The Atkinson Family

Boating with friends

2011-08-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

When Barb herd we had a boat she invited herself along for a get together :) She has jet skies so we thought both would be a blast with a couple friends. We had both heard that lucky peak is crazy busy on the weekends but decided to venture out anyway and take our chances finding a spot. We found one and it worked out perfectly. The weather was great but made for some choppy skiing.

I don't know how we ended up invited the 3 families we know who are pregnant??? kind of funny coincidence, but I think everyone had fun. I hope to have many more outings in the future so everyone we know can be invited. Kaydence was the oldest kid and became the little brave MOM to them all.

Rylee

Ivan giving Josie a hug.

Josh and his daughter Rachel. I hadn't really met the Wilkins and it was nice getting to know them.

Barb giving Carter a ride on the jet ski

anyone else think Craig needs another baby girl???? He says no, but we will see :)

I thought this was a cute little preggo profile of Amber.

Every time I bring the camera out this is the cheese face he gives me. I think its so cute, however its not the most lovely of smiles for a photo :)

This little bug is Chloe and is just so precious.

Here is Amber with 2 of her little ones...well actually with the little one in the oven she has 3 little ones on there with her :)

We had a lot of munchies and lunch was great. Ivan would just make the rounds and didn't stop eating the whole time.

Here is Rachel and she was just a perfect content angle the whole time. So quite I don't think I heard her talk once. She just played the whole time and was up for anything.

another one bites the dust

2011-08-16T10:29:00.001-07:00

****UPDATE****
Kaydence just lost another tooth. She has lost the 2 top front and the 2 front bottoms, and now another bottom is gone with the other bottom very loose.

Kaydence lost another tooth last night. We were at Connie's over the weekend and her teeth were brought up. Last night, we we were reading, I just looked up at her teeth and said... "let me see how ready it is" I just reached up and felt that it was wiggly and put my fingers around it and pulled. It pulled right out first try. This makes 4 lost now and Kaydence is now $4 richer and me $4 dollars poorer :) Im thinking the tooth fairy money should be put in a savings account to go towards braces :)

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

2011-08-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Today was the kids first day of school. They both are pretty excited. They both are at a new school, which we are all excited about, and I hope they thrive there. Kaydence is in 2nd grade, and her teacher is Mrs. Luke. Soren is starting Kindergarten, FINALLY, and his teacher is Mrs. Cordero. Kaydence gets to take the bus to school, she hasn't been able to in the past. Soren doesn't start kindergarten till after lunch so I take him, but he will get to ride the bus home with Kaydence.

NEW BOAT

2011-08-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

We spent the last 2 Saturday's boating and having so much fun in the water. We found such a great deal on a boat at an auction. It's a 2006 Blue water Cascade. It's 20 feet long and has a 5.0 volvo engine. It's open bow, has a swim platform and tower, which we will eventually put a wakeboard rake on.

Connie and Larry were gone the weekend we got it so came up with us the second weekend to check out the boat. Craig was able to wake board because his dad drove the boat. (I still need practice). We had a nice picnic at Black Canyon Dam Park. Connie stayed on the shore and watched Ivan while we took Larry out for a spin. Ivan fell asleep, but the flies were bothering him, so Connie put the only thing she had(baby wipes) all over him to keep them away :) This is what he looked like when we returned.

Kaydence even got up on 2 skies. She got up last week but was scared to try again because when she fell, she says the skies scratch her legs. We convinced her to try again. No more leg scratching!!! I don't know if we will have to continue to nudge forever but once she is in the water she is consistently getting up, but doesn't stay up for long. We are very proud of her, and she looks forward to getting better.

impromptu photo shoots

2011-08-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

We were in Emmett because I had a family reunion to photograph, and while waiting Soren and I walked around the farm and snapped a few shots. The farm always makes for nice backdrops.

Certainly couldn't leave out fashion queen and pose master Kaydence. This was taking along one of our walks one morning.

Oregon Coast

2011-07-29T09:39:00.001-07:00

Craig had a week with nil on his schedule, so we planned a quick trip to visit the lillywhite 5 in Salem and visit the coast. It was a lot of fun, but so much to do in such a short trip. We drove up Wednesday and stayed the night at Lindseys in Salem. Thursday morning we drove down to Newport/Depoe Bay. We went to the whale watching center, which July happens to be the worst time to go, and Yaquina head lighthouse, before heading to the Newport "Oregon Coast" Aquarium. (FYI there is also a newport aquarium in kentucky so don't purchase tickets online from there seemingly identical website like I did)

We spent Thursday night back at Lindsey's and then spent friday morning driving up to Seaside. We found a great place to park the 5th wheel and had lunch and headed to the beach. It was such a lovely day. The previous day was a drag, cold, rainy and foggy. The kids loved the beach and Craig got to try out his stunt kite we got in Newport. Derek accompanied us in the evening as we then traveled to the Astoria KOA Kampground where we camped the next 2 nights. Saturday we went to the Astoria Column where we threw plane gliders off the top. We ate lunch at the Bowpicker. It was the #1 restaurant on all the online reviews and Craig and Derek just about threw a toddler tantrum because we didn't get to go for dinner the previous night. After lunch we headed over the bridge to Long Beach Washington, to see the Sand Castle competition. We drove home Sunday, where we were rudely welcomed by a very long and busy MONDAY back at work and laundry. It was fun and we need to do it more often.

Swim Lessons

2011-06-28T16:17:00.001-07:00

The kids started swim lessons yesterday. My camera battery was pretty much dead when i got there so I only got this one. But I have 2 weeks to get more.

summer

2011-06-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some more of the yard. We pretty much finished up getting the front put back together.

Kaydence and Soren had a playdate with there good friends Analee and Luke Lainhart last thursday. Ana and Kaydence have been in the same grade school class the last two years and are the best of friends. I joke around that Luke will be my future son in law...that is, if only Kaydence and Luke could stand each other :) (I think it's a cover)

Yep thats typical Mya (the dog) waiting under the table for the scraps that will fall.. Her favorite place is under Ivan's chair.

More landscaping improvements

2011-06-21T17:14:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to clean up the landscaping beds after we had to tear them all apart to get the old curbing out and lay the new concrete ones. We won't be getting the rock we want to replace the old bark right away and we can't just leave it all torn up the way it is till then...(we have an HOA to worry about) I spent the day tearing out some ground weed barrier, and pulling grass and weeds that have been growing in the old beds, and pruning trees and bushes. I filled up both garbages so I will have to wait till next week to finish or until I can borrow the in laws trailer.

but here is what I accomplished today.

BEFORE:

When we re-seeded the lawn, seeds flew into the bark and took root :( So all that needed to be ripped out.

AFTER: (exact same location as above)

oh look there is another bush under there :)

I also hacked alway at those huge junipers. I didn't exactly know how to trim those suckers and just went at it :) I'm young, this is all a learning experience. Same with the rose bushes, I just cut away, except those are more forgiving since they will be huge again in a month. I have to cut those things back about 5 times every summer.

Home Improvements

2011-06-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

We've been trying to get some things done around the house that have been on the to do list for almost 2 years now. We were able to replace the old plastic curbing with nice concrete curbing. We pressure washed the house and got all the outside windows washed. We colored and sealed the concrete around the house as well. We had upgrade stamped/colored concrete work, but it hadn't been kept up over the years. Most all the color had be bleached away by the time we moved in and we always wanted to reseal it, but again it has been on the back burner of things that needed to get done. But we finally got it done!!! Things are coming together but A LOT is still yet to do.

BEFORE Sealing:

AFTER:

BEFORE Curbing:

AFTER:

We still have some landscaping to do before it's a completely finished AFTER. We plan to replace the ground weed barrier and put rock down instead of the existing bark.

Kaydence

2011-05-19T16:13:00.000-07:00

Kaydence had her 1st graders singing performance today at school so since she was all cute I brought the camera out :)

tooth fairy

2011-04-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

Kaydence lost another tooth today. It's been loose a LONG time and I finally told her I would poll it out. (I wouldn't do it, it freaks me out) In fact we waited so long the other tooth is already showing coming in.

That night I replaced the tooth with 3 dollars (since its her 3rd lost) and the next morning she is banging on our door wanting to know where her tooth is. She says "I know your the tooth fairy.. so where is my tooth???, I want to show my class"

Ivan in the hot tub

2011-04-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

We let Ivan in the hot tub for the first time and he loved it. The last few months he has grown to hate bathing. He screams the whole time. He loved the hot tub however... apparently he just doesn't enjoy bathing alone??? The 104 temp didn't even really phase him. We always had to wait till after he was asleep before we all went in but now we can go in whenever :) We certainly go through more swimming diapers this way though :(

Motorcycle

2011-04-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

Craig has had a motorcycle since he was 16 years old. A few years ago we sold it to pay for some bills. He always intened to get a new one but bills never seemed to end :) When gas prices started to go back up this spring I decided maybe it was time to allow Craig his motorcycle back. We found this used Honda Shadow on Craigslist for a good deal so we snagged it. Craig has been taken it to work and I am able to run errands in the Stratus and not have to drive the big Suburban gas eater around when I only have 1 kid during the day. As long as Craig doesn't get in an accident we should be able to save enough on gas to pay for it. And maybe I will learn to drive it :)

Soren's Spiky hair do

2011-04-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

Soren's new do! His hair is always sticking straight up in the back and it's really hard to keep it plastered down...so we decided to stop trying to fight it and just spike it all up :)

I like his hair longer but can't manage to wait long enough for it to pass the "he needs a hair cut" phase before it gets to the nice long phase. His head is so large that short buzzed haircuts look silly on him. Maybe this summer I will try growing it out again.

ivan playing with Mya

2011-04-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

Ivan loves Mya the dog. He will bark anytime he sees her. Lately he has gotten really brave and loves to wrestle around with her. it's so fun, She is always so nice to him and loves the attention.

