Family History Scrapbooks

We are having our family reunion (my bro.'s & sis's & parents) this weekend and I have been working on these Family History Scrapbooks the past few days. They are brown paper sack scrapbooks and they are SO easy. I printed the kids pictures in Sepia and put their picture and their first initial on the front cover. I have done 25 and they are all different and all turned out so stinking cute.
(This is Laiklie's - it is hard to see!)


For the inside each page has a picture of grandparents or great-grandparents - that I also printed in Sepia and then a sticky label that has their full name, birthdate, occupation or how many children they raised and just one thing that they loved. (I took pictures but decided not to post them because of full names and birthdates - that scares me on the internet.) Anyway - I finished Laiklie's completely so that my sisters and sisters-in-law can have it as an example to finish their childrens. It should make for a
fun family reunion activity.:)
Thanks Hollie for the idea!

Proud to be an American Photo Shoot

My sweet cousin Nanette sent my kids all "4th of July" t-shirts (which they LOVE - thank you Nanette) so I decided to FINALLY update their pictures on the side bar on my blog. I took them out this evening for the "Family Photo Shoot." These are a few we took just for fun. I sure love my sweet kids and love capturing everything I possible can...I am not good at it...but I still love it.
This was the "hay bale playing" afterwards. I loved that Oakley thought she could help Laiklie jump to the big bale. I am glad she figured out that she couldn't before we had an accident though. And I am sure you all noticed Laiklie's pull-up. I was lucky to get her out of her swimsuit to get the shirt on - she wasn't about to put on pants and I wasn't going to push my luck. What a funny stubborn little thing she is.

This is seriously how life is here. Where ever Dallin goes Rhett is right on his heels. He can't get enough of his big bro.

My Girls

My Boys

You will have to check out their individual pictures on the side bar.:)

Our First Tomato Picking

So we had our first tomato picking...well...I guess I shouldn't say "our" tomato picking, because it was actually Laiklie's first tomato picking. You can see for yourself, but I am just not sure that the tomatoes were quite ready to be picked.:) My other problem is going to be trying to keep her out of the tomatoes now that she has found them.

And this was my weekend...

It involved:

babysitting

sleepovers

priming and 3 coats of paint

a parade that is so short that they come around twice

a scout breakfast

yard sales

a trip to and from Utah

a wedding reception

The Proposal (Movie - very highly recommended)

and

Fathers Day!!

Since I don't like to post without pictures here are a few of the parade that comes around twice.:)

Because it is the Dubois parade it also has a few VERY BIG GAPS between floats...if you can even call them floats.

Ali, Oakley and Paige (Ali and Paige are Arnica's girls!)

The New Room

So this is what we have been working on the past 2 days...and as you can see from "no curtains" that we are still not quite finished. We are close enough to being finished though that we thought we could reveal the "New Bedroom!"We only painted the Hot Pink. The baby pink walls were already that color. We left two walls baby pink and did two hot pink and took down every "Princess" item that we had hanging.

I know you are all asking yourself if we LOVE the Cheetah Girls because of the poster...we do not LOVE the Cheetah Girls - but Oakley does like them and since we got the Cheetah Girl bedding extremely cheap (comforter $12, Sheets $5) we decided to get the poster to match.

And this is my very favorite part of the new bedroom - I love where the two walls meet because of the two colors, and I also love the vinyl flowers that have jewel centers, but how can you NOT love that picture of my sweet girl. It is actually old and we need to update it, but it looks so stinking cute with her new wall color and flowers.:)
Oh - and to answer a few more questions I am sure you are all asking...the lines in the wall are because her room was that nice wood panelling. We are glad to be rid of that!! And the wood bed is a gift that I recieved from a boy at college for my 19th birthday - no we did not pay hundreds of dollars for it! And yes, the boy was extremely old (40's) so the bed was as far as that went.:) Thank goodness!

Mother Daughter Date

Today was our Achievement Day Girls Mother Daughter Date. I am one of the leaders, so yesterday was a crazy day getting ready for it and an early morning this morning too. As I got out of the shower I decided I better go see where Oakley was. I knew she was the only other one awake, but couldn't hear her. I found her hunched over the kitchen garbage can throwing-up!! So - off to the Mother Daughter Date without her. I left her at home in tears throwing-up and I was almost in tears going alone. Because I am one of the leaders though I got to bring everything home that we did with the other girls so we could have our own date here.

We had each girl give their mom a pedicure and then the moms give their daughters one. This is Oakley mid-pedicure. You can tell from the wet towel that after her feet got soaked and scrubbed that all 3 other children had to also soak and scrub their feet. Oakley felt SO MUCH better though and loved giving pedicures to all her siblings.

This is the final results! So cute and so much fun!

These are my girls. We took a picture of just Oakley and Me and then sweet Laiklie wanted in too and since she was already outfitted in her swimsuit and her sunglasses :) we took another one. They are both so cute and just so much fun. I can't imagine life without them!! I am looking forward to more Mother Daughter Dates with Oakley and eventually Laiklie!

