to cut his own cake. He did a pretty good job. None of the pieces were the same size, but he had fun.

Joye didn't care how her piece was cut.

She enjoyed it just the same.

Our Big 4 Year Old!

2009-11-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

That's right! Another year has past and Alek is turning 4! He has gotten so big the last few weeks. He has always been a good helper and will do pretty much whatever you ask him to do. But the other day he has started to do things on his own. I made the kids peanut butter sandwiches for lunch the other day and Jaxon eats a ton so I left the stuff out knowing that I was going to need to make more. After Alek had eaten his sandwich he left the room, a few minutes later he came and told me that he put all the lids on and put all the stuff away where it goes. What a good kid. He can't wait to get big. Everyday he'll come sit on my lap and say, " Momma, when I get big I'm going to play football, and basketball, and soccer ball, and I'm going to ride horses and motorcycles, and work on cars like Daddy!" These are the usual things, sometimes I get a few variations. Last year was pretty hard for Jaxon, he wanted it to be his birthday too, we had a lot of tears. So we convinced them that being the same age for a month and a half is pretty cool. So when it started to get close to Alek's birthday we started bringing out the "You get to be 4 together!" And it hasn't been that bad this year so either the being 4 together worked or Jaxon is getting old enough to realize that it's ok and his birthday is coming soon. The big blow out this year though, was the kids are part of the Toys R Us birthday club. So Toys R Us sends them a birthday card with a gift card inside. So the first thing was Alek got mail and Jaxon didn't. We all know how exciting it is to get mail! Then Alek opened it up and I read it to him, and he got to go pick out a toy. That's when Jaxon lost it. So unfair, it's hard for them. Anyway I took him aside and told him that he would get one on his birthday and not to worry. So after that everything has been pretty good. Even when we went to the store and let Alek pick out his thing Jaxon didn't even whine when he didn't get anything. By the way Alek picked Guess Who Marvel Comic edition! Brade was just as excited to crack it open and play. Happy Birthday Alek! We all love you so much! We are so proud of who you are. And love all the things you want to do when you get big. Love Mom, Dad, Jaxon, Joye and Momma Tina. Momma Tina loves you so much and looks down on you from heaven.

Halloween

2009-11-02T10:09:00.001-07:00

We had good Halloween! We went to my Brother Ricky's house and ate dinner. Navajo Tacos (My favorite) and their neighbor across the street brought a cheese soup with veggies in it. It was so good I ate a bowl with dinner and then after we trick-or-treated I had 2 more. After dinner we got the kids dressed up and off we went.
Alek was Wolverine. We let his hair grow out so we could get the hair style down and we drew mutton chops on him and we made his claws out of cardboard and wrapped them in tinfoil. They looked good, but we didn't think them through. He couldn't grab anything. So the whole night Jaxon had to get candy for Alek and put it in his bucket for him.
Jaxon was Wade from X-Men Origins. He had his swords and was in seventh heaven. When we drew mutton chops on Alek, Jaxon wanted a beard too. So Braden drew a 5 o'clock shadow on him. Well the next morning before church I threw the kids in the tub and we got ready for church sat down in Sacrament meeting and I look over and Jaxon's whiskers didn't come off in the tub! So out came the baby wipes and we got them off.

We were going to make Joye be someone from X-Men, but we couldn't decide what to do. Sherin had a witch costume that we could borrow, so Joye became a witch. I got Joye dressed and put her hat on and she wore it all over Ricky's house. As soon as we went out trick-or-treating, off came the hat and she wouldn't even let it touch her head. She ripped it off as soon as it did. It's a good thing I took a picture in the house!

The kids got a ton of candy. But their favorite thing they got was a toothbrush. You heard me, a toothbrush. They haven't let those things out of their sight. They have brushed their teeth a million times the last 2 days. I can't complain. They are brushing all the candy they're eating off their teeth. No cavities for the Fesslers!

Carving Pumpkins

2009-10-29T22:34:00.002-06:00

On Sunday we went over to Mark and Sherin's to carve pumpkins. and like always we had so much fun! To start the night off Braden and Mark took the Saltine Challenge. You have to eat 6 Saltine's in a minute with no water. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. They were both unsuccessful. Mark did cheat and got all 6 down while drinking water.

We had a lot of pumpkins to carry in so we hooked up our work horse and got them inside in one trip.
And they're off

We put Joye on the floor and let her go. She didn't mind gutting the pumpkin. She wouldn't let me help. I would reach in and scrape it and she would pull my hand out, it was her pumpkin.

Then she worked hard, drawing her face on the pumpkin

Here are the masterpieces! We had Spongebob, Santa, and The Easter Bunny...NICE!
You can't really see but Braden carved ears for his pumpkin. Bruce had the biggest pumpkin (bottom left) and he carved a tiny face on it :)

Jaxon's pumpkin was so thin that it was glowing.

