Thankful Thursday

1. Sunday night, Kadyn didn't wake up... not at all! I slept so peacefully. Well, at like 3 am I had to wake her up to eat because I needed her to eat~ if you get my drift. But she ate barely opening her eyes, and back down she went. So thankful for nights like those, it makes the rough nights a little less hard.

2. My girls do clean up really really really well. Maybe it's because I make them clean up their toy room like 3 times a day so they have plenty of practice, because when it gets too chaotic in there I get a little anxious. We've labeled our drawers and we have shelves, and not only do they put their toys away but they put them in the right spot! Very thankful for their diligence.

3. Kadyn had 2 major blow out diapers this week. You know, the kind where you just throw the onesie away because it's just not worth the effort. Yeah. SO the good part, I wasn't home for either one! HA! Matthew got one while I was out voting. My mom got the other while I ran over to the pharmacy. Good stuff :)

4. This is actually something I really love... Kacey talks in her sleep. Like full blown out conversation, totally loud, like 2 in the morning yelling at her sister saying "give it back, that's mine!" At first Matthew and I would run over to her like something was wrong, now we totally don't even bother getting up. It's the cutest thing that makes her special.

5. Kadyn's blessing is Sunday, very thankful for that. Very thankful that a bunch of family is coming in town to share her special day! Matthew's family is coming in today, hopefully in time to surprise Kylie right after preschool if Aaron can get up and get moving so everyone can drive down from Utah nice and early (if you know Aaron, you know what I mean... he's 3 speeds are slow, slower, and slowest) :) Anyway, we're looking forward to a really fun weekend with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Rosie and Uncle Bryan, and Uncle Aaron!!!!!!!

2 QT 4 U

I saw that on a license plate and I liked it...

Here are some pictures before we went to preschool today, I need to get into the habit of taking pictures even if all 3 girls aren't in the picture. More often than not someone is in a mood (any given child at any given moment) so I don't take a picture. I need to just take pictures anyways regardless of who's not in them, so I'll try harder.

Look at Kadyn's arms, poor girl~ the pants to the outfit are great but the top is a bit long.Kadyn's like, "wait a second... you're not Mommy?!"

Look at that little smile (although she looks a little smushed!)

No Kacey doesn't have a mullet, I pulled it back in two clips. She can only handle the "Pebbles Look" so many times in one week and then she tells me to do something else and won't leave the bathroom until I put the clips SHE picks out on her head~ seriously, she does this.

You can't tell from these pictures that my girls have bright blue eyes... next time I should do some close ups, they all have amazing eyes!

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So can you guess the blog post title/license plate? :)

Big Girl!

No Sunday Morning Pictures, sorry. Matthew left for a leadership meeting at 7 am, and he called and said he wasn't coming home so he could save us seats for Stake Conference. He also wanted us- me and the girls- to get there kinda early because our Temple President (who used to be his Mission President in England) was going to be speaking and he wanted the girls to meet him. Yeah, so even with the additional hour from the time change I still couldn't get us all ready and out the door by 9:45 am AND do pictures. Next week is Kadyn's blessing, so I'll bombard all of you with pictures then :)

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SO last night we attempted Kacey sleeping like a big girl.

Matthew did it, I was 100% against it. I was worried she'd play with her lamp or her piggy bank, do something to hurt herself (she'll always seem like a little baby to me) and I don't need another munchkin roaming the halls at night. Shockingly, she did not get out all night!!! Kylie was all over the place when we did this to her, but not sweet little Kacey. She's such a big girl :) Fingers crossed it keeps going this good.

*Weekly Round-Up*

1. Happy Halloween!!!

This year Matthew got himself decked out for work (thank you Steve for letting him borrow it). The girls watched him put the makeup on so they didn't freak out only seeing the end result, Maggie on the other hand was a little freaked. (it might be obvious to you, but maybe it's not. He's the Joker... the funniest part about it is that it's not a traditional "store-bought" costume, Steve bought this jacket from DI)

So this was my first year dressing up too. My friend had the costume and when she saw my girls as Cinderella last week at the Trunk or Treat, she offered me hers too since she was pregnant and not going to wear it this year. So here I am, I'm taking this whole matching thing to all new levels :)

2. Pumpkin Patch!!! Every year we go to the same pumpkin patch right before Halloween and have so much fun...

I have a picture like this (down) from 2 years ago when we went... only it was Kacey in the car seat/stroller. I can't believe how time flies...

