The Treasure Family

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

2012-02-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

Diddy's 1st Birthday

2012-01-22T22:29:00.000-08:00

Today was Diddy's 1st Birthday, and despite my efforts to make it any other day, the kids insisted we celebrate! We started off with a visit from his sister. Diddy is twice her size.

Then we got the leftover cake that Dallin decorated at Kylee's Bake Shop party, out of the freezer and threw on a candle. A dog candle. How appropriate. Look how happy they look!

Happy Birthday Trouble Maker.

One Rainy Weekend.

2012-01-21T19:52:00.000-08:00

What happens when it rains too much outside and the water has nowhere to go since the ground is frozen, and you have a mischevious dog that's always getting into something?

Two baths in one day to a dog that hates baths. Then following that up by having to clean the bathroom yet again. That's what happens!

This was today...a little cleaner and a lot cuter.

The kids have been a little bored today with not being able to walk outside or do much of anything, so we got creative. We rolled eachother up in quilts! Then Diddy attacked!

Diddy has a weird thing about people laying on the floor. It makes him CRAZY!!! He will jump all over you, dig at you and do everything he can to get to your face. Here he's attacking the children who squeal the hole time just making Diddy more frantic and determined!

They paid him back by then wrapping him up in the quilt.

Here's a picture of my lake in my backyard. Tomorrow we can go ice skating!

Just a cute pic of Diddy. His tongue is too big for his mouth :)

Kylee's Photo Shoot

2012-01-21T19:45:00.000-08:00

This past year Kylee's been doing much better at looking and smiling at the camera all at the same time, so I decided to attempt to take her birthday pictures myself this time! We ran out one day and got these done in about 10 minutes. We rushed since we were on private property, but in that short amount of time we actually got some cute pictures! I then attempted at photoshopping them myself, and though they are not perfect I think they turned out just fine. :)

I can't believe how grown up she's getting! Beautiful girl. Makes me proud :) Maybe if she keep this up I'll start making better use of my nice camera and learn photoshop!

Bake Shop Party!

2012-01-11T21:26:00.000-08:00

The invitations for the friend party were just a bit different than the family invites. I then attached them to a set of measuring cups and spoons that I picked up at the dollar store. I love how cute they turned out!

First off we had to get opening presents out of the way. We kept the group much smaller this year, 8 (including my two and cousins) instead of 18! We had too if we wanted to do all these cute ideas. What a cute bunch of kids!

Her best friend Kamdyn got her some awesome lip gloss and her 1st journal!

Her other bestie Bridgette and Kylee share a passion for all things Lalaloopsy, so it was only fitting that Bridgy got Kylee the remote control car. She loves it!

A bead kit from Brianna

And the cutest hat and purse I've ever seen! We are going to take some of her birthday portraits wearing that hat!

Now onto the party! I got the kids each their own apron...

And then made them each their own baker's hat out of posterboard and tissue paper. They turned out way too cute! Then they each had a picture frame to paint.

I even made them each these cute cake toppers with their names.

And if you have cake toppers then you better have cakes! I made nine of these! (Our buddy Braxton was supposed to come too, but got sick with the flu and couldn't make it. Erin helped me put a bunch of this together and was able to take a bunch of fun stuff home for Brax so he'd know we missed him.)

Our first activity was making cute flowers for their hats out of different colored cupcake liners.

I love this picture. Dallin looks sooo bored. I tried to get him to make a flower and told him he didn't have to put it on his hat, but he refused, and was almost in tears since he didn't have anything else to make. :)

Then once their flowers had been glued onto their hats they moved onto painting their frames.

While the paint dried they had a quick demonstration on how to bake a cake. I was lazy this time and taught them how to make a cake mix, NOT from scratch. Are you shocked? I was all baked out by then.

We talked about preparing the pan, measuring ingredients, mixing them, and then they all got to practice cracking an egg. Surprisingly enough only one of them smashed that egg and got it everywhere! And even more surprisingly, NONE of the kids got shell in the bowl! Even I get shell in the bowl once in awhile. :)

We got the batter in the pan, baked it and got the house smelling all yummy again, and then I threw that cake away!!! We had PLENTY of sweets in the house and the last thing I needed was more cake for me to snack on!

After the cake was baking our frames were dry and we went back to decorate them...

How cute are these?

Then onto the bread and butter of the whole party....CAKE DECORATING!!! The kids were all so excited for this! I taught them how to hold an icing bag and then let them have at it! They did awesome! They took their time and loved every second of it.

This one was my girl Kamdyn's cake. You'd think she's spent plenty of time holding an icing bag with the design she started off with. Soo cute. I was impressed!

So focused!

When the cakes were done we stuck in their cake toppers that I made them and snapped a picture of each kid by Kylee's bake shop sign. I have to post pics of each of them on here just because I think they all turned out so stinkin cute, and the kids all looked so good in their hats! Then I printed off a pic of each kid on my home printer and put them in their frames to tie it all together.

Birthday girl!

I thought the bake shop idea was so cute, and I actually thought it'd be easier than the usual huge cake I'd make. I was WRONG!!! I spent just as long if not longer doing this party than the others! But it was worth every minute of work to get this look on her face:

She was so proud of it all and was so happy with the way things turned out. I got lots of hugs and lots of thank you's from her and all of those kiddos. They each took home their measuring cups and spoons, an apron, their baker's hat and flowers, the picture frame with a personal picture and a 6-inch, self-decorated cake! I'd ordered them each a rolling pin too and made fondant for them to roll out and cut shapes out of for their cakes, but they didn't arrive on time for the party. (Four days later!!!) It turned out ok though. They had enough fun with the icing, and loved snacking on all the baked goods throughout the party. I'm sure they all went home with a sugar high! I hope this is one of those parties that will stick out in Kylee's mind for a long time to come. It was so much fun for all of us, including me! Happy birthday Kylee!!!

Kylee turns 7!!!

2012-01-11T20:24:00.000-08:00

My girl is seven years old! We decided (by we I mean me.....she couldn't come up with anything else besides the "dog" theme,) that we would do a "Bake Shop Party." Thanks to Pinterest I had plenty of ideas for it. I'd baked for two straight days, literally, between numerous trips back to the store for supplies, so I refused to make the usual breakfast waffles. So this time she got a candle in her breakfast cereal instead! She was just excited it was her birthday and didn't care too much. But she's still waiting for those waffles!

Then that morning I once again grabbed some donuts and balloons and showed up at her class. Apparently this is going to be a tradition of ours, at least during elementary school. This year Daddy got to come along and participate. When she saw us she ran up and gave me a big hug. She wasn't sure I was going to do that (I told her I wasn't), so I was glad to make her feel so special. Then her teacher put her in the birthday chair

and then the class sang to her....(ignore the little bit at the beginning. Trae didn't turn off the recording and I didn't want to take the time to edit it! :)

The class got glazed donuts and she got her favorite, cream filled.

Then I went back at lunch time and we checked her out early and took her to lunch. For her birthday meal she wanted chicken nuggets of course, so we took her to Chick-fil-a. Afterwards I took her for her biggest bday gift from us, to have her ears pierced!!! She was nervous but tried hard not to show it.

Counting to 3....(notice how tense she is?)

Then they did it! She jumped pretty high and started blinking back the tears, but she never made a sound and she never actually cried. She's always been a tough kid. I wanted to cry for her, but we were both strong!

Then we went home and got ready for the first party! Pinterest gave me this idea for a dum dum flower. It ended up being MUCH heavier than we thought it'd be, so my original ideas for "planting" it didn't work out, so this was our improvisation. I'm hoping to keep this as a bday decoration for a little while, so I need to figure out a proper base. Any ideas would be appreciated!

I also made my first ever wreath! Out of balloons! I love it and it was so easy to make.

I also helped Kylee make a sign for the bake shop. She drew the goodies in the middle.

This was the invitation for the family party. I made it look like a recipe card. :-)

And the bake shop itself!!!

We had nine different treats by the end of all the baking, only one of them was store bought and that was the leftover donuts from that morning. It was a TON of work and the whole time I kept asking myself why I was doing this, but in the end it was AWESOME!!!

I made little signs for each of them to make it feel more like a bake shop.

And what better to wash down all that sugar but a big glass of milk? Apparently at first some people thought it was some kind of pina colada drink. :-)

Trae and Kim enjoying the "open sweets bar."

Then on to the presents!!! A new DS game from Camie and Nate,

these strange but fun things from Brooke and Scott,

totally cute new jeans from Nonna and Grandpa,

the Lalaloopsy treehouse from Mimi and Papa,

Kinect Disneyland game from us, and much more!

A pic of the majority of the group:

and Kylee with her loot!

I later found the three youngest teasing Diddy in the bedroom. We've found that Diddy has accidents when there are a lot of people in the house, so we put him back and away from the action to hopefully keep him a bit calmer and keep my carpets dry!

And a pretty cute pic of Trae and I with our baby girl. I love how proud she looks. And I'll pretend I don't look so stinkin tired! And the fun just continued the next day....

Christmas 2012

2012-01-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

We had a very fun, but very busy Christmas this year. I thought I was going to get so much stuff done, maybe even scrapbook a little (don't really remember last time I did that!), but sadly I just felt like I was rushing to get everything done. It was over before I knew it. It didn't feel much like Christmas this year. It hadn't snowed at all, it was 60 degrees and very sunny outside. I felt more like doing the spring cleaning than holiday traditions! Anyway, we did manage to squeeze in a few things. I found this idea on Pinterest, so one morning I made Santa pancakes!

The kids loved these and thought I was awesome for doing it. :-)

Then we have a tradition that we let the kids make an ornament each year. Usually they just paint one, but this year we found a sand ornament kit. Of course the kit has 6 ornaments, but sand enough for 4. Soooo Mom improvised and pulled out the salt. It looks the same in there!

Then to make sure that the kids could handle the icing bags for the bake shop birthday party coming up, I let them make some graham cracker houses. They did just fine using the bags. It's also a great way to get rid of that leftover Halloween candy. I let them decorate like crazy and then tossed it all when they sat out and got stale.

December 24th as most of you know is Trae's birthday. Poor guy gets a little overlooked sometimes on his big day, so we always try to make it a little special for him. The kids spent time making him some cards and then he opened his new Kinect game, Just Sports 2. He also got a new monitor for the computer so that when he works from home he has dual monitors. So he was spoiled plenty. :)

This is the yearly white elephant gift game. My Uncle Dave got the gigantic women's panties. Funny thing about these is that the tag says they are a size 8!

Everytime someone gets the underwear it's tradition to make them model it. Dave got the oversized undies and I got the sexy ones. For some reason this picture seems highly inappropriate. :)

This picture ended up out of order, but oh well! Here he is ready to blow out his candles on his homemade German Chocolate Cake that he loves so much. I make it once a year for this, and that's it. It looks gross, but it's oh so yummy! :)

We went home that night and told Kylee we'd try to set up the camera so that when Santa comes we could catch him in the act! So we set up the tripod and got everything set and went to bed. When we woke up the next day and checked the camera we found we'd caught a picture of him!!!!

