The Carey's

Sorry

2010-07-26T07:46:00.001-07:00

Well, apparently I haven't been into the whole blogger thing lately. And by lately I mean the last seven months. My camera takes forever to connect to the computer and nobody wants to read a post with no picutes,right? However,I do promise to try and post a bit more frequently now...we'll see how that goes. But for today this is all you get...

REALLY?!

2009-12-17T12:26:00.001-08:00

My baby boy turns one tomorrow!

I can't believe it!

Kitchen

2009-12-16T09:25:00.000-08:00

A few days before Thanksgiving I was standing at my sink and discovered that the linoleum in my kitchen was bubbled up. I told Kevin this,to which he replied..."uh-oh, That's no good." So we cleaned out the cupboard under our sink and this is what we found:

Plus, when we stepped on the bubbled floor you could hear it squishing with water. We had a leaking faucet that apparently had been leaking for a while. So we called our insurance company to come take a look at it. The next day they came and discovered that it had soaked up under our cabinets as well, and the sub-floor had gotten wet. So that meant......NEW KITCHEN!!! I was a little hesitant at first because I din't want to be out of a kitchen for that long,especially during the best baking time of the year. However,eventually the idea kind of settled in my head and I got VERY excited. Our kitchen was kind of an eye sore, so an upgrade was definately a plus. The guys that worked on it did a great job and we are so happy with how it turned out. Here are some before and after shots.

BEFORE: Awesome 70's style

AFTER: So much nicer

So happy we went with the pergo floors-they are so pretty!

Cam likes the new kitchen,too.

2009-12-08T15:09:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T09:28:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving in Idaho Falls at Kevin's sister's house. All of his family either lives close to there or was in town (minus his brother who is in Mexico on a mission). We had a fun time and even had a new neice born that weekend!Thanks for letting us crash at your place Kimmy!

Us at Aunt Kim's house on Thanksgiving

All of the cousins...all boys...but not for long!

Ty and Jay helped Aunt Kimmy decorate her tree

My sister-in-law Heather on Thanksgiving day

And So-Cute baby Haylee was born the next night! Finally a little girl in the fam!

Kevin's Birthday

2009-11-30T09:18:00.000-08:00

Kevin's Birthday was the day before Thanksgiving this year. We were headed to his sister's house that day, so his celebration was in the morning. He opened his presents in the morning and we left for Idaho Falls shortly after. We got to meet up with some old friends for dinner that night and had a great time with them, then we had some birthday cheesecake that night with some of his family. Happy Birthday Kev!

Tyler and Dad being silly at breakfast. A birthday toast.

Kev's new sweater that looked horrible on him...back to the store it went.

His new Seahawks hat...I forgot to turn the picture..sorry

New winter boots...he is so super excited!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Trick-or-Treat

2009-11-02T15:24:00.000-08:00

Here are the promised pictures from Halloween night.Al three boys ready to roll

Tiger CamCam and Jay trick-or-treat in style

So happy with their loot

Halloween lasts all week long

2009-10-31T16:38:00.000-07:00

We had a whole lot of Halloween activities this week. There was the carnival at the school, Tyler's class pary, and our church party/dinner. I think that everybody had fun at all of the parties and of course the boys are so excited to go trick-or-treating tonight. I will post trick-or-treat pictures later. My awesome dessert for the church party. The spiders are chocolate covered brownie bites and they were TASTY. But a bugger to put together.
Carving pumpkins

Don't let these pictures fool you. They were totally staged and I ended up cleaning out the pumpkins. (Kevin won't even do it)

Ty as Spiderman ( I think he missed the memo that it was cool to be Spiderman like THREE years ago. But he thinks he's cool, so we play along.)

Jay as a boxer...I love this look. He is looking pretty tough here.

Kristi's Wedding

2009-10-31T16:24:00.000-07:00

My oldest sister Kristi got married on the 10th of this month so we headed over to Utah for her big day. It was so nice to not have to drive forever to get to a family member's wedding. A nice little three hour drive and we were there. As always it was fun seeing family and we are so happy for Kristi and Lance. I did not get too many pictures of the happy couple so here are some other randoms from that day.Kristi,Lance and my parents My boys

Ty lost his first tooth that morning in the hotel. He was so excited and proud and kept telling random people that he lost a tooth that morning.
My boys and me with my daddy-o and my Grandma Holwege

Tanya and myself. So excited to be waiting around and having our pictures taken

This Kid

2009-09-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

Won't let me get any sleep at night

Tyler is 6!!!

2009-09-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

Tyler turned six on August 31st. I honestly can't believe how fast the last year has gone. Now he is in first grade and loving it, can do so many things on his own, and is starting to become a little more independent and is pulling away from mom and dad a little bit. While it is a bitter-sweet moment, it is so fun to watch him grow and start to develop into the great little guy he is going to be. We are so proud of him and are lucky to have him in our family.

We gave him the option of having a birthday party or going bowling with us and Kev's cousins family. We love hanging out with Jeff and Sara's fam and we are lucky our kids all get along so well. Here are some picture of his birthday...of course I forgot to take my camera to the bowling alley, but we did get some from the rest of the night.

The Golf cake,hopefully next year he'll want something else

Ty and his cake

I figured if we live in the country, he better have a country boy coat

Lego's from Caleb, Trav and Martie

His new bike. This was his reaction "Oh,a bike,huh?"

Out riding bikes

New Car

2009-08-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

So we traded in our trailblazer the other day and got...........................

Another Trailblazer!

Silly,I know. But we loved our other trailblazer so much. We wanted a car with some extra seating for when grandparents come or we haul friends around and so on. So we just got the extended version with the extra backseat. Hooray! We love having the extra room.

First day of school

2009-08-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

Ty started first grade today. He had fun and says he went fast on the merry-go-round.

So excited for first grade

Jay and Cam actually played a little together today. Actually, Jay played BY Cam and Cam watched quietly from the sidelines. But at least it was quiet in our house for a while.

Florida

2009-08-18T14:23:00.001-07:00

Kev and I got to have a vacation to Florida last week without the kids!!! It was so great and relaxing. His brother Matt was getting married in the Orlando LDS temple, and my mom and grandma were so great to come and watch ALL of our kids while we took the trip. It was VERY HOT and HUMID......but we braved the weather and didn't let it get in the way of doing everything we wanted. We went to Universal studios, the Kennedy Space center, the beach, walked around the Downtown Disney area shops, and went to a beautiful place called the Bock Tower Gardens. It was an added bonus that we left on our anniversary....so happy eight years to us!!! And congratulations Matt and Kimberly!!!

With Jaws at Universal Studios

Kev's parents at Universal Studios

Waiting in line for the Men in Black ride

Kev's favorite Krusty. The simpson ride was seriously so fun
Space shuttle at Kennedy space center.....we could have spent all day there, it was so cool
Me showing how impressed I am with the engine
Gettin' a little astronaut love
In front of the temple...it was so PRETTY!! (and hot outside)
Matt and Kimberly. It started raining....which means MORE humidity
Awesome Bock tower in the gardens
The house at the gardens. They give tours but we didn't go through the house. It was gorgeouse, and only a winter home for the "Bock" family.
Kev and I in front of the tower

I loved our trip and would do it again in a heartbeat....only maybe I would choose a different month to go next time around.

Who woulda thunk.....

2009-07-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

.....I would ever run a 5k? Not me. But we did it. Thanks girls-it was fun!

Headed to Oregon

2009-06-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

I know I have not posted in forever...again. I just can't seem to find the time. At least this time I have an excuse. We are vacationing. We have been in Northern Idaho with Kevin's family for the last little while and tomorrow we are headed to Gresham to hang out with my family. I will be there for about two and a half weeks while Kevin goes home and goes to scout camp. I am pretty sad that I forgot our camera cord to load pictures to the computer, so there will be no pictures for awhile. But hang with me, I promise I am not gone forever!

Jay's Birthday ( A little early)

2009-05-28T16:07:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Jay's birthday a few days early this year. His real birthday is not until Monday, but we are going to be on vacation. So we decided to celebrate a few days early and give him some time to play with his new stuff before we leave. All he wanted for his birthday was a spongebob cake, a Mack truck (from CARS), and some monster trucks. Pretty easy kid to please. Grandma Ruth took care of the Mack truck so we took care of everything else. We also got him a new bike, which he loves, and a new spiderman robe. We kept it low key and just had our little family to celebrate. Sometimes that is more fun anyway. We love our Jay-man and can't believe he is three already. He says the funniest things all the time and is getting to be so independent. What a great little man!!

His awesome cake. Seriously-can you believe I MADE this?! Can you tell I am SUPER PROUD of myself?!

Oh my goodness! I love everything!!!

Playing with his new Mack truck

Trying the new bike on for size

I'm three!!! HOORAY!!

Kindergarten Graduation

2009-05-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

Tyler is done with Kindergarten!! I can't believe that my baby is all grown up now and is going to be in school ALL DAY next year. Really!? Do I have a first grader?!! CRAZY!!! His kindergarten graduation was on the last day of school and he was so excited. I was such a proud mom. I mean, who wouldn't be? My kid knows all sorts of stuff now. He is actually a very good reader and loves to try and sound out any words he sees that he may not know. I can't wait to see what next year will bring for my little guy.

During the ceremony

The proud Graduate

Cameron is 5 months!

2009-05-24T21:12:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast time goes by! Cam was 5 months on the 18th. Here are a couple of recent pictures of him. There is a ton that I have not blogged about lately, so I will post again soon....promise.

