Rob and Alisha Squire Family

Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T11:16:00.000-08:00

*I'm not able to get my videos to upload, but still wanted to get these pics posted today. I'll keep trying to get those videos up*

Merry Christmas!! We had a great day. The kids were SO excited.....they got up SO early too. But we were all excited for the day, and we all got naps later, so it worked out. Rob and I attempted the annual trap again. We didnt really plan anything, just threw together some ideas we'd both been thinking about. I think it turned out pretty good, though! The kids LOVED it and cant wait for next years trap already! Here are some pics of the trap:

First, they had to punch through the wrapping paper covering the top of the stairs, then go through the mine field

We put some empty boxes and pillows to be obstacles they had to jump over. The blanket is covering the trip wire that leads to the fan


Rigged the fan to turn on when they trip the wire. We filled the cups with confetti so that it would fall out and 'snow'

Here is the video (its really dark and poor quality, but you get the idea):

The kids got 2 big family gifts this year, as well as a few smaller items. The big gifts were and XBox 360 Kinect video game system. We also got them a trampoline, that we will set up after we get to the new house. They had a great Christmas, and we are so grateful to our family who helped make it great with their generosity! Here are some pics from the day:

Here are a couple videos of them opening their gifts from Santa:

Random Good Times

2011-12-27T06:23:00.000-08:00

Some fun random pics/video's we've taken over the Christmas break:

James lost his first top tooth (he's already lost 2 bottom teeth). he looks SO different to me with that big hole in his grin! My boy is growing up too fast!

He has also been entertaining himself by creating 'scenes' with his jumbo legos and kinex toys. He is such an imaginative kid! Here are couple of his creations:


Brachiosaurus eating from a tree

Centaur fighting a person

The girls pretty much just dress up and dance all day long. Elise loves to sing, and one of her favorite songs is the Bruno Mars song "Marry You" She always finds it in my ipod to listen to. She also loves the Muppet or a Man song from the new Muppet movie, as well as LOTS of others. She always has a song to sing! Here she is performing a bit of "Marry You": (choreography by Evelyn!)

part of the lyrics she is singing: Is it that look in your eyes? Or is it this dancing juice? Hey baby, I think I wanna marry you. Don't say No No No No No, just say Ya ya ya ya ya and we'll go go go go go, if your ready, like I'm ready

Winter Fun!

2011-12-27T05:59:00.000-08:00

It has only really snowed once so far this season (which is totally fine with me!) So, we took advantage and played in it as long as we could. There were snowball fights, snow angels, and sled pulling!

Immediately afterward, we warmed up inside with some hot cocoa, then got Evelyn ready for her last recital this winter. She did awesome!

James had his 1st grade Christmas program as well.

We also did lots of baking to give out treats for our friends, neighbors, and of course Santa! The kids really love doing this every year, it is so much fun, even if it is a huge mess to clean!

Our House

2011-11-24T08:39:00.000-08:00

So we were finally able to go see the house, and this time I brought my camera! It was getting dark, so the lighting in some of the pics aren't the greatest, and I wasn't able to get the backyard, but I assure you, there is one, and its great! So, here we go:

Front porch:

Front door into entryway. You turn right into the living room. The french doors lead into the master bedroom:

Into the living area (this is the view as you are turning from the entryway. those curtains will be coming down as soon as I can get rid of them! yikes..):

Living/dining room:

Kitchen:

View looking out from the kitchen:

Master bedroom (with walk in closet! woo!):

Main floor bathroom:

Girls room:

James room:

Stairs to the basement (that door is open, it goes to the extra room/playroom)

Extra room/playroom (cant wait to get my hands on this room! love the built in shelves!):
.

*And yes, that is a WORKING sink ??? Its strange, but I think we'll be capping the pipes off and make it part of a play kitchen. The panel in front of it is actually supposed to be covering the sink, then drops down to make a little table. Cute idea

Downstairs bathroom:
There is a nice sized storage room just off this bathroom. Love storage space!

Laundry area, with stairs to outside access:

Not sure what we'll be doing with this space, but *I* think it is where the big TV should go, so Rob can watch college football without me getting annoyed at his yelling. lol:

So there is your 'tour'! We'll be accepting visitors anytime you wanna visit!

Great News!

2011-11-22T08:13:00.000-08:00

Its been a crazy 2 months, so much awesome stuff has happened!! Rob was offered a job at D.L. Evans Bank (a small, but growing Idaho bank. They have branches all over the state)! The corporate headquarters is located here in Burley, so we didn't have to move and uproot our lives again. It has been such a blessing and answer to our prayers.
Also, just a couple weeks ago I was browsing the realty listings (just something that I think is fun to do, as we had been talking about maybe buying a house next year), and came across a house that I had seen before, and loved, but was out of our price range. Well, they had dropped the price significantly so we decided to go check it out. We saw it on Friday, put in an offer Monday afternoon, and before the day was out, the offer was accepted! It happened so fast, but we are so excited and love our new house!! We wont be closing until the first week of January, and are really looking forward to settling in and making it our own. I am hoping to be able to get over there soon to take some pics, so you can all see what a cute house I have! lol

The kids and I took a trip to Arizona for a week, the 6th through the 13th, to visit with my sister and niece, as well as other family. Audra and her husband, JR, were able to be sealed in the temple. Then later that day, Kirsten was baptized! It was an awesome day for their family. It was an amazing, spiritually uplifting experience, and I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of it! The following day, we celebrated my Grandparents Hoskins (Joan and Phil) 60th Wedding anniversary. It was fun to see and visit with so much of my extended family! My Grandparents brought tons of old photo albums, some of them belonging to my great-grandparents. It was neat to 'connect' with my family history, and learn a little more about them. It was a great week!

So, that is just a little update on what we've been doing!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-22T07:54:00.000-08:00

James decided on Harry Potter, Evelyn was a Flower Fairy and Elise was a cute baby witch. Here they are getting ready to go out Trick-or-Treating:

Evelyn's class Halloween Party:

James' class Halloween party:

I wasn't having much luck finding a Harry Potter wand for James in the stores that 1) we liked and wasn't huge, bulky, or ugly and 2)one that I didn't have to pay $15+ for! I found a great tutorial online that basically just used paper, paint and hot glue. It turned out SO AWESOME! I even decided to make another one. We loved them, and got so many compliments on them!

The Decor - James made this Halloween artwork one day, and it rounded out our decorations so nicely, we put it in up.

Saw this cute idea on a craft blog, the kids loved helping me glue all the eyes on-

Here's the wall all put together: (it looked more impressive IRL!)

We also thought it would be fun to put silhouettes in the windows. Rob did these, and they turned out SO neat!! This was the shadow in our house one night:

And the pumpkins. We had tons this year! We each got one from the pumpkin patch, then Evie went to a friends Halloween party, and came home with 5 more little pumpkins! It was fun to decorate them all. James wanted a Jack Skelington one again, and Rob's big one was a jail with a baby pumpkin trapped inside. It was super cute, and all the kids who came to our door loved it!

First Days of School and Soccer!

2011-10-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

James had his first day to 1st grade (and being gone ALL DAY!) and Evie had her first day to Kindergarten (half day). Evie was SO excited, she even declared it to be "The BEST DAY EVER!" I hope her enthusiasm for school continues as she gets older! James was not so thrilled. He was mostly sad/nervous that he would have to be gone from home for so long. But, they both came home with smiles and have been doing so well in school so far!

They also starting their soccer season. This is the first year for both of them, and they are having fun learning and playing the game.

New Family Pics (finally...)

2011-10-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

I finally convinced Rob to get a new family pic since our old one was nearly 2 years old! (He hates getting them done) I am way too cheap to hire someone, so we found a few nice locations, set up a tripod, and did what we could. Elise was having a typical 2 year old attitude, but my candy bribes got us a few OK pics. Here's the best of what we got:

And I finally decorated the huge wall in our living room with these new pics. I think it turned out nicely! (the blank frame is for a project I'm still working on...)

Fun at Grammy and Papa's!

2011-09-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

The kids and I spent a week of our summer vacation playing at Grammy and Papa's house with my niece, Lauren. Let me just say, I was exhausted by 10am every day!! Those kids are loud and crazy, especially when their other cousins, Joss and Sammie were over to play! Dad built the kids a new toy that they call the "Miracle Swing", but they really mean Merry-go-Swing. It was awesome, the kids were on it before I even got out of bed in the mornings. They were also able to get rides on Papa's new motorcycle, as well as drive the lawn mower. Went to the longest parade ever, and rode rides and ate junk food at the fair. We took them to the splash park, and the water park. The water park was SO much fun, and James even went down the big waterslide by himself! Evie took a little convincing, but she finally gave it a try (I took her down on my lap) and they LOVED it! It was a crazy busy week, but it was so much fun! Here's the proof!

