Reasons to love summer

Here are my reasons for loving this summer:
1) I don't have an infant this year.  I have a toddler that loves to play outside.  We are going to be outside all summer long.
2) Kimberly is old enough to watch Jacob and Matthew outside without me being out there.  Today she took them outside for an hour and went for walks all while I cleaned up the house.  LOVE IT.
3) It is warm already.  Which means we can already break out the pools and play in the water.
4) We don't have a lot planned for the summer.  That means we can do a lot more spur of the moment things.
5) Brian and I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary this year (11 years together).  WOW where has the time gone.
6) Resort wedding in Crested Butte CO in July just for Brian and me.  4 days without the kids!
7) My 20 year (yes I said 20 year) class reunion happens this summer.  I honestly am excited to see some old friends.  They are planning a dinner for adults in the high school on one night and a summer picnic for families the next day.  Should be pretty fun.  Kind of excited to show Brian my old high school.
8) Exercise.  Exercise.  Exercise.  I am so a fair weather gal when it comes to exercising and I started running and walking but only like to do it in good weather.  My goal is to be in a 5k.  Might not happen this year but definitely next year.

That should about do it.  I love summer!

Last day of school

Here is Kimberly on her last day of 2nd Grade.  She was happy but very sad to be leaving her friends for the summer.  Maybe I was sad when I was her age but I only remember being happy for summer.  She sure has blossomed this year.  She is an amazing reader and an all around smart kid.  She loved Math (struggled a bit with speed tests), especially learning multiplication.  She loves to write and has some goofy stories.  I can't believe she is going to be in the 3rd grade next year.  Way to go sis!

Matthew is 5 years old!

On May 30th, Matthew turned 5 years old.  He was so excited to be a 5 year old.  He knows that 5 year olds get to go to school.  This fall he will start Kindergarten.  He was set on this birthday having a Lightning McQueen birthday so that is what he got.  He was pretty happy all day.  He was so excited for his birthday that he couldn't go to sleep the night before and woke up pretty early birthday morning.  We did all his favorite things on his birthday... eat out for meals, play wii, open presents, play baseball, and enjoy his grandparents.
This handsome kid came into the world and gave us a hard time for a couple of weeks.  He turned blue his first night on earth (scared the life out of me) and was pretty jaundice for a few days.  After the first couple of weeks he turned into this sweet cuddly boy that was very strong.  I was able to stay home with him and loved every minute of it.  He is a joy to our lives.  He is truely the sports kid Brian always wanted but he does put on a dress every now and then to please his big sister.  haha.

We love you so much Matthew.  Happy Birthday!

2nd grade award

Here is Kimberly getting her 2nd Grade award for Most Awesome Student.  That is her teacher Mrs. Wright behind her.  She said that she is awesome in every category and she has told us she wishes she had more of her in her class.  We are very proud of Kimberly!

Kimberly's Dance 2012

What a fun year of dance at LaShars!  Kimberly's 5th year of dance was a biggie. She really wanted to perform more than just at review.  So we put her on a performing team.  What a great experience for her.  She performed a bunch of times in many different situations.  Her dancing improved so much.  I was amazed at the things she was learning.  She got a few trophies from her competitions (see above) including a 1st place medal in drill down.  Her teachers loved her so much.  We can't wait for next year.

Jacob

I need to blog about this cutie.  My sweet little Jacob Lewis is now 16 months old.  He is a blessing to our family.  He is such a joy and a complete stink all at the same time.  I am so glad he is with us.  He is funny... a born comedian.  He will crack himself up with just the littlest noise.  Then he will do silly things to get me to laugh... like climb into an Easter basket (see above).  He loves to give kisses and hugs.  He loves his daddy more than I expected.  He enjoys playing and tormenting his siblings.  They love him so much.  He loves our dog.  Duke and Jacob are best of friends.  Especially now that Jacob calls him Dukie instead of ruff ruff.  He loves to play ball and loves the outdoors.  He is all boy.  But what a doll. 
I love you Jacob!

