The Dever Family

Christmas Card and Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T08:44:00.000-08:00

I didn't want my family to see this before I gave it to them in person on Christmas, so I didn't post it then, and I forgot after that. But Merry Christmas anyway, and Happy New Year to each one of you as well! Make it your best ever!

Aaron Portraits

2011-11-29T22:13:00.001-08:00

I just finished a photography class via Nicole's Classes (http://nicolesclasses.blogspot.com/) It was such a fun class and I learned a lot of tips for working with kids. Here are a few of my favorites of Aaron:

I'd love to know what you think!

Haylee the Soccer Star!!

2011-10-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

Haylee is so excited to be playing soccer this year! This is a little girl who loves life and loves to do everything! She has so much fun at whatever she does. I knew she'd have a blast playing soccer. And that she has! Look at her face as you look at these pictures. She is truly a happy, happy child.

And so adorable all suited up in her soccer outfit! This little girl is just precious.

Oh, isn't she just the sweetest? I just adore this little girl!!

Throwing in...

I told you - just the happiest little face in the world.

Another sweet smile - She had such a good time. (The kids run under a parent-made tunnel after the game... so much fun.)

Great support from loving grandparents ~ Papa & Grana

We're so lucky to have so many that love us ~ GG & Ahma

Outtake - Aaron trying to grab McKay's watermelon... notice him grabbing his shirt. So cute.

Awesome job playing soccer Haylee! We're so proud of you!!

Aaron at 9 months

2011-10-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this baby boy is already 9 months old!! (And now, almost 10!) He is one of the brightest lights of my life. His smile lights up the world.

-He is starting to take a few steps at a time! We thought he'd be walking by 9 months, but thankfully he wasn't.
-He's still a tank.
-He's starting to like food more. He pretty much skipped baby-food stage and went straight to regular food. He just never really liked the mushed up stuff.
-He's a happy, happy baby... everyone adores him. He has the greatest smile in the world.
-He's a super fast crawler... we can't believe his speed.
-He loves getting everything he shouldn't... but what baby is any different? :)
-He ADORES his brother and sister. He thinks they're the greatest in the world.

Preview of 10 months:
-He's saying 'mama' and 'dada' in context.
-He just learned to wave! Soo cute!
-He's walking lots of steps - 3-4 at a time. He's starting to let go and turn around and step away from things on his own.
-He's able to wander around and play by himself for long periods of time now. That's wonderful!
-He LOVES the water - he dives for the sink and loves to crawl quickly toward the bathtub and stand up by it. He protests-much when I take him out of any kind of water - ie. washing his hands.
-I call him 'Bubbies' a lot, and sometimes "Bubs" and "Bubs-a-wubs-a"

We love this little bug sooo much!!! He is such a joy.

Outtakes (click-it to big-it!)

Wow... I'm 30!!

2011-10-02T18:09:00.000-07:00

Yep - Its true. I'm officially no longer a twenty-something. Now I'm a wise, mature, experienced woman. (Yeah-right!!!!) I'm 30 anyway. Heh...
It's good being 30. I don't feel 30, but I guess I never will. I think that's a good thing. I've been playing the song "In My Next Thirty Years" in my head a lot lately, and I've been grateful I don't have regrets like he does in the song. I feel like my first thirty years were a success, and I also look forward to the next thirty. Of course, there's plenty I still intend to do better... but I'm happy with myself in the past ones.

I had a wonderful birthday, filled with wonderful family, some great friends (it was so much fun getting buzzed from facebook texts on my phone all day from birthday wishes) and especially my amazing husband. He so thoughtfully took me to a place he heard about that he knew I'd love (Boudins) because I like sourdough bread. It was so sweet of him and it was so great to eat outside and enjoy the ambiance of the fountains. Then I got to go pick out a present from Vera Bradly (did you know they give you a $20 gift certificate for your birthday?! Sweet!!) Love their stuff and look forward to spending my $20 each year. It was a good day. Thank you so much to each of you who were a part of it.

Photo curtosity of Haylee - she was so adorable. It was completely her idea to take the picture. She got everything all set up and took about twenty shots. (I have no idea where she got that from... cough, cough) She kept looking at the picture and she'd say "That's a good one," or "I got it." She also set up a whole 'nother scene but wasn't able to take the picture. She was so cute putting it all together though - placing things just so... Its going to be so much fun being a 'photographer' with her.

Haylee's first day of school - Kindergarten!!

2011-09-18T23:11:00.000-07:00

It started the day before with a special dinner out with Mommy & Daddy. This is a tradition my parents started with me and I really wanted to do with my kids. We got dressed up and went on a 'fancy' date to a sit-down restaraunt with just Haylee. (Olive Garden) She had a wonderful time and felt so special. I can't believe my little baby girl is such a big girl. I know its been said a million times before, but 'where does the time go?' It really flies away so quickly that I just can't keep up! I'm so grateful for every moment I've had to spend with this beautiful, precious amazing little girl. I'm so lucky to have her in my life.

The kitchen all decorated and ready for our first day of school celebration!

Yummy first-day-of-school breakfast: Pan-a-quickie, bacon, muffins, banana, OJ... mmmm...

Oh, she's so precious. Such a sweet, sweet, sweet girl she is.

Off to the car!

Quick shot in the parking lot just before we went into the school... this is a genuine smile of excitement and happiness due to the fact that she's about to go to Kindergarten for the first time. I looked down at her and this was the huge smile that was showing on her sweet face. It was the most excited I'd seen her about it. It was a great feeling.

In front of her school and classrom.

'An apple for the teacher...'

Decorating a nametag.

Making fringe - Haylee loves art and crafts and being creative.

I love the pink airplane.

Putting my blown kiss on her cheek... Mrs. Manos read the story The Kissing Hand so Haylee was putting my kiss on her cheek as we were saying goodbye.

I thought I'd be okay leaving her... but it was a lot more sad for me than I expected. I was glad for the little baggie of gifts Mrs. Manos gave us - including a tissue. Its hard to let my baby girl leave my wing. Its hard to share her with someone else. Worth it, I know... but still hard.

Here's what I wrote about her going off to school:

Dear World,
Today, I sent you my baby girl. My beautiful, precious little princess. From now on, I will have to share her with you. And I'm okay with that... mostly. Please treat her well... she is so tender and has such a big heart. She, in turn, will make you better in a thousand ways. Be kind to her - she has so much love to give. I adore her completely.
Love, Haylee's Mommy

After her first day of Kindergarten... so happy and excited! She really was made for school.

So I guess here's a good place to confess my blunder for posterity...

So, my van battery was almost completely dead... I'd been having trouble starting my car for about a week. So after I got the boys after taking Haylee to school, I took the car in to get a new battery. Afterwards, I did a little shopping at the store, and when I got back in the car, I saw that I still had about an hour and a half left and thought about how it was more time than I thought I'd have and I did really well in the store. So I headed home to make Haylee some chocolate chip cookies so the house smelled like homemade cookies when she got home from her first day of school. On the way I figured I had time to stop in the cell phone store to ask about a couple accessories for my phone. Which was dead at the time, even though I had tried to charge it, so while I was there I also asked why it wasn't starting up (it had been giving me issues...). So she restarted it, and when she did, I got a bunch of text messages that had come while it was dead. I didn't think anything of them, and then I got a call from the girl I carpool with, and when I did, I noticed the time on my phone... it was 3:48... EIGHT MINUTES AFTER I WAS SUPPOSED TO PICK MY LITTLE GIRL UP FROM HER FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!!! Apparently, my car clock was off because of the battery change, but not off enough for me to realize it was totally wrong!! And just by coincidence, my cell phone which also would have given me the correct time, was ALSO broken. So my time was completely off and I completely missed my baby girl's face as she walked out of her classroom from her first day of school EVER. I'll never see that beautiful face of joy and excitement, and I'll never get a picture of it. A little dramatic, perhaps, but its how I felt and I was heartbroken. Of all the timing and dirty rotten luck.

So anyway, I was able to get home and luckily a good friend had given me some chocolate chip cookies a couple days earlier so I was at least able to have a chocolate chip cookie waiting for her when she got home from her first day of school.

She had such a great day, and absolutely LOVES school. She's a darling girl.

Day at the Beach

2011-09-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

We got to have one last 'hurrah' with Uncle Kevin & Dad & Lora before he went off to school, so we had a picnic at the lake. It was a beautiful day and a perfect picnic.

We took the boat out after the others left and had some water and sand play time. It was a great day.

