Take me to Hawaii

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T16:52:00.012-05:00

Wow. No, not going to give excuses...

Halloween was great this year! We decorated cookies, carved pumpkins, visited a pumpkin patch, got dressed up and went trick-or-treatin'! Fun was had by all, I'm sure! :)

Kate and her friend, Sam

Megan, the little angel

Brooke and Megan waiting to Trunk-or-Treat!

Carli and her bff were both Tinkerbell--of course, Carli won't look at me when I take her pictureMy friend, Janna, got this shot and shared it with me! Thanks, Janna! :)Carli and her crazy posespose...again...and again ;)ready to go!still waiting...lolKate took Brooke around since I had to man the handing out of the candyThe loot! Kate was Alice in Wonderland (the "real people" version)Megan and her lootBrooke dug right in!Love that face!getting tired :)Brandon was a black ninja guyKate and Brookie both as Alice! Fun!

Kate's is in the middle and I think all the girls helped with the little ones

pumpkins...Carli carved the one of the left all by herself (mostly) and I did the one on the right. Don't remember who carved the middle one...maybe Megan

More Christmas Vacation

2011-01-20T23:34:00.003-06:00

Well, I'm still not to the actual Christmas pictures, but these are more from our vacation to Utah over Christmas break.

My Dad loves his new hat he got for Christmas. My adorable nephew, Beck, wasn't so sure about it. I LOVE the look on his face in this shot!Isn't he soooo cute?!
Beck and Grandpa This is our attempt to get a shot with all the grandkids (8 of them, #9 expected to arrive in May from Spencer and Missy, their 1st!) Well, at least you can see them all...mostly. ;)

My Grandma Morris made these adorable bear treats for all the kids. I thought they were so cute!!!

Megan thought they were adorable, too! Btw, yes, she now has braces, too! She got them on in October, just before Halloween so now we have 2 girls with the expander and braces.

I took these shots of Brooke because I thought it was funny and cute that the yogurt was dripping down her chin. The life of an almost 2 yr old!How much cuter can it get?!

Megan

2011-01-14T16:56:00.004-06:00

Light from windows is lucious. Megan in her pretty white snow clothes in the window light is even better. What a character Megan is. I love her to death.

Carli's pink hat

2011-01-14T16:51:00.004-06:00

I love this little hat. I think it's so cute and a great color. Carli makes it look even better--she's pretty cute herself. ;)

Here she is eating her snack, but has the hat on so she can go play out in the snow as soon as she's finished eating.Another silly camera pose. She tries a little too hard, but it makes for some hilarious pics. lol!Finally mad it outside and is throwing the snow just like her sisters did earlier.Lovie (the dog) getting into the action

Sledding

2011-01-14T16:41:00.006-06:00

We were able to go sledding once it finally snowed in Cedar City! The kids were ecstatic to get on the hill--one downfall--it was only 15 degrees. Yikes!!! It was sooooo cold, but that didn't stop them, of course. They had a great time!

(left to right) Megan, Kate, Brandon, Hannah (friend from down the street)
(the kid way in the back is not mine)
Look at Carli's snowsuit--what era does that take you back to? It kept her warm, though!

Kate and Brooke getting ready!

Brandon is set to go!

Carli again

There she goes!

Kate and Brooke--she adores her big sisters and they are such a big help!

Snow!

2011-01-11T16:21:00.004-06:00

I have yet to blog about Halloween and many happenings from 2010, but I'm going to start here, after Christmas, with the snow we got while we were in Cedar City at my parents' house. It was not a white Christmas, but that was perfectly fine. A few days later we got the snowstorm we were waiting for!!! The kids were thrilled! Brooke loved playing in her first big snow. Here she is in my favorite little coat of hers. :)

Here are her monkey mittens she got for Christmas. Aren't they darling? However, the dog loved them, too, and every time she walked out the door Lovie would come steal one off her hand and run off!Hence, this picture with the older girls dragging Lovie off to the "cage" at the back of the yard (just a fenced in area where she can still run around, but is out of reach of the kids. Now the mittens are safe! Megan thought it would be fun to throw snow in the air. She had a good time doing this and did it over and over again. Makes for a cool picture! She has her hand full of snow ready to throw...ready, set,

throw!!!

Kate and her snow--I think it was supposed to be a shape, but I can't remember what (a dog, maybe?) Happy Kate!

Brooke, Kate, cousin Shelby, MeganBrooke--I think she was getting cold!Kate throwing her snow--you can see Brooke starting to do this, too--"monkey see, monkey do"

Closer up of Brooke throwing the snow. Enjoying it you think? Eh, not so much!

Stay tuned for more about our Christmas vacation!

Carli is 4 and playing in the rain!

2010-09-08T09:50:00.004-05:00

Tropical storm Hermine is hitting us hard! It has been raining since yesterday with no end in sight! My girls absolutely love playing out in the rain so while the big kids were at school yesterday the little girls went out to play. :) I never have taken good shots of Carli this year so I tried to get some of her with her gorgeous curls from the rain. Here are the ones of her and then some from the rain dancing!

Carli turned 4 this year (ok, in January, but it was still this year!)

She loves the rain!

Silly face...

Weird pose...she doesn't just "stop and smile."

Another weird pose

Brooke dancing in the rain!

She LOVES being outside in the puddles!

4 Eagle Ranch

2010-09-04T20:44:00.008-05:00

We spent a week in Vail, CO, with my family in August. What an awesome place! We had such a great time doing all kinds of activities. I'm just starting to sift through all my pictures so there will be more posts on Colorado, but to start off with here are the pictures from our evening at 4 Eagle Rach.

The ranch is about 25 minutes from Vail nestled back in the mountains away from the freeway and all the hustle and bustle. What a fabulous fun place! Wednesday nights are their "Western Family night." Here is 1 view of the rach. These were all the buildings. Right at the entrance was this cool metal horse that all the kids could fit on! The littl red headed boy sitting with Kate is my nephew, Harper.

Megan, Brooke, Harper, Kate, Brandon, Carli--what a troop of kids!

They had a fun, very primitive, playground for the kids. The seesaw was a hit. Here's Kate taking a little break on it. Carli is on the other end.

Carli going down the slide

There were also gorgeous horses on the ranch. We decided to take a ride. :)Kate, Megan, and I went on a half hour ride up into the hills around the ranch. It was really great. The scenery was really gorgeous.There were unlimited hay rides. We went on them many, many, many times. :)Kate and Megan get up close to the horses pulling the wagon. They were big!Here are the two clowns on the hay ride. :) Megan loves to make silly faces for the camera lately. Kate had a really rough time with the dry weather. She couldn't stop licking her lips. She looked like this for a couple weeks. It was pretty bad.Megan and the scenery

Carli got to go on a pony ride! She loved it!

