Thankful...

I really am here... I have just worked A LOT lately. Like 117 hours in a two week pay period A LOT!!!

I thought for my first post in November I would post about some things that I am thankful for.... Random things as the come into my head.

-Heavenly Father

-Jesus Christ

-The Gospel

-Steven

-Laura

-Shawn

-Alyssa

-Cameron

-Ashley

-My new nephew Andrew

-My Parents and in-laws - I love that we love to hang out

-My awesome siblings... Jarred, Rachelle, Josh & Jelissa - I am the lucky girl in the world to be so close to them

-Diet Coke

-Mexican Food

-Food

-My AMAZING circle of women that I know (some of you are far and some of you are near, I love you all)

-My Work

-Creativity

-Scrapbooking

-My Expedition

-Mine and my Families Health

-School

-Learning

-Sacrament Meeting

-My fantastic young women

-My calling

-Cooking

-Presentation of Presents

-Organization - No I am not always organized but I love it when I am

-Homemade Salsa and Homemade Guacamole

-Tortilla Chips

-Blogs

-Handwriting

-Bedtime

-For Sure NOT the word moist

-Laura's Parents (Madison & Debra)for Raising an AMAZING Daughter and sharing her with us

-Glass Jars

-Clean Cars

-Clean smelling kids

-Holidays and Traditions

-Singing out LOUD (especially to embarrass my kids)

-Sonic Ice and lots of it!

-Matching colors

-My awesome home

-My iPhone

-Computers

-Technology

-Fireman Jobs

-Marrying my best friend

-The Temple

-Soft Sunday Sounds on FM100 on our way to church (my kids don't love it as much as me)

-Christmas Lights

-Airplanes

-Baking

-When people trust you and believe in you

-My kids accomplishments

-Theater

-Soccer

-Service (to others - I have a harder time when I am being served)

-Family Scripture Reading

So it is a random look into my head... I am thankful for a lot more. I just could go on ALL night.

Love you all!

Welcome Little One!!!

Andrew Jarred Cameron

Birth Day September 29, 2010

He is 8 pounds 21.5 inches long

Mom is doing well. She of course still looks cute even after having a baby!

Dad is doing well too.

They are going to be great parents. I am so happy to see my little brother as a Dad.

Congratulations!

You guys do great work. I really, really love him!

Love - AUNT Jennica

(p.s. I am an Aunt for the first time - he already loves me)

me... an Aunt!

I am going to be an Aunt sometime tonight. It is 11:11pm on September 28th. I hope they call soon. I have been waiting for this day for 36 years and 2 months to become an Aunt. I am sitting here thinking about Rachelle and Jarred as they go through one of my favorite times in my life... the birth of our children. Good Luck guys! We love you!

My blog design...

Steve told me today that I should post about why I have the ribbons on my blog. I found this background and LOVED it. I have a small obsession for crafting, but not because of the actual crafting part but because of the products. I love, love, love to feel the product. I love the feel of textured papers and ribbons. I love the smell of craft paint. I love new crayons and markers and colored pencils. One of my favorite things in the world is a brand new easy to color coloring book with a new box of 96 Crayola Crayons. If they are not Crayola just don't bother... I don't want them.

I love to go into to scrapbook stores to supply my hobby of buying scrapbook supplies. I do eventually use them... I just really like the buying them part too.

My favorite time of the year is school supply shopping time. I LOVE when all of the supplies go on sale and I can buy a bunch of everything. for example this year when all of the 24 packs of crayons were on sale for $.25 I bought 48 packs of them... I know I am obsessed. Weird, shocking... me with OCD. It is ok I have finally admitted it.

Here is goes... "my name is Jennica and I am obsessed with craft supplies"

School Started...

Shawn started 9th grade. So far he loves it. He has a great group of friends (they call themselves the crew). There is seven of them. He is loving being the oldest in the school. He is doing well so far. We are about 7 months away from him getting his learners permit. Wow - where has the time gone?

Alyssa started 7th grade. Oh my gosh I can't believe that my little girl is in 7th grade. She also has a great group of friends. They are all in a little temple group. They have been going twice a month. She is loving having seven classes. One fun thing that happened... in seventh grade the kids make a mouse trap car. They design it and then they race them at the school. The school record was 163 feet and it was made last year. Well my little seventh grade girl made the NEW school record of 174.8 feet. Awesome job Alyssa!

