The Leishman Gang

It's a . . . .

2011-12-06T20:55:00.000-08:00

BABY BOY!!!

I Love these kids!!!

2011-12-02T21:11:00.000-08:00

You can see the rest of their pics by clicking HERE.

This makes me smile . . .

2011-10-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

While my older three kids were playing the wii, Bree got bored and decided to tackle whoever wasn't taking a turn at the game. At that moment, it was Cole.

Summer Time Fun! (2011)

2011-08-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

I often find myself so busy with other things, that I feel I may be missing all the fun stages of life that my children are going through. So, I promised myself I would make this summer a fun and adventurous one while everyone's at home. Here are just a few pictures of some of the happenings from this summer so far (there's still two more weeks of fun filled activities planned)!

Grandpa Leishman came home from China and brought home silk pajamas for the kids. I LOVE them, and want a set for myself!

Of course, what would life with a toddler be without the occasional mischief. On this particular day, Bree found my magic marker and thought it would be a great idea to color her FACE!
You can see how excited she is about her new look! ( She says "yay!")
We got a new water toy this year, super cheap! Slip and Slide! This kept them entertained for hours and Bree loved getting knocked over like a bowling pin more than once!

What would summer be without farmer's markets! We've been to a few and this one in Chico has a great splash pad. Of course, we didn't come prepared with swimsuits, but that's how our spontaneous family rolls! They were dripping!
I'm slightly ashamed to admit that trips to get ice-cream were more often for selfish purposes than anything else, but everyone got ice-cream in the end, so the guilty feeling never stuck around long enough to prevent yet another visit in the future!
Lady bugs are such interesting creatures! Bree would giggle so much watching it crawl up her arm and then throw it on the ground, forcing Cole and Gracie to frantically re-locate it so they could continue passing it around. This must have cycled around for at least 30 min. or so!

And of course we had lots of pool time, swim lessons, a new playground in the backyard, boating adventures, climbing up waterfalls, sea world San Diego, a visit to the beach (first time for my kids!), library reading program and reading/play time and the library, trips/picnics at the park, numerous art projects, art classes for Rylee, and play dates with friends!

This summer has gone by so quickly and we're sad to see it come to an end, but we still have a mini-family vacation this weekend (before Justin starts the harvest and we don't see him for six-eight weeks) and the county fair to look forward to. I think we can say our plan to have a fantastic and memorable summer was a success! Now to make it a great school year!!! (*sigh*)

Holy Huge!

2011-07-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

We just got back from my mother-in-laws garden. We are trying to keep it up while she is out of town. I have neglected to check the squash and this is the result! They are so big! When Rylee saw them, she couldn't wait to take a picture. Gracie wanted to go show grandma and was disappointed when I reminded her that she's not home:( They love you Grandma Lynn!

Getting ready for the 4th

2011-07-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here is how my kids "helped" clean the boat for the 4th this year. As you can see, a lot more playing than cleaning was accomplished! But what can you expect when you hand your children a hose and suit them up for water play!

4th of July 2011

2011-07-07T10:47:00.000-07:00

We were so excited this year to invite a few family friends to enjoy houseboating with us for a few nights for the 4th. We invited our good friends the Hills and the Donatis. Our kids got along great, and some of the adults made new friends they hadn't met before. It was so much fun. We ate way too much food, almost everyone got sun-burned, but we had a great time! After a few traumatic events on the intertube with the kids, everyone was brave enough to give it another shot and we were eventually successful at showing the kids what fun the water can be.

Here is Bree just lounging in the morning with her, oh so nutritious breakfast, muffins and danishes!

Cole and Tyden are the best of friends and often like to cause a little bit of trouble with thier roudiness! (Don't worry Mom and Dad Leishman, those guns didn't have water in them. They just wanted to pose this way for the picture!)

Here they are being sweet.

Cole was almost ready to go down the slide this time after a lot of coaxing from his more adventurous friends, but once he sat down and saw how far down it was he decided it was too much. He began to cry, I'm not sure if out of fright or embarrassment because he couldn't do it, but he was quickly comforted and moved on to the next task, getting in the water!

Such cute kids! (Cole, Bree, and Gracie)

Rylee was brave enough to go down the slide, as long as daddy went with her. She did great, but decided it wasn't for her after all. Maybe later in the season we can get her to try to go down by herself! Or maybe next year.

This years new toy is the paddle boat. I think my kids were more excited about this than anything else!

Miss Gracie, snacking away (which what we all did most of the day).

Bree's "funny face." So glad to catch it on camera! She loves to make people laugh, and once she gets a laugh, she doesn't stop!

I got glow-in-dark tattoos for all the kids, and this is the one I sported in honor of my new baby niece, Auburn Liberty, born on the 4th of July. How perfect! But really, we would expect nothing less from my sister-in-law Taryn. She's usually pretty good at getting just what she wants! (excuse my gross looking leg. way to up close!)

All the kids on top of the houseboat getting ready for the fire-works. I got them all glow-sticks that they are showing the camera.

Tee Ball

2011-06-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

I don't know who was more excited for tee ball this year. Me or Cole! I couln't wait to see him play sports so when sign ups came around and he was old enough, we were one of the first to sign up! It was so fun to watch him learn a new sport. My parents came to town for Rylee's baptism and were able to watch him play. So fun! He was VERY good at throwing the ball, and we're working on hitting and catching at home. He's getting very good and I'm excited to see him play again next year. Next . . . Soccer!

His first game

You can see him right in the middle, number 2, waiting to catch the ball if it comes his way. That's my boy!

Hitting . . .

Running . . .

He was awesome!

Rylee's Baptism

2011-06-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it! I still remember being pregnant with her! But here she is, all grown up. And I am amazed at this little girl. Her understanding and love for the gospel is truly inspiring. As her parents, we've done our best to teach her, but she loves to learn. She has so much love for everyone. Her prayers are the longest in our family because she prays for all the children and families that don't have all that they need and then proceeds to list the things that she hopes that they can have. What a big heart! She is such a good example to her siblings and I hope that they follow it.
It was so great having so much family around to share in such a special day for Rylee. She was a little nervous once it was time to go in the water, but I reassured her that it will be warm and that seemed to calm her nerves.

Here she is with her daddy.

Rylee and mommy. So proud!

Aunt Tiffy made a quick drive down from Idaho to be here. She surprised Rylee at the baptism and Rylee was soooo excited to see her!

Rylee with her grandma and grandpa Leishman.

Grandma and Grandpa McKee, who also traveled all the way from Montana to be here. My mom gave a talk at the baptism on the Holy Ghost and gave Rylee her first set of fancy scriptures with her name engraved on them. These are traditions in my family. My grandmother was the one who spoke on the Holy Ghost at my baptism and gave me scriptures as well. Very sweet!

The whole family, including two of her great grandmas, Grandma Betty and Grandma Balch.

Family photo. Bree was slightly less than cooperative (as usual).

What cute kids!!!

My mom made this AMAZING cake that matching Rylee's white dress. BEAUTIFUL!

Here you can see them together! ( I accidentally cut my mom off, oops! Sorry mom!)

2011-06-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I forgot to include a picture of Gracie with Grandma Lynn! Aren't they great! She loves dancing with Grandma!

Gracie's Dance Recital 2011

2011-06-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

Gracie was so excited to start dance this year. Since she was so young, she didn't get to start until half way through the year. Her grandma (owner and teacher of the studio) snuck her in! She was so excited for her recital and looked super cute in her costume. It was quite a trial trying to get what little hair she has into something fancy! She did great, but needs a little more time to get her balance, so she'll be repeating Kinderdance One next year. Then she won't be so much younger than all her classmates and gets to dance with her good friend Gemma! Here she is with her proud mama!

This is her tap and ballet teacher, Miss Roxanne.

She got a pretty bouquet of flowers from her daddy and me. Look at that grin!

I think her favorite part of the costume (besides its sparklyness, is the teddy bear it came with that wears the matching costume. So cute!

Mover and a Shaker

2011-06-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

I had to post this little video of Gracie. She can't help but shake it and move it wherever she is. All she needs is a little music, and she's out of control! I love watching her! It's one of the many things about her that makes me smile!

Hello Blogging World!

2011-06-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

I'm back and I'm excited to re-dedicate myself to journal-ing my families adventures. Since it's been such a long time, I will not be doing a recap, but start from here. We recently got back from a family vacation to San Diego. We spend two days at Sea World, and made a quick trip to see the temple and the beach on our way home. The next few posts will show more about that. Until later!

