Kylie 5 months

Kylie hit her 5 month mark the end October. Wow is she growing up fast. I miss my newborn, cuddly baby! She is "funner" as the kids and her daddy like to say because she is becoming more and more interactive with our family!

 I really struggled with this months pictures. The lighting has been all wrong and I can't seem to catch it when it's right. Maybe it has something to do with winter nearing??

 The sticker's were a complete nuisance this month too. Dang girl won't leave them alone.

 Look how big she is!! Her feet now hang above the laundry hamper.

 We see Kylie doing a lot of this lately. She has definetly discovered her feet!

 Kylie is enjoying eating at the table with the rest of us.

 We have started giving her pieces of waffles, pancake and soft bread to knaw on.

 Miss Kylie is trying so hard to sit up all by herself but she can't quite get it. She can sit for just a few seconds and than falls over. She loves to play with her jungle gym that hangs over her. She still sleeps on her tummy for the majority of the time. Miss Kylie is teething. I've seen a white spot on her bottom gums but it comes and goes. Hopefully by her 6 month mark that little tooth will make it's presence. Kylie still likes Ellie (her bink attached to an elephant). I'll have to post pictures of her and Ellie together one day. I haven't had a binky baby since Hunter, 9 years ago. It may not be easy to get rid of later but I sure enjoy the convienence of it now.



Festival of Tree's

Last saturday our family went on a little adventure...

We went in search of a Christmas Tree! 

While searching Hunter decided to try some fresh, organic pine gum! He decided that store bought gum was much better!

Hunter did a good job cutting down our first tree found.

It ended up being bigger than he thought.

We need two trees this year so while Hunter was busy with this one the girls and dad chopped our second one down.

Miss Kylie loved the adventure!

 We needed two trees this year because we donated one to the schools Festival of Tree's. This is when trees, wreaths and other large items are donated to be raffled off. The money earned this year is going towards the funds needed to paint murals of the US and the World outside on the school's blacktop. These murals can be used during class time or games played on them during recess. The school use to have these murals until a few years ago when the playground was re-surfaced.

The tree we donated was from our personal company, Cave Man Cabinets and Kory's brother's company KC Livestock. We went with a western theme for our tree.

                                                   

I was able to get an old straw Cowboy hat donated for our tree topper and a rope to circle the tree with instead of garland or ribbon. For the tree skirt to tie it all in I bought 2 packages of bandana's. I was wanting red but of course good ol' Walmart once again fell through and only had blue! My plan was to sew them together but being the week before finals this was just one of many projects that just didn't get done.

 Kory bent barbed wire into the shape of a star for me. When we hung it on the tree you could barely see it. It was a bit disapointing so I wrapped each star in red and blue ribbon to make them pop out better. Sister-in-law Carrie made our candy cane decorations.

 In the end the tree was a success and helped bring money in. I'm not much of a western themed person so the tree to me was just O.K. Living in our community full of rancher's and farmer's the western theme was a hit!

I am the book keeper for Heaton Livestock. They too wanted to donate but left it up to me. Knowing I couldn't do 2 tree's myself I took an old wreath and gave it an updo!

The big night finally came. The Kindergardner's and 1st grade class was asked to sing some Christmas Songs during the grand tree lighting event. Miss Emily is kneeling in the front with the light blue coat on.

 Unfortunately I was busy selling raffles and helping out at a few other station's so I didn't get any more pictures. We had several vendor's set up and the kids were able to run around and participate in a few things. The kids had fun and I'm quite glad to know this big night is now behind me. Until next year...

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving this year was quite simple for me.

We had our great feast at Harmony's (Kory's sister)house.

We were asked to bring 2 pies and that was it. Like I said very easy this year.

My little baker put herself in charge of making the pies this year. She made my kids favorite chocolate chip pie and than helpd me make 2 lemon meringue's. Being we only needed 2 for the big family gathering we left one at home to eat on over the next few days.

 Here's Uncle Dusin holding his Izzy Bee (aka Elizabeth) and Uncle Jim holding my Kylie.

 Here's Uncle Mike and my hubby.

