Preschool is Cool

Hallie started preschool today!!! She has been waiting and waiting for this day ever since Abbi started school last week. She couldn't wait for her special day with Miss Amy, her teacher. She got right up and got dressed in the clothes she picked out the night before. Then we did her hair just how she wanted it in "one bun on the side with a bow." She had to wait for about 3o minutes for me to get myself and the babies ready to take her to her first day and it about killed her. She kept telling me to hurry up and kept asking, "are you ready yet?" Finally we were loaded in the car and ready to go. Her teacher was waiting for her when she got there and we took some pictures. I can't believe that I didn't even cry this year. I usually shed a tear or two, but I think because she was so excited I was able to hold it together.
This will be Hallie's 3rd year of preschool and we know she is going to do great and use this extra year to give her extra time to learn things she needs to know for Kindergarten next year. However, I don't think I will be able to hold the tears back then.

Tubby Time For Lacie

I LOVE giving my babies their first baths. The day Lacie's umbillical cord fell off we gave her her very first bath. At first she wasn't quite sure about the whole thing, but she soon discovered that she loved it and was so good the whole time.

Back To School

I always have mixed feelings about the kids going back to school. This year I had a lot of anxiety for Abbi to go back to school mainly because she was starting a new school since we moved across town. It's all just different and stresses me out a little. But the morning school started Abbi was up and at 'em and excited for the first day of 4th grade. She was so cute with her clothes this year. I hardly helped her pick them out at all. She did it all on her own. School shopping was extra fun because she was so into it and so excited about all her clothes. She looked so cute for her first day and ended up having a terrific day. She loves her teacher, Mr. Oyler, and has made some new friends. We still miss our old school but we know that our new school will be just as fun.

Days 3 -

I only ended up opening 2 of my bags before Lacie decided to make her appearance into the world. I opened up the rest of the them and wanted to post what was inside.

Day 3: drinks for the kids and me and some treats with a note inside that said to pack a lunch and head to the park with the kids and let them play while I sit and relax.

Day 4: There actually wasn't a note with this one, but I'm juding from the popcorn that we were supposed to rent a movie and have a movie day.

Day 5: Candy and some foot lotion with a note that said to give myself a little pedicure.

Day 6: Lotion, bubble bath, a candle and some candy with a note that said to find some time for a bubble bath.

Day 7: cute froggie pajamas and some money with a note that said to take the kids and get one of our favorite summer treats, Shave Ice.

My mom is seriously the greatest and I hope that I can be like her someday.

Lacie Gwen

Thursday, August 12th I started having really hard contractions at about 7:30 p.m. Jeff was not home so I went about my business cleaning the house and getting things ready to possibly go to the hospital. By 10:00 that night, the contractions were coming about every 5 minutes so I decided to call Jeff to see when he would be home. He told me he was on his way and I said that we had better go over to the hospital when he got home. He called his mom and dad (they live just down the street from us.) They told him that they would be there to watch the kids and to just get ready to go. I called my mom and sister and told them that I thought this was it. When Jeff's mom and dad got to our house, Jeff and his dad gave me a blessing and we were off to the hospital. Jeff's mom decided to meet us over at the hospital. When I got there they monitored me for about 2 hours and then told me that I was going to have to go home because I wasn't dialating at all. I started crying because I was in so much pain and didn't know how I was going to labor like this at home. After checking my blood pressure one last time and seeing that it was elevated, they decided to keep me! I was so happy to say the least. At about 3 a.m. they put me on pitossin to see if it would get me to dialate. Finally at 7 a.m. the nurse came in and checked me a final time and said that I was finally to a 3 and that I could have the epidural whenever I wanted it. I wanted it!!!! After giving me the epidural I dialated to a 6 pretty quickly and then a few hours later I was at a 9. I started pushing at 1:30 p.m. and ended up having Lacie Gwen at 3:29 p.m. on Friday August 13th. She weighed 8lbs. 3 oz. and was 20 inches long.

