Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! We have had a very busy December and I wanted to share with you some of our fun events.

Decorating for Christmas

Ko-ko

My mom's birthday was on December 7th. I loved her train cake!

At Kory's family Christmas party. His sister is reading "The Night Before Christmas" I loved how Skylar is so intent on the story she has her mouth wide open! Hee Hee!

Getting ready for the Christmas Parade. Before the kids get to open their presents they march around the gym following Grandma. It is so cute to watch them all march around. Grandma loves it, and so do the kids!

Holland asleep at the party. He was not feeling well and I was so glad my niece was able to get him to sleep, unfortunately it didn't last long.

I loved this picture because it captures the madness that happens when all the kids open their presents. Kory's mom and dad give gifts to all the Grandkids and great Grandkids. They say 1, 2, 3 - go. Everyone starts opening presents! Those not opening presents take pictures. It is total chaos for about 10 minutes.

Holland just discovered the fun of a laundry basket.

On top of all the fun, we have also been sick. We have had pink eye, colds, and the flu. We are trying very hard to get better!

We are excited for Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year!

Happy Sinterklass Day!

Today is St. Nicolaas' Birthday. Kory's Grandma came to the states from the Netherlands and so every year we celebrate "Dutch Christmas" or Sinterklass Day. Hope you all have a great day!

Cure for a Bad day!

If this doesn't make you smile, nothing will!

Random

Some random things I have been thinking about....

I need some ideas of good books to read. My book club is choosing books for next year in a couple of weeks and I don't have any ideas of what to suggest.

I need some ideas for neighbor gifts. I don't want to spend a lot of time or money.

Holland is getting ready to crawl. The last couple of days he is getting up on his hands and knees and rocking. I hope he doesn't start until after Christmas, so I can take my tree down first. He already rolls over to it and pulls on the bottom branches.

You may be wondering what this is a picture of. It is just ONE of the clumps of hair that Kortnie decided to cut from her hair - of course the day before family pictures!

CrAzY!

I just have to start out by saying that anyone who has twins must be a SAINT!

I have seven kids today. 2 babies (a 6 month old, and a 9 month old), 2 three year olds, and 3 five year olds. Suffice it to say I want to pull my hair out.

So you must be thinking, "If she has all those kids, how is she finding time to blog?" Well the truth is I needed an outlet so that I don't lose my patience. I finally got the two babies to sleep, fed all the older kids, and am now trying to get them to have some "quiet time". I don't think they know the meaning of quiet!

Well one of them is crying, so I must get back to the zoo that is my house!

Happy 5th Birthday Skylar!

October Fun.....in November

Okay, so I am a little behind on my posts. I have been so busy I have not had time to update for awhile and have had a lot to talk about. This may be a long post, but it will be mostly pictures, so hopefully not too much to read!

Two weekends ago some of my girlfriends and I had a girls weekend. We went to a condo in Midway and talked, painted our toe nails, digi-scrapped, watched chick flicks, and went shopping. It was a blast. It was nice to have a break and get away.

This is a picture of the pumpkins we painted this year for Halloween. I let the girls do it all on their own and when they came and told me they were done this is what they looked like. Skylar's is the white one and Kortnie's is the other. I watched Kortnie try to paint hers and she kept painting it with the water. I asked if she wanted to add any colors and she told me she already had. She was so proud.

These are some pictures of the kids at Engh Gardens. They had a pirate ship, a maze, lots of pumpkins, and other fun Halloween decorations. The weather was perfect. We went with my friend Adrienne and her kids, they had a great time.

Skylar's preschool Halloween program. They sang some great songs for us.

Kortnie as Princess Liana - I took like ten pictures of her. I could not get her to look at the camera!

Holland as our little frog!

Skylar the Super Hero - Go Wonder Woman! (She was showing me how wonder woman flies.)

I have also been doing more canning, and will be doing even more this week. Should be fun, I am doing pumpkin - yum!

Holland got his second tooth yesterday. We are glad it finally came, but now I think he is getting sick or one of his top ones is trying to come through - we will see.

Sorry for the extra long post. Hope you all are doing well.

Life is Good

After complaining my entire last post I thought I should be a little more grateful this time!

5 things I am thankful for since my last post.

1. Being tired after a fun day of play!

2. A beautiful Autumn day to go see the witches with my kids.


3. My soccer star who scored two goals in her last game!


4. My handsome boys! Thanks for all you do for me Kory!

5. Dancing, dress-up, and an evil twin sister - It's what family parties are all about!

I am very blessed and thankful for all I have. Most of all I am thankful that we are all healthy again! I am the luckiest girl ever.

Absolutely CRAPTASTIC!