He left the kids some awesome stockings.

Santa even remembered Diddy!

Waiting in the hallway for us to be ready with cameras...

Even though technically Diddy is still a puppy, for some reason Kylee asked Santa for another puppy! This was Santa's version of a puppy. Since Santa knows we already have a puppy, and that Mom hates stuffed animals and thinks Kylee has 50 too many, he got her some puppy slippers instead.

Diddy was fully occupied with his new rubber bone alllllll day long. By that night he'd already ripped the squeaker out of it!

Just a pic with the kiddos in their new Christmas Eve robes (instead of jammies this year) by the Christmas tree.

One of my favorite pictures. This is after Kylee opened her gift from Dallin. I'm glad they love eachother. He actually picked her up and swung her around! I give it another year or two and he's going to start getting bigger than her!

This was his #1 desired toy of the season. I made him open it last, so right as he was thinking he didn't get it, he got it and was thrilled! Can't you tell?

And Kylee had asked for a Nintendo DS awhile back, but I don't think she was expecting to actually get one. Her reaction says it all:

My family is lucky, because I wake up super early just to make them homemade cinnamon rolls. Here they are eating their Christmas breakfast: Cinnamon rolls, ham breakfast bake and fresh fruit.

Later that night after church and playing with new toys for a bit, we went to the Treasure's. They loaded up with even more there, and Trae and I didn't do so bad ourselves!

Cindi and Kim with their gifts from us...

Kylee with Uncle Colt and Aunt Sara

This is how Kylee fell asleep that night:

The next day we all got so busy building all the new legos and playing with all the new stuff, that we lost track of time and actually missed another family party! Oops! But look how happy they were!

Here's Kylee with her new bed canopy that we got her for Christmas. By the look of her room you'd never know that Kylee is NOT a girly girl! But she feels like a princess sleeping with this canopy.

Later that night after everyone else had long ago gone to bed, I started playing with my camera. I'd always wanted a pretty picture of our Christmas tree, one where it looks like its glowing. The flash on the cameras always wash it out or something, so I played in manual mode until I figured it out. Now I have a picture of what my tree actually looked like through my eyes!

I love Christmas now that I have kids. Not that I didn't before, but its just more magical watching it through their eyes. I'm just grateful that we were able to spoil them and make it magical for them! And a few weeks later, its finally snowed and I'm ready for Christmas again! We are also so excited to use our family season passes to Lagoon that we got from my parents. Yahoo!

A Few More Odds and Ends....

2011-12-16T20:51:00.000-08:00

This is my 6th and final blog post of the day! Yes I have been taking care of my family and doing other things today. Why do you ask? I even cooked dinner. It happens once in awhile. And my kids have been contentedly playing with homemade, yes homemade playdoh thank, you very much! Anyway!

This year I was talked into going fake. With a fake tree that is. I've always, always had a real one, so this is a big change for me to make. But Trae wanted a really, really tall one. So we made the change and bought this 12-foot tall tree. Then I spent 8 hours decorating it. Eight hours only because it was one of those days that the kids refused to get along, or listen or doing anything nice. So it got dragged out like you wouldn't believe! It didn't help that I was one person, and everytime I needed to get to the other side of the tree I'd have to climb down the 10 foot ladder, pull the heavy thing to the other side, climb back up and down again. Next year I refuse. Unless Trae wants to help. This was his idea anyway!

But now that its done I love it. Hopefully we'll be able to add other pretty things to it over the years, but this is at least a good start. I'm proud of it.

Then Kylee started basketball again. She's a proud member of the Syracuse City Jr. Jazz. Number 10. She still goofs off a lot and wanders off here and there, but she's already doing so much better than last year, and loves every minute of it!

Yesterday was Dallin's Christmas party at Preschool. I love going to help! I'm going to miss Kylee's this year for my day at work :( Dallin made an ornament, decorated a tree, ate a sugar cookie and had lots of fun.

Then today was my second time hosting Joy School. Last time I thought I'd planned plenty and of course hadn't. This time I planned too much! Someday I'll find the balance, and then it will be over. Our theme this time around was snowflakes. We learned all about them (did you know the largest snowflake on record was 15 inches wide?), worked on some worksheets, made a snowflake decoration out of pipe cleaners and beads, made Christmas cards with their handprints, played Christmas Bingo and Musical Snowflakes. And don't forget the snowflake cupcakes we had for a snack! We ran out of time to cut snowflakes out of paper and play with the "snow dough" I made them, but they were happy enough to take that home. And I got a few cute pics:

This is Dallin with his best friend Laikin. These kids are growing up together. Laikin is already practicing having her last name as Treasure. At least we know we'd love our in-laws!

Dallin loves joy school. This is where all his friends are. The kids in preschool are all a lot younger than him, so joy school brings him a lot of JOY :-) I love it too....when its not my turn that is! I love to do it, but I can stress myself out trying to make it all perfect. I like seeing the kids happy and having fun.

Kylee's 1st Piano Recital

2011-12-16T20:14:00.000-08:00

I've been trying forever now to upload video to blogger and it will never let me. It uploads and then says an error occurred. Grrrr..... Well I just discovered a newer version of blogger, switched to that and VOILA!!! It uploaded. So I actually have video on here! Yay!

Monday Kylee had her first ever piano recital. Piano is something she really seems to love. She can be lazy about practicing and we've had our share of arguments over it. She thinks if she plays the song one time then that's good enough, regardless of how well she did. I'm sure that's more than normal. But if she gets the chance to perform for someone she excels, and loves to show off.

On this particular day she'd been struggling playing that song just right. And she didn't seem to care either! I was panicking a little bit not wanting her to humiliate herself on her first time, but then I realized she'd learn her lesson.

Funny enough she did just fine. Great actually. Considering she's only been playing for 3 months!

This is her with her Piano Theory teacher Miss Amy.

And this is her with her piano teacher Adriana.

I didn't take any pictures of her during her actual performance. I just wanted to watch and enjoy, and it didn't help that I had two heads right in front of me. So these were taken afterwards which is why her teacher isn't in them with her.

She played "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas." Here she is with Miss Amy. I can't believe how grown up she looks!

Cleaning out Baby Clothes

2011-12-16T16:14:00.000-08:00

First off, let me show a picture of Kylee with her 2nd ever lost tooth. She went all weekend not telling us it was ready, just so that she could go to school on Monday and show her teacher who apparently loves to yank teeth. She makes it fun for them and gives them a certificate and puts the tooth in a little container/necklace. I think Kylee held out just to get that necklace! And apparently she wasn't the only one, because Miss Nottingham yanked out 3 kids' teeth that day! My close friends and family know I have a real fear of anything to do with teeth, and the thought of pulling them makes me sick. So I was quite happy knowing that her teacher was so willing. :)

Moving on...I've been struggling lately with trying to decide if I should just say we are done having kids or not. Right now I am perfectly happy with the two I've got. They are great kids and I was blessed to have one of each sex. I'd really rather not start over with diapers and naps and bottles and all of that other stuff when my kids are going to school all day and I am almost ready to either go back to school or get a full-time job again. Buuuuuuuuuuuut.....I always thought I'd have one more. Right now at this point in our lives we don't have health insurance, and having a baby would cost the same as a small house for someone who has to have c-sections, and has a history of preterm labor & premature babies (Kylee). But I hate that being the reason we HAVE to be done. I want the choice. I don't want to be forced into that decision. Well last week I had it in my head that another baby was never going to happen, so what is the use of having all of the many boxes of baby clothes stored downstairs. Mind you we have 2000 square feet of unfinished basement, so there really is no rush in getting rid of it. It isn't like we don't have the storage space. But I had it in my head that it was time to get rid of it. And once I've made up my mind you just stay out of the way.

So I brought up every last box that contained baby clothes, from size premie to the most current clothes my kids have outgrown. And went through it all one by one. One little onesie at a time. I probably don't need to explain what happened next to all the Mom's reading this, but I will. I had numerous flashbacks all day. Going through those boxes was like watching home movies and going through scrapbooks. I could picture my kids in those clothes, how their hair was done, where we went in them and etc, etc, etc. I felt like I was getting rid of the memories or something, because I cried and cried and cried. Trae came home and just watched me break down with each new outfit I came across. Then he just said, as calmly as he could (because you don't tell me what to do when I've made up my mind...) "Maybe we should just put these boxes back downstairs for awhile longer."

I just nodded and said ok.

This doesn't mean I'm committed to having a number 3. But I don't want to throw away the idea all together. And there were quite a few more clothes in those boxes that I'd reuse than I originally thought. No rush right? At least not until we start finishing the basement, which could be YEARS from now!

I did end up setting aside a box for each kid of all my favorite things over the years. So if or when I change my mind again, I won't have to go through it all. Each box is labeled the gender and the size that it contains. I know which boxes to lend to my sister for Cade without having to open them all. I've been wanting to organize all of that for a long time, so at least the day wasn't wasted. (Two days actually.)

While I had them all out I took a picture of the kids with one of their first outfits.

And these are pictures of the 21 boxes I had once I'd organized it all. Stuffed to the brims. No wonder we never feel like we have any money!

So if there are any mom's out there tempted to do the same thing, my advice is DON'T DO IT!!!!! I was very emotional for a few days. I may be done having kids, but I'm not ready to get rid of all my baby stuff. Someday, somewhere, someone will need those clothes. It won't matter so much if they are a bit old. :-)

Family Pictures 2011

2011-12-16T15:12:00.001-08:00

Both of my brothers decided to come for Thanksgiving this year. Mark was kind of last minute, so we scrambled to find someone to take some new family pictures for us. The last time we'd done this Kylee was a baby. We now have 3 more kiddos in the family. My friend Erin took the pics, and my friend Ashley (http://www.milesofmemoriesphoto.com/) helped me edit them.

From left to right, top row : Mark, Trae, me, Brandon, Kevin, Jill, Cade, Brooke, Scott, my newest niece and Cory's 1st daughter Avery, Laura, and Cory.

Bottom row left to right: Lauren, Dallin, Kylee and Katie.

Me and my siblings. What a beautiful bunch!

Mom and Kevin

The kiddos.

The kids did great. It was freezing outside and we still managed to get a handful of decent shots! Here's to hoping another 6 years doesn't go by before we are all together at the same time again!

Haircuts

2011-12-16T14:59:00.001-08:00

We were out running errands one day (November 14) when we saw a Dollar Cuts and it reminded me that Kylee was way past due for a cut. Her hair was looking so worn and scraggly, that it at least needed a good trim. SHE was the one who suggested cutting her hair off. Of course we had to call Daddy on that one, who has always told me NO and left it at that, not open for discussion. But she called him herself and he made the mistake of telling her that it was her hair and she could do what she wanted. Well this is what she did (with me biting my fingernails and trying not to cry the whole time.)...

She seemed pretty excited about it the whole time, and has never said she wished she didn't do it. After we got it washed and dried we had to take a picture of course! She's holding the 8 inches of hair she had chopped off!

And all done up the next day....

