Especially for Terry

I have some random pictures that I thought are cute. My friend has been urging me to post some more so I thought I would throw these in there real quick. I have christmas that I will post but do not have time right now so....Terry, these are for you!

Our growing girl

Andy, Gabe, and Brayden

look how cute these buns are!

Our sweet baby girl!

I love that my girls have a sister

Christmas season is here

So I am finally willing to accept the Christmas season. I feel it has been shoved down my throat since about the time school started. You go to Walmart and nothing but christmas carols as you are walking down the isles. I think there is so much to still enjoy about fall and we have had such a beautiful long lasting fall. Andy has been working so hard with only 1 day off a week for the past 5 weeks and only has 1 week left of this schedule (we are hoping). Today my sweetheart got up from his slumber to escort me to a couple of girly shops and look at some Christmas decor. We then learned of the annual christmas parade happening in 1/2 hour so we came home bundled the kids up and went back for the parade. It is amazing how exciting it can be for these little children to have the most simple things brighten thier day. We got to watch all the lit floats and then Andy took the kids to get a rootbeer. Highlight of their week! They have not had soda for a long time so this was quite the treat. I am so grateful for the time we get to spend as a family together. Andy works so much it really makes me appreciate these small things where I don't have to drag the kids out solo and we can really enjoy one another.

Getting dressed

It is so hard to believe Katelyn is getting
so big. She can sit up in the bath un assisted
and she is rocking on all fours. She crawled
about two feet the other day.


This little girl is so smiley and happy all the time. Especially in the bath.

We love our little Katelyn. She fits right in with our family. It is so fun to see her interact with her siblings. She loves them and they love her. Isn't she such a pretty girl?

Halloween

Our kids with our friends Hunter and Heather.

Our friends Britany and Kole. They were exterminators and their girls were the bugs. But cute ones!

My friend Mendy. She is the complete opposite of a witch.

Some of the awarded costumes. Mendy's husband came in his coal man gear. I think all the guys could have made a group costume.

Some of the people who entered our costume contest.

Our Halloween was extremely busy. I will never do this again. I love Halloween but Andy is activities director and we were in charge of a tri ward activity. This meant (because we weren't very organized) that we were at the church from 10 am setting up until about 3 when we went home to dress our kids. We went trick or treating at the mall for 20 minutes so we could go back to the church by 430. We recieved a lot of compliments on the activity but I was so tired by the time the activity hit I don't remember much.

finally Halloween pics

So here are my cute kids in their costumes. We actually were able to carve 3 pumpkins. We are bad about doing this every year but the kids are getting older so we figured we better. Brayden drew his own face. His has sunglasses. He really didn't like the pumpkin

guts though. I wasn't sure if he would continue participating.

Ashlee did her own pumpkin. As you can see she loved the gut scraping.

going to the eastern slope

We were able to go to the other side of the Rockys for our friends John and Stacy's sons baptism. John is my sister in laws brother. We have known John and Stacy for a really long time. We have been fortunate to have so many good friends and family move out this way since we left for Wyoming and it is so nice it seems more like lots of extended family. So as we were getting ready to leave, I realized we could not find our camera charger. We wanted to get going so we just left. I am really dissapointed because we also went to my niece Madi's birthday party at Build a Bear and then we were able to go see Tera and her new baby. Chandler's baptism was so nice. I was really touched as his dad baptized him and then as he was confirmed. We went to Loveland where we enjoyed some PF Changs and then went to Build a Bear. It was kind of a zoo but the kids all had a blast. We got to Tera and JP's house on Saturday evening. It is always so good to see Tera and JP. We started traditions together when we all lived in California and it makes me sad we have not been able to be close enough for those but I am really happy we have been close enough to at least visit. Tera and I have a forever kind of friendship. We have been through a lot together and she has been with me through some really hard times. She introduced me to my sweet husband and I am forever grateful for that(except for when I'm really mad at him) hahaha just kidding. Anyway we have known each other forever and its always nice to spend time with her and JP and their sweet children. I hate to admit it but I live 4 hours from my best friend and I just saw her for the first time in over a year! I missed her whole pregnancy and I also missed her baby's blessing and Lauren's baptism. We had just returned home from CA. and had some wierd flu virus and so we had to miss those events! It really just kills me. I am so happy to have been able to see Ethan as a newborn baby. He is so cute and looks so much like Jacob I kept calling him that. It was like seeing Jacob as a newborn all over again. Our kids are good ages for each other and all had fun. Gabe really likes going to Tera's because "she has such a nice house" he thinks we should have stairs that go up not just down like Tera. Anyway, we had a lot of fun and I hope we will be able to visit again soon!

