So Many M's

Busy January

2012-01-19T12:31:00.000-07:00

To start of the month, Randy turned 35 (don't tell him I told you). He hinted to me that he thought it would be fun to have a party, a surprise party to be exact. I'm not a huge party thrower, that is why my kids only get a party every other year, but Randy has been working really hard to get us out of the circumstances we are in (through school) and so I figured I needed to be nice this year and do something for just him. My friend Matney offered her house, I got the invites out, and ordered a cake (cuz I can only do so much when I feel like crap most of the day). Our neighborhood friends, his parents and sister showed up and gave a him a good surprise. (Or so we tried, he figured it out earlier but was a good sport about it). I, being the lame wife that I am, didn't get any pics except the cake and a video of us singing to him (which I will spare you the excitement). It was fun and I think he liked it. Thanx to all who helped out and showed up.

Last Friday was Micah's 7th birthday. He had a birthday presentation in class and I brought the class donuts to celebrate.

His teacher wrote a story about Micah and he read it to the class and showed off some silly pics of himself.

Gma, Gpa and Kristi came down for dinner and we went to Applebees, cuz that's where the "loud guy" is. Unfortunately he wasn't there that night, but he still got sung to.

We came home and ate a Lego cake (I know, not one of my best, but hey at least it was done which is all I can ask for at this moment).

Oh and at Applebees, there was a balloon lady that made some awesome balloon figures for the kids. The 1st on the left is a double helix (ya know DNA Strand) she even put two bouncy balls in it for fun. The next is a yellow monkey on a tree, then there are 2 dogs a poodle and a wiener dog and the far right is an octopus, amazing I know. This lady was awesome. Very clever and the kids loved her.

We didn't have time for our bday pancakes on Friday so we made them Saturday AM. I just wanted to extend his bday a little, lol. Later that day we finally went to Trafalga to get our pictures taken for our Pass of all Passes. We played a little black light mini golf, went in an XD Theater ride then Gma and Gpa took the older 3 up to the North Trafalga to play some more while Malia and I went home to rest (since I still don't feel great and Malia was a little under the weather). The kids had a ball.

Also this month, Malia's preschool class(es) went to the Dinosaur and Bean museum on campus. I went and helped chaperon (since I usually feel ok till 1). Malia was crazy the whole time, can ya tell?

She couldn't sit still long enough to look at anything. Good thing I only had her and one other little girl. The other little girl was very well behaved and stayed by my side (unlike my daughter). It was fun to see everything for eleventy billionth time. The Bean Museum is always a fun place to go. This is a pic of her teacher showing the kids the butterfly made out of hundreds of little butterflies. Pretty cool eh?

I can't believe we are already in the 2nd half of January, time sure gets faster with age, lol.

Let's play "What's your prediction"

2012-01-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

I put a little baby ticker and a gender poll on my blog for fun. I want to see what kind of predictions I get for this bambino. So go ahead, vote and tell me what you think. Who knows, when the day comes for my ultrasound, maybe I'll have a drawing for a prize for those who got it right. I guess in that case, leave me a comment as well and let me know what you think it's going to be since I can't tell who chose what on the poll. Happy Voting!!!

The New Addition

2012-01-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

Ya, that's right! The woman who was convinced she was done having children is having another child. Luckily we have not gotten rid of everything yet, but there are still things we are going to have to replace not only cuz I don't have them but because they are as old as McKenzie. Our little M will be here hopefully by or before July 12, which by the way was not what we intended. We were going to wait until Randy was done or almost done with school to start in this new adventure since I just had a miscarriage and didn't really want to be pregnant in the summer again, but as we all know, when KT tries to make plans, someone else seems to always step in and say, ha ha sucka. The morning sickness and headaches are getting old, but hopefully in the next few weeks will get better. The kids are extactic and now that we are past 12 weeks and there is still a heartbeat they couldn't be happier. Malia has been announcing it to the world but usually asks me first if she can tell whoever she's talking to at the moment the "secret." McKenzie has been a huge help especially since around 1 PM is when I start feeling like poo. The place I like to rest is on the couch in the living room so I can still keep up on the kids and they now call it "Mom's couch," gotta love that. I'm just grateful for a strong heartbeat that I can hear. Last time was torture not being able to find it and then realizing that it had stopped growing a few weeks prior. Who would have thought that someone who had 4 healthy pregnancies and children would still be suceptible to a miscarriage. So here's to pregnancy #6. One of these days I'm going to make it through a day without wanting to vomit.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-30T11:43:00.000-07:00

We had a great Christmas at Gma and Gpa Tucker's home this year. The kids got their pajamas. BTW McKenzie came to me the day before and informed me that she really didn't want character PJ's this year, like Hannah Montana. She wanted me to do what I did last year with the PJ pants. It's a good thing I already had done that. I found these pajamas about 3 or 4 months ago for a killer deal.

The Christmas pickle that my kids go nuts looking for. Morgan found it last year, this year Micah was the big winner.

Christmas morning the kids slept in until about 7 (which was a miracle I tell ya). We even had to wake Malia up, can ya tell? Oh and that is her hair sticking up on top of her head.

The kids opening some family gifts from Santa.

The kids got Angry Bird blankets from Gma and Gpa. They are their new favorite blankets.

Had to get one shot before the mess.

Randy and his new BYU Santa. Very appropriate I thought.

Kristi and McKenzie did this in the middle of the night for Gma and Gpa. Kristi enlarged a recent family photo and changed it out for the old one and then wrapped the frame. We wanted to see how long it was going to take for them to notice it was up there. We had a good laugh.

After church and ready to play with their new toys. You can just see the excitement on Malia's face.

Christmas is now over, everything is put away and we are ready for what 2012 brings on to us. Happy New Years Everyone!!!!

A few of my Favorite Christmas Things

2011-12-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

My kids have been a little crazy this Christmas season and have made me laugh, cry, scream, smile and just all around be grateful that I have them. Malia loves to sing, never the right words mind you, Christmas songs, let's be realistic, any songs for that matter. Recently, the song of choice has been "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Here is her version of it.

The words are not always right, but man she is sure of herself.

Micah has written many letters to Santa this year and apparently just making sure Santa knows he's here.

It says:

"It's me again, reminding you I'm here. I'd like a robot that does homework and can also use a broom and a globe of the North Pole. And can one Elf come to my home? And can I keep him here? Are your Elves okay? When you come to my home there's cookies for all of your Elves."

The corrections are from his teacher, he must have done this for a school assignment. This kid never ceases to amaze me with the things that come out of his head. Who even thinks up these things. What a thoughtful kid though to ask about the Elves. He probably just wants to make sure they're OK enough to stay with him forever so they can make him as many toys as he wants. That's thinking outside the box, eh.

This isn't very Christmassy, but I want to make sure I got it on here. Morgan got glasses last week. She was very excited to finally be like her bigger sister. We'll see how long it lasts before she starts begging me for contacts. I know McKenzie has been for a few years now. But for now, she loves them and I think they're pretty stylish.

So Far this December. . .

2011-12-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

It's only the 12th and I feel like it should be Christmas already, not that I'm ready my any means. It has just been so busy already. Probably because we live so close to BYU that we have to do our Christmas stuff early in order for the students to be able to enjoy so Christmas traditions with their ward before they head off to see their families. Regardless, it's been nuts. The 1st weekend of Dec. was the annual BYU family Christmas party. I can't believe this might be our last year we might go. Notice how everyone is wearing blue to support BYU except Micah. What have we done to make him think supporting the Utes is ok?

Malia has this weird obsession with making "crazy eyes." Everyone decided to try and join in.

Notice Micah's list. He wants an Elf so that he can have him make Micah toys all year. Where does he come up with this stuff?

After the party we went and got ourselves a tree. We had to wait about 4 hours to put it up though cuz Randy had a huge paper due, so we had to wait for him to finish.

Then this weekend was our ward's Christmas party. They decided to be a little different and go Hawaiian. It was catered by a family in our stake from Hawaii and we even had some Polynesian dances to enjoy.

Even Santa came dressed for the event with his shorts and lei's. Micah asked for a robot to do his homework this time. He cracks me up.

Malia letting know Santa she's 4.

Morgan had a grass skirt on but kept stepping on it (since it was really mine) so she gave it up.

Oh and another exciting thing that happened already this month is . . . Malia cut her hair. In my 11+ years of being a mom, I have been very lucky to not have a child cut their hair. Malia said that she didn't like it in her eyes anymore. When she realized what she did, she started crying immediately. We couldn't figure out why for another 5 minutes. She looked natural with bangs, until you looked more closely at the side.Malia has always been my button pusher. Here she goes again. My friend Brookie cut it and blended it in, but it is still driving me crazy, so I'm going to take her back and have her butch it.

Here's the clump of hair McKenzie found in her room.

Next up. . .Christmas. Hopefully we'll be ready.

We love Crazy Hair!!!

2011-11-11T14:12:00.000-07:00

It's Red Ribbon week at school and each day they have a themed dress up day. Tuesday was "Crazy about being drug free" with a crazy hair day! My kids look forward to this day every year, and last year I was smart and bought a ton of colored hairspray after halloween so we'd always be ready for this day. The kids (plus our nieghbors that we take to school with us) before school.

Top view of Malia. She really wanted pink and purple in her hair.

Micah's top view. Too bad Halloween was the day before because I totally would have left him with his old man hair-do. Oh well, this is the best we could do.

McKenzie with her colorful "mane."

Morgan wanted to be like Mak but McKenzie wanted nothing to do with that, so I improvised and added a few shrek ears to the mix.

It was a ton of fun to wash out that night, let me tell ya, but they all had fun. SAY NO TO DRUGS!!!

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T08:22:00.001-06:00

This is Halloween, This is Halloween, Halloween Halloween (you get the idea)

We had a great Halloween this year. We got to carve pumpkins

Notice Micah's hair right now, cuz it will change drastically in a sec.

All carved and ready for spooking. (I even got Mak to carve hers all by herself this year hers on the right, amazing I know)

Then came getting ready for dress up. Micah wanted to be an old man and so we went for it. Randy shaved his head Sunday night.

And this is what he looked like in the morning. He looks like a mini George Burns. I love it.

We completed the look with suspenders and and high waters and some awesome glasses we paid too much for. But here's our Old Man

All the kids plus the kid I never had ready for some trick or treating fun.

One more for good measure

Our pretty pretty princess

Our scallywag Pirate

Our Gothic whatever (hope this isn't a sign of things to come)

And some of the kids scoring on their booty.

Thanks Michelle and Jess for helping us make our costumes awesome!!!!

Field Trips

2011-10-25T07:56:00.001-06:00

Malia and Micah both got to go on field trips within a 2 week period. And since now I'm kidless for 3 hours each day, I can go without having to pick an choose which one's I go and and have to find a sitter. Malia's was first and she got to 1st go to Krispy Kreme and see how donuts are made.

Then to the fire station and see a fire be put out, a smokey house, abulance, and fire trucks and watch the life flight helicopter land about 25 yards away. It was awesome.

We got to have her buddy Caden in our group. He's in the afternoon class so we don't get to see him much anymore

Then it was off to Pumpkin Land to play in the corn maze, and see some farm animals, play on their playground walk through their "spook" alley (which is just a lot of lights.

Then last week, Micah was able to go to Pumpkinland as well. We got a group shot before walking through the maze.

Saw some cooling looking corn.

Looked at lots of pumpkins.

Put our faces in silly places.

And got to pick out a pumpkin to take home.

It was a lot of fun for everyone. I'm so gateful my kids are in school so I can do more things with them there.

UEA=Big Springs

2011-10-20T07:56:00.001-06:00

UEA came again, like it does every year and we were having a hard time thinking where we should go for our annual hike, so we decided to do Big Springs again since more kids were coming this year and we had a couple of smaller ones with little legs. We thought this was going to be fairly easy for everyone.

We set out and quickly it became aware that our older kids and the younger one's were not going to stay together. So two of the couples went on ahead with the "runner's" while the other couple and a half helped the younger one's.

It was another amazing day for a hike. What a view.

Tyler trying to be one with nature.

Little K taking one of his many breaks.

Jess, doing what she does best, gross us out.

The kid crew. Malia made it the whole way, not being carried once and she was usually in the front of the pack. I was amazed, especially because when we started the hike, she was whiney and asking for water and food and saying her legs hurt, but something in her clicked about a 1/2 mile in and she just went, running some of the time.

The adults, still breathing.

After a quick break and snack we headed back and Max insisted on carrying this ginormous stick back with him thinking that his parents would love for him to bring that home. Unfortunately it stayed back next to where the car was parked, sorry buddy.

This hike stays near a creak almost the whole time and is just gorgeous.

