Organized Chaos

Chef's in Training

2011-11-15T21:48:00.000-07:00

My little chef's!

Sometimes I think because I have boys, they're only going to want to do 'boy' things, or activities with dad. I always forget how much they love to help bake/cook anything!

Here's some chocolate banana bread we did:

Strawberry Jam

Yummy!

Riley was in charge of cutting the stems off the strawberries, then slicing them in half. Talk about making a mom's nerves go through the roof!

He did great though!

Tristan's job was counting 10 strawberries, placing them in the blender and pulsing 3 times.

Oh the concentration.....

(yes-even in their pajamas!)

My job was getting the pectin and jars ready. We made 2 batches and all I had to do was pour perfectly mashed strawberries into the pectin!

Some random cuteness

2011-10-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

The boys got to have their cousin Trevor over for the night so Aaron thought it'd be fun to make oven smores! I wish I got a picture of the final product. We used the HUGE campfire smores for these, and they made such a mess! Even I ate one and couldn't keep it contained, chocolate everywhere, marshmallow sticking to everything and everyone!

Apparently the kids couldn't wait, so they munched on marshmallows to help pass the time.

One thing I love about Sunday's is how cute your kiddos look!

Emerson was only 3 weeks old here.

I love doing side profile shots of my kids for some reason.

A few weeks later. He's a BIG boy now! Adorable none the less.

Our weekend trip with friends!

2011-09-03T21:25:00.001-07:00

A few weeks back we had some new friends over for dinner, Molly and James. The boys (and by boys I mean, our husbands) started talking about where we were from. The next thing Molly and I knew, our husbands had planned out a trip to Cottonwood! They are from back East and somewhere like Jerome and Sedona doesn't exist back there!

We left Friday around noon (right after our baking extravaganza) and finally made it to Cottonwood around 3. We fed babies and went straight to Jerome! The weather was perfect, it had just got done raining and was a cloudy, 80 degrees!

Our first stop.....

The House of Joy!

Yes, it is quite an interesting store, that's all I'll say!

The sign said it used to be a dentist's office?

This is the side yard of the building.

Only in Jerome will you find a stop light in the middle of someone's yard. Oh my...

Next we tracked down a magic shop. The owner has a daughter that I used to teach in ballet and gymnastics when we lived there. I always heard him talk about his shop up in Jerome so we had to check it out!

It was a really fun store. (and the owner was QUITE the character!) The boys, or Aaron I should say, had fun with a lighter that shocked people when they tried it. There were all kinds of weird things there! Tristan bought a parachute guy, a party pooper I know! Riley bought a bag, that when you opened it made some weird noise. I guess it was supposed to sound like a rattle snake. Aaron ended up buying the lighter! The owner put some fake cockroaches in the bag (which scared the life out of me later on!) and then filled the bag with smoke! {see picture below!}

Then it was picture taking time!

Aaron and I took pictures up in Jerome last year and we had one of us in this same spot.

Molly and James

You can't tell by the pictures because they're so close up, but here's the view we were looking at:

and this:

{The Mansion}

I snapped a few shots of the boys playing around too:

Then it was the girls' turn!

Sweet Raelynn.....

Our friends' daughter Lexi. I love how Raelynn looks like she wants to be just like her, so she copies everything Lexi does.

We were walking by an old building and saw there were open auditions for actors/actresses, interesting!

Oh ya, and a ghost was holding the sign? Weird town!

Tristan did NOT like the ghost, therefore he would NOT smile for me!

Our 3 musketeers

I took this picture on our way out, I love the red doors! Aaron wants to enlarge it and print it out for the house. I think it's gorgeous!

Day 2- Sedona

We set out the next morning to go hiking in Sedona. Some friends of mine went to a place called Red Rock Crossing so Molly and I looked it up online and it looked fun. Next time, I'll remember to get 1st person reviews. We were all geared to actually HIKE and we get there, pay a $10 entrance fee, and walk 100ft to the....lake? pond? river? mud??? Call it what you want!

They had to be so careful where they stepped. One second they were waist deep, the next, up to their necks!

She really did not like the water. I'm not sure why, she loves to swim. Maybe it just grossed it her out!

Emerson and I sat on the sidelines with Molly and her little baby Berkley.

He looks super chunky in this picture!

They all had fun throwing rocks, maybe not the best teaching moment....

{look close and you can see the HUGE rock in the air}

If you're familiar with the Verde Valley at all, you KNOW there's crawdad's in the water! After 10 years of living there, they still creep me out!

{I wish you could see Riley's face better, he was about to cry}

Aaron said this one was missing a leg? It wasn't moving very fast!

Once Riley saw it wasn't going to hurt him, he warmed up to the revolting thing....

Really Aaron?? Of course!

Anywhere you go in Sedona, you will get gorgeous views.

Right before we left, Aaron and Tristan found a strong current and a somewhat slippery ground...

they made it into a slide!

Go Tristan!

What is this?! They were everywhere!! I think they creep me out more than the crawdads!!

Remember how I said the man at the magic shop stuck a bunch of fake cockroaches in the bag? This is one of them. Riley put them all over the car before Aaron and Tristan got in. We thought we were so cool! We'd for sure scare them!.....NOPE! Tristan was like, "Oh cool!" and Aaron just shrugged when he saw them. Boo!

{^^there's the shocking lighter!!}

We went and had lunch after at Wildflower. My favorite place! Then the boys took all the kids (except Emerson) and let Molly and I shop in Sedona! Which lasted all of 40 minutes because everything there is SO overpriced!

We picked up food for dinner and let the boys go golfing. The kids got to swim in the pool and run around out back in Grandma's fun backyard! Such a fun weekend!!

Baking with my boys!

2011-09-02T15:30:00.001-07:00

I love how little kids love to help Mom with baking/cooking. These 2 boys are no exception!

We had quite a few 'questionable' bananas lying around, so we decided to make banana bread.

Then came the idea to add chocolate chips on top.

I made a few more bigger loaves and stirred the chocolate chips into them. Pretty much one of the most heavenly snacks ever!

After the bread, it was time to make Strawberry Jam! We had an awesome assembly line going on:

Riley would cut the strawberries....

{and we're happy to report there weren't any cut fingers or close calls!}

Tristan would mash them up.....

{He had a bowl of cut up strawberries and would count 10 strawberries, put them in the container, and push down 4 times to get it just right!}

and I'd stir them into the pectin. Super easy and fast when you have handsome little helpers! We made 2 batches, one of Strawberry Jam (then we ran out of strawberries) and one of MOSTLY strawberries, a little bit of raspberries, jam! <<< I haven't tried this one yet, I'm not a huge fan of raspberries so it'll be interesting to see how it tastes!

Such a fun morning. A little hectic seeing as how we baked all morning and we were leaving at noon to go out of town with some friends and nobody was even packed yet!

Snapshots before church

2011-08-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

These two were just too cute, I had to snap a few shots for keepsake.

Love my babies!

Back to school

2011-08-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

My babies are getting big! Riley is in 1st grade! He is also at a new school and riding the bus to school this year! Lots of firsts this year! I decided to change his school back to his home school purely for the bus! I'm already leaving twice a day to take Tristan to Kinder-Prep, 4 times a day when he has speech in the mornings, I was not upping that to 6 times a day JUST running kids around with a new baby and a 2 year old who still needs her nap! Something had to give. He loves his new school, loves the bus and his new teacher, Mrs. Smith. (It's actually her first year teaching so she has a lot of enthusiasm!) This year there were no tears on the first day, or kicking/screaming. Why you ask? I had Aaron take him! Mom wasn't dealing with that again this year! I learned my lesson last year.

This little guy goes 5 days a week for 3 hours a day! Lovely schedule! :) I never have to worry when I put him in something new, he adapts really well. He was really disappointed he couldn't go to Kindergarten with all of his friends, but his birthday is just a little too late. So we enrolled him in a Kinder-prep program that is at one of the public schools in our district so he feels like he's really going to school.

Of course Raelynn was feeling a little left out so we had to include her in here.

Here's Emerson camping out in his carseat.

Emerson's Blessing

2011-08-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

Goodness talk about a stressful day! Aren't blessings supposed to be wonderful spiritual and uplifting days?! Well I guess they are, but getting up at 2 am to check on the food you have in your slowcooker or following kids around with a dustpan to make sure they don't get a dust bunny anywhere in your once-in-a-lifetime sparkling clean house. But the day is definitely worth it!

I was getting Emerson ready for a bath and Riley wanted to practice taking some photos so this is what he got:

Aaron's parents and Sweet Nana arrived before church to help with last minute last things (thank goodness!) and Nana took over baby duty for me! Love that sweet lady!

We are quite the couple :)

After church we had a lot of family and friends come to eat yummy food!

John and Christina

Grandma Jan

Uncle Billy and Aunt Kim

Papa Mark

And the sweet sister, one second she's being all angelic like.....

and the next you look over and find this!

We stripped Emerson out of his blessing outfit, hence the half naked baby. And I clicked this picture right as he sneezed! Love it!

Photo of the Day

2011-08-10T14:25:00.002-07:00

Photograph sibling interactions. That means no poses, no "say cheese", no "put your arm around him".

One of these days I may actually just do one photo, but with 4 kids, one is just not enough!

The culprits- Raelynn and Tristan were the ones who started this whole goofing off, let's play tag on the couch thing.

Riley had to join in the fun. Honestly, who could resist it?!
Isn't there something just special about brother's? One day, they'll realize this!

Taking a break- Emerson started crying and Riley is always the first one to hop up and help him. A quick binkie was all he needed then back to the fun!

2011-08-08T11:30:00.001-07:00

Diving Class

This was Tristan's 2nd diving session (first one was pretty much a joke since he was so goofy some days and was in a bad mood the others). Riley thought he'd try it out since Tristan did it. I'm happy to say that by the end of the session they were doing more then just cannon-balls!!

That's not to say that they didn't have their flops!

Belly flop!

Really Tristan?!

His feet crack me up!

