My Baby Graduates Preschool

We moved the week of Carson's preschool graduation, so sadly, we had to miss it. Since we were down here in Texas with Leah, we had a little preschool graduation with the two of them together. They sang their 20+ songs that they had learned for the year and at the end had a blast throwing their caps in the air. Afterward we had popsicles and pictures.

This week I registered Carson for Kindergarten, and had another bawl-fest as I learned he will be attending all day Kindergarten, instead of the traditional half day. I guess it's better to find that out now, while I have a few months to get used to it, than in August when I have to let him go. They also do not do early days here, so it is all day, everyday. Laugh it up all you brave parents, who are excited to send your children to school this year! I have been dreading this moment from the day Carson was born.

Life in the Office

Tyson's temporary home for 6 weeks aka "the office." It was not too bad actually, like a hotel suite equipped with a full kitchen, washer & dryer, and all the Pinnacle paraphernalia you could ask for!

Our one eating area consisted of Josie's princess table. Notice the Spiderman air mattress under the other table. This is where Josie liked to sleep.

We had to put the kids to sleep in different rooms so they would fall asleep. Tyson and I were moving our sleeping beauty into the living room so we could go to bed!

Marley had her own ideas where she wanted to sleep. Apparently, her portable crib is not that comfortable; she will take sleeping sitting up instead.

Tyson and Mindy. Notice the bins of clothing behind them, and the lovely air mattress next to Mindy. This is what they call "roughing it."

Mindy getting ready to go to the airport. We had a fun visit while she was here. She took the kids swimming and for walks and we even got a little shopping in. One down, now all the rest of y'all need to come out and see us!

Goodbye Utah, Texas Here We Come!!

Monday morning we picked up the moving van and loaded er up. I can't believe I almost got a smaller one. When all was said and done, we had it packed to the very last foot. It never would have gone as smoothly without all the help from our family, friends, and neighbors. We love you guys!!

Together at last!! After a month apart, Tyson flew home on Sunday, and we said goodbye to everyone by Tuesday. He was busy working hard in Texas and I was at home packing up the house and watching the three kids. Lets just say we never want to do that again!
This is our first stop in Green River.

Josie busy at play making the best of her car seat prison. Between her books on tape, DVDs, puzzles, and toys, she was awesome for the 20 hour, 1000 mile journey.

Somewhere in Colorado. You can totally see the difference in the scenery from state to state.

And she still took naps!!

Welcome to the desert and the rest of our trip!! We drove all the way across New Mexico.

Beautiful New Mexico sunset

Mindy and Carson in the moving van. Mindy put together these little map books for the kids with stickers and pictures. It was a great idea and the kids looked forward to stopping just to put stickers in their books. Carson had so much fun riding in the big truck with dad, that he had a hard time coming into the "boring car" with Mindy and I.

We almost got blown away at the Burger Boy
just outside of Albuquerque.
Tyson always on the phone, never stops working.

Roswell, New Mexico. Couldn't miss it if you tried. Aliens everywhere!! This is by far the most interesting thing in New Mexico. I wish we had time to stop at the Area 51 museum.

YAY!! We made it! We finally rolled into Midland around 11:30pm and got some much needed rest after the long drive.

I just realized that this is the equivalent of making all of our friends and family watch our "slideshow of the cool vacation that we took!!" Ha ha ha.

Birthday Party!!

Ok first things first. I have some catching up to do. In April we celebrated Carson turning 5 and Josie turning 3. Ty was already in Texas so I talked Tia into doing their cakes. (I can bake..... yes. I can decorate..... no). Ti was awesome! She went to town with two days notice and came out with this concoction. All I said was Cinderella and Ninja Turtles and lets just say, that Tyson has to fight for his right to decorate the kids' cakes from now on. When it comes to cake decorating, we could have our own little Food Network "Challenge" between these two. The best part is that they tasted just as good on the inside as they looked on the outside! GO TI!!

