Anyone got a Penny?

Happy Anniversary to us! Today was our 7th anniversary. In case you were wondering what you were supposed to get us... Copper! Yep all you would have had to do is give us a shiny (or dull) penny and you could have called it a present. That doesn't happen often so I'm sorry that everyone lost that opportunity. So time to reminisce...

Since I (Jennifer) am the one who writes in our blog, I will make this an ode to Adam entry.

In fact, I have tried to write this several times, but I can not seem to put into words the way I feel about my husband. He has changed me for the better, he has given me 4 beautiful children and he has given me sweet dreams at night. He is more than I deserve and I do believe that this world is better because he is in it.

So before you think that I am exaggerating let me give you some examples:

• I have received breakfast in bed since I had Preston.
• He puts Kelly, Paige and Tommy to bed every night
• He loads the dishwasher before going to bed
• He helps get the kids ready for school in the morning.
• he takes the trash out.
• He still laughs at my jokes... yep it's true

So now you have it. Don't be jealous there is only one Adam and I snagged him 7 years ago.

Here we are in 2000 shortly after we were engaged.

Here we are in 2003, this was when Adam graduated BYU. Little did I know we had even more school to finish.

Here we are tonight. 7 years down. Many more to go.

Family Christmas Pictures

So I have to come to accept the fact that having 4 children means NO PERFECT FAMILY PICTURES! It is definitely hard for me to come to grips with, but I am trying.

So no witty remarks or funny stories, just warm sappy happy feelings when I look at these pictures of my babies.

What would you do with Foam Stickers??

Just a question I think every person will be faced with at some point in their life... Hopefully you will be able to stop global warming, end world hunger or create a peaceful nation. Not my children though, maybe with age they will learn how useful Foam stickers can be. OR they have the right idea, and the way to create a peaceful nation would be for everyone to walk around with foam stickers all over their bodies. No one could be mad then, Right? Hmmm maybe I wasn't giving my children enough credit.

Hey maybe I should nominate them for a Nobel Peace Prize, I mean if Al Gore can win, they must be hurting for submissions.

Somehow I think Kelly makes it look stylish.

Paige trying to start a new fashion Trend.

My mother says he looks like Spock in this pic. If so he's the cutest spock I've ever seen.

Does this count as hazing?? Poor Guy! What did he ever do to them. Actually I think he kind of likes it.

The Forgotten Birthdays Club

So yesterday was my birthday HOORAY!! I received wonderful things like a camcorder and Adobe Photoshop and my friend down the street made me a super cute bag. It really was a nice birthday (except that we drove across the state to get to STL.) So back to my topic of the day: If you are wondering why this entry is called the forgotten birthdays club, then you OBVIOUSLY were not born in the last 2 weeks of December. I mean I don't want to exclude the first 2 weeks, but I'm going to. Here are a list of things said often or happen to people in the "Forgotten Birthdays Club":

• you hear "I was going to call, but I had so much going on with the Holidays"
• you are asked "Is it okay if I combine your birthday present and your Christmas present"
• you are given many Christmas Decorations as Birthday presents (can you say clearance)
• you come to accept that you will not be having any "Birthday Celebrations" with your friends (because they are busy with the Holidays)
• your friends say, "In case I forget, Happy Birthday" (usually said a couple days before your birthday)
• you learn how much you appreciate those who do call... or send money

So if you are reading this thinking Jen's Having a pity party, you would be wrong. I have now had 27 birthdays to get used to this, and I have come to accept my circumstances. In fact that's why my friend and I have started the "Forgotten Birthdays" club (she will remain nameless, because she doesn't blog or read my blog). So on the 29th of this month my friend and I are going out to eat with our spouses to celebrate our Birthdays. It will be a joyous occasion filled with happiness, laughter and hopefully some birthday cake! (Which is one thing I didn't get this year).

Happy Holidays and Happy Birthday to all of you silent members of the Forgotten Birthdays Club.

ETA: This was not meant to give you a guilt trip, please no more comments apologizing I do realize many people get forgotten and I did get many phone calls from my friends. Don't take my post seriously.

Let it snow! (as long as it stays clean)

So I have a few rules for snow:

• it needs to come quickly and in the form of thick pretty flakes
• it should stay white, once it gets dirty it needs to be gone
• it should not stay longer than a week, it starts to complicate things
• it should not come with any ice, I don't like ice or the sound made to clean it off of my windshield
• It should bring only ONE snow day for my children. One is enough there is no need for 2 or more.

Well enough with my rules, here are some pictures.

Tommy having a blast

The girls coming down the hill

Blue eyes himself

Daddy and Tommy My girls sledding all by themselves! (How big they are) Look at those boots! (I picked them out myself)Preston gets in on the action (don't worry he really didn't go sledding)

The Purpose of the Christmas Card

So I've been thinking about the reason for Christmas cards. I know that I love getting them and staring at the pictures and seeing how cute (or not so cute) the people look. Honestly I don't think it matters if I even know the people in the card. I just like looking at them.

So it brings me to my point (well not really). Do we really send out Christmas cards to keep people updated or do we do it to brag. Should we really call them "Look how great I can make my life look cards"... I know that when I write up our family letter this week. I will probably improve the truth a little by saying things like:

• Paige is "Spirited" (that really means that she always wants her way)
• Tommy is "adventurous" (which translates into he sticks many unknown objects up his nose to see how far they will go)
• Kelly is growing into a "little lady" (that means that she now thinks she doesn't have to ask her parents before doing ANYTHING. Including drawing on furniture and taking mommy's makeup.
• Preston keeps us on our toes: (obviously this means that since he keeps us on our toes we are not sleeping)

So now that I have confessed how not perfect my life is, I have to follow it with the obviously cheesy but true statement: I wouldn't change it.

