The Whole Family

I realize that we haven't had a family picture taken in... oh, say... 2 years.... sad, huh? But it's tough, and time gets away from me, and I always want to lose a few more pounds.... things just never seem like the right time to get one taken. But there's never been a time, that I regretted taking a family pic, and I never think that we don't look right or good, or whatever. It's always perfect.



So, my mom and dad came down the week that Tristan was in the hospital with surgery. My mom was here to help take care of the other kids at home, and my dad was able to jsut stop in for a couple of days. But he was able to come back the day that Tristan came hom from the hospital, so I asked him and my mom if they would be up for taking some pictures of my little family. I always think it's such a shame to have to pay someone else to take them, when I KNOW how to take pictures.

My dad was happy to do so, so we ended up with a fair amount of nice pictures. I mean, really, it doesn't even matter how many good ones you get, as long as you get one. So I think we have a good enough picture to hang on the wall, until we get another one taken in 2 more years!



So, her hair needed a trim... so what! Madison is so fun. She asks entirely TOO many questions, and it drives me nuts. But she is the most considerate kid. She's always concerned about what everyone else is doing, and helping her little siblings out with hard tasks. She's made so much progress in school this year. I just think she is an amazing little girl. I mean, big girl! She's 7 now!!



This one, just LOVES to pose for the camera! Brooklyne is such a silly girl. She loves to laugh and joke, and she understands adults sarcastic jokes. she's always smiling and being silly. She strives to stay caught up with her older sister, and frankly, does a pretty good job! There are so many things that Brooklyne is interested in that Madison isn't. Like sports and music and what not. She's a really great little girl to have around!



This little one is all my trouble. Oh yes, I'm sure it is her that has put the gray hairs on TJ's head! Tristan is so fiesty and independant. All of which make her strong and a fighter. We took these the day after she got home from the hospital! She didn't even care. She was so glad to be back running around with her sisters. She is an amazingly sweet and smart girl, if you can get past butting heads with her stubborness.




He is the cutest, cutest little boy! Austin is a blast to have in our family! He acts so much like his older sisters, but then also has his own way about him! He is pretty simple, loves to play, and get lots of attention from people. His favortie thing to do is to wave to people!




And amazingly after all these years, I still really like this guy! He is my strength in everything, and there's no way I could make it through all this life throws at me without his courage and support. I love to realize that after 10 years, he's still my best friend!!

Christmas Morning

I just thought I should actually blog a few pictures of what's been going on around here. And I'm feeling kinda lazy, and trying to avoid other actual chores.... So I'll post some pictures for a little while!


The item that topped every child's list to Santa this year was a Pillow Pet. I'm not sure I really understand the desirability of these item, but apparently the info-mercial makes a good sell, cuz.... see here, Santa brought us 4!!

Ths Tree Christmas morning. Man, I seriously love how wonderful and magic presents are for little kids. Adults too sometimes. But it's so fun to see the kids so incredibly thrilled with opening a gift!

The girls all doing their thing. Austin was busy drinking a bottle before he every got started checking stuff out.

But he eventually took to the idea of unwrapping things. He was very slow at it, so usually Madison would help him out. and Of course, here's Tristan, doing some odd pose for me! what a fruit!

Because school pictures are great...

doesn't everybody want those awesome, cheesy, odd smirk, gray background-ed pictures... oh yeah, might I mention the infalte price on those things? Whatever. It's pathetic and rediculous. So, while the girls were sporting a brand new hairdo and clothes that had yet to be stained or worn out, we tried to capture a few pictures. Since TJ is unavailable for the Photog-assistant job, one of my friends was awesome enough to help wrangle the babies!!

So here are a few highlights of our pictures sessions, which I should mention I was utterly stressed out by while it was happening, my kids acted like crazed monsters the whole time, fighting, crawling away, covering their face, etc. But in the end, I enjoyed the pictures it created, since, well, that IS my life! So it was more like a documentary!



I did manage to get one or two with all four of them in it, kind of a feat really!

Oh Madison, she is so sweet and funny and talk-a-tive. I just love this one cuz she's cracking up about something, and I love her teether missing on the side and the large size of those new ones up front! She has really turned in to such a sweet caring little girl; always trying to be a leader, care-giver and peacemaker.

