Jumping Jacks

Jumping Jacks is awesome!! My girls love it, and could play there alllll day. We had the pleasure of bringing one of Sydney's good friends Jaesi. Sadie goes CRAZY. Jumping for Sadie, is like swimming to a fish. She is constantly jumping. I want to record Sadie, and just document, just how much she jumps. So Jacks is totally her element. Fear is not a factor at all. The bigger the better. I stand by, and cringe, as she plunges head first. Sydney, always lets Sadie go first. I think it is her way of testing it out!Scarlett was a champ, and even fell asleep in her chair.
 This day will always be remembered. This was the day Jeff came home, and let us know his position at work was being dissolved. I think it was a blessing, we had such a fun day.

Halloween

Our house was closed the first of September. With all of the costs of being a home owner. Halloween was on the back burner. We got creative, and still had a blast!! I got the girls some wings, and they were fairies. Sydney hates anything out of the norm. This includes dress up. SO sad, right?! I finally convinced her to wear her costume, and she painfully agreed. Sadie was thrilled to have wings, and was as happy as could be. Squeaks did not have much of a choice. By how cute her pictures are below, I can honestly say she loved Halloween. We decided to go door to door, and attempt to meet our neighbors. It ended up being a success. Although we were all frozen, by the end. The girls had fully understood the concept,of trick or treat. We were begging them to be done! We came home showered, and like horrible parents. Put the girls to bed, and had a candy party! I love that all of the Holidays, with kids, is like being a kid all over again!

Neveda get-away

My sister Jenny and her family were going to spend a week in Vegas. With Jeff working, and trying to get everything done with the house. It was a perfect opportunity for the girls, and I to join Jenny and her family. After Scarlett's blessing, my sister and her family met us at our house. We were able to eat dinner together, and than head out. I was so excited to get some good quality time with my sister, and nieces, and nephews. We stayed in a house that had a pool, and a hot tub. It was a blast! Jenny, and Jeremy were even able to go on a much needed date. I babysat, with the help of the older kids. Having older kids is seriously a whole new ball game!! It was incredible! Majority of the time I was able to relax. I know someday I will look back at the stage I am in, and miss it, but right now the stage Jenny is at looks REEEEAAAALLLL good!! While the girls and I were away, vacationing it up. My amazing husband, was slaving away! He would go to work at 6, get done at 3, head straight to our new house, and clean. He did that for 5 days!! His family, was very kind, and helped a ton as well.

 

Sydney and Kailey were best buds! Kailey took good care of Syd

                                Ring-a-round the rosies was played over a million times

                                              Pants were not required

                                         Pictures were a must

                                          Lounging in the pool, was a daily

                                            Best friends

Scarlett D

Scarlett Darlene was blessed September 21, 2013.
The day could not have been any more perfect. My mom, and two sisters were able attend. I met my sweet niece Hannah for the first time, and instantly fell in love with her chubby cheeks. During the weekend of Scarlett's blessing we were notified, our offer on our house had been approved! My family came the weekend of the Relief Society broadcast. It was seriously a dream to have some of the woman I love the most with me during such a neat meeting. After having a baby, I became a baby. I may or may not have balled of happiness a few times. After the broadcast, I was able to take my fam to scout out our new house. Since we did not have keys at that point we broke in looked through the windows. My Family was so excited for me!! Showing them the house, was such a joy!
The next day was Scarlett's big day! We were privileged to bless squeaks in a dress 100+ years old.  Her dress was hand sewn in 1830, by Jeff's great great great great(forgive me if I forgot a great) grandma. This dress is a masterpiece. The spirit of this beautiful dress, really set the tone for this special day. Scarlett was as cute as could be. On this day, there were two other babies being blessed. Scarlett D loves to eat! Church, to her is just 3 hours of eating. I knew blessing her would be a challenge. I went with a prayer in my heart, and faith that it would all work out. It did all work out, but she was the first baby to be blessed. I had just walked out to hurry, and feed her, when her name was called! Poor starving girl, cried the entire blessing! Jeff still did great, and I cried as usual right along with squeaks. The blessing was over way too soon. What a blessing to have knowledge of this sweet gospel. I pray that my children will have the desire to gain a testimony of this gospel.

