Family Pictures

When we were in California for Thanksgiving, we had family pictures taken.  It is very hard getting a six month old to smile on cue with a four year old little stinker too.  But, I think we got some great ones!!  I'm very happy!

 

 I can't decide which of these 3 pictures of my kids I like the best so I included all of them :-)

  

 These two are classic Ashley.  All of us looking great and Ashley, well...being Ashley :-)

Thankful

I have loved all the thankful comments each day this month on blogs and Facebook.  I've wanted to do this but haven't seemed to get around to it so I'm going to do my 24 today on November 24th!!  Here goes.  I'm thankful for:
1.  Kenny--14 years later and I can still truthfully say that.
2.  Emily
3.  Ashley
4.  My little boy, Tyler!  I'm so grateful you joined our family.
5.  My Savior--I wouldn't know where I'd be without him
6.  My Heavenly Father--Same as above
7.  The gospel--I love the joy it brings in my life
8.  My dad--He's hosting us for Thanksgiving this year
9.  My mom
10.  Being a teacher--I LOVE my job and I'm so grateful I get to go to my school everyday.
11.  My students--They test me at times, but keep me laughing often.  I love them!!
12.  My extended family--I love being around family and just laughing, talking, playing games, etc.
13.  Friends
14.  Modern Medicine--This is the reason that we have children, so I will forever be extremely grateful for modern medicine.
15.  My house--It may not be clean all the time, but I love it and I love being there.
16.  That my husband is so hard-working.  He doesn't know the word lazy.
17.  The scripture movies--This has been such a great way to introduce so many stories to my children.
18.  Pictures--I LOVE looking at pictures and remembering how great those memories were that we've created.
19.  The DVR--I love watching TV, but on my own schedule, not the TV's.  Plus I LOVE fast forwarding through commercials.
20.  Pacifiers--If you've ever had a crying baby quiet down as soon as you put one in his mouth, you know.
21.  Socks--I love how warm and toasty they make my feet when they're cold.
22.  Water--It's so yummy and refreshing.
23.  Freedom
24.  Blessing--I cannot believe how EXTREMELY blessed I am and I am forever thankful for all these blessings!!
Whooo, I did it!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The Power of Ashley

I'm now really behind on posts; I've got Em's birthday, Halloween, our vacation, etc. but today my post is on Ash.  I don't know what it is about Ashley, but she must have some strange power over me.  When Emily was her age, I had no problem putting her on time outs when she was naughty, but Ashley is a different story.  Is it her eyes?  Her mischievous smile?  Some unexplained power?  I don't know, but it is so hard for me to punish her like I did with Emily.  I am such a softie for Ashley.  She's just so darn cute!!  I don't know what it is, but I'll just have to chalk it up to some unseen power that Ashley has over me.  Does anybody else have this problem with one of their children? 

Who can resist this face?  Not me!

Park City Days 3-5

On Friday, my dad came from California to spend the weekend with us.  We spent time in the activity center and because it was so dead at the end of the night, the REALLY nice guy at the Alpine coaster let us go on it a few times for free (shh, don't tell anyone :D).  It was so fun because we got to go a couple more times and my dad got to go with his granddaughters!
My sister and her family came up on Friday night and played games.  They had a life size Jenga game that we played and it was a BLAST.  Kenny especially loved it and came home and built us our own set.
Saturday, we did more activities in the kids center, went swimming (for the 3rd or 4th time!) and then went out to dinner at a super yummy restaurant.  Sunday, we woke up, got ready, did a couple more activities for the girls then checked out and went home.
The best thing about this trip was that it was so relaxing.  We didn't have anywhere to be and just got to enjoy each other.  It was wonderful!
Oh, one other thing about our trip, Kenny and I participated in the "Not-so Newlywed" game and we WON!  It was a lot of fun and it was neat to see how much we really do know about each other.  Our prize:  Sparkling Cider.  Cute and Yummy!

 A cute peacock color wheel craft

 Life size Jenga

Getting taller

 and taller

 It finally toppled

 Tyler loved Grandpa R

 Painting ceramics

 Decorating cookies

 The ironic thing is that neither girl ate their cookie.  I guess it's more fun just to decorate it.

 Going on the zip line

 Ashley was very excited to go with Grandpa

 "Help us, we're so scared!"  :-)

 Martin, the very nice funny guy that we'd been talking to for the last two days, that let us ride

 Tyler loves his baths so it was no surprise that he liked the water.  

He did prefer the hot tub though, but so did his mommy!

My beautiful family whom I love so much!

Park City Days 1-2

For fall break, Kenny's sister got their Marriott condo in Park City and invited us to come too.  We chose to go and had a BLAST!!  It was so much fun and very relaxing! The best thing about the Marriott is they have TONS of activities for kids to do.  We could have just stayed in the activity room the whole five days and we all would have been happy.  The activity room was definitely our favorite part of the trip.
I took a day off school so the first day we were there it was dead.  We bought the girls a pass to play on the playground area and we were literally the ONLY kids there the WHOLE day.  It was fun.  The girls did whatever they wanted however many times they wanted.
Day 2, Thursday, there were a few more people there, but not many.  We bought the all day ride pass and got to go on the Alpine coaster as many times as we wanted.  They had already closed the Alpine slide, which was sad, but we still had a blast on the coaster.  So all day we would go on rides, go inside and do an activity, go on more rides, another activity, etc.  It was a great two day beginning to our trip.

 A cool climby thing

 She sure looks cute, but that's about as high as she'd go :-)

 They had SO much fun on the slide!

 Day 2:  Alpine Coaster--over and over and over and over again!  It was so much fun!

 Zipline

 Trampoline

 Gotta say, Emily was quite the pro at the trampoline, I was quite impressed!

 Silliness on the Alpine coaster

 Zipline with cousin

 One of the many activities:  painting pumpkins

Kenny painted a super cool pumpkin to look just like Jack the pumpkin king.  It was really cool!

Reflections

Emily entered Reflections again this year.  The theme was diversity means...  Emily had mentioned on a school field trip that she got a whole bunch of leaves and they were all different but she loved them all.  That gave me an idea to use leaves for her reflections.  I suggested using leaves and she ran with it.  We collected all kinds of leaves and then she had the awesome idea of arranging them into a heart.  She said that leaves come in all sizes, shapes, and colors but they are all beautiful.  I think it turned out wonderfully and we found out that she won and gets to move on to the District!!  We are so proud of our little artist, Emily!!  She loves her trophy too! :-)

Her leaf heart and trophy.  Don't you love the smiley face in the middle?  Totally her idea.  It all was!

Her proud sister, Ash, wanted to be in on the pictures too and Emily was kind enough to let her

Yum, rice cereal!

Tyler got his first taste of something other than milk a couple weeks ago.  Rice cereal!  He was lukewarm to it and still prefers his milk, but we got some cute pictures.  We're going to be starting some baby food soon too.  Real food, here we come!

 First official bite!

 Not sure what to make of it

 Trying another bite

 Wondering why mommy keeps pointing this thing (camera) in my face!

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Tyler.  I don't care that you can't see his smile, his eyes tell it all.  Boy do I love this little boy!!