A bit of Thankfulness

Just a few pics of Thanksgiving - which is an interesting holiday for me.  I hated it growing up but now I find it is beginning to be one of my favorite holidays, so relaxed and you just sit and enjoy the wonderful family that you have.  I must admit doing the dishes afterward isn't my favorite.  But, I rarely do much of them.  Jared and I have been VERY spoiled living by family so we have never hosted a Thanksgiving dinner - I have only cooked turkey about 3 times ever.  I keep thinking I better practice up, someday my kids will expect me to know how to do these things!  Good New Year's Resolution, I guess - learn how to cook turkey.  :)  

Jainie and Jake were lucky enough to sit by Grandma Lois - who makes the BEST homemade rolls - I am sure mine will never compare.

The boy table - C.J., Ethan, Joshi, Jaxon, Caleb, and Garrison (without Jake, Gavin, & Nathan)

The fun table - with Grandpa, Grandma, Grandma Lois, Jake, Jainie, Adelynn, Tricia, and Emma

 The big girls table - with Madison, Josie, Lauryn, and Audrey

The sibling/spouse table - you can see Tom, Emily, Allie, Trent, Debbie, Nathan and Julia  Plus, Trevor, Leslie, Alexis' head and Judd

This side you see - Katie, Brett, Leslie, Alexis, Trevor, Alissa and Gavin

I do have to say that I didn't try to get everyone to pay attention during these pictures, just snapped some random photos - I was lucky I got this much done.  They are great, right?

I am sure Jared won't like this picture - but I love it, you don't see him laugh like this that often, especially when it's not me who says something downright hilarious!  :)  Glad to see he is enjoying himself.

So, later we went to my parents house to play games and have leftovers - you can see it looks like we don't run a heater here.  :)  Dad, Lindsay, Sara, and Ry.

Anyway, Happy late Thanksgiving - if we could just keep that happy family feeling all year long it would be wonderful!

Our first family picture

Jainie LOVES drawing.  I love that she loves it and is so creative.  Every morning while I am on the computer checking things, she is on the floor by me drawing or doing dot-to-dots, or coloring or doing something art related.  It's great - we just like being together.  Anyway, when we told the kids we were having a baby Jainie couldn't wait to draw our new family picture.

 So, this was from the first of October - wow! it's been a long time.  Anyway, the people go from top, left to right:  Jainie (with beautiful long pink hair), Jake, Josie, and baby (labeled "B").  Then, Mom, Dad, Jaxon, & Josh - who is really little because she couldn't quite fit him. :)

She loves her white board and draws on it constantly!

So, this was the morning after she found out we are having a girl - which she labeled "girl," it drives her crazy that we don't have a name yet - I am surprised she didn't label it "Jello."  Anyway, pretty cute - she is quite creative.

(Oh, and excuse the dirty floor, wish I could say it is different today, but it still needs to be swept.  But, I could go on an on about all the housework that needs to be done. :)).

It's a . . .

Yep, we found out what the baby is.  Jainie has been diligently praying that she will have a baby sister and every prayer begs that it will be a girl.  Jared and I decided we had better find out so we could talk to her about how prayers are answered and how sometimes we don't get the answer we want.  Meantime, Jake started praying for a boy. 

 So, it was time to let everyone know what the baby was/is.  :)  Anyway, we decided to wait to let everyone know on Thanksgiving.  Except we told the kids a couple days before so they could help us decide and plan on how to tell everyone else.  I have to say I was very proud of the kids for being able to keep it a secret - Josie, Jake and Jainie were particularly excited.  Josie had her friends guess and they all insist they knew all along.  Jake has one of his bff's (as he calls them now), Emma, in his class so he really wanted to tell her.  Jainie told all her friends at school that she knew what it was but she couldn't tell anyone so they would just have to wait.  (I don't think they were too disappointed.)  

So, we got together late one night, after everyone had returned from their individual events and had a scavenger hunt.  

 This shows just how excited everyone was - Josh was so enthusiastic - I thought it was adorable!

So, here is the first clue - each child got to be the leader and find one of the clues.  

Along with the clues came a baby item that we would need.  Jaxon really liked his hand sanitizer - a necessity with five other school-attending children.

It's a . . . GIRL!!! 

 Yep, the final clue led them to these pink frosted cupcakes with baby items on top.  I think they all wondered if Jared and I were serious - you can tell by the look on Jake's face.  Jake was not too happy, he thought it was a boy for sure.   (I don't think he really cared that much, he just wanted it to be the opposite of what Jainie wanted.  But, Jainie knew from the start that it was going to be a little sister.)  Jake refused to eat a cupcake altogether - no pink cupcakes for him.  I do think he tried one out the next day.  :)

So, then we had a couple days to decide how to tell everyone else.  I had some great ideas, but as with most of my ideas, reality sets in and I end up going simple.  Which works.  