The Ocean

2011-06-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

Since moving to California, my kids have repeatedly begged us to take them to the ocean. None of them have ever seen it so we made sure to make a short trip to the beach before we left San Diego. I'm not sure what they liked best about this trip! Going to Sea World for two days, or the beach for 30 minutes! They had so much fun chasing the waves, and then getting chased back. The rule "don't get your clothes wet since we have to travel 10 hours home" was quickly forgotten in all the excitement. (The bags they are holding is thier collection of sea shells). Bree was terrified of the ocean waves, so she spent our beach trip in daddy's arms, burying her face in his neck so she couldn't see it. It was the first time she had ZERO interest in walking by herself!

Sea Wolrd 2011

2011-06-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

This was the funnest family vacation we've had so far. The kids were so excited to see and do everything and we were equally excited to take them. We rode rides, saw the coolest shows and animals, ate way too much sugar and spent way too much money. All the things that say "we had the best time EVER!" Thank you so much to our awesome friends the Bushmans and the Biglers for inviting us to make some of the best and lasting memories.

Finally!

2010-11-16T08:31:00.000-08:00

Well, we are finally moved into our new house. Still needs a bit of work, but livable. Soon, I will start to feel normal again and maybe (just maybe) I might even start blogging again! But I wouldn't look for that until at least after Christmas. Until then, lot's of love to the blogging world! (I miss you:( )

My Cute Kids

2010-10-23T15:09:00.000-07:00

Check out my kids short photo shoot HERE

My Brother's Home!

2010-08-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

My brother Ryan just got home from Afghanistan and we are so excited to have him back and safe in the states again. Since we haven't seen him in so long, and won't for a while longer (hopefully he's coming here in October), I thought I would finally post some pics recapping the last several months. I made a new post for each of the kids and finished off with some family ones.

WELCOME HOME RYAN!!!!!!!!

WE MISSED YOU!!!!!

Bree

2010-08-28T12:08:00.000-07:00

Balancing with daddy. I think we have a picture like this with all our kids.

Pretty in Pink

Bath time

What a messy eater!

Gracie

2010-08-28T12:02:00.001-07:00

Cole was playing swords with Gracie and sliced her little nose. Hopefully the scar will fade more as she gets older.

Napping with Grandpa Leishman

Bowling with Daddy

Gracie decided to give herself a haircut this summer. She cut it all the way to the scalp and it's taken MONTHS to get it to even look like short bangs!

Cole

2010-08-28T11:54:00.001-07:00

Playing dress up at the Dinosaur Museum in Bozeman, MT.

Dang it! This was suppose to be rotated!

Preschool Graduation (not sure what's with the girly pose, funny boy).
Father/Sons campout. He's pretty doing this in all the photos.

Rylee

2010-08-28T11:45:00.000-07:00

Playing dress up at the dinosaur museum in Bozeman, MT.

Shoot! this was suppose to be rotated!

Bowling

Grandma McKee came for Rylee's recital.

All done up, ready to dance.

A Little Bit of Everybpdy

2010-08-28T11:28:00.000-07:00

Playing dress up at our monthly family dinner. Rylee is the red power ranger and Cole is the blue one.

Swim park

Walking around Down Town West Yellowstone this summer.

Watching Old Faithful.

Dancing on the beach.

Matching Easter outfits

Family Easter photo.

My Etsy

2010-07-14T08:25:00.000-07:00

Things have been so busy, busy around here! We had a fantastic 4th weekend on my in-laws house boat, boating all weekend. Rylee, Cole and Gracie all tried new things this year. I'll be posting pics soon.

Our house is nearly finished and we hope to be moving in mid-august. Probably won't quite make it before school starts, but soon after!

My business is going great and I just opened up my etsy. Please go check it out HERE. I am looking forward to my first trunk show tomorrow night, and another next week. It's fun to be able to turn a hobby into a small income!

Anyway, I'll post pics soon!

2010-06-16T14:46:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a long time. So many fun and exciting things have been happening! So if you can finish reading this post, awesome! I'll start at the top:

Justin:

He's been working as a county appraiser since January and is in the process of moving into agriculture appraisals, which he is very excited about. We also bought a house on a 4.5 acre lot. It was bank owned and we got a smokin' deal on it, but it needs quite bit of work to be move-in ready. So that's where Justin spends all the rest of his time. My fav. thing about the house is all the land! It has a small orchard and several fruit trees (apples, apricots, pears, and plums).

Trina:

I have been working a few hours a week as a social worker for a foster care agency. I also started my own business in order to help us out financially (click HERE to learn more about that).

Rylee:

She just finished first grade and excelled in everything. She has developed her creative talents and is working on some art pieces to enter into the fair. She is also getting ready to try out for a town play with the children's theater and is very excited for that. This weekend is also her dance recital (more about that below).

Cole:

He just graduated from preschool and loved every minute he spent there. He is so excited to go on to Kindergarten next year! Cole is also getting ready to play soccer this summer and baseball next year ( we missed it this year).

Gracie:

Gracie is busy learning the alphabet, how to count, and learning all the colors and animals and sounds that they make. I'm amazed how much she knows just by watching her older siblings! She is quite the handful and spends a good portion of every day making trouble, but so far we decided to keep her. I'll let you know if that changes!

Miss Bree:

I think that Bree will probably think her name is actually Miss Bree since that's what I seem to call her all the time. Either that, or Breezer! Anyway, she has learned to roll over, right off the couch one time! (oops) She responds to her name, and spends all day smiling and laughing at her siblings, but I think she still likes me best! (for now) She likes to be held a lot, but that's good, because if she didn't demand it, I might not remember to take the time to do it!

Well, that's a tiny synapses of what's going on in our family. How's yours?

Cole's 5th Birthday Party

2010-06-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

Cole's birthday was actually more than a month ago, but so many exciting things have been happening around here, and I've been so busy, that I haven't had time to do much blogging. So here is all about Cole:

He turned 5 years old this year and wanted a spider man themed party at the park (easy!) So I made a simple cake, got decorations, and we had lunch, cake, and fun time at the park! Cole loved every minute of it. I gave all the kids masks to decorate with markers and sticker, but Cole opted to leave his blank. I guess he thought it looked more like a super hero mask without the stickers! He such a stud! Here are my top five favorite things about Cole:

1. He is super, duper sweet. He tells me he loves me and that I'm beautiful all the time, usually just out of the blue! A girl should have a kid like him around ALL the time!

2. He learns quick! He sometimes struggles with problem solving but has recently begun to put so much more effort into solving his own problems instead of asking me to do everything for him. I can see what a big boy he is growing up to be when I watch him see a problem and figure out what to do to solve it all on his own!

3. He is my favorite boy, and he knows it! I tell him all the time "you're my favorite boy" and he's so sick of hearing it that now he rolls his eyes at me. But recently, we were having a conversation about something he did ( I can't remember what) and he reminded, "because I'm your favorite boy!" What a cutie!

4. He loves all things boy! He recently went to a father/son's campout and took a wooden sword with him (he loves weaponry) and there isn't a single picture of him from that campout where he isn't sporting that sword somehow. He usually has a sword stuck behind him in the back of his shirt or through the belt loop of his pants. He loves swords the most and probably has about 4 of them, of course, that doesn't count the ones he builds out of pencils, tinker toys, legos, straws, sticks, and anything else that might resemble a sword. Even my mother's day card was decorated with little swords that he drew! He calls them Leonardo swords (the ninja turtle) because he wants to be a ninja turtle.

5. And lastly, he is the best little/big brother. He gets along with all of his sisters so well. He loves to follow Rylee around and lets her be the boss. He loves to play with Gracie and teach all that he knows when it's just the two of them, and he often helps me with Miss Bree when she's fussy and I can't pick her up just yet. He is a lover and snuggler. He wants to sit by me everywhere we go and loves to snuggle with his dad at bed time at night. I just love that little boy!

Dance Costumes 2010

2010-06-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

These are just some quick shots that I took of Rylee in her dance costumes during her class pictures. Recital is in just a few days and we are so excited to watch her! She took three dance classes this year, and while she often would complain about having to go all the time, she is super excited about being able to perform THREE TIMES!!! Soooo, now she wants to take three classes again next year. (We'll see).

Her first costume is her jazz costume. She is dancing to Miley Cyrus's "Hoedown"

This one is her ballet costume. She is dancing to Elvis Presley's "In the Ghetto"
And last, is her tap costume (may fav!) She is dancing to Tina Turner's "Proud Mary"

Tres Chic

2010-05-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

So, after expanding my little business outside of my mother-in-law's studio, I have found that "Trina's Sweet Shoppe" was a rather poor choice in business names. People think I make and sell candy! So, after much help from family and friends, I have changed my name to Tres Chic.

Here are my reasons.

