Family Pics

AHHHHH!!

I LOVED this idea!!! Notice my super cute ring...yeah she made that for me too and taught me to make them. I LOVE them!!

This one cracks me up. Kenzie's face!!! ha ha. It is sooo her to the T!!

Couldn't be sweeter!!!

I love this face!!!

Aren't they the cutest. I know I'm not bias!!

So first week of September my wonderful best friend Mandie from capturedmomentsbymandie.blogspot.com took these pics. I'm not a picky picture taker. I just want one good one of each of my kids and one good family pic. Well I got sooooo much more. She is so wonderful with my kids. She got some great poses and smiles out of them. Our family pics turned out wonderful too. I couldn't be more happy. I already have several of them up in my house. I felt like I couldn't get them big enough because they turned out so great. I recommend her to ANYONE cause she kicks butt. I'm not just saying that cause she's my best friend...she honestly is so wonderful and so talented at what she does. I LOVE that girl!!!

Kenzie's Famly B-day Party

The next day after her princess party it was the family party. We had dinner and cupcakes. The cupcakes I made were strawberry cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting. They were soooo good. She got new jammies, coat, magnet dress up dolls, mermaid barbie, chapstick, and we gave her a big box of dress up clothes that I found at a garage sale (big score, 5 dresses, like 8 pairs of shoes for $13...score me) and lots of hugs and kisses. It was so fun. She has used everyone of them already SEVERAL times. She was sooo happy!!!

Kenzie' B-day Princess Party

Princess dance party!!!

Making princess crowns!!

All the princesses!!! Annie, Kenzie, Evenlyn, and Miri. All girls from our ward that she LOVES!!!

The table setup!!

On Sept 18th Kenzie turned 3. Where did the time go. WOWZA!!! We had "tea party" with cupcakes, cheese, bananas, little princess castle sandwiches, grapes and such. They ate it all with princess toothpicks which they thought was pretty fun. Then they decorated princess hats, played with princess castles, opened gifts and much more. It was super simple but super fun. My wonderful mom saved the day and helped with Aubree during the party. It truly was a lot of fun!!

Utah Trip

Aubree's lovin it too!!!

Diggin for fossils!!

Kenzie "planting trees."




Steven surfin!!!

Aubree sat like this on the boat for almost 5 hours. She was happy to just sit there, watch people, and be as snug in her life jacket as possible. Too cute!!

So Steven and I haven't ventured out so much this year. For our family vacation we went to stay with his sister's family in Highland. It was super fun. We ate AWESOME cause my sister in law is a great cook. Like beef tenderloin melt in your mouth good. Also, we went boating. Steven and I tried the surfing thing and it was so fun. I didn't get to the sweet spot to let go but maybe next year. I think it is more fun that actual wakeboarding. On our way out we went to the Dinasaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Kenzie loved that. They had these off the ground sand

box type things with water and toys. You could make dams, set up scenery type things. She could have been there all day. Then there was a place where you could dig fossils yourself. And yes we got a suvenior...Mr. Steggy!!! She still sleeps with it all the time.

Stevo's plane ride

Adam in front of the plane they rode in!!!

See the gorgeous view down below!!!

Our friend Adam had a plane ride he got from his lovely wife Kristin for his birthday. He invited Steven to go with him. It was 6am thing but Steven didn't care, he LOVED every second of it. Adam got to drive the plane and Steven was a little jealous though he wouldn't say anything about it. He talked about it for like 3 days straight. They were in the air for only 45min, but Steven said it was soooo worth it. Does he secretly want to be a pilot???

Kenzie's First Swimming Lesson

This is her getting her certificate at the end. Showing papa!!!

The first week of August Kenzie got to have her first swimming lesson. It is very basic skills learning but she loved it and was so proud of herself every time. We will be doing many more next year. She learned how to blow bubbles under water. Float on her back, swim with her arms in front of her and bobb for toys under that water.

