Almost Summer!

I can only use Gerald's calling as the Bishop as an excuse as to why I am to busy to update the blog for so long....Things have slowed down considerably since I graduated and school will be out for the summer in five short days! I feel like I have climbed Mount Everest at this point! It has been a CrAZy year!

Let's start with the youngest....Jake turned one on April 6th. He keeps me really busy with all his energy. He wants to be right there with all the other kids and thinks that it is unfair that he has to be inside when the other kids are outside. I honestly can't believe that a year has already gone by. The older I get the faster that time fly's :)

Keegan is sooo excited to start kindergarten. This is all that I have heard about for the past three months and will continue to probably hear about for the next two and a half until it starts. Meanwhile he will continue to give me a heart attack with how active he is. Yesterday he was playing in the toy room when he fell and split open his head (just like his mother that did it three times when I was a kid). I feel like I stayed really calm even though there was blood everywhere. Boys will be boys right?

Mya understands the value of summer vacation this year. She was not happy to see kindergarten come to an end and didn't really understand why people NEEDED a summer vacation, but after this year she is looking forward to sleeping in and relaxing. She talks about all the time that we are going to spend at the library.

I can't make any promises, but I really hope that it isn't three more months until I update the blog again. I am hoping that this summer is going to have lots of "Bloggable" memories for us.

Happy Birthday!!!

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11, (How many do we need?) 12,13,14,15,16,17,(this sure is a lot of candles)18,19,20,21 22,23,24,25,26,27,28 (are we there yet?) 29,30 (I don't know if they are all going to fit) 31,32,33............

It has been so fun to see the kids excitement over Dad's birthday. On the way to church Mya and Keegan were asking what we were going to do for Dad's birthday. I told them that it was going to be a suprise (mainly because I didn't want them rushing in to tell Gerald what we were going to do). They found him before sacrament started and with a big smile on their face and an enthusiastic tone belted out "happy birthday!" After church, they helped me make the cake. Keegan was in charge of the water and oil. I measured them and he dumped it into the bowl, and then he got to spray the cookie sheet with oil. I thought Mya would be old enough to operate the hand mixer but strawberry cakemix was on the floor and counter (fun times! Thanks Betty Crocker....you made all of our jobs easier!)

After the cake was in the oven they helped we wrap his gift, something that he had been asking for for a long time now......speakers for his I-phone. Then the hard part.....they had to wait for Gerald to get home. When they heard the door go up on the garage they ran downstairs to hide behind the bar to pop up and shout, "happy birthday!"

We love you Babe!!!!! Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!

Learning New Things!

Jake, trying to figure out why mom pulled out the camera.



What is wrong with this picture? I don't know if I should say that it is because he is smart or something else. He concentrated so hard to write his name BACKWORDS!!!



To save face, I wanted to make sure that you all knew that I have taught him how to write it the right way! Preschool has been so much fun with Keegan, Keegan and Joely. There favorite is singing songs about ducks and frogs while counting numbers. Keegan can almost count all the way to 100 by himself, but reading is another obstical that we have to overcome.



Jacob is walking! This just means more work for me because he can get into everything. He picked up on it really fast though. He has been walking around the furniture for awhile now but wasn't really brave enough to venture out out on his own. Over the weekend he started taking a couple of steps on his own. Yesterday he started standing up in the middle of the room by himself and now he takes four or five steps before he goes back to his bear crawl. It always amazes me how fast they pick things up. He really wants to be like the big kids.

This is a fun video of Mya and Keegan trying to get Jacob to make funny faces. He really has the cutest things that he has learned how to do lately. He has a fish face that makes everyone laugh when he does it. He also scrunches up his nose and smacks his lips. I love it when their personalities come out! It has been so fun to see how different he is compared to Mya and Keegan. He loves to make people laugh and will continue doing something as long as someone is laughing at him. He is such a joy to have in our family!!!!

Merry Christmas...Happy New Year!

Mya and Keegan Trying on Great Grandma Love's Fancy Hats.

