A sampling of What the Wheat is.. Sleeping.......
Being too cute but trying to get in the fireplace with a pretzel in her mouth.
Running the St. Jude half. My Cuz Dani and Uncle and Jed were all running too. But this was the best picture. The race was so much fun and hard! If you asked me right afterwards if I would ever would do it again I would say no... but after having some time to recoup I'm totally up for another one! What a great feeling to accomplish something!

This is us celebrating the night we Jed called on his way home and said he passed the final part of the CPA exam. The kids wanted to throw a surprise party (cause that's logical right?) it was very last minute but we did have his favorite spaghetti and he went and bought the best German choc. brownies! When he gets the official paperwork from the state then I think we will go and have a high class dinner and spend his 401k (Just kidding but a girl can dream).

This holiday is coming up fast and we have my brother Levi's wedding to get ready for on New Years Eve. Life is fun! :)

Lets Get Together and be All Right

All right this about the closet I'll ever get to being political guys. so here goes....

My kids are watching a show on PBS about Hanukkah(don't even know if I spelled this right). They are TOTALLY into it. I actually should be in their watching it too so I can learn something but it just got my thinking about tolerance. We need much more tolerance in this world. We are so quick to judge, so eager to fight each other about issues, not willing to see the other side of things. Yes, there are times when you have to stand up for what is right but there can be way of doing this that doesn't involve anger. I am disgusted with politics because people just bicker at why the other side is wrong. I have no solutions to our nations big problems. However, I believe that our nation is a better one because we have the ability to speak our hearts and minds. So, before you go and call someone a Uptight Republican or Hippie Liberal, realize that some of us are a little of both.
In your personal lives at home, with friends, with your kids are you creating an environment of critical thinking or an environment based on you do what I say because I say. I believe strongly in the power of choice. God gave us choice because He expects us to use it wisely.

With so much to be for grateful for this Holiday Season, you must take away the negative and focus on the positive of life. You will change be doing this. Running this half marathon has taught me about the power of choice, the power of attitude, the power of what is inside. It has literally slowly begun to change the way I see the world. It is a blessing. A strange and wonderful blessing to see so much beauty in all things. I know some of you feel the same way and I know some of you are struggling to find it but you will. Enjoy your decorating today! Love to all!

Val

Blog to Book

I was wondering if any of you bloggers out there know of a way to turn your blog into a book. I just joined Shutterfly and they have a program where you can make a book but I was wondering if anyone has made a book out there using Shutterfly or Heritage Makers?

Let me know please!:) Also, if your daughter tries to put her hat back into the van before going into the zoo try not to crush her hand and give her a small wrist fracture. Thanks!

Finally accomplished some blogging...

Annie Turns 4. Wait, What?! I love this little girl! She is so smart and silly!
Happy Halloween! Jed and I attended an amazing party this year! We even won a game for collecting the most rats! I love to win!
Lucy trying to be a pea in the pod. I assumed she would fit into this and didn't try it on before the festival at church. O well! She's in our third Pea in the Pod.



Annie opening her very cute headband from Oma.

This month went by so fast! I'm running every weekend and that is taking up alot of my free time. I'm up to 8 miles now. Lucy is great but doesn't like to sleep at night which is kinda hard on the rest of us.

Here are the kids stats:

Lucy 8 months 16 pounds 27 in
Annie 31.1 pounds 3912 in
Claire 29.8 pounds 40 in.

Yes. it happened Annie is slowly starting to outgrow Claire. Hope this won't be too traumatic for her! at least she has that 1/2 in height (for now). Busy season coming this year with a wedding at the end of the year for my brother!

October 2010

Annie wearing her birthday outfit she picked out. More pictures of the birthday later. I'm trying to catch up! :)
We celebrated the life of a good friend of ours on Oct. 9. Derrick passed away in December 2005 at the age of the 25. This year would have been his 30th birthday. Jed was a band with Andrew Hyde and Derrick. They are wearing their band t-shirts. Jed had an original t-shirt and we new ones made for his family and some friends.
His sisters and mother in the middle. We love them!
Oma and Opa with the kids

Playing Catch up?

Do you ever catch up? I used to all the time. Lately, I have barely had time to figure out what to do the next hour! But for the last hour today, I have read all of your blogs. Guess you could say I was catching up on you. If I had time I would have commented on all of your blogs but instead I'll just leave a few comments here!

Amanda Boo- I hope your baby comes soon! Your going to handle two little ones like a champ no worries!