McCall Trip

This is Kenzie being "Ariel" and swimming. She loved the water because she could see the really tiny fish.
When Scott and Jamie came it was Ella's b-day in the middle. Aubree's b-day was like a month before but we never "officially" celebrated it because her b-day was the day after we got back from Trek. We were T-I-R-E-D. It was her first b-day...I know...I know, lamo me. Who almost skips their kids 1st b-day. We didn't technically skip it, we just hopped over it a little with just some cupcakes on her b-day. So we joined in on the fun of celebrating Ella's b-day too. She turned 5 and went to Kindergarten(holy cow) this year. I made a "princess castle cake." Not the best in the world but we'll get better. I have several b-days to practice with.

They LOVE hanging out with their Grandma Robbie

This is a pic of the girls enjoying the sand and water. Aubree stayed in the same spot for almost 2 hours just diggin away. Kenzie learned that she LOVES to make sand castles and swim in the water.

So this summer during July Scott, Jamie, Ella, and Cole came to visit from Indiana. It is always sooooo wonderful to see them. I miss them so much and Kenzie still to this day at night prays for Ella and "Coco" to come visit soon. So sweet. We went to McCall for one night and stayed in a fabulous cabin that had a fenced in yard, large great room, hot tub and several bedrooms. It was so great to be able to just relax and visit, ride the boat, have fun on the beach, and just get to hang out.

Aubree's Black Eye

On the Fourth of July we were in Blackfoot having a wonderful time and SMACK went Kenzie on the edge of Steven's brother's tub. It was marble so it was extra hard. It swelled up instantly and was black and blue. It was so awful. I have a little secret. It may be a secret to some and not to others because they have witnessed it. My nurse hat flies away when there is something wrong/hurt with my kids. I can't remember what to do and yes, I cry and Steven is the one comforting me too in the process. I laugh about it afterwards but while I'm going through it I don't like it. I've talked to several other medical professional people and they say the same things happens with them, so I guess I'm not alone or do they just want to make me feel better:) I'll think I'm not alone!!! Aubree is our huge accident prone child, hence broken arm and now this. She is always falling and bumping her head. You will never see her without a scratch or bump. I need to put this girl in a bubble.

Daddy and Kenzie's campout

This was me and Kenzie in the morning. I was a party pooper and didn't sleep outside so I could hear Aubree during the night.

This summer before one of Steven's scout camps he had to get the tent out and ready so he decided to just keep it out and have a camp out in the back yard with Kenzie!! It was so cute. I went to a girl's night out and came back and they were making smores on the bbq grill outside. This is her messy face above enjoying every moment of it. It took until 10pm for her to fall asleep but she loved every minute of it. They didn't rough it too much. We have a queen aerobed that they slept on. it's pretty comfy. It was just so sweet to see them having a memorable daddy/daughter moment..love it!!

Kenzie's best buddy

So I'm gonna have to start from like June....yes June and catch up here. I just had to post this. This is Kenzie's good buddy Charlie. She LOVES him. I've never had her play with someone so well as him. They never fight, push, or whine when they are with each other.....he is also very very cute!!!

Seriously kids!!!

This is a pick the day she got her cast off. She is completely messy eating her dinner which she loved. I have been feeding her baby food for the past 3 weeks because food kept getting stuck under her cast and it was getting really smelly, so she went for it when I let her free!!

This is Easter morning. One of the last shots of her right upper tooth still in her mouth. I don't have a pick on my camera yet of her tooth gone, sorry. She is asleep otherwise I would get one now...I also don't have picks of the pre-post surgery yet because I'm waiting for a lovely email from the mother with the picks...:)


These are a couple picks the day after she got her realy cast on. Still smiling and happy playing with toys. I was trying to upload a video of her gorilla crawl but it isn't working...I still don't know how to post them correctly on blogger...sorry

