The Adventures of the Elephant and the Bear

Once upon a time, a girl named Ashley and a boy named Jarett had a little disagreement. They had recently been married and Ashley was having a hard time explaining to Jarett why there were decorative pillows on the bed. Now, Jarett was a helpful husband, so he would make the bed from time to time. But he absolutely refused to just place the pillows on the bed where they were supposed to go. Jarett decided to make a point. He took every pillow and stacked it into a tall tower. On top of this great tower was placed his Brown Bear (this was a bear that his parents gave to him when he played Chief Brown Bear in "Little Mary Sunshine") to protect the fortress that he was upon. Jarett was okay with using the pillows, but he needed to make sure that Ashley understood that he still thought she was ridiculous. This caused a great laugh, but was not a one time thing.
After 7 and a half years of marriage, Jarett continued his tradition every time that he made the bed. Not only was it a tower, but he would make a castle or another building of sorts. Then one summer, Jarett got a job in Calgary. Jarett and Ashley joined her parents for the 4 months duration. Now, Jarett knew that bed-making was very important to both Ashley and her mother, so whenever possible, he would jump in and be helpful by making the bed. Upon this bed was an elephant and a teddy bear. Jarett could not go against his tradition, so he had to continue his tradition. Unfortunately, towers and castles were not an option because there were only 2 smallish pillows. Jarett, however, did not despair. His creative juices kicked in and he quickly revised his tradition. The Adventures of the Elephant and the Bear was born. Here are some of their tales...as displayed in the bed-making of Jarett.

This is a Napoleonic adventure

Playing Peek-a-boo


Taking a nap


Sunbathing


Playing Hide and go Seek
(the Teddy Bear is hiding behind the pillow - you can see his ears poking out the top)


Trading Back Massages


Family Scripture Study
(This one was on a Sunday)

The Elephant and the Bear got very close and developed an incredible bond...and lived Happily Ever After.

Hold on, I want you to look at those pictures again. Do you see that small window above the bed in the back massage pic? The left window opens up, but does not have a screen. One night (perhaps last night) Jarett and Ashley were sound asleep and had the window open to have a little breeze in the room. Suddenly Ashley woke up - and heard a strange sound. She looked up at the window and what was there?? A CAT!! A stray cat had climbed up to the second story of the house, climbed in through the window and was standing on the ledge about to jump down on Jarett. Ashley screamed to Jarett, "Jarett, look up!" As he looked up, he saw a huge cat looking down at him and did what any man would do when woken up to that. He grabbed his pillow and swatted at the cat. The cat jumped back out of the room, landing on the roof (no, it was not hurt at all)....and then the window was closed and the heat was endured. Not a night that either would enjoy repeating.....

What was that?? You'd like to hear another story about Jarett teasing Ashley? Okay....I suppose. If you'd really want one...Hmmm, now let me think....aha! I have one.

Shortly after Jarett and Ashley were married, they were talking on the phone and Ashley thought she had heard Jarett say, "I love you" so she said, "I love you too". Jarett began to laugh.... As the very next phone call was winding down, Jarett said, "I love you too" before Ashley could say anything. This quickly became a tradition and he has said this ever since. Just to make sure that Ashley can't get away with any little slip ups. It became a habit and Jarett continued to tell Ashley he loves her every day by simply saying, "I love you too!"

And they lived Happily Ever After...

Calgary - thus far...

We have been busy, busy, busy. Not necessarily doing crazy busy stuff, but just really enjoying the time here with my family. We've been hitting the sites:

*Calgary Zoo
*Sundance Lake (a few times)
*Lake Bonavista
*Family Birthday Parties

We've also bought season passes to Calaway Park, so we'll be hitting the rides there soon too! Mostly we've been hanging around the house and doing stuff in the backyard. We've been jumping on trampolines and learning to ride bikes and going for walks and runs and having a blast! Jarett's been working for my Dad and really enjoying all that he is learning. It's fun for him to have an opportunity to use all the knowledge that he has gained at school.....and I'm enjoying having him around more often. Anyway, here are some random pictures (and a couple videos) of the last few weeks. I'll have to do posts later with the bigger events (zoo trips and lakes and stuff). But here is the around the house stuff.....

BIG NEWS: Jaymeson is army crawling - he's so close I can't believe it!!

