Crazy that's it's been almost a whole year since my last post!  I guess I just kept meaning to try to catch up on what we've been up to and never did.  So here's to a fresh start!  We are almost finished building our new house.  We had been eyeing some property for about a year and at Christmas time, things just sort of fell into place and we pulled the trigger and bought a lot.  At first we thought we might wait a little while to build, but with the economy being how it is, it's a great time to build, so that's what we've been consumed with this whole year.  It's been a crazy process, but we are excited to see it all finally coming together and hopefully moving into it in just a few weeks.

Here's a picture from last week.  The exterior paint is complete now.

This crazy chick started Kindergarten today.  Megan loves to learn and was awarded top reader in her preschool last year, testing at a 2nd grade reading level.  She's a self starter and has been excited for school to start all Summer.  She's a big helper around the house and LOVES being a big sister.  She can't quite seem to leave the baby alone, but it's hard to get mad at her for loving her sister so much.  Her and Dane are great little friends too and play well together, which has been very helpful with the arrival of baby #3.  Megan is also very social.  She's always looking to make a friend wherever we are.  She was in ballet last year and performed in Swan Lake in June.  After watching the Olympics this month though, she's decided she wants to do gymnastics instead.  We go for our first time tonight!

Dane is all boy and started preschool today.  I was a little nervous about how he'd be when we dropped him off since he's not quite as fearless as Megan, but he ran right in without any hesitation.  I think it helped a lot that his teacher had 2 activities this Summer at her house so this wasn't the first time he'd met her.  He said he had a great time and loved it.  He also mentioned that he sits by a girl and hates her.  We'll have to work on that...  Dane is really into baseball right now and is usually toting his bat and "micks" around wherever he goes.  He even sometimes like to use my oven mitt as a glove instead of his real one.  He keeps asking about doing karate, so I guess I have some phone calls to make it get him in lessons.  He's a great big brother too and will often say how cute Nora is and that she's "so sweet".  Dane has a tender heart and tells me several times a day that he loves me or that I'm beautiful.  We had a scare about a month ago where a our neighbor backed out onto Dane in his car.  He was lucky that he was on his big wheel which took most of the damage and that he was right in between the two tires under the largest part of the car.  Nothing actually ran him over, but it was scary.  911 was still called and the paramedics, fire truck, and police all showed up.  Not really something that you want to ever have happen, let alone less than 1 week after having a new baby.  We know that he definitely had angels watching over him.  I just can't imagine life without this little guy and we are so grateful he's still a part of our family.

Our little Nora is already 1 month old!  This has been a quick month, which makes me a little sad.  She's a sweet baby and usually sleeps for 4 - 5 hour stretches at night and naps pretty well during the day.  She does get a little fussy from about 8-11 some nights.  Eric seems to have the magic touch with her though and is the one that usually gets her to calm down and asleep.  Her delivery went really well and fast.  She was born about 3 hours and 45 minutes after I was induced.  She was a healthy 7 lbs  7 oz 19 inches, my smallest baby.  No health problems so I was able to snuggle on her the 2 days I was in the hospital, which didn't happen with the other 2.  It was so nice to have that time alone with her, but by the second day I was going a little stir crazy and glad to get home.  My dad and step mom kept Dane and Megan for almost a week, so I had a little more time alone with her after I came home from the hospital as well.  It was strange having such a quiet house!  

So far the adjustment to having three kids has been great.  I don't know if it's the business from all the house stuff, but life just keeps going full speed and we are doing pretty well keeping up!  We've also had our house up for sale all summer.  It's been interesting keeping it clean ALL the time and having to leave at a moments notice (ok, I usually get about a 2 hour notice).  We've a couple really low offers, but nothing close to what we need for it or what it's worth, so we've decided to rent the house and try to sell it again in a couple years when the market gets a little better.  Eric is still super busy as a mortgage broker doing VA loans for veterans across the country.  He puts in long days and we usually don't see him home till almost 7 every night, but we are so grateful for him employment and that he does so well at it.  He was ranked #3 VA mortgage broker in the country for all of last year.  We really can't complain!  Hopefully this post will help me get back into the habit of blogging and keeping you updated on our crazy family!

