Here are some cute one's that I was able to get of the kids. Poor Nat's lips have had it. I can't get her to stop licking them. Still a cute little stinker though!
Here are some pictures I captured of everyone else with us:
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Family Picture Day
Today was Chelsie's birthday. We all gathered at her house for a family get together. I decided it would be a great opportunity to retake our family pictures. We took them earlier at the Cook family reunion and I really didn't like the way they turned out. My hair was awful and uncooperative and my shirt made me look 7 months pregnant. Today my hair went exactly the way I like it for family pictures, can't say much for the 7 month looking belly, but that's a work in progress. I managed to get the kids and Ben in the outfits I picked out and no one spilled on them before we went out. The only thing that didn't cooperate was the wind and the sun. It was a bit irritating. Between those two downfalls it was making the kids a little more squirrelly than normal and they couldn't see a dang thing and of course squinted into the sun. Can I just say, I FREAKING HATE family picture day! Nothing ever seems to go right. Last year was the best year we had for family pictures. Our pictures turned out lovely. I just have to remind myself that when I look at how great they turned out, the fight it costs to get good pictures like that. I mean if you look close at last years pictures you will notice a wet spot down Natty's pants. No it wasn't water either. She peed her pants right before pictures. I remember being so irritated. Today I went through and looked at the pictures after it was over. While one or maybe two turned out ok I will have to say the family reunion ones were a little bit better. This by no means was the photographers fault. Chelsie took them for us and she took them just how I like them taken. No ones heads were chopped off, no ones bodies were chopped off. Everything was just right. It just didn't work out like I had hoped. It is very frustrating thing. Family picture day is really false advertisement of the picture perfect family anyway. All these pretty smiles and really just before the click of the camera there is chaos. Everyone screaming and fighting (mostly me) and others running around like wild animals (mostly the kids) and the rest are just pouting (mostly Ben). Well I think you get the picture. He are the fruits of our labors today.
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Family Fun in September
Well today all the kids have runny noses so I decided it would be a good day to play hooky from church. The kids are running around the house like crazy right now so I probably should have taken them to church, but Natty keeps running up to me to wipe her "nosey". So I guess I will update the blog.
I can't remember if I posted pictures of our Battle Ball Soccer last month. It was quite the workout. Who needs P90X after an hour of that. I was so stinking sore the next day I could hardly life my shirt over my arms when I was getting dressed for the day. It was hard to breathe in there and I personally had to take several breaks because of how much energy it consumes. I don't think any of us lasted past 45 minutes before we gave in to our age and our lack of energy. It was a tie game. At the beginning our team was getting demolished before we realized it was basically all the boys and Tristan against the rest of us. We switched more evenly. There were only two goals scored during the game. The first was Tristan and the last was yours truly. I don't want to brag or anything, but it's hard to be humble sometimes.
Early in the month Travis already missed his first day of school. He had a cavity filled and I was a little worried how he would do so we opted for conscious sedation. He came home a little on the loopy side. He sat down on the couch and started staring at it and said, "I didn't know the couch could change colors. How does it do that?" Then Later he would not sit down and there was a missing ketchup crisis and he "knew" where it was and jumped up from his chair and took off running to go get it and smacked straight on into the chair in front of him and fell to the ground. It was like a scene right out of a movie. It was so funny, but I couldn't laugh because he was so upset over it. When dad woke up from his nap he took Travis downstairs to play his new Lego Movie video game. He was pretty excited about that.
Travis has grown so much so fast. He is such a good boy with a gentle heart. He is such a good brother and watches out for his sisters all the time and helps out around the house really well too. His biggest hero that he looks up to is his daddy. Travis tries to be just like him. Whenever Ben is wearing a hat Travis is too. He likes to follow Ben around and go to town with Ben when he's getting things for the house. We bought him some work gloves and some ear muffs and they get used frequently at our house.
