Jaida's 7th Birthday!

I can't believe that my little girl just turned 7! How time flies. She is so sweet, sassy, smart, sensitive, funny, curious, and just amazing. I love her so much. She continues to amaze me everyday and is quite the helper. She loves school, friends, shopping, sweets, swimming, dancing, singing, and anything social. I am so grateful to her birthmom for giving me the opportunity to raise such a great girl. I love her with everything that I am and could not be happier with my lovely Jaida Shaye! :)

Isn't she adorable?

Jaida wanted a swimming mask for her birthday.

She got a new cute swimsuit. She loves to be in the water.

She had a great birthday party. She had a water party with a slip n slide, water games, water balloons, and a water fight. It was fun.

Of course she had to have cupcakes and ice cream. There are 7 skittles on each cupcake for our 7 year old girl!

Spoiled Girls on Valentines

I want to start off first by saying that I am not really a Valentines girl. Don't get me wrong. I love to be romanced by my man and taken out and all that fun stuff but I want it to be on just an ordinary day. I think the whole thing of Valentines is just a way to boost the economy and that's ok but needless to say, I tell Luke that I don't want flowers or chocolates because it's expected. I am more practical and would rather something like a shirt that will last much longer :)
I do however, want my girls to start getting in their minds even at their young ages, the types of boys they should be looking for. This comes from watching their Daddy. Luke opens all the doors for me and my girls EVERYTIME we go anywhere. The girls see this and expect the same from all boys. I LOVE this! Luke started a tradition to give the girls a flower on Valentine's to show his love for them and to show them how a boy treats a girl. This year he surprised me and got me a single red rose to their red carnations. I know what I said earlier about not getting me flowers, but you see, it wasn't expected and I have to admit.. I LOVED it! My girls loved their flowers too :)

Welcome to the Rowley Theater...

The other night, Luke came up with an idea. Usually when he comes up with an idea it involves guns(I always say he is obsessed but he disagrees) but this one didn't. He wanted to put together a movie night for the kids where they would have to "buy" their tickets and their snacks for a family night of fun. He put the whole thing together and I have to say that I am more and more attracted to him everyday! Being a great father is one of the many reasons why I love this man! :)

He put all the snacks together. He typed up how much everything was and typed up money for the kids to use. He even made the oatmeal cookies! Yeah he's pretty much amazing!

The kids are anxious to start buying. They LOVED this! All the kids counted how much money they had and bought the things they wanted according to how much they had. Even Jenna got the hang of it and said, "If I have two one dollars can I buy something for two dollars?" Yes, she gets her brilliance from me. :)



He is the hardworking, amazing, father of the year in my book!

Isaac's 9th Birthday

I can't believe my 1st baby is 9 years old already! I really feel like it was yesterday when we picked him up in Philadelphia. He made me a mom for the 1st time and I will forever be grateful to this little boy. He is so handsome, smart, creative, artistic, athletic, sweet, compassionate, and the most loving boy I could ever ask for. I love him so much and I hope I can always be the mom he deserves.
For a little while now Isaac has told me he wants a bearded dragon. I blame his 3rd grade teacher for this since she has one in the classroom. :) I told Isaac that he would have to earn the money to buy one for himself if he wanted one so badly. This usually takes a while since he has no real way to earn a lot of money but now he is starting to "get" it. He knows that when his birthday comes around he can ask for money and people will give that to him for his birthday. Well needless to say, he is about halfway there now so it is only a matter of time before he buys one. I thought I would try and get used to the idea by looking at them online and doing some research (like I always do) and found out they are pretty cool. I started looking at KSL to see how expensive they are and thats where I found an ad for a reptile show at a really affordable price. I called and they agreed to come all the way down to Nephi to do a show for Isaac's birthday party. He was so excited and invited all his friends. Here are the pictures from this fun day.




This is a bearded dragon. I got this shot right as it ate a cricket. You can even see the cricket's eyes. They are pretty cool.

This snake loved Isaac. He loved him so much he tried to wrap himself around his face! Isaac just laughed and thought is was funny.


So stinkin cute!

Isaac holding a tarantula with his best friend Mason. (seriously so brave! I wouldn't go near it)


The cupcakes I made for the party.


Isaac with the bearded dragon.


This is a live baby mouse that is about to be eaten by this snake. I have to say that I did feel bad about this one. I'm not a mice fan but this was a little baby and there's something about a baby mouse being eaten that wasn't appealing but....

as you can see, it was fast and it didn't suffer. (I hope)

He loved this party. I hope it is one that he will always remember.
I should say that the two little girls you see in one of the pictures did almost the entire show. All the animals were theirs and they knew so much information. I was really impressed.



Singing Happy Birthday

Mason holding the bearded dragon

All of Isaac's friends enjoying the huge snake!
What a great party!

Interviewing my kids....

So I was on Pinterest (something that I am on everday) :) I saw this pin about how a mom interviews her kids every year to see what they say and how they change. I did this tonight and I have to admit it was pretty fun. It was also seriously funny. I hope I remember to do this again next year!

This is Isaac's Interview:
1. What does Mommy always say to you?
You gotta get your room done
2. What makes Mommy happy?

When I listen
3. What makes Mommy sad?
When I don’t listen.
4. How does Mommy make you laugh?
Tickle

5. What was Mommy like as a kid?
Nice, friendly, and awesome.
6. How old is Mommy?
34
7. How tall is Mommy?
A little tall
8. What is Mommy’s favorite thing to do?

