The Edwards Family

Sadie's 8

2010-09-27T21:04:00.004-06:00

I cannot believe that I have an 8 year old!!! How did that happen? It's just so weird to think that my little Sadie is growing up soooooo fast. Her CAMP ROCK 2 birthday party was a hit and a little bit crazy with 8 girls + 2 sisters and 1 little boy. We ate dinner, made crafts, opened presents, watched Camp Rock 2 and even had smores and hot chocolate.

One of Sadie's birthday presents was a new dress for her baptism from Grandma Andersen. It's beautiful and everything I wanted her dress to be. So we went over to the BYU campus just right below the Bell Tower and took some pictures of her in her new present. The pictures turned out GREAT and I love what's missing....

I LOVE the missing two front teeth. I don't think it gets better than that. She lost her last tooth a week ago while playing volleyball during recess. She had the ball and some kid's head hit her face which knocked her tooth out of her mouth and into the grass. It was never found and we had to write another letter to the tooth fairy. Anyway, I love these pictures. Of course I had to take a few other pictures of my other children.

We had soooo much fun at this park. The ducks were loving my kids and so were the young couples who were pretending to study. After we took pictures at this little spot, we headed over to the stadium to give the Cougar some hi-fives.

I don't know why he does this, but he always does:) I love my kids, they're so dang cute!

Prettylicious Giveaway

2010-09-02T14:09:00.004-06:00

Prettylicious is doing another giveaway, this time with a website Your Home Based Mom that I have been following for a couple of years now. All you have to do is go this link , and then leave a comment telling us which team colored headband you would like.

Please go and leave a comment, I would love it if one of our friends won.

Softball, T-Ball & Out of Control Daddy

2010-05-16T16:25:00.007-06:00

After Kurt got back from taking the girls to Walmart to buy me a Mother's Day Present, he told me that he was "Out of Control". My first thought was..."Yes, he bought me way too many presents!" Then that thought was thrown out the window when I watched him pull out two pairs of baseball pants, two belts, and of course the cool black socks. Let's take a look at the final product...

I think I even heard Jessica's coach ask Kurt..."Are you for real?" and the answer is YES!!!

Not only do they look absolutely adorable, but they can play some serious ball!!!

We all had fun watching these girls play, including Grandpa Kelly & Easton.

This and That

2010-05-16T15:48:00.010-06:00

A Night at the Mall

During soccer season, Kurt told the girls that if they scored a goal he would take them to the mall and buy them their own Cold Stone ice cream. It apparently worked and we all enjoyed the fruits of their labor. After ice cream we just hung out at the mall for the evening.

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Trevors Graduation

It seems just like yesterday that we were feeding dinner to Trevor every sunday when he was a freshman at BYU. Now he's all grown up and graduated. We're happy for him but sad at the same time because in a few weeks Trevor, Heather and little Jacoby are moving to Indiana for Dental school. We're going to miss them.

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Spring Soccer

Soccer season was a tad bit colder than the previous years: however, we still had a lot of fun. Kurt coached both Sadie and Jessica's teams which made it a little busy but still rewarding. The girls LOVE having Coach Daddy Kurt with them for every game.

Sadie's favorite position was goalie (because you get to touch the ball with your hands) and she was very good at it.

Easton, well, he just likes any kind of ball you put in front of him.

Maybe next year Cassie.

BJ & Susan's Wedding

2010-04-22T21:52:00.007-06:00

This past weekend we were able to go to BJ & Susan's Wedding. We had so much fun attending the wedding and following activities. We left Jessica and Sadie in school that morning so we only had 50% of our children for the day. Later on that evening we took all four kids with us up to Heber for the reception then up to Malad on Saturday. Here are some of the 100+ pictures Kurt and I took.

Heber...

Malad...visiting Uncle Dave's farm.

And my new favorite picture

Sadie's Basketball Season

2010-04-01T13:36:00.008-06:00

Another season over. Another pair of expensive shoes worn and put to rest until the next pair of feet grow into them. Another year of coaching for the coolest dad on the court. And yet another year of "Dad, why do you keep putting me in sports when all I want to be is a cheerleader!"

If you know our little Sadie...cheer leading is definitely more of her thing; however, she really is athletic and we as parents are just helping her develop some skills that may be helpful to her in the future.

This was a great season for Kurt as a coach. They had a winning team that pretty much dominated the 1st & 2nd grade league. Sadie did awesome!!! She was more comfortable this year out on the court and took more shots than she did last year. I think having Kurt as the coach really makes a difference for our kids.

We had a kid on the team who is every father's dream child. He literally can dribble better than any kid I've ever watched play. Kurt even says that this kid can dribble better than himself. We even had a coach from a 5th grade team come up to Kurt after one of our games trying to recruit him. Amazing is all I can say about this kid.

Here's a little story Sadie wrote about basketball.

We love you Sadie, way to go !!!

2010-03-22T21:29:00.002-06:00

Ahhhhhhhhh, finally my Mommy went to the store and bought me a blue towel. Now I'll never be wrapped up in a pink girly princess towel again. Thanks MOM!!!!!!!!!!

New Camera

2010-03-05T11:19:00.006-07:00

We finally got ourselves a new working camera, and I can't stop playing with it. Here are a few pics I took the other day.

Easton is sporting his first haircut in this picture. Definitely not perfect, but he looks sooooo much older now. I had to hold him pretty tight while Kurt cut his hair. He did not like the whole process, so a second attempt will be make shortly.

Yes you can say it....Oh sooooo cute.

Cassie looking so sweet and precious.

Happy Birthday Easton

2010-03-01T14:37:00.005-07:00

Easton had his first birthday on Saturday February 27th. I still can't believe he is 1 years old. We took him to the doctors for his one year check up and here are the stats...

weight = 19 lbs even 25%
height = 75%
head circumference 75%

He definitely is not like any of his sisters, they were always up in the 80-95% for weight. We blame this on lack of interest in bottles. Thankfully he now takes a bottle, but did not for 11.5 months of his life.

Easton is not walking yet but this accomplishment is just around the corner. He loves to eat anything I'm eating as well as his fruits and snacks, vegetables are not exactly high on his list of favorites. He has his two bottom teeth and his upper front two teeth are just about ready to break thru. He is an excellent shopper and keeps most of his opinions to himselft while being pushed around in the cart. If I have to choose a little one to go shopping with me he usually is the one to join in on the fun. He is very good at church and will sit on my lap for the majority of Sacrament meeting. His sisters think that he is the cutest baby boy ever, and I agree. Easton is just too much fun and we love him sooooo much. Our family just wouldn't be the same without him.

I think Easton's favorite birthday gift would have to be the Wii his daddy bought for himself in celebration of Easton's birthday. Other than the Wii, Easton also got a lot of styling clothes, new bedding, his own plastic golf clubs, a bouncy ball, a book, some keys and a bubble blowing lawn mower. Easton's pretty lucky to have his birthday around tax returns.

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My Grandma Andersen also had a birthday on February 1st and turned 100 years old. We went to her birthday party along with about 300 other people and were blessed to be with her for that special day. We love Grandma Andersen and the special spirit she has.

Congratulations

2010-02-10T13:03:00.003-07:00

Congratulations Kurt on winning this year's fantasy football challenge!!!

Even Little E was in on the celebration.

Thanks Heather for the pics, you're awesome.

2009-12-31T13:19:00.005-07:00

You know your house is a mess when your husband comes home at 3 am after plowing snow all night long and thinks that someone broke into your home and ransacked the place. I'm embarrassed to admit that our house really was that messy. What can I say, it's Christmas break.

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Tuesday night Kurt and I went out to eat and then went to Kohls to do some shopping. After searching the whole store to find something to buy, I forced myself to try a shirt on. Don't you hate it when that happens, you have money, you want to spend it, but you can't find anything you like!!! So I went into the dressing room tried the shirt on and then spotted a little green plastic baggy filled with marijuana. I thought to myself is that really what I think it is, or did someone leave some oregano behind. I quickly found Kurt and told him that I thought I had found some weed in the dressing room, so he immediately went right into the room and we decided to take it up to the cashier and have him call the manager. Wow, I still can't believe I came across that stuff in a dressing room. Come on marijuana. Someone out there is ticked.

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This video is for Kurt, he is soooooooo proud of his little boy.

We love you Easton. At ten months he is crawling everywhere, practicing his balancing skills by pulling himself up everywhere on everything, grinning with his two new bottom teeth, and now playing catch with his favorite kind of toy...any kind of BALL. He's a keeper!!!

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Christmas

Christmas was wonderful!!! Every Christmas is great but this year we had my family stay with us at our home. We've always traveled for the holidays, so it was really nice to actually have Christmas at our home. We started the festivities with a Christmas Eve party. Most of my siblings were able to attend which was a lot of fun, since we don't get together as much as we should. White elephant gifts were exchanged at the end of the evening followed by wrapping up the last of the presents. Christmas morning was magical until Cassie decided that she did NOT want to open the last of her presents. It was pretty funny watching her throw all of her presents at anyone who would hand them to her. We got it on video and I'm planning on sending it in to America's Funniest Videos. I'll post if that gets us anywhere. The day after Christmas was just as fun. We started a new tradition to go sledding the day after Christmas. Our girls have always been scared to go sledding and we were able to convince them to try it out. Of course after the first time down the hill they were addicted and wanted more and more. I think Christmas was a success, it's always nice to be able to spend time with family.

You gotta love Jessa's hair.

It's about time

2009-11-14T20:29:00.007-07:00

I LoVe mY LitTle CaSsie

So we have a problem with mice in our house. I know, it's disgusting!!! Anyway, so we have these mouse traps that we have in our laundry room 24/7 because that's where we have the most success in getting those gross little creatures. Well we use peanut butter on the traps to lure them in; however, the mice are too dang smart and always lick the PB off of the traps.

Well yesterday Cassie was talking to Kurt and out of no where she told him how the mouse licked the PB off of the trap. Then she said..."We gotta get that back!" She really likes peanut butter!!!

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sO yoU tHinK yOu Can dAnCe

Kurt and I went to the SYTYCD tour last week and had a blast. We love that show and we thorghouly enjoyed ourselves. At first Kurt was looking around for other "Dudes" and after he saw a few men with their significant others, he started to fell a little bit more relaxed. I have to say that Phillip was by far the most entertaining dancer at the show. I could watch his solo over and over again and never get bored. I'll also say that as much as we try to dance like him, well let's be honest that will never happen.

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PoOr LiTle eAsTOn

About two months ago, we noticed a soft lump on the back of Easton's neck. We weren't too concerned at first and decided to just watch it to see if it would go away or if it bothered him in anyway. Well nothing happened with it it just stayed there so we decided to take him to the doctor to get it checked out. Our Dr. really didn't know what it was and wanted to run some tests on him. So it began.

The first step was to have an ultrasound done. We went, we held him and we watched the screen and nothing showed up. So then we scheduled a CT to be done. Kurt and I took him to the hospital early in the morning and waited to have our little E sedated for the test. While we were waiting for the Pediatric Sedation Team to get everything set up, the NP asked to look report of the ultrasound and then decided that she wanted to have a MRI done instead of the CT. That decision sent us home until they could squeeze us in that afternoon.