This baby LOVES the water... He just can't get enough of it!

Bear crawl

Standing! I couldn't get far enough back to get his whole body, but he is standing by himself. Brief still, but he's doing it more and more!

He has the happiest baby face in the world. He lights up the world of everyone who sees him. My friends adore him. He melts hearts, this one.

Haylee and her awesome castle. She's so creative!

Random September Pictures

2011-09-17T01:09:00.000-07:00

Tooth #4 GONE!! And the first front tooth to go... just in time for the first-day-of-school pictures! Too cute! (She lost it two days before Kindergarten started.) The tooth fairy is a busy lady around here!

These kids adore each other!!

McKay - all ready for his first day of T-ball class!! Such a cutie!

Someone ought to tell this kid that thats the wrong end of the watermelon to be eating...

Noodle on the head - classic.

Back together again!

2011-09-17T00:56:00.000-07:00

My brother returned home from his mission!! He was away for two years sharing the good news in a Boise, Idaho Spanish speaking mission. He came back a different person. It was so good to have him here for a couple short weeks before he went BACK to Idaho, this time to BYU-I. We were lucky to get a second (although only barely, the they're rushed) to take a couple family pictures while so many of us were here (although we still missed some - my two bonus sisters and bonus brother.) One of these days we'll get a picture of ALL of us!

Mom and all the kids (that were present).

All the kids - including my new sister-in-law!! Kristen. She's such a sweetheart.

My two brothers and sister - so grateful to have them in my life.

Haylee's Kindergarten classroom visit

2011-09-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

We went to the ribbon cutting for Haylee's new school and we got to preview her classroom. It's beautiful and huge! We love the school (www.johnadamsacademy.com) and are so excited and grateful to be a part of it. It's a brand new (this year!) free charter here in Roseville and has an emphasis on academics, restoring America's heritage and inspiring servant leaders. We're so lucky!

Haylee's first look at her new classroom

We adore her teacher, Mrs. Manos. She is the sweetest lady ever! We feel very secure leaving our baby girl in her hands.

^ McKay hanging out too.

Some shots of the classroom

Pretty Things

2011-09-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

My mom brought this back for me from her recent trip to Idaho. Isn't is lovely?? I just adore it. She brought it from my Great Aunt Zell's house, which is really neat because I remember going to visit Aunt Zell since I was a little girl. Thanks so much mom!

Aaron: 4 months

2011-05-03T00:53:00.000-07:00

So, now that Aaron's going to be 5 months old in three days, I thought I should probably do his 4 month post! Yikes!

One Day

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

FOUR MONTHS!

Hard to remember almost a month ago, but I'll do my best. (With help from the hundreds of pictures I take...)

~Aaron's a smiley, sweet, precious little boy. His stomach issues are totally gone... its hard to remember that he was ever so fussy! He's such a sweet, happy little boy now.
~He rolled over once... (on the 1st) on the counter from his front to his back. He hasn't done it again since, but he's ready to any time though.
~He's still a big boy. 95th percentile in length and 85th in weight. But apparently he has a small head... only 35th in head circumference.
~Dr. said we could start him on solids soon... he's not keeping food in his body for very long - its going through really fast.
~He's grabbing at toys well.
~He found his feet! And started playing with them some.
~He's starting to sit up... not sitting up yet, but he kinda leans over his legs...
~He's giggling lots. Such a cutie.
~We're (still) loving every minute with this precious babe. I adore him completely.

Four Month Portraits:

What a beautiful, precious babe.

Easter 2011

2011-05-01T23:23:00.000-07:00

Click the photo collage above to go to the photo album of Easter pictures. We had a great few days of fun Easter activities and are grateful for all the time we got to spend with wonderful family and friends!

I had so much fun making the kids' outfits... I've never really sewed clothes before and it was a good challenge. I love how they came out and had fun doing it.

Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Aaron's blessing & 3 months old!

2011-03-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful day today ~ sweet baby Aaron was blessed by his daddy on his 3 month birthday. It was of course a beautiful blessing and I am so lucky to have such an amazing priesthood holder for a husband. We were so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family members join us for this special day.

We enjoyed gathering at our home later for lunch and visiting. Thank you to each one who came (and for staying for my picture!) and helped make it a special day for our family.

Also to be celebrated today is Aaron's 3 month birthday! I am just so so so grateful for this sweet baby in my life. I cherish every moment with him. I love holding him and cuddling him and just always want him to be close to me. It is going so fast. And even though I expect it to, I wish it could be a little slower. I am so grateful for the time I have though. I adore this little baby. He is so precious to me.

Aaron at 3 months:
~He is finally settling down as far as the crying is concerned! I don't don't think he ever really was colicy, but he did and still does have some tummy-gas problems... just milk coming faster than he can handle it sometimes which makes his tummy rumble and growl and hurt. I think that's getting better though. He is having more and more happy and awake spells.
~This kid's a tank! He weighed about 15.5 lbs a week ago. My friend's 7 month old little girl weighs 16 lbs! He didn't used to have many 'rolls' either, but he's sure gotten them this month. I used to tell people he wasn't really 'chunky' but was just solid. Now he's solid and chunky. I love it.
~He loves to be held and carried around. (I know, what baby doesn't, but I still thought I'd mention it.) We love holding him and carrying him around.
~He giggled! He gave us some all-out belly chuckles a couple days ago. His first laugh went to his Ahma two or three weeks ago. And then yesterday Grandpa Miller was playing with him and he got him to giggle over and over. I got a video of it so I'll have to put that up here sometime.
~Aaron is super strong. He's totally holding his head up. We don't even worry about it anymore really. He likes to stand on his legs too. He pushes way up off the ground from on his tummy.
~He's really grabbing at toys now. He'll swat at them a lot and even grab them every once in awhile. He likes his alone time playing with his toys on the ground every now and then. We also got out the jumparroo this month and he sits in it great. He totally supports himself.

One Day

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Two Months Already!

2011-02-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

As always, this time has FLOWN and already our little boy is two months old! Even though I expect it, I'm still always amazed at how fast it goes. This month has been a bit rough (that's kind of an understatement...) but things look like they've maybe possibly started getting a little bit better, maybe possibly. We'll see. Aaron cries... a lot. We've gone back and forth about whether or not we think he has colic. Either way, he's pretty fussy and obviously has a lot of pain in his tummy. But he's had more and longer spells of happiness this week, so that's been nice. We've finally been able to enjoy him awake and happy for a little bit! That's been really fun. So here's his two month picture. (Scroll past the first two pictures.)

1 Day (24 hours)

1 Month

2 Months

Aaron at 2 Months:
-He's smiling! Its the most beautiful thing. Not many things more precious than a baby's smile. We're LOVING this part.
-Lots of crying! Lots of gas and air in the tummy. More happy time this past week though. That's been nice.
-Old man face
-Diaper rash finally went away! (He's had it almost since he was born!) We're still putting desitin on every time though to keep it away.
-Totally holds his head up. He's really strong... and solid.
-13 lbs at last weigh-in. Dr. appointment tomorrow... we'll see what the latest is.
-Loves to be held. (What baby doesn't?) He does love his alone-time sometimes too.
-Loves the lip touching game - when I brush my fingers over his lips he smiles almost every time.
-He's usually happy on the changing table - lots of smiles.
-He's starting to reach for things!
-Nursing is still going well... my milk comes really fast sometimes and he can't keep up. He also gets big bubbles in him so he comes off coughing and crying in pain. Poor guy!
-He's a good sleeper at night. We both get lots of sleep and are very grateful.
-Not such a good sleeper during the day, unless he's held and there's either a lot of noise or silence. Anything in between and he wakes up pretty easily.
-Good and bad and everything inbetween, we love it all with this sweet baby boy. We're so blessed to have him.

He's Here! (He's a Month Old!!)

2011-01-12T23:32:00.000-08:00

He's here! Our beautiful sweet baby boy is (finally!!) here! He sure took his time (2 weeks late by my count... I'll explain that later), but we're so grateful he's finally here and we've been able to enjoy him this past month. I'm going to post about his first month now while it's fresh, and I'll have to get back to his birth later.

