Team Thrap

The Summer

2010-08-30T21:07:00.000-07:00

I have totally missed keeping up with the blog. Here are some highlights from the summer! A great time in Utah with Family!!!

My grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary. We had lots of partying and lots of eating huge meals with 75 people crammed into one house.

Balloon Festival in Indianola...where I lost my phone but someone called me with it two weeks later. Honest people do exist!!!

Fourth of July at Big Creek.

Eating Watermelon at Great Grandma's.

Playing with Cousins!

Lots of swimming!!!!

Hanging out on Grandpa's Boat.

Trips to the Winter Quarters Temple and the Omaha Zoo.

Playing at on the beach for Memorial Day.

Driving by the house just about everyday to check on the progress. Rain slowed it down alot but things are moving along quickly now. Hopefully OCT 1st!

Lots of Fishing with the kids. Charly cast this and caught it all on her own!

Caelyn Getting BIG...turning 1, walking, talking, growing teeth.

1st Days of School

2010-08-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

Charly and her buddy Parker from church who is also in her class.

All of the kids getting ready to drop Charly off.

Charly in front of our new house...someday!

My baby girl is off to kindergarten. Nobody could have prepared me for what this feels like. Dropping that little one off all day for others to watch over and trust that they will take care of her and teach her. Charly seems to have grown too fast....literally. She grew 4 inches this summer! And now she is off to school. It didn't really hit me that she was gone until I walked in to work with only two children and signed only two children into the child watch with me.

I really have felt, ever since she was born, that Charly and I must have been best buds in the premortal existance. I imagine us playing around together in heaven and playing house and deciding that it would be cool if we could go down to earth and I could pretend to be the mom and she could be the sister. She has never really felt like my daughter but like my best bud that would go anywhere and do just about anything with me. Now she is on her first adventure with out me. She will do awesome! Good luck Charly!!!

Happy Birthday CAELYN!

2010-05-21T23:53:00.000-07:00

Caelyn Now (picture taken by Charly)
Caelyn 1 year ago

My little baby girl is one! she is growing up so fast! She is already getting the walking thing down. She says a few words and seems to be able to copy more of what we say all of the time. She is smart enough to know where the Cheetos are hidden and knows where to find me. She has a developing personality. She smiles all the time, she's snuggly, and very much a mama's girl. She is getting more curious and excited about the world around her. She is hilarious to watch when she sees and cat or a dog. I love her so much. It is crazy how as we add each child we can't image how our lives ever were before them. I love how she laughs and chases after her big brother and sister and how she squeezes me when I pick her up. I know that this is just the first of many joyful years to come with this beautiful little girl!

2010-05-21T23:28:00.000-07:00

So it has been a really long time since I have updated the blog. After talking with my mom this afternoon I figured it is about time to fill anyone who cares in on our lives again. Above are updated fun pics of the kids. A lot has been going on with us. We put our townhouse up for rent in mid Jan. thinking we'd get it out there and then have time to look for a new house but ended up finding a renter two days after we put it up on Craigslist. We quickly cleaned up and moved out. We ended up at Jenny's house the first week of Feb. I'm still trying to figure out if she's ok with it or not. Either way we are now going to be here until the begining to middle of September. After searching for houses for several weeks we ended up deciding to build. They just started this week. A big hole is in the ground.

Caelyn

2010-01-09T15:58:00.001-08:00

Caelyn wasn't so sure about the photographer either. She has the cutest huge smile and dimple but she didn't feel like showing them. At least she was happy and we got a couple of grins. She is ADORABLE!

Carter

2010-01-09T15:54:00.000-08:00

It took a little bit for Carter to warm up to the photographer but we got some good Carter looks. If you look close in one of the pictures you can see his boogers. That is kid of a permanent deal with him.

Charly

2010-01-09T15:46:00.001-08:00

Charly is our diva and had a blast taking pictures. She tells me all the time that she is going to be singer and be on the cover of a magazine.

Catching up on Pictures of the kids

2010-01-09T15:41:00.000-08:00

I broke down for the first time ever and went somewhere to get pictures done. We went to Target and they did an awesome job for not very much money.

The new Y

2009-11-09T20:21:00.000-08:00

Having fun at the All Staff Rally!
Carter so waisted from the long days that he can't make it through lunch.

Lindsay and me taking a break from packing at the old Y.

This is how small the infant area was at the old Y.

This is jus the infant area at the new Y and this is what it looked like 2 days before we were supposed to be open for business. AHHH!

So with all of the craziness of the last couple of weeks I managed to carry my camera around to take a few pictures.

My Little Boy is 2

2009-11-09T19:51:00.000-08:00

Carter celebrated his birthday on October 25th. He is now 2 and I can't believe it. Time keeps flying by. For his birthday we took the family out to "Night Eyes" at the Blank Park Zoo. The kids got to dress up in their Halloween costumes and go trick or treating at the zoo. I thought that it was pretty fun and I know Carter had a blast. After the zoo we all went to our house for pizza and cake. Carter's favorite part of the cake was the cars which he is still carrying around. He even sleeps with them. And his Grandma Thrap got him a little train set that he also loves and plays with everyday. We are so blessed to have our little guy...he may give me a few grey hairs soon but I will take them as long as I get to see his cute dimples everyday.

Halloween

2009-11-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I know that this is a couple weeks late but if you know anything about us then you know that the last couple of weeks have been nuts. I have put in several 10 and 12 hour days at the new YMCA just setting up the child watch and making sure that everything runs smoothly for our new members and staff. Anyway....Here are our adorable children on Halloween.

Oh, Carter!

