Happy Birthday to my sweet Katelyn....

I know that this is a day late but I wanted to post a few pictures of my sweet 4th born daughter, Katelyn. She is a really sweet girl. But she is not a push-over. She is already showing signs of being passive-aggressive (that's my girl!). She was a sweet baby and an ever sweeter little girl.

Katelyn's newborn picture. She was a pretty baby, wasn't she. :)

Katelyn at 6 months. Mike didn't like the yellow back round but I did so that is what we have. I just love her face!

Her 1 year pictures. She had to hold something in her hand to keep her occupied. She is a spring baby so the butterflies suit her.

Now the 2 year pictures. Again her hands needed to be occupied. But a sweet picture and I love her smile!

This was a hard photo session. She refused to smile so she was laying down and tickling her and this is the result. I love her laughing.

At four years old she is so pretty. We got a few good pictures at this session. She just has such a cute smile.

This was taken 2 days before her birthday at Disneyland (more on that later). She was having so much fun!

I truly love my Katelyn. She is such a sweet girl and I can't imagine our family without her! We love you Kat-a-nin-nin-nin!

To train or not to train....

That is big question in my house right now. Baby is showing signs of being ready to potty train. Which really throws me off. I am used to training them after they are 3. Katelyn took so long to train and was so close to 4 that I don't know if I want to do this again so soon.

What is making me hesitate right now is our trip. We are leaving to go to California at the end of the week. Mike's sister is blessing her baby and since it is her first we are going down. We might even throw a surprise trip to Disneyland for the kids in there.

So my question is how many of you out there would want to potty train a child less than a week before you go on a long car trip and a day at an amusement park?

Mike and the girls keep pushing it. And it is driving me crazy! I keep telling them to stop and lay off! I will take care of it after we get home. But they keep asking her if she needs to go potty and helping her go potty (which involves Baby in no clothes every time). Everyday when Mike gets home from work he asks her if she went in the potty. And the kicker is that she has been going in the potty and wants to wear panties! She has done both in the potty with no problem! So I know she is ready but now right now! I do not want to deal with a newly potty trained child on a car trip and at Disneyland! Mike thinks we should just train her now. He seems to forget that on every car trip he goes to the bathroom by himself. I have 5 other people with me! I have to make sure that 4 kids all use the potty, wipe, flush, and wash their hands. We are quite a crowd in the bathrooms! I know that it will be 5 kids eventually but I am not ready for that yet.

Let's just make it clear...I am willing to potty train Baby but not right now. Let train her AFTER the trip!

Am I just being unreasonable about this? Everyone else in this house seems to wonder why I am holding off.

HELP!

What's new....

To start off with...my talk went rather well. Thanks for all the supportive comments! :) Members of my ward said that I did not even seem nervous. I was shaking. Believe me! I don't mind speaking, really. Nut I do get nervous right before. I just take a deep breath and try not to think about what I am about to do. I did enjoy hearing Baby yell at me from the back. I realized how loud that child really is. Her being so cute saves her everyday. :)

Megan had her Medieval Festival at school. It is for all 6th graders. They are given a list of assignments that they work their way through to earn a rank. There was the Serfs (they did all the serving to the higher classes, ate last, and all the clean up.) Next the Commoner (a step above the serf, no cleaning but got to eat before the serfs.) Then the Knights/Ladies. Then the King/Queen rank. They got to eat first and do no work. Megan earned the Queen rank. I went with Baby (Katelyn was at school) and helped with the candle making station. Baby was happy to just sit with Meggie and eat her food.

The kids are now off track. It's going okay. It is better now that we de-junked the toy room. It was really bad. It took 3 hours and 2 huge garbage bags, but it got done. They like to play up there all the time now. Amazing isn't it? ;)

We leave for California the weekend after Easter. Mike's youngest sister is blessing her baby, Luke. Mike and Kristin are close so we are going down. It is also her first baby. So it will be fun, I hope. :)

That's all that's going on here. Not too exciting I know. But that's life sometimes!