Waiting for the parade to start:

Leesy and Sammie taking pics

playing and....still waiting...

I think it might be starting....

hooray it finally started! And we got these GIANT popsicle's to cool us down!

The Miracle Swing!:

James driving the lawn mower:

At the Splash Park:

Fair Fun!

City of Rocks

2011-07-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

We have lived here for 2 years now, and had always talked about heading up to the City of Rocks. Well, we finally did it! It was, simply put, AMAZING! I cant believe we waited so long to go. It was so neat. The kids loved it, we loved it. We went on a short hike with the kids (only about a mile). I would definitely like to do some more serious hiking there someday, when we wont have to worry about the kids getting too tired. The pics dont do this place justice, but I'll post them anway!

Rob was fascinated by the cowboys we saw on the way up herding the cows, and made me take a pic....he is so funny.

Can you see that guy up there walking on the top? I was SO nervous for him!

Climbers

Incredible views!!

Universal Studios!

2011-07-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

We went down to L.A. for my cousin, William's wedding. It was so fun to be with our extended family, we always have such a great time with Uncle Scott, Aunt Cely and their kids! Got a few pics of us waiting outside the temple for the bride and groom to come out.


Me and my super gorgeous sister

We were able to go to Universal Studios the day after the wedding to play and have some fun. It was Hot and crowded and had rude, line-cutting French people, but we made the best of it and had a great day anyway! The best parts were the Waterworld show(which, the babies hated!), the Jurassic Park ride (James favorite, of course!!) and the Tram ride (well, not for Evelyn, she was so tired and whiny!). Afterwards, we went back to the hotel for pizza, swimming, and hanging out. It was a blast. I am really excited for another family get-together, it is always a good time!

Of course, we had to park in the Jurassic Parking lot!

Waiting for the Waterworld show to start!

After the show, we were all SOAKED!


On the Jurassic Park ride (Chris, Kirsten, Matt, Scott, and V)

Mom and Dad took Kirsten and James again.

Waiting in a huge line for the Tram ride. Evie's face here is priceless!

Scooby Doo!!

These are some pics from the Tram ride. It was so fun!

JAWS!!!

This is part of the set for War of the Worlds. It was pretty incredible!

Summer Fun

2011-07-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

We got the kids a little kiddie pool to keep them cool and entertained during the summer. Here's a few pics and a little video of all the fun they are having!

T-Ball

2011-07-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

James was in t-ball again this year! He had a good season, and loved getting a new trophy at the end of it.

Evelyn turns 5!!

2011-07-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

Miss Evelyn had her 5th birthday this year! She decided to wear her dress from dance class (she's been wanting to dress up in that since her last recital!).

Of course, we got 5 balloons for a big 5 year old girl!

James and Elise each got her a present. James gave her a hula hoop, and a crazy straw cup. Elise gave her some glow sticks.

We didn't get to have a cake on her birthday, cause we took her out for a surprise dinner. That is, we drove 2 1/2 hours to eat at Denny's.....cause we were meeting her REAL surprise there! We met up with my sister to pick up Kirsten for a few days!! The kids were so excited, they had no idea she was coming to stay with us. Here Evie is with her cake the next day. I think she had a pretty good day, and loved her surprise! I cant believe she is getting so grown up, and will be heading to kindergarten this year. She loves learning, and has been reading simple books this summer (BOB books). She is such a sweet girl, always a big help to me, and loves to play with and take care of her baby sister. I really love this little lady!

(gotta love trick candles!)

Elise turns 2!!

2011-06-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

My baby is officially a toddler, and not a baby anymore... which really makes me sad. But, it is so fun to see her growing up and becoming the crazy little person she is! She is probably my most difficult child, as in she gets into EVERYTHING, does not like it when things don't go her way (hmmm...yup, that sounds like me! haha) but, she is also very funny, sweet, and kind. She's always willing to give out high fives, smiles, hugs and kisses. So, here she is! My birthday girl!

Birthday breakfast, with James giving the 'thumbs up' for her.

Super excited for her cake and balloons!!

Singing to the birthday girl:

James and Evie each got her something from the Dollar store, James got her a puppy (she loves puppies!) and Evelyn got her a wand and dress up skirt.

Rob and I got her a new outfit.

Happy girl!!

mmmm...cake and ice cream!

This was her reaction to us telling her 'No more ice cream' (I would have given her more, but I had only bought a tiny bit)

Trying on her new clothes.

Puppy love!

This was her posing after she handed me the camera and said "Cheese!" Her eyes are half closed, but she still is super adorable!! Happy Birthday, Leesy Bug!

Before and After

2011-06-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

Summertime means a haircut for Miss Evie. She will not let me put her hair up, or even brush it some days, so I decided it was time to go. Here's the pics:

Fun at Cabella's (aka the dead zoo)

2011-06-02T08:17:00.000-07:00

I drove down with the kids to see my brother after dropping Sue off at the airport. We had wanted to go to a park and play, but the weather was not cooperative, so we decided to head to Cabella's to let the kids feed the fish and see the animals...or, well....what was left of the animals. lol It was so fun, just what the kids needed! Since we dont have a zoo nearby, this was the next best thing. Indoors, no stinky animal smells, and FREE! They had a blast.

Brayden wanted in on the action. He is so cute, love that boy!

They all crammed in this dog kennel....Evelyn is in there somewhere.

Jumping on the air mattress, while Matt and I prayed they didnt pop them!

I'm glad George W Bush found a new job. hehe

James was impressed with this bear and moose.

Ready to go!

Shoshone Falls

2011-06-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

Rob's mom came to visit us for a few days this spring. The kids were so excited to see her, they were counting down the days till she was here (its a good thing we decided to wait to tell them until just a week before she came!). We took advantage of our 1pm church time, and went up to Shoshone Falls Sunday morning. It is such a gorgeous place! Thanks for coming to visit, Gramma!

Spring Recital 2011

2011-05-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

Evelyn's spring dance recital went really well. She had another great year in dance, and she is already looking forward to next year!
Ballet:

Tap:

Harry Potter Fans

2011-04-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

We are big nerds around here, we love Harry Potter. We've been re-watching all the movies getting ready for Harry Potter 7 (part 1) to be released on dvd. Yesterday, James when came home from school, I checked his papers like I always do. For his reading, they have them read a story on the front page, then turn it over to look at the picture that describes the story. Well, the boy's name in the story was Ron, so naturally, James comes up with this:

Ron Weasley, with his wand, running from a Dementor. He was very serious when he told me he had to get his hair just right, cause it was 'tricky'. He is very detail oriented, just look at those stripes! Ron always has stripes. haha. I sure do love this kid!!

Mmmm...Cookies...

2011-04-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

Sunday is the best day to make cookies, especially if you are the lucky one who gets to lick the beater!

James' 1st Lost Tooth!

2011-04-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

Today is a big day! James 1st baby tooth fell out today! Actually, it didn't exactly fall out- I yanked it out. Friday, he kept telling me that his tooth hurt, so I told him I'll make an dentist appointment to have it checked out. I thought it was strange, cause he just had a checkup in January and all was fine. He kept complaining, so I finally looked at it, and saw that his the baby tooth was loose, and his big boy tooth was already starting to pop through. He was so excited to finally have a loose tooth! He's been messing with it ever since then, and this morning, I told him that we'd have to get it out before that big tooth got too big. He, very bravely, accepted our mission to get his tooth out. I only had to yank it twice before it popped right out! He is VERY excited to be able to show his class and have the Tooth Fairy come and leave him a present under his pillow! I can't believe my little boy is growing up so quickly!

In this one, you can see his big tooth in there.

First REAL Day of Spring

2011-04-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a perfect spring day!! The sun was up and the wind was (miraculously) NOT blowing, so we decided to head to the park. It was just what we needed!

Spring Break

2011-03-31T07:40:00.000-07:00

We had our Spring Break the 3rd week of March, and my mom convinced me to bring the kids up for a few days. Admittedly, it does not take much to convince me to hang out up there, so off we went! We had a great time, as usual. My dad built them a new toy, and of course, they loved it! He built us a seesaw like this when we were kids, but it was much less safe, no handlebars or real seats like these guys get. Can you tell he loves his grandkids more than he did us? haha

They called being in the middle being in the 'boat'. I guess cause it rocked like a boat on the ocean.

We also decided to head to Portland for a day at OMSI (the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). It was a blast. James and I got to make rocket fuel, we saw the movie "Sea Rex" at the IMax theater, and ALL kinds of different exhibits. The paleontology room was a huge hit, the lady was actually working on uncovering a triceratops' skull while we were there! It was awesome. Thanks for taking us Mom and Dad! (Sorry there aren't more pics, I was usually too busy counting to 3- making sure all my kids were still with me!)

