Catchin' Up!

Wow, I can't believe its almost December!

Late May the kids and I moved to California to live with my sister Karissa and her 3 kids. Jesse, her husband had just been deployed to Afghanistan. We figured since we were both by ourselved we may as well keep each other company. We had so much fun and the kids with in a couple weeks were acting like siblings. It was good to have someone to be around who was going through the same thing. So this is my shout out to my little sister... Thanks for all the fun. Every where we went people would stare at us, it was pretty amusing. Imagine... 2 women, 2 newborns, 2 3 yr olds, a 5 yr old, and a 7 yr old. We were quite the sight!

We were able to go to Sea World, Lego Land, the beach, the fair, swimming, we took a trip to Utah for Savannah's blessing, and Yuma (man that was a long drive, cracks me up thinking about it) to see Angela as little red riding hood in 'Into the Woods'. We also went off roading after a long trip just to throw off the kids. One time in particular that makes me laugh is all the kids had a melt down in the car after we bought some doughnuts and we told them they had to wait until we got home. We also had WAY too many visits to Urgent care. Let's see it involved, 3 staples for Adelynn, 5 stitched for Nolan, a very yucky mouth virus which cause very painful mouth sores for Nolan and Keyshon, some glue on Karissa's foot because she put her foot through a glass table, and a couple yucky colds for my little baby, so sad, but its totally cracking me up thinking about it now.

Haning out at home.

Typical sight in the car on our many excursions.

Cousins and Grandpa

The 3 cousins. Kira Ann, Dallin, and Savannah

We had a blast with Greg and Angela and their family for the 4th of July

Playing in the sand

Me and my cool little man Dallin

Keyshon and Nolan

Adelynn and Kendra

Waiting for the fire works to start.

Nolan, Keyshon, and Mia silly kids!

Adelynn, Nolan, Kymani, and Keyshon at the pool

Kymani and Adelynn at the Beach

Adelynn, such a pretty girl!

Nolan and Keyshon at Legoland



the 4 kiddos at legoland


Grandma and Dallin

Boot Camp Graduation

Well lets just say being away from Dwayne for 2 months was pretty brutal. I don't know what I am going to do when he gets deployed but we've agreed to not talk about it until it could actually happen. I was originally going to take the kids with me to his graduation but in the end just Dallin and I went. It was such a good time and sooooo good to see my hubby again, I mean come on, who can resist a man in uniform :-)

Love you Dwayne and I am so proud of you!

What we do while daddy's gone...

Its bathtime almost everyday!

Another one of my little man!
My 3 little munchkins. I love you guys so much!

Zoo pics

3 of the 4 new moms. Me, Roxanne, Megan

We also went to the. It was a warm day, but the kids had a blast seeing the animals and playing in the water features they had there. Adelynn got to see her favorite animal at the moment, the Giraffe. 4 of the giraffe's came over to the fence and just stood there. It was awesome.

The zoo and my boys!

The 3 most important and amazing men in my life.

Nolan and Jaxon on the tractor. Nolan was obssesed with all of the tractors.

We had fun at the Easter pageant, this is me, Dwayne and Dallin.

Our little man, such a cutie!

Before Dwayne left he was able to spend some quality time with the kiddos. He took them to the Aqualplex and camping. He is such and awesome dad! The kids were in heaven!

Ohh where to start?

These are some of the things we've been up to. We had a wonderful Easter with Dwayne's family. Full of fun with cousins, visiting, and 4 new babies (which were born all within 6 months). Dwayne got a call the week before Easter that they had an opening for the Navy. It is what I had been praying for. Well 2 weeks later (April 27th) he left us for a brand new adventure to boot camp. He is doing good. I have received 1 letter from him. This is a brand new experience for all of us, so I will be talking quite a bit about it. He said he got what they call the peanut butter shot, like on the movie Pearl Harbor. He said his butt was still hurting 2 days later. Sounds painful! :( We miss him dearly and can't wait to see our sailor on graduation. June 19th is the date and me and the kids are going to be making the 25 hour drive to see him. Anyone know of any good stops along the way from here to Illinois let me know.

After being sworn into active duty. He left for the airport 10 minutes later.

That Friday night before we spent some time with our dear friends the Goe's. The girls are 1 month apart and so are the boys. They had a great time playing and we had a great time catching up, talking business, life, and politics. We love you Jeff and Kami.

Easter afternoon, had to grab the kids before they took their church clothes off.

The 1st week

Sorry for all the posts in one day, just need to play catch up...

Dwayne... what can I say about my amazing husband. I don't know what I was thinking being able to do it without you (if you had to leave already for boot camp). When you're around I just feel everything will be ok and I know you'll take care of me. You were an amazing support during it all and I am so glad to have you!

Thanks to my mom and dad who were able to be here and take care of the kids and Dwayne and I for the first week. Thanks for all the yummy food and taking such good care of us.

Adelynn and Nolan having a little picnic on the front patio, couldn't pass up the beautiful weather.

The Delivery

So I tried everything (almost everything) to get myself to go into labor on my own. Nothing worked. Good thing we had scheduled an inducement for the 12th, otherwise I would probably still be pregnant. So I went in at 7:30 in the morning they gelled (does that look right?) me 3 times, which got some contractions going, I walked and walked and bounced on the ball, but no luck. They started pitocin (after I had an early dinner) around 5ish. I asked for my epidural at 6:20 ish, it kicked in around 7 ish, my water broke at 7:10 and little Dallin was out with 2 pushes by 7:44. This was my shortest and easiest labor and delivery by far. There was a little post delivery drama which involved a lot of blood, pitocin being turned up to a 10 to get my uterus contracting (it only took it being turned up to a 4 to have the baby), fluid being pumped out of Dallin's tummy, me taking a snooze because of being sooo tired from the loss of so much blood. Anyway around 11 we were in our recovery room getting ready for bed and very grateful for a happy healthy boy! It took us until the morning we left to decide on a name. It turns out the people in the room next to us named their little boy Dallin. (Hopefully it's not the new popular name.) I actually feel very good, this is the best and quickest recovery I've had. Here are some pre and post delivery pictures.

