The Chicken Coop!

My talented hubby has built a home for our chickens...all 2 of them.
We think that one is a rooster and one is a hen, and if that's the case,
then hopefully we will soon have more chickens!

Here are pictures of the process (that only took about 3 days):

Kyler was Matt's right hand man!

Putting treads on the ramp.

Twelve nests...get busy chickens!!

These chicks thought they would try out the nests...

My goofy husband thought putting the egg there was funny...cute chicken, though!

more progress.

Kyler putting the roof on.

Matt applying the roof paper. Isn't this exciting?! ;)

It's getting there...

Kyler and Hannah painting. (Kyler is standing on one leg, for some reason.)

More paint.

Still more paint.

WOW!!

It still needs shingles, but what a pretty chicken house!!

Happy Anniversary, Babe!

Yesterday was my and Matt's 14th anniversary.
He was out of town, so we'll have to go on a date when he gets back.

Matthew, thank you for 14 great years and lots of adventures!
I look forward to forever! I love you so much!

Easter...a little late!

We began our Easter holiday at Matt's parents' house with the annual Easter egg hunt.

It was great to spend time with family!

We don't get to see them as often as we used to, so it's so fun when we get together.

Emma's newest word?..."egg".
She learned very quickly that most of the eggs were filled with candy.
So everytime she picked up an egg, she would shake it and then try to open it.

Very fun!

Check out Hannah's bucket. It's clear full of eggs! And she wasn't even done!

Aubrie is always good to stop and pose for a pic...

Mikaela, however, did not want to be bothered in her hunt for eggs!

This is her, "Fine! Just hurry and take the picture, Mom!" face.

She is driven and determined and even managed to find the highest money egg!

Connor knows that the high money eggs are usually hidden in tough places.

So I found him clear back behind this trailer. He left no stone unturned!

The kids with the Easter bunny...no Emma - she avoided him like the plague,
but kept watching him out of the corner of her eye to make sure he didn't get too close!

Easter morning...Emma finds her stuff. Notice the yellow chickie peeps?
I'll tell you a story about that later.

Hannah and her stuff!

Aubrie, posing just right.





Mikaela...gorgeous, even first thing in the morning!







Connor...still loves Easter morning. He calls it a "mini-Christmas"!




Apparently Kyler isn't too old to get a visit from the Easter bunny!
(Notice the egg hiding in the angel on the wall!)







And this was the biggest hit of all! We got baby chicks!
Matt put this girl scout cookie box in the dining room without the kids knowing.
All of a sudden, you could hear cheaping, but you couldn't tell where it was coming from.
The kids started running all over the house, giggling, looking for the source.
They are so used to seeing girl scout cookie boxes laying around the house,
that they kept running right past it.
It was very funny and very exciting!

My kids are such animal lovers! They LOVE these chicks!

They spent most of the afternoon playing with them!

Ok - so, story time! Remember the yellow chickie peeps in Emma's basket? Well, Matt's brother, Mark had brought us these chicks the week before Easter. We kept them hidden in the shed in our backyard. All during that week, Matt would secretly take Emma out to see the chicks. He said that she was a little freaked out by them. She wanted to see them, but she kept her distance. Well, when she saw those peeps in her basket, she FREAKED!! She immediately threw them on the floor and started climbing on me. We tried to show her that they were marshmallows and she could eat them. She didn't want anything to do with them. She just kept crying and pushing them away. Later that day, we convinced her to take a bite and she liked it. But by the look on her face, I don't think she could figure out why we were encouraging her to eat a chick. I hope she doesn't get any ideas about the real chicks...

Here they are in all their new Easter clothes glory!

A Fun Memory!

My friend, Becca, just had a fun, fun party for her 4 year old.
It looked like so much fun that I think I might steal the idea for
either an upcoming 7 year old party or an upcoming 4 year old party!
(Hope you don't mind, Becca!)
Here is the link to her cute party idea:

legrandbecslittlelaings.blogspot.com/2009/03/fancy-nancy-party.html

And it seems like I always feel less than adequate when it comes to cute,
creative stuff...but then I remembered this cute dress-up tea party we had
for Aubrie a few years ago. So I thought I would post the pics and share
this fun memory!
I am inspired to throw some fun, creative parties this year!

We told the girls to wear their lovliest tea party dresses.
When they arrived, we let them pick out hats, purses, and gloves
from our dress up chest.

This is the table, complete with lovely decorations that
I found at Savers! I took pics of Aubrie and Mikaela in their
dress ups and put the pics in those 2 old-fashioned frames.

This is the dress-up chest.

We used our princess tea set and it made really cute place settings
for each girl. They even had their own name cards.