Okay, this tells you the difference b/w a Mom and a Dad. This was the cutest little ride, it spins around. It was too small for Daddy to hop in also, so it was just the big girls. This picture is before the ride started and Kacey just thought they were to sit there looking pretty.Then it starts and you can see the terror on Kacey's face. Matthew's laughing hysterically as the girls are spinning around, Kacey can hardly speak in horror as she's spinning and I'm nearly in tears fighting every urge to pounce vampire style (yes i said it!) onto the machine to get my kid out.
Year after year, they love this big thing. Kylie passed Matthew about a dozen times going up and down, this was the first year she could do all the climbing on her own. Last year, Matthew still had to help and it nearly killed him holding 2 munchkins climbing up that thing again and again and again.



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continuing on with other random happenings of the week...

3. Kacey and I were trying to wake Matthew up one morning, Kylie and Kadyn were still asleep as it was before 7 am. Kacey said, "Wake up Daddy." He didn't wake up, she looked at me and says, "Daddy sleeping." She went back over to him and very sternly said, "You're in big trouble Daddy!"

4. The girls were playing in the Play Land at Burger King (we're creatures of habit)... Kylie loves playing with everyone and if she notices someone left out or slow she'll specifically invite them to play along. This one time, she was climbing up and she goes to the other girls, "Vamanos!" -I don't even know if I'm spelling that correctly. One of the other girls, in shock was like : "she knows Spanish?!!" Yeah, I was in shock too.

5. HUGE HIGHLIGHT of the week: I got my movie ticket for Twilight via fandango, I'm SOOOO excited! Team Edward!

6. I found this little masterpiece this afternoon, courtesy of my 2nd born. However, she was alseep. I must've missed it earlier. I figured I had 3 options: #1. wake her up, explain her mistake and make her clean it #2 ignore it and wait until she woke up and then make her clean it or #3 clean it myself asap, worry about the "lesson" she needed to learn later. What do you think I did? Yeah, I cleaned it... I couldn't let my innocent railing sit while being penetrated with the blue crayon. Of course I couldn't find the magic eraser, but my little tile baking soda/water mixture worked nicely.

Preschool Halloween Party & Thankful Thursday

Today the preschool kids had a Halloween party and put on a little singing program for the parents.

It was super cute, they sang a few songs about pumpkins, ghosts and witches. They had hand motions and counting and all that good stuff. It was adorable! Kylie was Ariel from the Little Mermaid :) --(She'll be Cinderella again tomorrow night; that's the good thing with girls, they love to play dress up so all our princess costumes get good use)

She did a really good job remembering the words and doing the hand motions!

Kylie and her teacher Mrs. Tate, who's all decked out and really made it fun for the kiddos.

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NOW, for Thankful Thursday:

1. Happy Children~ those moments where all is calm, everyone is happy and playing nice, i love those moments!

2. Kadyn hugs~ when I pick her up and she's on my chest/shoulder, she lifts her arms up as if holding onto me too. It's her own version of a hug, I don't know if it's intentional or a natural response type thing or if it's just comfortable for her but I LOVE IT!

3. Baby swings~ it buys me a little time.

4. Kacey, right after she comes out of the tub, loves to be wrapped in her towel with the hood right over her eyes and tightly snuggled (this is before the jammie competition). I love doing the snuggle time, she literally falls into my lap and she closes her eyes and we rock back and forth.

5. Today is a very special day, I met my hot hubby 9 years ago today at a church dance. He was DJing, and he was mighty fine with his freshly blond tipped stylin' hair. I'm thankful that he and I just happened to meet there 9 years ago!