The boys did swimming lessons everyday, all summer long! Very proud of them! For a reward Aaron took them to one of the city water parks where they could show off their diving skills and go down the waterslides! Bitter-sweet to see summer break end, but I have to say I will not miss sitting in 100+ degree weather watching their lessons everyday!

Photo of the Day

2011-07-29T01:00:00.000-07:00

My poor guy! He's been having side pain for over 6 months now. Lately he's been getting fevers with them so we took him to the doctor and he ordered some lab work. (update: labs were normal!)

You'd never be able to tell that the smiley little boy above was screaming, kicking and hitting just 30 minutes before!! He does not like needles!

He loved showing off his 'blood' to his little brother!

Photo of the Day

2011-07-29T00:56:00.000-07:00

A little backtracking here, one photo a day is hard!

Raelynn got into my nail polish, AGAIN! You'd think after she's done this a dozen times I'd moved it right? Nope, I just keep putting back under the sink. So this particular morning she gets it all over her legs and comes downstairs to show us and Aaron decides he's gonna paint her nails! I gotta say, it looks way better than when I do it!!

Photo of the Day

2011-07-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

Monday night we got together with the Pittman's for Family Home Evening. They invited their nonmember neighbors over too and we had a full house! Lindsey made an incredible dessert (like always!) and I was in charge of the lesson. The Friend had an article in it about temples which is also the topic in Primary this month. (which makes sense since both my boys have been singing I Love to see the Temple). It was also a great topic since we have our own temple being built less than a mile from us!! The kids seemed to really understand everything we talked about and I can't wait to take them to the open house once the Gilbert temple is finished!! It only made sense to take a picture of the Mesa Temple I have hanging in my front room. It's gorgeous don't ya think?!

Photo of the Day

2011-07-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

I wanted to focus on people today for a picture. Aaron's family had a big get together to celebrate 3 birthdays in the family. It was the perfect opportunity!..... Then I got sick and by the time we left (way late!) I had of course, forgotten the camera!! Darn it! So I decided to take a picture of Raelynn before she left to go swimming with daddy.

This picture also shows her "owie" on her right wrist. Do you see the nice looking red mark? First of all, this one is not even close to the one she gave herself the other day. She has been taking her pig tails out when I put her down for nap. She then proceeds to wrap the hair tie around her wrist. In this picture it had only been on her wrist for maybe an hour and half. The other day I didn't realize she had it on until about four and half hours later. Her wrist was huge and discolored and she was screaming. I ripped it off not thinking, and when the blood rushed back into her hand, she fell to the floor screaming and crying from the pain. Oh man I felt so bad! But seriously Raelynn!! Now I'll be taking her hair out everyday before naps.

Little stinker.

Photo of the Day

2011-07-22T20:26:00.001-07:00

The Rule of Thirds:

I did alot of research today about photography and an DSLR camera. I still don't quite get how to work the ISO, Fstop, etc. but the one thing I did think I could work on was the Rule of Thirds:

The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts.

The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot – using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.

With that said, here was my first shot! I love how the chalk topper (I don't know what else to call it?!) is a little blurry so you can tell it's in action.

Riley was given this chalk set for his birthday. It's actually really cool and makes interesting shapes and patterns on the cement. Tristan and I played with it on and off all day.

Here's a few more shots:

Photo of the Day

2011-07-22T08:10:00.001-07:00

No assignment today!

Every couple weeks a bunch of gals get together and we do a Recipe Exchange. It's a LOT of fun and we get to stuff our faces with new foods! I mean really, who could ask for more?! Last night our theme was "Carb Night," Oh BOY! There was pasta, breads and lots of desserts!! I took a picture of the one that I brought. Now, I've heard this dish has many different names, from Candy Bar Cake to Better Than Sex Cake, take your pick!

It is extremely easy to make!!

Ingredients:

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
1/2 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
6 ounces caramel ice cream topping
3 (1.4 ounce) Heath/Skor chocolate bars, chopped
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Bake cake according to the directions on the box. Once it's cooled down, poke holes EVERYWHERE, ALL over the cake! Drizzle your condensed milk over the cake. Sprinkle 1/2 of your chocolate bars over top and drizzle with caramel topping. Cover with whip cream. Sprinkle the remaining caramel and chocolate bars. Refrigerate until ready to serve! DELICIOUS! Enjoy!!

Photo of the Day

2011-07-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

Today's assignment: A hobby

My piano! I've been playing since I was about 8 years old. I took lessons for just a couple years and decided I could teach myself, and I did! When I moved out for the first time when I was 18, my mom let me take her piano. She got it from her Grandma Archibald, which makes it that much more special to me. I still have the piano 6 years later. It has served me with numerous church callings and my most recent adventure, becoming a piano teacher! Just the other day I actually sat down and gave Riley and Tristan their first piano lesson. They've been begging me for months! They were too cute and had a lot of fun, even if they did test Mom's patience.

Photo of the Day

2011-07-20T00:17:00.001-07:00

Today's assignment: Photograph a loved one working on a skill.

I took a picture of my beautiful hubby Aaron playing on his guitar.

One thing about Aaron I don't think many people know about Aaron is that he has a gorgeous voice. There have been many hours spent sitting next to him on the couch reading a magazine, listening to him play and sing a song on his guitar. He's always online looking up new songs to play.

I know I'm only supposed to pick one picture but I also really loved this one too!! So you get two pictures today!!

My photo shoot with Emerson

2011-07-19T13:56:00.001-07:00

Emerson

I love this little guy! I remember back before I had kids I used to think, a baby is baby, they really don't have a personality. Then I had my own! Their sweet little spirits are absolutely amazing. The veil is pretty much non existent and you can't help but wonder what he was doing just a few days ago before he joined our family.

I snapped these pictures on our couch, hence that white stitching! Look close, it's there.

I think out of all of my babies, he's been the hardest one to photograph. He HAS to have something in his mouth every second. For this next picture you can see how his mouth is perfectly round. That's because I literally snatched his pacifier out of his mouth and snapped a picture!! He probably thought I was torturing him. I'd pull it out, put it back in, repeat!

No pacifier? My finger will due!

Yes, I know, I gave birth to a hairy monkey! Look at that back?! I love it!! He's too sweet in this picture, with a thumb in his mouth! See what I mean??

Apparently, I didn't give him back his pacifier quick enough.

Although you can't see him, Riley was right there with me the whole time helping me take pictures of him. He's turned out to be quite the big brother!

Photo of the Day

2011-07-18T19:28:00.000-07:00

I thought it was fitting to start off Project Life with this new little one we were just blessed with. This picture, and the ones to follow in my next post, were taken on my black couch, zoomed in, so you can't tell it's a couch! Yep, that's how we roll here! I love that I got a shot with his eyes open. I was sitting on the floor in front of him, had my camera zoomed in and focused, then I would hurry and take out his pacifier and snap a picture! True professional over here! Enjoy!

2011-07-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

Project Life

I'm so excited to start this! I read about Project Life while blog hopping tonight. You take a picture everyday of random things: kids, nature, etc., and journal about it. The whole point is to learn how to use your camera and get off of the automatic function and learn to shoot in manual, try different angles, different lighting, etc. The website is www.beckyhiggins.com. She teaches classes on photography and has her own photography studio in Draper, UT. Wish me luck! Look forward to daily blog updates!!!

2011-07-17T22:08:00.002-07:00

Baby Emerson is finally here!

July 8th, 2011

10:20am

7lbs 8oz

21 inches

Our long awaited arrival is finally here! I cannot explain how unbelievably blessed we feel to have him. Here's his birth story:

Wednesday night (July 6th) I was at a Recipe Exchange over at my good friend, Lindsey's house. Our friend from church came over and said she basically put herself into labor. We were all super curious, especially me since my due was one week away and this baby who put me in the hospital too many times for preterm labor had suddenly decided to camp out and rest. This 'secret' she had, was nipple stimulation! AHHH! Totally freaked me out! She swore by this and told me to try it at home. She has 6 kids and it worked with every single one! She also told another friend about it, and it worked for her too! LONG story short and many details left out, I tried Wednesday night for 2-3 hours, contractions came but they didn't stick. Thursday night I was bound and determined to get this baby out!! I started around 10pm and told myself if nothing happened by midnight, I'd go to bed. So when that time rolled around I told myself, one more hour. Then another, so on and so forth. At 3am I was having a hard time breathing through my contractions. I decided to drive myself to the hospital and see if I had dilated anymore. (I was at a 4 that morning.) And no, I didn't wake Aaron up to take me, nor did I even tell him I was going in! He had to be up at 4:30 for clinicals and if it was a false alarm, it would have messed up his sleep big time! And I didn't want to wake kids, get them ready, wake my friend to take them, etc. You get the point!

So I arrived at the hospital around 3:30 and was dilated to a 5, so I was thinking, 'maybe this could work!'. From 4-7 my contractions died down and I heard the nurses talking about sending me home! NO WAY!! I started stimulation up and about 7am the contractions really intensified. I called the nurse in to come check me. In the 5 minutes it took her to get there, I went from calm and collected to crying through contractions because they HURT. Good news though, I was an 8!! Dr. broke my water, which just made my pain sky rocket! I had never felt pain like this. My other kids, I got my epidural at like a 2 or a 3!! Literally, I walked in the hospital and asked for an epidural right away so I didn't have to feel any pain! Why postpone it?! :) I called Aaron and he answered, "Are you ok?" to which I replied through my tears, "No, you need to get here!" I then called my friend Sheree who was going to watch my kids and somehow got it out that Aaron was bringing the kids by, again, through tears. I sent my mom a text that said, "Get down here!! I'm an 8!!

It seemed like forever, but finally the anesthesiologist got there. My nurse was so sweet. I was there by myself so she sat with me and helped me breathe through the contractions. I felt like a complete idiot. I hadn't cried that hard probably since I was a little kid! The epidural was the hardest thing ever to sit through! I'm paranoid about moving my back, and then I'd get hit with a huge contraction and I pretty much just screamed! Aaron wasn't here yet, (I later found out he stopped to get food!!!!!) Aside from the epidural, I also got something put in my IV to help with the pain since I kept saying, 'I'm going to die!' FINALLY after about 10 minutes, which was about 7 contractions, I started to feel some relief. Still no hubby! He said he was right around the corner, 15 minutes later he walks in with FOOD!!!!! Of course, Aaron can't go longer than 20 minutes without eating urgh!!

