Simplify

So it's blatantly obvious the idea of scrapbooking my blog is NOT going as planned!  I LOVE doing it, but unfortunately, the time to devote such energy into something I love is just not available.  I've actually caught myself wanting to take LESS pictures so I wouldn't have to spend so much time getting them perfectly placed on my layouts!  So after reading this article I've decided to greatly simplify this aspect of my life!  I sadly have not documented the first year of Jayden's life because of this and now I've forgotten a lot of the details I would have loved to have remembered!  So from now on, my blog will be much more simple in hopes of actually being able to record this journey known as life.  Although I still plan on scrapbooking them, but to make it easier on myself, my photos will simply be put on paper with little embellishments and little change in layout (as you can tell from the last few I've scapboooked).  So basically it just won't be as cute :(  which saddens me, I really love doing it, but simply documenting our lives is much more important.  **sigh**  Maybe I'll still spend a little extra time on pages here and there for events more worthy of a little extra praise!  I'm hoping this new way of doing it gets me back into the blogging world I miss so much!

On that note, here's the update of our lives (word version):

Warning:  This post ended up being MUCH longer then I intended!  But since it's the only way I journal, I wrote it all down.  So there will be no offense taken if you do not read the whole thing, promise!

We finally gave up our house in Hurricane.  It was a hard decision.  How we managed to hang onto that place as long as we did is beyond me!!  We decided it was time to move on.  In doing so we decided taking two steps back would be best for us so that eventually we could take a huge leap forward. We are currently living in my in-laws basement and have been for the last 6 months.  Not exactly where either of us really wanted to be, but we felt it was necessary for us.  Money has been tight, so this was the right move.  It has been a blessing and a curse all at the same time!  Financially it has been a huge help, and the girls LOVE having Grandma around!  She's one of the worlds greatest Grandmas and spoils them so much so, they do NOT want to leave!  And I have to admit, having adult conversation everyday is rather nice!!  However, for the obvious reasons, it is not ideal.  We all get a long great for the most part, but it's not my house.  I miss having our own place and I'm anxious to move on with our lives.  Which will be happening THIS week!!  We have both wanted to live up north for YEARS, but never had the opportunity until now.  Mike started with a new insurance company almost a year ago.  To our surprise he was quickly promoted to district manager and asked to develop the company in Utah and Vegas.  However, he spent most of his time up north making it a no brainier to move there.  He'll still have to travel to Vegas about every six weeks or so until he can get a few agents willing to work there full-time (so if you know anyone interested in a job in Vegas, give us a holler!)  So in short, the sooner we get up there, the sooner Mike will be able to be home almost every night!!  For the last 6 years of our marriage he's been traveling and has always been away for two or three days a week.  Honestly, It's not that bad, especially if you consider those are the ONLY days he works!!  Yep, three (maybe four) days working and the rest of the time is a 3 or 4 day weekend!!  Can't beat that!  So with the move he will still get the time off (if he wants), but will now get to come home every night!  I'm SO excited!!  My only problem with this whole thing is moving the kids in the middle of the school year.  We moved Kylie out of school the end of September and it crushed my soul!!  The girl was DEVASTATED to say the least!  She loved her friends, her teacher, riding the bus..... She even made a BEST friend in her class named Lily, they were inseparable!!  She starting having play-dates with all the girls in the ward which was the highlight of her week!  Then we up and move her!  She begged us to stay until summer, but we just couldn't.  I fear doing this to her again in the SAME school year!  What kind of parent does that??  But she seems a little more inclined this time. She would rather wait until summer to move again, but telling her that her dad will be home every night has her more inclined to move.  The idea is exciting for a girl who's dad has been traveling since she was born!  Plus she hasn't made a best friend, per-say, in her new school.  She has friends, but not necessarily a bestie.  Kayla on the other hand has a best friend!  I moved her from an amazing preschool to yet another amazing preschool where she is best friends Makinlee!  Ironically, Makinlee's mom and I were best friend back in middle school!  Oh it was a strange day when I picked Kayla up after her first day to see my old friend Makala standing there waiting for her daughter!  The only reason we didn't stay close through high school was because her mom made her change schools because she hated her boyfriend (with reason which I now see with my adult eyes, oh how naive we are as teenagers!).  We sadly lost touch until now!  So our girls have taken a liking to each other and I actually watch Makinlee twice a week after preschool while her mom works.  Which works out great for entertaining my kids!! I fear moving this time around might be harder on her then it will be Kylie.  What to do?  I think they're just going to have to deal with it and learn early on that life doesn't always go as planned.  The plus side is Makinlee's family is moving to Cedar this weekend as well, so Kayla wouldn't be able to see her anyway! 

