Is It Worth It?

I know I have not put anything on here for a really long time and I know I am not very loyal when I do write things.  But, I have been wondering....is it worth it to keep this up?  I don't know if anyone really even reads this and, if not, then it is not worth my time.  So, if you chance upon this blog and actually read it, leave me a comment and I will start back up with the silliness we go through in this wonderful household!

Welcome to the World

Yes, what can I say? She already smiles at her mama! And this was right after a bath too!

On Friday, January 20, 2012 at 9:07am our lives changed from a family of five to a family of 6 with the addition of little E weighing in at 6 pounds 8 ounces and measuring 19 inches long! I could go into a real long labor story but I will spare people the details and just say it was not quite as "uneventful" and "easy" as we had planned it to be but we are sure glad things worked out and we have a new beautiful and healthy baby girl in our house :)

Her brother and sisters love her but especially B-I can already see her babysitting skills in the making. A likes to rub her head while she is eating and K just is happy to see her each day, not really interacting with her too much. Maybe that will change when she does more than sleep, eat, and poop all day long! I know this is short, but I just wanted to post this for anyone wanting to see a really cute picture of a really cute girl!

October Celebrations

In October we did some celebrating of sorts for a few milestones and memories in our lives. I decided at the beginning of the year that I wanted the kids to "know" their grandpas since both mine and Randy's dads have passed away. I got the idea to celebrate their birthdays every year. We have a little party for grandpa where we talk about them, read a story, or give some of our memories. So far for both birthdays we have also let the kids eat something that reminds us of our dads. For Grandpa Zan, the kids got to try sauerkraut (and even complained about the smell just like Randy did as a kid!) and drink some Dr. Pepper. For Grandpa Keith's birthday, we had Burger King in honor of him and after dinner, we went to the park and played a little baseball. Granted, we couldn't have a full on game with only five people but we did have fun smacking the ball around and running around the field. All of my kids have a knack for baseball and are really quite good at it. They must have learned some things from grandpa! I just wish he could be here to play with them.
B also had a big thing happen for her. She has had a loose tooth for quite some time that she just wouldn't get out of her mouth. It had been sitting there so long that the permanent tooth was coming in behind it. When we went to the dentist, I was hoping he would just pull it and get it over with, but unfortunately he just told her to get it out soon. We tried for days to get her to wiggle it. Finally, a few Mondays ago, she came home with a teeny tiny tooth in a plastic baggie and she was so excited! The story went like this according to her: She was on the bus, showing her friend across the row from her that her tooth was loose. She pushed on it a little with her tongue and it popped out flying to the girls seat across from her! The girl looked down, saw blood on the tooth, and said "Ew! There is blood on it!" Which of course made all the other girls grossed out by it! However it happened, we were just glad it was out. Since then, she has lost her other bottom tooth. Randy did the honors of getting that one all the way out for her! That permanent tooth is not coming in yet so she actually has a space like most kids do after losing a tooth! She is growing up too fast :(

Halloween Festivities

The month of October was full of fun things for us to get ready for Halloween. There is a city in our valley that always does what is called the Pumpkin Walk. Different groups of people sign up and decorate pumpkins in different scenes from movies and other popular things. The first time I ever went to the Pumpkin Walk was way back in college for Family Home Evening. It was late, cold, and there were a ton of people. Since then, I have started taking the kids during the day when the crowds are not so bad and it is (usually warmer-last year, we were in our snow clothes to walk around!). This year, it started over UEA weekend so it was a little more packed with people than usual.....but we did get to go during the day since there was no school! I made the mistake of getting the kids flu shots right before we went so A was not in the best mood-hence her face (or non-face) in the picture!

To celebrate the holiday we also decorated sugar cookies. K has been asking me to do it for a while so I decided that we would do them with leftover cookies from a mutual activity. The kids had a great time making their pumpkins, cats, moons, and ghosts into all sorts of creative things with tons of candy on them!

Finally we did the annual pumpkin carving. Just like every other year, the kids wanted nothing to do with getting the guts out so that job landed on Randy and I. Our pumpkins were soft this year so it made it easy for the kids to carve them alone-or with only a little help-and no struggling to get the pieces out. The few weeks before Halloween were pretty full for us!

A little Late

So, I have been slacking on the blog posts once again. I was really good there for about a week while I caught up on all those long ago summer months. Then, I decided I was done for a while. So, to start back up , we will go to the most recent thing that has happened:Halloween! The kids had a great day and night. K and B got to wear their costumes to school which is always an exciting thing and to have their little class parties for the day. A also wore her costume all day long and had to watch the movie she starred in (see picture below) to celebrate the day. Once everyone was home from school, work, and dance it was time to shovel in some dinner and head to the ward trunk or treat.

Once we were filled up there, Randy took the kids around the town (I can't say neighborhood since we don't have one of those!) and got their bags filled

up. One nice thing around here is the kids get to pick two candies out of the bucket since no on trick or treats anymore. So, even if you only go to half the houses of a close neighborhood, you get just as much candy! I stayed home this year to await people coming to our house. I soon realized that no one was coming so I called up Randy and headed out with them for the last half hour of getting goodies. Looks like next year we

won't even waste the time with someone sittin

g home! Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

School Days

Well, by the time I am writing this, both kids have already been in school for almost a month. I had to catch up from the summer, but now that is done, I can move on to more current events.

Anyway, school has been going well for both kids. I don't really have much to say about it, but I wanted to post their "first day" pictures. There is an extra one of B with cute little A. B was so excited to get on the bus and start school and her excitement rolled over into A. She was so happy for her sister to be doing something she really wanted to do! (Or maybe she knew she would have time with mom all by herself once B was on the bus!) Enjoy the pics!

Out Of Titles

I am out of titles to name this one....yet another post updating our summer. I have already used the review and highlights so now I am just going to write this and get it done. Check one off the list of things to do today!

So, August ended our summer vacation. Luckily, we had a few more fun things to do to keep us entertained for the last few weeks. I first took the kids to the fair. Last year I went with the Young Women in the ward for mutual and saw that there are tons of animals to see there. I figured the kids would like it-which they did-so now I have kind of made it a summer tradition

when it comes to town. Granted, there are only three different kinds of animals to really interact with-the stinky pigs, goats, and lambs but it is still fun and the kids have a good time getting up close to cow bums and looking at all the different sizes of bunnies, chickens, and roosters. So, I headed out with the kids on a nice hot day to check out the animals and walk around the booths. Last year we went on a few carnival rides, but I decided this year it was not worth the money and problems like we had last year so we opted to go around and get free balloons and candy instead! K and B even participated in their first three-legged race and won! I was really proud of their teamwork and how there was not even a single argument as they were running back and forth. I guess it just goes to show that sometimes they can be nice to each other!

Randy and I also celebrated our 9 year (yikes!) anniversary in August. Instead of the two of us going away for the weekend we opted to take the kids (I know we are nuts....I mean nice parents!) down to the Salt Lake area and use it as our one last sha-bang before school started. We had already done Sea World but the rest of the summer had been pretty boring for us so I was feeling bad about not being a good mom and letting the kids do lots of fun things while out of school. So, we left on Friday morning-did something that every kid requested which made for a long weekend, and came home Saturday afternoon. It was a lot packed into two days, but we all had a fun time and luckily there were no doctor days this trip!

K wanted to go to the Dinosaur Park

B wanted to feed the parrots

A wanted to see the elephants

We thought our weekend trip was going to be our last fun thing for the summer, but we were wrong. The Monday after school started (but still in August!) we were able to go boating with some friends in the ward. The kids had never been on a boat before and had fun just going for the ride. Of course, things got even more entertaining when dad got out on the wake board and started doing tricks. Then the real fun was starting! Once the wake board was put away, out came the tube for the kids to have some fun. K and B went first with some older girls. They were having a great time going nice and slow. Once the boat started picking up speed and they were going over some bumps, they were not sure what to think. After they realized it was supposed to be that way, the big grins came back and they had a blast. Then it was A's turn. Randy went out with her to make sure she stayed on the tube. I didn't know what she would think of the ride, but that girl was in heaven! It is hard to see in the picture, but she has a big cheeser on her face while they are riding around. Even with being dumped in the water at the end, she still talks about going again and how much fun she had.

I guess we will need to save up for a boat!!!!

That ends our summer craziness. Then it was back to school and back to schedules!