May 26, 2010

Kayson graduated today! Well, he graduated kindergarten anyways. (funny how even this graduation makes me a little teary:) When kindergarten is over, they officially aren't your "little" kids anymore. They start doing all day school and just get so independent on you. That is good, but a little sad. Kayson did a great job in his graduation program. The kids sang a bunch of fun songs for us.

Kayson with his class


Kayson receiving his certificate of completion from Principal Hawkes.


Kade, Deidra
Brancyn, Kayson, Brylee
We realized after the fact that we could have got Liberty out of class to watch his program. Oops!

Grammy and Kayson.
Thanks Grammy for coming, you always make the kids feel so special!

Brylee, Brancyn, and I got to go on a field trip to Bear World with Kayson today. We met at the school and rode the bus there! (This was half of the fun for Brylee)

Brylee and Kayson

We got to see and pet the baby bears. They were so stinking cute!

We also enjoyed the petting zoo. We pet deer, goats, and chickens. Aren't these baby pigs adorable?

Then we went on the driving part of the tour. We had a tour guide on our bus. It was fun to hear all of the fun facts about the animals.

Look at all of those bears!

We had a great day and it has us all excited for our trip to Yellowstone this year!

May 11, 2010

Liberty has been begging me to cut her hair for about a month now. We finally found time today so we went at it. I started out a couple of inches longer than this even though she told me she wanted it above her shoulders, kind of close to her chin. I was afraid I would go that short and she would freak out. But when I let her go and see where I was cutting at, she said go shorter, so shorter we went. After I had it as short as she wanted, I decided it needed a few layers. (I'm not a hug fan of a straight cut when it is this short.) So I started adding layers. I've done layers in her hair before and they have turned out pretty good, but this time I decided to try cutting them a little different. Bad idea! They were not blending at all-it was terrible and by this time I had her really scared (not to mention me) So I went back to my tried-and-true way of cutting layers. It took me a little while to clean it up and I think there are still a few random lenth layers in there, but I think i fixed ok. It definately looks fine when it is done, but Mimi don't judge my efforts:) Liberty was way excitied about it though, and that is all that matters. I'm glad she liked the end product. Whew!

May 7, 2010

Tonight we had an Elders Quorum party. The theme was Cinco de Mayo. They had mexican food and people made pinatas to bring. This one was made by the Elders Quorum Pres. He made this out of a box wrapped in Duct tape, wrapped in carpet, wrapped in cardboard, wrapped in carpet, wrapped in plastic wrap. The thing was crazy. They had every Elder and a lot of their wives beating on this thing with all their might, but it didn't give. They finally had to take the last three layers off before anyone could break it. It sure was funny to watch everyone try though. Just a word of wisdom for those who think this sounds like a fun idea for future use . . .don't have the dad's blindfolded and swinging a bat for all their worth on one end of the shelter while the kids are swinging at a kid pinata on the other end of the shelter. Every time the candy scattered, the kids followed and yep you guessed it, the candy scattered right over by where the dads were swinging. I don't know how many kids almost lost their heads tonight-literally. One of them being my son. Ugh, just makes me sick thinking how close a bat came to his little head . . .



The old Elders Quorum Pres. and his wife made this golden calf for us to beat. lol. It was HUGE!!!

May 7, 2010

While I was working on dinner tonight, Kayson was in the living room making a master piece of his own. He told me not to come in until he was done. When I was allowed to look, this is what I found . . . .

Awww, some days your kids just melt your heart, ya know? I love how he sculpted all of the letters out of blocks except the o in you, he just used one circle block for that one. It was just so five year old . . . adorable.

May 3, 2010

We have tried to take Bryle to the dentist twice already. Both times she sceamed and cried and wouldn't let them touch her. (Even Brancyn sat in the chair last time to show her how easy it is.) Anyone who knows Brylee, knows this is not her norm. She is usually a go getter and won't let anything slow her down. This is the kids that was riding a big girl bike with training wheels before she was three and could pump herself on a swing at two-she just wants to be one of the big kids soooo bad. So this has been a new thing for us to see her afraid of something. Well it came time for the 6 month cleanings again and we had to try her again. When I first told her about it, I could immediately see the anxiety creeping into her face, so we headed for the computer and found some encouraging videos of little kids getting their teeth cleaned on youtube. This seemed to settle her and so I didn't say anything for the next few days. The day of the cleaning, I told her what we were going to do that day and she started freakig out again-so back to the computer again. I settled her enough to get her there without tears . . . .

but just barely. You can see she is not really excited about going in. (We were taking pics to make it seem exciting-I told her I would put it in our photo book for this year so she could remember how brave she was and how cool it was.)

Ohoh, here come the tears. She just couldn't take the stress. I offered to sit in the seat with her though and that was just enough this time. She let them count, brush and floss her teeth (just with a regular tooth brush, so she wouldn't freak out again). But at least she did it. Major improvement over the last times when she wouldn't even open her mouth (even though i was holding her then too).

And look how happy she ws after she got her own bag complete with new toothbrush, floss, and a prize fro doing so well!!! Now hopefully next time we won't have so much drama!