Then Mom had hers cut a couple of days later. No worries, not a lot. No one noticed the 4 inches missing from my head. No biggie. But then Diddy had his hair cut, which was very noticable. He went from fluff dog to rat in less than 2 hours. Then Dad had his done, so Dallin was feeling left out. So he too made a big change. No more spiky hair for him. He wanted a faux hawk. This picture was taken right afterwards. It looks better as it gets a bit longer.

Now everyone looks beautiful and well-groomed. :-)

Blog Update

2011-12-16T14:41:00.000-08:00

So I noticed its been awhile since I've updated this here blog thing. Don't know if anyone's missed it, since I haven't heard from you. But maybe that just means you are sitting on pins and needles just waiting to hear the next big thing in the Treasure Family. I'm sure that must be it. I'm sure you've all missed hearing from me. :-) So to make you feel better, I'm going to try and get mostly caught up, skipping things here and there for time's sake. So let's jump all the way back to November 5th, the first snow storm of the season......

I remember it like it was yesterday, or maybe more like a month and a half ago. The kids woke up, the kids saw snow, and therefore the kids played in that snow. That pretty much sums it up. But they actually took a cute picture together, which doesn't happen often, so here ya have it:

Ahhhhhh.....so cute with their little snowmen. (Which Dallin promptly crushed after this here pic was taken, putting Kylee in tears and resulting in even larger snow balls to be formed. I say balls because they got so large none of us could lift them.)

Dallin came in for his hot chocolate and Kylee stayed out by herself for awhile. Was I surprised when I discovered she'd spent that time building a snow dog? No, no I was not. Diddy sure was though. It was right in his bathroom area. Intruder.
This is Diddy's reaction to the intruder. Lots of growls and barks. He does that often actually....barking at inanimate objects. Just last night he started having it out with a present under the tree. Maybe he's just plain dumb. Or do all dogs act like that?

Then after a few minutes of going psycho on the snow dog, and after watching me touch it to show Diddy it was safe, he'd get the nerve to go sniff it and then take off running in the other direction. He never took to Snowie. I had to smash him down the next day just so that Diddy could pee in peace. Maybe the next time it snows enough to make a snowman, we will have to build a Great Dane in the bathroom area. Let's see how he likes that!

Halloween 2011!!!

2011-11-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

I LOVE Halloween! Especially now that I have kids. It makes it so much more fun. My goal the last couple of years was to make something that completely disgusts everyone. Last year it was a bleeding brain made of jello, and this year it was worms!

Made from jello and straws. Everyone thought it'd take too long for them to want to do it, but everyone close to me knows I'd had a really rough week, and I needed something tedious like that to distract me and get me excited about Halloween. So worms it was! I was so happy with how they turned out. If you look closely (click on the picture) you can see the ridges from the straws that make it look very realistic. I had a lot of fun seeing people's faces when they saw them, and even more fun watching some of the kids eat them and having worms dangling out of their mouths!

We went to my Mom's for our Halloween dinner/party, and she surprised us with lots of fun creations:

A snake made of her homemade french bread:

Chicken Cordon Bleu Spiders:

Faces made on Twice Baked potatoes:

And Eyeball Juice!:

Afterwards we played the game where the kids stick their hands through a hole in a box and feel something nasty and try and guess what it is. I had peeled grapes for eyeballs, spaghetti noodles for guts, dried apricots for ears, a jello mold with grooves cut on top for a brain, and a banana peel for a tongue. I didn't get any pictures though! Next time Trae says we will get real livers and kidneys and intestines etc from his Dad, who just happens to be a meat cutter. Ummm....maybe when the kids are teenagers and it wouldn't traumatize them for life!

Then they made skeletons out of Q-tips:

Then they just played around with Gak that I made. I love this stuff! It doesn't crumble and make big messes like playdoh or moon sand. It's simple to make, and even if you get it stuck all over your clothes like Dallin did you just soak it overnight like we did and it's completely gone! And if you give the kids a few tools they still play with it for hours.

I don't recommend letting the kids put it in their hair. It still comes out, but its a pain!

The 5 cousins together. Katie on the left is a bad witch, Cade is a monkey, Kylee is a good witch, Lauren is a lollipop, and Dallin is Bumblebee.

Kylee later enjoying the worms. Unfortunately by then they were too warm from being out of the fridge and they kept breaking, so I didn't quite get the pic I wanted.

On Halloween night! Ready for the Trunk-or-Treat & Trick-or-Treating.

Dallin with his Frankenstein pumpkin. We chose the easy way to carve this year!

Kylee, my good witch.

Posing with her witch pumpkin.

Kylee and her best friend Kamdyn at the Trunk-or-Treat. Twins!

And after Trick-or-Treating with Diddy, the Superdog.

After Trick-or-Treating and inspecting how much candy they got. I think Kylee was shocked!

My three favorite people!

And one with Mommy!

Dallin's Preschool Halloween Party

2011-10-28T17:21:00.001-07:00

I was able to help out with Dallin's preschool party again this year. I love being able to go see what all the kids are dressed up as and see a little bit of what goes on at school. He seems to like having me there too, so I may as well take advantage of that while I can! He loves his Mama, but its only a matter of time before I embarass him :)

My Bumblebee

Playing Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin

Halloween Bingo

Making pumpkins and just being cute.

Passing pumpkins with clothespins, which was surprisingly tricky for them to figure out!

The whole group! Bumblebee is peeking out in the back.

Today I was also able to go help out at Kylee 1st grade party. Unfortunately none of my pictures turned out. Too many kids and too much going on. That and I only had my cell phone camera on me, which doesn't work well with all that movement! She had fun and I had fun getting dizzy wrapping kids up like mummies with toilet paper. :)

Trip to Wyoming

2011-10-28T16:48:00.000-07:00

I recently had to pack up the kids and pick up my sister and her kids for a roadtrip to Wyoming. My Grandpa Richins passed away and we were headed there for the funeral. I'd rather not dwell on the sad parts of that trip, and rather highlight the fun the kids were able to have with my Dad, their Grandpa Bob. With that, I know some of the Richins family does read my blog and I want them to know that we really enjoyed seeing them, even despite the circumstances. Some of that family I haven't seen in probably 15 years, but most of them I was able to see about 5 years ago. Anyway, it was a really long time, so we had a nice reunion under sad circumstances.

We traveled down a day early so that we could have a day to spend with my Dad. After we were all up and ready on that first day we headed to Thermopolis, the World's Largest Hot Springs pools, and went for a swim. Sadly I don't have any pictures of that, but we all had a lot of fun. Brought back a ton of childhood memories for me! Kind of weird to have my kids there :)

The next day was the funeral, and after all of the services Grandpa Bob took the kids to the new museum in town, which the kids absolutely loved and are still talking about. My Uncle Kent was in charge of building it and did a great job. There were plenty of interactive displays for the kids and it really held their attention. Later we went through a very small but fun hay maze.

Then Grandpa had to take the kids on a ride in his fancy hot rod. Dallin thought that was totally awesome!

The girls got a bit crazy with stickers!

Then the highlight of my trip was meeting my newest neice Avery. I still have a hard time believing that Cory is a daddy, but boy does he and Laura make pretty babies. She is already a complete Daddy's girl and it was really fun for me to see Cory with a baby. He is a very good Daddy, and extremely proud of his baby girl.

All of the Richins Grandkids together.

It was a quick trip, but we had a good time with my Dad and enjoyed seeing everyone.

Black Island Farms

2011-10-27T16:59:00.000-07:00

Dallin had his last fieldtrip to Black Island Farms with his preschool. Between both of my kids we've gone there on fieldtrips 4 years in a row, last year twice, and they never seem to tire of it. This year it was only Dallin and I since Daddy was working and Kylee is now a full-time school gal! Dallin found his good friend Brody and I followed them around like a puppy dog while they ran wild.

Dallin found the biggest pumpkin of them all!!! (Or so he believed :)
He wanted a picture with the really nasty looking pumpkin.

He fed the llama a carrot. The thing practically ripped it out of Dallin's hand!

Going down the giant hay slide.

Teeter Totter with Brody

Getting his groove on. He looks like a natural!

They had a really fun day. I wish I could say I had fun following them around but.....

Shortly after these pics the boys ran behind a shed. By the time I got there the boys were gone. The only place they could've gone where I wouldn't have been able to see them was the giant ADULT cornmaze! I rallied some troops and after a few minutes of us all going in different directions and yelling out their names, the boys found their way back. Neither of them seemed phased one bit and had no idea what kind of trouble they almost had themselves in!

Circus!!!

2011-09-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

Mimi and Papa decided to treat us all with a trip to the circus on Saturday. My kids have never been, so I was excited to go. Here are the girls on the train ride down to Salt Lake.

Ready and waiting for the show to start! Kylee sipping on her giant sno-cone and Dallin with his cotton candy.
The show started with the Star Spangled Banner and a very pretty elephant.

Dallin in his giant circus hat.

My favorite part is always the tigers. And I got an awesome action shot of them too!

We saw most of the acts you would think to see at the circus, including a man lit on fire and then shot off of a sling shot type of thing. It was too dark to get any good pictures, but I'll take what I can get! We had an awesome time. The show last 2 1/2 hours, a bit too long even for the kids. By the time we left the kids were extremely hyper, and didn't let up until their heads hit the pillow that night. Here they are on the train ride home.

New Car!!!

2011-09-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

After the Air Force Museum last Saturday we came home and debated what to do about our car situation. We've spent the summer looking for a new vehicle, but haven't been able to agree on a make and model. We've looked at BMW's, Honda Accords, Hyundai Sonatas, Camaro's :-), and more. I was set on getting an Accord, but there literally hasn't been any for sale, at least not the kinds I like. So we decided to go out that day just too see if we could narrow down our search. We test drove multiple vehicles, including my beloved Accords, and just wasn't getting excited about anything. Trae mentioned he'd seen a black Dodge Charger at a dealership we'd driven by and he talked me into going to take a look. Trae had mentioned Chargers multiple times before, but I never really took it seriously. It just didn't seem like the most sensible family car.

Then I saw one up close. I was amazed at how big they were! The trunk is huge, something that I seriously missed with my Yukon. As big as the Yukon is, you can either fill it up with people, or fold down the seats and fill it up with stuff, but not always both. It drove me nuts when I went grocery shopping. So I saw the trunk on this Charger and started drooling. Then I saw the backseat. I could easily fit both booster seats, plus one back there, and very comfortably too. Even Trae looked like he fit easily into that car. With most other cars he seems a bit squashed. It didn't hurt that its a 2008 and only has 24,000 miles on it either.

So I took it for a test drive and couldn't stop smiling. Trae and I just looked at eachother and we both knew we wanted it. Trick was getting it into our price range. When we got back to the dealership Trae went inside with a price in his head that we never dreamed they'd actually consider, and I took the kids to dinner. By the time we got back they had a price worked out and the rest is history. We went out hoping to narrow down our search, and we definitely did just that.

