Terrible Two's!

What do you do when you don't want to take a nap? Destroy, Destroy, Destroy!! Okay I cannot honestly say the terrible part of Sadi came out when she turned two, she has been working on it for quite awhile now. A couple of days ago she refused to take a nap, when I finally gave in and went to check on her look what I got, a beautifully ripped to shreds wall border!!She had ventured to start a small rip a few months ago, for which I was so mad but told her not to touch it ever again, and she was crying and saying "I sorry Mommy". No big deal I had enough to fix it and had been pulling the crib away from the wall so as not to even have the temptation close enough to touch. Well apparently a foot and a half from the wall was no challenge for this Picasso because somehow she still managed to reach it! So all that time we spent perfecting the perfect line and position of this cute border...GONE! I guess I will have a nice project of removing all of it!! She didn't stop there though, I did not get a picture but she managed to pull off all but one of the bumper pad ties as well. I wanted to put her in a toddler bed but now quite frankly I'm afraid! Anyone need a wall designer let me know!

A "Tutu" cute birthday!

Sadi turned 2!! It happened all to quickly as everyone will say that another year passed before our eyes. Her party was going to be later in the evening so when she woke up I let her open just one of her presents...a new baby. I don't know who was more excited about it being her birthday her or Chase (everyone knows he loves a party). She got a cute little mommy doll with a pink tutu.She spent a good part of the morning poking and prodding her new baby.We had some things to do in town so we did a little shopping then headed to McDonald's for lunch. Who doesn't love a happy meal?Later it was time to PARTY!! This girl loves to dance so that was to be the theme of her party. I bought her a tutu (just like her babies), and went crazy with the pink decorations. We blew up 60 huge balloons to cover the dance floor with. I had Matt make a play list for her party to dance to. I knew she would love it, but I had NO idea how crazy she was going to go. It was too cute to watch!It was hard to get any pictures of her at all because she was running through the balloons like a little tornado, twirling and jumping around.Here is one picture of her whizzing by me..She danced her little butt off!She slowed only to pick up a balloon here or there and then she was off again.All the kids had fun showing off their dance skills (or lack there of), that was entertaining to watch also. Dancing with Daddy...We enticed her to stop for a break to eat dinner. We had pizza, grapes, strawberries, and I made a special pink tuty fruity fizzing drink. She loved it!!After we filled our bellies it was time to open presents! She got lots of cute things for her new baby.She loved these little bottles, the trick kind that looks like the baby really "drinks" the milk.She had fun talking to everyone who called her to wish her a happy birthday.

I only planned one game (I knew Chase would be asking me when it was time to play a game mainly). I had a huge bowl of m&m's and gave everyone a spoon and they had 2 minutes to dig out all the peanut m&m's they could. Sadi and Chase just thought it was fun just to dish themselves as many as they could eat.As if the chocolate game wasn't enough I had made each of them some little goodies tied in tulle with candy necklaces, lipstick, nail polish, and ring pops.A little more dancing and we were ready for cake! Cupcakes that is, Sadi loves cupcakes, so I thought it would be cute to have cupcakes and arrange them in a #2.She chose a chocolate cupcake, of course the messier the better. She loved having "Happy Birthday" sung to her finally.But when we told her to blow out the candles, she wanted NO part of that! She was hiding from the candles.Once the flames were out, she was ready to dig in!!I don't know if she was just tired by this time or she was mad at me for taking yet another picture but she was done!

It was a fun birthday I know she won't remember it but I am so glad this little princess is ours!

8th Grade!

Today was Kelsey's first day of 8th grade....wow! It was an early morning! I woke up early so I could make her a big breakfast. And as I always do take a picture out front before she leaves for the day. The light was not great at 6:30 turned out kind of hazy looking. She only made it to the neighbors house before the bus stopped early waaayyy down the street! Poor girl got a workout before the day even got started! I hope that is not an omen for her day. Wouldn't you know Chase and Sadi slept in today so I had 2 1/2 hrs. of quiet till they woke up! Not as fun as you might think so early in the morning!

