Now that is a nice day...

I had such a wonderful day on Memorial Day. In fact, I had just a plain nice weekend. We awoke late (9:30 am-that's sleepin' in at this place). My wonderful hubby cooked breakfast. It was nice, while I sat on the couch wrapped in a blanket reading a good book. Ate a nice, long leisurely breakfast. Had no where to go. Put on working clothes went outside and weeded my strawberries. Mowed the lawn---there is just something about that nice first mowing that makes it feel like vacation. The kids were outside playing all day. They had dirty faces and dirty hands and climbed and dug and got in the way and ran and played and fought.... Peyts got to go give lunch to Pop and little Sonnet got all sticky and red and blue faced from eating a popsicle while riding with me on the lawn mower. Andy was home all day. We ate a nice summer lunch a turkey sandwhich with pickles, cheese, mustard and mayo, cabbage salad, and cherries and blueberries. It is so nice to not have leftovers...they get very old after a while. I kept thinking it would rain, but it just stayed nice and overcast. Got 10 rows of our garden planted, came in had a nice hot shower and a quick supper. Kids listened to book and giggled while Andy read to them. I cooked dinner and we ate. Got my first sunburn of the summer, feels good. Put kids to bed and they were so tired that one feel asleep in the place we put and little Sonnet went limp when we rocked her. She must have really been worn out. I would love to fall asleep that way and I think I did while receiving a nice footrub trying to stay awake during the movie. My leg muscles ached and my face was hot. It was a nice way to inaugerate the summer! I hope more of those days are to come!

Our Little Girl...

It has been a long time coming and with a little trepidation that I post this for various reasons...none of them having to do with us being overjoyed that our little girl finally made it here...But just for safety and legal issues, but I figure you gotta live life...and we are so thrilled with our new little addition. It has been such a blessing in our lives and we want to introduce you to her. Here are a few things our little Sonnet is doing. You can see how much she is blessing our lives! We are working on a project...coloring a kitty and doggie. She loves animals, especially our cats..much to my yuckiness ( I don't care for them...dirty and gross)


Let's just say, I learned something from this picture: long hair, suckers, and eating in the backseat do not mix. Sticky...but
Really enjoyed her sucker...thanks Peyton's piano teacher! :-)

She is becoming very attached to her brother and follows him around all over the house...sometimes to his frustration. She also will call him "Baby" and he doesn't like that. He goes around saying "Don't call me Baby"...it reminds me of Mad, Mad, World. But it is cute none the less. I sent Peyton over to granny's house to get something and I heard, "Peyton go bye, bye" and I walked into the living room and this is what I saw. She stayed there until he got back. It made me smile.

So my dad joked that I never liked playing with dolls when I was younger, but let me just say, it is so fun to have a girl. I mean how many cute blue, green, black, red, and gray shirts can you buy for a boy? I will admit boy's clothes have gotten cuter, but having a little girl to dress up and fix their hair is so much fun. She is a pretty good sport. I saw this exact outfit at Children's Place and wanted to get it and she humored me by wearing the hat...I think she looks so cute! But maybe you can see some of her frustration with me..! :-)

This was a fun moment when Peyton finally had someone to play with besides us...It has been so good for him and I think her to have a sibling. They are doing fairly well...but we still have some things to work on!

She loves Peyton's stuff...much to his dismay and I caught her with his hat and his Star Wars dude, but it was too cute to resist taking a picture!

(More of brother's toys...) Let's just say he has too many to often notice and he shares fairly well..

While I was trying to get dinner ready, my two little computer geeks were just going at it. It was too cute of a picture to pass up! And no I don't let them do this often!

This was another attempt at my trying a new hair-do and hat. I must say just one word: ADORABLE!

Little Sonnet has not had a lot of chances to be in the snow...some came from some where very warm...She loved it. She was a little frustrated at how hard it was to walk at first, but she caught on quickly. She also discovered how fun it was to eat the snow...which we really have to watch!

:-) She doesn't understand yellow snow yet...and we have a lot of that.

