Life is Creation

Sunday Best

2010-03-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd take a snapshot of the kids headed off for church. Sometimes we do well with black socks, hair combed, teeth brushed, full tummies, matching shoes, and ON TIME!!! But other times we have stark white socks glaring out from black slacks, bed heads, etc... Last week I was on time till I was pulled over by a policeman. What do they do back there in their car that takes so dang long??? My tardiness created a little problem cause I happen to be the Sacrament meeting chorister. That has been a great calling for me cause it does tend to help me be on time.

Winter Days

2010-02-02T22:42:00.000-08:00

I know you are all SHOCKED that I am blogging before my schedule bi-annual posting! Frankly, so am I. But we did get internet for the time being until another malicious virus attacks and sends us sprawling backwards to the 19th century!

Just a quick snapshot of what's going on at our house this winter.

Ryan has been fixing up a 1907 home so we can rent or flip it. He has been working like crazy and is definitely stressed out of his mind*! He is our hero out there slaying dragons!

Hunter has been reading every A-Z mystery and Jack Sparrow book he can get his little hands on. Sometimes he will read 5 hours in a day! Amazing! I don't remember doing that when I was 7. He is also getting ready to be baptized in April. We have been teaching him about the committment he will be making and he is getting so excited.

Ashton is growing like a weed! He is really working on his thigh cellulite (I'm especially glad to know that in this area he takes after me.... hey beggers can't be choosers! everyone always says all our boys look like Ryan!) He is the most peaceful baby. We are so spoiled! He has been so much fun... makes me want to have 10 more. NOT!!!! (is that saying still 'in' or am I really showing my age?)

And speaking of weeds, I have been burning weeds for 3 days and my eyelashes are singed off as well as a good majority of my bangs! "What is that stench? Oh yeah, it's my hair...." kind of hard to get away from.

Hunter and I have been mucking cow stalls... kind of a 'crappy' job if ya know what I mean.

Ryan took the boys out on the sled and pulled them around with the 4 wheeler the other day on one of the rare days it has snowed this winter. IT has been so mild that we are getting soft!

For Christmas we went down to my parent's house and all my siblings got together. It was wonderful to see everyone. Here's my dad with Ashton.

Our newest arrival

2009-08-29T12:52:00.001-07:00

Welcome our newest addition-- Ashton Thomas who was born August 22 @ 11:43 a.m. He weighed 8 pounds and was 20 1/2 inches long. We named his Thomas after Ryan's family. It is a 5 generation family name. And also after Thomas Jefferson. Ryan and I have been studying the founding fathers and have been so grateful for his contribution to our freedoms.

I went natural for this birthing experience. With a midwife and all. I had the baby and 5 hours later was driving home. An let me just say one word for all of you expectant mothers out there... EPIDURAL!!!!! I've used them with my first 3 children but thought I'd test my toughness index with #4 and although I lived through it, I wouldn't ever, no never, no never ever EVER do it the old fashioned way again.
But, Ashton is beautiful and healthy, and we are so blessed to have him in our family. I am really enjoying him. I had forgotten how delightful newborn poop smells. So much better than 2 1/2 yr. old poop.

Teagan is struggling with getting the boot as the baby. Hunter and Connor are enjoying him, but especially that grandma and grandpa are helping take care of them for the first 2 weeks.

Our Summer Happenings

2009-08-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

I thought I might strive to do at least one posting bi-annually. I know, I know.. it seems a little over-achieverish, but if one never strives, one never achieves. So here's a quick synopsis of our summer.

Below is a picture of one of Ryan's more successful fishing trips this summer (o.k., so ignore the snow... I guess this was more of an early, early 'spring' excursion). He only had to drive about 40 minutes to get these monsters.

We went hiking a few times this summer, although not as often as we had hoped due to me being pregnant and all. This is a hike we took about 30 mintues from home. The boys had a ball exploring all of the nooks and caves and fossils.

Hunter lost 4 more teeth. Poor guy, he can barely eat.

Hayden (my brother) and his wife Heather (and their 4 children) came to visit us. We had a wonderful time. The kids got along so well. We went to the fair, went up to the mountains where the kids caught wild mice and lizards and gorged themselves on smores, and had many a political talk late into the wee morning hours. We enjoyed their visit immensely and hope they come back soon!!

Every year me and some of my college roommates and friends try to get together for a girls trip. This year we went to Education Week at BYU-Idaho. We spent 4 days in Rexburg, Idaho going to classes in the day and playing and goofing off in the evenings. Here's some pictures of one of our night-time activities. We played the white elephant game with costumes. The costume we ended up with, we had to wear to dinner. Let me tell you, we looked HOT@!

And we can't forget our new kitty, Rosie. She has been so patient as she gets hauled around by the neck by little Teagan. They are the best of pals (at least Teagan thinks so..)

Signing off for another 6 months.... hee hee

Family Foto Shoot

2008-11-22T19:21:00.001-08:00

My entire family just had a photo shoot in Utah last month. We did the white shirt thing and my son Teagan, just after the first few pictures were taken, promptly took a little swim in a mud puddle. I won't post the pictures of me crying in the shoots after that. (j/k) Lucky for me, we had an extra white shirt in the car (this is one of the few times when NOT having a tidy car really pays off!)

How well do you know me?

2008-10-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

1. Where did we meet? __________________________

2. Take a stab at my middle name?____________________________

3. My favorit color?___________________

4. Color of my eyes?___________________

5. Do I have any siblings?________________

6. What's one of my favorite things to do?_______________________

7. What's my favorite type of music?___________________

8. Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules?_______________________

9. Any special talents?____________________________

10. What are my hobbies?____________________

11. If you and I were stranded on a desert island, what is one thing
that I would bring?
_____________________________

Email me, or just reply to my blog. I can't wait to see the answers!

How'd E.T. get so lucky?

2008-09-17T16:56:00.002-07:00

I found something that gets me running faster than an M&M trail. So yesterday I heard my son stirring after his nap so I walked into the room to get him and this is what I saw.

A 'worms and snails and puppy dog tails' trail. I followed it and found the culprit.

Too cute to kill. To stinky to kiss. Everyone says, 'Oh, you'll laugh about this later' so I thought I'd do a little experiment and see how long it takes me to laugh this one off. Please submit your guesses. Whoever wins can have one of the little turds I saved in a baggie.

Lucky 4's

2008-09-17T16:56:00.001-07:00

O.k.,Melissa tagged me so I've gotta do it...

Four places I go to over and over:
-Taco John's (for taco tuesday and for those 'I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE' days)
-to my laundry room ( Even I can't believe how much laundry 3 boys can dirty)
-out to the kennel to feed the puppies (anyone want to buy a puppy?)
-at night to my boys' room... had to threaten their lives again if they don't stay in bed.

Four places I like to eat:
- Chi Yo Thai (authentic eastern cuisine and the most surprising is it's actually in our home town!)
-cheescake Factory (say hello to lettuce wraps. I love you, i love you, i love you.. nigh unto idol worship)
- somewhere other than home
- Del Taco (chicken soft taco and fish taco. Thanks a lot to Mindy and MSG for taking away my free agency and getting me addicted.)

Four places I would like to be right now:
-super glued to a massage table
-visiting my out-of-town friends and family
- On an all expense paid, month long trip to Europe
- front seats/back stage pass at a Celine Dion concert.

Four TV shows:
-don't get a single station so we only do the movie thing.
- I did start old seasons of Lost which I thoroughly enjoyed, but alas I couldn't control myself and after several sleepless nights saying "just one more episode", I had to let it go.
-Alias (ditto to Lost except for I got through all but the last season)
-Oprah (don't make fun.. they quote her in church all the time. ha!)

Four books I've enjoyed:
-The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
-Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
-Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
-The Walking Drum by Louis Lamour

Spidey Mans

2008-09-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

Need I say any commentary on this one? I don't think I need a house alarm. No villian is safe with these two spideys runnin around.

p.s. Is it just me, or does there need to be a little more estrogen around here? God, are you listening????

