From the beginning

Happy Valentines Day :)

2012-02-14T20:49:00.000-08:00

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What a great Valentines Day 2012 :) Last night I snuck over to Lindsay's house and left her a box of chocolates and a bottle of her favorite body spray so she would awaken to a Valentines Day surprise :) She loved it and I felt great about it. Earlier in the week Steven found my gift of a new pillow to him so I went ahead and gave him the fun gel I got as well ;) We tried it out in case we didn't have time to try it tonight and I think we're both going to like it. I was very pleasantly surprised when I went into work this morning. On my desk by my computer was a square vase with flowers, roses and a Starbucks Coffee card! Shocked me! I was not expecting anything as he'd given me a card a few days earlier and it's rare he surprises me without me knowing about it. Good thing I waited to balance the checkbook until I was at work today. I put it off intentionally last night because I knew it would be slow at work and I'd be bored and want something to do. That would have totally ruined my surprise! It was nice to be surprised :) Tonight we all went out for dinner as a family and Steven told me I should invite Lindsay and the girls too. We went to the Bamboo shoot and Steven wasn't too pleased. He really wanted a sandwich from Basin Street Pizza.....and I really wanted chinese. I won. He loves me that much.... The wait was FOREVER long, food was ok but not stellar. We stopped at Chevron and Steven got himself a consolation prize of Heineken to make things all better ;) I suppose next time he gets his choice of restaurant!

My Littlest Valentine

Had a great weekend last weekend with a houseful of kiddos. I also got the opportunity to photograph a precious newborn boy. Lindsay and I FINALLY got to try for "the pose". He was tough to get settled and sleeping but once we got him we had about 20-30min of photographing him before we ticked him off and he woke up for good. I was pretty proud of my finished product even if it's not perfect...

Our super hero Collin is still holding on but fading fast. My heart breaks for him and his family. He told his Mom and Dad he was ready to go be with Jesus and run and play and that Jesus was ready for him..... I cannot imagine the pain Lisa and her family are going through. My prayers are always with them. They have taught me what true strength and faith is. Collin will forever be a part of my life and in my thoughts. When times get tough I need to remember that little boy and all of his fight, strength and grace.

I had to give up Bunco for the month of Feb. I was so bummed!!!! My first missed Bunco since I started up the group. I was committed to volunteering to help man the silent auction at the Grant Elementary Talent Show. It ended up being a great show! Those kids were so fun to watch. I love my small town and small school, where else can you go and have kids get up and sing songs by Justin Bieber and then have a kid sing "If You're Gonna Play In Texas"? ? ?? Maybe next year since it'll be Kaeden's last year at Grant he'll actually participate in the show? I cannot believe last year is his final year at Grant school! I try not to think about it cause it makes me sad....... The best part of the evening? When I texted Lindsay to let her know that Taylor was home safe and sound she told me to come finish Bunco cause there was still one round left! So I ended up getting a small dose of Bunco for Feb ;) Not enough though, I am eagerly awaiting next month's Bunco. I'm also very excited for MOPS to start back up this week! It seems like the longest winter break from MOPS yet!

Last week a couple sad things happened in E-town. #1 a man was hit by a train right downtown. He was 81yrs old and did not survive. Amazing how fast word spreads via text and facebook in a tiny town! Prayers to his family :( #2 Tim moved out. I really hope Christina stays strong because in my heart I think this is the best thing for her and her family. Those two are like oil and water. I worry she will go back to him and Lindsay and I have tried to be rocks for her to lean on as much as possible. If she chooses to go back I may have to divorce her as a friend though. I am so tired of the back and forth. I feel like she's finally making small baby steps in the right direction and every day she gets stronger and more free, if she throws it all away I'm not sure I can handle it. For now I will be as emotionally supportive of her as I can possibley be.

Some photos since last post

My two girls in the window, Jinxi and Kinleigh

Another Lady K mess.... She found lotion!

And then she enjoyed cleaning it up...This photo reminds me of Cinderella... LOL

Oh yes she's still making messes on a daily basis! This one happens to be life cereal. Does this look like life cereal to you??? I initially thought it was oatmeal and couldn't figure out where she got oatmeal??? LOL

Sally's helping me out

And I wonder why my dogs are so fat when we forget to feed them 1/2 the time. Kinleigh ALWAYS keeps the pups well fed!

That Life cereal mess forced us into an early morning bath, and look how cute she is all clean with her hair fixed!

I rarely attempt two pony tails with her so I was pretty proud with how these turned out ;) She was having fun cheesing it up for the camera for me too!

I LOVE THIS GIRL

I LOVE THIS BOY TOO LOL And this is going to be great to show future girlfriends. He found pull ups in the closet that we bought when the kids were sick 2yrs ago cause he had the runs and kept pooping his pants at Gramma Vicki's. He thought he'd be funny and try them on, and then model them for us!

However THIS Will be an even better blackmail photo for the girlfriends! What in the world was he thinking putting a pullup on his head and then letting Daddy take pics of it I'll never know.....He will probably regret this one someday! And yes his shirt is on backwards..Something about this boy and backwards clothing? I don't get it :p

The first month of 2012 has almost come and gone....

2012-01-28T12:16:00.000-08:00

So many things for me to consider myself blessed with. I have an amazing family, we live in a comfortable home. We aren't rich but we get by with little luxuries. We are blessed. I hope I never forget my blessings. It's hard sometimes to remember that when things are bad they usually aren't That bad. Lisa is still watching her son die. Today he's doing terrible. Temperature of 105.2, low respirations, swollen face. I cannot imagine her pain. I'm hurting so much for her. My 9yr old is off at the Cub Scout Derby (unfortunately not winning) and hers is dying. My 6yr old is playing with his 1/2 brother on the trampoline and building GeoTrax this lovely Saturday morning. My 2yr old is clean, bathed, dressed absolutely adorably and bothering her big sisters. My house is tidied and my laundry is going. It's a typical Saturday for us. It's not the possible last day of my child's life. I am blessed.

I have began my 2012 tax season. I really enjoy my job~! I love being a stay at home Mom but I also love getting out in the real world and being productive. I am finally feeling like I am in my element doing what I do. The nerves of doing a tax return have finally subsided over the years and I have some confidence! My photography is still growing. I've been at this for almost a year. It's slow right now, so hard to go out and shoot families or kids in this cold weather! We finally got some snow last week and man did we get some snow! Took winter a very long time to get here but I am glad we did get to have some of the white stuff. I'm also glad it's almost melted off LOL Last weekend we took the kids sledding with Lindsay and her girls. We went out in the middle of nowhere and the kids had a blast! It's the small things in life that make the best memories. I hope that I am always making great memories for my kids to carry with them for life.

Rarrrrrrrrr

White Wash?

Building a fort

Heading off for sledding adventures!

Where in the world is Daddy taking us?

It's kinda scary when he's gotta get out and see if the car is going to make it down the road?!?!?

Heading up the sledding hill!

She's watching the big kids have fun.

Poor Kai guy ended up with snow in his face almost everytime.

Funniest Sledding Run Ever!

Note the faces ;)

Oh yes the snow is flying!

LMAO They left the sled behind! Oops! Lindsay and I gave them a perfect 10 for formation ;)

Where is Syd's head?

He's too cute not to snap pics when he poses for me!

The best group pic we could manage.

Yup there are the 4x4 beasts atop the hill!

She sure loves her Daddy

This sledding run ended in the weeds. Note the weed hanging off the side of her hat? LOL

Thank you Lindsay for taking a photo of our family out having fun!

Snow Angels

Preparing to go down the hill.

Moved to a hill in town on our way home.

Kisses for Daddy

Great job with the camera Steven! Yes Mommy is at almost all family functions!!! You just rarely see her cause she's behind the camera ;) Kinleigh and Mom caught some air!

Love my lil girl :)

Fun times with my family

Kaeden took a moment to pose for the camera crazy Mom

Before we went out sledding I snagged Sydney and made her go out for a practice photoshoot in the snow. The previous weekend I snagged Kailer and had him be my model to practice finding the light. I wasn't hugely successful, but I was pleased with some of the photos and Lindsay was pleased with her photos...that's what counts right?

My Dad came up Wed night and brought our spare parts car for the subaru. It was so nice to have him at my home for once! He has not been to my house in years. He stayed the night and it was great to be able to visit with him Thursday morning. I love him and my Mom so much. It's amazing how we don't realize how lucky we are in life.

Steven is just amazing.....Another blessing for me. This morning he looked at me and kissed my forehead. I am always surprised at the love he shows me. I look in the mirror and wonder why he's with me? I think it is time to get back on the weightloss train. I am feeling disgusted with myself and feel he deserves more then what I can offer him! He supports me in all I do and all I want. He is dedicated to helping me get my photography business up and running. I hope that 2012 brings some success to show him that his support is worth it!

Kinleigh is changing by the day! The last few weeks she has gone from talking in 2 word sentences to making full sentences by using filler words like it, the, etc. She's been going to a new babysitter this year and doing great! She loves her babysitter and has not cried one time when I've dropped her off. What a great feeling to know she's happy while I am working.

I finally ordered up some new pictures to put on my walls and am so pleased with how they turned out! Now I wish I hadn't procrastinated so long in ordering them ;) I can see that my photography is progressing because the new photos are much better light/technical stuff then the ones I covered up!

After our crap-ass New Years 2012 is shaping up and I'm ready to take on the year with a positive attitude!

Kaeden's Scout Troop thanking the community for donating to their raffle and blue and gold banquet :)

I promised them they could take a silly photo if they behaved well for a serious one first.

Life is so precious.

2012-01-18T17:19:00.000-08:00

Lisa posted on Collin's caringbridge and wants to know how Collin has touched our lives...Here is my FB status that sums it all up.

How has he inspired me and changed my life? He reminds me that every day is precious. That the small things to so many of us are the BIG things. Being healthy is an amazing gift. He has helped to plant the seed of faith back into my soul and spirit and encouraged me to help plant that seed into my children. He and his family have showed me what it truly means to be brave. He has taught love, compassion, strength and so much more to all who he has touched in this life. I pray that he can be at peace and comfortable when he is ready. I am so saddened and hope that he can finally get relief. God bless you Collin as you continue on this journey.

Sadness is what I feel. I have 3 gorgeous children...and when Lisa was at my stage of life so did she. The thought of what she is going through and has gone through for the last 4 years makes me want to vomit. I pray that I never have to walk in shoes similar to what she has walked. Collin woke up blind November 2007 and his journey has been a long one full of some up's and many downs.

I really cannot say more right now. There are no words.........Here are a few photos taken this weekend of MY 6yr old son who is healthy. As frustrating as he can be and as difficult I am beyond blessed that he is an outgoing healthy little man. I am lucky beyond words.........I love each of my children to the moon and back. I love Collin for being in my life and I am devastated that he is losing this fight.

Welcome 2012

2012-01-09T10:30:00.000-08:00

2011 has come and gone and we're moving onto 2012. I'm not going to write much about our New Years as it was not a wonderful New Years and don't want to bring up the bad things about the night.

Onto other things for 2012. Took me a few days to get out of my funk from our New Years but I am much better now. Felt like I was living in 1999 for a few days and it was miserable. However Steven and I are stronger then ever now and very happy. I love him with all my heart and love my family.

We're currently on quarantine and battling a stomach bug from hell!~ It has literally hit every single person in this household! Friday Kai was home after being up sick Thursday night and then was fine all day Friday. Sat night Kai, Kinleigh and I got hit pretty hard with the throw ups and runs. NOT FUN. Sunday afternoon Kaeden was nailed and then Sunday night Steven got hit by the puke train. This morning is the first time in as long as I can remember that he has had to call into work due to being sick. At 6am after throwing up all night long he was determined to still go to work, but by 7 and a few more trips to the bathroom he gave in and decided to stay home sick. Kai Kinleigh and I seem to be doing much better so let's hope this is the end of it once Kaeden and Steven are better! Lindsay brought us a care package thank goodness cause that giant jug of Gatorade has come in VERY handy!

I had my first day of work for the tax season last week and it was great :) I love my job :) Unfortunately I'll be missing work tomorrow to make sure we're all healthy and better, but I'll be back in the office on Wednesday! Kinleigh did great with her babysitter Kayla and I hope she continues to do so well!!!!

Kai lost his first tooth last week and was so excited to show it to his big brother Kaeden while they were standing in the line for the bus. Unfortunately as he was showing Kaeden the tooth he was hit from behind by some other kids and the tooth was lost in pea gravel at the bus stop. He was pretty crushed! We wrote a note to the tooth fairy explaining what happened and she ended up leaving him his money and taking the note. He got $5 since it was his first tooth lost! He was pretty excited about that and so glad the tooth fairy still came even though the tooth was missing!

Saturday morning Steven went with Kaeden to a scout friends house and they worked on their derby cars. This year they went with a completely different body shape so we're hoping it will go a little better then last year. Last year he had the shiniest car, this year it may be the brightest car LOL He chose a lime green paint for it!

My goal this year is to be a little more regular on my blog. Isn't that the goal every year? LOL Until next time..........

The looks I get when asked to pose....

