THE BOYDS

Morning Muster

2012-02-03T09:42:00.000-08:00

Every Friday morning, Kylie's school has a little party called the Morning Muster. The students line up outside in their classes, while "certain students" get to stand at the flag pole to do announcements and then everyone is invited up to the front to do the Cupid Shuffle.

This particular Friday, Kylie was chosen from her class to speak in front of the school for the Morning Muster.

Two short 10 second videos of Kylie's speaking part... Matthew recorded it for me! It's a little quite, I heard it best hooking up my earphones to the computer. But she says:

"Good morning. My name is Kylie." And she announces that they are going to have 30 seconds of silence...

In this one she turns the time over to the "spectacular" Principal. :)

She was a little nervous this morning at breakfast. Matthew worked with her all morning to remember her short little part. I told her to pretend she was iCarly! Super cute!!!

2012-01-25T13:08:00.000-08:00

Pinterest is my new boredom activity... I find 20 free minutes, maybe when my dryer will be done or time before I need to wake Kloey up from her nap to go pick up the girls from school and I pop on this website. It's pretty much pictures of cool DIY projects. You can see what you're friends like, and you can "pin it" to your virtual pinboard as something you want to do.

My problem is I want them NOW. So this weekend I jumped on 3 projects. #1 A new door hang. #2 Leg warmers #3 A massive multipurpose calendar/to do list (not pictured, because it's not printed from Costco yet and I only have 3 matching 16x20 frames and I need 4)

So this is my cute, new every occasion door decoration!

Cute little felt flowers on a burlap wrapped wreath, I hand made every one of those little flowers.... dang hot glue gun got me everytime! hahaha

AND project #2, cute little legwarmers in 2 different styles- fluff on the bottom

Gotta love Kacey as my little model; she's such a diva.

Or crocheted flower on the top... gotta make 2 more of these by Sunday church...

Kacey- love her sweet little soul, she sits with me in my laundry room as I get my craft on. She feeds me pretzels and holds the soda for me so I can drink and keep my hands busily working. Such a helpful little thing!

yes...

2012-01-02T18:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, and breathe...

2011-12-31T20:00:00.000-08:00

As 2011 ends, I say good riddens!

BRING ON THE HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I feel like we have had some trials and some struggles that I am quick to say goodbye to. I've been thinking a lot lately on how we've had these continuous obstacles that we've just been chugging along on what seemed to be an endless road. Struggles such as schooling for Matthew, a painful work environment for him, health issues with Kloey, selling a house and buying a new one... struggles that we have been praying over, praying for answers and encouragement and praying for strength to just keep going. But this year has brought them to a happy end, every last one of them have all been resolved. With the close of 2011, the major burdens and worries we carried on our shoulders are over. Schooling led to a Bachelors. New fabulous job came in June. Kloey is perfect, and all her many many medical bills are paid off. We signed at title and sold the old house... and we are all moved into the new one.
Dare I say that, but they are over...

Don't get me wrong, I am scared to death to see what may be next. It seems too nice and too clean for everything this year to magically and precisely end, nicely and smoothly and so perfectly... It may be the pessimist in me that worries something big may be coming, like Matthew being called as Bishop or something crazy like that... but for now, I am so grateful and I'm just going to take it all in and BREATHE.

A quote that I found a few weeks ago and put on the top of our blog, really stands out to me. I think it's easy to overlook so many blessings that we get, and the more aware we are of our blessings, the more grateful we are to have them, the more we noticed more blessings... it's a circular effect really. I may put that quote in vinyl to hang in our house somewhere, it's a great reminder to be mindful of all the good that is happening around us.

It's an interesting feeling. I'm so glad we had these trials and experiences of 2011, because they've helped us grow and placed us in better situations now. And they brought peace with their outcomes. They have made us stronger. However, I'm so glad that they are over, but I'm so glad that we had them too. Life is better and more appreciated. Definite growth that wouldn't have come about without them...

Another neat thing to note... Matthew and I will be married a decade this year. We have gone through so many things together. Up the rollercoasters of life in anticipation and flying down the rollercoaster- holding hands and screaming. Good times with a good man, and many more decades... lucky for him, women age well on my side :) ... (we had a neighbor knock on our door inquiring who built our courtyard, and she asked if my mom was home!!! I digress.....)

Burdens lifted.
We have been blessed.
Breathing is so much easier and enjoyable now.

Here's to 2012, or how my young women say it Twenty - One - Two!!!

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland...

2011-12-30T15:40:00.000-08:00

One of the absolute greatest things about living in Vegas is that we are 35 minutes away from a completely different climate--- Mt. Charleston! We can escape our sun and palm trees and dive into a whole new world... although don't get me wrong, the best part is coming home and leaving all that snow behind us!!! :)

We decided to take the girls on a fun midday snow adventure. Kadyn has NEVER seen snow, we haven't been since Kacey was Kloey's age...

The girls had a blast, as you can see!

Daddy liked to get in on the fun too!

Kylie and Kadyn, somehow ended up going backwards!

They also learned how to make snowballs, and they all ganged up on Daddy. He didn't stand a chance.

My sweet Kloey Belle!

She was definitely slipping and sliding out there.

Daddy did make sure that Kloey got to ride the sled a few times too.

Kadyn was so cute running in the snow. At one point, she was running after Kacey and Kylie on the sled... she was just running in excitement... but her body was going faster than she could handle. She face-planted head on right in the snow, she didn't cry or anything... it was too funny! I wish I got a picture of that!

Fun times had by all!

Look at that face :)

So by about 2:30, it looked like 5:30 really... we decided to pack up and head back down the mountain... and we were all starving (got our money's worth at CiCi's Pizza afterwards, although I can only imagine how raggidy we looked... hahaha)... So we were heading down the mountain on this horrible 2 lane, acutally really more like 1.5 lane roads. And the slush was turning back to ice, it was getting dark and colder. There was an SUV stuck right in the middle. Traffic couldn't get thru on either side. I was nervous because even with our all-wheel drive, our tailend was still swaying from side to side on the ice. Matthew ended up getting out of our car and helping them move their SUV, he's really a smart bad weather driver. He had them back up and do a sharp turn into where they were going... anyways, it was genious... totally worked. If he hadn't of gotten out to help, we'd still be sitting there. He's such a good driver in stuff like that, I sat in the passenger seat just praying with my eyes closed as he drove us past all the cars.

As we drove off we both agreed... it's so nice to be able to leave the ice and the snow behind us and return to sun and palm trees.

Christmas!

2011-12-27T15:06:00.000-08:00

So we conducted Christmas differently this year... Instead of crazy madness insane presents, we had a theme. This year the girls got 4 specific gifts (which greatly helped Santa plan and shop... and when that person got the gift in the category, that person was done. Check mark. Done.) The 4 categories (which I totally stole from my friend, thanks TARA!) are: something you want, something you need, something you wear, and something you read.

We added 2 additional gifts also, one gift from Mom and Dad and one gift was a Secret Sister present.

*The Secret Sister gift was brilliant. Matthew took Kacey and Kloey. I took Kylie and Kadyn. And one evening, we hit 2 different Targets. Kylie had Kacey, and vice versa. And Kadyn had Kloey and vice versa. So we shopped, and it was really fun to see what the girls picked out for eachother and to take less focus on the "gimmies" and more focus on giving to someone else. I think they really enjoyed it, and we'll definitely be doing that again next year.

On Christmas Eve, we did some major baking... as always. This year we had brownies, spice cookies (iced and decorated by the munchkins), pumpkin bread, peanut butter cookies with a Hershey's kiss, and...... something else, I can't remember.... So that tuckered us out and it only filled our morning. We had our mandatory Chinese dinner... although we were so anxious, it was really lunch. I'm really impressed that the girls have their specific Chinese dishes that they'll eat... it was hot and good, and I have no pictures... but our table was full of food and egg rolls and won tons (love those!)!!! We finished putting our Christmas gifts to our friends together, and we headed out in the blistering cold nighttime to deliver gifts. (It's freezing here). We had worked up quite the appetite, and shamefully I say... that we hit Taco Bell on Christmas Eve in our late night, starvation. HAHA, not proud... but it was good!

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We open 1 present on Christmas Eve... so we picked the box from Aunt Chiarina...

It was a singing Justin Bieber Beaver! So stinking CUTE! Kloey is in love with it, she's really very good at singing BABY, Baby Baby..... OH. She's starting dancing to it too. It's the funniest thing. We make her do it a few times a day for our entertainment. She never lets us down!!! :)

Thank you Aunt K!

The little elves in the laundry room... the tired little elves get moving along on Christmas Eve. Much to be done while little people try to sleep.

Our Christmas cookies and milk were ready for Santa...

Tired little elves, but happy to say Santa came! Funny how 4 little presents each (that increased to 6 with one from mom and dad and one from a sister) creates so many gifts...

And comes Christmas morning. We make the girls sit at the top of the stairs. Funny, reading facebook, I've seen so many pictures of our friends' families doing the exact same thing. HAHA, I thought it was just our wacko thing.

Matthew likes to take pics before the chaos of Christmas. It's all they can do to refrain themselves. I'm surprised they all didn't summersault down.

And chaos.

But happy chaos.

Everyone yelling, screams with presents, excitement over other people's presents. And what I finally wanted............ GRATITUDE for the 1 present that they really wanted. Christmas isn't about the crap... because that becomes my job of decluttering in the Spring and more often than not, all those crappy excess toys get tossed.

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Christmas this year for Matthew and I, brought peace and comfort, in the midst of a tumultuous world.

For the girls, I saw:

Gratitude for the specific thing they truly wanted and anticipated for.

Enjoyment out of watching their sister open the gift they bought.

During Cinnamon Roll Christmas breakfast, we asked the older girls a few questions about Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. I was pleased with their answers. Commercialism did not win over the Boyd home this year :)

Kylie wanted a specific microphone, that makes fun sound effects with her voice.

Kacey wanted a Justing Bieber doll, he sings "Somebody to Love...." when you push his stomach.

Kadyn wanted a mailbox, that Kloey likes alot too. Kloey got a singing, pink soccer ball.

Our trash cans were full to the brim.

Appropriately Santa gave "something to wear" items... being Christmas dresses. Kloey's was full of glitter, meanwhile after 1 hour of church........ Matthew's navy suit was full of glitter also. :)

Merry Christmas!

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Day after Christmas Target shopping, got loads of stuff to decorate outside our house.... half off. We have alot already, but our neighborhood decks it out big time. We had to step up our game, so I bought clearanced stuff for next year. Loads of wrapping paper, bags, brownie mixes, half off red oreos (who cares that they are red!), lots of tape, and this cool new contraption for my wrapping organization....

Awesome.

My favorite Christmas Season of All, PART THREE

2011-12-27T14:27:00.000-08:00

And we keep on chugging along. Today I got home from my CVSing, and Matthew was making breakfast and I said, "what shall we do today?"

With great excitement, he replied..."Let's get Kloey's ears pierced!"

And that's how it really happened. Honestly. He's been bugging me that we haven't done it yet, the other girls we all did at anywhere from 9 to 11 months. Kloey's nearly 18 months... So guess what we did today!!!

Poor unsuspecting little thing. She was so great. Matthew's got his holding job down. Kloey sat eating her lollipop. All was well. She made a little face when the lady wiped her ears with cold alcohol to clean the spot.

Then......................

She got pierced!

And she didn't love it. But better to do it now and get it over with. Poor thing, she kept crying in the car too. She's the same way with her shots, but she was fine after we gave her some french fries... and she hasn't touched them since. Now I get to clean them 3 times a day for 6 weeks... oh well, been there done that, 3 times before. We can for sure handle it again.

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This is our new afternoon toy! As you can see Matthew's putting it together, not fast enough as you can imagine from a 7, 5, and 3 year old's eyes.

And they get to color the whole thing! They divided up walls, to make it fair. Kylie, she wasn't born yesterday... picked the one with the chimney of course. Should be interesting to see what it looks like in the end!

My favorite Christmas Season of ALL, part 2

2011-12-24T07:11:00.000-08:00

I LOVE Christmas break... we can sleep in and no hurrying people out the door, we can get dressed at 1 pm or just stay in our jammies all day and do whatever... no homework worries (I mean for me too, not having to listen to Kylie complain... haha)... we've been having friends come over to play with us, we've been going over to friends' houses to play.... meeting for group lunches and TAKING OVER places with our 115 out of school wild kiddos.... everyone is just enjoying company and having fun. I love it!

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Kylie is such a big girl, I look at this picture and I'm like "who is that child?!?!" Oh yeah, she's mine... it boggles my mind that she's grown up enough to go play in the cul-de-sac with the other kids. (Emily, one of our favorite babysitters was there too) Kylie's best buds with Emily's younger sister Isabelle, so they were skating with all the neighborhood kids, Emily took this picture and gave it to me. So Isabelle let Kylie try her rollerblades... guess who wants rollerblades now? Haha, Kacey's is thrilled, because she's going to inherit the rollerskates!

Disney Day Camp

This was really fancy... a girl in our ward, she loves all things Disney. Her and her friends put on a whole show filled with skits and games and activities for the kids who want to come. As you can see, these teenage girls go all out. My girls were so impressed! They really thought they were the real princesses. They had such a blast, and in the car ride home................. silence. They were so tuckered out after the 3 hour festivities; it was great.

This next picture was from our Ward Christmas Party. Notice only Kylie and Kacey were in it... by this time Kadyn and Kloey had retired with Matthew to the car. This was the most fabulous ward party I have ever been too. Every minor detail was thought out, I wish I had more pictures. Besides the trains running everywhere, space for kids to color, write Santa letters and play games.... and besides the massive ham dinner with mormon funeral potatoes and costco rolls... the theme was The Polar Express. There was a drawing/painting of the front of the train that must have been 10 feet by 10 feet. Massive. And at the top, there was a smoke machine so it looked like the train was chugging along. There were snowflakes amid thin air... and singing programs and poems... and of course, a conducter of the Polar Express. The YW were dressed special as the hopped around dancing to appropriate tunes, reenacting the hot chocolate scene from the movie and delivering hot chocolate to all the kids. Then of course, Santa came... with nothing but BELLS for all the children. By this time (4 hours later), the younger two were so exhausted from the food and activities. They had to go out to the car with Christmas cupcakes... so we stood in line for Santa. And let me tell you, this Santa knew the girls names.... oh no, he does not know my girls. I know this for a fact... he's a husband to a lady etc etc etc. But anyways, even people that know us forget which one is which, they know they are all K names but it's hard to keep up with it. I inquired... they had him memorize a photo book with all the Primary children's names in it. So he could acknowledge each and every child right as they sat on his lap. You could have pushed me down with a feather when he said "Well hello there Kylie and Kacey." I can't believe someone would go to such great lengths to make a little kid have a good night, we have a lot of kids in our ward! I left with such a positive feeling and I know for the girls it made a long lasting impression. Such an amazing night!

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*DRIVE IN*

We took the girls to the Drive In to see The Chipmunks, Chipwrecked!