Elise loves Papa cause he is so silly!

They have a Van De Graaff generator there and James got to be part of the demonstration, it was really cool! (there was a kid 'powering' the generator, so it wasn't as powerful as it could have been.)

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-25T06:19:00.001-08:00

We had a nice Love Day here! It started out with heart shaped pancakes, with strawberry sauce, and home-made strawberry turnovers. I made each of the kids their own special valentine for them to wake up to. Then, Rob made us a wonderful dinner of spinach and cheese manicotti, salad, and garlic bread. I went to the dollar store and got some cute champagne flutes for the kids that we drank our sparkling cider from. They each got a heart balloon and some treats for dessert. I made a few decorations as well. It was a fun time, the kids really got into it this year, and had been making valentines for each other and us for some time before it was even Valentines day. I had taken more pics, but my camera broke and the pics were lost, so I only have these 2 left...(I'll give you 3 guesses as to who/how the camera broke!! )
This is a wreath I made. I just wrapped yarn around a heart shaped styrofoam. I was hoping to find some yarn with more red in it, but didn't have much luck. I am in LOVE with fabric rolled roses! Everything I've done lately has featured them! they are so easy and really cute!
I painted these frames and added some flowers. The 'p.s. i love you' one was a bit tricky, as i have never embroidered anything before, so its not quite as neat as i'd like. I think it still turned out ok! And I'm excited to hang these up in our bedroom somewhere!

Veggie Tales Dance Party

2011-01-30T08:48:00.000-08:00

Elise brought me the tutu to put on her this morning. She then climbed on the counter and started 'asking' in her own way ("I wan dah!) for me to turn on the music. Evelyn and Elise love to dance to Veggie Tales-Boyz in the Sink. Unfortunately Evelyn became shy when the camera came out.

My Girls

2011-01-17T10:01:00.000-08:00

I found out about this awesome hair tutorial on how to curl your hair with a sock. So I decided to try it out on Evelyn. This is how it looked this morning, before I took out the bun:

And here are the curls (after I brushed it out a bit):I am really impressed! I cant wait to try this out on my hair! I love it.

My poor baby, Elise....she is just so beat up right now! A few days ago, she fell and hit the coffee table, resulting in a big black eye. Then last night, Evelyn pulled a toy out of her hands, which resulted in pulling Elise off the couch. She landed head first onto a toy. This is what it looks like this morning:All swollen and scratched up. You can still see where her black eye is starting to heal. Hopefully, she can catch a break and heal up before the next bruise.

James 6th Birthday

2011-01-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

James, 1 day old

James, 6 years old

James celebrated his 6th birthday on Friday. He asked for a surprise in the morning, and said he would stay in bed as long as he could so he could be surprised. I really didn't think he would be able to do this, since he is usually the first one up and ready to go in the morning, but we ended up having to wake him up for his Surprise! Breakfast in Bed! He also got to open his presents as well. He got a science experiment book, some spy gear and the movie 'How to Train Your Dragon'.

His favorite restaurant is Red Robin's, so since he did not have school this day, we decided to make the trip up to Idaho Falls to go eat lunch there. It is the closest one to us, and it just so happens that my dear friend from high school, Michelle, lives there! So it was a win-win for us! hehe.. She met up with us at the restaurant, and we got to catch up and I got to squeeze her sweet baby girl. She is SUCH a cute little thing! I love her!We then went to the mall to shop and hang out. We let the kids play at the play area, and whenever I would go to take a picture of one of my kids, this little girl would run in to try to get in our picture....seriously, she is in every shot!! It was hilarious!!

He asked for spaghetti for dinner, which is his favorite. Then we had cake and ice cream. I think he had a pretty great day!! Rob got him trick candles and I think James just about passed out trying to get them out! And for your viewing pleasure:

I love this little man. He is tender and sweet, and yet 'tough and strong'. He is always considerate of others and polite. He takes care of his sisters .....most of the time. He makes some of the BEST facial expressions I've ever seen. He is smart, bright, and eager to learn. I still remember his face on the day he was born. The first of the 3 most beautiful faces I have ever known. We are so blessed to have him in our family!

Disney World

2011-01-17T09:21:00.000-08:00

This will be my final post to be all caught up from Christmas. (yay!) Our Christmas gift to the kids (and ourselves) was a day at Disney World!! It was a blast. We got to do everything we wanted to do, and then some! James favorite ride was Space Mountain (I was SO nervous on that ride!! It is scary!) Evelyn's favorite was Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. My favorite was the Monster Laugh Floor, and all the classics; Pirates of the Caribean, Jungle Cruise etc. Most of the pics are from Toon Town, since that was the only time we were not busily trying to get from one place to the next!

at Mickey's housein Donald Duck's boat
on a Jungle Cruise
Cinderella's Castle, all lit up. Evelyn told me "When I grow up, I am going to live there!" She was in heaven!

on Main Street (can you tell how exhausted we are? but in a good way!)We were taking a snack break, there was a DJ playing music and doing dance contests with the crowd. James decided to break it down, he was so hilarious!! This video doesn't do him justice.

Merry Christmas In Florida!!

2011-01-17T07:32:00.000-08:00

Rob's wonderful parents invited us to spend Christmas in Florida with them this year, along with Rob's older brother's family. It was SO much fun! The kids had a great time playing non-stop with their cousins. James and Oliver are nearly the same height now, and I think their wrestling skills improved throughout the week. Little Spencer is so sweet and cute, Evie loved playing Mommy with him, and he and Elise would race each other. It was so funny. I LOVED that we were able to go running, swimming and soaking up some sun on Christmas! Here are some pics from Christmas morning:There was a small lake at the resort we stayed at, and- later in the week, Jim rented a boat to take the kids out.

On Tuesday, we went to the Deseret Cattle Ranch. It was really neat. We were able to take a tour of some of the property and learn about what they do there. There was quite a bit of wildlife, and I was even able to spot an alligator! In the visitors center, there is a huge stuffed alligator named Gus. He was really popular with the kids. This was an alligator that actually lived on the ranch at one time, but they had to find and kill him since he would cause trouble for everyone. This thing was at least 15 ft long!!

On the tour bus, ready to go!
Our new friend:
We went for a walk through what the kids called 'Jurassic Park'. It really felt like we were traveling through a tropical forest, and made me feel like we were in a scene from 'Lost'. It was so pretty!
After we visited the Ranch, we were only 30 minutes from the coast, so we made the stop! My kids absolutely LOVED the beach, so they were in heaven. And it will be second time in the older kid's lives that they will have been from east coast to west coast in 6 months, since we will be camping on the beach with my family this summer! Pretty cool!
A sneaker wave came up and soaked James, but dont worry, he was very happy!

Christmas

2011-01-15T11:37:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas! Just wanted to share some of our Christmas with you. I had to write a special letter to Santa this year to ask him to come to our house a day early, since we would be on a plane heading to Florida on Christmas Eve. Guess what? He did! I guess Santa is trying to watch his figure, cause he only took a few bites of the cookies we left for him. The kids decided to help him finish them up....mmmm, cookies for breakfast! Merry Christmas Indeed!

Checking out the presents, waiting so patiently for Dad to come back from his run before digging in:
James saw that this gift is from Santa, I think he was excited.:
A little video, opening some of their gifts:

Just after we opened everything up, we got dressed and ready to head out to SLC and get on a plane to Orlando. The kids did pretty well on the flight, Elise was so tired and cranky, but we survived! The pilot was so funny and kept reporting on where Santa was, and even told the kids "Santa is over to the left of the plane, you can see Rudolf''s red nose there in the distance." They loved that. More to come on Florida in my next post!! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cookies

2011-01-04T10:04:00.000-08:00

I did so much baking this year. I love to bake, it is always so satisfying to create something that tastes SO good. Then to give it away to make someone else's day, is even better! Thankfully, we were able to give away a lot of the treats we made, but I almost forgot to make some treats for the big guy himself...Santa!! We decided to go with the classic sugar cookie. The kids had a blast decorating (and sampling...) the cookies, and they really were delicious! Here are the pics:
And the final product! YUM!

Christmas Crafts

2011-01-04T09:43:00.001-08:00

I wanted to post some of the craft thing's I've done for Christmas gifts. For the kids' teacher gifts, I made Peppermint Fudge Cupcake Jars from Our Best Bites. These were quite simply AMAZING. I, of course, had to try one out- just to be sure they tasted good. Then I had to give away my leftovers so that I wasn't tempted to eat all of them!
We drew my brothers family (Matt) for our family Christmas Exchange this year, and the theme was "Yummy in my Tummy". I decided it would be SO fun to get them all semi-matching aprons to cook together in. Instead of spending a fortune on buying aprons, I thought....I could just MAKE them! So, off to the fabric store I went! I am far too ambitious and not nearly the seamstress my mother is...but I did it! I made my own pattern after some aprons I have, and was inspired by those super cute Flirty Aprons. I think they turned out ok...there are definitely flaws so don't look too closely! Here is what they ended up with:

Matt and Jessica's

Lauren and Brayden's

I also threw together some of those 'recipe in a jar' things, so that they would have something to make together. All in all, it was a really fun project to work on!

