my baby turns 1......

cute little birthday boy

Harrison eating the presents yum! yum!

yummy cake!

REALLY....How does 1 year go by so fast????? Harrison turning 1 has definitely been bitter sweet for me. It's fun to see him starting to walk around and grow into his little personality but at the same time I'm just sad that he's not my little tiny baby anymore.
We had a big family party for Harrison at our house on Friday night. We had pizza and yummy chocolate cake (thanks honey) . The kids had fun playing around and just being kids. Matt made him a cute little bundt cake. He picked the whole thing up and was trying to drink the frosting it was really cute . He got lots of fun presents from everyone. I don't think he was very impressed with the clothes. He would pick them up one by one and throw them on the floor. The thing he was impressed with was the box that the toy was in. He was biting the box while he was opening the presents it was pretty funny! It's nice to see him playing with his boy toys instead of a barbie or a polly pocket which is what he is usually playing with since he has 3 sisters. It was a fun birthday!! I now have to come with the terms that my little baby is already 1. He brings so much joy into our family and I feel so blessed to have him. He is so sweet and snuggly and his smile (10 teeth and all) just lights up my day . I love you little man!

Birthdays.....

The birthday girl

I just realized that I never posted Addie's birthday pictures. Since it is now December and her birthday was Nov.18 I think I'm a little behind.....

Matt was out of town for training for his new job so my mom and dad came over and brought her presents that night. Her cousin Mia slept over on Friday night and then we had a little friend party at Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday. They all had so much fun!!! They had fun riding the rides and running around and eating pizza and cupcakes. Addie loves Chuck E Cheese. I wonder how many more of Addie's birthdays we will have to go to Chuck E Cheese. She was very excited to get her scooter and her new obsession (Littlest Pet Shops) . She walked around all day and said I'm 5 now. She thinks she is so big now. I think just feels like she is so much older than Ellie now since they are almost the same size. On that Sunday we celebrated the rest of the November birthdays with the Crookston side of the family. She got spoiled and got lots of fun things. So she just had one long birthday celebration but she LOVED every minute of it. We love you Addie bug!

busy....busy...

It's seems like these past couple of weeks have been busy busy and will just get busier. Is Christmas really less than a month away. WOW!!!

Today in church somebody gave a wonderful talk on gratitude and being thankful. This talk really got to me and had me thinking of how grateful I am for so many things in my life. I'm so thankful for my husband who works so hard for our family and who truly makes me laugh and I love him so much. I'm thankful for my 4 beautiful and healthy children that I get to stay home with and be a mom to and the good health Harrison has been blessed with this past year. I'm grateful for my home even though I do complain about it sometimes ( or alot) about not having enough space but this is the home that has my memories of SO many things we have shared with family and friends and I wouldn't trade that for anything. I'm so grateful for wonderful family and friends who are always available when I need something. I'm thankful for my savior and the knowledge I have of this gospel. I just feel very lucky and very blessed and my heart is very full right now. I really love this time of year because I think it gives us a chance to just sit back and reflect and be very grateful for the little things in our lives because these are the things that matter the most.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday my Addie Bug. WoW! that 5 years just flew by way too fast. sniff sniff...... Happy Happy Birthday my sweet little girl we love you so much!!!!!!!

Halloween 2009

Fun Day!

My mom and I went to the Good Things Utah last week for her birthday. It was fun to see how they do things behind the scenes. They showed us how to decorate these really cute paper mache gingerbread houses. Which gave us the idea to get some so the girls can decorate them for Christmas. After the show we got to meet and have our picture taken with them. They we're so friendly and fun to talk to. My mom and I had so much fun we decided we will go for a yearly tradition for our birthdays.

Addie's field trip

Addie's preschool went to the Black Island Farm for their field trip last week. Addie had alot of fun with her little friend McCall. It was soooo cold. When we left the house for the field trip it was 28 degrees. My poor friend Monica didn't bring a coat but luckily my mom had an extra coat in the car and a blanket so we stayed nice and warm during the hayride out to the pumpkin patch. The kids had fun running around and going down the slides and playing in the "crooked playhouse". I think they could have road the little train all day. We always have so much fun everytime we go to this farm even though it was a cold cold day.

HALLOWEEN

is over and we had alot of fun we partied all weekend. Now it's Happy Happy Monday and back to cleaning and laundry. My house needs some attention and then I will update this thing!!

fun lunch

Today I'm using this blog for probably more like a journal but I wanted to write my thoughts down somewhere right now. My friend Jen called this morning to say that our friend Wendy was going to be in Ogden today and wanted to all meet up for lunch. Matt was able to come home for lunch and watch the kids before his afternoon appts. It was fun to visit and even though we sometimes go months without talking when we get together we pick up where we left off and it's just like old times. My best friend Nat gave us all exciting news that SHE IS PREGNANT!!!! She has one son but has been trying for years to get pregnant again. My heart is so full for her right now and I'm just so happy for her. She is just glowing right now with excitement. It was literally tears of joy when she told us. I truly believe their was a reason Wendy came into town today because my friend Jen is going through some things I couldn't even imagine going through right now and she said it was really good to talk to us about everything. I'm thankful for these friendships I've had over the years with these girls. I know we all have trials and sometimes just crappy days or we think Why me??? but I know that the Lord puts friends and family in our path to help lift us and help us through trials that we have.

long overdue post

I know I know I say I'm going to be better about posting and well if anything I'm getting worse!!!! The last time I posted Matt was out of town for work and then he went deer hunting the next week with his dad and brothers. Every year we are convinced that they go deer hunting to basically eat , hang out and look at wildlife. This year Matt got a deer and he was pretty excited. Matt's dad took it and got it made into steaks and jerky. The kids love the jerky and have been eating it like crazy.

