Pictures!

My wonderful friend Anica took pictures of us after church on Sunday and they turned out fabulous! I love them!

Where have you been all my life?

This is what I've been enjoying this week. I sold my kitchenaid on craigslist (ah, the memories). And saved up to buy this beauty. It is awesome! I have made all sorts of goodies and I can't believe how much easier it makes things! I am having lots of fun!

4 Years old!

I can't believe my baby boy is four!! On November 9th, Jacob turned four and had a fun GI Joe party. He is getting so big! I remember he was just 8 months old when we moved away from Fayetteville last time. He is so big now. He is so smart, and so fun! I just love him sooooo much!
4 Things I love about my FOUR year old!
1. He is so loving. He loves to hug his baby sister, and give her kisses. He is so wild, but he does love to cuddle with me and gives me such great hugs!
2. He is so smart! He builds the greatest things out of his leggos. He has an engineers mind I tell you! He outsmarts me all the time!
3. He is very friendly! He will play with all the kids. He never leaves anyone out.
4. He is a GREAT helper. He loves to help me with anything, whether it is loading the dishwasher, cleaning up toys, grocery shopping. He is such a great helper, and gets great joy from helping anyone he can!

I love Jacob so much! He is a great boy!

Cute Girl!

I just love having a little girl. And I love seeing the boys love on her, it is just so sweet! I love shopping with her, and dressing her up so cute! Here she is a few Sundays ago!

Soccer Party!

The boys had their last soccer game about a week ago. (I'm kind of glad, my schedule was getting a bit crazy!) They did so well! I am really glad they did soccer this fall. They have never played a sport like that before. So they were able to see what its like to be on a team, and listen to their coach and all that. Last week Jacob had his party at Pizza Hut, and Jonathan had his party and Sonic. They both got their trophies and they were so excited!! I forgot my camera for Jacobs, so his coaches wife will be emailing me the photos, so for now, here is Jonathan with his trophy!

Food Storage

So, I realize I haven't posted any pictures of my house. But it seems like I am still getting it organized. Crazy I know since I've been here like 8 months! But having a baby put me behind a bit. I've just been too busy playing with her and the boys! They are all three growing up way too fast, that I would just rather watch them grow then work on the house! But I am going room by room and getting rid of things, and reorganizing things! The first room I finished is my food storage room. Exciting, I know. Actually I do think it is exciting. For those of you who don't know me really well, I'm a bit of a food storage nut. I am working on building my food storage, and also learning to actually use it in my every day cooking, so I can rotate through it. I love it! In fact, just the other day I made some pumpkin bread, almost totally out of my food storage! I used powdered eggs, powdered milk, etc. And it tasted wonderful!!
Here is my food storage room!

Cute Kids!

I have the cutest kids in the world! I sure love them!

Am I missing something?

Today I spent a large part of the day cleaning. I cleaned and reorganized my pantry, fridge and freezer(both). And of course the rest of my house is a wreck. This was not a typical day, but that happens to me a lot. I feel like I clean and pick up after my kids constantly, but my house is always a mess! What is wrong with this picture!! I have friends who have more kids than I do and their homes are neat and clean. In fact I could drop by their house any time any day(and I have) and their homes are totally clean, even their kids rooms, with beds made and all. What is my problem? Am I doing something wrong? Is there some grand trick to it that I don't know? If there is, someone please fill me in!

Fall decorations

I am so excited to get out the fall decor and decorate my house! I can't wait to get the Halloween stuff out too! Here is a picture of some of my fall decor.




Haha! Ok, this isn't my house, but don't you love this idea? I want to re-create this in my dining room! And this at my front door!





I love this time of year! I love the colors and the decorations and all the fun holidays! I'll post some real pictures once I have it all decorated!

Jacob

All these posts about Jonathan and Katelyn, I can't leave out my Jacob. I love him. He definitely keeps me on my toes. One of my favorite things to do with Jacob is play leggos. He comes up with the greatest things. Here he is with his "Robots" he made. Oh, and fyi, he is wearing underwear in this picture, you just can't see it. No, we don't run around naked around here!

