Update Time

I have a couple months worth of catching up to do!! I probably won't break it all down into weeks and or months becauase that might take me too long and I'd probably wind up rambling on and on! I'll try to summarize what has been going on in our neck of the woods!

• In JULY i did a lot of scrapbooking with Mechel and just as I thought I was getting somewhat caught up...I went and took and developed more pictures! At any rate all the scrapping was a lot of fun! 
• We took the kids to a local Monster Truck show.  It was fun, but kinda damp and rainy and muddy!
• I learned that the microfiber couches I have, I do not really like.  I shampooed them, and they look improved, but not what I wanted.  I shampooed the carpet and that looked great for a few days! LOL
• I was officially signed off in the O.R. and began my orientation as a scrub tech in the OB department.  I love getting to train and learn from all the girls, they are great!
• The kids practically lived at Grammies during July.  They knew school was right around the corner and they couldn't get enough of Grammie and Papa's house!
• Rented "She's Outta My League" and we laughed a lot...two thumbs up!
• Stayed busy with some Forest Fires, the good ole Cheap Seats kept the fire fighters happy!
• Went to the theatre and saw "Grown Up's".  We laughed a lot at this movie too.!
• To finish up the month of July we took the kids to Phoenix to do some school clothes shopping, eat at Famous Daves and swim in the hotel pool!

Now for August...

• I watched the Time Traveler's Wife while Matt was at work and I would not tell you to watch this movie, it was pretty strange!
• I registered to be a bone marrow donor, just had to send a swab of my cheek to see if I match anybody out there.  I'd help if I could!
• I got to pick out and order cabinets for our new house.  I chose a gorgeous knotty alder with a dark stain.  I can't wait to see them installed!
• We had our 2nd Annual School Year's Eve for the kids.  Just a little night of fun, dinner, dessert, reading, games and some fun decorations...obviously school started for them!
• Went to Vegas with Andy and Mechel for a weekend.  Stayed at the Excalibur for the first and probably last time.  Saw a hypnotist show, walked a lot, shopped, ate, it was hot, finally rode the NY NY coaster, and of course went to the wax museum! Had a blast tho!
• Karissa started a pre-pre K. She hated the first day and wouldn't go.  Cried the 2nd day and 3rd, shoot cried for the firse 6 or so day, but she finally warmed up to it and does great!
• I started a dreaded Biology class.  It's really difficult for me!
• I wanted to go to the Payson Rodeo, but it rained so we opted out!
• Got to take the kids to a little spot in the woods I'd been wanting to do a mini photo shoot at.  Turned out to be a lot of fun, had a picnic while we were at it too!
• Matt got a nice buck with his bow. I think it scored 185.  Can't wait to have it back to hang on the wall!
• Went to Phoenix to have Matt's knee looked at, probably needs surgery again.  Ate some great food, oh and bought a boat that we have been saving up for!
• Took the boat to the lake the following day and had an amazing time!
• Played a lot in the sprinkler cause it was dang hot!

So now it's September!

• Labor Day weekend we spent at the lake of course! Friday we took Auntie Brooke along and had a lot of fun kneeboarding and tubing and swimming! Saturday we had Uncle David, Uncle Ryan and his girlfriend Kelly along.  More swimming, crazy Uncles on the tube and kneeboard, lotsa junk food too!
• Made our reservations for the Polar Express in December...which is coming up fast!
• Sit at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays while Matt's in class till 1030 at night!
• Celebrated Matt's 33rd Birthday with his parents, had lasagna, salad and bread.  Made a dirt cake which I served up in the back of a Tonka dumptruck.  That was pretty fun!
• Kylie and I made her science project which was a big butterlfy cake! It was a lot of fun and she said she's sure she got an a plus!
• Really wanted to go to the Navajo County Fair, but that didn't go my way.
• Got to watch my Green Bay Pack win their first 2 regular season games!
• Went to the local Oktoberfest! Bought some fabric, a shirt and some caramel apples!
• Made some craft projects...still making some craft projects!

Ok well I think that kind of sums it up for ya!  Gonna try to add some pictures later!

