Voting

I voted and the best part.....no lines! I have not had to wait in line since we moved here, before that we waited about an hour. I did do something I thought I would never do, I took two kids with me. Ky has to work late and the other option wait for him to get home and possibly not vote. It turned out all good, they were great. Besides, we were in and out in less than 10 minutes.

Halloween Festivites 2012

Our Halloween festivities started about a week ago. We had the father-daughter achievement day party. I thought Ky and the girl looked awesome! Thanks to Chris and Chantelle for loaning us the outifts. I think Kaite looked hilariously cute, I didn't get an individual pic of her though- I should have. They had fun carving pumpkins and such. I was in charge of pics, I really need to learn to just use my Cannon it is by far my favorite camera, the other one takes awesome pics...sometimes!

I still laugh when I look at Kaite in that wig!

Last Friday was the school parties and then the carnival. I took the girls solo since Ky was working, and I completely forgot my camera. We had fun and everyone did great. Lyvi chilled in her stroller and was awesome. The girls hit most of the games, but due to ballet we were 30 minutes late so we didn't have time to do everything. 

The girls had their faces painted.

 

 Kami is such a character!

 

 I should have been paying more attention to the games. One of the rooms was marked "goldfish" I just assumed it was the fishing game they have every year, nope! They had real fish, we came home with 3 and 1 has already died. I have repeatedly said "no more animals"! Ky laughed when he found out. Kami loves them,

and even talks to them.

 We finished carving our pumpkins Tuesday night, Ky never had time to do one.

Kami's (she used cookie cutters and it didn't work so well), mine, Kaite's, and Ash's candy corns.

 All of them out on the steps including the two from the party that would not stay lit.

 We made cupcakes and decorated them with my cute Halloween sprinkles I have.

 Lyvi was a happy tigger, for some reason I didn't get many pics of her in her costume.

 At the trunk-or-treat. My pink fairy, candy corn, and Trixie the Halloween fairy.

 

 Lyvi sucking on her fingers and taking it all in. She will be ready next year!

We stopped by Chris and Chantelle's as always. Chris had to work again this year, but Chelsea looked cute as Tinkerbell.

Halloween use to be one of my favorite holidays but for some reason the last two years have been horrible. I am so glad when it is over, maybe it is the sugar high my kids get (Kami slept until 10 this morning) but for whatever reason I just don't enjoy it like I use to. I guess it could have been the really bad sinus infection I am recovering from right now. I feel better, but still not great.

Now on to Thanksgiving, I am actually looking forward to it.

5 Months Old

 Lyvi is 5 months old today. She weighs 13.8 pounds and is25  inches long. She is so cute! She loves her sisters so much and can't wait to play with them. Yesterday as the girls were playing in the SNOW Lyvi just watched them and really wanted to join in. She is quite the eater. She can eat 3 bowls of oatmeal or rice cereal. We started her on squash and she does NOT like it. The first time I gave it to her she spit it at me, (yep got that on video) and laughed about it! Now when I feed it to her she just makes faces. She rolls over but doesn't like to do it, she prefers to cruise around in her walker. She is getting pretty good at sitting up by herself, and she can stand for about 30 seconds holding onto the couch! Also, she throws her toys all over and then looks at us like "aren't you going to get that". She still thinks it is so funny to pee on me, I don't. My favorite milestone is that she has really learned to love her bath. She seriously LOVES bath time! She kicks and splashes everywhere, soaks me all the time. She also likes to drink the water so we have to really watch her, but she could spend hours in the tub. She is really such a happy baby, and is sleeping 10 1/2 hours at night (and has figured out how to stick her binky in her mouth)!! But no matter what time she goes to bed she wakes up at the same time, so no sleeping in for us ever.... if we could just go to bed when she does. She is finally getting to a stage that I really enjoy. She loves to talk, laugh, and interact with us. Also, she has discovered how to scream like a dying cat. She really likes to do this when it is quiet, like during church, it is actually pretty funny! Lyvi loves books and loves it when we read to her. She also likes to eat them and anything else she can put in her mouth, still no teeth yet but you can see all 4 now they are so close. She is such a joy to have around. I don't remember what life was like before her, we sure love her!
 

Produce

I really can't believe it has been so long since I have posted. 

We have been having fun around here. The girls have been passing around a cold, I think it has finally made it's way through everyone. And we have been harvesting all our produce we received. I find it funny that even though we didn't plant a garden this year I have had so much produce I wasn't quite sure what to do with it all. We ate as many cucumbers as we could. I made a ton of zucchini bread. I dried a ton of onions, that made the house really stink! The tomatoes were the challenge though, we got a ton of tomatoes. I canned a ton of salsa, but I still had so many tomatoes. We ate a bunch, but in the end I made a HUGE batch of tomato soup and froze it. And..... I still have more tomatoes ripening! Also, now I have a big bag of carrots to peel, chop, and freeze. I really missed the spaghetti squash this year we didn't get any of that, too bad. The real bummer is that we didn't pick the apples in time they all fell off, and there was only one tree that produced this year.

The girls have been enjoying the fall weather we have had. They are really hoping to see the snow we are suppose to get this week. I don't mind as long as it stays off the roads!

The girls are all ready for Halloween and so excited. I have looked at our schedule and I feel like the year is just flying by. I realized this morning that Lyvi will be 5 months old in 3 days, and Kaite's birthday is coming up really quick. The good news Ky will be done with this semester around then.

One of the funniest things I have done lately is patch pants (I should have taken a picture). The reason that is funny- Kaitlyn! Kami hit a growth spurt and grew out of all her size 4 jeans, well I got looking and the size 5 jeans were destroyed! They didn't survive Kaite! I got thinking and remembered that she also destroyed the size 6 jeans. I had to move her up to the 7's early because it was so bad. So, I spent an afternoon patching a huge pile of shorts and pants that were Kaitlynized! I saved the ones I could but some have holes in other places besides the knees. I just had to laugh because that is Kaite. I also noticed she has started destroying the size 8's. We decided that since there are two more girls that need to use them we are just going to get some new ones, I resolved myself to the fact that this will happen with all pants and shoes, yeah she destroys those too! You just got to love her! That brings me to my next addiction...e.b.a.y. I looked for cute jeans around here for Kami and could only find cute ones for aver $30 and I am not paying that much for kid jeans (wrong time of the year to be buying). I did find awesome ones on e.b.a.y, some new with tags some gently used. I did well and bought her 5 pair for less than $30 and that includes some with tags on them, and they are super cute! I have also been watching for cute leo's for Kaite, and I have found some I really love!

The girls had their primary program this past weekend. They did good. I wasn't sure if Kami would even do her part she was so nervous. When we practiced at home she would only whisper, so I told her to just look at me and she would be good. The poor thing couldn't find me at first and I think Monica thought she forgot her part, but she did it and we could hear her! Ash and Kaite did awesome and I loved hearing Ash's class sing, they did great. I was so disappointed though because we had 4 boys that thought it was funny to yell instead of sing so we really couldn't hear the kids sing just those boys yelling. It really detracted from the spirit. That's our ward though.....I recently found out what the other wards in the building say about ours, they are right on.

 We had the missionaries over for dinner last week and they are a fun group. I think I have enjoyed Ky's calling more than him. I have enjoyed getting to know each of the young men we have had. I do find it funny that most of them are from the south, we just freeze them out! Also, I am glad he has the calling now and not in 6 years when we have teenagers! Been there done that! I do enjoy that they just drop by at times, they are more relaxed then and not so stuffy!

Another post on Friday with Lyvi's monthly update (hopefully) Fridays are so busy for us!

Catch Up

Alright, since I haven't had much time for blogging (or much of anything else) I figured I needed to just catch up all at once. Here are some pics of what we have been up to.

I finally got Ash's bed done; I also got Ky's dresser painted but no pics of that. I think Ash's bed turned out so cute.

 

 The girls enjoyed spending time with Lyvi during spud harvest. I enjoyed sleeping in, well sort of.

 We have had some gorgeous sunrises.

 Lyvi has started to cruise in her walker, she loves it. She also thinks we are funny when we get so excited because she moves it.

  Mar took Ash in to get her hair highlighted. This was her b-day present to Ash. We weren't on board with this at first, but decided you have to pick your battles. She looks cute as always and I love the way they styled her hair.

  The girls earned more ribbons during skills week. Kami got 4 and has been doing awesome with her back-handsprings (spotted). She was so happy. Kaite finally earned her green ribbon. She had to do a cart-wheel dismount off the beam and get her windmills down on bars. If she gets her standing back-handspring (solo) and middle splits down she will get her blue ribbon, she is working hard.
(The girls have different skill charts so a green for Kami is different for Kaite)

Two weekends ago we headed up to look at the leaves. Once the smoke finally cleared out I could see that the hill was all lit up with the fall colors. We had fun and the girls really enjoyed it. The pics don't do the colors justice.

 We stopped by the cabin and put the boat away, here is a view of the river from the bridge.

 More colors

  We stopped by upper falls on the way home. Kaite was giving us the grand tour since she just had her field trip there a couple of weeks ago.

 Us girlies

 The falls

 So I was really excited to see the red leaves and this was one of the only pics I got of them.

 The sunset was gorgeous!

 

 The mountains in the background.

 

 We had a fun trip and we even saw a skunk crossing the road, the girls loved that. Ky honked at it and it tried to spray the Tahoe....silly boy!

 Ash had her friends party awhile ago. I let her invite 7 friends (not sure what I was thinking). They had fun hanging out at the barn. They ate pizza, played games, and had fun.

 

 And there were presents.

 Silly girls... Camille, Kenadee (her BFF), Ash, and Azlynn

Kaite and Mar playing Cory's xbox.

She had a fun party and I am glad it is over!

Okay so I think I am caught up. Oh except for this last weekend. We spent Friday night at the barn watching Avengers. The girls were so excited Kaite can't stop talking about it. They watched it 3 times in a couple of days. Mar and Cory joined us for a few nights of dinner (homemade lasagna) and a skunk spraying! Yep, last night Cory was lucky he didn't get sprayed. I think the skunk was on the deck when he cracked the door open it sprayed the house and wow did it stink (and still does a little bit). He is so lucky! I used a whole bottle of vinegar trying to get the smell to go away, but we still can't open the deck door. Ky is going to try to get it tonight.

 That is our crazy life for now.

4 Months

Our Lyvia is four months old today. She has grown quite a bit since she was born. She is 13 pounds and about 25 1/2 inches long. She is getting so fun. She smiles so much and is very happy. She is still sleeping 9-10 hours at night and takes 3 naps during the day. She has her routine down it only varies a half hour, meaning morning nap is always within thirty minutes of 10:30. Also we could set our alarm clocks by her (6 am most mornings), and bedtime at 8:30. She is such a good sleeper and can put herself to sleep in about 10 minutes or less if she has her elephant and mobile. She is grabbing at everything and promptly puts it in her mouth, still no teeth but they are there. She drools on everything and most days wears a bib so she isn't soaking wet. My favorite thing is that her personality is really starting to come through. She LOVES to pee on me and laugh about it, seriously she does it all the time! She also loves her sisters so much and gets so excited to see them. She is quite the gabber and is almost saying mama, I have heard an occasional mom though.She likes to spin in circles but won't roll over yet, she hates tummy time. I have seen her roll unintentionally a few times. She loves her rattles and any toy that makes noise. She is still a homebody and prefers to just stay at home with her routine, she is happiest then. She really wants to play with her sisters and you can see it, she just looks at them and gets so excited. She loves to sit up. I have to get her walker cleaned up so we can use it, I think she will love it. She also loves to stand and we have started "walking" her from person to person, she gets so excited. We really love having her around. She recognizes her name and all or our voices. She still doesn't care for the binky and will take her fingers any day!

Here are some cute pics of her.

This one is of her "talking" to us.

So about two weeks ago I did something most people would not agree with. We gave her rice cereal. I will admit we started early, earlier than I ever have before. However, her begging for food was so pathetic and it only got worse after Kami gave her a taste. Anyway, I figured we would try it and see how she did. Well she LOVES it, can't get enough. And she doesn't spit hardly any out like the other three did. I think we will stick with this for awhile before we introduce anything else, she is still young.

She opens up really wide for it.

And smiles the whole time.

She does get upset when I am done feeding her. I think she would live on the stuff if I let her. I hope this means she will be an awesome eater! And she loves to drink out of a sippy cup and water bottles. She is growing up too fast.

Family Reunions

Okay so back in August the Washington group came down for over a week. Wow, what a week it was! We had fun with dinners, playing, and activities. However, most of that got hampered by the stomach flu. Yep we shared the stomach flu with everyone. It hasn't quite been long enough to be considered funny yet, not quite. The rest of the time was fun though. We ate good food, had fun swimming, playing volleyball, games at the barn, and had an interesting boating trip. The boat did not want to cooperate, turns out is was some emissions thing that was causing all sorts of trouble. It was an easy fix, if we had only known. Mar tried to break her leg, but the kids had fun swimming in the reservoir.

Mar will not be happy I posted this pic. Thankfully, just a huge really nasty bruise. I really thought she had at least cracked it.

 The kids swimming.

 

 One of my favorite things about getting the family together is listening to all the stories. Here is the siblings minus Diane, and Bonnie is in for Ron. Aunt Kay wasn't able to make it due to the fact that school was getting ready to start and she had all sorts of meetings with the faculty.

 

 Lyvi LOVED Aunt Bonnie. She seriously sat and gabbed for hours with her, multiple times. It is too bad we don't live closer I think we could have found a babysitter!

Unfortunately, that is all the pics I took. We were hit and miss and super busy with the bug. We passed it around our family in a matter of days and then all the Washington group (except a select few) got it right as they were headed home. The last day everyone was here I think half of the people at the barn (there were more than 30) had it, the rest of us went swimming. The girls had so much fun with their cousins. They have like 6 other girls their age. Kaite and Miriam were inseparable. Ash hit it off with Elizabeth and Mia, her and Mia still text. We sure are going to miss them and hope we can see them soon. We had a ton of fun!

After they left George flew in for a week and James drove down. We hit the pool and the cabin. It has been so long I can't remember everything that was done, but we had fun.

James showed up solo, too bad Amanda couldn't come. And he showed up with a rat on his face?!? What is that about James? He shaved it before he left.

This was taken with my cell and came out way blurry.

George with the girls.

Cooking smores' over the grill since there was a burn ban in effect.

Lyvi chillin.

Mar and Lyvi hiding from the mosquitoes.

The swing set was taken down with all the snow last year(?). So since everyone was there they decided to put it back up. This was a lot scarier than it sounds!

Ky and James carried the huge log up the ladder. All us girls stayed under the safety of the roof in case it did come down.

  James' side was really unstable.

Ky's side was last. I am just glad nobody got hurt, let's not do that again!

George came over and played some wii before he left.

Then Mahon and Cindy came up over Labor day weekend. They shared their happy news with us, which Ash picked up on the fastest of everyone. I am more than happy to unload all my baby stuff!! We spent a fun night hanging out with them and playing ticket to ride.

Then we had a BBQ at the in-laws and sang to Ash. The boys killed hornets, there are some funny pics of this! Me and Chantelle hit the mall and did some girly shopping for Ash's b-day.

Family photo; Lyvi was sleeping.

 

 That was pretty much August and the first part of September. I think we literally had a day or two between groups, it was kind of a crazy blur. We really had fun and it was nice to spend so much time with family. Hopefully, we don't have to wait too long to see everyone again, the holidays are coming. I will say it was a relief to get back into a routine when things settled down. 

I was originally going to make this 3 posts, but I don't think I ever would have gotten to that. I am already at least 2 more behind as of now.