A day at the beach!

While my Dad was here visiting, we decided to spend a Saturday at the beach. 

It was perfect. 

I thought the day would be kind of chilly and it was starting out, but that did not stop my kiddos. 

They LOVE the beach!

No big surprise there. They are my kids. 

So into the ocean they went, clothes and all. 

Being the "cool" mom I am...I just sat and watched them get soaked..and then went to play to...but only about shin deep for me!

 I am never in pictures but here I am, at the beach, with my little loves. 

 My sweet Ayla. 

 My Dad on the beach!

 After a little swim and a change of outfits, we walked the board walk!

 It was so beautiful. It really turned out to be a perfect day!

 Here we all are on the boardwalk. 

 I don't know why, but I love love love this picture!

 Can't you just see the happiness in this picture??

I can not wait for our next beach trip! 

Here is to happy sunny beach trips!

Great to be 8!

So this kid turned 8!

 Here he is with all his sibs!

They are all getting so big!

 In our faith, when a child turns 8 they get to decide if they would like to be baptized or not. Cullan made the decision to be baptized. So on October 19th at 5:00pm Cullan took the plunge. 

Here are my two handsome guys before we left for the church. 

 Cullan and I!

Look at that. He is almost up to my shoulder...

He really needs to stop growing. 

 The three of us!

 My dad was here from Iowa visiting, and so he was able to attend the baptism as well. 

 We had a picture with a sweet little poem and the programs sitting outside for people to take. 

 Here is the poem that is next to Cullan in the frame.

Baptism Day

Little child dressed in white

He takes your hand, you hold so tight.

He, with his arm to the square

Commissioned of Jesus Christ, 

invokes the prayer.

You leave the water born anew

And pledge you’ll try His work to do.

Heavenly Father is happy today

Because you have followed His Son’s 

chosen way.

Remember always to choose the right, 

little child dressed in white. 

 Cullan and Garran ready for the baptism. 

 One more with the three of us. 

 Our little family. 

Our family and my Dad.  

My husbands sister and her family were able to be there to support Cullan on his big day. We love having them so close to us. It has been such a blessing. 

Because there were others that we wanted to be there but could not make it, we tried to incorporate them in. 

Garrans parent wrote a talk that was read by Uncle Joe.

Cullan's primary teacher Bro. Owens, who was just amazing to Cullan while we lived in IL, wrote a talk that was read by Tessa, Cullan's cousin. 

It was a very special and emotional day. 

Especially for me. 

When I decided to join the church in 2000, I was baptized in the same font that Cullan was. It is a small thing, but one that I will cherish and something special between us. 

I am so happy that Cullan made this choice and hope that he finds as much happiness as his dad and I have. 

Congrats Cullan on your big day!

Irish Twins

Every year the boys are the same age for two weeks. So for two weeks we have twins...

Irish Twins!

I always take their picture during this two weeks to document how much they have changed each year and how much they have grown. 

I love my boys. 

They make my heart happy!

Someone Had a Birthday!

 7.

Not sure how we got here.

He is seven. 

Just the other day, he was born. 

He was a squishy sweet baby who Garran says probably got kissed the most out of all our children because his cheeks were just irresistible. 

No he is a first grader, that is kind and polite. 

His teacher raved about him at his last conference saying he was the sweetest kid in her class. 

That he is so kind to others and that he was always quick to share and help.

Here he is about to blow out his candles!!

Happy 7th Birthday KB!

We love you more than you could ever know. 

So it happened again...

Our house has been very fertile lately. 

First our guinea pigs 

then...

our pups. 

Our sweet little Layla gave birth two 6..Yes 6 puppies. 

They have all been named but will not all be staying with us.

We have:

Moo Moo

Zazzy

Julio

Snappy

Travler

Weezy

They are all very sweet and soft. Very cuddle worthy and get lots of love from everyone in our house!

Crazy Kid

This kid is hilarious!!

2013-2014 Teachers.

 Doesn't Cullan look excited. 

I love the look on his face. 

Luckily, he has an AWESOME teacher!!

Kael and his 1st grade teacher. Also a great lady!

So happy the boys got lucky this year and both landed wonderful teachers!

getting acclimated.

So, you know we have to make at least one trip to the ER to get used to the environment when we move some where new. 

This time it was Garran's turn. 

He was taking out the trash and a piece of glass ripped through the bag and cut right into his leg. 

It bled.... A LOT!

 Yes my husband was bleeding.... and yes I stopped to take a picture..

It's who I am people. 

I document everything :O)

So we went to the ER.

Here I am with my fancy visitor name tag with my picture on it. 

This was a HUGE waste of time. 5 hours or something like that later... We decided to leave. When we went up to the desk to let them know we were leaving (which we had to wait 30 minutes in line to do) they said to us, "Do you want us to have a doctor come out real quick to make sure you are not dying before you leave?". Garran just looked at me and then at them... Kind of like... "ARe you serious?". 