Independence Weekend

It was here and now it's gone! Happens so fast...every year at the 4th Matt sits there and says how Christmas will be here in no time and sure enough it is, and at Christmas he tells us how the 4th will be here in no time and it is! Time sure does fly!
So this year on Saturday I did the Carissa's Run at 530 am with my girlfriend Mechel.  I got home about 7 and got evrything ready for the parade.  Matt had to work Friday night so he was going to sleep while I took the kids.  The parade was pretty lame! Someone whined somewhere and so the parade had to be totally dry, no water balloons, squirt guns, hoses, nothing! It's such a fun tradition to attend the parade, but I honestly don't know that we will continue to do so.  After the parade I made a quick stop in at a baby shower and then home to get dinner all ready.  We had our friend Garth and his girlfriend over for dinner which was fried chicken, potatoe salad, buttered bread and a dinner salad.  I finally made the flag cake I've been wanting to do for the past few years.  We stayed home and watched the fireworks from the comfort of our front yard!  We got to visit with friends and family which is always important, but Matt missed seeing his brother Jared!  We know it will be here again in no time and look forward to fun traditions and celebrating our country's freedom! So grateful for all the service men and women that have made that possible and continue to do so!

California

Wow has it really already been nearly a month since I last blogged?! I knew I was slacking, but not this bad! I suppose I will start with our California vacation, which went a little something like this…..


The night of Friday June 25th, I packed up the car and situated car seats so we would be ready to rock and roll. I went to bed about 1130 pm, I was preceded by everyone else by a couple hours with the exception of Brooke and Tayler who went to sleep around the same time as I did.

We woke up at 230 am on Saturday, loaded everyone up and were on the road for San Diego at about 3 am. Our plan was to drive the 7 hour and 45 minute journey while the kids slept, we figured it would save a lot of headache…and it did! It took everyone about an hour to get comfy and fall back to sleep, but then they all slept until around 830 when we stopped for breakfast.

We made it to our hotel at noon, thank goodness for tom-tom, Brooke’s little GPS device…that really saved our lives! J We were able to get an early check in after we went and did a little shopping. Once we were all unpacked and freshened up we decided to head down to the Seaport Village and check out the naval ships and other sites. Everyone was pretty tired, but we did a little swimming in the pool and went to bed, so far our trip was going smoothly!

Sunday was our day for Sea World. Sea World is a lot of fun, it’s nice because there isn’t really any standing and waiting in line which helps with little kids patience and I supposed even us big kids! We watched Shamu, sea lions, dolphins in the Blue Horizon show, Pets Rule show and I’m probably forgetting a show or two. Matt, Brooke, Tyler and Kylie rode the “Journey to Atlantis” ride and got drenched! I was supposed to go, but Karissa was not happy about me going so Matt traded with me and I have to say after seeing how soaked they were, I wasn’t too disappointed! The kids got to feed and pet Bat Rays, feed sea lions, and look at all sorts of other marine mammals. My least favorite part of Sea World was the $8.00 pieces of pizza I bought for lunch…gag! Matt and I got to go out that night and enjoy a delicious dinner at a place called Phil’s BBQ. I just LOVE BBQ and well Matt loved that we were on some live web cam while waitin gin line and so he was putting on a show! The end of Sunday and our trip was still going pretty good!!

Monday was our designated day for the beach so of course you know the weather wasn’t going to cooperate. It was chilly, misting rain and overcast! We decided since we were going to head to Anaheim that evening we might just head north a little earlier and look for a beach. We wound up going to Newport Beach which was a great beach! However, the weather was only slightly better, but we were going to make the best of it. We had to rummage up as much silver change as possible for the parking meter because you know here in Heber we don’t typically have to use those so it slipped our mind LOL! We packed our lunch for the beach and set off for a good few hours at least. The water was a tad chilly at first, but then it warmed right up! We were all having a good time…until, yes until….we notice the lifeguard rescue boat zooming over to a group of people out in the water a little ways. We then notice that Brooke and Tayler are in that group…yep we sat there in astonishment as we watched a lifeguard jump off the boat and pluck our Brooke and Tayler out of the water along with several other people! We could tell they were standing and moving so appeared to be ok, so we were confused as to what had happened! We watched until the lifeguard then jumped off the boat with Brooke and Tayler and swam in with them. Well, long story short, they got caught in a riptide, I guess really Brooke did more than anything and Tayler was doing her best to help. Pretty scary for them, thankfully all were ok, but it kinda made our so far smooth trip get a little bumpy. Needless to say, they didn’t go back into the water! It was sand castle time and bury the kids time for them. We went to our hotel and swam some more because apparently everyone felt a little safer in the 5 foot deep pool! After we all showered, we grabbed some pizza for dinner and hit the hay; we had an early morning coming up!

