Ciera's Personality

I know to some it may not seem post-worthy to document every move my baby makes, but she is my first child that I have raised away from friends and family so I am trying to keep you informed as if we had never moved! Ciera is now 13 months, STILL not walking or caring to try it, but she definately is a fuuny girl. She sometimes concentrates really hard on something and for some reason this requires her to raise her eyebrows and twist her upper body from side to side as if she were just waiting for a whistle to blow. its really funny you can tell she doesnt realize it! the funniest thing is that she has a rather large obsession with chairs. she found this princess couch and she spends 75% of her day on it and if she 's not on that she's in her "thinking chair" that anzlie got for her first birthday. Ciera definately likes it more than anzlie did. Anzlie never stood in one place for longer than a few seconds and ciera's personality is a bit more mellow and I am seeing that keeping the toys anzlie never played with really paid off. The other little obsession Ciera has is talking on any phone it doesnt even have to resemble a phone she pretends everything is a phone and if she cant find anything than she uses the palm of her hand. she says hi, followed by a bunch of jibberish, and then bye, over and over.Her most recent accomplishment that I was I had taught her sooner since she looked at me like, "thats it?" was learning how to go down the stairs to the basement where the toys are. She just turns around and flies down in no time. She caught on so fast and life is so much better now that she can do it herself! She is the one that giggles really loud for no apparent reason and if anyone sits on the floor or lays down she crawls over and gives you a big smacker! She has always been a good sleeper and LOVES baths. There! that about sums her up at the moment. I'll keep you posted on the whole walking situation!

spotlight on Kelli Brown

I have this amazing friend, Kelli. She is such a great person. She is always helping someone. She is very service-oriented and is constantly thinking of others before herself. I have always been touched by her testimony and acts of kindness. We met in high school when my family moved to park city, Utah. She made me feel so welcome. I wanted her to know that she is a great example, a wonderful friend, and an amazing mother of three! I can't wait to see you again, Kelli!
LOVE YOU!

Kids for sale!

Wednesday- I tried VERY hard to stay awake to take care of the kids and clean the house since we have an open house this weekend. I made it through most of the day utnil 6 o clock when they were full of energy and I wasnt! I actually called our babysitter over and slept for a while. I woke up sent her home and started to put the kids to bed. I got the pajamas and then suddenly felt really sick and had to run to the bathroom to throw up. I am wondering if I have the flu bug or if I am just dizzy from lack of and of course, while I was occupied with that, and staying on the theme of the week, they had once again dumped the entire brand new bottle of nesquik on the floor and were throwing it at each other and covering the baby in it and each other.I didnt have a sense of humor about it but my hubby got home right as this was happening and he took pictures! I just had my house professionally cleaned for the first time, so I was very upset that they would dare do this again this week! did I not make myself clear on monday!!! I know that you might be thinking that I need to keep it from their reach but I DID I had it on the top shelf of the pantry so apparently I have to get a lock for the pantry. I dont like doing that though I want them to have free agency and learn from their mistakes so I dont always want to fix the situation because I dont want to kame there decisions for them all the time because I want them to behave when we are at other houses too. I hate how good my kids are for other people and how I always hear that they are so sweet when I go to get them and for ME, they are totally different. Not all the time, they have there moments but for this post I am very upset and so venting is what I feel like doing! besides parenting isn't always easy and I am not the first person to feel this way. I was thinking about it and I was thinking as frustrated as I get at them for not listening or making bad decisions, I wonder how many times Heavenly Father has these same thoughts about me! it helped...

