Keeping Up with the Kidmans

~Winter Love~

2012-01-24T19:56:00.005-07:00

{krew}

like...
father...

like...

son...

Krew followed Erik back and forth the whole time he was shoveling the walks~

It made me smile

He is usually a smiley boy, but a bothersome tooth that won't poke through has been giving this

boy the blues lately :( Good thing he is content with his daddy! Gracie is always searching for the next adventure!

This is our neighbor Jaden who was the one who knocked on our door and got us out in the fresh air!

Gracie the snow angel

This is Keith aka "Shorty". I think that is his self-proclaimed name. He is the handiest handyman ever, and he even volunteers to help build houses for Habitat for Humanity. He is always helping someone out. He just retired from the Air Force. Awesome! He loves to come over and chat and watch the kids play. I love having friendly neighbors!

Did you know we have a very well known local boxer who lives 3 doors down from us?? His name is Billy Zumbrun and his wife's name is non other than...drumroll......Candace!!

Well Keith is wearing a shirt from Billy's most recent fight that he won!! Woot woot!

Become a fan of Billy's, not only because he's a good fighter and he's local but because he is the Nicest Guy Ever! You would never ever guess he was a boxer, he is such a sweet soft spoken guy. Really, I didn't believe Erik that he was a fighter, lol.

Anyway, a little celeb-ri-ty action going on here on the Kidman block, lol!

Okay~back to snowy fun!

We like snowmen here at our house. It just seems empty to have a yard full of snow and no snowman. So...

Austyn spectated in the baby swing in the garage while...

Gracie and Erik built a snowman!

I love this picture for some reason. Little Gracie rolling her little ball, and big daddy rolling his big daddy ball!

Gracie really got the snow to stack like that......for a minute!

If he came to life I would definitely want to be his friend!!

I love Utah!

~oh, and my family

It's January and we've been a little couped up~~

2012-01-24T19:26:00.002-07:00

"ET phone home"

Krew walks around like this after the bath every night and it reminds me so much of ET with the sheet over him. Krew even walks like ET, I love it! His walk is the best right now. It's actually more of a waddle balanced by his belly that leads the way. This wasn't a funny face......it was a super hero face!! Awesome!
WAM~POW~BAM
Super Austyn here to save the day

Super Sisters...........more powerful together!!

All of the sudden both girls are REALLY into makeup {uh oh}

Aust snuck into my bathroom the other day and

did this........

It made for one pretty cute face! She couldn't even open her eyes all the way, and even after I wiped it off it looked like she had little black eyes for the rest of the day.

Once there was a snow-woman~

2012-01-17T20:55:00.003-07:00

A few Saturday's ago we got some fresh snow. Erik and Gracie headed up to Snow Basin for Gracie's ski lesson and Austyn couldn't resist heading out to build a snow-woman!

Krew wasn't too keen about the cold snow and bulky snow clothes, but he munched on a few fist fulls of cold fresh snow while Aust and I built our masterpiece! Austyn was so cute putting all of the little accessories on him. She has to have things just right! Those raisins were giving her a run for her money!
I just love this girl

So proud of her snow-woman. I know it's in a blue/black scarf and blue hat, but it's a girl ;)

Austyn is such a hugger and nurturer.

She looks great and Krew is DONE!

Weber State~Weber State~GREAT GREAT GREAT!

2012-01-17T14:56:00.004-07:00

This past Saturday night Erik and I decided to take the kids to a Weber State game for a family night. I don't know why we haven't been to one of these in a while. They are so fun and we love our Wildcats! These pictures were taken with my phone hence the sub-par photos

Our New Years Vow Renewal.....

2012-01-11T13:36:00.007-07:00

The past few years we have gone up to Bear Lake for New Years, and this year was our first one home in probably 5 years or more. Up at Bear Lake I stay in my pj's pretty much the whole time, so needless to say we usually don't make it to midnight. This year I decided to let the kids ring in the New Year (Dick Clark time), and we had so much fun!! New Years Eve is Erik's Grandma Natalie's birthday so we had a delicious feast at Golden Corral. I love that place. It is so perfect for kids. They had a chocolate fountain (that I dropped a bowl of ice cream in, lol), and the kids have so much fun dunking strawberries, cake, marshmallows, and ice cream.

Here's some of Erik's family. None of them like their pictures taken if you can't tell.

Krew enjoying his hearty meal!

After dinner we went home and goofed around......I'm a little weird :)

Krew walked around with this candy cane Gracie hooked to him, and that balloon all night. Krew loves balloons more than any of my kids ever had. If there is a balloon in the house he does not let it out of his sight all day. We actually have two floating around our house right now that I don't have the heart to get rid of yet. He wakes up and the first thing he does is reach for the balloons as far as he can and say "uh, uh".

These next few pictures are going to take some explaining.

While we were watching Dick Clark's New Year's Eve on TV the girls started doing my makeup with Gracie's new makeup set she got for Christmas. Then it was onto my hair, then jewelry, then clothes. Before Erik and I knew it they had a wedding planned for us, and they were the flower girls. It was so darling they did this for us, and so fun to 'walk down the aisle' to marry Erik all over again!

Krew went to bed before all of this went down, so we didn't have our little ring barer. Guess we'll just have to do it again in a few years!!

Austyn picked out Erik's handsome ensemble, his blue dress shirt, tie, and my yoga pants. At one point he even had flip flops on. So sexy!

Look at those cute little flower girls!

Gracie and Austyn took turns being the photographers of the big event!

A little posing by the Christmas Tree!

After the wedding was said and done it was Party time!!

Gracie couldn't wait to toast to the New Year!
Um....this picture looks a little inappropriate, I know!

We had our own little dance party jamming to Justin Beiber, and the other New Years Eve entertainment!

And finally.........Cheers!! Happy New Year!

2011 had it's good, it had it's bad, and it had it's GREAT!

Our Top Ten~

10-Austyn and Gracie getting to go to preschool together for a semester

9-Gracie learning to ride her bike without training wheels (this still needs a tiny bit of practice come spring, but she is doing AWESOME)

8-Austyn turned 3, and had an awesome ballerina party

7-Erik got that much closer to being done with school, and got great grades

6-Gracie turned 5. Really, 5? I can't believe it.

5- Gracie learned to swim like a fish without her life jacket on, and jumps in the water without plugging her nose.

6-Austyn started dance, which she had been waiting for for years

5-The summer nights spent in the backyard jumping on the new trampoline, and having neighbor friends over for outdoor movies and treats

4- Going to Sun Valley to witness my best friend and her love exchange wedding vows.

3-Going to Sun Valley and having a great time as a family riding bikes, visiting candy shops, and spending time with each other in beautiful surroundings.

2-Gracie starting Kindergarten and learning to snow ski (I had to kind of combine two because I was running out of numbers, lol)

1- Austyn starting preschool, and then deciding together that she should stay home with me one more year. I'm not letting those little years slip between my fingers. It has just felt right to have her home with me.

And there it is, our top ten of 2011!

It is amazing what surprises each year brings, and the many experiences we share as a family.

I didn't make any New Year's Resolutions because well, I'm just not that good at keeping them. But, I do have a few personal ongoing goals I am going to try harder at this year.

My main goal is to always stay focused on my family and their emotional and physical needs. If they are happy, I am happy.

Amen!!

Christmas Morning....

2012-01-11T12:13:00.006-07:00

Christmas morning was worth the wait.

This year the kids really felt the magic of Christmas, Santa really was at OUR house.

On Christmas Eve Austyn got of of bed to go to the bathroom, and she said "I hear Santa's jingle bells". I have to admit, this made even me a little excited!
So just don't look at me in this picture. Krew wouldn't let me put him down.

Oh, the girls were so excited to see if Santa came.

Yes, as you can see, Santa came. It must have been his jingle bells Austyn heard during the night :)

Krew is finally realizing there are more toys out there than baby dolls and barbies.

Gracie was so excited to get her very own makeup kit

The kids were in toy heaven

Krewby showing us his PEZ Santa brought in his stocking

Austyn and her new Aurora baby doll. Austyn is a great little mommy. She says she wants to be a mommy when she grows up!

Krew was excited his Gerber Puffs Santa brought made a shaking sound

Looking at everything that was in their stockings

Present time

Gracie using Erik as a seat as she helps him check out his stocking. Anytime he is on the ground the kids are all over him!

Krew with his new snow hat on and a blue sticky mouth from his candy cane

We got Austyn these red cowgirl boots, and they squeak when she walks. Are we crazy?

It was so fun to watch them open the gifts we knew they would love

A new outfit

Look at that cute guy

Gracie trying on her new dress-up

Krew wasn't sure about the first ride on the sled

Then Austyn joined him, and they were loving it

The kids spent all morning playing with all of their new toys, and playing pretend.

Exactly what Christmas morning is about. Gracie had been having some asthma troubles, and then woke up on Christmas morning with a cold. I called my parents and told them she had a small cold, and they told us to come anyway. We gave her a breathing treatment on the way there, but when we got there she lay on the couch and asked to come home, which is not like her at all. So we gave out our gifts, took ours home to open, and took plates of breakfast home with us. We spent Christmas day at home, and by the afternoon I had come down with what Gracie had, and it was pretty miserable. It's never fun to have anyone sick on Christmas, but it was kind of nice to just spend the day relaxing at home.

We are so thankful that sweet little Jesus was born on Christmas day to bring peace. I try to explain to my kids the reason why we give gifts at Christmas. This year they were so sweet and would often remind me what Christmas is about. Of course they love getting gifts, and I don't expect them to completely understand it, but the innocence of children is also a huge reason for the Christmas season. They are so good, and they help remind me of how special that sweet baby Jesus was in the manger so long ago.

Christmas Eve Eve

2012-01-11T12:09:00.002-07:00

My parents have started a tradition of Christmas Eve Eve. I know I really don't need to explain it, but it is the night before Christmas Eve. This year my mom made an amazing Christmas dinner. The kids, including the big kids ( aka, the adults) got to open up our first Christmas present, which was pajamas. Whoot, whoot, Erik and I love getting new p.j.'s, and the kids look so adorable in brand new, fluffy, big jammies. The kids all had their new digs on in .5 seconds, they were so excited. After everyone settled into their cozies my dad read The Night Before Christmas, which he has read to us every year since before I can remember.

I love that my kids can now experience a piece of my childhood that I will always cherish.
Kade, Austyn, Parker, and Halli all patiently waiting to tear into those presents!

My sisters and I! So so so lucky I have these two amazing sisters.

This last picture should have been on my previous post about Christmas Eve at my Aunt Karen's, and the above pics were actually stolen, yes stolen, from my sister's blog. I forgot my camera the night we went to my parents, so this is all I have. Did I mention one of my goals for the new year is to learn how to take better pictures, be better at taking my camera with me, and also spend more time blogging and scrap booking life's precious moments. I'll get working on that!

Gosh these kids are growing too fast

The countdown to Christmas....

2012-01-10T21:34:00.008-07:00

We had so much fun with our events leading up to Christmas. I watched Curious George's Christmas with the kids, and the Man in the Yellow Hat explained to George that part of the fun of Christmas is getting ready for it. I had never thought of it like that, but it is so true. That wise yellow hatted man!! It really is the entire Christmas Season that makes that one day so incredibly special!

Last year we were pretty home-bound with Krew being so new, so this year we tried to do as much as we could. (note: Many of these pictures were taken with my phone)

This is the kids and I at the Ogden Christmas Parade at the end of November. This is the night they turn on the lights at Christmas Village also, but we didn't make it that far. Austyn was very hungry.......no STARVING, as were the rest of us! Erik came and met us and the lights were lit and fireworks were Ka-booming as we were walking to our car to go get some grub! Kidman style ya' know!!Grandma Sue and Grandpa Jerry were so awesome to come with us and help me with the kiddos. There's no way I could have done it by myself, and the kids love spending time with them!

Gracie got herself all decked out and ready to see Santa at the parade! She makes everything that much more fun!

Krew getting an awesome view from Grandpa! He was loving the lights and horses in the parade!

Austyn was on my shoulders, but I didn't get a picture. She has been my little sidekick lately. Loves her mama!

One day while Austyn and Krew were having naps Gracie was begging me to do a craft. I remembered a cute ornament I saw on Pinterest, and I busted out the felt. Gracie and I made some pretty sweet felt wreaths to adorn our Christmas Tree!

We made it to Christmas Village a second time, and this time we actually saw the lights!

We met our good friends Andy and Renee there, along with their adorable little girl Lucy. Seriously, I'm not just saying that. Lucy is so dang cute, and my girls were all over her. Andy and Renee are such great people. We always leave them, and talk about how awesome they are. Good people, good friends!

Here is Grace giving Lucy a boost to check out the lights!

Aust and Lucy taking a little Hot Chocolate break! These two girls remind me so much of one another. Cute as hell, but also just as fiery!! Haha, I just made that up. It's the only way I could truly describe them!

Here's Gracie enjoying her hot chocolate!

