Self-Sufficiency

Yesterday I was in the process of completing the big pajama pants sewathon for my kids. While I was doing this, my daughter apparently decided she was hungry. When I walked through the kitchen to show off my progress to Danny, I noticed Ellie sitting at the table with a pop tart on a plate... happy as a clam. Upon further inspection, I realized she had scooted the stool over to the counter (we have very high counters, so quite scary actually) climbed on top of the counter, grabbed herself a plate, got down, went into the pantry where she got herself a pop tart, put it onto the plate and sat up to eat.

Now, I know she loves pop tarts. She would eat them all day long if I let her... IF I let her! Now I have to keep my eyes on her, as she will just help herself whenever she wants. Sometimes I wish she was my little baby still. :)

PJs

For the first time I am actually making my children's Christmas pajamas this year instead of buying them. I just finished Ellie's and I love them! They turned out really cute! I even took the time to put a pocket in the back (something that I probably won't do for the boys). Anyway, check them out...

Front:

Back:

PS... To see them bigger (up close) just click on the picture.

It's Tiring To Be A Girl

Ever since Kayla was here and introduced my daughter to painting nails, Ellie is always wanting to have pretty nails. She sometimes gets confused and calls them pony tails instead of fingernails (silly girl). She loves to have them painted and she actually sits still while they are drying. This particular time, she actually fell asleep while her nails were drying. She was so cute, just sitting there with her fingers spread and her head on her arm. See for yourself... So cute!

Christmas Decor

I've been meaning to post pictures of our tree for a while now. We got a real tree this year. It is the first year we have gotten a real tree. And it's BEAUTIFUL! I love it. Danny says it's too big. :)

I was also able to put out my nice nativity set. I love that thing! I wish it was pertinent for me to keep it up year round!

Pictures

Fun In The Snow

After the big snowstorm earlier this month, the kids wanted to go play in it. Preston had the grand idea of making a snow "gum-ball machine", so he and his friend went to work on that. Kaden, on the other hand, wanted a really great snow fort. He invited a neighbor friend over to help him with it. They got about 1 foot of the walls up. Then it got dark. It was a good idea though. :) As for Ellie, she just wanted to be a part of the big kids' fun. And she just played with the fluffy white stuff.

Pictures!

From Thanksgiving To Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving! Danny's family came and stayed. We had everyone together except Matt and Kim who are in Virginia (we miss you guys). We loved visiting with everyone and (I must say) had a really great Thanksgiving meal (turkey, ham, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, pretzel salad, spinach salad, rolls, honey butter, etc, etc. - I could keep going). It was awesome to see everyone. And we know what it took for them all to make it here. Between the many storms, it was amazing that they were here.

Anyway, Danny's mom gave each of us girls a project to complete. It is such a cute advent calendar (of sorts). I really wanted to finish it by today so that my kids could join in the fun of counting down to Christmas. Here is the final product:

Isn't it awesome. I just have to say that Ann thought of absolutely everything and I really appreciate the time she put in to this craft. The picture doesn't do it justice. It looks even better in person. And, if you can't tell, each of the little people, animals, buildings, etc hang on buttons. So from now until Christmas, the kids will get to hang up one picture each day.

Now all I have to do is get to the store and buy a hook for it to hang on. I was going to do that today, but from my earlier post, you might gather that it's just a little too snowy out for that kind of outing. Maybe tomorrow...

(Thanks again Ann!!! You're the best!!!)

What!?! No School???

One of the pros to us moving to the Boise area is that everyone we talked to said that the winters here are so mild. They all said that it might snow a little but that it usually melted by the next day.

Well yesterday it started to snow. And it snowed... and snowed... and snowed. I think it has only let up for a few minutes this afternoon and then started back up again.

So when we woke up to the announcement of "no school for Meridian School District", all I could say is, "mild, my bum." Oh well. I've lived with the snow my whole life, guess I'm just meant to live in the fluffy white stuff for the rest of it as well.

Our Back Yard:

Out The Front Door:

Recessionista

I know I've blogged about this before. But there is a contest going on at http://www.recessionistaparty.com/ and they are giving away 3 $50 gift cards. I really like their stuff (especially their hats and scarves)... Just wanted to let ya'll know.

Video Time

I have had a request to post more videos on my blog. So here we go... (mainly for grandparents; if you are not a grandparent and still watch them all - Good on ya) :)

(Preston had been pretending earlier about how when the blocks fell, they would go through a long process of falling down the stairs. This is Ellie copying him. "Cool trick! It fell off the wall, and on the step, and off the wall, and hit the wall, and hit the wall, and hit the wall, then down the stairs.")

(This was when Preston was doing the pretending. Ellie still wanted to be the one pretending)

(Ellie playing dead. So funny!)

(Ellie pouting.)

(We have started a tradition of playing a game on Sunday as a family. We have done Monopoly, Hide & Seek, and this last Sunday we played Yahtzee. It's been lots of fun and here is Preston rolling. He was on a team with Kaden. I loved how he would say, "I whoosh for a 6, I whoosh for a 6!")