Carli and Harper on their poniesThey had the yummiest grilled corn for us to eat all night long. It was soooo good! The kids all had more than 1--so did I. :) Looks like Carli is licking this one. lol!Carli helping Brooke eat some corn. Brooke loved it, too!

A close up of the corn eating. Couldn't resist a picture of those adorable lips!They had a guy singing for the kids and they could play with these instruments on the blanket while he was doing his songs. There were tons of kids all the over the blanket at the beginning. Brooke stayed there for quite a while with Grandma and eventually she got her turn with the instruments.She loved the tamborines!

During dinner there was live music in the other room and we could here it in the room that we were in. Here are Harper and Brooke dancing together! It was the most precious thing!!! Brooke loved it!Harper was having fun, too, until he realized that Brooke's hands were sticky and here he is wiping them on his jacket. :) Look at Brooke's face! She loved her cousin dancing with her!

The kids loved roasting marshmallows around the fire. They were sure yummy! Brandon and Megan are both in this shot.Brandon inspecting his marshmallow.Done!Kate's turn

Brandon found a couple boys to hang out with. The driver of this wagon let them ride with him several times.

This was a really great place. We were there for 4 hours and we only left because we couldn't see where the kids were running off to anymore! They never got tired or bored while we were there. They still talk about our evening at the ranch. Next time we go up to Colorado we will most definitely go there again!

Random Stuff

2010-08-29T22:42:00.004-05:00

August has been a busy month at our house! Here are a few things that have happened:

The girls had a pretend tea party in the kitchen.Brooke "eating" her water at the pretend tea party Carli had some dental work done at the hospital. She is not tolerant of the dentist doing work in his office so we had to take drastic measures. She did great, but it was a rough time for her. Here she is all snug in the wagon going back to the car after her procedure. Her dentist was so sweet and brought her a cute stuffed animal for her to snuggle with.

Carli and her great little friend had a blast dressing up when she came to play the day after Carli's hospital experience. They put on a great show dancing to the "Enchanted" soundtrack. Aren't they adorable?!

Brandon is playing percussion this year in 6th grade. He loves it! He received his supplies at band camp and went to town practicing!

I'm slowly working my way through my hundreds of photos from our summer. Hope to have some more posted soon!

First Day of School!

2010-08-23T10:59:00.005-05:00

Brandon and Kate eating their breakfast. They are about ready to head out to catch the bus!

Kate is starting 5th grade. I can't believe how grown up she is! Holding up her "5." Such a cutie!

Brandon starts 6th grade today. Here he is, silly as ever. ;) Handsome guy, too!

The big intermediate schoolers
Megan is a big 3rd grader today! Wow! I thought she looked so beautiful in her new dress.Holding up her big "3"Now I am back to having 2 little ones at home. Carli will start preschool in a few weeks, but for now it's just me and my babies. :)

Wow...

2010-08-19T01:00:00.002-05:00

You'd think I'd have tons of time over the summer to blog...guess not. I have sooooooo many photos to go through and I hate blogging about things with the pictures to go with it! The kiddos are back in school next week and I'll only have the two little ones home so that means I should have lots of time, right? :) Ha! I will try, though.

We had a fabulous summer and there's so much to blog about--Disneyworld, Megan's baptism, visits from grandparents, Utah, Colorado, fun with friends, and I didn't even blog about the end of school last spring so I have lots of catching up to do. Wish me luck!!!

Camp Grady Spruce

2010-05-31T13:23:00.005-05:00

Kate had the opportunity to go to 4th grade camp a couple weeks ago with all of the other 4th graders at her elementary school. Brandon went last year and had a blast so Kate has been looking forward to it all year long. We packed all her gear, clothes, and bedding and she was off! Here she is with Megan, Carli, and our neighbor, Kailee, who we take to school with us.

Weird picture of me with her, Brooke, and Carli. Sheesh, I look awful.Kate and her friend, Gabby
Goodbye hug from DaddyKate and some girls in her class. Emily, on the far left, is one of her bffs.It was a quiet week without Kate around. We missed her gorgeous smile and contageous laugh, but I do have to admit there was quite a bit less arguing and fighting that week. ;)

Friday afternoon it was time to pick her up! We made little signs to welcome her home.Megan and her sign . She was very proud of it. :) She did a great job.
Carli and "my"/her signHere come the buses!and she was home!Happy sisters...

She had an awesome time. She learned a ton, had a ton of fun, ate a ton of food, and missed home a ton, too. ;) She rode a horse named "Charlie." She had been looking forward to the horseback riding the most. She can't wait to ride again! I believe it was as fun and successful week for Kate and she will always remember her week at Camp Grady Spruce.

The next Monday she got her braces on and her expander in...another adventure begins! Post coming soon...

Photo of the Day

2010-05-28T12:23:00.002-05:00

I need to try to post at least a photo a day so I don't stay so far behind on posting. We had fun outside last night and Brooke had a blast playing with the neighbor's dog. Here's an image I caught that was perfect for how she felt. She LOVED being so close to this sweet dog!

Budding Artist

2010-05-17T11:40:00.003-05:00

We were so excited to learn that Megan had a painting put in the Keller ISD art show! I just love her painting and am so proud of her! She was thrilled, too! She is growing into such a beautiful and talented young lady. She is finishing 2nd grade and can't wait to be in 3rd next fall. She is looking forward to her 8th birthday next month and will be baptized in July, which is something she has been looking forward to for so long!

Sand Fun

2010-04-16T23:38:00.002-05:00

Some friends from church gave us a cute little sandbox last fall and we finally got sand for it sevearl weeks ago. It is now one of Brooke's favorite places to be. Unfortunately, she wants to eat it, but she does also play with it. Here are Kate and Carli "helping" Brooke have fun.

Kate decided she should bury her baby sister in the sand...Getting her out of the sand hill. I think a little got on her mouth and she was not liking it (it's only lately she wants to eat the nasty stuff).
"Is this fun, Mom?"

Say "Cheese" and maybe open your eyes next time.

Puddle Fun

2010-04-15T13:58:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago we had some pretty good rain go through our area. My girls love to go play in the puddles after a rainstorm. Most importantly--to them, anyway--they love to go hunt for worms. Yuck! Where did these girls come from? ;) I might as well have a bunch of boys...lol

Here are the girls worm huntingMegan find
Kate is proud of her really long one she found

These are the adorable boots on the feet of our adorable little neighbor girl who is just older than Brooke. Aren't they cute?!

Carli--what a face

Carli again--don't know what she was doing, dancing or something

Brooke had a BLAST in the puddles. She ended up soaking wet and still didn't want to go inside!

Whoa

2010-04-05T21:40:00.001-05:00

Hold on to your hats--I just posted 3 times in one night! Yes, that's right. So scroll down and see all our Easter happenings. Tomorrow I'll post our egg hunt pics! Enjoy!

Easter Breakfast

2010-04-05T21:32:00.004-05:00

This year we made a yummy quiche for Easter breakfast. We have made it a couple times before and it is a favorite! Here are the kids patiently waiting for it to be done.

