Beginning of the School Year Surveys {2011}

Callie

Age: 7
Height: 47 1/2"
Weight: 49 lbs Hair color: light brown

Favorites:
Animal: peacock
Food: Pasta Carbonara
Game: Red Rover
Toy: “I don’t really play with my toys, but I like to play with my makeup set & nailpolishes”
Thing to do: ride bike outside
Book: Quite Enough Hot Dogs (Rookie Reader book by Wil Mara)
Color: cheetah hot pink
Movie or show: Scooby Doo movies
Song: You Belong With Me (Taylor Swift)
Primary Song: Love is Spoken Here

My best friend is: Corinne
Other friends I like to play with: Kenadee & Hailee & Kiera
Things I like to do with my friends: "I like to chat with them & we like to do girlie stuff together."
If I could have any pet it would be a: hamster. And a bunny.
named: “The bunny would be named hoppy and the hamster would be named cutie pie.”
What people like about me: "How kind I am.  When we get a partner lots of people like to pick me."
Things I can do really well: "Play the piano & be kind to people. And help my little sisters.”

 

Jack

Age: 5 1/2
Height: 43"
Weight: 39 lbs
Hair color: dark blonde

Favorites:
Animal: shark
Food: Pasta Carbonara
Game: chess
Toy: “legos!”
Thing to do: Play Mario Bros (which he’s officially banned from until he’s an adult)
Book: “Fairy tale books, like the Disney one we have”
Color: blue
Movie: Mario Bros
Song: “Favorite kids songs - like Three Blind Mice (this is news to me – he doesn’t even know all the words!)”
Primary Song: Love is Spoken Here

My best friend is: Tyler & Ethan
Other friends I like to play with: Yago, Isaac, Spencer B, Kiera, Collin
Things I like to do with my friends: Play the wii with them & play legos
If I had a pet it would be a: a lizard (he had a lizard that died a few days ago)
named: Jack (his lizard’s name was also Jack)
What people like about me: "I’m really funny, and they like to play with me cause I’m their friend & friendly."
Things I can do really well: "I'm really good at playing Mario Bros & I’m really good at building Lego stuff.  And riding a bike without training wheels & drawing."

 

Ellie

Age: 3
Height: 37"
Weight: 31 lbs
Hair color: dark blonde

Favorites:
Animal: a cat.  A nice cat.
Food: chicken nuggets
Game: ring around the rosies
Toy: I love barbies
Thing to do: “watch tv on Netflix”
Book: The Potty Book
Color: blue
Movie or show: Dora the Explorer
Song: “Twinkle Little Star. And Over the Rainbow. And Adelyn’s song (Baby Mine from Dumbo)”
Primary Song: Jesus had a sunbeam

My best friend is: “Spencer & Preston’s sister, Emily”
Other friends I like to play with: Hadley, Adelyn is my best friend. I don’t know who my other best friends are.
Things I like to do with my friends: "Play baby with them."
If I could have any pet it would be: A nice hamster. A blue one.
named: “Ellie. I’d name her my name – Ellie.”
What people like about me: "I’m good at sharing so that’s why they like me."
Things I can do really well: "Playing. That’s all mama."
 

Happy Birthday Abby!

Abby has been such a wonderful friend to me. She has especially recently done so much for me and has been a great friend, and I wanted her to know that I really appreciate it. She always goes above & beyond for everyone. She is thoughtul & generous & kind. So for her birthday this year I wanted to do something special for her. With Kate's & Lacey's help we organized a surprise party. The "plan" as far as Abby was concerned was to go to Bullhead for dinner with friends, but most of the friends "couldn't go." But really we all waited at Kate's house (and even parked up the street around a curve in the road!) for Abby to get there so they "pick Kate up."

We had some of Abby's favorites to celebrate: Cafe Rio salad (everyone brought part of it which is awesome & totally the way to do it since it's a lot of work to make it all yourself!), mango Sprites (Sprite with mango syrup in it - sooo good!), and Cold Stone ice cream in waffle bowls for dessert!

Kate making place cards before Abby arrived.