The girls are having alot of fun at school. Addie went on a field trip to the firestation last week . She came home and was so excited to tell me all about the things she learned. She told us that we should get down on the ground and crawl if smoke is in the room and that smoke is very bad for our lungs and it makes us sick. She would say other random things throughout the day about the field trip and what she learned. They made little hats and she wore it around all day. It was cute! I remember when we we're little my parents did a family home evening on fire safety and we talked about what to do if we ever had a fire in the house and did little drills. I'm thinking I'm going to do that one of these days sooner than later.

Harrison has become mobile and has been crawling ALL over the place up the stairs and well basically rolls back down them. It's fun to see his little personality forming and the girls couldn't love him more. His 1st birthday is quickly approaching and I'm trying really hard not to think about it because it gets me sad to think how fast a year really goes by. We are very blessed to have him in our family and I'm thankful for his good health he has had this past year.

The girls are getting really excited for Halloween and well so am I. I love Halloween . They picked their pumpkins from our garden the other day and they can't wait to carve them. Everyday they ask if we can carve the pumpkins. Lexi and Ellie are going to be witches with green hair :0 and Addie was going to be a witch well....... up until yesterday she informed us that she wanted to be a ghost so we will see if she changes her mind again. The girls and I went to lunch today with my mom and then we went to Tai Pan after. I haven't been to that store for awhile so it was so fun to see the Chritmas trees all decorated and all the holiday decor. I saw a couple well a few things that I just might have to go back and get. I just love this time of year the smell in the air and the excitement of the upcoming hoiday season. I'm grateful and thankful for wonderful family and friends that we can share this holiday season with and I really want pumpkin chocolate chip cookies after talking to Jenn today..... so please find some pumpkin and send me some ASAP ;)

Why????

Why is is that when husband's go out of town it seems like I'm sick or one of the kids is sick. I swear it happens everytime. Matt is in Colorado for work until tomorrow having fun and going out to nice dinners. I'm coughing my brains out and poor little Harrison is sick also. I FINALLY got him down for a nap and my mom took the girls to feed the ducks and get an ice cream (thanks mom). I really don't think or remember sleeping much last night so I think I'm going to try to lay down since the house is soooo quiet.

UPDATE/ WEEKEND

I know I know don't die of shock but yes I'm updating my blog. It looks like I didn't get better at all about updating. If anything it looks like I got worse. Hopefully at least I can update at least once a week maybe I should make it a Sunday night thing so Jenn you need to make me do it ;)

So summer is over the kids are back in school and they are loving it. Lexi is really enjoying 1st grade. One of her friends she met in her class came to our house after school on Friday and played the afternoon. They had alot of fun together. Addie is so excited on Tuesdays and Thursdays when it is her time to go to her preschool. She is having alot of fun and she comes home and tells me the funniest stories/things that happened at school. Ellie is going to a neighborhood playschool/preschool . She loves just having somewhere to go. She would always feel so bad last year when the other 2 girls would go and she didn't have anywhere to go. It now has 10 kids in it so hopefully it's not too crazy when it's my turn to teach. I've never done one with that many so it may get a little crazy ;0

On Saturday we had a yard sale. We have been working hard on getting the basement cleared out so we can finish it so we had a yard sale on Saturday to try to get some of this stuff out of here. Matt got up early and hung signs while I set everything up. Monica and Jen came over and brought some stuff so we ended up having alot of stuff. It was really busy all day. A lady got mad at me because I wouldn't let her buy 2 nice pairs of shoes 2 old navy shirts and a doll and a pair of childrens place jeans for 2.00. She said she only usually paid .25 at yard sales for stuff. We were all laughing at that it was pretty funny! We ended up making 360.00 which wasn't bad at all. I was happy and Matt was happy the stuff is gone! Lexi was selling homemade oreos and waters and she made 23.00 she was so excited it was cute! We loaded everything that didn't sell and Matt took it all to the DI so we didn't have to bring anything back into the basement. It is so nice to walk downstairs and have it cleared out it looks so empty. It was hard to sell the girls baby clothes that I have been hanging onto forever. I don't know why it's so hard for me to let go of some stuff Matt was of course laughing at me but hey what is new :)

