I have been born of goodly parents!

I LOVE this picture of my parents!!!

This post has been one I have wanted to write for some time now, but just haven't taken the time to do so. I am sitting here holding a sleeping Kahle, after he has cried for about an hour from gas and nothing would comfort him. He finally settled down and is sound asleep! It made me think of my parents and I am sure the countless nights of being awake with us kids as babies (or even teens, lol), and for their constant sacrifices from when we were young even up until now. I have wanted to take some time to Thank my parents for the MANY hours they have taken to help us out by watching our kids or being there when we were in a jam. I can't even begin to express my appreciation for their willingness to drop what they are doing and help us out! I know many others could have helped us as well, but to me there is always the comfort in having your parents help you out and be there for you! They are such awesome people, and are examples to me in my life! I love them so much and I am so grateful for them, for their love and support! For them being there when I have needed them the most, whether it is in person or just moral support from their thoughts and prayers. I love the relationship they have with my family, with Jeff and with my kids. It makes my heart happy to see how much my kids love and adore their Papa Dan and Grammy! Thank you Mom and Dad for EVERYTHING (you know what for). You are THE best and I love you so much!!

Don't you just love 'em?!

Man I love these little feet! They are so cute and make me smile :)
Or maybe it's his smile I love, or both! He has the sweetest smile and it brightens my day!

This picture makes my heart happy! Kahle loves to sit like this with Jeff (in fact all of our kids have) and he was just talking and telling stories. I love this picture because it has Jeff and Kahle smiling at each other and is just so sweet!

Delaney LOVES Kahle! She wants to be close to him and by him all the time. I love that she is sitting there holding Kahles hand. And he actually let her for a while!

I had asked Haden to hold Kahle one day while I was getting lunch ready. When I came around the corner I saw Kahle with his arm up around Haden's face and he kept it there for quite sometime. It was so sweet and made Hadens day!

Today my sister, Adri, and her 3 kiddos, Jack, Lily and Lacy all came over for a while to play! The kids were so excited, they love playing with their cousins! Well the girls went upstairs which usually isn't a problem my bedroom door gets locked so they can't go in. Well somehow they got in my room! Haden came running down with my mascara saying the girls had gotten into it and it was all over. Well Delaney and Lily came downstairs and this is what Delaney looked like :) Lily only had a little bit on her, but Delaney made sure to color herself good!

*note to self* when you can't hear them, check on them :)

Here are the kids eating lunch and watching a movie!

Coleman wearing his Dad's hard hat (along with a face that is dirty from Doritos). He was so proud to be wearing it!!

Some cute comments from the kids (I have been bad about writing them down, I need to remember more often)...

Cole said 'Dad do you know that I am getting really bigger?' In the most sweet and sincere way!

The other day Haden and Grant were in the by the kitchen and I overheard their conversation, I had to write it down. Grant said 'why doesn't Mom go to work? Why does she just stay home?' Haden said ' Grant she does work, she takes care of us.' Smart boy!!

Cousins + Swimming = FUN

I bet you can't look at that picture without smiling, at least I know I can't! (it's a little blurry because he doesn't stop moving) He is seriously THE most smiley baby we have had. If he isn't tired, hungry or gassy he is smiling. The kids love it and it becomes a competition on who gets him to smile at them. He went to the doctors today for his 2 month appt. (yes we are late on getting him in) and he is weighing in at 11 lbs. 4 oz. and is 24 inches long! WOOHOO for growing!! He is just below average on weight but above average on height, so he is long and skinny!

After our family reunion Dana and her kids got to come and stay for 2 whole weeks! Tyler had to go back home and he was definitely missed. I didn't get out there a ton, with the first week she was here Haden was still in school and then by the time he got out and we had lunch and naps Jeff was off to work. Man I hate having 1 car! But the 2nd week Haden was out of school and my Mom finished swimming lessons with the kids so we got to go out there each morning. We (well they, I ended up having to feed Kahle every time) did a lot of swimming and had lots of fun! On Thursday we had a girls night out, I didn't take my camera so once I get pictures I will post about that! It was fun to spend so much time with family and to watch the cousins all get to play together! We had a blast and are looking forward to Thanksgiving when we will get to see Dana, Tyler, Max and Kelly again!

Since school starts back up for Jeff at the beginning of September they have moved him to days instead of the swing shift. He starts at 5 am and gets off at 1:30 pm, except he has to go in earlier if he wants a good parking spot! I love having him home at nights, but miss spending the morning with him. I know I can't win, I guess I would just like him home always, lol!

Here are some pictures (click on the picture below to view the rest of them)

Swimming and Fun 08/09

Mann Family Reunion 2009

We look forward to this, time away from our every day lives to spend it with family, to watch the cousins all play and have fun together. We headed out to Williams, AZ on Thursday, July 30th and met up with everyone at a KOA. Jeff wasn't able to come up until Saturday, which was not fun, but he had just gotten his job so he couldn't miss it. I am SO grateful for my family! They all stepped in and helped me with the kids. I definitely couldn't have gone if it weren't for them. We just played and got settled in on Thursday. Friday morning we got up and headed out to Slide Rock and let me tell you it lives up to it's name. After almost everyone took a fall we found a little pond where we could all sit and the kids could play without falling down. This is where I broke my camera :( Jeff has since fixed it but I was not able to take pictures, so thanks to my brother and sisters for taking some for me! Cole and Delaney were more daring at getting the water and sliding than Haden and Grant were! Everyone kept going up and going down the slides made from the rocks. Haden and Grant would go up but would walk back down, they never would go down the slide. Finally my brother-in-law Tyler told them if they go up then they had to go down the slide. They ended up going, Haden screamed the whole way down, and Grant didn't make a sound. Haden also was trying to climb out on the way down. But when asking them their favorite part of the trip it was going down the slide. So thanks Tyler for taking them :) We had fun, spend quite a bit of time there and just played in the water. Then we went back to camp and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening there. The next morning we woke up and got everyone ready for the day, Jeff got there and we were so excited to see him!! Then everyone went down to ride some super fun bikes in the KOA camp, even the adults enjoyed it :) After that we headed out to see the Grand Canyon (which most of us had not ever seen, which is crazy with how close it is to us). It was hot outside and I was thinking maybe we shouldn't go, but I am SO glad that I did. It is gorgeous and absolutely breathtaking! Out of all my kids, Cole actually enjoyed it the most, which is so shocking to me! When we got to where we could see the Grand Canyon, Cole got super quite and calm and was just staring at it. He then turned to me and said 'Oh Mom! It's beautiful!!' And then would just every once in a while just say 'Oh look!' I had to inform him when we started to move to go to a new spot, that we would just going to look at it from a different spot. And not once was he his crazy self, he was calm the entire time. He was leaning over the wall just looking at it, and at one point asked my brother Mak if he could go down there (meaning down below the wall) to see it closer. We had to tell him he couldn't do that, but let him sit up with Mak on the wall and just stare at it. Still to this day when I think or talk about this it makes me teary eyed, to see such an energetic child calm down, to see him enjoy and appreciate the beauty of it. It was almost like it was a spiritual experience for him, something I can't quite describe, but if you know Coleman you know that being quite and calm is NOT something he does! When we were in the car he commented again how beautiful the mountains/rocks were. He truly just loved it and I LOVE that he loved it! A moment I will cherish in my mind forever! We went back to camp after that, and played and had some more fun. Then we had a pizza cook off, I am not quite sure who won, but everyone created some SUPER yummy pizzas that we all were able to enjoy! After that we had a 'Toughest Dad Competition' which was so fun (thanks to Adri for putting it together). The Dad's had to compete in games and things with their kids, which the kids enjoyed a ton. The winner was Trent (may have been rigged, LOL, totally joking) and he got to keep the prize for thus year until our next reunion when it will be up for grabs again. It is a fish on this log type of thing, and it has to be displayed in the living/family room or your kitchen. We all look forward to next year and see what fun games are in store! Then we got to enjoy Nate and Jenn's yummy cobbler, roasted marshmallows and then went to bed. Then next morning we got up, cleaned up camp and headed home. It was such a fun weekend, filled with activities and time with our family. The kids got dirty but had so much fun!! Thanks to everyone for making it a successful reunion! We look forward to next year :)