LOVE this one! Seriously, she is an amazing little girl to have! I'm so excited for her to be a first grader!!

Ah! This one! Could it get any more adorable! Brooklyne had so many awesome, diva-ish poses, but I love the one where she too is cracking up! I don't know what she was so smiley about, but I love it. She is truly a funny girl; she really understands sarcasm and jokes. And she is so independent; it was so hard getting her to wear this outfit, because everything she wears she has to make it her own or put her own twist on it. A little bit of a Punky Brewster thing going on, mixes polka dots with plaid, and puts a cardigan over all of it, oh my little Miss Brooklyne.

Along with her funny side she is very dramatic, and so she was totally posing it up for the camera, hands on hips, etc. It was to die for!! I love this one, just her, being a little girl, looking at stuff. And hey, it's a great shot of those hair clips I made (love them!! and SO easy!)

Did I say Brooklyne was drama? Oh, I meant Tristan is DRAMA... seriously. this girl gets her way. Yep, move over, cuz Tristan is coming through! She wants to be just like her older sisters, and wants to do everything herself. She is so independent. The great part about her is that she still loves to be hugged and snuggled, I love that!

Oh, and the little man, Austin, who DID NOT want to sit still for one second! ugh, he was a mess!! Don't tie him down!! The second I would set him down he was crawling off! This happened to be in-between shots and kids, it worked out perfect! So I only have a couple of him, because basically, the only part he liked was the lollipop bribe!

Anyway, Pictures are done, and edited, and blogged, and heck, some are even sent to print, I'm totally on top of it! I can't believe that I actually made it out to get them done, with lots of help, of course!

Back to school cuts

Alright, so we only have a few more days left before school starts and so today was the day the girls went and got their mop chopped in preparation for school! It was so fun and cute, they both did SO good, they acted all grown up and everything, it was cute!

I am *hoping* to actually get them dressed and take them out and get some pictures teaken before school actually starts and they wear in those new clothes and the new hair do seems less than new... oh yeah, the ** mean I'm crossing my fingers.... it should go fine, right? RIGHT?

We forgot to measure or save Madison's hair... sorry girl. it was long and kinda crazy, glad it looks so cute now!

She was pretty distrubed that Bre used a razor to cut her hair with. It didn't help that she previously cut her finger all up on my shaving razor today, ick!

TA-DA!! what a cutie!! I opted to keep the bangs the same length as everything else, it took us all school year last year to grow those puppies out, but they grow too fast to keep trimmed up. Now she can sweep them back in a headband, it's gonna look adorable!

Okay, Little Miss Brooklyne... Can I jsut say that she never ceases to impress and amaze me?! She actually went first and she was the one who was so "adult-like", kept good composure, good posture, took it all in stride when we whipped out the razor cutter! She was so proud to be getting her hair cut!

So we actually measured, then braided up her hair and she said she wanted to save it. (Ew, I know, some people are in to that though? ANd she thought it would be cool, now I have a dead hair braid in a baggy in my purse. Did I say Ew?) Anyway, it measured a whopping 9 inches!! I was astonished that it was that long!! It was WAY long!

And here is our shining little star! I jsut LOVE the way her hair look! Bre cut in some bangs so her wispies didn't look quite so weird! Tonite I will be dreaming of headbands for these darling new hair cuts!!

are they that big? really?

So, we are quickly approaching school starting and that means new school clothes. I got a great deal on shoes from jcpenney.com (they were less than $15 per pair but had plenty even cheaper) Anyway, we had them shipped and they got delivered today.

Of course our new sneakers are tie-shoes, which is a big deal to a little kid! So we looked up a tying poem online and we began the learning to tie shoes session. It was a bit rough at first...

That's some tough concentration she's got up there! And then Brooklyne, who actually picked it up rather quickly, gave me this look when I told her to untie it and do it again!

And here they are, so very proud that they got it tied kinda right. We'll try again a few more times before school starts, and hopefully (*fingers crossed*) I won't be tying two pair everymorning!

**oh yeah, for anybody that might still look at this, you may see an increase in blogging, due to me trying to be nice to my hubby, and also I might have more time with 2 kids in school!

