For Grandma Pendleton

Liv: "Grandma, I love my dress you made!! Don't I look pretty?!"
Liv: "Hey wait, I think I can do something fun with this!"
Liv: "Yep, sure enough!"
Liv: "It makes a great peek-a-boo dress! Thanks Grandma!!"

For Grandma Katschke!

Karen has always told me that giving a child a chicken bone is the best teether they can have. Having an aversion to meat on bones myself, the thought always grossed me out and I never tried it. Joseph took charge this time and gave her a bone. Well, guess what Grandma?! You were right!
SHE LOVED IT!!
REALLY SHE COULDN'T GET ENOUGH!!
Even Taylor and Emma got in on the fun!

So, I will admit it worked and was a good teether as well as play toy, I just couldn't look at her while she did it. Even now the pictures make me a little queasy!

Marathon Blogging!

So sorry for my marathon blogging habits! I am really bad about getting my pics from my camera to my computer and then getting them in a post is another few weeks. Hence many times I end up with many posts at once. As my sister in law put it, "we love it when Amy posts because we know we are going to get a lot!" I am sure this is frustrating to have feast and famine, esp. for the Grandparents who need updates, but bare with me. I will try to catch us up over the next couple days!

Back to Running!

I have heard the phrase, "Well, I guess you may just have to give up running," from a lot of well meaning family and friends over the past 2 years as I have had some rough health, but I am happy to say my doctor has given me the go ahead and I am able to run again. Although not very fast, I love it and am hoping to do a fair amount of running this summer while the weather is nice! Here is a pic with two of my friends right before we ran the 5K at the Beaver Creek Slide.

Spring Soccer!

Spring Soccer is always unpredictable in Wyoming. We play in rain, snow, and sunshine. This year we had a number of 40 degree days so Olivia and I watched from the car. Madi didn't want to be left out of the fun this year and she did itty bitty soccer. Between the three it has been a crazy month and this mom is grateful that our last game is today!

Engagement Announced!

I have a lot of things I want to blog about and hope to update you on some of our comings and goings this week, but for the moment I am going to be self-indulgent!

My little sister announced her engagement on Saturday!! She is getting married in August and I am so happy for her! Eight years apart in age has left us going through nearly every life experience at vastly different times. However, I couldn't ask for a closer sister! When we are together we laugh because we frequently say the same thing at exactly the same time. She is one of my dearest friends and loves my children like they are her own, (although she really hates when people tell her how cute her kids are when she has them in a store! She definitely doesn't look old enough to have 4 kids, but neither do I, right? don't answer that!) So, to my wonderfully talented sister! CONGRATULATIONS! I am so very happy for you!!

Happy Mother's Day!

To all of you women who have impacted my life, you truly are the hero's I look up to and have learned so much from!
(Most Especially you Mom! You will always be my greatest hero!)

"Somebody's Hero"

She's never pulled anyone from a burning building
She's never rocked Central Park to a half a million fans, screaming out her name
She's never hit a shot to win the game
She's never left her footprints on the moon
She's never made a solo hot air balloon ride, around the world,
No, she's just your everyday average girl (but)

She's somebody's hero
A hero to her baby with a skinned up knee
A little kiss is all she needs
The keeper of the cheerios
The voice that brings Snow White to life
Bedtime stories every night
And that smile lets her know
She's somebody's hero

She didn't get a check every week like a nine-to fiver
But she's been a waiter, and a cook and a taxi driver
For twenty years, there at home, until the day her girl was grown
Giving all her love to her was her life's ambition
But now her baby's movin' on, and she'll soon be missin' her
But not today, those are tears of joy runnin' down her face

She's somebody's hero
A hero to her daughter in her wedding dress
She gave her wings to leave the nest
It hurts to let her baby go down the aisle she walks right by
Looks back into her mother's eyes
And that smile lets her know
She's somebody's hero

Thirty years have flown right past
Her daughters' starin' at all the photographs
Of her mother, and she wishes she could be like that
Oh, but she already is

She's somebody's hero
A hero to her mother in a rockin' chair
She runs a brush through her silver hair
The envy of the nursing home
She drops by every afternoon
Feeds her mama with a spoon
And that smile lets her know
Her mother's smile lets her know
She's somebody's hero

Tongue River Caves!

What is there to do in Dayton, WY you may ask, well we have lived here for 3 years before we discovered that there is something really cool! The Tongue River Caves. Our new friends invited us to join them to check them out and have a hot dog roast! It was a blast! So, now if any of you want to come in good weather conditions we have somewhere cool to take you!

The kids were too little to do much in the cave, but the river and small hike to get to the cave provided ample entertainment. Joseph and I plan to head back soon to explore the cave in more detail!!
(Thanks to Andrea for the pics since mine ran out of batteries right when we got there!)(Olivia tried watermelon for the first time and loved it! She chewed on the rind for 20 min. I think we found our newest teether for her!!)

Why Wyoming?

After having a debate with a close family member over why we have chosen to live in Wyoming, I have been reflecting on that question a lot myself and here is what I have come up with.
I firmly believe that there are good and bad things about every where. Here are the big 4 negative's to living in Wyoming for me,
1-Distance from Family (although it could be worse)
2-Travel (esp. when trying to see family!!)
3-Weather(really who likes snow 9 months a year)
4-Lack of Shopping (pathetic I know, but I really love a good mall!!)

So those are my reasons why I would leave, but here are the positives. (In no particular order of importance!!)
1-Strong Family Oriented Community
2-Ward family that would and has given much to us
3-Wonderful school system
4-Beautiful scenery
5-safe environment for my children to grow up in
6-good friends
7-Awesome YMCA program
8-Career that not only pays the bills and allows me to be a stay at home mom for my children, but also one that fulfills my husband and will help meet all the goals my husband has regarding a career
*mind you I realize that many places also offer these positives, but for what ever reason the Lord directed us here*

So, for those who I have given a negative image of Wyoming, I ask you to look past my past struggles with living here. It has not been easy to adjust to a new community, but we have been received with more than open arms. Although I have gone through varying degrees of like and dislike regarding our settling arrangements, I am now determined to focus on the list of positives and not negatives. For those of you that this personally affects by not having us closer, I am sorry. For the family distance alone I many times wish it could be different. We miss so much by being away and we love you all so much, but this is where we are supposed to be. It has taken my nearly 3 years to know this for myself, but now I do. Coming into town this past trip home, I finally felt like I was coming home. I do love it here and although I don't know why, I know this is where the Lord wants my family right now.
So, for those that care or just needed something to do for 5 min. this is why Wyoming is the right place for us. I am glad to have this realization come since, it looks like this will be our home for a long time to come!

Violin Lessons at School!

The kids chose to do violin for their block rotation this year, I was leary of it at first because I don't play so I can't help them and they are already taking private piano lessons. The had their first performance this last month and did really well. They both seem to enjoy it and if they want to pursue it down the road I would be on board!
(PS. Thanks Uncle Jeff and Aunt Carly for the BYU jersey! He loves it, even though his friends give him slack for it because they are WY fans!)

My Little Fish!

In January, Madelyn was driving me crazy! She was always tormenting her baby sister and getting into trouble. It finally dawned on me that she was just bored and I enrolled her swim lessons 3 times a week. Well, it is the best money we spend right now. She loves it!! Since this picture she has moved from level 1 to level 3. The instructor constantly is telling me how well she is doing, and Madi can't get enough. Just tonight, at 7:00pm she said, "I need to get some sleep so I will have energy to swim tomorrow!" Since we started this she has been so much happier and better at home. The best part being that she takes a long nap on the days she swims so we are both winning! I just wish I would have thought of this sooner!

Baptism Moments!!

I can write so much on my feelings of this night! Just to give you an idea, just posting the pictures for this blog has me in tears, for 2 reasons. 1 because my little boy is growing up and 2 for how much support he has. With such amazing family and friends he is bound to turn out okay! To those of you who traveled an especially long way, THANK YOU! It really meant the world to Taylor and me! Rather than write a 100 words, I will let the pictures tell the story! I will say that this was the best birthday I have had in 8 years! The last best birthday was 8 years before in a hospital! Taylor, I love you!!