No we haven't sold our Yukon yet. That part makes me nervous. But buying cars and making big decisions like this usually get done by impulse around here. Anyone who knows us well knows that Trae works around the clock, and we get a day to do stuff like this about once every 3 months or so. So we knew if we didn't jump on it, it could've easily been another couple of months before we could even get together during the day to go look. We are just happy that we found something we both agreed on, and got it in our price range. Now anyone out there that wants a Yukon...give me a call :)

Open Airplane Day!!!

2011-09-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

About a week ago the Airforce Museum had their open aircraft day. This was the first time we actually made it there! Once the kids saw that you could go inside many of the planes they were beyond excited. Even Trae was able to come with us this time.

My future pilots :)

Daddy seemed to like the helicopters the best.

This employee told me too get my camera ready, and then took Kylee on a little ride. Then he came over to see how the picture turned out. Kinda cute. Then I turned around to see an older woman taking pictures of Dallin in the other toy plane. Kinda weird.

They also had a food drive going on, lots of food cooking, a car show and more. We may have to make it a tradition!

Last Year of Preschool!!!

2011-09-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

Dallin started his last year of preschool last Tuesday! He was so ready to go back and so excited!

He is getting so big. He was about a foot taller than most of the kids in his class. When he got there he realized that it wasn't the same class he had last year and got pretty nervous.

Dallin starting school again allows me to start a couple little jobs again. One week in and I already feel how busy this year is going to be. We are adjusting to soccer schedules, piano lessons and music theory classes, little to no babysitting, homework, work and everything in between. I may actually start getting to bed before midnight!

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

Labor Day weekend we stuck around home to see my neice Katie get baptized. Then we had a little lunch at her house when she proudly posed for a picture with her favorite Aunt Nikki. Yes she thinks I'm a little weird, but she secretly adores me :)

Lauren really looks up to me. She saw me acting like Cousin It and just had to follow suit. (I wish the "looks up to me" part was true. She did think it was pretty funny or she wouldn't have done it herself, but in all reality I had to force her to take this picture with me! :)

Anyways!!! So instead of going to Bear Lake for the weekend we found ourselves at Willard Bay for the day with my family. It ended up being a pretty chilly day, but the kids still had fun.

When I see these two girls together I just see trouble. We can't let them get too far out of our sight.

My nephew Cade. He loves his Aunt Nikki!

Brookita Chiquita and the Cademeister.

My favorite picture of the day... seriously cute. When I see this I think of how Brooke and Scott have played with moving out of state a time or two over the years, and how great it is that they haven't, and that the cousins are growing up so close.

Mimi definitely loves her grandkids. She would never go swimming when we were younger, but if the grandkids bat their little eyes at her she just can't resist!

While the other kids were swimming, Kylee did what she loves best, playing in the sand and talking to herself in her own little world.

Nana and Poppy came along for the ride. This was them "posing" for a picture. I think I figured out where Kylee gets it from!!! :)

Mimi and Dallin after a lovely swim...

After a nice BBQ and a few hours playing in the sand we wrapped it up and headed on home. We may need to try Willard Bay again! Preferably when the sun is shining!

Soccer Da Winner Game!

2011-09-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

Dallin is sitting here with me as I blog about him becoming a little soccer pro. He titled this post himself, which probably explains a lot! He is loving soccer. This is our first crack at it. He's doing really well, with a few exceptions here and there, but is loving the action. He says his favorite thing about soccer is "shooting goals" and "kicking the ball," and "being the goalie," which he really does well with! His first practice I had to have a talk with him about how its not ok to purposefully push/knock the other players down. Thankfully he stopped doing that real quick! He's not very aggressive yet about going after the ball. He would really just prefer running after it all over the field and kicking it anytime it was delivered straight to him. He just doesn't understand yet that in the game it is ok, and kind of the entire point, to take the ball from the other kids. Besides the shoving and knocking other kids over on occasion, he is definitely showing some manners on the field. ;)

He also makes it apparent that he is still very young. The game doesn't hold his attention for long before he's staring off into space while his teammates are gathered in a huddle behind him...
Making faces and acting all "la di da" when he's supposed to be running a drill...

Marching to the beat of his own drum...

And doing a little dance while the game goes on around him!

But he's just so cute, even while sitting on the sidelines waiting to go back into the game.

Kylee's First Day of 1st Grade!

2011-08-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

Kylee has been so nervous this past week with school starting. I told Trae its like she's been PMS'ing! Everything makes her cry, and she's been hanging on me and cuddling with me like crazy, which is NOT like her one bit. She's been mostly nervous about Spanish, because her teacher is not allowed to speak English in the classroom AT ALL! Not a single word. We've rehearsed a few very important words like "el bano," or "bathroom" etc, to prepare as much as we can, but she's still been terrified.

Luckily Daddy got to help see her off this year. He is her favorite person in the world, so that was very important to her.

She doesn't look nervous....yet.

We found her locker, which she was very excited to have this year.

Then off to class. When we walked in her teacher asked her what her name was, in Spanish. We'd rehearsed that so Kylee knew what Mrs. Mora was asking her, but she still looked up at me with tears in her eyes and panic all over her face. I told her "just answer your teacher! You know the answer!"

To which she replied, "But I don't know what my name is in Spanish!"

Me and the teacher had a good laugh at that one.

Her classroom. Notice everything is labeled in Spanish?

While she was gone, to keep me busy and keep me from worrying too much about how her day was going, and more importantly to keep Dallin entertained, we made some homemade oreo cookies. Some of my favorites!

Kylee came home to a nice surprise, and no I did NOT let her eat all those cookies!

When she told me about her day she mainly told me what she had for lunch. She made some decent choices and wanted me to be proud. When I asked her about Spanish she sang me a little bit of a song they'd tried learning and then just said she was confused, but couldn't tell me too much about it. I expected that. Then she told me about games they'd played and other things they'd done in her English half of the day and said she had lots of fun in there! I think Spanish is going to take a long time to get used too for sure.

Dallin enjoying the fruit of his labors.

After she was home for about an hour or two and had time to rest and play games on my phone I mentioned that it was time to do our reading. This is what that turned into...

Full blown temper tantrum in the laundry room of all places.

I think we are all going to bed early tonight.

As for tomorrow, it happens to be a full day. If her temper tantrum lasted for an hour today, and she goes to school for 2 more hours tomorrow.... well....please wish me luck.

And lots of it.

Bowling with the Treasure Clan

2011-08-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

Friday night we were able to go hang out with the Treasure Clan. Camie got some great passes (Groupon kind of thing. I don't think I could ever pay full price for anything anymore with all these Groupon things and coupons out there!), so for $5.50 a person we got to bowl for an hour, got pizza and drinks and then had a nice game of miniature golf. Can't beat that!!

Lincoln and Dallin gearing up for some serious competition!

I love watching people's technique. I'm not exactly sure what Kylee's is...

Dallin's a two-hand chucker. Kinda looks like....

Yep. Kinda looks like Trae. Trae tries to remind everyone that he is the strongest of us all and chucks the ball as hard as he can, often sacrificing actual technique, and hence...points.

My pretty girl, who all of the sudden in the past couple of weeks is really trying hard to pose for pictures! Yay! It only took 6 1/2 years! And it is so much nicer for me to snap 1 picture instead of 10. :)

The above pic is right before she threw her ball. The one below is her reaction after she threw it, and it actually landed right in the gutter, despite the bumpers being up! Now that's talent!

After bowling and pizza we were off to miniature golf. Too bad we lost a few casualties trying to get in!

Trae probably should've been more concerned.

He's actually helping the dinosaur eat Dallin!! What?!?!!!

Colt will surely be missed...

Trae was asking for it by standing so close...

This is my favorite picture of the night. It almost looks like Colt touched some of Trae's naughty bits. Trae is...ummm...giddy?....about it??? And Colt is horribly disgusted??? :)

We had a great night. We all had a blast and Kylee even scored a hole in one! Thanks for the invite Camie!

The Last of Summer

2011-08-19T13:48:00.001-07:00

I'm tired of blogger taking soooo long to upload pics, so I drastically reduced the quality of the pics so they'd upload faster. If anyone notices and cares, let me know, and maybe you can talk me into letting one blog post take hours to complete :)

Anyhoo! More about our summer.... The kids have had 2 sleepovers with their cousins, this time it was my turn to host. We all went to a movie, then played all day, had a movie night and got crazy with costumes!

Then out of the kindness of my heart we got this dog bed out for Diddy, thinking he was ready to graduate being crated at night to enjoying a nice soft pillow. Well he is ready to be out of the crate, as long as he's still in his pen we built for him...in my kitchen...which I'm ready to get rid of...but he isn't quite there yet....at least not while the kids are unable/unwilling to let him out when he goes to the door! Well anyway, this bed had holes in it almost immediately, within about an hour actually. Two days later I found him like this...

Then I said (in a stern voice btw) "Diddy....Did you do that? Hmmm??? Did you?" To which he responded by immediately seeking comfort in his crate, with a "puh puh puh please forgive me mama! I know not what I do!"

Then I forgave him, chucked the pillow after trying to repair it just to have it shredded again almost instantly, and then deemed him BATDOG!

Diddy is doing great btw. I honestly don't remember the last time he had an accident, but I know the only reason he did is because the kids wouldn't open the door due to their complete oblivion to anything other than that dang TV whenever the dumb thing is on!

Let's just say the TV is now an earned privilege. And it's made quite a difference.

Moving on! I've tried to make the last week before school starts a good one. It dawned on me that I can no longer just up and take the kids somewhere in the middle of the day anymore. Kylee was in morning Kindergarten last year, so we still had that freedom. Not anymore. :( She is growing up and is going to first grade on Monday. So for a couple last hurrahs, we made a trip down to the Aquarium. Now I've heard mixed reviews on this place. It seems people either really love it or think its the biggest waste of money out there. I landed somewhere in the middle. We only went because of a good deal I got on a Groupon site, so we paid about half-price. By the time you pay for gas to get there it probably isn't worth it, and if I'd gone and paid full price I would've been upset. It only took us about an hour to get through it, and they charge slightly more than zoo prices! Sucks! It was small. And they waste half of it with a Utah fish exhibit. That's right. You can go and look at Trout. How exciting.

Then you get into the ocean animals area, that's pretty cool. You can actually pet sting rays. None of the kids would do it, so I bribed them each with a dollar. My kids still wouldn't, but Kamdyn and her brother Clay went right in. They couldn't get enough! I kept promising Dallin money, but he refused. So at one point I reached over to touch one of them and got major willies right at the last second and squeled like a little girl! To which Dallin tells me: "Oh come on Mom! If you touch it I will give you a Dollar!"

The jellyfish were amazing. I could've watched them all day. Made me remember why I used to want to be a marine biologist back when I was in high school.

In front of the jellyfish tanks...

We still had a lot of fun and learned lots of new stuff. We got to see an octopus, that was stuck and spread out over the glass of his tank so that we could see all of his sucker thingies (very scientific words right there!), and right into his mouth, which just happened to be consuming a large hunk of fish at the time. We saw eels (including an electric eel), sharks, turtles etc etc etc. Cool, but I'd never pay full price to go back.

Then Dallin started soccer this week. So far he is just having practice, but he's already loving it. I could see immediately though how quiet and polite he really is. The drills they did were trying to teach the kids how to kick the balls and how to steal the balls from the other kids. He just couldn't do it. Flat out. He would've missed out on everything if the coach hadn't started stealing balls for him! And though I missed most of his practice yesterday, I heard his confidence is already improving. We'll see how this goes...

And once again, anytime he's really concentrating that tongue of his is hanging out of his mouth!

Then yesterday we went back to the Airforce Museum. I love it because the kids are completely interested and excited about it, ask all sorts of questions, and its FREE! My favorite kind of activity! We went last time almost exactly a year ago, so I was amazed at how much they remembered about specific planes. If only Kylee's memory served her that well during homework time!

Bomb baby.

Their favorite plane. I wonder why....

When Dallin sat here I warned him not to press any buttons just in case he shot straight through the roof. I had him plenty nervous :)

Then on the last note, I started watching Little Miss Kamdyn exactly 2 years ago. This was a picture I took on the first day I had her, when she was only 4.

Her and Kylee have a love for stuffed animals in common. They became best friends almost immediately, and 2 years later they still are, which is the #1 reason I kept watching Kamdyn everyday when I pretty much quit watching all the other kids regularly. That and she is such a great kid. I came to really love her, and I've been tearing up for the last couple of weeks knowing that my time with her is done now that she's entering first grade. I will still see plenty of her, have her for plenty of play dates I'm sure, but it just won't quite be the same. She really did become my 3rd child.

This is a picture of them almost exactly 2 years later. I can't believe how much they've grown up!

The Curse of the Lake....

2011-08-08T16:30:00.001-07:00

It was Raspberry Days this past weekend. I don't think we've missed one since I've been with Trae, for the past 15 years. I titled this blog post the way I did for a reason. It all started last year over the 4th of July weekend. Someone is bound to get sick in one way or another! Last year Dallin ended up with croup and he and I stayed in our bedroom for the entire weekend. This year over the 4th of July Trae got sick, so I went up alone with the kids. This time, Trae, Dallin and I still had residual coughs from colds we've had this past month, so even though we weren't sick anymore, it probably didn't sound that way to everyone else! Then the night we got there, Kylee started complaining of a stomach ache. Every now and then she gets some gas pains (I won't expand on the details :). So the first night there we were all up until almost 2am trying to make her feel better. She was in pain and not feeling well all weekend, and would even throw up because of it. Thankfully we've been able to deal with the problem and she seems to be doing better today.

In the midst of all that we were still able to have some fun! The first day was spent laying around the house and then going to the craft fair. We all had plenty of junk food, Kylee got some new flowers for her hair and we let the kids play in the bounce houses for awhile. By the time we got baths and dinner done, the kids were ready for bed, so was I, and the other adults watched a movie.

Crazy cousins in the tub. Dallin is hiding his junk for ya :)

The next day was beach day, and we got there bright and early. With the lake water being as high as it is, all of the grasses and weeds are now under water and starting to die off, washing up on the beach. We spent about 20 minutes that morning clearing our space on the beach so that we could actually enjoy ourselves.

This is what it looked like before...

and after... And yes, we did create "boundaries" to keep other people out of our space. Didn't exactly work however.

Trae playing a game of whatever this is called!

Ahhhhh....

Showing off her toothless grin.

And later on riding motorcyles and 4-wheelers.

Once it got dark, Nonna and Grandpa broke out a big package of glo-sticks. We ended up all decked out in them and wandering the neighborhood letting Kylee pass them out to other people. We then stood on the hillside and watched the Raspberry Days fireworks show from afar while I serenated the family, and (my apologies) quite a few neighbors with an opera like version of America the Beautiful.

The kids fell asleep with their glo-sticks.

Then we packed up to go home Sunday afternoon. Trae noticed this lovely spider hanging on the front of the house. This thing was big too. I'd estimate it to be about quarter sized hanging the way it was. Notice all the flies caught in its web? Gross. Trae got it with a fly swatter. Anyone have any idea what kind of spider this is? I'm baffled and disgusted all at the same time.

Now we are home again and taking it easy before real life hits again tomorrow. Let's hope we can make it up one more time before winter!

Toothless Grin!

2011-08-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

Kylee came running in while I was washing dishes the other day all panicked and bleeding. "Mom!!! My tooth fell out!" While nearly crying she proceeded to tell me that she was blowing up a floatie and her tooth got caught on it and got ripped out! She says she didn't know it was loose, but earlier that day she had a toy in her mouth that I yanked away and she said "You hurted my sweet tooth!" That tells me the tooth was in fact loose, she just doesn't pay close enough attention to ANYTHING to notice!

Once she realized what really happened she calmed down and then got very excited, asking me to send pictures to all of our family and friends. She had to show everyone she came in contact with, and started getting all excited about the tooth fairy visiting her up at Bear Lake that night.

Luckily the fairy didn't get lost (or didn't forget!!!) and found Kylee easily enough up at Bear Lake! She was thrilled to find her tooth was gone and $2 was left in its place. Hopefully next time she'll give me a little warning!

Summer Fun!

2011-08-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

We've had quite the busy summer, and surprisingly enough I don't have very many pictures of it! We've been going to a movie once a week with our local theater's summer movie camp, going to Seven Peaks Waterpark about once a week with our Pass of all Passes (not the best place for a camera!), playing around the house, swimming at home, running through sprinklers, playing on the slip n' slide, getting into water fights and all sorts of other stuff!

Too lazy to come inside for a drink!

Even Diddy has been having a blast. This dog has a thing for sprinklers! Anytime I let him outside, if any of the neighbors sprinklers are on he has to launch a full on attack and comes home drenched each time!

Maybe they know something I don't!

Exhausted pup.

Just have to throw this one in. It's always interesting to see what Kylee tries to sleep with.

We've also been cleaning house around here. We've sold all sorts of stuff, including multiple tools. I'm amazed at how much of my time has been taken up just from a few KSL ads!

We've also been busy with sleepovers, playdates and birthday parties, making crafts, summer colds, torn ligaments, Bear Lake trips, car shopping, shopping for school clothes and all of the other little things that take up our time! It has been so busy that I about had a panic attack when I realized school is only 2 weeks away. How much more summer fun can I fit into 2 weeks? Let's see....

4th of July!

2011-07-12T11:44:00.001-07:00

We left Bear Lake Monday morning and headed home. Unfortunately I got to handle our first real bout of car sickness that day going through Logan canyon. Poor Dallin. (Poor me.) We'll be ready next time! We got home and got ready for our picnic and fireworks with my family. We ate and played at "Castle Park" in Fruit Heights where we took the annual grandkids shot:

Dallin. He won't let me do his hair lately. Good thing he's cute anyway!
The best pic I got of Kylee. Aww man. Why is this so dang difficult for her? And when will it be easier??? At least she was smiling!

Playing with Pop-its!

After the park we went to the Kaysville fireworks at Davis High. Now we remember why we usually go to Layton's! So much better! We still had fun watching the kids put on a parade with their many glo-sticks, necklaces and bracelets. Going to the fireworks with all the family is one of my favorite traditions of the year. So much fun!

Bear Lake 4th of July Weekend

2011-07-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

Me and the kids were able to go to Bear Lake for the first time this year over the 4th of July weekend. Trae stayed home sick and enjoyed a few days without anyone bugging him, although he was in charge of Diddy. And even though he'll never admit it, they now have a tight bond. :-) We drove up early Saturday morning, and made it to the beach by 10am.

Dallin playing a game of horse shoes.

And playing a game of whatever this is called! It was fun though!

I attempted to take both kids on a slow ride on the Sea Doo. Let's just say it didn't quite work out and that it was a very short ride.

My cute guy.

Both kids had turns riding in the tube with Nonna while being pulled behind the Sea Doo.

My favorite picture of the day...helping eachother walk through the mucky water to the tube.

Dallin's turn for a ride!

My fish out of water, Kylee.

Sea Doo ride with Nonna.

Dallin and Lincoln playing in the sand, Bennett playing in the background.

I probably shouldn't put this on here, but its just too cute not too!

The water level in the lake is so high now that our usual beach for the last 10 years is now under water. :( So we actually paid to go to Rendevous Beach, which wasn't quite as nice as we remembered it. The water along the beach was kinda mucky and gross, and there were a lot of weeds to walk through before you reached decent sand under the water. By then it was too deep for the kids. It took awhile for them to get over the grossness, but they eventually got in for a swim!

Another favorite picture of the day...

Picture of Nonna with all the grandkids.

Taking all the kids out for a stroll on the tube...

The next day Kylee got some cuddle time in with "Big Guy" as she calls him. She definitely prefers the big dogs.

Dallin loves the "Little Guy." Even though he has a frenzied look in his eyes!

All of us at dinner time, minus Camie who is taking the picture!

Overall it was a good weekend. We got lots of R&R time (I even read an entire book!), and plenty of play time. Can't wait for Raspberry Days!

This is the Place!

2011-06-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday my Mom (Mimi), my sister and I took the kids down to This is the Place Park. It really is a lot of fun for them, even though it doesn't change all that much from year to year. It was the hottest day of the year so far, so though everyone was dragging a bit, we still made it all over the park and saw just about everything! Here they are on the pony rides. Kylee got to ride on Lucky, which just thrilled her since her favorite stuffed animal she's carried around for years now has that name.

Dallin rode Honey.
Then they got to pet the goats in the petting zoo. Dallin has a gentle love for animals. Kylee loves them, just isn't quite as gentle or comfortable around the real ones. She prefers stuffed. :)

The goats then noticed Cade in his stroller....his shoe must've been quite tasty....

then off to see what was in the back....

Showing off his new Arrowhead necklace they made in the Indian village.

And Kylee's...

The Indian village is Kylee's favorite part. She loves to play in the mud homes and teepees.

They have this play boat in the same area, not quite sure what its there for, but the kids had fun on it! Here they are posing in the bunks:

Panning for gold...

Ky tried and tried but never did find any gold!

Dallin gave up pretty quick and gave it to me to do. Then everytime I'd find a piece he'd take it and drop it! After that happened twice I was done!

Lauren found 6 or 7 pieces on her own. Katie seemed to feel a bit lazy like Dallin, so Brooke got involved. She seems so serious about it....:)

Train ride!

Mimi kept whipping out ring pops everytime I seemed to turn around, so Dallin's mouth was dyed blue the entire day!

Wow!!! I actually got a really cute snapshot of Kylee! Woo hoo!

Back in town Brooke got roped in by the barber, who must've noticed the beard she was growing that the rest of us were too embarrassed to talk to her about. She finally got the shave she so desperately needed! And since I promised her I'd put it on the blog....

Look how happy she is to look like a woman again!

(For preventative measures, since Brooke is a little more sensitive than most, this is a disclaimer to say that she really wasn't growing a beard. She really isn't capable of doing that. But he did take off the mustache that she twisted up on the ends every day. For that we thank him :)

Kids doing their chores and cleaning the laundry...

And playing with milking bears, to learn how to milk a cow.