Have lots of fun
9. What does Mommy do when you’re not around?
Sleep with Daddy (I would just like to say for the record... I think he's talking about sleep but I will accept both! :) )
10. What will Mommy be famous for?
Working at Junior High

11. What is Mommy really good at?
teaching
12. What does Mommy do for her job?
Teach kids
13. What is Mommy’s favorite food?
Texas Roadhouse
14. What cartoon character reminds you of Mommy?

The Grandma that owns tweety bird because she’s always taking care of him.
15. How are you and Mommy the same?
We both like to play and we both like to have fun. We both like animals.
16. How are we different?
You’re a grown up and you are the boss.
17. What is Mommy’s favorite place to go?

Pet shop
18. How do you know Mommy loves you?

She takes good care of me and she sings songs to me at night time. She makes me lunch and always leaves a note for me when I go on field trips that tell me that she loves me. ( I just want to say here that I have the best son in the world. When he said the last part he got all teary and started to cry and said, “it just makes me so happy.” I love this little

Here is Jaida's Interview Age 6:
19. What does Mommy always say to you?
Listen and obey.
20. What makes Mommy happy?
When you do your chores and when you do something that you’re not supposed to do that Mommy wasn’t expecting.

21. What makes Mommy sad?
When you don’t listen and obey and do what she says.
22. How does Mommy make you laugh?

When you tease me.
23. What was Mommy like as a kid?
Mommy had brown hair when she was little and she was really short.
24. How old is Mommy?
34
25. How tall is Mommy?
It looks like you’re 3 feet tall
26. What is Mommy’s favorite thing to do?
To just have fun everyday.

27. What does Mommy do when you’re not around?
She gets frightened, like so nervous and scared.
28. What will Mommy be famous for?

A rock star or if you get in the newspaper.

29. What is Mommy really good at?
She’s really good at playing memory.

30. What does Mommy do for her job?
Teach junior high
31. What is Mommy’s favorite food?
salad
32. What cartoon character reminds you of Mommy?
Fresh Beat Band because she has the same hair as you.

33. How are you and Mommy the same?
With our twinner boots and our hair is sort of the same color.
34. How are we different?
You have peach skin and I have brown skin. We are also wearing different color of shirts.
35. What is Mommy’s favorite place to go?
Dates with Daddy and your anniversary

36. How do you know Mommy loves you?

Because she tells me and she adopted me.

Here is Jenna's Interview Age 4:
37. What does Mommy always say to you?
I love you
38. What makes Mommy happy?
Giving you kisses.

39. What makes Mommy sad?
When I say I hate you and I don’t do the right things.
40. How does Mommy make you laugh?
Saying funny things

41. What was Mommy like as a kid?
She was like Jenna
42. How old is Mommy?
91
43. How tall is Mommy?
51 feet
44. What is Mommy’s favorite thing to do?
Play with Jenna

45. What does Mommy do when you’re not around?
Do her own things that she wants to do.
46. What will Mommy be famous for?
Putting on a beautiful dress and looking fancy

47. What is Mommy really good at?
Doing puzzles

48. What does Mommy do for her job?
She does a lot of things that are hard because she does hard work
49. What is Mommy’s favorite food?
Chicken noodle soup
50. What cartoon character reminds you of Mommy?
Spongebob squarepants because your head is kinda the same.

51. How are you and Mommy the same?
We have the same skin
52. How are we different?
We have different hair
53. What is Mommy’s favorite place to go?
Home sweet home

54. How do you know Mommy loves you?
Because she kisses me a lot.

Well I hope you laughed as much as I did and I hope this has opened your eyes to me as a mom. Apparently I'm a mix between a grandma and spongebob... go figure!

Jenna's 4th Birthday

I can't believe that my baby just turned 4! She is one of those "lucky" kids who have their birthday right around Christmas time! December 27th is when my last miracle baby came into our lives! Our lives have never been the same and I love having our sweet, spunky, competitive, funny, sassy, tomboy, and princess in our home! I love you Jenna Sage :)

Jenna thanking Daddy for her new outfit and showing it off for the camera :)




Jenna got spoiled for her birthday. I think she thinks that her birthday is just Christmas but a couple days later. She gets spoiled in December that's for sure :)






We also had a Christmas party on her birthday with Luke's Dad, so that is where we sang to Jenna and had her blow out candles. She is such a cute girl and loved all the attention.

Christmas 2011

This has been a crazy year for us. We had to move to Nephi in October because Luke got a police officer job there and they require that you live in the city. (Don't get me started on that law!) So we moved our family down here and I have to admit, its kind of a cute little town with some really nice people. I'm not saying I want to live here forever but for now its nice. We moved from a 3 bedroom 1 bath house to a 5 bedroom 3 bath house and we have so much space! Christmas was really fun this year because my kids were all at perfect ages! It was a new house, new school, and 1st Christmas in the house feel and it was awesome!

These were the letters that Isaac and Jaida left for Santa. I thought they were so cute I had to post the pictures. I love how sweet they are :)




What did Christmas Morning bring?....






We had a lot of happy kids and dare I say that Santa was exhausted! :) We were so blessed this Christmas and I think that next year I want to tone it down some and teach my kids the joy of serving others. I'm not saying Santa won't visit, I'm just saying I started to think about all my kids received and I started to think about how there are so many people in the world that go without that I may not go Black Friday shopping like I always do, I may not find "great" deals that I think my kids can't live without, I may serve more, create more, and find time to spend with the people who matter most. Remind me to read this post when November comes will you? :)