Throwback to the love of my life

Many years ago I got to do something that was kinda special to me, and definitely significant in my relationship with now my husband. It was way back in 2001, just days after 9/11 happened; TJ's work gave him box seat tickets to my favorite band... Matchbox Twenty. So he invited me to go with him. I flew from Utah to Colorado just for the event, he even picked me up from the airport, we met up with my brother and his wife and all went together.

I love how cool he looks in these pictures, I wish that the one wasn't blurry, but it's all I've got! The "funny" story is that we didn't have time to eat real dinner, so we grabbed some McDonald's on the drive-thru, and since we were in his little work truck, and it was a bench seat, there wasn't anywhere to put our food. I did something, he's never fogiven me for, I mixed the fries and put them in a bag in the middle. My roommates and I would sometimes do this if we were eating while driving. He was so offended that he had to share his fries with me! And now I of course know that he likes to eat his fries seperate from his burger and that we cannot share the fries.... but I didn't know then!! ha ha!!

Anyway, we got to go to the concert, it was the second time I got to see Matchbox Twenty (love them!) and we had so much fun! I'd also like to point out a few things in the photo which I enjoy... try to check out his black fingernail polish... yep, he had a thing with painting his nails! It's the punk-rocker in him! Also, I absolutely adore his sideburns and goatee, a thing of the past. and finally, like a crystal ball into our future together... I loved noticing the tail end of the car in the background... happens to be the SAME as the "family" car we've been driving since we had our first baby!!

I love him so much and it's so hard to even fathom him being gone for so long, the reality of it hasn't even set in yet. I really don't understand how the wives of military men handle being alone for really so long.

8 years and the itch is gone!

Do things really get itchy around the 7 year mark? Well, whatever, the 7th year and 7th anniversary are behind us, cuz we're now starting year 9, now that's crazy!

TJ and I had such a wonderful evening, we ate great food, shared a sweet dessert out in the vineyard, went on a romantic walk and finished up with a bit of dancing to an iPod under the lit vineyard pavillion, a few tears later and we wrapped up a very romantic, much needed anniversary date together.

I'm so glad to share that TJ is truly my best friend, and has always been since I met him. We started out that way and we will surely endure to the end that way! I can't wait to share another 8 years with him (well, more, but whatever.)

Nothing but bugs

A couple weekends ago we took a little family trip up to the Volkswagen car show. It's something that we used to love to do as a family and realized we haven't been in a few years. Our current neighbor happens to own a VW bus, so him and TJ get to talk shop often, I think it's pretty fun for the guys. Anyway, we went together as families.


TJ did all the picture taking, I was um, sitting down most of the time, whatever. It was fun to see all the pretty cars, the kids all ran around and loved seeing all the cars.


Since TJ took all the pics, I jsut had a good time editing them for him, playing around with a few different things, kind of fun. This one above was my favorite bug finish their, it was all rusty looking, but it had a clear coat on it, to protect it, so they were going for that rusty/original junker look, love it!

This one I love because it's so "peace" to me, added some noise and some sketch to it, something you might have seen in a newspaper printing-ish.

This was TJ's all time fave, if I would have said the word, or even motioned "yes", he would have bought this beast... because that's what we have room for... more car stuff... hhhmmm... It's like a rust bucket beauty.

I did take some pictures of the kids in the blue bonnets... I kind of dislike taking pictures of my kids, it really stressed me out, they move, they wiggle, they won't wear something cute, they won't allow hair ties, barrets, etc to even get near their hair. Why in the world do I have 3 girls that won't let me TOUCH their hair? So, unfortunate for them, their blue bonnet pics are lacking, but Austin, he's a man, he can take the heat, so, more pics of Austin in blue bonnets to follow.

And, uh, hey, don't judge that I haven't posted in months and this is full of car pictures... atleast it's something!

Discount on Diapers

With so many of my friends havin gjust had babies, I figured you all might be interested in this deal from Diapers.com

During the month of March when you place an order of $49+ you will receive free shipping. You'll also get $5 off this month using code NEW5, as well, if you use referral code STAM2873 you'll get another $10 off. So that's $50 worth of diapers, wipes or formula, for only $35 AND you get free shipping! Not too shabby! I ordered from them two weeks ago and got my diapers in 2 days, it was awesome to not have to worry about giant diaper boxes and kids at the store!