2009-10-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

After a few adventures that we've had, it has been suggested to me that when I really feel flustered about something that my kids have done I should just take a picture and write about it. Doing this takes the focus off of the kids and lets me get it out with out hurting anyone. So here you go. The above picture is the sight of this mornings crime scene.
So for anyone that doesn't know already... Carter has become our "little devil." And I say that in the most loving way, of course. But this kid is giving me gray hairs already and I am too young to be getting gray hairs!!! There is a simple solution to my problems, and that is to lock him up while I am in the shower. Here is why....
Last week, while I was in the shower he dug a dirty diaper out of the trash and spread it all over himself and the hallway outside my room. When I opened the door, there was his smiling face telling me, "It's yucky mama!" I gave him a bath and then had to change Caelyn's diaper and give her a bath because she had a nasty blow out. By the time I was done with her, Carter had already been in my bathroom spreading lotion all over the place and when I get down to clean it all up I see that he had also opened all of the individual contacts that my husband has and had drunk them ALL....$50 worth.
And then TODAY....While I was in the shower, Caelyn was asleep in her crib. (I thought I was doing well to be getting my shower in while the baby was still asleep.) When I got out I listened, fulling expecting that she would be awake by now but I heard nothing but silence. Now any mother knows that no sound is not a good sound at all. So I quickly went to the baby's room where I found Carter standing above her, dumping and entire bottle of baby soap on her face. She is not screaming because she can't scream. Her eyes, nose, mouth and ears were covered with soap about a quarter of an inch thick. I go into panic mode because she can't breath. I run her face under the water in the bath tub and finally get her to scream but she still has trouble. She was screaming and then she would stop, gag, and go a little limp and then gag some more and scream again. By this time I am on the phone calling the dr., my mom, and my friends to take the other 2 kids and then poison control. I swear if I had not been so worried about Caelyn, Carter would have gotten the beating of his life.
NOT TO WORRY!! Caelyn ended up being fine. She spit up bubbles for a few hours and she hated it as I ran water over her eyes for 20 minutes but she didn't breath any in. I just have to thank Lindsay and Courtney and anyone in Child Watch that helped for taking care of Charly and Cater while I calmed down and took care of Caelyn. I also thank my Heavenly Father that made me realize that I needed to check out why things were so quiet. I can't imagine what could have happened had I waited only a few more minutes. Blessings all around despite all that went wrong.

Townhome For Sale or Rent

2009-10-05T20:36:00.000-07:00

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

Kitchen

2 and 1 1/2 baths

Dining Area

Living Room

Back View

Front View

Check out our townhome. No, we are not moving away...we just need to try to get ahead and move up because we are growing out of this house. So check out the pictures and tell your friends. We are selling for $130,000 or renting for $1300/mo. There are 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 1306 sq. ft.

Happy Birthday Gma Bell!

2009-09-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

We aren't very good at sending cards but I figured a cute video of the only grandson singing to Grandma would be even better. So Happy 29th birthday AGAIN Grandma on 09/09/09 (this is a lucky day, you really should go buy some lottery tickets)....You are too young to be a grandma !!!

Sleepy Carter

2009-09-09T14:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a long day as it often times is and Carter did not want to take his usual afternoon nap. Dinner time was at about six and this is what he started doing. Jason and I were both laughing so hard but we had to feel sorry for him because he was so tired.

Caelyn has found her voice

2009-09-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

Caelyn has started really using her baby chatter. And it is so cute and squeaky that I had to take a video of it. She definitely has a high pitched squeal that she likes to use to make sure that we all know she is still here.

My Baby is Starting Preschool!

2009-09-09T13:22:00.000-07:00

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Today was Charly's first day of preschool. She was totally showing off her back pack to everyone. Carter had to get his cute cheezy face into the pictures. Charly is going to have a blast in class with her friends. She went right in the door and gave her teacher the biggest hug and didn't even look back. She is getting too big too fast. When I picked her up the teachers said she was the biggest help.

Family Reunion

2009-09-02T19:51:00.001-07:00

Here are the pictures from our family reunion. In case you haven't noticed I am kind of updating everything a little at a time. I am so busy right now with work and kids that I just do what I can whenever I can. We had a blast at with the Thrap family in the beginning of August. The weather was perfect the whole time we were there. At the reunion was Great Grandma Thrap, her three children with their spouses, the 18 grandchildren with 4 of their spouses, and 9 1/2 great grandchildren (My sister-in-law Laura is due any day now). It all took place at a camp called Aspen Grove, put on by the BYU Alumni Association. The camp councilors are all BYU students. They split the kids up by age groups including the tiny ones and the councilors do things with them all day while the adults spend the day together going to family seminars and just playing around or relaxing together. My sister and law, Becca and I got up every morning and swam laps. It was the prettiest setting I have ever swam in, way up in the mountains, but the altitude made it real hard to breathe. One afternoon of the camp was dedicated to a little friendly competition. Each family competed in different events. We got scored according to how well we did each task and according to how good our cheer was. Our cheer was the best! If you know the "That's Not My Name" song then you can kind of hear what it sounded like but it went like this..."They call us Longhurst. They call us Richardson. That's not our name. That's not our name. From coast to coast, we win the most. Don't give us crap. Our name is Thrap and that's our...Name!" At the end of the week they announced the winner and of course we won!

I thought all of these pictures were adorable. Charly and her cousin Elena were inseparable the entire time. They were born only 2 months apart and they are absolute divas together.

Caelyn was a perfect baby. It was really hard for me to drop her off with the camp councilors some days but I made myself do it because that opportunity to be with my hubby doesn't happen very often. She did really good though and everyone there loved how we could find a family reunion onesie for her and that she even had a bow to match....Yes, I'm obsessed with the bows...But can you blame me...How cute is it!?!

Carter had a blast the whole time probably because he could just run non-stop. He really liked crashing the badminton courts. His councilors absolutely adored him. Who couldn't fall in love with that great smile?