After we were done carving. We put Taylor and Joye in their Pajamas and let them play. They were being so cute together. Their favorite spot was on the little couch. I didn't have any pictures with both of them smiling. So I posted this one because I think Joye's face is funny.

1st Field Trip!

2009-10-23T09:36:00.002-06:00

The boys got to go on their first field trip Thursday! We went to the Plymouth Fire Station. They had so much fun! They were both a little afraid of everything at first but once they got going they had a blast. I think their favorite part was the end, the fireman had drinks and hostess cupcakes for the kids. This was certainly Joye's favorite cause she got some too.

Here's the fireman. He put on all of his gear and even turned on his air tank to show the kids if they are ever in a fire not to be scared and hide from the firemen.
Then the kids got to try on the coat and hat!

The kids got to jump in the back of the ambulance and look around. The fireman told them not to become frequent flyer's in the ambulance. I thought of my accident prone Alek, hopefully he won't be.

Next was the fire truck. The kids got to jump in the driver's seat and "drive". They thought this was the coolest!

Here is the whole class. Good lookin group.

Sleepy Joye

2009-10-12T19:24:00.001-06:00

This afternoon, the boys were playing outside, Me and Braden were reading books on the couch, and Joye was off exploring. She has decided it's lots of fun to go into a bedroom and shut herself in. Well she shut herself in the boys room and found Jaxon's piano. Me and Braden were listening to her play for quite awhile. I decided that I would go check on her, when I did this is what I found...
Joye had zonked out on the piano! Her arm was pushing on one of the keys hard enough and it just kept playing that same note over and over and again. After we laughed and took pictures of course, Braden picked her up to go put her in bed and apparently she had been asleep for quite some time...

You're pretty tired when buttons can leave indents in your head and it doesn't bother you enough to move.

And He's Off! For His 2 Year Adventure!

2009-09-30T10:38:00.002-06:00

Elder Fessler left for the MTC this morning! We took pictures of the kids so we can compare how much they grew when Jair gets back.

Jaxon and Uncle Jairon

Alek and Uncle Jairon
And finally Baby Joye and Uncle Jairon.

We'll miss you Uncle Jairon, Love You- Jax, Alek & Joye

Good Luck Jairon! We'll all miss you so much. Be safe! You are in our prayers. See you in 2 years.

Our Lagoon Fun!

2009-09-28T10:03:00.006-06:00

Before I start talking about Lagoon, I just have to say that yesterday was the primary program and the boys did awesome! I was worried that Alek was going to get scared and not do his parts, but he did! And Joye went into Nursery yesterday!!! She isn't supposed to go for another 2 months, but I talked to the nursery leader and she said it would be fine. Braden and I have our callings at the same time and Joye was more than a handful. Joye did great!! I took her in and they gave her a cookie and she was fine. She stayed the entire time and didn't cry once. YAY!

Now onto Lagoon. This post has a lot of pictures because the boys were watching me do it and they insisted that every ride that we had pictures of, had to go in the post. They kept asking why all the rides didn't have pictures. Well most of you know that Braden got a job!! He went into orientation on a Monday and they told him Friday was Lagoon Day! Perfect timing huh! Icon reserved the entire park. It was great, there were no lines, we walked onto every ride. The boys had a blast! The best part was on our tickets we could bounce back for 9 dollars. That's why we went back for our anniversary.

Here are the boys on the space ship with guns. The boys went on this one twice, and both times Alek rode so he went backwards.

Next was the boats.

Alek decided that he wanted his picture taken so from this ride on every time he went passed us on a ride he had the biggest cheese smile on. It was so funny.

I love these next 2 pictures.

This one is so cute

And this one Joye looks so enthused to be on the ride. She really did like it. She has one hand on the wheel and the other ringing the bell.

Helicopters!

And Airplanes

The boys wanted to go on Puff the Magic Dragon Roller coaster. I thought that Joye would like it so I took her on. I had forgotten how fast it really goes. Joye HATED it!! She kept trying to crawl up me. I love this picture. I hope she doesn't remember this and be terrified of roller coasters her whole life.

Wild Kingdom Train.

Joye hated the tunnel.

Music Express!

The boys very excited to be going on this ride!

Now they are rethinking their decision to come on this ride.

We started going around and Jaxon started slipping and he got scared. I told him to let go and slide into me and then he was a little better. Alek would not let go, he had a death grip on the bar and he didn't slide one little bit.

The Sky Ride

I was the lucky one and got to take the boys. Braden and I both hate this ride, but Alek insisted on going. I'm paranoid enough on it, but when the boys would try to look over I about lost it.

Scrambler!

And of course the Merry-Go-Round
Joye thought it was going to be another Puff ride. She wouldn't even sit there long enough for us to get a picture.

We had a blast!