And Krew, oh Krew. He loved the lights, and loved the company....and I love him :)

Erik's brother Dane who lives in South Dakota has been in Qatar, so his wife Mandy decided to come home to Utah for Christmas. My niece and nephew Lexie and Wyatt came over to frost cookies right before Christmas, and the kids had so much fun. My kids love to see these two so much, and the day after they left Gracie was already talking about when they are coming to visit in May.

Lots of frosting, hundreds of sprinkles, and cute little smiles=fun memories!!

(notice even Krew saying "eeeeeee", that's how he says "cheese")

Gingerbread cookie day! These two girls are two domestic chica's, they love to cook, bake, decorate, make crafts. I can't keep up with them, but I think one of their favorites is rolling, cutting out, and of course eating cookie dough (they take after their mama with that part). I have to say making cookies wouldn't be half as fun without these girls!!

Sue likes to get an annual Christmas picture with her and Jerry. Well, this picture explains how excited Austyn was about it this year. After two pictures, the rest of the pictures I took have a vacant red chair. Haha, gotta love that girl. Seriously, I get her. She is so much like me it's scary. I remember feeling the way she feels and doing the things she does. If I didn't I probably wouldn't survive motherhood.

On Christmas Eve we went to my Aunt Karen's. Last year my Uncle Dean was very sick so we didn't have our usual Christmas Eve dinner there. Dean passed away in January, so this year was very hard for Karen, but she decided to continue the tradition once again. She is such an amazing lady, and actually wore the Christmas sweater Dean would wear every year. There was a bit of an emptiness without Dean around, but I'm sure he was there in spirit. I wish I would have taken a picture of Karen in Dean's sweater. I will always be grateful to her and Dean for the wonderful Christmas Eve memories.

Santa paid a visit to Karen's once again.

Sweet Austyn was giving him the best snuggles. She really loves Santa, and gave him good, bashful hugs!

Gracie was a little shy, but hopped right up on the big guys lap! Doodle Bear is what she asked for!

Now Krew...well, he was a little apprehensive. Not so sure about Jolly St Nick, even though every time we would say Santa's name before this moment he would say "he, he, he".

With a little help from Mama, Santa was cautiously introduced to him!!

Here's my aunt Lisa and cute little Jackson, my cousin Mikaela's little boy. He is such a polite little boy. Seriously....."Hi, nice to meet you." as he reaches out his hand. So cute!

The kids were patiently waiting to open their gifts from Santa until each person had a turn!

After Aunt Karen's we headed home and did our own traditions....

Opening a few gifts. The kids were so excited after begging all month to open the gifts under the tree!

New Jammies, slippers, robes for the girls, and Pillowpet for Krewby!

Every time Gracie and Austy would get out of the tub they would ask to wrap up in my robes, which were ginormous on them. They were so excited to finally have their own.

Krew's cute little toothy smile!

Austyn was so fun this year. She really understood everything, and was loving it all!

Grace and Aust got everything ready for Santa and his reindeer's visit!!

What an exciting night!

Showing off their new jams! Krew was beyond exhausted, so this rump shot was all I could get!

Off to bed with visions of...........toys, toys, and more toys!!!

A mom's side note: I just have to say these three kids were so incredibly good this year. Yes, they had their fights, and yes they told me "no", and would call me and each other naughty names, but I just have to say I am so proud of them. They are all three so loving, and have such tender hearts. The girls adapted to having a baby brother so well this past year, and Krew put up with all of the abuse and screaming from them. Gracie started Kindergarten, and has been doing so well and gets so many "Excellent Eagle Tickets" I've lost count. Austyn is so good at sharing, and will share anything of hers, even something brand new. Krew is so sweet and shows so much love to each one of us in the family. Just thought I would throw that in there with there being a Naughty or Nice debate going on!!

And that is how we celebrated the anticipation leading up to the big day!

The little man of the house is 1~

2011-11-22T16:10:00.004-07:00

Krew is one! That little tiny dark haired bundle has grown into a blond haired, chunky, older baby boy! For some reason Krew seems so young to be one yet. He is just still such a little baby. I know all kids at one are still babies, but he just does not seem like he can possibly be ONE!

This year was a super special birthday for him. Not only was it his first, but it was also on Thanksgiving Day! I seriously almost made him a big fat turkey costume for the occasion, haha! Gobble Gobble!

Because Krew's b-day was on a holiday we celebrated his birthday a few nights before. We just pretended he was already 1!

This little guy tugs at my heart strings. Those dark eyes are lady killers I tell ya!

Krew is always happy when there's a balloon around. So with about ten he was love~ing life!

little crooked smile! It's not just the picture he always smiles like this!

Does anyone else remember punching balloons?? Oh, I loved those when I was little and because Krew loves balloons so much I bought some for all the kids. Those things are stress relievers I need to have some around at all times. The kids had so much fun punching and punching and punching those balloons!

Here is Krew cake that dun dun duh da........Erik sketched for me! Erik has been loving all the boy stuff. He gets so excited to make boy things and play...I mean buy (wink, wink)... boy toys!!

My mom, Krew, and I!!

ONE!! He kept holding up 1 finger all night, but would not let us get it on camera, the cute little stink!

Krew's cousins are so cute to him. This is Dax and Krew. They are only 7 months apart so I'm sure within a matter of time they will be running a muk together!

Kaden found a nice place to keep his balloon while he ate!! He's awesome!

Krew had no idea what was going on when we lit the candle and put the cake in front of him. He is such a mellow yellow guy. Even when we sang and helped him blow out his candle he just looked around smiling. He is seriously such a joy!

It didn't take this boy long AT ALL to dig into that little blue cake.

Krew ate almost every single bit of his cake. I was hoping he didn't get sick, but he was good to go!!

Then present time......after a quick bath!

With all of the help from his sisters I don't know if he really understood the presents were for him, but he had fun being surrounded. He loves to be included in fun, whatever or wherever it is!

Krew got so many nice gifts for his birthday. It was fun to get some boy toys around here!

Krew and all of the cousins on my side~minus Parker who was too busy for a pic!

I know this is a funny picture, but I love Krew's face in it. You guessed it, he is looking at a balloon. He will look at balloons forever. He takes them into the bath with him and just stares up at them the whole time. Those big shiny floating things must look pretty awesome (or crazy) to him!

Having a little man is a bit intimidating. I know that one day he will have to be the man of his house! I hope we can raise him to be happy, and guide him to stay away from bad influence. I hope we can show him how to BE the good influence. He is precious and I am looking so forward to watching him grow, learn, and just be his little self!

Austyn's first day of preschool.....

2011-10-12T15:57:00.002-07:00

Austyn officially started preschool this fall and is having so much fun.

She did cry the first few days, but now she decided she is a big girl.

One morning she woke up and told me she was going to go to school all

by herself, and she wasn't even going to cry. In fact, she was smiling all morning and told

me on the way to school "Mom, I'm going to smile like this all day." Well, the

girl stuck to it, and she has been happy to go to preschool ever since.
Here she is at school on her first day. Something super special about Austyn's school is that it was where I went when I was a little girl, and not a whole lot has changed about it. They even still sing the same songs, which I still remember loving. Oh, it brings me back.

Same red carpet!!

Same outside toys!!

Austyn made a new friend on her first day, Abigail, who is actually my old piano teacher's grand daughter.

Here she is on her cute little red chair.

I am so happy that Austyn is having so much fun, and it is so fun that she can share some of the same fun experiences I had when I was her exact age.

She is seriously one fun girl who makes us laugh everyday.

I just can't believe she is this big already.

Way to go Roo Roo!!

Annual summer sum-up....

2011-09-08T14:01:00.031-07:00

Wow, I started this post nearly a month ago and am just getting around to finishing it. I don't get many things accomplished these days :) Or maybe I just try to accomplish too much??? Either way, here is our summer sum-up. I have been so behind on blogging, and these pictures were actually taken a few months ago. This was Krew's first time eating a strawberry, and he LOVED it. Now he eats everything.

In June I decided to cut Austyn's hair into a bob. This girl does not like her hair combed, so I thought this would make mornings easier for all of us :) It did help, and she has loved it. I've always loved little girls with bobs, something spunky and sweet about them.

Speaking of spunky and sweet, that little Austy-roo decided all of my Willow Tree figurines needed faces on them, even the baby. I couldn't help but laugh even though they are a little pricey and sentimental. In the end the faces came off. Notice the Dad's leg? He lost that to Gracie when she was about 18 months old. Hopefully one day I'll look back at these poor figures and remember that sweet little hands were all over them.

For the past few years every time I would drop Gracie off at dance Austyn would walk in, take her shoes off, and march her little self right into the studio. I would always tell her when she turned 3 she could start. Well, that time came for little Austy this year and she is loving it. This is her on her very first day!!

S'more of this please! This was a fun night. We decided on a whim to toast up some mallows and make us some S'mores. I love summer nights hanging out in the backyard with my fam!

The girls got to ride on a float for their first time at the Pioneer Day Parade. They had a lot of fun, and because I am a super overprotective mom (as all moms are), I volunteered to walk alongside the float. I forgot how hot and tiring it is walking that parade route, but the girls were glad I was there, and so was I.

On the 24th the kids were so worn out from the parade that we lit fireworks at about 5pm when it was still light outside, lol. The girls had so much fun helping Erik light the fireworks and then running like crazy. I'm afraid Krew is going to take after his dad who is a little pyro.

Raspberry Days:

The first weekend in August we made our way up to Bear Lake for Raspberry Days again.This year my whole family was able to go. Boy are we a wild bunch. It's non-stop fun with eight cousins.

The first night was the parade, and the girls had begged me all week to bring up the facepaint and paint everyone's faces. We painted them like little raspberries, a butterfly, a shark, and a dolphin (Parker decided he was done with the painting before I could paint the teeth on him, so we called him a dolphin.)

I can't believe how big all of our kids are getting.

While in Bear Lake Krew had his first boat ride and he was not diggin it, but eventually he fell asleep and things were tip-top!! The girls were loving the boat ride, and sweet Austyn fell asleep with chips in her hand at the front of the boat while cruising around. When she woke up she was about to cry, and then noticed her chips and started chomping away, lol.

I love the picture of Gracie and Erik below. Gracie was just a hugging her daddy, it was so cute.

We also had a fun water fight. My mom bought each family a water balloon filler-upper that came with 500 water balloons each. Needless to say, we had a-lot of water balloons.

And...S'more S'mores. This time with cousies!

Also, Krew started clapping and giving high-fives at the end of July. He was so proud of himself. It it so cute to watch his little hands smack together. Everytime someone says Yay, or others are clapping he claps and is proud. Oh, I love that boy.

Here we are right before we headed home. Bear Lake is ALWAYS a good time!!

In August we had a cousin sleepover. Not all of the cousins could come, and some live out of state, but it was a good time.

The kids had so much fun and looked so cute in their big cozy floor bed. I remember sleeping like this with my cousins when we were little.

Austyn and Parker are so funny to watch. They are two peas in a pod. They jumped off the couch until 11:30 that night (sorry Sherice). They also played Jesse and Buzz. They are at the funniest age, and they also have the funniest personalities. You never know what could happen with those two.

One scorching hot day I decided to take the kids to Kangaroo Zoo. We had never been and thought we would check it out.

Farr's ice cream is just a street over, so after playing on the jumping houses we bounced on over to get some ice cream. Haha, get it. Bounced!!

Look at those flushed little cheeks. Nothing a little ice cream won't cure!

Ahh, those summer nights when daddy gets home from work. The neighbor kids taught my girls Dead Man and Crack the Egg on the trampoline this year, and they love playing it with their dad. He is one tough egg to crack. I remember playing both of those games as a kid. It's fun they're still around.

Krew absolutely LOVES the tramp.
In fact he loves bouncing or jumping of any kind. He is the danciest, bounciest boy ever.

Gracie is getting so big, she loves to help out with everything these days. And she thinks she is big enough to do anything. Thinks is the key word here. :)

A lucky little lady bug on a lucky little lady, and some green feet from fresh cut grass. Now that's what summer is about!

And just like last summer and the summer before that we ended out summer hoor-ahs by celebrating Erik's birthday.

Erik had work and school on his birthday, so we didn't have much of a celebration. I also ruined the cupcakes I made for him and didn't have time to make him more, so I brought him home a big piece of bread pudding from my work a few nights later and sang to him by myself at 10:30 at night. It was just one of those weeks, but I think he still felt loved. I hope!!

Well, there is a small summary of what we filled our days with this summer. We are now ready to welcome Fall with open arms, and line our front steps with pumpkins.

It's Official....

2011-09-08T13:52:00.003-07:00

We have a BIG kindergartner in the house.

I can't believe how fast those last five years have gone.

I held my composure throughout the entire summer up until I had to write Gracie's name on her backpack the night before school started. At that moment I realized this is it, Gracie's journey. She is going to experience so many new things and pave her own path. I am already so proud of her and I can't imagine what these school years are about to bring.Gracie on her first day of Kindergarten 8.29.11

Daddy Day

2011-07-05T19:01:00.005-07:00

Father's Day is so fun.