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy (just click on the picture below to see all of the other ones!)
**Warning my kids faces are super messy in most of these pictures, lol. I usually clean them up with editing them, but figured it's camping and they did get dirty!**

Mann Family Reuion 09

Birthdays!!

Life seems to just be busy and crazy, and I am late in posting a few things. I still have the reunion to post, but need to get a few pictures from my sister, Adri, first. I had slipped and fell and broke my camera while we were camping, and had to wait for Jeff to bring me our older camera. So I do have some, not as many as I would have liked, but some :) Then after we got back my older camera decided to die and no longer works, so Jeff decided to see if he could fix my camera I broke, and I am so grateful for him because he did!! So I don't have pictures from Delaney on her birthday or me on mine, but I do on Sunday when we celebrated our birthdays with my family. We always do a dinner, cake and ice cream at my parents for the adults birthdays, and since Jeff was working on Delaney's birthday we went ahead and did her cake and ice cream with mine. We both had awesome birthdays and got spoiled :) I loved that we got to share our day together and have it be for both of us!

Here are the pictures along with other random ones (click on the pictures below to view them all).

Delaney & My Birthday

Isn't Great.........

Haden's a Graduate!

He had his kindergarten graduation/program on Friday, Aug. 7th. They sang songs and got certificates. Haden's was for sharing skills :). Thanks to Brianna for taking pictures, my camera was broken, but thankfully Jeff is handy and fixed it for me!!
Here are some pictures:
Both kindergarten AM classes.
Haden getting his certificate! Waving Hi :) Another group shot.
Jayci, Haden and Jayden (these 3 were in the same class, they are friends from our ward as well). Jayci's Mom, Brianna, Jayden's Mom, Jen and Me

Our cute family :)

Grant also got to meet his kindergarten teacher and it made him that much more excited for school to start. I am excited to have a different teacher than Haden had, Grants teacher for next year is more on top of things and seems to teach the kids a whole lot better. I have been disappointed with Haden's teacher since she got back from maternity leave. So it will be nice to have a change!

*I have other things to post about, so check back in a day or two :) *

Happy Birthday Delaney Marie!

I can hardly believe that 2 years ago we were sitting in a hospital room waiting to go back to the OR to welcome our baby girl into our family! She was so tiny, but so adorable!! I thought it would be fun to post some pictures from the past 2 years, to see her grow. As I looked through her pictures I had forgotten how chubby she was, I believe she was our chubbiest!

Happy 2nd Birthday Delaney! You are such a light in our home, and such a sweetheart. It is fun to see you already be a little mother and want to help with the boys. You are so girly but can definitely hold your own with your brothers. You make us laugh and we adore you. These past 2 years have been a blast I can only imagine what the next year will bring. Happy Birthday to our Princess (as Coleman calls you)!

2 Months Old, already??

Kahle turned 2 months old yesterday, and I can hardly believe it has been 2 months. He is such a happy baby and just so easy to love. He is smiling all of the time and is starting to 'talk', which we all love to hear. We get to take him in this week for another weight check, I am crossing my fingers he has continued to gain what he needs to, he will also get some shots (poor guy). He is such a cutie and we totally love and adore him. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father saw us as a fit family for him, he is such a special spirit, even though we weren't planning on any more kids. I do not like him growing up so quickly, but at the same time I am loving the new things he does :) Gotta love this little man!

*Reunion pictures are coming soon*