Brooklyn turned 4! (and Talia 10, Bergen 8…shoot, I've missed a lot!)

okay, first things first! Bergen turned 8 years old and as baptized on February 7th 2015 (also Talia's birthday…which was very hard to share but she still did it)

 We sure love our straight arrow kid! He got a new suit (his first real one) and scriptures.

 All Talia asked me for was a huge panda bear. Love her.  I think she had a pretty good birthday!

 The baptism day! Lots of family was there. Svend baptized and confirmed him a Member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Our good Catholic friends even came--it was at 9am on a saturday too!

 Brooklyn turned 4 the other day! We had a BLAST!! We did a trail run as a family.  It was only a 1k but PERFECT for our 4 and 5 year old runners!  We were muddy and sweaty by the end. The main reason we signed up was because not only could we ALL run, but we got full access to the YMCA adventure camp for the day.  Such a great great day!   Brooklyn on the climbing wall! She made it the highest of all the kids!

 Tabitha and Talia.

 Me and Talia (she was mostly complaining about how muddy her shoes were so this is how far she made it)

 I made it to the top and Svend swears he got a picture of it…but here's the only one we really got!

 Svend made it to the top too

 Then, the kids and my dad did the zip line. I was on Ander's duty and the line was LITERALLY 1 hour long…so I didn't get a chance to do it.  Here is Dad and Bergen

 oh, I love this kid. She is so stinking cute!

 Talia and Tabitha went as a pair

 Dad and Bergen

 This is Talia and Tabitha at the top!  About 5 stories high and 900 feet long

 This is BROOK!!!!!

 Oh so cute!!! Daddy was her partner :)

 Face painting

 Ander's got his arm painted. He LOVED it!

 After everything.

 yep, long morning!!! 7am-1:30pm

 THEN…Birthday party for Brooklyn (2 friends showed up…so it was actually PERFECT!)

 This is her singing "I wear t-shirts" --Taylor Swift.  The video didn't take…dumb phone…but glad I got a picture!!!

Talia at 10:  spunky. smart. responsible. caring. hard worker. high stressor. good student. stands up for those how need it. strength in capoiera.  good at writing and math. artistic. loves to plan activities. mini-me…in personality! 

Bergen at 8: facial tics. loves soccer. lots of cool capoiera moves. pays attention to detail in artistic things. good at math. loves to play games and watch movies. loves to veg. does not like school. enjoys scouts. misses allen. 

Brooklyn at 4: wears shorts! wears tight pants! lets me do her hair for a few minutes. washes hands! can reach to wash hands! learned how to draw people. learned how to draw a few letters and numbers. loves to sing "I am a child of God" when we are fighting or having a rough day. loves to stir up her siblings. will play tag but will not be "it." must be active. still loves Dora. what?

Tabitha 5.5: works hard to please. is a natural helper. draws a lot. spells a lot. practices math a lot. eager to learn so much. loves to get ready for the day. wears lipstick. always begging for mom/tabitha time. middle child? on the go. wants to play soccer.

Anders 19 months: is talking in words we don't understand. signs please when he really wants something. tackles his sisters. pulls their hair. knows where time out it. drags us to his bed to get his bottle and blankie when he is tired. loves whole milk and juice. hates walking barefoot on grass. loves balls. really loves footballs.  loves throwing them. loves head butting and hitting. loves fixing things with his tools. loves destroying things with his body. said his first prayer tonight. copied what i said in tones. so cute.

From point A to B via zig zag

this is from my studentlifeblog…but that's private… and I wanted this on my family blog.

Point A: residency
Point B: Dr Jackman Associate

Our eyes were opened on Saturday night and the Hand of the Lord revealed.  In December of 2013, we came to Texas to sign a contract. We felt good about it but I really put it on Svend. I didn't want anything to do with it if it wasn't good (and be blamed and scorned for putting our family in Texas ;).   We moved to Texas in June 2014.  We started making some money but knew pretty much right away that things were not right with the job. Eventually the job was lost (January 15th to be exact--Bergen's birthday) and we secured another job to begin this week as an associate of Dr. Jackman. We moved our family to the small town where the clinic will be and are excited for the new adventure.  Praying it all works out :)

Saturday night we were invited to Dr. Jackman's birthday party. He's in the bishopric so basically their ward was there.  As we went through the room and were introduced to everyone, we began to see our picture fully painted.  We met a friend of a friend.  Back in Illinois, Liberty had told us her friend was in Sherman and would help us out.  We had planned on living in Sherman.  Liberty told her friend about us. Her friend asked who were were working for. Liberty passed on the information. Her friend was a good friend of the Jackmans.  Her friend told Amy Jackman about us…and who we were working for. Amy told her to have us call her.  She said it was NOT a good situation and we should really be warned.  Her friend contacted Liberty and told her.  Liberty and her husband (Svend's good friend) apparently decided not to get in the middle of things…. bummer right? WRONG! 

