The Staker Family

Weeks 16 & 17

2011-10-26T08:00:00.004-06:00

This was a really busy 2 weeks! I am not sure when my life isn't really busy though!
Saturday April 16: Brayden out by Grandpa Lee's chickens. He is so funny, whenever he goes out in their back yard he heads straight for the chickens making a "ba ba ba" noice, but it's not a bleating, I think it's his attempt at bak-ing like a chicken.
Sunday April 17: Lilly's 3rd birthday! She is getting so big, it's kind of unreal that she is already 3!

Monday April 18: For FHE we did this activity where you do an egg hunt and then the eggs tell the story of Easter.

Tuesday April 19: I helped in Natalie's preschool class. She asks almost everytime she goes to preschool if it's my day to help so she was VERY excited that it finally was!

Wednesday April 20: Hailey organized her clothes, she does this every little while, ever since she was little she loved to catagorize things and make piles and organize things. It's a mom's dream!

Thursday April 21: My new calling is Activity Day Leader for the 10-11 year olds. This was my first activity, it was so much fun, I think I am really going to love this calling!

Friday April 22: At dress rehearsal for our stake roadshow. My job is to watch the little sheep, I thought it was hilarious that these 4 little ones were "playing cards"!

Saturday April 23: Allan coaching Ally's soccer team the "Pink Butterflies"

Sunday April 24: Easter Sunday, The Easter Bunny brought the girls these animal dress-ups!

Monday April 25: Brayden and Lilly had their check-ups. Brayden's 15 month and Lilly's 3 year.

Tuesday April 26: Allan and Kristy's 10 year Anniversary...why isn't this a picture of Allan and Kristy you ask? Well, because this is about how this day went: Kristy: runs, then gets the kids ready for school. Allan: gets ready and leaves for work. Kristy: usual day time stuff then runs kids around to activities ending with "shepherding" for the road show. Allan: finishes work, comes home, has soccer practice with Ally, comes and watches the road show. Kristy and Allan: finally together, go home and put the kids to bed and go to sleep. Depressing you say? NOT AT ALL...because...in 3 DAYS we leave on a 10 DAY vacation with no kids!

Wednesday April 27: I threw a surprise party for Arin because her birthday is while Zoe and I would be on our cruise. It was fun to have a get together with the families and Arin was totally surprised especially since her birthday wasn't for another week.

Thursday April 28: What's the worst thing that could possibly happen the day before you leave for a 10 day vacation? Okay in all honesty, probably not this, but it was pretty bad. As I was doing the usual hussle of getting the kids ready and onto the bus Hailey yelled to me that there was water in the hall. And not just a little bit, inches of water coming out of the bathroom! We had a huge flood, and had to call in a restoration company who had to pull up carpet in 3 rooms and my closet, take off floor boards, and use giant LOUD fans to dry everything out. I couldn't just leave the loud fans and go somewhere else though, I had to get packed to leave and make sure my house was ready for my parents and Allan's parents to come watch the kids while we were gone! It was a mess to say the least, but we got everything done that "needed" to be done! This picture is of some of the fans and heaters that were going.

Friday April 29: Leaving for our cruise! As you can see on top of the wonderful flood it snowed
that night. Notice the large pile of towels that had been used the day before to dry up all the water and were all spread out on the grass drying before it started to snow. Luckily we left this all behind us and started a WONDERFUL trip!

Week 15

2011-09-26T11:22:00.004-06:00

Saturday April 9-We went out for a treat and were surprised to find out Sundae's had FREE Ice Cream!
Sunday April 10-Lilly fell asleep while playing on her magnadoodle. She is such a stinker, she never wants to go to bed and always crashes somewhere. I should really be a better mom and make her go to bed anyway.

Monday April 11-Brayden loves to be outside and he has no fear about staying close, he just wants to venture out and explore!

Tuesday April 12- We had a watermelon in our Bountiful Basket this week, Brayden LOVED it!

Wednesday April 13- Typical dinner time at our house!

Thursday April 14-Lilly had an accident and I put her in the bath, then Brayden was into some kind of mess and I forgot about her while I was cleaning it up. When I went back the tub was so full it was about to overflow, she didn't seem to mind though!

Friday April 15-Our good friend Sydney Pettingill got baptized today!

Week 14

2011-08-08T06:56:00.006-06:00

Saturday April 2nd-Natalie is such a silly girl, I swear she is up-side-down more than she is right-side-up these days! I remember being the same way as a kid.
Sunday April 3-When I went and got Brayden out of bed this morning he crawled right over to cuddle with Allan who was still asleep.

Monday April 4-I started potty training Lilly today, she did pretty well!

Tuesday April 5-Yesterday they started sheetrocking the basement. They did the celings yesterday and most of the walls today! It's so exciting to see it coming together!

Wednesday April 6-I took Lilly and Hailey to Artic Circle on a special date. I had lots of cute pictures of them playing together, but I was really amazed at this little rock climber!

Thursday April 7-Our first winter here Allan told me "the snow will be off the ground by my birthday (late march) for sure" that was a horrible winter and it wasn't even close! Most of the years it hasn't been off by his birthday. This year the snow was gone so early it was very nice, BUT that just means everytime we get a little snow I am disappointed because I thought winter had left us already! Wake up Kristy, you live in IDAHO!

Friday April 8-Date Night...I'm a little embarassed to admit this, but our plans were to go to the temple this night. We were all dressed and Allan said to check my reccommend. I was SURE that was silly because it couldn't be expired, but sure enough it had expired in March! doh! Well, our good friend Trudy had come to babysit so we took advantage and went to a different dinner and a movie instead.

Week 13

2011-08-04T11:10:00.007-06:00

Saturday Mar 26- Allan's 32 birthday! We went out on a date to Cafe Rio, Cupcake Factory, and a movie, but I forgot my camera. I remembered I hadn't taken a picture while we were watching TV at like 10:30 and this was the picture.
Sunday March 27-Allan's sister's birthday is the day after his. She turned 40 this year! She etched Allan's name into her cake so he could be part of the celebration.

Monday March 28-Our new shelves in the storage room. They have been finished for a little bit, but today I started moving EVERYTHING into the room so we could start drywall/tape/texture!

Tuesday March 29-Ally's spring portrait, I am too cheap to actually buy these things so I took a picture of her picture and sent it back. I think it's dumb that they print a whole package and send it home with everyone and then tell you to pay for it or send it back, what a HUGE waste of paper, ink, etc. No wonder they charge so much for you to keep it, they have to make up for all the money they wasted!

Wednesday March 30-All winter long a group of us have been going to the church in the morning to exersize. Most days the bigger kids pull Brayden around in this blocks wagon, double bonus because he loves it and it keeps him out of my hair while I work out!

Thursday March 31-I worked at the kids book fair today. I always spend WAY too much at this book fair, but EVERYTHING is 1/2 off and I am a sucker for good books!

Friday April 1-The big kids went to Grandma's for a sleepover with some cousins so we got to hang out with Brayden and Lilly. If I could freeze my kids at this age I would love it!

Week 12

2011-08-03T09:42:00.003-06:00

Saturday March 19-Hailey's first volleyball tournament. Hailey's grandma had to take her because there was something else going on too. Poor girl threw-up before the first game started and sat that game out, then she played the rest of the games without sitting out at all!
Sunday March 20-Hailey invited her non-member friend Vianka to church.

Monday March 21-I made up a game of Jeopardy for FHE. The kids had lots of fun playing.

Tuesday March 22-I let the girls play "popcorn" during scripture reading tonight, it was great because they did a great job of following along.

Wednesday March 23-It was such a beautiful day today! All of the neighborhood kids were outside playing. They all got their chairs and lined them up like the moms always do.

Thursday March 24-Brayden is such a picky eater! It's not even that he doesn't like a lot of foods, he just gets in these moods where he doesn't want to eat something. Today it was eggs, if I managed to get some into his mouth he would take them out with his hand and throw them across the kitchen. Yesterday or tomorrow we could have had eggs and he would eat them fine. Pretty sure I am being punished for giving any of my sister-in-laws bad times about their picky eaters!

Friday March 25-Our ward Chili Cookoff. This year I took a chicken tortilla chili and my chili won "best looking." Last year I took my traditional chili and won "best overall" so my nephews were not impressed that I didn't defend my title! haha

Week 11~ March 12-18!

2011-08-02T08:21:00.004-06:00

Have I gotten behind on blogging, YES! Have I still been taking a picture a day, YES! I figured out that if I post a week each day I will be caught up in 3 WEEKS! Wow, how has this year gone by so quickly!?!?!
Saturday March 12-Brayden has started to become a little monkey, he loves to climb up on the table and run back and forth to the edges and scare me to death!
Sunday March 13-I started a food blog of recipes to use with Bountiful Basket items.

Monday March 14-Kindergarten Round-up! We registered Natalie for Kindergarten and she got to take a little "test" to see how ready she is. (she got them all!)

Tuesday March 15- Natalie helping snap green beans for dinner.

Wednesday March 16- In preparation for St. Patrick's day we painted our nails GREEN!

Thursday March 17- Green pancakes for St. Patrick's Day!

Friday March 18- 1st grade pet day! Ally had her Papa Lee bring a chicken to show the class.

Happy Fathers Day!

2011-06-20T08:11:00.005-06:00

I have TONS to blog about, but it will all have to wait! I wanted to take a minute to recognize the two most important men in my life.

This is a picture of my dad and I going to my first child's blessing. Part of the significance of this picture is that my dad had melanoma when I was something like 2 years old. He was not supposed to survive, but thanks to the Lord and a wonderful priesthood blessing that said he would live to see me grow up and get married, I have had a lifetime full of memories with my dad. I am an only child so in my opinion I may be closer to my parents than most kids. My dad has always been there for me. He was the one who combed my hair patiently when I was small, we used to go on mountain bike rides together when I was in junior high, he would take me to work with him and teach me how to do useful things like remodeling and electrical work, he followed me around when I was doing stuff I wasn't supposed to be doing as a teenager. He has supported me in every endevor I have taken on as an adult, college, marriage and parenthood to name a few. I love my dad so much and I can't imagine what my life would have been like without him. I am so thankful to a loving Heavenly Father who gave me a life with an earthly father.

This is my wonderful husband with our children yesterday. Allan is an amazing husband, he works so hard to support our family and me in everything I do, which is a lot! He is patient with me and doesn't get *too* mad when I volunteer for yet another thing, and he just goes with it if the laundry isn't done or the house is messy or dinner isn't made because I have had a crazy day. He helps me cart kids to and from their many activities and is ALWAYS willing to watch them (and sometimes my friend's kids) so I can have a night out! He loves his kids and is an incredible father. He coaches their teams, even when he has to wear a PINK jersey. He takes care of our yard and our garden. He reminds me to have fun and play! He makes me feel beautiful, even when I haven't showered and I smell like baby spitup (or something worse). He is always willing to help a friend, neighbor, or family member. He is adventurous and loves the outdoors just like me. He takes me to midnight premires of movies he doesn't really want to go see because he knows I really want to go. If I ask him to do something he almost always does it which is saying a lot. I love Allan and am so grateful that he is my husband, best friend, and partner in everything.

SIMPLIFY.......Yeah Right!?!?!

2011-05-09T12:21:00.008-06:00

Okay, really, I am not being blasphemous! Here's some of the stuff I have been up to, and maybe why I haven't posted my pictures of the day for months! I am still taking them, hopefully someday soon they will get published!

Finishing the basement

Soccer

Potty Training

Helping out in classes

Dealing with a very messy, very busy boy

Helping with homework

Hanging out with good friends

Volleyball

Volunteering at the preschool

Shepherding

Did I mention our bathroom flooded the day before we left for our cruise

and yes VACATIONING too! Now I am home for 5 days before leaving for another 9! Also trying to keep a livable (notice I didn't say clean) house, feed us all, keep up with 2 blogs (or not), plan a first grade field day and AR movie party, run a Bountiful Basket site, learn what I am doing with a new calling, I am pretty sure I could keep going but I want to stop thinking about everything that NEEDS to be done! Anyway, just thought I would let you all know I am still alive.

Dinner in a Basket

2011-03-15T12:56:00.003-06:00

Many of you know I run a Bountiful Baskets pick up site. One of my favorite things about doing Bountiful Baskets is trying lots of new and different foods. Maybe some of you are like me, when I would go to the grocery store I would pick up the same fresh fruits and veggies, and hardly try anything new. I know this isn't for everyone, but I LOVE having my produce picked out for me and then going home to find new recipes to make from the stuff I get. I have decided to start a blog of recipes to use the Bountiful Basket fruits and veggies. If you want to check it out the address is:

http://basketrecipes4u.blogspot.com

Weeks 8, 9, &10

2011-03-13T20:51:00.012-06:00

Saturday February 19-Jean has been making blankets for some of the grandkids. Allyson loves to snuggle up to her and watch. Jean is such a great, patient grandma, she even let's Ally try some stitches.
Sunday February 20-On the way out to Jean's house for Sunday Dinner we were listening to church songs instead of Natalie's princess CD. She wasn't too happy about it!

Monday February 21-Brayden loves to chew on his blanket when he goes to sleep. I think this is such a funny thing to do. If he could I think he would shove the whole thing in his little mouth!

Tuesday February 22-Guilty Lilly! She colored her whole hand red with markers, I am actually pretty impressed by how well she covered everywhere, inbetween her fingers, her nails, everywhere!

Wednesday February 23-My 30th Birthday. We went out to Applebee's for kid's night, and the girls got their face's painted.

Thursday February 24- Allyson got glasses. About a month ago at her well visit we discovered she couldn't read the letters on the chart. She is very excited to have them.

Friday February 25-This is what 6 adults and 13 kids will do to a Cookie Monster at Pizza Pie Cafe! (Photo Credit-Jaren Layton)

Saturday February 26-We had a birthday party for me! I wanted to have a few friends over and play games and have dinner and dessert for my party, so that's just what we did.

