Take me to Hawaii

Halloween!

2009-11-01T22:21:00.001-06:00

Here's a sneak peek of all the kiddos dressed up and ready to get some candy!

Fall Special!!!

2009-10-30T10:57:00.000-05:00

From now until December 12 I am offering family photo shoots for $75. This includes the shoot, editing, and a photo cd.

E-mail me at: winzenz@netzero.com to schedule a shoot or call 817-337-0841. (I prefer e-mail since it seems every time I try to make or take a phone call there is a little person trying to get my attention, yelling, crying, singing, laughing, etc. It gets a little noisy around my house! LOL!

Take me out to the ball game!

2009-10-14T22:17:00.006-05:00

Both Brandon and Megan are playing on baseball teams this fall! So far we have had 1 game each and the next week everything was cancelled because of all the rain we've had. They are having a good time, though! Brandon hasn't played for a couple years so I was glad he was excited to play again. Megan is doing great for never playing before. Ha! It's kind of funny at times. :) She's adorable out there. Here are some pictures from their first games.

She's out there ready to catch the ball!The 2 girls on the teamBrandon ready for the game to startHe enjoys being catcher

Visit from Grandma

2009-09-30T22:01:00.010-05:00

In August we were so thrilled to have my mom come visit us for a week. We love when Grandma comes! We did lots of fun things while she was here. With it being summer we tried to find activities to keep busy with the kids. We swam, played with playdough, painted, made banana muffins, went to a movie, and just hung out. We love you, Grandma!

Grandma with BrookeThe kids were having a blast playing with sandwich bags in the water.Grandma brought a cute little tea set for the kids to paint. They loved this! They are all such creative kids and were very intent on getting their pieces just right. :) Here's Carli rinsing her brush.Brandon's tea cup is blue, of course.Megan went for stripes on the sugar bowl.Kate went for stripes as well. :)Carli concentrating very hard.The girls loved playing with the playdough. It's not something I volunteer for them very often. I know, bad mom, :) but the mess!What a cutie! love the freckles!Here's Kate with her absolutely adorable creation!It's a girl sitting in a bean bag chair playing Xbox. Funny...I love the look of wonder on brooke's face in this shot.This look is hilarious! lol!Brooke loves to try drinking from sippy cups. Here's Carli helping her out holding the cup for her.

Posting!

2009-09-16T22:51:00.001-05:00

HEAR YE! HEAR YE!

I've posted a few updates so scroll on down and see them all! :)

Swimming!

2009-09-16T22:41:00.005-05:00

We LOVE our neighborhood pool in the summer! It's soooo nice to be able to go whenever we want to and enjoy taking friends to swim with us, too. Here are a few pictures from one such outing.

My cousin, Stephanie, and her daughter, Eliza, came over to swim with us. They live about an hour away. It was great to have them come over for the day!This is one of the cutest little girls ever!!! She's going to be a big sister, too!Here's Brooke working on her rolling skills.Brandon and his buddy, Caleb, made quite a contraption with all the floaties.

There are many more swimming pictures and I'll put those up eventually. ;)

Haircut!

2009-09-16T22:29:00.003-05:00

Carli has been saying she wanted to get her hair cut, but we never went and did it. Well, we finally I took her to get it done. She was so excited. She talked about it for weeks after and every time she talked to someone she would tell them she got her hair cut. It was too cute!

Chopsticks!

2009-09-16T22:14:00.003-05:00

My Mom spent 2 weeks in China in July and sent us some neat goodies when she got home. Of course, we each got a set a chopsticks! The kids went to town with them.

4th of July

2009-09-16T21:58:00.005-05:00

Yes, I'm a "little" behind. :) Here is what we did on the 4th of July. It was, of course, a very hot day here in TX, so we hit the pool!

Here's Brooke all decked out in her red, white, and blue! Her hair even matches. ;) lol!Kate, Daddy, Carli, MeganMegan is quite a little fishBrandon contemplating the big first jumpSweet Daddy and Brooke!Have you ever seen anything so cute?!Love this one, too!Carli floating alongThe kids love having Ben throw them. Here's Kate!Brooke enjoying the water. She really loves it!Megan taking her turn.By the end Brooke was out! Daddy was, too.

