R.K.D.L.C.E

Funnies

2011-12-03T15:47:00.000-08:00

Cohen has been super independent through potty training and the other night when he put on his pull-up we noticed something askew....

Eva J, enjoying some refreshments :)

We trimmed the tree...

2011-12-03T15:43:00.000-08:00

Let the pictures speak for themselves.....

"Snow"flake fun

2011-12-03T15:27:00.000-08:00

I saw a cute craft for q-tip snowflakes in my Family Fun magazine so the little kids and I gave it a shot this week.

Mr. Cohen in his underwear! He has been doing great potty training....or after 2 I am way more relaxed with the project!

And of course, some Eva antics :)

Getting to know you.....

2011-12-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

Since both my brother and Ryan's sister live in Utah we don't get to see them too often. The older kids always miss one another and are excited when they get to see each other. It was especially fun to watch Eva get to know her cousins.

My brother recently had a new baby girl and we all loved getting some good baby time. Eva LOVES babies and has become even more attached to her dolls after being around baby Reese last week.

Eva got to spend some good time getting to know cousin Kylie too. They are both full of spunk and it was fun to watch them interact.

The quality of this photo sucks, bit I love Eva's face!

Leila turns 5

2011-12-03T14:57:00.000-08:00

We struggle with what to do for Leila's birthday every year. She has a birthday that is either, the day before, the day OF, the day after Thanksgiving etc. I never want her to feel that she has less of a birthday,but it is hard to plan on the years that we travel.

This year our sweet Grape Grandma (Ryan's grandma) let us all come over to her house to make pizza and cake and for Leila to open presents.

The kids saved a ton of their candy from Halloween so that they could help make Leila's "candyland" cake.

Leila is such a special little lady. She is strong willed, caring, smart, thoughtful, amazingly fast at picking up new skills and funny. We are so blessed to have her in our family!

We make climbers

2011-12-03T14:49:00.000-08:00

Every one of our kids have been avid climbers, and Eva is no different. She gets to hang out with Mommy and Papa after the other kids go to bed and she never fails to entertain us!

Pinterest Inspirations

2011-11-13T20:46:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of things Ryan "whipped up" for me that I found on Pinterest.

Love the toothbrush holders! No more chasing Eva down after she's grabbed them out of the drawer!

I was really tired of having all(yeah, I really don't have much) my jewelry thrown in my makeup bag so Ryan made this in about 10min out of some scraps in the garage....perfect :)

Baker Girl!

2011-11-13T20:28:00.000-08:00

Leila has become quite the little Baker. She loves helping in any way she can when I bake and I finally let her make her very first batch of cookies all on her own (with my verbal help). She put them in the microwave and they worked great! Microwave cookies are a bit dry but no one seemed to care!

She was so excited to share them that I just had to let her bake again and again! She's made cookies for the missionaries and a pumpkin angel food cake for FHE. Just look at the joy in those eyes! Love it!

She thinks we need to take a picture everytime she bakes now and wants to know what Grandpa thinks, I txted him when she made her first cookies and she was SO proud when he asked for one! :)

Eva June has been finding her niche as well :) She really likes to eat anything and everything Leila makes!

Big, round eyes, a body white....

2011-11-06T14:55:00.000-08:00

Floating by on Halloween Night...

LOVE this spunky little girl!

Optimus Prime, Rapunzel and Ironman.

Baby Gorrilla!

The loot!

Flexi-baby!

Cohen's "homeschool"

2011-11-06T14:34:00.000-08:00

Cohen was not happy when he realized that he wouldn't be attending a school this year like his big bro and sis.
We started telling him that his school was at home.

So now when the older kids are telling us about their days Cohen will tell them what he has done at his "home school"

Every once in a while I will actually find a moment to do something "home schooly" with him and I had to share these pics from the other week.

This was suppose to be a fine motor skills/busy time activity. I had no liquid food coloring so I handed C some green sprinkles and told him to shake some in while I got his mat. I was gone about 5 seconds and when I got back, the entire bottle of green sprinkles were in the cup. I should've known it was only a precursor.

It was pretty cute at first to watch him learn how much pressure to use with the dropper. He was doing so good, really determined to get a drop in each little hole that I decided I'd clean out the vacuum. So I grabbed the
vacuum and sat down on the floor
beside him. I must've been really
into my cleaning because I didn't
notice a thing until a small splatter

of green hit the vacuum. When I looked up I notice the entire table and floor were covered in green, sticky water. There were splatters that reached from Cohen, across the room to Eva's highchair and then across the room to the baseboards on the opposite wall!

I just had to laugh. He had definitely mastered the medicine dropper!
I literally moved all the furniture out of the kitchen and mopped the entire floor and STILL found green splatters later that day.

Cohen is definitely his own little man.

Love how proud he was!

Pumpkin Carving 2011

2011-11-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

We carved pumpkins again this year with our good friends the Hardy's and Powell's and added in the Miller's and "our" Cirbi and Jace :)

We have really enjoyed this area and the amazing families. We have come really attached to some, we love hanging out with Cirbi and Jace, and love them even more for how they love our kids :)

The carving table; Papa's and Jace's heads, Cirbi(pink) and Jessica and her girls.

Our Cirbi and Jace

Sweet Kate :)

The boys, doing the hard work!

Miss Leila, who randomly puked before and after the carving festivities but was otherwise fine. Even snuck a few chocolate treats durring. Crazy girl :)

Rapunzel

Family pics.....some day.

2011-10-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

I always love when I enter a home and there is a huge professional, gorgeous, family picture. I have always said that when we were done having our kids we would get some done....well, I am still working up to it.

So, for now we are still trying to take a family pic

Sunday morning with 10min to spare till church starts....and I can't seem to get the right angle, or get my unwashed/unstyled hair to stay put, my new shoes are very sexy, but also make me look like an amazon next to Ryan! I seem to have a serious case of the bloat! lol

Not to mention the recent loss of the bosoms now that Eva is officially weaned. I REALLY wanted a new family pic, but I now know I was definitely not prepared.

So why put them up for everyone to see? Because, cute kids covereth a multitude of sins! You can quote me on that. I know I am really bad at sitting back and enjoying my blessings, but I don't forget for a second how blessed I am to have all four of these beautiful kids and their amazingly supportive Father.

So, ignore the haphazard lady to the right and feast your eyes on the cutest kids in the world and their SUPREMELY attractive Papa!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

2011-10-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

So, it's apparent that when I switch the angle of the picture on my computer it doesn't give a flip(haha, get it) and they come out sideways on the blog....oh well, right?!

I don't know why D insisted on that gorgeous silver star necklace, but he did.

Snot and pretzels :)

Eva was convinced there was a pumpkin she could lift somewhere.

Leila posing with "Cinderella" pumpkins

There is a small petty zoo area and our kids loved the funny looking ducks.

Everyone got to choose something to do and the animal train was IT. Hope it was everything they dreamed it would be!

FREE the Chickens!

2011-10-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

Check out those deep browns!

I am loving the Fall weather we have been having. Love the smell in the air, the cool breeze, the warm afternoons and the COLORS!!

Our garden called it quits once the nights got cold which means our chickens are able to run free once again in the backyard. We brought in everything that was left on the vines and it was quite a load for our first time with squash and pumpkins!

Eva's party

2011-10-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

Look how excited she is to be ONE!

We had a small little party with a few friends on Eva's birthday.
We had a Pinata!

Ate "Book worms"

and had a great time celebrating Eva's special day. It's funny to be writing about her bday now, over a month later! Life keeps flying by!

Eva June turned 1 and the world didn't end!

2011-10-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

Eva slept in on her bday so we were able to sneak and fill her room with balloons. She loved it!

She opened her gifts...or the big kids opened her gifts.

Then it was time to get ready for the party! (I'm not in the mood to fight with this comp over pic angles)

Big bro and baby sis!

Must She?

2011-09-14T14:15:00.001-07:00

I told myself durring Eva's pregnancy that I definitely deserved a quiet baby after the other 3....apparently I was wrong! Eva may get into things MORE than any of the others did. But she is dang cute while she does it!

Trying to color in Dylan's book

Ready to pull out all of the workout DVD's, one of her favs!

Pretty girl ready for church!

She is determined to do everything everyone else can do, which means she HAS to be as tall as everyone. Luckily she is pretty darn good at getting on and off of all kinds of things.

And a little dance to finish it off....

Our first Eggs....Egg

2011-09-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

On Leila's first day we also got our first eggs!! So exciting to actually get eggs from our very own backyard!

We started with 2......

And ended with 1! Love that I caught the drop on camera!

School begins AGAIN 2011

2011-09-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

I was a bad Mom this year and totally forgot to get a pic of Leila before she went off to her first day of preschool. I got one when I picked her up though, love the hair! lol
Her teacher has told me she is very popular with the boys, not as a love interest, as one OF the boys!
Also missed Dylan's first day pic, but day 2 is still good right?!

2nd Grade all the way!!!

She can RIDE!

2011-09-14T14:04:00.001-07:00

Leila is our Go-getter...or however you spell it :) If she wants to do something she will find a way. She runs full force into everything...and usually comes out with quite a few bumps and bruises, but NEVER gives up.
This summer she learned how to ride her bike in 2days. Starting and stopping included. She still rides every day. Getting on.....

See ya!

And, we're back....

Dylan's Painted Ladies

2011-09-14T13:59:00.001-07:00

This summer Dylan raised four painted lady butterflies. It was fun and eventful for everyone in the house. Apparently they only live or a few weeks so we opted to let them fly free after about a week.

BAGELS and recipe of course!

2011-08-13T15:42:00.002-07:00

Cohen would like to share his bagel recipe, Thanks to Auntie Kristen for sharing it with us!

Sponge: 1tsp. instant yeast

4c. flour

2 1/2c. warm H2O

Dough: 1/2tsp. instant yeast

3 3/4c. flour

2 3/4tsp. salt

2tsp. malt powder or 1TBS. Malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar

Prepare Sponge the night before by mixing yeast(1tsp) into flour in large mixing bowl. Add water;stir until all ingredients are blended. Cover with plastic and let rise 2hrs.

