What's up...

Hey. I can't believe it's almost Wednesday! The week has just flown by. On Friday, Jake went to a screening. I have been worried about his speech for some time now. I did it through the school district (cause it's free). They determined that he does have a speech problem. He goes to another assessment on May 1st, where they will determine if he qualifies for the program. I really hope he does. The program is a special preschool where he would go and they would work on his speech, but have it be a fun experience for him, and there would be no fees involved. I have always been a little bit worried about his speech, and didn't want to be the kind of mom who just assumed it would get better with time. They determined that outside (of the family) people could understand 80% of what he says. Example: snake sounds like "nake" and the sn sound is one of the first sounds that kids say that should be understandable. (Kristin says it really well.) So, that's the update on Jake.

Kristin started ballet again on Monday. I have really struggled with finding her a little ballet class here. I wanted her to go somewhere and just have fun. I want her to love dancing, for the sake of dancing. My other concern is modesty. I don't want a place that has them wear recital dresses that would make my 3 year old look like a $2 hooker or wear make-up that makes her look like Jon Benet Ramsey. With the help of Cherice, I found the perfect place. It is called Wasatch Dance. From what I understand, a BYU dance graduate started it. They have to wear capped sleeved black leotards. For the recitals, they wear their leotard, and then have a costume that goes over the leotard. They also only have 1 recital a year. She loved it on Monday. She really loves watching herself dance in the mirror. The other day, Kristin and I were dancing in the kitchen, and she was moving her shoulders. She asked me, "are my hips moving?" I told her no, and then had to show her how to get them moving. She sure is cute. Here is a picture of her and Kinlee at ballet. Those 2 girls are becoming fast friends! It's great! You'll notice that Kristin is looking at herself in the mirror...

Jake got to do a special thing on Sunday night. Jake's absolute favorite thing to do is stay in hotels. Don't know why, but it is. For my dad's work, he has to drive all over Utah. He had to go pick up a check from someone on Monday morning, so he left Sunday night, took Jake, and they stayed in a hotel. They picked up the check, stopped in Moab, and brought Jake home on Monday night. Jake had a blast climbing on all the rocks. Here are a few pictures they brought back:

Here is my favorite picture of him:

Apparently Jake ate straight junk food. Oh, except for the bacon (aka beef jerky)! :)

Kyle has strep throat. YEP, again! This is ridiculous! I hate when he misses school! This is his 3rd strep in 2 months. Our doctor here is awesome though. Kyle hates when they do the strep test on him, so the doctor said, how 'bout you do it to me? Kyle said, OK! The doctor said that no one had ever taken him up on that, but he got Kyle a swab and a tongue depresser, and told him how to do it. Kyle swabbed Dr. Good and Dr. Good gagged and got watery eyes. Kyle thought it was the greatest thing ever! What a good doctor! We love him. Kristin calls him Brian (his first name) and he loves it when she does! I'm sending Kyle back to school tomorrow. He's watched way too much TV today, and with all his whining, he's better off at school than at home with me...I can't take it anymore! I do feel bad for him, cause he is sick, but he's the WORST sick person EVER!

Haley is 4 months old today, and weighs 10 lbs. She is just now starting to fit into Kristin's old 0-3 month clothes. It's great, cause they're summer clothes. She still wears size 1 diapers and is the cutest thing ever. Last night we caught her doing this:

It was the cutest thing ever. I took a picture, and then we immediately removed her thumb. For those of you who know me well, know that I will do EVERYTHING in my power so that my kids won't suck their thumbs...(only for the reason of how do you ever take it away?)

Here is Haley before church on Sunday. On Sunday night we had a dinner party. For the occasion, I got a new kitchen table. Well, I didn't get it just because we had a dinner party, I have been wanting a new one for awhile, I just had a good excuse to finally go and get it. (It matches my house so much better too!) Here is a picture of the table. It is as tall as a counter top and is square and seats 8. I wanted it tall so that I could use the chairs for bar stools as well. I love it. Troy is still irritated that I bought it, but I work hard too, and he wants 1/2 of our backyard to be a basketball court...so I thought it was a good compromise! I'm all kinds of crazy about my table. I wash it constantly. And I keep it clean! (For those of you who know me, know how huge that is! Usually I am doing some sort of project on my kitchen table)

Oh, the dinner party was awesome! We had Sam and his family, Scotty and his family, and James (aka Miller) and his family come over. We loved it! It's so much fun to hang out with those guys! Those are all guys Troy grew up with and we all graduated from Copper Hills in 1996! I really hope to hang out with them more! It was so fun having friends over. We'll have to do it again. Oh, and since we were making fun of the Nell's not having a blog, or high speed internet for that reason, I told them I would post their picture on the blog...here it is: love you, Nells!

