Meet the Laings

Birthday Girl

2012-01-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

Wow, my baby is 4! She just started Primary, sunbeams, finally. The other day she fell and hit her head and immediately said, "It's ok, I'm ok, I'm in Primary now." That comes up a lot lately, "I'm in Primary." She is a big girl now. She loves to help me, especially in the kitchen. She loves Pink and Purple, Barbies and baby dolls. She REALLY doesn't like her hair done. She loves to have jammie days, most every day lately. She has her bath and everything and then goes right into another pair of jammies. She loves to watch Scooby Doo, have stories read to her at night, mommy to sing to her and then mommy to lay with her.

Here she is helping to knead our favorite, homemade naan (Indian Flatbread)
Here she is in her new dress from Nana Paula on her very first day of Primary.

Reggie, our elf on the shelf.

2012-01-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

We finally got an elf on the shelf this year! Micah named him Reginald and we call him Reggie for short. He doesn't leave us any treats or surprises like I've heard some elves do, but he does hide or go to a different place every night. The kids had a fun time looking for Reggie every morning. Here are just a few of the places we found him.

On a date with Taylor.
Practicing the piano
Hidden in a drawer in the bathroom.
Playing football with one of the boys build a bears.
Atop our Christmas presents from Santa! He's back in storage now and we are looking forward to seeing him again next season.

We Believe

2011-12-20T10:23:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!
No Christmas card this year. Things have been busy, like they always are I guess, so I'm going to make this my Christmas greeting.

Tyler is still with CalTrans, serving on the Greater Valley Credit Union Board of Directors, was released as 2nd counselor in the bishopric and then called as 1st counselor. He is no longer the one to issue a plea to those asked to give talks, so life is much more enjoyable for him now.
Micah is still taking piano (almost 4 years now) and just started violin lessons with my mom as his teacher, he was Student Body VP and was in his school's production of Cinderella as the Prime Minister. He still loves to draw and I find artwork all over the house. He also was asked to join the GATE program at school and enjoys that, chess club and trail partners.
Jacob is also still taking piano (about 2 years I think!). He saved up for many months and bought himself an ipod touch and has been loving that. Jacob is also in GATE this year with Micah. You can often find him with a thick book in his hand, just like his mom!
Ben, what can I say about Ben? He is a funny, cute, little boy. He still loves games of all sorts and loves to read, especially his scriptures, just like his dad! He is fearless and daring and often getting hurt (latest injury is a rope burn on his neck, look closely and you'll see it), so it's a good thing he's our toughest kid!
Peyton is my best buddy. She is a tom boy and a princess. She likes to play Barbies and Ninja Turtles a lot. She is always chattering and singing and enjoys private time in her room making messes that she always apologizes for. She is very grateful when I clean her room as she likes it to be clean but does not like to clean it! Her favorite thing to wear is a sleeper and I often let her wear one as her day outfit, I'm such a nice mom.
As for me? Not sure what to say about myself. I am happy, I still enjoy crafting and reading and have been working on keeping a schedule since I am horrible at balancing my life! I have washed my Van more in the last 6 months than I have the last 6 years! It's true. Every Friday you may find me in the driveway cleaning the Van inside and out. As for eating right and exercising, that took place for a year ending this past June, sorry if you missed it. You may catch it again starting this January, that's when I'll stop cleaning my van and probably my house too. I have been having fun with my activity day girls (ages 8-12) they are a rather large and very talkative group of girls and I love them!
I hope your year has been a good one! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Violin Lessons

2011-11-22T14:12:00.001-08:00

Micah has been asking for violin lessons for a while now but with him already in piano we didn't want to spend the additional money and we didn't want to take him out of piano. My mom pulled through for us and for Micah's birthday gift she got him a violin book, lent him one of her violins AND is giving him lessons! She used to teach violin years ago and has been wanting to start playing again, so it works out for everyone!!! They had their first lesson together today and it was fun to see my mom in action, Micah has a great teacher.

Here Micah is playing pizzicato (finger picking). This is one of the first skills before he goes on to bowing.

My mom tuning her violin, next week we'll move them to the music room (aka sewing room) with chairs and music stands.
Micah and Nana Paula after his first lesson.
Thank you mom!!!

Accomplishments

2011-11-06T19:44:00.000-08:00

Micah turned 11 on Friday! I cannot believe I have an 11 year old. He's in sixth grade this year, student body VP and he's going to be in the school's play, Cinderella as the Prime Minister this Thursday night! For those of you that know Micah, this is incredible. He has really come out of his shell this year and is realizing his talents and interests. He just crossed over from cub scouts and is now in boy scouts. Life is incredibly busy but good. We have 2 boys in soccer, 2 in piano, 1 in cub scouts, 1 in boy scouts, 2 in the play (Jacob is stage crew) and I'm sure there's something I've left out. Tyler is always busy with Bishopric duties and I am in activity days now (8-12 year old girls week night activities).

Micah got a rip stick (like a skate board but only has 2 wheels) for his birthday. He was the only one that could do it, now Jacob can do it too. When no one was around last night I tried it...I definitely can't do it. I'm so glad I tried it in secret!

Tyler and I were the proudest parents last month, we had all 3 boys get Sparthenian of the quarter! It is like student of the month, they used to award it monthly, this year they only do it quarterly, and this was the first time it was given this year. We are trying our best to make a big deal out of any of their accomplishments so as to encourage them to continue accomplishing things, so we rewarded them with dinner out at Red Robin. It is times like these that I feel like I'm not completely screwing up as a parent!
I am so excited that it is now November, and cold! My favorite time of the year. Time for soup and hot cider, jeans and sweaters, warm pajamas and blankets, cuddling up to my husband at night instead of pushing him away! Thanksgiving and our Anniversary, and of course...Christmas! My sewing bug should be kicking in anytime now, I can't wait!

Pinterest...I don't just pin! #4

2011-10-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a bit burnt out on blogging pinterest stuff. I'd rather be pinning or making my pins I guess! That being said, this may be my last pinterest pin, maybe not, we'll see.

This was the water marbling technique, I loved it, it also actually lasted longer than when I polish my nails the usual way! I watched a how to video which helped a ton. It is a pretty easy way to get a very cool look. Below was my first attempt, I learned a lot. The more polish you drop in, the closer your lines are and the darker they are. Notice my middle finger that looks a bit like candy corn? That one didn't have as much polish dropped in.

This is after I removed the tape and most of the polish from my skin.
My right hand, the ring finger was less polish and I swirled it around a bit more than the others.

Deep fried battered chicken, I think it was called sesame ginger chicken. I had to change the sauce recipe quite a bit to make use of what I actually had. It turned into a grapefruit ginger chicken. It was actually really good. It was hard to keep my oil at the right temp. I got it way to hot at one point and smoked up the whole house. Next time I may borrow a deep fryer, that would make things much easier.
Loved this one, we have very few Halloween decorations so this was great. We ran out of trash bags so I sent Micah to a neighbor where he got 2 black trash bags. We cut them into strips all the way to within 1 inch from the bottom of the bag, then cut the side open and along the bottom of the bag. Then we stretched each strip, if it tore, we tied the back on. I taped the bottom of the bag behind the front overhang on our porch. Viola! Witch curtains. They look so cool when they sway in the breeze.

Pinterest...I don't just pin! #3

2011-10-16T14:13:00.000-07:00

Black Licorice Caramels for Tyler's birthday. Even if you don't like Black Licorice you might like these, they were SO good.

I changed up the same recipe and made Coconut Caramels. Again, yummy.
I'll be making these again.
I found a recipe for sugar cookies that are as good, if not better than Lofthouse cookies, you know, the kind you find in the plastic containers that are frosted based on whatever holiday is closest. Anyway, really, really good. We made them for Activity Days too. I made them for Tyler's birthday as well, initially. I didn't have any powdered sugar to make the frosting and it was Sunday, so the store wasn't an option and I found out by googling that you can make your own powdered sugar! It's much cheaper, I will be doing this from now on.

Pinterest...I don't just pin! #2

2011-10-09T13:48:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to get these posts done kind of quickly but also be organized a bit. This post is all wall or hanging stuff, mostly wreaths which I'm obsessed with right now.

This is my twig wreath. Tyler didn't like it on the front door, well, he really didn't like it at all, but I moved it off the door. It was getting bumped a lot and I had to keep gluing twigs back on. Now it is tucked back away where it won't bug Ty or get bumped.

These fabric flowers or rosettes are my favorite. I just found a tutorial on making a stretch ring with them and am going to do that soon. I made these to adorn my burlap wreath.
This is the wreath I did a class on for Super Saturday.
I did not see this on Pinterest but I bet it's on there somewhere. When I went to Utah my sisters in law taught me how to make it, it's just Lima Beans glued on a foam wreath form then spray painted. Easy.
These flowers I made with an old sweater of mine that I accidentally shrunk, a lot. You cut a circle, spiral cut the circle and roll from the inside out.
These are canvases my friend Kendra gave me that I stapled fabric onto, that is all over Pinterest.
Here is the back of my paper rosette wreath, the 97 cent pipe insulation that you can get 2 wreath forms out of. My friend Christie just bought some for my class though and it's gone up to a dollar something, still cheaper than the foam forms at the craft store.
I made this wreath for my mom for Christmas and I added some scrapbook paper to match her colors.
This is the first one I made, just book pages. I made it on a wicker form from dollar tree.

Pinterest...I don't just pin! #1

2011-10-04T10:52:00.001-07:00

I am in LOVE with Pinterest! I am now never without ideas, ever. I am going to do another blog series, this time featuring the stuff I have done from Pinterest. I'm not sure I finished my "This summer..." series, so I might throw in a few of those here and there!

So, I'm starting with my least fun projects. I tried the glass cutting and wasn't very successful with it. I had my parents save some wine and liquor bottles for me. In this first pic is a whiskey bottle, I tried to cut it in several different places and it just wouldn't. Too thick? I have no idea.

This wine bottle was the first one I was able to cut. It would have been an awesome shape too...but it cracked, sniff, sniff. If I could do it successfully it would be fun to make a bunch of drinking glasses from wine bottles.
This Maker's Mark bottle cut, surprisingly. It chipped on one side but I sanded it and got it smooth, painted it orange and turned the chip to the back and it's ok.
This Bogle Vinyards bottle would absolutely not cut at all.
Close up of the one I kept.
Another bottle project, painting them white, easy peasy, worked perfectly.

So, the cutting method. Wrap string (I used yarn) around the area you want to cut, tie it off, slide it off the bottle, soak it with polish remover, slide it back on, light it on fire and turn bottle while string is on fire, submerge in cold water and snap it. There are videos and picture tutorials available online if you google it. If anyone has some beer or soda bottles or other cool bottles they want to donate to me I'd like to try this again.

Printable Quote (Thomas S. Monson)

2011-10-01T14:34:00.001-07:00

This was said in a talk given during the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference by Elder Cook from the 70 (one of the quorums and I forget his first name, it might have been Brad). I liked it. Just click on it and save, if you want to.

Oh yes, credit to "A Little Boy's Pocket Collection" a collab by Pamela Donnis Designs and Chere Kaye for the arrow brushes.

This Summer...(4)

2011-09-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

we went camping! It was so much fun. We found a new spot. Granite Creek. It is right by the creek and there isn't drinking water, you have to bring your own, but the campsite is free! It was beautiful. The water was freezing but we went in anyway and had the best time. There was an area that was almost like a waterslide too. We rested in the hammock...

we acted silly...
we sat by the fire and visited (Aunt Morgan (my sister) and Nana Paula and Papa Larry (my parents)) were there. We roasted marshmallows.

Tyler and all my kids caught their first fish!
I cleaned my first fish, my little sister taught me. The grimace on my face is because I was cleaning a live fish with a dull pocket knife and feeling very sad.

One morning, before any of the kids had caught a fish, Jacob asked if he could take the pole and go fishing. He soon came back with this fish, caught all by himself! So, of course, everyone else had to have a go at it.
This is Jake's fish close up, there were only a few Brookies caught (they are fish that are not planted but natural to the creek)and his was a good size, the Brookies tend to be smaller than the Rainbow.
Micah caught a big one too, and I'm so glad, who knows what would have happened if he didn't catch one!
Peyton caught one with Aunt Mo's help.
Benny caught one as well.
Tyler thought that since everyone else caught one that I needed to catch one too, so I did. Right as my bait went it I caught one. Sadly it was a tiny little thing that I would have let go had he not swallowed the whole hook and had blood gushing from his gills. I had to work to smile in this picture and turn him so his bloody side was to me.
Ben and Roxie had a good nap together. Do you like those dirty feet?
Ahhh, we love to camp! Oh yeah, and did I mention that we ate, and ate, and ate? Well, we did, a lot!

Star testing results, yes Ty, I'm posting them, sorry!

2011-09-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

When I told Tyler that I wanted the boys Star testing results so I could scan them he immediately gave me "the look". The look that says it all. He said, "You're not going to blog them." It wasn't a question as much as it was counsel. I said that of course I wasn't going to blog them, which translates to...I was going to blog them but now I wont because you said that but maybe I still will but later. Got it?