Remove plastic wrap, stir in yeast(1/2tsp.) add 3c. flour, malt and salt. Mix until ball forms. Work in additional 3/4c. flour to stiffen dough. Dough should be stiffer and dryer than normal bread dough. Dry is good! It will look better after kneading.

Pour dough onto clean surface and knead for 10min.

*This is the point where you can add in any extras you want: Choc chips, raisins and cinnamon, dried onion and herbs etc.

After 10min. immediately separate dough into 12 sections.

*break dough into 2 sections. Roll each half into a tube and then section each tube into 6 pieces.

Roll each piece into a ball. Cover with a damp towel and allow balls to rest for 15-20min.

Shaping Bagels:

Punch your thumb through the center of each ball, rotating as you gentle coax the dough outward. *Make the center hole larger than a bagel hole since it will shrink as the dough rises and then bakes.

Place shaped bagels on 2 greased cookie sheets. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise 20min.

Break time! Place bagels in fridge overnight.

Following morning/day:

Preheat oven to 500deg.

Bring large pot of water to a boil. Add 1TBS. baking soda to the boiling water.

Drop a few bagels at a time(I can fit three in my pot, just depends on the size of your pot) into the pot and boil 1 min. on each side, remove from water.

Bake 5-6min. then reduce heat to 450deg. rotate pans, bake 5-6min more minutes. Bagels are done when they begin to brown. Take them out and let them cool, then EAT!!!

Lil' Rat Race 2011

2011-08-13T15:12:00.001-07:00

Leila runnin in!

Cohen biking out

Practicing, practicing and practicing....

Yesterday the kids participated in the first ever Altrec Lil' Rat Race. Every year Redmond does a triathlon, the Rat Race and this year the did a free kids version. The kids were pretty excited. It was suppose to start as soon as the last adult finished which ended up being about an hour after they had scheduled it. The kids spent plenty of time practicing the obstacle course.

Cohen was so surprising, he went along with the big kids and impressed everyone, even the announcer made a few comments about "#47". He was gung-ho from the get go. In the transition from bike to run he took off in the wrong direction, it was priceless. He even left Ryan in the dust to finish! I LOVE the look on his face!

Dylan came in right after Leila(who skipped the obstacle course and just biked and ran) then they went back to run in with Cohen and Papa.

Check out the sweet medals! lol

Leila biking in

Dyl biking out

Waiting for the okay to GO!Lookin' good

Eva J showing how it's DONE!LOVE!

The kids loved the race so much, they couldn't get enough! Each of them asked if they could do it again and Dylan wanted to know if there were more races he could do. I love that we live in such an outdoorsy place where they can experience things like this and learn to love the thrill of racing and accomplishing something. We will definitely be doing it next year! Ryan and I might even try the adult tri....maybe :)

A bat(man), princess,hula girl, dragon, cowboy and Ironman have tea

2011-08-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

Don't be scared, he's really quite friendly.

The Dragon!

The Princess

Ironman

The Cowboy

The Hula-birthday girl??

Leila picked up a good 'ol Fancy Nancy book at the library and couldn't wait to throw a tea party of her own. She picked the snacks she wanted, decorated the table and invited her guests.

It was a tea party to remember. Thanks Grammy and Gpa...I mean Dragon and Hula girl for coming and making our tea party SPECIAL!

Grammy and Gpa, bagels and Jam!

2011-08-13T15:09:00.002-07:00

Ryan's parents have always had an incredible sense of family and done everything they can to show it's priority. We love their visits and the memories we get to create together.

This visit Grammy brought buckets and sponges for WATER FIGHTS(you know Crazy neighbor lady enjoyed that!)

Do you think my kids will ever forget being able to soak their Grandparents?! I don't!

Eva seriously cracks me up, she refuses to be left out of anything!

I love my in-laws. I love how they embraced Dylan and I from day 1 and that they have loved me through everything. I appreciate our long talks and their honest opinions and guidance(given only when asked for of course!)

WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Grammy mentioned how Auntie Kristen had made some rockin' bagels and since Cohen had become quite a fan of the bagels at the hotel breakfast on vacation, I thought we should definitely give them a try. They were AWESOME! I tried cinnamon raisin and was surprised that they were pretty easy and fool proof.
I told Cohen to point at his bagels! lol

Of course the bagels were made a lot easier thanks to my new BOSCH, whoohoo! I am a bit intimidated by it's beauty and strength, but I have no doubt we will be great friends.

Wanted to put up a picture of the jam I made that weekend also, but have since realized and can tell from the picture, that it didn't quite set up. DARN! the kids are enjoying dunking their crackers in it at least!

Crazy Neighbor Lady. No really, that's her name.

2011-08-13T15:09:00.001-07:00

I don't even want to talk about this, but for history sake, and hope that one day we will laugh hysterically about it, I think I should write this down. This is the story of a woman we call, "Crazy neighbor lady"

About 6months after we moved in to our house, the house directly behind us was purchased. Immediately we had problems. The woman who purchased the home had 3 dogs, in a yard about half the size of ours. We had our dog Turk at the time and he would bark back and forth with her dogs. Long story short, she believed our dog was evil and creating havoc in her life. Scaring her poor pit bull and breaking the fence. True, the fence became broken on many sides, but probably due to the fact that there were dogs on BOTH sides trying to get at one another.

ANYWHO, she made it her priority to drive over every day to tell me how Turk had done something or how her dogs were regressing in behavior because of the bad example of our dog, how I clearly (with4 kids at the door) did not have the time Turk required to live a fulfilled doggie life etc. Ouie!
We got rid of Turk a month or two later, but not because of anything she had to say. I really didn't have much time and that dog was too set in his ways, after the umpteenth time of knocking Cohen over, we thought it best to move on.

Fast forward a few months and we had just arrived home from our 3wks in Vancouver. Saturday morning the kids were out jumping and yelling, happy to be home. Ryan and I were weeding our overgrown garden when I realized Ryan was yelling over the fence to someone. Apparently, Crazy neighbor lady had had enough of our children's squeals of delight at 9:30a.m and was screaming at them to "Stop screaming, it's ear-piercing!", she admitted later that she didn't know we were out with them. Yeah, horrible. Ryan replied kindly that they were just children.

A day or 2 later Ryan was out with the kids again and said he could hear her murmuring about screaming etc.

We instructed the kids to let us know if she ever said anything to them and that she was not to tell them what to do.

A few days later Dylan had a friend over and I put the kids outside with an activity and ran upstairs while on the phone with Ryan. Dyl came in a few minutes later to say that Crazy neighbor lady had told them to be quiet. I decided that something needed to be said. So I marched back to the fence, which, at this point was in the state shown in the picture above. Jumped up on the neighbors side and poked my head around.

We had words for a good 30min and came to no real resolution. I ended up with tears and felt as though I lived in the twilight zone.

Basically, Crazy neighbor lady believes that her rights are being impeded by the pitch of my children's laughter. It ruins her days, wakes her at "ten to 9" on weekends. Causes her to move her bird to another room (it mimics their screams, LOVE IT!). She literally believes that my children yelling/screaming/whatever, is against the law and that she has a right to correct them since it is outside and therefore has become her business. She also thinks that I never correct them, thinks I should put a time-out chair outside. This proves she is clearly CRAZY since Ryan and I are 2 of the strictest parents I know and if anything, I could yell/correct a whole lot less.

Since the hashing out there has been no contact. I am a bit worried for my children's safety, but enjoy the new, seriously illegally tall fence she has constructed! Oh, which she claims has nothing to do with us and has been on her list of things to do for some time. Hey, no objections here!

FYI, she has also gone to our other neighbors house to discuss their children's backyard fighting and "what can be done" since it drives Crazy neighbor lady "coo coo" (her own words). Seriously, she has a problem. I hope it ends and someone gives that lady a piece of reality. I really hope it doesn't have to be us. I've spent my share of time in her outer space world!

Fun with boxes and bubble wrap...totally normal!

2011-08-13T15:08:00.002-07:00

Eva watched the "big" kids popping the bubble wrap and then had to give it a try for herself. Wish I would've gotten video, it was pretty funny. Can you tell she was bouncing?

Again, forgive my MEAN computer for refusing to cooperate and put the pictures on correctly.
I have become a big online shopper. The deals are too good to pass up and I can't find much time to make it to an actual store. So, while we were in Vancouver our neighbors were kind enough to water our plants and chickens, mow our lawn and bring in our many boxes from the postman.

When I finally got around to unpacking the boxes the kids spent a good few hours playing in them, isn't that why they come?

The girls had to try on their new skirts Love these silly days!

She Walks!

2011-08-13T15:08:00.001-07:00

Eva was pretty close to walking before we left for our Vancouver trip and I remarked to a few people how we would be coming home with a full-blown walker. The obedient daughter that she is, Eva started officially walking 2 days before we headed home....and I'm not sure she has stopped since!

Vancouver memories a.k.a I can survive anything!

2011-08-13T15:07:00.000-07:00

Ryan was scheduled for 3weeks of classes in Vancouver this July. He has spent a week or two each month up there since we started this job and although we've survive, it tends to not be so fun without him at home. So, we decided since the hotel and food were paid for, we might as well all go this time.
That's right, 3weeks in a two room hotel suite with 6 people! Honestly, after the first night it wasn't so bad. I had a nice routine in place and the days passed pretty well. It was nice to focus solely on the kids and our family, no house cleaning or menu planning!
We didn't start missing home until the last week and by then we knew we could make it just a bit longer!
Eva J was ready to unpack.Our first weekend we decided to go to the Children's museum. Thanks Darcey and Jeff for the coupon, that place is no joke! lol

Leila loved the "Pet hospital" she had a little issue with that puppy when an older kid snagged it away. It breaks my heart to see her big eyes well up while she tries to stay strong! We got it back eventually though and the experience ended happily!

Grandma got a bit wild with the water and ended up spraying half the room with this hose, I so wish I would've gotten a picture....oh, wait I was too busy getting soaked!

Eva had no problem finding things to get into :)

The face painting station was a hit...

And not just with the kids, if you look closely you may notice Ryan looks a bit odd. I don't know what got into him, someone should really keep an eye on him.

