The Many Face of Emersyn Rae...

I am sure that all of these pictures look pretty much the same to all of you, but I had to include them all, couldn't leave any out. She is starting to show so much personality already! She smiles a lot and cries a lot too! She is our squishy!!! Thanks for the cute, cute outfit Bekki!!! I got so many compliments on it. It's the only time in her life she can have such chubby thighs in tight leggings and have it be adorable!

Monkey Girl, Maddie...

This is the Mommy in training at our house! She is so funny and somehow always intuitively (spelling?) knows when Mommy needs an extra pair of hands. Actually, ALL of our kids are great at this, but she really goes the extra mile sometimes. I was having a very bad day, trying to get all of us dressed and ready because I had a doctors appointment. Of course everything that could go wrong did and Lauren and Emmy were not cooperating. As you can see, Lauren did not want to get dressed and have her hair done. She is very hard to get out of her swimsuit these days. Madison helped me PRY her off of the eliptical machine!!! I got them all ready and came in to finish blow drying my hair. When I came back out to the toy room I found Maddie holding Emmy in the bean bag and she had gotten her to sleep. I guess she started crying in her swing and Maddie took her out and rocked her to sleep. She is going to be a great Mommy 25 years from now (at the soonest!!!).

A Softy Where His Sisters Are Concerned...

Daron is such a great brother to all of his sisters! He helps Kaitlin on the computer with games, shows Maddie how to play Mario Cart, gives Lauren a cup and cereal and turns on a movie for her in the morning, if he beats us to it waking up, and loves to hold his newest sister any chance he gets!!! Thank you Daron... we couldn't have asked for a sweeter son!

The Stars at night, are Big & Bright....Deep in the Heart of Texas....

Kaitlin & Daron are off to see their Mom and family in Texas at 2 pm today. Have a safe and awesome trip and do lots of fun stuff!!! They are soooo excited and we are happy for them to go and spend some much needed time!!! See you Tuesday!

Nicer Weather is FINALLY HERE!!!

We got to play outside tonight and grill some dinner and eat at the outside table, all because the insane AZ weather has finally cooled off a bit for Fall!!! It was so nice and breezy the last 2 days and what a fun weekend we have had. Someday, we'll get a picture of everyone in it at once, but until then here we are enjoying eachother Sunday night. Kevin always looks at all of us and says, "I love my family". It makes me happy that he's so proud of his family and loves to have all of us together at every opportunity!!!! He says this every morning at the breakfast table and throughout the day. I never get tired of hearing it!!! We all played four square and some horse (basketball). Lauren tortured Roxy (the dog) by pushing her little car around. Roxy runs after her and bites at the wheels and barks like crazy and we all laugh because Lauren gets such enjoyment out of it!!! Good times...

Saturday Is A Special Day, It's The Day We Get Ready For Sunday...

The kids, with the exception of Lauren, were all great helpers with the Saturday cleaning yesterday. I was so impressed and there was no complaining or "murmuring", (LOL) a word they are learning from our morning scripture reading. They use it all the time now! Anyway, thanks to my kids who did their chores and made our weekend so fun because we had time to play games and hang out with eachother! Keep up the good work... They'll all be gone next Saturday and now I'm gonna miss all the extra help!!!

TV Training...

I am a pro-TV Mom!!! I am not ashamed of this fact. Anything that will keep these two happy for awhile so I can get all my stuff done! I am also training Emmy to suck her thumb! It worked great for Maddie and Lauren, and binkies just get lost. Now, if only I could get Lauren trained to use the potty!!!!!!!!

A Little Eyeliner, Crazy Outfits, & Big Sis...

Lauren comes in EVERY MORNING with one of her swimuits to wear. There is no telling her no, and even if we try she is relentless and I usually give in because let's face it we aren't probably going anywhere and if it makes her happy, my day will be happier! So, here is an ensemble she chose to put on the other day. And, a picture of her room that is NEVER clean for longer than the first 5 minutes after I clean it 8 times a day. I have officially given up this task. I do it once a day now and let it look like this the rest of the time. There are only so many hours in the day, you know!!!! She is good about helping me clean it as long as we sing the clean up song from nursery!!!

Lauren always goes in to my bathroom and trys to put on my make-up. I usually catch her before she actually gets any or she's just using the blush brush and saying, "pretty" or the eyelash curler...nothing that leaves a mark. Today, I was swamped and didn't know she was in my bathroom and she came out with eyeliner all over her face above her left eye. Well, she was in the right vicinity...I'll have to give her a lesson so in the future she'll put it on under her eye! She also drew the eyeliner all over her small kitty cat toy so it could be pretty too! I found it a few hours later on my eliptical machine all DOLLED UP!!! Anyway, Madison is sooooo good to know when Mommy needs some help and took Lauren into her room and got her dressed in a very fasionable outfit (LOL:) and fixed her hair for me too! And, of course left the oh so pretty make-up on her face, and LAuren was ready for the day!