Party decor. No this is not typical of our friend-birthday celebrations! Usually it's meeting up somewhere for lunch trying to talk over the noise of a pack of kids. Kate did a fantastic job decorating her house for the party! Even her daughter Kiera made some decorations that were so sweet!


Hanging out waiting for Abby to arrive.


Abby was totally surprised! Well mostly. Little detective Abby had thought it was strange when Lacey picked her up that Lacey's carseats were still in the truck if they were picking anybody else up & going to Bullhead. But overall she was still surprised! LOL




Happy Birthday girl!

Wunca Kenny

I love this picture of my brother Kenny (wunca Kenny cause that's what the other kids used to say & it stuck) with Adelyn. It's so weird that I had a baby while my brothers were gone. I'm sure it's strange for them too. Not that tons of people don't have babies and their family lives far away & don't get to see the baby for a while. But my brothers lived here before & have been a big part of my kids' lives, so that's what was different. I was good about sending them pictures & stories of the kids while they were gone, but it's a lot different seeing how kids have grown in real life than it is to see them in pictures. I'm glad they're home. For now. I mean I'm glad they're home for the time that they're home until they leave to go do bigger & better things :) Like get married & have their own adorable kids (who will probably never be as adorable as mine I'm sure)!

Easter {2011}

It was a big Easter for us this year! We had lots of family in town since my brothers just got home from their missions: Grandpa/Grandma Green; Uncle Brian/Aunt Lorie, Caroline & Annie; Chris & Jayda; Jeff, Rivka & Bray; Grandma McCombs; Tabby, Sophie & Isaac; Ryan & Chelsea; and Tara & Kayleigh.

On Saturday we helped the little kids dye Easter eggs.

Well some of us did. :) Others enjoyed Super Mario Bros on the patio!

Later the grown-ups hid candy-filled eggs for the kids & they had the ultimate egg hunt. Seriously ridiculous! Each of their baskets were completely full of eggs. Lorie, Rivka, my sisters & I had all got candy & plastic eggs. It took us quite a bit of time to fill them the night before!

In the afternoon Chelsea & I had snuck away so that I could go get the chicks I'd talked Jeremiah into! :) I kept them in my parents' garage until later that night so that I could surprise the kids with them in the morning. When I took them home I had to stop at the store so I left them with their little feed tray & their water in the truck while I was doing my shopping. When I got home 45 mins later & got the box out of the back seat of the truck I realized it was pretty wet & I knew immediately there was a problem.

I got the box into the garage & opened it up to see 4 basically dead chicks. 1 was pretty wet but moving around a little. The other 3 were soaked with what little down they had matted to their tiny bodies & they were not moving at all. They were barely breathing. I went in the house just about in tears & got Jeremiah. He came & looked at them said they were definitely not going to make it & that he was sorry. He told me to put them in the garbage. I felt terrible that I hadn't thought about their water sloshing around during the ride to the store & home, and it definitely had made matters worse that they'd stayed soaking wet in the cold truck while I went into the store. I was just sick about it! And I felt so guilty. But I wasn't giving up.

I was very anxious & feeling so terrible about what I'd done as I went & got some wash cloths and Jeremiah plugged in their heat lamp (at my request). I very gently tried to dry their bodies, then I'd hold them cupped in my hand 2 at a time up to the lamp. After a while their feathers began to get a little fluff in them and the chicks started to move a tiny bit, but they still took shallow breaths. That gave me encouragement though so I kept rubbing & heating. My sister Tara got my blow dryer for me & I put it on low & took turns blowing the down of each chick. After doing that for several minutes they were getting more fluffy & even started to peep a little bit. I sat on the garage floor tending my little chicks for an hour & a half. When I went to bed at 1:30 I knew I had done all I could do. I said a heartfelt prayer & pleaded with Heavenly Father to let those chicks live. Not because I wanted my kids to have chicks on Easter morning- saving the chicks was not about that. I kept thinking how could I have been so careless with God's creations?




When I got up in the morning the first thing I did was run out to the garage to check on my chicks. They were still alive! All four! It was a miracle! Jeremiah was completely shocked. I'm not exaggerating when I say they were practically dead the night before! He could not believe I'd brought them back to life & that they'd lived! My heart was filled with gratitude that Heavenly Father had spared these little insignificant creatures' lives. I don't even really like animals but I just hadn't wanted my stupid mistake to needlessly kill those chicks.

