Halloween, Piggy shots and Pictures!

A lot has happened since my last post!! Maybe if I remembered to update more often I wouldn't have such long posts...lol On October 20 Robert had nasal surgery to (hopefully) correct his snoring, I mean breathing issues! They did all sorts of things with it. He is finally mostly healed but let me tell you I don't know if I could have done it! Of course, with the way our lives go, that same day they diagnosed Mykala with Influenza A...Why not!! So instead of just nursing a sick hubby, I was also nursing a sick bored 10 year old and of course Trysten! It was quite a week let me tell you! We were all really nervous because of her asthma but since we caught it early she managed to get through it just fine. It was quite amazing how well she did.

So once we all got through the period where any of us could have got it, which no one else did thank goodness, we got our H1N1 shots. Well it was so cute because the day after she got hers, Maryah cutely informs me "Mom, now I'm not going to get sick." I said why Baby? She answered "Because I got my piggy shot!" It was so funny! What they come up with!

Then Trysten had his 9 month check up a week later! He weighed in at 20lbs 10 oz and 29" long! He was in the 50th percentile for weight and the 75th for height. Perfect! I always love these appointments!

Next of course came Halloween! This year Mykala decided to be a Teal Dragon....I don't really understand these older kids costumes, but she loved it! Maryah decided this year she wanted to be a cowgirl. My mom found her some little boots at Walmart and she decided that totally just made her costume the best! Trysten was a monkey this year. We decided that suited him best since he climbs on EVERYTHING! He liked it just fine until we pulled the hat part up over his head! He wasn't sure about the whole Halloween thing but he loved watching all the kids come to the door.

They were so proud of our pumpkins this year... Mykala did hers completely by herself!!

And on to our pictures! We had family pictures done Oct 15. They were the first real family pictures since TJ was born...can you say bad parents?? Anyways, we had them done by a photographer named Amber Halverson. We had seen some of the pictures she had done before and LOVED them. Thankfully we were able to book a day with her before she was completely booked up! So here are some of the pictures that we fell in love with. I wish I could post all 74 because we love them all!

So yeah....it was SOOOOOOO hard to pick which ones to put here!!!!! I'm going to play heck finding a spot on my wall for all my favorites.....Anyways, hope you all enjoy!!!!

New Updates!!

So yeah...you can see I'm so great about updating my blog... :S What can I say. I thought life would settle a little with the girls in school, but yeah no...not so much. Trysten keeps me busy! I have decided that he has a computer sensor. Everytime I turn on my computer he is right here whining to be picked up! lol Lets see, what to update since my last blog...

Mykala started 5th grade this year. She has a wonderful teacher that is new to Ruth Powell and I have to say so far I LOVE her method of teaching. Its not boring same old stuff, its fun learning and Mykala is picking things up so well. She decided to be back in Pom this year so she will be performing in the fair parade and is really looking forward to that.

Maryah is back in preschool this year but she goes three days a week now and is so excited to be learning her numbers and letters. She comes home all excited to show me what she wrote that day. Its fun to see her learning it all. Now we just need to teach her how to write her name and she will be doing good! She is also back in dance this year but she is bummed that she couldn't pick what kind of class to be in. She has to be 5 to be able to pick a class. But she loves her teachers so at least she's happy!

And Trysten...my little monkey! He is such a handful. He is FINALLY sleeping through the night!!! Woo Hoo!!!! Thank goodness for that. It makes me more able to chase him around during the day. He is a speedy little crawler let me tell you! Anyways, he is doing so much better in general. His reflux as pretty much resolved and he is in a much better mood all the time. He is so much happier now that he is mobile. Like I said he is a monkey, literally. He is my first baby that climbs on everything. If he is in my lap he is climbing up my shoulders to get something or he is trying to climb on the coffee table or the toy box or some other thing. Crazy kid. He is 8 1/2 months old now. I can't wait until his 9 month check to see how big he is. He is already having trouble fitting into his 6-9 month clothes. I think he's on the taller side so we will see. He has two teeth now and he sure can use them! And his biggest accomplishment, he learned to walk this month! He took a couple of steps about 2 weeks ago and then this week he decided to start letting go and take off. Its so much fun to see them starting to walk. I'm not overly looking forward to when he completely figures it out though. I think we will really have our hands full then!





So yeah other than that life hasn't changed much. Busy busy busy. It would sure be nice for a break once in awhile but I wouldn't change chasing my wonderful kids for anything! I love being a Mommy! :D

Sheep dressing and haircuts!

Life continues to be absolutely nuts around our house! I am almost looking forward to school starting hoping I might have a little more quiet time when we are back to a schedule! Who knows....

