Jackman Update!

Ben

•  He is working at LaVerkin Elem. in the mornings M-F.
• He is working at DRA 3-11pm, M-F.
• He delivers for Dominos on Saturday nights.
• We still get to see him on Saturday mornings and Sundays...most of the time.
• We just did 10 days of Valentine's for him, (adapted from Kayla's idea), and it was awesome!  Since we didn't get to go out on V-Day, I spent the time with the kids and we planned the great things for Ben, from long-stem noses to movie night, kiss jar to a red filled basket.  We had so much fun!

Tylia

•  I get to teach a lesson in HeadStart tomorrow for my practicum (pre-student teaching).  I am so excited!   
• I just finished my Faith song for my faith project in personal progress!  If you get a minute please listen to it. :)  http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/7f4e0353df94a7beab09ed7a8232f6bad39ffd13
• I am helping Carter's soccer team warm-up when the coach is running late.
• I am trying to get a double semester done this time.

Morgan

• The 1st soccer game is this Saturday!
• Morgan completed her Faith project, she transposed We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet, and learned how to play it on the cello.
• She goes to Southern Utah Performing Arts Festival with her orchestra tomorrow.
• She and her friends now have a pair of red skinny jeans that are their 'traveling pants'
• She turned 13, so she now has an email and a facebook.
• She is also on the YW basketball team.  It is a new experience for her, and she mostly likes it.

Carter

• Carter's first soccer game is this Saturday as well...of course they are both in town, 10.5 hrs. apart.
• He also has a scout camping trip this Fri./Sat., so he will miss it, and we will have to hike as a family using a compass and map...for five miles.  He almost has his 2nd and 1st class. :)
• He just had his piano recital, and grandpa came.  He is in percussion at school, so he rocked a LOT while he counted and played.  It was great.
• He is spending some time with his Papa after school a couple days a week and helping prune and get the farm ready for spring.

Logan

• She is taking ballet and is learning very quickly.  She bounces in everything she does, so maybe she should go with Jazz next time. lol
• She is working on her last 2 Articles of Faith, and doing great in Activity Days.
• She is a great helper and loves to cook with me.
• She is starting to hold her ground and develop her pre-pre-teen emotions...yay! lol
• Still singing in the choir! 

Benjamin

• Has been getting headaches everyday at school around the same time.  We narrowed it down to his eyesight and he got checked today.  His super tough, flexible titanium glasses get here sometime in the next two weeks.
• Spring wrestling started and he is loving every minute of it.
• I spend a lot of time in Ben's class getting my hours for school, and working on the class' fluency.
• Making a lot of progress on his speech.  His R's are coming along great!

Balian

• He also started wrestling and seems to have a lot of intuition and natural movement that only appears while he's on the mat.
• I get to teach his class tomorrow and he is so excited!
• He got a haircut, by me...it's sad.  I dropped him off for school and he came right back out and said, "See mom, my teachers said it's not awful!" haha

Love you all and miss you!

Christmas surprise!

