What do you do in the summer time.......

Man I sure stink at blogging these days!! I haven't completely given up YET!! I wrote this one sometime during the summer just never quite got around to publishing it!

Here is what we have been up to this summer!

The first week the kids were out of school we went to Grandma's house!! What a great way to spend the first week of summer break! We had a fun time catching up and meeting a brand new cousin Kraiden!

We came home and started some of our fun summer activities:

Kaitlyn finished summer musical theatre camp and had a blast! She did great and even had a small solo part. At the end of the week they put on the production for families very fun!

Jenna is finishing swimming lessons she informed me that she was really good at SINKING and needed some help! I am hoping this will do it!

Madelyn is loving gymnastics I think her favorite is forward rolls! I wish I could say it how she does, it is so darn cute!

We headed back home for a second family get together on the Yates side. We went to LAGOON, and spent the fourth of July holiday in Utah with family. We had a great time!

Back at home we are working on the never ending landscaping job we started at the beginning of the summer. We might have bit off a it more than we can chew with this one. We will see if we can finish it before the snow flies......

We just had some visitors from Kentucky the Harp family! So fun, I am so glad they stopped by on there way to visit family.

Other than that we are just trying to keep up with our life as we know it. It can be a bit overwhelming at times. It is certainly busy around here.

To name a few..... crash course in city politics as we try to take a stand against Medical Marijuana. We currently have over 90 businesses in Billings alone!! It is completely out of control.

Chaperoning white water rafting youth trips.

Gardening, or atleast trying my pepper plants are still only 6 inches high!

Had a Yard sale, Huge flop!!

Chasing 4 kiddo's........

Madelyn asked me the other day "How many I was" I told her 31! She paused a minute and then said, "I can't believe your that many and your STILL ALIVE!!"

Hilarious!!

Dallin is into everything! Somehow I always forget how busy they get, and the trouble they find. We are to the baracade stage. Only it doesn't keep him in! He can get the outlet covers out of the outlets, climbs stairs, and anything else he can!! I have decided the only real difference I have noticed between girls and boys is that he loves FOOD! He also throws everthing toys, balls, shoes, etc. We love him, and hope he gets some hair soon!

Random Photos

Jenna's Snow Woman! Started out as a group project and then she was left behind to finish. Did I mention it was only about 5 degrees out! brrrrrr

Madelyn in her own little world of dress-ups! She was playing school and she was the teacher. She has a fabulous imagination! I love these glasses they have no lenses in them. My kids LOVE them.

Kaitlyn for some reason you are never too old to eat snow!

I can only hope that they abide by the "don't eat yellow snow rule" !

It must be good! I love Madelyn's face! Yummy:)

Our handsome little man. Dallin 2 Months old getting ready for church.

Pam this one's for you!! GO CARDS!! I found this outfit before madelyn was born at a yard sale in Kentucky. Finally someone to wear it. Although he is so slippery in it you can hardly hang on to him, kind of like the football this year.........

1 Month picture

Dallin at 1 Month.

We sure love this little guy!

Dallin Joseph

Dallin Joseph born 11-10-09 at 7:01pm,

7lbs 10 oz and 20 1/2 inches long

A Proud DADDY!!

Baby Update

So you might have noticed I took my baby ticker off. I have a weird phobia! I will post pictures after we have had our not so little guy!

By these pictures of our ultrasound you can tell he is quite a chunk!! Weighing in at 5lbs 15 oz already!

I just love how full his cheeks are, and look at those sausage fingers! He would't put his hand down.

The things they say.....

So the other night the girls were all tucked into ONE room. (No one wants to share a room with a BOY!) The conversation went like this:

Kaitlyn: Holding your middle finger up is so bad! It is like the worst bad word ever.

Jenna: Is it worse than littering?  (WHAT?)

Kaitlyn : Yeah, way worse....

Long pause

Jenna: Is it worse than tattoos that are permanent? 

Kaitlyn: (getting slightly annoyed) YES Jenna

Pause again

Jenna: I bet it isn't worse than getting surgery on your neck!!  

Kaitlyn: (really annoyed this time!) Jenna I don't know.......

Apparently we take littering VERY serious around here, but not as serious as surgery on your neck!!! I couldn't stop laughing it was such a random conversation! I love my girls.