A Bad Country Song

Our life as of lately has been 1 crazy roller-coaster ride! One that, I would not ever wish to get off. Through the good, the bad and the ugly, I have learned to NEVER take a moment for granted. Reflecting, on the last few weeks. I have come to the conclusion that our life sounds like a bad country song! You know what I am talking about! The one about the guy who found out his wife was cheating on him, he got in a bar fight. The song where so many things have gone wrong, it qualifies as a country song. Well at this point I kind of feel like we are living the life of the character in the "bad" country song.
As talked about in a previous post, we purchased a house. Not just A house, basically our dream home. Jeff lost his job, and then Jeff got a better job. Sadie, and Scarlett got croup. It was so sad!! Jeff, one night had Sadie sleep on his chest ALL NIGHT LONG(or so he says) to help her through the night. He is such an amazing daddy, and I truly look up to him, as to how to be a better parent. Thankfully with squeaks we were able to catch it right away, and she kicked it so quick. Essential oils work! Sydney took it upon herself to cut her hair. I know "everyone has to go through it", but I was supposed to be the

exception

. So we had to cut her beautiful hair. This next thing just happened. Our world is still a little upside down. On Thursday night our horse was acting a tad funny. Jeff was not concerned. The next morning Jeff went to work, and he asked me to feed the horses. When I walked out, I saw our Spice laying on the ground. I had never seen him in that position, and I was almost sure he was not breathing. I called Jeff, and told him I thought Spice was dead. Right when I said that Spice stood up! I was soo relieved. Spice got up, but would fall back down. It was so sad to witness. I begged Jeff to hurry home, and made frantic concerned phone call, to one of our neighbors. Our neighbor was so kind to come over. Jeff, and Justin arrived at the same time. I was able to take my frantic concerned self-inside, and breath. Justin told Jeff that Spice had colic. I had no idea how serious colic could be for an animal. When Jeff told me Spice had colic, I breathed a sigh of relief! Naive Amanda, apparently colic is life threatening if horses get it. Justin said he knew a vet who would come, and see him. Jeff, and I decided to do it. Spice was a part of our family, and if there was a chance to help save him, you can bet your bottom dollar we were going to jump on it. The vet seemed to take an eternity to come, and poor Jeff just sat, worried sick about Spice. The vet, finally got there. He confirmed Spice had colic, and explained it was pretty much constipation. Now this seems like an easy fix, heck if it was fatal to humans, I would have been dead years ago. Apparently horse’s insides, are very different than ours. This kind of a block in a horse, is extremely painful, and very hard to recover from. The vet told us he could try sedating Spice, and give him a laxative. The vet said Spice had a pretty good chance of recovering. We kept an eye on him, and prayed. By Saturday morning Spice had still not pooped. We were so sad, but we were accepting that this was going to kill Spice. Jeff had obligations, and left. Which left me to horse duty. Poor Spice was in so much pain, and I could not stand watching him suffer. So the mom in me jumped into gear. If one of my kids was not drinking, and really needed to. I would force feed them. So I walked out to Spice, and opened his mouth, and poured a bucket of water down his throat. A lot of it went on the ground, but he drank a good amount. I continued to do this. After he got up and started walking around. I was sure I saved him. I told Jeff when he got home, and he was thrilled. We continued to force Spice to drink, and although he still looked weak, he seemed to be improving. Sunday after church we came home, and Spice had pooped!!!! We were so excited. We had no doubt that he would make it. He was coming back to his normal spunky self. He was still not eating, but he was drinking, and he stopped dropping to the ground. Jeff decided on Monday he would go, and get him some oats. On Monday Spice seemed to be thriving. He was in no means 100%, but in our eyes he was 75%. Jeff went to work, and I checked on Spice often. The girls often would peak out the window, and cheer, "Spice is standing up!!". I put the girls down for a nap, and was relaxing for a minute. I looked out the window, and saw Spice was down. My heart dropped, and I went outside to get him up. When I got to his pen I knew. I was devastated.  The girls and I had JUST looked out the window. Spice was even eating. I was dreading having to make the phone call to Jeff. Spice was the only other boy in our house. He was Jeff’s "out".  Spice was Jeff's best friend, Jeff had two best friends. Me, obviously, and Spice. I called Jeff, and he was just as shocked. We buried spice in our back yard. He was a good boy. 
This bad country song does have some good.
We have each other. We have the gospel. The girls slept through the whole ordeal. Spice got sick Thanksgiving weekend. We had lots of time to bond, and say our goodbyes.  Sydney’s hair will grow back. Jeff got a job. Sadie, and Scarlett are better. 
Although this seemed like a bad country song, it actually is a good country song. We struggled, we lost, but we are healing!! 
Spice will be missed. The girls still are not aware that he is gone. We are trying to figure out how to break it to them. He was so much more than just a pet to us. We truly loved that horse. We will remember the good, and forget his last few days.