Miley LOVES Shoes

When Miley was only maybe 7 or 8 months old, I put her first pair of black patten church shoes on her, and her face lite up like you couldn't believe. She was so excited about them, she didn't want to take them off. Now that she is almost two, her shoe fettish is only growing. I do give into it a little, because little girl shoes are so cute. Chad asked me the other day why she has 15 pair of shoes, but as you can tell by the picture, 15 is way off. These are all the pairs of shoes that do fit her right now and she takes turns wearing all of them!

This morning as I was going through the sunday adds, she sat up on my lap and said, "show me the shoes." I didn't know she even knew there were pictures of shoes in the adds. This is a picture of her when I got her box of shoes down and she went through almost all of them trying them on.

Back to school, and Fall is Coming!!

As much as I love my kids, I was so excited for school to start, and so were they. I'm sure they think their teachers are much nicer than I am. Mckenna and Caden have great teachers and are doing great. Coleman goes to the same preschool as last year and seems to be doing better all the time. Now I have a little more time to spend with Miley, and she already loves to go shopping and of course loves target to go up and down the "baby isles" as she calls it.
Caden is now taking a break from Karate' and is going to start basketball in a couple of weeks. Mckenna took a break from singing lessons and is just doing ballet and jazz. I am going to start this little mom and tot class with Miley and Coleman will be able to go to it too. Coleman has in -home therapy once a week and therapy play group twice a week plus preschool 4 days a week, so he is pretty busy. No wonder people look at me and think I'm crazy to have 4 kids, there are too many things to pay for and keep up with , and I only let my kids do one thing at a time right now.
The kids are already deciding what they want to be for Halloween. The thought of going out and buying new costumes for all of them, just seems a little much. Coleman actully seems to care about being something this year, so we can't get away with getting out an old ripped up dress up and see if he'll wear it. So Chad told Mckenna he would pay her $10 if she would wear her recital costume which was a cowgirl. She doesn't really want to wear it, but likes the idea of getting money then asked if she could be a cowgirl Zombie and we could put scary make-up on her and make her look like she rose from the dead.
Then Chad told Caden he would pay him 10 dollars to wear his Karate' outfit- (so he is thinking about it.) Chad will do about anything to save money! We may have to buy Coleman something, since we really don't have anything that fits him. Miley of course already got her Tinkerbell cosutme for $20 since that is all she talked about and she is the baby in the family!!

summer stuff

We love that Shauna is our little photographer anytime we see her! Getting pictures of Mckenna and Caden isn't that diffucult, even thought they don't like it, but getting pics of Coleman and Miley is almost impossible.

The girls!!

The three cute boys- they had a little bit of a "love, hate" relationship, but hey, it's family and three little boys, what else can you expect.

This is Miley enjoying Joes annual 4th of July neighborhood breakfast.

Caden and Miley are best buddies! Miley is constantly asking him to play with her and he is a sweetheart and always does. "Cade" was the first name she said, after mom and dad.

Mckenna is into taking pictures now- this is her work.

This is Luke and Coleman, drying off from getting soaked in the pond and showing off their huge muscles.

Coleman is not too into taking pictures, which may be why I hardley have any of him. I was holding him down in this one.

This is Cade on our deck of our room in Vale!

This year Coleman has done so well and is liking things he never did before. He was pretty terrified of getting in a pool and we just started him in swim lessons a couple weeks earlier and now he loves it! We are so proud of him! He even liked the fireworks this year and he will swing on a swing for the first time!!

Miley loves shoes so much! We went by a store that had shoes out on a table and while I was browsing, she had already taken one and was trying it on!

I can't believe we've been in Colorado for a year now! I guess I'm in a pretty good habit of updating the blog every 3 months! Props to those who keep up on blogs much more than that!! I haven't even put up anything all summer and now school starts Aug. 7th. I like that their summers arent' too long and I think we are all in a way ready for summer to be over. I know I'm ready to have some hours all by myself again, or at least with just one or two, then enjoying nap times more.