Joel's Wedding

2009-08-26T14:59:00.000-07:00

S0 it has really been a while but here are the pics from my brother Joel's wedding. He got married in the LDS temple in Salt Lake City, UT on June 23rd. We drove out there with our little family and my littlest sister Carinna who had stayed with us for a whole month after Caelyn was born. Hopefully she still loves us. Above is what we did to Joel and Teresa's car. You know those yummy brownie bites you can get at Costco....well that is what we did to some of the left overs from the reception. I thought it was pretty clever myself.

Here are Joel and Teresa. She is super sweet and really tall. Joel is abou 6'3'' and Teresa is 6' so they make a good couple.

Here we are trying to get family photos with all of us dressed pretty and

coordinating and stuff....so much for that though. Charly and Carter mostly just wanted to run around in the grass. Charly was definitely showing us her attitude...check out those hands on the hips.

Of course Caelyn was absolutely perfect! What else could you expect from a one month old.

All of the girls together...and Charly still doesn't want to be there!

All of the boys...just one brother missing because he is serving as a missionary in Boise, ID.

4th of July Weekend

2009-07-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

This past weekend all of the men took off to Minnesota on a fishing trip and all of the girls came and hung out at our house. We had a great time shopping, horseback riding, swimming, watching fireworks and just hanging out. This week I am trying to work out a lot just to get rid of the calories from the weekend. Have you ever looked up the calories that are in one slice of cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory? If you haven't, DON'T! You will never eat another piece ever again. Fireworks were awesome though because we didn't have to leave our house. The Golf and Country Club next to our house has a pretty good show every year so we just took the kids outside with some blankets and sent them right to bed when they were done.

All of the girls getting ready

Here are pictures of our horseback ridding. It was the a first for my niece Elise.On the Trail

My horse, Prince

Elise on her Horse

Caelyn's Blessing 6/21/09

2009-07-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

We performed Caelyn's blessing in my grandparent's ward in Utah while we were there for my brother's wedding. It was great because a lot of my aunts and uncles were able to attend as well. She looked too pretty in the little white dress that my sisters, Charly and I all wore for our blessings too. Jason did a beautiful job with the blessing although it was hard to hear him because the microphone didn't work. He blessed her to have a testimony of the gospel and of the Savior Jesus Christ, with a love and appreciation of her family and with the ablilty to choose good friends.

Baby Girl's Going Shopping

2009-07-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

I had to find a dress for my brother's wedding on Jun 23rd so I took the kids out and went shopping. This is how good Caelyn is at it already. The other 2 are a different story. Fortunately the trip was a success.

My Girls

2009-07-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

These are pictures that I took of my beautiful girls in their matching Sunday dresses. Caelyn in 5 weeks old in these. Carter has a matching shirt to go with the girls but he didn't want to cooperate. We are going to have to try again to get him in the picture too.

Mother's Day and Father's Day

2009-07-08T12:31:00.000-07:00

I love doing homemade gifts for these holidays. For the mothers we made flowerpots with pictures of the kids along with mom's favorite candy.

The dads got tshirts with the kid's prints on them. It was fun!

Baby Shower

2009-07-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

This is a picture from my baby shower that wasthrown by a couple of friends from work a week before Caelyn was born. There were a lot more people there but these were the ladies that stayed longer. It was a lot of fun eating pizza and just hanging out with the girls.
At the shower I got a gift card from a bunch of the ladies at the Y. This is what I have used it for so far. I still have a bunch to go get. Thank You everyone!

More Pictures of Caelyn

2009-05-26T06:16:00.001-07:00

My feet next to Gma's thumb...skinny

I am a SLEEPER!

Me and my big sister

Arriving Home

My First Bath at the Hospital

A visit from my Aunt Jenny

Minivan MOM

2009-05-26T06:11:00.000-07:00

Anyone that knows us also knows that we have always said that we would NEVER own a minivan. We were just not minivan people. We were going to own an SUV. But after driving both kinds of vehicles long distances with the kids and stuff packed in we realized that in order to get the same space you would have in a minivan you have to get something as big as a Suburban and that huge of a car is just not very practical for us right now. So we broke down...sold the Acura...and bought a Honda Odyssey. We love it! Jason says I look cute driving it.

Introducing Caelyn Marie!!!

2009-05-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

So here are some much awaited pictures of our beautiful baby girl. And for those of you that haven't heard about the exciting delivery already...this one is the best! She was born at 2:43 am on May 22nd, weighing 6 lbs, 12 oz and measuring 18 1/2 in.

So I went to the doctor on Thursday morning and he let me know that he expected that I would be going into labor by the time the weekend was over. I had been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions and so this was promising. Excited about that news, we had Jenny come over around dinner time to watch the kids while Jason and I went speed walking around the mall. About an hour into our walking, 6:30 ish, contractions started to kick up. We had dinner, went home, got the kids and took them to Aunt Jenny's softball game. Contractions were still steady. We got home around 9 and put the kids to bed. I decided to take a long, hot bath for a couple hours just to relax and prepare myself for the long night that I expected to be having. Around midnight I laid down in bed with some pretty good contractions. Jason helped me breath and realax through each one and by 1:30 we decided to give my friend Lindsay a call to come over so that we could head to the hospital. In a tiny bit of pain, but still feeling good we got to the hospital around 2:15. Contractions were just about 3 minutes apart. The maternity ward was busy but they got me checked in and sent me to a triage room where they took vitals and hooked me up to the monitors and asked me all the detailed questions. The nurse was just about to check me when I had a contraction that felt a little different. There was that slight urge to push at the very end. I made that known to Jason and the nurse and so she decided to check me. She made a joke that maybe we'd be lucky and I'd be dialated to an 8 already. I will never forget the look on her face as she checked and then quickly reached for her phone to call the doctor. I was completely dialated and the baby was coming. The nurses had to scramble to find me a room and resorted to one on the c-section side of the maternity wing. They had me switch to the other bed inbetween contractions and when they did so my water broke everywhere!!! At that point I was definitley feeling like I needed to push but I had 10 nurses and Jason just trying to coach me to breath through it. I tried as hard as I could but my body and taken over and before I knew it and with no effort on my part she was out! Needless to say, when the doctor got in the room I was already holding little Caelyn. It had been 5 minutes from the time the doctor had been called to the time she was out. It was a huge adrenaline rush. Jason did awesome as a coach!!! and I totally feel like a super woman because I was able to do it with out any meds.