And then there was the ride home. Brooke and Mimi rode home with Cade in their nicely air conditioned vehicle. I on the other hand was stuck with the rest of the brats, uh, I mean children, in my broken air conditioning vehicle. Dallin quickly fell asleep and I grabbed my camera and took a pic over my shoulder. Only when I got home and blew it up on my computer did I see how hot he really was.

The girls were all miserably hot too. All of them fell asleep. This ride home helped me make the decision to sell the car!! Now I just need to figure out what to get!

What I gave myself for Mother's Day

2011-06-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

We were due for new family pics, so I got myself some for Mother's Day! Trae couldn't argue his way out of that! Most of our family pics have been done in the fall/winter, so I was excited for something different. We went to this orchard in Roy, a bit too late for the blossoms to still be on the trees. I had originally scheduled to have them done the day my Mom surprised me with tickets to see U2 in concert. There were probably blossoms then, but U2 was worth the sacrifice! I knew when I saw the orchard that I was going to get exactly what I wanted, and I did. I LOVE them! There are a lot of pics to look at. You can click on them to enlarge them too. Let me know which ones are your favorites!

I may just blow this one up for the wall!

I love them all! But weirdly enough, my favorites are actually the ones with just me and Trae. Not really sure why. Now the hard part, actually picking which ones to frame! Have you ever seen my house? I usually can't really decide, and just frame them all! My Mom says I need to branch out in my decorating a bit :)

Once again, my friend Ashley Schoenfeld took this pics. You can reach her through her blog, www.milesofmemories.blogspot.com

Zoorassic Park!

2011-06-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

The kids were very excited to get to go to the zoo today. I'm so glad I took them despite our friends backing out on us at the last second. There was so much more to see with all of the dinosaurs around. And as long as my kids were wearing sunglasses, I actually got some good pictures of them! Because it really didn't matter if they weren't looking at the camera...you couldn't tell anyway!

These dinosaurs were awesome, and Kylee's favorite part of the day. They actually spit water at you! I had to force Dallin to stand by it to take the picture. I think the dinosaurs were a little too realistic, because he was very nervous. As soon as I snapped the picture he ran right back to me!

Baby Zuri playing with her ball and throwing dirt on her back. Kylee educated me on how that cools her off, along with flapping her ears.

Digging for fossils. A new addition to the zoo!

Maybe I've just missed them before, but they had employees actually mingling with the crowd with fossil specimens, furs to touch and other little fun things. This lady had each of the kids touch a fossil and then announced to them that they'd just touched fossilized dinosaur poop! The look of disgust on Kamdyn's face was priceless!

After a lunchbreak we grabbed some ice cream. Let's just say I'm glad I brought wet wipes! Somehow the girls each ended up with ice cream on their backs!

Dallin was an instant mess. This kid just doesn't know the way to eat an ice cream cone. Holy cow was he a sight to see! His hands were covered, his poor clothes (glad I had him wear darker colors!), all up and down his arms, legs and even dripped all over his feet. We went through major wet ones to clean this one kid up. But he enjoyed every last lick.

Most of the dinosaurs weren't actual size. Most were about 1/3 to 1/2 of the real size, but they didn't scrimp on T-Rex. He was actual size, and even his eyes moved around to look at you. Once again, Dallin wasn't too happy to get in the picture.

I had to force Miss Kamdyn to take this picture. :-)

Her brother Clay was much more willing.

Dallin wouldn't put his head in the dino's mouth either. I will take what I can get!

Kylee couldn't have cared less!

Cute kids on a fun day!

We had a lot of fun. It wasn't too hot and we were able to take our time. The kids asked a lot of questions, answered a lot of questions, learned a lot and had a blast! The place was literally crawling with daycare kids, which became incredibly annoying. I think they contributed to the headache I had developing all day while we were there. By the end of the day I was seriously regretting not packing my beloved Excedrin. By the time I got home I was in full-blown migraine mode, took about 3 Excedrin Migraines and crawled into bed with a frozen bag of veggies on my head. It took a couple hours, but I am functioning again! Next time the Excedrin is coming with me!

"Your In Vidid"

2011-06-14T22:01:00.000-07:00

Today's weather was awesome. So awesome in fact that I had to force the kids to come inside for a bit of a break, and a second round of sunscreen. Dallin thinks now that he can ride a bike without training wheels, that he has to do just that from sun up to sun down. And so today he was out there every possible minute. Kylee and our little friend Kamdyn took a break from the bikes and had a tea party out on the driveway. They also made invitations for all of us:

I have to save these papers. This was the first real time that Kylee tried to write a sentence without doing it for school or because I told her too. I was so impressed with her I got a bit teary-eyed! I was so proud that I could actually decipher what she was trying to say: "You're invited to our party. Boys and girls can come."

Kylee pouring Kamdyn some tea. She's into playing "hotel" and "waiter" lately.

Sipping away so politely...

Is it bad that I usually try to discourage these little tea parties? Just because I personally have to wash all of these little plastic pieces of food and plates etc. I have enough to wash as it is!

A little bit later I gave them actual food to enjoy with their party. This got the boys to join in on the fun. Dallin opted for a "private room" for some reason.

These are the kinds of things I know I will look back on someday when my kids are all grown and cry a little bit at how sweet and innocent they used to be. Hopefully they will attend plenty of tea parties later on with their Mama!

Videos of Dallin's Newest Skillz

2011-06-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

Speedy McSpeedster!

2011-06-13T13:19:00.001-07:00

Friday morning Dallin got upset with me because he wanted to ride his bike but he'd left it at a friend's house. I wasn't feeling well so refused to drive across town to get it! Well he improvised. He went outside and found Kylee's old very purple and pink bike, that does NOT have training wheels on it mind you, and just took off! A few minutes later I heard him yelling for me "Mom! Guess what I did!" So I take a peek outside and there he is, riding away like he'd been doing it for months!

I decided I really didn't want all of the video and pics of his latest experience archived with a pink and purple bike, so I met my friend halfway and grabbed his Spiderman bike. Here he is posing with a "mean" face.

Diddy was very happy and very proud of Dallin's accomplishment.

I was just happy I got away with not having to teach either one of my kids how to ride without training wheels! They are both self-taught. Maybe I'm just a lazy Mom!

Quick catch-up!

2011-06-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

Just a few things for fun this time! One day when my nieces were over to play my neighbor Cole, who I often have the pleasure of babysitting, was hanging out of his window calling to the kids. They couldn't resist and were soon being fed little bits of bread one at a time by the Colemeister. Why they all thought that was fun is beyond me, but heh! To each their own!

Then Memorial Day morning when I took Diddy outside this is what I discovered. We had our own private pond! SWEET! Our yard curves down into the golf course, where the course goes up, so flooding has happened before, just not quite like this! It was about 1 foot deep in some spots. We were lucky though. About 30 of our neighbors basements looked like this! A lot of people scrapped their Memorial Day plans and just went around helping neighbors pump water out and rip out carpet. I had a few phonecalls from people checking on us, so I'm very happy to know we live in a neighborhood that really takes care of eachother.

Then last Friday was the last day of school! I was so not ready! It doesn't help you feel ready for summer when its still 60 degrees outside. Though I love the cooler temperatures myself, it didn't seem right that school was done. Trae, Dallin and I were able to see Kylee graduate from Kindergarten. They had a sing-off between the classes and then each went to accept their diplomas.

Ky is hiding in the middle row on the left side of the picture.

There she is, acting shy, which we all know she totally ISN'T!

The best picture I got of her and one of her besties Bridgette.

Saying goodbye to her teacher Miss Williams.

Then last but not least....remember this guy? My sweet lil pup P. Diddy? Well what happened to him?!?!!!!!!

Where in the world did my puppy go!?!?!!

Isn't he so sweet? He is now 4 1/2 months old, but looks like a full-grown pup. I sure hope he won't get much bigger! He still doesn't have free reign of the house, but he gets more and more freedom each day. We are averaging maybe 2 accidents a week at this point, though I'm sure it'd be much more frequent if we set him loose and didn't watch him every second.

He really is such a good dog for us. We love him. Kylee and Dallin are awesome at letting him out first thing in the morning. That lets me sleep a bit longer. He goes about 9 hours a night in his kennel without accidents. I haven't tried any longer than that, but I'm sure he'd do it. Nine hours seems way too long as it is! He still stays in his pen that we built in the kitchen for him if we aren't able to watch him that minute. It is nice because it gives him space to play without being able to pee all over the house. I think we are getting close to taking it out altogether though.

He is excellent with the kids. When he plays with me he nips a lot, not in a mean way, but a playful way. But he can manage to get a good bite in once in awhile! I've noticed though that he doesn't really do that with the kids. Diddy won't just sit on the couch with me, he thinks he has to be gnawing on my hand or something, but he will cuddle with the kids (I'm kind of jealous.) He has the perfect temperament for us. He plays when we want him too, but is quiet and laid back when we can't. He only barks when he's playing with you and howls when Mama sings! He also follows the kids everywhere outside and has never even tried to run away. We can let him out to pee without hooking him up to his chain (no fence), and he will eventually come back and wait on the porch if we don't bring him back inside right away. I couldn't ask for a better puppy! Even Trae couldn't get rid of this guy!

Dallin's Preschool Program!

2011-05-19T16:27:00.000-07:00

Dallin had his end of year preschool program today! I don't call it a graduation just because he has one more year left before he starts Kindergarten. He was excited until we got there and then went into his little shell on Mommy's lap. Once he met up with his friends though he came back out of his shell. Besides teaching him so many great things (like learning how to read!), that's what I've enjoyed most about his year in preschool. He's a very quiet kid in public, and preschool has helped a lot with him feeling comfortable in different situations.

Here he said his name and what he wants to be when he grows up. The first few times I asked him that question he'd start crying and bury his head on my shoulder and say "I don't want to grow up! I want to stay here with you!" He has since toyed around with the ideas of being a semi-truck driver and a Monster truck driver, which is what he announced today.

He is singing his heart out!

Receiving his diploma.

I love this picture.

My baby is growing up! He looks like a little man :(

Mini Monkey!

And with his Mini Monkey preschool teacher, Miss Michelle, whom we love! (He loves her so much he got on his bike to ride to her house last week and crossed 3 streets before I caught up to him!)

And a pic with Mom and Dad of course.

The whole lil Treasure family.

We got hit by the crazies again!

I got home from his program and started flipping through the binder that his teacher made for him. She's been collecting all of his work over the year and it is amazing to me to see his progress. He is a very quick learner. I'll always remember the first day he went his teacher actually pulled his work out of his backpack herself to show me how well he did. That first day he couldn't write his name, so we practiced it once or twice that night and he has done it like a pro ever since! I can't believe my baby is getting so big and smart! Makes me want to cry, and I just might if I think about it too long!

Treasure Family Cousins

2011-05-19T15:29:00.000-07:00

One day while trying to figure out what to do for our mothers for Mother's Day, the thought occurred to me that it'd been 2 years and 2 kids ago since the Treasure family cousins had a picture taken together. I knew then that would be the perfect gift for Cindi, my mother-in-law. So Camie and I started coordinating. Cindi had bought Dallin and Lincoln their outfits for Easter and the other kids outfits just matched really well. So last Sunday we finally met up and attempted pics! It was the day the wind was crazy, but the kids did pretty well.