Moments with little Sis!

We all love our Olivia so much! A quick update, she now has 2 teeth fully in and 1 half way. She can crawl uprightly, but still resorts to army crawling most of the time. She cruises around on the furniture and loves to be "walked," but hasn't tried any steps on her own. She adores her Daddy and is esp. mad when he kisses her and then heads up to the stand at church without her. Each of her siblings can make her smile or laugh in their own special way. Madelyn and her have a love hate relationship as Madi does the most malling of her, but to sum up, she is the sunshine in all of our days right now!!

Family Room Made Over

We redid our family room in time for Tay's baptism are are quite happy with how it turned out. Joseph made a bench for the room which I love!! We did the room in African decor and are finally able to display a painting our good friend did for us a couple years ago!
Here is a view of the new room!

Surprise!

I have a very sweet husband when it comes to special events! He is always very good to me and this year was no exception. Since we will be focusing on Taylor this year with his baptism being on his birthday, I thought I would generously give up my birthday and just stay 29 one more year, sure sounded good to me, but Joseph had surprises up his sleeve.

He insisted we go to lunch together before all our family got here to celebrate our birthdays. Olivia has had ear infections this week and RSV so I tried to back out, but he insisted we just go to lunch. When we got there I found out why, he had invited a few of my friends and they had cake, balloons, gifts, the whole deal. I haven't had a surprise party since my mom threw me one in high school and I was so surprised I was almost embarrassed. I really hadn't expected this at all, but it was so great! It was very sweet of everyone to come and really made me feel special!

THANK YOU JOSEPH!!

January Update!

I am sad to report that I have forgotten my camera on almost every thing we have done this past month and the couple times I remembered I had dead batteries! So since I picture is worth a thousand words, and I don't have any pics, I guess you get the thousand words! Just thought I would recap our January! 2010, has already been kinder in the health department for our family, which we are so grateful!! Here are the highlights of our month:
*Emma had her third set of ear tubes put in! Did great!!
*No one had a cold or sickness the whole month!! I can hardly believe it!
*We painted our family room! It is in african decor and we love it. Thanks
to
my dad and mom for the decorations that add so much! And, Jacey we have
finally
found a place for Landon's wonderful painting, yeah!!
*Madelyn drove me crazy the first three weeks with tormenting her baby
sister,
until I wised up and realized she is just so very bored being ready for
Kindergarten now, but still not going for 1 1/2 years!!
*To solve Madi's bored problem, she enrolled in Swim lessons and loves it!!
*Emma did basketball. They only had 2 girls and 1 boy from her school sign up
so Taylor got to play again with the 1st graders! They both loved it!
*Olivia learned to pull herself up on things and now won't go to sleep because
she would rather stand up in her crib! So fun!
*Had a whole week of 40 degrees which we got to use our new bikes!
*Joseph and I rotated going to the gym at 5:00am!

We had a great month. Usually I am really depressed in January, but this month has been good and we are loving normal life. As we struggled the past year, I kept saying I just want our normal routine back and now that it is, I need to express my gratitude! Hope January was good to you all as well!

Taylor's Baptism!

We are so excited to have Taylor's baptism coming soon. He is such a good boy, and although I know all parents say that about their kids, he is. His primary teacher the other day at church asked me if I knew how amazing he was. He said he couldn't believe Taylor knew so much about the scriptures. He has always wanted to read and discover and we are very pleased with him and his decision to be baptized. We told him to think about it, because getting baptized was his choice and he didn't have to, but that we really wanted him to. I laughed when I overheard him telling Emma that she didn't have to be baptized at 8 if she didn't want to, she could wait until 10 or 11 or whenever. Anyhow, most all of you who check this blog live far away, but we want to annouce his baptism as it is a very special time for our family and invite any who would like to come.

Models for a Day!

My friend Kimberly Noble is starting a photography business and asked if she could have the girls come over and try out some of her new equipment. They had a really fun time and we got some really cute pictures from it. If you want to see more, her website is pocketfullofposes.webs.com and in her portfolio under tutu pics are our girls. Here are a couple of my favorites!