Aaron finally decides to make his presence at the birth of his last child (hear the bitterness in my voice lol??). His mom got there pretty quick after him. I pretty much gave up on my mom being there. She didn't even get my text right away (she was in the shower) and by the time she was out the door I thought for sure she was going to miss it. GOOD FOR HER Emerson was in a funky, sideways position, so the 'pressure' you feel when you know you're a 10 and need to push, did NOT present itself and I had no clue that I sat at a 10 for over 2 hours!! Finally the nurse was like, "I'm going to check you, I can't believe you're not a 10 yet." Lo and behold, I WAS a 10! I had my legs up in stirrups waiting for the next contraction to push and in walks my mom!!! Sorry mom, must have been a horrible site to see right as you walk in the door! haha!

Remember when I said the anesthesiologist gave me something in my IV for pain? Well between that and my epidural, I was SO numb. More than any of my other babies. When it came time to push, I literally couldn't feel what I was doing and had to be directed how to push. They had turned the epidural off an hour before I started pushing but it didn't help. (Because of this, I pushed a lot in my upper body, so the next few days I felt like I got hit by a truck from the neck down. So sore, living on pain pills around the clock!) Anyway, back to the story.

It was now 10:15am, been in active labor just over 3 hours. It took 3 contractions to push our little guy out and the Dr. said I could reach down and pull him up to me. I'm so glad Aaron didn't get a picture of this; I put him right by my face, and he was covered in blood and who knows what else; totally grossed me out and my face was probably hilarious!! I kept turning my head away telling the nurse to clean him off first!

Here he is!

I remember saying right away, 'I don't feel good, I'm gonna pass out'. Which is why there's basically no emotion in my face. I swear, I was completely overjoyed with him!!

I absolutely love his face here!

Nobody can remember what was said moments leading up to this picture! I look a little shocked don't you think? I've showed some friends and their comments crack me up:

"...and here comes the 2nd head now" haha-thanks Lindsey!!

Because I struggle with postpartum (every baby to be exact!) I had set a rule that nobody was holding the baby for 2-3 hours after he was born. If you think about it, you have your baby, you see him for maybe 15-20 minutes and then husband wants to hold him, then grandma's, sister's, brothers, neighbor's, random strangers that thought they deserved to be in the room while you shared this intimate moment with your husband. So thinking ahead, I thought maybe this would help me. The only time he left me was to get weighed, at my persistence, the nurse didn't even want to take him from me at all.

7lbs 8oz! My 2nd biggest baby!

After waiting 5 hours for my epidural to wear off (they're only supposed to take 2!) I was able to move around a bit with the help of my step-dad who stayed with me while my mom and Aaron went back to be with the kids for a little bit. Aaron's mom went to go prepare for a little impromptu birthday party for Raelynn. I didn't get my own room till around 5pm. Aaron and my mom brought the kids in to meet their newest sibling!

Riley has been the most excited for baby Emerson's arrival. I think probably because he understands what it all means to have a new sibling come home. He was ecstatic to finally meet him!

Tristan took to him right away too! Now he finally has a little brother to pick on and boss around just like Riley does to him! :)

and then there's this little girl. See how interested she is?!

Nope, not gonna look at him, hold him or even acknowledge he's here. Oh dear we are in for it!!

DAY 2

I was supposed to stay in the hospital 48 hours, but the pediatrician released Emerson and we got to come home a day early!!! I was so excited! Those beds are NOT comfortable and I hate the hospital where I had to deliver at. Their rooms are literally the size of my closet. I hated every second of it.

Raelynn was much more receptive today. She was very excited to see her new baby.

This is the sweet girl I know and love.

"Cheese"

Here we are all ready to go home!

And real life begins........

2011-06-19T14:20:00.001-07:00

Father's Day

I don't know why I'm having such a hard time starting this post. I have so many things I want to say, but it's hard to get started, and they're all jumbled up in my head! A lot of emotions come to mind when I think of a father. My main thoughts are what they SHOULD be like, and what they ARE like. When Father's Day comes around, I think of 4 people: My dad, my step-dad, my father-in-law and my husband. Each one comes with their own set of strengths (and yes, weaknesses, just like us moms!) Sometimes I think I have this warped, 'dream' image of what a father should be and that my expectations are too high, which ultimately, is not healthy nor fair. Learning to separate the reality with the dream has turned out harder than I thought. Any person can have a child, but it doesn't make them a good dad. With that, I ask myself a few questions when I start questioning, or judging:

"Does he love his child(ren)?"

"Does he have their BEST interest at heart?"

"Does he TRULY care about them?"

and my biggest one...

"Is he trying?"

I've come to realize that even though I have 4 different Father's to think about, each one can answer yes to all my questions, but I have to realize each person is an individual and they will show it in their own way, not MY way. I'm a work in progress in appreciating and focusing on the strengths of each person, but I (and my children) are extremely grateful for who we were put with in this life and wouldn't trade any one of them!

Here's a quick highlight of the 4 men:

My Dad

(Picture coming soon!)

This man just makes us laugh. He's had quite the life and even though he calls me Sue (his sister's name!) and always says, "This is your dad" when calling (yes Dad, you're in my cell phone and it says DAD calling lol), has a hard time remembers how many kids I have, their ages and names (but then again, so do I at times!) we still love him! He gets all outta whack if he hasn't heard from me at least once a week. His phone calls have grown from what they used to be, a 2 minute, How are ya? Good, Talk to ya later, to a 15 minute conversation about my life and what's going on in his.

My Step-Dad

Mark has been around since I can remember. I don't have too many memories when he and my mom weren't married. I've learned to accept his ODD sense of humor and now I can say I actually appreciate it! On special occasions like Christmas, Mother's Days or Birthday's, he gets very creative in his text messages. Usually it's a 'movie' created by a few markers and his thumb :)

My Father-in-law

Chuck is constantly looking out for me and my family. He's been known to call LATE, (in fact, if Aaron's phone rings after 9:30pm, we know who it is!) just to see how our family is doing. He checks on me with this pregnancy to see how I'm feeling. He's always there to help out in anyway he can.

And then there's this Man....

Aaron is the type of dad that loves to go play with his kids. He comes home from school and takes all 3 kids swimming (most of time I'm unable to go with them). He takes each child on a 'date' of their choice, just to spend time with him. Splurges on baseball tickets just so the boys can have a good seat where their tiny little bodies can actually see what's going on! I'm very proud to share parenthood with him!

This year I found a cute printout for a Father's Day card and had the kids fill them in.

Here's Tristan's...

1-Take me fishing

2-Took me on a date and we went golfing

3-Taught me how to ride a bike without training wheels

Tristan even drew on the back of the card....

he traced his little hand.

Riley's

He was very specific in pointing out that he made their clothes match:)

1-You take me to the pool

2-You take me fishing

3-You get us good food (apparently mommy doesn't! haha)

Even sweet little Raelynn took about 10 minutes and colored the front of her card

1-Sing me songs

(Aaron has always sung to her and it calms her down instantly!)

2-Always buy me cute clothes at the store

3-Play with and tickle me....a lot!

Happy Father's Day!

Summer Swim Lessons!

2011-06-14T09:22:00.001-07:00

This is our 2nd year doing swim lessons with the boys. It's really cheap, breaks up the summer and teaches them to swim! Couldn't ask for more! We do ours through the city of Gilbert at one of the high school pools here. They have new sessions every 2 weeks so the boys will get 4 classes, hopefully moving up each time but who knows!

Riley has always been the more difficult one when it comes to the water. He is so terrified of the deep end he can't focus on anything else. So getting him to go with his teacher without tears is a huge deal over here! This year he completely surprised me!! We're into session 2 now, but the first sessions and said bye to me and walked off! 2nd session he didn't want to move up from Level 1 to Level 2. He thought that meant the deep end and nothing I said was changing his mind! I tried talking to him, Aaron tried talking to him but nothing was really working. I had to take them by myself the 1st day and I was so nervous it'd be a tear fest, but again, he completely surprised me! Just walked right in!

Tristan is usually a completely different story. Last year, he went no problem. He actually started off in a class higher than Riley's. He doesn't have the same fear of water so it doesn't hold him back. This year he started in a higher class then Riley again and he is doing really good. The first 5 minutes of each class though, he has the hardest time getting in the water. Yesterday he actually kicked his teacher! This isn't like Tristan at all, so I'm not sure what's going on. But the second he's in the water, he turns into a little fish! And he's such a great swimmer! His class is directly across from Riley's, so in most of the pictures you can see both the boys.

I really enjoy going to their swim lessons everyday. (It's Mon-Thur, every morning for 30 minutes). Usually I'll pack Raelynn snacks and she is very well behaved, sits and eats them. I have a magazine or go through the mail as I watch the boys. I find it so relaxing!

I also made the boys their own sticker charts. If they go to swim class everyday without crying for the whole summer, they get to go to Big Surf Waterpark!

Riley is 6!

2011-06-14T07:57:00.001-07:00

How many things can one little boy do for his birthday?! I swear, this year it felt like a week-long celebration! First his Grandma Sheryl came to give him his birthday present the Friday before his birthday. We didn't tell him she was coming so he was very surprised! I thought I took a picture of it but now I can't find it. She bought him a giant bowling set!

His birthday was on a Tuesday, so we had his birthday party the Saturday before. His parties are usually pretty easy, it's June and we live in Arizona.....pool party!

There were a few more kids this year than normal due to the fact he had all of these little kindergarten buddies he wanted to invite! I think we had 11 boys show up. Only 3 came without a parent (which on one hand was a nice help, but on the other I thought it was annoying because I think by Kindergarten your child can attend a birthday party without their mommy)

We grilled hot dogs for the kids (much cheaper than buying everyone pizza!) After that we kind of hurried the kids through cake and presents because they were dying to get back in the water!

