just the five of us

Is it Really Christmas?

2011-12-27T21:44:00.002-07:00

This year didn't seem like Christmas at all to me...it might of been because on Christmas Eve my daughter was soaking in the sun and jumping on the trampoline (without a coat).

To my defense I didn't let her start out without a coat on, but after 15 minutes of doing flips and tricks apparently you get hot, so she talked me into letting her play without a coat.

After playing outside we made super yummy gingerbread cookies to decorate for Santa.

On Christmas morning Alexis woke up at 7:15am, which I was super thankful for, but I made her come lay in bed with me until Kyle woke up. After 30 minutes of wiggling everywhere she begged and pleaded to "pretty please, tops on sugar pops" let her go wake him up. I heard that Madi woke my Dad and Val up at 3am, so I'm super thankful we got to sleep in until 7:45am.

Makenna got a Fur-Real puppy from her Grandma and Grandpa Meredith. This little puppy loves to growl and shake his head, so of course that is all you can find Makenna doing now. She was so excited, and I love that I captured this excitement in this picture.

Alexis' favorite present came in the littlest box. A birthstone cupcake necklace. As you can tell by her expression, she couldn't believe Santa really brought it for her.

Kyle wanted a Thor Hammer more than anything, and was so surprised when he got the hammer and a helmet. He's definitely the cutest little Thor ever.

We had a fantastic Christmas this year.

I remember when I was little we kept our Christmas tree up for at least 2 weeks and our toys lived in the living room for at least that same amount of time. You can call me a scrooge, but I needed my house back to normal, so our tree was taken down yesterday and our entire living room was gutted and redecorated.

I'm excited to start this next year with a clean slate, and have a New Year's resolution to leave the year with less than we start it with. Less stuff, less debt, less weight, less stress, just less...I'm really into a simplifying my life right now and this resolution/goal seems absolutely perfect.

Getting ready for Christmas

2011-12-18T16:16:00.000-07:00

Not sure how the last 5 weeks have gotten away from me, but here we are only 7 days before Christmas, so I figured I better update this blog so I don't have a bazillion pictures to post next week.

Trimming the Tree:

Alexis loves everything about Christmas, and somehow talked Justin into putting up our tree the day after Thanksgiving. Usually we wait until a couple weeks before just because we hate getting everything out, but it's been fun having the tree up for so long.

Kyle could care less if we had a tree and was nowhere to be seen most of the afternoon, but my girls loved every minute of it.

Makenna was enthralled by the Christmas lights, and once the ornaments got on the tree I think she's been told NO a million times every day. Thankfully the past few days she has learned to just go up as close to the tree as possible, but she doesn't touch anything now. Thank goodness.

Christmas Card Pictures

Holy Cow, I can't even tell you how difficult it was to get pictures taken for my Christmas cards this year. I tried so many times, and every time the weather wouldn't cooperate, or Makenna decided to be supergirl and push our gate down the stairs and falling down with it (and cutting her entire upper gum and lip in the process), etc... I finally decided to go do it early in the morning one day before anything could change our plans and it was freezing cold, but my kids were troopers.

I couldn't pick my favorite between these two pics of Alexis, it just amazes me how old my baby girl is getting.

Getting all three of my kids to smile and look at the camera might just be the hardest thing ever, and this was literally the only one of all three of them that worked.

Santa's letter:

Alexis was so excited to write her letter to Santa this year. I think more than anything because her handwritting and spelling has improved so much and she could really write him a letter all by herself. Good thing she sent it early too, because last week Santa's elf made a special delivery just for her (a secret letter and a yummy bag of chocolate mints).

Boulter Family Christmas Party:

My favorite tradition growing up was the Boulter Family Christmas Party, and I'm so thankful that we have been able to keep that tradition going for my kids to experience. As stressful as it is coordinating a party for 35 plus people now, somehow we pulled off the best Christmas Party ever this year. We decorated cookies, had WAY too much food, acted out the nativity, had a white elephant gift exchange, and Santa dropped by to entertain (I mean make fun of all the adults) and give the kids new pajamas for Christmas Eve.

Kyle and McKadin are like two peas in a pod, well really two superheroes in a batcave is more like it. They may be like fire and ice, but they sure have a fantastic time when they are with each other.

It's a rare thing that I can get Justin to take a "good" smiling picture with me. I think this might be one of my new favorites.

Here is our little Nativity cast

Owen probably had the best reaction to Santa ever!!! He was freaking out, jumping up and down and could not stop smiling the entire time.

Alexis loves Santa and gives him the biggest hugs every year.

Kyle could not staring at him and just had this cheesy smile the whole time he was sitting on his lap.

Makenna on the otherhand may be having nightmares of this for a long time to come.

All the kids loved Santa, and so did the adults. I caught more than one of them wiping their eyes from laughing so hard.

We have had a fantastic December so far, and my kids can hardly wait for all the fun this week.

I have to put one more picture up of the star of the night. I love this little man, he is so funny, has the cutest chubby little cheeks and this picture is sure to make you smile.

Farmington Trail

2011-11-03T00:22:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago, before the weather decided to completely turn on us, Justin and I took the kids up to the Farmington trail and attempt to get some pictures of them. Justin has not one ounce of patience when it comes to pictures, so we were only there for about 30 minutes. But when you're dealing with three kids 30 minutes is about all you can do.

One thing I've learned having three kids, is that it's virtually impossible to get all three of them looking at the camera and smiling at the same time. I determined to get me the perfect picture of all of them one day. I just have a feeling that we need to wait out this crazy, hyper, running everywhere stage that Makenna is in right now.

Looking at these pictures makes me already miss the warm weather and it's only been cold for like three days.

Halloween

2011-11-03T00:08:00.000-06:00

Halloween came way to fast for us, which also meant we sort of procrasinated carving our pumpkins. Even though we carved them the day before, I think they turned out pretty sweet .The ghost choir is Alexis' (that Justin carved) and the simple one is Makenna's (that I carved-it was the second one I did and I was totally over carving pumpkins, so I literally did the quickest thing I could think of).

This crazy pirate skull is Justin's masterpiece and he was so proud of how it turned out.

This is Kyle's pumpkin, which started out as a monster, but in the end I think it looks more like one of those psychotic rabid alien dogs. (I can't even compare my carving to Justin's, but Kyle loved it and that's all that matters).

Alexis was so excited for her Halloween parade, and has been planning her costume out literaly down to how her hair and makeup would look. I've said it before, but she is absolutely my little fashionista and is so completely obsessed with styling. But I do have to say she looked fabulous and she knew it. (She also looks so old and grown-up, it is crazy).

Justin took this picture right after the parade and I just had to throw it in because I very rarely get pics of me when we go anywhere.

Halloween night we went up to Justin's cousins house so we could go take the kids trick-or-treating with his son. We didn't realize it, but I guess it's our tradition to go with Matt and Cody every year.

Here are my three little cuties, the dark devil angel, red power ranger (because as Kyle puts it, he has be red because he's the leader) and my cute little pumpkin.

I got this Elmo bucket when I was working at Mrs. Fields, in fact I think it was one of our test products for the gifting merchandise and I took it home because it was a sample. Little did I know that 6 years later Makenna would be OBSESSED with Elmo and literally carry it around everywhere.

Halloween was just two days ago, and I bet you won't even be shocked to know that Alexis is already planning her costume for next year. It's going to be awesome, just wait. I have a feeling this little girl is going to have an amazing runway collection at Lincoln Center one day. You should see the sketches she does, it's amazing. I guess when her favorite shows are Project Runway, Fashion Hunters and The Rachel Zoe Project, she destined to be in fashion.

I finally got my kids new pictures finshed, but it's super late, so I'll have to post them in a couple of days.

Fabulous Fall

2011-10-24T10:44:00.000-06:00

We have had a crazy October and have been super busy, but have done a lot of fun things. Thank goodness we have had the most wonderful weather because we have been taking full advantage of it this month (and completely dreading what November is going to bring).

At the beginning of October my little sister got baptized. Madison is the most crazy, spunky little girl and is Alexis' best friend. I love that they are only 5 months apart and are in the same grade, when they are together I honestly feel like they were supposed to be twins because they talk alike, act alike and just love being with each other more than anyone else. Madi's baptism was wonderful and it made Alexis so excited for hers in the Spring.

We went to dinner after her baptism and I got this super cute pic of Justin and Makenna. Honestly I was shocked I got Justin to smile, because he detests my camera. This was the first time I was able to get Makenna's air in pigtails too, but it sort of makes me sad because she just looks way too old with them.

A couple weeks ago we took the kids to Patch's Pumpkin Patch up in Farmington. What's funny is I don't once remember going to a pumpking patch growing up, but my kids look forward to it, almost as much as picking their costumes for Halloween.

Makenna's hair is getting so long, I'm think we may be getting a hair cut soon, at least just to keep her bangs out of her face. Because heaven knows no one is touching those curls in the back. She spent most of the time at the pumpkin patch on Justin's shoulders.

She did let him put her down to explore those gigantic pumpkins at the front.

I loved the sun right as we were leaving and the corn husks made the perfect background. My other two kids were being stinkers, so I just left them alone and took pics of my baby.

We also went to Gardner Village to Witch-a-palooza, our other yearly tradition. But this time we dragged my mom with and it was fantastic because Makenna is a total Grandma's girl and wants nothing to do with me or Justin when she's around. So we actually got to enjoy the decorations and didn't have to chase her around the whole time.

Alexis became the photographer for the last 20 minutes we were there and she took this awesome picture of Kyle, that is so him. He is always chewing on his bottom lip and I love that she got this candid pic of him.

One of the best benefits of working at my station are the free tickets that I get, so we surprised the kids and took them to Lagoon on Saturday. But we found out that having 5 people is defiitely not ideal for Lagoon. Justin and I took turns going on the rides with Kyle and Alexis, while the other one got to walk around with Makenna. She loves being outside and didn't get fussy once, I may of been stuffing her with Teddy Grahams, but hey whatever works, right.

This is the first year Kyle has been tall enough to go on "real" rides, and to be honest I was a little hesitant when he said he wanted to go on The Bat. But as you can see he has the biggest smile and I think he was so proud of himself and came running off the ride yelling "That was Awesome".

Now Alexis, she shocked me, because there is not one ounce of fear in her little body and literally only picked the biggest, fastest rides to go one. Jet Star, Bat, Bombara, Stratosphere, Wild Mouse and believe it or not she ended the day by going on Wicked with me. There were a couple kids on a date next to us and I think he was more worried about her than I was. Of course she told him right as we sat down that she was going to throw up, so that may of freaked him out. But she loved it and was screaming "This is Awesome!!!!" the entire ride and she made the couple next to us laugh the entire time.

Can you tell that Fall is definitely my families favorite season?