ONE DAY (EXACTLY 24 HOURS)

ONE MONTH

One Month! For the records, here's what our baby boy is like at this time:

~Aaron has been holding his head up basically from day one. He'd lift it off our shoulders and look around for brief periods at a time. He's getting stronger and stronger with it, and now lifts and holds it up for quite long periods of time.
~I think he may have colic. I'm still not exactly sure if it is or not, but I do know he cries a lot. If he's awake he's pretty much always crying. His happy spells are for about 5-10 minutes at a time and then he's mad again.
~He weighs 11 1/2 pounds!
~He's very strong, and very sturdy
~His brother and sister adore him - always want to hold him and touch him. They're very sweet to him.
~Just starting to smile! Just this past week. Its soo sweet and I love it!
~Loves the kissy game... that's when he smiles the most. But also sometimes when I smile at and talk to him.
~He's just about ready to grow out of his newborn clothes. They're getting pretty tight! I'm trying to enjoy them just a little longer.
~He's nursing well.
~He rolled over on our bed when was like a week or two old. He was on his back and he arched his back and rolled onto his tummy.
~He's pretty cuddly. I love it when he snuggles.
~He's the sweetest little baby in the world and we all adore him so much.

Merry Christmas!! and Christmas card!

2010-12-24T22:24:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to each and every one of you, my dear family and friends. I hope your day is filled with joy and love. I am truly grateful for each one of you and they ways you influence my life. Thank you for being part of who I am. Merry Christmas!

Halloween Pictures

2010-11-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

A link to our Halloween Pictures, just for Grandma Miller! :)

It was a fun weekend. Happy Halloween!

It's a...

2010-09-02T22:51:00.000-07:00

B - O - Y !!!!

And we are way super excited! I've been loving on my adorable little McKay lately, and I'm really excited to have another one of these oh-so-sweet little boys around. I just realized I never told you, so I thought I ought do that. Next milestone... choose a name. We're very much having a hard time this time around. We shall see. I can't wait to hold this sweet little guy though!

Haylee's Art Themed Birthday Party

2010-08-03T00:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it was four months ago... so what? :) I'm just glad to have gotten these up somewhere I could share them.

Haylee had an 'art' themed birthday party full of rainbow colors and lots of art activities. Art and crafts are her favorite things to do, so I thought she'd have so much fun with this kind of party and she did. It was a great day.

Please, please please click on the collage below to see the picture album. They're much cuter individually and big! (Then come back here and tell me what you thought! Or feel free to comment on FB if you're on there!)

It was a great day for my little girl and it was such a fun party to throw.

Camping, camping & more camping!!!

2010-07-27T16:35:00.000-07:00

That's what our summer has consisted of. I guess we got a bug after not camping while in Texas AT ALL (3 years) and then having our stuff in storage for 3 years... we're so happy to have it back and love using it to enjoy the great outdoors. Our family and local friends probably think we're nuts by now... I haven't even kept track of the times this summer we've been camping. More weekends than we haven't, I think. We finish unpacking our stuff just in time to re-pack it all almost every week. We just love it. Who wouldn't want to spend the day and night in the beautiful outdoors, rather than in a stuffy house? I love our new home, but I love being outside even more. My dream home is something similar to this one of Richard Branson's:

Patio
Living Area
Hammock

The whole house is outdoors. Amazing.

Anyway... We've had so much fun and even have plans for more camping fun next month! Summer's quickly getting away from us though. And before you know it this baby will be here! We can't wait for that!

Our first trip of the summer: Papa (my dad) & Grana came up to meet us for breakfast.

Our next trip: Papa and Grana came up to meet us for breakfast again.

The best part of camping of course...

Papa & Haylee made leaf boats for the river

My super-delicious dutch-oven cobbler my dad taught me how to make on this trip. MY favorite part of camping. :)

Our next trip was just Brandon and I because we went up north for a wedding and decided to camp the night before. We packed in a little ways, and I didn't have my chair which wasn't much fun at four months pregnant. It was the last time I camped without my chair.

We got to drive through some of the redwoods on the way home... that was amazing.

Not sure which trip these are from... they're from my phone.

Nice... (no, she didn't suffocate. It was cute though.)

How sweet is this?

In June we went on a four night campout with friends. We had such a great time and can't wait till next year. Here are a few from that trip:

So lucky are we to be included among such great friends!

The campsite we were at was on a beach so we got to spend a lot of time there. The kids loved playing in the sand (even though they wouldn't go near the water.)

Four of the six moms were pregnant. Its so fun to be pregnant with good friends.

Thanks guys for such a great time!

A couple weekends ago we got to go camping with Ahma (my mom), Ampa, Aunt Hannah, Auntie Janeal and her friend Joey. Another awesome trip. We had such a good time with them all.

As you can see, with the new baby on the way and needing a new tent anyway (we'd been squishing into a little four man...) and we needed an extra tent for all the people coming, we upgraded to a condo for this trip. Lol... j/k... we did get a huge tent though. An 8 man. It has a closet...! Its a beast, but it sure was and will be nice to spread out and actually be able to keep our stuff in our tent, instead of in the car!

I didn't take very many pictures on this trip and my mom has a bunch I want... I'll have to post more later.

Haylee, the budding photographer (girl after my own heart...); "Make a sad face" she says... :)

Balancing on a log

Hangin' out at the stink-holes... fumaroles at Mt. Lassen National Park

We don't know what we're going to do with this kid's super-human strength!

We have a couple more trips to post about but those pictures are on Brandon's phone or another so I'll have to get them later. We also have at least one more campings planned this summer... So I'll be back some time with more. And I still have Hawaii to post about so you can look forward to that! I know you'll just be loosing sleep over it. :)

Thanks for looking... and mostly, thanks for being someone who loves and cares about our family. We're lucky to have friends and family like you.

Presenting...

2010-07-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Oh, my poor blog, you are so neglected, aren't you?

Ah well... such is the life of the overwhelmed, doing-too-much, no-time-for-anything young mother that I am. I do try daily to do better... I suppose I will get the hang of it some-day, yes?

But anyway... on to the important reason for this post...

I have yet to share this news with those who can't physically see me... If I've seen you in the past month or two, you surely know. For the rest of you...

SURPRISE!

Yep, that's right... baby #3 is on her way! (We don't actually know its a girl until after our ultrasound on Tuesday, but I'm putting my order in. :) We actually would adore another boy too though.) I'm twenty weeks along tomorrow!! Half-way there! I'm due November 27th (hoping I get to take this Thanksgiving off from assignments! :) ) and we are sooo excited.

How I'm going to add another child into this overwhelmed, doing-too-much, no-time-for-anything life of mine, I haven't quite figured out... but I have five more months for that, right? :)

Anyway... woo hoo for us... and we can't wait to meet you little one!

My first newborn photoshoot: Paige

2010-04-29T21:14:00.001-07:00

Welcome to my beautiful new baby niece, Paige. I had so much fun taking some pictures of her and I’m pretty happy with how some of them turned out. Here a few I love.

Isn’t she just a little doll baby? Welcome to our world Paige! I love you!

Super Fun St. Patrick’s Day 2010

2010-04-26T22:55:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I’m kind-of known in my family for taking millions of pictures, but unfortunately, it’s been brought to my attention (again) that people rarely get to see any of those pictures. Somehow, even though being a stay-at-home mom with no kids in school shouldn’t be very time consuming, I’m ALWAYS, EXTREEMLY busy. And blogging has been, unfortunately again, lower on my priority list. But it is important to me, and I do REALLY want to do something with all these millions of pictures I take. Pictures to me, really is how I journal. Events and activities anyway. I do keep a journal as well, and I put other thoughts and feelings down in there. But pictures is how I chronicle (is that how I’d say that?) my and my families' lives. I’m going to try to better, but I’m just going to start with these. They were what were up on my photo filter on my desktop when I was reminded that my family don’t get to see any of the pictures I take. And since it was such a fun day for us, and I took the pictures really looking forward to sharing them, I thought it was a good place to start.

I’ve been blogging officially for over a year now (I can’t believe it!). A few posts ago, I pointed you to last years’ ‘Super Fun St. Patricks Day,’ and I thought it would be fun to show you this years. If you know me and/or keep up with my blog at all, you’ll know that I love holidays. I love doing a bunch of activities focused on a theme of any kind really…. (I’m going to be a great preschool teacher some day. :) ) As I’ve said before, I love the opportunity they give for teaching and learning, and doing some fun and special things with my kids, and making memories.

I want you to know also, that I don’t post these pictures to get a hundred ‘good mom points’ and comments about how awesome I am. I post (this post in particular, and also all posts) for a couple reasons…. 1) To share my ideas with anyone who can use them in hopes of letting you have a little more fun with your family, 2) just to share with my family, far away friends, and close-by friends some snippits of our lives, and 3) to journal/record/scrapbook some of some of our day(s).