"I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow all my candles out!"
I never catch the pictures at just the right moment. But after this shot I can't say never anymore.

Josie was such a little princess opening her presents. She very politely thanked everyone and gave them all a hug afterward. I was so proud of her!

Carson and Kevin arguing which Power Ranger is in fact the best Power Ranger. Apparently, you have to be a boy this age to realize the importance of such things.

Carson's First Biff on the Bike

Carson loves riding his bike. Especially his new Spiderman bike that he got for his birthday. While I was packing the house up, he was out front riding in the driveway. Next thing I know he is screaming bloody murder and my sweet neighbor is bringing him up our driveway as I am frantically running down the steps. I assess the damage, worry he needs stitches, am reassured that he does not, and run him into the house to get him cleaned up. Kimber and Michelle were life savers for my nerves and were very helpful in watching my other kids so I could take care of poor Carson who was still screaming his head off. You know it is bad when he refuses even popsicles because they are "too cold." He had a pretty cool war wound for a few days, but now is completely better and back on the horse again.

Tag... I'm It!!!

5 things I was doing 5 years ago:

1. Having baby showers for Carsi-bear
2. Wishing I could quit Farmers Insurance
3. Trying not to gain any more weight than the 45 lbs. I had already put on
4. Feeling very excited about having our first baby
5. Wishing I lived in Hawaii

5 things on my to-do list for today:

1. Checking out the house Tyson is fixing up in Salt Lake
2. Go to Teagan's hockey tournament game....GO LIGHTNING!
3. Play with my kids
4. Magically make my canker sore (the size of a small planet) disappear!
5. Set up Visiting Teaching appointments

5 things I would do with a million dollars:

1. Invest it
2. Move to Hawaii today
3. Finish my basement
4. Pay $100,000 in tithing
5. Take my kids to Disney World

5 places I have lived:

1. Huntsville, UT
2. West Jordan, UT
3. Pocatello, ID
4. Saratoga Springs, UT
5. Kauai, Hawaii (ok not lived yet, but mark my words......)

5 jobs I've held:

1. Pretzel Time Sampler (come on, you all remember me in the Hot Pink baseball hat!!)
2. Medical Claims Adjuster
3. Scheduling Clerk
4. Hostess (I conveniently didn't say where)
5. Entertainment Consultant (not as cool as it sounds. I answered phone calls for DirecTv)

5 things I want to be doing in 5 years:

1. Looking out my window in Hawaii at the beautiful flowers growing in my yard
2. Not freaking out because I will have a 10 year old
3. Continuing to live happily ever after
4. Graduating from Culinary Arts School, Massage Therapy, and BYU
5. Playing with my family on the beach behind our house in Hawaii

5 people I tag:

1. Diana
2. Tiffany
3. Shasta
4. Tania
5. Erica

My fun day yesterday

So Carson is trying to earn money for his new Batman sword and Batman mask, so he was asking for some chores help with. I needed to do the dishes, and he wanted to scrub them first, so I thought, great!! Well apparently, we had a little too much dish soap on the dishes when I put them in the dishwasher and when I looked over there were bubbles pouring out all over the place! I swear I only thought this happens in the movies. But I guess I'm not the only one. There are plenty of tips online about how to get dish soap out of the dishwasher, and Tyson says he remembers this happening when he was growing up. Nothing a little cup of vinegar won't fix, and plus it smells like Easter 2 months too early!

Carson's Redneck Outings with Ma & Pa

Carson's first shooting experience with Pa. He was so excited that he brought me back his first shell to save forever. It's on display right between the Dale Earnhardt, Sr.'s commemorative memorial #3 collectors plate and the Dukes of Hazard General Lee model replica.

We didn't think he had enough Redneck influence in his short little life, so Ma took him on a date to the Monster Truck Rally last weekend. He had the time of his life! His favorite truck was the Red & Black Energy Activator. Carson went 8 for 8 in his prediction of the winners in the Monster Truck races. Awe shucks, we couldn't be prouder. We stuffed our faces with popcorn, push-pops, skittles, and soda - pretty soon we will have the teeth to match the rest of the crowd!