Mike and I were able to get away for a weekend thanks to the excuse of my little brothers state wrestling tournament (in which he took fourth place!  Go Daniel!  Love that kid!).  We also took this opportunity to look at a few areas to live.  I'm not as familiar with northern Utah as Mike so we were able to look at different areas together.  Mike loves Daybreak, but it's seems to be the most expensive area to live.  Near the top of his list was also South Jordan, West Jordan and Lehi.  I didn't have to much of a preference until I started trying to find the best deals.  Eagle Mountain took the cake!  Mike kept saying it was too far out since he mostly works in Salt Lake county.  But once he saw the price difference, he was little more open to the possibility.  So we took a drive out there and I IMMEDIATELY fell in love!  It was exactly what I was looking for!  I dream of being in the country!  I grew up in a small town and miss it daily!  I want so badly to raise my kids in an area they can wander, make forts and build tree houses!  Eagle Mountain is actually much larger then I really want, but it stills feels like it's out of the way enough I'd love it!  Eagle Mountain is very up and coming and Mike was rather impressed saying it has develop quite a bit since he was last out there.  What's also perfect about it is it's only about a 5 minute drive to get to a major highway that will easily take him to Salt Lake, not to mention the nearest Wal-Mart is only 10 minutes AND in about 15-20 minutes were in the BIG city!  So I'll get my country livin' (as good as I can get up north anyway) and Mike will get his big city!  SO excited! We just put down a deposit on a place and will be moving next Saturday!

Aside from moving, life has been pretty full.  As I said Mike started with a new insurance company about a year ago and was quickly promoted!  It's been a HUGE stress for him but a blessing. It's definitely not coming together as soon as we had hoped, but we know if we give it time, it will be AMAZING!  Basically any agent that works in Utah or southern Nevada will be under him.  It's been a huge blessing but I have to say my favorite part is the health insurance!  Is that weird??  We've never really had health insurance on our family but this company provides the BEST insurance we've EVER seen!  We've definitely put it to use and have discovered how awesome it is to be insured!  We are the only ones in the state of Utah with this insurance and every doctor's office is immensely impressed!  Mike went in for a physical and our doctor wanted to get him tested for sleep apnea, something we've suspected Mike might have had for awhile. We simply paid our little co-pay and the entire sleep study was covered!  On that note, Mike most definitely has sever sleep apnea.  He would stop breathing 163 times an HOUR!!  Basically he would take two breaths and stop breathing.  So he is now on a CPAP and it has done wonders!!!  One of my biggest pet peeves was Mike's sleeping habits.  On his day's off (remember I said he has 3-4 days off a week) he would sleep til noon!  Then to make it worse he would take a 3+ hour nap later in the day!  Oh it drove me crazy!  I'm more of an early to bed early to rise kind of person and I most definitely held in a lot of resentment because of he's sleeping.  Seriously, I NEVER get to sleep in because he would NEVER wake up to take care of the kids so I could (this includes the sleepless nights with a new baby)!  It was actually starting to drive me to insanity!  But now I feel horrible for those feelings since there was obviously a sever medical condition involved.  He's been on a CPAP for a few months now and it has done wonders!  He gets up at a decent hour and does not nap at all during the day!  He has more energy and has just been a better person all the way around!  Not to mention he's snoring has long since been forgotten (okay, forgotten is a bit of an exaggeration, you don't easily forget that kind of snoring, but it is now nonexistent)!  The first night he was on the machine I woke up in the middle night and could not sleep because it was TOO quiet!  If you've heard Mike snore you'll agree he's probably one of the worst.  It took me a YEAR before I could fully sleep through it, and I have hearing problems!  During the first year of our marriage I would actually shoot strait up because his snoring was so loud it scared me!  Now it's quiet and has taken some getting use to, but in a good way!  