Dani-I'll see you soon! Your trips are making me exhausted just looking at them! ;)

Erin- Congrats on the new house!

Sarah-I checked out your husband's new blog. I can only understand half of it. ;)

Its time for me to get my running shoes on now. Catch ya'll later!

Post 150

3rd children will fall asleep anywhere.

Read Below for more info!


Wow, I can't believe I've been doing this so long. This time you will be seeing a hodgepodge of pictures from August.

Clarie turned 5. I am so lucky to get to keep her an extra year at home! She is reading lots of sight words and I think she is really enjoying playing with Annie more than ever. Its almost like they know this is the last time they will be together all the time. Claire is my most stubborn child but also my brightest star. I love her and all the good things about her!

My sister in law, Megan, and was married August 21. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple. I am sooo happy for her and her daughter! They have landed themselves a great guy, Andrew. We were only in Utah for 3 days. We left the big girls behind at Grandma's. Lucy was her usual angel self. She slept the entire flight home (3 and half hours) and then in the car till we got to our final destination. I was shocked!

I'm thinking its about time for fall to start! I have been "running" walk/running for the last 6 weeks. I am doing the St. Jude Half Marathaon Dec. 4. It will be so much nicer when the weather will cooperate a little better! Also, we have weekend planned of Cooper Young Festival and a family drive to Shiloh. Maybe if your lucky I'll take some pictures. For now enjoy the old photos!

Courage

I hope you will take the time to watch this video. As a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints, I am so humbled to "know" Stephanie. I hope to be as beautiful as she is one day. Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father want us to return home. They will guide us there as we have faith and the courage in their plan.

Update

I feel as if I've been leaving the blog world hanging for a while now. Here's whats new:

My brother Thomas left July 26 for the Santaigo Chile Mission. He will be serving there for the next two years. He is currently learning Spanish in Utah and will be going to Chile in September. I can only imagine how amazing this will be for him! This his him at his Farewell Open House. The missionaries serving in Memphis came by to say good bye!

Clarie Bear turned 5. I'm hoping at her next check up she will be big enough to at least not have to sit in a regular car seat anymore. But who know? at 4 she was still only 28 pounds so we'll see. She won't be going until the end of October. She is the smartest girl! She can read some sight words now like cat, the, dog.... I guess her preschool is going to have to keep her pretty busy this year. She doesn't seem upset that some of her friends are starting Kindergarten this year. I will be so sad next year without her.

Annie continues to change her outfits at least twice a day. She also continues to be the comic relief in this house.

Lucy and Daddy are bonding alot these days. He often comes home from work, eats dinner, and then takes her upstairs. Sometimes he is on his laptop studying for the 4th Cpa exam and sometimes I have no idea what they are doing up there but I'm glad they get their time in.

Myrtle Beach (and other reasons I haven't been blogging)

Since, I always upload my pictures backwards. I guess I'll take you on the trip backwards as well. Okay so this is day 5. Monday. That day the boys went and played the World Tour Golf Course and the girls went shopping. That night we did the special beach pictures. In the rain, and wind, and kids were screaming (okay just Claire was screaming) these are a few we took with my camera then the professional got there and thats when all hell really let loose. (more pictures to come on that). Missing the the big group shot is my Levi's finance Jenn and Vance's girlfriend Rebekkah. (more pictures of that to come too)

Day 4- Beach all day. Seafood Buffet at Night. Best crab legs EVER!
Lucy is not a fan of the beach.
Day 3- Children's Muesuem and Date Night. (not pictured) but we went to a the Flying Fish.


Day 2- Beach in the morning/Ripley's Aquarium in the afternoon
Day One- Quick Beach trip and then Cirqu de Sole type show (not pictured!) and then Boardwalk on the Beach and a Bennihanna type restaurant (not as good though.. but funner chefs)
My cutie baby on a plane! Day 0 ( boo for travel days but yea for Travel T Tyedie style!)

Also as soon as we got back we had

1. Swimming Lessons everyday ( YES THEY SWIM!!!!) so awesome
2. Helped with going away party for my brother Thomas. He is going on a two year Mission to Chile. Going to miss him crazy bad!

Summer Time...

Okay ya'll where is summer going?! Its already almost July 4th!! What!?

