Where in the world...

has time gone? Has it really been since Feb. 24th that I last posted? I have had good intentions but have just let time slip away from me. And SOOOO MUCH has happened since then. Aidan turned 8 on Feb. 16th and was baptized. Aaron turned 10 on March 4th. Kenna turned 3 on April 4th. Andy turned 34 on April 10th. We had a fun trip to Utah over Easter cause all Kenna wanted for her birthday was to go to college. So, off to college we went so she could celebrate her birthday at BYU with Aunt Darcee. We had a FABULOUS time and had the most wonderful hosts, Andy's sister Edie and her husband Jacob and all their critters. I am sure glad they all survived our chaotic bunch. We got to visit Grandma Enid who turned 96 right before we went to Utah. We got to have tons of fun with Aunt Amy, Uncle Ernie, cousins Ryan, Jessica, Spencer, Paul and Rachel, Aunt Juleen, Aunt Sara (what a fun surprise!!), Aunt Edie, Uncle Jacob, and Aunt Darcee!! It was a fun-filled weekend and I can't wait to post pictures. My problem with posting has been that a lot of pictures have been on Andy's camera and I haven't been able to get them on our home computer. So thankfully Andy downloaded them to his laptop and saved them on a flashdrive for me. So now I have no excuse (except the craziness of 5 kids, which after almost 18 months I still am not good at all the things I used to be good at). Let's see...we have also had basketball, soccer, wrestling, preschool graduation, marathon, having our house on the market to sell (we hope to build) and lots of other craziness that has slipped my mind at the moment. I also got released from teaching Gospel Doctrine and am now the Relief Society meeting coordinator (aka Enrichment leader). I am thoroughly enjoying my new calling but do really miss my preparation for my lessons. I am trying really hard to still pretend I have to teach each week, but it is so much easier to let it slip and just do the minimum. I MUST do better!!

Now that school has ended I am excited to try out a few our new "plans." For FHE we had each of the kids give us their goals of things they wanted to accomplish this summer and we also set family goals. Andy also had the fabulous idea of "Mission Impossible" for the kiddos. We have Agent 00AA, 00AID, OOME, and OOK along with "the secretary" also known as OOROSIE (the enforcer of the "no telling your mission" rule - she is armed and dangerous (with a nerf gun that she can't shoot without help)). These things along with the soon to be crazy summer academy and rec activities schedule, there is no excuse for the words "I'm bored!!" in our house. This will require cooperation and teamwork from all of us and should make for a FUN FUN summer!! In preparation for our next RS meeting, we have been preparing a Summer Survival 101 Guide and I think it has been more for me than the sisters we will be giving it too. I am armed with other fun ideas and looking forward to building wonderful memories with my children and amazing husband!! I am so blessed to be a wife and mother to 5 wonderful, energetic children!

WELCOME, SUMMER!! WE ARE READY TO GO!!!

Gratitude

As I was preparing for my CT scan last week, the tech asked me when I was supposed to start my treatment (he had obviously read my file). I told him I didn't have to start treatment cause they were able to get all the cancer with surgery. He looked at me and said, "No wonder you are so happy."

YES!! I am happy! I have so many things to be thankful for! I can't believe it has been a year since my surgeries. My one year checkup went very well. My CT and my labs all came back clean. I still have a large cyst in my abdomen, but Dr. Purcell has high hopes it will go away on its own. He is not worried about it and will continue to watch it, and I don't have to go back for a year instead of in 6 months!! What a wonderful day it was!!

I am so thankful to have found myself in the hands of such a wonderful surgeon and also a wonderful oncologist in Billings. I am so thankful to for the priesthood and the power to heal if it is the Lord's will. I am thankful for its for to provide comfort and guidance. I am thankful to know that my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ know me personally. I have been taught so many things about myself in the last year. I have learned I can't do it on my own. I know the Lord sends His help through others. I learned that He cares about even the little things that are big to us - like NG tubes, cold sores, drains, lack of energy. I have learned that it is ok if the house is not clean all the time, if a gourmet meal is not on the table every night, the girls' hair does not have to be perfect 24/7, it's ok to say no, and it's okay to spend time each day doing something for just me. I have learned that children are very resilient; they seem to sense just when you need a hug and a kiss; they will step up when there is no other option; they love to help out and can do more than I give them credit for. It is fun to work a little and play a lot with my kids - to stop and enjoy the little moments each day with them.