Easter 2012

Easter this year was a quick Easter morning when you have to be to church at 8:30.  The kids were pretty excited though for the Easter Bunny so Kimberly and Matthew woke up early to see if he came.  Poor Jacob had to be waken because his brother and sister were just too eager.  The older two knew the routine and off they went in search of their eggs.  Jacob was new at this so after a few minutes, he finally picked up on the idea that he picks up eggs and puts them in his basket.  The candy threw him off though.  He thought he could eat everyone he picked up.  We had a nice morning, a great day at church, and a nice rest of the day.  I love to cook Easter dinner and we filled our bellies full.  One of our special treats on Easter Sunday is corn on the cob.  We love it and it just makes us hungry for summer when we can have it every Sunday.  We also indulge in deviled eggs.  They don't always agree with us but we love to eat them!  Ah we love Easter Sunday.

 The stash the Easter bunny brought for the kids.

 Kimberly hunting eggs and candy.

 Matthew hunting eggs and candy.

 Jacob finally hunting eggs and candy with the help of mommy.

 After they found all the goodies (note Jacob's goofy smile)

After church the kids got to try on their new outfits.  Good thing it was a nice day on Easter!

We love all the treats and goodies but we also remember the true meaning of Easter... our Savior Jesus Christ.  There is just something about Easter and Christmas at church when you feel the spirit of Christ so strong it brings tears to your eyes.  We are so grateful for everything Jesus did for us.

Bless you all!

Kimberly's Baptism and 8th Birthday

We had a special day on March 24th this year.  Kimberly turned 8 years old and was baptized.  It was a special day.  Kimberly had a lot of family come to support her and afterwards we had a nice brunch.  Then we enjoyed birthday presents and just the day with us as a family.  It was very nice. 

 This is how Jacob smiles for the camera now.  Silly kid!

It was a great day.  She shares a special thing with her daddy now by being baptized on her birthday just like he was.

Kimberly's 8th Birthday Party

For Kimberly's 8th birthday party, she wanted a dog party.  (Secretly I was grateful we didn't have a girly party)  We invited 16 kids (I know, insane) because this might be the last birthday party with all these kids together with everyone moving and what not.  The party was a hit.  The kids seemed to have a great time.  We started the party with some coloring pages and word finds then moved to games.  We blew up a picture of our dog and played pin the ear on the Duke.  Then we had presents and then played Feed the Dog.  This bean bag toss game was a lot of fun.  Then we sang Happy Birthday and ate dog bones (sugar cookies).  We then went out in the garage and busted up a pinata.  They make them pretty tough nowadays and Brian had to rip it apart after the kids all had a good turn beating on the dog bone.  It was time for a craft while they waited for their parents.  We found a cute craft online with clothes pins where they make a dog that holds their pencil.  The kids had fun decorating their dog I think.  I know one thing... it was great to do this for Kimberly but afterwards, I was tired!

I love birthday parties but I need to adopt some ideas from my friends and only hold parties every other year.
:-)

Happenings

So it has been awhile since I have posted on here.  I guess I have been busy.  It feels like lately we have at least 4 things going on every day.  I literally fall into my bed at night and give a big sigh, not for relief but knowing I am going to bed with things unfinished but too exhausted to go on.  I know it is just going to get worse as the years go on and our kids get bigger and bigger.  But we are living each minute and enjoying all we can.  I will tell you right now... I am going to look forward to the days were I get to think of things to do each day!

Here are some of the things that have been going on in our lives:

 Kimberly ready for a ballet performance.  She is loving her performing team.  She has been doing a lot of performances and each time I can see her improving.  Dance is her forte!  A girl after my own heart.

 Jacob experiencing his first valentine cookie decorating.  He enjoyed every bit of the icing but I am not sure he even tried the cookie!

 Kimberly and Matthew enjoying icing and decorating their own cookies.  Sprinkles overload!

 Matthew is the Lego king this year.  He got a bunch of Lego sets for Christmas and he has enjoyed them.  I will say, Daddy and I are having just as much fun playing and building Legos as Matthew.

This is part of our girl scout troop #1001.  This was our investiture night where the girls get their membership pin and are officially added as a member of girl scouts.  Pretty neat night.