After the hike, Randy and I found a new trail we want to try without kids first to see if they could handle it. Maybe if we are lucky we can hit it next spring before it gets too hot.

McKenzie's 11-OMG!!!!

2011-10-06T07:47:00.014-06:00

It happened, we officially have a preteen!!! I think I'm going to go crazy now. She wanted German Pancakes for breakfast, which I didn't mind cuz it's sooo much faster and easier than regular one's.

It was a school day, and also parent/teacher conferences. So we had to do a something quick right after we were done. We met Gma and Gpa and Dee Da up at Culver's, Mak's choice. She got to wear the birthday hat while she ate.

Randy decided to have fun with the camera.

Then Micah joined in the fun as well.

So did McKenzie.

Then we went to Dee Da's and opened presents. . . . (she got a Rip Stik which she's been asking for forever)

(Showing off her mad stik skills and wearing her new threads from Gma and Gpa to the gang)

And ate cake. . . well cupcakes at least.

That weekend we had Alina and the kids over for dinner and I made her a "real" cake. I figured, she's 11, she doesn't need character cakes anymore. So I made her my mom's whipped cream cake (the one we always had growing up).

It's hard to believe she's not a little kids anymore :( I can't believe this time next year we will have a Young Woman. Ahhhhhhh! Oh well, at least now we have a babysitter, which btw is awesome.

It's Fall

2011-10-04T07:47:00.003-06:00

I love fall!!!! I love the colors, the coolness in the air, everything. Over conference weekend we went up the canyon and enjoyed a picnic and playtime in the park.

Here's the playtime. It was a really warm weekend, hence the shorts and T-shirts.

There was a pavilion there that looked a little Barn-ish (it's a word, I promise). So I attempted shots of the kids. Too bad they all had been running around that their faces are all red. Oh well, I'm learning.

My little goofballs.

We saw butterflies

And ladybugs

And me apparently.

Fall also brought a round of the sickies. Within a 24 hour period, we all got sick. It was great fun, can't you tell?

After we were done being sick, we were able to go to the BYU homecoming pancake breakfast and parade.

James even joined us (Rocking Malia's Culver's hat of course).

We even got to see Smokey the Bear. My dad should be soo proud of us. Here's for you dad.

I also got into canning (sort of). I was given a 5 gallon bucket of the best grapes I've ever had. It made 8 Qt. of juice and 9 pints of jelly. Also later on I canned some pears.

Soccer has come again

2011-09-26T11:46:00.000-06:00

I love soccer I really do, I just hate going and dealing with the rest of my kids during the games. It's not very enjoyable for me, but since I really want them to play, here we go again. The kids have 1 more game this week and then we are done (till the spring). They've been doing great, making at least 1 goal (usually more) per game. Micah's color's stayed the same and now we will never lose Morgan. It's very bright.

Randy is both of their coaches so he's been really busy as well.

She was showing me 2 for the 2 goals she had already made. I think she made 3 this game. Go Orange Dreamcicles.

Micah's been really aggressive and he's a lefty so that gives him an advantage on the other side of the field since all the other kids are right, they just can't get it away from him.

Micah and KC are on the same team this year and even KC is doing really well. Go Black Ninja's

I'm excited for the break now, phew!

2011-09-26T11:37:00.000-06:00

Here we go again. Not only is it Rad Kid year for Kenz. But also Morgan and Micah. So be prepared. There will be more coming. Mac's just the lucky one who goes 1st.

After her simulation getting ready to call for help. That's her teacher helping her.

Malia has gone to so many of these. It's sad to think that she won't ever get to go through a program.

Here is her simulation with the lobster man. I don't know why, but these things always make me emotional. Maybe it's because this could really happen to my child and it scares me. I pray that it never does, but if it does, I know they'll know what to do.

Oh and this is proof that she actually yells.

It's a "Rio" Party

2011-09-26T11:21:00.000-06:00

It's been so crazy around here that it took me 3 1/2 weeks to finally let Morgan have her birthday party. We decided long ago to let our kids have bday party every other year on the even years since those are usually the big birthday's. It worked for McKenzie, I had no problems getting hers together, but Morgan's birthday was kind of part of the "Perfect Storm" as we like to call it around here. Her baptism was right after her birthday, we had family in town, we were still getting used to going back to school, I had some issues I'm not going to go into right now, Malia had her first birthday party, soccer was well underway and it just felt like the world was going to crash down on us at any moment. Anyway, so we gave Morg some options on what she could do and she opted for a "Movie" party, which btw I absolutely love and think I'm going to encourage the rest of the kids to do the same, at least once. The kids came at 5, and I quickly gave them pizza, drink and some healthy junk and they sat in the blanket and pillow covered living room and ate, drank and watched "Rio."

This is who Randy and I decided to decorate which came out so cute. We wanted to help darken the space (since we weren't watching the movie at night). So we got all of our streamers out and this is what we came up with. This pic is of the light fixture in the living room. Light's off. . .

Light's on. This pic doesn't really do it justice. It looks really cool with the light on.

We had soccer all day, again, so I wasn't going to have time to make any kind of cute cake, so we opted for store bought cupcakes, I know, lame. But hey they were cute and I didn't have to make them.

The crew watching, and eating. My friend who loaned us the movie even gave us some popcorn bags to use, which was perfect.

The gang after it was all said and done.

I loved this party because I had little to plan and do. I didn't have to entertain them with games or crafts because the movie took up 3/4 of it. All we had time to do when it was over was cake and presents. There were no dishes, clean up was a snap and Morgan loved every minute of it. Sorry Morg for being such a slack mom, I'm glad you had fun.

Great To Be 8!

2011-09-22T18:13:00.000-06:00

This was a special year for Morgan. She not only went into 3rd grade, and had a birthday shortly after, but she turned 8!!!! Which means she was able to get baptized into the LDS church. On her birthday, her teacher had her give her family presentation and got to wear the birthday hat and get sung to. That night Randy had school so we really didn't do a whole lot until the weekend when a ton of family came in for her birthday (which also happened to be my birthday, which subsequently is the same day as my baptism, crazy hu?)

So Saturday we woke up bright and early and got ready, because her baptism was at 9 AM, argh! It was tough getting eleventy billion of us ready, but we made it. There was only 1 from our ward getting baptized and about 6 others from the rest of the stake. It made for a very crowded chapel. Here's Randy and Morg beforehand.

Still a family tradition for the girls to wear the dress my grandma made my oldest sister when she got baptized. It's been through all of my sisters and now 4 granddaughters with more to go I'm sure.

Just one quick one outside.

The baptism was great. The talks were amazing (thanx mom) and she came out of it still alive. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but these girls are inseparable (lol). Katelin was baptized in May, McKenna in June and Morg in Sept. We really wanted to take shots of them in their dresses. They were not very interested in standing still for very long, but we got a few.

And one for good measure.

And the whole family that was able to make it. There was a lot more friends who came as well. It was so great having their support.

We tried really hard to get a family shot. This was as close as we got.

The grandparents were both there for the event (a first since my parents live far away, but not for long).

We celebrated both Morgan's and my birthday afterwards. Oh and it was the 1st weekend of college football, so that is what Randy was doing all day, lucky me. I'm so excited for this season, no really.

Billy got a hold of my camera and kind of went nuts. This is one made me laugh when I went through the card. Don't ask me what my mom is doing.

But really this day was about Miss Morgie poo. She is a special part of our family. We are so proud of her for making the decision to be baptized. We love you little girly.

Just Morgan

2011-09-22T16:19:00.000-06:00

Before I get into Morgan's baptism I wanted to post a few pics from our photo shoot. We went out one afternoon to BYU and the temple and just clicked away. She was a good subject. I'm still learning about my awesome camera and I probably should have waited a few more hours to do this shoot. You live and you learn. This is the invite that sent out.

I took almost 200 shots, it was pretty fun.

First Day of School-or should I say Shool

2011-09-22T14:59:00.000-06:00

Craziness is all around, on the house tops on the ground. (Can you name that primary song?) Anyway, school started with a bang. Three kids off to all-day school and one at home waiting to get evaluated for preschool which started the following week. Mak started 5th grade

Morg's in 3rd

And Micah's in 1st (his 1st year of all day which is great)

Do you sense a theme with the plaid? Apparently it is still in, which makes me laugh cuz I remember when it was in while I was in middle and high school and how quickly it got lame (ya know with the corduroy along with it like on the collars). I like this plaid though.

We got the pics again. I really need to look back through the years and see how much these girls have really changed.

This was the next week cuz McKenna was sick the 1st week of school, poor girl. I love that these girls have to bend over for Morg, why didn't she get Randy's genes?

I'm pretty sure Micah will be taller than Morg soon enough. Not as tall as KC, but he'll get some height on him.

This was the 1st day without McKenna, these 2 are such hams.

The next week, preschool started and as you can see Malia got in. This is probably the only reason to love August birthday's. She was sooo excited to go to school. She got up so early and got herself ready and was ready before 8 AM to go. Too bad she still had 45 minutes to wait.

Her and Brooklyn, another one of Michelle's kids that is in kindergarten. They have fun together though.

Can you tell that she's excited, or maybe that's a little possessed, either way, she's in school.

She's soo proud of herself.

Now that my mornings are free, I'm keeping busy with working out and making a monthly (maybe more, we'll see) of going to the temple before Malia gets home. It's time to work on me now. SOOOO HAPPY SCHOOL STARTED, WOOT!!!

Malia's 4

2011-09-03T14:37:00.000-06:00

Don't worry I'm only 1 month and 3 days late. Man, I'm awful these days. Malia did turn 4 last month and we did celebrate her birthday, I promise. We woke up on her bday and I made "the pancakes"

Then we went to Toys R Us and got her birthday balloon and I let her pick out a toy with her birthday coupon. She picked this shopping cart since her last one broke (it's been through all of the kids, it was time for a new one). She had a lot of fun with the cart until Uncle James came over and turned her into a crazy child. These two are peas in a pod I tell ya. The faces they come up with.

We made pizza that night and ate some yummy birthday cake. She asked for a butterfly cake, which made me happy since that was an easy one to create. I'm all about simplifying.

She got some Princess and Rapunzel things that she wears all of the time.

Then the next week (while the other kids were in school mind you, yet another hallelujah moment for me) she had her first birthday party. They made crowns, decorated cupcakes, played pinned the bracelet on Dora, opened presents and smacked a pinata. It was a fun party.

So grateful this girl is in our family. Although crazy at times, she brings such a fun, energetic personality to our home. She's our little princess!!! Love ya Eah!!!

Bear Lake=Stewart Reunion 2011

2011-09-02T09:21:00.000-06:00

Since in the past, we have usually not been in the area of wherever the Stewart Reunion is, we haven't been able to attend many of them. But this year, Randy's parents were in charge and they decided to have it in Utah, so we were excited to finally be able to go to another one. Randy's parents rented a really nice cabin on a hill with a great view of the lake. We went tubing and jet skiing, played at the beach, ate lots of yummy food, played games till all hours of the night, and just relaxed.

Grandma and Grandpa Tucker who started these reunions oh so long ago.

Our family shot. The kids mostly behaved.

A view from the cabin. It was amazing.

Michelle and Mike using their youngest brother Nic as an ottoman. Ya gotta love sibling love.

Andrea really loves food, and really loves to show us also. Sorry babe, couldn't resist.

PJ, who is Randy's cousin, served his mission in the same place as my brother. It was pretty funny when they sent home pictures to their families of the 2 of them together. Small world. I caught him sleeping like this and had to take a pic, unfortunately he woke up too soon.

Mom taking her shot. Too bad she has the lens cap still on, lol.

We got to ride around on a jet ski and Randy's mom was brave enough to let her son take her out for her first time. The lake is really choppy and bounces you all over the place but still a lof of fun.

This is pretty much what the kids did all day. Played in the sand, built sandcastle after sandcastle.

Malia posing for her shot.

There were some really great photo ops. The moon was full and gorgeous our last night their and every time we took a look at it, it looked different. It was beautiful. I love the reflection on the lake.

Malia made new friends in Randy's cousins. They are young, still have energy and just ate Malia up. She decided she wanted to look like cousin Michael, doesn't she look like him?

Playing chess. . . or not.

When we weren't outside at the beach, this is where you found the kids, the MOVIE THEATER room. Julie's kids brought their XBox and played till their hearts content. It was a fun room to be in.

Another cool room, the kids room. It's 2 trundle bunk beds so it slept 6 kids unless we wanted to squish them. I thought it was pretty ingenious.

A shot from the upstairs balcony, Randy acting like was going to actually get me or something.

One of my favorite rooms, not that I really had time to use it. The master bath had this cool tub and a walk in shower (the opening right next to the bath). It had no doors just a huge room with a shower in it. It was nice showering all of the kids at the same time trying free them of the sand they had accumulated.

