What mom wants for Christmas...

Neils has shared the story that when he was a little boy that anytime he'd ask his dad what he wanted for Christmas, his birthday, etc. his answer was always, "obedient children."  As a child I can imagine that was probably a sad, not so exciting answer to hear from a dad.  As a mother, I think it's funny.  Yesterday, I was sitting in my chair talking on the phone with my friend Suzanne.  Sky came over and asked me, "Mom, what do you want for Christmas?"  Without a thought, my answer was... "Obedient children."  Sky rolled her eyes and walked off without another word.  A few minutes later, I was handed this piece of paper...

Later that day, and even better I was in doing laundry.  I came out and none of the kids were downstairs.  I called for them, Sky, Jett, Brooke... what are you doing?  I didn't hear anything.  I went upstairs to find all three of them had worked to make my bed and Sky had taped this picture up on my bedroom wall.  I think I've got exactly what I want for Christmas this year, "Obedient children!" 
At least for the moment! :)

All I want for Christmas...

This year, like every year, we went to The Festival of Trees with the Smart side of the family.  I look forward to this day like no other.  There is something magical about this place.  It gets me into Christmas like nothing else (okay well, maybe my snowberry Scentsy does quite a bit).  I love that the money goes to help Primary Children's Hospital.  I love the lights, the trees, the Kids Korner, seeing Santa and taking a family picture with him, the cinnamon rolls, the scones, and most of all, that it's a family tradition!  I have always made sure I had shirts for my kids to wear in Christmas colors and that my girls had bright, big bows to wear.  This year, at the last second, I decided to make my girls their shirts.  I decided at 11:00pm on Friday night.  I stayed up til 2:30am sewing them together and Saturday morning I put the elastic in them.  I was so excited and for me it was worth staying up late and getting little sleep to make them.
So, I took lots of pictures, but this one is my favorite.  It's my three kids extremely happy to see Santa, sit on his lap and tell him what they want for Christmas.  In years past, there has always been one of the kids deathly afraid of him, but not this year.  That's all they could talk about all week was what they were going to tell Santa.
Sky: wants a Hello Kitty gumball machine
Jett: wants a PRETEND PSP cause he's not old enough to have a REAL one, so just get him a PRETEND one.
Brooke: just nods yes if you ask her if she wants something.  A baby doll?  She nods.  But when I asked her what she asked Santa for, she said, "candy."  :)
It's going to be a fun Christmas.  I love being Santa.
Click HERE to see the gallery of pictures from The Festival of Trees.

YEAH!!! I did it this year!!!

No wonder I didn't do this last year, it was an entire process.  First I had to buy outfits, then I had to figure out when and where we'd do our family pictures, then I had to design my card, order it and now it's time to mail them.  I'm pretty excited.  Can you tell?  I don't know if I have everyone's current address.  If you have moved recently, will you please email me your current address so I can be sure to send you one.  Here's a sneak peak without revealing them completely!!!  Gosh, I'm sick.  I'm a little too excited about this.  Maybe, it's because like sewing dresses with a pattern a week ago, I've never done this, I've never "designed" a card.  In the past I did the standard order from Costco!  So this is new and super fun! 

My little Sky and her sincere prayer...

My little Sky tends to worry about things, WAY before and WAY more than she ever should.  Today in her blessing on lunch she asked that she be able to sleep on Christmas night so Santa will come.  This reminds me of the Christmas that I laid in my top bunk bed wide awake trying desperately to go to sleep.  I knocked on the wall (my parents say every five minutes) asking them if Santa had come yet.  Although I'm always saying Sky IS her dad, I think she has a little bit of me in her too. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

From the "Smart" side of the family to all of you!

It was a nice surprise that Andrew, Kimberly and Logan were able to make the drive up from AZ.  It was good to have my entire family together again.  We ate some amazing food, played a fun family game, and stuffed ourselves again with some amazing dessert!  It was perfect!

He's 40!

It was perfect!  Neils and I went down to Las Vegas to celebrate his 40th birthday.  We went down with our friends (Ryan and Suzanne) last Friday and arrived at our hotel The Mandalay Bay.  I had never stayed there before and thanks to facebook, an old gymnastics team mate's brother (I know I'm making this hard to follow) hooked us up with a fantastic room at the top!  This was our view!  Not bad for taking this through the glass and sitting it on a table in our room.  We ate at incredibly yummy restaurants (Border's Grill and Strip Steak), shopped at the outlets, went to the Cirque du Soleil show "O", got some Krispy Kreme doughnuts (a kind they don't sell here), and went on the roller coaster Speed.  The only thing that wasn't perfect is that it didn't last long enough.  The weekend went by way too fast!  Before Neils and I were married (when I was madly in love with him and wanted to do anything to impress him) asked him to meet me in Vegas (cause he still lived in California) for his 30th birthday.  It was fun to relive some of those memories and talk about our life now.  We had a good time catching up with each other.  With kids, it's sometimes hard to even finish sharing the events of the day with each other.  It was a great weekend

S-ix years old, K-indergarten is fun, Y-ikes she's growing up fast!