Monkey Business

2011-04-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

Kaydence got a free pass to monkey business a while ago, instead of going to the usual Bounce in Meridian, I decided to take the kids to Monkey Business in Boise while Craig finished up some work at his office on a saturday morning.

Kaydence dressing herself

2011-04-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

Kaydence has been dressing herself for quite some time now and I am always amazed at some of the outfits she comes up with. This is one I wouldn't have thought to put together but thought it was way cute. I gave her a minnie ears hair do to go along.

Ivan Sledding

2011-03-05T18:54:00.000-08:00

Up in Sun Valley they had a few ice sculptures, one of which was a big slope to sled down. The kids had a blast. I even took Ivan down a few times. Pretty nice not to have to keep walking up a hill to go sledding :)

NEW BLOG POST

2011-03-01T09:54:00.000-08:00

New Blog post from the Idaho Defender...Craig's blog article regarding idaho law and our Americian rights. This one is regarding when a police officer has the right to frisk you.

Craig Atkinson's Boise Criminal Defense Blog

V-Day/Kaydence birthday dinner

2011-02-12T17:59:00.000-08:00

Saturday Feb 12 was the big Valentines day celebration at our house because v-day fell on a monday this year. Craig and his sister Lindsey decided on all of us going to Tucanos Brazilian Restaurant. We also invited Craigs parents to double as Kaydence birthday dinner. It was really fun and we all left STUFFED, being that it is an all you can eat place. The waiters came out and sang to kaydence, we ate chocolate covered strawberries and all the girls left with roses. It was perfect. We all went back to our house and ate cake and opened a few presents. She got a lot of clothes because that is her current passion these days. She also got some art supplies and some how-to drawing books, one of which is a fashion designing book.

Ways I save!!! How about you???

2011-02-03T15:27:00.000-08:00

This last year has flown by. Since getting out of college and moving to the treasure valley of Idaho a lot has changed. We had our 3rd child, had to upgrade to a bigger (gas guzzling) car, we bought our first house, the two older kids being in school brought tuition dues, school lunches, school clothes, sports and dance classes, dental work and doctors appointments. Not to mention losing a job and starting our own business. Everything just seems to be getting more expensive and more is needed from us just to get by.

Over the last year I have been really big on extreme couponing and have dropped our grocery/household items budget down to around $250 a month. We used to spend that at just costco (which I now don't really shop at anymore) These are the 2 blogs I follow if you want to learn more about extreme couponing.

http://fabulesslyfrugal.com

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/

citysmart.com , groupon.com , and livingsocial.com are a few websites that offer great coupons for your local areas. I have been following and using them on occasion to save money. They usually have 1 nice big savings coupon each day. A few I have gotten were: I got our sprinklers blown out for $10 (normally $25-30). I got Kaydence into some dance studio classs, I got my hair cut/colored and styled from a nice salon for $35, I also just got a $20 amazon gift card for only $10

Another way I have found to save money is swagbucks. It's an online search engine like google or yahoo but you earn points (swagbucks) for searches, surveys, redeeming coupons, shopping online, ect. I have been doing swagbucks for about 6 months or so and have earned well over $100 in amazon gift cards which I have used for diapers, christmas presents, cell phone case, amazon movies, grill, ect. You don't earn swagbucks very fast but 15-20-$25 a month really adds up for doing nothing more than you normally do on the web. And after a few months of saving up that $25 a month you really have some nice extra spending money that doesn't have to be found in the month to month budget.

Here is a link to swagbucks if you are interested in learning more about that.

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/katyanneatkinson

Just recently, Soren's preschool teacher introduced me to another great money saving program. My Harvest America is a membership program you join that allows you to purchase walmart giftcards and visa prepaid cards at 25-40% off. Your only allowed 2 walmart cards, and 1 visa card per month so to get the most bang for my buck I bought the highest limit possible. (which I don't have a problem spending) I get the $300 visa card for only $225. I turn around and pay off the $225 (plus 29 monthly fee) and walk away with a free $45 visa gift card each month!!!!! I also get (2) $200 walmart gift cards for only $120 each (plus 35 monthly fee) $400 worth for only $275!!!

I had to buy walmart gift cards anyway to be able to use the old samsclub gas pump, so this really helps save on our gas bill. I don't have to do anything extra, I don't have to buy and sell products or hold parties. What's nice about this is, you can use the visa gift cards anywhere, even pay utility bills online! If you don't spend $400 at walmart a month you can just take them to walmart and use it to purchase other gift cards (lowes, restuarants, ect) The initial start up and montly fees are paid for with the savings you recive with the gift cards and you just walk away each month with a little more in your pocket than you would't have otherwise. You just buy the cards and save $170 a month....I was like why not??? So I tried it.

You can find out more about them by going to http://www.pennypinchercards.com/ and watch this little 4 minute video and then go to myharvestamerica.com and join by clicking "join now" and entering katyatkinson as your referring representative.

Another great program we have discovered is MINT.com It's not a money saving/earning program at all but has really helped us budget and get our finances all straightened out. It's a program you can put all your accounts into and be able to see them all in one place. You can set budgets and it follows your transaction trends and alerts you if you have gone over any of your budgets and sends you weekly reports. You input everything!!! from student loans, home loans, credit cards, cars, checking, savings, stocks, ect. It keeps track of the value of your home and lets you know how much equity you have vs debt and gives you ways to save. It's a really safe, secure program that Craig and I researched and have been using for a few months. It's been awesome!

anyway...

if anyone else has any money saving tips, or programs you have found helpful let me know.

website updated!!

2011-01-28T13:51:00.001-08:00

We have been working on redesigning craigs website and it's finally been published and live on the net. We are still working on the finishing touches but go check it out!! tell us what you think or if any link doesn't seem to work :)

Atkinson Law Office, PLLC

craig's office

2011-01-22T19:56:00.000-08:00

For my family who doesn't live near us, this is Craig's new office building. Next time I go back I will take pictures of the inside, but for now here is the outside. It's located in the historic north end near downtown Boise. His name isn't out on the sign yet becuase the whole sign needs to be replaced in order to fit two more guys on it. You can see the capital behind.

...Also that brown carmel color building on the other side is actually where he used to work.

623 W Hays Street

Boise, Idaho 83702

Ivan Walking

2011-01-22T15:47:00.000-08:00

Ivan has been pretty close to walking for the last few weeks now but just in the past 2 days he has really started getting good at it. He is much better with his pants off which is why he isn't wearing any in the video.

Kadence was 9.5 months when she started walking so Ivan took about the same as she, but if I remember correctly Soren took a little longer.

Old Boise Penitentiary

2011-01-19T18:02:00.001-08:00

Craig has been working on his Law office website, so we drove around downtown Boise taking pictures of the court house, capital, supreme court and his office. We also took the kids up to the old Penitentiary. Pretty interesting history.

Atkinson Law Office, PLLC

2010-12-28T12:13:00.000-08:00

Craig started his own Boise Criminal Defense Law firm. He has been involved in every aspect, start to finish, of running an office for the last 2 years so feels very confident in his ability to fly solo. Here are a few links to his website and facebook page if you want to check them out.

Atkinson Law Office, PLLC website

Atkinson Law Facebook Page

Craig's Idaho Criminal Law Blog

Turducken

2010-12-27T13:03:00.000-08:00

BEEF is pretty much the only thing NOT for dinner :)

Craig has been drooling over this turducken thing for about a year now and finally decided to try it this christmas dinner. Turducken is a Turkey that is deboned and stuffed with a deboned duck and deboned chicken. Craig's aunt Lorreta was very sad she couldn't be with us to experience the turducken adventure and begged me to document the whole thing... So here you go :)

DECEMBER 24th

5:45 PM - Derek and Craig started preparing stuffing #1. Chopped the peppers and onions

6:00 - Seasoned with spices

6:10 - Combined Peper mixture w/ corn bread stuffing

(Stuffing #1)

6:15 - Cut up sausage for second Stuffing

6:45 - Mixed Second Stuffing

(Stuffing #2)

7:15 - Deboned the Duck

(derek had to take over deboning the duck due to injury... he sliced his finger)

***quick break for the christmas eve celebration***

9:30 - Deboned the Turkey

(washing the turkey)

DECEMBER 25th

7:00 AM - Layered the meats and stuffing and tied everything together

8:00 AM - Turducken in the oven at 225 degrees UNCOVERED

12:00 PM - Spread top with olive oil and COVERED with foil

3:30 PM - Increased oven temperature to 300 degrees (turkey temp was only 140 degrees)

4:30 - still not ready

5:30 - still not ready

6:30 - Still not ready

7:30 - Not quite ready but internal temp has reached a safe 170 degrees so we are EATING IT!!!!