(Kaden playing Yahtzee. He was so serious about rolling.)

(Ellie was being crazy! She got all wound up right before bed. And whenever she says that she loves someone, she'll say, "I like-a Mommy," etc. Funny.)

And as a side note... These videos took forever to upload so I hope there is somebody out there who is glad I posted them. :)

Reflections

Ok, so we all know that it's fairly unlikely that I will get caught up on the blog. I mean, I am 4 months behind on this thing. So I decided to just start anew.

Kaden has the opportunity to participate in Reflections. For those who don't know what this is... it challenges students to create art inspired by a specific theme. Each student can submit something in one of six arts areas - dance choreography, film production, literature, musical composition, photography, and visual arts. They are judged, receive prizes, and (if they continue winning) move up the levels, eventually to the national level.

Anyway, Kaden decided he wanted to participate in the photography category for this contest. He was very excited about it and wanted to use my "nice" camera. So yesterday (Saturday) Danny showed him the basics of taking pictures and we walked around the yard with him as he took some really nice nature photos. The theme this year is "Together We Can". And the title of his finished project is "Together We Can Discover Nature". I am super proud of him! He did an amazing job with his pictures.

And HERE they are.

For those who don't go through the slideshow of pictures, this is the final product...

June

We have a lot of pictures for June...

My birthday was in June (30 years to be exact - ugh) and Danny splurged and got me the nicest camera I have ever owned. It takes still shots as well as video, so I've been having a blast with it (when I can and when I'm not busy packing or unpacking another box.)

First, we have lots of pictures of my cute kids. While playing around with the settings on the camera, I figured that they're my greatest subjects to practice on. :)

For my bday, I decided that I wanted to try making homemade ravioli. It sounded yummy! :) It was actually delicious. Our only complaint was that we didn't have a pasta press so the pasta was a little thick, but other than that - YUMMM! Ellie just really loved the bread; which we happened to buy from Macaroni Grill. She ate more of that bread than she has ever eaten of anything in one setting.

We also had some friends come over for a "birthday party". (We miss you Angie and Chad.) Chad let my kids play with his iPhone and they had a hard time putting the thing down. What is it with kids and electronics these days?

Chad and Angie brought over Dance Dance Revolution. We played that and Guitar Hero for my birthday. I know, strange request... but we did do what I wanted. :) Even Danny danced for us. :)

In other pictures, Ellie the banana head was eating some yogurt and decided that it would look great on her nose. Then the next day, she decided to finger paint with her yogurt. Again, I had just gotten the camera and was a little picture-happy. :)

June was about the time when Ellie decided that she loved trying on other peoples shoes. She is still in that phase and still loves to wear others' shoes (whether it's mom's or dad's or her brothers', it does not matter).

When Danny and I were in the process of looking for a house in Boise, we had our computer set up with his laptop beside it and we went through hundreds of homes virtually in the matter of a weekend. We narrowed down our list to give to the realtor. Basically, we did a TON of the work in finding this place. It was actually at the top of our list before we even came to Boise to walk through homes. Anyway, Danny took a picture of our computer setup... we called it our command center. We spent a lot of hours at that command center!

When the kids woke up for Father's Day, they wanted to draw pictures and make cards for Danny. They all did a really great job and were so cute while making them.

In between moves, I tried to take the kids to the park as many times as possible. It was my way of trying to make up for the lack of fun this summer. That is also when Preston finally learned how to keep himself going on a swing. Now that's all he ever wants to do.

I also have a couple of videos that I recorded of Ellie. They are so cute that I can't help posting them. :) It's also one of the first videos I recorded with my new camera. It's not completely in focus, I'm still working out how to download it off my camera, etc. Just bear with me. In explanation of the first video, Ellie's favorite cartoon is Dora. There is a Dora episode with "super babies" and there's a song that they sing in the episode. She LOVES that episode and loves to sing that song. In the second video, Ellie was really starting to talk a lot and say different words.

I guess that sums up June. It was a busy month, and worth the post!

Pics

Video 1

Video 2

May

Ok... so, obviously I am way behind in my posting. It has been a CRAZY summer to say the least. With 2 moves in 2 months - well, that right there is worth the label of "crazy".

I decided that instead of giving each "event" a different post, I would give each month it's own post. So we will start with May since that's about where I left off.

I'll be honest, when we were still in Springville, we had a lot of packing to do. We organized everything into boxes that would stay packed after the move to Mapleton and boxes that we needed unpacked. We managed to keep a lot of stuff packed that some people would have thought of as necessities - like dishes. Instead of unpacking all of our dishes, we ate on plastic (which Danny absolutely hated - especially when a fork broke while trying to eat dinner and splattered him in the face with food.)

With all of the packing and sorting and cleaning and chucking (we threw away a lot of unneeded stuff!), our kids watched more cartoons and movies than I care to divulge. I felt pretty bad for them and I've been working on making it up to them lately; but that's for a different post.

