Happy Birthday Justice!

Okay so I know that I have been a complete slacker on updating our Blog so I am going to take a few minutes and do it now.... so here goes. Justice turned two on Tuesday, which is so crazy and I can't believe that my baby is already so big! Chris and I filled up 30 balloons for him on the night before his birthday and when he woke up he was so excited! He loved it so much that he didn't want to open his other present of a big boy cars bed and after he opened it and realized it wasn't so exciting he tried to put the wrapping paper back on! It was pretty funny! The girls loved the balloons too! We had a great evening later on with dinner at Carl's Jr. and then came back here for cake and ice cream with the family and Justice didn't want to open presents then either but after a few minutes he finally got to the toys and thought that would be okay so he got some fun cars and trucks! I loved the clothes he got and he looks so big and adorable in them! He is so funny! I am so happy that he is part of our family and I had such a great time watching him grow up! Happy Birthday Justice!

Crazy Halloween & November is flying by!

I have to apologize that I haven't updated in over a month! Halloween was crazy at our house, Abbi was a cute little Hermione Granger (a witch from Harry Potter), Whitney was an adorable pink Cheetah, Sammie was a beautiful Ariel and Justice was a funny, cute Blue Dinosaur! They had so much fun and we got a ton of candy! I have it loaded up and probably next week I'll take one of the two huge bags to work so that my kids teeth don't completely rot out! Our camera is out of batteries at this particular moment so I will update with pictures shortly, hopefully this weekend! I am busy at work, which is good considering the economy, but I try to stay positive and Chris is being an awesome dad and husband and taking good care of us all! We are healthy for a minute, (knock on wood) and just enjoying the fall season, Football and we are abitiously going to attempt having Thanksgiving at our house with Chris's mom and step-dad and sister and her boyfriend so hopefully it will be good! I am also going to attempt to run a 5k or maybe a 2k race on Thanksgiving and I have been busy trying to run when I can. That is the current update on the Opheikens!

Fall is beautiful!

Last weekend Abbi and Chris went camping up to Monte Cristo, above Ogden canyon and Abbi took the camera and took manygeorgious pictures, these are just a few. They had a great time and had a lot of fun! Chris and I went up to the same place this weekend to go Elk Hunting and unfortunately we didn't see any Elk and we were driven out by the terrible weather and came home a day early. It is kind of nice to have a day off to be able to relax at home. Happy Hunting to all who attempt it and good luck!

Having sick kids is the pits

I just have to say that having sick kids is the worst thing in this world and not just for the kids, but it kills me to have to see my kids not feel good and even makes it worse when they throw up and I have to clean it up, it's especially bad at 3:00 a.m. My kids and husband and I have decided to share a miserable 24 hour flu, it is bad when it gets to the point that you can predict when they are going to throw up and how long the fever is going to last that comes after it, but I guess that comes with having 4 kids. I hate even more that a lot of times when the kids are sick I have to leave them to go to work, but luckily Chris takes good care of them and it has helped some. That has been our unfriendly life for the last two weeks. We were supposed to go to Lagoon yesterday with Chris's family but he and I were both not feeling great still and Justice and Sammie were both running fevers still so we sent the older girls and they had a wonderful time, but I was really looking forward to updating this with some fun pictures, but what do you do? The kids go off track at the end of this week and I am working a lot, which is good considering the current economy and that is what is going on with the Opheikens family! :)

Sammie Starts preschool tomorrow!