Thank you Lacie for posting!!!  I have been waiting to see him after gummie bear stage. 
We had the most wonderful and relaxing Christmas break, and our Christmas blessings were phenomenal!  As soon as I get the camera back from walmart, I will post the pictures of our Christmas Playhouse.  For those of you that don't know, Salisbury Homes has a program/giveaway each year, and someone nominated our family to receive one of the two playhouses.  Somehow, we were selected 'as deserving' of it, and on Friday, 2 days before Christmas, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Kevin, Dustin, Holly, and their two girls, Camden, a guy named Logan, a few other people from Salisbury that I didn't know, and a giant crane showed up and lifted a huge playhouse into our front yard.  Little Ben asked if they could sleep in it before it was even on the ground!  The kids were so excited!  Me and Ben too, I have to admit.  It is as tall as my 15 passenger van, has 5 windows, a little door, and power!!!  It has a front light and an inside light and an outlet inside.  It is bright purple with yellow trim.  After they set it in place and the kids were running in and out of it, they loaded it with presents!  My kids were so amazed!  They just kept coming!  We got some of the nicest things!  My husband looked so nice on Christmas Morning.  He got an entire dress outfit: a shirt with real cuff link things, a beautiful tie, super nice slacks, dress socks, a belt and black dress shoes...it was SO nice!!!  I seriously got the cutest boots I have ever seen!  Kayla agreed and let me know that she would wear them for me.  I got a beautiful flowy blue dress, a really pretty/sparkly headband, a silky shirt, jeggings (ya, I'm old and didn't even know there was such a thing lol), and more stuff that I was pampered with.  My kids all got similarly pampered.  I know Logan was so thrilled!  She got sparkles!!!  Skirt, shirts, boots...all sparkly!  She was in heaven and tries to wear some of it everyday.  Carter got duct tape...it was the only thing he freaked out about as he opened it.  I think his exact words were..."I love Santa!"  Morgan got music, perfume, a pair of head phones (not ear buds that hurt her ears) and things that I-think-I'm-a-teenager-even-though-officially-not-yet daughters love.  All my kids got at least 2 pair of shoes this year too.  The boys got cool stuff like footballs, Legos, things like that...plus clothes that they always need. So we have big plans for our playhouse.  We are going to start by covering the windows with Plexiglas to keep the weather out...then the kids just might move into it. lol

Clark Family Update

So I decided I am horrible at taking pictures but this is what I got.
This was about a month ago when we found out we are having a little boy. We got the thumbs up from our little Wesley!

We had a fantastic Christmas with Kami and Phil's family here with us. I didn't take any pictures of all of us. This is Tyson on our little ice rink we made out of our basketball court. We got the kids ice skates and lessons and our friend got them sticks. They are super excited. Tyson found it a lot harder then it looks.

This is Jake and Tyson fighting with there new swords and shields from Tylia's family. They had a blast.

And...this is Wesley last week sucking his thumb. I had a super fun ultrasound. He was very active. After he sucked his thumb for a bit, he also sucked on his toes. It was pretty cute. My mom got to come with me to my appointment and that was fun for me.

I loved having my family here over the last several weeks. Jake left again on Saturday so my house is very lonely.

I just had to post my kids in there Sunday clothes today. They looked so nice.

Thanks for sharing your family info Ty, I absolutely love reading it. Wish everyone else updated too!

