Nyah Ann Runia

Competitive

Nyah was born on June 1, 2002, it totally fits her personality.  Her due date was on the 15th of June, it figures she would feel like she had to rush out of there on the 1st.  She tends to be competitive and always wants to be the top or the first.

Determined

She can be very determined when given the right motivation.  She had a fund raiser at her school where the kids that brought in the most amount of "pledge money" won prizes.  One of the prizes was a real American Girl doll and she wanted it really bad.  She had her mind set and she worked really hard, daily and she ended up bringing in the most money out of all the kids at her school that is a K-8th grade school!

Independent

She has always been really independent.  I remember that when she was a baby, she would be crying or fussy.  I would be holding her trying to comfort her and then finally I would just put her down and then she would stop.  She wanted to be down on her own.  She always likes to do things on her own.  Half the time I never know when she has a school project coming up or due, because she is totally doing everything for it by herself.

Responsible

She is very responsible and I can trust her to babysit her sibling when I need to get some stuff done.  She likes to be in charge.  She loves helping her younger siblings, Connor in particular.  She is also really good to remember to take Bella on walks without me even having to ask her.

Creative

She is so creative!  She loves to do projects all the time.  She even will get in trouble at school for doing  her "projects" when she is supposed to be doing school work.  Last year for her birthday she even had an art party full of all kinds of projects to do.  She also loves to dress up and pretend.  When she was younger she would constantly be in dress up, she loved the Disney princess' and every year she would devote to a princess and want to be that princess and always dress up as that princess for the whole year.  Now, she is older and she still likes to dress up and "pretend" now it just comes in the form of doing plays.  She is involved in a place called Center Stage Players.  It's an after school program and they put on plays, she has practice once a week, they have to audition and then they put on productions at the Off Broadway Theatre.  She has done 2 plays with them so far.  Both times she got one of the main roles.  She just has a knack for this.  She is really good at memorizing her lines and she stays in character.  She is amazing at taking on the personality of whatever character she is playing.

Energetic

This child has SO MUCH energy.  I wish I could bottle it and sell it, I would make a fortune.  When she was 3 I put in her gymnastics to help expel some of her energy.  She still is in gymnastics for this (among other reasons).

Center of Attention

This girl LOVES to be the center of attention!  She has no fear of getting up in front of people (hence the plays).  She likes to get up and bear her testimony in sacrament every month.  In primary, when they ask if anyone will give a prayer, she is the first one to volunteer.  She likes to give talks and do presentations at school.  I think she would live in the center of attention if I let her.  I don't know where she gets this from, because it certainly isn't from me!

Accident Prone

This poor kid is so clumsy.  We usually hear multiple times a day, someone will fall and then you hear her say "I'm okay."  Once at school she tripped on the blacktop, had her hands in her pockets, so she totally did a face plant.  It ended with a bloody nose and a nasty fat lip.  She gets bloody noses very easily, once she got a bloody nose because she got hit in the face with a stuffed animal.  On her first soccer game she every had, she got hit in the face with the ball and got a bloody nose.  Although, she gets banged up a lot from falling all the time, so far we have lucked out and it's just been bumps, bruises and scrapes.  She did once have to get a couple staples in her head, but that is it, no other stitches or broken bones, etc.  I should knock on wood when I say that.

Messy

Yes, this child is very messy!  Her room half the time you are lucky to see the floor and when I do make her clean it, she tends to try and shove things in her closet or under the bed.  We got her a folder this year for school to keep all her papers from school in, in her backpack.  Ya, the folder is in there, but the papers are still all over her backpack.  I think she is just so busy in "her little world of creativity" that she doesn't take the time to slow down and keep things a little bit neater.

Reading

She loves to read.  I will lots of times catch her trying to stay up, sitting in bed, reading a book.  She has lots of books she likes to read.  She loves the "Series of Unfortunate Events" books and she loves "The Secret Series" books as well.

Tall and Skinny

She is quite tall and skinny.  I always say she is like Gumby, someone took her and stretched her.  We always have to get bigger sizes because she is so tall, but then it will be so big around, it's a problem really.  When we don't have to worry about length, she can fit into size 8, when length is involved, we have to go with a size 14.  Ya, big difference, so you see where the problem comes in.