Busy December!

2011-01-04T09:31:00.000-08:00

We've had quite the busy month here! I have so many pics and videos to post, it overwhelms me when I think about getting it all on here. So I've decided to just do it one post at a time over a few days. Hopefully, that will help me get it done. Today's post will be on our Gingerbread house! It was messy and sugary, but it was fun. I think Elise's contribution was testing all the candy to be sure it tasted good. We let the kids have one half of the house to decorate, and Rob and I tried to make our half look at least semi-normal. Here are the pics:

James Christmas Program

2010-12-04T16:41:00.000-08:00

James kindergarten class had a little Christmas/Thanksgiving program held at the Festival of Trees, which is a community function here. His class was combined with the other afternoon kindergarten class, and the all day kindy class. They did about 10 songs, all of which were so cute. He did great, and was so excited that we were there to watch him. Here are a couple of the songs:

Oh, Christmas Tree

2010-12-04T16:34:00.000-08:00

We put up our Christmas tree the Monday after Thanksgiving for our family night activity. The kids loved it, Elise especially. The bottom half of our tree is pretty bare, since Elise thinks she should take all the ornaments off to play with. But, it is our tree nonetheless! Here are a few pics:
And this one I just love, my little girl is so cute and is getting so big!! I can finally put her hair in a little pony tail on the top, it is too cute....as long as she doesn't pull it out! She also loves sneaking into the fruit bowl and snatching anything she can find.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-12-04T16:11:00.000-08:00

At the Festival of Lights

We were able to go to my parents house for Thanksgiving break. The drive (both ways) was pretty scary, since there were some serious storms that were going through at the time, but we made it safe and sound. We saw many vehicles that had been in accidents or spun off the road. Fortunately, Rob is really good at driving on snowy and icy roads. We had a blast while there! The kids went sledding on a hill in my parents backyard, jumped on the snowy trampoline, had snowball fights, then warmed up in the hot tub and with hot chocolate! They loved playing with all their cousins and wore themselves out every day.

Of course, our Thanksgiving feast was amazing!

Dad and Jason making salsa

Elise and Sammie sharing breakfast

We did a lot of playing games, eating far too many desserts, and shopping! We have so many things to be thankful for in our lives, and we have been truly blessed in so many ways. I hope you all had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as we did!

ETA: my mom just sent me this video she took of evie and lauren sledding, it is so funny, they loved it!

Evie's Dress Rehearsal

2010-11-08T05:14:00.000-08:00

Ok, so here they are. This was just their first recital, really more of a dress rehearsal for her performances coming up. Sorry that the tap one of them is so shaky, Elise was in my lap and she starting dancing and waving her hands. lol And like a hundred people decided to walk in front of me. Anyway, I think she has improved so much since last year!

ballet

Tap

Another Year of Dance

2010-11-05T19:05:00.000-07:00

Evie is in dance (combo tap/ballet) again this year. She is one of the older girls in her class, and it is fun to see how she is the example for the 'little' girls. She just had her first recital on the 4th, and they did pretty well! I'll try to get the video's up soon, but for now here are a couple pics of her all ready to go. I decided to try to do a couple nice pictures, since I needed a new one of her for a frame. She LOVES being all dolled up with her hair in curls. We both love her dress for this year as well, it is so cute! (ok ok, so this is a lot of pics, but she is so dang cute!! i cant resist)

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-05T18:46:00.000-07:00

Here's some pics of the kids in their Halloween costumes, all ready for our ward's Halloween party!

Iron Man!

Tinkerbell

Lovely Ballerina Baby

I helped out with games for James' kindergarten class Halloween party.

Our pumpkins:
We went trick-or-treating Saturday...in the rain...though we didn't do too much. The kids had a great time anyway, and got a good amount of candy as well! There were a couple houses that had some great decorations. One of the houses had a 'witch', she was so funny and had a great 'cackle'. It really made the kids night!

1st Day of School

2010-09-10T08:13:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it? James is already in kindergarten. Why do they have to grow up so fast? I had a really hard time getting used to the idea that he was in school, and growing older.....It was so bad I even asked Rob for a dog. haha. Good thing he is the one who brings reasoning to our relationship! Anyway, I am all better now...mostly...I didn't even cry when I dropped him off, I think that is pretty good! School started Aug. 30th. Kindergarten here is only 1/2 day, so he is gone from 12-3. He started out with Mrs Greer as his teacher, but they moved him to Mrs Walquist after a couple days, since they were having some crowding issues. She teaches kindergarten a little faster than the other classrooms, and they felt he would do well in there. I'm glad they feel he can handle that, and think he is as bright as I know he is! He even has his best friend from preschool in his new class, so that made the change much easier. Here are his first day pics:

making new friends

waiting for me to come pick him up

Evie also started preschool the same day. We decided to do home-school preschool with her. She loves "Mommy school". Every day she asks if it is a school day, and when it is, she will tell her dad to please leave so that she can start school. (we dont start till Elise is napping and Rob is gone from lunch break) She is doing great so far! Here is a pic of her:
And here is a pic of Elise cause she is weird and hilarious, just like the rest of her family. I guess she got bored while driving to Grammie and Papa's house over labor day weekend, and started sucking on her toes. It was kinda gross, but she was happy, so I didnt want to mess with that!

Camping

2010-08-29T17:40:00.001-07:00

I love to camp. I've been camping with my family since I was a baby, and have so many great memories of it. I am so glad that I married someone who enjoys camping as well so that we can make some great memories with our kids! My brother, Matt and I decided that since we live relatively close to each other now, that we should try to have a camping trip together once a year. Last year was a disaster- it was so windy, it tore our tent apart! So this year, I made Matt and Jessica pick the campground. It was awesome! The weather was perfect, the campground was perfect, plenty of shady spots and hardly any bugs (though, there was that one flaw...you'll see). He reserved a double site, so we were all able to be in the same place. It was so huge, perfect for letting the kids run and do their own thing. It was just between the river and the runoff to the reservoir. The main river was way too fast for the kids, but the reservoir was perfect to play in. They could walk down to it and play, and we could stay up and watch them while we did other things. Seriously, it was the best spot!! We will definitely be going back there again! Ok, here are some pics:

It was a little chilly in the mornings

My little rays of sunshine, they are so happy to be awake! They got to sleep in their own tent, which they thought was awesome.

At the 'little' river (reservoir)

I love Brayden! He is such a good baby! He was so happy to be in his stroller and watch the other kids playing.

mmm...gotta have Jiffy Pop!

coloring

This is that one flaw I was talking about....a skunk....we made sure to take the garbage out before it got dark after this, but he still made an appearance and ate up any scraps he could find. It made us all a bit nervous!

Matt and I were the only ones brave enough (is that it?? lol) to get in the river. It was really cold, and the current was really strong. We tried to go down that waterfall, but it was too rocky. I think next year we'll bring a tube.

Yellowstone

2010-08-29T17:32:00.000-07:00

wearing the Yellowstone shirts my mom bought for them

The last weekend in July was my cousin's wedding reception in his hometown in Wyoming. My mom was just going to go by herself, but then we decided to make a big trip out of it together! We had to go through Yellowstone to get there, so we took our time and enjoyed the amazing things nature had to offer! Our first stop was, of course, Ol' Faithful. We had some time before it was scheduled to erupt, so we followed the path that goes around to some other small geysers and pools. It was pretty amazing! Right as we were heading back to the visitors center, a huge storm came through. So we got some ice cream and found a great spot to watch Ol' Faithful on this awesome porch area. It protected us from the wind, and offered an amazing view! The kids were pretty awed by all of it! We stayed in a cabin at Canyon Village for the night, and went to some other sites before we headed out to Lovell for the reception. James loved the 'stinky geysers' but the rest of us were doing our best to breathe through our mouths. lol The bison were pretty amazing too, I couldn't believe how many of them there were! They had no problems with delaying traffic and blocking the roads. They were so close, too. We could have literally reached out our windows and touched them. We are definitely going to be coming back through Yellowstone next year!

On the porch waiting for the 'show'

Trying not to get soaked by this bursting geyser...

Mammoth Springs

At the mouth of the 'Dragons Lair', one of the Mud volcanoes

One of the 2 bears we saw. I'm just glad we only saw small bears....

