The Oregon Ducks

Update 1-22 through 1-29 {Sunday Best}

2012-01-29T21:15:00.000-08:00

Yay! It's a new week about begin and I'm excited about it! We started our new school routine this last week and it went so well that I can't wait to see if week 2 goes as well!

Here's our Sunday Best picture this week. WE actually made it to church early today....what are the odds? lol

Emma is 9 months...Savannah is 2 1/2!!!

2012-01-29T21:10:00.000-08:00

So, we must remember I'm from little Klamath Falls and have never heard of Harijuku mini....but I was in Utah shopping at Target, and found these cute jammies! I knew that's what I wanted to do the girls pictures in. But where to take them? Well...bare feet, a cozy place...on a bed of course! It's been a cloudy dark week so getting a room with enough light was a trick...but we did our best!

LOVE these crazy silly little jammies! (oh, and the girlies too!)

NOtice her ears....that's something new since we got back from Utah!

This girl still loves her toes and playing with them. LOVE IT!

This has got to be one of my favorites! She was being shy around my friend Heidi....but then she just got silly!

Gotta love the Nanna faces!

When we got home the girls were playing on the floor and I was still in shooting mood....so I kept going.

Savannah was playing with a dolly binki...and the girls kept stealing it back from eachother. They were being so funny I was laughing!

I also took the kids Valentine pictures this weekend. They are of course for Valentines so I don't want to spoil it all....but just had to share one of Emma. I LOVE when I can get a good picture of her two cute little teeth!!

A new fresh start!!

2012-01-29T21:02:00.000-08:00

Last week and the first of this week I spend gutting the school room, throwing away stuff, organizing stuff and putting back what I was keeping in hopefully a more organized way. I planned out the kids school for the rest of the school year including activities, chores, and fieldtrips. I'm stoked.

First we started with posting our Family Goals though, so that we could keep the most important stuff in focus.

Then we made a new chore chart. Not a whole lot different than what we have done in the past...but just added them all into one big frame and instead of clipart pictures off the internet...we added pictures of the kids actually doing their chores!

They just use a wipe erase marker and I found some with erasers right on the lids...AND They are magnetic! So we just hang them on our magnet board right there in the hall.

One day while I was doing school with the big kids Jayden got out a puzzle and was really roud of how fast he finished it and wanted his picture taken.

KY working on his Reading Flash Cards

We have packed our school week into four days. And if the kids finish all their work by Thursday, then Friday is fun day when we get to do science projects, art projects, fieldtrips, library trips etc. This Friday we did an art project (making pictures for my sisters birthday...Happy Birthday BEcca!), then we learned about reading maps and the kids even got to follow a map of our house and find a treasure! Then we went to the Library (twice....long story).

Our Treasure!....Chocolate Chips and Pretzels!

Emma watching all the fun

I had a friend once who I watched 'You've Got Mail' with. I woke up the next morning to find a vase holding a bouquet of Sharpened (color) pencils on the front door step! The note quoted the movie, something about loving fall and bouquets of sharpened pencils! Anyway Maliyah was cleaning up her pencils and seeing them in this cup just reminded me of that. I let Maliyah take this picture and after explaining what angle to take the picture at...I think she did pretty good!

Duck is the Young Men Basketball coach at church and yesterday was their first game so the kids and I went to watch. They LOVED it! (can't ya tell? Lol, they just didn't like me stealing their attention to take a picture!)

Blog Update....Oh from Forever Ago!

2012-01-22T17:59:00.000-08:00

It's been so ridiculously long since I've posted (for me at least) and I'm so behind. But although I attempt to keep a daily journal, I miss a lot and this blogging helps me have some family history as well as keeping my family and friends update on our lives. So be patient with me as this will be a VERY long bunch of posts...but I'll do my best to cut things back a bit! If you can only imagine how many pictures one might take (especially when that one someone LIKES to take pictures) on a 4 week trip to visit family.

I'll start with our Sunday Best as usual....just instead of one you will get four (er 6?)!

December 25th

Amazingly on Christmas Day we made it to church EARLY!!! It was such a happy day, I'm grateful for this picture to spark the memory of such a special day!

When we were at the house later with family my sister took this picture of the family, something that RARELY happens!

January 1st

I was in such a hurry this day that I didn't check my exposure and when I went back to look at them they were ALL horribly over exposed. I did my best to edit...but it looks best in B&W so there.

January 8th

This Day Savannah wanted me to take her picture once she was all dressed so I took her outside for a few minutes. Golly that girl makes me laugh. She looked pretty cute too even if I do say so myself!

January 15th

I goofed again...in a hurry set my exposure when I was zoomed in and then when I stepped back for the whole picture it ended up being way over exposed....you would think I would learn!

Testing my exposure

not testing!

January 22nd

So....even though we were late...again (see a pattern?) I made sure that I didn't totally screw up the picture! Even though half the kids aren't even looking...I had to pick this picture because it really depicts how things really are! (I didn't notice this until later but Maliyah is using her foot to hold Emma up! lol)

Ellie, Allen & Jaxon {Photography}

2012-01-22T17:35:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in my post like 6 weeks ago about taking pictures of my new nephew & niece. Later I got to take pictures of my OTHER new nephew! Yes our family has been blessed! Finally here are most of the pictures.

Shalamar made these cute pillows and crib set for Allen. You can see her whole set up on her craft blog:
Obsessively Crafting

I made this little crochet set when I was pregnant with Emma and had been dying to see it on a little boy! I was so happy when it fit so perfectly!

Jaxon Duckworth

His little hat is just to die for! But why am I surprised? His mom is a fashion guru.

Ellie Packer

I think soft baby skin is my favorite. :)

Maliyah's Baptism and Pictures

2012-01-22T17:30:00.000-08:00

We took these4 pictures a few weeks before Maliyah's Baptism for the sake of making invitations. Her invites turned out beautiful. I hadn't really thought about doing this, it was kind of a Last minute thing, but I'm now soooooo grateful I have these pictures. They truly capture Maliyah's true self, her innocence and inner beauty.

Maliyah is a very loving, caring and sensitive person who has taken her Baptism Covenants very seriously. I'm so proud of her and her desire to do good and make her Heavenly Father Proud.

The actual day of Maliyah's Baptism we took a few pictures before it got too dark

At the actual Baptism these are the only pictures we got :( but at least we got something. Maliyah chose to wear my Baptism dress which I think was awesome. It might have been old fashioned, but I think special that she chose that.

GRRRRRrrrrr her baptism pictures are now some of those that don't want to be taken off the DVD! I'm so sad! I'll have to have mom email them to me.

The rest of December 2011!!!

2012-01-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

A few other things we did to finish off 2011:

A visit to Temple Square

A sisters overnight getaway!

this is how we fashionably keep track of the room key while in the hot tub!

We went to lunch with mom at Gardiner Village and then the plan was to take Sister Pictures. This was kinda the only great one we got because it was literally FREEZING!!! The wind was blowing awful and just added to the cold. There were a few others but they are some of the ones I can't seem to get off the DVD.

Playing at the Wall to Wall Trampoline and foam pit 'Get Air' facility at the Sportsplex!

Lots of fun park time!

Being silly and having fun with cousins

Our Wonderful Christmas Eve and DAY!
(I have a ton more pictures I would love to share but all these pictures I took with my mom's camera and I was having a hard time getting them off the DVD's I burned. Maybe another time!)

And then Bringing in the NEW YEAR!!!

2012...Here's to a great NEW year!

2012-01-22T15:39:00.000-08:00

What better way to start off the New Year than with a Baby Blessing! My nephew Allen was blessed and it was beautiful. Love you Brent and Shalamar!

Olivia was LOVING the brownies and just plopped herself at the dessert table and helped herself!

The weather was so wonderful! We totally took advantage

My BFF's 2 yr old Eli

Carrie's 4 yr old Jace. Him and Jayden had fun playing together!

WE were blessed with an opportunity to go meet up with my Brother Jaron and his beautiful little family in Logan

Janine's little Micaela was laying on the floor for Jacob to walk over her. Soon there was a line up from other kiddo's at McDonalds!

Finally some New Year Snow! A Packer family Tradition

Grandpa plans the best Family HOme Evenings!

I'm just about the luckiest girl EVER (my hubby missed me!)

Maliyah's Creation she made from her scrapbook/craft kit.

Our return home was fun, and eventful (tickets {again!} traffic) But we were so happy to be home and with Duck.

Yay! Snow! The kids had a blast and our little town looked beautiful!

And what treat do you indulge in after your body has frozen in wet snow?

Well snow cones of course!

Weekly Update 12-18 One week till Christmas!! {& some photography}

2011-12-18T12:46:00.000-08:00

Oh wow...i have like five minutes to do this and it's going to take longer than that, but I'm in utah enjoying my family and we have stuff to do! So this will be quick and all in one post.

SUNDAY BEST

was it our best? It was early church which we aren't used too, but I prefer. We were running a little late so I had to spend all of five minutes on all five kids hair and mine...but we made it all in once piece. Phew!

and Savannah says thank you for the darling sweater Grandma Duck!

oh! Before anything else though....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND DAD!!!

You two are the best ever and although it's been a crazy weekend and we haven't been able to do much for you, I want you to know that we couldn't ask for better parents and grandparents for our kids! Love you so much!

Just getting ready for a trip to Utah is a lot of work, let alone one that's going to be 3 1/2 weeks long....and not to mention having my music recital the night before leaving! it wasn't necessarily my plan, but thanks to wonderful friends (thanks to all those that tried for me), we got tickets to the Tab Choir Concert and I needed to leave on Wednesday!

My first drive to utah with out Duck with 5 kids went quite well! I'm so terrible...they did so good that they only got out of the car once. Yes, once. Emma did amazing. Thank you kids for making it easy on me!

Thursday I went with my two sisters and Maliyah to the Tab choir concert. It was amazing. what a wonderful night full of music, stories and the spirit.

Friday I got to hang out with janine a lot...but I also got to hang out with Dixie and Shalamar and take their babies pictures! Oooh I get so lovey dovey around newborns. I had woke up that morning with a sore throat so I could only do the minimum placing them and moving them. no kisses or snuggles. :(

I haven't been able to edit just a few of these, but I'm not sharing all of allen's because I'm sure shalamar doesn't want to spoil her darling blessing invites, but here is one of 1 month old allen

and 2 month Ellie

Oh my gosh i have so many more cute pictures of these babies...i can't wait to show off my cute niece and nephew!

Friday night we had a sleepover at Janines house while mom and Dad celebrated their birthdays and went to the Tab choir concert. the kids LOVED being with their cousins. Well, they just love being here period. Saturday I needed to take Emma's 8 month pictures so lucky for me there are tree farms just across the street! And of course Janine knows the owners...they are in their ward!

Was it cold you ask? Well the thermometer said so...but suprisingly other than laying in the snow and mud...it wasn't too bad! Emma didn't act cold at all. luckily it only took a few minutes!

And her yummy treat for doing so well!!

I realized too that I had wanted to post the rest of these pictures from the kids Christmas shoot. Thanks again Melissa for helping me out!

and last, but I think the most exciting thing to happen this year is...
Maliyah is getting Baptized! My first born. oh how that makes me feel old, but so so proud. I encouraged her to pray about getting baptized and think about why she wants to be baptized. I won't go into details but her answers were sweet and i believe she really has a testimony of this Gospel.