I can't remember if I posted pictures of our Battle Ball Soccer last month. It was quite the workout. Who needs P90X after an hour of that. I was so stinking sore the next day I could hardly life my shirt over my arms when I was getting dressed for the day. It was hard to breathe in there and I personally had to take several breaks because of how much energy it consumes. I don't think any of us lasted past 45 minutes before we gave in to our age and our lack of energy. It was a tie game. At the beginning our team was getting demolished before we realized it was basically all the boys and Tristan against the rest of us. We switched more evenly. There were only two goals scored during the game. The first was Tristan and the last was yours truly. I don't want to brag or anything, but it's hard to be humble sometimes.
I know I talked about school starting, but I didn't post first day of school pictures. Trav and Natty's pictures turned out marvelous. Macie Jo and Ben's was pretty classic too I must say. This year Travis is in 1st grade and Natty is in Preschool. Both are loving it.
Early in the month Travis already missed his first day of school. He had a cavity filled and I was a little worried how he would do so we opted for conscious sedation. He came home a little on the loopy side. He sat down on the couch and started staring at it and said, "I didn't know the couch could change colors. How does it do that?" Then Later he would not sit down and there was a missing ketchup crisis and he "knew" where it was and jumped up from his chair and took off running to go get it and smacked straight on into the chair in front of him and fell to the ground. It was like a scene right out of a movie. It was so funny, but I couldn't laugh because he was so upset over it. When dad woke up from his nap he took Travis downstairs to play his new Lego Movie video game. He was pretty excited about that.
Travis has grown so much so fast. He is such a good boy with a gentle heart. He is such a good brother and watches out for his sisters all the time and helps out around the house really well too. His biggest hero that he looks up to is his daddy. Travis tries to be just like him. Whenever Ben is wearing a hat Travis is too. He likes to follow Ben around and go to town with Ben when he's getting things for the house. We bought him some work gloves and some ear muffs and they get used frequently at our house.
This little monster is growing up fast too. She is such a pretty girl. Her and I have our battle some days, but she is a sweet little thing. She just had a doctors appointment this week and she grew a couple inches and gained 6 pounds since last year. That was nice to hear because she's so skinny and small. Her body is starting to catch up with her attitude. She is our little mother hen. She is always making sure everything is equal and fair and if it's not she knows how to take care of it. She is an outdoors girl for sure. She could spend all day outside if you let her. We spent an hour and a half on the swing just yesterday. I could not convince her to get off. Just as soon as I talked her off the swing she turned around and got on another swing. I finally talked her inside for a drink.
This little gremlin graduated earlier in the month from her crib to her toddler bed. She got her leg caught in the rail of her crib and I had to use lotion to get it unstuck. We had similar problems with Natty when she was her age so we decided not to mess with it and just switch her over. She does pretty good in her bed. With both Travis and Natty we had problems with them getting up and falling asleep in front of the door. Macie Jo may get up and play, but when she starts getting tired she always gets back into her bed. She covers herself up with blankets and everything. She is starting to become quite the climber too. Those diaper boxes you see had to be taken out of her room because she unstacked them and pushed them up against the twin bed in her room and climbed up on the twin bed and then climbed up on the headboard and was standing up there and didn't know how to get down so she was just standing and crying. It's a good thing I checked on her too because if I hadn't she would have taken quite the tumble. She is a mischief maker!
Rulan had a birthday last weekend. Kathy threw him a surprise party. She was quite delighted when he was so surprised about his party. We all met at Stockman's for the big surprise. James flew down for it and had Cali on face time for the big surprise. After the restaurant we went back to their house for presents where I gave Rulan my fun box of gifts. It was quite fun to put together. It had some homemade Viagra, Milk of Mag, hemorrhoid cream, an adult diaper, and some other fun stuff. After all the presents were over he read his book all about him to the family. The next day after an intense wrestling match between Aubrey and I we went fishing. Travis stuck with grandpa the whole time. He had a lot of fun. There was a picture of Macie eating Grandpa's Hershey's bar, but I couldn't find it. It must have been taken on another camera. Apparently it was a replica of when Ben was her age. He had stolen a Hershey's bar from Rulan on another birthday.
That's all I got for this month. In other news we are really looking forward to the General Conference weekend. Ben has the entire weekend off and it has probably been the first time he has since we first got married. He is usually working all or part of it.
