Carriage Hill Farm

So a while ago Bryan and I made the decision that instead of all of us driving out to Utah-it would be way less expensive for him to fly to Arizona and drive up with his parents and I took the kids to Ohio. There was absolutely no way I was going to do 4 kids trapped inside because we were under an Extreme Heat Warning all week long with the heat index about 115-120 everyday and no one coming home in the evening to help balance out the crazy! We both really wanted to take the kids to Utah and be with Bryan's whole extended family but I knew Bryan just did not want to pass up the opportunity to go to Arizona. He hadn't been back since his mission and I know he was dieing to go. I feel torn about the whole thing. I feel bad that we didn't just bite the bullet and go but then hearing about how things worked out almost makes me glad we didn't go! Not that anything went wrong it is just that I like (well love is probably the better word) a schedule, and I like to be on time, and I don't do well with up in the air just go with the flow, let have breakfast even though it is 11 in the morning kind of things. My kids are on a regular schedule and if they get off it heaven help anyone around them! So my type A retardedness along with my kids just does not mesh well with Bryan's family relaxed stance on things!! Plus I did a scrapbook for his Grandparents with pics we had gathered from his extended family, which turned out amazing and it would have been super embarrassing to have everyone talking about it with me there. I am more a behind the scene kind of girl rather than the spotlight seeking kind! So anyway Bryan took off and had a blast and the kids and I had a great time with my parents.

The heat in Ohio was still quite high although not as high as Iowa! So we did morning trips with the kids that lasted about 1-2 hours, its about all we could take! Went to Carriage Hill Farm one day. The kids love this place, it has sheep, chickens, horses, cows, and sheep and huge barns you can go into and walk paths through the woods and a penny candy store(which was closed cuz they changed the hours and didn't put it on the website-not cool!! not cool!!). It was fun and as always I got tons of cute pics! I just love taking pictures of my sweet kids!

Here is Dylan looking in the little creek as some small fish swimming around

We came across the creek at the end of the walk path we were on and had to do some rock hoping to cross it! The kids loved it! And I snapped a couple cute of my mom-doesn't she look amazing?!

Check out this gorgeous rooster! Isn't he beautiful?!

I love this pic of the kids! It is so hard to get them all to smile at the same time!

all about Colby!

So Colby lately has gotten tired of being put in the bouncy chair when we are eating-the kids have been eating in the living room since the table has been taken up by scrapbook stuff from the project I was doing and Colby likes to try to eat everyones food. So when he has reached his limit he squirms around and tries to get himself out

he gets to this point and is usually crying and then gets tired of holding himself up and so he rests on his head-so fuuny and so sad at the same time!

and this is how I get and fold the laundry now a days-its the only way to keep Colby in one spot while I try to speed fold the laundry!

Colby has also learned a couple of new tricks-he can clap-super cute and he can shrug his shoulders-which is hilarious! Abby likes to ask him questions and he answers straight faced and shrugs his shoulders! In this first clip she asks him if he likes her and in the second on she asks him if he is part of our family. It is funny to watch him but equally funny to watch Abby crack up at him!

4th of July!!

Independence Day!

Abby, Dylan, Lacey and Colby in their America finery! We started the day off with our towns 4th of July Parade-always super fun! They kids waved-

and picked up candy! (the highlight for them of course!)

Colby chilling out-

After the parade we went home and got some stuff ready then headed up to our friends the Butlers house for some fun, they kids ran around and swam in the pool-it takes Abby and Dylan a while to get over being petrified of the water but once they do they are all about it! Lacey of course has no fear, she just wanted in the water! Then we ate super yummy food and then headed out for fireworks. We brought games to keep the kids busy so Lacey played memory-and we waited.....

Bryan and Paul played Bop It-and we waited.....

Jenn and Abby played Guess Who -and waited.....

Lacey and I played Mancala and then she told me she wanted to play by herself!-and we waited some more....

Cobly was awesome the whole day and didnt mind waiting and waiting....

Dylan and Logan played Guess Who and we waited.....

Abby (with a little "help" from Brendan) and Breanne played Battleship and waited..

Everyone played Bingo and you guess it waited some more!

Colby couldn't hang on anymore and fell asleep but then woke up when the fireworks started-he did pretty good he just didnt like me trying to cover his ears!

we pulled out the glow braclets when it got dark enough and the entertained everyone till the fireworks got started!

This picture doesnt do the fireworks justice-they were amazing!

