Faulring Family

Happy 3rd Birthday Jordan!

2009-07-14T20:27:00.001-07:00

Jordan turned 3 on July 12th. We had a birthday party for him at the park. It was a lot of fun and a bit crazy. We grilled hotdogs and had some cake and opened some presents and oh yeah did I mention there were 12 kids there?! We had Spencer's brother Jon and his wife Bri there with their 5 kids, plus our 3 kids, plus Spencer's sister Tiffany had her 1 plus her "non-boyfriend's" 3. We had plenty of adults there so it was all good. Jordan had a lot of fun. Sadly we bought an ice cream cake but we didn't get to it fast enough so when we opened it all the ice cream starting oozing all over the place so we had to make a quick run to Smiths to get a sheet cake. Jordan was totally stoked to get a bike just like Sissy! He doesn't quite get the concept of peddling but he'll learn. It was really fun to have all the cousins there. They're all about the same ages so it works out well! We even got a picture of all of them together except for the two babies, Ashton and Adelyn. Cousin picture from left to right: in front we have Gage (2), Jordan (3). in the back we have Kaisa (3), Kaleb (6), Kaydance (7), Kaitlyn (6), Pyper (6) .

Happy 1st Birthday Ashton!

2009-07-14T20:07:00.000-07:00

Ashton turned 1 on the 4th of July. We had a party at one park and then went to another park to see the fireworks. It was fun to watch him eat this HUGE cupcake! He didn't want it at first so I put some icing on his lip and then he was all for it! He is such a cutie and just so small. He has been walking for about 4 months now but it looks funny cause he's so tiny. We put him in the playpin with his 7 month old cousin and they're about the same size. We also got pictures of all the kids that were there. From left to right: Gage(2), Jordan(2), Kaisa(3), Pyper(6), Kaitlyn(6), Kaydance(7).

Evelyn Christley Whorley Faulkner Reeves

2009-07-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

Monday, May 11, 2009 was a sad day for my family. My grandmother passed away at the age of 78. Evelyn Christley was born in November 1930 to Lonnie H. Christley and Onie Gilley Christley. She was the first of four born to them. She grew up in a poverty stricken family and really never escaped that kind of life. Evelyn married three times during her life. She had three children with her first husband, Nadra, Doug, and Claud. They divorced and she got remarried some time later to my grandfather, Kenneth Faulkner. Together they had Sandra, Donna (my mommy), and Taffy. Kenneth died in 1969 in a swimming accident. Evelyn later married again and got divorced again. Some of my best memories from my early childhood are of my grandma. My mom was a single mom when I was born so we lived with my grandma. She would watch me while my mom was at work and later she also watched Angie. My grandma was a very very spunky person. My grandma's favorite things were her smokes, her beer, and her boyfriends. Grandma liked to drink occasionally which got her into a whole lot of trouble. She was known for her bar fights. My grandma loved spending time with her grand kids but she refused to be called grandma for the longest time....we had to call her mom. So my mom was "mommy" and my grandma was "mom". She insisted that she was too young to be called grandma or anything like that. I remember going grocery shopping, camping, doing laundry, cleaning, watching tv, playing games, and laughing with my grandma. She always wanted to know what was going on in my life and I could literally tell her everything because I knew that she wouldn't judge me. Her approach to life was, "shit happens so deal with it!" I take the same approach. In 1997 my grandma began having stokes but no one knew about it until she had one at a bad time and a bad place. She was walking home from the grocery store, pushing a cart, approaching rail road tracks...apparently having a seize of some sort. All the cars that were stopped for the train were beeping at her and yelling at her to stop for the train but she didn't so the train came by, knocked her off balance, and next thing ya know she's in the Blue Ash Nursing Home. She kept asking if she could go home but she could not live by herself anymore so she had to stay there. She began to slowly deteriorate over time. I saw her for the last time when I was there for my dad's funeral at the beginning of April. I love her and I will miss her tons. She was like a second mom to me.

Happy 6th Birthday Pyper!

2009-07-14T19:31:00.000-07:00

So I have been quite the slacker when it comes to updating my blog. I've been all sorts of crazy busy at work that I'm pretty much useless when I come home and my brain claims sanctuary on the weekends (not sure where it goes). Pyper's birthday was on the 27th of April and we had a small party for her at out place. It had been raining everyday so the park was not an option. Pyper had a ton of fun and was so super stoked to find out that she got a bike and "brain bucket" for her birthday. The sad part is that it rained for two weeks straight after her birthday too so she didn't actually get to ride it for quite a while. Here are some pictures from her party. I loved her cake. Jordan decided that he wanted the car off the cake so he and Pyper fought over it until it mysteriously disappeared!