(2) Weekly Update 11-27 through 12-11-11 {Sunday Best}

2011-12-11T22:10:00.000-08:00

(Because I posted so dang much, if you want to see all of this and last week, at the bottom of this page you will have to click "older posts")

Last week we had the pleasure of having the Missionaries and some friends over for dinner so I didn't have time to blog. I contemplated doing it through the week, but I have a personal goal to only blog once a week and to keep it at a minimum. Of course since I missed last week that meant more time this week, but I tried....as much as there are WAY too many pictures that I posted this week, to keep it down. Either way though...it's me! So it will always be picture overload! But then again if you are looking at my blog it's probably because you enjoy that overload...so look on and enjoy!

Here is last weeks Sunday Best. Oh my baby girl. She is too cute

This Week! As always Jayden is is giving us some personality. Notice my boys haircuts? I love them with their hair freshly cut! I mean...I love them always, but especially after cuts!

Photography

2011-12-11T21:16:00.000-08:00

In the past I have not put myself out there as a photographer at all. If a friend asked I would do some pictures, but I would NOT take money and I took VERY few jobs. They made me nervous. I would definitely consider myself amateur. I still don't have time to be doing it much more than just on my kids. But needing to make some money for a speeding ticket I put myself out a bit and got a great response. What it did for me (besides keeping me insanely busy) is I got a lot of practice. Each time I feel I learn something knew and get a little bit better.

When I have time I have read about photography and learn how I can get better. And someday I might....just might (when my kids are all grown and I have tonz of grandbabies to take pictures of!) then I might move to the professional phase. :)

Here are a few pictures from the photo shoots I have been busy with this fall:

Schriver Family

Last year we met this family through our preschool group and because of that introduction Maliyah was able to take Horse riding lessons from Heather! She offered to do it for free so as an exchange I offered to do their family pictures. They are such a sweet kind family and I love the opportunities we get to hang out together! Maliyah just adores Heather and can't wait till next summer to hopefully continue!

Taylor Girls

The mom of these gals has become a really great friend! They are the gracious family that invited us to have Thanksgiving with them. I also have the joy of having the oldest in my music class this year. Last year and this year it was super cold for picture, but they hold out really well!

Rasmussens

This family is AMAZING!! Not too many days go by that I don't ask myself in a situation "what would Natalie do?" She has six boys, a baby girl in heaven and her new baby girl Esther. She homeschools, the kids all play piano AND another instrument and are about the best behaved boys I have ever seen. Esther is one of our 4 "babies" born all together and I LOVE love love seeing these babies at church.

This picture is the best. When they picked up the CD and I was explaining to Jayden what they came over for, I showed him the pictures since he is friends with their little boy. When he saw this picture he says: "Hey mom! Look! He's happy to see me!" I laughed so hard!

McAllister Family

This is a new family that moved into our ward and They are from Layton! Melissa went to Layton high a few years after I did and it gets even better...she is a photographer! She has been the funnest photography buddy and I have learned lots from her! She helped me do my kids' Christmas pictures so in turn she asked me to do her family pictures. I used her camera (as it's WAY better than mine) and all I can say is I was nervous!! Until we got out there and started taking pictures. I LOVE kids and taking pictures of them is the best. Getting them to giggle and getting that real smile outta them is the greatest! Melissa did a fantastic with the editing on these.

Jones Family

This family is in our ward...you may recognize them from previous events! Melissa and I did this shoot together and despite the FREEZING cold (it was 9am!!) the kids did amazing. I have really grown to love these little girls so getting to take their pictures was an honor. The rest of the pictures are on Melissa's Blog.

Elaina Family

These guys are good friends from the ward. Derrick actually played baseball with Duck's brother at SUU! It's been fun to see their kids born and grow up.

Davis Family

We have been friends with this family since the first week we moved into Klamath Falls. Mom used to be my workout partner which was the best! They are such a good family and always a great example of how to raise a family in righteousness. I have also had their kids in my music classes and I just love them!

Bottcher Family

This family I just met yesterday for their picture. I took the little boys pictures through Sara's preschool. I do the preschool pictures each year and this year was the busiest with 22 preschoolers! This family liked the pictures and really wanted a family picture for their Christmas cards so we did a quick mini shoot. They were awesome! We got done in 1/2 hour and I was able to get their CD to them this morning. That's fast for me! some times I can't get to pictures for weeks, but there was so little editing that NEEDED to be done that it was easy! (and then I had some time to actually play around in photoshop a bit!)

A Super Busy Day! {homeschool}

2011-12-11T21:02:00.001-08:00

The 1st was a busy day for us.

As much as possible the first day in December the kids and I make an advent calendar.
I saw this idea on some craft blog. We made it our own and added things to do each day that we take a number down. Some things were services and some were just fun Christmasy things to do. The first day it was to fold a batch of laundry. How convenient I had some towels on the couch waiting to be folded!

After finishing our craft (and some cards for our preschool activity) we went to a nearby Assisted Living Home for our Preschool Fieldtrip.

They really got a kick outta the baby!~

Our preschool mom in charge of this activity made these cute little handouts for the residents. It was a really enjoyable trip! Thanks Heidi for arranging it!

Just a few pics from the day

The kids had swim lessons start up again and they were stoked! Maliyah had a hard first time cause her endurance wasn't up but that didn't take long to fix. Kyson FINALLY after 2 years of swim lessons has got it! The kids have to be able to swim before they can do any other sports or extra activities and he was super excited to have finally defeated his fear and swam!!

Still working on it {photography}

2011-12-11T20:57:00.001-08:00

I've been working on learning how to get the most out of my Christmas Tree pictures. I'm learning. But here are my latest.

I also had read an article about panning (when your moving subject is in focus but the background is a blur). I decided to experiment and try it out. And honestly I think for my very first try I did pretty okay. Of course it was on my kids that don't move that fast. I'm sure if it was a car or something I would totally screw it up, but this is a start right?

I don't know what the opposite of panning is called, but we tried that too. The background is in focus and the subject blurred and moving.

CED Holiday Party

2011-12-11T20:54:00.000-08:00

We had Duck's work Christmas Party and decided since all three families have kids...we would focus most of the activities around them. So we went bowling! We rented out the party room at the Center, enjoyed dinner, games and presents.

One of the prizes for the game was a fart cup. I think the technical name is FLARP but my kids like to call it the fart cup. Anyway...they loved playing with this goop so much that they ended up preferring that over bowling!

Random Stuff

2011-12-11T20:49:00.000-08:00

Jayden was helping me in the kitchen and touched something hot. His burn was so minor that I couldn't even see where it was on his hand, but aloe still made him feel so much better. Plus it came out of a cool squirty thing so he kept requesting re-application!

Jayden got a belated birthday card from my mom and he was SO excited! He had to show me every tiny detail on the card and then he took it for rides on his fire engine and asked that I take pictures of it. Thanks mom!

My muggies! (that's what the kids call themselves when they wear these towels....don't ask me where they got that from)

Seriously. I took on a job. A big job. I wished I hadn't. I love crafting and I love making accessories for little girls. But 120 bows was just too much. NEVER again will do that. Amy I love you. And I hope all the little girls in the family LOVE their 12 bows! (one for each month of the year).

Experimenting and of course more of my baby {homeschool}

2011-12-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

After finishing a book for school Kyson got to pick a prize from our prize Bucket. He chose this magnifying glass. Well it was such a hit that i let Savannah choose one too. The kids totally got a kick out of this!

These are just more pictures of my cute baby girl. I have a hard time not just taking picture of my kids all the time. ;)

Even when she is sick she is smiley and cute!

Ward Activity and Santa

2011-12-11T20:38:00.000-08:00

Our Ward Christmas Activity was on Friday. It was a really nice dinner with Super fun decorations and an even MORE super visitor. But the best part of the night was the little program that they put together. There was a beautiful message about Christmas and Christ. Maliyah got to be in it, the primary kids all sang the songs and the kids and I had to sing another song with Maliyah singing a solo! She did amazing despite ME messing up the words!

Update 11-21 through 11-27-11 {Sunday Best}

2011-11-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, weekly update. Well I'm happy to say that because of my busyness last weekend and getting lots of work done we were able to have a somewhat relaxing weekend! It was nice to just have the whole weekend to spend together as a family.

With my Sunday Best project I decided to add a story each time. Todays Story as we were running late for church again, and got out of the church, found that Savannah's bow was missing. I wasn't worried about it, we did the picture and amazingly got into church before they started the sacrament.

After church as we were getting into the car we found Savannah's bow! It was hanging...attached by the tulle to the fabric that covers the ceiling of our car! lol, it was pretty funny to see it hanging there by a thread.

Family Home Evening

2011-11-27T17:33:00.000-08:00

Maliyah wanted to write a Thank you note to our Dr. friend who fixed her up last weekend. She created this drawing and then took the picture on her own!

I had to take a picture of this becasue these three little ones have NEVER had a bath together. They loved the time just playing together.

Last week on the way home from church Maliyah asked me a question and my reply to it had to do with service. Her reply to that then was "what's service?" I about died...really am I that bad of an example to my kids that they don't know what service is!? so of course the next night for FHE the kids really learned what service is. They worked hard and did a fantastic job!

Maliyah's Birthday {Mother Daughter Spa Party}

2011-11-27T17:31:00.000-08:00

For months Maliyah has been wanting ot have a Mother Daughter night. It just worked out to have it as her birthday and we chose to have a spa party! She was in heaven through the whole thing, the planning, the party and the late night her and I got after all her friends left!

She helped make her invitations and the color scheme she chose was Neapolitan.

We had a variety of treatments including Chocolate Facials, manicures, pedicures, body wraps and recipes like Lip Balm, glitter gel and sugar foot scrub!

I invited a friend who has 6 boys but just one adorable baby girl! She painted her toes for the first time, it was so cute! I've yet to do Emma's toes.

Our one game was the body wrap

Maliyah chose my most favorite cake EVER! It's a chocolate cake from Fred Meyer and it's to die for. Usually I don't purchase cakes, but this one is SO worth it!

It's crazy to think that my girl is 8. It makes me feel old and I'm not quite sure I'm ready for my baby girl to grow up! Today after church we sat together for 1/2 hour going through her Faith in God booklet. She is SO excited for activity days and although I'm excited for her to be able to go....I'm not ready for her to! She is ready though and very ready to be baptized. We are lucky that we will be in Utah in a few weeks and she will be ale to be baptized there with all our family to witness it!

Maliyah is a very grown up little girl and is such a big helper. I'm so happy to have her in our family. Happy Birthday Maliyah!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-27T17:30:00.001-08:00

We were so blessed to be invited to join some friends for thanksgiving Dinner. They were very gracious hosts and their teenage boys were so great to entertain the kids! It was very relaxing and enjoyable. Thanks Budden/Taylor family for a wonderful Holiday!

Lazy Day

2011-11-27T17:29:00.000-08:00

Fridy after thanksgiving I went out to take pictures for my friends darling little family, but other than that we got to spend the day at home. I was not feeling well by this point so it was nice to just be home.