We get to spoil our daddy for taking such good care of us.

This picture was taken while Erik was sleeping in and

I was rolling out donuts. The kids were so cute all

snuggled in their jammies playing in their tent.

I thought it would be fun to have the kids and I make Erik

a candy poster as his card. The kids didn't really get

it, but Austyn was very 'troubled' at how dad was going

to eat ALL of that candy by himself. Of course the candy was shared and

devoured by the end of the day!

Erik enjoying one of his favorite treats. He

kept telling me all week how excited he was for these babies.

I have to admit I was kind of sweatin' bullets.

You never know what could go wrong with

yeast and deep frying even though I had made them

before, but low and behold they turned

out delicious. Whew.

I am a very fortunate girl to have an amazing dad of my own,

and then luck out to end up with a husband who is an amazing dad

to my children. What would we do without dad's to wrestle, go to when mom's being

totally unfair, open our too-tight soda lids, get spiders, fix things, grill the perfect steak, oh man....the list goes on and on.

Good thing we have Father's Day!

POSER

2011-07-05T14:58:00.006-07:00

This girl does her little thing on the catwalk

She came to me dressed like this and wanted me to take her picture

She had pose after pose. The camera couldn't keep up, and she

would have kept posing for hours.

I loved her outfit ensemble, her sparkly shoes, and especially her hair extension!!please ignore the gross garbage can

Team Sparkle....

2011-06-22T16:02:00.007-07:00

Gracie finished up her first season of soccer in May.

She had so much fun making new friends (the girls on the team were so adorable), and Gracie especially loved having her daddy as her coach. Gracie improved so much in just a few short games. The last three games she really got aggressive and understood the game a lot more.

Her fan club.....

Her biggest fan!!

Gracie loved roughin' up her daddy during practice!

I think throw-ins were Gracie's favorite. She was good at them too!

Austyn had to be involved every second she could. Team huddle.....you bet Austy was in there!

Go, Gracie, Go!!

Not only was team Sparkle a totally awesome team, they also had great sportsmanship!! At the end of every game they cheered for the other team. I think all the teams do it, but I thought it was such a cute gesture!!

The girls lined up like this all by themselves. Isn't that funny?

What a fun bunch of girls. Erik had so much fun coaching them, and is so sad they all can't be on the same team next year. Hopefully Gracie will see them at the games next year.

from left to right: Emree, Gracie, Mia, Hannah, Emma

Gracie is FIVE!!

2011-06-21T10:38:00.016-07:00

A month ago Gracie celebrated being alive for half of a decade. What??

She is such a beautiful little girl from the outside in!

My sister took this picture of her on the day she was getting her dance pictures, and I love it. I feel like it captures Gracie's personality so well; she is so full of life, sweet, smart, loving, and just happy to be alive! Five and alive!!!! Funny thing about the picture of her in her dance costume--she actually had a dance performance at the Ogden Amphitheatre on her birthday.

The day started the way every birthday in this house starts....presents on the table, wahoo!! Gracie was so excited to get this much anticipated day rolling!!

Gracie was just coming off of some steroids that had some terrible side effects (another post on that coming), so I was hoping she would have an enjoyable birthday. Low and behold, nothing could stop this little woman from basking in her birthday glory!!

The birthday girl excited for presents and smiley face pancakes!

Gracie loves the story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, so that is what book she got this year!

After breakfast it was off to watch the birthday girl do her dancing thang!

I can't believe how much Gracie has grown in just a year. Last year she was just an eensy weesy little thing jumping around the stage and this year she seemed like a little lady up there. She has that wave down good!! She's still just our tiny little Gracie, and always will be though :)

It always makes my kids feel so loved when their grandparents come to support them. Erik and I are very fortunate to have parents who love to support their grandchildren. Grandpa Jerry, Grandma Sue, Mimi, and Papa all came to cheer the birthday girl on and feel her little heart with encouragement!

Us being us!

Because all of our family was in town we decided to have everyone over for a bite to eat and some cake and ice cream after the dance performance.

wardrobe change for the birthday girl ;)

Oh yes, that is a ginormous chocolate Costco cake picked out by the birthday girl herself!
All of the cousins were ready to dig into that delectable rainbow masterpiece.

This middle picture shows a little of how the medication effected our sweet little Gracie. She is never one to get upset or aggravated, especially at her own birthday party. Oh well, it only lasted a minute!

I had to zoom in these pictures. Krew was having a riot in the back behind everyone. He was so excited to be part of the cousin fun. Love him!

Austyn and the aftermath of her cake

We all sure had fun celebrating the birth of our sweet Gracie. We were so glad that our families could all come help make her feel special.

Cake...candles....presents.....family.....love.....an excuse to feel incredibly special.....we'll take it!!

I have to admit that although my children's birthdays are amazing to me they leave with a little bit of a tightened chest and heavy heart. Each birthday means one more year of their tiny years gone,one more year of them growing and changing tremendously, and for Gracie this year it means elementary school this coming fall. Wow. I think I am in denial, and I have not yet fully admitted to myself that this school thing is permanent.

I love this little woman so much I want to go squeeze her as hard as I can while she is asleep in her bed right now wearing her cute little blankey sleepers, her hair wet from her recent bath, and her gushy cheeks warm and pink from a day of swimming at Mimi and Papa's today.

Sigh.

2011-05-24T19:37:00.001-07:00

Who does this guy think he is? He must be texting!"Oh, excuse me officer, is there a problem?"

Good thing he's so cute ;)

Holy Mostecholi.....six months already????

2011-05-23T21:25:00.003-07:00

I cannot believe our little Krew, aka; Krewby, Krew beans, Krewbeezy, and Krewbert, will be six months old come tomorrow morning. I am in such disbelief that I have yet to make his six month appointment, which I usually have scheduled months in advance. Really, how did this sneak up on me?

Krew is such an amazing little spirit and is bursting with love. Here are a few things about Krew right now!

~his favorite game by far right now is Peek-a-boo, no matter how tired or hungry he is if you bust out Peek-a-boo you will for sure get a smile and most likely a squeal with it!

~He wuuuvvs to snuggle and be kissed, he can plant a pretty good kiss!

~Every night after his bath he bangs on the wall with his fist while I am getting him dressed on his changing pad, and he loves when you bang back at him!

~He can sit up for short periods of time, but he is in no hurry to go anywhere. He is more than content snuggling on my lap all day playing with his toys.

~He loves to eat graham crackers, sweet potatoes, rice cereal, and whatever yummy treats mommy snitches to him.

~I am pretty sure he is already starting to cut a tooth :(

~He loves his sisters sooo much, and gets so sad if they are in another room playing without him (he really does).

~He is not even close to sleeping through the night, lol. He loves his multiple nightly snuggles, and yes I am to blame!

~He loves to sing and dance. If I am singing to him he will start singing with me. It is the cutest thing. He especially loves Twinkle Little Star. When Erik and I turn on our IPods he gets the cutest little foot beat going (sure we put him on the counter and bob him around, but he really has some groovy moves of his own ;)

~He is such a sweetheart and we all adore him to pieces. He is the cherry at the top of our little family sundae! I am so excited to watch him grow, but totally okay if that takes forever!!

Yesterday I got the girls out of the bath and started getting them ready for church, Gracie asked if she could do her own hair, and I agreed (a wee bit hesitantly). I went to feed Krew and put him down for a nap, and after being in the bathroom for about 20 minutes Gracie came in to me with one of the proudest smiles I have ever seen, and this do.
Yes, I let her wear her hair to church like this (I did blow dry the ends a bit). I left church yesterday feeling proud of my daughter for being the sweet little free spirit she is.

Oh, and thanks Sue for the turquoise braided hair pieces ;)

These pictures are from our park visit today (during the few hours of partial sunshine we had). This was Krew's first time on the swings and needless to say he loved them. I wonder if he has a little motion sickness though, because he would spit up every time I took him out of them..hmmm?

I

Love

Kids!!!

I'll have some MAJOR catch-up coming soon!!

Happy Moment

2011-04-16T16:53:00.002-07:00

We just got back from my nephew's birthday party which has lead to the discussion of what Gracie wants for her birthday in a few weeks. After naming off a few treats she would like she says.............

"But The Bestest Present That I Want is Just Being With My Family."

This just made me the happiest Mommy!

The Secret To Having It All Is Believing You Do! (author unknown)

2011-04-12T23:11:00.027-07:00

Isn't that a good quote?

Well, here are what we (the reasons I believe I have it all) have been up to in the past month or so........

On St. Patty's Day Gracie made an awesome leprechaun trap (the cute pink, purple, and black paper pieced together in the lower left corner), she even left Lucky Charms out for him. Well, what do you know the NAUGHTIEST little leprechaun came and toilet papered the girls room AND peed green in the toilet. I know, how inappropriate right? Good thing he left some green treats to make up for it! Little hats that My little Leprechauns made (well two of them), and a good Irish Kiss from me littlest leprechaun!!

Oh, the rocks. It's that time of year again and the snow has melted off of our rocks in the back yard. My girls love to climb all over these rocks. Austyn is particular to the largest one. I make her keep her bum down on them, but I always fear the worst. Kids will be kids.

I thought it was so cute that the girls thought to draw on the rocks with their sidewalk chalk. Gracie is so artistic. I have never looked at this rock and thought "heart", but little Gracie, of course she did. She even colored it all pink and purple. You can't tell in the picture, but she also wrote the names of everyone in the family, with the exception of Krew (sorry buddy, she's still working on remembering your letters) on this other rock.

I love bundled up babies, especially my own!

The girls are so excited that Krew can actually PLAY with them now. They were expecting him to come out of my tummy ready to play, so this has been a long time coming.

Naughty, Naughty, Naughty, Mommy!

Yes, that is a big PINK MARSHMALLOW on a straw. Gracie loves to play with the straws I bring home from work, and I couldn't help but give Krew just a little lick. All he had ever had before this was milk. I don't know what I was thinking, but it was fun seeing how much he loved it.

More of the Krew Man being too irresistible not to take a picture of.

FIRST HAIRCUT....Oh Krewby. I was so sad to have this day come so soon, but Krew kept getting knots in the back of his hair, complete with lint and all. I would try to comb them out every night, but they would knot up so tight. I didn't take too much off, just enough to prevent knotting. He does look like a handsome little devil now though!

I love that second picture of him cross eyed. Get that toothbrush Krewby, Get it!!

I love these two girls. I am trying to not refer to them as 'The Girls' as much, because I want them to know they are individuals, but they are seriously such a team. They go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly.

Peek a Boo sweet boy!

This picture says so much about each of my kids personalities right now.

ANOTHER FIRST.......Rice Cereal!! The first reactions were intense. He liked it and then cried, it was a mad angry cry and I don't know if it was because he was mad I stopped giving it to him or mad because I gave it to him in the first place. Haha. I love him.

SUPER BABY~

My kids have all loved this game. My girls still love it, but they have to balance on my feet instead of my knees. I'll be sad when they are too big to do this, or maybe I'll just have to fly a 16 year old Gracie, lol. Kidding! Or not......?????

Oh yes, the dreaded RSV hit our house last week. I thought being April we were home free. No no. It hit, and hit hard. All three kids 103 fevers for a WEEK. Krew had breathing treatments and still is until Friday. Those are scary helpless times when you see your kids so sick. I'm just thankful we didn't have to have any hospital visits (just 5 trips to the doctor in 1 week).

The picture on the left is during the night. Krew was so sweet, he would sleep through his breathing treatments in the night.

i LOVE these EYES...have since the moment I saw them. They say so much and melt my heart.

I love this creative curious mind. A true artist. She loves to create and I know I say this a lot, but she truly amazes me. She is wise beyond her years, in fact beyond my years. She has a kindness, patience, and understanding that I still work everyday for.

Something else I love are these big BLUES, and kissy cheeks. There is a fierceness behind these eyes that is so intense. She loves fiercly and fights fiercly. I hope she never loses that little fire. She loves to explore everything including food (notice the Oreo with yogurt on it), soap, lotion, and nail polish. She has exceptional and daring style (she went with the backwards shirt this day), and makes us all happy with her daily songs and dancing.

This is how my day ended yesterday........sweet little ones on my bed absorbing the day.

I will leave you with this Yummy Bummy

that belongs to this Mr.

And that is why I have it all.

Now I will go explore everyone else's blogs to see why others have it all!!!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

2011-03-13T14:28:00.009-07:00

Today we are having a lazy Sunday, so I thought I would finally take some pictures of my kids rooms that I have worked on for the past year or so (while they are clean for once!). I decided to get really ambitious last spring and decided to make my girls bedding. I pieced together their duvet covers for their beds and made some pillows to match to go on them. I won't let you look to close because I am no expert sewer, but I was surprisingly pleased with the outcome. My friend gave me this old dresser for FREE (hooray), and I painted it, stained it and added new knobs from Hobby Lobby. I loved the chunkiness of it. Their room used to be pink on the bottom and white on top, and I thought we needed a refresher, so I painted over the pink and gave the top a fresh coat of Soft Meadow. I was trying to be price savvy, but their lamp was looking a little sad, so I got a bottle of blue spray paint, and hot glued some pink roses I had from a ruined decoration to the shade. I still want to get magnet boards for their art work and I want decorate some of those cute big letters from Joann's to hang above their head boards. I'm just waiting for the day I have that little chunk of extra moola to finish it up. I think their room turned out a little funky and a little shabby. This is Krewby's room. Even though our house is for sale and was for sale while I was pregnant I still decided he needed a boy room, so Erik and I got to painting. Erik and his dad put up this wood paneling on the one wall, and I was so happy with it. I think it really added some good contrast and brightness to the room. I was a little nervous to paint the entire rest of the room blue, but it turned out better than I had anticipated.