It was a great reunion and a fun vacation. Thanks mom and dad for putting it together.

2011-08-30T19:36:00.000-06:00

Here are some video clips of things we saw or did at the cabin. The first 2 are from the Minaquabat show, they are pretty fun to watch. We went 2 times this year cuz we love them so much.

The next is of my mom skiing, again. I'm sure I've posted one of her skiing before, I'm just so amazed that at 60, she's still got it.

And one of James just being. . . James. He had fun slaloming and learning to dock start.

Randy and I even skied, but those are not going up here. I even got up on 1 ski this year, it's been forever since I've done that. It felt pretty good. I want to be like my mom when I grow up, lol.

Going Back: Our Wisconsin Trip

2011-08-29T16:01:00.000-06:00

Caution: LONG POST!!!! Proceed at your own will

In July we planned our big trip back East to go to the cabin what maybe our last time, (we'll see). We calculated Randy's time off and upcoming Holiday's and found that we were going to be able to take a full 2 weeks off. So we went for it. Now mind you before you get very far into this post, my pictures, for whatever reason were not in order on my computer and I gave up trying to get them in order, so the went up on the blog very scattered. So just enjoy the shots. Anyway, we left on a Saturday and headed for Colorado to hang out with Lindz for the weekend. We went to a little carnival down the street and of course the kids had a blast. Morgan went on a dizzy ride and felt miserable till we got her home and gave her a Popsicle, of course. Here's Eah and Bradley (they're 5 days apart)

Micah and Collin (a little more than that apart).

Here's the 1st out of order shot. Morgan with baby "Whit" (at least that's what I call him) and Tater.

After we left Colorado we headed back to Mequon to visit my grandpa who just turned 90. He just moved in a retirement apartment complex and hates the food, so my aunt told us to take him out to his favorite diner, Wayne's. He was able go a few times with each of my siblings coming in to see him. He loved it. Here he is with my kids plus my "cousins" daughter Sammie.

Aww, I miss my grandpa. We used to tease him that he looks like George Burns. Isn't he cute?

We stayed at my "cousin's" Scooter and Kim's and just let the kids play for the rest of the day in the pool before we had to head out the next day for my mom's. They all had a slumber party in their basement. . . They look like little sardines.

Kim, Scoot (at least that's what I call him) and their kids Sammie and Alex. Man the kids sure had fun while we were there.

Can you tell they didn't want to leave.

Oh, back to our Colorado portion of the trip. We were able to go and see the Denver temple (which is pretty close to Lindz house) and take some quick shots after church.

The theme of the vacation for the kids was FROGS!!!! They love frogs and the caught as many frogs as they possibly could. This was the 1st one we found before we even got the cabin at Sammie's house. In all they probably caught about 30 or so frogs.

Once we got the cabin, the family started filtering in on different days, and we crammed about 25 of us in our small 2 bedroom cabin and a pop-up trailer. You got to really love your family to be able to do this. Here's Billy and Wall-E at the Minaqua-bats. She's so stinkin cute.

They wanted to get a quick fam shot, it took some convincing of Ki Ki but we finally got her smiling.

Here Eah doing what she does best, pushing the dang stroller.

Uncle Jon being cool and letting Eah wear his sunglasses.

Randy dumping water on James, just because he loves him so much.

Even though we have a Culver's within driving distance to us, the rest of the family does not, so we ate a lot of Culver's while were out there, not that I minded, but I'm sure my hips did.

We had a lot of fun playing in the water, especially Eah who couldn't stop jumping off the dock.

Aye matey!

I know this is blurry but it really gives the affect that my mom is, let's say, nuts. She has a lot of energy and a lot camp songs in her sleeve and really gets into them. This was Ghost Chicken's in the Sky. Can't you just see her flapping?

More water playing. The water was great this year, just the right temperature so we were in it a lot.

We even got a group shot of us were able to come to the cabin. We missed you Shauna, Lindsay and Bacon.

We were able to play on this beauty. It's called the little Caribbean and it's a floating island. The kids had blast climbing on and jumping through the hole. It was even fun for us adults as well.

We did a family talent show which I will try and post video later. My bro and his wife from Hawaii brought back some Hawaiin paraphernalia and here's Micah sporty his booty.

And Morgie as well.

Mac showing her dirty side and playing in the wet sand and dumping it everywhere.

If we weren't outside playing, we were inside watching movies, especially on those wet days. This is usually how you would find the boys sitting.

And here is proof of the frog catching expedition. This was the tree frog catching day, but they had a ton of huge toads as well.

We also spent a lot of time on this. The kids would fight over who got to go on it next and thanx to mom and dad we had an endless supply of gasoline so they rode till their hearts content.

Mac doing what she loved best, holding babies. Although I do have to say she has some work to do before she should do it on her own, I mean, what parent lets their baby chew on a nasty sandal. Luckily there are NO germs at the cabin. . . Right?

And it's all thanks to these to, Margaret and Jack a.k.a MarJax. They are my mom's grandparents and bought the cabin the year she was born. We've had a lot of fun here and hope to have more fun in the future. Thanx for the memories, MarJax, You Da Bomb!!!

I will try to upload some video of skiing and stuff later.

Manti Pageant

2011-06-28T17:16:00.000-06:00

Since Gma and Gpa were watching our kids on THEIR Anniversary (see I told you there are wonderful people), they decided they wanted to go see the Manti Pageant and have us meet them there on our way back from Moab and do a little camping. We got there in time for dinner and then made our way up the hill from our campsite to the temple which we could see from our tent, it was beautiful. We go there about 8:30 and still got some really good seats and only had to wait an hour before showtime.

Getting some quick shots before the production.

I think I might make this my new Facebook profile pic.

We found a cool spot for some shots of us and had Kristi take some. The color was off on a few so decided to change them to sepia, look it's like we are in the olden days, lol.

Ya except for Randy's T-shirt, very time appropriate don't ya think.

The pageant lasted about an hour and a half and we brought a stroller so Malia could fall asleep and we could just push her down the hill, but she lasted that whole time, it was Micah who passed out on the grass. The Temple was beautiful on the way out so I had to get another shot. . .

Or two.

We slept in (a little) had a great breakfast and headed out. It was a crazy busy weekend, but fun. Glad we had the opportunity to see the pageant before we move (if we move). We need to start taking advantage of all of the things we can do while we are here. Well there's 2 things on our to do list checked off.

Moab = No Kids, Yippee!!!

2011-06-28T16:50:00.000-06:00

Friends of ours have a family-shared cabin close to Moab and they decided they wanted to have a getaway with some friends without kids. Originally there were 6 couples going to go, but 2 had to drop out, and we missed them, so 4 ended up going. Randy and I were excited and we quickly begged and pleaded with Gma and Gpa for some babysitting, which they so kindly obliged. We left Thursday afternoon with 1 1/2 of the couples and got there before dark. The other half came up later that night. The cabin was beautiful (which of course I forgot to get pictures of). Our friend's dad built it, with the help of some other family members, up in the mountains off the Colorado River. It was 10 degrees cooler up there (yeah) and has an awesome view.

We had never been to Moab ( I know pathetic considering we've been here 4 years already), so we really didn't know where to begin. Friday morning we were up bright and early to go to Arches National park and get the Fiery Furnace passes before they were all handed out (they only allow 75 groups per day to go through) and also get as much hiking in before the heat killed us. It was amazing to see some smaller arches and some really cool rocks.

Kye and Kelly, one of our Moab experts and our friends with the cabin.

Ben and Bridget.

Rob and Matney, our fearless leaders through the slot canyons. Also our other Moab experts.

One of the smaller arches we ran into.

Beautiful eh? We then proceeded back down and had lunch and then headed to back into Moab to a secret spot (well sort of) that Kye knew about. He calls it the Dam Hike, cuz we hike around a dam and river but we like to be sinners and just call it the Dam Hike for the fun of it. It was perfect because by the time we were done at the Furnace, it was pretty hot. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera, due to the fact we were hiking through water, and didn't get any pictures. It felt so nice playing in the water. We rode the rapids down on our tushes, and jumped off cliffs (well I didn't but some of us did). I just wanted to be in the water cuz that's my element, so I was happy just to be there.

We went out for dinner that night at Pasta J's. Kelly wanted to see what she looked like with Bridget's glasses on. She kind of looks like a fly we decided. They look really good on Bridget though. Sorry Kel, couldn't resist.

Just chillin and waiting for our food.

After indulging in some ice cream we headed back to the cabin and played games and attempted to take showers, we ended up having to boil water cuz something was wrong with the water heater, and just talked the rest of the night. The next day we headed further up the mountain and went skeet shooting and looked for dinosaur tracks. Matney almost beat all of the boys in skeet shooting, just got beat by Kye. She rocks. After that, we headed back, cleaned the cabin, ate lunch and headed back out to go home. It was a nice weekend away from our offspring and just spending time with some really cool people. Thanx again Kelly and Kye for including us on such a fun weekend.

June Happenings Thus Far

2011-06-20T14:10:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe that June is over half way over, but at the same time not really. We've kept busy with things, which has helped pass the time a little more quickly. One thing we did was we decided to not buy another pool for the kids to break (again) and opted to build this little soaker fun.

We found it on family fun and thought it was a great alternative to a pool. It cost the same as a pool that we would have bought, it only took a couple of hours to cut and drill and put together and it will last longer and be easier to store. So far the kids have been having a blast with it, (when it hasn't been cold or raining).

My friend/neighbor turned 29 (again) and she has a tradition of throwing herself a party so she can indulge in yummy Costco cake and not have tons of leftovers to gorge herself on. I think the idea is ingenious. Too bad my bday always lands over Labor Day weekend. Here she is with her hubby Chris (who's also 29 again).

Chris is leaving for Afghanistan pretty soon so I wanted to take a family shot just in case we aren't here when he gets back. He's awesome and we'll miss him while he's gone. Don't worry Trish, we'll keep ya company and play lots of card while he's away.

The goofies. Chris looks a little sadistic here, almost like Jack Nicholson in "The Shining," right?

We've gone to the park a few times and twice to this duck park. Once with our playgroup and once with my sis Linsday while she we in town for her SIL's wedding. We love feeding the ducks, can ya tell. I am finally out of old bread though, so I will have to start stocking up again.

The ducks at this park are more hungry than the BYU ducks. They actually eat the bread, maybe it's because there is so much more of them.

They just come right up to you, it's awesome.

Collin loves to draw, he sat on this rock for a while just showing Alina his pictures.

We also celebrated Father's day yesterday in style. (Well as much as you can with early morning meetings for church). He didn't get breakfast in bed, but I made him some delicious steak. I hope that made up for it. The highlight of the day was when Malia asked if I would paint her nails, to which my response was, ask daddy, which in turn became, let's paint daddies nails.

He's such a trooper.

Aren't they gorgeous? Each appendage was a different color. We went and played games with some friends that evening and all we kept see was this hand come out with red paint all over it. It was hard to get used to. He had me remove it before bed.

Can you tell he's a daddy to 3 girls? Too bad he doesn't have hair to curl or put into ponytails. Maybe we'll buy him a wig for that. We have more stuff coming up, but I wanted to get this in here before I forget. Next up, Moab trip, Manti Pagent, and camping with gma and gpa. They are all back to back, so we'll how long it takes for me to get it up. Wish me luck.

Aren't things suppose to happen in 3's?

2011-06-16T11:59:00.000-06:00

At least that is what I've been told. We've a crappy past couple of months. It just seems like it's one thing after another and it's never ending. It started in March when Randy sprained his ankle really bad (which still hasn't completely healed, but it's slowly getting better). Then we had a break until May when. . . wait for it (deep breath in)
2. I broke my curling iron and almost started a fire
3. Malia's bike finally kicked the bucket which in turn cost money to get McKenzie a new bike (long story)
4. My washing machine's warranty was expiring so I got a maintenance check to make sure everything was in working order (which it was by the 1st technician) only to find out a month later that he missed something pretty obvious had he taken off the front panel off, which would have been fixed, and in turn would not have made my frontelectric panel short out requiring another technician to come and fix it. Ya, I'm in a big dispute with Sears right now.
5. Right after the washer broke (literally that door) One of my children clogged the toilet so bad that it flooded the bathroom. Ya, gross.
6. I totally slammed my index finger in the car door, it really hurt for a couple of days and even typing now it's still sensitive.
7. I tweaked my elbow while doing push ups on P90X and it still hurts.
8. Our AC went out, luckily we rent and the weather is not blazing yet, so it was fixed fast and with a bigger unit, can I get an AMEN!!!
9. McKenzie landed on her foot wrong and we really thought she broke it. We were so sad cuz it was the beginning of Summer break and thought this is a great way to start of the Summer. Luckily she was only in a splint and crutches for about a week and then she attempted to walk on it. It took a few minutes for her to get her "footing" (ha ha get it?) back and she hasn't had a lot of problems since. It hurts every once in a while but she not letting it slow her down.