We love our Grandpa Gary :)The boys performing on the stage with real working lights and sound effects.

Proof that we bathed...

Our second and last weekend we went to the Portland Zoo, where I apparently only took pictures in the dinosaur exhibit. It was definitely the one the kids will remember the most.

Diggin' for dino's Eva practiced her walking skills

Ryan took the kids swimming almost every night. We stayed at the same hotel as some of the other apprentices who also brought their families, the kids made lots of friends and we were sad to leave them, until next year!

Three weeks is a long time to be gone from home. It just reminds me that, when we are together, we have everything we need.

For my own memory, the best places to go with the kids were the Public Library on C and Evergreen and Esther Short park (with the water feature). We never made it to the farmers market on saturdays :( but looked like good fun.

4th of July 2011

2011-08-13T15:06:00.004-07:00

Can we just ignore that my computer is set on not allowing me to rotate my pics?

We didn't do anything too exciting this 4th, we watched the local parade and left with more candy than on Halloween!

Then we headed over to the Prineville Family Fourth day for some interesting booths and to play at the park.
Eva's festive hair, already falling out!

All the little ones fell asleep before fireworks even started and slept right through, thank goodness! Ryan and Dylan went across the street and set of fireworks with our neighbors, thanks to the Capson's for letting us in on their celebration!

Dylan turns SEVEN

2011-08-13T15:06:00.003-07:00

The D-man turned SEVEN this year. I just can't even fathom where the time has gone.

Ryan was out of town on D's birthday so we waited until he got home Friday and celebrated just as a family. Dylan chose to go to the movies as a family for his big day, so we took the kids to Cars2.

Dylan's Top SEVEN:

1. Austin (bf)

2. Star Wars and How to train your Dragon

3. S'mores

4. Dinosaurs, sharks, dragons

5. Strawberries

6. Everything BLUE

7. Frosted Flakes (big splurge in this house!)

Mommy and Daddy's Top SEVEN of Dylan:

1. Great imagination

2. love/desire to learn

3. drawings, drawings and more drawings

4. strong understanding of truth and righteousness

5. responsible

6. knows how to work towards his goals and accomplish them

7. Loving

Lollipop Leila

2011-08-13T15:06:00.001-07:00

Leila did her first year of dance this last year. She went once a week and it was great for her to get out and meet girls her age. There aren't too many at church and we opted out of preschool last year.
I am very glad she was able to experience the recitals. She seems to have my natural tendency to want to back out of uncomfortable situations, but she made it through 2 recitals this year and did great! I hope she remembers that she can do ANYTHING!
End of the year party with her class

These pictures are from her Summer recital where they danced to the classic "Lollipop" song. She was so cute, even minus all the make-up the other mothers caked on their girls. Is it weird I think that is ridiculous?!

We took video but haven't been able to get it off the video camera. let's hope someday this post will be finished.

Wilki Randoms

2011-08-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

I have been absent from blogging for so long that I am just going to jump in with some random photos from the last 4-5months.

I started a new workout and the kids were happy to break in my bands for me.
Cohen in one of his many outfits

Eva June, sporting her first braided piggies!

We've been spending LOTS of time on our play set....

Cohen is such a natural with the chicks...haha

Chicks in the back of a dump truck? sure!

Look at that sweet chubbo face!

The predicament Eva commonly found herself in.

You don't wanna get on their bad side!

Stay tuned for the 12+ posts to come!!

Marshmallow Wars

2011-04-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

While my bro and his family were in town we had a "Black" Easter. We did an egg hunt and cooked a big ham.

Someone brought out one of our marshmallow shooters and soon it was every man (kid) for himself!

Love the snipers!

Left to right: Jack, Leila, Cohen, Madison, and Dylan

My first attempt at Easter attire!

2011-04-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

This year was the first year that I have made everyone's Easter outfits. It was pretty fun and a challenge since I only used scraps from material left over from Eva's quilt. Miss J got a new skirt, cute little elephants appliqued onto her onesie and a fabric rosette hair clip.

I made a skirt for Leila that turned out about 2 sizes too big, I made a fabric flower for her shirt and another fabric rosette clip for her hair.

For the boys, I made matching ties out of just 3 pieces of fabric and some elastic. I totally didn't even think about the length issue until D put his on this morning....live and learn!

I took a little sqaure of fabric and folded it for their pocket squares.

Just one more of that cute little girl that is growing up WAY too fast!

Friends and an Egg Hunt

2011-04-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

Saturday we headed over to one of our favorite family's homes for some good 'ol egg hunting. The Hardy's have been such good friends to us since we moved here. Our kids get along so well, we always have a good time.
Pizza anyone?

Dylan getting poor Penelope!

Everyone checking out the loot!

Everyone listening carefully to the rules.....

7 Months and movin!

2011-04-21T20:35:00.001-07:00

Just had to throw this cute boy in.

My attempt at catching her cute "waking smile". The camera threw her off a bit.

Eva has been rolling and finding some way, ANYWAY, to move since about 5months old. I think with 3 older siblings running, playing, being crazy, she is determined NOT to be left behind! She's been army crawling for some time but has just recently gotten freakishly fast at it.

I keep having moments where I look at her and cannot believe that she is already 7months. Closer to being 1 year old than to being a newborn. I had her in the front-pack today and kept trying to figure out why my back hurt, then it hit me again, SHE'S 7 MONTHS of baby attached to me! CRAZY! Time has flown so fast.

Love this crazy girl!!

Chicks are for kids!!

2011-04-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

Our sweet baby chicks. I am surprised how cute they are. Each one has a personality and they are growing so fast. We've had them 3 days and so far it's been fun! Dyl's "fluffy feathers" or "fluffy" for short. Funny thing is that he named it before he even got it or picked which one was his and it IS the fluffiest one.

Leila, covered in frosting (she had a cookie decorating date). She didn't get a chick because of an "incident" the day we went to get them. But she is an honorary mother to Eva's "Jillyboo".

Cohen has been so soft with them. I shouldn't be surprised since he has been such a soft and careful big brother to E.

He named his "Turk-amus", after Turk, the dog we had to give away because it could not stop jumping on and knocking Cohen to the ground!
LOVE this kids smile!

So, we don't actually know if it is okay to have chicks in town...but I'm hoping 3 might go unnoticed?! lol. We love them so much and are excited to get some eggs in a few months (about 6).

Happy Tax Returning

2011-04-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

We happened to be at Costco the day after we submitted our taxes this year and decided that it was time to turn our backyard into a playground. After four kids I think we deserve it! Costco just happened to have the COOLEST playset I have ever seen at a very Costco price....were you aware of my Costco love affair? Ryan spent about an hour each night after work putting it together, it took about a week of that and 2 Saturdays to finally finish. Our goal was to have it done before my bro and his family arrived but luckily we didn't because the final step of putting the slide together certainly required the brawn that only 2 Ryan's could muster. Look at those handsome men!

The kids practically lived outside...too bad the weather wasn't on the same page, but they still had fun. Look at Jack and Cone-dawg, love it!

Summer is going to be AWESOME with this baby, BBQ's at the Wilkinson's every weekend? YES PLEASE!

Family Time!

2011-04-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

My older brother and his wife and 2 kids came up this last weekend and we could not have been more excited. They came all the way from Utah and we hadn't seen them since last spring break. SAD! I loved having them and wish we could figure out a way to live closer to one another. Our kids need cousins dang it! Okay, enough boo-hooing. The crew enjoying the new playset. Jack and Cohen in their matching shirts from Grandma....so true, so true.

Eva June was having a hard weekend, I think she's got some teeth working their way out.

We spent a LOT of time on the trampoline. Even Uncle Ryan got into it.... someone save them!

We took a walk in the Canyon and got to catch up while the kids bonded, look at those strong boys! Jack may be a bit stronger....

My Sister in-law took family pictures for us and I can't wait to get them on canvas. The kids loved their time with their cousins and I was reminded ONCE AGAIN, how much I LOVE my family. Can't wait till Thanksgiving. Utah, watch out!

And the finale!!

2011-03-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

This was before we finished the paint, so imagine an entirely green kitchen.

Hooray for a "done" kitchen....Ryan still has a list of small things to finish but I am learning that that comes with the mortgage.

Getting there....

2011-03-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

The fridge and stove in the dining area...roomy!

While we waited for the cabinets we were able to finish our flooring. Ryan laid it himself, it is a vinyl that comes in a plank style that sticks together on one side. The man at Home Depot told me that I could put it in the botto of a pool and it wouldnt leak....perfect!

I had to paint of course! We initially just added a strip of light green, but we recently painted the entire kitchen the same color.

Remember when.......

2011-03-30T14:06:00.000-07:00

We had to rip our entire kitchen apart? Okay, maybe it was just half, but it was the important half!! I realized the other day that we never documented all that we've done and I don't think I have taken a picture of the kitchen totally done. Last year we came home from a great Thanksgiving vacation in Spokane to find water leaking from our dishwasher...fastforward a few days and this is where we were.... WE had to rip all the cabinets on the dishwasher side out, remove the floor and replace some sub-floor. I lost my sink, fridge and dishwasher for a month+. Before we put in the new cabinets we painted them along with the old ones.

Then the new cabinets went in and Ryan had to leave for a week to work in Vancouver. Our countertops were expected to be in by that Wednesday....Friday I had Ryan call and we found out that our countertop Man had been in the hospital since Tuesday. He was such a sweet man I felt so bad and they felt bad that they hadn't known he promised us our cabinets early. When we finally got them the next week they had upgraded our sink for free, I was so excited to have the deep, wide, single basin sink I had wanted.

6 Wild Months!!

2011-03-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

Eva is 6months old now! It is the beginning of life getting a lot less stressful for Mama! YAY!

Eva J in her very first pair of big-girl jams! This gorgeous girl loves to laugh. She needs a good comedy session everyday.

I found some sweet Babylegs but she has only been able to wear them a few times due to the HORRIFIC weather we keep having. How stinkin' cute is she?!

Playin' it shy...

Again with the crooked pic?! This little woman's hair is crazy! It starts out curly when wet and then dries to all kinds of curly-kinky-fluffy-ness!

