Jaliya Riyanna Booker

Wow, it has been such a long time since I checked in. I don't think I have to say how busy we have been! Our baby girl finally arrived on October 14, 2011 at 5:18pm. She was 8lbs 1oz and 21 inches long! She has tons of black hair and big blue eyes! Who would have thought! I'm sorry that I haven't blogged in such a while ... it really has been quite busy :) I took the full 12 weeks off to be with my munchkin and that went by entirely way to fast! Having a blog is a little scary, especially when you use it to capture memories with your family. Sure, you don't have to do it online, but it's fun to have our family in other areas be able to keep up with us! Time flies and our kids are growing up so quickly! Visiting my blog and reading through my past posts, is a good reminder as to why I should blog or journal or scrapbook. There are so many tiny moments that can easily be forgotten if you don't document it! So, I guess to catch everyone up on our lives, I will post some pictures! Oh and another reason that I love to blog is because it encourages me to capture more moments with my camera!

This is a preview of my maternity photo shoot! I was 7 months pregnant!

This is Jaliya Riyanna Booker at 3.5 months! Isn't she just absolutely beautiful!

Awww ... sooo sweet!

Look at those big beautiful eyes!

We now know what the baby is and what "it" looks like ... Keep reading to find out!!

Hello! I know it has been a little over 2 months ... it's called life ... what can I say!? A lot has happened over the last 2 months and so now I'm here to make up for the lost time. Hmmm ... where should I start? Alright, alright ... we did find out on May 25th that we are having a GIRL! That's right ... a GIRL! Heheeh ... We were thinking it was going to be a boy, but we are so blessed to have a beautiful healthy baby girl ... I just can't say that I'm looking forward to another mixed girls hair though! Hehehe I'm already starting to stock up on products! I told my boss that I will probably be late everyday! Their hair is just so time consuming!

2 weeks after we found out it was a baby girl, we were able to get some 3D pics of her. She was so active during the ultrasound. The tech said she was a show off. Makalee, my Mom, Gma, Gpa and of course Jamaal were there to witness her acting crazy like the rest of her siblings : ) The two pictures I'm attaching are of her showing her goodies ... which you can definitely see that she is a girl! The other is of her sucking her thumb. Hopefully I can get more of the 3D pics up.

As Jamaal and I begin the summer, we do it with no kids! The kids are shipped off to their other halves. However, we did get to go to a fun BBQ with Makalee and some of my friends before she left. It just cracked me up because Makalee was talking to Jamaal about loaning him some money. She told him that she would give him $100 and then she leaned over to me and whispered in my ear that she was going to charge him interest! Hahah She is too funny! The last couple months, she learned about interest, insurance, debt and other misc things at school and it's awesome that she understands that she doesn't want to be the one borrowing and paying interest!

Since I last checked in, we also celebrated Mother's Day. It was AMAZING! My kids and husband went all out! Makalee made me pictures, made me a bracelet and did a fun piece of art for me at school! Jayden made me a keychain and a coupon book and Bella made me this huge painting! Jamaal of course spoiled me and gave me this beautiful watch that I had been wanting :) When I went to redeem one of my coupons from Jayden, which happened to be ... 1 day of pulling weeds ... he pretty much refused! Hahah ... So I guess I'll have to wait until next year to see if he is interested in pulling weeds~!

Like I said, Jamaal and I are going to be pretty lonely this summer, so we have been going out and taking walks with Apollo. This is a picture of me the other before our walk at 23 weeks!

Makalee has been busy as well. She went to the Zoo with Ace and his family and she was able to bring her friend Angela, which really gave Ace a peek into raising a tween! She also was able to talk him into some new shoes because she did such a great job this year in school. Speaking of how great she did ... She received the Presidential Physical Fitness Award and an Outstand Academic Achievement Award for 2nd grade! Wow ... What an amazing child I have : ) Here is a pic of her new shoes!

2nd Ultrasound ... It's becoming very REAL!