But during all this mayhem, I'm trying to see the good in everything.
1. The kids are out of school, so I don't have to be everywhere all of the time.
2. We get to take the kids' report cards to Krispy Kreme and get a dozen and a half of donuts. Yummm
3. We have a home where most everything works and when it doesn't, I have the best friends and neighbors who are always willing to help me out, even let me wash stinky poo towels in their washer.
4. I have my family who are for the most part healthy. I have friends who have husbands leaving on deployment next week. I have other friends who have cancer or who have children who are fighting cancer. I have a sister who is pregnant who can't stand for very long cuz her varicose veins are so bad it sends shooting pain all over. I really shouldn't complain about ankles and feet that will heal themselves over time.
5. My husband has a job, even though it's not his ideal job, it pays the bills, and his schooling and it's making it possible for us to excel. (ONLY 1 MORE YEAR)
6. I have lost 17 pounds (and counting) doing P90X with my buddy, and jogging with more buddies, and Zumba-ing with even more buddies. I still have more to lose, but I feel like now my goal is more achievable.
7. Randy's and my callings at church, although stressful and time consuming, are a huge blessing for us. I have grown and learned so much in the last 3 years.
8. We have realized that when and if we move next year, we are going to probably have to move ourselves and so we are starting now to get rid of, sell and reorganize our "stuff." We sold some nightstands this week, yippee, and have a few more things on KSL. My bedroom is starting to look like a bedroom opposed to the kids' dumping ground. I actually want to be in there again.
9. I have the knowledge that there's more out there than just what we do here on earth. I know that everything I do, or learn or am forced to put up with is only going to make a stronger person. So even though there has been a lot of bad things happening to us lately, I know that my Heavenly Father has a plan for me and is watching out for me and my family. I know that one day I'll be able to be with him again if I can just endure this earthly life and do what he asks me to do to the best of my ability. I know that when I'm having poopy days, I can pray and know that he is listening. my first list are things that are not going to kill me or cause me to question my faith, they are just there to help me remember to rely on the Lord.

School's Out For Summer

2011-06-16T11:15:00.000-06:00

I'm almost 2 weeks late on this and there has been so much, but I am really going to try and not go overboard with this. The kids' last day was the 3rd (which is weird for us since we are always out the last week of May) and for them it couldn't have come soon enough, but for me I was crying. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and it's great to have them home, but I miss my schedule. Anyway in no particular order, here are the end of the year happenings.
Morgan's grade had a talent show, my camera ran out of memory and so I missed her actual presentation, but here are her pieces of art she shared with the class.

The annual dance festival was a hit again, and lucky for us, it didn't snow the day before. The weather was gorgeous and the kids had a lot of fun.

The 4th grade program was about Utah's history so the kids were suppose to dress up like Native Americans or pioneers.

The Kindergarten did a little program with songs and jokes, it was mostly for Mother's Day since it was right around that time, but they combined it with their annual program. Micah's waving at me with his little finger.

The traditional last day of school shot of the girls. Man they are getting big, well all but Morgan, lol. She will never catch up to these girls, sorry Morg about your genes.

These girls are such goofs.

Micah and Kace, great buds.

Micah's going to miss Mrs. Headman. I hope we are here long enough for Malia to have her. She's amazing.

Morg with Miss Edwards and her aide (who also happens to me my neighbor and friend) Mrs. Youell. Another amazing teacher. Maybe I should just make these ladies move with us where ever we go.

Mak and Miss. Cluff. This was her 1st year teaching and she really grown this last year. This was a hard grade to start teaching on, but she held her own.

Mak and her girls and Malia sneaking in for the shot. One of these girls is moving this summer, what a sad day for these guys.

Morg and her friend Paris. She's also moving this summer and couldn't hold back the tears on the way out the door. It was so cute and touching. I know Morg and he posse will miss her too.

We missed Kylie at the beginning of school so we had to get just one more shot of these crazy things.

Mak was allowed to ride the bus home with her friend Emme. She was really excited since she either walks or gets driven to school. On the way out, the bus drivers honk all of the way out of the bus lane and down the street while the kids wave at the teachers. The kids love it. Mak was really excited to finally be apart of it.

Here's one of Micah's song from his program.

Micah kicked some tail during the field day races. He got 2nd in the finals for his grade, but with a bunch of crazy 6-year-olds the judges gave him 3rd in the chaos. That's ok, we know he got 2nd. BTW Micah's the one in the Lime green jersey.

There's a few other video's I wanted to upload but for whatever reason, they aren't. So I will leave it at that for now. With almost 2 weeks of summer break under our belt, I think I just might make it this summer.

Ode to Mother's day

2011-05-14T17:28:00.000-06:00

We had a fun Mother's Day weekend. Saturday morning we woke up bright early to go to two of Morgie's BFF's baptism. It's going to be such a fun year for these girls. Morgan is the last one of the bunch for her turn. It's going to be a long summer.

Later on Grandma, Grandpa, and Kristi came down for the last soccer games of the season. After that we went to the Creamery for dinner and ice cream. Then we got the kids ready for bed and let Gma and Gpa babysit while Randy went out on a "date." Actually we went Mother's Day shopping.

The next morning we got up bright and early to get ready for 9 AM church, ya gotta love not sleeping in on Mother's day. The guys made us breakfast, which was nice, and then it was off to sacrament meeting where Mak, Morg, myself and Morg's friend and her mom sang a song with the Primary kids for a Mother's Day tribute. The girls were so cute. The mom's all got little packages of chocolate and then we all went home for a yummy steak dinner prepared by our men. I begged Randy to not have to be in the kitchen. For the most part it worked. I had to go in every once in a while to help find things and remind them to start the next food. Gma, Kristi and I got to watch "Emma," I love Jane Austen movies.

After dinner we went to feed the baby ducklings on campus. We made it there in time to feed and get a few shots before it started raining. They are redoing the pond area on campus so there was tape everywhere and it was kind of messy, but still fun.

Still so cute.

There were even a few turtles there.

We amazingly enough got a family shot (which doesn't happen sporadically ever). I love Morg's choice of outfit. Very colorful. She loves that hoodie and it doesn't matter to her if it matches anything or not.

I got flowers from Morgan, Micah and Gma. (in that order on the pic). Micah painted the pot for me and Gma's is a Spring Cactus.

Isn't it beautiful. I hope I don't kill it like I do with everything else.

It was a nice day!! Thanks everyone for letting me kind of rest.

Spring Soccer 2011

2011-05-13T21:36:00.000-06:00

I love soccer!!! But I really love it when it's over. No more sitting at the soccer fields for hours at a time. Ahhhhh! The kids had a lot of fun this year. Micah is really starting to get the hang of things. He usually gets a few goals per game.

Here's one of them.

Morg had fun too but quickly realized this year was going to be much harder moving up an age group. She still enjoyed herself, especially when she got the ball.

She got a few goals and helped with quite a few.

We had all sorts of weather to deal with this season. We really didn't get nice weather till the last game. Pretty much the opposite of Fall season, but we survived.

It was nice that the fam was able to come down a couple of times.

The most amazing thing was that Malia made it through both seasons. . . alive.

Don't even ask me what Morgan is doing here.

Aren't these two are just the cutest?

And of course we can't forget the beautiful view we were able to enjoy at each game (as long as it wasn't raining that is).

Here's to next season. Malia really wants to play but she misses the cutoff by about 2 weeks. Oh well, at least we'll still only have 2 games to keep track of for another year.

Having fun with Family

2011-05-13T20:59:00.000-06:00

Randy's SIL's little bro (who also by chance served part of his mission in our ward) got married over Easter weekend. We were so busy with so many other activities that weekend (along with another wedding we were invited to as well) that we just couldn't make it. So the next weekend we spent Saturday with Rob and Kendra doing fun family things. We were suppose to have soccer games, but it snowed that morning and so they cancelled it (which was amazing because they never cancel soccer). So instead we decided to go to Nickel City (an arcade where the games cost a nickel). The kids had fun with all of the games there.

Mak getting a crash course on driving, uh oh.

Malia had fun with her cousins go around and around and around on the Merry-Go-Round, over and over and over again.

Gotta love some skee ball.

Kendra gave a try at Dance Dance Revolution and Alyssa didn't want to miss out on the fun.

After that we went to Pizza Pie Cafe, a pizza buffet, and then headed over to BYU for some jumping fun in the gymnastics room. They all jumped. . .

And Lept. . .

And got hurt and cried. . .

And jumped some more. . .

And did a little swinging. . .

And flew through the air with the greatest of ease. They were pretty much worn out by this point and luckily it was time for bed by then.

A few days later, before Rob and Kendra left, we celebrated. Kind of a mix of everything, from lots of birthday's to Mother's Day and everything in between. We met at a park and ate some food, ran around and found some baby ducklings.

Aren't they adorable.

Julie found a stray and they took it back to the rest of the group.

Here are the birthday's we celebrated. What a crew.

We had fun with the time we had with the family. Glad we saw them again.

Easter 2011

2011-05-13T19:11:00.000-06:00

This is going to be a marathon post. So much happened Easter weekend, it was kind of nuts (you know story of my life). I'm Micah's room mom so I had to plan the kindergarten party. They made baskets, went for an egg hunt, had snacks and we had a surprise visit from the Easter Bunny. The kids kept telling me this was the best Easter party ever, and since they've never had a school Easter party, they really don't have a lot to compare it to. I tried.

I was asked by Mak's room mom to help with her party. Since I haven't been able to help with her class a whole lot, I figured I would help since it is the last party. They had an egg drop contest where they had to make an egg holder to be dropped from the roof of the school. Here's Mak's group making the holder.

Her egg survived. She even made a face for it. They also had an egg hunt and treats later.

I got to see Morg's class do part of their party on our way to Mak's egg hunt.

The girls in Mak's class.

Saturday was a crazy busy day but we were bound and determined to fit Easter stuff in it. The kids had soccer games and Billy and Alina came down to watch them and help us in our Easter endeavors. Between games, we colored eggs. . .

After the last soccer game we rushed home finish putting together dinner and invited Alina's parents over for dinner. We wanted to squeeze an egg hunt in there, but the weather was soo stinky that it almost didn't happen until Alina's mom offered her class room as the venue. We were really happy to not have to hunt in the rain.

Alina's mom was really cute. She even supplied the candy and eggs. The kids had a great time and she even put on her clown gear for the kids.

Sunday morning the kids got their gifts from the Easter bunny and we headed off to church. After church we went up to Randy's parents for Easter dinner. Randy's brother and family had flown into town for a wedding that weekend and we all wanted to get together at least once. We even got a few family shots while we were there. Unfortunately, McKenzie has decided that she does not want to show her teeth when she smiles so she looks angry all of the time. How do I convince her that she looks worse to keep her mouth closed?

We even got a huge family picture with all of Randy's family, even his grandparents.

Rob's little boy. Gotta love that red hair.

Rob and Kendra

Eah with a baby in her arms, like always.

After dinner and the photos, we had yet another egg hunt that grandma put together. The kids had fun finding more eggs, some with money in it.

It was a fun/crazy/busy weekend, but it was nice being able to be with so much family.

Jon Jon's home

2011-05-10T15:48:00.000-06:00

I've been neglecting my blog a little too long, I have a few posts to get on here, hopefully I can get them done before the last week of school comes.

My lil bro Jon served a mission in California for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for the last 2 years and returned home in March. He came to visit in April before he started back to school at BYU-Idaho. He spent a day with us and a day with Billy (actually really we all spent 2 days together Jon just slept 1 night at our house and 1 at Billy's).

Jon learned how fun it can be to wake up at our house.

Not much has changed since he left. This is pretty much what he looked like when was leaving. . . always texting someone.

We had to get one with him and all of the kids, just for fun.

And I had to just get one more texting shot in, just for posterity.

The boys went to watch the blue and white football game Saturday morning. It was snowing and cold but they made through it. We played games and just had some fun together with our little brother. It was nice seeing him again. The kids loved having him around.

More Locks of Love

2011-03-29T16:09:00.000-06:00

I gave in. Malia has been bugging me for a couple of months to cut her hair like Kenzie's. I didn't want to because it was so close to donating it that I figured it wouldn't be that much longer. Well 2 months later, it really wasn't completely long enough, but good enough for us. Morgan's hair was long enough so we just did both of them at the same time. Since our hair cutter was suppose to be getting induced on Thursday we decided we better get it done fast. Good thing we did, because that night, she went into labor and had the baby the next morning. (I think he just new that the girls really needed their hair cut and wanted to wait, lol). Anyway, I forgot my camera for Eah but Brookie saved the day and let me borrow hers.