Starting left:Ethan 7 weeks, Brynna 2, Lauren 8, Ashlee 10, Katelyn 6 mo., Brayden 3, Jacob 4, and Gabriel 6.

Sweet Blessings

I sure love this baby. She is so fun. She really makes my day. I had a doctor tell me once that it wasn't fair what us women do to each other. We talk about how wonderful it is to have a baby but we leave out all the cons. He was right. We never tell how saggy our body gets or how your kids pee and poop and throw up on you. Or, how they tangle their sucker in the back of your hair when you are not looking. It is amazing how you can become even more tired, stressed, literally exhausted with each child you have. You think you're tired after the first but it just becomes worse and worse . However, even though you may be tired and depressed at times ( look what happened to my body!) I don't think anything can replace the joy of these sweet innocent little bundles. I have been so rundown lately and really having a hard time with a lot of things. But today was General Confrence sunday and President Monson shared a talk for me! He talked about how precious our time is. We focus on so many things that don't even matter. As he talked about the piles of laundry ( and I looked up at mine waiting to be folded) disappearing and the finger prints and our children
leaving home, I realized how grown up Ashlee is! She is in 5th grade! When Katelyn is Ashlee's age, Ashlee will have been out of the house a couple of years! They grow so fast. I know I get caught up in the everyday stuff, its hard not to, but I realized I need to start enjoying my journey. Even the torn paper all over the room I just vacumned or the muddy footprints on the floor. I love my children. They are wonderful little people with such vibrant spirits and they are dang funny! It makes me sad that Gabe is so grown up now he doesn't say his cute baby phrases anymore. I have Brayden doing that and Katie soon to follow, but soon they will be grown up and serving missions, and getting married and it is sad that our time is so precious but despite what my doctor said, it is every bit worth it. Every bit of the mess, being tired, having to work off extra pounds, because experiencing the things I get to with my children, these are the things that can not be bought. Only earned. Blessings. Maybe some in disguise but I am definitley a better person than I could ever hope to be without all four of my sweet children.

sitting up

Katie has been sitting up for a little while and I feel bad for not posting it. She loves her new found freedom. The other day Andy and I rearranged pretty much our whole house. Since Ashlee is 10 years older and really needs her own space, we created a room for her in the basement. Katelyn now has her own nursery. This I love! I can put her in her room with her toys or go in her room for a quiet place to nurse. I love it! She really likes playing in there too.

I scream you scream

So my kids love to have their once in a while bowl of ice cream. They really don't have it too often so, the other night they got ice cream after fhe. Ashlee must be going through a stage. She feels the need to smear food on her face for pictures. Brayden was all about that and Gabe, well I think he wasn't quite sure.

growing girl

Katie is growing so quickly. Andy and I were just talking this morning about how we just don't take enough pictures of this sweet little girl. She is so calm and happy all the time. I know we were truly blessed having her. She will definitly bring calmness to
our family. I wish for all mothers everywhere to be able to experience a baby like our Katie. She makes the difficulties of a stressful and busy day melt away.

First Day of School

Normally our schools start way back in August but all of the schools were under construction all summer so school started September 2. My kids and I were in California so they missed the first two weeks. Ashlee started 5th grade at an intermediate school so she now has rotating classes and even has to change clothes for PE. Gabe started in Kindergarten. So he is now at Ashlees' old school. Brayden has preschool
which he started at the tail end of last year but is loving every minute of it. When we were in Ca. the temps were upper 90s and up to 106. Now at home we are definitley fall with the days in the 60s. Although the last couple have been even chillier. I love school time. I have been able to enjoy my afternoons to get caught up on some things around the house. I love my kids and miss them while they are gone but my boys are so busy together I am really looking forward to doing things around the house that I have not been able to do for a long time. Especially with the holidays coming near I will be able to get all my decorating done and even have more time to prepare their halloween costumes.

Bath time at great grandmas

So my boys went exploring at my grandmas house on our way home and discovered her great big bath tub. It was really late so I was not intending on bathing them but they really really wanted a bath so grandma said it was ok. They loved the seat and that they could swim side by side. AAAhhhh the simple pleasures of life.

swimming fun

My niece Madi loved the snorkling gear. But I dont know how much she enjoyed it once she was underwater. Katelyn spent most of the time napping but I pulled her in once she woke up.
She did not like so much to lay back and actually it took her a little while to warm up. The water was I think 87 degrees but it was over 100 outside so the water felt a little cool at first.

After swimming the kids ate hot dogs and sat with uncle Dan cooling thier heels.

So my brothers' inlaws got a pool and they invited us to come over and go swimming. Brayden is used to the wave pool in Craig which is like a beach so he wasn't so sure about a body of water floating in
someones back yard. He did have fun though.

Gabe gave the experience a two thumbs up and had a great time.