Busy Christmas time for the Jackman Family

Wow...this one's a long one.  It has been a fun couple of weeks at our house.  Little Ben started speech at school because his r's, or lack of, are starting to effect his reading and spelling terribly.  Logan started basketball...she is a guard.  She made a basket during half-time today!!! It's fun to watch her.  I am proud of her for trying so hard and saving the money to do it.  She went to practice all by herself the first day and by the end of practice she had talked herself into joining the rest of her team. lol  She is coming so far!  She is still scared, but choir and her teachers have really been a tremendous help for her confidence.  Carter continues to work on his merit badges and piano...and percussion.  I can't wait till he has real drums...lol...the bells and the practice pad for his drums are SO loud already!  Morgan is still working on her cello.  She was supposed to tryout for a solo today and panicked and gave it to the other boy.  She is so upset know that she didn't even try.  She is getting more and more beautiful everyday.  She is also working on her personal progress with me too.  We have finished our Faith experiences and can now start our Faith Projects.  Little Ben wrestled a few weeks ago and did great!  Grandpa got to come watch him and help him a little bit too.  It was so fun to see him do well on his first tournament.  Balian is...exhausting. lol  He is very fun, funny, happy, crazy, energetic, etc.  He informed me the other day that we should have another baby.  I told him that I'm not having more.  We discussed that I asked the Dr. to cut my baby tubes...and he did, and burned them so I can't have more.  He was almost screaming when he exclaimed, "Why?! We could have had another baby by now!!!"  I was laughing pretty hard and thought..."EXACTLY!"  I have such sweet and wonderful kids!  They always want to make something and take it to people in our ward.  They love people and think that everyone is as happy as they are.  We had a neighbor lose their home to a fire last week and my kids wanted to help.  Little Ben let me go through some of his clothes and shoes to take him to wear so he had something to wear to school. One of my good friends helped me gather stuff and we got clothes for all of them and some food for them, along with some toothbrushes.  I wish I had more stuff to share...that hadn't been used. lol  I saw her walking this morning with the new coat my friend had given her.  It made me smile. :)  Her parents live in our ward so they might get to come to church with us now.  We are continuing to get up @6 in the morning to read scriptures as a family...mostly. lol  Not everyone makes it all the way to the room we are reading in before they crash again but most of the time the kids do great.  Morgan and Logan are my regulars. Also during the last two weeks, our town had a Winterfest.  I was on the committee and ended up making snowmen out of different items and materials because out of all the teachers at the school, two did it.  Then I had a lot of help from Brandon's family and Josh on the trailer I had to decorate for the School Choir to ride in for the light parade.  After the parade my kids sang I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, and then my group of ladies The Way Off Broads sang too.  I took polls for the snowmen prizes and then awarded them.  I was excited that one of mine won 2nd place.  I used two hula-hoops and made a Venn diagram, turned it sideways, hung it from fishing line, and stuck eyes, nose and mouth on the wall behind it.  It was fun and we had assigned that one to Mr. Hansen's class, which is the special education teacher at our school.  Since one of my friends that was helping has a student there, and Ben and Dawn both work in that classroom, we thought it was a good choice. :)  Anyway, then we handed out gloves with Frosty and then cleaned up while the kids watched the fireworks.  Ben got off work for the end so that was nice.  I have been going to the daycare, the Head Start and Little Ben's class pretty regularly for my observation hours, and have 2 1/2 papers left for the next 10 days of school.  Life is awesome. Life is crazy. Life is warm now that I got hot burning wood from the shop! Saturday is my Relief Society Christmas Breakfast.  I have to be there by 7am to set up. lol It's now time for all of the work and family parties.  I didn't mention the gingerbread house night, or the Christmas story night at Dawns...or the performances the choir, band, orchestra, and my singing group have done and have scheduled. lol  I'm tired.  I think it's time for bed now.   Love you all!!!  I miss you and can't wait until Christmas to see some of you.

After Thanksgiving

On Saturday we made little stuffed angels with Grammie.  It was so fun and they turned out really cute!  Even Carter and Ben made them.  Balian was too busy playing Super Smash Brothers to care.  We got to eat some of the turkey cupcakes mom made too.  They were darling AND yummy!  Then we went with Ben's fam to cut down our tree.  It is now decorated and has little angels hanging on it.  I am ready for Christmas!...or at least my house is. lol

Jackman Thanksgiving

I made the most delicious reeses' pieces pie!  It was so yummy!  Our thanksgiving was okay.  Ben had to work all day, but we got to see a lot of his extended family members.  I want to make flags for flag football so we can all play at the next one.  All the cousin's kids are finally old enough to want to play sports.  They play 500 with a football, which they now call 5000...I guess it's inflation. The littler kids played catch with a baseball or kicked the soccer ball around.  It was so fun to see them want to get out and play!  The played a little basketball after we had cleared the gym of all the tables and food.  We had some yummy things, but of course my favorite is the mashed potatoes with gravy all over it...and a recent favorite is cranberries all over my turkey.  The kids loved the 40 pies they got to choose from.  I had the best pumpkin roll I'd had in forever and a super yummy coconut cream pie.  Since it's all about the food, I thought I would share! :)  I am thankful for my wonderful family and friends.  It seems that my prayers are getting repetitive because I just am so thankful.  Sometimes I just kneel there without knowing what to say, just so overwhelmed with how blessed I am!  I just feel so thankful for everyone in my life!  What better time than this to recognize what we have?  Anyway, Ben is crazy busy and we cherish our weekends even more than before.  I am rushing my school work and trying to stay motivated to clean my house.  I love you all and miss you!

Who's a TURKEY?

All my sisters are REAL Turkeys!

Thanks for being in my special "Flock".      

T  true to herself
U  understanding of others
R   respects herself
K  keeps covenants made
E  eager to serve the Lord
Y  young at heart
S  Stronger than you know

 (This is my favorite, for each of you , in each different circumstance you really are stronger than you think you are!!)  Know that I want to be with you and share in your life everyday!
Love, Mom