The longest pieces were I tiny bit over 10 inches, we figured it was better than nothing.

She got a cute A-line like Kenz. I just let it air dry so it's not very cute right now, but you get the idea.

Morg got hers done after school.

I can't believe she let it get this long. She actually didn't really want it cut till about 2 days ago when I had to brush out some nasty knots.

This shoot looks like a pic I took of her when she was 3. I couldn't believe it.

Again, not "done" but you get the idea. She was able to go a little longer than Eah, which is good because we start soccer today, so I can pull it back a little bit.

This shot makes me laugh, just as I pushed the button Addison looked away from the camera, and I didn't realize Malia's look till I downloaded it. These 2 have to make sure they know what the other is doing at all times. Thanx again Brookie. You are awesome. We'll stay out of your hair for a while, literally.

St. Patty's Day!!

2011-03-22T09:00:00.001-06:00

We had kind of an uneventful St Patty's day. I had been really busy with our Relief Society Birthday dinner earlier in the week that I really didn't have time to think about what to do for the Holiday. However a leprechaun did come and steal the coins Micah had hidden that he was going to use to try and capture him. Sneaky little leprechaun. He also turn our milk green while we were sleeping, which in turn, turned our eggs green. (which I didn't get a picture of). He also turned my dough green that I was using for pizza and bread sticks. CURSES LEPRECHAUN!!!! I got some Kiwi, grapes, fresh green beans and green juice for dinner to be festive, but that dang Leprechaun had to one-up me.

The kids enjoyed it though

Micah said that a boy pinched him at school and that his teacher told everyone that if you pinched someone who was wearing green, they got to pinch you back 10 times. He had fun with that.

Maybe the leprechaun will be nice next year. Here's to hopin'.

Friends

2011-03-21T12:44:00.000-06:00

My kids have made a lot of friends living here. Morgan's groups of friends have kind of stayed the same (the Three Amigo's-Morgan , Katie and McKenna) but there has usually been a fourth that has come and been apart of the froup and then has had to move away. First it was Natalie, then Kiley and now Emeri. Here was the latest 4, McKenna, Katelin, Morgan and Emeri. These four have had many play dates recently to help Emeri's mom out. But a week and a half ago, she had to move back down to Arizona. She recently had a birthday and so they were able to have a party for her and here's the last pic we were able to get of the 4 of them.

The night before the big move we had Emeri and her mom over for dinner and I just had to get some shots of these 2. They are such hams when they are together.

Seriously. . . HAMS I tell ya.

We miss this girl already.

Packing up the truck, well actually, taking a break from packing up the truck. Her mom and dad.

Aren't they just so pathetic?

But yet still hammin' it up.

Had to get at least one more crazy shot before they left.

Well this last weekend we were able to hang out with some old friends, the Jackson's. They've got kids our kids' age and so we've tried to keep in touch, you know, in hopes that one day one of our kids will marry into their family so we can be related, you know, lol.

Here's Morgan and Natalie. No matter how long they are apart, it's like they have never stopped playing.

Micah and Spence. They are seriously 2 peas in a pod. They even get the same glazed look on their face when they are playing the Wii.

Mak and Jake and Makhail. McKenzie and Jacob our only opportunity to be related. I'm soo bad, sorry. No seriously though, these two used to play together all of the time. Now that they are older though, you can see the cootie factor coming into play a little.

We were able to have dinner with them and Trisha's family. Trish made Amie's specialty, peppered steak, yum. We had a really fun evening together, eating, playing nertz and just catching up. I hope this never stops. Thanx for chillin with us Amie, we miss you.

Ice Fishing

2011-02-25T09:00:00.001-07:00

Randy's boss invited a couple of his coworkers to go ice fishing last weekend. Randy opted to bring Micah along so they could have some bonding time. They went out to Scofield and fished for a few hours. Micah caught 2 fish by himself and helped reel in 5. He thought that was soo cool. Randy didn't take the camera (the one downfall to having a big camera), but one of the other guys brought his so he took a couple of shots of my boys. Here's Micah and his 1st fish.

Randy helped dig the whole for fishin'.

They had fun, got a little wet but it was nice for them to spend some time together. Randy said the snow was coming down pretty good the whole time they were there. Luckily we were just getting rain here (at least till that night).

Growing up

2011-02-24T09:00:00.042-07:00

On President's day McKenzie decided she was going to be brave enough to finally get her ears pierced. Randy and I decided to let them decide when to do it when they turned 8. Mac has always said she wanted her ears pierced but when it came down to it she couldn't go through with it. We've been to Claire's numerous times and watched many girls getting their ears pierced just to give her an idea what it would be like. She has talked to many of her friends who have already gotten theirs done about how it felt. She has always been our little researcher. She won't do anything remotely scary or unfamiliar until she knows all of the pros and cons. Apparently the pros outweighed the cons at this time and she was ready. Randy talked her up all morning, getting her psyched to do it. We even got to watch an older girl (teenagerish-who did not even flinched when it happened thank goodness) get hers done right before McKenzie's turn. Here she is getting the dots put on.

Malia really wanted to be her moral support and hold her hands. Whenever Malia has a hard time going #2 on the potty she always begs for Mac to come hold her hands. It was really sweet.

Before the holes and smiling.

Getting really nervous at this point. If only I could've been in her head right then, I can just imagine what she is saying to herself right now.`

Right after they were finished. Her look is priceless. She got to be thinking, "I can't believe it, I DID IT!!!"

The after shot. She has some seriously small earlobes.

The close up of the earring she chose. It's a pink daisy. I figured let her pick something she is going to want to wear for the next 6 weeks.

We also let her pick out a few pairs of earrings (since we were given 20% off for getting her ears pierced) and so I think she will be set for a while on earrings. She's very excited to have them in, a little nervous about doing stuff with them in like sleeping, (don't ask) but I know the novelty will where off soon and she won't even know they are there soon. We are just really proud of her for taking this big leap (not that pierced ears were on a mandatory list for us) but we are just so happy she is becoming so brave. We love you little Mac.

John H. Glenn

2011-02-23T10:50:00.000-07:00

The 2nd grader's do biographies on a famous people and since Morgan is now a 2nd grader, it was her turn. She chose the astronaut, John Glenn. I remember doing this with McKenzie 2 years ago when she had Amelia Earhart. I've noticed I have a hard time letting them do it completely on their own, (which is funny because that's all I remember doing as a kid when I had projects. I hated doing them because my mom never really helped me, which I'm sure she did a little) Anyway, her presentation was on Valentine's day and she decided to make a poster. The kids were told they could dress up like their famous person but I really just could not come up with a astronaut outfit that wasn't going to cost an arm and a leg that didn't look like it came out of a dumpster, oh and one that Morgan approved of (which was nothing). So we opted for just the poster and reading her paper.

She had fun coloring in the letters and helping me glue things on.

She did a really good job, however I can't get the video to upload, so you'll just have to take my word for it, lol. Two more years till I have to do it again, phew!

Valentine's FUN!!!

2011-02-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

What an exciting V-day weekend we had. It just seemed like it kept going and going. But I think the kids had fun. Saturday was spent making and frosting cookies what seemed like all day. Sunday was church stuff and then Monday came, and boy did it come. It was nuts from sun up till sun down. I didn't have time to make breakfast that morning so my poor deprived children had to have a bowl of cereal, cuz I'm mean I tell ya. I dropped the kids off at school and had to pick up something for Morgan's class party that I had forgotten about. I didn't know if I was going to have time to come home first before I had to run back to the school to do Micah's party, but I purchased something cold so I ran home really quick and found these in a box on my doorstep.

And no for the collective. . .Awwwww! This is the 1st year I've actually gotten roses on Valentine's day. I always say it's not worth it because the prices are so jacked up on V-day. But I got to tell ya, it was worth every penny. I love roses, they are just so. . .amazing. Lame I know, but it was really nice to get them at least once while I'm alive. Thanx toots, they were (are still actually) beautiful.

Anyway, back to the craziness that was enveloping me. After I cleaned up the flowers a little, I hurried and gathered everything else I needed for Micah's party and then raced to the school to set up. We played some fun games and frosted/decorated cookies. One of the games was "How many conversation hearts can you pick up with chopsticks. The kids loved it and it was seriously the quietest game we've ever played. Micah was even able to pick up a few.

Malia tagged along with me this time, I usually try and drop her off at a friend's, but this party was really low key and I had tonz of help from mom's that I let her come. She really liked don't eat Pete.

After Micah's party, I had enough time to go home, eat lunch really fast and then pack everyone up again to go to Morgan's biography presentation (post on that next). She did a great job. Right after that was her V-day party and I said I would help with that, so I was there for another hour or so helping with that. The kids had made Valentine's card for the residents at the rest home right next door and when the mom's got there, we walking down the street to the facility to deliver them to each of them. It was really cute and the kids had a lot of fun making them smile. There was even one lady who's bday was that day so we sang to her.

After delivering the cards, they came back and decorated cookies and had fun getting into their loot from their Valentine's boxes. Here's Morg's table mates.

After school parties, we went home and put stuff away and loaded back up into the car so we could go here.

The best place on earth. After hearing rumors and doing a little research, we found out one was opening up on Valentine's Day in Midvale and couldn't miss our first Utah/Culver's experience. We (meaning Randy and I) we soooooo excited. Now we don't have to wait 2 years in between getting our fixes. Luckily it's still a little bit of a drive, so we won't be going every weekend, however, we may have to make more trips to see Gma and Gpa Tucker and make the occasional stop for custard.

The girls liked it, I love Eah's face. She just wanted to root beer, which is sooooo good, btw.

Oh happy day for me and my custard (well that's the root beer again, but you get the idea) Oh and do you like Where's Kilroy in the back? You just never know when one is going to pop up.

Randy was a little too excited about Culver's. He made this creepy face and I told him it was going on the blog. Sorry babe, it was just too funny. Oh and do you love the subliminal "delicious" sign in the bottom right corner?

We even convinced Aunt Dee Da to meet us up there for some yummy goodness.

That night the kids had hinted that they were a little disappointed that we did not have our typical V-day dinner and festivities. So the next night for dinner I made pink waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. We even had sparkling cider (because we still had some left over from Christmas). It was a fun/cute/romantic family dinner.

Oh and they each got a little something from us at their place. I didn't have time to even think about Valentine's goodies for my kids, is that pathetic, until after Valentine's day. I was soo busy with everything else I couldn't even think about that till after. I'm horrible I tell ya. On the bright side though, I got all their stuff for 50% off. I love after holiday sales. (horrible I tell ya)

I think they liked it though. It extended the holiday out just a little longer and we all had fun together, and really that's all that mattered. I Love My Family!!!!!! (-k- now breathe)

New Camera, another Happy Day!

2011-02-10T07:06:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for this for a very looooong time. My old camera was just not cutting it anymore and I hated using it because of how washed out everything looked inside, which is where I take a majority of my pictures. I told Randy I didn't want birthday or Christmas presents last year, all I wanted was a new camera. So we waited until our tax return came and purchased a new Nikon D3100. It's a bigger camera and I'm not a photographer, so I have a few (hundred) things to learn, but am excited to see what this baby can do. But wow, what a difference it makes, even if I have no idea what half of the buttons do yet. The first pics I took was with the flash and then figured out to turn it off and holy cow, you could see everything. . still.

Even bathtub shots come out.

Mac was sick the day I got it, and so she was camped out on my bed while Morgie was doing post bath routines.

I just remember taking pics of the kids at the table before and how awful they would always turn out. I love this camera.

Malia just had to show off her pillow pet.

I've been dying to get a good shot of the view from my window of Mt. Timp. I have the best view in the world and have never really gotten a good shot of this. Not that this one is the best but I wanted to give ya what the mountain looks like because this next shot there is one cloud hiding the face of Timp.

Stunning isn't it? I get to look at this every day and now that I have a camera that takes awesome pics, I might be putting more of the mountain on my blog.

Oh Happy Day!!!