This is my first attempt at using all of those silly things that go into girl's hair. Let's just say it didn't really work...any ideas on how to get them to stay in? It looked cute for about as long as this picture..!

This was after the first day here. They are getting along already. I thought it was pretty cute!

She also doesn't mind getting dressed up and playing a little rough with her brother. He likes that. She is dressed as a knight right here if you can't tell.

This is her discovering how much fun stuff there is to get into in brother's room. She is also styling in some of his glasses! Ha!

We are so lucky and still have a ways to go to make all of this happen, but we just feel so blessed to have this little one in our home. We hope that things will continue to go well and she will continue to adjust. She is such a happy, sweet, loving little girl and one more added bonus. She eats better than Peyton does! How nice is that! :-) We love her determination, her stubborness and how she just loves everything she sees and learns. It has been a pleasure to introduce you to her.

My Cute Birthday Boy...

I know, I know, I haven't posted Christmas yet, and I'm planning on it soon...how life goes so fast I do not know. I can't believe it is the middle of January. The month that I dislike the most has slipped by very uneventfully and not really too cold or miserable. But the purpose of this post is to celebrate my cute little six year old's birthday. He is getting so big and I must say he has been so cute through all of the holiday seasons and celebrations. His excitement and joy over all of these things has been very cute to watch. When he woke up he had to get up extra early(if you look in the windows you can still see it is dark!) because he had to go to school. How depressing is that. I took the day off, but still had to get up at 6:20 to put in Monkey bread (birthday boy's request!) and I cooked the rest of the day!

This is a pre-chaos picture of the the presents. We did not do a very good job disguising the bike that he was getting. In the next picture he said that this was his big boy, six year old smile. He looks a little goofy, but it is cute none the less!

He was so excited to open presents and he did them very quick. We did not have to spend too much time opening. Christmas and birthday definitely went very quick. He had stuff opened in about five minutes.

He got so many nice things for Christmas, it is hard to figure out what to get them so soon after...we didn't even really know what he wanted. I don't think he did either. We got him a bike which we hope will be the last for the next little while because we have already gone through three....He had a tiny little kids one, he had a Wal-mart cheapo that would peddle very easily and he loved Austin's old bike because it did peddle...so that is what we were looking for when we got this one. He is a touch little, but still did just fine when we went out to ride it. It is a nicer one that we hope will finally last for our little biker!

It is against my better judgement to purchase army stuff for our little boy, but he has been so into it lately that we got him some. He is opening an army tank and some dudes that go with it.

He is saying I'm sure right now...cool! Awesome! (those must be six year old words they learn at school!)

This is the chaos that was left after five minutes...I didn't even get that many pictures because he opened them so fast.

He wouldn't pose for a loot picture so this is as close as I got. It was kind of a boring birthday for him I think because we just didn't know what to get him....but once he got into it, I think he liked it. He got a CD player/stereo, some clothes, army toys with a tank, connect 4, magnext building set and his bike...from us! Still probably too much, but we did try to cut back. We forgot about one present we had left from Christmas so he got a present later in the day that we didn't give him for Christmas too!

This was the cake I made. Mom gave me the idea to be a little lazier this year and just buy some toys for cake-toppers. So he had another star wars cake. It is definitely not one of my best cakes, but he liked it. He picked out all of the different candles that is why there is such a modge podge...

We had everyone over who was close by for dinner and presents that night....that is why I said I felt like I cooked all day long. Peyton choose pork chops and mashed potatoes and corn for his birthday dinner. Of course I tried to add a few extras...but it was a nice dinner.

Of course Peyton did not eat much because he was too excited about his presents. He kept sneaking away from the table to open them. A couple he actualy broke into and saw what was in them, but I think he had fun. Kaysha is trying to help, but I don't think he wanted any of it.

Peyton has lately had a fascination with the Blue Angels and jets and we even pulled up some on you tube for him to look at and watch. They are coming this summer to Idaho Falls so he has been very excited about them. His granny got him a blue angel pilot suit and helmet and he felt so big. It was pretty cute to watch how excited he was. She also got him a Blue Angel jet, that didn't come in the mail as quickly as she wanted it to. He got that yesterday and we've already made a commercial with it...My old student Willy and one of Peyton's buddies brought him a "Defend Freedom" pin from the military and I noticed that he had pinned it onto his suit...I may have to get used to the idea of a military man in our house...hopefully it is a phase..??

