London Temple trip

Friday night we put everyone to bed early and got everything ready to leave by 7am Saturday morning. This is how these 3 were sleeping when I came to bed:)

Saturday morning we woke up early, even the kids. They were all awake by 6:15, and Parker by 6:45! We ate and got dressed and loaded up in the car. It was cute how excited the kids were to go to the temple. When we got there we walked around the little book store for a couple minutes, then left the kids with some friends while Blake and I went into the temple. We got to go through a session with a couple from our temple prep class. What a special day! We got to also see them sealed to each other and her to her mom and dad. It is amazing the joy that you can feel in the temple. I don't know of any other place where I can feel so much peace and joy.

Blake, Alissa and Remi

London, England temple

Remi in front of the temple

So a few weeks ago I finished the Book of Mormon and decided to study by topic for a while instead of reading straight through. I wanted to study love and find ways to show more love to my family. I have really struggled in the last few weeks with feeling and showing love, especially towards the kids. I have just felt like I have no patience and been annoyed by the smallest things they do wrong. I know part of the problem is I just haven't felt good, but they deserve better. So I have studied in the topical guide, read scriptures that have to do with love, discipline, charity and on and on. I haven't really had a good answer. Then when I went to the temple yesterday as I was listening the thought came to me how patient our Father in Heaven is with us. We are told things we need to be doing again, and again, and again. We are supposed to go to the temple often to remember the covenants we make there. We take the sacrament every week to remind us of our baptismal covenant. There are so many things in church that we learn through repetition. We hear the same things over and over and over again throughout our whole lives and one day it might make all the difference in the world. It might cause a change of heart for us. Maybe that time when we hear it we are ready. Through all this repetition, and hearing things over and over again, whether it is the Prophet in General Conference, or our Bishop or the Sunday School teacher they always teach with love. They never start yelling at us because say, we don't read our scriptures every day. I have been taught from the time I was born to read my scriptures and sometimes I don't. No one has ever yelled at me for this. Or when I don't do my visiting teacher the Relief Society Presiden isn't here yelling at me saying what were you thinking? Then I started thinking about my own children. They are just that children. They are children of God. So, he is allowing me to have the experience of raising these children, his children. If he were here raising them is he going to yell at them for every little thing they do wrong, or remind gently again and again and again. I don't think this means they can walk all over me, but I can say no, or remind gently and calmly and maybe they will react better. I hope this makes a difference in our home. I sometimes hear the way our kids talk to each other and I cringe. I think they learned it from me and it breaks my heart. I hope that I can change my example and we can fix this problem and show more love in our home and make it a heavenly home. I am so grateful I can go to the temple, even if I don't get to go as often as I used to be able to go. I am also so grateful for a Father in Heaven is so patient with me. He loves me no matter what and is so patient as I am learning in this life.

More birthday!

It is sometimes hard living so far from family, but I guess one fun thing is we get to celebrate birthdays for a few weeks. We never know how fast or slow packages will get here, so whether we order something or family sends gifts we usually get them at random times and just keep the celebration going! We got Alissa's birthday presents from both grandmas and grandpas on Wednesday, so after soccer practice we came home and let Alissa open them, with some help of course.

Alissa opening her ballerina doll with Remi and Broden's help

Alissa getting a glimpse

Alissa so excited and hugging the doll, Remi and Broden admiring!

Alissa all dressed up and dancing!

Grandma and Grandpa Jones got Alissa a cute skirt, slippers, a wand and a Ballerina doll that attaches to Alissa's feet so they can dance together. She was loving dressing up and dancing! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Jones!

Modeling her necklaces from Grandma and Grandpa DD.

More jewelry!

Excited about all the gifts!

Grandma and Grandpa DD sent a box full of necklaces, bracelets, dress up clothes(some for me thanks Cindy!), and a purse full of all kinds of goodies. I'm pretty sure we spent about 2 hours opening and playing with toys Wednesday night and another couple hours Thursday morning before school. I'm still not sure if Remi and Alissa have discovered all the pockets in the purse. They will still come out showing me something new they have discovered in the purse:) Thanks Grandma and Grandpa DD. What a fun birthday month!

She's 4!!!!

Yesterday, September 15, 2012 we celebrated Alissa Renee Jones' 4th birthday! Everyone was up and in our bed bright and early, before 7. We played in bed for a while, then Blake took Alissa to the local grocery store to get donuts for breakfast. They even had chocolate filled donuts. We think it was especially for her birthday because we have never seen them before. So for breakfast we had chocolate and jam filled donuts and chocolate milk and Alissa even got to eat her kit kat she picked out at the store. She was in heaven with all that chocolate and sugar.