1. It's simple and easy to say.

2. The point of my business is to make myself and others feel pretty and chic!

3. I have three girls, and started to call it "Three Chic" but then figured the Spanish word for three is tres. And while they are pronounced differently, they are spelt the same. Sooooo it's a tiny, tiny play on words!

Check out my new blog/website HERE.

And a huge shout out to my sister-in-law Taryn who designed my logo. Twice now!

Come and See!

2010-05-07T14:10:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted in such a long time, and so much has been happening around here! But, I still don't have time to post right now about my family happening. This post has only one purpose: to tell you about my "Sweet Shoppe!"

A few months ago I decided I wanted to make a tu-tu for Rylee to wear to dance, then I thought, I have to make one for Gracie and Bree! Then, I thought it would be fun to sell these at my mother-in-law's dance studio. How perfect is that! Only thing is, what do I call this new business of mine?

Fast forward one week. . .

My sister-in-law, Taryn, was visiting for the weekend and walked into the room as I was working on a tu-tu with the colors hot pink, light pink, and brown. She said, "That looks like Neopolitan colors." Ah-ha! And my new business name and slogan was born. "Trina's Sweet Shoppe: A tu-tu for every sweet tooth!"

Now, I name all my tu-tu's after some sort of sweet treat and adorn each one with a little piece of candy.

I'm really excited! I've been doing it almost two months and have already had more orders than I can often keep up with. I'm having a booth at the farmers market this summer and at the town's "Red Suspenders Day" event. (A huge event for Gridley). I have developed an etsy and a blog. My seller name on etsy is trinassweetshoppe and you can go to my new blog HERE.

I've never considered myself a real creative person, but I have been inspired by my oldest daughters creativity. If she can develop a creative talent, than so can I! I've even started to add hair accessories and have had so much fun creating.

I would love as much feed back as possible, here or on my shoppe blog. Thanks for all your input in advance!

Rylee's Seventh Birthday

2010-03-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

Rylee celebrated her seventh birthday yesterday and it was so much. The theme she chose this year is Candyland. So, I spent most of the day on friday building a Candyland Castle. It was kind of awesome. (Not the time spent, but the castle). The kids had so much fun playing in it, that it didn't even survive the party. Alas, six hours to put it up, and only 2 minutes to tear it down! Luckily, it can be rebuilt for hours of imaginary fun in the near future (after it stops raining). I had big plans for Rylee's birthday cake. I was going to make a giant sheet cake and decorate with assorted candies to resemble to Candyland board game, but then I thought that would be a lot of work after that castle! So, I made Funfetti cupcakes, had 4 different colors and frosting and 8 different types of candy, and the kids decorated their own cakes! A much better idea! Rylee had a lot of fun and I'm kinda glad it's over. (time for a nap!)

Aaaaaaand, even thought Rylee isn't technically seven until Tuesday, here are my top seven things that I love about this pretty little girl:

1. She is super, super, super creative. Those who know me know that I envy that in people. I often attempt to force creativity out of myself and find it awesome how it comes so easily to some people. Rylee is one of those people. She can find any piece of garbage and see the potential in it. That's awesome!

2. She is a good big sister. She loves to help her younger brother and sisters do things and I often catch then curled up together in bed or on the couch as Rylee reads them a story.

3. She is super smart. She could probably graduate high school if we pushed her! okay, maybe not quite to that extreme, but she is really good at school stuff and still enjoys it so far.

4. She loves to sing. I often have to stop her singing just so she can get stuff done. Even on the toilet, we will hear her singing a song, often one she has made up. And she's not quiet either! She just belts it out wherever she is!

5. She enjoys reading and writing stories. I think I like this about her because it's something we have in common. She loves to read, and so do I, but she usually loves to read stories that she writes herself. And while I no longer write stories now, as a kid, I did all the time and even wanted to grow up to be an author (then I think I discovered boys and anything else I was previously interested fizzled out pretty quickly).

6. She is athletic. She loves to dance, play sports, just about anything that's active. We take family hikes occasionally and she's always wanting to run ahead or play a game to make a leisurely activity more exciting.

7. She is super optimistic and positive about everything. Even when she gets in trouble for making a wrong choice, she will point out what she did right! She is very confident and believes she can do anything she wants. Some of you know that she does not have full use of her right arm, but if you didn't know, that's probably because she has never it make her feel that she can't do anything. It wasn't until she discovered "monkey-bars" that she felt limited. And you know, she came home from school just a few weeks ago so excited to tell me that she crossed the monkey bars that day! She is proof that it is often ourselves that get in the way of goals we want to accomplish, not the obstacles placed before us. Rylee has been such a huge blessing in my life. The last seven years of getting to know her as been a lot of things, but mostly wonderful and exciting. I look forward to the next seven!

Wacky Wednesday

2010-03-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

Cole's Preschool had a wacky day last week and he was so excited as we came up with what he should wear for the day. Here is what we came up with, along with the wacky pose for this picture. Fun Halloween socks, one pant leg in sock, one pant leg rolled up, shirt inside out, and hair spiked into 3 rows. He was so excited to go to school that day and to tell me about the wacky things his teachers wore. One of his teachers, her name is Tinker, put her hair in a high pony and stuck a roll of toilet paper on it. What fun!

2010-03-08T10:25:00.000-08:00

Bree has been so much fun. I can't believe how fast she is growing. I was comparing this video to one we took just over a month ago and what a change! She's already so different and so much bigger! Here are a few things we've come to learn about Miss Bree:

1. She is high maintenance. She loves to be held and held a lot, but I guess that's okay. Life gets so busy around here that I may just forget to sit and enjoy snuggling her if she didn't demand itoccasionally!

2. She doesn't handle milk very well, and since I'm nursing her, I don't get to have milk (only one of my favorite things in the world!) But since giving it up, she's been much happier and sleeps so much better, so it's worth the sacrifice.

3. She sleeps 5-6 hours at night, and I'm lovin' it!

4. She has begun to smile, giggle, and coo a ton more, so we spend a lot of time desperatelytrying to make her smile. It must be humorous to observe what an adult might do to make a baby smile, but what a reward!

5. I change her diaper at least every hour or two and it's never clean! We go through more diapers with her than I ever thought possible!

6. She has brought so much joy to our little family and made us feel more complete. There's six of us now! Can you believe it!?

7. She still has so much hair and it's still brown, which I'm really excited about since our kids always look so much like Justin, maybe Bree will resemble me with her coloring. And BIG blue eyes. Such a pretty girl!

Sweet Bree

2010-02-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

2010-02-25T09:34:00.000-08:00

Oh! . . . and I forgot . . .

2010-02-23T23:13:00.000-08:00

a few more for the previous post

19. 2 trips to the E.R. (one for "nurses-maid" elbow and the other for taking a bunch of allergy meds).

20. climbing onto her dresser and jumping off onto her bed (she hasn't missed . . . yet!)

21. she has chewed on or eaten dog poo, goat poo, and her own poo.

22. banging on the window of her room with the handle once used to open it.

Just what's on my mind!

The Terrible, Terrible Twos!

2010-02-23T13:53:00.000-08:00

Gracie has definitely redefined what it is to be a two-year-old for me. I can count on just one hand the times that Rylee and Cole got into things and made messes that were either nearly impossible to clean, or destructive. And that's combined! Gracie on the other hand, it's pretty much a daily event. Here are just a few examples of some of the things she has gotten into:

1. diaper rash ream

2. laundry detergent

3. Oriental oils (more times than I can count)

4. lotion

5. hand soap (she rubbed it on her face because she thought it was lotion and it got into her eyes. That made for a very unhappy toddler).

6. black magic marker (all over my mother-in-law's white cabinets)

7. make-up (of all kinds)

8. markers, highlighters, pens and pencils (all over walls)

9. hormone cream (hopefully she doesn't start developing too early!)

10. ripped pages in books, notebooks, and many of the kids books.

11. sidewalk chalk on the fence, house, and windows (luckily, that's easy to clean)

12. Beans

13. dog food and water

14. she likes to eat the dogs snacks

15. ashes from the fireplace that were left in the backyard (snow! snow!)

16. She has ripped and colored all over Rylee's homework

17. She loves to take all her clothes off (and her diaper) and run through the living room, rubbing her bum, dancing, and squealing "nakey! nakey! nakey!" She even has what we call her "nakey dance."

18. and on, and on, and on.

Keep in mind, these are just the things that I can think of right away. I'm sure if I put more thought into it, the list would easily double, possibly triple. You would think that I would be able to get it under control, this being my 3rd child, but Gracie has proved be determined. I think she possible lays in bed at night thinking, "what can I do tomorrow to make my mom want to pull her hair out?" Grrrrrrr!