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Summer 2015
Summer is finally over and the kids are in school. Here are some of the last pictures of the summer. I have mixed feelings about it being over, but we had the best summer ever! We stayed busy all summer long. We cooked and cleaned and made all sorts of messes. We went to the park nearly every week. Ben took the kids to the movies every week. We went to a ward activity. We went camping twice. We picked huckleberries. We went to northern Idaho to see my grandparents and we went to the Cook family reunion in McCall. It's the most we've done in one summer ever! I'm hoping we can keep topping it from each summer here on out. It is nice to have a routine back in the day though. Travis is in 1st grade this year and Natalie is in preschool. They are both loving it. I am still working my one day a week, but soon I will be switching over to the dark side and working the night shift. I'm not too thrilled about it, but I only have to do it for one year and three months, not that I'm already counting down. We have been challenged in our ward to read the Book of Mormon individually by the end of the year so that's what Ben and I are starting on this week.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
July 2015
This summer has been going so fast. It makes me kind of sad because as soon as school starts Travis will be in school five days a week and then we will have to plan our fun around school and homework. I've been kind of a slacker on taking pictures this month. I have a few, but won't upload any now only because the camera is in my bedroom and the kids are in bed.
Ben went to Boise a couple weeks back for his annual school Boise trip. He was gone a week. I managed to keep pretty busy with the kids. Natalie kept me on my toes as usual. One of the days that Ben left Ashley came over with her kids. We decided to take the kids to the park. We went to Brooklyn's Playground because it's my favorite. It's large and there is only one exit and one entrance so it's easy to keep track of the kids... or so you would think. We ate lunch with the kids and then they were anxious to start playing on the toys so with our permission they ran in. I followed behind and watched all four kids run in. I didn't follow inside though. I continued on my way to a nearby tree that was right by the entrance and exit so we could keep an eye on it and watch for runaways. I set our stuff down and then sat down and Ashley followed right behind me. We were sitting down for about one or two minutes then Ashley went in to do a head count while I held Macie. It was taking longer than a head count should take and I suddenly got this panicky feeling that Natalie was gone. I got up and went inside and Ashley came over and told me that she could not find Natalie anywhere. Boy did the panic set in. I rushed inside the playground and did a quick run through and didn't see her so I went to the bathrooms while Ashley and other people looked for her on the inside from the playground I should have went over to the parking lot, but I went back and met up with Ashley and handed Macie off to her. She rounded up the kids and went looking for Natalie while I went back in the playground. I was just minutes away from calling the police when I heard Ashley yell across the field. Some lady found Natalie out at the parking lot near our car. That was by far the worst feeling I've ever felt in my life. I have no idea how she got past us. The only thing I can think of is that she went right in and the came right out as we were walking to the tree. That was the only time our backs were turned. Needless to say we have not been back to the park since. I am so glad that Heavenly Father was watching over her. So many things could have happened and gone wrong.
Lately I've felt like Sunday is just another day of the week at our house. We don't go shopping, but we do other things that we would do on any other day. I've struggled to find ways to make Sunday a special day because it should be. It's hard not to veg out and watch tv all day because after a while it can sometimes get boring and there isn't much to do. Well Travis has been earning some money doing chores around the house. He sets a goal of what he wants to buy and then saves up for it over a month or so (depending on how expensive it is) pays his tithing and then buys it. Well yesterday I brought home a piggybank for Travis so that he can keep all his money together without losing it. He counted up all his money before he put it in there and he was seven dollars short. He's been dying to get the Skylanders Swap Force. What he didn't know is that Ben and I bought it a week ago because it was on a good sale and they only had two left. We didn't show him, but Ben decided to pull it out yesterday. He showed Travis that he already had it and that he could use his money and buy it from us, but he couldn't have it until Monday after Ben wakes up and he could not watch tv or play the I-pad until Monday. Travis agreed and he was super super excited. I was a little skeptical because I know how that tv bug gets. I was suspecting that after Ben left for work that he would be hitting me up for the tv, but he stayed true to his agreement. I then decided that he would forget this morning because every morning Travis wakes up an hour before everyone else and I let him watch tv with the volume down while people start waking up for the day. Well he didn't watch it. In fact Natalie came in my room this morning tattle telling that Travis wouldn't turn her on a show. When I asked him about it he reminded me that there was no tv today because he couldn't watch it or play the ipad until tomorrow. This is where the Sunday part fits into the story. After church we spent the whole afternoon and evening together up until bedtime. we cleaned the kitchen together and played a couple games together and went out back and threw the ball for Charlie and played catch and spent some time with Chelsie and Troy and Travis practiced wrestling and read the scriptures together and a chapter of our Goosebumps book together. It was a lot of fun. No tv and no ipad today made us be a little more creative than we usually are, but it was a day well spent. It definitely made this Sunday a little more special.