So we have pictures of them watching tv, pictures of them eating licorice while watching tv, and even the pictures where you can't tell they're watching tv - they are. :(

Also included in our pictures this month is Ellie's first hair cut. She was beginning to have a mullet. One day I just couldn't stand it anymore and while she was in the bathtub I took the scissors to the back of her hair. It wasn't much, but it sure made her look more like a toddler than my little baby girl. Since then, she has definitely grown into the toddler stage; but I still call her my little baby girl.

And finally, Kaden is always such a big helper. He is always willing to be my little babysitter whenever I need him to. One of those days when I was busy packing, the kids were very bored. I finally suggested that Kaden take the other two on a walk around the neighborhood and he gladly accepted the task. They were so cute - all holding hands - and I had to take some pictures. They are so adorable!!!

Well, that was May. And HERE are pictures.

Sold!

I know I haven't updated this blog for a LONG time. And I know I have a lot to catch up on and a lot of pictures to post. A LOT has been going on around here! But I was too excited about this particular picture that I just have to post it. :)

That is our house!!! We went to Boise this last weekend, looked at house after house after house. We fell in love with 4 different houses. We chose the cheapest one of them. :) And we just finished signing the counter offer they sent us this morning. Now just to close on the loan and move all of our stuff. Exciting times!!!

For more pictures of our new home, click on this link...

Virtual Tour

Amen! :)

We had a super special day Saturday as we celebrated Kaden's baptism. He's such a special little boy. I continue to learn a lot from his sweet personality and the good choices he makes.

He actually was baptized twice. :) Danny forgot to say amen the first time until Kaden was already in the water and by that time it came out as AMEN!!! It almost sounded as enthusiastic as a baptist prayer. We all had a pretty good chuckle. :)

But, again, we are very proud of Kaden and the choice he made to get baptized. He didn't take the decision lightly. He was very serious in his prayers as to whether or not it was the right choice for him to make. I'm not convinced that I, at 8 years old, thought so diligently about the commitment to get baptized as much as he did.

We love you so much Kaden!

Pictures

Easter '10

Easter was a lot of fun this year. We got to enjoy the weekend with Danny's siblings. We had an Easter egg hunt at Justin and Megan's house on Saturday. Megan provided some egg hunting glasses to help the kids in their search. And we each supplied enough eggs for an entire army to have an easter egg hunt. The kids had such a fun time.

Then we all stayed the night for ping pong, games, and a super yummy dinner. Easter morning we woke up and read some Easter books that the kids got for Easter (Kaden and Kinley actually listened to the books - the other kids played). Then we enjoyed a delicious Easter lunch.

It was a lot of fun and we were very happy to be able to celebrate this sacred holiday with loved ones. Thanks to Justin and Megan for the use of their home. It was another successful party at the party house. :)

Pictures

Kaden's 8th Birthday

I'm finally able to catch up on some posts and one of the more recent events would be Kaden's 8th birthday. We celebrated for a complete 2 days. Thursday (his actual b-day) he wanted alfredo pasta for dinner and a Patrick (from spongebob) cake. He opened his presents - Legos, Legos, and more Legos - and then enjoyed putting together his new Lego race car.

On Friday, we did his favorite family activity - calzone and movie night. We have been doing this every Friday for quite a while and Kaden requested a special calzone and movie night where he would choose the movie. We got the new Ice Age movie and Aliens In The Attic.

All in all, it was a wonderful family celebration. (And I can't believe I have an eight year-old!!!)

Pictures

My Cute Kids

One evening (it happened to be Kaden's birthday) I sat down and took some pictures of my adorable children. I don't do this enough.

Click Here

Ellie's Hair

Finally having a little girl is kind of fun. I actually really enjoy doing her hair and making her look so pretty. I don't do it every day - I'm just not that dedicated. But when I do make her hair pretty, I enjoy it. :)

Pictures

PS. As you can see from the pictures, just cause I do Ellie's hair does not mean that I do Preston's hair. :)

Basketball Pics

I'm finally able to get Kaden's basketball pictures uploaded to our computer. (Yes, that was also clear back in January.) These were taken the day that Danny sub-coached. The pictures aren't the best quality and I haven't edited them yet. At least I'm finally getting them on the blog though. :)

Click Here

Baby Doll or Little Girl

For Christmas, we got Ellie a little baby doll that came with a stroller, high chair, and bassinet. We also got her a tinker bell chair. She loves the doll and stroller. And she loves the chair. But she didn't use them in the conventional way. :) Eventually she did start to actually push the doll around in the stroller; but for a couple of months she just wanted to set the doll in her chair and she wanted to sit in the stroller.

The stroller is meant for the doll; therefore, she doesn't fit in it all that well. It was quite difficult for her to wiggle into. She would put her hands on the floor, look between her legs, and back up 'til she could sit in it. Many times it would roll away while she did this move. She would get really mad and throw a tantrum. We finally learned to keep the stroller in front of the couch to keep it from rolling away from her.

She's such a funny girl!