But probably the most frustrating thing about it is, she's sooo cute doing it! Whenever we find her doing something, her reactions to getting caught are so hard not to laugh at, or the way she looks with diaper rash cream all over her body! What does a mother do!

Baby Bree

2010-02-23T13:50:00.000-08:00

Thank you, Taryn! You did a beautiful job on these announcements!

Back to Photography

2010-02-19T16:03:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm beginning to get things under control around here (at least to some degree), I'm trying to get back into some of the things I used to enjoy, such as reading, exercising, blogging, and taking pictures. This morning I got to take some pics of Baby River. He was a super easy subject and ultra cute! You can see more photos of him HERE.

I'm still here

2010-01-24T14:05:00.000-08:00

It's been such a long time since I've felt like getting to my blog on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong, I love blog-stalking and I stalk every one of my friends/family that you see in my list to the right, but alas, whenever I come to blog I get so caught up in everyone else's blogs that I either A) run out of time, or B) don't feel like it! But, we are still here enjoying life.

Life in California has been an adjustment, but a good one. We love spending time with family and now we have so much of them around us (at least on Justin's side). I love that my kids get to grow up around their grandparents, especially as they get older and stop regarding my little tidbits of wisdom as something important.

Bree is growing far too quickly and still struggling to figure out her days and nights. Hopefully we'll be able to get that under control soon. Rylee is loving everything about school (reading, bus rides, lunch time, recess, and even math) and excelling at it all. Cole has a good time at preschool and can't wait for each new day at school. He finds the long wait between school days obnoxious and can't wait to go back. Gracie is developing into quite the little trouble maker but what's worse is she's hilarious! So sometimes it's hard to discipline her when you can't stop yourself from laughing, only encouraging further destructive behavior!

Justin finally got a new job and has his first day tomorrow. He is working for the county as an appraiser and is really excited to get his foot in the door of a new adventure. I go back to work tomorrow as well. I have mixed feelings about that. Even though I only work 5-6 hours a week, leaving Bree behind is still hard. But I'm excited to help contribute to my family.

That's the down-low on our family lately. I'll try to get more motivated about my blogging again and post some new pics of Bree (which you may see above this post).

More Photos of Bree!

2010-01-10T13:02:00.000-08:00

Baby Bree is here and we are both on the mend. (You can see more pics of her HERE) I've noticed that I haven't posted a single thing about my pregnancy other than to announce that she was coming, and that she was a "she." And even worse than that, we completely forgot to take any photos of me pregnant, even the day she was born (which was our tradition) and so I have maybe one or two photos where you can see that I'm pregnant. How sad! Poor Bree will think I never thought of her! But, in fact, I did all the time. We were so excited for her to get here and just love having her here now. All the other kids absolutley adore her, Gracie maybe a little too much, and we're all adjusting well.

Bree has a completly different look than our other kids. I'm hopeful that she might look like me! Her hair is dark and EXISTS! Hopefully it will stay dark as she starts to lose it and it grows back. So far, she does not sleep very well at night and Justin and I are often left very tired during the day. Luckily I have a husband who is willing to suffer with me with the "up all nights." But, even through our tired eyes, she is beautiful and wonderful and everything we ever wanted! Just like the others! Thanks so much for all the well wishing and congrats from friends and family. We appreciate so much all the help and support we have received both from those around us and those from afar. We miss our Arizona friends terribly, but are excited for our new life here in California and the new friends we have made here.

Lots of love to all!

(Now that I'm not so pregnant anymore, I'm hopeful that I will have more desire to get back to my blogging.)

Cole's 1st Day of Preschool

2010-01-04T17:40:00.000-08:00

Lucky for us, the popular preschool in town had a spot open up over the holidays and Cole got to start school today. He was so excited and we were so excited for him. He wanted to wear a faux-hawk in his hair for his first day so his hair will be crunchy. What a funny kid! He made a few friends that he got to play with and is excited to go back on wednesday.

This is what happens . . .

2010-01-04T17:38:00.000-08:00

. . . when you forget to cover the baby's bum with a diaper while changing a dirty one!

Bree's Baby Blessing

2010-01-04T17:04:00.000-08:00

Since my parents were here for Bree's birth, we decided to go ahead and do her blessing while they were here. Since she was only 5 days old when we did it, I didn't want to take her to church. So, we did it at home! Had I known you could do that before I probably would have done that with all my kids! It was so nice to have just our family around to participate in the blessing and knowing that everyone there loves and cares about her the way we do. She was perfectly quiet nearly the whole time, and then let her daddy know when she was done being balanced by a bunch of men! Then, of course, lot's of pictures afterwards to remember who was there.

Funny Story

2010-01-04T13:40:00.000-08:00

I'm blogging about this mostly so I don't forget about it and remember to write it in Rylee's journal.

When I was a kid, my dad use to tell us that he can take our spirits out of our body, and we believed him because that's exactly what it felt like! I'll explain. Do as follows:

1. use one hand to squeeze the wrist of your other hand that is in a fist very tightly and wait a few seconds. If you do this on someone else's hand (your kids) you will also rub their fingers and knuckles toward the wrist (pushing the blood down out of the hand).

2. open fisted hand very slowly (to my kids, i then push on the tips of thier fingers like thet're buttons and count to five).

3. Lastly, pinch the middle of the childs hand while letting go of his/her wrist (or just let go of your own wrist if doing this to yourself) and it will feel like someone is pulling out your spirit (when really it's just the blood rushing back into your hand).

Well, recently, I taught this cool little trick to my kids telling them that I was pulling thier spirits out and then I would return it. As I said "spirit" I thought to myself "That's probably going to come back to bite me." Well, on sunday, it did.

The sharing time lesson in primary yesterday was about THE SPIRIT! The teacher used a glove and her hand to demonstrate how we have the spirit in us. Dialogue went as follows:

Teacher: Can anyone tell me what the spirit is?

Rylee raises her hand and is called on.

Rylee: The spirit is what helps us to be good and make good decisions, and . . . (here's the part that kills me!) my mom can take the spirit out of our bodies!

Teacher: Noooo, mommy's don't take spirits out of kids.

Rylee: Oh no! My mom can take the spirit out of ANYTHING!

What must that teacher be thinking at this point! I can only imagine what they heard in that innocent sentence. Funny how just one phrase can mean such different things depending upon prospective! I guess I better explain to her teacher, and maybe use a different word to explain my magic with my kids!

Hope you enjoyed a laugh!

Bree!!!

2009-12-23T21:44:00.001-08:00

Monday morning at 8:22 am, Bree came to be a part of our family. She was 9 lbs 3 oz and 21 1/2" long. Mommy and Bree are both home now, enjoying being done with the pregnancy. More pictures will likely come soon.

E.R.

2009-12-05T10:07:00.001-08:00

So, here is how we ended our Thanksgiving vacation . . .

I put Gracie down for a nap on our next to last day in Idaho and left her upstairs alone. About 30 min. later, Justin got back from his daily adventure and I asked him to go upstairs and check on Gracie since I wasn't finished cleaning up and hadn't gotten to her yet. A few minutes later, he calls my cell phone and says I need to come up right away. I ran up and found Justin cleaning up the floor which was covered wish Rylee's spray de-tangler. At first, I was like, "why am I here?", but then Justin handed me an empty bottle of claritin and showed me the two left he found on the floor. I grabbed the bottle and rushed to find my mother-in-law who it belonged to in order to find out how many were in there. She said somewhere around 10, no more than 20 maybe, but wasn't completely sure. I called poison control and they sent us to the E.R. We spent six hours there so they could observe her. They did have to give her an i.v. in case anything happened, but overall, she was fine. Seven hours after the incident, we took her home and went to bed. She woke up shortly after we were all asleep screaming because of stomach pain. We figured it was gas, but after the third time of her waking and screaming, we decided to take her back. Turns out we were right, and that it was probably a side effect of the charcoal she had to drink to absorb the pills she swallowed. So, after another 2 1/2 hrs. at the hospital, we went back to Justin's uncle's house, slept for a few hours, got up, packed, and came home. Everything ended up fine and she's back to her normal, crazy self again!

(Forgot the video for previous post)

2009-12-05T09:59:00.000-08:00

Here is Justin and a few of the cousins attempting the eating portion of our Thanksgiving "Fear Factor."

Thanksgiving in Idaho

2009-12-05T09:42:00.001-08:00

We had so much for Thanksgiving this year. We packed up the kids and my giant belly and drove up to Idaho for the Holiday. We did so many fun things! First, there was the constant supply of snow for the kids to play in.