Weekend with Megan

2009-09-14T14:24:00.005-05:00

This last weekend I took Megan down to Houston to see the baptism of her sweet best friend, Sydney, who moved away several weeks ago. Here's the beautiful girl on her baptism day!

Sydney and Megan--so happy to be together for a little while!Aren't they so cute?!Me, Brooke, and Megan with the Prince familySydney and her twin sisters, Allison, and Madelyn After the baptsim we had a yummy luncheon. Here are Megan, Sydney, and Allison enjoy their food.
Caleb loved the soup! :) Sorry, Caleb, I had to throw a picture of you in here, too. After the luncheon Brooke was bushed. Such a sweet girl!

It was fun to have a day with Megan and Brooke by themselves. We enjoyed the hospitality of the Prince family. Thank you for having us!

Brooke's Trick

2009-09-04T10:01:00.002-05:00

Pretty neat, eh? :)

Playing catch up--Vegas!

2009-09-03T13:13:00.007-05:00

I've got to finish blogging about our vacation in June so here we go!

After spending a week in Cedar City at my parents' house we all headed to Las Vegas for a week. All of us, my parents, Thayne, Kailee, Harper, Spencer, Missy, Charisse, and Cory we all there. The only one of us missing was Elder Brett who had just entered into the MTC to prepare for his mission to Bucharest, Romania.

First on the agenda was to take out Carli's 2 stitches from her forehead. My sister-in-law, Kailee, was happy to help out and she did a beautiful job!

Here is Ben about to take off the band-aid with my Dad holding Carli

She didn't appreciate that at allHere is Kailee explaining to Carli what she is going to doThe cutting :) They came out very easily and quickly! Thanks Kailee! she is good as new. She still has a small red line on her forehead that you can see, but it is fading.

The water show at the Bellagio was the highlight of the trip for the kids. They loved watching the water spray and dance. I have to admit, it is one of my favorite things to do in Vegas, too. Our hotel was just a block off the strip just south of the Bellagio hotel so we could just walk down to see the show. We had to get creative getting the kids over there, though, so we wouldn't subject them to all the nastiness that is on the strip. There was a mall just across the street that we could walk through and come out right across from the lake where the show was and it worked out quite well.

Here is the group one of the nights we went to see the show. Mom, Megan, Charisse, Harper, Brandon, Ben, Carli, and Brooke in the stroller. Kate waiting for the show to start and Harper in the foreground.
Grandma and KateCharisse, Harper, Kate, and BrandonHarper, Thayne, and Kailee--what a darling family! They now have sweet little Beck in their family as well. Here is part of the show. It was so neat!Here's my handsome Brandon. What a cutie!Another view of the show.After the show ended we headed into the hotel to see the gardens which are so neat!
Charisse, Kate, Carli, Kailee, Thayne, Harper (in stroller), Ben, me (shocking--I'm in a picture!), Megan, Brandon, and Brooke (again, in the stroller)Carli, Brandon, and Ben having fun with the shooting water in the garden.Carli was fascinated with this awesome fountain of chocolate in the hotel--that's my girl! You can also see Kate in the background with her hands up on the glass. LOL!One day we went to a new outdoor mall that had this fun water fountain park, a playground, and little hedge maze. It was crazy hot so the kids enjoyed the water. Here's Carli enjoying the fountains.Harper wasn't so sure about the water in the beginning. What a cutie!Megan in the playhouse.

Kate and Carli

Brandon in his shades and Carli on the left. He wasn't into running through the water. I guess he's growing up?

We had fun in Vegas, but we won't be going back there anytime soon for vacation. It was hard to find things for the kids to do. We really enjoyed just being with family and hanging out together. We watched a lot of moves and played games and ate yummy food. Ben and I got to go see Blue Man Group and we really enjoyed the show! It was pretty funny and there were a lot of fun stunts.

After Vegas we headed back to Cedar City for a couple days and then started our trek home. We headed to the Phoenix area to see some good friends and Ben's brother, James, and his family. James and Lybi were expecting a baby girl any day and we were hoping she would be there by the time we got there, but no luck. Oh well--we were so happy to see you anyway!

