Daddy Daughter Dance

Cambryn's school had a 50's themed Daddy Daughter Dance. I got together with a friend and we made our girls poodle skirts. The girls were so excited to go. Cambryn was so excited to dress up and go on a date with her Dad to a dance. Jay and Cambryn had a blast. They even won a coupon for a free pizza, which we enjoyed the next night :). My friend Jill was in charge of the whole evening. She put a lot of work into decorating, getting prizes for a raffle, a photographer then put all the pictures together, making treats and making the night fun for the girls and their dad. Thanks Jill you really went above and beyond! It was fabulous.
Jay said one of the funniest parts was when they played Miley Cyrus -hoedown throwdown. Jay said every single girl started dancing the dance.

Mr. Tanen Tie

this is what happens when you loose a school library book.

we have search high and low for this silly book. Under beds, in beds (my kids like to read in bed), under couches, gone through bins ( that's saying a lot for me), took apart the play room, looked in Brayden's classroom (just in case), Looked everywhere, still no book.

Last year we accidentally turned one of Brayden's school library books into the public library. No worries. It was easily recovered.

Okay so here is my dilemma. My children have a homework station. A certain place for everything!Click on picture to enlarge.

As you can plainly see. Same as last year. And he still put his library book in the wrong place.
So this year I told him to please just leave his library books in his backpack. After he was done reading it or looking through it, PLEASE put it in your backpack.

Obviously that did not happen.

Now I owe $15 for a book.
Grrrr

PS I ususally get a call at least once a week from the school saying Brayden has no lunch. I go look in the car and it is always on the bench right next to his seat. Last week I got called 3 times. One of the times last week when I got to the office the sweet office ladies that call me informed me that Brayden said the reason he left his lunch box "it was all Cambryn's fault." No matter how many times I tell him to just hold it in his hand and NEVER put it down.
Any suggestions on how to solve this problem.

Piano Lessons

Brayden's first lesson. I was so excited for Brayden to have MaryEllen as a teacher.
She was a little apprehensive about taking Brayden as a student. She thought he might be a little young. He is doing AWESOME. Well at least that is what she tells me. Personally I think he is doing fantastic. It is really cute to watch him learn to play. I can't wait for him to be able to perform for everyone, or play with Cambryn.

Night Time Bath

This little guy loves his bath time. Until we have to wash his hair he hates that. He loves glasses and goggles.

Later that night.
Riggi resting
Molly resting
I had to take a picture it was too funny.

Night Night

Soccer Time

Brayden decided to try soccer this year.

He absolutely loved it. I don't think his team won any of their games. I think the parents were more worried about the kids scoring then the kids were. :)
Brayden thought he rocked and we'll just leave it at that. Jay did have to tell Brayden to "stop doing cartwheels" and to "stop laying in the middle of the field" more then once. hehe Gotta love Brayden

Dad coached Brayden's team just like he did Cambryn's first year.

Until next year....unless of course we find something else he likes to do, but he insists he loves soccer and wants to do it again next year.

Chira and Caden's last night

Our last night in Utah was so much fun! We had yummy BBQ and a picnic and just relaxed on the grass one more time!

Future Zubies? :D

Yummy food at our picnic! (yes we were cold!)

Caden eating 'corn the cob'

Brayden's awesome face eating corn on the cob (this one is the best of Brayden, for sure!)

Cambryn eating corn on the cob!

Thanks Mom and Dad for EVERYTHING!! We had such a good time! We can't wait to come home again!!

Rock Climbing!! We are so tough.....

Another thing we do when ever we're home is go rock climbing--well Charles takes the kids! :D Riggy and Caden wanted to be like the big kids and wear climbing shoes and climb on the rocks, too!

Testing the waters to see what they could get away with! (thank goodness for the candy mechines!)

Cambryn and Brayden's first time going up!

My kid wants to be cool, too!

There is a little kid wall upstairs, it's perfect for littles!

I totally wish I had one in my house!

Brayden showing us his Spidey skills!

Chillen!

We had to beg and plead with Brayden to go on the big wall more than once so he could go all the way to the top. On his third time up, he did it!! Cambryn went to the top, too! :D She was all over the place! Thanks Charles, it was so much fun!!

After we were done we went to Zupas, which has the best soup ever. It was so good. I didn't even get to eat my chocolate covered strawberry or yummy dessert I picked out! I'll have to go back again, for sure!

Dinosaur Museum @ Thanksgiving Point

K, the Dino museum @ Thanksgiving Point was so awesome! We were there forever, it was so much fun!

And, Brayden makes the best faces--just incase you didn't know!

Caden showing us his "ROAR" face...

Mom showing us her "ROAR" face...

Cyndi showing us her "ROAR" (?) face! :D hahaha, apparently she doesn't know how to be scary (umm...)

Charles was able to make a new friend, too!

There was this huge sand pit where the kids could get all dirty and move the sand and water around. They didn't want to leave!

