Cylie update

Little Miss Cylie is growing so fast! I always say I will remember it so I don't need to write it down, but it seems I have forgotten a lot of the other two when they were little! So I thought I would take a minute and write some cute things she is doing.

Cylie's new FAVORITE snack is......
Yep Bird Butt!(sorry the pictures came out so dark!) My dear friend Sheri lent us her jumperoo and Cylie loves it! They have one at daycare that she loves as well! Hailey tells me she will play in it for like an hour! She loves all the kids to come over and play next to her, and if they walk away to go play something else she yells at them until someone comes back to play! She is such a social bug! She doesn't want to miss any of the action! Kendall and Hailey say she will only eat her bottle well when the kids haven't arrived at daycare yet or when they are napping! Cylie hates baby food! She makes the most sour face and her body shakes after it is in her mouth! I don't know what we are going to do about this! The doctor says she is ready for it and sounds like she needs it from her eating habits at night! Try and convince Cy of that! She weighed 15 lbs 2 oz at 5 months old! I can't remember how tall she is but she must be short! She was in the 25% for her weight and over 50% for her weight! She is a chunky girl, just like we like them!!! She is so smiley all the time! I love it! Cy has the funniest thing she does, when she is laying on her back she starts to jabber then her throat must fill up with spit and she starts to gurgle and talk at the same time! IT is the funniest dang thing! I will have to try and get a video of it this weekend and post it! She started doing it along time ago, it was actually what she was doing when she laughed for the first time! It must have sounded funny to her too! She is such a love and I am so glad to be her mommy!

I am the Winner!!!!

Sorry Ladies I have once again won the Mother of the Year award! Just ask Lacey she will tell you exactly how FABULOUS I am! Last night at the dinner table she tells me she is supposed to wear something to school that shows somewhere she has visited. OK Not a problem, she has a few different options. So this morning she gets dressed in a shirt and she is going to bring her sweatshirt that says Minnesota. Then she decides she wants to wear her shirt she got from Florida. Well shocking as this may seem when I did laundry on Tuesday and asked her to put her clothes away, she apparently didn't, now this shirt is missing! (Tears from Lacey) Then she comes up with a plan, "Mom, can I write Minnesota on this shirt?" the shirt is one she got in MN and it says Swan Lake on it. I say "Why do you have to write on it, it says a place you have been?" then the story changes "No Mom it has to say a STATE I have visited!" Like duh what was I thinking!!! So I ask "Why has your story changed from last night?" (more tears from Lacey) "It didn't mom you just weren't listening!" I love when she says this! 9 times out of 10 I was listening she just didn't say what she thought she was saying! I calmly explain that we don't need to write on the shirt she has two sweatshirts that say a state she has visited therefore there is no reason to ruin her Swan Lake shirt. (More tears from Lacey) "YOU JUST DON"T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING!" is what she yells as she stomps out of the bathroom! She puts on her Swan Lake shirt with her MN sweatshirt over it throws on the hood so I can't see her face and doesn't speak to me the rest of the morning!

See I told you I win!

~A different point of view~

(Lori, here is your tissue warning!)
It is no surprise I have been struggling lately. I feel good one minute and the next I feel as if someone has shoved me off of my life raft and I am sinking to the bottom of an endless abyss. This whole grief thing is very new to me. I have lost loved ones before but not ones that had such a huge impact on my daily life. As I try and navigate this new phase of life I find my self reaching out and searching out those that have also lost parents and may understand my state of mind. As I myself have found I don't understand my state of mind at all! I recently found a friend from High School's blog. We lost contact many years ago when she moved. I had heard of her Mom's passing, before we even knew that my Mom was sick. I was so sad for her and couldn't imagine my life with out my own Mother. I didn't know how to reach out to her, so I didn't. I now wish I would have, knowing now full well the pain she had to have gone through. Sorry I am rambling any ways my point about this friend I found her blog and read about how her Mother's birthday is March 4, and how she and her family have chosen this day her birthday to MARCH FOURTH. To carry on no matter how hard life gets. As I read her blog tears ran down my cheeks. I decided I too needed to find a way to MARCH FOURTH. (Becky, if your reading this I really hope you don't mind me sharing your story)I wasn't sure what this really meant for me at the time I just knew I needed to do my best and make Mom proud of the woman she raised. As Lacey and I were driving to Idaho Falls a couple weekends ago she got really quiet, I noticed the tears start to fall on her cheeks. I asked her what was wrong, she looked at me with a broken hearted expression and said "Mom, I really miss Grandma! I just don't understand why she had to die." At this point it was really hard for me to hold my tears back! I grabbed her hand and said I know sis I really miss Gram too! She was one of a kind! We really got hosed on that one didn't we." She smiled and says "yeah we did! And why did she have to die on Valentines day? I really use to love that day!" I sat and pondered a minute. Thinking to myself I started to get a little upset about that too! I am not much of a Valentines Day fan in fact I hated that day long before the Valentines Day of 2008. I always had stupid expectations from dumb boys in High School which never turned out "right". Then as an adult Matt never got it "right" either. Eventually I started making my own Valentines Day Fabulous. I would make the kids heart shaped waffles for Breakfast and I would take Lacey out of school for lunch (Bridger was too little at this point) then I would make my favorite dinner and a heart shaped cheesecake. I finally had learned to like it, a little anyway. Of all the days why did she have to go on Valentines Day? A day to celebrate all the people that matter to us? Why did she have to leave such a hole in our hearts on the day of love? Then it came to me as quietly as the rising sun hits the beautiful mountains. She left us on the day of Love so we would remember to ALWAYS LOVE! To always give our love as freely as Mom gave her love. To honor those that we love everyday and not wait one single day to share our feelings. To make the most of this crazy world and to always MARCH FOURTH! So to all of you as the season of Love approaches, I challenge you to give your love freely to all that need it. Extend a helping hand to someone who might be struggling. And no matter how hard it is to always find a reason to MARCH FOURTH,even if that reason is a small one like your dog will be hungry if you don't get out of bed to feed it. I am going to do my best to give my love more freely to those around me, to be more gracious and giving. Thank you to all of you that have lifted me in my time of need. I pray I can be as good of a friend to you as you have been to me.
Love, Kim