A photographer comes to the hospital we stayed at and did these pictures for us. I thought they were so cute, so of course, I had to purchase the cd and copyright.

Michelle came to the hospital the same day and brought her camera so we got some really cute ones from her, too.

We are in complete and total love with our new little one. Lacie has completed our family and I can't imagine life without her.

Day #2

This was the package I chose this morning. Inside was cute little new born jammies and a $10 bill with a note saying to go to McDonald's and let the kids play. I need to get out of the house today, so this will be the perfect activity for us.

Day #1

I woke up Wednesday morning and was so excited to pick my first bag. I chose this one:

Inside was some candy and supplies to do Mary Kay's Satin Hands. If you have ever had this treatment done on your hands you know what a treat it really is. I ate some candy and did the treatment on myself. My hands felt silky smooth.

Only 6 days to go. I can make it!!!

A Fun Surprise!

Many of you know that my due date has come and gone. Little Lacie Gwen was supposed to come on August 10th. Never in a million years did I think I would make it to my due date. To tell you the truth, I thought I would be holding a week old baby by now. But since it is my first pregnancy, the doctor said that I have to go a week overdue before she can induce me, that is, unless I was to dilated to a 3 and be 80% effaced. She said her hands are tied. I personally would like to know who has this ball of string that has tied her hands... SERIOUSLY! Anyway I fell into a major depression Tuesday afternoon after my doctors appointment. I had been having some pretty painful contractions over the past week so I was sure that I was dilated and effaced to where I needed to be. But to no avail. The doctor scheduled me for an induction on Tuesday, August, 17th. Which is only a week, but I am so uncomfortable and ready to get this baby OUT!!! I cried my eyes out all afternoon. How was I going to make it a whole week? Later that evening, my sweet mom showed up. She had with her a big bag full of smaller bags and some pretty flowers.

She told me that there was a bag to open each morning. They say cute things on them like, "Lacie's coming!" "It's a new day!" "Almost here!" I am so excited to open all the bags one by one. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning trying to decide which present to open first.

Abbi Turns 9!

I cannot believe Abbi is 9! Seriously, this girl is just getting too old too fast. This year she decided that she wanted to decorate her room since she now has her own. She has very, shall we say, specific and expensive taste. So we told her that if she wanted to do that, she needed to forgo the friend birthday party and put the money we would have spent into her room. She was all for it. We still had her family birthday party, of course.

She got lots of cute stuff for her room and even ended up with some toys that she picked out from Grandma and Grandpa. They always take the kids a couple days before their birthdays and let them pick out their own present and then they take them to dinner.
If you can't tell by the pictures, she decided to go with a black, white and red color scheme for her room. And she HAD to have zebra print incorporated somewhere. We got it all done. I will post pictures, soon I promise.

She decided on a guitar cake this year which was really fun and easy to make. Thank goodness for FamilyFun.com. Happy birthday Abster Lou, we love you!

Rodeo In Manilla

The company that Jeff works for, Morinda Agriculture, was a major sponsor for the Junior Rodeo down in Manilla over the 4th of July weekend. Monday Jeff needed to drive out there so we decided to take the 3 hour drive out there with him. It was a really fun afternoon. Above is the picture of the banner from Morinda Agriculture. I love to see it at the rodeos because they have all worked so hard to come this far.
The girls found this little caterpillar that kept them entertained the whole time we were there. I'm not sure what happened to the poor little thing in the end. Hopefully it found it's family.

The kids also loved watching the rodeo. They thought it was cool that all of the contestants were kids just like them.

Here's me and my sweetie enjoying the rodeo. It was a fun little trip. We didn't get home until about midnight, but that was okay because we had such a great time together. I love being with my little family.

Picking Flowers and 4 Wheeling

This year for the 4th of July, my parents went camping up to Skyline. They invited us up to do a little 4 wheeling and have dinner with them. We pulled into where they were camping and their was fields full of these beautiful purple flowers. Abbi and Hallie spent most of their time picking bouquets of flowers.
Check out Hallie's princess shoes. We told her we were going camping and she ran and got her princess shoes because I guess that's what you wear when you're a princess and go camping. There was no talking her out of it, so we let her wear them.