We went to Tucson last weekend for the annual Gila Valley Clinic retreat and we all had such a great time! We stayed at this beautiful resort called Starr Pass Resort. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get away! It was away from the craziness of the city but still close enough that it didn't take long to get to restaurants and shopping! On Saturday, the clinic took all their employees to Old Tucson for the day. That morning they had all the employees come in before the park opened and they provided a great team building exercise. They had to do a series of things and the first team to complete them all won! I unfortunately didn't get to do all the activities because Robert had to work so I had Trysten with me but I was able to take pictures and it was so much fun to watch! One of the tasks was for the groups to catch a sheep/goat and dress it in two shirts and a cowboy hat! It was quite a riot! It was so much fun to get a tour of the park and have private time there and learn the history and what movies were filmed there. Then at 10 the rest of the family was able to come in and we got to take them around. It was a great time!

My mom's sheep dressing team!

The resort we were at had a great pool that was somewhat quiet and it was so fun to get to take the kids down and relax by the pool. The resort was doing one of their Nickelodeon Getaway weekends that they do periodically and it was so fun because they pull the kids and do games and stuff with them and they get to be slimed! I remember when I was a kid how bad I always wanted to get slimed....but of course my kids didn't want to do that! lol It was so much fun! We all hated to come home!

So for a short update on the baby....As I said last time, Trysten is crawling and is pulling himself up on everything now. He has no balance and he forgets to hold on so he falls over often and the poor baby has bruises all over his face and forehead where he hits stuff (mainly the coffee table....lol). I didn't realize how bad it was until they all started healing and now they are all different colors across his face! lol There is no way to keep him down though so I suppose it will toughen him up, or so I tell myself! He has to be in a big hurry to do everything so what can I do! He has his 6 month check up last week and he is now 18lbs 8oz and 27 1/2 inches long. I can't believe how big he is....

I wish I had more to update on the girls but they are still the same happy crazy kids they always are! It will be fun when they get back into all their activities this year. I think they miss them all!

Oh wait! I have something to update on my little Miss Maryah...last week she came home from my grandmas house and I noticed she had cut her hair!! It was so short in the front! I asked her why she did it and she told me that she noticed it was too long! lol So needless to say she got a hair cut that afternoon and it is pretty short. Thank goodness it is stiff really cute! Life is never dull with my kiddos around I tell you....

Before the fix....(she knew she was in trouble can you tell?)

New Haircut!

We are off to Vegas next week for our annual family vacation so I will post some pictures of all that when we get back! Hope everyone is well! :)

Status update! :)

I am so horrible about making time to blog! I really thought now that summer was here and I didn't have to run the girls from here to there that things would slow down but no way! Oh well. There's not too much to report on since last time.

Trysten has learned to crawl! I can't believe he is only 5 months old and mobile. I remember saying for the first couple months of his life that I wanted him to grow fast but he is really doing things early and its a real bummer! He started last week when I was waiting for Maryah at dance class. He was getting restless so I, being a bad mother, put him down on the dirty floor and off he went! I was so excited! Of course I was the only one there so I wanted to tell someone so bad to watch him and I couldn't. He was too cute. He would take a few steps and fall down then get up and do it again. He was getting a little further every day and today he actually crawled across the whole living room to see his Grammy. Its amazing! Then to top everything off he is pulling himself up on stuff. He can pull up to his knees and he sits there but if you help balance him a little he will pull up to his feet. I promise I'm not lying! I didn't think it was possible for babies to do this stuff so early but I have living proof! lol Now he is working on sitting by himself. He will sit for a minute or so before he falls over but again he gets better every day. I find myself so overwhelmed that he is doing everything all at once. Now I really want him to slow down!

Mykala and Maryah are doing great. They have been spending a lot of time at my Granny's house. We miss them something terrible but I think it is good for her to have company and the girls are pretty easy since they pretty much do everything themselves. I'm so glad they have this precious time with her and are enjoying their time with her so much. When they are home they are anxious to go back!

It's odd because it seems like the more time that passes since my Papa's death the more we all miss him. I find myself thinking of him more and more. Thinking of the situations and the day of the accident...I can't help but think I am a nurse...I should have seen it...I should have known and done something. It's my job and I missed it until it was too late....I hate living in the what-ifs. It's so hard to walk into the hospital on my shifts and be ok. It just brings it all back. I can honestly say Im a better nurse for it however. I am more observant and cautious, and paranoid. I suppose thats a good thing! Sorry to put a downer on this blog but I sure feel better after writing it down...

On a more positive note, Robert and I remodeled the breakroom at our clinic over the weekend. It looks so nice! We are so proud of our hard work. It was the first time we have completely redone a room and its not bad if I do say so myself! I'll take some pics when we get the finishing touches into it! Lots of hard work but well worth it!

I think thats about it for us right now. Life is just busy busy busy! Hopefully something more exciting will happen I can blog about! But for now, good night! :)

Lots O Stuff!

Ok....see I say I'm going to try to be good about this and update every week and you call all obviously see when I did last...lol We have been a busy crew the last couple weeks and I just recently got all my pics uploaded! So...here's my update!

San Antonio, TX...

The end of May the whole family went to San Antonio to see my brother Daniel. He bought a time share at Canyon Lake down there and traded it in for two small "houses" down by the lake for us to all come up and spend a week. They were the cutest little houses! We did TONS of stuff while we were gone including Sea World and The Wild Animal Park. We went and saw Night at the Museum 2 (great movie!) at the IMAX which was awesome! We spent some time driving around the lake as well. That was so much fun because the population of deer up there is abundant! You drive through the neighborhoods their and the deer are all over and if you slow down they come walking towards the car expecting food! Here are some pics of some the deer...

These were in someones front yard! The kids totally loved this!

Like I said we went to the Animal park as well. This was really cool. You drive your vehicle through like a safari and see all these animals! This one is fairly small and still growing but it was so cool to see the animals up close. The Zebras tended to be a little brazen and I actually had to beat one up to get him out of my car! Too bad we didn't catch that on camera! It would be something to remember!

Lazy Buffalo...

This isn't even the one that got inside! :) It was a wonderful experience though and I really would like to have the opportunity to do a bigger one in the future!

We got to see the Alamo which was quite an experience. Even Mykala was fascinated!

We had a really good time at Sea World too! It was Maryah's first time and she loved the animals! Mykala even rode the big roller coaster. She is turning into a daredevil like her Daddy!

While we were gone my Mykala turned 10...can you believe she's in double digits??? I am so sad! Well, she decided to spend her 10th birthday at Schlitterbahns Waterpark (if you are ever in San Antonio it is a must go to!) It was sooooo much fun! We all had a blast! Her Uncle Dan said that she must have a birthday cake and proceeded to surprise her with one he picked out! He is such a great Uncle!

Apparently Trysten decided he liked San Antonio because while we were gone he totally came alive! He was the best baby ever! (other than the sleep thing....) He enjoyed riding around and seemed to like seeing the different places. While he was resting on his playgym on the floor one night he decided he wanted to roll over onto his tummy, so he did! And the two nights later he decided to roll from his tummy to his back! Then by the next night he was up on all fours rocking and trying to CRAWL! I just couldn't believe it!! I was totally in denial! He is getting so close to crawling and he is only 5 months old! That is way too fast for me! This is a video from last week that Robert caught of him attempting to crawl...

He has since then learned to get on his hands and knees and rock and moves his knees forward. He still hasn't got the hand thing down though so he pretty much falls on his face but he gets right back up and goes back at it....I think he might actually crawl in the next couple weeks! Unreal! I'll have to keep you all updated on that! He also decided while we were gone that he wanted to eat what everyone else was eating. He would be sitting in our laps at dinner and as we would be eating he would reach for the forks and open his mouth. So we decided to try him on cereal and fruit and he has done well with it. He is growing so fast.....

Today is Robert and my anniversary! We have been married for 7 years today. Crazy stuff! I can't believe we have been together for 11 years now. How time truly flies! We were able to get out of town overnight on Friday to see the George Lopez concert in Phoenix! It was awesome! It was also so great to get to spend some time alone with him. We definitely don't get much of that these days! But, the best part of the romantic alone time....you guessed it ....THE SLEEP!! We got a full night of uninterrupted sleep! It was Heaven! :)

So, that's pretty much the sum total of the last couple weeks! Like I said, a lot has been going on. Sorry this has gone on forever! I really will try to get it updated more frequently! Hope this finds everyone doing well!

What a week!

Ok I decided I'm going to shoot for updating this thing once a week, but we'll see how long that lasts! :) Lots has happened since my last post. Lets start with Mothers Day!

We decided for Mothers Day we wanted to go up to Riggs Lake seeing as we havent been there in a few years. It was sooooo beautiful! The lake is so clean and healthy again. We haven't seen it look that great since before the first big fire the mountain had when they were dipping out of the lake to fight the fire. The water level was back up and there was no stuff floating on top like there was before. It was so exciting to see it looking so good again.

We all got a great suprise that day too! My brother Daniel drove 12 hours from San Antonio, TX and suprised us all when he showed up at the lake to spend Mothers Day with us. It was so great to see him. We had a wonderful day up at the lake enjoying our family.