All and all it was a very great day and even worth paying for it in grumpy short tempered kids today!

Pioneer village

We went to the Walnut Grove pioneer village with Jenny last week and let the kids play around. This place is so cute and it had a train that the kids, especially Dylan could not get enough of! Abby didnt get to go because she was at a friends house but we are going back with some friends this week so she can check it out. I am sure it will become a favorite place for them to want to go and the best thing is it is free!!

Ok Lacey is just hilarious! There is a small fake cemetary-its really cute with a white picket fence and it has a couple of blank tombstones in it. We walked over to see it and this is what Lacey does---!!!

Abby Spring Recital

Sometimes I feel like all I do is post stuff about Abby! but she is the only one who is doing extra stuff right now! I guess it will even out this next year with Dylan starting school! So anyway Abby had her spring recital. She was so excited that she got to dance on both nights! I volunteered on Friday night for level 1 classes. Oh my gosh was that crazy busy!! Trying to get the right girls in the right costume with all the right accessories at the right time! Totally crazy especially when there were over 40 level 1 girls.

Tina, the owner of the Studio does this thing before the show where she gathers all the girls and gives them a little pep talk-she ends with "what do you do if your hair falls out?" the girls "keep dancing" "what do you do if your shoe comes off?" "keep dancing"-its pretty cute.

Then my parents came in to surprise Abby because she had asked them earlier to come to her recital. How could they say no?! She totally love having both sets of grandparents there to watch her.

She got a little spoiled this year with flowers and a stuffed animal! She has grown so much as a dancer this past year. She doesn't watch all the other girls to see if she is doing the right move and she has gotten so graceful. It has really been fun to watch her! This year all the ballet classes combined to do a whole Beatles medley. Each class did a dance then they all came out to end with about 80 dancers on the stage. This first clip is Abby's classes dance. This is from the rehearsal-she got a little nervous and got a little mixed up at the end but did awesome when it came time for the real thing!

This is the rest of it. It was really awesome! the video is giving me trouble so I am trying to upload it seperatly-we will see how that goes!

oh and I do have to say that all the mom's were jealous of Abby's hair because her hair was so easy to put in the required "messy buns"! Almost everyone else that has full buns have fake hair. So for once her curly madness pays off!!

hello internet connection......

....its nice to see you again! Finally I can put some pics and some of whats been going on! So settle in to a nice spot and try not to get too bored cuz here we go! First off April Fool's Day! I was so mad because I had planned to do some fun things for dinner and then got Scarlet Fever!! I was sooooo sick, but made the stuff anyway! We told the kids we were having dessert first and they were all excited to have pie for dinner!

We had "berry pie" which actually was meatloaf and mashed potatoes and then sherbet and sprite for a drink. They were bouncing out of their seats for a piece of pie and when I gave Abby a piece she stopped and looked at it and said "this doesn't smell like pie, hey this smells like beef!!" Totally funny! So after "dessert" for dinner we had "breakfast" for dessert!

We had bacon, eggs and toast-the bacon is a carmel and a tootsie roll, the eggs are melted marshmallows with yellow food gel and the toast is toasted pound cake! It was a super hit! Next, Abby's birthday way back in April!! We let her invite 3 girls for a Tangled sleepover birthday party. Only 2 could come which worked out well, the girls had a blast.

I made Rapunzel hair braids that they got to decorate with flowers and then they wore them all night! They made lighted lanterns by drawing on paper lunch bags and then putting in flameless votive candles to light them up. They turned out so cute!

They made pizza and then we put on Tangled to watch. They were all so cute they all wore their hair and made them light up with the votives when she sang and then made their lanterns "fly" when that part came. Abby had a great time! Then for her family party we had an Easter theme with fun bright colors, the one bad thing is that my super fun game for outside totally got rained out!! Totally bummed!! Then one night we used our fire ring in the backyard for the first time-what losers are we! lived in our house for almost 5 years and this is the first time we have used it! We probably would have used it more if I liked hot dogs, but I don't!

The kids loved it and of course we made smores, which I don't like but the kids do!!

Here is Abby on her last day of 1st grade with her totally awesome teacher Mrs. Wall! and a couple of pics of the other 3 crazies being silly with their "hey mom take of a picture of this!"

Lacey gets painted toenails!

I was right in the middle of making dinner the other night when Lacey asked me if I could paint her toes. I told her I could do that in just a couple mintes when dinner was in the oven. But before I was done she went in and asked Bryan to paint her toes for her! How cute is this?!