Going Home

2009-04-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

I moved to Utah on August 18, 2001. I went back home in February of 2004 for my grandpa's funeral and hadn't been back since until my dad's funeral. When I left home all my brothers still had prepubescent voices and they were all shorter than me. I know that people change over time but I always thought that I would be able to recognize my siblings anywhere and at any time no matter how long it had been since I last saw them...boy was I wrong! When I was exiting the terminal area at the airport in Dayton I recognized this girl that my mom use to babysit when I was younger standing by the door. My very first thought was, "Becky?" Next thought, "Then the other girl must be Angie and that boy must be Walter." How embarrassing to realize that I NEVER would have recognized my own siblings if they were to pass me on the street. Even

scarier, Walter drove us from the airport in Dayton down to Cincinnati. I thought I was going to DIE! I made sure to take a ton of pictures while I was there. I knew that I was home sick but I didn't realize how bad it was until I was on my way home. I actually had a layover in Cincinnati and then flew up to Dayton...go figure and when I was landing in Cincinnati I was so happy but the minute my plane that was going to Dayton got off the ground my heart sank and I felt so sad to know that I was so close to home but I had to fly away and then drive back down...how pathetic of me! Anywho, I enjoyed my time there even with the given circumstances surrounding my visit.

Pictures:

Grandma and Mom

Me with Angie

Ronnie

Walter

Kenny

The Passing of Dad

2009-04-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

At 5:00 am est my dad began having trouble breathing. He was pronounced dead a short while later. The funeral is going to be on Wednesday, April 8, 2009 in Cincinnati. He had just turned 55 back in February. He leaves behind a wife, five children, three grandchildren, and two sisters. This past year he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and diabeties. After his diagnosis he got progressively worse over time. He fell a couple of weeks ago and went to to the hospital for x-rays which came back clear. He got really sick after that and was admitted into the hospital. He had blood poisening and something wrong with his liver but he refused to allow the doctors to treat him. They decided to send him to Blue Ash nursing home for rehabilitation and was only there for a few days when he passed.
My dad and I never really had the best relationship but I do have several good memories of him. I remember going grocery shopping with him when I was like 4 years old and bugging him because I wouldn't follow him and I would disappear. I remember being at my parents wedding and watching him look like he was about to die from the early August heat! When I was old enough to begin dating he tried to scare away the boy that I liked but it didn't work...I think he was a bit aggrivated by that at first. When Spencer talked to my dad to get permission to marry me my dad had him on the phone for like 15 minutes just giving him the third degree. I was suprised that it didn't scare Spencer away! I went home back in 2004 for my grandpa's funeral and I took Pyper with me. He wanted to hold her and she just screamed as loud as she could. Trying to carry a conversation with him was always very interesting and to be honest kind of scary sometimes. He will be missed.

Name That Smell

2009-04-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

Spring cleaning always seems to bring interesting things my way. I am doing my spring cleaning this weekend so of course nothing is working out the way I want. First, the closet door to the washer and dryer closet fell off because a big piece of the wood holding the door in place broke off. Second, I moved my dryer and found all the crap in that picture under it. Third, well third is a bit nasty. I removed the the hose from the back of the dryer to clean out any lint that may be in there but there was this large clump of lint that wouldn't come out. I grabbed a flash light to see what it was stuck to and I was about to reach my hand in to see if I could reach it when I realized what it was....A FREAKIN' DEAD BIRD!!! It took forever to get it out but it finally fell out and of course the kids were trying so hard to see it. For the longest time I have been noticing an odd smell in my house even after I've cleaned for two or three days straight and I just couldn't figure it out...now we know!

The other pictures here are just some random ones that I have. Pyper took a picture of me and look like I have these huge spider legs. Jordan likes playing with the remote...my little man. Ashton loves the cat and thankfully the cat is very good with him. He likes to pet the cat when he's not trying to lay on him or bite his tale. I think the worst thing I've ever seen him do to the cat was when the cat was all sprawled out on the floor on his back and Ashton laid down next to him and grabbed the cat by his private area! I thought the cat would bite at him or something but instead the cat just cried out and jumped up. Spencer and I weren't much help because we were too busy laughing about it...rude, I know!

FUN FUN FUN

2009-04-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

There is always something interesting going on in our house in case you haven't figured that out from all my previous posts! Having three kids can be a bit overwhelming but it's all worth it plus I have a helper and no it's not just Spencer...I have PYPER! She reminds me of myself when I was her age. She loves helping me do house chores like dishes, laundry, and changing diapers! She loves to play with Ashton and Jordan while I am cooking or doing some massive cleaning. Jordan may be a pain in the butt and drive me insane but he is AWESOME with Ashton. He's a very protective big brother. If Ashton has anything in his hands (even if it's okay) Jordan will take it away and tell Ashton no and bring me whatever he found. If I'm holding Ashton and I'm sitting on the couch then Jordan will climb onto the seat next to me and demand to hold Ashton. If I tell him no then he'll through a temper tantrum. And I thought that growing old, being married, and raising kids would be boring...boy was I wrong!

Devil or Angel?