So the last couple of days have not been the best here at our house. My saga starts on Saturday night when Kory and I thought it would be fun to take the girls and go out to dinner. Like most of you we are on a budget and we don't eat out very often, but we had some gift certificates to a restaurant we have never tried and thought it would be a good night to try them out. So we packed up all the kids and went to go eat. Dinner was great (except for the fact that Kortnie didn't like anything they had). Well we go to pay our bill and find out that this restaurant has been sold and they are no longer accepting the gift certificates that Kory and I had. WHAT!!! Apparently there was a sign on the door when we came in, but neither Kory or I saw it. So CRAPPY! We thought we had a free dinner and ended up having to pay $60.00! We were both so upset after that.
Well we went from there to get the girls Halloween costumes. I have been meaning to get them sooner, it just never worked out. Well we got to the store and they had lots of costumes, but of course not the ones my girls wanted. Skylar originally wanted to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast, but they have nothing so she decides to be Wonder Woman. To make a long story longer, after paying so much for dinner we decide we don't want to pay $30.00 for a cheap Wonder Woman costume. Luckily Kory and I remember our neighbor was Wonder Woman last year and I think she will let me borrow the costume. So we start looking for Kortnie. I can't believe how much the stores want to charge for a flimsy, cheap piece of material! Well she finds a princess Liana costume. (This is one of the princesses from the new Barbie Diamond Castle movie). Anyway we buy it for her, but I am so frustrated with Halloween because I spent money on a stupid costume that no one is going to see because it is so thin I will have to cover it up in order for her to stay warm! UGHHH!
Well to top the evening off we get home and Kory wakes up at about 2:00 am just sick as a dog! I have known Kory for almost 10 years now and I can't remember him ever throwing up since I met him. Well let me tell you he was worshipping that toilet! YUCK! He was in bed all day. So I took all three kids to church so that he could have some piece and quiet. Luckily it was a short lived bug and he was filling much better by yesterday morning.
To end the saga, last night was Canadian Thanksgiving. Kory's sister-in-law is from Canada and every year they hold Canadian Thanksgiving. So after dance and soccer we headed up to Kenny and Mandy's home. The whole way up Kortnie is complaining that her stomach hurts. Well this is nothing new, because for the last little while every time we are in the car for more than 5 minutes she complains her stomach hurts. We get to Kenny and Mandy's and as soon as we are out of the car - yup, Kortnie pukes all over the side walk. Unfortunately it was not just car sickness. She was up all night super sick. POOR GIRL! And now Holland is acting all lethargic. He is not showing the same signs as Kory and Kortnie, but he is not is usual self this morning. Lets hope he is feeling better soon.
Cross your fingers that Skylar and I stay healthy! And don't come around for a couple of days, I don't want to get anyone sick!

Fun Weekend

This weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday the kids and I went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving point for a field trip with Skylar's Preschool. It was a lot of fun to see all the kids get excited about the different dinosaurs. I would like to go back again when Kory can come with us.


From there we went to my friend Adrienne's, uncles house to pick grapes. We are making our own grape juice. It is really easy and kind of fun. We are planning on doing applesauce next. If anyone has an apple tree and is not going to use the apples, let me know! I am looking for apples at a good price! (free is always best!)

Then Sunday during General Conference, Kory and I decided to listen to the second session in the car as we went and drove the Alpine Loop. The fall colors were breathtaking! I love to drive through the mountains during the fall. We are so lucky to live by such beautiful scenery.

We live in such a beautiful world! It was perfect to listen to conference while seeing such wonderful sights. Our Heavenly Father truly loves us. Wasn't conference great!


My beautiful daughters!

Ronald Returns!

Monday night Ronald returned. The kids were so excited to see him. I am not sure why because anytime anything goes wrong it is always Ronald's fault. They still love him though.

Welcome home Ronald!

We love Halloween!

A night with my mom and some hot boys!

Yes, it is true. My mom and I spent the evening with some very hot and talented guys last night. Their names are Joshua, Will, Twitch, Mark, Thayne, and my favorite Gev!




We went to the So You Think You Can Dance tour last night. It was fabulous! The top ten dancers were there, plus Thayne, Chelsea T., and Comfort. They were fantastic. It was so fun to see our favorite dances from the season in person. The energy in the E-center was just amazing. The crowd was so excited, and so loud! (I must be getting OLD, I thought the music was too loud and ended up plugging my ears through some of the numbers.) Our seats were not very good, but we still enjoyed ourselves and the show. We both want to go again next year if they come.

All About Koko!