As were driving the other day we had just left one of the hospitals. We were trying to decide which hospital we are delivering our baby at. Madelyn asked if they had a toy room at the other hospital. I told her I didn't know if there was a toy room or not. Then she said " Well Toys just make me comfortable!" WOW that is a big word. It was so cute and so funny. 

Surprises

Surprise!! We are having a BABY! We waited until we knew what we were having to tell our families. (Thinking another girl was on the way, and we would draw out to the excitement that way!)

Surprise it's a BOY! 

We are still a little unsure how to coordinate the color BLUE with all the pink we have going on but I think we will manage. 

The girls have been cute no one wanted to share a room with a BOY! So we have piled them all into one room and they LOVE it! They are all very excited, and can't wait to put those little maternal instincts to work.(poor little guy doesn't stand a chance with all the little mommy's we have in this house.) Fortunately they will be back in school when he arrives. Whew! 

Family Reunion

We just got back from a camping trip to Palisades Reservoir with my family. It is on the border of Idaho and Wyoming and about an hour from Jackson hole!
It was so beautiful I am hoping to get some pictures soon. For some reason our camera is not wanting to share what it has inside!
It was a long drive (about 6 1/2 hours) but well worth it. We stayed 3 nights and about 2 1/2 days. the first Day it rained. No wait it POURED! Just as we thought the rain was done it poured some more and then began to HAIL!! Fortunate for us we purchased our tent in Kentucky where rain is normal. So I think our tent was the only one completely DRY!! My poor brother duck taped, tarp ed and duck taped some more, just in time for it to be dry the rest of the trip! While it was raining we decided to run up to Jackson Hole just to escape the rain for a while! (Not much to do in the rain with 26 people.)
Saturday was gorgeous! So much so, we all came home sun burnt, I think we were just trying to dry out. The reservoir was so high from all the rain there wasn't any beach at all to play on. We played on loose boat docks, caught minnows, and rode on Grandma's boat. Followed by more boat rides, playing with cousins and just hanging out.
The nights got pretty chilly in the 40's, (either that or I got spoiled in Kentucky) I spent my night covering kids and putting them back on air mattresses, along with listening to all the nocturnal THINGS bustling through our camp! The last night we were there our air mattress popped at 4:00am! Our Tent was on a very rocky surface mixed with 2 large bodies and the cheapest air mattress you can buy! (A Lethal Combination!) Joe leaned over after I just crawled in bed again after covering up kiddo's to say he "wouldn't make a very good pioneer." It was freezing out! Just as he rolled over the whole seam broke and we found ourselves on the ground, with the rocks, within seconds. It was hard not to laugh, but extremely hard to get comfy too!!
Sunday was pack up day and heading home. We decided to drive through Yellowstone since it was on the way. We didn't see a whole lot since it was the middle of the day. Most of the animals are out early in the morning or at dusk. We did see buffalo, trumpeter swans, deer, bald eagle's and pelican's! unfortunately we had to cruise on through so we could get home. As it was we got in about 9:30 pm. Just in time to throw our kiddos in the shower and take one ourselves. You can see where my priorities are, since my car is still unpacked and I am blogging! Thanks family for a great weekend and lots of fun memories!!

Whew, time to catch up!

Well I officially have a portion of my life back! ) I am 2 days in a row making dinner!! We enrolled both Kaitlyn and Jenna into soccer not knowing fully what that meant. We had soccer every single night of the week. We have froze to death watching "Spring soccer" and had many many tears shed over canceled games and practices. Now that soccer is over the weather is BEAUTIFUL! It has been fun to see the girls progress from knowing nothing, to being able to score goals during their games.
Madelyn turned 3. There is something magic about the number 3 as soon as they turn, they become little people with opinions!! She has loved the warmer weather, but is still a bit hesitant to leave the house without her "long sleeves" !
Sadly I am so behind in blogging, I am not really even sure where to start!!

April marked our 1st anniversary of owning our own practice. I must say it is nice to have a month of learning under our belt. Things have gone pretty well so far.

May my Mom cam eto visit for time out for women. It was here in Billings MT (who would have guessed!) It was a bit surreal for me. The only times I have gone have been in Kentucky with friends from there. So I found myself constantly looking around hoping to see Kentucky friends. It was a fun 2 days, and so nice to spend it with my Mom!

We finished several projects in the last month or 2 including; redecorating the office, finishing the kids playset, having a yard sale, removing trees, power raking our 3/4 acre yard (That was FuN!) and almost have a raised bed garden ready to plant. We have several more projects on our never ending to do list, I am sure we will get around to them sooner or later.