My favorite were the smocks. Or maybe just the word SMOCKS. Thanks to Cyndi I learned that that's a real word! Look how little Riggy looks in it! So cute!

Riding a dino.

Caden was totally scared of the big shark! Brayden, clearly, was not! :D

Diging up dino bones.

We commissioned Charles to take a picture of us really fast (see below) and Rigdon didn't like not being held. Poor baby!!

Aren't we so cute? :D Our parents take us to the BYU Bookstore when ever we're all home to hook us up with some gear, and this was seriously the cutest womens shirt--go figure we all liked it! Someone totally made fun of us while were walking around becuase we were all sporten our Y shirts! Whatever!

We had so much fun, thanks Mom!!

More Crazy Fun!

Cyndi took us up to the best place ever, well, not to the kids, but to us! I'm sure all you Utah people already know about it (and if you don't, you're crazy!), it's called Ti Pan Trading, Co.--and it's bascially awesome. We were there FOREVER!! I love this picture of the kids all holding hands. They were so over it when we left!
Cyndi making more friends with the wildlife!

Mom made us the best milk shakes! They tasted like frosties from Wendy's! Don't you love Riggy's hat? My dad found it somewhere in the house. Pa came out sporting the hat, Rigdon decided he liked it and would not take it off! It was so cute!
mmm...messy babies!

Later on with the Dick Tracy/garden awesome hat. No worries he put it back on after the bath.

Caden's obsessed with drinking out of straws!!

All the kids! I love being outside!

K, I can't even type this with out laughing! There was a metor shower while we were at home. When we were outside earlier, early evening time, there were a MILLION dragon flies all over. Like, it was scary! You could hear them snapping up bugs and flying around, I'd never seen anything like it. My dad kept saying it was because of the metor shower--joking, right? :D Well, metor showers must bring out spiders, too, because while we were up sewing like 5 huge spiders came out! Where they come from, I don't even want to know! But, we sort of woke up our parents with our screams and shreeks. We had told our mom earlier that we were going to be calling her on the phone everytime we saw a spider so she could kill it (we don't kill giant Harry Potter sized spiders, sorry!). After we woke our parents up, Dad totally said, "Your phone's going to ring" to our mom. Yup--we called. She came down and killed the giant spider. And, since we were all were up at 1 am we decided to go outside and see us some metor's. Then our loudness (aka gasps of awe and wonder every time we saw a metor!) kept our dad up the whole time, too! :D Oops!

You know you wish you looked this hot at 1 am!!

Cambryn's Baptism

My mom did a fabulous doing EVERYTHING for the baptism. It really would not have happened if it wasn't for her. She really was amazing and I felt so blessed and lucky to have a mom take care of me and my family and Cambryn on her special day.

This is my adorable niece, Cambryn! She was able to get baptized while we were all in Utah. It was so special to be able to be there to see her reach such an important marker in her life!!

Cambryn and Jay by the font

The Both fam!

One more of Cambryn. This is Cyndi-- I think she looks so sweet and cute I had to show her off one more time. I am a proud mama. (picture taken by my good friend Emily- she Rocks)

What I don't have any pictures of is all the Unice's that were able to attend, and then go to my parents for food! (actually, I didn't take any of these pictures, my cousin Todd did...good thing he had his camera handy!!) It was so much fun to see cousins and aunts and uncles! Jay's parents and siblings were able to come too (since it was the day after the wedding!!). It was awesome! The next day we headed up to my grandma's for Sunday dinner. It was so much fun to see my cousin's and let the kids play! We had cake and ice cream to celebrate all the birthday's and anniversary's that are in August, too. I miss spending time at Grams's house--it's a vacation all by itself!!

Boondocks

Because Chira does such an amazing job blogging I'm just going to let her blog the rest of our Utah trip together......AKA I'm totally stealing these off of her blog...

We went to the FUNNEST place while we were in Utah--I'm pretty sure the adults almost had more fun than the kids! It's called Boondocks. Our cousins, Hill and Todd and their 2 cute kids, Aubree and Trevor, were in town, too, and were able to come! Grams was able to be there, too!

Here's a lot of us--you can't see some of the kids!

My cousin's little girl Aubree and our Grams having conversations!

Mom was awesome enough to watch the kids while we were on the go-carts! Doesn't it look like she's having fun, too?! :D

Cambryn hit the mother load on one of the arcade games she played!

I love this picture of Riggy trying to get the golf ball!!

Trevor, Brayden & Cambryn!

Golf pro?

Everyone on the put-put

Caden and Riggy--they were so cute with their little golf clubs!

The water boats was probably the funnest part! We were all soaked! This is Trevor showing how it's done!

Caden and Charles getting wet! Charles's face is killer!

The chaos!

More of the chaos!

Cyndi and Riggy--clearly Cyndi was super in to it! Rigdon did NOT like getting wet! Poor kid!

The wetness that was us--smeared make up and all!

