SePtEmBeR 2011

September has been wonderful.  The weather was perfect.  Warm enough during the day to still go to the pool, but cool enough at night to be able to sit outside and enjoy the fresh air.  The month was pretty relaxing and not real overwhelmingly busy.  Kamryn and Brynlee are doing great in school and are both enjoying being in dance again.  Taylor has been really busy with work and is working very hard.  As for myself I have been busy taking care of the kids and doing mommy things everyday (which I love).

We had a few good rain showers and the kids loved playing in the rain and playing with the umbrella's.   

Kamryn, Brynlee, Myself, and Grandma Shelly went to Tuacahn to go see Disney's The Little Mermaid.  It was FABULOUS!  They did a wonderful job and we were all very impressed.  I would say that it is Tuacahn's BEST show yet.

Every year Taylor's family goes to the Dixie Round-up Rodeo.  It is such a fun tradition.  We all go to the Rodeo parade, then head to grandma Hafen's for dinner, and then we all head to the rodeo.  It's such a fun time and we look forward to it every year.

Kamryn is progressing in her reading very well and we have made a commitment to read every night (except friday and saturday, we take the weekend off ).  Kamryn reads 1 book to me and then I allow each of the kids to pick a book and I read their books to them.  We read for about 20 minutes a night so we can reach Kamryn's goal of reading 100 minutes a week.  It's been so fun and Kamryn has been getting a lot of rewards at school for doing so.  She has won a free pizza at pizza hut and she is trying to win pizza and a movie for her class.  Ambitious?!?!?....yeah, I think so.

Sometimes Brynlee just can't make it through the 20 minutes and she crashes in my arms.  It's so cute, she grasps my arms and snuggles right in and slowly starts to fall asleep.

My cousin Jess got married the end of September and Taylor was nice enough to take me up to Provo to attend the wedding.  The wedding was beautiful and was held at the Riverside Country Club.  It was so great to see family I haven't seen in so long and it was nice to just get away for a day.

Ryker is growing like a weed and it is breaking my heart.  He is so sweet!  I cuddle, kiss, and love on this kid all day.  He is now 7 months and 15 lbs. 13 oz. and in the 10%.  He has gained 10 lbs. since birth and bumped up from the 3% to the 10%.  He rolls all over the place and jibber jabbers all day long.  He has found his voice and LOVES to hear it.  He loves to roll away from me while changing his booty.  I think he likes the feeling of freedom from the diaper.  He also loves his toes.  He is such a little stud.

SePtEmBeR is gone and FaLl is here.  I can't wait for October to bring me some fresh cool air, changing of leaves, big rain/thunderstorms, and a few snuggles in a nice cozy warm blanket.  Bring it on!

August 2011

I am sad to see August go.  It's a fun month for us!  Taylor and I celebrate our anniversary on the 7th (we shared our 7th anniversary this year), Kamryn has her birthday on the 13th (6 years old...HOLY CRAP), and then back to school always sneaks up on us (Hallelujah). Which means no more lazy days, but it also means we are on a better schedule .  This August also marked the 1 year anniversary of us being back in St. George.  It's been a fun, chaotic, busy, joyful, and fast year.  I can't believe it has already been a year.  I miss Northern Utah but I have also enjoyed being with all my good friends again and having family near us. 

We have spent about 3-4 days a week at the pool this summer.  We have all enjoyed swimming and tanning. Kamryn and Brynlee have worked really hard on their swimming technique and are great swimmers.  They both swim without floaties, and dive to the bottom of the pool. Ryker also enjoys the pool and is a little fishy.  His legs just kick and kick and kick once they hit the water.  He loves it!

Ryker is such a mommas boy.  If he is on the floor playing or in his jumper and I happen to walk by without picking him up he will just cry and cry until I do so.  Taylor and I went out and did a little shopping and went to dinner on our anniversary and when we came home he just snuggled me for hours.  It's so cute and I love his snuggles but it sure is hard to get anything done around the house.

We have found Ryker doing a lot of this lately.   He is such a binky baby, but if he can't find his binky he resorts to the thumb.  I have to admit it is cute, but it won't be cute when he walks into his kindergarten class sucking his thumb.  I am so against thumb sucking (sorry to those I am offending).  You can easily and gradually get rid of a binky but the thumb you can't get rid of.  I have watched so many people struggle with getting their child to stop sucking their thumb.  A few of my other kids have tried sucking their thumbs but did not succeed because I wouldn't allow it.  Ryker on the other hand has been a little harder to get him to stop.  But I am determined.

Tayson loves his sisters and loves to sneak out of his room at night and sneak into bed to snuggle with his sisters.  He hates being left out.

Kamryn's 6th birthday.  Wow!  She sure is growing up right before our eyes.  She is our little smarty pants and is so sweet and shy.  We had to start out her birthday with the traditional birthday breakfast donut.

 Then we headed over to the pool to have a party with family and friends.  She had marshmallow covered cupcakes, cupcake pops, loads of candy, drinks, and homemade oreo's for all her friends.

