Fall is for pictures

I really do enjoy fall. The changing of the leaves, and the cooler weather make it perfect to get out and take some pictures. Every year I try to get pictures of my kids up in the canyon with the leaves. So this post is mainly going to be a bunch of pictures, but isn't that what we like to see anyway.

Earlier in the month we went to the American West Heritage Center. The kids had so much fun riding on the train, riding the ponies, playing in the hay, going through the corn maze, and most of all going down the super slide. This was also a great place to get some cute pictures.

I took so many pictures here, and I had a hard time deciding which ones to share.

Our next picture day was last week. I took the kids up Logan canyon. This didn't turn out as good as I would of hoped because I had a couple kids who were not cooperating very well. This is what Lexi was doing after about 10 minutes of trying to take pictures.

It seems like to often I will try to go or do something with my kids by myself, and I usually leave with two crying kids on my hips. Well that's how it was this day. After finally getting all the kids strapped down in their car seats (which is extremely hard to do when they don't want to be in them) I left very frustrated saying, "we are going straight home." As we were driving out of the canyon I decided we would give it a second try. I decided to let the kids play for a little while so they could cheer up, and hopefully be a little happier. So we went to the park and drove through Burger King and got some chicken nuggets and french fries. Then we went downtown in Logan behind the old Tony Roma's building, and had much better luck on the second try. Here are a few of my favorites from our day.

Happy Birthday Nixon

Two years ago we had him!

Last week my baby turned 2!!! I can't believe he is a little boy now. When I see him in pictures I can't believe my eyes at how grown up he looks. To celebrate Nixon's birthday we had a simple birthday party with grandparents.

At the party there were presents!

There was also cake and ice cream.


I am so glad Nixon is part of our family. He is such a sweet heart and is always making me smile and laugh. He loves to greet his daddy with a big squeal or a great big "HI DAD" as soon as he comes in the door. He loves to play with Tanner and Lexi, and his big brother and sister are very protective of him and love to kiss him and take care.

WE LOVE YOU NIXON!

A birthday party & back to school time.

I can't believe my Tanner boy is 5 years old! Time sure does fly by fast. Last week Tanner had a little water party with a few of his friends. I love to work on photoshop, so any chance I get I'll make something. Here is his invitation.

The party turned out okay. I think the kids had fun. For a while none of the kids were wanting to play in the water, and the one game I had planned back fired on me since all the balloons were popping as soon as they would land on the grass. Tanner was being a little stinker because all he was interested in was the presents, and after he opened his presents (which were mostly transformers) all he wanted to do was play with them. Towards the end of the party somebody put the hose in the corner of the sand pit and boy was that a hit with all the boys.
I absolutley love this picture of Nixon with his cotton candy beard.

Now turning to a totally different subject, both the kids started preschool this week. They were both pretty excited.

Tanner had a nice little shinner for his first day. On labor day we went on a 4-wheeler ride and I'm not sure what happened but that is where he got it from.
Lexi has been so excited to start preschool, and quite frankly I was excited too! I love my kids to death, but I look forward to those few hours with less kids running around making a mess. Now only a few more years and Nixon will go to preschool and I'll have a few hours with no kids running around. I don't know maybe I'll be sad then.

Where did the summer go?

Due to the very rainy June, this summer has gone by especially fast. Jeff is back in school, and the deer hunting season (with the bow) has begun so our summer fun is probably over. It has been a crazy summer and we didn't do as much as I would have hoped to do. But here are some of the things we did this summer worth mentioning.

The kids took swim lessons. This was Tanner's second year and he loves it. I was a little skeptical to see how Lexi would do. As I thought, she did not like it the first few days, but after she realized I wasn't going to come get her even if she was crying, she loved it. She has gone from only playing in very shallow water to jumping in and going under water.

We had some family pictures taken. Thanks to my cute neighbor Skye.

Then it was time for the move. This kept me pretty busy for a few weeks leading up to this date. But due to my procrastinating skills I was running around like crazy the 2 days before the move. Thank goodness that my mom and my mother-in-law helped with kids. This is Nixon helping us load the trailer.

The move went smoothly, the closing went great, the only problem was that we were homeless. We had to wait a couple of weeks before the people were moving out of the townhouse that we were going to be moving into. So we ended up staying at my parents house. These two weeks is when we got our summer playing in. First we had a family reunion over in Eden, Utah it is so beautiful over there. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins, playing in the river, and doing all the fun activities they had planned.