So, it rubbed Tyler the wrong way to hear me tell people how well our boys did on the Star testing. He is very aware of bragging. I don't think we should brag, but I do think it's good for the kids to hear how happy we are with their success. We make a big deal when the kids aren't making good choices, so why not make an even bigger deal when they do something great? Anyway, the first week of school they had a rally and honored the kids that got perfect Star testing scores, so, in my mind, I got license to blog it! I am not bragging, I am just saying that my kids did well in something and I'm proud of their progress and efforts...WAY TO GO BOYS!

We received Jacob's results several days before Micah's and we were blown away by the fact that he scored a perfect 600 in math! Both of our kids have always tested well, scoring in advanced every time, but a perfect score? Wow! I can tell you truthfully that I am not tooting my own horn here. I take zero credit for their math success, I am terrible at math. They must have gotten Tyler's math genes and great teachers.

Many days later we were blown away yet again to find that Micah also got a perfect 600. I was especially surprised at this because he always complains about math and says how hard it is. I am now expecting great things from these kids, when I go back to school they'll have to help me with my math!

One last thing I had to add, both boys wanted to know what they scored in the other category, the exact number, just so they could see who was smartest! I didn't let them look.

And the new student body V.P. is...

2011-09-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

Micah Laing!

By some wonderful fluke he ran unopposed. I guess all the other kids thought there was no way they could beat him, jk. It was a huge blessing though. I think this will be really good for him. He gets to do the announcements every morning. Yesterday he did the flag solute, birthdays and a school reminder that they are all super heroes (I think that is their theme this year). His brothers said he did a good job, I wish I could have heard him. He also told me that he can't go anywhere without people saying things like, "Hey V.P.!"

On another topic, Micah has been paying attention to my obsession with Pinterest and wants in on the fun. He came up with this idea and asked me to post it and pin it...

Here is what you do. Get some googly eyes and some everyday school supplies and a pipe cleaner. Glue on the googly eyes, cut the pipe cleaner to your preferred arm, leg or eyebrow length and glue those on. We used hot glue because it adheres and dries quickly but you could really use any glue, maybe even the glue from your soon to be new "friend"! I thought this was a bad idea but all three boys played with them for awhile, what do I know?

Printable Quote (if it works out like I plan!)

2011-09-06T20:51:00.000-07:00

My friend Allyson gave the Relief Society lesson on Sunday and used this quote that I just love. I wanted to remind myself of it so I made this to print and frame and I'm sharing it with you. I think you can just click it and save it to your computer and it should come out ok, I hope! I used paper from The LDS blog train blog "6 bees" (aqua paper) and the hearts. I used paper from Gettin' Scrappy with Britt's collab "Boy Meets Girl" (the orange paper for the words Harder and Better).

This Summer...(3)

2011-09-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

We did window art. I went yard sale hopping with my friend Deanne and found some window paint. They loved it.

This is the finished product.
Peyton got to go to a little gathering of girls at the Bogle's house. She loved it. She got to taste fresh coconut (which she didn't like), swim, and she came home with a ring pop...

We took all the kids to see Hello Dolly. 3 of our family members were in the play and it was done very well.
Jacob got to experiment with water and the freezer. He discovered a way to make a glass out of water, very cool.

This Summer...(2)

2011-08-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

We went to Monterey! The first day we went to the beach.

We tried out our skimboard for the first time but we didn't have success, the beach was too sloped for us newbies to skimboarding. Maybe we'll have to try it at Avila or Pismo.
It was lots of fun sharing our chips with the amazing seagulls. If you look closely at the bird on the top of the picture you'll see he has a chip in his mouth. They were catching them quite expertly mid air.

I got to enjoy some relaxing time under our new umbrella with a good book.
One of the kids favorite things to do for vacation is to stay in a hotel, and we got to do that. After getting all sandy at the beach we got to relax in our hotel's gigantic hot tub.
The kids liked the sauna too. I prefer a steam room myself.
The second and last day of our vacation we went to the aquarium.
My MIL met us that morning and joined us for the day.
We went to a seafood restaurant where she treated us to a delicious lunch.
Peyton had spaghetti, can you tell?

I had a dish that was kind of like Jambalaya, it was fantastic.

There were life sized statues all over the place and I'm posting a very small portion of the pictures we got with them.

Lastly we went to our favorite park in Monterey, Dennis the Menace park.

Ben's likeness...
It was a fun trip and Monterey is a beautiful place!

Ooops...I'm a little embarrassed.

2011-08-25T16:19:00.001-07:00

Becca, of course you would like how it turned out, it was yours! I was looking at my post a few minutes ago and noticed the tile behind "my" Easter sign, it was THE original project, not my copycat version. I hadn't even taken a picture of mine, so I did. Here is mine below.

Hope you like it still!

This Summer...

2011-08-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

I crafted! This was a copy craft from my sister in law Becca. She made one similar to this and gave me her leftover paper and I made my own. Thanks Becca.

Love these flowers. I also got to use my yard sale Cricut!
Peyton found the chapstick Daddy got in his stocking that he gave to me, you can see why he didn't like it below. Peyton was very proud of herself. (side note, love that girls bedhead!)
I was introduced to Pinterest and carried out a few ideas, here is one below.
Peyton got a few hand me downs from cousin Sophie and this skirt was my favorite, goes perfect with her handed down boots and shirt too. Many people at church said she looked like Hermione Granger. Love it. Thanks again Becca.
So, now that the kids are back in school and I only have 2 home during the day I am finding some computer time and I am going to get caught up on our summer happenings. So, look for my This Summer... posts.

Our Utah trip in the smallest nutshell I could fit it in!

2011-08-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

This was our best trip yet to Utah. We love LeGrand and Becca and Bryan and Helga. They are our family, yes, but they are also some of the best and most fun people too. We also got to spend some time with their extended family, LeGrand and Bryan's in-laws, and they're awesome too! It was relaxing and fun.

We had our traditional waxing, somehow Tyler got away without participating this time. My nose is already hairy again so I think I'll need to invest in some hard wax!

They always have at least one fun new thing to try, this time it was catching whipped cream in your mouth. You squirt some on your hand, toss it into the air and then catch it in your mouth, or somewhere else on your face! It's a perfect after baptism activity to do while still in your nice church clothes (my niece Adelyn was baptised).
Sunday my new nephew Taysen was blessed and the next day was the 4th of July! We got to go to a parade in Provo, a LeGrand Laing family tradition. Tyler and LeGrand and a few other went early, really early, to get a spot. Becca and I crammed in with the kids and came along later. Gosh, no, of course we didn't really drive with 10 people in a 7 passenger van! This was a just for fun picture, we really took 2 cars.
This next picture may seem silly, but while walking to the parade we saw this, house? Micah stopped in front and said loudly, "I can't believe someone lives here, it looks like a broken down old shack!" There were windows open and a car in the driveway! I tried to rush him along and tell him we don't say things like that, it was someone's home. There was a couple and their child walking near us, and he said, "I was thinking the same thing." I said, "I think we all were, we just weren't shouting it at the top of our lungs!" I sometimes wonder at what age Micah's brutal honesty will take a backseat.
Becca's Aunt has a red hat tradition at the parade that we got to take part in, everyone wears the hat for a pictures and strikes a pose.
I got to sit by my guy.
After the parade we enjoyed another of Becca's traditions and went to her grandparents old house where her sister and new husband are now living. We had delicious food and a slip n slide competition. I felt like a kid again, a less daring kid, but still a kid. Ben got himself a nice huge slice of watermelon.
We went up to the Mount Timpanogos caves, one of my favorite activities this trip. It was a pretty good little hike up, especially carrying a 30 pound little girl!
I got so many amazing pictures I had to put a few in.
Helga's sister Heidi took a group picture for us, so she wasn't in it, but this was everyone else.
I like hiking.
I don't like carrying little kids that are perfectly capable of walking themselves, but I did anyway. I tried leaving her behind but she didn't care, she just stayed behind, so I carried her. Daddy was behind with the slower people in the group helping watch other kids and I'm not a slow hiker, apparently even when carrying an extra 30 pounds. Daddy did get his turn on the hike back though, don't think he bailed on me.
This rock is near the entrance to the caves, everyone touches it, and this is what happens when your oils get on the rocks, pretty cool, but you can't touch anything in the caves.
This is the heart of Mount Timpanogos, it is estimated to weigh about 2 tons and is 5.5 ft in length! I have dozens of pictures of other amazing formations too, but had to share this one.
Such an amazing view!
This is my nephew Taysen, he was so much easier to carry down than Miss P was to carry up!
Helga's sister Sonja has her own salon and gave Peyton her first haircut while we were there at Natalie's (another of Helga's sisters) house. I woke her up for the haircut and she was spazzing majorly. She later told Tyler that she "fussed a little bit at first" HA! I have video that proves otherwise. Sonja did a great job though and straightened her hair first and then cut off a few inches and layered it. So cute. She eventually calmed down and she liked her new hair.

While Tyler, LeGrand, Becca and I went to the Mount Timpanogos Temple (Provo was closed for cleaning), out to lunch at Zupas (yummy soup salad and sandwich), and to DI (my favorite thrift store ever) Tyler's Aunt Becca ( who has 12 kids herself) and some of her kids watched all of our kids. We also got to visit with Tyler's grandparents who live there now. Peyton even fell asleep on Moroni, and that is not like her at all. The kids LOVE the Burrows family and I'm so glad that got to spend some time there.
Movie time with Junior's Giants.
I ran into an old friend while getting new G's at the Distribution Center, it was Jan Budge! My old Bishop's wife. I am friends with her daughter in law who is in our ward! Small world huh?
On our last night there the boys went to Bryan and Helga's house and the girls and kids hung out at LeGrand and Becca's house. The kids had movie (Little Rascal's) and pizza (Litttle Ceasars) night while the girls (Me, Becca, Helga and Liz, Becca's sister) did crafts and ate Cafe Rio pork salads, I really hope they get one here someday, YUMMY! This is my very adorable and sweet niece Makyla. She is a lot like Peyton and she finally warmed up to me at the end. She even has the same cute little legs and feet that Peyton has, so they must come from the Laing side. I love my family and wish we were all close to each other geographically. Maybe someday we will be, but until then we will do our best to make trips to see them. LeGrand and Becca, thank you so much for housing us and feeding us and being the wonderful people you are, WE LOVE YOU!

Finishing June

2011-08-08T16:08:00.000-07:00

Well, now that it's August I thought it about time I finished blogging about June! Our second week we had Cub Scout Day Camp, for real this time. I continued my late spring cleaning which I'm sad to say ended almost as soon as it began. After a few weeks of spirited, energetic cleaning I moved on to other interests. Here are some of the plants I pulled out and sprayed off, wow, so easy to clean with a hose! I will be cleaning them more often now.

Here is another before of another one of the many ledges in our house that has been neglected for so long. Disgusting, I know. It was another source of bouncy balls, darts and deflated balloons.
After I cleaned the boys begged me to let them climb up, so I did.
Our inside and outside entry way light fixtures were in dire need of a good cleaning and it was not an easy job but I am so glad I got it done!
Too bad I didn't get a before, it made quite a difference.
I chickened out this year and only helped one day out at camp, the first day. Jacob requested I be there for his first day, I think to ease his nerves a bit. He LOVED it, even the first day which isn't the best day, mostly just getting situated and such.
Jacob really enjoyed the roping and was pretty good at it.
Micah is a big kid now and I didn't get to see much of him but he had a good time too.
What follows the cleaning bug? The crafting bug of course! I got my book wreath done and I love it, it now resides inside by my book shelves. I think I may have posted this already but here you go anyhow...
I get to sub for a card exchange group every once in a while so I've been testing out some card ideas and playing around with my paper and goodies.
Next up, our Utah trip!

Room (s) Redo, step one

2011-07-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

First off, let me just say, Pinterest is crazy. I can't stop. Hopefully I'll be able to pull myself away log enough to do some of the things I've pinned!

Week 2 was scout camp, enough said, crazy week.

June 18th

our front rooms (dining room and formal living room) are really multi purpose rooms. We hardly know what to call them, music, office, sewing, crafting, reading...room. They are such a hodge podge of hand me downs and really lack style. I thought maybe some rearranging might give us a good start to work with. This is them before...

Above, the computer desk and my desk are now on this wall with the filing cabinet in the middle, the couch and buffet are in the same place. The tv is gone (we don't have tv anyway, didn't think I'd miss it, come to find out I watched movies and shows on dvd more than I realized, oh well.)
Above, the piano is now on the wall where those bookshelves are, which is good, I hear you are supposed to have pianos on an interior wall. The sewing desk and machine are in the same place, the birds have moved.
Above, Peyton's dollhouse is about where the chair is, the chair and the lamp are more to the right, the birds are to the right of where the computer desk is in the picture.
Above, the 2 large bookshelves are on the wall that the small bookshelf is on, the small bookshelf is in our hall, at the end of it. It sounds weird but I like it.

