Playing Catch-Up

I really wish I had more time to blog. Unfortunately, I barely have enough time to get things done, much less go back and write about it later. (How do people with small children find the time to keep up their blog regularly? I really don't get that...?) Anyways, I figured I could take a few minutes and do a quick re-cap of the past few months. Better than nothing, right?

 Every October we take a drive up the canyon to see the fall leaves. I love this picture of the kids with their Nana.

 Halloween. Spiderman and the fairy princess were good to go, but baby black widow was still taking her nap, hence I don't have any pictures of them all together.

 This is the one and only picture I took of Rachel. I made this costume for Allie a few years ago (its a turtleneck with some black pantyhose stuffed with cotton and sewn together. It is a tad bit ghetto which, in my opinion, makes it all the more awesome!

 My kids have the cutest daddy ever. He is such a kid at heart, so naturally kids are drawn to him! We love daddy!

 Back in July (long story short) my grandpa Dial moved up to Enoch, and now we are in the same ward and everything. This has been such a priceless opportunity for me and my family to become closer to him. He is 94 years old and still remarkably sharp. He has told me lots of stories about his life, and I have really enjoyed getting to know him better.

 Our oldest child, Drew, recently turned 7 years old. It was his dream to have a party at the aquatic center (indoor pool/ water playground) He had been talking about it since his 6th birthday, and so we had to say yes! It was super fun. We invited a few of his friends and cousins and unfortunately, this very awkward picture is the only one I have to show for this party (of him in the water.) This is probably because #1 I never remember to take pictures, and that is probably because #2 our camera is a big piece of crap. So this is what we have. Better than nothing? (Don't answer that.)

 Serving up the cupcakes. Every year he always wants chocolate with chocolate frosting. His mother taught him well!

 This was last weekend at Marshall's family party up North. We do an annual Christmas dinner followed by a fun white elephant exchange. It is always such a fun party, and so great to see everyone.

Marshall and his little bro. playing fooseball.

Allie in Preschool

 Allie has started preschool. She is going to the same one that Drew went to and she loves it! The preschool is right around the corner from Drew's elementary school which makes carpooling easy! I am happy that my kids have such great educational opportunities and that they think school is fun. It is hard to believe that she will be starting kindergarten next year. I love this girl so much, and we have so much fun together during the day. She is my special helper and loves to help me cook, bake, and even clean and do laundry and dishes! She is such a joy to have around and has such a free little spirit which I love. She helps me to remember not to take myself too seriously. Love you, Tiny!

First Day of School!

Drew recently started first grade...he loves school and his teacher and is so excited to finally be able to take his vintage Spider-Man lunchbox to school every day. (It is actually mine- I got it at D.I. about 12 years ago, complete with 1980's thermos inside.)

Drew is such a smart kid and being in school really makes him happy! His only complaint has been that three recesses a day is too much. Marshall and I were joking that that is probably the first time in the history of kids that those words have been uttered.

Front Tooth!

I can't believe my boy is old enough to have a jack-o-lantern grin!

Rachel's 1st Birthday

I can't believe my baby is already a one year old. (Ok, I admit, technically, now she is actually 14 months old, because I have been way too busy to blog this summer!)



We had a fun little family bbq at my mom's house, where of course she got her traditional first birthday cake, made by Nana- with pink icing and sprinkles!



At first the stickiness was a distraction, but it didn't take her long to figure out that it was worth it!

She got some fun toys from grandparents.

Our little Rachie is such a joy in our home. She has the best strawberry blond hair ever, and the most gorgeous baby blues I have ever seen! She is a smart little thing, and knows how to get what she wants. She is learning new words all the time, and tends to be fiercely independent. She walks well when someone gives her a finger for balance, but chickens out and plops down as soon as we let go and then crawls at lightning speed. We are not sure when she will figure out how much easier it is to walk. She is actually pretty good about not getting into stuff like cupboards, plants, etc, she seems to know her boundaries, and responds fairly well to "no" and so we haven't really needed to babyproof anything, which is a first. She doesn't really even try to go down the stairs-she goes over to them and looks down, especially when she knows the other kids are down there, but she is good about them even though I am paranoid that she is going to try it one day and take a big fall (we have 15 stairs going down!) She loves to babble and talk and you can tell she knows exactly what she is saying, although we sometimes wish we had a translator! She is definitely still very popular with her big brother and sister, they dote on her and treat her like a little treasure. I love how much they love her and are always watching out for her. I hope they are always like that.

Up to Speed

Ok, so listen...I have accepted the fact that blogging isn't really my thing. However, it is way past time for me to update and put up some new pictures. This is totally lazy, but I have just grabbed some pictures from the past 5 months and mashed them all in here. (I figured it is better than nothing!) I really hate Blogger and find it really non-user friendly (like, why can't I change the order of my pictures after they are uploaded?? Is it just me? Why does it take forever to upload them? You would think that with as many people that use it, they could fix it up a bit? Anyway, just had to vent that real quick.) So my point is, my frustration with Blogger prevents me from wanting to update this blog very often.

Anyways, here are a few snaps of the last few months. Enjoy.



Father's and Sons Campout- May 14th 2011 near Pinto Junction, UT

These 3 clowns are sooooo cute together. It makes me so happy how much my children love each other. (Most of the time.)

Easter 2011

This boy is still so in love with his baby sister. I love it so much.

Back in April, Nana helped Drew with his first-ever science project. They did it about simple machines. I have a feeling this is a first of a very long list of science projects this kid will do in his life. He is very smart and loves to use his imagination and invent and create things. This summer, he is finally old enough to go to Camp Invention (a science camp that my mom runs for a week each summer) and he is so excited. It is totally up his alley.

The other thing that has been occupying much of our time lately is landscaping our backyard. Right now, Marshall and I are in the midst of building a retaining wall along the back of our lot. I haven't taken any pictures, but we are about halfway done with it. Maybe when it is done I can take some pictures of the finished product. It is awesome all the things you get to learn how to do as a homeowner. Many of our projects have been tedious, but we have made a lot of progress on our yard in the 16 months we have lived here.

Christmas 2010

Ok, so better late than never, right? For me, life with 3 kids, coupled with being a working mom and trying to keep up a decent house hasn't left me with a lot of free time to do most of the things I used to enjoy, such as blogging, for example. But the primary hope and reason that I do this blog at all is that one day, I hope to be able to print it up like a scrapbook. Having said that, here are some glimpses of last Christmas. (Can't have a scrapbook without some Christmas!)


We attempted to take a family Christmas picture. Attempted being the operative word. This one makes me laugh because we using the camera timer, and had already done a million takes, and could not get the baby to look at the camera. She was all over the place, and mostly wanted to look at everyone else, which only gave us profile shots. We were running out of patience from the other kids, and so we had the brilliant idea that if we turned on the TV, that she would look at that at the TV and then we would at least get the front of her face. Needless to say, this plan backfired in a major way (despite multiple threats to the older kids about looking at the TV. Actually, I am kinda surprised Marshall was able to resist the urge to stare at it. You see, they get the TV mesmerzation gene from their father.)

Christmas Sunday best.

Every year, my family has a fun tradition that we always do. We get together the last Friday night before Christmas and have a nice dinner, and then we read Luke 2 and the kids act out the Nativity. It has been fun to watch them play the same parts every year. It is amazing to watch my nieces and nephews, as well as my own children, grow and develop over the years, as they play the same parts each year. To me, these kinds of traditions that we do are a big part of what makes my family life so fulfilling to me.

The Christmas feast.

My dad reading the Nativity story.

Nana also likes to read the kids The Story of the Three Trees. This is a neat story and has also become a part of our Christmas celebration.

This Christmas, Nana worked really hard to make a special gift for all the kids. She made each child a little notebook/journal/scrapbook with blank pages to write things, as well as some special pictures of them that she chose and placed in there. She worked really hard on them and they turned out really great. Drew has enjoyed writing and drawing in his very much.

Nana and Papa came over on Christmas Eve to watch some Christmas movies with us, and we got to open the Christmas jammies!

Christmas jammies!

This will be a memorable Christmas for me. We had quite the eventful year, with the windows of heaven being opened to us even more than usual. Since we were so grateful for all that we had, didn't really need anything, and didn't really have time to stress over it, Marshall and I decided we would go very simple on our gifts for each other-one gift each. I loved what we came up with:I got him a black gym bag from Wal-Mart, and he got me a new spatula, because mine broke in the dishwasher. It was perfect. We had a great Christmas, enjoying time spent with those we love, and overall, just felt very blessed with all that the Lord had done for us over the past year.