We did go on one little trip, to Utah. Everyone who lives away from family knows that most of their trips are to go see family. But as Leah reminded me in her blog, when you go anywhere with kids, it's not a vacation, it's a trip! Chad and I are ready now to go on vacation after going on a trip with kids.

We do love the 4th of July with family! Mighty Joe makes his neighborhood breakfast in the morning of pancakes, sausage and eggs and all the neighbors come join in the front yard. This year wasn't quite the same since my dad got pretty sick and we ended up not even seeing him or staying with my parents. We love them dearly, but didn't want to take the chance of getting whatever he was suffering with for 10+ days. We did fireworks in the circle with all the other neighbors, then went to their back yard to see the "Stadium of Fire" fireworks.

We stayed at Shauna and Joes house and the kids had fun playing with their cousins and just doing whatever we came up with that day. We went to Sundace and let the kids play in the pond, went to movies, the park, out to eat to Cafe' Rio mostly and just hung out. We didn't stay at my parents house, but we did at least meet up with my mom and my sister and her family for a day. My mom took all of us to see the new Ice Age movie and we went to Ryans to ride horses and then to Cafe' Rio again. Thanks to everyone for having us!

We ended up leaving early to come home since we didn't go see my mom and dad and we went stopped off in Vale on the way home and spent a night there. Chad goes there all the time and stays at the Marriot for work. They always upgrade him to a suite so it was nice with 4 kids. When we first got there we were so excited and had such a nice room we both thought, "we should stay here two nights!!" Then after a couple of hours of swimming and dealing with kids, we both thought one night was just right. The next morning we walked around the beautiful areas, but the kids didn't seem to enjoy it that much. The whole time Chad and I were talking about how nice it will be to come back without the children. For some reason they didn't appreciate the fancy shops and expensive restraunts. There was this big pirate ship they played on and that was their highlight. Man, from the way I'm typing it sounds like I don't like my kids much. So don't take me wrong, I adore them all and love them to pieces!!

Disneyland- Seaworld- and Cousins

This is Edgar, with Miley and Mckenna

Aidan, Liam and Caden at Liams play

Mckennas favorite fairy is Faun, because
she loves animals too.

Visiting Mickey at his house. You can tell
how excited Coleman was. He wouldn't
stop covering his eys.

Caden- looking out at the docked
boats, near our hotel by seaworld.
I liked the name of the boat.

Coleman being carried by my sister Kristi into
Seaworld. He was fine once we got there, he just
didn't want it to be like Disneyland.

Our favorite- Shamu! Chad and Mckenna got
splased by Shamu 3 times on the 3rd row. They
were drenched and it was not the warmest day.

Kristi, Haliegh, and Miley

Mckenna with her new little
Shamu in a purse.

ALL the boys went on the river boat ride.
Even Coleman was okay with it.

Coleman, Haliegh and Liam waiting for the
dolphins to swim back by them.

Coleman, Jeff and Haliegh...waiting.

Mileys first real ride! Elmos Flying Fish!!

I'm telling this a little out of order, but oh well. To make a long story short, lets just say Disneyland wasn't the best place on earth for Coleman. He acted excited to go when we would talk about and show him stuff on the computer, but once we got there, I can't count the number of times he asked to go back home. Because of our sweet little boy we got the fast pass for all the rides and thankgoodness we did, he would have never made it waiting in line for hours for each ride. He did go on about all the rides he could, but during and after each ride, he seemed very stressed and wanted to go home. At about 4pm we were done with what we wanted and went out for dinner. I went back to the hotel with the boys and Miley and Chad took Mckenna back to Disneyland until 11pm. We told Caden to go with them, but he was just excited to stay at the hotel and play with his starwars ship he got after the star tours ride.

Everyone was very happy to get to my sisters house the next day and just play with cousins and relax. To say that my sister and her family are busy, is an understatement. They are very involved with this cool community theater and they do wonders for it!! It was a lot of fun to see Jeff in "Leading Ladies" and Liam was in "Treasure Island" the next day. Plus my sister does most of the costumes. And Jeff is not only in one play, but helping direct Treasure Island. We just sat back in awe of all they take on, but it looks a ton of fun and well worth it for them in the end.