So these last few weeks have been ultimately crazy. First Aubree about 3 weeks ago fell off of Kenzie's bed and broke her arms. It happened while I was at work. I checked her when I got home and everything seemed to be fine. She was teething a lot then so I didn't think that there was a possiblity that a broken bone or bones was in the story here. She seemed to be a tiny bit whiney but nothing excessive. She ate dinner, I gave her Advil for her teeth before I put her to bed and she slept the whole night. Well the next morning I went to get her out of bed and she kept falling over when she was trying to push herself up. I don't know why that wasn't an alarm to me...hello Kassie. Then she was eating bananas for breakfast and the way she was picking them up was really odd. I then got an overwhelming feeling that I needed to take her into the office where I work. I then got her dressed and she was crying the whole time. From checking her I thought it was her shoulder. I went straight to the "docky" (as Kenzie says it) Kaylor and we got an x-ray. Both her radius and ulna bones were broken in the middle. Craziness. They then put a splint on her and sent us on our way. It was odd putting clothes on, not being able to bathe her etc. We had the appt with the specialist the next Wedesday, they put a realy cast on. A purple one...Kenzie picked the color and then told us to be back in 2 weeks. She acted like that cast wasn't even in her way. She was as happy as could be. She even learned how to crawl about 1 week after having it on. She looked a little bit like a gorilla....it was pretty funny. She finally got the cast off yesterday. We came home and she seemed to have a hard time crawling for a few hours but then got a hang of it and is now acting as though nothing ever happened. She was such a trooper. Oh ya and yesterday morning she woke up coughing/wheezing. She has had a cough for about 1 1/2 weeks and I have been trying to "home remedy" it but that morning...I just don't mess with wheezing...I know it's beyond what I can do from there. So I took her in, they put her antibiotics, prednilisone, and we have to do nebulizer treatments for 3 days. So poor things has gone through a lot lately, but she is still smiley and happy as ever. I hope she carries this attitude on into her adult life. It will come in handy. And no that's not it...

So we went in for Kenzie's first dentist appt last Wednesday. She did super good until they moved the chair down to lay down. Then she wanted nothing to do with it. She loved the instruments and the prize still. Dr. Grant looked at her teeth and instantly saw that above the tooth that she chipped when she was 15 months old there was a pretty bad abcess. They then referred us on to a pediatric dentist Dr. Emory. We went to him and he said that they needed to get it out because it was pretty bad. Funny thing is that Kenzie never complained of pain, EVER!! I think she just has never really used it after she chipped it so then she had surgery to get it extracted last Friday. She was very excited for this and said "docta take my sugar bugs out." This is how she understood it so I have let her think of it that way. They gave her Versed which was halarious. She began to just laugh at everything and was super happy. I would like to have some of that stuff for certain occasions and I know you moms out there that have 2 year olds know what I mean. They took her back and yes I lost it. Cried my eyeballs out into the waiting room. It is so much harder being on the other end. I like being the nurse MUCH better. So the surgery was only 30 minutes long. I guess she did really well. They came and got us ASAP...I asked that we go back as soon as we could and they did. When she woke ups he was ticked. Mad that all these things were on her...especially the IV. They took them off and I held her while they monitored her for a little longer. We then went home and about 1 hours later she was back to her normal self. Though she napped for 3 hours that day, I was still surprised at how fast kids metabolize that anesthesia. We adults are sleepy for like 3 days afterwards. She has done so well and has been almost proud that her tooth is gone. It hasn't bothered her at all. She even got a visit from the tooth fairy which she was so excited about. She got a whole dollar. She immediately wanted it in her "bunny bank" and she continued to go about her playing. Another thing with her is that two nights ago she was playing outside and she slipped and fell on the flower bed's edge which is wood. She got like 12 splinters in her wrist/hand/arm. We held her down for like 30 minutes with her screaming her head of yesterday and only got like 5 out. Not my favorite thing in the world. So none the less...we are ready for a vacation and I am ready for my kids to be well, without any sickness or ailments of any sort. Going through this I have felt a lot of gratitude for their general health. They are healthy and strong children that are developing and growing properly. What a blessing that is.

I swear I AM optimistic!!!!