Super fun, we got McDonalds beforehand. Kloey ate 5 nuggets, FIVE! We all snuggled in our coats and sweatshirts, with our blankets and our candy and hot chocolate. We played musical chairs the whole time; it was hilarious. It was SO cold outside, but somehow all the hot air in our car kept us toasty. In fact, Matthew opened the car windows a few times! hahaha

Big screen, great view right up front and center.

Disney commericial prior to the movie...

As you can see, he's the most excited to go see Alvin & the Chipmunks!

This is them prior to our comfy drive in seating arrangements... in fact, this is prior to food also... you can see the lack of excitement on Kacey... envision her saying, "I'm hungry...." She ate through the whole movie, every candy and french fry, every last drip of coca cola... we were just praying she wouldn't say, "I've gotta go potty!"

Aren't we cute!?!?!? :)

*** More fun times to come later***

My favorite Christmas Season of ALL, part 1

2011-12-21T11:33:00.000-08:00

Dare I say that this has been my most favorite Christmas season of all!

This year I think has been the best... I'm not sure if it's because the girls are older so there's alot of fun and anticipation radiating off of them that makes it more exciting for all of us... or maybe if the Christmas Spirit is just stronger in our house more than before because we adjusted ourselves with less focus on gifts this year and more focus on family and doing fun stuff together. But this whole month has been fabulous... and it's not even Christmas yet and we still have more fun stuff in store for this month!!!

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So here are some random pictures taken in the past few weeks, I'm not sure if they are even in chronological order... but... the girls got to go to the Air Show at Nellis Air Force Base. A friend in on ward is a Colonel, and he was able to take a group with him on for the family/friends showing. The girls had a blast, Matthew took nearly 150 pictures of all the neat planes and their tricks in the sky. As you can tell, it was cold!!!!

This is a quick one of the extended fam on Thanksgiving! Which was of course followed by us (minus Yaya, Papa, and Kloey) going to see Arthur Christmas, which was SUCH a cute movie. Kadyn's remarks were so funny through that movie, made Matthew and my whole day!!!!

Thanksgiving Morning's CVS Couponing Excursion! I got all this at a profit of $95. My receipt was taller than my cashier. It was magnificent!!!!!!!

Getting our Christmas decorations up!!! I'm so bad, I pretended to be busy the whole entire time so I didn't have to do any real work. Haha, Matthew put up 3 trees... Although I did do my full Willow Tree Nativity, mainly because I don't trust anyone else to do it...

And we had a wonderful visit from Uncle Aaron and Aunt Valerie. My girls love them so much! Aaron has always been a regular visitor, because when he was in BYU it was easiest for him to just come to us... so the girls are used to seeing him alot. And Val is from Vegas, so we get to see them whenever they come home which is such a treat for us. My girls ADORE Val, she's so good with them and she let's them climb all over her and play with her hair... you'd never know she just met them 2 years ago. It's like she's been with us all along!

AND THEN WE WENT TO DISNEYLAND! We wanted to do Disney Annual Passes this year, but it just wouldn't work for us. So we anticipate doing them next Fall, but we still had to do our traditional December trip to Disneyland. We love it; it was freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing cold but absolutely incredible! Notice Matthew's goofball CARS hat. He loves it, NO ONE else has it. They don't sell it anymore, we get comments all the time. He's such a big kid at heart.

Jake, from the Neverland Pirates... Kadyn was smitten by him. All the girls hugged him, and we moved along. Kadyn wouldn't let go. She just stayed there, and Jake made these hand motions like "Go on, I'll just keep her here."

It was so cute.

Family Santa Shot

(Do you see my husband in shorts and a tshirt? I told him no shorts, I wasn't packing shorts... he snuck them in the suitcase! And even though it was 45 degrees, he wore them)

Kloey Belle! She was such a trooper at Disney. Maybe we've conditioned her to be so... she ate whatever, she slept whenever, she played with whatever. She is my perfect child, such a easy little thing. At night, I'd take Kadyn and Kloey back for baths... They'd lay on Papa and fall asleep in the hotel... Daddy, Kylie, and Kacey partied it up in the park still. Yaya and I would eat all the yummy munchies we bought that day... it was great fun! **this was Kylie's sweatshirt from '06!

Now, we go to Kadyn's Preschool Christmas Program. This is my 5th Preschool Program, and it was probably my favorite. Kadyn was quite the little diligent performer. She knew the words and the hand motions in her songs, and she had a speaking part and totally knew it--- better than her sisters at that age.

Kadyn putting her "S" on the tree: "S is for the star, that shined so bright above." ... which was her part. And of course, this is my best friend Tate! She does such a good job with her preschool kids.

Sweet Girl

AND we start the Gingerbread house making! This is me, busting out my glue gun for GUARANTEED Gingerbread house stability and success.

Matthew got a little possessive over Kadyn and Kacey's Gingerbread house. HAHA! But they just wanted to decorate it with the candy anyways.

Kylie's Gingerbread House, she's such a diva.

Kacey and Kadyn's house... what is Kacey doing? As you can see, Mattthew is still very focused.

SUCCESS!

We have to do some "winterizing" of pipes and stuff outside. When I saw him, I had to stop him and grab a picture... it is so cold here!!!

A real special treat .... my 90 year old grandmother, Oma, she makes these special German cookies. I remember them from Christmastime when I was little. She'd spend days making them, and she'd pack them up in tupperware in her suitcases when she'd take the train to come up and visit us. It was always special when she'd open her suitcase and take out all the boxes of goodies. So, my 90 year old Oma, spent days making her cookies... and specially wrapped them and spent $40 shipping them to us. THE GIRLS WERE IN HEAVEN! They got home from school and knew exactly what it was and they dug right into the yumminess!
*Kylie does not wear glasses, the glass is poked out... she has 2 pairs that she wears as "accessories" to certain outfits... don't ask! all in the name of fashion... but her teacher is cool with it, so whatever.....

St. Nicholas Day... we put our shoes out one night, and we got a special treat the next morning!!!

And here's some more disneyland....

Daddy with Kacey, Papa with Kadyn, and Kylie was FREE all by herself. That was a first for her I think, and she thought she was all that!!!

OH, and I forgot... Matthew, uhhhhh, I mean Kacey and Kadyn's Gingerbread house!!!

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A part 2, to follow shortly... still more December happenings to account! Including (so I don't forget...)

- The ward Christmas Party, the best, most elaborate Christmas party I've ever been too!

- My birthday

- Skating

- Disney Day Camp

- The Drive In Movies

- Christmas Eve

- Christmas Day

.... etc etc....

Gratefulness

2011-11-21T16:44:00.000-08:00

Since I know it will take me a while to get all the Thanksgiving photos on the computer, I figured I'd anticpate with a post.

I feel like a lot of things have changed this year, and we hadn't expected it all to change... We didn't expect anything to change. But it all did! And it has for the better. For that I'm so grateful.

I feel like this year we just started to get things right. Maybe it all started with the move to our new house.... I don't know what initiated it, but somehow it happened and it's been great.

I feel like this year a lot of things clicked for us, and while there was so much change... the change has helped us grow for the better. We are getting back to the simpliness that life has to offer: focusing on our family. I have dropped the things that I felt like I was doing for my girls, but really were monopolizing my time and energy (PTA, Girl Scouts, etc). Getting back to old fashioned family playtime at the park, family home evening EVERY single Monday without fail, eating 2 meals with everyone in the family present every single day, setting prayer and chore charts, baking with my girls... such SIMPLE things have had such strong impacts for our family. I am so grateful for little bursts of strength to keep our family love growing strong.

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Change leads to growth: Matthew had so much stress and tension for years with his work. He dealt with what I believe to be abuse, but he just took it and held his head high. And he endured. And endured. And endured. He kept taking the hits and standing back up. No one knew. He didn't whine or complain to the world. He told me when it would happen, he held his head up and kept going... he did his job to pay the bills so I never had to work. So that my kids could be raised by their mother and their mother ONLY. He did what he had to do, sacrificed and it really just shows what a strong man he is. And then with some miracle, he was offered sweet relief. A wonderful opportunity at his same company came knocking, and it could not have come at a better time. We have been blessed beyond description with his new position. He gets to do something he likes, with a boss that he really, really likes. And he travels, but it's not unbearable... and he is HOME more with us than with his previous position. He is free from his phone at night and weekends. He was on call more than a DR with the other job. We have more of him, and he's not stressed out at all. This change has been so good.

Kylie: she had an adjustment this year. She lost a lot of friends from her old school and old ward. She left from being one of so many LDS kids, to only having 1 other LDS girl in her whole grade:( and try as we might, we couldn't even get them in the same class. Day after day she would come home from school and tell me sad little stories, it would break my heart. In fact, in a desparate attempt to fix her situation ... Yaya and I spent a ridiculous amount of money at Fresh N Easy (grocery store) to ensure HER the win for her class to be awarded a special party. Would you believe, by the time she opened herself up, made a bunch of friends, and really started getting the hang of the new school and everything was perfect... then she wins the big class party! Oh well! I'm grateful for the sweet, little girl she is growing up to be. Such a compassionate and GOOD girl.

And pics of the rest of the group... growing up so quickly! Kacey has changed so much. She used to be my shy, introverted one. Well, she's began kindergarten and she's blossomed into this whole new person. She is the life of the party; the center of attention. She is so outgoing and has so many friends... you can't walk with her anywhere without her saying hi to a handful of people. Don't even ask me about the boy flocking around her, following her like a loyal little puppy dog. I don't even want to talk about it!!! (She is going to be my troublemaker!)

Kadyn has gone from a toddler to a little girl. Something happens after the potty-training, I'm not sure what it is... but she's her own little person. She may be the 3rd in line, but she's going to be the first one setting you straight! I am not kidding. She is all about fairness and getting what she wants (maybe that's the 3 year old in her). If she wants it, she's bound and determined to figure out a way to get it.

Sweet little Kloey, so thankful for her. She is soooo different from the other girls. I feel like we bask in her stages more, maybe it's because she's the baby. But we marvel at the new things she learns everyday. With a good bill of health, and my solid feeling of "I'm sick of the dr's who just want my money when nothing's wrong"... we can say from her last ultrasound that her kidneys are good. Had to spend $1200 for that 4 minute ultrasound (after insurance paid their part)... but we are grateful that all is well.

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This year Christmas is being run differently, which I'm so excited about. And I really think we'll notice a difference from last Christmas on Christmas morning. I have noticed a joy in our house from the simplier things: Christmas music and favorite cookies. So much less conversations on what they want... Christmas is not about toys, and I'm so glad to be fixing this now than later. More on that probably on Christmas!!!

But I'm so grateful for my family of 6. We have our traditions, we have our little ways of things that we do... and when the holidays come around, it's just plain FUN! I LOVE IT! We may be crazy but we put our tree up early. We watch a Christmas movie every Sunday night in Nov and Dec. We have certain foods we eat on Eves of things... We go to the movies on Thanksgiving... so many things that make us 6 Boyds, US. We love it, the girls love it and you can see the joy in their eyes that has to do with the Spirit of Christmas and not so much the gifts Christmas morning.... it just proves that family is all the fun you need.

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With that also said and this ending, I have to say this. There are times when it seems like someone has picked up your life, shaken it like one of the holiday snow globes, and set it back down. And you are spinning at an endless rate. It's times like those that you see who is there for you. That happened to us. Stress beyond measure.... and I'm grateful for the ones who came through. Who stood up and said, I am here. They were there in the tough time and came through for us. We were not alone, and we will never forget that. I'm reminded daily. It undoubtedly changed the course of the rest of our life. A thank you just isn't enough, but for now it simply will have to do.

All in Fall...

2011-11-12T09:37:00.000-08:00

A bunch of leftovers from the camera!

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Family Home Evening in our house, never a dull moment... from our dance parties and crazy running games, to our musical chairs extravaganzas! Always good times... in case you are wondering, Kylie won. She's a ruthless little competitor.

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Halloween!

Kylie was Ariel from the Little Mermaid, Kacey was Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, Kadyn in Snow White... and Kloey is a pumpkin... which was a dog costume... and it was hilarious! Bless her sweet little heart, she kept that pumpkin hat on the whole time trick-or-treating.

Since we've moved, I've been kinda anxious about the trick-or-treating-- to see how good the neighborhood is. It was amazing, Matthew took the girls out and they were gone for an hour and half. The came home so tired with TONS of candy. I stayed back to give out candy, and we got so many cute trick-or-treaters... I must have gone through 7 bags of candy... I was really pleased!

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So when we got home from Cabo, our special present for the girls was a pinata. I have a feeling this is going to be the first of many pinatas; they are so much fun!!! And Matthew configured a nice little mechanism to make it work out back.

Kadyn got to go first, 3 hits. She did good.

Kacey next...

It didn't stand a chance with Kylie. We don't even have any other pictures after this point, she whacked it good once... and it exploded and they SCREAMED with excitement!

PINATA GOODIES

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So, I've been getting my craft on of late... the reason the laundry room is so big is that it's really supposed to be a hobby room, with the huge island and all the cabinetry. Been having a fun time inviting friends over for the night and just doing fun projects. Although most of the time, we are helping eachother battle our sewing machines. LOL

These were the cute little goody boxes I made for the girls' school teachers. They are drink cartons from Sonic, I painted them and sewed on fabric... and we put orange colored goodies inside.

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Recent Winter Purchase!

A fireplace from Lowes. For some reason that I do not understand, it is sooooo cold here! I love this fireplace, and so do the girls. It's on every minute of every day. Really pretty too at night.... and goes nicely with my Christmas music that I have playing daily :)

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Last but not least... the Preschool Field Trip to Gilcrease Orchard. Yes, we have orchards (that grow everything from apples to pumpkins, and make special cidar) and even dairies to go and visit in Vegas.... wouldn't have gone to any of them had it not been for Tate dragging me along on the field trips over the past 5 years. HAHAHA.

I actually let Kylie miss the morning of school for this one, she loves these things so much. I felt badly going without her, so she missed a few hours in the morning to go with... and she had a blast! We packed lunches to scarf down in the car ride back to school, she got into her classroom and sat down... and the little boy next to her goes, "you smell like outside."

Kylie and Kadyn, they picked a pumpkin to take home.

Kloey in her Tater Tot Preschool shirt. I've a lifetime supply of those, in all different colors. :)

Kadyn's Preschool Class

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Now we are updated until Thanksgiving... which Thanksgiving morning, I will be getting my coupon fill at 7 am at CVS. I'm sure I'll post pictures of my goodness!!!

Some from Cabo

2011-10-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

So we just got back from our trip to Cabo... boy was it an experience?!? Many things happened that we did not expect. I may do a few posts, these are just from the camera phones. I still have the big camera and the underwater camera to pull from...

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This is 5 am in the Las Vegas airport, eating Cinnabon! How tired do I look?!? haha

Our feet in Cabo, clever picture idea from Matthew. We had amazing views, the pool was a never-ending pool that extended to the view of the ocean. Really neat.