I need to explain his poor cake. Sometimes I forget it's so hot outside, it melts everything! I wish I had gotten a picture before we left the house but I was in a huge rush and it just didn't happen! By the time we walked from the car to the pool the frosting was dripping off. The middle of the cake USED to have a skeleton skull (not a number 6). Aaron was pretty ingenious and scraped the old frosting off and stuck the candle on the front instead. It was supposed to be a pirate hat :(

For his actual birthday, we went around town and cashed in on some freebies! First stop, Krispy Kreme! We were told they got 1/2 dozen free doughnuts, but when we got there, they gave us a dozen! Oh my!!!

Of course we started pigging out immediately! Luckily Riley is very good about sharing and gave everyone a doughnut.

My birthday boy!

After that we headed for some free lunch. His birthday happened to fall on a day when the theatres were promoting Cars 2.

They had advertised that Lightning McQueen and Mater would be in the parking lot (life size) for a meet and greet type thing. So we get there not thinking that the rest of the state also had the same idea....

The front of the line was up by the theatre. By the time I took the picture, we were about smack dab in the middle, it coiled around the whole parking lot.

Did I mention it was 100 degrees outside?!

Hot, tired boys.

I had Aaron wait in the car with Raelynn. There was no way I was chasing her in the heat, around a parking lot! We were in line over an hour and had moved maybe 20 yards. It was getting pretty pathetic. By the end, we left the line and stuck the boys in front of the cars in front of the ropes.

Raelynn couldn't get enough of the gigantic cars!

Ok so for this last picture, Aaron told the boys to go under the ropes and get really close to mater. I was dying from laughter, embarrassment, etc. so I took Raelynn to the car. He couldn't make it look like he was taking pictures of them, so he held the camera off to the side and started snapping!

And yes, he totally got caught :)

We WERE allowed to go up close next to Mack and take family pictures

2 hours later and drenched in sweat, we left!!!!!!!

Later that night we had our friends, The Pittman's, over for dinner and cup cakes.

They got Riley this HUGE styrofoam airplane!

Here's a water gun from Mommy and Daddy

Hmmm...looks better than his poor cake!

The following weekend Grandma Welly made it down here to bring him his presents. This is why I only buy my kids one or two things, she comes with half the toy store!

He got a tent, lots of camping gear to go with it, a tether ball station, water toys, you name it.

Here he is all decked out in his bug catching gear!

In the middle of opening presents we look up and see my nephew Lincoln doing this...

Hahaha! Glad I'm not his mom and I don't have to clean up that messy face!

Like I said, long week!

Happy Birthday Riley!

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-06-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

So every year for Memorial Day Weekend, Aaron has a softball tournament in Showlow. Sometimes I go with the kids and we all stay in my parent's timeshare. (It just depends what life is like that year!) This year my parents actually went to the timeshare also and brought my nephew Tyler. I brought my niece Taylor up also and she stayed with my mom.

It's such a nice break from the heat of Phoenix. The highs all weekend were high 60's/low 70's. I could have done without the horrible winds, but I'd still take it over 100 degree weather any day!

This is what we did EVERY day. It didn't matter if it was cold or windy, these kids didn't seem to notice!

I love this picture. They're seeing who can blow stronger because that means that other person gets a face full of water!

Paybacks?

This little guy, poor dude. Anytime my mom takes him out in the sun, he gets FRIED! My mom put sunblock on him every 2 hours but he still got scorched. So she went and bought him a hat and kept a shirt on him the rest of the weekend!!

Sorry Tyler!

Some quick snap shots.

Hi Mom!

Hi hot husband!

One night when we were taking showers before bed, the boys came out of the bathroom laughing and I look over and see my little studs like this.....

Apparently, Tristan's towel was only a hand towel!!! I died laughing when he turned around!!! I'm so glad I had the camera near by!

The guys played softball most of Saturday. Since I am technically on bedrest, I stayed back at the timeshare and relaxed with the kiddos. Monday we had to check out by noon so we spent a few hours at the softball fields. The kids did pretty good with keeping themselves busy! I hardly saw my boys. There's a park there and acres of woods to explore. My niece and her friend took Raelynn all over the place so really, I just sat there and watched Aaron play! It was great!

Later that night was the championship game. It didn't start till around 7ish and it was COLD. I put a movie on in the car for the kids and said 'goodnight!' Another game I was able to watch in peace!

Here's a few snap shots of Aaron playing...

Doesn't his arm look dislocated here?!

The winners!!

It was a long drive home that night! We pulled in the driveway a little before 2am!

Our First Garden!

2011-05-27T13:34:00.005-07:00

I've always wanted to have a big garden, but the thought is just so overwhelming. I've never done a garden before and have trouble keeping flowers alive! I was talking to Aaron one night about it and he came up with this idea to build me a 2-tiered garden bed. I literally just threw in all the seeds that I knew we'd eat if they actually grew. I read the back of the package to see how far to space the seeds, how deep to plant them, etc.

So we have:

Carrots

Corn

Onions

Garlic

Watermelon

Baby Watermelon

Cantaloupe

Loose Leaf Lettuce

Lettuce Heads

Peas

Green Beans

WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was ecstatic when I saw GREEN!

This was April 6th, a couple weeks after I first planted the seeds

April 29th

May 12th

These were all taken May 26th

Back when we built the garden, we were told that when it starts getting pretty hot, that we'd need some type of shade-covering or the sun would burn the plants. Well, it's that time! So Aaron built a little house to shade my garden!

Our little helper! (Riley was in school)

We actually have FOOD growing!!!!!!

Aren't these little things adorable?? They look like candy watermelons!

After digging around the watermelons, we found a BIG one hiding out!

Look close and you'll see the bee inside the flower. I had NO idea that watermelons grew into vines, or that the vines had flowers on them, or that the watermelons grew right under the flower and needs bees to pollinate them to grow! See how much I learned?!

Just in the past few days we're actually starting to see corn husks!

Sugar Snap Peas!

I remember eating these at ballgames watching my brother's play. I used to love them. Now I think of them as a vegetable and despise eating them! haha! I did eat TWO peas though! They weren't too bad but they're still not my favorite food!

Tristan peeling them open for the first time. We were so excited to see this!!!!

He just sat there the next 20 minutes eating peas...

When Riley got home from school we couldn't wait to get him out back to try some. He's a little more picky then Tristan so I was curious to see if he'd like them.

Another hit! YAY!

These were Riley's pick to plant in our garden. I let them both pick out a packet of seeds. They're doing really well in the garden! We picked some today so we'll see how they taste tonight for dinner!

Another thing I learned from gardening: lettuce will keep on growing! You tear from the bottom outsides of the lettuce, and it will keep sprouting from the middle of the lettuce head and keep producing more. A seed that keeps on giving!

We tore some salad leaves off this morning for hamburgers tonight!

Here's the crazy boys eating more peas.

Raelynn was around all morning, I'm not sure why she didn't make it into any pictures! I think most of the pictures were taken when she was napping? That would make sense because I finally had some free hands!

And here's our final product!!!

Here's a side view of it looking in

We couldn't shade all the sides or there wouldn't be enough sun, so we shaded the 2 parts that get the brunt of the heat all day long. I love it, it's like my own little green house!

May 23rd

2011-05-27T07:52:00.001-07:00

Tristan's Preschool Graduation

I'm not sure what you're graduating to bud but we'll celebrate anyway! He's just a few months shy of the kindergarten cut off. For their end of year party their school went to a bounce house place in Mesa. I had never been to this particular one but it was really nice, everything was in great shape. (Which is not the case for most bounce house places) They had 2 giant rooms with different types of bounce houses.

The first thing Tristan went to was a giant slide

Raelynn just wandered around for the first little bit. I don't think she knew exactly how she felt about it.

Very slowly, she'd go in and out

Finally got the hang of it! They had little slides and she could climb up them all by herself after Tristan showed her how to do it.

They had a few different bounce houses that were actually games. This one you shot nerf balls out to the target. There was another one that was for t-ball and the tee had air blowing up through it so your ball would float for you to hit it. Pretty cool!

The actual graduation took forever to start! Tristan had to keep himself busy!

Finally! Here's my little stud!

Here's his whole class!! His teacher had like 5-6 other classes, but theirs stayed small all year.

He got a certificate and a reading award. I love his face in this picture. His teacher had just said that in his first year at her preschool, he had learned to read and read 17 books! He looks so proud of himself!

I have my own opinions on his preschool. He won't be returning next year, but he did learn the fundamentals of reading which is great! He would usually read 1 book a week and then move up to the next one. His first books were pretty basic, I am Sam was his first. His last book he passed off had the words this, that, the, will, with, etc. in them.

Way to go Tristan!!!!!!

May 12-13th

2011-05-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

Father and Sons Camp Out

I look forward to this event ALL year long! I think it's so important of the kids. Dad's just don't get to spend as much quality time with kids because of their schedule, so I really cherish events that focus on the boys and their daddy. This year they went just outside of Payson, AZ. Aaron actually took the kids up a day early just to get more time up in the woods and to make the 3 hour drive worth it.

With that being said, the last thing I said to Aaron as he walked out the door, "Make sure you get a lot of pictures!" Yep, didn't happen. He pulled the camera out once, took a picture of their lunch and that was it! But it's better than nothing!

Here's my cute kids all decked out in their cameo (that they requested to wear)

My dear Aaron, I don't even know what this is?! My ONLY guess is sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top??

Aaron's buddy Tommy from the ward...

From talking with Aaron and the boys, they did a lot of quad riding. One day Aaron and Tommy took them to the fish hatchery in Payson which they thought was pretty cool. Riley said something about a bow and arrow? Not too sure with that one!

May 10th

2011-05-26T19:58:00.001-07:00

Remember this?!

I'm sure it was only a matter of time.....

