September 26,2007

Maddie Update!

I never really blogged about Maddie's second birthday! Since we were so crazy during her actual birthday we finally celebrated it two weeks later! She had a fun little birthday party with her cousin Jake who is just one week older than her. He lives in Albuquerque, NM and was here visiting with Jalynn & Brooke. She has been obsessed with this outfit that she has from Gymboree with frogs on it. (the cute frog is from grandma baldwin) So I decided to have a frog themed birthday. (Nothing big just a frog cake, some frog presents, and green plates, cups & napkins) We had a big barbeque at Aunt Becky's and then we had cake and presents. She got some fun toys and some real frogs from Aunt Temple and her kids. (here she is looking at her new present) At first Maddie was really scared of them, but then she really liked them and always wanted to hold them. We had them for about five days and then we let them go when we went camping the following weekend. Some fun things about Maddie at age two!

Loves to play with any of her siblings no matter what toys they have. (She doesn't really have many toddler toys because she just loves the pollys) She's a big time snacker and occasionally eats a well balanced meal. She loves to carry her snacks around in a ziploc bag. It keeps her entertained throughout sacrament meeting. She still rarely goes to anyone but our her siblings, parents, and Michelle at the gym daycare. At home she let's you know when she wants something by her high pitched scream! And pretty much I tell everyone "Just give her what she wants" (you can tell that she's #5) She LOVES to read books and will want me to read about 25 books at nap time and bedtime. I'm not sure how much she weighs because she hasn't been to her 2 year well baby check yet but I think she's around 28 pounds (just two pounds lighter than Brinley) She's talking a lot more and loves to dance and flip around. She's always going to be my baby but she's growing up so fast I can't stand it! We all just love her to pieces and still fight over her. We love our little Maddie!

Saturday September, 15, 2007

The End of An Era.

Today was the end of an era in our life! We got rid of our baby crib! It's kind of sad. I remember how excited I was to find and purchase our crib. We've had some good memories come from having it in our home. There have been five babies sleep in the crib, four sets of bedding (by kid #5 you don't care what the bedding looks like!), several blankets, four different homes, and the crib has been in many different rooms! It's exciting to be moving to a new stage in our life which includes getting rid of baby items, but it also is sad to think that our babies are growing up so fast! Not one of my children have ever climbed out of this crib. We always put this kids into a big bed because another baby was always on the way. We just didn't have the space in the girls new room for the crib. So for the first month we lived in our new home Maddie was sleeping in the travel crib. Jon was paranoid that it was hurting her back! I reminded him that Morgan slept in a travel crib for ONE year when we lived @ my in-laws! I know that there are many more Milestones like this that we will be making over the next several years! What am I going to do when she goes to first grade? By the way Madelyn is doing great in her big girl bed!

Thursday September 13, 2007

Love those Buns!

Last night as I was making dinner I looked out the window of my kitchen and this is what I saw...

I couldn't pass up the photo opp! We have just been enjoying our "Indian Summer" weather this week. How come chubby buns are cute on babies and not mommies? All I know is I love those baby buns!

Monday September 10, 2007

First Day of School!

Last week was the kids first day of school. They had a great time despite some nerves. Morgan I think was the most nervous going to Middle School. She was mostly concerned about getting to her classes on time and finding each of them. She did great and is already meeting some new friends. Mason is a very responsible fourth grader. He made sure that he was not going to miss any school last Friday when I told them that we were going to our friends cabin for the weekend. I think Brooklyn is just enjoying eating at school and her three recesses. She's smoothly adjusted to first grade! Brinley was so excited to start pre-kindergarten today. All last week she kept asking me when was she going to be able to go to school! We're off to another great school year!

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!