Tuesday morning we said hello to the Magical world of Disney! The kids had anticipated Disney for what seemed like eternity to them and it was finally here. We tried to be to the gates right as they opened, but we missed it by about 45 minutes only because finding your way into the parking area for the theme park is a total nightmare! The weather started out cool and overcast which helped with the crowds a bit. We started at Space Mountain where they told us Karissa was not tall enough; we tried to dispute this because she was seriously like a hair short! Matt waited with her, Kennedy and Kylie while the rest of us hopped on Space Mountain. We rode Big Thunder Mountain, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan’s Flight, Splash Mountain, Astro Orbiter, Winnie the Pooh, met the Princesses, Minnie and Mickey, and rode numerous other rides. We went on everything that everyone wanted to do and by nights end, we were ALL ready to go home! We started to watch the fireworks display, but decided to head towards Main Street and the tram asap to beat what crowds we could. We were making decent progress, but by the time we hit the turnstyles Matt and Brooke who were behind Tayler and I, were frantically informing us that Kylie was missing. My heart sunk to my stomach and I felt sick immediately. No one was sure when they saw her last or where she got separated. Brooke and Tayler stayed at the exit with the rest of the kids while Matt and I went back to search. How would we ever find her in the crowds of thousands, in the dark, would she think to stop, would she keep walking and searching for us? What if I never see her again? A surge of emotions flooded through me as my mind raced and could only think the worst! I headed straight to guest services and explained our situation which I imagined they had heard countless times before. As soon as I was through giving her description, they were contacting security and my phone rang. It was the baby care center in the park, they had our Kylie. I couldn’t get there fast enough, and I had no idea where there was! It turns out she got separated from us when we made a turn and she didn’t see us turn. She was thankfully smart enough to go to a Disney employee and ask for help. I cannot even describe how grateful I am that she was so smart!!! That was it…that was enough…I was ready to go home.

We really did have a wonderful time, the kids all behaved rather nicely, Brooke and Tayler didn’t even fight too much…kidding of course! It was a dream to have them along to help out. It really was a great family vacation aside from those couple mishaps that thankfully turned out ok!

The Last Couple Weeks

Since it's summer, our lives are seem to be going even faster than they would normally!  We celebrated Memorial Day by having some friends over for a BBQ, it was relaxing and very delicious!  The kids finished up softball and T-ball this week and they are happy to be done.  They liked to play, but they never wanted to quit playing around the house or with friends when it came time to go to the games!  We got a little 2 day camp out in last week, the weather was perfect and we can't wait to camp again!  We really look forward to summer for our camping trips!  I made the decision to get back into the groove with my school and have enrolled for Biology this fall.  It's gonna be a lot of work so while in school I won't be working as much so I can focus on my school work which is more important right now.  I'm still taking it slow, but want to get my RN eventually..LOL!  So we have our California trip coming up in just two weeks!  Everyone is really excited, especially Karissa.  She wakes up EVERY morning and asks, "when are we going to Disneyland?"  Poor kids can't comprehend time so I'm sure it seems like a lifetime to wait for her.  We got our garden planted, didn't make it as big as last year, but just planted some of our favorite stuff which are tomatoes, several different kinds of peppers, strawberries and potatoes.  We laid some sod in the front yard a few weeks ago and it is taking off great.  It's so nice to have some grass out there even if it's not a big area, makes such a difference.  So basically that's it in a nutshell!

Brooks & Dunn

    Last weekend we had the chance to go to Brooks and Dunn's "Last Rodeo" concert in Phoenix.  We had a great time!  The show opened with Jason Aldean, someone we weren't very familiar with since we aren't HUGE country fans.  We knew who he was, but never paid a lot of attention.  Well after the show was over we bought both of his CD's!  He rocked!!  Brooks and Dunn were awesome as well!  They have a lot of great music, it's sad to think that they are hanging up their hats!  I'm sure we will see them back eventually for some sort of reunion tour or something along those lines!

Karissa's ER visit

I am not posting in sequence as I am sure you are aware, but just posting as I remember the events!  So of course as my luck would have it I had to visit the ER with Karissa and it was the night her daddy left for Texas.  It went a little something like this...
10 pm: Everyone is in bed...asleep!
220 am: Karissa rolls off my bed to the floor which she has done before, and Kylie comes in asking for something for her throat.  I pick Karissa up and put her in bed and go get Kylie her medicine.  I come back to lay down and Karissa is telling me her arm hurts, but she isn't too frantic about it.  I try to get her to go back to sleep because mommy has to be up in 2 hours for work. 

225 am: still upset that her arm hurts so I decide I better investigate.  I switch the light on and notice what looks like some blood on the shirt sleeve so I pull the sleeve back and to my horror I discover why my poor baby is telling me her arm hurts!

