A trip to the farm...

Tyler's class went on a field trip to a farm out in Midway... All I can say is a picture is worth a thousand words :)

so she is NOT a farm girl... It's not for everyone

And to be honest I don't blame her

Looks like she is NOT the only one

hmmmm... I wonder if they are related???

Are you ready for this?

So you are probably thinking I totally blew my whole 3 times a week thing, but to be honest I have tried… I tried to post(4 or 5 times) a video of Tyler’s clogging performance at Lagoon, but it didn’t work (and I didn’t get any good pictures of her, it is hard when they are moving around all the time) I even had Trav try a few times, he can do ANYTHING but still it was a NO go. So, I thought… K~ fine, I will wait until her end of year performance, Which BTW was AMAZING. Best one to date by far! But again, we couldn’t get the darn thing to work either! And then we got the flu…. So, now you get this... Sorry! And with hardly any good pictures this post is not near as fun as it could be. I guess all that matters is Tyler had fun and did very well, despite the freezing temps at Lagoon. This is what we woke up to the morning of the Lagoon Competition...

Looks fun doesn't it?

Take a bow girlsSome of Tyler's team mates
Ready to start

Tyler and Tara (Her clogging teacher)

Tyler is already counting the days down until it starts back up...
It just might be a long summer :)

Yummy!

we are on this homemade bread kick at our house and Tyler wanted me to put up pictures of the bread she helped me make. Yes it taste as good as it looks:)

It is so much fun that she is always wanting to "make" stuff with me, she'll say "so mom what are you gonna teach me to make today" with a huge grin on her face. And for some reason it always taste so much better with her helpThis time we tried a spinach feta bread

(it is so good ,we made the BEST grilled cheese on this bread. A new family fav)

and regular white bread, both very yummy

We also made cinnamon rolls.

However, we were in such a hurry to eat them we forgot to take a picture

before we just dug in!

OK, CB&T girlie's these are for you! Here are a few pictures of the house(I took some of the outside and the kids rooms , but they didn't turn out, so I will take some more and post them later) Here is the kitchen... well half of it anyway :)
and here is the other half. Trav did a good job didn't he?
at first it looked a little manly, but now I think it fits us perfectly

MUCH to my surprise I sure have missed these guys "Tyler's kids"
I can't remember a day in Tyler's little life they haven't been strung every where. They had to be put in storage when we moved and boy was she glad to get them back! I LOVE listening to her play, teach,discipline and love them. It sure teaches me a lot about how I treat my kids... for better or for worse, I hear her tell her "kids" stuff I tell mine.

This is the kids loft.

It is MUCH bigger than it looks, and they tell us every day it is their FAVORITE room in the whole house.

So for now that is all I have, I will try to get more taken( I will even include one of our messy garage)

The kids and their piano teacher Jenn

The kids did so great at their Piano recital (and much to Brayden's surprise it didn't even kill him) they are getting better and better at the piano every day! I love having the piano in our home and even though some days it is NOT the kid’s favorite thing to do, I love to watch them learn and grow, and how they become so proud of themselves when they learn to play a song they never thought they could. Besides, it is teaching them to love and appreciate music, and that hard work really does pay off. It is hard to believe they are as old as they are… makes me kind of sad! But, it is SO much fun watching them grow into AMAZING kids!

Went and toured the place we will be having girls camp this year.

And I have two words for you.... SNOW AND FREEZING!!

Yep~ that's right it was freezing cold and snowing up there adding to the stuff still on the ground. While we were there we also ran into a GIANT MOOSE.... Oh what fun times.

All I can say is... I am in SO MUCH trouble!!!

PLEASE PRAY FOR WARM WEATHER!!!!!!

we go in 3 weeks ish :)

lessons per month $30

shoes $90

costume $70

gas to get there every month $90...

Getting to spend 3 uninterrupted hours a week (sometimes just Tyler and I , sometimes we get to add Brayden, and on VERY lucky days it is the entire Family) talking, laughing, singing, praying(when the weather is bad) and just enjoying each other’s company....

PRICELESS

So, this is why we are going to take clogging again in Genola. Besides the fact that Tyler REALLY wants too, I also enjoy the time we spend together.

The conversations we have had are absolutely priceless, and in the end it is those memories that make it worth it and last a life time.