Alissa getting ready to blow out her candle

Alissa enjoying her kit kat

posing

Showing us how old she is

 When Blake and Alissa got home from getting donuts she said where is my party and my friends. I guess she remembers last year when Blake took her for a walk down to the store and when she got back we had a surprise party for her. I guess she was expecting a party on her birthday. Our kids struggle with the idea that birthday parties are different than actual birth days!

We had talked about doing a party Sunday afternoon, kinda low key with our family/friends here, but decided we could do one later that night. So, we did what we do best, last minute plans:) We spent the morning shopping, then dashed home so Blake could head to his football(soccer) match. Then me Remi and Broden put away groceries, made a cake, swept, mopped, vacuumed, ate lunch, decorated the living room, blew up balloons and decorated a cake all in 2 and a half hours. Then we headed to the park to play volleyball and let the kids play. After that we got pizza and brought it home and hung out with friends, ate pizza, had cake and ice cream and opened presents.

The tinkerbell flower cake

Alissa blowing out the candles

Everyone taking a turn to blow out the candles

Alissa opening presents

everyone watching the doll sing "peekaboo I see you"

Alissa and her bestie Alivia or "Livi"

Alissa enjoying her new bike we got her

 Near the end of her party Alissa ran out with chocolate all over her face. I took her in the kitchen and asked her what she did and she said Livi lifted her up on the counter and she was really hungry, so she took a bite of her cake. This is her smile while she was telling me this story. It was too cute!

Alissa and her messy cake face

Alissa has such a fun personality! She is a lover of chocolate and all things sweet. Some of the funny things she has done recently, are:

• In the car she was hitting Remi with a water bottle and I told her to give it to me. She threw a big fit and was screaming,"Noooo, I tooo hungry!"
• Any time she wants candy or a treat and I tell her no, she says, but I sooooo hungry.
• She is so used to snacking and sneaking treats all the time, and at school she doesn't get to. I can tell she is hungry because every day I pack her half a sandwich and some fruit and yogurt. When she gets home the first thing she asks for is a peanut and butter and honey and wanwich(peanut butter and honey sandwich)
• She attaches herself to some adults and loves them! Her sunbeam teacher and one of our good family friends is one of them, then another one is Sister Taow. We have done a few things with her on Saturdays and Alissa loves her. She calls her sister Towel and gets so excited when we see her, or ever pictures of her.
• I have been trying to teach Alissa to spell her name for a while now and she just wasn't getting it. She couldn't even remember past A-L. So the first day of school the teacher showed her the little tag with her name on it to put on a bin to put her stuff in. She can now find that all by herself. I am starting to think she was tricking me about spelling her name. Tonight I had her spell her name for Blake and she copied me and said A-L-I then after me again S-S-A. No problems, it was like it was easy for her and she had been doing it forever. She will also point out all the m, s, and a, sounds and say mmmmmm, sssssssss, aaaaaaaaaa when she sees them. We did a few lessons in the reading book a couple months ago and she remembers. I think she doesn't want to grow up:)

We love our Alissa and all the joy she brings to our family!

Camera fun

I wanted to practice taking pictures so I had Remi and Parker be my guinea pigs. Remi thought I was going to let her take pictures. So after I played with the camera for a while I let her and she took some good pictures. She was in the Manual mode even, not auto!

Parker focusing on racing his cars with his cracker(Jenny)

Parker swinging(Jenny)

Remi Swinging(Jenny)

Parker swinging(Jenny)

Me being silly(Remi)

Parker riding his trike(Remi)

Parker laughing at Remi(Remi)

When Remi was chasing Parker with the camera he was being so funny. He would run and hide, then jump out and laugh, then run away again. It was so much fun playing with them and watching them play!

First day of school

Alissa started going to school on Tuesday the 11th of September. She goes to Butterflies Nursery. Preschool here is more like daycare in the United States, but she loves it so far. They learn through playing. She was a little nervous at first, but as soon as she started playing with the play doh she was just fine. It was kinda funny as I was leaving I was a little sad that I would just have Parker at home. I didn't actually cry, but I rubbed my eye and one of the workers asked me if I would be ok. She could probably see the sadness in my face. I miss her when she is gone, but Parker really misses her. He is so lonely with just mom.