What we did on our Summer Vacation:

Since it's going to be officially Fall in a few days, I thought I'd finally get around to posting about our Summer. It went by too quickly, but we managed to sneak in lots of fun!

We visited Eric's parent's house in Seal Beach, CA for my sister's college graduation in May:

No trip to Seal Beach is complete unless you walk down Main St. to the pier and pet Slick the Seal.

Our FAVORITE beach in California is Crescent Bay in Newport. We try to make it down there every time we go, whether it's warm or not. The kids love to dig in the sand and splash in the water.

My sister graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a BA in Creative Photography. It was great to see my brother Jef too!

In June, my friend, Erica, and her kids were visiting from North Carolina, so we got together with our other friend, Kristi, and her kids. We bravely took Trax to the Children's Museum in Salt Lake and to play in the fountains afterward. The kids all got along so well, it was a little sad when the day ended. It's crazy that I've been friends with these girls for more than half my life and that we are moms now!

We also celebrated Dane's birthday in June!

We had a water party in the backyard with some of our "little" cousins and a few friends. It took Dane a while to warm up to the party, so I'm glad I kept it smaller. He did love the water table we got, and of course, cupcakes!

He's the typical 2 year old boy - loves to throw and hit anything and everything and can go from being unbelievably cute and sweet to throwing a HUGE fit all in the same minute. He's talking up a storm and is obsessed with bowling.

In July we went to St. George for a Jorgensen family reunion. It was hot, but lots of fun. The kids LOVED playing with their cousins all day for three days straight.

Also in July we took the kids to San Diego to go to Sea World and the beach. Both were a BIG hit!

Megan got to fly a kite and Dane was obsessed with sand crabs.

My new obsession for the trip - Yogurtland. We went every night we were there!

Sea World was fabulous and we were so glad Grandma and Papa were able to come with us.

Dane fell asleep on my lap as soon as Shamu started, of course!

In August I was able to go on my annual girls' trip to Texas with my sister to visit my Aunt Katheryn. It's always hot, but always fun!

Megan started her second year of preschool at the end of August and life has slowed down a bit for us. Megan LOVES school and has been asking about it pretty much every day since it ended back in May. We love Summer, but are excited for all that Fall brings as well!

Alright fellow bloggers, I have a dilemma and a question for you...

Recently I have really wanted Megan to start doing some chores that I feel are appropriate for her age - making her bed, getting dressed and putting her clothes in the hamper, clearing her spot from the table, and cleaning up her toys, etc. I found a cute chart for her to put stickers on and we told her that she would get a certain amount of money per sticker for doing her chores and would get paid at the end of the week. At first it was going pretty well. She was excited to earn stickers and was doing what was on the chart and leaned the consequences for not doing all of them everyday. Later in the week, when I asked her to do something that was on the chart, she'd tell me, "I don't want to do that. It's ok that I don't get a sticker for it." Well, these are very basic chores that I really feel like she should be doing, so that backfired a little. Papa and Grandma were here this week and so I forgot to print off a new chart for start this week. Then today I read an article my sister-in-law put on Facebook about how we are living in the age of entitlement and how selfish kids are today. The article mentioned a study about kids and money for chores. It found that when kids are paid for every chore they do, they expect a monetary reward for everything they do and won't work without some sort of reward or payment. The article also talked about how vital it is for children to learn to work and its many benefits. I really agree with what the article said and made me think about this little chore chart and system I was trying to implement.

This is where I am looking for your help! What do you do to foster work in your home? What do you do for chores and allowances? I try hard to teach my children to be loving and kind to one another and want them to have a good work ethic as well. I want them to know that life isn't easy and that you have to work for what you want, sometimes without an immediate pay-out. Please let me know what your thoughts are on this. You can email me if you don't want to leave a comment or your comments are too long: jenjorgensen220@gmail.com. I am new to all this and would love to your thoughts and ideas!

Can you say hard-headed?!

I have warned both kids, on SEVERAL occasions not to play around the couches in our family room. The previous owners thought it was a grand idea to have tile window sills installed on every window in our house including the large window the couch backs up against. I knew the day would come when someone would whack their head on it and today was that day. Dane was the lucky one. And he really was lucky. I am still amazed that there wasn't any blood and he only cried for a few minutes. Here's hoping he wakes up in the morning...