 Aunt Harmony's house was packed! They set up 4 extra tables. The majority of Kory's siblings (9 of them) were present except for 3. One of his sister's live in northern Utah and didn't make it. His other sister went to Nauvoo to spend the holiday with Grandma and Grandpa who are serving a mission. And his younger brother spent the holiday with his in-laws. They were all missed!

 After the big feast Uncle Dustin took those that wanted and played some games out in the back yard. This warmer weather is extremly unusual and we decided to make the most of it knowing it will be gone very shortly!

We had a great day spending the day with our extended family members.

Facebook Group

Sometime in October I as asked to join a Group on Facebook. This group has professional and amateaur photographer's. Each month a challenge is given and for a few weeks we try to better our selves in a paticular way using our camera. For the month of November our challenge was "backlighting". These are some of my better, more successful, recieved compliments on from this group.

Here's Miss Kylie...

I love her smile! Her lighted, bright ears makes me smile! I've learned that back lighting has a lot to do with preference. The ears are funny but this isn't a photo I'd put on my wall where as other's oohed and ahhed over them and her blown out head.   

 I do like this one of Emily. I like the fuzziness my camera did to the back ground all by itselg. I do like the light on her head.

Now that schools over I hope to put more time and effort into our monthly challenges. One day I am hoping for a better camera. One that I can change settings and play with the ISO. It's frusturating to see moving shots posted to our group and knowing that my camera doesnt' have that ability. The one thing that really bugs me about the camera is the movement. Kids NEVER sit still and any little movement when taking their picture turns out fuzzy for the most part and ruins the picture. One day...

Red Ribbon Week

This year I have 3 in school. Each of my children desperatly wanted me to be their room mom. How do I choose which class? Before having to make my decision I was asked if I wanted to participate on the school's Booster Club. Our school doesn't have a PTA and so this stands in it's place. We are very small with just 4 of us as member's. I decided that instead of having to choose between my kids I would do the Booster Club thing that way I was at the school volunteering my services to all of the classes instead of just one.

I was put in charge of Red Ribbon Week which fell over Halloween this year. On Monday we had Crazy Hair Day!

                                   

 My kids love spraying their hair a different color. Emily was so fun to watch as this is 1st year to participate in things like this.

 Tuesday was "Slam Dunk, Drugs are Junk". The kids could wear any sports affiliated clothing. We are not a sport fanatic family! Being last year Hunter and Madelyn played baskett ball we did have their jersey's. Miss Madelyn volunteered to wear her dad's old high school jersey even though it looks like a dress of her. She was quite pleased to tell me at the end of the day that there were many other's that wore their parents jersey too!

 Wed. was Halloween so the kids got to wear their costumes to school. Thursday was Pajama day and I apparently didn't take pictures of that day.

Friday ended up being everyon'e most favorite day. This was the 1st time the school has released

 The kids had an assembly first thing that morning and by 9:45 we were all outside with our balloons ready. The principal had us count down from 10 and then together we released our balloons that were attached to our drug free pledge.

I've never done anything like being on the Booster Club before so this was a new experience for me. I think the week turned out great! I recieved many, many compliments and so I believe everyone had fun. It's interesting living is such a small community. People say they are excited to have a new-be on the team for fresh ideas. Yet when I suggest something most of the comments made our "we've never done that before, I don't think we can" or "I don't think we can afford that" or "I don't know if people will like that. We've never done it that way". I really had to push for the helium balloon's. It cost $45 for the helium, $25 for the balloons and $4 for the red ribbon we tied around them. In the end the $74 was well worth it and I'm being told everyone wants to do it again next year.  Yippee!!

Halloween Randomness 2012

As you know Halloween is my absolute, all time FAVORITE Holiday! I love dressing up, the fun foods, the cool shirts, annual party and the awesome hair do's I ALWAYS do on the girls. This year was a bit diifferent for our family. I felt like I was the "grinch" of Halloween.

We did make it to the Halloween Pack Meeting.

Here's Mr. G (member of the bishopric)

Loved Sis. Roundy's costume!