So after my last post I got way too much of "that sounded like an awful day, is everything OK?" Don't get me wrong I feel pretty loved that so many people around me are concerned, but I didn't mean to concern you all so much. I just had to write that day/week down in detail so that I can look back at it someday and laugh about it. It was just one of those "no good, very bad days" which we all have had our fair share of I'm sure. I just think it's funny how literally EVERYTHING was not in my favor that day. ha ha. I promise I'm laughing about it now and I swear I'm an optimistic person.
So these last two weeks without a car have been difficult, I won't lie, but alsoa huge blessing. It has been quite nice outside so having my bike/trailer as my main transportation hasn't been so bad. I've gotten several waves from neighbors and friends and have enjoyed the exercise since I haven't been able to go to the gym. I won't lie, the my rear end is quite sore from sitting on the bike seat so often, but it's good for me right? Kenzie and Aubree love to go on "bike rides" and enjoy looking outside and going over the bumps. We have gone to several places with the ensemble (bike/trailer) and it has worked great. My bike trailer has a compartment in the back of it and can hold quite a good amount of stuff. We went to the grocery store and just bought a few things. We are so blessed to be near so many places. Convenience stores, grocery stores, friends, family, and parks to play.
I'm hoping our vehicle will be fixed soon. Steven and a friend of his who has a shop has done some research and the problem that we are having has to do with a recall on Trailblazers so we are being very blessed there. Soon we can go about our normal daily routine, but I will enjoy this little difference in it for now. It has forced me to be more creative with time that I spend with my children, I've baked a ton of things I've wanted to try (oh maybe that's why with all the bike riding I haven' lost any weight), I've started on several projects I've wanted to get to, and my children are taking naps/bedtime right when they should. Maybe the "olden day" of doing things isn't soo bad.

What a week!!!

I love this one. Aubree LOVES her sister and Kenzie is always trying to make sure she is OK. This truly captures their relationship. Kenzie and her chipped front tooth and all. Love it!!

And yes... she is still bald.

Warning: Long post ahead... had to write each detail for my remembrance later on so I can laugh at it someday, it does sound quite awful after reading it, but I promise, I'm laughing now...read at your own risk:)

So this last weekend was a weekend I was looking forward to for a long time. I am a person that needs something to look forward too cause it makes me be able to get things done quicker and I'm much more happy because there will be a "break" soon. I doesn't necessarily always have to be a weekend away. I'm even happy with a planned date night. Seriously, I'm pretty easy to please... ha ha.

So our friends Conrad and Mandie invited us up on a tradition that they have of going up to Tamarack during their off season. We stayed in this wonderful 3 bedroom 3 bath house, with a hot tub, bbq, huge deck, tv's in every room, and everything else you would want. Kenzie played to her heart's desire with Maycie and Jaxon (my friend's two oldest) went swimming in the hot tub 4 X per day and ate junk and watched movies over and over again. I think they watched Tangled like 6 times or something. She was in heaven. As well was I. All we did was eat, hot tub, sit and talk, and play card games. We did nothing, but it was an absolute blast and so much needed. Needed in the first place but after a week like last week, more needed than ever..

That in and of itself is another story. Sure I'll share it, why not.

