Boy, has it been awhile!

Okay, so it has been awhile since I have written, but we have all been busy and busy and busy and other such excuses!
I won't bore you with all the details (but know that I have tried to post on here before and computers being what they are- necessary evil- my hard work was deleted), but suffice it to say I have been on here for over an hour trying to get this post on, and also finding it not working as I wanted. The pictures all posted in backward order, and copy and paste is not working for me. So you are just stuck with the randomness of this post!

I have also tried adding words between pics as captions, and it isn't working. So Pic 1- me and Thomas at an awards assembly for Keith at his school. Rachel took our picture.
Pic 2- Tyson showing the kids how to do pushups.
Pic 3- Thomas getting readyto come inside after playing outside in the snow during our TONS of snow that we got (this was about 8 in the morning while Keith was waiting to go to school).
Pic 4- Rachel smiling and showing off her smile with her missing teeth on the bottom. See the gap?
Pic 5- Keith during his class' multicultural lunch (they did this instead of Thanksgiving feast and the kids got to dress up as either their heritage or someplace they have been or want to visit. Keith chose to be a cowboy because his Grandpa and Great Grandpa are cowboys).





Here is what's been going on in a nutshell-

Keith still in 1st grade and missing all the fun he had in Kindergarten. They have to work in 1st grade! I try to remind him there were days he didn't want to go to Kindergarten because of all the fun he missed at home, but he doesn't really remember that. But he is reading lots and writing lots. He does so well in math. I am always so surprised by how well he is doing!


Rachel is a cute girl! Sometimes I just look at her and think that she is going to be in trouble because of how cute she is. We just need to keep her face cleaned and her hair brushed and her clothes unstained and she would be picture perfect all the time! But where would be the childhood fun in all that, right? She still is doing our home rotational preschool and loving it. She asks all the time if she gets to go to school tomorrow. She gets to play with her cousins a lot (since 2 of them are in our preschool) and is such a good big sister to Thomas. She looks out for him and plays with him so well.

Thomas is getting so big and his vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds! I hear him say something and think it is jabbering, then realize that he is actually talking to me! Last night he was sliding off the couch and i heard him say something, and didn't think much of it. Then he did it again and I realized he was saying slide down! How fun is that. Not even two, and can kind of hold conversations with us. He also loves playing with other kids and gets to play with his cousin Catheryn and friend Jacob and he knows if I ask him if he wants to see them. He gets all excited and wants to play!

Tyson is doing well- adjusting to his new job. He was gone for training for 3 1/2 months, which was hard for me. But he is home now, and hopefully he won't have to leave again for any kind of work related thing for a long time! We are glad he is home. He was excited to get a 55 gallon fish tank and have Santa come and fill it with fish for us. They are his new babies. I am not really into fish- I would much rather have a pet that I can interact with and cuddle with, but he wanted to get them. And he talked the kids into being excited about them as well, so I guess it works.

I have been busy- lots of things to do. I was in charge of doing a Messiah Sing a long at our church and what had started out small, quickly grew. We had a small orchestra (in which I got to play my flute-something I don't get to do very often) and then invited the community and our whole stake. We had no idea how many people were going to come. It could have been really small, or really big- we just had no idea. It turned out we filled the chapel quite well and it seemed like everyone enjoyed it. It very possibly will become an annual event. Then I had lots of craft projects I was planning on doing for Christmas presents, so I was trying to get those done. And the kids and I decided to do the 12 days of Christmas for 12 families (4 that we sent in the mail and 8 here locally) so that took time each day to make and deliver our items. It would take us about an hour each day to do our deliveries, so we spent a lot of time doing all that.

We were very blessed for Christmas- as always. And hopefully everyone was able to remember that the reason we celebrate Christmas was because of a little baby born so many years ago, to come to this earth and be our Savior and Messiah.

We would love to hear how you all are doing and hopefully you are as blessed as we are.

Keith's First Day in First Grade

So nice to see all of your posts! I was popping around checking lots of blogs last night while trying to update mine, so didn't have time to leave many messages, but I probably checked yours out. I still have a few to look at and add to my list, but good to "see" those of you that I did last night! I hope to post a bit more often now that we are getting back into some kind of a schedule. (PS- the pics posted backwards, and the computer is giving me trouble so I am just going with it as is).

So Keith headed back to school today. It was a beautiful sunny day- hopefully we have a few more left this year! So Rachel and Thomas and I played out in the yard. This is Thomas on top of the "tower" that I hate that he gets himself up too. It has the ladder entrance, then the other side is just a gaping hole for him to fall through. And I put our castle over there for the other kids to climb on, so he could get pretty banged up if he fell. Needless to say, I am always right there if he decides to climb up. It makes for lots of fun when he climbs up, wants down, then 30 seconds later wants back up! You all know how it goes!


Thomas climbed onto this swing all by himself and was so proud. Rachel and he swung on it for awhile, but he doesn't like to get too high, and if he does, he is done with it for awhile. Rachel also decided to do some acrobatics so I could capture it on camera. Does everyone else remember climbing all over swingsets like this too?