 Madelyn wanted to be a Miss Dracula. Being we live in the middle of nowhere we had to use what we had in our costume box.  I've had this wig for years and I've loved it! I've worn it to church parties, school function's and other events and for some reason people have a hard time recognizing me. But I do believe after this year, it's been taken over by my daughter.

This was the 1st Pack Meeting Kory's been able to attend since Hunter began the scouting program a year in a half ago. It was so nice having him there. The baby and he and I went as our old standby, quick and easy M&M's. I made these costumes 6 years ago when Emily was a baby.They've sure come in handy.

Brayden when going through our Halloween costumes fell in love with the giraffe costume. This little man of mine wanted to wear it all the time! It was a fight to get him to not sleep in it each night.

 Apparently those were the only pictures I took of our Pack Meeting.

My kids school put on a Halloween Parade around the school block. The little ones and I sat on the grass and cheered them on.

 Miss Madelyn...

Miss Emily... a fairy waving at her mom 

 Loved the Preschool teacher's costumes!

Mr. Hunter as.... Batman!

 Brayden loving on his sister while waiting for the kids to come back.

 Not sure what happened to my camera when we went trick-or-treating cause I don't seem to have any pictures. Here's Miss Emily with part of her stash when the night was through.

So last year's Halloween was absolutely horrible. We stayed in town to do our trick-or-treating and no lie we were the only ones out walking the streets. Everyone else was being driven around. With our town being so small with a total of 8 streets (4 running N to S and the other 4 running E to W)  I was baffled by all the driving. By the time we got home we were freezing and had very little candy. The majority of the houses had there lights off. What the heck?? 

 Last year Kory was on the night shift so wasn't with us. This year I told him we were going to drive to the next town over where it was little bigger, had sidewalks and street lights. Being it's 20 minutes away the plan was to leave about 6. We get in the van and the kids decide they want to go to a friends house in town first. After that house someone else wants to go to their primary teacher's house. It seemed like after each house the kids kept wanting to go to another friends/teacher's house. By the time we were done it was past 7 and I wasn't up for the 40 minute travel time we had ahead of us. Let's not foget that Halloween this year was on a wed. so a school night! So we finished driving the kids around town and hit the houses we hadn't already hit. We were home about 7:30, costumes were put away, faces washed and the kids were in bed at 8! Being we left earlier this year and we drove instead of walked most of the houses still had their lights on and the kids were pleased with their candy. Trick-or-treating is done differently here than what we were use to back in Arizona. I decided to have success living here we need to leave ealier instead of waiting till the sun starts to go down and we'll drive em' around instead of walking.  

What was I thinking...

I have overdone it this time for sure. I have learned my lesson and I will NEVER do it again. I don't know what I was thinking when I registered for school full time, 4 months ago. I guess I wasn't. These past 12 weeks have been the hardest weeks of my entire life I believe. I have lost control over everything. My mind is all over the place, I can't remember anything and and I'm behind in everything. I enrolled myself in 4 college classes which is full time. Adding up the hours I put into my education I spend about 40 hours a week doing homework, research assignments, quizzes and tests. On top of my schooling I put in 10-15 hours of work working as a book keeper for 2 different local companies. I am overwhelmed! I'm trying to be a good mom so I attend my kids programs at school. I make the time to help with homework. At the beginning of the school year I wanted to help out in one of my kids classroom's but didn't know how to pick one child when I 've got three attending. So I instead joined the Booster Club, similar to PTA. This too has been demanding on my time. Despite everything I'm doing, I am doing well in school. I've got A's in all my classes. Everything else in my life is a different story!

My house has seriously never been so messy in my entire life! I'm so glad we rarely get company. I cringe when someone knocks on my door. My dishes get done when I know I won't have any clean dishes for the next meal and sometimes it still doesn't matter thanks to my stack of paper goods in the pantry. My floors get vaccummed when it becomes difficult to see what color of carpet we have. My floors get swept when I can't take the "crunch" under my feet anymore. My floors get mopped when I can't take the stickiness anymore which seems to be every 2-3 weeks. My bathrooms get cleaned when my toilet bowl starts to grow. Nasty I know! I just can't keep up.  My kids try to help but lets remember the oldest is only 9. My husband tries to help but he's busy working on the side doing cabinet jobs.