And of course, there was fantastic food, but I had lost my camera that day so there's no pics, but luckily I found it in time to get some pics and video of the cousins "Fear Factor." There were a few categories that I missed cause of the whole lost camera thing, but I got the most fun ones!

First, they spun around 30 seconds and had to stand on one foot for a minute. Then they had to hold their legs up as if they were peeing like a dog. Followed by the eating challenge. There were five items that they got 10 pts each and an extra 25 if they ate them all: jalepeno peppers, pickled pigs feet, sardines, 2 TB. lard, and one raw egg. I'm proud to say, my husband finished them all off! You can watch the funny video below.

Gracie is Two!!!

2009-11-13T11:29:00.000-08:00

Gracie turned two last sunday! We had a little family party for her and she had so much fun playing with balloons, blowing out candles, eating cake, and opening presents! She got some cute little outfits, some adorable fashion boots, some dress-up dresses, and a rocking horse that moves and makes sounds. In the video below, you can kinda hear her yell "he-ha!" when she begins to open her last present (that's what she calls the horse).

Gracie has grown up so much in just the last few months! Her little personalitly has exploded and she's become such an entertaining part of each day. She does the most random things to entertain herself and it just kills me! She is very dramatic ( a lot like her sister) and likes to dance and play dead a lot. Her favorite game is to play "dance party" where we put on music and dress ups and dance around the living room. She still doesn't talk a whole lot but is finally learning more words and becoming easier to understand. We all love her and enjoy watching her. Who needs t.v. when Gracie's around!

This first pic was suppose to be a family pic, but my mother-in-law was trying so hard to get Gracie to look and smile that she cut off heads a lot. This was the best of them!

For my mom

2009-11-13T10:29:00.000-08:00

These are some videos of Gracie opening the presents that my mom mailed to her yesterday. It's difficult to keep clothes on her anymore so that's why she's naked. She was so excited to open presents that I don't think she really cared what was in them! But she loved everything!

Halloween 09

2009-11-03T09:51:00.000-08:00

I love Halloween and I'm just a little bit sad that it's already over. (Emphasis on the "just a little bit." Walking all over the place all day can wear a pregnant lady out!) So here are some pics of our Halloween festivities!

First, we made cookies!

Then, we carved pumpkins.

You can see that Gracie was more interested in coloring on herself than decorating the pumpkins!

The finished product. Rylee drew a bat and a ghost on the smaller one that she wanted me to cut out. You can see the bat in the picture and a little bit of the ghost on the far right of the small pumpkin.

Then, it was time to play dress up and off to trick-or-treating. We first went to downtown Chico, then to the church trunk-or-treat, then off to a Halloween Party at a friends house to finish the night. I decided to not go with themes this year and the kids picked out their own costumes (although, I did help Gracie with hers.)

I tried to get Gracie to wear the hat, but she just kept being funny with it and covering her face, and then wouldn't wear it at all! So, we decided to stick with the pony and a pretty. But we love the cape!

We had tons of fun and accumulated a whole lot of candy, including chocolates! Woo-hoo!

A Giveaway

2009-10-29T17:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, I don't usually post about these kind of things. But since the giveaway is from my good friend Becki, and I really, really, really want to win, I figured I'd do it this time! Anyway, Becki is super creative and talented. I've purchased many an item from her Whippycake store. If you want to learn more about it, you can click on the pink Whippycake button to the right. She has super cute things for mom and baby. You can read about her latest give-away there too!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

One thing I miss about living in Mesa was the fun pumpkin patch we went to every year for Halloween. But Gridley did not disappoint! We found one that had the cutest little train, some bounce houses/slides, petting zoo where the kids got to pick up fallen apples and feed to the animals, a little playground, and a picnic area for lunch. The kids had just as much fun as they always do and I was very impressed with it! Plus, all the money we spent goes to a foundation for sick children and their families. I love knowing that some of my money will go to help someone else, it's a win-win! We got a few cute pics, but I didn't think to take a pic of the entire train, just the caboose that the kids were in. But it was pretty neat!

New Photos

2009-10-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to finishing the photo shoot for Rylee and took Gracie out last night to get hers done. I love living on a farm because there are so many fun places and old junk to use for photos! Rylee was quite creative with hers. She wanted to be sure to have some silly ones, you'll know her creations when you see them. I was pretty impressed with her ability to look around her and see what she wanted to use for her shoot! That's the creative genes in her (inherited probably by her aunt Taryn, not so much myself). You can view photos HERE

One of My FAVORITE Things

2009-10-14T14:37:00.000-07:00

Rylee has 3 or 4 books that she is assigned to read everyday for homework, taking up at least 20 minutes. She loves to read to her siblings and they love to listen. Gracie will usually sit the entire time, but seeing the camera was too much to resist and she had to do something to impress (usually copying one or both siblings). But you get the idea! Rylee is a really good reader and we are so proud of how much and how fast she is learning at school. Her teacher tells me how much her previous school prepared her for reading and writing and is impressed with her handwriting and creative talents (although she has had to have her crayons taken away because her creativeness was distracting her from her school work). So now we try to make more of an effort to enrich her creative abilities a little more at home. I noticed today that as she was doing her math homework she was singing a song. I thought for sure she couldn't possibly be getting her additions right when she's singing a song about the names of the months. But after checking both sheets, she got every one correct! I guess she's more of a multi-taker than I thought! Keep it up, Rylee!

Our first October Craft

2009-10-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

What do you get when you take $3 to the dollar store, purchase a pack of foam stickers and two plastic bowls?

New Halloween popcorn/chips/candy bowls!!!

Dress up and a Dance Party

2009-09-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

When Justin was a kid, his mom had a dance studio in thier house and I often hear about thier memories of the kids spending hours in there during the day playing dress up, coming up with skits, dancing, skating, whatever. It was those memories that created the few pics I've seen of my husband in a tu-tu!

So, since today seems to be pretty low key with most everyone working at the ranch during the season, we pulled all the dress up clothes into the big front room, found some fun music, and had a dress up-dance party! Cole wasn't interested in getting his picture taken or being in the video so it mostly the girls who participated.

Shrine Circus

2009-09-26T10:52:00.001-07:00

My mother-in-law and I decided last minute to take the kids to the Shrine Circus this last thursday. It was pretty fun and entertaining, although warm outside. We, of course, got to have cotton candy and snow cones and Grandma treated the kids to a pony ride. Gracie couldn't stop smiling at what she calls the "he-ha's"!!! It was so fun to watch their little faces. I think they had a little too much fun with the cotton candy.

Beware. . .

2009-09-17T10:18:00.001-07:00

. . . the following posts are completely out of order, but I was in a hurry to get this done.

My favorite boy

2009-09-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

Cole and I recently did a little photo shoot around the farm. He had some good ideas of his own that we were able to incorporate! You can see the rest HERE. I tried to get Cole into head start this year but we were too late so we're stuck on a waiting list. In the meantime we are working on his letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. at home and going to start martial arts next week! He's excited to take what he calls "ninja-turtle" lessons. I think he'll really enjoy it and it will give him an opportunity to make some little friends his age.

Rylee's 1st day of School

2009-09-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Rylee started the first grade a few weeks ago. I can't believe how big she is (I know, all mom's say that). But she looks so grown up. She loves her teacher and so far she tells me that she has made six new friends (I guess she's keeping count). She loves being able to have lunch at school and sit with her friends and all the extra recesses she gets since she's there for so long now. She has also started dance as well. She is taking jazz, ballet, and tap (thanks to a grandma who owns the dance studio in town). So far she loves it all and is excited to have her grandma as one of her teachers. Recital will certainly be busy for her this year with three performances!

Fun in Montana

2009-09-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

While we were visiting my parents in Montana, my dad gave the kids a tour of his work lab and they loved it. My dad's a dental technician and they thought all the teeth were so cool. My dad and one of his employees helped the kids make in-prints of their hands in some of the modeling clay along with the fun eye-glasses and rubber-glove balloons. They even got some teeth souvenirs that you can see Cole sporting below.

We also visited my Aunt Shannon who gave me a few zucchinis to take home. One of them didn't make it when I let Gracie hold it in the car. This is what was left of it.

Cody and Kate got married

2009-09-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

Just a few weeks before my brother got married, Justin's brother got married! Our lives have been full and busy this summer! It's been fun getting to know our new sister-in-law and we welcome her to the family.

My brother got married!

2009-09-17T09:48:00.000-07:00

My little brother, Adam, got married to Kaycee a few weeks ago and so me and the kids packed up and drove up to Montana. My mom flew down to drive with us and I am so grateful for her help. Rylee got to be the flower girl and Cole was the ring bearer. They were so cute all dressed up, but of course, couldn't have been more bored with the ceremony. So because of their good behavior, we went for ice-cream in-between the wedding and the reception. At the reception they had a good time eating all the yummy food and dancing. And since the DJ was taking requests, Rylee requested the chicken dance. Even Gracie got into that one!