Berry Pickin'

2008-08-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

About 45 minutes from our house, we have an amazing 4 wheeler trail that takes us to a most delicious wild raspberry patch. Last year the bears had eaten most of them before we got to them. It had been so dry it drove the bears down closer to the reservoir. But this year they were growing bountifully because of the heavy rain and snowfall last winter. We took the family up and picked to our heart's (and tummy's) content. We left with not a few scratches and cuts from the thorns on those vines. They are brutal. But we decided it was worth it and will definitely check out the patch next year. I came home and made fresh raspberry jam. It was 'descrumptious' as Hunter says. Then, behind the scenes, I had some fun getting raspberry stains out of all our clothes...

18 Puppies

2008-08-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

I think we've spent 300.00 in puppy chow in the last 7 weeks cause we have this big hole in our pocket... eaten away by little puppy teeth. We have 3 adult German Shorthairs (1 male and 2 females.) We had only planned on breeding one of our females, but our wiley (o.k., so he's downright horny) male got to our other female before we even knew she was in heat. She had 12. Can you believe that? I'm just glad that most women don't have litters. I have trouble taking care of 3 as single births!!! And to think they even do it without hands. So if anybody you know wants a German Shorthair Pointer, we just might have a few left over.

This is the 'Oh Crap! I think I just stepped in it' look.

Temple Open House

2008-08-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

The boys and I joined the girls youth group from our church and car pooled to a new temple in our area for the LDS temple open house. They have tours through the newly erected temple for a couple of weeks before the dedication. After that, only church members are allowed to go in. It was beautiful. My boys really enjoyed it--especially the baptismal font and the cookies at the end of the tour! I had to agree that the cookes were delicious. Leon Parsons did some the painting on the walls inside and it was unbelievable! What a gifted artist!!!

Afterwards we went a park close by and had a picnic and headed home. Here's a couple pictures from the temple grounds.

Slideshow

2008-07-18T18:45:00.000-07:00

Hubba Hubby & Wifey

2008-07-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

Ryan and I had our 7th anniversary this summer. We have an ongoing joke about our anniversary because neither of us are very good about dates. Every year but once we have forgotton our anniversary till the day of. Around 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. we both look at each other with big eyes and profusely apologize that we have forgotton once again. This year we actually had a disagreement about the date of our wedding. We had to get online and check the calenders for 2001 to see what the date was. Now if that isn't pathetic I don't know what is???? Talk about the 7 year itch. I think we have a poison ivy rash going on.

I love Ryan. He is kind, loving, forgiving, patient, fun, sweet, complimentary and extremely talented. I'm so glad he's mine for life. He's a great daddy. This weekend he's taking my 6 year old antelope hunting with him. He's been working with him on his archery for the last couple of weeks so he'll be ready by the time he's 12 (I think he's jumping the 'gun' a little.hee hee)

Brothers

2008-07-01T12:20:00.000-07:00

We are really enjoying our summer so far. Every day we spend some time out under our huge trees in our front yard. I am really getting into reading a lot, so it's one of my favorite places to do that. It is a little hard to concentrate cause I seem to be really popular with my boys... wherever I am- that is where they must be. It's a good thing that I am really enjoying them. It's amazing how much personality they have.
Connor and Teagan were having lots of fun in the cooler.

Teagan is talking up a storm these days. I'll just record all of the words he's saying since I probably won't get around to putting it in his actual journal. poor third kids...
Here's his repertoire: mama,mommy, dada, daddy, puppy, house, more, ball, no?(he says it like a question), down, horse, hi, bye bye, baby, bear, bird, light, eye, nose, juice, water, outside, walk, and can mimic the sounds of so many words I couldn't write them all here. Today he walked up to me and said poo poo. I checked him, and sure enough-- he'd left a little gift for me to deal with. At only 18 months I'm starting to worry this kid might be too bright for me to keep up with in homeschool.

Connor is really expanding his vocabulary and starting to express himself well. The other day he came up to me and said, "Mom, I love you. I'm so glad to came to live with us." During family home evening last night we played a game where we each took turns saying what we loved about each member of our family and then why we loved our family. Most of his answers centered around wrestling. "I love Daddy cause he wrestles with me." "I love mommy cause she wrestles with me." "I love Hunter cause he wrestles with me." and so on. I guess we figured out his love language.