With (all) that said… here we go with our Super Fun St. Patrick’s Day 2010!!

For first breakfast: the leprechaun turned our milk green, and left us a box of Lucky Charms! A special treat because we usually don’t get sugary cereal like this. Note: I really am a very health-conscious person… I try really hard to eat and serve healthy foods every day. But I also do special things at times, especially on special days. So… I’m sure we ingested more than our fair share of green food coloring this day… sorry if that disgusts anyone… lol… we had fun doing it though. :)

Next, we made green jello, so it could be ready for a snack later.

Snack:

We didn’t get to this last year, and I missed it, so I made sure we did it this year. For second breakfast. :) (Don’t worry… my kids definitely eat enough for two breakfasts… and they were a couple hours apart…)

Amazingly, the kids scarffed them! I didn’t think they would, but they loved them! Score! That was a really fun activity… getting to watch the food coloring change the eggs color. And any time I can bring reading and books into activities, I’m in heaven. I love connecting literacy to life. Its the teacher in me I guess. Readers are smart kids. Smart kids struggle less in school and life. Who wouldn’t want that for their kids? I want, more than most anything, to raise readers. Readers and artists. (That’s a soapbox for another day. :) )

So… Moving on, (and yes, most of our activities centered around food… most of our day centers around food actually… I swear these kids eat more than I do…) Anyone who knows my kids knows they’re ALWAYS hungry.

So next is lunch: clover shaped sandwiches with green mayo, & kiwis. Yumm-o!

Then we did an art activity… mixed green glitter in glue and painted a shamrock with it. After they dried and we cut them out, they turned out so pretty!

Next, more food coloring! Green cream cheese bagles with green sprinkles! Huge hit, of course. What couldn’t be with sprinkles involved?!

A CD I picked up at a thrift store a month ago, that we listened to… literacy, art, and now music into the picture!! I can just see my kids’ brains enlarging!! :)

Another activity – coloring a picture and filling the ‘pot’ with gold. Great fine-motor! (Yes, I am a teacher… what can I say?)

And, after a day-o-fun, we finished it off with a delicious green dinner, complete with green shamrock napkin rings! The menu: Green Chili’s Casserole (remind me to post that recipe sometime… Delish!), Green beans, green salad & green jello. Want to be even more impressed (I know I said I wasn’t posting this to impress anyone, but this part is definitely impressive…)? I didn’t PLAN any of this until the night before. All the food I already had! Yay me! (It probably would have been better to have planned before, but that’s besides the point. That’s with the exception of the Lucky Charms and green jello, which are not staples in our home, and I’d bought the week before in anticipation. But everything else, for all the other meals and snacks, I had on hand. Lucky me!! (Since I DIDN’T plan ahead of time…) I got creative. You’d never have known' I came up with it all as I went though huh!

And, finally, for dessert, one last treat/activity. Making a pot of gold snack mix (darn! I just thought about these little black pots I have for putting salsa and guacamole in that would have been perfect to put this snack in! I’ll have to remember that for next year!) Anyway… Lucky charms, pops for the ‘gold nuggets’ and green m&m’s (which were left-over from Christmas m&ms… resourceful!

Yeah… I’m a little chincy on the candy… there are a couple down there though… see them?

And finally… two happy children and a fantastic day.

I know it’s April now, but Happy St. Patty’s Day Everyone!

Oh Boy!

2010-04-05T23:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks Hillary for doing the work for me on this one!

Click HERE for an adorable story about my sweet little girl, and this picture: Too cute!!

Free Conference Preschool Age Journal

2010-03-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

I made this journal for conference and I put it up on my sharing blog. Hopefully some of you can use it this conference!

Real Simple Mag Cover

2010-03-17T23:02:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a great St. Patty's Day.. We sure did! I'll post all about our adventures on my sharing blog (with a link here) later, but I'm so excited about something else I wanted to share now.

I just finished a photography course in San Francisco, which I have been LOVING!!! I have lots to share about it, but I couldn't wait to share this one. This was one of our last assignments, and I LOVE how it turned out. I styled & took the picture, added the text, etc. It was a fun assignment, and a challenge, and I learned a lot.

You like?

St. Patrick's Day Ideas

2010-03-16T00:51:00.000-07:00

Last year, we had a 'super-fun' St. Patrick's Day. I re-posted the blog post I wrote about it on my sharing blog. I started this blog to give back ideas to the WWW... because of the many, many years I've been taking ideas from it. Hopefully you can take a look and find something fun to do with your family.

http://crystalshares.blogspot.com/

Christmas in March (part 1)

2010-03-04T23:05:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I’ve been busy, busy, busy (as always) and blogging has been a lower priority, but I still wanted to share some pictures from December. There are a lot… but I’m tired of not posting what I want to post, in fear of boring you, so look at what you want and skip what you want. I’ll never know! :) I’m just happy to finally be getting some up here! AND, since my online journal is about to be integrated with blogger, I’m super motivated to blog more… now I don’t necessarily have to blog, and journal the same events! How cool is that!?

Beautiful Haylee:

Picking out a Christmas tree:

Mmmm… Christmas pancakes.

Excuse the finger gouges in the gingerbread man pancake (ahem, McKay…)

Decorating the Christmas tree:

Daddy helping McKay decorate:

Just love this picture – Christmas tree lights - long exposure, hand held, motion intentional:

IT SNOWED IN CALIFORNIA!!!! It really, truly snowed. I didn’t get up early enough to see it really snowy… it was pretty icy by the time I got up. But way too cool just the same.

Random picture from December: I found Haylee like this, talking on the phone. She’s definetely going to need her own ‘line’ (I guess that would be cell phone these days) when she’s a teenager. Can’t you just see her as a teenager talking on the phone, from this picture? Too cute.

A fun little story: This is what happens if I don’t pay attention to my children for about ten minutes at a time.

I turn around and Haylee’s got the painting smocks on her and McKay… how adorable.

They had gotten into the paints. Oh my.

But adorable just the same.

And this was (sadly) the very next day: McKay got into my stamping ink!! What a (cute) mess!!!

Another sweet story: Haylee likes to ‘help’ McKay eat his food. She is so sweet to him. I love watching it. They giggle and laugh together.. It’s the best sound.

Some of my favorite ornaments. Aren't they beautiful? I love them.

Thanks for looking at our Christmas in March. There will be more to come.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T21:00:00.001-08:00

(click to enlarge)

Haylee’s Room Make-Over

2010-02-12T06:01:00.001-08:00

We had a great time re-decorating Haylee’s room yesterday. I wrote all about it on my new ‘creative adventures’ blog:

http://crystalscreativecourtyard.blogspot.com/

More about that later, but for now, go take a look at Haylee’s new room!

View Full Album

Happy Groundhog's Day!

2010-02-02T21:45:00.000-08:00

I love holidays. (If you haven't been able to tell before now.) I just love the opportunity they give to do some extra fun things, and do a little learning around a theme. I thought I'd share what we did today for Groundhog's day. I had fun with this day when I was teaching... reading books about groundhogs, making books, learning about shadows, doing shadow activities with manipulatives on the overhead, writing about fears (because the groundhog is 'afraid of his shadow', which is why he goes back in his hole if he sees his shadow.)

Today, is February 2... Groundhog's Day. In case finding out whether Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow or not, wasn't on your top ten list of things to do today, I'll tell you. He DID see his shadow, which means 6 more weeks winter is on the way.

Here are some pictures of the fun things we did to celebrate the day:

By the way, I've started a new blog sharing my teaching ideas etc. I've taken a lot from the internet through the years, so I thought I would give back and put back out there some of the ideas I've gathered/compiled/come up with through the last few years. So to see more information on these activities, including links & instructions, and for additional activities, go HERE.

Every good 'unit' starts with BOOKS! I love books! I use them to introduce every topic I teach. Today, we read these two that I made (actually, my aide's helped) when I was teaching. The first one is a class book we made where each student made a page and we bound them all together in a book.
Haylee & McKay made grounds hogs that popped up out of their holes, with a poem in the grass.
And Haylee worked (VERY hard, I might add...) on a coloring page. We talked about the letters she was coloring as she was coloring them and she learned the letter 'P' during the activity!
This is actually the first picture I've really seen her spend so much time on. Until now its been mostly scribbles. But I was VERY proud of her for spending so much time and working so hard on this one. She was so proud of her 'rainbow.' And I can't believe how well she stayed in the lines! I'm so proud of my not-so-little girl!Happy Groundhog's Day!!

November

2010-01-05T00:02:00.000-08:00

I have sooo much blogging catching up to do!!