To All of the Women in My Life:

2009-05-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

I don't know why but I feel that it is important for me to recognize all of the wonderful women in my life. Over the last month or so have felt extremely blessed to know so many great women. My heart is so full that I wish I could take it and make all of you feel how I feel. Here are all of the great things that have been going on in my life...My sister-in-law Jenny has been there whenever we needed her to help us with the kids and making sure that I am doing ok. My mother-in-law offered to take the kids for a whole week so that I could prepare for baby #3 and get some rest. My own mother is going to be taking time out to drive here and be with me when she has girls camp and youth conference at church to plan, a wedding to plan, kids at home that are still in school, and a job that the family relies on. My sister-in-law Becca, who did her best and was successful at planning a relaxing spa birthday party for me. All of the ladies at the YMCA child watch who put together a baby shower and have expressed concern and caring through out my transition into the child watch coordinator and through out my pregnancy. My visiting teachers, most especially Andrea who is so consistent at expressing her concern for me and making a strong effort every month to stop by and also come with something for me. My visiting teaching companion, Heidi, who is much better that I am at making sure that we keep up with the sisters that we visit. My friend, Lindsay, who constantly is doing things for me and has made me feel beautiful for well over a year now (she does my hair). She also is willing to do just about anything for me (like last week she took my to my OBGYN appointment when I didn't have a car). There are also numerous women at work and church that are constantly thinking of me when they have hand-me-downs and who are always setting great examples of what it means to be a good mom and friend. Thank you to all of you that make a difference in my life and have made me feel so blessed.

Playing Catch up

2009-05-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

I have some free time for a couple of days and I am trying to play catch up on all of the stuff I have been putting off. This means some extra posts for the blog. We have had a lot going on over the last couple of weeks. I don't have my kids for a few days so I will be finishing my girls' blankets, filling in the summer schedule at the Y, and looking for a mini van. We amazingly will be saying good bye to our Acura later today :(. We will be hopefully picking up the kids in a new van just in time for baby to come.

Mother's Day

2009-05-12T05:57:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day is close enough to my birthday that it kind of just all runs together. I don't mind it though. We did have a special Mother's Day though. We went to Muscatine and spent the day with Jason's family. May 10th is also Jason's little brother Steven's birthday and he turned 18 this year. I got to wear a pretty red rose corsage to church and Jason was given the opportunity to get up to the pulpit at church and talk about the Mother's in his life. It was the best to see him get up and look at me and the kids and tell everyone how much his family meant to him and how much he really loved me and what I do as a Mother. I wish that I had a video camera so that I could watch what he said over and over again. Hopefully I can keep that in my memory though. Not everybody gets to hear their husband publicly praise them. The kids and I made little Mother's Day presents for Grandma Thrap, Great Grandma Thrap and Grandma Bell. They are really cool! But I can't post pictures quite yet because Grandma Bell hasn't gotten hers yet and we don't want to ruin the surpise. As part of my Mother's Day my Grandma Thrap has the kids for a few days so that I can go home and tie up whatever I need to at home and at work before baby Caelyn comes (hopefully any day now). It is kind of weird because it is soooooo quiet. I miss my babies already.

My 25th BDay

2009-05-12T05:47:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful 25th birthday. On Sunday the 26th of April we had a family combined dinner for mine and Charlys' Birthdays because they are only a week apart. It was a great time! On my actual birthday I woke up to lots of singing from my husband and kids. I also had a brand new phone to use. Jason had gone out and gotten me a red LG Envy 2. Very nice!!! When I got to work, my good friend Kelsi had a balloon and bouquet of candy bars for me. At lunch time, we got to have lunch with Jenny and my mother-in-law. At dinner time, my very best friend Lindsay watched the kids while Jason tooke me out to eat at a very fun Mexican place. (And because it was the day before Cinco de Mayo it was very empty). We topped off the day by eating some cake (that I made for myself). Thanks to everyone that made it a great day. It was definitely the best I've had in a while.

Charly's BDay April 26th

2009-05-12T05:28:00.000-07:00

My tiny baby girl is now 4 years old. It is hard to imagine. It really feels like she was that tiny 5lb 14oz baby just yesterday. She continues to be cute and petite but now has a great intelligence and can express it very well. She sings and performs for everyone who will listen. She is the source of a lot of the joy in my life. I have felt, since the day that she was born, that she is much more like my little girlfriend than my daughter. Hopefully, she feels that way too as she gets older too. Here are some pictures from the little party we had with some of her best friends. We had them make crowns and necklaces and then watched a princess movie. I'm sure their mother's loved that they were eating Skittles, and Cheetos while doing their crafts and then still got cake and ice cream. We definitely spoiled their dinner

Ciomara Stubblefield

Hosanna Theile

Meagan Sprague

Two Down!!!

2009-04-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

BEFORE

AFTER

After last night I now have project number 2 done too. The girl room is now painted. I know that the brown is kind of boring but we are trying to get ready to sell and the colors of the bedrooms were really bold so in preparation for selling we are toning it down. Plus we didn't think that Carter would like a pink room.

One project down...