Haircut

I got my hair cut a few weeks ago. I have my pony tail in a ziploc baggie. I would like to donate it to locks of love, but I'm not sure if it's long enough. So, it stays in a baggie until I get around to figuring it out. I got Jake to take my picture this morning. Here it is! I thought I would really regret chopping it, but it is SO easy to do my hair now, and I do it everyday, so it's great! You know how after you have a baby, your hair starts falling out? Well, it was getting bad...Thanks Cari (Nielsen-Sorensen) you did a fantastic job!

Last week...

Man! The past week has been crazy, but aren't they all? Kristin got sick, I mean really sick. The doctor was so worried about her ( he told us that today, after she was better, just how worried he was about her!)! She had a wierd rash, fever, and told us her mouth hurt. The rash led the doc to believe she had (can't spell this...but it was highly talked about in Oregon) meningicoccal disease. She had bloodwork done, and shots of penicillin. She went into the doctors office 3 times last week, and each time she would go in, she would have different sores in her mouth. Her gums were so swollen and bloody, that they almost completely covered 2 of her teeth. She didn't eat anything but chocolate milk and water for 5 days. She would carry around 2 sippy cups. One with chocolate milk, one with water. She had to hurry and drink the water after she took a drink of chocolate milk, cause it hurt her mouth so much. (Oh, and her breath stunk so bad, I wanted to die!) The doctor decided it was hand, foot, and mouth, even though she was only having problems in her mouth. (Sarah - my friend - later told me that her doc said hf&m is so mutated, it is different on everybody) A few sores moved to the outside of her face. 6, to be exact. Two huge ones, One is in the corner of her eye the other is on her chin. They are scabs now, but still looks nasty! She's better now, but had a hard week. She would constantly say,"Mommy, I got hurt." I would say, "where?" she would say, "in my mouth". She was crying and moaning, it was so sad! She was so hungry too! I felt bad. She was in so much pain, we had to get tylenol with codine for her. She was a beast though! You would never think a cute 2 year old could be such a beast, but she was. At one point, we were driving in the car and she was moaning, mommy, mommy, over and over. I said, "What honey, what do you need?" She hollered at me, "I wasn't saying mommy to you, I was saying it to anybody!" That's just an example of how beasty she was!

This is her after she got blood drawn. You can see the bandaid. Anyways...We tried to teach Kyle how to ride a bike without training wheels today. If you know Kyle, you know he doesn't have a high pain threshold, so it was interesting. This is a pic of him falling. Check out the look of terror on his face...He's getting better...hopefully by tomorrow he'll have it!
Haley had her 4 month well check today. In 1 week, she gained 9 oz! She is still only in the 3rd percentile probably. That is HUGE for her. She got weighed last week, and she was 9 lbs. 7 oz. I went back on milk, to see if anything would change, and in the one week she did awesome! I was totally preparing myself to go to formula. Now, I have no restrictions, and I can nurse her (no food for her til she's 6 months). That is a huge relief! She is doing good. She's been such a happy girl the past week. I think it's the weather. It's been gorgeous. 75 degrees here today! AWESOME! We got Haley a new seat. It's called a bumba seat. (The one she has is a generic one, but they were all out of the authentic bumbas - dangit - I wanted to get a pink one). I saw it on a girls blog, and it was just what Haley needed. Here she is out front watching Kyle learn to ride his bike.

When we got the chair, we put it on the counter. Haley was asleep, and Jake was looking at it. He said, "So, where does the pee go?" We had to wake him up to show him how it worked, and that it wasn't a potty chair...funny kid...

Well, Kyle started his fever on Saturday. It's not HF&M, so hopefully he will be better soon...looks like another week of sickness...surprise, surprise...

Venting...

I am not a lover of animals, okay, I pretty much hate them. I am going to lose it with my neighbors! One neighbor lets her 3 dogs run wild, like they're her kids. She gets home from work, and sets them loose in the front yard to poop on my lawn. Somebody just moved into the house next door (has 11 kids) and lets their cat run wild. It just took me and the kids 15 minutes to get it out of our garage! What is it with psycho animal people? (no offense, but come on...) I don't let my kids poop on other people's lawn (nor my own), I don't let my kids wander into my neighbors garages! What is it with people? Hmmm...I need to call animal control...this is ridiculous!

Holy cow, it's been forever!

