My People!!!

This is the last time we got family pictures taken, it was Christmas of 2011.

Since then we lost my awesome Mother, gained my awesome Step-Mom Marie, and added 6 babies to the family. 

Last weekend we were able to get another family picture taken at my niece Crystal's baptism.

These are my people!!!

I love these poeple!!!

They are the best.

We are not perfect by any means;

Dad and Marie never stop traveling,

Carson and I have way too many babies,

Tori and Adam live way too far away,

Stacy and Jeremy live in the middle of nowhere with some scary neighbors,

Nathan and Tonya are way too busy with farming and animals,

Megan and Andrew... um ... maybe they are the most normal of us all (must be why Andrew is Dad's favorite).

Anyway these are the people that I love to spend time with. We have gone thru good times and bad times together. They have seen me at my worst, and at my best. I am so grateful that I got such great friends to call family.

Fun Mom... Or Not!!!!

I am not a fun mom. 

I want to be a fun mom.

 Before I had kids I really pictured myself being a fun mom, but it is just not the reality that is my life now. 

We don't do many fun projects, or go on any fun outings. 

Most days we just try to survive without too much crying.

I tried to be a fun Mom the other day.

 It was a cold rainy day, but Kynlee said she wanted to play hopscotch. I told her we could make a course out of paper in the living room as soon as everyone was dressed and her room was clean. The babes screamed at me the entire time while I got dressed, this is only an EVERY DAY occurence. I sent them all to their cribs and Kynlee and I built the course in about 5 minutes. I let the babes out, making them promise they would be better behaved and we started playing. Well it was a good thing I grabbed the camera to document me being a fun mom, because after about 2 runs Kynlee was done and took off to her room to read books.

Seriously???

 Why do I even bother??? 

I should have known this would happen since she had already gotten bored of tag, and hide and seek after about 1 minute of each, but I had hopes that putting in more effort would result in more fun. I was wrong. 

At least the babes had fun tearing the course up. 

Now you see why I am not a fun Mom.

Crystal's Baptism!

We got to go to my niece Crystal's baptism last weekend. Sadly I did not even get a picture of Crystal, but she was there, I promise. It was great to see her get baptized, she is growing up into such a beautiful girl. Later I asked Kynlee what she thought of the baptism, and she must have been pretty impressed with it because she told me that she was going to be baptized the next day. 

We got to spend time with each other playing games, eating, and chatting, but we never should have gone to Uncle Nathan's house, because our house is very lame now.

Nathan has horses, pigs, tractors, a trampoline, swings, and a slide. It is every childs dream.

(please excuse my bad pictures, my camera is on its last leg)

We had fun roasting hot dogs and making s'mores.

Papa Joe fed Emery until she couldn't move and was forced to lay in this position.

The kids did this puzzle over and over with Papa Joe. He got so good at it he could do it upside down.

Uncle Nathan gave tractor rides.

The kids were so sweet when I told them it was Kynlee's first time on a trampoline, they all held hands and jumped softly with her until she was ready for bigger jumps.

We love getting together with family!!!

Happenings!!!

It seems like life is always crazy busy around here, and while I don't always get pictures to capture the craziness, here are just a few visual displays of life around here. 

We are super sad that Megan and Andrew moved away. I'm talking super sad!!!!!! 

It sure was fun while it lasted, and I loved watching these two cuties play together. 

We made and canned 4 gallons of yummy salsa with mostly all produce from our garden.

And of course we are busy with these 3 little cuties. They like to play the piano, but their real goal is to get to my Halloween Village that is up on top of the piano.

We are also busy with a handful of construction projects going on around here (the ongoing story of our lives). We are loving the fall weather, this is my very favorite time of year. We are also looking forward to General Conference this weekend. Hopefully everyone gets a chance to watch or listen to the inspired messages from our Father in Heaven.

Swimming!

We recently realized that we have never taken our babes swimming before. We have thought about it at times, but we could never really figure out how we would manage it, so they lived their first year of life with just bathtub exposure. (they seem to have developed just fine even with this major neglect)

But we really wated to take them when Megan and Andrew were living with us because we would have a little added help. 

They thought it was great. Or maybe they just thought it was great that the youth group next to us really needed help eating all their extra popscicles before they melted, either way a good time was had by all. 

Braxton

 Emery

Korbin

 Even though the water was pretty cold, Kynlee ran right in, I was not so brave.

 We love Aunt Megan.

 Me and Korbin building sand castles.  And yes Megan and I have matchy swimsuits because we just think so much alike.

 Cute little Mckenna.

 Everyone loves Daddy.

 Could that smile be any cuter???

Now it is too cold for swimming again, so our babes will most likely live the next year of their life with just bathtub exposure, they will probably survive again.

Reunion Time!!!

We got to go to Moab for our family reunion over Labor Day weekend. It is always fun to get together with family, and I look forward to Aunt Cheryl's homemade ice cream all year long. We love spending time at the cabins, and enjoying the beautiful mountains around us. 

Unfortunately our babes would not go to anyone but Carson and I. We pictured them having fun with cousins, and they usually really enjoy being out and having a change of scenery. But that was not how things played out, and Carson and I found ourselves asking each other over and over "Why did we even come?" 

We have high hopes that they will have more fun next year.  

Kynlee however had a blast playing with cousins, doing puzzles with Uncle Nathan, and riding 4-wheelers with Daddy

Despite my tired arms from holding babes the whole time, there were some really good times. My favorite part of the weekend was the large game of Catch Phrase we played at the cabin one night. Dad, Megan and I were all on the same team so the other team didn't even stand a chance against us. I think everyone had lots of fun though, and I don't think we have all laughed that hard together in a long time. 

I had to get a picture of a rare moment when Korbin and Braxton were with someone other than Carson and I. Good thing too because at this point Carson was off with the men chopping firewood. 

We already can't wait until next year!!!