The little copycat

Getting closer to the shot I was going for...

Oh there it is, there's the missing tooth smile... Took way too much work to get that pic!

Of course NOW he wants to pose for me........With Sally

And if KaiKai is posing with Sally, Kinleigh decides she has to also!

Kai wanted a pic with their heads together so badly but unfortunately this was the closest we got. Kinleigh was NOT being cooperative and wanted nothing to do with having her pic taken with Kai.

Good-bye 2011 Hello 2012!

2011-12-31T22:07:00.000-08:00

The holidays were amazing :) We headed to Hermiston Friday afternoon after Steven got off work nice and early. Friday night when we got to my Moms we went and visited her at work so she could see the Grandkids and then headed to her house to wait on Grandma to get off work. When she got home from work we decided to go to the Festival of Lights. What a cool thing! The fairgrounds were covered in lights and after freezing for 30min or so and then we went to Thompson hall and visited Santa :)

Gotta love Gramma's house!

Play time at Gramma and Grandpa's

Giant yard = Fun!

Festival of lights 2011

Gramma Vicki with the boys

Gramma Vicki with the kids in the guard house.

Horse drawn carriage

Gramma Vicki, Grandkids and Santa!

Grandma Marcelle came over Christmas Eve and hung out for the afternoon and evening. The kids loved helping her make her Cranberry Jello salad. They were all waiting anxiously to open their Christmas Eve gifts. This year we didn't do PJ's as the boys never wear PJ's anyway. Games it was. Kinleigh got PJ's and was ecstatic.

Making Jello Salad

<3 this picture

Taste Testing

Time to lick the bowl clean

Game Time with Great Grandma

More play time

Watch out, army man gonna get the baby toes~!

Piggy Back Fight

Love the joy in their faces!

Xmas eve gifts

Showing off Gramma her PJ's

Putting out Reindeer dust so Santa's reindeer can find the house!

Sprinkle

All kids had to help spread the dust!

One of my fav photos!

My 3 loves on Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas 2011

Spoiled Santa at our house!

Working on the masterpiece that Gramma envisioned

Oh Christmas Tree

Pure Love

Adorable baby girl

Success in starburst Christmas tree lights!

This is how you wear a christmas stocking right?

Hanging up the stockings. She's watching carefully to see what she needs to do.

Kinleigh's turn

Gramma Vicki made these mice for Grandpa to take to work on Christmas day. Kinleigh wanted to touch them SO BAD

Santa has arrived

Nothing more magical then a visit from Santa Clause!

Christmas morning was amazing. Great gifts and great times!

Merry Christmas!

Kinleigh's favorite... Chapstick!

All the kids showing eachother their watches from Santa!

The looks of pure joy when they got what they really wanted! Who knew a wii game could cause so much happiness?

My Mini Me on the laptop!

A little Cinderella..... Trying on the shoe

Oh yeah.... a new tv. 1/2 fake smile.

wait a minute. what's this?

A New Camera?!?!?!?!

Just like a little kid! I LOVE how happy she is

cousins must share

Christmas helicopters kept going on the roof. Daddy to the rescue!

Cousins hanging out. Long time since they saw eachother.

Loving my Kai Guy. These smiles always make the rough moments worth it.

Great Grandma Marcelle with some of her grandkids.

Play Time

Fire Truck is the best playground ever!

Lexi loved teasing Kaeden.

Gramma Vicki and Kinleigh ShaeAnn

My Fav

Christmas aftermath

Kinleigh and Paxtin loved eachother

My lil nephew Paxtin is so cute.

Brushing some hair

Q is giving me a rock concert.

Gramma Vicki's Grandbabies

Paxtin and the girls

Miss Peightin wasn't too sure about Kinleigh loving on Gramma Vicki.

Kai playing with Uncle Jared's ferret.

Merry Christmas. Everything was perfect.

Lady K found BUTTER

She's into trouble

Gotta lube up the handles

My lil picasso

My little clean up crew

This was 1/2 full before Kinleigh found it!

Another Kinleigh mess

She's always into something

And the walls in my home are completely trashed!

May the new year bring many more wonderful times!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-12-29T16:53:00.000-08:00

11-16 first and only snow so far of the year! It's been an unusually warm/mild winter !!

Kinleigh enjoying the snow

Nothing more fun then a trampoline when it snows!

My kids love jumping in the snow

Feeling the cold snow between tasting the cold snow.

Snow angels and Skidding on the trampoline

My lil snowbabies eyelashes

Kai refused to pose as he was upset with Kaeden so this pic only included two of my kiddos

I love the way she watches the big siblings! See Kai sneaking into the pic back there?

Nothing better then Hot Chocolate after snow play!

Kinleigh loved it!

Best pose he'd give me ;)

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful. We had the girls and headed down to Moses Lake to spend the day with Grandma Bea and the Olivas family. Tony and Jeannie came as did Joel so we were only missing Laura and Sydney :( It was so nice to have most of the cousins together for the holidays! Food was amazing. Grandma Bea went all out with a nice mix of mexican dishes and traditional turkey. Joel brought crab that he caught so we had a mix of everything to choose from for our Thanksgiving dinner! Definitely something to be thankful for :) Steven, Joel and Tony went over to Laurie's for a couple hours to visit with the family after the recent loss of a childhood friend Kevin. I've since met Laurie and really like getting to know her :) She's even coming to spend New Years here with us. After Joel and Tony left Steven and I took off for Big Lots to start some Christmas shopping and Grandma Bea kept the kiddos. It went smooth and we had a nice time spending some money on some gifts we were proud of :) After leaving Bea's we headed over to Lauro's to see Steven's Dad and Lupe before heading home. Joel and the boys came over and stayed the night which was great :)

Kaeden receiving his awards at Scouts.

Cousins at Thankgiving

Taking all the big kids in.......

Cooking dinner and hanging out in the kitchen.

Dinner time! Tiny #1 Tiny #2 and G

G Tate and Trin

Kinleigh, Abbe, Samir and Kailer

Grandkids photo! Only missing Sydney and Riley.

Wrestling with Uncle Tony is entirely too much fun!

Grandma Bea with her Grandchildren

Grandma Bea got in on the wrestling action!

Steven, Tony, Bea and Joel.

We set up our first fake Christmas tree this year. Borrowed from Lindsay. I was quite pleased with it! Fit great and no needles shedding everywhere :) Tatum was reading Kinleigh a story. I love the big siblings and their baby sister!

Just playing with photographing the tree and Kinleigh was showing me something.

Kinleigh's toes by her 1st Christmas ornament.

who knows what she was showing me or telling me here?

I mostly decorated the tree this year, so while the boys were at scouts and Kinleigh and I were home alone playing with my camera she did some re-decorating and I snapped some photos.

Took me til December 2011 to get an updated bath pic of my kids. Now how long will it take me to print them up and put them in the frames in the bathroom? Wanna take bets? LOL the last photo Kinleigh was probably around 7mo old ;)

Feeling artsy while Kinleigh was sleeping. Unfortunately she moved to this position when I went to get my camera. She was sleeping with her butt up in the air, feet crossed when I ran to get the camera.

BathTime

This is one of my fav photos of the year! She's concentrating so hard... messy hair, feet crossed. I just love it!

Weekend of Dec 10th we headed downtown for Miracle on Mainstreet and saw Santa :)

Telling Santa he wants drums for Christmas. Mommy informed him that was NOT happening!

some miracle on mainstreet crafts.

Lady K LOVED using the glue all by herself!

The kiddos getting in on some candy cane walk action.

Making Christmas cards. This was their fav craft of the day.

Friday the 16th was the boys' Christmas Concert at Grant Elementary. Kinleigh and I headed down earlier then normal as I have discovered if you leave "on time" to get to the school you will not find parking nor will you find a seat and I didn't want to try holding Kinleigh AND taking pics at the same time ;) We got front row seats YAY :) It was Kai's first year doing a big Christmas concert. Between my kids and my friends kids we ended up having someone to watch sing in every grade LOL It was 2 hours long but super cute :)

Kaeden singing :)

Kinleigh was super excited to go up to big bubba when he was done singing and both were very disappointed she couldn't go with him. She cried for the next 3 songs that she wanted Bubba!

My Kai Guy

Kai and the Kindergarten class.

When the whole school came in to finish the concert and sing I let Kinleigh and Kaeden have their wish and he got to hold her for the rest of the concert. It made signing "Silent Night" pretty much impossible but the smiles on their faces were worth it ;)

The whole school crammed into the gym to finish off the concert.

We had the girls the weekend before Christmas and decided we were going to do some baking to have treats to take to Gramma's over Christmas weekend :) Lindsay and I made a list and we ended up with a ton of goodies! Christmas Crack, Peppermint Bark, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Peanut Butter Cookies, and Cheese Peanut butter crackers dipped in Chocolate. It was all super yummy!

The last week of school before Christmas break the school had different themes to dress up. This was for "ugly sweater" day. The boys had fun helping make these up. Kai looks angry but it wasn't the sweater that made him mad, it was something else that I can't remember and he was mad at me so didn't want to pose for a picture for me.

Unfortunately when they came home they said no one else was wearing ugly sweaters in their class! LOL

Kinleigh just being a cheese for me :)

Last Birthday of the year and time for the holiday kickoff!

2011-11-08T11:26:00.000-08:00

Been awhile since I updated... Oops. Yup I'm a slacker! I've been a busy Momma! My photography is taking off and I've been booked almost every weekend with a photoshoot. I plan to raise my prices in Jan 2012 so hopefully things continue to grow and go well! I purchased 2 new lenses and am learning to use them :)

The first weekend in October Gramma Vicki came up for the weekend so that her, Kinleigh and I could go to Thorp and attend the wedding of a little girl I used to babysit. Guess she's not so little anymore if she's marr ied huh? Makes me feel OLD! It was a beautiful wedding and a great afternoon spent with my Mom and Kinleigh. While we were out and about Steven, Kaeden, Kailer and Riley had the afternoon/evening together alone. It's rare that this happens so they were pretty excited. They rode bikes, went out to dinner and went to the Orange E carnival. All in all it was a great weekend and enjoyed by all! Gramma Vicki brought up a bunch of supplies for Kinleigh's 2nd birthday and made her the most adorable Polka Dot skirt!

Kinleigh watching Momma get ready for the wedding.

Gramma Vicki french braided Kinleigh's hair just like she used to french braid mine. Maybe someday I'll learn to make a killer french braid too!

Kinleigh and I headed to the bathroom at the wedding. What a beautiful place for a wedding.

Gramma Vicki with the grandkids! Riley, Kailer, Sydney, Kinleigh, Kaeden and of course we couldn't leave out Jinxi!

Lindsay turned 31! Man she's getting old ;) We had a cake and small get together for her. I must say lighting all those candles was probably a dangerous thing for us to attempt, but we did it and nothing burned down....The cake did melt a bit though LOL

MOPS Was invited out to a local farmers pumpkin patch this year so Kinleigh and I went and gathered some pumpkins for the family to carve. I enjoyed dressing her up in the skirt I made her (Lindsay's great idea, and she made a matching one for Sydney. I call Lindsay my friendspiration cause she inspires me to do some crafty things I wouldn't otherwise do!)

She preferred the dirt over the pumpkin searching!

But she was cooperative enough to give me a few smiles before freaking out when I put her up on the pile of pumpkins! Isn't she gorgeous?

2nd weekend in October we had all 6 kiddos and did some pumpkin carving! It was fun to get all the kids together to do something fun :) Kids got a little crazy and were eating their pumpkins GROSS but hey whatever floats their boat LOL I am just glad they all got along, had a great weekend and got some quality fun time in! All kids but Kinleigh were able to carve their own pumpkins this year which was cool :) Daddy and Lindsay helped a little but the majority of the carving was done by the kids!

yes he is eating his pumpkin top!

Riley and Kinleigh being goof balls.

I guess we see where Riley and Kinleigh get their goofiness?

The completed pumpkins. Left to right.... Kailer, Sydney, Kinleigh, Triniti, Riley, Kaeden and Tatum's pumpkins.

Our great group of kids :) Love that they all posed for me without me asking!

making scary silly Halloween faces!

Unfortunately the weekend of the 15th we had BIG PLANS and the puke bug hit our house with a vengance and completely ruined our plans :( So Kinleigh and I spent the day in bed puking and other things and Steven and the kids went over to Lindsays house to celebrate Taylor's 12th birthday. MAN were we bummed ... that was some poopy timing. Kaeden ended up having a sleepover Sat night with Taylor and spent most of Sunday hanging over there so I had some nice recovery time. The crazy thing was after I felt better the next week I was the most productive I've been in a long time! I wonder if maybe getting sick and laid out on my butt and sleeping my weekend away got me rejuvinated??? Maybe I need to get sick more often? LOL nah probably not ;)

We had a harvest party at Bethleham Chapel we attended on the 26th and Kinleigh and Kailer dressed up for it. Kaeden decided he didn't want to this year. Party pooper. Kids had fun and it was complete utter chaos and they left with candy galore :)

Look at her looking up to her big brother!!! Melts me!

They were kind enough to strike a pose for me while I tested out my new 85mm 1.8 lens.

I just LOVE her hair!!!

October 28th my baby girl turned 2!!! Happy Birthday Kinleigh ShaeAnn! Gramma Vicki came up Friday morning and went with me to lunch with Kailer and pumpkin painting with Kaeden at Grant Elementary. Auntie Lindsay was kind enough to stay home and babysit Kinleigh which made it much easier on Gramma and I to enjoy the boys! Neither boy knew that Gramma would be with me, so it was great to see the surprise on their faces when they saw she had come along!!! I treasure the moments that they love having us around, all too soon they'll be embarrassed by us I'm sure!

Nice to have Gramma Vicki around with her camera to show that Mommy really does exist and attends functions! LOL I'm always behind the camera so never get to be in the pictures!

Gramma Vicki and Kai guy at lunch!

Lined up and heading out for recess and Junior Joggers.

Run Kai Run! My lil junior jogger was being awfully social so we didn't get to see him play on the playground because we had to get going to kaeden's class for pumpkin painting.

Goof

Gramma Vicki had to get in on the painting action and Kaeden resorted to finger painting...

My Mom LOVES The great pumpkin charlie brown and had to have a pic with kaeden in front of this. It was in the hallway at his school.

Friday night Gramma Vicki treated the whole family to dinner! We went to the new Tequila's for the first time. Food tasted the same as I remember it at the old Tequila's LOL It was such a treat to get treated to dinner! Thank you Mom!!!!!!

Kinleigh was the birthday girl and got to wear the hat, have Happy Birthday sang to her and enjoy some dessert! She wasn't too sure about all of this but I think she took it in stride ;)

Gramma Vicki with my kiddos :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Kinleigh

Sharing her new toy with big brother. Funny how most 2yr olds get dolls and stuff and mine gets a Justin Bieber microphone...... LOL

Just enjoying some family time while Gramma Vicki works on cake for the big party :)

Steven got in and helped Gramma Vicki roll some cake balls for the polka dot cake.

Pretty sure I have a picture similar to his of Gramma Vicki with Kaeden on his 2nd birthday. And if I don't have it, it's cause it's one of the photos that I lost :( Kinleigh was tuckered out!

The obligatory birthday photoshoot

Outfit made courtesy of Gramma Vicki! Lollipop courtesy of Gramma Vicki! I am in love with these pics.

We took many more but I have only edited 3 as of now :p I've been busy busy busy editing so many things that Kinleigh's pics had to take the backseat. As of now this is my favorite so far though!

Saturday morning we went downtown and got involved with the community pumpkin painting. It was beautiful and sunny and the kids had fun painting their pumkins. That afternoon we celebrated and had a birthday bash for Kinleigh :) The turn out was good and I think everyone had fun! The theme was Lollipops and Polka dots. We played a few games and had gorgeous weather for an Oct 29th birthday party! the kids got to play outside and we didn't have to celebrate cramped into my smal house! Sat night was a halloween party at AJ's and Gramma Vicki was kind enough to babysit for us and for Lindsay so we got to go out and enjoy ourselves for the night without worrying about kids or babysitters!!! Oh how nice it was! We had a great time and got to hang out with some people we haven't really hung with. It was fun fun fun! The witch got sick and the muscle man made her go home early. The whoopie cushion was having a grand old time and made great friends with Officer Canady and The Karate Kid and "Steve" were social butterflies catching up with friends and just mingling. That was the first grown up Halloween party I've been to and really enjoyed myself! The walk home was a little chilly and I was starting to sober up so it wasn't as fun for me as it was for Whoopie and Karate Kid :p The good news is i didn't wake up sick and after some McDonald's and coffee I was ready for a full day of cleaning, saying bye to my Mom :( And doing a photoshoot for a family that Lindsay and I went to school with. They drove 2 hours for me to do their photos. I was VERY honored! She seems pleased with the results so that makes me a happy girl!

Pumpkin Painting

My Loves and my Momma

When she was done, outfit was ruined! But she had fun !

My boys enjoyed climbing on the rocks.

Something about this picture I just love!

Finished pumpkins

Finished Kinleigh! LOL

Party Preparation time!

The lollipops and polka dots birthday set up!

Polka dot cake

Lollipop and candy galore! Kids definitely left with plenty of lollipops ;)

Christina had a puppy at the party that she was selling and it was a huge hit with the kiddos.

Placing the lollipop stick on the lollipop game

blowing out the candles!

Inside of the polka dot cake! the dots kinda sunk to the bottom when it cooked but it still turned out super cute!

Halloween 2011 has come and gone~! Time to kick off the 2011 holiday season! WOW this year has flown by. I had 2 skeletons and a lil witch. Got 2 years use out of the skeleton costumes yay LOL

Our Trick or Treating group! Mikey, Sydney, Kinleigh, Kaeden, Taylor, Kailer and Alexis. Unfortunately Kaity had a terrible tummy bug and missed out on Halloween :(

My 3 trick or treaters.

Trick or treat! More like Trunk or treat ;)

I love our lil town

Kaeden ran into a friend from school :) I had them pose for a pic!

Trunk or Treat with Mrs Pheasant!

Kai being brave and touching the vampire.....

mikey striking a pose for me.

Finally got our pumpkins lit up on Halloween night!

Last weekend was quite relaxing and we didn't do a whole lot :) We did take the kids to the park (thanks for the friendspiration Lindsay) So we got to be cool parents for awhile ;) Surprise group trips to the park earn points with kids I think!

Showing off his muscles

She loved the swings!

sydney posing for me

monkey girls

Papa and Kaeden skating!

My favorite!!!!

Time to get off here. Update is over LOL That was a long one!

Crazy Birthday Season has finally subsided for a bit...

2011-09-19T16:55:00.000-07:00

Yup the birthday rush is over. Boys had their 6th and 9th birthdays and their big birthday party bash! The theme this year was WWE :) My boys are a bit obsessed with Wrestling~! I think the best part of the party was the "pinata". Steven dressed up as a bad wrestler, stole the loot, then the kids ran around the yard throwing balls at him. Everytime he was hit with a ball he threw a handful of candy into the air for the kids to gather. Some liked the candy, some just liked nailing Steven with balls LOL

How fun is that?

I love that you can see candy flying through the air.

What an amazing Daddy Super Villain these kids have!

Gramma Vicki and I worked hard on these cake pops. They aren't the prettiest but they were sure yummy!

Went a little simpler on the cake this year. Boys loved it!

Birthday Boys

Present time

Lil sis looking adorable as ever. She however did NOT like daddy dressed up in that crazy outfit!

Our traditional photo of Annette and Kailer together at a birthday party :) I cannot believe they are 6yrs old.... I swear Machelle and I were just pregnant with them!

I took advantage of having all the kids together for the weekend and made an attempt at a photo of all the siblings together. They aren't perfect, but they are wall worthy so I'm happy with that :)

My 6 gorgeous kids!

I preferred this pose, but we're missing one kid due to a mini meltdown :p

Not sure which I want to print and hang yet, I like them all :)

I also wanted to update my wall with individual pics and snapped a couple of the girls and Riley.

Tatum 11yrs old

Riley 9yrs old

Triniti 10yrs old

For my kids I decided to start a new tradition this year. I want a photo of them on their actual birthdays and I will "interview" them so I can remember years from now what they loved or didn't love at those ages ;) Here are some of the photos from their mini photo sessions on their big days.

Kaeden Scott turns 9!

Kailer Steven turns 6!!

Onto other things... On Kaeden's birthday Steven had a little accident. I was waiting for him to get home with Pizza (Kaeden's choice for birthday dinner). My cell phone rang and I didn't get to it in time to answer it. It was a number I didn't recognize and when I didn't see a voice mail immediately I just ignored it and went back to whatever I was doing. I expected Steven to be a little late but by 5:45 when he still wasn't home I started to get concerned. He didn't have a phone at the time (It was broken and we were waiting on replacement) and I couldn't just call him. I checked my phone and saw there was a voice mail from that number. It was a message from Steven saying "Hey it's me, I was in an accident. I'm ok, the other guys ok, I'll be home as soon as I can". Way to give me heart failure :p So I asked Lindsay to watch the kids while I went to get the pizza and see if I could find Steven and see if he needed any help. Guess we passed eachother along the way and he ended up beating me home. He was going straight, an F350 was turning left and they collided. As of now it seems that Steven was not the at fault driver so now we are just waiting on the other guys insurance to finish stuff up. The Taurus didn't fare so well and was totaled. I'm just glad I saw Steven before I saw the car! He ended up sore and stiff with bruises from the seatbelts but otherwise fine. Thank God. The "What if's" that ran through my brain all night were quite unsettling. I am so thankful that he was ok and we still were able to enjoy Kaeden's birthday.........

RIP Taurus.........

The truck's license plate ended up left behind in our bumper.

Kaeden's big day :)

Blowing out the candles

Obligatory First day of school in front of the door photo!

Taylor and Sydney on their first day of school

waiting for the school bus

Syd wanted the photo taken, Kinleigh not so much LOL

As I said, Birthday Season LOL Kaity celebrated with us as she was so kind to let her Daddy go with Steven to Hermiston to pick up the Subaru my Daddy gave me. Thank god for great Daddy's in so many different ways and situations!

My Dad saved the day! He's been working on getting me a running Subaru put together for a few months now, but when the accident happened he finished it all up quickly and by the end of the week we were the proud owners of a 92 subaru loyale. I cannot express how much this meant to me. I love my Daddy so much. He never fails to come through when it really truly counts. I hope someday I can be an amazing parent to my kids like my parents are!

He was so proud of himself and told me "I've never done this before ya know" lol

Another annual photo.... LOL Happy birthday to Great Grandma and Grandpa Goodwin! This photo has been taken since Kaeden was only a few days old. So this would be 10 years of tradition here :) This is the first time in those 10yrs that all of the kids have been in the photo so that was pretty neat!

Kindergarten Orientation! My little Kai guy is growing up!

First day of school for Kailer. Kaeden started Thurs the 1st and Kai started Wed Sept 7th. So neat to have both my boys in the same school together.

I think he is proud and excited!

And he had not a care in the world. Could care less when it was time for me to leave LOL

Kailer's official birthday and his gift from Kaeden :)

Another candle photo! He chose Oreo Cheesecake. YUM

Last weekend we decided to head out on a family outing. Steven wanted to take the boys to Wenatchee to ride their bikes on the bike trails there. We loaded up the new Subie and off we went! I was super nervous that the car wouldn't make it, but it surprised me and did pretty well. Has a few issues and wasn't running quite right, but still managed to give us 30mpg! Yahoo! They were having a festival in Wenatchee and doing the River Run so we needed to kill some time before heading to the trails. Didn't need the boys in the way of everyone trying to run.....So we checked out the festivities and Farmers Market.

Both boys loved this bridge and thought it was way cool that the train went underneath while we were walking across it.

Kai watching the train head under him.

Family Photo Minus the photographer Mom.

Oh wait, there Mom is! LOL Boys weren't brave enough to hold the bugs so Mommy held the walking stick and the boys got a bit braver.

Kailer got brave enough to hold one of his own :)

These big giant things were walking up and down the street. Try as we may, Kaeden refused to get in on the photo action here. He didn't care for these weird things.

Kinleigh wanted to be "Up Peas" in Daddy's arms.

My heart melts when I see this photo.

I love how well my kids play together even with such age gaps!

After 2 weekends with just the 5 of us, the next 3 weekends are going to be crazy and full! Next weekend we have the girls. The weekend after we have Riley, and then the following weekend we have all 6 kids. I'll do my best to update before the kids all graduate from college ;)

Crazy Weekend

2011-08-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

So we've been waiting to camp at Joel's allllllll summer long and the time finally arrived YAHOO. We got creative so that Lindsay and her girls were able to come as well and after waiting for my cell phone to arrive until 5pm we finally hit the road fully loaded with the van, suburban and trailer heading towards Fall City. We ended up having to stop shortly before Ellensburg so the boys could re-strap the tarp down. Unfortunately they took the wrong exit and we ended up heading towards Yakima rather then Seattle. Oops!

Pulled over once more to re-strap that tarp down... girls were getting frustrated with the boys in the burban :p Next thing we know we're about 20min outside of Ellensburg and the boys pull over AGAIN. Argh. We thought they were gonna re-strap the tarp again.... how I wish that was all they were doing :( The suburban had died and we were hanging out on the side of the freeway waiting for it to cool off as the guys said it had overheated. After about 10min we gave it a try and it started. YAY. But they never got over 25mph and pulled over once again waiting for it to cool off. Once more on the road we hit 60mph and us girls were feeling relieved! Next thing we know they pull into Indian John Rest Stop and we get a little worried. Guys said we were only going 60mph because it was downhill.....After lots of sitting, waiting, fiddling etc. the guys determined that the engine had indeed blown and the suburban wasn't going any further. Oh lovely!

Broke down at the rest stop.... What to do what to do?

damn motor :p

I'm thinking at this point Tim was beyond unhappy!