2009-04-22T14:08:00.000-07:00

I have several projects that I feel like I have to get done before this baby comes. The first one is finally done. I finished Carter's bedspread and who now is making the transition from the crib to the the big boy bed. Jason is out of town for the week so Charly is now sleeping with me at night so that I can get the girl room painted a little at a time. I was pretty proud of Carter's blanket. The jeans in it are just mine and Jason's old jeans so I think it is pretty special.

I did the same thing for Charly when she moved up to the big bed but it was one of my first quilting experiences and is now falling apart so I am working on a new one for her too and also a blanket for baby Caelyn. I'm posting some pictures of those blankets in progress.

Also there is a before and after picture of what used to be Charly's room and is now Carter's.

Car for Sale!!!

2009-04-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

We are adding baby # 3 in a month and a half (maybe less) and we need to exchange our vehicle for a mini van. So if you know anyone that wants a great, well taken care of luxury car please send them our way. We are selling for 7400. It is an Acura 3.5RL with 106K miles, leather seats, sunroof, ect. It is a good deal!

Amazing Tuesday

2009-04-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

I mentioned earlier that I had a lot of catching up to do and it took it's toll last Tuesday. As any mother can attest, pregnancy really does a number on your brain. My family may argue that it basically takes mine out. I don't remember anything and I frequently do things that don't make sense. All of this is a precursor to my day one week ago. I actually had a very successful morning with getting the kids fed dressed and out the door with minimal arguments. We had just gotten back from a refreshing vacation and I was feeling good. So at about 8:30 I got both children out into the garage but when I went to open the door it was locked. I looked through my purse for the keys and they weren't there. Then I saw them, laughing at me from inside the car. Anyone who knows me knows that this would not be the first time those keys have played this trick on me. I found myself crying on the window with the children staring and wondering what could possibly be wrong with Mommy. I started making phone calls. Jason had not solution and was busy himself, the police department came over and had no luck with the slim jim, so I called a friend. Matt Sprague has had experience getting cars open so he was over and after an hour and half finally got the door open. Not 2 minutes later his wife Lindsay shows up and she suggests that we call just load up in her van and head to the mall of luch. (It was lunch time by then.) I agreed and so I shut my garage door and went through the house and walked locked the door and walked out to the van. As I headed to the van, Matt jokingly hollers at me, "You have your house key right?" OH MY GOODNESS....ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! No I don't. I was then locked out of my house. That luckily is something Jason could help me with. All I had to do was make a stop by his office and grab the garage door opener from his car to get in. But still, how brain dead can you be?

Easter

2009-04-13T13:26:00.000-07:00

We had some excitement yesterday as when the kids woke up. I have a video of Charly's reaction to finding that the Easter Bunny left her some eggs. And pictures of my adorable children with their baskets.

We couldn't forget the real reason for the holiday though. We took our sugar loaded children to church and enjoyed hearing the messages of Christ that were given there. I got a great reminder that Easter Sunday is no different than any other day. Every week at church we celebrate the resurrection by taking the sacrament at church. Christ is Risen! and we have reason to be grateful for the opportunity that we are given every single day. Because of Him we can be forgiven of our sins everyday, we can be lifted up in our trials everyday, and because of Him we can live again with Him and our Father and our families forever. It is a miracle that I wish I had more initiative to share with more people.

Spring Break

2009-04-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

We live by the motto "work hard, play hard" so we took a week vacation as a family to one of our timeshare locations in Oceanside, CA. But after a week out of town we are definitely playing catch up. That includes the blog. Here are some pictures from our trip. The kids loved getting to go to the pool and the beach. The temperature wasn't all that warm for swimming but when we left Iowa it was snowing so anything is better than that. The kids practically spent the whole time in their bathing suits.

The beach:

Charly and Carter had a great time burying dad in the sand. This beach is in San Diego and is popular for the tide pools and the sea lions that gather there. Jason and I came to this beach when we had a family reunion there in late 2004. I was pregnant with Charly at that time and it was really cool to now be there with our little family.

The pool:

This is where we spent most of the week. Thank heaven the pool was heated because it would have been really cold otherwise.

Sea World:

We spent an entire day at Sea World. From open at 10 AM to closing at 6pm, it was pure fun. There were all kinds of rides for the kids and several exhibits and shows with the animals. Both of the kids really loved the Shamu show. Jason got to do all the rides with the kids because they wouldn't even let the pregnant lady on the kiddy rides.

Little Brother Getting Married :0

2009-03-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

My brother Joel sent out a mass text message yesterday to announce that he was getting married this coming June. The only members of the family that have met her are my grandparents and my aunt and uncle that live close to my grandparents in Utah. None of us even knew her name until yesterday. He just met her on New Years Eve and has spent a great deal of time with her since then but I guess when you know you know. Now we know that her name is Teresa, she is 27 and from Logan, UT. She graduates with a degree in education this coming May and will probably end up putting Joel through school. She sounds really great for him. He has finally got someone to make him settle down and figure out what is going to do with his life. She is a little older than him so hopefully wiser too. I made him send me a picture so I at least knew what she looked like. She's cute and I think that they probably look very cute together.
The timing of it all couldn't have been crazier for us. The announcment made me go through our family calendar and I realized that we will now be traveling somewhere every month from now until September and our time and schedule are jam packed.
Spring break in San Diego March 29th- April 3rd, Jason's training in Milwaukee April 19th-25th, Charly's 4th birthday April 26th, My 25th birthday May 4th, Mother's Day and Stevens graduation in Muscatine in May, the birth of baby Caelyn sometime at the end of May, Joel getting married in Salt Lake City June 23rd, Northwestern Mutual Annual Meeting in Milwaukee July 18th-22nd, Thrap family reunion during the first full week in August, AND FINALLY a Carribean cruise for Jason and I September 20th-26th. Somewhere in there will be a guy fishing trip and a girl horseback riding weekend too. Can someone just slow my year down a little bit? I just know that my coworkers at the Y are going to hate me. By the time I get back our new YMCA will be ready to open and I will have been gone half the time.
(Sorry, Joel, I promise I'm not complaining.) It is really just a crazy, mad year. I am left to wonder how we are going to do it all, and pay for it all without losing our minds. I'll let you know when I am able to take a breath.