The Many Faces of Carson & Josie

Regular Snow White & Pretty Ballerina

Batman on a motorcycle

Tinkerbell (a very sad one at that)

Spiderman drawing Spiderman

Snow White/Cinderella with church shoes

And my favorite.....Homemade Batman & Batgirl!

Cousins Cousins and more Cousins

All of our cute kids in their matching (with siblings) Christmas pajamas. This is a fun tradition that we try to do every year when Chad comes down for Thanksgiving. How many picture takes does it take to get 11 kids to smile? I don't really know the answer to that, it hasn't happened yet.

My little Marley in her blessing dress that my mom made. Go Mom! Her blessing was beautiful, and Tyson did a wonderful job. We appreciate all who brought food, love and support. You truly helped make this a most memorable day!

Thanksgiving Madness!!

Martha and Julia in the kitchen.
Shasta and I have the best husbands!! We were playing games at our house and somehow managed to talk the boys into making cookies for us. Don't they look cute!

This is my fear in a forward flash of 15 years with my Jo-Jo. Hanging on tight to a boy on a motorcycle with no helmet. Let's hope she will still remember when she would scream anytime a boy would get anywhere near her.

We took the kids to Boondocks with my brother and his kids. They had so much fun on the go-carts! It was really disappointing when Josie was just a little too short, so she couldn't even ride. Had I had audio on this you would hear a very sad, sobbing little two year old next to me who wanted a turn too. Luckily chips solve everything!

Which baby belongs to which person??
We had a blast at my mom's timeshare condo in Park City day after Thanksgiving. With all six kids in my family plus spouses and kids, parents, and an aunt, uncle, and cousins all crammed into a little four bedroom condo. Bring on the memories! I still managed to talk Tyson into going shopping with me at the outlets at midnight on Black Friday while our kids were asleep! Funny thing is we weren't even shopping for Christmas!

The highlight of Thanksgiving for me this year was watching my aunt Dixie pull out all of her old Barbies from the 60's! You would not believe how much of it is still intact! Josie and her cousin Bre were very upset when they had to be put away. Back then Ken actually had real hair, and Barbie's outfits all came with matching gloves. Wish I still had my old Barbies, sniff sniff. (I actually asked Tyson for one for Christmas so I can play with Josie). "I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid".........

Just the Girls

This is at my new nephew Elijah's baby blessing. Just the girls, go figure, I don't even have a picture of Elijah. Some say we look exactly alike - think so?

Halloween Hooligans

Our Halloween night was very eventful. We had Taylor, Shasta, and kids over for trick-or-treating and games. We made witches brew and stuffed our bellies with candy until 2 am. The funniest part of the whole night by far was when we were trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and at the Jensen's house they were giving out regular sized candy bars. As Sister Jensen was trying to put one in Josie's bag, Josie very rudely protested saying, "I DON"T WANT THAT!" Sister Jensen thought she didn't like that kind, so she offered another one, to which Josie said, "I DON"T WANT THAT ONE! I WANT A LITTLE ONE!" She was very upset that it wasn't a little candy like the rest that she was getting. She finally walked away with nothing. I told her if someone gives her a big candy again, she can give it to Mommy or Daddy!

Josie and I dressed up in our witchiest witch wear. Too bad we didn't take advantage of witches night out at Gardner Village.

I don't know where else you can find Princess Leia, Spider Man, Leonardo the Ninja Turtle and a Scary Witch but at a Halloween party at Cheree's house. Apparently they are all good friends!

Sleeping Beauty and her knight in shining armor. AKA Kylee and Taylor Pitcher

Josie & Carson at our Primary Halloween Party

When it is all said and done, they are all smiles after their bath. Until next year anyway - then the witches and ninja turtles will be sighted again!