Jonathan Rex Svedin

When trying to think of a way to celebrate this wonderful man on his birthday I got to thinking of how much he loves his friends and family.  He is the type of person that would do whatever he can for those he loves.  When I ask Jon about his childhood or his favorite memories he always tells me what a bad memory he has so this year on his birthday I would love to have all of his friends and family remind him of all the great times in his life that his bad memory may have forgotten.  So if you would please leave a comment below with your favorite memory of Jon to help make his day I will make sure that he reads them all.  If you would then pass this link on to others who may know him so they can share their memories I would be very thankful.  Let’s make this a day to celebrate Jon! 

I've been thinking

Lately I just keep thinking about how I clean the same mess over and over yet the house never seems to get cleaner.  I know that having kids plays into this but yet the mess is not always the kids mess.  I know that organization is the biggest problem in my house.  Not everything has a place.  I set a goal when we moved in to make sure everything had a place when it got unpacked but seemed to have failed miserably at this.  So things get shifted from one spot to the next and it drives me nuts but I just don't seem to know what to do about it.  I have read many books, and blog post on organization and think oh I can do that it wouldn't be that hard but when it comes right down to it I never get it done.  I will get started and then get distracted by one of my children or the hubby and then never end up getting back to it so that makes an even bigger mess to face the next time I try.  I often wonder if I just missed this line in heaven.  Did I not get the organization gene or is this something that is developed over time.  And if that is the case how in the world do you do it??  How can I teach my sweet girls so that they don't have to deal with this issue when they are older.  How do I who fail miserably in house keeping teach my girls to do better?  We have tried having Baylee do chores and she was great at it but once again mother falls short and stops having her do her chores and we are back at stage one of chores once again.  Is there any tricks to this that I am missing?  What age do I start.  Abi just stares blankly at me as I try to teach her to pick her toys up and put them away.  In fact she does the opposite and spreads them right back out as I put them away.  I will go to other people's homes and think "how in the world do they do it?"  I would like to just follow a few of my dear friends around all day every day for a week and just watch there daily routines and their cleaning habits and see if I can learn something. Not sure they would like that and I don't really have the time with 2 kids at home but hey if any of you dear friends are willing I think I could arrange a sitter for the week so I could observe you in your daily duties.(just putting it out there :) ) I just want my home to be nice for my hard working man and my family.  I guess I will just keep trying different things and keep cleaning the same mess over and over and maybe one day all the pieces will come together and I will get this figured out. Maybe one day I will have the house the people walk into and think WOW!!! A girl can dream right??

What has been going on

It has been awhile since I have really updated on what has been going on with our family so this post is going to be that.
Jon
Jon has been a very busy man.  He started a new job with the DI and a program on line to get his teaching certificate all while still working at Applebee's.  He is only home for a few hours a day and during that time manages to fix anything that I need fixed, play with his girls, give me some much needed attention, work on the yard, and study.  He is always so positive about things even when he has no time for himself.  He has lost about 90lbs this year and is looking great!  I am so proud of him for sticking to it. 

Caylee
I have been very busy keeping up with my 2 girls.  They both keep me on my toes.  I spend most of my day cleaning up the mess that Abi strews around the house and trying to figure out where Baylee ran off to.  I have started selling Paparazzi jewelry and love it!  The stuff is so great because it sells itself.  I just have to get it in front of people and they fall in love with it and with the fact that it is only $5.  I also love that I can be as busy as I choose or as slow as I need.  I have not kept real busy because I feel that it is so important for me to be home with the girls since Jon is working so much. I love being able to stay home and be with my girls and am so thankful for Jon working so hard so that I can be. 

Baylee
Baylee has been so busy this year.  She played soccer and loved it! has had Ballet all year and loved being able to learn new dances.  We spent a lot of time at the library doing music and movement and mini monet(art class).  She has been my big helper with Abi as well.  On mother’s day she surprised us by losing her first tooth.  This came as a shock because we all thought she was too young but sure enough there was another tooth ready to grow in.  She went to her first dentist appointment and ended up having to see another dentist and an ENT.  The ENT said she needed to have a hearing test so we went to yet another doctor and had that checked.  Well her hearing was being affected by fluid behind her ear drums which meant that she needed tubes put in plus her adenoids and tonsils needed to come out so she had surgery at the end of last month and has spent the last 2 weeks trying to recover.  She is fully recovered and so excited that she can eat chips without it hurting her throat and she can also now ride her bike again.  Today she pulled her 2nd tooth out and is now laying in bed waiting and waiting for the tooth fairy.  Her imagination is so great and you will find her talking to her friends and dancing around being some princess.  She is wonderful with her little sister and a great big help when it comes to doing chores around the house. Some of her favorites are doing dishes, vacuuming, and scrubbing toilets. 