Aunt Pam and Uncle Ryan got him some more army clothes and tools (grenades, knife etc...) and some camo pants that supposedly he can wear to school (argh...there is another thing I said I would never do....but they were pretty cute I guess for a little boy! and he loved them). Aunt Angie and Uncle Matt and the kids got him a Nerf gun and some walkie-talkies. He is very excited about the nerf gun after playing with 20 of them at Angies...
We went to blow out candles and even that happened fast because I still didn't get a very good picture of him....he made a wish that he later told me was to be a Blue Angel pilot...hmmmm!???

This last picture is the gift that pop gave him...it is a remote control bull-dozer that I believe would scrap the snow off of our walks...we had to charge the batteries for that puppy all night, but he looks pretty happy with his gift...It was totally awesome I believe was how he put it!

What a cute little dude. He is growing up and it is so fun to watch how excited he gets for little things...It was a joy to have this day with him. He shares his birthday with his Grandma Scott who just passed away and I know we were all thinking about her on this special day too. We were lucky to have Grandpa Scott come to the party that night...I know it meant a lot to all of us.

I suppose I should...

I suppose I should post pictures of my cute little boy and various other Christmas pictures, however I decided to be a little selfish and post some of my favorite gifts first...I have a lot of fun and cute pictures from Christmas, but I'm going to show you my favorites... The first pictures shows you my grand total of books that I was able to purchase from all of my gift cards that I receive to Barnes and Noble. I received a 25$, 50$ and 100$ gift certificate...or a total of 175$ dollars. In 25 minutes I had this stack of books plus one more and went over my limit. This year I tried to stay within my limit so I put back one book and my grand total was 174.26...I had 24 cents left over...pretty good and I got a nice stack of books. I only got two read over Christmas...(a few more others of my own that I didn't buy!) I had a nice time reading...so all of you who think I don't like getting this Christmas...you are very wrong! I hope to one day be able to get all of the books that I want! Maybe someday! :-)

This is another of my favorite gifts. This is the first time Andy picked out a whole outfit for me and I must say he did a nice job. Pants, shirt, sweater, and necklace. I was pretty impressed and it all fit! He did a pretty good job if I do say so myself! Cute, cute, cute!

My last present was actually a birthday present, but same thing...right...My wonderful parents got me a kitchenaid and let's just say I've been wanting one of those for years...They were so nice to get it for and to top it off...it is orange! I made my first batch of cookies and it is pretty awesome! I'm already saving for the pasta maker attachment and vegetable attachment!

Thanks to everyone for all of the nice presents I got...that is not all I got, but these were a few of my favorite things...:-)

I'll post more pictures of Christmas soon!

Christmas Eve Fever

We had someone who was very, very sick on Christmas Eve. He had what I like to call Christmas Eve fever. I remember as a child how long Christmas Eve was and how much I wanted to open everything. It was a time of snooping, peeking, getting frustrated and mad, and excited all in one. Peyton had Christmas Eve Fever really badly this year. As you can see in the picture below...he helped Andy open his birthday presents and lets just say in 2 minutes flat he had basically shredded the paper and destroyed our living and was ready for more. It didn't help that he got to open presents, it just ignited the flame. We had actually wrapped presents for Peyton and put them under the tree. However, we ended up actually putting them back into the orange bedroom that has a lock on it. We showed him this present that he got to open but he had to wait until bedtime. We also told him it was a toy so he wouldn't be really disappointed. Well the fever was too much and we knew he couldn't help himself...so we threw it up onto our high ledge that he cannot reach. After I did that, I decided that would be a nice place to display all of his presents next year! The torture just might be enough he would figure out how to pile and stack chairs to get to them! This present stayed there until evening. We then went to my mom's where I found Peyton searching desparately around the tree for any present with his name on it. He then encouraged some followersTo join him...Let's just say that Pam and Pop got them out of there. However, I do believe he peeked into one present! A child after my own heart...The problem is that I know all of the tricks. You can't hide stuff, you just have to lock it away. However, when he gets old enough to pick locks like I can, we might be in trouble! I think we have one more year of him not doing that! Finally he got to open a present for him on Christmas Eve. We had survived the day with minor side effects from the fever. The only way I know how to pacify it is to open a present and go to bed and wake-up Christmas morning. Then after shredding every present and being a little bit sad that there aren't any more, the fever suddenly leaves!