**Looks like you can't use the $5 and $10 together... bummer. But you can still get free shipping and the $10, that's still an alright deal.

Clip here -------->

I just discovered this whole other hobby that apparently I've been missing out on the previous 25 years of my life (It's true people. just accept that I'm 25, okay?)..... Couponing?

I've mostly always been irritated with coupons, either they make me spend MORE than I normally would because I don't even buy Betty Crocker Muffin Mix, I know how to make my own, but if I can save $0.50 then I might consider skipping the work.... Or I don't even bother because really, is it worth it save $0.75 when you buy 3 boxes of cereal? I could probably make up that savings if I tipped my couch upside down.

So, I've never been a believer in people's couponing ventures. BUT, my sister went to enrichment last week and they talked about couponing, and the how-to's. I am very intrigued as to how these people save so much, I mean, a grocery bill gone from $250+ down to only $3... what? is that even legal? So, with some coaching from a friend here in S.A., I went out on my first ever coupon shop tonite. And I have to say, I am a bit proud, and I can definitely see how people could become addicted to it. It's like a game, and if they are saving, they are winning.

I'm not sure that I'm going to be a lifer of this hobby, but my sis and I vowed to try it through the end of March and see if we could do it, and if the outcome was noticeably successful.

So, for my first trip out, I hit Walgreens and CVS, and those are two stores that I would never SHOP at, those are like, too lazy to go on to the grocery store, or you need some medicine--fast. But I scouted out my deals, gathered my appropriate coupons and went to town (totally freaked and embarrassed).

After the reports were tallied, I spent $87.84 on items such as: medicine, toilet paper, diapers, wipes, batteries, formula-- And I saved $56.96, which is a 64.8% savings! So I may not have it perfect yet, down to the three dollar thing, but I was super thrilled that I actually saved money, it worked, I didn't get too embarrassed, nobody threw me out of the store, it turned out O.K. And had I not bought the formula, I would have saved 71.4%, that's amazing!

Sweet.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all!! A week ago Madison had a half day from school, so we decorated a valentine house, becuase everyone does that, right? Whatever, it was totally fun. They loved it. I love that I can let them loose with a few bags of frosting, a load of candies and sprinkles, and they are totally occupied, not fighting for as long as it lasts. And of course, with fairly easy mess to clean up, a good sweep of the floor and voila, sprinkles are taken care of!





The girls had to get some poses in for Dad when he came home. I guess these are poses, they do some seriously wacky stuff. And what are those, M&M fangs?

Austin was able to get in on a little of the fun too. Well, he jsut laughed and smiled at his dad, but I'm sure if Tristan had her way, he would have been loving the frosting and candy just as much as she did!

I kind of love how much Austin likes his Daddy. Seriously, he is so content to jsut sit in his lap, or next to him. He is always laughing when TJ holds him and what not. He is such a doll.

A match made in heaven

Tristan and chocolate truly are a match made in heaven. There is nothing she loves more... well, maybe Hannah Montana's "Hoedown Throwdown" song! She even has these cute polka dot pajamas that she calls her "pop it, lock it jammies", totally cute!


She's such a cutie. She reminds me SO much of Madison when she was a little girl. And then I can't believe where all the time has gone? Madison is getting so grown up.

If they could just be this cute and nice ALL the time... is that too much to ask? ;)

Is it time for dinner?

I'm so Thrilled about this new little "group" we started down here... a reciep group. I mean, what could be better than good friends and good food... seriously. Anyway, I hosted lunch at my house today, and we had quite the turn out, I didn't count, there were too many, but I think there were something like 12+ moms and over 30 kids/babies... and my house ain't that big! So, there were lots of yummy things to eat, check out all those dishes I was able to snag a picture of! So, over time our recipe collection will grow, but if you see anything that looks good, you can try the recipe out here.

One "To-Do" too many....

So apparently two tasks in a day is a little TOO much. It's a good thing that I'm cutting out doing one thing a day because if I can't do 2, getting a third thing is totally out of the question! And I can't have the one thing I cut out everday be a shower, or I might get to be one stinky person!

