Duffy Family Party

We had Aaron and Amy come over for our super huge Duffy family party. We had chili and breadsticks and we made gingerbread houses. Hailey was sick, so she stayed in our room all night sleeping. She was so sad to miss out

Rookie Mistake

Today I told Kinley to go clean her room. She went away (should have been my first hint something was up...) shut the door (second hint) and was quiet (third hint) for 10 minutes. She finally came in and told me, "Mom, I need help getting a blanket". Wow, I thought, it was AMAZING that a KID listened to what I asked her to do!! She needed help making her bed!!

I go into her room...

Wrong. So dead wrong.

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 won!

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!

Halloween...yah, I know its late.

When we went out to let Hailey take pictures for the reflections contest, we threw them in a picture. I think it turned out okay. I won't be sending it in a Christmas card or anything. (And not just because I usually don't send out cards...) None of them have their hair done, they have on their coats and Kaden has a huge hole in his pants. I thought the picture was at least blog worthy. 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!

Happy Birthday Kinley!

October 29th, 2004 started out like any other day for a 36 week pregnant lady. I didn't feel good. I was "done" being pregnant. After I picked Hailey up from pre-school, I went to my moms house. I started throwing up around 1:00. Non-Stop. Finally, mom decided that she would call my OB. I had just seen him the day before, but he told her to have me to go the hospital and they could stop the throwing up and give me some fluids. When we got there, we discovered that I had PIH, Kinley's heart rate kept dropping, and they were afraid my uterus was going to rupture. I was in for another emergency c-section. At 10:59 p.m. my beautiful baby girl was born. They called out the weight of 4lb 6oz and I remember saying.."wow, I must be really high, I thought they said 4lb 6oz...they HAD to have said 6lb 4oz." She was 18 inches long. TINY. She was PERFECT! She only spent 1 hour in the NICU for observation. (above: at the hospital 5 days old.)

(above Kinley 3 weeks old.)
Kinley grew fast and has always had a strong attutidue. We call her our spit-fire girl.


(above: Kinley's first birthday)
She always carried around that pig (pictured below). We finaly convinced her to put it in my cedar chest, but she still asks to see it every once in awile.

(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?

My blog is going Private

BUT, I still want you around....so go comment and I will invite you

A catch-up post

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.

This week I also went to training for my new job. I am doing early voting (so, more like a 3 day job??) I couldn’t even sit there listening to how we need to look up people’s names and give them a card to vote. Thomas called a chiropractor for me and got me an appointment. I have never been to one, so I didn’t know what to expect. He did some reflex things and made me bend and move ect. He took some X-rays and hooked me up to this machine that shocked my back. IT FELT SO GOOD!! He got the X-rays back and said it was a torn muscle. That is good/bad news he said. Good because it will heal, and I can do exercises to make it strong again…Bad, because it takes a long time to heal. He then cracked my back and sent me on my way. I COULD FINALY WALK!! I have an appointment on Monday with him, and I just may kiss him. I have been sore, but not in pain and can actually DO things. Ahhh I am in love with him ;)

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.
If you got through all of that…thanks! I have been busy with paperwork for super Saturday coming up next Saturday, trying to winterize our yard, cleaning, canning, and trying to have fun in the mist of it all!! The next few weeks will include me working early voting, Kinley’s birthday, a birthday party for Kinley (Yikes, that could be scary!) a visit from Thomas’ parents, pumpkin walk, Halloween parties (school, family) and Halloween. Should be busy and fun!