snowman poop

For all my neighbors, we made them some snowman poop. Depending on the ages on people in their familes we did Macaroons or frosting covered/sprinkled popcorn in baggies. As we started the macaroons (i thought they would go farther than they did), the kids started arguing while we were waiting for water to boil.....and there is Evan, sitting in his chair admist chaios so quiet and happy. We all start getting out spoons to dollup the coconut onto the baking pan. Evan again, quietly watches and doesn't make a squak. I look over had him two spoons with some batter on them and he scraps it off better than my 3 and 5 yr old! What a sweetie! His pudgy little fingers just grabbed the spoon, scrapped it off and then turned to me with a HUGE smile! I SO wish I could have a picture of our two hands making cookies together, but I don't (jake was working swings). So, this had to be written to make sure I'd never forget.

Later, we made labels for the treat baggies. Taelin and Kelton did SO good at cutting, gluing and recutting the labels out of their favorite scrapbook paper. Evan and Chase giggled and played on the little tike slide. Then Evan helped me glue and Chase made two labels. Once again, Evan was super patient and stuck his fingers in the scissors and my fingers went in with his (i've tried this before with my other kids, but it never worked, they always fought it) into the scissors and we cut together, while he "ooohhhed" and "ahhhed".

My life is filled with these sweet moments lately. Sometimes mixed in with crazy times, but if I look around, sweet ones emerge.

Merry Christmas and happy baking/crafting everyone!

playing with the camera

I've been playing with different manual modes on my camera, and actually getting very addicted to the look and exposure I can create! I AM having issues downloading new effects to photoshop tho...so if your a pro at that, please tell me why mine won't show up in my "show all" box!!! :) Here are some of my latest shots just playin' around on a friday with daddy home!

Oh- Evan has found the tree, the ornaments, the presents and anything else he shouldn't have (makeup, cleaner, papers, glassware). Taelin asks who's name is on each package (every single one!) and adores Santa, and the boys are keeping busy trying to beat a new level on the Wii game that they love. All in all, we're doing good! Little sickness this week (they threw up at Oma's house last night), coughs and breathing treatments often along with allergy shots for the older boys and Daddy. I've been crafting, cleaning, doing homework, volunteering and photographing. Jacob's been shopping, fixing, crunching numbers for the basement we're finishing and working. We're estatic for Christmas, and hope we get lots of sleeping in our week off! It's our FiRsT ChRiStMaS HOME! We're excited to sleep in baby!

Christmas around the house...

So, this year Jacob put up lights on the HOUSE!!!!!! Having said that...I got NO pictures of the kids decorating the tree....or even the 3 we ended up decorating (ours, grma's, oma's)!

We were planning on waiting for Daddy to come inside, but it took him a little longer at the store (got new lights!) and I was feeling a patient streak, so we grabbed the stuff and set it up! I held out all of my blue/silver/white snowman ornaments this year and we filled the whole tree with just our green/red/gold ones and our personal ones (travels, baby, homemade,etc.)!

The kids did such a great job decorating! Kelton seriously has skills! We ripped off the fronts of old cards from last year and the kids decorated their rooms. They also took all my dollar store snowmen that had small chips and used those along with one thing they LOVED from my decorations. Overall, it turned out so well! We were thinking of getting another tree...and that's still up for debate. BUT, I'm thinking of getting the kids trees when they go on sale after Christmas for next year. :)

I took my time, and I'm really happy with how the house decore turned out! No big shelf rehaul like usual, just grouped my little guys (snowmen) together and kept it simple. I'm kinda liking the simple way of doing things. :) It's been a goal of mine to keep it simple and stress free.

So, here's some of my favorite shots of the house...oh how i love the glow of Christmas lights!

P.S. I thought Evan would be crazy this year (esp. cause he loves balls) but he cried the first night I put him in front of the tree! took him about 2 weeks, and now I hear his little hands grabbing another ornament all the time :)

Thanksgiving....Vernal Style

I get in "taking picture" ruts. I do LOVE taking pictures, but sometimes I just like to enjoy and run around with my 4 little guys instead of trying to stress out about documenting everything. But this weekend, was not really one of them....we just left the camera at the hotel and one night in the car (my inside lens fogged for 2 hours)! So, I grabbed one picture off my sisters Facebook, and hopefully that will have to suffice!

We had Thanksgiving in Vernal, UT. this year at mom n dad's new house. It was fun to visit somewhere new. Traveling went okay, until we got randomly detoured to a road and was told me the police officer, "just follow everyone else, they'll be going your way"...thank goodness for google maps on Jacob's phone and ONE guy that actually did go our way. :)

Everyone was able to come on different days, but we were all there together for like 1 hour on Wednesday night! :) Let's just say it was one heck of an hour opening gifts! We went swimming, eating out, movies, hanging out, bazaar, played lots of "just dance2" and laughed pretty hard! Thanksgiving dinner was AMAZING! And the foggy/ice trees made for some pretty pictures!

Newborn Photoshoot

One of my friends from childhood had a darling baby girl. Here are some of the sweet moments we captured!

