Odds and Ends

I don't feel like I have much to post about to be honest with ya. I guess since the last post we did have Christmas, which was awesome, and my birthday, which was so fun as well. Nothing really out of the ordinary to say though. However since this is somewhat of a family journal for me, humor me while I throw some pics up to record the memories.
Every year I think about it but never do it. This year we did it. We finally made homemade ginger bread houses. Did any really turn out as houses? No. But the kids sure had fun making their own creations.
We had the Jolley family Christmas party at our house this year. Complete with Santa and presents. Really had a fun night!
Some of you asked how we got onto the ESA court for our family pics this year. Well Rob and I are season ticket holders with 3 other families and every year this is one of the perks. We spent about 10 minutes on the court messing around and taking pics. It was really a fun night!
This night was in between snows. We had a bunch of wood and garbage to burn so we had a BIG bonfire. I was standing up on our deck and I could still feel the heat. The kids, and Rob of course, had so much fun with this one.
I wish this guy could go fishing more often. He and his brother went up for the day and brought home some tasty morsels. I love that my kids love trout too.
And lastly, this is something else I've wanted to do for a long time. Abby is 7 and has never been to Temple Square before. Yes, I'm a horrible parent. But this year we fixed that and took them all down. They loved it!
So that's it. Sorry it's a boring one. Life is just, well, life right now. We are loving our new house, but it takes most of our free time. We are hoping to get a yard in this spring. I would also like to get shelves built in out storage rooms so I can actually put them to use. Plus Rob bought a new trailer and has been spending all his extra time building up the inside of that. Anybody else feel like you wake up in the morning, blink, and the day is over, then do it all over the next day? Then you wake up one day and have 4 kids, a mortgage, and a retirement plan. Seriously, things are crazy right now. But, on the good side, I'm loving every minute!

Is it too late to update?

So I'm a little embarrassed that I'm actually updating this after so long. The last update was seriously in May, and since then things have been busy, but not so busy that I can't take five minutes to write on here. My whole purpose in having this was to somewhat keep a weekly journal about our family happenings, and this past year I have failed miserably. However, reading May's post has revitalized me and I'm going to try and update more often, even if I have no readers left:)
First the kiddos: Abby is loving 2nd grade out here and has made some new friends. We have a big ward with a huge primary (100+ kids). So there are lots of kids to chose from. Plus we have new family moving in just 2 doors down with girls my girls' ages, so that will be handy. She is so getting into the preteen age, though I think she was born into that age. She is my best shopping buddy and loves to go to the mall. Coops is still stuck in his world of yucky girls in this house. He definitely has a love/hate relationship with his sisters. He loves to play with them, but sure gets tired of their kind of imagination games. Luckily there are a TON of boys in this neighborhood, so he has lots of options of kids to play with. Shelby is still very much 3 years old! In my opinion, there is no such thing as terrible twos. The twos are for pansies. 3's on the other hand are ridiculous! She is very strong willed and opinionated and even as we speak, taking a nap up in the bonus room (her idea) after refusing to eat dinner. She hates most meats and veggies, but will eat most any fruit or yogurt on the planet. She has also made lots of new friends out here. Whit is still so funny. She is getting so big. She started nursery not too long ago, which is one of my favorite milestones in their young lives:) She wants to do everything she can to keep up with the other 3. Just yesterday she decided she needed to go sledding with them. So as I was helping get them all bundled, she went and grabbed her coat and was trying to put it on. She has no snow pants or boots, but with did our best with what we had and she went out with the big kids and loved it. She only made one trip down the hill and was done, but still she had so much fun with them.
As for the house we are finally in. YAY! We moved in on Aug 14, which happened to be our 9 year anniversary. What a way to celebrate. Things went really smooth and we got everything out here in a couple trips. Now we are for the most part settled in, though there are still some boxes in Rob's office, and downstairs is a DISASTER. But what would without Saturday projects right? Now if we can get the motivation to do those projects, that is the question. We are loving our new neighbors. Everybody out here has either 4-wheelers or horses. It is crazy, but we love it. Such good people. Hopefully some day we will join in on the 4-wheeler club. Those are just fun!
Well that is about it for now. I will try to get back on track with updates from here on out:)