In the middle of all this I was able to sneak my kids off and take some new pics of them, so hopefully I can get some of them posted later this week.

most gorgeous family ever

2011-10-18T09:17:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago I took some family pictures for Kelsey's family-their first family pictures ever and I'm dying at how gorgeous everyone in their family is. I actually don't think it's fair that this many photgenic people come from one family, and everyone of them have the same amazing blue eyes.

I think this might be one of my favorite pictures ever, check out those gorgeous blue eyes!

Alexis asked me as I was editing their pictures if I think their Dad has shotguns all over the house to keep the boys away from his beautiful daughters. Seeing these five sisters together is the exact reason why I wanted Alexis to have a sister more than anything. I hope they love these pictures as much as I do.

My lil bros and sis

2011-10-04T18:42:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago Val asked me to take pics of her kiddos because school pictures are so outrageously expensive. I found the coolest hiking trail to take them to, and I'm super excited at how cute they turned out.

I cannot believe how grown up Josh is, even more crazy that I was a senior in high school when he was born-not sure where those 14 years went.)

Mads is a definite poser, and might actually give Alexis a run for her money.

Zach told me he doesn't smile anymore because it's just not the cool 5th grader thing to do. So we made the most of his non-smile. I actually love this picture, he's totally pulling some GQ pose here.

I count this as a sort of smile

the perfect weekend

2011-09-10T18:14:00.000-06:00

It has taken me a week to get to recover from our vacation, but we had a much needed break from reality for a few days and we loved every minute of it. The first day we spent the day at the Main Street river park. I love that they have built this awesome river and splash park in the middle of the city, and the kids loved it. I think Alexis loved being surrounded with girls the entire weekend and having Kyle outnumbered for once.

I love this picture I got of Halle right after she ran through a huge geyser of water. (I tried so many times to get one of Alexis and Kyle, but they had no interest whatsoever in taking pictures with me)

After the kids got all watered out, Nat and I took them on the carousel they have at the same park. Did I tell you how much I love this new park? It was a perfect day.

Later that night the girls decided they wanted to play in the pool some more, so we made our own little beach party and put the chairs in the pool to relax and chill until dinner was ready.

You won't believe what we did the next day...yep, the kids voted to go swimming AGAIN.

That night Halle and Taya wanted to show us a super cool tunnel by my grandpa's house. The kids thought the tunnel was so cool to run through and play in.

but I loved what a cool background it made, and had the perfect model to pose for me.

The kids loved wondering around the trails and were on a hunt for bunnies and lizards.

Alexis stole my camera for a few minutes on the walk and took the most adorable picture of Taya, I just love it. I think I may have a little photographer on my hands.

I should be thankful Alexis loves taking pictures now because it's the only way I get pictures to prove I was there too (sunburn and all).

This little squirt spent most of the time we were there out of the sun, but we managed to sneak her out a few times to play with the kids.

I absolutely needed this vacation and had a lot of fun catching up with Brandon and Nat and my cute Grandpa. Sometimes I wish there were more jobs in St. George, because I would move down there in a heartbeat!!!

are you ready for picture overload?

2011-08-28T12:51:00.000-06:00

so it turns out I have taken a TON of pictures in July and August and haven't posted any of them. I figured I better get caught up before I go to St. George over Labor Day weekend and take a TON more pictures.

this is my adorable niece Ainsley that came to visit in July, and was always asking me to take her picture. When I was taking these pics of her she told me a knock knock joke and still makes me laugh to this day. "Knock, Knock, who's there...Princess, princess who?, I'm the princess silly."

Kyle was so excited to go the zoo and see the dinosaurs, but I don't think he was ready for how big they were and basically clinged to grandma the entire time.

escaping the sun before the bird show started at the zoo.

My little niece Sophie loves baby Makenna and I thought this picture was so sweet of her walking her around the zoo.

Alexis can always be counted on for a perfect picture moment

It's pictures like this that prove how much Kyle just adores his big sister.

Alexis was so excited to start 2nd grade, and took about 30 minutes the night before making sure her outfit was accessorized just right.

I've been trying to embrace the camera more with my kids, and occasionally I get a picture that I love.

ok, seriously, can it get any sweeter than this? I love that Makenna and Justin feel asleep holding hands

love these girls

lil' miss sassy pants x2 (these two just make me laugh, and scares me all at the same time, we have our hands full when they get in high school, because I'm already seeing glimpses what it's going to be like)

Kyle's sport of choice is football- my grandpa is going to be so proud!

I found this picture from Easter on my point and shoot camera, I was wondering why I had no pictures of our egg hunt with Ty's family.

I found this Jazz hat in a box of stuff I've been saving forever. I actually think it might of been Ty's when he was little, but I love it, so I'm claiming Finders Keepers.

Alexis had an absolute blast while Ethan and Aidan were in town, and literally is counting down the weeks until she gets to go stay with them next summer.

I just love these girls, and I think we're looking pretty good after a day at the lake.

My two little water babies

Caleb and Ethan went home from the lake early because they were being stinkers, but Alexis, Zack and Aidan had an absolute blast with each other and we had to pry them off the molecule just so other people could take a turn. Trust me when I say we were little on the lake with them until the sun went down.

At least I have one picture to prove that we do have a day off to just relax once and a while.

Alexis, Aidan and Ainsley got the brillant idea to make their own swimming pool in a cooler.(At least it was in the cooler, when I was little, Ty and I decided to make a swimming pool too, but ours was in our living room-I actually still think that is a sour subject with my parents, because they had to replace all the floor boards and carpet, but man we sure had fun-and I still claim it was all Ty's idea)

Ainsley Mae can fall over in a chair and still have a gigantic smile on her face.

do you think we've spent enough time outside this summer?

I just couldn't resist taking a ton of pictures of that cute little bald head and great big blue eyes.

Little Miss Brinley-I think this picture speaks for itself.

Kyle has definitely outgrown all his babyness and is starting to look like a little man. Good thing he's my little man!

how can you resist those lips?

Now lil' miss Alyda might just be the most photogenic little girl ever. She is such a doll.

Learning how to walk has had it's ups and downs. Does it make me a bad mom that I run for my camera every time my kids get hurt? Makenna can't usually be found without a bruise somewhere on her face now. Look at those great big crocodile tears, so sad, but so cute all at the same time.

I'm still not sure how I got this picture of Luke, because this little boy NEVER sits still

These picture were taken at the Ogden Mosquito Center. Katie, Becky and I thought we had a great idea taking our kids somewhere new, little did we know there were about a million mosquitos just waiting for us to prey on.

I think this was our 501st try to get everyone to look. Seriously, it was a challenge to say the least.

A new splash pad just opened in my neighborhood that we just LOVE to play at.

Why is it that boys always get the long dark eyelashes. Totally not fair.

Between family visiting and lots of bad luck we've had quite the interesting last couple of months. I'm just counting down the days until August is over so we can start fresh and hopefully some good karma will start coming our direction.

a year ago...

2011-08-12T13:55:00.000-06:00

We met our sweet little Makenna for the very first time! I can’t BELIEVE she is a year old already-on one hand it seems like she just barely a new baby, on the other hand, it seems like she’s been with us forever. Looking back at some of her baby pictures bring back so many memories and it sort of makes me sad to know that she is my very last baby and somehow she is growing up quicker than any of my kiddos.

Kenna, Kenz, Kenzie, sissy, love bug, cutie pie…are just a few of the names she goes by (and if Justin had his way Mak, but I just see that one catching on since we already a Mckadin that everyone calls Mac, but we’ll see-I’ve noticed that her Grandpa Meredith is trying to get the Mak name to stick too-but I just don't think it's fits her, somehow it's just not feisty enough of a nickname for her).

this is usually how 80% of my pictures turn out now because the she cannot sit still for more than a minute, and now that she's walking she is way too busy exploring everything.

(side note...I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the way the girls skirts and shirts turned out, who would of know that I stayed up until 1am the night before her party sewing them)

Makenna is definitely our little feisty, stubborn child. She knows exactly what she wants and is not afraid to let you know. She is also our little water baby, and LOVES anything to do with water. In fact her latest word is “fish” and carries a little bath fish toy around everywhere. Kenz also loves to dance, she can be super fussy one minute and you turn music on or give her a toy that has music and instantly she is dancing up and down and has the biggest smile on her face.

seriously, I don't think they make cheeks chubbier than that

She started walking about a month ago (the earliest out of all my kids) and has instantly turned into a toddler that knows how to get into everything.

There was a point a couple years ago when I didn’t think I would have any more kids, but somehow this little girl snuck in there and was determined to get here whether I was ready for her or not. And I can’t even imagine my world without her now.

I love you baby girl, happy 1st birthday

xoxo

My favorite Sister-In-Law's Adorable Family...

2011-07-21T23:27:00.000-06:00

Check out these super cute pictures we took this weekend of Katie's adorable family!

Mr. Ethan is just super chill and after everyone left to run to the bathroom he decided to cheese it up for the camera and we got this awesome pose from him.

Little Aidan just never stops smiling

this my new little diva poser

but she is also a little princess (just ask her)

and she loves her mom

these boys are crazy silly and I think had more fun making faces at the camera.

love, love, love this picture

we definitely ran out of sunlight before we wanted to be done with pictures, but then again maybe we had perfect timing because we got this adorable picture of Jared playing with Ainsley.

and this one...which might just be my new favorite picture.

I have about a million pictures from the past week that Jared and Katie have been visiting, let's just say we have had a BLAST. But Katie has learned that I don't get mad, I just get even. Because obviously someone is much wetter than I am and has MUCH more frosting on her face than I do.

4th of July

2011-07-06T17:16:00.000-06:00

We decided to do fireworks on Saturday night so the kids didn't stay up late on Monday (mostly so they wouldn't be onry the next morning when I went to work). Plus we had a great view of Eaglewood Golf courses fireworks-and we didn't have to deal with the crowds-definitely a plus.

Alexis was super excited that Grandma Brenda and Grandpa Allen brought over soooo many fireworks and poppers for them.

Makenna was completely enthralled by the fireworks and couldn't take her eyes off them. I think she was trying to figure out what they were, because she spent most of the night like-biting her tongue trying to concentrate.

(for some reason the pics I had of Kyle didn't really work, but he was loving picking out what firework to do next and was already choosing the next one before the one going off was finished.)

*****

Makenna's hair has just decided to grow like crazy and those curls make for some pretty awesome fros.

I'm so bummed this picture was blurry, but I just love this new cheesy scrunchy smile that she does. I have a mission now-to get a clear picture of her doing this same smile that I did when I was a baby.

I was really glad we did fireworks on Saturday this year, because my sweet Grandma Gray passed away on Monday, and I definitely wasn't in much of a mood to celebrate. She has suffered from Alzheimer's for a while and has been on hospice since May, but even having the time to prepare for her passing doesn't really make it easier when it does happen. The crazy thing is I woke up Monday morning and just couldn't shake the feeling that she was going to die today, so when Tyler called me I just got chills, but I wasn't surprised at all. I think sometimes we are closer to heaven than we ever realize.