Halloween 2011

So, we had a few themes #1) Longhorn Possee- dad:coach, mom:fan, kelton/chase: fball players, tae:cheerleader, evan:football and 2) Star Wars- Dad: captian rex, mom: leia, kelton/chase: rvp and "yellow" storm troopers, tae: padme' and evan: "master" yoda.

Taelin did dress up as a princess for her preschool party, and she got to wear make up (the highlight of her halloween experience each year). We attended a trick or treat street in our community on Friday and after standing in line for 30 minutes awaiting its start time (so worth the wait) Jacob and I started throwing a very sleepy/grumpy Evan around like the football he was! One off throw landed mommy with a VERY bloody lip and after holding Evan about 10 minutes later (did i mention he was grumpy) he threw his head back and gave me a bloody lip on the OTHER side of my mouth, making a HUGE whopping mangled top lip from my darn braces. :( Daddy lovingly ran to get wet wipes each time, cause he told me if I wasn't going to suck the bloood off my hands, it was gross to see it all over the place. Ok, mister. So, we got candy, Evan kept trying to grab what he had been given, which meant we had to keep opening his bag, and then he'd scream until someone put in more, he'd try to find it and eat it before we got to the next stop. :) silly kid.

Monday we did a trunk or treat across the road. We were honored to have Corey and Katey with us this night (can't forget Merlin)! It was fun to listen and watch the kids be so excited about getting candy, running around with their friends and altho Chase went around 8 times to get candy (majority of it we have to swap with our second bought bundle of non-mik, non-peanut, non-egg candy). Taelin always loves getting their leftovers! :) We had only a few trick or treaters this year...but one kid at 9:35! yikes! The kids have eaten 5 pieces a day since (except Chase who doesn't do well with rules and sneaks some in the bathroom every once in a while, then feels guilty and confesses).

Overall, a great night. Just enough celebrating, but no one got grumpy...except the teething 1 yr old.

I will post pics when blogger isn't being dumb! :)

Tae Bug

A face without freckles, is like a sky without stars

Sometimes looking into those blue enchanting and playful eyes, is like looking into the mirror 24 years ago. She has so much passion. She wants her emotions, her desires, her longings, all to be heard. She brightens my day and exhausts it all at the same time. Not sure what I would do without her. Her will drives her passion, her pure will to be, and be present.

When I think of the poem, Phenomenal Woman. I think of her....

u-Pick pumpking patch 2011

We head on out to our favorite pumpkin patch.

Evan tried to pick even the biggest ones up, loved the train ride with all the other kids and we all enjoyed Jacob randomly posing with pumpkins. My family was here visiting...so it was SO fun to hang out and be silly. Dad pulled Kimber and Taelin over the mini hills and Taelin kept giggling like crazy! She was glued to Kimber and Kimber's headphones. In the end, the kids had a great weekend and we all loved being at the pumpkin patch finding "our" pumpkins!

Family Pictures 2011

Evan, 1 year: straight up silly and funny, is refusing to sign or talk much, just grunts! he loves floppin' on his belly, walking around the couch and still scoots super fast, oh and also LOVES cars (makes the sounds) and to play sword fighting.

Kelton, 7 is my big helper but loves to have his own space. He is great at Math and as caught onto to flag football this year really well. He is affectionate (always says I love you) and responsible. But he does get sucked into tv and video games like his daddy!

Taelin, 3: so darn spunky and determined to get what she thinks she needs! Has a great memory of music and loves to sing all the time. He tells me all the time what Evan is thinking and altho she just started Preschool and Dance, she is more confident and friendly than I would have ever thought. Just turning into a social butterfly. :)

Chase, 5: So affectionate and compassionate. He is so gentle, but has had a rough patch with inhibiting his "hitting" reflex. He is a perfectionist and remembers almost anything and everything that happens at school. He is learning and so helpful around the house. He's into doing more and more for himself or by himself and often now surprises me how much he can do!

Happy Birthday Evan #1!!!!!

I have mentioned more than once, that my parents are moving 6 HOURS away soon....so we did Evan's little festivities 2 weeks early so they could all be here to watch. We just had my parents and Jake's parents here for the short notice (we'll do another one for the rest of the family and friends we couldn't get a hold of) party and I just quickly made cupcakes and his first cake. We had spaghetti and the kids and I ran errands the whole day full of dinner, cake, balloons, and gift stuff! We were pooped! But it all got done! And the end result:

He LOVED it! He dug into the cake right away, as soon as we were done singing. He got the hang of opening presents pretty quickly, and after he finally got to open his OWN, (so many great helpers around here) he had a blast with the paper. We tried to get his little coupe car ready, and we had it ALMOST built, but the 2nd half of the instructions didn't come in the package! So, the next morning I finished it online with their video instructions (so much easier!). I was so proud of myself! I'm NOT an instructions kinda gal!

Evan loved the attention, and while he was opening presents my dad was non-chalantly whistling. Evan was searching the room for the noise, and we all weren't sure what he was doing. He was looking and twisting and completely done with the gift for the moment. We finally figured it out and pointed to Dad. Dad kept going and it was so funny to watch Evan's expression of concern turn to enjoyment and curiosity. It's so fun to see him enjoy and explore new things!

