Start of 2011

So its been 6 or 7 months. Acutally I thought it had been a year since I last blogged, so it wasn't as bad as I thought! I've been putting some stuff on facebook, but life has gotten so crazy I've done no journaling (yes its not a real word, but you know what I mean) here.
The kids are growing so quickly. A is 8 now and was baptized in September and such a big help. She is super smart and does really well in school and in the gifted and talented program too. She is doing well at piano, even though she says she doesn't like it. I know she secretly does because when she gets a song down she memorizes it and plays it all the time. B just turned 5 and LOVES the Wii, a bit too much ! :-) He is way better than I am all ready. He is in pre-school and was one of the first kids to be able to write his name well. He is playing soccer right now and is determined to get a goal every game. He loves to win, which is great, but we are also trying to teach him how to lose gracefully and the importance of taking turns! C is 20 months and talking constantly. She is so very cuddly and trying to start potty training. She is my first to say so many things at so young and can repeat just about anything. She is always singing to herself and constantly requesting, "me me milk!" translation "bring me milk now!" My mom says she looks just like a mini me. She loves her nursery class and playing with her friends.
We got another dog in Oct. It about killed me to get her house trained, but getting her was my idea. (of which I am constantly reminded when I complain about things being tough :-) Her name is Kona and she is a mastiff/pyreneese mix. She is very calm and good with the kids. She will be a giant, about 180-200 pounds. Her drawbacks are giant, um, you know what I mean, and shedding. Everyone avoids her Sunday morning so we don't go to church covered in dog hair! She lets me vacuum her, so that does help. Jazzie has gotten used to her and now they share and play together.
We spent Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with Bryant's. Both Holidays were great fun and we can't wait for next year's.
Primary keeps me sooooooooooo busy. I'm always behind! Bryant just got asked to be the Scout Master over 2 wards. I wasn't asked to be there when they issued this calling to him, and I think it was because they didn't want to see me cry, so Bryant would say yes. He is doing well at it and I am doing my best to be supportive.
Zumba is my release and my fun time, so thanks Christine and Nanette!
We have a lot of fun things planned for this coming year and I will try to keep up with them, no promises though!

Yes we are alive! My blog has been severely neglected!

I feel like summer is flying by! We have camped a lot so far. Last weekend we were camping with my whole family, which was great because we hadn't all been together in a long time! But we had to leave a camp ground in Payson canyon (right by Payson, UT where I grew up) because of a bear that wouldn't go away and wasn't afraid of people at all. It came into the camp site next to ours about 4-6 times. The forest service tried to catch it several times but it kept getting away so they kicked us out for our own safety. We never actually saw it because of the trees between the camp sites, but Bryant heard it and the forest service got a picture of it. My oldest daughter was really upset by the idea of a bear so close to her, but she calmed down after a while.
Ashelynn 7, is growing up really fast and comes up to the base of my neck when she stands next to me. She will be taller than me in a couple years for sure. She did a basketball camp this summer and did really well. She can't wait for her birthday in August and wants to start planning a big party now!
Bryson is 4 and just learned how to ride a 2 wheel bike. We were at a friends house yesterday and he climbed on their little boy's bike. My friend held the seat because I was holding Caringtyn, and he just took off. He was a natural and never fell. I was amazed! I took the training wheels off his bike today and he did the same thing. I just held the seat for a second so he could get on, and then he took off again. Last summer he was jumping on our tramp and starting flipping all on his own, at 3! No one even showed him what to do. He is a ball of energy and makes us laugh all the time.
Caringtyn is 1 and is miss personality. She wants to do everything on her own because that is what the big kids do. She can give a really good mean face when she isn't happy and a very crinkled nose smile when she is. She is constantly climbing on anything she can and makes me very nervous when we go to the park. She loves to sing "If You're Happy and You Know It" and does all the actions. She is really learning words quickly and can say: hi, mama, dada, dog, go, up, shoe, bye bye, baby, key, no no (complete with a finger shake), papa, jazz (our dog's name), down, all done, . . . and well you get the idea. She understands everything going on around her and babbles a lot too.
I will post pictures later! (i hope :{ )

Update Nov. to Jan.

It seems that life is constantly speeding up! I can't keep up with anything anymore. November brought more sickness to the kids, mostly Caringtyn. She can't shake the ear infections. She may need tubes. We'll find out next week. She has had an ear infection everymonth since October. Poor little gal! She is a strong baby though because she stays happy, mostly, despite the ear trouble!

Anyway, in Nov. we had Thanksgiving with Bryant's family. It was a fun time with lots of family and LOTS of food!

December went by so very fast I didn't get a Christmas letter out! I've been really good about it the last couple years, but not this one! Oh well! Hopefully I'll get one out soon. We did a ton of Christmas decorations like always; but its the last year we do all those lights on our house. Bryant slipped and fell off the roof right above the garage. He was ok, but pretty bruised. So enjoy the picture. The house won't ever look like that again!

Bryson turned 4 and had a fun bowling party. He gets very serious about his game. Over thanksgiving we went bowling with Bryant's family and Bryson beat all the kids 13 and under. Ever since then he takes it very seriously!

Santa stopped by our house too! Ashelynn and Bryson were amazed and Caringtyn cried when she looked at him. Something about that man makes little babies cry! :)

Ashelynn also had a piano recital and played very well. I was lucky enough to play a duet with her on "Joy To The World" It was really fun.

After Bryson's birthday we went to UT to spend Christmas with my family. They had a birthday party for Bryson also.

On Christmas eve Caringtyn started to walk a little. What a way to start her first Christmas! She can take about 10 steps on her own! Christmas was very fun and the kids got a Wii from Santa which we have all enjoyed! Bryant took Ashelynn skiing again and she did well. It was fun to be able to stay with my family for a week. We missed having my sister and her family there.

January has been a whirl wind too! Stake standards night practices have started and I am in charge of it all. I've been working on it since Oct. I finished the script just in time and got all the music in order. Just before we started practices, I was also called to be the primary president in my ward. I'm so blessed to have good councilors and secretary who are keeping the primary together right now! I feel overwhelmed to say the least! Standards Night is March 17th, so I hope to be sane by then! Caringtyn is sick again right now. Bryson got a bad cold and in her it turned into a respiratory infection. She was much sicker than I realized, so I feel bad! Ashelynn is just starting to cough now, so it continues!

I got to visit my sister and her family in Houston this month too. It was so fun to see her and her family. It was nice to get a little warmer weather too. She lives in a great area and has so much shopping I am jealous! We got to go to NASA too. It was awesome. I wish Ashelynn and Bryson could have seen it. They would have loved it. It was such a nice visit and nice to get away. I also got to see Cameron and Michelle because they live in Houston right now too!

Old Pictures

I was going through some files and found this picture of my Dental Hygiene class. I'm on the front row in the short sleves. This pic was pre-kids, pre-highlights and I had the longest hair I've ever had. Its crazy how much time changes. All these girls were so fun and it feels like it was forever ago.



This is my favorite baby picture of Ashelynn. She was one day shy of 1 year old. This was at my sister's wedding reception in my parent's backyard. She loved my boquet of flowers. They smelled so good she tried to eat them. Bryant caught this picture as she was running away with the boquet so she could take a bite and I was trying to stop her

Baby Bryson

This is Bryson about the same age Caringtyn is right now. They look so much alike except Bryson had lighter hair and more of it!

Fall 2009

OK, so lets face it, I am a quaterly blogger at best. I'm not good at making time to get updated on this, but at least I'm blogging today! Since July of course we've done a lot. The end of July we had a really fun family reunion with my mom's mom's family. It was fun to see my Grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins and my kids had fun playing with their second cousins. I miised all of you who weren't able to come!
Some of the second cousins! We were still missing a lot in the pic



More backyard fun at my grandmas
Look out!

In July we also went to the Gorge with some friends from our ward!

In August Bryant and Ash went to Lake Powell. Here is some playing in the mud.

I stayed with Bryson and the baby because there was no way I was taking a 5 month old to Lake Powell and it would be to hard to take Ash and Bry with one adult to watch them. So I took the younger two to UT and hung out with my family. I had Caringtyn's pictures taken and they turned out so very cute! I can't post them though because of course, they were copyrighted. I have lots of other cute pics of her though.
Bryant did the Art On The Green again and took second place! He did so well, like always and its a fun weekend for all of us to go see him paint and look at the booths at the Riverfest. My parents came and my dad's blue grass band played at the reception right before the art auction. I haven't seen that band play in so long, it was really fun to watch. They were such a hit that they were asked to come back next year. The kids loved the booths and time at the splash park and car show with Grandmas and Grandpas and friends. Here is his painting for 2009



Ash also had her birthday and we did a family party this year and went bowling.

Ash started 2nd grade at the end of August and Bryson started pre-school. They both love school and are doing well. I'm really glad little B will have 2 years of pre-school done before kindergarten. He loves his class and has so many friends in it. Ashelynn is in the gifted and talented program and is so smart!
First day of school for Bryson
Ashelynn's first day of school.


In September we went to Estes Park and had our last camping trip in the trailer for the year. It was fun and Ellen and Brody came too for 1 day. It was fun to have them. Bry of course could go on and on about all the elk we saw. I'll put in a good picture of what we saw just for him!

Bryant also went hunting for a couple days in UT because Aaron's brother-in-law drew out for some amazing hunt and Bryant went. Here is one of the elk the group got. Bryant as the "Cabelas" hat on
We also had the typical early snow storm in Sept. You know is early when there are still flowers blooming and there are leaves still on the trees! Needless to say, my flowers died. :(

So far October has been the month of sick kids! Bryant had his long elk hunt scheduled. Right before he left Caringtyn got an ear infection, but was on meds and doing better. The night before he left Ashelynn had a fever in the night. While he was gone Bryson got very sick (probably that crazy flu). I couldn't call him or anything. I was dead tired, but we were ok. Bryant's mom helped us a lot by running to the store for us. Bryant found out how sick we were from his dad who was hunting with him so he cut his trip short and came home. I was so relieved! He tried to take care of everyone in the night when he came home so I could sleep. Caringtyn however, won't let him help her in the night! :( I don't know why! She loves him in the day, but wants only me at night! Oh well. So we were better for a week then Ash got sick a few days ago again and worse this time too! She is doing better now and can go back to school tomorrow. In between being sick I took the kids to the school Halloween carnival. Hopefully they stay wel enough to get dressed up for the really Halloween in a couple days! Bryson is a nija, Ashelynn a witch, and Caringtyn a BYU cheerleader.

Caringtyn is now 7 months old and here is a cute video of her in the bath! She is rolling a lot and will probably start to crawl in the next month. She loves to smile at everyone and pull my hair and anyone else's she can reach! Jazzie is very wary of her, but will lick her head anytime she is behind Caringtyn because then she can't pull out her fur!


Here are some more cute pics!