And here is the finished product!!! SO Yummy. If you MUST try it because your mouth is watering you must go here and try it out. You will not be sorry! ;) Courtesy of Paula Deen so you KNOW it is good.

We have tried this quiche with bacon, sausage or ham so just throw in what you have in the fridge.

For Easter dinner between sessions of conference we had some friends over form church for a potluck. All the food was so yummy--especially all the scrumptious desserts! Seriously, it was all so good. Unfortunately, I didn't take one single picture of dinner at all (or the people there)--whoops! I was too busy eating and enjoying the company of great friends. ;)

Eggs

2010-04-05T21:27:00.002-05:00

The kids love to color eggs every year. This year we were a little late getting to it (Sunday night), but we still got it done. :)

Megan was proud of this egg in particular because it was a little speckled and she worked hard getting the colors just right.

Kate mixed her colors a lot.

These are Carli's eggs
Carli worked very hard to get her eggs just right. :)

Brandon watching his egg

Easter

2010-04-05T19:41:00.005-05:00

We had a lovely Easter weekend. The kids get some candy and a book in the baskets. This year they also got flip flops to wear to the pool this year.

Megan Instead of a book this year, Kate got a 3-D puzzle
Carli is into weird faces when I take her picture lately. A little disturbing, but still cute, I suppose. Here she is with her basket.

Another weird look for the camera. Hmmm...

Brooke was loving her soft and fuzzy Easter lamb! She has remnants of a chocolate egg running down her chin, too.

She loved all the chocolate!

Taking a little break to snuggle her blankie and suck her thumb for a minute. So sweet. :)

Brandon trying to open an egg.

Today I watched "The Testaments" and enjoyed watching the account of the Savior and the people in the Americas at the time of his death and resurrection. What an amazing gift our Savior gave us. Because he suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, because he died for us, because he rose again from the tomb, we know that we can return to live with him and our Father in Heaven after we die. I am so grateful for this knowledge and for my membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Tubby Time

2010-04-03T19:26:00.003-05:00

Brooke turned 1

2010-04-01T20:59:00.007-05:00

Yes, way back on February 1, 2010, Brooke celebrated her first birthday! I'm just a little late blogging about it. ;) Here are the pics from the day.

Doesn't she just have the most perfect little features? People always comment on how happy she always is. It's true. She's such a joyful little girl and always has a smile for you. Of course, she does have her moments...still adorable, though. ;)One of her birthday cards had money in it (from her wonderful great grandparents!) and she was pretty fascinated by it.New tub toysHer birthday dinner was spaghetti with white sauce (that's what the kids all call it--it's angel hair with alfredo sauce topped with broccoli and chicken). She LOVES spaghetti and enjoyed her dinner very much. This is Kate feeding her.Waiting to have cake (we waited for Daddy to get home from work). It was about 8:30 before this poor little girl got to eat her cake! She was a trooper, though.The cakes. I found the small one at Wal-Mart on sale and it was ugly green and orange something so I scraped all the gross frosting off and made my own to cover it up. I also made a regular layered cake for the rest of the fam to eat.She was not sure what to think of the lit candle.Hmm, what is this?Yum...it's really good...Yay! I get to eat it!I'm just going to go for it!This is great!Time for a little break in the sugar fun. She sure loves her thumb! Brooke is our only thumb sucker of the bunch.Big brother and baby sister--oldest and youngest.Getting kind of messy...All done. What a great birthday! Clean up time. :)

Brooke is such a special little girl. She attracts smiles wherever she goes and gives them willingly as well. She started walking right on her birthday by taking several steps and really got going a couple weeks later and now I can't get her to stop! She loves to eat and loves stuffed animals and soft blankets. Brandon loves to give her something soft and watch her bury her face in it. She does it every time! We all love her so much and are so grateful we have this sweet little red head in our family!

BYU Game

2010-03-13T23:01:00.003-06:00

Ben and I got a babysitter last week and went out on a date! Well, sort of. :) We took this cutie with us and went to the BYU vs. TCU men's basketball game last Saturday. It was lots of fun and the Cougs pulled off a great win. Here is the scoreboard with 4 minutes to go.

Ben got a great shot of this dunk.

I had Ben take a picture of me with Brooke. Shocking! Of course, I hate this one of me, but Brooke is always cute!

The TCU mascot had some pretty great moves!

The Cougars during a time out

These boys behind us were too cute! They had BYU painted on their faces, too, in white.

My dates for the evening. We had a great time!

Brooke was adorable through the whole game. She was so good! After the game we went to dinner with some friends from church. Then we went home and found the house quiet and full of sleeping children!

Valentine Treat

2010-02-14T22:32:00.003-06:00

My parents sent a box full of fun Valentine treats for our family. Each of the kids got a little Valentine tin with a cookie inside and a Valentine card attached. They were so excited! Brooke couldn't wait to eat hers: :)

Yum...yum...yum... Goin' to town on the cookie...love the lips

We love you, Brookie! You make us smile every day. What a sweet Valentine you are.

So behind

2010-02-13T22:13:00.008-06:00

Well, I haven't posted for 3 weeks and I'm so behind! Brooke turned 1 and I have many pictures to share from that day, but first I've got our SNOW pictures ready to post.

We got 12" of snow on Thursday! That was the most snow we've ever gotten around here at one time. It just kept coming! It was so beautiful and such a fun thing to watch it all come down on our normall brown and green Texas landscape. The girls had a blast playing outside in it. Brandon is more like me--he'd rather stay inside and stay warm and dry. :)

The kids got out of school early Thursday and got to stay home Friday. It truly was a snow day! It's melting quickly, but it was fun while it lasted!

Our Texas snow boots

Brooke LOVED the snow!

Here she is sneaking outside

This was her amazed look when I first opened the door and let her see it all.

All smiles!

She enjoyed watching from the inside, too.

Carli enjoying the fluffy white stuff--yes, she is wearing a skirt (that's my girl!)

Beautiful snow princess!

Had to snap this one...

Kate's hunk of snow

Kate and her snowball

Megan had a blast

Megan making a snow angel

...and trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue

Whew!

2010-01-24T21:42:00.002-06:00

I got through today. :) I made it through my talk in sacrament meeting and I think it went all right. I learned a lot, anyway. I hope someone else got something from it as well.

I finished all the scripture journals for the primary kids (63 of them) and I was so relieved! Sharing time was great and easy.

Then we ran home, make some frozen pizza and got everyone fed and everything cleaned up for the Great To Be 8 program we had here at our house tonight. It was pretty quick and painless as well.

I'm excited everything went off pretty much without a hitch. I only had a teeny tiny meltdown last night trying to make sure I was ready for everything going on today.

Now...I'm going to do nothing...for a few minutes anyway. ;) I have lots of pictures to post this week so hopefully I'll get caught up soon!