Christmas Break was a blast! We packed the car and headed to the colder weather. It was a 20 hour trip to Milwaukee and a 20 hour trip home. On the way there we drove through the night. The kids watched movies and slept most of the time. It made for an easy commute. I can say that because Gerald drove most of it. I took the last five hours :) The kids were excited to see snow, but even though Gerald and I grew up in the cold, we had forgotten how cold it REALLY gets. I think thats because we are a little spoiled down here with our mild winters. Everyone was concerned about all of us getting sick that they rounded up coats for all of us. It was great to see everyone again. It had been about two and a half years since we had been back to Milwaukee. The best part about visiting family in Milwaukee are all the good cooks that are in the family. Everywhere we went there was something good cooking. My favorite was the fish fry on Christmas Eve. I think that I gained five pounds in the week that we were there. On the way home we stopped for the night just outside of Memphis Tenn. The next day seemed like it was taking forever to get home. I thought that the kids did really well traveling that far. Jacob was kind of rebelling on the last night of the trip and he was definatly greatful to get rid of the big coat that we kept putting on him. He did not like it at all. Someone had to distract him while someone else put it on him or he would start to cry. Another bonus of living in a place where we just need a light jacket once in a while.





I think that 2011 is going to be a good year for the Love's. One of the things that I am looking forward to is graduating from college with my bachelors. Another thing to look forward to in the year 2011 is Keegan starting kindergarten. I will feel like I have a lot of free time when I only have one at home. What am I going to do with myself when I don't have school or three kids at home......(I'm sure I will find something :) Anyway, we hope that your holidays were as good as ours.

Santa and the Community Center

We have lived here for three years and I always hear how great the community center festivities are, but we have never made it over there. This year, we broke our mister scrooge mentality and went one street over to see what it was all about. They had a santa ornament craft, a hay ride, caroling, hot chocolate, cookies, and pictures with santa. All for a price that I like....FREE. Who says you can't find entertainment for a good price? The kids really did have a lot of fun. I am glad that I was talked into going. Jacob stayed home with Gerald, because he was GRUMPY. But the rest of us had fun.

"The Hay Ride"


"The Hot Chocolate After the Warmest Hay Ride I Have Ever Been On"



"The Craft"



"The Carolers"

"The Texas Christmas Tree"

"The Closest My Kids Will Get To Snow Here in Houston"

"The GIANT Snowman"


"The Singing Snowman"

Ho Ho Ho
Merry Christmas!

The Joys of the Holiday Season

My kids remind me everyday what December is all about. I try to keep it focused on Christ as much as I can, but the television is corrupting my children with all the toys and must haves for Christmas. I have had many talks about why we have Christmas and the real reason that we celebrate. It is so fun to have children that are this age.

I find myself getting excited because my children are excited. Growing up my mother was the same way. As we got older and sleep became more important then christmas gifts at 2 o'clock in the morning, I was awakened by my mother because she couldn't wait for the sun to come up to open up gifts. Such a great memory of my childhood!

I know that it isn't all about the gifts, but I love to be able to be on the other end of giving my children presents. There is something that makes me so happy to see their smiles and excitement on Christmas morning. I can't wait until December 25th!

Just a funny thing that Mya said to me the other day that I would like to share..... While watching a christmas show on television this week she turned to me and asked, "Mom, if I am closing my eyes, but not really asleep, do you think that Santa will still come?"

New Camera

The old camera finally became unoperable. It has served us well for the last 5 years. Sadly....it was dropped to many times. The battery had to be taped closed, and the screen went out about a month ago. I couldn't see what pictures I was taking until I went home and looked at them on the computer.

I have had the camera a day and I think that I am going to be taking a lot more pictures. Feels good to have something that actually works!

Today we went to the park and it was freezing (I know that all of you up north have no sympathy) so we went over to the library and let the kids play in the kid area. Jacob loved the big bear and was so cute that I couldn't resist taking a picture. He is getting so big! He is crawling all over the place and we call him a mountain goat. He wants to be on top of everything. This is him trying to tackle the bear......

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Mya Won Principal's Pride

There was an assembly today for principal's pride. The kids have to try really hard to win it. They have an award ceremony every six weeks to honor the kids. Mya got an award for outstanding academic performance in reading. She was so excited!

Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Yes, we have a third child....but Jacob didn't make it to the ward party. He stayed at home with dad.

Mya's Cheer Debut