From left to right:

Dallin - 4 years

Cannon - 14 months

Kylee - 6 years

Bennett - 14 months

Lincoln - 2 (soon to be 3!) years

Cannon

Bennett

This is what most of our pictures looked like. Kind of funny. We were happy if we only got one :) The sunny skies and extreme wind didn't help anybody!

My G.Q. Dallin boy

Lincoln

Kylee

Cannon and Bennett (who was pulling funny faces and sticking his tongue out like this all day. Oh well! It's still cute :)

I showed Cindi her new pics today and was delighted to make her cry. (Is that evil?) Camie was at least on speaker phone. We figured it'd be quite awhile before we all get together again so we just gave them to her today. I think we did good!

Yes I took the pics and even photoshopped them myself, so if any of my more professional photoshop using friends can give me advice on how to do it better or what I did wrong etc please send me an email or something! Gracias :)

My Mother's Day!!

2011-05-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

I actually had a Mother's Day this year! Yay for me! Trae has been out of town on almost all of my mother's days. I think this was the second time he was around on the actual day. It didn't really bother me much at first, but over the years it has started too, so I was very happy that Trae was home this time, and so were the kids. This was the first year where Kylee knew a week in advance exactly what she wanted to do for me and made sure Daddy would be able to take her to the store. She was very excited about it. The day he took the kids shopping, Dallin had come to me crying saying he didn't know what to get me. I told him anything he got me would be wonderful. Then he asked me if I like dollies. "Ummm...not exactly. Daddy will help you find me something." He's a sweet gus.

I can't believe I'm going to include these pics, but here they are. Pics of me still in bed, in my jammies, no make-up. Please don't zoom in on my face! My day started with them making me a huge breakfast in bed. Waffles, eggs, bacon, toast and fresh pineapple. Way too much but I enjoyed every bite. They brought it in along with flowers from each of them and even a big bouquet of balloons. They then gave me hugs and kisses and left me to eat in peace.

A bit later they brought me presents (Chocolate and candles) and cards they'd made.

I like this pic because Dallin is blocking my face :) A rare cuddle moment with Kylee.

I try to get a picture with my kids every Mother's Day. I'm usually behind the camera, so snapshots with me in them are very rare. We had to do it inside this time since it was pouring outside! I love this one with my boy, just wish it wasn't blurry!

He still loves cuddles and kisses with Mommy. I dread the day that stops.

This is rare. Kylee smiling so cute with her Mama. She was so excited it was Mother's day and tried very hard to make me happy. This snapshot is the best present I got all day.

She is NOT a cuddler. Even more so she is NOT a kisser. She gets very shy and uncomfortable giving or receiving kisses.

This was like torture for her to give me a kiss. You can't really see, but her mouth was open and very stiff. I love that it drives her so crazy. Maybe that will keep the boys away!

I can never get one with both of them looking and smiling at the same time, so I'll always post the best of each of them!

And the crazies come out at last!

After going to church and getting some yummy treats and social time there, we came home and Trae then made me dinner while letting me do whatever I wanted. It was a great day!

Top 10 Reasons Why "GNAT" to Visit Antelope Island!

2011-05-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

Warning: This is a fairly long post. I feel I need to fully whine and complain so that you can get a real feel for what this day was like. My goal is to make sure you all are warned before you attempt at making the same mistake we did, which is visiting Antelope Island when it was NOT January!

Saturday after spending an hour or two staring at and rearranging my new plants and flowers for my front yard, my family all met up at our house, ready for a picnic over at Antelope Island. What a mistake that turned out to be!

1. First reason not to visit Antelope Island....It costs you $9 a car just to drive in there. $9 for each car full of suckers that hope to have a pleasant visit. Well, they tried to warn us, and we didn't listen, so they rightly earned their $9!!! Right as we drove up they had one of their digital marquee signs flashing "BUGS! BUGS! BUGS!!! Biting gnats!!! Really bad!!! Consider yourself warned!" Of course we laughed it off, paid the $9 entrance fee and drove along. My Mom and Kevin in the car behind us actually asked the employees "Are the bugs really that bad?" To which the kind lady responded "I'm not sugar coating it. They are bad." Once again, we all paid anyway and headed in, driving along the causeway literally having a conversation about how nice it was going to be spending a day outside when the weather was a perfect 72 degrees, and also wondering why we didn't do this more often when we live so close by? Perhaps we should make it a Sunday tradition and drive out there and just spend the day as a family.

2. Well we drove up to the "beach" of imported sand that they'd brought in trying to make Antelope Island a little piece of heaven. Well they failed. Miserably. We found a picnic table & Trae quickly pulled up to it "before anyone else could grab it!" Then we stepped out of our cars and all Hell broke loose. (Pardon my french but it seriously did :) We were instantly swarmed by gnats, by biting gnats. We were kind of laughing it off at first, but merely seconds later we were starting to freak out and searched for bug spray, which we all apparently thought someone else was in charge of bringing! Luckily Trae had bought me a little portable bottle of spray that I'd stashed in my car for just such an occasion, and luckily it covered us all. So #2 is gnats, hundreds upon thousands if not millions of gnats!!!

3. Trying to have a picnic. Who was the idiot that thought that would be a good idea? Well, we won't name any names (MOM!!!), but we were all idiots for going along with it. It was horrible. After we were all sprayed with bug spray, even sprayed dead in the face, we set up our attempt at a picnic. My Mom (Mimi) was nice enough to pack up some KFC, watermelon, potato salad, chips and a yummy brownie dessert. Well both the KFC and the potato salad had plenty of seasonings that too closely resembled gnats. So every bite I took I had to inspect and pull gnats out of or determine safe to consume. I gave up quickly. Every time I'd try to sip my lemonade there was a new bug or something in my drink. I decided I'd rather be hungry that continue torturing myself. At one point Trae looked in my hair and estimated that there were at least 40-50 gnats just hanging out. So everytime I'd lean in for a bite of food more of them would fall out into my food. Not one bit appetizing and way more stressful for me that it seemed to be for anyone else! Everyone was laughing at me, thinking I was making a much bigger deal out of it than it really was. They said "no wonder she hates camping so much!" Apparently I'm the big wuss in my family, the lil Miss Priss! And that's ok with me, because I'll always be in air conditioned facilities!

4. Of course blogger uploaded my pictures all out of order again, so we'll just throw in that #4 reason not to visit, at least on this particular day, we drove around following all sorts of signs that promised the chance to see oodles and oodles of buffalo that never seemed to pan out. Finally by the side of the road we found 4. Only 4. And with a telephoto lens this was the best pic we got of one of them. So they were far enough away that the kids probably think buffalo are just cows. Oh, and for calling it Antelope Island we never did see any antelope. I think its a sham.

#5. The kids didn't eat for long, but probably not for the same reasons as me. They were just anxious to grab the shovels and buckets and head out for the sand. Well we adults eventually went out to join them. Don't these pictures look like we are enjoying a lovely stroll hand-in-hand on the beach? Ahhhh how precious. Well in fact Trae was trying to keep me standing upright and we were both trying to steer clear of the sharp rocks and prickly weeds that seemed to be everywhere in the sand just itching to cause us all injury. And that was the lovely imported sand meant to allow for oodles and oodles of relaxing beach fun.

#6. Once you got past the sharp, rocky, prickly sand, you eventually came across gross, squishy sand covered in bird turd. I let out groan after groan with every step I took. The texture changed each time. Some steps led to gross sand squishing through my toes, others led to me literally sinking down in the sand. Others were coarse and painful. Just gross and unpleasant.

#7. It stunk. Plain and simple.

Once we got past all of that and actually got to the water, funny enough the gnats failed to be a problem anymore. So the kids played in the sand and water for a little while trying to make the most of things. And I tried to be brave and snap photos of the "wonderful" memories we were making together! Here they are skipping those sharp flat rocks that tried to draw our blood.

Posing for a silly pic with Mimi & Trae. Katie didn't seem to get the memo about showing her muscles.

The twiners (they wore the same shirt that day) playing around.

Daddy teaching Dallin the art of rock skipping. It's a rare talent.

You wouldn't catch me stepping foot in this water.

A great shot of Mimi. Hope you enjoyed your Mother's Day picnic Mimi!

Cute shot of Daddy and Dallin

#8. Ok, fun's over!! Number 8 on my list is the nasty water. I took a pic. It was gross. It smelled rotten. The shoreline was covered in dead brine shrimp.

But of course that didn't stop Kylee.

Just a quick cute shot of my nephew Cade. But notice the gnat in the front of his hair.

#9. Dead birds. Everywhere. I'm not exaggerating. Everywhere.

Gotta throw in a few cute pics in the midst of death and grossness.

Trae doing his "smoulder."

A rare cute shot of Miss Kylee!

10. And back to grossness. Dead birds everywhere also mean bones everywhere. It really looked like a mob of hundreds of people had walked through with their own KFC chicken and just chucked the bones all over the beach. You really had to watch each step you took. That $9 you pay as you enter is supposed to take care of and maintain the island. I'm wondering what they really use it for, cause it sure isn't pest control or keeping the beach clean!!

After our short little bit of fun, we headed back for our dessert and to clean up. As soon as our feet touched the imported sand the gnats were back with a vengeance, like they'd been waiting for us and plotting our demise. We started rushing through dessert and cleaning up when Brooke asked me to hold Cade for a minute. Of course I did and was instantly horrified to see the scores of gnats that covered his tiny body. I was DONE! I was completely freaked out. I ditched the clean up efforts, made Brooke load Cade back up in his carseat and the two of us, shortly joined by Katie, waited in the air conditioned car and just watched the others finish cleaning up! Yes, I can be quite selfish at times. But I did not care one little bit. I was safe in my car.

Everyone had fun making fun of Lil Miss Priss, (me of course) until Brooke noticed that I had multiple bites on my arms. So the whole time I was complaining about being attacked and they laughed and thought I was making it a bigger deal that it was, I was in fact being attacked!!! I must taste the best. Because I was getting it the worst. Or at least I thought at the time. This picture doesn't show the bites too well, but its still proof!

After they were done packing up we got back in our cars, toured the small indoor visitors center and then went searching for the buffalo. This was the few that dared venture out of the vehicles again to take a look. We stayed in and viewed them through our camera lenses!

So there were a few fun moments mixed in with the horribleness of it all, but my favorite part? The drive home, and knowing I was soon to be safe again. And it had a pretty view too, until I started noticing dark clouds alongside the road and figured out they were big clouds of gnats trying to get one last bite of me! Seriously thousands of them. The signs at the entrance need to be made bigger and more threatening! My other favorite part of the day was when we were cleaning up our picnic, a couple pulled up and got out of their car and immediately made a crack at us for attempting to eat on this gnat filled land. Well the joke was on them, because their plan had been to have a lovely leisurely stroll on the beach. They lasted no longer than 2 minutes before they were half running back to their car swatting away!