Our friends from thanksgiving Dinner, the Taylors invited Ky and Maliyah to go play. They had a huge family lunch potluck thing and an uncle who has horses and was taking them out on carriage rides. My friend leslie knows how much Maliyah loves horses and was so nice to invite them to come. The kids came home talking non stop they had such a great time!

Christmas Lights

2011-11-27T17:26:00.000-08:00

Last night after Duck put up the lights outside the house, the kids helped us decorate the tree and put up a few other decorations around the house.

I was practicing with my camera, trying to get a decent picture of th eChristmas tree. This first one wasn't bad, but I wanted more warmth and glow! After chatting a bit with some photography buddies online I tried a few more and got the below pictures. I like them much more!

Now I'll have to see if I can pull that off with some kids in the picture! They are so excited for christmas and got to write their Santa letters last night as well, making sure to tell Santa they will be At Grandma's house for Christmas. Hope he doesn't forget!

Update 11-13 through 11-20-11 and Sunday Best!

2011-11-20T19:06:00.000-08:00

This weekend was one of those where I wonder if I will ever make it through the weekend in one piece. I had so much to do, didn't know HOW I was going to do it all without falling apart or totally letting someone down. Well I didn't fall apart and hopefully I didn't disappoint someone. I did however get a TON of pictures edited and ready to give to people and that was HUGE relief and weight off my shoulders. Even if it meant pulling an all nighter to get it done! I love doing it, but there was just way too much at once that it began to get stressful, not to mention I wanted these people to have their pictures! I'll have to post them at another time because I've already been on here too long today!

Our Sunday Best picture today was quite humorous. We were late getting to church and quickly getting kids out of the car to take the picture. They are already pretty good at the routing of it, but I go to get the baby out and Jayden is still standing in the car. He says "my shoes!" This kid is always taking his shoes off in the car so I tell him to get them. He looks back by the seat and turns back mortified: "They at home!" I sighed, grabbed him and stuck him on a chair. Gave Maliyah the baby and proceeded to take the picture. Until my screen on my camera flashed ---no SD card inserted--. Yes my memory card was also at home. Sigh again (as I was really just trying to keep calm). I grabbed my phone took a picture and we ran into church (or carried on Jayden's behalf!). Duck insisted on running home to get Jaydens shoes so I had him get the card and we got a decent picture after church. Oh but get this...Duck still forgot the shoes. So take a look at Jayden's shoe-less feet! At least by this point the ground was dry so the baby could have the chair.

Kids Pictures

2011-11-20T18:54:00.000-08:00

May and November are the months when I get all the kids pictures done together. Always in November I wish that I had their Christmas Clothes all ready to go so we can do a Christmassy Christmas Card...but I'm never ready that early. This year....I was close. Really close. So pushed myself to do it! They looked adorable!

My new friend Melissa that just moved into the ward is a photographer and I asked if she would want to team up to do this shoot. She seemed pretty excited at the chance and said yes! I'm so glad too. I don't know what I would have done without her! She is much better than I and got some amazing pictures of the kids. Could I secretly rope her into helping me every time? ;) Just kidding...but I'm oh so grateful! Since these pics are for our Christmas card I'm NOT posting all the pictures, but I'll show ya a few of the kids individuals. I'll of course post them ALL soon..once I get my Christmas cards put together and out....even though half of them will just be sent via email. (I know I'm kinda a cheapskate like that)

These first few are by Melissa. I'm so glad she got a good smile of Ky, cause honestly he was being really goofy and showing off the whole time!

I LOVE this one because this little girl Sooooo looks up to her big sister.

The rest are mine and I laugh looking at the terrible difference. Of course I only posted my best ones but you should see what I DIDN'T post!

On SAvannah's birthday this year she wanted nothing to do with opening presents. This day that's ALL she wanted to do was open these presents. (if only she knew they were only wooden blocks!)

I love this one because you can see me in her ornament!

Jayden was being pretty goofy too. (and I didn't notice until just now this picture isn't completely in focus...whoops!)

THE goofiest of all!

Jaydens Birthday PIctures

2011-11-20T18:31:00.000-08:00

So I mentioned last week that I was going to post Jaydens birthday party pictures this week because I wanted to combine them with any pictures of his actual birthday which was on Monday. Funny thing is I just realized I didn't take a single picture of him ON his birthday! I'm such a bad mom.

So here's a few from his birthday party. Happy Birthday Jayden. WE love you!

His choice for his birthday was to have a Rio party. He has been obsessed with birds lately.

He loved helping make his cupcakes.

Not pictured we made badges for the boys to take home and the girls got feathery hair bows. Then the kids painted frames and we made sticker decal things to go on them.

Then the kids glued feathers on the frames

Maliyah helped me make this mural on the wall (this was actually her idea) and then we took each of the kids' pictures and printed them to put in their frames.

We made rio bird balloons and had to pop them.

Some kids liked it. ......................................Others not so much. Jayden did NOT like it.

Instead of a pinata we filled paper bags with candy, glued a picture of Blu on the front and hung it in a mini hula hoop...kinda like a bird sitting on a swing in a cage. The picture was fun being thanksgiving time because it says "This turkey can't fly".

The kids had to throw bean bags, but we resulted in punching.

All in all Jayden LOVED his party and the best was when he woke up from his nap that day and everything for his party was all ready and he got to see it! He was so excited and noticed all the little details that I (er maliyah actually) put into this party. She is definitely becoming quite the little party planner! Wonder where she gets that from? ;)

Preschool, crafts and BLOOD?

2011-11-20T17:39:00.000-08:00

No, before you go thinking we had an injury during preschool, don't worry because we didn't.

But yes, we hosted preschool this last week and the theme was colors. Since these kids pretty much know their colors we got more into mixing colors and worked on the letter of the day a lot. The shape was triangles. We played a game where they had to find all the colored triangles and match them to larger squares that I had. WE played many variations of this game and their favorite part is when we would start over with a new game and it would rain triangles! (when I threw them up and let them mix while falling to the ground)

We had rainbow cupcakes. I thought the cupcake liners ended up looking cooler than the cupcakes! And yes I had to use LOTS and LOTS of bad for you artificial coloring to make these.

I always overplan for preschool and can never do all that I prepared. So this time I decided to cut back and of course ended up having LOTS of extra time at the end, so we had a dance party! Maliyah loved this part..heehee she is my little dancer. The kids LOVED it though!

After Emma was blessed I couldn't bear to pack away that beautiful dress that my BIL made for me. I had plans of hanging up in the room, but needed the right hanger. Well I found a wooden one and finally months later finished it and it's ready to hang! Now it will probably take another few months before it actually makes it up on the wall. ;)

Believe it or not this last week was the first time I have ever given blood! Every time sign ups come around (and i see them) I'm either pregnant or just had a baby and nursing. So I usually bring food and sign up Duck! This time I figured even though I'm still nursing, I figured it's been 7 months and should be fine. It was a great experience and I was very happy that I finally had the chance to go and do it! I totally recommend it. People need your blood. Tomorrow it could be someone you love. Do it!

Ya know that baby? Yeah...the cute one!

2011-11-20T17:27:00.000-08:00

Well she is still cute and I can't get enough of her.

If you don't have enough baby toys then lens caps work great for entertaining babies in a pinch.

ER? Or not the ER? That WAS the question!

2011-11-20T16:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Maliyah was running through the house and slipped. I heard somebody fall in the kitchen so yelled out "are you okay?" no answer. "Are you Okay?" I asked again and still no reply. I looked in the kitchen to find Maliyah on the floor with her hand on her head and crying. I helped her up and was hugging her when I looked down and saw blood coming through her fingers. When I had her move her hand blood was coming out pretty fast. Dang! I grabbed a rag and applied pressure and had Duck come over.

I have to fill in here (Vanesa don't read this part) that amazingly we have NEVER yet in 8 years of parenting had to go to the Emergency Room, had a broken bone, stitches or really any serious injury or illness to our children. This was going to change that I thought. Duck went into panic mode a little bit (although he wouldn't admit it) and had his shoes and shirt on in no time and was ready to get in the car. I convinced him to wait while I call our friend who is an Emergency Room DR. He wasn't home but his wife said he should be home soon and reminded us that we would be waiting hour in the Emergency room anyway so might as well wait for him to get home.

An hour later, Dr Jones was in the house and was great with Maliyah. He took a look, we all agreed glue was the way to go and within 1/2 hour he was done and back home havin' dinner with his family.(hopefully they didn't eat it all!) He had the stuff to do stitches, but I felt confident the glue would be just fine. Maliyah did bonk her head today (go figure) and the top of her cut opened a bit, but I think it will still be fine...just have to be careful!

This next picture is one Duck took from his phone just before we glued it up.

Sunday Best 11-7 through 11-13

2011-11-13T17:15:00.000-08:00

I was going to JUST post the Sunday Best picture today, but then as I was downloading my pictures, looking at them I just couldn't skip posting any of them and sharing a bit more about what we did this week. Dang. So now I'm going to be on here a bit longer than planned. But I guess to start I'll share today's Sunday Best! It was a crazy morning getting to church because we had a late night last night and we all had to be at the church early.

We had a birthday party for Jayden this weekend but his real birthday is tomorrow so instead of posting birthday pictures this week AND next week...I'm just going to wait till next week.

Sweet!

2011-11-13T17:10:00.000-08:00

Last week I did a SMALL favor for a friend that was supposed to be done a LONG time ago. She was so sweet and sent these and a thank you to my house.

A shopping we will go! {homeschool activity}

2011-11-13T16:59:00.000-08:00

last week in school the kids learned about Money. How to identify different coins and dollars, and how much they are worth. After I felt they had learned some basics, I set up a little store and they got to go shopping!

Here is a small sample of some of the stuff they could buy

Each child got $2.00 to buy stuff. One dollar in change and one dollar bill (well a fake one anyway).

I set up a table with a makeshift cash register and some grocery bags. But after they purchased their stuff they had a paper bag to keep their goodies in.

Before they could go shopping we reviewed what we had learned.

They had a blast 'buying' stuff. It was great because I could have things cost only 1 cent, 5 cents and 10 cents. What store do you know that you can do that at? I think it was a fun way to practice what they had learned!

this next picture is just because she is cute. She likes this wood toy even though of course she doesn't have a clue what to do with it!

Cowboys, tumblers and readers

2011-11-13T16:44:00.000-08:00

The kids have all been into tumbling, hand stands and rolling all over the place. For the first time the other day Savannah got in on the action and was trying to do a somersault all by herself!

Savannah LOVES books. When she was quietly sitting looking at books the other day I had to capture that moment because it is so much a part of who she is!

Jayden came home Monday afternoon from a Birthday party where he got this cowboy hat. The kids have had fun wearing it all over the place!

The next are just some cute pics of my babies. Jayden love showing things to Emma...anything at all. This particular day it was some books and she was really into it.

Since Savannah still doesn't really talk we have been watching some signing videos and she is finally catching on. It's really cute see all the things she has learned!

I think in this one she is signing Apple

Here she was just getting shy.

I had done Savannah's hair in two pony tails for the first time ever. LIke the first time with all her hair in JUST two pony's. Then later Maliyah wanted her hair done just the same! Savannah's hair didn't last really long as her short hairs came out pretty quick...but we'll try again!