Brooklyn turned seven on September 1. She was born in the year 2000. I thought it would be cool to have a baby in the year 2000. Luckily we had a sweet baby girl. I fell in love with the name Brooklyn two years before she was born, and we were blessed with another girl! Brooklyn is a very sweet and independent girl. I think she gets that because she's stuck in the middle of our family. She is a very hard worker! Jon and I are always amazed at the things she does sometimes. For example, the other day I was at a soccer tournament with Mason and Jon was a Home Depot. Morgan was babysitting the three little girls. She called to tell me that Maddie pooped and took off her diaper. She was freaking out and didn't know what to do. I told her to get Brooklyn to help her. When I got home 10 minutes later, Brooklyn had bathed Maddie and was getting her dressed. She is my best little worker. She loves to play pollies and american girl dolls, but also loves to ride her bike, scooter, and she will soon master her new heelies! She informed me that she didn't want to buy anything pink when we went shopping for school clothes (even though her room is full of that color) She ended up buying the cutest blue and camo converse shoes. She's a great big sister and plays well with Brinley & Maddie. Mason and her love to tease each other but have a common interest now since she got a Nintendo DS for her birthday. She's a great little girl and I can't believe that she will be starting first grade tomorrow! We love you Brooklyn & are so glad that you're in our family.

Cruddy Camping!

Two weeks ago we went camping. We planned this camping trip way back in February, not knowing that we would have just moved into our house. So the timing was cruddy. We first had to locate all of our camping gear in our cluttered garage. We spent one whole day getting ready to go on the camping trip and finally arrived to our camp spot at 10 p.m. We then had to get up early the very next day to cook our breakfast (shared meals and ours was first). Jon and some friends went to load our boat into the lake, just to tell me one hour later that our boat wouldn't start. The rest of the day was spent trying to get Maddie to take a nap in our tent while Jon entertained our other kids on our friends boat. Maddie & I didn't get on any boats or swim the whole weekend. The next day the weather was cruddy, so we packed up early to go home. We do these things mostly to entertain our children and they had a great time! (I also usually love camping but this trip turned out to be a big bust!) Both Jon and I were very bummed about the boat and still don't know what's wrong with it! I did get some fun pictures of Maddie. This was her first camping trip since she has been walking and she loved every minute of it. We are so excited to do this all again (do you sense the sarcasm) this weekend!

Wednesday August 29, 2007
Hooray for Computers!

I'm very glad to announce that we finally have our computer up an running! I've had it for about two days now but this has been my first opportunity to blog! It's been four weeks today since we disconnected our computer. I never thought that I was so dependent on modern technology but that's a long time!!! We also finally have our dish hooked up and enjoyed watching TV on our new 52" flat screen. The whole time I was gone at mutual tonight I think my whole family was glued to our new toy! All we need now is our morning paper and we'll be set!

Tuesday August 21
Sweet Sixteen (NOT)

It's been sixteen days since I have posted anything on my blog. I have nothing exciting to announce, and of course no pictures but lots has been going on. I will highlight 16 events that have happened in the past 16 days.
1. cleaned my old house with several friends & young women
2. handed over my keys to the new owners and kind of felt sad
3. had the new owners over for dinner last Sunday (the mom introduced herself in Sunday school that day with her name and then said I'm the person that bought their house, we were sitting with her!)
4. Made several target runs that included spending nothing short of $50 each visit!
5. stayed up until 2am one night hanging all my blinds with Jon
6. not one broken nail with all that moving and cleaning (Temple would be proud!)
7. mopped my floor twice already in just two weeks (they are very dark and harder to keep clean, what have I gotten myself into)
8. signed my kids up for another round of swimming lessons which means lots of runs back and forth to the gym!
9. got new bedroom furniture for myself and some of the kids rooms. everyone wants to sleep with mason on his new high bed (pictures later)
10. finally celebrated maddie's bday where aunt temple gave her 10 real frogs, (they were in their back yard and they caught them for her) Brooklyn immediately was attatched to them and when one died 3 days later she had a funeral for her little frog. CUTE!
11. went camping for three days, the kids had a blast!
12. spent one whole day getting ready for camping, (finding the camping boxes, food prep, boat prep, etc. etc!)
13. was very disappointed to find out that our boat that we've had absolutely no time to take out this summer didn't work! (we found this out after we hauled it to camping 2 1/2 hours away from home!)
14. purchased our new king size bed @ Costco on the way home from camping (we left early b/c we couldn't boat and spent money instead) Loved sleeping in such a big bed!!!
15. put my first nail hole in my new walls to hang a new clock!
16. started my school shopping today with two of the kiddos and more to come tomorrow

We still have lots to do in the house!!! I don't even have my computer set up yet. I'm at Jon's work right now doing this post at midnight!