June 21st

Below are all the new locations
The desks below can close now and I love the arrangement so much better now. We stole that mirror from our bathroom. The birds and dollhouse have since switched places.
My book wreath is now on that spot of empty wall. I am going to make some new pillows for the couch and chair to bring in aqua and maybe some orange and white. I want to change out some knick knacks too.
It has room to improve but I like it much better now.

Summertime!

2011-07-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

Here I am documenting week one of summer vacation and we're practically half way through already. Isn't that how it always goes? Well, day one found me dropping the little ones off at Aunt Mo's and taking the big boys to day camp. We pulled into the Rodeo Grounds about 3 minutes early, well, one week and 3 minutes early! There were no cars, just a single plastic bag blowing across the deserted lot. So, on day one we headed back over to Aunt Mo's and enjoyed the pool.

Day 2

Hanging out at the water park with friends. After waiting forever to get our pass pictures taken we got to enjoy the water park with the Olsen's.

The kids and I have been enjoying the library, like always, and having some reading time out of the heat.

Ben has been working on his reading and his math facts gearing up for first grade.
Every morning (almost) the boys have an extra summer chore, weeding. As I type this from our backyard swing I can see that maybe daddy needs to help on this chore a bit.

I think Jacob picked the right section, he has hardly any weeds in his.
I have my own set of summer chores as well. You know all those areas that just rarely get cleaned, on top of cabinets and armoirs, fake plants and plant shelves, top of fridge, light fixtures? That's my summer duty. In this pic below you can see the contrast where I started to clean. So, for those of you always talking about how clean my house always is, it wasn't, but it will be, as long as this phase can last!
Day 4 takes us back to the water park, this was a special day because Peyton has finally decided to venture away from the small purple octopus slide and go on ALL of the kiddie slides. Yippee!
Peyton also thinks she is a swimmer. She is starting to swim and I'm sure by the end of the summer she will be doing quite well.
She likes to jump in too, and where the water is deep she just kind of happily does swimming motions under the water after her jump. Silly girl, reminds me a bit of Ben. He was sneaky though. Ben would wait until he thought no one was watching him and then he'd jump in.
These are just SOME of the things I found up on the tops of the kitchen cabinets and plant shelf in the kitchen.
Lots and lots of dust. Maybe allergies will improve now that all that dust is gone.
This is a picture after I cleaned that area. It was so gross, I had to really scrub the knick knacks I'm glad I don't cook with more oil than I do! Light fixtures in the kitchen are next...
I discovered our plant shelves are strong enough to hold my weight and the weight of my Kirby vacuum. Good to know. Also, for the first time ever I took all of the fake plants and out fake tree out in the backyard and sprayed them with the hose, it was SO much easier than wiping them leaf by leaf!
More summer to come!

I live with a PE!

2011-06-21T11:20:00.001-07:00

The last day of school we found out that our friend Eli passed his PE exam (Professional Engineer). We were very happy for him. It's quite a test, 3 different parts, sometimes people take it and pass none of them, Tyler was fortunate to pass one part the first time and one part the second time. He didn't get in as much study time before this third and last time taking the test so we weren't expecting him to pass his last part. It's a ridiculous amount of time you have to wait to find out results, months. So, Saturday morning while we were still in bed Tyler got on his laptop to look and see if Eli's name was on the PE website yet. Eli passed a different portion, one Tyler had already passed and you find out sooner about. So, Eli was there, a Professional Engineer! Tyler was thinking about typing his name in but didn't want to not find himself there. I told him it wouldn't mean anything if he wasn't there yet, besides, we really weren't expecting him to pass anyway...

He typed his name in, and up he popped complete with our address, it was him, a Professional Engineer! What an exciting way to find out. I made him a yummy, big breakfast to celebrate. I am so proud of him.
French toast
Potato rounds
Cantelope, which I delegated to him to cut so everything would be ready together.
Perfectly cooked bacon.
And here are the two PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS. Eli came by to congratulate Tyler. Good job you guys!

End of year awards and Peyton's Snail friend Spydo

2011-06-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

Micah got perfect attendance again this year. A feat that is amazing to me because of my own horrific school attendance. Jacob missed only one day and he missed that day because he was sent home from school the previous day because of a fever. School policy says they have to be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school. Jacob actually cried that day because he couldn't go to school. He never had a fever that entire day either, it was gone just a few hours after he was sent home. Anyway, maybe next year. I am very happy though that we didn't have any illnesses with Micah and Jacob and that they didn't want to even fake being sick to stay home, good job boys!

Jacob got the school's Personal Responsibility Award again this year, a pretty big award and we are so happy that he is good for his teachers and a very responsible kid. He also got straight A's all year this year, shouldn't they have an award for that? They did when I was in school. So, GOOD JOB JACOB!
Each of the boys received a medal, below is Jacob's medal.
Tyler and I have been walking the boys to school in the morning, and today, on the way to school Peyton found this new little friend that she kept with her all the way home ( I didn't even crush it when she let it go!). I told Tyler I have never seen a snail crawl all over someone when being held, they always stay in their shell. I got to thinking though, I've never actually seen someone LET them crawl all over them! Don't worry, I washed her up with lot's of soap and water.
On the way home it crawled all over both of her hands front and back and then all the way to her elbow.

gardening, birthdays and such

2011-06-07T14:35:00.000-07:00

I finally got all the pictures off my camera and onto my computer. I didn't realize how much I had to blog about but I'll have to make some choices and limit it a bit.

A few night ago while Tyler was working late the kids and I spent some time on the trampoline together enjoying this lovely, very non Junish weather. Peyton is such a cutie when she jumps I took about 2 dozen pictures! I wish this picture below was clearer, she was making the funniest faces.
You can kind off see below, but she was wearing underwear that used to be Ben's. I thought it was cute that she was in her frilly princess nightgown wearing boy briefs. It really sums her up well, she is a little tomboy princess.

She also helped me make Ben's cake. I am surprised that she can hold the mixer by herself with one hand. Mixing is her favorite part, she says when she grows up she wants to crack up the eggs.

We had family over for cake and ice cream the night of Ben's birthday. I even picked up Grandma Kay so she could be with us. It ended up being a late night but it was fun.
All of the in town cousins (Essien and Dustin) were there. Ben never requested any certain cake and he never complained about the cake I made him. It was lacking in decorations but everyone said it was very yummy and moist. Moist is always what I hope for!

Benjamin is 6 now and pretty much the same as ever. Always making us laugh, loves games, especially the Wii and his new Lego Pirates of the Caribbean game. He has the funniest and most adorable was of saying things. He loves having a sandwich for lunch and he is an amazing reader. He is a cuddler and a love bug but when he is going somewhere, like school, you may not even get so much as a "bye". He really likes to have a friend over and he is really good on the trampoline, front, side and backflips are his specialty, he can even do 2 back flips in a row! We love you Ben!
The thunder and lightening storm was our Sunday show. It kept the kids up later than normal but we all enjoyed watching it.
Monday my friend Christie B. came over to make clips and brought us a zucchini from her garden. I told her we didn't have any zucchini or cucumber yet. I took her out to show her our garden and low and behold we had 2 cucumbers! I forgot to get a picture before I cut the big one, here they are below.
Isn't that beautiful? I love having food growing right outside our kitchen window!
Today I decided to get a hold of the weed situation in the garden and check our plants and look what I found! A green bell pepper. Our yellow and red plants have peppers on them too but they are still green, and our jalapeño plant has lots of peppers on it. I am really looking forward to our tomatoes, I don't know why, but this year our tomatoes are growing like crazy.

Read the post below too

2011-06-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to a video (FYI, video is from 3 years ago when Ben was 3, Jacob 5, and Micah 7) I made with my new Windows 7 on my new laptop. It is not the one I wanted to share, there are no special effect or music, just a few subtitles. I wanted to share Peyton's birth video, I love how it turned out but Tyler doesn't want naked pics of our kids on the internet because apparently there are sick people out there. I know this, I just thought newborn video would be safe but were not risking it. If you want to see Peyton's birth video, come over, yes, that includes you Grandma Honey. My number is in the directory, Clovis 2nd ward. You are fun and I would like to be your real friend, call me and we can get together! I'm having some issues, I'll try to imbed the video, let's see if I know what I'm doing or not!

Life is better...

2011-05-31T22:05:00.000-07:00

with a new computer! I have been saving up for a new computer because the one I was using was Tyler's old laptop. In computer years it was ancient, well, maybe not ancient but definately outdated. It was slow, really slow. I especially had a lot of problems with photoshop on it and with my scrapbooking program (which in all honesty was the biggest problem). I found myself rarely checking e-mail and I had to stop scrapbooking all together, one 15-20 minute page wound up costing me 5 or 6 hours of fragmented work. I would often lose all of my work too because it would say there wasn't enough virtual memory to save my work. Anyway, Tyler has been entertaining the idea of riding a bike to work to save on gas. He's been saving for a decent bike. My sister babysat for us Friday night and we needed to do a free date night so he said he wanted to go look at bikes and get an idea of what was out there and how much it cost. He suggested we go look at laptops at Costco first so I could also see how much I needed to save. We had figured I'd probably be able to afford one by the end of summer. I was very excited. The end of summer isn't that far away. Well, at Costco we found a decent laptop for a decent price, $150 off too. Tyler asked me how I'd feel about an early birthday gift. I tried really hard not to get too excited. I said that I'd love it but we didn't have the money to do that. Long story less long, he paid for the rest of my laptop with the money he's been saving! Don't I have a nice husband?

So, this is a little sample of what I've been doing for the last few days...

The laptop came with Windows 7 and has an awesome movie making program that I've been using to work on the home videos from my camera. I made one from Peyton's birth and put music on it and did some cool stuff. Anyway, I love it, I'm having fun and getting stuff done that has been on my list for a long while.

Oh BOY!

2011-05-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

One morning before school I caught Jacob rocking in the chair purposely knocking it into Peyt's dollhouse knocking all the furniture and dolls around. I asked him to please fix it. He said, "Seriously?" "Yes, Jacob, Seriously." I replied. After the boys had left for school this is what I found...

Out of the Bag

2011-05-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

So, the last time I changed our vacuum bag I cut the old one open and found tons of legos and a pair of Polly Pocket shoes. I vowed I would not cut the vacuum bag open again. The boys would be more thorough when cleaning up their legos and I would be more careful with the vacuum. Well, I just couldn't help it and I did the unthinkable again, I cut the bag open. There were many more legos in there than I thought I had sucked up, and the missing green Barbie shoe was in there, sadly, my nephew Essien's dog found one last week and chewed it up really good. I also found a bunch of my scrapbooking brads and eyelets that my nephew Dustin dumps out daily.
The boys were happy about their lego knifes.

Do you empty and sift through your vacuumings?

Painted Furniture, Repurposed Sweater, Dust Art

2011-05-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

Last week when I went to put some laundry away I found this on my dresser. I found out this morning the artist was Benjamin and that it is me holding and ice cream cone and wearing a ring pop. My room gets dusty really fast and needs a good dusting every week, I give it a good dusting every TWO weeks. How's that for some honesty?
Sadly, I am so excited to get a new project started that I always forget before pictures, so, here is a door in it's before state. It is from a buffet that I inherited when my grandparents passed away. They had some amazing furniture from the 60's that was in very good condition, just out dated, I also refinished some bedroom furniture for Peyton the same way, using the same paint. I was 8 months pregnant or so when I did her furniture and apparently I wasn't blogging yet, so I don't have a post to direct you to, but you can see my sewing desk that is in the same room as this buffet and was done the same way. HERE is that post. These are just the doors after sanding and wiping them. As you can see, I didn't sand them very thoroughly where thay aren't flat, I'm a little lazy when it comes to sanding, that's why distressing is so appealing to me. Distressing is also nice when you have young kids in the home!

Here is my finished buffet that resides in my MULTI-PURPOSE room, (would be dining room) it holds some of my paper crafting supplies, stamping things, stuff like that. I love it, I think the original hardware looks great on it too.

A big thanks to my friend Yolawnda for helping me to get going on this project! Next up, staining my bathroom cabinets...

Once again, forgot a before picture! This was my favorite sweater at one time, I shrunk it a little and a moth had a small meal right in the front center. Never fear, save that sweater, it can be REPURPOSED (a word I am loving and becoming very familiar with)! I found this a few weeks ago and couldn't get it out of my mind. It directs you to square up your sweater pieces if they are contoured but I didn't, I liked the contoured shape. I was able to make 2 of them, I had to cut the sweater in half up the front because of the moth hole. I gave one to my sis-in-law for her birthday and one to myself! I love it.

Flowers make me happy and I'm trying to learn how to make as many different flowers as I can, so I can be like Caleen Beatty! I think that button is from her shared collection too, thanks Caleen.

I also added a little pocket inside for my cell phone, I made a few tucks in it too, so it isn't flat. I didn't add a magnet clasp like the tutorial says, I would have, but I didn't have one and this was a FREE project.

Hope you all aren't sick of my project posts!