After the kids looked over their Easter baskets I took them out to the garage for their surprise. They weren't freak-out excited, but they did think the chicks were pretty cool. They each picked out a chick & named it. Jack named his chick Muffin, Callie named hers Buttercup, Ellie named hers Lola (I gave her suggestions but she made the decision :)), and Adelyn's chick is Dot.

Happy Easter!

Return{ed} with Honor

I am shamelessly stealing this post right off my sister's blog!

{Chelsea} My two brothers are the youngest in the family. Both are strong, diligent, and faithful members of the Church and chose to serve missions two years ago. By some crazy luck/coincidence, they both left on April 15th, 2009, and both served in Mexico {in different missions}. This week they returned with honor; one on Wednesday, one on Thursday.

Unfortunately, my sister Kayleigh and I Chelsea were running SO late we they had to RUN through the airport to make sure we they were there to see Stuart get in on Wednesday so I Chelsea didn't have my her camera. Luckily, we had a do-over the next day and I Chelsea got pictures and even had time to make some signs for Ken. We had signs for Stu but I Chelsea didn't get any pictures of them. (But Tara did!) Here are some great pictures of their arrivals - one at lunch with everyone and one at the airport. Stu picked Chili's for lunch. {/Chelsea}

Okay, that's funny b/c I thought we'd be the last ones to the airport & that we'd miss Stu walking through his gate because we'd left late & then had to take the long way to Vegas because of damn dam construction. And then, as if I wasn't stressed enough about getting there, I got a big fat ticket in Boulder for going 65 on the way up the hill before you get to the first stop light. The speed limit is 45 and it's a major highway! WTC?! I hate you Boulder! But we STILL beat Chelsea & Kayleigh there. Who'd stayed the previous night in Vegas! And don't have kids to get ready! But we all made it there and still had a little bit of a wait before Stuart came.

{Tara's pictures}

Waiting for the excitement to start.


Chelsea


Thing 1 & Thing 3


Stuart's arrival!


{Now back to Chelsea's post - captions included :)}

Stu picked Chili's for lunch


Ellie was exhausted from all the excitement an hour earlier.


{Stuart is so handsome, isn't he?!}


Thursday was Kenny's arrival


{Callie is crazy-pants}


{Hillary} This is a funny picture because my self-portraits have pretty much become a joke! I took lots in Hawaii & on the last couple of days I thought I should have taken more the whole time so I could do a whole funny book about me in Hawaii. haha {/Hillary}



Here he is! {With practically a frame-by-frame walkthrough! lol}


Two brothers after two years!


Aunt Kayleigh laughed at Jack and he cried. Boo Aunt Kayleigh.{hehe}

Easter Party

My friends Cambrea Corbett & Kayla Nichols hosted a fun Easter get-together with lots of friends up in the Hualapais over the weekend. Cambrea & Kayla went up early in the day to reserve our rec area & hide all the eggs for the kids- and there were a ton! Of eggs. And kids.

Once all the families were there, Cambrea & Kayla gathered up the kids for the big hunt. They lined them up & then let the youngest kids go first, with two groups of older kids following.



All the moms were doing this: (this mom is Miyeko Kelsey)


Jeremiah got to do this: (I helped Ellie)


Ellie had a great time looking for eggs!


Callie & Jack both got too many. We made them put some back & give some to younger kids.

After the big hunt we had a great time eating hot dogs & sides & hanging out together. Thanks Cambrea & Kayla for organizing such a fun evening for all of our families!

Cousins

It was so fun to have Jason, Richelle & Triston visit us! It was a little bit of a hectic weekend because I was also co-throwing a baby shower on Saturday, but I loved that they were able to come from California for the weekend! We hadn't seen Triston since he was born in December. He is so cute!

Adelyn & Triston on Ann's & Jeremiah's Mom's laps

Jeremiah's mom getting to play with her 3rd grandson!

Our SIL Richelle & Triston

Cousins!

Adelyn - 10 wks; Triston - 4 months & a week