I'm still here

Yep, that's right, it hasn't been too long and already I'm updating. I have just taken some alone time and read up on some of your blogs and wanted to give you all a shout out of how much I love doing that. I didn't realize how much I've missed it until I just started reading and realized how much reading about all of your craziness makes me realized that my life is totally normal:) Whether it be surprise pregnancies (there are a few of you out there),to pregnancies with a first boy or first girl (baby penises aren't all that scary) to kids graduating from preschool and kindergarten, to fun vacations that I will some day look forward to. Thank you for making me feel normal and sane again.
So for the quick update. I have officially lost my camera. Yeah, really not sure where it is. I've looked everywhere I can think, so if any of you have it, I would love to get it back. It is for this reason that I have updated pictures to give of my kids, or the house. However both are doing wonderfully.
Abby is so pumped for summer. Her birthday is on Thursday and she for some reason thinks that half of her class are bringing her presents. Yeah, that will be a kick in the teeth when she doesn't get any, but she just doesn't believe me that she is only getting presents from us. What do ya do? She thinks she is Whitney's mom and tries to take over when she gets home from school, which some days is welcomed. She loves to help me cook dinner and I love that she is tall enough to see everything so we don't need to bring a stool in. Ellen gave her a pedicure for her birthday, which she was so excited for, so we are looking forward to going to get those done.
Coops is finishing up his second year of preschool, and since I am holding him back a year, he gets to start another in the fall. There are a lot of buddies out in the new neighborhood though that he will get to go to kindergarten with, so he is pumped for that. We signed him up for soccer in the fall so he is already on the countdown to that. Totally bummed I didn't have him play baseball this spring but I thought he was too young to sign him up, however there were some kids even younger than him. Now I know.
Shelby thinks she is some hot stuff. She is SO 3. She is totally into princesses, babies, and playing house. She loves to do homework with the other 2, though I really am running out of things to give her to do cause she really doesn't do anything but color. Oh, well, we'll keep working on that one. She is pretty pumped to start preschool in the fall too.
Then there is Whit. She is so funny! She is soooo much happier now that she doesn't have ear infections every other week. She is all over the place and hates it when the other kids get to go outside and she has to stay in with me. She sits out at the window and just yells at them until I let her go out and play for a bit. Still, we love her and she makes us laugh every day.
As for the house, sheet rock starts tomorrow, the stucco gets painted this week, and soon I will lose my husband again and become a single mom while he goes out to put on the trim and do the wood floor. Things are going awesome still, and thanks to Ellen, we picked out our wood floor today, along with our molding and door casing. I have really enjoyed the whole process so far, though the waiting game isn't all that much fun. Soon enough we'll be moved in and it will all be a happy memory I'm sure. I'll try to get pics on here for next time, until then...

UPDATE OF MY LIFE

Well, a few things have been going on around here other than building. Whitney turned 1 last month. She got tubes in her ears today for a nice belated present. I so hate ear infections! Happy to finally have the tubes. We had her on yet another antibiotic last week-Monday-Wednesday- and when he went to do the tubes today she was already working on more fluid and definite infection brewing. Poor kid. So we are happy to have that done.
We are so happy that it is finally spring and I can kick the kids outside to play. This rental is getting smaller and smaller. But the warm weather definitely makes it bearable.
Other than those things we are pushing hard at the house. We are hoping for a 4-way this week, (that is the BIG halfway inspection) though we have been saying that for a couple of weeks, this time a just may happen. Rob is out there almost every night. What a champ! I think it makes it a little easier knowing it is our house. We got the stucco on last week and after we get the soffit and fascia on they will come back and paint it. The rock should go on some time this week as well. Anyway, I thought I'd throw some more pics on so you all can see it. So here ya go:

Yes, this last one is from inside my car. Was I too lazy to walk around back for a pic? Yes, I was. It was cold out my friend, give me a break. Unfortunately, that is all I have for you all this time. We don't have a whole lot else going on.
Want to give a shout out to my friend Veronica Reeve (yes, the famous photographer:), I only say that knowing it will embarrass her) she gets to finally close on her house tomorrow and hopefully move in soon. You made it! WOW, could I be more jealous? I think not.
And another shout out to Libby and little Miss Blair, welcome to the world little one. And ps, that is the cutest yawning picture I have ever seen!