I can't believe that Cameron is in 5th grade. That just seems so old. I remember 5th grade so well. I just can't believe he is there. He has Mrs. Dow. She seems like a great teacher. She is really organized. I love that. I love the curriculum in 5th grade. He has some great friends too. He love hanging out with the guys and doing all kinds of fun things. I am also noticing that he is also starting to like to hang out with some girls here and there. Weird.

Ashley is in the 3rd grade. It seems like just yesterday Shawn was there and now my baby is there. She has Mrs. Birth. Se is a little tiny teacher but she is GREAT! I also love the curriculum in third grade. She has some fun fun little friends. She is in Activity Days at church and is loving that.

I thought that life would slow down when they went to school but I have found a lot of stuff to keep me occupied. I love the schedule of school. I love that they go to bed early and read. I love that I have six hours to my self. I know - I am a mean Mom, but I love it!!!! School Rocks!

Life is GOOD!

Steve, Laura & Me

Steve & Laura hugging goodbye

Our five kids! I love them.

Isn't she pretty?

This is right after they hugged for the first time in 18 years. Look at Steve's teary face... cute huh? It really was one of the sweetest days.

Life is GREAT!

So I will start from the beginning... so you are aren't lost. About 18 1/2 years ago Steve and Rachel (His high school girlfriend) placed a baby girl that they named "Sydney" up for adoption with LDS Social Services. They held her, talked to her, fed her, cried, laughed, smiled, cried again for 3 short days. Then they watched as they put her little car seat inside the van and drove away. And then they thought about her, and thought about her, and thought about her. They thought about the amazing parents that had adopted her. And they cried some more.

Now fast forward two and a half years. Steve and I met and became friends and one day he was talking about "Sydney". I asked him "Who is Sydney?". And he told me the story. I loved her from the beginning. Her little pictures... she was so cute. The story was so amazing. We talked about her all of the time. We became best friends, then started dating, then married. We still talked about her all of the time. All of the time we would talk about when to tell my parents. Never was a great time. We almost brought it up A LOT. But we didn't. I always felt like they would hate him. I wanted to protect him. (Looking back we did the wrong thing by not but hind sight is always 20/20). We waited, and then waited, and then waited some more.

Now fast forward 14 years ("Sydney" was 16) We were over at Rachel and Aaron's (Rachel's Husband) House. Rachel said "I have a surprise for you... come see this". We went into her bedroom and she had some updated pictures of "Sydney"... and her name... it was now Laura. WOW! She was beautiful, and old, and 16, and not a baby anymore. WOW!!!

Now fast forward 2 more years. Laura was now 18. I got on facebook one day (May 17th) and saw a post from Rachel about how her daughters were some of the greatest things that she ever made. She has some pretty great daughters (Leah-13 & Lucy-10). But I knew some how that she was talking about all three of her daughters. I started looking at her posts... and oh my gosh she met Laura... WOW!!!! What a great, amazing, beautiful story! I just sat there and cried and of course what the luck - I couldn't get a hold of Steve to tell him. I cried. She is BEAUTIFUL. I love her... of course we love her. He finally came home to see all of her pictures.

A couple of days later we had the kids get into the hot tub (our family meeting place). We talked to them about the atonement, forgiveness, repentance, love and "Sydney" or now as we know her as Laura. We told them they have a big sister that is 18 and she amazing and beautiful. They jumped out of the hot tub... they wanted to see pictures. We sat there on the computer and looked at all of her pictures with them. And we waited patiently to meet her.

A couple of days later we sat down with my family and told all of them... we waited too long. I know that. We felt bad. They were surprised. We showed them all of her pictures. We said we were sorry for waiting. We wished that we could take that part away.

But now to move forward... we were so excited. We counted down days, minutes and more days... she consumed us. The kids couldn't wait, Steve couldn't wait, I couldn't wait. But we waited. We at least had her pictures to look at and we talked to Rachel to see what she was like. She is a pretty cool girl.

So Steve hoped for Fathers Day... she didn't contact, any day at this point... we were so excited. Finally, while Steve was on scout camp (of course we had to wait some more) we both received a friend request from a Laura Sowell. We made a meeting time. Then Tuesday August 3, 2010 we were able to finally meet her. Steve and I met with Her Mom and Dad (Debra & Madison) and Rachel and Aaron at Cafe Rio. We weren't at all nervous but when we got out of the car all of the sudden we were nervous. I said to Steve "what if she hates us". He laughed.

