My Baby is 4

Happy Birthday Camryn! My little bundle of sunshine is 4 years old today. We celebrated her birthday on Saturday. Daddy heated the pool and we swam all day with friends and family. Camryn wanted a bee cake with yellow and black balloons, one bee balloon, and one Transformer balloon. To top the night off she had a red Power Ranger pit-a-ta (pinata) to hit. She had loads of fun and got some really nice things to play with. We ended the birthday weekend by heading over to Chuck E. Cheese's for Monday family night.

Yes, I Do Have Four Kids!

I was told by one of my peeps that I never show my two older kids and only focus on the two younger ones so I'll try and do better by posting more of all. Happy Cyndi? ;o)

The joys of having a teenager. May everyone be so blessed to endure this lovely time! Actually Tanner is quite the passive child who has never really given his family much grief. At least not yet or what I haven't seen or heard. Here's a brief bio of my older boy.

Tanner (Paul as he chooses to be called now) was born August 13, 1993 at a whopping 9lbs. and 1 oz. He was a breached baby so he was born by cesarean. Tanner was always very imaginative as a child and kept himself busy by playing with his imaginary friends. At one time he was the proud owner of 25 rabbits. We didn't know that once a rabbit gives birth they mate immediately. Tanner loves to go camping with his family and has been to Disneyland every year of his life. (Sad, I know).

When Madison was born he didn't want to go to the hospital to see mom or his new sister, but wanted to ride the roaster coaster (roller coaster). When we brought Madison home he ran away ...only to the neighbors and only for 15 minutes. He was a big help with his sister and was very protective of her. When his other siblings came along he had great practice of being a big brother. He's always been a baby lover and is the first to want to hold and cuddle the new babies.

Tanner just finished his freshman year at Shadow Ridge and loves high school. He has attended the following schools: Saville MS, Guy ES, McWilliams ES, and Gilbert ES. He also attends early morning seminary. When Tanner started first grade he went to a magnet school and got to ride the bus. On the first day of school the bus didn't drop him off and no one knew where he was. Finally, we found out that he was on a bus just the wrong one and he was dropped off at 7 pm. He never rode the bus again.

Tanner loves the computer, all of his electronic mumbo jumbo things, swimming, riding his bike, going camping, hunting with his dad, paintball, watching movies, and hanging out with his family and friends. He enjoys scouts and is looking forward to going to scout camp this summer.

He's now on an exercise kick and has been weight training at school and working out at home. He's hit a growth spurt and is now tall, thin, and good looking. He gets to go and work with his dad this summer and earn some extra money. He's very excited to have his own cash.

Did you know--Tanner has had 4 broken arms, a broken thumb, and a broken toe? Not from me of course!!!

Tanner is a great kid who is a huge helper in our household of younger siblings. I would love to see him have more patience with his sisters, but he does okay. We love the kid dearly and couldn't imagine life without him.

Gotta Love Kids

The pictures of Jaxon make me laugh every time I see him. He doesn't respond well to the word "no" and enjoys throwing himself on the ground having a temper tantrum. I find it hilarious and should probably begin putting him on time out when he throws his fits since they occur no more than 10 times a day. But, you're only one once, right?


I meant to post this picture of Maddie a couple of weeks ago. She had her first dance competition of the season and her group placed 94 points out of 100. She did pretty good. Of course, while watching the competition my camera battery died so this is the only picture of her I have all dolled up. Don't worry...more competitions to come in the next couple of months. Yeaaah me!

Sorry, no Spotlight Sunday

It's been a long week. Jaxon has had a fever, congestion, and teething for the entire week. A cranky baby is right up there with a sick hubby and not a task I enjoy dealing with. Thank goodness for my mother who kept him drugged and happy during the day until I got home. Today he seemed to be more whiny and his fever was back which put a damper on my day.

My family was then dealt with the upsetting news that my 5 year old nephew was diagnosed with leukemia. It's amazing how life can change your attitude in an instant. I immediately felt guilty about having to "deal" with a crying kid and can only imagine what my nephew will be going through. I then think of his mother and father who just brought their third child into the world in February and imagining the pain they must be feeling to see their oldest child diagnosed with this disease.
We are so fortunate to have the savior in our lives and to know that he will always be with us and help us through troubling times. I definitely hugged all of my kids a little bit more today and apologized to Heavenly Father for my attitude. My thoughts and prayers are with my nephew and am hoping for a quick recovery. If you could, please keep Jake and family in your prayers for me. Thanks!

J family....I love you all.

Spotlight Sunday...Paul

Now I'll introduce you to Paul, the ruler of the house. Or at least he likes to believe. Men are easy to introduce so this shouldn't take long.

Beginnings: Paul was born and raised in Las Vegas also. He has two brothers and one sister. His parents live in Oklahoma so we don't get to see them very often. He went to Rose Warren ES, Garside MS, and Bonanza HS.

Work:Paul was a bricklayer for over ten years until the profession ruined his back and he had to switch.After two back surgeries he became an electrician and is now co-owner of the company he works for, American Southwest Electric. HIs company does commercial work and he's had the grand luxury of working in Moapa, Laughlin, and Sandy Valley besides Las Vegas and Henderson. Their company is now completing the electrical work on the new park behind Heckethorn ES and the new library on Buffalo. It's cool for me since I get to view the plans and see what's taking place.