Over Memorial day weekend we decided to take the kids fishing. You have never been fishing until you take 3 sqealy girls that don't like bugs fishing!! It turned out to be a lot of fun! I am affraid no one around us could catch anything we were so loud. We mostly caught and let go but we kept 3 small little fish that swalowed the hook. Madelyn named one Nemo and was so confused as to why we would eat it!! Madelyn caught the first fish of the day, and Kailtyn caught the biggest fish!! Joe and I spent most of the day untangling fishing poles and dodging stray fish hooks flying through the air. By the end of the day they were doing pretty well.

Well it is time for dinner and our first night of beautiful weather and no soccer! We off to enjoy our evening!!

RODENTS....

Some of you may remember a post way back of a cute little field mouse on my back step. Well apparently that cute little field mouse called up his WHOLE family, and decided to be permanent residence of our yard this winter. (I know it could be worse, my garage or my house!)

We were playing in the yard when we found a few small piles of dirt. Upon further investigation there were tons of tunnels and grooves in the yard just under all the dead grass they were using to hide under. (At least 6ftx6ft square of our yard) We found 5 holes that led into the tunnels. At this point we were unsure what in the world had done this to our yard. But we had a brilliant idea to pull out the hose and give our neighbors something to talk about.(That would be US!) The whole family was out each watching a hole not knowing what might come out. First one little mouse. Then 8 more little furry friends made their way to the soggy surface. We caught each one in random snow/sand buckets and eventually had to pull out a tupperware container to hold them all! Each time was accompanied by several shrill screams followed by mass chaos while we tried to catch each one.WE couldn't kill them, the girls the whole time are yelling don't HURT them. So we were kind and took them into the middle of a field and let them go. I am going to be kicking myself if I find them in my yard again or in my garage! If this is the case we may be the proud new owners of a large snake, or maybe just a nice kitty that like to eat cute furry things.....

AMENDMENT TO BELOW

I swear a barely finished typing this before I completely jinxed myself!! Apparently we have taken a step or 2 backwards. Arghhh, It is hard for me not to make a big deal about it when you know they know!! 

Success!

So Madelyn and I are certainly NOT on the same time table. I have wanted for several months to be diaper free! In fact my big push was after Christmas thinking we could go to Disneyland, Potty trained. Obviously that didn't happen! 

So 4 days before we had to ride in the car for 8 hours to my youngest brothers wedding in Utah. Madelyn decides she wants to be BIG, and wear underwear! (GREAT TIMING) I thought about discouraging it, but then figured it wouldn't last, since we have been down this rode a time or two already this year. Well Guess what she is potty trained! 

I was totally shocked that she did it! In the 4 days before we left she had 1 accident. I did however convince her (not really sure how still) to wear pull ups in the car and at the wedding. 

It is so funny though she doesn't say I need to go potty she simply exclaims " I am PEEING"! Not exactly what you want to hear in the middle of the isle in TARGET! We'll be working on that.....

St. Patrick's day surprises

So I am not always on the ball when it comes to holidays. In fact I guess I kind of thought that St. Patrick's day was one we wore green and let go. Well a sneaky "last minute" Leprechaun  made it to our house. He left lucky charms, turned our milk green and left little tiny shamrocks that I will forever be cleaning up!! ( darn leprechaun) Madelyn was a bit disturbed that the milk was green and kept saying eww eww double eww!! I have no idea where she got this, but it is quite funny to hear her say it. Needless to say she was pretty glad when we finished the green milk and had white milk again!! For some reason I am not able to download my pictures. I will try adding them later.

It is great to be 8

Kaitlyn turned eight this weekend. We had such a fun weekend. She has been waiting and waiting to get her ears pierced the rule at the Yates house is when you turn 8. That was exciting for her. (I really didn't think she was going to go through with it, but she did great! Not a single tear.)

Grandma and Grandpa Turner came to visit for her baptism. She was baptised on her birthday which is funny because she has always talked about it being that way. The odds of it being able to happen though are few and far between. It just so happened that her birthday was on a Sunday this year. She asked a friend to sing a song with her "I come to the water" by Janice Kapp Perry. They did a beautiful job.

She is growing up so fast. I love her so much! It has been fun to watch her understanding, and testimony grow these past few weeks as she has prepared for her baptism.

I also had Joe's family send letters to her with there testimony's since they were unable to attend. What a special book that is turning out to be. She absolutely loves it.

