Stooqed

My little Cliffy James is sweet, honest, loving, thoughtful, giving, funny, snugly, full of compliments, cute, generous and every other positive attribute there is out there!!! Seriously, he takes after his dad entirely!!! I'm so glad that he got all of the wonderful qualities that his AMAZING father has.

When the kids come home from school, Elaina is usually full of stories about her day. I love that she likes to inform me of what is going on at school. I usually have no problem listening to the drama in her 9 year old life. Sometimes it is overwhelming. I have at times had to be rude and ask her to "ZIP IT"! She tends to go on and on and on... What can I say, she takes after me!! Elaina is amazing too, but this post is about Cliff, so I'll be sure to post a complimentary post about my sweet girl in the near future.

Anyway, the other day when the kids came home from school, Cliff was the talkative one (very unusual). He was extremely distressed and just had to tell me a very important story from school. This is how the story went.

Cliff: "Today we were talking about our brothers and sisters, and I told my friends that my sister Lainey is nice to me. (He began to get a frowny face as he was talking). Then Matthew said that my sister was stupid!!!!!"

Mom: "O.K. well Cliff he was just being a meanie, just ignore kids that say dumb stuff."

Lainey: "Yeah Cliff, that doesn't hurt my feelings cause that kid doesn't even know me."

Cliff: (frowny face) "Yeah, but that really made me mad."

Mom: "Well did you tell him that she isn't stupid, and that he needs to stop being mean?"

Cliff: "No because I didn't want to get into trouble. So I just wrote that Matthew is stupid on the back of my paper."

I asked him if he handed the paper in to his teacher. He said that he didn't (PHEW!!). The next morning he pulled the paper out of his backpack and showed it to me.

Front

















Back
















Instead of tattling, or crying, or saying something mean back to the kid, my cute little Cliff wrote down his feelings. He was so upset that he made is "p" a "q", and he completely misspelled the word stupid. I hate that my kids have to go through these situations that hurt their feelings. It makes my heart hurt to hear the sadness in their voices when they retell the story. I remember the feelings that I had as a kid when friends were mean etc. I just have to remember that this is all a part of preparing them for life. These are experiences that will help them to grow and learn. Experiences that will help them to help and teach their children. I just have to make sure that they know that Daddy and I love them. That home is where they can come and know that they are safe. I need to listen and give advice if they need it. I hope that I did that for him.

I have found that this is my least favorite part of parenting. We will get through it though. If you can make it past the hard times and mean kids in elementary and high school, you can pretty much make it through anything in life!!

Details

My last post lacks a few details.

I don't have any pictures from our visit with Grandma, Pop, Joc and Mike on Christmas, and I don't have any pictures from our visit with Grandma and Grandpa Bastow! How sad is that? I've really gotten lazy with picture taking, and I am now feeling the effects.

Can you guess what another one of my resolutions is for 2010? I bet you can.

I did get plenty from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.





Instead of making gingerbread houses like we did last year. We made rice krispy houses. They were so easy, fun and cheap to do. The kids each made one.

Elaina's




Cliff's



Stephen's (Mom helped)




It's tradition to open one gift on Christmas Eve. Can you guess what they got?



Jammies!!!!


After Santa stuffs the stockings and delivers the gifts, he always takes a picture of each kid sleeping all snug in their beds.

... snug may not be the word for this picture. She looks kinda rumpled in her bed!








Santa doesn't wrap the gifts that he brings. He just sets them out.

This is Elaina's reaction when she came downstairs and saw all of the gifts that Santa brought her.


Cliff ran into the room and slid onto the ground. He is looking at his gifts on the couch in this shot.


This is Stephen checking out all of the things that Santa brought him.


The rest of the pictures are of the kids enjoying their gifts. It really was a wonderfully fun and memorable Christmas. We fully enjoyed the time together as a family.

Christmas '09

My most favorite time of the year was here and gone in what seemed like 5 seconds!!!