I was in the kitchen and had the front door open while the boys were out playing. We have a sidewalk that goes down our street then goes into the green belt (which is in our backyard) then back around in front of our houses. "The Circle" as the boys call it. They are allowed to go around in the circle as long as the don't stop till they get home.

Well I heard this screaming but it didn't sound like my kids, so I kind of ignored it. But it kept going so I walked out front and saw Riley running over to our house with blood running down his face (honestly, the pictures does NOT do him justice!!) My first thought was he broke his nose or lost some teeth or something! He frantically told me he wrecked and it dawned on me I have another kid I need to find!! They weren't far, they were actually across the street, two houses down, but they broke the rules none the less because they left 'the circle' so I'm more mad right now than anything. I guess Riley was driving and hit a patch of rocks that spun them out. Riley flipped over the front of it, Tristan fell off the back. They both had really bad bloody road rash all over their arms and legs. My next question to them, "WHERE ARE YOUR HELMETS?!" UGH! I can't believe I didn't check them before they went out! They know to wear helmets AND stay on the path (no rocks!). Since we were close to home I yelled for Aaron who came and took Riley since I was POSITIVE something was broken, or teeth were missing! (None of which were true :) We soaked them in the bath so we didn't have to scrub their rashes and put numbing cream (lidocaine) on their little owies, worked like a charm! By the time bedtime rolled around, we had 2 sore, achy little boys. Riley seemed to have taken the brunt of the fall and ended up with a fat lip and huge cut on his chin. We thought he chipped his tooth because it was MUCH shorter than his other front tooth, but the next day it looked completely normal! We think he just hit the ground so hard it must have shoved it up into his gums, but within time it came back down to it's normal setting.

Of course the next day after school, Riley asks if he can go back out and ride his vespa!

April 24th

2011-05-26T19:58:00.000-07:00

Easter 2011

Our traditional Easter pictures with the kiddos...

The lighting was horrible so we kept moving spots...

And of course, some pictures turned out better than others!

I LOVE these next 3!

I think this picture would have been so cute if Raelynn would have looked up.

I love these shots of Rae

Such a beautiful girl

Riley asked to use the camera, so I let him take a picture of me and the other kiddos. Not too bad bud!

After church we went over to my SIL Sarah's house for a hunt and dinner. Aaron's parents were also coming down. Grandma Welly always does an Easter basket for each grandkid.

Stuffing their faces!

I really need to explain these next 2 pictures. I have somewhat of a history of bringing the most wrong things for Easter! A few years back, Sarah asked me to bring a dozen Easter eggs for my share for the hunt. I thought ok, easy enough. I show up with a dozen EMPTY Easter eggs! It never dawned on me she wanted me to stuff them! (Can you tell this was my first Easter with kids?!)

So this year she told me to bring a couple bags of candy to stuff the eggs and what did I show up with?!....

TOOTSIE POPS!

We were dying laughing! I was determined to make these suckers fit into the eggs, so I broke every stem and shoved those bad boys in! DONE!

The Hunt!

Tristan

Riley

Raelynn

How I love this picture!

Raelynn got bored pretty fast. She decided to take up skate boarding! How she knew what to do on a skateboard is beyond me! We don't own any, I have no clue where she saw this!

Let me just add that the day before Easter we sat down and talked to the kids about the real reason behind Easter and explained the resurrection. They were so intrigued and had so many great questions!

March 30th

2011-05-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

My Love and Me

My SIL is organizing a collage for my MIL for Mother's Day and needed pictures of all the siblings and spouses. Aaron and I are totally old school (and cheap!) and used our block wall outside and our back drop! I don't think it looks too bad??

Look close and you can see my 6 month prego belly!

I can't decide which one I like better, black and white or color?

March 22nd

2011-05-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

An awesome find!

In our neighborhood the first week of the month is bulk trash week. People put out the most oddest things! Aaron found this sitting on the sidewalk and the owner happened to be right there. So Aaron asked him if it was really up for grabs. He said yes but that it didn't work, he didn't know what was wrong with it but that it's just sat outside all last summer. This is where I love my husband and his huge collection of weird knowledge up in that brain of his. He instantly assumes the battery is melted. So we take home! He was right about the battery and it cost us $40 to buy a new one! I'm still trying to get over the heart attacks I have every time I see Riley riding it.

March 19th

2011-05-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

A few random pictures

Riley and Tristan were at Grandma's for the weekend so Aaron and I went on a date, with Raelynn in tow and afterwards we stopped by the temple to walk around. When we were dating we used to go to the temple for walks multiple times a week. I had a little apartment less than a block away so it was perfect.

Aaron's favorite part of walking around the grounds is that Spring smell the trees give off. It is quite amazing and makes you not want to leave.

We took a few random photos

Such a beautiful place. It's hard to leave.

March 13th-17th

2011-05-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

Spring Break 2011

We took the kids to Las Vegas this year. They love going there and staying in, 'The Castle' aka The Excalibur. It's so darn cheap it's hard not to! We got our rooms for $30 a night and stayed in the tower that was just remodeled. We mostly just hang out by the pool all day. They have 4 different pools and 3 hot tubs. One pool has 2 waterslides and another pool has a huge shallow area which is perfect for Raelynn's age. We also did an all-you-can-eat deal where you pay $25 and you get unlimited access to their buffet. It was such a good deal. We ate SO much. We went there just for a mid-day snack or drink. And since Aaron could eat all day if you let him, he even went back after we were all asleep to get more.

Every year when we check in, the kids always spot the GIANT Sponge Bob!

We went to the M&M factory and bought Emerson a red onesie that said M on the front. Riley wanted a little m&m stuffed animal and Tristan got a m&m football (Which he left somewhere the same day and we never did get it back!)

A couple times we went over to Chris and Jackie's to spend time with them. One night we walked down the park and had pizza and let the kids run around. On another night we let the kids go to the arcade that was in our casino. We didn't actually play any games because I think it's a huge waste of money, but they did have a 3d Sponge Bob ride that they weren't able to ride last year so this was their year!! Aaron took them on it and the boys had so much fun going to, "Bikini Bottom!"

We went to the New York, New York Casino. I really like this one because of its atmosphere. (No, not the nasty people and smoke filled rooms) but the cobblestone streets, the little side stores and hot dog stands. I just think it's so cool! So cool, I had to get a picture!

Tristan was in the middle of throwing a fit, so I only got a picture with Riley.

See that lovely tear-stricken face?!

Raelynn is saying, "Cheese!"

We stopped at a little restaurant on the street for some lunch. It was a diner-type hamburger joint.

As we were walking through the casino, we passed a henna tattoo place and I made a joke about getting tattoo's for our kids. Aaron thought that was the coolest idea! Next think ya know we're picking out tattoo's for our 4 and 5 year olds :( lol

I won't mention however, that as soon as we were told to rub the excess ink off, the entire tattoo smudged all over their skin. So it turned out to be a waste of time and money and they had black blobs on their arms.....guess that's why the prophet says NO TATTOOS!

We were walking around one day and saw all of these characters lining the streets. I had never seen something like this before, but I guess they dress up and then if you want a picture with them, you tip them! So each boy gave them $1 and we did 2 pictures. We had to do 2 pictures so each boy could have a turn holding his huge gun!

The last morning we were there, Chris and Jackie told us about this amazing restaurant at the M Resort that we just HAD to go to for breakfast. There had been a lot of famous people that had eaten there and it had been featured on a few shows on Food Network, so obviously we took their advice! They warned us the portion sizes were huge and even for Aaron, he'd want to share a plate.

They were not kidding!

This is the biggest pancake I have ever seen! You can't really tell, but it's actually a brown sugar and banana pancake, a couple eggs and lot of potatoes!

As yummy as the food was, the service was not. It took over half an hour just to get our order in and with 3 little kids, that's a nightmare. I had to come up with something to keep them busy....

It's a napkin face!

4 days later and nice tanned skin, we came back and got settled back into our school and homework routine.

March 3rd

2011-05-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

Our 1st water day of the year

I LOVE this water slide that Grandma Welly got for Riley for his birthday. It has been, hands down, the most used present ever! It was hot today so we pulled out it and let all the kids play on it. We even had a few extra friends around to help break it in for the new year.

The whole gang!

Dillenger

Drake

Riley

Most of the gang...

Raelynn didn't have a problem just sitting on top of the slide, it was the going down she wasn't too fond of.....

I'm not sure what happened but this is not a happy face!

She must have learned her lesson to stay at the bottom!

The weather cooled down pretty fast. This was after school right before dinner so we only played on for maybe an hour but it was worth it!

February 27th

2011-05-25T13:33:00.001-07:00

Star of the Week

Riley got to be Star of the Week! (If you couldn't tell already!) We spent all weekend working on a board for him. We put some pictures up of past vacations to the beach, him on his quad, playing sports, and pictures of his family. I know it's so cheesy that as parents we get to excited over our children's accomplishments, but it's just so hard not too! Kindergarten has been quite the whirlwind for us. He entered in not being able to write his name, not knowing all of his letters or numbers and if you could see him now, it's just a whole different kid.

All week he got to be the line leader and the teacher's special helper.

February 23rd

2011-05-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

It's a BOY!!!!!

Yep! Our 3rd boy! Welcome Baby Emerson!

My favorite! It looks like he's waving hi!

Our sweet boy. He's looking to make his arrival around July 13th.

February 17th

2011-05-25T11:34:00.000-07:00

AZ Science Museum trip with LOTS of kids!!

The boys started off wheel chair races!

such a sweet little onlooker...

This is pretty much what she did the whole time. She came out for certain exhibits, then went back into her stroller for snacks. Smart girl!

Bed of Nails

Last year I took Tristan here he wouldn't do this, but after seeing so many kids get on it he finally did it!

This one was pretty funny. That big brown hole is supposed to be a giant nostril. You throw these balls up in the nose and it explains how foreign objects must be sneezed out.....you'd hear a VERY loud noise and then, "....a a achoo!!) and it would throw the ball back out!

I can't believe I didn't get pictures of the digesting stomach!!! You started off entering in through the mouth, you climbed some stairs into the stomach, all the while there is a lot of noise, like a gurgling stomach, then you went down a slide as if you were 'exiting' the body. HAHA! I loved it! I told the boys they had always been little turds, this exhibit fit them just right! Even Raelynn loved it.

Here's the gang! Our friends Dillenger and Drake joined us for the day.

February 12th

2011-05-25T11:25:00.001-07:00

Rawhide w/the Pittman's!

I swear everything in my life starts with a coupon haha! I had heard about this place for years but never went. It's supposed to be this Old Western Town, with cowboys, bbq food, etc. So when we got a coupon for a free entrance and free rides, we were all over it! And to make it more fun, we invited our friends Lindsey and Matt and their 2 kids.

First up, photo shoot!

Look who's in Jail!

I love the boys faces in these pictures, they are priceless!

Riley having an attitude?! NO! :)

There were a few fun activities that had killer lines!! We waited in line so the kids could pan for gold, then the next line we hopped into was for a 5 minute train ride. We had been waiting for over 30 minutes, when the (grown up) boys heard of a Pie Eating Contest. The contest started in 15 minutes so we were all thinking we'd have just enough time to ride the train, then run to the contest. We were the NEXT in line to board the train when we heard the announcement that the contest would start in 5 minutes. Riding the train would just cut it too close, so after 45 minutes of waiting, we LEFT the line and ran to the Pie Eating Contest.

Here's Aaron showing us his 'Big Guns'. Ya since those will help you eat a pie babe?? :)

They sure have some weird looks on their faces....

...maybe they were looking at this guy?

He was hilarious. Supposed to be this nasty old drunk guy. Plays the part pretty well huh?! He was cracking jokes for the crowd before the contest started.

Look how delicious that looks!! (Maybe that's the fetus inside me talking!)

Ready, set, go!!!!............

Aaron said he realized that he wasn't going to be able to finish it, SO he starts spooning his pie filling on Matt's head!

Matt ended up winning the pie contest!!! He was sent home with a yummy, cherry pie. A new one, all intact!

And since I'm a frugal person, I couldn't just let the rest of Aaron's pie go to waste in the garbage can...

"What?! I'm pregnant!"

So after the pie eating contest, we went back to the LONG train ride, waited ANOTHER 45 minutes, took a 5 minute ride and the kids were very happy!

Next we went to catch a 'Wild Wild West Show'. In my personal opinion, it was pretty cheesy and lame, but it was free and the kids had fun!! We only got one picture, the lighting was horrible and by the end of the show it was pitch black.

See the nasty old drunk guy?! He was everywhere!!

What a day! It was so much fun! I know it's only February, but it was in the 80's, the first for the year! We were not prepared for the heat and spent a lot of money on bottled water! (Riley did end up throwing up that night, too much sun maybe?)

So glad we have good friends to share fun days with!!

February

2011-05-25T09:22:00.000-07:00

First post of the year.....

Sorry, just a couple snap shots!

Raelynn in all her glory. Toys all around her, boots on, in a pretty dress, with daddy's xbox control. She's in heaven!

I didn't even pose this one! I happened to see it so I pulled out my phone real quick and snapped a picture of them. How is it these 3 wiggly (sometimes bratty and smelly!) faces, are the center of our world? If they only knew how much they meant to us.

December 25th

2011-05-25T09:04:00.001-07:00

Christmas!!

There's nothing like cousins running all over the place giggling and having fun. This year, Raelynn and Lincoln were old enough to join in! They were adorable, taking turns pushing each other in the baby stroller.

See what I mean?

Only a few, minor accidents of going down a step and flopping out of the stroller. This is one of the few times they actually got along.

I'm pretty sure this was my SIL Julie's idea. All of the cousins had a part and they did a little scene about Christ's birth.

As we grow older and the excite for presents wears off, it is replaced by Julie Hammon's homemade orange rolls! I kid you not! Aaron and I look forward to them every year and they are delicious! Julie is a good friend of Debbie's and each year on Christmas morning she delivers 2 huge trays of warm sticky goodness! Next year I'll get a picture of them, you'll be jealous!

Here are some snap shops from Christmas morning

Boys got new bikes from Santa Claus! Why you ask? Well because their mom keeps running them over with her car!!! Thanks Santa! :)

Raelynn got a baby doll stroller that holds 2 babies.

Ummm...I'm not sure what they're doing. But they're cute...

Now let me explain Aaron's stocking stuffer. Each year we do a stocking for each other. I had been saying things for weeks leading up to Christmas that's he gonna laugh when he sees what I put in his stocking. Whenever Aaron cooks meat, he beats it first.....with my PLASTIC spatulas!! I'm sure you can figure out what's happened to a number of them, broke! So I put a large, metal (heavy!) meat mallet in his stocking! Before he opened it, I said, "Aaron, you're in a good mood right? No tension, no one you want to hurt right?" hehehe.....

Aaron was pretty creative this year with my own stocking. Instead of an actual stocking, he bought me a new purse and stuffed it full of jewelry!

Her new backpack (with a diaper change and I couldn't get her to hold still long enough to properly put her pajamas back on.

Her new puppy

A very cool race Hot Wheels Race Track from Grandma Welly!

Grandma Welly got her a car!

All month, all I heard from Tristan was how he wanted, "Stinky the Garbage Truck!" I had NO idea what it was, but I told Debbie and of course, she delivered!! All it was is a garbage truck that talks and and moves and comes with a movie. They have a yellow tractor that is the same concept at home too.

Merry Christmas sweet kids...

December 1st

2011-05-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

Dentist appointments! Raelynn's first one.

Santa was in the office!

I have a shot of all my kids screaming with Santa when they were young. I've heard parents say they'd never let their kids be traumatized like this, but quite frankly, I find it hilarious!

-XRAYS-

Riley: NO smiles! He HATES xrays! I can't say I blame him, they are horribly uncomfortable but this kid will kick and scream till they're over. This is why there is only ONE picture of him, before they were done, before they needed our assistance calming him down.

Tristan did good!

Even Raelynn tolerated some stranger sticking their fingers in her mouth.

She was first up and did fantastic! She LOVES getting her teeth brushed so I'm pretty sure she's thinking she's being pretty pampered.

In the zone. Just keep watching tv Riley! haha! He did good in the chair, he was nervous but nobody lost their fingers that day and I consider that a mission accomplished with him!

And like usual, Tristan did great too!

The dentist gives the kids tokens at the end and they have a bunch of little toys the kids can buy with them. For this visit we also got free movie tickets!

November 26th

2011-05-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

Family picture time

One thing I've never paid for, is for someone to come take pictures of my kids/family. It costs over a hundred dollars and I think it's a huge waste of money, especially if we have a camera as nice as the professionals do. So we do them ourselves! These were taken in Cottonwood in front of an abandoned shed that used to be owned by the church. You may not be able to tell by the pictures, but we were dying of heat! These pictures are for our Christmas card so I tried to dress them in something that said it wasn't still 100 degrees! Enjoy!

I loved how they turned out! It was definitely tricky getting the ones of the whole family. We put the camera on a timer and put it on top of our dog kennel! :)

November 7th, 2010

2011-05-20T15:43:00.002-07:00

Tristan is 4!

Last year I was horrible with Tristan's 3rd birthday. No party, candles were tea lights, etc. No need to keep going on my bad mommy moment! This year I promised him a birthday party and he picked Transformers! When all of the little kids got there, we gave them Transformer masks to wear around.

The first game we played was a 3-legged race. We literally did this a dozen times, they were having so much fun!

All they had to do was get to me to be the winner!

Next we did a tug o war and since this was a Transformers party, we put them in teams,
Autobots vs. Decepticons

Their faces were so intense! I just loved it!

I don't have any pictures of our next game. But we took them on a scavenger hunt all around the park. Each question was geared towards Transformers and at the end they were looking for the allsparc. We definitely had some HUGE Transformer's fans there!

Of course we saved the best for last. Cake and presents!

This cake took me almost 3 hours to do!

Family Party
The next day we did a family party for Tristan. My parents came down and most of Aaron's side was there. We had dinner and opened presents. Oh and cake!
This one was much easier since I didn't make it!

I still have figured out if Riley is eating the frosting in the background?

I think this picture is so adorable!

This present even had me guessing what it was. It was huge!

A gigantic pillow pet!!

Happy Birthday Big T!

October 30th

2011-05-19T20:45:00.002-07:00

Halloween Fun!

So this is actually part 2 of our Halloween fun. The night before we had a neighborhood trick or treat night. Our bishop's wife had an awesome idea since our ward party was on Saturday night, which would typically be the night you'd go out trick or treating. She sent invitations around and asked who would want to participate. She then delivered these signs that you staked down into your front yard and gave you a map that listed all the houses that were participating. It was great!! Raelynn ended up getting really sick so Aaron ended up taking her to urgent care. I didn't have anyone to stay back and pass out candy so I just left my bowl out and hoped kids would only take one. (It worked by the way!)

So, onto part 2! Our ward party! Here's my little men.

(In the usual, costumes from their own dress up closets! One day they'll figure out I'm cheap)

Raelynn doesn't have any dress up costumes, but my neighbor lent us this cute Tinkerbell costume!

We met up with our friends, the Walton's. Our kids are almost the exact age.

I'm not sure where Tristan ran off too, but Riley stuck around and got his face painted.

After dinner, we all went to our designated rooms, that we decorated earlier that day, to pass out candy as the kids went around the entire church trick or treating.

October 27th

2011-05-19T20:23:00.002-07:00

No training wheels!

Am I the only mom who gets so nervous/scared over the littlest of things?! I about had a heart attack! But, Tristan was so persistent! I held him off for a few days but I have a very stubborn, independent child. Keep me in mind, he's not even 4 yet! (granted, his birthday is in like a week, but still!)

Aaron took his training wheels off and there were LOTS of falls. Here's the 1st one...

Doing good, doing good......I call out, "Watch where you're going!"

...too late.

...and again

lots of these! Seriously, I couldn't get him to watch where he was going!

Poor dude :(

It took a couple days but he finally got it! Maybe I should have busted out the knee and elbow pads?

October 15th-17th

2011-05-19T19:48:00.002-07:00

Camping Trip at Stoneman Lake
Is it possible to have so many pictures from a 2-day camping trip?! There's over 50 pictures for this post! (he he have fun!)

People think I am SO weird because I love camping so much. And not just camping, but tent camping. (No trailer! Too bad Aaron and I don't see eye to eye on that one) Oh and we have to be near some sort of water. Really, what's camping without playing in a river? So when Aaron suggested we go up to Stoneman Lake (near Flagstaff) I was all for it!! I did not win the war of trailer vs. tent so we stopped by Cottonwood to pick up his Dad's trailer. After driving around for what I swear was HOURS to find the right spot, we finally piled out and my first question was, "Where's the lake?" To which Aaron's response was, "What lake? There's no water here Jayme." WHAT!? Apparently Stoneman LAKE, doesn't actually have a lake!!!
We pretty much just let the kids wander as we were setting up.

I look over and find the boys dancing on rocks....

Ya, they're busting their moves out!

We got their little camping chairs out and they decided they needed a break from, 'exercising.'

This is about to turn into one of those moments where your child does something and you can't help but laugh. Even though, it may have slightly embarrassed him, maybe he even hurt just a little but you just can't help it! Riley is pretending to talk on the phone to grandma and keeps pushing his chair back with his feet, the next thing you know.....

Ya we pretty much all saw it coming. He was FURIOUS that we were all laughing. He storms off and seriously won't talk to any of us for over 10 minutes. So the whole time I'm just snapping pictures of my incredibly stubborn child.

Ok maybe I got a little too snap happy. Say cheese babe!

Our next casualty.

I didn't even really see it happen. I think she just tripped and fell. But the faces that followed this horrific event (hense my sarcasm!) were priceless.

Really Raelynn?

Yep she's still going!

Aaron's getting pretty sick of the screaming and quite frankly so am I! So Aaron shoves a doughnut at her! Bingo.

If you can't beat them, you might as well join them....
yummy!

Oh yeah, she's all better now.

Another snap happy moment :)

Quad riding time. I look forward to seeing him ride his quad and at the same moment it absolutely terrifies me! Especially since my own wreck. But I just think he's so little. Yes, he's very good and understands everything about his quad and how to ride it, how fast/slow to go, how to take turns, etc. I'm still his mom and it's my job to worry. With that said, isn't he adorable?!

Ready to ride!

Ok so after our little photo shoot we loaded up the other kids on the rhino and let Riley ride behind us.

The kids just chilling

I look back and this is what I see. Talk about melting a mama's heart!

I'm sure this hill doesn't look that big in the picture, but I was nervous going down it in the rhino and I about died when I saw Riley come over the hill. Do you have any idea how many silent prayers were said that day?!

Break time for the dogs! (And my nerves!)

This is where I'm pretty much just begging to get back to camp. Off we go!

He really did do great. I tell Aaron all the time he's gonna be my little famous BMX rider one day. To which he reminds me, "Really? You actually have to let him ride and learn tricks Jayme." Hmmm....on to plan B then!

We were camped out right next to a huge hill (mountain? I dunno). The boys and I wanted to go exploring while Aaron laid down with Raelynn. I gave it my best shot with nature pictures. Pictures seem so dull without kids in it.

When nap time was over it was target practice!

Not bad! He hit the can!

Little man's turn! I'm not sure why I don't have a picture of his shot. We'll just say that he hit it! ;)

My turn! I love shooting. Aaron must have taught me well over the past 5 years....

got it!!

and since Aaron had the camera, paybacks. "Say cheese Jayme!"

Aaron and the boys went off the night to get firewood.

Look at this little helper! Complete with his very cool feather he found.

Well it must have worked! Look at that fire.

One of our traditional camp dinners..

Tin foil dinners!!

The boys had lots of fun making their own dinner.

Day 2: Was spent, doing pretty much the exact things as day 1. But here's some shots of Raelynn getting a ride on the quad. She loved it.

Can't wait for our next camping trip!!

October 8th

2011-05-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our balcony camp out!
One thing I LOVE about our house is the little patio off the master bedroom. (Complete with french doors!) It makes the perfect place for kids to build a tent, have a movie out, eat cookies and sleep!
Which is exactly what we did! Hung blankets over the railing and chairs to make our 'tent'. Then I put like 4-5 blankets on the ground since it's pretty hard cement. I let the kids pick out a movie from red box and eat cookies in bed!
Oh and for our 'tv' well I hooked up our computer outside and played a dvd on it.

They did eventually fall asleep. It was only about 50 degrees around 11pm so I tucked them back in their own beds and they've been asking ever since to do it again.

October 2nd

2011-05-17T14:58:00.001-07:00

Vertuccio Farms-Fall Festival

I'm not sure how we even found this place. It is right up the road, but I think maybe we got a coupon for it? I dunno but the kids had a lot of fun. We went with our friends, the Pittman's and their 2 little kids. It wasn't huge and I personally found some of their displays a little disappointing, like the corn maze. (It was like 2 feet tall. Really? A maze?) But I'm an adult and we didn't go there so I could have fun.

Right when we get there, Tristan thinks it's a good time to pick his pumpkin. Sorry bud, I'm not lugging that around all day!

There were lots of different activities for the kids to do and of course, having boys, these cool race cars were on the top of their list! The track was a small oval made out of straw bales. To make the cars go, you had to pedal them like a bike.

Felt bad for this little guy, he was just a little too short to get it moving fast.

Umm excuse me boys? What happened to the kids? :) Nothing like a little friendly competition!

It was HOT outside and there was no way I was getting on those cars so I hung out in the shade with my Raelynn.

I did however, go on the little train. It gave you a tour of the farm so everybody jumped on.

Lindsey and Genna

Matt and Austin

I thought this would make a cute scene for a picture and lucky for me my kids are used to me posing them in random places!

Ok this thing was funny, but WEIRD! A giant wooden cow with utters that spit out water! HAHA! My kids loved, "Milking a cow"......

The only shaded part of the farm was some picnic benches and there was a bounce house right next to them. The adults decided we need a little break! See ya later kiddos!

Family Shot!

I'm sure you know what this is, I'm not sure what the name is but they had an adult one and a smaller kid version. Riley wanted to give the adult one a try...

Not bad buddy! Made it up to the first line! :)

YES that sucker was loud Riley!

Tristan did the kid one and got it right about to the top of the cow's head...

I mentioned it was hot right?! This little chica was NOT liking the heat! Poor thing was roasting.

All done! Back to the pumpkin patch now! Of course mom had to snap a few pictures!...

Riley was so sweet and pulled Raelynn around in the wagon the entire time we were searching for pumpkins.

and Tristan helped from behind. Such helpful older brothers! They even let Austin get in for a quick minute.

Hmmm....I'm not sure. Aaron being Aaron! :)

Maybe next year it won't be quite so hot! I love living in AZ, but sometimes it's a little tedious with the heat and trying to plan family activities!

September 30th

2011-05-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

5 year Anniversary!!!!!

5 years down, 100 more to go! MOST of the time, Aaron comes up with really good date ideas. I won't mention the time he slept in till 11:00 on Mother's Day (and didn't even say 'Happy Mother's Day' until late that night). This anniversary he pulled it off! He got some jet ski's for the day, a sitter to watch the kids and we headed out to the lake!

To fully understand how this day went, we have to do a little backtracking. See, about 2 weeks I made this AMAZING dinner. Yes, so amazing I forgot what it's called. I stuck a roast in the crockpot with a can of cherry coke and something called El Pato Sauce, shredded it and ate it on delicious homemade tortillas! Literally one of the best meals I've had! After eating 2 huge burritos, I went to bed and woke up the next morning with BURNING, SWOLLEN and ITCHY skin!!!!!! What the heck?! I called Aaron and explained what was going on and we determine it must have been the El Pato I used in dinner. It's a Mexican sauce so it makes sense someone might have a reaction to it. I hung the phone up but not before Aaron says, "Don't eat anymore of it"......well.........lunch time rolls around and there's NOTHING to eat! Well, except for my delicious dinner from the day before......before I knew it, I had eaten a whole burrito! Within an hour, I was covered in HUGE red, blistering welts. They were so unbelievably painful. I was so swollen it hurt to walk on my feet and I literally had to crawl because of it. Ever seen HITCH???? Where Will Smith's face gets swollen?? That's what I looked like!! My eyes, ears, lips, EVERYTHING was swollen and very painful!! There wasn't any relief in sight for 10 days!! I was told I ate so much it actually poisoned my body and that's why medicine wasn't helping. On day 14, I almost looked normal and it was our anniversary. I was a little leery of doing anything because I was still so sore.

If you blow this picture up, you will see the remnants of my welts, which looks like blotchy skin now.

I have to admit, the cool water felt so good on my skin!

Here's a picture I snapped of Aaron right before we unloaded the jet skis. I though he looked VERY good! :)

It was such a fun day! Aaron got right out there and went crazy on the water! I was still pretty nervous from my quad accident so I was a wimp at first. But then I thought to myself, "If I crash on the water, I'll just go under. Not smack hard ground!" Slowly but surely I caught up with Aaron and within no time we were both having races, doing doughnuts and jumping wakes! One of the best days I've ever had with Aaron!!

September 27th, 2010

2011-05-16T12:48:00.001-07:00

Ice Blocking!!

I'm not sure how I ever got through my teen years without going ice blocking! Especially growing up in little ol' Cottonwood, AZ! Aaron has always talked about it and I'm pretty sure I knew what it was, I just have never done it! So we got together with the Pittman's and made a BBQ night out of it at the park!

This is why we put a towel on TOP of our ice block :)

I went down ONCE and that was enough for me!

The kids were so good waiting for their next turn. I won't mention any names, but there were a couple of grown men who went more than their turn! :)

Of course we have to take the dog down at least once.....

......and the baby girls!!

That face is priceless!

We got away with minimal injuries! Not too bad!