So March will be filled with more girl scout cookie projects, birthdays, and most important... Kimberly's 8th birthday and baptism.
As always... more to come!

Girl Scouts

This year I signed Kimberly up to be a girl scout.  I was a girl scout growing up and loved it.  There was so much we did and I loved earning badges.  So I have always wanted Kimberly to be a girl scout.  This year at her school, they started a troop.  I was so excited and so was she.  The first day we went, they mentioned they needed help like leaders.  I don't know why but I knew I wanted to be a leader.  Maybe it was because my mom was my leader... not sure why.  So I signed up to be a leader.  Within the first couple of weeks, I also signed up to take on the title Cookie Manager.  I didn't really know what this entailed but it sounded fun.  UGH!  I should have read all the details of Cookie Manager.  Just kidding.  It has been very stressful but a good challenge.  Our troop consists of about 45 girls.  Yes that is a lot but the first year of a troop is free to the troop.  It is called a Discovery troop.  I am sure when the girls have to pay next year, the numbers will drop.  So as Cookie Manager I am in charge of 45 girls' cookie orders.  Yes it is insane.  Just trying to get all the orders on time was a nightmare (some of the familes don't speak a lot of English).  Then I have to proof each cookie order to make sure the additions are correct.  Then I have to enter them into the cookie system.  That doesn't sound so bad, right.  But then we have to guess at how many cookies we might sell during booth sells.  When we make this guess, we have to divide it up among the 8 kinds of cookies.  This is basically a crapshoot.  You never know how many cookies you are going to sell.  If you get too many, you are stuck with them as a troop and have to pay for them.  If you order too little, you might run out before all your cookie booths are done.  A complete joke for a Cookie Manager.  Then you have to take all these booth cookies and divide them up among your girls in your troop.  They say to be fair and equal... a little hard when you have 45 girls.  So much stress!  Oh and to top it off, you are on a time-line and have to have all this done by a certain time and date.  Luckily I was able to get it all done with 6 hrs to spare.  I think I have done an ok job.  I hope so anyway.  For now I am on a cookie break.  Until the end of the month when all 5400 boxes of cookies arrive and I have to figure out a way to get them to my house, divide them up among the girls, and deliver them.  Not to mention during all of this... my sweet Kimberly girl scout sold 265 boxes of cookies (most of them door to door).  I am so proud of her.. and honestly a little happy with myself too!

Not sure if I am going to take on this challenge again next year.  (I do have an advantage having done it one year... don't tell my hubby I said this!)

Family Pictures

So we finally had some family pictures taken.  Seriously our last ones were when Matthew was 1.  It was due time.  You never know how your kids are going to react to having their pictures taken.  When Kimberly was little, she was a doll and so good taking pictures.  Then Matthew was a bit of a toot.  Not really crying but all our pictures have him with his mouth wide open.  So I was curious how Jacob would react.  WELL... he started crying the second we got in to take pictures.  Man it was a struggle getting him to smile.  I was mighty surprised at what cute pictures we ended up with because of his meltdown.  Matthew still has a silly grin and Kimberly still is easy to get her picture.  But all in all, I am happy with what we got.  Here are just a few of our favorites:

Hopefully we won't wait as long to get a new family picture next time.
:-)

2011 Review

Happy New Year's Eve Everyone!  Another year is in the books and we are all looking forward to it.  Just thought I would give an overview of our year... so we remember in the many years to come.

Brian:  2011 brought on a year of work in Singles for Brian.  Singles has been great since there is pretty much work all week long.  Brian also took on a new calling this year in church.  Committee Chairman for cub scouts.  This means that he is over all the cub scout leaders and has to organize pack meeting every month.  Brian is doing great with this calling.  I am proud of him to take on something that he normally isn't comfortable doing.  Hunting and playing baseball has been his outs and as usual, he enjoys both of them.