We had a fabulous Christmas! We spent time teaching our kids about our Savior. We spent time together, with just our little family. We spent time with my Mom, Dad, Sister and future Brother - in - law. We spent time with David's parents and Alice and Dave. We enjoyed good food, fun and presents! It was really wonderful. It did go way to fast though.

We are looking forward to a GREAT 2010! David begins classes towards his MBA next week and is LOVING his new job. Scentsy is growing and I love sharing it with EVERYONE!!! Our Ward boundaries have changed, so we are moving to a new ward. We are looking forward to meeting new people, making new friends and serving in different callings!!! We are going to miss seeing all of our old friends, but we plan on keeping in touch and hanging out when we can. My sister Jocelyn got engaged last month to the love of her life!!! I am so excited to help her plan her wedding in June! We have a lot to look forward too!!!

.... One of my resolutions for this year is to post more often. This is such a wonderful way to document our life and share it with our friends and family. So stay tuned. I will post again soon.

Stephen turns 3

This post is going to be all about Stephen! Oh my goodness. Where to start? It has been such a fun year with him. He has grown so much in so many ways.

Stephen is our most independent minded child. In a lot of ways it makes our lives easier and in a few ways it makes it more difficult. Our home life is busier than it has ever been. He has adapted to this by becoming independent and doing a lot of things for himself. He has been dressing himself, all by himself, for most of this last year. He enjoys this so much that he will change outfits every couple of hours. He has an eye for detail, he likes to be dressed exactly like other people in the family.

Stephen absolutely loves music. He loves to listen to music and he loves to sing. He has a well developed ability to pick up a tune and articulate lyrics. We may hear a brand new song one time on the radio, and later that day we will hear him singing the chorus while he is playing with his trains or cars. His current favorite is the song by Owl City (fireflies). He loves Daddy's music, Lainey's music and Mommy's music all the same.

In this last year he has graduated from very simplistic puzzle making, matching cut out shapes etc. to completing 25 piece picture puzzles ALL ON HIS OWN!!! He enjoys sword fighting with his dad and brother. He is very good at playing independently. While he enjoys playing with the family, he will play with trains, cars and little people all on his own as long as mom is nearby.

If mom is busy with business, church, or home responsibilities, he has learned to help himself to food, drink and snacks. He has proven to possess an exceptional ability to find hidden chip and candy/chocolate stashes. We don't always catch him in the act, but we sometimes find a trail of wrappers or a chair pushed up to the counter near the "snack cabinet".

He spent most of the year oblivious to video games, but then Elaina let him try her DS and he loved it. It was a little advanced for him and a little frustrating for the rest of us having to share and settle squabbles over gaming time. Grandma and Pop came to the rescue and got him a Leapster II for Christmas. Yesterday I watched him play his Leapster in amazement while he successfully completed matching skills that I didn't know he had.

We were hoping to get him potty trained this year we weren't really sure how it was going to go. At 2 and a half we got the daytime mastered and a few months later he was dry both day and night. PHEW!!

His favorite shows are Diego, Dora, Clifford and Cake Boss.

He has a smile that allows him to get away with just about everything, but he loves to share, give kisses and hugs. He tells us often that we are his "beeeeest friend".

Now on to the "three's". I'm sad that he is growing so fast, but enjoying every minute. Happy Birthday Stephen!!

Thanksgiving '09

We wanted to do something different this Thanksgiving. So we headed south!! My sister and her 4 boys live in South Carolina. Our trip started at about 2 p.m. on Wednesday, and we arrived late Wednesday night/Thursday morning (10 hours later). The kids did great! They travel really well. Out of the 5 of us, I'm the worst traveler. I complain and get irritated and moody. The kids just sleep, play their DS's and enjoy the anticipation and excitement of seeing their cousins etc. David entertains us all with his music. He loves music and always has. His music collection is insanly huge! It ranges from Mozart to ACDC! ACDC or anything even close to their sound is NOT allowed to be played while we travel!!! URGH! I can't stand their music! He tries to teach me how to appreciate it. He tells me to just listen to the guitars and all of the instruments and how they all blend and how amazing it is. I just can't get past the LOUDNESS!!!!!!!!!! TURN IT OFFFFFFFF!!!! Thankfully, he always thinks of me and the kids when choosing music for our trips, because he knows that I'll just hit the "power off" button if it is annoying!!!!