Really?  Where did the time go?  I'm having a hard time believing I have a six year old little girl.  The month of October is always a blur.  It seems that the last six years have flown by just as quickly.  Just a few pictures to remind me of the gorgeous, social, friendly, daughter I have.  I love her to pieces.  A few pictures here describe her so well... She loves to read!

She is always asking for a piece a paper so she can draw a picture or write someone a note.  These always make me smile.  They are so genuine and innocent.  I love this stuff!

She can whistle.  Something else that comes from her dad.  I can't whistle to save my life, but she's got a pretty good one.

She's SIX!  Her way of showing me she's six years old!

 

 
 

 

What would I do without this little one of mine!  She is one friendly, social, smart little cookie.  She loves her Up With Kids class where she is able to sing and perform.  She was made for it.  As a little girl she was always perfect when it came to performing for friends and family.  She'd sing the little songs or say her ABC's whenever called upon.  She did those sorts of things so willingly and never had any fear.  She's that way still.  She's always introducing herself to the clerk at the grocery store or to any one for that matter.  She loves to sing and has a pretty decent voice.  That she got from her dad too, I'm sure of that.  She is a Jorgensen through and through.  I thought she looked like her dad the second she was born and still think so.  She doesn't have a whole lot of me in her, but that's okay.  I love her completely just the way she is!  Enjoy being six Missy-Miss!

Tat-TOO cute!

We had a birthday party for Sky at Chuck E. Cheese and at the end she decided to use her tickets to buy some tattoos.  She was kind and got one for Brooke and Jett too.  When we got home, they were all so excited to put them on.  Dad marched them upstairs, one at a time to the bathroom to apply them to their arm.  Each of them would come down and show off their fabulous tattoo.  I thought it was pretty cute.  Dad threw in a big surprise at the end and applied a tattoo to his own arm.  Apparently, he had been saving this for some time and was waiting for the right moment to show it off.  Good timing dad!  It was a fun surprise!

 
 

He's 4 and ALL BOY!

Yes, I know... he turned 4 about six weeks ago, but I just barely got to taking pictures of him.  So here it is.  J-umps, climbs and hangs on everything, E-ats anything including salad and baby food (he still gets his vegetables by way of a jar and I don't mind.  Makes it easier on me.) T-eases his sister (stuck in the middle of two girls it was bound to happen.) T-otally a sweetheart (As much as he teases them, he protects them and gives in to their wines and cries).   That wraps up my boy Jett.

And for a few more things...

He has gorgeous blue eyes.  He loves his new shoes cause he believes they make him run faster.  He only wants to wear shirts that have some sort of link to speed cause he wants to be fast!  So we buy car shirts, and shirts that say "Fast as lightning" and "Built for speed"  I guess with a name like Jett, it makes sense that he be fast. Right now, Sky is still faster than him and Jett HATES it.  He is so eager to beat her in a race.  It kills him when he loses.  I keep telling him that it won't be long when he's faster and he'll be able to beat her every time.  He's smart.  He's charming.  He loves to say the word poop and laughs hysterically if dad says it.  Lovely, I know.  He loves it when I throw him to the ground to wrestle.  I don't love it so much, but when he starts to laugh, I laugh, so maybe I do like it.  He's my boy and I love him to pieces!

Here are a few pictures...

This is how it started out... not really wanting to do much of anything except make funny faces at me.

But then I got a few great ones...

 And then he was done!  Off went the hat and out came the lip...

But then we went over by the bikes and out came the smiles...

And at this point I was ready for him to do whatever he wanted which meant climb and jump...

And then for my favorite... him just kicking back.  The second, notice the focus on his new favorite shoes.  The shoes that make him go fast.  The shoes he wants to wear every second of the day.  And they're my favorite too cause they don't lace up, they ZIP up on the side.  Meaning: he can put them on all by himself.  A must have!

Who would have guessed...

not me!  That's for sure.  If you had told me ten years ago when I met Neils that we would be married and have three adorable kids, I would not have believed you or anyone for that matter.  It would have been too good to be true.  I fell in love at first sight and then waited around for a few years hoping he'd realize that I was perfect for him.  He obviously did, but here's the story...