2009-04-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I HATE the terrible two's almost as much as I hate the horrible three's! This kid drives us insane. He gets into anything he can find a way to open. Because of this, we recently added two new locks in our home. One lock on the pantry and one lock on the fridge. The white stuff on the carpet is yogurt that he got out of the fridge and decided to smear all over the carpet in his room. He climbs on chairs to get into things that were purposely put up high so that he couldn't get them. He loved to climb into the pantry to get into Spencer's cup-o-noodles. He would take the cup into his room and eat the styrophome and leave the dried noodles and veggies all over his bed and his room! I think the most aggrivating thing about him is that he will not talk. He still "baby babbles" and if you don't understand him or he gets mad he will bite or hit himself. I just realized the other day how angelic he looks when he's sleeping and then I realized that the rail on his bed looks like jail bars. If he's anything like his dad he'll be there some day especially if he keeps up with this temper he has!

Oh my freakin' heck!

2009-02-22T19:47:00.000-08:00

I need to start off by saying that I really do love my kids and my husband but sometimes I just can't handle everything that comes with being the wife and the mom. I had a VERY stressful week at work and I was excited for it to be the weekend. I just wanted to clean my house and prepare for the next week at work. Needless to say, my stress level was already pretty high when I saw this. I was washing dishes when I realized that my house was WAY too quiet so I peeked into the living room to see what was going on. Suddenly, I see Pyper sit straight up and give me one of those, "I hope she didn't see me." looks. So I walked into the living room to see what the kids were doing. Pyper and Jordan were sitting on the floor next to the playpin playing with Ashton. That's when I saw the HUGE, GAPING hole in the side of the playpin. The first thing Pyper says, "Jordan did it!" I freaked out because Pyper watched Jordan use her school scissors to cut the hole in the playpin and they could've really hurt Ashton while doing this. Plus, the playpin cost a little over $300. As I was picking up pieces of the playpin off the floor I noticed that I had also picked up a chunk of hair...it was Pyper's! I completely lost it. I yelled for Spencer to help me with "his" kids. That's when it happened....I broke out in hives. I had them for a week. I am so not cut out for this mom stuff! We now have a new playpin for Ashton but we made sure to get a cheap one this time and I'm glad that we did because the day after we got the new playpin Jordan got into Pyper's backpack and got her scissors out and cut little holes in this one too but at least they're tiney and it's only like 4 of them...easy to fix.

This is odd...

2009-02-22T19:39:00.000-08:00

So Ashton has been doing all that stuff that babies are suppose to do but just a bit faster than my other two did. He's been really quick at rolling over, cutting teeth, crawling, etc. He just learned to sit up about a week ago and now he has decided that he's ready to stand up. It looks odd to me because he is still so tiny! Spencer caught him standing up in his crib while I was in the living room so I grabbed the camera and Spencer grabbed his cell phone to take a picture. We really have turned into those obnoxious parents who have to document EVERYTHING with a picture and if we miss the "cute thing" then we ask if they can do it again so we can get a picture of get the camcorder....WE ARE SUCK DORKS! Oh well!

The biggest snow flakes EVER!

2009-02-22T19:34:00.000-08:00

Spencer is one of those psycho people who just LOVE snow. He was up late one night and noticed that it was snowing and decided to grab the camera after realizing how HUGE snow flakes were. Here's the picture he took and to be honest...they almost look like "orbs" that people claim to be "spirits" in their photos. Anywho, I thought that it was cool photo so here it is. Way to go honey!!!

The bed time routine

2009-01-25T16:45:00.000-08:00

Apparently our kids take after Spencer and just LOVE books. Pyper is learning how to read at school and she just keeps bringing home books to read. Jordan is following in his big sister's footsteps with the books. He has to have a story read to him before he takes a nap and before he goes to bed at night. To keep the peace, they each get to pick a book to be read to them at bed time. They seem to like having Spencer read to them instead of me, but I don't mind because I HATE READING! I decided that it would be cute to get some pictures of story time and them Pyper wanted to take a picture of Daddy reading the story but Jordan had to be in it too! The picture of Jordan sleeping is one that Spencer took. Jordan has had a habit lately of waking up in the middle of the night and coming into our room (very quietly...we don't even know that he's there) and sleeping next to my side of the bed. However, he does like to change things up once in a while by sleeping either in the middle of the floor in his room, the hallway, or in his closet like in the picture! Gotta love 2 year olds...or not!

Growing up too fast!

2009-01-25T16:37:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that Ashton has been a very fast learner. He rolled over for the first time when he was a week old and by the time he was 4 1/2 months old he was rolling over. He started crawling at 5 months and I just find it so amazing! I think that it has been easier for him to roll over and crawl so early because he's so small and light. Pyper and Jordan were both full term babies and just CHUNKY! Pyper didn't start to crawl until she was about 8 months old and Jordan didn't crawl until he was about 7 or 8 months old. I'll have to catch him on video one of these days yelling, "MA MA MA MA!" The only time he says it is when he's mad and wants someone to pick him up or if he just feels like he's not getting enough attention. I caught him earlier today watching the snow come down outside and stayed in front of the balcony door for about 30 mins just starring outside!

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

2009-01-25T16:32:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about Spencer is that he never forgets our anniversary or my birthday. Pyper and Spencer picked out the ice cream cake and the flowers together and decided to suprise me with them. It was a sweet suprise and it was nice to have the day off work to spend just chillin' with my family.

Crappy New Year!