Here are some pictures from our trip to SC! We had a great time. I love my cute nephews like they are my own. If I could have them, I would take them in an instant!!!


I wanted to take a picture of Zachary on his first Thanksgiving. So I made David hold one turkey, and Kim hold the other.











The rest of the food.







Wesley, Dakota and Landon were at their dad's for the first half of the day, and then they came to see us! It was so great to see their cute faces!




We enjoyed a few days there. The kids played and played and PLAYED!

Halloween

This year Lainey was Snow White. Cliff and Stephen were New York Yankees!!

It is sometimes hard to live in the opposing teams land. Especially when the opposing team is playing OUR TEAM in the World Series. I should have thought of that before I dressed my boys in NYY costumes. Most people made comments (all in fun) about their costumes. David and I knew that they were kidding, and just laughed it off, but Cliff took it seriously :( About a half an hour into trick or treating, Cliff said "Mom I kinda want to go home." I asked what was wrong, and he said "I don't know I just wanna go home." After talking with him for a minute I found out that he was a little upset about the "mean" comments made about his costume. I explained to him that the Yankees are the bestest team and he doesn't have to be ashamed of his costume!! He seemed to be fine after our talk. Little 6 year olds take everything so seriously!?! I felt bad that I caused his little feelings to be hurt. Anyway, the night ended early after it started to rain. We all had fun, and enjoyed a WORLD SERIES WIN just a week later!!!!! GO YANKEES!!

This is our Jack-O-Lantern.

Pumpkin Patch

Enjoying the Hayride to the pumpkin patch.














Checking out their options.

















Lainey found hers!
















Cliff found his!
















So did Stephen!
















My cute little pumpkins!

I Wanna Be Just Like You!

The minute that Dad walks into the room, Stephen looks him up and down and then runs off (to his room). He comes back minutes later looking just like David. When Cliff walks in the door from school. Stephen pauses, looks him up and down and runs off.... When he returns he usually says "I wanna look just like you!" It can get pretty confusing for him if they are both home!

Highlights from Summer '09

It's been a while. I've sorted through the summer pictures and finally had some time to post them. This is a LONG post! ENJOY!!

Early in July we went to a Lake with some good friends who own a boat. It was an AWESOME day!











Just prior to boarding the boat.












Stephen insisted on wearing his hat. It ended up flying off of his head and into the water during our ride. We circled around and got it back though. Then he understood why mommy and daddy didn't want him to wear it. He lived... He learned...












We ended up parking the boat in "Party Cove". The kids and David swam for a while. Stephen loved the raft. He sat on it the whole time David and the kids were in the water. He filled up super soakers all on his own and shot 'em all with it. It was so funny to watch.













Later in July we had the pleasure of meeting Thomas the Tank Engine. A lifelong dream of Cliff's. Stephen was really excited too.













We got to ride in one of Thomas's passenger train cars. Annie or Clarabelle. Stephen was a happy boy that day!










Here's Thomas. A real steam engine.













We also went camping ONCE this summer. I'm not a tent camping kinda girl... but I do it because my kids and hubby love it. Here we are fishing.
















































Now this part I LIKE!!!












We enjoyed a visit to the sweetest place on earth! Hershey, PA.












The kids participated in packaging some Hershey Kisses.










Then I told them to stand by their favorite chocolate. Stephen likes the kisses!












Pretty Lainey likes the Kit Kat.

















And cute Cliff likes the Peppermint Patty (me too!!)












We went to a few Iron Pigs games. GO PIGS!! The Philly's minor league team's field is 15 minutes from our house.











Stephen wanted to climb the fence and hit some balls.

















Lainey celebrated her 9th birthday!! How can I possibly have a 9 year old???












We took her to Build-A- Bear workshop and let her pick out her bear. This was something that she had been wanting to do for a while. She loves her bear. She named it Precious.