P.S. I HAVE ALL SORTS OF BLOG ISSUES WITH THESE VERTICAL PICTURES UPLOADING SIDEWAYS!! AH!! IT IS THE ONE THING ABOUT BLOGGING THAT I CAN'T STAND! I KNOW YOU ARE ALL PROFESSIONALS AT HEAD TILTING BY NOW JUST SO YOU CAN SEE MY PICTURES. SORRY!!

Da Cavin

One night this week we decided - last minute - to take the kids to spend the night at da cavin (as three of my four children call the cabin). We always decide this spur-of-the-moment, so of course I forgot my camera. All the pictures are from Ry's phone and...well...you can tell they are phone pictures. Oh well, atleast we got some.

This is our hotdog roast. It isn't a "real" trip to the cabin unless there is a hotdog roast involved. You can tell from the picture that Dallin already has a mouthful of his hotdog. He has been eating us out of house and home.

This is the loft in the cabin. The kids love to play up there. This trip we had a little sadness though. I had climbed up there to vacuum and left Ryan to babysit the kids and mid-vacuuming I looked out and there was Laiklie at the top of the ladder. I yelled to Ry - who was trying to find "the ball game" on the radio and then I jerked the door open thinking that since she was already at the top I would just grab her. When I opened the door the vacuum cord got caught on it and pulled the cord tight between her hand and the ladder causing her to lose her balance and fall the entire way down. The only damage was a bite on the side of her tongue, but I felt TERRIBLE!!

This was our evening walk. We took the kids to show them the old outhouse - that is now tipped over. Fun I know...I am sure you are all sad you missed it and we didn't even take a picture to show you.:) We did however take one of the lake. Ryan told me to squat down in the picture because it would look better - I personally think it makes me look like I need to use that outhouse. I guess I won't take his advice again.

This is the lake that our kids LOVE to fish on. Their grandma also bought a peddle boat last year that we can all fit in and they can't get enough of it either. We opted to not fish or boat this trip. It was TOO COLD AND RAINY! We had a great time and hope to spend a few more nights at the cabin this summer.:)

DreamNight at the Zoo

We were a few of the lucky ones that got invited to DreamNight at the Zoo! It is a night filled with fun for children with disabilities, handicaps or special diseases. We were invited because of Oakley's Type 1 diabetes. It is a free event for the immediate family to attend. You go in for free and then they do a free family photo and free Farr's ice cream and free cute water bottles full of yummy pink lemonade and a free stuffed animal for each child on the way out of the zoo. They have random music stands around the zoo and animals to touch and animal skins to pet. The kids loved it. I had a hard time not crying sometimes seeing all these precious children with everything from diabetes like Oakley to MS, autism, down syndrome, etc. It was a touching night watching their excitement and smiles.

The night started off really well. It was a little chilly so I had them all wear pants. (Of course I am the dumby that stayed in my shorts.) After we had been there about 45 minutes it started to sprinkle and then the sprinkle turned into a full fledged hard rain.

We didn't get to leave the zoo until it was pouring on us - mostly because WE HAD TO SEE THE DUCKS! Rhett was insistent!! Of course on the way out we had to stop and pick-up our family photo they had taken and we were there at the same time all the other families were trying to pick-up theirs. I left my kids out in the pouring rain - because the building was PACKED and ran in to get our picture. Luckily ours was one that was already printed. By the time we ran to the car it was hailing HARD! I got the kids into the car making it so they missed the worst of the storm...but you know how it goes when you are the mom and have to load the car with all the stuff from the zoo, fold up the stroller and stand in the hail buckling in the 2 year old. I was DRENCHED by the time I got in. My hair was caked with hail. It was awful. We then came home to a power outage at home. We were freezing because of being wet and the house was dark and cold. We came in and snuggled into our warm pj's.
So...was it a dreamnight at the zoo?? It was definitely the kind of night that memories are made from!!

One Happy Little Man

At 7:30 am (way before I was ready to wake-up) Dallin came flying up the stairs yelling "Mom, there is a baby frog in Oakley's window well - CAN I KEEP HIM!!! I thought - ya right there is a baby frog in the window well. I mean - we don't live anywhere close to where we ever see frogs even. Sure enough - there was a baby frog. Dallin called his dad on the phone.

Dallin: Are you coming home soon?

Ryan: Why?

D: There is a baby frog in Oakley's window - CAN I KEEP HIM?

R: I'll be home in a minute.

Then about 5 minutes later Dallin comes up from the basement just bawling. The frog had hopped down off the window screen and was gone. Luckily Ryan showed up at the same time, climbed into the window well and saved the day!! Now - after a quick trip to walmart for supplies...WE HAVE ONE HAPPY LITTLE MAN!

His frog is that little tiny dot you can see on the rock.:)