Katelyn's Blessing

Today was Katelyn's blessing at our church. She looked so cute in her little white dress, but she looks cute in anything! Here are some pictures we took after
church!





We had a birthday cake for Jonathan tonight and dinner with some great friends. On Wednesday we are having Jonathan's party, so I will post pictures of that later in the week. We had a great day! I love my kids and husband so much. I am so blessed!

My Baby is Five!

I can't believe my baby is 5 today!! Time sure does fly by. I remember being in labor with him for sooo long! I went into the hospital on Sunday night, and I had him Monday night, on labor day! He was perfect, weighing in at 10lbs 2oz. And I've loved him from the minute I laid eyes on him!

5 Things I love about my 5 year old:

1. He is so smart! He reads so well, and is so good at math!
2. He is a great big brother! He is always willing to go check on Katelyn, and he is a great friend to Jacob!
3. He is so funny. He entertains us all! If I need a good laugh I can just sit back and watch him.
4. He loves music! He has all the numbers on his primary cd memorized, so if I am looking for a particular song, I just ask him which number it is!
5. He loves the gospel. I can see his little testimony growing already. He loves to read scriptures and have FHE, and go to church!

I love Jonathan so much. And I hope he has a wonderful birthday!

Well, the past few weeks have been so crazy! Joe's classes are taking a lot out of him, he is always busy with Elders quarom, and I am busy with the kids. So by the end of the week, we are exhausted! On Friday we took a little day trip to Raleigh. It was so nice to get away for a little bit. We went up and took the boys to see the temple, then we went to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, TGI Fridays! We did a little shopping, and had a great time, even though the boys were grumpy pretty much the whole way home! It was great. Joe has a couple weeks left of this semester, and then we will take another fun trip. We are going to the Biltmore Estates! I'm excited! We are also going to stop by Ikea on the way home. I told Joe we definitely have to take the van so I can fill it up! I don't know if he's crazy about that idea! haha!

Recommended reading

I just finished my Mom's latest book and it is excellent! It is her best book yet! It is about a military officer's wife. Her husband is leaving for an overseas mission and she decides to take her two young kids to visit her sister while he is gone. She loads them up to drive from North Carolina to Arizona. Her husband returns to find the house empty, but she never did make it to her sisters house. It is so good! And I'm not being biased. It is very suspenseful. My Mom is such a great writer! You can find it at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com, or borrow it from me if you live close! Here is the official blurb, it is written better than mine.

When Susan Brannigan discovers her husband, Kevin, has volunteered for yet another military mission, she accuses him of wanting to be away from his family. With their angry words echoing through the house after he is gone, a distraught Susan decides she can no longer stay.

Kevin returns from the completed mission, ready to mend the rift between them, but he finds the house ominously empty. Calls to family and friends yield no clues. Has she left him? Did she take the children?

With the skills developed as a reconnaissance Marine, Kevin makes it his new mission to track down his wife and children. But the trail stops cold just as he thinks he is getting close. What has happened to his family? Will he find them, or has he lost them forever?

Soccer Adventures

I am going to attempt some blogging catch up this weekend. We'll see how it goes. Things are very busy around here! But we are having fun!
The boys started soccer last week. They have practice twice a week for 30 minutes(which doesn't sound like a lot, but it is for a three year old!) And starting at the end of this month, they will have games on Saturday.

Here they are ready for soccer!



They are on separate teams, they were so excited to play and then when we got there, Jonathan wouldn't do it. I wasn't surprised, he is so shy! So I tried to get him to try it out, but he absolutely wouldn't! So, we watched Jacob practice. He did so good. He did all the drills and followed directions so well. And he LOVES it! Tonight we have practice again. I'm going to try a few tricks with Jonathan, but we'll see if he plays or not!