Pinewood Derby

2009-04-27T06:53:00.000-07:00

We had a pinewood derby car race and breakfast at church on Saturday. The boys thought it was a blast and thought our car was pretty cool. I am just happy that it got made, even if it did get finished only minutes before we walked out the door. Our little car took 6th place so the boys were pretty happy. (although Kevin is already figuring out how to make a faster one for next year.)

This is just a picture of the boys and I playing with the camera one afternoon.

Look-Alikes

2009-04-10T09:22:00.001-07:00

This is Ty at about Jay's age now

This is Jay at about Cam's age now

And here is Cam a couple of weeks ago

Are they Look-a-Likes? You tell me

A New Favorite

2009-03-31T16:36:00.001-07:00

I have found a new favorite blog. I found a link to it from my friend Kari-Lynn's blog. It is called makeitandloveit.blogspot.com I have a link to it on the side of my page. It has such fun and EASY crafty ideas. It also has some yummy recipes that I can't wait to try. I have already made the tutu for this cute little girl:

And I also made a cover for my baby wipe travel case. I love it! Even though Kevin is a little disgusted that I "girly-fied" the wipes case.

So go check it out- there is a tea-towel bag that I can't wait to try.

Trip to Provo

2009-03-29T16:22:00.000-07:00

We took a quick weekend trip to Provo last weekend. Kevin was supposed to be on a campout with the boyscouts. However...we live in the mountains and apparently it is supposed to snow during the end of March...over Spring break. So the campout was cancelled. We tried to escape the cold weather and go a little farther south. Well, it was a little bit warmer, not much...but most important was....NO SNOW!!! We took the boys to the BYU bookstore which they love, went to the dinosaur museum, and the creamery for some ice cream. Kevin got to do some fishing, and I hung out a bit with Kristi. We kind of took her by surprise showing up, but she rolled with the punches and let us stay at her house uninvited....thanks Kristi!

With the T-Rex. (actually it wasn't a t-rex, but that's what we called it because I couldn't pronounce the real name.)

Cam, Jay and Ty in front of the dino painting

Ty looks a little weird, but it's a good pic of Jay

Kev by the scary 6 ft. aligator head. I guess they used to get like 36 ft.long. Can you say CREEEE-PY?!

Me and the boys

Ty and Jay with their new BYU shirts...so exciting!

New pictures of Cam

2009-03-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

OK Amy Kay-here are the pics you requested. And for everyone else....just enjoy!

The Last Three Days

2009-03-21T14:09:00.001-07:00

This is what our last three days have been filled with: PROM DECORATING!!!!!!

With only 50 kids in the school, they really don't have a reason the pay a decorator, so everything is made,donated, etc. by the parents. We have been super busy since Thursday night trying to get it all put together. It turned out really well, and I can't believe how much extra time the parents put into making decorations. So, Kevin is off to the dance to chaperone tonight, and I will be home with the kiddies. Usually I would go with him, but there is no way Cam is going to stay with a babysitter, and really...how many high school dances do I need to go to AFTER I am out of high school?

They even had to make their own backdrop for the pictures: Here is what they came up with-

Kevin and I trying out the backdrop with one of the "famous" prom poses

Craft day numero 2

2009-03-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

I had craft day again yesterday in Pocatello with Sara,Jenny (kev's cousins) and Kim (kev's sister). We have a ton of fun together and all the kids like to play with each other. This is what we did this month.
I think they both turned out super cute and they were way easy to make! I love craft day!!!

Bowling with Grandma and Grandpa Carey

2009-03-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

We got to go bowling last week while Kev's parents were here. The boys (and grandma and grandpa) love to bowl. We had a fun time and now Tyler thinks he needs to buy his own bowling shoes. What a weird kid!

Messy Messy Messy

2009-02-24T09:23:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know-I really like my house to be clean. Not spotless, mind you. But the "If someone stopped by my house unannounced I wouldn't be embarrassed" clean. So when I had just finished cleaning and ten minutes later found this:

And this:

I was slightly annoyed. Then when I want to get angry at the little rascal culprits I see things like this:

And this:

And I realize that my mess doesn't bother me as much anymore. I sure love my little guys, and if having them means a messy house for the next 15 years, I'll take it!

Oh! I also made this to fill an empty wall.What do you think?

2009-02-19T10:53:00.000-08:00

We got to go and visit my family in Oregon this last week. Thanks to the long weekend and Kev taking a few extra days off, we actually had a pretty good break. It was nice to be able to relax. I think most of all, i loved not having any snow around. We took the kids to the park, went out to dinner with my sister Tanya and her husband, had Valentines dinner at my parents house with Emily, her husband, Brandon, his date, and my parents. It was pretty fun. My brother in law had somebody who flew in some live lobster from Maine to him. So we got to cook our own lobster-it was quite the adventure. Kevin, Brandon and I went Downtown one day, and of course there was some shopping done during the week as well. I got to visit with some old friends, which is always fun. (Thanks Amy and Julz for coming to see me! I loved visiting with you guys!) The boys loved getting to play with their cousins that they hardly ever see, they even all had a slumber party at Grandma and Papa's one night. There were so many things I wanted pictures of. Unfortuanately, I thought I had left my camera at home, so i didn't take any pictures. Wouldn't you know, when I was repacking the night before we went home, i found my camera wrapped up in a shirt in my bag. I was so mad! So the only picture I have from the whole week is this one of all the cousins at Tanya's house. ( I actually stole this from her blog, sorry Tanya.) So here you have it....my one picture from an eventful week away.

Hair cut and Craft day

2009-02-06T08:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a busy day for me. I got my hair cut AND I met Kev's sister Kim and Cousin Sara for a craft day. I love my hair AND our crafts turned out cute, so that's even better. Here's a picture of my new hair requested by Tanya.

And here is our craft. They are cute magnet boards, i don't know what to do with mine yet, but it was still fun to make.

Cam's Blessing Day

2009-02-02T10:36:00.000-08:00

Cam was blessed at church yesterday. Kevins family was all here for the weekend and we had a FULL house. There were people in every bedroom, and some even on the floors. Lucky for us our house is fairly large, so we didn't have too much trouble accomadating that many people. After we went to church we came home,played games, made pizza and watched the SuperBowl. And besides me having a few OCD moments about my living room being so cluttered, It was a great weekend. We always love to have family around, even if it does mean stuff and people all over the place. It's a pretty good trade-off. Thanks everybody for coming!

In his cute outfit before church ( Thanks for sending the outfit mom!)

As you can see, he's grown a whole extra chin since my last post

All the boys before church

And believe it or not- a family picture with ALL of us looking at the camera at the same time. MIRACLE!

One Month

2009-01-22T11:24:00.000-08:00

Cameron was one month old on the 18th. I can't believe how fast it's gone. He has grown so much already, and I am happy to say he has finally figured out his days from nights-hooray!!

New Pet?

2009-01-22T11:22:00.001-08:00

We've had this gigantic grouse hanging around our house lately. The dog even goes out to chase it, and it still hangs around. He better watch out before one of the neighbors decides to get the best of him.

Adios Uncle Kurt

2009-01-22T11:18:00.000-08:00

Kev's brother Kurt left for his mission on New Years Eve. He will be in Mexico for the next two years. We'll miss him and are already waiting for him to come home.

Christmas '08

2009-01-06T15:38:00.001-08:00

We had a fun Christmas at home this year. We were happy to not have to drive anywhere, especially since we had a brand new baby. My parents and my sister Kristi came to spend the Holiday with us and give me a little help when I got home from the hospital. The help was greatly appreciated and I was so sad when everybody left. Tyler thought he had the best Christmas ever because we got a wii from my parents. Him and Jay also wanted marble works and lincoln logs. Lucky for them Santa gave them marble works, and grandma Ruth gave them lincoln logs. I love having toys around that my kids will actually play with. They also got some other things like books and clothes that were not nearly as exciting as all the toys. Kev and I bought a new couch a couple of months ago for our Christmas present, so we just went low key on Christmas morning. It was such a great day and my kids loved having grandma and grandpa around to celebrate with. It was also great to have a new baby around and get to spend our first holiday with him.

My three boys by the tree

Making gingerbread houses with grandma cindy

Could his smile be any bigger? Seriously?

Papa and the boys

Building marble runs with dad

Three things I wish

2009-01-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

I was just sitting here thinking that I am wishing for a few things this week.

1.) I wish my Tyler and Jay would stop their constant fighting with each other.
2.) I wish Cameron would learn the difference between night and day so I can sleep during the night and not be so darn tired during the day.
3.) I wish it was still Christmas break so Kevin was still home with me to help me keep my sanity.
(oh, I also wish my dog wasn't so crazy, and that Ty would start walking on his feet instead of his toes, and that my mom was still here to help me at my house and let me take a nap when I wanted, and that there wan't so much snow here.)
Am I being a big fat whiner? Oh, well...so be it.

Baby Cam

2008-12-28T10:55:00.001-08:00

Resting in his favorite spot-his swing
Bath time!

Chilling with Tootie on the couch

Tyler's new favorite past time- he loves holding his brother

He's Here!