Here are a few videos of J laughin' it up. As usual the best laughs weren't caught on video, you'll just have to believe me when I say that she gets hysterical!

March-iness

2011-03-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, seriously, I rotated the picture before adding it but WHATEVER! Leila got her costume for her JUNE recital already, so she was able to bring it home with strict orders to try it on ONCE and put it away. She will be dancing to the Lollipop song and the outfit even came with a huge fake lollipop.

March has been flying by, but what month doesn't with 4kids to run after?
Ryan has been staying late to study at night and was gone for 2wks before that, so I have gotten back into single mom mode. This means I find ANYTHING and EVERYTHING we can do to make the day fun. Because everyone knows that time flies when you're having fun!

We had a FHE where we talked about the importance of "growing" your own testimony of Christ.
The kids grew a flower by picking a petal and answering the question then adding it to their straw stem. Then we ate our "dirt". It was apparently an effective lesson because to this day when we talk about seeds Leila says,"Like a testimony".

Dyl had to make a Leprechaun trap for school and thanks to the Family Fun website and me finishing off the Lysol wipes, he was able to make a pretty sweet trap. He placed gold coins on top of construction paper laid over the containers hole, then tied a string to them that attached to the lid. He was hoping that the Leprechaun would fall through the hole pulling the lid down on top to keep him TRAPPED. Darn Leprechaun took all but one piece of gold. Again, I rotated the pic before adding it but WHATEV!

Blingin'

2011-03-05T14:28:00.000-08:00

Leila has been waiting a long time to get her ears pierced. We tried once about 7months ago and it was a disaster, so I've been avoiding her questions of when she would get to do it again. She's been talking about it so much lately and a good friend of ours just got hers done and Leila was very excited for her. We thought she might actually be ready this time.

Ryan had Friday off so we headed to Claire's, called ahead to make sure there were two piercers! We also decided to do Eva's because...it's cute okay! I thought doing it early would help her be use to them and hopefully it won't cause any issues as she grows.

The workers were so great with each girl. They were very professional and SO good with kids. It's sad how you get use to bad service and then are so surprised when someone does their job well! They explained everything, made sure I knew every step they took and had Leila very pumped up and feeling like a Princess.

Leila went first and didn't move a muscle or make a sound! She was very brave and is pretty darn proud of herself and loves to hear how proud we are of her!

Eva cried for about a minute and hasn't seemed to notice since. Leila wanted plain white jeweled earrings, but we got Eva the June birthstone for her middle name. It's a light purple.

I'm glad we waited for the right time to do their ears and am so glad we got the women we did to do it, I think they made a huge difference. I am thinking i need to make those girls a treat (minus veggie lacings!!).

Hooray for cute girls!!!

Pop-hearts

2011-03-05T14:10:00.000-08:00

I've always been a health conscious person and I put a lot of effort into feeding my family the best. Yes, that means snacks are usually laced with hidden veggies and almost everything we eat is homemade.

I came across this website before Christmas when I was looking for a cinnamon roll recipe I could lace with Sweet potato. http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/
This woman has a recipe for everything, I've learned how to make my own chocolate chips....no chemicals, no additives!

So, long story short I've been trying her recipes bit by bit and this past week the kids and I tried her homemade poptart recipe. I decided to use a heart shape cookie cutter for the dough so that my sides would all fit together and the kids and I deemed them "Pop-hearts". So we baked these babies up, along with some waffles and then put them in the freezer to pop in the toaster for a quick breakfast. Makes me smile!!!

yeah, this is all your going to get of the funky new hairdo I'm sportin'...

Blackfest

2011-02-25T20:39:00.000-08:00

Dyl in his team huddle with cuz Jake and Tim.

Kickball!

Cohen and cuz Jake's little beauty, Jaida. CUTE!

Dylan and Papa

Soccer stud!

Leila was going CrAzY! Her cheeks were so red and that hair had a mind of it's own!!

I'm FrEe!!!!

Cohen and my sister's babe Max!

The first week of February we were lucky enough to be able to head to Ephrata to spend the weekend with friends and family we hadn't seen in too long.

We spent the night with my good friend Shellie and her Hubby and sweet Bernice. Leila was lovin on Shellie big time, she kept telling her that she loved her! We spent a day hanging with Anna, Marlys and Shellie, three of my closest and oldest friends...family is a better description of what they are to me. I think I intended on having more time with them because I didn't take any pics while we were together! Nice one, I know.

My cousin was blessing baby #4 so all of her siblings were in town. We spent Saturday afternoon playing games in the High school gym. It was so fun watching all of our little ones play together. It was so great to see my cousins and remember how much I missed them. We grew up so close, spending every holiday, birthday, you name it together. Life has moved so swiftly in the past few years and we haven't kept in touch as much as I believe we all would've liked, but after this visit I am determined to do a better job. Love ya Blacks!

As much as I dread trips to Etown this one was SO worth it and I just might be persuaded to return sometime.

Junie

2011-02-25T20:07:00.000-08:00

Eva J is 5 1/2months now. Crazy how time flies. To celebrate, prepare for pic overload:

Grandma bought the girls their Valentine outfits. Leila insists on wearing hers over everything.

Eva is growing like crazy and I am lovin' it. I have never been a big fan of the early baby stages. 6months and on is when I start to really enjoy life.

J is babbling and spitting all over the place. She gets really excited when the kids are playing around her and talks up a storm when Papa gets home from work.

These last two pics sum up E pretty well, she seems to either be cracking up at everything or

pretty unimpressed with the world. We are loving the chance we have to watch this girl grow.

A Wilkinson Christmas*

2010-12-26T17:37:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
From The Wilkinsons

Leila spotted this the night before, she apparently snuck into our closet and then fessed up. But it didn't seem to diminish her enthusiasm Christmas morning.

Cohen is in-love with Toy Story 3 and I'm sad I missed his first reaction to unwrapping Buzz.

Thank you Santa for our new toothbrushes...hopefully this will calm the whining for a while!

Leila's hair is hilarious...She hates sitting still to do her hair, so we get what we get!

I love this kid, he really is at such a fun stage. He is up for taking pictures anytime!

A Christmas Recital

2010-12-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

Leila had her first dance recital. She's only been in dance since October and is just getting comfortable with it, but I think she is definitely hooked after her recital!
The pictures are backwards of course, but here she is after the show. Papa came right before she performed with Cohen who had been napping. They brought her flowers and she thought she was in the BIG TIME!
Dyl was super proud and thought a kiss was appropriate (I am surprised how much 'kissing' goes on in first grade...yikes)

I had to leave her to be 'prepped' with the other girls while we went to find seats. I don't know who put her antlers on like that but I didn't like what it did to her hair (shallow I know!)

I thought that I had gotten video but got home only to discover that I had about 5 seconds worth. The girls were hilarious and luckily a friend did get video. Their song was 'Up on the rooftop' and they were dressed as little reindeer. They basically stood there, occasionally doing a move and then got the loudest applause of any group!

Cohen, waiting patiently with his flowers for L. He can be so grown-up at times.

Eva J

2010-12-17T21:40:00.000-08:00

Miss Eva J is growing so fast. Today she is 3months old. This baby girl is a GEM! She sleeps all night long (NEVER had that happen before), nurses like a champ, smiles at everyone and screams (hey, she can't be perfect!)

Papa and J, lounging at Grammie and Gpa's

Taking her first bubble bath in Grammie's huge sink! She loved it!

Poor J, I feel like I never get pics of her. Life is moving so fast now, but I really need to slow down and take more pics of this sweet little lady.

Leila turns four!!

2010-12-17T21:36:00.000-08:00

Here she is, my FOUR year old girl! How time has flown! Leila Ann is a spunky, sweet, spicy little Goose Nugget (yeah, we really do call our kids weird things!)

Grammie made this bday super special for L. She had the special treatment all day. We surprised her with presents as soon as she was up, she went to the mall with Grammie and Gpa, ate out and was sung too while wearing a sombrero hat. Her favorite part was the tea party Grammie did, with oreos, hot cocoa and WHIPPED CREAM!

Look at that face!!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet little (BIG) girl!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-17T21:33:00.000-08:00

This was so cute, Grandpa started a game with the kids looking through all the toy catalogs. They each picked an item on every page that they wanted. The kids were very into it!
This year we did Thanksgiving at a local church house since there were so many family members...the only prob was that they weren't any from my side or any of Ryan's siblings. We still had Grammie and Gpa, but it's just not the same without siblings to torture!

Cohen wrestling with some second cousins!

The snow came as soon as we arrived. Gorgeous, white snow! I never thought I would miss those intense Spokane winters, but after leaving it behind to head home, I really do!

The kids LOVED sledding with Papa and Gpa. Cohen was in HEAVEN!! He would've stayed out until his fingers broke off.

This year was a great relaxing week in Spokane and I'm so glad we went. I hope next year we will be able to spend Thanksgiving with more family. That means YOU(Ryan/Morgan, Kaylee/Brayden, Nathan/Ashley and Kristen/Dave)

Church in Otis

2010-12-17T21:29:00.000-08:00

Just had to post some cute pics from our Sunday in Otis Orchards with Grammie and Gpa. I may be a bit biased but these are some CUUUTE kiddos!

Cohen

2010-12-17T21:26:00.000-08:00

This little Booger needs a post to himself. Cohen is one funny kid, he seems to always keep us laughing. I love the age that he is at now, he will be 2 in January, everyday he picks up a new phrase or antic.
Licking Grammie's snowglobes One of his new favorite things is to refuse to wear clothing, usually he'll get back in his jammies, but at Grammie's he decided to go nude...
Until he found this....the underwear are Dylan's (clean of course!)

This was one of those, "It's too quiet what is he up to?" moments!

Love this crazy boy!!

Pumpkin Time!

2010-10-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

This year we went to a local place to get our pumpkins, we've usually just gotten them at Wal-mart I think, but this year we actually bought some from a farm and the pumpkins were a hundred times better! This place had a ton of cute things(still not as cool as Greenbluff, but I may be partial!)

We didn't do any of them though because the wind was blowing dirt everywhere. We barely made it out to the pumpkin patch before we were all ready to go. Dyl found his right away and then we chose one more. We usually do one for each kid but it seems like we always get burnt out by the 3 one, so I thought 2 would be just fine this year.

