Fun Times At Vala's

Our sweet Preston.


Carter the naughty

Homer or Rick? hmmm

Preston took this picture oh me, so I told him I would post it.

My ghosties and ghoulies.

Rick and Ian

Vala's has this huge jumping pillow that the boys had fun jumping on.

Driving the tricycle around the track.

my 5 boys!

Let the fun begin.

Our cheesy Carter.

Little Bo Slugger

Okay my friend Kristen posted this picture of Ian on her blog so I had to copy it and share it. Can you tell they have girls? And we don't. Oh the black mail this picture will bring in the future.

Reflections of Christ

This will be the best 5 min you will have all day. This is an amazing video that I found from another friends blog. It is a collection of photographs by a man named Mark Marby. They were displayed at the Mesa Temple visitor center and are now put to music. Please enjoy this beautiful video. Remember these are photographs not paintings.

This is for Hailey & Eric...

Do you think it's cold in our house?

Do you think it is cold in our house? Well Lola does. This is how I found her the other night before bed. We were trying to wait till the last possible minute to put on the heat and when I went to lock up her kennel I found her bundled up in her blanket that had somehow made it out of the kennel and her face wasn't even showing. She popped her head out for the picture. :)

Tagged!

I was tagged by both Julie and Jillso check out there blogs to learn more about them. So I'm supposed to share 7 random things about me. That will be hard cause I'm pretty open about my randomness, but here goes.

#1. I LOVE to blog surf. If I could spend all day surfing peoples blogs I would be in heaven. of course it probably would get old but there are so many neat things on peoples blogs. I have found blogs that have made me want to be a better mother, wife, daughter of God, cook and decorator. Yeah for fun blogs!

#2. I love Broadway musicals, and now so do my boys. Today while listening to Mamma Mia in the car, Carter started singing "Money, money, money" along with the song and I had to smile. Rick hates musicals so I'm glad that my love of all shows with random singing has rubbed off on them. I spent a week with my mom in New York and we went to different shows, Hairspray, Wicked and Phantom. LOVE THEM!!!

#3. I love movies but I don't have to be one of those people to be the first to see the new ones. We watch an abnormal amount of them and have seen practically every pg-13 movie and under that our Hollywood video owns. I guess that's what happens when you don't have cable.

#4. I love reading teen novels and anything by Jodi Picolt. I go to the teen section first at the library. I am not a big Jane Austin fan but like more the more modern fiction. Some of my favorites are the Uglies trilogy, of course Twilight ,(which I don't really consider teen) and Unwind.

#5. I am also a party girl. I love hosting parties, I haven't done a ton recently but Ive had jewelry, food, scrapbook, children's books and more. It's a great excuse to get the house clean and send my boys to the basement.

#6. I am extremely sad to be done having children. If someone could just hand me the babies, that would be perfect. I, like Julie, love everything about babies. It makes me sick to think I won't have any more, stinkin' body, given up on me!

#7. Lastly I LIVE for the day after Thanksgiving. I love everything about it. It actually starts weeks before when the ads get put on the black Friday websites early. I plot my route and get my ads on Thanksgiving. The Day after Thanksgiving is actually the reason I have the Sunday paper. My moms husband knows how much I love ads so he got me a subscription a few years a go so I wouldn't be so stressed about missing the ads. I actually love looking at the Sunday ads also, but shopping for deal at 5 am is magical. This year will be a sad day because my tag-along buddy Cyndie moved so I will have to find a new friend who doesn't mind getting up early and getting their heals hit by shopping carts from random shoppers. The best is afterwards going to IHop and getting breakfast and finishing our shopping by 10 am. Still enough day to enjoy with family. Did you know that http://www.blackfriday.info/ has a few ads already!!! Oh the excitement!

Okay I tag Megan, Jana, Dawn, Elaine, Kristen, Jen G., Bobbie and Jenilyn

Just wanted to share

Our new favorite book. We picked this up at the book fair at the kids' school and it has become a favorite. Check it out here. It has the cutest pictures and the story makes me laugh.

A Pastry thief among us...