What would have happened with that phone call? We would have been warned. We would have been bummed. We would be at square one searching for a job. We'd probably be in Idaho--haha…not.  There was no job opening for us back in December/June 2014 with Dr. Jackman.  We would not be in Texas.

It was part of the plan. How could we know the good without the bitter? After residency you need a job. You expect a job. You find one that looks good and you have to take it--mostly. Obviously you can search some more but really, if you find a good one in the place you want to live…you stop looking. You are extremely vulnerable.  We were vulnerable. 

We still have that "fear" or being sued or threatened for technically being within our "noncompete" area in our previous contract…but what would he get? Right now we make nothing… literally.  Thank goodness for our tax return and my parents letting us take over their home for nearly 8 months!  Without those to things, we would be in the hole all the way… we're just a few feet under right now ;)

The Lord prepared a way for us.  He knew we needed to get to point B…but couldn't directly from point A.  We had to go through a zig zag and learn. We had to be tried and tested. We had to endure crud… now we are smarter and stronger.  I don't know if we'll be here forever, but for now we are… in a good place. I'm grateful to finally SEE the Lord's hand in this craziness that has happened.

I love the gospel. I love my Savior. I love my Father in Heaven who knows ME.

Christmas 2014

pictures later.
Christmas was good :)  We've now been living with my parents for 6 months with barely an end in site. I think we will be formally kicked out when the kids are finished with school…

The kids have all been sick this year. It's pretty much sucked the life out of Christmas since all the get to-gathers that my parents have were either cancelled or switched to someone else's house. The main people affected were my parents and Talia.  She was so bummed she missed out on the Family night Christmas party because Brook was too sick for people to come over… and then when Christmas came, the dinner had to be moved to my aunts house because Tabitha and Talia were sick.  Such a huge bummer all around.

Svend enjoyed the quiet night tho--and I kind of did too….

It was so fun to see Anders wake up and walk STRAIGHT to his Santa gift--a tool bench :)  Bergen got a cross bow nerf gun and a kicking pad for Capeiora practice. Talia got a karaoke machine . Tabitha got a clip-clop horse (which her OLDER brother put in the bathtub and now it low longer plays music--GRRR) and a huge stuffed horse purse. Brooklyn got princess legos and a stuffed horse purse as well.  There were a TON of presents!  5 kids X4 gifts under the tree…

Svend got a pillow from sleep number (a survey win!) and a hammock. Svend bought me some pants I would have NEVER spent the money on…he knows me too well… and a pullover I wanted from Costco.

Kids have been laying around all week watching movies, blowing noses, coughing, and fighting high fevers. Bergen has been holding out strong…but today it finally hit…we'll see how bad it gets. Poor Tabitha's just keep coming back… Brooklyn has been fever free for 4 days but is so tired she takes a 2-3 hour nap each day and still goes to bed at a decent hour.

Bergen actually read 2 chapter books TODAY!  Talia finished her 2nd as well.  Proud of both…but Bergen HATES reading, so this is BIG.  I need to read them…to make sure they are okay since he found a series.

anyway, good Christmas, bad timing for illness but there are lots who have it worse.  Grateful for our parents who have put up with our family for 6 months.  We are trying to save for a downpayment. Hopefully that happens sooner than later.

Biggest picture dump….ever! With captions :)

No explanation needed.  Meet the Mormons has come out in theaters and I've switched my Facebook profile to this :) 

 Me and Brooklyn.  She wore this headband a LOT this summer to keep her sweaty hair off her head. It was either this or pulling the wet strands out of her head….I'm glad she discovered Grandma's headband!

 anders :) climbing on the mountain of mattresses we pulled from storage and keep piled up during the day in Grandpa's game room.

 Outside :)

 Arboretum dollar days. It was HOT!!!

 We met up with Robbie and Keri. It was GREAT to see them after 8 years!!! Robbie and Svend were friends back in Washington. They moved to Texas a few years ago.

 Robbies kids

 Lili Hopewell got baptized this summer. I think her and Talia are going to be great friends, I hope.

 Anders turned 1!!! what the ?!?!? My baby… oh so sad and so great :) He started walking around 11 months really good.  He says babababab and mamammamamam and Da!  he has WHITE Blond hair and the chubbiest little belly.  He's 24lbs and 31 (?) inches. Either way… 90%.

