TWO is for Terrific!

Little Ryder turned the big 2 today! He is so little and still seems like my baby but then he says something like, "I SIT THERE! MOVE!" and I realize he isn't a baby anymore.
















Today- "CAAAAAAAAKE!!!!" Or in other words, "put the dang camera down Dad and let's eat!"




BLOW!


Wow. It worked!


He started out so sweet. Recently he has developed quite the strong attitude, firm opinions and is a little spitfire. He keeps us all in line. He is still sweet, you just have wait for it. Love you Ryder!

Christmas and New Year's at my house

Was just perfect. We've been living so far away from any family for so long we have kind of gotten used to just being our own little family and really enjoyed our time together, making traditions and celebrating the reason for the season. The kiddos.



Just the girls.


And kinda bad pic, but the only family pic we have taken in a veeeery long time!



The damage. I never realized how passionate people are about their Christmas tree's until recently! Ours is always real, but the ornaments are just a mix of ones we've collected over the years. It's actually one of my favorite traditions, getting out the ornaments that have so much meaning and memories along with them. And I LOOOOVE the ones my children have started making the past couple years... Maybe someday we'll have two tree's, the 'department store' fakey tree that is perfectly beautiful and then the real, sentimental one. Oh and of course there are no ornaments on the bottom half due to our grabby little one year old.



Trying out new toys.


I found this on the easel the day after Christmas. I wish I could say I taught this to Breckyn but she actually learned it at school. December was generosity month and they learned all about it and practiced it all month long. I just LOVE LOVE her teacher and school. She is doing so well there.


Helping Daddy stoke the fire.


New Year's Eve. We put Ryder to bed on time and let the girls stay up all night. We watched tons of movies and ate the yummiest appetizers all night. I couldn't believe they had no problem staying up that late because they usually go to bed at 7:00!


Already starting her New Year's Resolutions! :)


Ky did get a little grumpy towards the end as you can see.


We do look forward to future holidays when we will live closer to family and can share fun times with them, but for now - I think we are doing okay. :)

My new secretary

It is so weird having a kid who can read and write all of the sudden, especially when a few months ago she wasn't even close. (Or so I thought!)

I can't get away with my standard "Oh, maybe tomorrow sweetie..." anymore without having little reminders waiting for me everywhere.

My kids are keeping me honest and that is a good thing.

Turns out 'Lulu' is a

BOY!!!

Two ultrasounds by a shoddy doctor at 18 and 22 weeks and a bunch by a veterinarian (ahem!) turned out to be WRONG!!! So time to start thinking blue...

***Yes! Shoddy! That is putting it nicely, in fact. If you want details you can ask me personally but I am SOOO glad I switched for my own health AND the health of this baby. The gender thing was the LEAST of my issues with him! (unfortunately!!)***

Happy Birthday to me :)

Yesterday was my birthday. It involved eating here: (two times :)



and here:



and shopping here:

Plus a gift card to do this:



and this:



and even some of these:



I know I am spoiled. What more could a girl want, really?

Thanks Kyle, I love you!

Check me out man

For a long time I've been wanting to make/buy some kind of chore chart to get my children motivated to help around the house. I wanted one that would last and really work well for our family. I finally found a nice one to buy on Etsy. But then... my super crafty friend with her super crafty blog wrote about how to make one. It was better than any I had seen and fit our needs perfectly. It didn't look too difficult even with my aversion to craftiness, so I decided to try it!



It took me a couple of weeks to gather supplies from several different stores but I finally set to it and it was easy and I LOVE the finished product! The kids are practically begging to do chores so they can move their magnet to the "done" column.



They are expected to do their jobs everyday just because they need to do their part by being a member of our family. The extra chores are just any big job or extra thing I think of that I will reward them for with money or a treat or whatever. Then we have the weekly chores. I made a few generic tiles with a star or heart just for jobs I think of that I didn't have already have a tile for. We decided the star would be homework, the smiley face is being happy and the heart is uh, keeping your heart beating. That is "Lulu's" job. (Not really the name of our baby for sure, but it is one of many on our list...)



Another thing I love is the paper can be easily removed so I can change it out for seasons, holidays, moods etc. or to change our baby's name to whatever it really will be. Not too bad, huh? So I'm ready to let the kids take over the household cleaning and sit back and relax!

If anyone wants the instructions they can be found on this post. Thanks Emily!!!

San Diego

We just got back from 5 days in San Diego. Kyle had CE there and the whole fam of course had to tag along. It was Kyle's first CE. He loved going to classes now that the information has such practical applications. The children and I had a blast too. We stayed in the gaslamp district right in the middle of all the action. We spend a lot of time swimming at the hotel and shopping at the mall right next to our hotel while Kyle was in class. Here's some of the other stuff we did-

We went to a cool children's museum.








Watched the huge ships in the bay.



Took a trip to the beach, at night. A first for us. It was very cool.



We checked out the SD temple. Breathtaking.



Took a trip to Coronado Island and then my favorite (besides the no cooking and cleaning!) was walking around Seaport Villiage. I loved all the shops there and would love to go back.

13 Days of Halloween - FINISHED

Yay! Another fun Halloween has ended. We've enjoyed new Halloween coloring books, watching Hocus Pocus & the skeleton dance too many times, read spooky stories and decorating sugar cookies. Whew! It was fabulous!

So, we did have a theme. Yes, I'm that mom. Sometimes I make my kids match too! Take that! Breckyn was Wendy. This is just exactly how Wendy is posing on the Disneyland ride, Peter Pan's Flight. It is one of our kids favorite rides that we always have to go on. Anyway, Breckyn nailed it!






Kyra was Tinkerbell. She flittered around for a minute then she said it was itchy and she was done.



Wendy and tink.



Then there was the man. Peter Pan. He hated his hat at first until Kyle talked him into thinking it was totally cool. Then he wouldn't take it off.



Getting a pic of all 3 looking cute turned out to be impossible, but this is the best we could do.



Here are a few pics of our pumpkin carving fun.

The Spooktacular Birthday Bash

Kyra is 4! She had a fun little Halloween birthday party. I think the little girls had a good time. Two silly sisters waiting impatiently for their friends to arrive.



The spread: candy corn pizza, mummy dogs, cheese fingers, grapes and cookies!







The cake:



3 sets of sisters all 5 and 3 (kyra wasn't officially 4 until 8:55pm) working very hard on a crafty project.



The ghost pinata:



Happy birthday Kyra! We love you!