Alissa being silly

Parker saying bye

Headed out the door
Couldn't find her lunch box anywhere, so she got to use Remi's old one:)

Alissa so excited and Parker wondering what she has for lunch!

Garden and Baseball

 We finally got back in contact with Remi's baseball coach and got her trophy. It is huge. She was so excited and proud of herself!

This is one of the carrots Broden picked from the Garden. We have had some pretty funny carrots. I think we thinned them out the wrong way, maybe a little too close and we had carrots growing together. It has made for good entertainment. Whenever they pull up a carrot they are so excited to see what it is going to look like. The rule for them though is if they pick it they have to eat it. They like that part too though.

Announcing #...........

A couple weeks ago when my back was hurting we sat the kids down for family home evening and told them we were going to have another baby. They were SOOOOOO excited!!! Our friends They had already been so much help with my back, but they all started talking about all the things they would do for me. It went kind of like this, I would stay in bed and Remi and Broden would bring me breakfast in bed. Remi would get Parker up and her and Broden would take care of Alissa and Parker and do their piano and reading and Dad would go grocery shopping. It was so cute. The next morning I had something going on, so I actually got out of bed before the kids. When they came downstairs they were playing and I got them breakfast. I asked about them helping and they said I got out of bed, so they didn't need to. It was too funny. I guess I should have just stayed in bed:)

The kids and Blake have been so good to me though. I was only 6 weeks along when I hurt my back and we had our home teacher come over and him and Blake gave me a blessing. I was told I would be able to accomplish what I needed to during the day. I guess what I needed to accomplish in my mind was different than what Heavenly Father thought were needs. Between being pregnant and kinda sick and not being able to move much because of my back the kids were on their own a lot. I think their "needs" were met. They were fed and we watched lots of movies and read books together. Other than that they played and took care of each other. They were great.

After about 3 weeks my back felt tons better and we started telling people we were expecting too. Now life has kinda returned to normal. I fell better, other than a little nausea occasionally and being tired. The kids are in school again and about to start indoor soccer with Blake as their coach, we have played softball and tennis and are planning to play volleyball this week too! It is so nice to be active again. I even started running again last week and it feels so good. I feel free! My body was so sore the first few times I exercised because I haven't done anything but lay on the couch and bed for 3 weeks. I keep thinking now how grateful I am for my health. I have thought that before, but I haven't ever really had something happen to me where I couldn't exercise or take care of my family. The only other time I wasn't able to take care of Remi when she was a baby and the 5 kids I was nannying for I called my dad and he took care of us.

It has been so nice here in England though. We have a great ward family and although many of the women didn't know I was hurting, or pregnant they still were there for me. We would still make it to play group and different activities and I would just kinda lay there, but it was nice to let the kids play and to chat with the other women. I'm so glad we have made friends here. It was really hard the first 6 months, feeling like we didn't really have friends, but a combination of things led us to really feel like we have great friends. I always love visiting teaching, because it gets me outside my comfort zone and I make friends I may not have made other wise. We also have played sports with different people and invited people to do things and that has created friendships too. I have also made friends through my calling. The women I serve with are amazing and I know most people don't love meetings, but I do. I love spending time with them and trying to know how to serve the primary children better.

Well this was a little random about more than baby #5, but I felt like I should write these things. We are excited for baby #5 and I think it is so fun now that Remi and Broden are a little older and even Alissa. They are really excited and are always talking about the baby and even talking to the baby. Remi is always sure to give Alissa and Parker a hug and kiss before school and now she does that to my tummy too. Broden loves to kiss my tummy and tell everyone we are having another baby. The other day when I went to the doctor and when we were crossing the street a car stopped to let us cross. Broden said that he probably stopped because my tummy is getting bigger and he thought I was having another baby. It was too funny. They love seeing how big the baby is compared to different fruits and what it looks like and what it is doing. I love that they are so excited. It is going to be so nice that they will be so helpful. Parker even will be "helpful." There have been about 8 babies born in our ward this summer and he loves all of them and loves to help. He pushes their swings, says sssshhhhhhhh rocks their car seats and tries to tickle them. Some of it isn't as helpful as he is trying to be, but he is cute and will hopefully learn how to treat babies before we have our own. All our other kids had a sibling before they were Parker's age, so they knew about babies. He is just learning and it is so fun to watch.