Ben went to Boise a couple weeks back for his annual school Boise trip. He was gone a week. I managed to keep pretty busy with the kids. Natalie kept me on my toes as usual. One of the days that Ben left Ashley came over with her kids. We decided to take the kids to the park. We went to Brooklyn's Playground because it's my favorite. It's large and there is only one exit and one entrance so it's easy to keep track of the kids... or so you would think. We ate lunch with the kids and then they were anxious to start playing on the toys so with our permission they ran in. I followed behind and watched all four kids run in. I didn't follow inside though. I continued on my way to a nearby tree that was right by the entrance and exit so we could keep an eye on it and watch for runaways. I set our stuff down and then sat down and Ashley followed right behind me. We were sitting down for about one or two minutes then Ashley went in to do a head count while I held Macie. It was taking longer than a head count should take and I suddenly got this panicky feeling that Natalie was gone. I got up and went inside and Ashley came over and told me that she could not find Natalie anywhere. Boy did the panic set in. I rushed inside the playground and did a quick run through and didn't see her so I went to the bathrooms while Ashley and other people looked for her on the inside from the playground I should have went over to the parking lot, but I went back and met up with Ashley and handed Macie off to her. She rounded up the kids and went looking for Natalie while I went back in the playground. I was just minutes away from calling the police when I heard Ashley yell across the field. Some lady found Natalie out at the parking lot near our car. That was by far the worst feeling I've ever felt in my life. I have no idea how she got past us. The only thing I can think of is that she went right in and the came right out as we were walking to the tree. That was the only time our backs were turned. Needless to say we have not been back to the park since. I am so glad that Heavenly Father was watching over her. So many things could have happened and gone wrong.
Lately I've felt like Sunday is just another day of the week at our house. We don't go shopping, but we do other things that we would do on any other day. I've struggled to find ways to make Sunday a special day because it should be. It's hard not to veg out and watch tv all day because after a while it can sometimes get boring and there isn't much to do. Well Travis has been earning some money doing chores around the house. He sets a goal of what he wants to buy and then saves up for it over a month or so (depending on how expensive it is) pays his tithing and then buys it. Well yesterday I brought home a piggybank for Travis so that he can keep all his money together without losing it. He counted up all his money before he put it in there and he was seven dollars short. He's been dying to get the Skylanders Swap Force. What he didn't know is that Ben and I bought it a week ago because it was on a good sale and they only had two left. We didn't show him, but Ben decided to pull it out yesterday. He showed Travis that he already had it and that he could use his money and buy it from us, but he couldn't have it until Monday after Ben wakes up and he could not watch tv or play the I-pad until Monday. Travis agreed and he was super super excited. I was a little skeptical because I know how that tv bug gets. I was suspecting that after Ben left for work that he would be hitting me up for the tv, but he stayed true to his agreement. I then decided that he would forget this morning because every morning Travis wakes up an hour before everyone else and I let him watch tv with the volume down while people start waking up for the day. Well he didn't watch it. In fact Natalie came in my room this morning tattle telling that Travis wouldn't turn her on a show. When I asked him about it he reminded me that there was no tv today because he couldn't watch it or play the ipad until tomorrow. This is where the Sunday part fits into the story. After church we spent the whole afternoon and evening together up until bedtime. we cleaned the kitchen together and played a couple games together and went out back and threw the ball for Charlie and played catch and spent some time with Chelsie and Troy and Travis practiced wrestling and read the scriptures together and a chapter of our Goosebumps book together. It was a lot of fun. No tv and no ipad today made us be a little more creative than we usually are, but it was a day well spent. It definitely made this Sunday a little more special.
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