This time of year, I always need to hear this.

this is one of my favorite messages.

Thanksgiving

this year our thanksgiving was pretty laid back. my dad came to celebrate with us, however most of us were sick. So Thanksgiving include PJ's, yummy food and sleeping on the couch. Our two little ladies did not even make it to the table. They were sound asleep!

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!!

All I want for Christmas is my 2 Front teeth!

First tooth lost. November 21st.

Second tooth lost. November 25th. 

The first tooth, there were some tears shed. Some blood but great surprise when the tooth fairy showed up the next morning. 

The Second tooth, no tears, hardly any blood. So much excitement about the tooth fairy coming. 

Why do I feel so old. 

Loosing teeth happens to kids, but for some reason it makes it seem real that mine are growing up!!

Friends ;0)

on our way back from meeting Victoria we stopped to see our friends the Palmers. Unfortunately Oliver is not doing well and we really wanted to see him and let the kids play together for a while. 

It was so sweet. Everyone was so excited about seeing each other... including the adults.

The Palmers have a pet that my kids were fascinated with. 

Meet Hermione!

 My kids thought she was really cool. Well Kael and Briea did. Cullan was indifferent. Ayla would look but that was about it. 

 She is a strong little turtle. She would try and pull herself out of the box and stretch her neck out so long. I always thought it was funny. 

 These two were like two peas in a pod. They had so much fun. I love Jarens face in this picture. 

 Stacy showing Hermione to the littler kids of our group. 

 Finny really loved Briea's pink boots. He stomped all around in them. I just love this picture. I think he is such a cutie!

 Someone had let the palmers borrow a game that Oliver really liked. He had convinced Ed to play with him, even though Ed assured him that Oliver would beat him. It was fun to watch him have so much fun. 

 Briea was LOVIN all of Eden's baby dolls and Barbies. I think she could have stayed much longer to play and love on her dolls. Not to mention she thinks older girls are pretty cool, so there was that as well. ;0)

 Poor Garran was not feeling well at all and was super tired. He feel asleep like this on their couch. I could not resist snapping a picture of him.

 Who is that cute thing sporting a mustache? 

Ayla saw the older kids playing with these. She brought it over and I put it on  her. Of course I had to snap quickly because she proceeded to rip it off. But it sure was cute. 

 I told Ollie that I need some pictures of he and his family to update our wall. I had not seen them in a while and so I needed some new ones. Ollie is such a funny kid. He started hamming it up. The top one  makes me want to sing that Rico Suave song. 

 These to pictures just make me smile. Oliver has an awesome laugh. It is most definitely contagious. When I look at these I can just hear it in my head. 

 Of course we took a group shot of all our littles together. We don't get to see each other as often as we would like so I always like to take a group shot when we get together. 

Thanks for letting us drop in Palmer Family!!

It was so much fun to chat and catch up!

we are family

so i have had a secret. 

in august i found out that i had an older sister. my mom decided that it was a good time to let me know about her. she had been looking for her for a long time but had not had any luck finding her. 

so when my mom told me about her, i told her that i was going to start searching for her too. one month later we found her. This past weekend was the first time we got to meet in person. We had all spoke with her on the phone, but this was what we were really looking forward to. 

Here is a picture of my mom and my older sister Victoria.

here is a picture of my mom and my two sisters. 

(L-R, Victoria, Mom, Sara)

Along with Victoria coming we had some family come in as well. We met late Friday night and then spend all day Saturday and part of Sunday together. I took a bunch of random snap shots while we were together. It was so great to meet Victoria. She is just AWESOME!! 

I am so happy that we found her and that we get to have her as part of our family. 

 Here is Miss. B sitting at the table chatting with everyone.

 Ayla cheesing it up for me. 

 This is my moms sister, My Aunt Sue.

 My brother in law Jeremy, and Kael. They were hanging out under the bar, just having a chat. 

 Victoria chatting with everyone.

 Well this is my grandmothers head, and my mom and sister chatting. 

 This is just a group shot of everyone sitting around chatting. It was a very laid back weekend. We just enjoyed our time getting to know each other and visiting. It was a lot of fun. 

and of course, ready or not...she was loved on by my group. they were so excited to meet her. they chatted with her any chance they got and loved every minute they got to spend with their new aunt!

I am really grateful that we got to spend the weekend with Victoria and I hope we get together again soon!

trip rewards

I saw this idea on pinterest. You make one for each of your kids. Then you hang them in the car. If they kids are good, their tag stays up. If they are not, they come down. It is a nice visual reminder. Then when you reach your destination, they get some kind of little gift. It could be a piece of candy or something small. The dollar store is great for stuff. 