Sunday Morning Pictures

You knew it was bound to come, 15-20-30 years down the road I can look back and say that I definitely had fun with my girls... (either that or this marks the time that I've officially gone off the deep end)

Matching Outfits... including ME!


Orange dresses with a white shirt underneath and denim jackets...

everyone (except Kadyn) in brown shoes.

Kadyn's was a little big on her, but it was for the cause... we're all festive in orange for Halloween. Daddy's tie was orange and blue~ we try to keep him in the loop so he doesn't feel left out.

*Weekly Round-Up*

1. Kacey knows her colors!!! I've really been worried about this because she always mixed them up. A few months ago I asked the doctor if it was okay and he said it was fine, which made me feel better but he tacked on there at the end -very matter of factly- that color blindness was a definite possibilty and we'd just have to see. OH GREAT, something else for me to worry about. Anyway, she knows her colors!

2. We play this game after bathtime, Kacey and Matthew vs. Me and Kylie. We see who can get dry and dressed in their jams the fastest and ready for prayers. The past few nights, Kylie and I have been on the verge of winning. So Matthew (who's a horrible loser! if he can't win, he doesn't want to play... and if he's not winning like a card game or board game, he'll slyly start cheating so he can win) so Matthew comes over and pulls Kylie's jammie pants off, throws them down the steps to slow us down so him and Kacey can win. It's a big huge thing in our house every single night. Kylie freaks out, she has some issues with not being first/not winning (Matthew wants to know who she gets that from.... hmm???). Kacey really doesn't care either way, she's more like "give me some milk let's call it a night." Anyway, it's super funny!

3. I'm planning for Christmas and what to get the girls, where I can find the best deals on the toys, etc... the BEST part, well one of the best parts, about having all girls is I get to live vicariously through them. Toys are so much cooler now than when I was a kid. I can't wait to play with the toys myself!!!!!

4. Purple and Blue Day, even Daddy (I realized last night that I have no purple. I have ALOT of clothes, I don't know what is more shocking, the fact that I have no purple or the fact that I didn't know that I didn't have any purple.)

5. Trunk or Treat Pictures. Our Trunk or Treat is tonight, it's not for another 2 hours but the girls wanted to get dressed now, so I dressed them. They are Cinderella. Kacey was in a great mood, for some reason now she's decided that she's mad. She keeps telling me, "Momma, I mad." Not sure why ? But she's too cute.

6. I got gas for $2.82 yesterday, I was so excited! How sad is that, when $2.82 seems like a deal!

7. FINALLY, curtains up in my family room. Kadyn loves them, she smiles and stares at them constantly... who knows what she's really seeing, all I see are red curtains.

Thankful Thursday

This week I've been realizing how grateful I am for the people around me and how much better my life is because they are in it.

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1. Matthew. He's such a good guy, and I don't tell him nearly as often as I could. He works so hard and puts up with so much crap at work just so his girls can be at home and play. I'm grateful to him for that. He doesn't have a normal 9-5 type job, his cell phone probably rings more than a doctor's does. He's constantly trying to fix the problems of people beneath him, while trying to keep the people above him happy and keep all his many "numbers" profitable for the success of his office. But if I had Matthew's job and his stresses, I'd probably cry myself to sleep every single night. I couldn't handle what he does, and I'd never have any peace because it would drive me crazy. I'm grateful to him for all that he does for us, so we can be happy and content. (did i mention that he's in school full-time and he's our HOA President.. alot on his plate) AND, He woke up at 4 am this morning to go to the Temple because it's our ward temple day and he really had no time that he could go today other than early early in the morning. (you couldn't wake me up at 4 am to go anywhere, other than roll over and feed my little one!!!) Love him for that, blessing us temporally and spiritually with his perseverance and diligence.

2. Kylie has this look, it's completely her father! It's a mischievous, little devilish look~ and you can tell her brain is churning as she's concocting her next adventure (which is usually against the rules~ Grandma Boyd is nodding her head right now knowing what Matthew-look I'm talking about). Anyways my point, as mischievous as she is... she is so kind-hearted. And I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that she's clever enough to think outside of the box (which usually ends up with her being mischievous) but it's coupled with her sweet, kind heart.