So the beginning of last week our car broke down. You are thinking...it's about time the Subaru gave up, but no it's not the subaru that has 250,000 miles on it and is a 1993 and is just a piece of junk, but I have to say one of the best pieces of junk out there. It was the Trailblazer. It wouldn't start. In the middle of this happening Steven had to finish some big project at work before we could leave to Tamarack so he literally was working 20 hour days all last week so he could get it done. He would leave early, not come home until 1-3 in the morning and go do it again. He was exhausted but still able to make it (I swear he can make it wayyy less sleep than I can, why is he that way, I wish I was like that). One night he came home ate dinner went to Mutual and then came home and worked on the care ALL NIGHT LONG trying to fix some things. Oh, that didn't help anything. So after one of his 20 hour nights he came home and worked on it for the rest of the 4 hours in the day, and still nothing happening. Nothing was working. This poor kid was sooo exhausted and so tired. He NEVER complains though, once again, wish I did that too, never complained. So he said, how are we going to get to Tamarack??? This is the morning of the day we are supposed to leave. He went to work and opened and then tried to make that day a vacation day and then work on the car some more to see if something else would work, but work was too busy that day so he couldn't leave. I'm looking on the internet trying to find the cheapest car to rent out there. In the middle of this my best friend Mandie must have heard my plea up in Tamarack. She just called to make sure we were still coming up there and I told her what was going on. She then offered their other car to us. I was soooo grateful though I felt guilty that we had to borrow it. So getting a ride there was another deal. My parents were both working, my sis in law just had a baby and no more room in her car for my kids cause now she has 3 wonderful kiddos. I had no one to ask, so yes I asked my visiting teacher!! Can you believe it. I actually asked her. She was soo sweet and was very willing. I just told her. "This means I'm desperate if I am calling you for help." I guess that is why we have them right. She was such a help to me that day. Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us visiting teachers!! I then go out to the garage to look for my wallet so I could go to the store after getting the car (it was in Steven's car and I asked him to put it on the counter before he left but he forgot) no wallet to be found. I call him and he says, "yep, it's right under the seat where you left it." So no wallet. I scrounge around to find the check book because we NEVER use it. I find it and then call Steven back and get my drivers license info just in case people ask for my ID. I feel prepared and ready to go. So then my VT she comes and picks us up takes me to my friend's house and I unload the kids and away she drives. I open the garage with the code. My friend told me where to find the keys and I go to open the garge door to the house and it was locked. "This is NEVER locked." What the heck. So I put my kids in the car and Kenzie keeps yelling at me "Mommy go where?" I begin to walk around their house hoping that something is open. Nothing. She told me her sis-in-law should be there. Her car was on the side of the house. I rang the door bell for like 5 minutes, no answer. We were stranded. So then I called my friend's cell phones trying to see if they knew why their doors were locked and if her sis in law was really there. They wouldn't answer (later found out they were in the hot tub). So I sat in the car ans said a little prayer...then 5 seconds later Conrad answered. I told him everything was locked. He called his sister trying to find her. They really thought she was for sure there. So I went to the doorbell and consistently rang it for 5 minutes (not lying). I was yelling up at the window where I know her room is. Not coming, not coming, FINALLY the door opened. They were getting ready, had the blow dryer and shower going and couldn't hear the door bell ring. It was his sister's friend. She looked at me like I was absolutely crazy...which I really was getting to the crazy stage by now. I just wanted to get to Tamarack. No matter what it took. I got the keys and drove off. Thank heavens. So I went to Aubree's doctor because I knew she had an ear infection. Yep she sure did, had to go get her antibiotics and then we had to go to the store for a few more things. Remember I have my check book and my ID info but no actual ID. I get all the groceries I need and head to the register. She takes my check and says "you've used checks here before right?" I said "probably not, I never use checks but I'm extra ready today because my husband has my wallet and I don't have my ID but I have all my ID numbers and info, so we should be good." She said " we have to have your ID if this is the first time you have used your checks here, you're actual ID we have to scan." I said "well just try scanning the check through and see." I had my fingers literally crossed. Steven was about to be home in 15 min. so we could go to Tamarack and I was in a huge hurry. The scanner denied it, the cashier looked at me and said "it didn't go through." I begged for them to take it but they absolutely couldn't take it. I then began to do the most embarresing thing ever... I started to ball my eyes out. Not just little tears, large tears, yuckying crying voice. All of it. I just asked her to take the bags out of the cart. "It's not your fault I know but this is just my last string for the day" She then began to say that they can reserve my groceries if I want to come back. I said maybe I'll be back, we'll have to see. I was still crying. All the way out the door to the car, crying. It was yucky. During this Kenzie is yelling "mommy sad, why?" So sweet but just made the moment worse because I was just mortified of what was happening. Luckily we got home, went to Freddies on our way out and got to Tamarack about 1 hour later than we planned. I can't tell you how happy I was to see that place. I literally wanted to kiss the ground when we got there. It was all worth it. Though Steven was so tired he fell asleep in the hot tub, it was so nice to have him with the family for 2 solid days which hasn't happened since we had Aubree 9 months ago.