2009-01-02T13:49:00.000-08:00

We celebrated New Year's Day 2008 with everyone having influenza in our house. This year we rang in the new year with colds for Pyper and Jordan, but poor Ashton wasn't so lucky! I had to work on New Year's day and I was quite tired when I came home. I sat down on the couch after getting Pyper and Jordan in the tub and picked up Ashton to see how he was doing. He had been very congested and had a horrible cough but no runny nose. Spencer said that he had been wheezing and panting so I decided to listen to him breathe. I put my ear up to his back and it sounded like someone was swooshing around a water bottle in there. He had a this little fever that would come and go but I wasn't sure if it was from the cold that he had or from the two teeth that he's cutting. I got nervous after listening to him so we got the kids out of the tub and took Ashton to the after hours clinic for his pediatrician. They took his oxygen levels and they were at about 85 and 86 (suppose to be at 90) and listened to him breathe and watched him breathe. The doctor said that he has RSV but it hasn't gotten too bad yet. They gave him a nebulizer treatment there and then checked his oxygen stats again and listened to him again. He sounded a bit better so they sent us home with a prescription for Albuterol and had set up for some company to drop off the nebulizer machine at our house. We got home and Spencer left to go find a pharmacy that was open to fill the prescription and I waited for the guy to come with the machine. The machine arrived at about midnight and Spencer was on his way home with the prescription, but it took him almost an hour to find a pharmacy that was open on New Year's day! By the time Spencer got back home it was time for Ashton to have another treatment so I set it up for him and I went to bed. I had to take a picture of this because it's funny but sad at the same time. Luckily, he doesn't really mind having the mask on his face for 10 mins every 4-6 hours. The bad part is that we have another 5-7 days of this to get through! What a crappy way to ring in 2009!

Our Christmas Card

2008-12-28T18:29:00.000-08:00

Once again I wasn't prepared completely for Christmas and didn't send out any Christmas cards. I wanted to send them out with a letter enclosed like most people do, but time got away from me and it never got done! So, I figured I would just put it all on here. Here goes our 2008 family recap:
New Year's 2008 was interesting. I was pregnant with Ashton and I had the flu along with Pyper and Jordan. It was not fun to be stuck at home, feeling miserable, missing work. It took about a week but we all got better. Then some other yucky virus came through the house like a week or two later and I was sick AGAIN, missing even more work! I finally got over all of that, went back to work and thought that things would move along as usual....NOT! On Feb. 10th, I was on my way to bed when I noticed police cars and a fire truck pulling into our apartment complex and I could hear a lot of people outside being a bit loud(not unusual for where we live) and I almost ignored it but I decided to check out what was going on instead. Well, our building was on fire. It was my worst nightmare come true....home alone with the kids and no way out except for one long drop to the ground from our third floor apartment. Obviously, we all made it out alive but very shaken up. It took a few days before I could go back to work. I was only back at work for 2 days when they announced that the project I had been working on was going away and we were only going to have jobs until the end of April. At this point, I was having issues with my pregnancy, I was having anxiety attacks at night due to the fire and couldn't sleep, Pyper and Jordan were having nightmares because of the fire, ect. I talked it over with Spencer and we decided that it would be okay if I left work to stay at home until Ashton was born. A good idea considering my doctor was concerned about the problems I was having with the pregnancy. I have to say that after being at home and on "bed rest" is not something I ever want to do again! I love my kids to death, but I don't think I could ever be a full time stay at home mom....I would go insane! I had a couple of overnight stays in the hospital durring my pregnancy which only hightened my anxiety. I was having contractions at 6 months and always really tired which I didn't experience with Pyper and Jordan. Despite my best efforts to carry Ashton to full term he came 3 1/2 weeks early. He was born on July 4th! We were happy to have him at home with us and very happy that he was pretty healthy considering how early he was and how small he was! I finally got back to work on September 2nd and I started training to be a technical support representative for Dell computers. I got all the way through 8 weeks of training, and A+ Certification just to be told that I was going to be laid off for two weeks and then I would start training for the new Verizon FiOS account that was coming. Dell's stocks had taken a turn for the worse so they downsized the project significantly. Spencer had been working the graveyard shift for Dell for just over a year and he was lucky enough to be one of the 60 people that they kept on the project. But because I was new I got booted over to Verizon and I had no other choice. The good part of the move to Verizon was that after completing training we would be given a $400 bonus for staying with the company through such tuff times. I was excited for that because it was going to be on the pay check two days before Christmas! I went through training and was getting more and more anxious for that bonus so that I could get Spencer his Christmas gifts. They were expensive so I had to wait for the bonus. Well, Spencer let his brother Joe borrow our car and he slid on some ice and hit a crub. I went to have the car aligned but was told at two different places that I needed to take it to a body shop. I went to the body shop and they told me that it would cost $490.02 to fix all the damage and that it wasn't safe to be driving my car. I got my bonus on Tuesday the 23rd and it was all gone and then some by Friday the 26th! On a good note, at least I can drive my car now without being scared that the wheel will come off or that I'll drop my engine in the middle of State Street! Christmas was....well...read my previous blog titled "Freakin' DRAMA" to hear about that day. The kids are all doing well and Spencer is happy that he still works for Dell. We hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year. We also pray that 2009 will be better for us than 2008....fingers crossed!!!