We walked into Cafe Rio. We saw her Mom and Dad but not her. We finally saw her. Steve and her went to each other and hugged and hugged and hugged. I was in awe of the moment and forgot to take my camera out. When they were done I got a picture of them together. The first since she was a baby. It really was so cute. Then I got to hug her. I was so happy to finally meet this little girl (who was now not a little girl) and hold her in my arms.

We sat and talked with her Mom & Dad and Rachel & Aaron for about an hour and a half. Then Madison her dad said that they would like to all come over and meet our kids. When we got to our house our kids were so excited to see her. They all hugged her. They just kept looking at her and talking to her. They couldn't wait to show their big sister their bedrooms. Her Mom and Dad were so sweet - they asked all of our kids about them, about their likes, favorite subjects, friends etc. They are really great people who have raised a really great daughter.

Since that day we have had a swimming day with Laura, a sleepover with Laura, FHE with her and her parents and then we went to her ward and had Sunday Dinner with them.

We are excited everyday to find out more about Laura and the first 18 years of her life. We can't wait to see what the future brings and to get to know her better. She adds a lot to our family. Our kids absolutely adore her. We appreciate her parents and all of the time that they share her with us.

We love you Laura!

Our last year...

So last year in January Steve came home from work one day and we were talking about the happenings from the day... he said "Jennica... I have something I want to ask you." "Um ok - should I be nervous?" he said "No - of course not. I would like to see what you would think if I decided to go back to school and become a fireman" Honestly my first thought (without thinking about anything) was "AWESOME - firemen are HOT." then reality set in. A lot of questions... How long does it take? What is the schooling like? How expensive is it? WOW!

Well after some talking about it and some praying he was all signed up and we were up for a really long, tiring year. We had no idea how hard it would be. He would work full time and go to school full time and I would be a single mom. Well I am proud to say that we made it... sometimes we felt like we were barely hanging on by a small string... but we made it. He finished school in December. They liked him out there and asked him if he would come back (twice) to intern and teach. Pretty cool but again busy!

Well now we are in the waiting game. He has tested and passed four different cities - Murray City, West Valley City, South Salt Lake and Salt Lake City. We would be happy with him getting a job with any of them. I can't wait until my hot husband is a fireman. He is going to love it. He has worked SUPER SUPER hard to get this. Pray for him to get one of them.

My new favorite quote!

"Often small acts of service are all that is required to lift and bless another: a question concerning a person’s family, quick words of encouragement, a sincere compliment, a small note of thanks, a brief telephone call. If we are observant and aware, and if we act on the promptings which come to us, we can accomplish much good."

President Thomas S. Monson

Happenings...

So we have had a busy couple of months. I can't believe that I haven't blogged for two months.

I can't even remember what we did in March... it was obviously so exciting.

In April Alyssa and I went to New York. My Mother in Law takes the kids when they turn 12 on a trip of their choice. They love this trip. Alyssa picked New York. We were so excited to go on it. It was fun to spend time with with her alone... no other kids. I love to talk about what ever she is thinking about, and have one on one time. I will post pictures soon.

On April 17th, Alyssa turned 12 and came in to my beehive class for young women's. I have been waiting forever for this moment and now it has finally come. She has been so excited too! It is fun on Wednesday Nights to have her, Shawn, Steve and me all go. She is a great kid. She always tries to make the right decisions. For Alyssa's Birthday she invited her 3 best friends to go see the play that Shawn was in (FOOTLOOSE), Dinner and I surprised them and took them to get their makeup done at the mall at the Bare Essentials Store. Then they had a sleepover. It was a great group of girls. They are so much fun. We had decided on a smaller group than normal so we could spend a little more money and time. It worked out great. I love all of the girls that she hangs out with. They are a awesome group.

On April 26th, Shawn turned 14 and now he is a teacher. It is weird to have him be so old. He is a great kid. I love his personality. He is such a great example to his other siblings. For Shawn's Party we had 5 of his best friends over. Shawn wanted Homemade Mexican Food for dinner (a boy after my own heart). Then we took our kids and them and went to Boondocks and then had them all over for a sleepover. We went to Boondocks on a perfect night. It was a little cold but nobody was there so we were able to do any activity we wanted. It was great.

Well that is about it... I will post pictures soon of all our happenings...