2008-12-21T16:38:00.000-08:00

Cameron Elwood Carey

8 Lbs.

21.5" long

Little Cameron finally arrived Thursday night at 10:24. It was a rough day. They started me at about 9:00 in the morning, but the poor little guy just didn't want to come on his own. The cord was wrapped around his neck, and he was facing the wrong way so he wouldn't finish dropping all the way. After trying all day to get me dilated all the way, the doctor decided to do a C-section. He had a fever for some reason too, but he is doing well now. They had him hooked to an IV for the first couple of days and he is in great shape now. He loves to sleep ALL day long and thinks he should be awake at night. His big brothers think he is great and I have a feeling that we are going to have to watch Jay like a hawk around him. I am pretty sore right now and am looking forward to a few weeks of rest before I try to do too much other stuff around the house. There will be more pictures to follow soon I am sure.

Still Waiting

2008-12-14T16:24:00.000-08:00

We are still waiting for this baby to come. I shouldn't complain, since my due date is not until the 27th, and it's only the 14th. But my doctor is inducing me on the 18th (Thursday), so I am a bit antsy waiting around for Thursday to come. My other two boys were nowhere near early, so I am happy that my doctor is starting me early, I should just be greatful for that. Kev's parents are coming on Tuesday so they will be around to watch the kids while we are at the Hospital. We are excited for them to come, and then the next week my parents are going to come and spend Christmas with us. Who doesn't want to spend Christmas in Bancroft Idaho? We have gotten some snow here finally, so it looks like we can at least have a white Christmas for all of our company. Well, wish me luck on Thursday, and my next post should be about new baby Carey!

Tyler's Christmas Concert

2008-12-10T09:08:00.001-08:00

Tyler had his first big school concert last night. He was so excited and luckily it was only 45 min. long. ( It was for the kindergarten-4th grade) His class went on the stage first, and on his way up the stairs he trips and loses his shoe. So we have to wait while the teacher puts his shoe back on him. I immediately turn to Kevin and say, "Really? WE have the kid that falls during the concert? Really?!" Oh, well. Apparently the girl behind him stepped on his shoe on the way up the stairs. Whatever. He did a great job and now maybe he will stop singing the songs as he runs around the house.So excited for his big night!

Jay enjoying the magical sounds of winter. (as magical as they can be when sung by 5-8 year olds.)

Here he is in his santa hat singing "Too fat for the chimney". He is the one in the middle with white shirt and green tie.

And singing the reindeer song. again, he's the one in the middle.

I do have to say that the kindergarteners where the cutest. After they were done with their songs we were graced by 1st graders with recorders, and then 2-4th graders with guitars and violins. I will say that for kids that young they were actually pretty good. Well, Happy Holidays to all! Hopefully I will get to post about a new baby sometime soon-only 1 week to go!

Birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas Decorating

2008-12-01T16:16:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since my last post. We have had a lot going on since then. Kevin turned the big 31, we went to Idaho Falls for Thanksgiving and decorated our house for Christmas. Needless to say, I am tired and don't want to leave my house again until this baby comes. Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.
Kevin turned 31 on November 25th. We had a small birthday party at home with just us and the boys, and it was a pretty relaxing night. He got a new sweatshirt, a new jacket and a chest pack for fishing. I think he was fairly pleased, but I think he liked his cherry cheesecake the best.Next came Thanksgiving. we spent the weekend in Idaho Falls with Kev's family. His sister Kim just bought a house there and she had plenty of room for everybody. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of good food. This is the only picture I have from the weekend. Kev's sister Kim gave him these "daddy and me" aprons for his birthday. So Tyler and him sported them while they made some sushi. We also braved the crowds for the day-after-Thanksgiving sales. It was early, and it was tiring, and it was crowded, but we made it. I spent a ton of money on socks at Fred Meyer and finished up what little shopping I had left, so I suppose it was a productive morning. We'll see if it is something I do again next year. (5 am is VERY early.) I will say how proud I am of Kevin. I showed him something I wanted in one of the ads, and he went (at 5 a.m.) and waited in line for an hour for my present. I think he had to hit the busiest store of the morning. But he was a trooper, and got the last one that was in stock. Thanks Kev!
This picture is from Thanksgiving, too. Tyler put on grandpa's glasses and we thought he looked like "Ralphie" from the movie "A Christmas Story". What does anyone else think?Yesterday we put up our Christmas decorations. My camera batteries were dead, so this picture is actually from today. The boys love having the house decorated, and Jay can't keep his hands off of the ornaments and candy canes. Hopefully everything stays intact until Christmas. Now we are just waiting for the baby to come. Only two 1/2 weeks to go! We can't wait, thankfully all of our Christmas preparations are done, so now all we have to do is sit and wait and enjoy the Holidays.

Happy Holidays! (A little early )

2008-11-25T07:41:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Fun Stuff

2008-11-12T11:16:00.000-08:00

So I have had some fabric for a new tree-skirt sitting in my closet for like two years now. Yesterday i finally got it down and put it together. I am fairly pleased with the results and now I can't wait to start decorating for Christmas. I even listened to some Christmas music while I was sewing. (Don't tell Kevin, Christmas music is banned in our house until after Thanksgiving.) I figured if I was working on a holiday project, I could listen to theme appropriate music, right? This is what my skirt turned out like:Front

Back

I also found a cute recipe on the playhouse Disney website the other day for some turkey cupcakes. I decided Jay and I needed to make those today. They are not as cute as the website, but oh well. I am ok with having turkeys that look like they are wearing sunglasses.

Halloween

2008-11-03T06:59:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Halloween night. The boys had fun trick-or-treating, and Jay kept telling me when we got home "I love Halloween!". The next morning when the boys saw Kevin, (since he had been away at a football game the night before) Tyler told him, "Dad,you missed it all!". They are still so excited about their candy, although Ty's has been taken away for today because he had a bit too much yesterday and was bouncing off the walls. Here are some pictures of the boys in their costumes. Some pictures are also from the school carnival a couple of nights before Halloween.

Our little pirate and boxer

Tyler

Jay

I still can't get over his eyelashes sometimes!

The school carnival with their friends- Chayce, Coby, Jay and Ty

Tyler doing the dart throw at the carnival

Jay doing the football throw

Before trick-or-treating. This is our friends Val and Megan's little boy Jack. Appropriately he was a "Jack-in -the-box".

Halloween Dinner

2008-10-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

Since Kevin has parent-teacher conferences tomorrow night, and has an away football game on Friday night, I decided to have our "spooky" Halloween dinner tonight. This is what I came up with-

Kev's cousin Sara made this for her family last week, I stole the idea because I thought it was so cute. This is our "yummy Mummy Calzone". (Before I baked it)

Yummy Mummy Calzone (after baking, it needs a little help), and our "bone breadsticks"

"Blood Red Jell-o" and of course, our yummy drink-"Green Goblin Snot".

We are also having salad, I wouldn't be a good mom if there were no vegetables offered at the table. However, I wasn't creative enough to come up with a fun name for that. It's not like a tricky name would make my kids eat salad anyway,right?

Carving Pumpkins

2008-10-29T14:12:00.001-07:00

So I tried to take some good pictures when we carved pumpkins the other night. Apparently my kids are not up to taking good pictures lately, so this is what you get instead.
Tyler taking the guts out. He wasn't going to do it, but we told him he either had to take the seeds out of his own pumpkin or go to his room. After he chose to go to his room, we told him he just had to take SOME of the seeds out himself. That worked a little better, but he still whined when he did it.....woosie.

Ty watching dad carve Jay's pumpkin

Decorating and eating sugar cookies while Kev and I cut the pumpkins

Ty with his finished product

And Jay with his (of course, not looking at the camera)

On the porch with their pumpkins ( Jay is thinking he's a little bit scared, and Ty is thinking "Holy smokes, it's cold out here, why did I want to wear shorts for my pajamas tonight?")

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch today. The boys were so excited last night that they didn't want to go to sleep. we have to drive a little over an hour to get to our pumpkin patch, but it was well worth the trip. We decided to make a day of it, and took along a picnic lunch, stopped to let Kevin fish for a while, and made a quick stop the the pepperidge farm factory for some cookies-yummy!! The boys loved tromping through the field looking for their perfect pumpkin. Tyler said he wanted a huge one, which he found. Even though it is kind of lopsided and looks like it needs a little help. He also wanted a smaller one, because he found one he thought looked perfect. And since Tyler got two pumpkins, Jay also had to have two pumpkins. The fun wasn't all for the boys though. Kevin found the perfectly round pumpkin, and I decided that five pumpkins for our family of four was plenty. (especially since when it comes time to carve them, nobody but me will take the seeds out.) After the pumpkin patch we headed to the Cub River for our lunch and so Kev could spend some time in the water. He loved having a little time to fish, and the boys loved playing "Pooh Sticks" from the bridge, and running through the trees and leaves. It was a beautiful sunny day and we all loved the Fall weather. We take any kind of weather, so long as it's not snow.

Tyler with his big ugly pumpkin, it actually doesn't look so bad in this picture

Jay and me with his pumpkin. Please ignore Jay in any and all pictures for the next few months. He has been less than steller when it comes to pictures lately.

Kev and the boys

The boys, myself and Tootie. (She enjoyed the day, too.)

Kev fishing

Ty took this picture of Jay and me. Not to shabby for a five year old.

Ty and Jay enjoying the beautiful Fall day!