It's been so fun as they have aged to see them playing more and more together. They are each other's best friends. They tackle and tickle each other, play super-heroes, tease, laugh, and cry (not the good kind of cry) together. What a gift they are to us and to each other.

Tooth Fairy or something like it...

2008-07-01T12:05:00.001-07:00

Hunter is 6 and just lost his first 2 teeth... just when I thought I couldn't take on one more responsibility, I was nominated as tooth fairy around here! But, I don't know where to go to get training for these things, so I just kind of winged it. For the first tooth, I couldn't find it, so I went in to wake him up in the morning so I had light to look for it. I reached under his pillow to act like I was shaking him to wake him up a little, and found the tooth and quickly exchanged it for the money. A close call for any tooth fairy to experience.

The second tooth, i couldn't find at all, so I left him the money anyway... I'm already teaching him the 'something for nothing' mentality...definitely a grade B tooth fairy. But worst of all, I think he may make his tooth into a little necklace or something really scary and boy-like.

Family Reunion

2008-06-23T23:36:00.001-07:00

The kids and I took a trip down to Utah last week to go to a Williamson family reunion. I went a few days early to help my mom with my brother's children as his wife was at camp and he was working. We wrangled 7 kids for 3 days! phew*** We were pretty relieved when Hayden and Heather showed up to get them... not that they were naughty or anything. They actually were really good, I'm just not used to that much 'entertainment' shall we say. On Saturday, we had the reunion. It was held at my Aunt Jenny and Uncle Kenny's home. They purchased a blow up slide and the kids spent all frolicking in it. It was a hit!

The little babies played in a little pool.

We adults ate and caught up with each other. It was so wonderful to see my family and learn about their lives. All of my siblings were able to come and it was so much fun to see the cousins playing together and remember all of my fond memories with my cousins through the years.

This is my gorgeous sister, Mindy with my cousin, Lacee Hale and her little boy.

This is my newest neice, Brielle.

Here she is with her dad, Tyler and my mom. She is the CUTEST baby!

I loved this picture of my little Teagan. What a sweetie pie. This is the pose he makes so he can get anything he wants.
We had a wonderful day. I'm glad we went down.

Fiesta Time!!!

2008-05-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

Last fall we had a Fiesta with some friends and family. It was a ball! We had a yipping contest, learned the Mexican Hat Dance from my sister-in-law, Kari Jonas, who was 8 months pregnant at the time (we had a good laugh at that), a tequila drinking relay (sprite with gummy worms at the bottom), a pinata, and a big taco dinner. Then we took some fun pictures of each family in the traditional garb. Here's some of the pictures below.
Below is the Buckley Family. Matt grew up with Ryan, and Julie and I met in college. We hooked them up and they tied the knot a few months later. They have two children, Guage and Bailey. They live near us.

Below is Ryan's sister Kaylee's family. Her husband is Tim and they have 3 children, Reilley--17, T.J.--15, and Aubrey 10. We thought it would be funny to name our next child Christian. Then we'd have a Christian Reilley and they would have a Reilley Christian.

2008-05-05T00:59:00.000-07:00

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boys

2008-05-05T00:53:00.000-07:00

Here's my little rug rats. Hunter just turned 6, Connor is 3 and Teagan is 15 months. They are the best of buds. Connor is now old enough to play with Hunter and follow along with the whole 'pretend' world. Teagan just follows as close behind as he can manage. Whenever he sees a crack in the door he squeels with glee and hussles to get there. He loves to be outside.

Hello Blogging World...

2008-05-04T23:12:00.000-07:00

O.k... so if there is one thing that my husband and I have in common it is that we are about 3-5 years behind the technology (which is like being 15 years behind because it's... well-- technology!!!) So, I am so proud of myself that I am actually taking the plunge and setting this blog up. I was inspired by my brother's and sister's blogs and so enjoyed being able to see their pictures and hear about their day to day goings on (stuff they'd forget to talk about when I call them, but the stuff life is really made of.) So if I'm the only one who reads this, so be it! It will get me journaling, which I struggle to keep up with as I run after 3 little boys with boundless energy and a husband who likes to hike 15 miles in one day. I don't have a chance! As it is, I'm creating this at 12:30 in the morning cause it's the only time I have alone.