We had Kindred and Jasper over one day....we danced to ABBA and watched a movie.

We have been hanging around the house too...

MORE BIG NEWS: Saryn finally got her Cinderella!! She wet in the potty!!!! She only did it once and has no desire to do it again....but she CAN do it!! HOORAY!!

Today we were at Costco and had some ice cream. I enjoyed the pictures from that too!







Well, I can't stay awake much longer... I'll have to post more tomorrow! I still have to cover Brooklyn going to bed and going to all the lakes and the zoo and all sorts of fun things.

Stay tuned!!

The Best One Yet!

Every Mother's Day comes and goes and I feel recognized and wonderful. I LOVE the primary singing in Sacrament meeting and the flower or chocolates that we get at the end. I LOVE the "breakfast in bed" (I put this in quotes because we have always had early church and so I'm up and at it before the breakfast comes....I usually have to get back in bed so the kids are excited to surprise me). I enjoy being able to pull the "it's Mother's Day" card and get out of making dinner or doing dishes. It's just a fun day.
This Mother's Day, I was expecting nothing. Jarett usually has wonderful intentions, but has to run to the store last minute if I am to get any present. He hadn't ran to the store, so I expected no presents. We're at my parents house, so I didn't expect any breakfast in bed. We were having Stake Conference, so I wasn't expecting to hear my kids sing or get any special gift there. No Relief Society class or any recognition at all.
The night before Mother's Day, I found out my Granny was coming into town and I was excited to be able to spend my mother's day with my mom and my grandmother. Other than that, I had no expectations.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up to my sisters singing "Happy Mother's Day" bringing me a tray of breakfast in bed. It was pancakes with blueberries, hashbrowns, fried ham & eggs and a virgin Margarita and Strawberry Daiquiri. It was wonderful.

The next surprise was incredible. Kaia had got up and made her bed (recruiting her sisters to do so as well) and my sisters all helped my girls get ready for church. I didn't have to do anything.

We went to church and I got to hear my mom and my father-in-law speak (both were incredible talks) followed by some primary children singing a "Mother" song.
"Like sunshine in the morning, that wakens day from night. Like flowers in the springtime, so colorful and bright. Like happy songs of bluebirds that fill the air with cheer. A person bright and lovely is my Mother Dear."
Kaia came back and with tears in her eyes said, "Those things are just like you Mom". What a sweet moment.

My niece, Marvel, turned 12 the day before. We celebrated by having an incredible lunch at their house and then came home . Jarett surprised me with 2 presents (shocking). They were Anne of Green Gables on DVD and Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo and Video editing software. I'm SO excited to try that out. I seriously can't believe how spoiled I was - am! What a great Mothers Day!!

A Break Through

I haven't had one.....but Jaymeson's two bottom teeth have!!

Silence isn't always golden...

I know that any Mom of a 2 year old knows this. All the kids decided to wake up at 6:30 this morning. So I've been dealing with some "happy" kids today. Nap time rolls around and as I was upstairs putting Jaymeson to bed, I heard Kaia and Kienna playing. I noticed, however, a lack of Saryn voices. As soon as I could, I went downstairs to see what she might be up to. I was shocked, she wasn't being naughty at all. I only got to the landing on the stairs when I found her - totally asleep. What a little angel.

Okay, so that was a HUGE relief. I ran to get my camera and took those pictures. As I went downstairs to take the second one, however, I noticed something amiss. See if you can spot it when you look at her face.....
Hmmm, the evidence lead to the kitchen... my mom has sprinkles for cakes and cupcakes that she keeps in her lazy-susan. They magically made it all over the floor. So I had to sweep them up...

Then I go to pick her up and move her to her bed and I notice her sock...it was covered in sprinkles....lovely. So I track her steps and clean those up.

Then I realize that one of her socks has remnants of her diaper on it. (I noticed this by taking a close up picture, but realized you probably wouldn't want to see it). I changed her diaper and wiped her down and she managed to sleep through most of it. I noticed her hands were wonderful too! How special.

Anyway, I was shocked that she sleeped through it all....and she's still asleep - either that or she's being too quiet. Hmmm, maybe I should go check. I've already had one too many reminders that silence isn't golden today.

