MIA

Yes....I have been MIA for the better part of 2 years. Why was I gone so long? I don't really know...seems like a lot of things got busy and filled up my life in other ways. For Example: 1. Mother in law came to live with us. This was a huge, emotional decision for us to make considering that she was mentally ill. I'll blog more about that later. 2. I started teaching 20-25 piano students. I have since decided that that is far too many students for me to remain sane. I am now holding steady at a good 15 and intend to keep it that way. Waiting Lists are wonderful! 3. We got a dog. Normally that in itself would not make me stop blogging, but as the case was, it was just one more thing to worry about. 4. Kylie was mobile....extremely mobile. 5. We cannot stand to be in a house where we are not doing "something" constantly to improve it (translation, waste our money on). Since we have lived in Page we have put in a front yard (it was only rock before), built a music studio out of a storage room, moved our laundry room, painted bedrooms, added chair rails, added a 500 sq ft addition onto the back of the house for a new Master Bedroom (living in a 3 bedroom house with 4 kids and a mother in law taking one of the rooms was a bit cramped as you can imagine), reroofed the whole house, remodeled the back of the Family room....have I left anything out? Anyhow, we are exhausted and a little out of money :) Hope it will all be worth it in the long run. Someday I'll get to redo my kitchen. Now that I have survived the many changes we have gone through, I think I'll take up my blog again! I am excited to put some pictures on here of the befores and afters of all our projects. It will be great fun!!

Growing up

Every young lady needs a hair brush, especially when she FINALLY starts getting some hair worth brushing!

All of that hair styling just tuckers her out.


"Am a getting cuter every day or is it just me?"

"No, I really am getting cuter!"

Baby Ian Blessing

We were happy to be able to go to the blessing for my new nephew Ian. He was born in July...weighing in at a whopping 10+ pounds! Lynette's first baby, and all I have to say is WOW! Big boy. But he is going to be a looker!

Here's the Kidman family crew that was able to be there.

The "cousins". Samuel was so proud to be holding his new little cousin. Jack was mad...didn't want to have anything to do with this picture time. Kylie was taking it in stride.

New mommy and baby. Aren't they cute???

Happy Birthday to Sam!!!

Turned the BIG 3! But I still can't get him to say that he's 3. He tells everyone he's 5. Well, that is probably true in many aspects. Grandpa and Grandma Robertson were able to visit us from Kansas! It was so nice to have them here so they could get to know our little Sam on his birthday. We had a great day!

There is absolutely no lack of personality in this boy! He is so fun and absolutely entertained us through his excitement about his birthday.

Birthday party number 2 with the cousins. Two parties are always better than one.

This is why we teach them to READ

This summer I taught Spencer how to do some laundry. He would load it, measure the soap, set the machine, etc. He did a great job. As long as I got the pile ready for him, he seemed to know what to do.

Then one day I came out of my room and the house smelled like a swimming pool. I ran into the laundry room, where the smell was the strongest, and "Spencer! What did you do? What did you put in the laundry??"

His response, "Well, mom, you need to put Oxyclean in every load to get the cleanest clothes." (Somebody was listening to commercials a little too well). Come to find out that the Clorox bottle has the same colors on it as the Oxyclean commercial, so he thought he was doing me a favor by adding Oxyclean. Uhh, that's why we READ the label instead of following the colors on the bottle.

Whoops! Lesson learned!

Projects galore!

When we moved to Page, we bought a house that we knew would need a lot of work...specifically in the yard. The landscaping was all rock...red rock in the front yard, gravel rock in the backyard...no grass at all. So with four little kids, we knew we'd need to get the rock removed and plant grass. Easier said than done. Ever tried to remove literally tons and tons of landscaping rock from a yard? Not only that, but try to locate the old sprinkler system that was buried under the rock and repair or replace everything. Here are a couple of pics from the back yard endeavor.

This fountain was sitting in the middle of all the rock. Kids are scooping out the water so that we can move the fountain.

Spencer running the dingo with his dad, scraping up rock.

An overloaded trailer. This is only the tip of the iceberg, and it's too heavy to pull down to hook up to the van. We had to unload half of this to right the trailer and then reload. Fun!!!! Backbreaking fun.

She is just tuckered out from all this work.

Spring baseball

Spencer looking not too thrilled with the game.

Jordan hit 2 home runs this year! He can really whack it.

Jordan in the catcher gear.

Where are those darn Easter eggs?

Tony and Uncle Steve hid the eggs this year. The kids had a blast looking for them. Samuel got the easy ones.

How many kids does it take to find one egg in a bush?

Can you see the egg in that rose bush that Spencer can't see?

My favorite egg...up in the tree.

Kylie loves her eggs!

Jordan enjoyed finding the eggs almost as much as eating them later!

Me and my baby girl.

Baseball 2011

Baseball season has begun. Jordan is playing T-ball this year and loving it!! His very first game he was playing in the pitcher's spot, and the ball came to him a lot (of course, no one hits it far in T-ball). Well, one hit came to him and he threw it to first base, perfect throw, and amazingly the kid caught it! Unheard of, a true "out" in T-ball. Well, when everyone started cheering, true to form, Jordan took a bow.

Spencer is playing major leagues this year. He is not enjoying it as much as last year. I think part of that has to do with the fact he's been hit twice by the pitcher. Spencer avoids anything painful at all costs! But we are trying to help him through this so that he can enjoy the game again. Plus, his dad is the assistant coach.

Spencer turns 9!

Our boy is growing up so fast!! We had a fun little party with him. Unfortunately, the other two boys were not in the best of moods.