Princess Miriena Adaline Sorenson

Miri's birthday was January 21st. We celelbrated it with a princess birthday party. She said she had a great time. She has become quite the deep thinker since turning 4. Today she struck up this Conversation:

Miri: "Mom are you going to stay with Joe"
Mom: "What do you mean?... Joe Huhh"
Miri: "Are you going to stay with Joe for ever and ever"
Mom: Oh Daddy, Yes Miri forever and ever."
Miri: "I love you sweety mom"

She calls me sweety mom and has started putting it to song!!! I love being her mom and am trying to eat up every moment, she truly is a princess!!!

"Why do you have to be so Mean"

So I keep working on this yelling thing and I start to get a hold on it and then I slack and I'm back to the old habits. I told a friend the other day, "I'm yelling and saying critical things to my kids and at the same time my inner dialoge is already telling me to stop talking and that I'm so silly for yelling." I'm the master at threats too and that one has got to stop as well. Neither really work and as Joe very tactfully declared "the kids aren't trusting you'll do what you say you'll do."
So I was depressed yesterday and thinking here we go again then last night as I was yelling at Aspen she ask the questions "Why do you have to be so mean?" Why.. really..that's a good point...I don't really know why. I'm a bit of a control freak I've decided at least with my kids. So today I tried to be less mean and this is going to be my new gas for a while to get me moving in the right direction again.
Children are amazing. In the last year Jeff gave me some great advice when I was seaking suggestions on what to do about the negative behavior of my kids. He said "mom, focus on the possitive not the negative." Something I've said a bunch of times but was failing to live by. A much needed reminder and return of where my focus should be. He also said on another occasion "instead of punishing us reward us for good behavior." Now that one, was all him and I was pretty impressed. I don't know how much I'd learn if I just took the time to listen even half the time my kids are talking but I imagine it would be a shock to discover! So I'm off to bed to wake up to another day of being nice instead of mean!!!Wahoo to life and moving forward!!!

Gabriel had a sliver I couldn't get out. He said "here give it to me" refering to the pin...next thing I know he's showing me the sliver on the end of the pin. This the Gabriel who's most used phrase is "I can't do it" I love it... he's becoming so independent all of a sudden.

very quick blog...

so the kids have monday off and are settling in for a late night eating popcorn and watching veggie tales...they are making popcorn as we speak. Before they come back I wanted to just report two very cute quotes from Jeff then Aspen...We spent the night with Grandma Jeffery Friday to Saturday. She has a king size bed in the only upstairs spare bedroom. I choose that room for the girls and I and was in the bathroom getting ready for bed. The boys had gone downstairs to find a bedroom to sleep in. I went to go to bed and on one pillow was Jeffery and Gabriel. I asked them what was up and Jeff's response was so matter of fact,with a sense that he knew he was being comical...he said "I have measured the bed and we have enough room for all of us", all 5 of us. I couldn't resist this rare chance to sleep with all my kids.. however he and Gabe later ended up on the floor because it got too hot.
Now for Aspen...after telling her we could have popcorn with the movie she jumped up and down and said thank you thank you thank you...in bowing jumping motion...wow I love gratitude for simple things...
Got to go the kid are ready.

Wow I'm not a very diligent blogger, hats off to all who are...OK so we love our new house, neighbors and area. The home repair jobs are going much slower than we hoped they would but they are still moving reasonably quick. Joe is back in school working on his Master in IS Systems at the U so the fix ups are at a stop for a while. He is stressed out but is learning to manage his load well.
I've not been at a stop. I keep unloading the boxes in the garage in hopes I can park my car in there someday soon. I hurt my wrist so I've been forces to slow down a little and not carry heavy things, irritating really. I decide I need to treat my body better if it's falling apart at only 35 yrs old so I started exercising and eating a little better. Someone gave me a treadmill and I walked/jogged on it today and I feel great. New years resolutions are wonderful!!!
Jeff is doing really well in school and is exceeding in Math. He loves to read now and is still a great help around the house. Our next door neighbor has a son his age and they have become great friends. They also have a son Aspen's age and a daughter a little older than Miri. They have been wonderful neighbors and we are so happy to be here. Aspen is loving to read right now too. She sleeps with a book under her pillow and sometimes we have to tell her to turn off the lights and go to bed because she's staying up too late reading. I love it!!!
Gabe is reading too and although he doesn't love it he does it because he can't watch a movie until he reads his book and practices his writing. The kids are really learning to be independent. They walk to school and church and even friends houses ...sometimes.
Miri is now three and just a little before turning three She declared in a conversation that she is a big girl, when I replied calling her a big little girl she responded with "No I am not little I am Huge, huge huge" We got a good laugh at this. Today she didn't want to carry something because it was too heavy so she said "I'm just little Mom." She is such a hoot and we love to watch her personality come out more and more as she learns more words and expressions.
So that's the Bountiful Sorenson Family...Hope to update things again soon.Later

This time it's for real I just feel it...