Fantastic Quote!

I read this quote on my super cute friend Janet Murray's
Blog... I love it! It is so true and she truly lives by it. She is always so
sweet and happy! She is a great example.

"Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to your next door neighbor, let no one come to you without leaving better or happier. Be the living expression of kindness."
-Mother Theresa

Photography Class

So today I took a class with the cutest Photographer named Emilie. "Photos by Emilie". I love her style. My family actually knows her from the ward where my Dad was in the Bishopric. She has a great personality. She is someone I could totally hang out with. Oh ya and she takes amazing pictures.

So these pictures are some of the ones that I took. She had us take all of the pictures in "manual" setting. We learned a lot about Aperture, F-stop, shutter speed, and ISO. Which make a little more sense after today.

Her "subjects" that she brought in were so stinkin' cute which always makes it fun to take pictures. It helped so much to have her critiquing our pictures.

I was pretty overwhelmed because I am not that great... But I would like to do some homework and really practice and get good at this. It was super fun.

I am glad that I took the class - I can't wait to take another one from her.

Hawaii... oh my favorite place!

Thank you Mom & Dad for an amazing trip. We absolutely love Hawaii. It is so beautiful. We stayed in two of the prettiest hotels. We stayed in the Fairmont on Maui and Hawaii (the Big Island). WOW! The hotels were a vacation in them self. The beds were so comfy that we didn't even want to get up in the mornings.

Josh and Steve. My baby brother is so grown up now. He went through the temple for the first time on this trip in Kona (I will talk about it in another post).

Me and my cute little sister Jelissa. She is so fun. I am glad that we are so close. I love her carefree personality.

This is the four of us getting ready to go on a helicopter ride. Oh my gosh I love to fly in helicopters.

While we were in Hawaii we saw the whales the whole time. When we looked into the ocean we would see a whale jumping out of the water. AWESOME... for whatever reason whales really fascinate me.

Real live LAVA... WOW!!! So cool. This volcano has been continually erupting since 1983. The lava is 2200 degrees. It is much more amazing in person. I really loved the helicopter ride... did I mention that?

Aren't we cute? We are flying the helicopter.

My cute Mom & Dad on our hike.

Me and my Hot husband! We had such a great time. We were able to sit by each other, hold hands, sleep in together, nap together, nap again together, lay by the pool (him in the shade under an umbrella and me in the sun getting sun spots and aging), we ate with out cutting each others food or getting spilled on. We had a great, great time!

Thank you again Mom & Dad... we LOVE you!

Where to start... Um lets see... Grandma's 80th Birthday Party

So my Mom's Mom... Grandma Barlow turned 80 in January. For her birthday we had a big party at my Mom's House. We sent out about 60 invitations. We ended up having about 100-150 people there. She was so cute and so appreciative.

She is such a cute Grandma... I am pretty sure she is just about a saint... she had 15 kids. And she is NOT CRAZY! I would be... well I am and I only have 4. I think of her every time I am stressed out with my 4 kids.

Here she is with her Baby Brother, Uncle Brent. He lives in San Antonio, Texas. He was invited but told her that he couldn't come. He only told my Mom so that she could plan for him... he surprised her at my Mom's house he just showed up. Grandma just cried and cried she was so surprised and excited.

I love my Grandma. She is an amazing woman and I look up to her. I am glad that she is my Grandma. It is only in the last few years that I have become close to her. She was a completely different Grandma when my Grandpa was alive. I am glad to get know her... she is amazing.

Happy 80th Birthday Grandma! I love you!

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland Quote... LOVE IT!

My friend posted this and I am copying her... I LOVE this quote.

"Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve. Is that faith? Yes! Is that hope? Yes! Is that charity? Yes! Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ. If something is buried in the past, leave it buried. Don't keep going back with your little sand pail and beach shovel to dig it up, wave it around, and then throw it at someone, saying, 'Hey! Do you remember this?' Splat!

Well, guess what? That is probably going to result in some ugly morsel being dug up out of your landfill with the reply, 'Yeah, I remember it. Do you remember this?' Splat.
And soon enough everyone comes out of that exchange dirty and muddy and unhappy and hurt, when what our Father in Heaven pleads for is cleanliness and kindness and happiness and healing.
Such dwelling on past lives, including past mistakes, is just not right!"

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

"The Best is yet to Be" January 2010 Ensign