Week Update 10-30 through 11-6-11

2011-11-06T17:41:00.000-08:00

It's another week and great stories to tell through pictures! We have had an eventful busy week and fun opportunities to spend together. It snowed this week which always puts me int he mood to just hang out with my kids, do crafts and drink Hot chocolate! We didn't necessarily have lots of time to do that, but we did our best to enjoy this freshly fallen snow!

I have a couple friends that this year created a photo diary of their girls each Sunday in their dresses. One friend did 27 dresses, the other did 52 DRESSES! EAch week was a different dress! No, I'm not going to put my girls in different dresses each week, BUT I did have thought. EAch Sunday I get the kids dressed in their Sunday best and I love how nice they look. I always want to take a picture but it seems that we are always in a hurry to get out the door to church. I decided that I'm going to commit myself to taking a picture of my kids each Sunday right before church. It's really not going to take much time, less than a minute as we are getting out of the car going into church. So I'm going to do it...(at least try) and then post our "Sunday Best" picture in my first post each week as I blog. Here is todays picture!

I look forward to seeing this similarly posed picture each week as it will really document how the kids grow over the year!

Babies are 6 months!~

2011-11-06T17:40:00.000-08:00

I finally finished editing all the pictures I took of the four babies. I didn't even have to do much editing, it was just getting to it, going through which were the best and then getting them burned on CD's for these ladies! I'm so glad we did it though, I love love love seeing these darling babies at church and love the friendships I have with their mommy's!

Love that they all still could fit in their blessing dresses! And loved hearing the stories behind them all.

Halloween Day activities

2011-11-06T17:32:00.000-08:00

I love making holidays fun for my kids and finding simple little special ways to create 'good' mommy memories! (i wouldn't want to be remembered as the mom that NEVER did anything!)

For breakfast we had Pumpkin heads (pumpkin muffins), witch fingers (sausages), and dead mans punch (orange juice with frozen sprite head).

I thought my camera was broken. EVERY picture was coming out dark and I couldn't figure out why. I was so mad at myself when I figured it out. My Aperture had been changed and was at like a 20! I never change it so I hadn't even thought to look at that. The whole days pictures turned out awful just because of the silly aperture!

For school I had purchased pumpkins for the kids to paint. I was thinking silly faces but thanks to my brother and sister who painted angry bird pumpkins...that's what my kids wanted to paint! I convinced them to be a little bit more original and they came up with minions. I was still sad we didn't get just some cute pumpkin faces!

Two years ago I had purchased these little face pieces to put into your pumpkin. So we split and did two carved and two with the little face pieces. I was thinking just for the little kids to do, but Ky and Maliyah wanted to do it just as much as the babies.

Yum, making caramel apples!

taking Savannah outside to see if I could figure out what the heck was wrong with my camera. I didn't figure it out at that time. Bummer because she was being really cute! I had to have my shutter speed so slow lots of the pictures were out of focus. I know I should have just switched to Auto at this point, but I'm trying to just learn my camera and practice...guess I learned didn't I?

The Haunted house the kids decorated (with a little help of course). Thanks Grandma Duck for the kit!

The final result from our pumpkin painting. Mine is the brown one. I wanted to test crackle on a pumpkin. It was hard. I wouldn't recommend it.

Fall leaves and Winter....snow?

2011-11-06T17:30:00.000-08:00

Wednesday I was taking some pictures for a friend and afterwards let Maliyah run around and jump in some leaves. WE don't really have trees, or leaves in our yard so my poor kids have to use other peoples yards to do it! Maliyah had a blast!

this was just me messing with different effects on Photoshop.

Thursday I was in charge of our preschool field trip and we visited the Bus Station. They have a program called meet the bus where they teach a school group about the public transportation system and then take us on our own private bus ride! It was SO perfect, the ladies who gave us the tour/ride were so fantastic with the preschoolers and offered to take this picture for us at the end.

This was also the first day of snow. Good thing I did those pictures the night before!!

Love the lips, the chunky cheeks and those big brown eyes!

2011-11-06T17:26:00.000-08:00

Need I say more?

Actually this next one has a funny story. Well not funny...just cute. She was playing really well all by herself on the floor as the kids were in the basement. i was prepping for making applesauce (lots of applesauce) and I was trying to take pictures over the kitchen counter. I didn't want her to see me and get distracted but the view over the counter was just not good enough! So I got on the floor and snuck (I don't think that's a real word) around the couch (yes me on my belly) and got this picture. She never even knew I was there. That was the plan. Cause then she would have wanted me. That's how she rolls.

Birthdays

2011-11-06T17:24:00.000-08:00

I had a friend over Friday morning to make some applesauce. I've only done it once before and never in this amount. I have never waterbath canned on my own. Like in my own house. I have done other methods, but not this way. Last year I learned how to do pears...this year applesauce and dried prunes. Slowly but surely I'm growing up!

Yeah I pretty much ate these all gone already. They were yummmmmy.

This month we have two birthdays. Jayden will be 4 and Maliyah will be 8. Yes. 8. I'm not ready to talk about that yet.

Anyway when birthdays come up we take the birthday child out with us on our date night for their own birthday date. WE do dinner and then go to the store to see what things they might want for their birthday. Maliyah and Jayden both agreed they could share their birthday date. Obviously as you can see in the pictures below...this wasn't a problem. They had a blast together!

Cheek to Cheek

2011-11-06T17:21:00.000-08:00

I love taking pictures of Emma. Can you tell? I can't get enough of that girl! Unless it's between the hours 10 pm and 6 am.

She got her first teeth this last month! She is so cute with them! oooh and those lips I just want to kiss them!

Everytime I pull out the camera and take pictures of her the kids come a runnin' and want part of the action. I think I've mentioned this before. This time I was trying to teach Jayden to get close to her and put his cheek on hers. I even had him come close to me and I put my cheek next to his then told him to do that to Emma. Lol, the following was the result.

He didn't quite get it. Then I asked Ky to do it. Thinking, he's older...he could probably figure it out. Nope.

She was lovin' the attention though.

Blog Update 10-23 through 10-30-11

2011-10-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a busy week. I don't enjoy being so busy...although I am driven when busy and I get much more done. I need to find some balance!

I had two photo shoots for my friends preschool this week (that's a total of 24 kids). I took pictures for two families, had my Music Class Halloween Party, FINALLY started ward choir practices last week, tried to squeeze in school and piano with the kids each day, had a preschool halloween party (thank heavens I didn't have to put that one on!) , then of course just being Halloween week had to help 5 little ones (and myself) put together costumes for all our Halloween events! Whew! And now I have 5 photo shoots worth of pictures I need to get edited and done with. Thank heavens though the events of this next week aren't looking quite as crazy as this week. Although I'm sure enough will come up!

Enjoy some fun pictures of all our events this week!

Oh! And here are a few from my two recent photo shoots I finally finished up

this was a mural downtown that was black and white.

And if you didn't recognize her already this was Jade our favorite Baby sitter EVER! Unfortunately she is getting older and little less available than she used to be. :(

International Fair

2011-10-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

Last Friday the kids had an International Fair here at the house. We had been working on 4 countries that they learned about and then prepared to teach their friends about. They each got to invite four friends. We made up Passport invitations that went to each friend that was personalized with their picture and information. i have to say they really turned out cute. I'm sad I didn't get a picture of any of them. Maybe I'll have to make one for each of our kids so as we continue to learn about other countries we can stamp our passports.

The four countries we talked about were
*Greenland
*Italy
*Japan
and
*Brazil...but specifically Rio de Janeiro (of course because my kids are obsessed with the movie Rio)

In each country we talked about and showed pictures of their homes, food, clothing, music, money, language and just about anything else you can think about. We made a craft from each country and had food from each country. We totally ran out of time. The kids had a blast and were so mad when we didn't have time to talk about and do everything that we had prepared.

This pictured below was a soup recipe from Greenland with Meat, carrots and onions and barley.

Japan we made Gioza's and wanted to show sushi...but knew they might not like sushi. Ky had the GREAT idea of these sushi rolls:

Rice Crispy instead of rice, fruit rollups instead of seaweed, and Swedish fish instead of raw fish. They were yummy!

Below is pictured the Gioza and then our Italian Pizza and breadsticks which were the hit of the party. WE also had Fruit Smoothies for Rio as Fruit Juice bars apparently are popular there.

I think we will make this a tradition to do every year although I think we'll spend more time studying the countries and have the fair in the early spring when things aren't so hectic and we can take more time.

Once our time was done being spent on the International Fair...Halloween was all the craze! We had our Music Halloween party to prepare for, decorations to get up, and clothing to pull out and put on! This was the kids with what halloween t-shirts they owned.

Then Grandma Duck always pulls through with the best packages of stuff including socks! Little did she know the kids had totally been fighting over the 2 pairs that we had already owned. Perfect timing Grandma Duck!

If anybody looked at the blog from the Community Craft event I recently helped put on...we had some painted 2x4 pumpkins. I was making some thank you gifts and used the same idea but modpodged paper on the fronts instead. Didn't like that i had to use my scrap paper and fabric, but otherwise? Loved. Them.

Last Saturday was our Stake Leadership Meetings and I had been asked to come and teach the Primary Music. I had such a wonderful experience with it last year that I was excited to do it again. It was truly a wonderful and very spiritual opportunity and I learn something new each time. I wanted something for these music leaders to take home with them so I made these little cubes to use in Primary. They can write what they want on the sides (softly, loudly, boys, girls) and then let the kids roll the cube before singing a song. Luckily (cause otherwise I wouldn't have made them) I already had the cubes from a previous project. Thanks to my hoarding habits.

I attached this quote:

"We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer."

My baby girls!

2011-10-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

Nanna girl in her designated "picture" spot.

Savannah was playing with Emma, getting her with her toy bird and Emmawas laughing like crazy and loving it! So of course that made Savannah do it even more. It was a fun game for quite awhile.

Savannah's view of Emma up on the counter!

I made some crocheted hats and headbands for a friend and wanted to get some pictures. The sizes weren't meant to fit my girls heads so they didn't fit just right...but I got the pictures I wanted and some shots of a cute girls beautiful eyes!

Pumpkin Carving

2011-10-30T19:14:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning the kids had the preschool Halloween Party. Jayden pretty much took his costume off right away and didn't play a single game. Maliyah and Kyson had fun though! Emma was a cute little lady bug and didn't want me out of her sight. The night before Maliyah had helped me make some hair accessories for a friend and I had to get some pictures of them! I had to get feathers for the International Fair and saw a friend use them in a baby hair clip so we did the same. LOVED it.

Maliyah was spiderwoman and got to be the person mummified in a game. Kyson got to as well.

Nanna LOVES her baby Emma and she also lately LOVES having her picture taken (when it's not formal). As soon as she sees me taking pictures of Emma she always jumps in the shot!

Kyson found this pirate costume in our dressups and chose it for the preschool party. He wore it all day!