Right after we got home we headed up to Yellowstone to go camping. The first night was one of the worst nights in my life, but after that it was great. We borrowed my parents tent trailer to stay in and that first night we stayed at Henry's Lake. Well to make a really long story short we'll just say that the wind was blowing really hard all night long and was scaring
Nixon half to death. So Jeff had Nixon in the truck the first half of the night and I had him in the truck the second half of the night. I slept from about 5:30 a.m. -7:30 a.m. Let's just say I wasn't a very happy camper that morning. That day we decided we were not staying there one more night. Later we found this beautiful campground up in Montana right on the Madison river in between Quake Lake and Hebgen Dam. The rest of the trip was awesome!!!

A few days after we got home we got busy again moving our stuff from the storage unit into our temporary place of residency.

The day before Jeff went back to school we went to Downata. The kids love that place. All winter they would ask me if we could go to downta tomorrow. I didn't get any pictures because I was having to much fun playing in the water and going down the slides. I know shame on me.

Right now we are trying to make some decisions on our next house, and will hopefully get started soon!!!

The 4th of July

I have always really enjoyed the 4th of July. We usually celebrate out in Lewiston with family. This is a run down of our day.

First we start out with a parade. Tanner rode in the parade again this year with our neighbor's.
Notice Jeff with the mega phone. Yea he rocks and gets the kids lots and lots of candy.

After the parade we strolled through the city park, and looked at the different booths. Then we went to my parents house and had lunch. After lunch we played a few games of volleyball, and then decided it was time to play in the water. Every year my dad floods the lawn with pipes, and it always turns into a huge water fight.

And of course boys will be boys.

Now it is time for cotton candy. (My mom gave my dad a cotton candy machine for father's day)

After we got Tanner cleaned up we went to Newton Dam where my brother had his boat. We went on a boat ride, and Tanner, Nixon, and Jeff rode on the tube. Lexi missed out because she was snoozing in the car. When we got out of the boat Jeff was anxious to go because of his allergies. We got home around 7:30 and got the kids in the bath and ready for bed. At 9:30 we met up with several neighbors and did fireworks. Jeff was especially excited for the fireworks since he made a little trip up to Wyoming to get the good stuff. (No pictures, I left my camera at my parents) It was a good day. Happy Birthday America!!!

Good old fashion fun.

It was so fun to watch Lexi playing with the hose. She was in her own little world, and didn't have a care in the world.

I remember doing this exact thing when I was younger, man those where the good old days.

What Now?

Now what? The answer to that question is I'm not sure. I'm still a little bit in shock that we finally got an offer on our house, after years of putting out the for sale sign and nothing happening. What's even crazier is that this whole thing happened in less than a week of listing our home with a realtor. I know it's not a for sure done deal yet but it looks like it might be. The buyers are already qualifed for the loan, and their house has already sold back in Kentucky. Right now I have mixed emotions over the whole deal. Yes I'm excited that it sold, and we can move on with our plan of building again. At the same time I'm sad to leave this house that we have so many memories in. I'll always remember how hard Jeff and I were working on the house so we could get moved in before I was to give birth. Lexi was born three days after we moved in, and I loved the feeling of bringing home my new baby to our brand new house. What makes it even harder to say goodbye to our house is to leave the best neighborhood ever. I've come to have great friendships with my neighbors and my kids love playing with all the neighbor kids. It is hard to imagine having better neighbors than I have now. I'm not 100% sure but, if things go as I would like, we are going to rent one of the town homes just down the street while we decide what we are going to do next.

Here are a few pictures in memory of our first home.

Time for a change

It might be time for a toddler bed.

Nixon's been climbing out of his bed for a little while, but today was the first time he got stuck upside down. He makes me smile everyday.

A little R & R

We decided to take a trip while Jeff was out of school for spring break. We wanted to go somewhere warm so we headed south to Las Vegas. The weather was perfect!!! Upper 70's and low 80's the whole time we were there. The kids were so excited to go stay at the condo and swim. It was a nice relaxing week because we left Nixon at Grandma Barlow's house. I was sad to leave him and I missed him a ton. But it was sure nice not to have to deal with naps, and constantly be pulling him away from the edge of the pool. Here are some highlights of our trip.


A DAY ON THE STRIP.