Here's the latest

Well that was a busy month. Shelby turned 3, so we hit up the local Chuck-n-cheese (that's is what we call it around these parts-Chuck-E-Cheese in layman's terms), got a roof, some shingles, plumbing, and front steps on the house while playing in the mud, played outside in the beautiful spring weather, enjoyed the ward pinewood derby, and am trying to survive yet another ear infection and possible RSV with Whitney (calling the ENT in the morning for tubes-hallelujah). So here I am, just finished doing some bids for Rob, who BTW is a trooper going on very little sleep lately, and I am just happy to be sane. I love life! Here are some pics (and as I'm putting them on I realize that I haven't taken any lately, but this will some-what do. I'll try to take some more this week. These are from a couple of weeks ago)Front entrance. there are stairs here now, and just today the framers changed the timbers on top to an arched entrance to be covered in rock.
Our fun bonus room. Rob has decided it will be a theater room in the future.
Our garages AGAIN. Yes, I know I keep you up to date on the garages a bit, but I'm just really excited to have one:)
Here is the main floor with now walls. Like I said, we have all of the walls now and a fire place. WOW, I'm a slacker!
The view to the back doors that will go back onto the deck.
And here are the bathing children. Yup, totally covered in mud!
At least they had fun though right?Those orange pants that were her Dora costume for Halloween-very...much...stained. Hopefully a little oxy clean will do the trick.
Look at those dirty toes!
And here is my heaven-sent-new-neighbor's tub. By the time I realized the kids were playing in the mud I knew there was no way they would be able to get in my car. Luckily Angie has boys and knows mud well, so she didn't mind. This picture was her tub after the rinsing. There is a wash clothe in there too for the record-not more mud.And here is the birthday girl. Can you believe she is already 3? It took us a few days to convince her:)
There is Mr. Cheese himself.
OK, last picture. Do you think she liked it?
Well, that's about it for now. See ya next month:)

This is what I've been doing

So I realize it has been 2 months since I have last been on, but I really have been busy. On the last one I mentioned how we were really working hard on being able to start the house. Well it finally happened and that has kept me pretty busy. Especially these last two weeks. We finally dug on Feb 1st and we will hopefully start framing on Tues. We are now waiting for a garage floor. We were supposed to get pored on Thursday but that random surprise snow storm showed up. Now I know we need the moisture here in Utah, but really! Just one more day! Oh, well, we'll survive. We are still on schedule (only two weeks in I know) so this shouldn't be too much of a set back.
The kids are doing great. Abby is missing so many teeth she has a hard time eating, but she looks adorable. Coop's preschool flooded over the Christmas Holidays and got the whole month of January off. He's back now and I'm so happy cause he was getting so bored. Shelby is potty training and totally has the peeing down, it's just the pooping. That may be TMI, but honestly, what is it with kids and pooping in the potty. I'll be honest with ya, I just throw the panties away. I tried to wash one of them out and honestly started gagging. It's not worth it. Little Miss Whitney is growing like crazy. I think she will be walking in no time. She totally cruises on everything. She really has the personality of the other three. I love it.
Rob and I are about the same. He is crazy with work and building us a house. Business is good right now and thanks to all of you who continue to call us and refer us. LOVE YA! And I'm doing the same old thing: staying home with 4 kids, being Rob's secretary, generalling the house, working one afternoon a week, and hanging out with the YW one night a week. I actually switched from Tuesdays to Wednesdays so now I go to work at 1 until 6 and then go straight to YW. It has been nice so far cause now I'm only gone for one night during the week. Rob still gets his daddy night, which the I love. It's nice to come home and have dinner cleaned up and the kids in bed.
Hopefully that is enough excuse for you all to get off my back on not updating my blog. I do enjoy sitting down and reading your blogs once in a while and I thank you for making me laugh when it's needed:) I will try to throw pictures on here every once in a while to keep you updated. Here's where we're at right now
Here is the first day of digging. These two loved it! Our excavator let them both in the cab of the back hoe and let them dig with him for a while. Abby was in school but she got a ride the other day when they were out back filling. They were so nice.
Here's the 3 when we went out to watch the pumper trucks fill the foundation forms. They got plenty muddy and loved every minute of it:)
Here is the front of the house with just the foundation. This is basically where we are. This last week of storms have set us back bit, but hopefully we will get a basement floor tomorrow.
Here is the view of mine and Rob's garages. I only put this on here because I'm SO EXCITED to actually have a garage. YAY!
And here is another angle of my garage. Did I mention we need to bring in A LOT of dirt. Yeah, this is a small mountain of sand that was fill into the garage floors. We have both always wanted a flat driveway for a basketball court so we're still excited that it worked out that we can have one.
And lastly, here is the picture of our basement. This one is my bragging rights. So when Rob was out doing the radiant heat (which we are only having in the basement BTW), that's all the black pipe, he called and said he could use a hand if I wanted to come out. So I pawned the kiddos off (this first time of many I'm sure) and headed out. Can I just say that he gets a taste of my job every Wednesday and I am very much appreciated. However I have never gone to work with him. I only worked with him for a couple of hours and my butt was kicked! What a manly man I am married too. The pathetic thing is that this wasn't even a hard job. It's not like we were carrying tubs or water heaters. I was tying tube with wires. Yeah, I'm a pansy and my husband has got some serious muscles:) Any who, that's about it. Wish me luck on having a dry week!