I got his bedding on clearance at Target, so I just kind of pieced the rest of his room together from that. My older sister is so awesome and thoughtful. She knew I wanted an old rocking chair so she found this one at the DI, painted it, made these darling pillows to go on it, and surprised us with it. It matches the room perfect and I looove it. I also have to give her credit for finding the cute green chunky dresser for his room. These pieces really bring the room together.

Shoot I just deleted these pics and I don't know how to get them back. I'll have to post them again.

I found these prints on Etsy, and I had to have them. I thought they went great with the rocket ship bedding.

My sister in law Mandy had this cute owl rag quilt made for Krew, and it happened to be the perfect color to match his room. I love it.

And those are my kids rooms. Nothing too fancy. I just thought it would be fun for my kids to look back and see what their rooms looked like when they were little. I'm sure by the time they look back at these pictures everything will be completely out of style and my kids will wonder what I was thinking, lol.

Aside from taking pictures of my kids rooms, we have also done a lot of this today. Laying around, and warm baths. Gotta love family days!

And here is our little smiley man. 3 1/2 months old and totally irresistible. Check out that suave look. He knows I always want to kiss him!

Happy Sunday!

OoBlicK

2011-03-13T12:13:00.002-07:00

This past week at school the girls learned about science. They made all sorts of fun scientific things. One day they made this fun Ooblik and were having a ton of fun playing with it. The only way I could get them to leave was to tell them we would make it at home. Of course the girls didn't forget, so Ooblik we made. It was super easy to make, pretty messy, but surprisingly a pretty easy clean up. I thought I would share the recipe.

2/3 Cup cornstarch

1/3 Cup water

Food coloring (You could use Koolaid to color it if you want to be super natural)

That's it! The scientific part of it was that when you pick it up it is pretty solid, and then it sort of melts in your hands. The girls just loved to squish, stir, mush, and squish some more.
I thought this was a fun rainy day kind of activity!

Another fun scientific activity they did this week was make homemade ice cream, so I thought I would share that recipe too!

1 Cup milk

2 tbsp Sugar

1/2 tsp Vanilla

a little Rock Salt

Put all ingredients except Rock Salt in a small zip lock bag and seal it up tight. Put the small zip lock bag into a large gallon sized bag and fill that with ice and a little rock salt. Let the kids shake their little hearts out (the teacher did say the kids wore mittens because their little hands were cold). The Kids had so much fun making their own ice cream. I thought this would be a fun fourth of July activity. Don't you think? Hopefully these things will give you a little something to do on those boring days. I am always looking for new ideas for my kids.

"Free" at last!!

2011-02-27T10:36:00.010-07:00

I am in total disbelief that this little lady is already three, or "free" in her own words. This year she wanted a ballerina birthday again, so a ballerina birthday it was. Last year Austyn was sick on her birthday, so this year I thought I would do something super fun for her. I asked her if she wanted to celebrate her birthday at a tumbling gym, or Classic, or somewhere just totally fun, and she replied so enthusiastically, "I know!!", okay I was ready for it. "Mimi and Papa's house, they have that big table." She meant their kitchen table that they put leafs in to make it big when my whole family gets together. When it is one of the adults birthdays my mom makes a cake and we all sing to them around that table, and Austyn wanted everyone to celebrate for her around that table. Isn't that the cutest ever. I love her.

This girl is such a performer. Look at those poses!

Just a little FYI, ballerina decorations are almost impossible to find. I found these cupcake toppers online and thought I would give them a try, of course not as cute as the ones in the picture, but Austyn and Gracie thought they were pretty.

Austyn felt soo special at her birthday party. She loved all of the attention, family, and fun centered around her. She for sure deserved a day like this.

The kids played a fun game where they got to roll dice and take turns opening a huge box, which led to a slightly smaller box, then a smaller one, then a smaller one, until at last their goody bags were wrapped inside the smallest box!

My girls have always wanted to play the pinata game, and Zurchers one ballerina decoration that they had happened to be a ballet slipper pinata. They didn't know I had it, so everyone was surprised when we pulled it out at the party. The kids were so cute swinging at it, but Papa had to loosen it up a little for them, then BAM, the birthday girl herself broke it open and out came the candy and prizes!

Austyn was excited to open presents, and especially have it finally be her turn for 'Heavy, Heavy, Hangover'.

All of the boys got 'prince' crowns, even cutie Daxton!

Make a wish sweet girl!

This was our attempt to get a family picture at the end of the party. Krew was tired in his car seat, and the girls were toast from playing and coming down from their sugar rush.

It was so fun to make Austyn feel so special. She is such a fun, spunky girl and I hope this next year is amazing for her!

Our L-O-V-E day!

2011-02-23T17:08:00.012-07:00

I Heart Valentines Day!! Erik was home in the morning for the kids to open up their valentines from us, but then he had to head to work for the rest of the day. It was just me and the kiddos spending the day of love together. The girls were excited to open up their cards and mailboxes. Special delivery for some special valentines.

Even Krew was excited about his shiny red mailbox!
(I wanted to decorate the mailboxes really cute, but like many things right now, they will have to wait.)

Gracie sat at the table making Austyn this valentine and wouldn't let any of us peek until it was completely finished. Can you tell who it is? Blue and Magenta from Blue's Clue's. This girl draws better than I do.

Heart shaped pancakes with sprinkles, yum, yum! And the girls were excited about the little adornments we gave them to wear for the day. A Disney princess charm for Gracie girl and a Care bears charm for Austyn. Austyn is really loving Care bears right now, just like I did when I was little!

And guess what this little cutie decided to do on Valentines day.....yup, roll. He rolled about ten times right in a row and was so glad he found a way to get off of that tummy. That dang mom is always making him lay on his tummy.

I just want to kiss that little soft haired head right now.

Gracie had a lot of fun at school and Austyn decided she didn't want to go to school that day. I thought once she got there and realized it was a fun Valentines day at school she would want to stay, but nope, she just wanted to hand out her valentines and then come home with me and Krew. The girls were both super excited after school when they got to bring home their bags they decorated a few days earlier full of cards and candy from their friends.

For dinner that night I went all out with a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphey's. I know, I know, so romantic, lol. I just figured since it was just the kids and I we would do it simple. It really was kind of sad to have Erik gone on Valentines day, but next year we'll make up for it for sure. The kids and I had a fun and busy day. I love that I have my kids valentines bags to check out, just like I did when I was a kid!

Delights of our December 2010

2011-02-22T14:08:00.005-07:00

This December was a little different than most Decembers for us because we had a wee little one and I was still recouping a bit. We weren't able to do a lot of the normal traditions that keep us busy in December so we found stuff at home to fill our month with Christmas and family fun.

The girls and I made gingerbread man cookies and had fun rolling them out. Mmmm, I made need to make some more of those soon. Thank goodness for family. Erik's parents took the girls over to the Riverdale City Center to see Santa. I sent my camera with them and I was very impressed with the pictures my father in law took of them. I'm glad they got to sit on Santa's lap this year and tell him what they wanted.

The girls had a lot of fun this year playing in the snow in the backyard. Austyn only lasts a few minutes but now that Gracie is getting older she could spend hours out there if I let her. She really wanted to build a snow girl so I went out and helped her put together a body, and then she did the face. I loved those pretty raisin 'eyelashes'. I love how creative she can get. And of course after every time they played in the snow they had to warm up with a big mug of hot chocolate-or cocoa. The name of this drink was very debatable this year at our house.

This was Krew on December 22nd, his 4 week birthday. Those weeks went by so fast, and still are. We just love that precious boy and those cheeky's.

The kids on the morning of Christmas Eve. Gracie and Austyn were excited about the reindeer antlers and had to include Krew in the fun!

For Christmas Eve day we had my family over for a cookie decorating party for Santa. It has been our tradition every year since we were little, but when we all got married we would do it with our own families. This year we thought 'why not do it together?', so that's just what we did.

Every Christmas Eve since before I can remember we have gone to my aunt Karen and uncle Dean's house for a yummy dinner and a visit from Santa himself. This year my uncle Dean was diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer just weeks before Christmas so they cancelled the party due to his health. Dean actually passed away about two weeks ago. The disease took him very fast, but we were all glad he didn't have to suffer for long. On a happier note, I will always remember the fun Christmas Eve parties and his quiet, yet friendly self always greeting us at the Timbermine.

The night of Christmas Eve we had Erik's parents and grandma's over for a prime rib dinner. This was Erik's Grandma Fern's first Christmas without her love Grandpa Marv. I know our Christmas sounds so sad with loved ones passing and illness, but it really was a comforting Christmas remembering how important loved ones and family are. The kids opened up a few presents from Erik and I (jammies and slippers), and then it was off to Santa filled dreams for the little ones.

Did he come??? I think so!!

Christmas morning was so fun with our family of FIVE! And it was fun to have a new sweet little angel around. The kids were in heaven and so were we. Erik and I didn't get each other gifts this year, and I actually loved that. It made us focus more on everyone around us.

We spent the morning at my parents for our traditional breakfast, mmmm. But due to a hungry new baby I didn't take very many pictures. We then headed to Erik's parents for a Christmas dinner. The girls were in heaven, and Krew was given lots of snuggles. I love those pictures of Erik's Grandma's holding Krew. I love my family and I was surrounded. I'm one lucky girl.

I almost forgot to mention what great neighbors we have. On Christmas Eve our cute neighbor Hector brought over a bag for our family, in it was two cute snuggies for the girls, and a pair of jammies for Krew. Yes, little snuggies, lol. The girls looove them. Then on Christmas night our neighbors across the street Kimi and Keith aka 'Shorty' brought over some cute jammies for all three kids. I couldn't believe our neighbors went out of their way to think of my kids on their Christmas. Now that's what I call good neighbors, and it made me realize how close we have grown to all of them. I guess 7 years in a house will do that. Maybe we'll stay here a bit longer :)

Our California Adventure

2011-02-20T19:27:00.031-07:00

This past summer Erik and I decided to plan a much needed family vacation to Disneyland for fall. My sister Sherice and her family had the same idea so together we planned a week long California road trip. This was our first BIG vacation as a family (other than our small trips to Bear Lake), so there was a lot of anticipation leading up to it.

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We spent the first day at Disneyland and boy was it HOT! We happened to be there on a record breaking heat day, 114 degrees at the end of September. No good for a preggo mama, but we had so much fun anyway, no amount of heat could keep us from having fun. The kids loved picking out their Mickey (and Minnie) ears, and even got their names embroidered on them!
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The kids were so excited, they had never seen anything like this in their lives. It was so fun showing them all of the magical rides. And of course we had to have a picture in front of Cinderella's Castle.
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The Matterhorn didn't have an age limit, so we thought it was okay for Austyn and Parker to go on. Um, we were way off. Erik and Nic had to hold their little heads from being jerked around, and they were terrified. I think Erik and Austyn's expression after the ride says it all. Austyn still talks about the scary gorgilla (yetti). Whoops.
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My macho muscle fam in Toon Town.
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We had a lot of fun in Toon Town and what do you know, Minnie, Mickey, and Pluto were all hanging out at Mickey's house!
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Austyn surpassed the long line and ran right up to Mickey. It was so cute how excited she was. Although, she did get a little timid when she got right up to him. Me and Erik in the scorching sun.
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One of the highlights of the trip was having dinner at Goofy's kitchen. It was so fun and personal. There weren't very many people there so we got a whole section in the restaurant to ourselves and there were a lot of characters walking around greeting everyone. Goofy even let the kids get in on the baking. They all got to dance around and help him put ingredients into his cake. It was so fun for the girls, and they were in heaven with the all-you-can-eat dessert buffet.
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This was the girls about 2 minutes after we put them to bed the first night.
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Day two we spent at California Adventure. The girls especially loved the Bugs Life part. All of the cute little bug rides were so fun for them.
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I bought Austyn this ice cream bar, and then she and I decided to head back to the hotel for a bit to rest and cool down. I was just walking out of the park pushing her (I couldn't see her) la, la, la. And everyone kept pointing and smiling and laughing at Austyn. One guy was passing us and in his Brooklyn accent said, "Honey, look at that little girl." I peeked around the stroller and this is what I saw. People stopped and were taking pictures. One person said "That's what Disneyland is all about." And I couldn't have agreed more. I still chuckle when I see this.
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Lots of quality fun exploring California Adventure.