We finally arrived home in TX and were happy that Ben got to stay home from work for another 2 weeks (awesome 4 week paid paternity leave!!!) so we got to hang out as a family, swim, and just enjoyed being together.

Carli Goes to Preschool

2009-09-01T09:36:00.005-05:00

Carli was so excited to go to her first day of preschool today! It's not even a major thing, just 3 of us moms from church rotating taking the kids once a week and doing some little activities, games, and such. It's awesome! Today was her first day and here she is all rarin' to go:

First Day of School

2009-08-31T14:06:00.005-05:00

Ok, so I still haven't finished blogging about our summer adventures, but school has started and I'm already a week behind getting their pictures up of the first day. My mom has been waiting for this post so finally, it is here!

Our day started pretty early for Brandon who had to catch the bus at 6:45! He was running a tad behind so this was the only picture I was able to snap of my big 5th grader. I can't believe how grown up he is getting. He was so excited to be riding the bus this year. Everything seems to be going very well for him so far!

Almost 45 minutes later it's time to get the girls off. Megan is now in 2nd grade and Kate is in 4th. Of course, Carli had to be in the pictures, too. Don't they all look cute?! Brooke was still fast asleep.Yeah, Kate's feeling pretty grown up. :)Megan is thrilled to be in 2nd grade. They spotted their friend, Kailee, getting ready to head to school, too. They had to run over for a quick hug.Here's what Carli, Brooke, and I did after we dropped the girls off at school. It was a pretty nice morning so we went to the playground! Here is Brooke's first swinging experience. More pics to come from this, but she loved it!!!

Trip--Cedar City Backyard "Fun"

2009-08-17T11:59:00.005-05:00

This is my brother's dog, Lovie. A darling, hyper little beagle the kids love, especially the girls. As soon as we walk into Grandpa and Grandma's house they want to go see Lovie and she is always super excited to see them! The girls love to go out in the backyard to play with her. Brandon could care less, really, but the girls are almost obsessed. It's probably because we do not have a dog and they would LOVE to have one--however, that is not about to happen in any reality I know.

Kate and Megan petting Lovie

A closer look at Lovie. She sure is cute! That little blondie is my cousin's son, Dawson. He and his sister, Addison, are great little friends for my girls while we are in Cedar City. They love to play together as much as possible since they only see each other 1, maybe 2 times a year.

You can see a little more of my parents' yard in this picture. It is gorgeous! That's the reason they fell in love with this house--it was the yard, not the house (although it's very nice, too!). They have fruit trees, roses, tons of flowers, bushes, a garden, a big deck, and this beautiful centerpiece of rocks and flowers in the middle of the grass. It is a magnet for my children. It's their own personal castle. Two days after we arrived in Cedar, late Monday night when everyone was getting ready for bed and "settling" down, my girls noticed the sprinklers were on the backyard. What is more tempting than running through sprinklers?! What fun, they thought, it would be to go out and run around in them. I didn't think anything of it, of course. I was distracted by something--have no clue what I was doing at the time--but then we all hear this blood curdling screaming and yelling.

I think I was in my mom and dad's room on the computer or something because I remember running out into the family room and seeing Kate hysterical walking Carli into the house and yelling, "Carli is bleeding all over her head and face" (or something to that horrible effect). Hysteria sets in a little on my part. Yes, Carli had blood running down her face, her nose was bleeding, and my mom was holding her head. Ugh... Turns out there was a nice little gash on her forehead about an inch long, bleeding quite a bit. We debated for a few seconds wether to take her in or not, but we decided we better since her nose was bleeding, too. Carli was pretty freaked out at this point.

Ben and I jumped in the car with her and drove down the hill to the urgent care place. We didn't know if they would send us to the hospital or not, but we tried anyway. They would have taken her, but they had just gotten another laceration and said it would be a while before they could see her so we jumped back in the car and drove out to the ER.