This is the fancy finger food that we served.

These are our fancy finger food servers! Connor and Mikaela and
their cousins, Bailey on the left and Tiahna on the right.
They were told to use fancy, proper words and british accents, if possible!

This is the Tea Cup cake and the mini tea cup cakes!

Here is a close up of the cake.
I actually baked it in a Pampered Chef batter bowl!

And what could make a 4 year old Aubrie happier than a pair of
shiny orange sandals from Grandma Suzi?!?!?!
NOTHING!

Finally!

I would like to take a moment to thank my awesome hubby for getting things done!
Nothing would ever get painted or hung on the wall or put together
if he didn't either do it or get everything ready and then tell me to do it.
This is a project that's been waiting for me to do it for months.
Matt finally put the pictures in the frames and then called me downstairs
to tell him where I wanted them hung on the wall.
I think it looks great! Thanks, Babe!

Cutest kids ever!! I might be biased, though.

Important Warning for Women!

I came across this and knew I had to share!

My thighs were stolen from me during the night a few years ago.
I went to sleep and woke up with someone else's thighs. It was just that quick.
The replacements had the texture of cooked oatmeal. Whose thighs were these and what happened to mine? I spent the entire summer looking for my thighs.
Finally, hurt and angry, I resigned myself to living out my life in jeans.

And then the thieves struck again. My butt was next.
I knew it was the same gang, because they took pains
to match my new rear-end to the thighs they had stuck me with earlier.
But my new butt was attached at least three inches lower than my original!
I realized I'd have to give up my jeans in favor of long skirts.

Two years ago I realized my arms had been switched.
One morning I was fixing my hair and was horrified to see the flesh of
my upper arm swing to and fro with the motion of the hairbrush.
This was really getting scary - my body was being replaced one section at a time.
What could they do to me next? When my poor neck suddenly disappeared
and was replaced with a turkey neck, I decided to tell my story.

Women of the world, wake up and smell the coffee!
Those 'plastic' surgeons are using REAL replacementbody parts - stolen from you and me!
The next time someone you know has something 'lifted', look again -
was it lifted from you?

THIS IS NOT A HOAX.
This is happening to women everywhere, every night.
WARN YOUR FRIENDS!

P.S. Last year I thought some one had stolen my Boobs.
I was lying in bed and they were gone! But when I jumped out of bed,
I was relieved to see that they had just been hiding in my armpits as I slept.
Now I keep them hidden in my waistband.

(Thanks to Priscilla for letting me borrow this!)

Smorgasboard

Now I understand why people do posts called "our month in review", etc.
I haven't been very attentive to my blog on a consistent basis,
so I need to do a "catch-all" post. Please bear with me!

Lately, Emma has taken it upon herself to empty the trash. Does this mean I've actually taught them something?! I love it when they think chores are fun!

She found this Dora hat in the snow box and put in on herself!

Emma has decided that she is much too big for her high chair anymore.
So she sits at the counter with the big kids, thinks she's really neat,
and makes a humongous mess!

This is my cute little mommy-in-training. I love moments like these.

Hannah playing our "Wii Sing" game. Or is it Hannah Montana?!
Can you tell that Kyler is singing, too?

We finally talked Aubrie into cutting the stringy ends off her hair.
What a cutie! She wants to cut it even shorter next time.

Can you tell who this pancake is supposed to be? Mikaela asked her dad to make a Goofy pancake and he did! Matt, I'm totally impressed!

The cutest girls in the whole world, ready for their dance performance!

Can you tell what this is?

It's getting bigger...

Connor is building the world's largest (and only)...

PYRAMID OF SMARTIES!!!!

(and you thought there wasn't anything to do in Circleville.)

Remember Me?!

I have felt relatively uninspired in the blogging area of my brain lately.
Maybe I just needed a break after the holidays.
Or maybe I need to get off of Facebook ocassionally...

Here are some pics of our holiday!

Gotta love Christmas jammies!

Our cute kids waiting patiently on the stairs before the "big reveal"!

Emma's new slide!

Hannah's new ride! (I think she likes it!)

Connor...pleased with his gifts!

Christmas chaos...my mom was able to be with us, too!

More chaos...I didn't think this room would ever be clean again!

This picture was too cute not to share! Emma loves Hannah's jeep, too.
And apparently, clothing is optional when driving a Barbie jeep.
Actually, for Emma, clothing is always optional.

I Can Sew!

I did it! I sewed my mom an apron for Christmas
and it only took me a month...well it actually only took me about 6 total working hours.
But I had to either wait until Emma was asleep or
Matt was home to keep Hannah and Emma from "helping" me.
I am excited to find another project to start!
Any cute, easy ideas for an amateur seamstress?