Christmas Morning

2010-12-27T12:48:00.001-08:00

It was rough getting the 3 kids to bed the night before because they were all on the floor in the living room together. But once they were asleep I quickly got all the gifts out of the car and put them under Connie's tree. I stuffed and hung the kids stockings as well. They were both very excited when they woke up. We have never played into the Santa being real story with the kids but this year for some reason Soren insists he is real...so I am trying not to discourage him...(he says his preschool teacher wouldn't lie to him, so Santa must be real)

After presents we had luscious scones with strawberries and whip cream... YUM!!!!

(this is a present I got from Kaydence, she made it at school)

FINALLY, I get silly bands!!!

Christmas EVE

2010-12-27T12:35:00.000-08:00

We had the Atkinson Family Christmas Celebration the thursday before christmas but spent christmas eve/morning as well with Connie and Larry. It was a nice small quiet weekend. Connie got pj's for each of the kids, and I didn't want to give them Pj's again for there eve gift, so I decided on pillow pets. Lindsey was giving one to Rylie for christmas so she let Rylie open her pillow pet on christmas eve as well not to be left out. They were a HIT! But before the kids opened the gift, we downloaded a Christmas story on Connie's new ipad and had her read them "The Night Before Christmas". Rylie liked to sneak her finger up and change the page before grandma was done...little stinker :)

Felipe and Ashley's Wedding

2010-11-12T11:00:00.001-08:00

My brother Felipe got married in the Provo temple this last wednesday. Craig had a jury trial this week so couldn't come down with me. However, Craig's mom Connie volunteered to drive down with us. When Felipe came up to my wedding in 2003, he was just 16 at the time and he and Connie hit it off from the start. He was big and hungry and she liked to cook and she appreciated someone who finally had an appetite to match her ideal cooking proportions :) Also the fact that Felipe has always loved hard labor industries like farming kept them in touch over the years so she was thrilled to be able to attend. It was a quick trip, we drove down tuesday afternoon and stayed at the best western in Lehi where my other brother Spencer works. The wedding was lovely and the luncheon was lovely and the reception was also lovely. It was held at NOAH's, where we had soup, salad, breadsticks and cake. The clam chowder was divine, I am still craving it. It was nice seeing my family, even though it was such a quick and busy visit. Welcome to the family Ashley!

Alyssa (my little sister) high jacked my camera for a bit and took these of her with Soren and Wendy (sister in law)

while she had the camera she also got this nice action shot of the cake in the face...felipe got ashley pretty good!!!! The man off to the side is Ashley's dad and by the smile on his face I don't think Felipe has to worry about smashing cake in his daughters face. I think he approves :)

Spencer with his girlfriend Katie

Holly, Tammie and I

Tammie and my chunk Ivan

My brother Justin with his cute little lumberjack son Braxtin

Little Ivan just couldn't last much longer, it was a long day!

Emmett Halloween Party

2010-10-29T20:32:00.001-07:00

Even though we don't go to Church in Emmett anymore we still have taken the kids to a few of their activities throughout the year (as grandma and Aunt Lindsey's guests). The halloween party has made the cut 2 years in a row.

We had a nice dinner followed by a parade of all the kids in costumes. There was a little game for the kids while all the parents decorated their trunks outside. Then we all went outside and went Trunk or treating. ... and Soren went to bed with a tummy ache. Thats one of those lessons we don't seem to ever learn no matter how old we get :)

halloween is underway

2010-10-28T15:14:00.000-07:00

Soren had his little class Halloween party today. We are going as the wizard of oz this year with Soren being the tin man, Ivan being the scarecrow and Kaydence being Dorothy. We got the movie for Soren's birthday back in September. When Kaydence tells people what she is going as she has a disclaimer afterward. "I'm going as Dorothy, but I bet none of you know who that is!" We will have more tomorrow night when we attend the Emmett Halloween party with cousins Rylie, Luke and Cole.

Here is one of Ivan the cutester.

is no longer in the 200 club

2010-10-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

Mentioning a women's weight is a top no no!!!! But I've been in the 200 lb club since getting pregnant with Soren who is 5 years old now so getting under and out is a big accomplishment and deemed note worthy to mention on a blog of ones noteworthy doings. right?? It's embarrassing but hey when your nearly 6 ft tall it doesn't take much to get above it. The 2 on the scale has haunted me for more than 5 years and I finally kicked it to the curb :) I still have a ways to go and it's coming off slowly but hey It's coming off.

Family photo Fall 2010

2010-10-16T21:16:00.001-07:00

It's getting harder and harder to take a decent family photo from a tripod the bigger our family gets. AND to say Craig HATES getting a family photo taken would be the understatement of the century!!!!

Mya the dog, Kaydence, Craig, Ivan the baby, Soren, and Katy

Ivan at 7 months

2010-10-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

Can't forget the ivanator. The battery was dying on my camera and so I had to turn it off and wait for ivan to look at me and quickly turn it on and take a picture before it would die again (maybe 2 seconds). He is just too cute!!!! I'd put him in a cute baby contest but would feel bad for everyone else who doesn't stand a chance :) lol jk

oh and he can now sit up on his own, has 2 teeth, is eating real food once a day and almost almost is crawling. His eyes are still blue and according to our unreliable home scale he is almost 23 lbs???

kids "school" pictures

2010-10-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again when all the schools are taking their school photos. Im not actually sure if Soren's class was actually going to take them since he just goes to preschool but Kaydence already did. I hate having to buy them when you haven't even seen the photo yet. Why would I want 50 prints if she has ketchup on her face??? (like last year) So I took them myself. Set up the lights in the garage and took them this morning since they both were out of school today. What's funny is they both are wearing pajama bottoms :) I can't beleive how big these two are getting.

Kaydence is 6 years old and in the 1st grade

Soren is 5 years old and in Preschool.....should be in kindergarten, but no... missed the idaho deadline by 4 days (even though he was a week overdue :( grr )

ivan's high chair

2010-10-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

I've been researching high chairs for months now without any luck. There are millions off them and I couldn't decide. They all started looking the same and all had half good reviews and half bad reviews and I was at a loss. We were doing just fine with his blue chair and bumbo for feeding time so I wasn't really in any hurry. I didn't know if I just wanted a space saver or a big one with toys on the tray or a simple one that was easy to clean. I found this one on craigslist (brand new still in box) and decided to splurge. It looked really really easy to clean. It grows with the child till age 12. it has a bumper bar that can be replaced with a feeding tray and has a seat reducer booster and 5 point harness that can all be removed and wiped down. The seat, feeding tray and foot rest all can go up and down the seat for ideal height and comfort. It's made from this really nice teflon nylon stuff so it wipes down easy and looks very stylish. It's called a Mutsy Easy grow high chair and they retail for $200-250 (of corse I didn't even pay half that since i'm a ruthless craigslist negotiator). I like that he can sit right up at the table and be with the family for dinner :)

hair cut

2010-09-19T15:48:00.000-07:00

I've always had long hair (besides that phase were I wanted to be a boy in 5th grade) and since having children my hair has gotten really thin, pretty much non existent and coupled with also having baby fine and frizzy hair makes for terrible hair to have. When I was a kid I would go in and get a cut and they would blow dry my hair half dry/straight and I would leave home crying until I got home and finished drying/straighten my hair and realized it was fine. **not everyone has hair that just blow drys straight people!!!!!** So I have always just kept it long and trimmed it myself once or twice a year. I don't like salons. I got a gift card coupon from city smart a few months ago for this nicer salon and decided to treat myself. I got the cut, full highlights and style for 35$. I have been looking at pictures after picture trying to find a haircut suitable for my face shape and hair thickness and decided I might try short??? was worried but was willing to give it a try. The hair guy didn't suggest cutting it too short since it was really thin and would be really hard to manage. We settled on this length. sometimes I don't like it, sometimes I do. haven't really had much time to test out how hard it will be to do each morning but so far I am glad I cut it. Craig has ALWAYS said he liked long hair but today I ask him if he liked it...YES (of corse what else would he say :) ) but then I asked "do you like my long hair better?} .... um, NO! WOW, never thought I would hear that, so that makes me feel good. apparently you are suppose to get your hair cut like every 6-8 weeks...thats what the hair guy said when trying to get me to make another appointment...um no, more like once a year for me thanks :) The cut and color was a special treat, I don't do this often.

Braxtin's Sealing

2010-09-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

My brother Justin and his wife Wendy adopted a little baby boy 6 months ago. At 6 months it becomes official and he was able to be sealed to them in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a great day.