I can't believe it's almost the middle of March! Things have been crazy here! My business has been so busy, I have done almost nothing but work! Well, I did manage to become the coach of Kyle's indoor soccer team. I didn't want to, but I got volunteered somehow, so we do that on Saturdays. Jake plays too, and he's actually on my sister-in-law, Teisha's, team. Since I am Kyle's coach, I don't have pics of him yet, but here's a pic of Jake playing. He's HILARIOUS to watch! He'll stop playing to make sure we're watching, and he'll wave, it's pretty funny. He runs hard and gets lots of energy out!

Last week we went to the last home BYU basketball game. They were their conference Champions this year, so it was fun. We got 4 tickets, and members of Troy's family went to the game too. I think in total, we had 17 seats! It was fun having more people keep the kids occupied! We actually got down to Provo early, so we went to the BYU bookstore. We bought a BYU soccer ball. While we were waiting for the rest of the family, and the tickets, we played soccer in front of the administration building. It was fun. I think that was my favorite part of the day!

Jake has been up to no good, as usual. He came downstairs after getting into my mascara. Apparently this is where he thought it should go:

Haley was weighed 2 days ago. She weighs 9 lbs. 8 oz. She has a well check in a few weeks, so we'll see how she is on the charts. As long as she's still on her 5th percentile curve, I think she's okay. She has had a cold for the past month (it seems). She loves when her brothers and sister pay attention to her. She likes to hold things in her hands. Troy put her in the swing and had to give her a little stuffed lamb (all the way from Scotland, thanks Camille!).

At Kyle's school, they had a St. Patrick's Day party on March 1st. (I know, why they picked that date is beyond me!) Anyways, the kids had a blast running around the gym dancing the river dance!

Daxton was the funniest to watch. He wouldn't uncross his arms, and he was constantly kicking his legs forward!

That's what's been happening here!

Valentine's Day Photo Shoot

Okay, my Valentine's Photo Shoot happened after Valentine's Day. But, it is impossible for me to do a photo shoot with all 4 kids by myself and Troy worked on Valentine's Day. The boys spent the night at my parents on Friday, so Saturday morning, I took the girls picture, and this morning, I took the boys pictures. It worked.

Here's Kyle, Age 6 1/2.

Things I love about Kyle:

He's a HUGE helper.

He has a dry sense of humor, like his dad.

He has a big heart, he makes sure Jake doesn't miss out on things.

He loves his brother.

He loves to have me read Junie B. Jones books to him.

He is a people person.

He doesn't like girls right now.

He has a big vocabulary.

He is an AWESOME soccer player.

He wants to be like his dad.

He loves sports.

He wants a dog REALLY bad...

Here's Jake, Age 4

Things I love about Jake:

He likes to pose for the camera.

He tries his hardest to act like his big brother.

He has a very tender heart.

He doesn't like when people laugh at him, even when they're laughing with him.

He has the cutest smile.

He likes to hold my hand.

He loves Haley.

He likes to play with cords.

He likes jammies.

He loves to snuggle.

He tries to say his words so clearly, but can't do it.

He is wild and crazy.

He loves his daddy.

Here's Kristin, Age 2 1/2 (just learned to wink)

Things I love about Kristin:

She remembers everything.

She loves babies.

She can't wait to be a mom so she can have mommy lotion.

She has a HUGE vocabulary.

She would sit by Haley for over an hour making sure her pacifier doesn't fall out.

She likes to do ballet.

She loves her Papa.

She makes us smile, constantly!

She has big blue eyes.

She's a drama queen.

She likes Mickey Mouse - not just princesses.

She loves her brothers, when they aren't pestering her.

Here is Haley, Age 2 1/2 months

Things I love about Haley:

She's staying little longer.

She loves her mom.

She splashes in the bathtub.

She loves Kyle, Jake, and Kristin.

She sleeps really well at night.

She would rather fly than drive! :)

She stops crying when she sees me or her dad.

She smiles a big toothless grin.

She likes to be snuggled.

She has "Jake eyes" at times. (Those of you who knew Jake at her age, will understand)

She completes our family.

Hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day! Love to you all!

Warmer Weather...

So, the past week the temperature has been in the 40's! That's huge! The kids invited their cousins over to ride scooters. I am still paranoid, so I wouldn't let them ride in the culdesac, or go past our neighbors house on the sidewalk and I stayed outside with them the whole time.

Yes, our neighbors in the background still have their Christmas Decor up. It wouldn't be so bad, but they still turn their lights on. The people right next door to us just recently took down their Halloween Decor...so we must live in a festive culdesac!