We spent one day on the strip. We went to the M&M and coke factory, and spent a ridiculous amount of money on some M&M's and a few swirly straws. We watched the fountains in front of the Bellagio. We had a yummy lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (I had never eaten there and I must saw I loved it).

PLAYING AT THE POOL.
We spent a majority of our time playing at the pool. Tanner loved it!!! He asked us if we could live there FOREVER. Lexi had fun too but would get tired of it after a hour or two. Tanner was swimming all over the pool, doing 360's and flips into the pool. Lexi was a lot more cautious she would play on this little landing that was ankle deep. She wouldn't let you take her out into the water. Even with a life jacket on she wouldn't go farther than the stairs. It felt so good to lay there in the warm sun.

THE BASS PRO SHOP.

The kids had a blast in this store. It is basically a huge sporting goods store. They have live size displays of almost everything in the wild such as: elk, bears, lions, giraffes and so one. The biggest hit was this huge aquarium. We had to go to this place twice because the kids wanted to go see the fish again.

We had a great week in Las Vegas. But I sure was excited to get back to my Nixon!!!

Silly boy

I have to admit it takes me way to long to get me and the kids ready in the morning. I'm not a morning person so I usually get up when the kids get up which is around 7:30 to 8:00. I get the kids breakfast, then clean up. Then I try to get the kids content with something (which is usually a video to watch) long enough for me to take a shower. But of course there has to be a fight over what movie to watch (We cancelled our cable a while ago and just have an antenna now, and we do not get any channels with cartoons. Man I miss the Disney and Nick Jr. channels.) So now I've finally got my shower over with, and I move onto hair and makeup. If I were able to do this without any distractions it would normally take me 30 minutes, but with my curious climbing little boy it takes me twice the time. He loves to climb on the toilet then onto the counter. I'm constantly pulling him off the counter. To bad he is not more entertained by whatever movie is playing. One day he decided to watch instead. He got into the sink and was just watching me. I pulled him down, and he got up into the sink and did the same thing. After a few times of this I figured he's not hurting anything so I let him watch me while he chilled in the sink.

I know that almost all of my morning chaos could be solved if I would wake up an hour earlier and get myself ready before the kids get up. It seems so simple, but WHY CAN'T I DO IT.

SPRING FEVER

Man oh man do we love this weather. It feels sooo good to finally go outside and have it be warm. My kids are lovin it. I think we went to the playground 4 or 5 times in 3 days. On Friday we went to Willow park to see the animals. The kids had a blast seeing the animals. Then we went to the playground, and played and had lunch. Here are some pics of willow park. My battery died so I didn't get any pictures on the playground.

I'm glad we got outside the last few days because I think it's suppose to storm this next week. It might even snow. What a typical spring in Utah.

Gotta Love Those Beaters

Making cookies with dad, need I say anymore.

Well actually I should explain the chocolate all over Tanner's face.

Whenever we make cookies, pudding, cake, whip cream, etc. Jeff ALWAYS puts a little dab on his nose and continues doing whatever it is he was doing. The kids laugh and tell him he has something on his nose. Jeff denies that there is anything on his nose and this goes on until all the dough is gone. So now Tanner does this, but as you can see he gets a little bit carried away with putting the food on his face.

A day in my life.

The winter months can seem very long, and not too long after the snow comes and stays I'm looking forward to spring. Being at home all day with three crazy kids can be very exhausting. After picking up after the kids and trying to clean the house all day to have it look like I did nothing that day can be very overwhelming at times. Here are some pictuces of things that are pretty common at are house.

First Words

Today Nixon said his first understandable words!!! I was sooo excited because he is 15 months old, and should be saying several words by now. I'm starting to be a little concerned but, not totally freaked out yet. I'm pretty sure he can hear because he responds when you talk with him. Such as, you ask him for a kiss and he will give you a big wet slobbery kiss. At his doctors appointment just recently I brought this speech delay issue up with the doctor. He didn't seem to worried yet either. However he gave me some information on a program I could contact that could help Nixon. Next week a speech therapist is coming to test or observe (I'm not sure what they do) him, and see if he qualifies for this program.

Anyway back to the story. Nixon LOVES his daddy. As soon as Jeff comes in the door Nixon squeals and gets so excited and runs to daddy. Most of the time Nixon wants his dad to hold him and play with him. This morning when Jeff was getting ready to leave for work he was telling all the kids he loved them and was giving them a kiss. Nixon was following Jeff around and he said,"I love you." Jeff and I looked at each other in shock. It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen.