Beach Toes

We painted our toes together for our trip to the beach next week.  Even V got her toes painted.  She was apprehensive at first, but then was so proud and showing her toes to everyone that would look.  What a fun bonding activity.

Family Home Evening Cupcakes

A was treat for Family Home Evening.  This girl LOVES cupcakes.  And, she loves designing cupcakes.  So, she and I spent a while making cupcakes for Family Home Evening.

Somehow I uploaded the pictures in opposite chronological order, so we will just work backwards.  I have a lot going on in my life right now.  A few things are straws that are threatening to break this camel's back...but I just have to take a deep breath and carry on.  All is well.  All is well.  But, it does mean that I don't have the luxury of the time to reverse the order of these pictures.  :)

Anyhow, these are the leftover cupcakes:

The proud chefs with their creations:

A had spent an hour or two trying to decide what kind to make.  We had to think about cost to make them and time they would take.  She fell in love with these penguin ones since J absolutely LOVES penguins and she wanted to surprise him.  They fit the other two stipulations as well, so they were chosen.

The sad part is that in an effort to hide them from J, we put them in CK's office, hidden in the corner.  Somehow he happened to go in the office to talk to someone and look in that obscure corner.  The surprise was lost.  A was sad.

Earlier this week, we also took some more number day pictures.  A's was a couple of days late...she was actually with her other family on the 14th.

 

And, here is my little terrible two-er.  She is 22 months old and just a pill and a half.  I love her so much, but she is hard right now.  She screams piercing screams all the time.  She climbs on everything and I frequently worry about a head split open from a fall.  She does the opposite of what you ask her to do.  She says "MINE" about everything.

A quick story.  Today, I was doing dishes and I turn around and find V kicking Baby C over and over as he was lying on the floor.  I move her to the couch for "time out" and talk to her for about 20 seconds.  Once she was down again, she goes and kicks Baby C again as hard as she can.  Needless to say I moved Baby C and I put her back on the couch.

She has such a goofy smile these days.  I sure love all the words she can say and hearing her personality come out.  I do indeed love her so much!

Random Pictures from our days in Colorado (Mostly June 29,2014)

We had such a  great trip to Colorado.  We enjoyed our stay immensely.  Here are some random pictures from our stay.

Eating soup for lunch at the hotel:

Saying goodbye to my brother and sister-in-law (A and A).

Getting ready for Sunday dinner with the family.  V isn't sure about me taking a picture.

My nieces:  E, C, and T.  They are ready for Sunday Dinner too.

And the boys...J, C, and S.

My mom has a goofy look on her face.  She is so much fun and so expressive.

And here is the clan....eating away.  Yummy Sunday dinner!  We were so blessed that the hotel let us use their breakfast room.  We heated all the food in our individual rooms and then carried it over (which they lent us the luggage cart to put all the food on) and then served it and ate it all together.  What a great time to be together.  My three brothers and their wives all had to leave (of course one was on his honeymoon!), but my sister and I enjoyed the evening with my parents.  It was good.

My best friend, A, came and joined us.  She is like family.  All through high school, we were joined at the hip, so she was like another sister/daughter to our family.  We loved having her join us!

And V was tired, but I have to get a picture of her with A, since she is named after her (V.A.).

This, I think was Monday morning.  I look over and V is lying on the coffee table, just giggling away.

Not to be outdone...Baby C is lying down too. 

I love pictures.  I have always wanted a super nice camera to capture these moments.  I don't have one.  These are all just from my phone, but....I still love pictures.  I love that I am able to remember my kids as they are now.  I love my family.  I love pictures.

Awesome crazy kids!!! (Multiple Days in July 2014)

I have been going through pictures and found a few that I would like to post.  These are all pictures of our crazy kids that I love so very much.

In this one, C and K are playing a game that involves hand clapping and V came in and tried to join them.  It was funny.

In this one, V is helping daddy build a water toy out of PVC pipe.  I found it on Pinterest and CK agreed to help me make it.  :)

This picture is a little late, but it is a recreation of K's birthday (her number day).  I was so excited to take the picture in Colorado when we were there, but I didn't do it with all going on, so we brought the number home and did it here.