Tammy:  2011 was the year of the baby for me.  I was the milk machine for Jacob so most of my year was dedicated to that.  I don't mind staying home being mom to my children.  I stay plenty busy with that alone.  But just to stir things up I added a few new titles to my life.  Relief Society teacher was my calling for half of the year.  Not something I would have dreamed of doing but found a love for the discussions every month with the ladies.  In September I took on a new calling... 1st Counselor in the Primary.  Oh how I missed Primary.  I really do love being with the children and learn and help them learn.  This fall I also added student to my title.  I have always wanted to help bring in money since I left the job field but felt so busy and underqualified to do anything about it.  So with some encouragement from the family, I enrolled in school to become a Medical Billing and Claims Specialist.  I enjoy learning more about the medical field and hope to be done in the spring of 2012.  In my spare time (haha) I enjoy reading and playing games.

Kimberly:  2011 has been a fun year for Kimberly.  She has enjoyed being a big sister and helper for her new baby brother.  She also turned 7 this year and is constantly talking about being baptized next year.  Kimberly has a beautiful talent of dancing and she is thriving this year in it.  This fall we put her in a performance dance group and she is just loving every minute of it.  She has already performed a bunch of times and every time, we can see her improving.  I can truely say I see a future of dance for her.  For fun she has been enjoying friends, riding bikes and scooters, and just being a kid.

Matthew:  2011 meant a wild 4 year old for us.  Matthew is such a joy to be around.  He is goofy and funny and loving.  He has been a great big brother and can't wait for the day to wrestle and be silly with Jacob.  Matthew also started preschool online through Upstart in Utah.  It is a government preschool and is great for Matthew.  He spends at least 30 minutes a day online doing school and it caters to his every nutty whim and silliness.  I can see a huge improvement in him.  He loves to learn.  Matthew enjoys playing every sport he can get his hands on.  He also learned how to ride a big bike with training wheels and just loves playing outside every second he can get.

Jacob:  2011 was Jacob's first year on this earth and boy did he grow.  It is hard for me to think he started out the year as a tiny baby and now he is this walking around toddler.  Jacob has been a joy to our family and we love every second with him.  His smile is so big and sweet and now that he is walking... watch out world.  He is a very independent little man and loves to get into anything.  Fun stuff for Jacob would be listening to music and dancing, playing toys with anyone that wants to play, and giving big loves to everyone.

Duke:  2011 was a good year for Duke.  He finally got out of his puppy stage and is really loving a good couch to lay on.  He was a great dog for Jacob and they have bonded like no other.  Duke has been doing more hunting with daddy and goofying with mommy.  He found a love for table food (no thanks to Jacob) and because of it needs to lose a few pounds.  We love our dog Duke!

As a family our big adventure for 2011 was our trip to Disneyland.  What a great time we had and look forward to another trip to the big ears in a few years.

Well that about does it for 2011.  Only a few more hours to go this year before we start a new chapter.  2012 will bring a bunch of fun and interesting things for our family.  Baptism, weddings, 10 year anniversary, kindergarten, girl scouts, dancing, terrible 2s, and many more adventures will come this year.  We have our heads held up high, our faith in our Heavenly Father to guide us, and smiles on our faces.  Bring on a new year... We are ready!

Love to all our friends and family.  Have a great 2012!  Happy New Year!

Jacob's first birthday

My sweet little baby is no longer a baby.  He is a big 1 year old.  I can't believe how quick that year went by. I really didn't think I could love another child as much as the first but wow... my love has just grown for each child.  Jacob so loves this siblings and they love him so much.  So much fun at our house.

We love you so much Jacob.  Thank you for joining our family here on earth!

Odds and Ends

 Kimberly at her first dance performance with LaShars at Festival of Trees.  She did great and had a lot of fun.  We are so proud of our little dancer.

 The smiles may not be the greatest but at least we got all four children in one spot!

 At Festival of Trees.  What a neat place.

 We got to visit with Santa at the Festival of Trees.  He was a neat Santa.  He took time with each child to see what they wanted.  The wait was long but well worth it.

 Spoiled mutt!  He loves daddy so much.

 Playing dead.  haha

 The lighting isn't the best but I love this picture of the kids.  Shows you how big they are.

Jacob wakes up with bad hair almost every day.  It makes me laugh.