Example: This week, we went to Burger King, the girls were playing in the Playland. They always have fun playing with all the other kids. A little girl, probably about 8 or 9, comes over (little snot, you could just tell the attitude on that one). Kylie's being friendly, "Hi, my name is Kylie." The girl says in a rotten tone, "I know." Not that she knew, she was just being a snot. Kylie's trying to be friends and play, and Kylie wasn't realizing that this girl was being rude to her. I was fighting off the urge to go and smack her~~ my grandmother did that once to a little boy who was picking on my uncle, she got away with it, although at the time my grandfather ran the military base where they were, so maybe that had something to do with it ~~~ Anyway, this girl falls down (karma) and my sweet Kylie genuinely concerned with this brat's well-being, "Are you okay?" and trying to help her. My sweet kind-hearted little Kylie... I love her for that.

3. Adorable little Kacey. I love how she wears her heart on her sleeve. You can totally see right through her, even when she's trying to be a little daring, a little independent... you can see her fear and how she's trying to hide it and be brave like her big sister. I love her "cheesing it" smile, it's the biggest smile her cheeks can muster up, showing all her precious baby teeth, and crinkling up the top of her nose... it always makes me smile right back and make me want to run over and kiss her. I love her high pitched happy squeal (some days it makes me want to cut my ears off in agony) but she's such a spirited, happy girl. Gotta love it. (And those curls just make me melt, I play with her hair constantly.)

4. Kadyn has just adapted into the family wonderfully. She fits right in. I sometimes feel badly because she's no fuss at all. Poor thing sometimes is last on the priority list as I'm bouncing around with the needs of everyone else, but she just lays there contently, very complacent with life and her surroundings... kinda a "I'm fine, just get to me when you can" attitude. I'm so thankful for the sweet little spirit she brings into our home... for her little smiles at me, or at the wall, I don't care... I just love to see her smile.

5. Very thankful for my parents. My mom, she's awesome, she always helps out to make my life easier. She watched the girls while I took Maggie to the Vet, she had all 3 girls and somehow found the time to do all my ironing and take down my curtains and iron them too. My dad is great and always willing to help, he's our Mr. Fix It. Give him a project, and he's all over it. Give him something broken, and he'll have it working in no time. He knows everything about anything!

Sunday Morning Pictures

Can we have a round of applause, I survived Sacrament Meeting with all 3 girls all by myself! (kata, how on earth do you do that week after week?) For all who missed, Matthew spoke at church and I've been gearing myself up to handle the girls for that hour... well, the girls aren't that bad, but world war 3 can break out at any moment and Kacey can be loud so I was nervous how it would all go. Although minor issue there at the end, I just didn't have a hand to grab her~ Kacey :) :) :) Many of you noticed, for those who weren't at church, Kacey "escaped" our little row and (very deliberately I might add) headed up to the stand in the front to sit on her Daddy's lap. And there she stayed! ... it was really cute.

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Here are some more pics from the morning...

Kadyn's first Sunday actually in a dress not a sleeper outfit. Don't you love the matching brown and white polka dot bow, oh my heart skipped a beat when I found it! :)

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Side Note: My GORGEOUS clock that I made at Enrichment!!!

(there is a 9, the lighting must be funny). This clock took forever to make, and by forever, I mean forever... but it was totally worth it. Nearly every woman in Relief Society was making one at Super Saturday, I just adore it. You can't see, but at the top it says "There's always time for family," which is a good reminder and at the bottom it says "Boyd est 2002. We -Matthew- hung it last night after we put the girls down, Kylie came downstairs and with complete elation she yelled, "Mrs. Tate has that clock!" Yeah, I think every family in our ward has that clock now in their house :)

I Love To See The Temple,

I'm going there someday...

