Vacation week...a little late on this post too...

Here is a note from a few weeks ago that I forgot to post. Guess I had a few distractions in the middle of it. :) Ha ha. Imagine that :) Anyway, just a little note... John had the last week of March and first week of April off and I got a little break :) It's been pretty incredible to be able to sleep in and go exercise---tried out water aerobics at the YMCA as well as Zumba and loved it. Exercise has been a saving grace for me throughout the last 7 month adventure. I read books that have been on my list for a while, got to go to dinner on my own (sounds funny, but alone time has become very precious and doesn't happen very often, so when it does---hallelujah!!), and got to go on dates with John. I feel much more rejuvenated and am grateful for an amazing husband who cares so much for me and shows it consistently!! I am really blessed. What a wonderful man!! I think often about how wonderful he is and how well Heavenly Father knows me to have provided a man so perfect for me. It hasn't been an easy 7 months, but I feel closer to John because of it and even more grateful that he is in my life. I wouldn't want anyone else at my side throughout eternity.

Anna's birthday and Easter...

So I'm super late in posting all of these photos, but that seems to be my life lately...and I'm ok with it. :) :) We celebrated Easter with birthday fun as Anna's 3rd birthday was on Easter this year. The kids had a blast finding the eggs outside (hiding eggs in Tucson is no easy feat, but we had fun :) ) and finding their Easter baskets I had hidden. We had dyed eggs the day before and waited until John was home Sunday to make dinosaur eggs out of them. John made Anna a bunny cake (he is SO good at the cake thing and since I'm not much of a cake fan, I don't mind at all giving him that task :) ) and we had our neighbors, Kara and her son Owen (Kara's husband Grant was at work---he is in residency with John), over for dinner. We sang "Happy Birthday" and Anna acted shy yet loved the attention. We had had a family party in Denver earlier that week and opened presents, so it was a pretty simple party with dinner and cake and ice cream. For birthdays, I ask the kids what they would like for dinner and Anna asked for homemade pizza. That was probably the simplest Easter dinner ever---I can't complain :) All in all it was a great day and we had some good family fun! Here are some pictures from our adventures.

In all the party-ness, I forgot to take a picture with candles and all. Oops. This will have to do :)

Our dinosaur Easter eggs!

Such cute kids

Big smiles for the camera!!

I just can't get over how cute Vera's smile is in this pic :) I think it's one of the few non-posed smiles we have of her :) Well, all of their smiles just make me smile...

Tucson Book Festival

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. Things have been especially crazy...

So I took the kids to the Tucson Book Festival a couple of weekends ago and they had a blast. Jonas got to meet a couple of his favorite authors and all the kids got a picture with the Cat in the Hat. The book festival is a pretty big deal here, I guess. They have hundreds of different booths of all different kinds and it was fun to walk around. Here are some pics from our excursion:

Jonas with Jon Scieszka

The Cat in the Hat

Jonas with Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett

Cat in the Hat

Fun in the sun!!

We had some fun outside yesterday and I thought I'd share some photos. Enjoy!!

Anna showing me her flower

Chalk chalk chalk!

We LOVE chalk drawings!!

Vera and Anna's collaborative drawings :)

Jonas riding his bike. He's learned really quickly!

On the stairs by our apartment--with a few shadows---oops :)

1-2-3...and this is what she did. So cute!

Jonas loves riding bikes!

We have limited space to ride in front of our apartment, but he loves it!

Jonas is 9!!!!

So this post is a little late, but...better late than never, right? Jonas turned 9 yrs old on January 26th and we had a great time. We had a family party on his birthday and then a friends party the next night. We played the donut game, had cake and ice cream, and just enjoyed each others company. It was a lot of fun and I think we brought in Jonas' birthday with a bang!! Here are a few pics from the big event :) :)

We tried to get all the kids to look at the camera---this was our most successful shot!!

Again, a good attempt :) :)

Anna with her donut

The kids eating ice cream and cake!!

Everyone enjoyed the donut game! The adults got to have their turn too :)

Our little family

Jonas blowing out the candles!

I'm 9!!!!!

Jonas LOVES Spy Gear!!!

Singing Happy Birthday!

Vera with her donut :)

Tantrums and Two-yr-olds

The past couple of days have been more exhausting than anything else. I guess, however, as I am discovering, that is just a part of mommyhood :) 

Anna has been a challenge lately. From tantrums, hitting, pinching, wiping her nose on anything BUT a tissue, singing in a loud voice for even our neighbors to hear that keeps her sister up at night, drawing with chalk and pen on anything and everything, to many, many more things I never knew would occur to someone to do. I've had many days where I wonder who took away the sweet little girl I once knew. Ha ha. I go to bed at night praying that somehow, despite all of my weaknesses and inadequacies, the kids will be physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually healthy and stable, able to have happy lives, and that I will be able to continue to love them and grow to love them even more. Well, and that I will survive through some of those "days" still functioning as a sane individual ;). Some days are fairly conflict-free and others I am just grateful when we get to bedtime (and it happens to be early ;) ), but I have realized that those "days" do pass and that there is a tomorrow that begins "fresh, with no mistakes in it", a quote from one of my favorite movies, Anne of Green Gables. Through the challenges since taking on instant mommyhood, and especially the past few weeks, I have realized many things, among them first, how wonderful it is to have a husband who stands by me no matter how grumpy or burned out I am, who always does whatever he can to help me, and who is very sensitive and understanding to all that I'm going through; Second, how important it is to savor the good moments and remember them when there's a 2 yr old drawing on the pillows; Third, how amazing and yet humbling it is to have a Heavenly Father who trusts me enough to let me raise three of His children.

So, though the tantrums are trying as is the two-yr old who throws them, I know this is where I am supposed to be and that somehow, as long as I'm doing my best, it will all work out for the best!

So I tried to add this as a gadget, but it didn't work, so here are some engagement photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/116946233046508233135/EngagementPhotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCLSG6Ne93bmskQE#slideshow/5704628695134569234

And more photos of the wedding:

http://jilljacksonphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/20357773_7Fz6dg/1610770588_jn4Ktx2