Between my mom and dad always playing baseball or at the race track, Tyler and I spent a lot of time over at her house. Funny thing is I think spending so much time with her definitely rubbed off on me. She was the most organized person and hated clutter, everything had a place and I never remember her house ever having anything laying around. I used to love sitting in her living room looking at catalogs that she got at JCPenny for me while she watched Price is Right or Wheel of Fortune. We used to have a contest to see who could guess the puzzle first, and still today if we are flipping the channels I always find myself stopping for a minute, and I do have to say that I totally would clean up if I were on that show-all because of her. I loved how the only places she ever went was to watch softball games or the bowling alley, to get her hair done or to the market. She was definitely the perfect housewife and always had a meal on the table for my Grandpa. Val told me on Monday night that now every 4th of July we can watch fireworks and remember how much happier and healthier my Grandma is. I loved her so much and already miss her.

we love the sun

2011-06-25T19:49:00.000-06:00

The kids have been begging me to take them to Grandma's pool since school ended. Since it was so nice today we decided to not worry about cleaning the house and went and had fun. But I did make the kiddos go to Old Navy with me to spend a gift card I had and Alexis found this cute sun hat for $1.98. Pretty sweet deal, and she looks adorable in it too.

I've been putting off letting Kyle go swimming this year because of his surgery a few months ago. But he promised me he wouldn't jump in and wouldn't dunk his head. He did great and was very careful to not get his ears wet-in fact I think the only reason his hair is wet was because of Alexis splashing around with another little boy in the pool.

My little dramatic girl was exhausted from playing at the pool all afternoon. On the drive home she stretched her arms out the sun roof and said "Now this is paradise" Oh my goodness, she is a silly little girl that says the craziest things. Although this time I would have to agree.

We left this little squirt at home with Daddy today, hopefully next time she will go with us. I couldn't not put a picture of my baby up, and of course it's one of her outside. She loves being outside more than anything and I'm loving all the new blonde streaks that are starting to show. I have a feeling that auburn hair isn't going to be around much longer.

Father's Day BBQ

2011-06-19T10:48:00.000-06:00

Last night we had a BBQ at Adam and Becky's house for Father's Day and I think it's fair to say that everyone had a blast. (some-maybe more than others...but more to that in a minute)

Before we get to the fun, Alexis had a pretty rough day yesterday. She definitely woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was just on one ALL day. At one point in the day she even packed her bag to run away, and Justin decided to just go along with it. We figured she'd get to the end of our circle and come back, Justin even offered to help make some sandwiches to take with so she had food to eat until the police came to take her to the orphanage. After an hour of her just sitting on her suitcase trying to decide what to do, she finally decided to apologize and decided that she really didn't want to go live with another family. I was on the verge of tears all day, because she was just so mad at me and kept telling me what a horrible mom I was. But I wasn't going to let her think it was ok to act this way, and I think (fingers crossed) she learned her lesson. She was still not super happy when we got to Caleb's and was definitely not in the picture taking mood.

but, eventually decided she was going to be tough and have fun with her cousins. (I'm actually sort of jealous of those guns)

From the second we got there Makenna was off-she was loving being able to crawl around and explore, and taste test all the scrumptious grass

Adam and Becky have a gigantic backyard and Kyle had no choice but to overcome his "fear" of grass, and I think he actually realized that the grass wasn't going to hurt him.

After dinner, I may or may not (I'm still pleading the 5th) of started a water fight that turned into all the kids doing this...

and this....

and then Aunt Becky got smart and did this...

unfortunately the hose was left unattended and turned into chaos when Luke got it

while all this was going on Alyda and Brinley somehow stayed out of the fight and had fun on their own

at the end of the fight my kids looked like this

I'm a little worried about what's going to happen at that next family party, because...I may of given Luke the water bottle to dump on Adam, that may of started all of this, and somehow I left without a sprinkle of water on me.

We had a lot of fun celebrating Father's Day, and this little girl sure loves her Daddy.

the last 2 months

2011-06-12T09:57:00.000-06:00

wow...I was going through my pictures this weekend and realized that I've been so busy putting pictures from photo-shoots up, I've hardly posted anything about my cute little family.

Justin told me the other day that he has learned to just smile and get it over with so I won't keep bugging him. It's about time he learned!

this is Alexis's best friend Megan, their favorite thing to do is dress up in my clothes-and pretend that they are going prom.

Madison slept over at our house a couple times in May, and Alexis was in heaven (so was Makenna)

Josh, Zach and Madi stayed over one weekend while my dad and stepmom went out for their anniversary and we decided to make some delicious chocolate covered strawberries. Yummmm

I think the new favorite thing to do in our backyard is to jump on the trampoline with sprinklers on,

or dog piling Daddy on the trampoline.

Last week Alexis finished 1st grade and was so excited for me to come and pick up her portfolio and to meet Lily, her other BFF.

Kyle and I were messing around with the camera while we were waiting for Alexis' end of the year program to start, and I love this picture of my little man.

While I was taking pictures of Ricki's cute family, we snuck this one in. It's crazy that we went to CEU with each other 12 years ago, and let's just say that we were sort of dreading living with each other at SUU (for reasons that just make me laugh now). Little did we know that we would actually like each other and 11 years later still talk/email 2-3 times a week.

This weekend we went to Leatherby's for my birthday, I still think it's crazy that I'm 31-yikes...good thing it's just a number, because I certainly don't feel that old. My cute Grandpa B called me on Thursday to tell me Happy Birthday and he asked how old I was, and all I hear on the other is the biggest sigh, and then he says "well that's just not possible, because I'm not old enough to have a grand-daughter in her 30's.

This little cutie pie is also 10 months old now. She is so active and so funny. I think I've finally figured out that she is going to be my daring one, and is not scared of anything. She is so close to walking too, which scares me because I'm still trying to adjust to the whole crawling thing again. Makenna loves to eat, and has a new found love of yogurt, chocolate chip cookies and ice cream. My new favorite thing that she does is when you give her something that she doesn't want-or that has a different first taste, she will just excessively shake her head no, and then she starts hitting her arm on the table.

I just can't believe that in two months she is going to be a year old.

Baby Landon

2011-06-10T22:10:00.003-06:00

...sweet little baby Landon...

Jared and Noella might just be the calmest most well prepared first time parents I have ever met, and they certainly have a very cute little family of three now. (is it just me, or does it look like Landon is actually smiling?)

i loved the little "ooohhh" lips he was making

how can you even resist such a cute sad face?

One of my favorite parts of photography is capturing those moments when no one realizes you are taking pictures. like this precious new mom moment...

and this one, of mom and dad getting him all spiffed up for pics

as baby Landon would say

"peace out ya'll"

Hansen Family Pics

2011-06-05T22:06:00.000-06:00

Can I just say that I love taking pictures of this cute family...their girls have the most amazing eyes, and are so much fun. (and it doesn't hurt that Ricki is one of my most favorite people in the whole world).

(aren't these little pouty lips just adorable)

My little Manipulator

2011-06-02T08:45:00.000-06:00

I got home from work yesterday to find this...

yep...she conviced Justin to take her to cookie cutters after school yesterday and cut off almost 5 inches of hair. It's not good that she already has her figured out how to bat her eyes and get her way with him. I think it's even worse that she knows it too...

ahh-and to think she's not even a teenager

Steven and Michelle...

2011-05-22T15:35:00.000-06:00

Steven is just back from his third tour of duty, and surprised Michelle by coming home three months early with a Tiffany's (yes blue box and all) engagement ring. They threw together their wedding and reception in a matter of a few weeks and had a really intimate dinner for family and friends. There was literally no where to take pictures, so-in between rainstorms- we ran across the street and found a couple of awesome stone walls. Turns out I sort of love this stone wall now...

I just thought this picture was so sweet of her and her Dad.

a month too late

2011-05-13T23:15:00.002-06:00

You can definitely tell that April was a busy month for me at work (mostly handling a huge database catastrophe that forced me to work 14-18 hours a day for almost three straight weeks-I guess when TV is 24/7, someone has to make sure there isn't a lag and lucky for me I'm that person). I went to download my pictures and there was about an eighth of what I normally take in a month. Thankfully life has calmed down, if you can call my crazy life calm. Since I use my blog as my "family scrapbook" and print it out at the end of each year I feel like I at least have to put some pictures on here from April.

Makenna learned how to wave and does it all the time, and she started to say Dada

She also learned how to crawl/scoot (most of the time she only went backwards, which frustrated her to no end), but she also learned what the word "No" means...

...and how to throw a proper lip quivering, fling yourself backwards onto the ground and cry- tantrum. I think I'm in for it with her-the drama is already starting.

I tried and tried to talk Alexis out of dying eggs because I was so busy, but since I forgot to last year there was no way she was going to let me this year.

On Easter Alexis got a baseball mit, that she has been begging for. She can't wait to play softball next season.

The Easter Bunny was pretty smart and brought Kyle one too, so he can play with his sister. I'm sure once Alexis starts playing Kyle will want to as well.

You're going to laugh, but I have had these scooters sitting in my storage since like October. They were supposed to be Christmas presents, but I decided they had too much stuff so I was going to keep them until next Christmas. The more I thought about it I decided to just give them to for Easter because what's the point of giving you a scooter in the middle of winter? Can we say spoiled?

On Easter we had my brother and my Dad's families over for dinner and and the kids had an egg hunt in our backyard. Kyle was so proud of himself for finding this egg, it was all he wanted. I told him to keep looking for more eggs and he said "Nah, I'm fine, I only need one egg, the other kids can have the rest". Talk about the most unselfish little boy I've ever met.

After a little coercing we talked him into looking for more eggs. The only problem with that is Kyle hates the grass and completely freaks out if he has to step on it, even with shoes on. Can you see how tense he is and Justin is practically holding him up because Kyle won't put any weight on his feet while there is grass below him. We have literally had crying fits over trying to get him to touch grass, you would think that it's hot lava or something for the way he freaks out. If you have any ideas on how to get him to not be so scared I would love to hear them because everything we have tired obviously hasn't worked.

I took a few days off work this week to recharge and I am so glad I did, because it's been so nice being able to take walks and pick up Alexis, work in the yard, read "Something Borrowed" in three days-I was determined to read it before Justin and I go see it tomorrow, oh and start my awesome farmer tan (yeah, I sort of am not in the sunscreen mode yet since it's been so freaking cold here). But that's ok I have loved every minute of it and so has my camera.

at 9 months

2011-05-13T22:50:00.003-06:00

at 9 months, Makenna….

...loves to stand up and loves to walk while holding your fingers, but she is getting more and more daring, I have a feeling walking is in the not so distant future.