April 25, 2010

I had to get a quick pic of this. Brancyn tried to head off to church today with Liberty's purse on his arm. Before you all freak out, this boy is as rough and tumble as they come-so no worries there. Besides that, the poor kid just wanted to be one of the crowd. All of the kids have scripture cases that they carry to church every week. He just went and found one for himself! No worries though, it give me a great idea for his birthday-he will be receiving his very own GREEN scripture case for his birthday in July.

April 25, 2010

We needed an updated family pic for a couple of projects I've been working on. So we took advantage of everyone looking nice on Sunday morning and snapped this one. I was pretty happy with it other than Kade and Kayson's white shirts kind of faded Brancynd and Kade out a little bit. But, still not bad for a quick snapshot.

Deidra, Kade, Kayson

Liberty, Brancyn, Brylee

The kids begged to do a silly one while we were at it, so here it is:)

April 23, 2010

The kids have again been begging for sleepovers with the cousins. This weekend, it finally worked out. We got it pretty easy this time. Kate came to our house while Kayson and Liberty went over to the cousins. First we took the girls to the Craze Fun Zone and let them crawl around in the play tunnels for awhile to run off some energy. Then we decided to let them go and pick out a treat to go with their movie. I asked Kate what kind of treat she liked and she told me the store kind. I was trying to figure out what store to go to (grocery store for good ice cream and baking goods, wal-mart for candy, etc.) so I said 'we'll go to a store, but do you want cake, cookies, icecream? . . ) ' She then says 'do you have a wal-mart store? they have treats there.' So off to wal-mart we The girls and Brancyn each picked out a treat. We came home split up the goods (there was tons-for only having 3 choices-they knew how to make the best of their one choice!) Then the girls settled down for their movie-strawberry shtortcake with their treats. I expected the girls to just sleep in the guest room where i had them set up, but after the movie, they remade beds on Brylee's floor and finally fell asleep around midnight. The finished off their sleepover with some good play time the next morning. It's great having cousins so close for sleepovers!

Kate and Brylee enjoying their lunch.

April 2, 2010
We started our Easter weekend a little early this year. Since conference was going to be on Saturday and Sunday, we decided we would color eggs on Friday, do eggs goldenrod that night, and hard boiled eggs for breakfast on Saturday morning. Then we would head to Grammy and Grampy's for the rest of Saturday and Sunday.


The kids had a blast coloring eggs. Especially Brancyn, that is until he decided his egg looked like a ball and that it would be fun to throw:)



We woke up to this 'beautiful' sight on Saturday morning. As you are looking at this great pic, keep in mind that everything was melted off the day before. We'd even had some days that were high 60's and low 70's in March, but this was what Mother Nature sent us for Easter weekend.



We were glad to go to Grammy's where there was plenty of room to run and play even if the weather didn't cooperate with us. The kids had a great time doing their Easter basket hunt and enjoyed having a treat for conference. We finished up the day with a nice Easter dinner with Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and of course Grammy and Grampy.

March 19, 2010

My Grandma's birthday is on St. Patricks Day and we usually try to get a visit in. With all of the remodeling that was going on, I spaced until the next day. We worked out a visit for Friday. Michelene and her kids and me and all my kids except Liberty enjoyed a fun visit. I thought to bring my camera this time. I don't have many recent pics of my grandma and not really any of her with the kids. So we got one for the scrapbook this year.


Brylee, Brancyn, Kayson, Grandma, Archer, Hunter, and Brielle

March 13, 2010

Brylee turned four today!!
Brylee was supposed to have her big party with friends this year. We had been talking about it and planning it. One morning I was double checking what she wanted so that I could get invitations out and she told me she didnt want all her friends she just wanted Grammy and Grampy to come. So that's what we did. It really ended up being a blessing for me, 'cuz we were right in the middle of all that remodeling, and it would have been very hard to have a bunch of extra kids running around.

So we stared off Brylee's big day with a breakfast of French toast with strawberries and whip cream, with a side of bacon.


During breakfast, Brylee got three different birthday phone calls. She was feeling pretty special!

Brylee asked for a cake with a butterfly on it and flowers. So this is what we came up with. (She also picked a lemon cake with sherbet to go alongside. Later she realized that wasn't her favorite combo. One or the other was fine, but not together. Oh well, now she knows for next time.)

In the evening, we had Grammy and Grampy come for pizza and pink lemonade. And then of course presents and cake. Brylee got a new Ken doll form Grammy (for the dollhouse) and some cute clothes. She got some workbooks (she's always begging for homework) clothes, candy, and a dollhouse from us. Liberty gave her some money!

She seemed to like her gifts, but I have to post the video of her opening the dollhouse.

I think the video says it all, but in case you are having a hard time following what is being said, I'll recap. The attice of Brylees dollhouse is on hinges, so we put a basketball up there to disguis the appearance of the dollhouse. When she opened up the gift, she zeroed in on the ball instead of the house. She absolutely loves basketball. She practices dribbling all the time and like to watch it with her dad on tv. So it was pretty funny. She did like the doll house too. She just had to look at it and understand what it was!