The bison stopping traffic

This guy was my mom's best friend. haha

We finally made it to the reception, and had a good time chatting with my cousins I hadn't seen in ages. My cousin, Lindsay, has 2 girls who are both a month older than our 2 girls. They were fast friends, as were the boys. It was so fun to see them playing together!! My other cousin, Kim, has the funniest little girl, Bailey. She would run up and down the stage telling her dad to 'Look at me, DAD!' She's ready for show business! Matt and Megan (bride & groom) were such troopers, they had just driven all night after their honeymoon cruise, and were so tired. But they were both so sweet and gracious! They make a gorgeous couple. All in all, it was a great trip!!

Carissa and Evie...and the boys

Celeste and Elise

BOO!

2010-07-31T18:20:00.000-07:00

I am such a mean mom!! It cracks me up every time I can scare her coming out of the bathroom, her face is just priceless!!

Lava Hot Springs

2010-07-31T18:09:00.001-07:00

We decided to take a little day trip to Lava Hot Springs this weekend. It was so much fun!! The weather was great, and the river was perfect! The kids have gone to Lava before a few times, and they really enjoy it!! They've never been afraid....and some of the rapids can be pretty rough! I was a little worried about Elise getting scared, but she did great. She did get a bit nervous when we would go over some of the bigger rapids, and the water would get in her face, but other than that, she had a great time. She would splash in the water and she would scream (in excitement) with the other kids. It was a really great day, and I'm glad we were able to do it! Some pics:
Ready to take on the river!
This was Elise's 'spot'.

Taking a lunch/playground break

Pioneer Day!

2010-07-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

The kids were supposed to be in the Primary Pioneer Day Parade, but I didn't look close enough at the date on the flier, and we missed it by a day. I assumed it would be today (Saturday), but it was apparently yesterday morning. I feel really bad that we missed it, the kids were so excited. We made our wagon into a covered wagon, and the kids drew pictures and put streamers up to decorate it. They also got all dressed up as pioneer children. James finally had an excuse to wear the Racoon Cap his Grandma Squire gave him! We were all a bit disappointed (I think I am the most upset of all of us), but we took them around the block and hopefully that helps make up for it. Here are some pics:

4th of July

2010-07-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

This year for the Fourth, we did lots of fun things!! Saturday morning, we went to the parade in Rupert. It was a bit chilly that morning, but we had fun. That night, we went to a small town rodeo. It was just a bunch of locals doing some barrel races, rawhide races, that sort of thing. They also had mutton bustin', jr. bullriding, and a greased pig race. James was pretty excited about the mutton bustin and greased pig races, he told me he wants to do them next time we go to a rodeo!! I didn't get any pics of these, sorry...but Sunday night we went down by the river to watch the fireworks. It was a nice evening, but the fireworks didn't start till after 10, so there was a lot of waiting and a tired baby, but it was an awesome show! Here are some pics:

Waiting for it to get dark enough to do sparklers and start the show!

She was tired, but she liked the fireworks. I was worried she would be scared, but she did not even flinch!

Summer Fun

2010-07-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share some of the things we've been up to this summer. We play a lot in the sprinklers in the backyard: For a couple weeks in the summer, our library, hospital, and schools put on a program in one of the local parks for the kids. This day was Pirate Day. They used the sheets as the ocean, and bounced ping pong balls on them as the ships. They also made pirate faces, as well as some other activities:
On the 'miracle' round, as my kids call it:

James finished up his first T-ball season, here we are with his trophy!!Our little garden is coming along. The first fruits of our labors were some cherry tomatoes, they were delicious!!
Evie and Elise, they are so cute together:
Elise climbing out of the cabinets, she is such a sneaky little thing:

Evelyn's Birthday!

2010-07-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

(I'm a little late in posting this, sorry!)
Happy 4th Birthday Evelyn! What a great day it was. She, of course, wanted a princess party, so that is what we did!! Here are the pics:

We had a few of her friends come over (dressed as princesses) and treated them to a Royal Feast! Then we played "Pin the Kiss on the Frog"
After they decorated their own tiara's, we played musical chairs.
I read the girls the Princess and the Pea book, then they each took turns taking the True Princess test to see if they could feel the pea that I placed under the bed. They thought this was cool.After everyone passed the 'test', they were each presented with a certificate of authenticity, showing that they were all true princesses (we took each girls pic as they arrived for these)
Then we went inside for cupcakes and gifts because it was SO hot outside, we were melting!! The cupcakes were strawberry, with pink frosting and candy molded tiara's:

I made each of the girls their own little purse. Evie picked out the fabrics. This purse is so easy to throw together, and I think they turned out cute. The girls really liked them. And, of course, they were filled with girl-y goodies!It was a really fun day. We love our Miss Evie Mae, she is just a sweet, loving, nurturing girl. She loves taking care of her little sister (she calls herself Little Mama) and dancing, cooking, and helping me clean up. We are so happy to have her in our family, and I cant believe how quickly she has grown! Evelyn at 5 months

T-Ball!!

2010-06-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

Finally! We had good weather, and my camera was charged so there were no excuses this time! James had a great time, and he is pretty hilarious when he plays. He was seriously distracted at this game, I am not sure why...He kept kicking up the dirt when he ran, and was having a hard time focusing on the game. Even so, we still had a great time watching him play, and he had a blast! Here are some pics:

chilling with his teammates in the dugout

waiting on 3rd base

Running home! Way to go #4!!

catching the ball....

and throwing to 1st! I love his little hop when he throws

I got a couple video's of him hitting the ball. The first time he did great, the next time, I think he forgot that he was not playing outfield and got a little helpful for the other team. It was so funny! Like I said before, he was pretty distracted this day. Here are the video's:

Elise's Birthday

2010-06-15T09:28:00.000-07:00

Happy 1st Birthday Elise Calla! She is such a sweet girl! She loves being outside, playing with her big sister and big brother. She LOVES music and that girl can DANCE! I can always count on her for a hug and a big smile. She also really enjoys pulling out ALL the dvd's from the shelf, and clothes from the dressers.... It makes my job a bit harder, but it makes her happy so I can't complain too much. She is a bit spoiled, but that is mostly cause James and Evelyn spoil her! She is lucky to have such great siblings. She is a walker now, and it is so fun to see her toddle where she wants to go, or chasing after the other kids. I hope she knows how much we love her and are blessed to have her in our family!We spent this weekend at my parents house, since my sister and niece were there visiting as well. We left on her birthday, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to get home in time to make a cake, but when we got up, we found that my dad had gone out after work (he gets home around midnight) and gotten her a cake, balloon, and card! He is such a good Papa! (Grammie had something to do with it as well, I expect!) So, we sang to her and had cake with our breakfast. My kids were sad to leave, they love it there, there is so much for them to do, and Grammie and Papa are so much fun! But I'm grateful we live as close as we do now, so we can visit more often! Some pics of the weekend:catching bugs

going to talk to the horses

at the splash park

boating in the puddle
Loving the new trampoline!

this is one happy girl!

Projects

2010-05-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share a couple projects I did over the weekend! My awesome sis-in-law, Jessica, sent me a link to a craft blog that have all these awesome projects! I've been drooling over so many! I decided to start easy, with a project I've seen variations of before. Turning a mens dress shirt into a girls dress. I went to DI, cause I figured Rob would kill me if I stole one of his shirts! hahaha It was a great decision, cause I found a PINK dress shirt, and it was only $4! Anyway, here is how it turned out:Not too bad! I need more practice on the rosette, but it works. Here is the link. I was even able to make a little hair bow with the contrasting fabric that was inside the cuff.

There was recently a post on how make your own little cake platter on a craft blog that I frequent. I thought it was a cute idea, and I was in need of a cake/cupcake plate, so while I was at DI, I found what I needed to create that! It was super easy, cheap ($1.50!), and I like how it came out. Here's the result:
I think I need another trip to DI! I'm hoping to find a headboard to refurnish. I'm also working on some glass etching as well as more sewing projects. I'll post my results, if it turns out! ;)

T-Ball

2010-05-26T08:09:00.000-07:00

James had his first T-ball game on Sat (the 22nd). We were pretty excited, until it started to SNOW!!!! It was miserable. Thankfully, the little kids only play for an hour. I ended up taking the girls to the car, and James only played for the first 1/2 hour cause he was so cold. We knew it would be chilly that day, but were not prepared for the freak snow storm that decided to come right during the game!! Anyway, it was interesting. I only got 1 pic, and it is not a very good one, but here it is...poor guy! Do you see that snow on the ground! YUCK!
I will get more at his next game. Hopefully it will be perfect weather, and everyone will have FUN!!

Congraduations!