…crawls everywhere and the past few days has started to crawl with this funny pirate looking peg-leg crawl. It is hilarious her right leg will be bent, but the left leg is out to the side and straight, I think she’s channeling her inner Jack Sparrow

...Is eating everything in sight, she loves the baby cheetos, pancakes, eggs, bread and CHEEEESE (shocking, another one of my kids loves rolls and cheese)

...has become a shy little one whenever someone besides mom or dad wants to hold her

…developed a crazy attachment to me and her favorite babysitter Cambree. If one of us isn’t around watch out for the tears and drama to begin. Including flaying herself backwards and hitting her head on the ground (I have a feeling she is going to be my full out tantrum baby)

…the Boulter curls are coming. This makes me so happy-I loved Alexis’ curls, that I also had and I have been wishing and hoping that she would get them. I love how cute the little ringlets are getting on the sides of her ears.

...Knows the word “no” but still loves to go straight to our cable box with those pretty blue lights or the ever tempting dvd shelf, which has found a new home all over the floor by my couch

…still has not slept in her crib. She finally outgrew her swing, and has given into sleeping in her pack-n-play. Hopefully her crib will be in the near future

…wakes up every morning saying “dada, dada, dada, dada” until he finally gives in and gets her. One nice thing about her loving to say dada is that I can get few extra minutes of sleep since she only wants her “dada”, right? ;)

…still has the prettiest blue eyes and chubby cheeks that you just can’t help but pinch and is always happy and smiley.

Xoxo baby girl.

Family Pictures

2011-04-21T21:43:00.000-06:00

All I can say is it's about time we finally got some new family pictures. I've been trying for the past 9 months and I swear we've had to cancel our appointment at least 4 times. But I told Justin all I wanted for my birthday and mother's day was for us to get our pictures and for him to be happy the whole time and not complain. Looks like I got my early birthday present!!!

(I really wish Kyle would of let me switch his shirts so the blue one was on the outside, but he was determined to match Alexis and I just figured it wasn't worth the fight.)

Looks like I'm spending some money at Costco this weekend! Can you tell how happy I am tonight?

Grandma Charm

2011-04-20T18:42:00.000-06:00

Growing up my Grandma Boulter was always taking flowers up to the gravesites of her parents and sisters and friends, really anyone and everyone. She was so thoughtful and probably kept the flower shoppe in business by her house for all the flowers she bought to take with her. To be honest I never got it, I just never could understand why you would want to go and visit a gravesite, there is something creepy and weird about it to me. But for some reason Alexis doesn't feel this away and practically begs to go visit Grandma Charm's grave. On the only nice day of her spring break my mom and I took her up to the grave and you would of thought it was Christmas for her.

Alexis was born exactly one month after my grandma passed away. When Alexis was born the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck three times and was knotted twice. I was put on bed-rest at 30 weeks due to other complications and we were so relieved every time we went to the doctors (which was 3 times a week for the last 6 weeks) and we were able to go home for a couple more days. After 30 hours of labor and having the cord so tight around her neck, the outcome should of been very different than it was. The minute after Alexis was born the nurse turned to me and said that this little girl must have an amazing guardian angel watching over her because so often babies don't survive under these circumstances. I guess you had to be in the room, but my mom, Justin and I just both felt this overwhelming sensation that my Grandma was there with us making sure that Alexis got to this earth safely. It was probably one of the most spiritual moments of my entire life. I share this because I believe with all my heart that my Grandma is Alexis' guardian angel and I believe that she passed away when she did because Heavenly Father knew that I needed her help to make sure Alexis could get to this earth.

Alexis has the sweetest heart and I know that my sweet Grandma has a bigger part of making her who she is, than anyone will ever realize. I know that Alexis has this connection to her Grandma that is absolutely unexplainable. She does things that my grandma did, like always wearing her robe or blanket (even in the dead of summer), laying at the bottom of the bed horizontally and pulling the blanket over her, finding anyway possible to put ice down someone's back. Believe me these things we not taught to her, but somehow they are just part of who Alexis is.

When Alexis was 2 and just barely talking I had a picture up of my entire family and one day I was holding her and she pointed to my grandma in this picture and said "that's my grandma, I used to play with her up in heaven". There are just so many little things that Alexis does that make me realize how thin the line between heaven and earth really is.

***

I didn't have my camera with me when we went to the cemetery so I borrowed my mom's and when I took it home I found some pictures of Makenna at the hospital. Crazy how much a little girl can change in 8 months-although those chubby cheeks still look oddly familiar.

You Get What You Get

2011-04-10T15:28:00.000-06:00

One thing I've learned with three kids, is that you pretty can guarantee on not ever getting all three kids looking at the camera or smiling at once. Two kids, yes...three, haven't figured that one out yet. Alexis told me that "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit". Someday I'll have a picture with all three of them smiling and looking at the camera, but until then here are some fun pics we took after church today.

Doesn't Makenna just look totally annoyed?

We went to Josh's homecoming today and on the drive there Kyle started crying because he didn't want to go to the jail house with the basketball hoops (aka-church). It gets better... as we were leaving Alexis was waiting at the car for us to unlock the door and the second I turn the corner she yells "Unlock the dam door" (in just the sweetest most content voice, like she had no idea what she has just said). Yep...that would be my awesome parenting skills at work. Kyle think's church is the jail with basketball hoops and Alexis may just really be a teenager in a seven year old body.

One more thing we learned this weekend was Kyle LOVES brownie mix... finally, I thought this kid was crazy because he never wanted to lick the spoon while I was baking.

March

2011-04-02T09:52:00.000-06:00

I really have been meaning to update our blog this month, but it just seems like time is speeding up and there are never enough hours in the day.

Alexis turned 7 a couple weeks ago, and for her birthday dinner she chose Texas Roadhouse...she loves her some steak and of course those yummy rolls (a girl after my own heart).

She decided she wanted cheesecake for dessert, and then only ate the strawberries and whipping cream. Alexis told me after we left "Next time we'll stick with the brownie".

Right before her family birthday party we went bowling with Jamie and Steph, while the Ty and Justin stayed home to play videos games-party poopers (as Alexis told them when we were leaving). My little 7 year old definitely knows how to speak her mind and tell you how it is-no holding back-ever.

Our house was crazy when everyone got there to have cake and ice cream. But it's never too crazy for these three to pose for me.

Makenna got two teeth this month and my lack of sleep can prove it. I tried and tried to get a picture of her tooth, but she loves to play with it with her tongue, so this is the best I got. Lucky for her one of her top teeth is trying to make an appearance, one of these days I get catch her off guard and get a picture of those adorable baby teeth.

She is my most cuddly little squirt, which is saying a lot because Alexis and Kyle were pretty cuddly. But this is my most favorite time...after a long day at work, I love coming home and just holding this little cutie pie.

Lately her personality has just quadrupled and I can honestly say I think she is the happiest baby I have ever met. This little smile just makes my heart melt. My favorite is when you are holding her and she'll smile at you grab your face and then tuck her head into her neck, almost like she's embarrased, it's the cutest thing ever.

Kyle had ear surgery a couple weeks ago to get his tubes removed that were put in when he was about 5 months old. He was only born with about 40% of his hearing and the tubes were put in to reconstruct his inner ear and to stop the fluid from going directly into his ear drum. The problem was that you can only have these tubes in for 3 years, and in Kyle's case the tubes had pushed their way deeper into his ear drum and were causing more problems. They went in and removed the tubes and placed an internal patch to cover the hole in his ear drum, and now it's just a waiting game to see if the hole will heal and to also see how much of his hearing will be permanently lost. We should know the outcome in the next six months, and if there is the hearing loss that the doctor expects we will most likely have to get a hearing aide implanted.

A couple weeks ago another mom got in contact with me that had twins born with congential CMV and both of them are severely mentally disabled and have hearing and vision problems. I am just so thankful that even though he had a rough start to life, things have definitely worked out really well. The hardest part with CMV is that it affects the baby's spinal cord and brain and the long term developmental problems are not known until they baby is 2-4 years old. We used to have a developmental nurse come to our house every month to track how Kyle was doing, and if a problem did arise we could catch it early and start whatever therapy we needed to. There is no way to know at what point in my pregnancy Kyle caught this virus, but now all of his doctors and specialists are pretty sure that it was within the last week or two of my pregnancy, which explains why he is doing as well as he is.

On to funner things, we also went to McKadin's birthday party, but anyone that knows this little boy knows that he can't sit still long enough to get this picture taken. But Sophie hasn't quite learned to run away from Aunt Shara when her camera is out. Don't you just love her brown hair and blue eyes?

Justin and I also went on a real, true double date when his cousin Erik. We go to movies all the time, but we are usually only gone for a couple of hours. So to have a true date was really fun. We had a great time hanging out with Erik and laughing at our crazy waiter, who I swear was totally trying to hit on Erik. After dinner we saw "A Tale of Two Cities" at Hale Center Theatre. It was probably one of the best plays I have ever seen, I'm going to have to read the novel now. Justin and I had general admission seats because it was kind of a last minute thing. But it totally worked in our favor because we ended up sitting on the second row. Even Justin said that he really like the play...let's just say those two words have never been spoken by him before, so you know it had to be good.

Just one last picture...it's makes me so sad to see how grown up these two are getting, but I love that are best friends and get along so good. (Definitely polar opposites of what mine and Ty's relationship was like when we were little). I'm hoping it stays this way forever, but I have a feeling that the day is coming when Kyle is going to start putting his foot down and is going to start to want to be the boss too-let's just hope it's later rather than sooner.

Picture Overload

2011-03-27T17:48:00.002-06:00

Makenna at 7 months...

she is such a little cutie pie and gets cuter everyday, it makes me sad to see how fast she is growing, but I love how much her personality is coming out more and more everyday.

She can now army crawl-backwards, has both her bottom teeth and has decided that it's pretty fun to wake mom and dad up 2-3 times a night AGAIN.

Makenna loves to fly and will play patty-cake with you as long as she holds your hands.

But my most favorite part of this age is how much she loves to cuddle and give hugs to me. Definitely on her way to becoming a total momma's girl.

Did I mention that her eyes might just be the brighest blue eyes ever?

This is one of my new favorite pictures because it just shows how much my girls love each other.

I also took some family pictures for Zach and Lindsey on Saturday.

Here are just a few of my favorites...

30 things

2011-03-18T16:21:00.000-06:00

I saw this on a blog a while ago and loved this idea. Since I only have a couple months left before I’m 31 I thought I should finally do this.