Braxtin Allen Rickertsen

Justin, Wendy and Braxtin Rickertsen

Soren 5th birthday celebration

2010-09-05T20:04:00.000-07:00

5 years ago this labor day weekend I was in LABOR with Soren. I can't beleive he is already 5. He is such a sweet little boy. I promised him a few weeks ago that I would take him to chuck E cheese as a family for his birthday. His birthday feel on a Sunday this year so we decided to go on Saturday. We went to a lowes building workshop for kids a few weeks ago and the kids had a blast. I found how home depot was doing there's on Soren's birthday celebration day and thought he would like that. They were making football display stands so I decided to get him a football for his birthday. Kaydence came along and made one too because she just loves crafts no matter what it is.

On friday we got a last minute invite to a birthday party from a kid in Kaydence's class. It was the first week of school so anything would have been cutting it pretty close :) So We took kids to Home depot at 9.30. Then straight to Chuck E. Cheese after. Then took Kaydence straight over to her friend Julian for his party. His dad invited us ALL IN so Soren got to play as well, and Craig and I got to chat with some parents from Kaydence class and got to meet some people. It was such a nice breezy day. Julian's dad had rented one of those huge bounce houses and had a trampoline as well so the kids had a blast. It was great, I was actually imagining throwing Soren a party very similar but just nothing seemed right when in preparation to plan. Both my kids birthday's fall on holidays and it's just so tricky to plan anything around them.

So anyway... it was nice that Soren got his big party with a bounce house and cake and ice cream at someone else's expense :)

We finished off the very busy and fun birthday celebration with Soren opening his presents. He was SO excited when he opened up the football. He said "ooooooooooh THANKS MOM!!!!! as he pulled it out of the bag." He got so excited about everything even thought it wasn't much. He got his "big" present last week with the trampoline, so I was a little worried he would have felt gypt on his big day. Also as I was walking around stores and looking online for something I couldn't think of anything to get him!!!!!

We didn't do a cake because he got cake and ice cream at julian's party but on Sunday when his grandparents came over they brought him one!!!!! It was perfect, I even had a 5 candle just sitting in my drawer. Everything worked out great this weekend and we still have tomorrow (LABOR DAY) to be as a family.

Kaydence is now in 1st grade!!!!

2010-09-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

Kaydence started 1st grade this week. While most moms have been crying about this day, I have been waiting for this day for the past 6 years!!! She thrives on routines and crafts and busy work and I just can't keep up sometimes. Well the week before school started, it dawned on me that she was going to be gone ALL DAY. I would see her less in the day than she would be at school...which means others are going to influence her more than I will. All I wanted was to be able to do the dishes and not come upstairs to find a whole ream of computer paper and 5 glue sticks used up in one sitting. I think all I was needing was maybe 1 day where she was gone all day. When it hit me, I started to tear up myself. I really didn't think that would happen. Well it's too late now! It's friday and she is at school finishing up her last day of the first week of all day school. SHE LOVES IT, which I knew she would. And it has been nice to spend some quality one on one time with Soren. He starts half day school next tuesday so when he is gone I will get one on one time with just Ivan. A LOT of commuting back and forth taking the 2 to school and back but it will be nice to give each child some proper attention for a change.

vacation at snowbird in utah

2010-08-31T11:24:00.001-07:00

My parents have had a time share up at snowbird ski and summer resort every august for the past 33 years and I haven't had a chance to make it up there with them since Soren was a baby ( 5 years ago). It was a lot of fun to see everyone. Craig stayed home and worked during the week so I took the 3 kids on our first long trip without him. The trip is about 5 hours to get down to utah and with having to stop and nurse and potty breaks it took a litttle longer than that but overall wasn't TOO BAD. I have a lot of memories as a kid at snowbird and love that my own kids can start making memories there too.

..............

When we all get together all the girls usually get pedicures together so this trip we did just that. Here we are getting pedicures with our little ones in our laps. mine you can see is not in my lap but in the stroller off to the side :) he didn't make it to my lap till after photo.

Here is me with my little ivan on the balcony. This is a great view of the mountains and so nice to wake up to in the morning.

Here is one of Braxtin smiling. He isn't as on demand smiley like ivan is so it was nice to catch him in a smile in this photo.

Here is ivan with Braxtin hanging out on the floor.

Here is one if Ivan with my mom. He is also sporting the fo hawk as well. Super CUTE!!!

And here he is with my dad. He got a little sun earlier in the day and you can tell by his red cheeks.

Here is everyone playing games.

here is one of ivan and me. He is such a cute!!!

Here is a picture of Ivan with my little sister Alyssa. The shirt she is wearing was a "reverse tie die" activity snowbird had during the week. reverse being that you don't add color but, by using bleach, take color away. To do so you simple use stencils and a stray bottle with bleach in it. All the shirts that my siblings made turned out really nice. I plan to do this activity sometime later for sure.

over the last few years they have accumulated quite the little theme park. Here is my brother Mack getting ready to head down the Alpine Slide

Here is kaydence on the trampoline. She is my little dare devil!

We took the tram up the mountain but Soren was on the onset of our sickness and couldn't stay awake. He slept right there the whole time we were up there.

Here is a view of snowbird as we are coming down the tram.

MY BOYS

2010-08-11T15:12:00.000-07:00

Its been 5 months and I have yet to have the boys in a matching outfit. well I got a 5t which is the largest in the section of clothes and 12m which is the smallest size in the section and tried them out. I figured the 12month clothes would be way to big and wouldn't fit for a few months but they actually fit nicely. And I thought the 5t would be cutting it close for soren, but they still fit as well. Im sure after a wash the pants will be too short but I will just have to air dry them with my jeans. I think they look adorable!!! pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen in fact. :)

We're NOT dead

2010-07-19T15:25:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since I've posted and my mom is wondering what's up... We got new phones and I have mostly been taking pictures with it rather than my camera. Also i can't find my camera since coming home from our trip to california :( But I really have been a slacker in the picture department this summer. Here are a few things we've done I have pictures for.

This is a picture of Kaydence on her last day of school. I have been wanting to get one of these pediskirts but they cost $50+ and now they have them at costco :) she looked super cute. She is now going to 1st grade!!!!

Here is just a random picture of the 3 boys one visit to connie and lindsey's. The twins are getting so big! But ivan is a monster so you can't tell :)

here is a cuttie of Ivan in the bath. I love his smile...who doesn't love a baby smile :)

Ivan is in the great stage of BLOW OUTS! I upped the size of diaper he wears and even changed brands but it didn't' help. I decided I needed to start him on rice cereal to thicken it up a bit.

Here is his first time eating rice cereal

A friend gave Ivan this little "chew toy" when he was first born. He really likes playing with it.

I've been having Ivan spend a lot more time on his belly to strengthen his muscles and thought this was a way cute picture of him

We all went to the sacramento zoo while in california. It was nice spending time with family for the week. Haven't been to visit my family in the summer in about 8 years or so and it was nice to actually be able to do things with them.

We had a lot of fun in my parents pool. I miss having a pool :( We always were able to learn how to swim by at 3 as kids and my kids are almost 5 and 6 and still have yet to learn. Tammie (she was a life guard for years and taught swim lessons) was able to teach kaydence a little while we were there.

The whole family went to six flags in Vallejo. It was a lot of fun. This is actually the last place I remember having the camera...This picture wasn't from me, it was from my aunt Bonnie's camera...who knows where mine is :(

Here is Ivan's first taste of grass. Most kids don't like grass but I don't think he minded to much. He had a nice time playing with daddy and our new dog out there.

We went to the Bosworth (craig's grandma on his mom's side) cabin for the Atkinson reunion and it was a lot of fun. Almost everyone was there and it was great to hang out and see everyone. all 5 babies were there, but we didn't get the napping schedules together for a photo :( hopefully we can in the next few weeks. Here is a picture of Kaydence her her hula outfit my mom got her from hawaii getting ready to head to the beach... and also a picture of Ivan with his cousin Julia.

Soren has defiantly fallen into the "middle child" scenario the last few months and has been neglected in the picture department. Well actually it's pretty much been ALL IVAN, but a few kaydence pictures creep in every now and again but Soren has been neglected but not forgotten. I went and cut the kids hair today, been putting it off for a LONG time and finally decided today was the day.

JUNE 2nd

2010-06-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

Happy

Birthday

mommy dearest!!!!!!!

2006 CalSPA

2010-05-31T17:33:00.000-07:00

Instead of getting a puppy we opted to get a hot tub we found on craigslist instead :) Craig, along with his dad larry, Dinko, the older man we bought it from and Jared, moved it from Eagle to Meridian by themselves. Craig wired our house for 220 and hooked it up all by himself and now it's filled with water, chemicals are in and all the levels are were they should be. It is now heated to 90 degrees and rising and I cant wait to get in it tonight once the kids go to bed.

this kid!!!

2010-05-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

such a great age this kid is. belly time is increasing and he is such a smily kid.

the room is complete!!!!