2010-05-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

Oh, that is my favorite way to mess up a graduation cake.....Anyway, James graduated from preschool this week! Hooray!! We really love the preschool he went to, the teachers are just so great. They really get to know and love each of the kids they teach. They had the kids sing a few songs, then each came up to receive their 'diploma' and hat. He is very excited to start kindergarten this fall, and he was a little disappointed that he has to wait all summer to start! I'm not so sure I am ready for him to go, but I am not going to think about that just yet! Congrats on a great year, James! Here are some pics:

He was so excited to throw his hat, that he accidentally threw his diploma! He threw his hat once he realized it. Silly kid!

Singing "Yankee Doodle":

Getting his diploma:

Evie's Recital

2010-05-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

Evelyn's last recital was last night! The little combo classes were the 'opening act' for the ballet company's production of Peter Pan. She worked hard and we are very proud of her! She didn't do quite as well on her tap performance, but to be fair, non of the girls did last night. She did great on her ballet, though! She looked SO CUTE, I wish I would have remembered to get a picture of her before. Here she is: (if you click on the square with the arrow, you can make the video full screen)
Turtle Rock (tap)

Jellyfish Jump(ballet)

She and I stayed after her performance and watched Peter Pan. We then went home and shared a bowl of ice cream before bed. It was a really fun "girls night" with her! I can't wait till we can do it again!

Rocking out!

2010-05-13T08:39:00.000-07:00

Elise loves to dance! Anytime she hears music, she starts bouncing and turning in circles. It really is the cutest thing, I love it!

April

2010-05-11T14:20:00.000-07:00

Well, April was quite the month for us! And May seems to be getting busier all the time as well. But we are having fun and looking foward to summer!! We went to my sister's wedding in Arizona. Let me tell you, the kids LOVED it. All their cousins, Grammie and Papa, warm weather to play in the pool, and wedding cake...whats not to love?? They wanted to play in the water, but the pool was not set up yet, so I let them wash my car. They were pretty good at it! I think they've got themselves a new chore!

James and Kirsten also had their first 3 legged race experience when my dad tied them together, it was hilarious:
And here are just a couple pics from the reception:
My parents with Elise and Sammy.
all my brothers:
My mom sent the kids some stuff for Easter, and Elise was loving the box!
Evie had a couple dance performances as well. Her recital is on Thursday, so hopefully I can get a good video of that to put up, but in the meantime, this is her just before performing:

Aunt Beth also sent the kids a package of fun goodies! They love it when she spoils them! These are some spring gel window stickers. Evie had the most fun with these:
And here is a quick video of them with some other stuff she got for them. I think Evie was doing some sort of interpretive ballet or something. haha!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

We had been planning on going to my parents house in Oregon for Easter weekend, but there was a huge snow storm going through, so we decided not to risk it and stayed home instead. It was a nice weekend to stay in and watch conference. On Saturday afternoon, we took the kids to the "How to Train Your Dragon" 3D movie. It was so fun, and they loved it. It was their first 3D movie experience, and it was so funny to watch them react to it. James kept announcing to the entire theater, "Did you see that pop out, Mom! It was so cool!" At first, Evie would get a little nervous when things would 'pop out' and put her hands up on her face. But she got used to it after a little while and we all had a great time! Here are the kids Easter baskets:We dyed some eggs and had an egg hunt:
And poor Elise wanted to go play outside with James and Evie and their new bubbles and sidewalk chalk!

Another Project Post

2010-04-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to show off the cute outfit that I made for Elise. I think it turned out ok. There are a couple things I would do different next time, but otherwise, I love it! She, however, was not so thrilled about it at this particular time! hahaback view

I also finally found some fabric that both Evelyn and I liked for her Dance purse. She loves it!

The Importance of Exercise

2010-03-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

Our kids know how important it is to our health to be active and exercise. So on this day, I had just finished a quick work-out that they did with me, but apparently they weren't done yet, and wanted to do some more! Silly kids!! (please ignore the dirty laundry, still gotta work-out on laundry day!)

Being a baby has its advantages, such as being really super flexible. She is our little yoga baby. Lately her favorite move is this one:Gotta love those leg rolls!!
She loves when I 'find' her by looking through her legs. What a goofball. I tried to get her to do it on tape, but as soon as I turned on the camera, she stopped. She was still being so funny, though so here it is:

Happy St. Patricks Day!!

2010-03-24T07:18:00.000-07:00

mmmmm....pancakes.....

My mom has already shown her disappointment in me for celebrating this 'blasphemous' holiday with my kids. I was always so embarrassed that she would make us wear orange on St Patty's Day, just cause we are of Scottish heritage! My mom is so funny. Anyway, this morning, a little leprechaun came to visit, and left a trail for us to follow to our 'pot of gold'....golden cookies that is!! Then we witnessed some more of that leprechauns tricky magic when our pancakes turned green! We also made green jello with our dinner, and said some magic words to make our pudding turn green. (forgot to get pics of that!! it was cute) We also made some cute little leprechauns of our own. And of course, we wore green! James really loved it, cause his absolute favorite color is green.

It was spring break this week, so it was fun to have something to 'celebrate' while the kids were out of classes.

Chris and Jessica's Wedding

2010-03-10T09:26:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how Chris tricked this girl into marrying him, she is so cute and sweet!! I did not get any pics of the wedding, but others did, so I stole their pics to put on my blog. hehehe....Anyway, it was a beautiful, sunny day, it was perfect!! Chris and Jess looked so happy, and we were so happy to be able to be there and be a part of their special day. So, just some pics:

Dad and baby Sammie

Dad, James and Lauren

Lauren, Kirsten, Audra, JR, Sammie, Me

Joss, Kirsten, James

Sun Valley

2010-03-10T09:02:00.000-08:00

Rob had to attend a conference to get some CLE's up in Sun Valley last weekend. His boss is awesome, and said that he could bring us along as well! (it was paid for by his work) So, we were able to meet up with him Friday evening to stay the night and play. It would have been awesome to go snowboarding while we were there, but we had the kids, and I think it would have been too hard. Next time, though!

Elise loved the mirrors on the closet!

They had a heated outdoor pool, which was basically a giant hot tub, that the kids loved! They made us take them swimming at 8:30 at night, then again at 8 the next morning...they were excited!

(They wanted me to take a pic of them in front of the pool)

The hotel was very nice, and was set in its own little rustic 'town'. It was cool. (Our room was on the second story of this building, with restaurants below us)This is the heated pond they have for the ducks and swan.....The kids and I spent a lot of time here, they enjoyed watching the ducks. It was a nice weekend, and the weather was great. A fun little getaway!

Feeling Crafty

2010-03-10T08:45:00.000-08:00

I've been doing lots of projects lately, and I wanted to show them off!! These are the headbands I'm making for the little girls to wear at my sisters wedding next month:(This is just a prototype, we changed it up a bit, but basically the same idea.)

And I fell in love with this necklace, and HAD to have it (I also made a matching bracelet):
Rob got me a sewing machine for Valentines Day, so for my first project, I threw together this taggie blankie for Elise with some scraps I had:

And my latest project was this little purse:

I love it! I'm planning to make one for Evelyn to keep her dance shoes in. I think they would make great gifts as well. I'm also going to attempt to make an actual little outfit for Elise with some sweet fabric that I fell in love with....we'll see how that goes!! Wish me luck!

Miss Elise

2010-02-19T12:41:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to show off my little nugget!! She has finally learned to crawl, and can now get into everything!! I found here under the kids little table the other day dumping out all their play food/dishes. She tried eating the pizza, but wasnt too impressed. She keeps me on my toes, but she's so sweet and happy, I dont mind too much! :)

A video of her crawling- She has improved so much even in the few days since I shot this! (and please dont mind my oven timer going off...sorry!)

She loves dinner time!!

James 5th Birthday

2010-02-08T14:46:00.000-08:00

James at about 6 months

I can't believe my little man is 5 years old!! We celebrated with a couple of James friends by going to Party Hardy, a fun place that has an arcade, those giant blowup slides and houses, and lots of fun stuff for the kiddos to play with. One of his friends, Cameron, had his 5th birthday around the same time, so we had kind of a joint party with him. The kids had a blast and so did the parents, since we're allowed on the blowup things as well!! Next time I'll have to get pictures of that!

The AirHog Grammie got for him

We also had a family party on his actual birthday, with the traditional birthday cake. His cake was, of course, Jurassic Park themed, as requested.

He is such a bright kid, and has so much energy!! He loves animals of all kinds and from all times (especially ones that lived 150 million years ago!).

Picture he drew of Scrat from Ice Age

He is an aspiring artist and scientist, constantly making a messes that he calls his "science experiments" or "inventions". He is such a sweet, sensitive, loving little guy. He is so great at taking care of his sisters, making sure Evelyn is "choosing the right" and he can always make Elise smile. We're so blessed to have such an amazing little man in our lives!!

Snow Angels

2009-12-30T09:23:00.000-08:00

Some pics of the kids playing in the snow!

