School carnival and such...

 It was so cute to watch these girls stand so patiently in line for their turn to get their faces painted. Lexi was so sweet and is so outgoing and really has no fear. She is definitely different in that field compared to the other girls who are still so shy. 

 Here is Chloe and Callie playing dress up in the backyard.

And the cute little Dora wig I made for Lexi out of yarn. I was just dying when she was wearing this getup! She is so stinkin cute!!

Campfire up the canyon

Since Utah was so dry this year and had so many fires there was a no fire law for most of the summer which meant that camping would really be no fun if we couldn't stay warm around a fire at night or roast mallows or starburst. I was pretty bummed about it because this year was a good "kid" year to go. No babies or crawling kids. I really love our camping trips and it is always fun and we always make such great memories. 

Well they finally were able to lift the No Fire ban and so we and the Langholfs went up the canyon for one good roast before the season is over. The kids had fun tromping around in the woods, collecting rocks and climbing hills. It was nice to be with family, I really feel like we didn't hang out with Tessa and her family at all this summer (and not because we didn't ask them..all the time) perhaps we are not that cool to be with. Anyways I can't wait until next year to do some camping and HOPEFULLY we will be able to have fires.

School Pictures

My little 1st Grader.

Maybe in the spring I will have a pic of my little Kindergartner  when they do the retakes (Chloe was a little to shy to actually have her picture taken at school)

Tallie's 7th Birthday!

I know I say this all the time but HOLY COW! My baby is 7!!! She is one year away from being baptized! She is getting so mature and independent and is such a huge helper to me. She is easy going and well rounded and happy. She makes me smile and I just love watching her grow and learn new things. This year she wanted another "late over" with her friends and instead of a cake she wanted donuts. I mean she really made it easy on me.

I was pretty much in heaven when I went to go buy all of the donuts! So many options and I KNEW I was going to give in and eat them all! I am such a LOVER of DONUTS! The movie of choice was Twinkle Toes and they happily watched while eating the 7 bags of popcorn we popped! It was a fun night and Tallie had fun and went to bed with a smile on her face.

However before Chloe could go to bed we had to FINALLY take off her arm brace for GOOD! Poor thing was so terrified (and terrified is probably too weak a word to describe what she was feeling). I literally could not hold her. She thrashed and kicked and screamed and I really thought she just might make herself pass out). She was so scared it would hurt. Being the mean parents we are, TJ held her tight while I took off the brace. We immediately covered her arm in her blankie so she wouldn't have to look at it and we carried her to bed and I laid with her telling her stories and tickling her back until she fell asleep. In the morning, after having the night to sleep off the fear, she felt much better and loves having her arm back!

First time soccer player

This is Tallies first year playing soccer and she is really enjoying it. She has some great kids on her team (who have obviously played MULTIPLE years...they are really good) and her team hasn't lost a game yet. It's been fun to watch Tallie progress from game to game and to get more into it. TJ practices with her a lot in the backyard and she does pretty well but she tends to be too polite and reserved during her own games. She is a great runner and she is having fun and is happy after each game just to report that she touched the ball 2 or 3 times!! She is super sweet to give up her treats after each game to Chloe and Lexi who are always crying and whining that they didn't get anything. TJ has coached a couple of games  when their regular coach (our neighbor Natalie Smith) wasn't able to. He is so good with those girls and makes the game so fun for them and is such a great coach!! I know it might be kinda lame but watching him teach those kids how to play made me fall in love with him all over again. He is such a great dad!

Two Pregnant Ladies

It's always fun to be prego with someone. Tandy and I were pregnant with Rylie and Tallie. Tessa and I were pregnant with Jade and Chloe and also with Lexi and Brightyn. This time it's Chelsea. It's fun because it's Chelsea's first and my 4th. She is still peppy and full of energy and didn't show until about 20 weeks. I have slowed down, the life has been sucked out of me and I showed at 7 weeks. The differences are crazy. I wish I felt like I did with my first. And I would love to loose this baby weight as quickly as I did then too. But the sad truth is I am 7 years older and It will be 7x's harder. But even though I have hit the 30 week uncomfortable mark where just existing is harder it is however my favorite time of the whole pregnancy. I can ACTUALLY feel a baby growing and moving inside of me and it is now that it becomes so real that I will soon have a new tiny baby to hold.