Friday night was our Ward Halloween Party and Chili Cookoff. I heard it was a huge success! But we were an hour late so I couldn't tell ya. No, actually we got there during the greatest thriller performance ever by our babysitter Jade and two others, and there was the biggest halloween costume crowd ever! It was fun to see all the kid AND adult costumes. The kids had a costume parade, they had the chili contest and dessert and costume contest and then trunk-or-treat. The kids loved it all

This picture is a Lady in the ward named Juanita. She is a hoot. I love chatting with her and she is just so sweet. She loves holding Emma and Emma hates being held by anybody out of her family. But Juanita won't give up and is determined that one day Emma will love being held by her!

We carved our pumpkins kinda late this year. We also did things a little differently. We carved just two pumpkins then let each of the kids pick potato head type toy things to make faces. They have pointy backs on each piece to push into the pumpkin. Lol, okay that sounded dumb and I don't even have a picture to show you...but we will! Tomorrow. Anyway, each kid got to pick a face that we put on two sides of two more pumpkins.

Sunday Best

2011-10-30T18:56:00.000-07:00

Some good friends of ours throw a Halloween party every year and every year it gets better and better! This year was no exception. The kids had a blast and it was fun being with friends. It's also when I take the opportunity to take our family Halloween picture. Usually by the time we get to it ON halloween....it's too dark for a good picture. Little ones were cranky, and scared of mom...and the 3 year old was afraid of the fly buggin' us, but we got the picture nonetheless!

As you can see (hopefully) we were dressed as the characters from Despicable me. I was Dr. Nefario, Duck was supposed to be Gru although he decided to not be festive and dress all the way up, Maliyah, Savannah, and Emma were dressed as the three orphan girls Margo, Edith and Agnes, Kyson was a minion and Jayden was of course Vector!

Somehow with Emma as Agnes I had to create some hair with a big ol' sticky out pony tail. It wasn't easy, but I feel I succeeded!

Jayden makes the best Vector. He already loved him from the movie and did a great 'oh yeah' not to mention his favorite scene about him wearing pajamas!

Maliyah totally looked the part of Margo and LOVED that I didn't have to do much to her hair. She always wants to have her hair in JUSt a ponytail and for one weekend actually got to!

Kyson was at first super excited about being a minion, but then later got a little self conscious about it. Winning the best costume at the ward activity though helped boost his confidence!

The party was a blast and I took a bazillion pictures but the last one I had to share was of our friends little girl. I went out back to take some of their two kids, and this little gal was just too cute!!

Every SUnday when my kids are in their Sunday best I want to take their picture. But inevitably we are always in a hurry and running late and it doesn't happen. BUT Halloween Sunday Best only happens once a year...if that so late or not. We were taking a picture.

Update (a 4 week one!) end of September through October 23rd

2011-10-23T17:45:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh it's been a busy month! Busy too because there have just been things going on Sunday to keep me from Blogging! But also out of control busy because well....I have five kids, I homeschool, and I'm mormon. I don't think I even need to go into all the other things I do...that alone would keep me busy! But of course I love my life, I'm so blessed and I will NOT complain. I'll just keep trying to simplify so things aren't TOO busy.

A few of my pictures in the next couple posts aren't in order, but that's really not super important. I also have two photo shoots that I haven't finished editing yet so I didn't even think to add any to this...but I will next week. In the mean time enjoy these pictures and make sure you make it to the end for Emma's 6 month pictures and a photoshoot of the four babies!

OH! And I almost forgot the GREATEST part of today's posts! Just see in the picture from my brother below!

You can read in her post on her blog here. Unless it's private...I don't know if it is. I guess you can try!

Surprises, Birthdays and SO much more!

2011-10-23T17:19:00.001-07:00

Since it's been so long since an update, I have of course a bazillion pictures. I was really good and selected just a few favorites (which still really added up) to share in this post. I'll try to be brief too and not bore you too much!

Sewing Lessons! The kids each helped and learned how to make pants and a scripture bag.
Maliyah did most of hers all on her own!

She is so much like her mother. She loved it!

Emma likes watching sewing lessons!

The beginning of October Duck was going out of town and surprised me and the kids! He had been arranging with my sister...her coming to visit! It was the greatest surprise ever!

These are just from a BBQ we went to with some friends while Janine was here.

We did the HOme Depot craft with the kids and of course baby girls were stuck in the cart. Don't they look like they are having fun with eachother?

Watching Conference and playing Conference Bingo!

My two cute baby girls.

Janine Lovin' on Emma!

We took all the kids on a bike ride/walk and were able to get a picture of all of them. Janine's oldest didn't come with her since he had school, but otherwise all the kids!

Maliyah also loves doing hair...like her momma. Good thing she has such a nice Aunt Neenie to let her do it on!

I'm anxious to see what color her eyes are going to stay. They are ever changing, but sure look cool right now!

Emma playing with a toy! She finally discovered that if she held on long enough and moved it would make noise! She had fun with it forever.

Picking apples.

Just after Janine left it was my birthday. I was pretty bummed she couldn't have stayed for it, but even if she had...I still would have been bummed when she left! Janine thanks so much for sacrificing and coming out. It was the best week ever!

Here is Emma enjoying the tissue paper from my birthday gifts. She played with it forever!~

Beautiful flowers from my Mother-in-law and Friend Ann.

In the morning of my birthday we all went bowling together, then that afternoon Duck took me up to Medford for the Temple, dinner and then we went to the batting cages! I've never done that before and it was really fun! Thanks babe for one of the best birthdays ever!

Continuing!

2011-10-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

The weather has been really nice so we have tried to take advantage of it!

Just a few silly pics of the kids! This was the day that I caught Emma scooting backwards for the first time!

Lol, this picture makes me laugh! I had just gotten the boys out of the bath and sent them to their room to get jammied. Ky got mixed up and came out wearing Jayden's pj's! They both have the same pants and he totally didn't notice!

Last week for Family Home Evening we had a Talent Show. WE set the train table in front of one of our hanging curtains (you should see my basement if that doesn't make sense to you) and then each person had a turn performing! It was awesome. I laughed so hard and the kids laughed at me! At the end all the kids used the glow sticks ky had used in his talent, we turned out the lights and turned on the music and I just took cool pictures while they danced! I want to put them in a slide show as I took tonz, but here is one for now!

Emma is 6 months old!

2011-10-23T17:11:00.001-07:00

I still can't believe it's been six months since Emma was born, but yet at the same time it feels like she has been part of our family forever! Here are a few things I said about my girl in my journal:

She broke her first tooth today. When I let her on her belly she has scooted backwards before. IN her crib on her back she tends to scoot thus smashing her head up on the top of the crib! She babbles dadda a lot. She growls. She still wakes at least 3 times a night. She is a bit fussy, but yet sometimes amazingly good. She still likes her toes and her hair is barely growing. She still has these big dark eyes and round cheeks that I just can't get enough of! a couple weeks ago she finally figured out how to shake a toy and get entertainment out of it! She doesnt do it a lot, but at least she has done it once. I love when they start really getting into toys and things!~She give slobbery wet kisses all over my face and lights up when I walk to her and just melts and screams when I walk away. I love that baby girl so much! Emma you are special to me!

Her brothers and sisters just adore her and EVERY time I take the camera out to take pics of her, they all come running to be in the picture with her! They are great helps with her and sure seem to love her as much as me!

We took these pictures the other night and I didn't realize how early I was going to lose light so we didnt have a lot of time. I have to totally give all credit for the pumpkin idea to Duck. I just wanted her sitting in a pumpkin but we didn't have one big enough.

Those big eyes and yummy lips!

Still loving her toes!

A Couple weeks ago I had some hair and bow classes as my house. I had looked at a lot of pictures of Feather hair creations and liked them but I didn't have any feathers. Later during our bow making night I thought up the idea for the Fall Leaf Hair Clip...and LOVED how they turned out! I made 3, one for each of my girls. This one is actually the one I made for Maliyah, but loved the larger size for pictures.

4 Babies

2011-10-23T17:02:00.000-07:00

If you regularly keep up with my posts you may remember these pictures

Well these babies have grown and one more has joined the bunch! WE got them together again. This time the idea was to get one with the momma's as well! One of the mom's also had the idea of getting one with them all in their blessing dresses and AMAZINGLY they all still could squeeze in them! Maybe I'll find some blessing day pics of each of them to compare to the blessing one and post it next week. The night we took these it surprisingly was overcast so it got too dark too fast, but we didn't care. WE were together and wanted to get these pictures!

(originally the green baby)

Blessed Esther that came too late for the original group picture but how happy we are that she was here with us this time! She is just such a doll and I get emotional just looking at her picture! She comes from an amazing family that I'm so blessed to know.

I was so glad that we were able to use this pumpkin again! And just perfect that there was a black cat around!

Originally the purple baby now sporting the yellow!

Lizzie, Esther, Kari & Emma

Wishing I could post more!

2011-09-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

We have had so much going on this week and I was so excited to tell you about it all but unfortunately I'm in a lot of pain right now and it hurts to sit here! I've done something to my back and I'm scared at how behind it's going to put me with everything! I don't know whether to stand, sit or laydown because no matter what it hurts! So I've got to keep it brief and I'm just posting a few highlights.

The week started with our first Piano lessons. The kids are SUPER excited about getting that going.

My music lessons went really well on TUesday despite my assistant not being able to be there and Duck having to leave early to help with a scout thing! The kids also started our week on learning how to sew! We didn't have time to complete their projects on Friday so we will finish up this week and then send pictures.

Emma is just about out of her 3-6 months clothing so even though it was a really warm week (in the 80's!) I had to make sure she got to wear some favorites! This picture is for you Jamie!

That same day (after pooping out of her clothes for the second time) I was taking more pictures of Emma and Maliyah helped me get her smiling! She doesn't smile for the camera much so it was fun to finally capture her smiles!

Thursday was Jayden's first day of Preschool and he LOVED it! Of course on the way we had to stop and take some pictures

This guy is ALWAYS on the move. Taking his pictures create moments I will never forget!

While Jayden was at preschool we did school at a park. It was a beautiful morning and I loved being outside!

Later that evening we had our Softball Team Family BBQ. It was fun to just relax and hang out with the team again! The kids had a blast playing wtih eachother and playing Deadman on the trampoline!!

Emma had been crabby all day and once we got there she was an angel! She just sat in the little exersaucer all afternoon and loved watching all the action going on around her.

Friday night was our Relief Society Retreat. It's been a tradition since I moved here and despite being HUGE and pregnant one year, sick with pregnancy the next year...leaving newborns and having a back injury this year....it's never failed to fill me with joy hanging with my ward sisters! Since my back was sore I pretty much kept it easy and just took a million pictures. But to spare any embarrassment and my time, I'll just post the cute babies that were there (2 of the 4 that are Emma's little peeps) and then a sillouhette shot out by the lake. We had the greatest women in our ward and these ladies are NO exception. They were super fantastic and patient with me as I used them to practice my camera on! Honestly they made the whole weekend a blast!

While gone on the retreat I got a text that my Brother and Sister-in-law had their Baby! Nate and Dixie had a baby girl Saturday morning. I actually don't even know her name yet but she was 4 pounds 9 ounces the little stinker! Lol...I can't WAIT to meet her!

DOUBLE week update! 9-4 through 9-18-11

2011-09-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

Last week we were out of town so I have TWO weeks to update! I hate when I get behind...but whaddya do?

