How am I ever going to keep a clean house if this is how my children think you are spost to clean a room??
She had all her tupperware bins that we keep her toys in under her bed out....DUMPED OUT! She had all her books from her closet, her underwear, tumbling clothes, kitchen toys, tiny toys, all the bedding off her bed...in the pile! Dress up clothes, shoes...and to top it off? SHE TOOK ALL THE CLOTHES HANGING IN HER CLOSET AND THREW IT IN THE PILE!! I was so mad! (keep in mind, she has been on my last nerve for the past 5 months or so....) I called Thomas at work (haha) and had him come up to talk to her.
This, my friends, was a Rookie mistake. You don't ask a 4 year old to go clean her room and don't even poke your head in to check on her.
Kaden LOVES to draw and color. He spends HOURS at it. He decided he wanted to enter this years reflections contest. The theme was "wow". He had decided that he was going to draw all these animals and trees...ect. He spent weeks and weeks perfecting it. He drew 3 "final" copies. He asked questions and learned as much as he could. I was really impressed and proud of him!! I went to parent teacher conference the night before the gallery was to be presented, and Kaden's art was missing! He was so upset. I tried to tell him that we would find it, and if not, I would let him pick out a prize from all a dollar (yes, I bribe...got issues with that? LOL) He cried saying he didn't want a prize, he wanted his picture back. What do you say to that? So, I asked his teacher, she had remembered turning it in, but said she would help me find it in the morning. I came back to the school on Friday morning and told the office my son's picture was missing, and he was upset. To which they reply..."If it's missing, he won!" WAHOOO!! He got a trophy and his art moved on to the next level. He is so excited about the trophy, but still wonders when his picture is coming back!
Hailey also entered the contest. She did photography. (Her picture is right next to the tip of her head...the leaves and the river one.) We had driven around the canyon and stopped at a few places for her to snap her shots. She had a few that looked great! I am so proud of them both for wanting to do the contest!! Both of their entries made me proud of them! 
We had a lot of fun for Halloween. We went to my brother's house the night before for his wards trunk-or-treat and then a family party. We had a lot of fun.
Hailey dressed up as a pixie. I think she liked her pink eyelashes the best.
Kinley makes me laugh. First she wanted to be a kitty. Then she wanted to be a fairy. Then my friend Melisa brought her over a tu-tu *THANK YOU* and she wanted to wear that. I called her a dead cat when she wasn't around....BUT the OFFICIAL name she had was........A dancing kitty fairy. Go figure.
Kaden wanted to be yoda ever since he found the "perfect yoda walking stick" in the summer. I looked and looked for a costume. They had some really cute ones for toddlers....but really dorky ones for bigger kids. Kaden had faith in me though...he kept saying that he KNEW I could make one. He was right, I tricked my sister into making this robe for him (THANKS COLETTE!). She gave me the job of the ears. I am not a seamstress, so I am so proud of my ears and the fact that you can somewhat tell they are spost to be yodas! YEA!
(above: at the hospital 5 days old.)
(below, she wanted to hold the frog, but not touch it. She would hold the snake and the lizard, but apparently frog was too far!)
I took this picture a couple of weeks ago. I think she is beautiful!
We have had a lot of parties, and a lot of celebrating. It has been a really busy week! I can't believe my baby is 4 years old!! Where did the time go? 
It has been a blur of a month! Last Friday, I was picking all the red tomatoes out of my garden as I was pulling the plants out to winterize the garden. Those tomato plants were tough and wouldn’t come out of the ground, so I pulled harder, and harder. Finally I pulled so hard, I hurt my back. I couldn’t walk, bend over, sleep, lay down, sit down…I was in so much pain. Oh well…too bad for me. I had to pick the rest of the plants and tomatoes. (I was only 1/3 the way done when I hurt myself!) I ended up sitting on my bottom and doing my best. I got them all out, peppers too, and got them in the 20 black yard garbage bags! The next day I canned all the tomatoes into juice. This year has been a successful canning year. I got 12 quarts of green beans, 59 pints of salsa, and 65 quarts of tomato juice. WHEW, I’m glad it’s over!
We went to J&J’s hayride to get a pumpkin. We went with a few of our friends and had a blast! It was threatening rain the whole time and was cold, but I think only the moms noticed it was cold! The kids were going crazy trying to find the best pumpkin out of the entire patch. Of course, all 3 of them couldn’t carry their pumpkin (still couldn’t walk, stand..ect) but I got them all to the van. 
All my hard work and pain was worth it, Thomas didn’t think it would snow, but we got A TON! I say 6 inches, he says closer to a foot…who knows for sure?? (Weather man?) After church, the kids ran outside and made a huge snowman (well, Kaden was throwing up, so he didn’t…) Once Kaden felt a little better later in the day, they went to make another snowman, but the first had fallen over and they made a snow fort! It was nice to play in the snow.
The kids were out for UEA, so I had told them if they cleaned the house Thursday, we could do something fun on Friday. We went to cornbellies at Thanksgiving point with some of our friends. The kids had a blast!! We wore out the moms, and called it a day.
When Hailey and Kaden were smaller, they loved to watch dragon tails. (Kinley, not so much). To be honest, I was a little weirded out with Zach and Weezy. Boy/Girl dragons that are stuck together.
This is my workout room. Yeah, its safe from everyone else. Thomas keep threatening to use it, (and that would be okay) but so far, its just a threat. I love to watch the TV use the treadmill...sweat...go numb...ahhh my alone cone!! It is complete with a lock on the door. Kids have stopped even trying to think they can come in here. Its moms room :).
This is my bedroom. Not new, but it is one of my favorite places in the house that is mine. I do let Thomas in here, for the record. 
Do smells ever make you remember things? They are harvesting the onions by my house. You can get some strong smells once in awhile. Today, as I was driving down the street, I saw an onion on the side of the road, along with the smell. It reminded me that 3 years ago today, I had my hysterectomy. How, you ask, does that even go along with each other? Well, my mom was coming over to my house after I got home from the hospital. Thomas had taken off time from work, but had to go back...mom and dad were my babysitters. Kinley wasn't quite one yet, so I needed a lot of help. On her way over, she realized that she had forgotten an onion in the bag of things she had brought over to make me soup. She saw an onion on the side of the road on the way over, and made dad stop to get it.
I remember telling her that I had onions, but not much more then that (drugs, baby...) The point is, she didn't care if it was embarrassing or who was watching...she was doing it to take care of me. Her whole life she put us kids in front of her needs. I am grateful for her in my life and today seeing onions all over the sides of the road I couldn't help but think of her. I sure miss her. Maybe I will pick one up and make me some soup? Onion rings anyone?? :)
Here Kaden is showing that he has 5 plastic sacks on his back. He is ready to fly "super high"!
I remember thinking up ways that I could fly when I was a kid. The safest way for me to try out my ideas (none of which were any good) was to convince Nate to do them. (Not just flying...any idea!) Ahhh good times, huh Nate!? Nate?? NATHAN!?!??
*she is quite good with the saber...Thomas has to stay on his toes. When Kinley and Kaden tag team him...he is in trouble!
Hailey is in the third grade, and Kaden is in first. They both have loved going to school! I had to chuckle at Hailey's "wavy" hair and her leggings. When she left I told Thomas that could have been me in the 3rd grade. Crimped hair and leggings. She pulls it off better then I ever could though....ahhh stirrup pants and sweater shirts...gotta love the styles!
Since the new school is late opening, Kinley was the first to start. She went today!! She was so excited! Last week we had to go meet the teacher. She told me I could go home, that I wasn't the helper mom today. She loved it today! She loved riding home with Harrison. She thinks he is so funny. After all, he did say dum dum give me some gum gum. HILARIOUS! I am so excited for her to go, she has been wanting to go since last year! With Kinley in school, I have 2 days a week that I am A.L.O.N.E!! (No, I wont babysit or run any errands for you! HA HA)
During the summer 2 of the young women in our ward did a dance camp. Kinley was in the younger class, and Hailey was in the older class. They loved it! They had a little recital the other day. The pictures aren't great. My camera needs to die. :) The younger kids sort of just sat there and moved a little here and there. It was cute though!
I was pretty proud of Hailey. She seemed to remember her dance. She had this cheesy perma-grin the entire time! I fought so hard not to laugh. She defiantly has a "dance face" (as Amy puts it ;)
Kaden lost his first tooth last week! He let Thomas pull it out. He was very brave! He had the adult tooth right there, so I am surprised that it lasted so long! We need to start saving for braces...that new tooth is already looking crooked! Thomas and I both had to have them, so I figured our kids would. He is growing up so fast, and I am so proud of him!
My parents left on their mission today. They will be in the MTC for 10 days, then off to New Delhi, India for 18 months. They are excited/nervous/happy/sad (to leave family)/ready/not ready...ect.
My sister, Colette, called me up last week and asked me if I wanted to join her, Chantel and Amber for a "girls weekend." So, Hailey and I went with them on their girls trip aka: drop Chantel off to BYU-I. So, Chantel comes and picks up Hailey and I and we laugh loud and long that Thomas is stuck with the rest of the kids while we are headed for a weekend of fun!!
We get to Colette's house, Chantel is all packed up in her car and we are ready to go. Just need to grab her fish. We go in the bathroom, I catch the fish and put it in a peanut butter jar. She pours out the nasty fish water, as I was about to tell her the story of how I was cleaning out my fish bowl, it busted and I had to get stitches...hers broke! Sure enough, she is cut...pretty bad. We butterfly band-aid it, and head off. (I still vote it should have had 3 stitches!)
We get in the car and drive. It didn't take long (I guess blabing to Colette the entire time makes it go by fast!)
We took a few minutes worth of a break. Behind Chantel, Amber and Hailey is the Idaho Falls Temple. It was so beautiful!
We goofed around in the water for awhile before we decided that we should go shopping. We found a mall and found some good deals, so it was fun!
We went out to dinner at Texas Road House. I think that is what it was called.
We then went back to the hotel and went swimming. Hailey was loving all the attention I was able to give her. She was a little fish!
We came home and fell asleep. The next day we played a fun game that I was no good at.
Everyone was creaming me. You have to come up with a word every hand. I came up with an awesome word that was worth a lot of points. JIZY. Yup. What? You want to challenge my word? Oh. No dictionary? That is too bad. I will use it in sentences for you. "that's so Jizy" "We are having a Jizy time" ect. I think by the end of the trip Colette had to tell me that jizy wasn't flying.
We finally take Chantel to her dorm. She is going to have one roommate until fall. We moved all of her stuff in, took her grocery shopping and out to lunch and we were ready to head home. I have to say, I was a little jealous that she gets to go away to college. I stayed at home and went to Weber state university. It looked like it is a lot of fun to be up there with all the raging hormones LOL.
Amber decided to stay with Chantel since her only roommate is gone for a week and a half. It was a fun trip and Thomas only called me about 30 times and txt me about 20. Ahhhhh good times. Next time, FORGET THE CELL PHONE!!