On our way into the hospital (the quality is not the greatest on these sorry). Had to have a picture of the belly.

Me and Dallin, see the dazed eyes, yeah this was right after the drama, I was about to fall asleep. ZZZZZZZ...

Lake Havasu

So the week before my due date, Dwayne's work asked him if he could drive to Lake Havasu on Saturday to drop off some papers. Getting paid time and a half for driving there plus 50cents/mile we couldn't pass it up. We decided to make it a family trip even though I was not supposed to be leaving flagstaff because I was so close to my due date (shhh don't tell anyone). We thought hey what the heck maybe it would put me into labor (no such luck). Here are some pictures of the trip, we had a good time, it's been a long time since we just went somewhere to hang out as a family. Kids had a blast throwing rocks in the lake. It made me want summer to get here with the beautiful weather and all.

Dwayne and the kids by the docks.

So yeah we've needed 3 new tires for about 9 months now and we've been putting it off because of a lack of extra cash flow, so this is Dwayne changing 1 of our bad tires with a monster bubble. Needless to say we bought 3 new tires with our tax return. Look at his little helper, Nolan was obsessed with the tire and called it a monster truck tire! Very funny boy!

Presenting....

Here he is...

(It's taken forever to get pictures on here)

Dallin Rondo Clement joined our family March 12, 2009 at 7:44pm. He was 9lbs and 21 1/2 inches (they measured him in the hospital at 19 1/4 but it was way off, we had him remeasured and he is indeed 21 1/2 inches). He is a great baby, likes to sleep, eat, and poop. We all love him bunches. Adelynn and Nolan love their little brother. They actually fight over who gets to hold him (very annoying and frustrating but nonetheless I welcome this problem over biting, hitting, and pulling him off the couch. Yep you got it. That's what Adelynn did to Nolan when we brought him home from the hospital)

Still puffy from delivery. He face was totally scrunched and puffy, so he looked very chubby. He definately has his dad's nose, eyes, hair line, and forehead. Skinny and long legs, fingers, toes, and feet. He has a pretty broad chest, for as big as he was he doesn't really have any chubby baby rolls.

Ohhhh so tired from a long day of sleeping. So cute!

This is right after we brought him home from the hospital. Because it is RSV season the kids were not able to come to the hospital to see him. Love at first sight for them both.

Life is good, more to follow!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!!!

Ok, so here is an amazing recipe. I used to make these all the time when I was in highschool and since moving to Flagstaff/getting married, I haven't really made them and when I did, they didn't turn out right. They would go FLAT!!! they still tasted good but I'm not a huge fan of flat cookies. So...with the help of my friend Vonessa and an article she found in a magazine (don't know which sorry) I figured out how to get a perfectly soft, not too cakey delicious chocolate chip cookie. See the recipe below and if you want to know the secret to changing the cookies to a more cakey, or crispy cookie let me know and I'll share the secret!
This recipe is originally from my aunt and they are titled Mrs. Fields Cookies

Cream together
1 C. Sugar
2 1/2 C. Brown Sugar
1/2 C. butter
1 1/2 C. Butter flavored Crisco
3 eggs
2 TBS Vanilla

Then add
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
5 C. Flour
(I sift this all together through my sifter, I think it adds air to the flour but not 100% sure of the purpose, not everyone has a sifter so you could just put all in a bowl and take a fork to it, fluffing it, I guess)

Then add 1 package chocolate chip cookies (sometimes I use less, sometimes more)

Bake at 350 degress for 7-10 minutes ( my oven the perfect time is a little over 9 minutes, but every oven is different, they should be a light brown on the bottom)

Let set a couple minutes on the pan (I make up the next pan while they sit, don't let them set too long) and then put on a cooling rack

I'm pretty sure this recipe makes like 5-7 dozen or so, so they are great for sharing!

Enjoy!!!!

Almost Spring Days and Freedom

Last friday was my last day of work for a couple of months. When Monday rolled around I got so much done, it felt so good and man was it a beautiful day. The kids played outside for a couple hours, I opened all the windows and enjoyed the warm weather. It felt so good to get things accomplished, many which needed to be done before the baby comes. I still have a lot to get done, but it was such a good reminder of how much I love being home with my kids with nowhere to go!! I miss it.
So I was all motivated last night with a nice to do list for today and guess what... Have I done anything... NO! The let down finally hit, but hey I still have a good 5-6 more hours, to at least get a few things done right?
Anyway, I need to update my blog with what's happened over the last little bit. I will do it hopefully before the baby comes, it may be wishful thinking though. 6 more days till the due date. Will the baby come early? Only time will tell and a very wishful pregnant lady will hope so!

Thanksgiving

We all trekked up to Utah to spend time together. Thanks to my sister Vanessa for letting us break her house in. (Let's not mention the lost TV remote in the plan). We were lucky enough to have my Grandma Barrus join us along with my Aunt Ann and Aunt Kathy and her family. The kids had a blast play with cousins and being with family we don't see very often!!!

Adelynn and Nolan inside the Joseph Smith building on Temple square. It was soooo busy but so pretty!

Nolan

Deep Fried Turkey YUMMMY!

Kendra and Adelynn

Cousins (Ben, Mia, Adelynn, and Kendra)

THE NAVY

So we did it. As of November 25th, Dwayne joined the United States Navy. His report date is July 28th, so he is technically not official, but he is official. This next year brings lots of change for us which will be good. God Bless America!!!