Here she is with her 9 candles!















In August I flew out to Salt Lake for the Scentsy Convention. I've been a consultant for Scentsy for almost 2 years now! My business is growing and I'm loving every minute of it. I learned so much at convention, and I am looking forward to a great year. I went with 2 GREAT friends, Mary and Tara!













We spent a lot of time in our yard either in our over sized kiddy pool, or just riding bikes and playing with neighbors.











We visited Grandma's and Grandpa's and Aunts. Cliff attended baseball camp in June. Lainey and Cliff had another great year with swimming lessons. The list goes on. It was a fun and memorable summer.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. The kids are back in school and doing very well.


This is a pic of their first day of school. Elaina is in 3rd grade, and Cliff is in 1st.

Time marches on....

My kids and I went to see this play at one of the summer theater programs at a nearby college. We went with a group of ladies and their kids from our ward.

Cliff and I cried... I didn't know that Cliff cried until we were out in the lobby and I told him that I cried. I looked down at him, and with water in his eyes and a cute little frown on his face he said, "Mom I did too". Something about a sweet little boy having a bad day. It made me cry because I thought of my little, almost first grader, waking up and not getting a prize in his cereal box, but his siblings did. Then going to school and being made fun of by all of his friends. Then coming home and having to go to the dentist. His siblings didn't have any cavities, but he had ONE. Then going to the store to buy new shoes, and not being able to get the blue shoes with green stripes because they were out of stock. So sad!! :( Way to much for a little guy to handle in one day.

I was on the brink of crying at certain parts throughout the show and at the very end Alexander's Mom was tucking him into bed and she sang him a sweet song. That did it to me. The tears started pouring down.

Once we got out to the car I asked Cliff what part made him cry, and he said "The part where he had to get the white shoes because they didn't have the ones he wanted". Then his eyes got watery again and he took in a deep breath. So SWEET!

Seeing this play made me want to be a better Mom. I want my kids to know that I will always be here for them. When they have a terrible horrible no good very bad day then I want to know so that I can hug them, kiss them and make it all better!!!!! I think that I made that clear on our drive home from the play.

I'm looking into other shows around. I'm thinking maybe Mary Poppins on Broadway in NYC??? We'll see!!

Cute Kindergarten Grad!

A Different Reaction....

Me: "Hey Cliff and Lain, just so that you know tomorrow after school we are going to the dentist!"

Cliff: "THANKS MOM!!!!!" (with sincere excitement)
Lainey: "Mom seriously thanks!" (in all seriousness)

The Perfect Day

This past Saturday was the most perfect day. Perfect weather, perfect company, and perfect activities!


First Joc, Nain and I got pedicures.














Then we all hoped in the Jeep to go on a picnic.










I made pasta salad, garlic bread, and yummy brownie with cream cheese cupcakes.































Then we played at the playground.


















Then we flew a kite! Look up high in the corner of the picture, and you can see the kite.
















Daddy helping Stephen fly it.

Dance Recital '09

Lainey enjoyed dance this year. She had her recital a week ago. She looked beautiful and did such a fantastic job. Grandma, Grandpa, Grandma, Pop and Joc were all there to enjoy it with us.

The pics below are not from the actual recital day. Some are from dress rehersal, and picture day.

"Dribe da dreen tractor"

A while back we visited Grandma and Pop. Stephen saw Pop's John Deere tractor in the driveway, and became OBSESSED! Unfortunately Stephen wasn't able to take a ride that day. We left their house, and all that he could talk about for weeks was Pop's tractor. "Mama, wanna dribe (translation: drive) da dreen (translation: green) tractor, Mama, dribe Pop's tractor, Mama please dribe Pop's dreen tractor."

WHAT A PUMPKIN!!!!!

Pop, being the AWESOME grandpa that he is, invited us over again and made Stephen's dream come true!! YAY!!!! Pop drove while Stephen sat in his lap. Pop was very patient. After riding up and down the driveway, and around their HUGE yard, Stephen continued to say "adain Pop" (translation: again Pop) "adain, adain". Pop did it again and again and again!!!