Homecoming Dance

2008-10-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

So as most of you know Kevin is a teacher/coach at a SUPER small school in Idaho. Really..there are about 50 kids in the highschool. There is only one building for all the grades,K-12. But what you may not know is that he is also the student council advisor. I guess when you work at a tiny school you have to do a ton of different things. Last week was homecoming week, and between coaching, and being in charge of all the homecoming activites, we hardly ever saw him. Let me just give you a little insight into our lives here. This town gets TOTALLY into their homecoming week. I am talking the whole town. There is a different homecoming activity EVERY night of the week, they have a special coranation show for the royalty one night and the ENTIRE town shows up for it. They have a parade on the day of the football game, with a tail gate party after, and of course, the big dance. Now, I am all for community spirit, but at my house, homecoming week is OVERLOAD!!! But heaven forbid we get rid of any of these activities because every single one is a tradition that has been around since like 1910 or something crazy like that. Anyhow, since Kevin is in charge of the homecoming dance, guess who gets to chaperone every year? That's right-us. This is the fourth year we have done it, and let me tell you, we are awesome at decorating a school gym. I wanted to take a picture this year just so I could blog and show you all how small of a dance this is. There were a whopping 35 kids at the dance, and we have to partition off 1/4 of the gym just so they have a place small enough to have their dance. I will say that they do still end up having fun, and they don't know any different, so it doesn't bother them. It does however, kill me every year.

Believe it or not, this is the majority of the kids dancing

Kevin's football team did win their game also, so that made it an even better dance.

A Laugh a Day

2008-10-16T07:24:00.001-07:00

I have watched this like five times now, and laugh every time-is that bad? Sorry RaeAnn, i stole this from your blog. I had too, it's so funny!

Doughnut Recipe

2008-10-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

I have had some requests for my doughnut recipe from my last post. I actually found it at http://www.allrecipes.com/ , one of my fave sites for finding new recipes. The recipe I used is listed under crispy and creamy doughnuts. So you can go to the site and browse around, look at the doughnut picture, read reviews, etc. Or I have listed the recipe below. If any of you do go to the site and find any spectacular recipes, let me know. Enjoy!!

INGREDIENTS

2 (.25 ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup shortening
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 quart vegetable oil for frying

1/3 cup butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 tablespoons hot water or as needed

DIRECTIONS
Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water, and let stand for 5 minutes, or until foamy.
In a large bowl, mix together the yeast mixture, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix for a few minutes at low speed, or stirring with a wooden spoon. Beat in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl. Knead for about 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a greased bowl, and cover. Set in a warm place to rise until double. Dough is ready if you touch it, and the indention remains.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and gently roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter. Let doughnuts sit out to rise again until double. Cover loosely with a cloth.
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in hot water one tablespoon at a time until the icing is somewhat thin, but not watery. Set aside.
Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large heavy skillet to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Slide doughnuts into the hot oil using a wide spatula. Turn doughnuts over as they rise to the surface. Fry doughnuts on each side until golden brown. Remove from hot oil, to drain on a wire rack. Dip doughnuts into the glaze while still hot, and set onto wire racks to drain off excess. Keep a cookie sheet or tray under racks for easier clean up.

Gearing up for Halloween

2008-10-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

This is what we did for family night on Monday:

This is the spooky tree that we got to decorate with "scary" monster ornaments. Scary acording to Jay anyway. If you look on the very bottom of the picture you can kind of see part of a spider ring that is hooked to our "spider web". Jay thinks this is real, he will not look at it, will not touch it. He had quite the fit when I put it on to show him it was a toy and a ring. He thought it was going to bite my face and he grabbed it and tossed it to the floor. Apparently plastic spiders are dangerouse now too.

These are the spiders that we made. We even gave them all their own faces. Jay however is terrified of them and he thinks they are going to bite him, so he won't go anywhere near them. I have tried to explain that they are pretend,(and made out of paper) but he won't have any of it. so cross paper spiders off of your list of safe Halloween decor. Between the window spiders, and the plastic spiders on the piano, Jay won't hardly go in the living room nowadays. At least it will stay clean.

These are the tasty donuts I made for dessert. Can someone give me a shout-out for being so domestic please? All I can say is Y-U-M-M-Y! (Oh, and maybe a LITTLE BIT fattening.)

Keith and Heather's Wedding

2008-10-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

We just got back last night from our trip to Portland for Keith and Heather's wedding. Keith is Kevin's younger brother and he married a girl from Oregon City. So it was nice to be able to go for the wedding and see my family for a short time as well. It was a VERY SHORT time. We got to Gresham on Thursday afternoon, Friday was spent with wedding activities, Saturday we hung out with my fam, (actually, Kevin went fishing with my cousin) and we drove the ENTIRE way home on Sunday. We are talking 12 hours in a car with little kids here people. They actually did fairly well. The biggest fight we had was over who got to use the "CARS" blanket. So I guess it could have been worse. I wish our visit could have been longer, but since this was a "bonus" trip to Oregon, meaning it was unplanned until a couple months ago, we are glad we got to go even for a little while. Usually with Kev's teaching and coaching schedule we only get to leave for the Holidays or over the summer. So we'll take it. Here are a few pictures from the night.

Tyler and Jay with the happy couple. Ignore Tyler's odd face and Jay playing with the bouquet.

The cake that I loved!

Us at the reception. Again, ignore the odd face from Jay, and REALLY ignore Kev's scary eyebrows.

They had fresh fruit, marshmallows and rice crispy treats with a chocoalte fountain. This is Tyler enjoying ALL OF IT.

And of course the couple during their dance, I love the back of her dress, it just looks so heavy.

Haircuts

2008-09-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

Last night was haircut night at our house. Last year I finally bit the bullett and decided I better learn how to cut some hair. With three guys (soon to be four) at my house, I figured I would save a TON of money through the years with this small talent. So thanks to my friend Megan for the lesson. We have a wedding to go to for Kev's brother in a couple of weeks and my little boys were looking kind of shaggy. Here's the results...not too shabby if I do say so myself. I know It's pathetic to post about haircuts, but with Jay's surgery behind us we are pretty darn boring people now.

Under the Knife

2008-09-12T16:32:00.000-07:00

My little Jay man had his surgery today. We were told by our doctor that it was a simple routine short 20 minute surgery. So I was prepared for like maybe two hours at the hospital between getting him prepped and the actual surgery. Not so my friends. I guess I don't really know how everything works at the hospital, but I was there for 5 hours. Holy toledo. I didn't figure in the post-op, and the getting his blood pressure checked every 15 minutes and then making sure he urinated before he went home. Who knew that getting tubes in and adenoids out was such a time consuming thing? He was a champ though. They let him keep the mask that was used for his anesthetic because apparently he thought it was awesome. I only had my phone with me though, so I have no pictures on my camera to post. They did give him some medicine before his surgery that made him a little woozy and goofy. He was laughing at nothing, at one of the last things he did was turn to look at me and he says " what's up, my nizzle?" Thanks to Uncle Keith for teaching him that phrase. Anyway, he is recovering well, and as soon as he stops vomiting we will be back in business.

My Three Sons

2008-09-03T09:34:00.001-07:00

So I finally had my ultra-sound yesterday to find out the sex of our baby. And.....we are having another boy. Can I get some pink in my house please?! I am being outnumbered pretty severely here people. We are excited though. I had a dream last week that we were going to have a snake. So I told the doctor yesterday that I would take a boy over a snake any day. Now my big task is sorting all of our old boy stuff to find what is still good and use-able. Our other two boys were born in the summer, so we may need to buy more clothes than we think. Warm p.j.'s-here we come! We also have the task of finding a name we both like. I am not a huge fan of trying to pick boy names. Any suggestions?
We also had to take Jay to the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor yesterday. Aparently he needs to get tubes put in his ears and his adnoids taken out. So that's what I'll be doing next Friday. Sounds like fun huh? He started stuttering when he talked about a month ago, and last week he stopped talking at all. So we figured we better get him checked out. The doctor put him on a pretty strong antibiotic for an ear infection he can't seem to shake, and also on some steroids. (that made him puke.) Luckly for us, he is off the steroids now (since they made him puke), and the antibiotices helped him enough that he can hear better now, which has stopped the stuttering. Now he is back to his old chatty self, talking about "CARS" all the time, and fighting with Ty.
I'm thinking now that the not talking may have been better than I thought.

Tyler Turns 5!

2008-09-03T09:14:00.000-07:00

Ty had his 5th birthday on Sunday. I can't believe he is that old! He couldn't wait for church to get over that morning so he could come home and celebrate his birthday. Kev's cousin Sara and her family came from Pocatello to celebrate with us. Ty and Jay love playing with their kids and they all had a blast Sunday. It poured all afternoon and evening Sunday which made for a comfy, cool time in the house. Ty loved all of his presents, the hit of the day being his new set of golf clubs. He's already been practicing in the backyard and he can't wait to go try them out on the "old man" golf course this weekend. He informed me yesterday that his favorite club is the driver, "cause it makes my ball go way farther than my other club". He also got a nerf gun from his cousins, which he loves, and has played with non-stop since Sunday. I tried to make a golf cake (requested by Ty), but my golf ball and tee looked more like an ice cream cone. I think it may have helped if I would have frosted the ball white instead of pink, but he wanted it pink...go figure. Anyhow..Happy Birthday Ty, We love you!

Aloha!!

2008-08-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

My parents just got back from Hawaii a couple of weeks ago. They sent these clothes to my kids who had to pose for a picture. (o.k. maybe I made them pose for a picture...but at least they smiled.) Tyler thought he was cool and kept putting up the colar and saying he was Elvis Presley. I asked how he knew about Elvis Presley. He rolled his eyes at me and said " Mom, out techer at school told us about him". Funny story..but I am still tryingto figure out how Elvis Presley fits into the kindergarten curriculum

Happy Birthday to me!