Today I am grateful:

1. That my talk is over
2. For yummy warm brownies (my fave!)
3. Sitting on the couch and relaxing for a few minutes

Day 14

2010-01-23T22:18:00.003-06:00

Well, it has been 2 weeks. Tomorrow is the day I will speak in sacrament meeting on Gratitude. I will post how it goes--maybe. :)

Today I am thankful for:

1. Getting my project finished for sharing time! I made scripture journal for each fo the primary kids. I made 63 of them. Phew!
2. Having a successful birthdya party for Carli--simple and fun. The kids all had a blast.
3. I am just glad it is Saturday night! Monday I can finally pay attention to my house again. :)

Day 13

2010-01-22T23:53:00.002-06:00

Today I am thankful for:

1. My talents--the fact that I actually picked up a paint brush to paint a picture, not a wall (even though it was just a butterfly for a party game)
2. Finding out my sister and her husband are going to have a healthy baby boy!
3. For the best husband in the world (who mopped the floors for me this morning)

Day 12

2010-01-22T10:41:00.002-06:00

I'm a day late for yesterday's post, but here it is:

Today I am thankful for:

1. My sweet Brandon, who I have learned so much from
2. A nice soft, warm bed to sleep in when I am exhausted
3. Unexpected packages on my doorstep

Day 11

2010-01-21T06:43:00.001-06:00

Today I am thankful for:

1. A living prophet
2. The internet (what a great resource when used correctly!)
3. Mexican food

Day 10

2010-01-19T20:16:00.001-06:00

Today I am thankful for:

1. Warmth!
2. Late night chick flicks with friends
3. The talents my children have

Day 9

2010-01-18T21:20:00.003-06:00

Today I am thankful for:

1. Afternoons at the park with friends
2. Hugs from my kids
3. The time I have with Brandon reading together before he goes to bed

Day 8

2010-01-18T09:27:00.000-06:00

Today I am thankful for:

1. Warm weather!
2. that I love to sing
3. ice cream

Day 7

2010-01-17T07:43:00.001-06:00

Today I am thankful for:

1. dedicated primary teachers and leaders
2. the smiling faces of primary children
3. the sweet truths of the gospel that we share

Day 6

2010-01-16T08:12:00.001-06:00

I forgot to do this last night so here goes:

I am thankful for:

1. 5 healthy children (I have been reading way too many blogs about sick children--not good)
2. gray days (because they make the sunny ones so enjoyable)
3. photography

Cake and Candles

2010-01-15T21:57:00.004-06:00

I LOVE the look on her face. Ha! Another good Carli face...hee hee. :)"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Carli! Happy Birthday to you!

BLOW!Dora joined the celebration again. Yummy cupcakes!Big biteBrandon had a huge bite in his mouth. Lovely... What a fun birthday Carli had! We had lunch with friends, played tea party all day, wore adorable clothes from NaNa (thank you!!! I will get pictures--they are adorable!), and had her favorite for dinner--spaghetti with white sauce (as we call it here at our house).

Tea Party Anyone?

2010-01-15T21:30:00.007-06:00

After birthday breakfast we opened gifts while everyone was home. Carli first saw this fun Tinkerbell table! It's really cute and the best thing is she can draw all over it and wipe it off! Wahoo! Carli loves to draw...on everything...so this is a good thing for her. :)Here she is drawing a little person on her table. She loves to draw people!Then it was on to the unwrapping. Here is her first Barbie! It is a singing Barbie from The Three Musketeers, which she loves. She is a little singer as well as an artist so this was right up her ally. :)A bouncing ball! She was excited about this one--can you tell?Next...She concentrates very hard on unwrapping. :)It was a tea set!!! So cute! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!Brooke enjoying the new table...yum.The Birthday GirlBrooke and her spoon. She had fun playing tea party, too.Carli played tea party practically all day and was so excited when her sisters got home from school and couldn't wait to have a tea party with her! Even Dora joined the party.
Next post...cake!

Birthday Breakfast

2010-01-15T20:47:00.005-06:00

Carli requested french toast for her birthday breakfast. Yum!

I love the looks I catch with my camera. :)

Aren't they adorable?!

Nice...

Next...on to the presents!

Carli is 4 today!

2010-01-14T21:11:00.003-06:00

This is the face of pure joy on your birthday morning. :) I love this face.

This is my sweet Carli Hart. She is 4 today!

I will post more about her birthday tomorrow. What a fun day she had. We are watching Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs so I better pay attention. :) What a great way to end the day--with my family.

Day 5

2010-01-14T20:45:00.001-06:00

Today I am thankful for:

1. Good friends!
2. Good neighbors!
3. Singing Happy Birthday to Carli and watching her blow out the candles.

Day 4

2010-01-13T21:34:00.002-06:00

I'm a little grumpy tonight so I'm going to have to think about this:

Today I am thankful for:

1. Prayer
2. Blue Bell ice cream on sale
3. Birthday presents (I love giving them to my kids!)

Tomorrow Carli is 4! :) Fun day!

Day 3

2010-01-12T22:50:00.001-06:00

Today I am thankful for:

1. good books
2. book clubs
3. patience with my children

Day 2

2010-01-12T10:48:00.001-06:00

I'm a day late, but last night was a little rough. :)

I am thankful for:

1. free Redbox movie codes
2. warm cookies
3. my sweet baby Brooke

Experiment

2010-01-10T21:28:00.003-06:00

Today Ben and I were asked to speak in sacrament meeting in 2 weeks. The bishopric member almost looked afraid to ask me to do this. :) He was probably noticing how crazy it was trying to get all the primary stuff put away, get all my kids in order (and get them to stop whining about being hungry), and talk to other people I needed to after church. He knows I have nothing else to do except prepare an awesome talk for sacrament meeting, right?

Ha. Of course I said...yes...because I don't ever say no to things like that unless I know I will not be in town. Goodness, what have I done? ;) It will be ok, I'm sure. I only have a primary activity (planned, but has to be done), a birthday party, 8 is Great program, and a sharing time to prepare in the next 2 weeks, too. Besides the fact that I have to continue to deal with 5 children, homework, a house, scouts, activity days, primary stuff, etc.

I am complaining...a little...but really, I'm not feeling too overwhelmed. Which brings me to my topic--Gratitude. I am excited about the topic! I am thankful to have the opportunity to speak on such a topic that will make me look at things I am grateful for in the next 2 weeks and beyond. My brain has already locked into this mode and I am thinking of everything that I give gratitude to my Heavenly Father for blessing me with.

I am grateful to have children and a husband who are wonderful and mine for eternity. It is a blessing to be able to do things for them and take care of them.

I am grateful for a calling that blesses me and makes me grow and learn.

I am grateful for people who help and teach my children through activity days and scouts. What great opportunities for them!