HOLY COW!!!

2009-09-09T16:43:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I've blogged. Seriously! I've never gone this long between posts before! I have so much to share with all of you but so little time to do so. I'm going to dedicate 1 whole hour later this week (hopefully tomorrow) to catching up on my latest and greatest news. But I have been keeping up on all of your blogs, even if I haven't left comments. Love to hear how all my family and Arizona friends are doing. Until tomorrow! ??

Don't worry, we're still here

2009-08-11T21:22:00.001-07:00

I don't have any pictures to post just yet, but we did make it to California and are slowly getting our lives back in order. I love the weather and being on a farm. The kids are loving being able to spend so much time out doors and all their fun new chores, such as, gardening, picking vegetables from the garden, feeding the chickens, riding the golfcart to go find blackberry pushes for a special treat, and all the other fun things that come along with being on a farm like riding on tractors playing in dirt all day long!

There will be pictures soon, as soon as I can find my camera hookups. Till then!

Some last minute fun!

2009-07-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

My parents were here visiting this last weekend and we had so much fun! We went swimming, shopping, eating, game playing, show watching, rough housing, and overall had a great time. My parents even took all three of our kids to a movie so Justin and I could have some much needed alone time. It was great. We finally got to go check out Dave and Busters for a bit and had a good time. Here are a few of the pics that I took. Most of the pictures are on my mom's camera so I'll have to wait for those ones.

Swimming

2009-07-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

We have some of the very best people in our ward at church and one of those couples is brother and sister Allen. They are so sweet to open thier home to so many of us to use their swimming pool and backyard. So, while my parents were here, we took advantage of that and had a morning full of fun wetness! Rylee loved the diving board! Gracie thought it looked like a lot of fun, but once she got on it, looked down and saw how far down her daddy was before he would catch her, she quickly changed her mind and made due with jumping in from the side instead. Cole loved wearing his little arm floaties and the freedom of being able to swim around the whole pool with them on. Rylee also started to climb up the slide, but quickly decided against that when she got near the top and saw how far down the ground was. It was super fun and I can't wait till we go again!

Good Thing We Like Pretty Things !!!!!

2009-07-21T16:00:00.001-07:00

An exciting event in Rylee's life!

2009-07-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

Rylee brought this . . .

to show me today. It use to belong here. . . She's so excited to have lost her first tooth. She's been working on it for a while. She says she doesn't want to give it to tooth fairy yet because she wants to keep it, so she's carrying it around for a day or two in a little baggy. I can't believe my baby has lost her first tooth!

It's Time

2009-07-03T08:59:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have heard that we are moving back to California. It's true. We'll be moving in just a few short weeks, just after my parents visit at the end of the month. Real Estate hasn't been as lucrative as we had hoped (dang market!), and while we've been okay up to this point, it's time to move on to something new. So, we've decided since we have to start over anyways, why not start where we want to be!

We have mixed feelings about it. We are so excited to finally be living where we've always wanted to be and raise our family. We love that we'll be so close to so much of Justin's family and just a bit closer to mine (but hopefully we'll get to travel to see my family more since we don't have to juggle travel time and two families).

We are also very sad to be leaving so many AWESOME friends that we have made during our nearly five years in Arizona. We plan to make the most of the time we have left.

Something I need all of you Arizona locals to help me with is to figure out what I've missed. We've lived here for nearly five years and have done and seen many things, but I want to be sure that we don't leave the state saying "I wish we had. . ." Here is a list of the things we have done so far. If there is something you've heard of or think we must do before we leave, please leave a comment and let me know!

-Tempe Town Lake Splash Park
-Phoenix Zoo
-Wild Life Zoo
-Science Center
-Dinosaur Museum
-Arizona Museum for Youth
-Downtown Mesa Art tour
-Renaissance Festival
-Pumpkin Patch
-Zoo Lights
-Christmas Parades

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. We've actually done quiet a few super fun things!

Brite Tapes

2009-07-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else remember growing up with "Brite" tapes? My mother-in-law gave me several that she had from when her kids were small and I just got them out for Rylee to listen to. She loves them! She is listening to them non-stop! She's even beginning to sing some of the songs, such as "gratitude attitude" (something there's is a small lack of in our home sometimes). I love Brite!

Water fun on the boat!

2009-06-24T11:11:00.001-07:00

When I was talking to my dad I realized that I had forgotten one of my proudest moments as a mother these last few weeks. My son Cole is usually not one to try anything new, especially if it seems scary. But the prospect of a blue-raspberry snow-cone was too much to pass up and onto the knee board he went! That's right, he went knee boarding! I was so excited for him to try something he thought was so scary and when he was done he was so proud of himself! He enjoyed it quiet a bit and wants to do it again soon. Thanks to Rylee for setting an example of adventure to help him see that it's not so bad!

Cody and Kate

2009-06-24T10:25:00.001-07:00

Probably the most exciting thing to happen during my trip was my brother-in-law Cody proposing to his girlfriend on the airplane before they got there. He had a script written out that he gave to the stewardess on the plane that she read over the speaker and he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him and, of course, she said yes. Most of us hadn't met her yet so we were excited to get to know her and to continue to get to know her. Welcome to the family Kate!

What was fun for me is they let me practice taking pictures on them. I think I learned the most about what I like and don't like during this photo shoot. We were seriously limited on time so we weren't able to do it at the best time of day, but it was fun to take them around the farm and use different creative spots. Thanks for your patience guys! Hope you liked some of them!

To see some of my favorites click HERE

Hello Again!

2009-06-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged! So here is you're warning, there are a number of posts to follow all about our adventures in California this last month.

Life on a farm

2009-06-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

I love that we get to raise our kids on a farm soon. There are so many important lessons to be learned! And what great adventures to be had! For instance, riding on tractors!

Helping to take care of the new baby chicks, ducks and geese.

A true farmer!

And the all important looking through rocks for lizards! We had so many fun adventures just on the farm. Riding the golf carts around the orchard, taking pictures on the railroad. Watching trains drive by while we're in the golf cart just a short 15 feet away and the train conductor waving and honking his horn for us! I love farm life!

Time to get dirty!

2009-06-24T09:56:00.000-07:00

My mother-in-law, in an attempt to give me a break, took Rylee and Cole outside to work in the garden with her. She left them in the front while she went to the back to get a few things. She saw that they were headed for the sprinkler but figured what's it hurt to get a little wet, right? What she didnt' remember was the big pile of black dirt that was left in the front yard for gardening work. But the kids noticed it! A short while after they had gone outside, I looked out the kitchen window where I was cleaning dishes and saw this. . .
They were running back and forth between the pile of dirt and the sprinkler. Notice their feet. They are barefoot, that's dirt! So the bath I had planned to skip over for the kids that night ended up being needed after all!

Picnic with the cousins

2009-06-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about moving back to California is that our kids will get to spend more time with some of thier cousins. We had a chance to have a short picnic at the park while we were there. The first pic shows Cole and Eli playing dinosaurs. It's so fun because Amber (Justin's cousin, the kids mom) and I have had all three of our kids around the same time and she's expecting her fourth in October while mine comes in December. So fun! A built in friend for everyone!

Gracie, Cole, Eli and Isabella on the bridge
Rylee and Ethan playing on the swings
Gracie and Isabella on the bridge agian!

Dance Recital

2009-06-24T09:43:00.001-07:00

The whole purpose of me staying in California so long was so that I could help my mother-in-law get ready for her dance recital (she owns a dance studio). It was a lot of busy work, but worth it in the end. I spent most of the time drawing, cutting, painting and glittering. The backdrop on the stage looked so good behind all the dancers. Rylee went the first night to help me sell flowers and loved posing in front of the backdrop when it was over. The theme was all about broadway musicals. I painted the Mama Mia, Hairspray, and High School Musical posters and cut out and painted the tony award. I also cut the letters and drew the musical notes. We had a lot of help from some of the dancers to finish off the cutting and glittering. I never knew how talented my mohter-in-law was. She drew free-hand all the pictures and did the grease poster alone. What talent! Anyway, it was a lot of fun to watch the recital both nights. It helped get Rylee excited about what she can do with dance as she gets older if she sticks to it!

Rylee's dance recital '09

2009-05-24T17:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry the quality of the video isn't very good. I wanted to take my big video camera so it would be better, but I didn't get it plugged in in time to have enough battery power so my tiny camera had to do. (Poor time management yesterday) Rylee is on the far left. I tried to do my best to get her the most without her teachers head in the way and not being in the way of others behind me. It was quite the juggle. Enjoy!