We also got to do laser tag! Pretty much it was super fun! (Oh, the people you don't recognize are my cousin and his friends!! :D)

Basically we could be Charlie's Angles!

The boys playing arcade games!

The Best Vay-Cay ever

Brayden brought home a "getting to know you paper" the first week of school.
One of the questions was
What was your favorite vacation?

Cambryn ( who does a better job doing everyone else's homework then her own) pipes in

"Going to
Maine!"

Brayden states "The one we just went on."

Me completely dissatisfied with this answer,

"Are you sure?"

Thinking in my head what about Maine, Idaho, Arizona, DC or even Disneyland. Seriously UT we go there all the time-----

Brayden:
"Mom yeeeesss!
On Saturday we went to IHOP,
then Seven Peaks ALL DAY,
then went and got ice cream
(at the creamery),
it was the best day EVER!"


Who knew that could make for the best vay cay ever.


The only pic we have of this momentous event. Left to Right Top: Miley, Clark, Jay
Bottom: Kierra, Jenna, Cambryn, Brayden an Aubrey.
Kierra and Miley didn't go but I think they were missing their Daddy and didn't want to be left out of the pic

Best part for me (beside careless shopping all day with Alisa- It's been way to long) might have been seeing the guys get out of the car wearing matching shirts. No they did not plan it - I looked at Alisa and said, Did you pick that out for Clark-- I wasn't surprised when she said yes, we tend to do that more then you'd think!

We miss you already--- Come to Cali!!!!

the Cake [ok, and wedding!]

Part of our Utah trip was spent getting ready for Jay's little sister's wedding [it was August 6th-and a gorgeous day, I might add!!]. Jodi, the bride, asked Cyndi to make her cake. Did you know my sister makes cake's on top of all the other crazy things she does? Since I had now taken my first Wilton class, I got to be #2 in helping with the cakes--as if that makes me anywhere near qualified to make a wedding cake! It was fun, and stressful, but mostly fun! :D

How many ingredients do you think it takes to make a 4 layered cake? [we were tying to be Bakerella with our photo! :D lol]

Cyndi did the baking, I did the frosting. Riggy and Caden helped clean off the beaters!

[after 5 double batches of butter cream was made! we ended up making 2 more, too!]

mmmm

After many LONG hours of putting the cakes together we carefully placed them in the back of the van and drove to Logan. Jay got a sweet deal on a hotel--Caden was very comfy in the big bed!

Outside the temple--I didn't even get a good picture of the temple..grr

Yeae the cake!! What I didn't take a picture of was the drama of cake layer #2. The day before Cyndi had literally spent hours, probably 3, trying to get the frosting smooth--but it wouldn't work. She finally gave up, scraped all the frosting off, and pushed it to me to frost. (Oh this is Cyndi inserting this- It was between stabbing the cake to get my frustration out or wiping all the frosting off- Still Chira freaked-- and looked at me like I was CRAZY, which I totally was and said "What are you doing?") So, we started over with the frosting of the chocolate cake. When it was finally done, we put them in the boxes and then in the car. [ps...they were in the fridge all night, just in case you were wondering!] The next day we went to the church to set up the cake. We got the first 2 layers stacked and then opened the box of the chocolate cake and it was a MESS! All the frosting had completely drizzled off the cake, it was a nightmare! I wish we had taken a picture of it, but we were too stressed out! Thankfully Jays other sister, Nicole was there to keep us laughing, she rocks! We got the frosting re-put on the cake and hurried and finished. The chocolate cake was so the cake from h-e-double-hockey-sticks. Cyndi almost stabbed it. We totally asked the photographer to take pics of the cake first, because that chocolate layer just wasn't holding up--she was awesome too! When we finally cut in to the cake, we did the chocolate one first--and it went SO fast!! Guests kept asking for more of the chocolate cake! So, I guess it rectified itself by tasting good, even though it didn't want to hold up! :D

Glad to be done setting up!

Maddi [Jay's other little sister] and Cambyrn at the guest book table

Brayden keeping himself busy with his DS at the reception! Can you see the boy's cute ties? Yea, we totally made those--thanks to my mom's mad sewing skills! They were so cute!

The whole night Caden kept disappearing. Larry, Jay's dad, found Caden here--in the kitchen, can you tell what he's doing?...

licking the frosting off the trays!! Silly boy!!

Thanks for letting me help, Cyndi! It was fun to see the behind the scenes of making a
fan-ta-bulous
wedding cake!

Thanks Kiki- for keeping me sane- I totally couldn't have done it without. Love you to pieces!

ps when i get some pics from the wedding I'll post them.