Freakin' DRAMA!!!

2008-12-28T18:06:00.000-08:00

Christmas day was going quite well at our house until about 2:00pm. That is when I got a call from my mother in-law, crying, and asking me to go over to my brother in-law's house and ask if Christmas dinner was cancelled. I was a bit nervous about what I might walk into, but I went over to his house and knocked on the door. When he answered the door I asked him about Christmas dinner being cancelled and he said that it wasn't cancelled but asked if we could come at 5:00 instead of 4:00. I said sure and began to walk back home. As I was approaching my apartment I called my mother in-law to let her know that dinner wasn't cancelled and to show up at 5 instead of 4. Spencer's sister answered the phone and said that her mom had left in a hurry and was pissed as hell. It was then that I happen to look at the parking lot to see my mother in-laws car parked right in front of me. I went upstairs to find my mother in-law in tears and very upset. Spencer and I let her vent her frustrations for a while and then she went back home for a while until the Christmas dinner. After all of that I really didn't want to go have a Christmas dinner with a group of people that were all emotionally out of sorts, but we did anyway. I have to admit that it was pretty uncomfortable....to me at least. I do love my in-laws but I hate the drama. It was nice to let the kids play with their cousins for a little while and watch them open their presents from Grandma and Grandpa, but I was relieved when it was time to go home and put an end to one dramatic day! When I was growing up I always thought that my family was weird, nuts, insane, ect. but now that I'm married into another family I have realized that my family isn't as bad as I use to think they were! I miss them so much and I wish that I could have sent Christmas with them....less drama....actually, no drama AT ALL! That would've been nice! Anywho, Christmas is over until next year and then I guess the whole dang thing will start all over again, but I look forward to enjoying the break from it all for a while!!

It's Christmas at the Faulring's

2008-12-28T17:55:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve, Spencer and I got the kids to bed early and made sure they were sound asleep before digging out all the presents that were hidden in our closet. I love playing Santa....so much fun! We didn't get to bed until after midnight, but that was okay because the kids actually slept in on Christmas day until about 8:00am. We watched the kids open their gifts...actually, Spencer got to watch them open things and help them with it while I had the camcorder in one hand and the digital camera in the other! I learned to multitask quite well. I was lucky this year because Spencer bought my Christmas present about a month ago(before the car issue), but Spencer wasn't so lucky. I got my bonus from work on Dec.23rd but it had to go to fix the car instead of getting the Nintendo Wii and the God of War red PSP set that I wanted to get for Spencer. Spencer gave me a beautiful journey necklace and a necklace and earring set that matched one he got for Pyper too! I have to say that I am glad that Christmas is done with until next year and I have won my closet space back for the time being!!!

CRAP!!!!!

2008-12-23T18:21:00.000-08:00

So, I took the car in to get an estimate done. $490.02 worth of repairs need to be done. The rim on the front passenger tire is cracked and is very dangerous to drive on because it's about to come off! I need a new control arm and the ball joint and have the car aligned after that. The mechanic said that once all that stuff is in there and they align the car that it should adjust the sub frame(it holds the engine) back into place because that was also moved about 1/2 an inch out of place. If the repairs don't help the sub frame then they'll need to do more work. They ordered the parts today and will hopefully have them all on Friday so that I can take it in. I only have Tuesday and Friday off so there go my days off to get house work done! My house officially looks like a freakin' pig pin today and is probably just going to get worse. On a good note, I FINALLY got to meet Adelyn yesterday. Everything has been so crazy that I hadn't even had a chance to go see her. She's so adorable and a really good baby....she sleeps through all the noise that the other 4 kids were making(wish I could do that)! Anywho, my theme song for today is, "Bad Day" because it just fits!

Christmas Woes

2008-12-20T13:02:00.000-08:00

So, Christmas isn't going to be as good as I had hoped. Spencer let his brother Joe borrow our car last week and Joe slid out on some black ice. Spencer didn't tell me about it, so when I got in the car last Sunday I noticed that the alignment was WAY off and I asked him about it. At first, he denied any knowledge of it. He later said that he wanted to see how mad I was before he told me what happened to it. I began to think that maybe someone hit our car in our parking lot because it's horrible to drive on when it's icy. Later, Spencer told me what had happened. He said that Joe promised to pay for any repairs and a new tire if we needed one. So, I took the car to Les Schwab to get it aligned and they said that they could do it because the sub frame was bent and so was the control arm. They referred me to a body shop. Joe showed up at Les Schwab when we were leaving and he was apoligizing and promising to pay us back for the repairs. I called two body shops in our area to see about how much it would cost to get it fixed and to set an appointment. One guy I called said that he had just done a car earlier that day with the same issues and it came out to be almost $500.00 and the other guy I called set up an appointment for me to bring the car in on Tuesday to get an estimate. I am just so pissed off becuase I was looking forward to using a $400.00 bonus that I get on Tuesday for some nice gifts for our family and a really nice one for Spencer and now that's probably not going to happen. I am just so freakin' upset right now I just needed to vent so.....there it is!!!