I have lost a bit of myself this semester that I hope to get back. I couldn't tell you the last time I scrap booked or read a book of my choosing. I LOVE Halloween. It is my most favorite holiday. We have an annual halloween party, I fix fun, silly, disgusting looking meals the week of halloween, I do the girls hair in halloween style, my house is decked out from top to bottom, we listen to halloween music, the kids that are at home with me all day do halloween related projects almost every day. Yeah.... Not this year! We've got 3 big tubs full of halloween fun. I let the kids decorate the house using one bin, no halloween party, no fun hair styles, the kids didn't even wear their halloween themed clothes and nor did I. As for our fun halloweeny meals I did make bread sticks that looked like bones but that about sums it up for us. I was not able enjoy my favorite holiday this year. Even Kory mentioned my "ba hum bug" attitude I had this year. I just couldn't do it.  I'm down to 4 more weeks and school will be over. I can hardly wait.

Hunter's New Read's

When Hunter started kindergarten severl years ago he didn't know how to read. I wasn't concerned becuase most of the kids in his class couldn't read either.  About Christmas break I started to get a bit concerned becuase to me it seemed the majority of his class was reading and he still wasn't. His teacher told me not to fret about it, that he'd eventually catch on and be just fine. I fretted anyways because that's what I do but she was right. Hunter finally caught on and there's been no slowing him down. His summer between kindergaren and 1st grade all he did was read. He started with the series, The Majic Tree House, and read almost all of them that summer. By the time 1st grade started he was beyond the majority of his classmates in the reading level department.

Last year we were at a new school with new criteria. Each kid with their teacher at the beginning of each quarter picks a goal. Seems like it's usually around 20. Hunter than reads books during school and at home and than tests on them; synopsis, vocab, etc. and is given a score. Depending on his score determines the amount of points he earns that go toward his goal. Each book is worth a different amount of points. Last year Hunter wanted to read the Harry Potter series. His 3rd grade teacher talked to me about this. She was concerned that the book was above his comprehension/reading level. Apparently Harry Potter is a 6-7th grade level book not 3rd! Together the three of us decided to let Hunter try. If he didn't score well than we'd know that he needs to pick books closer to his reading level.

 It took Hunter over a month to get through the 1st book but he did it. He loved it and he scored a 100% on his test giving him his 20 points needed to meet goal. Yippee! His teacher was impressed and never again questioned him on what books he wanted to read. Well that is until he read and tested on the 2nd book of the Eragon series only scored a 32%. Oops! I believe that series is still a bit ahead of his reading level or the fact he read it in one day may have played a big part too. It made Hunter feel pretty good to learn that he was the teacher's 1st kid ever to read the 1st five books of this series and get a 100% on all the tests. The only reason he hasn't continued on with the series is because we don't own the books and there's not a library near enough to go to during this past summer. Now that the school year has started again he was anxious to check out book #6 from the school's library. He was quite disapointed the 1st week of school to find that it was already checked out. So instead he brought home The Red Pyramid.

New grade, new teacher. School has only been in session for 5 weeks. His goal for this 1st quarter is 23 points. As of last week he only had 4 points towards his goal. However this book is worth 20 points so I wasn't concerned. I bet I get 2-3 emails a week from his teacher about her concerns with Hunter reading this book. She doesn't think his reading level is at a 5-7th grade level and that he won't score well on the test. Really???  He's in 4th. I know he can do it! These emails are telling me where the whole school is at and his class on the percentage of goals reached so far. Hunter was only at 20+% to meet his goal. She told him he could finish the book but that after that he needs to read the MUCH smaller chapter books to ensure he reaches goal. I'm beginning to think she's just worried that Hunter isn't going to reach goal and therefore make her classes score look bad. Hunter finished the book last week and well within the quarter. He scored another 100%. I knew he could do it and so did he! I felt like emailing the teacher with a great big Told Ya!