Here's a little bit.

Some of my favorite November moments/pictures:

Homemade apple pie Haylee helped Auntie Janeal make

Preschool Thanksgiving Party:

Wow......

Love this picture - it was during our huge 5 family garage sale... McKay loved all the stuffed animals.

This was so sweet... McKay was downstairs taking a nap and Haylee had been playing down there, but after awhile I realized it had gotten really quiet. I went down to check on things and there she was, curled up next to her brother, asleep on the couch. So sweet!

This was pretty cute too... Haylee and McKay came in the room like this... Haylee had put them on them both. Adorable.

Bunco!!

2009-12-17T00:54:00.000-08:00

We had our second annual Bunco Christmas Party last week. I've been in this fabulous Bunco group for two years now and I LOVE IT!! It is so much fun hanging out with these awesome ladies. I am so lucky to have such great friends and to be surrounded by such amazing women. We play Bunco once a month and I totally look forward to it every month. There are very few things that can make me miss Bunco. (Having a baby was one of them. Besides that, birthdays and sickness are the only things I think I've missed it for.) Its such a good time for me to have kid-less, girl time. Brandon's so awesome to support me in going and to take such good care of our kidos while I'm gone. Love you babe! Thanks for all of the good times Bunco friends! I look forward to another year of great Bunco times!

I'm in love with my dentist!

2009-12-15T01:28:00.001-08:00

I realized the other day, that I had never mentioned on my blog anything about Brandon's Dental Practice. So here's a shameless plug... it is our livelyhood afterall right? :) Besides, Brandon's extremely casual about telling people about himself or his work. He's just too modest and doesn't like the attention, and doesn't like soliciting, especially to church friends. So I'll do it. :) He's such an incredible dentist. He's patient, and so gentle. He's kind, friendly, and totally honest. You can totally trust him to be honest with you about what you need, and you can completely trust him to do what is best for you and your teeth. I may be biased, but his patients aren't and they all love him.

Here's the phone number for the practice, and I've added it on the side of my blog for future reference.

Summer Hills Family Dental
Dr. Brandon Dever, DDS
(916) 723-3368

So there you go. Shameless plug about my fabulous dentist, I'm madly in love with. :)

How I spent my morning…

2009-12-07T13:21:00.001-08:00

What does 18 + 15 =?

All of this by one 18 month old boy, and 15 minutes.

Ahh well…

Add a little of this… (or a LOT actually)

Another 30 minutes and a TON of elbow grease, and FINALLY….

You get this:

Ahhhhh….

But, alas, who could be mad at this face?

Nah… I don’t have time for that. I have too much lovin’ on it to do.

I do adore being a mom.

And I adore you McKay. It is going to be a wild ride…

Entertainment Coupon Book - Want one for less than $25?

2009-11-17T23:30:00.001-08:00

I'm going to order an Entertainment Book and they're cheaper the more you order in one order. So I'm getting whoever wants to together to buy one. Right now they're about $23-24. It will be less if more people want to buy one. Do any of you local friends of mine want one at a cheaper price? Please leave me a comment ASAP so I can add you to the order. These books are awesome. I can't wait to get mine!

Megan's Maternity Portraits

2009-11-08T22:31:00.000-08:00

I took some maternity portraits of my beautiful bonus-sister and bonus-brother-in-law a few weeks ago. They were so patient as I took a MILLION pictures and tried out a bunch of stuff I wanted to do. I'm really pleased with how some of them turned out. I still have a lot more to post, but here are some I love:

Costumes - and my sewing journey

2009-11-02T23:10:00.000-08:00

Okay, so there were a few more things I wanted to mention about the kids' Halloween costumes. First of all, hello...!!! I MADE THEM!! I know that doesn't mean much to most of you uber-talented people out there who do things like this regularly, but I AM NOT A SEWER! At least, I wasn't. I don't know where this came from, but I love sewing now! I never had ANY interest whatsoever in sewing (even though my mom and grandma and great grandma are amazing seamstresses). Until one of my girlfriends mentioned a really simple way to make a cute little girl's jumper (which I still haven't finished...), and I saw how easy and fun sewing was. Now I'm hooked! There are about a bazillion projects I want to do.

So anyway, I'm a very beginning sewer and am really not one of those people who just whipps out an outfit, so I'm totally impressed with myself with these costumes. I spent all day Saturday working on them (and my wonderful husband took great care of the kids all day) and I had a BLAST! It was really so much fun.

The other really cool thing is, that I didn't even have a pattern. I just followed these tutorials (tink, peter), and I made my OWN patterns, using clothes I have! How cool is that? I learned how to do that and got some new skills. Of course, I learned a lot through the whole process, which is always really awesome. I didn't get to take any good pictures of them, mostly because our backyard is dirt and not very pretty at all. So we'll have to put them back on and go to the park one of these days.

Anyway... just wanted to share that stuff. Thanks for looking!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T23:57:00.001-07:00

We had a great night of grandparents (and an aunt), trick-or-treating and candy eating. I love Halloween. Its so much fun dressing up and/or dressing the kids up. I had so much fun making their costumes. I’m so happy with how they turned out. It was a great day.

Ready to give out candy: (although the whole bucket actually got stolen… punks.)

And there goes the hat… Peter Pan & Tinkerbell:

All dressed up and ready to go!!

McKay had such a blast! He RAN from house to house… I couldn’t believe how much he got it! He was adorable to watch. He kept saying his new word, ‘nanny’ (candy) and didn’t understand the fact that he couldn’t eat every piece that was given to him. He would get very frustrated when he had to put his ‘nanny’ in his bag. We gave him smarties to ‘tide him over.’

We are so lucky to live close to so much family. Nana, Ahma & Ampa, Granna & Pappa, Great Grandma Marlene and Auntie Janeal were all able to come over to see the kids. It was so much fun sharing this holiday with them.

We also had fun going around with some friends. Haylee especially loved this. She just loves her friends.

And my favorite part… the dump.

Carefully deciding which one last candy to choose.

Happy Halloween Everyone! Hope you all had a great and safe evening.

At the farm

2009-10-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, not really, but I loved how this shot came out... McKay just hangin out on the barn. Too cute. More of our Bishop's Pumpkin Patch trip coming up.

Smile

2009-10-30T00:09:00.000-07:00

I love this smile!! Isn't it the best? I love the real, true, beautiful smiles of my children. I got a couple of great ones of McKay today that I'll have to share later too. Doesn't this smile just fill you with joy and happiness? Like, how could anything be wrong in the world when you see a huge smile like this? Just precious.

Picasa

2009-10-30T00:04:00.000-07:00

Wow... So easy to blog! Another cool program that I definately want to get to know better.... Picasa. If you haven't checked this out, try it out. As I was looking through my pictures (I have my computer set to preview pictures in Picasa previews), I just right clicked this picture, chose 'blog this' and up it popped in a window ready to blog. Very cool. I've made a cool colage in Picasa, and I know there's a TON more to do with it I haven't discovered yet. Too fun!

More Blogging, Here I Come!!!

2009-10-22T22:49:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I am so totally excited right now! If you haven’t discovered it, you need to check out Windows Live Writer. If you’ve been using it, or anything similar, you’re probably laughing that I’m just now discovering this, but NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT IT!! So I’m telling you… Over a year I’ve been blogging the slow and frustrating way… I had no idea there was a better way! This program is like a document editing program, where you can insert pictures a thousand times easier, move them around, resize them, edit them, whatever. Plus there’s a million more things to do with it. Pictures is (obviously) what I’m most excited about though. It’s taken me HOURS to post pictures on my blog. No more!! Yippie! I am a very happy person right now.

Reactions? Have you used it? Are you using something else? Better? Let me know! Please!

Friends

2009-10-22T00:12:00.001-07:00

We had lots of friends over yesterday... it was a busy and fun day!

I thought this was cute... the boys all gathered around the -pink- princess "laptop" toy.

They loved it.

The boys having a snack

Buddies....

Aren't friends awesome?

HomeGoods StyleScope - Bohemian Eclectic

2009-10-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

I've been having a lot of fun lately decorating my new house. I love to look through magazines and oogle and find great, cute, simple, inexpensive ideas. I found this fun quiz from my friend Rebecca, and it was fun to see what it came up with. I think it's pretty much on the money.

