happy children

There's nothing better than happy children. They are finally putting together these train tracks by themselves. They've been playing nonstop with them for the last week. It's great!
Kate is just a happy baby. Good thing since the other two have been super demanding since daddy deployed. Love my kids.

Just a great day

**I know we've been offline a lot recently and haven't really explained anything in our lives. However, I just sent this post to Matt in an email and thought I'd post it here too. Sorry I don't explain more. I mostly just wanted it blogged for our family book.**

My day was great. We spent 2 hours doing school stuff. Luke didn't
feel very well today and only wanted "short school". lol. We start
every day of school with a prayer, the pledge of allegiance, calendar
time, a question of the day, and then something new. I decided that we
need some more gospel discussion/learning during school. My mom has
this great book for kids that teaches a story from the scriptures and
then the application in our lives. The kids loved learning about the
parable of the merchant who sold all his possessions to buy the
biggest, most perfect pearl. They learned that the pearl represents
the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and following Jesus'
commandments. The commandments we learned today were: go to church,
read the scriptures, say your prayers, and obey your mom and dad. lol.
;) They got it down. haha.

Some learning activities we did today were: sorted colored beads and
put them on their corresponding colored pipe cleaners. The kids were
done with that one pretty quickly so then we played "number store".
They lined up some cards labeled with the numbers 1-20. I had a glass
jar with marbles in it. I called out a number for Luke to bring me. If
he brought me the right one then I let him pick a marble to put in his
glass jar. If he got it wrong he had to give me one of his marbles. It
was great because Luke doesn't really know his 11-20 at all and this
game really helped teach him that. Lydia just played with the glass
jars and pouring the marbles back and forth. They made a fun clinking
noise every time you dropped them into the jar. They were thoroughly
entertained with that.

After school I went out to Taro's sushi with my brother Josh as a
"congratulations on getting your mission call". It was way fun. Then
when I came home the kids and I played game after game. Luke was just
on one with playing any/all adult games in the house. I obviously had
to change it up so he could play with me. ;) We loved Boggle and just
shaking the can and then yelling out what letter we had to find. The
first one to find it got to shake the jar. Then we spelled our names.
I was surprised that Luke really knew a lot of the letters. So fun.

After games we had story time on mom's lap. I made up 3 stories about
a mom and a dad and their three kids: luke, lyd, and kaitlyn. haha.
They ate those up. I mean who wouldn't when it came to magic wish
granting apples, a magic homemade table that cleaned your house at
night, and a dream about becoming birds and flying though the sky.
hahahaha. so fun.

I just had a blast with the kids today. I love them so much and love
being their mom.

**These pics are just random recent pics that have nothing to do with my post ;) **

One step closer

You know its kind 0f crazy that I still have not officially graduated from college. I have 3 more general education classes to finish. Last Aug I got a scholarship for military spouses which purchased my last 3 classes via BYU Independent Study. I have one year to complete them (however you can purchase a 2-3 month extension). So I have to complete them by Aug 5th. Unless I purchase extensions and then it will be Oct or Nov 5th. With Matt gone and me having lots of free time when the kids are asleep as well as free babysitters galore while living with family, I decided its high time to get graduated! Don't you agree?!

I'm going to document my progress here so I'm responsible to more people than just myself.

I'm currently finishing my Political Science 202 Western Political Heritage class. I finished 9 lessons and their respective quizzes online as well as took the midterm. All within the last 2 weeks. I have 9 more lessons and quizzes and the final. I'm half way done with having 1 class down. I'm pretty proud of myself. ;)

TP & Hospital

We've been visiting family and friends in UT for the past month and been having a blast. We really lucked out with good friends allowing us to stay in their amazing extra house close to my brothers. Just after getting here I found a soaked TP roll on top of the toilet wrapped in a towel.

Lukas was in the bath and I asked him if he knew anything about it. He said "It fell on the floor mom so I washed it off". LOL.

My kids always seem to get seriously sick when we travel. This time was no exception and shortly after arriving both Luke and Lyd got serious colds, coughs and fevers so we went to the urgent care. Luke had strepp and Lyd had double ear infections. They were sick and cranky for 2 weeks. Unfortunately, Kaitlyn got it as well and wasn't doing too well so we went to the ER. She had to have all these tests so she got a catheter to test some urine, an IV to get some blood and to hydrate her, and a couple X-Rays. Luckily she didn't have to get a spinal tap! Test results showed she had RSV (which is just a cold but for newborns its very serious seeing as they can't clear their nose of snot which results in difficulty breathing). She also had mild pneumonia in her left lung. So they started antibiotics and kept her overnight because her blood oxygen levels were too low. We were seriously blessed because she improved drastically overnight so we were able to go home. With an 8 day course of antibiotics and a free pass to the respiratory therapy clinic at the hospital (where they clear out her nose so she can breathe) she's now almost completely healthy. We are so grateful the Lord continuously takes care of us. We certainly do love being healthy and happy!

Kaitlyn LaRita

Kaitlyn joined our little family on Valentine's day. She weighed 7 lbs 8 oz and was 19.5 inches long. She's just wonderful! I will tell the birth story as well as post hospital pics next time. For now I will post these adorable pics that my amazing sister in law took when K was 4 days old. Oh and can you see K's super cute heart birthmark on her forehead? She came out face up so we think that had something to do with it. ;)

Quick Update

So we are alive......;) I can't believe its been over 2 months since I posted last. We have moved back to family on the West coast from Mississippi and are waiting for baby sister to arrive in less than a week. So weird. Exciting, but weird to think that I will have 3 kids! Unfortunately it will be bitter sweet because dad will have to leave for a long time on deployment. I'm so glad I have the gospel and faith and my awesome family to lift me up while we deal with this trial. I just wanted to make a list of things I would like to post about once I'm feeling up to it. ;)

- Lukas' birthday (yes that was back in JULY! haha)
- Halloween
- California in Oct
- Moving to MS
- Thanksgiving
- Christmas
- My birthday
- Lydia's birthday
- Cross country trip to CA including our fun adventure to Disneyland!

What a pathetically long list that starts way back to last summer! haha. Well hopefully I will get to it all. Hope life is treating you all well!

Crayon/Box Car Holder Tutorial

I know I have a lot of catching up to do....but that's for later. I've been busy making Christmas gifts and thought I'd start some tutorials in case anyone else is interested. This first tutorial is for a crayon/box car holder. Really it can be used for anything you'd like. Use your imagination. ;) I did not come up with this pattern. A girl in my new Relief Society is the genius behind this and taught me at our ward's Super Saturday a few weekends ago. So I've made it into a tutorial for one and for all. Hope you enjoy. Oh and the next tutorial is for one adorable little girl's apron! I'm really excited to make that one. ;) So stay tuned if you are interested.....oh please, you know you are! ha