He Is Risen

Kitchen remodel begins....

Woo-Hoo!!

Happy 32nd Birthday!!!

To the Best Husband and Father in the WORLD!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Jacob!


Here are some pictures I took the other day of Jacob doing what he LOVES!!!  He loves spending time with our kids and training Blueser.

 Watch out!!!  He has Blue keeping pointe and is getting a bunch of hunting gear for his Birthday.  I think he is a little excited =D

Jacob truly is the best man in the entire world.  I don't know how many men would be up at 1:00 in the morning doing the dishes because his wife was exhausted from being up all night with sick kids (for two nights in a row), and crashed before the dishes were done.  He was exhausted too, he had fallen to sleep putting Austin to bed. But he woke up and saw that I had crashed and stayed up so that I could wake up to a clean kitchen.  He is so selfless and thoughtful of other people.  He gives everything he has to our family and to serving the Lord.  I love him so much for who he is and the sacrifices that he makes for me and for our kids.  The kids think that he is the best! To them, he is their entire world.

We have the best Husband and Father EVER!!!!!!!

"Look Mom! Don't I look so BeaUtiFul?"

Austin is ONE!!!

(I just saw that this was still in draft form, probably waiting for some pictures...oops!)

My little Austin is one year old!!!  I think that his birthday colors and theme are always going to be chosen for him, patriotic/red, white and blue...lol!!!  He had a fun filled day for his birthday.  We went to Taft and saw both sets of grandparents and cousins.  We went to a street fair where he had his first taste of snow cones and cotton candy, which he LOVED!!!  Then we went to Mima's house for a bbq and swimming!!  Austin was in heaven in the water and it was so much fun to watch him get in and out of the pool.

The other day we were thinking of all of the different ways that Austin is like my dad.  There are a few 1) he looks just like him 2) he is ticklish all over his entire body and 3) he has a hound nose for ice cream and will kill to get it!!  They LOVE ice cream and for that reason he had a bowl of ice cream instead of a birthday cake.  

Austin's little personality is blossoming, I love to sit and watch him explore and do new things every day.  Here are a few of the things that he is doing at 1:

*Walking

*Loves to listen to nursery rhymes on the computer

*His favorite show is Little Einstein's

*He has 10 teeth

*He loves to eat

*He loves his momma

*He says mama, dada, ball, baba and has just started making the 'n' sound

*He loves otter pops

*He loves his big sisters

*He loves to play peek-a-boo and is usually the instigator 

Austin FINALLY has some boy toys!!!  He got a huge Tonka Truck for his birthday as well as some tractors, cars and train.  He is a happy boy!!

Austin

Austin is officially 16 months old!

His bedtime routine consists of a bottle, brushing his teeth and cuddling with Daddy for a few minutes and then going to bed.  Well Jacob has been into hunting lately.  He just got his hunting license for the first time and has been watching a lot of you-tube videos on duck hunting.  So, for the past few weeks,  their routine has consisted of watching you-tube videos of duck hunts while cuddling.

So last weekend Jacob was home and put Austin to bed at nap time with the same routine on Saturday and Sunday.

Monday rolls around and it is nap time and I am trying to put Austin to sleep.  He is super energized and so I new it was going to be a process to get him to settle down and go to sleep.  I tried EVERYTHING!!  Books, singing, letting him cry for a little while, nothing worked.  He still wanted to get up and go play....argg!  So it suddenly dawns on me to think about what Jacob does (in reality, Jacob puts him to bed more than I do).  So I get my phone and find me some you-tube duck hunting videos (I don't even know what I am looking for, but I will try anything at this point).  Austin hears the duck calls on the video and gets excited.  So he lays down next to me to watch the videos and is asleep in less than 3 minutes!

I am still mad that this actually worked.  But even I have to admit that it is pretty funny.  So his naps all week have included some duck hunting videos while cuddling with mommy.

Madelynn:  Where does the trash man take the trash?
Daddy: To the landfill.  You have been there with Grumpa, do you remember?
Madelynn: No.  What do they do with it?
Daddy: They bury it.  They have BIG tractors that they use to bury all of the trash.  Then the earthworms come and eat the trash and turn it into dirt.
Katherine: Do you get in the dirt?
Daddy: No.
Madelynn: Only if you die.
Daddy: That's right, when you die they put you in the ground.
Katherine: Oh!