Jayden has grown up so much!  He is by far the most difficult child I've ever known!  He's is so clingy!  Since birth he has to be cuddled constantly!  Something I wasn't prepared for since my other two girls were so much different.  Sure they loved to be held, but were very content being by themselves.  I thought maybe he'd grow out of it or maybe when he started being mobile he would venture off and leave me alone.  No such luck!  Now instead of just crying until I pick him up, he'll cry and come find me!  I cannot get away from this kid!  I know I should be eating it up since there will inevitable be a day where he'll want nothing to do with me, but it's so hard to get anything done with him hanging on my leg!  Cleaning is near impossible when he's awake, and when he's sleeping all I want to do is sit and enjoy my space!  He's also a heavy little sucker!  By 10 months (according to my scale) he was 25lbs!  Well over the limit for a forward facing car seat!  But he's not fat, just built!  Full of solid muscle!  He's all boy!  He even has a manly laugh!  Which I love!  So cute.  He's climbs on things like I've heard boys do.  Just the other day he used a chair and climbed on to an end table by the couch, mind you he is only 14 months old!  He also loves to play with cars and will drive them while making the ever famous car noise.  So cute.  Not to mention he'll hold people toys like he's sisters and babble while making them walk.  He's so fun to watch!  He also LOVES to tease people!  In this area his is a little too much like he's dad, which in this case I'm not sure is a good thing.  If he knows it's bugging you, he'll keep doing it!  For instance, if I see him doing something he's not suppose to, like unplugging something from an outlet, I'll tell him 'no' at which point he gets a huge mischievous grin and will now look at you while he's grabbing at the cord!  So I get up to to grab him away being firm with my 'no' at which point he starts to laugh then will try again to grab the cord!  Seriously?!  What one year old does that!  He does it to everyone!  If he knows he's bugging his sisters, he'll keep going while laughing!  Which is exactly what his dad does!  Mike is known for being a bully in our family.  He treats us all (me included) like we're his little sisters!  He gets such a kick out of our reaction and just can't get enough of teasing us.  Not that he's trying to be mean, just funny.  Which most of the time it is fun, but sometimes he can go a little to far.  Now I have a boy just like him who can't even talk yet!  What am I going to do with him when he can use words to torment us!  I have a feeling we need more girls in this family to make it fair between us and the boys!  Jayden also has a passion for television I'm not sure I can appreciate.  Since he was little he would sit on his dads lap forever and watch sports with him!  Although cartoons are his favorite, he doesn't necessarily care whats on TV, he'll sit and watch it anyway!  He also has a fetish with remotes, or anything electronic for that matter.  He'll grab the remote and point it at the TV, push buttons all while babbling something none of us understand!  He's does this with the Xbox remote as well and will even use one finger while playing with our touch screen phones!  If this kid isn't all boy, I don't know what is!

Kayla is growing up all to fast!  I tell her I want her to be my baby Kayla, she replies, 'why don't you have another baby and call it Kayla!'  Oh she's cute and makes me laugh constantly!  She loves school and asked everyday if she is going to school.  She's gets so disappointed when there's no school.  I'm thinking the next preschool should maybe be more then twice a week.  She's also obsessed with her teacher!  According to her, her teacher has EVERYTHING!  If she's sees something in the store, she'll proudly say, "my teacher have that."  It doesn't matter if it's food or a cool car driving down the street, her teacher has it!  She will also tell you the top 10 things she loves.  In no particular order they are:  Mommy, peanut butter, Daddy, purple, Kylie, Jayden, Dora, Grandma, Kinlee (her best friend from school), and Maddie (her cousin she's only seen a handful of times but loves nonetheless).  Oh she's too funny!  Her love for all things Dora is a bit annoying.  I really tried hard to get her to like someone else, but it was useless, Dora took the cake! So I spent hours planning a Dora birthday party for her. 

Kylie is doing great in school and loves it!  She's also one of the BEST helpers!  She's always been so willing to do anything for others.  I very really have any issues with her obeying or even sharing for that matter, she loves to please people!  She's also turning into a little princess.  She loves all things pretty!  She hates jeans and will only wear dresses, with tights of course, or a shirt with leggings.  She's convinced she looks best in those things.  I believe there is a little girl in her class to thank for this one.  She's always dressed like a girly girl and Kylie feels she must follow.  Sigh.  Signs of what's to come I guess.  I also caught her walking into my room the other day looking for something; when I asked what she was looking for she told me she wanted some earrings.  I told her none of mine would work because she doesn't have holes in her ears (ears pierced).  She then proceeded to tell me she knew that and was going to use them to poke holes in her ears.  I asked her if she thought that might hurt and she replied with saying a girl named Paisley has them and said they don't hurt.  Ummmmm........ not entirely true my dear!  So I had to explain the actually process hurts.  Although I think little girls are cute with earrings, I'm a firm believer it needs to wait until she's at least 12.  It's a permanent thing and although I don't care if she (or Kayla) want them pierce, I've always thought it should be their choice, not mine.  Also, the choice should be made when she's old enough to realize what exactly she is doing and that it will most likely be something she cannot undo. 

As for me, I'm just trying to deal with the everyday stresses of motherhood and life without loosing my mind!  There are most definitely days when I feel I should be institutionalized, and days were I think life couldn't possible get any better!  I guess that's just the roller-coaster ride called motherhood!  I spend a lot of my time wasting away on Pinterest!  Where have you been all my life?!  I now have goals of a million things to do from cooking, cleaning, organizing, exercising and literally EVERYTHING in-between!  If you're not a fan of the site I would encourage you to proceed with caution!  I've heard many times Satan's key to lead Gods children away is by distraction!  Meaning Pinterest is my biggest sin!  I'm desperate to organize my time!  Wait.....I think I saw a pin for that!  ;)  HAHA  I feel like once we're in our own place again, I can get a better handle on things.  As for now, I just have to take one day at a time, and more often then not I end up going to bed saying, "I'll try again tomorrow" (quoted from a pin I have on Pinterest).  See how bad it is!