10 weeks and counting...or should I just go ahead and say 8 weeks (since I am always early, hopefully this time around too).

5/7 Year old Birthday questions

Chloe's 5th birthday "Favorite" Questions:

Book: The Christmas Dinosaur 

TV Show: My Little Pony

Movie: Princess and the Popstar

Song: Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus

Singer: Taylor Swift

Food: Pizza

Candy: Lolipop

Toy: Barbies

Activity: Color

Friend: Haeli Wilkins

What makes me smile: MOM

Something I don't like: Snakes

Tallie's 7th Birthday "Favorite" Questions:

Book: Magic TreeHouse 

TV Show: H2O

Movie: Matilda 

Song: China Girl

Singer: Coldplay & Justin Beiber

Food: Pizza

Candy: Suckers

Toy: Barbies

Activity: Playing with friends

Friend: Elena Wakefield, Maili Wilkins

What makes me smile: tickles

Something I don't like: football

Chlo-bug

This is how you can find Chloe most of the time. She wakes up in the morning wrapped in her blankie. She tries to eat breakfast wrapped in it. Whenever she is on the couch watching TV (even on a super hot day) and anytime she just needs a little bit of comfort. This is how I have been finding her as soon as she comes home from school. It has been 3 weeks since she has started Kindergarten and I really thought that by now she would be doing ok, maybe even liking school a little bit. Let's just say it's the opposite. She cries at night before bed knowing that when she wakes up she has to go. She cries in the morning first thing and won't get out of bed. She refuses to eat breakfast and I have to put clothes on her body. She cries all the way to school and won't hold her backpack. At times I find myself literally dragging her into class. I'm hoping that it's just taking a while to get used to this whole school thing and not that some underlying reason is there. I'm hoping her teacher is as nice as she seems to be and that she is not the reason Chloe refuses to go. All I know is that it's exhausting doing this whole routine EVERY morning. It makes me sad she doesn't want to go and that she is so unhappy. I wish I could be a fly on the wall in her class to see what is going on. Will it ever get better??

We have been trying to have a "reflection moment" after we do family outings. TJ had recently learned this from our Stake President and I really loved the idea of it. What we try to do is take the ordinary things we do and reflect on what we did and what we can take away from it. It gives us opportunities with our kids to throw in spiritual moments and helps me to remember that we are not just humans having spiritual experiences but spirits having earthly experiences. Well while we were in St. George hiking I had my own little reflection moment that I later shared in the car with everyone. While we were hiking the kids started to complain about the heat and how they were so tired and needed water and wanted to be back to the car. Chloe kept complaining about the prickly bushes on the trail that kept scratching her arms and she kept calling them mean bushes. I told her they were mean and prickly and brittle because they wanted water and were hot like she was. They were brittle and would snap and the slightest movement or touch and I just thought how much they are like us. I am brittle and mean and will snap at the smallest things when I am starving for water too or in other words starving for the spirit in my life. I become mean and scratchy and no one wants to be around me. But if I had enough "water" in my life I would become soft and a whole lot nicer. I just thought it was cool how once I started to look for these "reflection" moments I find that they are all around and I can tie any mundane thing into the gospel and learn from it. And I thought that was pretty cool.

Labor Day Weekend in St. George

I don't think that we have ever gone anywhere over this Holiday before because TJ has always worked so it was nice to actually get away. We went down to the Hurricane House that was recently remolded and we hadn't stayed there since. WOW! Bob and Mona really did a great job making that place a NICE place to get away to. We got there late and pretty much just went to bed right away. On Saturday we spent the day at SandHallow Lake. Too bad the wind took away our sun shade and snapped it. Would have been nice to have some shade. We went to dinner, rented a movie, played at the park, swung on the tree swing, played UNO and Princess dominos. We went and hiked the Red Cliffs. It was hot and also would have been nice had the river and waterfalls not been dried up. However it was still a really cool hike that I'm glad we did. All in all it was a good weekend and was nice to just be together.