227 am: call my dad and tell him that he or my mom need to come over asap and stay with the other kids because I have to take Karissa to the ER for stitches.

235 am: leave for the ER

330 am: arrive at the ER, fill out her paperwork, get her into a room, put lidacaine on immediately to get her ready for some stitches.

500 am: still waiting due to some other emergency and I decide I better call in to work, no way I am gonna be able to function!

545 am: they start to close her up, she sat so nice, they said wished all their little patients were as easy going as her. 

615 am: we leave and head to walmart because she deserved a prize and she told me she wanted a dolly!  well she got 3 dollies that morning!

730 am: arrive back at home, totally exhausted.  and it was a light with no light shade that she managed to hit her arm on the sharp corner of something!

Mother's Day

Wow it was already a week ago!  Well I had a very nice, peaceful, relaxing day!  It started with a delicious breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs made by my wonderful husband.  We got to enjoy our breakfast together while the kids were all still sleeping.  The kids gave me some great home made gifts which are of course the very best kind!  I got some flower seeds that I need to plant and some yummy chocolate too!  I got to go visit with my mom for the afternoon which was really nice too!  I hope everyone else had an enjoyable day like I did! Happy Belated Mother's Day!

Texas!

   Matt and Tyler took a little road trip to Texas on May 2-5 with a buddy of Matt's.  It was all to hunt for Turkeys!  I told you a couple posts ago that we call Tyler, Tyler Turkey well he has really been living up to that name recenlty! It was a great opportunity for daddy and son to spend some quality time together.  They had a really great time and each brought home a turkey!  
           

I"ve been slacking!

Dinner for our house Sunday the 16th - Saturday the 22nd:
Sunday- Chicken Fried Steak on a Stick with Roasted Potatoes and Asparagus
Monday- Meatless Chili with a mixed salad
Tuesday- Chicken Enchiladas with Rice and Beans
Wednesday- Lemon Pork Stir Fry with basmati rice
Thursday- Greek Chicken Sautee with Orzo pasta and a romaine salad
Friday- We will be out of town so Aunt Brooke gets to cook :)
Saturday- BBQ Skirt Steak with Potato Salad, corn on the cob and grilled zuchinni halves
I will do my very best to come back and post all the recipes, but if they aren' t posted and you want them sooner just message me!  I'm trying to finish out my menu for the remainder of the month and blog about a couple other things as well!

Tyler Turkey

When Tyler was first born someone started calling him Tyler Turkey, and actually when he was in the NICU they gave him a little plush Turkey.  The name has stayed with him on and off, but has been put on the back burner for the most part to make room for new nicknames that come along. 
Well anyway onto the real post...Tyler went turkey hunting with papa last week and he had a great time.  They went out bright and early on a Saturday morning, but they didn't have any luck.  In Tyler's own words..."me and papa were sweating like pigs, we walked and walked a lot of miles.  then we heard some turkeys, but a coyote barked and scared them away and we never got to see them.  we found one little feather, but then we went back to the pick up and sat there and then we went home.  i told papa we should have went to the other hill cause we would have found a turkey." So they took the next day off and tried it again on Monday morning.  "so this time we went up on my hill, then went down the hill and when we got to the other side we sat by some trees.  papa called the turkeys in, they came pretty close about 30 miles(he means yards), and then papa shot it! it was pretty sweet."  So all in all he had a great time with papa like always!  Here are a couple pictures of them with the bird after they brought it in!

The Brother

Tyler has a special role in our family, as do all the kids, but Tyler is the only boy.  He is the little brother to Kylie and the big brother to Karissa and Kennedy.  We realize that even tho he may be younger than Kylie he is going to grow up to be her protector just like he will be for his younger sisters.  He has such a kind and compassionate heart already at such a young age.  He watches out for his sisters and truly loves them unconditionally.  He is always happy to let them play along with whatever game he may be  playing or play along with whatever game they might want him to play.  We are so proud of him for being such a great Brother!

Update

We are eating better!!! This is our healthier dinner menu for the coming week!  Nothing fried! Not even using any butter!!  It's kind of hard, but it's better for all of us! I hope it lasts..lol!
Sunday: Steak Kabobs with Sweet Onions and Green Peppers
Monday: Chicken Marinara with Asparagus
Tuesday: Baked Cod with broccoli and salad
Wednesday: Tomato Bun Burgers
Thursday: Rosemary Chicken with Asparagus
Friday: Green Onion Burgers
Saturday: Blackened Chicken
I got put on call tonight for work, which isn't really a bad thing.  I get to stay home and relax since I was up late last night having a blast with some friends here at the house.  We had a fun mini girls night we hope to make a monthly tradition!  I have work Thursday and Friday night.  I hope the weather stays decent so I can plant my garden this week! 