March

So, after Kade saw how wonderful I made the Barbie house look, he asked why I didn't make his house look that good. Well, he asked for it . . . . .I started in on our house. These pictures don't do all of the changes justice, but I thought I'd post them anyways, to kind of give you and idea of what we did. It started with me just wanting new carpet. But then we decided we better replace the hard floor surfaces first, which then led to replacing toilets and vanitites in the bathrooms, which then led to getting a new bath surround so the tub didn't look out of place, which finally led to new carpet and paint throughout the upper floor of our house. I was so excited about it, that I scheduled out carpet and new vinyl intalls too close together and we worked ourselves to death for two weeks straight. But we are happy with the results so far and will be even happier when all the details are finished.

Laundry room before (I like to think of this room as outer darkness.) It was so gross and obviously divided from the rest of the house.


New laundry room floor (ignore all the clutter-I've been catching up on long over due laundry:) I will also still be painting the cabinets black in here at some point to finishe this room up as well as putting trim back up.


Old Master bathroom (I forgot to take pics when the toilet and sink were still in here) The old sink was painted white (and it wasn't done well, there were dried paint drips all over it, and the toilet was old and didn't have the best flush power.)


New master bathroom. I still need to finish doing touch up paint and we think we might take the shower doors off and just hang a nice curtain that coordinates with everything. But I love the new paint color. My bathroom is feels so calming instead of sterile now.


This is the old guest bathroom. Kade was working on getting the old sink out. It was painted a 'lovely' green and the counter top was white with gold veins running throuh it. This toilet was also old and didn't have very great flush power. Brancyn was such a good helper. He thought to go and get the flashlight on his own and held it for Kade to see under the sink. He is soooo into Kade's tools.


This is the almost there new guest bathroom. Kade still has to intall the faucet for the sink and the new tub surround that you can see leaning agains the wall.

This is the old dining room. We ripped out gray kitchen carpet. Whoever thought of kitchen carpet was crazy. It is such a pain!

Here is the new kitchen flooring. It isn't hugely different in coloring from what we had in the kitchen before, but it is a little warmer color and a way better pattern not to mention it flows from the kitchen into the dining room and then into the laundry room-not three different floor types anymore!!

We had to move the kitchen appliances out twice. Once for the new vinyl and again for the new vinyl:) (They didn't patch the floor very well the first time and had to come back and do some more patching). Brancyn watched the whole process (we had to take the fridge doors off to get it out of the kitchen) So by the second time around, he was ready with his tools and knew right where to go to work!

This is the old living room. Not bad. It's just the carpet was super light colored and showed everything, it didn't have good padding either, and there was a huge outdated hutch that divided the room in half.


New living room. It has beautiful carpet with nice thick pad. The color hides everything, yay! I still haven't decided how to set up this crazy sized room (now that the hutch has been removed, it is 12' x 32' ) But I've been thinking of some ideas and I'll have it worked out in no time. In the mean time, I'm enjoying the absolutly luxurious feel of new carpet!!

Well, like I said, Kade asked for it and he got it. I did almost all the same things as in the Barbie house. New paint, carpet and vinyl!

February-March
A family in our ward gave us a doll house a few weeks ago. They're kids are all grown and gone and they thought we might be able to get more use out of it. So we made plans to redecorate it for Brylee's birthday.

This is the before . . . .


Here is an after of the kitchen. We (the kids and I) made curtains that open and close, a tablecloth, and plates with different food items painted onto each side. We also added hooks for the dishtowels.


We made a clock for the kitchen and Liberty had the idea to paint the time that Brylee was born on it-so that's what we did.


The house came with the wood furniture, but we made couch cushions that could be removed and little throw pillows, we also paintd a vase and put flowers in it for the coffee table. I painted on windows with scenes of quaking aspens, mountains, clouds, etc.


We also found these cute little frames at the dollar store and put acutal family pictures in them for Brylee. They are attached to the wall with poster putty so she can rearrange all she wants.


We made a big girls room complete with clothing chese, t.v., robe hooks, and mirror.


We made a baby girls room with a clothes chest, coat hooks, a picture of Jesus on the wall and a pink puppy.

And we made a Ken room again with a clothing chest, mirror, tv, and robe hooks.

We had a fun time decorating it (that was always my favorite part of playing dolls when i was growing up-setting up the house). The kids couldn't wait to see what Brylee thought and they also wanted to play with it sooo bad. We'll see if they can keep the secret until Brylee's birthday.

February 21, 2010

Michelene had her baby today! Hunter and Brielle came to our house last night for an impromptu sleepover while Mich and Shaun headed off to the hospital. Mich was in labor but slowed down when they gave her some antibiotics. So the put her on Pit and that got things moving again. She had baby Archer Sunday Morning.

Brancyn and Brielle enjoyed some tub time Sunday morning while we waited for news from mom and dad.


This is a picture of baby Archer when he is two weeks old. ( I didn't get pictures until then). Anybody that knows the daddy of this kid would say there is NO question who he belongs to:)


Brylee meeting her new cousin.


Liberty having her turn


Kayson had a turn too, but I missed it while I was off getting dinner on the table.