&

The Day the Power went OUT

We're used to thunder storms--rain, wind, thunder, lightening. What we're not used to is NO POWER! Most of us were in Orem watching Cambryn's dance-camp performances and had no idea the power was out until Cyndi talked to Jay [who was at my parents house with my 2 nephews]. There were 3 cars of us driving home at the same time, and thankfully my dad happened to hear on the radio that there were power lines down on HWY 89 between Springville and Mapleton [where my parents live]. So, we had to detour and what not but we saw so many power line poles leaning against trees or completely broken at the base! It was crazy! Just on the street my parents live off of there were 3 poles that were broken. Needless to say, it was going to be a while before the power came back on! "Adventure!" one might think, right? Sure! We had to wait for the wind to die down before we could turn on the grill so we could have some dinner [thank goodness my parents have a grill!] Trying to prepare everything with a flashlight was an odd reminder of girls camp--at least the toilets still flushed! Jk, it was fun! The stressful part was that the NEXT DAY we had to have 4 cakes completely frosted and ready for the drive to Logan for Jay's little sister's wedding. The power being out for 6 hours seriously cramped our cake frosting time! [I'll post pics on that tomorrow!]

Caden and Riggy were watching the trees blowing in the wind

Then they moved their operation to the kitchen and Cambryn and Brayden joined in! I love it!

How do you entertain two 2-year-olds when it's too windy to go outside? Let them watch Pa on the lawn mower! Riggy and Caden [yes, in switched jammies since they both HAD to have Buzz Lightyear on!] Watched our dad on the lawn mower the entire time he was out there--probably close to 45 minutes! When he was out of sight at one window they would run to a different window saying, "Where's Pa?" to where they could see him and shout, "hi Pa! hi Pa!!" Dad did wave, but I don't know if he knew at the time they followed him the whole time he was out side!

I love this one! :D I have a video of it, but it's not loading right now...I'll figure out in the morning and re-post it, it's so funny!

[ps, this is Chira again--and can I just tell you
I feel so smart I figured this out...I know
it's not hard, but I'm special like that!!]

The Sweet Tooth Fairy

I am a slacker poster/blogger, so my fabulously awesome sister posted this for me. If you didn't know my sister rocks. ove you Kik's



I know you're all as obsessed with cupcakes as we are--so no laughing at our pictures! :D After reading and hearing a lot about this particular cupcake shop, we HAD to stop by! It's adorable, and famous for their va-NIE-lla squared cupcake!! Pretty sure we wanted to hang out there all day with the cute girls that work there! [and that the girl that was helping us totally hooked Cyndi up with a much needed cake supply for the wedding cake--more to come on that!] It was a sweet experience!

Posing on the outside,

Posing on the inside!

Mom was our chauffeur that day, so we left Riggy in the car to sleep...but he still wanted to hold on to his yummy sucker! [Do you see me there next to Riggy? Yea, trying to squish my bottom in between the car seats was an interesting experience--these car seats sure are bigger than their infant ones!]

Caden eating his own yummy sucker [although they ended up trading a few days later--is it gross to keep suckers for a few days?--and Riggy finished off Cadens! haha! note to self--apple is much better than cookies and cream when it comes to suckers!]

Eating mac and CHEESE for lunch!

Embarrassing/celebrating our bro's birthday! He was able to get off his night shift on his b-day so the 'rents took us out to dinner! It was so yummy [never mind that I haven't had any delectable Mexican food since moving to the east. I'll eat at La Casita any day!] We totally brought a cupcake, with candle and lighter, with us to dinner! Then we sang. It was awesome! Then the waiter brought Charles fried ice cream, because it was his birthday--too bad they didn't bring him a sombrero to wear, too! :D It was awesome to be able to spend Charles's bday with him! Love you!

You know you're jealous of our yummy cupcakes! Ok, I am too, since we only ate 4 :( They're so big!! We decided to quarter them so we could try them all...but you can't just eat a quarter!! They were all very, very yummy, but my most favorite was the key lime cupcake! [bottom left]

mmmmmmmmm

Do you want to know how many pictures it took until we got one of us both smiling? 5! One of us was taking a bite in all the others--basically we just wanted to eat the cupcakes!

I couldn't leave this one out! So, you may not know that my grandma used to live with my parents--she had her own apartment in my parents house. [I don't really like saying 'she lived in the basement' because that might sound odd...she really did have an apartment, in the basement!] She passed away 2 years ago, and many of her awesome antique things are still in the downstairs apartment--which is where Cyndi's family sleeps when we're all home. Anyway...we were snooping--like any good grandchildren should do!--and came across these fur coats. Yup, REAL fur coats [but we didn't know that!]. We couldn't resit a picture. There were 2 others we were going to put on, both cloak/cape things, but when my mom said that the fur on one was monkey fur Cyndi got grossed out! REAL monkey fur--on a collar of a coat thing. That is gross. But, now I wish I had a picture so I could show what it looked like! Maybe next time we're home we'll get a picture with some old gloves my mom had and a hat or two! I guess we never grew out of playing dress up!!

[posted by Chira...I gotta give myself some credit!! :D]

Our Awesomeness!

