Singing In The Rain

This was just one of those moments I never want to forget- therefore it is getting blogged. Lately when it rains here, it pours. Luckily, it stays pretty warm when it rains and so we enjoy getting out and playing in it. Here we are on a umbrella walk...

Three kids, three umbrellas! But it just isn't complete without getting completely wet!!!

I just loved these pictures, they were having so much fun running through the gutter and then ending up in the backyard for a water gun fight against DAD!!!

Home sweet Home

Here is a video tour. I know it is kinda fast and shaky but I only have 1 1/2 minutes on my camera at a time. Speed tour! I was tentative to post it because there is lots of painting and decorating to be done! So no judging! No need to rush right?

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Now doesn't that make you want to come visit???

4 months

Kamryn turned 4 months on Sunday. How fast it has gone! Having so many friends with REAL newborns has only made me realize how big she is.


Here are her stats:

weight: 15 lbs 15 oz (93 %)

length: 24.5 in (55%)

Head: 42.75 in (90%)


I wish I could take all the credit for these numbers, but it comes pretty easy. She literally has roll after roll! It makes me laugh every time I change her diaper!

Her she is Miss America...
Close up...
Oh, the toothless smile makes me melt...
Luckily, this is the worst of her dirty looks...

She loves to grab her feet, she is super ticklish and she smiles at her siblings (and just about anybody.) Today she had her first taste of baby cereal. To my utter surprise she enjoyed it. None my other kids wanted anything to do with it and she has been super stubborn with the bottle so this was a great gift! I am LOVIN her so much I could eat her!

Sisters

Aunt Michele sent Kamryn a beautiful baby bracelet (I love these). To our surprise it had a matching mommy bracelet. The first thing Ashlyn said when she saw it...

I bet you can guess...

"A bracelet for me!" From that moment there was NO WAY I could possibly pull off wearing my new mommy bracelet. Yesterday we got out our jewelry tools and shortened it so it would fit just right. So now they are "sister bracelets."

Compliments abound and I am always asked where I get them. Disappointed grunts follow my inability to answer!

Hair Affair

I have two children that constantly play with their hair, but for different reasons.

Corbin plays with his hair when he gets tired. He kinda pulls on it, and lets his fingers glide through the strands. He does have great hair! He will even do it when he is not fully awake. Ashlyn twists, tugs and plays with her hair all day long. She does it without thinking, the SAME EXACT WAY my baby sister, Carianne does. They even have the same exact kind of hair- same color, same texture! It is terribly cute, but makes me miss my sister.

While playing at the park and while at a primary activity!

I guess we all have our little, silly habits!

Try This On For Size

Ashlyn came downstairs looking like this...
The picture isn't the best, but you get the picture. Ashlyn + Clothes= trouble. Lately, she steals everyone else's clothes. Today, she got out a stool and rummaged through Kamryn's drawer to find a polka dot onesie from Kadi and a polka dot skirt with attached panties from Cami all in 3mo size! She REFUSED to take them off, she was quite comfortable! I could barely keep a straight face when looking at her. She reminded me of a cheerleader with a tiny outfit- no offense to those who are/were cheerleaders. Sadly, I can't find either piece at the moment. However, not due to the move.
Needless to say, we will be starting a daily clothes therapy session where we will be learning:

• to pick ONE outfit and stay in it the remainder of the day
• not sneak and steal other's cloths
• appreciate having so many clothes to choose from and from so many great people
• appreciate clothing advice when given after it was requested
• articulate what is it about the clothes that makes them desirable

If you would like to be a guest speaker, please leave your information and availability in the comment section.

Don't Eat Pete

I have so many wonderful childhood memories of playing this game during Family Home Evening. It had occur ed to me a few months ago that I never got a copy from my mom to play with my kids. So our dear friend Ali came to the rescue, she read my mind! She gave us a super cute copy when Kamryn was born. It has swiftly become a family favorite. We have started using cheerios since most of us (not Corbin) were getting worn out on the skittles and M&M's. It is quite strange, however, that no matter what figure we pick to be Pete, Corbin will always clear the board. No, we don't let him cheat, we play fair. He never fails to amaze us!

