Cash's Photo Session - 3 months old (10/31/08)

The girls have been lucky enough to go to Ms. Nicole's preschool for several years now. I use to work for her husband and he kept saying that we ought to have Nicole take our pictures. Well I finally got around to asking her to take Cash's pictures in his blessing outfit and then our family pictures. She did an awesome job! Thank you Nicole for the wonderful pictures and time you spent with Cash and with our family. To check out some of her other awesome work go to: nicolespixiedust.blogspot.com. Here are a couple of the pictures she took:

Our little man sure does have some of the biggest brightest eyes.

I think this one is my favorite. It just captured the way he looks up at you when your holding him.

Halloween Pictures

I am the world's slowest person. Here are pictures of the kids' Halloween costumes for 2008. We had a great Halloween. Besides the class room parties at their schools we went to my parents ward for their Trunk-or-Treat and then to Joe's parents neighborhood trick-or-treating. We still have so much candy left. All in all they had a great time. And they all looked so cute!

McCall was a Fairy Butterfly Princess.

Oaklie was a Mermaid.

Cash was just a cute little boy in a Halloween Shirt and Pants.

Whoops....

I managed to screw up the blog on Saturday night when I was trying to change the template. I thought I was pretty technological but this thing proved me wrong ;) Anyways I think I got it fixed. I guess I am not as tech savy as I thought I was.

Busy Week

We have had an extremely busy week this week.

On Monday, we received word that my Aunt Corey had passed away. She had been battling cancer. It brought back many memories of my aunt and also of my mom's family and of my Grandma's old house in Fielding. Each time I take Oaklie to school I can see my Grandma's old house and it brings back many many memories.

On Tuesday night we took the kids to the magician at Oaklie's school. It was really fun and interesting. I have no clue how they pull off those tricks. The kids were all mesmerized by the tricks. McCall thinks that she is now a magician and make things disappear and reappear. All she needs is a cloth or a blanket, the item she is making disappear and a willing audience member to close their eyes while she is making it disappear. Pretty cute!

Wednesday, we had to take the Jeep into the dealer to get worked on. They let me borrow a sweet Honda Pilot. It was very tempting to buy but I think we have become cheapskates. I don't want another payment - so I will keep driving my Jeep that is falling apart but it is paid for! Oaklie went to a little Halloween party after school at Jake Butler's house. She dressed up in her witch costume she wore last year. She had a ball. And since she was dressing up, McCall had to get into the action too! She put her witch costume on too. The girls went with me to Young Womens. We watched the Nightmare before Christmas. The girls thought it was pretty fun to go with me to my meeting. Cash and Joe went up and visited Garth. Joe said that action wasn't going to be left out on any conversations and he started "talking (aka cooing) up a storm. I think that it makes Garth's day when Joe and the kids go up for a visit. Oaklie and McCall had UEA break so they did not have school on Thursday or Friday.

On Thursday I went to go get my hair done before the viewing so Joe's mom and sisters took the girls for me. I whacked my hair off and I really do like it. I am still getting used to fixing it, but I am starting to get the hang of it. Joe, Cash and I went to the viewing. I have to admit it was harder than I thought it would be.

On Friday, Joe went up to Desert Land and Livestock to shoot his cow elk. He had a great time. He was the only cow tag holder up there th.e day before the opening of the deer hunt, so he pretty much got treated to the full guided elk hunt the guys with the bull elk tags get. The only difference was that he came home with a cow elk instead of a bull elk. The girls went to play at Grandma Maxfield's with some second cousins that had came up while Cash and I went to the funeral.

Saturday, Joe went with my dad, JC (my brother) and Dixon (my nephew) out west to go deer hunting. He said that they had a really fun time, but they didn't shoot anything. He got home around 9:45 pm. The kids actually slept in on Saturday morning, so I got a little extra shut eye. Joe's cousins from St. George came over to ride the horses. Black Beauty got pretty tired. Which surprises me cause she didn't do too much. Then the kids and I went with Joe's family to Logan to lunch then we went back to Joanie's house and hung out.

I think I am tired from our busy week.

My "Other" Little Girl (10/6/08)

So I walk in the house from feeding the horses and find this....
McCall was putting Cash into one of her dress up skits. I guess I'm not that surprised. I am just lucky she hadn't started putting make-up on him. I showed Joe the picture and he blamed me. I said nope McCall was the little culprit. She just smiled.