We got right into the ER (9:30 at night and no one waiting) and they saw her pretty quickly. It was a good little gash, but not too big. Carli was settled down by now doing fine. Her nose had stopped bleeding and she had not lost conciousness or anything. They said she would need a couple stitches so we started the process. Putting the medicine on it was the beginning of the crying and screaming. She didn't want anyone to touch it. And then when the doctor came in to numb it completely with the needle she really lost it. It took 3 of us to hold her down--the nurse had Carli's head, Ben had her arms and top of her body, and I held down her legs while the doctor numbed it and put the stitches in. It was over before we knew it and we were back home to my parents' house within an house. It was quite a fuss for 2 little stitches, but we're glad we took her in. There is just a small red line there now. It has healed perfectly. When we got home the kids had been quite worried about their little sister. It was very sweet. Kate and Megan had made little pictures/cards for her and put them by her bed along with a balloon they found.

You can see the huge bandaid on her forehead in this picture: Here's a closer look. I didn't get any pictures of it before we covered it up.Perfectly happy 3 yr old playing at the park!

There's a great park down the street from my parents' house that the kids love to play at. Here are my girls with Addison (in the striped sweater)--yes, it's June and they are wearing sweaters and jackets. It was heavenly weather!

Silly faces!

Getting pushed by daddy on the tire swing is a huge favorite!Kate the monkey-girl

A Push Pop

2009-08-15T22:21:00.005-05:00

I remember loving them as a kid. My kids love them, too. However, as a mother I don't really think they are the best things in the world. The kids just push the ice cream all over and make a mess! LOL! A yummy mess, but a mess. :) Here's Carli enjoying hers at the pool.

Trip--Cedar City

2009-08-13T09:06:00.005-05:00

After our week at Snowbird we headed south to spend time with my parents in Cedar City. I love that town. :) We had a nice relaxing week there. We took the kids down to a fun pool in Washington (just north of St. George) and everyone had a really great time. We have made it a yearly activity and the kids just love it.

Here's my handsome man, Brandon, taking a break Kate and Carli in the whirlpool area that went outside the building. The rest of the splash park and pool were under a roof so it was really nice not being in the sun the entire time.
Megan and Kate cheesing it up for the camera.

Carli didn't start out very well, though. She just sat and cried...not sure why

But then she got into it and had a blast!

She really did have fun!

It was Brooke's first pool experience! She seemed to enjoy the water. She really loves it now that we've been to our pool several times.Cutest little grin ever!Daddy and BrookeShe wasn't too sure about the baby swingsMe and Brooke

Brooke taking a break with Grandma

Daddy's turn My boys and their goggles

By the end they were tuckered out! This is Carli we found huddled under her towel.Brooke was out as well.

What a totally fun place and we can't wait to go again next time we are there!

More Snowbird (I think the last)

2009-08-05T23:01:00.004-05:00

There is a really fun playground near our lodge up at Snowbird that the kids really enjoy. This year the weather was pretty chilly and rainy so we only made it down there a couple of times. Here are a few pics.

These swings are the big attraction. All the kids love taking their turn in one. Here's Kate!Brandon and Michael trying to pull each other along.Megan didn't last very long. She got cold quickly (I did tell her to put pants on...)Carli's hair always stands on end with the static from the swing. To funny!Brooke and her always pleasant self. So sweet!

Trip Part 5

2009-08-05T22:04:00.005-05:00

I blogged about Megan's birthday a bit, but I found some more cute pictures from that day. She has spent a couple birthdays up at Snowbird and she enjoys being able to celebrate with family since that doesn't happen often with everyone else's birthdays.

Birthday breakfast--she requested cinnamon rolls and oj (next time I may try my hand at homemade since the ones from the can don't cut it for me)She spent time playing with Brooke, one of her favorite things to do. She wanted matching bows.She spent some time swimming in the hot tub.Papa's birthday is the next day so they usually celebrate together. Here are the birthday "kids" enjoying the spoils of the day.

There is a fun playground up near the lodge that we can walk down to. The kids always enjoy hiking down to it and playing for a while. The weather was pretty hit or miss the week we were they this year and it was pretty chilly and rainy so I think we only made it down once or twice.

6 Months!

2009-08-02T22:00:00.006-05:00

It has been such a wonderful 6 months with this sweet spirit Heavenly Father has sent to be in our family. What a ray of sunshine full of smiles and curiosity, gorgeous blue eyes, peachy skin, and beautiful strawberry hair! Brooke is 6 months old! Before I know it she will be running around and getting into everything.