Hobbies: Paul's favorite thing to do is hunt. Doesn't matter what he's hunting for. Just give him a rifle and he's happy. He gets to go deer hunting two to three times a year (depending on when I let him) and is going bear hunting at the end of May. Tanner goes with him once a year which is a good son/father thingy thing to do.

Favorites: Paul's favorite place to travel to is Disneyland. It's his absolute ideal vacation and we have to be there when it opens and stay until it closes.We go at least once a year. He gets more excited about seeing Mickey and the gang than his kids do. He also enjoys camping and takes the older kids once a year to Cave Lake to fish and camp.

Other tidbits: Paul wasn't raised in the church, yet is our biggest supporter when it comes to church activities. He always wants to know what Camyrn learned in primary every Sunday and is a big stickler about Tanner going to seminary and scouts. Paul has attended all of the blessings and baptisms for our kids and is always encouraging them to be the example. I know in my heart that one day Paul will see the church the same way that I do, but for now I'm content with the life we lead and the family that we've become.

Lastly:One of Paul's greatest accomplishments, besides his children and marrying me, is building our swimming pool. He contracted out what needed to be done. We saved lots of money doing it this way and our pool was built in 31 days. He's out at his pool daily cleaning it or fiddling with it. I'm proud to say that I married a great man!

Another Quirk

I'm obsessed with feet. Long ago just my own two feet, but now that I have kids I'm obsessed with their feet. Obsessed in the way about cleanliness and the way they look. I'm constantly checking my two little one's feet for hangnails or clipping their toenails weekly. Nighttime feet have to be washed before going to bed and don't even get me started on going outside without any shoes on. That I can't handle. I may have a touch of OCD I'm not sure, but that's one of my quirks for sure. I will never be the one that requires you to take off your shoes in my house because I want to keep the carpet clean. I have a pair of shoes that leave black ink on my feet from the inside soles material. Nope, can't wear them anymore because I can't walk around with black feet. My niece who took the photo (and one of the best photographers I know ;))had no idea about my weirdness about feet so when a friend of mine saw the photo and knew my issues with this subject she of course doubled over with laughter. This is by far one of my favorite photos ever taken because it symbolizes my children being little and me being weird!

Spotlight Sunday...All About Kris

I thought it would be fun to share and spotlight members of my family once a week so friends and family can get to know more about us. Since this is my blog and I rule the roost (haha) I'll go first. Hopefully, every Sunday for the next six weeks you'll get to know a little more about my little family and see some old family photos. I'm still learning the scanning thing so the photos aren't that great, but oh well. Here it goes:

Beginnings: I was born September 17, 1972 in Las Vegas, NV. I have three brothers and two sisters. My parents were divorced before I was born so I was raised by my mother. I met Paul when I was 16 and married him on June 20, 1992. Tanner was born in 1993. Madison came along in 1998 and Camryn in 2004. Jaxon is our tail end and was born in 2007. We've been married for over 15 years and I feel that our marriage gets stronger as the time goes by. I love that man and am so grateful for the father, husband, and provider that he is.

Schools-I attended JT McWilliams ES, Gibson Jr. High, and Western High School. I graduated HS in 1990. I attended UNLV and graduated with a BA in 2000. I then went on and received a M.Ed in 2002 and another M.Ed from GCU in 2007 in education. Yes, I'm a fanatic about education!

Work-To help with finances I began working at a daycare when I was 14 and stayed there until I was 21. I then worked for the school district as a teacher's aide until I finished my teaching degree eight years ago. I now teach 4th grade to 30 students at Betsy Rhodes ES and absolutely love it! Teaching is the best job for a parent. You work six hours a day, five days a week, and only 180 days a year.

Things I like to do: shop, watch movies, read true crime books, travel, scrapbook, take walks, swim with the family, love reality TV...my weakness! Doing things with my family is the best.

Don't like: snakes, turtles, chihuahuas, wind, disgruntled people

Happiest moment: birth of Jaxon and Camryn....Tanner and Madison were happy moments one day later!

Saddest moment: death of my sister Patsy

What may surprise you about me: I once wanted to work for the coroner and even applied to work there. I was a lip model once. My sister had a friend in cosmetology school and needed a demonstrator for lipstick and I happened to be there. I broke my toe going to a Kid Rock concert many years ago.

So there is a little about me in a nutshell. I'm certain there is much more, but that's a start!

Fun, yet Pricey

Saturday evening for family night we decided to venture out and take the kids to Las Vegas Mini Grand Prix. We haven't been there for at least five years if not more and the kids were really excited to go and have some fun. Imagine my disappointment when I found out how pricey this place was. $6.00 to ride a go-cart!!!! All of the other rides were $3.00 and I think the slide was $1.50. So for all of us to ride the go-carts, including Jaxon, would've been $36.00. To save a buck my night was spent with Jaxon on my hip supervising and observing the kids and Paul riding the few rides that we allowed them to go on. Two hours and a hundred bucks later we left with empty pockets, yet happy kids. My advice would be....save your money!!