Christmas Cookies!

My mom and I have a tradition of cookie and candy making at Christmas time.
And now, that tradition includes the kids. We had so much fun and made a huge mess!

Notice that Emma has more frosting on her face than on her cookie!
That's my girl!

Winter is Finally Here!

Yes, you read the thermometer correctly...7 degrees!!

This is what we woke up to on Sunday morning.
It wasn't a ton of snow, but we were just excited to get this much!

The kids were so excited!
They had a hard time waiting until after church to play in it.

I had to post both of these pics of all 5 kids because the 1st one is so cute,
but Emma wasn't looking.
In the 2nd one, she was saying "kitty" as she watched a cat walk by...
it was so cute!!

Christmas Tree Hunting!

On Monday night, we went hunting for a tree to go in our basement family room.
It was snowing up the canyon and the kids were thrilled!
(We haven't really gotten any snow yet this year)
The bigger kids were so cute and helpful with Emma and Hannah.
It was a little slippery in some places,
so they held their hands and made sure they didn't fall down.

And while my hunk of a man was busy cutting down the tree...

the kids were participating in this productive activity...

Hey, somebody has to teach Emma how to catch snowflakes on her tongue!!

Here we are decorating!

Emma loves decorating, undecorating...she's not picky, as long as she's involved!
(thanks to Mikaela for the shot of my backside!)

And here's the finished product!!!
I know what you're thinking...that it strongly resembles something you would see
on a Charlie Brown Christmas special.
But it started to get very cold up the canyon,
so we just cut down the best thing we could find!
We like it!
And here's a tip...if you get a tree with VERY sharp needles,
your 3 year old and your 18 month old are less likely to take the ornaments off!
Go figure.

She's Got Moves!

Go, Emma! It's your birthday!

Go, Emma! It's your birthday!

(for those of you not familiar with that chant,
it's not really Emma's birthday...)

i saw it.........

....and.....I LOVED IT!!!!!!!

I have read other people's blogs about the movie and there are lots of different opinions...

I didn't think it was corny or cheesy. I loved the dialogue...I laughed more than I thought I would. Don't get me wrong. The book is a thousand times better! There were plenty of things that I had wished were in the movie that weren't. But then it would have been a 4 hour movie! I just loved seeing it brought to life on the big screen. I am soooo glad I got to see it! Thanks to my awesome sisters-in-law and mother-in-law for making it such a fun girls' night!

Boys Will Be Boys

Here are a couple of red turkeys for ya!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

For Those Who Are Wondering...

Many of you have asked who did our pictures...here is his blog:

http://CortneyBoicePhotography.blogspot.com

We were very impressed! If you live in Utah and need pics done, he's the guy!

6 Years in the Making!

We finally got our family pictures taken!!
Our family portrait that is hangning above our fireplace contains
3 children...a 5 year old connor, a 3 year old Mikaela and a 5 month old Aubrie!!
And Matt and I look so young in it, I often wonder
who that cute family is hanging on our wall!
Our awesome photographer took at least 1 million pics,
so bear with me as I post the best ones
(of which there are many!...except the ones that have me in them!)

This is Matt's entire family...we actually doubled in size
since our last group photo!!

And these are the cute grandkids!

Too Much Time on my Hands!!

Apparently my house isn't dirty enough
to get me out of the computer chair...

OK - that's not true. My house is dirty enough,
I just don't wanna clean!

Anyway, I had some fun on picnik.com today
and here are the fruits of my not so necessary labors!

don't you just love that face?!

My Little Sweeper!

What would I do without her?
I guess I wouldn't have anything to post about!
Emma saw me sweeping the kitchen floor and decided I needed her help.
So she went into the laundry room where we keep the brooms and got her own.
I think she's a genious child.
Whoever thought a paint brush could be used as a broom?!
What a great little helper!

Connor

I thought Connor could use a little face time on the blog,
so here are some pics of him getting his Arrow of Light in Boy Scouts.
Way to go, Connor!! We are so proud of you!!

And, Hallelujah!
He finally let me cut his hair!
He has been growing it out for a while, so he could wear it
like all those boys on Disney channel, etc.
Matt and I weren't very fond of it.
I wasn't willing to blow dry it or flat iron it, so it was just shaggy all the time!
I would often remind him lovingly that I know how to cut hair
and would be happy to cut it for him when he was ready.
They are getting school pictures taken tomorrow and
I used this as an opportunity to ambush him.
I said, "I will have this picture of you forever! Can we please cut your hair
and then you can grow it out again if you want?"
Well, on Sunday he asked me to cut it before church.
I couldn't grab the scissors fast enough!
We're thrilled to see his handsome face again!
(and I'm sure he'd love to hear from all of you how much better he looks...)