I am grateful that my children have homework (sometimes) because it means they are learning and that I can see the things they are learning and I am here to help them when they need me to.

I am grateful for housework because it means I have a home to live in and people to live in it who mess it up. :)

The Experiment: to blog every day for the next 2 weeks before my talk about the things I am grateful for that day. Basically it's going to be a gratitude journal, which I know is not a new idea, but I have never done one consistently. I am going to try for 3 things each day to be grateful for. They may turn out to be things like eternity or a warm house, but they may also be things like a TV to keep my kids busy for a little while--just keeping it real. :) So stay tuned to see what the next 2 weeks brings. I want to see how finding things I am grateful for every day will change my attitude and outlook in general about everything. I will share my results in my talk. Wish me luck!

Today I am grateful for:
1. People who are ready and willing to substitute in Primary
2. A husband who will cook
3. Hot chocolate

Christmas Day '09

2009-12-29T09:06:00.010-06:00

Christmas morning everyone woke up bright-eyed at .....

almost 8 am. Wahoo!!! We even had to wake Carli up! Ha! I could hardly believe they slept in so long. We got Grandpa and Grandma up, too, and all went into the game room and read the Christmas story from Luke 2. I loved waking up and centering on the Savior. Then the madness began. :)

Here are the kids waiting at the top of the stairs.I'm going to jump right to the end, almost, with the pictures. Here are Brandon and Kate discovering the last gift hidden behind the tree. They knew what it was and could not wait to get to it.Oh the joy!A Wii!!!!! They love it. We played bowling as a family last night and it was really fun. I like that we can all play together.Megan had asked for an art easel, canvas, paints, and brushes. She got right to work on a masterpiece for Grandpa and Grandma to take home.Then she moved on to the next canvas. She's quite a budding little artist!Brandon and Kate both got skateboards. Since it had snowed and was not quite skateboarding weather, they made good use of our long hallway. :)Kate is trying hers out. Gotta work on the helmet. We did get it to fit better later in the day and she should be good to go.My mom gave the girls the cutest Fancy Nancy books and dolls to go with them. Kate and her explorer doll.Here is part of the aftermath...can you find the baby in the midst of it all?! Brooke just kept crawling around seeing everything. Another shot of the craziness.

Carli had been asking for roller skates for months and was so excited to get them! She put them right on and tried them out. It's going to take some practice, but Grandma was a great helper!

Carli in her new fancy dress up shoes. She loves to dress herself and often is seen in Wal-Mart and other stores wearing fancy shoes such as this. She causes quite a few turning heads with her outfits. LOL! (btw, I believe this is the only shot with me in it...see those striped socks in the bottom corner?)

Carli also wanted a new kitchen for her room. She was pretty excited that Santa brought it to her!An ice cream set to play with.

Playing with the ice cream. Good thing it's not real! That's quite a cone she's got going there. :)

Carli and her Fancy Nancy doll. She has the butterfly one. Sooo cute!Brooke playing with her new toy.

She loves her new cup, too!

Playing with Grandpa

This one is actually from Christmas Eve, but I had to include it because this is the typical pose--Grandpa holding Brooke in the crook of his arm and she's sucking her thumb.

I made Brooke a fleece blanket like I have all the other kids in the past. Here she is snuggling with Grandma and the blanket.

What? A banana? Where's the chocolate?

She found some...Brandon and his skateboard.

Putting together the Lego set from Grandpa and Grandma. He is a whiz at these sets. Once he puts them together he ends up taking them all apart and creating little vehicles with the different pieces. He's quite a little Lego engineer. What a wonderful Christmas season this has been! We had such a great day together as a family and with my parents here. They gave me a new temple dress and I can't wait to go use it! We had our usual abelskiver breakfast which is a favorite for everyone and then we just hung out and played with everything. Soon enough, though we began prep for Christmas dinner. My mom ended up doing pretty much everything, though, as she and Dad watched the kids while Ben and I went out for a little date. When we got home from seeing The Blind Side dinner was practically ready. It was sooooo yummy! Thanks Mom and Dad for helping out so much while you were here! Your visit went too fast, but we were so blessed by having you come.

One of the highlights of the day was getting to talk to my brother, Brett, who is serving a mission for our church in Romania. He is doing so well and it was neat to hear his voice. The kids loved talking to him and telling him all about Christmas. Then we put the phone on speaker and all sang We Wish You a Merry Christmas and then we hung up. Hopefully we'll get to talk to him again next Christmas! Then he will be home in June of 2011.

I hope all of you had a meaningful and special Christmas season and I am excited to see what 2010 has to bring to us all!

Christmas Eve '09

2009-12-28T14:36:00.010-06:00

It was a white Christmas for sure! We loved having the snow falling and blowing inside while we were snug inside. Ben made a fire and we enjoyed it's warmth--that is, after he finally got the flue open after all the fire alarms went off. Whoops...

Here's Brandon enjoying the fire.Fire to my children means roasting marshmallows. We were not excited about the fact that Megan thought it was a great idea to get a fork and mini marshmallow and attempt to roast it. Yeah...not a good idea. She just put it near the fire so it would "warm up."After eating our traditional chicken wings and snacky foods we pulled out the Yahtzee game. It was great because everyone played!Kate and GrandpaBrooke enjoyed eating snacks and watching everyone play. She's such a content little one. I love that she puts her feet up under her tray. She does this every time she is sitting in her high chair. Brandon concentrating hard on the rolling of the dice.
Carli decided mid-game to go get her swimsuit on. She has been doing this a lot lately and just puts it right on over her clothes she has on. Too funny! Here are her poses for the camera.Then she went and got her blanket and snuggled up with Grandma.Brooke content as can be! She has such a sweet beautiful smile. :)After a funny game of charades (which I didn't get any pictures or video of) it was time to finally open the coveted Christmas Eve gift. :) Oh, the anticipation of it all! Even Brooke was excited she could finally rip open one of those gifts sitting under the tree!New pajamas! (Surprise...)Brooke loves hers. She loves to hold anything fuzzy and soft. What a cutie! Here are the girls donning their new duds. Sometimes it's still hard to believe these 4 beautiful girls are mine. :)

Of course, we can't forget including my handsome man, Brandon. Goofy as he is in these pictures, they wouldn't be complete without him! Love Megan and Carli's faces in this one. LOL!Here's a happier one.Megan finally gets in the spirit and poses for me. :)Really excited now!Kate..."Sweet as can be"

Kate and Megan showing off their pjs.

Brandon showing off his new fleece pants. I can't get him "pajamas" because he's too cool to wear pjs to bed so we went with the soft fleece pants. They looked a little big...

He was still excited about them, though! Kick line anyone?Playing around in the new pajamas.Love this one!Brandon got hurt at one point during all this jumping. Here's Grandma making it all better while Kate ignores and prepares for another round!Megan getting in on the action. I love this one, too.