Yes I know how corny and sappy that sounds, but it is the Christmas season and you do really sit back and think about the bigger picture. Life is not easy right now at the Wehrmeister House, but it is the one we signed up for and we take full responsibility for it and we wouldn't change it. Our children are not perfect, but we keep them around because they are our reminders.

• They remind us that kids grow up too quickly and we can't keep waiting for them to "outgrow" a phase
• They remind us that it is inappropriate to tell women that they "look like they have a baby in their tummy"
• They remind us that there is something miraculous about a smile. Whether you are the giver or the reciever, it is undeniable the power that a smile has.
• They remind us that there is something special about 3:30 in the morning. I still haven't figured out what it is yet, but I have a feeling that Preston is going to keep waking me up at that time until I get it.

Blessing Preston

So today was wonderful! We got to bless our beautiful baby boy at church. There isn't really much to add besides that. We had a great time with all of our family with us.

After the Blessing

Grampy and the kiddos!!

This is Adam and Tommy's mean face. Tommy's isn't mean enough.

I guess this would be Santa's little helper.

Cutie Kelly

These are Monkey ears, but they look more like Bear ears.

Fall's here!

So as the days have been passing it has become very apparent that we are running out of time to play in the leaves. It seems to be getting colder all the time and nobody likes to play in the leaves once they are nice and soggy. Sooo... I finally got them all out there to play. Of course part of my reasoning was to get some good pics for their scrapbooks. (I told Paige that everybody wears overalls when they play in the leaves. It's kind of like a rule.)

Paige and Tommy were having the most fun in the leaves. Kelly... not so much. She liked it at the beginning, but then she wanted to play tag, and noone wanted to play with her.

Little Preston in a wagon. He is now one month old.

Tommy decided to take Preston for a walk.

So I know it's not the best picture, but it was a one shot kind of deal. The girls were cooperating so well, and I finally got Tommy to run over and lay down for a moment. Then he jumped up grabbed more leaves and ran off again. Sooo... This is it

Tommy seemed at home in the leaves. He loved rolling around and throwing them. Maybe he thinks he is a squirrell.

Modern Day Tooth Fairy

Really, Need I say more?

Happy Halloween!!

So our Halloween went really well. Adam went out with the monsters and I stayed back with baby Preston. We were in charge of handing out all the candy.

Of course before I let them leave I made them take about 50 pictures. It was taking a long time to get good ones so I started bribing them with candy. We eventually got some good pictures. I still don't think I have one where they are all looking at me, but I can't have it all I guess.

Here we are outside the townhouse by a tree. I tried taking pictures on the otherside of the tree, but Tommy was too interested with turning around, so I had to change my shot.

This picture makes me laugh. Kelly looks adorable and then you notice the little frog in the corner. I mean it I couldn't get Tommy out of the tree... maybe he was a tree frog.

Here is baby Preston. The costume he had on kept him really warm. He was very comfortable in it.

I would say Peek-A-Boo! and he would poke his head through the tree. I was just happy to finally get him to look at the camera.

Here is our scary Purple dragon Paige. Originally we had wanted her to be the wicked witch, since Kelly was Dorothy. She thought it was a great idea at first, but then our neighbor told her that she would have to have green skin for the night and she changed her mind fast... Well untill 10 minutes before they were supposed to go Trick-or-Treating. When I was putting her costume on her she looked at me and said, "Mom, I changed my mind. I'd like to be a witch for Halloween." It was a very Paige moment.

So here I am with Preston. He was great during Trick-or-Treating. He just slept in my arms the whole time.

Is he getting any bigger?

So paranoid Jen (that's me), sits and stares at Preston everyday to see if he looks any bigger. I wasn't sure at first, but he finally is starting to look like he is growing. What do you think?

Okay here he is still in the hospital. Not my favorite pic, but it'll do.

This pic had to be when he was about a week old. He doesn't look any bigger yet. But then again maybe I was looking for drastic changes. (he's only a week and I've already set super high expectations... my poor children)

A week and a half here. Not much bigger (if any) but he is looking more alert.

Here is 2 weeks. It looks like he shrunk to me, but that's with my crazy mom eyes on. (Did you know I even took him outside to ask my friends if he looked any bigger.)

This picture was from yesterday (2.5 weeks), and he is finally starting to look bigger to me. See I know I'm crazy, but at least I admit it.

Okay we can stop operation "Is he growing"

Homeward Bound

So we survived the hospital and are now off to see if we can make it on our own. Or to see if Preston can survive being around his siblings 24/7. Hopefully we have success all around, but only time will tell.

Practically Perfect in every way

Today we finally got to meet our precious new baby. He arrived at 8:58 am on Friday, October 12th. We were hoping that he would weigh at least 9 lbs, but he only made it to 8lbs 12 oz and19 inches long. (We'll keep him anyway) . Preston came out kind of crooked. I didn't know that when you had a c-section, the baby could get stuck. But Preston did. If anyone wants to see pictures of my stomach cut open with half a baby stuck, let me know and I'll send it to you. I just really don't want to post it here (even though it was one of my finer moments). The Dr. thought he might have hurt Preston's hips, but he was wrong.

Preston Joseph "brand spankin new"

I laugh at this picture, because to me it looks like he is trying to cover his ears, which doesn't make much sense, because Preston was the one that wouldn't stop crying after he came out.

Mom, Dad and baby Preston It's probably one of my better pictures

We think he is quite cute!

Mom and Preston (I think I should be yawning too!)