Go Uncle Steed!!!

2009-03-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

Jason's younger brother Steven is a senior at Muscatine High School this year and is really busy in all kinds of activities. He just recently finished up his last show choir competition and we got to go and watch him perform. It was a lot of fun. Jason and I really enjoy getting to watch the choirs and hope that maybe one day one of our kids will want to do something with show choir since we both did it a little in high school too. In this competition they got second place by only one point! They were awesome!!! Jenny made Charly a shirt that says #1 fan for her to wear while we were there. It is her new favorite shirt.

You had snow where?

2009-03-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

This happened a couple of weeks ago after our last and hopefully final snow storm. We really didn't get that much snow but it was really windy. When we woke up in the morning this is what we found in our kitchen. This is along the wall were the wall and the kitchen cabinets meet. I think this is the place in the wall where the air conditioning unit comes in from the outside. But this is totally wrong!! This means that our heating bill could have been a lot lower this winter.

BOXES :)

2009-03-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

Jason is out helping the missionaries tonight and the kids are already in bed so I thought I would do some catching up with the blog.

A few days ago I was going through the closets and trying to consolidate all of our storage stuff. Carter has gotten an awesome wardrobe that will last him well in to next year from a couple of ladies that I work with. So I have been going through them and deciding where to keep it all since we need to make room for the little sister and all of her stuff soon. Of course I had all of these boxes out and as every mother knows, children can not resist the urge to jump right in. I like many other parents decided that we shouldn't own any toys at all. I should just get them boxes. Carter was loving every minute of it whether Charly was pushing him around in it or sticking it over his head. They were entertained for quite a while.

Jason's Bday Week?

2009-03-16T18:30:00.000-07:00

Because everyone will be so busy with Spring Break and everything it appears that Jason will be getting more of a birthday week than a birthday day. He will be hitting the ripe old age of 28 this Friday but his brother Josh with his family and his sister Jenny were over last night to have dinner and cake to celebrate. Josh thankfully smoked an awesome pork butt and we ate pork nachos and pulled pork sandwiches. It was great and made my life easier! It was also another reminder that warmer days are here and we will be getting to barbque together again. Jenny helped me with the cake. She's taking cake decorating classes and she made the decorating frosting and brought over all of the fun frosting stuff. So thanks to you both for helping out. Josh also provided great entertainment by bringing over his Playstation so we could play Sing Star. Charly sang the ABBA song "Money, Money, Money" several times.

On a side note....You may notice that the cake is slightly flawed near the word "Bday." Wouldn't you know that Carter got his hand in the cake before I even got to take a picture. Surprise, surprise! Such is life with a toddler.

Next, we will get to celebrate again with Jason's parents tomorrow. They will be driving through on their way back to Muscatine from the Omaha airport and figured they would make a stop. Then, on Jason's actual birthday I think he has plans to take a short day at work and possibly hit the golf course. He also thinks that this whole birthday week thing exempts him from having to change any diapers ALL WEEK! Someone else (besides me) needs to tell him he is so full of it that his eyes are brown.

Award Night

2009-02-26T10:19:00.000-08:00

I am a little behind with this post but it was a great night that I think Jason would like to be able to remember. A couple of Saturdays ago, Northwestern Mutual had a recognition dinner at the Glen Oaks Golf and Country Club. That day for me started out pretty good. I got to go out and get a new dress, get my nails done and get my hair done.
That night was all about J. We got to mingle with all of his coworkers and their wives, eat some amazing food, and participate in an award ceremony. Jason was recognized for his drive and his willingness to take risks and do what is necessary to grow his business including hiring his first full time staff person. He was also recognized for taking an effort to stay educated. By October this year he should have his CLU (Certified Life Underwriter) and CFC (Certified Financial Consultant) designations. This not only looks good on the business card but it is good for his clients for him to know more. Each designation is like it's own masters program.
Going made me feel a lot more confident about Jason's work as we go through this rough economic time. Despite the squeeze on the economy Northwestern Mutual reps are doing well because they are standing behind a great company. The company only invested .2% of it's money in real estate. So despite the fall they were still able to announce a 6% dividend to be given to the policy holders.
The whole night was mostly just fun. Dressing up, eating food with fun people, and listening to someone talk up your husband is a pretty good time.
Again, another thanks to Jenny for watching the kids for the night.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-15T08:03:00.001-08:00