James and I even made a Snowman, well, SnowAlien...Thats what he wanted. lol It was not very good snow for packing, so this is the best we could do. I also didnt have any carrots for the nose, so we used celery. And penny's for the eyes and buttons cause thats all I had at the time! haha...

Christmas

2009-12-26T06:11:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!! Just wanted to share some pics of our Christmas. We tried to do a trap for the kids, but wanted to keep it simple since they have never experienced a Christmas Trap before. I guess it was way too easy, though, cause James just got right through it! Next year we will plan better.
Here is the tree after Santa had been there:
Pics of the kids and their loot:
Christmas Dinner:
Homemade Apple Pie!! Too bad we were so stuffed from dinner, we only had a small piece each...It makes for great leftovers, though! ;)

What A Week!!

2009-11-14T07:54:00.000-08:00

We've had so much go on this week in my family (the Hoskins side), it has been so great! On Tuesday, my oldest brother and his wife and son welcomed a new little one into the family. Little Sammie Jae is adorable! She was also born on my oldest niece's 6th birthday. So that was fun! Then on Wednesday, my little brother, Chris, proposed to his girlfriend Jessica! (she said yes! lol) I can hardly believe my little Chrissy P.P. brother is getting married! They've set a date in February. Congrats to them! My dad also had surgery on his wrists on Wednesday for his carpel tunnel. The surgery went perfectly, and he is recovering well....as long as he stops working on things around the house...like painting. If any of you know my dad, doing nothing is something he is completely incapable of! Haha. Then on Thursday, my beautiful sister got engaged as well!! Her new fiance, JR had it all planned out and got a beautiful ring (with some help from yours truly!). She was so surprised and she is so happy!! I am SO thrilled for them and Kirsten! They have set a date in May. We are so happy and grateful for all these wonderful blessings!!
As for our own little family, Evelyn had some dance recitals this month, and she did SO incredibly well! Her first performance was more like a dress rehearsal. Then on Thursday (the 12th) was her first real performance at the Get Into The Groove dance show. They had all different youth ages and types of dance. It was so much fun! Evie did awesome, we are SO proud of her! And if I knew how to put the video on here from my camcorder, I would. But for now, here is a pic of her all ready to go:
and a couple not very good pics on the stage (this is the dress rehearsal):

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-14T07:19:00.000-08:00

October has been fun! We love fall around here. Falling leaves, beautiful colors, pumpkin flavored treats, and Halloween! Whats not to love. We went to the pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins for painting and carving.

It was also time to figure out what we wanted to be for Halloween. Evelyn was easy, she just wants to be a princess. I found a little Thumbalina butterfly princess costume on clearance a while ago. Elise was a unicorn, a costume that Evie wore 2 years ago. But James on the other hand....he drove me nuts changing his mind! First, he wanted to be Wolverine, then he wanted to be Bumblebee. Ok fine...either of those I can buy at the store or something. After we had looked at outfits at the store, he changed his mind to wanting to be an Ankylosaurus. That would be a little tougher, but I had it all figured out how we would do it. Seriously, the DAY I had it all figured out, he changed again to Pterodactyl. UGH! Alright, fine, I'll figure it out. Had that finally worked out how I would do it. That lasted maybe a couple days....till he changed his mind AGAIN! It was back to Wolverine, but he didn't want to be the yellow Wolverine from the cartoon, he wanted to be Wolverine from the movie. So we stuck with that and I went and got everything we needed. I think it ended up costing more than just buying the yellow costume, but he looked awesome, so it was worth it! Anyway, here are some pics of us going to our Trunk-or-Treat!

I even got him a custom dogtag:
It was a fun night! Happy Halloween!
*(Rob is the same thing he has been for 6 years now, the Medieval type costume I made for him forever ago. And I decided to be Nadyia Suleman AKA Octomom. lol)

Crazy Busy September

2009-10-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

What a busy month! Its been fun, though. We attempted to go camping over Labor Day weekend. Matt, Jessica, and Lauren joined us up at Lake Cleveland. I said attempted because the wind was SO crazy and did NOT let up at all. It was so bad, it completely ripped up our tent (that we had only used like 2 times before!) Thankfully, we only live about 45 mins away, so we just went home. Matt and his family stayed at our house for the rest of the weekend as well, cause it was just not any fun being out in that wind. But, we did have fun hanging out with them, and the kids loved it. A couple pics of the kids we took at Lake Cleveland just a couple weeks prior to camping, when the weather was perfect:

Evelyn and Lauren playing Princess Tea Party
James started preschool on the 8th, and he is so happy to be back in school. He loves it and I love to hear about all the things he does each day. Not surprisingly, his favorite 'station' at school is the science station. There is a bug, praying mantis, turtle and frog, as well as a Tornado maker thing (you know, 2 pop bottles taped together with water and glitter in it) and lots of other fun things. He is really doing well there.

Evie is enjoying her dance class, which is an hour class that does 30 mins of tap and 30 mins of ballet. She has 3 performances coming up, and I cant wait to see her bust her moves!!

Since everyone knows what a dinosaur fenatic James is, we decided to take him down to Thanksgiving Point to see the dinosaur museum. We met up with my brother, Matt and his family. Of course, James was pretty much in heaven seeing all the dino skeletons and enjoying all the fun things the museum had to offer.

Rob and I had our birthdays, and we are getting old. I've decided that I am going to be staying 26 for the rest of my life. I think its gonna be great year!Elise and I on my Bday.

Rob's sister, Beth, got married Oct 3rd, and we went out to Ohio for her wedding. I flew with the kids on the 29th, and Rob came in late Friday night. No one knew he was coming and it was so fun to surprise the family! The wedding was beautiful, and so was the bride. It was so great to see the family and our friends that we have left in that cold, wet state. ;) I wish we could just convince everyone to come out here, cause we really do miss them a ton.

And that about sums it up for Sept!

Utah/Elise's Blessing

2009-09-09T17:36:00.000-07:00

We went to Utah to celebrate Matt's graduation from BYU Aug 15. All of my family was there (except 1 brother) and it was so much fun! The kids of course all had a blast, they always do when they get together! It was so fun to see everyone, and we are all so proud of Matt!!

Since everyone from my family was there (including Grandparents Hoskins, Uncle Scott and his family) I asked Matt if he wouldnt mind if we gave Elise her baby blessing that weekend as well. We did it in Matt's home and we felt so blessed to have so many people we love surrounding our baby girl. It was such a sweet blessing, Rob did a great job.

We also went to SLC the same afternoon and had a great time walking around and seeing the temple and the grounds there.

It was a fun weekend, I always have a blast when I get together with my sister and bro's!! I love 'em!

Funny kids

2009-08-25T08:59:00.000-07:00

I swear I have the funniest kids. They drive me crazy some days, but they sure know how to make me laugh!
One sentence I never thought I'd hear (James): "MOM! She's puking on the giraffe!"

James was playing the piano and using the Children's Primary Songbook to 'play' from. I guess on one of the songs, there is a picture of kids planting a garden, so James starts singing as he is playing "Jesus made the worms." over and over. It was so funny. (I decided that he was trying to be sincere, and that it was not meant in an irreverent manner.)

Evelyn comes over to me and says, "Mom, my heart is growing up. I dont want it to grow up!" I asked "Why not?" She says, "Cause I just want to be a kid." I sort of started to laugh, and she was all serious and got offended. She then yells at me "MOM! Dont laugh!!" ok, sorry Evie.

Happy Girl!

2009-08-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

I caught Elise on camera while she was being so happy and cute. Just thought I'd share!

Moving....Round 2

2009-07-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

So....once again, we've moved. This time, it is for at least a year, thank goodness! Im tired of packing and unpacking!! We are finally living in Burley, and we are all so happy to not have Rob gone all week. Here are just some pics.....

Rob packed up the little truck to take to Burley, and his snowboard was on top. James climbed up and into his boots and was 'snowboarding'. It was so awesome to see that, and he looks like a natural, doesnt he?! He even thought to wear a helmet, funny kid!
I couldnt resist this pic of me and the kids, arent they so cute? I just love them!

Here are a couple pics of the new place: (Disclaimer: you MUST excuse any messes you see...im still working on finding a home for some things. and some are from the kids emptying boxes when im not looking!)
living room

Kitchen
Fortunately, our side of the house has this little pathway that goes to the backyard. Its perfect for the kids to ride their bikes on!
Our backyard/patio area
James room
Evie and Elise's room
Evelyn got a big girl bed, she loves it
and Elise in her crib...even though she still sleeps in our room, its ready for her!

Lava Hot Springs!