My Mom would be proud

I love getting a great deal. I love going to the grocery store and feeling like for once they didn't cheat me on how much they got out of me. Last night I went to the grocery store without kids which is a treat because it never happens. Armed with my store ad, coupons, and a clear mind for adding (because in my rush to get out of the house I forgot my calculator) I was on a mission. I have to say it was kind of fun looking and trying to get the best deal. I couldn't wait to get home and show Matt what I bought and how little I spent. Take a look, how much do you think I spent?......Okay the grand total for all of this....$2.60!!! I have to say I was quite impressed with myself, and I know my Mom would be proud. Thank you Grandma for all the coupons!! My kids are dying to dive into all these goodies!

Camping and GeoCaching

We just returned home from our most likely, last camping trip for this summer. We went down to Grover Hot Springs (one of our favorite spots) in California for a few days. It was a really fun trip! While there we went out on a few hikes and went Geo Caching. I had heard of this from first my sister in law and then from my sister who had done it while camping in Utah. It basically is treasure hunting using a GPS to guide you. All you need to do is sign up for an account and put in a zip code for where you want to hunt and it will give you a list of all the Caches in that area with the coordinates to find the Cache. It was sooo much fun!! I had found two close to the campground we were to be camping in. One was actually within the campground. So after we set up camp we were off to find the first treasure!! It only took about 30 minutes to find. It was a tricky find. Here it is below, it was also covered with a log so you really had to hunt for it. This one only had a log book and a Cabella's coin in it so we signed it and returned it. Feeling accomplished we decided to head out on the 1.3 mile hike to the second one the next day.Here are the kids ready to head out on the second hunt! Even Broozer was ready for the hike with his new jacket packed with his little doggie treats.

Although we didn't know how well the kids would do with this hike and really I doubted they could make it they were excited.

It was quite a hike! Matt was our guide (scary because he is totally bad with directions but with a GPS I thought he could do it). He discovered it is a good idea to find out what side of the river you need to be on before hiking up the wrong side!!! Yes, we were on the wrong side of the river! We did eventually find our way across only to find another river on the other side of that one!! We did take a break to play in the water and have some fun before hiking some more.

We saw lots of beautiful water falls and beautiful scenery. We finally made it to the right place, and looked and looked and looked for the Cache but did not find it. I knew we were in the right place but did not find the Cache, it was okay because I had packed a bunch of Starburst which was great for the kids. I think they thought that was the treasure.

We finally gave up the hunt and headed back to camp. The little kids did great no complaining about hiking for hours. On the way back down the trail I found some perfect "horses" for riding. My siblings will remember this. I'm sure it goes against all nature but I remember my Dad doing this for us. You find the perfect size quaking aspen for your kids bend it just enough and ride it like a horse!!! I soo remember how fun this was when I was a kid. Here is Sadi on her "horsey".

It was a fun trip. We even had a few visitors the first night. A huge four point buck and two does walked right through our camp. I have never seen a huge deer like that only 20 feet from us. Chase asked the next night when the reindeer were coming again. It was so cute. Can't wait for camping next year!!

Another Year Older

This past weekend was Matt's birthday, he would just like to see it as another day but I think everyone should celebrate their birthday somehow. So I last minute threw together a few games that I knew would be fun. Everyone who knows Matt knows he is in LOVE with his i-touch so I used that as my inspiration to make up some games. We played three games (they all involved being blind-folded). The first I forgot to take pictures but I had put a number of household items in a bag and they each had 5 minutes to feel them and then write down as many as they could remember. The second (below) I had hidden a golf ball size ball in Chase's room and they had to use their sense of touch to find it first...this one was hilarious!! I didn't get alot of photos because I was laughing so hard. Of course Sadi had to spoil it for them. I had it hanging from a string and she went and pulled it off and it fell to the ground which then they all heard it.The last game we played was they each had 3 minutes to build the longest train with dominoes while yes you know it being blindfolded. Not as easy as you may think. It was a fun night.

We ended with cake of course. I made Matt's favorite Carrot cake..not decorated because he hates anything but plain cream cheese frosting on his cake. I didn't have enough candles in the cupboard so we just put on three for "30 something", anyone who needs to know his age already does!