We're Exhausted!
Since Wednesday we have been working nonstop!!! It takes so much time to move, unpack, clean and everything that goes along with a move! Each night Jon and I have been averaging 4-5 hours of sleep. We've had so much help from friends, neighbors, and family. People have taken our children for us, had us over for dinners (I'm actually at a friends right now typing this post after she fed us a yummy dinner), helped us move, mowed our lawn, and are going to help us clean our old home this coming week. We are so grateful for great friends and family and can't express how much this help has been. We have a long way to go but we did spend our first night in our home last night. I have not moved my bathroom stuff yet, so this morning I had to walk across the street in my bathrobe to get everything for my shower. Hopefully in a week we'll be much more settled!

August 2, 2007

Maddie's Two!

Two years ago yesterday Madelyn was born! I can't believe that she's already that age. My whole pregnancy with her was filled with a whirlwind of emotions! From total shock to pure joy! We felt so blessed to have another healthy, sweet baby girl! With the chaos of our lives right now I decided to postpone celebrating her birthday. All of my other children were sad, especially Brooklyn! They all kept on asking me about her party, birthday breakfast, and especially presents. I was telling this story to my aerobics class yesterday (Aug 1, her bday). They all agreed that it would be okay to celebrate later. My good friend Jana came up to me after class and told me that she was going to make a birthday cake and deliver to our house later that evening! She came with her husband,

two girls and a yummy cake. They ate cake with us and then stayed another two hours to help us move. It was a very sweet gesture. It's a blessing to have great friends! And if you're wondering about Madelyn , she will get her special day next week!

My Obsession!
My good friend just recently posted that her obsession last week was reading Harry Potter! My obsession these past two weeks has been all about moving! Packing, De-Junking, Cleaning, Running to the DI Trailer, and pretty much ignoring my poor children! This week is only going to be crazier with all the above plus my actual move and unpacking! Wish me luck! I hope to have the Harry Potter Obsession soon!!!

Monday July 16, 2007
Our 16 Day Vacation!
We were gone to for 16 days and we're excited to be home! We did tons of fun things but I will only highlight one per day that we were gone!

Day 1, June 30, 2007: We left our house at about 9 am and only made it to Twin Falls, ID (an eight hour drive)

Day 2, July 1, 2007: Drove to Ogden to pick up Teresa's kids (that makes a total of 7 kids) and then drove all the way to Denver arriving at 9pm only stopping for one picture in Morgan, Utah (we couldn't pass up the photo opportunity)

Day 3, July 2, 2007: Played in grandma's fun backyard and reinstated "The Kids Club" from last summer which doesn't include babies, teenagers or adults!

Day 4, July 3, 2007: Spent a very HOT day at Pirates Cove (A smaller water park just 10 min from my mom's house)

Maddie was more interested in her new Crocs than any swimming!

Day 5, July 4, 2007: Jon left for Switzerland, while the kids and I went to the beautiful Colorado Mountains. We went to a 4th of July parade in Frisco, CO.

Day 6, July 5 2007: We spent most of the day swimming in the pool at the condo. We also enjoyed some cooler & rainy weather.

Day 7, July 6, 2007: We drove back to Denver but stopped long enough to take a picture of the spectacular mountains!

Day 8, July 7,2007: Monique, Carter, & Kenna arrive, we eat at Cheesecake Factory and find time to shop at a great Flea Market

Day 9, July 8, 2007: Attend church and spend a relaxing afternoon in grandmas great hammock!

Day 10, July 9, 2007: Went to a small store that had 38 different kinds of rootbeer. We enojoyed rootbeer floats for our family night treat!

Day 11, July 10, 2007: Went to a very large sporting goods store and ate a Baja Fresh.

Day 12, July 11, 2007: Went to the IMAX theater in the afternoon and saw a movie about Hurricane Katrina.

Day 13, July 12, 2007: Had a fabulous Mexican Fiesta that was almost ruined by the wind and rain. We even had a pinata & smores (not so fiestaish).

Day 14, July 13, 2007: Went to Pirates Cove again! We were all excited to see our daddy when he returned from his trip to Switzerland!

Day 15, July 14, 2007: We said our sad goodbye's and started our long drive back home. We made it all the way to Boise, ID, just a mere14 hour drive.

Day 16, July 15, 2007: We finished our trip home to Washington. We were so excited to sleep in our own beds that night!

Monday, June 25, 2007

Summer's Officially Here!