Two weeks ago we started out with Labor Day. Some friends of ours had an adult Work event so we had 4 extra little girlies with us! The kids had a blast! It was the baby's 1st birthday that day so we had cupcakes and homemade icecream. The BEST part was at the end of the evening when we were cleaning up and I found her under the table, finishing off all the cupcake crumbs the kids had left behind! She was having her own little party all on her own under the table!

The first week of school went really well and the kids are excited about all the things we plan on doing this year. (And secretly so am I!) Okay, not secretly. I LOVE homeschooling the kids. There are definitely days that are hard. Days that I'm exhausted, have a bazillion things to do and think about what life would be like if we didn't homeschool. But for now I LOVE having my children home with me. They bring me much happiness and I love being the one to pass on information and knowledge. I also love seeing what good friends my kids are with eachother. Of course they often fight and bicker. If they didn't that wouldn't be normal! But they also LOVE to play together and be together as a family. I LOVE to hear that from their mouths.

This weeks Posts include:

Labor Day
First Day of School Pics
Photography Workshop in SAcramento
Emma's 5 month pictures
Klamath Community Craft!
Pear Orchard
Practicing on my camera
BYU vs. Utah

Labor Day and Madalyns 1st birthday!

2011-09-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

WE had the backyard set up with swim pool, sprinkler and WATER BALLOONS! Of course the favorite was trying to get daddy with the balloons. And in turn him getting the kids with the balloons!

For some reason the next activity was picking all the leaves and throwing them in the pool.

First Day of School

2011-09-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

Maliyah loves posing for her pictures, so I just let her and I keep taking pictures!

Jayden had to get in on the action although he starts preschool this week and we'll officially take his pictures at that time.

This kid kills me with how fast he is growing. He eats more at each meal now than EVER before! Like all the sudden he is going for 4ths! He must be going through a growth spurt. Love him!

Maliyah was just noticing how much taller Ky is in this picture, but he really isn't that much taller than her...just about one inch so he must be standing on higher ground.

Sacramento Trip-Photography Workshop {A Day with Amy}

2011-09-18T20:55:00.000-07:00

Friday September 9th I spent the morning dropping kids off at friends houses for the weekend, and then Duck, Emma and I headed down to Sacramento! I had never been there and was pretty excited! The event? A photography workshop with my friend Amy. Her family was in our ward in Anchorage and she has become an incredible photographer! She began teaching 'A Day with Amy' workshops and they have been successful! I am one such story (I hope!).

Friday night we got in early enough to go to the Sacramento Temple. Wow the temple grounds were beautiful! Just being in the parking lot I felt the spirit and was excited to be there. We don't have the opportunity to be at the temple frequently since it's 1 1/2 hours away from us (in Medford) and finding child care becomes difficult. Even tonight we had to just take turns while the other was with Emma, but oh it was so worth it!

Saturday was the workshop and it was exactly what I needed! I feel like I can comfortably take someones pictures in Auto and be okay with it. It's not a business. It's not intended to be. I photograph for the purpose of capturing my childrens childhood and our family memories. But when a friend asks me to do pictures and have time...then I love to help out. But I shoot in AUTO. Amy's workshop has helped me truly understand how to shoot in MANUAL! yes...the scary word that I have avoided since getting my camera. BUT I learned so much and I'm so grateful that Duck was supportive in not only letting me go, but joining me! Now when I'm unsure of what to adjust when taking a picture he can help me out! It was so much fun being together all weekend and having Emma all to myself! (oh, I guess I had to share her with Duck)

Emma's 5 months!

2011-09-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

After the workshop I wanted to be able to practice what we had just learned with the professional there to help! I'm so glad I did because we got some SUPER cute pictures! I had left her clothes and other bows at the Hotel, so I didn't have anything to match this teacup...but I STILL love them! That baby girl just melts my heart.

She LOVES her toes!

and so do I!

Oooh, and those lips...I LOVE kissing them and getting kisses back!

check out those belly rolls!

She was at this point awake over two hours, totally overdue for a nap, and she was so great to just hang out in this I'm sure 'uncomfortable' tea cup!

Maybe no hair bow or cute girly clothes...but we got the bling!

Klamath Community Craft Day {super saturday?...nope!}

2011-09-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

One thing that has kept me SUPER busy the last couple weeks is this Craft Day

I would post pictures of the craft here but...YOU can go see them yourself at the blog on that flier! No more super saturday....this is not a church activity, but a community event and we are hoping it becomes an annual event! If you know anybody in the Klamath area...pass the word along!

Practicing on my Camera

2011-09-18T20:48:00.000-07:00

I'm so grateful that I was able to go to the photography workshop...but I know what I learned can be lost easily, or I can practice and increase my knowledge and ability. It could be very easy to stay busy, set my camera back to Auto and just practice when I have 'time'. Yeah right. So I keep it in Manual and any second I think I have just that, a second, I pick up my camera. Often it's while the kids are eating as the table area gets the better light....but it's also when the kids aren't running crazy!

This first picture is Maliyah typing her first letter. She is nearly done so watch out whoever gets this in the mail!

Kyson was watching TV and completely oblivious to what I was doing with the camera (or was just ignoring me!)

Emma doesn't really love this bouncer any more...but she isn't really great at grabbing toys yet so it's one place I can put her that keeps toys constantly in front of her...encouraging her to grab.

LOL....OOOOOH the faces of Savannah! That girls CRACKS me up!!

During quiet time one day Ky played with this. He got really good at it and wanted me to take a picture of the pirate face he made.

Maliyah is a great subject for practicing on because she will sit there forever while I figure out my settings. I also love this picture. Because of the way the light is shining in her eyes you can see how they are starting to turn Green. Grandma Packer you see that?

Emma has just begun eating solids. Just cereal of course and it's always a little tricky at first, but she is getting better!

Medford Pear Orchard

2011-09-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

The church has a Pear Orchard in Medford and each year during the harvest we are encouraged to consecrate a certain amount of time helping to pick. I was able to get sitters for Kids Wednesday morning and go with a friend. With the Craft thing so close and sign ups starting this weekend, I had LOTS On my plate this week! Nonetheless I needed to go and do my time. I was running on only 2 hours of sleep but picking went well. I got this picture before we got started. It was early.

We watched the sun rise.

While picking I had a branch wack me right in the eye. The way it hurt is very hard to explain. Burning, pain...water streaming! I finally was able to keep picking and get us home...but wait till you hear the rest of my day.

On the drive home we were looking for Blackberry bushes. I pulled over when we found a lot and behind me was a cop. With his lights on. Who knows how long he had been following me because through Duck's DARK windows I could barely see his lights flashing. Of course he was hesistant to approach a dark vehicle, with dark windows and big ol' fatty tires. It took some convincing before he really believed our story. I still got a ticket. For speeding. And dark windows. :(

We picked berries and headed home. About 10 minutes before arriving back home my eye just went crazy! I could barely see and was afraid I wasn't goign to be able to finish the drive! I did make it though and was able to get myself around to pick up all the kids as well.

The rest of the afternoon I was supposed to spend finishing 5 CRAFTS to for the craft Day. I could barely see. My eye burned and hurt and cried all day. And the tears caused my nose to run. By dinner time it was making me feel physically ill. I had to finally go to bed for a few minutes! With how little sleep I had had, the two tickets, the stress of what I was supposed to get done and then the pain from my eye....it was a pretty crappy day. And somehow I was supposed to clean my house and host our preschool meeting the next morning. Forget it. I had Maliyah make me a darling HUGE sign that said 'meeting at the church!' It worked great and thank goodness when I woke up Thursday morning my eye felt just fine!

Just more PIctures...and BYU vs. UTAH

2011-09-18T20:24:00.000-07:00

A gal friend here gave this Flower Clip to me when Emma was born. I've used it for Nannies but not for Emma yet. This particular friend had been over the day before helping me craft and so this day we wore the flower clip just for her! Thanks Rachel!

Oh I can't get enough of those big dark eyes!

lol, these next ones make me laugh. One of the classes at the Craft Day is a FHE lesson kit. I wanted to see if I might use one of the kids' faces for a smiley and frowny face thing. Well Jayden didn't want to help at first, but then he tried to frown for me. Lol...he had a hard time keeping from smiling!

BYU vs UTAH game! So, I'm not huge into watching football on TV, but Duck is. So when he mentioned it was the BYU Utah game...I thought we could have a little family fun with it. We told the kids about the two teams....let everybody pick red or blue and then painted faces. Even Emma was in on the action!

We played minute to win-it type games and kept track with points for each game. At the end of all three games we added up all the points for a winner!

Like the actual game...red won. But UNLIKE the real game...they only won by 1 point. Then we made RED rice crispy treats. It was a fun night! We just might have to do this again when the Duck's play the Beavers! Go DUCKS!!!

Week Update 8-28 through 9-3

2011-09-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm listening to the Tab Choir (The spirit of God) and I wish I were just sitting here listening rather than blogging. I LOVE this music and it so relaxes me and fills me with such hope!

But...I have a to do list so relaxing will have to wait. Still the music uplifts me and I'm grateful for it!

It was a wonderful Sunday. I got to teach a primary class! It was really fun, but was wierd not being there NOT as primary president! I gave a little thank you to the teachers and to all my kiddos and had my opportunity to tell them I love them!

I'm including the picture of the Frame I made for the teachers, and for the kids I made a little published picture book of all the kdis from the past three years while I've been president. They loved them!

Otherwise I don't have much to tell from this week, or show! I of course wanted to add a picture of something in this post so I went back to a past random year to post a picture from the first week of Sept...however many years ago. The ironic thing is it happened to be the week that Brent and Shalamar were married. What's crazy about that is in those pictures Maliyah is wearing the dress that I happened to put on SAvannah for church today! She looked adorable! Here are a few pictures from that wonderful time.

Shal these last two are for you!

Brent and Shalamar I'm so glad you two found eachother. You are absolutely adorable, I love your cute little family more than you will ever know!

Of course I didn't take a picture of Savs today, but maybe one day this week I'll put her in it and take a picture.

Week Update 8-21 through 8-28-11 BIG NEWS!

2011-08-28T16:39:00.000-07:00

first...if you have missed the last few weeks, you missed some good stuff! My baby girls are growing up and you can read about them here:

Savannah is 2!

and here at the end of this post:

Emma is 4 months!

Wow...it's been a busy day, I'm exhausted and I really don't feel like going into too much detail for our week. Sorry. So out of my laziness this will all just be ONE big post.

Monday night was Maliyah's first time conducting FHE, and doing the lesson and treat. She gave us a great lesson and did a great job making the chocolate muffins. She made them nearly all on her own! Kyson also helped me out for dinner that night and is now a MASTER corn shucker (and I have never spelled that and never even THOUGHT about how it shoudl be spelled!). Maliyah's lesson was on the Word of Wisdom which went great with the Primary Theme this month of 'My Body is a Temple'. Today she had to give a talk in Primary so it went perfectly and just had to modify it a bit!

Trying to hide from the camera!

Thursday Morning Duck left out of town for the weekend on a business/pleasure trip with 3 other guys. When duck leaves I try to provide some fun activities for the kids so that they aren't bummed about him being gone, so Thursday we did the water activity at the Y.