My crazy good picture taking abilities for this picture. The waves in Mexico were incredibly powerful. Matthew would play in the water for 15 minutes and be absolutely exhausted! Huge waves!!!

The view from our hotel room!

This is us the last night we were there at Matthew's Formal Awards Banquet. I cleaned up pretty nicely, can you tell I spent the night before puking?!? Yeah, that's a story... and not a pleasant one.

More to come on details... the trip was amazing, fabulous views of scenary that we've only seen in pictures. Truly spectacular. Cheap trip too, everything including my meals, pina coladas by the pool, and expenses were all covered by his company. They spent 1.2 million dollars on this event. Honestly, my filet mignon was still moo-ing... but I didn't eat it anyways because of MONTEZUMA'S REVENGE. We were given a Snorkel Cruise, but we didn't get to go because there was no way in this world I was going to be able to go on a rocky boat with my tummy.... but the day prior, Matthew did get some major golfing in (all of course, free of charge including unlimited bar (gatorade for him of course), lunch, and club rentals). He took pictures, he couldn't believe the views. No wonder the round of golf was $350 a person.

My favorite part was the haggling. I thoroughly enjoyed finding little gifts for the girls and bartering my way to a good deal. I worked it down from $45 to $10, one lady got really annoyed at me when she saw I had a $20 (after I haggled 3 bracelets down to $11, and I wanted change from her). It was super fun. At one time on the beach, I had 4 Mexicans all around me trying to get me to buy their specific goods. Matthew could barely make room to get in around me, it was super fun :) Bartering is definitely something I was made for! And I got my peso to dollar ratio DOWN! lol

It was a fabulous adventure for us, however I realized about 30 minutes after unpacking in the hotel that I made a huge mistake. Leaving my girls was complete torture, and I did not like being away. Regardless of how incredible Los Cabos was, leaving them is just not something I can do... or ever will do again, anytime soon. I cried alot the first 2 days. In fact, as he came in the door from golfing all morning, he said he was actually worried that I might have found a flight and gone home. If I was talented enough, I may have been able to do it. But Mexico and the telephone is not an easy combination, I couldn't even figure out how to work my calling cards. And the last 2 days, I was vomitting, on the toliet, nauseated or asleep... I was a great "PLUS 1" for Matthew. HAHA! At least I made it through his formal dinner :)

AND on top of all that, Yaya was dealing with both Kylie and Kacey throwing up while we were away... sickness not related to mine, I don't think. The entire time in Los Cabos, I never sweated..??? Everyone was dripping with sweat from the heat and humidity. I did not, at all. Matthew suggested, and I think he was right, that I got sick from dehydration.... but I'm still blaming the Caesar dressing and all that it brought up with it...

SO GLAD TO BE HOME!
-more to come later, Matthew got a lot of underwater pictures! Did I mention that we had US National Security there because of "activity" around, of course the night before we were supposed to leave... yeah, so glad to be on American soil.

Little Longhorn Cheer Camp

2011-10-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

Legacy High School Cheerleaders put on a cheer camp for girls aged 3-12. I heard about it last year, but I was a little concerned my girls were too young... and/or didn't know anyone. Well, this time around a couple of the cheerleaders are my YW from church. So I knew my girls were well taken care of :)

(Asia, Kenzee, Haylee, Tasia, with Kylie, Sydney, and Kacey)

Kylie did a really good job. She's so cute. How do you get to be in the front of all 3 rows of girls... yeah, I know people ;)

Kylie with Kenzee, her cheer buddy for the day

Kacey struting her stuff...

I was a little bummed, they didn't let the young girls do jumps. Kacey has an amazing toe-touch, all of a sudden one day she just started doing them. At first, she'd always land on her bumm. But now, she can land on her feet.

All the girls!

Kadyn with Haylee, I didn't think Kadyn would stay there and do it. I thought she'd be too young.... now I know just to leave her with Haylee and she'll be fine.

Rolling up the mat

A little girl from Kylie's class was actually there too, Makayla!

This is what Daddy and Kloey did.

I couldn't stay at home while cheer camp was going on. I had to go and be a part of it and take pictures. So while Haylee had Kadyn, Daddy walked with Kloey all around the cafeteria. I loved that he didn't just want to stay home, no he wanted to be there (even if it meant walking around with Kloey) so he could watch Kylie and Kacey cheer.

At the end, they did a little performance for the parents. And the girls are invited to cheer at next week's football game. FUN FUN!!!

Matthew was getting the camera ready for the girls' performances, and the adults next to us were SO loud. HAHA, Matthew was so irritated. He's telling me, "I'm gonna tell them to shut up!! Go talk elsewhere." HAHAHA, now he understands.... And he'll be the Dad in the stands there not to watch the game, but watch his daughter cheer.

I gotta say, I'm impressed with Kylie's form. This is the 7-10 yr old group. Kylie's 7, and she held her own. She did GREAT!

We've kinda labelled Kylie as the athletic one and Kacey as the dancey coordinated one. And I take all that back. Even though Kylie's young, she may be my cheerleader.... and I would love that!!!!!!!

Kadyn turns 3!

2011-09-24T18:25:00.000-07:00

On September 14th, Kadyn turned 3!

It was a little bit of an off day. This is Matthew's busy time for traveling. Plus side, we are racking up the hotel rewards. But he's in and out of state alot. He actually had to miss Kadyn's birthday. Let's be honest, is she going to remember? Nope. Are we grateful he has a job, that he loves nonetheless, in this type of economy? Yes. As you can see, she had a nice birthday. (love Kloey's face in the background)

And you can see the difference in pictures when Matthew takes them (kacey's birthday) and when I take them (kadyn's birthday). He's much more camera crazy than I am. So here are 2 pictures! :)

As the day continued, Kadyn went downhill. She started the 2 week fiasco of sickness... which coincided in the 2 week fiasco of Matthew's traveling from NC to FL to NV (basically for me to do laundry) and to end with 6 days in CA.

The day before her birthday started with an unexplainable fever. The evening of her birthday began the cough. The night of her birthday began the barking. I was in the shower at about 9 pm, and I hear what I thought was Maggie. And I was thinking, "why on earth is Maggie barking?" Then I realized that it wasn't Maggie. It was Kadyn. So we started our naps in the shower. Every hour, she woke up crying and coughing. And off we went to lay on the floor in the shower. Needless to say, I knew I wasn't getting Croup from all my moist air breathing. Then the next day, Kylie had a temperature and got sick. Then the next day was my scheduled "well-child" checkups, go figure. He gave me a bunch of meds for the girls, in case... Kylie got better. Kadyn was still fighting it off days later. She slept with me, I did round the clock meds and cool compresses. Meanwhile, exhausted didn't even explain how I felt. Remember, Matthew's out of town. Then I got sick, my throat was on fire. My tongue was weird, I'll leave it at that. I couldn't eat or drink soda. And I get cranky when I don't get my cherry coke zero. Matthew actually came home for a bit, and we went to Chili's to celebrate Kadyn's birthday. She fell asleep in the fetal position next to me, on the bench, before our appetizer even came out. That's how misable she was. :(

Now Kloey has it. However, I think she's teething... no cough. Just cries when her hands are in her mouth. She's not too hungry, and she has a low grade temp. Oh the rollercoasters of Mommyhood.

Cabo is 1 month away... ready for a countdown? YES!

Kadyn's first day at Preschool!

2011-09-24T18:11:00.000-07:00

Our 5th year at Tater Tot's Preschool, now here we go with child #3. For those of you who don't know, Tate is my bestest friend and I'd do anything for her. Love her so much, and I'm so grateful for all she does with my girls... she does a wonderful job teaching preschool. My girls go into Kindergarten leaps and bounds ahead of the other kids. (there was thought that Kacey should go into 1st grade this year... but age wise, maturity wise, she's just too young... even if she is super smart! lol) But Tate becomes such a special person to each of the girls, because she truly loves them and teaches them so much, in such a fun way for those 3 hours she has them.

Kadyn was sooooooooooooo excited to finally be the one to get out of the car at Mrs. Tate's house. She was so happy to have a bookbag and get homework like her big sisters. And Mommy's so happy because it tuckers little Kadyn Maiden out so she's started taking naps while Kacey is in Kindergarten... which is when Kloey naps... which means Mommy has 2 hours, TWO HOURS, of a silent house. Wow.

Kacey turns 5!

2011-09-24T18:03:00.000-07:00

September 5th was Kacey's 5th birthday! It was actually Labor Day, so we were all able to go out to lunch and celebrate... Kacey, as I remind everyone, is of the 5% of the population that were born on their actual due date.

I say that I can't believe she's 5, but bless her little stubborn heart, I feel like I've drudged through all her drama with every passing day, week, month, year. Love her to pieces, but she gives me as much grief as the other 3 combined.

But I will say, that no one loves me like that child does. From day 1, she's had the ability to just mold right into my chest. To hug and hold onto me as if she wanted to physically be inside my heart. Love her sweet little Spirit, she may turn my every hair gray but that child is so special. I remember being pregnant and having a dream that I was holding a little baby girl. At that point, I had no idea Kacey was a girl. All I remember was I was sitting down and there was lots of light behind me shining on her. Without words, she told me her name was supposed to be Kacey. And when I woke up, I told Matthew if we were having a girl... boy did I have a story for him. And lo and behold, now we have our Kacey. I joke and say no one loves me like she does, but it's very true. If I were banished to the ends of the earth with no food/drink, this child would gladly come with me.

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Lots of pictures from her birthday...

Kadyn keeping an eye on ALL the cupcakes!

Under my brillant direction, Matthew always decorates the kitchen the night before birthdays. Just something small, but the girls really look forward to it!

Kloey and Papa... Kloey's got him wrapped around her teeny tiny finger.

MAKE A WISH!

Our whole fun group, Aunt Judy was actually visiting too... we had a super great time :) And we really miss her!

Kloey's mouth open, "ummm I thought that was my bite?"

PRESENTS!

Kylie labeled the day as "the worst day ever!" She really liked all the presents Kacey got (you know all the summertime toy clearance finds....??), Kylie had a hard time... so too is life.

I love my face here, "ok, can we clean up and do baths and go to bed... I'm tired." LOL

Happy Birthday Kacey Lacey :) We love you!

The First Day of School

2011-08-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

We started at our new school on Monday. Kylie and Kacey now go to Goynes, and they are GLADIATORS! kinda cool...

Kylie is in the 2nd grade, with Ms. Gaura. Here's a quick pic on our front porch, bookbag and lunch bag included.

Just sweet little her...

SO, Kylie's drop off was at 7:50 am... school starts at 8 am. THEN we do round 2 with Kacey. Kacey is in PM Kindergarten with Ms. Rennie.

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(No, they aren't wearing the same first day of school outfits... and boy did I catch some grief over it. Everyone asks if my girls dislike dressing the same. ON THE CONTRARY, when they don't have the same clothes, I hear about it. I just won her the exact same dress from ebay so she'll be elated!)

Here she is outside of her school.

Oh yeah, she's gone... Matthew and I were just slowing her down-- lugging all her school supplies.

Quick one in the classroom...

It was rough. I'm not gonna lie. When Kylie was in kindergarten, they let the parents come in... sing a song, stay for a bit. Not so much this time.

Let me tell you, my house is silent from 11:45 am to 2 pm. Kloey goes down for her nap. Kadyn just looks at me like, "what do we do?!?"

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After the first few days, I really like our new patterns. This school is an hour earlier than our old one. So Kylie is on Matthew's schedule, and we are all able to have 30 minutes together for breakfast in the morning (Kylie and Matthew fully dressed, the rest of us in our jammies). It has been great. Then Matthew takes Kylie to school. Which relieves me and my taxi-cab driving mommy kind of life.

But they get out an hour earlier also, which is great. Kylie walks from her classroom to Kacey's class (other side of the world practically) and picks up Kacey and we have a "meeting point." (which is super far away, this school is packed with kids and parents) I saw them coming today from my car (I got there about 25 minutes early to get the best parking spot), they were holding hands and talking as they were walking through the grass... so precious. They both had smarties candies, and I asked where they got them. Kylie worked extra hard to earn 2 candies today, and so when she picked Kacey up, she was able to give Kacey one. I love stuff like that. As they go to school and are away from me more and more, I realize that the best thing I can do to help them grow up is make it so they find comfort and love with eachother and I need to do everything I can to encourage those strong sister bonds. It's an awesome feeling to see that come though- even just the walking, sharing candy, and holding hands through the grass!

CABO

2011-08-16T18:40:00.000-07:00

So Matthew travels often for his job, not so much lately but it goes in spurts. One of the places he needs to go in October "for work" is a " dealer convention" in Los Cabos, Mexico. AND, Matthew's boss specifically called him and told him to invite me to come along also. Well, the stars must have all aligned... because somehow I'm going too!

The place we are staying...

I have heard it is the most beautiful place in the world. I can see why! Matthew will have the best time taking photographs, and I'm pretty excited to see what beauties we'll come home with. Maybe some good enough to put on our walls at home!

During my free time, when Matthew has meetings... this is where I'll be! Ideally, I'd love to head into town for local lunch and haggle at shops... but practically, it's not safe alone. Matthew and I are flying in a day and a half earlier so we can shop and explore the area... I've heard haggle shopping is quite the old tradition there , and I'm quite good :) I definitely have a list of things Matthew and I need to look at and things/gifts I want to bring back for people.

That part I think is going to be the most fun, our own adventures... seeing a different part of the world and admiring scenary that neither of us have ever seen. It is going to be so much fun! Just the flight alone --without kids, how relaxing... I can't even begin to describe... we can do whatever we want on the plane without worrying what a child is going to need/want/freak out about next!!! I just can't imagine packing my and Matthew's stuff only. Not the girls' stuff. I doubt we'll even fill 1 suitcase! HAHA.

Example of the room we will have! I can't even imagine...

Matthew had to register us today, and I got to pick a leisure activity... all inclusive of course! (which is awesome) There's golf, massage on the beach, massage at the spa, horseback riding (which sounds totally cool until I found out it was 5.5 hours long... big fat no on that one), a kyaking/snorkling experience, or (what we chose) a snorkel cruise. We travel on the Sea of Cortez for 3.5 hours on a double deck catamaran "sunride" and we get a full Mexican buffet lunch and free pina coladas (it actually says cocktails, but to me that means pina coladas- no rum, nice and sweet for me!!) OH and we get to snorkel. I may not do that, as I don't want any fish to touch me (don't laugh) and if one does, I may freak out and breath the wrong way and inhale a whole bunch of water.... but I'm being motivated to get out of my comfort zone. Definitely working on it so we will see.

