Gretchen and Markers Mix Like Oil and Water

Gretchen was playing upstairs today with Becca, when I went to find Becca to see if she needed to go potty this is what I found. She had this same marker last night at bedtime and was decorating her bed, I thought I took it away. Think again Mom!

After she got in some serious trouble she got to learn how to wash walls. Unfortunatley for me she thought the wall washing was fun. Yes, Kathy it all came off.

She has been so naughty lately. I can't leave her unattended for a second and if she goes upstairs by herself I have to see what kind of mischief she has gotten herself into. She even has it figured out to blame it all on Becca and Becca will agree to whatever Gretchen has blamed on her. ARG!!!!! they learn way to early to pass the buck.

good mug shot don't ya think????

Fun with Family

Tony's brother and wife came to visit from Florida and we went up to SV and did the tourist thing. The kids loved watching the ducks and swans. We walked around the village and looked at the snow sculptures. Ed and Coralea were here for 3 days and the kids loved all the attention from their uncle and aunt. We played board games and ate way too much. Tony took them on a true "Idaho" adventure, fishing in the rain, snow, wind and sleet. Unfortunately they didn't get any pictures of the fishing adventure.

pond in front of the Sun Valley Lodge

ugly duckling????? i think not!

bear snow sculpture

climbing up on the big snow sleigh

Gretchen, Uncle Ed, Dani and Aunt Coralea

precious girl

Randomness

Enjoy a little randomness in our lives. A day with Gretchen and Becca is never boring.

Becca was headed to the grocery store. What you see is all she has on.

Mama's little helper. Making sugar cookies for Dani's Valentine's party at school.

all tuckered out! it's amazing how kids can sleep ANYWHERE!!!

playing on the horses that Papa made for them. in reality they were probably headed to the grocery store of church.

front view

side/back view

What do you think?

I LOVE my new blog look. Thank you, thank you, thank you Allison. You are awesome!

I get tired of my blog template quite often and as I'm blog surfing I see so many super cute blogs. As I was telling my friend Allison this one day she said she would create a new look for me. Work COMPLETE!!!! I love creative friends.

Thanks again!

Beginning of the End

This post has been in the making for about 2 months now. I decided it was time to finally post. As I have sat reflecting about where we are in life as a family and the state of our country's economy it has caused me to remember why we are here and what our jobs are. I am not talking about the jobs that support our family but about the JOB that we were called to do by our Creator. At this point in my life the job I have been called to do is to be a wife, first and foremost and secondly being a mom. No amount of education, even from the most renouned schools could ever prepare someone for the job so many of us have been called to do. And like most jobs in this world the more time you put in the more responsibility you gain, more stress and more accomplishments.

As the title of the post states this year in the beginning of so many endings for our family. We'll start with Than. Than will be ending his career as an elementary student. He will begin his career as an Middle Schooler. Did you read that right, yes, I said MIDDLE SCHOOL! How can that be, I was just taking him to kindergarten a couple months ago. With middle school comes a whole new life so I'm told by people who are already experiencing it. Can we stop the clock now?! I don't want to go any farther and let my kids get any older.

Dani, as you will see, she no longer has all her baby teeth. I never realized what losing teeth really means. Once you start losing teeth naturally it's one step closer to losing your babies. This is the last year that she will be with me for at least part days. Dani will start 1st grade next year. As excited as I get for my kids to start school it's also a very sad time. One more year gone.

Gretchen, she is turning into such a big girl. He love of learning is growing by leaps and bounds. She is so much fun to be with. I love listening to her talk. The way she pronounces words in her little voice is changing, and she is sounding more and more like Dani, this means that we are coming to the end of her little girleness and becoming a big girl(only in attitude though, she is still very much my little girl in stature). She is growing up too, way too fast I might ad. Gretchen will start school 1/2 days this fall.

