to tell you the honest truth

halloween '09

This year my kids really did look pretty cool, but some of my pictures totally stink.  I wanted them to all stand nicely together, but would they?  of course not.  My boys are the "fiercely independent" type and for surely not the "stand around and take cute pictures for mom" type.  They run their own race on Halloween....the bigger ones, not Austin YET.  Caleb, Taylor and Isaac were equipped with pillowcases, 2 pairs of rollerblades and a skateboard and they were off!  They unloaded once at home and then took off again for round two.  The end result was A LOT of candy! 

We also greatly enjoyed our company on Halloween!  Pete's sister, Katrina, (just moved up from Arizona) her husband, Miah and their darling little boy, Adin along with Pete's other sister, Maria and her husband, Sheldon, were all able to join us for some pizza, "spider cider" and trick-or-treating.  (I know that was a long sentence).  I invited my brother Jeff and his family also, but they had a grandparent visiting town and no car big enough to transport them all to my house!  :(  I talked to Julie and it sounded like they had some fun plans though. 

I have to say, I totally loved dressing up my little girlie for Halloween!  It's a different experience than dressing the boys.  Thankfully, she had a darling hand-me-down mermaid costume, from her cousins, that fit perfectly.  I bought some ribbons and made a big bow to match.  It was my first and it ended up a little big, but I think it was okay for Halloween.  She was adorable, if I do say so myself!  :)

 

Caleb happily posed with her, and I thought the ones of them turned out great.  Caleb absolutely adores Ava!  As you can see, Caleb was a "freak" for Halloween, and he LOVED his look.  Is that good or bad?

 

 

Taylor was Elvis again and my pictures are terrible, but really, he looked awesome.  Especially with his rollerblades on.  He has such a great sense of humor and somehow this costume just works for Taylor. 

 

 

Isaac was Prince Caspian.....and oh, a handsome Prince he was!!  He was DARLING and I am angry with myself that all I have of him is this: (a neighbor friend joined the picture too)

Austin was a red Power Ranger.  Hey, honestly, it was $10 and I just really didn't care that much.  He DOES NOT watch Power Rangers!  He just happens to know what they are because his friends have the action figures and therefore, we have purchased a Power Ranger action figure before.  (He does like his action figures!)  Anyway, after we sprayed his hair, we actually loved his little look!  Again, not a terrific picture.  :(

 

Hope you all had a fun Halloween!

"i have my cake! i'm 4 now!"

When we brought home a big cake from Costco for Austin, that's what he said...."i have my cake!, i'm 4 now!".  Even though his birthday wasn't until the next day.  It made us laugh.  He had been talking about his birthday for months and months.  Every toy or lego magazine that came through the house was repeatedly looked through as he pointed and explained to us the things he wanted for his birthday.  For literally months he did this.  No other child of ours has ever been so obsessed about a birthday.  Not like this.  Austin is hilarious.  He says very funny things all the time.  He also throws some pretty awesome tantrums that usually test our patience skillz to no end.  Nevertheless, we love him to pieces. So, we couldn't help but go a little "all out" for his birthday with how excited and eager he was to turn 4.   We didn't have a big party, it was more about the goods and the cake for him.  We had a few neighbor kids over and kept it simple with cake and ice-cream.  We had a couple tears from the birthday boy with so much excitement, but other than that...a great little party for our little man. 

The cake idea was inspired by my sister's awesome star wars cake she made for her son and Austin did want one JUST like it.  I had all the good intentions in the world to make him one just like it, but I copped out in the end and snagged a cake at Costco when we were there doing the shopping.  When I brought it home, Austin did say to me, "why didn't you get me a star wars cake?".  I felt like a terrible mother even though I did have plans to decorate it with star wars action figures like my sister had done.  I was so worried about it, but he seemed pretty happy with the result.  Austin LOVES clones and Darth Vader!  We found the cool Vader candle at Party City which I think was the perfect touch to the cake.  Anyway, enough of the cake saga!

Here's Trista's homemade Star Wars cake!  I love the glowing light sabers! 

Here's some close ups of Austin's

C-ya!  Me and Aussie are off to get some of that leftover cake!  mmmm!

discovery

ava was so cute yesterday playing in the grass and discovering the little yellow flower there.  basically she wanted to eat it and i did have to take it out of her mouth a few times between taking the pictures.

i love her little hair sprout she has....see, it's growing!  yay! 

miniquilts, mugs and milestones....okay, and memories

I have 3 mini snippet quilts ready for quilting!  Yay!  When they are all done, I will show you.  ;)

Next up, MUGS!  (exciting, I know.)