I am really so lucky to be doing this. Matthew and I had already talked about it and originally I said no. But his boss called him and pretty much said for Matthew to talk me into it (as his wife was going also, as well as a few other wives) and everything is covered (other than my passport, pricey little devil)... all tips, food, transportation to and from the airport ($200 fyi, holy moley!!!). But I always worry about my girls. I don't leave them. Unless I'm in the hospital having another one, I don't leave them. I only get them for 18 years, they aren't little forever.... I have forever to go and see places, why now. But my mom totally talked me into it. My parents are thrilled to keep the girls for 5 days and 4 nights (as an only child, managing 4 can be challenging)... and it'll be ice cream for breakfast no doubt. They think this is just too good for me to pass up, and they are right. An opportunity like this is priceless, and I'm so lucky to have it and have them to support us while we are gone... taking care of our munchkins. I worry about my girls, but then I realize all the crazy tendencies and overprotectiveness I have, is from my mother!!! So I know my girls will be just fine. AND another perk, my mom is just like me... well vice versa. I know that I will come back to home in tip top shape just as I left it, completely clean, tidy rooms and picked up toys (if not more organized than I left it, because she's great like that) and she'll even do all the laundry... I know her... she's so awesome! I'm so lucky! My dad will probably buy the girls donuts every single morning. So Matthew will probably come home to about 5 dozen leftover donuts.... which I'm sure he will not complain about!

I'm a little nervous as cell phone reception is sketchy there, and I'm not sure how much access I will have to email (as Matthew has the laptop but has some morning meetings)... but I could not be more excited. The girls call it Mommy and Daddy's "Field Trip" and my parents talk about it everyday. They are already planning out what they are going to do each day, as a few days there's no school... I don't think they could be more excited, even if they were going themselves. Although, I think the next time this trip rolls around, they're hoping to come with... with the girls... We will see :) We've already said that a trip like that is a unique experience we'd love to give the girls. Memories they could have forever, and snorkeling is definitely up Kylie's alley!!

But for now, I need to find clothes... lots of "appropriate attire" for evening functions and my fancy church dresses just won't do. Must. Shop.

Summertime

2011-08-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

Oh how I have been terrible at blogging. It just doesn't happen. We are such busy people! HAHAH, not really. We do the same thing everyday. Breakfast, chores and cleaning, lunch then Kloey naps... and we do 2-3 hours in the pool.

So looking at this picture... it's pretty obvious who naps!

Poor Kloey, my white little thing. Don't worry babe, next year you'll be tan like us! It's so funny too, because the highlights in Kylie and Kacey's hair are absolutely incredible. I mean, I have friends that pay bank for blonde highlights and lowlights like this. SO CUTE! Even Kadyn has some awesome blonde streaks in her brown hair... so much fun. We love playing in our pool, and it's great exercise.... you should see the little fishies go! They are not afraid of the water at all. Kylie and Kacey spend most of the time underwater. And Kadyn is almost strong enough to be completely on her own. She has no fear, jumps in, floats on her back. We use a small lifevest for her, but I wouldn't be surprised if in another month she's completely free of it and treading and swimming completely on her own.

And this one is just leftover of Kloey's birthday, such a happy baby. She's always so pleased and happy. Is she walking you ask?!?! No way. Why would she? She crawls faster than anything, and at any given time a big sister is ready to give her anything she wants. I don't think this child will ever walk!

Kloey's First Birthday

2011-08-07T18:52:00.000-07:00

I know I'm not alone in saying, I can't believe it's been a year ALREADY! It blows my mind to think last year we were running in and out of stress tests and doctors visits, monitoring little Kloey. And here she is 1 year later, happy and by far the easiest baby we've had!

So to celebrate her birthday, we decided to do a summer theme... super cute!

I love the progression pictures, you see what it was like as we go along. The cupcake was a huge hit. Matthew thought we should give her the yellow one. I disagreed, I liked the hot pink... needless to say, she's still stained hot pink :)

She's thinking, "come on and give me it!!!"

She was so happy and giggley, she loves the birthday song!

Cupcakes were a huge hit by all... (as you can see, we did a pool party!) LOL

Kylie kept going after the center cake, which the cupcakes were all around.

Kylie reading a birthday card... Kloey obviously very excited by the new disney outfit she received. Just like me, loves clothes!!!

Matthew's Birthday

2011-08-07T18:02:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you live with alot of women, you think crowns and purple shirts are normal!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

I found him the biggest and bestest birthdy cake EVER, thank you Mexi Market... a full blown Oreo cake... It was massive, probably 25 pounds. I had to freeze half, it was AMAZING!

A good year to be Matthew... since his new position with work, in a job he LOVES... he did have to exchange his Ipad for an Iphone (which was the only bad thing about leaving the old position). The separation of him and the Ipad was painful... However, I found a smoking hot deal on an Ipad with the Ipad 2's new arrival... so he got an Ipad... he told me the night of his birthday that now having the Ipad back, he feels whole again. Sadly, he completely meant it. AND, he also got new golf clubs. But the golf clubs are a "work necessity." So that didn't count! :)

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As you can see... Kloey and Matthew's birthdays are on different days. But all we do is swim in the afternoons, so the girls are in their bathing suits yet again in this picture as they were 2 days prior. HAHAHA, love summertime!

What's been going on lately?!?!?!

2011-06-15T06:37:00.000-07:00

Kylie finished school on Thursday, June 9th. So sad to say goodbye to Ms. Carter (and Simmons in general). Ms. Carter has been truly a wonderful teacher to Kylie. Kylie is not one to get emotional and choked up, but it's hard for her to leave Ms. Carter and she doesn't want too. I was very surprised, she did not do this for kindergarten! Here are a couple pictures from the end of school activities:

This was a Saturday at the school's carnival. This is Brian. He's in Kylie's class. Kylie likes him, (his hair specifically). She's sad to leave him too at Simmons and in our ward, however "it's okay because they both have plans of going to UNLV together." Or so she tells me. As you can see Matthew in the background is less than thrilled! LOL

This was a memory book they made, cute page. More pictures from field day on the bottom.

Kylie's class play... she's on the end :)

Little Monkey, she's amazing on those things. I could never do that!!!

OH YES, I still coupon. But now, I can get cheap gas too. Regular price was $3.69, you see that???? $1 off a gallon. What makes this better is that Matthew and my car were both there and we filled them both up for $80!!!

SO, Matthew's traveling for work. Denver again this week. Yaya left us to go see Oma. This is what we do every single day. Papa actually fell asleep yesterday. Remind me not to leave him in charge! LOL

3-4 hours in the pool everyday leads to tired little munchkins. Kadyn apparently was too tired to go upstairs to her bed, so she made a make-shift bed on my family room coffee table.

My bed when Matthew's not here. How in the heck am I supposed to sleep with 3 munchkins crowding all around!

We keep forgetting to do Sunday pictures. I usually have some sort of meeting or activity in the morning for YW, so it throws us off. Here's a quick Sunday picture from the cell phone.

OH! And ps- we have an apple tree in the backyard. Matthew and the girls also planted peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries. I guess we will see how it goes!!!

Field Day!

2011-06-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

The first grade color of the day was green! She came home sopping wet and happy as anything!!! She smelled so bad, her shoes were soaked!!!

Notice how Kylie is right there ready to hit the ball. That's totally her.

New Job

2011-06-07T17:46:00.000-07:00

Matthew's first day of his new job (Monday) was AMAZING for me! LOL He has none of his stuff yet, he'll be getting it from corporate this week. Little things like a laptop and an Iphone, him not having this stuff meant day #1 of his new job he had nothing to do... so all weekend and Monday was complete freedom. (You have no idea how much he is tied to his phone!!!) So Monday we went to the gym, I did my couponing (childless), went to make watches (childless), ran some errands and picked up Kylie (childless)... WOW! Super productive day!

So his flight left this morning at 6 and he's gone through Thursday night... and boy am I paying for the AMAZING Monday I had. Kadyn started her fever last night, Kloey followed this afternoon, and would you believe Kacey's got one this evening. WOW, all 3 on time schedules of Tylenol and we always do nighttime cool compresses. My girls can spike to 104-105 too quickly. I'm gearing myself up... it's gonna be a crazy week :)

Sunday Afternoon Pictures

2011-05-22T18:07:00.000-07:00

Well, this one is from Saturday. But I have to show it!

2 hours in the pool on Saturday leads to....

A bunch of tan little babies on Sunday!

I know I'm partial... but when did Kylie grow up and get so gorgeous!?!?

Kacey, I know you're probably thinking... aww, what a cute little smile. I'm thinking, what is she up to?!?

Kadyn~ notice the shoes are on the wrong feet. Yes, she went to church that way. Two words... she's 2. Oh, and it wasn't worth the battle. :)

Kloey is getting so big, she can pull herself up now!

Many countdowns in our house. The last day of school countdown (12). The first day of Matthew's new position countdown (9) (there was all but WW3 in determining his start date, summary of that: old position not wanting to let him go w/o a fight, new position saying too bad and get over it!)

I can't believe the summer is nearly here. I'm ready to not have the rush of morning routine to get everyone where they need to be... although I'm aware next year will be brutal and this summer break is only the calm before the storm. I can't believe I have to register the girls in their new school and I can't believe I will have 2 in school- although Kacey will only be half day. Still, it's mind boggling. Ready for the summer to begin!

Kylie's Trip

2011-05-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

I am still in shock I let this happen... it's all still a blur, it happened so fast. So, we move into our new house and my mom starts telling me how she's going to visit Oma. Wouldn't it be so fun if I let Kylie go with! Oma would love it, yada yada yada... am I entertaining this idea? If so, she needs to buy flights RIGHT now... flights are a good price, I need to decide RIGHT now. Lots of pressure. Lots going on. Fine, was the best answer I could come up with. Then I get the, "well, if you change your mind, you owe me $700." Reimbursement apparently for the flights/hotel. Haha, so changing my mind came with some serious consequences.

I was devastated that Kylie went so easily without me. Where is the love? I prepped my mom for a week in hair doing and how to do this and what we do with that... although she knew it all anyway. I guess in a remote way it made me feel better. They were only gone for 4 days. It was a century to me, I called to talk to her non-stop. She texted me when she had time. Although she didn't miss me at all, she said she did... but I could tell, it was only to make me feel good. I'm grateful for that- I've always said she's my compassionate child! She did text me to tell me to stop texting her because it was interrupting her games on Yaya's phone. Thanks babe, love you too!!!

Anyway, here are some pictures from her fun trip!

They took a little plane from Charlotte, NC to Norfolk, Va

She got to go in the cockpit... does the pilot not look 12? Glad I didn't know they had a teenager flying the plane beforehand!

My mom's first attempt at Kylie's hair, this is day 1. I was not pleased. LOL! She blamed the humidity. This is Jules, my cousin Sarah's baby!!! Kylie and Jules bonded!

Kylie now wants a pug... thanks Aunt Sarah. :)

Aunt Sarah taught Kylie how to play Uno! Kylie is amazing at it. Now, I play her and I can't win... even when I try!!!

Yaya sent me this from her cell phone... them at a buffet, Kylie only eating dessert. Why you ask???? Because on a trip with Yaya, she only has to eat dessert... not real food.

Posing

LOVE this one, Kylie in the morning. She is NOT a morning person!!! The airlines lost their luggage. So Aunt Sarah came to the rescue with a pug night shirt--- their luggage arrived at the hotel at 3 am that night.

Pool time at 10:00 at night in the hotel!

They went to the beach there, Kylie loved it! We (Yaya and I) packed grundgey clothes for this occasion... what is Kylie wearing??? Umm, yes... her Gymboree clothes. As I got this text, and questioned Yaya... what was her proud response being 2,000 miles away... "yeah, whatever, her mother's not here... Yaya's in charge and Kylie can do whatever she wants..."

They spent a day at Busch Gardens! Kylie is on my Uncle Bob's shoulders. She apparently had him wrapped around her little finger from day 1. Life revolved around her for 4 days straight... nice being the 7 year old princess in control of 5 adults!

Standing in lines to ride all the fun rides!

Front row!

Them on a rollercoaster, I don't know which one Brad... I'm sure you will tell me. LOL

Flight home, thank the heavens... I missed her terribly! Although, we did need a little attitude adjusting when she came home. She lived a little too high on the hog being Yaya's one and only for 4 days straight. I've been getting lots of attitude lately :) We are working through it!

All in all, it was a great trip and fun bonding time for Kylie and Yaya. A great time for Kylie to meet some family for the first time. She was spoiled, that's for sure... I asked her before she left me if maybe I should go too... she said, "yeah mom... next time you can come." Oh the love... LOL

it's a GREAT day

2011-05-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

We can finally share the secret, Matthew got a promotion at his company! It's absolutely incredible, and we could not be more happy!!! It's been in the works for a few months now. We tried not to get our hopes up, but it's been on the back of MY mind constantly. The "what if's" and "how nice would it be if...." Many phone and personal interviews here and there, making appearances at large functions which essentially were interviews... it's been nerve-wrecking.

He is now the National Strategic Partnerships and Relations liason for his company to the outside companies they have business relationships with. There are 2 people in his whole company nationwide that do this specific thing (the company employs 21,000 people), so I think it's pretty fancy. Matthew doesn't have to GO to work anymore... like at the office here. He can if he wants, probably would be more peaceful than here at home. (gives me a little more help with school and preschool drop off in the mornings) So he mainly flies - at the drop of a hat - to wherever in the country that he feels he needs to go in that particular moment. SO AWESOME.

If I had to define this new job in one word, it's to schmooz. Lots of golf and dining out and keeping others from partner companies happy. He's in heaven, who wouldn't be!?! I'm excited for him, WAY less stress, WAY better job, WAY more fun. He will spend alot of time in Denver, that's where the job is centralized. So we will be getting some sah-weet airline miles (as well as hotel rewards and car rental rewards)! SIDENOTE: It came up during the interview process, that he will be picking up the tab at various functions. The bill could be a few thousand dollars... no wonder there are only 2 people in the whole company who do this job. It could get pretty expensive for the company pretty dang fast! LOL... HOLY COW!

It's definitely a job unlike any he has ever had, and it's definitely a huge blessing for our family. We are so grateful for it to come at this point in our lives. Absolutely amazing and wonderful... and we are super excited!!!

Easter 2011

2011-04-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

Our Sunday Easter Pictures

Sometimes you need a silly one to get the wiggles out, and get a good picture later!

All 4 cutie pies!

It boggles my mind how old they look. In my mind, Kylie is only as old as Kacey looks. So it's weird when I look at Kacey and realize it's not Kylie. It's Kacey, but Kacey can't be that old... that's how old I have Kylie in my mind... then you look at Kylie and it's like "who is that?!?!?!" She's so old. Did that make sense? Basically, even though I see them everyday... in my mind, they are younger. In pictures, they look so old :(

*** SPRING BREAK ***

We tried to do fun things this Spring Break and enjoy our time. We spent one day (pictures I will have to post later) that we went downtown to Circus Circus and played at AdventureDome. Super fun day... exhausting really.

Then, the next day we made our annual strawberry freezer jam... which is absolutely divine!!!!

Of course, who am I kidding.... all they wanted to do was ride bikes. So we went to the middle school parking lot right up the street. I brought a magazine and Diet Mtn Dew and they had a blast! Kadyn was asleep by 6:15 that night. It was awesome!!!