2010-05-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

I didn't finish puting up the wall border on this one wall because I was about 12 inches too short. I was contimplating just ending it behind the door but didn't like that idea so much. So I have been in search for a dresser I could just put the monkey canvas on and have the bare wall border hidden behind that. I have been looking on craig's list for a cheap nice solid dresser for months. I didn't need one right away so I was waiting for the perfect deal. I spotted this one and nabbed it. I got the dresser and matching night stand for $75. It's more than we need for little Ivan at this time but it is solid wood and will grow with him nicely through the years. So the wall border is up!!!!! Shelves are stocked!!!! and the room is complete.... ( FOR NOW :) )

grand total out of pocket expense for room: around $ 270. (crib, bedding, dresser, changing table, shelves, and decor)

and of course ever post is in need of a new picture of the little man himself :)

already for church

2010-05-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

well this outfit was 3-6 so I didn't think it would fit but I put it on him this morning and he is almost ready for the next size up... dang it...its been hanging in the closet for 2 months and we almost missed wearing it. apparently I have a chunky monkey on my hands. he sure is handsome though.

IVAN 2 MONTHS

2010-05-10T08:58:00.000-07:00

Ivan's 2 month birthday has come and gone, boy has time flown by. He has gotten so big. He got his shots and check up and measured

Height: 24 5/8 inches long (96%)

Weight: 12 lbs 13 oz (75%)

Head: 16 inchs (75%)

He also had his blessing last sunday and my whole family came up from california for the occasion...and left with the stomach flu..SORRY.

We had a lot of fun while my family was in town. Craig took the guys shooting. We celebrated my dad's birthday(april 30th) and my brother's birthday (may 1st) as well that weekend and we all went to Wahooz.

I had 27 people sleeping at my house saturday night and we had 43 people over for dinner and ivan's blessing on sunday. It was their first time seeing the house and it was nice having enough room for everyone. I got to meet Ivan's little 2 day older cousin Braxtin for the first time as well and 5 month old CJ.

ivan's latest photoshoot.

2010-04-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

T Ball

2010-04-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

We signed Soren up for Tball this year and he seems to be enjoying it. He is learning a lot and getting better every day. He just looks so grown up and cute in his uniform :) I was looking at prices for their team pictures and decided to take the individual one myself. I will just buy the team print :)

He is a Pirate and he is number 4!

Ivan 1 month old

2010-04-06T18:24:00.000-07:00

Ivan had his 1 month birthday this easter sunday. I just love how completely different his demeanor is when he smiles. He is doing it more and more these days and it seems to always happen when he focuses his eyes and realizes he has found my face and knows who he's looking at. I certainly can't help but light up myself either when he smiles.

We all just love this little guy to death. I have to constantly tell kaydence and Soren to STOP kissing him and get out of his face already :)

and then there were 5

2010-04-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

We got all 5 babies together this Easter. Landen is only 1 week old and the twins will be 2 weeks this tuesday. Ivan is 1 month today and Keegan is 7 weeks. He has gotten so big, i'm sure he has surpassed Ivan in weight although it still looks like Ivan might still have him in height. but they are pretty close. Ivan hasn't filled out his legs like Keegan has.. Ivan still has little Craiger stick legs. We will see if that changes :) Cole has changed a lot since I last saw him. His bruise on his head is gone and he is looking more and more like Luke and Derek all the time. (I think) They both look like little wrinkled toothless turtles and if you know me then you will know I love that :) So cute! I can't believe how great landen looks at only one week old. He isn't all splotchy or swollen looking at all. Ivan still looks "newborn" and he is 3 weeks older.

Here is a video of the 5 boys. If you look at cole he is trying to eat Landen..It was so funny. Lindsey had just fed him and he is one hungry boy all the time. He eats 3 times as much as Luke. Chris (Keegan's daddy) is walking behind then and you can see Ivan following him around as he walks back and forth.

Landen, Cole, Luke, Ivan, Keegan (from youngest to oldest)

They're the 5 starters for the Huskies basketball team 2023 or some have said the youngest boy band.

here is another same thing.

only dolls kaydence will play with

2010-03-31T13:51:00.000-07:00

here is Soren in the same outfit around same age as Ivan now. Ivan has a lot darker complexion and more hair and his head is not as big.

BATH TIME

2010-03-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

Ivan really liked his bath today. He has been a liitle colicy and/or gassy the past two days and it was nice to have him calm and content for a few minutes.

LARGER CAR

2010-03-30T16:46:00.000-07:00

While my mom was here we had to take 2 cars anywhere we all wanted to go since we are at full capacity with the explorer. I've been telling craig, who has been looking at suburban's and tahoe's for a couple months, we didn't have any money for one. But he found this used one off of Craig's list for cheap. (which we still didn't have money for) A man traveling from washinton to utah for his daughters wedding broke down and had to leave it behind as he got a rental to finish his trip. Craig was among 30 others who had called for it over the 2 days it was posted and for some reason the guy liked Craig the best.

It has a lot of miles but the owners were OCD (Craig believes) because it's in really good condition for being a 1999 and he had every strap of paperwork dealing with any work it has had over the last 11 years.

Perk about parents being farmers... a great mechanic's shop

not so much a perk..... permanent greasy dirty hands.

COUSINS

2010-03-28T16:37:00.001-07:00

Last night...I guess very early this moring the 6th out of 6 boys was born. ( 6 boys in 6 weeks)

**also not to mention 3 others in the last year were boys as well..on my side (Ethyn, Legend and CJ)***

Chris (craig's brother) and Karen had Keegan feb 15th

Justin (katy's brother) and wendy welcomed Braxtin (not pictured) March 2nd

Craig and Katy (me) welcomed Ivan March 4th

Derek and Lindsey (craig's sister) welcomed Luke and Cole March 23rd

Richard (craig's nephew) and Brianna welcomed Landen March 28th (not pictured)

Cole, Keegan, Ivan, Luke

(if you happen to live on west idaho in Emmett, don't drink the water or you WILL get pregnant) all the 5 "idaho" babies out of the 6 cousins have recently or currently live on that street.

Here is a picture of Grandma Connie and baby Ivan. Connie didn't like me taking a picture at this angle (thought I was shooting up her nose) I told her it was a sliming angle...then she allowed and smiled graciously :)

Ivan caught with grin

2010-03-20T15:42:00.000-07:00

I was taking a picture of Ivan on Craig's lap and as I snapped the button he gave me a grin. :)

the 3 amigos

2010-03-15T16:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the 3 children before church. Ivan of course not dressed in sunday attire but we did manage to get dressed and attend sacrament meeting. (which is the last hour) We stayed in the foyer and all bundled up in carseat to avoid germs but we tried and were successful.

WELOME BABY IVAN!!!!!!

2010-03-05T05:03:00.000-08:00

It is now 6 in the morning and the nurse at St. Luke's hospital just came in to check my little boy Ivan's vitals. He has been asleep since 9 last night. They woke him at 3 to do more vitals, gave him a shot and weighed him and I nursed him and that's it. he has slept so good for only being less than a day old. I however have not taken advantage of this because I have been up every 2 hours checking on him and not at all tired!!! (weird) I just want to look at him and cuddle with him.

At 7.30 am Craig and I entered the labor and delivery devision at the hospital for our scheduled induction. By about 9 I was on pitocin and ready to go. But by noon I had not progressed at all!!!!! My sister had 2 failed inductions just a few months earlier but they reassured me that it doesn't happen often....Well apparently pitocin doesn't work in my family :( The doctor came in around 1 and broke my water to see if that would start anything. I have had success starting by just breaking my water with the other 2. My contractions actually started to pick up and do something. I was a 3 by 3 in the afternoon and 50% effaced. I knew I wanted an epidural but just didn't know when to get it. I didn't want to get one to early and have it slow down any progress. I waited till about 4:15 when I finally asked for one. (which takes about 45 minutes to get the right fluids in me and call anesthesiologist to prick me) Everyone was telling me I was such a trooper and a stoic since I wasn't making any fuss with pain all day. They had to stick me 3 times to get an iv in which didn't phase me a second. The epidural guy had to stick me 3 TIMES as well because apparently I have very tough ligaments. My blood pressure has always been low but the machine beeped at us every 15 minutes all day because of it. The contractions were pretty painful as i was waiting for epidural and I felt very nauseous and had to consintrate on breathing. When they checked me after putting in epidural I was at 9.5 and ready to go. Contractions turned into very heavy cramps in lower abdomen and I could now feel this kids whole body plunging forward out of me. But had to wait a few more contractions for doctor to arrive and for me to reach the full 10 centimeters. Finally!!!!!! doctor arrived and we got ready because the urge to push was getting to hard to pull back. When we were all ready to go it took one contraction and about 3 hard pushes to get him out. The second got his head and the third got his body. Not gonna lie that last push hurt just a little :) And my very calm stoic silent nature vanished as i let out a scream heard around the world which felt like I shot Ivan across the room. And yes I actually do remember apologizing for that thinking I did actually just shoot him across the room :) He was born at 5:07 PM And about 5:20 i started to get some relief with the epidural. :P

Ivan weight in at just over 9 lbs and was 21 inches long. he had quite a bit of really dark curly hair and dark eyes that appear to have a blue halo. He has a little birth mark we noticed on his left arm. He was awake and alert until about 9 when my family left the hospital so we could sleep. We went and gave him a bath and I nursed him and he has been asleep ever since. We can already tell he is just going to be a great easy going kid.

