Lucky me!

*DISCLAIMER* This is an icky, sweet, disgusting post. Don't say I didn't warn you!

I am the absolute luckiest woman in the world. Yesterday Kirt and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. I really can't believe it's been 13 years! Since we have an almost 12 year old, I guess that's a good thing, but it really feels like we've only been married a few years.

One of the things Kirt promised me when he asked if I would marry him, was that he would make me laugh every day. I can honestly say that he has followed through on that promise. :) Now, for those of you that know me well, sometimes that isn't too hard, but sometimes it's a real chore!

Not everyone gets to spend the rest of their life with their best friend...but I am BLESSED! I do. :) Kirt puts up with a LOT at times. I can be grumpy, moody, bossy, loud, obnoxious, even unkind at times...and the list goes on and on. Kirt looks past all of that and puts his focus on my good qualities. He is always positive and upbeat and sets a great example of love and service in our home.

Last night he pampered me by asking his parents to come and tend (even though they had JUST pulled back into town from a long trip to SLC-thanks Mom and Dad K.!) and taking me to eat at my FAVORITE restaurant: Olive Garden. He even went Christmas shopping with me after. (Wow. That means A LOT, considering how much he hates to shop. :)

Thanks for the BEST 13 years of my life, babe. I'm looking forward to mAnY, MANY more! I love, love, love you!

Happy-Sad

I first heard the phrase "Happy-Sad" in a Cabbage Patch storybook that I owned as a kid. Since then, I have experienced many "Happy-Sad" moments in my life. Getting married, moving to Cedar City, leaving my baby (Dallin) to finish my student teaching, moving from the Washington 5th Ward. Right now I'm living a "Happy-Sad" moment once again.

I am so excited to move into our new house. We walked through it again a week or so ago and I still LOVE it. I want to have more room for all of us, a place for everything, and kids over to play with my kids without going NUTS because we're all in the same room. I want the front door to open and everyone NOT to see the mess we live in. I want my kids to have more personal space because I know how it feels not to have any. This is a GOOD move for us. In so many ways.

On the other hand, the reality hit me today that I will be moving away from some VERY good neighbors and friends. We have become close friends with George and Heather Claseman, who live right across the street. Their youngest, Jenni, is Dallin's age, but my little ones (actually, all my kids) LOVE to hang out over there. Heather also tends the kids for me when I have to be out of town for work. This morning when it snowed here in St. George they all ended up "playing" over at Claseman's. Heather sent me an email with some pics of the kids drinking hot chocolate and told me how much she was going to miss them just dropping in. Honestly, I think she's a better mom to my kids than I AM!

Mia also walks right next door to preschool right now. All of my kids have attended Miss Keri's preschool and she is SO good to them. We have lived in this house while all of them attended preschool, so it's going to be a bit of a change for me to actually have to TAKE her to school. :) I'll have to set a timer to make sure I'm there to pick her up on time instead of her just coming in the door and yelling, "Mo-om! I'm HOOOOME!"

OK, I sit here bawling, as I type. What's wrong with me? I could be moving hundreds of miles away! I could be moving out of the country! Those are things to cry about. I'm not even moving a mile. I think the pregnancy hormones and emotions are just getting to me. That's it. I'm sure of it. :)

"Tis the season

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season has become attending this little cutie's dance recital. She did SO great tonight up on the big stage. It's funny to watch her boss everyone around and tell them where they should be on the stage as she dances. Gee, I wonder where she gets that!! And yes, she's wearing make-up, which she is ONLY allowed to do for recitals!

Great job, Mia!

We're MOVING!

We are SO excited that Heavenly Father has blessed us with the opportunity to buy a bigger house! This house is located in the same ward we currently live in. It's about 2 blocks from where we live now. We've had our eye on it for just over 3 years now...since Mom and Dad Keeler were on their mission! We tried to buy it once before, but now we know that timing is everything, since we just paid HALF the price of what our first offer was. This house was a foreclosure, but it's in fabulous condition! This is DOUBLE the house for us! It is 3000 square feet (our current house is 1380 sq. feet) and has 6 bedrooms (we have 3 now) and 4 bathrooms(we have 2 now). The kids are SO excited they can hardly stand it! We close on December 18th. AGH! That is SOON, but we're very excited. Not sure if we will move in before Christmas or not. This momma can only handle so much stress and excitement! More info to come...

Message from the Kids!

Glimpse of the Future

Those of you who know us well, know that Kirt and I are both very musical. We LOVE music, as it was part of what brought us together. We love listening to it, dancing to it, singing it, playing it, you name it. For about 12 years now, I have day-dreamed about that day I would have a family that could sing together. I don't know why it is a dream of mine, but it always has been. Cheesy? Yes. True? Yes.