The weather's lovely so we went and had a picnic at the Temple. Kylie's been learning about it, and she looks at Matthew and my wedding picture and is confused like you wouldn't believe as to why she's not in the picture! The concept that we existed before she ever did is lost on her. She's been on Temple grounds before when we've gone to weddings and whatnot, but she was too young to remember. So we took a fun little trip and had a wonderful time! (the girls saw butterflies and loved all the pretty colored flowers, still trying to get Kylie to say Moroni right, it sounds like Momronee~ we'll work on it)

*Weekly Round-Up*

Fun random things happen during the week, and I'm afraid that I'll forget them over time. So since my long-term plan is to eventually get this blog printed as fulfilling my duty for family history, I think I'm going to start this new tradition.

So here are some highlights of the week, you might not care all that much, but they're memories that I really don't want to forget:

1. Kylie was holding Baby Kadyn (with my assistance) on the couch. Kadyn started passing gas, and Kylie began freaking out thinking that Kadyn had pooped on her. Kylie's facial expression was priceless as she's pushing Kadyn onto me... as Kylie got up she wiped off her pants with her hands in disgust (there wasn't anything there). She hasn't asked to hold her sister since.

2. Kylie knows the concept of jail. Not sure how or why, I never told her about it. But there's no cartoons there or toys... only a bed and sink, and they wear black stripes like a zebra.

3. I was pulling into the garage, and I let my mom get out on the passanger side beforehand so I can get close to the garage cabinets, so there's enough room for Matthew's car (it's a tight squeeze). Kacey freaked out when Yaya took Kadyn out of the car. "That's my Kadyn! Don't take Baby Kadyn!" She was really upset, it was funny.

4. It's official: Kadyn's a Daddy's Girl. He holds her from the moment he gets home from work until she falls asleep at night. She melts into his chest, I call her his little pea in a pod. She smiles and coos for him (not for me, who am i??? just the food source!) But I love it, Kacey's a Momma's Girl... Kylie's the independent one... Kadyn definitely loves her Daddy the mostest!

5. Last night for the first time, we did curlers in Kylie's hair. It was fun and when I took it out she said she had hair like Kacey. She's been prancing around today like a princess. She's been going around saying that she's adorable. My only concern is that she's going to want to do it everyday, and I don't know if I have the energy for that!

6. We walked into the house the other day, Kylie sat on the bottom step, took her shoes off, began rubbing her feet and said, "My feet are killing me!" Maybe it was her annoyed tone, I don't know... I could not stop laughing!

7. My tile grout annoys the living daylight out of me! (apparently no one else notices it, but it bugs me like you wouldn't believe!) I had Stanley Steemer come out for an estimate... HELLO, I mean I do have a lot of tile, but seriously, I don't think I spend that much on Christmas let alone spend it for cleaning grout (that will eventually get dirty again). So I sat myself down and for 2.5 hours, I scrubbed with a toothbrush and a baking soda mixture.

Before:

After:

I'm only halfway done, I assume another 2.5 hours to go... (see how much it bothers me!) But the end result is worth it~ for me.

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful....

1. That Kylie's in a great Preschool. I love what she learns, I love that she's so excited to go - I hope that sets the trend for her enjoying school in general. AND I've had Kylie in a crummy preschool before we moved to this end of LV, so I KNOW the difference. The difference between Mrs. Tate and the other preschool teacher she had for just a few months is like night and day! (and I'm thankful that Tate might might might do it next year which would be for Kacey!)

2. That I have a great Vet. Seems simple enough, but my Vet is really awesome. Today- Oct 16th- marks 2 years to the day that Maggie first experienced her seizuring episode. I was frantic, I didn't know what to do, it was scary to watch her seize. I was post partum with Kacey and an emotional wreck as I'm trying to carry my 75 pound dog down the steps and get her into the van. Anyway, my Vet was the best. I heard him in the back room, at first encouraging then forcing 2 other doctors (one to drive, one to administer meds to Maggie) to drive my dog to the specialist for me as I followed in my car. I realized that he did this because he thought I'd kill myself and my dog if she seizured while I was driving. (Matthew was in PHX on business) I thought for sure Maggie had hit her 9th life and that was it, but she's still ticking 2 years later!

3. That shots are over. I'm surprised you all didn't hear us with Dr. Santos on Tuesday afternoon. All 3 girls screaming their heads off, Matthew and I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. But everyone's good, no reactions from the shots. All is well, SO GLAD it's over!

4. Matthew's speaking in church on Sunday, just him... not me. (Not that I said no, they only asked him) Now I have to manage all 3 girls on my own as he sits up front... but I'm thinking it's worth it to not have to speak :)

5. Last but very not least, today also marks the 9th year since my baptism: Oct 16, 1999. :) I'm very grateful for that decision. I think I was at a fork in the road as to where I could go with my life, and I'm very grateful for the path that I chose. I know it was perfect for me, and I look at my life now and think how different things could have been if I hadn't of made that choice. I'M SO GLAD THAT I DID! I know that's the reason for my happiness and my many, many blessings!!!

Tagged

I just got "tagged" by my college roomie Kari and am supposed to answer the following questions with one word (and one word only!) answers. These are fun, and I need some me time so here I go!

1. Where is your cell phone? pocketbook
2. Where is your significant other? church
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? awesome
5. Your father? handy
6. Your favorite thing? eating
7. Your dream last night? med-school
8. Your dream/goal? mortgage-free (to have no mortgage, trying to keep 1 word answers is hard!)
9. The room you're in? study
10. Your hobby? shopping
11. Your fear? sickness
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? home
13. Where were you last night? asleep
14. What you're not? laidback
15. One of your wish-list items? closet-organizers
16. Where you grew up? virginia
17. The last thing you ate? soup
18. What are you wearing? capris
19. Your TV? music
20. Your pet? asleep
21. Your computer? on
22. Your mood? tired
23. Missing someone? sanity
24. Your car? quest
25. Something you're not wearing? shoes
26. Favorite store? kohls
27. Your summer? pregnant
28. Love someone? hubby
29. Your favorite color? pink
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? nope

I tag anyone else who wants some free time to think about somthing other than dinner, homework, baths and bedtime. (Kaylan consider yourself double tagged- me and Kari)

Monday Monday

Monday is cleaning day. I take one day, put on music and we do everything! We stay home (it's windy, freezing here anyways) and do it all. Then we get to play all week long knowing the house is clean... although I'm probably the only one who gets great enjoyment knowing my house is clean and orderly~ Kylie and Kacey are probably glad it's over. Well, I can't say that, it does seem like they enjoy doing it. I took some pictures of my busy bees helping out. They really are a big help.

Kylie's jobs: vacuuming the steps, vacuuming the tile downstairs, putting all her laundry away. She'll also mop the tile when Kacey goes down for a nap (mainly because I worry Kacey will fall on the wet floor)

Kacey's jobs: keeping the cord straight while I vacuum the 5 bedrooms upstairs (which helps out sooo much!), she also helps put her clean/folded laundry away, cleaning her room... although both girls tend to keep their bedrooms neat.

Pink Vacuum, very appropriate for our family! (yes dad, I emptied it out) :P

My jobs: management- all laundry and ironing, and overseeing that everything is done properly! Yeah, I wish... I do everything else and anything that involves dust and cleaner. I'll get to clean all 4 bathrooms again when Kacey and Kadyn are down for naps. Fun fun!!! :)

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I really like that we do this together, it teaches the girls that sometimes (even if you don't want to) we clean up... and it also teaches them to clean as they go along during the week because it makes Monday's cleaning easier. (maybe I can teach my husband that too, hehe... sorry dear, couldn't resist!) But it's not out of sorts for my girls to spill crumbs or cut paper and then go get the vacuum and clean up the floor all on their own- without being asked/reminded.

We also look forward to Monday because when it's all done, we have Movie Time Monday with popcorn and usually play outside for longer than normal and with our chalk. Kylie also gets extra time to play her learning games on the computer, because she's Mommy's Big Helper and really makes my load lighter. And they'll make a fun kiddie dinner for us ~~~Matthew's got class on Monday evenings and well, we get bored :) SO it's not all work and no play! But I should probably get back to work...