The Christmas Tree

We took the kids out to find our Christmas tree on Tuesday afternoon. It was a tad chilly, but we still found our little tree. It's such a fun tradition for us! We take hot cocoa and have fun driving through the woods as a family. We typically go to the same area each year because we have had such luck finding a tree we love. We didn't get little Kennedy out of the truck because it was so chilly, but the other kids trudged around to help us search. We found one we all agreed on, daddy cut it down and we brought it home. It's much tinier than the last few years as we are in a smaller place. So on our way home we looked back and the tree was within a foot of being lost to the highway! The wind had caught it and lifted it up over the tailgate and a branch was saving it! LOL We got it home safely after that and brought it in to be decorated right away, we couldn't risk leaving it outside for some thief to take...haha only kidding but the kids were concerned! Anyway I got the lights on and then the kids got to hang the majority of the ornaments with the exception of branches they could not reach. I've got some pictures of our adventure for you! Merry Christmas!



Don't mind my hair..I don't lol

What I am Thankful For….

It's pretty tough to try to start at one point, not wanting to seem that I might be overly thankful for one person or thing than another!
Let's just start with Matt, my wonderful, giving, caring, unselfish, husband! He's truly my best friend. I'm so thankful for all he does for me and our little family, because without all his hard work and dedication to us we wouldn't be where we are today. I love you babe!
My beautiful, healthy and sometime patience testing children; Kylie, Tyler, Karissa and Kennedy. I couldn't be more thankful to have been blessed with such wonderful little babies! They can make me feel like pulling my hair out, locking myself in a padded room and screaming, but you know what…it's all worth it! I love them and all the new things they have brought to my life.
My siblings, Nicole, Ryan, Joshua, and David…although we don't live nearby they are always on my mind. I am thankful for having them all to grow up with. I of course am especially close with Nicole, being my sister and closest in age, but thankful for all the playtimes with all of them growing up, all the wonderful memories.
My parents, the ones who gave me life, who afforded me the opportunity to become who I am today. I am thankful to have them live nearby, that they can share in my life and my children's lives. I know the kids are also thankful for this as they love gramma and grampa dearly!
My in-laws, mother, father, sister and brothers! I feel thankful because I know so many people don't have good relationship with in-laws, probably particularly the mother-in law, but I do! I am fortunate that they live nearby as well and my kids can spend time with them and have a close relationship with them.
All my extended family, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I love them all, am thankful for the relationships I have with them and wonderful childhood memories I have thanks to many of them!
My wonderful friends be it the old friends that can complete my sentences, although there are the new ones I don't doubt can do that as well. I am thankful for so many fond memories and look forward to many new memories with the new friendships I have formed!
I suppose I could list a lot of material possessions that I am thankful for, and trust me I am thankful. I am thankful for the roof over our heads, that keeps us dry and warm, the vehicles we have that carry all of us from place to place, the toys we have that let us have fun together and spend time with one another, etc…etc…
Lastly, but certainly not least I am thankful for the MAN who created all of this, our Heavenly Father. I may not seem like it at times, but I do not forget Him and the many blessings He has bestowed upon me and my family.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Trying to update...

I'm having some trouble getting the page updated. I spent a long long time creating a slideshow and it won't work on here! :-( So I'll try to slowly post some random pictures now and some more in the next few days, just bare with me. Everyone is yelling that I haven't updated in a long time...sorry!
As most all of you know we had our little girl, Kennedy Paige. She was born on October 8th, after a few long and uncomfortable days of contractions! She was healthy and all went well. Kennedy weighed 6lbs 10 oz and was 20 inches long! She's doing great as she is already a month old. Time sure does seem to fly these days!
We had a fun Halloween. Kylie was a kitty, Tyler was batman, Karissa was a lion, and Kennedy a bumble bee. The weather was pretty decent that night, not too cold. We took them to the trunk or treat at Bison ranch and they made a pretty decent haul!
Tyler just had his 5th birthday last month and Karissa's 2nd is coming up in just a couple more weeks. Kylie will be 7 in January...now that's really sad for me to think my first is getting so old...you would think she is 16 if you talked to her! ha ha!
My school is almost over for the semester and I'll admit that I'll be glad, even though I only have 3 classes, it has started to feel a bit overwhelming having a new baby on top of the regular every day life demands of running a household and all that great stuff. I'm grateful for the support from everyone tho! Matt has been wonderful, helping to watch the kids when he is able to so I can go to class and or get my school work done! My mom and Laurie (mom in law) have also been a tremendous help in this department. Thanks!!
We have TURKEY day coming up...YUM YUM! I guess we will be going at it on our own this year, as plans just aren't working out to get together with everyone...that bums me out cause it's great to be with family, but things just don't always go as planned you know!
Did I ramble on enough and update everything? I think so...I hope so! Well here they are as promised..random pics for your enjoyment. Now leave some love..take care until next post which I promise to do better at doing much quicker!
This is Kennedy in her coming home outfit..

The kids shortly after getting the baby home

Kylie being a big help

Kennedy on her new blankey from my friend

The pumpkin patch

The Elk, etc!

Matt got his elk today! It was a tough hunt! He only had until next Thursday to find one and he did it today! I knew he would get one and a nice one at that. He's such a good outdoorsman! Anyway go figure, the elk dies at the bottom of a steep canyon. Thankfully there were a few itty bitty trees that stopped him from going any further; which would have made it nearly impossible to get him out. Thanks to the winch on the in laws four wheeler and some man power they managed to hoist the big beast to the top! Blake was able to leave school to come help and then of course Brandon and Roger helped as well. Laurie and I got to watch and wrangle Karissa. Karissa did not like it at all! She actually called it a bug at first! LOL Now the excitement is over and hopefully Roger can get a nice one soon too! Here are some pics from the days adventure and a video or two of them pulling that monster up the canyon!
Lugging it up the hill!

Tired out

The Crew

Matts Prize

Ok time to update...

I haven't been too good at keeping up on this blog! I guess things just got a little crazy. I'll just try to give you a little run down on what's been going on around here without making it too long!
We moved last month, back to our very first home! Our little trailer, it's a bit cramped right now, but it's not a big deal. We just broke ground on a house and we are going to try to move fast on it so we can have a little bit more space! This is the 3rd house we have built in the past 4 years, but the goal is to build and sell them so we can build our "final" house without having to get a mortgage on it! We are getting close to that goal, thanks to my hard working hubby!
Kylie started 1st grade last month! :-( Wow how time flies with the kids! She seems to be doing well so far and really enjoys her teacher. Tyler didn't get to go to pre-school this year because the school had to cut the program due to lack of funds. He has been getting to hang out with daddy and papa a lot which he really enjoys. Our little Karissa is close to turning 2 already which is crazy. I don't know where the time is going. She is talking a lot now, will copy almost any word you say. I just finally decided its time to break her of the bottle. She only gets one at night, but thats stopped! It's been a rough few nights, but I see the end in sight!
Matt has been busy as usual with all sorts of differnt projects from our port a potties, hauling scrap metal and digging the septic system for the new house. He's been going out a lot to scout for his big elk too. He has a hunt starting next Friday that he's really excited for. Poor guy sprained his ankle the other morning, but thankfully it's getting better fast!
As for me, Im 33 weeks pregnant and I can see the end closing in fast! I am anxious for this little girl to come meet us all! We are still deciding on names, so for those asking...nope we don't have anything picked quite yet. I also started school! I decided to pursue a nursing career, so I've got a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm excited about. Matt has been really supportive as has all the family!
Well I guess that's kind of it in a nutshell for now. I will post some recent pics for you all to see a little later on! Nite Nite

A haircut for Roo

Karissa got her first haircut today. Just a teeny tiny trim too keep it from her eyes. She didn't want to sit in the chair by herself so she sat on my lap for the haircut, but afterwards I got to snap a couple pictures of her in the chair. It's kinda sad tho because now she looks so much older to me! So here are the before, during and after pics!



Today was the mark of my 24th week...yay 6 months! Here's a pic for you that keep asking!

Ultrasound

We had the ultrasound today. Everything appeared to be fine and the baby measured right on according to my due date of Oct 20th. At first the little one wasn't wanting to cooperate, keeping feet in between the legs, but then we got a spread eagle shot!

Yup another little girl for us! Tyler and Matt were a little bummed out at first because they obviously wanted another little hunting buddy to tag along, but they are over it! We are all excited to welcome another little girl into our home! We figure it will be nice for Karissa to have a little sister close in age and since Brandon and Amber just had the twin girls they will have a little girl cousin to play with! I plan to have a 3D ultrasound done around 30 weeks or so and get some more fun pictures. This little girl was very active today, moving all over! Waving, flexing, kicking, thumb sucking, rolling, etc! I wish I owned one of those machines to watch my baby whenever I wanted! LOL The tech told us the machine he had was the top of the line and cost over 300K! WOWIE! I guess we need to get into that profession! LOL

The Butter Dish

Earlier today I thought to myself, where is Karissa?! She had been quiet for a little too long. I got up off the couch and went to the kitchen and found her sitting in her little chair with the butter dish in her lap. She managed to get it off the counter and was taking gobs of butter and slathering it in her hair. It looked like she was using it as lotion or gel or something. My mom-in-law says she thinks that Karissa was using it as conditioner because she saw Kylie putting conditioner in her hair this morning and that sure would make sense. Anyway, we found it pretty darn funny and I think Karissa did too! Here are some pics!