Carli posing again. :) She loves to dance around so she got pjs with little ballerinas all over them.Brooke was thrilled with her pjs!Kate showing off the fort they made.

Then it was off to bed to dream of sugar plums! The kids went to bed pretty well and all the adults spent the next few hours getting Christmas morning ready!

Christmas Eve Day

2009-12-28T14:19:00.006-06:00

Christmas Eve day we did some last minute shopping and a little baking and some hanging out together. We also watched it do this:

SNOW!!!!! Kate was the first to venture out into this wintry mix and basked in it's coldness. :) She has no fear of weather. I opened the door to snap a couple pictures and that was it. The wind was blowing and blowing. By evening it almost looked like a blizzard! The snow was just blowing everywhere and it was so cold. I was glad we were staying home that evening. :)Megan loved it, too. We pulled out what winter gear we did have and they donned it well. Notice no gloves. Well, we remedied that a little while later at Target, but this is not something we are used to here in Texas! (We're supposed to get more tomorrow...what is going on here?) :)Carli wanted to follow her big sisters, but she realized that wasn't going to be so fun.Carli braved the cold for a few minutes, but Megan was having a ball.Then Carli decided she would rather watch the "fun" from here. Smart girl. ;)Her sisters continued their fun outside having a snow ball fight and making snow angels.Here is what we woke up to the next day. It was the first white Christmas around here since 1926!!!!! (at least according to a friend who posted that on Facebook)

Pre-Christmas Happenings

2009-12-28T13:51:00.007-06:00

We were so thrilled that my parents decided to brave the roads and trek down to Texas from Utah. All of us, that is, except this one:Ha! No, actually she went to Grandpa and Grandma all week without a problem except this one time when everyone was around so I grabbed the camera and said, "Ok, all the kids sit with Grandma and Grandpa so we can get a picture!" Brooke was less than thrilled. Not sure what was wrong. Maybe she was really tired. The week was a bit of a whirlwind and I can't believe it's already over.We had one other child who was not happy about the picture taking moment. Actually, she was just fine until we asked her to move to a different spot so everyone would be seen. The result was a sulking Kate who then tried to sabotage the picture I did take with the rest of the kids. Her hand makes a nice touch, no?Here they are together minus Kate and her hand. Yes, Brooke was very tired.We finally got Kate into the picture and here is the end product. Carli, Brandon, and Grandpa are perfect specimens for a photographer. :) Megan is squinting, Brooke is crying, and my mom is trying to help Kate feel better by squeezing in close to her. Too bad they are not taller. Ha. We always say that Kate got the "grandma genes" which is nothing bad in any way, shape or form--her grandma and nana are 2 of the most special people in this world--they are just a little on the short side. ;)We passed some of the time on this day-before-Christmas-Eve by doing puzzles. Kate and Carli jumped right in with Grandma.

Dinner was pizza-making. Our kids love this and have some mad pizza making skills by now. We make a mean deep dish pizza for the adults with all the good stuff in it. It is killer and we have been making it a lot lately. :)

Up next is Christmas Eve!

Christmas Playgroup

2009-12-26T14:49:00.006-06:00

The week before Christmas I had our playgroup over to decorate cookies. It was a huge hit and I think the kids and moms all had a good time.

Here is the group working hard on their cookies.Everett enjoying his green creation.

Jack wasn't so sure about me with the camera. :)

Most of the kids enjoyed licking the frosting off the knives. :) Here's Carli!

Kalen worked diligently frosting her cookie.

You can tell Finley had green on her cookie. :) Charlotte didn't even decorate. She just ate!

Polar Express and Class Parties

2009-12-22T21:48:00.007-06:00

This was our 3rd year creating a train car for the Polar Express parade for the 2nd grade at our school. The kids love to do it and the parents...don't. Megan's wasn't too bad, though. It was very simple and cute. Here's Megan sporting her train car (notice the forgotten train wheels). She was so happy with the way it turned out. I thought it turned out well, too.The next day were the winter parties in the classroom. I was in charge of Megan's class party this year. It was very simple and fun (I guess simple is my motto as of late). :) We had some activity and coloring pages for the kids to do while we set up the food and then they ate.

Here are Carli, Brooke, and Megan at the party.

After eating all the yummy snacks their teacher read a fun story while they passed their book gifts "left" or "right." They loved it.It's hit or miss with the book exchange, but Megan was thrilled with her book this year. She loves the new Tinkerbell books and movies!Then it was on to Kate's party. The 4th grade always makes graham cracker gingerbread houses. Kate's was really cute, but ended up falling apart by the time we got home even though it was super glued to the plate. Oh well.

Kate and her buds during the party.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get over the Brandon's school to hang out during his party time, but he said he had a great time. I'll have to try to get extra pictures of him this week!

We are having a good time with Grandpa and Grandma here. My mom and I took the girls to see "The Princess and the Frog" this afternoon. Everyone enjoyed it! We'll have to see what tomorrow brings. :) We are excited for Christmas! Brooke especially likes to crawl over to the tree and play with the brightly packaged gifts. I can't wait until Friday when we can let her rip them open!

Holiday Singing

2009-12-22T21:41:00.003-06:00

With December comes parties and concerts and all kinds of fun events at school. Kate is a member of the vocal team at school and they had their holiday concert last week. I always love to hear the kids sing (especially mine--they love it and have very beautiful voices)!

Kate singingBrooke and Megan during the performance. Interesting the difference in the color of their eyes. We'll just have to wait and see if Brooke's change at all.The usual sucking of the thumb.Right after the performance. So cute!

Scouting

2009-12-08T11:09:00.004-06:00

Last week we had pack meeting with Brandon's scout troop. He has really enjoyed scouting and has done very well. He has an amazing Webelos leader right now and all 3 boys in her den earned their Webelos badge! She helped the families know everything we needed to do to finish before Thanksgiving. Since they did it she invited them all over to her house to have a party and what a blast that was for them!

Here's Brandon trying to put the pin on Ben's shirt. Usually it's a mother's pin, but I was taking the pictures. :)

We are very proud of you, Brandon! You are doing awesome!

Gingerbread house!

2009-12-08T11:01:00.004-06:00

This year our attempt at building and decorating a gingerbread house was much more successful than last year when it just fell apart and the kids ate it that day. This time it actually stayed together and nothing slid off! LOL! The kids all had a blast and did a great job decorating! I love this picture below because you can see Brooke watching from over Ben's shoulder. She was quite fascinated by the whole process.
Kate had fun designing with the icing.

Carli eating a candy and Brandon trying to jump into the picture, as usual.

Brooke found a little chocolate candy and you can tell by her chin that she thoroughly enjoyed it. ;) That's definitely my daughter!

Brandon eventually had enough of the decorating.

Tried to get a picture with everyone in it. Brooke was not happy so Kate was bouncing her up and down. Didn't work for the picture. :) Cute anyway!

Megan was very proud of their creation!

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!)