When we called Joel to inform him that it didn't look like we were going to make it, he didn't like that idea and started brainstorming. Next thing we know it's been decided that Joel is on his way with his truck to pick up 4 people and the trailer, and Grandpa Lauro on his way in his car to pick up the other 4 people. After another 1 1/2 hours of waiting and hanging at the rest stop our rides arrived and we headed on to enjoy our camping trip! I am still in awe that Christina and Tim were willing to go camping and leave their suburban broken at a rest stop until Sunday! Their attitudes were amazing. I would have been a hot crying mess and the rest of my 2011 probably would have been ruined if it had been my vehicle!

Kids made the best of the situation... climbing trees

Posing for pics

The adults trying to figure out what in the world we're going to do!

kids and dogs running around

A view of the moon as I sat in the minivan

Time to party and enjoy ourselves and figure out how in the world we were going to get everyone home later...... ;)

The kids loved all the slugs! They went on slug hunts and had slug races!

Steven got in on some of the Shopping Cart fun....

However he didn't make it all the way to the bottom without falling off LOL

My lil model.....Dirty dirty dirty. Gotta love camping!

DinnerTime!!

A few drinks in the system and Lindsay starts telling Bill what's up ;) LOL just kidding, not sure what she was saying but that's what I am imagining!

Discovered schmiggitty sauce while camping and are all giant fans of it now!

Thank god for good friends and good people! We were really starting to stress about how in the world we were going to get 8 extra people and the trailer home even if we did have AAA to get the suburban home. No way were 8 extra's fitting in my minivan. Gina had gone up to spend the weekend with Jerry and had a minivan, but the engine light was on so we weren't sure what was going to happen........ In the end Gina had 6 seats and we filled them up with 6 kids! She lives in Moses and was headed home Sunday so she swung through Ephrata to drop off the 6 kids and Christina who had the joy of riding in the far back of the minivan. In our minivan we stuck Steven and Tim in one seat together LOL They were nice and cozy. Now to figure out how to get that trailer home? Misty and Bill! HOORAY! They are heading down to Ephrata next weekend to hang with the Statter Crew and will bring the trailer for us. THANK GOD everyone was so willing to help us out! You are all amazing people! In the end the weekend turned out great. Tim puked in his tent, I puked in a toilet, Steven and Carrie fell in a river, Lindsay got to hang out with her nephews, the kids got to bust open 2 pinatas, I got to see Misty and Bill's new house.... Great days :)

camping is hard work on pretty little girls!

PINATA

The escapee slugs on the bottom of the picnic table

Let's get this thing home and start preparing for another great weekend!

We sure know how to make memories!

Visit from Grandma Bea

2011-08-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

Grandma Bea came over today to help Steven make some tortillas to take camping at Joel's with us this weekend. Was great to have her here for a few hours and spending time with the kiddos. She put them to work scrubbing walls in their bedroom while she vacuumed LOL It was great! She brought over 2 pans of enchiladas and has promised to return tomorrow with tamales! YUM!!

Kinleigh trying to fill Grandma's Shoes

Dough Balls waiting to be cooked!

Papa checking on a tort

Rolling out the dough balls

Gotta have your coffee while ya cook tortillas. Grandma with creamer, Daddy just black.

Dough balls rolled out waiting to be cooked.

Grandma Bea hard at work with her helper Kailer.

Finished product, GIANT bag of homemade tortillas... Mmmmmm

You will be missed. You were so loved. See you in heaven Great Grandma Velma

2011-07-17T21:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning July 16th 2011 my Great Grandma Velma passed away in her sleep. She was the funnest, kindest, smiliest lady I knew. She lived in Missouri so it was a rare treat for me to get to see her, but in my 31 years I was blessed to see her enough that I knew her, loved her, and will miss her. She lived all her life with no running water and had a water pump and outhouse! She was 2 months shy of 96years old... she lived a very full happy life. I was so blessed that my Mom paid for me and Kinleigh to fly out to Missouri last June to visit my Great Grandma one last time and get 5 generation photos of us 5 girls. age 94 down to age 7mo old... What a special thing I was able to do that not many people can say they have done. My Mom also flew Kaeden and I out to Missouri when Kaeden was 3 weeks old in 2002........... Grandma Velma was able to meet her first Great Great Grandchild. Kai never got to go to Missouri, but Grandma Velma came out here and he too was able to meet her. I am so glad to have photos of all 3 of my children with my Great Grandma Velma. I know they won't remember her, but the memories for me are priceless and they will always have those photos. My Grandma taught me a song that her Mom taught her on the piano that she made up called Jesse's song...... I know have to get out the videos of me playing that song and re-learn it so that I can someday pass that song down to my children and keep it in the family. My trip out to Grandma Velma's when I was 9yrs old and her teaching me to play two songs on the piano sparked my love of piano playing and I took lessons for 4 years after that...........
When I think of Grandma Velma I will always see her smile, her silly faces, her laughter and jokes, her leaning outhouse, her new outhouse, her front porch with her swing... lightening bugs, terapins and ticks and chiggers. I love you Great Grandma Velma and know that you are in heaven with all of your loved ones having a great family reunion. Hug Great Grandpa Shorty for me. Tell him that I have a little one called Shorty and we'll all meet again someday.

Our first 5 generation photo... Kaeden, Jenny, Vicki,, Marcelle and Velma

Great Great Grandma Velma meets her first Great Great Grandchild Kaeden Scott Olivas.

Kaeden had to pump some water even if he was only a few weeks old.

No trip to Grandma Velma's is complete without a visit to the double seater outhouse!

5 generations with Kailer added to the family!

Grandma Velma was listening to music playing ... Note little Shorty in the background. Grandma's husband was Grandpa Shorty so it's so fitting that Kai's nickname is Shorty.

Shorty, Jenny and Grandma Velma

Shorty Jazzi and Grandma Velma. So sad to know that only a few short years later and Kai is the only of those 3 still with us on earth.

I love this lady!

Always with a smile!

My Mom, Grandma Velma and my Daddy

More laughs from Velma!

Sweet treasured moments.

Kinleigh by the water pump

First Meeting between Great Great Grandma Velma and Kinleigh ShaeAnn Olivas.

More silly faces and smiles from that Grandma!

Mother and daughter........

Great Grandma's church. This is where she will be in a few days so everyone can tell her good-bye and wish her well.

When we were there June 2010 she told us she'd be here someday.... that day has come. The final date will now be added. Rest in Peace Grandma and hug Grandpa!

Very special family gathering in Grandma's little kitchen.

5 generations on the porch swing. I have this picture with Kaeden as well but it's not digital...

I love the way Kinleigh is looking up at grandma in this pic.

5 generations of hands......

You are loved and missed

Lovely trip to the ER today

2011-07-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

Lindsay and I had planned to take the kids to lunch at the middle school and then to the movies for the free movie which was How to Train Your Dragon. We had it all planned out, soda pop in our purses and split the cost of a tub of popcorn.... We were outside having a smoke before loading the kids up and we started hearing the same noises we'd been hearing all day long. Kai crying. Oh how it was a trying day on my nerves today. The kids were fighting, arguing, and just plain making me nuts. So of course the sound of him crying reminded me of the boy who cried wolf and I was ignoring him. He came into the living room and I opened the door to see what he was crying about this time. He moved his hand and I saw a nice gash in his forehead that didn't look like a bandaid was going to fix :( My stomach dropped. The thought of stitches and needles makes me ill and I wanted to run and hide in a corner and pretend that never happened. I started having flashbacks of when Kaeden got nailed in the head with a rake and had to get a staple right on the top of his head. I did ok while they did what needed to be done, but I almost passed out when they were finished. It was horrible. So I threw my smoke at Lindsay and grabbed a washcloth. I was getting ready to ask Lindsay's opinion on it when Steven walked in the door for lunch. Unfortunately they both confirmed my suspicions. That needed a trip to the Dr to be looked at :( So rather then head out to the movies, Lindsay took Kaeden and Kinleigh to her house and I took Kai to the ER. I was VERY relieved that they were able to glue it rather then stitch it HOORAY! I think I was probably more happy about the glue then Kai since I knew what was coming and he didn't really understand the concept of needles in his head :( He was a trooper and I'm pretty sure he learned absolutely nothing from this bonk on the noggin... such is life with a boy! Oh and I finally got the story on how it happened while we were sitting in the ER waiting on the doc. I thought he was throwing a tantrum cause he was mad at Kaeden. He kept telling me I was telling Kaeden yes Mom. I said well Honey you don't get a gash in your head by telling your brother yes. Finally he demonstrated at the ER how he was telling his brother yes. Apparently Kaeden had asked him to stop hitting him, so he was shaking his head yes very hard up and down (being sarcastic and ornery as usual) and ended up wacking it on the corner of my hope chest. Ouch! Life is rarely boring with a Kailer in it!

The booboo

Typical Kai Kai couldn't stand to not give me a smiling picture along with his crying picture ;) Love that lil man

Wonderful 4th Weekend

2011-07-05T17:39:00.001-07:00

Saturday we went to Moses Lake for a birthday party get together for Tony and Samir. Was wonderful hanging out with family and watching the kids play together while gorging on super yummy food!

Grandma Bea and Kinleigh playing in the pool

The crop dusting plane kept flying over and the kids loved it! It was almost as if it we could reach out and touch it because it flew so low!

What do you think the kids thought of Tony singing the Star Spangled Banner?

Just a little dress in the butt crack after an afternoon of swimming.

Abbe loved Uncle Steven's hat.

Steven with the girls. They are awfully beautiful!

Cousins! Samir, Kaeden, Kailer and Abbe

Birthday presents being put to good use.

Looks like Samir caught the criminal!

What's a birthday party without cake?!?!?! YUM!

After we were done there we headed home to get ready for a night out on the town. Hired a babysitter and she showed up a little before 8. The boys were SUPER excited to have a babysitter again! It happens so rarely that they beg for us to go out and hire one LOL Headed down to AJ's for our friend Diana's birthday party and I was 3 sheets to the wind before we got there... It was a Looooong chatty night ;) No need to go into details but let's just say I won't be drinking that much again for awhile! I made friends, Lindsay made a friend... ;) Was a great night! Some might even say AMAZING! Sunday I was pretty worthless. I wasn't really sick or have a headache or anything like I expected but I was DRAINED of any and all energy. It was ridiculous how worn out I felt! Pretty much slept and watched netflix all day while the kids had run of the house. Looked like 3 lil tornadoes went through here!

Sunday evening was Tate's birthday part at Lions park. Would you believe the baby that was 10mo old when I met Steven turned 11? I think I might be in a bit of denial.......Happy Happy Birthday Tatum! Sunday night we went to Soap Lake to watch the fireworks show... Can you say W-I-N-D-Y!?!?! Ridiculous wind. I was hoping they didn't cancel the show after we waited so long for it to start! The kids enjoyed it, but were not pleased that we weren't lighting any fireworks of our own.

Blowing out candles was pretty impossible since the wind did it way faster then Tate could!

The birthday gang.

Big Sis and Lil Sis. She's an amazing big sister to Kinleigh.

Opening gifts

Yup she finally got that Ipod she wanted so badly!

Waiting for fireworks to start... see those waves on the lake? Crazy wind!

We woke up Monday morning unsure of what our plans for the 4th were... by around noon Lindsay had come over and inspired us to get a little BBQ together and let off some fireworks. Ran into Lynn while we were in town and told her to come on over. Ended up having a great BBQ with Lynn and her family, Christina and her family, Lindsay and Taylor and our friend Matt. Lots of kids, Lots of food, Lots of fireworks, lots of fun! Lindsay came up with the idea of a water balloon fight...Adults VS Kids... Adults kicked bootie! But the kids were a bit sore losers :p Next time we're going for 2 buckets of balloons, one for the kids and one for the adults so the kids can't cry and make excuses when we smash them again ;)

Put the men to work filling water balloons

Getting closer......

Very time consuming!

Taylor was fixing hair. What do you think of Kai's do?

Auntie and Kinleigh

Not a smile but not a cry face out of Alexis so I was happy

Watching the daytime fireworks... Kaity, Taylor, Mikey, Kailer, Kaeden, Paxtin, Steve and Michael

Lynn and Kinleigh partying it up

Rugrat!

The group in the bed of the truck watching nighttime fireworks :)

Big brother watching out for Kinleigh's ears... Super sweet!

Kinleigh and Taylor enjoying the show

Kai and Mikey

RIP to my first real loved carseat.......

2011-07-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

Our marathon expires 8-15-11 so it was time to get Kinleigh a new seat. After much research and debating I finally ordered up her new seat and it arrived today :) I really love it so far and am excited to use it for a very long time. If Kinleigh stays short and small like Kai did she'll be in this seat for a very long time. Kai even sat in it and it fit him so it was good to see him at 5 1/2 fitting in it with room to grow ;) And I only paid $125 for it YAY.

this is without the headrest. The headrest adds another 6 or 8 inches on that thing. She'll be in it for a very long time :D

So we had to make sure no one tried to use the expired loved Britax Marathon that has been in our family for almost 6 years now................

In her final resting place......

Let the cremation begin!

Man you put a little gasoline on them carseats and they burn fast and furious!

Reduced to a pile of burning plastic

The audience enjoyed the show

Adios Carseat

All that remains.........