Our last day of school was June 21! That seems really late compared to the rest of the country. We did have some snow days tacked on the end of our school year! This is our second full day of summer vacation and I've already had to give one of my children hot sauce in the mouth for saying a bad word!!! The last week of school was busy with lots of end of the year activities. Morgan had most of those because she is now officially done with elementary school and graduated from fifth grade. She had field day, two assemblies, and graduation last week. I finished her scrapbook for her just the night before and gave it to her on her graduation day. I had both Jon and I write her a letter. I was of course crying as I was thinking about how grown up she has become. She seemed to like her Harmony Scrapbook and took it to school to show all her friends. Mason finished his third grade year with a cultural parade and potluck lunch. Here he is with some of his third grade buddies: Marvin, Eric, and Brett. Both Mason and I loved his teacher Miss Swiderek. I feel sad at the end of the year when my children have such great teachers! Mason was also sad and told me that he wanted to stay in third grade! Brooklyn had her last day of Kindergarten. I can't believe that she will be going to school all day next year. She is very excited for her first grade teacher Mr. Schiewe. (Everyone knows who he is "The Hot"first grade teacher!) Brinley asks everyday "what are we doing today Mom?" and if she is going to school. She can't wait to get back to school and have her best buddy Kennedy Lake come with her. Maddie of course just goes with the flow. This picture is of her with her first piggy's. I just love it when they are short like this. The other morning she woke up and had stinky breath! I said to morgan "Maddie has stinky breath, how sad that means she is getting big" Morgan said wow mom pretty soon she'll be in college! The past couple of weeks a lot has been done on our house. Exterior paint, exterior rock, cabinets, granite, and trim work. This week the trim guys will finish and the painting of the trim will happen while we are gone. Hopefully all will go well while Jon is in Switzerland & I'm in Colorado. We hope to be moved in by August!

This will be my last post until we're in Colorado! This week is packed full! Basketball camp, teaching, hair cuts, dentist appts., orthodontist, shopping, packing, cleaning, and of course laundry. It will take us two long days of driving so wish us LUCK!

Tuesday June 19, 2007

Mason's Moose

This is a story that Mason wrote this year about one of his favorite toys that he had to give up (I didn't know it was so special to him though). I saw his teacher at the gym and she told me all about his story and I told her that I HAD to have a copy!

My favorite toy that I had to give up was a moose. I still really would like to have that moose. I wonder who has it now. "Where's my moose?"

When I was born, I got a big ginormous moose. It was about 2 or 3 feet long. Can you believe that? I always liked to play with it and I would like to take it everywhere, to my grandma's, to a place that my sister had to go, and other places. I liked to take it everywhere around my house. I was so happy that I had a moose. When I played with it sometimes my older sister liked to play too. Then other times, she had to go places and I didn't have to play by myself. I played with my moose.

One day my mom said, "Bring your moose. We have to go somewhere." So I said, "O.k., but why?"

"Because we just have to go somewhere." So I brought my moose and that was when I was about 3. We went to a place and I remember that my mom said, "Give me your moose." She put it in there and we drove back home. I was crying really, really hard and I cried a long, long time. It took days, weeks, months, years, centuries...just kidding it took days for me to get over it. I liked the moose. Sometimes I even want it right now and I'm still wondering why she took it away?

Just so you all know, It didn't happen this way. He didn't even play with this moose so I gave it to the DI. He just recently has been asking about his moose. One time I went to his classroom to volunteer and a little girl said to me "How come you gave Mason's moose away?" I thought that this story was hillarious and that mom especially would enjoy this because she gave Mason the moose!

Thursday June 14, 2007

Grateful for Healthy Bodies!!!

It only took being sick for 24 hours to really be grateful for mine and my families healthy bodies!!! This is what our house looked like just two days ago. Five of the seven people in our family were hit with the 24 hour flu. I don't think that my washing machine stopped for the entire day. I washed every one's sheets, pillow cases, blankets, towels, and many wash cloths. Both Jon and I also were hit with the nasty flu bug. We thought to ourselves "Are we really feeling sick or is it just because we keep on cleaning up every one's mess?" Luckily it was short lived and everyone is back in perfect form today and we are very happy to have strong/healthy bodies again!

Monday June 11, 2007

Where did May go?