Hello!!! Today was my second prenatal Dr's appt! I'm SOOO excited! The excitement tends to ware off pretty quickly and then you just start to get anxious for the next appointment! Especially when I think the next appointment is when we will find out the gender!! Our fingers are crossed very tightly for a boy! Okay, okay ... so as for the details of the Ultrasound ... We were very happy in the first place because we got in right away and found out that the insurance will cover everything 100% with the exception of 1 co-pay of $25! Woo Woo! That is definitely do-able! So, we got right in ... I weighed in (Yikes) then I pee'd in a cup and went into the room and got ready to see my baby! The Dr came in and introduced himself as we weren't able to see him last time because he unfortunately had a negative emergency at the nearby hospital. He got right to business and started the ultrasound! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw our baby! He was huge ... compare to the little tadpole he was when we saw him just a meer 4 weeks ago! 4 weeks ago, he measured at 5/6 weeks and then 4 weeks later he measured at 12 weeks 4 days! Hahah ... That made me very happy ... because I really want to get out of the 1st trimester! No wonder ... he makes me eat like every 1-2 hours! Hahah ... My little baby is growing sooo big! He is about 3 inches and the size of a plum! The doctor said his heart beat was about 150. He said he looked really healthy ... the baby even opened up his legs, but the doctor said he couldn't confirm the gender ... so hopefully 4 more weeks! I'm just already in love with this little person in me! Heheeh

Here are some pics ... Hopefully ... I can post more than 1! Heheeh

Here is Baby Booker at 12 weeks! Isn't he handsome!? We sure think so!

 This is Isabella holding Apollo ... It was cute ... he was just sitting on her lap like a regular person!

 This is Nana and Makalee at her first Dance competition!

 This is Jamaal and Jayden at Tucano's ... a Brazillian Steakhouse! Nummy!! The kids ate chicken hearts and quail eggs! Disgusting!

This is what I get to wake up to EVERY morning ... but the smile isn't always there! Heheh ... I'm the morning person in the family!

 Don't the just look innocent! Hahahah ... they've got you fooled then!

 Our little Apollo at about 5 weeks ... too stinkin cute!

YAY ... I finally figured out how to load more than 1 pic ... Hallelujah!!

Love,

Malea

Fun Weekend

Hello! What a FUN weekend! Makalee had her first Dance Competition and WOW ... she absolutely amazed me. I can't believe how much these little ones are capable of! She has been working on two different dances since August and she nailed both of them at the young age of 7! It was also really cute how into it she was. She didn't want to leave becauase she wanted to sit and watch all of the other dances. I really loved when she reacted to a move that they would do that she knew was somewhat complicated! She's my little mini-me! The competition was in West Valley and that is where my Mom lives, so I packed up myself and the kids and we went to stay the night with her on Friday. Jamaal had to work this weekend, so unfortunately he couldn't come with : ( So we woke up bright and early on Saturday and got May's hair and makeup all done ... she looked sooo beautiful! I'm so proud of her : ) Then we were off to the Community College for the first half of the day. After my Mom and I went to a dealership to trade in her truck and were there for what seemed like forever! Then I finally got to head home to relax! Sunday, was church and then rest! I think I went to bed around 8:30! Jamaal just laughs at me! Hahah! Anyhow ... here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

This is Apollo napping on his stuffed animal! AWWWW!

Alright ... it's not letting me add any more pictures ... so I will come back with more!

Love,
Malea

My Kids are Crazy!

Hello! Today, I would like to talk about my eventful evening with my children. So Jamaal had headed off to school and it was my turn to be in charge! Heheh ... I've let him kind of take over since I've been pregnant and have absolutely no energy! So he leaves, and it's about time for the kids to take a bath. Jayden is first and then once he is finished, it's Makalee's turn. So I remind her that she needs to jump in the bath and I go back into my room to do some cleaning. 20 minutes later I go downstairs and she is still not in the bath. So of course I have to get on to her about it and I give her a .50 fine on her commission chart. So she gets in the bath and then gets out and is goofing around. So I have to finally raise my voice to get her to go put the lotion on and get ready for bed. By that time, I'm furious because she isn't listening and she made me yell! ; ) She at this point is also pretty upset at me because she thinks I'm the meanest Mom in the world! So while Makalee is getting ready for bed, I start getting Bella ready for bed. While I'm doing that, Makalee comes in and starts trying to hang out with us and watch TV. I tell Makalee in a very stern voice that she needs to get her "tail" in bed. Well at that point she loses it and begins to tell me how I don't care about the kids and Dad doesn't care about them and we don't love them! She is being such a Drama Queen at this point, that I can't help but laugh at her for being so silly! So I get her to stop crying at me about how we don't love her and I explain to her that if we didn't love them, why would Dad and I work so hard to provide for them and put a roof over their heads. She exclaims, "You don't do it for us, you do it for yourselves!" She then points to our curtains and says, "See you buy yourself curtains and don't even buy us curtains!" Hahahaah ... OMG ... It was so stinking hillarious, because she was dead serious! Hahaha ... So I told her that we would look into buying her some curtains and then she asked for the little hooks that hold the curtains back! I said ... you might be asking for a little much ... but we will look into it! Sooo funny! Kids just crack me up!