See, doesn't it look scary? Okay, probably not, but it is about a 4-5 climb up and if he misses that last step like he almost did once today....(luckily mommy was there to catch him- but that just made the paranoia worse!)



Here is my handsome first grader- all ready to go to school. We are going to a charter school this year, so we get to drive (which isn't that big a deal because we did it all year last year and we were zoned for a bus- although living 3/4 of a mile from the bus stop and having my Kindergartner walking there didn't excite me too much). We have to get there a bit earlier tomorrow so that Keith can play on the playground before school starts. We got there just as they were lining up today, and he so wanted to play. Hopefully the younger kids will cooperate tomorrow just fine.

All dressed and ready to go. Doesn't he look handsome? One of the things about our school is that there is a uniform dress code. It doesn't bother Keith because he likes to be kind of dressed up, although talking to other moms today, very few kids actually wear the tie- it is optional. But Keith wanted to, so I let him. He wants to wear it tomorrow too. This from the kid that can't keep a clip on during all 3 hours of church! This one is velcro so maybe that helps? He chose the button down oxford shirt instead of the more casual polo, but he likes it and is happy, so I am happy. The night before school, I told him I had to wash all his uniforms so they would be ready for school (we got them on Monday afternoon and were gone most of the day on Tuesday) and he was very concerned they weren't going to be done. So at 9:30 pm, he comes out and asks me if I had changed the laundry and wanted to make sure I was going to bring the clothes he wanted to wear up to his room. I assured him I would- which is part of the reason I was online so late last night and able to update this blog. Why am I up so late tonight? I just don't do well with bedtime when Tyson is gone! Looking forward to Sept. when I get to go see him for a weekend!

So we are now back in the school routine- or at least learning our new one. Day one went well, we'll see how day 2 goes. Good luck to any of you out there with the transition looming, but somehow I think most people have already started and we are the later ones.

We went to the U-Pick Farm today- the day before school starts with some friends of ours today and got some zucchini and rhubarb. Most anything else we could have wanted we have in our garden up at my parents house. But I took some cute pictures of the kids and had my friend take one of me so I could post it here. Tyson is gone for a few months with work, so now he can see us!


This one is all the kids in the wagon. There was only one wagon, so I pushed a wheelbarrom that the kids took turns riding in while Danielle pulled the wagon. We both got some arm workout today!

Here's the one of me and Thomas. I don't get many of me, so I have to post them when I get a chance!

One more chance!

I was on a friends blog, and had to comment on hers, so here is another chance for the rest of you to get something homemade from me! Good Luck!

okay so the first 5 people to respond to this post will receive something made by me to you.my choice.made especially for you.of course there are some restrictions and limitations:

1 i make no guarantees that you will like what i make! (but i know you will)
2 what i create will be just for you.
3 it will be done sometime this year.
4 you have no clue what it will be... it may be a story. it may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque.i may draw or paint something. i may bake something and mail it to you. who knows? not you, that's for sure. (um, you can guarantee it will be something you will love)
5 i reserve the right to do something extremely strange. (probably not)

the catch? oh the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog. the first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!!oh and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!!

Pay It Forward

I was just blogging around, and found this challenge on my aunts blog. So I thought it would be fun to add to mine.

This concept is like the movie called Pay It Forward with Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment in it. The 12 year old boy has a school assignment and he comes up with the PIF concept. PIF is where acts of kindness are done without expecting anything in return, just passing it on, hoping that the recipients will do the same and pay it forward, like a never ending chain of kindness. How to proceed? I will make and send a handmade gift for the first 3 friends who post a comment to this post, requesting to join this exchange, and promising to pay it forward to 3 other persons, etc.... I don't know what my 3 gifts will be, but I can promise I will send them within the next 365 days. What YOU have to do in return then, is "Pay It Forward" by making the same announcement and promise on YOUR blog.

I will be excited to check and see who I get to Pay It Forward to!

Oh My! Has it been awhile or what?!

Okay, so now you all know my big secret (if you didn't know it before)! I am lousy at keeping up on any kind of correspondence: journaling, letter writing, calling, and now blogging! I have good intentions, but you know...

Anyway, our big news is... Tyson has a new job! He is now a APFO. Bonus points for anyone that can figure that out without me telling you what it is.



Keith is still doing great in Kindergarten. Math and science seem to be his strong suits, but I did get to read a poem he wrote the other day, and it was very original. Very different from all the other kids. He is a great helper and loves to be outside. He (and I) are very anxious for summer to get here. We will be grateful for spring too, but really up here it isn't that long. He asks all the time if we are able to have a picnic outside yet. Well we still have quite a bit of snow in the front yard and it is only about 50 degrees during the day, so we haven't done that yet. But he and Rachel have been going out to play and jump on the trampoline and they are so happy to be able to do that.

