I can't believe Christmas is almost here. Yes, I did the Black Friday thing! Whew, crazy. I was at Walmart at 4am. I got everything I wanted, plus a little extra :( It was an experience! I had to do it though. It's the only way I was going to afford Christmas for anyone! What a fun year! Well, busy, busy, busy as usually getting ready for Christmas, having Thanksgiving, Alison's dance recital coming up, Thurs Dec 17th at 6pm if any locals are interested. Haha! I have cards to design a baby shower to get ready for, book club tonight, and I still have to finish the book! Hope you all have a Merry Christmas, great New Years, and all that jazz! Happy Holidays and take care!

Whoops...

Okay. So it's been a while. To catch up, we had a baby this summer, Camden, born July 17. He is almost 3 months old now, sleeping through the night and just doing great overall. Clayton was laid off at the beggining of the summer and is now working a completely different trade. He has gone to window fabrication for a company called Steel Encounters based in downtown Salt Lake. He has the longest commute ever, works in the shop, and is trying to work his way up from parts to fabrication. The only trouble is he does too good of a job. :) They don't want to move him. Other than that we had a pretty quiet summer. Our house is up for sale, again. It is really hard to face right now, after the 7 yrs or so and all we have put into this house we have to sell it for what we owe, no equity. We don't get anything out of it. I can't believe it. Sorry, it was just and epiphany I had while lying in bed this morning. It's freaking me out a little. Of course our realtor gets like 10,000 out of it which stinks even more.. o well. As long as we can move on and get self sufficient again we will be fine. The kids started school, Parker is in kindergarten now and has to catch the bus at 7:40 am. That is a huge change for us, getting up early. We have always been 9am sleepers. Oh well! lol Parker loves school and is still excited to get up and go every morning. Alison turned 4 and changed instanly. It was amazing. She is more social, more talkative, and has all kinds of new attitude. I really never thought someone could change overnight, but she has proven different. She is thriving in preschool making new friends and learning. She tries to make up homework for herself. It's pretty cute. She is excited to go and never has hesitated. She is growing so tall and beautiful, she is an amazing, mouthy little girl :) She is in dance and soccer and loves it. I have been roped into coaching her soccer team. She missed the deadline by 1 month and they wouldn't let her play unless I was coach, so I am. Fall season ends Saturday though, so that will be a welcome break. Parker has been in soccer also so we have been going nuts between practices and games. We will actually have our weekends a little more quiet for a while and that will be nice. I am also the Young Women's coach for church and volleyball has just started, so my thursday nights are still busy for a while. But this also means Women's volleyball has started and I get to play. Yay, I am not pregnant! I can spike and dive again! Garrett is starting to try to talk more. He is such a goof! I have never had such a clown for a kid, ever since he was tiny I could see he was going to be this way. He has the cutest, sweetest and FUNNIEST personality ever. Just the looks he gives you and the way he says things is hilarious. He is absolutely crazy though. Giving me early gray hairs for sure. This kid is into EVERYTHING these days! He also has developed a dare devil streak. Not fun for a third child with a new baby to take care of! Whew! I am in crazy mode these days with four. I keep hearing it will be better someday, so I am trying to keep my hopes alive. Well that seems like a good start for a catch-up post. I am off to get breakfast and get the day going so we can head to dance. Toodles~

Garrett and his cousin
Camden

Parker and Cam

1st day of kindergarten

First day of Preschool

Going to dance

My four kiddos

Easter

So Easter has come and gone again. We tried to take some pictures but the wind was blowing hard and it was a little cold so I don't think they turned out too well. But I am posting some anyway. We went to Clayton's parents for dinner and an Easter Egg hunt. The kids had fun. Maximum sugar overload though!! Crazy. That dang Easter Bunny! When will it learn?!?! Well, we are excited for Spring to be here. We have been playing outside and Parker has been going to soccer and his baseball starts next week. So we are pretty busy. But spring break is a welcome rest. :) No carpool, practices, or games. It seems like this was my life not too long ago, but it's already a distant memory... What did I do with my time?!?!? Haha! Parker loves his sports though and is thriving in school. We are really proud of our kids, if you can't tell. I finally changed the background and music on my blog, so you are welcome, yes I was sick of the music too! Lol! Well, now there are some good ones on there so enjoy. :) Here are the pics from Easter plus a couple extra of Garrett being goofy and his hair before we cut it. Have a great week, or month, whatever until I get back here!! Happy Spring!!!

What's Happening...

Well, time for another post I guess. It's been pretty busy around here. Lots of sickness and colds, yuck. I can hardly wait for spring. I got Parker all registered for Kindergarten and coach pitch baseball. Soccer starts in March and he is still going strong in Preschool. Alison is registered for preschool this fall and excited about it. Garrett got a haircut. Bye bye curls. They were just getting too long, and passed the cute phase. :) He looks a lot older now. Just like a little boy, not so much a baby anymore. The kids are really excited about the warmer weather coming and we got a soccer goal for them to practice with. They each have their own soccer balls and love being able to kick them around outside. I am trying to get myself psyched up about clearing a garden space and fixing up the front flower beds this spring, we'll see what happens. I have been hit with the spring cleaning bug or nesting instinct, whatever you want to call it, pretty bad. Which is a very good thing if I can keep it going and not get burnt out! Once again, we'll see.... Haha! Everything is moving along well, and people are starting to get healthy. We are just hoping spring comes quickly!! Have a great week everyone!

Playing Catch up... again....

So, the new-ness and excitement of "the blog" has apparently worn off... I missed Christmas and all of January. Haha! Here's a catch up. Christmas was great. We all had fun and the kids got what they wanted the most from Santa. I was really proud of them, they only asked for one thing this year. Very do-able.. :) So they had a great time too. After Christmas Clayton and I were able to go on an amazing trip to Oahu, Hawaii. It was unbelievable, the best trip of my life! We went to the beach, Polynesian Cultural Center, a Swap Meet, USS Arizona Memorial, Hanauma Bay, and Parasailing along Waikiki's Coast at 1200 ft!!! Very exciting! Ok about snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, (highly recommended) we didn't get to see turtles that day, the surf was a little too rough, but we saw a huge octopus, a cuttle fish that LIT UP, tons of beautiful fish in all kinds of colors and a big, I had no idea how big they were, PUFFER FISH! It was sooooo cool. The only thing that would have made it better was if we were able to see at least one turtle! Oh well, maybe next time. There WILL be a next time! haha!~ When I got back, because Clayton had to stay for work, Parker had a birthday! So I am now the mother of a FIVE year old! I can't believe how the time has flown! He is such a smart kid and he helps me so much around the house with everything. He is a really great kid. So he had a fun birthday, and amidst all of that we had my Grandma over for a visit and had a great time. We were able to go to the Children's Museum at the Gateway, and the Museum of Ancient Life, or Dinosaur Museum to my kids. :) It was a really fun, really busy month. All of that and another kid on the way, whew.... We have an ultrasound scheduled for Tues the 3rd to try and find out why I am measuring five weeks ahead of where I should be!! Yikes. Let your imagination run with that! I couldn't wait two more months to see what's going on. I have had enough with my imagination and it's starting to freak me out! :) So hopefully we can get this cleared up!! Anyway- off to fix dinner for the kiddos. Enjoy the pics......

Kailua, THE BEST BEACH I have EVER been to!

This is Hanauma Bay. Where we snorkeled.