Alright that's my story for today, I'll leave you with another picture! This was taken at the end of September 2010. Makalee is on the left. This is our whole family with the exception of Apollo and the baby growing in my tummy and taking all of my energy!

Love,
Malea

I'm Really Starting to Feel Pregnant!

The saga continues! Now I definitely can not guarantee that I will write everyday ... but I will keep all of you as updated as possible! So, as for the title ... I am starting to have those crazy pregnancy dreams and the "pregnancy bloopers" have begun! The other day I was supposed to mail off a time sensitive letter, so I did ... but it then got returned because I forgot postage! DUUHH .. To make it even worse, Jamaal and I had debated about it because he was insisting that I take it inside the post office to make sure that it got postmarked, as Saturday ... the day we were mailing it ... was the last day it could be postmarked. I of course was like ... no ... it will be fine as long as it gets in this mailbox before 10:00 PM, it will be postmarked before tonight! GRRRR ... that potentially just lost us $200. Then yesterday, I locked the keys in the car. If this is a sign of what things are to come in the next 7 months ... we are in TROUBLE! Hahah.

As for the dreams ... I keep dreaming that I am yelling at the kids about things. The other night I yelled at Jayden so much in my dreams, that I didn't have the energy to get on him about anything the next day! Hahah ... maybe that's a good thing. The funniest one yet had to be when I dreamt that Bella was putting the newborn diapers on all over her body and then when I told her to take them off, I noticed one had pee in it. I was so upset ... mainly because Bella is 7 and shouldn't be peeing in a diaper! Hahah I told the kids about it and they got a good laugh out of it!

Today's picture is of Makalee May Tyner (7) and Isabella AvaMarie Booker (7). Makalee will be 8 on July 15 and Bella will be 8 in 2012.

I had them take this picture because they are wearing shirts that their Aunt Betty gave them for Christmas. They love these shirts ... When Makalee first got it, she had it sitting on her bed to be used for the last day of the school year. Makalee wears uniforms to school and is only allowed to wear regular clothes on the last day of school. So yes ... she had planned on keeping it there for 6 months! Hahah ... So funny! It reminds me of when I was little. I remember being so excited to wear a certain outfit to school, that I would get completely dressed the night before and sleep in my outfit! Hahah

Alright ... that it's for today!

Love,

Malea

It's Official! I'm Blogging!

Alright, so as I was looking around on a discussion forum, I came across a girls blog ... it was very basic and was brand new ... but it made me realize that having a blog is a great way to basically create an online published journal. Plus, all of my in-laws are out of state and I would love to be able to keep them posted on our family. Kids grow up so quickly that before you know it ... they will be off to college! Since traveling from Salt Lake to Virginia is extremely expensive ... that side of our family unfortunately doesn't have the opportunity to spend time with us and watch our little ones grow.

As of Valentine's Day 2011, Jamaal and I found out that we are expecting! So I definitely want to keep everyone updated on my pregnancy and Lil Baby Bookers coming years of life. So, my goal for this blog is to keep my friends and family updated on our life and have an electronic copy of our life for our kids to access in the coming years! A record so to speak!

Here are some pictures to introduce this family I keep speaking of!

This is Lil Baby Booker's first Ultrasound! He is a lil gummy worm, but you can see him plain as day! This Ultrasound was done on March 2nd. I went in thinking that I was 8/9 weeks and the Midwife said I was actually only about 6 weeks ... however, he said that it is still a little early to lay down a firm due date ... so as of right now ... I am saying October 10th! I will know more in the coming weeks! My next ultrasound will be on March 30th ... so make sure to check back then for his next picture! Okay ... so you noticed ... I keep calling it a him ... I'm putting good vibes out there ... we need more boys!

I was planning on putting up some more pics ... but for some reason, I can't figure out how to post more than one picture! It will come as this is a learning experience for me! So, I'll sign off for now, but I'll make sure to put up more pics and posts soon!

Love,
Malea