Well I don't know about you but my summer is flying by and yet I feel like I've accomplished very little. Maybe that is what being a housewife is all about, running around till your crazy, only to realize it starts over tomorrow? Sometimes I know I make my life harder and stress about things that don't matter much. Also, I hope its not just me, but don't you have the fear of being bored?! So then you try to cram as much into each day as you can. For instance here are things that I am currently doing virtually all that the same time: Reading The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Watching BostonMED on Hulu, learning how to cook better and loving it. I have a major back log of recipes already waiting for me, thinking about how i haven't printed any of Lucy's pictures out yet ever... but I did buy her scrapbook, oh yeah, taking care of those little people around here who call me mom, wondering why I haven't taken to Claire to the dentist yet ever?! Its that terrible or what? She is almost 5 but we don't have dental insurance so I haven't quite got around to it.... o yea and Jed needs physical he is 30 now.. That is something grown-ups do right? WOW. Thought I would feel better if got this out ....maybe I will later..... for now..... I think I have a long weekend and a Family vacation (with my WHOLE Fearnley family-14 people total, including both my brother significant other ladies in their life) to prepare for.

Okay how about you? Whats on your mind? I know you have something!:)

Happy Early Father's Day Baby!

Well, As you can see Jed loved babies from the start! That cabbage patch doll might be a lion but come on its still a doll! and I love it!




Q and A with the Girls for their Daddy:

1. What is your Dad's name? Jed

2. What does your dad do for fun? Annie- said: work and fish Claire said: Ask me what does daddy does for fun after dinner? Hold Lucy!

3. What does your dad like to eat? Claire: Fish Annie: sometimes daddy likes to eat fishes when we go to the fishing hole.. Claire: we've never been to the fishing hole

4. How old is daddy? Clarie-we dont' know
Annie- 3?

5. What does do daddy do that is very fun? Claire- Play with me and Annie
Annie- Kiss me

6. What does your daddy do all day? WORK!

7. When does your daddy look handsome? Claire- On church days

8. What is your favorite thing about daddy? Annie- Just swinging Claire-that he likes his girls

Annie- hey that was supposed to be my answer

Love you Happy Father's Day!

I love you just the way you are

Yesterday I had one of the first ever moments where I really wanted time to stand still. Claire and I were sitting on the couch just talking about her school, her friends, and just other four year old stuff. It was great. and I realized she is 4 going on 5 and suddenly I'll look up and she will be saying those three little words every mother longs to hear from their teenager: I HATE YOU! So dear Father Time can you please stop time for a little while, I promise to spend extra time with my girls while they are little if you can just keep them small. Annie thinks I am her best friend. Lucy adores me. I have so much fun playing with them. Also, while your at it, I would prefer to stay 27 and wrinkle free for a little while longer.

God Blessed the Broken Road

After listening to that song in the car the other day Claire and I had the following convo:

Claire- Mom, why did he say God blessed the broken road?

Me: Well, he's saying that the road he was on was broken and he was blessed because God showed him a better way.

Claire: No, but Mom, WHO broke the road?

Me: Well noone broke the road, i mean, okay, so like its a metaphor, like he's saying the road it like life and his life was broken and then God helped him find a better life. So the song uses the word road but he really means life.

..... a few minutes go by and then we are listening to Hannanah Montana ... the song its called "Lets Do This"... all the moms will know what I'm talking about and Claire said, " So Mom what is this song really about?.....

She's one smart cookie!!

May is SOO Busy!

Lucy smiles!

Lucy was blessed on May 1st. All three girls wore the same dress!
Ballet Recital the weekend of Mother's Day. Hope to be posting the video soon.

The month is only half over and already we've done alot! Celebrated our anniversary at Mellow Mushroom followed by a movie. My mother is a saint and watched all three kids !! Also Happy times on both sides of the family with engagements and my brother Thomas ran the Nashville Marathon! Summer is coming and I'm not looking back!

I Won!

Thanks so much to Amanda Cantrell (http://lukeamandacantrell.blogspot.com/) for giving me this award! Its awesome! I'm supposed to pass it on to seven blogs that I think are beautiful too! But first... I need to see who out there stalks me! ( Just kidding) but seriously if you read my blog and your not on my sidebar leave a comment so I can add you! I love how the internet keeps us in touch!

A Message from the Heart

I'm writing from the heart today so I hope I make sense. I've had some experiences in the last few weeks that have made me look at my children with gratitude. Watching the heartache of people who want children and can't have any has touched my heart. Most people out here who read this know I got pregnant in high school and placed a child for adoption. If you didn't know, well I'm sure your surprised! This is not normally not something I would put out there on the world wide web, but, as time goes by I realize this is part of ME- it makes me who I am, My point in sharing this information, is that I feel I have a unique perspective on the topic of adoption. My heart has been broken, reformed, and healed. Part of the healing comes from watching couples who sit and wait for children and it makes what I went through worth it. Because I know my sweet first baby went to the right place at the right time to a family that had been waiting for years... to add to their family. Then me, a confused 18 year old, got a chance to start over in life, gain a new relationship with God, and improve myself and I ended up with This:
Who could ask for more? Hug your babies tonight and pray for those families and girls who find themselves in situations they never imagined.