So, now that all of our kids are old enough to sing, we've started teaching the older ones parts. Dallin sings the tenor line with Kirt on a lot of songs and I usually help the younger kids hold the melody, sneaking in some alto whenever I get the chance. Mia and Dallin eat it up, Jaxon and Noah tolerate it.

Last night on the way home from visiting the grandmas, I suggested we sing a Christmas song to avoid fighting from very tired, cranky, over-sugared children. The kids picked "Angels We Have Heard on High". This has been a favorite for a couple of years now and everyone knows all the words to the first verse. We sang it through once in unison, and then I suggested we sing it again. I sang melody with the younger kids (who didn't need me!) and threw a little alto in here and there. Kirt and Dallin sang the tenor line. Kirt suggested Dallin sing tenor and he sing the bass line, so we sang it again. I left the younger kids on their own to sing the melody and I sang alto. I thought it would train wreck...but it did NOT! In fact, it was quite melodious. So much, that it choked me up! We sang a song, our little family, with ALL FOUR PARTS!

Most of you are probably reading this thinking, "So WHAT?" But for me, this was HUGE. I loved seeing a little glimpse into our future as a singing family.

Jaxon's bungee jump

So we had our annual Halloween Carnival at school on Saturday and after the little kids left, Jaxon tried the bungee cord jumping house. The idea is to run as fast as you can and try to not let the bungee pull you back. It was very comical to see him try it!

Inevitable

Well, I guess since 60% of the population is going to get the swine flu, I should have expected that we'd be part of it. Unless of course, we were planning to stay indoors all winter long and go NOWHERE. Um. No. Not part of the plan.

This past week Mia and Noah were diagnosed so the quarantine began. Great. Why? Because the quarantine started the day before FALL BREAK! We had been planning a trip to Salt Lake to take the kids to Lagoon and all our plans were haulted by this news. Jaxon's already had the swine flu (July '09) so he seems to be immune to it. I thought Dallin was going to get away without getting it too, since he's the "well child" in the family and rarely gets sick, but alas, this morning he woke with a headache and a cough. *SIGH* So now, all the kids have had the swine flu in our family. I have a bit of a sore throat just in the last two hours, and Kirt was sick last weekend, so I'm starting to wonder if that's what he had. Dallin will be quarantined all week, which means we don't get to go to the Jon Schmidt concert and masterclass, he'll miss his band concert, AND we can't go to Salt Lake again next weekend. (We were going to give the Lagoon trip one last try.) Maybe we're really not supposed to go to Lagoon! :(

Anyway, it's been tough to be cooped up all weekend (LONG weekend) while it's been perfect weather outside, but the kids have been troopers. As for this mom, hmmm. Not so much a trooper. We've gone through lots of Tylenol and lots of FOOD! Even though they are coughing their heads off, they still feel good enough to eat, so I just keep heading back to the store... 1 1/2 gallons of milk a day, lots of fishy crackers, yogurt galore and ...well, at least they're alive. :)

Mom, you're so weird!

Jaxon came into my room and climbed in bed with me early this morning. (OK it wasn't THAT early, probably around 7:00, but you all know that mornings are NOT my thing. It was still dark, Kirt and Dallin had already left for school and the other kids were still asleep.) He was a little wiggle-worm for about 10 minutes and then a conversation began:

Jax: "Mom, you're so weird."

Mom: "Why?"

Jax: "Because you like to be cold in your bed and warm in the tub!" (He was referring to the fact that our ceiling fan in our bedroom runs year round. No lie.)

Mom: "(giggles) Jax?"

Jax: "What?"

Mom: "I love you."

Jax: "Why?"

Mom: "Because you're so wierd!"

Jax: (giggles)

Smile was the very first thing I did this morning and you can ask anyone that lives here...that does NOT happen very often. :)

This canNOT be happening!

I detest the change of seasons only in one aspect. The "changing of the clothes". This is my biggest pet peeve in the world! In St. George it's especially hard because the weather plays tricks on us. We have a few days of chilly weather once fall rolls around, and then we get BLASTED with heat for a few days! So I always hesitate a little longer than needed to make the actual switch-a-roo.

As I was going through clothes the other day, I came across my eldest child's pile. He has a couple pairs of pants that fit, and two shirts. Yes, I said two. All of a sudden, this child is becoming a monster. He is 11 years old and has graduated from a size 4 shoe, to a size 8, a 10/12 shirt to a 14/16 and size 12 pants to size 14. WHAT? He's still a little boy! In my mind I just keep thinking, "This canNOT be happening!" Then reality slaps me in the face a little too unkindly. This boy is growing up.