Ever have one of those moments when some strangers makes your day and you won't ever be able to thank them?! We did.

The patch is quite a distance from where you pay or from where you park for that matter, and we couldn't find a wagon/wheelbarrow for the life of us. We had all 4 kids and the darn dog(did I say that?!) and Ryan was trying to carry two huge pumpkins out...we must have looked pretty cool. A lady came out with a wagon and her baby and told us if we wanted to wait just a minute she would give us her wagon (she just wanted pics of the babe in it...ah, mom's with only one child!) Then she just decided to use our pumpkins as props, took a few quick shots of her babe(Sophia, LOVE that name) and MADE MY DAY! Thank you lady at the Pumpkin Patch!

We challenged some friends of ours to a "carve-off" for FHE the next Monday and I think we may have won (I may pay for that statement later!)

The kids had a blast! Check out all these cool pumpkins....

Leila's hair is hilariously "Pwumpy"! Leila is behind our Jasmine and Dyl is behind our Toothless. HAPPY "HALLOWS EVE" as Dyl likes to say (the things you learn in school!)

Eva's blessing

2010-10-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

We blessed Eva a few weekends ago, I believe it was the 9th of October. I know, I'm a bad Mom and never remember the important details! She wore the same dress that was made for Leila by Ryan's aunt Nancy. Isn't her work amazing?!!

Both our parents came down. We love spending time with them. Having Eva and feeling the sense of completeness in our family really makes me yearn to be closer to ALL of our family. Too bad life doesn't seem to work that way!

We love you Eva J, hope we can be everything you need us to be!

Who doesn't love fall?!

2010-10-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

Fall has got to be my favorite time of year. I love the smells in the air and the colors and I USE to love my birthday, when I was a youngin'! ha!
Here's a quick rundown of what we've been doing this fall, you know, besides birthing children!

We attempted family pics and they didn't turn out half bad. Who else LOVES plaid?! It's timeless!

We snuggled and read books with Grammie and Gpa, who came up along with my parents for Eva's blessing.

We headed up to my parent's house for Conference weekend (when our sunday service is broadcast world-wide on tv.)

Here's Ryan and Eva enjoying some good talks.

Cohen is always keeping my Mom on her toes! She found this cute little wheelbarrow and he loved taking his pumpkins for a ride. In fact, he saw one in some ones yard this morning while we were walking and wouldn't budge he was so jealous! We'll need to find our own!

While we were up for Conference we stopped by our good friends the Hodges'. The kids had a great time in their backyard.

It's so much fun to watch your friends' kids grow. Their daughter Kestley was born right after we had moved to The Dalles and we have loved watching her grow and change. She is finally big enough to hold her own with the other kids! We miss them, but we can't seem to convince them to move!

What is it about having a baby that gives people the need to BAKE like they have never baked before?! All I know is that my Mom and MIL both came and spent days baking all kinds of goods! Grammie is wonderfully patient and good with letting the kids "help" bake.

Sweet Kylie!! She is the most good-natured baby I have EVER met! How can you not love that face?!

Making pie with Grammie!

We have been having such a good fall. LOVE all the time with family we've had. We are especially glad that Ryan's sister Kristen made the crazy-long trip from Utah to spend time with us! Here's to a great Halloween,Thanksgiving and Leila's 4th birthday coming up fast!

Miss J-Bug

2010-10-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

Sporting the sweet beanie she got at my baby shower. LOVE it!

Sneakin' a try at cousin Kylie's Bumbo. Don't worry, there is quite a bit more flesh on those chicken legs now!

Ready to meet Grammie, Auntie Kristen and cousin Kylie.

Eva first trip to church See how excited she is?!

See the joy our first experience getting 4 kids ready for church was?! (Dyl thinks Eva needs some attention)

Cohen sharing his Lego man with E.

Eva, probably thinking she must have gotten the wrong house.

All our children have nicknames that we use more often than their given names:

Dylan goes by, Dyl, Dyly, D-man, Dyly-weed etc

Leila is, Goose, Goosie, Goose Girl

Cohen, Cone-dawg

We are having a hard time coming up with a good name for Eva, well, Ryan is. I have been calling her Eva J, J-bug, Junebug, and most shamefully, Baby Goo Goos (in a pretty annoying tone, I'll admit) Who knows why?! We'll see what sticks!

Ready for the BIG time!

2010-10-18T13:03:00.000-07:00

I always forget that it uploads the pics backwards from how I selected them...ANYWHO! I'd be a bad Mom if I didn't post about the big Man on campus, Dylan!
Dylan started 1st grade this year. It is so weird to have a child in "real" school! He is lovin' it and doing great. We just had his first teacher conference and learned some suprising things about him, all good of course! Here he is with his buddy Austin and below, on his way to school.

Cohen, showing some excitement for D's first day!

Goose, being goosie.

And Dyl, ready for the BIG TIME!

Don't let the shark scare you!

Life with four is so much more!!

2010-10-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

I know people have been wanting more pics of Eva, she has changed so much already, but I am posting some old pics first. These are from her first week home. Leila was suppose to start preschool the morning I went into labor, but she was happy to spend the day at her friends rather than at school. So here are some pics Ryan took of her when she got to start on Monday. We've actually stopped the whole preschool thing, let's just say it wasn't working out! But she made one CUTE school girl!

Eva has been so good about her days and nights. She usually spends a good amount of time awake and alert. She definitely is aware of all the commotion around her! She loves to just sit and listen, especially when there are a lot of people talking (which, believe it or not, happens a lot around here).

I love this picture below, I think it is like day 2 at home and she is already participating in story time!

She was lovin' her some Dylan!!

Cohen has been so good with Eva. He had a hard few days at the beginning but he has never shown any anger/resentment or "scary love" toward her. He was pretty angry at me/gma/ryan/etc.. He has surprised us with how gentle he is with his baby "Ah-va".

Life is a whole lot more with four! I am, not so patiently, waiting for Eva to outgrow this newborn stage. I am SO over the night feedings/changing! We are adjusting pretty well and loving our sweet Eva J!

Eva June

2010-09-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

She looked a little scary at first, I wasn't sure if she was okay. And below is her cord knot(look away if your squeamish!)

Papa and his little Elf.

All that hair took a while to get use to!

We have so much to catch up on, but instead I am just going to give you the most important update. Our Eva June was born Friday, September 17th.

I didn't tell many people, but this time around we had a "false alarm" on the Tuesday before she actually came. We packed up the kids, took them to my girlfriends, made it to the hospital and even got Grandma and Grandpa here...then the contractions stopped. It was an embarrassing experience for me. Thanks to everyone who got all excited and helped out!

So after the fun we had Tuesday my body seemed to do a 180. I had no contractions, no pain/pressure, I barely felt pregnant. Ryan and I joked that my body might have thought it had already done the work and there was no need to push the baby out. I felt okay after getting over the embarrassment and even thought that going to 39wks and then being induced didn't sound like too bad of a deal. So I settled in and thought I had another week until we saw her.

Friday morning(38wks exactly) I got up around 6 to workout and told Ryan about the contractions I was having all night. They weren't painful but I woke up quite a few times thinking, "that pinched". I made it through my workout by marching in place VERY slowly through each contraction, so I thought I would take a shower and see if they continued. Once I got in the shower they actually become somewhat painful, which is all new to me, since I usually hang around the hospital feeling nothing until the doctors get tired of waiting and break my water, then I finally start feeling things and have a baby pretty quickly after that. SO, the fact that I was feeling these contractions got me a bit scared that things were moving too fast at home, BUT I didn't want to go in because I had just gone through the false alarm and didn't want to be "that lady" again!

I decided to call Ryan and just give him a heads up that, if the contractions did in fact continue, it was probably the real thing. I went back and forth on whether or not he should come home and he finally just decided to come home. After I got off the phone I had a contraction that brought me to my knees and from that position I called my friend Krissy who knew she was on-call for us, she didn't answer so I left her a message that we were bringing the kids anyway.

Once Ryan got home all the kids were awake and excited that they got to go to Krissy's right away, forget about Eva, they were ready to party! The contractions were very regular about 3-5 minutes apart and I could feel them, so I was thinking I had to be like a 6 at least because I only felt contractions when it was near time to push.

We dropped the kids off and got to the hospital to find out that I was a 4. A FOUR?! I had progressed from a 3 to a 4 during the false alarm on Tuesday, so I was shocked to think that these contractions hadn't done anything yet!

Because of the false alarm, my doc wanted me to stay for an hour and be monitored to see if I made any progress. I was almost in tears thinking, here we are, I am actually in pain, and because of the stupid embarrassing false alarm they think I'm not in labor!

The nurse suggested we walk around, which was exactly what I was hoping to do, I needed to blow off some steam! We walked the halls for 30min and I was having to actually stop with each contraction, some of which I wish I could crawl on the floor through! This was so new to me, to labor this way, I knew I had to be making progress. We headed back a bit early since the contractions were starting to be a bit much, I wanted to get in the jacuzzi ASAP since I didn't know how long I would be dealing with these contractions or how much more painful they would get.

I was getting myself pretty psyched out and mentioned to Ryan that I would be up for an epidural. He of course talked me out of it, why does he like to see me in pain?! ha! Why do I always tell him to not let me back out of doing it natural?! It's so tempting once the pain hits to think about how pain free it could be. But, I love how fast I recover and feel normal again and I know that is in large part to my natural births.

SO, we headed back to our room and found out we were a 6-7!! Hallelujah! Get me in that jacuzzi NOW! It was about 8:30am and we spent the next 4 hours in the jacuzzi. It was grand. My Mom showed up shortly after I got in and I'm pretty sure she was bored out of her mind just talking to me while I lounged in the water. I always feel bad for the people waiting for me to deliver, like it's not a good show until the very end and they wait so long!

My doc said that he would come on his lunch break and break my water...so we waited and the contractions started to get painful in the water and that scared me because I knew once the water stopped helping I was on my own. Luckily around 12pm my water broke and we got out of the tub to be checked. I was fully dilated but still had some effacing to do, so we made it through a few contractions and then I was ready to go.