Madelynn's brain has been working overtime with strange questions and even stranger responses.

Puppies!!!

We have some Weimaraner mix puppies, in fact, we have 9 of them!!!  Check out this link to watch them grow www.weimapeake.blogspot.com.  They will be ready for new homes in 2 weeks!!!

I AM 30!!

I don't normally do posts about me, but I turned 30 yesterday and I want to be able to look back and remember what life was like.

My day was AMAZING to say the least!  My dear friend and cousin, Amy, showed up on my doorstep to surprise me and spend the day with me.  My day was going to be nice anyway, but that was icing on the cake and totally made my day, I LOVED it!!!   So we spent the day with 7 kids and 12 dogs with 2 adults to keep it under control, lol!!!  It was a little chaotic, Ryleigh tripped over Blue and busted her head open, no stitches were needed, but it was scary; Katherine skinned up both of her knees with lots of blood involved and Madelynn fell on her arm and wouldn't stop crying about it (except to go to dinner) until Jacob gave her a blessing!  But the kids LOVED playing with the puppies and had a blast together!  It was so nice to visit with Amy.  Amanda came over when she got off of work to join the party and take over puppy duty.  Then when Jacob got off of work we all went out to dinner together.  I don't think our water was too excited to see us coming, but we had a wonderful time nonetheless!  

Jacob had taken Katherine out shopping on Wednesday evening (Madelynn wanted to stay with the puppies) for Mommy's birthday and she got be balloons and flowers of course!! She also got me some muffin balls (donut holes) for breakfast because "those are Mommies favorite" LOL!!!  She is so cute and I love her so much!  She has blossomed since Madelynn started Kindergarten and is my little pal and helper, I LOVE the change in her.  But once Madelynn gets home she is back to her loud, busy little self and could care less about what mommy is doing.  

Madelynn kept wrapping up her and my jewelry and giving them to me as birthday presents all day, it was very cute and thoughtful!

I got my traditional birthday card from my Grandma Nagle, which isn't anything fancy, but I look forward to getting it every year and it really means so much to me.  I love my family so much!!  She is my last living grandparent and I am so glad that I still get to enjoy her!!!  

I am so sad that I didn't think to get the camera out, not even once, the entire day!!!  So I have no pictures to prove that I turned 30.  Oh well, I still had a wonderful day with wonderful people and I feel so blessed to have such an amazing life.  

Little bit about life:

Madelynn is playing AYSO for the first time and it has made us very busy.  The coach has practices twice a week and they are late in the evening which is bad for my kid's early bedtime of 7:00!  Austin and Katherine have been pretty cranky at practices and it has not been fun.  But games start this Saturday which means less practices and hopefully a little bit of normalcy around here.

Jacob is cub scout master which means he is gone on Wednesday nights.  I am still working at 'the office' on Tuesday and Thursday nights, so with FHE on Mondays and date night on Fridays, we are pretty busy during the week!!  Oh, and now soccer practice on Monday and Wednesday nights too!  =)

My mom's dog, Lady, had 9 puppies and we have had them since they were 4 weeks old.  They are still to young for Lady to completely leave them, so she is here too.  10 + Bella + Blue = 12 dogs!!!!  I think my house stinks and I am ready to get rid of them, so 2 more weeks and they are GONE, even if I have to give them away!  The kids are in heaven with these puppies!  They are constantly loving and cuddling with a puppy and the puppies love it too.  There always seems to be one who is whining in their bed and just wants to cuddle and the girls are more than happy to oblige!  Every day they are getting more and more playful and so now I am keeping them outside most of the time (they are only inside when it is too hot for them to be out), which is helping the odor and they like to have more room to romp and play.

So basically, life is exciting and fun.  To top off my Birthday I have a hot date tonight and I am very excited!!!

Katherine's Cast

On June 13, Katherine broke her little leg!  She was jumping on a trampoline with Auntie Manda and Madelynn and landed on her leg just right to fracture her bone just below the growth plate!!  She was a very sad girl.  But I would be a very sad momma if I didn't record all of the fun we had while she was in her cast.  The first day of having the cast on she realized that she could walk with the cast  and not have her leg hurt so bad and was going everywhere. She did not like to be dependant on me and kept telling me "No mommy, I can do it myself!" Katherine, being the crazy little girl that she is, used all of her strength to pull herself and her cast that weighs as much as she does, on top of the counter to get a piece of gum out of the cupboard!!  Needless to say after a week of wear and tear on the cast, she needed a new bottom to the cast.