 Daddy brought home some footballs

 Bergen made him a lego car that he was allowed to destroy

 Tally bought him toilet brushes. His favorite things!! and he still (2 months later) walks around with them. It's REALLY funny when he takes them places…like the park! hahahaha

 Mmmmm cake! he threw it up all night long. bleck!

 The kids started school!!! Bergen started 2nd grade with Mrs. Cooper. He is not a huge fan but has a few friends and somewhat willingly goes each morning.

 Talia started 4th grade with Ms. Antunez (and Ms. Holman). She likes her teacher but is trying hard to have a great year despite missing her best friend, Jada.

 Grandpa pulls Bergen out and plays catch with him. Bergen was not a fan…but he is getting better and so now he likes it.

 Anders likes to watch…or dump bubbles and each chalk.

 My parents celebrated 40 years!

 The kids love to drum. Anders is copying Brooklyn. He looks so cute in his muscle tee :)

 drum drum DRUM!

 We put the 3 older kids in Capoeira.  They are LOVING It! To be honest, it is kind of making us choose where to live…there are not many studios!

 Took the kids to a FREE allen heritage day. Bergen and Daddy trying to rope a cow (it was COLD…in September!)

 Balloon animals

 Talia with her microphone

 signing a Christmas card for the Troops.

 Brooklyn in her style. what a silly 3.5 year old!

 Talia wanted a picture with her… here's what we got!

 Tabitha turned 5!!!!! She had the stomach flu for her birthday so no friends got to come… we tried to make up for it with a family birthday party but ended up having a park one a week later with friends.

 Brooklyn needed a little present too… just to calm her down. it's hard when they both want the exact same things and it's only one persons birthday!!! Christmas will be much easier!

 Bergen made her a "carpet"

 girls…and photo bomb brother :)

 Elsa cake

 Found a trail and we took the kids for a 6.5 mile bike ride a few weeks ago.  It was great until the last mile home… Svend took off ahead since he was running and figured we'd catch up. Brooklyn jumped out of the cart when I stopped to check on Tally who was having a fit. I didn't notice and we took off.  I almost crossed a big road but stopped to check on the kids.  When I glanced around I just about had a heart attack. Cussing was TOTALLY appropriate as I jumped off my bike, threw down the backpack and took off to the park in search of my baby.   I spotted her quickly as she was running, crying, and looking for me.  She had peed her pants. She'd jumped out to go to the bathroom but didn't say anything and no one notices. I was not a happy mom with the other 3 who SHOULD HAVE NOTICED but oh so very grateful we got our Brooky back!!!! She has been lost from us more times then I care to count or think about and my Father in Heaven has always brought her back to us. I pray there isn't a time when he doesn't. I pray she will stop getting lost from us.  I worry over it a lot. I love my kids so much. This picture will always be a reminder to me of that day and the fear I felt and the fights I had with my kids on the way home (since svend took off ahead of us-bleck) and how we ended with 5 kids safely home, 2 sleeping on each other, 2 tired and thirsty, and 1 who realized her family does love her and ended up learning to laugh a little more.

 Svend and his co-residents, Aaron Kim and Donald Graves golfing together one last time.

 Me and Tubs :)

 Handsome boy!

 stinker :)

 Talia with her Primary teacher saying goodbye

 Talia and Jada Carter- BFFS

 Bergen and Jordan Carter

 Texas or Bust!

 packing...

 Grandma and grandpa went out of town…the kids took over their bed.

 Allen celebration day

 My boys :)

 Sandy lake park. Brooklyn's first roller coaster. She was BEGGING for it to stop. Poor baby!

 Doing Grandpa's hair :)

 Ander's hates HATE HATES swings.

 car show in Downtown Mckinney

 We learned how to make the parachute cord bracelets…and got slightly addicted.  12 made in one night:)

 Every tuesday I take the 3 little ones to open gym. It's just that… an open gym. But they have fun.

 Talia and Capoeira

 Svend's offical Dr. Picture. Love him!!

Oh my gosh! I made it to the end. WOW!! 78 pictures.  We have been in Texas for 3.5 months. Which means, we've been living with my parents for 3.5 months…with no end in site. It's been quite the experience now that Svend is a REAL DPM.  We are still residency-like but a little better I guess. The light is coming and we are grateful. It's been an adjustment for all of us. New friends, new bugs (chiggers), new commutes, new laws… etc. It's been hard on the kids but they have handled it okay. They are trying and so are we. Talia is ready to stay put. I told her we would move one more time and then we are DONE!  And that's just so we can get out of grandma and grandpa's house…because we can't live her forever!