Pushing is such a relief from the pain and I was SO ready to be done. I was thinking that it wasn't as bad as I was thinking it was going to get, nothing like Cohen where I was begging for an epidural at the end! I'll spare you the end details! I'll just tell you that at 12:44 Eva June was born. She weighed 5.11lbs and was 19 1/4in. long. She tried to come out with her arm beside her head, which did not please her mother. She had a nice little knot in her umbilical cord and was a scary blue/grey color. Luckily she perked up quickly and she spent the next hour taking in the scene around her. I tried to nurse her and she was way too in to looking around.

She is the only one of our children to come out with lots of hair and dark hair. It took me a while to feel like she was mine in looks! I was expecting to see something very similar to Leila and it was a bit shocking to see that Eva has such a look of her own. I am pretty sure her eyes will stay blue and the dark/thick hair is definitely from my genes, which means in about two months she should be rocking some solid pigtails!

Eva is such a sweet girl, she loves to be awake and listening to the craziness that is our home. I am so in-love with her, it feels like every time i look at her I fall more in-love! We feel very whole with her here. It is a great feeling. I just keep thinking about how much I am going to love watching her grow and being able to focus on each of my children now. We aren't saying "NO" to any future babies, but we feel pretty darn complete right now, where as before it has always felt like there was either the knowledge that there would be more, or the fear(after Cohen!).

At the risk of sounding cheesy, I have to say that I feel so blessed. The kids had a rough first few days after Eva came and now we seem to be getting into a groove. Dyl loves to entertain Eva, Leila loves to sing to and hold her and Cohen loves to check on her for me and give me updates on what she is doing.

I still haven't gotten all the pics up, but I'll add more later. We forgot our camera during the birth so we just have a few from my Mom's camera. How lame are we?!

LOVE YOU EVA J!!

Rental Randoms

2010-08-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is correct, I am allowing a picture of my pregnant self to grace this blog...Behold, the family-self portrait(taken about a month and a half ago)

When we finally were able to upload the pictures from our camera I was reminded of the many random moments we had during our short stay in our rental. Here are a few:

Ran into the bathroom one day when Leila was yelling that Cohen was "stuck"(this happens a lot) and found this little cheeser..... wedged himself right in there...

Cohen is also into all things "Papa" and wore Ryan's badge around for hours. I think it goes well with the plaid.

I once had foam curlers for Leila's hair, then we fed the missionaries one night and somehow they ended up in the toilet....long story.

So, I decided to twist her hair up one night before church and when I took it out in the morning....

It actually looks quite a bit 'tamer' in pictures. The funniest part was that Leila somehow made up the word, "PWumpy" to describe the look. So now I'll ask her if she would like me to make her hair "PWumpy" or if we see a poodle, we'd refer to it as "PWumpy".

We'll see how long it takes me to actually post about the house now. Oh, and the new minivan status...it's life changing!!

He turned SIX!

2010-08-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

Cohen is proud to announce that WE ARE BAAAAACK! I found our camera cord and can now upload pictures. Phew!

First item of business is that our Dyly-man turned 6 in June!! We had a little party for him before we moved.

Birthday boy with Leila and his bestie from school, Katelyn.

Dylan is in to all things Dino and Ocean. Thus, the swimming dino cake.

I love how much he digs learning everything he can about things. I can't beleive we have a 6 year old. How can that be?! He will start 1st grade in 3 weeks!

Why do I fear this will not be the last time....

2010-05-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

About an hour ago we had a pretty usual situation, children rough housing, but as soon as I heard Leila's cry I knew we were in trouble.
Apparently Dylan was hiding under a blanket and Leila was attacking him while he defended himself with kicks/pushes, and one of these "defences" sent her flying into the coffee table.
From the injury we're assuming she hit the, sometimes pierced middle cartilage of her ear, on the edge of the table. She has a huge gash from where the cartilage flap starts to where it ends.

We called Nurse Grandma over and after much deliberation we decided it will most likely heal with a small scar. Now we just have to keep it clean and well cushioned. Here's what Gma and I fashioned for her. You can tell she was back to her normal self way before we had even decided what to do. My mom and I were dying laughing as we wrapped layer after layer of gauze on her head.

This little woman is a tough chick. She is wild and adventurous and often pays the price, but I think we can agree she does it with style!

Time to play catch-up

2010-05-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

I am sad at how long it's been since I have blogged. Our big computer has been down for a while and blogging on Ryan's century old laptop is no fun.
We have so many things going on, I'll just try to keep it simple with the important things or those I simply have pics of.

Here goes:

We have been playing a lot.

The weather is getting warmer, or I should say, WAS. It seems like we are going backwards and heading back to winter. But for the past few weeks the kids have been back to their dirty ways, playing outside all day. Cohen likes to pretend to be a cat and let Leila lead him anywhere. I was marking stuff for our yardsale and found Leila had snatched the masking tape, wrapped it around Cohen and was leading him around like it was a leash.

Ryan built me a new kitchen table!!!! It is pretty sweet. It's very simple with benches instead of chairs on the sides. The table hasn't been stained yet, but by this weekend it has to be since we'll be selling our old one at the yardsale. We stained the benches last week, a very cool green that still shows the wood grain. Very cool.

Cohen was watching Ryan sand and picked up the cup holder to his old carseat and began running it along the bench, it took me a minute to realize he was "sanding" like Papa. He is such a man's man.

Dylan had his first concert at school. A cute little program about Nuts (chicken little style). He looks happy but as soon as it was time to sing, he was all fingers in the mouth and head down. He told me later he didn't like all the parents watching him, which is interesting since he'll strike up a detailed conversation with any adult and new the songs.

See the cute chick directly behind him in the purple? That's his BF Katelyn. She's so sweet.

I finally surprised Ryan. For the first time in our marriage he had no idea what his presents were or that he was getting the BBQ he's been dying to have before we move.

Our great friends Darcey and Jeff did most of the work, starting the BBQ before we arrived. We had great food and great friends/fam. Ryan's parents came down and we had a great weekend with them.

My mom and step-dad got Ryan a miter saw. He is pretty excited. I got him a pinstriping how-to book and brushes. He really wants to learn how to pinstripe on his motorcycle, which he would want me to inform you is coming along nicely and almost ready! I'm just glad he had a chance to be surprised with things he wanted!

Look how handsome he is, I love him!

A few weeks ago we found out that we are having a GIRL!! I am beyond excited, especially since this is the first time I have gotten the gender I was hoping for at the time. I think I have the symptoms down now and could predict any future children, IF that were going to happen, BUT we're pretty done!
I love this little girl so much already. I have been waiting to use my GGma name and have decided to use my Gma name as a middle name since we just found out that she has lymphoma(sp?). So Eva June should be joining us in late Sept.

Our last big adventure is buying our first home! There are too many annoying details surrounding this adventure for us. So I'll just say that we are on a short timeline and we are realizing what a long and stressful project home buying is! I'm sure we'll survive, so we'll move forward, but man I wish the future was laid out infront of me to make these decisions easier.

Just a note, I can't wait to get a home with some carpet, Leila just biffed it on her face AGAIN. Darn hardwood!

So that should catch us up to today, where we are packing and waiting to hear about homes. Ryan has a few weeks of school left and then begins his 2wks of training in Vancouver. I'm not looking forward to 2wks of single parenthood. I keep telling myself that I've done it before, but that doesn't seem to make it any better!

Hopefully my next post will be about a house and not a new baby! Just to be clear, the baby is in no danger, I just want a house first!

Petting zoo extraordinaire!

2010-03-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

To reward the kids for their valiant effort in getting a good cousin picture, we took them to a petting zoo. This was amazing, it was $3 a person(under 2 free) and we got to see lots of animals, feed them, and ride a pony. The kids had a blast and we got some much needed sun!

Jack (with Auntie Kaylee) was very cute on the pony, he seemed to be in deep thought and I caught him rubbing it's hair a few times!
Cohen was like Jack. He didn't smile but you knew he loved it!

Petting the pony

The Dylweed, showing 'em how to be a real cowboy

I think she needs a pony of her own now! Papa?

Cohen and Leila petting the Llamas

Cohen and Papa

Letting the lamb suck his finger!

Leila and Dyl milking the fake cow. It was impossible, something was up with that cow!

We had a great day out with the smelly animals! The kids were exhausted when we got home, Leila fell asleep at the dinner table, face down in her Little Caesars Pizza!

We love our family so much. Dyl and his cousin Madison are like PB and Jelly and he misses her so much. It was so good to see my bro and sis. Being back home makes me realize how much I wish they were near.

I will say it again though, "we won't be doing that again", and I'm pretty sure we'll stick to it, at least for a few more months! The kids are definitely in an adjustment period, Cohen cried for an hour about his breakfast this morning and took two naps today. They all slept 13 hours last night, so hopefully we'll be back to normal soon! But one thing is for sure, It Was Worth It!

Cousin pics (Adventure #2)

2010-03-27T19:02:00.000-07:00

Our second adventure was taking pictures of all the Black cousins. My Mom has been begging us for a pic with all the kids for awhile. We meant to do it at Thanksgiving but didn't find the time.

Max!

Cohen taking good care of his baby cousin!

Goose!

C-dawg ~ He had allergies all week, watery eyes, runny nose, cough....not fun

The Wilkies

BLACKS! This was the best one I got. Almost all eyes on me.

From oldest to youngest, Dyl, Madison, Leila, Jack, Cohen, and Max.

If only she wasnt' choking him it would be a good pic, and Dyl would not put his finger down. I think he was use to wiggling a tooth!

Sweet Kylie Marie

2010-03-27T18:49:00.000-07:00

Thursday when we said goodbye.

Beautiful family...

Bright eyes

The first of our big adventures was waiting for and finally being able to meet our brand new niece, Kylie. She was two days late and Kristen (my SIL) was very swollen and uncomfortable. We went to lunch on tuesday with Kristen, her husband Dave and my MIL Carrie. Honestly after lunch Ryan and I looked at eachother and said that we didn't think that baby was coming anytime soon. I don't know why, but we just both thought it would be longer. NOT that we wanted that at all for Kristen!