We all enjoyed a little 4 wheeling and a delicious dinner prepared by my mom and dad. They always go the extra mile to make things fun for everyone. They even watched the kids for about an hour while Jeff and I went on a little ride on the 4 wheeler.

Birthday Party #2 For Our 5 Year Old

We always do a friend birthday party and then a family birthday party. Hallie got to share her birthday with all the father's of the world as her birthday fell on Father's Day this year. We had a party down at my parents house. My mom took care of dinner and I brought the treat. Hallie requested a Princess Barbie cake this year so I did my best at attempting to make one. I think it turned out really cute and it was by far one of the funnest cakes I have ever made.
She got lots of fun presents. Her birthmom, Jordann, took her shopping a couple days before her and let her pick out something. She chose a dress up. Then the next day she went shopping with my parents and got... you guessed it, another dress up. Jeff and I got her a pair of cowboy boots and a picnic table. She also got the movie Princess And The Frog and some coloring books.

She had a really fun birthday and she's already planning out what she wants next year. We love our little Hallie and cannot believe she is 5!

Someone Turned 5

Hallie's birthday this year was so much fun because she was SO excited for it. We had a little swim party in our backyard for her and invited her cousins and friends over for an afternoon of fun. The kids loved the pinata and the big pool the most. We also had a slip and slide but not too many of the kids played on that. Another fun thing we did was put the sprinkler under our trampoline. The kids thought that was great.
I was too worn out to make a cake for her party, so Jeff convinced me to just buy cupcakes. What a great idea that was! It was so easy and the funny thing is, until he said that, I hadn't even considered it. But the kids loved them.

This is my favorite picture of Korver right now. He loved the water and being outside with his sisters and all the kids having fun.

She had such a fun party. Thanks to all of her little friends and cousins who helped her celebrate it.

Girls Trip To St. George

My friend, Cindy, and I decided that we needed a little R&R away from home. We decided to take the two older girls to St. George and enjoy a weekend away. Our first stop once we got down there was to The Sweet Toothe Fairy to see our friend, Cammie. She recently moved down there to open up a cupcake shop. We each enjoyed our favorite cupcakes which were SO delicious.

We did a little shopping and then headed to Chili's to eat dinner. It was super yummy and they even sang Happy Birthday to Cindy. Her birthday was a few days before we left.
Most of our time was spent at the pool at the condo. The girls loved it so much. It wasn't very warm, though, any of the days we were there and actually stormed late afternoon on a couple of the days. But it was still fun.

While we were there we also saw the movie Date Night, which was hillarious and ate at Brick Oven. My favorite night was the night we decided to stay in and rent a movie and order pizza and pig out on ice cream Sunday's. It was a nice little getaway and I wish I could do it more often. Next year I think we will take Hallie. She will be old enough to go I think by then.

Family Trip To Jackson Hole

This year for our family vacation we went to Jackson Hole with my family. My mom dances with The Golden Girls and they had a performance up there so we all went and spent a few days. The weather was freezing, but it was still fun. One of the funnest things we did was go to the Alpine Slides up there. I obviously couldn't go, so I stayed behind to take pictures.

We also went and saw the Bar J Wranglers one of the nights. Jeff and I had seen them several times before, but no one else had. This is one of the only pictures I got that night. My little sister, Kristen is on the left. Cody, my little brother is in the middle.

The Golden Girls danced in the parade. They were really cute. There were quite a few people there and the kids couldn't see. Weston and Cody put the girls up on their shoulders so they could get a better look at Grandma dancing. I love this picture of my boys. Korver loves his daddy!

After the parade the dancers had a performance in the street at the park. At the end of one of their songs, they were supposed to go find some people to dance with. Abbi and Hallie jumped at the chance to dance with Grandma.

After the parade we did a little shopping in Jackson Hole. My dad found this awesome cowboy hat and decided to put it on. He's kind of a dork, but we love him.