This year just might have been the best Valentine's Day yet! I had a great time making Valentine's bags for Jason, Charly, Carter and Jenny. We absolutely were adding Jason's sister Jenny to our Valentine's Day because she has been so awesome with coming over and watching the kids so that we could go out. None of our day would have been possible without her. She even took care of a sick Charly and folded my mountain of laundry. Who could ask for a better sister-in-law?
Our day started with Jason and Jenny heading downtown to run the YMCA's red flannel race. This was pretty exciting because we got 7 inches of snow yesterday and the 5 miles was really cold. While they ran I stayed at home and made the house and the kids all clean and also whipped up our tradtional Valentines Day fruit pizza. I made one for Jason when we were dating and it has been an essential part of Valentine's Day ever since. Everyone dug in before I got a good picture of it but it did say I LUV YOU.After they got home we were just kind of lazy around the house. Taking care of Charly as her fever got progressively worse. At about 1:00 I got a delivery. I have to say that they are just about the prettiest roses ever! About that time Jenny got a delivery too (from her awesome brother Jason) with roses and lilys.Then, Jason took me out to dinner at Flemmings where he had gotten reservations. Needless to say we definitely went way over on our budget. Flemmings has to be one of the most expensive places to eat here in Des Moines. It was really good food and we didn't even eat half of it. They messed up our order at first and they ended up giving us a $25 gift certificate. For Valentine's Day they also were giving all of the ladies a red rose which we took home to our sick little girl. She really didn't get to appreciate it until this morning when she was feeling better but I think she felt special to have her own flower.
After dinner Jason and I just walked around the incredibly busy mall where we stood in a very long line at Cold Stone. It wasn't too bad though because it ended up that our good friends the Summers were standing right behind us in line and we had a good time talking a laughing with them. We didn't make the line any better though because Jason decided we would just use the whole $15 gift card that we got at Christmas to buy 2 quart size ice creams which we took home to everyone. It turned out to be good though because we had a treat to give the missionaries who came over to help Jason give Charly a blessing so that she would feel better. When we got home she looked aweful and her fever that had to be well over 103. Needless to say the day was great and Jason will be staying home with the kids today instead of going to church. But I do think that Charly is doing better this morning.

Spaghetti Time

2009-02-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

Now is there a rule in the kid rule book that says that you must wear your spaghetti? Well, the last time we had spaghetti for dinner Carter decided that just wearing the noodles was not quite fun enough. He had to wear the bowl too.
You know how there are moments in every mother's day where you can either laugh or scream. This was definitely one of those moments. Luckily for Carter I was having a good day and Jason and I were laughing hysterically.

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

2009-01-15T12:41:00.000-08:00

Much to Charly's excitement, she can now officially tell everyone that she is going to get a little sister. She has been telling even strangers at the grocery store that she is going to have a little sister but now she can say with absoluteness. We have a couple of names picked out but haven't officially decided so I'll have to see if you can help us. Either way the middle name is going to be Marie but the first name is going to be either Kylie or Caelyn (but I'm not sure about the spelling for Caelyn so here's the alternatives...Kaelyn, Kailyn, Kalyn, Cailyn, ect.) I think it would be cool to keep going with the C names.
Everything looks good for the end of May still so it should be an exciting month with yet another cousin the same age as one of my own kids. I have to admit that it is a little crazy to be having a baby at the same time as a couple of my aunts, but that is what is cool about our wonderfully large family. I wouldn't want to have it any other way. I just wish I even knew all of my cousins. In the meantime, we can now prepare to move things around and get all of the baby girl stuff out again.

CHRISTMAS!!!

2009-01-14T13:15:00.000-08:00

Here is what Christmas morning looked like at Grandma and Grandpa Thrap's house. There was one present that "Santa" stayed up til 4 am to put together a couple of nights before. It was too big to take to Grandma and Grandpa's so "he" took a picture of it so that Charly could see that it was in her room. Charly and Carter really enjoyed everything that they got: Cute outfits from Aunt Jenny, floor puzzles and next year's winter coat from Uncle Josh and Aunt Becca, a puppy and something to beat on from Grandma and Grandpa Thrap, a play house and noisy ABC magnets from Grandma and Grandpa Bell, and Santa brought books, a kitchen, a doll, a mini escalade, and a noisy story book. "Santa" made out pretty good too with a pair of diamond earings, a nice massage and food scrub, and new batteries in all of her watches. Santa's helper got travel mugs for his hot chocolate and a really nice shirt, tie, cuff links, and tie clip.

A Crazy time in Sweet Home Alabama!!!

2009-01-09T13:02:00.000-08:00

So I have a lot to add to this blog. We had an amazing Christmas break that gave us the time away that we needed to come back ready to fight the world again. We have lots of fun memories of being in the car and going to visit different people: My parents, Jason's parents and grandparents, and Jason's buddy Billy. Here are some of our adventures from Alabama. Mostly Carter going Crazy.
Riding in the car....This video is of Carter going crazy just and hour and half before we arrived in Alabama. He did this with the stuffed cat for a very long time before he finally feel asleep.

Then when we got to Alabama Carter was all kinds of crazy. He spent quite a bit of time on my parent's lazy susan. After that he figured out that he could find other things to go crazy with . Funny how the simple things can be so amusing for so long.

Clean up, Clean up, Everybody Do Your Share!!

2008-12-24T16:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we spent the afternoon and Jason's Aunt Cindy's house with her family, Jason's family, and Great Grandma and Grandpa Thrap. We spent our time there eating a huge meal, playing games, and letting the little kids open up a present. It was a great time but it also left a big mess. We all pitched in to clean up before we left and Carter decided even he would contribute.

Oh Christmas Tree!!! Oh Christmas Tree!!!

2008-12-24T11:51:00.000-08:00

After six years this Christmas tree is about to retire. It has made it through nine moves and two young children. Carter is into EVERYTHING and so our tree is up on a table in the corner of our living room where he can't get to the ornaments. He thinks that the little red balls are apples. The thing about our tree that I am most proud of is all of my ornaments. Every year my parents always gave us an ornament and then when I got married and moved out of the house I got to take my ornaments with me. So there are a total of 20 ornaments. In addition, Jason and I have continued the tradition so we have an ornament for each year we have been married and and also one for each kid for every year. By the time we're done having kids my tree will look a lot like my parent's tree. (You can't really see much tree...just lights and ornaments.)

Thanksgiving

2008-12-03T13:44:00.000-08:00

We had a great thanksgiving last weekend and we wanted everyone to know how much we appreciated seeing everyone and getting together with family. We had Thanksgiving on Thursday with the Thrap side of the family and then on Friday with the Zalesky side of the family. We ate waaaaay to much food. Now it is countdown to Christmas and Grandma Bell has already sent us the perfect outfits for the kids. I've taken some pictures and the Christmas cards are ordered so look for them in the mail in the next week or so.