Family Vacation

Joe has been wanting to go to the "Happiest Place on Earth" (AKA: Disneyland) for a long time. Some friends of ours gave us a heads up about airline tickets out of Billings to Las Vegas for $29.00 each way! We then rented a car in Vegas and drove the rest of the way. (about 4 hours)

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Every day we were there it rained. These were no little showers either. One might think this would ruin your trip..... Not us we sported our rain coats everywhere! The rain did make the lines very short. We literally walked onto any ride we wanted. The longest we waited was to see the princesses. (a MUST with 3 little girls) about 25 minutes. The water rides were great because we were already soaked.!The kids feet looked like little raisins at night when we went back to our hotel!! There was only one day that it was cool enough that we were a bit miserable. Nothing a little hot cocoa couldn't fix!

I think Joe and I are a little more use to rain than we are COLD!! We thought it was funny that every morning we would get up and look outside. The sun would be shining. We would go eat breakfast and just as we were ready to walk to Disney the showers began!

We were also there for my 30th birthday!(I am officially a BIG girl now.) I think I took on Sophie Shipp's attitude of "Disneyland is nothing." When all she wanted, was to swim in the hotel pool!! I remember long lines and TONS of people at Disneyland, and I wasn't crazy about the thought of going. But it turned out really great. Disneyland is running a promotion this year you can get in free on your birthday. We already had park hopper tickets so they gave us the equivalent of a ticket($69.00) to spend in the park!! The only catch was you couldn't spend it on food. We (I better say I) got suckered into listening to this time share sales pitch, for an additional $100.00 to spend at Disney. We stuck to our guns and declined the time share and left with $100.00 to spend. (Not sure I would recommend this to anyone.) It took a bit longer than they said but we did miss the big rain storm of the day. We actually made it back almost dry that night! We ended the day with Fantasmic and fire works.

We spent the majority of our time at Disneyland. We did make it to sea world one day. I think we all agree that was the grumpy day! The 3rd day Madelyn was exhausted! We actually left at noon and drove until she fell asleep. We ate lunch next to the ocean and let her get a little nap. Then we went back. Ahhhhh life was a lot better after her nap!! We fed and pet dolphins, caught a few of the shows, and touched some sting rays.

Our highlights

Kaitlyn and Jenna loved the Star wars ride! (the boy cousins introduced them this summer to star wars. They totally love it and so does their DAD. Finally something semi masculine they can do together!)

The highschool musical parade1 we had front row seats!

Madelyn loved Toy story, the shooting one!

Joe and I went on the tower of terror! A total bust in my book! I hate those rides that drop you over and over again!!

I Loved seeing the girls see the princesses, and the fairies. Tink was so cute she had a jacket on so she didn't catch the "fairly flu".

The girls getting there hair done. This is ALL Jenna wanted to do. We kept putting it off because of the rain. We finally gave in the last night. Once Jenna got hers done, ALL the girls wanted it done. The lady was so nice she stayed late to do it.

My new best friend....

I LOVE THIS STUFF!! When Joe bought the office the ladies that clean used pledge on everything. The vinyl chairs, sinks, counters everything!! It really is awesome, it polishes sinks great and keeps water spots off. It also protects vinyl and counter tops from scratches etc. My TRUE love came when we bought our house. We have clear glass shower doors in the master bathroom. ( NOT my Favorite!) It WAS beautiful when we moved in. I have no idea what the lady cleaned with. After a week my shower looked awful. I was so sad. I have tried everything rain-X, Vinegar, tilex, the list goes on. I have even resealed the tile! We try to squeegee the water off each time but it still just looked bad. Well a week ago I scrubbed the daylights out of my shower. I used a magic eraser on the glass doors to remove the water spots and then I used pledge. I sprayed it on and wiped it off. Every time I shower I squeegee the water off and spray a thin layer of pledge,most of the time I don't even wipe it off! Behold NATURAL BEAUTY!! I love it.

What's Your Favorite Cleaning Product???

December Already???

I have really been bad at keeping up with this lately. With all the Christmas commotion I just haven't found the time to add to this. Here is a quick run down of what we have been up to.

I guess I will start with Thanksgiving: During the Thanksgiving break we tackled yet another painting project. We decided since Joe's office would be closed for a few days we would paint 4 rooms. However it turned out to be a little bigger project than we had anticipated. We ate drank and slept paint for 5 days straight. We peeled wallpaper and washed walls and then painted our little hearts out. The kids were so good they made tents played games watched movies with popcorn and just hung out in the lobby while we painted. All in all I think we may have chosen a color that is a little too dark. We will see after Christmas. They are putting in some different flooring. I am hoping that will lighten it up a bit. ( I don't have a before picture but think floor to ceiling 80's wall paper and you will have a good idea of what it was before.)

We shared Thanksgiving dinner with a family from our Church. We had all the usual yummy holiday food. Complete with the fabulous turkey that Joe cooks every year. And we had a large variety of yummy pies. And to think I wonder where those extra pounds I am adding to myself come from during this time of year! We have a lot to be thankful for this year. It was nice to spend a day and reflect on the many blessing we have received this year.

We put together a work Christmas dinner. Which turned out well. We served a nice dinner for Joe's employee's. I bit off a bit more than I could chew with sick kids, and lots of holiday things to attend. I was so grateful to have my friend Lori help me out. She made the rolls and some fabulous Christmas cookies for me as well as letting me borrow all of her bowls and platters etc. She also had the cutest idea for a hot cocoa bar for dessert. It turned out really fun with ALL of the fun things you can add to hot cocoa. We found a very tasty homemade cocoa recipe online that was so yummy!

I have to say I think my blood got nice and thin in Kentucky. It has been in the negative numbers for over a week and is going to continue. Brrrrrr, I thought for sure at -20 the kids would not have school. ( Not the case! We got spoiled in Kentucky. At the thought of snow they would cancel. Needless to say the girls were quite disappointed they had to go. I felt bad about sending them on the cold bus, so I took them to school. I don't think I will make that mistake again. It is darn cold out!! Plus they huddle on the bus right???? Due to this awesome weather we now have a permanent pet rabbit in the HOUSE! We felt so sorry for her outside plus we couldn't keep her water from freezing! She thinks she has won the lottery and the kids actually do interact with her a lot more.

I had a bit of a run in with the garage door! It hasn't been working properly and we had already had one ordered. ( apparently a week too late!) It didn't go up all the way but it did go above the back window. I no longer have this piece on the back of my van! Maybe SANTA can bring me this for Christmas!

So in review of what I have written it doesn't sound like I have been all that busy. But somehow my time gets whittled away. We are officially done Christmas shopping. ( It is a good thing too, since Christmas is only 4 days away!) We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of SANTA. The girls ask daily (almost hourly) if they can open just ONE present. We are also excited to go home and visit family. Hopefully the weather will cooperate enough that we can do that.

Well with my recent "Lack of Blogging" I highly doubt there will be another update before Christmas!
I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Random Mommy Moments

In lou of the up coming election Kaitlyn has been hearing the voting chatter from school and such. She came home and said " Mom if Obama wins he is going to MAKE us go to school at night AND on Saturdays!"
I haven't heard that one yet!

Today I was at shop-ko and I lost Madelyn, or at least I thought I had. My cart was piled high with paper towel diapers and T.P. And I had my phone glued to my ear. I was frantically calling her name and searching clothing racks, looking everywhere EXCEPT for the front of the cart where she was hanging on obediently wondering what the fuss was all about.

Jenna has been extremely caught up in a small discovery she found today. "MOM I have a space between my teeth!" Mom:" We all have space between are teeth. Jenna:" But I have NEVER had space between my teeth before......"

I sure love these little munchkins!!

I had just finished telling my Visiting teachers how good Madelyn was. That she doesn't really destroy things like my others did. I came down stairs to see SOFA ART!! Yup with a pen! I think while the words were coming from my mouth she was happily scribbling all over my couch!! ( Thankfully it is brown and most of it has come out.....or at least it blends in with the dirty spots!)

Madelyn's new haircut

Madelyn got her first official haircut last week. I think it turned out cute and the "Say Cheese" face is an added bonus!

Fit for a Queen

So with all of that snow we got, Joe and the girls were busy. Or should I say mostly Joe and the girls were busy playing. They spent several hours working on it. What a great Daddy! He even has to make girlie snow forts! Poor guy!

I must also add that this was my kind of snow storm. I was so bummed that it snowed that much so early in the year. It was perfect though. It snowed over the weekend, we played in it, and by Thursday the next week it was gone! Apparently that much snow is not a common occurrence here in Billings. So Jamie S. you could totally live here!!