Recycling King and Queen...

Daron and Kaitlin have really wanted to get more serious about the recycling around here and let's face it...we need to do our part. It's been harder since living in Queen Creek because they don't have recycling receptacles, which I will never understand! Anyway, Daron offered to take the trash out as many times a day as it takes in order to use the back trash for cans & other recycling and the front one only for the rest of the trash. I thought that was cute. Kaitlin wanted to help crush cans and couldn't figure out how Dad was doing it with one hand, sometimes against his head!!!!! Her face in this pic is priceless!!!! So, since it was Daron's idea to get serious about this and his extra time and effort to take out the trash, and the girls are on the bandwagon to help make sure stuff gets thrown away properly, they will split the proceeds from any of the soda cans at least... 50% Daron, 25% each for the girls. And, he went online and looked up different places in our area that do all of the different recycling.

Kaitlin's Collage...

Kaitlin's first big report project due this year was an auto-biography. They have been working on it in class and at home over the past 8 weeks. This collage was the picture portion of the report. It was quite the undertaking and despite the fact that there was still a lot to do on it at the 11th hour (late, late, last night) it was finished and ready for her teacher this morning! I am so proud of her hard work. She got a little discouraged about dinner time yesterday because she was just starting the final draft of the body of the report and that alone was about 7 pages. We had a talk and decided to not mope about it and move forward and get it done! She is learning perseverance with her school work and that is gonna come in handy in junior high and high school, as well as in life. Sometimes you gotta suck it up and move on to get it done no matter how tired you are or how sore you are and sometimes no matter how sick you are. Moms and Dads do it everyday!!! Anyway, this was a great report and we had fun working on it together. It was fun to read her finished product and I learned some new things about her by reading it! When she gets it back I'll publish it here for posterity!!!! Let's face it, in 10-20 years we won't ever be able to fing that report and I want to have it for her and her kids to look at someday! Thanks soooooo much to Granny for putting the collage of Kaitlin's pictures together for us at the last minute!!! She works so well under pressure!

I Didn't Do it...

Translation: Rylan H. (for Harmon)

Okay, last but not least from our fun Sunday... I was wandering around the back yard playing photographer and came accross this name so nicely written on the outside steps stucco. RB was at the grill and I asked him if this was indeed Rylan's handy work, to which he replied, "oh no it wasn't him", because I am sure that's the response he and Stacie got when they asked Rylan if he did it. Funny stuff how kids think we are not as smart as they are. We all did this as kids I'm sure and it cracks me up when my kids do it. So, it reminded me of a time when RB put on one of our mascara when we lived in Riverside, CA growing up. He came in with the longest, darkest eyelashes you ever saw and when we asked him why he put our make-up on he said, "I didn't put anything on. I don't know what you're talking about"!!!! HILARIOUS... And, now Rylan tells this to his Mommy and Daddy, and so on and the cycle of life continues!

Some of the Crew...

1. Here comes Trouble! Chance, Lauren & Aden... 2. Kev & Lauren... 3. Lauren walked in front of Carson when he was swinging and got a fat lip!... 4. Daron, the tetherball PRO

BUM WARS...

When we were growing up we always had a trampoline and one of our favorite things to do was to have a "bum war". You and a friend (sister/bro)jump up and down at the same time saying, "1,2,3,4...let's have a bum war." Then you go down on your butt and back up to your feet and back down and back up, etc., etc., etc. Whoever outlasts the other is the winner!

Here is Tawna & Jade having an ADULT bum war and let's face it...the bums are bigger now!!! They were having a great time and it was fun to watch.

Sunday BBQ & Whiffle Ball...

Kevin had a great time oranizing a whiffle ball game for the kids. All the kids were awesome players and I learned that I never want to be on the opposite team of Megan!!! She is a fierce competitor!!! Anyway, the BBQ at RB & Stacie's house was a blast and everyone had a great time and good, yummy eats! Thank you for hosting and for the APPLE PIE ALAMODE!

Sunday Naps After Conference Are the Best...

My sweetie and his little Lauren! Very cute! I wish she was always this sweet...

Cool Weather Jammies...

Emmy got to wear some jammies with feet finally because the weather is cooling off at night and she keeps kicking off all her blankets! Thanks to Terri for this cute PJ outfit. It is light pink with brown polka dots (everyone knows I'm a sucker for ANYTHING polka dot) and has cute bear faces on the top part of the feet, like slippers!

A Glitch...

When the morning session of conference was finishing up with the closing prayer the T.V. all of a sudden cut off the prayer and went to a commercial. This has never happened before as long as I can remember and we were all saying how weird it was. Maddie came running in from the toy room where the kids were all watching and doing their coloring packets and says, "our TV broke conference during the prayer". It was cute and I wanted to remember it!