I don't think I even talked to Caden the whole time we were there. He and his cousin Aiden were constantly playing something and kept them selves busy day after day. Mckenna had a great time with Haleigh. There is an age difference, but you would almost not even know it with how well they got along and Haleigh is so funny and mature for her age.

Miley was pretty obsessed with their HUGE dog Edger, who stayed in the backyard the whole time, but she wanted to see him at the door or she would say over and over again, "dog, dog, dog, dog, ..."

Coleman was as happy as ever just playing with all their starwars toys and watching Phineas and Ferb on the disney channel.

SeaWorld was probably the best for everyone since they were with their cousins and it was much more relaxed and less people. As you can see in a picture, Coleman was not happy as we were walking into Seaworld since he thought it was like Disneyland. What kid screams and cries going into Seaworld? But once we got in and he got a map, he was just fine. Now he loves to talk about the killer whales and dolphins.

Thank you Kristi and Jeff for having us, we had a lot of fun. Can't wait to see you in Denver soon!

California

Our flight into LA was smooth and on time. We get our luggage and go out to get on the bus to our car rental place. We wait outside for Chad for at least 30min. only for him to come out and tell us that we are at the wrong car rental place. ( I have to give Chad a little slack since he travels all the time and gets numerous car rentals at different places). Anyone could have mixed up Budget with Dollar car rental, they are very close in their meaning. I think I took the bulk of our pictures while waiting another 30+min. at the next rental car place. Coleman was content playing with his eve and wall-e toys in Mileys stoller, Caden as usual just goofed around and played with Miley, and Mckenna seemed as annoyed and impatient as a teenager.

FUN at Shantil and Nates

We flew into LA and went to my friends house, Shantil, who I haven't seen in 7 years. The best thing was going to their house and it felt like it had only been 7 days since I'd seen her. The kids had a blast from jumping on the tramp, climbing the steep rock hill in her backyard, playing with snails (yes, it't the girls playing with snails), and who knows what else they did when we weren't looking. Thanks so much Shantil and Nate for having us, it was a highlight of the trip!

Playing Catch Up...again.

Chad and I had the chance to go to Hawaii for a work thing he had. He only had to work a couple of hours for some of the days. We didn't do a whole lot but relax, hang out, and find the best food places to go to. It's funny how most of our vacation was centered around food. From the almond cookies at this Japanese restaurant, to the garlic shrimp in those run down huts with flies all over them.

We are not very good at taking pictures when it's just the two of us. Neither one of us wants to ask someone to take our picture and we don't like taking pictures by ourselves. But we did try to get a few. Like the close up? It's us taking a picture of ourselves!

Playing Catch Up

A friend of ours took some pictures of the kids a while ago. Group shots are almost impossible now a days, so it's safer to go with individual pictures.

I never even documented Mileys first B-day! We can't believe how fast the year flew and now she is walking around with a mind of her own already! We made pizza for her b-day dinner which was good, but no one seemed too excited about the organic gluten free cake and icing I made. Miley just picked around at it and only Coleman ate his whole piece. I guess that was okay since I made it gluten free for him. I really didn't think it tasted too bad!!

Caden is a snow shoveling machine! Any time it snows, he is right out there, wanting to be like his Dad. Dad shovels the front and Caden is responsible for the back patio. I have to say, he does a pretty good job for a five year old.

I can't believe it's the new year and the kids go back to school in a couple of days. The break has seemed like forever, but in a good way. I've loved having no where to go in the mornings and just hanging out. Chad has actually been around the whole time and I don't know what I'm going to do when he is gone next week monday through friday! Chads parents came to visit and were with us on Christmas and it was nice to have them around. They entertained the kids, made them cookies, took them to Target, and took them outside to play. It kept the kids fighting to a minimum. I was terrible at taking pictures, mostly because I didn't want to stress about it and just wanted to actually watch the kids open their presents etc... But also my camera is not doing well. It seems like no matter what I do, the pictures are not turning out like they used to. Chad says it's because I may have dropped it one too many times. Even though I have no recolection of dropping it, it may have very easily happened. To say I'm a "little clutsy" is an understatement.