The Saturday prior to Easter of course is spent coloring eggs... notice all the colors, we go all out! Heavens NO, we can not have just one yellow... we must have 2. LOL

Silly girl, she is teething and drooling like crazy. Everything is in her mouth, she's chomping on anything and everything. And she's getting some teeth, so giving your hand to appease her for the moment hurts like heck!

Sunday Morning... the girls were really loved this Easter by extended family. Lots of fun treats and cards and toys and stickers... spoiled rotten they are! The Easter Bunny also created a 20 hint hunt for their baskets... it was awesome!

The reason we have a locked gated pool fence around the pool.

And the girls finding Easter eggs early Sunday morning. :)

Anybody else exhausted. I am. :)

Catching Up

2011-04-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

Can it really almost be May?

So we've moved, life is settling. The move was amazing. I had wonderful friends that I mentioned in a previous post who helped me move my girls' closets... without judging me on the amount of clothes we have! LOL I appreciated it so much. When we moved that Saturday morning, we had more than 20 guys there helping us. Absolutely incredible. I never realized how many good friends we have, how they were willing to help, sacrifice a few weekend hours they had with their family, to come help us with something that just wasn't fun. Their help was appreciated beyond more than I can say.

We have really great friends... girlfriends of mine, who I love dearly... not sure what they bribed their husbands with... but 2 men in particular stayed the day with Matthew and me... putting beds together, hanging large pictures, hanging LARGE shelves, making my girls' beds... measuring and hanging my stupid pottery barn organizational chart... they stayed 9 hours with us to make our house a home!!! Words cannot express how much you appreciate someone when they help you do something that you don't even want to do yourself.... when they take on your load and burden, when they don't have too... but they do because they are your friends. For that, I am grateful. We are grateful. Matthew was dreading hanging that stupid pottery barn thing and that big black shelf from Rodworks. He came home from returning the Moving Truck, and they had done it. As well as putting Kylie's new desk and hot pink swivel chair together. No words to describe. Just Grateful.

So we are in a new ward at church. I'm slowly being known as the lady who dresses her girls all alike, people are starting to ask questions. (been there done that, here we go again!) What's nice is still seeing all our friends from the old ward in the halls at church. Moving kept us in the same church but different time. Prior to even leaving our old ward, I got a calling... as in while I was Primary Secretary still in our old ward, I was called as the YW 2nd counselor. HAHA, it was all very funny. Matthew was loving life as I don't camp; I know he can't wait to see this all play out. 3 words in the English language do not ring as true as the following, "I Don't Camp." YW = Camp July. So I guess we have some figuring out to do, especially with Matthew taking time off of work so I can be there a little bit. But it's been really great. The Young Women's program is huge here, I have about 15 beehives and 3 advisors who are all wonderful and I'm glad to be in this calling to get to know them. There are roughly 50 Young Women and alot of leaders so I'm able to make friends quick (and babysitters). They have welcomed me in and become my friends instantly. Ironically, one of my advisors grew up in PA and knew the Boyds- she's between Brad and Bryan. Small world, but nice to have a connection. One of my dear, sweet beehives just so happens to be my bff's niece... gotta love that too! :)

Upon receving my calling, Matthew figured he was home free. He's been Elder's Quorum President forever. In fact our Stake President, has given Matthew the title of longest standing EQ Pres in the stake. And I know Matthew's enjoyed every minute of it. He's the type of person that even if he's worked 12 hours that day, and he has a stake meeting that night, he wouldn't miss it for the world. I can say that he gave that calling his all, even when it meant he'd come home to a cranky wife... but he's done it because he knew it would bring us blessings. So anyway... here I have a calling and he's loving life without church responsibilities -other than to be the support character to me. And as the roles reversed he actually he did a great job. I started to have some meetings and things Sunday mornings, and we did responsibility reversal. Him getting the girls dressed and fed Sunday mornings, preparing snacks and diapers for our 3 hours of church... he even did hair. Which was impressive. No doubt I fixed it when I came home, but the effort was dually noted and appreciated. But no sooner was he loving a free life of duties, was he called as Membership Clerk. But it's been nice to be welcomed into the ward with callings and new responsiblities to get to know people.

We definitely hated leaving our friends, which mainly means leaving our ward. The group of girlfriends I have are amazing. But I'm really no further from their homes than I was before. I'm only in a different direction, which I'm really glad about. :)

I think...

2011-04-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

I think we are settled in. The boxes are few and far between. Only a few leftover in the 3rd car garage. And THIS place is really starting to feel like home.

My most favorite part of packing up was this one particular day, I rounded up some of my most awesomest friends... and I gave everyone a closet (in the old house). So up and down the steps, we ran... loading up our cars. And we convoyed to the new house to unload in the appropriate closet. This was a huge help! Thanks you fabulous ladies for your help! :)

Happy as can be, in the midst of the boxes.

Kadyn

Kloey

Kylie

Kacey and Kloey

And what's been going on this past month. They dug this up...

And now we have this!

(taken from the window over my kitchen sink, that bar is from the window)

To be perfectly honest, the house is amazing due to the pantry (which my mom organized) and the laundry room. The pantry is a little slice of heaven! Yes, there are 2 doors and 2 windows and 3 lights! I love the house, it's great... really it is... but the pantry is what rocks my world!!! LOL

Addendum to K3 is a Big Girl Now

2011-04-06T18:16:00.000-07:00

K4 is crawling, as in up on her knees and is fully mobile to any and everything on the ground. If it were K1, yes there would be a picture. But it's not the first child, so at least it's noted and documented in our family history! Love you Kloey Belle!

K3 is a Big Girl Now!

2011-04-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

Kadyn is potty-trained. How exciting, how wonderful, how great! She has been my easiest child to potty-train! i just decided last week when her diaper wasn't on right, and her pee went all down her leg... and she didn't like it.... that we should start. So on came the panties and she's done great!!! Mind you, the first accident was in my pantry (GASP, if you've seen my pantry.... it's a little slice of heaven) and I thought I'd cleaned it all because she said it was by the door. Well, I have 2 doors in my pantry. So 15 minutes later, barefeet and all I found the big puddle accident. But who cares, she's potty-trained and I only have 1 in diapers!!! Wahooooooo! (although I do travel with a little potty in the back of my SUV, but whatever... life is good!)

Sunday Morning Pictures

2011-03-27T11:59:00.000-07:00

And we are back up and RUNNING!

Sunday morning pictures before church...

Matthew took this one and said it was great, look at Kylie... what the heck is she doing? LOL

I found a bunch of random pictures on the camera. Matthew just kept snapping; we had no idea he was taking half the pictures he took... sometimes those are the best ones!

I love this one, never a dull moment... Kadyn capitalizing on the lack of supervision. Child is obsessed with that candle- I never light it.

Love my sweet Kloey Belle!

For those of you who KNOW Kacey, she's such a treat!

Kloey likes pulling hair, Kacey still in her funk.

It's hard to get everyone happy... but we try and then life must go on :)

Kylie, the Politician....

2011-03-08T17:04:00.000-08:00

A conversation with my daughter, the future politician... kind long but i loved every minute of it....

me: were you good in school today?

k1: yes, -insert smile here, a smile only a mother could read into!

me: hmm. did you lose any stingray bucks today? (her school's mascot are stingrays, the reward program in her class is by gaining and losing stingray bucks for good or bad behavior.)

k1: hmm, i'm not sure.

me: well, did you?

k1: i don't remember (while she's very busy doing other things around the house at this point trying to discontinue the conversation)

me: kylie! answer now! did you lose bucks today!!!

k1: i don't know.

me: i don't know is never an acceptable answer. from now on, anytime you answer one of my questions with i don't know, you will be grounded.

k1: but what if i really don't know?

me: answer the question because you do know!

k1: what type of grounded? no tv?

me: yes

k1: for how long?

me: 5 days

k1: make it three...

me: KYLIE, ANSWER THE QUESTION... DID YOU LOSE BUCKS TODAY AT SCHOOL?

k1: i may have.

me: for???

k1: not sure.

at this point, she saw the frustration on my face and freely plead the 5th and said,

k1: i think i may have been kinda chit chatty. just a little. i think.... i don't remember. but i think i did, but i don't really remember.

then i gave up and decided i really didn't care all that much anyway. she makes straight A's... who cares! back to packing!

We're going down for a bit...

2011-03-02T17:22:00.001-08:00

Taking a break... lots going on around here. Be back up and running as soon as we possibly can.

Sunday Morning Pictures

2011-02-06T15:33:00.000-08:00

What is funny is that this is the picture I choose to put on here.

Everyone goes, "oh you have such a cute family, oh your girls are so sweet and precious," etc etc

I purposefully omit this one which is the one with Kadyn...

Yes... which leads to this picture and Matthew saying, "why is Kadyn holding her hand in there air." Oh there's something gooey and gross on it.

And my favorite... we just weren't quite ready when this one took.

CHRISTMAS!

2011-01-10T14:12:00.000-08:00

Christmas Morning... the anticipation, the "did he come, did he come?," the "did he eat the cookies?," all the excitement, all the thrill... and Matthew makes them sit on the step as he's downstairs getting the cameras ready and rolling. So funny! It takes the girls every ounce of self-control to hold themselves there until he gives the go ahead. He likes to situate himself so he can see each girl's face as they run from the stairs to the tree. Here are some highlights of the morning.

*******

KYLIE

Yes, that is the Tangled Art Set... huge hit, as you can see!

KACEY

KADYN

-this child cracks me up with her facial expressions

You see this vanity... she didn't move from it the moment she saw it. She sat there the whole time. She said she didn't want any presents, didn't like them... only liked her vanity. She got up for 5 seconds because she saw a couple of dollar bills. Ran to them, took them... and plopped back in her vanity. Matthew laughed and said she's just like her mother :)

She did like this little texter, although she still didn't get up for it. I think Matthew actually had to unwrap it for her.

Notice her legs crossed. HAHA, she's such a little stink!

She did end up moving for the Tangled doll.

KLOEY

-this truly captures her: happy, content, loving life.

Christmas morning, off to the buffet with Yaya and Papa! Gotta say, love enjoying the day with no dishes to make or clean up!

Afterwards, we went to Yaya and Papa's house for Christmas #2.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This next picture is funny.

Kloey and my dad have the same shaped head. There's a story.....

A few days after Kloey was born, I began getting nervous about her head shape. Call me crazy, call me hormonal, I was on heavy meds... but then out of no where Matthew said to me, "do you think her head is shaped oddly?!" Well if he notices it, then something is wrong FOR REAL! Nothing was wrong, I remember crying and getting all upset. My mom came over and she was like, "Nicole! Chill out. You need to calm down. (I'd been going through a patch where I was petrified about everything, probably because of all the stress and difficulties with Kloey's pregnancy and birth.) My mom says, "She's got Daddy's head." Lo and behold, look... they've got the same head. Looking at it from the side, it's a smushed football. (Dr said her head is fine.) My dad says it has to be that way to contain all the brains.

AND, that was Christmas in a nutshell.

2011 is going to be a great year. We're hoping for some fun changes with life, obviously with the girls growing and maturing and entering new phases of their life. Matthew will begin his Masters Program, and he's got some possibilites of different things at his finger tips at work... he may dabble in and is kinda excited about the prospect of that. We've got hopeful economic plans with paying our home off significantly earlier than the loan term- thus avoiding a whole lot of interest and saving some money in the long run. As always, I've stocked our home with an incredible food and home storage, probably never needing to buy diapers, formula, and wipes ever again... as well as every tolietry you can imagine from toothpaste to hair spray. Planning on building out our kitchen, tearing down a wall- eliminating the 6th bedroom (who needs SIX bedrooms anyways!!!) to make a monsterous, enormous kitchen. Hopefully that wall isn't too important... I guess we'll see. We're interviewing contractors and coming up with ideas. Keeping an "eating healthy" plan. I enjoy maintaining a size 4 after 4 kids... it's do-able. It can be done, eating healthy is actually quite fun because I get to eat alot and introduce my girls to new foods. I'm amazed when I see my 2 year old enjoying cucumber, and my 4 year old eating black beans. I've found an amazing food store with such great food, no preservatives and yucky stuff put inside... but REAL ingredients... the family has no clue I've insituted the change... which is even better that they haven't noticed :)

My New Years Resolution is to SIMPLIFY. I do alot, have a lot of things I'm involved in with the girls- and that can't change- I enjoy it too much. But I feel like our lives can get filled with clutter (literally and metaphorically) and I'm going to get rid of that clutter (literally and metaphorically) and SIMPLIFY. Less STUFF, more QUALITY, more things that really matter... in every aspect of our life.

CHRISTMAS Eve!

2011-01-10T13:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve starts some fun traditions in our house... we always start the baking for us! Usually, we've done some crazy baking all month long... but that's for friends and for school staff and teachers. Christmas Eve means yummies for us! So as you can see, Matthew headed up the baking of the cookies. And yes, that's Kloey's bassinette behind him. (?) Not sure why he strolled her in there, I guess to be a part of the fun (?)

The girls got to decorate all their cookies with fabulous teeny tiny toppings that Mommy had to go on her hands and knees to pick up every last one because more found their way to the ground then on the cookies!

Round 1 of our finished products.

He had a system of going in and out of the oven, the decoration timing, the cooling timing... I just took pictures. And I managed to eat about 2 dozen myself! :)

We always go to the movies on Christmas Eve, an early movie. So given Kloey's really young, I gladly stayed home all by myself with her. Poor me, HAHAHAHA- peace and quiet... actually I took on some last minute shopping- grocery, couponing, and gift shopping. Matthew took the oldest 3 to see Tangled again. Definitely my most favorite Disney movie, can't wait until it comes out on dvd! And, the evening was also filled with the ever festive meal... of Chinese food! We've done it every year we've been married... nothing like some Orange Chicken, Beef n Broccoli, and Fried Rice to bring on the Holidays!!!!

Although, I did prepare with my homemade rolls rising throughout the day. Kylie loves them!

And I did prepare a ham in the crockpot for Christmas Day... too bad we went to the Aliante Casino buffet for Christmas Brunch... and we were way to stuffed to touch my ham. But it made for good leftovers with the rolls.

We ended our evening with a fun late night movie, another tradition we'll keep up, as it was a really cute movie. Yummy popcorn and candy keeps little girls pleasantly amused as the time ticks for Santa to come!

********

And... drum roll please.... this is what our house looked late late on Christmas Eve! Insane. Ever year, we say we aren't going to over do it. And I didn't, in terms of money spent. (?) But every year, that doesn't happen. Lots of presents, lots of toys that travel to the abyss of the toy room... always wondering if our kids understood that it's better to give than to receive. As there was giving done by our family, I wonder how much the girls got out of it. Maybe they're still too young. However, next year we are implementing some new plans...