Ten years ago, it happened to be similar to this, in that it was Conference weekend.  Neils had found me on LDS Singles.com (the way he found me is a whole 'nother story) and sent me a message letting me know he would be coming to visit Utah for Conference and wanted to know if I wanted to meet up.  I sent him back a message letting him know I'd be interested.  That was soon followed by a phone call to figure out the details.  We tried meeting up on Saturday, but because I was one of many girls he was coming to meet, our schedules didn't match up.  We decided to still meet but not til Sunday.  He came over to my house in between sessions and had dinner (Taco Soup) with us.  His first comment after coming in and sitting down was, "you're kinda cute..."  (We joke about it now.)  So we ate and hung out and then he was off, back down to Provo to hang out with another girl (that girl is my dear friend now).  He called a bit later to see how late I'd be up.  I didn't want to sound too eager/desperate for him to come back up.  I must have pulled it off, cause with my comment of "you're missing out" it got him back in his car and driving right back up to see me.  We hung out til 4am and then he was off.  He was headed back home to Cali in just a few hours.

After a few years of dating on and off he finally decided there just wasn't anyone who could possibly be any better for him than me and we got married.  And once he decided, it was quick... he said one day while sitting on our living room couch, "Let's get married next weekend when my whole family will be here."  So that we did, July 6, 2003.  The next year on our special day of October 3rd we were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.  So not only is it our "Kissaversary" but it is also our Temple Anniversary.  It's a great day to remember!

With that, here are my three adorable kids to show for.  My life is grand!  These three make it and to top it off, I have a husband who is generous and thoughtful!  He works hard and does as much as he can to make my life as easy as possible.  He's wonderful!  It's been a ten great years and I expect the next ten to be just as great!  I love you Neils-C!  Happy Kissaversary!

  

First day of school!

What? My baby is starting Kindergarten? How did this happen so quickly? Isn't that what we all say? Isn't that what our parents used to say to us? Well, that's because, that's how it is. Time just flies by and these moments make me stop and think that my life seems to be on fast forward. Oh how I WISH I could push pause every once in awhile. This will have to count as my pause to remember my little girl on her big day. All grown up with her hair straightened. She looks so old to me. I made her little outfit and I'm so glad she was willing to wear it for me. I think she looks adorable!


We missed the actual first day cause Sky was sick, but we made it on day 2. I went in with her to make sure she'd be okay. Of course, the social, strong girl that she is, did fabulous. She caught on quickly to the things she missed the first day. She even had to tell me, "I'm okay mom, you can go now." So, off I went, out to the car where I bawled like a baby! It hit me hard. My baby is growing up... FAST! Dang it!

Just because...

They were being cute and happy today. It's been a big week (and crazy) week for me. Sunday started with Sky throwing up so she missed her first day of school on Monday. That made Tuesday her first day and that same day was Jett's birthday. We spent the day out and about. So the second we picked up Sky from school we were off to Chuck E Cheese (Jett's FAVORITE place on earth). We then went to McDonalds cause the toy in the happy meal this week was lego cars and what 4 year old boy wouldn't want a lego car? After that we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa's house to say hello and they came with us to dinner at Red Robin. Remember our favorite server, Hillary? She hooked us up with another great night out. But then Wednesday, Jett decided it was his turn to throw up. Thursday was just a horribly crazy Thursday and Friday we ran errands all day. Thus, I felt the need to stop them and take their picture! They were playing their favorite game of "Mom, Dad and Puppy" with Sky being the mom, Jett being the dad and Brooke the little puppy. She does a great job crawling around ruffing and patting like a little puppy would. It's hilarious. So here they are moments before heading out the door for the afternoon.

I will get to the birthday pictures and first day of school pictures up soon. We're off to Chuck E Cheese again today with dad and cousin Trevor today. He didn't open any presents yet or have a chance to blow out any candles. It's being a little drawn out, but I'm sure he doesn't mind a weeks worth of birthday celebration.

5...4...3...2...1...

It's not a countdown to the summer ending but the ages of each of these kids. Sky 5, Trevor 4, Jett 3, Brooke 2, and Sterling 1. How cute are they. It's been a fun summer. I'm not ready for it to be over, but I guess I don't have a choice. I really enjoy the days of living in swimsuits, running through sprinkers and eating popsicles. I love this picture, so much personality. Sky making sure nothing drips on her, Jett treating it as if it's a sword or light saber and Brookey being silly and putting it on her head without a care in the world.

Around the corner...

is Gardner Village. I love to shop there and my kids love to go and feed the ducks... oh, and get candy from the candy store. So it works out perfectly for those days when I just need to get out of the house for a half hour. Sometimes we head over on Sundays to enjoy the peacefulness of it and as a family activity. This last Sunday, we did just that. We grabbed our bag of bread and headed out the door. I, of course, grabbed my camera.