Time Out

I have had the worst week. I kept thinking I should blog about it but I didnt have any time to myself yet this week! Mondays are usually busy for me. I had to go to the doctor because I haven't been feeling well, I had to go grocery shopping, and drive car-pool for school. After that I had several piano students come for the afternoon. Last monday I was scheduled to have a recital but to my surprise, not a lot of people were ready and I am having serious issues with my students forgetting their books. we went ahead with the recital but I had to throw it together at the last second and the organization was poor. I hate that. It stresses me out. I really needed help with my children. they seemed to need a little bit more attention than usual because I was so busy. Since I was busy, they got into the groceries and opened all the snacks and dumped the huge brand new container of nesquik on the floor and were rolling around in it like pigs in mud. I was not amused. I still had to make dinner and refreshments and my husband couldnt come home to help me so it was up to me. we had a successful recital. it may not have been perfect this year but I got through it.
Tuesday, I heard back from the doctor and was surprised at what he had to say and it kind of put me in a bad mood. I was emotional and of coarse, called my mom! I go into the other room and come back into the kitchen to find applesauce all over my laptop. I was screaming inside. I quickly cleaned it up (hopefully its not broken) and it wasnt even 10 minutes until they did the next naughty thing! I went to the bathroom and they climbed on top of the fridge and found halloween candy I didnt even know was there. they were eating suckers and chocolate on my couch which there is a no food or drink policy in our house! they get in trouble but 1 hour later they do it again! I know it sounds like they 're bored or that I am ignoring them but that is not the case I had been playing with tem all morning. We played with the art set, we played in the basement, we had frinds over...I am just not allowed to leave the room EVER!
Anzlie is starting to tell lies sometimes because she doesnt realize that what she is saying sounds ridiculous- to her, it is pure genious that she could come up with ways out of trouble. we were at a birthday party and it was a bounce place and you must have socks on. She took them off three times and each time she swore that they said she could so I took her over to the worker she pointed at and asked if he told her she could take her socks off and he said no mam. We left and I couldnt have been more excited that the day was almost over and it was BEDTIME!!!! The problem is they slept in the car on the way home and thought that that was sufficient. we got home and chris didnt come home for a few hours more (9 PM). He immediately went to play church basketball even though I was less than thrilled about it since i just wanted to spend time with him after a hard start to the week, but he got to go because last week he watched kids in the nursery at enrichment night instead of his going to basketball and he was in a bad mood so I let him go to basketball that night but I reminded him that I didnt have to be in a good mood about it either! anyway, He calls at 9:45 and says I got hurt and I need you to drive me to the ER. I was half-asleep already but got up and got dressed for the -10 degree weather. He walked inwith this disgusting bloody finger! he was going up for a block and the other guy's knee dislocated his finger. when he popped it back into place the skin on his finger ripped open all the way around exposing the bone and destroying all the ligaments and things. At the hospital they said that they couldn't stitch it up since the bone was exposed and it could infect the joint so he had to just wrap it up and go to a hand surgeon. we left the hospital at 1 in the morning and searched for a 24 hour pharmacy. 20 minutes later we find one. after waiting a while the power shuts down in the computers and he sends us to another city to fill the perscriptions. We had to wait so long we didnt arrive home until almost 4 in the morning. the problem- my kids would be waking up in a few hours! help!!!!

public speaking!!!!!!!!!

I was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting this sunday on setting christlike goals. this is not a cop-out. I am doing my research I just thought I would ask to see if anyone has any suggestions because the topic is broad and I could go a number of different ways in preparing for it! any scriptorians out there? I sure could use your help too!
thanks!

the last 2 weeks of 2007, we...

1. traded the "freezing cold" weather in Utah for "just cold" weather in Arizona.
2. celebrated Chris's 31st birthday by driving twelve hours overnight in the car to get to arizona.(sorry Babe!)
3. took "Sandberg family Pictures" with bloodshot eyes (which you cannot hide with makeup) from lack of sleep. I hate driving through the night. its too hard infact, I dont think I'm doing it again.Nope, no more no doze, chinese firedrills around the car to stay awake, and most importantly, no more potty stops at disgusting gas stations. (although, if any of you make the drive between utah and az they redid the bathroom at the gas station in kanab-its our new spot.) Everyone knows I am practically useless without a full nights sleep (or so Ive been told). Luckily the joy of seeing my family and not having to be in the car another second was enough of an adrenaline rush to stay awake the rest of the day!
4. Went to the temple with every member of the sandberg family. Ryan went through for the first time. He is serving a mission in Pennsylvania in about a month. It was amazing to have everyone there supporting him and sharing in such a wonderful experience- by the time we were out of there there wasnt a dry eye. I'm definately not alone in saying I will never forget that day...
5. Did I mention it was my baby girls first birthday? It was hard because I hardly spent a second of the day with her but I made it home in time for a special celebration for her (thanks michelle) At first she had no idea what to do with the cake- but after tasting some frosting she proceeded to eat the entire cake and NO she wouldn't share! She has been my easiest baby by far. So sweet, mellow and content, I almost forget she's here because Im used to noisy babies! Happy Birthday Ciera I LOVE YOU!!!!
6. Ate a lot of yummy food. and plenty of holiday goodies. :)
7. made a cd at a recording studio. that was our gift from my parents and what an experience! am I right ladies??? I hope to go back there someday and make that platinum album! before I do that I better get voice lessons or a personal trainer because we all know that Jessica Simpson cant sing...Thanks mom and dad for making that happen. you're the grest! I mean Greatest and Best! (take your pick)
8.Went to mesa yogurt. thats about as brave as we got with all of our kids!
9. ate a lot of yummy food.
10. celebrated the birth of our Savior, and reflected on his life and ultimate sacrifice for us. I got to explain the true meaning of Christmas to Anzlie and watch her little mind work. I hope I am doing a good job at teaching her the important things abot Christmas that you cant buy at a store. (except the nativity set-that came in handy!) thank you everyone for making the holiday so great. I truly enjoyed being with all of you and getting to know my 10 nephews better!
11. of course what would a vacation be without someone getting sick! we finally took landon to the hospital. of course it was a 4 hour wait in the ER and so we headed to urgent care and they had a 3 hour wait but since landon had a temperature of 105 they took him back right away! I was scared he was going to have a seizure. He ended up having upper respiratory infection along with the croup and double ear infections but he is doing great now. of course Ciera got it and now anzlie... but Landon is great!
we stayed at a hotel in Page Arizona on the way home (with an insane amount of begging on my part!)and took some pics of the amazing view. that is how we spent our new years eve. thats the wrap up so Happy New Year From the Knox's:)