Guest Post by my awesome sister, Chira.
You can see her blog here

When Cyndi and I are together we tend to get a little spazzy--what can I say, we're more like than we ever thought we'd be! While searching for some essentials at Joann's, we found some unexpected treasures--which of course called for a picture montage--you know you love us!

Some incredibly smart person made a product that gets deodorant off your shirt! Becuase using a towel or the shirt to remove such stains is far too complicated!

My favorite product: disposable armpit sheilds. There's nothing more to say.

Now, we know these are essentials for beauty pagents, but Joann's? Seriously?

A cure to the classic problem--gaping and bulging shirts!

I liked my cure: buy a bigger shirt!

We were so excited because we had to play the "what's in your purse?" game and I totally won! I had bra liners in my purse--just in case!

Some of you may know my brother, he's kind of a hippy--and we love him for it! We found the perfect hair pieces for the brides maid's to wear at his future wedding. [No, he's not engaged or anything, we're just planning ahead!! Aren't we thoughtful?]

Some of you may know my sister is skidish around birds...

But, then again, she's been known to charm animals, too!

We had to take a picture of our new best friend--the girl with the white blouse and blue skirt and yo-yo-headband. We were so excited by her adorable outfit we didn't get her name--we call her "cute outfit girl!" She rocks!

While paroosing we came across the knitting section--you know where they have books of knitting and crocheting patterns. On one of the books were small crocheted animals riding bikes. Now, I'm not trying to dis knitting or crocheting, I'm a fan of both. But, why don't pattern books introduce more visually appealing crafts, like these cute fabric made cakes? Tastey, no?!

Thanks for joining us for our picture montage! Hope you have as much fun as we did the next time you go to Joann's!

Happy 1 year anniversary

I am a sucker for a good photographer. I love love love pictures.
You have to check out this photographer and her contest :)

First Day of School

I find it almost hard to believe that summer is in fact actually over.
We had a great summer. Full of lots of fun, friends and way to much good food (well at least while we were on vacation).
The kids were ready, sort of, to start school. They were nervous and excited. Then again so am I. I will miss them (seriously I do love when they are home, and if they start to bug I just send them to a friends. You know you do it to). I will try to find
things to do to occupy my time while they are away :)





My first grader looking so cool. He is starting to look like a big kid not my little boy anymore.

The fashion queen started third grade today. Thank you Alisa for spending ALL Saturday, literally until 9pm, shopping with me. I loved every minute of it. You are amazing! PS come visit me :)

I actually remember my third grade year vividly. I was in a 3rd,4th, 5th combo. I always had my name on the black board and had to do push-ups for talking to much (don't tell my kids that), I got my only referral that year for doing a flip on the swing the very first day of school, and all the girls dotted all their i's with hearts for the hot forth grader Ray.

I also for the first time in my live experienced the negative effects of gossip and had my stomach punched by a classmate--- Ray may or may not have been the subject of all the gossip.....

Our Very Own Richard Simmons

Need I say more.....

He's getting a hair cut tomorrow. His hair has gotten a little crazy. No worries I'm not ready to cut those lovely locks quite yet.

Activity Day Talent Show.... To be continued

love these girls... modeling the pj bottoms they made

We had our Activity Day Talent Show today. The girls did a fabulous job. I know that this is a crazy weekend with family, friends, reunions, vacations, baptisms and of course the 4th. So thank you to the girls that came we missed the rest of you!

I was going through the pictures. I'll post more more. As you can tell Rigdon thinks he should be in the pic as well... He weaseled his way into a few of the pics. Crazy two year old.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Warning
This a total journal type post.

Today was my first day in YW.
I knew last week I would have a hard time this week when the primary kids sang in church.

The first time I was called to serve in primary, I was screaming inside "Are you serious? Me in primary? There is no way I am going to do this?"
Of course what came out of my mouth was "Yes, I would love to."

The following Sunday the Primary sang. Within seconds the spirit testified to me that this was where I was supposed to be.
Today I was so glad I had moved to a different pew away from Jay ,(so Rig could have a better view of his Bro and Sis and yell hi to them). so Jay didn't see me crying for the few seconds I let me guard down. Totally hate crying- well at least in front of people.
Sometimes you just need to let it out :)

I really don't understand why people don't like serving in primary. It IS a lot of work-but everything is when you try to do your best. But it is also soooo rewarding. ( Jay always says I go over and beyond what I should, but if you know me- that is just who I am. If I happened to not- it wasn't because I didn't want to - I most likely was going over the top with something else and ran out of time, this does hapen on occasion with me)
I am really really going to miss the laughter, the singing, the hugs, the silly sunbeams (we have the cutest sunbeam and they are very entertaining) the honesty

(like "Sis Both I'm bored," "Why do you always where Big earrings?, "" We had 2 pets they both died. One died because we didn't feed him (pretty sure that was a bird not a fish) " Talking about word of wisdom and how we don't drink alcohol- One of the kids pipes in shaking his head disapprovingly "Yeah my Dad ALWAYS is drinking Dr Pepper" I could make a huge list here that would take forever and I know that when I hear what Brayden says in class I am mordified so we'll just leave it at that- I literally laughed out loud every Sunday from the comments they would say)

the special drawings for me, the excitement, wanting to be held, the silliness, the eagerness (even if it was to be done with class), the thank you at the end of the day .