BEFORE

AFTER!

More Halloween!

Connor and Mikaela had
BIGGER and BETTER things to do
on Halloween night than to stay and pose for pics.
There was candy to be gotten, for heaven's sake,
and they weren't wasting any time!
So...we have pictures of the 3 youngest and that's it!
The school took pictures, so when I get those, I'll post Connor and Mikaela.
Until then, introducing...

The One and Only...

HANNAH MONTANA and CINDERELLA

and...

TENDERHEART BEAR!

PUMPKINS!!

We finally carved our pumpkins last night.
The kids' jobs was to draw faces and clean out their pumpkin guts.
Matt's job was to carve. And my job was to
wash the seeds for toasting...yuck!
I love pumpkin seeds, but I hate pumpkin guts!

Cute girls!!

Silly boys!!

Emma even got in on the festivities!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Tagged!

Ok - this is a fun and easy one!

1. go to your pictures

2. upload the 4th picture from the 4th folder

3. Post.

4. Tag 4 friends!

This is Hannah when she had more hair
(she recently gave herself a haircut!)
and Emma when she had less hair!

I tag anyone who wants to play along. But if you need a personal invitation...Tiffany, Kristi, Andee, and Gayla!

Pumpkinland!

Matt's parents returned home from their mission last Thursday,

so we drove up to Utah County to welcome them home and

spend time with family.

We decided to take the kids to Pumpkinland

and they had a blast!

Top row: Connor, Mr. Scarecrow, Kelsey
Middle Row: Mikaela, Meg, Aubrie, Maddy, Cooper
Bottom Row: Halli, Hannah, Roxy, Cougar

One of the many fun things to do at Pumpkinland!

Best buds, Halli and Hannah!

My cute Aubrie cannot just slide down a slide.
She had to bounce all the way down.
This is how Aubrie lives her life...bouncing around from place to place,
with a big grin for everyone!

Me and my cute kids.
Matt wasn't with us because he had to stay home for the hunt.
We missed you, Daddy!

Have You Seen This?!

Have you seen the newest trailer for the Twilight movie? It's soooo good!! I'm even more excited for the movie now...

Go on www.Twilightthemovie.com and click on the part that says:
"the final Twilight trailer is now live"

ENJOY!! (I did...)

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Hannah's birthday is actually on Sept. 28th, but we waited until Grandma Suzi could be here to celebrate with us. Hannah is a princess through and through, so I made her a castle cake and she got pretty dress up shoes and the Diamond Castle Barbie and movie. She was thrilled with all her new princess/pink stuff! (thanks to Becca for the cute cake idea!)

Vampires, Anyone?

I am just about to finish reading

the Twilight series...for the 2nd time.

I love it!

I know. I need help.

Anyone else out there need help?

Maybe we could start a support group...

Time for a New Post!!

OK - I was tired of getting on my blog and seeing my ugly foot and my ugly scar and I can only imagine that a few others out there felt the same way! So I am hurrying and posting something new with much nicer pics to look at!

A few months ago, we went hiking in Cedar City with Matt's good friend,
Mike Zorn, and his wife Shanna and his 2 boys, Kade and Cole.
We didn't get many pictures, but here are a few.
It was really fun and I wish we did it more often.
I think now as Emma gets older, we will. Two cute bums! Can you tell whose they are?!?

A rare picture of the boy in the family...
with all these girls around, he tends to get neglected!
We love you, Connor!

Ice cream, anyone? We saw this big rock that looked like a big scoop of ice cream
and so, of course, Matt had to find a rock that looked like a cone
and pose for the this pic. I think the flavor was Rocky Road :)

What Do You Think?

If you have a weak stomach, do not read this...

I had a cyst on my foot (Connor lovingly referred to it as my 6th toe). I couldn't wear anything but flip flops. The doctor said I needed surgery...we need to make sure it's just an innocent cyst. So 2 weeks ago, I went under the knife and all I have to show for it is a hideous scar. So did I make the right choice? Which is more hideous...the 6th toe or this lovely scar? I'm not so sure...

LOOK OUT WORLD!!!

It's official...she's walking!

At almost 15 months, Emma has finally decided to try out her legs.

And after 5 kids, it never gets old.

It's just as exciting watching her practice as it was to see

Connor walk for the first time.

She's so darn cute! And it seems like she is just as tickled with herself as we are.

She grins and giggles the whole time she's walking.

Fun, fun stuff!!