Quick Update

Tanner turned 3 on September 22nd! Tanner walking the girls to the bus stop.

We got a new dog named "Little Guy" He is 3 and such a great dog. He can sit, lay down, speak, shake... and his newest thing is playing dead. Not sure if he learned that before we got him, the previous owners didn't say anything about it. He is a great companion when Cassidy is working nights. And last but not least No one is allergic to him!!! Yipee! We are definitley dog people, so he's perfect for us! We've had him for 3 weeks now. The kids love him!

A few of our eggs, yum!

This egg was our very first one. We took pictures and video of it, and one of the kids (Aniston) dropped it, we laughed and said "We'll get another one tomorrow" It's been fun!

Merry Christmas! Not sure what happened that last few months, but here is a little update......

The Chickens are all doing well, they all eventually started laying eggs around 16-20 weeks. We were getting 6 eggs a day until the weather turned cold. We have been getting about 3 the last week or so. I had no idea they lay less eggs in the cold weather. Still trying to see if I can change that with light or heating sources. The kids love to play with the chickens in the backyard. The chickens weren't allowed out of their coop very often during gardening season, they would eat the tomatoes!! We almost had chicken pot pie a few times! But as long as the kids were out and watching the chickens it was okay for them to roam the yard. It was great for the grass too!

Alyssa is in 3rd grade and is doing great! Abigail is in 1st, she is doing AMAZING! Aniston is loving Kindergarten.

We bought a trampoline in the summer and it was the best purchase we have ever made! The kids love it and spent most their days on it. They are really sad that we had to put it away for winter.

Tanner turned 3 on September 22! He is so big! He still loves horses and cowboys. He is FINALLY into Cars. He loves Lightening McQueen and all the Cars 2 characters. His newest car is a black race car. THere is a black spot in the middle of the white mouth, and so Tanner calls that car his "lose tooth car" Took me a few times to figure out what he was looking for. He is so much fun, I think he loves when his sisters go to school, but he also loves when they come home.

We had a school fundraiser at Ellison Park during the month of October/November. We sold Worlds Finest Chocolate. They were $1 each and pretty easy and exciting for the kids to sell. Our school sold almost $20,000 in chocolates and profited half! The top selling class was given $100 to spend at our School Book Fair, Abigail's class won! I was so glad because I LOVE her teacher!! Abigail was one of the top 2 sellers and she won an Ipod Nano touch screen and also $25 to Build a Bear. My kids all together sold 11 boxes of chocolate! They did awesome! Abigail will be sharing the ipod with her sisters since they worked together.

Christmas is in 2 weeks! Yikes! And we have NO SNOW!! Luckily there is time to get snow! It's December and we haven't seen any yet! The kids are asking for Lalaloopsy dolls and Legos. Pretty easy year for Santa. Tanner is asking for Cows with horns! He is such a cowboy!

CHICKENS!!!!!!

Some of you may remember the bunny I got Alyssa for her birthday 2 years ago. Long story short, it got left out in the sun...oops! So this year I wanted to try again and get her a new bunny. But when we got to the country store on April 2nd, all she wanted was a chicken or duck...I said NO WAY to the duck! And since we are always in need of a new adventure, we bought 4 baby chicks. Their names were Macaroni, Alvin, Sophie, and Horse. The kids were so excited about their chickens, that they had to take them the next day to Grandma's house and show their cousins.... Alvin (Abigail's chick) died on the way home that night. So Monday we went and replaced Alvin, and decided we better buy a few more, incase of any more accidents. So we had 6. Macaroni, Sophie, Horse,Cody, Melvin, and Nugget. Then on April 9th, a week after getting the chickens, we were gathered in the front room, and here comes Tanner with his chicken, upside down being squeezed and it's kneck was hanging way back. Cassidy grabbed it and took it into the other room where it took it's last breath. We felt so bad! Tanner's Horse had died! Everytime he would talk about it, he would grab his kneck and say Horse. So Sad!! So we went back to the country store that day and replaced Horse with a new Horse that looked exactly the same! I am glad to say that we have survived 10 weeks (9 for Horse) having no more accidents. Although last night the Chickens were pretty curious about our fire in the firepit. If they only knew!! HAHA! At first we had the chickens in a plastic tote with a heat lamp. They shortly outgrew the tote, so we moved them into the bunny cage (poor bunny) and now they are in the big dog kennel waiting for their new Chicken Coop to be finished. It's coming along quite nicely, Cassidy is doing a great job with it! The kids love their chickens! They feed and water them a few times a day, and they let them come out for excersize. My favorite thing to do is to watch the kids chase the chickens to put them back in their home. pretty funny!! I have been very impressed at how well they have looked after them. 5 of the chickens produce ProLific brown eggs, so we will have a lot of good eggs. And Horse is an Americauna Hen (although she is looking more like a rooster everyday-just her coloring) will lay bluish/green eggs. They aren't prolific eggs, so I'm not sure how often she will lay. Hens start producing eggs at 18-20 weeks, so we are half way there. And that's our chicken story! When we get the coop up and running, I will post pictures!

Happy Birthday Aniston!