Trying to figure it out!

Mr Bridger and I were laying in his bed the other night. He was stalling trying to get out of going to sleep. He is a smart little fellow! He knows I haven't seen him much for the day and enjoy our time snuggling and chatting. So starts the conversation....

Bridger: "Mom why did they switch my school days?"

Me: "Because Daisy is going to go to school too!" Daisy is his teacher

Bridger: "Why does she have to go to school she is a Mom"

Me: "Well bud she wants to learnnnnnnn (I pause as I try to remember what it is she told me she is going to school for.)

Bridger: "Why she has to learn?"

Before I can answer him he says,

"Dat's dumb to have to be a mom and learn!"

Me: "It's not dumb it is great she has a chance to learn something new that she will like."

Bridger: "But she already knows how to be a Mom, what else is there?"

I melted! SO cute, in his little mind if your a MOM you must have it all figured out! Oh boy I hope I don't disappoint him when he figures out that is not so true!


On another not so cute note I feel like I need to warn you all. Last week Matt had $2,500 hundred dollars worth of tools stolen, the guy he was working on the job with also got about $2,500 dollars worth of tools stolen. In the same area in Idaho Falls a plumber friend got $2,500 dollars worth of plumbing fixtures stolen. And sadly someone I know who has taken enough crap for leaving her purse in the car so I will leave her name out of it, she had her purse tucked up under the dash while attending a concert in Idaho Falls, well someone broke the window and stole it! Now before you lay blame on that one we are all probably guilty of that from time to time, I know I do it all the time! Well not anymore! Just be careful if you don't want to loose your things you might want to take them with you and make sure you lock everything up tightly! In these times with things getting so tight for all of us I am afraid it is only going to get worse! The Police department in Idaho Falls said the crime rate is up 200% over last year! 200%!That is so crazy and sad to me! I just want you all to be careful and learn from our mishaps to it doesn't happen to you!

I hope you all have a great day! It's almost the weekend! YEAH!

And so it begins...

Well my little Cylie has done 1 of 2 things,

1) she found her ears by mistake and now loves them and pulls on them all the time for enjoyment...

OR

2) she has found her ears because they are starting to cause her some pain. She has been a little fussy at night but fine during the day.

So begs the question which one will it be? Will it be a long and tortuous road of ear infection after ear infection like her sister and brother or did she find the most FABULOUS toy that travels with her where ever it is she goes?!?!

Oh to be young again....

Lacey and I were talking on the way home from Tyler ’s wrestling match on Wednesday this is how it went...


Lacey: “Mom I hate Sally!” (the name has been changed to protect the innocent)

Me: “Lace hate is a strong word, what did Sally do?”

Lacey: “Sally told this boy that likes me that I like him back, when I told her I don’t like him.”

Me: “Ok so what you mean to say is your mad at Sally.”

Lacey: “Fine but I am REALLY mad at her cause now this boy hates me!”

Me: “WHAT??? How does that work? I thought this boy liked you first?

Lacey: “It is a “rule” (oh yes she used air quotes!) at our school that if a boy likes you and then the girl likes him back the boy HAS to hate her”

Me: “Well Sis that is just the dumbest thing I have ever heard! That is not how things work. Can you imagine Daddy telling me he loves me then I say it back to him then he has to hate me??? If this boy is going to go along with a dumb rule like that then he is just silly and isn’t worth the poop on my shoe(not my finest parenting advice, I know!)