Boating the Broads

Saturday morning we headed over to Wroxham to boat the Broads. They are like canals that go all over and you can rent these boats to drive all over. We rented a boat with some friends from our ward and enjoyed cruising around.

Parker ready to go!

Alissa, Broden and Remi

 Blake thought it would be fun to snorkel, so I took the wheel and he jumped in! The water was freezing, so he lasted about 10 seconds before he swam back to the boat. It wasn't too deep and he could touch, which was probably a good thing because I think the cold water took his breath away.

Blake frozen

 Our friends brought their raft, so we blew it up and tied it on back. Blake tried it out with Alissa and she loved it! Then we had Remi, Shaylee and Rylinn try it. They liked it at first, then some water got in it and they all panicked. Remi was screaming and crying saying we're sinking, MOM we are going to sink. I thought it was pretty funny, but they sure didn't. We stopped and pulled them in and they were terrified. I guess when you are out of reach of your parents, being pulled by a boat in deep water it would be pretty scary. I knew they were safe, but they sure didn't feel safe. They did get in the raft again later, but not being pulled by the boat.

Alissa and Blake

After the girls got out Blake and Parker went for a ride. Parker thought it was great!

Parker and Blake

 We found a place to dock the boat and then walked to a little swimming area. The kids(and dads) had fun swimming, splashing and catching fish!

Remi

Alissa

Blake splashing Parker

Parker would walk over to Blake and splash him. Then Blake would start to splash him back and he would run away laughing and screaming. it was too cute.

Broden, Parker, Remi, Shaylee and Alissa checking out all the things they caught with a girl who was helping them.

We had a fun time boating the broads. I even impressed Blake with my boat driving skills. There aren't many things I know how to do that Blake doesn't, but I guess he had never driven a boat until yesterday  so I learned I knew how to do something he didn't. It isn't too hard and he didn't have a problem with it.  I'm so happy the weather is still so nice. We are trying to enjoy every day of nice weather we are having!

First day of school

Remi and Broden went back to school on the Wednesday after Labor day. Remi is in year 3 here, which is like 2nd grade in the US. Broden is in year 1 which is equal to kindergarden. The last 2 weeks of the year before everyone finds out who their new teacher is and goes to their new class. I thought this was a great idea, because when the new year started they already knew who their teachers were, where their class was and who was in their class. It took a lot of the scariness out of the first day of school.

Remi was still a little scared the night before, but morning came and she was ready to go. She loves school and learning. Her reading has improved so much and so has her math. It is fun to listen to her read books to herself or to other people. 

Broden was just excited for school. I think his favorite part is making new friends. Its pretty cute! He is also getting really good at reading and math. His teachers send home books for him to read to us and at the end of last year he brought home a book that was one of the first books Remi brought home when we moved here. The just learn to read so much younger here. 

Broden and Remi

Broden year 1

Remi year 3

I also signed Alissa up for Preschool. She starts on Tuesday and goes Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9-1. Preschool here isn't quite as structured as in the states, but she is really excited. I think it will be good for her to learn from other adults. She seems to listen better to them than me:)

Labor Day weekend

So on Labor Day weekend Blake was on call so we couldn't really travel anywhere outside of an hour from base. So, we went to Camp Liahona, a church owned camping area. It is the closest to "real" camping you can get in England. Because it is church owned it had to be a ward sponsored event, so we invited everyone in the ward. A few people came each night, and we enjoyed a relaxing weekend with tin foil dinners, cobbler, ropes courses, badminton, bocce ball, candy, cookies, marshmallows and smores, shooting the bow and arrow and enjoying good company around the campfire. It was so much fun and so relaxing!

We did leave Saturday around 11:30 to go to Blake's soccer game, then home to shower, then to base for pizza and softball. We slept in our own beds that night so we could make it to church on time the next morning. I had a meeting at 8 and didn't see Blake getting everyone up, showered, dressed and to church by 9:30 if we were still at the campground. So we slept at home, then went back up after church on Sunday and enjoyed some Book of Mormon matching games, uno and other games as a family. It was an awesome weekend!

Broden lighting the fire

Remi lighting the coals with Shawn

Blake, Shaylee and Broden watching Remi and Shawn light the coals

Remi shooting the bow and arrow with Blake

Broden shooting the bow and arrow

Broden shooting

Alissa, trying to work up the courage to shoot

Mom shooting

One of my shots

Alissa finally getting enough courage to shoot

Parker helping dad shoot

Broden shooting some more

Our tent and handcart to haul all our stuff and kids:)