Farewells and Parties

One Year has come and gone and we can hardly believe it. After a year of being seperated from their dad and older brother Kyler, Shaylee and Braden are now reunited with them and starting their new adventures with their revamped and fun dad together as a family.

What a year it has been....

Shaylee and Braden made a ton of friends here and ended the school year with terrific grades. We wanted to throw them a huge farewell party with some of their school and neighborhood friends and hoped that it showed them that we (Stevey and I) really don't hate them (yep that 'hate' word came up a lot when accountability and consequences were in question).

We love them very much and wish them the very best and we are very grateful for all the experiences we had together here in Idaho.




delicious food for many...


Braden was acting tough, but you can tell that he was sad to say goodbye to me.


The clan for the last year.

Cousin Ambria for the bbq.

Shaylee with some neighbor kids and school girl friend.

Braden with some of his school buddies and two fun girls.

The jump house we rented for the event...lots of fun.

Almost all of the kids with Shay and Bradens princess farewell cake.

Mess

If Sunny isn't falling on her face and getting a bloody nose then she is in the dirty gutter water (and drinking it which puts me over the edge), or smearing her delicious food all over her adorable face. I guess if it makes her happy I should embrace it and realize that it is only a faze and won't last forever...praise the lord.

Almost 13

Can you feel the love!

Fire Pit

I've wanted one for a year now and we finally have our patio completed enough to buy one....a fire pit! We found it at Lowe's for cheep and I am VERY happy with it. It is clay and HEAVY so we won't need to worry about it getting blown away with all of the Idaho Falls wind...oh yes, IF is very windy. I think we definitely broke it in tonight with smores, fruit pies, and funny fire pit stories of days long past and everyone's current crush...mine is still Stevey!

Crazy hair day

Dalton is 8!

Dalton turned 8 on May 4th and it was great. He requested a friend birthday party and we invited everyone from his second grade class and the neighborhood best friends....I don't think he will ever consider just a boy party. We went to a local neighborhood park and set up crochet, tether ball, freebies, and then had the whole playground to use for fun. The day of the party came and the temperature dropped about twenty degrees and the minutes before the party started it dropped probably ten more. Everyone came and had a lot of fun and with forty minutes left of the party the rain started. We had birthday cake and drinks and then the party moved under the table for presents and there wasn't a single complaint. With five minutes until the party was officially over the rain REALLY came and we all ran to our two cars and crammed in until the parents came to pick up...again no complaints. We really did have a lot of fun and the kids were awesome.

On June 6th is the even bigger and MUCH better event, Dalton's baptism. At 11am Stevey will be honored to baptize our future Priesthood holder and confirm him a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...HOORAY! Later, on that same day we will be saying good-bye to Shaylee and Braden who will be heading down to Moab with their dad who is unwound, rooted and ready to go. We will miss them greatly, but I am so excited for them to be reunited as a family again and start their new adventures together and partake of the happiness that is awaiting them.

50's Day

The elementry school the kids attend had its 50 year anniversary and in celebration they had a 50's day and all of the children were encouraged to dress up and PARTY. The classes all learned famous 50's songs and sang them for the parents and they had a HUGE party that evening at the school with rootbeer floats, all kids of 50's game and we even opened a time capsule. I made Zoie a poodle skirt the night before and it turned out great...not perfect but great.

Ballet

Zoie LOVES ballet and this past weekend she had her first ballet performance. The performance was called "Corduroy" based on the Corduroy children's book. Through Zoie's hard work and ability she earned the lead roll in the ballet and got to dance as Corduroy. She had her first dancing part as a "shopper" with all of the other girls in her class and Zoie was the shopper who liked to take her time (major type-casting here if there every was one) and the other girls had their parts too. Once this dance ended Zoie had to costume change back stage putting on her Corduroy coveralls with the infamous missing button. When it was time for her Corduroy solo part the stage lights came on in a soft orange color that silhouetted Zoie who was on top two big boxes (as if store shelves) and then the spot light came on for us to see Zoie or should we say Corduroy with her HUGE beautiful smile on and then started dancing her solo part. I couldn't help but cry....she is just growing up so fast and it just seemed like yesterday that she was three years old taking lessons from one of our friends who taught from the living room of her home.

Zoie did great and the whole thing was a lot of fun. Her teacher Kristen Clayton is a wonderful teacher who happens to be a REAL ballerina and who put together a beautiful show for all of us.

No CPS please.

You can tell by the energy in her eyes that she is happy, but look at her face. Sunny had been on a two day damage-my-face fest. She face planted her cheek into the footboard of our bed(me one foot away), fell and hit her forehead on the trampoline bar (Stevey one foot away), mystery gouge in the center of her forehead, goober rash around her mouth, and then a sudden eczema or something like that around her eye. Her lovely face combined with her attractive outfit (swim shirt over footsie jamies...her idea) made her the talk of the Pack Meeting last week. Baby number one NEVER looked like this...it must be a fourth child thing.

Church Callings

I have always chuckled when I hear mothers with several children say that anytime their husbands leave to fulfill their church responsibilities the children just seem to get along better or not fuss quite as much as they normally would if the husband is gone for any other reason.

Remember, I said I "chuckle" over this.





This has always been more of my experience.

Arrow of Light

After eight months of scouting Braden earned his Arrow of Light award which is the highest honor you can earn in the Cub Scout program. The Pack meeting below is the award ceremony which takes these Cub Scouts and bridges them over to the Boy Scout program. We are all very proud of Braden and know that he will be successful in earning his Eagle award like his dad.

This other scout with Braden in also named Brayden and earned his this award too.

Another Birthday #36

Yep, another year is in the history books for my stud Stevey! He just wanted to keep this years birthday celebration to a minimum, you know just kind of get through the day below the zone, under the radar, incognito, you get the drift.









"OK, birthday boy, what ever you wish."













Sweet but not too subtle, just right for my man and needless to say, he received many birthday wishes from the neighbors. As far as a gift goes, at the gym we frequent regularly they ran a very special offer of a ONE HOUR massage for only $30...he has aleady used it (because I set the appointment for him)and he LOVED it....happy birthday Stevey.

This is more like it.

Now this is how we like to spend our days...Playing at the "club house" with all of the neighborhood kids for HOURS and HOURS. We have all been cooped up too long with long cold weather here in IF. "HELLO SPRING!"

Idaho Falls TEA PARTY

This was my first political rally, ever, but I just couldn't sit this one out. Since our Novembers Presidential election I have been filled with a passion for politics and our country, liberty and freedom that I see is quickly slipping away. ANYWAY (that's a whole other post) I went to this TEA PARTY rally tonight and it was GREAT! It was very respectful, sincere, and VERY well received. There were hundreds of people there from all walks of life, the majority being clean, outstanding, and decent citizens who share the same views and love of county as I do.

I am happy that I went and very proud of my kids who went too and LOVED it!

New Best Friend

Yep...I am thinking the same thing. How can any one person, little-lone a three year old little girl, have NATURAL curls like this. I mean she must have been pretty dang valiant in the pre existent to come here with this wonderful gift. Well, up until a week ago these golden locks acted more as a curse than a blessing, but then I figured it all out...the answer just came to me and I knew what to do....

let's all say it together....DIFFUSER! Clovers new best and forever friend.

I love my diffuser