the past few months

what has happened here??

in august: i celebrated the beginning of my last year in my 20's. i am not bothered by my age at all! troy got me all 4 of the twilight books for my bday! he had no wife for a bit...thanks honey!

the kiddos (lance and noemi) started school. it's very convienient that they both are in the same school now...same grade, but different teachers.

troy had HIS birthday too...in which he departed from his twenties and entered a new decade! i considered throwing an "old" party, but i wasn't motivated by the planning and effort it would take, plus it was on a sunday, so he turned 30 quietly and without fanfare.

in september:

we went up to utah for labor day. we got to spend time with some of troy's extended family. it was so nice...i even got to meet some cousins and their families for the first time! we got to have fun at the famous "peach days" and got crazy loaded with more candy than we knew what to do with...

noemi got to be student of the week in her class. she brought in lots of pictures, filled out a poster and got to bring her family in for her presentation. the following week was her birthday. i think it is so fun that she gets to have her birthday fall during school! that is something i never got to experience!

bekah joined the ranks of lance and noemi in education....sorta. :) a couple gals from the area and i got together and formed a preschool. it's pretty much the 'joy-school' curriculum and set up. we each take turns teaching in our homes. it is fun and bekah especially enjoys it! she is such a big girl!

on the 20th troy and i celebrated our 8th anniversary! we spent the day in flagstaff with the youth from our church. we rode the ski lift for a moutian top devotional. it was nice...but windy and cold LOL and we got a sunburn. we went out to eat that evening but we were so tired we didn't do anything else, a movie was contemplated, but sleeping through it didn't seem so appealing! :)

then bekah had her birthday too! it seems so crazy sometimes to have 2 girls with birthdays in the same month...especially before samantha came around...it was 4 birthdays and an aniversary within 2 months! how much crazy fun can you pack into a couple months??! ;)

then sometime this summer...before school started...can't remember exactly, we got to spend time as a family WITH lance's parents. they had a birthday party for lance since they didn't get to spend time with him on his birthday (which was the beginning of june). we got to go BOWLING! this was a first for the girls...and they still remind us that we HAVE to take them again sometime! they had so much fun!

any suggestions??!

okay, samantha has been our only thumb sucker and blanket toter. i do have to say, it has been very convenient that she was able to self soothe so early, but there are definitely disadvantages. i am NOT looking forward to breaking the thumb habit.

then there is the blanket....she truly loves it! she giggles when you give it to her. but, alas, after being dragged around EVERYWHERE it doesn't exactly stay clean for very long. boy-oh-boy is laundering that blanket a joy!

i usually try to nab the blanket and toss it in the washer when she is unaware, but this time she caught me grabbing it. GREAT! she knew something was up. then i got this fabulous idea that if she was the one to put it in the washer it would go smoother.

so far so good!

there it is...getting clean!

so much for that eh??! such a sad thing!

so, do any of you have any suggestions on how to make this very temporary parting that much less traumatic for her...LOL and the rest of us??!

hello...is it me you're looking for??!

okay well of COURSE it's me you are looking for!

it is my blog after all!

okay...i just wanted to post and let you all know i'm back baby!!

AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!! edward,....bella, where are you??!

okay i am dying here! of all nights....

troy is at a scout campout tonight. (he has them usually once a month) i usually use those nights to catch up on cleaning i have been putting off or just deep cleaning. i thought the house looked horrible today...with there having been sickness in the house...and then today my allergies flaired into something much more miserable. so i put the kids to bed and get ready to break out the big guns. to my horror, as i got going, there isn't much to do!! well there IS but most of it has to get done with troy's help. (our what-was-office is in shambles since we gave his dad our computer desk...but i can't do a lot in there until we decide what to do with it!!)

now some may laugh at my "predicament"...but then i am left with:"so what am i gonna do now". as i sat down with my laptop on my lap with my blog page open the flyleaf song comes on (you can scroll through the songs and click on it if you want to hear it...it's twards the bottom of the list) and it's all over!



i am a hopeless twighlight addict! i have only read the first 2 books though...because that's all i had. sooo...what does twilight have to do with that flyleaf song? well ever since i heard it after reading the first book i thought that it fit perfectly with it...i thought it would work well in a soundtrack to it. so imediately i feel like an alcoholic that just walked into a bar...(okay maybe not...but you get the idea) i NEED my twilight fix! tonight would be a perfect night too...the kids in bed, the house presentable, no husband to feel like he's second fiddle to some "silly book"...i has been stormy. all these things add up to some perfect book devouring time. but, alas, no book three....or one or two for that matter...they were borrowed but now returned.

and yet, another dilema...as millions of you are aware the 4th and final book in that series is coming out on august 2nd. and you better believe there will be mass chaos with the lines waiting for midnight to roll around so they can victoriously claim their precious copy of the book. i will be sitting here...very sad. my birthday is august 3rd...so how PERFECT is that...but still i have no book three!! how torturous!

so here i sit blogging so i can keep my brain occupied until i go to bed....