Check ups

On Tuesday I had Holland and Kortnie's well baby check ups. Holland is now four months old and is 14.3 pounds (50th percentile) and 26 inches long (90th percentile). He is growing so fast! Kortnie had her 3 year check up. She is 31 pounds (50th percentile) and 38 inches tall (75th percentile. I have been worried that she might be slightly behind in her development, but it looks like she is right on track or even ahead with everything. Hurray! Her birthday is tomorrow and she is so excited. We are not having a 'party' for her, but she got to pick out her ice cream for tomorrow night and it made her day. Yesterday I took her shopping for a birthday outfit (because she won't wear anything I pick out). She LOVED it. She started crying when we left the shoe store because she wanted to keep shopping. I think I might be in trouble!

Busy Week

This last week has been incredibly busy, but fun. It all started out with the purchase of three new fruit trees. I am so excited to have my own trees. It will be so fun to be able to bottle my own fruit every year. The only bad news is that I won't get good fruit for about three or four years. Still it is so fun.
Then I finally refinished my kitchen table. It looked so terrible. This picture was taken while I was working on it, but it already looks so much better then it did. I can't believe I waited so long to do this!
I have also been canning like crazy! My friend Adrienne and I have been canning peaches and pears almost non-stop for three days. It has been crazy! My hands are dyed brown from the peaches. I am so excited to have it in my food storage. We are still planning on doing marinara sauce and applesauce. It should be fun. Also, I am looking for a pressure cooker/caner (22 qt.), so if anyone sees one or is getting rid of one, let me know.
I also started teaching dance lessons at my friends dance studio. I am teaching 3-4 year olds. I have eleven girls in my class, two of them are my own girls. It is going to be an adventure. They all have so much energy. This picture is of the kids playing with dad after dance class. Kortnie had so much fun she didn't want to take her leotard off. I just bought them both ballet slippers and they love them. The only problem is that Skylar really wanted pink ones, and I made them get black.

On top of all this Kory is still doing football four days a week, and Skylar started soccer tonight. I don't know what I was thinking getting myself into all of this. Luckily things won't be so crazy every week.

Little Man!

My little guy is so cute! (I know I am the mom, but what can I say!)

Sleeping in Grandma Denos' arms.

I spiked his hair yesterday. I thought it made him look so big!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work I go!

Friday night was my first night back to work since having Holland. I have had a wonderful three and a half months of just being a mom and it has been great. However, I am sooooo glad to be back at work. It is so nice to feel like I am using my brain again. I am teaching three classes (as usual), but I get to teach some new classes this quarter. I am teaching health, dance and an ACT/SAT prep class. I have no idea what I am doing with the last class, but I came home with a stack of books about two feet high to help me prepare. I am excited to get to know my new students and I have some old faces in some of my classes which is great. I am so thankful that I have a job that I love, that allows me to be home with my kids the majority of the time, and yet get out just enough to keep my sanity. I love what I do!

The only hard thing was leaving Holland! :( At least it is only for a few hours.

Called to Serve and other happenings

My sister Melodee left on her mission on Wednesday. She will be serving in the Texas, Fort Worth mission and we are so proud of her. She will be an awesome missionary. We had the chance to spend a lot of time with her in the last couple weeks and it has been so much fun. Last Thursday we went to the Tracy Aviary with the girls and some friends of mine. Both Melodee and I enjoyed seeing the pelicans and the flamingos. We also watched the bird show and ate lunch at the park. Then on Sunday, we went and listened to her talk in church and then enjoyed dinner with the family. Tuesday night we slept at my moms, so that I could go to her setting apart. We then had breakfst with the whole family and hung out until it was time to go to the MTC. It was hard to say goodbye, but I am sure the next year and a half will go by quickly. We will all be excited when her and Matt come home safely.

In other news, Skylar started preschool last week. The saturday before she started school I took her and Kortnie to get hair cuts. It was Kortnie's first hair cut and she had so much fun getting it cut. They both got about 3 inches cut off although you can't really tell on either of them. Skylar is loving school so far, and I am loving having her in school. She goes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 2 1/2 hours. It has been good for her and Kortnie to have small breaks from each other.

Holland is growing so fast. He was three months yesterday! He just started rolling over from his back to his stomach. It is fun to watch as he develops.

Tonight is my ten year high school reunion. I am excited to see some old friends and see how people have changed. It should be fun!

Football

Yes, we are already deep into football at our house. It is only August 1st! Kory is helping coach his nephews football team and they have had practice every night this week. They will continue to practice 5 nights a week through the month of August. I think this is crazy! Why do 10-12 year old boys need to practice 5 nights a week? Is it just me or is there anyone else out there that thinks this is a little too much?