We returned to the hospital about 1:30pm and waited again for the Sedation Team. We took little E back to a room where the torture began. Our poor little boy was pricked 7 times trying to get an IV into his little veins. It was so sad!!! I was holding him down on the bed, watching the needles fish around inside of both of his hands and both sides of his head (where the IV ended up being placed). Poor Kurt was left to just watch Easton kick and scream. At one point he was looking at Easton while the nurse had his head squished sideways on the bed, and I swear Easton saw him and said the saddest "DAAAAAAD" I've ever heard. After the IV was placed and the meds were pushed through, he calmed down and then fell into a deep slumber where I hope he forgot everything that had just happened to him.

The nurses wrapped him up in a blanket and also covered up the blood that was everywhere from their efforts of getting an IV in, and then put his baseball blanket on top of him. It didn't even look like our son was on the bed, it literally looked like a little pile of blankets were left waiting to be cleaned up by the janitorial staff. Finally the the sedation part of the procedure was over and somehow we got through that whole ordeal.

Next, the MRI. We followed little Easton down several halls to the machine where he would spend the next hour of his life. They placed his little body on this cradle type thing that held his body still. Then wrapped him with Velcro straps and then taped his forehead down to the machine. We were asked to find a seat and perhaps grab a bite to eat. We were told that he would probably be in the MRI room for about half an hour. After we heard him scream for about 3 minutes and then suddenly stop, the machine started up again and he was in there for another 30 minutes. Each minute that went by left horrifying thoughts in my head and "what ifs" about his future. My stomach felt sick and when the nurses came out with him after the test and then didn't say anything about the MRI, I mentally prepared myself for the worst. We walked back down the halls to the room where he was stabbed and waited for him to wake up. Still nothing about the MRI or if they saw anything on the computers. I wanted to ask the nursed soooooo bad but at the same time had no desire to hear anything. So we gave Easton a bottle of Pedialyte (he had to drink clear fluids before they could release him) and then packed up our stuff to go home. The nurse told us that they would call us in the morning to see how the night went.

Morning came and sure enough the nurse called. I reported that Easton was back to his normal self and that he seemed to be doing fine. She asked a few questions and then told me that she was going to check the computers to see if the results were up. They were and to our relief there was no appearance of any malignant tumors but he had a venous verix, which she told me was something kind of like a varicose vein on the back of the neck. PHEW!!!!! I don't' know what this means for his future, but to hear NO TUMOR was sooooooo nice. We're going to follow up with a vein specialist and find out more info, but for now I am totally OK with the findings.

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hAlLoWeEn

What do you get when two witches, a frog and a scary bride carve pumpkins?

Jacoby met up with us for trick-or-treating. I love his costume.

FREE Snuggie Blanket

2009-10-22T15:30:00.003-06:00

OK, so I just found a link to get a free Snuggie Blanket. I've always wanted to try one of these blankets so of course I signed up as fast as I could. Thanks to the Savvy Shopper for finding this great deal.

Party in the USA

2009-09-29T08:59:00.003-06:00

I'm admitting it. . . . I love Miley Cyrus' new song "Party in the USA." I think the girls and I listened to this song at least 15 times yesterday, and yes Sadie almost has the whole song memorized. Cassie even sings along as she shakes her little body, it's way too cute.

Throwback Thursday

2009-09-03T16:32:00.005-06:00

I can't believe my Little E is already 6 months old. Here he is at 2 weeks. Thank you Britt for taking these awesome pictures.

Here are some pictures of him at 5-6 months.

Isn't he just adorable!?!

Back to School

2009-08-30T13:40:00.006-06:00

FYI: My computer is not behaving. For some unknown reason to me my drives are no longer recognized by my computer so I haven't been able to retrieve any pictures from my camera. I'm going crazy. Luckily I have been able to use some of my good friends and neighbors working computers to snatch my pictures. So on with the post.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

I just want to start off by saying that I did NOT cry this year and I still can't believe that 50% of my children our old enough to go to school.

Sadie started school a week before Jessica did which was kind of nice for our family. It gave Jessica a little more time to get ready. Sadie did awesome!!! Her teacher, Mrs. Heaton, was Sadie's music teacher last year and Sadie loves her. It was really nice to have someone who Sadie already knew for the transition of kindergarten to 1st grade. I think she is going to have a lot of fun this year.

Jessica's first day of school was a bit different that Sadie's. There was a Safety assembly scheduled on the first day of Kindergarten this year which made for a little disorganization. We went to school and straight to that school yard for the assembly. We all kind of stood around and waited for it to start. Right afterwards we took Jess to her class and said goodbye. We each had a big hug goodbye from Jess and off she went. Luckily she has about 6 kids from the ward in her class, including Emily Bond. Jess and Emily just stuck together and helped each other out.

Jessica was able to get evaluated for speech during the first week back to school (the week that Sadie started) and is ready to start speech this week. I am very grateful that we got things going early.

Carpooling worked out for the best. I am taking my two kids and two other kids from our neighborhood every morning to school. This will make me wake up early and get ready to go before my kids wake up. I am actually grateful for this because I need this in my life to keep me organized as sane. It actually works out great for me because the parents of the other two kids pick up Sadie & Jessica from school. Now I can let Easton nap when he needs to. A huge blessing in my life.

Last Week

2009-08-16T17:57:00.007-06:00

Last week I packed up the van and four kids and drove to my parents house to spend some time with them. Kurt was able to join us Friday evening after he got off work. We did it all: searched for golf balls, drove through Yellowstone National Park, went fishing, went golfing, watched the rodeo, rode the rides at the carnival and most important of all...relaxed.

Just A Reminder

2009-08-12T19:21:00.007-06:00

Just a reminder about the coupon party I'm hosting tomorrow night at my house @ 6pm. I really am excited to have someone teach everyone about coupon shopping because it is the funnest way to shop. I have never spent so little and gotten so much. I have a stocked pantry and I've been able to try foods that I would usually never buy. So now onto my steal of a deal. I have to start out apologizing for blogging about another one of my shopping steals but this one was sooooo good that I had to share it. I promise that this one will be the last shopping post I will ever make, well maybe. I had my first money maker today and I can hardly contain myself, so that's why I'm posting and I hope this does not come across as bragging I just truly am so excited that I have to show ya all.

Rite Aid

Buy 3 Air Wick Freshmatic Ultra i-Motion Starter Kit on Sale %50 for $6.99

Use 3 $6/1 (9-20-09) SS-8/9

Buy 2 Scotch Magic Tape 3 pack on Sale for 2/$3

Use 2 .50/1 (11-30-09) RP-8/9 or (8-31-09) RP-6/28

Buy 1 Scotch Pop-Up Tape Deskgrip Dispenser on Sale for $2.49

Use 1 $2/1 MFC found @ www.3m.com

Plus submit for SCR for additional $2.49

Use a $5/$25 coupon before any other coupons are used

Total OOP = $1.18

After SCR = -$1.31

Can you believe that, I made $1.31 off of that purchase.

She Finally Lost It!!!

2009-08-03T05:38:00.003-06:00

"I have the MOST EXCITING NEWS for you..." is what Sadie said to almost everyone she called the second after she lost her first tooth. It was a long battle. After convincing herself that her tooth was loose for almost a year, it actually started to wiggle about two months ago. Finally, she could join the toothless grin club, which she so desparetly wanted to be a part of, since all her friends were long time members. Then it happened, she finally lost it. I'll never forget how excited she was, running down the stairs holding her prized possession in hand and shouting that she lost her tooth.

I LOVE Albertson's

2009-07-31T21:59:00.005-06:00

7 boxes of cereal

2 boxes of Nurtri-Grain Bars

3 cans of tuna

5 boxes of pop-tarts

1 rubbermaid water bottle

1 Glade gel warmer

Total out of pocket = $12.32

After Mail-In rebate = $2.32 ($0.12 an item)

Saved = $60.82

I still can't believe that coupon shopping pays off this much, I LOVE IT!!!

What just happened?

2009-07-27T22:50:00.008-06:00

What Just Happened!?!

Well, that could have been what Kurt thought when he heard a loud popping noise Friday evening when he closed our van's rear door. However, I'm pretty sure that thought was followed by a few choice words not worth mentioning :) Who would have thought that the handle bars on your child's bike would go thru your back window.

Coupon Party

2009-07-23T14:20:00.004-06:00

So I'm a total coupon dork right now and to prove it I'm going to be hosting a coupon party. I know it sounds weird but it's a party that teaches you how to shop with coupons. It's totally free and you don't have to buy anything. So if anyone is interested it is going to be on August 13th @ 6:00pm, at my house. Let me know if you want to attend, I have to have a headcount to let the girl know how many print outs to bring.

We could have been rich

2009-07-16T09:19:00.003-06:00

According to Cassie, the last fruit snack that she just shoved into her mouth looked like Jesus. I wonder how much that would have gone for on Ebay? We could have been rich!

4th of July & Parents Homecoming

2009-07-12T14:21:00.009-06:00

Well we had another AWESOME 4th of July!!! This year we started the celebrations with a much anticipated trip to Lagoon. Now that Kurt and myself are out numbered 4 to 2 and the younger two are a handful, we decided to let Kurt go to Lagoon with Sadie and Jessica, while I stayed home with Cass and Easton. It was great! Unfortunately for Kurt and the older girls it rained half of the time they were there which meant that they didn't get to ride as many rides as they normally do. To make up for the lack of rides Kurt and his brothers let the kids play some games. I'm not sure what game it was but after Kurt and Tyler both tried to win the grand prize Sadie stepped up and tried her luck. After winning a small stuff thing, Kurt told her to aim for the red thing-a-ma-jig (a hole in which the ball is supposed to fall into) Sadie let go of her ball and after it bounced around a few times, it landed right in the red hole. She won the biggest stuffed pug I've ever seen. Needless to say she was ecstatic and paraded that thing everywhere. I first saw it when I opened Grandma Peden's front door and saw Sadie carrying it on her shoulders up the walkway. I was a little surprised and a little proud when I heard the story behind the stuffed dog.

On Friday we had our annual Peden Classic Golf Tournament. This year it was held in Preston, Idaho. It was fun, hot and long. I think I'm only good for 12 holes; however, I did win the women's long drive competition. Take that boys, Justin did help my golf game out a little. (Justin is the head golf pro at Talon's Cove that coached our women's golf clinic that we went to the week before).

Later that evening, we all went to the Middle School to watch Kurt's dad perform with his High School Band at their 40th reunion. He did awesome!!! Our girls had a blast dancing with anyone and everyone who would dance with them.

A first for the family Peden gathering: Malad City Softball Tournament. We started on Friday night with a win and then played three games on Saturday. Wow, was I out of shape!!!!! I played catcher all day on Saturday and honestly could not go down the stairs normally after that. We played well but lost momentum with each game. I don't know if we will play next year.