So our little carter has turned into a pastry thief. The first time it happened I didn't have my camera ready to document it but he and the dog enjoyed yummy apple donuts my mom got us from Nebraska City. It usually goes something like this. First I hear rustling, then their is quiet, then I realize that something isn't right and as I look into the kitchen this is what I find.

-Second offense: Donuts from Walmart, jelly filled.
Even though I'm yelling "stop!" he stills smiles for the camera.

Trying to put it back and act like nothing has happened.


-Third offense: More donuts from Walmart (I know I probably shouldn't buy any more donuts)
I know this looks like the same day but notice his shirt is different.

Once again putting the half eaten donut back.


-Fourth offense: Cupcakes from Grandma. I know your thinking that I should keep these further back on the counter, but he likes to climb.

Guilty face smeared with frosting.

Ahhh but it tastes so good. I will definitely keep the pastry's up and better yet I'll just stop buying them. Yeah, that's what I'll do. :)

Happy 10th Birthday Chandler!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

On October 11th 1998 our second child was born. She was due October 12th and after a few days of on again off again contractions I went to the hospital at 6pm on that Sunday night. We anticipated her arrival with great joy. We had our little boy and now a girl. Her room was ready, painted pink of course. Her closet was already filled with cute little dresses and shoes. I had made Rick redo her room so it was perfect. We had her name all picked out, Chandler Renee' McInelly. While laying in the hospital bed with my mother in law sitting next to me and Rick and the rest of my family sitting on the couches eating McDonalds, I noticed that while my water had broke my contractions were not getting any harder. As the nurse was coming in with the poticin to get them going my mother in law noticed that Chandlers heart rate was down in the 90's. She asked the nurse if anyone realized how low the heart rate was. The answer was that they (meaning the other nurses and resident on staff) were watching at the front desk and if anything was wrong they would see. No sooner did she say that then the resident come in and kick everyone out. As she tried to get Chandlers heart rate up, it dropped again into the 40's. She made the quick call to have an emergency c-section. From the time they made the call to the time she was born was a quick 7 min. I was knocked out because I had not had an epidural yet and when I awoke 2 hours later, my sweet husband was next to me in the recovery room trying to explain to me what had happened while I was asleep.
I only go over these events now because it has been 10 years! 10 YEARS! I remember those events like it was yesterday. This single event changed my whole life. She was put on life support until I was able to wake up and hold her. I never heard her cry. I never got to see her eyes. I only got to hold her and love on her for a small amount of time. She was 8 lbs. 15 oz. And had a head of dark blond hair. As we have added kids to the family she and Ian looked the most alike, though there were times that Parker's baby pictures were identical to hers. They were never able to give me any reasons for her short life. No answers to why. Only the faith that we have knowing that she came and received her body and that her mission was done. Her short life touched many and still touches people as I share her with others.
I have no problem talking about her or showing off her pictures, though they are sad pictures to look at. I want people to see her, to know she lived. I want people to acknowledge her life no matter how short it was. She is and always will be a huge part of our family. Her picture hangs on the wall with the others. She is our angel baby, that gives us another reason to strive to return to our Father in Heaven. She needs us to be worthy to raise her and I want to raise her. I long for the morning of the first resurrection that I will be able to hold her and this time she will be able to look at me and I will see if her eyes are blue like her brothers or green like her dads.
I write all this because its all I have of her. It's all I get, once a year we buy flowers and balloons for her grave instead of polly pockets, webkinz and baby dolls. Thank goodness for the knowledge that our family has of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It gives us hope and peace. It fills the hole in my heart that is empty because my family isn't complete right now. But some day it will be, I just have to be patient, and some days its really hard.
Thank you to all my friends who over the years have been their for me. Evan after 10 years, they still remember her. Thank You!!!

Thought this was fun...

A friend of mine had this on her blog. Find the fourth picture in the fourth folder, so here is mine.

This is a picture of me and the boys last October 11th. Strange that I do this 2 days before that date. We are at my daughters grave, we go every year on her birthday, Oct.11th. We always go and sing happy birthday and take pictures of the family. Each year we have a picture of us here and it is fun to see the family grow with each year. Love you Chandler! I tag anyone that wants to do it.