Once Upon a Time

This must have been taken in around 1984. I was just surprised how much I look like one of my kids... can you guess which one? I was also surprised that my parents actually had dark hair once upon a time...

Another picture of us when we were little (probably 1987).  I don't know who I look like here.  I can actually see little bits of all my girls in this one.  Alanna, however, looks a lot like Jarom (for those of you who know who I'm talking about).  Still loving the dark hair - although it's already lightening.  Which of my girls do you see here?

If at first you succeed.....

You must be Kaia!!


My little girl decided today that she no longer wanted to use training wheels to ride her bike. She immediately got Grandpa Mullen to take off her training wheels and Mom and Aunty Brittany set out to teach her. I ran next to her and balanced the bike while Brittany provided a target to keep focused on.

She didn't go very long at first, but she never fell. She picked it up just like "riding a bike" and she worked hard and now she's riding down the whole length of the block no problem!! I'm so proud of my little girl!

She usually goes more straight than this, but it's the best quality video that we got! But now she's learning how to steer!!

A Truly Magical Future

Kienna did a sleep study last Monday (we don't know the results yet), but as we were walking into the hospital she stopped me and said,

"Mom, I'm really going to miss you when I grow up...Because I'm going to live at

Disneyland!"

"Where in Disneyland?"
"Right beside the Castle"
"Not IN the castle?"
"Nope, just beside it."

Anxious to know all my girls plans, I turned to Saryn..... And where are YOU going to live?

"AT THE ZOO!!"

I'm going to have a lot of fun visiting my kids when they grow up......

where did YOU think you'd live when you grew up??

Busy, but good.....

That's about all I can say to describe the goings on of this past week. Jarett's been in finals, so I'm doing the single mom thing. He's around just long enough to add more work load, but not enough to help out. Sigh. Anyway, we've been keeping busy. Some highlights......

Jaymeson has started to comfort himself by sucking his thumb. This is good and bad. Good because he can soothe himself (which he hasn't taken advantage of too much yet) and bad because it's addictive and its hard to wean him from.....and it ruins his mouth yadda yadda yadda..... but he looks SO cute.




We made Easter eggs. I actually did them on the Tuesday after Easter, but we got there. The kids did 2 each.
Saryn did 2 eggs that got super cracked, but I got to draw with the "magic crayon" and it made her happy.



Kienna wrote her name on one and Mom on the other. She's SO sweet.










Kaia is getting SO creative. She did the half and half dipped eggs with her own colouring on each.










To prove I was there, I took a picture which turned out SO wonderfully. I'm trying to get in on this Project 52, but so far my luck has been limited. Anyway, here's my meager attempt.








BIG NEWS: We have a winner!!
Kaia finally won her Ariel lego set (see previous post) and she is the first one to finish the goals set for her. Awesome, isn't it? It only took a little over 4 weeks to get there.....but she did it!! And I'm SO PROUD OF HER!!!

Now, a very favorite activity in this house is colouring/drawing/crafting.....whatever you want to call it. I finally decided to take the opportunity to take some pictures. These are just some precious memories that I will never/could never forget. Thought I'd share some.

Kaia has been working on a play recently. It is titled "Ariel" and here she is creating a Welcome poster for the audience. She has now written the story line and is working on the script. She is WAY ahead of her time.

Kienna it writing everything backwards. You can see the

"ymmoM oT"

across the bottom of the page. She's SO excited to be able to write though, so she's been doing it whenever she can.

My little Saryn coloring. This is SO her. She is so funny.

I was able to go out with a few friends last night. It was awesome. There's nothing like a girls night out!! We went to Tony Roma's and had some great ribs, salads, bruscetta etc.


Today was a wonderfully warm day. I took the opportunity to clean out our backyard and have the kids play for a while. It was Jaymeson's first day out in the sun. The girls loved pulling eachother in a wagon and playing with some balls in the field behind the house. It was great. Half way through the raking, the missionaries popped by. Of course, they decided to help by finishing it up. What wonderful people!! Anyway, some fun snapshots of the kids!!




Oh, and their glasses remind me that earlier this week we also braved the West Edmonton Mall. It was horrid. I would advise anyone conisdering taking 4 kids to the mall by themselves against it. Although, I did find some great deals....thus the cute glasses. Anyway, that should catch you up on my week. This is what consists of "normal" around our house. Just thought I'd put it out there!