DAY 3:

On day 3 we headed to San Diego, and went straight to Lajolla Beach. I actually think this may have been the funnest day of the trip for the kids. We were at the beach for around 5 hours just letting the kids run wild, splash, dig in the sand, and just be free.
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I love taking pictures of my kids on the beach. They are just so natural and beautiful.
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Precious little Austyn, almost 3 at the lifeguard station!
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Letting loose as a family at the beach! Serenity!!
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Erik and Nic rented boogie boards and had a ton of fun. The lifeguards were getting a little upset at them for surfing where the surfers were suppose to surf. Naughty boys :)Photobucket src="http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii55/erikcand/blog/californiatrip2010148-1.jpg">
My surfer girl Gracie. Ever since Gracie found out about surfing she has been in love. She pretends to surf all the time at home, and I was so happy she could really try to 'surf' at the ocean.
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30 weeks pregnant relaxing on the beach, doesn't get much better!

DAY 4: Sea World

On day four we split up from Sherice and Nic (they went to fun Lego Land, and our kids were a little small). We decided to check out Sea World since our girls love sea animals. The day ended up being rainy, so a few shows were cancelled and the rides weren't open, but we still had fun.
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Gracie watching the penguins, and Austyn waiting for sissy and daddy to come off of the only open ride (She and I made a good team, because we both couldn't ride the same rides). We also ran into these silly flamingos.
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Rainy fun. It was one of those days I look back at and laugh because we were running all around Sea World soaking wet, and laughing because we couldn't believe the one day we were there it was raining.

It happened to be Sea Lion appreciation week and they had a fun booth to make little sea lion masks and learn about the animal. Cutest little Sea Lions if you ask me!
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Whale tail cupcakes, Alright!!
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The Star fish were probably my favorite because I have a really fun memory of picking up the starfish at sea world when I was the tiniest girl. I was excited to hopefully give my girls the same memories.
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Even though the rides were closed we had plenty to do and look at all day. My girls were able to see things they've only read about or seen on tv. We left Sea World and drove straight through to St. George. We underestimated the drive back a little bit, and we ended up getting to St. George about 1 in the morning. We did stop to have our first In-n-Out burger experience in Nevada on the way though, and it surpassed expectations, mmm.

Because we were so exhausted from our fun trip we spend a day in St. George at my parents house to recoup and relax.
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Austyn was excited to show papa her souvenirs and made him be her prince while serenading him.
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Now that's what I call a trip!!

Is there anything sweeter?

2010-12-15T12:33:00.000-07:00

Krew Erik Kidman

11.24.2010

6 lbs, 13 oz

19 1/2 inches longOh, is there anything more precious than a new baby fresh from heaven? Absolutely not. Krew's birth was a little different from the girls. He decided to snuggle up real good in my tummy, and in the wrong direction to boot. He was in no hurry to come out. The day he did decide to come out Gracie woke up with the stomach flu, and it also happened to be the graveside service for Erik's grandpa and the night of "the snowstorm". The girls and I had to miss the service due to Gracie being sick. By the time Erik got home that afternoon I was starting to not feel well, and the snow was starting to come. By nine o'clock that night I was hovering over a toilet, having hard contractions, and bawling. The contractions kept coming and so did the throw-up. Erik and I decided we better go to the hospital to hopefully get an I.V. and stop the contractions. I did not want to have a baby at the same time I had the flu. I threw up on the way to the hospital, in the ER waiting room bathroom, in the ER room they put me in, and later up in triage in Labor and Delivery. Erik said he's never seen me that sick, and I don't know if I've ever been that sick. L and D wanted me out of there, and I didn't blame them. Little did they and I know that I was in full on labor. Erik walked out for a minute, then walked back in and said "So, what do you think?", I said "about what?", and he said "Dr. Lesser will be here in an hour to do your c-section." I was pretty scared and shocked, but then Erik and I got really excited, and decided to make the best of it. We were about to meet our sweet son, and nothing could have ruined that. They gave me some good nausea drugs, and things were okay. The nurses and my doctor were great, and badda-bing, we had the most innocent precious little boy ever. With the most hair ever. In the O.R. right after. One plus was that Krew didn't have to endure any hard labor.

The girls had no idea we had gone in the night, and they woke up the next morning to their grandma at their house telling them they had a new brother. I'm sure it was so incredibly emotional for them, but they took right to him in the hospital. They love him so much.

The best big sissies ever.
They want to hold him every chance they get. They get a little irritated with me when I tell them I have to feed him. They think I'm a Krew hog.

This is pretty much what we've all been doing the past 3 weeks.

Poor Erik has sacrificed his side of the bed for our little man. With me having a c-section this time, we decided by the 3rd night that it was easier for Krew to be in bed next to me than for me to have to wake Erik up every time Krew was hungry, and every time he needed to lay down. It's time for me to move him to the cradle, and get my husband back, but Krew and I have kind of bonded as bed-buddies. He loves his mommy to be right next to him, and I love to stare at him while I lie in bed. What am I doing? I just can't get enough.

I am so proud of the girls. They have taken to the change so well.

Sure, he's had a few poked eyes, and been squeezed a little too hard, but now they know he's real, and they love him.

Tummy time is a team effort!

This little thumb has wandered into that cute little mouth a few times, we may have a thumb sucker on our hands.Ah, the soothie. This girl loves to help Krew with his soothie. Our little angel.

How did Erik and I get so lucky? We ask ourselves this all the time. We have been blessed with three healthy children. Life is a little miracle.

Thanksgiving Blessings

2010-11-11T21:05:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of you fellow blogger friends out there who make a daily blog about what you are thankful for this time of year. I have always thought this was a good idea, but have never taken the time to actually do it for myself. I know I won't do it everyday, I'm just not that good of a blogger, so I am going to just make one big list of things I am especially thankful for. Here goes.

1. My sweet husband. Erik is seriously my rock and my best friend. We are one of those pathetic couples who talk about every hour on the phone while he's at work. People always wonder why I don't go out much, and it's because I would rather stay home sitting on the couch talking about nothing with him. He works so so so hard for us between work and school, and still finds time to be the best husband and daddy ever. I had to make his especially long because we just had our 7th anniversary and I didn't blog about it. This December we have been together for 12 years, that's almost half of our lives. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun!

2. Gracie Nicole. Gracie is just this little ball of sunshine. She is always so excited about everything, and is always thinking about other's feelings. Of course I could go on and on about the amazing little person she is, but just know I am thankful for her.

3. Austyn Ella. My previous post explains a lot of why I am thankful for Aust. Such a cutie, with kissable cheeks.

4. This amazing little ball of boy inside my belly. Approaching the end of my pregnancy I feel such an amazing bond with this little man I haven't even met here on earth. His spirit is already so sweet, and he is so comforting. He loves his sisters, and pushes out whenever they are snuggling on my lap. He is still when his daddy talks to him, and listens to every word. Only a few more weeks before this little man turns our world upside down.

5. My home. I am truly thankful for my home and the comfort it brings my family and I. We have had it up for sale for almost a year, and I am finding myself thankful that we haven't sold it. Sure a little more room would be nice, but we have so many irreplaceable memories in this home. I love how small it is because we are always on top of each other snuggling and playing. I have complained of this quaint little house in the past, but the truth is that the day we sell this house will be one of the saddest days of my life (and Gracie's too). Whenever someone looks at our house or we talk about moving out Gracie begs us not to sell it. My kids love this house and to them size means nothing. It is their home and all they know. I love this house.

6. Our siblings. I don't know what we would do without my sisters and their families. Every time I need to talk to someone one of my sisters calls to chat. It's nice having two best friends who know just about everything about me. My sisters husbands Nic and Brock have become two of Erik's best friends as well, and these boys are crazy and often naughty together. They think if one of them does something they may as well all do it. Erik's brother Dane and his family live our of state and we wish we could see them more, but when we do see them it is so fun to catch up and see how much their kids have grown. Mandy is always so good at remembering birthdays, anniversary's, and everything in between. She has a way of making our family feel special. It's fun to grow up and have siblings turn into friends.

7. Our nieces and nephews. Kaden, Lexie, Rylie, Halli, Wyatt, Parker, and Daxton. These kids are all so sweet and so special in their own ways. They all have such unique personalities, and I am so thankful our kids have such great cousins to play and make memories with. I always get so excited to see any of them. I love them all so much.

8. Our parents. Erik and I have some amazing parents. They both help us out in different ways, and we know they truly love and want the best for us and our kids. There is no way I could even begin to list all of the things our parents do that we are thankful for (that would be a whole other list), but we truly appreciate everything our parents do and have done for us.

9. My friends. I look back throughout my life and it is unreal to think about all of the amazing friendships I have had. Some friendships have faded, and some have held on throughout many years, but all of my friendships have been meaningful to me. I truly love everyone of my friends I have ever had and of course have learned as I've grown older how valuable a good friend is and how important it is to be a good friend. A girl needs friends. I'm a quirky girl, and it's so nice to know that my friends love me for my strengths and my weaknesses. Amen sista!!

10. My Grandma. I have mentioned her before in many posts, but I am truly so grateful for the strength she has shown me a woman can possess. She lost her dad at a year old, and she and her mom did it by themselves, which was incredible back then. 30 years ago she lost the love of her life, and has done it by herself since then. She is the definition of strength, and when I think of her I know I can do anything.

11. Utah. It's not hard to be thankful for this great state this time of year with all of the beautiful fall leaves, and snow frosted mountains. This state really is amazing and I love the family way of life here. It makes it easy for a mom to feel good about not working very much or at all. This state is ruled by family values instead of corporate America (for the most part). When we traveled out of state a few months ago it was refreshing to return home to clean buildings and courteous people. Utah really does stand out.

12. I am thankful for food. I love food, and am grateful we have access to so many kinds of food.

13. My legs. This sounds funny, but I am thankful for my legs and my ability to walk, run, crawl, skip. Legs are good, and there are so many people who I know would give anything to be able to use theirs.

14. Grants. I am so thankful for grants. Without them Erik and I would not be able to go to school. We have been given a lot from our government, and we are so lucky that we are given the opportunity to further our education and better our lives as well as our families.

15. Education. Isn't education amazing? I love the fact that we can never stop learning. I am so grateful for Gracie's preschool, and the amazing teachers she has and has had. I am grateful for my teachers, and for Erik's. I am thankful I still have so much to learn.

16. The LDS church. Honestly growing up I wasn't given a large knowledge of the church, and I am actually still learning the stories of the Book of Mormon, but what I do know is that going to church makes me and my kids feel good. The foundation of the church is good, and that the spirit and the holy ghost are real. I have a lot of people in my life who have been great examples to me, which has encouraged me to learn more about the church. I am thankful that I have the knowledge to have the church in my life.

I know there are a zillion other things that I am thankful for that I will probably think of as I'm laying in bed tonight, but this list is a good start to the major things I have been blessed with.

Little Miss Austyn

2010-09-14T14:02:00.001-07:00

Our little Austyn is growing so fast, and getting so big. She is a little over 2 1/2 and is the most independent little bug I have ever met (next to her mama, so I hear). She does everything on her own schedule no if's, and's, or but's. I have to give a little extra time for everything because I know there is no negotiating Austyn's time. She REALLY lets us know when she is not happy with us, but also REALLY lets us know how much she loves us. She tells me all the time how much she loves me. Today in the car I buckled her up, and she said "I love you so sweet." It made my day.

Another thing she does that Erik and I love is that she wakes up earlier than anyone in the family (not that part :) ), but she comes and knocks on our door with her two favorite blankies, and her big pink pillow all ready to climb into bed with us. We always tuck her in the middle, and let her watch cartoons until it is time for us to get up. I think she loves the snuggle time she gets with mommy and daddy.The other night Aust had a bad dream, so of course she ended up in bed with us. In the morning I woke up to her patting my back and saying "I luf you mama." She is just such a lovey girl, and loves to tell us.

Austyn has been the best talker from when she was a year old. Everywhere we go people comment on how well she speaks. I don't think people expect such big sentences coming from such a small little girl. She definitely knows how to express herself. She still says some words little, and I love it. For example; Bumbrella is umbrella, bagiraffe is giraffe (she likes to put b's in front of things). I love how she says Gracie, especially when she's mad at her (not that I like when she's mad at her sissy, but she says it so stern). She says her name right, but she enunciates the ie. Gra-cie.

Oh, this little girl. I honestly don't know what we would do without her. She loves to dance, and make up her own songs, which really are so good. She'll say "mama, listen to this song", and she'll make up a really good song about leaves, and bugs, or whatever we have been talking about. Her and Gracie love to dress up and dance to symphony or classical music in the living room, and Austyn loves when daddy is her prince. She'll go up to him, curtsy, and say "will you marry me?" with such a serious star-gazed look.

Austyn loves to be funny, and act silly. And right now, for some reason she loves the word "Boobies". I know, it's terrible, and I tell her all the time that we don't say it, but the girl thinks it is the most intriguing, hilarious word ever. Oh, Austy.