Sunglasses

2009-07-05T17:46:00.004-05:00

(4th post today--yeehaw!!!)

The girls got new sunglasses while we were on vacation and of course, they wanted their picture taken with them on. Kate insisted on including Lovie, my brother's dog, so she patiently put up with the attention. I got a kick out fo these pictures. Mostly Megan's face--watch it's progression. ;)

Gorgeous blue eyes!

Food! Glorious Food!

2009-07-05T17:08:00.007-05:00

(3rd post today--I'm on a roll!)

Brooke is now 5 months old. Wow, how fast the time has flown! She is such a sweet, joyful baby and we love her so much. She has been fascinated by food lately. I was hoping to wait a few more weeks, but she watches every move we make when we are eating and drinking. It's really too cute. So when I was at my parent's house a couple weeks ago we bought a box of good old rice cereal and tried it out. Here it is, her first real food (if you can call it that).

"Oooo, looks yummy!"

"Hmm, here it comes. It's kind of mushy."
"I'll take some more, please."

"Do I really have to eat this stuff?"

"Well, it looked good."

"Yes, I want more!"

Wayne and Sandy

2009-07-05T16:56:00.003-05:00

These are my amazing inlaws. :) Love you guys! (This was Lybi's favorite--it wasn't on the photo blog.)

Cousins!

2009-07-05T16:49:00.003-05:00

I had a blast doing a photo shoot with family while I was in Utah. I will be blogging the next few days to catch up on our vacation adventure, but first just a sneak at the photos for my aunt and uncle. See a few more on the photo blog! Hope you like them!

Emily and Melissa

End of School

2009-06-16T23:57:00.004-05:00

The last two days of school were full of awards assemblies, lunches, and treats. It was a fun time. The kids were all very excited about their awards and all did so well! We are proud of all they have accomplished this year.

Brandon and his teacher, Mrs. Ball. He had her for 2 years and we will really miss her!!! She helped him through a lot and was a huge reason why he was so successful. Thank you Mrs. Ball!Kate receiving her awards on stage.Kate and her 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Fucsko. Kate just adored her and we will miss her, too!Because Megan's birthday is in the summer we took treats on her last day of school. She chose to share donuts with her class this year. She loved wearing a birthday crown!After donuts was the awards assembly. Here is Megan receiving her awards!Megan and her 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Wharton. What a sweet wonderful teacher she was for Megan. We will miss her, too!This is Carli entertaining herself during one of the awards assemblies. :)Another picture from an awards assembly. She did great considering we sat through 3 of them! Brooke was a doll through all of them. I did not get a picture of her, though. Darn!

I am glad school is over for the year, but it will come all too soon. It is so nice to have a relaxing schedule during the summer. With 5 kids it gets a little hectic around our house, as you can imagine. :)

Happy Birthday Megan!

2009-06-11T22:02:00.004-05:00

My little redhead is now 7 years old! She's growing up! We are celebrating her birthday up here in Snowbird, UT. We are having a blast. More to come on the vacation, but today is Megan's day. What a sweet girl she can be. :) She is great at giving hugs and kisses (although not always at the most convenient times--like during family prayer) and snuggle and read books. She's a very girly-girl. You will almost always see her in a skirt and she also loves shoes (she spent all her money at Christmas on shoes and I spent mine on books--haha!). She loves her friends and is always drawing and coloring pictures of them. She is very much in love with her baby sister, Brooke and always tries to make her smile and laugh. Megan is also very good at causing trouble with Kate. :) Her favorite colors are pink and purple and her favorite animal is a lamb. NaNa gave her a lamb from Build-a-Bear for her birthday that has a birthday song in the hand and she has hardly let it go since she opened it. She's sitting her snuggling with it right now. Too sweet.

She came into the world very quickly. My first contractions I felt woke me up around 1:30 in the morning. By 3:30 they were getting worse and we decided to head to the hospital. We took Brandon and Kate to a friends' house (we'd just moved to Indiana so we'd known them for all of 3 months) and headed to the hospital. We got there around 5:30 if I remember correctly. The doctor was on her way. I was almost complete by the time we got there and when the doctor finally got there Megan came very quickly and was born just before 6 am. We later found out that the doctor had gotten pulled over by a police officer and she told him she HAD to get to the hospital NOW to deliver a baby. He followed her to the hospital and waited for her outside. Jerk...I don't think he gave her a ticket, though. Megan weighed in at 6 lbs. 7 oz. and was so tiny!

Megan hasn't exactly been the easiest child to raise so far, but we sure do love her and can't imagine our family without her!

She was very excited to start opening her gifts, can you tell?Megan with her new lamb, LambkinBlowing out candles!Carli feeding Grandpa a cupcakeMegan with her new little lambs.

Camp Grady Spruce

2009-06-04T18:10:00.003-05:00

Brandon had a blast at 4th grade camp last week. I thought about him and worried every day. :) What's a mom to do, right? He had a great time and came home in one piece. He even got to ride a horse whose name was Ketchup. The kids all thought that was hilarious. I have to get his pictures developed and scan some in, but here are a few of him coming home. Everyone was smiles and hugs. It was so sweet!

300th Post--Exciting News!

2009-05-30T15:31:00.005-05:00

Wow, I've been blogging for 2 years and have reached 300 posts! This one will be short and sweet. We have exciting news in the Winzenz household!

Brooke is rolling over! :) She rolled over for the first time (all the way over and lifted her head up) this past Wednesday, May 27th. What a big girl she is getting to be! She will be 4 months old on Monday. What a joy this precious girl is in the home.

Field Day!

2009-05-28T12:22:00.004-05:00

Last week the kids had field day at school. They all love it! What a fun time for them to be outside playing games and having a grand time. It was a beautiful day for it, too. A little humid, but at least it wasn't raining. :)

Here's Megan waiting for her next game to start.Going through the Hula Hula Bula Bula game.
Here's Kate holding the beach ball. They had to see how many times they could hit the ball and keep it in their circle of people.

Brandon was very careful to get as much water into the bottle as he could!

Love the tongue sticking out in this one

Here's what Carli wanted to do while the older kids were playing

Brooke was adorable in her little sun hat!

I'm so glad I am blessed to be able to stay at home and go to all these fun events the kids have at school. I love being a SAHM!

Brandon is off to camp!

2009-05-26T16:59:00.004-05:00

Brandon was off to camp this morning. I was sad and nervous to see him go! He was a little on the serious side this morning, too, between the bouts of complete excitement. :) He was so sweet! He gave all of his sisters a hug, wanted to hold Brooke several times, and when we got in the car to go to school he actually climbed into the back seat between Kate and Megan to sit by both of them! He is not usually the chummy brotherly type, but he was such a sweet guy this morning. I miss my Bud already!

Here he is all ready to go!Stopped for one more photo-op with Carli and Brooke.

