Fabulous weekend

Aunt Pam and Alexis getting ready to go down the small hill in our backyard.

Aunt Pam pushing the girls around in the swingset thing in the backyard.

Aunt Pam pulling Madison around, Madison LOVES to be pulled around.

Aunt Pam taking pictures before church today.

Yes, we went to church in the winter with ALL the kids,

it was a miracle.

I loved this picture because Drew was trying so hard to smile and be cooperative but he couldn't open his eyes because the sun was so bright and he was looking directly into it.

Drew, Aunt Pam, Grandma Didi and Madison

Friday night my mom, aka Grandma Didi, and my Aunt Pam came up to stay with us for the weekend. They were here so John and I could have a date night and enjoy ourselves while they got to spend time with the kids. Can I tell you that I can not remember the last time that John and I had a date night, just the two of us? It was so nice to be able to just be us for a few hours! Did I mention that when we came home Mom and Pam had cleaned the entire house and the kids were sound asleep? Oh, it was wonderful! Thank you again!

Aunt Pam is so much more fun than mommy is, she actually goes outside and plays with the kids in the snow, she was obviously built for Utah! If you look closely at her feet you'll notice that she's wearing garbage bags. Why would someone do such a thing you ask? Well, we didn't own snow boots for either John or me. (Until date night when we found a killer sale.) 

It was fun to sit and talk with Mom and Pam and have adult interactions, just for fun!

The kids are already excited to see both of them again, they've only been gone for an hour and a half!
This weekend we're going down to Utah Valley to find out what we are having and make sure that baby is growing all necessary body part and such.

This week is going to be chaotic with three tests and packing for a weekend in Utah Valley, so lets all pray that I'm not gray by the end of the week! 

Also, for Aunt Pam, the recipe for Applebee's Blackened Chicken Salad:

(It's so good)

2 chicken breasts -

marinade in:

1 cup water

3T lime juice

2T soy sauce

1/2 T Worcestershire

( I forget to marinade it, so I just cook it in the marinade and when it's done I slather it with the following and blacken it in a frying pan.)

Cajun Spice recipe:

1/2 t salt

1T sugar

1 t paprika

1 t onion powder

1 t black pepper

1/2 t garlic powder

1/4 t cayenne

2 T butter

1/2 t white pepper

( I don't use the white pepper)

Let it cook on each side until blackened and serve with salad!

I've also had it in alfredo sauce with noodles and with a baked potato, both really good too.

Newest Hakes

Here he is . . . Brayton R. Hakes.

He was born on Valentines Day, how fun huh?

I still haven't seen him yet, but I've heard he's adorable and I can't wait.

Kristen did great with the delivery and Brixton didn't pass out . . .

way to go daddy!

I haven't posted forever because we lost our camera.

I really miss our camera. We'll find it I'm sure, fingers crossed!

*Updates*

I haven't been sick for two and half days!! I'm so excited.

The contractions have already started, at twelve weeks. Thankfully they're not consistently close enough to be worth worrying about right now, they're just annoying.

All looks good for now, we go in on the 5th to find out if everything looks great and to see what we are having. We didn't find out last time, but I was positive it was a girl. I have no clue what this one is. There is only one in there, but I keep thinking it's a boy and a girl. It will be nice to know what it is and that it is doing just fine.

All the kids want a brother, so here's hoping that they get what they want.

John is doing well as always.

Granted he's had to take over a lot of the household chores to keep things flowing smoothly, but he's handled it well and he's not a complainer so I wouldn't know if he was half dead! Now that I'm starting to feel better, he should get a little bit of a break from all the extra work.

Alexis still has a swollen lymph node in her neck, but the doctor said unless it starts to grow again we need not worry.

Alexis asked us at dinner the other night why we don't call each other John and Tiffani instead of Mom and Dad because it's confusing and she doesn't know if we're talking about each other or about our parents. She is definitely a thinker and she never ceases to stop thinking about things.

Drew has not caught anything that the rest of us have caught in the last few months, HOORAY!

In Sam's Club they were handing out samples of fish. Drew wanted to go get a sample and when I told him it was fish he said: "We don't eat fish, Pteranodons do." He loves to watch The Dinosaur Train on PBS and he's obviously learning something!

Madison is well . . . Madison.

She has potty trained but we still have accidents, only during the day.

She usually has accidents only when she needs to do #2 and we can have upwards of five peeing accidents in just a couple of hours. But it's a great tool for knowing when she needs to go. However, she's only had two accidents in the last four days so we might be getting past it.

She still hasn't had an accident at night, which is great!

AND she's starting to talk!! It's a minor miracle, we know.

She still prefers to grunt but she's starting to use her big words instead and it is wonderful when she does.

Her favorite word right now is UP, she loves to be apart of anything that is going on. 

She also loves to make angry faces at us. She'll give us a huge scowl and then two seconds later she'll give us a big smile and then hurry and scowl again. I want to get it on camera, but first I have to find it.

We bought a bread machine so that we can try and save some money. The kids love to eat bread and we can go through two loaves a week, easily. After doing some research we discovered that we'd save about fifty bucks this year on bread if we made our own even after buying the machine. Next year we should save more than one hundred fifty!

For family home evening we let the kids grind wheat for wheat bread.

We were nervous that the bread wouldn't turn out and that they would think that the new bread was nasty and wouldn't want any. We normally buy white bread for them and seven grain for John and I.

John and I were pleasantly surprised when the bread turned out and it tasted great. (I didn't even have to put a sugar topping on it to make it taste good!)