Why Me....

The Bishop called last week. I didn't know it was actually the Bishop calling. The caller ID just said it was the church building. Mike told me I shouldn't have answered the phone. But I did. And now I get to give a talk tomorrow during sacramement meeting. Yipee! Good for me!

What got me was the topic...."Building a Christ-home." Me? Seriously?! I almost laughed at the bishop. Mike laughed when he I told him.

I could not even work on it today because my kids were threatening each other with death and hating each other until they die. Yeah. They picked the right house.

The bishop told me that he thought of me and this topic came to mind. Huh? Was it the glare I have on my face at the end of every sacrament meeting after dealing with 5 children? Was it during the meeting, while the sacrament is being passed and my 2 year-old is yelling "One more!" at the deacon as he is leaving our row with the tray?

So we will see how this goes. I am tempted to open it up to discussion but I do not think I am the right one to be talking about this. Then again, I get to sit on the stand and actually listen. That will be a change. Mike gets to sit with all 5 kids. There is a small positive side to this. :)

Luke James Yaden

I am an AUNT again!! The count is now...16 nieces and nephews on the Schwartz side and 14 nieces and nephews on the Jacobson side. Whew!!

This little cutie pie belongs to Mike's youngest sister, Kristin, and her hubby, Jeremy. He was born on February 4th at 1:00 am (on the dot!), weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches. This is their first baby so they really didn't know what it all would be like. She wasn't sure if she wanted an epidural, until the contractions really started. :) There's no reward for pain in child birth!

We are very happy he is here and part of the family!

The day he was born.

At home. Isn't he so cute that you want to squeeze him?! :)

This is the birth sampler that I made for him. It is the same pattern as all my girls have. Only theirs are more light blue and pink (of course!). It was fun and different to do one in dark blue and grey. Kristin asked for these colors because the colors of her wedding were cobalt blue and silver. She really likes the combination. And I do too!

Congrats to Kristin and Jeremy on making such a cutie!

Birthday Present....

We are still in mid January. Only it's my birthday! That's right people! The best day ever! January 16th! It was a nice day. I went out to dinner with Mike the night before. The girl in the booth behind us had a laugh like Janice from "Friends." Poor thing! It was a first date for her with this guy. I could tell from the conversation. I was not eavesdropping! They were that loud. Or at least she was.

On my birthday the kids were sweet and tried not to fight all day. They did not succeed but the effort was there. We went to Cafe Rio for my birthday dinner with the kids. Love that place!! Mike and the girls got me 2 Willow Tree statues of little girls that reminded him of our girls. So cute. Especially when the twins started to pose like them and tried to convince me which one they looked more like. Then Megan took me into my room to show the the following slide show of pictures they made for me. (The computer would not let me copy and paste them into a photo album since they did it on Microsoft Office PowerPoint. Just slightly irritating. So I actually took pictures of them on the computer screen.)

(That is Karly in my sister's dryer. Upper left hand corner. No we did not turn it on. But we did scare my niece when we asked her to get some clothes out of the dryer.)

In the upper right hand corner is Mike's youngest brother Kyle (in the red cap). He turns 17 this month. He was seeing how many of his nieces and nephews he could fit on his lap at once.

That's my one and only brother Mike after my Grandpa's funeral (upper right hand corner). I asked for a nice face and that is what I got. And the bottom middle is my Daddy holding Mikayla after her blessing.


So thoughtful and cute! My girls drive me crazy but I really do love them!

Monica's Tooth....

So I am back of after a little break. You know how you just go through your day. Day in and out, and nothing exciting seems to happen. That is how I have felt lately. But like a journal for me so I need to make an entry.

So mid January Monica lost her first tooth. The permanent was already in so it was about time. So I didn't get to call her toothless for long.

She is just cute! :)

Mikayla got the assist on this one. She head-butted Monica in mouth and the tooth came out. Such a nice sister. And helpful too!