Newest Pictures

Looking at some pictures!

Getting ready to go play at the park

Tyler practicing his swing

She was a good fielder

Playing catch

Easter Pictures

It's been a few weeks...

Since I last blogged three weeks ago we have been a little busy which I guess is why there wasn't any time for blogging!  I'll give you a quick run down on what's been happening and what's coming up next in our lives!

• Celebrated Easter with Matt's family
• had a nice quiet Easter Sunday at home together
• i started my training in the O.R and totally love it!
• had a couple bar-b-que's with some friends
• worked!
• cleaned the yard
• prepped the garden
• hauled some scrap metal
• did some shopping
• i got sick with what we thought was strep but thankfully just a bad sore throat
• tyler started t-ball
• kylie started softball
• took Karissa for pre-school screening, but she is too young and not ready to sit still!
• i painted my kitchen cabinets
• got to visit with my sis in from San Fran for a weekend!
• put up a clothes line

So I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting, but just quickly thinking back that's kind of what we have been up to!  What's coming up?  Well as always...there is work, work and more work!  I've got to decide what class I am going to take this fall.  The kids just have a month of school left to go!  We are making our plans for our summer vacation to Disneyland and Sea World in June.  I'll add some recent pictures later on tonight along with my menu for the coming week!  Hope to hear from everyone soon!

Egg Coloring

Last night we sat down after dinner and colored our eggs!  Kylie and Tyler each got a dozen a piece and Kennedy and Karissa split a dozen between them.  I wasn't overly happy with the color, as they weren't as vibrant as I think they should have been. I used vinegar in some of the colors and lemon juice in others to see if they showed any different, but they all turned out a little too pastel, but anyway it was still fun.  So we have a few dozen hard boiled eggs to gobble up which probably won't take too long at our house!  A few pictures...and Kennedy loves to say cheese anytime we tell her we are taking a picture, so notice her CHEESE face!

Spring Break

We got a mini camping trip in to Roosevelt over our Spring Break.  It was a nice little break from the real world, but it ended much too quickly!  The weather was perfect, not too hot and not to cold!  Tyler had a blast doing a little fishing with daddy.  We also enjoyed riding the quad, the beautiful scenery, scoping out quite a bit of wildlife which included some quail, coyote and whitetail deer!  We had some fun target shooting, exploring the area and of course eating a lot of yummy food!  We are already ready to plan our next trip and hoping some friends will join us as well!  I think the kids would love to have some additional play buddies along!  Here are a few pictures!

This Week..3/21

  We are going camping! We are all so excited, it's finally spring break and time for a campout down in the desert where the weather is warm and beautifully perfect for camping!  We had initally planned to leave a couple days ago, but then realized we had a friends wedding reception we wanted to attend on Saturday evening as well as a couple things we needed to finish up before we could leave.  I am also taking a class at work that takes place on Tuesdays which was going to interrupt our trip so we figured we could leave after class on Tuesday and things are right on track for that as of now!  The kids are so excited!  Kylie and Tyler love to set pretend traps for different animals and check it out the following mornings to see if anything has been disturbed.  The kids love being outdoors so it's going to be a great time!  I'm still posting the menu for this week because obviously I"ll still be cooking a little, but pretty laid back this week!!  So here goes...
Sunday...Pot Roast with Potatoes and Onions
Monday...Beef and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Tuesday..We will grab something on the road
Wednesday..BBQ Ribs on the grill
Thursday..STILL DECIDING
Friday...No Bull Burritos
Saturday...In Class I'll bring home a pizza!
Sunday...Gonna be in a class again so I'll put something in the slow cooker before I leave

Some Random Stuff with Pictures

I finally cleaned off the memory card on the camera today and decided after uploading them all to my online storage account that I'd post a few of the random pictures!  The most important in these random pictures have to do with the awards Kylie and Tyler received at school on Friday.  Tyler was awarded the "Character Counts Award", he was recognized as being a kind, generous, thoughtful and overall great kid! We barely got him rushing back to his seat.  Kylie was awarded for perfect attendance as well as a school improvement award.  They are both doing wonderful, we were so proud to have both the kids recognized in a special way! 

                                                                                                                                                                                              

And here are just a couple random pictures of Kennedy, also one of Tyler with his very good buddy Payton.  Notice the scowl on Karissa's face....this is her usual look!