Halloween

2008-11-07T09:54:00.000-08:00

This year was a lot of fun because Charly actually got into the dressing up and trick-or-treating. I even let her wear her costume ALL day long. Both the kids were really cute!!! Here in Iowa we celebrate Halloween correctly and we take the kids trick-or-treating on Beggar's Night which is Oct. 30th. So Thursday Charly got to go door to door getting candy and Friday we got to take the family to a Halloween party.

PUMPKINS

2008-10-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

I love how I can talk my husband into doing things he might not otherwise do. I think that things like pumpkin carving and egg dying (at Easter) are a couple of things that Jason must have avoided as a youth but now he will do it "for the kids." He and Charly had a lot of fun tonight carving our pumpkin. Charly dug right into the gross insides right away and then she actually was biting off pieces of the pumpkin and saying that it was good (eewww!!). I'm glad they got to do it tonight though because tomorrow is when we go trick-or-treating here in Iowa. Most cities here celebrate "Beggars Night" which is technically the correct tradition but most everywhere else just does it on Halloween. I will have to post pictures of the kids in their costumes tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Carter!

2008-10-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

So I realize this is a little late but Carter's 1st birthday was this past Saturday. We had Josh and Becca and their kids over for celebration on Sunday. (I actually didn't get to see Carter at all on his actual birthday because I had skipped out and headed to Omaha with a bunch ladies from our ward. We were at Time Out for Women.) Of course we let him dig into is own cake and of course he loved it. Lucky for him his Aunt Becca got him a nice warm sweatshirt for his birthday so he was able to change into it after getting a good hose down. He really likes his big truck too.

Another One?

2008-10-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

Introducing baby thrap #3. No, it really was not planned. There will only be 19 months between this one and Carter but we are still excited. I had my first appointment on Tuesday and figured out that my due date is 2 weeks later than I had originally thought. That means I get to feel crappy for longer but I'll take it because there is a good healthy baby in there with heartbeat. The due date is May 30th.

Fishing at the Lake

2008-10-16T14:10:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, we got to spend this last weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. We got lucky because it was probably the last great weather weekend for a long time. We really enjoyed getting to be with the Bell family for the weekend in probably the SWEETEST resort we have ever been in. Our accommodations had 4 rooms a full kitchen, living room, basement with a big screen tv, and a balcony overlooking a perfect lake with a hot tub. Carter decided that he was going to get up at 6 AM every morning so I got to enjoy the sun coming up and it really was beautiful. We had a really relaxing time. We swam, fished, went jet skiing,the guys went out to play golf and a few of us went to the outlet mall. It really was just great and as always it was way too short.

Shiner

2008-10-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

The kids both recently got a couple of bad boo boos that I'm sure have caused people to wonder if I am beating my children. First, Charly had a run in with her bedroom door that made her top lip the size of a large olive. The day that it happened we had been invited to friend's house for dinner and they got to see her beautiful lip not too long after the incident. I was for sure that when we left they would be calling social services on me. Then, two days later, the kids were taking their evening bath and Carter tried to stand up in the tub. Of course he slipped and ended up with a black eye. I almost didn't go to work the next day. I had Charly with fat lip and Carter with a black eye. Not exactly a good sign when the child care supervisor comes in with her kids looking like that.

A Video

2008-09-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

So we we were playing today (which is something I don't feel like I get to do with my kids as often as I would like) and I figured I would try taking a video of them. Pictures don't catch their personalities as well as actually getting to see them in action. I figured grandma would appreciate getting to see them play together and hear Carter attempt to talk.

Camping as a Family!

2008-09-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

We bought a nice tent on sale at Target around this time LAST YEAR. And this past Friday we broke it out for the first time. We'd been talking about going all summer and we could not have picked a better time to go than this weekend. The weather was perfect...highs in the mid 70s and lows in the mid 50s without a cloud in the sky. Jason got off of work early and we headed up to Saylorville Lake. When we got there we set up camp (air matress and all) and got a big fire. The fire is Jason's favorite part. After a couple hours our tin foil dinners were ready but neither of the kids wanted to eat because they ate way too much junk before hand. But they were having so much fun running (or crawling in Carter's case) around that they quickly tuckered out in the tent and Jason and I got to spend a few hours just talking out by the fire. That is something that very rarely happens so it was really nice. In the morning we were woken up by flocks of geese landing in the lake near by. Jason made us a great pancake breakfast on the fire and we packed up and went home for the rest of our busy Saturday. It was really nice to be out and away from things even for night and it was a great time for our family to bond. It was after ward and all of the loads of lau

A couple pictures

2008-09-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

Of course the biggest part of having a blog is being able to post pictures of the kids for grandma to see. These aren't professional or anything but they are still fun. The picture to the left is basically Carter at his best. He loves nothing more than to be right in the middle of what I am doing and he pretty much gets away with it. (I thought you weren't supposed to get so bad at letting kids get away with whatever they want until you had like 5 kids or something.) He's just too cute though. Who can resist those dimples? The picture to the right is Charly at her best. Always curious about everything and ALWAYS asking questions. She really keeps me on my toes. This picure is her on her 3rd birthday discovering the nest that a bird decided to build right next to our front door. The nest looks small but it was made with so much mud and so many sticks that I'd be willing to bet it weighed 10 lbs.

Finally a Blog :)

2008-09-11T13:08:00.000-07:00

Ok! So I did it! After being asked over and over again if our family has a blog I finally did it. I know that this will be a good way for me to keep record of what my kids are doing and keep all of our extended family and friends updated on us. We will just see how well I can keep it up. Anyone that knows us knows that we are always on the go. I am the stay-at-home mom that is never at home. No wonder my kids are showing signs of ADD. Oh well! Stay tuned to more pitctures and fun on our blog.