Kelton put together a game of Evan's favorite things, and so everyone had something on their back and had to guess. It was fun. We also played a "pin the ocean creature in the spot" game and had kind of a blue/green theme. Didn't take much work, and we all had so much fun celebrating Evan. I love their first birthdays the most!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVAN!!!!!

Kimber's 4H Horse Show ~ August 8th, 2011

Kimber made State Qualifiers for a few events with her horses: BULLET (gray) and Cisco (brown). She did great! Great Job Kimber!

Taelin was on Grandpa like white on rice this day. I didn't have to worry about her at all...I knew wherever he was, she would be. She just sat at talked to him, I thought it was very ironic that it was the same show that last year made her shield him for like 8 months (she would talk through grma to him, "grma tell grpa please can i have an mnm")!

Anyways, this is our last week with them, and its making us all sad. We cry randomly.

Lagoon July 23rd

Jake's company got AMAZING price tickets (once again, we do enjoy the company benefits) to Lagoon! After a few years of not doing it since we usually visit Florida for Jacob's family (until they moved here...see below post) and get to Disney World, we thought since we had great tickets, we'd make it a family thing! Kyle and Courtney drove up with her neice Rhianna, Mom and Dad with the 4 kids came and we brought Ashley and Josh too. There were a lot of us, and next time we go, we'll have a different plan in "meeting places" so everyone can play with eachother but still get to more rides. I had a difficult day...so here's the

TICKET STORY: Kelton's shoes were soaked before we got there (we stayed at the campground and someone (talea) told him it was ok to get into the river (he's so gullable)), so I grabbed my ticket and his and we headed back to the campground through the empty parking lot since most of the people weren't there yet, we get to the campground, and no shoes for him (they were locked in the excursion and jacob had the keys in the park), so I grab Chase's shoes, we get 100 yds to the campground office and Kelton already has a blister. So, I RUN all the way back and get him socks while he hides behind a tree. :) K, So now we have socks and shoes and we're heading to get a bandaid and just wear those shoes till Lunchtime at the Park. I don't have my wallet (thank goodness i grabbed my phone), but we get to the main gate (after weaving through a 1/2 FULL parking lot) and I look into my pocket and NO TICKETS!!!! Urgh, I'm frustrated, my mind is racing and I'm so mad at myself for not doing what my mom suggested and going through the park first and exiting through the campground exit (not sure where it was, so I thought it would be faster to head back the way I knew). So, I see costumer service, I walk in a ask her what can I do, she says "NOTHING, I can sell you another ticket..." (um no thank you!) as I am crying. I call Jacob and ask him to come out...we get frustrated at eachother and I end up spazzing out and balling. I carry Kelton ALL the way back to the campground and scan the ground looking for the tickets, I stop at the campground office and see if they have it, NOPE. HONESTLY, who on EARTH would turn in a perfectly good TICKET that they can use to get in for FREE now! So, off Kelton and I go all the way back to the campground and look around, retracing our steps. No ticket. I cry, and cry. I must have looked like the world was gonna end. (it had been a fairly stressful week anyways, so some pent up stress just came streaming once I started crying) Kelton told me he didn't even care about going anymore. I told him he would love it, he hugged me and said everything would be ok (not one of my greatest moments). :) What a sweetie I have for a 7 yr old boy. My dad calls...."I'm coming, are you at the campground? I will come and we can buy you a new ticket." Something I REALLY didn't want to do! I was so frustrated and mad at myself!!!! So, we head back and try everything we can think of to get in dishonestly (rub off the stamp, go through the gate, etc.) not even thinking that someone else used it, just thinking it was lost. So, we head back to costumer service and I call Jacob again to come and bring all the other tickets. I show them all to a new lady and she finally gets the whole story instead of just shutting me down. She sees how much we paid for the others, sees me cryin again (we are 2 hours into it, you'd think i would have gained composure) and says she'll ask her boss. She talks to her boss, (the mean lady, remember?) and the boss lady says she can sell me them for the same price we bought them for ($27.95), and Jake flaps out his card right onto the counter. The boss then says casually, "for the 20 price." and the Girl at the desk thinks that means "$20", which she gives ME!!!! So, we finally get in at 12:00 instead of 10:30 like everyone else in our party....so Kelton and I hit his FIRST HUGE rollercoaster! (He was 47 1/2" and he had to be 47") He was so brave and did so well!

We had a blast the rest of the day and all the kids lasted till 11:00 PM! Evan even got to ride a few you had to have a parent for. The kids had a blast: Kelton went with Talea cause they are about the same height, Chase and Taelin were together and everyone got to have fun as a family and in mixed groups! thanks to Court and Kyle who let Jake and I head out together for the last hour! It was a blast! And thanks to everyone for coming and having so much fun. Definitely will have to be one for the tradition books!!!!

We Love WaTeR!

We LOVE water! We visited the splash park the other day, and we have been to Rexburg Rapids 4 times this summer! (only to have ONE pic because of the FuN and lack of picture taking, since I've been there alone most of the time) Kelton got his tooth removed (by Talea's foot on accident) and got $1 from the tooth fairy 2 nights later! wew, that lady must be busy busy!!!!!