Oh and then my girls I AM majorly going to miss you-- During the Sacrament program today some of the girls said things about their fathers- I almost lost it. I am so going to miss them. It is so crazy to me how little time it takes to love-- One of the hardest things about leaving Provo was leaving my Activity Day girls- They had become my "other" children and I literally would have done anything for them. Saying good-bye was too much for me.
How grateful I am to have been able to serve these sweet girls. I am going to miss their kindness, the weekly hugs on Sunday and the million questions about what we are going to do next, watching them grow spiritually, their willingness to obey and help eachother.

I know my time is done here- at least for now.

One of my favorite scriptures is 3 Nephi 17.

As a child when taught this story we imagine what it must have been like to be there with all the children. To have Jesus bless all the children one by one. Then Jesus says "Behold your little ones"
Then have the heavens open and angels come down and encircle the children.
I have always loved that story

As an adult -- I understand the meaning of the these words. Behold your little ones-- Observe or see your remarkable little ones
Remarkable enough that Jesus wept and Angels came down and surrounded all the children and attended to them.

Being teacher or parent to these remarkable children, really is an amazing thing. When you are surrounded by these sweet spirits it is undeniable how truly close they are to Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. That they really are remarkable.
It is this I will miss!

Since I mentioned it I am going to leave these last verses in 3 Nephi 17 for you to read

21... and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.

22 And when he had done this he wept again;

23 And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones.

24 And as they looked to behold they cast their eyes towards heaven, and they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them.

Cambryn's Ballet Gala

Cambryn dance Gala is doing Cinderella for the Ballet part. She is a Bluebird and a shop keeper. I haven't taken any pics yet of her in her shop keeper costume. I'll do that tonight. She did an excellent Job last night. We are so proud of her!

Here is Cambryn with one of her teacher's, Miss Traci.

I don't have the best camera in the world so I'm lucky that other people do and share their pics with me.
Thank you!

Brayden's last Day of School

The Kindergartner's had a Pinata party

Here is Brayden's Kindergarten Class. I can't believe he is a first grader now!

Roar Scary Monster

I LOVE it when my kids rediscover old toys. They found the bag of Cranium Masks a few weeks ago and haven't sopped playing with them. Berto keeps walking around saying "Roar. I funny Mommy."

If you haven't noticed my baby is totally living WT style. I never thought I'd be that mom that lets her kid run around in just a diaper all day. I even remember a time when Jay would come home from someone's house he had just visited and say

"Yeah there house was really bad. Yada yada and there baby wasn't wearing any clothes. He/She was just in a diaper."

Hmmm lets see My baby plays outside half the day, in the dirt, with the chalk, with the dogs, Won't wear a bib at all, no matter how many times I put it back on, and isn't the cleanest eater, He's 2 what do you expect?

Yes I could Oxi-Clean (new favorite cleaner, Thanks Jessica, wish I knew of it's awesomeness earlier. But you have to get the laundry one. It is already mixed. But you can use it on everything else too. It is a multi purpose cleaner. Carpet, furniture, counters- just about everything--Love it!), but let's just face it I don't have endless hours to pre treat every outfit he puts on. I don't like him going out to messy- That's just ghetto! :)

So instead we keep the clothes clean- Get the baby neked! When we go out I put the baby in the sink wash the face, hands and legs/feet. Then put the clean clothes back on.
Then when we come home. Clothes back off!
I'm So Smart!

What do you do in the summer time?

When you don't have a pool you find other ways to get soaking wet!

Here is where it all started. We had friends over for dinner and to play. I'm not exactly sure how washing the dishes turned in to washing the toys, but it did. We ended up with LOTS of clean toys that night.

Rigi has decided that it is his new favorite past time. Whenever I do anything at the sink, including wash my hands, he drags a chair over and says "help Mommy help."

How do I resist that face?

Crafting it Up!

Long time..... ☺ Oh I HAVE missed you blog. Just so you don’t think I sit around all day doing nothing (unless of course your definition of nothing is-
A person who chases a crazy, busy, talkative, sweet 2 yr old, goes to the gym, does way to much homework for someone not in school, has relearned reading and math, cleans the same things over and over again at least 10x a day it seams,
(dirty is so much easier.....RIGHT?), learned ballet and the violin, again, Is a pro at Zack and Wiki (that might actually count as nothing ☺) chases Rigi- it is worth saying twice, drives the kids around, etc you’ve heard it all before) then yes I am doing nothing. And loving it! I love being busy with my kids. I just wish I had more hours in the day to do more crafting.