Ahhh kids...

I am still insisting that Megan have some quiet time while Dane takes his nap. She is usually pretty good about it, but today she didn't want to. I told the kids it was time for naps and quiet time and Megan threw a fit with tears and all. I was holding Dane at the time and he just looked up at me and said, "Naughty, naughty." That, of course, sent Megan into more hysteria and made me laugh quite hard. She did end up going into her room without much fuss after she calmed down and had a few more strawberries. I am willing to bet that she falls asleep today. The days she fights it the hardest are the days she needs it the most.

Confession:

My kids have been taking fabulously long naps all week, even Megan, who doesn't nap that often anymore. So, what have I been doing with all this kid free time during my afternoons, you might ask? Nope, nothing productive... Instead, I've been reading these:

My neighbor let me borrow them and I kind of can't put them down. They're a little on the trashy side, but I HAVE to know what happens! Yesterday I started and finished #3. And there are 8 in the set. Ahhhh!!!! I have no self-control when it comes to reading. I'll stay up too late to finish a book, even if my eyes hurt and I can barely keep them open. Yes, I have a problem, which is why I am always a little hesitant to read. I love to read, but it also kind of takes over my life. Maybe I should go on that "Addicted" show on TLC!

Megan's birthday this year somehow turned into a whole weekend of celebrations instead of just one day. It was a little on the excessive side, but she was happy and felt special. My mom always did such a great job of making us feel important and special on our birthday and I guess I'm just trying to do the same. We started out by going to Disney on Ice on the Friday before her birthday. I took her last year for her birthday as well and she loved it. This year, Eric joined us and we got a sitter for Dane. It was fun to have some time with just her. We took her to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in Salt Lake, The Blue Iguana. They have this almond mole dish with bacon that is just divine. Eric and I both ordered it this time. On the weekends, they have this cute elderly couple that go around the restaurant serenading everyone. Megan couldn't keep her eyes off of them and even started to dance by our table.

The Disney on Ice show was really fun too. The theme was "Celebrations", so they went through all the major holidays of the year. They had so many more characters than they did last year, and Valentine's Day was all about the princesses, so of course that was Megan's favorite part.

On Saturday we had Megan's Fairy Princess Party. I had too much fun putting it all together. My friend made butterfly cupcakes for her mother-in-law's birthday last year and I thought they would be a perfect fit for our fairy party.

I found a sweet website before Megan's party that had all sorts of fairy wings, tutus, wands, halos, etc. They even had a color combo called Tink that was just perfect.

Michael's had these tiny little bird houses in their dollar section, so I thought they would make perfect fairy houses for the kids to decorate. Megan put her's in her room before the party was even over.

Tinkerbell left Megan and her friends a treasure hunt all through the house. There were clues leading to beads and then at the end, they found the pixie dust necklaces that Tinkerbell left. They even glow in the dark!

Then we had cake and ice cream and opened presents. Megan loves her friends and have each of them a hug after she opened their gift.

Even though this was a pretty girly party, we did have one boy. He's one of Megan's best friends and we had to have him there. He was a good sport about all the girly stuff.

Sunday, March 13, was Megan's actual birthday. She had been begging for a Barbie cake for months. We had to go and look at the one on display at our Target EVERY time we were there. So I had her one. It was a little tricky. I thought I could use a regular Barbie, but they are actually a little too tall, so I ended up using one of those half dolls from Michaels.

My dad and step-mom were in town, so they came over along with my step-siblings. If you ask Megan about her birthday party, this is the one she'll tell you about. I guess it was because it was on her actual birthday?

Megan loves to tell people that she is 4 now. I can't believe how fast these 4 years have gone and that it will be her baptism in 4 more years. Kids grow up too fast, especially mine. Megan had her 4 year old check up this week and she is off the charts high for her height at 43 inches. I stil call her my baby girl and tell her to stop getting bigger. Her response is always, "I have to get bigger so I can go to college like Diane (our babysitter)." Awesome, not even in kindergarten yet and already talking about college...