30 things you don't know about me

1. I’m the most unlucky, accident prone person ever. Seriously!!!… I split my tongue in half in a freak go-cart brake accident on Friday the 13th, had my finger smashed in an iron door which broke my knuckle and forever ruined my nail, tore every tendon and ligament in my ankle by falling down 2 stairs, broke my foot in a dance performance-actually right as I was walking off the stage after the dance, got bit by a tick at Jordanelle which was nice enough to share his Lyme Disease with me, popped the bursa sac in my knee by standing up too quickly from the couch, split a ski in half on a crazy wave while my I was skiing, had cataract surgery when I was 28 because my contacts decided to suck all the oxygen out of my corneas…trust me I could go on and on

2. I was told once that I’m too sarcastic and then was given a 30 minute lecture of “how sarcasm is of the devil”-from my home teacher

3. I’m scared to death of mice/rats…rodents were put on this earth to torment me.

4. I hate confrontation, and avoid it like the plague

5. I have one “what if” moment that I would redo in a blink of an eye

6. I have lived in 23 houses and 4 states

7. I once had a guy sing “My Girl” to my answering machine in college. Kind of corny now, but to a 19 year old it was the freaking cutest thing ever

8. I have one drug of choice: slurpees

9. I sing at the top of my lungs in my car

10. I would be a fashion photographer if I could have another career

11. Was the shyest person you’ve ever met until my junior year of high school

12. I totaled my car 3 months after I turned 16-thankfully it was not my fault

13. I hate being late

14. I can pretty much can rival anyone when it comes to useless entertainment trivia

15. When I’m upset I get really quiet

16. I had a list of baby names I have loved forever in the back of my planner-funny that not one of my kids names was on the list

17. I’d like to say I have no regrets, but I can’t

18. Served 10 straight points in the finals of a volleyball tournament

19. I hated wearing dresses when I was little and now I love it

20. I know more about soap operas than anyone should, guess that’s what happens when you have a TV in your office and it’s on all day long

21. chocolate and gummy bears-enough said

22. Have been driven home in the back of a police car

23. secretly always wanted to go to medical school to become an ER doctor

24. addicted to lip gloss

25. hate onions with a passion

26. I looooove to shop

27. My friend and I once got everything ready to send in an audition tape to the Amazing Race-we even had a producer from my station write the script for our audition tape- and right after I got my passport I found out I was pregnant. (we totally would of gotten on too-best audition script ever)

28. I always wanted to live in an apartment in downtown New York after college

29. My guilty pleasure shows are usually on MTV (The Hills, Jersey Shore, Road Rules…)

30. Spent 5 straight days on a cruise ship trying to outrun a hurricane-we never did get to go to our main port because it was destroyed-kind of scary to think about what should of happened to our ship

*Have lots of fun things to post about, so hopefully I will have some time to edit pictures this weekend.

2011-02-21T17:33:00.000-07:00

and then he turned four...

besides the ever growing list of toys that he wanted for his birthday, the only other thing Kyle wanted to do for his birthday was go to Chuck-e-Cheese, this smile never went away the entire time we were there.

It's still a mystery to me how this little sick baby, that wasn't supposed to make it through his first night has turned into my little man. I think all the pain, poking and proding he had to endure the first 31 days of his life made him the most gentle and mild mannered litte boy I have ever met. Of course he has his moments, but he is definitely my little blessing from above (and it doesn't hurt that he is a total momma's boy either).

After our day at Chuck-e-Cheese we had everyone over for a dragon/dinosaur birthday party. Alexis gave Kyle his new Batman costume and that thing was not coming off for anything.

I love that these two little boys have almost no pictures together without their costumes on. I think McKadin knows right where Kyle's costume drawer is, because he literally runs upstairs as soon as he walks in the door to put one of them one. (Wolverine and Batman were about to have it out in this picture)

The birthday party was just the start to our night, we had 7 kids sleepover that night...let's just say what would normally be most kiddos bed time was about the time these kids woke up. About 9pm Alexis and Madison decided to give each other makeovers and take silly pictures.

As much fun as Kyle's birthday weekend was, my little baby has had a pretty rough month.

The whole month of January and pretty much 3/4 of February is just one sleepless blur of doctor's appointments, prescriptions, breathing treatments and allergy tests. Makenna had a pretty bad allergic reaction while we were in St. George in January, and the next couple of weeks things just went downhill. Every food we would try would cause the same problems, facial swelling, rash, ecsema and throwing up. We tried apples, bananas, carrots, peaches, pears, squash...everything made her sick. The poor thing was covered head to toe in the worst rash I have ever seen, we now live coated in steriod ointments, but it's working and that's all that matters.

On top of all this three little kids in her nursery at daycare got RSV about three weeks ago and just when I thought we were in the clear, she got it to. A couple days later we went to an allergist and found out that she has a severe intolerance to asorbic acid-or vitamin C. Well, just about every baby food out there uses asorbic acid for preserving the food, which explains why everything we tried made her sick. We went back last week for her 6 month check-up and I was just so frustrated because she wasn't getting better, if anything she was just getting sicker, turns out she got an ear infection on top of the RSV. After a couple days on anti-biotics I feel like my baby is back and happy again.

But in the middle of all this I realized that Makenna is 6 months old now...

she has figured out how to army crawl and sit up, she loves sticking her tongue out, got her first tooth last week, holds her arms out for you, and my most favorite thing is she can say mamamamama (usually when she's tired, but hey I'll take it she said mama before dada, one out of three isn't too bad), she never ciries and is the most happy smiling baby I have ever seen.

Oh and she has made Grandpa Mike's whole life, because he finally has a grandkid with his auburn hair.

St. George in the Winter

2011-01-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the kids and I decided to go to St. George. The trip was completely exhausting, but also a nice break from our everyday routine, plus the 60 degree weather pretty much can't be beat.

Saturday was an adventure in itself. Makenna ate some banana baby food for breakfast and by about 11am her eyes were starting to swell shut and she had the worst rash all over her face and it was starting to creep down her torso, back and legs. After going back and forth about what I should do, I gave in and spent the next three hours at instacare with her. Turns out she had an allergic reaction to the bananas and was put on cortizone and some really greasy and thick lubricant to get rid of the rash. I took some pics on my phone, but she looks just horrible, so I'm just going to share a picture of her a couple days later when the rash was pretty much gone. She was pretty miserable all weekend but I have never been so thankful to wake up Sunday morning to find the rash and blisters pretty much all gone.

On Sunday the kids and I decided to go to the park just to get out of the house (and to give Grandpa B some peace and quiet). They loved being outside and loved not having to wear winter coats and gloves and hats just to walk to the car.

To my surprise they were more then willing to go hiking with me after the park, and they were even in a picture taking mood, so that made me double-ly happy.

Not really wanting to go back to a stuffy house we went and walked around the temple grounds...until Alexis got mad that she couldn't go inside, so I knew that our cue to leave.

Don't you love the blue sky-I haven't seen a blue sky like that up here since-never mind I can't even remember the last time the sky was that clear. St. George is definitely the perfect winter escape. I just wish I could make it down there more often.

Sledding

2011-01-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

On New Years Day we went sledding with Uncle Ty and Aunt Stephanie. After running to Target and Big 5-which was an adventure in itself we finally found gloves and sleds for everyone. I honestly still can't believe this was the first time I have ever taken my kids sledding-I usually just want to stay inside when it's 11 degrees-call me crazy.

Kyle scored a new Batman beanie because his other one had disappered off the face of the earth. (funny how i looked everywhere for it, and the next day when I was putting laundry away it was sitting in his top drawer, oh well this one should fit him for a while). I do think Kyle is starting to take after Alexis a little too much and is always posing for pictures. Whatever happened to the days when I could just take a cute picture of them smiling?

When these three weren't fighting over who got the red sled, they really were having fun.

Sophie, on the otherhand, not so much, she spent most of the time like this.

Makenna stayed home with Daddy and was so happy to have Alexis come home to smother her with kisses.

December Family Fun

2011-01-02T08:40:00.002-07:00

I downloaded my pictures yesterday and had over 250 pictures from December 18 through yesterday. Wow-I knew we were busy...but really...250 pictures. Needless to say we had a ton of fun this last month.

Did I mention that we pretty much had a superhero Christmas. It seemed like everywhere we went a couple of superheroes followed. Iron Man, Spiderman, Batman, Rainbow Brite (yes-she is offically a superhero now-just ask Alexis) This is what the kids were doing at the Boulter party while we were eating dinner.

My grandpa was pretty excited to come up for our party, but a couple days before he fell and broke his arm, nose and had some other health issues that would let him come. But thankfully Brandon had a great idea to hook up a webcam so he could see all the kiddos. The kiddos thought it was so cool. (Can you spot Batman down in front?-just one more superhero spotting)

After chatting with Grandpa we got down to business and had the kids act out the nativity. I can't believe what a ham Alexis is-but we loved that she begged us to be the angel, no fighting over Mary this year.

I think Makenna just might be the happiest most content baby I have ever met (thank goodness). Plus she has her daddy wrapped around her little finger already.

I don't think one of of the kids were expecting this guy to show up at our party. But I do have to say this Santa puts all other Santa's to shame.

I thought Kyle would be scared of him, but he was surprisingly just fine. Totally out of character for Kyle.

Now Alexis on the otherhand still has not stopped talking about Santa. She was so adorable and just hugged him every chance she could. I defintely think this big guy made an impression on her.

I love this picture of the girls-not really sure how it's possible that Jamie and I have kids this old now. But I love how much fun they have together.

Oh, and you can't forget...Jamie-I mean mommy wolverine (according to Owen)

and the star of the party-crazy uncle Tyler

On Christmas Eve we went to Ty and Steph's house, but for some reason my camera was acting up so I only got a couple of pictures. Looks like Alexis has had a growth spurt and passed her Aunt Madi.

Kyle was in heaven playing with McKadin and Morgan all night. I was playing around with my camera setting and love the bokeah I got (blurred lights)

He was so excited the next morning when Santa brought him his Iron Man mask-

which totally makes him look like a life size bobble head.

This little girl couldn't figure out what was going on, but she couldn't take her eyes off the action for one minute either.

She also loved her new walker, which I think I might love even more because she can entertain herself.

and I think she had the right idea on Christmas...to take a nap in the middle of all the craziness.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and loved all the time we got to spend with family. We hit the sledding slopes yesterday with Ty and Steph and have some fun pictures, but for now here's the first picture I took in 2011.

Fun Stuff

2010-12-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

It must just be that time of the year, the time of the year when you feel like time is in fast forward...Too much to do and not even close to enough time. In addition to work, school, family parties, decorating, etc...Justin also had knee surgery on Tuesday. So I truly know what it's like to be a single parent this week-having him completely laid up and not able to really help me do anything has been-let's just say-exhausting.

This morning I was downloading pics from the camera I keep in my purse and found this cute one of me and Katie from Black Friday. I just love this girl, she has truly become the sister I never had growing up.

This is me and Alexis in Arizona going to see "Tangled" (which is the cutest Disney movie ever).

Last Saturday I got up early to get all our Christmas decorations out and Alexis was sooo excited when she woke up and the tree was ready to decorate. This girl might just love holidays more than anyone I have ever met. We are keeping it simple this year, and keeping the decorations down to the tree and a couple things for our front room. I just didn't want to mess with everything else this year, maybe next year.

She wore this tree skirt has a shawl for hours, pretending she was Mrs. Santa Claus.

Kyle could really care less about the tree, but he loved the Darth Vader ornament I bought for him this year. So instead of hanging the ornament on the real tree Kyle decided he was going to be a tree and that way he could keep Darth Vader with him.