*sigh*

kids...LOL!!!

okay just picture this:

all of us are in the living room. i'm laying on the couch feeling like crap because of a stomach bug that the kids so generously shared with me. the kids are a little stir crazy, so to keep them a little occupied troy gets them singing some fun songs. (he's a great guy huh...too bad, he's mine!) :)

anyway, the kids are having a ball...singing all sorts of songs dancing around and expending some energy. then we sing "row, row, row your boat". troy and i show them how to sing it in parts (as a round) and had the kids sing with us to see what it's like. we sang it as a round like three times and when we were done troy asks

Troy: "now does anyone know what that was called?"
we were looking for the answer "a round"

Noemi "i know! a sour note!!"


kids....don't you just love them?? :)

what haven't we been up to??!

this month has really flown by already! wait!! this month??! this whole SUMMER has passed with lightning speed...just a few short weeks till school starts again for us!

noemi and lance had their first session of swimming lessons. they had a BLAST! i would have been slightly more fun for me if i could have been in the pool in the mom and tot class with samantha...but the desk person i talked to on the phone said that bekah was too young for level one and would have to be in mom and tot...i can't be in the class with two kids...so therefore it was none...all three of us got to sit and watch 4 days a week for two weeks. it actually was pretty convenient because right after swimming lessons we were able to go to the school next door for the free lunch program!

then for the fourth of july, we got to do some traveling up north and lance got to meet gaga and papa for the first time. we had so much fun with troy's parents. on the morning of the 4th, we went to a parade and got loaded up with candy. that afternoon we went to the park for the fair. the kids got cooled off by a fireman and a fire hose...boy that was nice!

then we walked around enjoying everything that was there. as we were waiting in line to get some food there was a booth next to us that had a sign that said "free mini manicures". the end results: two very happy little girls! unfortunately for lance, it was not something that he got to benefit too much from. :) but while we waited for the girls to be done we got to watch some native american dancing. lance was mesmerised...i don't think he minded the wait one bit!

that evening we were invited to a barbecue with some friends and family. we got to enjoy good food and scenery with good people while we waited for the fireworks show. it was beautiful!

the next morning was something i had been looking forward to for a long time! we went FISHING!! i'm not sure who was more excited, the kids or me...but, really, does it matter? :) i was a little leery about our chances to catch anything because it was overcast and stormy looking...even as early as 7 am. but we tried our hand.

it took a while, but noemi was the lucky girl who got the first catch of the day! we were very excited!! we named him tom!

bekah caught the next fish. i was not able to get a picture with noemi and tom because he was taken off the line so fast, but getting a picture of bekah and her fish was even more exciting. i had a line in the water when bekah caught hers so i propped the fishing pole as i went to get the camera. as i was getting the camera focused i saw that i had a bite!! aah! what was i to do??! it was my first bite! do i take the picture and risk loosing the fish...possibly the pole too, or skip the pic and see what i got. obviously you know my choice. :) and, yes we did lose the fish. (pole was safe and sound) the next excitement was noemi caught a huge fish! although, unfortunately as we were trying to reel it in, we discovered that the line was wrapped around a cable underneath the dock. we were trying to figure out what to do...hoping that maybe the fish (whom we so affectionately named sherry) would help get the line untangled, bekah got a bite too! woohoo! but we soon discovered that she too caught sherry. we caught the same fish twice! what are the chances...catching the same fish while it was still on the line of another hook. but, alas, there was nothing we could do we had to cut the line on both poles. it was a sad moment. lance was the next one with a catch. he managed to catch himself a catfish! those suckers are fighters! when he was reeled in he was bleeding pretty good...he actually swallowed the hook. lance named him bloodhead. ahh yes, definitely named by a boy! ;) i actually never caught a fish...i had a good 6 bites, but with my inexperience i either waited too long or i tried to set the hook too quickly. oh well, next time i suppose. the last fish was caught by troy as i was taking bekah to the bathroom. we didn't get much of even nibbles after that because the wind really picked up and it started raining lightly. between 10 and 10:30 we packed up and headed back. 4 fish...not too bad for our first trip as a family! lance's catfish and the other three were stripers.

we had some delicious fish for dinner!

we just kinda hung around until monday when troy, lance, samantha and i headed out. noemi and bekah got to stay with troy's parents for a week. we missed them tons, but they had a ball! troy's parents brought them back home the following saturday.

while the girls were gone lance started another session of swimming lessons to help keep him occupied. his last day was this last thursday. now we just have 2 weeks left of summer...school starts on august 4th this year! how crazy is that??!

i hope you all are having a fabulous summer!

how big is baby??!

okay, how cute is she??! i thought this nice big picture is fitting for this big girl. :)

we have been watching samantha as she has hit each milestone. we have been very anxious as she has been nearing walking for sometime. she has been cruising around furniture and anything else that is around. she also has this little push toy that is intended to help walking...she practically drags it with her...as long as she is holding onto something.

yesterday, while at church, samantha must have had a strange burst of confidence. she suddenly decided to stand up...unsupported. she did it over and over and over...until her poor little legs were so tired they were shaking.

this evening she dared to go a step further....

how big is Mantha Baby?? SO BIG!!