2009-07-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

The weekend we moved was the weekend of my dad's mom's family reunion (got that? lol) at Lava Hot Springs. Since it is less than 2 hours away, my parents took the kids (minus Elise, of course) while Rob and I got the moving done, then we went up and spent a day there. It was a ton of fun, and much needed after all the stresses of moving! We tubed down the river and just relaxed in the sun. The weather was great, and it was so nice to see my family!! I wish I had more pics of us on the river, but I was usually going down the river, so I couldn't get pics! haha...I did however get one of my Grandpa (my dad's dad), who is 77 years old, going down with Rob, the kids, and my dad. How awesome is that!
Evelyn stringing beads for a bracelet (Thanks Gramma Joan!)
Grammie and the girls showing off the bracelets Evie made!

4th of July

2009-07-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

Shortly after we got back from my parents house, Rob's parents came to visit! It was really fun to be with them, the kids have missed them a ton. We went with them to Utah for a couple days to visit with family and friends. It was a good trip, and it was great to see everyone. I forgot my camera, so I dont have any pics from that. Jim and Sue stayed with us till July 8th, and we had fun exploring Boise with them. We went to several restaurants featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (on Food Network) and that was a lot of fun, and good food! For the 4th of July we went with a friend of Jim and Sue's to the small town of Idaho City. It is a tiny gold mining town in the mountains that used to be the capitol of Idaho. Then we lit sparklers and watched fireworks in our neighborhood. It was a good time! Thanks for visiting with us Jim and Sue! We love and miss you!!

Evelyn's 3rd Birthday

2009-06-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

As soon as I was released from the hospital after having Elise, we all went straight to my parents house so that I wouldn't be all alone during the week. It was so nice to know that the kids were having fun and were in good care when I needed to rest. I love my family, they are seriously the best!! Rob came all the way up from Burley on the weekend to spend Father's Day with his kids (and me!). We decided to celebrate Evelyn's birthday that weekend, since her actual b-day was during the week, and it would just be me and the kids there. Of course, she HAD to have a Princess theme, cause she is a Princess! Her big gift from Rob and I was her big girl bike, which she has been begging for for a while now. She was so thrilled! We went to the park later that day and she rode all around like a mad woman! It was fun to see her so excited about it. She is such a fun 3 year old, I couldn't ask for a sweeter girl! She is stubborn (like her mom!) and a bit dramatic (I think she gets that from her Aunt Audra), but is always willing to give a big hug and sweet smile, and her random goofiness always cracks me up! We love you Big Girl Evelyn!!

She loved all the decorations! We had those balloons for a month after this!

Grammie got her a Princess purse and gloves, and a Princess 'license plate' for her new bike!
Big Girl bike....Finally!
She wanted to make sure Elise got a Princess crown, too! It was so sweet!

Its a Girl!! Birth Story

2009-06-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

Elise Calla Squire

June 14^th 2009 12:05am

7lbs 14oz 20.5inches

Thursday the 11^th I went to my scheduled appointment, and saw Georgiana (the other midwife in the practice, I usually see Jo). I was 3 cm dilated, and 70% effaced. She stripped my membranes really well to see if we couldn't get things moving. She gave me some ideas on what I could do at home to help things along. Finally on Friday night around 11:30pm, I lost my mucus plug! I was so excited to see that I was progressing. I was having contractions on and off all that night. I got up to use the restroom at about 4am, and felt a strange pop sensation. I thought I had just felt the baby move or something like that, but once I stood up a gush of pinkish water came out. I called to Rob to get up cause my water had just broken. We were so excited!! I showered and got dressed, called the midwife and my mom. I kept gushing fluid the whole while, so there was NO mistake that my water had broken! We got everything together and got to the hospital around 6am. After I was admitted, Rob took the kids back home to wait for my mom to get there to watch them. I was having kind of irregular contractions, and was walking a lot, swaying on the birthing ball, trying all kinds of ways to get them to pick up. They checked me again around 12:30, and I was about 4 cm.

So I kept on going. About an hour after that check, the were a little concerned about the baby's heart rate, and had me lie on my side on the bed with on oxygen mask to see if we couldn't get it better. Finally the baby's heart rate settled down. They decided to start pitocin around 3pm, cause there had been no change in my cervix since my last check. I was able to be back up and moving then, which felt so much better than just lying in bed. The pit really made the contractions much harder, but I was handling the pain pretty well and trying to relax during the breaks. Rob was there to help and let me hang on him to breathe through the contractions. They came in to check me around 6pm, and I was at a 5.5. I continued laboring, with the pitocin being upped every 30 mins. The contractions were getting stronger, and closer together. I was sure I had made a lot of progress, but at around 9pm, I was only at 6. She had me push a little to see how far I could go (to about 6.5). The midwife was very supportive and doing all she could to keep the doctor from pulling the plug and doing a c-section. She was able to buy us another hour if I got an epidural to see if that would relax my body enough to progress. So I got the epi and was able to relax and get a little rest, in hopes that my body would do what it was made to do. About 40 mins later, the midwife and Dr came in to assess me. They checked me and I was about an 8, but the Dr was not happy about the position of the baby's head. He said he was concerned that it had not come down more and said something about spines that I had no idea what he was referring to. The Dr pretty much said, 'If this was going to happen, it would have happened already.” At this point it was 11pm, I had been up all night/day laboring. Rob and I were both exhausted. They gave us some time to think about what we wanted to do. We had exhausted all our options. We felt like we had done all we could to be able to have our VBAC baby. So we agreed to the c-section. I felt so awful and discouraged about not being able to deliver my baby the way I had planned. But, it was more important to me to have a healthy child, than to risk something not being right if that were the reason for the non-progression. This c-section went much smoother, and I felt much more comfortable with the people who were surrounding and supporting me than with my previous. As they were prepping me, my midwife mentioned that this baby would be among the less than 5% of babies that are actually born on their due dates! I hadn't realized it was already so close to midnight. There were no complications, and the Dr was able to realize that the baby's head had been positioned over my left hip bone, instead of over my cervix where it should have been. Rob was able to watch as they pulled the baby out of me, and he was the one to tell me that it was a GIRL!

Our beautiful daughter, Elise Calla, was finally here! I was pretty shocked to finally know it was a girl (Rob, of course, knew all along!), it really was better than Christmas to have that surprise! I cried knowing she was here and healthy. It took them a few minutes to get her to cry, which concerned me, but she had swallowed some fluid and was shortly wailing away. Rob was able to take her to OR recovery to wait and got Elise checked out, while I was being finished up. So, it was certainly a different experience than we had hoped for, but she is here all the same, a beautiful and welcome addition to our family.

The kids were able to come the next morning to meet her, and you could just see the love they already had for her in their faces. They adore her! I am hoping that they keep it up, cause it is so beautiful to see that. Welcome baby Elise!!

Daddy and his girls:

Grammie and the kids getting a good look.

Mommy and Elise:

Pudding Painting Party!!

2009-06-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do something fun with the kids to keep them busy, and what better way to do that than with food and messes combined!! I made up a batch of pudding, and thought we would try pudding painting! It was a big hit, and I didn't have to worry about them getting it in their mouths or clothes. Here is where they started, pretty tame, right?

This reminded me of Augustus from Willy Wonka eating from the Chocolate River!Just starting to get a little more messy here:
And here's a very chocolate-y girl!
James helping her reach her full chocolate potential!
Yep, this is how they ended up.

They were running around smearing pudding all over each other and loving it!! I totally recommend this activity for all you bored mom's out there! I didnt have to do anything, just got to sit back and watch the kids have a blast! Then just hosed them (and the patio) down and made sure I soaked and washed their swim suits. Good times!!

Twin Falls/Boise Zoo/Weekend

2009-05-26T10:01:00.000-07:00

Rob had an interview in Burley, ID (about 2 1/2 hours from where we live) so we decided to go with him and keep him company on the drive. We stopped in Twin Falls after wards to see the gorge there. It was really beautiful, and the kids really enjoyed it as well!

So, in case you were wondering how the interview went....a few days after the interview, Rob got a call from Burley, and they offered him the job!! His title is Deputy Public Defender for Cassia County. However, Im not sure what that means he will actually be doing. haha. We are so thrilled, and feel so blessed that we have been given this opportunity. Of course, that means that Rob is now commuting during the week, only home on the weekend, and we will be moving again. But, it is worth it for the security we feel!

We decided to take the kids to the zoo one afternoon after one of my dr's appointments, since it is close by there. It is a much smaller zoo than what they are used to and kept asking to see where certain things were that they remember from their 'old zoo'. But they were very happy to see what they did, and most of the animals were being very active, which is always nice. Plus, all the fun stuff to play on helps, and it was a beautiful day! Here they are playing on some tiger toys:

And lastly, we got the kids a new outside water toy (since the slip n slide broke pretty quickly). Since we'll be home lots the next few weeks, this should keep them from getting too bored! Here's just a couple pics from this weekend: