Jedi Princess

Kinley is so funny to me. She is such a girly girl. She is in a dress 90% of the time. She loves her little dress up shoes, play makeup, purses, sunglasses, princess dress up clothes, necklaces, bracelets, rings etc. She loves playing with her baby dolls and dressing them up, feeding them and changing them.

In the same breath, she is the biggest "tom boy"! She loves fighting dad and Kaden with light sabers, dart guns, bow and arrows made out of sticks. She loves playing in the dirt and LOVES it when Kaden and his friends let her play with them! She isn't even remotely afraid of snakes, lizards, frogs, spiders or any creepy thing. (Kaden's friend calls her over to kill spider's and she will pick them up and squish it with her fingers....gross!)

All I can say is one day her friends (which I am guessing will be mostly boys) will enjoy a cute girly girl that is a tom boy to hang out with!!
*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!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Wahooo!! The day finally came! I have to admit, when I saw the school district on my caller id on Wednesday night, I freaked out a bit. I was afraid they were going to say "SIKE" (yes, I dated myself there...) and tell me school wasn't starting again. Thomas answered the phone and I couldn't read his face on if it was bad news (see, I cant read Thomas' face either!) I started to get tears in my eyes. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE my kids....but we have been off track since May, and well, I love them so much they should go to school...we will leave it at that!

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!

Question: what item(s) of clothing do you wish came back??

Dancing, camping and first day of Pre-school!

We went camping Labor Day weekend. We went to South Fork and had a great time! We usually go tubing down the river, but it was too cold...it sure felt like FALL! Kaden is really into hiking (every time we go camping, he wants to go on a hike. Does anyone know any good places to go around here?) Thomas went high up the mountain the first day without us because Kaden wanted him to catch him a lizard. We have never come home critter free, but I was thinking yeah right, good luck boy! Well, 30 minutes later, Thomas comes down with a tiny little lizard. Kaden named him Lizzy, to remember the lizard Spike ate. The next day Hailey and Kaden wanted to go up the steep mountain with their dad. Good luck guys! Mom doesn't do high steep mountains, but thanks! They head up. Kinley follows. In flip flops!? So, I follow her, thinking she will get scared like her mom. NO LOVE. She kept going, and I kept trying to keep up with her. I am about half way up when I freak out. I made her sit down and I had a miniature panic session. Finally our friend that came with us came back to see what was taking us so long. He helped Kinley get down while I kept telling myself I was okay. I wasn't dying today. It was a really fun trip, and a nice way to end an extremely busy summer! On Monday, we met some of my family at Kangaroo Zoo. The kids LOVED that place. I have never even heard of it before, Thanks Preston and Chrystie for the fun time!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 ;)
Summer is winding down. I am excited for the other two to start school on Friday. Fall is my favorite season! Well, after all the canning is done! Come on tomatoes, lets get it over with!

Lost Tooth!

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!

Good-bye

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.

There are so many emotions that I am going through, that I don't even know how to sort them out. Let's just say that I am sad. My mom is one of my best friends, and I just got her back from a 2-year mission in China just 8 months ago. I got used to her at the gym with me, shopping with me, phone calls...ect. My dad always makes you feel better about any situation. Things could look awful, then you talk to dad, and everything will be okay...it will work out. I love talking to my dad. I will miss them both very much.

I will stop here with my whining incase mom and dad ever find time to come to my blog. Just know it will be a rough few months...I'm 30, I should be able to grow up a bit...just maybe a little bit? But, I will still miss my mommy! ;)

The almost unveiling

We have been working. Hard. For months. Well, 3 years to be exact, but working really, REALLY hard for the past 4-5 months. We are finishing our basement. It has been exhausting, stressful and honestly more then I could handle at times. I'm not a good multitasker. So, when I would help Thomas downstairs...upstairs would vomit and leave me a huge mess. Laundry? I did wash it and dry it and pile it. Sometimes it made it to the fold and put away stage, but not often. Our yard, well, it has never been this ulgy. Not much time to weed, fertilize, spray or mow even. :( My garden? Yeah, it was neglected as well. I just pray that I will get a harvest and be able to can the things I need. When the things around me feel like they are in chaos, all I do is pace. Doesn't make sense, I know. I get it from mom (thanks mom!) Whenever I feel like there is too much to do, I shut down...deer in headlights and just sorta freeze.
Moral to all the ramblings? WE ARE ALMOST DONE!!
Hailey and Kaden moved down to their new rooms this week. My workout room has the treadmill in there. The love seat (our couch wouldn't fit) is down there, TV's ect. We do have loose ends, a lot of them. The bathroom isn't done (there is only tile on the floor and a tub). The kid's closets aren't done, and the storage room isn't even close. BUT, it has made a huge difference to get them in their own rooms. I am still trying to find my kitchen...but that will happen soon. I see a dim, vague light down there at the end of the tunnel!
So, pretty soon, I will get some before and some after pictures to post (I need to find the before shots). I'm just excited to be finishing up in the next few weeks!

Jizy Girls Weekend!

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!!