Friday Maliyah had horse lessons so we drove out to sprague river again, but then that night we had Kimberly (husband is gone with DUck) over with her kids to do dinner and make cookie pizza's. Another friends little girl had fallen and split her head open so I had her other two little girls too. The kids had a blast with the craziness of it all...but it was just that, CRAZY! And loud.

That is a SUPREME!!

So this trip of Ducks....the point was to treat his good customers, Larry and Joey...to something...something big. It was pretty crazy that it ended up being car races in Bristol Tennessee...but that's what they chose!

Since they left 4 lonely wives behind, the company also treated us to a day. WE started with a pizza lunch and trolley ride downtown which included all the kids.

Waiting for the Trolley

After settling kids with babysitters we went to the spa. I got my first professional massage! It was okay. But honestly? I don't think I could EVER pay for one myself. I know lots of people that really enjoy them...I'm kinda jealous because I had been looking forward to it! I did however LOVE the pedicure and just chatting with Kimberly. After the spa we went out to dinner. It ended up being a really long night...2 HOURS to get our food and nearly 3 hours at the restaurant, but it was definitely a relaxing afternoon with women I really enjoy being with, so THANK YOU CED!!

So now for the BIG news of the week. This morning (with all 5 kids in tow because Duck is still gone) I went to my LAST ward Council meeting. Yes, today I was released from Primary President! It's a day I have been looking forward to....and dreading for years. I LOVE kids, but since being called I have had three babies, moved twice, and started homeschool and it's been a LOT Of work. I love being in primary and I look forward to the Day that I can maybe just be a primary teacher! As president I didn't get a lot of chances to work with the kids at a really intimate level, yet on the other hand I got the opportunity to work with and get to know ALL The kids rather than just one class! I will for sure miss those kids, but I know I'll get lots of chances to help out as a sub since my NEW CALLINGS ARE: (yes there are two) Ward Music Chairman, and Ward Choir Director.

Prior to this month I probably would have been a little intimidated by that calling (director anyway). But when the Bishop mentioned we will be released soon and he has another calling for me I got worried about what it might be! I thought it about it much of that afternoon and had an epiphany. NO MATTER what calling I recieve, I have the choice to LOVE it, or not. I also have the choice to put forth my all, or not. At that moment, I decided that no matter what my calling will be, I will be the BEST at it that I could be! Soon all kinds of calling were going through my head. Ones that would typically REALLY intimidate me, but I was getting excited about the prospect of any of these callings! So as soon as I was asked to serve in these areas, I said yes and I'm really excited! I'm going to try to be the BEST Ward Choir Director that our ward has ever had! Maybe I won't really be....but I'm certainly going to try!

I'm grateful for a church that allows me the opportunity to serve so much. It's in this service that I am humbled, taught, and given the chance to grow. I'm so grateful that I got the chance to be Primary President and for the wonderful relationships I was able to develop with the others I worked with in Primary.

Just got this picture in my email. We had two softball games this week. AFter Wednesdays game Duck and I had our date night, but he was gone for Thursday's game which was our last! We took fifth out of 8 teams. Consider we never had a single practice and a few of us are NOT athletes...I think not too shabby! We were the wildebeests...yes we were great! Go wildebeests!

Week Update 8-14 through 8-21-11

2011-08-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling the vibes of 'end of summer' going on all around me. I'm in denial. It finally got consistently warm and summery here, and I'm not ready to give it up. I've been trying to get the kids out to do something fun each day so that we'll have pleny of Summer 2011 memories!

I didn't take a lot of pictures from our activities this week, but we have been to the water activities at the GYM and on WEdnesday I took the kids hiking up hogsback, the hill behind us. It's a pretty steep hill so I knew we wouldn't go very far, but we REALLY didn't go far when the grass ended up as tall as Savannah. Because once the grass got tall, not only did I carry a baby on my back, but had to carry a toddler on my front! With the slippery dry grass beneath my feet I wasn't about to try the steep climb to the rocks where Maliyah and Kyson wanted to play. WE hiked about 10 minutes, took a break to eat our snacks then I promised the big kids we would come again with out the babies and then we went back down. It was fun while it lasted!

This picture was from my phone. It's the three at the top of where we hiked. That's Klamath Falls!

Friday morning Duck's Brother Gavin and his Wife Jessica had their baby boy Jaxon. Baby had some complications so I honestly haven't heard any stats about ANYTHING, but that he has been improving. As soon as we heard, the kids and I pulled over to say a prayer for Jaxon and their family. It was a sweet opportunity to hear them bless their new little cousin. We are so happy that he is doing better and we love you Gav and Jess!

Just snached this picture from facebook and the stats. 6 lbs 9 oz and 19 inches long. His full name is Jaxon Darren Duckworth. Love you little man.

This weekend Duck had to work a little bit in Coos Bay so the kids and I joined him. We didn't get in until late Thursday night and we had to leave Saturday morning, so it was a quick trip, but we had fun! I took the kids to the Ceramic Shop downtown where they each got to paint their own item (Savannah choosing to paint herself instead) then walking around the boardwalk while Duck was working.

This is Savannah while we were painting. She didn't like that I was taking her picture. Also from my phone.

By the time we got back to the hotel, had lunch and quick naps it was time to pick up Duck! The morning had been beautiful, but by the time we picked up Duck and drove out to Sunset Beach it was cold and foggy! Bummer. But does that stop my kids? Nope! They ended up stripping all down to their suits and still playing in the freezing ocean water. Crazy kiddos!

I don't remember what it's called, but this outlook always has tonz of sea lions hanging out.

This is the main group of them. They are like little bugs just crawling around eachother! there are so many of them! There have been lots of whales spotted out here, but none today.

It's so beautiful out here...I lOVE It!

This picture makes me laugh. I always pack along jackets, and I always have extra clothes on hand for baby...but I didn't pack extra WARM clothes! So when emma leaked onto her jeans all I had to put on her was a way summery outfit. So I put her in that, then wiped off her pants and put them back on over, then her jacket. Then to make sure her socks stayed on her feet I put her sandals back on over her socks. Poor child!

Obviously she didn't seem to mind too much, but she didn't like the runny nose or that I had to keep wiping it.

I don't know much about ocean water...heck or any bodies of water for that much, but for some reason today the water was very green. Usually it's grey if the sky is grey, and blue if it's blue. The sky certainly wasn't green though.

Another sweet moment (but scary too) was on our drive there. Just north of Medford there was a massive Fire on the side of the freeway going up the mountain. I could feel the heat of the fires from the car! There were homes and business there. From what we could see homes weren't on fire yet, but it was a really scary scene with the helicoptor dropping water from the river and there was smoke everywhere. I got some pictures on Duck's phone but I don't have the right cords to download them onto the computer. We decided to have a prayer for those in and fighting those fires and maliyah got to say it. She was a little nervous and not sure what to say, but it was perfect. She is very fearfull of being in a fire, or our home catching on fire so she was very willing to bless for their protection. I do hope though that all were delivered safely from that awful fire.

OH! One more thing, Emma is 4 months! I really inteded on having her 4 month pictures posted today...but we haven't even taken them! I got her this new swimsuit and was all excited to have the pictures taken out at the coast, but she ended up being kinda sick and it was really just too cold. I'm hoping to take something this afternoon, but I don't know what since I was planning on the swim suit/coast thing! I'll for sure have something posted next week and tell you all about her!

Dang! I wasn't going to get back on here, but decided to hurry and post the pictures we took tonght of Emma. Honestly I really don't like doing pictures months 2-4/5. It's just awkward and...not my fav! I also decided to go ahead with the swimsuit thing so we drove out to the lake that's downtown. It worked out okay, but I totally mis-judged the lighting. I haven't been paying attention to sunset and it got dark on me way too fast!

At 4 months Emma is learning more and more every day! She is getting a bit closer to sitting...keeps us thinking every week that she might be teething by her drooling, or runny noses, or fussiness and then....no teeth! This last weekend she really did have a cold, Savannah and Maliyah got it too. Luckily it was just a runny nose, but still no fun. She is talking more and more and the kids just think it's so funny and are always telling me she is singing!

My favorite thing right now definitely has got to be when she lights up and smiles when she sees me, or other recognizable faces. Unfortunately I still can't seem to capture it on camera well, but it's a pretty cute smile!

She's smiling because Daddy is right there! Now if I could just get her to get excited about and smile at the camera!

this girl LOVES her toes! It's so cute to see her find them grab them and play with them!

So as if I wasn't already losing light fast, but a group of tourists stopped to watch. Oh wait, they didn't watch...they walked right next to emma and got her to look AWAY from me and kept trying to get her to smile at them! So...I just kept taking pictures! Finally after forever they continued on their walk.

She still absolutely HATES being on her belly. I think we last about 30 seconds. So at this poitn I couldn't even get her to hold still let along look at me and smile! But I LOVED the little ruffle bum that I got by her being on her belly!

Weekly Update 8-7 through 8-13-11

2011-08-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

It was great this week to not have a billion things planned and to actually just have fun with the kids and try to get some things done around here. I still unfortunately didn't seem to barely make a dent in my to do list (Emma must have just known I wanted to hold her all day every day ;)), but it was still a good week nonetheless. (minus all the sleep I missed out on).

Tuesday night Duck and I actually got to go out on a date early in the week! We went to dinner with our good friends Kimberly and Joey Price. I took their family pictures a month ago and this was a thank you dinner! It was a beautiful evening, we ate out on the Patio of the restaurant and were there for 2 hours! Thats how enjoyable it was! I could have probably sat there 2 more hours. I love summer evenings! Thanks Price's for the night out!

Thursday I took the kids to the YMCA for their water play day. I was sad to have not taken pictures because the kids were having a blast! I want them to have the memories that mom actually DID occasionally take them somewhere fun!

Thursday night we had our softball game (we didn't do too terrible and it was fun!) and then I left early to go to Relief Society. It was an ice cream social in a sisters backyard and again, a beautiful summer night! I could have sat there talking with my ward sisters for hours! Thanks for those who planned that one!

The rest of the week is pictured below! Enjoy!

Savannah's 2 Year PIctures

2011-08-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

So...taking pictures of Savannah is pretty funny. LIke I'm talking taking a photo shoot kinda taking pictures. I can take great pictures all day long...but as soon as I dress her up, find a location and try to set her in a certain spot..it's all over and she is a mess!! We have to make it a whole family event, letting the kids walk around and play and then just when the moment is right "hurry everybody move away from savannah!" and snap! Then, just then sometimes I'll get a cute photo. Well this shoot wasn't any different. When we left I was just praying I got 5 or 6 good ones. WEll...how is 40? And not good because she looked at me and smiled and was being silly with me....good because lol she has the funniest faces...makes the craziest sounds and can go from totally pissy I'm mad at you face, to a HUGE tongue out of the mouth that was the coolest thing so I'm smiling kinda face! I just kept taking picture after picture and I ended up with lots that just made me smile because, well, because they are so her!!

So forgive me for posting so many, but I couldn't decide which ones to share. So there's a lot. A whole lot.

(oh I also had a matching dress and skirt for Maliyah and Emma so we did some sister pics too)

I love how in some of these she is holding onto sissy's arm. LIke she needs saving or something!

she had a blast at one point just playing with daddy, throwing rocks etc. But as soon as dad would step away and she noticed...she was back to miss cranky pants!