It's been a couple weeks... (10/6/08)

It has been a couple weeks since I last wrote. Almost two weeks ago I was able to leave my job to be a stay-at-home mom and wife. It has been a wonderful blessing for me to be able to spend time with the kids and to take care of the house. It is even staying clean!! We seem to not eat out as much either because I am able to think of what to cook, cook it and stay home to eat. Maybe we'll become a little less substantial (lose a little weight) by not eating out so much.

Cash is growing and smiling and talking. It is so wonderful to have a little person in the house. The girls absolutely adore him. Joe thinks he is pretty darn neat also. It is actually pretty funny that when Joe is holding him and trying to get him to talk or smile and Cash looks at him seriously. As soon as I pick him up and start talking to him he starts cooing and talking and smiling. Poor Joe.... But at least one of the kids like me for a moment. He had Oaklie from day one and he finally got my little buddy McCall to move over to his side too. So for the time being I get Cash and we'll talk and smile and make Joe jealous that he can't get Cash to do it as well as I can.

My little cowgirls have been riding Black Beauty and Bullet. They have gotten so they want to ride Black Beauty by "themselves." She is such a good old horse and they have to kick a lot to keep her going but she has so far been really gentle with them. I am not brave enough to let them ride Bullet by themselves yet. So I lead them around on him.
On Friday, October 3rd Oaklie's school had a Cowboy Day. She got to dress up in her cowgirl clothes and her hat. We went over to the school and McCall participated also. They got to see a working sheep dog, a museum of bridles, spurs, and bits, they got to see someone spin wool, they met Miss Rodeo Utah and the National High School Rodeo Queen, they pulled a ribbon off a goats tail (like goat tying), and they ran poles and barrels. They thought it was pretty cool. I think that McCall thought she fit right in at kindergarten.

Oaklie and McCall before Cowboy Day at the school.

Over the weekend we took care of things around the house. Joe finally hung some pictures for me. Yay! We also watched conference. All in all it has been a wonderful couple weeks.

Camping & More (9/21/08)

We have had a good week this week and a great weekend camping. Oaklie is enjoying school and loves learning. She actually loves playing outside during break even more. Each day I ask her what she liked doing the most that day and of course she says, "Playing outside!" So now I ask besides playing outside what did you like most. She is learning all sorts of cute songs. She is also learning some high frequency words so when we are reading I try to get her to read those words she has learned. I struggle because I don't enjoy reading as much as I should so I have a hard time sitting down for twenty minutes to read each day with her and McCall. McCall is loving preschool. She has so much fun. She goes to the preschool that she went to last year and Oaklie has been to for two years. Her teacher is awesome. Oaklie still wishes she could have taken Ms. Nicole with her to kindergarten. McCall got to have a sleep over with her Grandma and Grandpa Maxfield's on Monday night to have some one on one time with her grandparents and her aunt. She had so much fun. Cash is growing, growing, growing. I can hardly believe that he will be two months old in two days. It seems like when you are pregnant two months seems like forever to go by. But when they place that little angel in your arms the time starts flying. I look at Cash and remember when the girls were that little and now they have grown so much. I wish I could freeze time but I can't I just have to enjoy each and every day with them. Cash has the cutest smile and he is so strong it amazes me. We love snuggling him and loving him to pieces. He such a good little boy. Joe is still busy as ever and does a wonderful job running his business and coming home to take care of the family. I love him so much. He is a wonderful father, husband and best friend. Loves me in spite of all of my flaws (and heaven knows there are a lot of them).I have been loving being able to stay home with the kids the past eight and half weeks. They have brought me so much joy and yes frustration, too. But we are learning to work together to get past that frustration part. I am learning to be a more patient mom & person. I love my family so much!

This weekend we were able to go up Logan Canyon to Temple Fork. We had a ball. I think you could say that we are making it an annual outing in the fall. This year was even better because we had our little addition Cash to come along. He is a great little camper. We also bought a Polaris Ranger a couple weeks ago so we could all go with when we went four-wheeling. It was so much fun. My dad came up on Saturday and we went to Old Ephraim's Grave and clear around the canyon and then back to camp. We did try to "roll" the Ranger once which scared the dickens out of me. And we sort of lost dad but we found him. The girls enjoyed taking turns riding with dad. Dad showed the girls choke cherries. Oaklie and McCall loved them. The also loved picking all the colorful leaves. Sunday we went for a drive for of course choke cherries and more leaves. The beautiful fall colors are amazing. What a beautiful world our Father in heaven created for us! We arrived safely home. What a great end to the week!