Given we have 4 children, so there's 4 times as many gifts as say for an only child. We still noticed the highs and lows of the gift indulgence, and maybe they are too young to understand but I'd rather nip it in the bud right now. The thrill of the new toys also brought the bitter greed of not sharing and nasty attitudes. The toys sat around the family room, so many things not only from Santa but from us and family, many things from last year going out to the donation box in spring cleaning... if not some things from this Christmas also. Next year, as with my resolution of SIMPLFYing and doing less overall but only keeping the "quality" things... this will spill over into Christmas giving for the girls as we've asked family members to do for us. Less is more in so many ways. Having a couple of things that YOU LOVE and are so excited about is so much better than a lot of stuff. Not to be a downer, but we realized a huge Christmas in a picture doesn't mean a good Christmas. A good Christmas comes by what we do leading up to it, and the traditions and fun things we do as a family. The commericalism wrecks it, and I saw the green little monsters coming out in my little preciousnesses. Toys get broken, toys get faught over, many toys get left unused because something better came along. That's not what I'm trying to teach my girls, but I think inadvertantly that is what we're teaching our girls. Not that it's our fault, I think everyone to a degree does it. But we need to declutter our life. So we're instituting a change here and now!!! Quality over quantity in so many aspects of our life which we are very excited about! You know that feeling when you look at something and it's a mess and you have no clue what's in there, or where to start, or if it's important, if you like it or if you don't (for us an example is our bedroom closet)... and you know that feeling of go through it all, cleaning it, organizing it so that a stranger could walk in and know exactly where everything is... that's what I'm going for!!!! OCD, maybe... but that's definitely me. And it's going to be great!

Technical Difficulites

2011-01-10T11:54:00.000-08:00

We are back after some technical difficulties! Somehow we lost the username and password to get onto the blog. And by WE, I mean Matthew. While I'm the one who does the blog, somehow I got logged out and had to log in. Well, give me a few months and I totally forgot what it was. Between his 5 different email accounts, and who knows what passwords we have between us... I FINALLY FOUND IT, and we are up and running again. And I saved the info, so we will not be lost again!

*********

With that said, I do not want to post Christmas pictures... UGH, so many... but I will, hopefully even later on today after lunch, during naptime. I'm caught up on my PTA Treasury stuff, my laundry, my ironing, my food storage, my couponing, the rotation and donation of all my girls' shoes, AND my primary stuff!!! I'm anticipating some major girl scout stuff happening in the near future as somehow I became Treasurer of the Troop (luv ya Missy!). So if I don't get the Christmas pictures up, it may be Christmas when I find the time again!!!

******

On that note, this is Kylie's Brownie Troop... as they were going off Christmas Caroling a few weeks ago. And now, she's selling Girl Scout Cookies....

So I'm offering that if any extended family/friends would like to support her and buy cookies from her ($4 a box... outrageous, I know... I sold them for $2.25 way back in the day), I will gladly ship them... as long as you don't buy like 20 boxes and it's ridiculous for me to ship. :)

There are Thin Mints, Chocolate Peanut Butter (tagalongs), Carmel Delights (samoas), Shortbread, Shortbread with chocolate on one side, Lemonades, and some belgian type cookie... I think almost ginger snap-ish.

**So if you want some just leave me a comment with your info, I won't publish it and we'll go from there. Or you can just email me directly.

December Summary

2010-12-27T14:14:00.000-08:00

I just keep getting further behind in posting, so let's take a quick run through the month so I won't be that much more behind! :)

*********

Kacey had her Christmas Preschool Program. She looks so sweet and shy, well-behaved... trust me people-- she's not!

******

Then came my birthday! With a girls' night to:

and yummy dinner at:

Where my husband surprised my girls night with the girls' husbands- a triple date night- and we had a mini celebration with fabulous food and decadent dessert!

My girlies!!! With our matching scarves :) I love these girls. They truly know me inside and out, know my quirks, know what bugs me... loves me for everything that makes me ME! I'm so lucky to have such awesome, fun friends.

And my dear friend Kaylan sent BEAUTIFUL roses, candy, a card and some fun spending money for my big 29+1 birthday! (i will not say 30). Kaylan the flowers were beautiful. In fact Matthew's comment was (direct quote), "Come on Kaylan, you're making me look bad!" I love and miss you Kaylan, you are one of a kind and I'm so grateful to have you as a friend for life!!! No matter how far away you are, one conversation brings us back to as if we've had no time apart.

****

My birthday present, was some fabulous home decor from Rod Works. Bless my husband's sweet heart... don't buy me something, I don't want to pretend to like it. I want to go out, I want to shop, I want to find it on my own. I've had like 4 different Mommy nights out over a short while. :) Eating, spending money, having a great time just relaxing and not being Mommy for a few hours. He knows what works, happy wife happy life.

Although we went out, had a fabulous lunch at Red Lobster... (can you tell all I've done lately is EAT?!?!?) We did a bunch of running around and shopping, childless (thank you Yaya)... we actually got to hold hands as we went about our afternoon. Go figure!!! It's amazing how little we hold hands- given the phase of life we are in, usually we are holding little ones' hands... making sure know one runs in the street, making sure every little person is accounted for. It was nice to just go out- him and me. Still love you Matthew :)

*******

And I've discovered a new love.... I'm not sure where these have been all my life... pomegrantes! WOW! Love them. I love delving into the nooks and crannies and pulling out every last juicy, delicious kernal of bitter yumminess! These are huge, home-grown, and super healthy for you. It takes me an hour to eat one! And my hands get all wet and sticky... they're slightly stained too. Love it!!!

********

We received Matthew's transcripts in the mail today. I'm not sure I mentioned this on the blog, but he's offically graduated from the University of Phoenix "With Honors" with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management.

I'm not sure which degree was more difficult for ME to endure, mine from BYU where I did the work... or HIS where I didn't have to do the work. Two weeks after Kacey was born, he decided to go back to school to finish his degree. He had little to nothing transfer from previous credits. He's trudged along, slowly but surely starting from nothing... endless late nights of class, with crappy teachers that he felt he was smarter than ****funny story--- he ended up, through the grapevine of life and business canals, being sent a resume of one of his former teachers! Haha, Matthew didn't even give him an interview. Anyways, he's trudged through so many papers, so many loser fellow students he had to put up with in group work... many times re-doing their work so he'd get a better grade... 4 years later... 4 loooong years later, 2 more kids later, a highly busy church calling, a tired wife... and HE DID IT! Finally, he did it. Although I do feel like my enduring makes me deserving of part of it! So I guess I now have 1.5 degrees. LOL. Super proud of his accomplishments. He graduated with honors, getting all A's and one C... his last class, it was a joke!!! Seriously the topic (it was to fill a general elective), a complete joke. So we just ignore that one. :)

********

I will get to the Christmas pictures next!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T17:05:00.001-08:00

Updates and Pancake Breakfast

2010-12-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday was Kylie's school's Pancake Breakfast w/Santa. I had to be there at 7 am for PTA so Matthew was left with all 4 girls and getting them ready himself. He did a really good job, they were there and dressed nicely- promptly when the activity started! (And he did hair, which is impressive.)

Me, my girls, and my money box! :)

The girls had a nice time. It's always such a fun activity, and I look forward to it every year. I usually have to spend all my time at the door handling all the money, so it ends up being something fun the girls do with Daddy... and they come over every now and again to say hi to me :)

Individual pictures taken with Santa... taken with the cell phone so they are a little blurry.

Kadyn was not so thrilled!

*****

UPDATES: Kloey's most recent ultrasound show that her kidneys were getting smaller, more closer to the normal size. She is showing ZERO sign/symptoms for any future problems. We're quite hopeful, and it's very likely, that the excess fluid in her kidneys will diminish and work it's way to normal as she grows up. We just have routine ultrasounds to make sure all is well.

Kylie was sick right after our Disneyland trip. The first day back to school, the nurse's office called and said she'd thrown up. She continued to vomit all day; we went to the dr and got the magic meds and she recovered VERY quickly.... Kylie's first grade picture... she's adorable!!! Love that little thing! And she got her first report card... STRAIGHT A's!!!!!!!!!

ME, been a whirlwind. Found a lump on a place that a woman doesn't want to find a lump. I went to the dermatologist- freaked everyone around me out. I go from normal to freak out mode in less than 2 seconds. Let's face it... I can't die of breast cancer, Matthew can do the girls' hair... but that's about it! The girls would eat him alive- 4 little hurricanes we call them! Lol. And my mom for that matter. BUT the doctor removed the lump and the results came back just fine. Done, over.

****

Disneyland pictures to be posted after I get the Christmas cards done!!! Pictures to be taken this weekend, fingers crossed I get them in the mail next week!

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas...

2010-12-03T19:20:00.000-08:00

And we're decorating! First off, huge thank you again this year to my sweet and talented sister-in-law, Rose. I look at these and am amazed that she made them! I just love them!

Maggie is getting into the Christmas Spirit also!

With a little help :)

Sweet girl... notice anything odd?

Stocking in our house has a literal meaning, and K2 and K3 call them "sockings." I spent 45 minutes trying to find this one! (not a joke)

****

It's been a big month for Kloey... Solid Foods!

This is actually one of the things that is "only Kloey's." Our other highchair was a little too beat up, we tried to give it some love... but hey, Kloey's got something that's only hers! Love it babe, these small gifts may be few and far between :)

Notice the double chin, our goal is 3!

Love her toesies!

****

Okay some randoms...

I couldn't bring myself to chop Matthew out of this one... the things you do to make your baby smile!

Took us a while to get this one...

But I like this one better :)

**********

I'll do more... I've got not one, but two Disneyland trips to post from!!!

Trunk or Treat

2010-10-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

(**Mental note to me- we went to Disneyland last week, and I need to post pictures from our trip!**)

Now onto Halloween-

I tried to have the girls be different fairies- Silver Mist (she wears blue), Vidia (purple), etc... but they fought over who could be Tinkerbell... SO guess what? To make my life easier, everyone's Tinkerbell this year!!!

Family shot...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention with the girls being Tinkerbell that meant that Matthew was Peter Pan!

The trunk or treat at church was awesome. I didn't get a chance to take too many pictures, but the girls did get oodles of candy and had a blast at the cake walk and got quite a few cupcakes... the haunted house wasn't the highlight for them. Kylie was the only one who went and she stayed behind my dad the whole time, although he said it was pretty impressive.

****

And one of sweet Kloey. It's definitely different, the first child to the fourth. Poor baby, we have so few pictures of her. I need to try to be better. She's nearly 3 months old, getting SO big, she giggles and smiles. Such a preciousness!

Sunday Morning Pictures

2010-10-31T16:22:00.000-07:00

And so starts the dresses in 4's...

That's a whole lot of argyle...

Check out all our boots!

See this is why I had 4 girls, nothing could put a bigger smile on my face :)

Tinkerbells and the Homecoming Game

2010-10-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

SO! Apparently we have some fun connections with Legacy High School, and Matthew was asked to drive a fancy vehicle for the Homecoming Court.... AND the school theme this year (which they decorated their floats all with) was Disney movies and Disney princesses... SO our said connections let us dress the girls up and be in the Homecoming Parade at the high school football game on Friday night!

Us gearing up to go!

Did not plan on it being so cold. Kylie and Kacey were gone getting ready to be a part of the parade, I had Kloey bundled in my arms, guarding my purse with the hoodlums to either side of me (ready to tell them to watch their language), with camera in hand... poor Kadyn was struggling. It was late, naptime wasn't too good that day, but James stepped up to the plate and filled in and kept Kadyn warm. Matthew's less than thrilled, but me and his mom are good friends so it's okay... for now :)

The vehicle line up... Ferrari, Prowler, and Lamborghini

It's hard to see, but the girls are in the front seat waving to the crowd... Matthew's driving. AND James' dad announces at the games and gave a huge SHOUT OUT to the girls... super cool! :)

Matthew's coveted vehicle... but Andrew owned the shop, so he gets the fanciest car... only fair :)

Fun night, gotta say I was exhausted by the time we got home. AND it made me feel old. No details, but looking around while I was there... I'm getting old. Not cool.

Sunday Morning Pictures

2010-10-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

Finally back up and running again!

We woke up at 7:30 (yes we have 9 am church). Matthew didn't have meetings this morning, it threw me off. Usually I sleep while hearing him shower and knowing I need to get up soon. Not today, all of a sudden it was late. We recouped on time though, amazing how much faster things get going in the morning with another adult on my side!

I keep saying that I need to grab my camera and just take pictures of Kloey, otherwise I'll have gaps in my pictures and I'll miss all her cute stages. Love this picture though, notice the dress pulled up so you can see all those rolley polley thighs.

All 4, I didn't have matching for Kloey but it's brown and polka dot so I considered it a success. No worries, I have dresses in 4's. Just not fitting Kloey this young, they grow so fast right now. Wait until she's about a year, you'll see matching in 4's I promise... I REALLY look forward to it.

Silly!

Kadyn's facial expressions crack me up.

FAMILY UPDATE: Need to take Kloey in soon for another ultrasound on her kidneys. Both were enlarged, and we're monitoring it. They keep asking me if she has good wet diapers, and she does. She has no problems at all, hopefully we'll be done with this soon. Next item, Disneyland is very soon in our future... we are VERY excited! Personally, I'm just thrilled to go and NOT be pregnant. I got a new calling, Primary Secretary... I'm thrilled to be doing it, we have a wonderful group of girls in the presidency and I could not be happier. We get together for meetings and just have a blast! AND one last final update, Halloween is soon and the family theme is Tinkerbell. I tried to do variations, but all the girls wanted to be Tinkerbell so that's what we did. On that note, Matthew will be dressing up as Peter Pan. Stay tuned for the tights :)

GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN... and daddy was there too!

2010-10-10T19:51:00.000-07:00

So Saturday morning, I woke up and decided I wanted to do something fun... something out of the ordinary, something on a day which we had NO plans. I was thinking, "Well we live in VEGAS... let's go downtown, maybe do Circus Circus, the AdventureDome, go see the Lions at MGM, hit the M&M factory, get some lunch and be home for naps." So I give my plan to Matthew, who one ups me! "Let's go up to St. George!" I think it's a bad joke, "Hmmm, where to Las Vegans go to vacation... Utah." :) Haha. Anyway, we packed up our Traverse and traversed ourselves out of NV, through AZ and to UT.

Surprisingly, it's a quick drive. Our family theme song played on the radio, yes GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN is the family theme song (sorry dear to out us...) when Cyndi Lauper comes on we all get very excited!!!

So we're driving, and Kylie's fascinated with rocks... she's fascinated with science in general (so not my child) and she wants to be a scientist. She even gives them names, not like Betty or John, but calls them by their scientific name... I don't even know or remember what she calls them, but she's a smartie. So we stopped the car and got out and took pictures of the canyon.

Hop, skip, and a jump away and we were in St. George. We went to the Wildlife Museum, which was fun. Not the highlight for Matthew and I, but when I ask the girls what their favorite part of the day was... they say the animals... so I'm glad we went!