It is amazing how fast your kids grow and when you take those moments to realize it, it is really amazing how old you can feel. I am very excited for Sammie to start preschool for her final year, but it makes me realize that next year I will have a 3rd grader, 2nd grader and a kindergartener, luckily Justice is still a couple years off from school, so I can still think of my self as a little bit young. Sammie is an amazing kid and is so smart and funny and she has such a style of her own that I am excited and nervous to see how she does with school this week and with a new group of kids. Whitney and Abbi are doing really well in school and both are reading so well and doing great with their friends and social experiences that school consists of so much. They are both such sweet sensitive girls that they make me laugh that they can fight with each other over everything but are so worried when the other one is feeling bad about something. Justice has learned to sing his ABC's and being the overly proud mother that I am can't get enough of it and he loves to smile and see everyone watch him. I am wishing all the time that I could be the lucky one to stay home and hang out with my cute kids, but if wishes were fishes we would all have a fry... right? I really do enjoy working though too and I am realizing more and more that I am pretty good at what I do, even if I do say so myself, but it is probably good that if I have to work that I at least enjoy what I do. :) Chris was recently reconized in the South Valley Journal, courtesy of his team mom and there is a great article that tells about his softball teams victories this year and has a picture of the team and coaches in it. I am really proud that he has done so well and been getting out in the community and the exercise is a plus as well! :)

This last month has been really crazy for us and I am so excited to update, so here goes....

Abbi turned 7 as I mentioned and I gave in to her request of having a slumber party with a couple of her friends, so she invited Celeste from her class last year and Elizabeth and Katelyn from her class this year and Allie McDougald, her cousin. It was a lot of fun, we had them make pizza's for dinner and then they each got a gift bag with fingernail polish and lip gloss in it so they did a make over and then they watched a movie and played Barbies. At 10:00 a.m. Elizabeth and Katelyn had to go home, but Allie and Celeste and Abbi, Whitney and Sammie slept on the living room floor and Mom got to sleep on the couch because they wouldn't go to sleep until about 12:30. I did get a nap on Saturday late afternoon, but it was pretty short because we also went to Chris's final softball tournament that afternoon and his team took 2nd place, which aws really exciting! They finished the All-star season with two 1st place trophies and 2 2nd place trophies so Chris has a really good trophy section in his office now, which is kind of fun. Whitney's birthday was August 18th and Aunt Shelly and Uncle Gil were very kind and let her have a pool party with all of the family and it was so much fun! Aunt Wendy took all these great pictures and quite a few more, but I am not quite smart enough to figure out the slide show feature yet, maybe when I have an extra hour or two without a large stack of work still to do tonight... We'll see... That is our latest and greatest update, we are looking forward to the fall and for Football Season to start, go Cougars! Chris is okay with Brett Favre going to the Jets and wishes him the best, but his favorite team will always and forever be the Packers. (I don't think he would ever change either, just because he has our kids trained to chant for the Packers so well!)

A crazy busy month!!

Sorry, I have been so terrible about updating this blog, it has been so busy, I am behind on the last three birthday presents if that says anything! Abbi just turned 7 a couple weeks ago on July 30th and Whitney is going to be 6 on August 18th, next Monday and I can't believe how fast they are growing up! It amazes me that they are so smart and talented little girls, they are so sweet and kind and such good helpers, I am a very lucky Mom! I am also blessed to have Sammie and Justice who keep us rolling all the time, Justice is talking so well and is completely running our house now. Sammie is getting so excited to start preschool again with Mrs. Sarah and asks every day if it is the day to start. I am crazy busy with work and young womens and Chris is finishing up his last soft ball tournament with his allstar team and is already talking about fall ball and going accellerated with this group next year! Craziness! That is a quick update and as soon as I have a couple minutes to breathe, which I am hoping will happen this weekend I'll do a better update with a few pictures. :)

Chris's turn to update the blog...

It has been a while since we added stuff to our blog. Alot has happened in the last few weeks. Caelee is working hard in young womens with her camps and activities. She has to take her girls to Heber next week for girls camp, I am glad that it is her and not me. I am not sure how she does all that she does with work and young womens oh yeah and her family. She is going all the time!

Abbi and Whitney started school today and what fun that is. Our little Abbi has been so nervous to go back and last night she did all that she could to not have to go today. 2nd grade is so hard she says and she is not ready for it yet. She was sure that she was sick enough last night that school was not an option today. Caelee and I were just laugh and we are not sure where she comes up with some of the stuff that she says. Whit on the other hand does not care either way if she goes or stays home. She reminds me of Caelee in that she is so laid back and easy going.