On this Mother's Day I would like to thank the people who have allowed me to be a mother! While it is the hardest job in the world, it is the most rewarding, sacred, and important job I can think of! I love my family with all of my heart and do my best every day to not only tell them but to also SHOW them. I am grateful for their patients, respect, and NEVER ending love. I am truly blessed well beyond what I deserve.

I was also blessed with amazing role models...

They taught me how to be a mother through their mothering, and

I am Forever grateful to them for their examples.

I think you become the kind of mother you had, I hope and pray this is true...

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

Trav and Tony took the kids to the Kamas pool and rock wall climbing, while Em and I went to our bread class and then shopping! The kids had a BLAST, sorry NO pictures... that is what happens when the dads are in charge :) and so did we. The bread class was AMAZING, we learned so many cool new tricks that will make dinner so much easier, fun, and taste oh so GOOD!

Strawberry jam...

Tyler has been dying to make strawberry jam. I promised her when I made it this year I would let her do most of the work :) Trav and I usually make it after the kids go to bed or Em and I make it while they are at school. Well tonight was the BIG night and I must say she did a great job!

She picked the perfect strawberries out of the container, cut them up

& measured the sugar all by herself...

then I helped her stir in the pectin just because it is kind of hard to pour and stir, but then she stirred it every 5 min all by herself. Added the corn syrup and sugar and stirred, and stirred, and stirred... She decided there was too much stirring involved :)
She was stirring so fast she was nothing but a blur)

But in the end it turned out great, and she was SO proud of herself!!

With all the left over strawberries, she wanted to tease her Piano teacher by making "spaghetti cupcakes" we got the idea out of the Hello Cupcakes cookbook. She is a funny girl and is always bring cook books home from the Library :) We kind of changed some of it to fit what we had , but they turned out cute and Jenn loved it!!

Well all that supervising has worn me out... Good night

What a fun way to start off a Monday... Tyler has pink eye :(

OK~ so we all know I am a FREAK when it comes to my kids! Well this has NOT gotten better over time. So, when Grandma came to live with us I had to accept the fact that my kid’s bedrooms would have to be in the basement... Not my favorite thing! When they are below you, you can't hear them as well, and it is MUCH easier for some lunatic to break in... Plus we have an outside door to the basement, (just thought we could make it a little easier for who ever wanted to break in) so in my opinion these are all very good reasons to make me CRAZY!!! What can I say... I LOVED having my kids up stairs, every time their little feet would hit the floor I could hear it, if someone tried to break in they would have to scale a wall and then the second their feet would hit the floor I would be able to hear it. Another nice thing is I would be able to hear them and meet them at the top of the stairs if they were sick, scared, cold, or just plain lonely... but now down stairs?? NADA, NOTHING, NOT A SOUND!!! So, I tried to be brave and not to let this be a big deal when the whole “the kids rooms will be in the basement" talk happened. However I am me, so it is! I haven't mentioned a word about it to the kids, they think it is SO COOL to be in the basement and I don't need them freaking out too. RIGHT?

Any how I made Trav buy and install these window and door alarms. (They screech at like 120 des) I had him put them on all the windows and door so I could sleep. You see I am a VERY light sleeper and I was getting up like 50+ times a night (no lie) to check on them because I "HEARD" a noise. I KNOW CRAZY!

Well, this morning at like 4 ish I heard this LOUD crushing, glass breaking sound. In LESS than a heart beat I was down stairs telling the kids to come and have a sleep over on my floor :) they had no idea what time it was. I was trying not to sound completely freaked out, but I still had NO idea what it was. All I knew is if it was someone breaking into my house they were NOT going to get my kids... anything else (besides Trav and Grandma) they could have. When I got back up stairs Trav was just coming in from outside... see it WAS loud because Trav can and often does sleep through anything! He couldn't see anything or one out there. We went and checked on Grandma, and of course she heard nothing, and was still sleeping like a baby (lucky her) just then we saw some flashing lights and people running across the road... Someone had rolled their car, totally crushing the entire top of the car. And that is what the noise was. I really hope they are ok, we haven't heard.

But later that morning when Trav was telling Grandma about it; Tyler started laughing hysterically she looked at me and said “I am glad you are a good mom, and you love us enough to make sure we were safe. But... YOU ARE CRAZY!!!!!" All I can say is TRUE, TRUE! This is a fault of mine I will probably never get over…. Poor Trav and the kids!