I was a bit suprised to get another email from her last friday. Despite his AWESOME score she still wants him to read smaller chapter books. Ughh!!! Supposedly she still thinks he can't handle the bigger books and is too young to understand the vocabulary. Yet he got all the vocab question's right on the test! This has bugged me all weekend long. I've talked to her about this already and frankly I don't mind him reading these larger books. I've already read these myself and don't see anything wrong with my 9 year old reading them.  And quite frankly I think it's great he's reading bigger books that is more challenging to him. Heaven forbid he be challenged? So today Hunter came home with a much smaller book that his teacher asked him to read. It's supposedly on level, whatever that means!

I've been thinking about this a lot and have decided that we will use this experience as a life lesson. As Hunter grows up he is going to be asked to do things that he doesn't want to do or knows that he can do better at than despite what somebody else thinks. Chances are he will have this happen during scouts, in college, on a mission and in the work place. This is just life. So he and I have decided that he will do what his teacher is asking. At school he will read these smaller chapter books during the assigned reading time and test on them. At home for his assigned 30 minute reading each night and whenever he chooses to read by choice he can read whatever he wants! It is his choice to test on these books he reads at home. After talking about this he got a huge grin on his face and informed me that he still wants to test on these bigger books at school. If he reads a little more at home he can still finish one of these bigger books in the school's quarter. If he scores well on the test he can reach double his goal! To him that would be way cool! I'm glad we have found a happy medium that will work for all of us.

Emily turns 6

Miss Emily had a birthday last week.

She is now the big "6".

She woke up to our traditional pancakes with candles!

              For luch we had her favorite; lasagna, homemade rolls, fruit salad and corn on the cob.

 It was like Christmas at our house. This girl was spoiled! I guess that's what happens when big sister and brother earn money and want to buy her a present from them too. Loven' the brotherly love we've got going on here.

 Her birthday cake request was a barbie cake. Being I just did a barbie a few weeks ago I wanted to do this one differently. So searching on pinterest I saw something like this and copied it. I love the way it turned out!

 Miss Emily loved it too.

Happy Birthday Miss Emily!

We love you!

Facts about Emily

1. Likes to color

2. Loves to be read stories

3. Likes to watch 101 Dalmation's

4. Loves Barbies

5. Loves kindergarten

6. Loves the color pink

7.Likes to play outside

8. Loves to take bath's

9. Loves to change her baby sister's diaper's even when there's a present inside!

10. Likes to help mom in the kitchen

Emily's Hair

I love my girls hair. I love doing it. I love putting it up in fancy styles. I love the "neatness" that I can create with their hair. For the most part my girls love this to so it's a win-win situation. About a year ago Emily started going through that much despised stage of wanting to do her own hair.

Why oh why do my girls go through this? Why can't they stay little?

With the length of her hair she just couldn't do it. She couldn't get the brush through it's length, she could never get all the tangles out, it was very frusturating to her. And so after much debate she won and I cut it just above her shoulder's. She loved it! Since then she's loved being able to brush it by herself, put clips in by herself and wear headbands something else I despise.

Six months later her hair is long again, not as long as it was but it's getting there. I love this length. I love the hairdo's we do. I love the braids, the fliperoo's and all the different styles we can create. Being she catches the bus a little after 7 each morning the hairstyles that will last for more than one day have become my favorite.  My problem is she's still independent and wants to do her own hair or tell me how she wants it and then expects me to do what she wants. She's only 6. Why can't I still have that choice?

 The other morning she came down the stairs with the BIGGEST grin on her face. She turned around and said, "Mom, look at my hair! Didn't I do an awesome job? Bet you didn't know I could do piggies by myself did ya? Yep, I'm AWESOME!"

What was I to do??

I put a grin on my face, took her requested picture and sent her on her way.

She is AWESOME!

I just hope she'll continue to let me do her hair some day's.

The time has come for me to cut the apron strings and let her do her own hair a bit more.

This won't kill me right? I survived this stage with her bigger sister and I will survive this stage once again but oh.... how I will miss it!