Here she is just before getting the cast on.  She debated between pink and green, she chose green of course.  

And here is the finished product, she even chose a green sucker to go with her green cast!

Here are all of the adventures that the cast went thru during it's short 3 weeks of life. 

4th of July festivities of face painting and swimming in Mima's pool.  She really enjoyed herself when the water squirters came out and she could get all wet even though she couldn't go swimming!

Bath time had to be altered a bit to accommodate the cast.  The sink turned out to be the perfect solution.

Park time

Princess time. 

Swimming time with Uncle Chad and Auntie Katelyn while they were visiting from Washington.  We had so much fun with them!

Bug hunting time.  Notice the tomato worm on Madelynn's shirt!

The cast even made it into an attempt at family pictures!

Of course every moment wasn't full of exciting times with the cast.  She did have times when she got so sick of it.  At one point she even tried to remove it herself!!

But it is gone now.  I need to get a picture of her without her cast on.  Daddy took her to get her cast taken off today.  When she got home she put on her swimming suit and lounged in the kiddy pool all afternoon!!  She was so glad to be rid of it!!

Potato Farmers!!

GUESS WHAT!!!!!  I can't believe that I am a potato farmer!!  I guess it shouldn't be that big of a surprise, my mother is from Idaho, but I am still excited.  We planted potatoes for the first time this year just to see how it would do.  Everyone told us that we had planted them too late in the season and so we really didn't expect much.  Lately the plants are looking VERY shabby and so I was all ready to pull them up this evening and throw them away.  BUT look what I found.......

Those are Katherine's little toes to give a perspective of how large they are.  I am so  proud!!!  LOL!!!


Oh, and yes, I did leave the plants there.  There were lots more potatoes that were still too small to harvest!

Growing Up!

So lately I have been telling Madelynn that she needs to stop growing up!  In the past she would just laugh, but the other day she got really serious and told me "Mom, I can't stop now because I need to turn 8 so I can get my ears pierced and get baptized!!"  But she agreed that once she turned 8, she would stop growing!  So now when I tell her that she needs to stop growing she reminds me that she will stop growing when she is 8!!  If only that were true, I would be so happy!

Bath Time!

Tonight we are going on a picnic.  So I put Austin in the bath tub and ask Madelynn to watch him while I do my hair (in the same room, but my back to him).  Before I know it Katherine is washing his hair.  They both bathe him completely!  Madelynn even got him out and dried him off!  My girls are getting so big!! And Katherine says "Now I am all wet!"  

p.s. Have I mentioned that I am LOVING my new computer, mostly that I can blog again!  

Flowers

I LOVE when little girls wear flowers in their hair!  I have bought some in the past, only to think they were too expensive and too cheaply made.  I always thought I should try to make some and I did for Katelyn's wedding and they were very cute, but I haven't had the time to make any since.  So when I saw this deal on Amazon, I couldn't pass it up.  I am so excited!!!

Camping trip #2

We were home about 3 days before we turned around and headed back out the door for more camping.  This time it was with the Estill Family, a first for us since we have had kids.  We went to Balch Park by the Sequoias.  It was very beautiful there too!  Here we actually did have encounters with Bears.  There was a fire burning in Tehachapi and Lake Isabella which had driven more bears than usual to the area.  The rangers there didn't thing it was that big of a deal and so far, they hadn't had any problems.  The bears left everyones food alone and we didn't even have bear boxes or anything!  BUT they did rummage though the trash cans every night!  It was crazy to wake up in the middle of the night and hear the bears and know that they were only 100 feet or so away from you!!  In all of my camping experiences I have yet to run face-to-face into a bear, and I intend to keep it that way!!  

Katherine didn't actually catch these fish, but she wanted to pose with them.  Madelynn caught one of those fish.  She came back to camp before they got cleaned and was therefore very shocked and sad when she saw it on the frying pan....she cried!

 The big trees were so awesome!!

 Daddy and Austin

 Look at those dirty faces!!  They had lots of fun with their cousins!

 Katherine fell asleep on Papa's shoulders!  So cute!!