He said now. We went home. Now he has a gnarly scar. Oh well. Lesson learned. 

a day at the beach...

I had been waiting for this day for sometime. 

Have i mentioned this...

I LOVE THE BEACH!!!!

 I love everything about it. 

I was so excited for the kids to get to experience it. 

 We had a great time playing with cousins in the ocean. We ate lunch and applied lots of sunblock....

 See how happy I look....

 and sun kissed....

 Even Garran was happy!!

 The kids....exhausted!!

The next day......AWFUL. 

Word to the wise. Do not use spray sun screen at the beach. Get the lotion guppy stuff. 

Oh my did we pay. I had to call into work 2 days in a row because it was so bad. I could barely move. 

I could not believe how little our sunscreen did....especially since we applied it multiple times. 

oh well. next time we will know.... and yes...their will DEFINITELY be a next time!!

Not so "PET SMART"

So when we lived in Illinoios, we got to guinea pigs.

We bought them from PETSMART.

We got them both from the boy bin. 

The one on the left is Carmel and the one on the right is Snickers. 

 Well one day, I was at work. Cullan walked by the cage and yelled "Dad!!! AWESOME!! You got us 3 new guinea pigs!!!". Garran of course said no. But to his surprise, there were 3 new piggies in the cage. So PETSMART....not so smart. 

Apparently Snickers... Is a girl. (and a mom)

These are the three new piggies. 

They are very sweet and soft. 

The kids love them. 

However...they all have new homes. As well as the lovely parent couple. 

I think we are done with Guinea Pigs for a while. 

Full Circle.

While this picture might not seem all that important..I think it is to Garran. 

This is kind of a full circle moment for him. 

For as long as we have been together, I have heard stories about how he and his family would go swimming in this river. 

He has such happy memories there as a child.

Now we are living here.

Now he gets to swim here with his kids. 

I know that he loved every minute of it.

He talked about how much he loved being there and having us with him. 

It was a fun day. 

So happy we got to do something fun and that was so meaningful to him. 

slow down.

Please time....slow down. 

She is my baby. She still needs to be soft and squishy and baby-ish. 

Not growing and sassy and big. 

I love her more than words, even though she is so Naughty!!

I just need the hands of time to slow down..... a little. 

DIY Projects.

So I have wanted to have a chalk board wall in our house for a long time. 

Finally, we just took the plunge and did it. Let me just say. Super easy project and super BIG HIT!!

Our kids love it. They still love it. I was worried the novelty of it would wear off, but that is not the case. They love to decorate it and draw all over it and then wipe it down and start all over. I think it adds some character and spunk to our house! 

Pure sweetness!

Love these pictures. 

love these peoples. 

First Day of School.

How is this possible. A second and a first grader???

Where has the time gone.

Where are my babies. 

Instead I have these two... Ready to rock out in a new school year. 

This time they are starting school in NC. 

I can hardly believe my kids are going to be growing up here. 

 My big 1st grader. 

 My big 2nd grader. 

 My whole crew. 

The girls were really excited about dropping the boys off at school and seeing their classrooms. After all, Briea will be in kindergarden next year. 

After we dropped the boys off, we went to Sam's to run some errands and ended up having lunch there. 

I am trying to take advantage of every minute I get to spend with them. I know that just like the boys, they will be in school and growing up even faster than I can handle. 

Who wouldn't want to soak up as much of these sweet faces as possible. 

random pictures of love!

Just wanted to post these pictures, because well....I just love these people. 

Road Trippin

So this summer some of the cousins did a cousin swap. Mainly Britt and Jerusha's kids. They are the two pretty ladies in the picture with me.

 So when it was time to swap them out, I rode along with Jerusha to pick up her littles. We met in Virginia at their Aunt Faye's house. I had never met Faye, so that was a treat for me. She was lovely and very kind.

 I also got to meet her son Brian who I had also never met. He was a lot of fun to meet and was super funny. I was glad that I got to ride along so that I could get to see everyone. I love a good road trip!!

Sleepy Sunday

I can't remember why we were all so tired, but this was so true to how we felt. We were a little late to church so we sat in the entry way. As soon as everyone was down they were almost literally out. I couldn't help but think how cute they all were. Snuggled together. 

Summer Fun!

So this summer we moved to NC. 

We now live super close to Garran's sister Jerusha and her family which we are loving!!!

We went to a party at their church that had a huge inflatable water slide. 

Well an adult thought it would be fun to give it a whirl and ended up slipping, sliding down the ladder part and landing on Cullan's foot. 

Crutches right up until school started. BOO. 

Luckily it was not broken... Just a super bad sprain. 

Oh the joys of summer fun!

all sorts of not in order...

So I'm back to blogging.

These next million posts will not be in any kind of order...

that is due to keeping my sanity. 

Thanks for reading....if anyone is still following this thing....