My best bud and her kids came to celebrate and our two little nuggets just chilled and played by each other.  These 2 are only 3 days apart from each other and I hope they become the best of buds.

Princess Sleeping Beauty made a special appearance at Kamryn's party.  Kamryn was so excited and a little shocked.  It was a complete surprise to her.  She felt special and loved the attention from her.  A special thanks to her aunt Kaylissa who did this for her birthday present.

My kids always want pinatas at their birthday parties but I am always to cheap to pay 20 bucks for it.  So I decided to get creative and make one for Kamryns party.  It was fun and the kids enjoyed watching and helping me but it was a complete disaster and way to much work.  20 bucks is definitely worth it.

Singing to the birthday girl.  What a great party!

Ryker loves his baby food, but sometimes he likes the bowl even better.  Silly kid.

Taylor was the guinea pig for our Stake Provident Living Fair and got dunked a bunch of times by all the primary kids.  Kamryn, Brynlee, and Tayson got in on the action and dunked dad a few times as well as I thoroughly enjoyed sitting back and watching him get dunked after dunk after dunk after dunk.  hehe

We went to the lake with some friends and came home with sunburns but it was totally worth it.

Kamryn started Kindergarten this year.  She has been looking forward to it for a long time.  I was happy and excited for her.  She has been in preschool for 2 years and she was WAY ready for kindergarten.  I didn't think I was gonna be real sad letting her go cause it is almost like being in preschool.  But I found myself getting a little teary eyed and postponing her from walking in the school by taking a million pictures.  Why do they have to grow up so fast???

I have been trying to occupy Ryker with things to do while I try to get stuff done around the house.  This is his first time in the jumper.  He liked it for a few seconds until he realized that I put him in there so I didn't have to hold him anymore.  It took him awhile to really enjoy the jumper and to be ok with me walking away for a few minutes.

We went to Vegas with our good friends Chance and Allie and went to the Bellagio to see "O".  It was such a blast and we needed the break so bad.  The show was fabulous and so were our seats.  We sat in box seats and got to see everything from above.  It was a neat experience.  We got to see behind the scenes and alot of the work that goes into the show.

It's hard to get anything done around the house with this little peanut, so I just let him join in on the fun.  He enjoys doing laundry with me.

I bought Tayson some McQueen slippers and he wears these things all over the place.

 Taylor came home from work one night to find us at the pool soaking up some sun.  So he came over and I started cleaning up thinking that he came over to help me get the kids home.  Well I turned around to pick something up and turned back around to find Taylor taking off his shoes and jumping in the pool in his work clothes.  It was AWESOME!  The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever and it is one of those memories that we will laugh about and smile about forever.  Totally spur of the moment and priceless.  This picture is of course the 2nd time he jumped in and the kids joined him.  It's a pretty good re-inactment though.  This is pretty much how he jumped in.

Brynlee started preschool and she was soooo excited.  She has been waiting a whole year for Kamryn to start Kindergarten so that she could be in preschool.  Here she is on her first day of school.  It's kind of weird having 2 kids in school and only 2 kids at home.

We had a fun month and we are excited for September's festivities.

June and July 2011

It's that time again, it's time to update the blog.  This summer has been so busy for us.  It has flown by, which is so sad.  We have had so much fun but I can't believe it is almost over.  

Let's start off with the month of June. There is a lot to report on...

Remember my last post when I put a picture of Kamryn in the hallway sleeping on the floor???  Well that is pretty normal for our family.  Our kids sleep everywhere and anywhere.  I used to find Kamryn sleeping under her bed, in her closet, by the toilet, and many more randome spots.  Brynlee and Tayson do the same.  They are all over the house at night.  I have even caught Kamryn sleep walking.  It's pretty creepy!  She tells random stories, she gets violent, she is dullusional, and then she will all of the sudden just drop to the floor and fall right back to sleep.  It's weird!  My kids could sleep on a bed of rocks and it wouldn't even bother them.  Here are a few pictures of my kids and their weird sleep positions and random places.   

I will find these two sleeping on top of each other, I will find their feet on each others faces, and many more weird positions.  This particular night I found Brynlee sleeping at the bottom of her bed with Kamryn's slippers on her hands.  Too cute!

This one is my favorite.  Brynlee loves Ryker!  She has a very hard time not pinching his cheeks and kissing his lips all day long.  She would pick him up and carry him around like a doll if I would let her.  Kids are the best!

 Tayson's room is right by our living room so we will often find him hiding inbetween things trying to sneak a peak at the t.v. while mom and dad are catching up on their favorite shows.

Brynlee doesn't get naps during the day anymore because she has a really hard time sleeping at night if she sneaks in a nap.  She is one big ball of energy!  So we skip nap time (and replace it with quiet time) and go to bed early at night.  Sometimes waiting until 8 o'clock is just to hard and she crashes in the car.

All ready for church.

This is my really really good friend Brooke's little baby who is only 3 days older than Ryker.  The size difference in these two makes me giggle every time we get them together.  They are ADORABLE!

I took this picture of Ryker sleeping in daddy's arms because the position of his hand is just too cute.  But what I find even more interesting is that Taylor is so NOT a multi-tasker but he somehow managed to hold his son, change the channel with the remote, and text on his phone all at the same time.  BUT when it comes to me needing him to do a few things he just can't handle more than one task at a time.  Hmmm....  (makes me smile)

Tayson's PRE-3rd birthday bash with grandma's and grandpa's.  We had to have a little party for Tayson a few days before his actual birthday because Grandma and Grandpa were going out of town.  We went swimming, had a BBQ, and had a Woody and Buzz themed party for him.  He loved it!

On his real birthday we had the traditional birthday donut, opened presents, went to Fiesta Fun and rode bumper boats, and ate cupcakes at 25 Main.

I am one lucky woman to be able to wake up to this sweet face.  I am so bad at getting up with him at night.  I am so pooped at the end of the day and have such a hard time getting up with him.  So instead I just roll over, pick him up, nurse him and snuggle with him and just go right back to sleep.  I have to admit....I LOVE IT!  I love snuggling my babies and want to get every last second I can with them because they grow up way to darn fast.  Even though I shouldn't do this....I just can't resist.  Oh well, we all have our flaws as parents right?!?!

My growing baby boy.

STRETCH...

I made this onesie and blanket for Ryker and of course had to take a picture of him in it.

Ryker had so much hair when he was born, but after 3 months he lost almost all of it except for a few random weird spots.  You can see the weird hairs that stuck up funny and the patch he had at the bottom of his head.

So I gave him a little trim.  It looks much better!  Holding him and cutting his hair was quite the task though.

We took the kids to go see Disney's Cars 2 on the day it came out in the theatres.  Mater surprised everybody with a visit.

Peek-A-Boo...I see you.

We also spent some time in Pine Valley and rode four wheelers and visited with family.

Now onto the month of July.  We enjoyed all the activites and pool days.

July 4th we went swimming and spent the evening at Grandma and Grandpa Hafens to watch fireworks.

My family moved up North in May to take care of my Grandma's ranch while she goes on her mission and so we decided to take a trip up to see them.  My Grandma was leaving on her mission in a few days so it was perfect timing to see everybody and say goodbye.  We also just wanted to get away on a vacation and do some shopping.

Here is Tayson by the HUGE windmills.  Well....they are huge in person but definitely not huge in a picture.  They were pretty incredible.

We decided that we had to go see my Great Grandma Ikhaml who is now 96 years old.  She is one magnificent woman and still going strong.  She AMAZES me!  I sure do miss having her close to us.

We took the kids to Chuck E Cheese to play.  They miss having a Chuck E Cheese close to them.  We used to go all the time when we lived in Spokane and when we lived up North.  St. George really needs to work on getting one.

On Brynlee's first try at this game she won 200 tickets.  She was so happy with herself.

The kids rocking out to the Chuck E Cheese band with Kate.

My Grandma Roundy gave the kids a pinwheel and they dragged those things around with them all over.  They still drag them everywhere.

Great Grandma Roundy and Grandma Tano have these things called Hex Bugs and the kids had a blast with them. 

Taylor and I took the four wheelers out with my parents to go shoot and to overlook my Grandparents property.  It's beautiful!

The kids were sad to say goodbye.  They had fun playing with the chickens, riding four wheelers, looking at the Llama's, watching the horses and cows, and much much more.

I took the girls to get feathers in their hair at the hairschool that I went to.  They were so excited to have someone do their hair other than their mom.  I was gonna put the feathers in their hair myself but it would have cost me a fortune to buy the feathers and all the tools to do it myself and only 6 bucks a girl at the hairschool.  So we of course chose the cheaper option and they loved that idea.  It was way fun for them to go into a salon.

Don't they look so excited?!?!?! (sarcasm)  They really were way excited and haven't stopped talking about "The Barber Shop" since.

Here we are at Jacie and Danny's wedding.  That was a fun and special day.  I love weddings!

Playing with cousins Maudi, Marlee, and Malea at the wedding luncheon.

Cousin Jordan aka Jordo with all the little cousins.  The kids love him to pieces.

Here are the kids with cousin Marlee and the beautiful bride Jacie.  The girls felt like they were in Disneyland with a princess around all day.

Ryker got his first dose of baby food.  I gave him sweet potatoes and he enjoyed every last bite.  None of my kids have been great eaters, especially when it comes to vegetables.  But he ate the whole thing like a champ.  He LOVED it and was ticked when we were done.  Makes me hapy and it makes feeding him so much more fun.

Second attempt was with Squash.  He did pretty darn good, but didn't love it as much as the sweet potatoes.

We say farewell to June and July (and our summer) and welcome August with open arms!  Let's see what is in store for us!