Time is going to fast with this special little person. I'm trying to enjoy every minute. I wish I could just hold her and play with her all the time. I feel guilty every time I have to plunk her into a baby chair of some kind while I get something done. She is such a patient soul. She puts up with just about anything.

She has 1 tooth and another right behind it. She has tried rice cereal and a little banana. She is so excited about food. It's too cute! She's still learning how to eat it, though. She can sit by herself for a short while and then topples over. She really tries to move around while she's on her tummy. She can roll all over the place and really gets those chubby legs of hers going trying to go somewhere. She is just such a doll and such a joy!

Get a load of this yumminess:

She got bored with this photo shoot very quickly. lol

Then she was completely done!I'm going to try some more pictures this week while my mom is here. Can't wait for her visit!!!

Trip Part 4--Lagoon

2009-07-28T00:19:00.006-05:00

The kids were so excited to go back to Lagoon this year. We went last year with my family and they talked about it all year long so we were glad to take them again. It was threatening rain, but thankfully, it stayed away...at least until the drive home when we got caught in major thunder, lightening, and hail. Fun...anyway, back to Lagoon.

We split up into groups with older, roller-coaster-riding kids/parents, and the younger kiddos with the non-roller-coaster-riding moms/NaNa. :) Megan was excited toward the end of the day to see if she was tall enough for this monster:

The Wicked

Here is Daddy and his girls walking toward The Wicked. I had followed along to see the height requirement in case Megan wasn't tall enough and I had to take her back with me. Well, she made it and was THRILLED! No way was I getting on that thing so I left them there to stand in line forever. Megan loved it. What is it with my girls--sweet, gentle, quiet, happy things that they are (of course, all of you who know my girls are rolling your eyes and laughing right now). :)
Me and Brooke hanging out with our friends Vicki and Cindy. Ben knows these beautiful ladies from growing up in Michigan. Carli and Megan. I have the most pictures of them because I was with them all day. They had such a blast on all the little kid rides.

My favorite shot of the day

Megan and Carli

Bumper cars--Kate, Brandon Carli, Megan (left to right)

Kate smiling and Megan bumping into her.Cindy and her kiddos taking a breather.

Brooke was soooo good all day. She is such a doll!

One of my only pictures of Brandon.

Brandon, Ben, Carli, and NaNa.

Trip-Part 3 Swimming

2009-07-20T20:29:00.005-05:00

The Cliff Lodge at Snowbird has a fabulous outdoor pool with beautiful views. We only went once or twice, though, because it was still pretty cold up there! The kids spent most of their time in the hot tub. Here are some fun photos from our swimming trip.

Brandon and his buddy, Michael, who stayed the week at Snowbird, too.
Megan's toothless grin. I love the messy swimming hair, too. :)

She had fun playing with her crocs in the hot tub. The water would just pour out of the holes. Quite entertaining. ;)

I think this photo is so fun with Kate's legs and arms all askew from the water. Isn't that cool?!

Kate in her goggles enjoying the hot tub

Look at this handsome guy!

Look at that dimple! :) Another of my handsome man, Brandon, one of the only pictures he would give me a smile in.

Here's his pouty face. I told him and Michael we weren't going to the game arcade room that day. Stinker.

Kate and Amy (Michael's sister) having a blast in the pool! Silly girls!

I don't think Carli went with us that day because there are no pictures of her! I think she was smart and stayed in the warm room rather than venture to the chilly pool!