Pete went to Florida again for work....it was a long HOT week when he was gone.  He always brings back little surprises for us.  This time he brought back Nasa Mugs.  He has been able to tour the Space Center the last couple times he has gone and has been able to go and see and do things nobody usually gets to see and do!  Basically, "special clearance".  He has been very fascinated by it all, if you can imagine.  Which, if you know Pete, you can imagine his fascination quite well.  So we all love and adore our Nasa mugs A LOT around here!  :)  One thing I will add about Pete...just because I feel like saying something nice about him....is that I am very grateful and impressed with Pete's honesty with his job.  Since he works from home 2-3 days per week, he has plenty of opportunity to "pretend" he is working.  This is never an option for Pete.  If anything, he OVER estimates his time and works without compensation.  A slacker he is definitly not.  In my opinion, he is quite the stellar employee.  I appreciate him everyday for his dedication to working hard and being honest with his time.

 

Now, onto MILESTONES.......

Little Ava is showing some of her brothers up!  Only one has surpassed her in the crawling department of life.  She isn't crawling yet, but at just 5 1/2 months, she is doing what we call "Rocky-Rocky".  It's that cute little back and forth motion they do once they have mastered getting up on all fours.  Way to go Ava!

Here's the action...well as best I could in photos:

 

   

 

 

 

That was tiring! 

Here's a couple other recent pic's of Ava.

And finally, one more milestone....sort of.

There are two brothers that come to the neighborhood, from North Carolina, to spend the summer with their dad.  They are Cody and Ethan and our boys have become friends with them.  They met in the summer of '07.  Summer of '08 they didn't come because their dad was in Iraq (or somewhere).  So we were all excited to see them this summer!  They are really good boys, super nice and well mannered, kind to the little ones, etc.  They already went back to North Carolina and we look forward to seeing them next summer!

Here are the boys in '07:

Caleb, Ethan, Isaac, Taylor, Cody

And here they are summer of '09:

And a group photo:

I love it!

For MEMORIES.....some of my FAV-orite songs of my teen years are playing.....such memories!!

C-ya!

simplify

(Pete and Taylor canoeing)

This past weekend our family discovered Zion's Camp.....a privately owned campground of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but usable to anyone whether you are mormon or not.  For the price of just $10 you can get into the camp for day use or even to stay the night.  They give access to row boats, canoes, paddle boats and life jackets and have a couple rope swings over the lake that even the young kids can use.  There is plenty of play areas and another big rope swing that my kids also enjoyed.  They have volleyball and archery there too which we didn't take advantage of, but would have if we were spending more time there.  My boys had tons of fun on the obstacle course that the YW use during girls camp....we all remember those!  We loved roasting our hot dogs and making s'mores around the campfire and exploring the campground together.  One of the missionaries there said we came on the perfect weekend because it was very unusual that there were only a couple other families there, so we really did have the place to ourselves!  We were just amazed at how much was offered for entertainment for such an affordable amount.  This is wonderful for those on a budget in this recession!  I know that we are, and have had to trim down our spending, but we had so much fun at Zion's Camp on Saturday, we truly did feel like we were on a vacation for a day and we can't wait to do it again!    

I have to THANK my family members in Spokane who were so willing to change and re-arrange all the housing plans when Pete and I thought maybe we would be joining them at the lake at the last minute.  Even though it took a little chatting to one another to see what could be done to accommodate our family, it did make us feel important and like everyone really did want us to be there.  We ended up missing out anyway, but we so appreciated the effort and kindness on my family's part to make sure we felt included and important.  I really have awesome siblings who would go out of their way to make me and my family feel wanted and needed and that rearranging things was totally worth it and no problem at all.  It was a great message to me about what families should be doing for one another and I hope that when someone else is in my position, that I am a person who is willing to make room for somebody else, even if I have to change my plans to accommodate that person or family.  Hey, it's much funner in the end if everyone you love and care about is with you anyway, so really...everyone wins.  Notice my first song on the playlist is titled "BETTER TOGETHER".  We truly wish we could have been there....thanks for all your effort to make new plans for us!  :) 

Speaking of being on a budget....and I know a lot of us ARE in this financially uncertain time,  I have been so thankful for our church leaders who have put out such wonderful, inspired articles in the Ensign magazines lately to help us.  They have talked so much about being prepared, provident living, stretching your dollar, living within your means, paying off debts, being self reliant and so forth, that it really has helped Pete and I change the way we view our money and spend our money.  It has helped us to re-evaluate and prioritize our spending and has given us the information necessary to get rid of any debts we have and how to be better prepared for the future.  My mother-in-law and I even had a little fun on Provident Living, using the financial calculator to see how fast we can pay off our credit cards!  Anyway, enough chatter...onto the pictures! :)

First, after finding our campsite, we went down to the lake where the boys swam and played on the rope swing.  Pete and Taylor also went on a canoe ride together.  Austin loved getting in and out of the water and was totally occupied going in and out of the 'boathouse'...this cute shack that stored all the lifejackets.