He used to wear a size double the age he was. When he was 6 months, he wore 12 month clothes. When he was 1, he wore a size 2. I guess since he's 11, I should just be happy he doesn't wear a size 22. *sigh*

Modge Podge

OK. SO, I'm a little bit of a slacker. What can I say? "Let he who has NEVER gone 10 weeks without a blog update cast the first stone!" Yeah. Take that. :D This is a modge podge (is that how you spell that??) of things that have gone on in our lives since the first of August. Mia started dance, the boys started school, Jaxon was baptized, Mia started school, and I dyed my hair. Pretty eventful! Enjoy the pics.

Mia's first day of dance

Cheese!

I love this girl!

Dallin was the first one to leave for school. He was excited about riding the bus. I didn't take pictures of that for fear of embarassing him! Off to the big intermediate school... 6th grade!

Bye mom!

Boys showing off their new backpacks.

Jaxon's first day of 3rd grade and Noah's first day of Kindergarten.

Jaxon before his baptismal interview with the Bishop.

Dad and Jax

Jaxon with Grandma and Grandpa Keeler

Jaxon with Grandma and Grandpa Smith

We're so pleased with you Jaxon!

Keeler Family 2009

Miss Mia's first day of preschool!

She was anxiously waiting for Miss Keri to open the gate for her first day!

One happy girl. :) She had to wait almost a MONTH longer than the boys to start, and she did NOT like that idea!

My new color! It's darker than I've ever gone before, but I like it!

Oh yea! 4th of July!!

How could I forget? I forgot to post pics of our fourth of July! Haha. Unfortunately, we were missing our Jaxon, because while he was visiting cousins earlier that week, he caught the swine flu. DARN! SO, I had to leave him up in Salt Lake with his cousins until he wasn't contagious any more. We sure missed him!

Summer pics!

We've had such a great time this summer! We've spent a lot of days lounging, but have had a lot of fun and we have the pictures below to prove it! Mia's dance recital was in May and she LOVES her trophy. :) She carries it around the house a lot! The first part of June, Dallin and Kirt participated in Lieto's Young Musician Choir Camp. They performed together in an AWESOME concert! After that, we had the Washington 11th Ward annual "Bike Parade". Mia thought she wanted to ride her own bike this year so we decorated it, but she ended up riding in the basket of Grandpa's tricycle (driven by Daddy) with Luke! We've spent a lot of days at the pool and LOVE that the rec center is right here by our house. It's definitely our choice for beating the St. George heat! Happy Summer!

Summertime...and the livin' is easy!

Tickets for Technology!

OK, it's honestly been SO long since I posted that I'm totally embarrassed and have NO idea where to start. We're having a FABULOUS summer! The weather has been wonderful for St. George in June.

Since my kids are TOTALLY into playing the computer, the Wii, and addicted to watching TV and movies, I decided I needed to make them "earn" their playing/watching time this summer. Every morning they each have 4-5 chores. In order to earn their tickets for the day, they have to complete their chores. They earn one ticket for every chore they complete, BUT they can't have their tickets unless they complete ALL their chores that day. Each ticket is worth 30 minutes of technology time. So basically, they get 2 1/2 hours a day, but when they're out of tickets, they have to earn more (by doing more chores) before they can play or watch any more. :) I also made the rule that if they are watching someone play the computer or Wii, it counts as one of their tickets!! They can go outside play with friends or sit and read a book for no tickets at all. (And there have been a couple of days a few of them have done that!) I am really loving this because a lot of days the boys do their chores, use up their time and want MORE time, so they pick chores off a master list that I created. I'm getting a lot of things done around my house and I must say, that it's the best idea I've had in a long time!

I taped Mia's reaction on this rollercoaster at Disneyland.

I hope you can hear her above my laughing! :)

The Magical Land of Disney!

Over Spring Break we were able to take the kids to Disneyland. We kept it a secret from them until about 10 days before we left. I convinced Kirt that we HAD to tell the kids before we left because the anticipation of going is SO much a part of the magic! I was glad we told them because they just seemed to get more and more excited each day that passed. WARNING: This is a rather long entry, but for journaling purposes I needed it that way!;)

Day 1: We left and drove to California on Sunday, March 15th right after church(AND after getting hit by a car at church...but that's another blogging story). I didn't take any pictures on the way down, but the kids did really well considering it took us more than 8 HOURS to get there. The traffic was HORRIBLE the entire way. Mia got carsick and threw up once, but thank heavens it was only on her clothes, not all over the car! There was very minimal fighting and lots of movie watching that went on. :) We arrived at our hotel late Sunday night and fell into bed, exhausted.