After the yard sale we went and got an early dinner and then we promised we would take the girls to see UP again since it was at the Kaysville theatre. Isaac had called Matt to see if he wanted to go to a movie so Matt invited him to come up and see UP . The girls were so excited to have their Uncle come to the movie. I really like that show it was just as good the second time. Isaac decided to come back to the house and hime and Matt watched a movie and I put the girls to bed and I decided to go to bed myself since I was pretty tired from the yard sale. I guess Isaac ended up staying over and Matt made crepes for breakfast and they were yummy. It was a fun weekend . Matt is going to be out of town Thurs, Fri, Sat of this week for work so we want to try to get some stuff done around here before he goes. Here is to hoping I get better at this blogging thing and it's not another month and a half before I update again :)

failed miserably

yes we are alive. I really thought I would be better about blogging in July than I was in June but it looks like again I failed miserably.... since it is August now. We went to Oregon on a family vacation with Nate and Jenn's family in July. We all had so much fun. It was so beautiful I have lots of fun pics that I need to post. It seems like since we got home we have had one thing after another and it seems like August will be just as crazy trying to pack everything in before the kids start school. I've been wanting to post about our Oregon trip but we did so much and had so much fun I don't know where to begin. I will try and post some pics in the next couple of days.

fun 4th of July

Ellie kept turning her head
everytime I would take
the picture. Little stinker!



Miss Ellie

eating their ringpops waiting

for the parade to start

baby Harrison!

Lexi made this flag for the parade

the night before.

Lexi and Ellie dancing at the fair

up they go

down they go !!

She was trying to see how
many tubes she could get around

her

playing with bubbles. Ellie's arm

was covered in them

Lexi standing on her head

at the fireworks

Lexi and Harrison

The 4th of July

We woke up and got everyone ready for the parade. Matt usually doesn't go but he said he would go this year. The kids were excited because Daddy was going . We actually got a good spot for the parade. We had to wait a little while for the parade to start since we were near the end but Matt gave them each a ring pop to keep them entertained. The weather during the parade was so nice because the sun was behind the clouds the whole time. After the parade we walked around the carnival/fair they had at Layton park. The kids had so much fun. We ate, the kids danced and then we went and bought a few tickets for the kids to do the blow up toys. After the fair we went to my mom and dad's house and the kids did the slip 'n' slide . We ate dinner then we loaded up everyone and went to the Clearfield fireworks. We decided to go to fireworks this year instead. This year they had the group Imagine come perform before the fireworks . The group dress up like the Beatles and sing all old Beatles songs. It was fun to hear the old Beatles songs. I grew up listening to all those songs because my dad liked them so much. The kids had fun dancing around and listening to music while waiting for the fireworks. Ellie made a new friend and was dancing and goofing off. It was cute. The fireworks were AWESOME so much better than I expected. We were so tired when we got home. It was a fun day with the family.

Lexi's kindergarten graduation

Graduation Day!!


We also had Lexi's kindergarten graduation in June. She was so excited. They put on a little program and sang alot of cute songs. My camera was having some issues during the program part so my pics didn't turn out too well. After they sang they showed this DVD of all the things they had done this year field trips, parties, etc. At the end of the DVD they showed a picture of each child from the first of the year and compared it to picture of the end of the year to see how much they changed. They played that Billy Dean song "Let them be little" and yes I cried. I'm a big bawl baby but I looked around and I wasn't the only one crying. What am I going to be like when she graduates from high school? They made a copy for each child so that will be fun to look at. After the program we went to her class room for punch and cookies and the kids showed us some fun stuff they had been working on all year. Then we went out to lunch at the Olive Garden and a few minutes after we sat down her teacher walked in and sat next to us. Lexi was smiling from ear to ear. It was pretty funny. I really liked her teacher she was so sweet and fun and it seemed like she really enjoyed teaching. It was fun to volunteer in her class each week and get to know her. She gave me a thank you note and some candy and said how much she enjoyed Lexi in her class. We will miss her!


Lexi and her teacher Mrs. Olpin



in front of the kindergarten doors

congrats grad!!

this is when my camera was being really stupid!

She is singing her little heart out

Grandma Sue and Lexi in her classroom

Grandma Drown

showing us her school work from the school year

she wanted a picture in front of the kindergarten

playground. She is excited to be able to play on the

other playground next year as a 1st grade.

June ... Where did it go???

Well I've come to the conclusion that I'm a horrible blogger. My last post was a month ago :). I really can't believe June is over already. I figured since it is already July I better post a June update .We had alot going on in June and it just seemed like it flew by. I'm going to start with Ellie's b-day. She turned 3 on June 2. Here are some pics of her birthday. I will try to be better about updating in July.


Ellie's Birthday

Ellie getting some cake from Aunt Jenn :)

with grandma Sue at her party!

here she is at Chuck E. Cheese. She was so

excited to go!

opening presents

She went to Mcdonald's with her little friend

Carson for lunch. They had so much fun!!!

she loved her present from Carson . She always
has to bring her little purse with the bunny to the

store.

She had such a fun birthday. It's hard to believe she is already 3. She has tons of energy and I spend half of my days chasing her but when she climbs up on my lap and wraps her arms around me and says"I love you Mommy" it melts my heart. She is a sweetie! We love you Miss Ellie Belly