We enjoyed the parade on the 4th and the girls did great in their races. The family BBQ was excellent and the watching the fireworks was great. Sometime during the fireworks Sadie started shouting: "Light up your night Fireworks, Ligth up your night." I don't know where she got that but we were all laughing. It was a great 4th of July and we're already looking forward to next year.

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WELCOME HOME MOM & DAD

July 8th finally came!!! Sadie made a paper chain, starting at 55 days, to count down the days until my parents were to come home from their mission in Bulgaria. They arrived at 11pm in Salt Lake, and our girls could not have been more excited to go to the airport and pick them up. Cassie was an angel and went right up to my parents. We were all a little nervous to see how she would react to them, since she was 6 months old when they left. It was also so nice to be able to introduce them to Little Easton for the first time. He of course was great and had no problem letting his Grandparents hold him.

A few hours before we left to pick up my parents I took the girls for a walk to kill some time. We went and visited with the Carters and while we were there Jessica told us to watch her as she ran to the mailbox and back. Just as she was running from the grass to the driveway she tripped and landed on her face with her arms pinned under her body. It was sooooo painful to watch. We picked her off of the cement and saw that her cute little face had started to bleed. Her upper lip and nose kissed the cement, and her mouth was bleeding a little bit as well. You can see the damage in some of the pics.

One of things we did while my parents stayed with us was make patriotic fruit kabobs. They were so good and Sadie and Jessica LOVED making & eating them. I'm pretty sure fruit kabobs were a hit.

Here's a pic with my mom with Easton. I'm pretty sure she missed seeing and holding her grand kids while they were on a mission.

We're glad to have you back Mom & Dad.

Happy Birthday Cassie

2009-07-01T12:03:00.005-06:00

Happy Birthday Cassie!!!

Cassie turned 2 on Saturday June 27th. I only have one picture from her birthday party because I was video taping the whole thing and forgot to take pics. The picture above is Cassie with a sleeve of Oreo cookies that Grandma Donna & Grandpa Kelly gave her after she told them about 100 times that she wanted cookies for her birthday. Cassie was sooooo spoiled by all of the family who were in Malad for Kurt's Grandmother's family reunion, thank you everyone for all of the presents!!! I think we should plan all of our children's birthdays around family events:) At first Cassie was a little timid at opening presents, but by the time she got near the end of her pile she was really getting into it. All we could do was laugh at her cute little ways and personality. We just can't wait to see how this little one is going make the "terrible twos" her own. I can just bet that this upcoming year will be lots of fun for the whole family. Cassie we love you and are so thankful to have you in our family.

Easton turned 4 months old on Cassie's birthday. We took him in for his well child check up and he is doing great.

Height = 25.5 inches 90%

Weight = 15 pounds 90%

Head Circumference = 42 cm 90%

We can't get enough of our Little E. He is soooo smiley and warms up to everyone. I absolutely LOVE the fact that he sleeps close to 10 hours a night and has for the past 6 weeks. He is definitely a trooper for dealing with the constant mauling from his older sisters and the hundreds of kisses he gets from me. I just can't believe how old he is and how fast time flies.

Here are a couple of pcitures I found of just Cassie and Easton together.

A little bit of this & that

2009-06-24T12:00:00.005-06:00

First of all, I love the classifieds on ksl.com. We sold a bookcase in 20 minutes, a day bed in 2 hours and a recliner in 5 days, oh and my in laws sold their 4 wheeler in 2 hours. I don't think it gets any better than that.

This past Friday me and my friends put our crafts in the Lehi Round-Up Days craft boutique and were only able to sell on friday because on Saturday we pretty much were forced to take down our booth after a major storm came thru. It was fun while it lasted I just wish it would have lasted longer.

Sunday: Trevor and Heather blessed Jakoby or as Jess calls him "Little Cobes.". It was so nice to hang out with family and to also celebrate Father's Day.

Sunday Afternoon: After the luncheon, we all took a little rest and Easton rolled over for the first time.

Monday Morning: We talked to my parents over the computer for the last time on their mission in Bulgaria. The start touring the country and the Greek islands this week and will come home on July 8th. We are so excited to see them.

Monday: Cassie had a really bad diaper, the kind that only the parents should have to change. Anyways to make this even worse she had diarrhea. I told her it was ooowee yucky diarrhea, she however heard it as "oooweerrhea" and then said it all day long.

Monday Evening: For FHE Kurt decided to have a lesson on marriage, dating and kissing. Kurt was telling the girls that when they go on a date, a very nice boy will come and pick them up in his car, before he could say another word Jessica interrupted and said..."or a motorcycle daddy." Kurt was just as quick to respond with a ..."um, no he wont Jess. There will be no motorcycles."

Tuesday Evening: Just for the record I'm not trying to poke fun at my husband but this was kind of funny, considering his job. I was sitting at the computer with Heather when I thought I heard a knock at the door. I looked out the window and saw a kid on his bike staring at our house. I went and opened the door and another boy was standing on our porch and then asked. . ."um we were wondering if you needed someone to mow your lawn?" I wanted to burst out laughing but politely told the boy that my husband managed a lawn care company and just hadn't gotten around to mowing our lawn in awhile. Oh, if only Kurt would have been home to have answered the door.

Take that Albertsons

2009-06-17T10:15:00.003-06:00

Ok, you can laugh at me for posting this but I have to because this will go down in history as my best shopping trip ever. As of last week I have really gotten into the whole coupon shopping thing and I'll admit it's addicting. Anyway, today I went to Albertsons and bought all of this...

for only $4.26 (that's with tax included).

Can you believe that!?! I'm still in shock and totally excited. So yes, that makes me the typical Utah SAHM who is coupon shopping and then blogging about it.

Great deal: I went to Smiths today and found a mail in rebate offer in the beer isle from Budweiser. If you buy $10 worth of water, ice, salty snacks, pizza dips, buns...they'll send you $10.00 back. If you live in Utah you don't have to buy beer to use this. So what ever you buy you get for free. They are also offering the same deal on suntanning oils and lotion.

Throwback Thursday

2009-06-11T21:56:00.005-06:00

I just have to laugh at these Senior Pictures of Kurt and myself. I could only find one of Kurt, yet I love this picture because of the story behind it. I was told that his younger brother Tyler took the wallet sized pictures to school and sold them for $5.00 a piece to all the girls in Ontario, OR. Yes I know, I had big poofy hair.

Class of "93"

Class of "95"

We had to add some of our favorite songs from highschool. Hope you enjoy!!!

Long Time No Post

2009-06-09T14:12:00.006-06:00

Well I have a lot of catching up to do and I guess I'll start with Memorial Day Weekend. This year we went back up to my parent's cabin in Star Valley, WY. It was so nice to get away and relax. My awesome mother-in-law watched Cassie and Easton for us, so with the younger 50% of our children with Donna and the more responsible 50% with us, I was able to sleep in and take naps on our vacation. Kurt, BJ and Danny had fun on the golf course and got in around 27 holes of golf on Saturday. They even let Sadie and Jessica practice putting. On Sunday we paced up and headed over to Malad for the 2nd half of our weekend. We visited with family and went to the surrounding cemeteries to pay respect to grandparents and other family members. The only negative part of our trip was finding out that Easton had an allergic reaction to formula on Sunday. I had pumped enough milk to last up until Sunday morning and after drinking the similac his body, except for his legs, turned bright red. I felt soooooo bad for Little E and I am still hoping that it wasn't the formula. Sometime this week we are going to give it to him again and see if it really was the formula that caused the reaction. I really am hoping it wasn't.

Next. . . . We had a yard sale last Saturday. We did alright = $165.00, and our kids did awesome, they made $25.00 selling cupcakes, cookies and apple juice in two hours. They would like to have a garage sell everyday.

Last. . . . We blessed Easton this past Sunday. It is always a special moment for every family to bless their baby and this one was no different. I do have to laugh a little because Easton cried throughout the whole blessing. The binkie was in place but slipped through Spencer's and Randy's arms and then fell to the floor. Kurt was great and didn't let the crying affect Easton's blessing. We had a wonderful brunch afterwards at our house and are very grateful to all who helped out with the food.

I love this picture!!!

I just love how he is looking up at me in this one with his arms kind of folded.

Of course we had to take a picture with his little buddy Jakoby. They're getting so big.

The proud parents. (Not the greatest picture)

Just for fun. . . . Sadie asked me to "fast forward backwards" her movie the other day. I kind of like it better than rewind.

Oh and the cutest. . . . We went grocery shopping today and while I was putting Cassie and Easton into the car, Sadie and Jessica were staring at something. I asked them what they were looking at and they pointed to a puddle of water and said, "Look Mom, a rainbow fell down." I looked at the water and saw that there was oil in it.

Preschool Graduation / Throwback Thursday

2009-05-21T20:45:00.007-06:00

Today was Jessica's Preschool Graduation Program. Kurt and I had a blast watching Jess and all of her classmates sing songs and recite poems that they had learned throughout the school year. Jessica learn a lot from Miss Sherryn and we are so glad that she could have a wonderful experience. Congratulations Jessica!!!

The other day when I was cleaning out our crawl space, I found a bag that my Mother In Law gave me a few years back that had about 8 yards of the same material in it. So I decided that I would make a dress for Jessica's graduation out of this material. I already had the pattern and so I was excited to make a dress for free. Well after 5 hours of working on this adorable dress I finally finished and then had Jessica put it on and then ... we both headed to Walmart and bought the dress that she is wearing in the picture above. The dress that I made turned out great but it fit Sadie instead of Jessica. I think I'll stick to making aprons instead of little dresses.

This is Jessica's Graduation present... the coolest sprinkler that we could find.

I'm pretty sure it will get plenty of use this summer.

Now for a little Throwback Thursday

Lately I've been dreaming of going to a beach, any beach, and so I picked the last time I made it to the beach back in 2005. We visited Paul's family down in S. California and went to the beach which is 10 minutes away from their house. We had a blast!!!

Let's just take a look at this picture...

suckers + 2 three year olds + sandy beach = a sticky sandy mess

Hey why not, Josh & Sadie didn't seem to mind.

Calling All Idol Fans

2009-05-19T16:03:00.001-06:00

Get your dialing fingers ready

It's Time To

VOTE 4 KRIS

Throwback Thursday 1 day late

2009-05-08T14:38:00.004-06:00

A day late, but done. This picture is from Christmas of 2003 at Kurt's Grandmother's house. Kurt's older brother Paul made a snowman with his kids the night before this picture was taken. That night some teenage punks destroyed his snowman. So the next morning when he discovered the wreckage he decided to build an army of snowmen with the help of his kids, brothers, and cousins. Here are the end results.

8 normal sized snowmen

1 very overweight giant snowman

We had a lot of fun.

more photos

2009-05-06T15:08:00.003-06:00

I was bored the other day and decided to take some pictures of Easton. I only wish I had a better camera.

Here I am Ladies.

He's just way too cute!!!

2 Months Old

2009-04-28T19:08:00.003-06:00

I can't believe our little man is 2 months old. He is a GREAT baby!!! He has been sleeping through the night for about a week now, and smiles at his daddy when he come home from work. We have had so much fun Easton and love having him in our family.

Move over Easton

2009-04-25T08:48:00.007-06:00

I was rocking Easton yesterday when I heard Cassie telling me that she was stuck. I turned my head to find this.

I guess when we said..."Don't play with Easton's swing", it didn't really sink in.

Maybe it's time to buy a swing set. Hint, Hint.

Throwback Thursday

2009-04-23T13:31:00.004-06:00

This Throwback Thursday's picture is from 1998 when I was a Senior at BYU living at King Henry. I had the best roommates anyone could ask for and we had so much fun together. In this picture we were practicing our contemporary dance we made up for our ward's talent show. I think we put on the nylons and practiced every night for about two weeks before we performed. I can't help but think of this dance every time I hear about a talent show. The song we danced to was Magalenha by Sergio Mendes, and for fun Getting Jiggy with It, by Will Smith.

From left to right:D'Lonna, Britt, Tessa & Amy T.

Nursery Super Star

2009-04-19T15:13:00.004-06:00

Here's Cassie with her own rendition of some songs she is learning in nursery.

You should hear her pray, it's just as cute.

I had to throw in a picture of our handsome little man. (Taken at 6 weeks)

What's for Dinner?

2009-04-17T15:17:00.006-06:00

I haven't done this since I've had Easton, but I actually found time yesterday to cook a decent meal. Ream's (on Center Street in Provo) has a sale on their country styled boneless pork ribs for $1.19/lb going on this week. I picked up a few pounds brought it home and searched for a great recipe I had stumbled across on one of many blogs that I follow. If you go to Taste the Joy look up the pulled pork sandwich recipe. The pork turned out excellent and I'm pretty sure I'll be making this a lot in the near future. The only thing I did different was I added a 1/4 cup of water to the meat and deleted the onions since they are not allowed in our house.

It was after I started the meat in the crock pot that I realized I had no buns to use. This was a huge problem because I refused to get all four kids ready and then take them shopping. So what did I do, I found another recipe on another blog for homemade hamburger buns. I have never attempted anything like this before because of the convenience of just going to the store and picking out the kind of bun you prefer. So go to The Frugal Girl and follow her directions. They turned out great, besides the fact that I added too much flour.

Anyways, I just thought I would pat myself on the shoulder for actually fixing a real meal and spending more than 20 minutes preparing pre - made dinners. Yay, me!!!

Throwback Thursday

2009-04-16T11:10:00.005-06:00

Throwback Thursday takes us back to our first business adventure that we were involved in right after we got married...the pheasant farm. Yep, we were farmers for a year. In the picture above, we were building the outside cage for the mature pheasants to run around in, it was roughly the size of a football field. Below are pictures of the little creatures right after we bought them.

Although it (the business) didn't really turn out the way we had hoped it to, we had a lot of fun working and spending time together.

Here's Kurt with the heating lamps.

If you look closely you can see the outside pin in the background behind the horses.

This is me holding a pheasant for the first time.

Easter

2009-04-14T20:41:00.004-06:00

After four Easter Egg hunts in two different states I managed to take only one picture of my family... I'm a terrible mom.

Malad, Idaho may not have a stop light or a Walmart, but they do however have a great Easter egg hunt. Since we've had kids we've been able to go to Malad for almost every Easter and I have to say, that little town "where Idaho begins" has the best egg hunt. This year both Sadie and Jessica found the Golden Eggs in their age division and received a dollar for their prize. We almost walked away that day with a third Golden Egg, but the unbelievable happened. Kurt and his cousin Danny were helping Cassie go around the park picking up eggs. Danny found the Golden Egg and put his foot right next to it as Kurt helped her find her way over to the coveted egg. And that's when it happened, a grown women snaked the golden egg out from under Cassie's hand. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?! Seriously, I can't believe that happened, I mean COME ON, did you really just do that? It made me look like an angel after I pointed the golden egg hiding next to a tree directly in front of us to Jessica and then lectured her a bazillion times on how she should run straight to the egg and pick it up as fast as she could. She did however sell me out when we went to give the newspaper her name for finding the egg. She told the lady..."My mom showed me where the egg was", thanks Jessica I felt just as bad as I hope the Lady who stole my youngest daughters egg felt.

Then there is Sadie's story. Sadie was a champ she ran as fast as she could around her section and picked up a ton of eggs; sadly, she came up short of a Golden Egg. Just as we were walking back to the car we heard that there was a Golden Egg yet to be found from Sadie's age group. Sadie ran back as fast as she could and started searching her territory again. As she was searching the grounds a little boy started to follow her everywhere she went, literally everywhere. It was the funniest thing to watch, he became her little shadow and it was very apparent that Sadie was getting a little bugged. After listening to someone say to look in a specific area, Sadie found the egg, and as soon as she did the little boy who had followed Sadie threw his bucket to the ground and then kicked it as hard as he could. We all laughed at this little boys frustration over his loss to Sadie. Way to go Sadie. We're not competitive at all.

Later on that day the adults got to participate in their own Easter Egg Hunt held at Grandma Peden's home. Kurt and I did pretty well and left with enough money to buy some gas to return to Provo.

On Sunday we had our own Easter hunt at home. Sadie found a basketball in her basket, Jessica got a bat and ball, Cassie was excited with a car seat for her baby, and Easton got some new church clothes to wear. Then we failed miserably at our first attempt to get to church on time with all four kids. I promise to do better next Sunday. After church, we went to Kurt's Aunt Linda's for her big Easter Egg Hunt. Linda goes all out with the hunt and then a wonderful dinner. Thank you Linda for having us over, we had a blast and we'll be eating chocolate for quite some time.

Throwback Thursday

2009-04-10T09:18:00.004-06:00

Home Sweet Home

Even though this is a day late I had to post some pictures of our house being built back in 2004. We are so grateful to have a beautiful home to live in, in an awesome neighborhood, with amazing neighbors.

I love this picture of Kurt and Sadie. I was pregnant with Jessica at this time. She was born a week and a half after we moved into this house.

Decision

2009-04-08T08:53:00.017-06:00

I haven't been able to decide which is more destructive

A tornado...

Or...

A sweet little 21 month old named Cassie

Both can make a mess, but only one can make you laugh.

As much as we hate to clean up after our little tornado, we still love our little girl.

Cassie's word of the week is BOING. Everything goes boing when it is dropped, spilled or thrown. Almost everything in the house has been tested.

As Promised...

2009-04-06T11:41:00.003-06:00

As promised ... Easton slept through the night last night and I LOVED it!!! I put him down at 10 pm and he woke up at 5:15 am, 7 hours. I couldn't believe it and I know to not get my hopes up too high, but if he could just continue to do this atleast three times a week, Kurt and I would be in heaven. Good job little guy, keep up the good sleeping.

Throwback Thursday #4

2009-04-02T08:31:00.005-06:00

Ok ... I'm going way back to February of this year.

I have to thank by dear friend Britt for taking this awesome picture of a basketball shoved under my shirt, at least that's what it looks like anyways. No seriously she is an awesome friend and takes awesome pictures. Check out her blog at brittpoppingaphotography to see some more pics of my not so missed stomach and my darling girls.

4 Weeks Old

2009-03-27T10:46:00.006-06:00

I cannot even believe it...Easton is FOUR weeks old!!! I swear it was just last week that I was overdosed with morphine and the grape juice at the hospital was calling my name. Honestly, I don't know what it is but I LOVE drinking grape juice after having a baby.

Easton has been a great baby and we love him so much. Now that he is four weeks old he has graduated into size 1 diapers and his hairline is receding daily. He looks like a little old man. We have to bring out all of the little hats for him to wear so he doesn't get a complex.

The girls have been awesome with their new little baby brother. We've only had one incident with Cassie...yesterday she decided to kick him while I was changing his diaper. After telling her to not do it again, she looked me right in the eyes and quickly kicked him again. After spanking her (which I don't do very often), she lowered her brow and again looked me in the eyes, this time with more determination to stand her ground then she did it again. I decided that two could play this game, so I starred her down and spanked her again and she walked away. Hopefully we won't have to do that again.

Really I can't believe he's 4 weeks old. Now I'm just waiting to be able to say ~ I can't believe he's sleeping thru the night, and believe you me, when that happens I will post that sentence with explanation marks:)

Throwback Thursday #3

2009-03-26T10:51:00.001-06:00

Back to the year of 2000

Jackson Hole, WY

After picking up my daughter from school during a BLIZZARD today, I couldn't help to think back to when it was a little bit more on the warm side of life. I came across these pictures of a camping trip that we went on back in our college days. A bunch of us got together and drove up to Jackson Hole and floated down the Snake river.. We had sooooooo much fun!!! College was just a fun time of life and I'll never forget our friends that made it so great.

Here are a few pictures taken from the photographer who sells your group shots in town.

Little Jakoby

2009-03-24T09:27:00.001-06:00

Easton's Litte buddy is finally here.

Jakoby Vinton Hess

born ~ March 18th

6lbs 11 oz ~ 18 inches long

Trevor & Heather's little guy arrived last week and we are so excited to

have him around for Easton to play with.

Congratulations guys, he's adorable!!!

Throwback Thursday

2009-03-19T07:59:00.000-06:00

This throwback Thursday's picture is dedicated to our sweet little Sadie. She has always had quite the personality, which is why we love her so much. She definitely is going to go far in life ~ always getting what she wants and laughing every step of the way. She is the life of the party and is always making other's feel included. We love you Sadie!!!

Look how innocent she looks. (18 months)

Kindergarten School Picture Fall 2008

Last Night

Sadie: Mom, when is your stomach going to get small again?

Me: I don't know Sadie, I don't know, but um thanks for asking.

Adjusting

2009-03-17T14:44:00.000-06:00

Now that we have FOUR kids ...

I have to keep reminding myself that I can't refer to Easton as a SHE or HER
I have to wake up before anyone else if I want to get a shower in
Getting four kids into the car and safely buckled up is a chore that deserves a reward
There is definitely a ton more laundry to do and keep up with
I need a craft night ~ anybody else?
The goal of getting Cassie potty trained is needing to become a reality ~ two kids in diapers
I should probably start looking into coupons to save some more money
I'm pretty much caught up on all of our TV shows since I'm up late every night
Shopping for groceries has not happened yet
Clean house ~ What's that?
I rely on Kurt way more than I have in the past
Wanting to eat a ton of chocolate but I know that it makes Easton fussy.
I give away 100+ kisses and hugs every day

I hope this list doesn't come across as complaints, I truly am happy to have four kids. It has been such an easy transition from three to four. I was so worried about Cassie and she has been an angel. Her biggest concern with Easton or as she calls him "EC" is that he has to have his binky with him at all times, if he doesn't then she has to find it and give it to him. Other than the binky she really could care less about her younger brother. The other big sisters Sadie and Jessica love him tons, and fight over holding him all of the time (just one more thing for them to fight over). As for Kurt, he could be the happiest dad in the world. It was pretty sad when he got a really bad cold last week and couldn't hold or be around his newborn for four days. I am so happy that he is now feeling better!!! We're just extrememly happy and grateful that Easton is a GREAT baby.

Ugh!!!!

2009-03-15T13:12:00.000-06:00

All I want to say is that I really hate Health Insurance. We got a letter in the mail the other day stating that they raised our Maternity deductible from $5,000 to $6,500. Thank goodness Kurt's new job includes health insurance, too bad we missed out on it before we had this baby!!!

Throwback Thursday

2009-03-12T22:17:00.001-06:00

So a couple of my friends started posting pictures of their past on Thursdays and I decided that I had to join in and take part in this for the rest of the year. I think it is a great way to reminisce about the past.

This picture was taken on our honeymoon in Leavenworth, WA hiking around Icicle Creek. We were both so sick with colds and at this point we had to get out of the condo and breath in some fresh air. We love this place and can't wait to go back there someday with our family. Looking back it was a lot of fun when it was just Kurt and myself, but since the day we invited children into our home I could never go back to living without our little ones.

Baby Sling

2009-03-09T09:48:00.000-06:00

It all began at the Christmas Expo that I went to back in November... the want for a baby sling. Yes, I had mentioned this coveted item in a post back in December hoping to win one from Modmum, but unfortunately that did not happen. So being short on cash and always needing a new craft project (not that I don't have at least 15 unfinished ones) I went online and searched for a pattern to make my own. Lucky for me I found one at Karma Baby . The instructions were a bit unclear but I managed to make my own and I love it. I also learned how to do a french seam. A french seam? Yes, never heard of it either and found easy how to instructions at Sew Neau. I tried it out yesterday for the first time and decided that it really is as cool as it looks. Easton fell in love with it as well and slept in it for about 1 1/2 hours as I played on the computer and read the unopened mail that had been piling up on our kitchen counter.

Just for fun: Having a little boy in the house we knew it was going to come up sooner than later. While changing Easton's diaper, Sadie shared with us her observation..."Wow, his bum bum is way different then ours."

Of course... more pictures.

I love little baby yawns.

This picture is showing off Daddy's favorite little outfit.

Finally some pics of little Easton

2009-03-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

As promised here are a few pictures of Easton.

There will be plenty more pics of this little guy coming soon.

Little Easton Edwards

2009-03-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

Just wanted everyone to know, we had little Easton Kelly Edwards on Friday February 27th at 1:26 pm. He was 7 lbs 7oz and 19.5 " long. He is by far the cutest baby here at the hospital.

He was originally supposed to come on Monday but after he failed his non stress test Friday morning we were told that we would be welcoming him into the world a few days earlier, which was more than ok by me. Easton is super cute and a very good baby so far. We feel so blessed to have him in our lives. We'll post pictures of our little man as soon as we get home and can download some pics.

Pay It Forward

2009-02-23T16:59:00.000-07:00

I've seen this on a few of my friends blogs and decided that I better join it.

This is how it works..... The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. BUT, in order for you to leave a comment on my blog, you have to post this on your blog first. (That means that sometime during this year you will send a gift to 3 people as well.) Get it? So, the first 3 people to comment on this post will be the lucky ones! Good Luck!

Chuck E Cheese Please

2009-02-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

A long time ago when I could still see my feet I promised the girls that we would take them to Chuck E Cheese's to have a little family party before the baby was born. Well last Saturday seemed like a pretty good time to go considering the C-Section is scheduled a week from today. So we loaded the kids into the car and off we went to the most craziest, packed kid fun center in all of Utah. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot I remember saying..."This is going to be fun."

After getting our hands stamped and we ordered our food the challenge of keeping track of our kids began. We had lots of fun and before we knew it the worst pizza ever was gone, Germ-X was splashed on tiny hands multiple times, all 140 tokens spent, 536 tickets exchanged for the most random cheap toys, the clock ride (which is a family favorite) had been ridden over and over again, and all three kids were extremely thankful to have had a party with their family.

Now bring on the contractions or have my water break where ever or when ever, let's just have this baby boy!!!

Sprinkle Caps

2009-02-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

Since I'm having a boy I just wanted to show everyone my newest craft obsession...

Sprinkle Caps.

(aka: PeePeeTePees)

All you have to do is place these soft, thick and absorbent caps over your little one's wee wee when changing his diaper and it keeps Mommy & Daddy dry.

A must have for any new baby boy!!!

You can find these on my etsy shop at http://www.wiggleworm.etsy.com/

Dora to the Rescue

2009-02-12T19:46:00.000-07:00

For the first time in 19 months Cassie will finally sit and watch tv for more than 5 minutes. THANK YOU DORA!!! That probably sounds really bad that I actually want my child to be babysat by the television, but to have her actually sit and not move for 20 minutes is a miracle and just in time for when our new little baby comes. I think I will actually be able to nurse and not worry or think to myself, "Um, I wonder what Cassie is doing right now?", or "I hope she isn't on top of the table right now getting into who knows what."

Oh, the possibilities of what I will be able to do in 2o minutes.

I took this picture this morning to prove that she really was still for a moment.

This is a picture of how I usually find Cassie, trying on her big sister's boots and shoving food that she found on top of the table into her mouth. It doesn't get better than that!!!

I love to see the temple...

2009-02-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was a whirlwind of events for our family and my pregnant body. Saturday morning we woke up early (on purpose this time, I would much rather sleep in but that wasn't the case), got showered and dressed in our Sunday best and drove out to Kurt's parents house. Kurt had a business meeting and as soon as he was done we hopped in the van again and went to Kurt's Cousin's son's baptism. It was so awesome to be there and to witness these two eight year olds come out of the water pure and clean. I started to think about our own children getting baptised and could hardly believe it when I realized just 1 1/2 more years until Sadie will be dressed in white and being baptised by Kurt.

After the baptism we went over to Michelle's parents house for a luncheon and visited with family members while watching Cassie devour my entire plate of food, no joke. I have never seen a little baby eat as much food as our little chubby Cassie. It is a sight to see. You know it's bad when you have to pull strawberry leafs out of your child's mouth.

Then from the Luncheon, we hurried our cranky, sleeping, noisy family up to Salt Lake to My Grandmother's 99th birthday party, that's right her 99th birthday party. Happy birthday Grandma, we LOVE you!!! We met up with my brother, his wife and two kids and shoved more food into our already full tummies. It was good to visit with the Andersen side of my family and of course watch my Grandma blow out the candles on her cake.

From the birthday party we were off to our next special event for the day. We were blessed to walk through the new Draper Temple. This happened after waiting an 1 1/2 - 2 hours at a near by church house and bus ride up to the temple. After we got off the bus we were directed to a tent enclosed walkway that took us straight into the temple. It was extremely crowded and took us 1 1/2 hours to walk through the whole temple. Luckily, my pregnancy gave me an advantage and I was able to use the elevators to move our family up a few spots in line. I was expecting beautiful and perfection, but was taken back by many of the rooms. I think the baptismal font took me by surprise the most, but was in awe with every room.

I was very excited to take our girls to the temple and to hear and see their reactions. Sadie, Jessica, and Cassie thought the font was the coolest bathtub they had ever seen and all wanted to get their toes wet, sorry girls. Cassie was pretty much hating the whole tour due to the fact that we held her close and tight, after we let her down at one point and then had to chase after her as she pushed her way through the crowds. Jessica asked me as we were walking through one of the rooms if we were in Heaven. Then in the Celestial room she asked: "Mommy, are we in Jesus's most specialist rooms?" I love what little kids say. I will not lie, the whole experience was 3 1/2 hours long from start to finish and it was the first time during this pregnancy that my feet actually swelled up, but having my kids have that experience of being inside a temple was definitely worth it.

Cure the Winter Time Blues

2009-01-30T12:15:00.001-07:00

I was reading one of my friends blogs about how she was going thru the winter time blues right now and asked for some suggestions on how to cure this blah feeling most of us go thru this time of the year. Since then I've thought about my blah feelings and some ideas to get me and my restless kids thru the end of winter and into spring. Here are some suggestions I've read about and thought of for myself.

Play a board game or cards with your family
Always have something to look forward too - start planning
Spray a citrus scented room freshener or light a summer scented candle
Brighten up your home by opening the shades
Surprise your spouse with an unplanned date
Get up and start moving - go for a walk, find an indoor track if it's too cold outside
Try a new dessert recipe
Go shopping - beware this can be dangerous
Plan a service project for you or your family to do
Host a craft night with all of your girl friends
Have a mommy daughter or son date
Have a smoothie night using tropical ingredients
Take your kids to a restaurant that has an indoor playground and let them loose
Go swimming - we LOVE the indoor swimming pool at the Legacy Center in Lehi
Paint your toenails - I wish this is something that I could do by myself right now!!!
Get your hair cut
Always have FHE
Set up an indoor obsticle course
Buy yourself flowers - these will allow you to think about summer
Plan your summer time vacations
Take a trip down south for the weekend
Have an indoor picnic
Go outside and enjoy the beauty of winter and sled, ski, skate or make snow angles and snowmen.
Set up the tent indoors and pretend to go camping with your family
Get a good nights rest - lack of sleep can add to the blues

These are just a few suggestions that I've been able to think of. I know winter can be long and boring for some but just remember spring is around the corner and not too far away.

I can't wait.

2009-01-27T21:05:00.000-07:00

Today I just sat back in the recliner and couldn't stop thinking about how much my life is going to change in only 5 1/2 weeks...I'm going to be a mom of 4 kids!!! When and how did that happen:) I'll admit for a long time the thought of four kids was very scary and I'm still a lot nervous about taking care of Cassie and the baby, but today I finally felt some peace about our growing family. I just wonder how long that peace of mind is going to last. It could be that I am so uncomfortable that I just want this baby out of me, but I really am getting excited to welcome a new little baby into our home. There is nothing more precious to me than holding MY little newborns. I can't wait to see our little girls hold their younger brother and I'm so excited to watch Kurt rock our newborn son, hoping that no other responsibility will call him away from the moment.

Here are a few pictures of our family growing one by one.

Sadie's blessing day.

I haven't scanned in any of Sadie's pics from the hospital yet so this is the youngest picture I have on file

Kurt holding Jessica (one of my favorite pictures)

Our little Cassie

I can't wait to post pictures of our little number 4. It's going to be so different holding a newborn wearing blue. Until that post I'll be waddling around the house and everywhere else I go, eating anything that I want to because when I'm pregnant I'm going to enjoy being pregnant the way I like to enjoy it (twix bars and rootbeer floats), and maybe just maybe I'll finish a few of my projects that I have laying around, probably not.

Christmas

2009-01-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

I don't know where to begin, of course this would be a whole lot easier if I would only have been faithful in posting. So now it's catch up time.

Christmas was so busy and so much fun this year. We spent the holidays with Kurt's family up in Malad, ID. This year all of the brother's were able to come with their families and stay at Grandma Peden's, needless to say it was a full house. The more the merrier!!! We started out with a Christmas Eve party at Kim & Lee's. The food was excellent but the highlight was a visit from Santa Clause. It was so cute, we had everyone downstairs and asked Sadie to sing one of the songs she had learned at school. While she was singing Santa came barreling thru the front door upstairs shouting Ho Ho Ho. Sadie kept on singing while her eyes got bigger and bigger. Finally Santa made his way downstairs and visited with each child, giving them a present. It was so much fun as a parent to watch the excitement!!!

Christmas morning wasn't as crazy as expected. With all of Kurt's brother's and their families, Kelly and Donna, and Grandma Peden there, we had way too many presents. I could not believe the amount of gifts that over took the family room. I wish I had pictures for proof, but I didn't have a working camera for the big day. I could have killed myself when I turned the camera on and then realized that I had left the memory card in the computer at home. Anyway, way too many presents and way too much excitement. We (the parents) finally got to bed on Christmas eve around midnight, and when we went to our room we found Sadie wide awake. She told us that she had heard Santa fall out of his sleigh due to the heavy bag of presents that he was carrying. So cute. I remember staying up late and listening for sleigh bells that I swore I had heard when I was a kid. So Christmas morning came at about 6:30am. The wind was screaming against the windows and had made it a long night, so as soon as Cassie woke up Kurt had had it with the wind and got out of bed and made the rounds thru out the house waking up all of the kids, except Aubrey and Treyton who had been up since 5:30. We brought all of the kids to the top of the stairs and brought down the kids in three shifts of different age groups. To keep things orderly, we had the kids play with their gifts from Santa first and then we removed everything out of the family room so then we would have room to open the presents that were under, besides, in front of and in the Christmas tree. Once again way too many presents. It was great, it was fun and it was exciting for all. I don't know if my children got the true meaning of Christmas at all but they sure did have fun!!!

Now onto the weather. It definitely could have been better, it snowed 1 1/2 feet with the wind blowing for two days straight. I did not leave Grandma's house for two whole days. In fact any trip outside was made only upon necessity. Well almost every trip, Paul and Emily's kids felt that it was a need to play out in the blizzard. I guess when you live in California that becomes a need. As cold as it was they still had fun and of course the snowman was built. We even had to dig our mini van out of the snow when it was time to leave. So I guess you could sum up our vacation with excitement, family, fun, too many presents, and way too much snow. What more could we have asked for?

Handmade Ornaments

2008-12-22T13:27:00.000-07:00

My heart has been softened and I wish I could take back everything I ever said about handmade ornaments. Early this year I told Kurt how much I love perfect Christmas trees. I love walking into boutiques and looking at the matching ornaments, color coordinated ribbon and the nice expensive decorations. It doesn't stop with the tree, I also want the whole house to be perfect from decorations to the candle scent. I can't help it, I'm just that way, and it's a dream I'll probably have until I die. Back to the handmade ornaments, I even went as far as saying that I didn't know what I was going to do when our kids bring home ornaments that they made at school and want to hang them on our tree. I know, I know, I'm a terrible mom. Well that day came, and I have to admit I was taken back and so touched by the little red sled made out of popsicle sticks with Sadie's school picture glued onto to it. I melted and let her put it where ever she wanted to. I still want a perfect tree, but now I want one with perfectly beautiful handmade ornaments.

FYI: At this very moment we are getting dumped on and my poor husband is out there plowing away and will probably be doing so for the rest of the day. Thank you Kurt for working so hard for our family!!! Also a big thanks to our neighbor Scott who has used his snow blower to clear our sidewalk every time it has snowed. I really do appreciate that.

What I want

2008-12-14T18:20:00.001-07:00

About a month ago I went to the Christmas Show at the South Town Expo and fell in love with a few items. My latest want would have to be the Lily Sling made by Mod Mum. I've had three kids and wished I had one of these slings and now that I'm pregnant again I'm pretty sure I'm going to have get what I want. So here it is my newest want.

Secret Santa

2008-12-14T11:23:00.001-07:00

To our surprize we received a gift from Secret Santa the other night, a gingerbread choo choo train kit. The girls were so excited and are convinced that they received this present because they are the "goodest girls ever". We had so much fun putting this train together and I know we'll have even more fun eating all of the candy off of it. Thanks Secret Santa!!!

Kurt and Sadie decided to have fun with the left over frosting, kind of gross if you ask me.

Pooh On U

2008-12-11T13:23:00.001-07:00

I'm down to the last of my Pooh On U shirts and Onesies. If you need a last minute gift or something for a white elephant exchange, check out my etsy shop @ http://www.wiggleworm.etsy.com/and see what's left, there are a couple of adult sizes and a handful of onesies. I just got done selling the majority of our items thanks to the Daily Herald listing these on their Christmas wish list. If interested just give me a call or send me an email at kurtessa@yahoo.com

Weekend In Park City

2008-12-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we were able to get away for the night up in Park City. Let me just say I LOVE Park City. We arrived a little early and went to the Olympic Park and watched the ski jumpers practice. It was amazing to me to see these young men between the ages of 16-20 jumping 90-120 feet down a mountain side. I just couldn't imagine taking that jump. After that we went to the Westgate Resort and listened to their long presentation in order to stay the night there. We survived and didn't give into their spill and then used their money to eat at two of the restaurants, one for dinner and the other for breakfast. I know I am so cheap but hey it was fun and I loved ever minute of it. I wish we could get away more often....someday.

Here are the jumps at Olympic Park, too bad that is mostly man made snow.

Who knew that Kurt was such an amazing skier?

Kurt's dessert, can I say GREAT presentation!!!

Let's do that again.

Cute Hair Accessory Party

2008-12-08T07:37:00.000-07:00

Kind of last minute but just wanted everyone to know I'm hosting a hair accessory party this Wednesday night @ my house from 6-8pm. My friend Britt makes all of her pieces and they are the best I've seen. These cute hair clips, bows and headbands make great stocking stuffers or baby shower presents. Bring any outfits that you need to match.

Thursday's Hero

2008-11-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

On Thursday our family had the coolest experience. Let me just explain by using an email...

Monday November 17, 2008

Kelly,

On behalf of the BYU Football program, we would love to invite you to be this weeks Thursday's Hero. We have heard of the trials that you have had to face in your life and definitely look at you as one of our heroes. For that we would love to have you come down to our practice on Thursday so that we can recognize you.I just need a few things from you including your age, shirt size, current home address and a recent picture of yourself.

I have been briefed on your situation, but if there is anything else that you would like us to know about you before your visit, please share.We will be expecting you on the 20th of November, at 4 pm in the Student Athlete Building (SAB-located on the West side of campus). The football office is located on the second floor of the SAB through the double doors.We are very excited to meet you all on Thursday. Family and close friends are welcome. If you have any further questions feel free to contact me.We wish you best on your tests today.

Thanks,Cort Trejo

Assistant Director of Football Operations

Brigham Young University

In reply...

Mr. Trejo,

THANK YOU so much for your invitation. I am not exactly sure who my sponsors were, but am so grateful for their efforts and the BYU Football Program, and graciously accept your invitation.
I will give you a little more information and feel free to use what you like.

Two of our four sons attended and graduated from BYU. Thus began our family's true-blue dedication to BYU athletics! Our family plans baptisms, baby blessings, and mission farewells around BYU football games. My wife and daughter-in-laws never miss the BYU Football Women's Clinic. We have been the proud owners of season tickets for the past four years, and only brain surgery can keep me from a game. We have followed the Cougars to Las Vegas for the Bowl games the last two years and have been in the stands at many away games.

My fight with renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) began September 17th, 2007. I went to work one day feeling fine, and ended up in the hospital with numbness and slurred speech by 2:00 PM. After extensive tests the word "CANCER" took over my life. My battle to live "one more day" began. However, I have not fought alone. I have a loving family, with four sons who have sent me to every sporting event imaginable this past year. From the BYU Bowl game to the Mountain West Tournament, to the NCAA tournament and the NBA playoffs. I have a Ward Family who has spent days fasting and praying for me constantly. I have a loving Heavenly Father who has spared me pain or sickness while treating this formidable opponent. The most humble calling I have ever received occurred just one month ago. Although I have Stage 4 Renal Cell Carcinoma, I was called by my Heavenly Father, to be the Bishop of our newly created Ward in Lehi. Although I feel inadequate at times to be called to such an important calling, I know my Father in Heaven and Brother Jesus Christ has a plan for me to complete while I am here on this earth. I know there is at least one of HIS children who needs me at this time, and I am grateful to serve.

As I reflect over the past year, I find myself counting hundreds of blessings in my life, with only one cross to bear. I have learned:
EVERY MINUTE IS PRECIOUS and YOU CAN'T GET ONE MINUTE BACK!
YOU HAVE TO LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST WITH NO REGRETS!
WITH THE LOVE AND SUPPORT OF FRIENDS AND FAMILY, NO BATTLE IS TOO HARD TO FIGHT!
PRAYERS ARE ALWAYS ANSWERED!
AND...NO MATTER THE OUTCOME...THE PLAN OF SALVATION IS A PLAN OF HAPPINESS!

Thanks again!

I cannot express how much this opportunity to meet such valiant young men and Coaches whom I so admire, means to me.

Bishop Kelly Edwards

And so it began and many fun pictures were taken, here are only a few of the 200+ that were taken by the whole group.

Kurt sitting at Bronco's desk.

Kelly receiving hug from Bronco.

Ka Ma Tae

Give me the ball Max.

Looking back, I was totally shocked and impressed with BYU's football team this past week. Our family was taken in by young men who not only play football but who genuinely care about others. The tour of the facility was awesome, but to have the entire football team surround Kelly and then give him hugs and words of encouragement had to have been the highlight. Kelly was given a few BYU items from the team including a hat, jersey, and a flag signed by the entire team. He also got to sign the flag that is taken out onto the field on game days. I was also very impressed with Max Hall for taking time to throw several passes and routes with the boys (young and old). Overall it was a very special day for our family and we will always speak highly of BYU's football program.

Exfuze Seven

2008-11-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

Check out Kurt's new website

http://www.tryexfuze.iexfuze.net/

Goody Goody Gum Dwops

2008-11-09T07:49:00.000-07:00

We had a huge breakthrough last night with Jessica.....she can now say her "k's" and "g's". We were visiting Grandma Donna and Grandpa Kelly and started singing a song which makes all of the sounds of the alphabet with Cassie, then we turned to Jessa and asked her to make the "k" sound and she did it. We were all so excited! We gave Jess some M & M's and after that she ran around the house saying every word we asked her to repeat with the "k" sound. Then we stepped it up a notch and asked her to say the "g" sound and sure enough it came right out of her little mouth perfectly. With all of the excitement we started the phrase of the night with goody goody gum drops, however for Jessica it came out "goody goody gum dwops". We still have to get that darn "r" sound down, but until then we'll take the dwops.

Traditions

2008-11-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

I love traditions!!! Before Kurt and I got married, we talked about traditions that we wanted to have with our family. We decided on annual vacations, BYU football :), one on one time with kids, holiday stuff, and my favorite...to have homemade beef stew and rolls on the first day of snow. So last night we had our 9th "First Day of Snow Beef Stew Dinner". Because our kids hate soup, it was just Kurt and myself, so we dressed it up a bit with candles and our nicest bowls, (one day I'll actually have china and the whole shebang, but for now what we got will have to do). It definitely is something I look forward to and I hope we can create more fun traditions. Please tell me some of your favorite family traditions, I'm always looking for fun things to do with my family.

FYI: that is not a picture of my beef stew just one I found on the internet, but it looks pretty darn close to what mine looks like. I would have included the recipe but I don't exactly know what I do, I just throw a bunch of stuff in and let the crockpot do its thing.

We LOVE Fall!!!

2008-10-30T09:50:00.001-06:00

Last night we took the family to the BYU blue & white scrimmage. After the game we went outside and found leaves everywhere. I think the girls had more fun trying to cover each other in leaves than watching the game.

It's A BOY!!!

2008-10-21T10:54:00.001-06:00

I don't know who was more nervous going into the ultrasound, Kurt or myself. I do know that Kurt was ecstatic after the results came back in his favor, he couldn't stop smiling all day long. So now it's off to the store to buy some boy clothes, cause you know we've been buying pink way too long. Sorry girls nothing wrong with pink.

Yummy!!!

2008-10-10T14:40:00.000-06:00

Ok, so yesterday I made the best Apple Crisp ever and I have to share it with everyone. I came across this recipe on the internet and after reading all of the reviews and the suggestions made I tweaked the original recipe and came up with this one. I pre made the filling and let it marinate in the fridge all day long and then quickly put it together when our good friends invited us over for a get together. (Thanks Carters, we had a great time!!!) . I also used store bought caramel sauce instead of making the sauce myself. I think this will become a family favorite.

Best Ever Caramel Apple Crisp

Apple Filling:
6 large baking apples - peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoon lemon juice
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of Allspice
1/8 cup water

Crumble:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup butter, softened

Caramel Sauce: may use pre made caramel sauce
1 (14 ounce) package individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 degree C).
2. In a medium size bowl (suggestion: pour filling into a ziploc bag, add apples and let marinate while you finish with the rest of the recipe. apples and sauce can even be made the night before and refrigerated.), toss apples with sugar, flour, cinnamon, lemon juice, and water; spread evenly into a 9x13 inch pan.
3. In a heavy sauce pan over low heat, melt the caramels with the evaporated milk. Heat , stirring frequently, until mixture has a smooth consistency. Drizzle the caramel sauce over the top of the crumble. May use ice cream topping caramel as well.
4. In another bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, oats, and butter; spoon mixture evenly over apples and caramel.
5. Bake in preheated oven for about 45 minutes (apple mixture will bubble and topping will be golden brown).

I'll post a picture of the final project when I dish myself up some tonight.

Pictures

2008-10-08T13:24:00.000-06:00

Since I haven't posted in awhile I thought I would just put up some pictures to show you what we've been up to.

Kurt and I at the BYU vs. Utah State game in Logan.
The girls and Kurt in Great Grandpa Peden's truck.
Our cute little Cassie!!!Sadie got to go to a PHS cheer leading camp, here she is showing us how brave she is
Three adorable girls
Cassie doing her favorite thing...escaping up the stairs

Team pictures, thanks Coach Daddy Kurt for being an awesome coach!!!
Pre-game BYU vs. UCLA taking a rest in the "best seats in the house".

Need a great Christmas present for your kids?

2008-09-16T08:20:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I just bought my kids the coolest toys for Christmas and I gotta share the info. I first saw these Wiggle Cars at the What Women Want Expo and decided that my kids would LOVE these after Heather and myself took them for a spin. I would post pictures but my kids are way to smart and if they saw this post they would start begging. So anyway, these cars move by wiggling the handles and they spin on a dime. They hold up to 200lbs so your kids can ride them forever, not just a summer. The booth at the expo sold these cars for $65 or two for $55 each, at OverStock you can get them for $37.99 + $2.95 for shipping. So if you like to buy presents early like myself check this site out sooner than later because they'll go fast. If they are out of stock just enter your email address and they'll notify you when they have them back in stock. FYI: As of today there are 100 days until Christmas.

Last Chance

2008-09-06T09:17:00.000-06:00

It's already been determined, there's no going back, we just have to wait and see what the ultrasound says. This is our last chance for a boy!!! Well atleast that's what we have in mind. I'm 14 weeks along, due March 8th, and we should be finding out what the sex is around Halloween. We are definately prepared for a little girl; however, I think the whole world will know if the ultrasound shows up different. I'll just say...we are feeling the pressure.

1st Day of Preschool

2008-09-05T10:20:00.000-06:00

Taking Jessica to preschool was so much easier than taking Sadie to kindergarten. She was also way excited to go to school and couldn't wait to play with the toys she had previously scoped out when she went to her back to school night. Jessica is quite a bit more shy than Sadie; however, once you get to know her she is the loudest girl you will ever meet. We are hoping that Jessica can make some new friends in preschool this year and maybe become a little more independent.

This little video is of Jessica singing the song that the kids learn on the first day, but because Sadie sang it every day for about 3 months after she started preschool last year Jessa was singing it before she left.

1st Day of Kindergarten

2008-08-30T08:15:00.000-06:00

The first day of school...we have all been waiting for this day to come a long time. Sadie's birthday is Sept 13th and she missed the deadline by 13 days last year, this did not make our little girl very happy, especially when she watched all of her friends get on the bus last year. So to be able to go to school this year was very exciting.
After our school's back to school night two weeks ago, Sadie met her teacher and was also giver her first homework assignment which was to be brought back to school on the 1st day. We had soooo much fun making this doll look like Sadie. I hope all of her homework will be this much fun and crafty. You know I pulled all of my craft stuff out to help.
On our drive over to the school, (yes we live just far enough away that we don't get a bus = 1.6 miles) Sadie was singing her own little song about how she was excited to go to school, which then got Kurt and myself singing with her. We got to school and she found her friend to sit next to on the mat. She couldn't stop smiling and looking around taking in her new classroom. I too couldn't stop looking around the classroom, this is where my child is going to be for the next several months and I wanted to see everything and everyone that Sadie will be involved with.
Mrs. Sarkady read The Kissing Hand to the students and their parents and then had us trace our hand and our child's hand to exchange when it was time to leave. Sadie was the first one done and was so excited to sit back down on the carpet. So off she went as excited as can be. I found a mother in our ward that I started talking about car pooling, while Kurt watched Sadie situate herself into her colored square. Then out of nowhere to my total surprise, I hear Sadie crying and sobbing to Kurt... "Don't leave me Daddy, don't go!", over and over again. I was doing so good until that moment. I lost it, I lost it bad!!! I was one of those mother's who had to leave the room and find my own little space out in the hall. Kurt calmed her down and with the help of her teacher she was back with her friends and in her square while Kurt was out in the hall calming me down. Thankfully, when I picked her up from school she said she loved school and had so much fun. Let's hope she keeps that attitude for a long time.

A little behind!!!

2008-08-24T21:11:00.001-06:00

I am WAY behind. Happy Birthday Jessica!!! Jessica turned 4 on August 11th and we had so much fun celebrating her special day. We took her and her friend to her favorite place.... Jump On It. Then we came home for a pizza party and of course cake and ice cream. Jessica we love you so much!!!

Fall soccer started last week and this year both Sadie and Jessica are playing and on the same team. I am now the team mom with Kurt as the coach. Sadie has turned out to be quite the little soccer player and Jessica is well on her way. My favorite part about their game is when Kurt had the team in a huddle at mid field and I looked over and saw Jess laying down in the goal. On our drive to the soccer field we had a little Q & A for Jess, here's a little sample: "If you fall down Jess, what do you do?" Her response was: "I'll get up and never give up!" That's what we like to hear.

Here's some footage of the first game...

I'll never give up!!!

Sadie's first goal.

I can't wait until the next game!!!

BYU Women's Football Clinic

2008-08-01T11:08:00.000-06:00

Last night we headed off to the 4th Annual BYU Women's Football Clinic and loved every minute of it. We ate a light dinner, listened to the coaches and players during the question and answer session, took tons of pictures, toured the facilities, and even went out on the field to do some drills. It was so much fun getting to see the coaches and players in a less formal and non-competitive atmosphere. I am so ready for the 2008 football season to begin, GO COUGARS!!!

Here we are sitting in the QB's lockers

Look at that form, go Heather

Watch out here I come.

Having too much fun!!!

Best seats we'll ever get.

Picnic in the Mountains

2008-07-28T12:23:00.000-06:00

On Saturday Kelly and Donna invited our family to have a picnic with them up in the mountains. Kelly oversees the Lehi Stake campsite up in Heber Valley and needed to check on a few things before this weeks girls camp. Thanks for getting us out of Utah County.

Caught

2008-07-22T09:25:00.000-06:00

I just had to post this picture. I went upstairs to go to the bathroom and on my way back downstairs I could hear Cassie getting into something. Based on the sounds of dropping plastic I thought she had found her favorite drawer of tupperware, but I was obviously wrong.

Kurt's Camping Trip

2008-07-20T11:17:00.000-06:00

On Thursday morning Kurt woke up pretty early to leave on his first camping trip in 8 years with the priests in our ward. Needless to say, Kurt is not the biggest camper, and was not all that excited to go 3 hours away to a place without running water and no cell phone service (Great Basin National Park, Nevada). I have to admit I was very nervous for him and afraid that once those boys found out how much he disliked camping they would take full advantage of him.

After three days of not hearing from him he came home and to my surprise, he had a blast. The biggest surprise to me was when I asked him what his favorite part of his trip was, he told me it was the hike. They got to shoot sniper rifles, dig for traglebites (fossils), go spelunking, they ate like kings, had awesome devotionals, went hiking, played at a lake and had lots of time to re-evaluate their lives and perspectives. I'm very grateful he had a great time, now maybe we can go camping with the girls!?!

4th of July

2008-07-11T20:25:00.001-06:00

I don't know of anybody else who celebrates the 4th of July as long as our family does. Our family traditions start the last weekend in June and go strong until the weekend following the 4th. Crazy, yes, but a whole lot of fun!!! Instead of going into full detail about this week + long vacation I'll just name a few of the things we did: Welch festival in Malad just because there wasn't anything else to do, Williams reunion (where we had the tug-a-war and Jessica's candy treasure hunt), bowling at BYU, a outing to Jump On It, swimming at the Legacy center until some kid pooped in the pool and then we had to get out, running thru the sprinklers, an all day adventure to Lagoon on the hottest day of the year, 4th of July in Malad (always fun), family fireworks, family golf tournament in Brigham City (we tied for 1st), Edwards reunion, drive back to Provo, trip to Cabelas where we buy Circus Peanuts everytime we go, throwing rocks into the Provo river, and I think that could be it. Wow what else is there to do in a week and from here to there. Well to prove it here are some fun pics...

Happy Birthday Cassie!!!

2008-06-28T07:35:00.001-06:00

Ok, so I'm a day late. Yesterday was Cassie's 1st birthday, and our little one didn't even know what to think of the celelbration. I'm pretty sure when she was handed her very own cake, she probably thought...this must be what heaven is like. Cassie definately got into the cake more then our other two daughters. Sadie and Jessica loved Cassie's b-day party because they got to open the presents. We tried to give little Cass a chance, but she took too long and before she knew it she had some pretty cool new toys.

We have been blessed with a MIRACLE!!!

2008-06-18T15:26:00.000-06:00

This past September, Kurt's dad Kelly was diagnosed with Kidney Cancer. Shortly after his diagnosis one doctor told him that he had 3-6 months to live. He had one of his kidneys removed as well as a brain met, then started radiation and chemo. Three months after he started chemo we found out that his body was not responding. He started a different kind of treatment and today he met with his doctor to review his CT. He told my inlaws that the number of tumors had decreased as well as the size of the remaining tumors. This does NOT happen with Kidney cancer. We feel so blessed and are very grateful to our loving Heavenly Father for allowing our family to have this miracle and for rejuvenating our hope.

Vote 4 Cassie

2008-06-15T17:45:00.000-06:00

Ok I know this is annoying for those of you who already got my email, but for those who did not we need you to vote 4 Cassie. We entered Cassie's picture in an American Baby Idol contest. The winner gets two backstage tickets to the American Idol tour concert. Anyway go to http://www.kosy.com/pages/baby_idol/index.html click on the Vote Now button and vote for #144. You can only vote once, so every vote is appreiciated. Pass this on to anyone you may know. Thanks

Finally... a moment to blog

2008-06-15T16:56:00.000-06:00

On June 2nd, we had a very fun FHE activity. Kelly arranged with a friend of his for our family to ride a couple of his horses. Our girls had a blast and little miss Cassie even took a turn on old Biscuit. After we found out that BJ had never been on a horse we drug him along and made him take the reins. Sadie was so excited to ride a horse that she felt that it was extremely important for me to put pig tails in her hair, if she had a cowgirl hat she would have been wearing that as well. Jessica who has always been afraid of the little ponies at Thanksgiving Point decided that a horse was pretty cool to ride. I am so glad she has gotten over that fear of horses. Thank you Grandpa Kelly for giving us that little treat.

We also started Swimming lessons the very same day. I had so much fun watching Sadie and Jessica splash around in the pool. They are so funny!!! Jessica quickly became buddies with her swim teacher after accidently going under water. Everyday I watched her slide into the pool and latched herself onto her teacher's side. Sadie surprised me with how brave she was in the pool, I think having her friend Tatyana by her side helped her out. So I guess both of my girls had their own special crutch getting them through swim class. I have high hopes for little swimmers in our family.

This week Kurt has been down in San Diego with his parents and three brothers. One of his dear sweet Aunts bought all of them passes to the U.S. Open for a very special Father's Day gift. He is having so much fun being down there following Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. I am so glad that he has had this opportunity to spend time with his family. I have prepared myself for the future golf that I am sure is going to take place sometime this upcoming week.

Summerfest is over!!! I have to say this year was a completely different experience then last year's summerfest. I had so much fun listening to all of the comments and chuckles my Pooh On U onsies and t-shirts received. I am excited to get these going this year. Having Kurt out of town and the young women in our ward at girls camp made it kind of difficult arranging babysitting for my little ones. THANK YOU to Kristan, Heather and Kelly for being so nice to me and my kids.

Pooh On U

2008-05-30T09:52:00.000-06:00

For those of you who don't know my family, we are true blue BYU fans. I have even gone as far as having these onesies and t-shirts made up for ourselves and for anyone else who may dislike the color red. I will be selling these cute little articles of clothing at Summerfest in Orem June 13th & 14th, any leftovers will be put on my etsy shop www.wiggleworm.etsy.com for sale.

Memorial Day Weekend

2008-05-30T09:07:00.001-06:00

This year for Memorial Day Weekend we were able to travel up to my parents cabin in Star Valley Wyoming along with some of Kurt's family. After the four hour drive through rain and a tiny bit of snow we opened the doors of the mini van only to be welcomed by the 40 degree weather, (not exactly what we were hoping for). After we climatized ourselves to the weather we were able to get a few rounds of golf in and plenty of T & H's Rock Band. On Sunday the weather was beautiful!!! I felt bad for the guys who deep down inside wanted to go golfing but went along with the family on a drive to Jackson Hole. It was such a beautiful drive, everything was green. We stopped along the side of the road to look at the snake river, and to take a few family pictures. Then it was off to the city where we walked around the town, looked at a few shops and then watched a "western shoot-out", which Cassie didn't like too much. It was in town that we figured out that Jessica didn't feel all that well, so we didn't stay too long in Jackson. We drove to Malad on Monday to celebrate Memorial Day with family, and again the rain came down all day long. It was so nice to get away from everything and have fun. Now it's back to life.

We've had a fun week!!!

2008-05-23T10:06:00.001-06:00

Once again we had our dance recital and I've said it before and I'll say it again, it is my favorite day of the year besides Christmas. I was so proud of my little girls for being so brave and getting up on the "big" stage and dancing without any fear in front of hundreds of people. I couldn't get enough of little Jessica yawning thru all four dances and then at the end of her last performance shouting..."Let's do that again!!!" Sadie just keeps on getting better and better and I am just amazed at how well she does. She seriously is a great little dancer and it will be fun watching her.

Second on our highlights of the week...Sadie's preschool graduation. Sadie's little class had the cutest little program and I'm kicking myself for bringing my camera but not the memory card to actually take pictures and videos. But, they sang lots of little songs and had speaking parts and just impressed all of the parents. Kurt even surprised Sadie and myself with a graduation gift which included: a t-ball stand, a bucket of balls, her own pink & black mitt and of course a "girls rule" pink bat. Sadie was so excited and had to try it out as soon as she saw it. She made her daddy proud.

Third and last (for now)...We went over to Trevor and Heather's for Trevors birthday party. I have to say that their new xbox and rockband game was a blast. I don't think Sadie got enough of the drums and I know that I'm way better that Kurt on the guitar and drums, although he can out sing me any day. Thank you Heather for being so nice to invite us over and cook dinner and dessert for all of us.

Now to the Cabin for Memorial Day Weekend!!!

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T09:26:00.000-06:00

Ladies Night Out

2008-04-24T07:12:00.000-06:00

Tuesday night Donna, Heather and myself drove up to Salt Lake for a Ladies Night Out at The Melting Pot. We knew we were in the right place when we read on an award hanging in the entrance of the restaurant, "Best Restaurant to Blow Your Diet." Oh my, they had the best chocolate fondue I have ever had!!! Definitely a new favorite dessert!!! I think I am going to try and find any excuse to go back and dip strawberries and other yummies into that pot of heavenly chocolate. If you haven't been there, it's a must try. FYI: If you go onto their website and sign onto their email list, you'll receive a free chocolate fondue for two with the purchase of a meal for two. Anyway, it was so nice to go out with just the girls, and for a change, not to a sporting event.

American Idol

2008-04-24T07:09:00.000-06:00

I can't believe Syesha and Carly were in the bottom two. America got it totally wrong and I feel bad for Syesha because she did awesome the other night. Brook or Jason should have gone home. That's all I'm going to say.

Little Bee Craft Fair

2008-04-20T08:28:00.000-06:00

Just putting in a plug for the upcoming craft fair that I have a booth in this upcoming Saturday. As you can tell it's been awhile since I've posted anything, and it's because I've become a one person sweat shop making stuff to sale.

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Anyway there was one fun little conversation that I had with Sadie this week, here it goes:

Sadie: Mom, I have this problem and it's only my problem.

Me: What is it Sadie?

Sadie: Well, you see...there are two boys at school and one girl...and I'm the one girl. Both of the boys like me and they always want to play with me because everyone wants to play with me. But I want to play with Cecily and they won't let me.

Me: Just tell them that you want to play with Cecily today.

Sadie: Ok, but it's just that everyone wants to play with me because everyone likes me.

What am I going to do?????

Chug-a-chug-a

2008-04-08T19:59:00.000-06:00

We were so lucky to catch Cassie's first crawls on video today. All she needed was a little chug-a-chug-a from her favorite toy to get her going. I think Cassie was doing everything in her power to avoid the upcoming baby boot camp, scheduled by Grandpa Kelly, to teach her how to crawl.

***Please do not pay any attention to my annoying voice cheering Cassie on.***

FYI: Cassie also had her 9 month check up today and she weighed in @ 19.4lbs, I knew that carseat seemed pretty heavy.

Child Development 4-07-08

2008-04-07T11:26:00.000-06:00

Sadie: 5 1/2 years, extremely playful at this age (always wanting to play with friends), magnetic personality and very very defiant!!!

While watching General Conference on Saturday, there was a close up of the organists hands playing the organ. This was very confusing to Sadie because that particular song was a duet so there were four hands yet the camera only show one person. She looked at the tv and said..."Hey that guy has four hands!!!"

Jessica: 3 1/2 years, shy at first and then extremely loud, very cuddly and also very determined to finish any project she may start.

After cleaning my bathroom ( which had not been cleaned in a very long time), Jessica walked into the bathroom paused and looked around. She then said with amazement..."Wow, this bathroom is beautiful Mommy, you did a great job!!!" Thanks Jessa for making me feel good about my dreaded chores.

Cassie: 9 months. A much better baby than before!!! The only problem I am facing with Cass at this age is her ability to move around. She's not crawling YET however she can squirm around and she is very good at scouting backwards and then sitting up. With her new abilities to move around we have found that getting Cassie to fall asleep in her crib by herself is almost impossible. The other day Cassie was awake from 12:30 pm to 10pm at night. I was going crazy because I think I tried to rock her to sleep for about 4 of those hours. I really hope this doesn't last too much longer.

Happy Anniversary!!!

2008-03-30T11:53:00.000-06:00

Happy Anniversary Babe!!! I can't believe that it's been 7 years today that we were sealed in the SLC temple. We've had so much fun and adventure since we've been together and I can't wait to grow old with you.

Since we've been married, are anniversary usually lands on Easter or General Conference weekend, oh and I can't forget that it is always during March Madness. So we have usually been up in Malad with family or watching conference on our anniversary. This year we caught a break and were able to spend some much needed alone time together. A big thanks to Kelly and Donna for taking all three little princesses!!! We are so grateful for your willingness to have fun with our children. We were going to travel somewhere for the weekend but decided to stay home and have fun. We went shopping for ourselves which was so fun, ate out at Los Hermanos and Ruby River, went to a movie, made it to Sadie's soccer game, went to the Golf Expo (which was actually kind of fun) and then we slept it. It was so nice to wake up when I wanted to and take a long shower. It was a good thing we stayed in town because when we woke up this morning we were shocked to see three inches of snow outside. Sorry Kurt I wish you didn't have to worry about snow removal on our anniversary! Anyway, we had so much fun together and I am so glad that I married the best husband ever.