Day 2: After breakfast at the hotel and doses of dramamine for Kirt, Dallin and Mia, who all suffer from motion sickness, we were off! We waited for the shuttle to arrive and mapped out a plan of what we were going to do that day. Everyone sported their sunglasses while waiting for the shuttle. Dallin and Kirt stopped into a nearby shop to buy hats, since sunglasses don't really work for them. :) The kids were just buzzing with excitement as we exited the shuttle bus and started toward the entrance. Our backpack was packed with water bottles, hand sanitizer, sunblock (which we forgot to apply the first day) and snacks galore. The first ride was Star Tours and the kids (yes, even MIA) LOVED it! I was really worried that it would make someone sick and ruin our day but nope. We were safe. We continued in Tommorwland and rode Buzz Lightyear then headed to Space Mountain. We stood in line for about 15 minutes and then Mia announced that she had to go potty. Grrr! (Especially because we went RIGHT before Star Tours!) I asked her if she thought she could hold it and she said yes. About 5 minutes later she announced that she did NOT think she could hold it and Dallin gave a half smile and said "Umm...me too." So, I took them to the bathroom while Kirt, Jaxon and Noah rode Space Mountain. :( One of my favorites. Oh, the joys of motherhood! We countinued through our day and watched a really cool show called "Jedi Academy". The kids were in awe, being the Star Wars lovers that they and their dad are. :) We ate lunch at the Pizza Port, drove cars on Autopia and rode the Finding Nemo Submarine. By about 6:00, we were beat. We headed back to the hotel for PB&J, applesauce, chips and a little T.V. Oh, and of course some facebooking for Kirt and I. ;) The kids had done quite a bit of fighting in line that day so we had a "talk" about it and when we said prayers we asked for help in getting along better the next day. Kirt and I knew it would be an extra LONG trip without the help of Heavenly Father...


















Day 3: We went to Disneyland guns a blazin' againtoday, but it was the hottest of the three days we were in the parks, so we ran out of steam! We had early park entry, so we were on our first ride(Space Mountain again since Dallin and I missed it) before 9:00 am. The all-time favorite today was Splash Mountain. We rode it in the heat of the afternoon and literally walked onto it with our fast passes. Love that! Mia did NOT love it. As we were headed up the biggest climb, she looked over at me and gripping her little handle said in a weak voice, "Mom, I got a bad feeling 'bout this!" That was the highlight of the trip for me! By 3:00, the kids were shot, so we took a break, went back to the hotel to swim and decided we'd go back later that night so we could see the fireworks. We made it back into the park by about 6:00 and went strong for a couple of hours, but by about 8:30 we were shot. There was NOWHERE to sit for the fireworks because it was packed. We decided to head to the shuttle and see if we could see the fireworks from there. It worked out perfectly. As we got loaded on the bus, the fireworks started and we got to see almost the whole show before the shuttle took off. Poor little Noah was watching the fireworks out the window and next thing he knew, he was asleep! We packed tired, sleeping kids off the bus and back to the hotel.










Day 4: California Adventure! (I have no idea why this section is underlined. I can NOT figure out how to undo it!) We had been looking forward to this day a lot! Well, except for Noah. He asked if we could go home this morning. He was OK once we left the hotel though. Below, the kids were having a snack while waiting to get into the Playhouse Disney show, which Noah and Mia LOVED. They were able to see a lot of their favorites from the Disney channel: Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and My Friends Tigger and Pooh characters were all there. After that are pics from our favorite rides from California Adventure. The Grizzly River Run, Toy Story Mania, Soarin' over California and California Screamin' were definitely list toppers! We did wish we would have had one more day here because we missed the Tower of Terror, Crush the Turtle(from Finding Nemo) and Monsters Inc...






Day 4 (evening): Once the kids had enough fun at California Adventure, we took off to McDonalds for a late lunch, and then headed to the beach. We were slow, so we didn't get there until about 5:00 but it was SOOO beautiful! Unfortunately, it got chilly real fast, so we only got in about an hour, but we survived. At least I can say my kids have seen the ocean now. :) After body surfing, building sand castles and lots of shell collecting, we drug our weary bodies back to the hotel. Poor little Mia was completely exhausted, but happy, as she fell asleep on the bed in the hotel for the last time on the trip.






Day 5: Thursday morning we slept in. It was really nice because our hotel had two separate rooms. The kids had a T.V. in their room so Kirt and I didn't hear them at all when they got up to watch T.V. About 9:00 checked out of the hotel, headed to Denny's to eat a late breakfast and hit the road. The trip home was a lot nicer because there was no traffic and the kids were BEAT so they slept a lot! We stopped in Primm to eat our PB&J again and did a little shopping at the outlets. We found a darling swimsuit and coverup for Mia. The boys made out with zilch. Such is life when there's an only girl in the fam. I decided that she totally deserved it because she rode on EVERYTHING they wanted to. Every roller coaster, every boy ride, you name it. She didn't even complain. She didn't love the roller coasters, but she'd ride it and afterwards she'd say "I don't think I like that ride." (Matterhorn especially!)

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip. We've decided that no diapers, naps and sippy cups is the ONLY way to go. :) This is our first big trip not having any of those things and we really loved it. Thanks for reading...sorry it's a book!