HomeGoods StyleScope - Bohemian Eclectic: "Bohemian Eclectic
You have wide-ranging interests and influences and so appreciate a mix of styles, cultures, periods, and objects. You would never use a matching suite of furniture or want a home that seemed cookie-cutter. You have an artist's eye that enables you to mix the old or the unusual with the new and modern. When traveling, you seek out unique objects that reflect what you love, and you use them in a sophisticated way. Your home is visually intriguing and comfortable, with a delightful mix of cozy chairs, ethnic fabrics, elegant pieces, hand-made items, even a little touch of quirk or humor, all of which gives your place a laid-back, Bohemian feel.
You value creativity. You are stylish and fun loving, and can be an inspiration to others. You have a natural sense of drama, and you know you have to be willing to take risks—whether with colors, finishes, furniture choices, or ideas—for your home to stand out. Your home can be happy and lively and the place all of your friends want to be."

I look forward to posting some of my decorations and style, some of my thrifted treasures and just generally some pics of my new home! Now that its finally starting to come together a little bit... (That is, once I take my computer BACK into the geek squad to fix AGAIN, since it's still not working properly. Ug!!)

Keating Family Portraits

2009-09-14T23:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a little sneak peek at some family portraits I took of my good friends the Keatings. It was a fun day, and I'm so grateful for their patience with me as I worked out some of the kinks during my first ever family full portrait session. It will take awhile for me to go through all of the pictures, but here are a few to start with.

P.S. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Especially where you see room for improvement. Thank you!

Cameron Park Lake

2009-09-05T22:51:00.000-07:00

We had a great afternoon last week at Cameron Park Lake. We went with some friends and the kids had so much fun. This is one of our new favorites spots in the area. There are a lot of pictures... sorry, I tried to do my best to pick the best ones, but I still can't seem to get only a couple pictures up. Oh well. Enjoy!

McKay and Mya playing together - click to enlarge it. McKay's face is so cute in the first picture.

Feeding the ducks
We got to have some yummy yummy chocolate chip cookies... Thanks Shana!
Throwing bread to the ducks
Cuteie friend of ours just chillin in her seat

Not sure which of these I like better... You?

I love her swimsuit

Moms and kids: Shana & Mya, and Melanie & Connor & Courtney
Just the moms

We went over to the playground aftewards. This boat was one of the play toys! How fun!
"Cameron Park Lake"

After the park, we drove around a little on our way home and got to watch this amazing sunset.

It was a great day and it was so fun to go with friends. Thanks girls!

Piano and Singing Lessons

2009-08-31T10:07:00.001-07:00

If anyone is looking for PIANO or SINGING LESSONS in the Sacramento area, my mom's schedule is filling up! She's been teaching for over 20 years and she's fabulous! Call 916-295-9057. Her name is Marsha Keller. She has students of all ages - small children through adults!

Sweet Anne... Goodbye my friend

2009-08-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

An incredible person was laid to rest today. My dear friend Anne Creager died a few days ago and her funeral was today. She fought a long hard battle with Melanoma. As my friend Holly put it, she had cancer. It never had her. Anne was an amazing person. Truly an angel here on earth. We met 10 years ago while we were in Cleveland for Brandon's Dental School. I was a brand-new wife. She helped me so much in those early days of our marriage... I didn't know anything about how to find a job, or pay bills, or make a resume... She taught me so much. She helped me with my resume, she spent hours helping me in my job hunt, even referring me to her boss when she was quitting her own job. She gave me a great idea for a bills organizing system, which I used for years. She was a good friend. She took care of me when I had my wisdom teeth out and no famiy around. Brandon and her husband Ward sat next to each other in their lab and worked together often. She (with help) threw me a "teaching shower" because everyone had had baby showers while I was there and I never got a chance to have one since I never had a baby... How sweet and thoughtful was that? She made us Chicken Divan for dinner one day (which I will share the recipe for at the end of this post) and I remember being so impressed. I plan on making it later this week.

But besides all of that, what I will remember the most about Anne, is her amazing testimony. She had battled this cancer for some years now, and through it all, I have always been in awe of her testimony and strength. Many many times I remember shaking my head hardly being able to believe the things I was reading... "I'm so grateful for..." "I know it's in the Lord's hands..." She just never faltered. She strengthened my testimony with every letter and blog post. I'm not very eloquent with words, but did want to share a few things that are in my heart. I am so grateful for the knowledge that Anne and her husband and their beautiful daughters can be together forever. I know that God's Plan is true, and works and that I will be able to see Anne again. Anne's testimony is mine as well... this is the end of her last blog post.

"I may be healed by herbs or Avastin or something else I haven't found yet. I have no doubt that if it is Heavenly Father's will, I will be healed. But even if I'm not, I have to admit that I feel at peace. The last month has been fraught with panic and frantic anguish, but now I feel differently. I trust Him. I look forward to asking WHY all of this had to happen. I'm not going to ask it now, because I know that He can see the whole picture and I know that whatever His will is, things will be okay. My girls will be okay because they have Ward. I know that Ward will be okay because he has them. And we all have each other--FOREVER--and that's what really matters."

Like I said, amazing to the very end. Total trust in Hevenly Father, and absolute faith. I will continue to strive to be more like this amazing woman. I am sad for her passing. That is sure. But I am also so grateful to have known her, and grateful for having had her in my life. I'm so grateful for the things she taught me, through word and mostly through her actions. She really was an angel on earth. I love you Anne.

This is a picture of Anne, Ward, their daughter McCady, & Brandon and I at our goodbye party at the end of Dental School... 2004

Anne was also an amazing author. Here are links to a couple articles in chruch magazines she wrote:

A Gift for Kathryn
Drawing the Line

Here is her blog address - take a few minutes to read a bit about her journey through her struggle with Melanoma. Its truly amazing.

Love & Dreams

Take a few minutes today to appreciate the precious people in your life. Let Anne's passing be an opportunity for you to look for the little things, love a little longer, and be a little better.

Chicken Divan
by Janae Smith, from Anne Creager

2 10 oz. pkg. broccoli (cooked)
3-4 chicken breasts (cooked with meat removed)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 C. Mayo (Anne says you can use less)
1/2 tsp. curry powder (again, Anne says you can use less)
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 C. Sharp American cheese (shredded) (That is how I wrote it, but I think its supposed to be Cheddar cheese)
1 TB butter (melted)

In casserone dish, arrange broccoli then put chicken on top of that. Mix rest of ingredients together and put on top of chicken. Then bake @ 350 for 1/2 hr.

Enjoy a meal with your family tonight and think of Anne.

Today's Walk

2009-08-26T00:29:00.000-07:00

Jeeze... I haven't done this in so long I think I've forgotten how! Sorry for the long break... what a crazy summer it's been! Got my mom married off, my brother sent on a mission, still working on getting moved into our new house, and today we started planning my sister's wedding! Eesh! So this isnt a big update... I hope to do that soon. (Waaaay overdue.) But here's a few pictures I wanted to share from today's walk.

McKay was getting so frustrated trying to pull this leaf out of this bush (after watching his sister do it, of course.)

I asked Haylee to help him get it out. It was very sweet.

Then Haylee had to line hers up on every street line, and of couse McKay had to copy his older sister. That was adorable too.

This is the walking/biking path right by our new house. We will spend a lot of time on this little trail. We're so excited about it.

Lavendar in the front yard... Mmm!

McKay with his awesome bread hat...

Haylee knocked out... guess she was beat! She just went right to sleep on her own on the kitchen tile. How cute is that?

Good good day.

My Mom's Wedding!!!

2009-08-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been quite awhile since I last wrote - but you're about to see why. My mom got married! And the wedding/reception was an event to behold - it was amazing! And a LOT of work! (Which is why I haven't been around lately.)

I got to have the privilege of photographing it. Here are the albums:

Album #1
Album #2
Album #3
Album #4

Congratulations Mom and Edward! I am so happy for you. It was a beautiful day, an amazing wedding and mom, you were a gorgeous bride. I love you guys.

July Photoshoot - Canada Style

2009-07-07T02:25:00.000-07:00

A casual photoshoot I did of the kids in Canada. Click on the collage to see the album.

Marysville Airshow

2009-06-12T20:52:00.000-07:00

We spent the day yesterday at the Marysville Air Show and Fly In. It's one of Brandon's very favorite things to do. It was fun being together as a family. I love seeing Brandon in his element. Taking 'shop' with the other pilots. I'm so excited for him to be able to start earning his pilot's license next year. He works so hard for our family and I'm so grateful for all he does. He's such a good man. I can't wait for him to be able to have the joy flying will bring him. He so much deserves it.

All ready for a fun day at the Airshow.

Haylee thought it was so awesome to sit in the plane. She's going to love going up with Daddy.

I had so much fun watching my sweet little girl play so sweetly with my sweet little boy. What a couple of sweeties!
(Click to enlarge)

Daddy's 'copilot'

I love his little hands wrapped around her waist. I hope they always play together like this.

Airplane Haylee

I love the joy in her face when she is so totally delighted. Priceless.

And what's an airshow without a special treat? Chocolate strawberries and whipped cream. Yum!

You can see the full album here: facebook album (You can view it even if you're not a facebook user.)

Our Little Modest Girl

2009-06-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

I think the look on her face just about says it all... She was appalled he was showing so much skin because his onsie was falling way off his shoulder. So she helped him put it back on. Adorable for sure.

Some Aqua and a Self Timer

2009-06-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

We were all matchy matchy so I got out my self-timer and tried to get a good shot. I got lucky!

Rite of Passage

2009-05-31T23:25:00.000-07:00

Doesn't every child have to experience this game? Today was Haylee's first time.

She had a blast. She's so adorable. Brandon and I had fun playing with her. It's so fun to watch her so much enjoying being with us. She is an angel.

McKay's Birthday Party

2009-05-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

kay... Facebook just totally simplified my life. Did you know you can post a link to an album that anyone can view? I've been struggling with how to post pictures on our blog and on fb (facebook), and where to post pictures so that people didn't have to be bored with 50 from one event on my blog, but people could see them if they wanted elsewhere... I tried photobucket, but it was another step I didn't have time to do... yadda, yadda, yadda.... so now, I can just post to fb, post a few highlights to our blog, and post the link and if you want to see them all, you certanly can! I'm very excited. So... here's the link to the album if you want to see lots of pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115257&l=35cbf529f6&id=675650759

We had a small family gathering to celebrate a whole year with this sweet baby boy.
Here are a few highlights:

Cousins!

WOW what a mess!!!!

Thanks to everyone who came. It was a fun night.

Cinco De Mayo

2009-05-16T00:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm a sucker for using holidays as learning and fun experiences, so here's our Cinco De Mayo adventures for this year. It was fun doing fun things and teaching and learning with my kids. We're grateful for our friends with Mexican heritage and what they bring to our lives.

Mexican Omelets for breakfast
We went to the library to read books about Cinco De Mayo.

Lunch at a Mexican Restaraunt

Mmm... Nachos for dinner!And what's Cinco De Mayo without a Pinata?

Happy Birthday McKay!!

2009-05-13T22:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday McKay! I am going to miss my baby McKay soo much. I am so grateful for him in my life. He has been such a joy and a blessing this year. I adore him. Here are a few random pictures to review this year with this precious little boy. I love you McKay!

Mexico Cruise

Sitting up

First Solids

This boy LOVES balls!
Happy birthday little one! Thank you for being in my life.

More Haylee Birthday fun

2009-05-05T23:00:00.000-07:00

Haylee got to open a few more gifts a couple days after her birthday, and they were so special I wanted to share them too...

Reading her card with Daddy

Papa and Granna gave her her very own REAL camera! Soo cool! She loves it! She loves to take pictures like Mamma so she has so much fun with this. I'll have to post some of her pictures sometime.
I love the joy she has... such beautiful sparkling eyes. Her daddy's eyes. I call them 'sunshine eyes.'

Sparkles on her hands (the wrapping paper was glittery.)

She got an adorable baby doll high chair from Nana and Poppy. She loves her baby dolls, and doing things like Mamma, so this was a perfect gift for her.

She was so sweet and loves it completely.

My Missionary Brother!

2009-04-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

My brother submitted his mission papers!! I'm so proud of him and I'm so grateful for what he brings to our lives. Love you Kev! Congratulations!!

Haylee's Birthday

2009-04-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

I know it's almost a month late now, but what can I say? I'm definately not prompt at getting these up. :) Here they are anyway though. Thank you to everyone who helped make Haylee's birthday a special day for her.

Breakfast with Papa

Opening Ahma's gift... part of it was a tiny baby doll. (You have to look closely to see it.) She loved it. She cradled it in her little arms, and rocked it and gave it kisses. It was darling.

I watched my cousin Dallen that day, so Janeal (my sister) and I took the kids to the dollar store and McDonalds for lunch. What an adventure!

Grandma Marlene came over to give Haylee her birthday present and then came up to Haylee's room to play with her. Haylee loved that.

Auntie Janeal gave Haylee her present too - a necklace with a bunch of little charms to put on it.

Happy Third Birthday Haylee!

At her little family party at frozen yogurt. All the toppings she wanted! Heaven!

Opening presents... this one an awesome scrapbooking backpack from GG! Haylee was royally spoiled... thank you everyone!

I dove into my crafty side, using my new-found and still developing sewing skills and made her a little blanket and pillow for her baby dolls and a tablecloth for her little table. It's fun to see her play with them and they were fun easy projects to do.

Taking off with her loot!!

After we got home, there was another gift waiting for her from Amy! She loves this baby doll with the sucky.

Sleepy girl after after a big day. Last night with her sucky! You're a big THREE year old now!

Happy Birthday Princess!

McKay, Month by Month

2009-04-14T23:15:00.000-07:00

Each month during their first year (and each year after that), I take a picture of my kids with a particular stuffed animal to show their growth. I've loved doing it, and I love having these precious pictures. I supposed I should probably wait to post this until his one year birthday, but then again, I guess I should just have been posting them all along. I'll just have to post it again in a month!

One Day

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T01:40:00.001-07:00

Looks like it's going to be a polka-spotty kinda day!

2009-04-07T14:41:00.000-07:00

Ode to Suckys

2009-04-05T23:37:00.000-07:00

As we've finally be-rid ourselves of the precious sucky, I thought I'd swipe my friend Lori's idea and pay a tribute to them here. Haylee (yes, I'm talking about Haylee, not McKay) has finally given up the sucky, as we call it. Although not by choice by any means. She absolutely loves her sucky. She doesn't have any other lovey, but she does adore her sucky. She's totally addicted. I kept hoping she'd give it up on her own, but no suck luck. It's now day four of no suckys, and she's still not toally convinced that they're not coming back. She keeps asking for it at nap and bedtime (the only times she used it.) We decided to just go cold turkey the day after her third birthday (we decided it would be easiest to be able to tell her three year olds were big girls and didn't use suckys) (day after because we didn't want to ruin her birthday). She wouldn't take a nap, but I laid down with her at bed time and 'taught' her how to go to sleep without a sucky, and she actually did! Amazing! I'm sad to see it go, because it means my baby girl really isn't a baby anymore.

Like Lori, I thought I'd post some of my favorite sucky moments:

And the very last picture of Haylee with her sucky. Goodnight my little sucky girl.

Happy Birthday Haylee!

2009-04-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

My little girl is THREE today! I can't believe it. It has been an awesome, amazing year with her. I adore her so much. She is such a special little girl and I am so grateful to have her in my life. She teaches me so much every day and I am so grateful for her example, love, compassion, tenderness, spirit, forgiveness and patience. I am a lucky mamma. Here are some highlights from this year, starting with her second birthday last year, and ending with the last picture of her two years old, last night.

I love you Haylee girl! Thank you so much for being in my life. I love you more than you'll ever know.

Our Super Fun St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

We had a great day, and I thought I'd tell you all about it, in addition to recording it for the kids for the future. Haylee is so sweet... she just loves life and loves it when we do fun things. She had such a great time. Makes me want to do stuff like this with her much more often.

The Green Family

We went to Brandon's work later in the day and they loved how we were all dressed up in so much green. Brandon says they called us "The Green Family" for the rest of the day and the next one.

We were going to read and eat Green Eggs and Ham, but Daddy got to come home early so we went to his work with him and out to lunch instead. We got a donut with green sprinkles. Haylee of course loved it.

McKay got to play with a 'pot of gold' at Daddy's work:

Haylee played a game where she covered the letter L's with "Lucky Leprechaun" while I sang a song. She loved it and she got them all right!

McKay got green yogurt! Mmmm...

And played with his green dinosaur... Love the smile on his face.

Haylee did this activity where she helped the Leprechaun get to his pot of gold by tracing his rainbow with colors. She's going to be a tough one to get homework done with. Eesh!

Once Haylee helped the Leprechaun get to his pot of gold, he shared some of his gold with her. She of course loved that. (Click to enlarge.)

After that she decorated a bag for our 'green walk.'

She had a great time on our walk.... gathering green stuff she saw to make a collage out of later.

McKay was on our walk too. What a cute boy!

Haylee used green glue to glue the stuff onto her paper.

She loves doing stuff like this, including her "scapbooking." She's going to be so much fun doing arts and crafts with... Mamma's little girl.

We played a game where she built a rainbow while I sang a song about the color names and ordinal numbers that she was putting up... "The red part goes up first..."

McKay got to eat yummy green veggies for dinner... mmm!

We followed directions to make a special "Pot of Gold" dessert... Haylee is all about anything sugary, so she had a blast.

Smashed up mint oreo's for the pot, mint chocolate chip ice cream, banana slices for the gold coins, green cool whip and green sprinkles... Delicious!

Isn't she gorgeous???

What a face! We had a great day didn't we baby girl? Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

$10 worth of FREE diapers (or wipes, or baby food etc.)! PLUS two free magazine subscriptions!

2009-03-13T16:29:00.000-07:00

I just placed my first order with diapers.com and it was great! I didn't have to go to the store, I did it while I was holding my sleeping baby, and they'll deliver it for FREE right to my door! I also got wipes, some baby food, teeting biscuts, and refills for my diaper pail! All without going to a store (which I really hate), within the comfort of my own home, and they'll bring it all to me! How cool is that?!

If you haven't used diapers.com yet, you've got to try it. Use this code: CRYS4014 and get $10 off your first order. Hey, free diapers is always good right?! Plus, you get a free subscription to Parenting magazine, or you can choose to get a rebate for about $15 instead! AND you get a FREE subscription to Babytalk magazine! (Make sure you check the box when you register for the site). Not to mention I get a $5 credit on my account!

If you haven't done this, give it a try! Hey... free diapers (and other baby related stuff) never hurt anyone! And there's always baby showers too!

February Highlights

2009-03-06T22:51:00.001-08:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Snowday

2009-02-22T21:48:00.001-08:00

We went to the snow a couple weeks ago and had a fantastic time. We went with Haylee and McKay's Grandma and Grandpa (My Dad and Lora). I got some great shots of my kids and had fun taking them. It helps to have such adorable subjects. ;)

This is my favorite:

Hands up!

I LOVE this picture.

Grandma, encouraging the throwing of snowballs....

Snowball fight with Mamma... Haylee thought it was sooo hillarious and had so much fun. She was so adorable.

I didn't want to bore you all with too many pictures, but if you want to see the rest, you can here.

Dinner for me!

2009-02-18T22:05:00.000-08:00

Haylee came downstairs today and told me to "come eat!" So I followed her upstairs and on the way she says something about "all cleaned up" and I was hoping she meant her room, since it looked like a tornado had hit it earlier. Alas, she didn't mean that, but what did come in to was much more precious. She had set up her little table with three plates of food (play food) and cups for us to have dinner with. She pulled my chair out for me and said "you sit here. I push your chair in." Sooo cute! We started eating and she says "tell me when you want some more okay?" And when we eating, she was going to give me a piece of bread and says "I take the crust off," and started pulling at the edges of the pretend bread pretending to take the crust off. She amazes me at her creativity, observations and smart-ness. Later on, she made us hot chocolate and used her little play wisk to stir it. I have no pictures to show for the story, because I didnt want to ruin the moment by leaving to get my camera, but it was totally adorable, let me just assure you.

Sweet Haylee

2009-02-09T10:05:00.000-08:00

Haylee in her new Christmas dress. This little girl is simply the sweetest little thing I've ever met. She just has a genuine sweet, tender heart. I've never seen anything like it. She cares about everyone around her. She never wants anybody to be sad. The other day we saw her on the ground comforting a little girl who was sad... laying down by her and stroking her arm and talking quietly and gently to her, probably saying "its okay..." A couple days ago we were on the way home from her Grandpa's house in the evening, after a birthday party that afternoon, and out of nowhere she says "I had fun at Connor's house. I had fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Thank you mama taking me to Connor's house. Thank you mama taking me to Grandma and Grandpa's house." No prompting whatsoever. (I have taught her to thank me for those kinds of things in the past, but I had said nothing that day.) I just couldn't believe it.

Just now her brother woke up and after smiling at him and saying "good morning" she says "want a toy?" and she goes and gets him a toy to play with. She does that all the time... whenever he's crying, or grabbing at stuff when we're changing his diaper... she ask's him if he wants a toy and goes and gets him one. What a doll. I am so grateful to have this sweet little child in my life. She is such a good example to me.

Wedding hairclips

2009-02-08T20:47:00.000-08:00

Hairclips I made for the little girls in Cari Cannon's daughter's wedding. My mom did the flowers for the wedding so I used her stuff (ribbon, fresh flowers, etc.) and the hair clips matched the wedding perfectly.

I know that's totally random, but its one of the things on my mental list of things to post, so I'm knocking one thing off that list. :)

Hilary Weeks' Favorite Things

2009-02-06T22:05:00.000-08:00

You absolutely have got to see this video. Especially you moms out there. LOVE IT! I've seen her do it live and it's awesome. I promise I'll do a real update soon.

And here's one more.

More Catch-Up... Halloween Costumes

2009-01-12T02:03:00.001-08:00

Okay, so since I didn't get any good pictures of the kids on Halloween, and since my mom was in Greece and my grandmas didn't get to see their costumes, I was going to re-dress my kids in their costumes and take some nice pictures and show off their costumes. But alas, as with many things in my life, that didn't happen. And although I'd still like to do it, I figured I needed to go ahead and post the pics I do have now, so I can move onto Christmas!

Here are my adorable little turtle and my pretty little ladybug.

I pieced McKay's costume together from all over... And I painted the shell. I'd originally planned on making Haylee's ladybug costume, but I found this one online while I was looking for ideas, and it was so adorable so I decided to just buy it. We did make her bag and ladybug wand though.

Here's my attempt to get one of them together...

I'll post when I finally get around to taking some nice pictures of them in their costumes... (ha ha ha...)

Hairclippies

2008-12-15T23:00:00.000-08:00

My friend Melanie Cadle taught me how to make these hairclippies awhile back, and I've had so much fun with them. Thanks so much Melanie! They're so much fun to make and I've had so much fun making them to match specific outfits and always having one to match Haylee's clothes. I took this picture during our Mexico cruise of a bunch I made to match her outfits for the cruise.

I love this one I made to match a teal and brown outfit she has:

Pumpkin Patch (I know I should be saying 'Happy Holidays...')

2008-12-04T14:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know it's waaaaaay past pumpkin patch time, but I can't seem to find the time to update this thing often enough. Sorry about that. But I LOVE pumpkin patch pictures, so I had to post them.

Here's the family shot from our second attempt at going to the pumpkin patch:

These are from our first attempt at going to the pumpkin patch. We got there when they were closing so we didnt get a pumpkin, but I did get a couple pictures (even without my good camera):

A Little Catch-Up

2008-11-24T22:38:00.000-08:00

These were taken awhile ago, but they are so cute so I had to share. We went to the Children's Museum in San Jose and had a fantastic time. Here are a couple shots of Haylee painting and an adorable one of my kids at storytime.

Aren't they sweet? Haylee is so sweet with McKay. She adores him. She always wants him to sit by her (or, according to her, McKay wants to sit by her) in the car and always wants to hold his hand. She's holding his arm in this picture as well.

They also had face painting there, for you to do yourself. I painted a couple shapes on Haylee's cheeks and she loved it! I just loved her facial expressions in these pictures. Make sure you click on them so you can see her expressions bigger. She's such an adorable child.

Hopefully I'll be able to post more tomorrow... there's a lot to do still!

6 Month Old McKay

2008-11-13T13:20:00.000-08:00

My Yes on 8 Experience and THANK YOU!!

2008-11-07T15:19:00.000-08:00

PROP 8 PASSED!!!!

I wanted to thank each one of you who had anything to do with it passing.... whether forwarding my email, talking to a friend, or saying a prayer. Thank you for everything.

I also wanted to post a youtube video I made of our experience with Proposition 8. It was an awesome ride, and I am so glad to have been a part of it.

Yes on 8 Rally

2008-11-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

The kids and I went to a rally at the capital a couple of days ago for Prop 8. It was a neat experience and I was glad to be a part of it. I've been really excited to be a part of this whole process. Its neat to believe strongly about something and to stand up for it and take action. I'm glad we have the freedom to speak out for what we believe in - at least mostly. (I say mostly because our 'Yes on 8' sign has been stolen three times already. But that's a story for another day.)