Sunday February 27-Our nephew Jared got ordained a deacon today, so most of Allan's siblings and their families were out at Lee and Jean's house. The girls spent most of the time in the bathroom doing eachother's hair. This was Hailey's do.

Monday February 28-Allan's mom Jean retired and this was at her retirement party.

Tuesday March 1-We finally moved Brayden into a forward facing car seat. He seems to like it.

Wednesday March 2-Allyson up late doing her homework! We found out Uncle Bruce would be coming to help us start working on our basement so as soon as the kids got home from school I made them start cleaning up the basement so we could get to work and it was bedtime when I remembered we still hadn't done her homework.

Thursday March 3-After prayers the kids all decided to tackle Allan!

Friday March 4-Hailey helping to make ravioli for dinner. Lately she has enjoyed looking through cookbooks and deciding what we should have for dinner.

Saturday March 5-The first wall going up in our basement! YEA!

Sunday March 6-It snowed and was perfect snowman snow so we made a snowman family! The best thing about snow in March is that by the time church got out the snow (and snowmen) had practically all melted!

Monday March 7--Natalie was getting into bed and fixing all her little stuffed animals. She said the adult ones were on the left (of the picture) and the baby ones were on the left. She then changed the frog for a brown monkey and told me that the brown bear is in love with the pink monkey and the pink bear is in love with the brown monkey, but they can't get married because it would be silly for a monkey to marry a bear. Silly girl!

Tuesday March 8- Hailey practicing volleyball. She is by far the youngest and smallest girl on her team, but she trys really hard. Her first tournament is on March 19 and we are very excited!

Wednesday March 9- Lilly got into the stickers and decorated herself.Thursday March 10- This was right after Brayden woke up. He was too lazy to hold his bottle so he slouched down and rested it on the table while he drank.

Friday March 11- Hailey nominated her teacher to win the Stone's Kia Teachers and Treats program and her essay was chosen, winning her teacher $250 and their class a pizza party!

30

2011-02-23T10:41:00.004-07:00

I don't really love this picture, one of the kids took it when we were bowling a couple of weeks ago, at least Brayden looks cute! So last year I posted that my goal was to lose 40 lbs and get to 130 before my birthday. I made it to 136 losing 34 pounds. I think that's pretty good, and I think I would have made it if I hadn't had surgery last Monday, well, at least it would have been close! This is as light as I have been since I graduated from high school and stopped dancing every day (can you say "freshman 15" more like 20 really) I did get this low one other time between Natalie and Lilly maybe even down a couple pounds from where I am now. I still have this goal in mind and once I can start working out again I hope to lose those last 6 pounds. BY THE WAY, has anyone else noticed that it's really hard to lose the last 10 pounds? Forget The Biggest Loser, I think they should have a show about that where you get to go on and lose those stubborn pounds and then get a makeover or something! haha! Anyway, here is my picture from last year:

This year I have a goal that is more spiritual in nature. I want to have personal scripture study everyday. This was on my list of New Years Resolutions too, and it hasn't happened regularly yet. I don't know why that is so hard for me, we have been really good for a long time at reading as a family, I just have to make it a priority! I think it was last year for awhile, Allan and I wouldn't get on the computer until our personal scripture study was done, I guess I should go back to that!

ONE-derful!

2011-02-22T11:34:00.006-07:00

For Brayden's birthday I made him 2 ball cakes, one for all of us to eat, and one for the birthday boy!
Brayden loves sports, I know that seems silly to say at 1, but it is true! He went to all of the BYU football games with us and he would just sit on my lap and watch the game. He loves to watch sports on TV too. I think it's a genetic trait for Staker boys or something? So, ball cakes seemed a perfect fit for this little sports fan!

Blowing out his candle, he of course wanted to grab the fire.

Getting started.

Yea for cake!

This is awesome!

All done, time to throw it on the floor.

One happy ONE year old!

After cake, Brayden had a bath and then he got this rocking horse for his birthday present. He wasn't really too sure about it at first, but he loves it now!

Brayden is such a happy baby! I often say he is my reward for Lilly! hehe. Seriously though, unless he is tired or hungry or has a stinky diaper he never cries. He walks around our house exploring or playing with his sisters and I hardly even know he is here. Brayden was our earliest walker, walking 2 days before he turned 10 months old. He loves to climb on things. He loves cuddles but just quick ones. He often will walk up to someone get a little hug and then walk away going on about his business. He doesn't like being kept in one place and wants to be free to do whatever he wants. He hates it when doors are shut and will knock on any shut door until someone comes to open it. He has been able to climb stairs since he was about 6 months old, and is just now starting to figure out how to go down (doesn't quite have it yet.) The funny thing is he can get off of really high things like our bed, couches, chairs and things like that by sliding off feet first, but he won't go down the stairs the same way. He is such a smiley baby and is always quick to laugh. Since he was first laughing he has done that catching his breath inhale laugh, it cracks me up! Brayden never took a binky like his sisters. To go to sleep he shoves his blanket in his mouth and chews on it. I love having a boy for so many reasons I didn't even realize when we had all girls and I can't wait to keep learing about this little boy!

Week 7

2011-02-21T09:43:00.002-07:00

Saturday February 12-We went down to Utah with Allan's parents and sister to attend Allan's cousin's baby shower and the BYU vs. Utah basketball game. It was such a fun day, we pawned off our girls with friends and took only Brayden down with us. (THANK YOU Sarah, Kristena, Susan, and Zoe!) During the game Brayden stayed with Jenilee at Allan's Aunt Susan's house. They all raved about how cute and good he was. BYU won and it was an awesome day!
Sunday February 13-This is Brayden's new church outfit I got on clearance. I thought he looked so cute in it, although he wasn't thrilled about me putting him down and trying to take his picture! 1pm church has been so hard on him, this was right after church so he was ready for a nap!

Monday February 14-Happy Valentines Day! I had surgery to have my gallbladder removed. I was kind of sad I had to miss the kids Valentines Day parties at school, but they all had a good time. Luckily I have had lots of help from family and friends and a pretty easy recovery.

Tuesday February 15-Allan's parents took the girls to go and watch Austin play basketball. They had lots of fun chanting "Austin" and cheering on their cousin. Lee and Jean have been so much help after my surgery, Jean took Wednesday off work and cleaned my cupboard faces and windows and helped me finish this weeks laundry.

Wednesday February 16-This little horse was Brayden's birthday present, but Lilly loves to drag it out and ride it. She yells, "Weeha, ride 'em cowboy" and makes horse noises while she rocks. It's very cute!

Thursday February 17- Allan caught an elbow to his glasses while playing church basketball this week. It has turned into a huge black eye. Poor guy!

Friday February 18-My parents came up from Thursday-Saturday to visit and help out after my surgery. The kids love having Grandma and Papa here to visit. They always bring fun presents and spoil us all by taking us out to dinner. It was so much fun to have them visit because they haven't been able to come as much since my Grandpa died and they moved in to take care of my Grandma.

Fantastic 5!

2011-02-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

Our little Princess Natalie turned 5. She of course wanted a princess party. These were her invitations:

She wanted cupcakes with yellow frosting, which really surprised me because she is OBSESSED with pink! I found some little princess toppers to put on them.

She invited some of her princess friends, I wanted to keep it small and simple so she only got to pick 4 friends.

They dressed up and played Pretty Pretty Princess. Natalie had some other games she wanted to play but we didn't get to them because I just let them play dress up for awhile.

I made PB&J with fruit kebabs and pink marshmallows.

We opened presents, there was an overwhelming theme of art supplies!

Also princess hair which went wonderfully with her new Repunzel dress.

This princess music CD maybe her very favorite thing (although it's hard to say, she loved everything!) we listen to it in the car everywhere we go now.

More fun painting stuff!

After her party it was time to go to preschool. This was her new birthday outfit all the way down to her shoes.
Later that night she got to open up a few more presents from our family.

Here are some things about Natalie at 5!

Natalie is a princess through and through.

She is our girly girl more than any of the others.

She likes to be served and waited on.

She does not like doing chores!

She likes things her way, and she doesn't like being told no!

She loves pretty things and dressing up and wearing makeup.

She says her favorite princess is Rapunzel and Cinderella and Belle and all of the princesses!

She loves to be in the spotlight.

At ballet they play a game called Sleeping Beauty and everyone pretends to be asleep and one princess gets to wake up and do a solo and then wake another girl up and go to sleep. Natalie loves her solo time, she dances and watches herself in the mirror and streches it out as long as she can.

She is graceful and has a stage presence that everyone notices.

Something kind of silly about Natalie is she loves to be on her head, for example, she watches TV with her head on the couch and her feet in the air. I remember doing this as a little girl too.

Natalie loves to sing, all day long she goes about doing her activities singing as she goes. She loves princess songs and primary songs especially. For a good portion of the last year her favorite song has been, "I Love to See the Temple" and she sings it all the time.

She loves her friends.

Natalie loves to eat. She is a tiny little thing but she eats all day long. As soon as she finishes one thing she asks for something else and is always wondering what is for our next meal.

Natalie is a teaser. She loves to tease her siblings and frustrate anyone she can.

Natalie is always right....just ask her!

Sensational 7!

2011-02-17T12:21:00.004-07:00

Well, I am breaking down and have decided I need to do a little supplemental blogging for some things. One of those things should be BIRTHDAYS! and since we have already had 3 this year I have some catching up to do.

Allyson turned 7 on January 7th. She got to invite a friend over for dinner and a late night. She chose Ramen Noodles, Smoothies, and Candied Sweet Potatoes for dinner.

We had a small family party with cake and presents. I made her a Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Frosting. It is my favorite kind of cake and since I think birthdays are as big a celebration for moms (I did all the work after all) I splurged and had a piece of her cake.

Here are 7 things I love about Allyson in no particular order:

1. She is very affectionate. She loves to snuggle and cuddle. Ally always has a hug for anyone who needs one and loves everyone.

2. She is so smart. Everything seems to come easy to her. She is a great reader, awesome at math, and very creative.

3. She is friendly. Allyson is friends with everyone. She doesn't care how young or old, boy or girl, or how different a person is from her, she is the type who wherever we go she comes and tells me about a new friend she made.

4. She is nurturing. Ally has always loved taking care of people. She is patient and kind. One example of this was when I was at the school for her class Halloween party, there are a couple of kids that come in for parties but are in an extended resource class for extra help. Ally stayed right with the girl who didn't have an aid and made sure she was part of everything and helped her with whatever she needed.

5. She is compassionate. When we were at the theater watching Tangled I glanced over at the part when Flynn was hurt and about to die and Allyson was bawling. She was so upset, and while it was hard to see her hurting over something, I love to see how sensitive and caring she is.

6. She is a wonderful sister. From when Ally was barely walking she would give up what she wanted in a second to make Hailey happy. This has continued with all of her siblings. Ally always puts others before herself, especially her family.

7. She has the best laugh! Ally's laugh is loud and contagious. She enjoys life and is silly and funny.

Week 6

2011-02-16T09:03:00.004-07:00

Saturday February 5-We went on a tripple date with the Laytons and Pettingills.
Sunday February 6-Superbowl Party! We were rooting for the Steelers, but unfortunately they didn't win.

Monday February 7-Lilly and Hadley snuck into Brayden's room during his nap while I was in the shower and dumped a bunch of markers and crayons in his bed and climbed in to play with him.

Tuesday February 8-We went bowling to make up for last weeks FHE when I wasn't feeling well. Natalie wasn't feeling great, but we had a lot of fun!

Wednesday February 9-We made Ally's 100 day of school project. I love how it turned out!

Thursday February 10-I had a Pampered Chef party. I do about 2 a month and it's a great chance for me to get out of the house and do something I love to do!

Friday February 11-I have been meaning to post about Hailey for a while now and just haven't gotten around to it. She has been such a big helper around the house lately. She almost always gets her chores done everyday, and pretty much does them as well (maybe better) as I could do it myself. She has also been good about practicing the piano and homework and reading. It is fun to have such a big responsible girl around!

Week 5

2011-02-07T15:38:00.004-07:00

This week is kind of crazy to me because honestly these first pictures feel like they could have been taken a month ago, not last weekend! Here we go with another week of pictures!

Saturday January 29-We were back out to Allan's parent's house to watch a basketball game. The kids had ice cream cones and Brayden really enjoyed his! The best part was Allan's dad was the one who cleaned him up after this!

Sunday January 30-Here are my kids after church at Allan's parent's again. I very rarely get the kids matching outfits because with 5 kids it gets EXPENSIVE! and honestly most of my kids clothes are hand me downs so I take what I get! I got these on sale and used Gymbucks to get them even cheaper and I love them! This picture is awesome because all of the kids are looking and smiling, but after I posted it I realized Brayden's undershirt is showing and Lilly has a sticker on her forehead. Oh well! ALSO this morning I gave Brayden his first hair cut but since only one picture makes the cut you can see the difference best if you look above and at Tuesday's picture! :)

Monday January 31-Part of the reason this week has seemed super long is because Sunday night I had a tummy ache and couldn't sleep. I did okay during the day and when the kids got home I decided we should go bowling for FHE because we haven't had a "just fun family night" in a long time. As we were all getting ready to go my tummy started really hurting and I had to tell the kids we wouldn't be going bowling. This was a big disappointment as you can imagine, so I told them we could play bowling on the Wii for FHE instead with the promise that we would go bowling soon. They weren't too happy with the substitution but we had fun anyway.

Tuesday February 1-So Monday night once again I couldn't sleep because my tummy hurt SO bad. At about 4:00 a.m. Allan suggested I go to Redicare so I could get feeling better before he had to go to work. The doctor said my stomach was full of air/gas. At 5:30 I came home feeling better from the pain meds they gave me, but not better about the fact that I didn't know what was causing my tummy ache. I was able to get a little bit of sleep though so that was good. I still wanted to know what was wrong though so I called up my doctor and made an appointment to go in and meet with him. He thinks something may be wrong with my gallbladder, still working on that problem, but I am able to control the tummy ache most of the time by not eatting fatty foods. ANYWAY! Back to the picture of the day: Zoe brought us some cookies because she knew I wasn't feeling well. They were sitting on the table not to far from Brayden's chair and he climbed up onto the table to get some more. His mouth is full and he still has part of a cookie in his left hand while grabbing for another with his right. I guess he liked them!

Wednesday February 2-Lilly has this thing about wearing pants inside our house, SHE WON'T! The minute we walk in through the door she drops her pants in the hallway by the door. She seems just fine to put them back on when we are going somewhere, but if you stop by and she doesn't have clothes on, don't be surprised!

Thursday February 3-Allyson is always complaining about a tummy ache, usually at convenient times like when she doesn't want to wake up in the morning or if I ask her to do her chores or practice piano, so I haven't worried too much about it. This morning she was really crying about it and so I decided to take her into the doctor. (the same one I had seen earlier in the week) He ran some blood work and had her get a X-ray of her belly. The blood came back normal and the X-ray showed that she had air in her bowels, a sign that things aren't moving through as efficiently as they should be. Right now we have been giving her a laxitive everyday (which she loves because she thinks it makes her juice sweeter!?! whatever) and she has been feeling much better.

Friday February 4- Lilly and Natalie decided to make a bunk bed out of my bookshelves. They are very cute each day playing together while the other kids are at school. Notice Lilly of course doesn't have clothes on!

Week 4

2011-01-30T10:37:00.003-07:00

Saturday January 22-After reading scriptures and saying prayers I told the girls to go to bed and looked over to find Natalie had already fallen asleep. The silly thing is that right now we are reading the D&C but every night she goes and gets her BoM and opens up to a random page and then "reads" her verses as we tell her what to say.
Sunday January 23-Almost every week after church we go out to Grandma Jean's house for dinner. One of the kids favorite things to do each Sunday is "beads" as they call it.

Monday January 24-I got in my head the idea to take everything off my bookshelves, dust and put everything back. It took almost the whole day, but it feels so nice to have it done!

Tuesday January 25-Every so often my kids need an over-haul on our chores system. The old system was that they had one chore for each year old they are and that was what they did everyday. They have been asking for rotating chores for a little while, so this is what I came up with. Honestly, it is more work for me to have these chores because I have to take the time to help them learn how to do it and I could do it myself faster, but I am happy to be teaching them responsibility and hope that some day they will be able to do it on their own. I also try really hard not to go back and fix them after they are done.

Wednesday January 26-These three kids were being so cute playing the piano together. They had background music on and were all dancing to the music. Brayden's dancing is ADORABLE!!!

Thursday January 27-Hailey and Ally have been sharing a 1700 sq/ft bedroom (our unfinished basement) for awhile now. It has worked out great so we have more room for clothes and things. BUT, they love to stay up talking at night. They argue tons during the day, but when the lights go out at bedtime they turn into giggly best friends. I am glad they like to talk to eachother but it drives me nuts when I need them to get some sleep.

Friday January 28-Lilly took her first ballet class today. She was very cute and did a pretty good job following along with the class. Lilly has been watching ballet classes since she was born, I think she was excited to be one of the big girls going to her very own class.

Week 3

2011-01-24T09:48:00.004-07:00

Well, of my New Year's Resolutions, this one has been the one I have done the very best on. Although it's trickier than you would think because some days there are so many things to take pictures of it's hard to narrow down and on other days I don't really have anything to take a picture of. Here are week 3's pictures:

Saturday January 15-Allan and I were singing in the choir for the adult session of Stake Conference. We had our neighbor come over to babysit and she brought her 2 little sisters to play with my kids. When we got home Sarah and Natalie were doing "makeovers" in the bathroom. I could honestly see them having the same exact conversation while getting ready to go on a date or to a dance or something in another 12 years!

Sunday January 16-Hailey has started reading Harry Potter. She is doing really well getting through it pretty fast, but it's what she wants to do when it's time to do chores or anything I need her to do. (I think she gets that from me, that's why I don't do much reading these days!)
Monday January 17-For FHE we talked about having a testimony of our own and then made Testimony Cookies! We have been having lessons that go with the primary theme for the week so I knew what our lesson would be on, but as I was looking for ideas I came across this blog with family home evening ideas! They have some amazing ideas and we only did a couple of their ideas, but what an awesome resource!

Tuesday January 18-Oh Lilly! She has always been a tantrum thrower, but lately she doesn't want to go anywhere in the car. This day we were taking the kids to ballet across town and she screamed all the way there and almost all the way back, a total of 25 minutes. Here is a little sample of things she was saying: "Mommy I don't want to go to ballet, mommy take me home, mommy take me that way (pointing towards the house), mommy I'm stuck, mommy help me, mommy I can't touch you." Oh, and my favorite, "Mommy don't take my picture!"

Wednesday January 19-Brayden's 1st Birthday! This was one of those days it was really hard to pick only one picture. I am going to do a post this week for each of my January kid's birthdays. Here is Brayden after he was done eating his birthday cake.

Thursday January 20-Just to show Lilly's pretty cute as well as a screaming monster, This morning I went in to her room and found she had "made" her bed. The assortment of books she had found was pretty funny to me because she has everything from board books to chapter books.

Friday January 21-I guess I had to be in a picture eventually, and I picked a really great embarassing one too! I went to the school to teach a F.A.M.E. lesson on Monet and Impressionism. The lesson instructs you to "dress up" to fit the part. I was actually pretty happy with what I found. The big sun hat is one like Monet would wear while taking care of his gardens and ponds so that he would always have flowers in bloom to paint, and the dress kind of reminds me of Monet's paintings.

Week 2

2011-01-16T14:41:00.004-07:00

Saturday January 8-Bountiful Baskets
Sunday January 9- Brayden helping with the laundry.
Monday January 10- FHE-Hold to the Rod
Tuesday January 11- BYU at Utah Basketball Game
Wednesday January 12- Natalie's party invitation.

Thursday January 13-Natalie's 5th Birthday

Friday January 14- Hadley and Lilly kept taking off their diapers and trying to go on the potty...one of them peed on the floor and I put their diapers back on and cleaned it up, then about 2 minutes later this was what I found.

P.S. Zoe hopefully you are okay with me posting this picture, I guess if not let me know and I will take it off....easier to ask forgiveness than permission! :)

Picture a Day Week 1

2011-01-08T16:23:00.004-07:00

A couple of years ago Allan's cousin took a picture a day for a whole year. I thought it was a great idea and have decided to attempt it for 2011. Here is our first week in pictures:

Saturday January 1st-We spent the whole day vegging out and watching movies.
Sunday January 2-Ally lost her 8th tooth.
Monday January 3-The kids went back to school and we all went back to a routine.

Tuesday January 4-One of my kids favorite snacks is a peanut butter scoop. While I wasn't paying attention Ally and Natalie got the peanut butter and spoons and had a lot of peanut butter scoops. When I found the peanut butter it looked like this, I knew Ally(blue) and Natalie(pink) were to blame because they are very predictable with their spoon color choice.

Wednesday January 5- Lilly is a little stinker and doesn't like going to bed. She will sneak her blanket and pillow out to the couch at night while Allan and I are still awake. (She also doesn't like wearing pants, but that's a whole other story.)

Thursday January 6-This week had to include a picture of our mii's. We have been playing Wii Fit every night together as a family. Ally's is that light blue one that went up like crazy because the first time she weighed Brayden had his head on the board before she got on so it said she started at like 12 lbs. The kids could sit for hours and watch our little mii's at the bottom of the screen and give updates like: Mom is talking to Ally, Dad is doing yoga, Natalie is running, etc.

Friday January 7-Allyson's 7th birthday. She got to invite a friend over for a late night and pick what we had for dinner. She picked Sadie C. and Ramen Noodles, Sweet Potatoes and Smoothies. I thought it was an interesting dinner, but she's the birthday girl! Also for her birthday I went to the school and made monkey bookmarks with her class, Dad came home early from work and took her on a date to Reed's Dairy for ice cream cones, and after dinner some family came over for Strawberry Cake and to open presents.

New Year's Eve and Resolutions!

2011-01-03T16:10:00.006-07:00

On New Year's Eve we had our friends the Laytons and Pettingills over.

Our NEW Wii came in very handy!
These guys have some pretty AWESOME moves, don't you think?

We even let a few of the (13) kids in on the game playing action, most of them were downstairs playing and watching movies.

It's always fun to have an excuse to stay up late and eat a bunch of yummy food! Only two of my kids made it 'till midnight, I put Brayden down at his normal bedtime, then Natalie fell asleep on the couch fairly early. Lilly fell asleep watching the kids play a board game in the front room. Hadley and Austin also fell asleep, but I think the rest stayed up. I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends!

On New Year's Day we spent the day as a family watching lots of movies! It was very fun. After the movies went back to the RedBox, I sat down to write up some New Year's Resolutions. Hailey saw me and wanted to come up with some also, and then Ally joined in on the fun. We decided to make 11 resolutions since it is 2011. The kids came up with their resolutions all on their own, here they are (their spelling)

Ally's were:
doing chors
go to school if you are not sick
go to ballet if you are not sick
go shoping
be revrint in class
have fun at school
have fun at resess
read scripshers
say prars
read 20 minits
do homewrck every day

Hailey's were:
Do chores when asked (read when asked)
do not beg to play wii and facebook
change earing daily (only when they don't match)
say my own prayers at least once a day
make toast or cereal when I have them
sometimes make snack, lunch, or dinner
only watch one hour or less of tv unless it's one long movie
only play wii when sisters are or dad and mom or mom or dad or whole family
be nice to friends
have fun at school
write cursive at least once a week at school (whole day of school)

I debated whether to post my resolutions or not, but decided (like I always tell Allan) this is my "Journal" so here they are:
Read scriptures daily
Attend temple monthly
Go Visiting Teaching every month
Take a picture everyday in 2011 (more on that later)
Don't go to bed with dishes in the sink
Spring clean entire house (in a year not a month this time!)
Stay on a budget
Meal Plan/Eat out less
Family Home Evening EVERY week
Keep my bedroom clean (a little embarassed to write that one)
Be happy

Christmas Celebrations!

2011-01-01T17:06:00.007-07:00

Our Christmas started early on Christmas Eve morning because we were going down to Utah I didn't want to have to lug all of our presents down and back so we opened our presents at home before we left.
Lee and Jean came over which was great. We opened presents and had a yummy breakfast of Cinnamon Rolls, Fruit and Hot Chocolate! (I overcooked the cinnamon rolls because they were baking while we opened presents but they were still good)

Allan was really into watching the kids open their presents as you can see! He was reading the second book in the hunger games and had one chapter left and we had the 3rd to listen to on CD on the way to Utah.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: This is the last picture you will see of Lilly with a binky in her mouth! When we went down to Utah, we had one with us, but she never asked for it and I never gave it to her, so when we came home I just went with it. We did have one incident, where Brayden was being fussy and I tried giving him a binky, but he doesn't take a binky and Lilly wanted it so I just took it away again and things have been fine. I guess outta sight outta mind is true!

The girls all loved watching eachother open presents. We let the person who got the present choose the next present to be opened (not their own)

The kids all got jammies from Grandma Jean (and so did Allan and I actually)

Then we packed up and went down to Grandma Fessler's house. We had a big dinner and the kids were off to bed!

Brayden is a blanket muncher. Whenever I lay him down for bed he shoves his blanket in his mouth. I have heard of this but never had one of my own. In the morning Santa Delivered!

Lilly got a play kitchen and shopping cart.

Brayden got a car thing.

Ally got Jesse.

Natalie got princess dolls.

Hailey got an easy bake oven.

They also all got Zhu-Zhu's and thought it was fun to have "Zhu-Zhu Wars" on Brayden's toy.

Later, after Grandma Vicki woke up we opened up presents from her and Papa Burt. They recently moved in to take care of my Grandma and decided to give us their Wii from the other house. The kids were very excited about this. It's really our first video game.

After that we went to Papa's old house, where my other grandparents are living right now, and spent the evening with my mom's side of the family. I forgot my camera at Grandma Fessler's house though. Allan and I took the kids to see the lights on Temple Square that night and I have some cute pictures on my phone, but don't know how to get them off, so if you know let me know! Overall, we had a very wonderful Christmas. We are so blessed and grateful for all that we have. I was glad to spend the last part of the evening on Temple Square remembering our Savior.

Biggest Loser Competition

2010-12-29T12:45:00.001-07:00

Hi Friends!

I am going to do another Biggest Loser Competition and wanted to invite anyone who would like to participate. I know it is the new year and I have a resolution to lose weight and I do so much better when I am accountable to something. The competition will run December 31-February 25. Here are the details:

This is all on your honor, you weigh in on the designated days on the SAME SCALE each time WEARING THE SAME THING with NO SHOES and phone/text/e-mail me your weight.
The first weights are due to me by MIDNIGHT DECEMBER 31st
The cost is $20 due to me by Dec 31 (if you are out of town, get it in the mail asap). IF YOU WRITE A CHECK I WILL NOT DEPOSIT IT UNTIL THE END OF THE COMPETITION
If you lose 10% of your starting weight you get $10 back
There will be 3 intermediate weigh ins for a $10 prize to whoever has lost the most weight DURING THOSE 2 WEEKS. Those weigh ins will be on January 14, 28, and February 11. (every other Friday)
Final weights will be due February 25th at MIDNIGHT
At the end of the competition all remaining money will be split between the top 3 losers 50%/30%/20%
I will keep all weights confidential and the only thing that will be sent out is % lost.

I will open this up to anyone who is interested, so if you know someone who would like to participate send them the details. The more people involved the more prize money to be won!

If you want in let me know and I will send you my phone number and e-mail

Christmas Letter...a little late.

2010-12-27T09:45:00.006-07:00

This holiday season came upon us way too fast and I didn't get everthing done that I needed to(not surprised) but at least the important things got done and we spent time with our family and friends! One of the things that didn't get done was sending out Christmas cards. I really had good intentions and bought cards last year after Christmas on sale that hold a picture, and I ordered copies of our family picture to put in them, BUT, when I put the two together Natalie and Lilly were cut out of the window. Now that I am looking at this picture below, I may have been able to use it, but really they didn't get sent out because I just ran out of time.
I would like to share a little about what our family has been up to though, since 2010 was a pretty big year for our family!

Hailey turned 8 this year and was baptized. It was a very special day for all of us and we are so proud of the example that Hailey sets for her younger siblings. Hailey is now in 3rd grade and is one of the top in her class for math and reading. She also enjoys doing ballet and piano and playing with her friends as often as possible. She also played soccer and T-ball again and tried volleyball this year. Hailey is also my biggest helper at home. She is very responsible and is the best at doing her chores.

Allyson turned 6 this year. As you can see she has been losing teeth like crazy. Allyson started 1st grade and is SO smart. She is reading at a 5th grade, 9th month reading level! Allyson is a social butterfly and makes friends with everyone she meets. She is also doing ballet and piano this year and has really worked on focusing her attention. Allyson also played soccer and T-ball again. Allyson has always been a little mommy and she is a big help with taking care of her little brother and sister.

Natalie is our little princess. She loves all things girly and pink. Natalie turned 4 this year and started preschool. She loves being able to play with her friends and learning her ABC's. Natalie loves to sing all the time and is also doing ballet and is very graceful and talented. She played T-ball for the first time this year and had Aunt Robin for her coach. Natalie is also very funny and likes playing jokes, especially anything that teases her siblings.

Lilly has had a big year this year as well. She turned 2 and is learning to talk really well. She is adjusting to no longer being the baby in the family (sort of), but loves having mommy's attention as often as possible. Lilly is very strong willed and knows what she wants. She loves her siblings very much and is always right in on the action with them.

In 2010 (obviously) we went from having four kids to five! Brayden has been a wonderful blessing to our family. He is such a happy and easy-going baby. He is quick to laugh and everyone loves him. He has also been our fastest mover and started walking a few days before he turned 10 months old. He already loves cars and balls and is all boy!

Allan is still working for IHS in Fort Hall. It is a good job and we are grateful to him for working so hard to support our family. He enjoys going out an playing sports whenever he gets the chance including coaching Hailey and Ally in soccer this year. He loves helping out with the youth campouts and went to Girls Camp, Scout Camp and High adventure this year. He also had the chance to go on several hikes including Table Rocka and Mt. Borah.

I have been very busy helping at the kids schools and trying to keep up with the responsibilities a family of 7 bring. I have also started up selling Pampered Chef again. This year I opened up a Bountiful Basket Co-Op site and really love doing that. I also enjoy exersizing and crafting in my "spare" time.

This year marks 10 years since Allan and I met. We love spending time together. One of our favorite things to do is to go down to BYU for as many sporting events as possible. This year we attended football, basketball, soccer, and volleyball games. Also since we have been in this ward we have had the great opportunity of serving together in every calling we have had. This year we spent half the year teaching youth Sunday School and the other half teaching Hailey's primary class. As a family we have had some fun trips together this year to Yellowstone, Utah and Arizona.

We have been very blessed this year and are so grateful for our family and friends! We are thankful for the gospel and the happiness that it brings to us especially at this time of year as we remember the birth of our Savior. Merry Christmas and may 2011 bring you much happiness!

Santa Claus Came to Town!

2010-12-22T17:21:00.003-07:00

We heard through the grapevine (Trudy told Zoe) that Santa Claus would be at the John Deer Store one night.
Seeing as how I am not a farmer, and I have 4 daughters we had never been to the John Deer store, even though it's right around the corner.

The kids were pretty impressed with all of the toys, and so was Allan for that matter. (Santa if you're reading this Allan would like a riding lawn mower with a snow plow attachment.)

Plus as you can see they had cookies so who could complain right?

We thought Santa was supposed to be there from 5-8 and we got there about 7.

Turns out he was only supposed to be there until 7, and we got there just in time!

Remember this a couple years ago? She was much more friendly this year. Plus she really wanted canes. (That's what she calls Candy Canes!)

Lilly was pretty friendly herself, I guess she got the memo that he brings presents!

Brayden didn't get the memo or he just doesn't care about the presents, but he wanted nothing to do with the Big Guy.

I am so glad we went! The kids each got coloring books and a bag of candy and a printed picture of them sitting on Santa's lap. Plus there was cookies and juice!

Nutcracker

2010-12-21T10:16:00.007-07:00

It's that time of year again! This is Hailey and Ally's 3rd Nutcracker, and Natalie's 2nd. This year Hailey and Ally are attending ballet 3 hours a week and Natalie 1 hour a week. It is exciting to see them progress and they all did so amazing on stage this year!
Natalie's class were mice, and Ally helpped out. Ally got to be the first little mouse that goes on and does a little solo part before the other mice come on.

All of the girls were in the Overture as princesses.

Natalie was funny because when she was a mouse she didn't really want her picture taken, but when she put on her princess tutu she turns into a little DIVA!

This is Natalie with her class.

Hailey and Ally were told to "Catch a Bubble" so they would be quiet back stage.

I convinced them to let it out for a picture though!

This is their Tuesday class, on Tuesdays they go together for an hour and a half, then they each go a different day for another hour and a half.

This is Hailey's Thursday class dressed up in their Chinese outfits.

Ally's other dance was the Madam Ginger dance (they come out from under a giant skirt). She said that was her favorite dance because she gets to dance with a boy (help me). I feel really bad because I never got a picture of her in it. She performed that dance on Friday night and the Wednesday dress rehearsal, and I chaperoned on Thursday/Saturday so I was never back stage when she had it on. You can see her performance pictures HERE and HERE

HaLlOwEeN 2010

2010-12-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

Natalie: Cinderella

Hailey: Vampire

Brayden: Dragon

Ally: Hannah Montana

Lilly" Whinnie the Pooh

Tiger Lillies!

2010-12-15T13:25:00.003-07:00

Hailey played soccer this fall. In the past I don't think she was really all that into it, but this year she did great!

Allan was her coach again, our team was half from our neighborhood, and half from another school. Back: Allan, Ashley, Natae, Hailey, Lexy, Maddie, Megan
Front: Katie, Tyler, Megan, Lexy, Corbin, and my Hailey.

Both Hailey and Ally have been #3 because that was Allan's number.

Hailey is far left in this picture going for the ball.

Hailey is really quite competative (like her parents) so she wants to be the best. She isn't quite there yet, but in my opinion she may have been the most improved on the team so if she keeps it up she could be great one day!

Charity Auction Event

2010-12-06T10:55:00.004-07:00

Last week my best friend's parents lost their home in a fire. They were inside at the time, but luckily were able to get out safely. Unfortunately they did not have insurance and have been hit with a huge financial burden. A blog auction has been organized with all of the proceeds being donated to their family. It will take place December 15th and 16th and all items will be shipped in time for Christmas. There is a link on my blog to go and see the items that will be auctioned, also if you have something to donate to the cause or know someone who does there is information on how to donate on the blog. Please pass the word along!

P.S. Sorry about the lack of blogging, I will try to catch things up before Christmas.

I Can Can, Can You?

2010-10-12T07:56:00.004-06:00

This last month has been busy, but uneventful at the same time...does that make sense?
I have been doing a lot of canning, so far I have done peaches, green beans, spaghetti sauce and stewed tomatoes. I still have tons more tomatoes and am planning on making some more sauce and some salsa. I also will be doing apple sauce very shortly, and maybe some apple pie filling.
I put up my Halloween Decorations. I change this planter shelf for each season and try to make most of the other things in my house year round decorations because it's easier on me.
I have a lot of really cute fall/Halloween stuff. This shelf is very busy, I guess my fall stuff may start to expand beyond my "seasonal shelf."
My friend Janae at Thoughts In Vinyl has her craft group this Friday and I am trying to decide if I have more room for fall/halloween crafts, but they are so cute I will probably do them because I can't resist!
This witch one may be my very favorite!
Janae is also doing a give-a-way right now, so go enter!
Here is the whole effect...too busy?
Besides canning and putting up decorations we have been doing the school/homework/reading thing, going to soccer games and practice, ballet 3 days a week, piano lessons (and trying really hard to fit practicing in, sorry Natalie) and heading down to BYU for football games. Also, (I guess I should take pictures and do a post about this) I run a Bountiful Baskets site. It's nice to be back in a routine, but I feel like there isn't anything interesting to blog about because we do the same thing day-to-day.

WARNING

2010-10-08T11:08:00.002-06:00

Do not have 5 kids unless you want to do A LOT of this!

WE LOVE BYU!

2010-10-07T08:41:00.004-06:00

This may not be something most people are willing to admit this year, but it is true. Win or Lose (and this year has been mostly lose) our family bleeds blue. This has been a tough year so far for BYU and after 4 losses in a row, Allan is still hoping that we can end the season 8-5. I will be happy if we can win more than we lose! No matter what happens, we will be there to cheer on BYU. GO COUGARS!

Family Pictures

2010-09-27T17:00:00.001-06:00

I don't have time to blog, but we got these pictures taken a few weeks ago and I have been dying to post them. These are a few of my favorite group shots, when I have more time I will change the individual pictures on the blog to my favorites of them.

This is probably the most realistic picture to portray our lives.
P.S. Thanks to whoever it was who helped me out today, it meant a lot.

Honey Bee Dance Clinic

2010-09-24T12:22:00.003-06:00

Saturday the girls went to a dance clinic over at the high school. It was really fun, they got to go and spend the day learning some dances and had lunch and got a T-shirt. Then they had a little performance for the parents before we picked them up.
I am not going to lie, it was pretty hilarious watching them dance, but they had a good time and that's what's important!

Grandpa Fessler

2010-09-10T08:43:00.004-06:00

My Grandpa Fessler passed away on Monday morning and his funeral was yesterday. This was a very bitter/sweet moment in my life. Almost 3 years ago he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given 3-6 months to live. Those 3 years were very hard in many ways watching him suffering, but I realized yesterday how important it was for him to have them. My grandpa has always held his emotions instead of expressing them, in these last 3 years he has softened and been able to express his love to his children and grandchildren in a way that probably never would have happened had he gone quickly. He also had time to get things in order for my grandma and the rest of the family. It was very hard watching this strong man, who I looked up to all my life, become so weak physically.
Growing up I loved my grandpa very much. I love the smell of cut wood because he was a wood shop teacher and I remember going and visiting him in his classroom. I have many treasured things that he made for the grandchildren in his shop each year for Christmas. He was a golf pro and when I was probably about 12 he took me to the golf course and we would drive a cart around and sell drinks to the golfers. He also taught me to play golf although I wish I would have taken more of an interest in it. He loved to play games and was the luckiest person I know! We would play rummy and aggravation. Because I am a very open and emotional person, I thought I didn't have a great relationship with him because he is a man of very few words, I started thinking about our time we spent together and realized how much I now treasure those times.
This is my grandma. I love her so much. Growing up I spent a lot of time at my grandparents house while my parents were working and I have always looked up to my grandma and tried pattern my life after her example. I spent the last 16 hours or so of my grandpa's life with her and the rest of the family that was there, and it was a very special time that I will always remember. My grandma was so strong. She lied by my grandpa's side as his body shut down, comforting him and telling him how much she loves him. After he passed she pinched his nose commented on how handsome he still was. She was sad to lose him and didn't want them to take his body away, but she was once again an example to me, she knows that he is in a better place and is no longer suffering.

(This is a picture of me and my cousin Kim)

At the funeral it was interesting to hear from his children about their experiences with him. Each was very different. I laughed and I cried as they shared their stories. My grandpa touched so many people during his life. His life sketch was amazing hearing about different times in his life. Missionary work was an overwhelmingly big part of his life and he has been and influence in over 100 people joining the church. Even until the very end of his life he was teaching the gospel and his influence was so strong several of the young men in the ward that he taught came to visit him often including the day before he died. My Aunt Vicki composed a life history of my grandpa and gave everyone a copy of it at the funeral. I am very excited to dive into this history and learn even more about my grandpa.
It was great to see and spend time with my dad's side of the family. I am the oldest grandchild and have not lived close to any of them for over 10 years although I lived close to most of them growing up and they are a huge part of my life. I am a little sad that I haven't made more of an effort to spend time with my grandparents in these last few years. We did get to visit them when we were down in Utah from time to time, but it was a little difficult because I have so many small children and the noise and crying etc. that comes along with that were hard for my grandpa. I am grateful to know that I will see my grandpa again, and that we will be a family forever. He was a great man and great example of a faithful follower of Christ and the greatest gift I think I can give my grandpa is to do my best to be the same.

Picture Day!

2010-09-08T07:44:00.003-06:00

DRUM ROLL PLEASE: I am blogging about something the day it happened!

TODAY is picture day at school, and while I am not ordering any pictures (because they are too expensive and we are having family pictures done next week) I still wanted my kids to look nice for their school pictures of course. I was planning on having to drive them to school, but they were super speedy and we were done in plenty of time to catch the bus...only I forgot to make their sandwich (had already packed the rest) and had to send their lunch with a neighbor, lucky for me I have awesome friends!
I kind of cheated and did a messy side bun for Hailey so I wouldn't have to curl her hair! BUT it will show off her newly pierced ears. Yesterday she came home and picked out her clothes for the pictures, she is really coming into her own style this year.
Ally lost two teeth this weekend just in time for picture day, adding to the one she lost a couple of weeks ago makes for the PERFECT first grade toothless smile and I love it! This little girl is so full of personality I can't get enough of her.
It was so cute I told her to take her backpack off for the picture and Dawson rushed over to hold her backpack for her. These two are so cute together! Ally says Dawson always lets her be in front of him in line, they walk home from the bus together and he always makes sure Ally is taken care of. If they really grow up and get married someday like they say they will, I think Ally will be a lucky girl.

Back To School!

2010-09-03T10:47:00.000-06:00

The first day of school turned out to be rainy and cold, so last minute we switched our first day of school outfits to include long pants and rain jackets!
Here is Hailey all ready to head off to her first day of 3rd grade. This is strange for me because it doesn't seem like she should be old enough to be in 3rd grade! This year her teacher looped up to 3rd grade from 2nd grade so she will have Mrs. Julian again and we are both very excited about that.
Here is Allyson all ready for her first day of 1st grade. For her this means being at school all day long and eating lunch at school everyday. She will be in Mrs. Martineau's class. Ally is getting so big and she loves school, mostly because it means she gets to spend all day with her friends!
And so they were sent out in the rain to catch the school bus. I am glad they are such good little friends.
Later that day Natalie had her first day of Preschool. The rain had stopped by the afternoon.
Natalie is such a cutie pie! (I am not at all biased) She loves to pick out her outfits and bows and is all girl. When she was ready she looked in the mirror and said, "I look fabulous!" She is a crack up.
Here is Natalie in her classroom showing off her name tag. She has new preschool teachers this year, Miss Wendy and Miss Barbara. Ally had Miss Barbara 2 years ago, so that is kind of fun. I am sure she will do good, Natalie seems the least interested in academics, but loves to go to school and I am hoping this year she will be more excited about learning letters and sounds and numbers.

Last Summer Road Trip

2010-09-02T10:40:00.001-06:00

Two weekends before school started we headed up to our cabin once again for a fun filled weekend with some of our very best friends!
Some boys never grow up, Steve and Jaren twisted Allan on the tire swing to see how fast they could get him spinning.
The best thing about this trip was that we had no plans, we just went up to relax and enjoy time with our friends.
I love Brayden's tongue in this picture, he is such a crazy boy!
This is little baby Austin, he is so sweet and tiny still, it doesn't seem like very long ago Brayden was this small, it goes by too fast.
Silly Lilly fell asleep out on the front porch.
Steve and Allan went with some of the bigger kids exploring down the creek. They found this big toad.
They also found this interesting wood fort thing.
Some of the girls went inside, but Sydney wasn't about to go in there, I don't blame her though, it wasn't the sturdiest of forts.
Here is a silly picture of the girls with Steve.
One of the best things about hanging out with the Laytons and Pettingills is that everyone has a friend. Here are Hadley, Lilly, and Stacey eating cookies.
Ally, Sydney, and Ila out exploring and finding treasures.
Even Brayden has a little buddy. Brayden and Austin are going to have lots of fun together soon enough!
Hailey and Maddie, the biggest of the bunch!
And the four year olds, Natalie, Spencer, and Jayce, hanging out on the tire swings. I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends. We have so much fun with these guys I can't imagine life without them!
On our way home from the cabin, Allan and I took a little detour over to Mesa Falls.
Allan was a trooper to carry Natalie and Lilly up the stairs.
We also went on a little hike down Bear Gulch.
It is so funny attempting to get a picture of all 5 kids! Right as we were headed back up from the bottom of the hike it started to pour! The kids did so good though and we were very proud of them.
On the way home after the rain there was a double rainbow. It was a full arch and amazing, although this was the best I could do to capture it with my cheapo camera. I think I have seen more rainbows this year than the rest of my life combined, I love summer and am sad to see it come to an end, but we have had such a great one this year and I am excited to get back into a routine and have the kids back in school...well mostly, it's going to be a very busy year and I hope I can stay on top of everything!

a little of this and a little of that (a.k.a. pictures from Jean's camera!)

2010-09-01T07:54:00.007-06:00

Just Hanging Out

A few times in the summer we go over to the Staker's house and play on the waterslide and have dinner and roast marshmallows. It is so much fun and I love having so much family so close.

More Staker Family Reunion

These are the pictures I took on my MIL's camera from our Staker Family Reunion

We started the reunion off by going to our ward luau, it was so much fun!
The girls took some pictures with some of the dancers.
Hailey and Ally wanted to take pictures with some of the little girls too.
Then we roasted marshmallows and camped out in the backyard.
And here we are at Ross Park the next day.

PARKER FAMILY REUNION

Every year we head up to the cabin for our Parker Family Reunion. This year was lots of fun, although our numbers were few (for Parkers)
This is the kids playing "Fox and Geese" a tag game.
Poor Lilly looks so beat up, the week before we went she tripped and hit her cheek on the couch and then while we were at the cabin she fell off the slide and got this huge goose egg on her forehead.
Here we are gathering around the fire roasting hot dogs and s'mores while the kids play.
We drove up to Sawtelle and hiked around a bit.
Here is Amber with Ally (above) and Hailey (below)
All of the kids overlooking Henry's Lake.
Allan, Dave, Kylee and I hiked out a little farther. It was really beautiful up there.
Back at the cabin there is a little creek that the kids like to play in and catch frogs.
Me and the kids waiting for dinner. Poor Brayden gets strangled more than he would like.
Talk about kissing cousins, Ally and Asa had a little "wedding" in the garage.

$50 Anthropologie Giveaway!

2010-08-26T10:06:00.003-06:00

Jessica at Breakfast At Gigi's is giving away a $5o Anthro gift card AND a cute bracelet because her blog reached 200 followers. I love her blog as well as her sister's blog Tricia's Take! Go check them both out and enter to win!!!

Mt. Borah

2010-08-23T19:34:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned, while we were on our berry hunt, Allan was hiking Mt. Borah with some of our family. In this picture the first two people are some friends of Shane's family, then it's Josh, Allan, Justin, Jared, Jason, Rob, Austin and Chelsie. Shane must have been taking the picture.
Here is Shane hiking up the mountain with Allan and some others in the background.
This is Allan with his nephews Jared and Jason.Here is Allan going along the snowpack. Some dumb guy tried to run across the snowpack in a place where people hadn't already packed it down and he fell and broke his leg while our group was up there. Another week, a boy scout fell off the mountain and was lost for a couple of days. I am just sharing because this is a pretty serious hike these guys went on!
Here is Allan at the Summit. I am really impressed that he did this hike, although his muscles were sore for a week after! Someday I want to go and do this hike with him. There are a lot of things I have to miss out on because I am either pregnant or breastfeeding (which is Allan's main argument for not having any more kids) so I always tell Allan he will have to do it all again when I get the chance!These are the ones who made it to the top, Chelsie, Rob, Austin, Allan, Josh and Shane. At one point (it's called "chicken out ridge") there is a spot you have to basically scale the side of a big drop off and a few of the people decided to stop there and wait for the group to come back.
On the way down the mountain Allan's shoe broke, they were pretty cheap hiking boots, but at least they got him through his two big hikes this summer (the first was Table Rock at scout camp) and he didn't get any blisters on either hike so mission accomplished!

Going on a Berry Hunt!

2010-08-21T15:33:00.002-06:00

Last Saturday Allan, his brother Rob, brother-in-law Shane, and a bunch of the kids: Chelsie, Josh, Jason, Austin, Justin and Jared hiked Mt. Borah. While they were gone Rob's wife Robin called up to see if I wanted to go and pick some huckleberries up in Kelly Canyon.
Robin and I took my 5 kids and 2 of hers and they all did great! She helped me by carrying Brayden around. Hailey and Ashlyn were good little pickers, they kept saying they were going to make huckleberry juice, but in the end Robin and I convinced them that wasn't the best thing to do with the berries.
The kids worked really hard, I don't know if it was because their cousins were there or what because I took them to pick raspberries with me the other day and they helped for about 5 minutes and were done!
Natalie wasn't the biggest fan of looking for berries, so she occupied herself with Max.
Lilly spent about 1/2 the time in this pack and 1/2 the time out of it, she couldn't really decide what she wanted! She would ask to get down and about two minutes later she would say, "My Seat!" and want back in. There were also a bunch of cows around where we were picking and every time she would hear a cow she would say, "I hear moo." and point in the direction of the noise.
Ty and Ally looking for berries and Lilly one of the times she was down, she was actually really good at finding berries. They are very tiny little things, they look a lot like a blueberry but they are about half the size. There is one on the bush that Lilly is looking at in the corner of the picture, can you see it?
Hailey and Ally were annoyed that I was making them stop looking to take this picture.
Here is one of everyone going down. We were still picking berries the whole way. We were up there for about 4 hours, including the time we were eating lunch and picked 4 cups of huckleberries all together. There is a reason these little treasures cost about $30 a pint to buy! But the huckleberry pancakes we had for breakfast the next morning were sure yummy!
I had so much fun going on this little hike. I had never been up Kelly Canyon before. It is beautiful up there and there is a hot springs I told Allan he has to take us to soon! I have decided we need to start going on more hikes and adventures!

Reed's Dairy Days

2010-08-19T15:09:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again...Last Year we went on a wagon ride and visited the petting zoo (it seems crazy how much my kids have changed in the last year) , this year we headed straight over to ride some ponies (and by ponies I mean big horses)!

We of course got ICE CREAM and we had to get balloon animals because that was one of the things we didn't do last year and my kids have been talking about getting them for a whole year! I LOVE REEDS DAIRY! They have the best milk and ice cream and cheese, plus they do super fun things like this to show their appreciation for their customers.

Splash Park Day!

2010-08-17T14:00:00.004-06:00

As the days of summer are coming to an end I am realizing how much I am going to miss days like this one!

Family Reunion

2010-08-15T13:40:00.003-06:00

I took it upon myself to be in charge of planning our Staker family reunion this year. We had originally planned on going over to Boise for a weekend, but one of my nephews is a very dedicated baseball player and the couple of weekends that he didn't have anything other people in the family were busy and it just wasn't coming together. Anyway, I was talking to my sister-in-law and we decided it would be fun to camp out in Allan's parent's back yard and do some stuff closer to home this year. I was all for it because it saved money and was lots of fun!
We started out Friday night with a bar-b-que and fireworks.
My kids thought that was great because we missed out on the 4th of July festivities because we were driving home from Arizona.
My kids love spending time with their cousins!
Amber is always a big help with Brayden!
After the fireworks we roasted S'Mores and camped out in the trailers.
The next day we went to Ross Park. It was so much fun I forgot to take pictures, but here is a view of the kiddie area with the lazy river and water slide in the background.
I love spending time with Allan's family, we are lucky to have so many of them close by! You can imagine it's a little different than coming from being an only child (Allan is youngest of 6). I love that we get the best of both worlds.

Swimming Lessons

2010-07-24T12:52:00.002-06:00

Once T-ball finished up I signed the girls up for swim lessons. They are getting to be such great swimmers!
Here is Ally swimming back to the wall. Her first session she was a starfish, and we are now doing a second session and she passed up to the guppy level.
Natalie is not the biggest fan of the water, but she was pretty good most of the days. She was in the eel class, and when I asked her if she wanted to take lessons again this time she said no, so she now plays at the park with Lilly while the big girls are taking.
Hailey is a minnow and was very proud of the fact that she is in a class at 5 feet now. Her class really works on becoming stronger swimmers and she is doing really well.
Lilly spent the first two weeks of lessons hanging out with me in the car. Now most of the time her and Natalie play at the park.
At the end of each session they get to jump off the diving board. This is always a very exciting day for the kids.
Well, except for Natalie, she isn't very brave so she got dropped into the water very slowly.

Summer Road Trip #3

2010-07-22T08:00:00.000-06:00

On our first two road trips, I didn't take too many pictures, I think I made up for it on this one! I narrowed this down and probably only have 1/8th of the pictures I actually took, and there are still A LOT!
On June 29th after Allan got off work, we loaded up in the van and drove to Arizona. We drove all night and got to Allan's brother's house about 5:00 am. It was a long drive, but it was kind of nice that the kids were asleep most of the way!
We had SO much fun, and it was a very relaxing vacation. The kids played with their cousins, Jackson and Natalie (above) Brandon (below)
These boys were so great to play with my little girls and keep them entertained! Riley (below)
And this is EMILY! Emily was born about 2 weeks after Hailey, and my girls LOVE her!
Basically we spent the whole time doing this...

and a little of this...

and a little more of this....

We left on the 4th of July so here are some of my kids in their 4th attire.
If only I had 4 kids that would be a great picture of them, but the 5th child was doing this.
While we drove home, we stopped at a Mc Donalds for lunch and made another attempt at some pictures of the kids, these ones turned out much better!
BOY DO I HAVE CUTE KIDS!!!
I enjoyed this trip so much. It was wonderful to visit with Jonathan and Kari and to let our kids play. Kari told me that if we came we could expect a lot of sleeping and swimming and visiting, and that's just what we got. I got to relax and read and swim and play more than I can remember doing in years. It was FABULOUS!!!

WE DID IT!

2010-07-19T21:51:00.002-06:00

Tonight we finished reading The Book of Mormon as a family for the first time. It has taken us a long time to say the least, but we did it! Sometimes (really most of the time) I felt like my kids weren't getting much out of what we were reading, but each night they would take turns reading or repeating and we got through it. As you can see, our scriptures barely made it to the end! I hope that this is the first of many times we will finish this book as a family and that my children will remember that most of the time we read our scriptures, sang songs and said prayers together when they were young. I hope that through our actions they will know that Allan and I have a testimony of the gospel and The Book of Mormon.

T-Ball Wrap-Up

2010-07-19T14:01:00.005-06:00

T-ball is what we did every Monday and Wednesday in June.

Somehow? We managed to lose Natalie's shirt before the very first game and so she never got to wear her team shirt, but she had fun anyway.

Ally improved a lot on her speed and stamina. (not really witnessed in this picture, but I think her coach will agree with me)Hailey had this one AMAZING game, it was the second to last game. She got 7 outs! The first one she was playing right field and got someone out on their way to second. The next 2 innings she was playing short stop and she got 1 or 2 people out on 3rd and the rest at home. The picture is one of the outs at home! I was so proud of her, and pretty much shocked at how good she did!This is how Brayden and Lilly spend the t-ball days. The same game that Hailey got all the outs, Lilly fell asleep on her chair, she is such a silly little girl!T-ball season is one of my favorite times of the year. Even though it can be hectic with so many kids, I love hanging out at the park and watching the kids play. I can't wait for next year!!!

Summer Road Trip #2

2010-07-16T10:39:00.004-06:00

We met up with some friends from dental school (Thomas' and Goldthorpes) for a weekend at our family cabin in Island Park. It was SO much fun. We got up there Thursday afternoon and then went to dinner in Ashton at Big Juds, this local burger joint. Then the next day we went through Yellowstone to Old Faithful and that night the girls all went to see Beauty and The Beast at The Playmill Theater. Saturday we went to Cliff Lake and went canoeing. Sunday we went to church and packed up and went home. I packed clothes and such for all seven of us, and our portion of the food (we all brought a way too much food) and drove up the 5 kids by myself and Allan met us at Big Juds after work. Anyway, the reason I am telling you this is because the one thing I forgot was the diaper bag (basically my purse) so I didn't have a camera on our fabulous vacation. (I did have plenty of diapers and wipes for my two little ones at least!) My wonderful friends did take some pictures for me so when I get them I will post them, I did steal that one picture from Tricia's blog!

Oh, I almost forgot, after our trip I found this little "story" Hailey had made on a piece of paper folded like a book. I tried to keep the capitalization/punctuation true to her writing, but The Beauty and The Beast was underlined and I had to italisize it:

My Sleepover Day! (cover with a picture of a bunk bed)

One day I had a sleepover I slept there 3 nights the people were: Me (Hailey), Hailie, Dorothy, Wendi, Ally, Natalie (sisters) The 1st night we Played and Just slept the 2nd Night was a lot the same but we also went to see the beauty and the beast The 3rd Night We played went swimming went outside and played work shop!

all the days we Slept and Played and went Somewhere

p.s. I had to bribe her with a piece of candy and tell her I would share any comments with her to let me share her story!

Backyard Fun!

2010-07-13T18:50:00.002-06:00

This is not what we did today...if you live here you know why (ridiculous wind!) but basically everyday this is what the kids want to do. LOVE SUMMER!

Summer Road Trip #1

2010-07-08T07:52:00.003-06:00

I am really trying to catch up on our summer events because we have been doing some really fun things!

The first week in June Allan was away doing some CE so I decided to take the kids down to Utah for a few days.
We went to visit my parents and grandparents...this picture is us with my grandparents actually from a couple of months ago, but you get the idea. (notice it was back to chubby pregnant face days)
It was really pretty cold and yucky weather but I promised my kids I would take them swimming. We only got to swim about a half hour before this big thunder storm came through!
Here is Brayden his first time sporting BYU attire, I had to document that since it's a pretty big deal in our family!
After I loaded up the car to go home I told the girls to go and get in the car and I was saying good by to my grandparents and when I came out this was how I found Lilly.

It's Great to be 8!

2010-07-06T10:07:00.007-06:00

Be prepared for about 100 pictures! I cannot believe how big Hailey is getting. She is such a huge help with her sisters and brother and around the house doing chores. She is an awesome student and is really starting to turn into a beautiful young lady inside and out!Hailey turned 8 on May 29th

Here are the girls excited to open presents

Hailey is such a good reader, she got lots of books for her birthday. She also got a Scentsy warmer for her bedroom and some new PJs and Rollerblades.

Hailey decided she wanted to have a skating party for her birthday this year, here are a bunch of pictures of the fun!

My family tradition is that when you turn 8 you can get your ears pierced so we continued that tradition with our kids.

Before

Dave's kids were in town and I was watching them all week so I took 7 kids to the mall!

During

After

She picked out these multi colored flowers so they would match everything.

Then we went and played at the play area in the mall.

Hailey also got baptized by her dad!

Here she is waiting for her turn.

Allan and Ally stuck around after for ONE picture and then ran to Ally's last soccer game.

Here is everyone in the family who came (except Allan and Ally)

Hailey got new scriptures and a tote for her baptism.

Catch Up! Kindergarten Graduation

2010-06-29T15:51:00.002-06:00

Well, once again I have fallen far behind on blogging, I am sure you are all surprised right?

Ally graduated from Kindergarten. I know I have said it a million times, but Ally is an amazing student!
This is Ally with one of her good friends Memphis. Memphis recited Sick by Shel Silverstein by heart at the graduation, that's pretty amazing!
Here is Ally's class at the graduation, they will be the CLASS OF 2022!
This is Ally with her teacher Mrs. Davenport. I love her, she is such a great teacher.
Here is Ally with her Diploma. We are so proud of Ally and how much she has learned. One down and only 12 more years to go! That sounds like a lot but I am sure before I know it I will be blogging about her high school graduation!

Blue Jays

2010-06-23T07:50:00.004-06:00

What do we do in the Summer time?

T-BALL!

Coaches: Cheryl and Arin
Kayla M, Catelyn L, Ila L, Abbie B, Sydney P, Josh G, Jaden S
Kate W, Hailey S, Brylee P, Ally S, Hannah T, Austin P

not pictured: Millie W

weight loss update

2010-06-23T07:18:00.003-06:00

I remembered that I was supposed to update monthly about my weight loss, but haven't for a couple of months. The biggest loser thing turned out great, it gave me the motivation I needed to lose weight and I came in second place (not too bad). I ended up losing 15.4% and ended the competition at 144. Since then I admit I haven't been the best and this morning I weighed 147 (woops), but I am still ahead of my schedule to be 130 by February. This week we are going to our cabin in Island Park with some friends and then next week we will be road tripping down to Arizona, so I am hoping to stay steady here over the next two weeks on vacation and then get back to hopefully losing again. I still have a long way to go, but the best thing for me right now is that I feel like I don't have "chubby pregnant face" anymore!

Piano Recital

2010-06-18T07:48:00.002-06:00

This was Hailey's first year taking piano lessons, she has done so well. The pieces that she played were Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty and Seconds Please. Now that it is summer she has a break from her lessons but she still enjoys sitting down and learning songs, especially primary songs.

The Wizard of Oz

2010-06-08T09:46:00.002-06:00

The girls were in The Wizard of Oz with their ballet last month.

Natalie was a bluebird in a dance around the scarecrow. She is so graceful on stage and did a great job!

Ally was a canary in the same dance as Natalie. (She really had to pee in this picture! haha) She is getting to be such a good dancer.

Hailey was a wicked witch. She recently moved up a level and is being challenged a lot more and she really loves it.

They all did such a great job and it was fun to go and watch them.

Brayden Update

2010-06-03T09:40:00.004-06:00

Brayden 3 Months!

Brayden is getting so big and it all goes by so fast! I didn't keep a good record of when my other kids did things, (I think I thought I would just remember?) so I am trying to be better about logging the things that Brayden does. This has been a big couple of months for him. His first laugh was on March 27th. On April 23rd, so about a little less than a week after he turned 3 months old he started rolling from his back to his belly. Within a week of learning to roll he started scooting by pushing himself along with his feet. By May 1st he could also roll from his belly to back. On May 14th he found his feet and he loves to play with his toes now. He also went through a phase around then that he loved to make "raspberry" noises with his mouth and laughed when you did it back at him, he doesn't do that as much anymore. Brayden isn't sleeping through the night yet, but he does a good sleep between about 9pm and 3am so that is good at least, and then he usually eats again around 5:30 right before I get up to go running. He is such a good baby and is happy most of the time, unless he is sleepy or poopy, but can you really blame him for that?

Brayden 4 Months!

At his doctor's appointment on June 1st, he was 13 lbs. 12 oz. and 24 1/4 inches long.

So, I was curious what I had said about Lilly at 4 months and it sounds like they were very similar in their gross motor skills, (big surprise) the biggest difference is Bryaden is a very happy baby and Lilly had a temper and was a worse sleeper!

Principal Staker

2010-05-27T14:33:00.006-06:00

Hailey got to be Principal for the Day because she earned 120 AR points this year. She actually ended the year with over 130 points!

Here she is with our AWESOME principal Mr. Marlowe

Making herself comfortable.

There were two other girls from our neighborhood who were also Principal of the Day with her, her good friend Megan Saunders and a first grader Makenzie Ulrich. In this picture Mr. Marlowe is speaking over the loud speaker and announcing that the girls will be leading them in the Pledge of Allegiance. Look how excited Hailey looks!

Their day as principals included two field trips with the kindergartners to the zoo and park and going out to lunch with Mr. Marlowe and Mrs. Ritter to Wendy's where they had kids meals and frostys, which is a big deal for Hailey because I'm cheap and I never buy the kids meals!

Ally is a morning kindergartner so she and I got to spend the first half of the day at the zoo with Hailey.As we went around the corner this peacock was standing there and had his tail feathers spread, by the time we got the picture he was starting to put them down, but all of the kids were freaking out and didn't want to turn their back to the peacock in fear that he would charge at them if they did.This was Ally's group at the zoo, her good little friend Memphis Owen is in the front, then Kobe is behind Ally and a little boy in our ward Kaden Taylor is behind him and Hailey ringing in the back. Those other two kids happened to come over when I was taking the picture.

Here is Hailey with Megan who is wearing high shoes but is still quite a bit taller than my little Hailey! I am so proud of Hailey, I think I say that a lot, she is such a good little reader and student. Along with all of the AR points she earned, she also finished the second grade accelerated math program and went partly through the third grade program. All of that is in addition to her regular classwork which she always does very well on. Hailey loves to write and I have enjoied reading her journal entries from school as she finishes a unit and brings them home. I LOVE Hailey's teacher this year and she has done such a good job motivating her students and the best part is Hailey will get to have Mrs. Julian again next year for 3rd grade.

Simple

2010-05-18T08:09:00.003-06:00

I have a lot to blog about, but today is not going to be the day that it gets done. Since I use this as my "Journal" I wanted to record some thoughts that I have been having. This Sunday we had a Regional Stake Conference. It was really awesome and uplifting, we heard from Elder Grow of the Seventy, Barbra Thompson the second counselor in the Relief Society Presidency, Elder Hales, and President Monson. The overall thing that I felt so strongly was how simple the gospel really is. As I listened to these general authorities speak, they didn't say anything earth shattering or new, they just reiterated the basic principles of the gospel. Allan and I teach the 12-14 year old Sunday School class in our ward and every week we ask at least one question that the kids rattle off the "seminary answers" of: pray, read your scriptures, have FHE, keep the commandments, do service, listen to the prophet, etc. It really is that simple, that's what we need to know, straight from the mouths of prophets.

I had a similar experience last month at General Conference. As I listened I felt the spirit instruct me as an individual, but as I looked over my notes, I noticed the talks covered: instruction for priesthood holders(men), duties of members of the church, faith, instruction for women, families, scripture study, service, keeping the commandments, prayer, repentance, etc. Again, the basic principles of the gospel.

Here is the big question I had to ask myself, if it's so simple, why don't I do all of the things I need to do each day? The only answer I can give is that I have not made following the gospel a high enough priority in my life. I get so busy with the daily tasks of cleaning, cooking, and taking care of my children that the important things sometimes fall through the cracks. I feel like I am a good member of the church, I go to church every week and I don't do anything inherently wrong, but it seems like I go through spurts of being dedicated to prayer, scripture study, FHE, temple attendence, visiting teaching, and other day to day habits. I try to teach my children the gospel and be a good example for them, and I am so grateful that there is so much support in this endevor from family and their church leaders and teachers each week. I feel like there is so much more I could do though to be a more dedicated follower of Christ.

As I listened on Sunday, I jotted down some of the things that I felt like I could do better at in my life, (I am sure I didn't catch them all since I was sitting with 5 children) but here are the things I am going to work on making a priority every day:
Prayer
Scripture Study (individual and family)
Reading my Patriarchal Blessing
Following the Prophet
Reading the words of the Prophet
Pondering
Being more Obedient
Teaching my children about Jesus/the Gospel
Family Home Evening
Temple Attendance
Taking full advantage of the Sacrament
Seeking and Developing Gifts of the Spirit
Having a Gospel Centered Home
Service
Visiting Teaching

Now, obviously I am not going to do all of these things every day, but mostly I want to think about them daily and focus on how to make them more of a priority in my life. I think I will print off a copy of the list so that I can have it out somewhere and see it everyday. I am so grateful for the influence of the gospel in my life and for the ability to repent/re-evaluate and improve myself, I know I am not perfect and that is okay as long as I am trying to be better.

9 pictures

2010-04-27T13:14:00.001-06:00

Allan and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary yesterday, I thought it would be fun to post a picture from every year we have been married.

2001
Our Wedding Day at the San Diego Temple

2002
Our first (and only) anniversary without kids, although Hailey was definitely there.

2003
Allan graduated from BYU

2004
Allyson was born.
(I think I need to explan about this awful picture, Allan's parents and Rob and Robin had come to Florida for Ally's blessing, they got lost and missed the blessing, I was upset, to say the least, and had been crying a lot. This was the only picture we got of the 4 of us.)

2005
Allan's brother Jonathan took us to Disney World
2006

Along came Natalie.

2007
This should really be a picture of Allan graduating from Dental School, but my camera broke that day and the only pictures are on our parent's camera's and evidently I still need to get copies of them! So instead here is a picture of us on a boat a few months before that.

2008
Another baby, Lilly was born.

2009
Disney Cruise

2010
Brayden joined the family!
(Thankfully a much better picture than Ally's blessing!)

I am so grateful for the last9 years that I have spent with my wonderful husband. Allan is a great husband and father. It is crazy to think how much has changed since our wedding day but I love him now even more than I loved him back then. I knew pretty much the day I met Allan that I would marry him and I am sure glad that I did. I look forward to many more years of adventures with him!

Lilly Turns 2!

2010-04-19T17:30:00.000-06:00

Lilly had her birthday on Saturday April 17th!When she got up and I asked her what she wanted for breakfast, she went to the fridge, and got out the ingredients for quesadillas and also a cheese stick. Silly girl, but it's her birthday so that's what she got!

We had Ally's first soccer game that morning so we went to that first. Speaking of Ally, she has lost her first two teeth in the last little bit and I keep forgetting to take a picture and blog about it, so here it is!

For lunch we went out for Chinese food at one of our favorite restaurants. (Allan is Ally's coach, notice his matching jersey)

Here is every one waiting to get their food.

Lilly loves chicken and rice!

But.. she was too tired to finish it!

After lunch we met some friends who were going to the zoo. This is the new baby zebra, only 7 days old!

Hadley and Lilly are good little friends.

After the zoo we went to Tautphus Park.

Everyone had a great time.

Even Daddy and Brayden.

After the park we went to get some ice cream at Sundaes.

We took that picture, but Lilly was mad because Allan set the car seat down on her high chair.

She got over it though when the ice cream came.

That night we made Lilly a little treat, but she was so tired she threw herself down on the floor before she realized we were giving her a treat.

Pretty much she is already acting like a typical 2 year old with mood swings all over the place.

The next day we had a party for her with Allan's family and I made these cakes for her. I am really excited about how they turned out!

Once again, Lilly was in a mood so Allan had to hold her while we sang Happy Birthday and she blew out her candles.

Everyone was very excited to pick which piece of the cakes they wanted!

Lilly is a very cute little girl. Like I said, her moods are kind of all over the place, and she is still in that stage where she knows what she wants, but can't always communicate what that is. She is getting to be a big talker. Lilly loves her sisters and brother. When they come home she runs and gives them hugs, and when Brayden is crying, and even when he is not she always wants to help. The only exception is when she is tired and grumpy and wants me to put the baby down and hold her, but usually a couple of minutes is all it takes to put her in a better mood. She likes to run and jump and be outside. Lilly loves to dance and sing, and anything to do with music. She is always trying to keep up with whatever the big kids are doing. Lilly also has a mind of her own, and when it's set on something there is pretty much no changing it. I still have more issues with her sleeping than any of my other kids, she doesn't like to go to bed, or stay asleep for very long. Lilly loves to get stuff out, but most of the time is pretty good about putting it away. She always wants to be held if I am in the kitchen, and seems to have a sixth sense to need attention when I am busy.

Brayden Smiles!

2010-04-15T20:08:00.003-06:00

Brayden has actually been smiling for close to a month, he started doing it a lot around Allan's birthday. HE'S SO CUTE!!!!

Summer Slim Down-Biggest Loser Competition

2010-04-14T13:02:00.002-06:00

Hello Everyone! In an attempt to motivate myself and my husband, I have decided to start a friendly biggest loser competition. Here's some basics on how it will be run. It's going to be on your honor and no weight loss enhancers, just diet and exercise.

1. It will be an 8 week competition running from April 19-June 13 based on % body weight lost.
2. Anyone wishing to participate turn in your starting weight and $20 to me by Sunday April 18th at midnight either by phone or e-mail.
3. There will be 4 weigh ins total, one every other week: May 2, 16, and 30, and June 13. You can weigh yourself anytime Friday, Saturday, or Sunday and turn in your weight by Sunday at midnight.
3. Weigh yourself on the same scale wearing the same thing each time, no shoes. (or close to, i.e. shorts and a t-shirt)
4. For each of the 3 weigh ins prior to the final, a $10 prize will be awarded to the person with the highest % weight loss during that 2 weeks.
4. Anyone who loses a total of 10% or more of their body weight will get $10 back.
6. At the final weigh in, the top 3 people will get the rest of the prize money divided 50%-first place, 30%-second place, and 20%-3rd place.

This is open to all my friends/family and their friends, it doesn't matter where you live. I will be the only person who knows the actual weights and will only send out information with everyone's % weight lost.

So tell anyone you know who might be interested, the more people we get, the higher the prize money will be and everyone has the chance to get at least half of their money back! If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail or call me.

Random Happenings-Part 2

2010-04-13T12:55:00.003-06:00

So a funny thing happened. I told you I keep borrowing my mother-in-law's camera, well, she went to Walgreens and printed out the pictures and had them wipe her card and didn't get a CD. I was pretty much devastated because I keep all of my pictures digitally and was now going to be missing all those lovely pictures. Well, I have the most awesome mother-in-law ever, and she called Walgreens who still had the pictures in their system and had them make up a CD for me! YEA!!This is Ally and Natalie in their coustumes for Copelia, they were "floppy dolls". Ally sort of audits Natalie's pre-ballet class at the request of the teacher, because the kids in there are 3 and 4, she likes having a bigger girl to be a helper.
This was Ally in her "fan doll" costume. You may have noticed that they didn't have shoes on in either of these pictures and that is because Allan took them over while I finished getting myself ready, and in all of the confusion their ballet bag got left at home...oh well.
My kids love their cousins. They have 20 of the best cousins they could ask for, ranging in age from 10 months to 18 years old. The older ones are all amazing, talented, wonderful examples for my kids and the younger ones are great friends to play with! This is Hailey and her cousin Anna.
Here is Natalie swinging with her cousin Ty.
Here is Hailey and Ally with Anna and Asa. Below is Lilly after getting her bucket for the easter egg hunt.
Here are all of the "little" cousins getting ready for their Easter egg hunt. Easter is a very fun holiday at the Staker house. There are 3 egg hunts, a younger kid one, an older kid one, and a "really older kid" one for the moms and dads! I know I have mentioned before that after the hunts we go into the "store" in the basement and pick prizes and toys!
Hailey hunting for eggs.
Ally hunting for eggs.
Natalie hunting for eggs.
Lilly hunting for eggs.
Brayden's easter basket.
This next one is Natalie helping her cousin Josh find his eggs, my girls all love Josh!I have a bunch more pictures of the egg hunts, I should really make a slide show of them all, but for now, I'll call that good. That day we also celebrated Allan and Jenilee's birthdays.
Allan and his sister Jenilee have birthdays eight years minus one day apart. Allan likes to tell everyone that when he was born his sister cried until her birthday. You see, I guess he must have been born pretty late in the evening, and the doctor told the family that HE was going to be a SHE. Jeni is the only girl and was pretty upset to find out that she got a 5th brother instead of a sister! I think she got over it, although I hear stories about her taking Allan to church in a dress!

Random Happenings-Part 1

2010-04-06T10:12:00.000-06:00

I was looking at our pictures and realized, there is a lot I haven't blogged about lately. So I figured I should post some pictures and a little update. This is part one because I have also been forgetting my camera a lot and have been borrowing Allan's parents so I have to borrow their card and get some more pictures on here!
Way back (I think sometime in February) we had a Barnes and Noble fundraiser and my kids sang. Above is a picture I took of Ally after they were done singing and if you look below you will see why.
One of the disadvantages of having short kids is that you can't see them in a crowd. For some reason they never plan out performances very well and my kids are always behind really tall kids! This is the best picture I got of Ally over that kid's shoulder!
So when Hailey's class was filing in I took a picture of her before the tall kid came and stood in front of her. lol. Luckily she was on the end and we were on that side so she kind of directed her performance towards us.
Here's a little bit about Lilly....
Lilly is a little mischievous. On this particular day she used the step stool to climb up on the counter and get herself a piece of bread.
Then she grabbed a plate and sat down on the counter to have a little snack.
Lilly loves her brother, I can't really keep her away from him. I have found her in his crib, if he is on the floor she is always on top of him, and when he is in the swing she opens it up to give him loves.
Another day I put her hair in her first full ponytail. It's really hard to get a picture of the ponytail from the front so here are two views. this was towards the end of the day so it's falling out a little bit.
Lilly has been on this no diaper kick. I put her in a onsie to sleep, but it doesn't seem to make a difference!
Really she is on a no clothes at all kick, she loves to strip down and walk around in just her boots for some reason.
Hailey, Ally, and Natalie's ballet did a performance in March. This is one of the times I forgot my camera so I only have a picture of Hailey because she was in the evening performance as well as the matinee so I took my camera then. I will post pictures of Ally and Natalie soon.
Now a little bit about the boys...
I just thought that picture was so cute, I workout every morning at 6 with a couple of girls. One day I heard Brayden crying while we were working out. When I finished I found Allan and him like this.
Brayden has the saddest little sad face. This is my attempt at capturing it, in real life it's even sadder than this.
Allan turned 31! We had a couple of our very best friends, the Laytons and The Pettingills over to help us celebrate. Allan isn't a huge fan of cake so instead I made Tuxedo Brownie Bites. I made Allan a super big one for his "birthday cake"
As you can see he is very upset about turning 31. Okay, not really, but this was a funny look, you can see by the next picture he has some serious mood swings!
This was the morning after the Easter Bunny came to our house, as you can tell Lilly wasn't quite ready to see what she got.
Lilly quickly warmed up when she saw her sisters going through their baskets. By the way incase you are wondering, it's really hard to get a picture of all 5 kids looking let alone smiling at the camera. After about 20 pictures this one actually has them all looking. Maybe soon I will learn to photo shop and can fix it so the best face of each of them is the one you see.
And lastly another lovely surprise this morning! I don't know how well you can actually see, but this is the walkway up to our house, the show drift was over a foot high!
I opened up the door in the back to get a picture of the back yard and had a lovely present!
And Meesa, yes this is our back yard, two of our neighbors don't have fences which works out greatly to our advantage. The second swing set is in the back neighbors yard, and the neighbors to the side have a sand box. This added to the fact that their families have 5 and 3 kids makes for an instant park in the back yard complete with friends to play with!
So, if you are still reading I guess you stuck out my rediculously long blog. Make sure to come back for part 2 which promises more pictures from the Ballet, an Easter Egg Hunt, Allan and his sister Jeni celebrating their birthdays together, and a picture of my kids with my Grandparents from our trip to Utah for Easter and maybe more!

April Fools!

2010-04-01T14:45:00.003-06:00

Mother Nature played a little April Fools joke on us. Literally less than an hour ago I said to my mom, "We don't have any snow on the ground here." Oh well, what did I expect? We do live in Idaho after all!

Quick Weight Loss Update

2010-03-23T13:45:00.002-06:00

Well, I said I would update the blog world on my progress once a month, so here I am. I am not going to take a picture because I still look the same.....Maybe I will take a picture every 3 months just to see if I look any different.

This last month has gone okay. I have lost 4 lbs, which is what I said I need to lose, so that was good. I have worked out 5 days a week for the last 3 weeks. (since Brayden was 6 weeks old) I have been trying to keep track of my calories and eat right, and did pretty good for a couple of weeks, then the last two I have kind of been slacking off and also not watching my portion sizes as well as I should. I have such a hard time reducing what I eat when I am breastfeeding. I am hungry all the time and snack on junk all day long, a big disadvantage to being a stay at home mom!

This next month I am going to try and make sure I have healthy low calorie snacks around for when I want a snack. I am also going to try and drink even more water so I maybe don't feel as hungry. I drink quite a bit anyway because breastfeeding makes me thirsty, but I would like to be better about constantly drinking water rather than waiting till I am thirsty. I also need to be better about not taking seconds at meals, I know this one thing could reduce the calories I am eating by 200-300 calories a day, but sometimes dinner (or dessert) just tastes so yummy I want more!

Okay, time for your participation: leave a comment and let me know what your favorite low calorie snacks are!

Brayden's 2 Months Old

2010-03-22T07:55:00.000-06:00

Time has flown by since Brayden has been born. I am sure it is because we stay so busy. As sad as it sounds, I think the hardest thing about having 5 kids these days is that I am always forgetting one of them. I picked up my kids from Zoe's house the other day, and left Brayden. I was dropping the 3 big girls off at their dress rehearsal another day and started down the stairs before I realized I had left Lilly watching the movie where I had put her while I was getting the girls settled. Ally was playing at a friends house and I forgot to pick her up for about 45 minutes (she thought it was great b/c she had dinner with her friend). I could go on and on, I am hoping it will kick in soon and I will stop forgetting my kids! Anyway, back to Brayden.We had Brayden's check up Friday, he is growing great! He weighed 10 lbs 15 oz and is 22 1/2 inches long. He is starting to be very alert when he is awake. He prefers it to be noisy (go figure, with four older sisters!) He can lift his head while lying on his tummy. He is starting to sleep 5-6 hours at night. I have recently found that the blanket I swaddle him in matters a lot, he is so strong that he can get out of most of his blankets and he would wake up every 2-4 hours, but I have found a choice few that he stays wrapped up all night and it has made a huge difference.Brayden is really a pretty good baby, he can get a little fussy at times and would like to be held all the time if possible, but he is learning that is not going to happen. For the last month he has had a little cold that started out as a little stuffy nose, then got worse, then he had a cough with it and sounded kind of yucky, and now he is finally shaking it off. I was hesitent to take him to the doctor because they can't do much, but when it got worse I took him in to make sure. His lungs were totally clear and his oxygen saturation was at 100%! Brayden is a total boy, he burps and farts way louder and more often than my girls did, which I think is funny. We love having a little boy in our home!

How Hailey Finally Got Her Own Room (for a short time anyway)

2010-03-16T10:04:00.001-06:00

Sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) I complain about Hailey. She is so different than me, and challenges me in so many ways, but the truth is, it must be hard being the oldest of 5. She has been sharing a room with at least one person since before she was 2 years old. She has the most and the hardest chores, and does them the best and most consistently. I expect a ton from her academically and have pushed her to do her very best. I have asked so much from her from the very beginning and she is a wonderful child. Lately she has been AMAZING, like a whole different child. I am not going to say she never has her moments, but I feel like there is light at the end of a two year emotional tunnel! Before Brayden was born I decided that I would move the toys downstairs and put some kids in the "toy room." At that point I "decided" but didn't do anything about it. Our basement has been a total mess for 2 years. When we moved in we put a bunch of stuff down there and as we needed things we would go and open boxes and look for this or that and we would take things down there we weren't using and let the kids go down and play with things like playdough and we have food storage down there and basically everything exploded onto the 1700 square feet of cement. Anyway, long story short, it wasn't something I was ready to tackle pregnant. A few weeks ago I decided the time had come and I spent a whole week down there going through and organizing everything. It's amazing the difference, but really not what this post is supposed to be about. Then I moved all of the toys downstairs and made a play area in the basement. It's really nice for the kids and I don't get nearly the flow of toys into my family room that I used to get.

When I started doing all of this, I knew I wanted to move Brayden in there eventually, but didn't know which of the girls or how many of them I would move in with him. At first I thought maybe Lilly and Natalie because they were the youngest and just split them up older and younger. Then I thought Ally because she is probably my deepest sleeper and that way if Brayden was crying in the night it might not bother her. Finally I decided Hailey would be the one. She is after all the oldest so if anyone was going to be getting new furniture and a new room it should be her.(there are positives to being the oldest as well as the afore mentioned negatives) Plus I have been thinking she needs her own space, and I was right. We told her that she would be sharing with Brayden in a little bit and if his crying bothers her we may have to change things around but for now Hailey gets the room.The first night after I moved the toys downstairs and got the room all scrubbed down, we still didn't have any furniture for her, so we told her she could sleep on a crib mattress in the new room or she could sleep in the room with her sisters one last time. As you can see Hailey and all of her "friends" made the change as soon as possible. The next day she and Allan went to the store to get the bed we had found in an ad. We went through the ads and found a couple of options. Turned out the one we originally liked only came with a headboard and no frame so we went with our second choice (which I am now happy we did.) Unfortunately our second choice was out of stock at the store here in Idaho Falls and the sale was ending that day with no rain checks. We called up Allan's sister in Pocatello and she went to the store and bought the bed for us! (Thank goodness for our wonderful family) This meant a few more nights of sleeping on the crib mattress, but it was well worth it.Hailey has loved having her own room. She has decorated it a bit with her things placed just how she wants them. Most mornings she gets up and makes her bed right away and straightens her things. She does her homework on her bed, and gets to stay up later than everyone and read without worrying about having her light on and bothering her little sisters. Back to my first comments, I am not sure if it is having her own room and space that is making her have a better attitude and be more helpful all around, but she has been a dream kid since moving into her room a couple of weeks ago.

I want to write a few things about Hailey. She is so smart. She has been reading chapter books since first grade and is now reading fourth grade level books in second grade. She probably reads anywhere from 3-5 chapter books a week as well as several short books. She has been working on an accelerated math program that her school has and passed off over 110 objectives and is now doing multiplication and division, fractions, weights and measurements, and much more! She is super helpful around the house and with her siblings. She loves to unload the dishwasher and help fold and put away laundry. She cleans her own room, of course, but is also incharge of keeping the kids bathroom clean. She almost always helps clean up the toy room even when she has been at school all day while her sisters made the mess. She will walk Brayden around when he is fussy and she is big enough that I don't have to worry about her dropping him or something like that. She is really obedient. An example of this is 25c Fridays. The kids can take $ and buy treats. Anyway, Hailey is allowed to take $1 a week if she has been good, but sometimes she loses quarters. She takes the $ out of her little bank each week and puts it in her wallet, and every week she only takes what she is supposed to, so if she lost 2 quarters, she will only take 50c. She does what she is told, although sometimes not quickly she just needs to understand why and then do it in her own time.

Well this is getting a little long (or a lot) but the point is I love Hailey and I am so grateful to have her in our family. Like I said she is different than me, but it helps me to learn and grow, all of my kids are different and present different challenges and blessings. Hailey is such a special girl!

Kristy's Award Winning Chili!

2010-03-05T20:40:00.004-07:00

Tonight our ward had a chili cook-off and cake auction as a fundraiser for the scouts. I took my chili and didn't expect anything to come of it, but I won first place. It was kind of fun to win! Anyway, a few people asked for the recipe so I thought I would post it here for anyone who wants it.

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 small chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon chili powder
salt and pepper
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can creamed corn
1 quart diced tomatoes (I use my jarred tomatoes from my garden or you can use 2-16 oz cans from the store)
3/4 cup salsa (again I use my jarred salsa, just use your favorite salsa)
1 tablespoon southwest seasoning mix

Directions
In skillet brown ground beef, onion, and garlic, with chili powder and salt and pepper. Drain off excess fat. Add tomatoes. Transfer to a stock pot and stir in remaining ingredients. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer. I add a little bit more chili powder at this point to taste. I usually serve it with some sour cream and shredded cheese, I was also thinking it would be yummy on some baked potatoes!

This is a super quick and easy recipe. It can be ready in about 15 minutes. I simmered it for about a half an hour just because that was when it was time to go. It is a great recipe for families with kids because it is mild, but I think it has really good flavor too.

Pizza For Sam

2010-02-28T21:05:00.002-07:00

Ally's teacher asked her and two other kids to bring a couple of books and read to the class for centers on Thursday February 18th. Ally brought Pizza For Sam and Biscuit Finds A Friend, two of her favorite books. Ally has been reading a little bit for a long time and is getting better everyday. Her teacher also had me check out books from the school library for her to start taking AR tests. I am so proud of what a good reader she is!

Countdown to 30!

2010-02-25T15:48:00.007-07:00

Tuesday was my 29th birthday. I am not upset about turning 30 next year, probably partly because I am the youngest in our family and it's just not that big of a deal to me.

I have this goal to weigh 130 (or less) on my 30th birthday. On my 29th birthday (5 weeks after having Brayden I weigh 170. So that being said I have 52 weeks to lose 40 lbs. This works out well because I am all for losing weight scientifically (calories in and calories out, -500 calories a day =-3500 calories or 1 lb. a week.) It's a slow process, but I can't deprive myself of more than that because:
1. I am breastfeeding and will lose my milk if I don't eat.
2. I am a grouchy girl when I am hungry.
3. I believe this is the healthiest way to lose weight and keep it off. (although I always get pregnant and gain again, but you get the idea.)

I am not big into dieting, so as Allan would say, the most successful way to lose weight is to eat less and move more. I try to have small snacks throughout the day so I don't get too hungry. That's the plan, simple as that.

This is me now, my cousin gets to be in my before picture because this is the most recent picture I have.

I track my calories on a nifty spread sheet that a friend of mine gave me. Somewhere she learned that 90% of women burn 11 calories for each pound that they weigh just doing normal activities (not including exercising). So basically you multiply your weight and 11 and you know how many calories you burn. I then get to add 500 because I am breastfeeding. So in a day I burn 2370 calories with out exercising. Then when I exercise depending on how long and what I am doing, I add those calories to the total. My goal is to each day eat between 500 and 1000 calories less than that number and I should lose 1-2 lbs. a week.

I am only writing about this because I think I will hold myself more accountable if people know about my goal. I am going to update "the blog" each month on my progress.

Presidents Day Weekend

2010-02-25T14:28:00.005-07:00

Can you guess where we went?It seems like all of my trips are quick these days! Since a week before Allan graduated (May 2007) I have gone to 3 weddings and my high school reunion all resulting in less than a week away from home! Another interesting fact is that I was pregnant on 3 of those trips.

This trip was no different, Brayden and I flew to California on Saturday and flew home on Monday, all to see my awesome cousin Laura and her family. Laura's husband Doug is in the Air Force and has been stationed in Germany for almost a year. When they found out they were going to be coming to California on leave I was disappointed because the timing was really bad for me, but I found a way to go and see them anyway with the help of my parents who let me use a flight voucher and my mom stayed in CA to pick me up and chauffeur me around, and also my amazing husband who stayed home with the four girls, and got them ready for church all by himself!

I had a wonderful time hanging out with everyone. Besides Laura, Doug and the kids(Grant, Levi, and Ezra), we also got to see her parents (Aunt Linda and Uncle Kevin) and sister (Briana) and twin brothers (Dayan and Devin), and her other sister and her family (Lacie, Jessie, and their kids Elliot, Sophia and Ruthie) . Here's the kicker, all 15 of them were staying in Lacie's 3 bedroom condo! A brave bunch to say the least, good thing they all love eachother! On Saturday we went shopping at Ontario Mills and on Sunday we went to San Dimas Canyon Park and had a picnic for Valentines Day. The funny thing is this is a park I grew up going to all the time but Jessie and Doug were so excited because they "discovered this cool new park."

I also squeezed in some time to see two of my best friends Beth (and her daughter Kayla) and Natalie on Saturday night, and went to church in the ward I grew up in on Sunday morning. It was fun returning "home" and seeing everyone, and strange how the ward was practically the same with a few new faces. Another weird thing was hearing about the kids I used to babysit being on missions, being in college and getting married, although those people I used to babysit for were all pretty shocked that I could have 5 kids as well.

Sweet Lilly

2010-02-22T13:45:00.002-07:00

Lilly has gotten to my very favorite age, I love 18 months to about 2-1/2 or so. This is when they are really starting to talk and come into their own personality. They are independent, but not disobedient. Of course part of finding her independence seems to be fighting going to sleep and getting upset if we help her into the car or make her change her shoes when she is wearing the wrong ones, but I don't mind because I know she is just growing up and learning to make decisions for herself.
Lilly is so helpful right now, sometimes this is more fun than other times. She wants to help no matter what I am doing. She runs and gets me diapers when Brayden needs changed. She loves to help me make dinner and every afternoon she likes to sit on the counter-top and help me stir or whatever I will let her do. Of course I have to be super careful that she doesn't burn or cut herself because she wants to be involved in everything.
Lilly loves her baby brother. The other night I found her sleeping on him. She likes to hold him, but usually only for a few seconds which I don't mind. (When Ally was this age, she wanted to hold the baby for hours, and of course you can't let a two year old hold a baby without constant supervision!) She is super concerned whenever he makes any noise and runs to tell me "baby crying." She also loves her big sisters, every time they come home from school or lessons she runs to the door and gives them a big hug. She wants to be just like them and do whatever they are doing. Another night she fell asleep like this, I thought it was so adorable! She is so sensitive and gets so sad if she has done something she wasn't supposed to. To me this is age is exactly what King Benjamin meant when he said, "..becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things.." I am so grateful to have my little Lilly as a sweet example in our home!

Brayden's Blessing Day

2010-02-20T11:57:00.002-07:00

What a handsome little guy!

Allan blessed Brayden at church on February 7th. All of our immediate family was able to be there except Allan's brother's family in Arizona and his sister's husband who is a bishop in Pocatello and couldn't miss church. After church we all went over to Allan's parents house and had dinner and watched the super bowl. Well actually, the boys watched the game and the girls played a game of our own (Pinochle) We are so lucky to have such a wonderful family and to live so close to many of them. One of the things I love is since Allan is the baby in his family, my kids have lots of older cousins who set amazing examples for them.

Here is the first picture of our family together. I was glad to get one with everyone looking!

One of those rare moments!

2010-02-19T08:52:00.005-07:00

This is Brayden right now!

For some reason I thought having a new baby would be easy, I mean I've done it four times before right? In my head I thought I will have lots of time for things like keeping my house clean and blogging and helping my kids with their homework and making meals. I must have forgotten that new babies want to eat 24/7 and on the rare occasion they are not eating they are pooping or spitting up, or crying because they want to be held. Luckily they also do sleep from time to time, so in that little bit of time I try to get as much done as possible. They say, "nap when the baby naps" but with four other kids, that's not happening, so I am pretty much a zombie, a cranky, ready to burst into tears any second zombie. All of that being said, I am so glad he is here, and I would much rather be a zombie than pregnant, for now anyway. Brayden is one month old today, and the last month has been in one word: busy. Lots of fun things have happened that I would love to take the time to blog about, but instead, I am going to put the computer down and do some laundry, and dishes, and pay attention to my kids, and hopefully someday soon I will find some time to catch my blog up!

Answers!

2010-02-13T15:51:00.000-07:00

1-Natalie
2-Hailey
3-Lilly
4-Brayden
5-Ally

Congrats to Janae for getting them all right! Thanks for playing along everyone!

Natalie is Four!

2010-02-11T14:07:00.005-07:00

Natalie actually turned four 6 days before I had Brayden, and I was so busy trying to get everything ready that I never posted about her birthday. Natalie is our little princess. She loves everything girly: dressing up, makeup, accessories, shoes, pink, etc. She informs us, she would like to be a princess when she grows up and marry a prince. She thinks when I say things like go clean up, I could not possibly be talking to her, that's what her servants (Hailey and Ally) are for. She is a master at finding out what will bug her sisters and then doing it. Natalie can also be very sweet and loving and she is pretty much too cute for her own good!
On Sunday (between the birthdays), we celebrated both Ally's and Natalie's birthdays at Grandma Staker's house. Aunt Robin made special cupcakes for the occasion.
Natalie has been wanting to go to Leo's for her birthday for a very long time.
We invited her cousins Ty and Matthew to come along with us. They are just a few months older than Natalie.
The next day preschool was at my house and so I planned a birthday party for Natalie during school. Natalie also wanted to invite two of her best friends Sarah and Savanna (who both live "in our backyard" as the kids would say)
Natalie of course wanted a princess party, but since there are 4 boys in her preschool, I tried to nutralize the party as much as possible. We made crowns and played games like Freeze Waltz, Hot Balloon, and Frog, Frog, Prince!
Then we had cupcakes and opened presents. Natalie had such a great time with her friends.
After the party Ally came home from school and Spencer and Hadley came over while Zoe went to help in Maddie's class and they threw all of the balloons into the bottom of the stairs and played in them and then popped them all. It was great fun.
Natalie asks me almost everyday when her other birthday is and I let her know it will be her birthday again on January 13. She gets very excited about this, too bad 11 months in kid time is a very long way away!

Which Baby Is It?

2010-01-30T13:29:00.002-07:00

This is a game I like to play with Allan as we watch the pictures scroll through our screen saver. Because most of our kids look very similar at their respective ages. Anyway, today I was backing up all of our pictures on a removable hard drive and the girls were looking at their old baby pictures. I honestly can't tell you if I would have gotten them right if I didn't pull them out of their folders. Can you tell (or guess) which baby is which?

4

5

I'll give you a little hint by telling you all of their weights.
Hailey-9lbs 3oz
Ally-7lbs 12oz
Natalie-9lbs
Lilly-7lbs 15oz
Brayden-7lbs 2oz

I'll post the answers in 2 weeks.