So when were there my friend gave me an early b-day present. She is a wonderful, extremely talented self taught photographer. I'm so lucky to have her as my friend. She watched my kids for a half day while I was a at work the Monday before we left. She herself had a busy day that day and did a session with my kids. I had wanted to do a 9 mo old session with Aubree and she did both of my kids and surprised me with a tile that had my kid's pic modge podged on it and the CD with the phot session she did. What a wonderful surprise. It is so wonderful. Above are just some of them. Aren't they so sweet. What a gift!! Straight from the heart!! Love her!!

And no our car isn't fixed yet, doing the crazy one car game between us two. Steven rides his bike to work, 10 miles. He says, well I've wanted to get a gym membership, guess this will do for now. ha ha. Hopefully it will be fixed soon and we can about our lives.

Meridian Temple!!!

Meridian, Idaho temple? Are you sure we didn't hear Meridian, Ohio, or Meridian, Florida, or any other Meridian? Seriously, it's Meridian, Idaho!!! I'm so excited and super shocked all at the same time. I just NEVER thought that would happen. With people who have to drive 4 hour to 2 days to see a temple I practically get to have two in the same city pretty much (they are completely connected, therefore it's pretty much the same city). What a blessing. It is so hard with small children to go to the temple regurally but I know that though we may not be perfect in our attendence, we are immensly blessed when we do. Our marriage becomes better and I am better mother, daughter, wife, sister, and co-worker. We will actually get to "choose" which one we want to go to. That is so awesome!!!

Selfish??

My two precious girls. They love to lay in our bed in the mornings and watch "toons" together. They are so precious. Kenzie lately when Aubree is crying in the car will start trying to make silly noises to make her laugh, it does actually work.

So lately I have been feeling a little selfish. First because I am trying to workout more and that means that every morning that I am not working (at my job) that we go to the gym and for another hour they are being watched by someone else and I am not spending quality time with them. Though Kenzie loves to go to the gym and she asks now "mommy gym?" because she wants to go play and use the "little potty", I still feel quite guilty, even though I enjoy working out so much. I am trying to be more healthy/less tired/trying to not have my back hurt and feet be numb. That's another issue I feel selfish about. I already met our deductible with going to the chiropractor for my back. I am not trying to get sympathy here just venting I guess. I have been to a doctor, physical therapist, and now my 3rd chiropractor. He is helping me a little bit, but things are moving so slow, and I am not very patient with these kind of things. I have never been physically restricted in any way until now (minus being huge and pregnant twice). This back thing is not dibilitating, just annoying numbness/tingling/feels like an ache that just won't go away. It's frustrating and tiresome to always feel pain. I am beginning to have more understanding of those who are in constant pain. I also am very grateful for what I do have and how much I can move my body. I used to be an AVID exerciser. I taught aerobics for my last year in college (2 hours 5 days per week). Those were the days. Now my body, 2 kids later I feel is ripped to shreds and plumped up with some other stuff that I just don't like (but it was way worth it to have my two sweet, precious girls). I now feel motivated to move forward and do something about it, and my body keeps holding me back. Once again, frustrated. I went to my favorite Zumba class yesterday (yes I'm one of them, I love, love,love it. Best workout and sooo much fun) and felt so liberated. I was soooo tired, sweating my guts out, and my legs burnt like they haven't burnt in such a long time. I got a little lump in my throat towards the end of the class because I realized how much I LOVE to workout and how good it makes me feel and that this is part of who I am, not of who I WAS. I'm constantly looking at the past thinking of all those times during my bachelor degree in Health Promotion I trained others to workout and eat right and was successful. What I am trying to say is...I know what it takes and I'm willing to do it, but feel guilty about the time it takes away from my family and other important things. I keep thinking about Elder Uchdorff's talk from last conference on slowing down a little and choosing those things that are BEST. Is this a BEST activity? I know exercising and being healthy is an important thing for me to do to help me be the best mom/wife I can, but I still continue to feel selfish about this. I wish I were one of those moms that could wake up at 5am and go workout before anyone else was up, but I'm not. I've tried that and it sure doesn't work. I would be one grumpy, inpatient, unproductive mom. Does anyone else feel the way I do? I don't even know why I'm blogging this, but this is just what's on my mind lately, among a bazillion others things. Thanks for listening.

In the life of the Cook's

Matching Addidas sweat pant suits!!!

Christmas jammies, yes Steven's brother Collin is in wonderful Elf jammies his wife bought him. Love them!!

So lots has happened since last post. Yes it was Halloween!! ha ha. So I'll start out with Christmas we spent at Steven's house which was very nice. We got to spend some time with his side of the family which we don't get to do very often. Kenzie loved, absolutely loved playing with her cousins who she never sees. Then we came home and Scott and Jamie were here with their family for a while. Kenzie still thinks Cole aka Coco's is still nearby and will come and visit her at any moment. She calls about any boy that is her age Coco's. it's pretty sweet. I know they will be connected forever because they came to this earth pretty close together (2days apart.) They have a pretty cute connection, though they are very different personalities.


We had some crazy things happen where a family friend asked Steven to apply to a job. We applied, felt that we had it in the bag (one of the last 2), and bam, didn't get it. Steven isn't necessarily looked for another job but if one comes by that is better pay and better for our family and is part of "His plan" we will take it. Steven works lots of hours (about 65 per week) and the only day that our whole family is together is Sunday, which is usually taken up by church (worth it), meetings (Steven's in YM presidency and Scout Master Assistant) and such. I dreamed about the job a little too much. There were a lot of positives about it but obviously not "the plan." Which I have to admit I was a little disappointed for a while but understand that Heavenly Father has a plan and if we continue to live righeously He will guide us in the way that He has planned for us and our family.


Then we got called to be in charge of the activies/music on our Trek for our ward this summer. We are very excited for this opportunity. It will be very uplifting, already has and lots and lots of fun. It will just be hard to leave my kids for 4 days and 3 nights (never done this before). We wanted to go on a cruise this year with our friends. We planned for it got it all figured out and then we got called to this. Steven has limited days he can take off per year and we won't be able to do the Trek and the cruise so we'll have to hold it off until next year. Steven and I haven't gone anywhere with each other since our Honeymoon (7 years ago in August) so we are very much due for some sweet time together. So this year we will have to enjoy sleeping on hard ground, under the stars, acting like pioneers and not showering for 4 days instead.


So Kenzie is now 2 1/2 and Aubree is 8 months old. Life has flown by. Aubree is rolling wherever she wants to go, sits up, says dada, momma and smiles and laughs every time she sees her sister who she just loves to try and get attention from. She is a cuddler and so sweet. She is such a happy baby. She sleeps well, eats even better, and is generally a very easy, pleasant child. Kenzie just talks and talks talks. She loves to dance and sings the "I know you" song from sleeping beauty very often. She grabs her daddy's hand and says "dance" every time he gets home from work. She wants to wear a dress every single day so she can twirl and dance around to music (which we have one in our house majority of the time). She's very firey but quick to learn. She is potty trained #1 but was with #2 also but has regressed backwards. She is a little stubborn like her momma. We've tried everything. Reward charts, ignoring it, incentives, feel awful to admit a cold shower once which I cried afterwards about, and praise praise praise. I am at a loss for this one, so for now I ignore that it happens and I figure that she'll figure it out when she wants or is ready.

I'll Admit It!

So last night at Enrichment a few gals and I we were talking about blogs and such. I admit it, I'm the worst blogger on the planet. I love to read other peoples and how inspiring, well written, and heart felt their blogs feel when I read them. I feel that when I write it's a bunch of jibberish, too many thoughts in one sentence, and blah blah blah. I am pretty good at keeping a journal for my kiddos but I would love to have a blog to look back on with pictures and everything, but for some stinkin reason I can't keep up on it. My kids NEVER allow me on the computer, Kenzie has to sit on my lap and keeps trying to touch the buttons, and the last thing I want to do when my husband is home at night is sit on the computer, I rather be spending time with him or if he isn't home (DJ ing or work) I would love to be doing crafts, but that doesn't even happen. It's always laundry, cleaning house, trying to catch up, etc. When do all you busy moms blog? Seriously, where do you find the time?