Makenna was just in awe of the lights and can be found most nights staring at it just like this.

I let Alexis go to town hanging all the ornaments, when she was finished more that 75% of them were on the lower third of the tree. I just thought it was so cute how close to the ground these little guys were. Needless to say I had to do a little redecorating so the top part of the tree had a little love too.

and this would be how Alexis can be found most nights, just staring at the tree lights.

In the midst of all the Christmas decorating I also decided to give Makenna a little rice cereal for the first time. She was not too excited about this, but now just a week later she loves it. The best part is, she has slept through the night since then, so I guess my instincts were right in thinking that her formula just wasn't fillng her up anymore.

We also had a little crafting christmas party with the Brewer's that was a lot of fun. Kyle pretty much just wanted to watch Shrek the Halls and eat his candy necklace I made for him.

but Alexis loved being able to paint some fun new ornaments for our tree-I'm was pretty impressed with how good her nutcracker turned out.

I once again have a ton of stuff planned for this week, including the Boulter family party at my house next Saturday, I trip to Temple Square, writing Santa Letters, decorating Alexis' gingerbread house, and finishing up my Christmas presents. Good thing I have a girls day planned with Ricki-a little down time at the spa, shopping and yummy food-sounds like the perfect way to start off another crazy week.

thanksgiving

2010-11-30T20:31:00.002-07:00

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Arizona with Jared and Katie this year and had so much fun. The kids were so excited to see their cousins and spent most of their time like this or playing Rock Band.

Thanksgiving was so laid back and stressfree, it was wonderful. After a couple of trips to Wal-Mart we had a super yummy dinner. We made sure and stayed away from Jared once he broke the knife out-he liked carving that turkey a little too much.

Katie and I woke up (ok, never really went to sleep Thursday night) and left to go to the valley at 12:45am. Before this trip I thought I was a shopper, but now I'm convinced that Katie and her mom can run circles around me. We got some killer deals, even if it meant standing in line longer than we were actually shopping, and made a new friend-all I can say is return missionaries stand out like a sore thumb down there and once he overheard I was visiting from Utah he never stopped talking/flirting with me until the store opened (katie-you can stop laughing now. justin didn't find that part of our trip too amusing, but Katie and I sure did).

As soon as we got back the boys took off to see a movie and get a break from the kids, so we made cute little turkey crafts with the kids.

The rest of our trip we just hung out and had fun visiting with each other.

(Beware of picture overload)

I loved Ainsley's cute blanket and had to take some pics of my chubby little Makenna.

Aidan, Alexis and Ainsley hanging out on the rope swing.

Ethan was on a mission the entire time I was down there to not let me take a picture of him. I thought this picture was so funny of him peaking to see if the coast was clear.

Ainsley is the funniest little girl and always up for a picture.

Katie and I stalked one of the kiosk people at the mall and watched her curl a little girls hair with a flat iron, so of course I had to try it the next day and loved how it turned out-too bad it was windy and you can't really see the fun beachy wavy curls I got-this just might be my new favorite way to do my hair.

I realized on this trip that I really need to go to the park more with my kiddos. Because we got there and Kyle had no idea what I meant when I said to roll down the hill. He was rolling across the hill instead of down the hill, but once he figured it out I couldn't get him to leave.

I think the theme of the park trip was "Let's see who can tackle Ethan the most". You can't see her, but poor little Ainsley was right in the middle of this dog pile.

I loved how the sun was reflecting on this pond and I was determined to get a couple of cute pictures of A&K before we left.

I wish we could of dragged Jared and Justin away from the Wii, but there was no way either one of them were going to come with us in the cold to the park. Oh well...I sure did have fun with these two little ones.

This Thanksgiving might be one the funnest holiday's I have had in a long time, I just wish the weather would of cooperated with us on the drive home, but we ended up driving home in a blizzard that covered all of Utah and most of Arizona. The drive down there took just a little over 9 hours, but the drive home...lets just say we left at 7:45am and didn't get home until after 10pm-that's right almost 15 hours in a car with three little kids-enough said. I have never been so scared in my entire life-I think all the Utah and Arizona snow plows were still on vacation because they certainly weren't on the roads plowing the snow. I was so thankful to tuck my kids into their beds Sunday night. Just a little advice-don't ever take a road trip in Arizona in the middle of the winter. Next time were flying...at least I had this cute little one to play with to distract me from the roads.

love this

2010-11-30T13:11:00.002-07:00

we had an amazing, fantastic, super fun thanksgiving and a ton of fun pictures to post, but I haven't quite gotten to downloading them yet. blame it on the sleep depervation (thanks to Katie waking me up at 12:45am to go shopping that is finally kicking in) or the 15 hour drive home in a blizzard that covered two states. either way it's on my to do list this week.

this is one of my favorite holiday quotes and I thought I'd share...

Snowy Sunday

2010-11-22T21:08:00.002-07:00

When we woke up on Sunday Alexis was over the moon excited that there was enough snow to go outside and play in. It was absolute torture for her to have to wait until it got a little warmer to go out to play. She loves the snow and would play in it for hours if I let her. Kyle on the other hand not so much-he was more than content staying inside and watching a movie.

Alexis was literally jumping in the snow and making snow angels faster than I could get my camera out, but thankfully she was determined to make the best snow angel ever, so I had a little time to unzip my camera bag.

Um yeah, that snowball-I mean ICE ball ended up right in my face.

and you'd think I'd learn to not give her any ammunition, but no-I let her take the shovel-thinking she was going to shovel for me, and then the entire shovel full of snow ended up on me too.

Even though we were soaking wet and freezing, it was a lot of fun. (which is really hard for me to say since I hate the snow-unless it's Christmas Day-don't ask me why I live in Utah-I wonder myself sometimes)

My Saturday

2010-11-21T11:02:00.002-07:00

My Saturday was so busy, I honestly can't believe we did all of this in one day. At least I have a reason for being so tired today.

First, Makenna got a new best friend that she has to have it with her at all times.

We went and played at Grandma's for a little bit while I was taking some newborn pictures, and the first thing Kyle always grabs at her house are the superhero puzzles-that only grandma can help him with.

Makenna was my little model so I could test the light and my in my make shift studio/the couch. I just love this little bug, and that hair on top of her head that NEVER lays flat.

I took some newborn pictures of Nathan and Kelsey's little one-Alysha. Her and Makenna are only 8 or 9 weeks apart, but she just seems so much littler to me.

If that wasn't enough for one Saturday we also had family pictures taken with my Dad and brother's families. Let's just say this was the most chaotic 45 minutes I've had in a long time. I'm just so happy that we got some cute pictures of everyone, which was not an easy take with that many little kids.

All the kiddos

I was a little bummed that we ran out of time and I wasn't able to get a new picture with just my family-but I may just force Justin into taking some in Arizona next weekend.

My kids are begging me to let them go play in the 2 feet of snow we have outside right now, I better go make sure my battery in my camera isn't dead ;)

Busy...Busy

2010-11-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to update my blog for a couple of weeks, but life just doesn't seem to slow down. Two weekends ago Justin and I went to the Utah vs. TCU game, for our anniversary. I cannot believe I've been married to this amazing man for nine years.

We had amazing seats and everyone around us were season ticket holders and they were all absolutely crazy. So even though the game was horrible we had a lot of fun with the people around us and we also had a streaker. Yes, you heard me right, about 5 minutes into the third quarter this girl about 15 feet away from us got yanked from the stands and dragged out completely topless. It was probably the most entertaining thing that happened the entire game. I can't morally put the pictures of her up on my blog, but I thought this picture of all the sideline photographers taking pictures of her in the tunnel, rather than taking pictures of the game, was pretty hilarious.

This little girl is now three months old.

She still doesn't sleep through the night more than once a week, loves to suck on her thumb (I tried and tried to get her to be a binki baby-but she just isn't having it-so I gave up, we'll just have to deal with it for now), as of this last weekend she is rolling over from her tummy, has the biggest cheesiest smile I've ever seen and the cutest dimple that I pray never goes away, loves to blow bubbles,and her Grandpa Mike is finally going to have a red head (well auburn) but he is over the moon that one of his grandkids finally got some red in her hair.

My brother and sister-in-law were in town from Lousiana all last week and it was a ton of fun catching up with them. Alexis and Kyle were scared to death of them the first night, but after that they decided David and Mandy were pretty fun and wouldn't leave them alone. Since they were in town we had an early Thanksgiving with the Meredith's on Saturday.

The kiddos all had so much fun together running around like crazy little banshee's all night. Caleb and Alexis have a love/hate relationship and thankfully on Saturday they loved each other and weren't fighting all night.

Brinley is such a little cutie and with her being only 4 months older than Makenna, I'm already dreading the trouble these two are going to get into togther.

Alyda is such a big helper and is the sweetest little girl I have ever met. She's going to be a big sister in about a month and Lindsey is definitely going to have her hands full, because I have a feeling Alyda is always going to be helping, even when mom doesn't need her to.

We also went to Disney on Ice this weekend, but I have a the new LG Android phone and for the life of me I can't figure out how to download the pictures off it.

I have lots to do this week to get ready for our family pictures on Saturday, our first road trip with three kids and of course the busiest 10 days of the year at work (gotta love all those holiday programs and commericals for black friday). But I'm sure I'll have some fun new pictures to share next weekend.

Our October

2010-10-31T17:11:00.000-06:00

I don't think busy can even begin to describe what our October has been. With me going back to work and trying to re-adjust to working full-time, and having three kids it's been quite a crazy few weeks. But we have had a lot of fun enjoying the sort of perfect Fall weather-minus yesterday crazy rain storm

We blessed this little angel, that keeps getting cuter by the minute. (I love that my mom, myself, alexis and now makenna have been blessed in this dress, which was made by my great grandmother.)

We also went to Wtch-a-palooza, which has sort of become a little tradition with the Gray's. This year we let the kids wear their costumes and they all had so much fun and of course we had to end the night with donuts and hot chocolate.

I love this picture of Indiana Jones, aka McKadin. Anyone that knows him knows he doesn't sit still for pictures and somehow I lucked out and got this adorable one of him.

but this one ranks at the top of my all time favorite pictures...

it sort of reminds me a little boy skipping rocks in a pond sometime in the 1800's

Yesterday we went to Black Forest Farms and corn maze. The kids had a lot of fun, but I thought it was a huge rip off, seriously who charges $15 a person for a corn maze and a couple of slides. Oh well-lesson learned, next year we'll go to Patch's for free and have just as much fun.

This little girl is such a trooper even in the cold and rainy weather she is still the most laid back and well behaved baby. (I just love the little rosy cheeks she has.)

And of course the kiddos Halloween costumes...

Here is my cute little ladybug

and Rainbow Brite with Wolverine

At 8 weeks

2010-10-07T19:17:00.000-06:00

Holy cow has time flown by, I'm not really sure how it's possible that Makenna is 8 weeks old already. That means its been 8 weeks since I've slept more than 3-4 hours at a time (wait what am I talking about, I think it's been close to 7 years since I'm slept for a good solid 8 hours). But I'm so in love with this little girl, and I love how everyday more of her adorable personality comes out.

Right now she hates sleeping and will go a couple days without more than a 20 minute nap every couple of hours and then sleep for 9 straight hours-unfortunately that's usually during the day and only if I sit and hold her the entire time. Last night she did make a new record and slept for 6 hours, so maybe...my fingers are crossed that she will start to sleep more and more at night-especially since I go back to work Monday, I NEED her to start sleeping a little more than the 4 hours she usually does at night. She is also smiling all the time, and loves to talk to you.

and she's always ready to give kisses-look at those adorable little lips.

I have had a couple of free minutes to work on some holiday craft projects, which I think turned out pretty cute. Now I just can't wait to have more time to scrapbook.

Look What I Can Do

2010-10-05T16:47:00.000-06:00

No one can make this little girl smile like her Daddy can.

I know she's not smiling in this picture, but I just love how droppy her cheeks look.

Don't you just want to squish them? I do-pretty much all day long.

The past week we have been pretty lazy since I can't do hardly anything-but my wrist is getting better everyday and I can't wait for next week to get these nasty stitches out. But we did finally get Grandpa B over to meet his 9th great grandchild. I just have to say that he is the cutest grandpa ever with my babies and practically stole her out of my arms the second he got to my house.

So Much Stuff

2010-09-25T17:54:00.000-06:00

We have been so busy this week, it's just ridiculous. Here are a few of the highlights:

We went to Alexis' school fair and she pretty much dragged Kyle from ride to ride, but they both had a ton of fun.

And of course Alexis had to "pose" for me, she couldn't just stand there and let me take her picture.

This little girl is now 6 weeks old and is just getting cuter by the day.

And this little man finally got his big boy glasses and a new haircut. Before his hair got cut he looked just like the little boy from Jerry Maguire with his glasses. I feel horrible that he has to have glasses, but I should just be thankful he can see. One of the most common side effects of CMV is hearing and vision lost. He has had very minimal hearing loss and only needs a little help with his vision. Most little kids aren't that lucky to get off that easy, so I am thankful that things aren't worse. He sure does look all grownup now though.

He has been so good about keeping them on-they must really be helping. But a little bribery never hurt, and it looks like his new Iron Man robot did the trick.

Getting ZOOie

2010-09-22T10:27:00.000-06:00

Last week I took the Kyle and Makenna to the Zoo with Stephanie and her two cute little kiddos. I have to tell you it was the best most relaxing day I've ever had at the zoo. The weather was perfect and there was hardly anyone there. Plus the kids got along all day and had a blast together.

We started the day off by going on the train, and Kyle was so excited until we started moving and then all his dramatizing memories of Lagoon came rushing back and he got really scared. He held my hand the whole time and sat as close as he possibly could. But after the ride he got off and said "oh, that wasn't too bad". Funny how quickly you a little kid can change their mind about something.

Makenna on the other hand loved looking around at everything.

Kyle loved looking at map and trying to figure out where we were. (This is his new thinking face)

This was a picture of Makenna while we were eating lunch, can you tell she just ate too? Her cheeks are just the chubbiest things ever.

We are taking full advantage of this gorgeous weather and the time I have off work. I just wish Alexis wasn't in school all day so she could come play with us too.

Lagoon

2010-09-14T17:39:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we finally gave into Alexis' constant nagging-since we've been putting her off the entire summer, and took the kiddos to Lagoon. Thankfully we had free tickets because it's completely ridiculous to have to pay $42 a person and over $30 for little kids. But we totally lucked out and thanks to one of the awesome perks at my job I got free tickets and as an extra bonus it was my mom's work Lagoon day, so she got to come with us too. I feel like I never post any pictures of Alexis and Kyle, but this day was pretty much all about them.

They were both so excited and couldn't wait to go on the rides. The entire drive up to Farmington Alexis was going over the order of the rides that we were going to go on. How she even knows the rides is a complete mystery to me.

My mom was perfectly happy sitting on all the rides and watching Makenna, but Alexis talked her into going on the Jumping Dragon rollercoaster. I think my mom was regretting it after the ride when she realized the rollercoaster goes forward and backward. Alexis on the otherhand isn't scared of anything and loved every minute of it.

I just have to laugh at this picture because Alexis was so determined to where her sunglasses all day so she could be just like me. Silly girl.

Kyle was pretty excited to go on the rides to, especially the Dinosaur drop. Unfortunately Justin and I didn't think this one through and Kyle was screaming and scared to death the entire time, oh and did I mention that this was the first ride he went on. Yeah-I think we scarred him for life, because he wouldn't even go on the carosuel because it was "too scary". What did we do?

This is pretty much how the rest of Kyle's day went. Poor thing I just felt awful. Hopefully by next summer he will be a little older and it won't be so bad. Even today out of the blue he told me that "Lagoon was too scary and he didn't never ever want to go again."

This is how Makenna spent most of her 1 month birthday.

She was such a good little trooper.

This picture was taken the day before, but it just made me laugh. Alexis put her new umbrella over her snowman so the hot sun wouldn't make him melt and then of course she struck a pose for me.

What we've learned

2010-09-10T18:44:00.000-06:00

Here's what we've learned in the past month...

Everyone has a bad hair day

When she's hungry, there is nothing that is going to stop her from eating-how lucky an I that she'll hold her bottle-sort of ;). She may hold her bottle, but she'll flip you off the entire time-blame it on her daddy-it must be hereditary.

This little boy has become a total momma's boy with me home all day.

and he can't give this little girl enough kisses and hugs.

Makenna gets more adorable every single day, and we just shake our head at daddy when he comes in and mom's on the floor taking pictures of her.

Her little hands are quickly becoming her best friend.

She may win the contest for having the bluest eyes in the family.

and we all love this little angel.

We've also learned that:

Sleep is highly overrated-who needs to sleep more than 3 hours to function?
I sit and watch the clock, just praying that its 3:25pm so I can go pick up Alexis and give Kyle someone to play with.
Every second of silence just cost me hundreds of dollars…because I’ve learned that when a six and three year old are silent something is seriously wrong, or they are being little mischievous things.
I love wearing comfy clothes all day, but I’m also missing the days when I was dressed and showered by 7am.
Never knew that going to the grocery store could be so challenging with three kids.
Being a stay-at-home is so much busier than I ever expected. How is it that I got more done when I was working 9 hours a day, than I do being at home all day?
So sick and tired of doctor’s office…and there is just more to come. (I found out this week that all the swelling and circulation problems I had in my right arm the last few weeks of my pregnancy isn't going away the way my OB said it would. I have a NCV test on the 20th to test my nerve responses and find out if the damage to my median nerve in both of my wrists is repairable, and I have surgery on the 29th to fix the carpal tunnel issues from the swelling that have never gone away. I just hope that the nerve damage isn't permanent because I really miss having feeling in my hand, and not cringing everytime I pick up a car seat or sweep or blow dry my hair.)
Love being told how skinny I look, and I love that I’ve lost over 30 pounds this last month.
Hate being told by Alexis that I’m a horrible mom because I don’t pay enough attention to her and Kyle. (wow-talk about making me feel horrible, especially when I spend all day doing everything for them, but somehow it’s still not enough). Learned that I have to keep repeating to myself that she’s SIX, and I can’t let her hurt my feelings
45 minutes of alone time is priceless.

Let the drama begin

2010-09-02T12:49:00.002-06:00

After three weeks Makenna has figured out how to get what she wants and she let's you know it. (She must be learning a thing or two from her overly dramatic big sister). Justin is absolutely dreading having two little drama queens in the house-let's just give it 10 years-he has no idea what's coming...

But once she's happy, which is 98% of the time, she is just my little angel. (do you like the blonde and red hair coming in? it pretty much matches Justin's sideburns to a T)

She has gotten really good and falling asleep all on her own (which is something my other two never did, they had to be rocked until they fell asleep), but she is completely content being put in her cradle/swing and drifting off.

Of course who wouldn't fall asleep in this soft blanket

and getting goodnight kisses from my other baby girl ALL the time!!!

I'm very excited to annouce that those drama skills Alexis has mastered in the past 6.5 years will be put to good use soon-Alexis has landed a role in Alice and Wonderland with a local theatre company, so she can put all those acting and singing skills to good use-who knew my daughter would be a little drama girl-ok I guess we should have guessed-let's hope my plan works and she can leave all that acting and drama on the stage.

Last week my cute friend from work, who is also a photographer, came over to my house and took some awesome newborn pictures for me. Here are some of my favorites:

2 Weeks

2010-08-25T16:17:00.000-06:00

...look who's already 2 weeks old...

Makenna is such a little character already and is so alert it just amazes me. She is even starting to hold her head up-which makes me a little sad because I want her to stay my little baby forever.

I think that after 2 weeks together we can offically say that we have a pretty good schedule, and bless her heart she is such a good sleeper. We purposely keep her up until 10:30 or 11pm and then she will sleep until 4am, which is WONDERFUL!!! Having Alexis in school as made us readjust a couple things with her morning schedule, but its all working out great now. For the first time since I came home I actually feel like I can do this three kid thing.

...i am cherishing every single cuddly moment I get with her, and I just love how she still curls her legs up and sticks them under her belly with her cute bum in the air...

...it just melts my heart to see her respond to my voice and smile at me...

...love this little toes, and I'm loving taking more baby pictures than I will ever thought possible...

...did a little happy dance after my two week follow up appointment today...

To my utter astonishment I have lost 33 pounds since I checked into the hosptial, but I think the best part is that I know I still have water to lose-so yeah!!! I might actually get to my pre-Alexis baby weight before I go back to work. Only 17 more pounds to go and 6 more weeks. I'm not sure what is going on, I think it might be chasing three kids around all day and drinking a ton of water-but whatever it is I'm not going to change a thing, except maybe next week my stomach muscles will feel good enough to start walking. Ahhh-exercise sounds wonderful-I can't wait.

Randomness

2010-08-23T14:31:00.006-06:00

random photo #1

I can't believe Alexis is in first grade. She was super excited, but also had a ton of butterflies. When I went to pick her up today, the first thing she said was "It wasn's as scary as I thought it would be, and I got to play with Gavin at recess so it made everything better."

random photo #2

Kyle missed his sister so much, he has loved having her home the past couple of weeks and couldn't wait to go pick her up.

random photo #3

I was taking my camera out to download pictures this morning and just as I was hooking up the USB this little angel started smiling-perfect timing.

random photo #4

Over the weekend I was a little bored and decided to take some pictures of Makenna (shocker, right?). Who knew that a black blanket and a pillow to prop her on on the couch would make such a perfect background.

random photo #5

I love how after I give her a bath the hair on the top of her head stands straight up and curls, no matter how hard I try to get it to lay flat. I have a feeling this little girl might just have those famous Boutler curls too, and Grandpa Meredith might finally get a grandchild with some of his red hair-although I'm thinking it's going to be a strawberry blonde.

random photo #6

Before I had Makenna I was really worried about Kyle being jealous of the new baby. But I have to say that he is the sweetest and most gentle little boy with her, and every morning the first thing he does is ask me where Makenna is and then climbs next to her, gives her a kiss and says "Oh Hello Gorgeous". He has definitely taken on the protective big brother role.

...Who knew those Meredith chubby cheeks could grow so much in just 12 days-I have a feeling she might beat her big brother in the chubby cheeks contest...

What a Week It's Been

2010-08-20T13:57:00.003-06:00

Let's just say we've had some good days and some bad days-this little transistion to three kids and staying at home has definitely had it's ups and downs. But I think I've finally figured it out and each day is getting a little easier. Thankfully Makenna is just an absolutely perfect baby and sleeps a good 5 hours at night and never fusses, so its made everything else that much easier. Plus Alexis is so nice to have around and has become my little slave, but she never complains as long as I let her hold Makenna just about every chance she can.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last week (I've diligently tried to take pictures of Alexis and Kyle but the ones of Makenna have out numbered theirs about 100 to 1).

Alexis starts first grade on Monday, so having Kyle home all day without his little buddy is going to be pretty interesting.

Makenna Kairi

2010-08-13T16:44:00.000-06:00

I am just completely in love with this little angel

Makenna Kairi

8bs. 0.5oz

21 inches long

Summer Sprinklers

2010-08-10T19:16:00.002-06:00

The kids decided to take full advantage of the two days they had at home with me before this baby gets here. Yesterday I talked them into turning the sprinklers on and jumping on our trampoline.

Alexis loved it!!!

Kyle, not so much...

and he especially didn't like it when a soaking wet Alexis decided to give him a hug.

We have less than 12 hours before this little one will be here. THANK GOODNESS. I can't wait to meet my little one and to finally be able to hold her in my arms.

The Final Week

2010-08-01T20:38:00.000-06:00

I am so relieved to know that this is truly my final week of being pregnant..forever. Thank goodness-to say that I'm over it is completely the understatement of the year-no decade. I am so beyond thankful that I have been able to go full-term and my fingers are crossed that this little one will be healthy and will be able to come home with us next week.

Ahh, that sounds so nice...next week.

You know it's time to not be pregnant anymore when maternity clothes are this tight.

and at 7am your feet look like this.

But in one last attempt to get as ready, as you can for another baby, we've been finishing up some little things and little details around the house. For Kyle...that meant buying him his first big boy bike. He loves his spiderman bike and has almost figured out that the pedals go forward not backward to make him go faster. My plan is to have him be a pro at bike riding in the next few weeks so we can walk down to Alexis' school and pick her up everyday.

For Alexis...that meant going school shopping and getting ready for 1st grade. Can someone please explain to me how it is even possible for my baby girl to be starting 1st grade in a couple weeks? But she made me promise to not put any pictures of her or her new clothes up on our blog until school started, because it has to be a "surprise".

And for the new little one...that meant getting her room all ready. (Actually its been pretty much ready for a couple months-blame it my OCD-once I get a project started I have to finish it and not let it sit). But now all the blankets are washed, everything is built and all her clothes are put away.

The NURSERY

On Alexis' last day of Kindergarten her teacher gave me this painting that she did for the art festival and I fell in love with it. I actually couldn't believe that my little girl made this, but more than that I loved the colors and Alexis and I decided to decorate M's room with the same colors. I really wanted to go a little more girly than I had in the past, but after a lot of convincing Justin talked me into at least painting the room green-just in case all 12 of my ultrasounds were wrong. (Wishful thinking? Maybe?) So we decided on sage green, pink and brown as the color palatte.

With dragonflies and butterflies as the main accessory. I put alot of creative ideas to use-for example these little buddies used to be strung together to hang from a door and were almost a flourescent green. Let's just say we cleaned out Michael's white spray paint on multiple occasions.

This little butterfly hanging started out as clear acrylic butterflies (which were supposed to be an scrapbook album).

This butterfly was on the super extra clearance isle at Michael's and I think I paid a whopping $2 for it. Oh I better tell you that it started out as a butt ugly orange color. I was a little worried how it would turn out, but it is just adorable after about 10 coats of spray paint.

This frame was also an antiqued gold one and that vase just a plain terra cotta vase from the dollar store. Alexis turned this vase into her little project and added all the gems that she found in my scrap stuff. And there are few more of our little dragonfly buddies.

I got this mirror at Ross for $15 and when I got it was a metallic copper. After a couple coats of paint and some sanding I glued the dragonflies and butterflies to it and then hung it with pink and brown ribbon. It's all those extra little touches and made her room so fun.

Love this canopy, although not as easy and you would think to hang. Plus I made sure to get one unattached so we can put it above her big girl bed when she's a toddler. And you can't go wrong with Martha Stewart tissue paper balls for a little extra touch.

This picture was a total accident. I really didn't mean to blur out all the outfits on the sides, but I love it, because my most favorite outfit that I have for her is the one that is in focus-with the little mary jane booties sewn into it. I just can't wait it have a picture of her in it.

What do you think? I love how it has turned out. But I love even more that my 4th bedroom is finally decorated and not just a spare storage room.

Now for my next project...

turning this wall into something...something with a little zest of color and maybe possibly some of this....

but for now I think that project will wait until this little angel makes an appearance. I told you there's always something that I'm working on. Hopefully the next week will fly by, or maybe she'll decide to just come on her own and I won't have to play this waiting game anymore.

Yuck

2010-07-22T09:15:00.000-06:00

So...my day didn't go as good as I hoped it would yesterday. Stupid hospitals and their dang rules. I am really, really trying to be optimistic, but I'm pretty depressed too. So they have raised their minimum requirements and technically on paper my body has taken a turn for the better and now I look too good to have a baby next week. Plus now unless your a certain % effaced or your water has broken or your dilated past a three you have to wait until 39 weeks. So that means I have a good two more weeks unless I go into labor myself. I know its a good thing because she will be healthier and bigger, but I was just so ready to be done. Plus that means I have to work for 2 more weeks-which is probably what I'm more upset about, and I will only have a week off with Alexis before she starts school and that week I'm not going to be feeling all that great, so I'm a little bummed about that too. My c-section is scheduled for August 11th, but I'm just praying that my body will do something by next week and hopefully she will come a little sooner. But we'll see.

Dang spiders

2010-07-13T07:20:00.000-06:00

This is what we got to deal with all night last night, including a trip to Instacare

These pictures were taken 36 hours after she got bit by not just one, but THREE spiders on a little bike ride around our neighborhood. Last night when we got home from school and her hand looked 1000x worse than 8 hours earlier, which is when I gave in and decided it was time to get a little extra help from the doctor.

I just keep picturing those stupid mass emails that go around about spider bites and what they can look like a couple days later, not exactly what my blood pressure needs right now. Thankfully it does look better today. Just one more reason to hate spiders.

What a Crazy 2 Weeks

2010-07-11T17:07:00.000-06:00

Geez, the last two weeks has just flown by-which is a good thing. I just hope the next 2 fly by just as quickly.

Justin and I finally convinced Alexis to cut her hair. She has the most sensitive head ever and I just hated having her in tears everytime we combed her hair and nothing seemed to help. So about a week ago I picked her up from school a little early and took her to cookie cutters. Alexis was a little hesistant at first, but has loved having short hair and I think she loves being able to comb it all by herself even more.

BEFORE

AFTER

We have also had a ton of family in town and something going on every single day or night for the last 11 days. Unfortunately I have felt completely awful and way too pregant, so I didn't even remember to bring my camera with me to anything. But we did have the 4th of July party over at our house, so I was able to get some fun pictures of the kids and their cousins.

(This little guy could jump on our trampoline for hours if we let him-he makes me tired just watching him jump for so long)

Alexis was patting Aidan on the head trying to get him to do some crazy model pose with her, but he was just completely content standing next to her while she did her thing.

I don't think this house was meant to played on top of...but what can you do?

The last couple of weeks Kyle has decided to wake up at the brink of dawn, which is fine with me because that means he goes to bed really early...plus I don't really sleep anymore because I can't seem to find one comfortable position, so at least I have someone to keep me company in the wee hours of the morning. A couple days ago I was getting dressed and walked back into my room and found him laying like this on my pilliow. Such a cute little stinker!

I also took some family pictures for Jared and Katie while they were here. They turned out so dang cute-it's actually making me jealous, I can't wait for this little one to get here so we can get some new ones too. Here's a few of my favorites from the shoot.

Justin is in Seattle this whole week-so yeah for me, I get to be a 9 month pregnant-single-working mom for the next week. Plus, my lovely body has decided to not be so nice to me anymore, and I'm just praying that I can make it two more weeks. As long as this baby will stay put until he gets back we'll be good. I just hope I can find some extra, extra wide flip flops to wear to work this week-its really sad when your fat, swollen feet don't even fit in flip flops anymore. So frustrating, but at least the end is in sight-thank goodness. Just two more weeks til she's full-term-we're making bets that she is going to be close to 7 lbs,which is quite an accomplishment for me, I just hope I can hold out and get her a little chunkier. I've never been pregnant this long and I've never been this big before, so each day is getting harder and harder-I sure hope the next two weeks fly by just as fast.

Oh happy day!!!

2010-06-29T11:01:00.000-06:00

They moved my due date up 2 whole weeks today!!! Seriously how freaking cool is that, so now I'm 35.5 weeks. Which means I only have to push it 10 more days to get her to full term. Plus my little girl is already 5lbs. 5 oz. I feel physically horrible, but mentally I can't even tell you how big of a relief it is to know that she is over 5 lbs and to know that in 10 days she will technically be full term. I can do 10 days. I go in again on the 6th and if my blood pressure is still going up as much as it did today, I bet they set a date for later that week or the first of next week. Holy crap-that is so soon. My doctor did put me on "bedrest", but gave me the ok to still work. So basically I get to work and then be on bedrest the rest of the night, meaning I don't get to do one dang thing for the next week, just so I can buy her a little more time. I can't even tell you how much better I feel mentally, just to know that she is over 5 lbs. That's sort of the magic NICU number and usually ultrasounds are on the smaller side, so I'm betting by next week she will be over 6lbs. Alexis was only 5lbs. 9oz, so I guess Justin was right, she's going to be a big baby-she should be with how big I feel.

3 weeks seems so far away

2010-06-28T08:49:00.000-06:00

One more week down...hopefully I can make it 3 more!!! Everyday is getting more and more miserable-you know when you wake up and your feet are even more swollen then they were when you went to bed its not going to be a good day, oh and those little white flurries-just go away-I'm sick of seeing them everytime I stand up.