Abi
Abigail has grown so much!  She is changing so much that Jon and I will look at her baby baby pictures and say “that doesn’t even look like her”  She crawls all over the house trying to keep up with Baylee.  Pulls her self up to a standing position as much as possible, keeps mom buys so she can crawl up the stairs and throws her toys all over the house.  She is such a happy little girl and will play in the toy room by herself for along time.  She loves to be able to play with the big girl toys and hates when Baylee takes them from her.  She has her big sister wrapped tightly around her finger and only has to make a small noise to get Baylee to feed her whatever it is that Baylee is eating or to give her a toy.  She is a great sleeper and will take 2 naps a day and sleep all night!  She is trying to cut her naps down to 1 but gets super cranky without that 2nd nap.  She just got her 3rd tooth and thinks that she can eat all the big girl stuff since she got it.  She has a major sweet tooth and would only eat junk food if we let her.  She loves her bottle and blanket, you can find her most of the time cuddled on the floor with her blanket and drinking her bottle (usually it is empty but that doesn’t stop her)  She gets a huge grin on her face when her daddy gets home and usually wont go down for her second nap for mom because she wants daddy to put her down instead.  She babbles away in the car while we drive and loves to be tickled.  She will hold her foot out for you to tickle then pull it away when you do then when you stop she holds it out for you to tickle again.  She loves to take a bath but hates to go swimming.  She is such a joy to have around. 

4th of July

4th of July VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

This year for the 4th of July Jon and I decided we were going to have fun and not end up giving up what we want to do just to do something that someone else wants us to do.  A lot of times we will have a plan of what we want in mind but who ever we are planning on doing it with has another idea in mind and we end up being the ones who give up our own wants.  This is not always a bad thing but it can get frustrating at times. So this year we took charge of our 4th and had a blast.  We wanted Baylee to get to see a parade again since the last one she went to scared the heck out of her because of some stupid guy thinking he was funny.  Anyway that is another story another time.  We got up and headed down to get a good spot for the Melba parade.  We had a lot of fun watching the girls enjoy this parade.  Baylee had just had surgery a week before and her hearing was so much better that she had to keep covering her ears because everything was so much louder to her.  She stood and waved and got tons and tons of candy! Abi loved it so much as well that she would not go to sleep. 
After the parade we headed home and just relaxed as a family for a little bit and tried to let the girls relax so we could go to the fireworks later without having super cranky girls.  Baylee did not nap and Abi only took one short one. 
We had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Svedin and then loaded up in the truck to go get a spot for the fireworks.  Baylee loves fireworks but we knew it would hurt her ears so we didn’t want to be super close plus we had heard that about 10,000 people go to these fireworks and it can take about 2 hours to get out of town when they are over so we parked along a road outside of town to watch them.  We were not alone in this thinking by the time the fireworks started there were cars parked for miles on every road around this place!  We put a few blankets in the back of the truck and just hung out playing games and taking pictures (on jon’s phone sorry I don’t have them to post) When the fireworks started(about 10:30) the girls got so excited.  Abi stood up to the edge of the truck and just smiled and squealed while baylee danced around the truck singing very loudly christmas songs.  When we got home after 11 neither of the girls where asleep and neither really wanted to but mom and Dad where tired and made them go to bed.  It was a great day just spent together doing what we wanted and loving time together as a family. 

What Summer is all About!

This summer has been full of fun for Baylee.  Every day seems to be full of friends and water 2 of Baylee’s favorite things.  I can’t seem to keep her home for more then a few hours. If she is not off riding her bike to the neighbors they are here knocking on my door to see if Baylee can come and play.  I am so glad that we moved to this house and have great neighbors with wonderful kids for my children to play with.  It is great to watch them ride little trikes around like it is a trike derby, or run through the sprinklers.  They run and hug each other the second they see each other and that is all Baylee can seem to talk about until her head hits the pillow at the end of the day.  This is really what summer is all about!!