2008-08-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

My big 27th birthday was on Sunday. It was a great day. Kevin got me a watch, which I have to exchange.(It was too big) He also got me a PED EGG, which I wanted, so that I can scrub all the nasty calouses off my feet. Gross, but true. There were a few other things as well. But my favorite was this cool bowl that the boys gave me. Tyler told me I could use it to put my pumpkins (gourds) in when I decorate this fall. How nice is that?

Tyler Goes to School!!!!

2008-08-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

Tyler started Kindergarten today. I can't believe that he is old enough to go to school. Does that mean I am old,too? I hope not. He was so excited this morning to get out of bed and put on his new school clothes. I remember those days. He picked out his clothes like three days ago and they have been sitting in front of his dresser. I think Jay must be bored already without him home because his is so mopey and driving me nuts. Oh, well-he'll have to adjust.

Jay wanted to be in a picture too. Apparently this is a monumental occasion for him as well.

I NEED A PROJECT!

2008-08-08T17:27:00.000-07:00

So we just got home from another little trip to Bonners Ferry and I realized that Fall is just around the corner. That means shorter days and cold evenings. It also means lots of time indoors. So I have come to realize that I need a project to keep me busy. Any ideas? I am thinking of a baby quilt, I have a pattern that would make a cut girl quilt, but I don't want to jinx myself. So if you know of any great sewing or crafting ideas, let me know, I would be thrilled with any suggestions.

Vacation pictures-Part two

2008-07-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

So here are some pictures from the second part of our vacation, where we went to visit Kevin's family in Bonners Ferry,Idaho. That's way up in the northern part of Idaho and it is so pretty and green, somewhat like Gresham. We love going to visit there, and Keith (Kev's brother, who is in college) even came for a few days while we were there. We had a great time going to Silverwood, the theme park in Coeur D'Alene. Kev's sister Kim, who lives near Spokane came and played with us there for a few hours, it was so much fun. However, the next time I go to a theme park I will hopefully not be pregnant so I can ride all the fun rides. Not that the kiddie rides weren't fantastic, but you can't beat a good roller coaster..am I right?

We also got to spend a day at Kev's parents cabin by the river. It was a beautiful day, and the boys had fun riding four wheelers with dad and grandpa, Kevin loved fishing, and I had a great time sitting on the porch reading while the boys played in their wading pool. (The river was WAY to high to play in, or they could have gone swimming.) Later that day we roasted hot dogs and made some smores. A fun time was had by all.
The rest of the week was spent visiting with family, and spending some time at the city pool.
Too bad we won't be able to travel to our home-towns again until who knows when.

An awesome carousel ride with the boys

Ty on the airplane ride (this was the favorite ride of both the boys)

Kurt and Keith before the train ride started...see how excited they are?They do this fun train ride at the park where you drive around the whole park and they do a mock train robbery. It's a pretty fun train ride, although kind of long.

Kurt and Keith half way through the train ride...I told you it was long

Aunt Kimmy and the boys having a good ol' time

The cabin

Tyler playing in the pool

And Jay playing in the dirt...of course

Kev taking a ride

Vacation pictures.....At last

2008-07-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

So I am finally getting around to posting about our super-long vacation we had last month. I may only post part of them for now. The idea of going through ALL the pictures and posting about EVERYTHING is a bit intimidating right now. So... we'll see what we get to today. But don't fret, anything that is not posted today will be posted shortly....promise.

The first leg of our trip was to Gresham to visit my family for a few days. Sorry..no pics from that.

After a few days in Gresham we headed to the Oregon Coast for a week. My grandparents have a house over there, so as long as I can remember my family has been taking summer trips (and winter, fall and spring) to Lincoln City. I love going to the beach and it is so fun going there with my family now. It's great to see my kids playing in all the places I used to play, and getting excited over all the things I used to love. So even though the weather there was less than ideal,(It was so windy and cold most days) we still had a great time. Kevin's family even came and stayed the night one night while they were in the area for a vacation of their own.

The boys and I enjoying a rare sunny moment on the beach

Tyler and Jay checking out some tide pools at the "Underseas Garden". (Usually we like to look at the real tidepools on the beach, but the tide was never low enough to see anything great, so we went for the next best thing.)

Some pretty starfish

We went to Newport one day and there were some sealions resting on the docks enjoying the sun. Kevin and his brother Kurt trying to put together a kite. After they got it together we figured out there was no kite string with it...so that was pretty much a bust.

Aunt Kimmy building a sandcastle with the boys.

After our week at the beach we headed back to my parents for another four or five days. We had fun spending time with my grandma, and my great uncle Bob who was visitng from Colorado. We spent a day having a picnic in the Gorge and going to Multnomah Falls. And the boys loved swimming in my grandma's pool.

The cousins enjoying the pool at Grandma's house
Jay-man getting ready to go swimming

Beautiful Multnomah Falls

Kevin and the boys at the Falls

My mom, Emily, Tyler, My great-uncle Bob and my grandma enjoying some ice cream at the falls.

That will have to be it for now. I will post the Idaho part of our trip next time. Sorry about all the pictures...but that's why you look at the blog, right?

Memory

2008-07-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! Since this is our family blog, feel free to leave a memory about any of the four of us.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.It's actually pretty cool (and funny) to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. :)

Long Time, No Post

2008-06-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

O.k. O.k. So I know that it has been forever since my last post, but in my defense I am on vacation and want to wait to get pictures on until I get home. We have been gone for the last three weeks visiting both of our families and making a quick family trip to the Oregon Coast...pictures to follow. Hopefully next week. Or maybe the week after that since next week I will be gone at girls camp.
So, to make it all up to you, I have decided to share some news.
We are expecting baby number three.
I know that sharing via blog post is not the proper way to handle things. A little un-personal and not so exciting. However, we have finally told all of our families, and let's face it, the third time around just doesn't seem as exciting when it's already happened twice before. (Am I horrible for saying that?) So nobody be upset for not getting person phone calls or emails. This just shows that I love you all the same.
I am due on December 27th. I know...fun Christmas, right? And so far things are going really well....I didn't throw up once this time, if you can believe it.
So horray for us, we are excited to add baby number three to our family....hopefully it's a girl this time.

(P.S. I better get more comments about this than I did when I posted about getting a dog.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAY!

2008-06-01T18:26:00.001-07:00

The birthday boy turns 2

The cakeThe present

Ty gave him a new 'Cars' hat (he kind of looks like a NASCAR fan, don't you think?)

Jay loved his car birthday cake- he even picked out the cars to go on top

Jay had a great birthday today. He couldn't wait to open his presents, he kept running around telling us "I two now." He was also so exctied for the balloons that he got to play with. We got him a jump-o-lene that he seems to like, (until it pops, at least) some new pajamas, a new shirt, and Tyler got him a new hat. He loved it all and most especially he liked eating his cake and very chocolate ice cream. I should have gotten a picture, but didn't. He was pretty dang messy.

Happy Birthday Jay!! We love you!!

Canoeing

2008-05-21T15:52:00.000-07:00

We went canoeing on Monday night with some friends of ours. It was really fun. We only went about two miles, but with us having two kids and them having one little one, it was far enough. The weather was beautiful, and the mosquitos were not too bad, so we all had a great time.

Jay getting ready for a night on the lake. He LOVED the water and couldn't keep his hands out of it.

Ty by the canoe

Kevin -so happy to be outside

Mother's Day

2008-05-12T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well another Mother's day has come and gone. It was a great day here at our house. Chocolate muffins for breakfast, I didn't have to cook dinner, or do the dishes, or discipline kids, and some chocolate ice cream cake to finish the evening. I do think that my favorite part of Mother's day is when the kids sing a special song to the mom's at church. I love seeing all of them wave to their parents and look right at them when they are singing, it's so cute. My boys got me a purple cali-lily plant that they picked out themselves. nd kevin gave me some new scapbooking supplies. Now I have no excuse NOT to get working on my scrapbook. Now today it's back to the same old, same old. The laundry that I put off yesterday can't be put off today, and I better start thinking of something to eat for dinner, and wash the couch pillow that my dog pee'd on, and give jay some more medicine sice he is sick AGAIN, and help Ty with his preschool homework, and mop my kitchen floor.....Nope, definately NOT mother's day today. I hope all you mom's out there had a wonderful day!

Boise Weekend

2008-04-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

We went to Boise last weekend for a quick trip. My parents and brother were going to be there for a wedding, so we went over and met them for a fun weekend. It went fast, but was a lot of fun. We went miniature golfing, did some shopping, went for a walk around a pond that was full of ducks and geese, went swimming, and just hung out in the hotel. Two of my neices also drove over with my parents, so it was fun to have some cousins to play with as well. Alexis mini golfing. However, she gave up after the third hole because there was a giant Tiki Man at the 18th hole that would shoot fire and make a loud noise if the person got a hole-in-one. She was a little terrified of the thing and spent the rest of the time crying on grandma's shoulder.

Ty mini golfing. Sorry it's sideways, i forgot to change it and now i can't get it to delete.
Alyson golfing. She actually got a hole-in-one on this putt.
Me and my mama enjoying the beautiful Boise day
Jay chillin' with dad

Tyler, Alexis and Alyson on our walk. They thought this tree was a good place to pose for a picture.

The kids watched "Monster House" one night. Alexis had never seen it before, so this is Tyler trying to comfort her during the "scary" parts.

On the way home, we decided to stop and see Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls. It was a beautiful place and also a great place for the boys to get some of their wiggles out.