2011-02-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

I have lots of family in the Midwest and when I had the opportunity of living in Wisconsin, I was introduced to a wonderful, magical place called Culver's. It has the yummiest custard on earth (other than Kopp's but that's another story). It is soo smooth and creamy and delicious. Well I go through withdrawls quite often (especially since while living in WI I literally lived right down the street from a Culver's and I could see what the flavor of the day was on a daily basis), and I only get to have Culver's when we go back east to vacation at the cabin. We mark all of the Culver destinations on our trip so we can hit as many as we can and get our fill to sustain us another 2 years. This summer, we are heading back and of course we will make our usual stops there. However, my sis in law Kristi heard a rumor that one was being built in the Salt Lake area. I couldn't believe my ears and had to research it myself, and guess what IT'S TRUE!!!! One is being built in Midvale, which is of course not that close to my house but a whole heck of lot closer than Cheyenne. Now I will only have to drive less than an hour to get my fix opposed to 5-6. I don't know when it will be done, but it's coming. And I'll tell you what, I will be there with bells on. I CAN'T WAIT!!!! (is that pathetic? I guess it can't be any worse than the nutty things that went on when we got an In and Out) On the flip side however, this weight that I'm losing may be coming back because of this news. I guess it's a good thing it's not going to be that close to our home. Hurry Culver's, I've missed you!!!

Skiing Fun

2011-01-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

We were invited by my brother's, inlaws to go cross country skiing. They have a plenty of equipment for us and the kids and there's lots of snow outside, so we figured why not. We were going to go on MLK day but it had rained the night before and so the snow had turned into ice which is not favorable weather for 1st time skiiers. So we decided to try for this last weekend and it was perfect. The mountains had gotten an inch or so of fresh powder, the temp was about 40 degrees and it was sunny. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, Morgan had gotten sick the day before and Randy had gotten a call to prepare a lesson for Elder's quorum. So he decided to stay back with Morg and Malia (since I didn't want to take her by myself), and do his lesson and some homework, leaving me to take Mac and Micah with my bro and his dad-in-law.

Let me just say, the kids did awesome, way better than me. I've only every been waterskiing and snow is a little bit different. Mac stayed in front with Billy kicking my trash. Micah, as long as we were on flat ground, went way faster than me too. Micah fell a lot but laughed the entire time. Mac went down a few small slopes and did amazing. I need to get her some lessons or something. I think she may have found her nitch. Unfortunately I did not get many pictures of them skiing. This was in the meadow where you could choose different routes that all lead back to this spot. It was beautiful.

As for me and my ability, I have some serious practicing to do. I could get into a rythm and do pretty good and then have to go up a hill and try and help Micah and that combination was bad. I fell quite a few times but didn't realize how bad I was until I got home and saw these beauties on my legs. . .

Ya that's right, both legs, huge bruises. I did have a lot of fun and it was an awesome workout, but this is one thing I am just not a natural at.

Thanks Billy's inlaws for the fun day. Hope we can do it again before the white stuff goes away.

Babysitting already???

2011-01-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

I'm having a "old" moment. My friend/neighbor called me and asked if Mac could babysit. Her baby had just fallen asleep, which he hadn't done all day long, and they were planning on going out to eat. They didn't want to wake him up, so that's where McKenzie came into the picture. So really it was going to be "please sit in my house for an hour and call your mom if the baby wakes up," type of babysitting. She has a long range monitor so we plugged it in so she could call out to us if she needed me or Randy. I know she is only 10, but she is sooo excited to start babysitting. I'm really excited for her to start babysitting too ;). I started babysitting at 8 (granted I'm number 4 of 9 and was changing diapers before I was pottytrained), but it feels weird to have a kid almost old enough to really babysit. Double digits was hard enough. What's going to happen when she goes into Young Womens? From my perspective, however, I feel like she is really mature and knows how to watch kids and keep them out of trouble, she usually does that with her siblings. What is the legal age for babysitting anyway these days? Anyway, I just had to share my "old" moment. . . can I stop the clock pleeeeeeaaaaassssseeeee???

Happy 6th Birthday Micah

2011-01-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

Our little man had a lucky weekend of a birthday. His actual bday was on Thursday and we celebrated the best we could (being a school day and all) and then it gradually got bigger throughout the weekend. I'm tired and get too frazzled on school mornings to make any decent kind of breakfast for my kids, but on their birthday's I usually make pancakes. It seems every bday, it gets harder and harder. So I got this idea in my head, how about cinnamon rolls (frozen one's that is) the night before and all I have to do in the AM is put them in the oven. So that's what I did. Here's to a day full of sugar, woo hoo!

Micah really liked them though and that's all that mattered.

He really wanted donuts for his classmates, so I exercised and then went to the store and got 2 doz donuts and brought them into class for him. Randy even came home from work early and came into class with me and Eah.

I can't remember the last time we had been to McDonald's, I think it was last spring during Spring Break, anyway, we decided to surprise Micah and take him out for dinner there. He was really excited. The kids got Bakugan toys which they played with all weekend.

The reason we went out to dinner instead of me making him his fav dinner was because Randy's basketball team had their first game and he wanted us to go and watch. (this will probably the only time we go, there's no where to sit) Anyway, the kids were pretty good. They got antsy, I got this shot of Malia and thought it was cute.

Randy after the game. They kicked the other team's tooshies. Here are my 2 guys.

Friday, we had a family party. My bro and his fam came, Randy's parents and sister came. We made tonz of pizza (since it's Micah's favorite dinner and it was Friday night Pizza night anyway) and had cake and ice cream (I asked Randy's mom to be in charge of the cake, she got him a Tron cake and Micah was pretty excited), and opened presents. Micah was very patient with the presents since he didn't open any on his actual birthday. But we made up for it. This is Micah holding his newest cousin Raleigh (known to Eah was Wall-E). She is soo cute and such a good baby.

Kiki had fun to with all of the party excitement, especially watching her dad play the Wii.

Micah and his Tron cake.

Gma and Gpa gave him a remote control car. That things hasn't stopped going around the house all weekend.

We got him a Star Wars Lego set. He was very excited but I don't think it compared to Randy's excitement. Micah probably put 2 of the pieces on that thing.

On Saturday Micah had a birthday party with his friends around the neighborhood. 6-6 yr old's can be very entertaining to watch.

These guys are such hams. We played a Star Wars pin the tail kind of a game.

Lego creation competitions. . . that was a fun/quiet/time-consuming activity which I loved. (BTW thanx Gma and Gpa for letting us borrow 1 of your boxes of Legos).

Then we created cupcakes-do you sense a theme here? The kids had fun making messes with frosting and sprinkles and everything else.

Lots of messes.

We opened presents and played another game and then let the boys just have some free time to just play. Some of them went upstairs to Micah's room, other's played Just Dance, which is hysterical to watch. These guys had a lot of fun.

Then is was over (big sigh) and the boys went home and we got back to real life again. I can't believe he's 6 already. He sure has grown overnight. Micah you bring such an amazing spirit to our family. Hope you had an unforgettable birthday. We love you Little Man.

Happy Birthday Toots!!!! Micah Lost his 1st Tooth!!!!

2011-01-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

1st off, Randy turned 34. Seriously can time just stop now. Before we know it we'll be hitting 40, AHHH! I'm not ready for that. Anyway, we kind of had a long birthday weekend. We celebrated New Years day with some cousins. Had a potluck and a white elephant exchange. It was fun visiting with them. Randy's mom brought down a birthday cake to share with everyone. So we sang to him on the day before his bday. Then on his actual bday on Sunday, my brother, Billy, blessed their new little baby girl (btw congrats to them, I still haven't taken a picture of her yet). So we went up to their ward and then had dinner with them and didn't celebrate that day. But on Monday we decided to have a few of Randy's friends over for dinner and cake.

Hope you had a fun day/weekend Toots.

Micah lost his 1st tooth on Wednesday. I had been doing P90X with my friend Jess when he bit into an apple and Randy said it started. He noticed on Monday that another tooth growing behind his 2 bottom teeth (which made me nervous) and neither of his teeth were loose at all. I figured well we have a dentist appt next month, I'll let him deal with it. That was until he bit into the apple. From Monday until Wednesday, there wasn't even a hint of it being loose. I came home and he was holding a cold rag in his mouth. I asked him to just let me see it and would not cooperate. So I pinned him down and barely touched the tooth and it fell right out, literally.

That little white thing behind the hole in his mouth is the new tooth coming in. . . craaazy.

Our little man is sure growing up. On another side note, we had another Micahism. McKenzie taught him the "turning the apple stem through the alphabet" game. So now every time he eats an apple (which is daily) he turns the stem and lands on a different letter. So far he is going to marry Isabel, Maya, Hadley and someone named Nikki or Nicole. He giggles every time we think of a corresponding name to his letter. Oh boy.

Yes I know, it's not Christmas anymore and Happy News for me

2011-01-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

I finally got my jump drive over to my friend's home so I could get the some of the pics she took of a couple of things we did. One being the ward breakfast. My camera's battery died and it also doesn't take the best pics in the gym's light. So here are a few she got.

Malia being. . . Malia

Micah as a shepherd.

Mac as an Angel.

She was the angel who announced Jesus birth. (I love the little girl on the left, almost looks like popcorn popping, hu?)

Morgan is the angel with the blue belt. They all did a really good job.

And yes, I did let me kids go and see Santa this year. Micah really wanted a pillow pet.

Morgan also wanted a pillow pet and some slippers.

All Malia wanted was a double stroller.

Mac wanted a pillow pet too, do you sense a theme here?

Our friends got together for our annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. Everyone got pretty creative this year. Here's Kelly and Kye with their Santa bellies.

The winner was Brian. Isn't that awesome. Sarah made theirs out of old, ugly DI finds. They were great.

We went to Cafe Rio and showed off our awesome sweaters. Randy's was pretty sweet too. It was a green suit jacket with poo brown slacks, a green/red plaid shirt and and heinous tie. I added the holly and ivy to the lapel for a better affect. I should've gotten a pic of us, but we were having too much fun. Thanx guys for the great time.

So it's been over a week since Christmas and I've been dying to announce this, but I had to wait until my dad ok'd it since he's the bishop in his ward. But he has told them, so it's my turn.

My dad got a job transfer. . finally.

He has been trying to get a promotion since he moved to Michigan and it just never happened, until now. We are alllllll soooooo excited. He starts at the end of February in Montana. Do you know how happy that makes me? It will be be only a 9 hour drive instead of 2 and half days. I can't wait till they are out here. They are going to let James finish his senior year before they completely pack up and head out, my dad's nice like that, he did that for Shauna when we moved from Virginia to Oregon too. But by the end of this year, my whole family, minus my bro who's serving in Afghanistan, will be in the west. That is an amazing accomplishment. Anyway not that this affects any of you, I am just really excited and happy that after many years of hard work, patience and being faithful, my dad is being blessed. He deserves it.

How lame am I? Christmas 2010

2010-12-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

Before I start this post I must apologize. I do not know what happened to Thanksgiving or all of December, but for whatever reason, I couldn't keep my head on straight enough to blog anything except the cards that I made, I know, lame. And what's worse, I still haven't sent the cards out. It will get done if it kills me though. Anyway, we had a fun Thanksgiving at Randy's parents house. They were nice enough to watch the kids for us again so we could have a little, quiet Anniversary, alone. And of course we went went Black Friday shopping, again. We also got to go see the new Harry Potter, which is funny since I haven't seen any of the movies in the theater, but it was really good. We had a nice, quiet time together, I can't believe it's been 12 years. Love ya toots.

Anyway, December happened and it was a mad dash to the end. We had parties and parties and more parties, presents to make, get and send out, goodies to hand out and weddings to go to. I don't know how we did it all or made it out alive, but it is now over and I'm able to breathe now, ahhhhhh! Just to warn you, this is going to be long and have a ton of pics, but I'm just to tired to make it into a lot of posts, so it's getting done all at once.

The 1st weekend in December is the BYU family Christmas party. This year we decided to simplify and not try to sit on Santa's lap or try for that matter to do everything they have available. We did get to the craft area and the kids made some cute things. I was able to get their pic in front of our usual spot. Don't they look so happy?

They each got to write a letter to Santa also. I will be sad for the day they decide Santa is not real. I love that magical part of Christmas.

The following week, Randy got really sick and found out it was strep, lucky us. So I quarantined him and bleached the house and luckily kept the germs at bay. He was recovering still by the weekend which was our ward's breakfast and Nativity. So I took the kids by myself. My friend has better pics that I'll post later, but this is what I was able to get with my stinky camera before it died (which is going to be theme for this post, I dislike my camera a lot right now and can't wait till I can get my new one so I've been very unmotivated in taking pictures, but that's beside the point). Micah was a Shepherd,

Morgan was an Angel, and Mac (not shown) was the main Angel. They had fun

We made some gifts this year for various family members. Here are the final products.

We also made picture frames for grandparents, but I forgot to get a shot of it before sending them off.

Tuesday before Christmas we got dumped on with about 12 inches of snow. It was awesome, except for the part where Randy's car got stuck in the driveway and I had to dig and push him out. It was great. It was really pretty though while it lasted. We got hit the hardest, Salt Lake didn't even get anything from this storm. Unfortunately it melted by Christmas. This has definitely been a weird winter so far.