Slideshow for Opa and Jed ... I figured out how to upload it!!

Don't forget to turn off the player at the bottom!!

I Love you Jed!! Even if your 30!!

For the actual real day of Jed's birthday, we didn't do much except have our photos taken by the amazing Linda Prows. But little did Jed know that his mom, sister, and I had been planning a surprise party for the 27th of March. It was pulled off to perfection! His dad turned 60 on March 17th so the party was in honor of both wonderful men! He was totally surprised and didn't suspect anything till we got to the parking lot at which point he just said How did you pull this off? I'm very very sneaky! I'm hoping to share the slideshow I prepared for them if I can figure out how to share it on the internet!

Food

I confess I started watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Much like the small town Jamie steps in to help, I was skeptical about what he would do. For those of you not watching, basically, Jamie goes into a small town in VA and works in a local school to improve and educate both the quality and types of foods that they are eating. At first, it seems like he's really saying that these people are ignorant or something, and yes, of course they show him going into a class of Kindergarten kids and some of the kids thinking tomatoes are potatoes. I highly doubt every kid in that class actually thought that but it makes good t.v. to show the kids who really were clueless as to what the vegetables were.

Anyways, I fee like I am rambling here... My point is this..... I love Food. I've found that the older I'm getting the more interested I am becoming on improving my skills as a cook. I could watch Food Network all day and love it. I am beginning to really enjoy cooking and find it good therapy for my soul. So, as I have begun watching this show, it has made me think about what I feed my family. How much processed foods do we eat in a week? in a day? and I think we should all start becoming more aware of what we are doing to ourselves and our families. Now, I am not suggesting that I will start shopping at whole foods every week or that I am banning chicken nuggets ( although seriously people at least I hope your buying the kind that is made out of real chicken breasts not rib meat!!) but what I am suggesting is that you start becoming aware of what you are eating and feeding your children. In the show, the school system was feeding kids pizza for breakfast and only had flavored milks! I mean seriously, We can do better than that for our kids and we should be. So, all this being said, watch this show.... it comes on ABC on Fridays or you can watch it online and start thinking about how you can educate your own family about good eating habits! and then if your children are in school, find out what kinds of food they are serving at lunch and take action if there needs to be changes made.

My new goal is that our family will be eating at least one meal a day that involves real cooking not reheating something that was processed or already cooked and frozen or packaged (like chicken nuggets, frozen pizza, etc...) and I think you should take that challenge too! I plan to buy Jamie Oliver's new book and hopefully I'll be able to share what I'm learning with you! The end and good luck. Another great post about this show can be found on Rachel's cooking blog on my side bar. :)

Adjustment Period...

Just a little update on us...

So far my girls have:
1.Cut their own hair
2. smashed playdough in the carpet
3. poured out an entire bag of chips while mommy was napping
4. clogged the toilet with toilet paper
5. Cut a hole in one of those balls full of little tiny beads

You can also guess the Fugi is responsible for most of these. Although Clarie did tell a pretty good lie about how her hair got cut, and later we found the hair in her shoe because she was hiding it from me. At least she just gave herself a trim and not bangs.
Lucy is doing well. She eats alot!! Also she poops alot!! But these things are all fun I have in my day! I'm looking forward to the day when we can debut as a family of 5 somewhere. Hold on world... We're coming....

Everybody Loves Lucy

Lucy Denise Born March 8, 2010 at 4:02 p.m. She shares her birthday with her Great Grandpa Hiatt! How fun! He also shared his birthday with his Great Grandma! Guess its a family tradition.
Grandpa Fearnley
Oma, also there but not pictured are Opa, Aunt Megan, and Tessa
Thomas-my escort to the pediatraction yesterday. Jed had to work and I'm still not driving.. they wanted to check out her weight and her jaundice. Everything checked out fine.
Shelby all my other siblings have been by in one way or the other to visit
Grandma Fearnley

We are so blessed to have another little girl at home. I can't describe the joy she brings us!! Thanks to everyone for all the love and support! Now, someone please explain breastfeeding to Annie.!! She thinks the baby is "eating me" again.