PLEASE FORGIVE ME!

So I send out my sincere apologise to those of you who actually check this thing every now and again to see if I have posted. Things have been CRAZY here I tell ya! I know I vented once before about how much we have going on so let me just update you and bring you some understanding. Last time I posted we had just started school. Well since then we have sold our house, moved into a home half that size and are waiting to build. I sure do wish people would pay there bills so we could get going on this. Allow me to vent-Our original plan was this: Sell house number one in July, move into the rental, start building some time in August while we finish the other house and of course sell it immediately. Meanwhile our home gets built in the 7 months we planned and we are in by March, MAYBE April. Would you like to now hear how things actually went? Good, cause you are about to. We finally sold and closed on our house last month and moved into this snug-as-a-bug rental just down the street. It is about the same size as the old on, just no basement. So no place to send the kids when they are buggin. Rough. We actually did sell the house next door in 3 days (oh, you read that right-3 days) however, we of course were not expecting that so we have been scrambling to try and finish. We should close this week-again, YAY. However, Rob has been CRAZY busy at work so we have had to hire quite a bit out. Oh, well, I promise I will get over that. When we sold our house we sold for quite a bit less than the original plan, but we thought, "That's OK, we have some big checks coming in from the business with all the extra work, we'll just use that". Well that is the point we are at. Some of these big checks were due 5 months ago, so are just due this coming week. We just have to keep bugging these people to pay the bill so we can build. Honestly, should I have to do that I ask ya? No! If you want to build something or remodel something, please have the means prepared to pay for it! OK, I'll hop off the soap box now and get on to some fun pics
This is the kiddos at the Newgate Mall. We had a fun trip there and walked around for a while and on our way out we stopped and let the kids ride on the train. Abby actually rode on the swings and Whit stayed out with us but they had lots of fun.
Here is the picture of our stuff ram-rodded into our new place. No, it does not look like this anymore, though it took some time to get things organized.
Have you ever met a cuter duck? Whitney is getting so big! She is really trying to figure out the crawling thing. Any day now, though I have been saying that for a while. She may just bypass crawling and go to walking. She loves to stand and pull herself up on anything. She's a cutie!
Here are the kids at the Halloween party at Barb's (such a fun tradition every year). I was home sick, but Rob still braved it with the 4. Whit didn't quite make it into her costume, but other than that they had a blast. Shelby was Dora, Coop-Buzz Lightyear, and Abby was Hannah Montana. Good times.I just think this one is so cut cause they are all looking at the camera (which is rare). Abby is giving out the peace sign too, so there ya go.
Well, that is about all the updating I have for now. Wish there was more for ya, but I'm afraid I couldn't handle too much more on my plate right now. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas (let's be honest, I likely won't update again before then) and a Happy New Year.