September 25th, 2010

2011-05-14T14:45:00.001-07:00

Photo Shoot with Raelynn!

Just for fun! Here are some snap shots of Rae...

Yes, I know there is a cell phone in almost every picture! We tried to take it away but she would throw a fit! Oh well, we'll just deal with a phone in our pictures!

September 11th, 2010

2011-05-14T14:42:00.001-07:00

Soccer Season Has Begun!

Doesn't every mom want to put her kids in sports when they're old enough? I've been waiting for Riley to be old enough to play soccer. We went to the first practice and he asked for different volunteers. There were like 7 different spots open. Team mom, Ass't coach, sponsors, putting up/taking down goals every game, etc. Team mom sounded fun to me! I volunteered right away! Then it came time for an ass't coach. NO ONE volunteered! I couldn't believe it!! This poor is supposed to coach our 10 kids by himself? Let alone the fact the when game time comes, we have 2 separate games going at the same time. So, let me introduce to you........TEAM MOM and ASSISTANT COACH! (You'd think someone would step up for the team mom spot since I just took on coaching right? NOPE!)

*Because I'm SUPER behind post these, I'm going to post the entire season on one post!

Riley is #6

(last one on the left)

Riley has turned out to be a pretty dang good soccer player! When he wants to, that is. If you know my Riley, you know his ups/downs are ridiculous. He was one of our highest goal scorers!

Aaron made it to almost every game with the kids. It started off a hot season then very slowly cooled down. We had a horrible schedule. When it was the hottest out, they booked us to play at 1 and 2pm. When it finally started to cool down, we had 8 and 9am games. Really?!

We made it through the season! It was so hectic on my end! They had us manage a team website. So I updated it every week with new pictures, practice/game times, announcements, etc. We had a banner competition for picture day that I had to coordinate. Snacks and drinks every week was quite the hassle. Getting them to sign up AND remember to bring them! But hey, I asked for it! We had a blast! Now I can't wait for Tristan to be old enough!

August 14th, 2010

2011-05-14T14:26:00.001-07:00

Picture Day at school

Is it just me? Or does everyone find that the prices for school pictures are ridiculous! I can take pictures myself and save $30-$40!

So here he is!

**Still having a rough time at school. I'm so grateful he has such a patient teacher. She is more than willing to work with him. We've started him on a behavior modification plan (I know, it sounds horrible! I swear I'm a good mom!). Apparently he likes to talk...ALOT! We're working on it though!

August 11th, 2010

2011-05-14T14:12:00.002-07:00

Tristan's 1st day of Preschool!

Tristan goes to school 3 days a week with his cousin Trevor. His teacher's name is Mrs. Judi. Her last name is Barnhill, so she calls the preschool Barnhill Pals. She is well known for teaching them how to read before Kindergarten, although I'm not real worried about that! I'm more worried about ABC's and 123's!

It's funny the different personalities our kids have. Tristan has never been afraid of starting anything new, or going somewhere without me. He was so unbelievably excited for today!

Here's to a great year buddy!!!!!!!

August 8th, 2010

2011-05-14T14:03:00.003-07:00

Really? Kindergarten already?

Yep! There's not much more I can do to keep him home now! My baby is officially a Kindergartner!

I think back to last year and how horrible those first few months were. He cried EVERY day for 3 months. He'd flip out and hit/kick his teacher when she would try and pull him away from me. (Oh how we loved Mrs. Margaret and Coach Jared!!) I REALLY wanted Aaron to be here to help me with him today, but unfortunately his own school schedule didn't allow it. My SIL Sarah asked if I wanted to walk over with her kids and maybe that'd help Riley ease up. So we gave it a shot! But not without a little photo shoot before school!........

Isn't this the Riley we all know and love?! He DEFINITELY has my personality. We can flip the switch and be in a bad mood in a second!!

Off we go to Aunt Sarah's! (Who lives RIGHT across the street from the school AND our boys preschool! Lucky!)

So we got to Sarah's and walked the 2 feet to the school. We said our goodbyes, Riley was absolutely terrified, I could see it in the poor guy's eyes. But he did go!

Good luck Riley! I love you bud!

**Update- He went the first day, the second day was screaming/kicking. The third day he caught up to me when I was almost back to Sarah's house by now (Don't get me started on how mad I was at the school for NOT seeing a boy RUN through the gates! UGH!). Seriously, he has such a hard time with new things, with change. (Sounds like his mom). It's hard for him not to have any friends on the playground he knows well enough that he's comfortable with to go up to and just start playing with. Breaks a mama's heart. Trust me, there were days we both just walked away crying.

July 27, 2010

2011-05-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

Arizona Science Center

So first off, when we were on vacation in California just a few weeks back, we somehow came across this great deal on a museum pass. We wanted to go the Science Center there, but to get our whole family in would be a lot of money! So I think maybe someone saw an ad? But anyway, it was for a little history museum in Florida, but it was a nationwide access pass to over 100 different museums for $35! Fast forward a couple weeks and we were on our way to the AZ Science Center! I went with a friend that I had met in Cottonwood. Her little girl took my ballet class and I had her portraits ready for her and we had both moved to Phoenix so we decided we'd meet up, have some fun and give her the pictures all at the same time!

Here's a few snapshots of the kids. I couldn't tell you everything they're doing as they were switching between stations so fast I didn't even have time to read about them!

Ok so this one was really cool. It was this slightly raised platform and it imitated storms.

The screen showed you what was coming next. So we saw fire, and it got really hot!

You can kind of see a red glow in this picture, which is the extremely hot lights!

This one is really hard to see. But the wind is and rain is blowing things everywhere. So what do ya know?! It starts sprinkling on us (not too bad) and got really windy! Pretty fun exhibit! Tristan stood by the railing most of the time, pretty scared. I don't blame him though, for some reason it was really loud.

This one took your picture and made you look distorted!

This one's Riley

and Tristan

Using a pully type mechanism to pull themselves up on these seats to the top of the rope. A lot harder than it looks!

A bed of nails. Once you push the button the bed raises up and you're 100% on nails! Only Riley would do it.

They even had some fun stuff for the babies!

Lots of fun! Kids were exhausted at the end of the day and it only took us 2 hours to complete all of it!

July 20-25, 2010

2011-05-02T13:06:00.004-07:00

Utah Family Reunion

My Mom and Mark put together a family reunion in St. George. It's pretty much halfway for everybody. My grandparents and a few aunts/uncles/cousins live in St. George so it was an easy trip for them! Even my dad and his wife decided to come from Roy, UT for a couple nights. On my mom's side of the family, we had the 4 siblings and their families. On Mark's side there were 3 siblings and their families. Plus our visitors changed everyday from our family that lived in the area. There was a LOT of people there that we never see! It was great! It was also on the weekend of July 24th. Huge holiday in Utah!

What we did every day.....the POOL!

I don't know where my kids got their energy from. From the time they woke up till sundown, all they wanted to do was swim! There were endless kids to play with since every cousin imaginable (on my side) was there, plus grandma's/aunts/uncles etc.

My brother Billy and Kim

My little sister Hailey and my step-mom Linda

Grandma Olson

Kim and me

Cousin Fayth, me and Taylor

My brother Jesse, Cody and their kids, Fayth and Taylor

Tristan and me

My mom and Grandma Olson

Aaron posing for the camera!...

My step-dad Mark

The chairs were SO HOT! We couldn't even sit on them without burning a butt cheek! Aaron's resolution? Dipping them in the pool!

If there's one thing I miss about Utah (because trust me, there's not many!) it's that they celebrate the 24th of July aka Pioneer Day! It's like the 4th of July all over again, but bigger! There's parades, fairs, and fireworks!

Aaron and I took the kids and headed to the parade that morning.

I'm used to candy being thrown out of floats, but this time we got glasses!!!

Of course we all sported them......

Except for this little chunk, she was just interested in the candy!

Tarzan actors- the play was in town that weekend. Since it's such a small area, it was the talk of the town that weekend.

After the parade we went to the fair. As usual, the kids picked the huge blow-up slide. (They pick it first everywhere we go that has one)

Then the swings...

haha...at least he's happy now!.....

Our typical Tristan, not a fan of the ride once it got started! You'd think he'd know by now, rides don't stay still, but he still keeps trying every new ride we see.

Raelynn and Mommy waiting patiently...

Snow cones, pop corn and face painting!

This is so typical of Riley, he's ALWAYS sharing with Raelynn. So sweet, melts a mama's heart.

Later that day we went to the park to light off fireworks. We took my little sister Hailey with us. The boys just loved her and we hardly ever see her. (Not to mention my dad NEVER lets her out of his sight!)

Had to get some pictures with just the two of us!

The cheapest, most requested things my kids ask for.....SPARKLERS!!

Nothing like a little game of Tag using fire! :)

Even Raelynn joined in on the fun....

Priceless face!!

Ummm....I'm not exactly sure what he's doing. Dancing?

Raelynn decided she was bored and needed to spice things up. I did not find out until I ran over to her flipping out, that it was, indeed, a CLOSED can of AMP Energy drink. Whew!

The kids thought it was so cool that Aaron let them light the big fireworks all by themselves. Meanwhile, this mom is yelling at them the second it's lit to run!!!....

What is it with Riley and preteen girls?!

I did learn a very valuable lesson from lighting fireworks....they WILL burn the cement a lovely shade of BLACK! How did I not think of that?? So sorry park!

July 11, 2010

2011-05-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

Cookies with Dad!

What? Mom gets a break?! YAY!!! Aaron out of nowhere was like, "Boys, wanna make some cookies?" I'm sure you can guess the answer, what kid doesn't like to make m&m cookies?!

Off they go!.....

(Riley waiting patiently for his turn to crack the egg)

Anyone knows the best part of making cookies is eating the cookie dough. I taught my boys that a LONG time ago! :)

They were so proud! And so was mommy! Good job Aaron, the dough even looks normal!

The waiting game.....

Aaron decides to take it up a notch and adds ice cream into the mix!

M&M Cookie, ice cream sandwiches! It just doesn't get much better than this.