Nothing Special

I don't really have much to blog about. Matt is gone to Missouri for a business trip until late tonight. He had to get out of bed last night at the hotel becasue of a tornado warning and head to the stairwell! Pretty crazy, but the tornado didn't come through thankfully!
Kylie just got back late last night from a little mini trip to Las Vegas! Her grammie and papa drove out to visit Jared while he was there for a short time for some interviews. They invited both kids, but Tyler decided to stay behind and I took him and Karissa to the valley Monday night to go swimming. So far I guess the summer has started out pretty good for our family.
Oh we are moving once again tho! Yup....gonna move back into our very first home, our mobile home! We decided it just doesn't make sense to be paying the money for rent when we could technically live somewhere for free. So this will be I think the 5th or 6th move in the last year! WOW! I feel like a professional mover lol!
I had my 20 week check up today. Everything was fine, I measure right on, baby's heartbeat was around 148bpm and was moving quite a bit while we were trying to listen. We scheduled my ultrasound for Friday the 13th so hopefully by then we'll know what we are having. In the mean time why don't you go play this little game for us!

Oh and finally here is a pic of me today half way thru!

Kindergarten Graduation

Kylie's teacher put on a little graduation ceremony for her class last week. It was pretty short and simple and to the point. I must admit thats always nice when you are trying to watch a couple other kids in a small area! They sang us a couple songs and received their diplomas which ended it all. Kylie is moving onto the 1st grade and is very excited about it. She seems to be doing well with school especially the socializing aspect of it...i'm assuming she got that from me! Here are a few pictures from her graduation. Next week she has her final dance recital so be watching for a new post about that soon!

Mothers Day

I hope all the moms that are reading this had a great Mothers Day yesterday, I know I did. We went to church, visited both our moms and relaxed at home. It was a nice quiet day which is all I can ask for! The kids each made me a cute card and Kylie brought home a little craft from school for me as well. Not really much else to say other than hope you had a great day! A few pictures too...

San Diego..May 3-4

Last weekend Matt and I had a chance to go to San Diego to watch the Red Bull Air Race. It was a lot of fun! It was a really quick trip, but still a nice little get away for the two of us. We left early Saturday morning and drove to the airport to catch our flight. We were in group B to board and as we were walking down the hall to board they made us turn around! The plane was broke! Needless, to say we ended up getting into SD about an hour later then planned, but it wasn't that big a deal. We used Saturday to just mill around San Diego, eat some good food, check out the beach and relax!!! Oh we also watched Made of Honor which was really cute!! Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast and headed down to the bay which was where the airshow was. We were there all day until it was time to leave to come home. It was really neat watching some of the demonstrations prior to the show such as a coast guard rescue. The race plans were flying like 230 mph!! It was a lot of fun to see. However, i did suffer a small sunburn. I totally spaced using any sunscreen because it was cool and overcast, ya worst conditions. I am blistering on my chest which is where I got it the worst. OUCH...but all in all we had a great time!!! I'm posting some pics of a couple race planes, some randoms of Matt and I and the one I really love of the statue at the Naval Pier!

Girls Day

So last weekend my girlfriend and I got a chance to leave our kids and go to a spa for the day! We drove down to Phoenix on Friay evening and got checked into our hotel and then went out to dinner at Red Lobster!!! YUM! Afterwards we came back to our hotel and sat in the hot tub for a short time before heading off to bed. It's so strange when you sleep away from your kids, I woke up a couple times throughout the night wondering why Karissa hadn't woke up yet! LOL We woke up Saturday morning and drove over to a day spa in Scottsdale where we spent about 4 hours having a massage, facial and pedicure. It was wonderful! I hadn't felt so relaxed in quite some time. Naturally after that we were famished, so we went and had a big lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. I would have been ok with just eating a whole cheesecake, but I settled for single slice. LOL Once our lunch was over it was time to head back up the mountain. It was a great little relaxing 24 hours away from home thanks to the help from my sis and mom in law watching the kiddies! Here are a few pictures that speak for themselves!

Easter

We had a good Easter! A few days before Easter the kids and I colored eggs which was fun as usual. Karissa wanted to help, but she mostly just cracked a lot of eggs. On Saturday we had a picnic with Matt's family and hid eggs for the kids to find. It was fun, we had to hide them twice because the first time around Kylie had found more than Tyler and being as competitive as he is he wouldn't settle for second! LOL It was a nice relaxing day! That night Amber had her twins! We were all so excited to get to see them after waiting for so long, I know Amber and Brandon were even more anxious. Everything went well, and they are healthy beautiful little babies! On Sunday morning we let the kids find their Easter baskets and play around for a bit. We got them ready for church, and they went with Grammie and Papa so we could go up and see the babies. Kylie and Tyler we so upset that they weren't allowed to go into the hospital, but with RSV still going around they couldn't go in. So here are a few Easter pictures and one of the new little babies!!