McCall is my cousin Katie's little girl, and Daxton is Troy's sister's little boy. They will all go to the same school. Next year, Kyle will be in Second Grade, Daxton in first, and McCall in kindergarten! From this outing, I have learned that boys don't necessarily play well with girls. Well, they don't "include". McCall told them when she got in the car, "I have flowers on my wheels". The boys thought that was just awful! It was funny!

Kristin doesn't have a scooter, so she borrowed this toy from Kenny and Cherice. She didn't last long outside though.

Look at these 2 goof balls! They would hang out constantly if we'd let them...

Haley and I stayed on the stairs. Fun times...I want spring to be here, and my backyard to be finished...

PJ's and the tramp...

The kids got a trampoline from Santa Claus. It's awesome! The past few days, the weather here has been unbelievable. It's gotten to the upper 40's! I'm comparing that to 3 straight weeks of below 30 degree weather. So, it's been sunny, and fairly warm. Well, the boys were jumping on the tramp in the middle of the day in the pj's. (A new trend they've learned from their cousin, Daxton - before we lived here, they wouldn't even wear pj's to bed!) Kristin thought it was a requirement to wear pj's on the tramp, (so now I have even MORE laundry to do!) so they played (happily) outside for about an hour the other day. I loved it! I can't wait until Spring. I know, it will never be here, but I am still waiting!




Here's a picture of what Haley was doing inside with me! She's such a happy girl!

Yesterday, it was my turn to host Kristin's playgroup. We have been telling Kristin it is preschool, only to prevent bickering about "Jake goes to preschool and Kristin doesn't". There are a total of 6 girls. All about 3 years old. They will all be in the same grade in school. When you move, you always hope you move to a place where your kids will find good friends. I hope this group of girls grow up good friends! It was definitely challenging! 6 girls make a lot of hormones! Kyle is off track, so he was "helping" me with the playgroup. The girls were all playing downstairs in the playroom, and Kyle came up to me and said, "Mom, aren't you going to teach them anything? Where's the papers, come on mom, what a waste!" Apparently we didn't feel him in on the playgroup vs. preschool conversation. So, Kyle spent the night at Zacky's house last night, and told Amy how I was a horrible preschool teacher who didn't even teach the girls anything! Hmmm...I wonder what other secrets he divulged...Anyways, here's the girls eating their snack that Kyle prepared: graham crackers and an "inside picnic". Troy and I also went to the temple last night. We did sealings since I'm nursing Haley and weren't gone for more than 1 1/2 hours. It was great! Here, in Utah, you can just show up, and they will use you for sealings. They have 13 sealing rooms at the Jordan River temple, and in the evenings have all rooms full, and every hour they have a new group. Troy's parents work at the Jordan River temple, and tell us that it is the busiest temple in the world. It's busier than the second and third busiest temples combined! I think we've only been to the Jordan River temple once before when the family did sealings before Kenny and Cherice were married (so, over 8 years) so we got a bit lost, and weren't sure where to go. We're good now, we sure were nervous! I love doing sealings. It's my favorite thing at the temple I think. Troy says his favorite is initiatories. Anyways...go to the temple!

Haley's Blessing

Haley's blessing was on Sunday. Here she is in her dress, that completely drowned her! My mom made the dress, and Kristin wore it. My mom made it to match my wedding dress. I want to frame it and put it in my girl's room. We had the blessing in Kenny and Cherice's ward, since our church's start at the same time and they were blessing little Makenna. Troy was so nervous (not so much of a public speaker) and could barely breathe during the opening prayer. So many of our friends were showing up, I was so excited! We saw Scotty and his family there (his sister was blessing her baby there too - she's Cherice's next door neighbor), Sam, Marenda, and Addie Brown, Drew and Carrie Stevenson, Justin and Cari Sorensen, Amy Warren, my whole Peterson Family (minus my bro's who are out of the state) and the whole Korth Family - oh, including Grandma and Grandpa Lilya. I am probably forgetting someone...anyways...I was so excited to have so many people come! It really meant so much to us! Here are fellow friends from Oregon. Well, past-Oregonians! I wanted the brunch afterwards to be perfect. I don't know why. I think because it was the first time so many people were going to see my house and I've never had a "blessing party" before. My friend gave me some ideas to decorate with pics of Haley, since it was her day, so I did. I told my sister-in-law, Raquel, that I was Martha Stewart-ing it. I borrowed all of Amy's pampered Chef dishes so it would all match. Anyways, I was quite impressed with myself. I don't normally do things like this. I also had some magnet boards that I put some scrapbook pages of Haley on during the blessing. It was fun! This last picture of Haley, I love. Even though she's flipping the bird. Oh well, kids will be kids, right? Even at 2 months...
Anyways, thanks to all who came! You really made my day! Love you and can't wait to see you again soon!