His eyes are starting to wake up now! and he is just laying there looking around very quiet and calm. Im going to get off computer now so I can hold this cute little perfect baby so good morning to everyone and WELCOME BABY IVAN to the world :)

Happy Birthday Kaydence!!!!!

2010-02-23T15:14:00.000-08:00

Kaydence turned 6 this last Valentines day (14th). It was on Sunday this year so we had her party on monday the 15th. We had a blast at a great place in boise called Rafiki. Kaydence was a a little reluctant when I told her her party was going to be at this monkey jungle gym place because for some reason she thinks monkey's are for babies??? I don't know how she got that idea :) But this place being about monkey's was a complete coincidence, I haven't gone completely monkey crazy just yet :) but she had so much fun and so did all the other kids.

Her gift from us this year was a doctor's kit and was a group effort. We didn't opt for the kids pretend plastic doctor's kit... I wanted her to get the real stuff :) Everyone pitched in and loved gathering things for her. We got her scrubs, doctors bag, arm blood pressure cuff, reflex (knee) hammer, stethoscope, tongue suppressors, syringes, bandages, light pens, ect.

She has had a blast scheduling appointments and playing doctor with everyone.

a NEW baby BOY has arrived!!!

2010-02-15T20:02:00.001-08:00

Chris and Karen (Craig's brother) delivered their son tonight and he is just perfect. a little over 7 lbs and 20 inches long. They had yet to name him by the time we left but they all have been calling him cletus for months now...hopefully it didn't' stick :) But he will be one loved Cletus if it is and will have 5 boy cousins his age to protect him from bullies.

****** HE'S BEEN NAMED**********

**Keegan Lee Atkinson**

One down.... 5 more to go!!!!

nursery update

2010-02-09T10:40:00.000-08:00

UPDATE***

I rearranged the room and put up this new shelf I bought from Michael's and painted. I just love how this little area turned out. I can't wait to rock and sing lullaby's to my sweet little monkey right there.

I put up some wall border in the nursery. Since I got my bedding from someone on Craig's list and they no longer make that line I had to look on ebay for the border and found some. I think the room looks so cute with it. And the border really goes well with the gray walls. It really brings out the blue in the gray.

Library Silly Song and Dance

2010-02-07T10:05:00.004-08:00

I have been taking the kids to all the Library activities a lot the last few months (because it's all free!) We usually go to Story Time on Wednesdays and they get on the computers afterwards and play games. We check out a few books and movies for the week. Then the last 3 fridays they have either silly song and dance or a Preschool art class we attend and then on the first saturday of the month they have a children's craft activity we go to. Yesterday they made valentine cards.

Here they are at a Silly song and Dance class. They seem to really be having a blast.

Oral Surgery take 2

2010-02-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

Kaydence got caps and a tooth abstracted last spring and it was Soren's turn last week for the same thing. They're Atkinson's and so inherited the British weak and brittle teeth for some strange reason that doesn't make sense to me with perfectly healthy strong teeth, evolution should have made sure they got.

He did extremely well. Most kids cry and are cranky scared afterwards as they wake up and Soren wasn't phased at all. He said they felt weird but handled himself a lot better than kaydence who cried (screamed really) for 45 minutes like most other kids who wake up felling weird and tired and delirious with tubes and cords sticking out everywhere and a mouth full of metal. He has complained of them hurting a little bit since, and says he can't eat candy anymore because the "monster crowns" are covering his sweet tooth :)

Work Bench

2010-02-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

Craig and our Brother in Law Derek have been working on their matching work benches for each of their garages. We finally got ours finished and installed. They both turned out really good and sturdy and should work great for all the garbage that's going to accumulate on them :)

Karen and Chris's open House (baby shower)

2010-01-28T11:03:00.000-08:00

Craig's older brother and his wife are expecting their first child TOGETHER. (yours mine and ours) They were both previously married and have 5 other children combined. They thought they were done till they discovered she was pregnant at 46!!!! That beat out my mom's surprise at 42 :)

So instead of a traditional baby shower they opted for a co-ed open house. Craig's parents have been out of town this last month and missed the shower, so I video taped Karen opening our gift we got her. Lara, Lindsey, Connie and myself pitched in for it.

And here are the 4 of us that are pregnant. 3 sister in laws and a daughter in law...yep they're doing another movie scenario; this time it's father of the bride 2. Karen is first, due feb 20th, I'm 2 weeks after that due the 5th of March and then Brianna is due April 1st and lindsey, in the far back, is due april 21st with twins. We are all having boys!!!!

JURASSIC PARK

2010-01-28T09:02:00.000-08:00

Jurassic Park was on TV and I let the kids watch it. I don't know if they were quite old enough to handle it :)

monkey painting for nursery

2010-01-07T16:43:00.001-08:00

This art piece almost finalizes the nursery... all I need is a shelf like I made for the other 2 kiddo's with their names on it..... so I have a feeling that wont be done till after the baby is born. The shelf is going to go above the lone monkey on the wall between the two windows.

And yes, the queen size bed is still in there....barely :)

Christmas Presents

2009-12-30T13:45:00.000-08:00

so here is what I got for christmas this year.

My mother -in- law got me these cute little end tables for my living room. I needed a table to put my lamp on..it's been just sitting on the ground for the last 4 months.

Craig surprised me with this camera. I think he is tired of me never bring my "big" camera places so he got me this little point and shoot I can just keep in my purse.

Craig also surprised me with these sunglasses.

I've been wanting to get the magic bullet blender for a while but they have always just been a little to much money, but this one was on sale for 20$ this christmas so I decided to get it. I love it and have made shakes 3 days straight now. So easy and convenient and apparently this thing makes salsa and chops stuff too.

I bought myself these cute shoes that just happened to be on the clearance rack at macy's one day and couldn't resist. My mother in law doesn't believe that a pointy toe helps slim you down but just looking at the picture the shoe looks so long and thin when really my very wide foot fits in it.

I bought myself this wallet. I have been needing one for some time now. :)

Since I have so many siblings we have been drawing names for the last few years and just buying one big gift instead of trying to come up with 20 separate gifts. My brother Felipe got me this year and got me this rocking/glider chair.

I got this Willow Tree "rose in my garden" statue set from my mom. The top is obviously kaydence and then Soren and then the bottom is the little boy who hasn't come yet.

Winter Wonderland

2009-12-30T11:05:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning to about 6 new inches of snow. Looked to be enough for the kids to finally get a good play in it. We got them all dressed up and they went outside in the backyard to play, while I went to work shoveling the sidewalk/driveway. It's kind of nice because all your neighbors are all out and about doing the same thing and you actually get a chance to talk to them :) But having a corner lot I had about 3 times what everyone else has to shovel and a 3 car garage makes the driveway huge...It seemed I was out there for so long and by the time I got in I could barely walk...the kids had already come in leaving the screen door wide open and it was freezing in the house.

Christmas EVE!!!!

2009-12-25T06:13:00.001-08:00

Christmas is finally here!!!!! Kaydence knew she was going to open one gift today and asked if it was time about every 10 minutes. I figured she would be setting herself up for disappointment when she realized they were only pj's. Soren's reaction when he opened it up was...hey I already got these!!! (he was with me when I bought them a few weeks ago) Kaydence was more concerned that they were pants rather than a gown. She has been asking for "winter pj's" for quite some time and when I told her thats what these were she said "but they will make me too hot hot hot" They quickly warmed up to them and loved them. We had a crazy photoshoot because they had just had some sugar cookies and mixed with bedtime equals crazy energy!!! They couldn't stop giggling and running around and goofing off. BUT THEY SURE ARE CUTE!!!!!

After we opened up our eve gifts... (craig got a robe and I got slippers) Craig read the kids some christmas stories. They looked so cute all cuddled up on our very comfy sofa. We all could have slept there :) It was a very nice evening untill it was time to go to bed and I caught the kids rushing up the stairs with stashed sugar cookies in their brand new pj's...ugg! good thing I caught them on the first few steps or they would have made a terrible mess in their rooms....but now the mess stayed in the kitchen and on their sleeves. oh well that's our life :) They just don't look the same when clean, I don't recognize them :)

STOCKINGS!!!!

2009-12-24T10:51:00.000-08:00

The last few days I have been making stocking, and finally finished the last one this morning. I like how they turned out. I have 2 that look like this and one without the snowflake overlay (just the blue stripped fabric) and one without the blue stripped fabric under the snowflake overlay...kaydence wasn't to thrilled about having blue so without that fabric and instead I put it over white fabric it made it a really light blue instead. like Lindsey my sister in law said..."she won't mind having blue once there's candy and toys inside"

it's the little things in life....

2009-12-18T08:10:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to think of something that I have been doing the last few weeks but can't think of anything since I don't have pictures...it's like I didn't do anything :)

I went to my second cookie exchange last night and it was so fun. I never heard of this cookie exchange before this year and was invited to 2 :) must be big here in meridian idaho.... for anyone else who is as clueless as me its where you have this get together and everyone brings a dozen or 2 dozen cookies (depending on how many people are invited). while there everyone switches their cookies with everyone else so you leave home with a dozen or 2 dozen different kinds of cookies. While there they can be judged or you can just play games like any other get together. It's been nice to be invited and get to know some of the lady's in my ward. I wasn't sure I really wanted to go to this one last night...simply because the last one threw me into this eating binge for days afterwards and I really didn't want to start that up again...but I'm glad I did and had a blast. The cookies are now on my fridge and as long as I stay upstairs I am safe....

another thing that we did was installed some cabinets in the garage and cleaned and organized the garage a bit this week. So much more room in there now and I feel better than my photo stuff is off the floor. Derek, my brother in law, works for treasure valley closets which makes and installs cabinets for closets and garages among other things, but when they get a scuffed up one or return than the employees get first dibs and Derek has been gathering them for us since getting our house. We now have 2 and I love having them.

on a different note Kaydence felt the baby for the first time today. She laid her head on my belly and felt a kick and got so excited. Soren wasn't patient or quite enough to wait for one. I am so excited that they're old enough to kind of understand what's going on...

hair cut

2009-12-02T12:00:00.001-08:00

so for some time now Kaydence wonderful perfect curls have been getting less and less curly and perfect. The longer her hair gets the more weighed down they are. They have been becoming a mess to try and comb through. I've been wanting to take her in to get a professional hair cut but couldn't wait any longer. It looks much better now!

BEFORE

....and obviously this is a very bad before....before bath or brushing even but this is what I have to work with every morning

AFTER...

2009-11-30T07:38:00.000-08:00

I got some privacy door panels for the front door windows on black friday for a good deal so I put those up. And also, I put up a curtain in the kitchen window finally and we got barstools for the bar. The kids eat there most meals now and don't dirty up 3 tablecloths everyday which was getting pretty annoying.

Christmas TREE!!!!

2009-11-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

This is our very first christmas tree we have had as a married family. We have always traveled to either my parents or Craig's and were never home the last few weeks of december... and didn't bother with a tree until now. Craig's mom got us this tree a few years ago (she got for cheap after christmas sale) and it's been in storage. So I busted it out a little early this year in excitment :) We also had a box of Craig's old ornaments his mom saved of his growing up so we were finally able to put those up. My mom had giving me this tree skirt and all the little village people decor a few years ago as well.

yes I have wrapped all my christmas gifts and put them under the tree already....did you not just read that I mentioned this was my FIRST tree!!!!

baby bump-26 weeks (6 months)

2009-11-28T11:59:00.001-08:00

Crib Bedding!!!

2009-11-24T11:38:00.000-08:00

Once again I looked on craig's list and found some amazing deals. Here is what I got.

( http://www.babysupermall.com/main/products/coc/coc713033.html?utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ComparativeShopping. )

Here is a link to the line to buy online. I got the sheet, dust ruffle, bumper, comforter, diaper stacker, 2 curtains and the lamp all for $60.

Here is an actual picture of the bedding on my crib.

I thought this was so cute becuase I have been giving craig a monkey for valentines day every year since we were dating and so now I can decorate his room with all the monkey's craig doesn't know what to do with :)

I got this crib, mattress and all the bedding/decor for the same price I was able to get when returning my old crib. :)

luck for the unlucky

2009-11-24T06:48:00.001-08:00

Craig and I aren't usually people who are lucky with anything. But yesterday, since we are both sick just lounging around all day on the computer, discovered that our crib that has been out in the garage for a year was on a recall list. We were able to take it back for a full refund!!! We never had any problems with it, but apparently a few babies got hurt when the slide down side forms a gap somewhere and traps them... It's like a huge deal now and over 600,000 cribs have been recalled...you might want to check on yours if you haven't heard. anyway... so we took back this used scratched up crib I wasn't to happy about having to bring upstairs and clean off anyway, and got over twice what I actually paid for the thing at the time :) It was on clearance and then actually mismarked and we only got it because we moved to moscow and the 13 year old crib didn't make the 3rd move. I was able to use the money to buy a new, much better, clean crib that actually matches our new changing table and I have money left over to buy a bedding set I might go pick up today from someone on craig's list.

New Purchase: crib and mattress for $75

thanksgiving dinner

2009-11-22T08:53:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was our celebration for thanksgiving dinner with all of Craig's family. It was a great weekend. Craig and I went and saw new moon friday night and then spent the night at his mom's house. All saturday morning we spent cooking and ate at 2. All the food turned out great. My cheese cakes are gone and my green bean casserole was all gone... (NO LEFT OVERS FOR ME :( ) It was great company, kids had a blast playing with cousins. 4 pregnant woman all due 6 weeks from each other and all having boys with various sized belly bumps might have something to do with the NO LEFT OVERS :) Craig and his good friend Dinko from law school and Derek (brother in law) all went shooting and busted their recently made target to smithereens. The evening ended with a few casserole dishes and bowls being shattered and craig and I apparently getting sick. ( we were just tired last night but after waking up sick, realized the tiredness was a early symptom.)

baby fun

2009-11-14T09:18:00.001-08:00

Last week I got a bunch of the baby stuff out of storage and washed, cleaned and put them back together again in early anticipation of the little guy's arrival. You'd think with the third one we would have everything but after 2 kids and 4 years in storage some things have need to be replaced...ever since I have been on Craig's list looking for good deals. So far I've gotten a really nice changing table, and a boppy with the toy/food tray.

Soren's old baby clothes: these are his NB-3M clothes..im pretty sure baby #3 will most likely be 10 lbs and zoom right past these onto the 3-6, but I've got those all washed as well and ready to go. Except Soren was born in sept and this little guy is due in march so the weather should be about the same for the first little while but for 3-6M Soren was in full blown Winter and this little guy will be full on summer so it seems every 3 months or so we will have the right kind of clothes and then the next 3 month change we will need different.

Bassinet: this has been used by a lot of babies starting with my younger brother Mack who is now 13 (he might have just turned 14 last october..I can't remember now if he turned 13 or 14)

Car Seat with new baby head support.

The Swing/Gilder

New purchase: Changing table (got for $30)

New purchase: Blue Bumbo with tray

Great dilemmas

2009-11-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

The last 6 years, being the first 6 years of our marriage, were spent being young poor college students. And starting a family when you are young poor college students leaves you with certain dilemmas that you usually don't get to pick the outcomes of. You aren't usually giving much choice of things to get for the babies or where to put the nursery.... You live in a very small 2 bedroom apartment and the kids are gonna share :) You get the hand me down clothes and cribs you can get your hands on and smile with gratitude :) Being Young I never really felt like I was without anything. Being young and in college you still have the willing help of your parents and they both have been life savers over the years.

We actually have nice sturdy trim around the door so we can actually hang up the jump a roo thing :) I love how the most stressful dilemmas I have is whether or not I am going to put the baby in the SPARE room or if he will share with Soren. I HAVE A SPARE ROOM!!!! Or if I am going to put the swing upstairs in the family room or downstairs near kitchen so I can swing him occupied while I clean up.

We are going to put up our very first christmas tree this year because we will actually be home for christmas. We have always lived far away from both parents and so have taken both holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) off each year to travel to see them.

It has just been really nice looking forward to the future and being able to plan and choose and experience this new phase in our lives. I am really trying to take it all in and enjoy all these great dilemmas for once before all the really hard dilemmas of this phase in our lives kick in.

Halloween again :)

2009-10-31T07:49:00.000-07:00

The kids got all dressed up again for halloween so we could go to the discovery center halloween party. We enjoyed (except kaydence who was scared) the haunted house. We enjoyed a few experiment shows with making slime and liquid nitrogen. Kids made some crafts and we ate some cupcakes. I got some great photos of the kids before we left and before my camera battery died :)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

On a different note the afternoon was fun too. Lindsey had to come to town to get the H1N1 vaccine so we went out to lunch with our kids and took them shopping at "baby's R us" and looked for outfits for our boys in vetro..she is a few weeks behind me and just found out she is having at least one boy...out of two she has in there. Then we stopped by "Kidz Again" a resale store where we could actually afford some baby clothes :) Then when I got home I heard about the Payless Shoes 50% off ENTIRE order coupon and rushed over. I got kaydence her snow boots and a nice black pair of church shoes to go with her early christmas dress her grandma connie got her. I got myself a purse and a scarf. Soren's supply was pretty scarce but did get him his first pair of converse tennies that were already on sale. The line was about an hour or more long and the store was a mad house because of the Oprah 1 day sale, but we got some great deals so the wait was worth it.

OFFICE

2009-10-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

We finally filled our downstairs office. It has been a storage room for the last month or so and now we can raise the blinds on the french doors and not be embarrassed to show off this room. :) We got the desk and matching bookcase at Sam's Club for an amazing deal. We need a few more things to complete this room but it's a great start.

HALLOWEEN

2009-10-29T06:55:00.004-07:00

We went over to Emmett where my inlaws were having their ward halloween party last friday. The kids had a blast. I forgot my camera, but Lindsey was able to get these few shots of the kids for me in their costumes. Kaydence was minnie mouse and Soren is Superman. I wanted him to be superman becuase of the S...right now while learning letters he is very proud and possessive of everything he see's that has an S in it and thought the superman costume was very fitting. Everyone at the ward would say...oh your superman!!! and he would say no, I'm soren..this is a costume...I don't think he really gets pretending :) But he sure is a cute Soren dressed in a superman costume... And kaydence is cute as a button as always.

kids with grandpa larry after the party... a little hyped up on some sugar :)

It's a.....

2009-10-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

Went to the doctor today and found out that the baby is really heathy and everything is as it should be. And we also found out something else.

...

....

...

IT'S A BOY!!!!!

Soren wasn't at all surprised since he already knew it was a boy because he has short hair. :) But kaydence finally said she wasn't excited about a Brother..first time she has said either way what she wanted. She wanted twins at first so she could have both a brother and a sister...but apparently deep down she just wanted a sister.

maybe next time.

Bishop's Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went down to california for my little sisters wedding and took advantage of some much needed family bonding on my side. We took all the kids to this pumpkin patch theme park a family has set up on their farm. They have a train that goes all round the farm and a corn maze and ponies and a petting zoo and it is really nice and the kids had a blast.

cutie patutie little ethyn tyler my nephew was so cute and a natural

Serenity Jean would go heeyaa the whole time around...and to think she was scared of these last year when they came.

Soren Craig is my my little cheese bucket!!

The white horse was "fast" and so they weren't letting anyone ride it, but they let kaydence because she was the oldest...I was like where is it going to go its just going around in circles. But when the horse was up the other horses butt the whole time I got why maybe we should have avoided it.

Soren was pretty brave on the slides and was going down all sorts of different directions.

This green slide came down from this like 3 story tree house.. The kids had a blast until about 50 kids showed up and bombarded the slide, so we moved on to the ponies.

This slide is a converted barn and was pretty fun.. the kids went up and down about 50 times each.

My sister Tammie and her husband Jesse

Kids watching the train go by after our ride.

Recent house pictures

2009-09-21T12:34:00.000-07:00

hallway from kitchen to front door.

New refinished hardwood floors.

Soren's Blue room without carpet yet.

view of upstairs. down the hall is the bonus..double doors is master and across the side is the guest "grey" groom.

Kitchen/Dinning room.

Here is a picture of the living room (the sitting area part)

Here is the other half of the living room.

Here is the view from top of the stairs and our new carpet.

Here is Kaydence's "Pink" room.

Here is the bathroom that the kids share.

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY SOREN!!!!

2009-09-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

4 years ago today I was in labor on labor day. This labor day weekend is going to be a lot less painful. (I hope). Last year Kaydence refered to Soren's birthday as the "not so fun birthday" and continued to tell everyone that, as much as she could, for the entire year. Even after having a great birthday party for her at chuck E. cheese she still wouldn't let Soren's intimate family gathering as I refer to it, lay to rest.

Meridian Idaho has a great big park here for kids. It's completely free and has a great water section with tons of jungle gyms and foam climbing rocks and a musical section...even a snack bar!!! It's all covered by this really soft squishy foam floor in case the kids fall. It's just a great park. They even have a pond that the kids can go fishing, and really nice horse shoes pits. So we decided to have Soren's birthday party as Settlers Park.

Every time we've gone to this park it's just packed with kids and is really hard to keep track of them, but for some reason this saturday wasn't nearly as bad. I was very reluctant to invite families because I was concerned everyone was taking off for the weekend and didn't want to burden people and have no on show up. Not to mention Soren doesn't really know anyone or have any "friends". I asked him who to invite and he gave me nothing :) He just calls everyone "hey friend". I asked if it was fine if we just had mommy and daddy and grandma and aunt lindsey and uncle derek and cousin Rylie there... He was pretty adamant about having other "friends" there...

I said I can't mail invitations to your friends if we don't know their names...

***funny little story**** We went to Burger King for lunch one day while we waited to pick kaydence up at school and I let him play in the play section. Another little girl and her brother where playing and Soren became good friends with her as they played really well together for the 30 minutes they had encountered each other. Soren saw this as a great opportunity to find me a "name" as he followed her around asking her what her name was. Once he found out it was Carmen he immediately invited her to his party. He is so cute!!!!

Kindergarten

2009-09-02T18:02:00.000-07:00

Kaydence started kindergarten this week. Here are a few pictures of her big day. SHE LOVES SCHOOL!!!!! And I love her being in school, all though since we haven't moved into our house yet I have to commute her everyday the 30 minutes which limits my "free time" but it has been nice to spend some one- on- one time with Soren. He is such a good calm boy compared to Kaydence.

the many stages of canning corn!

2009-09-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

First you go in and pick the corn (not pictured)

Then you have to fight of the flies as you husk the corn, we thought if we brought out the TV it wouldn't be so daunting but it was so bright we could barely see the black screen... but it did help a little bit :)

Then you take the corn and boil it a few minutes, and then place in cool water to cool down.

Here is a very early little pile of husked corn we were making.

After it's boiled we can then grade the corn off of the cob. As you can tell this process is so messy and squirts corn juice all over the walls..so we put foil up to minimize the mess

Then we can bag up the corn....we filled about 240 bags.

NEWEST HOMEOWNERS!!!

2009-08-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

We signed on our house wednesday morning and last night we got the keys... its officially ours!!!! We went to home depot for some things the house needed but by the time we got to the house our brother in law was already there with his family....he broke in through a window (thats lovely to know) Craig was sad only because they ruined our first open with the key experience. (not that sad) We have actually had this house for months, even weeded, cleaned up and worked inside..so it really didn't feel any different actually being ours. Just more of a relief all that work wasn't for nothing... We take our first load over tonight and are storing in garage till the carpet gets installed and floors refinished. Hopefully when we move in next weekend it will feel more like ours. I've been calling it the doll house and as of today it still only feels like a doll house I'm playing with rather than our home.

ultrasound

2009-08-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

Baby at 10 Weeks

Baby at 12 weeks (just 2 weeks later)

IM PREGNANT!!!!!

2009-08-11T16:55:00.000-07:00

I haven't hid the fact that I have been pregnant but haven't posted anything about it because I wanted to wait until I went and confirmed with the doctor. I had the ultrasound a few days ago and it's true....there's a little peanut inside me with a beating heart and everything. According to my ultrasound I was 10.5 weeks along putting my due date in Feb. But they stuck with my original due date of March 5th which was according to my last period. This next part might be a little TMI for some people but I found out that I must ovulate a week later than most...and I have a tilted uterus!?!?! if anyone wanted to know :) Which is why I am always a week past due.so really I am just spot on at 40 weeks.

This pregnancy has been way different then my previous 2 in that I have had symptoms. I had none with the first two. I have been sick all day and so tired and lazy with no desire to do anything productive. Craig has been so frustrated with me because of it and I am hoping it won't last much longer....Because right now I am a big fat pile of useless space.

On another note...we finally heard word from the bank regarding our offer on the doll house and they ACCEPTED!!! We close on the 28th of this month and besides a few stressful hiccups the last few weeks, everything looks good to go.

so in a way a lot has seemed to happen and yet nothing has happened!!!! But school is about to start for the kids and a new town with a house awaits us and things are about to happen wether we are ready for them or not. wish us luck!!!

cali Trip

2009-07-20T18:59:00.001-07:00

I made a quick trip to California this weekend to take some engagements of my little sister who is getting married in October. I left the kiddos at home which is why the trip was so short but I enjoyed being able to relax and not have to worry about what wall they were drawing on. It was nice to see everyone again and also to meet the newest member of the family...my little nephew Legend who was 3 weeks old...so cute. My sisters took pictures so I will have to wait for those to be emailed to me but here are a few of the engagements I took of Shelby and Glenn.

4 wheeler

2009-07-13T17:09:00.000-07:00

We went yard saleing on saturday and got a few little things for the kids and a bunch of fishing stuff for Craig. The big ticket item was this 4 wheeler for the kids. We have been looking at the electric battery ones but never got one due to their 300+ price tag....but when we came across this real gas powered one for the same price as the battery powered one we couldn't pass it up.

Rainbow playground

2009-06-28T18:38:00.001-07:00

We found a really great deal on this rainbow playground set on Craig's List and couldn't pass it up. The kids are just going to have so much fun with it for years. Craig and his dad set it up today...we have to get some more swings for it..(place for 3 but only has 1) and then we need to re-stain it and fix some loose bolts but all in all it's in really great shape. Has a little picnic table underneath as well as a spot for a sandbox.