9 Months!

I can't believe that Cole is already 9 months old, time is just going by way to fast. He is now crawling every where, pulling himself up and walking around furniture. He'll even stand all by himself, he did take a couple of steps while we were on vacation but has yet to want to do it again. He definitely has a mind of his own, as he is getting older I have discovered that he is very stubborn child.
I love to watch him crawl after his big brothers trying to keep up with them, I'm afraid he'll be bored once they are in school. Coles favorite person is his daddy, his face just lights up when he hears Daves voice and he gets all excited when Dave comes in the room. He can't get to daddy fast enough!
This little guy sure keeps me on my toes we have to keep all the doors to the bathrooms closed otherwise we will find him in there either playing in the toilet, the trash can or unrolling the toilet paper. He loves to be busy!

Fun times........

Our good friends the Ritchies came into town and were able to stay with us for a week. We had a great time, between the two families there were 9 kids so we stayed busy trying to keep them all entertained. We were able to go Slide Rock on one of the days they were in town, I haven't been there in years but it was just as fun as I remember it. It took a little bit for the kids to warm up to it but once they did they all had a great time, even the two babies loved crawling around on the rocks and playing in the water.
It is was so fun to have them here, our kids always had someone to play with and I loved having someone to hang out with all the time. I haven't stayed up late and laughed like that in a long time. The time went by way to fast and I didn't take near enough pics!

Happy Birthday Babe!

I just want to wish Dave a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! He just turned 29 again, I must say that I think he just gets better with age. Babe you are my best friend and I am so lucky to have you as my husband. I love the fact that you are still a kid at heart, and that you can still make me laugh. I hope you have a wonderful day! We love you!

Free Photo Shoot!

I just wanted to let everyone know that during the month of August my brother-in-law that does all of our photos, is offering a free photo shoot. There is a little catch but it's so worth the photos. He does an awesome job, if you are interested check out his web page through the NL Photography link on my blog.

4TH of July!

For the 4TH of July we always head up to Holbrook, AZ. I love being there for the 4Th, we always go to the fireman's BBQ and then that night watch the fire works up close and personal. This year it was also Dave's family reunion, so we had a fun time hanging out with the family. The girls got to decorate flip flops and the boys got to make marshmallow guns, I don't think that my mother-in-law appreciated that were marshmallow all over her house, but the boys had a great time. We also tie dyed shirts for all of the younger kids, which actually turned out pretty well. This was Cole's first fire works show and since we are really close to where they are set off it gets pretty loud, so I wasn't sure how he would react.
He did great he didn't even jump when they went off, it was great, he just sat and stared at them. It was so fun to watch his expressions.
The 4Th is one of my favorite holidays, and I love to spend it in Holbrook, I just love the small town celebrations. The cooler weather and being able to spend some time with Daves family, we all had a great time!

New haircuts....

Okay so I was attempting to grow the boys hair out, but it was starting to drive Dave crazy. So I said it's either they continue to grow it out or it gets shaved off in behalf of our friend Chad who has lost all of his hair, due to chemo. Once I told the boys their options their answer was unanimous they wanted to shave it in support of Chad. Have I said how proud I am of my children and how much I love them? So here's to you Chad , we love you and our thoughts and prayers are always with you.

Villa De Paz Idol

For the past three years our ward has done a lip sinking contest called Villa De Paz Idol, last year was the first year that our boys participated in this. And they couldn't wait for it to come this year. I have to say that it is a really fun night, we have 3 people who play Paula, Randy and Simon, we of course have a Ryan Seacrest as well. Everything is done in good fun and everyone has a great time. This year the boys performed "I'm A Goofy Goober" from the SpongeBob Square pants movie. Jaden was the lead singer while Ty jammed out on guitar, it was so fun to watch and once I figure out how to convert the video I'll post it on line. Maybe next year Dave and I will get up the courage to also perform, not likely but hey you never know!

Crawling

I can't believe that Cole is now 7 1/2 months old! He has just started crawling, which I love but then again I don't. I miss being able to put him down and know that when I come back he'll be in the same spot. But then again it's so fun to watch him learn to do new things, Jaden and Ty didn't crawl this early so I was hoping I had more time to baby proof the house. He has also gotten in his two bottom teeth and he has started pulling himself up on what ever he can find. Jaden and Ty get so worried when they find him standing up next to something, they hate it when he falls down. They're so worried that he's going to get hurt, which every once in awhile he does fall and bonk his head, but hey that's part of the learning process. He gets over it pretty quickly and is back pulling himself up.
He is such a happy kid all the time, at night I hate putting him to bed because he's so full of smiles. I just want to sit and play with him.

Science Museum

This summer is seems to be flying by and I can't seem to catch up. Between swim team practice, summer movie fun passes and playing with friends we seem to always be busy.
This week I was able to take the boys to the AZ Science Museum, they had some really fun exhibits there. The newest one is all made out of Lego's and it's about castles and mid evil times. The boys got to pretend to joust, and build there own walls around castles to protect them. They had these life size statues of knights and a dragon, completely made out of Lego's. I can't imagine how long it took to put them together. It was amazing the detail that went into building these statues and castles.

In another area it was all about cause and effect and how things work. The boys got to lay on a bed of nails, and were amazed that it didn't hurt. There were some many fun experiments about gravity and cause and effect, it kept the kids entertained for over an hour. I even got in on a couple rounds of tug of war, as did Jaden.

I think we spent over 3 hours there just wondering around and having fun, I actually can't wait to go back and play some more.

Walla Walla!

At the beginning of the month Cole and I got to go visit some of our best friends, Chad and Amy Neidig, they live in Walla Walla, WA. Recently Chad had been diagnosed with stage 4 B Cell Lymphoma, these guys are like family to us, so we were devastated when we heard this news. So when Amy called and said they would pay for half of my airfare, up there I jumped at the chance. We haven't seen them in about a year and they had never met Cole, I was sad that Dave, and the rest of the family couldn't go. But I wasn't going to pass up seeing Amy and Chad. I was so glad to get up there and see that Chad was doing well, just the week before I got there he wasn't able to be up and walking around. Due to a hematoma that occurred after his biopsy. But the hematoma had shrunk and he was up and walking and clowning around as usual. Chad and Amy loved Cole of course, Amy said she hadn't seen Chad smile like that in weeks.

The first full day there we got to take a tour of the Ice Harbor Dam, it is located on the Snake River. Chad works for the Army Corps of Engineers, and he is in charge of this dam along with 3 others. So he had arranged for us to be able to go into the heart of the dam, it was really amazing how it works. This dam provides Hydro Electric power for the area, and it was the first dam I had ever seen with channel locks. We were going to watch one of the cargo ships go through the lock but it started to rain so we weren't able to. But I learned some very interesting facts about the dam and how it helps the area. After the dam we went to a park nearby where we got to learn about boat safety and things like that, they also had drinking goggles. These goggle simulate what it is like to be drunk, well since I don't drink I thought I'd try out these goggles. Your suppose to walk a straight line with them on. I could have sworn I was walking on the line, but Chad and Amy were busting a gut laughing at me while I tried to walk on the line. I must say that those goggles really made me kinda nauseous. I'm grateful I don't drink, I can't imagine doing that to myself.

This is me trying to walk with those goggles on, you can see I'm not quite on the line.

The Second day there Amy and I were going to go do some shopping and then go for a walk in a reserve area. But as we were shopping it started to rain, then hail and then it became sunny again. I learned that Amy wasn't exaggerating when she would tell me about how crazy the weather was there. So instead of going for a walk she drove me around the town. Walla Walla isn't very big, only a population of about 30,000, so it didn't take very long. I did see some interesting things, like houses that were built right behind other houses. I don't mean guest houses, I'm talking single family homes, and it's not like the people know each other before the houses are built. So these people have no back yards because their is house there instead. And then there is the complete opposite where you will have a 600 square foot house on a huge lot. It was fun to see.

If you look closely you can see the house behind this one. It's literally in the backyard.

On the third day there we just hung out and got ready for a dinner party that night. I was able to meet some of the friends they had made there. It was fun meeting the people that I had heard so much about. Amy had arranged for one of her friends to make a special cake just for me, it was a belly dancing cake. It was very cool looking, Amy's friend Danila did an amazing job. I had a fun time getting to know their friends, we kept putting off going to bed, because it was my last night there.


The next day I had to get on a plane and head home, I'm so glad I was able to go. I wish I could have stayed longer, but a couple of days was better than nothing.

6 Months Old!

I can't believe that Cole is already six months old, time is going by way too fast. At his 6 month check-up he weighed 16 lbs 14 oz and was 27 1/2 inches long. Let's see, he is teething, sitting up, rolling over, babbling, eating solids, wiggling his way around to get toys and sleeping through the night. He is such a happy easy going baby, he loves to play with his brothers and they love to keep him entertained. I feel so blessed to have this little guy in our lives, I hate to see him growing up so fast but then again I can't wait to see him grow up. I know it won't be long before he's walking and talking and giving us a run for our money.

life lessons

I feel horrible when my kids have to learn the hard way. Let me preface this with a story, last month Jaden convinced Dave and I that he wasn't feeling well, so we kept him home from school. All day he acted fine but would insist that his stomach wasn't feeling well. So towards the end of the day as we are getting ready for bed he informs Dave and I that he had been tricking us and that he just didn't want to go to school. So we sat down with him and talked about lying to us and how there were consequences for every action, and we told him that it would be hard for us to trust him now.
Fast forward to yesterday, he woke up saying that his throat was sore. I thought well it could be, Ty does have strep throat and Jaden might be coming down with it to. So I checked to see if he had a temp, he didn't so we said sorry I think it's probably just dry and scratchy, get a drink of water and get ready for school. You just want to stay home because Ty is. We reminded him that he'd tricked us once before and we weren't going to fall for it again. Off to school he goes, around 12:30 I get a call from the school saying that he has thrown up and has a fever. I of course now feel horrible for sending him to school, when I pick him up he doesn't look to good and says that his throat is really hurting. So back to the Doctors office we go, they swab his throat and sure enough he also has strep throat. I felt like a horrible parent for sending him to school, I kept apologizing for not believing him. But he just looked at me and said it's okay mom I shouldn't have lied to you before. He is such a sweet little boy. We both had learn from this experience.
I'm so glad he and Ty are both feeling better now.

Today I sat Cole down to play with a bucket full of plastic Easter eggs, I thought that all of the candy had been eaten so no big deal. I went to check on him since he'd been sitting there quietly for a little while . This is what I found! Apparently there was candy still in there and some how he was able to get the package open. So he has officially had his first taste of candy, I think he liked it. I just hope he doesn't have a belly ache later tonight.

My friend Clarissa made a dress for my new niece and wanted to see how it fit on a 6 month old, so we decided to try it on Cole. He'll love these pics when he's older I'm sure, I think he makes a cute little girl!

13 Years

Yes that is Dave and I on our wedding day, I guess you could say that we have changed a bit over the years. I can't believe that Dave and I have been married for 13 years now, time has flown by. During the past 13 years we've laughed, we've cried, we've had three beautiful children and made some amazing memories. I couldn't ask for a more amazing husband and father for our children. And after all these years I still get butterflies in my stomach when I think of him or when I catch him looking at me. I can't imagine my life without him, he's my best friend and still the man of my dreams. I can't wait to see what adventures await us! I love you Babe!

He finds this funny.....

Last night for some reason, who knows why Ty and Jaden decided to start slapping themselves. Cole found it to be very amusing!

This past week the weather was nice enough that we were able to break out the water slide. The kids also decided that the pool was warm enough to go swimming, the water was only 70 degrees so there was no way I was getting in but they sure had fun. Ty's lips started to turn blue after a little while so he didn't last very long, but he had fun throwing things into the water so that Jaden and his friend Isabelle could go diving for them.

We'd never been to the Children's museum here so we thought that since Dave had Thursday off we would take the kids and check it out. There were some fun things there but I think it was geared more to younger kids so after about 2 hours they were bored. I'm glad that we went and saw what they had I don't think it was worth the $9.00 per person we had to pay, but it was so nice to be able to spend the day together.