To our surprise we got the call later that Kristen was being induced that day. We were so excited and waited all night until we finally got the text, around 8 in the morning, that she would be there soon. We jumped out of bed, showered, got the kids ready and dumped them with my bro and his wife while we rushed the 20minutes to the hospital. Just our luck, we missed her arrival by about twenty minutes. There is just somehting about being in the hospital when a baby arrives that is so exciting. BUT, we were able to see her as soon as we arrived and hold her. She is such a doll and has such a wisdom about her. She was always looking around with her bright eyes.

We were able to see them one more time before we left for home. They were amazing enough to drive 30min. to Ryan's Gma's house, right after being discharged, so that I could make them dinner and we could say our goodbyes. Kristen is amazing for making that trip and our night! I am so excited to be an Auntie again and to have this first cousin on the Wilkinson side.

CONGRATS Kristen and Dave and Kylie, we love you!!

The drive....

2010-03-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

Since the disaster of our last trip to Utah for Thanksgiving where we left at about 3 in the afternoon and drove through the night, we decided to try the opposite and get up early in the morning. Well, my kids are wise to all our tricks and when we got them up at 2:30 a.m. the only one to fall back asleep was Leila. The boys stayed awake until about 4 and then passed out for a few hours. Look how peaceful they look. Once they were awake we had breakfast(poptarts, a huge treat for my kids) and watched a movie. Look at that crazy baby who has full control of the snack bag and knows exactly how to make his parents laugh!

Miss Leila, being chocked by her car seat thanks to Papa. It was quickly fixed, no worries!

Cohen again, I can't get enough of that crazy kid!

The drive went pretty darn well for 12hrs. with 3 kids. The drive back went better than our first adventure also, it still sucked, big time. BUT, we made it and I am sooooo glad to be home, especially my booty and legs, I am not made to sit that long!

Stay tuned for the post with all our Utah adventures......

Tooth Fairy

2010-03-27T18:27:00.000-07:00

Dylan lost his first tooth last sat before we left to Utah. It had been wiggly for almost a month and he'd finally gotten it loose enough that I could pull it out. He was so excited and the anticipation was making him crazy (he let me rip on it for half an hour one day).

He wanted to keep his tooth to show to his cousin Madison in Utah. So the tooth made the 12hr. drive with us and spent a nice week with extended family until finally resting under Dylan's pillow last night.

Dyl was worried, he wanted to keep his tooth but was very interested to know what the tooth fairy would bring. I told him that sometimes you can leave her a note or she might just leave the tooth, especially if it was your first one. He decided to see what she would do and woke up ecstatic when he found his tooth along with two quarters under his pillow.

I still cannot beleive that I have a child old enough to be losing teeth. Where has the time gone?

Big Slider!

2010-03-27T16:39:00.000-07:00

Ryan was out with the kids a few weeks back and yelled to me in the kitchen that Cohen was sliding by himself. I got the camera and caught him being a big boy. I think it is so cute. He has always been very fast at picking things up and figuring out how to accomplish his task. I love how excited he gets when he does it and am glad I no longer have to stand beside the slide for hours at a time!

Spring happenings

2010-03-27T15:57:00.000-07:00

I feel like it has been so long since I have kept up on the blog, so now I am apparently going to overload everyone! I wanted to post a few pics of some of the random happenings around here. The pic above is of the kids having a "picnic" in the backyard. Dyl is always dying to have a picnic and when I let he and Leila have one, Cohen practically jumped out of his highchair, so I let him go out too. We are definitely loving the warmer weather. We are back to the dirt, but at least I get some time, free of children, to cook dinner!

I was having some "issues" with kids and decided we needed an activity to look forward too everyday. On this particular day we were attempting to make our own beanbags out of blk beans and balloons. They didn't last long, but the kids loved playing with the beans and I ended up just letting them go crazy. There were beans in every nook and cranny of our kitchen for a few days.

This is one of my favorite things to find, my kids reading. We are a nerdy book family. Books are one of the things I never feel guilty about buying or splurging on. One afternoon I came into the kitchen and found Cohen in the play area, sitting on his chair reading a book. I took a few pics before he noticed me and then he turned around and gave me the biggest smile. I love that kid!

Soccer Dude

2010-03-27T15:48:00.001-07:00

Leila and Cohen keeping themselves entertained....

Dylan just finished up a five week soccer session. It was an intro for beginners and he was hilarious to watch! He took everything so seriously and tried to do it exactly the way it was described.

He dribbled slower than a granny and took his time shooting the ball into the net. BUT, he had fun, made friends, and got pumped on soccer.

HE DID IT!!!!

2010-03-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to update everyone on the amazing news we got this afternoon.

RYAN GOT THE BONNEVILLE POWER APPRENTICESHIP!!!!!!!

He has been working very hard and we owe so much to my step-dad Gary who has coached Ryan through this whole thing.

So to make it short, well as short as I can with all I want to say! Ryan made it out of 500 original applicants to recieve one of nine available positions. I am so proud of him!

As I mentioned before my step-dad has been coaching Ryan through this, he has been with Bonneville for years and use to be on the hiring board etc. So he has told us all the inside news now that we know we got it. He and my Mom have known since last friday.

What he has told us is that after Ryan interviewed he was in the top 3. Well, because of the recession they interviewed quite a few people who had past experience and some great skills. So then he was up against some serious competition, but still in the top 9. He is amazing!

We knew last friday was THE day of decisions and it was extremely stressful. Ryan fasted, along with his mom and I'm not sure who else. I would have but didn't want to pass out! That kills me when I have a good reason not to participate! We spent that whole weekend in deep thought. I had to teach on sunday and it was all I could do to scrape a lesson together (plus I had crazy amounts of school last week).

This afternoon Ryan was up doing some work for Gary and I got a call from Bonneville. We weren't suppose to hear until April, so I wasn't sure what it was about but I was hoping. I gave them Ryan's cell and then started screaming with the kids! Cohen was yelling and clapping. Dyl was asking if now we would have money to buy a van! He knows how badly we need one! ha! I called Ryan a few minutes later and he said he had just hung up. I asked what they said and he said,

THEY OFFERED ME AN APPRENTICESHIP IN REDMOND,OR.

Please don't judge me, but I was not happy.....I know, I am a horrible wife and incredibly ungrateful. But for some reason at no time during this did I picture us still stuck in Oregon. So I tried to be positive. I offered a prayer of thanks and walked Dyl to school. Later my Mom stopped by with all the positives of Redmond, which I really do beleive are many. My main probs are the taxes and the school system. I have always been interested in early education and was headed in that direction in school. It is very important to me, so it's just hard to know that they could possibly not be getting the best education while we are here. BUT I am determined to stay on top of it and supplement at home etc.

From what we've found out Redmond is gorgeous, it is surrounded by four national parks and is a growing community for families. The housing situation looks incredibly promising and that is exciting. To be able to fit our growing family comfortably in a house for a comfortable price! Whoo!

We are so incredibly blessed and are still somewhat in shock! The idea that our family may not be struggling in the near future is still too good to be true. Maybe I'll beleive it when I live it? I doubt it though!

The stats are:
He starts June 7th
3year apprenticeship(PAID)
Relocate to somewhere more of our choice after that
Once the three years are up he will be a certified journeyman!!!

I want everyone who prayed for us, thought of us and more to know how much it means to us. We love you and ARE SO EXCITED!!!!

So, I'm just fat.....

2010-03-13T16:28:00.000-08:00

Mostly everyone knows that we will be adding to our family this September. But for our blog friends who don't know, now you do!

Are we crazy? I like to think so! Ryan and I are both going to school full-time and living mainly on immense blessings and miracles. We have three active little ones already and still years of school ahead(for me at least). But Ryan and I have always known that our family is our most prized possession and we have always striven to put that first.

We knew that we wanted one more and that we wanted it to be close to Cohen, but it happened a little faster than I was prepared for. I had just stopped nursing Cohen, a.k.a become fertile, at the end of Nov./ early Dec. and baby's estimated conception was Cohen's bday(Jan 11th). It was a little hard to get use to at first.

Deciding to go for this fourth baby was a difficult decision on my part. It's no secret how much I love babies, but after three I am fully aware of the sacrifices involved in adding another child to our family. I didn't know if I could afford the loss of sleep, the weight gain and loss struggle(selfish I know, but very real) plus I am still trying to finish school. There is also the big unkown of when Ryan will get a job. After lots of thought, prayer and fasting, I knew I could make those sacrifices again and that they were worth it.

We are so excited for this babe. He/She will be here before all the festivities of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am SO looking forward to being done(although we will always stay open minded). The sickness with this pregnancy has been a lot like my pregnancy with Leila which is what I am hoping for! We have a set girl name whereas it took us forever to decide on Cohen's name, so a girl would be convenient. Ryan is "convinced" it's a boy because he knows how badly I would love a girl.

Yesterday we had our first ultrasound and I will be honest that I was hoping it would either be one of two scenerios;

1. There were two

2. I was further along than I thought.

Why would I want this? Well, I am showing quite a bit which is very new to me. Even when I was prengnant with Cohen we went boating when I was 12wks and no one could tell. I look like I should be about 16wks or so. I know they say that you get bigger faster with each baby, but this hasn't happened until #4 so it's a bit of a shock! So, basically I am just feeling a bit fat!

During the ultrasound Ryan was surprised at how well he could see it for only being 11wks. We have never had an early ultrasound and it was very fun. Baby was moving so much, kicking it's little legs like crazy. My doc could barely get a pic but got one pretty good one for us to show the kids.

Which reminds me that the kids are very excited. Leila is very loving already. She tickles my tummy and constantly wants to know if the baby is hungry or full or needs something. The other night she had just left me in my bed to go lay in her bed, across from our room, when she yells out, "Is the baby okay?!". She claims she will feed, play and diaper it, so I think we're set.

Here is a video that I love of Cohen and Leila's baby doll. He is our little lover and takes care of anyone who is sad. He loves carrying the baby dolls around and I am hoping this is a good sign that he will be a good big bro.

Ryan's Motorcycle

2010-03-12T12:01:00.001-08:00

So Kristin is not going to very happy that I got on the blog to post about my bike but here it goes anyway.