This one was on purpose, someone is in denial about his bald spot. He doesn't seem to think it exists. His response to this picture when he reads the blog is that his hair is cut short. Ummm, yeah... so next picture :)

It's a bit dark, every so often the lights go out and you hear thunder... but they are standing in front of a waterfall.

Up we go....

They had a little kiddy area, for the girls to climb and touch stuff which was fun for them.

So we finished with the Museum and went to lunch... we parked, got out of the car and yes... this is what kids from Las Vegas do when they see grass. We have rocks, concrete, and a pool in our backyard. Grass is foreign to us.

Oh, did I forget to mention where we went for lunch?!?!? Holy cow, this was worth the drive alone. And secretly, this was Matthew and my favorite part of the whole day!!!! CRACKER BARREL, surprisingly there aren't any in Vegas.

I mean, do you see those desserts!?!? I'm pouring hot carmelly goodness onto mine. Notice Kadyn's face, she's just as excited as I am intent to get it perfect! Yeah, best part about the day....

Then, we went to the St. George Temple. We've passed it so many times on the road from here to Salt Lake, but we've never stopped.

We went into the Visitor's Center, which was lots of fun. The girls enjoyed it, we saw a nice movie, and they took home cotton and Kylie got a special white rock from Elder Sheffeld. She LOVES it, apparently it's gypsum which was used in building the Temple.

Beautiful day, gorgeous weather to be on Temple Grounds.

And we learned that upon completion of building the Temple, President Brigham Young was not satisfied with the tower and dome on the very top. He thought it looked too much like a government building, but the Saints were so excited to have a Temple he didn't push for them to rebuild it. A few months I think after he died, a lightning bolt struck the very top... only the top, and the Saints had to reconstruct it. They did it making it taller and less "squatty" the way Brigham Young had preferred... interesting :)

After that, we hit Deseret Book (since they all closed here in Vegas) and got the girls new scripture bags. Then we went to the outlets but found the 3 younger girls all asleep when we pulled in. So I ran into Down East (fun fun!!!) and we decided to head home since it was getting dark.

SUCH a fun day!!!! It was so fun to pick up and just go. Amazing how we had no plans, no clue what the day would hold for us, and it was such a fun day that I know the girls will remember... and look forward to the next time we say, "Hey... wanna spend the day (and maybe even night) in St. George!!!?!" :)

Kloey's Blessing

2010-10-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

On September 19th, we blessed Kloey.

It was really great because our Bishop let us do it on the same day as the Primary Program so that worked out wonderful. Matthew's parents were able to fly out for the weekend and visit! :)

Kloey's dress was the dress all my girls wore for their blessings, which was actually the dress I wore when I was 2 months old and baptized into the lutheran church. Oh, and I do have the pink dress with the white flower for Kloey also. You should see my girls' closets, it's AWESOME! I probably have 50 different matching outfits for all 4 of them!!!! Yes, it's called obsessive complusive. I know, their clothes is my weakness....

The whole group... thanks Dudley for taking our picture! :)
Gotta give a shout out to my mom- standing right next to me... she's lost nearly 100 pounds. Yes, one hundred as in 1-0-0. How amazing, and on top of that... no surgery, no fad diets, no secrets... just regularly eating healthy and she's kept it off. So proud of her, she looks great!

This has got to be my favorite picture from the weekend, sorry Grandpa don't be mad! :) Kloey LOVED Grandpa's squishy, comfy tummy. She slept on him for hours and hours. It was precious!

Finger crossed Grandma and Grandpa come back out again soon. Our weekend went by so fast, we're hopeful to get them out here for a Disney trip before Christmas.

Kadyn's 2nd Birthday!

2010-10-03T16:54:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I'm behind... what can you do!?!?!

The end of the summer has turned into whirlwind rush for us, many things going on and lots to do. We start August with Kloey and Matthew's birthdays... we gear up for fall with our last minute school shopping and have our first days of school... just to have Kacey, Yaya, and Kadyn's birthday all within the first 2 weeks of Sept. I'm still recovering from new schedules with homework and girl scouts (did I mention that somehow I became an assistant leader- thank goodness Missy knows what's going on!!), not to mention the start of PTA, the end of Matthew's fiscal year (loooooong late nights) plus he started school back up which means he's not home until 10:30 pm on Thursday nights... it's a crazy life! But our sweet little Kadyn turned 2 on the 14th of September! Had to document her special day...

I think this is actually the Sunday prior to the Tuesday of Kadyn's birthday, but it was cute nonetheless... Kloey's having a bit of a fit. 4th child, she'll get over it :)

So on Kadyn's birthday, she got a bunch of fun presents including a Pluto pup, she adores Pluto!

This is the point in the year when Matthew spends his evenings putting up and taking down birthday decorations! Kadyn got a pretty crown to wear all day on her birthday, new tradition and I think it's going to stick. Can't get the picture to be the right way. Honestly, too much effort to figure it out, so tilt your head. We ask her how old she is and she says, "2" and puts up both pointer fingers to make two.

Happy Girl!

This HAS GOT to be my most favorite birthday picture ever, you go girl... blow your heart out!

This is also the point in the year where we are so tired of birthday cake, my efforts are slacking... but she's at that great age where if it has icing, she's thrilled. It's a simple life, but a good life! :)
****
Kadyn, our little firecracker! She is the most lovable, precious, cutest little bug ever... she has an amazing vocabulary. She's speaking in complete sentences that actually make sense. Look out Kylie and Kacey, because she can full on tattle on you- WITH details! She can count past 10, not sure where to exactly... it changes. She knows her colors, knows the alphabet... yeah, she's only two! I'd like to take the credit... I don't sleep at night, getting her preschool lessons prepared... BUT it's all she's absorbed from her sisters. She looks to them and really thinks she's a big girl too! She's a singer, always singing some random song that we've never heard of before. AND from what we can tell, she's left-handed which we think is kinda special... none of us are lefties.
But does she have an attitude. She folds her arms, scrunches her eyebrows and pouts... cutest thing EVER! I should discipline her but it's so dang cute. Kadyn has her Daddy wrapped around her little finger, no matter how terrible two's she's being he always finds the patience for her to get her out of her mood. (if only he had that skill with all of them, but for her it works) He hides around the corner in the house and jumps out at her, she loves it!!! She's got the most infectious laugh, and when she does you can't help but smile at her. Love her soft curls, love her long eyelashes, love her rose colored cheeks, love the way she says: "I no go to Nursery, I no like it, I stay witch you..." LOVE that little bug!!!

Kacey's 4th Birthday!

2010-09-05T15:26:00.000-07:00

She looks sweet enough, right?!?!

WRONG! :)

She is by far our most dramatic, most demanding, most difficult daughter... like by leaps and bounds compared to her other sisters. BUT that's who she is, she didn't sleep a wink until she was 18 months old. Cried for a good year, straight... wouldn't take a bottle (I bought and tried every single one). It was her labor that the epidural wore off, and the nurses were pushing on my stomach to get her out quickly. But it's all what makes her HER and we love her for it!!!

However I must say, there is no one on this earth who loves me more than this child. She's a Mommy's girl for sure, she'd walk the ends of the earth with me... barefoot, on hot coals, just so she could be with me. If I was kidnapped and everyone gave up searching for me, she'd keep looking.

Kacey is a great big sister, loves her little Kloey and said throughout my pregnancy that Kloey would be her favorite. She's amazingly smart, something very natural. She observes and absorbs everything... she's always had such great verbal and communication skills. I remember being at her 12 month appt, and the dr told me to have her do something. So she listened to him and just did it... and he looked at me and said, "did she understand me?" Yup. She's a smart little cookie, sometimes a little too smart... and she has me wrapped around her finger... and what's bad is she knows it.

****

Her Birthday Decorations, equipped with every necessary princess balloon.

Her yellow (favorite color) birthday cake, with sprinkles and little chocolate chips.

We had a pizza party this afternoon, followed by her cake and presents!

Blowing out the candles!!!

Apparently Kadyn was helping her blow too, I wish I got that on camera!!!

And let's face it, at this age... it's all about the presents!

*****

Sunday Morning Pictures

Kloey's screaming, Kadyn's not even looking drinking her sippy cup, Kylie has no front teeth (top or bottom)... but Kacey is as happy as a clam!

The Pineapple Princesses!

See the crown, yes she had it on all through church!!!

Kylie's First Day of FIRST Grade!

2010-08-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

My little sweet pea!

And the day has come, as my mom came over and says... "I remember when I could fit her tiny little head in my palm..."

Ugh, as if I wasn't having a hard enough time already! I've been up since 4:15 this morning. My mind's been racing. What if she needs me? What if something happens? What if she misses me? Okay, more likely-- what if I miss her???

As I was making her lunch this morning, I began to cry. I'm not sure what upset me more... that she'll be in school ALL day and needs a lunch OR that she can actually read the note I packed in her lunch. Where has the time gone???

And this is her happy as anything to walk on in. Matthew's got the camera, I was trying to hold her hand... she was ready to play on the playground... which brings me to a hilarious story:

Kylie was playing, having a great time. Matthew noticed some boys telling her something and not letting her go down the slide. Matthew walked over there, asked Kylie what they said. They told her that was the 3rd grade slide and she couldn't go down. Well, no... Matthew was not having that. He told them and Kylie that she could go down which ever slide she wanted! He then made Kylie go down the slide... lo and behold, I call my friend later that morning... that really is the big kids slide... for 3rd graders and up. Matthew's like, "whatever, small little midgets... how'd they know she's not in the 3rd grade..." Yeah, this is from the same man who when I said a boy gave her an indian burn, Matthew said give him one back and don't stop until he cries... YIKES, right??!? The teenage years should be fun.

And off she goes... Matthew and I got back into the car, and this instance shows how different we are. I said to him that I hoped she was okay. And he looked at me and said, "why wouldn't she be okay?" He's probably more spot on than I am. Ugh, so hard to let them go!!!

********

I did pull my PTA rank and headed in during her lunch shift. She was great, having a blast, sitting by friends, loving life. I asked if there was anything she needed me for, if she was okay or if she wanted me to stay... she gave me a kiss, said she was great and hurried to eat her lunch so she could go to recess.

Sunday Morning Pictures

2010-08-29T13:29:00.000-07:00

AND... our first official family of 6 picture!!!

I look at this picture and it's like, WOW, since when do we have so many kids?!?! :) It's just funny, I know we have 4 kids... but then I see this picture this morning, and I'm just like, geez there's alot of us!!! Love it :)

Now one of all the girls:

Now one of all the girls, including me:

And we can't forget Daddy, the one who survives our household of 5 females!!!:

If you can tell, Kadyn has a lollipop in her mouth. Sometimes it just makes life a little happier... I understand, sometimes I need peanut butter m&m's for breakfast, so whatever works!

Sunday Morning Pictures

2010-08-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

All 4 Girls!

It's the best we could do... And yes, before I get the comments, I know they don't match completely. The color/prints don't match, but their identical styles of the same dress--- sometimes that's the best I can do when I'm shopping. Kylie grew like 3 inches since May. Consequently, some of her dresses in our collection of 3's are a wee bit short!!!

Kadyn was in a bit of a mood. She's having a tough time going to Nursery (this was taken after church). I've been in Nursery since she was 15 months, next month she'll be 2... she only knows Nursery with ME in it. So she's having a rough time, although a wonderful friend of mine is bound and determined to get her there and happy before I get to church with Kloey. (love her!)

Love her hair, she's so precious!

And her first black eye.

She fell on/in Kacey's bed yesterday while we were doing some bedroom rearranging. I wasn't there, so I'm not entirely sure how it all happened. Poor thing. It's not swollen shut, I was telling her to close her eyes so I could get it's full effect.

Kloey Elisa Boyd

2010-08-06T21:02:00.000-07:00

August 2, 2010

12:48 pm

6 pounds, 3 ounces (same as Kylie and Kadyn!)

18 inches

***

Sorry, it has taken a while to post these. It has been a hectic week to say the least. I did not anticipate a c-section to be as painful and as difficult as it was, I was optimistic and positive about it all... however, I learned fairly quickly that it was not going to be cake... it still isn't. Anyway, here are some pictures.

***

Matthew right before they rolled me in.

It was all pretty fast, I just remember feeling like it was hard to breathe. And I was tilted, oddly to the left. I felt like a pinball machine. Matthew asked later if I smelled the burnt skin smell. I did not, thankfully so.

Matthew cutting Kloey's cord.

Kloey's first bath. Matthew went to the Nursery with her, but from what he tells me... she had some major lungs!!!

The funniest part was when my parents came with the girls later Monday afternoon. Matthew, as a good son in law, wrapped Kloey up and walked over to my mom to hand off the baby. My dad intercepted the hand off like you would not believe, hilarious! My mom was annoyed, but my dad was just thrilled to be holding Baby Kloey.

Quick Family Shot

Kylie

Kacey

Kadyn

*****

AND Matthew's birthday!!!

We came home on Wednesday, Matthew's 33rd birthday. I felt badly for him, we had a card and Nike gift card to give him... but we really spent the day in the hospital. Where he spent a majority of his day helping me go to the bathroom and even just walk. We did manage to get him a little cake and sing! :) We'll have to make it up to him next year.

Happy Group!

More pictures to come, it's been a long week. Kloey's sleeping good, she's a really peaceful baby. I'm not myself really, the pain meds are screwing me up. Kadyn's adjusting to not being the baby, but it's hard because I can't hold her or lift her. So she spends a majority of the day with a lollipop. The older girls are in love with their littlest sister, and they'll sit and stare at her for hours. Matthew's been home helping to balance life, running into work periodically to keep up on things. My parents are in and out of our house constantly (I think they are babysitting me, which I need) making sure everyone's okay and giving everyone the love and attention they need at any given moment. We're really blessed to have an awesome church ward here, yummy dinners are coming in every night for the next 2 weeks -- and have since we've been home. Lots of phone calls checking in, we're here... just getting used to the new dynamics of life!

Kindergarten Graduation

2010-08-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

Kylie had her Kindergarten Graduation today, and I was not missing it for the world. There's nothing worse than an Italian mother- well maybe an Italian grandmother- but there was nobody or nothing stopping me from attending! And it was AMAZING!

Kylie had her own very long speaking part.

(Thank you Yaya for working with her on it while we were in the hospital)

She did wonderful, spoke loudly... there were some big words and the speech was super long... she was incredible. I was crying my eyes out!

I'm so grateful for such an awesome teacher, Ms. Messerli. She has so many students- all at different achieving levels, yet she knows each one and I felt that she continually gave Kylie the attention and challenges that Kylie needed to thrive.

She'll be Kacey's teacher in 2011. Kadyn's 2 years after that, and Kloey... you get the point.

I worked closely with Ms. Messerli throughout the year, in the classroom and through my PTA stuff. We've become good friends, and she had my back.... I had the best seat in the house! Love this woman, she called while I was in the hospital and made arrangements with my mom so that I'd be comfortable while sitting at the graduation- that she knew I'd be attending... and she called Matthew last night to verify it all- making sure we knew all the ins and outs. I got there early for my front and center seat, as you see, with my name "MOMMY BOYD" waiting for me.