While in Vancouver I made these clips and bracelets. They turned out truly perfect!

It makes me sick how grown up Maliyah looks in this picture!

she was only happy here because she could hear the choo choo.

I should have video taped the whole thing so I could go back and hear what it was I was saying to her to ever get her to look at me!

We went on a little walk and the girls found some flowers to pick. normally I teach them not to pick even wild flowers...but tonight was certainly an exception!

I had teased her that I saw her smile so she took cover!

She is such a tongue smiler. And so is Emma. Those two I think might look a lot alike!

Lol, love this one!

This is the scowl (plus more furrowed brow) she gives to most people when they look at her and she isn't quite to crying point yet.

I loved the blue in these pictures and wished we would have started here. She was pretty done by this point.

Oh how I love this girl! I can't believe that little turkey is 2 already.
She was my baby!
She is so funny,
makes the funniest facial expressions,
loves cuddling with her mommy...
loves her warm milk and her snuggly blanket in bed.
She still doesn't talk but sure finds funny ways to express herself!
She loves to gives hugs,
loves her sisters and is really great with Emma.
She still hates people but is getting better at not completely melting down when someone says hi or looks at her.
She kinda likes Heidi Jones (friend) and Jade (babysitter)...sometimes other people, but mostly just them.
She does love playing with older kids, although when it's one her age they become intimidating I guess? And she doesn't do so well.
She still takes two naps a day,
eats just about everything I put in front of her, but especially loves watermelon, oranges, apples, stawberries and bananas.
She loves her bows, bracelets and shoes and even seems to like having her hair done!
For her pictures I curled all her hair and she did so good being patient!
How she says 'ow' though is soooo cute!
Lol, when she runs I laugh.
IF she runs too fast she falls down.
She doesn't have the greatest balance yet.
She gives the greatest hugs and can blow kisses faster than any other 2 year old I know.
Love you Savannah!

Friday Lake and Saturday Picnic!

2011-08-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

Friday I took the kids up to the Lake at Rainbow Bay. We used to go there lots during the summer but didn't go once last year and this was our first this year. The water was perfect!!! It was a warm day with a bit of a breeze. Emma was a pill. I spent the first half of the time dealing with her and finally wrapped her up put her in the stoller, covered her up and let her cry herself to sleep. I felt bad she was so miserable and I didn't know what else to do for her! She finally did sleep and after waking for a few minutes while we were getting ready to leave she fell asleep again and slept for 4 more hours! When she awoke she ate well and was happy! I get pretty cranky when I haven't had enough sleep either!

I totally got burned by the way. Totally exhausted now by lack of sleep because I was in so much pain last night!

There were I think 7 families from the stake that came up that day. I think that just made it all the better for the kids to have so many friends there!

Playing Peek-a-boo!

Later that day I had Emma in the bath and she was lovin' it! I think it was one of the first times I had taken pictures of her in the bath.

She found the washrag and kept sucking on it. I know totally gross...but her belly will eventually find that bath-water. Better get used to it now.

she also LOVES her toes! I'm hoping for her 4 month pictures I can capture that well.

Yesterday(saturday) Duck was in a golf Tournament so I had the kids to myself. I had a friend watch the 3 older while I went on a great hilly walk, then we checked out a few yard sales. I got this dresser cabinet thing to use for our dress-ups. I can't wait to put it all together and someday paint it all fun and whimsical!

For dinner we joined Joey and Kimberly again with Joey's Sister, Mom and 2 nephews for a picnic, baseball and 4-wheeling. What a night! It was really nice, not too hot and the kids had a great time! Yay for family activities because I LOVE doing things with my family! (and neglecting my to do list at home)

What happens after a fun day of golf:

Such a cutie patootie!

Most of the night Savannah was completely content to just sit in the stroller with Emma. Fine with me!

I LOOOVE her big eyes!

Best of Friends!

Update Week 7-31 through 8-7-11

2011-08-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday night was a beautiful night and a great way to start my week! It had rained, there was lightening and thunder and then the most strikingly orange glow all around! Then as I went out to take pictures of the glow, I saw the two rainbows across the sky. Duck and the kids were out on a drive to find the fires that had been created on a hill nearby.

This week was a fun week for me and the kids. Duck was in Utah with Jayden (which he will post about) and then I took the other 4 up to Vancouver WA to visit my cousin Danielle. It was a visit that was long over due!

Trip to Vancouver WA ( Beach....?)

2011-08-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

Monday I worked xtra hard to make sure i had everything in order so I could leave for our trip early Tuesday morning. I felt I succeeded and we headed out 6:30 am Tuesday!

We drove straight there with only one stop. That's pretty good with a newborn and 2 year old (the older two know I mean business when we travel!)

We got to Vancouver around noon and had the rest of the day to play, relax and just have fun. Danielle has 4 kids, Haven (8) Myah (nearly 7) Cohen (2) and Asher (2 months). The girls had a blast together! Maliyah has been dying to visit haven and Myah forever!

Tuesday night after all kiddos were in bed Danielle, I and her friend Jill went to the Stake Center and played Volleyball. I'm awful but it was really fun! We stayed up late goofing, talking and enjoying here sister Jessie's new super cute short haircut! I'll see if I can get her to send me a pic because it's adorable!

Wednesday we took the kids out to a beach on the river. I can't remember what it's called...danielle you will have to remind me. But the kids had a blast. It was a really 'fine' sand beach so when wet it was pretty much muddy. All the better to build and play with right?

This is Asher Danielles sweet baby in his tent.

Myah

After an hour or so...when she finally finished off all the food in the cooler, savannah discovered the mud. She LOVED it!

she was totally a muddy disaster by the time we had to leave. She didn't like it either when I had to rinse her off! Or when I had to take off her diaper that had completely exploded!

Haven and Maliyah strategically trying to build a castle and Moat.

Minute to Win it!

2011-08-07T16:49:00.000-07:00

Thursday evening after a yummy pizza dinner (thanks Aunt Danielle!) and an afternoon full of fun (facepainting and making jewelry) we took the kids to a nearby park and I planned a few games to play as well!

On our way walking to the park. Between the two of us we had 10 kids with us. (two of Danielle's nieces were with us)

Savannah would get dizzy on this with Ky and then get off to take a break and end up falling over and over because she was so dizzy!

My little bubble blower!~

My gorgeous cousin Danielle!

Cookie Game. I don't remember the name but you move the cookie from your forehead to mouth only by moving your face. You can't use your hands. I'm pretty good at it. Not to brag or anything.

It's hilarious to watch!

And fun to eat!

Another game we did was stacking blocks on a paper plate on a head. The first round was a little rough...but the second time was much better!

We also had a little relay game but I only have video of that. Next week if I have time I'll show a few of the videos becaue they were pretty funny!

saying Goodbye

2011-08-07T16:43:00.001-07:00

Saying goodbye is always so hard and often emotional, but the kids took adavntage one last time of a few minutes to play and have fun!

I didn't even think about it but I wished I would have gotten a picture of all those cute kiddos together. Thanks again Friess family for having us. WE love you!

Week Update 7-24 through 7-31-11 Savannah & Ducks Birthdays!!

2011-07-31T16:40:00.000-07:00

I still have very mixed feelings about having two birthdays on the same day, but apparently there is nothing I can do about it.

I can try to have a good attitude about it, lie saying that I love it, but that doesn't change AT ALL how difficult it is to satisfy a 32 yr old, and a 2 yr old. And I think it's only going to get harder from here on out!

besides birthdays and what will be posted below, a few other things from this week:

Emma sticks out her tonque on purpose, laughs and loves to grab her toes
Jayden thinks you go to a Cemetary to die and he never want to go there
Kyson discovered he can swim without goggles on.
Maliyah learned how to ride a 2 wheeler all on her own!
I finally scored two points in a softball game
Duck resigned from Pitcher after the softball game

Various things...silly faces, broken noses? horse lessons

2011-07-31T16:15:00.000-07:00

One day I found Savannah standing in front of the air conditioner making all kinds of faces. By the time I got the camera, the faces stopped and this was the only one I got. It was pretty funny though!

Then she got mad I was taking her picture and she threw a fit. Then she got EVEN madder because I was taking pictures of her fit!

Monday night Kyson fell on the edge of the deck and hit his face pretty hard. This picture does NOT show nearly how bad it looked...but the bump was so big it made it look like he had totally disfigured his nose! I thought he had broke it for sure, but lucky he didn't! It's now lovely and bruised but thank goodfully doesn't hurt much anymore.

We went out to Sprague River for Riding lessons again this week and as usual the kids had a blast!

Our friend Michi came out with her kids to join in the fun. I think I'll announce every time we go out! It was really fun to have some extra friends!

This second picture she is blowing raspberries and flipping her lip. She has totally found entertainment in that lately.

Maliyah loves riding bare back. She had pretty good balance and is getting really good and controlling the horse. She can't wait to go out riding outside of the pen and on her own!

I don't post hair do's that often and I just happened to think about taking pictures of this one.

My little cowboys cheerleader! My mom found this outfit a few years ago at DI. All this time hanging in the closet I thought it was BYU!!

Happy Birthday Daddy Duck and Savannah!

2011-07-31T16:12:00.001-07:00

I debated for a long time what I should do for these two birthdays this year. Ultimately it came down to the fact that none of our friends would be around to do a party for Duck (or a golf trip which is what I wanted to plan) and Savannah hates people so why would I invite people over for her birthday?! So we decided to just do a family party this year and go to Medford for some fun.

Before leaving though of course we had a special breakfast for Duck (Savs was this morning). Then after lunch we had cupcakes and opened presents.

The cupcake tops were crumbled animal cookies which I thought Savannah would like. And she did. That's all she ate of her cupcake.

She did NOT like the candle. I had duck blow his out first so she could see what to do.

She didn't do it.

But she was plenty happy about the frosting and cookies on top.

I didn't even post a pic of Savannah opening presents because...she didn't want to hav eANYTHING to do with it. She hated everything she opened...well that her siblings opened for her and as soon as you set a present even close to her, she would run away. I don't know what her mood was all about, but golly I'm glad we didn't do that in front of a bunch of people! Eventually she sat down to one of her books...and FINALLY snuggled up to the blanket I got her (she discovered she likes the silky edges of blankets). But she is still afraid of the pillow pet grandma sent (Maliyah LOVES it though!) and doesn't want anything to do with the other little stuffed animal I got for her. Weird girl!!

In Medford we went to the Kid Time museum and the kids LOVED It! They always have so I knew it would be a great activity.

Maliyah's fav was the grocery store.

Savannah loaded up with food!

They got a new system (well a whole new location!) and it had a screen and scanner which actually brought up the pictures of what they were scanning!

Savs and the boys played forever in this room with the air tubes and balls. It was called the Laballatory!

At the end I made Duck do a puppet show for the kids. It was Hilarious!!! They loved it so much and then they each got a turn doing their own puppet show. It was great!

After the museum we did dinner at Ducks choice, Olive Garden. Then we did a bit of shopping. It wasn't the most exciting day for Duck...but I just have to tell him I told ya so! He wanted Nanna's birthday on his so bad so he is going to have to get used to her being the center of attention. He'll still get his golf trip..it just might be a couple weeks!