Well that is our Nyah.  She has been so much fun.  I love her.  I always say there is easy things and there is hard things about every child.  With Nyah what makes her easy is her independence and responsibility.  What is hard is that her personality and mine is similar in a lot of areas, (not the center of attention), but she is stubborn like me and always wants to have the last word in.  This makes her a bit argumentative, which can be very frustrating.  She is really bad about staying up way too late (just like me).  Overall though, we really enjoy every minute with Nyah.  

Here is a little slide show about Nyah for you to enjoy.

Blast From the Past

In honor of Valentines day, I thought I would highlight the people I love.  My family.  I know a lot of people say that Valentines day is about date night, or flowers, etc.  For me it's letting the people you care most about, the people you love, know that you love them.

I will start with Jared and then go through each of my kids.

My first impression

Jared and I met, about a month after I graduated high school.  Right after high school, I moved to Sandy, Utah.  My plan was to get a job, get residency in Utah and then to start school.  After moving there I realized I didn't know ANYONE!  So, I decided to go to the local singles ward to meet some friends.  Little did I know what the real purpose of those singles wards were.  I remember the first time I saw him, he was helping pass the sacrament, he was very tan and had almost white blonde hair.  I remember thinking, "hm, he is kinda cute."  After passing the sacrament, I saw him go to his seat and watched him put an earring back in his ear.  I remember thinking "what in the..."  I didn't think much about him after that.  (I don't want to say I judged him for having an earring, but I totally did).  Then one night, a friend I had met through the ward invited me to go with them to another friends apartment complex to go swimming.  I went, and he was there.  I remember doing a double take at him then.  This guy was HUGE!  I had never seen anyone with that much muscle before.  I grew up around a lot of different guys who were in to wresting and grew up on farms.  They had a lot of muscle, were very strong.  But it was nothing like this.  At the time he was with some girl, who I assumed must have been a girlfriend. So I moved on.  At the time, I really just wanted friends to hang out with anyway.

His first impression

Apparently, he too had noticed me that first day in the singles ward.  He thought I was cute, so he asked around about who I was.  He, then found out that I was only 17 still.  With my late September birthday, I wasn't due to turn 18 until then.  They all thought I was very young.  They had nicknamed me la diecisiete, which means "the seventeen."  Jared was 24 when I first met him.  That is a seven year age difference.  When you think about it, it is kind of funny to think that when he was a senior in high school, I was 11 years old and in 6th grade (yep, still in elementary school).  Or when he was getting home from his mission, I was only 15, a Sophmore in high school.  Not even old enough to date.  Now, it doesn't really matter at all really.  At the time, he thought before asking me out I had to at least be a legal adult.  So he waited until I turned 18 and asked me out on my birthday.

Dating

We went on a couple of dates, I liked him, thought he was fun and good looking.  I was just wanting to have fun and that is what we were doing.  He, on the other hand I think feared commitment at the time. In fact any of his friends who got engaged.  He called it en-gagged to be murdered.  I was told he was more of a "player" and didn't stick with one girl.  Which at the time was just fine with me.  After the first few dates, we actually got be pretty good friends.  We had the same group of friends we would hang out with and thats what we became really.  Just friends.  We hung out like that for about 9 months I think.  Then, we started to like each other as more then friends.  I was not about to admit to it because I knew him as dating a lot of different girls.  There was a few I got completely jealous of, but I never acted on it or said anything, because we were "just friends."  I didn't know it at the time, but there were times when I was gone on a date with different guys and he would be bugged that I was out with someone else and not hanging out with him and our friends.  Then he was bothered by the fact that it bugged him and didn't know what to do.  Things all changed when we all planned a big road trip.  There was a group of us and we planned to drive up through San Fransico and then down the coast to Anaheim and back through Vegas.  It was that trip that changed out status.  Before the trip I had gotten some pretty strong feelings for him and it was during that trip that I completely fell in love with him.  I didn't want to admit anything just yet because I was afraid we would get back from the trip and things would go back to being the way they were before.  Well, we got back and he totally blew off this girl that he had dated a few times.  He told her he had a "girlfriend."  I felt a little better after that ha ha.

"En-gagged to be Murdered"

We got officially engaged in August of 2000.  Our big road trip had happened in June.  So we really only seriously dated for about 2 1/2 months.  However, we had actually known each other and had been friends for over a year.  The way he proposed is just mean.  I am so not kidding with this.  But anyone who knows Jared well enough, will know, that it was totally him.  He is the biggest tease you will ever meet.  So, I was going to school at the time and one night I got home from class and he called me to come over.  I came over and he met me at my car.  I got out and the first words out of his mouth were "Jess, it's over...." (my heart sank) and then he continued "are two words you are never going to hear from me."  He then gave me the ring.  He is a punk, maybe I should have said no, just to mess with him hee hee.