Well that was fun! :) Glad the firemen didn't show up. Who knew when you sprayed a burning pile of plastic with the water hose the flames would get HUGE!!!!! LOL

June is gone?!?!

2011-06-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

Well I can't believe this is the last day of June already! Tomorrow is July 1st?!?! The girls went home tonight after being here since the 17th. It's kinda quiet and lonely without them! I am still shocked and amazed at how smooth the last 2 weeks went having them here. It just felt so normal and no arguing/fighting etc. The attitudes rocked. They cleaned their rooms every day to go to splashzone... It was real nice. We ended up going almost every day since I last posted... Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wed! We had to leave early Wed because while there I was moving Kinleigh from the deeper water to the shallow water and popped her wrist. Turned into a 3hr screaming marathon and a 2 hour trip to the walk in clinic waiting room before she was using it normally and I decided to leave. 5 kids in a waiting room for 2 hours is just no fun! I am so happy to say that she seems fine so I don't have to feel guilty leaving last night. I got the kids all hershey cookies n cream candy bars for being so good in the office.

Today we were supposed to go to splashzone to make up for leaving early yesterday but it was SO WINDY :( It's been a very windy summer so far and not very hot. I hear it's supposed to get real warm next week so the plan is to put the air conditioners in the bedrooms to be safe ;) I'd hate for it to hit 90-100 and NOT have an AC! So we went and picked Daddy up for lunch at the middle school (I packed him a lunch) and then we went to Safeway and bought all different kinds of ice cream and popsicles to make up for no splashzone ;)

Feeling real close to my Mommy today... Why you ask? Cause I found her bra in the closet and decided to give it a try. Call me weird but it fit great and I am in love. She probably won't get it back. Not sure what perfume is on it but it smells like my Mommy and I like it :) It was super supportive for my run with Lindsay tonight ;)

Finally made my mind up on birthday gifts for the kids. Each year due to having July Aug Sept Oct birthdays we try to find a "big" gift that costs more for all of them combined and then a small gift on their birthday. This year we had to fix the trampoline. I was torn weather to fix it or buy a new one. Finally settled on purchasing just the replacement mat and saved myself $150 going that route. I just hope it fits good when it gets here! we're down 5 springs as of today.... LOL I also purchased Kinleigh her carseat. That research was taking forever but I think I'll be pleased with it. I went with the regular True Fit that Wendy recommended. And then yesterday I had to choose...... fix the wii for $92 or buy a new one for $150..... I just went and bought the kids a new black wii. They were surprised and pleased so that was a fun box to bring in the house! So now the old wii is in the girls room so they can watch netflix, play game cube games on that wii and all of the downloaded games. It all worked out nicely :)

So Kinleigh is smarter then anyone gives her credit........At naptime she wanted to nurse and was really grumpy and crying today. She kept trying to crawl into my lap and pull at my shirt to get to the boob. I kept telling her no not now. I was busy editing senior photos. Next thing I know she holds her arm up at me and starts crying OWIE like she did yesterday when her wrist really WAS hurt and I nursed her to help her feel better........ Oh man the kid is trying to work Momma at a young age! Cracked me up!

Shower Time

The curls are getting longer and longer!

My 3 loves playing the wii!

Lunchtime at the middle school with my kids.

Kinleigh having some Momma Milk after her owie yesterday at splashzone :(

Having a rocking summer break so far!

2011-06-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

Well since having the girls here we've been on the go go go all week and it's been great! Now I'm feeling this summer break thing and not looking forward to school starting yet ;) We did free lunch and splashzone both Tues and Wed and then today the weather went :p ...... High of 71 and windy windy windy. I didn't feel like braving the waterpark in that weather even though the kids really wanted to go. I made up my mind to go ahead and take them for the free lunch as it was pizza and I love not having to plan cook or clean lunch after 5 kids~! Before going to lunch Daddy called to ask if I could bring him a couple sandwiches and chips, so I whipped him up a gourmet lunch and we headed out on the town. Before I dropped his lunch off I figured I should probably get the DISH network receiver mailed off before I completely got forgot and got charged some out of this world price for it ;) While at lunch I got a funny hair up my arse and decided I might want to attempt the Movie Theater with 5 kids........... I found out the free movie they were showing today was Megamind. Something I had not yet seen! The boys had seen it but Tate and Trin had not, so that sealed the deal. Off to free movie Thursday at 1pm we were going. We made a quick stop at Rite Aid to pick up my prescription and some candy to stash in my purse ;) We also found a great deal of BOGO on swim goggles and picked up 6 pairs for $4.99 YAY :D The kids were super stoked. I have promised them a trip to splashzone tomorrow no matter what the weather is if their rooms are clean.......... I just hope that if it's real cold they get real whimpy and wanna go home LOL

The movie went very smoothly! I grabbed a jumbo popcorn and large soda and we all shared that along with the "smuggled" candy. Thank goodness Steven loves me lots and got me a giant purse for Mothers Day from Avon ;) As much as that purse did not seem like something I would like want or need when he handed it to me..... I am seriously growing more and more in love with it! Go Steven! A few lollipops, licorice, popcorn and soda for a 1yr old will entertain her long enough to survive the movie :) Kai did exceedingly well for what he usually does out in public. Maybe there is hope that he's gonna settle down? He actuallly seemed to enjoy the movie and behave! Made for a very pleasant afternoon. The older 3 were great and gave me no problems at all.

When we were at lunch today we were given a flyer for a puppet show tonight at the library. The kids all wanted to go so I decided we all would go! Lucky Steven :) He was off work and got to enjoy the puppet show and library time with me and the kids ;) Actually he did enjoy it. He's such an awesome Dad and loves doing things with his kids whenever he gets the chance. The place was packed so we didn't really get to watch the show, but the kids got to and they really enjoyed it. They also thought it was super cool that they each got to pick out a book to check out. While they were in the show Steven and I followed Kinleigh around. Wow how different she is from the boys! She kept sitting on bean bags with a teddy bear she had found and was calling her "baby" and grabbing a book... opening it... close it.... onto the next book... sit down... repeat. She is a bit on the loud side just like her big brothers but she is a bit calmer and easier to sidetrack away from naughtiness LOL

Puppet Show at the library. Can't see the kids cause they are blocked by adults.

This is what day #2 of splashzone does to Pretty! zonked!

First Official Day of Summer 2011

2011-06-21T22:13:00.000-07:00

To kick off Summer of 2011 Mother Nature finally handed out a sunny warm day! It hit 81 degrees YAHOO! It was still on the windy side but not too crazy so I'll take it :) The kids accomplished their goal and had BOTH rooms clean so that we could have a great day!

Started off by doing a quick tidy of the house. Then we headed to the Middle School for the free lunch provided through the city. It was amazing to not have to worry about what to feed the kids or clean up! They got a variety of foods so it was great. After our lunch we headed over to Splashzone to get our family pass photograph's and have an afternoon of swimming. The kids were in 7th heaven. Unfortunately my sunscreen is crap and I have some kids with a bit of pink tinge to their skin. Tonight i made a trip to Walmart to get some good stuff for tomorrow ;) I just hope they have clean rooms so we can do it all again tomorrow! The lovely thing about the pool pass is I have no pressure to stay all day! We probably spent about 2hrs at the pool. Had I paid individually we would have stayed all day and I would have been miserable! The older 4 kids did wonderful and swam hard. Kinleigh was a handful! For the first 20min she was scared of the water and it was nice cause I didn't have to chase her around. She soon discovered she loved the water and proceeded to wade out to the water up past her mouth over and over and over again........ Ugh LOL So while the kids had their fun, I chased Kinleigh and made sure she didn't drown herself. She also LOVED chasing seagulls! She thought it was much fun to run after the birds with her arms waving in the air. The last 30min of being at the park she discovered she enjoyed the sand area with the toys almost as much as the water. I'm kinda hoping she hangs out there a bit more tomorrow so I might be able to sit back, soak up some rays and read a book or something? Hey one can hope right! LOL

Awesome Fathers Day Weekend!

2011-06-19T13:56:00.000-07:00

To kick off summer vacation we participated in our first Relay For Life Fri night :) Fri afternoon Lindsay Tatum Triniti Kai Kinleigh and I all went down to decorate the MOPS camp area for the relay. Kaeden and Steven had daycamp so were not with us. Kaeden LOVED his cub scouts daycamp and is super excited to go back next year! He made so many fun things and walked away with lots of pride. After decorating the kids Lindsay and I all went and got some dinner and snacks and headed back to the track to start our night. Around 8:30 Steven and Kaeden showed up and we all took turns walking and just enjoying ourselves. After running all day at day camp they still stayed until almost 1am when Kaeden Kai and Kinleigh were done and Steven headed home with them. The girls were troopers and wanted to stay with me at the track. It was real nice to have some one on one time with just Tate Trin and I. Lots of laps around the track gave us many hours of small talk. I can't believe they kept going and going and going and going! I am so proud of all of the kids for the walking they accomplished. Before he left Kaeden made 18 laps! that's 4 1/2 miles! He ran many of those! I figured the girls would be done long before I was but they walked and walked and walked with me. Tate refused to take a break and walked the whole time. trin pooped out around 2:15. She broke her own personal record though ;) She hoped to break her record of staying up past 2am! LOL around 2:15 when I told her she had broke her record she gave me a sleepy smile but stayed awake until we finally gave up and packed up camp and headed home around 3am. I ended up with 31 laps.... 7 3/4 miles YAY! I wish I'd done more, that'll be my goal for next year! Thank goodness we didn't have anything to do Saturday ;) Poor Steven and Kaeden had to get up and head out at 8 for day camp again all day !!! We slept in, had some breakfast... Lindsay watched the girls while I went and got Fathers Day gifts and the kids made Daddy cards.

This morning the kids were all excited to give Daddy their homemade cards :) It is so sweet to see them so excited for Fathers Day. The kids are also excited because KAEDEN MADE HIS GOAL! YAY I promised him that if he brought his handwriting grade up to a 3 that I would purchase a family pass to splashzone for the summer (He did NOT know I'd already purchased it in April due to a great discount LOL) so I was pleased to announce to him yesterday that he did it! So we're all hoping the weather works with us this week so we can go to splashzone and get our passes and enjoy some pool time!!!! The girls were super excited that Kaeden worked hard ;)

We're hanging out now waiting for Steven's Dad to come over for some fathers day afternoon family time :) Really enjoying having all the kids here. They are all being so pleasant lately! It used to be crazy hectic to have all the kids here for the weekend.... and now they are growing into such great kids. They are helpful, polite and a joy to be around. I'm really looking forward to this coming week :)

What a great weekend :)

2011-06-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

So this weekend we had a couple surprises in store for our kiddos. They knew we were going to Spokane and would see Uncle Tony and Aunt Jeanne but that's it! ;)

Our Saturday started out with us hopping in the van and hitting burger king for some much needed yummy breakfast :) 2 hour drive to Spokane and we met up with Tony, Jeanne, Samir and Abbe at Riverfront Park. Initially I was very bummed because Daddy forgot my camera :( but in the end it was wonderful because I got to just be a MOM rather then chasing everyone with the camera. No worrying about taking care of kids and a camera and getting the perfect shot... I just got to "be" for the day. A little sad I don't have amazing captures from the day, but it was truly great to just take in the moments of the day. it's something I do way too little of! Tony and Jeanne had a day pass for the family they let us use which was wonderful and the kids got to go on rides galore :) Kinleigh experienced her first rides and she seemed to enjoy them. Her very first ride was the Ferris Wheel with Momma. She really wanted to go with Daddy but he refused to take her LOL He doesn't care for the ferris wheel and the thought of having Kinleigh on it with him was too much.

At least my cell phone has a camera and I was able to snap a few pics. they aren't amazing pics but they are amazing memories!

And here is Kinleigh with Papa on the boat ride. She liked it and rode it with Momma but preferred to ride it with Papa. She really is such a funny kid, one day it's all about Mom, the next all about Dad. This day was an all about Daddy kind of day ;)

We also got to go to our first IMAX movie. It was about rescuing Orangatangs (who knows how to spell that word??) and Elephants. We kicked back to enjoy this show with some popcorn, sodas and slushies. Kai managed to spill his slushie all over the floor but that's ok ;) What would a movie be without a good spill? That IMAX screen was amazing. Very cool to get to experience it. After the movie it was off to Miniature golf. Unfortunately mini golf and Kinleigh are not a good combo. She preferred to pick up everyone's balls and throw them so her and I went for a little walk in the arcade part while everyone else played their 9 holes. She had fun just sitting on rides (these took quarters and I didn't have any) and then a little boy came up and gave her a quarter so that she could ride the horse. what a sweet kid! I told him she was fine and he could keep his money but he insisted. Guess no one can resist the cuteness of Pretty ;)

Not long after this Kinleigh was starting to lose it. It was beyond naptime and she was tired. So her and I walked slowly to the carousel while everyone else had a few additional rides. My equilibrium is so messed up after my thyroid going all wonky and having kids so I can't do most rides anymore :( if they turn in circles at all I am not up to it :( When we hit the carousel we had lots of time to kill so we walked around the park checking out the festivities. Culture Shock! LOL Apparently there was a gay pride type festival going on? Lots of rainbows and balloons and booths and music and people with pride written all over them. The thing that threw me for a loop was the drag queen looking men! I'm used to seeing gay people and have some amazing gay friends. I'm not used to seeing drag queen's. I don't think they hang out in Ephrata much LOL I was curious and intrigued and wanted to just take it all in but didn't want to be rude and stare..... Headed back to the carousel with a now sleeping Kinleigh and waited for the rest of the gang. After a few rides on the carousel it was time to head out for the boys big surprise! Gave our loves and hugs to Tony and the family and a Happy Birthday to Samir and headed off...