We did this for the first time on our trip this weekend and it worked really well. It helped with whining about not being there and small little fights that happen as the kids start to get restless. 

How do you measure, measure a year....

ten thousand nine hundred fifty days....

moments so dear.

ok i dont know why but "seasons of love" has been stuck in my head. 

but hey, i have survived...10950 days. 

heres to many more!

someone like you

I love when he closes his eyes and sings. 

It cracks me up every time I watch it. 

He is such a funny kid. 

daddy's girl...take two

garran sure loves his girls. 

the feeling is pretty mutual.

they light up when ever he walks in the room.

I love that they have such a great dad!

sacrifice.

i love this guy.

when i look at this picture, i feel really lucky. 

this past week, i have seen Garran work so hard. Get up at the crack of dawn only to not get home until one or two in the morning. I know it is not easy for him. I know he is tired. I know he stressed. On top of all that, he will find ways to help me by cleaning the kitchen or starting a load of laundry for me. i just thought i would take the time to say how much i appreciate his sacrifice for our family. I am sadly not one of those amazing wives that has an immaculate home and everything perfectly put into place, with 4 perfectly dressed kids. I have to admit that I think my job is hard as well. Well worth it, but hard none the less. I just appreciate that Garran sees that and even when he is crazy busy still tries to make sure I have a little bit easier of a day. 

i recently read a quote that said, 

"Never marry a man that you would not want your son to be just like"

I would be over the moon if my boys came out of their childhood with even half of Garran's characteristics. 

He is a Great Guy.

I love him.

my guys.

i am such a happy mama!

I had parent teacher conferences yesterday and today. 

we will do kael first.

Kael:

when it came to school work, he got checks in the excellent column for everything. she said he is right on track and doing awesome. 

she said he is very kind to others and loves to talk to everyone. she said he shares well and listens very well. 

his teacher said he was a joy to have in class and just to keep up what we are doing because he is a great kid!

cullan:

today cullan's teacher showed me his journal pages. I will scan some of them to put on here. they were very animated. she showed me his report card. he got all three's. that is great. three's are the best.  she said that she just loves having him in class. she commented that she wished she had more time to listen to all the great things he has to say, but it is hard with 28 kids in the class. she said that cullan was a great example to the other kids of following the rules and being kind to others. she said that it was great to have him in class, because he really helps show the other kids how to be and how to act towards others. i had to laugh when she said that he helped the others expand their vocabulary because he sure knew a lot of words and was always helping other kids with vocabulary. 

i hope to have many more conferences just like these!!

baby lover

no big surprise that cullan loves babies. 

he is an awesome big brother.

he is usually at school when i watch this little fella, but today he was home and he was loving it. 

kid interviews 2011

Cullan-6

1. Who is your mom? you
2. What does she do? tell us everything and your the boss
3. Who is your daddy? Garran
4. What does he do? goes to work, and he is the boss of mom and the kids
5. What is your favorite color? green, red, blue
6. What do you want to do when you grow up? teach about the church.
7. What is your favorite breakfast? cereal
8. What is your favorite lunch? cake
9. What is your favorite dinner? cheese pizza
10. What is your favorite snack? crackers
11. What food do you not like? lemons, pepperoni
12. What is your favorite animal? sheep
13.Where do you want to live when you grow up? california, wait i mean close to my grandma and grandpas, because they would miss me.
14. What do mom and dad do when you go to bed?stay down stairs and chat
15. What does daddy say? "It's spanking time!" (Garran teases the boys and usually ends up tickling them or giving them play spanks. Just so you don't think we beat our kids!)
16. What does mommy say? "oh my" and "what in the world"
17. What is your favorite song? 5 little monkeys
18. What is your favorite movie? transformers-animated
19. What is your favorite ice cream? vanilla and chocolate
20. Where is your favorite place to eat? steak and shake
21. Who is your favorite person? my parents
22. Who is your best friend? Vtell, Joanna, Kevin
23.What is your favorite book? 5 Little monkeys
24. Who are your brothers/sisters? Kael, Briea and Ayla
25. Where did they come from? my moms stomach
26. What is your favorite thing to do?have cake, watch movies with popcorn
27. What is your favorite toy? legos, trains, trucks