The Chirstmas Tree

2008-12-07T18:32:00.001-08:00

So, last year we put a little 3 ft. tree on Christmas Eve and took it down the day after Christmas. The kids wouldn't leave it alone and so I thought that it would be nice to just put it up, put the presents under it, and then take it down. That worked out great. This year, Pyper started bugging me about putting up the tree on Thanksgiving day and I kept telling her to wait until we could all do it together. Spencer started telling her that we would put it up this weekend so we had to make good on his promise. We put the Christmas tree up pretty easily but then Jordan decided that he wanted to just eat all the candy canes off the tree. I think he had like 3 of them! Spencer handed him a candy cane to put on the tree but Jordan didn't understand so he just started tearing it open and eating it! It was so cute! Pyper was really happy to get all the ornaments on there and once it was turned on it looked alright. However, it has only been up for about 2 hours and Jordan has already tried eating one of the glass balls and then decided to keep taking the big red ones off....he thinks they're apples! I hope that Christmas comes quickly so that I can get this thing out of the living room and put away. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, I just hate being the tree watcher! Pyper decided to go exploring in our bedroom and found one of Jordan's Christmas presents that we had left unwrapped and she saw the one that are already wrapped and wanted to know what they were. I told her that the wrapped boxes were just decoration boxes and that the Cars chair she saw was actually for Gage and Uncle Jon just wanted us to keep it here until Christmas! She's usually a good kid but she has become a bit curious lately which is driving me nuts!

Kaitlyn Practices Being A Big Sister

2008-12-07T18:24:00.000-08:00

Jon dropped off Kaitlyn, Kaisa, and Gage while he went to pick up Bri and Adelyn from the hospital. Kaitlyn always wants to just hold Ashton so I let her hold him for a bit and he just sat there perfectly content and almost fell asleep! When Pyper holds him he screams, but he seemed to be at ease with Kaitlyn. She kept asking me when her dad was going to come back and take them home to be with mommy and the baby...she was so anxious to get home to her new little baby sister. When Jon came to pick the kids up they did their usualy hugs and kisses good bye. They see eachother frequently but they always give hugs and kisses. It was so cute that I thought I'd post some pictures that I took.

A New Faulring

2008-12-04T16:27:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday night I couldn't get to bed until Spencer came home from work because Ashton wouldn't go to sleep. Spencer finally came home at about 12:30AM so I gave Ashton to him and went right to sleep. Then my phone started ringing at 2:30AM and it was my sister in-law, Bri. She called to say that her water broke and she wanted me to come over and sleep at her house with her 3 kids. I got up and told Spencer what was going on and left on my long journey to the other side of our apartment complex! I was a bit suprised how happy and perky Bri was considering she was probably in a bit of pain at this point. Jon and Bri left for the hospital after making sure that Barb, my mother in-law, could come over at about 6AM so that I could go to work. I finally fell asleep by like 3:30 or 4:00 on their couch. I woke up about three seconds before Barb came knocking on the door. I left there, went home, got dressed very quickly, put my contacts in, brushed hair and teeth, and went out the door to work! I was soooooooo tired today but I made it through work without falling asleep, amazingly! I got a text message from Barb at the end of my lunch break saying that Bri finally had the baby. Her name is Adelyn Grayce. She weighs 7lbs 1oz and was 20 1/2 inches long and born at 11:30AM. She had the cord around her neck three times but she was okay. I am very tired right now but I am going to watch Kaitlyn, Kaisa, and Gage tonight until bed time so that Jon can go back to the hospital with Bri. A pretty eventful day to say the least! Jordan was awake when I left my house at 2:30AM and was still awake when I came home at 6:00AM so poor Spencer didn't get any sleep either. WOW...what a freakin' day!

Picture Tag

2008-12-03T17:19:00.000-08:00

Spencer's Cousin tagged me, but I didn't know it! The way it works: take the fourth picture from your fourth folder and post it and then tag four people to do the same and let them know that they've been tagged by posting a comment on their blog. This picture is from September. Pyper was in time out for some reason and making the most horrible face so I(being the kind mother that I am) decided to take a picture of it to use for "blackmail" when she starts dating. So, here it is. I tag Barbie, Lori, Amber, and Bri.

The Terrible Two's Totally Suck!

2008-12-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

Spencer and I were woke up at 5:30AM by our door bell being rang. Spencer went to the door to find one of our neighbors standing at our door with Jordan. Apparently, Jordan got up and decided to go wondering around outside for fun. Our neighbor just happen to see him and knew which apartment we lived in and brought him home. That was so scarry and annoying at the same time, because I keep telling him that when he wakes up he needs to come get in my bed or wake me up and he just always shakes his head yes. So, with that drama over with I went to work. At about 10:15AM Spencer text messages me and says that Jordan drank baby Tylenol and to come home asap. So, I called Spencer from work to see if he thought that Jordan was okay, because I knew that there wasn't hardly any Tylenol left in the bottle. Spencer said that a lot of it was on the kitchen chair and a little bit on his pajamas. So, I went home on my lunch break to make sure that he was okay. He didn't even swallow enough to make him sleepy, his pupils weren't dialated, and his pulse was just fine. Now, I'm shopping online for a pet gate to put across our hallway because they lock into place and that way he can't get out anymore! I'm also going to the store today to buy some safety locks for our cabnets that he can reach with a chair....including the pantry! I love him to death but right now I don't know whether to be happy that he's alright or mad at him for what he's done...I'm kinda torn on that. Anywho, I'm thanking God right now that he's okay.