Last two days of school

2009-05-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

Wednesday and Thursday were Rylee's last two days of Kindergarten. She was very sad and already misses her best friend, Eowyn, and her teacher, Mrs. Vincent. She likes to look at these pictures often. What a funny girl. She makes me smile the way she loves people in her life sooo much!

On Wednesday, her class had an award ceremony that we were invited to. Unfortuneatly, as I was deleting pics on my camera, I accidently deleted the pic I took of her teacher handing her the folder of awards she had earned. I know! I could just die! (sigh)

Anyway, she did such a good job. Here is a list of the awards that she earned:

Outstanding Achievement in Phonics
Outstanding Achievement in Reading (she read 117/120 words)
The Principal's Award in recognition of Outstanding Homework
Citizenship Award
Certificate of Award for Oral Phonograms
Certificate of Appreciation
Certificate of Award for Math Facts
"I Can Count To 100" Award
Franklin Certificate of Reading
A Yellow Ribbon for reading 50 books since March
Kindergarten Graduation

She is such a good student. Her teacher called each student to the front of the classroom to present them with their awards and said a few special things about them. She said that Rylee is very talented in art and loves to create. Of course, we already knew that but it's fun to hear other people recognize talents in your children. Mrs. Vincent called her their "resident artist" because one of her paintings was chosen for the Kindergarten bulletin in the lobby of the school. We asked for the painting after school was over and now she proudly displays it on the fridge. I think I may frame it and use it somewhere in the house.

We are so proud of how much Rylee has learned. It is fun to see where she started at the beginning of the year learning the sounds to all the letters and two-letter phonograms to writing and illustrating her own books. I love it! We can't wait for next year (especially me. three months can be a long time in hot, hot, hot Arizona!)

Dance Recital

2009-05-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

Rylee had her dance recital last night and it was really fun to watch her and her little friends. We tried out a new teacher this year and Rylee really loved her. For her hair, I had decided to put her back in two cute little messy buns since it's so short and difficult to pull back. But, then she came home with chopsticks and a piece of paper explaining that we were to put thier hair in ONE bun with the chopsticks. WHAT!? Rylee's hair is very curly and quite difficult to manage and refuses to stay in one pony, let alone a bun. So, we got creative. I was pretty impressed with my ability to combine a couple of different hairstyles into one in order to get her hair to cooperate. We were successful! It didn't fall out till we got home!

Rylee did a really good job (naturally) at her recital and we are very proud of her ability to memorize and perform. I will upload a video when I can figure out how to find it on my computer, so look for it in the future.

Girls Night Out Anyone?

2009-05-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

I saw this event on one of those morning shows and it looks like fun! I think it's a free event on thursday for a girls night out. I was thinking about going but don't want to go alone. Anyone interested? HERE is a link with more info.

Cole is 4 today!

2009-05-12T17:08:00.001-07:00

Time has flown by so fast. I love looking at all the old pictures of my little boy when he was just a baby. I don't have any of his baby pics on my computer to post so the first one starts when he was just one-year-old. These are some of my favorite pics of him growing up, just a few among many, many, of course. Cole is such a special little boy. He is very sweet and constantly tells me that he loves me (all mothers should have little boys). He still likes to snuggle with me and then play hard and rough with his daddy. He loves, loves, loves all things ninja turtles (you can see in his interview) and looks forward to starting pre-school in the fall. I am so proud of the little boy that he is and the person he is becoming. Happy Birthday Cole! We love you!

Cole's Birthday Interview

2009-05-12T16:56:00.000-07:00

1. What is your favorite color?

"blue"

2. What is your favorite number?

"1"

3. What is your favorite letter?

"G, T, R, and O"

4. What is your favorite game to play?

"the ninja turtles game"

5. What is your favorite book to read?

"ninja turtles"

6. Who is your best friend?

"Callie"

7. What do you like to do with mommy?

"help me play ninja turtles"

8. What do you like to do with daddy?

"rough house"

9. What do you like to do with Rylee?

"help her"

10. What do you like to do with Gracie?

"I like it when she does funny things."

11. What is special about being 4?

"I love you. Because I want to be 4."

12. What will be hard about being 4"

"I don't know"

13. What is your favorite things to learn about?

"letters"

14. What is your favorite food?

"ninja turtle cookies"

15. What is your favorite movie?

"ninja turtles"

16. What is your favorites song?

"ninja turtles" (the theme song)

17. What is your favorite chore/responsibility?

"feeding the dog"

18. What is your favorite candy?

"rainbow licorice"

19. What is your favorite thing to do?

"go to the playground"

20. What is your favorite toy?

"my ninja turtle toys"

ANYBODY SEE A THEME WITH THIS INTERVIEW!!!??? I LOVE THIS LITTLE BOY!

My Two Mom's

2009-05-10T12:53:00.001-07:00

I have been overwhelmingly blessed to have two mom's.

My first mom, the one who gave birth to me, is very special to me. I admire her strength and courage to attend church as a youth when her family no longer desired to. I admire the leap of faith she took when she married my dad and decided to have a family at a very young age with little support. I admire the generosity she shows to those around her in so many different ways. I admire her determination to have relationships with all her family members and to let them know how much she loves, cares, and thinks about them. I admire the selflessness she has shown through all the years I have known her, giving up things she wanted to do or to have for the good of her family. I admire her humility and desire to always strive to do just a little better than the day before. I admire the bottomless pit of love she has had for me and all my siblings, even when it was difficult to love us. I admire my mother for the person she has been, the person that she is, and the person that she is becoming. I couldn't ask for anyone better to be my mom than my own.

I love you mom.

Second, is my mother-in-law. I have only known her for eight or nine years, but I have learned so much from her. She has become a close friend and someone I can count on to support and lift me up. She has given me one of my most treasured gifts, her son. She has served, sacrificed, worked hard, loved, taught, and much, much more in order to give me a husband that no one really deserves to have. He is a tribute to who and what she is and I love her so much for that. Thank you!

Happy Mother's Day to my two moms!

My Mother's Day Gift

2009-05-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

Last Christmas, my friend Becki got this really neat necklace from her husband. I fell in love with the concept and told Justin that I had to have one. Maybe for Mother's Day? Well, he didn't forgot. He was very sneaky handing off money in exchange for the necklace right in front of me and managed to keep it secret untill this morning. I was so surprised and couldn't be more thrilled with my gift. Thank you so much, babe, for such an awesome gift. I can't wait to add one more tiny circle at the top in December!

Party video

2009-05-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

You can see a short video clip of Cole's party where he sports some of his cool ninja moves at the end (HERE)

(This little boy needs karate lessons. Hopefully someday soon)

Oh! And to answer Jinny's question:

Ninja turtles started in my house when my mom was visiting one day and had brought the newly released movie. Cole loved it so for Christmas, Santa brought him the Ninja Turtle cartoon series. We watch them ALL the time and Cole is often heard singing the theme song (which is constantly stuck in my head). Thanks mom!

Cole's 4th Birthday Party

2009-05-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

As you can see, the theme that Cole chose for his birthday party this year is Ninja Turtle. And let me tell ya, it was not an easy thing to find. They haven't been popular for over a decade and the toys were not easy to come by. But, I did it. I managed to find a few toys and come up with a fun party. This cake I am the most proud of. It was actually, physically painful to cut this cake up. I should have made cupcakes for the kids to eat or something and just used the cake as a center piece, but alas, I didn't think of that until it was too late, so the cake had to be cut. Good bye pretty cake and the 2 hours I spend decorating it!

Next, since it was a ninja turtle party, clearly everyone needed masks and belt in order to become true ninjas. For games we were going to play ninja turtle training, but the kids just wanted to run around in the sprinklers so we let them. (video will be uploaded later where you will also get to enjoy Cole's natural ninja abilities)

For food we started with Pizza and green finger jello (ooze). Pretty simple. Then cake, ice-cream, and licorice.

To end the party, the kids got to chase Justin around the yard with grenade shaped water balloons. We had fun and Cole enjoyed his party. Thanks so much to my very, very, generous friend Shye who let us use and mess up her yard. We appreciate it so much!

To clarify previous post . . .

2009-05-06T11:57:00.000-07:00

2009-05-03T22:21:00.001-07:00

1941 gave us this historical monument of four U.S. presidents.

1963 gave us a craze known as "Beatle-mania" when these four singers made their debut.

1987 allowed children everywhere to enjoy watching these four pizza-loving mutant turtles fight crime every morning.

2005 gave us another group of crime-fighting heroes, the fantastic four.

. . . ???? coming in Dec. 2009????