The kids loved it too and they love to help make the bread, so it's been a great purchase thus far.

The kids, especially Alexis, have started wearing out the knees in their pants. Instead of going and buying them new pants or making them do until summer, we bought a sewing machine so I could fix them. So far it has saved us more than we spent on it. I'm not great at sewing, but the job is getting done and it doesn't look too horrid. I'm sure with time and practice I'll get better and the fixes will look better too.

The nark

I was woken up this morning to this little face.

I have no clue how long he had been standing by my bed.

He was being as quiet as can be, wasn't poking me or trying to climb on top of me.

But, he was slowing rocking back and forth slightly hitting the bed each time that he did.

I turned over to see what was shaking my bed and he smiles at me and says:

"I didn't wake Maddie up two times, I didn't. She just woke up by herself."

And then he left.

So, we all know who woke Madison up and how many times he had to do it to get her out of bed.

I think it is adorable how little kids rat themselves out and don't even realize it.

While I was putting my contacts in, Alexis came up to me and said:

"We need to teach Maddie how to talk today because I'm tired of her always yelling at me."

If it was so easy, it would have been done months ago, I promise.

Madison just has no inclination to use her big words unless she's screaming "MAAAM" from across the room, house, yard, etc.

One day she'll decide to talk and I'm sure we'll never get her to stop once it happens.

As a side note, if I haven't been answering your calls don't feel bad.

I DO NOT want to talk on the phone.

I don't feel good and the idea of having to listen and comprehend and then actually respond with something that is intelligent without wanting to lose the contents of my stomach is not appealing.

So, if you really want to talk feel free to email or facebook or if you have Verizon, text.

As long as I'm awake, I'll usually respond.

Be forewarned, I usually fall asleep sometime during the morning for a nap, so afternoons work better for me!

Moving and the lower half of your body

Are we allowed to post pictures of butts?

I couldn't resist.

Madison went to the bathroom all by herself, without telling me.

When she came out she was naked from the waist down, or so I thought.

I kept telling her go get her bottoms so she could get dressed and she kept telling me no.

She turned around and did this little pose and I about died laughing.

She had put her underwear on, not correctly, but they were on. 

There was a big old bunch of underwear right above her butt, you might have to click on the picture to get a better view.

We went 11 days without the internet.

We survived, barely.

You don't realize how much you use the internet until you don't have it.

I use it to check our bank account, pay bills, all schooling, keeping in touch with Max and others via email and Facebook and it was all gone for 11 days.

I did switch my blackberry back on for those days but it was so slow that it wasn't really worth it.

The last few weeks have been so busy it's insane.

We moved apartments, hooray!

We have main level living, which is really nice. We also got an extra bedroom and a two car garage AND . . . .a huge backyard!

We had to move to nowhere ville USA, but it will be nice having extra room to move and not paying much more for it.

Madison is fully potty trained.

We still have accidents occasionally but she's doing so well.

She doesn't wet the bed at night and if she starts to pee her pants she'll usually stop and wait to finish until she gets to the toilet! None of the other kids had that type of control!

I went to Sam's Club and walked right past the diaper aisle, it was so nice and I will enjoy it for the next few months.

I still don't have a pregnancy belly, wahoo!

The last couple of weeks I've been super nauseated which is frustrating because I'm in the second trimester right now, but I suppose it could be worse.

Madison is being such an adventuresome child lately.

She gets into everything, and I mean everything.

She's learned how to push chairs to things that she wants, ugh.

She can take off her own clothes, which she loves to do.

She loves to flush the toilet. We haven't lost anything that we know of yet.

She loves to dig through the garbage to find things to play with.

She loves to smear herself, especially her hair, with soft things. IE lotion, toothpaste, butter, peanut butter, mayonnaise, spaghetti sauce, you get the idea.

Drew has discovered that he has his own personal built in toy, 

as each boy figures out at some point I'm sure.

I found him on the couch watching TV while playing with it.

I told him that we only touch it when we are in the bathroom, cleaning, peeing, etc.

I thought we'd cleared things up fairly well.

Madison had to pee and she kept knocking on the door to get in.

Drew piped up with: "You can come in, I'm not peeing!"

I couldn't help but laugh.

When Madison had finished he said: "I'm going to the bathroom, and I don't have to pee!"

This last Sunday I stayed home with Madison who had a nasty nose and cough while John took the older two to church.

When he came home he told me what Drew had done in Sacrament meeting.

Apparently our new ward building (yes, this was the first Sunday going to our new ward) is rather small and the seating is fairly tight. John was late and had to squeeze into the middle of the chapel in order to get a seat.

 Drew got bored I guess and decided to pull his toy out.

John about died. He hurried and made Drew put it away and tried to explain that we don't play with ourselves. John then told me that he didn't teach him such things, to which I replied: "Well I don't have one, so we both know it wasn't me!"

I'm still laughing at the thought of Drew doing this in the middle of church. This will be one of those stories that he just doesn't live down, ever.

Alexis is still being Alexis and loving trying to be in charge.

She is regailing us with her story of trapping a red bug when she was four years old, under a cup and not feeding it or giving it water and the next day it was dead.

She's so excited to tell us this story everyday because when she was two one of those bugs bite her and so she had to kill one.

We're all hoping she gets a new story soon.

John has been busy working and helping take care of the house while I'm sick/studying for tests.

He found an addiction recently, the TV show Lost.

He started watching it on Netflix and he's officially addicted.

This is not John's normal behavior toward something that is not sports related, but I'm glad he found something that he can enjoy at night while I've got my head buried in books.