Becca has and will continue to have to most "endings" this year. We have quit nursing at 2, major transition for both of us. I said I would never nurse a child that could ask for it. All I can say about that is, NEVER say never. We have transitioned out of the crib into a big girl bed and we will be potty training in the next week. Getting rid of so many things all at once I think is harder on me than it is on her. I'm holding on to so many things with Becca that I never did with the other 3 kids because I know that all these things are things that I will never get to experience again. It's a real life confirmation that my babies are growing up. That this is the beginning of the end of my babies and on to bigger and yes better challenges. Last night when I called Becca my baby she very quickly corrected me that she is not my baby she's Becca.

the last picture with all her baby teeth

the first of many teeth to lose
One of the few times I've had her fall asleep on me since we moved her into her room (she slept with me for the first year).

Becca's first shiner. She tripped in the driveway and skinned up her face. It bruised up her forehead and down her nose. She's such a tough little girl, she barely cried.

Becca has decided that she doesn't like to nap in her crib anymore. She will only nap in her sisters beds. I won't fight her on where she wants to sleep as long as she sleeps somewhere. After telling my mom about this a new bed was it the works. My dad built her a toddler bed and she just LOVES it. Thanks Dad, you're the best. You know just how to put a smile on my kids faces

AWANA Fun

At church the kids are involved in the Awana program. Awana is a program that is designed for kids ages from 18 mos. through Sr. in high school to lean God's word and hide it in the hearts. The Awana key verse in 2 Timothe 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a woker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Over the course of the whole program the kids will learn thousands of verses. If the kids complete the whole program they can receive some pretty significant college scholarships to just about any college. They don't have to be Christian schools.

They don't just go and memorize the whole time, they play some really fun games, have a little devotion and music.

I help teach the Jr. High class with Shelly Kimball.

Below are pictures of game time. They get very into all the games. Usually they play capture the flag. Not quite the games you would expect to play "in" church. As you can see our church is not very big so playing some of these games can prove to be somewhat difficult.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Becca turned 2 on Jan. 5. And what a surprise she was. The whole idea of having a fourth baby kept me in denial for the whole pregnancy. We/I decided that we had to find out the sex of the baby because I had already started getting rid of baby things after Gretchen and if I had to have another baby I wanted it to be a boy to even things out a bit for Than.

We didn't tell the other kids that we were having another baby until the day of the ultrasound so that we could tell them if we were getting a brother or another sister. The Ultrasound says: BOY!

We were so excited and it helped Tony excpet another baby a little more. I think I jinxed myself by telling people it was a boy unless he lost parts inside.

I was still in denial that I was even having another baby up until I had her in my arms.

We were completly set for another boy. Having another girl was not a possibility, technology doesn't lie. We had no idea until Dr. Busby said, "He's such a big......girl?!".Tony and I just looked at each other in complete shock. The nurse asked us if we had a girls name picked out and of course we didn't. Why would we, we were having a boy.

Well, two years later we are so glad that we have our little girl. She brings so much joy and excitement to our family. I can't imagine what life would be like without her in our family.

At her two year check up she weighed in at 23 lbs. and was stretched out to 32.5 in.

Becca, we love you so very much and are glad that God wasn't done blessing our family with babies.

For her birthday we had the Kimballs, Grammy and Papa, and Uncle Trent, Aunt Shelly and Ethan over for finger foods and cake.

Thank you all for helping make her birthday special even thought she doesn't really understand all that yet.

Grandma Cris showing her the book Shelly made for her. A HUGE hit, it's a book with a bunch of wild animals. She can name every single one and if you try and call the animal something else she will quickly correct you. For example: a mountain lion is only a cougar.

after all the hard work of Christmas opening presents she needed some assistance on her birthday

this vest is by far the favorite gift. thanks Grammy and Papa. it is the only things that she wanted to wear for a while. she didn't care that it was only 5 degrees out.

gotta love baby feet

Becca loves books. It doesn't matter what kind of book it is she just loves to be read to. She got this book from Grandma Cris and Papa Richard.

the cake. we have a book with kids cakes and this is the one she picked out(with a little help from mom) i couldn't help myself it's just so darn cute!