I took my all stars to the state championships last weekend. We had lots of fun and oh by the way won state in 12 and under. The team worked so hard to get there and kept pulling out the wins.

I will try to get the real blogger to add more posts asap. I just saw that we had not added for a while and we owe it to all of our fans to keep on bloggin.

Tagged clear back from June

Lyndsey and Wendy both tagged me so here are my answers clear back from forever ago, I just haven't had the time to get caught up... :)
Cute Husband information:

1. What is your husband's full name? Robert Christopher Opheikens
2. How long have you been together as a couple? Since October 1999
3. How long did you date? We dated starting in October and were engaged in March 2000 and Married in July 2000.
4. How old is he? 31
5. Who eats more? Chris probably, unless he has been cooking, then always me.
6. Who said I love you first? He did, and I didn't respond right away because I wasn't completely sure I knew what love was.
7. Who is taller? Chris is, he is 6'2" and I am 5'9"
8. Who sings better? Definitely Chris I can't sing to save my life.
9. Who is smarter? it really depends on the topic, he has a lot of useless knowledge while I seem to be pretty good at everything else. Just teasing...
10. Who does the laundry? Me
11. Who does the dishes? Me
12. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me
13. Who pays the bills? We take turns (I say mostly me, he will say he does just as much, but I tend to disagree...)
14. Who mows the lawn? Usually me because his allergies won't allow him to otherwise he blows up like the marshmellow man.
15. Who cooks dinner? We take turns, he does some nights, usually when I am working late and I like to try cooking on Sunday's and when he has softball.
16. Who drives when you are together? He does I hate to drive the truck and miss my little fast cars.
17. Who is more stubborn? He is for sure, I don't hold grudges, but he can hold one for years.
18. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? I am, he is getting better but for a long time he was never wrong.
19. Whose parents do you see more? Probably Connie and Mike (his mom and Step dad)
20. Who proposed? He did in a really romantic way, he took me to the Timpanogos Temple and then we went in a limo downtown and had dinner at the Carriage Inn restaurant.
21. Who is more sensative? It depends on the day, usually I am and I cry over everything.
22. Who has more friends? I do but only because I am more willing to put myself out there.
23. Who has more siblings? I have two brothers and one sister, Chris has one sister with the same parents, one sister from his mom who he is pretty close to and then his dad has 4 -6 more kids from different women, we only know a couple of them.
24. Where did you meet? Anderson Lumber while we were working together.
25. Where was your first kiss? Chris and I were dancing in his mom's basement and he put on the song "kiss the girl" from The Little Mermaid and when he didn't kiss me during the song I kissed him after it. It was a little awkward.
26. What was the first thing you said to him? Probably "Hi"
27. Where was your first date? We went on a terrible date to watch fireworks with my best friend and one of his friends but I had already told him that I didn't want to date him so it was very uncomfortable for everyone. For our next date I guilted him into taking me to Homecoming for UVSC and it was really a great night.
28. Where did you get engaged? Timpanogos Temple
29. Where did you go on your honeymoon? We went to Park City.
30. If you could have changed anything about it what would it have been? Nothing really, it was very fun and relaxing.
31. Who wears the pants in your marriage? I would say he does but it really depends on the situation.

Justice just got scared by some fireworks so I will be finishing with this tag, if I get a chance I'll do the other one.

I got tagged (thanks Greg)

I have been tagged thanks to my good friend Greg. Thanks buddy I really appreciate it. Just to let everyone know I am not a blogger and do not claim to be good at this. So here is the tag answers and I hope that everyone learns just a little more about me.

3 joys:

1. my greatest joy in my life is my children and my wife and the funny stuff that they do. They never stop amazing me.
2. I love the outdoors. camping, fishing, hunting and boating.
3. I enjoy golf. I wanted to put this under obsesion but I have to many so here it is.