So I am showing off for a few and I must give credit where credit is do. I am a crafty copier- crafters beware, if it is cute I am so copying it.

Aubree was really sweet and shared her Birthday with Cambryn. I made Aubree her cute Birthday hat and embellished her tee with some fabric and bling. A Girls gotta have some bling! I have more pics....

Fun Baby Cake

I Basically want to copy everything this lady does. I want to Live Life Patino Style. We could so be glitter buddies. She is over the top which I LOVE. In another post I’ll be showing lot’s of fun things that I’m making or have made thanks to Miss Patino. I was inspired to make a cute St. Patties day shirt for Cambryn.
If you want a taste of the Patino Life Click here

back

front

clip

I've made
Lot's of these

and this.

I made these end of the year thank you's for the kids teachers. Love the wrapped sterling on the peach beads.


Party anyone?

Who doesn’t love to receive presents. For me I think I have more fun making presents then receiving them. . . most of the time :)☺. When my friend, mother of 5 boys, found out she was actually having a girl. I think all of her friends 1- started praying that this baby would make it here okay 2- hmm what are we going to get this baby--- everything. I think we all wanted to spoil this baby and mom. I have no words to describe what an amazing mom and person she is. I asked her what she wanted of course she said whatever, just as long as it was hand made. Theme red so I went with it Here is what I made her.

I just went to her house the other day to make more bracelets and binkie clips. She decided she needed more bracelets to match all the outfits-- :)

This tu tu onsie was so cute I almost had to keep it. I ruffled 3" strips of tulle and sewed them on the onsie then put swarovski crystals on for a crown. Perfet for the little princess.

Ian's crib bedding you can see his cute room here

I can't wait to see it in person.

For Caden. Miss you!

I made a nursing cover tutorial if anyone wants it. It is really easy. Lining is the trick!

We got to go visit the newest Both in January. What a little sweety. He will be so big next time we see him. Cambryn and Brayden loved holding him. Sometimes they actually fought over how would be able to hold him. Brayden was really sweet and would hold him forever.

I was so excited to make him some cute things and his big sister too. I saw this on a web site and I had to make one. I had been itching to use my grommit setter.
Way better cover then what I had for Cambryn and Brayden.

Isn't he the perfect model.

Cambryn with Baby Noah. So sweet.

We made these for Activity Days. I had the girls write a letter to themselves with a goal for this year and then put it in the box.

I got these wooden boxes from the dollar store. Rounded up some cute scrapbook paper. Made a pattern unhinged the boxes and let the girls have at it. We Mod Podged the paper then sanded the edges, then mod podged again and put their cricut cut names on with Mod Podge. Then another layer of Mod Podge. Fianally Hot Glue cute layered flower on Top. Oh and put the hinges back on.

This was before they had all put their names on. They turned out Super Cute!

Cambryn rockin' the leotard I made her. I love the ruffles around the neck. I would love a bathing suit with halter straps like that.

I found this all over the blog-net at Halloween time. Kiki and I made the actual BOO ones and then had this fantabulous idea to make one for every Holiday. What a great idea. Well a couple of months went by, Kiki made her Valentines one sooo cute (I'm not sayng her other ones weren't cute). I had to copy. Love Pink, Love glitter. I got stumped on Spring--- anyone have a 3 letter or 4 letter word to describe spring, besides EGG. Thanks Chris
You can see the details to make one of these
Here

One of my favorite Blogs around is Just a Girl. She has some of the best ideas. She truly sees the lemonade out of that lemon. I have copied a few of her things and been inspired by other things she's done. So worth checking out!

Hand Sanitizer Blinged Out - Teachers Valentine Presents
Directions
Here

Altered Compostition Book
Instuctions
Here

If you haven't guessed yet I love Mod Podge. It is basically a staple for crafting. Seriously I use it for everything. It is an essential tool. Guys have duck tape, I have Mod Podge!

These are so old but worth sharing. We made these at our Super Saturday. Such a cute easy idea. Take a book ( this is actually one of the blue Book of Mormons) cover with cute paper and some mod podge- love the stuff if you couldn't tell- a couple of times.
Put a cute ribbon around it secured with a brad on the front and back with a flower embellishment. Ta Da
Cute scriptures for church

Front

Back

Oh I made these really cute Trick or Treat Owls for Sharon's Boys. She sent me the tutorial Here

I thought of lots of cute ways to change these for my kids.... if I end up making them

Few Okay I think that is enough for now. See you soon......

Violin Recital

Cambryn did an excellent job playing her violin. She played Minuet 3 by Bach. She is very excited to be almost through the first Suzuki book. She is a very hard worker and Mom and Dad were so proud of her for trying her best.

Cambryn wanted a new "concert" dress. Any excuse for a new outfit-- True True!
I gave Cambryn 2 options and this is the one she picked.