Trip Part 2-Snowbird

2009-07-13T17:15:00.004-05:00

Saturday evening we arrived up at Snowbird and Ben's parents arrived a little later. It was wonderful to see them! They live in North Carolina so we only get to see them a couple times a year. They are great and we love being around them! Here's what the kids did when we got there:This hot tub is their favorite part of the lodge. It is right outside the door on the balcony of the room. Isn't that great?! So, every time the kids want to hop in they can just open the door and get in. Makes it so easy for us.Brooke just enjoyed being thereMonday we headed down to Salt Lake City. We stopped first at the little log cabin right outside the Church History museum. Here is NaNa (Ben's mom) with Kate, Megan, Carli, and Brandon trying to jump out of the way before I take the picture. Sorry Bud, too slow!Beautiful flowers outside the cabinNaNa and Brooke in the interactive children's areaCarli taking care of her "baby" in the interactive area. This place was really fun. There were all kinds of activities for the kids to do. Since the Primary theme this year is "My Eternal Family" they had lots of displays and activities that had to do with families.Kate helping Brooke touch President Hinckley's walnut treeI thought this pioneer blessing dress was so precious!Then we headed over to Temple Square. There is little in this world that can stand up to the beauty of one of the Lord's temples. We stopped in the Tabernacle for a quick peek. It still amazes me how the pioneers made such a beautiful building without all the tools we have today. These pipes are so inspiring.Brandon with PaPa in the TabernacleTime to stop for a quick snack. We had some dear family friends staying with us at Snowbird as well and a couple of the kiddos are in the picture with my kids.

Brandon, Adam, Kate, Carli, Megan, AmyNext stop was the visitor's center.

Ben, Carli, Brandon, Kate, Adam, Megan, NaNa, Amy, PaPa, BrookeIt all started with me and BenAnd this is the result! What a crazy beautiful family. ;) I have pictures of the growth of our family in front of the Christus from the time we were engaged. I will find them all sometime and post them. Don't hold your breath...it won't be anytime soon. :)A quick photo op in front of the fountain.

Amy, megan, Kate, Brooke, Adam, Carli, NaNaWe walked around the grounds of the temple over to the reflecting pool. This shot of Megan with PaPa is so precious to me. She loves to snuggle and PaPa is such a sweet man. This one needs to be framed. :)Kate saw some other kids pretenting to "swim" in the pond. Here's her interpretation. lol! She's so fun and imaginative.One last shot of the temple! Can you find the bird? (hee, hee...)

Trip Part 1--Arizona

2009-07-11T13:42:00.006-05:00

On our way to Utah this year we took a little detour through Mesa, AZ, where Ben's twin brother and his family live. We had a great time with them! They have 3 boys and just added a sweet baby girl to the family last week. Unfortunately, she waited to be born until after our visit, but that's ok. We loved seeing James, Lybi, Sam, Joey, and Adam.

Here are Brandon and Sam playing video games

Here's our attempt at getting a picture of all the grandkids together. Brooke was sleeping so she's not in the photo and we're also missing another important cousin, Ryan (who lives in NC), and the newest addition, Danielle. These were their funny faces.

Brandon, Kate, Carli, Megan, Joey, Sam, Adam

These were smiley faces, more or less. Megan was not happy about taking pictures, the stinker.
Here's Kate munching an apple. I love the one eye open, one eye closed in this one.Kate and Carli. They seem to look the most alike of all the kids.

After Arizona we headed up to UT. We stopped in for a BBQ with some old friends from Ohio that I grew up with who live just north of Pheonix and had a great time with them. We left a little later than we anticipated and still had a 7-8 hour trip up to Cedar City, UT, to spend the night at my parents' house. Ben thought maybe we should go around Cedar mountain so we wouldn't run into any deer, but I figured since it was the middle of the night deer wouldn't be a problem. Don't they say the biggest danger is at dusk and dawn? Well, I was sorely mistaken as we saw more deer than we cared to that night. As soon as we hit the canyon road there was a large group of deer just hanging out on the side of the road, one or two walking across at the time. We hit the brakes and at 2 am it sure woke us up as we were both quite tired. We were on the alert the rest of the hour drive over the mountain. We saw at least 20 deer that night, but we were surely protected by our Heavenly Father and not one deer made the mad dash into our van. They were docile and still, barely turning their heads as we passed by. Blessings in disguise as the deer kept us awake on that twisty canyon road.

We did finally pull into Cedar City at 3 am and thankfully had lovely beds to rest our heads. That afternoon we headed up to Snowbird to meet Ben's parents up at Snowbird. Next post!

Megan turned 7

2009-07-05T22:54:00.003-05:00

While we were on vacation Megan had her 7th birthday. I'll post more about her birthday later, but here she is! (lots of posts today--keep scrolling down!)