Now

Here we are now over 12 years later.  It turns out, I made a perfect choice for me.  He is extremely patient.  Such an amazing dad.  He works so hard for us, to make sure we can all live comfortably.  He goes to church with us and honors his priesthood.  He serves others.  Helps a TON around the house. He is fun and easy going.  Loves to go on vacations with me and the kids.   I couldn't have asked for anything better.  I love him more and more every day!  I am so happy that I get to be with him forever!

Sledding 2012

We took the kids sledding just the other day.  I remember going almost daily as a kid.  Well, here it is a bit different, it's not as easy, you also have to find somewhere to go.  We went up to where Jared's parents live, which is on top of a mountain, we went there and it was quite deep know and a lot of the hills were a bit much for my kids, to go down.  We also borrowed sleds that fit my sister's kids (they are little), so I think doing this again, we will go to a different spot, were the hill isn't as steep and have bigger sleds.  They seemed to like it.  Connor HATED it, but I think that was mostly due, to him having just woken up and did NOT want to go outside for any reason!  I think he would have had more fun, if he was in a better mood.

Connor's Big Boy Bed 2012

We officially moved Connor from his crib to a new bed!  We have been meaning to do it for a while, but just haven't gotten around to it.  We had a toddler bed in the basement that we brought up for now and he LOVES it!!  He thought he was such a big boy in his bed!  He is almost too big for it though, so this bed will be short lived and he will have to graduate to a twin bed this year, I guess that means we get to pick out more room decor!

Merry Christmas 2012!!!!

We got to get our pictures taken with the annual new Christmas clothes on!  They love getting new clothes (well the girl's do anyway, Connor couldn't care less).  I loved all their outfits this year, they turned out so cute!!

 Every year on Christmas eve we get together with a bunch of my friends and the kids all get to decorate cookies for themselves and for Santa.  We also make "reindeer food" that we sprinkle on the lawn every year for the reindeer to have.  It's a great tradition and we love it!

We went to our Ward Christmas Breakfast and Santa came with Mrs. Claus.  The kids were so excited to see Santa!  Jayda couldn't stop hugging them both.  I wondered how Connor would be because he is at that age, where kids are typically weary or scared of Santa.  Well, not him apparently.  Santa came in and he was up on a stage and Connor goes running over to him and holds his hands up to be picked up.  So Santa, reached down and picked him up off the floor and up onto the stage and Connor was a happy camper, it was so cute!!

We spent Christmas eve with my fam.  We all opened up our Christmas eve pj's.  Even Jared got some and we even got him to wear them, ha ha!  Jayda was sad, that I apparently didn't know to get her "footie" pj's, but she does like hers.  I just figured she would like a nightgown because she LOVES dresses and wants to wear them every day.  Funny kid!  We had fun hanging out with my fam, we watched "It's a Wonderful Life" (which I had never seen before, it was AWESOME)!!  We ate Christmas dinner, then we did a Twas the Night Before Christmas mad lib, which had us rolling with laughter.

Well, Santa made it all the way to our house and he did NOT disappoint!  The kids got lots of new, fun things.  All there things this year from Santa were rather large though, it was hard fitting them all into our cozy front room.  We may have to move the big Christmas "shin dig" down stairs in the family room for next year.  Connor had fun "helping" his daddy put some of the toys together, he went and got his own little toy drill, it was so cute!  I believe they got everything they wanted and then some, it was a great day!

Jayda's Dance Recital 2012

Jayda got to have her very first dance recital in December.  It was so adorable!  She did awesome!!  We love her teacher Ms. Addee, she is so cute with the girls and they all just love her!  For the new year, with my sister, Karri living here now, her daughter, Kaija is going to be doing dance with her, so that will make it even more fun!

Happy Halloween 2012

Oh, the fun that is Halloween!!  I love helping the kids to come up with their costumes every year.  This year, Connor got to be a pirate (we could not get him to stand still for a decent picture), Nyah wanted to be a "cute" witch, Jayda was a mermaid and Keira was an Orca.  They had a ton of fun going trick-or-treating and getting loads of candy.