However, we were able to get it to lower just a little bit by the Christmas Eve present he opened! Isn't he cute in his new PJ's! Yes I had to sew the sides so they would stay up! :-)
P.S. -Another symptom is getting caught sneaking into Christmas goodies before lunch and dinner and leaving evidence on your face. This was the Muddy Buddies I made that someone was caught sneaking into that day!

This could provide a little diversion from the real things they want to sneak into!

This Christmas was one of the best ever because Peyton experienced and illustrated all of the joy that is present when a young child believes. I know I can never get that back, but I got to live through it vicariously and it was wonderful...Oh, to be young again!

Christmas Recital

Peyton had his first clogging recital on Saturday. We were a little worried because he had been sick all week. But after a few quick rehearsals at home and working on him not watching the other dancers, he did amazing. Andy and I were amazed at what a little performer he was. He was charming and cute and really quite the stage man. No nerves and really performed well. It was so fun to watch his hard work pay off. This is one of his little friends who he dances with. This is one of my students who Peyton got to know during the play. She also danced at Patty's recital and was amazing. She is a very talented girl and she is very sweet to Peyton...This is Peyton's little class. They are from Hamer, Terreton and Dubois. The other little boy is Jenny William's little boy and it was fun to go back to Patty's and watch them all dance.

After the recital they did a little present exchange. It was really cute because Patty read a left/right story and let's just say it was a little chaotic. Peyton even pegged someone in the head when he was passing and they weren't very happy, but I don't think he meant to, it was just hard to keep up especially with the little ones.


I was very proud of Peyton. He ended up getting a blanket and he asked if he could switch his present. I whispered in his ear to be big and he was fine. I saw a few of the kids crying probably because their present wasn't what they wanted it to be! It was a really fun night and we were very proud of our little toe tapper!

Christmas Party Before Thanksgiving...??

So we had a nice Christmas party before Thanksgiving. I guess I should explain why there is a Christmas party before Thanksgiving. My family always has a Christmas party that one of us is in charge of. This year it was Holly. She will not be here for the holidays, but it was her year to be in charge. She was up for Thanksgiving week and wanted to have her Christmas party. So we all meet at my house. Her theme for the party was to do some old-fashioned things we did when we were kids so that our kids could do it. It was fun. Dad and Jayson are relaxing while everyone tells a Christmas memory. I again heard some of my favorite stories about Christmas. However I'm still waiting for Austin's Christmas memory.

Peyton is working on something that we all did in Mrs. Murdock's class. You take crepe paper and wrap it around your pencil, then did it in glue and make your picture. We ended up making candy canes for a our picture.

This is where Holly is giving everyone a candy plate and getting a little emotional because she won't be here to watch us make the candy. (because we all know she didn't help! :-)

We also did the traditional left/right present exchange. Jay did the honors be reading and I think Dad just kept what he wanted and passed all the rest on.

This is the silence of the lambs snowflake that Peyton made. I thought he did pretty good for his first snowflake.

Pam, Ryan and Dad all made quite a nice long paper chain that ended up in Kyla's room. It turned out very cute.

Carson seranaded us with some Christmas carols...that his dad did not really appreciate. But it was pretty cute!

Holly and Granny are getting Adam going with the crepe paper candy canes.

Working hard with that glue stick!

Angie was put over the scissor patrol because we had a lot of under-age scissor users and Carson kept trying to steal them.

The chain gang!

Peyton's final candy cane picture...It turned out just like I remembered them when we were kids. Thanks for bringing back the memories Holly and Mom! The food was good too! We loved the cheeseball...looking forward to more!