My sister got married!

2011-05-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a very special day for my family. My little sister Lindsay finally got married after a YEAR long engagement! It was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect. Lindsay and Steve Rowe were married out at the Sportsman's Club at 5pm in a wonderfully brief but sweet ceremony.
I was asked just a few days before the wedding to fill in for one of the bridesmaids. I was honored to do it and happy to find that the dress fit perfectly. It was strapless but I was allowed to wear a little white sweater that fixed that problem. The wedding party was to be there at 3pm for pictures so naturally Peyton and Dustin, mine and Morgan's sidekicks, came too. The kids were angels.

Peyton was not in the wedding party but I put her in her little dress that I made her over a year ago and she was adorable in Lindsay's wedding lavender.

Lindsay was beautiful and happy!

Now my mom's stress can come to an end, until she finds something else to fret over!

My sister Ami was here from Texas, along with her daughter Aubri (6) who is taller than Jacob (8)! The kids LOVED her, and she LOVED Micah! She plans on marrying him, don't worry, Ami is my step sister and therefore not blood related.

The kids toasted with their lemonade about 10 times. They were so cute and had so much fun. They all danced until it was time to go. When Peyton woke up early the next morning the first thing out of her mouth was..."When can we dance at Aunt Lindsay's wedding again?"

My cousins and Aunt and Uncle and my cousin's daughter Cassie (below) were all here from Southern Cal.

Morgan was another of the bridesmaids (she had 6 bridesmaids total!).

I got the honor of decorating their escape vehicle! Giana, her maid of honor completed it by tying on a few cans.

CONGRATULATIONS STEVE AND LINDSAY, I LOVE YOU BOTH!

Men's Shirt to Girl's Dress

2011-04-26T11:26:00.000-07:00

I found this shirt of Tyler's in the garage in our "to get rid of" box. I was sad, at first, I bought it for him for Christmas a few years ago and I thought it looked really good on him. Apparently the sleeves were too short. Then, I came across this (MADE, dana-made-it) tutorial. It seemed a little out of my comfort range but I decided to tackle it.
This of course was the BEFORE shirt. Tyler had to help me draw out the sleeve pattern, and it worked, we make a great team!

Here it is all finished, and below, my model, complete with bed head.

My in laws took her to the Rodeo Parade on Saturday morning and here she is wearing it paired with her little red boots.

Perfect, she'll be wearing this to church on Sunday too. The cowboy hat she insisted on but it covers up her adorable little piggy buns. Like the hand on her hip? She did that pose all on her own.

Projects projects!

2011-04-17T14:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, when I am not posting it is because I am living! You know, I am a creature of phases. My most recent thing has been cooking. I really want to make recipe cards using my digital scrapbooking stuff. I want to include pictures for all of them. These are going to only be things that I've made and really like and want to continue to make. I'm going to print them in 4x6 and laminate them and put them in a recipe box. This first pic will not go onto a card but I saw a cake like this when I was googling peeps pics for the scrapbook page below. I loved it and decided to make one for FHE.

Peeps Sunflower Cake.

We love Hawaiian Haystacks here and all the toppings are so pretty together. I never use a recipe to make them but I'm going to make a card for them. The cards could also be a great gift idea, I could even give a set to my daughter's in law right?

Grandma Kay called last Friday and gave me a recipe for french bread. The kiddos were spending the night at my parents house so we had the house to ourselves for date night. We made the bread together and played Sequence.

Next time I think I'll try to make it in a loaf pan. The recipe said to form it in a loaf but we'll see.

A seasonal favorite, made with lemons from our neighbors tree.

Lemon Bars

This is a new one for us, Bunny Buns. We got the recipe from The Friend magazine this month, it was a reprint from a 1980's issue. It has orange juice and orange rhind. The kids didn't like the rhind so I'll leave it out next time, I also want to make the glaze with orange juice instead of water. Oranges courtesy of Grandma Kay.

Tortilla Soup

Don't these pics look yummy?

I have also been sewing a bit. I found a link to an awesome blog (on Lindsey Davis's blog), MADE. There are tons of tutorials on it but the first one I've tried was this. They say it's the easiest skirt you'll ever make and it IS. The two tiered style is my favorite and it really isn't any harder than the single layered skirt. I'd like to get more ruffles and trims and have fun with it.

I don't have a serger but Teri Stringham (a friend) showed me a stitch on my machine that is almost like having a serger and I love it.

The great thing about making this for little girls is that you need hardly any material! You can even make two side seems instead of one so you can make use of your smaller scraps.

In the picture below Peyton wore the blues and greens skirt today and it looked cute even with her little pink Jumping Beans shoes from my Aunt Jan.

Another thing the blog inspired me to do was make my own bias tape. It was easy and rather fun. I made a little mistake with our curtains, I washed them and they shrunk about 6 inches! I thought I had washed them before and they had done all their shrinking. Well, I had washed one panel that I ended up haveing to take down. Anyway, to make a long story short, Tyler unstitched to bottom hem to make them longer and I made bias tape with the one panel I washed previously and sewed it on the bottom so they could be as long as possible.

Yes, the bottom strip is lighter because it was facing outside and got sunbleached. They still look pretty sad, but not as sad as having curtains WAY too short that show where our carpet is worn down to the pad and to the concrete in places! So, if anyone has long curtains sitting around and you want to give them to me, I'm not too proud to take them!

This is after the bias tape, pretty cool huh?

I also made some pillows with the leftovers. I used the middle meshy net part of an old bedskirt for the pillow forms inside, I feel so frugal!

Next up, I want to make Peyton a dress out of Tyler's old dress shirt, I have to draw my own pattern though and I'm not too sure of myself on that!

Peeps Freebie! (Link fixed for 2nd "HERE")

2011-04-05T17:19:00.000-07:00

I hope no one got too excited and thought that they would get free actual Peeps. I made this little guy to scrap my Easter pics of Peyton from 2 years ago and thought someone may want it! Go get him here! Here and Here and Here and Here and Here is where you can get different versions of the peeps logo these are all png files and very quick to download! This is what I did with them, the background paper is from Summer Driggs "Owl Always Love Spring" freebie kit. The font I used for the date is "Gentle Redhead".

Forgot to tell you, NO MORE BRACES!

2011-03-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

For the best picture of Micah ever, scroll down.
I have really been out of blogging mode and saw that the Porter pictures were still on the page and that I had to distract Peyton to scroll down to my scrapbooking blogs, I really don't need any of the kids to see that post!
So, first off 2-13-11, Tyler and I collect masks and Peyton wanted on off of the wall. I gave it to her and this is what she did with it...
Silly girl, I think I would have been scared of that mask as a child.

2-15-11, Micah got his braces off!

A little drilling, that's Dr. Freeman, best ortho, I highly recommend him!

This is my favorite picture. They left us alone with this contraption for a few minutes and boy did we have fun, I got a lot of great pictures but this one is the best!

Getting all gooped up for a retainer mold. Micah hates this.

He was a cute kid before but I think he sure looks handsome now with all those straight teeth, next on the list, Jacob.

Barbie Cakes (from Last January!)

2011-03-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

I had an unfortunate accident with my camera last year and deleted many pictures, including all of the pictures from P's 2nd birthday party and her Barbie cakes. My mom had some on her camera, but of course, with the way we do things it takes a while, they get done, just not always right away! As you can see we made good use of my Pampered Chef bowl. Next time I do Babrbie cakes I'll use two cake mixes so the girls have more adequately sized skirts, they look like they must have very short legs!
What a cute 2 year old Peyton! She's grown and changed much in the last year.

Teapot Cakes and Teacup cupcakes

2011-02-28T11:46:00.000-08:00

So, this was my first attempt with fondant. I thought it was going to be kind of hard, but it wasn't at all, it's super easy. I googled fondant recipes and went with the one that said it was the best tasting people had ever had, and it was really yummy. I didn't have clear vanilla extract so I used almond extract. We had grandparents over for a mini family party and I practiced my cake. I had a monster of a time with the cake part. I intended to use two cakes and put them together. After making 3 cakes, 2 of which got stuck in the Pampered Chef bowl I noticed my teapot on the stove and it was this exact shape, so that was good enough for me, I guess it's more of a tea kettle. I was not happy with the handle and decided I would improve on that next time around. One of the kids asked if the handle was a donut, not exactly the look I was going for!
I added some milk to chocolate frosting to make it thin so it would look like hot chocolate. The marshmallows added to the effect. In some of the cups the frosting ran down the sides a little and I liked it.

After all, this was for Peyton's 3rd birthday so I thought I'd include a picture of her. We got her a doctor's outfit that came with medical tools and she was a very happy girl.

On her actual birthday we had some friends of hers over for a little tea party and I made a few improvements to my cake. This is the snack table. I tried to make it cost effective, kid friendly and tea party like food.

I made the spout, handle and lid a bit more decorative. I would like to learn how to pipe frosting, I'm not very good at it.

For the frosting this time I added baking cocoa to vanilla frosting and made it a little thicker.

Well, I have been trying to add a picture of Peyton with all her little friends that came and blogger won't let me add any pictures for some reason. It was fun and Peyton had a good time.

Clarification on the Crime Scene

2011-02-24T21:15:00.000-08:00

Porter did not get stuck. Peyton tried to get him out while I was in the shower but she was only tall enough to open the tank, not tall enough to reach in far enough to get him out. She gave up and left the lid off, Porter took advantage and escaped. He roamed the house for months, always changing locations, his last location was under the treasure chest, not because he was stuck, but because he starved to death. Snakes can't get stuck anywhere they can get into, you would be amazed at the tiny places they can get to, the trunk was easy in and easy out. Poor Porter starved, apparently we don't have any rodents in our house to keep him fed.

Crime Scene Photos from my bedroom

2011-02-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

So, you may remember reading about our snake Porter Rockwell and his 2 escapes. He was found after his first escape and hadn't been seen since his second escape when Miss P mistakingly let him go. We all assumed that he had made his way out of the house and would never be seen again. We spent weeks searching for him, all along he was inside the house. I dusted and vaccuumed my bedroom today and decided to move a little trunk we have to vaccuum under it. It had been a month or maybe two since I moved it to vaccuum under it. Lo and behold, under the trunk lay a somewhat moldy, very dead and dried up Porter. Please do not tell my children, they love Porter and are just as well left thinking he is living free outside catching rodents and lizards. So, for those of you who feared a visit here, no longer fear, the only snake we now have resides safely behind glass.
Time to bust out the carpet cleaner...

This is the bottom of the trunk he was under.

SO SAD.

We...Post#8

2011-02-19T21:17:00.000-08:00

We went rollerblading as a family! Yes, this is my last post from last year, finally. This litle jaunt was also why I didn't have my camera for so long. See that stroller below? I put my camera in it after taking these pictures, thankfully, it came to Tyler and the camera was found.
Each of the boys got rollerblades for Christmas, since Ty and I already had some we were set. Peyton in the stroller and away we went.
Here Ben is getting his bearings and trying to manuever around the maze that is our garage.

If you can't tell this is Jacob, it was pretty cold out.

Not the best picture but I had to get everyone in.

Ben caught on really quickly.

We all had so much fun and will be doing this a lot more!

We...Post#7

2011-02-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

Did you think I forgot about this series? Well, this is my second to last We post! I know, it's pitiful that I'm still in December but I didn't want to skip over anything. There is so much to look forward to in January too, like Peyton's birthday cakes from this year AND last year!

We visited with family! I didn't get very many pictures because our visit was cut way too short, which I won't go into. I will say though that we were SO sad that we didn't get to spend more time with LeGrand andd Becca and kiddos, some of the best people on the planet. I am also sad that we didn't get more time with Bryan and Helga. I need some one on one girl craft time with Helga someday, she is amazing in more things than just photography, she is a girl of many talents!
The girl cousins, Peyton, Adelyn, Makyla and Sophie.
Ben likes the little ones too, like big brother Micah. Makyla is such a sweetie too, you want to just squeeze her!

We met Essien's new dog Riot. He came named by Santa. My kids, especially Micah, couldn't understand why Santa gave him the name Riot, when it means something bad. He informed us that it means to disagree and argue. He is a super cute puppy and P just didn't want to let him out of her sight, or her arms.

Kolby, who is just about 3 weeks older than Peyton was such a good playmate, they got to enjoy a game of checkers together.

Brayden got to spend the night and we are so glad that he did! The boys couldn't have been happier, or me for that matter, he was a perfect guest. The only thing that would have been better is if the rest of his family could have stayed over the next night! You guys owe us a game night when we come to your house!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is back!

2011-02-07T20:00:00.000-08:00

So sorry, download links are no longer available due to copyright infringement questions.

The Amazing Helga

2011-02-04T20:31:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law Helga came for Christmas again (with her husband and daughter too) and took our family pictures. She is super fun and beautiful and a fantastic photographer to boot. She gets better and better every year too! This is only a small sampling of the pictures she took for us. HERE is a link to her photography blog. Go check it out.

I'm trying to pick which pictures we want to print and frame. Which one do you like of these, black and white or color?

