Blessings

I've been a little worried and stressed tonight. I thought maybe I should start counting my blessings.

My family,of course, who make it all worth it, even the worry and the stress.

My home, I love our home.

Flowers, I have been planting flowers in our yard this week. I am grateful for the beauties of the earth.

Sunshine and warm weather, it always makes me happier and more productive.

Steady work, not always a guaranty with Shiloh's work. I should add to this Kerry Simmons the owner of the carpet store Shiloh works with. He has always been so good to Shiloh. It is thanks to him we have steady work.

Health, enjoyed by all members of my family.

Doctors and Medicine, who know how to take care of us when the health fails or babies came a month early. One of my best friends from high school, just had her first baby this past week and thanks to the doctors and medicine they are home, happy and healthy.

Milk, my ultimate comfort food. I'm enjoying a glass now.

Guidence, from a loving Heavenly Father. I may have a hard time recognizing and understanding the spirit all the time, (I'm working hard to get better) but it is far better then thinking I have to figure it out all on my own.

I'm starting to feel better now. I still have the same things to worry about but I also know I have alot to be thankful for.

Family Ties

"So much of what is great has sprung from the closeness of family ties," -James M. Barrie

New Friends! Left to right Abbi, Lizzy, Claire, & Abigail, these cute little girls are all second cousins.

I am one of the lucky one who has been blessed with really close family ties. I'm not just talking about my brothers and sisters and I, I'm talking about my dad his brother and sister, their kids (my cousins), and their kids kids (my cousins kids). This weekend was my cousin Joe's mission fairwell, a very good reason for the Jensen and Bagleys to get together and party, eat, visit, and play games. So four generations of us gathered together in Rexburg at the Bagley farm and strenghthened our family ties. I'm not talking about going to sacrament meeting and then spending couple hours there after church, I'm talking about getting there for lunch on Saturday and staying untill after dinner on Sunday when we had to rip ourselves away.

It was getting time for dinner and it was rainingand we were heading down the street to the church so we would all have room to sit and eat. Some one made a comment about how big the family was getting, I jokingly made the comment that we were to big now I guess we would have to stop getting together. That didn't go over well there was a resounding, NO!! I whole heartedly agree. I love my family. I am gratful to parents and aunts and uncles who took the extra time and effort to bring us together so those relationships could be built and flourish and for all those cousins who are now married with kids of their own, who take the same time and effort to make sure those relationships stay strong.

I do believe there were about 55 fo us there.

Twins?

Brothers?

No, cousins. My brother's little boy Caleb is on the left and my little boy Gideon is on the right.

Most of my family out on the farm. We couldn't get Lizzy off the Tramp.

Bonus: I got to introduce my children to one of my favorite childhood memories, playing on the farm.

Best Friends

I just wanted to say that I have the two cutest girls in the whole world. They have always been best friends, I love watching them grow and play together. It is late Friday night and I just went to go peek on them. They are asleep now. They're both asleep on Lizzy's bed. ShiAnne and Lizzy share a room and they have bunk beds. ShiAnne sleeps on the top and Lizzy sleeps on the bottom but every Friday night the big exciting thing to do is to sleep together on Lizzy's bed. They came up with the idea on there own and they love it. They lay down together all tucked in and they talk and they laugh and they giggle, like all best girl friend do at a sleep over and somehow, eventually they fall asleep. It is the friendship I prayed for when we found out our little girl Lizzy was on the way and the one I need to thank Heavenly Father for more often.

Daddy's Girls!

I love these guys

Unexpected Suprise

I had two reasons for wanting to make this blog, one so I could keep a record of all the cute thing my kids say and do and two so that I would recognize and write down all of my blessings. I was blessed today it was an unexpected surprise. Around 8:50 while I was doing ShiAnne's hair and getting her ready for school, I got a phone call. It was Shiloh calling to tell me he was coming home. For those of you who don't know Shiloh has two jobs. Early in the morning about 2 a.m. Shiloh starts his job at FedEx as a package handler. After he works there for about 5 hours he might gat a nap in his truck and then he heads to his real job as a carpet installer. He usually works about a 15 hour day and when he comes home he sleeps (I don't blame him). Luckily he doesn't have to work weekends, so we try to make the best of them but sometimes the weeks are long and hard, on both of us. So when I got a call at 9 a.m. saying he was coming home it was a very welcome and unexpected surprise. He got to his first job and they were still painting.Not ready for the carpet and so with nothing else to do he headed home. He got home the same time as I got back form taking ShiAnne to school. The little cutie, he had brought me a danish from a Bakery I really like in Lehi. How sweet! Then he helped me make the bed, a job made so much easier with two, he bathed Lizzy and Gideon while I showered, was able to go pick ShiAnne up from school, so I didn't have to wake Gideon up from his nap and came with us to get Gideon pictures done. It was so much easier to pick what pictures to get with his help. He has never been there before. I have always had to do this on my own and I have such a hard time deciding. After that he had to go back to work but it sure was nice to have him home for a morning. The kids enjoyed it too.

ShiAnne

ShiAnne is my 6 year old I can't believe I have a 6 year old. After just 6 more days of school she will be done with kindergarten and I guess that officially makes her a 1st grader. She is an awesome girl though always helping me when ever I ask. She loves being with people and doing everything. For the last two years she has been doing gymnastics, she loves it and she is in the advanced class for her age, (or the accelerated program) they call them Hot Shots and once a year they do an exhibition meet. ShiAnne had hers on Monday. They run it just like a regular meet, with girls on different event all at the same time, but they don't score them on anything. It is just a fun chance for the girls to show off how much they have learned in the past year. This is one of the highlights of our year and ShiAnne did awesome. We sure loved watching her.

My Story

I have been married to Shiloh for 8 years in June and we have three great Kids. ShiAnne is 6, Lizzy is 3 and a half, the half is very important, she will be 4 in about a month and Gideon will be 1 in less then two weeks. According to our kids Shiloh and I are old and thats good enough. Shiloh is the hardest worker I know. He works 15-16 hour days Mon. - Fri. but keeps the weekends open so we can have some good family time. The kids always ask, Mom when is it Dad's stay home day again?" Everyone loves Saturdays just for that reason! I'm lucky to have him. I just wish he could be home more.
As for me I'm a stay at home mom. Which so often means I don't stay at home but now that the school year is coming to an end things will slow down for a little while. But I love being a stay at home mom, I don't love being a maid, but I do love the rest of it and being at home with my kids. (Okay you caught me I don't really love cleaning up throw up, changing poopy diapers, listening to whining, getting up in the middle of the night, and having to count to five before I can get anyone to do any thing but the benifits and perks of the job are definitely worth it.)