Centurian

Well, today would have been my grandpa's 100th birthday! And my grandma's 100th would've been in August. Anyway, I never knew my grandpa-- he had died the year before I was born, but I feel like I knew him. He seemed like an incredible man. He and my grandma did an amazing job with their kids teaching them unconditional love, the importance of family, and the importance of being a good citizen and friend to everyone!!! I must say that I loved my grandma dearly-- it is this grandma who Tess is named after. She was such a cute, funny, loving, supportive women that I hope to be like someday! Since I like to blog for journaling purposes I wanted to share some thoughts I've been reflecting on lately. One of which is how grateful I am to be alive and healthy. I've been truly blessed in my life to have such an amazing life. I love it! My family is the best-- my husband, my kids, my parents, my siblings, my in-laws, my nephews and nieces, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, I could go on and on about all these people in my life who have helped shape me into who I am. They are the best and I hope that they all know how much I love them. I also have the greatest friends. I am a lucky girl to have such good friendships in my life who I care for deeply.

I am recording these thoughts because we never know how long we have. Life is short and precious and I am blessed to be here now and while I am here and healthy I am putting my feelings into words. I feel like I am getting older-- granted I am still young but as I watch my kids grow I am realizing how much faster time goes by. I even catch myself doing things my parents did that I thought were so "old"-- things like talk radio!!! I LOVE talk radio, I am usually only listening to talk radio--mostly sports talk with Dan Patrick or Collin Cowherd but I will listen to politics from time to time. I love to grow my garden and beautify my yard, I love to read-- like non stop read-- anyway, the point is I am getting older!

Lastly, I want to share a little something I wrote for my kids to always remember :

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
and climb on every rung
May you stay forever young

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the light surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young.

Oh wait... did I say I wrote this? Well, no-- Bob Dylan has already said it best I guess! I love this song and really LOVE the words-- I couldn't have said it better-- this truly would be my wish for my kids! And if you have made it through this really cheesy, probably boring post, thanks for baring with me! Lots of love! Jami

Summer So Far

Because Caleb is on next year's student council he had to be in the parade. Chase loved this idea and wanted to walk with them. He had a blast and after the two mile parade was over told us how he walked two miles!! He was excited. (If you notice-- he's in flip flops-- even more impressive right?)

Another fun summer activity for Chase is his lemonade stand! He has been dying for summer to begin so he can open up for business. He and his cousins Griffin and Cooper joined him the other day where they sold lemonade on a busier corner on our street where they made $16! Thanks to all those nice people who are like me and can't resist helping donate to the cute little kids "play" fund!

Tess recently had her 11 month birthday-- I can't believe she is one month away from a year old!!! So-- that being said, I need to update on her 11 month status!

• She is such a happy, easy going baby-- except when she gets mad-- she has been known to get frustrated and bite! Her two bottom teeth and no other teeth aren't too painful yet but they can pack a mini punch!


• She has two teeth on the bottom but we are seeing her top two starting to cut through!


• She takes after Chase and just wants to be a big girl. She prefers sippy cups to bottles and big people food to baby food and milk-- however, we tried to wean her from formula to whole milk and she started to have some issues of digestion and such so we stopped the weaning to giver a tad more time but it looks like we are headed to soy or coconut milk.


• She is BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! She is constantly on the go. She goes up and down stairs and just is a mover and a shaker. She is SUPER close to walking but every time we try to get her to she collapses down to crawl-- she just doesn't dare without our assistance even though she has taken steps and not realized that she can do it!


• She talks all day long. She talks as if we are understanding her. A few of the words we do understand are Dad and Chase and hi.


• She loves my make up bag and purse. Her favorite activity is pulling things out of where they go-- lovely!


• She LOVES it outside. Once Chase left the back door open and as soon as she realized this I was holding her on the couch-- she clamored to get down so she could go right outside!


• She is soooo much fun! She has changed our lives and we are soooooo in love! We are count ourselves quite lucky in every way!

And finally I need to record a cute conversation I have the other day with Chase...

Me: Chase, you are so caring about others-- maybe you should be a doctor someday.

Chase: Hmmm or maybe I should be something that I want to be like a fireman.

Me: Oh, that's a dangerous job.

Chase: No it's not.

Me: Yes it is, they go into burning buildings- they could get burned.

Chase: The wear their gear.

Randy: Well, sometimes the buildings can collapse on them after burning-- so it can be dangerous that way.

Chase: (after a moment to think) Well, I'll just be the fire fighter that stays in the truck!

Schooooools Out for Summer... and other stuff

So Friday night my aunt Jill had two extra tickets to see Les Mis in SLC. I have seen it a couple of times and loved it but when I heard my sister Brooke has never seen it I insisted we go for her birthday present from me! I am so glad we went. It was super fun spending much needed one-on-one time with one of my bestest friends in the whole world. We almost never do this kind of stuff and there is no doubt I am going to make more of an effort to spend some time with her! She is one of the best! (Brooke, I think I "nailed it"!)

This was Chase's last day of school/ kindergarten and boy is he going to miss it! However, he is pretty pumped for first grade. He cannot wait to spend all day away from me-- (until he really does!) He is excited for school lunch and two recesses. He is looking forward to his new teacher Miss Bailey and happy to know that there are a few of his friends in his class-- phewwww!

Chase with Principal Finch

The best kindergarten teacher around... Mrs. Sumsion!

Chase with his buddy Andrew!