This is what the boys do, really.

Do you like this family picture or the one on my blog header?

We...Post#6

2011-01-31T19:55:00.000-08:00

We waited at Mom and Dad's door for the countdown. Every Christmas morning the kids pile in our bed, read scriptures, say a prayer and then line up at the door. Peyton was still asleep. We countdown and then...
they run out while Mom takes pictures and Dad videotapes.

We do gifts one at a time so it doesn't go too quickly and we all get to see what each other gets. Santa brought each of the boys a stocking this year and a Harry Potter Lego set.

Micah was so excited to get the quidditch set that he literally jumped up and down.

Ben got The Burrow! It is pretty cool.

Peyton got colored bandaids and Dora bandaids in her stocking and she was very happy about that, she likes bandaids.

We also had a little meltdown about something I can't even remember.

We had breakfast burritos, another tradition for Christmas morning. So yummy.

Mmmmm. We even busted out the white flour tortillas.

Santa found Peyton a kitchen (which she still plays with EVERY day) for a VERY good price. She wanted to play with it immediately. We scaled down a lot this Christmas and I was afraid the kids would be disappointed. The things we did get were all great things though and the kids didn't even notice that there weren't very many. They said it was the best Christmas ever, so were doing it this way every year!

Dad got it together pretty quickly, he loves assembly.

Dad bought the boys fishing poles, he gets them something from him every year, we also got them rollerblades (they've been rollerblading often with Hannah and Tanner down the street).

We got Peyton a stroller for her twin babies, aren't they cute?

Nana and Papa bought each of the boys new sweaters and star wars ships and Peyton got a shopping cart (perfect to go with her kitchen and with her play food from Aunt Lindsay).

We felt very blessed this Christmas and enjoyed less stuff and more family time and Christmas centered activities. This is not my last WE post, but we're getting close!

We...Post#5

2011-01-29T21:51:00.000-08:00

Well, my heart is sad and heavy tonight and I'm hoping that posting happy memories will help. I wish I could just blog it all out and get some wonderful advice and support but I recognize that this is definately not the place! So, please enjoy a few more holiday traditions of ours. Next to the Nativity, thease are some of my favorite.

We (rather, the kids) opened our Christmas Eve gifts. Yes, we open one every Christmas Eve. The kids have learned not to ask if they can pick which one. Mom and Dad pick, and it's always new jammies. In recent years it is always new, homemade jammies. This year I included an extra something special.
Peyton got matching jammies for her twin babies. This was a fun project as it was my very 1st (and 2nd) zipper, ever. I have been so scared to sew a zipper because I heard it was so hard. It really wasn't. I did have to take my zipper foot off and use another foot though. For some reason the zipper foot didn't hold the fabric down very well.

I had her stand up so you can see them better. I was just going to make her pants but found I had enough material if I was creative in laying out the pattern and making it a short sleeved shirt.

Micah's pajamas are the same as his brothers but are trimmed with black (from an old maternity shirt of mine). He was already in bed when I got them together for a picture. The boys extras were pillow cases I made using the scraps. Peyton wanted to know where her pillow case was. Note to self, next year make them all pillow cases!

Ben sprinkled reindeer food with glitter in it on the lawn to help attract Santa's team. He made it at school.

Not sure why the picture is turned this way, but this is the note that was with the reindeer food.

Many years ago I found this plate and cup at the dollar store. Milk and cookies for Santa it says. I love it, one of the best dollar store purchases ever. We also left carrots for the reindeer. They ate all the carrots but left the oats and glitter, hmm. Another funny thing, the kids have gotten used to Santa leaving a little of the treats behind and they finish them in the morning, you know, like half eaten cookies. I didn't realize what a tradition this had become until I heard their complaints in the morning when they had seen that Santa ate all of the cookies we left him! I guess it's my fault, we usually leave him a lot more on his plate than we did this year, I guess he just didn't get his fill this time.

My Blog got a makeover!

2011-01-28T15:32:00.000-08:00

I made a new blog header with some of the pictures my sister in law Helga took. I can't wait to print and frame them. Tell me what you think. A BIG thank you to Helga, you are an awesome sis in law and photographer.

We...Post#4

2011-01-27T08:37:00.000-08:00

We went to Christmas Tree Lane and acted out the Nativity. I loved Susan's comment on my last post about traditions being like family super glue. I have never thought of them that way before but it's so true!
Papa Ron rode with us in our car and Nana Byn Rode with Bryan and Helga in theirs.

I got to sit by my sweetie.

My sweet Bro. in law Brent (single if anyone is interested) I had to get a picture with him since we were matching in black and white, all the way down to our shoes!

The Nativity was extra special this year as it was the first year we had only kids (mostly) fill the roles. Daddy was the donkey, taking over Papa's usual place. Micah as Joseph and Miss P as Mary.

I love this picture with a side view of Mary's tummy. She's carrying a bit high I guess.

The Shepherd's were sore afraid, well, Essien looks like a munckin a little.

I was amazed at how well all the kids stayed in their roles, especially Peyton. I have never seen her so reverent. She clearly felt the Spirit that evening.

My niece Makyla is seriously the cutest little girl next to my own daughter (I have to think that). She is cute in looks yes, but her personality and demeanor are SO sweet. She got the spirit of giving that night and wanted to give the Shepherd's a few little gifts.

Nana Byn always is the narrator. She is not one to easily cry or tear up, but she did. It really was the best acting out of the Nativity that we've had yet.

I'm grateful for the birth of the Savior and the little moments like these that we have to really reflect on the meaning of Christmas.

We...Post#4

2011-01-25T16:14:00.000-08:00

We...had another child start Cub Scouts and we decorated Sugar Cookie Cutouts!

Jacob is now a Cub Scout.

My Cub Scouts, Micah and Jacob.

Homemade sugar cookies are a yearly tradition here in the Laing house, a tradition that was started by my mom when I was a kid, maybe even earlier than that. Ben likes sprinkles, lots of sprinkles.

Peyton likes sprinkles too!

We...Post#3

2011-01-22T19:53:00.000-08:00

We went to Lowe's Build and Grow clinic again, and on the morning of Jacob's baptism! What a busy day. Later that night was our Ward Christmas Party too. I didn't get pictures of that but it was amazing. The theme was, "A Night in Bethlehem." The church was completely transformed into a marketplace and lots of people were in costumes and there was wonderful bread and a few activities for the kids including writing you name in Hebrew. There was also a tour that took you to several different rooms to see the story of Christ's birth unfold in song and action, really cool.

I think he was crying because he got hurt. Poor Ben.

By the way, white tights and the floor of Lowe's don't mix. I had to take her tights off for the baptism they were so bad.

We made it to the baptism and in plenty of time. I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. It was a nice baptism, 4 kids all together.

Tyler and Jacob

The family, some of them anyway, and the lady on the far right is Grandma Kay, I am still amazed that she is still with us after what she went through.

I was happy to read Grandma Honey's comment, it's nice to know someone is looking forward to pictures of mine! They will get posted too, I promise.

We...Post#2

2011-01-18T22:59:00.000-08:00

We...Went to Zoo lights! It was fun. There were more lights than I thought there would be. I am very happy with the improvements our zoo has made and continues to make. I am excited for the upcoming changes too! Anyway, we didn't really see any animals aside from the reptiles, which, by the way, the new exhibits are AWESOME, go to the reptile house if you haven't seen the changes there yet.
Santa was at the zoo too, one of his helpers was anyhow. I had one of the boys get a picture of me and Tyler because I am trying to make a point of getting more than just pictures of my kids!

Last, but definately not least, this is my baby Peyton, my baby! She's 3 today! We have had an incredibly fun day. We went to the Dollar Tree together to get a few things for her "tea party" that we had this afternoon. We went through the drive-thru at McDonald's and got her a sausage McMuffin and hashbrown (which she ate ALL of). Peyt accompanied me to my eye appt. where she asked a bazillion questions and I got a new rx. My left eye has worsened, but only slightly. We came home, I made sandwiches for the party, we had a little party with just about all of her little friends and their mommies. I will post pictures of that later, including her awesome teapot cake and tea cupcakes. Tonight after dinner I took her to the library to pick out a few shows and then to TOYS R' US. It's a birthday tradition in our family and Tyler always takes the boys and I got to take my girl this year, her first time for this tradition. We are part of Geoffery's Birthday Club. He calls on the kids birthday's to wish them a happy birthday, and he sends them a card in the mail with a $3 off card. We take the birthday child on or near their birthday and let them pick out a gift, usually something around 10 or 15 dollars. Peyton found a carseat/babycarrier for her dolls, it was $20. What can I say, I caved. I like girl stuff.

This is her at Zoo Lights with her hot chocolate that the kids said tasted like hot water. She is a ton of fun and full of personality. She reminds us a lot of Micah, I'll leave it at that. She knows what she wants, she sings, all the time, she loves baby dolls, barbies, clothes, shoes, cheese, animals and Dora the Explorer and Diego. Her favorite color is purple but she likes pink and red as well. She likes alone time, she goes in her room and closes the door, when her door is shut, that means she is playing happily on her own. If you go in to check on her she yells, "Close the door!" I love this girl and I'm thrilled that she is part of our family. Last night when I got home from a friends house I found her and Ben sleeping all cuddled up in her bed. Tyler fell asleep before the two of them went to bed. Ben had been playing with her in her room and he went to bed, Peyton cried for him and "made" him lay with her. It was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen, I got a picture, I'll post that soon too. I'm happy right now, really happy.

The First Year

2011-01-17T00:19:00.001-08:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

We...Post#1

2011-01-12T09:55:00.000-08:00

We... were so busy in December! Has anyone wondered where I've been? Well, we did our best to make this a Christmas full of wonderful memories and keep it extra low cost. I would have started playing catch-up sooner but my camera has been missing since December 30th! Tyler found it this morning! If you want to find out where you'll have to keep reading all of my "We..." series of posts!
Has anyone heard of Lowe's Build and Grow clinics for kids? They are awesome, and free, 100% FREE (unless you feel like you need to shop afterward!) Well, we just started taking our kids in December, I've been wanting to do them for a long time and now we can't stop. 3 Saturdays in December we made a different part to a train, first the caboose, then a passenger car and last, the engine. 12/3
The kids really like building, Peyton only likes the hammering part! They each got a free apron and goggles and everytime they make a project they earn a patch for their aprons, so cool.

12/4 To keep gift costs down we did some more crafting for gifts. Micah made a few hats on the knifty knitter (he wanted to make one for himself but made it too small and it went to Dustin) and I made about 20! A while back I learned how to crochet a flower on you tube and added flowers to the girl hats, so cute!

12/4 We made it to the Parade in downtown Clovis this year!

My 8 year old and a new addition to our family...

2010-11-27T10:36:00.001-08:00

Today is Jacob's 8th birthday. A very special birthday in our family as he will soon be baptised! My mom and Morgan came over this morning right as we were getting ready for Jake to open his presents. He opened my mom's first, a new Lego set, Star Wars. After that it was time for him to open my sisters gift to him...Another snake, yes, we're trying it again folks. This time instead of a king snake we have a ball python and she is up on a higher counter and Miss P has been seriously instructed that she is not to get him out on her own. She is a beautiful snake and very calm, as ball pythons are. I am excited to have a snake in our home again and hope that this one will live in the tank rather than roam freely in our house!

She has no name as of yet and if you have any ideas please comment. Our last snake was named Porter and we loved that name. Jacob is thinking maybe Scarlett ( I know, funny that the Saunders have a boy named Porter and one of the girls is Scarlett).

The typical 8 year old presents in our family are a first set of scriptures, complete with the childs full name, a scripture case and a journal (Jacob is very excited about his journal, he has been saying he has a lot of stuff to journal about.) We continued the pocket knife tradition as well, Micah got his for Christmas that year, but Jacob wanted one for his birthday.

He can't believe he got one, he thought he wouldn't get one until he was 9. His is just like Micah's but instead of red it's black.

Jacob is a very smart and outgoing boy. He is doing well in piano and is now practicing on his own, without being reminded. He loves Legos and building things, jumping on the tramp and playing outside, he also still loves video games and has been enjoying Lego Harry Potter which Micah bought with his birthday money (Jacob is very happy about that) and baseball on the wii. this morning he told me that his arms have been really sore and he had a hard time believing it was from a video game. I knew this only because Tyler and I played the other night and both experienced the same thing, that pitching is good exercise! We love you Jacob and are excited about your decision to get baptised. You will do great things, I know.

I got Legos from my husband for our anniversary...

2010-11-20T15:24:00.000-08:00

11 years of wedded bliss. Ok, so maybe actually more like 8! Just kidding. Tyler and I celebrated our 11th anniversary last night, even though it is actually today. Money is tight because we are trying to be good and live within a budget and get and stay out of debt, so we had to be thoughtful and creative this year.