We stayed to see them off on the bus. They were all very excited to get going! I'm sure he will have a fabulous time. He has never been away from us before so I'm a bit sad and nervous to have him gone.

Here is just a sweet picture of Brooke from Sunday. She usually falls asleep in the car on the way home from church and this week was no exception. We found her a little later with her little hand up by her face. Too sweet!

Brandon's Birthday Bash

2009-05-25T14:01:00.007-05:00

We had Brandon's party the Saturday after his actual birthday so here's what happened the day of. He opened his main present that morning, which was sitting on the end of his bed, Rock Band. He was pretty excited about that! Later, before dinner, he was able to open the rest of his gifts, one of which was this book, Runny Babbit, by Shel Silverstein. It is the most hilarious book when you read it aloud. He also got some of his favorite toy right now, Bakugon. Don't ask me what they are, I don't understand them. :)

After gifts we ran to the park with the fam and met Megan's Girl Scout troop there for their end of the year awards. We took pizza for Brandon's birthday dinner--cheese pizza and breadsticks with dip--his absolute favorite. He was a happy guy!Brandon and his buddy, Caleb, hanging out in the tree.Sydney and Megan enjoyed being in girl scouts together.Here are some of the girls saying the Girl Scout pledge (I think)At the end they always do the circle of friendship (I don't remember what it's really called, but this sounds good) :)I don't know what Kate ate or drank, but here she is in all her glory with a blue tongue.Ben and Brooke--so sweet together! Brandon's birthday party was a great success. After Kate's huge party I was ready for a nice easy event. He invited just a few friends to come over for pizza and cake. They opened presents and just played and hung out together. Talk about easy-going. It was great! Brandon had fun and enjoyed having his friends there.

Here they all are eating pizza.Brooke was enjoying the party, too. Isn't she just so sweet?! Looks like she is waving!Opening gifts. His friends definitely know what he likes!Funny looking cake, eh? I asked him if he wanted a rectangular cake or a double layer round cake. He said, "Both." Here is what he requested. It was really yummy!

Musical Kids

2009-05-25T13:54:00.005-05:00

Brandon and Kate just finished up the year of piano lessons with a lovely recital. They both did very well considering they refused to practice any more. I had never even heard Brandon play his pieces as he would only play them at his lessons for his teacher. She is moving so they are finished taking lessons for now. I am sad they are done, but they were both wanting to quit anyway. Funny thing is now that they are not taking lessons anymore they are both on the piano more than before! Silly kids. :) They are both so talented!Kate needed a little help in the middle of her first piece. Otherwise, she did great!

The kids also finished up their year on the 3rd and 4th grade Chimes teams at school. Kate enjoyed it very much. This picture is awful, but it's all I got that night.Brandon finished his second year on the chimes team and is sad to leave it behind as he moves onto intermediate school. He is excited about the music options coming up, though! He wants to go into percussion. He will be awesome! He is so musical.

Swimming

2009-05-24T18:44:00.005-05:00

Summer has officially started when the pool opens! We have a week and a half left of school left, but we are already enjoying our neighborhood pool. We love it! The kids have a blast and we love to have friends come swim with us. If you ever want to cool off just let us know! Friday we had a bunch of friends join us and we had a great time. Can't wait to do it again!

Kate enjoying the cool of the poolMegan and her good friend SydneyBrandon and his buddies jumping inMegan relaxingBrandon and his gogglesCarli and her buddies, Madelyn and Allison

Baby Birds

2009-05-24T17:20:00.006-05:00

A little over a week ago I was in our front yard watching the kids play and I could hear some very faint baby bird chirping. It was so sweet and sounded so close! Last year we had a nest up in one of our rain gutters outside Carli's room so I ran inside and up to her room to peak out the window. I thought maybe they were in there again (those never hatched, unfortunately, because of a huge storm and the mommy bird never came home), but it was empty. I went back out and looked in our front tree, but no luck there, either. The sound stopped and I gave up.

The next evening I was out and could hear the birds again. They had to be in our yard! I hunted around in our bushes and finally found the tiny little things in our bush/tree (I have no idea what kind of plant it is) right by the porch. There were 3 little tiny beaks open as wide as they could go chirping for food. How sweet! I knew the mother had just been there (I saw her fly out of the bush) so I knew they were being taken care of. I had the kids come look at them one at a time and very carefully and quietly. They were all thrilled! How neat is it to find 2 brand new baby birds in their nests in a place where they can see them easily?! Here are some photos of "our" birds. How fun are they?! I was looking forward to watching them grow and change and letting the kids have that experience.

Sunday we came home from church (2 days after finding the birds) and the kids all wanted to go check on the birds. Brandon and Kate were the first over to the tree and they kept saying they couldn't find them. I told them I'd be right over to show them where they were. The nest was hidden in the branches pretty well. I went over and I knew right where to look, but to my horror there were no baby birds! The nest was still there, however it was pulled down to the side and there were some feathers hanging around from the mother bird. Just behind the nest was a tiny little egg, one that had not hatched, that had fallen out of the nest when it was "attacked." We were all so sad that our little birds were gone. I instantly knew what had happened. We have had 2 or 3 stray cats wandering our neighborhood the past couple of weeks and I knew one of them must have gotten our baby birds. How awful!

Brandon's Volleyball Season

2009-05-24T17:13:00.003-05:00

All the sports seasons are over! Brandon had a blast playing volleyball this year. Even though his team only won one of their games they did a good job and had fun. Brandon is pretty darn good so I hope he continues to play!

Megan's Soccer Season

2009-05-24T17:04:00.003-05:00

Megan played soccer this spring through the YMCA. It was pretty fun. We had some rained out practices and games, but overall it was a fun season for her. She is great at playing goalie! I wish she would continue, but I think this will be her only season. On to the next thing...

Pinewood Derby

2009-05-24T16:53:00.005-05:00

The Pinewood Derby was held several weeks ago. I am so behind on posting events happening with the kids. There has been so much going on! Ben took these photos as I was home with Megan that night who had the chicken pox.

Brandon's car is the one on the far right. It's blue with the red lightening streak on the back. He was excited about it. Our cars are never the fanciest or coolest, but I love that Brandon designs them himself and is happy with them. He's such a great kid. :)

Here are all the sisters hanging out at the end of the track.Brandon also passed into Webelos that night. He was very excited to receive his Bear award and move up. He worked hard to get everything done! We are very proud of you, Brandon! You are doing so well in the scouting program.

Random photos from today

2009-05-20T21:50:00.008-05:00

I took a picture of each of the kids today. They are not edited or anything and are completely random--just what they were all doing at the moment. For some reason I just wanted to document this today. Just keepin' it real, I suppose. :) Here they are in all their glory...

Kate raiding the fridge

Carli eating a quesadilla and watching tv
Brandon playing a computer game

Brooke playing in her activity saucer

Megan hanging out in the family room

Carli

2009-05-18T21:56:00.002-05:00