Trysten had his 4 month check up already this Friday. I can't believe how time is flying. He will most likely be our last baby so we want him to grow slow, but for some reason he just won't cooperate! He has gained back the weight he lost when he was sick and is now back at a whopping 15lb 14oz. They measured him in at 24 1/2 inches long. He is laughing more now and he is determined to hold his own bottle! He hasn't quite mastered it and gets mad when he drops it but he gets mad if we try to hold it too. We are trying to learn how to manuever to be able to help him without a fight so right now feedings are quite interesting. He is such a stinker!

This weekend the girls had their Spring Dance Recital. They were so great! Maryah did ballet and tap and Mykala did her Pom performance. It was fun to get to watch the older dancers as well. We hope that the girls will decide to pursue some form of dance for at least a few years. Its nice for them to get out and be with friends! Mykala is trying to decide if she wants to stick out Pom or try a different style of dance. Maryah informed us while watching the company dancers do their ballet "I so want to be a ballerina when I grow up". It was too cute!

Maryah in costume...

Mykala in costume...

Both our Girls . . . .

So thats an update on us...We are excited to be heading out on vacation this weekend! Us, my Mom and Dad, my Granny, and Uncle Doug are headed to San Antonio to spend a week hanging out at the lake with my brother. It should be a great time...just long drive. Hopefully Trysten will decide to cooperate and behave! Should have some interesting things to say about all that so check back! :)

Hello again! Wow has it been a CRAZY week! I can't believe all thats gone on!

First, the girls were in the local Cinco De Mayo parade with the Safford Dance Academy. Mykala did so well with her Pom squad. Bless her heart she was as red as her uniform by the time they finished because it was soooo hot. I think they did a great job.

Maryah got thought it was so awesome to be able to ride on the float! It was all she talked about the whole week! She's too funny...

Trysten had been sick for most of the week but late Saturday he got way worse so we took him to the ER and they wound up admitting him for 24 hour observation. Well, being the stinker he is, that night and the next morning he dropped his oxygen levels to the point they wound up having to put him on oxygen! So what was 24 hours turned into going home late Monday night. Plus they wound up sending him home on the oxygen because he still couldnt hold his levels up. He finally got freed up from that yesterday afternoon but even then he was borderline. Leave it to him to be the first one of my kiddos to land in the hospital. It was the first time he had ever really been sick so I suppose he wanted it to be one for us to remember!

While we were in the hospital with him, Mykala wound up getting whatever this was and it hit her hard. It was so hard trying to be there for both kids and our healthy Maryah (who started the whole thing). Then to top it off, I wound up getting the cold as well! It has been interesting let me tell you! But, now for the time being we are all on the mend and healthy again. Its a good thing because the craziness is just beginning! The girls recitals are next week and then school is out and then its vacation time! We are excited to be headed to San Antonio to see my brother!

So thats it for now! Hope all you moms have a wonderful Mothers Day!! See you soon!

My First Post!

Ok so here it is, my first Blogger post! Woo Hoo! I have been trying to get the hang of blogger for awhile and all it really took was a little time playing with it! Now, what to say??

Life has been crazy for us lately. Our whole family participates in the local Relay For Life of Graham County and Robert and I both serve on the events planning committee. The event was April 24 at the Graham County fairgrounds so we have been working our rear ends off trying to get stuff ready! It came off as a great success raising over $70,000! Not to bad considering our economy these days. We still had the turnout of people as well which is the most important thing. Everyone had a good time which makes the work worth it. Now that Relay is over we can focus on the other craziness of our lives!

I just recently went back to work after being blessed to have 3 months of maternity leave. Needless to say, I miss being at home with the kids. However, only working part time is a blessing so I really can't complain. Not to mention some of my great friends are co-workers and it is really nice to be back in contact with them. And have some adult conversation! :)

Our kiddos are onery as ever. Mykala and Maryah are both dancers at Safford Dance Academy. Mykala performs with the Poms and Maryah in the tap/ballet/tumbling combo class. They both enjoy it very much. Maryah just recently got her costume for their May performance and it is just too cute! Mykala gets to dance in the Cinco De Mayo parade this Saturday so we are all looking forward to that. Other than that the girls are just having fun being kids. Trysten is in a league all of his own let me tell you. Little stinker! He has a really bad case of colic (which I am praying is almost over) so he has been a bit of a trial for the last 3 months. However, he is smiling so much now and has started laughing over the last 2 weeks which makes all the trials with him seem trivial. It is nice to know that he really is a happy baby even though he seems so unhappy so much of the time. I'm hoping for his sake (and my sanity) that he will soon outgrow this and just be happy all the time!

So, this is pretty much the update of our lives these days...nothing too exciting to report! Thanks for checking out our Blog spot!! :)