I'ts been over a month since we have been home from our relaxing vacation, and I feel like each week is getting crazier! I can't believe how fast May went. I'll give you a quick low down on the past two weeks.
Morgan's been busy with lots of homework, track, and preparing for her ballet recital. She did find time two weeks ago to enjoy our beautiful weather and play with a friend. Mason is thrilled with the fact that he doesn't have anymore homework for the rest of the year.(At least that's what he thinks) Both him and Morgan had their track meet last week (Tuesday June 5). It was really fun to go and cheer for them and their school! Brooklyn lost three teeth in one week!(the week of May 20, 2007) She even pulled two of them out herself! I went with her on her on the Kindergarten field trip to the Oregon Zoo! She had a great time, and I was just trying to keep track of all the kids in my group. Just a side note: When I went with Mason on his K-field trip to the zoo , I remember thinking "Wow when I'm here with Brinley I will be 39 years old!" Well little did I know at the time that I would also have little Maddie to take on the Kindergarten Fieldtrip and I will be in my 40's by then . Ugh! Brinley's has now officially finished her first year at Children's World of Music. Today was her last day of school. She had a cute end of the year program tonight. She has loved her Bumblebee teacher Miss Colleen. Our Madelyn is keeping us very busy and entertained. She loves to sing, read books, and get her own water out of the fridge! The past two weeks she's learned to jump on the trampoline, and learn some new words. She is constantly taking off all her clothes and diapers! One day last week she escaped outside and was stark naked jumping on the trampoline when Jon came home from work. Jon and I are going crazy with all the house demands. In the past two weeks all the tile has been laid/grouted, concrete driveways poured, hardwood floor installed, cabinets installed, and interior painting. Jon and I repainted three rooms that we (I mean I didn't like). The pink reminded me too much of peptobismal! All and all things are going great. I'm excited for summer time and for an easier schedule!

My Busy Bee!

Tuesday May 22,2007

My little Maddie loves to get into everything! For awhile she has been grabbing cereal, crackers, raisins, and marsh mellows out of the pantry. She loves to just carry the bag everywhere she goes. She also loves my make-up and has gotten it all over her body twice and on the floor. Last Saturday night after our date night Morgan told us that she got into the Vaseline and spread it all over my bathroom floor. That took about four washings to get rid of the slime! But today tops it all. She completely undressed herself, including diaper, during her nap time. She definitely is my cute, busy little 21 month old!

Tuesday May 22, 2007

These past two weeks have been crazy busy with the house. I went to CFM (Contract Furnishings Mart), three times last week, and today to pick/order tile. I also picked out all of our paint and trim color (Jon's not too happy about the three different shades of pink! I told him we do have four girls!!!) All the dry wall, mudding, and taping is complete. Our next steps this week are texturing, painting interior, and tile!

These are some pictures from our Southern Caribbean Cruise (April 27, May 5 2007). We went on a cruise for our 15 year anniversary with two friends of ours from college. We had a blast!!! So many fun memories of playing cards until 2 am, eating at the midnight buffets, all our fun excursions, and tons of laughing! We left from San Juan PR and went to 5 different Caribbean islands. They were all fun and different. We went to St Thomas (picture of us with the donkey "oprah"), St Kitts (picture of guys in the ocean), Grenada (the spice island), Bon Aire (snorkeling and picture of our big ship), and finally Aruba. We were able to spent so much time at these different islands. On Friday we were at Sea the whole day traveling back to PR. On the last day we were eating breakfast in the formal dining room. The waiters did everything for us including pouring the syrup for my french toast. I leaned over to Jon and said" I will pour your syrup for you if you pour mine!" It was fun and very relaxing! I just wish that I had a couple days to ease back into my crazy life! But no! It's been a rough week getting back into the groove. But it's all good!

Piano Recital

Morgan and Mason had their annual piano recital yesterday. They both did great! I was bummed that I didn't get it recorded. I charged my video camera battery but forgot to check the tape. There was no tape in the camera, so I only got pictures on my camera. Mason played "The Caravan" and Morgan played "Think of Me from Le Miz". They were both a little nervous but they pulled it off. I am very proud of them both and excited to see their progress! At the beginning of the year Mason was really frustrated with piano and wanted to quit. He has stuck it out and is doing great. Morgan is like a perfect student. She loves to play and I never have to ask her to practice. Way to go both Morgan and Mason!