School is out and Summer is here!

The last few weeks have been quite busy. (I will try to give a run down of what has happened.)

A few Saturdays ago...it was an eventful day. (The night before the girls slept in the tent with Kevin, it was set up in the backyard) Oh, and Kevin shaved his head again...

So Saturday we were off to find a bunk bed, I had been searching for one for a few weeks. We finally found one we thought would be good and it was at a decent price. It was all the way in Phoenix, which was not a huge deal, only that we were almost there when I was told to go to Labor and Delivery at my hospital back on Higley and the 60. (No worries...it turned out to be nothing) I was there for a few hours and then we headed back to Phoenix for the bunk bed. And then after getting home we realized that we didn't have a few of the boards and screws that would be helpful for putting the beds together. (We ended up spending our next Saturday driving back out to Phoenix to get them.) But hey...we have bunk beds now, Yeah!

School's Out...

With the end of the school year, comes parties and graduations. Maylee had her Preschool Graduation which went well. She definitely was the loudest singer...she gets that from Kevin's side of the family. :) We also had a birthday party that day. Karalee's little girl Kinlee, turned one. She planned a water-type party...because we live in Arizona. She had borrowed a huge blow-up slide thing and all the kids were dressed in their swim-suits ready for some fun. Of course that was the day that is was windy and rainy and felt great outside...meaning not the best day to play in the water. My kids lasted a little while. But I am sure it was worth it to them...they got hot dogs and cake and ice cream out of it.

The next day was Teagan's last day of school which they had their last assembly. (Teagan got Principles Honor Roll again) So, I went to that and after it was over I was waiting outside for Teagan and a few of my friends (Karyn and Ashley) said they were taking their kids to Peter Piper Pizza. Uhh...sure why not. (I didn't think my kids had eaten enough junk that week so why not bring on some more.) I stopped at home before we left and grabbed a bag of carrots and some peas for us to eat on the way there. The kids enjoyed their pizza and playing on the play thing. They kept asking for tokens so I got $1.50 worth. (I know...my kids are lucky.) Teagan got 3 tokens, Maylee got 2 and Livia got 1. It was fun to spend some time with my friends...we don't hang out as much as we used to. And Karyn invited us to her house that night for games. (Something we used to do often.)

Here is Teagan at his last, first grade assembly.

At Peter Piper the kids had 8 tickets total! The Peter Piper employee was nice enough to give all 3 kids a set of teeth. Here they are showing off their pearly whites...




We had our annual Memorial Day BBQ and swimming party at my mom and dad's house. It was nice to be able to cool off in the pool. The kids love the water probably as much as I did when I was younger (Teagan was the last one out of the pool). Matt and Amanda were also able to come down, so that was fun to see them. It's nice to have cousins the same age as all my kids.

Another thing that has kept me busy the last few weeks...or month was our "Fear Factor" mutual activity. I probably put more effort into it than I needed too, but I wanted it to run smoothly. And I actually enjoyed getting ready for it and planning it, for the most part. It was this past Tuesday night (I am glad it's over.) But I think it turned out pretty good. From what I saw (I was running around from station to station) it looked like the youth were having a good time.

10 Years Ago...

Wow! I can’t believe that I am saying this (or writing it) but 10 years ago this week, I graduated from Gilbert High School. (Go Tigers!!!) It’s crazy to think that it has been that long. Some days I feel like it was not that long ago, and other days I feel like it was a life-time ago. When I think about how much my life has changed since then, it’s amazing. So, in honor of my 10-year reunion I would like to share 10 of my favorite things from then, and now.

Then: 1999
Color- Baby blue, light purple
Sport- Volleyball
Store- Dillards (really? I don’t ever remember going there…)
Food- Mexican and Pizza
Holiday- Christmas
Animal- Dolphin, monkey, horse
Thing to do- Dance, Rollerblade, go on dates
Snack- Anything with peanut butter
Movie- Ever After, Apollo 13, That thing you do
TV Show- Wonder Years, I love Lucy

Now: 2009
Color- Go Green!
Sport- Volleyball
Store- Whole Foods
Food- Mediterranean Roasted Chicken Pita from Pita Jungle
Holiday- Christmas
Animal- umm...cat???
Thing to do- Go to Disneyland with my kids...and hubby
Snack- Smoothie and homemade muffins
Movie- Pirates of the Caribbean, Get Smart
TV Show- The Office, Heroes

Please don’t laugh…I have never been a good writer or very big on details… (obviously) And I apologize for it being soooo long...lol.
My journal entry 5-22-99:

