Christmas Card 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010!!!



LOVE,
the jansen's
Kelton (6), Chase (4), Taelin (2), Evan (4 months)

Happy December!

the kids on the 19th of dec...christmas dress and all. evan was sleeping. still getting used to taking a "kids pic" with him! :)

So, its been a while since I have gotten on blogger, and my oh my did I have a sour attitude last post! I don't remember being as annoyed and rude as it came across...so I apologize for my awnriness and thanks to Erika for the sweet words.

We can only run as fast as we are able right?! Even tho, sometimes I wish I could fly. But then I am sure I would miss all these sweet moments "walking" with these little guys.

Life is so much better seen thru their eyes. I am learning, and I hope to learn more quickly in the future. I have learned that if I am having a bad day, immerse myself in them, and my day so quickly turns around. Kelton told me I was beautiful today and he loved my hair. How precious those words are to me, and how quickly I could have strugged him off when my "busy" errands were on my mind.

I'm thinking SIMPLICITY is going to be my 2011 challenge. I am always trying to go too big and over the top. I am grounded by those around me, reminding me that if you won't remember it in 100 years, its not worth it. So, sorry that Christmas letters didn't get out this year, I was wayyy too stressed about it. I figured I won't remember the year 2010 I forgot. I'm hoping at least! :)

So, here's to a stress free holiday! Remebering the real reason, our Lord and Savior and his life. I am blessed to be entrusted with this children to direct home to our Father in Heaven. I am so blessed. So blessed for peace, a home, my husband's job, 4 healthy children, loving family and some great friends. Simple, think Simple. That's my goal.

GINGERBREAD HOUSES (graham crackers and all...sooo yummy!)

my oh my how time has flown with this sweetie. he's a blessing. such a mellow jello that reminds me of all the good things in life.

Thanksgiving in Arizona!

I know I am always super behind these days. Oh well, for the two of you that read this, suck it up. That's my mood today, I really could care less. That's why I am sitting in my pj's and so glad that my children are all playing well together. When they come to me b/c one of them got hurt, I simply say I am sorry they are hurt, kiss it and off they go. I have nothing left, this headache is taking it all.

We drove down to Page, AZ. for Thanksgiving. It was an orginially 10 hour drive, on the way down we took an hour in Cedar City and got lost one hour (thankyou, or no thank you mapquest). But on the way down, Evan slept 10 hours!!!! (one being awake at mcdonalds) and on the way home to Idaho, he slept 8 1/2 out of the 10 hours! He was AMAZING and with the help of Mr. DVD player, and some new dvd's the kids all did great! We brought the little "potty seat" for Taelin, and that was a life saver in the middle of southern Utah. Wew!!!! The poor little boys had to bare it all in the wind! :)

We were there for just over a week (our stay was extended due to the flu, so other than that- it was an excellent trip!). We visited the Glen Canyon Dam, took a few small hikes, visited with Courtney's family who were also visiting, visited Kyle's soccer practice, went to a Page High School basketball game (its in our blood) and went to the Grand Canyon! It was a very fun week. We kept our tradition of turkey cookies, altho they were slightly different this year. We tried to keep it all dairy free. We let the kids watch supervised Avatar and Kelton was in LOVE.

Overall, we loved being there! We wished they lived closer...but are so happy for them to have good jobs! And we get a great reason to travel south into the warm...

Scariest Day of My Life

I "punched" my time card out at 7:00 pm. It was Thursday night, December 2nd, 2010. It was a long day with the kids (especially whinny). I took Evan who had just fallen asleep to watch some TV. Jake had the kids wrestling as I tip toed down the stairs, taking the littlest one so that Daddy wasn't doing it all by himself. I thought I was helping. A few minutes later, I am downstairs flipping channels and getting mixed loud commercials. I hear a thud from upstairs, then Jacob raise his voice, then muffled voices. I hear Kelton scream my name (figuring Daddy got to rough and he's complaining to me from the top of the stairs). I hear my name 3 times, I start to feel worried, I listen harder to see if the hollaring continues. Then I hear Chase crying at the top of the stairs and feel the distinct impression that I need to get upstairs now. Something is wrong. I quickly walk up the stairs and hear Chase crying, "I can't breathe either" and there's some vomit near the top. I look down to see him and Jacob yells, "It's not him! It's her!" He refers to our 2 year old, redish blonde hair hanging in her face, vomit and foam coming from her mouth. Jacob is shaking, he hands her to me, and I expect her to have some solidity to her feet. She's loose and as I look into her eyes, I immediately see her BLUE lips, ROLLING eyes and I tell Jacob to call 911. I grab her by the chin, swipe my hand thru her mouth, ask if he's performed the hymlic and turn her over to thrust my plam into her back. I give her three loud THUDs. She tenses, I feel her tighten, like she's in pain. I figure pain is better than the limp figure she was. I turn her back to her mouth and assist her in standing(ish). I stare at her lips, waiting for air to be inhaled...waiting...waiting. I kept thinking, "No, this isn't happening, No! Breathe!!!" She's crying, tearing streaming down her face, her eyes are vibrantly searching for something, something she can't find. Then she locks on my eyes and gets a slight bit of air, the same bit someone would get when crying so hard they can hardly breathe. But it was air! She was gaining rigidity in some of her limbs, enough to raise her arm to her mouth and vomit again.

Chase had come in front of me while I was holding and trying to help my dying child. He vomitted after seeing her loose her dinner. He was crying, Kelton was still by the stairs. My world had narrowed, but I didn't feel out of control. (Jacob hadn't dialed 911 since he was watching and all of this had happened in 10 seconds or less) I hollared that she was breathing...as more vomit covered the floor. Chase was finally done. After I asked Taelin if she was scared, chase replied (as he walked away), "I throw up when I'm so scared." Taelin, perked up quickly (20 seconds) after getting that vital sip of air, vomitting more then getting large gasps. She remained near me, as I stripped her clothes off she replied that she got carrots all over her clothes. It was icky. I asked if she was ok. She said yes, mommy. I asked if it hurt when Daddy put his finger down her throat, she said he didn't. She said she threw up by daddy, and then threw up by me. I can only determine she passed out. I held her for a little while, she hugged back undaunted, but caucious.

As Jacob and I began to clean up the mess (after he calmed down from shaking and a racing heart), she bounced around a little and the light returned to her eyes. After the kids went to bed, we checked on her more often to make sure she was still breathing, just in case. I crawled into bed with her later that night, held her a little longer, snuggled a little more and cried softly in her bed. My patience had really been struggling with her lately. Her whine, her nag, her bossiness. But for that moment, I just prayed to my Heavenly Father with fervrent pleadings to forgive the hardness of my heart, to forgive my selfishness. I felt ashamed that it had taken such a life and death moment to snap me into reality of my actions.

I felt that moments of life seem to be taken for granted. There really are only mere threads of time that matter from life to death. Life is fragile; I've heard people say. But when life and death moments take place before you, and you see how quickly the situation could have gone for worse, you see the fragile nature before your eyes, and feel it as a lump of your throat.