We were planning on leaving on Christmas Eve for grandma's since we were heading that way for a big extended family luncheon earlier in the day. But plans got changed because Randy's sister Julie got her papers from the 1st Presidency giving her the OK to be resealed. So she quickly scheduled it for Thursday, which pushed all of our Christmas preparations up a day (making things even more crazy around here), so we scrambled to get everything finished for us to leave Thursday afternoon so we could be there. We let the kids open their gifts to each other, since we didn't want to take all of the gifts up to Gma's, which we found out later was a good choice. Morgan and Micah got picture boards from McKenzie and Morgan. They had fun making them for each other. Mac and Malia got stuffed animals from from Malia and Micah. They were really excited to be so secretive with each other.

We got up to Gma's in time to eat dinner and get the sitter to their home to watch the kids to make it to the Bountiful Temple and be there for Julie and David.

Malia had started to get a cold at the beginning of the week and I thought she was doing better Thursday, but by Christmas Eve AM she took a turn for the worse and I ended up taking her into Urgent Care to find out she had a double ear infection. I felt sooo bad and a little irritated since she just had her tonsils and adenoids taken out, weren't these suppose to stop? She was miserable just laying around, sleeping on everyone. We got done with her appt and got meds in her in time to still make it to the huge family lunch (which I did not get pics of, go figure). I probably should have stayed back with poor Eah. Luckily she slept through most of it on Randy's lap while we visited with everyone.

In the midst of trying to get everything done before leaving, we forgot some crucial items for Christmas, like our stockings and Sunday clothes, so after the lunch, we ran back down to our house and grabbed the forgotten items and really wore out the kids by this point and they crashed in the car on the way back to Gma's

That evening, Malia perked up a little after giving her Ibuprofen and another dose of antibiotic in her. She was ready to party a little.

They were a little excited to open their jammies.

Can you tell?

We got them in bed around 9ish and they slept in until 7 AM, which is amazing for us since they are usually up around 5 or 6. This year I woke up at 6 thinking I heard them, but it must have been someone else's kids, so I went back to sleep till 7. They got into their stockings pretty quick.

They all got their own toothpaste which Morgan thought it was deodorant, don't even ask.

They were all really happy with all of the Silly bands they got. Santa was really generous with them this year.

We got breakfast in the oven and proceeded to tear through gift after gift.

Gma and Kristi were pretty proud of themselves in finding this toy. It jumps and coos and is a delight to have around. . . not.

The tree before it got torn into.

Santa got them each a pillow pet, which they were very excited about and Malia got the double stroller she had been telling everyone about. Since Christmas, she hasn't taken her hands off that stroller literally. You can see her hand marks on the handles.

I took a lot of shots of Eah, just cuz she kept doing crazy things, like watching intently while Randy was opening her Silly Bands.

Morgan had fun playing her cousins new DS, something that will probably never end up in our house.

Micah enjoying his Buzz.

Mac got the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid and finished it in a couple of hours. She said it was really good.

And since Malia got her new scooter from her birthday stolen this fall, she got a replacement scooter. Hopefully this one will last a little longer.

It's been a whirlwind of fun around here and even though I haven't had time to breathe, I really enjoyed it this year. I love my kids and my family and am soo grateful I have them around to help celebrate these special times. I wanted to get a pic of our tree before I took it down.

Oh and a couple of big surprises for Randy and I. His parents gave us a new flat screen TV, totally unexpected. It really caught us off gaurd. We've been very patient about getting a new TV till he's done with school, so when they brought this out, I wasn't ready for my emotions. Thanx again you guys, we (meaning all of us, including the kids) are having a lot of fun with it.

Other news was that after my grandma passed away, my dad was able to pic through a lot of her furniture for my bros and sis. We did a little drawing to see who would get what and I am now the proud owner of one of her big oak tables with 6 chairs. Randy's dad helped us haul it out of my brother's house and set it up Monday night. It is such a nice addition to our family. We don't have the plastic chairs anymore and when we have company, we have another huge leaf to put in so we can all fit at the table, instead of half at the table and a few at the kids table and more at the card table. I'm soo excited for this, it really is a gorgeous/sturdy table. And now I will always have a piece of my grandma with me. This was the table in her kitchen where they ate when we weren't around. I have pics of them sitting here drinking their coffee, or with my kids. Man I miss my grandma.

The other amazing news came while we were Skyping with my lil bro Jon who's on his mission. Almost all 9 of my bro's and sis's, minus Andy who's in the Middle East right now, were there. It was so much fun to see everyone on Christmas awesome to see Jon and hear how his mission is going. He has a baptism next week which we are all stoked about. But that wasn't the news. Unfortunately I can't post it until after this weekend, but trust me, as soon as I am allowed to, I will be screaming it from the roof tops, because this is news we all have been waiting for, for years. So stay tuned.

This is a special time of year. I love Christmas, I love my family and the traditions we have. I love that Jesus Christ was born and that he lived and atoned for everyone. How lucky are we to live during a time when the gospel has been restored and we are able to have to knowledge of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father and the gift of repentance and forgiveness. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas Card

2010-12-10T11:58:00.001-07:00

Oh What Fun Christmas Card

Personalize the christmas season with Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Shutterfly Fun

2010-11-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

A friend of mine had a link on her Facebook account to get 50 free Shutterfly greeting cards if you are a blogger, so I figured, what the heck, might as well try it. My friend swears by Shutterfly and has used their services a lot. For instance she has made really cute books through Shutterfly about each of her kids. However I am new to shutterfly so I can't really tell you if it is good or bad, but hey for 50 free cards, I am willing to give it a good try. I'm actually kind of excited to see what kind of creation I can make. I am going to use these free cards for Christmas this year. I wasn't really sure if I was going to send them out this year, but with this killer deal, I might as well. Here are the links, go for it, try it, what's the worst that could happen.
http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

Here are some links to different products and services they have. Happy card making!
· Holiday cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

· Christmas photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery
· Desk calendars to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/desk-calendars
· Photo mugs to http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/photo-mugs
· Birthday cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birthday-cards-stationery
· Holiday invitations to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-invitations
· Choose your favorite product from our Cards & Stationery page

2010-11-11T12:06:00.003-07:00

My dad was helping fix and organize things at my grandma's home in Cali and along with it, inherited her old car. So he had to drive it home to Michigan and of course had to come through Utah, so we were able to have a quick visit with him at my brother's home. It was fun, the kids always love see their grandparents even if it is for short time.

Kirsten's new party trick is to make a silly face, so I was trying to get her to do it for one of the pics, however it took about 5 shots to get her to do it and by that time my kids had been holding that face for too long, so this was the best that we got.
Thanx grandpa for taking time to visit with us.

Crazy Hair

2010-11-08T21:46:00.000-07:00

It was Red Ribbon week last week and last Friday was Crazy Hair Day. One of the things McKenzie really wanted to do was cut her hair before Crazy hair day so that it made it even crazier. I actually wanted to try and make an attempt at crazy hair, so I went to the party store and bought every color of colored hairspray, cuz I never have it when I need it, and let the kids choose what they did. Mac wanted kind of a Shrek thing going on, only with 3 ear instead of 2.

I'm not creative enough yet with hair, so I tried so weird twisting pony tail things with Morgie and sprayed it Cougar white and blue.

Micah liked the Cougar theme so we striped him up.

And we got one more day of nice walking to school in and got a crazy hair shot of everyone. Man, I'm ready for spring to come back already. I wasn't finished doing my outside walking.

The Hair is Gone

2010-11-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

I finally caved and let her do it. McKenzie has been begging me for sooo long to let me cut her hair and I convinced her to wait till after Halloween to do it so she could put it in a ponytail, (cuz let's face it, 50's girls did not have A-line hairstyles back then). With all of the chaos of Malia's surgery and . . . pretty much that, I couldn't even think of anything else. But Thursday, she soooo kindly reminded me again, and I got my friend, at the last minute, to show up at my door with a hair supplies in tow, to surprise Mac with a cut.

I love her hair short I do have to say. She had exactly 10 inches, just enough for Locks of Love. We were going to go with Wigs for Kids cuz apparently the other charges for wigs and Wigs doesn't, but they need 12 inches and I just couldn't put up with 2 more growing inches. 1 was hard enough. We'll see if she will let it grow out again.

Thanx Brookie for helping us out. You da Bomb!

Going Under the Knife

2010-11-02T21:46:00.000-06:00

The day finally arrived. Big changes were coming to such a small little girl, and we were all excited for the end results. For the last year and a half, Malia has had a lower than normal voice and been getting sick a little too often for our comfort. After talking with her pediatrician at her last well child check up, he referred her to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor who scoped her and said her adenoids were almost covering her nasal passage and her tonsils were not much better. She gave us the info we needed and we decided to get them both removed. We knew something was wrong and it needed to be fixed or there could be serious repercussions later down the road. So we scheduled 1 month ago for today. We really didn't talk to her about it until about a week ago when we attended a "Pre-op Hop" to help kids who are prepping for surgery could get themselves acclimated with the surroundings and equipment that was going to be used on them. Amy her helper was amazing. She was really thorough, gave her a doll to decorate, instruments to test out and even gave her the mask that they were going to use on her so she could practice at home. She was actually excited to go and use the things she had been practicing with. Last night, we went out to eat at IHOP because it was going to be the last real meal she was going to be able to eat for a couple of weeks and she wanted hamburger and fries AND juice (go figure). We wanted to have her voice on record to see if there was a difference after she healed so we videoed her at IHOP. However, she had way to much sugar yesterday and so she was acting really goofy and making her voice higher for part of it, oh well, we tried.

She realllllly wanted juice.

Grandma was even able to come down to help out with the rest of the kids so Randy and I could be with Malia the whole day. (can you see a theme here with the juice).

We were scheduled to be at the hospital at 7 AM and since we weren't going to the one right down the hill from us, we had to be up at 5:30. We were a little tired. But she is still smiling.

Eah and Mom before surgery.

I just had to get one more vid. of her beforehand, cuz who knows what was going to happen after.

How quickly it can change though. Here she is about 20 minutes after she came out of surgery, man that anaesthesia was not her favorite. She was thrashing and wailing and gnashing her teeth. It was sooo sad to see her like this. Her doctor said that her tonsils were actually worse than what she thought. That when she went in there, they were "kissing" which meant they were actually touching each other when she was laying down. So it really was good we decided to do both.

Such a sad little girl.

She didn't do well in recovery, she could not keep her O2 levels up above 88 and wouldn't drink anything. The meds that were in her body was just making her act weird and she just wasn't really "there" for a long time. So, because they needed beds for other surgical patients, they transferred us up to the Pediatric unit to finish recovering and try drinking juice and eating Popsicles. It was nice to not have people on top of us and have a little privacy. She slept a lot and whined a lot and ate and drank very little for a long time. We watched Marley and Me and tried to convince her to drink something. She eventually got her footing and walked around a bit and we found the playroom. At which point we realized she needed more pain meds and gave her the option of drinking her meds and getting the IV out or keeping it in and getting the meds put into her IV. She really hated that IV and probably would've done anything to get that thing out. So she took her meds and proceeded to spit it out, so we tried a different med and she drank it up. She was soo happy to be free of that stupid tube. We went down to the playroom again and gave her a different juice and got a few sips out of her. It wasn't until this person

showed up and convinced her that the sooner she drank her juice the quicker she could get out of there (which she apparently didn't hear the 50 million times before that was said by me and Randy and every other nurse out there). Thanx a million Andrea, you Da Bomb!!!!

She had fun with the play room toys, especially anything she could push around. The wagon soon became the big hit.

And of course I had to get the backside hospital gown shot. It was too perfect.

Sorry I couldn't resist another one.

So after 7 hours of absolute fun, we were able to go home. She made out like a bandit. In the surgical wing, Amy brought her a quilt made by the Project Linus group along with a stuffed duck (which by the way worked wonders in recovery, she loved having it rubbed on her skin). Then in the Peds unit she had a fleece blanket, beanie baby bear, sippy cup and pillowcase waiting for her. Andrea brought a new baby doll for her. Oh and of course Grandma had to spoil her a little get her a Fur Real puppy, Toy Story 3 and have the kids give her a new Barbie. Maybe she'll want to have surgery again, hopefully not.

The crazy thing is, she almost seems back to normal. Her post op instructions told her to be on bed rest the next 3 days and light activity after that, HA! That's not going to happen. She wants to eat real food sooo bad and has no desire to sit still, cuz she knows if she does she will fall asleep, and of course who would want to do that? We caught her with a stolen bag of Cheerios trying to stuff her mouth. This is going to be a trying 2 weeks. I'm just grateful she has done so well, except for the little hiccup recovering. I'm so happy we got it done now when she can recover quickly and not when she's a teen or older and completely miserable the entire time. I'm grateful for amazing technology. Which reminds me, I need to get my Grateful Turkey up and going for the month.