Rachel is growing up- maybe too fast. The other day I called her Rach (as we often do), and she looked at me and told me she didn't like it when people called her that. It isn't her whole name it is just part of her name. So I told her she has to let people know that if she feels that way. However, I haven't heard her mention that to anyone else yet, so we will see. She loves it when we have preschool and it is here at our house this week and next. We have been talking about animals and today we did some sea diorammas. She really enjoyed doing it (as did all of the kids- very creative and no two were alike). She is not as ready to jump in and help as Keith, but she likes to work alongside me and Daddy. I just have to remember to make sure and give her chances to help. I think helping me cook is her favorite thing to help me do.

Thomas is getting so big! Especially in the last week, because we cut his hair last week. I wasn't wanting to, but it was getting pretty long and lots of food in it. I wanted it to stay long enough to see his curls, but doing it with scissors is hard. So Tyson convinced me to use the longest blade on our clippers- 1 inch. Not long enough to see any curls. I was close to tears the first few days after we cut it. But it has grown on me now, and he is cute, but older. Not the same little baby that he was. He is a bigger boy now. And hopefully his curls will grow back. He walks, and babbles. We are using some signs to help communication and he has please, more, num num, night night, and of course hello and good bye down. We are working on more, but these are our main ones right now. He has 9 teeth in. He likes to bounce and dance. When he hears music on that moves him, he dances to it. Kind of like Keith used to do when he was little. He loves to be held and runs to see his daddy as soon as he walks in the door. He is his daddy's boy, but mommy works too.

I am keeping busy with everything moms do. The catering business is more like a hobby thing. We get some jobs here and there, mostly for my dad's office. Which is fine with me. Life has seemed to crazy to do much more than that right now. We never had our friends move in. They chose to go somewhere else. We were going to remodel since we had done some moving things around, but with limited income for Tyson's training year, and available time going to be at a minimum, we probably won't get started with that for a while yet. I still have 3 callings at church- choir director, ward music chairman, and enrichment leader which keep me busy. One of these days I am going to get my house the way I want it, my scrapping stuff available, and some time to myself so I can get some fun things done. I'm not sure when, but one of these days.

Well, I guess that is our quarterly update, so maybe now that I have started, I might keep it up. We'll see....

Maybe I'll post some pictures, although dont' know how recent they will be. I need to download pics from the camera. We lost it for a few days on a mountain, but we got it back and I need to get the pics from it. Haven't had a chance lately. Does that sound familiar?

Some of November and December 2008

Wow, has it been awhile or what? Apparently life has been crazy busy- or I have just been extremely lazy- you tell me. Tyson and I (and Thomas) went on a trip to Elko, Nevada back in October, and we had his parents come up and stay with Keith and Rachel. I have some pics of that time, but they got put on a card, and I am not sure where it is. Then November came, and Tyson was back to work. He was supposed to work through Thanksgiving and be home just before Christmas, except he got sick with his seems to be yearly bronchitis. He had it so bad, that they sent him home and he ended up being home for the whole month of December. It was so nice to have him home! Then he went back to work the day after Christmas. While he was home, I began a new business venture. A friend and I decided we were going to start a catering business. So we had our first event the first week of December. Then, we had a few more that kept us busy. Not to mention me trying to get all my Christmas presents done- I try so hard every year! I think I need to start in like March this year, so I can have time to work on them all and not be so stressed out! Then while Tyson has been at work this time, we have decided that we are going to make our downstairs a separate living area, and rent it out to some friends. We are working hard to get that all organized and finalized by the end of this month. Add to all that the normal day to day stuff, like taking care of kids, trying to clean once in awhile, hosting preschool now and then, volunteering in Keith's class once a week, and a baby learning how to move around and get into lots of new things, and you have what our life has been like for the past few months. I just haven't had a lot of time to sit here at the computer and blog. But I am hoping to be a little bit more consistant. We'll see how that goes!

Anyway (not sure why the previous paragraph is underlined and different, but we'll just go with it!) I thought I would post a few pictures of some of our adventures in the last little bit. Also, don't feel bad if I haven't checked out your blog for awhile, becasue like I said, I have not had a lot of time to sit down and work on much at all! I hope to check all your blogs out soon, so we'll just take it a bit at a time!

Me and Zoe, a friend, at our ward Christmas Party


Keith and Rachel decorating our tree! We had it in a corner and blocked off by the couch so that Thomas wouldn't get into it all the time! I think that worked out well!


On our extended family excursion (like all of us!) to find perfect Christmas tree's Keith chose this one. I came over to look at it a bit closer, and found this in it! If you look closely you will see a little furry behind buried in snow on the branches of the tree! Apparently a little critter ended up with this tree as his final resting place. When I pointed it out to Keith, he decided he would rather choose a different tree!


Tyson, Keith, and Rachel on our Christmas Tree Cutting Trip!


Thomas is not walking full on yet, but he does like to hold on to these type of cars and walk with them. This was the first time it happened, and when it took off, he wasn't sure what was going on, but he went with it! He is just now starting to stand a bit by himself. I'm sure walking won't be too far from now!