3 Fears:

1. My greatest fear is not being successful as a father. I hope that I can teach them all that I know, which will take up 5 minutes of their time.
2. A recession and all that come with it. I worry that we will not be ready for it..
3. Natural dissaster like a earthquake flood etc. I would like to be more ready with food storage and generators and thing like that. I loose sleep over this seriously!

3 Goals:

1. Own my own buisness and be successful doing that. I have several ideas that I have been working on and would like to make those a reallity.
2.Getting more involved in our ward and being more active. I have several good peaple around me that help motivate me I just need to pull my head out and go!
3. I need to lose a LOT of weight. I was going to put this anyway but when I saw Gregs tag I thought that it was a good goal. So I to would like to loose 25 lbs. by oct 31.

3 Obsessions:

1. I am currently into softball heavy. I coach fastpitch and play slowpitch and would play as much as I could.
2. xbox 360 and first person shooter games like call of duty and rainbow six. Caelee says that I am on it to much. But if I am not on the xbox I am at softball so pick your poison I say!
3. My last one is the GREENBAY PACKERS! I have a collection of stuff and have marked just about anything that I can with stickers and decals. Caelee says that when you can Identify someones vehicle by paraphenelia that is OBSESSED!


I have to tag three people. I would like everyone to know that I do not ever do this and would not so this if I where not forced. So I would like to follow Gregs Idea and do only men so wives do not do this for them.

1 Cory O
2 Billy O
3 Shane C.

softball & just plain craziness

Chris has jumped fully into Allstars and they played in a tournament last week after only having 4 practices and ended up taking 2nd place! It was a lot of fun and the games were almost all nail biters and kept us fans on the edge of our seats. His team played 4 games in a row starting at 3:30 and they didn't finish until 10:00 p.m. they were such amazing troopers to play for that long.

Abbi and Whitney are finally getting into the last days of Kindergarten and First Grade, Abbi's last day is Tuesday and Whitney's is Monday and then we will have two kids in school all day! Yeah! They have loved school this year and their teachers have been wonderful! Sammie is so anxious to start preschool again and keeps asking if it is time to start yet almost everyday. Justice has made a great transition into Nursery and I can't believe that he is getting so big! He is talking very well and is finally getting his teeth in and he pretty much runs our house. Work is going well with the Bank of America take over getting under way with "Legal Day One" projected to be on Tuesday and then some changes will happen over the next year or so and hopefully the transition will be smooth. That is current like in the Opheikens household, we are headed down to Lake Powell next week and can't wait for that and then Chris and I are in charge of Youth Conference the following week, July is going to be just as Crazy I am afraid! I was recently tagged but haven't figured out my best answers yet so that will hopefully be my next post! Thanks for everyone's comments this blogging thing is wonderful!!

Fun few days!

We have had an eventful couple of evenings tonight and last night. Last night we went to a school carnival at Rosamond Elementary for our niece Allie and Sammie and Whitney had a ball! Whitney even managed to coax her Uncle Gil into helping her win two goldfish so our pet count is now at 3 (lucky for me they are all fish!) Tonight we headed over to the Riverton Arts Festival where the kids got their faces painted and played on the bounce toys and ate ice cream and candy and did a craft and they learned a little hula dance too! They were such cute little dancers! Chris has officially ended his first regular season softball and is anxious to start in with All Stars, that will be his primary hobby this summer (at least it's cheaper than golf!) :)

Softball pictures

I realized that I have a couple of pictures of the amazing little softball players and figured I ought to post them while I have a minute, they are so cute and funny to watch! Their last game is on Tuesday and they are all looking forward to it and Chris only has one more game and then he has been elected to be the Allstar coach for the "B Team" for his 12 year old girls so he gets to do this for another 3 months, but it is so good for him.