So, we went to the Thalman side for Thanksgiving dinner and the kids helped me make these deviled eggs.  We covered this tray and if you look closely, you will see there are letters hidden under the eggs.  (Josie cut out the letters with her little cricut).   So, we just had to wait til everyone ate the eggs to find the surprise.  Jake and Jainie told everyone that they would find out that day but they couldn't tell them how.  Needless to say, the eggs disappeared and no one noticed the letters!  REALLY!  The kids were going crazy until finally I told Jared he should show everyone and make it more obvious.  Well, some thought it was a boy because of the color of the tray - in my defense, it is the only tray I had.  :)  

 Oh, and the eggs were pretty yummy.  :)

So, there you go - what it looked like underneath with Vanna and Pat Sajak showing us what it says.

Then, we went to the Oldroyd's later that night and we made a homemade banana cream pie - which I love.  And, we put beautiful pale pink whipping cream on top.  It's hard to tell it's pink in the picture.  Anyway, Josie brought it in amidst games at the kitchen table and voila! everyone knows!  It's a girl! 

We are so so so so so so so so so so so so so x10 excited!  We will have 3 and 3 - exactly equal.  The boys weren't excited about that since when we vote, they usually win, but the girls are ecstatic.  Jared and I were honestly fine either way, we would be grateful for whichever we were blessed with but a little girl is just so special and I love my girls.  So, bring on the pink - we are getting more and more ready and can't wait for our sweet little baby girl, who may be slightly spoiled, not just by her parents, or her sisters, but her brothers as well.  :)

Baby Names

     Yes, I realize it has been over a month since I last posted - what can I say, December is crazy!  And, once I get behind, it is harder to catch up.  That being said, I still enjoy the approach of only blogging about what I feel like and not trying to go back too much.  HOWEVER,  if you haven't noticed the baby counter on the side of my blog, it says 64 days!  Can you believe it?  64 days before I have SIX children!  Amazing!  And, no I am not ready.  

     A bit ago, like before my ultrasound, so at least a couple months ago, I had the kids each choose a name they liked and write it on the sidewalk and then get a picture.  It was interesting.  The boys hadn't thought much about the girl names that they chose and the girls hadn't thought much about the boy names.  Anyway, I have thought of names since then that we might use but here is the list they came up with.  Pretty good J names, I have to say - well, most of them.   :)

So, if you can't see them - Jainie and Jake both chose "Jack," which I think is funny since we have a Jaxon already.  Josh chose Jorge - hmm.  Josie chose Jesse and Jaxon is all about Jett or Jeter.  I also liked John and I like Jaeger; plus some others.  These are obviously the boy names.

And, here are the girl names.  Jaxon chose JaKelle, Josie chose Jackelynn (weird spelling I think), Josh chose Joy, Jake chose Jessica (we have a cousin Jessica), and Jainie has loved Jello since the beginning and she is serious about it.  Then, I added Janessa, Jennevieve, and Jentrie.  And, still there are others.  One of the favorites suggested to me by others is Juliet.  Such a hard decision.

Anyway, you can see we are still going with J but it sure is getting harder.  I keep thinking of my favorite names and putting a J in front of them.  Trust me, it doesn't work very well with most names.  Although on some baby name websites, they really are listed as options.  Example:  Jemma - yep, apparently it is a pretty popular name.  :)

SIXTEEN

     Yay!  Grateful for hair and sometimes for getting rid of hair.  Jaxon has been growing out his hair for quite awhile.  Alissa has cut it for him once, but I think he decided that keeping it looking good long is harder than just growing your hair out.  :)
     He liked that it was getting curly and really did look pretty cute in the back - not as good in the front, but still not bad.  It drove Jared crazy most of the time and I have to say I like it better when I can see his handsome face. :)

I really do think the curls are cute - who knows where he got them from.
 I guess my bros  have curly hair.

     Here you can see Jared decided to have some fun cutting - Jake and Jainie especially found it entertaining and Jaxon was a good sport to let everyone laugh at him.  We decided to see how he would look with a mohawk.  :)  Not my favorite look.

It definitely got a bit long.

     I didn't get an after picture, but it looks MUCH better.  :)

FIFTEEN

     Good friends.  Jainie and Matt have been good friends since birth - they each go over to the other's houses whenever possible.  In fact, if I can't find Jainie, she is over at Celeste's (Matt's mom).  It is great, I am glad she feels so comfortable with other people.  There was a time, about a year ago, that she would rather be following Celeste around than me, that was a bit rough.  :(  Matt also feels very comfortable here and whenever he shows up, he and Jainie start playing and have a grand time.

One day I found them downstairs watching a movie all happy and snuggled up.

FOURTEEN

Well, I have been waiting for #14.  I thought it was only appropriate that my fourteenth blessing be my eldest child, Jaxon, as he just turned 14 - yep, 14.  I can hardly believe it myself.  It is such a bitter sweet time for me.  I still remember the day he was born - November 12 - 9lbs 3ozs, 20 inches long.  He came out screaming at us all and then promptly whizzed on the doctor.  :)  He loves that story.  He has been full of it ever since then.  