Thank you Pop! Stephen really appreciated it! Mama did too... Instead of Stephen constantly saying/repeating "Mama please dribe Pop's dreen tractor", he says "Steben rided on Pop's tractor"! He still remembers it and just LOVED doing it with you!

Cliff's Birthday x's Three!!

I love when Birthdays land on a Saturday. Cliff turned 6 on Saturday May 16th!! We celebrated every minute of that day. Cliff decided that he just wanted to have a "family birthday". So we spent time together as a family. We also enjoyed sometime with my mom and dad, and later that day spent time with David's parents. The Friday night before his birthday we invited one of his little buddies, Jay, to sleep over.

These are the cupcakes that he brought to school to celebrate with his class.
















This is is his buddy Jay.














This is the cookie cake that I made for him for when Jay came over.















These are some pictures from when Grandma, Pop and Joc visited.





















































Grandma and Grandpa.









































He got lots of presents!


























































A FISH!!!!!
















After all of the activities we had one last thing to do!!
















Happy Birthday buddy! We all love you SO MUCH!!

Aunt Kimmy and The Boys

On our way home from Disney we decided to take a different route home so that we could visit with Aunt Kimmy and the boys, Wesley, Dakota and Landon. I'm so glad that we did. My kids miss their cousins so much, and I miss my sister! Cliff and Landon are the bestest of friends when they are together. I am so impressed with how polite, well behaved and respectful my sisters kids are. I love her boys like they are my own!! I wish that they lived closer so that we could hug them more often.








We had been in the car for 10 hours, and were looking pretty shabby!!

Disney 2009!!!

Well I finally have some time to do this.

As stated in a previous post, David has accepted a new job. He completed his last 2 weeks with Applied Analytics, and we decided to take another week before starting his new job to take our family vacation. He will not get any vacation until he has worked for the new company for 3 months. That brings us to August, and we didn't want to go the whole summer without some time away.

We decided to go to Disney World, our family's favorite vacation spot. We just love it there. David has said many times that it is like a little piece of heaven on earth. He is so right. We have a great time every time we go, and this time was no different.

We drove 20 hours to get there. 20 HOURS!!!!!! It was so much fun though!! Our kids did wonderfully, even Stephen! We just kept reminding him that we were going to Mickey's house, and that it was a long, long, long, long ride there. He understood and was very patient the whole way down. Elaina and Cliff were so good too.

We visited Hollywood Studios (formerly known as MGM Studios), Magic Kingdom and Downtown Disney. We had planned on visiting Animal Kingdom as well, but later decided that we would rather swim at our hotel, and let Stephen take a much needed nap. He ended up sleeping for 4 hours that day!! We stayed at the most BEAUTIFUL hotel, Buena Vista Suites - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. It is not on Disney property, but is only 2 miles from the parks. It was AMAZING!! Seriously, I would give it 5 STARS!!! So clean, 2 huge flat screen High Def. TV's, comfortable beds with LOTS of pillows, plenty of sleeping space (could sleep up to 6 adults). It had 2 rooms, so we could put Stephen down in one room, close the door, and still be able to do the things that we needed to without waking him up. I could go on and on about that hotel. We loved it and will probably go there again in the future.

David has become an expert navigator through Disney World. I am amazed at how much we are able to do at each park without waiting in hardly any lines.

Here are some pictures of our wonderful trip!! I'm already looking forward to our next trip there. Anyone wanna come with??


Cliff hoping to be picked for "Jedi Training", and he was!!!!














Cliff imitating "Russell" from the upcoming movie "UP". Good impression Son (look at the figure in the case behind him)!!














Is anyone else excited about this???














Stephen's first time meeting Mickey




































Playhouse Disney, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse














Lainey's favorite part!










Bell and Beast










Looking through the window while waiting in line to see Buzz and Woody















Cliff shooting Zurg with his lazer beam














Meeting Woody for the first time
























Thirsy boy!!