I originally saw this outfit HERE

(Major addicting blog)
Which lead me HERE

I changed mine up a little to make it go a tad bit faster. But I honestly didn't think it took that long. The whole outfit took only a few hrs. I took one of my old shirts and took in in and up a little to fit Cambryn, but left enough seam allowances so she can wear it a while.

I think it turned out pretty cute!

Rigdon copies everything everyone else does. I LOVE it!

Family Visit

The day after Christmas Jay's parents came. We had a lot of fun with them. Okay we had way to much fun playing the Wii. I think we burned more calories then we ate..... Maybe not Christine's Enchilada's were killer yummy.

While they were here we mostly fished and played the wii. I wish we could see them more often, but I am very grateful they came out to spend time with us during the holidays. I hope we can visit them again soon.

We love you and are so blessed to be a part of your family :)

Fishing with Grampy

Fishing with Grampy and Grammy

This one LOVES to fish. I guess when you actually catch something then it IS fun!

And when that doesn't work playing with a stick can provide hours of entertainment. SERIOUSLY!

Who are we kidding here is what Brayden really wanted to do.

shhh...

Cyndi and her lizard!

IT'S MY SISTER'S BIRTHDAY!!!

I tried to put up as many silly pictures of Cyndi as I could find on my computer--but I don't have that many!! :D
Happy Birthday Cyndi!!!!

worken it! teehehehee

Dad and lil Cyndi

we're special, you're all jealous! [I think this is '98?]

My favorite picture of us!

Today minus 5 years! Thanks for letting me get married on your birthday! I love you!!

*Kiks*

Christmas Summary... It's about time

This was our 5th Christmas here in Bakersfield. We moved here December of 2004.
I can't believe we have been here for 4 whole years.

Christmas Eve
We spent Christmas by ourselves this year-not my favorite thing to do. I love loud family chaos. Constant laughter and conversation. Lot's of crazy giggling kids.

We went with our good friends, the O'Neill's to their Church's Christmas service.
It was really nice. The kids really enjoyed it and it was good celebrate the birth of our Savior with friends.

Singing Christmas Carols

Puppet Navity

This is a story about what Christmas is NOT all about-----

Wow Brayden those are some pretty big VROOM VROOMS (Riggi's word for car)

Brayden I think those were supposed to be for me.

Rigdon think again

This is so unfair

I never get what I want....

Poor Baby

Ohh what's this

Cars for me Yeaay
All better

Santa's Foot prints and magic snow. We get it where we can. Little Berto was trying hard to stay awake :) Can you spot him on the couch?

He acts like he's so tough....

Brayden's hiding spot

Rigdon's hiding spot

We had a great Christmas and could hardly wait until the next day for Jay's Mom and Dad to come and play with us for a couple of days. I love family!

He's 2

Yesterday was Easter as well as Rigdon's second Birthday. I can't believe we have had this sweet crazy baby in our home and lives for 2 whole years. They have gone by sooo fast.
We decided to celebrate his Birthday today instead of yesterday- Too much with Easter. I climbed into my bed at 4am yesterday morning to (finally) go to sleep- Rig was already in our bed and on my pillow. I leaned over kissed him goodnight and wished my sweet baby Happy Birthday.



I promise I am not skipping all the other good stuff ie- Cambryn's B-day, party, Easter visitors, Spring Break we've been busy. Here are some of the pics I took of Rig on His actual Birthday. How can you not love this kid.

Just watched this movie- I missed so much the first time. Maybe I shouldn't watch movies at midnight and fall asleep in the theatre. :) Yeah for free itunes download. now I can watch it at the gym too!
Hello Hot Picture!

At this very moment Rigdon is currently Singing, no belting out the words (Riggi style) to Tomorrow.
No worries we are pretty confident in his manhood.

A few weeks ago in dance Cambryn started learning a new dance to one of the Annie songs, Your never fully dressed without a Smile.
Since then Cambryn has literally become obsessed with the movie. She has been getting up at 6:30 in the morning to practice her violin. After I will find her in the play room watching Annie.
It is virtually impossible for me to not sing the songs when I hear them. Ditto for Cambryn.
Brayden is too cool for this (although I do occasionally hear him singing to HSM 3 in the car- he won't admit it) Riggi doesn't know any different yet.

We think it is pretty cute. With that I will leave you with
a little annie imagine little Rig singing. I know I have got to record it. Maybe tomorrow---




Sorry everyone I thought I bought the original Annie, but Cambryn decided that she liked this version any way. She even informed me that on youtube you can watch all the songs.

At the Dr

I don't know about you but modern technology sure makes dr visits with children so much more enjoyable for me !





Wasting time at the dr's office: I was looking through my pics on the camera. Rig has a new thing every time he sees me with the camera he starts saying cheese and doing a goofy grin until I take a pic :)

Not so bad this time around

No crying now. He was trying so hard to pull it out. The day after I took these pictures he pulled it out at school. I asked him if it hurt he said "No I just ripped it out."

Gotta love the toothless grin!