Vacation

We went on vacation last week and we went to St. George and stayed there and then went and visited Las Vegas for a day. We stopped in Cove fort on our way down and the kids really enjoyed the history and seeing the old fashioned items that were used and Chris and I had never been there and really enjoyed it. In Las Vegas we went to the M&M's factory and the Coke Factory and we went to the Bilagio and saw the fountains, the kids really got excited about the dancing water. We spent the rest of the time relaxing in St. George and it is amazing the things you can find to do, even in Utah when you have lived here your whole life... we took the kids to the beach at Sand Hollow Lake and they enjoyed it so much! Anyway, we had a great time and it was so nice because it was a vacation that we came home from and didn't need to have another vacation just to be ready to go back to work. The other good news is that I got promoted when I went back to work last week! I am now the newest underwriter for Countrywide Bank (soon to be Bank of America!) and I am very excited!! All in all, the last two weeks have been very good for the Opheikens family and we are looking forward to the summer! :)

Just plain wrong

Motherhood is a wonderful thing and kids are quite funny. Yesterday I was home from work (and again today) because we have strep going through our house and I was trying to get up enough energy last night to get the kids some dinner. I had just changed Justice's diaper about 15 minutes earlier and was just recovering from exerting all the energy I had, when Abbi came upstairs carrying an open empty diaper... It made me a little nervous, she said that Justice had pooped but she didn't know where he was. Chris and I rolled off the couch and went downstairs to find our hiding stinky boy... he was hiding in our closet and he had taken his diaper off and sure enough he had left a present for us on the floor!! It was just wrong and while I was completely discusted by the whole thing I couldn't help but laugh only because I know that I am not the only Mom who has ever found a hiding child that just did something like that! Oh the joy of children!

Softball becomes a way of life...

We have changed our course, we had originally tried doing the soccer parenting, and soccer was great for Abbi for the short 1/2 season that she played, but since we could never really figure out when the actual season started or ended the other girls were not able to experience the joy of chasing the ball around with the other 20 kids on the field. We have now moved onto Softball and since softball only comes in the spring for the little kids it has worked out well for us, however Chris and I have a problem, we can't just let our kids enjoy it, we have to do it too! :)
Chris is coaching a 12 year old team for the Oquirrh Mountain girls softball league because they were going to start turning the poor kids away and offering to do something nice, he is now spending at least 3 nights a week and several Saturdays at the softball fields! It is great to see him get involved and it has been very entertaining to watch Chris deal with the emotions of 12 -12 year old girls! Oh the things we have in store in 6 years at our house. I am currently the coach/coordinator for our work softball team so I am also arranging a practice once a week and we have our games on Monday nights so Family night has been temporarily moved to Sunday evenings. Abbi, Whitney and now Sammie are playing on a tee ball team and it is the cutest thing ever! Each team takes turns letting everyone on the team bat and then they switch and they all go stand in the field and take turns getting the balls. They all get turns to run the bases and score a home run and they are loving it, and they are pretty good, if I do say so myself!
Justice is being very supportive and keeps wanting a "basketball" to hold during the game (his interpretation of a softball.) We are having a great time, just keeping up with life!

Inspiration

This blog was inspired by the Moesteller and Bylund's blog pages that are very cute and fun. The Opheikens family consists of Chris and Caelee, Abbi, who is 6, Whitney who is 5, Sammie who is 3, but will be 4 at the end of March and Justice who is 15 months old. Abbi is in 1st grade and is reading very well and is better at the computer than her parents. Whitney is in Kindergarten and is also working on reading and is very athletic and looking forward to playing softball T-ball with Abbi. Sammie is going to Apple Blossom Academy preschool and loves every minute of it, she is also looking foward to starting dance soon and cheering for her sisters at T-ball. Justice is learing to walk and talk and says some very funny things that make us all laugh. Chris is the stay at home parent and shuffles the kids to and from school everyday and takes care of the kids and the house and does an excellent job managing it all. I am working for Countrywide home loans and I am very busy in Young women's as the Beehive advisor and playing basketball in a Rec league with Amoree and trying to get back into shape after having 4 kids in 5 years. We are here in Riverton in our home that we have lived in for almost 4 years, by far the longest we have been anywhere and loving every minute of it.