“…And now I am a graduate from Gilbert High School. Graduation was Wednesday night and it was so awesome. We partied til about 3:00am. I was falling asleep so I decided to go home. We went to one party til about 1:30, then we went to Denny’s, then we went to another party, then we went home. On the way home we drank Kristyn’s “Orbit,” a weird drink that has red floaties in it. She had it on her dresser for the past 2 years. So that’s how I celebrated. Eric and I saw “Stars Wars; Episode 1.” It was so awesome! It opened on Wednesday and we saw it Friday morning! Cool! I quit my job at Island Pizza. Finally after 2 ½ years. In 2 days we leave for Spain! I am so excited! Yea!!”

Wow, sounds really exciting, huh? :) I was very happy to graduate from High School and to move on to the next phase of my life…College. I would have never guessed how much the little town of Thatcher would have changed my life. Living on my own, the friends I would make, the memories I would keep forever, growing spiritually, and meeting my future husband.

Camping & Girls Night

The boys had their Father/Son camp out this weekend. Teagan was very excited about going...and of course Kevin was too. I went and picked up Teagan early from school so they could get going. They were packed and all ready to go and they drove up with the Hallidays. They both seemed to enjoy it, they got home Saturday afternoon about 4pm. Teagan said his favorite part was..."watching a movie with Kaleb and Maxwell in the tent. And playing a game where the bad guys had to run away from the good guys and the good guys had to run away from the bad guys. Me and Magnum had walkie-talkies so we could talk to each other cause if we were getting chased by bad guys."

While the boys were gone, us girls had to do something fun! So we spent all day Friday out and about. We packed a lunch and ate it in the car on the way to our first stop...the Mall. We just walked around for awhile. The girls played but that didn't last very long, so we started making our rounds. (We always have to stop at the book store and the pet store.) The only store in the mall that I actually made a purchase from was Hi-Health. After we left the mall we headed to Sonic for 3 cups of ice. (Their ice is my favorite. I usually get a cup of it and then just fill it with my water, but this time we actually filled them with something else! Some vitamin water that I had just bought from Hi-health. The girls were very excited about that.) After feeling refreshed, we headed to Micheal's for a few craft supplies. I saw an idea of felt pizza online and thought it was cute, and since I already had a lot of felt I decided we would try it out. (It's been awhile since we have done craft time and I thought we should get going on that again.)

When I asked Maylee what she wanted to do for girls night, she said she wanted to watch a movie and eat popcorn. So, I thought it would be fun to let her choose a movie from "the movie store" aka: Blockbuster. We ran in to Subway (which was right next door) to use the restroom, but we were all so hungry because we had an early lunch, that we decided to have an early dinner too...it was 4:30. After we ate our sandwiches we picked out a movie from Blockbuster. First, Maylee choose a Care Bear movie, but I told her if she wanted me to watch it with her she might need to choose a different one. So, she went with "Shark tale." We drove home and put on the movie and I made popcorn and chocolate milk...I had made some for the boys to take with them and the girls were a little jealous. After the girls went to bed that night, I stayed up and cut out the stuff for the felt pizza, which the girls spend awhile playing with today.







I also painted Maylee and Livia's toe-nails today, which went perfect with "girl time." It wasn't planned but I walked into my bathroom to find Livia sitting on the counter painting her own toe-nails! Luckily she was on her first one and there was no polish to be seen any where else.


We love when the boys are home...but sometimes it's nice to have a little girl time! And I am sure that the boys enjoyed their time away too!

We have Chicks!

On my quest to a healthy lifestyle over the past years, I have also found a desire to become more self-sufficient. There are the obvious things…such as growing a garden, ect. But for me, it turned into more. The thought of being able to provide for my family without going to the store became exciting. (I sometimes get ideas in my head that are…silly, but I plan and think about them in detail.) Well, I thought about it and decided that we would turn half of our back yard into a garden… (our garden right now is pretty pathetic), that would provide us with vegetables, and we would plant 3 trees, (we already have an orange tree), and maybe a peach tree…that takes care of our fruit, and then a nut tree, perhaps pecan…that would be for our protein. We would be set! Well, not really, but I thought it was a good idea. Well, it’s a few years later and we still just have our little area for our garden (but it has produced a lot of veggies for us) and we still just have our one orange tree. (I am hoping that it gives us more than 2 oranges, like it did last season.) Around that same time that I was having my epiphany of growing as much food as I could on our little ¼ of an acre lot, my friend mentioned getting chickens. I fell in love with the idea! (Okay, I know, I am a little weird.) I have always wanted to live in the country on a farm, and the thought of bringing some farm-ness to my little urban neighborhood was exciting. So, once again, that was a few years ago…BUT it has finally happened. Thanks to Kevin for giving me love and support and for also building the chicken coop! It is taking some time, but it is almost complete. We have had the chicks for a few weeks now, and I know they will be excited to be in their new home instead of crammed in a little box.

Teagan, Maylee, and Livia were so excited to get the chicks. We let them each pick out one that they wanted to take home. There were luckily many to choose from. (We went the week before and the chicks were all sold…it was Easter weekend.)

We let them choose names for their new…pets??? Teagan and Maylee took no time to name theirs. Livia took a little longer. Every name anyone of us suggested, she said “no.” Finally I apparently said a good one, because all the kids said “yeah!”
And the results are…
Teagan- Chirp-ie (“because it chirps a lot”)

Maylee- Beak-ie (“because it has a beak”)

Livia- Brown-ie (me- “because it is a brown color”)

(Oh, that's not Livia holding the chick by the way :) She wasn't too fond of actually touching them for the first day.)

The chicken coop is being built a little bit at a time. Kevin and I looked at pictures of coops online and I liked the ones with a pitched roof, and I told Kevin if it wasn't too hard I would like him to build one. Well, it was for sure a lot harder, but he still did it that way even though I told him he didn't have too. (What a sweet guy.)

Here I am painting away. Maylee and Teagan loved helping with this part. Livia wanted too but, ahh...I made her be in charge of stirring the paint. That seemed to be enough for her so I was glad. I am hoping that by this weekend it will be COMPLETELY done. I might have to post a picture of it then...

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

The other day (Tuesday, I think) it was a really windy day. I was in the middle of making dinner and kind of suddenly, everyone ran outside to fly kites. (Teagan got a kite for Easter and was SO excited about it. He had been wanting another one for a month or so since his last one broke.) It was almost too windy! I was having a hard time taking pictures of the kites, they kept flying all over the place...which I guess is what they are suppose to do. :) I did get a few good shots of them and the kids flying them. Teagan's ended up getting stuck on our roof, but with the help of our neighbor, the boys were able to get it down. The kite flying only lasted about 15 minutes but it was sure fun to watch!

Here is Teagan's Eagle kite. It almost looks real, doesn't it?

It's hard to see in the picture but the string was tangled all over the place.

Maylee has had her kite for quite a few years. She was excited to be able to get it out of the closet.

Here it is. Her famous Strawberry Shortcake kite that I bought who knows how long ago at Wal-Mart for one dollar.

Easter Weekend

Our Easter fun began on Friday. We went over to my mom and dad's so the kids could color some eggs, an Easter tradition. It was Teagan, Maylee, Livia and Isabella. They sat outside at the little picnic table and colored a few dozen eggs. (no pictures, I know, I am a loser for not taking my camera.) Almost every egg Maylee colored was pink, Teagan switched colors almost every time and Livia just dumped her egg in whatever color was in front of her. After the kids were done we headed over to the temple to see the Easter pageant, another tradition...I think we have gone every year since Kevin and I have been married. We got there about 5:45, which I thought would be plenty early and yet we still had a hard time finding a spot. (We always bring blankets and sit in the grass.) Me and the kids stayed and Kevin went to find us dinner. I think this was the first time that I didn't pack a picnic dinner for us. I was planning on it but...well, it's a long story. So, Kevin came back with Subway. It was a good night and the kids really liked watching the pageant. Livia enjoyed every time she saw an animal of some kind.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of rain. I looked outside and it was pretty wet and I thought, "there goes most of our plans for today." It was suppose to be a busy day filled with egg hunts and projects outside. I spent most of the day getting inside chores done and we went to one egg hunt. Oh, and during the middle of breakfast I realized that Peaches (our cat) was probably wet since there are no places outside to keep him dry. I was feeling really bad while I was washing the breakfast dishes so I stopped and grabbed an umbrella and large towel and headed outside. I found a cozy spot for him in the corner of the yard. I bunched the blanket kinda in a ball on the ground and positioned the umbrella over it. When Kevin realized what I was doing he started laughing.

Anyways, back to Easter. We got the kids ready and headed to Kevin's parents for our annual egg hunt. It was pretty chilly outside but for some reason I didn't dress the kids real warm. I don't know, I think of Easter as short and t-shirt kinda weather.

Here we are on our way...the kids insisted on wearing sunglasses, even though the sky was covered in clouds.

The poor baby doll in the middle of the girls looks like it is in serious pain!




Okay, so the race was on...and here is Livia just looking at the ground. At least she has a few eggs in her basket already. (She is not always fond of getting her picture taken.)



After a long night of eating and egg hunting...(Ryan was the big winner this year. I think my family, Kev, me and the kids, made out with about 10 bucks total) we headed home. The Easter bunny visited that night and left the kids their trails. Teagan woke up first and was begging to wake the girls up. I just hate interrupting their precious sleeping time...but hey, it was Easter. So the girls woke up and I grabbed the camera and headed out to see what the Bunny left in their trails. Livia was a little unsure of how to go about this, but she got the hang of it in no time.




They found all sorts of fun stuff:
Maylee got a bunny pen that lights up when you write...


They all got a container of bubbles...

Easter eggs filled with trail mix...




and of course peanuts! It wouldn't be Easter without them.


At the end of the trail they each found a movie. Teagan was pretty excited...he loves movies!

American Legends, Sword in the Stone, Barney

It was a little bit of a crazy day. You would think that having church at 2pm would give us plenty of time to get ready. Well, it being Easter and Kevin had a few meetings and I was preparing some food to take to my mom's for Easter dinner and trying to get all of us ready...we were late to church. The first time in a long time. I was pretty sad, especially since it was Easter. I didn't even have time to take pictures of the kids before church. So as soon as I got to my parents I pulled out the camera for a little picture taking.

After we ate a wonderful Easter meal we had our egg hunt. First the kids went and then we had our hunt where it's a race to find our name in the egg. I didn't do so good. I found mine last...actually, I had Kevin finally tell me since everyone else had found theirs. But it was still fun.

Suns Game, General Conference and Family Home Evening

Now, as most of you can tell...I am no writer. I wish I was, but I am not. So here are just a few pictures of Livia to start this post with. I wish I had a cute little story to go with them. But all I can say is that she got out the curlers so I put some in her hair and then she got out her favorite game, Old MacDonald. She was playing so good all by herself for awhile. It was great!

Last weekend we ended up having 2 tickets to the Suns game. It was kinda last minute (too late to find a babysitter) so I told Kevin to take Teagan. The girls were a little bummed that they didn't get to go (even though they had no clue where the boys were going, they just knew that Teagan was going somewhere and they weren't) but I told them I would make popcorn and we could watch a movie. Teagan was excited about going...he loves having one on one time with just me or Kevin. They sat pretty far up, but still had a good time.




On one of their bathroom runs they ran into the Gorilla and took a quick picture with him.


Teagan said this was his favorite part of going to the game. I don't even know how to describe this. I've seen something similar to it in a Las Vegas hotel. It's like a digital screen on the floor that moves or changes when you step on it...I don't know. Anyways, it's pretty cool.




This past weekend was General Conference. One of our family's um, I guess traditions, is to update our 72-hour kits. So while we are watching conference we get out each backpack and eat a snack or two from it and put something new inside. And make sure toys, clothes, etc. is updated. It's probably my kids favorite part of watching conference. :) Although I did give them each a bag of stuff to keep them busy, which they seemed to enjoy. Pictures to color, church books to look at, conference crosswords, that kind of stuff. After the Sunday afternoon session we got ready and headed to Chris and Bill's for FHE. (Our family tradition every 1st Sunday of the month. Well we rotate.)



By accident the kids were all matching in brown...so of course I had to get my camera.
You know, people ask me alot if Teagan and Maylee are twins. I always thought they were crazy. Hello! They are 2 years apart. But...looking at this picture I am thinking that they are about the same size and they do look alot alike. Huh.





The Girls...

FHE was fun. Bill made us some dutch oven stew with biscuits and some divine looking cinnamon rolls. After we ate and the kids played for awhile Madison gave a great Easter lesson and we got to color our own cards for a matching game.


Teagan loves to go to Aunt Chris's house so he can play with Calvin and Taylor. Here he is demonstrating his Jedi skills against the dark Sith, Darth Calvin. Right before we left I had the kids get their PJ's on. Teagan had his "Clone Wars" pajama's and they turned on the soundtrack from "Episode one" the fighting scene. Teagan was in heaven...oh and Chris turned off the lights while they fought too!



Kev and me...not much more to say :)



Sitting around the campfire, or backyard fire, or um, the fire pit?
Mom, Taylor, Izzy, Livia and Madi.



Maylee Moo finishing off the fruit.

It was a fun weekend. It's always good to spend time with family.