I managed to get the sewing items done yesterday and subsequently mailed out today. The bread however never happened. As for today, the bathroom got 3/4 of the way done, atleast most of the things I have to see all day are cleaner. The catching up on laundry, only got touched when the extra towels from the bathroom got washed.

I think I'm over-estimating what I can do in a day by under-budgetting my time. I waste my fair share of time (farmville, blogging, recipe browsing) but really, if I can't do some things I like, then where is the joy? TJ suggested that I track what I do during my day so I have a better idea of how much I can actually do in a day. And as tedious as that seems, it did help me calm down a little bit to run back through my day.... I was going to list it, but that seems excessive. point is that it is fool-proof, there was hardly too much time wasting going on!

So, we are down to the ONE item a day, just do ONE, get it DONE, is that so hard?

Thinking about "goals"

So, my friend Melissa J. spoke in church today, I didn't hear much of what she had to say, I was a little busy trying to stop Tristan from screaming, or too busy fuming at why I would be there, sitting on the bench alone, with 4 kids, while TJ passed the sacrament, feeding a bottle to one, and trying to give the other ANYTHING she wants to prevent her from making a scene... oh yeah, did I mention we were in the FIRST row, and heck, we were even early to church today, but we have to sit in the big bench now, with our big family.

Anyway, back to what I was saying... I DID hear a few things that she had to say. I think she was talking about goals, and how we can improve ourselves with and by setting goals. I basically only heard 3 things, and I made sure to type them into my phone and email them to myself while I sat there. This is what I heard:

1. Start everyday by deciding to NOT do something. (Like stopping a poor habit.)

2. Start everday by DOING something. (Like starting a good habit, or doing something you have been "meaning" to do, but haven't gotten around to it yet.)

3. Write it down. (If you don't write it down, it doesn't count, because you aren't held accountable the same way, and you can't look back at what you wrote to see if you really accomplished the task.)

So, I think I'd like to implement a few of those into my life. I mean, I have given up on drinking soda, I'm now 10% done with that, hey that sounds kinda cool! But there's a whole other HUGE list of things that I would love to get to, and I guess I don't ever scrape up enough "do" to jsut get up and get it all done, and I make a lot of excuses on the way. And maybe I'd be happier if I was doing all those things that I would love to get to. Oh yeah, we also watched "Julie & Julia" last nite (great movie if you were wondering.) I'm now considering buying Julia Childs' cookbook... but then decided I should lose weight before consuming all that butter. However, the girl in the movie makes a plan to get her through, so I think that's what I'll do, I want to be doing one thing everyday that gets me caught up on my list.

Along side this, I recently heard in a conference talk or something (I don't remember who said it...) But He was saying that we should beautify our homes one room at a time. Now that is something I think I can handle. I don't EVER get a chance to spend much time cleaning anything. the windows of time I have are small, and far between. But I think if I jsut made a list of different things, then I would actually have a plan to get them done. So, maybe my list will go something like this:

Sunday~ Finishing sewing baby items, make bread
Monday~Deep clean master bath, catch up on laundry folding (my nemesis in life)
Tuesday~Remove all toys from my office, remove all trash from my office
Wednesday~ Minimize toys in girls' bedroom, remove clothing that is too small
Thursday~ Declutter pantry
Friday~ Clear all dresser surfaces in Master bedroom, deep clean hall & downstairs bathroom
Saturday~ find home for new saws in garage and NOT in living room

Okay, so that's a decent list. I think I should be able to work on those... I mean, it's gotta be easier to just wake up, do what's on the list, then take a nap on the couch; instead of wake up, take a nap, then rush to figure out something to do, so it LOOKS like I did something today, although that has usually worked until now;)

There are a few other things, like going to the gym and stuff, I think I'll hold off on adding them to my daily list, since I'll only be able to go once or twice this week. And hopefully after seeing the doc this wednesday we'll have a better idea of what needs to happen with them!

Ballerina Girls

Brooklyne has her gymnastics recital tomorrow, so we HAD to try on the leotards tonite.... where do they come up with this stuff?!

These awesome moves are compliments of kindergarten... ah, she has learned SO much there....;)

By the way, they totally think they are twins! Ha! Cute.



And this is some sort of synchronized fruit ballet.... !

And of course Tristan is in love with doing what her sisters are doing, so we had to dig out a leotard to fit her too. What a cutie!