An Ellie Memory

I was going to just post a picture of Ellie but I had to show off my amazing kids in their Easter outfits! But this post is really about Ellie.

I always want my kids to feel like they can come and tell me anything. Tyler and I try to be very open and patient with them (tyler being the better one). I always ask Philip who he likes, who he thinks is cute, and everything I can think of about his friends. He, however, does not want to share ANYTHING with me, which makes me a little sad. I am still working on changing that. He just gets embarrassed and turns red, and says he won't tell me because he does not want me to tease him. I always tell him that I am just interested and want to know what is going on in his life. Well aparently Ellie has been listening in on our conversations, and she is not so shy to share. Which I LOVE!!!

Here is a conversation we had the other day...........

Ellie: mom, you know that kid that I told you about who likes me?
me: yes, what about him?
Ellie: Well, he likes me ALOT!!!
me: Oh really?? How do you know this?
Ellie: Well today at school he gave me a note that asked me to meet him behind the hill at recess.
me: Oh really?? Did you?
Ellie: Yes
me: And......What did he say?
Ellie: He said He really likes me alot!
me: Oh...well...what did you say?
Ellie: I just said OK and ran away.

I love it! I absolutely love that she told me. I remeber being that age and the little crushes that I had. I just hope that she will continue to tell me about these little secret meetings behind the hill as she gets older.

October fun and picture overload!

It has been forever since I last posted so brace yourself for a ton of pictures. I actually wanted to post more but I guess I will save them for other posts. As many of you know I LOVE Halloween. I love dressing the kids up, I love scary movies, and I LOVE candy!! Every year I stress about what the kids are going to be. I know...stupid. but.. I do. So.....without further ado....Here they are!!

Lucy was determined to me madussa!! I wasn't quite sure how I was going to pull this off and at one point I had her talked out of it and talked into just a scary witch. Then I was in st. George with the girls and came across this awsome head piece!! Problem solved! She was so excited to wear this and it fits her perfectly cause we all know how much Lucy loves to hiss at people. Thank you avatar.

Ellie really wanted to be ballywood dancer but the costume she had her heart set on got sold out so she settled for this gogo witch. But I think it turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!

Tyler.....well, tyler. I really have no words for this costume. But he did have just as much fun dressing up as the kids did.

At the ward trunk or treat all the little kids had a blast coming up and kicking Tyler all night long!

Maggee inhereted Ellie's costume from last year but she was thrilled to wear it. Add some pink hair and pink eyelashes and it is a whole new costume.


Philip had issues with costumes this year. I think he is feeling too old to dress up. What??? You are NEVER too old to dress up for halloween. He was originally supposed to be the football but tyler took such a liking to the costume he couldn't breake his dad's heart. So we came up with this punk rocker costume. Lucy lately is very fascinated with real tattoos so I was a little worried about putting philip in this. Lucy looks up to philip sooo much.

Pumpkin carving fun!!! The kids all started out with ONE pumpkin. Well....Maggee accidently knocked Lucy's off the counter and it splattered everywhere!! Lucy started crying, then maggee started crying, so everyone got a second pumpkin to carve. You can't just let two of them carve two pumpkins. Philip didn't like his first one but the second one did the trick.


Everyone exhausted after the carving. But...very excited that they got to stay up past bedtime..again!!

Just had to include this one of Maggee. This is seriously the face Maggee always has on her face. She is alway sooo happy!! I love it!


Lucy carving her First pumpkin.

Everyone having fun.



Pumpkin marshmellows. Just a fun family night treat. Actually we forgot about getting a family night treat and I just happened to have t he marshmellows and candy in the cupboard. Worked out great.

yes I did dress up also but I didn't get a picture of it. But that is ok. Well here come the Holidays!! Happy Halloween Everyone!!

Maggee is *8*

This post is way over due. I am way behind in blogging. The summer is almost gone and I haven't documented one thing. Hopefuly I will get around to catching up but for right now this is one event I couldn't let go by unnoticed. I mean turning 8 is a HUGE deal!!!

Maggee had been anticipating this day for months. We let her chose what she wanted to do and she chose to go to our friends, Jayne and Robert's house for a cookout along with the rest of the charleston ward young women (karol is the young womens president). Unfortunately I don't have pics of that. She also got to have her very first friend party! (yes I know I am a mean mom. you are thinking "8years old and this is her first friend party?)

Of course turning 8 she was also baptized but I will do a different post for that. I just thought I would write down a few things about our Maggee Moo. She is by far our child with the most energy!! She NEVER stops. She no longer has her BIG tooth, which actually makes me sad cause only Maggee could pull that off. She now has braces. She LOVES her braces. She loves them a little too much. I have been taking her in at least 3 times inbetween checkups because she keeps breaking her wires. She cannot keep her fingers out of her mouth. She will come up to me and say, "mom, I DIDN'T put my fingers in my mouth, but look," and there will be a broken wire.

I usually have to tell her to do things on an average of 5 times before it registers what needs to get done. She will usually go in her room and do something else and when I ask her why she hasn't done what I've asked she says, "oh I forgot." That is her famous line. But don't get me worng, this is why we love her so much. She keeps us on our toes and keeps things very interesting. You can't help but love this girl. She is the second mom around here. Even though I may have to ask her more than one time to do something, she is always more than willing to do it. She LOVES her little cousins and gets soo excited when she knows they are coming to visit. She thinks it is her duty to make sure they are taken care of. She always tells me that she can't wait to be a mom.