We got back to my house and played outside for a bit, trying to shake off any leftover gnats from our hair and clothes. My Mom left with at least 20 still in the part of her hair. Lucky for me my hair is dark and so I wasn't able to see the ones embedded there, so I didn't panic and shave my head, which was a thought that had indeed occurred to me!

Kids being cute and having fun pretending to have fun. :)

Once we went inside to take those highly coveted showers, the damages became highly visible. Dallin's neck was covered in bites...

And Kylee's hairline looked like she had a sudden case of chicken pox!

Luckily the bites weren't too itchy, not like mosquito bites and they faded quite a bit by morning. I wasn't going to go to church looking like we all had some contagious disease! So never again will we make plans for a picnic at Antelope Island. And I send this very long blog post out there to fairly warn the rest of you! If you do go, make the trip in January. I would think the bugs wouldn't be so bad in January, but then again, I've been wrong before!

Kylee's Kindergarten Program!!!

2011-04-29T14:58:00.001-07:00

Kylee had her Kindergarten perfomance today. They have been practicing for weeks! At least I've been hearing those songs for weeks! She's been very excited about it and invited both sets of grandparents to attend, along with Mom, Dad and Dallin.

During practices she's been getting into some trouble for talking. No surprise when talking about Kylee right? Well she had been threatened a couple of times by both me and her teacher that if she kept it up she wouldn't be able to participate. I look at this picture and see why it was so difficult for her. I'm sure it was very hard resisting the little girl on her left :)

It was such a cute program. Very funny, and very fun decorations!

When I saw Kylee come out I wanted desperately to run up and fix her hair before it started, but was talked out of it. Everyone said that's just her! And it is, so I let it go. She always looks so cute first thing in the morning, but always comes home looking like she's been through a hurricane! She's still a cute lil raindrop though.

All the kids made Sharpie tie-dye t-shirts. Our first one didn't work out so well so we did it twice! We loved seeing how different each shirt turned out.

After the program Kylee took her family on a tour of her classroom. They just recently got some caterpillars, who have just entered their cacoons!

And a picture with her favorite Kindergarten teacher to top it all off...Kylee has already cried once or twice saying she doesn't want to go to first grade because she doesn't want a different teacher (or more homework!). She loves Miss Williams!

I had promised Kylee that if she could quit talking during practices and listen to the teachers then I'd take her out for donuts afterwards, which we did. We also get to go to Free Family Skate Night tonight at the Classic Fun Center! Fun day!

Easter Egg-citement!!!

2011-04-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday Kylee woke up at 6:45am, which is really unusual for her. I told her it was too early and to please go back to bed. She came in about every 15 minutes until about 8:00 when Dallin woke up. She was very disappointed, but trying to hide it, because she didn't see any sign that the Easter bunny had come. We searched the house, but found no baskets. After a few minutes we did however find a note! The Easter bunny thought he was so funny and hid the baskets this year. He led them on a scavenger hunt, and each clue had a prize.

Here is Kylee trying to read the first clue. She was getting most of the words but quickly lost patience for it! The clue said to find the next clue in the coldest spot in the house. They ran to the basement, then decided it was the freezer!

This clue rewarded them with the Tangled DVD, and another clue leading them to where they wash their bodies and go potty...

The second location, the bathroom of course, rewarded them with a kiddie pool for Summer. Dallin seems more excited about finding the next clue! It lead them to the game closet, which had a slip 'n slide and the last clue telling them their baskets were under lamps.

After checking every lamp in the house before discovering the actual lamps the baskets were under, they finally found the loot! Dallin loved his Spiderman hat.

Kylee found a Lalaloopsy.

The Easter bunny even left them personalized peanut butter eggs...

Goof-off...

The Easter bunny is very wise. This year he brought them mostly clothes instead of toys and treats. He definitely knows what they needed the most. :-)

After baskets and after Daddy made us French Toast, it was on to dyeing Easter eggs...

and then decorating those eggs...

After eggs and church we took off to Mimi's house for our Easter dinner and egg hunt.

Posing with actual flowers this year! Though it was still cold, at least there were flowers! They haven't been around the last few Easters.

Annual snapshot with the cousins on the porch. Not too shabby! This was the first shot too!

My cute babies...all 3 of them!

Dallin's Weekend

2011-04-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

After our big Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning we played at Mimi's house, had lunch and then went dog shopping for my Mom, who is itching for a new pet. Later that day Kylee went to a friend's house, which is why she isn't anywhere to be found on this post! Dad was home once again working on the new work trailer, it was nice and warm so I challenged Dallin to a few wiggle car races. After that I tried to help him learn how to use his skateboard, while on actual concrete instead of carpet. :-) Some things just need to be handled by Daddy. Mom just isn't an expert on skateboards, but Dad thinks he is. So he took a 5 minute break and showed Dallin how its done. He first demonstrated with Diddy....

Then took Dallin on a ride on his long board...

Then got down to business...

Dad went back to work and Dallin tried passing on his new knowledge to Diddy..

who wasn't exactly having it...

My favorite little guy...

I had to include a picture of how Dallin made his bed last time...

Then Sunday afternoon, as soon as we got home from church Dallin ran to pack his bag for his first ever solo sleepover. He was beyond excited. I later discovered about 3 different outfits had been packed. He then walked around the house wearing his backpack all ready to go, constantly asking when Mimi was coming to get him. Then we found him like this...

The excitement was just too much for him, he fell asleep still wearing the backpack. Once he left and got to Mimi's house, he got to go play catch at the park with Papa, and Mimi took him to play Laser tag and Rollerball the next day. He's been telling me all about it all day long. He's very proud that he beat Mimi at laser tag with 100 points, saying she only scored 1 point (which was actually 1000, but she let him take the win :). I wish I was a kid again some days. I'd like a 2-day get-away where someone was solely focused on making me feel special and have fun. Someday!

Early Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

Every year my Mom's neighborhood pulls together to make one giant Easter egg hunt for the kids. And we get to go :) Each house that wants to participate hides Easter Eggs or treats or toys all over their yards, and the kids walk from house to house taking one from each. It's like trick-or-treating in April! All my pictures from that day turned out either blurry or were just bad pics, but I'm posting some anyway!

Even Diddy got to go. He's learning how to walk on a leash, and my Mom seemed to enjoy walking him.

Their bags were stuffed with goodies. And I have no problems helping them reduce the weight of their bags :-)

Just Cuteness!

2011-04-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

Here is just some random cute pictures. Kylee is loving her Diddy. Too bad she hasn't learned yet that he isn't a stuffed animal, and therefore carts him around doing whatever she would to a stuffed animal. Poor Diddy.

This was all we did for St. Patrick's Day. That is just one holiday I don't really care too much about! The kids loved their green lunch. Kylee had a birthday party that day so she got her lunch the day after, which is why she isn't wearing green.

This is the pen we've built to keep Diddy contained. This way he can't pee all over my house and make me crazy enough to get rid of him!

Just a picture of Dallin looking handsome in his new church clothes.

And being a little bit goofy for the camera...

Diddy got to see his sister one afternoon. They played pretty hard. He's the one on the right if you can't tell. He's double her size.

A pic of some of my favorite kiddos on a rare warm day. We actually all got sunburns. Then it snowed the entire following week.

That same day Daddy was working from home adding shelves to the new work trailer. Kylee so enjoyed having Daddy around that day that she was by his side the entire time. The kids even decided to have dinner in the trailer.

Kylee treating Diddy like a baby.

They kinda like him...

The kids had a couple of sleepovers with their cousins over Spring Break. This was their turn at our house. We always have to separate them once its actually time to go to sleep. Then we reunited them during deep slumber.

The next morning they all played dress-up.

Just a lot of our everyday life. Thankfully most of the time its just cuteness!

Baking Cookies with Daddy!

2011-04-13T15:18:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Kylee asked if we could make cookies. She just happened to ask on a day where I flat out didn't have the time. So she asked if Daddy knew how to make cookies. I actually had to text and ask him, because I really didn't know! But he said yes he did. So Kylee patiently waited for 3 days until Daddy was home long enough to do just that. We decided to make one of my childhood favorites, Chocolate Turtle cookies, or waffle cookies. (Honestly I thought it was one recipe he couldn't screw up! :)

I'm not proud of this part. I was just a little too tired to want to make my yummy chocolate frosting, so I did what most people would do & pulled out a can of frosting! The turtle cookies didn't taste quite the same, but the kids could not have cared less!

The pictures are cute and fun and all of that, but it just doesn't quite share what this night was really like. I want everyone to feel the atmosphere that these cookies were created in. There is something that happens to our little Treasure Family whenever Michael Jackson gets involved. Unfortunately, for some reason blogger won't let me put the pictures on the same post as the video without shutting down, so PLEASE look at the slightly older post to this one. I've watched it numerous times and still crack up. Dallin is getting very serious about his dance moves, Kylee tries hard to perform for the camera, and Trae either didn't know the camera was on him, or he had a fleeting moment that he didn't care. (I doubt it :) So take a look at a very embarassing video for Trae and enjoy a moment in time with my little family.

Treasure Family Dance Video!

2011-04-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

The story that goes along with this video can be found in a separate post above this one. Some day Blogger will want to work for me I just know it! Please share the love and let Trae know how awesome his dance moves are! Hopefully that will calm his anger when he sees what I've posted! :)

At least I won't have to pay for Harvard!!!

2011-04-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

Just like last year it snowed during Spring Break. So just like last year my kids decided they wanted to go sledding for hopefully the last time this season. Unfortunately the snow was very heavy and very wet, not all that slick for sledding. Dallin learned the hard way. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, I'm just glad I caught them!

(HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!)

Instant tears...in true Dallin fashion.

And back at it!!! This is where the title of this post may make sense to you. No one with a decent size brain does this do they?

Note to you all, I quickly grabbed my camera when I noticed where they had chosen to go sledding. I knew this wasn't going to last long. I turned the warm water on in the bathtub and then ran to get a picture, before the freezing water made its way all through their clothes. Within about 2 minutes I got these awesome pictures. Then seconds later I was ripping drenching clothes off of two hysterically crying kids. Why did I let them do it you ask? Because sometimes I'm a little sadistic. And I love a good picture. And hopefully they taught themselves a lesson right? Stay away from the flood of freezing water in the backyard! But to quote my brother in-law Scott, "At least I know I won't have to pay for Harvard!"

Firefighter in Training

2011-03-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

Dallin had a fieldtrip to the Syracuse Firestation yesterday. He was very excited to go & then very quiet once we got there. That's him for ya. Here he is in the training room waiting to see the super old, super annoying fire safety video, which may or may not have Lindsey Lohan in it.

Here are the kids sitting in the firefighters recliners in their breakroom. Not too bad for a home away from home.

Taking a tour of the equipment. Here they are learning about the ambulance.

And ready for the firefighter to come down the pole.

Watching the process of how they get their gear on.

Hugging the fireman to see that he isn't so scary in all of his gear with the mask on.

All of the kids posing at the end.

Dallin has been talking about it ever since. Fun times!