Holy Halloween Batman!!!

2010-11-02T19:50:00.000-06:00

Wow, the last few weeks have been nuts with Halloween preparations that I didn't have time to make individual posts about each of these, so I'm not going to. You just get to have another reeeeeaaaalllyyy long post to read over, or not. I was asked by Micah's teacher to help chaperon their field trip to a pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun, very chaotic, but fun. These kids were hysterical.

We took a hayride, I thought these 2 were cute together.

Found a tepee made out of corn husks. . . and I only lost 1 kid the whole time (that's actually really good considering I had 6 and the pumpkin patch decided to have 4 other schools of kindergartner's there. So there was a sea of 5/6 year-olds. It got a little tricky keeping everyone together.

We picked out pumpkins and I helped the older girls one night to carve theirs.

The had fun scooping the guts by themselves, finally.

Their masterpieces.

I helped Malia the next day while everyone was at school. She really loved the guts and was sad when it was all cleaned out.

And of course we couldn't have a Halloween without pumpkin Ralph on our steps. Micah didn't carve his pumpkin. He was too preoccupied playing Harry Potter Lego's on the Wii and didn't want to do it until after Halloween. So I told him maybe we would paint his for Thanksgiving.

OH and did you hear, it snowed The Tuesday before Halloween? Something I wasn't ready to wake up to.

Luckily it didn't last very long on the ground.

I'm the room mom for Micah's class again, so I got to put together his Halloween party this year. I had a ton of help from sooo many mom's it was awesome. I loved it. He's the Cowboy riding the horse.

Morgan was a Vampire, but didn't keep the wig on for very long.

As you can see in the parade, this was about 15 minutes after the last shot.

Mac was a 50's girl, my mom sent me the skirts we used as kids. It was fun seeing her wear it.

Emme was also a 50's girl, they had fun being twins. I also helped out at McKenzie's party since Micah's was already done. They had a lot of fun wrapping each other up in toilet paper and making sure no one ate Pete.

After the partying on Friday (which also included our ward party and trunk-or-treat) Grandma and Grandpa took the kids home with them so Randy and I could have an evening together and party with a few of our friends. We stayed up till 2 playing games and just having fun.

We got to Gma/pa's Saturday and they had more partying planned for the kids. Lots of games and treats. We went trick-or-treating Sat. night in their neighborhood. Eah was a princess, she loved wearing the costume and holding the umbrella cuz it had been raining right before we got out there.

Getting ready for more candy.

Still no wig but just as happy.

Wondering if she's getting too old for this. . .

And most of the crew.

And of course we had to have pumpkin BOB to complete the Halloween festivities.

Yummy cheesy goodness (even if my kids don't think so).

I love Halloween, but this year was just a little too chaotic for me, hopefully next year will be calmer since it lands on a Monday. I love seeing my kids grow up and see how their tastes change. What will next year bring?

In Awe with the STUFF that we have/had

2010-10-16T20:57:00.000-06:00

I wouldn't call myself a hoarder, cuz I don't keep or collect garbage, but I have a problem with throwing things away that. . . well some may say it is not necessary to keep around. We haven't had to move ourselves the last 2 times and so I haven't had to be picky with what we bring and what needed to either be thrown or given away. So with each move, we accrued more and more stuff.

I had a breakthrough this week though. When we decided to get the bunk bed, I had to do a lot of rearranging and it gave me the perfect opportunity to finally sit down and go through all of our "stuff" and decide what I really couldn't part with and what really didn't matter. The throwing started Tuesday after the "bumpy bed" got set up, and whenever I didn't have something else pressing on my time, I was in my kids' room sorting. I really didn't get through it until sometime Friday. Sad hu?

In the end I threw about 1 garbage sack full of broken or ridiculous toys, gave 3 boxes and some big toys to a family in our area, who just lost their 13 yr old daughter in a car accident (by another 13 year old classmate who stole her aunts car and went joy riding) for a garage sale to raise money for the family, and gave another 2 boxes to DI. . .of just toys. That's not including my ever-growing pile of DI stuff that has been in my basement for about 10 months, cuz you know DI is sooooo far away from where I live, not.

Now I have to go through my room and the basement, which really doesn't need to be gone through as much as it needs organized. I have boxes of baby girl clothes and a few more toys that I'm going to sell in the not too distant future. Then I think my house will finally be free of the "stuff" that has been piling in my home.

What I have realized is that my kids love being in their rooms now. It's not chaotic anymore, they can actually find things and they are happy to just be playing instead of watching TV. The girls have rediscovered their barbie house, Micah loves to play with his trains again, and Malia can get to all of her baby stuff. It's amazing. Why didn't I do this sooner? Things are so much more calm now, I love it.

I hope I can keep this up and keep most of the clutter at bay. Now don't get me wrong, I am not cured, I know that in a few weeks/months/years (who knows how long) I will have to do this again, cuz let's be realistic, I am ME and I just can't get rid of things right away. I wish I could just throw things on a whim without really analyzing, do I need it, am I going to use it, can someone else use it or is it just garbage? Or I could immediately organize papers instead of just letting them pile up to the point of them falling over before I go through them. I don't have that gift, I am my mother's and father's daughter for Pete's sake, but I vow to TRY and throw/give the "things" away (now if I could just keep my kitchen in order, I think that might be an entirely different post though).

Stewart Fall Hike

2010-10-16T16:09:00.000-06:00

Day 3 of UEA and our second hike took us to Stewart Falls. Randy and I went snowshoeing here (well partially, we couldn't make it to the falls when we went last) with our friends last winter, and I really wanted to go back and make it all of the way this time. It was a little harder or a hike than Battle Creek, but the kids were forewarned and didn't whine at all (well except Malia, and I came prepared this time with the backpack and Randy so she could be carried if needed). I apologize before hand, I took a lot of pictures, just because the views were amazing and it was just soo pretty here. This was our goal, isn't it spectacular?

Again, we were able to walk right up to the falls and this pic is by far my fav. I was standing kinda behind and to the side of the waterfall. It was beautiful.

The hike up to the falls wasn't half bad either. If we had come a week later, I think we would've missed all of the colors. There were a lot of leaves down, but we still had a lot to enjoy.

I love fall!!!

I had to include this. Malia was in the backpack at this point and she is definitely tooooo big for it. This is seriously the last year she will be in there. I' grateful Randy packed her, I wouldn't have made it.

Matney and Taylor, enjoying themselves, I think, lol.

I loved this one too, there was a lone red tree in the midst of the never ending green. It stuck out like a soar thumb.

More colors.

We made it to the top before the descent to the falls. There were big rocks to sit/stand on to get a great view.

Kids preparing themselves for the descent.

Our first glimpse of the waterfalls.

At the bottom, the runoff from the falls.

Michelle copying me, lol.

Morgan, she looks pretty happy eh?

Micah enjoying the never ending apple supply we seem to have.

Dad and Mac, taking a breather.

Lauren being the goofball that she is and trying to go behind the waterfall. . .

The waterfall won!!!

Our hiking group. We were discussing what we were going to do next year to top this one.

Of course the mom shot.

And a first-ever, dad shot. We might have to do our next year's hike on the Sat. of UEA so we make sure to include them. We really had a lot of fun.

Me and Ladnar.

The kids, we are so proud of them for sticking with us through these crazy hikes we put them through.

I couldn't resist one more of the waterfall. This one came with a rainbow.

And one more of the spectacular colors, did I mention how much I love fall. Thanks Mat, and Michelle for coming with us, can't wait for next year.

I couldn't help posting these funnies

2010-10-15T18:35:00.000-06:00

So I was really done posting for the day, until a few funnies happened today. Well, this first one was not exactly today, but we really noticed today.

We decided that it was time to get Malia out of her toddler bed, (I was really hoping to just keep her in there till we moved but it just wasn't going to happen, I mean how many 5 year old's do you know are still sleeping on a crib mattress). Anyway, we found this new bunk bed on KSL for a great deal and picked it up Monday, put it together and got done by 10 PM (we put the kids to bed on our bed before then). Since then, they have loved their beds. We noticed though today that Malia doesn't call it her bed or her bunk bed. She asked me today if she could sleep on her "Bumpy Bed." She says it soo serious too. It was hysterical. I don't think we will correct her quite yet.

We finally put our Halloween stuff up today, well most of it anyway. Micah loves this skeleton and kept asking me to put it up in his room. Then, while I was making dinner, I hear him in the other room say,
"Dad, is this Grandpa when he's older. . .or dead?"
Randy did a double take and then said KT did you hear that, I said I heard it but I didn't know what he was referring to, so he had Micah come in the kitchen holding up this skeleton and repeat his question. We both laughed really hard.

Malia during dinner was excited for her pizza (since we haven't had it in 2 weeks). But instead of eating it right away she kept eating carrots. Randy noticed that she hadn't even taken a bite of her pizza and said
"You need to eat your pizza, you haven't even touched it yet."
To which Malia promptly sat up straight, lifted her finger and touched ever so delicately the top of her pizza. We all busted up after that one. I made her do it again so I could get a shot of it.

O.K now I'm really done for the day.

Battle Creek Falls Hike

2010-10-15T16:27:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again. . . Yep it's UEA, and that means it's hiking time. This is our third year at this and this time none of my kids were packed in the backpack. Malia made it all the way up and back on her own, with minimal whining. We chose this year to attempt 2 hikes, the first was Battle Creek Falls in Pleasant Grove. We were told it was a short, easy hike and the kids could totally make it. True the kids made it, but holy cow it was uphill the entire way. It was beautiful, quite a hike, but beautiful. We walked by a creek most of the way, and there were several waterfalls as well.

It was amazing.

This was the biggest waterfall, the kids had a lot of fun with it cuz you could walk right up to it.

This is at the top (at least what we thought was the top) where we ate lunch and then turned around and went back.

This was towards the beginning of the hike, before most of the whining started.

This is what most of the hike looked like, narrow and uphill.

The kids at the top after we ate lunch.

At the bottom, all done, and still smiling, AMAZING.

The mom's, we were a little bigger of a group last year, but we still had a great time.

Michelle found this log to take a picture of the big falls on, I couldn't resist.

Jess showing us her favorite Halloween treat. (which btw I do not like, I think they taste like poo, jk).

Malia at the top, not very happy about the whole having to walk thing. But hey she made it.

Tomorrow's hike will be a little more adventuresome, we might have to bring the backpack just in case.

Mac is 10!!!

2010-10-15T15:53:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that I am a mother of a 10 year old. That means I'm getting. . . OLD! What has happened to that last ten years, I do not know, but I do know that we love having McKenzie apart of our family. She is so helpful and happy. If you need something done, she is the one you want, cuz she will do it. We were able to have more of a birthweek than a birthday. Grandma came down Monday night so she could go to the "Grand lunch" at school the next day. Then Granpa came back down that night to go to dinner with us to celebrate Mac's bday, since they wouldn't be there the next day. McKenzie picked Applebee's, like last year, because the manager is a big, loud black man who really know how to draw attention to your table if it's your bday. It's hysterical, I should have taped it, but I was too busy enjoying his sing, yelling.

We let her open a couple of presents since her bday was on a Wed (and we all know what that means for Randy). G&G got her (well all of us) Lagoon passes again this year, and a really cute necklace/jewlery holder that I forgot to get a pic of. Mac has been asking for an MP3 player for a while now and I decided since I really wasn't using my IPod anymore, I could hand it down to her. Her reaction was awesome.

A very happy Mac with her "new" IPod.

Since this was an even birthday, I let her have a bday party again. At first she thought she wanted a one-on-one bday with one close friend, but decided on Tuesday (the day before her bday) she wanted a real party. So she invited 6 friends and they had a blast together. We made pizza's, played pictureka, played Band Hero (which was very loud with 6 girls), opened presents and ate cake. I had a hard time deciding what to do with a bunch of 9 & 10 years olds. I figured they were probably too old to do traditional party games but still really young for other things. I think this was a hit. I didn't have any complaing of being bored. They just want to play together.

Savana and Rachel playing it up.

Mac and Emme (her bestest friend) singing proabably a Taylor Swift song.

And Lauren, our in house Ham, she made me laugh so hard.

I didn't do a shape or theme cake like I usually do, which I kinda felt bad for, but what do you make for a 10 year old? I resorted to what my mom used to do for us as kids, chocolate cake with whipped cream filing, yum.

The girls were fun to have for a few hours.

Thanx Mac for being such a important part of our family. We love you.
It's only taken me a week+ to post this one, I'm on a roll.