A few months ago, Aniston decided that she is ready to be called "Aniston". not AJ or Anna. She is getting ready for kindergarten and wants to be Aniston. But if she is called Anna or AJ by friends or family, it's okay!! 5 years old! She's my baby girl! And now she has decided that she is ready to leave me and go to Kindergarten. We had a birthday party at Grammy's house. It was a tiki theme, and we had water games outside (Cassidy and all the kids ganged up on me and I got soaked! You can see in the picture of Cassidy that he got wet too!!). We made sweet & Sour Meatballs with rice for dinner and had fruit and salads. SO GOOD! We had smoothies and cake balls for dessert. Aniston got 3 new Zhu Zhu Pets and a carrier, polly pockets, clothes, a new helmet, and also hand/elbow/and knee pads. She has been falling down a lot and doesn't catch herself, so she lands on her face an scrapes up her nose. The padding was a perfect gift from Grammy and Gramps! They also got her Crayola color bubbles, and a Miracle Gro flower set. Her flowers are already growing!

Turning 8 is Great!!!

It has finally happened! Something I have not been looking forward to.....Alyssa turned 8!! Yes, 8 is great if you are the one turning 8, it's an exciting year......but for a Mom to have their oldest child turn 8, how sad! Why has it gone so fast? Since 8 is such a big milestone, Alyssa got to have her very first Friend Birthday Party. It was so much fun! The girls tie-dyed canvas tote bags, suprisingly it was not messy at all! And all the bags turned out great! I would recommend it to anyone for a birthday party! They also played Freeze Dance, once the music stops, you freeze and stop dancing, that was a big hit, and Alyssa's idea. Alyssa was baptized 2 weeks ago on April 30th. It was such a great day! Alyssa had so many family and friends that came out to support her, and that made it even more special! She says she wishes she could be baptized everyday....I wish I could too! Alyssa is so much fun to have around! Besides going through growing pains that last few months, she is so funny! She has me laughing all the time and it always doing silly things and making up songs or games or activities. She is so nutty! She is very smart, and really does like school....even if she tells you other wise. She is enjoying piano lessons, and has now been in piano for 1 year. She has come along way and is doing great! We love you Alyssa!! Stay tuned for my next post.....Alyssa wanted a chicken for her birthday, so we got one for everyone in the family. They are 6 weeks old....except for Tanners...his first chicken had to be replaced, his new one is 5 weeks! So they are just about ready to go outside, which I am glad for because they are getting stinky! Post will come shortly!

Happy Birthday Abigail!

My little Abigail turned 6 on January 25th! She is getting so big. She decided this year she did not like cake. So we had an Ice Cream Sundae party. It turned out so fun! Abigail loves kindergarten and is starting to read. It's so fun to listen to her read the books she brings home from school. We LOVE her teacher Mrs Kershaw! A few things Abigail got for her birthday are puzzles, movies, Littlest Pet Shops, Model Magic Clay, a much needed BIKE, Flexeez (that's whats on her head in the pictures-Abs and her cousins made bday crowns) a new dress and a bunkbed for her baby dolls. It was a fun day!! We also went out for ice cream with the Keyes. It's a fun tradition to go to LeatherBy's on the kids birthdays.

Some of Abigails favorite things are:

Color-Red

Animal-Horses, Lions and Tigers

Food: Mac and Cheese

Favorite Movie:Cats don't Dance

Favorite Holiday: Easter, Christmas, and Valentines Day

Favorite Season: Summer-so she can ride her new birthday bike

We love you Abigail!! Thanks for being my little sweetheart!!

December 2010

This year we decided to get the Christmas season started off early. We know how fast it comes and goes, so we wanted to enjoy it for as long as we could. We even decorated a little early this year, a few days before Thanksgiving. We went on a trip on the North Pole Express on the Heber Valley Railroad. We got cookies and hot chocolate and a visit from Mrs Calus and Santa. We also heard christmas stories and sang Christmas songs. The kids had a lot of fun. We rode the Front Runner downtown to temple square and rode the carriage ride around the temple, and saw the lights. There was a man playing the bagpipes. That really was what made me feel the Christmas spirit. It was amazing the feeling that was there. We went back another time with my siblings and the kids' cousins to look at the lights. If you ever go see the lights, go to the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It's pretty cool looking down and seeing all the lights.

My Grandma passed away in December. I am so grateful for the many times this year that my family and I went to visit my Grandparents. We have lots of great memories and some fun pictures that we will cherish forever. The picture shown with my Grandma was taken in November when we went and raked leaves and played in them at my Grandparents house. It's something we've been doing since I was little, and something I hope to continue while my Grandpa is still with us.

Christmas came and Santa spoiled the kids. They loved everything! My favorite gift that Santa brought were some BROWN boy cowboy boots for my little Cowboy. Now he doesn't have to wear the girls pink boots. He even sleeps in his new cowboy boots. He is so funny. I gave in and let the girls ask for anything they wanted. And of course they wanted ipods (shuffles) and DS'. They did get some new LIV dolls and moxie dolls, zhu zhu pets, and my parents gave them some dolls. So they do still play with little girl things, which I am happy for. They aren't too big for babies and barbie dolls. hooray! Tanner got a really cool train table that he loves! Lots of new horses, and some Utah Utes things. The kids are loved that's for sure!!

I am excited for what this new year brings, I hope it's a great one!!