On our way to our destination we got lost :p GPS led us around the airport in circles twice and if we kept listening to it we would have done circles all day long! We had hoped to pick up some dinner at a drive through but we were in the middle of nowhere and lost :p After some big circles and backtracking we found our way and ended up at our destination. When the lady at the parking lot informed us the Monster Truck parking was straight ahead Kaeden's ears perked right up! He asked Did I just hear her say MONSTER TRUCKS? LOL We tried to play dumb but the cat was out of the bag and he was excited. Kai and Kinleigh were sleeping ;) Once parked Kaeden spilled the beans to Kai and they were so excited! The show was great. The kids loved it. They did quite well! Dinner sucked. The most expensive ($41) crap food i've ever had! But oh well. Lesson learned. We got to hang out in the pits and the kids got to see Monster Trucks up close and personal. We did not stand in line to get autographs from the drivers because we were starving but we got pics with the monster trucks and on them and in tires. :)

We had some great people sit next to use and I was thankful for that. They were very tolerant of 3 kids and thought the kids were quite funny! They shared their food and entertained my kids. It's funny how you make friends and leave friends so quickly at an event like that. We'll probably never see them again but thank you to Don and his Dad for making the evening great :) Thanks for sharing your cheese with Kai and picking Kinleigh's dirty suckers off the ground for her Daddy to clean off.
Kinleigh started to get tired and fussy around 9ish and Steven says to me "give her the boob!" Kaeden turns around and says "No not in public!" LOL LOL LOL She did not get the boob. And she survived ;) The trucks put on a good show. The motorcycles were kinda boring. The jet car was awesome and we got to see it burn two cars to a crisp! That was very neat. We also got to see quite the amazing wreck! The monster truck got a lot of speed going to try to do a double jump and while in the air it flipped in a circle and landed on it's top! Flipped over twice before landing on it's wheels. The crowd was on it's feet. The ambulance and people were running over. The driver walked away fine :) Phew! Was a little tense for a minute!

Taking kids potty and changing diapers in porta potties isn't the funnest thing on earth but we survived. Getting out of the parking lot was a big challenge but we made it. Driving home in the middle of the night sucks but it was a great day and we loved every fun filled moment :) Nothing like a great surprise for some great kids :)

My Kai Guy

2011-06-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

Ok I feel like all I do is complain about how tough Kailer is. I need to include this moment in my blog because quite truthfully these moments are a regular occurance when Kailer is around!

Kai is in the bathroom. He has the dog in there with him. He is singing at the top of his lungs everything from stuff he makes up to theme songs off of WWE. He hollers at me MOM! Mom we're out of toilet paper. So I jump up, grab him some tp and hand it to him. As I hand it to him he looks up at me and says "We're out of toilet paper can you toss me a roll?" The quote off of the Angel Soft commercial LOL This kid really does make so many smiles on a day to day basis :)

And I must say that as of 11am he's doing MUCH better today then yesterday. I think i'd even call him pleasant! These are the days that make it all worth it. Now if only I could get these sneezes to stop, allergy meds to kick in, and get on a serious cleaning streak!

What a testing day it was today!

2011-06-06T23:47:00.000-07:00

From the time Kai woke this morning until bedtime tonight he was in testing mode! You know it's not gonna be good when the best friend looks at you at 9am and says... "it's gonna be a long day isn't it?" because your child is making your head spin in circles already! I also think Kinleigh might be hitting a growth spurt or not feeling 100% because she slept until 10am when I finally woke her up (yes this sleeping in thing would be a great thing... if only it was on a morning I was allowed to sleep in with her :p) so we could shower and get ready to go to lunch at Grant. Today was the end of year BBQ lunch at school. Lindsay and I headed down a little before 11 to do lunch with Sydney and Kaeden. It's always so fun to see the kids faces when you show up at school to do something with them. It really means so much to them and it shows on their faces big time! The big smiles and the way they light up. Not many things beat that ;)

It was strange to be standing there with my 3 kids and thinking that in just a few months this will be Kaeden AND Kailer's school! I kept feeling the need to help Kai get his tray for lunch and carry it and all that jazz, yet I tried to remind myself he'd be doing that on a daily basis in 3mo so I should probably let him do it on his own! He did well and didn't drop anything. His problem is he's a super slow picky eater so i have a feeling when he starts Kindy he's going to have a long time of very hungry days until he learns to pick up the pace and at least get the main course eaten! He's so excited to be going into Kinder this fall and already considers Grant "his" school now as well LOL He was running in the halls saying this is my school now Mom :) He did real well at the lunch and helped me keep Kinleigh entertained while we waited on brother to get out for lunch. It was after we got home from lunch that he went into Holy Cow Drive Momma Nuts mode!

Kinleigh was tired and grumpy and wanted a nap. Kai was loud and couldn't stay quiet so I could get her down for a nap. If I asked him to do something he told me no. If I asked him to go in the bedroom and play he told me no. If I asked him to move off of the couch cause he was bumping sis and I he told me no. Oh how frustrated I became! Kinleigh finally fell asleep but Kai cut her nap a good hour or more short and when she was awoken O.M.G. She was a MONSTER! Screaming demon! Unusual for her and frustrating for me! Unfortunately due to his behavior Kai lost the privelage to go to the Science Fair and Book Fair at Grant tonight. I was bummed because I was excited to go but had to follow through with my threat and stay home with him while Steven took Kaeden. Better luck next year. I really hope the fact that we have plans for the weekend that he really does NOT want to miss out on sunk in after missing the fun tonight and we have a better day tomorrow....... I am gearing myself up to be one step ahead of him all day tomorrow... We'll see how it goes!

Between me being grumpy, my kids being grumpy, etc. I managed to accomplish a whole lotta nothing today. Better luck tomorrow. At least there is no plans for the day to interrupt my schedule so maybe it'll go smoother. I swear it seems that the days there are things that must be done are the days when things go upside down around here!

Hitting the Bike Track

2011-06-06T00:34:00.000-07:00

Friday we took the kids to the bike track here in Ephrata and they had a blast! We were killing some time waiting for Gramma Vicki to show up later that evening and the weather was just gorgeous! Blue skies and nice as could be.

This is the face my daughter gives me when I try to take MY pop away from her!

We're at the bike track for less then 5min and Kaeden has managed to have a wreck. Kai wrecked his first 2 seconds but I didn't have the camera ready to capture that fall... and he wasn't nearly as cheerful about it as Kaeden was!

This was Kai's first chance to really get out and spread his wings on his bike! He learned to ride without training wheels about a month ago but has only been able to ride on our driveway in a small circle. He did a fantastic job!!!!! He LOVES his new bike that we bought together at Walmart and just beams with pride to show off his bike skills.

This is the look my daughter gives me when she wants a bite, taste or drink of anything I have. Kinda resembles a baby bird with it's mouth wide open waiting for Momma to drop a worm in! She will climb up on my lap and just stare at me and give me this look rather then asking please if she wants what I have! Silly girl! I'm glad I was able to capture this on camera as I'm sure this stage will pass all too soon and I'll only have this photo to remember this!

YAY finally got a smile while looking right at Momma and saying Cheese. Rare thing for pretty to give me! Her eyes and contact with my camera lens do not go hand in hand 90% of the time. Super stoked to get a pic of her with a giant pepsi cup too since I have one of the boys when they were babies but didn't have one of her! Granted they were much younger, but hey better late then never!

Look at my Kai Guy looking all grown up on that brand new bike of his!

Yes even Momma got in on the bike riding fun this lovely Friday evening! It's been a long time since I rode a bike and my butt had many complaints the next day ;) Momma riding with all her little ones in tow.... sweet. Kinda like ducks LOL

My bike skills are a tad rusty........................Gotta love the chicken legs.... but I did NOT fall once ;) So that's a plus!

Go Kai Go!

Kinleigh can climb a mountain!!! almost... LOL This dirt was hard as cement though and slippery so she did not make it to the top :p A for effort!

If you can't climb the dang hill just lay down and play in the dirt for awhile. The joy of being a kid...

Oh how my Kaeden looks entirely too grown up in this picture! I love the way it turned out! Bright sun, shadowed face and all. I can't believe that this week is his last week of 2nd grade.... Very shortly I will be the mother of a THIRD grader and KINDERGARDENER! YIKES. My kids really do rock :) I love them all to pieces. Kaeden is always hugging me and telling me how much he loves me. Kai can't stay out of my lap and is forever loving on me, rubbing my back and just being too sweet. Unfortunately Kai thinks being sweet and telling me he loves me means he gets a free pass to be naughty sometimes ;p I might have a future Last Comic Standing winner living right here under my roof!!

Time to Re-Hydrate! That bike riding stuff is hard work! Take note of Kinleigh in the background STILL hanging onto that Mt Dew of mine. She pretty much stole it and refused to give it back. I figured if it kept her happy while we rode bikes and snapped pics who was I to ruin her fun?

My all time fav pic taken Friday at the bike track............ Look at that eye contact! Look at the light in her eyes! Guess who's behind the camera? not I! Ugh. Why does she give Daddy the good looks??????? (slightly jealous, yes)

I just had to add this pic because it's so "Kinleigh". Snot, Dirt, Scowl and still the most beautiful thing in the world! How can you not love that face? By the time we left the track she was one messy kiddo! she loves her dirt, she loves being outside, and she is finally starting to love baths/showers as well. Phew took her long enough! until a couple months ago baths and showers were the worst possible torture to her!

Papa and Kaeden zoomed down the big hill together! Crazy Men I have in my life!

My lil men giving me a pose. yes I probably had to threaten them to cooperate but you can't tell by the photo right?? That's all that really matters :D

And this would be more along the lines of what I usually get out of Kaeden for pics. Funny faces.... I told him when he does this particular look his eyebrows remind me of alien antennae sticking up on his head. I am planning to hold onto this photo to show future girlfriends for sure!

yes... this is what it looks like.... My sweet princess is trying to SLAP me. She was done with the camera being in her face LOL And she was not afraid to tell me so! Gotta watch her and not let the attitude get out of control! Everyone thinks it's so cute, I on the other hand am fully aware that what is cute at 19mo will NOT be cute at 5yrs, 10yrs, 15yrs and so on....

Heading home from a great time at the bike track... Kai guy is adorable as ever with his messy sweaty bike helmet hair!

She kinda resembles Pig Pen off of Charlie Brown at this moment... yup she was covered in dirt head to toe~! And as you can see she is giving me her trademark scowl look while I try to get her to smile for my camera.

The end to a great day! Kinleigh sacked out with Sally and Gramma Vicki who finally arrived :D There will be more pics from the weekend to come at a later time~!

Let summer begin!!!!!!!!!! or not.......

2011-06-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

What is up with this crazy weather? It's June 2nd and here I sit in a hoodie and sweatpants. Seriously? It's 52 degrees out there :p I am nowhere near ready for 90-100 degree weather but some nice high 70 low 80's would be devine!

Had a good Easter at Gma and Gpa's house. Was real nice to see everyone all together again. It's been a very long time since that happened. Was a little disappointed in the egg hunt this year as they didn't let the older kids do any "hunting". That was a bummer! But I am glad that we were able to go and I can say that all of my kids have spent an Easter at Great Grandma and Grandpa's house like I did growing up.

Been busy with end of school year stuff and scouts. The scouts had a bake sale to earn money for their daycamp and raised 600 dollars in a day! Go Wolves! They also all got their wolf badge and are now looking forward to Day Camp in a couple weeks. I committed to another year of PTO Mommy and will be Grants treasurer again. I enjoyed it and maybe this year I'll feel a bit more put together ;) Kailer's last day of preschool was Friday May 27th. I can't believe he's going into Kindergarten this fall! It will be so nice to have the boys in all day school ;) I think he's going to just love it. As soon as he was done with preschool he's informed me that he is now a kindergartner, Kaeden's bus is his bus, and Kaeden's school is now his school. He's excited!

Still doing photography practice. I got two newborn shoots done and although I didn't get exactly what I'd hoped to get I did get some cute shots and the Mommy's were pleased which pleases me! I am pretty sure that photography has a neverending learning curve! The photo fundraiser for this weekend has been cancelled and may I admit I am secretly relieved? LOL I don't know why photoshoots make me so dang nervous. However the more I do it the more I conquer the fear and I'm sure it will only get easier just like anything else you do repeatedly right?

Finally got my H&R bonus. Not quite as big as last year but big enough that I'll be returning to work this next year. I had debated leaving if I ended up with no bonus. I was getting worried as it took awhile to get this year! I am super excited that this year when I work I will only have to find babysitters for Kinleigh as Kai and Kaeden will both be in school all day YAY ... That will make things nice!

Had some crazy family stuff come up last week and I finally feel like my head is not spinning anymore and things are getting back to normal. Hope that doesn't happen again Ever! I had a real good conversation with my brother last night and it helped to clear the air on some things. I know things won't be fixed with one phone conversation, but many things came out and we can move forward and try to keep things from coming to this point again in the future. I did have to eat my words and admit my brother was correct and I was wrong about a couple things ;) But that's ok, it's good for me to be wrong sometimes! ;) I am 31 years old now and really want to become a better person as I said in my last blog entry... in all aspects of my life... and with that comes me needing to learn to be open and honest with everyone. I tend to keep things to myself and bottled inside and rarely if never tell someone when they have upset me, hurt my feelings, etc. I am now working on being open and just telling the truth up front. Even if feelings are hurt initially it can't hurt worse then not talking for years and having it all come out at once when I finally explode and can't keep it in anymore............. Add that to my list of everything that needs changed and I feel a touch overwhelmed! One step at a time, one day at a time. I shall end this post with the best picture of my 3 kids together I was able to capture last month.. UGH Better luck this weekend ?!?!?!

Back to my regular job

2011-04-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

Tax season has officially come to an end. I finished my last day of work on Tuesday and am so ready to get back into the routine of just being a Mom! I love working but I also love work coming to an end ;)

Yesterday I took all 3 kids for dentist appointments and it went great! I am pleased to say we have NO CAVITIES YAY! They were good patients for their Aunt Lindsay. On the downside it looks like Kaeden will be needing braces in the future. Not sure how we're gonna finance that expense! :-o I also got to meet the expecting Mommy of a newborn I am going to photograph :) So excited to do that! I've got lots of props, now I just hope to rock the photo shoot!

Today I have wanted to do nothing..... but having good friends over for coffee this morning has motivated me YAY. Thanks ladies ;) After this blog is updated I shall clean clean clean and pack pack pack. We're heading out of town to Great Grandma and Great Grandpa's tomorrow morning for Easter Weekend. It's been awhile since everyone has got together there so I'm super excited! Good times :)

Still fighting with my weightloss journey :( I think I need something to "click" in some important points of my life. Before the end of this year I have big plans and I really want them to all come together nicely! Weightloss, Quit Smoking, and Photography are my 3 big goals. However in between those major things I am forever working on being a better mother, girlfriend/wife/fiance whatever I am, homemaker, relationship with God etc. These are all things I want to make amazing in my life, but when you start adding them all together I begin to feel so overwhelmed! All in good time I suppose.

Mom came up last weekend to do a "prop" delivery. She brought me some amazing props and I cannot wait to make her proud and incorporate them into my photos! Thank you Mom! You are truly the best! While she was here we were busy busy! Sat morning the boys went with Steven to the fishing derby. Gramma went and took pics :) Thanks Mom! Then Lindsay, Syd, Mom, Kinleigh and I headed to Moses Lake to photograph the girls at their dog show. How neat to see them look so grown up and professional! After the dog show we did some shopping and Mom bought me another prop for my birthday present. I promise to do my best to make an amazing photo with that basket! Can't wait to play with it. We then drove around scouting photography locations to kill some time and visited with Grandma Bea while waiting for Mikey's birthday party to start. I must say that Kangaroo Bounce House is a neat place for kids birthday parties! The kids just love it. Craziness that he is 4yrs old now! It kinda sucks the way life flies by when you start making babies and watching them grow up!

Sunday before Mom left we snapped some pics of Kinleigh wearing my shirt that says Skinny Minny 2.. Gramma crossed out the 2 and put a 3 on there for her. I must say she's definitely not a skinny minny LOL but it was cute and taking pics of her was fun.

Time to check on my Ebay auction and close up the laptop for some serious housework! The joys of being a Stay At Home Mom rather then a working mom again ;)!

Had a Rocking Early Easter Weekend at Uncle Joel's house

2011-04-13T22:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend the family loaded up in the minivan and headed to Uncle Joel's for an early Easter celebration Mexican style :) It was our weekend with the girls so we had a full load in the van :) Grandpa Lauro and Grandma Lupe headed up as well. It's always such a great time at Joel's house.

Friday evening was spent with kids running around like crazy. Playing kickball. And just having fun. The grown ups spent the evening around the campfire. Nothing like all the fun of camping but all the comforts of sleeping and peeing inside a house LOL Kinleigh Kai and I pooped out earlier then everyone else. Those two needed to go to bed so around midnight we crashed while everyone else hung out til around 2am.

Sat morning we were up and about around 9ish. Joel put coffee on and made yummy egg breakfast burritos and french toast. He's been eating eggs for weeks to save the egg shells for the egg hunt. The thought of this was really confusing to me but it ended up being super cool :) So after breakfast was cleaned up we got out the shells and set the kids up in the kitchen to color the shells. I was sure they'd end up smashed in tiny pieces but was pleasantly surprised to find the kids did great with this! While the shells dried the kids headed back out for more "camping" fun outside and Lupe and I went to a couple yard sales. Found some great deals on blankets/backgrounds for newborn pics.

I had purchased some of these confetti eggs at Walmart and couldn't understand why you'd go to all the effort Joel was going to when I got a dozen for 1.97 LOL I soon found out why Walmart eggs suck and the homemade eggs are so fun! Joel, Lupe and Grandpa went to work filling eggs with rice, sugar, paper, coins and dollar bills. Then a $20 bill was stuck in one egg. How convenient that there was only one pink egg, so that became the "golden" egg. To seal the ends up after they are stuffed you just wet some toilet paper, mold it around the egg and let it dry.

While the guys were hiding the eggs for the egg hunt all the older kids went on a bike ride with Gma and Gpa. I passed Kinleigh off to Steven and went for some quality time with Kai cause he was left out of the bike ride. We hung out throwing rocks in the river, and then he agreed that he'd pose for pics while I played with my camera if I'd go on a walk with him wherever he wanted to walk to LOL Sounded like a plan to me! we walked along the river into town. It's a super short walk. I believe that's the first time I've personally walked it. Everyone else has but me. When we hit the road we spotted a large group of people on bikes. Found Gma Gpa and all the kids! Lupe told me there was a yard sale not far away that we hadn't hit earlier so we all headed over to kill some more time. Ended up finding an antique buggy thing, Kai got some cars.. I think everyone got a little something or other. They were giving stuff up for super cheap so we couldn't pass it up. Worked perfect cause Kai pushed my buggy back while everyone was on their bikes. I think he felt important with that task :)

We got back to Joel's and it was time to hunt! Kai got a 3min head start. Thank goodness cause he was real slow at this hunting stuff! What is different about these eggs then the eggs I've grown up hunting? When you find them you smash them over someone else's head to reveal what's inside! People are covered in confetti, and sugar, and rice, and paper and kids are screaming I found a dollar!!!!!! Chaos but so fun! We also threw candy bars out and about so they found candy with their eggs. Kinleigh thought this was ok and although timid and quiet she was participating.... Until Lupe showed her how to smash an egg on Grandpa's egg. When that happened Kinleigh developed a fear for the Easter Eggs! LOL Kaeden ended up smashing the $20 dollar egg and then ran off without seeing the money! Kai found the money!! They are going to split it :) What great brothers they are.

That evening we bbq'd some burgers and Joel grilled some amazing meat over the fire. It was much chillier Sat night then it had been Fri night. Kinleigh crashed on Steven's lap around 10 so not long after I took her in the house to lay in bed and check out my pics of our fun filled day. She was sacked out big time! Kids were up well past midnight or 1am once again............

Sunday morning we were spoiled with a great pancake breakfast... We did some clean up and packed up the van and headed out at a decent time! On the way home we stopped at Snoqualmie to look at the trains. We've wanted to do this for a long time and I'm glad we did. It was dreary and drizzling but not miserable. Had some taco bell for late lunch/dinner in Ellensburg and then surprised the kids and pulled off just past Vantage at the Wild Horse Monument. Put dogs on leashes and Kinleigh in the backpack and headed up to see the horses up close and personal that we have driven past so many times. I must say I expected the hike to be easy after hiking Beezley hill and Lake Lenore Caves... Ummm nope! not so much! won't be doing that again! The hike is steep which is not a big deal. The problem is the ground is so loose and slippery! I was so sure I was going to fall on my face and drop the baby or hurt my camera! we all made it up in one piece and got some cool pics of the kids though :D One more thing to mark off our list of "To Do's" around Grant county! When we got home we ran the girls to their house and then came home to unpack. Put the boys to bed early and they STILL didn't go to sleep right away :p Oh well. I just hope they wake up in good spirits!

I just finished editing a bunch of photos from Saturday and am currently waiting for them to export so I can share them with Gramma Vicki on facebook and here on this blog!

What a frustrating few days......

2011-03-30T01:50:00.000-07:00

Sunday night I wake up puking. Feel like crap all day Monday. Start feeling better Monday night. Kai pukes everywhere... then he does it again... and all night. Then Kaeden throws up off and on all night Mon night. Tuesday I feel great! I'm home with all 3 kids who seem to be doing well. The boys are acting 100% normal after their puke-a-thon night. I thought Kinleigh was feeling icky Tues afternoon but no puke HOORAY~! Figured we were out of the woods. Steven had the poo's and a little icky tummy Mon night and Tues morning... Out of the woods right????? Noooooooooooooooooooooope! It's 1:30am and I am awake blogging because my little man Kai comes out to tell me his lip hurts. I tell him to go pee and go back to bed. He looks at me and proceeds to waterfall chunks allover my floor. We have hardwood throughout the house .. Lucky right? Nooooooooooooooooooooooope! He nailed the throw rug in the living room. He goes back to bed. I bust out the shampoo'er at 1am and start shampooing while trying to shoo dogs away who think it's midnight snack time. GROSS! Next thing I know the damn shampoo'er stops spraying water. Oh well. I think I got most of it before the water quit working. Looks like I'm home with sick kids AGAIN tomorrow. Please please please let this be the end of it!

Onto other things. Kinleigh is expanding her vocabulary! She FINALLY said UP tonight :D We've been trying to get her to say that for months now rather than AAAAUUUUUGGGGHHH to get picked up. She's also saying MOM... Hat. Bubba (comes out Buh Buh) and her favorite is Whooooaaaahhhh While rocking or falling... Toddlerhood is upon us!

Kaeden had awesome news when he came home from school Monday! He was voted for the Honesty Award :) He'll be in the paper and all. I am so proud of him! He's such a great kid and I love him to pieces! Nothing makes a Mom feel like she's doing something right then things like this :)

Kai was a great helper when I was sick on Monday with Kinleigh. Made himself breakfast (cheese and mayo sandwich) and fed Kinleigh. When did he grow up???? He was super proud of himself and I was proud of him too :) I love it when Kai has good days. Sometimes I worry he has ADD or ADHD. Others I just think he could be a lively spirited 5yr old boy. I suppose we'll see as he heads into full time school!

Daisy Rain Photography continues to move forward. I've been doing lots of Portfolio Building sessions and I think I see improvement already! I made the big leap and bought a Canon 5D off of Ebay. Ok so I bought 2 but that was an accident and I'll be selling one of them ;) I am supposed to receive it tomorrow and am super excited! My boss is going to be buying my rebel for her husband to get into photography. I had considered keeping it for back-up but could really use the money to offset the large chunk I just spent on the 5D. My 2nd 5D should arrive next Tuesday along with a 50mm 1.4 lens. I am dying to get my hands on that combo and shoot some pics!

Next week is Spring Break. Lord please let us all be well by then! No big plans. We do have plans the weekend of the 9-10 to head to Uncle Joel's house to celebrate Easter early with Steven's family. I am excited to go see everyone and to enjoy some traditions that Steven had growing up. Steven is excited too!

Feeling a touch depressed. Started a biggest loser challenge with Lindsay and Steven and I am losing miserably! Steven's at 4+% weightloss... Lindsay's at 5+% weightloss...I had .37% weightloss. SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!? Argh. And now I sit here at 1:45am HUNGRY when I should be sleeping. I am wide awake now as well just waiting for the next round of pukes.

Suppose I'll go read up on some photography stuff and then try to get back to sleep............... Night!

Some pics taken at Connor's birthday party this weekend :)

Kinda freaking out!

2011-03-23T23:17:00.000-07:00

So tonight I took the leap and bought a Canon 5D on Ebay. I think I'm going to feel like vomiting until I have it in my hands and can fall in love....................... Next on list? Purchase a 50mm 1.4 lens... Sell my rebel and sell my lenses to ease the pain of my purchase....... LOL I am real excited to go do some portfolio building shots this weekend of a 3mo old and a 1yr old though :) Too bad my new camera won't be here beforehand :p

Quick update on the last month..... Spent a weekend at Jared and Tammy's. We went down for Paxtin's welcome baby shower. Chunking right up like big bro Q! So adorable he is though :) I love baby snuggles. Lindsay and her girls came down as well. We ended up having an absolute blast! Hide and Seek at midnight anyone? Garden Gnome's? Pee flowing from trees? Holes jumping out of nowhere? yup it was a great night. Also did a little shopping and purchased my first pair of new pants since Kai was about 4mo old! I actually bought 2 pairs... Rue21 baby!! Affordable cute and fit great! Can't say enough good about that place.

Last weekend Misty and Bill came down. Misty and Lindsay got themselves some nifty new tattoos. BIG tattoos! Crazy women! We did Sydney's 7th birthday party at the Kangaroo bounce house in Moses which was super cool. Too bad if we did a party like that for our boys our kids alone would be 1/2 of the allowed party size LOL The kids loved it and all parents were super amazed at how smooth it went. Sat night we had a grown up party just because and it was a great time, puke rally and all. I did some trampoline jumping and danced the night away. My house was majorly trashed on Sunday but it was worth a good time relaxing and enjoying the company of amazing friends. Chris and Tim came over to hang with us as well. Chris was afraid to try to keep up with me though :p Not sure why that might be???? Saturday we also did some picture practice and portfolio building with Charysma and Keegan. I was pleasantly surprised at how some turned out! Did I mention that Misty and I got some things straight? I come with the wallpaper... My name is now wallpaper :) Love ya Garage and House!

Back to work after having the week off due to sick kids and sick babysitter. SO NICE to work this week! After tonights purchase I should probably consider another job LOL Tax season is ticking down and it's been pretty boring at work. But it's great to be able to see adults and talk with adults :) I also did some photo organizing starting with jan 2010 ... I was looking at a "photoshoot" I did with Kinleigh last April and WOW I sucked LOL I am so proud to say that I am making steps in the right direction to get better at what I do! I can't wait for DaisyRain Photography to be well known and for me to rock every session!

Did you know Kinleigh...........

2011-02-28T15:48:00.000-08:00

How I love seeing you grow? The things you learn are so fun for the whole family! Your newest things are many! Last week you perfected the Yes and No head shake, and can use them at the appropriate times! It can be challenging pointing to countless things until we get the Yes headshake but it's sure nice to know we can eventually figure out what you want! You have also perfected High Five and Knuckles. So cute to see my little lady doing these things. This weekend you also started saying Love You and Thank You. Do they sound like the correct words? Not so much LOL But we all know what you're saying! And even when we don't know what you're saying you always get your point across well with your infamous AAAAGGGGHHHHH To get whatever it is you want! You won't say Up no matter how I try to get you to say it... Instead you stand with your arms above your head and wait until someone picks you up. With all of your siblings, Mommy and Daddy, Aunt Lindsay Sydney and Taylor someone is BOUND to do just as you want and pick you up. How can we not pick you up when you're so sweet? You love to lay your head on shoulders and be held while someone rubs your back. You are the cherry on top that makes our family complete!

Back to work I went today after having all last week off thanks to sick Kinleigh and sick Kaeden. I needed to go to work today and was greeted with the craziest thing! When I sat at my desk there was a sticky note with a message to call a client of mine. I called him up and said "This is Jennifer with H&R Block returning your phone call". He says "Oh yea. I don't want to sound weird, but I've seen you around downtown a few times and I was wondering, are you married?" WHAT???? LOL I almost fell off my chair and am sure I was blushing! I answered while laughing a little bit "ummm pretty much Yea". LOL LOL I totally got hit on today! I'm 30 almost 31, overweight, never wear makeup and I have 3 kids and I got hit on! What an ego boost. I told Steven to watch out cause his woman is HOT!

Complete Weirdness!

2011-02-23T18:02:00.000-08:00

So I ended up having today off due to Kinleigh being sick. I was starting to feel a little guilty for being home because her fever seems gone and her poo is not water anymore so I felt like I should have been at work. She has been really clingy and has been napping for over 3 hours though so maybe she's still not 100%. However I guess everything really happens for a reason...... and here is why I say that today!........ This morning Kaeden woke up saying his tummy didn't feel good and he was dizzy and couldn't go to school. About 5min after missing the bus he was crying to me that he wanted to go to school. I asked why... He tells me "I wanna learn that's why!" LOL So I told him to go get dressed and I'd take him to school when I took Kai to school. I think he realized that if he played hookie today he'd miss church and kidzone tonight and couldn't let that happen because Heather and Bryce were going to go for the first time and he was very excited about it! Unfortunately it seems he was NOT playing hookie this morning and was just trying to be tough so he did not miss out on kidzone and the school called and he had to be picked up around 11:30am due to throwing up at school. Poor Guy!!! It's amazing how my kids have a "look" in their eyes and you can just see the sickness on their faces. I thought he might not be faking it this morning and after signing him in tardy at the office this morning I told him if he was still feeling icky around lunchtime to call and i'd come pick him up (his lunch matches up with the time I have to pick Kai up from preschool so I knew I'd be in town either way at that time.) Being that I never heard from him at 11 I guessed he was doing fine and was trying to play hookie this morning after all. Nope............ Poor lil man. So in the long run it's a very good thing I did NOT go to work today and was scheduled off the rest of the week so this little bug can run through everyone around here without causing chaos at work! :p I am starting to feel a little couped up though and am hoping that tomorrow we have sunshine and healthy kids!!

Other weird happenings today............. This morning started out overcast... Then we got snow as i was taking the boys to school. Then the snow covered the ground barely... then the snow melted off the ground but was still falling from the sky. Then I swore I smelled rain but it was snow.... As I went to pick Kai up from school it was snowing and SUNNY? This afternoon the snow went away and it was blue skies and sunny. So was it spring? winter? what in the world was going on out there today???

I got myself a photography blog up and running :) It will be the place for me to document my photography journey and hopefully see major improvement in my picture taking skills ;)

3 day weekend turned all week off

2011-02-21T20:00:00.000-08:00

Dang it. After a great weekend my daughter had to get sick again! When will spring be here and these virus's be gone?????????

Sat night we had our night out on the town. Pre-party at our place with Jager and Red bull for me. Vodka and red bull for Lindsay and Misty and Tequila and beer for Steven and Bill. Had our first ever hired babysitters and it went nice and smooth! Two girls 14yrs old and 9 kids in the house. My bestie got hit on which was awesome..... grabbed her ass twice and kissed her cheek 3 times. I think the quotes of the night were "he grabbed my ass twice and kissed me on the cheek 3 times!" and "I'll take the picture, I'm a freaking photographer!" ;) Heather ended up staying sober.... weird! But was nice to have a DD to get us home as it was quite cold that night! Was quite awesome picking up Steven and Bill 1/2 way up our hill and cramming them into the car LOL Unfortunately around 4am Kinleigh waterfall puked on me. Thought maybe she ate too much junk with the babysitters as she was fine most of the day Sunday. Some adults were not as fine LOL I think Heather and I are the only ones who didn't wake up drunk Sunday morning! However I had 2 puke rally's in the bathroom at the bar and another 2 when we got home so that probably helped me to be not so bad Sunday morning. ;) Puke rallies can be a good thing it seems! Then Sunday afternoon Kinleigh puked again and we checked and she had a small fever... So called into my boss and had today off due to sickie baby girl. Low grade fever most of today and tonight it's spiking up over 102. Then this afternoon the FOULEST most nasty stuff started coming out of her..... guess it wasn't something she ate :( We had about 3 weeks of healthy baby (except for an ear infection) which is a record for her since her birthday Oct 28th. I was really shooting for a month or two ...... I'm so glad that peak is over at work and she didn't do this while we were real busy!

I'm pretty disappointed in myself the last 2 weeks. I've slacked and not gone to the gym in 2 weeks and my eating has been downright naughty :( Must get back on the bandwagon this week!!! I think I can i think I can.....................................

Been doing lots of reading and am learning new things for photography every day. Now to put those things to use while i'm behind the camera! Was hoping to go out for a photo shoot with Heather and the boys today after work but Kinleigh kinda messed those plans up. Sometime soon we will go get some practice in. We need to think of a great place to shoot some pics in Ephrata or the close surrounding areas.............

All weekend the boys have been pretty well behaved which has been nice! Unfortunately tonight Kaeden is back in his whiney stage. I hope he's not getting sick too~!!! Not sure what it is about 8yr old boys and their serious dislike of showers but I am completely ready for him to be over it already! I hope the attitude doesn't stick around too long since tomorrow night is his blue and gold banquet for Cub Scouts and he'd be real disappointed if he had to miss it and go to bed early! I'm bummed that Kinleigh is sick as it means one of us will not be able to go tomorrow night. Steven loves Cub Scouts but wants me to go instead of him so I can take pics. I say he should go and take the camera and just get whatever shots he can get!

I really love him!

2011-02-18T11:44:00.000-08:00

I'm talking about Steven. He's so supportive and loving. I am beyond blessed and lucky to have him in my life. I really want to get into Photography. I Love taking photos and pictures and want to turn it into a business. He has been standing behind me 100% and last night told me "I'm kinda excited for you... No i'm really excited for you. It's so good to see you so happy and excited about something you are passionate about." When I had someone mention lens/camera issues Steven even supported me purchasing a $1000 camera! He wants his Harley so bad, yet here he is supporting me and willing to put his wants aside with a smile and help me out. I'm not going for the new camera yet. I'm still learning so much that it's silly to invest in the high end equipment in my opinion... Maybe someday down the road! I am putting lots of time and effort into becoming something worth sharing and selling to others and hope that it all works out!

My morning was spent snapping some pics of Lady K outside to work on my focus and exposure. some of them worked, some of them did not. Practice practice practice. She had some crazy hair but beautiful smiles.

Kai has been surprisingly pleasant this week and I love that~!!!!

Kaeden has also done well at getting up and out the door to the bus this week. His attitude is a little better. He still seems to have some preteen female PMS but hopefully that will continue to improve LOL I might treat the kids to some McDonalds Ice Cream after our PTO meeting this afternoon thanks to their attitude improvements this week! Or maybe not... Steven just mentioned dollar menu ice cream after dinner so that might be what happens instead. Guess we shall wait and see!

Super stoked for this weekend! Bill and Misty are coming to town tonight. Kai sure cracked me up yesterday.... When I said Misty and Bill were coming he asked me..."which one is Bill Mom? The small one with the black and blue jet ski or the big one?" LOL I said the big one. He said "Oh YEAH I LIKE HIM!!!!" He also informed me Bill is a good wrestler... Not sure where that came from?

Last weekend our family loaded up in the minivan and headed to Hermiston to hang with my brother and his family. It was great getting out of town and taking the girls and just relaxing with Jared and family. We got to meet the newest addition Paxtin and man he's sure adorable! I think my boys held him more then anyone else! Peightin and Kinleigh had a bit of rivalry going on. Kinleigh's used to being top princess as is Peightin so it was interesting but entertaining ;) I had my first "photo shoot" With Paxtin and a couple of shots of Kinleigh and Peightin. Not perfect but only room to grow and improve right? Gramma Vicki took my 4 older kiddos and I to the movies to see Never Say Never with Justin Bieber. Turned out to be a great movie! We all enjoyed it :)

Nothing but excited to go out with Steven and my besties tomorrow night!!!!! Babysitter should be at our house around 8pm and then we're off for the night. Closing down the town... on our feet LOL Should be a blast!

Here are a few shots from my photo shoot and a few other misc pics.

2011 will be gone before I blink!

2011-02-06T21:15:00.001-08:00

Had a nice weekend. Unfortunately Kinleigh ended up spiking a fever yesterday after a nap of 103.5 so instead of heading to Sam's 4th birthday party we got to head to the walk in clinic and get her checked out. Looks like she's got herself a good ear infection going in the left ear. I'm actually relieved it's just an ear infection and not some other nasty virus! Just found out that the babysitter had a little girl with RSV there and she thinks her girls might have it now. I am praying Kinleigh does NOT catch that crud again! No more ambulance trips for us please ;) So looks like tomorrow the kiddos will be hanging with Heather. Hopefully Chelsea will know more what's going on after tomorrow so I don't miss any work this week! We're still pretty busy at work and I love it :)

This week will be busy but I like being busy. I felt kinda lost Fri night with no plans or nothing that had to be done! Got my haircut Fri afternoon. Got my grocery shopping done (and grabbed a couple extras I found on clearance for gifts throughout the year) Hit the gym and ran for 2 miles straight this afternoon! I was super stoked to accomplish that. Now to stay away from the yummy junk food in our house that Steven paid too much money for at the bake sale silent auction at Grant Talent show on Thurs night :p Bunco is Wednesday HOORAY! I am so excited that we started a bunco group here in E Town. It's a much needed ladies night :D

Excited to head to Hermiston this weekend and meet my new nephew Paxtin! I have warned Uncle Jared and Aunt Tammy that I will be stealing baby Paxtin for the weekend and taking lots of pics~! It's been so long since we stayed with Jared and Tammy so I'm really excited for a great weekend. Then the next weekend we have Misty and Bill coming down from Seattle and are planning a night out on the E Town. Babysitter and all! I can't say that Steven and I have ever hired a babysitter and gone out with friends to the bar in all of our years together and Kaeden is 8yrs old! I might regret it on Sunday, but as of now I am excited and ready!