I am thankful to be able to workout again. I am thankful to be able to do the laundry for my family. I am thankful to be able to run my kids to their various activities and appointments. I am thankful to be able to fix meals for my family (I still don't enjoy cooking but I like that I can be the one not enjoying it!). I am thankful to be able to snuggle with the love of my life and not worry about tubes or sore scars. I am thankful to be able to jump on the trampoline, to push my kids on the swings, to shoot hoops, to play volleyball.

I can't believe how things have changed in a year. I have been blessed with a wonderful support system. I have a wonderful, amazing husband, 5 beautiful children, an awesome family, and the best friends a girl could ask for. There are still parts of me that need to continue to heal but what healing is left is so minimal compared to where I was year ago. I am so very blessed!!

Snow Much Fun!!

The kids had a 4 day weekend in January, and when Monday rolled around I just couldn't bear to stay indoors any more. I called Andy at work and asked if he had any ideas for something I could take the kids to do. He suggested going sledding in the gully by his parent's house. So we called my mom and Derrick and asked if they wanted to go along, packed up all our snow stuff, and headed out for a fun filled afternoon. As you can see from the pictures, it was a successfully fun afternoon. Everyone was full of smiles and laughter. Surprisingly, Ashlee loved being all bundled up! She even kept her hat on her head. She was ok with the first trip on the sled with Grandma pulling her, but when Aidan decided to give her a ride, she decided she didn't like it anymore. She just wanted to chill with Grandma or her sisters. She didn't want to go inside and was very content to just watch all the fun. The boys built a small jump and then had fun trying to make sure they hit it on their way down the hill. After all the fun, we went inside and enjoyed some yummy hot chocolate while the kids played Legos for a bit before heading home. Everyone left asking when we would be going back to sled again!

Mom and I didn't think it was fair that the kids were getting to have all the fun, so before we went inside we decided we needed our turn down the hill too. We found out why the kids were having so much fun!! It is fun to just relax and smile and laugh like a kid again!

My Little Helper

Ashlee decided to help me do the laundry yesterday. Guess she thought the Ramen noodles would cook better prewashed or else this is a new cooking method. Gotta love a cheerful helper!!

What It's All About

Family is really what's it's all about! I was taught this lesson all through high school and I continue to learn it as an adult. I am not discounting my friends because I need them, love them, cherish them, and don't know what I would do without them. But as I am keeping this as a journal for my children, I want them to know that nothing can replace the love and support of their family - immediate and extended. I have been blessed with an amazing family - a husband that adores me, loves me, would do anything for me, works so hard to keep this family running; 5 amazing children that teach me so much each day, teach me about patience, teach me about unconditional love, teach me about laughing and enjoy life, teach me about learning and growing and admitting my mistakes, and teach me about the love Heavenly Father and our Savior have for us. I have been blessed with wonderful parents that never quit being parents, that have helped me become who I am, that are the best grandparents in the world. I have been blessed with 5 amazing siblings that I call my best friends. I have grandparents that are so supportive and are such wonderful examples to my children and me. I have also been blessed to marry into an incredible family too. There are no inlaw jokes in this house. I couldn't have asked for a better set of second parents. I feel just as comfortable in their home as I do my parent's home. They love me and my children and are the best grandparents. I have wonderful brother and sister-in-laws, nieces and nephews, and grandmas that bring so much fun into our life. What a wonderful built in support system our Heavenly Father has given us!! I am thankful to know that families can be forever! I am thankful for my temple marriage and the knowledge I have that if we do our best to live worthy of the promised blessings, we can continue to be a family for eternity!!

Christmas Program

It is always fun to go the school Christmas program. The kids are so excited to get to perform for their families. What I love most is that it is still a Christmas program!! There are fun songs and songs about Christ. It is so nice that we haven't had to remove Christ from Christmas!! It was fun to watch the boys dance and sing and have a good time. Our music teacher, Mrs. Mitchell, puts a lot of time and energy in preparing these programs, and they are always so nice. I love the all school carolling at the end of the program too. All the kids just sing their hearts out! Kenna was so jealous of the boys getting to wear their Christmas clothes. She didn't understand why she couldn't wear her Christmas dress too. I love the holiday season!!

Aaron - 4th grade

Aidan - 2nd grade

My handsome boys all ready for their school Christmas program!

Aidan dancing away!

Musical Aaron

Everything's Coming Up Rosie!

I can't believe my baby is 1 year old!! Where has the time gone? Our sweet little Ashlee Rose (or Rosie as her daddy calls her) is growing up too fast. She started walking at 9 months and has never looked back. She runs everywhere and is starting to talk. She surprises us everyday with something new that she says. It is all on her terms though. She is a spunky, independent, social, loveable little girl! She is most definitely the "baby" of the family. She has everyone wrapped around her fingers. Her brothers and sisters basically jump when she says jump. It is Ashlee's way or the highway. We celebrated her birthday with her grandmas and grandpas a few days after her birthday. She was loving all the attention! The more attention the better for Ash. She is so social and loves people. The video is from her actual birthday. We couldn't go to bed without singing happy birthday to her. She loved every minute of it!