He is growing up so quickly, there have been many days that I have thought, "Oh, if I could just raise him to be a good, decent, happy human being who tries to do the right and helps other people I will be successful."  It has at times been a struggle, I can't tell you how many times he ran away from home - too many to count.  He really likes to tease and cause those around him stress most of the time, well, family anyway.  But, they tell me at school he is great and most people think he is relatively quiet - ha! he really isn't.  He definitely likes to push his limits.  However, he is maturing so much - turning into such a good young man.  He helps me so much whenever he knows I really need it - he is such a blessing to me.  Still, how has he grown so much so quickly?  It baffles me how swiftly the time goes and I wonder, "Have I done enough?  Will he make good choices and be a good example when I am not around?"  He is getting to the point where we really enjoy talking with each other.  He is very logical and if I can give him good reasons for things, then he understands and tries harder.  He is extremely intellectual and thinks about everything - how and why.  And, he can figure out how to fix just about anything.  When he was about 11, he took a computer apart and then reassembled it - making it so only he knew how it worked.  Whenever I can't figure something out, I give it to him and he fixes it for me.  

So, his birthday was on a Saturday and he didn't know quite what to do with himself.  We brought him breakfast in bed, of course.  A new recipe I tried - french toast made with croissants with a banana syrup - it was YUMMY! Plus, bacon, hot chocolate, and a Jamba juice drink.  He loved it.

Then, he just played downstairs on the Wii for a few hours while his dad went to work.  We let him choose if he wanted to invite friends over to watch movies or invite friends over to play basketball but he just wanted to hang out with the family.  He did have a basketball game at 10 - which he played really well in.  He has been playing post this year and is awesome.  Josh had a game at 2:00 so we went to that as well.  After we got home , he was dying to open presents so that came next.  

This is a card Jainie made special for him - you can see she is thrilled.

And, this is a special book that Josie, Jake and Jainie put together for him - with pictures and everything - Josie is a really good sister.

Yep, he loves the Yankees and wanted an official fitted hat.

Jared had a Priesthood Leadership Meeting at 4:30 so while he went to that the rest of us went bowling - Jaxon knocked down 9 pins 6 different times - he dealt with it really well and was still happy at the end.  He did get a spare and a strike later.  

A bunch of crazies.  :)

Then, Jared and I took him out to dinner - Wingers was his choice and he ordered steak, of course, no expense spared on your birthday, I guess.  It was nice to spend time one on one with him - like I have said, he really is getting to be quite a nice young man.  (And, I have to say, I am really glad he is a bit shy so he doesn't want to hang out with girls as much as most of his friends do. :)  That will come soon enough).

All in all, I think he had a nice day.  And, the next day, he was ordained to be a teacher in the priesthood.  It was so special and I am so glad he is making good choices.  Both sides of grandparents got to be there, which was wonderful. 

Afterward, we went over to Gpa and Gma Oldroyd's for dinner for his birthday.  Gpa and Gma Thalman took him out the next weekend for some birthday fun.  He is lucky to have such great grandparents and that we get to live by both of them.

He got tickets to the UofU vs. BYU basketball game - Josh is excited too because he tags along with whatever Jaxon does - they are pretty good friends.

Some other facts about Jaxon:  

1.  He LOVES to read - he reads everything, he hated reading until 5th grade when it   

     finally clicked and off he went.  He is definitely one of the best readers at his school.

2.  He LOVES sports - baseball is his favorite, he loves pitching and 2nd base.  He played

     a bit of 3rd last year as well and did a great job - stopped a couple balls with his shins

     - OUCH!  He also loves basketball - he is a wonderful rebounder.  

3.  He is growing rapidly.  He passed me up a few months ago.  He has grown about an

     inch since his birthday - no kidding - he is now about 5'11".  He wants to be the tallest

     Thalman - right now his dad is at 6'0".  He just might make it.

4.  He likes to act tough but is still just a kid at heart.  He still likes playing with his 

     siblings and loves legos.  He really doesn't like being by himself too much so a sibling 

     is usually with him.

5.  He was so excited when he started growing armpit hair - gross, I know.  It started last

     year - he won't let me take a picture of it.  :)  Yep, I like to embarrass him.

6.  His favorite foods are still venison and shrimp.  And, his favorite color is orange 

     because he learned that orange is the color of flirtation.  :)  Good thing he is too shy to

     flirt much.

7.  He LOVES sweets - he almost always has a hidden stash of candy somewhere - I find

     garbage wrappers everywhere, under couches, behind toys, in his sheets, pockets, etc.

8.  His hands are huge!  I think they are almost as big as his dad's.

9.  He is a sweetheart and really tries to help others even though sometimes it is really 

     hard apparently.

10.  He loves hunting and fishing and wishes he could go more.  Since he can't, he plays

      video games as much as I will let him.  And, he gets very irritable when I make him 

       turn them off, he would play all day and night if I let him.

Happy Birthday Jaxi - we love you more than you will ever know!