Lacey Laughing hysterically: “Thanks mom I feel better!”


What can I say sometimes you have to get a little poo on your shoe to get a smile!

Trying hard to be thankful!

So as Valentines Day creeps up on me I seem to be very emotional, cranky, and sometimes down right mean. I am very glad there are no camera's in my office to catch me when the tears start to flow. 2008 was a very hard year on my family. The loss of my wonderful mother, one of our business's suffered from an employee with some serious sticky fingers in the tune of over $60,000. Our other business in Jackson has been hit hard by the economy and housing markets. Which in turn has lead to some very hard finical times for our family, which I don't see turning around for quite a while! In light of these hardships this last year every time I start my pity party I have this overwhelming feeling that I really do need to stop being so selfish and look around at all I do have. So today you will all have to bear with me (or just stop reading which ever you prefer) I am going to take the time and make a list of all of the FABULOUS things in my life so I can try and pull my self out of this emotion pit I am in! So here goes.....

1. I am so grateful beyond measure for my sisters! This last year would have been simply impossible for me with out them! Poor Michelle has the task of listening to me whine on our way to work every morning. She takes it all in and lets me be mad. Then somehow when we are done talking I do feel better, even if it is only because we have reverted our pain and sadness into some not always nice jokes! Hey ya do what ya gotta do! My big sister Lori is such an amazing woman! I can't imagine dealing with the loss of our mom so many miles away from the rest of our family. She is always so gracious and listens to me cry and sometimes joins in too! She is a fixer and always wants to "fix" it for me! Little does she know that just by making the time for me she does fix what can be fixed.
2. I am so thankful for my kids. They remind me of all that I truly do have that is wonderful. They love me and heal my heart daily. They also distract me from having to much time to have a pity party.
3. I am thankful for my loving husband Matt. He is not the most romantic man or the most sensitive, but after loosing my mom I saw a side to Matt I didn't know was there. I have only seen that man cry twice in our 12 years of marriage. Once was about his grandpa whom he loved like a father and the other was about missing his son Tyler. After Mom died Matt was so sad. I guess I never took the time to realize how much he loved her as well. He cried so many times that first week. I love that he loved my Mom as much as I do! He tries his best to comfort me and let me vent. I know I take him by surprise with my random sadness, it sneaks up on me sometimes!I am so grateful to him for allowing the kids and I to make our trips to Blackfoot to visit Mom and Dad. We went at least every other weekend and some times more! He never complained so for almost 9 years we tease he "shared custody" of us with my parents. No one can ever take that time we got to spend with them away from us! What a blessing!
4. I am thankful for my Dad. He took care of my Mom with the kindness of an angel. I knew he had it in him, but I must say he took me by surprise. He never once complained for having to take care of her.It was his pleasure. I know he wishes life would have lead in a different direction and it was not something he had to do. But that is what we were dealt and he was amazing!He also took us in his home and let us stay for a very long time. He continues to show me what a strong man he truly is by doing his best to figure out this new path his life has taken.
5. I am thankful for my brother. He reminds me a lot of Mom. They are so similar very tender hearted, very giving, very loving. Travis is always willing to help me out with no matter what it is I need. I know Mom had a special place in her heart for her only son. He is amazing!
6. I am thankful for all my nieces and nephews. When I look at them I am reminded of my Mom's never ending love for each one of them. They remind me to strive to be like her. She gave her love so freely to us all, I want to be more like that!
7. I am thankful for a job that I like. It makes it easier to leave my kids knowing that the place I am going to is not horrible. In these times I am glad to have a job period!
8. I am thankful for friends. Some new, some old, some I have lost contact with and found again. My Becky has been there for me through thick and thin since the 3rd grade. She is amazing and I love her!
9. I am grateful for my Mom's family. They continue to keep us in the loop and try to make us feel loved and welcome when ever we are lucky enough to see them. It is very comforting to be with them. I feel my Mom's love wrap around me when I am in the presence of the people she loved.
10. I am grateful for knowing my Mom is in a better place and in no more pain.
11. I am thankful for the chance I had to have her as my Mom and to be able to say she was and is truly one of my best friends. Even if I feel cheated for loosing her so early in my life I wouldn't change having her for a Mom.
12. I am thankful the Lord blesses me with knowing she is still here with me and letting me feel her love surround me.
13. I am thankful for the lessons she taught me. I pray I can remember them and use them in my daily life.


I have so many more things to be thankful for but I guess since this is the longest post EVER I will call it quits with the knowledge that yea times are tough right now but are not comparable to others who struggle as well! I am trying to hold on to the saying The Lord will never give you more than you can bear. I do wish he had a little less faith in me though! :) On that note I will get back to my day and let you get back to yours (assuming I have not already bored you to tears and you are not already gone that is!)
Remember to tell those you love how much they really do matter to you!