 

Caleb was a bit more into relaxing....what a cutie. :)

After that, everyone was hungry so we headed back to the campsite for roasting!

After all this, basically it was play time!  At first we were worried about how much longer we would be entertained here, but we ended up staying until almost 9 pm and surprised ourselves at how much fun we had and how there was plenty to keep us all entertained!

I thought this old sprinkler was just too cool...especially with it being red!

The End! 

the new do

So, I finally came to terms with the fact that my child usually looked like an orphan with his fluffy mop and that it needed to be tamed.  I really do like the long hair look, so it was difficult to start the chopping process.  Pete really had gone crazy looking at his wild do, so he had no reservations about it what.so.EVER.  Anyway, I'm glad I went through with it because he looks so handsome and I love getting out the gel for styling like I used to when Caleb and Taylor had their short cuts.  Here's the new kid at our house!

C-ya!

posies and pictures

I had fun making a couple head accessories (not really hair accessories yet) for Ava.  She needed some bigger headbands and I saw the cutest shabby posies on Cluck Cluck Sew.  It's a cute crafty quilty blog that's in my sidebar that I am too lazy to do a link for.  She used hers for broaches, but I thought it would be a cute idea for adorning Ava's head!  They were really fun and easy to make.  I just use a bobby pin on the underside of the posie to attach to the headbands and the hat.  That way everything is interchangeable! 

These first pictures are featuring the pink posie attached to a crocheted hat!  They also feature some brotherly love.  ;)  She's so lucky. 

Yes, this is Austin below with a haircut!  That will be another post! 

These next few pictures feature the red posie attached to a headband made from baby tights.  They also feature her latest favorite activity....sucking on her fingers.  Oh, and her chubby legs.  She's so squishable and kissable!

This photo was taken at a park on Memorial Day.

Here's me and Ava.  She's my sweetie pie and I can't help but kiss her a LOT every day!

Bye!

easter

Sorry I am being super lazy on editing and posting pictures from Easter.  I think this one of all the cousins is cute enough though!  This year we celebrated on Saturday and that worked great because we got to spend more time together.  We had a fabulous day with very delicious food and lots of eastery fun.  The kids did an egg hunt outside and because of the money hid inside just a few, the older kids were really motivated.  Caleb actually helped do the hiding this year which I thought was great.  They hid the money eggs in high places so that the little ones would never find them and the older kids were not allowed to pick up any of the totally obvious eggs laying in the grass.  It worked out great and the kids all loved it.  Then we did some cookie decorating and cookie eating!  Okay, okay.... here's a couple more pictures....

I love this one of Caleb and Savannah.

 

These 3 lingered for awhile after the others were done....they were totally into this!

I really am not super fond of posting pictures of myself, but I only have a few of me and Ava together since she has been born...remember I am normally the one taking the picture.  This time my brother Jeff noticed my camera was just hanging over my shoulder while the kids were hunting for eggs and I couldn't take any pictures because I was holding Ava.  He offered to take some pictures for me so it was the perfect chance to request a photo.  This one of me didn't turn out so bad and I thought her little face was so cute peeking out of the blanket.  You can tell she thought is was just a little cool out.  I kinda thought so too, so I didn't stay out long.  (Maybe this is why she has a cough now.)   

We actually missed church on Sunday because Austin had thrown up that morning.  Most of the family had been taking their turn being sick over the past couple weeks with colds and fevers, so we thought we better play it safe and just stay home.  It was a bummer though with it being Easter and all.  We definitley were not feeling the spiritual nature of the holiday, so we had an Easter Family Home Evening on Monday where we celebrated the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  After that, our holiday felt complete. 

Ava's fussing so I'm off!

cousins at the beach

We were so happy to see some sunshine finally, so we didn't let it go by without a pleasant outing to a nearby beach with the cousins.  I didn't get pictures of everyone and I really didn't plan on taking anything more than simple snapshots, but some of them ended up turning out super cute.  Mostly they are of Kerri's kids, my big kids weren't as cooperative for pictures.  Here are my favorites!

Savannah, Caleb, Maya, Taylor

Which one do you you like best out of these above?  Color?  Fade?  Black and White?

Ethan

Xander

Austin

Jacob and Isaac

Maya

....and of course I couldn't resist putting in a picture of Ava even though this is just at home in her swing.  I love her new little spring outfit from Gymboree!  And she is giving us some cutie little smiles lately!  :)

Enjoy the sunshine!  :)

i know my life is not that exciting lately

basically, i take care of a new baby around here.  the house is a mess.  i wear sweats, i hardly shower.  i am not making cute crafts or sewing anything amazing.  just making bottles, changing diapers and going to doctor appointments.  but, it's worth the effort. especially for all the cuteness that comes along with it!  so, here's some snapshots for those who are curious!  :) 

oh!  P.S.    AVA'S ONE MONTH!!!  can you believe it!? 

have a great day!