So if you don't have a copy of this game, google it immediately for a fun, fast, easy FHE activity!

Called to Serve

Whenever we have moved we have always received new callings (due to relocation.) This move is no exception. I of course was starting to feels the pressures from Connor's calling in YM. We had not seen him much due to mutual activities, meetings, fundraising activities, and scout camp. I assumed a call from a stake leader meant he was being called to stake YM and I was pretty happy about that. However, instead he has been called to... Yes, we will be having early morning seminary in our new home starting in September. I sat in front of our stake leader shocked and if it hadn't been too odd, Connor would have done a back flip for joy. The fun part is that we can dedicate a room in our new house just for this cause. So now we need to start practicing early retiring each night!

Red, White and Blue

We had such a wonderful 4th of July. Saturday we had a few families in our ward over for a relaxing pot luck. It was so fun to get to know them all better and I truly enjoyed their company. I wish I had taken more pictures, but by the time I remembered to get the camera out half of them had left. We ate a lot of good food and then lit a few fireworks on the drive way. The kids of course loved the show.

We had a variety of reactions:

Dylan- Enjoyed every minute

Ashlyn- still a little leery of the big, loud ones (Last year she cried the whole way through them).

Corbin- Loved throwing the little poppers on the ground

Kamryn- thought they were way too loud.

In our attempts to find everyone a patriotic outfit we noticed that Kamryn had a plethora of such. So my little Ashlyn "borrowed" a few to make her own gear. She also happens to be very photogenic:(It might make you laugh to click on the collage to get a better look)

Let me explain: Ashlyn is a clothes hog! She will sneak in a snatch an article of clothing from someone else if she deems it awesome enough. Recently I caught her wearing Corbin's pajamas and tried to cover up her snatch with her own clothes over them!?!?! So needless to say, she was pretty thrilled that I gave her permission to wear these ridiculously small clothes. However, she has now confiscated them and labeled them as "hers."

Danny gave all the kids his one-of-a-kind "tattoos." He can melt a child's shyness with one of those! He also took some really "good" pictures of us. One of me and Kamryn during our driveway fireworks:

And one of his amazing wife Amanda:Sunday we went to see fireworks with what ended up being a huge group of friends. It wasn't a hard to request to have Ben, Ashlyn and Dylan hold hands until we arrived at our stake out. We found a great spot on a hill where it was not crowded and the kids had space to run. Unfortunately, someone made Dylan think he could run with a sparkler. That scared me to death. It was dark, and combined with uneven ground and Dylan's speed, I feared the worst. Our dear friends Danny (who is a Special Forces Soldier) and Amanda who are hopefully having their little baby Hazel as I type:

We really enjoyed teaching our children the history behind this special day and how this great event was a precursor to the restoration of the church. We are grateful for this wonderful nation and for many men and women to risk everything for us. I continue to pray that as a nation we will not forget that God has truly had a hand in the birth of The United States of America.

Last Move?

It has taken me a couple weeks to realize this is for real... Our first home!!! Wow, what a crazy few weeks. We are super excited though. We just have to actually get into it, that is the hard part. I dread moving! I even had to look up my old posts to get my own moving advice. It has been a long two years since we have moved (our longest stay.) We know this will be such a fun step in our lives and we have many wonderful hopes and dreams for this house. It also has a lot more room, room for more visitors. So if you come you actually get your own room and possibly your own bathroom!

Two Front Teeth

Last week we had our first visit from the one and only...This guy lost two teeth in one week...As a parent, why is it so exciting when our children have loose teeth? Are we more excited than they are since we know the tooth fairy personally? And is it an instinct to try to "help" them get those danglers out?

Connor has vivid memories of his Dad playing the "masterful tooth puller." So he of course was determined that he inherited this from his father. Let's just say it didn't go over too well when he tried it out.