Sentimental Sunday...

Yesterday and today the weather has been nicer than normal. The temp has gone done, especially in the evening and morning, and there's been a breeze pretty regularly out here in queen creek. Kevin loves to open the sliding door and the windows during nice weather and so do I. I was sitting there feeding Emersyn her morning bottle and felt the breeze through the house and it reminded me of when I lived with Nan & Pop or stayed there for weekends. They always opened up the front and back doors during nice weather in the early mornings of weekends and played their favorite music. I remember Don Ho (spelling?) playing when I would wake up and the house felt so cool. One of Nan's favorite songs was something about how one of the lovers was going to "visit" the other "down there" from heaven and it's a funny, quirky song and very cute!!! Anyway, Nan would get a kick out of that music and it made her happy. That's what I am remembering today!

More to LOVE...

Well, our little Emmy definitly isn't so little anymore! We took her in to see Dr. Daryn today because she has been sick all week with head congestion, sneezing, coughing and wheezing. And this morning as an extra treat bright florescent green snot!!!!!! She went in last week to see Dr. Will when these symptoms started and at that visit she weighed 13 lbs and today she was a whoppin' 14.5lbs!!!!! Our baby has doubled her weight since being born 7 weeks ago.... but I expected it since Lauren grew super fast also! Anyway, she is doing great and we love her lots!!!

Robert Sterling Comes to Dinner...

Uncle Bob came over for spaghetti the other night and we had fun having him over. He works so hard that we don't get to see him that often. The kids always fight over our dinner guests because they all want them to sit by them! He is so good with Emmy and Lauren (and all our kids) and all kids for that matter! Me, Bob, Kaitlin and Emmy watched a movie and hung out...GOOD TIMES!!!! Thanks for coming and don't be a stranger!

Daron & Maddie's New Trick...

They love playing together lately and all because of this green jump rope from the $1 store that Daron's Aunt Ashley bought him. This cute brother and sister team stand facing eachother and jump together laughing the whole time! They are very proud of this feat! Thought I'd get pics before this quality time wears out and the fighting resumes!!!!

Kaitlin 101

PROCRASTINATE:



–verb (used without object)
1.
to defer action; delay: to procrastinate until an opportunity is lost. –verb (used with object)
2.
to put off till another day or time; defer; delay.
Related forms
pro·cras·ti·nat·ing·ly, pro·cras·ti·na·tive·ly, adverb
pro·cras·ti·na·tion, noun
pro·cras·ti·na·tive, pro·cras·ti·na·to·ry




AHHHHH Kaitlin, sweet Kaitlin... This is a reminder for you to not procrastinate. We have all done it probably more than once and had it bite us in the butt!!! Kaitlin had a 6 paragraph story due this morning that was assigned on Monday. This gave them 3 days to do 2 paragraphs each day. She "procrastinated" and put it of until last night. Unfortunately she also had a lot of homework last night and 2 tests to study for. She worked MANY, MANY hours and had to wake up early to finish. So, she was sad because she didn't feel as prepared as she would be usually and I told her that it was a good lesson to learn and she would do awesome! And, if for some reason she didn't do so hot on those tests today because of her procrastination, then she'd learn from the experience and do better next time!!!! After the donut run she was a new chick!!!!

No Breakfast for YOU...

At the last minute Kevin and I decided to treat the kiddos to donuts at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast this morning. I had already asked Maddie to please set the table and she did such a great job. We decided to surprise them so when I asked her to please go put all of the stuff away she asked why. I told her that we weren't feeding them breakfast today and they could eat a big lunch!! She was not happy:( Then Daron came in and I told him to get his backpack ready to go and he said, "but we haven't had breakfast". I said, "no breakfast today". Then Kaitlin, and so on and so on. So, we loaded everyone up in the car, even Tess, who rides in carpool with us in the morning, and headed to the Dunkin! We had them going though the whole time that school started early today and all kinds of reasons, and Kevin was loving it of course because he lives for that kind of stuff! We pulled into the drive thru at DD and Daron was SOOOOOOO happy and Madison said, "this is the best day of my life" and kaitlin asks, "Next are you going to tell us that I don't have to worry about my tests at school today because we aren't going?" I said, "yeah, we're skipping school and going straight to Disneyland!". I WISH!!!!!!!! So did they, but we dropped them off at school. Daron ate like 5 donuts and I think everyone else had 3 each. He was in heaven and asked for another and I said no because I thought he'd be sick for sure and we'd get a call from the school nurse!

I did find it hilarious at the way Kevin drops these kids off everyday and you could tell how funny they think it is. He pulls up to the drop off curb and says, "go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, etc." while the kids pile out laughing and screaming and joking. He is a fun Dad! I was cracking up because everyone was looking at our car because they were all so loud.