My cousin Rob gave me a 1980 yamaha xs650 to get running so we could go riding, but I was unable to get it running while we lived there. (truth be told it is not completely running now but I know how to get it there).

This is a picture of the bike when I got it, not bad but not good. After I moved I really got to tear into it, a garage sure is nice.

I just finished taking a welding class and I took as my project to build a hardtail rear frame for the bike. I had to cut the rear of the frame off and bend some steel tubing and cut and weld it in place and this is what I have now.

I have a lot to do still but I have some stuff done and some stuff that I can do, the big hindrance is the lack of money but in good time it will be a lot of fun to ride.

Sorry to Kristin for stealing the blog to post about this- I Love You!

I want this baby back!

2010-02-23T15:17:00.000-08:00

This is the face of the baby that usually graces our home. He is HILARIOUS, cuddly and sweet. BUT, this past week he has been a sick little boy and although we see glimpses of his silly old self, I am missing the 24/7 Ham that is my Cone-dawg.

Until we are all feeling better enjoy some recent pics of this crazy boy that we LOVE!
Helping Grandpa and Papa put in new floors at Gpa's house. Grammie found the getup at Lowe's and it is priceless!

It came with real tools, gloves and measuring tape. Cohen loved the hammer.

My Baby Son is ONE!

2010-01-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

Cohen is ONE today. This birthday feels like it came so fast and like it's been a long time coming. I am so glad he is one, the third baby changes everything! I am glad to be out of the baby stages. It also seems like it has come so quickly at the same time. He has developed a unique personality and it's been getting BIGGER everyday. Cohen is extremely vocal (who knows where he could have learned that!) and extremely loving. He loves nothing more than to snuggle and randomly comes up to lay his head on the kids or Ryan or I, just to give some love throughout the day. His next favorite thing is to make people laugh. He has many tricks up his sleeve and loves pulling them out at unexpected times, just to get a smile. He loves pretending to do something "naughty" just to get someone to chase him down and "lecture" him!
I love this little boy so much and am glad he has chosen to continue to stay with us!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COHEN GLADE, we LOVE you!!!

Yes, we're alive this winter!

2010-01-11T09:11:00.000-08:00

I feel as if I haven't done a post in forever, although my last was just before Christmas. We have been busy! I started baby sitting five days a week. Jan 4th Ryan, Dylan and I all started school again. I quickly dropped a class because, along with baby sitting, it was too much. I am taking Crisis Intervention and Child development.

We had Christmas with my parents this year. We spetn Chrismas morning at our home and then headed to my mom's for the rest of the day. We had a great relaxing, yummy day.

Cohen with his giant bear, he loves to attack it!

Dyl and Leila enjoying our traditional breakfast~ We have decided to do cinnamon rolls every year along with Ryan's family tradition of mini-cereal boxes, so the kids got to choose their own off the tree. With fresh fruit and some Transformer friends it was a complete, balanced meal.
We enjoyed our first "big" snow...which was NOTHING compared to last year in Spokane, thank goodness! Don't ya love my snowday wear, sweats, wool socks and house slippers...I'm pretty fabulous!

Cohen in his snowday gear! This is a little something I put together for my mom's present. We laid the kids out one day after church, I ordered the prints the next day and as soon as they came we cut, sanded painted the board and decoupaged those bad boys on...I though it wasn't bad for my first try!

It says, "Kelley" (my moms last name)

We had a great Christmas and enjoyed the bits of snow we've gotten...but I have realized recently that I AM OVER WINTER! Hear that SUN? You can come back anytime....soon will be great!

We LOVE our Secret Santa!!!!!!!

2009-12-20T11:16:00.000-08:00

The kids, in their Christmas outfits in front of our new stockings!

My heart is full...

For the past 12 days we have been blessed with a secret Santa and have awoken to gifts on our doorstep. We have never had a secret Santa and I was pretty pumped from the start. Things have been tight for us but we are use to it (we chose this after all!), we are blessed in so many other ways with great kids, family and friends. We are healthy and happy.

I am so grateful for all those who have helped us this Christmas season (and every other season for that matter) you know who you are...my heart is overflowing....I am grateful for this town and this ward, it is very unique, to put it kindly! But we love it. It has quickly become our home and the friends we have made here will truly be dear to us wherever we go.

Having a secret Santa has not only been fun but also so humbling. We explained to the kids that Santa had a helper who was going to bring us a gift every day to share. I was so excited the day we got a scented candle!! I have gone quite a while without having that simple luxury. It sits right next to my bed and smells amazing even when it's not lit. The kids were especially excited when Santa brought a gingerbread house to decorate, reindeer poop (whoppers) and their very own nativity set. Yesterday I was so touched when we opened five stockings in red and green with each of our names embroidered on them....but today, day 12....I almost am without words!

Santa's helpers brought us ROCKBAND!!! Anyone who knows us knows how Ryan and I go crazy for ROCKBAND! From the very first time we played it almost two years ago we have been hooked. I can't believe that someone has taken the time, effort, money and thought to do this for our family. It is something we will never forget. I know that for years we will be talking about "that Christmas we had a secret Santa".

The final note says:

On the twelfth day of Christmas an angel gave to me: A rockin' toy that will bring your family great joy, we hope we have helped you with a need, so please enjoy this kindly deed. I hope these gifts will warm your soul and please note: this angel has a goal, please don't ask me who I am, the gifts I give because I can, but next time someone has a need do them a kindly deed and when you do, then that will be your gift from you to me! remember, God does send angels to help us all, his son was the greatest gift of all. So remember him this Christmas day and have a very happy holiday!

Well, our secret Santa, we LOVE you and promise that we will return these favors and pass along the love you have given us this Christmas season.

11 on the 11th

2009-12-05T20:27:00.000-08:00

Mr. C-dawg is 11months on the 11th! I can't believe he will be 1yr. soon. He has just started this week to take steps unassisted. I really think the hardwood floors scare him and I don't blame him! He still climbs on top/in-to everything. He is my little snuggle bug and has recently started "singing" in a sweet melodic voice! I have done a few posts on him recently so I'll keep it short. We love this busy little man and can't get enough of his antics, well, maybe that's not true! I would like to be able to leave the room without worrying about what he is going to fall off of next! He keeps us on our toes and LAUGHING! I am so surprised with his BIG personality already. He knows what sells and he sells it big time!

Don't mind the outfit, it was a Daddy-dressed-me day...

Finding something new to climb in...

He loves this mask, he'll keep it on and grunt!

In these videos he was rocking on this chair, which he is climbing on all the time, like a horse. When we pulled out the camera to catch it, all he would do was give his "cheeser" a.k.a "naughty face"...like I said, he knows what sells! Love him!

A Utah Thanksgiving

2009-12-05T20:14:00.000-08:00

I won't say much about our trips to and from Utah for Thanksgiving. The following photos should give you a pretty good idea of our 12 1/2 hours, each way, in the car....

My poor sweet girl was SO exhausted....

Cohen...

and Dyl...he made a tent! I will just say that It Was AWFUL! I never imagined it getting so crazy! BUT, we made it and I am glad we had the experience of being in Utah with family. It just may be quite some time before we attempt anything like that again!

Once we arrived we had a great time; first with my family and then with Ryan's. I brought the camera out a few times while we were at my Brother's, but I totally spaced it while we were with Ryan's family, except for thanksgiving day when we got a few randoms...

Ryan and Morgan took us to Deseret Industries. Some old lady gave me a free blanket she had knit when we were walking in. We watched movies and just let the kids play. The last night we were there we headed up to Cabella's. I had never been and Leila almost slept the whole time, she kept falling asleep anytime we'd get in the car.

Cohen enjoying some shades at Cabella's

The Men and The Babies....

Cousins make the best friends...

Leila was pretty exhausted the whole week!

Thursday morning we headed to Ryan's grandmothers where we spent the rest of the week, celebrating Leila's bday, playing games, and hanging out. Grammy and Gpa offered to watch the kids while the siblings and spouses went to watch New Moon. It was awesome, and such a needed break for Ryan and I. It was the first date we've been on in forever!

Leila doing what she does best...

We miss our Utah family. We had a great time and wish we could see more of you (LOTS), but I'm afraid we're going to wait until flying down is a possibility! Ha!

It's Ba-ACK!

2009-12-04T17:56:00.000-08:00

Remember this WASHINGTON!! Photo Gallery - Photo 4 of 14 by Kristin - MySpace Photos?

Well, it's back, but in a different form known as Cone-dawg! Behold, The Naughty Face...

Oh and Ryan is pretty embarassed by his voice...pretend you didn't hear it!

Goosie turns 3

2009-11-29T19:33:00.000-08:00

Leila turned three on Thanksgiving Day. I still find it hard to believe she is so big! We had a friend party before we left to Utah and then one with family Thanksgiving morning. We are now officially Princess/Barbie LOADED! She loved all the gifts and it is really the first time she has had so many toys of her own.
We love this crazy little woman like crazy. She has all the powers of persuasion and can be demanding one minute and sugary sweet the next. She is a caring second mother to Cohen, a best friend to Dylan, my little helper and a "Big girl".

This is after her "big girl" haircut...she looks so big!

Likes:

Movies

Dancing

Singing

Nursery

Princesses

Cheese

Hot dogs

Green beans

Dislikes:

Most fruits

Anything Dylan has denounced

New/different situations

Any food that is "messy"

Not getting her way

Doing things "on demand"

Opening presents with Gpa in Utah

With her friend Eden at her friend party

Refusing, yet again, to blow out the candles

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my one and only GOOSIE GIRL!!!

Visiting Teaching....

2009-11-20T10:38:00.000-08:00

I have to give a shout out to this awesome website http://www.theideadoor.com/ it has ready to print handouts for VT already done and CUTE and EASY! I am having a hard time with my VT...I have four families, three of which are inactive and very good at ignoring my calls. My partner has changed THREE times and only my first was an active member. I am trying my best to stay positive and continue to HUNT down those who ignore my calls...but sometimes it's a hit to my confidence! I am thankful for crafty ladies who make it that much easier on people like me! THANKS The Idea Door! Go check it out!