At her 12 month checkup, Ashlee weighed in at a whopping 18 lbs. (15th %) and measured 28 3/4 inches long (25th %). She is a healthy, little Jacobsen girl!

Ash is such a happy little girl! She loves to smile, laugh, and tease. Her blue eyes just sparkle. Despite being sick more often than not, she is usually a pretty easy little girl. Yes, she is busy and keeps us on our toes, but I know that someday I will miss someone pulling on my pant leg, or emptying all the sacks out of the cupboard, or dumping the combs and hair things out of the bathroom drawer, or stealing her brother's frog (as in the pic above) and running with it so he will chase her. She keeps our house hopping and all of us smiling!

We had to have pics of the birthday girl with Daddy and Mommy! We are the luckiest parents to be entrusted by our Heavenly Father to have her sweet spirit in our home. We have an awesome responsibility to channel her energy and social personality to do her Heavenly Father's work!

I usually make and decorate my kids' birthday cakes, but when it came time to choose a cake for Ash I couldn't think of anything more appropriate than a cake full of roses for our little Rosie. BUT, my cake decorating skills are very limited and roses are not anything I would even begin to attempt. Thank goodness I have a sweet friend, Chrissy Lennon, that is a very good cake decorator and was willing to add making Ash's cake to her hectic schedule right before Christmas. The cakes turned out fabulous!! My mom and I were in awe of the basket weaving around the sides!! It tasted fabulous and made for a fun 1st birthday!

She was loving being sung to again and being the center of attention. She just wanted to touch the candle, so Mom had to help blow it out.

She didn't need any help figuring out how to open presents. She had already opened a few Christmas presents so she had it down pat. She was so excited to not get into trouble while tearing the paper.

The 1st birthday tradition is to have smash cake for them to tear into. I figured by the way she went after the big rose cake while I was trying to take her picture that she would just dig into her own cake. WRONG!! Notice the one little finger kind of touching the cake and the expression on her face. She was really not into digging into her cake. She never really got excited about it until we gave her a fork. The excitement came from flinging cake all over the kitchen! Crazy little girl! She did have some frosting on her but most of that was from spitting back out at us what we tried to feed her or what she had flung all over. She doesn't know what she was missing out on. The cake was delicious!! (But I guess I shouldn't have expected too much out of my little girl that will not eat table food!)

"Here! Maybe you would like a taste?"

"Just get me out of my chair. This really isn't fun like you told me it would be!"

"Nice try, Mom."

"Maybe just a little taste."

"Now this is how it should be! Flinging it all over the kitchen is so much more fun!"

"Seriously! The fun is over! Get me out of here!"

My darling little Ashlee,

You are my little lifesaver!! I would be lying if I told you that the decision to have baby #5 was not a hard one. After the long, difficult pregnancy with Kenna and the financial setback it caused, I really couldn't imagine being pregnant again. But, our loving Heavenly Father kept sending promptings that our family was not complete. It took a lot of faith to trust Heavenly Father that everything would be fine, but we made the decision that we needed to bring one more sweet spirit to our family. I am so thankful for those promptings. You have brought so much joy and happiness to our family. My pregnancy brought many trials and challenges, but it was through these that you became my lifesaver. Because I had doctors that were on top of things and listened to my concerns and didn't pass them off as nothing, you arrived into this world safely and 5 weeks after you were born, I began my journey back to a healthy body. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father blessed me with a wonderful loving husband and mother that took such good care of you for the several weeks that I was unable to even take care of myself. You were blessed with a sweet, laidback disposition as a newborn that made it easier on everyone when others had to step in and act as your mother. I am so thankful that I was able to savor the first 5 weeks of your life -for my chances to snuggle you, nurse you, kiss you, and bond with you. I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father that has allowed me to stay on this earth to continue to be your mother. To watch you grow and change and develop your sweet personality. To be able to feed you, bathe you, play with you, teach you, kiss and snuggle you, help you learn your potential as a daughter of God. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for you and for his loving hand in providing doctors that are blessed with the knowledge they have to heal the human body. Ashlee, you are my sweet little angel. Thank you for choosing our family to join! I look forward to watching you grow and learn. Thank you for choosing me to be your mother! I love you more than you could ever know!!

Love,

Your mother