My Little Jakob

Wait, he's not so little anymore. Jakob turned 8 this week and it blows me away!! Where did the time go when he was my only child and my little buddy who said things like "I can't get my sippy cup, my feets is broken(he was 2!)." Now he's the older brother of 3 brothers and a sister and growing by leaps and bounds.

He continues to amaze us in so many ways. In February he took a 3 hour test for A.L.L. which is kinda like AP school for grade schoolers. He passed! He along with 23 other children from Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs and Lehi get to go to a special class where he will take advanced Math lessons. Its actually advanced everything but they focus a lot on that subject. It took him a long time to decide if he wanted to leave his school but he decided it would be best for him to do.

Then just this last week he tried out for the Utah Arsenal Soccer league and made the team for the district!! He has developed a love for soccer and plays it nonstop. He has a great talent for a lot of different sports(basketball he's very good at too!) but soccer is his love now. His season starts in July or August and will keep us plenty busy but this was something he really wants to do so here we go!!

He also started scouts this week. With it being pack meeting this week, he won't have den meeting until next week. He loved pack meeting though and wears his new scout shirt proudly and wants to wear it to school all the time.

And last but most definitely not least, he gets baptized next week!! We have worked with him on getting him to know for himself that this is something he wants to do. He loves the scriptures and talks about different ones he's read and he knows that this is something he wants. He's had the songs he wants sung picked out for months and we're still working on everything else.

And speaking of Jakob, maybe I should wrap this up and go pick him up from school!! We love you Jakob!!! Oh and the picture below is Jakob and Andy with their "trophy" from winning 2nd place in their divisions for the Jujitsu tournament in March!

Making a BIG Jump

Well, our poor computer has seen better days.  It takes FOREVER to load anything - and no, its not the internet connection.  It decides its tired at random times and turns itself off. You can't just decide to turn it back on because it freezes up as it loads... 

Since we needed a computer for our bookstore, we decided it was time to go for another computer(shhhh! don't tell our dear, old one!).  After much deliberation we decided to go to Best Buy and look at the laptops there.  We KNEW we didn't want Vista but that left us with one mini laptop to work with.

The first employee we talked to was 100% salesman who talked down to us and tried to get us to upgrade on EVERYTHING.  I walked away because I was tired of it (and of course the kids can't resist finding every restroom in every store and needed a potty break).  Luckily when I came back ready to look again, I found another guy back by the computers. He was GREAT.  He knew what he was talking about, he didn't try selling us anything by shoving it down our throats and he was very friendly and personable.  My kind of salesperson! 

So what did we get?  A MacBook!! We decided to ditch the PC and the need for Vista and all those problems and went for the Mac instead. So far I've loved it but I've had to relearn a lot of things. Its nice to be able to work on the computer while I'm in the living room with my kids instead of locking myself back in the back while the kids rip the house to shreds and have raisin fights... and yes that has happened.

Now to really use it for business and not just for fun. ;)

Happy Anniversary and Birthday to US!

I'm just a little behind by about 3 weeks. or maybe more...

April through July is a busy time in my family. I have two birthdays in April, 3 in May and 2 in July. And that's just my little family! That doesn't even include all the cousins, my sisters and in-laws, brother, parents, etc. If I included those this blog would be REALLY long.

So first we start with our anniversary. Steve and I have been married for 9 great years as of April 22nd. I can't believe how fast the time has flown. but you add 5 kids into the mix you can see how it would!!!

So how did we celebrate? By signing papers on our business loan to get our bookstore!! Best anniversary gift ever is to open the store I've been wishing for all my life with the man I've loved for the last 10 years(hey we had to date!) and will for eternity! Who could ask for more?

After we got done with that, we took the kids home and they had a babysitter so Steve and I could go to the temple. It was the first time with this babysitter but the kids loved her and she did great - even with Ethan who can be a pill! We stopped at Emmett's and Ethel's on the way home and enjoyed a nice yummy milkshake and fries. A perfect ending to a perfect day - except that Steve had to go to work afterwards... gotta love graveyard shift!

Next comes mine and Ashley's birthday. We had kind of a long, drawn out birthday starting on Monday at the Hannah Montana movie. I admit a lot of it was for me but Ashley LOVED the horses and the songs and had fun. I bawled(I just do that in movies) but otherwise thoroughly enjoyed the movie!

We went and let Ashley pick out the goody bag toys for her party we were going to have on Saturday in Idaho and then went home to hang with the boys.

Wednesday we had a nice quiet birthday at home. Perfect gift for Mommy!!! I had two very sweet ladies in the ward offer to babysit but since Ashley and Ethan were fighting colds we decided to hold off on babysitters. Plus I felt bad leaving Ashley behind since we share the birthday! She got a leapster so between her playing hers and Andy playing his, we had a very quiet day.

And of course we checked out the new Walmart in Saratoga Springs where I got a gorgeous watch from Steve and Ashley got a few things from siblings and from the money Grandma and Grandpa Weist sent her. Besides the "Lost Mommy" incident all went well and we went home to enjoy our chocolate truffle ice cream bars. YUMMY!!!!

I'll post the rest when I get pictures of the cakes and the party with my family in Idaho.