Well, Austyn has personality bursting from the seams, and I seriously couldn't imagine life without her. Which is why I think she has given me a few gray hairs and wrinkles, from arguing with her about why she can't run in the road, play with sharp objects, or jump off really tall things among many other things.

I hear Austyn and I are a lot alike from a certain Mimi who is also like us.

Independent, just the way we should be!

Gracie's first day of her final year in pre-school

2010-08-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

Gracie started preschool for the year last Tuesday. I can't believe this is her last year as a preschooler. She has grown so much since she started the toddler program at Weber State. She is so smart and amazes me everyday. She knows all of her letters and sounds, and reads small words. She sounds out all kinds of words, and is always asking me how a word is spelled. She could write her name last fall without any help, and just amazes us in so many other ways. I am so excited to see the ways she challenges herself this year.Here she is on the first day 8-24-10 with her 'Me' page for their class book.
Ready to go!

And of course a silly face from Austyn!!

Is it just me or is it hard on anyone else to send their kids to preschool? I am having a really hard time this year. I miss my little Gracie when she's gone, and I know Austyn does too.

Summer for us has been full of................

2010-08-26T13:54:00.000-07:00

Gracie's first dance recitals. This girl can move!!
At the Ogden Ampitheatre

And at the Browning Center

Of course grandparents and ice cream make any recital complete!

Our summer also included...

PUDDLE JUMPING WITH FANCY UMBRELLAS!

Austyn flying like Super Woman which resulted in a bonk on the head and an 11pm trip to the ER (She was okay!)

POPSICLES! (An everyday treat)

A trip to the Zoo with grandma and grandpa, and cousins from out of state!

That little Zuri is too cute.

Mandy using her muscles to push all three girls!

In June the girls painted Father's Day presents for grandpa's and our Daddy

Which were adored

A garage sale and Otter Pop selling!

Car Washing

Dinosaur Park

A lot of fun 'field trips' with cousins! The Sweets Candy Factory (I don't have the picture)

This is a picture of the kids at the Hill AFB Museum

The girls earned their wings!

Gigantic Cupcakes!!

And frosting faces!

The 24th of July kids bike parade....

That we just couldn't catch up to :(

Running through the sprinklers on those hot hot days!

Dressing up!

Parades

Swimming, swimming, and more swimming!

S'mores

And camping in the living room!

Beetle Bugs...........in the house. Eeek!

Bear Lake for Raspberry Days, which included a hail storm....

Carnival fries, Corn on the Cob, and

Hawaiian Slushies (We went back twice just for the food!)

A hike up to Bloomington Lake, where our brave Daddy did this.

And where we also had a picnic with the chipmunks!

Beach, boating, and surfing were a must!

Back at home we made Dora cupcakes for the premier of Dora's birthday party!

Summer also included a few improtu naps!

And we celebrated our big Daddie's birthday!

This summer we also found out that the new addition to our family will be a brother, and a son.

The girls grew in every way they possibly could have.

And we made amazing memories as a family, and with friends and relatives.

Life is Grand!

Here's to a great school year!

2010-07-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

And what a relief he looks healthy!!

We are halfway there!

4 sweet years

2010-06-06T19:57:00.001-07:00

Four years ago on May 7th, this little angel changed our world forever. She has shown us things we never took the time to notice, and has filled us with a love we never thought possible. This little face makes us smile everyday, and I just want to squeeze her and hold onto those little features forever. I feel like I just need to take a huge deep breath and slow this little one's growing a bit, but I know that isn't possible. So for now I'll try my best to cherish every second I am privileged enough to be Gracie's mommy. Gracie is a family girl all the way, and chose to just have a family party. I was completely prepared to have her a 'friend' party this year, but she was not interested and just wanted her cousins. I love that family means so much to her right now. She woke up to presents from me, Erik, and Austy, and had fun opening those. Then I made a special smiley pancake breakfast for her and Austyn.

We spent the day preparing for her party, which was a Barbie and the Diamond Castle theme. Gracie dressed in her Princess Alexa dress from the movie, and I styled her hair how Princess Alexa does also. Gracie and Austyn couldn't wait for the guests to arrive.

Gracie was so excited to hold her new cousin Daxton on her birthday.

Singing Happy Birthday to our little woman. Hope all your wishes come true sweet heart.

Erik got in the bouncy house and roughed the kids up a little bit. They were loving it.

My dad and my sister Sherice were chuckling in the corner because when we were doing 'Heavy, Heavy, Hangover" to Gracie, and I would tell her to grant someone a wish, she was say so seriously,"No, I don't want to". You were lucky if you got a wish out of her that night, lol. I don't think she quite understood the game.

Rylie giving Gracie a good "bonk on the head". Hopefully Gracie gave her a wish!!

Well, Gracie had a fantastic birthday, and I still can't believe she is four. Here's to you sweet child of mine.

Big 2-7

2010-06-06T19:35:00.001-07:00

At the end of April I turned 27. Ahhh. 3 more years until I hit the big 3-0. I never thought I would be 27, haha. My parents had us over for dinner with my whole family, and we all had a lot of fun. I don't usually post about my own b-day, but my parents had taken some fun pictures, and I felt like I wanted to do something with them. For dinner we had my fam's usual, Maple Garden's and Ligori's pizza. Great combo if you ever have a party. My mom also made me the most delicious yellow cake with chocolate frosting (she still lets us choose what kind we want). I was sooo happy and thankful to spend my birthday with those I love most!! This picture was kind of funny because it was right after Gracie spilled the beans about the new baby. She had mentioned it to my parents a week or so earlier, and we just played it off that she was talking about my sister's new baby (the adorable little guy pictured below), but when we got to my parents this night we were all standing in the kitchen with my mom, and Gracie says "Mom, I want to kiss the baby", I said "okay, Daxton will be here soon", and then she said "No, the baby in your tummy". My mom smiled, and said "You can't pull this off much longer". So we confessed. Gracie really wanted her grandparents to know.
Cassie, and sweet Daxton.

I had lots of help blowing out my candles, and boy did I need it.

It's always fun to still be spoiled by my parents on my birthday. It makes me feel like a little girl again.

I absolutely adore this picture. I look a little silly, but look at Gracie's little hand on my shoulder, and her sweet smile. She is my lovey girl. Hopefully 27 will be filled with as many blessings as 26 was. It's already starting out good!!

2010-05-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

We are excited to announce that baby #3 is on it's way! I am 9 1/2 weeks and am due December 9th, so we will be having an early Christmas present. I have been feeling great, except for a bad case of the munchies. I mean bad, bad case of the munchies. I have never been like this. Erik is actually enjoying my munchiness, and we have had some good snacks over the past few weeks, lol. The baby looked great in the ultrasound, and hopefully it will continue to grow and develop at a healthy pace. The girls are extremely excited, and I am so excited for our family to share this experience together.

Where, oh where to begin??

2010-04-28T20:14:00.001-07:00

Where has the past month gone? It swooshed by faster than I could sit down to write about it. We have had a lot of fun, everyday life things going on around here. I decided to just cram it all into one big post because the thought of doing a lot of little posts was a bit overwhelming, and I'm feeling a little lazy tonight. So here it goes.....

Last weekend we decided to head up to Bear Lake Spur-of-the-moment (Is that how you write it?, lol) Never had to write that saying. Anyway, my parents and my older sister and her kids decided to come up too. It was a good change of scenery, and a good clear-of-the-head, especially for Erik after finishing up finals last week. Good Job babe!

This was Kade showing Gracie the Joker on Batman on his awesome DS. Gracie is usually not into that kind of stuff, but since she decided this past weekend her and Kade where getting married she was okay with it (I'll have a talk with her about the whole cousin-marriage thing in a few years ;) ).
Oh, Austy and Parker, two peas in a pod. These two are at the funniest ages, and they kept us laughing the whole weekend. Look at the mischief in those innocent little eyes. Oh yes, we know it's there hiding behind those kissable cheeks you two.

The girls crashing and catching up on their zz's before the cousins arrive in Mimi and Papa's most comfortable chairs ever.

Gracie was a one-woman-band, and she was fantastic.
Those are all of the pics I got of Bear Lake this weekend, and really all we did was watch movies, eat, and sleep.

I had to take this picture of Gracie and her creativity. This girl LOVES to play with anything crafty, especially scissors, paper, glitter, tape, tape, and more tape. The other day she whipped up this little crown. I was so impressed. She even cut little slits all along the top like the little points at the top of a real crown. Excited to see the things she'll create. She's already blown me away.

Last week was Gracie's last day of pre-school for this school year. We had a really fun potluck picnic with everyone, and the kids sang us a really neat song they had been working on in sign language about manners. I have to say I am actually ready for the summer break, and it has been so nice not rushing out the door in the mornings this week. Gracie will see a lot of her friends in the fall, and I'm sure she'll be so excited to see them when the time comes.

The mingling mothers, and kids having fun!

Austy had a lot of fun too. She actually made friends with a lot of the younger siblings of the kids in Gracie's class.

Gracie and cute Mia.

Gracie girl striking a pose before her big jump off of the jungle gym.

Gracie and sweet teacher Rosie. For some reason amongst the chaos I forgot to get a picture of Gracie and teacher Laura, who has been Gracie's teacher the past two years. Teacher Laura was amazing with Gracie, and spent so much time really analyzing each child, and working with them one-on-one. Sadly she won't be Gracie's teacher next year, but I am so thankful that Gracie was able to have such a great teacher to give her such an amazing beginning of school experience.

Last week when the weather was warm Erik got this great idea to draw Buddy from Dinosaur Train in chalk on our back patio. It was so fun. Erik did most of the shapes and what not (he really is quite the artist), and the girls and I filled in the rest. It was fun and we were all so proud of our own little buddy, and of our talented daddy.

My little sister Cassie had her second baby, a little boy named Daxton, a few weeks ago. She had to take him to the doctor a few times the week after he was born, so I helped her out with Halli. While they were eating lunch they kept telling each other how much they loved each other, and then I looked over to see this. Seriously, could they be cuter?

Because Gracie's birthday is after the school year, she had a special birthday day at school where she got to bring a birthday snack. She chose frosted sugar cookies with spring sprinkles, and the kids in her class sang to her, she also got some playdough and a special birthday crown (shown below). I love this girl.

A few months ago the girls started tumbling classes, and they are loving them. Gracie is in a littles class and Austyn and I are doing a mommy-and-me class. It is amazing what they get these little ones to do. I am glad the girls love it so much. Everyday they ask if it's tumbling day. Gracie has a little Olympics coming up, so I'm sure I'll post more about this later.

I'm kind of bummed they won't do a mommy-and me Olympics, because Austyn is doing so awesome, and is so ready to show off her stuff to her grandparents, but soon enough she'll be able too. Austyn's favorite is probably this long trampoline. She hops down it like a little bunny over and over again.

Sometimes they'll get out the big parachute and throw a ton of balls in the middle of it, and they let the kids take turns sitting in the middle while we all shake the balls around them. So fun.

These are the beginning of the Easter pictures. They are in backwards order according to the timeline of the day. This first pic is a great papa snuggle. Gotta love those.

Happy and hungry girls on Easter morning.

The cute bunny cake my mom has made every year since I was a little girl.

"Cheep, cheep, eat us. We're really deformed, but we taste yummy."

Hopscotch!!

Austy plays it by NOT stepping on the numbers. Very tricky.

The kids patiently waiting for Mimi and Papa's Easter egg hunt.

My parents did the funnest thing this year. They tied a different color of yarn to each kids bucket, then starting from youngest to oldest the kids followed their yarn through the entire basement to find treasures along the way. There was yarn strung from here to Timbuktu.

Erik helping Austyn follow her string.

I helped Gracie. She was a little frustrated and tangled at first, but then she got the hang of the game.

Awesome job girlies. Look at how nice Mimi and Papa were!!

Easter at our home!

The Easter bunny came yet again. This year he went a wee bit overboard, but vowed that next year he would contain himself. Dang that bunny. I don't think he realized until he got to our house!!

That bunnies hiding spots get trickier every year.

Daddy, and Austyn trying out the t-ball set!

Dying Eggs

Hooray, what fabulous eggs girls.

finishing off the egg-dying with a daddy sandwich.

Sherlock Erik dying eggs!

Dunky-dunky
funny fact: I had cavities filled for the last two years on the same day we dyed Easter eggs. Coincidence? I think not. All I can say is that we better not have a third year of that.

What does a Mommy do when she needs a girls day out??? Take one with her besties!!

I really was needing just a change of pace, change of scenery, and something fun going on. So I decided to take the girls to the Train Museum at the Union Station. I can't tell you how fun it was. Seriously. We walked around the museum for about an hour, then we went over to the old car museum. There also happened to be a boutique going on while we were there that I didn't know about so we walked around that and bought some yummy treats. We then finished at Union Grill, and watched the trains out the window while eating grilled cheese, and frech onion soup. It was the best girls day out I have ever had.

Look at those two cute faces. How c0uld I not have fun with them?

The nice lady working in the museum asked if I wanted her to take our picture, so I said "sure". It's not very often I actually get to be in the pictures with my girls. She ended up taking about ten of us around the museum. She kept say "How about one over here? How about one of you in the train?". She was so cute, and I'm so glad I have the pictures she took of us. This was just one of those fun days that makes me so happy thinking about. We'll have to do it again soon.

Well, that about sums up the past month or so with us. Hopefully I'll be better about keeping up from here on out.

2010-03-13T08:53:00.000-07:00

I thought these shirts are so cute, and for a good cause too. To order one click here.

2010-03-06T14:44:00.000-07:00

Today I took Gracie to the birthday party of two twin boys who are in her preschool class. It was at the Layton Classic Fun Center, and what a fun place. The girls seriously had the time of their lives.

None of the boys dared to climb up this big ladder and slide down, and all of the sudden me and the moms look up and there's Gracie almost to the top without a care in the world. She is such an adventurous girl.

A few of Gracie's cute friends, Maxton and Cameron, and of course Austy.

All of the moms at the party kept saying how big Austyn is all of the sudden, and she really is. She is just off doing her own thing now, and feeling so big.

where are my babies going?

Goooing UUUUUp...........

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Wahooo, you go little woman!

Awesome Party, Awesome Day!

2010-03-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

They are my SUNSHINE my only SUNSHINE, they make me HAPPY when skies are gray.

These little rays of sunshine are ready to dig in the dirt

Makin muffins, and boardin

2010-03-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago the girls and I decided to make some banana muffins. The girls did most of the work while I supervised. They made some amazing banana muffins, and looked pretty cute doing it.
Austyn was loving to eat the plain flour.

Good job fillin up those muffin tins!
On that same night the Olympics were on, and Erik really got into the Olympic spirit. He made the girls little snowboards out of cardboard. The girls colored their boards, and loved taking turns having their daddy zoom them through the house.

I love my little snow bums. Go team Kidman!!

The girl's lunch conversation

2010-02-25T21:03:00.000-07:00

Austyn: "Mom, sissy's pettin me." (as Gracie is petting her head)
Gracie:"I'm petting you cause I love you."
Austyn: "You love me?" (asked with doubt)
Gracie: "mm hmm."
Austyn: "Oh, you're a good boy."

The Tale of a Tiny Tot Turning Two!!

2010-02-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

It's true, yesterday our little Austyn Ella turned two years old (Although, she insisted all day yesterday, and still insists that she is 3). Right when she woke up Gracie and I walked in her room saying "Happy Birthday Austyn", to which she replied by crying and saying "It's not my bu-day". At first she was not sure what was going on at all. As soon as she saw her presents, and started opening them, she realized birthdays are a good thing. One thing that was kind of a bummer was that the girls woke up with colds yesterday, and as the day progressed their colds got worse, so I ended up calling my sisters and telling them not to bring their kids over. I didn't want to give anyone colds. All of the grandparents still came over though and we had a fun, quaint party for Austyn. Austyn still a little confused about the whole birthday thing.

She realized pretty quick how fun opening presents was.

She opened this present up, and Erik said "Aust what is it?" We didn't think she knew what it was called, and she said "A doll house". She was very excited.

Austyn has been really into ballet and ballerina's lately and was so excited to get her very own ballerina tutu costume. She was dancing so pretty!!

.

This was Austyn's pink birthday cake she asked for. I put two
candles in it, and she was pretty adamant about putting two more herself on. How could I tell her no on her birthday!

The quaint dinner party with family who loves her.

Erik enjoying the HUGE deli sandwiches he made. He piled that meat on and they were good!

"Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to you".

Austyn knew exactly what to do when she went to blow out her candles!

She was very good at sharing her special birthday cake.

Yum, Yum

The two Grandpas

Austyn had so much fun opening her presents, and Gracie was such a good helper.

Austyn got so many nice gifts from her grandparents.

I love this picture. Austyn just sat staring at her new wand like this for a good minute or so. She was so mesmerized by it's beauty. It was cute.

Our little Snow White

This was so cute. When Erik brought the trike in from his parents Gracie started clapping and said "Yay, Austy". She was so happy and excited for Austyn. What a good sis.

Snow White riding her "Harley".

When everyone left the girls weren't feeling too good with their colds, but I got a good snuggle out of it. I asked Austyn when I was putting her to bed if she had a good birthday and she said she did, and that's all that matters.

Birthday's for my girls always remind me how thankful I am for them, who they are, and their health. It's fun that we have birthdays to reminisce back on the years we have had special people in our lives.

Happy Birthday sweet Austyn!

We Love You! XOXO

2010-02-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

I couldn't have asked for a better Valentines Day this year. I was lucky enough to have the day off from work, and I was able to spend it with my three special valentines. With Valentines falling on a Sunday this year, we celebrated most of the festivities during the week before. Gracie handed out her Valentines at school on Wednesday, and was so excited to bring home her valentines from her friends. Then on Friday my friend Jackie had her annual Valentine party. My pictures are in backwards order from top to bottom as usual (maybe by next year I'll have the picture order on Blogger down), but here are a few small things that made Valentines special for our family. Mimi and Papa brought over some valentine treats, and the girls were so excited. Grandma Sue and Grandpa Jerry also gave the girls some Valentines the day before, but I didn't have the camera. These girls sure have some Grandma's and Grandpa's who love them.

Erik and Aust were able to fit in a little Valentine mid-day snooze.

Nothing too fancy, but the girls liked eating their heart shaped quesadilla's.

The girls checking out their Valentine's from Mommy and Daddy!

The girls made some sweet Valentine's cards for their grandparents, and they asked me to take a picture while they were doing it. So proud, as they should be ;)

These last 3 pictures I actually took from my friend Jackie's blog because I forgot my camera, but this is the fun Valentine party she had for our playgroup.Every year we take this picture of the kids on her couch, and every year the kids multiply and get bigger. Wow!

And, the Mom picture. Two years ago I think 4 of us were pregnant, and now we have that many more babies plus some crawling all over us. It's fun to see how things have changed.

Erik and I are still holding out for our Valentine date, that we are hoping will happen this week :), but we played one awesome game of Life after the kids went to bed the night before Valentines!!

It's fun to celebrate Love!!

The many faces of Gracie

2010-02-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

The other day while Austyn was napping Gracie asked me to get the camera out and take pictures of her. She was hammin it up. I just thought I would show a few of the faces she pulled in the matter of a few minutes. This girl makes me laugh.Cheese

side note: The reason my bed post is adorned is because she is a 'queen' that Gracie dressed up.
ker-splat
Sill-y girlFunny facesLove those eyes

Oh my little Gracie, you're good at making me smile!!

2.2010

2010-02-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

I just found this blog called Tatertots and Jello, and all I can say is WOW. I spent at least an hour just browsing over all of the amazing crafts I want to make from it. If you have seen it you'll know what I mean (and why didn't you tell me about this before), if not click on the button on the right of my blog. You know when you find your blog soul mate? Well I found mine.

A do-it-yourself Valentine Tree

2010-02-01T21:36:00.001-07:00

I made this Valentine tree for our home, and it really adds a little something. It was very inexpensive and easy to make and the kids love it, so I thought I would share. I bought the glass vase from Dollar Tree for $1. I had some pink and white glass stones left over from my sisters wedding, so I only had buy red (They were on sale at Michael's last week for $1 a bag). From Michael's I also bought three patterned papers that were kind of shabby-valentiny, and some silver spray paint. The girls and I stopped by the river on the way home and found some perfect branches.
I just sprayed the branches with the paint and while they were drying, I cut out hearts from the paper using a heart cookie cutter. Gracie and I then glued different patterned hearts together, so each side has a different pattern. We punched holes in each heart and tied on silver ribbon (I had the ribbon at home, but you can buy whatever color or kind you want).

I let the girls pour the stones in the vase, then we pushed the branches into the stones, and arranged them. We hung the hearts everywhere and voila! A homemade Valentines tree. Nothing too fancy, but it was fun to make, and cost less than $10.

This is what we have been doing the past four days...

2010-02-01T14:44:00.000-07:00

We're crossing our fingers tomorrow brings no fevers with it!

Jesus wants her for a Sun-BEAM!

2010-01-31T22:27:00.000-07:00

Gracie waited all year to be a sunbeam, and when the day came that she was finally in primary she was terrified. She held on to me so tight saying "Mom, I don't want to be a sunbeamer, I want to go to my old class". I am learning she is not the type to jump into new situations without hesitation. The bishop and her new teachers stepped in and whisked her away to class so fast neither she or I had a chance to give it a second thought. I sat through Relief Society, and then Sunday school waiting for her teachers to bring my crying three year old to me. What a relief it was to pick her up from her class, and have her come out as happy as can be wearing this crown that glorified her as a sunbeam. Whew, glad that went well. Now I just have to get Austyn used to being in Nursery without her big sis :(
Pictures taken 1/3/2010

2010-01-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

I want some of these, oh yes, oh yes!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/brokenhallelujah

By far Erik and I's favorite Christmas present!!

2010-01-06T22:10:00.000-07:00

When I picked up Gracie on her last day of pre-school before Christmas, she had a small gift wrapped for Erik and I. She wanted us to open it right when we got home (not before, not after). We both sat on the couch and opened it while she watched, and we were seriously sooo excited to find this ornament she made for us under her Gracie-made wrapping paper. This was the center adornment of our Christmas tree this year, and I smile every time I see it!! Thanks Gracie girl, we'll love it forever. XOXO!!

Christmas Day 2009 (warning:picture overload)

2010-01-06T14:17:00.001-07:00

We had such a wonderful Christmas. Erik and I had to wake the girls up Christmas morning, but once we reminded them what day it was they were in the living room in the blink of an eye. Jolly St. Nick definitely made it to our house, and even ate the cookies and carrots we left for him and his reindeer (there was one bite of cookie left, but Austyn finished that up). That Santa, he left way more than the girls asked for, though they really didn't ask for much. They must have been super good this past year. The girls were in a whirlwind of awe, and it was so fun to watch how surprised and excited they were.
Aust was excited about the cradle Santa left for her new baby doll.

Playdough in their stockings, Awesome!!

Erik must have been just a little bit naughty, because he had a little lump of coal in his stocking. Don't worry he had a lot of treats too!

Gracie had to try on every present she opened that was wearable!

Austyn wearing her new apron while brushing with her new spinning toothbrush she got in her stocking. Thanks Santa, now it's not as much of a fight to brush her teeth as before!

After we opened presents at our house we headed to my parents to have breakfast. Gracie was so excited that she was doing ballerina spins while waiting to open presents.

It was fun to watch Austyn open presents this year. This year she was old enough to kind of understand what was going on.

My mom (Mimi) and Gracie!

My mom and dad, aka Mimi and Papa.

The three munchkins of my fam, Parker, Austyn, and Halli. T-R-O-U-B-L-E!!

My sweet sweet Grandma. She has Congestive Heart Failure, and is pretty weak, but she is one strong woman who is hanging in there. I have been able to go do her hair every week, and I seriously cherish the time I get to spend with her. She tells me new stories about her life every time I go and I love hearing them.

I left our camera at my parents so I have no pictures from Erik's parents house right now. When I steal some from them I'll add them on :) but we had a really great dinner at his parents with his grandparents, brothers, and their families. We didn't have many stops this year for Christmas so we were actually home by about 3:30pm. The girls were able to get naps, and relish in the excitement of Christmas at home. We made our own Christmas dinner, and spent the evening playing with new toys, and reflecting on what Christmas is really about (This year the girls, mainly Gracie, could actually understand, and would ask many questions about the story of Christmas).

Gracie trying out her camp out set she got from Mimi and Papa.

Erik with a steady hand right before his wife kicked his booty at Jenga.

The girls in their new Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom Jammies from Grandma Sue and Grandpa Jerry. What a great day!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Making Cookies for Santa!

2009-12-26T15:03:00.000-07:00

The girls made some delectable cookies for Santa this year. They had a lot of fun rolling the dough and cutting out cookies, frosting up a storm, and pouring those sprinkles on. I loove all of them!

So much fun!!

Austyn took a bite out of every cookie she frosted, her little trademark.

This was one of my favorites Gracie frosted. This snowman was just perfect!
12.23.09

Christmas Village 2009

2009-12-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, Erik and I hadn't been to Christmas Village since our first date eleven years ago. It was so fun to take the girls and let them see all of the fun Christmas houses we use to look at when we were little. We thought it was awesome that the kids could actually climb up and look at a lot of them up close. Gracie girl and Daddy!
The girls crawled up to look at this fun house.

The girls knocked on Santa's castle, but the jolly guy wasn't home.

We bundled them up good because it was most definitely a cold winters night.

Me and my sweethearts.

And of course we had to finish the night off with hot chocolate when we got home!

Austyn loved having her own big mug WITHOUT a lid. Wow!!

It actually lasted longer than I thought it would :)

What a fun, fun family night!