Okay, off the football rant. This week has been busy, not only because Kory has been gone every night, because I have also had a lot going on. Wednesday night a couple of my friends had a BBQ. It was good to get together, eat good food and visit. Then last night I got the privilege of going door-to-door to try and have Herriman residence sign a petition to move a large apartment complex that is going in by the new High School that is being built. It was an interesting experience and gives me a whole new respect for missionaries who go tracting and door-to-door sales. I finally got a hang of what I was doing and then our route was complete. Almost everyone was nice, but like with everything else in life we encountered extremes.

Can't wait for Breaking Dawn to come out tonight! If you are not a Twilight fan, you should be - read the books, they are lots of fun.

Memories

Memory game! I got this from Rachel's blog and it sounds fun, so everyone do it!
1. As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Too Excited!

I am so excited for August 2nd to come around. Why, you might be saying?
Well it just so happens that two awesome things happen this day. Yes, not just one, but two.

First - So You Think You Can Dance tour tickets go on sale. I can't wait! I have been watching this show for four seasons now and they have never come to Utah on tour. This year they are coming and I am so excited! I have already told Kory I am going. Can't wait to see all my favorites from this season.

Second - Breaking Dawn comes out this day. I don't know how many of you are Twilight fans, but I am very excited for book four. I will hopefully be reading all weekend! Love it!

Boring Blog, San Francisco, 4th of July and Dress Up

I apologize that my blog has been neglected lately. Usually when it gets neglected it is because life is boring and I can't think of anything to write about. This time it is because life has been busy and I just haven't had time.





Last week Kory went to San Francisco for four days for his sisters wedding and the fourth of July. The three kids and I got to stay home alone because I didn't want to travel with Holland and he is too young to leave. It was so hard to have three kids by myself. I don't know how single parents do it. I rely so much on Kory's help. I did luck out though, my mom called on Thursday night and asked if I wanted her to take the girls for a sleep over. Of course I said YES! So the girls slept at Grandma's Thursday night and left me home alone with Holland. It was nice to have some help, Thanks Grandma Ann!





On the 4th of July some of my family came to my house for dinner and then we went to Riverton park to see fireworks. It was so nice to have family around and the fireworks show was awesome. Skylar and Holland loved it. Kortnie couldn't sit still long enough to watch, but I think she had fun. My brother Mike and his wife Amy came in from Ohio and it was so fun to have them around for fireworks.

The Gang at Riverton Park





I have told you before, but Kortnie is obsessed with dressing up. I got this picture a couple of days ago. I especially love the shoes.


And of course because I took a picture of Kortnie, Skylar needed her picture taken too. She likes to pose for the camera. Can you tell?

Imaginary Friend?

Skylar has made a new friend. She told me the other day that she has a ghost friend, but she is a nice ghost. I asked if she was an angel and Skylar said, "No, just a ghost, but she is nice." Skylar proceeded to tell me all about her new friend. She is three years old, almost four. She has white hair, wears a white shirt, white pants and a white hat. She lives in the ground, somewhere in Las Vegas (she wants to show me where next time we go visit Sarah.) She is not sure how she made her home in the ground, but she knows she lives under the grass. I asked Skylar what her name was and she said she didn't know. I told her to ask her the next time she saw her. She asked, and her friends name is Sky. Skylar told me that Sky comes to sleep with her sometimes and the nights that she does, Skylar does not have nightmares, but when she doesn't come she sometimes has nightmares. Skylar also said that she comes at night most the time, but sometimes she comes during the day and then they like to talk and have races. Sky also likes to make new friends and read books. She has a ghost bike that she rides when Skylar rides her bike. She also likes to play with her dog named Annie.

I am not sure when or why Skylar has created this new friend (because the new baby maybe?), but she has been talking about her for a few days now. It has been fun to talk to her about it, because she has so many details. Has anyone else delt with imaginary friends?

1 month and swimming lessons.

It has been a while since I have had time to update, and I don't have a lot of time today so this will be kind of short. Here are some pictures of Holland. He is growing so fast. I can't believe it has already been five weeks. He is so much fun!





Taken on June 14th - one month old

Taken today, June 18th - five weeks old





Also, the girls started swimming lessons together on Monday. They were a little timid at first, but they ended up loving it. Kortnie is at the perfect age to try it. She had absolutely no fear which is both a good thing and a bad thing. We just need her to learn pool safety real fast. It will be nice for them to have something to do that is set. It forces me to get out of the house.




Before class


After class

Kory is going to go on his annual backpacking trip with his brothers/nephews this weekend. They are going out by deseret peak and he should have a pretty good time. My sister is going to come stay with me so that I am not alone with all three kids. It should be an interesting weekend.