Tyler is a drummer, which I think is pretty hot. He asked me a few weeks ago if I thought he was ever cool. I told him no, but that was ok because I loved him and had fun with him, he didn't need to ever be "cool". Well, I have been wanting to get him another drum set since he got rid of his last one about 5 years ago. I knew it was definately not financially feasable at this time. I heard Melissa Bogle talking about her husbands new drum set and my wheels started turning. I told her that if he was getting rid of his old drum set I might be interested in buying it. That night I was like, "What am I thinking, even if he was only asking $100 bucks I really couldn't do it, Ty would be mad." Melissa's husband Darrin found me at church and told me that we could have it. I asked him how much and he told me he couldn't take any money for it, that it wasn't that great. I felt elated, and a little guilty, but it really was ideal, an answer to my prayers. Ty is always doing and getting great things for me and I really wanted to do something special and nice for him. He cleaned it up and I went and got it, he loaded it all up in my van for me and I brought it home! Tyler was very happy and told me that it is the nicest drum set he's ever had.

Ok, so back to my mean comment about him not being cool. I gave him a card first that said...

"Remember the other day when you asked me if you were cool and I said no? Well, I thought of something that you used to do that was cool. I know you think you aren't very good, but you are and you need a hobby and to develope your talents." That was something like part of what I wrote in his card. I really do love to watch him play the drums. It sounds good and he'll sometimes turn his hat backwards and I think he looks hot, yes, hot. I think my husband is a very good looking man and I love him dearly and I often wonder how it was that I was so fortunate to snag such a great guy.

So here he is still in his work clothes and no baseball cap of course, so he isn't looking hot here, but you can see in his face how happy he is. I did good this year, thanks Bogles!

So, Tyler was very romantic and creative this year with his gifts to me. One of them was a Lego set. Ha ha! It's true, but there is more to the story. I'll tell it with pictures, the idea is really that each gift is a substitute for what he really wanted to get me. Read the notes to really get the full story, it's cute...

This Lego set is actually one I've been wanting the boys to get. I think it's pretty cool. Hannah and Tanner Dockstader are moving in down the street from us and they came over today and helped me put it together. They have the same set at their Grandma's. It was cute how excited my kids and my kids friends have been that I got Legos.

So, we had fun. We saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 (don't take your kids unless you want them to see a bit of nudity though) and then we went to Taho Joe's so I could stay on my diet ( I did really good and I was down again this morning! I also had 3 servings of chicken left after I finished my dinner!). It was a great anniversary, Thanks also to my parents and sister for having all 4 kids overnight. We also got to sleep in, it was awesome.

Candy Corn Parfaits, thanks Kirsten!

2010-11-16T13:22:00.001-08:00

As promised, and a bit late, here they are. I am lazy and not posting directions, but if you want them you have to look on Enjoying the Journey blog found on the right of my blog. I made them mostly the same but I used crushed Oreos instead of Coco Puffs and I didn't use the chocolate pudding but I'm sure it would be great in it.

I am so glad I made these before I started my diet as they were SO yummy. Peyton ate one bite and was done, she didn't like the crushed Oreos for some reason. I ate hers.
I made Tyler a big one, he said the small one would have been better, it was filling and he could hardly finish it. I think I would have been fine with the big one though ;)

Candy Corn Parfait

Ninja, Flight Commander, Robin, Princess P, what do they have in common?

2010-11-09T22:39:00.000-08:00

They all belong to me!
Oct 28
Every Thursday I help in Benji's Kindergarten class. The Thursday before Halloween they got invited to go trick or treating at the district offices. Peyton saw all of the kids there that morning in their costumes (we had to bring one to Ben because I didn't know they could dress up) and she wanted to get dressed up. She sat like a little angel while I curled all of her hair into ringlets, even the ones that are already in ringlets got curled, and did her make-up. She wanted to be a fairy, in her same costume from last year.

She was very happy.

This was Ben getting off the bus, it was his first school bus ride and first school field trip. I grabbed the spider-man costume because it was the most handy and only one piece. He was happy to have it, he only complained later that I didn't bring the mask. Shame on me.

Oct 30

Halloween for the most part. Trunk or Treat.

Micah was a ninja. Nana Paula got him this costume for his birthday, an early birthday gift. He was not up for something reused, recycled or repurposed.

Jacob was a flight commander. Aunt Lindsay got Micah this costume for his birthday a few years ago on after Halloween clearance. Jacob was very accomodating this year and had no complaints about reusing, this costume was never even worn for Halloween, it was perfect. He was the cutest pilot or flight commander I've ever seen.

I found this at Goodwill for $4 several years ago. Jacob wore it for Halloween once and now it's Ben's turn, a very adorable Robin.

The Linfords gave us this very pretty princess dress (a hat too) that was Lauren's. I am so glad that Peyton wore this, she was so stinkin cute. We had a nap issue that day and she went to sleep about 30 minutes before it was time to get ready. I had to wake her up (not a good idea) She did not want a costume on, any costume, she didn't even want to go to trunk or treat. My sister Morgan came over early and helped me to literally tackle her hair with a few curling irons and we did without the make-up. It worked, I am so happy she got out of her funk and was dressed up so cute. At the time we took this picture she was still in her funk and did not want to look at me, that's ok, you can see her curls better this way! Oh, her little crown comb was from Stefanie Adams in the conference basket she gave us (she's my VT).

First trunk of the night, Sis. Tanner. The boys were off on their own. Peyton moved slower that molasses, she didn't even make it to every trunk before the candy ran out. She was enjoying it though. She gave away most all of her candy anyway.

Suckers are one of her favorites, funny, I always traded suckers or ended up throwing them out as they were the last thing left.

We had an old fashioned stick pull. Next to the chili and cornbread it was my favorite part of the evening. All my kids lost. They were all paired with people about twice their height though. Leg length makes a huge difference. I beat Margaret but she was good competition, then Kendra beat me (mostly because Margaret wore me down and Kendra's about a foot taller than me, no, really, I could have taken her). Melissa Bogle beat Kendra (but only because I wore her down and Melissa really is like a foot taller than Kendra, maybe 2 feet taller than me) I wish we had pictures of the girls, it was really fun.

Oct 31

Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year we opted out of trick or treating and instead let the kids dress up and pass out candy at my moms. It was perfect really. They are always wanting to pass out candy but never get to because they're always out trick or treating. We also picked up Grandma Kay and brought her with us, it was a nice night.

Still more backtracking to come. Next up, candy corn parfaits.

Tonight...

2010-11-07T21:21:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Micah's birthday with the Laing side (as many as could be with us!). I also let my kids play in the rain. Peyton wore her new rainboots that my friend Deann bought her.
She thought it was pretty nifty that she could stand right in the puddle.

The traditional Laing birthday song includes some "tooting" noises between verses

Here is the group that was able to come, minus me.

Mom and Dad with the birthday boy.

So, I have finally uploaded the pictures from my camera from the last several weeks and there are a lot of good ones. Apparently more was going on than I realized and I will have to get to posting! Next up, Halloween.

Double Digits!

2010-11-04T10:28:00.000-07:00

A very Happy 10th Birthday to my oldest baby! I love you Micah.

Micah has almost 3 years of piano behind his belt and is doing really well. He continues to excell in school and is finding 5th grade to be more challenging. He likes his teacher at school and church as well. He is an amazing big brother, most all of the time and is much more willing to help out. Micah is still quite an artist and has found a new liking for basketball and would like to play for the school this year. Keep up the good work Micah!

Found

2010-10-24T20:56:00.001-07:00

My sister in law Marcia had them! From now on I will make more of a note of who I loan movies and books to, especially family. I usually pay pretty good attention to it unless it's family because you see them and, I don't know. Anyway, they are back on the shelves for us to watch or loan again. I now also have Monk (1st season) thanks Marcia, to borrow. I am excited to watch it and hope it will be a show that I can enjoy WITH Tyler.

I have so many great pictures on my camera to upload and I like so much better to have the pictures to go along with my blogging, so...I hope to get to that soon. I have too many responsibilities and interests that some have to fall by the wayside from time to time. Recently blogging and photo organization have been the ones to go. Well, more later!

2008 Scrapbook

2010-10-18T14:35:00.001-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Flag Football

2010-10-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

Ben is playing Flag Football right now. His last game is this coming week. It is so much fun to watch him. He really goes after whoever has the ball, he wants that tackle. His favorite part however is throwing and catching the football which they don't do much of. I hope he'll stick with it a few more years so he can get to the "fun" stuff. Not sure I really want any of my kids playing football, but it is fun to watch, but when it's my child out there I'm not sure I'll be able to get past the worry enough to enjoy the game!

Oct. 2nd Tyler was out of town for work, so, once again he missed picture day, sniff, sniff. Micah and Jacob didn't want to play until we got out there the first night and then they felt a bit different. They are looking forward to baseball though, and now that Micah is in 5th grade he can play for the school (yay FREE!).

Potty Training and catching up, somewhat.

2010-10-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

My life for the past few weeks has been somewhat consumed by potty training Miss P, exercising and meal planning. I think I can say now that my sweet little girl is potty trained! A few weeks ago I thought she was NOT ready, and now it's been something like 6 days since her last accident. She tells me when she needs to go potty and sometimes goes all by herself! Happy Day! 4 down, none to go! I hate potty training and P made it easy, as easy as can be anyway. I am so proud of her.
This, above, is my latest favorite way to do her hair. She has super curly, ringlet hair, but only underneath. The topmost layer is pretty straight, so I have found that if I wash it and brush it with a wide tooth comb it dries in perfect ringlets underneath and on top I can just curl it, about 5 additional ringlets. So Cute, and pretty quick and easy (as long as she can watch in the mirror!).

I made Peyton and my nieces these dresses and matching baby clothes for Christmas. I wish I had a pic of them all together in them.

Sept. 6th was the last Grizzlies game and we went, minus Jake who was hanging out with his cousin Essien. I now love baseball, go figure. I'm working on football, well, planning on it. I just need someone to take the time to explain all of the many details. You cannot love something you know very little about. So, do you notice how old Micah is looking? He's almost 10 now!

Peyton is pretty girlie in some ways, but in many ways she is very much a tom boy. Micah asked if she was going to be a cheerleader, she said no, she was going to play football.

The first month of school both big boys at the first awards rally got Sparthenian. It's basically like student of the month. I was very happy for that. They are good kids and I am lucky to have them.

Many years ago I did a Rainbow Fish craft with Micah and he loved it. We read the book and then made a rainbow fish. I decided to repeat it with Ben and Peyton. It was so fun to watch Peyton glue on the scales. She was so precise with where she placed each scale and she did such a good job, reminds me ever so much of Micah.

Ben wasn't nearly as particular about the placement of his scales, he was more interested in cutting out his own scales. He is learning tons in Kindergarten and enjoying school quite a bit.

Ben is playing flag football and Tyler is helping coach his team. Ben is very good at throwing and catching the football. I enjoy watching him dance around the field during his games. I think we need to get that boy in a dance class. His latest is break dancing which I think he actually has some talent in.

Peyton often joins me in my exercising. She is so cute. She now has graduated from Girl Pushups ( like Anita) to Regular Pushups (like mommy and Natalie). If you have ever done Jillian Michaels 30 day shred these names would mean something! CHECK OUT HER FORM!

Here she is, watching my dvd while EATING CHIPS!

Notice the diaper? I no longer see that anymore!

This picture I love, it's old news too, she likes to use the "Big Potty" now. Life is good, busy. I'm going to attempt to be better at blogging, but who knows.

Anyone have...

2010-09-25T16:10:00.000-07:00

Our Narnia movies (1st and 2nd), or Star Wars Episode 4? I lent them out and can't remember to whom.

Happy Birthday to me!

2010-09-06T20:12:00.000-07:00

So, this was about a month ago. I don't know why, but blogging has been at the bottom of my list and I have just not felt like doing it. My birthday this year was pretty great. Tyler bought me a red velvet cake from Costco. Red velvet is one of my favorite cakes, but really, red velvet cake ice cream from Maggie Moo's is the best. I intended to get a Hot Genoa Sub (the best sandwich ever) from More Than Pizza for lunch but forgot about it and ate a piece of cake instead. If you couldn't tell yet, I used my birthday as a whole cheat day:) We had 3 free kids meals for Logan's Roadhouse so we decided to go there for dinner. It is definatley not a very family like environment, it's kind of like a bar environment but the kids didn't seem to notice. They could have been pretty noisy and I don't think any other patrons would have noticed or cared.
One of our favorite things at Logan's are the peanuts. You can crack them and eat them and throw them right on the floor. See Peyton in the background? She was going for more nuts.

This is all from me, and I was far from done.

I wanted to include a picture of all of us and this is the one I had of Ben. He is always doing something strange it seems.

I'm pretty sure that Ty doesn't like to be in pictures because he always makes faces.

I got a really yummy burger and fries (it had been a LONG time since I'd had fries). I had root beer too.

Micah got his first adult meal, chicken fried steak, onion rings and mashed potatoes (he loves mashed potatoes).

Jacob had fun eating peanuts too, oh yes, and I'm sure he had at least 3 of those huge buttery rolls they serve before the meal comes.

I wont bore you with my gifts, but they were all very fun this year and my loved ones were much too generous. I did get the book I have been wanting, Mocking Jay. I haven't read it yet because I have a few others to get through first and I know I need to read those because they will not be as good as Mocking Jay. My mom has it right now and if any of you want in the rotation for it just leave me a comment or call me!

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes I recieved and to my sweet friends who took me out to lunch and bought me high quality toilet paper, you're the best! Tyler, thank you for the date before my birthday and the fun goodies I got to pick out on our date, (stretchy ring and silver hoops and black flower earrings) that was really fun. I learned that I do like to shop. And if anyone is wondering, I am now 32. Feel free to tell me I look much younger than that if you think that, please don't hold back. It no longer bugs me to hear I don't look as old as I am, it's hard to believe I used to hate hearing that!

More of Family Fun Week, days 4 and 5.

2010-08-28T17:18:00.000-07:00

Since I did days 2 and 3 first, now we're on to days 4 and 5. Thursday August 12th we spent at the water park. I didn't even bring my camera. The kids and I all have passes, but Tyler was going to have to buy one. Well, he got into the wrong line, I told him to ask if it was the right line to buy a ticket, someone up ahead heard him and gave him an extra ticket they had! Yay! We rented a tube and took Micah and Jacob on all the "big kid" rides. The Black Hole, Vertigo and Vortex were among the favorites. Morgan was able to drive out with Dustin since she had just gotten her Drivers License! The Dockstaders had brought Essien and we were able to steal him when they left. It was a long day in the sun, longer than we spent at the water park any other day this summer. I haven't been wearing sunscreen the last month or so and I almost got a burn, I looked pretty pink for a few days. It was a fun day though.

Day 5, Friday the 13th! Oh what fun, one of my favorite days. It was miserably hot and somehow I still had a smile on my face at the end of the day. We went to StoryLand and PlayLand. Let me just say, they have done wonders with that place! I hadn't been since they put the Splash Junction in at PlayLand, so it was a pleasant surprise to see how good everything looked.
We got a great deal with a Groupon and we all had all day ride passes. Let's just say that we got more than our moneys worth with those! I also learned that my 2 youngest kids are my most daring. Ben will for sure be my ride partner for the most thrilling rides. We were in line to get on the train (from PlayLand to StoryLand) and go home. I really wanted to take Ben on the Ferris Wheel with me. I had just gone with Jacob and he wouldn't let me flip us over (it was a cage-like one that you could use a bar to make the cage flip). Ben said that he would let me flip him once and if he didn't like it I wouldn't do it anymore. So, we determined we had time for us to go. Ben let me flip him 10 times! He was a little scared but never cried or whined. He told me a few times that we had flipped enough. I said "Can we do it one more time for mommy?" He was such a great sport and he let me, more than a few times. It was so much fun.
Peyton went on the same Ferris Wheel with me but I didn't flip us. At first she was scared, then she said, "It's scary...I like it.!" I rocked us back and forth a bit and then I used the lever to hold the cage still but let go before we flipped. She will be a good ride partner in a few years too.

We all took took turns in Pirates Cove on the paddle boats.

After the first ride, the ferris wheel, we took Peyton on a kiddie roller coaster that was incredibly rough. After that she was done with rides for the next few hours and it took about 3 rides on the Merry Go Round bench in mom or dads arms until she would even sit on the small non-moving pony. After a few rides on that she finally wanted on a big up and down pony, yay! Then she didn't want off.

Splash Junction was a nice cool off break for the kids, minus Jake who hung out with Mom and Dad in the shade. I kind of wanted to chill out in the water too!

If Peyton is happy, in the least bit, she's jumping. Here she is, mid jump.

The biggest hit was the Tilt-A-Whirl. I rode it with each of my boys, many times. Many, many times. I don't get sick on rides and even I started to get a bit nauseated. If you ever go, buckets 4, 5, and 7 are the whirliest.

No idea why this picture loaded this way, but I had to get a picture in action. we laughed so much on this one.

Peyton kept wanting to go on the bug ride until we took her on the roller coaster. Somehow we finally got her on it and she DID NOT want to get off. She rode it at least six times (each ride is about 3 minutes)!

The race cars were a hit too.

The kids can't wait to go back and neither can I! I hope I can get them all to let me flip them on the ferris wheel! Tyler said he wouldn't let me flip him, but you know what? There isn't really any way he could stop me if I got him in it with me....

Millerton, Family Fun Week day 1

2010-08-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

Monday, August 9th began what became known as "Family Fun Week" We stuck close to home. We went to breakfast in Old Town Clovis at Sandy's Country Junction. The food was good and the atmosphere was fun. After breakfast we got started on the cars, well, the van and the truck. Truck outside and van inside. I learned that I love to work together as a family, it makes it so much more fun and it gets done more quickly!

We had to put a halt on the car cleaning to take Micah to the orthodontist to get new, thicker wires and an elastic chain. I will post his progress soon. His teeth are looking so good! Micah had a doctors appt. too that I was able to take him to. The Linford family invited us to go to the lake with them for FHE, so that is how we ended our first day of vacation. Peyton spent most of the time asleep in the car but when she woke up she was as happy as can be.

After a good swim some dessert was had.

Here are the big boys, Melissa and I were there too.

The kids had a lot of fun using the Linford's boogie boards.

I know none of these pictures are great, but you get the idea! Ben didn't have the time to stop for a photo.

The sun went down and we went home.

Hoping ALL IS WELL

2010-08-20T23:15:00.000-07:00

We just got home from a Grizzlies game, our second of the season. All the kids behaved wonderfully again (woo hoo) and we were all able to enjoy the game, and this time they won! On our way home we passed our church building and Tyler said there were a bunch of police cars in the parking lot and one other car. Me, being daring and adventurous wanted to stop and see what was going on, my ever practical and caring husband however did not think it the best idea for us to stop with four sleepy little ones in the back. Now, as a mother, why did I not think of that? So glad I have a wise and loving husband who looks out for us! He is now at the church with the officers thanks to a kind and thoughtful sister in our ward. Hopefully, ALL IS WELL. I will be posting more about our fun week soon. Things have been busy trying to get ready for 3 kids starting school Monday and trying to cram in a last little bit of family fun.

Monterey Bay Aquarium and Dennis the Menace Park

2010-08-13T19:05:00.000-07:00

Tyler took this week off work and we are having "fun week". I am going to blog it all out of order, well, I guess because that's how I do things! Tuesday and Wednesday we spent in Monterey, I even got to wear a sweatshirt for a bit! Below we are walking Cannery Row to the aquarium.

Sadly the aquarium was incredibly busy, apparently all of Europe vacations in August. It was very frustrating to try and see the exhibits and enjoy ourselves, it took forever just to look at each tank. The kids, especially Peyton, loved this area below where every 10-15 seconds a huge wave would pass overhead.

The Europeans weren't as into this as some of the kids were so we hung out here for awhile.

I love the touch pools, I think the kids liked them too, my favorite...the sea cucumber (not pictured)

The splash zone for kids was a hit. Peyton found a little area just high enough for her to walk through that had several different tanks lining the walls; it was hard to get her to leave there.

I had to include this little guy. He was such a funny looking fish, can you see his lips?

We spent some more time in the less busy area, Hovden Cannery. The aquarium occupies the same space the cannery once did and part of it was left intact so we can see what it was like as a cannery. Here the kids are in a fish basket. WHAT A CATCH!

Well, we made the choice to take off from the aquarium and head over to the best park, Dennis the Menace Park. I was sad to leave the aquarium early, but it was really too busy. I made the suggestion that we come back the following day (we bought a membership which allows unlimited entrance to the aquarium for a year because it was only $20 more for our entire family). Below is Jacob going down a slide at the park, one of many it has. I know it isn't the best picture but I wanted to include it so you could see a few of the slides; these are very fun; they are curvy and bumpy.

Peyton conquered a fear there. She has a huge issue walking on suspension bridges, even the little tiny ones on play equipment, she hates how they move. Well, at this park there is a very big one, and she said she wanted to go on it. As soon as she stepped on I could see the fear quickly creep into her eyes and I said, "How fun, it's like a trampoline huh?" She loves tramps and immediately began jumping. She made it all the way across the bridge.

I went down this roller slide myself, on my bum though. It was so much fun, most of the kids were "surfing" down it like Jacob is here. I wanted to try and probably would have if there weren't so many adults watching!

Here Micah is "surfing"

I took a picture of Micah and Jacob several years ago in this same tunnel and wanted to get one of all the kids but Peyton was elsewhere with Daddy.

Southern Pacific Railroad donated this real engine that the kids can play on. The boys loved it and requested going back to the park the next day too, so it looked like we would go back to both places the next day and skip the beach. When we got to our hotel we went swimming (a bit cold) I let the boys swim longer and took Peyton back to our room where we played in a nice warm tub and she didn't let me get out until she was done too.

Here we are the next morning walking to the trolley stop. I got my way, we were going back to the aquarium! I thought it was so funny that Peyt was picking her nose up on Daddy's shoulders for all the world to see.

One of my all time favorite exhibits is the jellyfish exhibit. I hate to see them dead on the beach but love them in all their beauty swimming in an aquarium!

The aquarium has a few new exhibits, Seahorses, flamingos, and sea turtles. They are beautifully done and I enjoyed them but there was A LOT of global warming/polor ice caps are melting propaganda that I really could have done without. Anyhow, I am all for treating our planet well and recycling and being green and all that it just irritates me to hear it tied in with global warming. That being said, the exhibits themselves are awesome. Here is Ben with a seahorse statue. He was always ready for a picture. Did you know that the female seahorse gives her eggs to the male and he caries and delivers the babies?

This is Peyton with one of her "friends". It was like pulling teeth to get her away from these guys. A while after this was taken we lost her and I went directly back to the turtles and there she was, squating by her turtle friends, pooping.

The second day at the aquarium was great, much fewer people, still busy but not as bad. Again we went to the park afterward and had lots more fun, the camera battery died so I was freed from taking pictures and we just had fun. We then drove home. When we got in the car Ben said, "Where are we going now?" Ty told him we were going home and he started to whine. I guess they were having fun. More to come, stay tuned.

This is something we do

2010-08-03T15:34:00.000-07:00

JULY 12, 2010

During the hot summer months when school is out, we swim at Nana's. We sometimes bring some friends too. When you swim, you work up an appetite and kids sure like pizza!

Peyton and Savannah

Ethan, Benji, Micah and Jacob

Kendyl and Yo

Savannah, Dustin and Peyton

Rebekah was there too but I somehow didn't get her picture. We love our friends, we love swimming and we love no school!

Caltrans Kids Day

2010-07-24T17:14:00.000-07:00

Every year Caltrans has a kids day for the families of their employees. It gets better each year. There are a bunch of different stations where the kids can do different activities (like make a street sign, use surveying equipment to hunt for treasure and go inside huge machines, just to name a few).
There were a few visitors there this year.

This was a really cool truck that had a huge and very powerful vaccuum hose on it.

I wish I would have had my hair vaccuumed!

This truck below was some kind of snow equipment, the kids got to go sit inside and honk the INCREDIBLY loud horn.

Peyton was happy with her sucker and rubber monkey.

I made Morgan pose on the police motorcycle, she was a good sport (we were both in our suits and cover ups for our first trip of the summer out to the waterpark).

The boys enjoyed playing in the police car, we had to make them get out to let other kids get a turn.

We are looking forward to next years kids day already and plan on going again.

A good Sweat

2010-07-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

In my never ending quest to lose weight I have discovered a great workout that is less than 30 minutes. It is Jillian Michael's 30 day shred. There are 3 different workouts, 3 different levels. I have been doing them for several months now and I wish I could say that I've lost weight but I have not. However, my body is changing and many people have said they have noticed that I'm losing weight, so that's good. The workouts consist of a brief warm up, 3 circuits of 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs and then a cool down stretch. It's a tough workout but if you can hang in there for about 24 minutes or so then you're done!

Don't I look nice after my workout?!

Cub Scout Day Camp

2010-07-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

June 14th - 18th I can't believe this was already a month ago! Our summer has sure flown by. Cub Scout Camp was the first week after school got out, everyday from 9 am to 3:30pm at Reagan Elem. It's a pretty new school so the trees are very small and there isn't any shade to speak of. We were fortunate to have some abnormally cool days, a few anyway. I got a nice start to my tan, my farmer's tan that is. It was a sports theme this year which didn't excite me or Micah much but I ended up really loving it and wishing I had tried basketball when I was in school. This is micah and Keith during one of the basketball drills. Camille Fox (I think that was her name) was one of the teachers in that rotation and she was awesome.
Archery, one of mine and Micah's favorites, we both want bows now.

We had a guest speaker, do you recognize him? If you don't you probably don't care anyway, it's Pat Hill, the football coach from Fresno State.

My group of boys was able to carry me on a homemade t-shirt stretcher!

Cliff McKinney coached/taught flag football, that's Micah with the ball. You'd never guess he didn't like sports.

On the last day it was incredibly hot and the boys did all kinds of relay races, here is the frog hop.

This is my group, they were some pretty awesome kids and I am proud to say that I survived (barely) the entire week all by myself with this big group of Wolves.

I look forward to next year and being Jacob's Den Leader for Cub Scout Day Camp. There were a lot more activities and rotations that I didn't get pictures of or that I didn't post. Everyone did a great job. My favorites were, basketball, archery, wood working (tool boxes), swimming, music, waterslide, map and compass (even though our group lost and I sweat like a pig running all over the school). I'm sure I left some out but they really were all fun. Thanks to all who helped put it together and kept it going!

Sit down and Hang on!

2010-07-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed but I'm tackling this head on. If you want to get caught up on the lives of the Laings tune in and every few days you'll see a little something new! In no particular order, here we go...

June 30th Peyton is a huge animal lover and we are fortunate enough to have the world's nicest cat, seriously. Thanks to my mom for buying us this sweet thing. She claws on all our furniture but really, she's amazing. Peyton drags her around all over the house, pulls her legs, lays on her, carries her around, you name it. Carmen had NEVER, EVER, bitten or scratched her or anyone else. She even comes to Peyton sometimes, she really likes attention.
Grandma Kay bought Jacob a rock polisher for his birthday several months ago and we finally got it running, only 5 days left in this first batch. There are 4 stages and during each one the tumbler runs for 7 days. It's quite an exercise in patience. From now on when we camp or go to the beach we will scout out pretty rocks. The picture below is after the 1st step (July 2nd).
Peyton has a growing Barbie house and amongst many rooms is of course a bathroom. One of my favorite YW, Wendy Freeman (and her family) has made multiple contributions. One of these said contributions is a toilet, a purple toilet. Micah, being the great brother he is will often play with Peyton and her Barbies. Let me assure you, he does play like a boy. He came and got me to show me what Gabrielle was doing to Taylor. Oh my....

July 2nd Yes, I'm a Twilight Saga fan. Not one of the crazies, but I did go a few nights after Eclipse opened with a few of my best friends and my sister. I really liked it, it was my favorite of the three movies so far and I am looking forward to the last 2.

This was also taken July 2nd. I guess I felt like I needed more pictures that day, I don't know. I'm including this because it's a cute pic of the boys and it shows all of their hair "before"

Jacob had quite a mop so he got a few extra shots, the were taken last night, July 17th. Jacob really is a beast when it comes to haircuts and it causes us to allow his hair to get pretty out of control. He claims that his haircuts are very painful, there are 2 places on his head that he always flinches, on each side, so, I am inclined to believe him. I just don't know what the problem is. I cut Tyler's hair as well as Micah's, Jacob's and Benjamin's and none of the other complain about it hurting a bit.

Here is Micah's Before, it's also his After. He is riddled with cowlicks, well 3. His hair looks great short but has to be cut frequently or it sticks up everywhere. He likes it long and it lays nicely when it's long so I have decided not to cut it until just before school starts.

Jacob and Ben's After. Now they look even more alike.

Still alive

2010-07-16T18:27:00.001-07:00

This summer has been busy and fun. I was able to be Den Leader again for Scout Camp, Micah was in my group again. After Scout Camp I was also able to go to Girls Camp again, at Camp Keola. In between we have been swimming at Nana's house and going to the water park. We got passes this year which we haven't done since I was pregnant with Peyton, so the boys have been very happy. I will hopefully be posting all of our summer events soon. Our laptop is very old and is having some issues. The usb ports are pretty loose and will no longer recognize when my hard drive is plugged in which is where all of our photos are and all of my digital scrapbooking stuff is. I have lots of pictures building up on my camera and I really miss scrapbooking. Tyler said he will try to set up our wireless network again and I can do everything that way. The only drawback there is that it takes so much longer to do anything. Anyway, Tyler implemented a new program for our household, those of us at home during the day anyhow. We, myself and the boys included, are responsible for cleaning one room a day. It's been great. The boys are learning a lot, our house is getting back in shape and I'm not having to do everything! It's just one room a day and I have help, I can handle that! So far we have done the boys bathroom, their bedroom, the living room, and today the kitchen. I plan and hope to keep it up. I miss blogging, kind of ;) I must not lie, it's nice to have a break, but I do want everything recorded! I hope you are all having a great summer.

Brace Face, Metal Mouth

2010-06-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

Before, well, kind of before. At this point he has had an expander on the bottom and one on the top. The expander on the bottom did a nice job of making lots more space up top, spreading his top two front teeth apart.
During, we got a kick out of this thing, I should have gotten a better picture, one of him sitting up, it looked too funny.

Here come the brackets.

After. There will be more pictures as his teeth straighten up.

Perfect Attendance and Personal Responsibility

2010-06-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

By some strange fluke neither Micah nor Jacob got sick this year, so we went with it and didn't let them miss a day to go to Father's and Son's early. They were both awarded with perfect attendance and received a cool medal. Jacob also recieved the Personal Responsibility award. I had never heard of it, but it's apparently quite an honor. Tyler and I are both so proud of our boys and how well they have done in school. I know I nag them a lot and sometimes feel very frusterated with them, but when I really think about it, these kids are good and smart and responsible. Thank you boys, keep up the good work! I love you.

This is Jake with his Personal Resposibility award

Perfect Attendance. I'm really very proud of both the kids and myself for this one. It was a combined effort, and honestly, something I never even got close to.

We had more than half an hour between lower and upper grade awards so the little ones (mine, Margaret McCauley's and Alicia McFarland's) had fun running around the cafeteria and enjoying bags of snack mix kindly donated by the cafeteria lady. I have to say, when Peyt wears her hair in piggy buns, I love her even more.

Micah with his Perfect Attendance, the kid to the right is his buddy Colton.

The Family Camping trip that wasn't

2010-06-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

Every year the boys look forward to Fathers and Sons and I look forward to girls night with my daughter, mom and sister. This year however, the ball got dropped and Fathers and Sons, which is usually Mother's Day weekend, or very close to it, fell into the same weekend as our Family Camping trip that had been planned and on our calendar for many months. So, the boys went to Fathers and Sons and Peyton and I went to Soda Springs with my family.

Diego sat on Peyton's lap almost the entire way, she loved it.

She is the cutest little camper ever.

Well, Dustin is pretty darn cute too! He loved the fire, his mommy did her best to set up barriers, which he climbed.

Morgan found a very pretty adult king snake with the same coloring as her baby at home. It bit her and musked her but she stunk herself back to camp so we could get some pictures of it.

Peyton slept well, I watched her many times during the night. I was cold, the ground was hard, and I didn't leave enough room too stretch my legs out. What happened to the days when I could sleep anywhere, anytime and in any position?

While Larry, Lindsay and Morgan were fishing, My Mom, Dustin, Peyton and I hung out at camp and my Mom and I had a good conversation about "the old days" and my dad. It wasn't girls weekend by any means but it was good.

Morgan, me and the kids had some fun playtime and nap time in the tent. What was so not comfortable the night before was feeling surprisingly good!

Peyton, my little nature girl, found a really cool frog on the window of our tent.

Diego had some nap time too.

All the specks you see in this picture are ladybugs, billions of them. They were everywhere, EVERYWHERE. It was awesome.

Whats camping without getting dirty?

Food

2010-06-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of food pictures building up so I thought I'd combine them in a post. Tyler laughs at me everytime he sees me taking a picture of something I've cooked or baked but oh well. I have only made one pie in my life, a few months ago, and then the other night I made the one below. I had always heard pie crust was hard to make but I just followed the recipe and it turned out perfect. This one is an "invention". I made a dinner pie with roast beef, cheese, green beans, cream of chicken soup and diced tomatoes. Micah hated it.
A few months ago Tyler decided that we needed to have a dessert or treat every Monday night for Family Home Evening. So I decided I would use that request as an excuse to go through and bake different things from my cookbook every week. I love baking and I love making new things. The cookies below are Peanut Butter cookies, I have made them before, but I had to make something we had the ingredients for! I also hope to someday make a recipe book and include pictures, at least for many of them. I want to digitally scrapbook my recipes and print them into a photo book, wouldn't that be cute?

I made this cake for Ben's 5h birthday, nothing amazing by any means, but it's our family's favorite chocolate bundt cake, this time I put frosting on it, usually we just have powdered sugar on it. Micah was worried it wouldn't be as good with the frosting, but I did light frosting and everyone liked it. You can't really see, but Ben picked out a spider and a snake as we were headed out the door, he wanted his cake to be decorated, so cute he is.

This was Ben's birthday dinner. I didn't plan anything out ahead of time, I'm always so unprepared. Ben's favorite food is fish, and of course that's what he'd request when I asked him an hour or so before dinner what he would like me to make for dinner. We had no fish, but we always have tuna, so I improvised and made tuna patties and fried them in Olive Oil. They were quite tasty and Ben was happy.

Lemon bars! Another FHE treat. Tyler's mom used to make these for him often when he was a kid and he loves them. I made them once before (Ty insisted) but it was from a Krusteez box so I don't think it counts at all. These are my first from scratch using lemons from our wonderful neighbors tree that hangs over the fence into our yard.

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies. Benji and Peyt both helped me, again, I used what we had on hand. I do plan on picking some new things out and getting what we need to make them.

Below, Snicker Doodles, mine and Papa Louie's favorite cookie. Made it dozens of times but we had all the ingredients.

Oh my word, just a little bit fat, ok.

2010-06-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

So, Ben is turning 5 tomorrow, June 3rd. I can't believe it. He is starting Kindergarten this fall! He is my sweetheart, my nearly constant companion. This boy does not do "self-entertaining" He loves games still, all kinds of games. Today it was chess, I hate chess, but I love Benjamin. He is always talking and always saying funny stuff.
I have been really trying to lose weight and I've been doing Jillian Michaels 6 days a week (workout video). I switched to doing it at night to help me lose weight. Well tonight I actually did it in my sports bra and shorts because it was so stinking hot. After I finish Ben looks at me and says, "Why do you look a little bit fat?" I guess he saw my look of death, or maybe he heard the gasps escaping from the mouths of his brothers, but he emphasized, "a little bit fat." Oh boy, I was thinking, "Hmm, I don't know why I only look a little bit fat because I'm much more than a little bit fat." Or, "Maybe I look a little bit fat because I carried 4 babies that were big and stretched my skin way out and you were the biggest of my babies weighing in at 10 pounds Ben!" No, really, Ben is a sweetheart and never means to hurt feelings, he's just an honest kid. He speaks the truth. I am a little bit fat, and it is just a little bit, it's ok. I have 4 beautiful children to show for my fat and stretch marks. They're worth every bit of it!
On another note, Last week when Ty was in LA for work he stayed at a nice hotel and brought home some Bath and Body Works Orange and Ginger bath stuff. I thought there were 2 conditioners and one shampoo so I put them all in the shower. Tonight when I was in there and I picked up one to make sure it was the shampoo, and it was the lotion...LOTION?! Yep, that's what it said, and it was half full. I lotioned my hair last night. I thought it felt a little different than most conditioner.

Happy 5th Birthday my sweet Benji!

Too Fast

2010-05-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

Peyton played in the bath with Jake and Ben for awhile, and then just her and Ben were in there for a long time plating with "guys". It was so cute to listen to her. "Ahhh, help me, I'm falling."
"I'll help you." When I got her out I wrapped her big pink towel around her and she asked me to caryy her like a baby. Of course then Ben requested to be carried like a baby too. I carried Peyton to her changing table, went back and got Ben, carried him to his room and then went back for P. I took off her fingernail polish because it was old and chipped. I told her that her toes looked fine still so we'd leave it for now. She very sweetly asked me to paint them pink (they were gold). I said sure and got the polish. As I was polishing her nails I was telling her about when I was pregnant with her and how I felt when they told me she was going to be a girl. I said that I didn't want to be too happy or too excited in case she wasn't. I told her how one of the first things I thought about was being able to poish her nails. She responded, "Can I go to sleep?" It was too sweet. I told her she could and she did. I finished her toe nails and went ahead and did her fingernails because she was so still. They've never come out better. I stood over her for some time just watching her sleep. She is so sweet and cute and precious to me. I wish that they didn't get big as fast as they do. She is still laying on the changing table drying. I think I'll move her to her bed now.

He's Gone

2010-05-24T15:33:00.000-07:00

Porter is gone again. This time it's Peyton's fault. While I was in the shower today she opened the tank.

Jessica's "Daily Affirmation"

2010-05-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure I'm going to start doing something a little like this every morning.

More Digital Scrapbook Pages

2010-05-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to catch up on scrapbooking and finish all my pages for my 2008 book. I know, I'm almost 2 years behind. I've made dozens of pages in the last few weeks and here is my latest. I had to redo it using different kits because it just didn't look right to me. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Thanks Janelle for telling me about Jane Austin (font), it's perfect for this page.

I like this one too.

SWAGGER WAGON

2010-05-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

I saw this on someone's blog and had to post it. I think I have a new name for our Sienna now.