Home Depot Event

2009-04-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine called me this morning to tell me about this fun event at home depot, so we quickly got dressed and headed out the door. Here are a few of the high lights of what we got to do:

-Petting zoo
-Spinning wheels for prizes
-Sampling a variety of foods and treats
-Free bag of popcorn
-Two super fun bounce houses (one with a slide)
-Tour of a fire truck
-Tour of a city bus
-Getting arrested and put in the back of police car (notice the bars, the kids thought it was super fun. I even pretended to walk away while the officer said he was taking them to jail followed by loud protests from the kids.)
-More free stuff
-Free bottle of powerade
-Balloons
-Face painting ( which, surprisingly, neither of the kids really wanted to do so we skipped that one)

Overall, a super fun morning. I love saturdays! If only daddy could have gone with us (sigh).

My litte (big) boy

2009-04-23T14:14:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I forget just how big my little man is. He amazes me sometimes with the things that he says and how smart he is. He knows that Jesus loves him and that He died for us and was resurrected (yes, he even knows the word resurrected). Today he used a little wooden alphabet puzzle to show me his favorite letters (they're the ones he recognizes the most) which are O, S, R, T, and G. We are working on the rest of them.

His most recent favorite toys are Ninja Turtles, Cars, and Buzz Light-year. We often hear him shouting "To infinity . . . AND BEYOND!" as he runs across the room. In fact, if I ask him to get something for me, he shouts it as he brings it to me. I think that he thinks it makes him faster.

Cole is looking forward to preschool and we are getting ready for that by learning our shapes, colors, numbers, and letters the best we can. His confidence is building as he learns how to make friends without his sister around and tries to do his best at everything while replacing the word "can't" with "I will try" or "I will do my best."

I'm very proud of my little (big) man and all the things he does. He is very sweet to everyone and an example to his sunbeam class of reverence (most the time). I love him sooo much and enjoy spending more one on one time with him while Rylee is at school and Gracie is sleeping. What an awesome little boy that God has given me. I often wonder what I ever did to deserve such great kids!

Our first swim of the summer

2009-04-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

Rylee's got talent!

2009-04-18T23:45:00.000-07:00

Rylee and her little friends did a dance for our ward talent show tonight and they did so good. They only had four days to learn it (one of them only had two) and I can't believe how well they learned it (especially my little talented girl who, I found out, can count by 8's in the song AND pick up in the middle of a count). Amazing! It was fun to see them.

Also, Rylee wrote her first book today (all by herself!) and I posted each page on her personal blog. It's private so you'll need an invitation if you don't have one already. Click HERE to see it!

"Pop-corn Popping"

2009-04-18T23:33:00.000-07:00

(From left to right: Bethany, Rylee, and Delaynee)

An update . . .

2009-04-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

Most of my posts are all about the kids so I thought maybe I would give our readers an update on what Justin and I are doing.

Justin lost his job last January and quickly moved on (as we have to in life) to a new adventure in real estate. He is now working full time as a realtor. So far, things have been moving both slowly and quickly. He is learning quick the best way to make things work for him and clients are quickly adding up, but house hunting is a slow process so the paychecks are slowly making their way here. We are overwhelmed by the support and generosity and love that we have experienced from both family and friends. It has been greatly appreciated. We often feel thank you is never enough, but we thank you all. Overall, Justin is loving his new career path and all that he is learning about the real estate world. So, if you, or anyone you know, is looking to sell or buy a house (or both), please send them our way!

As for myself, I am missing school. I have realized how much school made me feel like an individual person with thoughts, ideas, hobbies, and interests, along with being some body's mom. Not that I don't adore my job as mom and wife, but sometimes I feel like I need something a little more, just for me. I guess that's the selfish side of me, but I think it makes me a better mom and wife when I have something that takes me away, if only for a few moments.

So, with my desire to try something new, I have started photography. I bought myself a fancy new camera last Christmas and have begged my friends to allow me to experiment on them. My poor kids have had enough! So far I have done 3 photo shoots, one baby and two maternity, and I love it! You can see my most recent photos HERE. I am having so much fun learning how my camera works, where and how to angle it to get the best shot, and how to capture someone in the way they would want. I am learning slowly but am proud of my progress. I think I get just a little better each time. I hope to continue to develop a new talent to a point that maybe someday people might even pay me to do this!

Other than that, I am enjoying being with my kids everyday. I love watching them learn about the world around them and their place in it. Each one of my kids have their own little personalities and I love watching them grow. I love my family, and my Savior and my Heavenly Father.

I have been blessed in so many ways and often wonder what I did to deserve the life I have. Thank you to all my family and friends who have contributed in so many ways the blessings that I enjoy!

Maybe I CAN do it!

2009-04-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

I have always been an admirer of those who can create. I, on the other hand, do not have a crafty nor creative bone in my body. Don't get me wrong, I have created some pretty crafty things, but nothing is ever an original. I am the queen of copy cat!

Recently, I decided that I should know how to sew and make clothing and other cute things for my kids. I have put real effort into both learning and liking it and here is my conclusion . . . I hate to sew! I tried to like it, I really did! But, alas, it can't be forced. But in the process of learning, I did make one thing that I'm pretty proud of. My mom helped me to cut out the pieces for this dress and get ready for sewing, and then my mother-in-law walked me through it, step-by-step. I am so grateful for their patience and effort in my desire to learn a new skill. In the end, I decided to never make clothing again, but I'm kinda proud of how well this dress turned out! Rylee picked out the fabric and I picked the sparkly ribbon (which i love) for the middle. I actually finished this last summer but never got around to posting it. It is obviously too big for her to wear and still needs buttons in the back. But, when she grows into it I think it will be cute with a little cardigan or something.

More recently, I took on another project, much smaller than the dress.

Since Gracie likes to take my slips out of my drawer to wrap around her neck and head (and because I keep finding said clothing all over the house, mostly in her room) I decided she needs to have a silky of her own. So, for Easter, I made her a silky blanket! It only took me two hours from start to finish (I know, all you crafty people can have a good laugh at me) but not too bad overall. Most of that time was spent trying to figure out how to make the corners not look ridiculous! As long as you don't take a real close look, I think it turned out pretty good! Yay for me!

Arizona Science Center

2009-04-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

Since we were unable to go camping a few weeks ago we took the kids to the science center instead. Easily one of the coolest places in the city. You can see Rylee and Cole learning about the pully system in this first picture. All the kids loved the spinning pole. Gracie had to be distracted from it so she would let other kids have a turn.

Air was blowing out these tubes and making the little balls float in mid-air. Gracie couldn't get enough of it and was so proud of herself when she would catch one and then put it back so it would be floating again. So cute!
I don't know who these strange creatures are, but they sure had a good time with this machine!

MY KIDS WATCHED CONFERENCE!!!!

2009-04-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well, the first session anyway.

In last months Ensign there was an article with suggestions for involving your children in conference. I loved how one parent talked about how they never forced or expected their children to watch conference. But as parents, they never missed one and that set a great example of how important conference was to them for thier kids. These parents did use insentives (sometimes known as bribes) to help encourage thier kids to sit and listen, even on saturday. They had some great suggestions and I love how they never forced thier children to sit with them, but lead by example.

Since my kids are still pretty little, only a few of the suggestions apply to our family now and they worked great! The other suggestions are things my husband and I have discussed and have come up with a plan for the future ( things like going out for lunch and dinner between conferences to talk about what was learne, only those who participated will be invited to go).

Here's what we did today!

First, for Rylee I printed out a conference packet which you can find HERE and she really loved it. For Cole, I found some coloring pages. I put both inside some fun folders (hello kitty for Rylee and spider man for Cole). These were helpful but did not keep their attention the entire time.

Second, I printed out a bingo game that my bishop had e-mailed to me in another awesome packet (let me know if you want it and I'll send it to you). There are both words and pictures so the kids can listen for words to be said and win a prize. The prize my kids won is they get a dollar to take to the dollar store later this evening.

Lastly, my kids favorite and the most effective game was "Magic Word." For each speaker I gave my kids one (or two) magic words to listen for. Everytime they heard that word, they got a piece of candy (jelly beans in this case). They loved this game. They had no interest in leaving the room and they are even looking forward to the next session.

Don't get me wrong, I still had to remind them occassionally to be quiet or reverent so mommy and daddy could listen, often followed with the threat of dismissing them from the room. But mostly I encouraged them to listen for the magic word. It was amazing how much they listen when you think they don't! They got nearly every word, even Cole! I thought this game might have been a little more difficult for him, but he was on top of it!

I know I'm posting this early, but I thought maybe this could be helpful to others with small children. Enjoy conference!