August came and went

So my plan to try and post at least every month totally bombed. However, we are still not too deep into Sep, so I'll try and stay on top of it from here on out. Winding down summer and getting ready for school is always crazy, but I love how much fun it is getting with the kids getting older. We have a ton of hand me down clothes from my sister and sister in law so school shopping really isn't too difficult. Abby always gets to pick out one new out fit but other than that is completely clothed by other peoples stuff-yeah, I know, I'm totally lucky there. Usually this is the case for Coop too but since Missy moved to Seattle (tear, tear) getting the hand me downs from her has gotten tricky and I've actually had to buy him more than one or two things. Yeah, never had to do that before.
The first day of school came and went without too much drama. Abby was totally pumped to be in first grade and the following week when the "little kindergarteners" started she thought she was pretty hot stuff.She really is pretty cute in her SHOPPING IS MY LIFE shirt. Which by the way, is pretty true.
How about this little guy on his first day of school. He insisted on wearing his Jolley Plumbing shirt that day. Who am I to argue? He is so handsome in it.
Whitney and Shelby are going to going to school before I know it. Whit is already getting so big. We are currently working on sitting up and rolling over. Shelby wishes she could keep up with Abs and Coop and most days, by the end of the day, is pure exhausted from trying.Shelby loves to hold Whit. It doesn't last long but she still does it every day.
Here is my little man on his 4th birthday. We had to open presents before Rob went to work so here he is in his jammies still. Look at that physique!

Here is Abby with her two front teeth missing. She lost the second one yesterday. The tooth fairy did come on time this time where as last time she was a day late and I actually had to go down the morning after and put the dollar under Coop's pillow and tell her the tooth fairy must have made a mistake. I'm a rookie, I know.Here is my handsome man all rugged and ready for the trek. He went in July with our stake. He was an uncle in one of the families. He had so much fun. I'm sure all the ladies fell in love. How hot is he with that beard?!

And here he is clean shaven. Some of the people that were on the trek wore their clothes the next day to church. Who was the high councilman on the stand in trek clothes? Oh, that's right, it was Rob. What a trooper.

I have some time on my hands

So this sunday morning I find myself home with my three girls while Coop is at church with Rob. It feels like I'm in the middle of winter again with half of my family sick. The girls just have runny noses and are coughing, but still, who wants to be the mom to take that church. So we're all home in our jammies watching Enchanted, which by the way cracks me up. Let me just give you a brief over view of the last couple of weeks. Two weeks ago Shelby kept complaining that her throat hurt, I took a look and her tonsils were bright red, she had a fever the night before too. That only lasted about a day and then two days later Coop had the same symptoms, wonderful. Naturally I started feeling sick, but didn't pay too much attention to it because hey, I'm the mom right? I don't get to get sick. Well that started on Friday, by Sunday I felt like I had been hit by a truck and finally paid attention to my body and stayed in bed all day. It actually worked! I got better by Monday morning I was feeling great, but had a little cough still. No big deal. Well Tuesday morning (Rob's birthday BTW) the little cough got so bad that I couldn't talk or walk around to much without coughing up a lung. The fever started to come back and I made my own diagnosis of pneumonia. Well I had to work that night so I called in sick but still went up and saw one of the anestesia docs to confirm my diagnosis...yep, I was right. So after another day of antibiotics I was again on the up swing, plus had healthy kids...ahhh, that was nice to get that over with because we had McDougal family reunion coming up. We were all healthy for it. YAY! We went up to THIS IS THE PLACE MONUMENT for family day. It was really fun. We looked around, rode the train, did some crafts, played some games, rode horses, and of course ate some treats. Here are some pics




We really had a fun day up there and afterward headed over to my brother's house for a bbq, outdoor movie and sleepover. Here's some more pics

Here's the kiddos getting ready for the movie. Shelby is clearly excited to be getting her picture taken.
What a handsome little manSorry, but how cute is she? And eating a roasted marshmallows, mmmmm.
Yes, she was happy for most of the night. Who wouldn't be happy with a root beer float?

Anyway, so that was the long weekend and this morning both girls woke up with coughs and runny noses, so here I am able to update.
In other news, the house is finally for sale and the house next door is still getting finished. The sheet rock should be getting started this week. Hopefully we'll find someone to buy this place soon and we can start building the new one. Time will tell.