Late, Late, Late...

Okay, this post should have been done in December, but I got this disc from my parents, and I had to post these pictures! I love them! The background: for Troy's 29th (wow, can you believe we're that old? I still feel 17!) birthday, we went to Buca da Beppo's and then to Temple Square. It was fun. We witnessed a very odd road rage event in which a driver of a vehicle with a handlebar mustache got out of his vehicle and started brawling with a pedestrian...right outside the temple gates...heard all sorts of language...nice...joking that nobody should mess with a guy with a handle bar mustache...even if that includes about 45% of men in the state of Utah! Hee Hee...anyways, we got some good pics of the family...for those of you who know my bro's...anyways, we don't get together often, due to the fact that we are scattered around the country, so here are some pics!

Jason (green and tan coat) has at least 3 coats on. He lives in San Diego and was frozen while he was here! It was pretty funny!

Here's our little family. I guess not so little anymore. It's been 9 years since we were married and had our wedding picture taken in this same spot!

It's been 30 years since my parents were married in the SLC Temple. Don't know if they got their picture taken in this same spot...it was SOOOO long ago!

Here's a picture of our little Hazy (Haley's nickname - Hazy or Haze - we thought it sounded better then Hells). This was about a week before she was admitted to the hospital, so I'm sure she weighed well under 7 lbs. The outfit and hat she is wearing are gifts from 2 of my best friends! Funny how they went almost perfectly together! I love them! THANKS! THANKS! In case my bro's are reading...miss you! Can't wait to see you at the wedding!

Bathtime

The kids new favorite thing to do is take a bath in our jetted tub. The bubbles go a long way with the jets on! I decided to let Haley hop in too! She loved it!

Haley is now 2 months old! She had her 2 month check-up today and weighs 9 lbs! YEA! Can you believe it!? She is still teeny, but she's so cute! She smiles all the time! For the first time she pooped out of her diaper and all over her clothes! It's a miracle! It's taken her 2 months to do it!

This weekend I (and Haley) was in Anaheim and Las Vegas with Erin(my business partner). I had a convention down there! The weather was incredible! Sure beats this 20 degree weather! We've got to plan a Disneyland trip down there! I also got to scrapbook a little bit. I started Haley's album. It was so fun! That's us lately! Not much happening. Haley is being blessed on Sunday...we are having a brunch afterwards at our house, and I want it to be perfect! I've never got to host something like that! Should be fun! Can't wait to see my friends from Oregon too! (Amy and kids and the Stevensons) I'll post pictures afterwards!

Congratulations!

I forgot to tell everyone that Troy's sister Allisun, is engaged! She is marrying Beau C. (since we ARE online...) originally from Seattle, WA on April 21st! We are excited! We all really like Beau! The kids keep telling us that Beau's going to be their uncle soon! It's the first person entering the crazy Korth family (other than babies) in 8 years, Kenny was the last one! (I think he's made the family crazier!) Anyways, we are all excited for her! Oh, and one reason I LOVE Beau...he likes to look through my scrapbooks (Troy doesn't even do that without patronizing me!) Welcome to the family Beau!

Our little pip-squeek

Hey! Haley got weighed in today. She weighs 8 lbs. 2 oz. She will be 8 weeks old on Monday. She is slowly gaining weight, but that is marvelous for us! Here is a picture of her in her bouncy seat. I'll be honest, she's spoiled, and doesn't last long not being held! It's my fault. I have been so worried about her burning any calories, the second she starts crying, I pick her up. Now that she's gaining weight, I am trying to ween her from being held constantly!

Here is a picture of her smiling! You all remember that newborn toothless grin! It's definately payday when she smiles!She was doing really good in her seat, watching me clean the kitchen. As long as she can see me, she's happy! I love it!

Kristin got sick this week. Some wierd flu bug. Poor girl has layed around moaning for 2 days! She finally fell asleep in her chair from Santa. We are all about blankets here! The blanket she has on, is actually the one I used in college...it's still one of the favorites!

Today, Jake helped me make Applesauce Cake. (Milk-free). He thought it was great fun! It sure is a lot messier when you let them help!

Earlier this week, Troy helped me put up my frames. I added some, and am still waiting on 3 8x10's to be printed at costco. I love this wall...I could look at it all day...I just love pictures! This view is from my kitchen, so I see it often!

Well, I hear Haley crying...gotta run!