Playing on Tom Sawyer's Island











Pirates of the Carribean - A family favorite











Look closely, and you can see Captain Jack










Mom and Nain



























The magic carpet ride. Stephen is sitting next to David, but he's really short!










Stephen really wanted to do this ride!!










Lainey and Cliff did too!















Bros for life!!











Excited to swim










They all enjoyed putting together Disney potato heads










My two peas in a pod











Feeding the fishys















Getting Mickey's Autograph














Goofy!

Disney 2009

My new camera took this AWESOME picture of Cinderella's castle!! Doesn't it look like a postcard?? We had an absolutely, unbelievably, amazingly, GREAT time at Disney World last week. I am now sorting through 350 pictures taken while we were there. I will have a new post reporting all of our fun very soon!!!

Onto New and Exciting Things!

For the last 10 years David has worked for my Dad's business, Applied Analytics, as a Sales Rep. selling instrumentation to Municipalities. He graduated from Rutgers University with an Economics Degree (his PASSION) back in 2001. A few weeks before graduation my Dad approached David and offered him the job. David, Elaina and I were living in a one bedroom apartment and had been surviving off of David's part time income as an administrative assistant. Times were tough, and we were so excited for the opportunity that my Dad had offered us. Since then we have come a long way. David has worked hard and has really grown his sales territory. He has learned A LOT!!! David was never very technical, and this job forced him to become technical!! I am amazed how he went from knowing absolutely NOTHING upon being hired, to becoming practically an expert in the field. We are truly grateful for all of the good/bad experiences that we've had with Applied Analytics.

My Dad is looking to retire in the next couple of years, and for some time now we have been anticipating this and contemplating the next step. We have spent a lot of time on our knees praying to our Heavenly Father asking for his guidance to help us know what direction to go. Over the last 2 years David has been looking into other job opportunities where he would be able to use his Economics degree and do something that he would truly love! Without any experience in the economics field, all of the positions available to him were entry level, and wouldn't have provided the income to sustain our family.

To make a very LONG (2 year) story short.....

One Saturday morning, David and I were having a random conversation (about nothing special). The conversation eventually turned into a discussion about our feelings on the uncertainty of our future. What were we going to do?? We both thought that we were doing all that we could and should be doing to receive the blessings of knowing what we should do?? We were both serving like crazy in the church, we were paying our tithing, we were having family home evenings, going to church, teaching our children.... etc. We were just emotionally exhausted and confused....

THEN the conversation went a different direction. Maybe David should go back to school? Maybe we should look into the MBA program at the University just 15 minutes from our house? David has ALWAYS talked about getting his MBA!!

Since then we have looked into the program. Turns out it is the #1 part-time MBA program in the nation!! David has started the process in applying for the fall semester. Last Saturday he took the GMAT and scored well above average. Looks like Heavenly Father was looking out for us after all!!

THAT'S NOT IT!!! While we were in the midst of deciding to go to school, David received an invitation for another job interview. This time it was for a job similar to what he is doing now. Only for a bigger company... Great benefits, home based office, better income, TUITION REIMBURSEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The job interview went great! They loved him! He is excited for the opportunity. It suits him perfectly..... PERFECTLY!!!!!!!!!

David has received and officially signed the offer. Last week he gave my Dad his 2 weeks notice. My Mom and Dad were both so supportive and very happy for us. I love them!!

I am amazed at how this has all come together, just like a little puzzle. Even though the last few years have been difficult, and there were times when we thought that it would NEVER work out, we just left it in God's hands and knew that if we continued to do the things that we should be, then Heavenly Father would take care of us. Knowing these things brought us so much comfort.

The coolest thing was for our kids to see it all happen. Even though we didn't tell them every detail about what was going on. We did explain some of it. They saw prayers being answered throughout this process. That makes me so happy :) Hopefully this experience has taught them that Heavenly Father is watching over them, that he does listen, and that they can depend on him when times get tough. It has definitely strengthened my testimony of prayer, tithing, and having faith. Trials truly do make you stronger!