Ditto for J's picture.  I took the number to Colorado with us and back, but didn't do it while we were there.

This picture, however, is one of Baby C's 5 month pictures.  I remembered to take it on the actual day.  Although the 5 month page is not in the picture, this is the best one of him, so I chose to include this one.

This picture was just last week.  V and Baby C were both enjoying being on Daddy's lap.

This next series of pictures was all taken last night.  A is here with us!  Oh, what a blessed feeling it is to all be together!  For those of you that enjoy having all your kids with you most of the time, you have no idea how awesome it feels to finally all be together under the same roof. 

So, all the kids just laid down on the floor.  I hurried and grabbed my phone to document it.  I lifted the phone high to try and catch the moment.  This is what I got.  Guess I need to look and not guess.  Still, all the feet is a fun picture.

Then, one by one, everyone hopped up.  I took a picture each time, but some turned out a little blurry.  Here is V up with everyone else down:

Then, V and C.

Now just J and Baby C are on the floor.  C helped Baby C stand up and J was the only one left, but that picture was even more blurry than these are.

Finally, I realized that I never posted any pictures of Baby C's newborn shoot.  I have a dear friend that is a photographer and she came and took these pictures.  I randomly chose one to add here.  They were all so good.  This is cute, too, with his little feet and my hands making a heart. 

Oh!  How I love my kids!  We are so very lucky.  There is always something that makes life a little challenging.  Right now, now that we spent our savings to buy a new van, things seem to be breaking and we keep having to spend money.  And.... the prices of food and everything else just keep rising.  We are so blessed to have each other and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Really - Nothing else matters.  :)

Our classic visit....at the outlet malls! (June 30, 2014)

I am still working backwards with my posts. 

We were planning on coming home following the wedding on Monday, June 30th.  However, I happened to speak with my dear sister-in-law (XDH's sister).   We were just catching up, but discovered that we were both going to weddings on the same day....about two hours apart.   WHAT!?!  We would be able to see each other???  So, we planned on staying an extra day.  I was nervous about the expense, but my parents helped with the extra hotel night and CK worked in the hotel while we went and met.  I would have loved to have him there, but the only way to make it work was to have him work in the hotel.

It was such a blessing to stay in so many ways.  Within moments of seeing each other, the delay was SO WORTH IT!  Families are so very important.  I love this family so very much and we usually only get to see them once a year.  This year, since we are going on a family vacation, we aren't making our usual trek to see family and we would not have been able to be together.  This meeting was such a blessing. 

An unexpected blessing was that we were able to spend more time with my parents.  We played games.  We ate dinner.  We were able to enjoy each other for another day.

So, back to the B family.  We were true to the F Family style and met at some outlets half way between where they were and where I was.  It only took 45-50 minutes to get there for me.  Not bad.

J and G are the same age.  G is the youngest in her family and LOVES the babies.  She was always with one or the other.  Talking to them, pushing them, laughing with them.  It was so fun to see her.  J and her get along very well also.

I took V into the restroom with the other girls and we came out to find Uncle C making Baby C laugh and laugh. 

Cousins: V (in stroller), K, C, K, S, G, J, CR, and C(behind the bench)

He fell asleep.

V didn't want her picture taken.  She hid in my hair.  So, here I am with L (my dear sister!)

We stopped together for a quick fast food bite for lunch.  The food wasn't great, but the company was AWESOME!  More time together!  :)

And, finally, after saying our sad goodbyes, I had C take some pictures as we drove back to our hotel:  MOUNTAINS!  I grew up in Colorado with mountains, but now they are so amazing to me.  Beautiful.  Just Beautiful.

Family Pool Time (July 3, 2014)

After a busy weekend and with more busy to come, we took a little break and went to the pool. We really thought it would be crowded but it really wasn't. The night before a holiday and it was almost empty. It was beautiful.

Last year, V didn't like the pool.  This year, she is a full-time job.  She loves the water and she thinks she can get in wherever she wants.  On this evening, CK took care of her full time and I took care of Baby C.  Luckily, J, C, and K do well by themselves.