As I said before Maggee has lots of energy. She is the one that is usually standing on her chair during dinner or running around the kitchen instead of just sitting down and eating. I will never forget a few years back when I came home and Maggee was crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said "Dad tied me to the chair!" I could not believe (well yes I could) that tyler would do something like this and I looked at him for an explanation and he said "well I told her that if she got up one more time instead of eating, I was going to take her jump rope and tie her to her chair. She didn't listen, so I did it." Maggee still brings up that story. Tyler will always respond, "In my defense, at least she remembers". Sadly though, maggee still can't sit still through dinner time. Dinner time actually would not be the same if she did sit through it.

Maggee will be in third grade this school year. She is very excited for school. She is also going to start taking gymnastic lessons, cause lets face it, she needs something to get all that energy out! I always worry that maggee doesn't get as much attention being the middle child. She was born with the right personality to stick out and get attention.

We love you Maggee!!

This little man....................

Is now 12!!!

Yes 12... I can't believe it either! I know this post is a few days old but I couldn't let this huge milestone go by unnoticed. I don't want to get too cheesy because he is now gets embarrassed when I am cheesy about him. I rember the day I had him and the drs. kept telling me what a small baby he was going to be and then out popped an 8lb 4oz 22 1/2inch long baby. I looked at him and thought "He does not look like a new born! and where did that BIG head come from?" Needless to say that I still loved him even though at that momment I said I was NOT going to have anymore babies if they were all going to be as hard as he was.

Ok so now I am going to get a little sentimental. A few days after Philip was born we wound up in primary childrens hospital because he was having seizures. These seizures were very seviere and me being a first time mother, who was only 19, was scared to even touch him. The first year or so of Philip's life we spent at primary childrens hospital. We had a lot of family prayers and fasts for him. I wont go into every detail but that is one moment in my life where my testimony was strengthened. His neurologist said that he had never seen a baby have such seveire siezures and not have any brain damage. I knew it was an answere to prayers. Grandma karol and Grandpa Lee were in Hawaii and they put his name in the temple and karol called us and said that she knew he would be ok. Midway 2nd ward had a fast for him. My mom told me (a few years later) that she had also had an experience that philip was ment to come to this earth to accomplish something very special......but that was all she would tell me from her experience. I am mainly writing all this because I want Philip to know how special he really is and how much we fought to have him in our family.

Being the oldest isn't always the easiest and many nights tyler and I talk and wonder if we are too hard on Philip because we correct him more than the other kids. We always use the "your little sisters are watching every move you make" talk. I guess I shouldn't forget to say that all my other actual births were a bit easier because of the babies being smaller but we always say to philip that he "paved the way" for all the other kids to come to our family. And.....he still is doing just that.

We love you Philip even though I know we are mean and won't let you have a cell phone...yet!

Best Snuggie Family Ever!

What more can I say other then... I LOVE THESE GUYS! I couldn't ask for a better family to put with me. Yes, we all got snuggies for Christmas....I know you are all secretly jealous cause who wouldn't want one of these awsome backwards robes?? I think maybe our chrismas card next year will be us all wearing our snuggies. That is if I get around to actually doing a Christmas card. I never have before but maybe, just mabye next year I will.

Creative or What!

I have been wanting to show everyone what a creative family I have. My kids were a little upset that I didn't get out all of the christmas decorations this year. I just didn't know how much energy I would have with having surgery during the holidays so all that got put up was the tree. So we had the great idea to make it snow in our living room. The kids LOVE it!! It was a fun family home evening activity that did take longer then we planned and the kids loved it even more when it ment they got to stay up way too long past their bedtime in order to see the final look. Grandma Karol even came over and cut some snowflakes out. Fun, fun, fun.


Just a small confession. The snow flakes are STILL up. I love that when you drive past the house you can see them through the window.

I just had to slip this picture in. Maggee has had this ONE big tooth for forever! IT wasn't so bad until she lost the one on the other side of it. Now when she smiles all you see is this ONE BIG tooth!! Only Maggee can pull this look off.

Another fun thing to do with paper. Hair bows. This little creation was Ellies. The girls had a blast with it and especially Lucy thinks she looks Oh so pretty!! Ellie had fun being the big sister and teaching them how to make it. They spent a whole afternoon not moving from the dining table making tons of bows. Good little activity for all you moms out there who may need a few minutes to yourself. This activity consumes them. Not to mention I know Ellie was pretty proud of herself for showing her sisters how to make them.

This is Lucy's photo smile. I don't think I have seen a more fake smile!

Ok this smile isn't too bad.

Camera Bandit

So our camera was lost for a few days and we could not figure out where it had gone to. We always keep it in the kitchen drawer next to the stove or tyler has it on his computer desk. We asked all of the kids if they had seen it and every one of them said they had no idea where it was. I know that Lucy takes things and hides them and when we are looking for them she always says "I think I might know where it is.....let me see." Then she ALWAYS can muraculously find it! Because of her history I continued to ask her where it was and she PROMISED me she had no idea.....then one day it was all of a sudden back in the drawer where it is supposed to be. I took the camera out and this is what I found on it...

These were only a few (the camera was completly full) of the pics that I found. I called Lucy to the kitchen and here is our conversation.....

me: Lucy, are you sure you had no idea where the camera was?

Lucy: Positive

Me: Then how did pics of you get on here?

Lucy was quiet for a moment and then said....

Lucy: Mom, Santa isn't watching us anymore right? Cause Christmas is over.

Me: Lucy, Santa is always watching. All year long he watches.

Lucy quietly says "dang it" and then....

Lucy: Look at me in these pictures mom, I am almost grown up!

She never fessed up to playing with the camera, and this isn't the first time it has happened. I think our whole house has been photographed clear down to the smallest crumb on the floor. I showed Tyler the camera when he got home and all he could say was how proud he was of her taking such a good picture of the BYU cup. Really?