Shoshone Falls

On a side note, we got a call from my Grandma while we were in Boise saying that my Grandpa had passed away. And although he had been sick for a long time, and certainly had fought a good fight, I will still miss him alot. He was such a great grandpa, fun to be around, always had a good story to tell, and always a big part of my life. I will miss seeing him sitting in his recliner eating peanuts and watching the news, miss the smell of coffee in the mornings when we would stay the night at his house, and miss calling grandpa whenever I had something exciting going on in my life. I love my grandpa and will always have a special place in my heart only for him.

Tootie update

2008-04-23T20:34:00.000-07:00

I have had several people ask me for an update on our dog Tootie. She was actually doing fairly well on the house-training thing, and then she kind of relapsed. She is starting to drive me a little bonkers, What with the climbing in the garbage can, running around with my laundry, hiding all of Jay's sippy cups, and biting people's toes. However, it is little moments like this that make me keep her around longer.
After fighting with the dog, and complaining about her all day, Tyler asked if she could go to bed with him. I told him sure, and ten minutes later this is how I found them. Pretty cute. However, I was quick to move Tootie and put her in her crate for the night. I didn't want to wash dog pee out of the comforter...again. But that was washing out of Jay's bedding before. The bottom bunk is a lot easier to jump onto. Needless to say, we now keep the bedroom doors closed. The door closing started because of her need to climb up INTO the box-springs on the bed. No hole to climb up through? Apparently not a problem...she makes her own.

Bunkbeds

2008-04-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

It took Kevin and I THREE HOURS to put this together last night!! Thank goodness for teamwork....and an electric drill. Now the boys are happy and Ty thinks he is pretty darn awesome sleeping on the top bunk. Getting Jay over his love for his crib may be another problem, though.

I also have a few random pictures from the week. ENJOY!!

Jay is sick....again. Between conference and being sick, he hasn't been to nursery for a month.

Tyler wanted to have spiky hair for pre-school the other day. I humored him and let him go. I think he figured out it wasn't all that cool when a kid asked him if he liked his hair that way. At least we shouldn't have to deal with that request again.

Jay's version of peek-a-boo. He was looking out the back of this hat and peeking at people and saying "Boo". We have some unique children.

Grandma and Grandpa come to town

2008-04-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

Last week was Kevin's brother's Spring break. So him and Kev's parent decided to come for a visit. It was a lot of fun. We went bowling, Kev's other brother Keith met us for lunch in Pocatello, one of his other brothers from Utah came down for one night and went fishing with Kevin. And then on Sunday the boys, Kev and i went to Layton to visit Kevin's sister that was there for a mission reunion. We got to see a lot of family in a short amount of time and it was great. One of the hardest things for us is being so far from family, so we love these visits (even if there is not much to do in Bancroft). I didn't get many pictures-but here are some.

ALL THE HAPPY BOWLERS

TODD IS SO PROUD OF HIS FISH!

The newest chapter of the Bancroft Bike Gang

2008-04-07T08:24:00.000-07:00

Easter and The Zoo

2008-03-25T09:01:00.000-07:00

Easter was pretty successful for us this year. We had two of my sisters, our brother in law, and Kevin's brother come for the weekend. We had a lot of fun coloring easter eggs on Saturday night. Aunt Kristi hid some eggs for an indoor easter egg hunt, and then of course we had a yummy lunch on Easter Sunday after church. Thanks for coming everybody! Holidays are pretty boring if there is no family around to share them with.

COLORING EASTER EGGS:

BEFORE GOING TO CHURCH:

THE HUNT IS ON:

(As a side note: I heard on the radio yesterday that 70% of kids spent their Easter night sick from candy overdose......my children were NOT part of that 70%)

Yesterday Kevin was on his Spring Break. They had Thursday, Friday and Monday off from school. So we decided to take the kids to Salt Lake and go to the zoo. We stopped in Layton and picked up our sister in law Sarah, and our nephew Brian. It was SO NICE there. The weather was great. And even though Kevin was sick, and the zoo was crazy, we all had fun, and the boys loved seeing all of the neat animals. The boys in front of the giraffesSarah, Brian, Tyler Me and Jay with the elephantThe fam and the same great elephantTyler on the awesome ( and I say this with great sarcasm) train ride at the zoo

Kevin and Jay on the before mentioned awesome train ride

BIKE NAKED

2008-03-25T08:59:00.001-07:00

I LOVE CHOCOLATE

2008-03-17T07:02:00.000-07:00

We had some friends over last night. They had brought some chocolate cake with them. We were all sitting in the living room when I noticed jay was not there. I asked Kevin where he went. "I don't know, maybe he's in the family room playing." A few minutes later I got suspicious. It was WAY to quiet. I got up and found him in the kitchen. He had gotten his stool out of the bathroom, taken it to the counter, and helped himself to some cake-mostly frosting. He must have thought I hadn't been feeding him enough junk food since he had been sick.

Can you see the hand prints?

Yummy, Yummy

Sick

2008-03-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

Kevin had to go to Montana for a few days to go to a coaching clinic. And wouldn't you know it, the day he left Jay got sick. The puking kind of sick . It was just wonderful. A kid throwing up, a kid upset because we couldn't go " do anything fun when dad is gone, because Jay is sick", and a dog who thought it would be pretty tasty to try and lick up some puke when it was lying on the floor. GROSS!!! We got through it, though. Jay is finally now getting over it, Kevin is back home, and Tyler went to see a movie saturday afternoon. Everyone is happy again.

Poor, sick Jay

Poor,sick Jay feeling a little better with some food in his tummy.

Tyler was a big help with Tootie. He says he has taken on the role of her dad. Whatever.

Wrestling

2008-03-17T06:43:00.001-07:00

So tyler started little league wrestling a few weeks ago. He loves going to the practices and last week was his first match. The poor kid didn't know what to expect from a real match, we had never taken him to one before, and for all he knew he was just going to mess around and have fun like they do at practice. Well, he was wrong. Some of the kids and parents are TOTALLY in to this. There were parents screaming, kids upset if they didn't get first place,it was kind of crazy. Needless to say,he didn't do so well. He wrestled two different kids. And lost both times. I was pretty proud of him for not giving up,though. He went all three rounds with one of the kids and only lost by two points. He did still get a medal though, so it turned out o.k. for him. He was so proud of his medal he wanted to wear it to bed that night. Weird. Hopefully his next match will go better.

Ty's the one in the white shirt. (A four year old in a singlet and wresling shoes? Seriously?)

His awesome medal

A New Addition

2008-03-07T10:46:00.000-08:00

We added a member to our family yesterday. We got a new little pug puppy given to us. She is so cute, and a pretty good puppy so far. We named her "Tootie". She is ten weeks old and so tiny! Jay keeps calling her a kitty. Now we just have to work on the house-training. Any tips? I really have no clue about dogs, so we will see how this works out.

Tagged......AGAIN

2008-03-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

Is it sad when you play tag more when you are an adult than when you were a kid????

What were you doing 10 years ago?

working at the Zuka juice, spring league basketball, and probably making music videos at the Gunderson and Arnell households.

5 things on my to do list today:

1. clean my kitchen

2. deliver some baby gifts

3. sew some cloth diapers for a church project

4. pick up Tyler from wrestling practice

5. watch American Idol

Things I would do if I suddenly became a billionaire:

Give away more stuff than Oprah,then people would stop talking about her so much. I also would have a personal hair and make-up person, so i could look beautiful everyday. i would build a brand new house just the way Kevin and I want it. Oh, and i would want my own personal gym, that way I could look ridiculous working out in the privacy of my own home. For some reason I think it would be easier to work out at home instead of going to a gym..maybe not?

2 of my bad habits are:

1. I am a nail biter.

2. It takes me forever to put the clothes away after I fold them. It drives Kevin crazy,it also drives me crazy, so i don't know why I do it..laziness I suppose.

5 places I have lived:

1. Gresham,Or

2. Rexburg,Id

3. Lewiston,Id

4. Bonners Ferry,Id

5. Bancroft,Id

Jobs I have had:

1. Zuka/Jamba juice

2. A&W

3. Receptionist

4. Mother

5 things people don't know about me

1. I played the trumpet in high school for a while.

2. My closets are pathetically unorganized. The rest of my house is perfectly fine, I just can't get a grip on my closets.

3. I love to bake.....anything. If I can come up with an excuse for it, something goes in the oven. I love the way it makes my house smell.

4. I HATE the snow. I used to like it when I was younger and it was a luxury to have snow. Now I despise it. I feel a little guilty when my kids want to go outside and I make up excuses why we shouldn't. At least they have a dad who loves it.

5. I love shopping for anybody but myself. There are times when I really get into shopping for myself, but other times I love to pick out clothes for my hubby and my kids. I get a thrill out of birthday and Christmas shopping, maybe that's why I start shopping in September. It makes the shopping last longer.

Tag you're it: Anybody who wants,nobody does this if I tag them anyway

Tag #2

The contents of my purse.

Wallet

Keys

Cell Phone

Check book

Fruit snacks

Lipstick

Chapstick

Hand sanitizer

Pair of Jay's socks

Crayons

I am really not sure how this all fits in there, as my purse is actually fairly small. But when you area a mom you make it all work, right?

I tag: Again,whoever wants to do this,feel free.

Presidents Day Weekend

2008-02-19T09:53:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't love a Holiday weekend? We had a lot of fun this past weekend. We got to go to Rexburg for a wedding on Friday. One of Kevin's old College roommates was getting hitched. They got married in the brand new Rexburg Temple, so it was awesome getting to go inside and see it. It was gorgeouse!I couldn't believe how TALL it was!

On Saturday, Kevin and I went on our Valentines date. We went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse,(yummy! One of my favorites) then we went and saw the movie "Definately,Maybe". It was pretty good, not my favorite, but entertaining. Poor Kevin, he was one of only three guys in the theater-what a great sport!! After the movie we picked the kids up from Kevin's cousin, who was watching them, and we all got dessert at Wingers, It was great!! I sure love cheesecake, and Ty was in heaven with the chocolate cake. I sould have gotten a picture.

Sunday night Kev's cousin Sara, and her family came to stay the night. Kev's brother Todd and his family came to stay the night as well, so we had a house full. Luckily we have a couple extra bedrooms, so everyone fit quite nicely.

The kids watched a movie in the family room, while the rest of us played cards upstairs. They actually stayed downstairs the whole time-what an accomplishment.

On Monday morning, the guys all got up and went ice fishing. Apparently it wasn't so good, they only caught one fish between all of them, too bad. After that we all went sledding for a while. It was great fun. Only two minor crashes, and no one got hurt, thank goodness. It was a great weekend-Thanks for coming everybody!!

The Jay-man chillin' out

Caleb and Tyler on the hill

My cute nephew Brian

We have some friends that have a mini snowmachine that they let Ty ride around on yesterday, he thought he was pretty hot stuff on it.

Funny Faces

2008-02-13T11:41:00.000-08:00

Ty wanted to take some pictures today. This is what we got:

I sure love my boys!!

Just a little poem

2008-02-13T11:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a little poem for all to enjoy- It gives a little insight into what my days entail.

"My Refrigerator"

Something stinks in my refrigerator
what am I to do?
Something REEKS in my refrigerator
It's worse than Kevin's shoes.
I searched and searched and searched for hours
but to no avail.
I really thought that I might find
the remains of a dead something's tail.
Did someone put something rotten in there?
Who would have the gall?
And then I came to realize-
It wasn't my fridge at all.

-IT WAS MY GARBAGE!-

Stupid game of tag

2008-02-12T14:40:00.000-08:00

My sister Tanya tagged me. I hate these things, the only reason I do it is for fear of being the one to "mess it up". So here we go....

A:Attached or single: Attached, for 6 1/2 years

B: Best Friend: Kevin, and anyone who will give me chocolate

C: Cake or Pie: Pie,especially with an extra dallop of whip cream

D: Day of Choice: Thursday-Kevin only has a 4 day work week. It also means "Lost" and hopefully someday again soon.."Greys Anatomy"

E: Essential Item: Eye liner, I hope to never be seen without it

F: Favorite Color: Red, maybe pink, how about purple? Depends on my mood

G: Gummi Bears or Worms: Worms, they are way cooler

H: Hometown: Bancroft,Id

I: Indulgence(s): Cheesecake with strawberry topping-the best at "wingers". I don't have it much, but one of my favorite things EVER!!

J: January or July: Is there snow in July? No? Then I pick July

K: Kids: Tyler and Jay

L: Life is incomplete without: family

M: Marriage Date: August 11 2001

N: Number of Siblings: 3 sisters, 1 brother.

O: Oranges or Apples: Apple pie- Does that count?

P: Phobias or Fears: BEES!!!

Q: Quote(s): "Toughen Up." (Thanks Mom)

R: Reason To Smile: Spring

S: Season: Fall! I love all the colors!

T: Tag Six: Karla, Jenn, Melissa, Julie, Brooke, Kensey

U: Unknown Fact About Me: I secretly love Hannah Montana....."Life's what you make it, so let's make it ROCK!" (You won't appreciate this if you don't have kids.)

V: Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Beef-it's what's for Dinner

W: Worst Habit: I chewed my nails like crazy when I was younger, sometimes I still find myself nibbling.

X: X-Rays or Ultrasounds: Definately ultrasound

Y: Your Favorite Food: Chocolate

Z: Zodiac: Virgo

Windy Day

2008-02-07T15:33:00.000-08:00

We had an extrememly windy day here today. Tyler had preschool cancelled because they did not want more people trying to drive to the school in the bad weather. They had to keep the kindergarteners all day because the buses couldn't get them home, and then the rest of the kids had to follow a snow plow just to make it home after school. What a day!!! The winds all day were between 60-70 MPH. I think I will stay inside today, thank you very much.

Believe it or not, this is actually a picture outside

The shovel outside of the snow

The shovel inside the snow

The front of my house,you can't see my stairs...so sad

Utah Weekend

2008-02-04T09:04:00.000-08:00

We got some tickets to the Jazz game from Kev's school, so we all headed down to utah for a long weekend. Thanks to Todd and sarah for watching the boys while we got a night out. The Jazz were playing the Knicks, so Igot to watch a fellow SBHS alumni play. It was pretty neat to watch Freddy Jones play pro.after watching him for so many years in High School.

That's him at the free-throw line. Not that you can really tell, my camera wouldn't zoom that far.

The next day we headed to Salt Lake and went to Temple Square. President Hinckley's viewing was also going on, so we had the chance to go to that. What a great experience! It was nice that the boys could experience that, not that they will remember. There was such a wonderful spirit in the Conference center. We were all so lucky to have such a wonderful prophet of God lead us during our life. I am sure the next Prophet will be great as well, but there will always be a special place in my heart for President Hinckley.

Tyler and Jay by the Salt Lake Temple. I wish Ty would smile like a normal human being.

After that, it was off to visit my sisters in Orem. We pretty much just hung out and went shopping. The girls went shopping that is, Kevin went fishing. Big surprise, eh? Thanks everybody for a great weekend!

Too Early?

2008-02-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

What do you think, ladies? Is it too early to be contacting Abercrombie & Fitch?

This is actually a pretty hideous picture, but I love that his body looks about 7 feet long.

Blizzard

2008-02-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

We have had soooo much snow over the last couple of weeks. Kevin figured out that he has only had to work six days in the last three weeks. School has been cancelled that many times. Between the cold (they close school once it hits -20) and the blowing and drifting snow he has gotten to spend a lot of time at home. I think the boys may think it's his summer vacation.The view out my front window

The Green McQueen

2008-01-26T08:39:00.000-08:00

So we decided that we needed to be a two car family now. Actually, we wanted a car that gets better gas mileage than our trailblazer. So we are now the proud owners of a 1994 geo prizm. It's really old, but in surprisingly excellent shape. It gets 40 miles to the gallon-yippy! and cost us less than 2,000 dollars. Hopefully it will save us some gas money since we have to drive at least 20 minutes everytime we go to the grocery store. The only down fall is that it is a stick shift, and I don't kow how to drive one. Kevin has been teaching me though, and I am doing quite well, if I do say so myself. Tyler thinks the car is cool. He thinks it is a green lightning McQueen. I guess since it is way smaller than the trailblazer? Who knows? It's not a race car, that's for sure. But as long as he feels awesome driving in it, what else matters?

Ice Fishing

2008-01-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

So, as most of you may know, Kevin's favorite past time is fishing. On Saturday, I decided I would amuse him a little and we would all go ice fishing. (Actually, I had seen one of the fish he caught last week, and I wanted one too.) It was actually a pretty nice day. There was no wind, it was fairly warm(22 degrees), and the boys were pretty well behaved. Except for Jay, who kept screeming "NO!!!!!!!!!" everytime he would see one of the dead fish laying on the ground. He wouldn't even sit on my lap if a fish was in eyeshot. We finally had to hide the gross fish under the sled. That worked well, until he decided he wanted to play with the sled, and he ended up falling on top of the fish instead. We just laughed at him. I think my poor child may need therapy when he's a little older. Anyhow, we all caught fish. Mine was pretty small, definately not picture worthy. Tyler got two, and Kevin got one. We only kept Kev's. His was the biggest, and since Tyler is the only one who likes to eat fish too much, we only needed to take one home. Family bonding-can you beat it?

Tyler on the ice-notice the concentration

Dad and Jay

Tyler and his "monster" fish. If you ask him, it was six lbs! I think somebody has been teaching him fishing "truths" a little early.

The catch of the day. The one he had last week was quite a bit bigger than that.

Cousins

2008-01-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

Tyler and Jay's cousin Brian came to visit last weekend. They always have fun when there's family around.

Who doesn't like to be pushed around in a laundry basket?Watching Todd out the window

Jay, Tyler, Kevin and Brian

...And they call him the "Streak"

2008-01-08T09:43:00.000-08:00

I have one certain young man, whom lives in my home, that loves to run around in the nude. It used to just be reserved to the pants going missing. Yesterday we moved up to the shirt. Today, lucky for us, the diaper has gone missing as well. Thank goodness his diaper was still intact for the picture.

Christmas and New Year's

2008-01-03T13:37:00.000-08:00

I am finally getting around to our Christmas post. We spent all of Christmas break up in Northern Idaho with Kevin's family- it was great. Our original plan was to be there for a week. However, we extended the trip a bit. We left on the 20th and got home on the 1st. It was a long vacation, but we loved it, and hopefully we didn't out stay our welcome. We were having so much fun, and really had nothing to rush home for, so we spent all of Kevin's break there. We went sledding, rode snowmobiles, played some wii, and just enjoyed some needed time with family. It's so hard living so far from our families, when we go to visit, we never want to leave.

Christmas eve was fun. Kevin's family has a big family Christmas eve party at their house every year. They have soup and snacky foods, everybody visits, and then they have a pinata for the kids. It's hillariouse to see all the kids hitting the pinata, however, they hang it in the middle of the living room. So although the living room is fairly large, it can get pretty scary when you mix together toddlers and swinging bats. Tyler was the champion of the pinata this year, he was the one to break it open- go Ty! Then on Christmas eve night, we did a family gift exchange and watched the Polar Express. Kevin's dad drew my name this year- he got me some make-up brushes and a gift card. What a great shopper! The boys of course got their annual Christmas Eve pajamas, left under their pillows by the "elves". Tyler gets so exited every year, this year he ran around to check under everybody's pillows for pajamas. He was a bit confused when nobody else had them except for Mom and Dad and Jay. Grandma says next time we are there, she may have to get "elf" pajamas for everybody else- good thinking grandma. Christmas morning was fun. I think Kevin was more exited than the boys. I got up to use the restroom at about 6:30, and when I got back to the bedroom, Jay was "magically" awake. Hm, questionable if you ask me. Tyler got the bowling set he's been asking for for the last six months, Jay got a new rocking puppy, Kevin got a new fly-fishing rod, and I got a bosch. There were numerouse other presents, but those were the highlights for everybody. I also got some gift cards from Kevin for Christmas, so the morning after, Kevin's mom, sister and I went to Cour d'alene for some shopping. We found some great deals. I finally found some tall boots that I have been wanting, they were on a great sale. And then I found a dress to go with them. It was fun. It's always a bit better to go shopping with the girls than with your husband and two boys. Kevin isn't such a bad shopper-he just doesn't have as many helpful opinions. New Years eve day was spent riding snowmobiles around, and in the evening we ate and played wii. Everybody else played some cards too, but I'm not a huge card shark, so I stuck to the wii. I think Tyler kicked everybody's rumps at wii. He's pretty darn coordinated for a four year old (I'm not biased or anything). We'll, I think this post is long enough. Now I'll get around to the good part-pictures.

The gingerbread house. We used a kit- WAY easier than from scratch.

Jay and his rockin' puppy

Ty and his new sled from Grandma and Grandpa- So Fun!

Ty wearing Uncle Kurt's new hat

Kev's brother, Keith, got new ice hockey skates. So he spent the afternoon shoveling off the pond.

Tying out Kurt's new Wii- those things are a blast!

Jay and Aunt Kimmy

I think Jay was worn out by the end of our trip

After riding snowmobiles and playing in the snow

Sledding

2007-12-18T17:18:00.000-08:00

We got to go sledding the other day. Tyler thought it was the best. He and Kevin went out and scouted out the hills to find one small enough for the boys. They found one just a few minutes away. Tyler and Jay had a blast. Kevin was too big for the small hill, and I smashed my finger on the way down ( a rookie mistake, I was holding onto the side of the sled, leaned too far over, and squash, there goes my finger). But fun was still had by all, even though it was FREEZING and we didn't stay out long.

Attack of the Gingerbread Men

2007-12-18T17:08:00.001-08:00

Tyler and I finally got around to some Christmas cookies the other day. We decided to do gingerbread men. They are so fun for the kids to decorate, and I have not had a gingerbread man for a long time. Tyler helped in the entire four step process: mixing, rolling and cutting, decorating, and of course eating. It was so fun, and Ty loves to help in the kitchen.

I feel so bad for these guys-they get decapitated every year :(

I've been Tagged

2007-12-12T07:57:00.000-08:00

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?Wrapping paper, for sure. Although, my mother in law has some really cute gift bags.
2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial. I've only had a real one once, and it didn't hold ornaments very well.
3. When do you put up the tree? A couple days after Thanksgiving.
4. When take down? New Years
5. Do you like eggnog? NO WAY!
6. Favorite gift received as a child?A "Courtney" Barbie doll. My sister asked for it, but I got it instead, I was pretty happy.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes
8. Hardest person to buy for? My dad, he buys everything he wants anyway. It doesn't leave much for the rest of us to get him.
9. Easiest person to buy for? my kids, anything cars or sports and we are in business.
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received?Is there such a thing as a bad gift?
11. Mail or Email Christmas card? Mail, not that I am so good at sending them.
12. Favorite Christmas movie? White Christmas- you can't beat Bing Crosby.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? August or September. Whenever I see a good deal.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Sugar cookies-the soft kind,not crunchy. And only if I'm not the one who made them. Things just taste better if you don't put all the work into it.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?colored
17. Favorite Christmas song? Sleigh Ride-sung by the Disney characters.
18. Travel for Christmas or stay home? Iwish we could stay home and see family, but we travel, Christams isn't Christmas without family.
19. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Who can't?!
20. Do you have an Angel on top or star?Star
21. Open presents Christmas Eve, or Christmas morning? Christmas Morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? WAL-MART, WAL-MART, WAL-MART
Tag you're it: Jenn, Karla, Rachel, Melissa, Heather

GO COUGARS!

2007-12-10T15:32:00.000-08:00

We took a weekend trip to Utah last weekend. Brandon called and said he had extra tickets to the BYU /Michigan State basketball game. Not only did he have tickets, but they were in the front row. It was great. We were sitting in the front of the student section. It was really loud, and I felt a little old, but none the less we had a great time.

Ever since Tyler got his new BYU shirt from uncle Brandon, he has a new obsession with them. So we took him to the BYU bookstore. You would have thought it was the greatest day in his whole life. He was pointing at everything, talking to the workers, and asking for everything with the BYU logo on it. It was Hillarious! He finally settled for a golf ball (staying true to his golf fetish),and two BYU pencils. Who knew four dollars could make a kid so happy?

We were waiting for the game to start, when Kevin said-"Hey,look on the big screen, there's that kid from Gresham." So I looked up and there was Troy Treanor-cousin to some of you friends out there. It seemed like something to get a picture of, so we hunted him down.(Actually he was only down the row a short way from us, when we looked over he was waving frantically at us.) I guess it goes to show you never know who you'll run into.

This is how close we were to the game-I wasn't even using zoom.

Kevin and I enjoying the game

My most favorite brother ever!

Aunt Kristi bought the boys these antlers while we were there. They light up and are apparently one of the coolest things ever. Thanks Aunt Kristi!

Thanksgiving

2007-12-01T09:46:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. It was great having my family all here. We ate tons of food, went shopping the day after, shot some guns, and watched Christmas movies. What a week! W also celebrated Kevins Birthday-the big 30! Oh-No!! The Sunday after Christmas we put our Christmas tree up. Things are so much more fun during the holidays when you have little kids. They think everything is so exciting. It would be nice if we could keep Jay out of the tree, but I'll deal with it. We watched "The Polar Express" with the boys last night. (A WONDERFUL movie, if you've never seen it) I don't think Tyler blinked the whole time. He is so excited about Santa. We had a town Tree lighting the other night, Santa was there, and Ty was so pumped. He told him he "wants boxing gloves, and bowling. And Jay wants cars,because he likes to play with cars...and so do I." Jay can say Santa, but as for seeing the real guy,he's not so thrilled. Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season, and remembers the real reason for the season. Merry Christmas!!!

Shootin' guns

My sisters and me(minus Tanya)

Kev's Birthday

Decorating the tree

Our tree

Ty and Jay with Santa(sorry you can't see their faces)

SNOW

2007-11-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

well, we got our first snowfall last night. Actually, we did have a freak snow storm at the end of September, but I think it is here to stay this time

My family is here for Thanksgiving. It is nice to not have to drive anywhere, but we will miss seeing everybody from home.

Brandon and Tyler showing off their matching BYU attire

And I just had to put on a picture of Jay-It's only fair.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

My Small Town

2007-11-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

I know that sometimes I complain about living in such a small town- but here are some pictures to show why I LOVE my small town.

I love these old rustic fence lines,they just seem so..simple.

Really,can you beat the sun setting over the mountains? O.K., so the beach might top it,but this in definately the next best thing.

This is just really random-cows crossing the rivers wherever they want. It just seemed so funny to me that I had to take a picture.

Fall here is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! I should have taken pictures when the leaves were changing colors-they are so bright! But I think I like the leaves off of the trees better.

My new dishwasher

2007-11-12T09:45:00.000-08:00

Is it really pathetic when the most exciting thing in your life is a new dishwasher? My old one was finally on the fritz. Even though it was really old,and yellow,we decideed to keep it when we bought our house-hey-it still worked. Well,not so much anymore. It was making a weird "ka-clunk" sound and the heat element stunk really bad when it was in the dry cycle. So my poor little dishwasher had to go. Our first kitchen upgrade-what a big milestone in our lives. Ha Ha.

The old yellow monster-I will say that it matched our cupboards nicely.

The new dishwasher-now our cupboards and counter tops look REALLY old and bad,but hey-one thing at a time right?

Kevin,who is not much of a handyman,(it's o.k. to say that,because he knows it) had someone from church come and help install the new dishwasher. How hard could it be,right? Well, apparently it can be pretty difficult. The people who lived here before us replaced the kitchen floor,and instead of laying new vinyl over the existing flooring,they just built a new floor. The only problem was that they built the floor around the dishwasher, so it was pretty stuck. There was no room to pull it out,so they had to saw the legs off and pull it out. Which meant they had to saw the legs off the new dishwasher just to be able to fit it back into the slot. What a mess-a 45 min job turned into 4 hours. However, I no longer have to listen to a "ka-klunk" sound,my dishes are sparkly clean,and my new dishwasher is "oh,so quiet".