12. 20.09

Gracie and the nebulizer

2009-12-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

Gracie and Austyn had colds a few weeks ago, and for some reason Gracie's went straight to her lungs and kind of gave her asthma (she usually tends to get colds in her lungs, but not this bad). She was having a really hard time breathing one day so I took her into the doctor and the doctor treated her with some asthma medication in a nebulizer. Is was just for a few days, and she is now doing 100% better. I just thought I would post pictures because I thought she looked pretty cute with her mask on. Thank goodness it wasn't anything worse. This made me realize how hard it is for all of my friends and family with asthma or kids with asthma. These treatments are not fun for the person getting them. I had to bribe Gracie every time she needed a treatment.

The making of the 2009 Kidman gingerbread house!!

2009-12-26T14:01:00.000-07:00

The girls had so much fun making the gingerbread house this year. They pretty much did everything by themselves (as far as decorating). It is amazing how much they have grown in one year. Gracie was the frosting girl, and Austyn helped her put the Candies on. As you can tell, Austyn also did a lot of eating of the candies too :)

And yes, those are summer dresses my daughters are wearing in December!She looks like she's concentrating, but she actually has her mouth full of candy!
I really was so proud of Gracie and her frosting job, she did awesome!

Very serious construction going on here....

And, tada, the finished product!!

The gingerbread man actually broke in half and had to be frosted back together, but I think he will love recovering in this festive gingerbread home!

12.15.09

Weekend of snow!!

2009-12-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago the snow dumped and my girls were loving it. We all went out and played in the snow. The girls and I built a snowman while Erik shoveled the walks. Erik even made a snow slide for the girls, which Gracie couldn't get enough of. Our snow babies!!

My cute husband hard at work, his hair was pretty much frozen like this.

Austyn is a daddy's girl and loves to help him.

Gracie on the side of the 'slide'.

Our cute little snowman. Gracie and I went to get sticks for arms, and when we got back Austyn had designed his face all by herself!!

One cute, messy, and cold face!

Aust and I with the finished snowman, we tried to get Gracie to stay outside for a picture, but she decided she was done with the cold snow for the day!

Festival of Trees 09

2009-12-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

Once again we had so much fun at the Festival of the Trees the second week in December. I have been going with my mom and my sisters ever since I was a little girl, and they still have the same sand necklaces at the craft corner that I use to make when I was a little girl! I went with my sister Sherice and her kids and it was well worth the drive to South Jordan!

Austyn wearing her pretty reindeer antlers she made! The older kids making really neat ornaments.

Austyn was so good at sharing her ABC pizza with Parker, and he was loving it!

This was the first time the girls saw Santa this year, and they weren't at all bashful. Gracie told Santa she wanted a Daphne doll, and Austyn was just excited to get a candy cane.

My two nephews and my niece Rylie. Parker was not loving Santa.

Kade getting a Christmas tattoo on his cheek. Gracie and Austyn both got one, but Austyn immediately rubbed hers off.

Their magic "Elf wands"!

They had so much fun painting their ornaments. My girls love anything crafty!

Such intense concentration!

This tree was my favorite. It was an Ice Cream Tree, and the colors on it were so cute!

Everyone in front of the Dr. Seuss, Grinch tree! What a blast, I look forward to this day the first time I hear the word Christmas for the year!

The End............until next year!!

A few highlights

2009-12-03T22:45:00.000-07:00

Although right now our girls have been pushing Erik and I to limits we never thought we could experience, they are also filling our home with a happiness we never thought possible. Not that we weren't happy before, but there is just something so special about having kids in a home. These two have the spunkiest and silliest personalities and I wouldn't want them any other way. They are both two passionate chica's and they show this both through love and anger. I love their quirks and the funny things they do. Here are a few highlights of the past few weeks............. This is actually a sweet daddy kiss, just loved the picture.
Austyn Loves this hat of Erik's. The other day she found it and put the hat and Erik's gloves on all by herself, and came to show me.

After school one day Gracie got home and accessorized herself. I thought this ensemble was definitely picture worthy.

First snow day!!

2009-12-01T14:01:00.000-07:00

My girls were so excited for snow this year (especially Gracie, solely for the purpose of eating it). This was the first day of snow this year and the girls couldn't get their snow clothes on fast enough!

Leap into Leaves

2009-12-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

There is just something about the cool, crisp, fall air and a pile of crunchy leaves that makes it irresistible to take advantage of rolling around in em. Our huge tree in the back yard gave us plenty of golden piles this year and my girls were grateful!!

Threw this picture in just because :) Look at those cheeky's!

Pictures taken first week in November 2009

One boy, one girl......two hearts beating wildly

2009-11-08T16:10:00.000-07:00

Our story began 11 years ago. Our friendship grew while playing some intense games of Mario Kart and talking on the phone into the wee hours of the morning. 'We' grew after that first date, the Christmas dance. From day one we talked about the future, we were so young, but I was hooked and he was my addiction. Today we have been married for six years, and life couldn't get any sweeter. Happy Anniversary Erik and thank you for our wonderful family. I'm glad I get to spend forever with you!!

Gracie's first stitches and hopefully last.....

2009-10-10T22:01:00.000-07:00

Today I borrowed my in-laws truck so I could get a cornstalk and a bale of straw for our front porch. We got home and I unloaded our things and I forgot to close the tailgate to the truck. The girls were running around and Gracie ran right around the truck into the tailgate. I heard the THUD, and I ran to the back of the truck and found Gracie curled in a ball on the ground crying, dripping blood. I grabbed her and looked at her nose-no blood, then I saw blood pouring from her forehead. I was freaking out (and yes I slipped a certain four letter S word a few times). I picked her up and ran halfway inside then stopped to see if I could see how deep it was, I saw it and knew she needed stitches, so I ran in to get the phone. I was by myself and Erik was in Brigham so I called my father-in-law who lives a block away. He came over and helped me to get the bleeding to stop. He stayed with Austyn while I took Gracie to After Hours. My dad came and met me and sat with Gracie and I through the whole thing. Gracie was so incredibly brave. When the nurse first went to look at it and clean it up a bit Gracie flinched and the nurse asked her if it hurt, Gracie said "no, it tickles", it made me sad because I knew it hurt her and she was just being brave. I laid on the bed by her while the doctor stitched her up and she had everyone in the room singing The Wheels on the Bus. Everyone kept saying how good she was doing for a three year old. It took seven stitches, and should heal nicely. She got a ring and a bouncy ball from the doctors, and Erik and I being the suckers we are took her to get a new barbie (Austy got one too). Through parts of it she had a hard time, but all in all she was one brave little girl. Whew, what a day for Gracie. When Gracie and I got to my in-laws to get Austyn she had fallen while we were gone and got a HUGE goose egg on her head that had split open and bled. She kept pointing to it saying "goose". It was a big ouchy day at our home and hopefully we can all avoid accidents from now on.

Kidman Randomness

2009-10-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

Gracie put this lamp shade on Austyn the other day and they both thought it was hil-ar-i-ous. Austyn walked around bumping into walls and such giggling with Gracie closely following behind. It didn't last too long due to safety precautions, but we all got a good laugh.
After the girls bath the other night I got done picking up their clothes and towels and found the girls sitting on Gracie's bed reading like this. Gracie was reading what she remembered of her book, and Austyn was just making up words and turning the pages. As their mom, I thought it went on the cute list.

Gracie and her accessories. Her school teacher told me Gracie always notices what jewelry everyone is wearing, she is such an accessory girl.

The girls love to strum on my guitar, they really get so into it and will sing along to their strums.

And that's the end of my randomness for today!

Doggy for a day!

2009-10-10T21:35:00.000-07:00

This is cute Lizzy (named by Gracie) that we got to spend some time with a few weeks ago. We all grew pretty attached to her, but decided this wasn't the right time in our lives to get a puppy. Not yet atleast. We loved Lizzy and hope she is in a wonderful home!
Is she not the cutest? She was the best dog.

I came home from work one night and Erik showed me these pictures he had taken. I guess the hose was like this and Gracie laid down and was pretending to be a butterfly. Seriously, I love her imagination.

"Poo-poo Pah Pah"

2009-10-10T21:09:00.000-07:00

About 3 weeks ago our little 19 month old Austyn came to Erik and I and said "Poo Poo Pah Pah" while patting her bum, we looked at each other and quickly said "okay, let's go poo poo pah pah", and took her to the toilet all the while thinking "there is no way she is going to go", well Austyn proved us wrong. She sat on the toilet and POOPED. We couldn't believe it, we gave her a treat and told her how awesome she was, and we thought it was a crazy coincidence and that was it. Well, since then she has done the same thing again twice, that is THREE poops in the potty all on her own. With her being so young I haven't even started to think about potty training, and quite frankly I'm not sure if I'm ready for this, but here we go. Every time Gracie goes potty she has to take her diaper off and sit on her little potty. I know it will be a while before she is potty trained, but I guess if she wants to I'll encourage her. I think for now I'll just let her go when she comes to me and let it be at her pace. The doctor told me that when you have two kids close together that are the same sex the younger one potty trains quickly, and apparently she is right. Austy-roo is definitely our Little Miss Independent. Way to go Aust!!

It has been a while since I have posted about Austyn and so I thought I would mention some of the things she is doing and learning.

Austyn can sing Rock A Bye Baby, Twinkle little Star, and the ABC's really good, and she sings it loud with enthusiasm :)
Austyn can count to four, and thinks she is four, if you ask her how old she is she holds up 4 fingers and says "I four ears ol". She really truly thinks she is four.
She can run, jump, skip, and dance and loves to do them all.
Austyn can buckle the top buckle on her five point harness by herself, and she NEVER needs any help.

Austyn is learning so many new things I can't even think of them all, and she is so quick to catch on to everything. She loves drawing, coloring, and playing with babies. She is such a snugly girl with a determination that we know will get her places in life. We are so proud of who she is. Love you Austy Roo Whoo!

Erik's 26th Birthday

2009-09-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

Erik started his round-up to 30 this year and we celebrated his big 2-6. His birthday was a Sunday (August 23rd) so we celebrated the night before. We went to Fat Cat's and bowled, played around the arcade, and finished off with a little ice cream at Baskin Robin's (Erik's favorite ice cream is their Daiquiri Ice). On Sunday morning we woke up and the girls and I gave Erik some presents. What an awesome birthday weekend! High-five!

Coach Daddy!

Way to go Aust!

The girls Loooove this little Merry-g0-round at Fat Cats. We always use at least 10 tokens on it.

Daddy reading his birthday card!

Love you Honey!

Gracie's first day of pre-school 8.25.2009

2009-09-28T22:07:00.000-07:00

Gracie officially started pre-school this year at WSU. Last year she was in their toddler program and all summer she talked about her school friends. She was so excited to go back at the end of August and see everyone, including teacher Laura, who was her teacher last year and this year. There were a few new faces in her classroom and she so far has had a lot of fun meeting and playing with everyone. On the first day of school she didn't miss a beat from last year, she walked in, washed her hands, hung up her backpack, gave me a kiss and was off doing centers. I always get out of the classroom and have to watch her for about 15 minutes, just to make sure she will be okay (okay, mostly to make sure I will be okay). This year she goes 3 days a week for 2 1/2 hrs a day, this has taken some getting use to but the time seems to go by pretty fast. Seriously, how do they grow so fast?

picture taken 8.25.2009

High School Musical at the Park

2009-09-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

In mid July I heard about High School Musical at the Park in Farmington and thought it was a great excuse for Gracie and I to have a mommy-Gracie date. Gracie was so excited when I told her we were going and we had so much fun. It was so fun to sit on the grass together and watch a local theatre group rein act the musical. Gracie got a little antsy during the play so we left a little early. On our way home we decided we needed ice cream so we made a stop at Cold Stone. We ate our ice cream and talked about Gracie stuff, it was for sure a night to remember! Hey Cutie, you're growing to fast, slow down just a bit please.

Ready for our night out!

Mmmm, ice cream with gummy bears and sprinkles.....heaven!

Gracie mid somersault, she's getting so good at those.

Daddy and Austyn had a daddy-Austyn night. I can't wait to have a date with Austyn.

My First Half Marathon

2009-09-21T13:51:00.000-07:00

This year for my birthday Erik gave me a double jogger so I could run with the kids. This ended up being the most awesome present ever. Erik and I started running together and we would take turns pushing the girls. I found a training schedule online and we started following it and would mark off our runs week by week. Well, my sister told me about the Farmington half marathon that was coming up the 2nd week of July and so I decided to do it last second. It was such a great experience, and it was fun to run with my sister (she has ran quite a few halves), she paced me pretty fast and I ended up finishing quicker than I thought I would. Erik really wanted to run it to but he sacrificed his first half for me because we didn't have a baby sitter, thanks again honey! And just so everyone knows he would have kicked my trash, he is one of those naturally born runners. I have been a slacker lately, but we are registered for the Salt Lake half next April and I am excited to get back to training. This was one of those things that I really wasn't sure if I could do, and I did. It felt good to make a goal and meet it. My fan club! During the last few miles I seriously kept thinking about seeing their faces at the finish line, and that's what made me keep pushing on.
Hooray!

Erik and Austyn!