First time at Chuck E. Cheese

2008-11-30T10:57:00.001-08:00

My neice Kaisa turned 3 on the 28th and my mother in-law turned 50. Since Barb isn't really into celebrating her own birthday we just had fun with Kaisa. Kaisa's birthday party was at Chuck E. Cheese's. I had never been there before and neither had the kids. I was so much fun to watch them play games with eachother and their cousins for a little bit. Pyper was too scared to go on the ride where you sit in a chair with a seat belt and go around in a circle until Jordan did it! Jordan has no fear and Pyper is scared of everything! Jordan freaked out when I put him in the red truck ride and it started to move back and forth and up and down. He almost jumped out of the thing. Luckily, I was standing right there to hold his hand for all of 5 seconds until he caught on to the fact that it was fun and safe! We got TONS of tickets while we were there and just had soooooooo much fun!

Thanksgiving with the Adams Family...OOPS! I mean the Faulring Family!

2008-11-30T10:48:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving with the in-laws is always very interesting. It's usually at Spencer's Aunt's house but they couldn't do it this year. I have to admit that I wasn't upset at all about that because I hate driving all the way up to her house and then have to chase the kids around all night to keep them out of things and keep them away from all the bigger kids so they don't get hurt. This year, Thanksgiving was a bit quieter than usual because there were only 8 people at my mother in-law's house as opposed to the 30-40 people that are usually crammed into Sandy's for Thanksgiving! Spencer's sister Tiffany and her daughter Kaydance were up here visiting from Arizona for the weekend, so Pyper and Jordan got to play with their misplaced cousin and Tiffany got to hold Ashton for the first time! It was fun.

Oh, how the time flies!

2008-11-30T10:41:00.000-08:00

November has been a bit of a blur for me. I feel like Halloween was just a couple of days ago and then suddenly it was time for Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping! Pyper, my little helper, was giving me a break by vacuuming the floor. She also decided to make Daddy "prettier" by giving his face some color! Jordan even sat still for like two seconds so that I could catch a picture of him with his look alike Daddy!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-02T08:14:00.000-08:00

Apparently, I'm a party pooper! I didn't get a costume for Halloween so I just went as myself. Isn't that scary enough?! Anyway, I did get to go around the neighborhood with Freddy Krueger, a black cat, and Blue's Clues! It was fun for about an hour but the kids started just whinning and crying and getting on our nerves so we stopped after an hour of trick or treating. They still got a lot of candy even though we only went for an hour. I love these pictures!

My first attempt at carving!!!

2008-11-02T08:10:00.001-08:00

So, I've never carved a pumpkin before and it shows! The poor pumpkin even lost a tooth because I so totally suck at this! I also learned that I can't draw free hand on ANYTHING! Next time we'll use stencils and I'll let Spencer do this!! But it was fun.

Pyper and Jordan Gut the Pumpkin!

2008-11-02T07:52:00.000-08:00

So, we've never had a pumpkin before....EVER! This year we got a pumpkin because Pyper wanted to carve one. I told her that she could clean it out and I would attempt to carve it. I say attempt because I've never carved a pumpkin before this! The kids had a blast getting all the yucky guts out and we roasted the seeds later for a treat! Ashton just got to chill out on the floor while we made a mess!

School Pictures!

2008-10-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

Pyper just got her pictures back and I just love them! She looks like she's just been caught doing something that she wasn't suppose to!

Pyper says, "No" to drugs!

2008-10-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

So it was drug free week at school. Pyper came home and began telling me how bad drugs are and that she'll never do them(fingers crossed)! Pyper is loving school.

Jordan's black eye!

2008-10-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

So instead of going to bed the other night, Jordan and Pyper decided that it was time to play instead. So Jordan fell onto a stool that was laying upside down in their room and scratched his face on it and gave himself a black eye. You can't see it very well in the picture but it looks horrible! You'd think that he'd learn to listen after that, but NO....they're in there playing again instead of going to sleep. Go figure!

Angry Ashton!

2008-10-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

Ashton has developed this aweful habit lately of just crying almost the whole time he's awake. He wants to be held 24/7 so I have to just let him cry sometimes so that he doesn't get use to just being picked up all the time. He turns "apple red".

It's been a long month!

2008-09-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

September has been a crazy month around here. I went back to work and I have to be there at 6:00 am so that really sucks! Pyper has been moved from a small group kindergarten to regular kindergarten so she has a ton of homework to get done. Jordan is doing the most work though. We removed the sliding rail from the crib to get him use to being in a bed without it. Now, he just gets out of bed like 50 times at night instead of just going to sleep. Also, he's been trying to potty train. I decided to finally buckle down on that b/c he pooped on my couch today! We alos replaced our dying television with a really nice one! I love it. Other than all of that.....we are doing just fine and feeling perfectly "sane"! LOL!!!