Everyone with their diplomas!

Kloey Update

2010-07-26T15:04:00.000-07:00

We are doing well, my fluid increased (?) oddly enough. I'm not quite sure how that's happened- life hasn't given us a break and we just seem to be constantly on the go... rest and relaxation aren't in our vocabulary... but fortunately enough, Kloey's amniotic fluid DOUBLED and moved up to be in the low end of the normal range.

I had my last dr appt today. Kloey is still breech, with a slim to no chance of nose diving into the correct position! I have a c-section scheduled 1 week from today- on Monday, August 2nd at 12:30 pm... we can't wait to see our little baby girl! More info next week!!!

The Wedding

2010-07-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Matthew's youngest brother Aaron got married. We were so excited, because they were married here in the Las Vegas Temple. Nearly all of Matthew's family is on the east coast... but we really lucked out because given that I'm 9 months pregnant, it was only a hop-skip-jump away for us and we were able to attend!

****

Matthew doing a few pictures of us on the pretty Temple grounds. Unfortunately, he's taking all the pictures you see here... so I have none of him. Let me inform you, he looked very handsome!

Matthew's parents and the girls. The girls were so happy to see Grandma and Grandpa for a few days!!!

Aaron and his new bride, Valerie!

(check out the shoes, she's got them on too!)

They LOVE Uncle Aaron and Aunt Valerie! We're excited to have them close by.... (babysitters.... oh wait, who said that?!?!?)

Unfortunately, we don't have too many more pictures. We don't even have any of Uncle Brad and Uncle Bryan, which just breaks my heart! It was so nice to see them for a bit, for them to come out here... it's always amazing to me that no matter how young my girls are, they remember their uncles! It's been a year since Kadyn has seen Uncle Brad and Uncle Bryan (and she's not too fond of new people or people she doesn't see on a regular basis) but she goes right into their arms as if she seems them everyday! We were so happy to see them and look forward to seeing their wives and all our new little cousins hopefully soon!

*****

These are just too funny, they happened about 3 weeks ago... prior to all the drama and sickness. I just found them on my camera.

She's asleep.

HA! Love that little bug!!!

Catch-Up

2010-07-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

And Kadyn is better. Stomach bug is completely gone, Kylie I think caught it next... but it was just a loss of appetite and a stomach ache for a few days. Kadyn has resumed normal life, eating like a COW all the time. I think she's scarred for life that we won't feed her. At every meal, her meal plate is the biggest. And ironically, Kacey's in the next largest and Kylie's is the smallest. Go figure. If I don't do it that way, we play musical plates and Kadyn ends up with everything anyways!

On that note, another little scare... but everything is fine before I start. I found a lump in Kadyn's arm. She woke up from her nap, and I was rocking her and rubbing her arm and I felt this thing! It freaked me out to say the least. Large, hard lump in her arm. No bruise for me to make any sense out of it... other than cancer (remember, I'm pregnant here and hormones are right on the surface.) I called and got an appointment with my DR within 20 minutes, drove like a mad woman. He said it was attached to the bone, drove like a mad woman again to get immediate x-rays right before they closed for the night. Luckily Matthew met me there straight from work, because again I'm a pregnant woman I couldn't go in with her to get them!!! Spent the night worrying and imaging the worst, chemo treatments, losing her precious hair (which I realized quickly meant nothing to me) We must have touched that lump 50 times in 8 hours... examining it with our non-medical brains (fyi- don't google something like this, it only makes you freak out more). My wonderful DR who I really just love, called me by 9 am the next morning with the radiology report.... fatty deposit. My child, who's in the 5th percentile for her weight, must collect all her fat into a marble on her left humerus bone... because there's certainly no fat anywhere else. Not cancerous, no bone tumor... just a fatty deposit.

I really can't handle anymore drama! (which I hope I didn't just invite more to come)

Summary of our life...

2010-06-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

So we went to Disneyland, we have a bunch of pictures... I'll have to post them later. We had a great time, I ended up cutting the trip short. Being 8 months pregnant, after 4 full days... I was exhausted. We ended up leaving 2 days early, the girls (and Matthew) had done everything already 100 times... so no tears were shed.

******

Kadyn

First off, THANK YOU to everyone who has called, emailed, texted, contacted my parents... we have been offered so much help this past little bit. I appreciate every single person calling with concern over our little munchkin. It's times like these where you realize how many friends you have and what a great support system we have... we're really blessed. On that note, couldn't survive life without my parents--- who live every minute right now at our beck and call.

Maybe I should actually detail the past few days. Kadyn's sick, pretty bad. She's got the stomach bug, rotavirus- 98% of all children by the age of 5 have gotten it. However, she's so little and tiny she just can't fight it off. I took her into the DR Sunday morning (yes my dr has weekend hours, awesome right?!?!) after 3 days of trying to kick this bug... and she's only 1 pound more than she was at her 12 month visit (she's 21 months now), she's lost some weight. He admitted her directly to Summerlin Pediatrics where we spent 2 full days on fluids with great nurses.

Matthew spent the night, which made me feel like the worst mother ever. Who leaves their baby in a hospital over night?!?! I won't even leave my kids to do a Vegas-vacation overnight... However in my defense, the fold up cot for my very pregnant body did not look fun. AND, I was not allowed to change any dirty diapers for risk of infection to Kloey. Lucky Matthew :) So he was more useful. The nurse actually told me to go home, which was all the ammo Matthew needed because it was our constant fight all day Sunday as to who was going to stay--- he won and he stayed.

We left Monday night, however Tuesday she downward spiraled- couldn't keep anything down. We went back in to get an injection of anti-vomitting meds, it worked. Now it's just a waiting game with that and the toast/bananas diet. I just want this to be over, her poor little body has been a pin cusion to blood tests and shots and cultures. I just want her to be better now.

*******

Me and Kloey

Just to add some excitement into the mix of our boring little lives, my amniotic fluid is low. It was with Kylie also, so my dr was preparing for it. It's supposed to be 14, I'm at 8. And apparently, I'm at the peak right now... it only lessens from here. To make it even more fun, Kloey's breech... butt down/head up. Dr is not confident she's going to flip given that my fluid is so low... so we maybe planning on a scheduled c-section... oh and I have contractions every single night. I have 6 more weeks to go. Contractions that range from 10 minutes apart or even from 3-5 minutes apart. They go away after an hour-ish. So we'll see. My dr keeps saying : 4 or more contractions in an hour and go into the hospital. Yeah... I'd be in there every night. No thanks.

So that's the sum up of our lives. I figured it's easier to put it on the blog than repeat the same thing over again :) But I still can't say enough how much we appreciate all the love and concern from our friends here. Daily we get calls of people wanting to help with the girls or bring dinner... I haven't taken anyone up on it yet, but it's still nice to know of all the support we have. Kylie and Kacey have been in pure heaven playing with Yaya and Papa all day, while Matthew and I tend to Kadyn.... which is great, last thing I'd want to do is feel badly that they feel neglected, but on the contrary... they are loving it!

I'll update more on Kadyn when we know.

Our New Addition...

2010-05-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

Meet Pearl!

Yeah, so it's a car... Kloey's coming in a few more weeks :)

2010 Chevy Traverse, 8 passenger... fully loaded, getting the dvd sytem installed this week!!!

The girls love it... this is them (after baths, hence the hair) taking their first drive over to Yaya and Papa's house to show off our new addition. Camera phone, so it's kinda blurry.

*****

We spent 7 hours at the dealership. Wheeled and dealed, got them down to the price I wanted... then "OH YEAH, we can't go home w/o a dvd system in it... the girls will freak out!!!" Hehe, the poor sales guy... back and forth, back and forth... finally we came to something we agreed on :) Actually the price was at where Matthew and I agreed was the good monthly price prior to us even going in the dealership... THEN WE BUST OUT MY AUNT'S GM FAMILY DISCOUNT! Niiiiiiiiiice, we made the sales guy drop the F*bomb twice. 0% interest, $0 down. That's the way we do it!

Love it!

2010-05-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

Have I ever said how much I love having 3 (well 4) girls!!!

Because I just love it!

HAHA, love it!!!

Smack upside the head!

Notice Kylie's still keeping her smile for the picture. Cute girl!

I didn't even tell her to hug her sister... and Kylie didn't do anything to justify that "love tap" from her sister. Kylie just truly has an unconditional love for Kadyn... (Kacey not so much, just a sisterly love there)

Mother's Day

2010-05-09T14:48:00.000-07:00

What a lovely Mother's Day!

Beautiful flowers and a corsage to wear at church from my husband.

I also have a dress coming in the mail, from a company that I just adore. Their style tends to be more 40's, which I absolutely love. A more modest style with delicate-pretty detailing, and soft accents that are just gorgeous... However, of course all that spells expensive :) But my new dress (non-maternity) is on it's way too! So I'm excited about that. We have a celebratory lunch tomorrow at Famous Dave's, and we're planning on Outback for dinner very soon (just waiting for my Mom to get back into town so we can all go.) Can't wait! :)

Matthew's also desperately trying to take me away for a long weekend, which I do admire his efforts and I'm sure it would be fun... I'm just a chicken and will miss my girls too much. He's hopeful that he has something in the works that I'll do, but we'll see.

Great cards!

And the neat thing is that Kylie and Kacey have school and preschool where they make these neat little projects to surprise me with :)

Love it! I love how happy they are to finally give it to me- like it's been this huge surprise they've been holding in for weeks and they are just going to burst.

The look of excitement on their little faces as they give me their gifts is completely priceless!

So for real, here is the last picture you will see of me pregnant. I had a request from my cousin Lisa and I love her, so just for you Lisa! And minor celebration as this is my LAST Mother's Day that I'll ever, ever, EVER be pregnant. So we'll honor it with a photo. I'm nearly 7 months... sporting my lilac non-maternity dress-- honestly, just praying that the zipper didn't bust as I was sitting through church. :)

Notice Kadyn's bowl and spoon of cereal, she wouldn't let go of it. I mean WOULD NOT put it down. So, here she is in our special Mother's Day pictures with her breakfast bowl :)

Suffering through some stomach pain right now, not sure why, maybe the peanut butter m&m's I ate at 7:30 this morning... but hoping it goes away. Not quite sure what it is, it's continuous so I'm not as concerned as I would be if it were intervals of pain. It seems to be settling, so I think I'm going to spend the rest of Mother's Day lying on the couch with a Cherry Coke Zero :)

Sunday Morning Pictures and Strawberry Freezer Jam

2010-04-25T13:54:00.000-07:00

9 AM Church, and we still managed pictures!

VICTORY!

Although Kadyn was difficult about being in a group picture...

She preferred to be the lone model :)

Peek-a-boo!!!

*****

Okay, last week Kylie and I made Strawberry Freezer Jam... which was delightful! Kylie is such a huge help, sometimes Kacey gets moody and territorial... but she was playing at a friend's house so Kylie and I tackled the strawberries...

Seriously, the strawberries were enormous...

Kylie hard at work...

It's a plastic knife, no worries.

Kylie really amazes me at this stage of her life. I look at Kacey and remember going through those rough patches with Kylie. But now Kylie is so wonderful. She's an amazing helper, a great listener, follows multiple directions to the T, a hard worker, and very ready to please. I can say to her, "Kylie, take your sisters downstairs and give them breakfast." I'll come down about 10 minutes later, and she's done it! Plates, food, even Kadyn's food is broken up in pieces. AND Kadyn in strapped in her high chair. Kylie is INCREDIBLE! She's so wonderful, I'm so grateful for her and all the sanity she brings me :)

... and sometimes I reward her with a Cherry Coke Zero, what can you do!?! :)

Daisy Days, Soccer, and Sunday Morning Pictures!

2010-04-11T14:44:00.000-07:00

*DAISY DAYS*

I'm trying to get back into the habit of taking pictures regularly...

they're just too cute to not be taking pictures of them.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Gymboree? Love that store, LOOOOVE that outlet! Kinda getting into the little girls outfits being one way but the baby girls outfits being another, however all of it similar and matching because their from the same line... hence, DAISY DAYS!

*********

*SOCCER*

Team Picture

We had our first game yesterday!

It's so much fun. I'm really excited to be starting it up again this year. Matthew's coaching again this year with our good friend Casey (his wife is Kacey's preschool teacher- if you want to piece it together).

There's HUGE difference between last year and this year in the kids' abilities (we pretty much have the same kids as last year which is great). It makes it fun to watch. I will admit, it gets a little intense... well I get a little worked up. I have to breath and look the other way and calm down, they're just 6.

Kylie loves being goalie.

Like she wants to do it all the time.

She throws a bit of a tantrum to Matthew and bugs him the whole week prior as to when she gets to be goalie.

He tries to be fair- everyone gets an equal chance. It's just annoying to hear her start on Tuesday about her game on Saturday :)

********

*Sunday Morning Pictures*

I am feeling very on the ball!

9 am church, everyone ready... Matthew already gone to his early meetings, but we did everything and we were early... AND we took pictures! I get an 'A' for the day.

Kadyn loves Kylie :)

Kadyn calls her "Dolly." That's her version of Kylie.

Kacey is "Cici."

And the funny part of it is, both older girls know when Kadyn is calling her version of their name.

EASTER

2010-04-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

Of course, Easter began with us coloring many, many, many eggs. I've got 3 dozen colored eggs in my fridge. We haven't touched one of them... and I'm not sure if anyone else smells it, but the pregnant woman doesn't like it! They'd be gone if they weren't so CUTE!

Us hard at work!

Somehow Kadyn went from this...

To this in only a few minutes... (?)

Let's move onto Easter morning, which began with finding our Easter baskets!

The amount of candy they got was ridiculous! As well as presents from both sets of grandparents, and new dvds-- The Princess and the Frog and Alvin and the Chipmunks. The girls were on candy highs and presents overload all day long. I was really glad to put them to bed that night... although Matthew and I found candy wrappers under the beds- LOTS of them! Little sneaks! :)

Notice their flip-flops are on. We're prepared... they knew one of many Easter egg hunts in the backyard was coming!

Back inside actually looking through all their gifts...

And -my favorite- our meal!

Ham, ribs, mashed potatoes, corn, peas, and steaming hot butter biscuits!!!

****

And fun news... Kylie can ride her bike! (no training wheels)

Matthew said she pretty much got it on her own. I walked outside today, he was doing yardwork... (this is his happy yardwork face)

And this was Kylie. She's good too! She can stop and go with no problem. I had no idea!!!

Bike's a little small, it's for her age... but she's got long legs. I have a feeling we'll be buying her a new bike very soon.

This is what we affectionately call "Boyd Circle."

Our own little street circle in front of our house that we really don't share with anyone... makes it nice for bike riding!

***

PS- Pictures of the new bedroom (aka Maggie's old bedroom) are coming. I've been waiting 6 weeks on wallborder!!! It's shipped from the manufacturer, it should be at Lowe's in a few days... so more pictures to come on that. The bedroom is just gorgeous, I love it!!!