Abi got in on some of the fun too.  While the sprinkler was going for the kids to run through Abi crawled to the door to watch and was squealing right along with the rest of the girls but soon her squeals turned to cries and when I went to see what was going on I found that the sprinkler had been turned so that it was spraying in the house.  Abi does not like to be sprayed with water and was not thrilled that her fun had been ruined.


After getting wet she moved her fun into the play room where she was free to play with whatever she wanted with out her big sister getting in the way.  One of her favorite toys is Baylee’s little keep board with a microphone she will sing at the top of her voice into the mic and giggle after.

Ballet Recital

Baylee has had a blast with her Ballet class this year.  I am so glad the we have been blessed to have found a teacher that is so great with her.  She loves her Miss Stacie and looks forward to class every week.  They have been working on learning the skills for this dance all year and Baylee has practice and practice at home.  I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did.  Just click on the link below to see how talented my little Ballerina really is!

Little Lady Bug Dance

Being a mommy is hard...

But so worth it! There are times where I think "what did I get myself into"  and then there are those moments where I can't believe how lucky I am!  This last week I have been reminded of the wonderful moments of motherhood.  These reminders came in a way that surprised me.  Some of my favorite moments with my children this week have not taken place during the daylight hours but rather during those sleepless nights. 

The first moment was with my Sweet Baylee(I can't say enough times how much I love this girl).  Baylee is our little sleep talker ok maybe I shouldn't say little but huge sleep talker.  Every night you can here her in her room sound asleep having a conversation with who knows who.  Randomly she will yell out in her sleep.  Most of the time I can tell when she is sleep talking or if she is needing me but occasionally she will yell out and sound so scared that I get up to check on her only to find her asleep.  The other night she yelled out and I thought oh she is still asleep but she continues to cry so I got up to check on her. When I entered her room she patted a spot on her bed and said "mommy I need you for a min." Not very often will I lay next to her in bed but this night I felt it was so important for her.  As I laid next to her she rubbed my face with the biggest smile on her face and went to sleep.  Well last night once again she yelled out and I got up to check on her she looked asleep so I leaned in to kiss her forehead and cover her back up when she wrapped her little arms around me and pulled me into a hug and whispered "mommy I saw him" When asked who she said "Heavenly Father".  I asked her why this scared her and she said because I was sleeping.  Then she hugged me tight and said she loved me.  Those little moments that I get to see Baylee in her most sweetest forms, where we are not arguing over her doing something she has been asked to do, or her dancing all over the place she wont even pause for a hug are the rewards of having to sometimes get up several times a night with my little sleep talker.  It makes being tired worth it.

Last night I also had a moment with Abigail.  Abi is our sleeper, she has been a great sleeper from the start and I am so thankful for that.  I am not good with the loss of sleep.  Abi is also not a baby that enjoys to be cuddled, she wants to be left to play and explore the world.  When she is tired she gets angry if you try to hold her and put her to sleep she would rather you lay her in her crib and let her just go to sleep.  I am thankful for this but at moments I would love to just cuddle her.  Well the past couples days she has not been sleeping well and only wants to be cuddled so I know she is not feeling well. The only way to get her to stop fussing is to hold her.  She then will go to sleep for about 20 mins. before having to start the process all over again.  Last night after having to get up with her for about the 15th time I was tired, cranky and really just wanted to get some sleep I was in her dark room holding her when she reached up and felt my face and then grabbed a hold of my finger and fell asleep.  As I watched her sleeping in my arms I was filled with the warmth of love.  How could I not love getting up during the night to enjoy this moment that I would not get other wise. 

These little moments that happen in the middle of the night when everyone else is asleep are the moments that make being a mom worth it!  How could I not feel so lucky when I am the only one who will ever get to enjoy those moments with my girls.  No one else gets to feel that love that passes between me and my girls in the dark of the night when I go to comfort a bad dream or help when they are not feeling well.  I love being a mommy and am so thankful to all those who have made that possible for me.