My baby is getting so big!

2008-09-30T20:51:00.001-07:00

Wow! It's amazing how quickly these kids grow. Ashton is getting bigger and bigger every day. He's very alert and friendly. He's a really good baby.....thank heaven!

Pyper's Fall Fashion

2008-08-25T00:32:00.000-07:00

Our baby starts kindergarden on August 25th! We did some back to school shopping and got her a whole bunch of new clothes to go with her new hair cut.

Pyper's photos

2008-08-25T00:26:00.000-07:00

Pyper decided that she wanted to take a couple of pictures. First, she wrapped Spencer up like a mummy. That was quite entertaining! She wanted to take a picture of Mommy and Daddy together and she didn't do too bad of a job.

Adapting to having three children!

2008-08-11T20:13:00.000-07:00

At 1:00 a.m. today I woke up to feed Ashton, like normal, but quickly found that it wouldn't prove to be as easy as usual. I made a bottle for Ashton and then I heard Jordan screaming in his room. So, I went in and tried to get him to go back to sleep. I left his room and he started screaming again, so I took him out of his crib and put him in my bed and told him to go to sleep. He was wide awake and wanted to play with the baby since Ashton was wide awake as well. They both seem to calm down a bit so I left the room to put Ashton's bottle in the sink when Pyper comes into the kitchen complaining of a headache! Then I ended up with ALL THREE in my bed and WIDE AWAKE! Spencer had the night off so I told him to go spend some time with his friends (they're all grave yard workers like him) so he was gone. I just love Pyper's headache picture....she looks horrible!

Took me long enough!

2008-08-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

I finally learned how to get pictures from my phone to my computer! These are a couple of my favorite pictures that I had on my phone. The one of him in the car seat was taken while I was waiting for Spencer to pick us up from the hospital to go home. The other picture was taken when he was five days old.

Spencer's new look

2008-07-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

Pyper caught Daddy sleeping and decided to paint his nails purple. Spencer seems to enjoy this greatly and tends to keep the paint on his nails for a while and shows it off at work! Go figure.

Jordan finally has an excuse for his attitude!

2008-07-21T21:16:00.001-07:00

Jordan turned two on July 12th giving him an official excuse for his new attitude! We were just going to celebrate his birthday without any other family or friends. We wanted to keep things simple and quiet because Ashton was only a week old. However, Isaac's birthday was on the 11th so my mother in law decided to throw both of them a party at the park at the last minute. Sadly, no one remembered to tell Jon and Bri about it so they weren't there.

Kaisa and her Tiny

2008-07-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

My niece Kaisa has renamed my son....Ashton's new name is Tiny. And not just Tiny, but HER TINY! Kaisa and Gage came to meet their new cousin and had fun!

Being the big sister and brother!

2008-07-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

Pyper has adjusted quite well to having a baby in the house again. She loves to help with feeding, diaper changing, burping, ect. She's quite the little mommy! Jordan just seems to be in awe over the whole thing now. When Ashton cries, Jordan starts shoving the binki back into Ashton's mouth....it's kinda scary sometimes!

My smallest baby yet!

2008-07-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

Pyper seems to think that Ashton is a doll sometimes and I can see why. He's not much bigger than "her baby Ashton" that she's been carrying around for the past few months!

Our newest addition

2008-07-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

He is 3 weeks early but we're glad to have him. Ashton was due on July 27 but was born on July 4 due to complications. Pyper has adjusted well to having a new baby around. She loves to just hold him and smother him with kisses and hugs. Jordan is a different story....he's having issues with the new baby "taking his place" in things. I went grocery shopping with all three kids the other day and Jordan just screamed the whole time and would throw himself on the floor at Wal Mart, ect. By the time I got to the check out line I was about to "strangle" him so I took Ashton's car seat out of the shopping cart seat and put Jordan in the shopping cart....HE FINALLY SHUT UP! He was freaking out because Ashton was in his spot in the shopping cart! Spencer is loving having a baby around and holds him as much as possible. I am happy that he's here and healthy because I was very concerned about how things would turn out given all the problems I had durring my pregnancy. It's sad, now I have to go back to work and for the first time IN MY LIFE....I DON'T WANT TO GO!

It's going to be a long summer!

2008-06-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

After Pyper's birthday party in April things got a little hectic around here so we didn't get to go out much. I haven't been able to get a lot of pictures of the kids lately so that is why there was such a delay in getting these on here. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

Pyper's Birthday

2008-04-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

We had a birthday party for Pyper today at our house. It was a bit cramped but fun! Pyper shares a birthday with her great-grandma so it is always fun to have them together for the party!

I'll give this a try!

2008-04-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

I am going to try to be a good blogger and get some stuff out there for our family and friends to view. Just realize that I do not have a single artistic or creative bone in my body! Any feedback on how to improve this will be greatly appreciated!