Kael-5

1. Who is your mom? You

2. What does she do? cooks dinner for me

3. Who is your daddy? Garran

4. What does he do? he thinks its fun to give us spankings (see above note about this comment on Cullans ;0)

5. What is your favorite color? purple

6. What do you want to do when you grow up? help everyone feel better. i want to be a doctor.

7. What is your favorite breakfast? cereal

8. What is your favorite lunch?cheese sticks

9. What is your favorite dinner? chicken nuggets

10. What is your favorite snack?  fruit snacks

11. What food do you not like? strawberries

12. What is your favorite animal? bugs bears and horses

13.Where do you want to live when you grow up? here

14. What do mom and dad do when you go to bed? read me a story

15. What does daddy say? Don't let the bed bugs bite

16. What does mommy say? i love you

17. What is your favorite song? twinkle twinkle little star

18. What is your favorite movie? tangled

19. What is your favorite ice cream? chocholate

20. Where is your favorite place to eat? resturant

21. Who is your favorite person? dylan

22. Who is your best friend? dylan

23.What is your favorite book? moostache

24. Who are your brothers/sisters? cullan, briea, ayla

25. Where did they come from? in your tummy

26. What is your favorite thing to do? make pictures for you

27. What is your favorite toy? woody

Briea - 2

1. Who is your mom? mommy

2. What does she do? dress up like a witch

3. Who is your daddy? daddy
4. What does he do? daddy tickles
5. What is your favorite color? umi zoomi
6. What do you want to do when you grow up? be big
7. What is your favorite breakfast? girls
8. What is your favorite lunch? pink
9. What is your favorite dinner? oranges
10. What is your favorite snack? i like snack
11. What food do you not like? kaels stinky
12. What is your favorite animal? horsey
13.Where do you want to live when you grow up? cowboy
14. What do mom and dad do when you go to bed? i don't know
15. What does daddy say? binkies
16. What does mommy say? be nice
17. What is your favorite song? bee song
18. What is your favorite movie? umi zoomi
19. What is your favorite ice cream?  chocolate
20. Where is your favorite place to eat? no one can eat your food
21. Who is your favorite person? daddy, and my cousins, and my grandmas and grandpas
22. Who is your best friend? isaac
23.What is your favorite book? dragon
24. Who are your brothers/sisters? Kael Ayla Cullan
25. Where did they come from? that way (pointing to the front door)
26. What is your favorite thing to do? play with my pink car
27. What is your favorite toy? my baby

Ayla-1

Ayla did not answer any questions. But she is super cute. So i put a picture of her up too!

Sammy-Pa-Jammy

that is what my kids have nick named the little boy i have started watching for a friend during the day. 

he comes over here when is grandma is not in town loving on him!!

my kids are in love with him. 

they are always excited to see him.

sammy has really taken to sitting in this bouncy toy. 

yes i know it is pink, but our last baby was a girl. so i don't think he minds to much. 

the kids love to entertain him. 

here is a series of pictures i caught that I thought was pretty cute. 

 "what are they doing"

 "who cares! its hilarious"

 "distracted....."

"oh wait, hilarious again!!"

Kael wanted his picture taken with him. 

I love that my kis love babies so much. it is sweet to see them interact together.

Gobble Gobble!!

to get in the spirit of thanksgiving coming, i decided to make some turkeys with the kids to decorate our house. I saw this idea on line. it was so easy and I had everything except the bodies at my house. They are just paddle ball paddles from the dollar store. the wooden ones. then i just painted them. We did two girl turkeys and two boy turkeys. 

her is our lady one.

 here is our male one. 

so now we have four very handsome and pretty turkeys hanging on our patty door. I think they turned out pretty cute.

can't help myself.

today i was feeling crafty. 

i  have been bitten by the bug. i know i have said ir more than once. 

I saw this on pinterest. 

so i recreated it.

i added the flower to mine. I thought it was cute.

however i wanted to put it up next to something on the wall and it really needed something that matched to balance it out. 

so i found this picture of Nauvoo online and added the words to the the song. 

 I was pretty happy with this as well. 

the last picture is not that great. i took it at night and our living room was dark, so the color is yucky. 

if you want to know how to make some, they are super easy. 

i can let you know what you need. ;0)

I'm Blue

today i had got the girls ready to go pick up Kael from preschool. 

I told them I had to use the restroom and that I would be done in just a second and that we would go.

In the few minutes it took me to use the restroom this is what I found, as well as a blue wall. 

 Lizzy was so proud of the face that her sister had painted her blue that she was squealing with delight!

Briea was just as happy. 

After I took this top picture, I said to Briea, "What am I going to do with you?". She replied..."give me a bath!"

ARGG!

Here they are after multiple shampoos and they still have blue highlights. 

Briea's shirt says it all!

What am I going to do with these two?