So we were going to take our house off the market the last day of August. We'll procrastination payed off this time. A couple stopped by the house on the first day of September and of course we hadn't officially taken the house off the market. After looking at the house which was very mess from fall organizing they said they wanted to buy the house. They met with our realtor because they didn't have a realtor they liked. They made an offer. While we were deciding on this offer we had 4 or 5 showings on labor day. One of those showings offered us our asking price and we took it. We are really excited and they are too. We didn't want any backing out so before we made our decision we called the couple and told them all about the house and it's quirks. The couple didn't seem to mind and we started to really see that this offer was solid.
A week or so later we started looking for a home to move to. I called my brother Paul who mentioned a home in his neighborhood for sale. I like what he told me so I made a call. The home was under contract but the buyer was not looking like he would qualify. I continued looking and started reviewing my saved house ad's at KSL.com. I opened up an ad and remembered telling Joe a few months ago when we had the other offer on the house that I had found the home for us. I remembered really feeling something for this home. I looked down at the realtor and it was the same one on the home Paul had suggested. It was the same house in fact. I really got excited and called the Realtor and told him I wanted to come see the house. Joe and I went and saw the house the next day and Joe fell in Love!!! We looked at several other homes that day but we had found our house. We put an offer in that afternoon. We are so excited to move, I got a little nervous after we put our offer in so the next day we went to see another house in the same neighborhood but all I could see was the view of the school across the street and the feeling of being home the first home had for me. It is perfect for us and we are so happy to finally be moving. We feel so blessed, and to think we had given up. Wow, what a miracle!

School Begins and Summer Ends

We have had a wonderful and fun summer with one terrifying experience. Which kind of made the rest of the summer a bit less fun but I worked through my paranoya eventually and we did some pretty fun things. It was crazy what happened really. I'll tell you about it first so I can end on a happy note. It happened on July 7th I think. We just got back from the Oquirre Mt temple open house. We were going to have a showing for our house so we quickly cleaned the house and went for icecream. We decided to go to the park across the street from our house on Scott Ave while we waited. It was about 4:00pm. I was tired and did not want to go to the hot playground so I told the kids to stay close by in the shade, and not go to the playground. The park was empty except a large moterhome parked in half of the only shaded spot so when I drove up I went past the moterhome to the small patch of remaining shade. As I was getting Miri out of her car seat on the passenger side of the van I overheard a conversation the lady in the moterhome was having on her cellphone. Some strange things were said so I decided to grab my purse as was doing so when very clearly I heard the lady on the cellphone say "It looks like we have a hit, there's a lady with her four kids but you'll have to hurry fast."
I realized the danger of my situation and acted as quickly as possible. I pushed miri back into the car shut the door yell to the other kids in my angry serious voice to come here now!! The rest is pretty blurry but the kids were in the car I backed out and speed out of the driveway praying again and again that we would get out of there safe. I had forgotten my cell phone and the potential buyers where still at the house so I drove to my mother in law's house about 10 min away. She drove in her driveway right in front of me. I told her what had happened and asked to borrow her phone. I called the police. When the police got to the park of course they were gone.
Do you feel like your reading one of those annoying chain E-mails that you wonder if it's fact or fiction? I wonder if people think I'm a little off of my rocker when I tell them but I keep telling anyone who hasn't heard. Many of my associates and friends are parents and what seemed like a safe place to be could have turned really bad.
So this experience put a damper on our summer but we still did fun things. I stuck to being around where there were lots of people and helpers. No more solo trips to the park and no more going places if the kids were not in there listening moods. Some of the fun things we did are as follows: We had 2 family reunions, went to the park a few times, went to San Francisco, Fat Cats, the Movie theater, the ward camp out, hikes almost every week and more that I can't remember right now.
It was a fun summer but the kids are glad to be back in school. The kids are really liking their teachers and mom is enjoying the little bit of time to bond with Miri and do all the other stuff that gets put off during the summer months.