Katelyn

We have had a busy week! Katelyn is such a great baby. She is so sweet. We love her so much. She sleeps a lot, and lets us get some rest at night! We are getting settled in and things are wonderful! The boys love her. Jacob wants to hold her about ten times a day, and he is always concerned with where she is. It is so sweet! Jonathan loves her too, but doesn't hover around her as much as Jacob does. Joe started his next semester today, so he has class Monday through Thursday. We are getting into a routine. Life is great.
Here are some pictures of Katelyn. My camera isn't the best, so she is a million times cuter in person!

Baby girl came right on time. She is very punctual and came on her due date. It was an easy labor, just long! She was born July 27 at 10:09am. Katelyn Alexis Mansfield weighed 8 lbs, 13oz (the smallest Mansfield baby yet) and 21 inches long. I love her chubby cheeks! We are all doing well, just adjusting to a new schedule. And lots of pink!! Pictures to come!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful Father and my wonderful husband. I am so lucky to have both these great men in my life. My Dad is such a great Example to me. He has such a strong testimony. He is a wonderful Dad and always taught me to choose the right.
Happy Father's day to my husband. He is an awesome Father to my two boys and I know he will be to our baby girl as well. He is such a good example of a worthy priesthood holder. My kids are so lucky to have him as a Dad. And I am so blessed to be his wife. I love him sooooooo much!

Mother's Day

Today has been a wonderful Mother's day. I had breakfast in bed, homemade cards, and a wonderful dinner with friends. I am so blessed to be a mother. I love my boys so much! I love waking up to their smiling faces each morning. I love watching them grow and learn. They are so wonderful. They bring me so much happiness!

6 years!

I know I'm blogging a ton of stuff today, but I finally have some time and I am actually in the mood to blog. Yesterday Joe and I had our 6th wedding anniversary. We had a great day! He made me french toast for breakfast, we did a little shopping and ended the day with a nice dinner at TGI Fridays! I am so grateful for my husband. He is awesome! I love him so much, I am the luckiest gal in the world!

Easter Pictures

Back around Easter time, the boys looked so great for church so I took some pictures of them. They are too busy being silly to look at the camera!
I love these guys!

Roll-a-thon

The boy's preschool had a "roll-a-thon" at their school for a fundraiser. They brought thier bikes and went around the parking lot. They rhode for like 30 minutes straight, I was impressed. It was a hot day, so at then end Jonathan came over and asked if I had a hair dryer, because his hair was all sweaty!


They also had snacks and invited the mom's to thier class for Mother's day. It was alot of fun! Jonathan sang 'you are my sunshine'!

Well, I promise a better update soon! We are very busy. I'm sitting in our front room at the computer desk in the only empty corner of the room. The rest is filled with boxes. We are busy packing up our house (yes, again) but this time I know it will be a while before the next move! We had the final walk-through of our home today and everything looks great! I am so excited to move into this house and have so much space. We close on Friday, and move in on Saturday. Monday we have our ultrasound. I can't wait! I'm not sure what we will have, boy or girl. I know I would love a girl, because well, doesn't every woman want at least one little girl? But how fun would 3 boys be? Boys are loud and wild and I love it! So, come Monday we will find out.
Things are going so well, I can't believe how extremely blessed we are. Life is wonderful. Joe's school is going well, and we have so much time together it is great! We are blessed much more than we deserve!

We have been busy since we returned from the beach. The kids had their valentine parties today so we took cupcakes and all our valentines and the boys had a blast!



This picture cracks me up! I love Jonathan's expression. This is the valentine hat he made at school. Jacob was a little grumpy so he didn't pose for pictures!

And of course yesterday we went to check on our house and things are coming along. I really need to start packing! I think I've packed about 4 boxes. Only about 1,000 to go!

Myrtle Beach

We went down to Myrtle Beach this week to de-stress a bit and we had a great time. It was too short, but of course any trip to the beach is too short for me. I would live on the beach if I could. We had a great time. It was freezing, but fun. We relaxed in a nice hotel, flew kites on the beach, did a little shopping, and spent some great quality time together, not having to worry about anything!