From Dylan's perspective I am sure it is quite frustrating to have a tooth literally hanging out of your mouth, yet your pain tolerance is like ZERO!

Connor and I each took turns nudging the first tooth out between screams and crying. Dylan had asked us to pull it but then became quite angry when he felt the pain and saw the blood. Later in the evening I got lucky with my fast twitch finger and freed that little tooth! So two days later when the first tooth's next door neighbor was also very loose I decided to try my lucky finger twitch again. I realized that tooth must not have been so loose! Let's just say Dylan was not too in love with his mother right at that moment. Low and behold a little wrestling allowed that little tooth to join his neighbor in the tooth fairy's pouch, where they are superbly happy!

And here is to many more!

Doggy Tales

This is Ginger...
Ashlyn's new favorite thing to do/play with.

It all started out as a favor to a neighbor who just had a baby. But I think it has turned into a favor for Ashlyn.
She can't get enough of this puppy and it is constantly on her mind. I know she would take great care of one- that is IF we ever own one.

Spring Sports

Dylan played baseball for the first time this spring. It was a love/hate relationship. The games were LONG and SLOW- as you can imagine at 6 years of age. But Dylan loved it anyways. He still loves to go out and play catch with just about anyone.

Let me remind you, he is our super athlete. He never had a problem hitting the ball and getting to first base. His coaches loved it when he played third base because he could actually get the ball to first base in one throw. However, that doesn't mean that the first basemen caught it! It was a very interesting season to watch. I had to continually remind Dylan not to fight over the grounders with his teammates. It didn't seam to sink in!
During his last game he played first base and got two outs during the same inning. Obtaining any outs during your teams field play is rare, but very exciting. They have a 5 run maximum for each inning in the league due to this fact. So Dylan was pretty excited as you can imagine.

There was also another funny moment when Dylan was on the bench waiting to hit and he was crying. I asked him what was wrong and he said there weren't anymore helmets (he was far enough down the lineup that there were no helmets left to wear.) I just laughed.

Here is Dylan in catchers garb, most of the kids had a hard time just walking around in it...

Dylan and one of his best buddies were on the same soccer team again. We loved it and they loved it (I think because it was only one hour a week.) He is wearing a Honduran soccer outfit my sister, Carianne, sent him for his birthday.
What will this kid do next?

Father's Day

I love Father's day - besides trying to find the right gift for the men in my life (why are they always the hardest?)

This year we gave Connor some yummy treats because he was the "Top Pop" of the year- well every year really! Every year we repurposed an old tie for Connor. I mean don't you think this looks WAY better than it possibly could have before...(Sorry for the bad photo, my bathroom does not lend itself for a good backdrop late at night.)

Every man wants a tie with D.A.D., fringe, jewels, and Googly eyes ...
I wish I could shrink down to the size of a pin and take a ride on Connor's shoulder so that I could take in all the comments he gets from wearing such a marvelous creation!

Yes, we love our daddy! From what I gathered from my kid's answers to questions for Father's day, they all love to wrestle with him and Dylan also loves to have Wii time with him. I know Kamryn is instantly soothed by just the sound of his voice, there really is nothing sweeter than a dad with his infant in his arms! Connor never fails to get down and play hard with his kids. He is an amazing teacher and friend to them. He is always willing to play even the most tiring games with them. They all fight over sitting by him at dinner (sometimes I wonder if they realize I am in the room.) I am excited to see him in action in the future and also very comforted because I know he will be amazing!

I also have a wonderful Dad of my own. Sadly, it took me about 18 years to finally realize what an amazing man he was. I feel like I wasted so many moments and opportunities with him. He is very intelligent. We often tease him because he knows words that none of us have even heard. But he was the best one to go to proof read our papers. I am grateful for the example he has set for me. I can not even count the many times he has been up for all hours of the night out helping someone in need, without a single complaint. I know he has done this for me as well. He provided a wonderful, spiritual and safe home for me to be raised in. I never doubted his love for me!

Thank you, I love you both!

Hair does

Dylan

Ashlyn