To brighten your day

If you are having a sad day here is a little pick me up.

Catch with Granddad!!!

MY FAVORITE by far!!!  I love his laugh.  

(Sorry for the baby nudity)

 I need to remember these faces when he is doing these things:

Ya he got that out of the Recycling!! It was funny but not my favorite mess to clean up!!

These are the things I have found to help me get through the hard day. This sweet happy face!! I love you Russell!!

My sweet boy!

This is how the boys spent their time while I was watching General Conference.

This was at the beginning of October and Toby still talks about how Russell fell asleep with him.  This doesn't happen much anymore.  We are so sad about that.  We miss cuddle time!

Russell's new game.  He lines them all up.  He does the same with my pots and pans.  He will line them up big to small.  He is so funny!  It has been a hazard though.  We won't notice and step on a cookie sheet and we slip and slide.

I decided to make pancakes one morning and I thought that it was about time for Russell to start helping with the cooking.

It was a lot of fun.  He was very patient and really enjoyed helping.

I LOVE that face!!

APPLES!!

I have an apple tree!!

 I got a call from Angel about a week ago.  She was up in the area and wanted to come pick some apples.

 Here is Liam picking.  He is going to be a hear breaker!

 Angel way up in the tree taking care of business.

Then we made applesauce! It was really exciting.  They spent the whole day with me making applesauce.  Angel had one baby and I had the other.  I wish I got a picture of us in the kitchen with the two sweet ones strapped in the carriers.  It was so great to have a baby to hold.  It was a blast.  It was such a great day.   I don't know why I don't get pictures of the two little girls.  I really had such a great day with the Somers.

 It inspired me to try and find lots of things to make with apples.  I tried apple cinnamon muffins, and yesterday I attempted apple pie.  The thing that was intimidating was the crust, but they turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.  I felt so accomplished.  I didn't do a good job with the decoration of the crust but hey it tastes good.  

I also made lemon meringue pie.  I was a busy girl yesterday and I am proud too.  WAHOO!  Now I am obsessed with cute pie pans.  I might need to go to a self help class.  But hey my neighbors are sure happy about all the pie making!

P.S. Toby is not a fan or apple pie, neither is Keith but they both said that it was the best apple pie they have ever had...A-thankyou!!

Soccer

This year Raelin and Ryker got to play soccer!!  I was a lame Aunt and didn't go to many games but I did make it to that last couple.

This is my favorite picture EVER. This is what Raelin did when she saw that I was there.  Oh I was so happy.

Russell was a little difficult this day but when he saw Aunt Morgan he was so excited.  Morgan coached Raelin's team that day and so she was busy.  But during half time he wondered...no RAN over to her.  I wish I got a better picture of them but look at how happy Raelin is too.  Oh I love my family.

 She has so much natural talent.  She is great!!  Notice how no one is around her.  They are all behind her.  She can dribble with so much control.  We are all very impressed.

She spends most of the time right here.  With the goalie!!

The is sweet Liam cheering on his cousin.  He was so cute.  "Go Raelin Go!" Jumping up and down!! Love it!

 Here is my dad teaching the kids how to play soccer.  It was so sweet.  The kids had a ton fun with him like always.

Granddad was helping Alaina learn how to head the ball.  She thought it was so funny!

Then we went to Rykers game.  I was really bad and didn't get any pictures of him playing.  So lame I know.   

 But I did get this picture.  Russell looks sad but he was in the middle of "talking".  H
My dad is such a great granddad to all the kiddos we are so lucky to have such a great family.

Ok so later the next week I went down for Ryker's last game.  And I took pictures.  LOTS of them.

Ryker is so fun to watch.  Here he is as goaly.

 DE-DENCE, DE-FENCE

Such a happy little face.

At least Morgan's kids were well behaved.  Russell was so grumpy.  I feel like I am always talking about how Russell is grumpy.  I hope this gets better.  

Good job kids.  You both did a great job and I am so proud of you!

Monkey Do Diapers

So here are a bunch of pictures of my sisters diapers that she makes.  I took some of these so long ago.

This picture is so old that Russell's head now is eye level with that blue button!! How fast do kids grow?

I think we took these last April.  We tried to do a little photo shoot but both boys were grumpy and the lighting was not the best.  But how cute that they have matching buns!

Russell looks so much older now. And believe it or not but Landon have WAY more hair.

Oh I  miss cloth diapers.  I had to stop because my soakers are ruined by mold...(I forgot to wash some and  ya sad ending.)  But they are so expensive, it was a project just to get Toby to get the first set, that it is hard to spend the money on them again.  So Morgan made me some and now I just have to save up to get enough to last a couple of days.

I am actually so angry about cloth diapers.  They are not easy but I have so much motivation to keep up on them.  But when they are not keeping their absorbency and I can't figure out how to get rid of the MOLD.  It causes a problem.  So I will have to wait until I am a millionaire and get enough diapers and soakers so I can keep my babies bottoms super cute.

I know random post but I miss having cute diapers. The picture above is not a diaper that Russell has.  Just in case some of you out there were worried that I was putting Russell in girly diapers.

My birthday!!!

I don't know what is happening to me.  This is the second year in a row that I didn't do anything big for my birthday.  This year was good but lacked the sparkle and pizzazz and not to mention the pinata.

My sweet mama made me cinnamon roll's and brought them over the night before.  Here is Russell having a super sugar fest.  We ate most of them that night because they were fresh out of the oven and we couldn't resist. 

 Russell desperately needed a bath but I was to lazy to give him one so we compromised. SINK BATH!

The day of my birthday was like most days only my mom watched Russell after school was over.  Then I went to work with Toby.  He had a light day so we got to go to dinner.  YUMMY!!

Then that Saturday we had a BBQ at our house.  

 This is the ramp Raelin made to get up in the apple tree better.  She is so creative.

 Before people could come over we had to get the deck usable.  So Toby and I worked hard to get the trex down.  Russell really wanted to help.  He would actually get mad if we didn't let him.

Brice and the kids came over early.  Brice and helped Toby decided to make the stairs.  I was not expecting the stairs to get done!  Happy Birthday to me!  I have stairs.  I now have a functional deck.  Brice's brother William and his wife Angel with their kids (Liam and the two new ones 1 month old Elsie and Emmy) came too.  So great to have them.  Just with family it was a crowd.  So we all had dinner and cake.  We puzzeld and played games.  The down side was the BYU Utah game.  Everyone here that graduated from college all went to BYU.  

 Here is my cake.  Morgan makes my cakes every year.  I told her that I wanted a zebra dolphin cake.  I was meaning a cake the shape of a dolphin with the cake inside that was striped.  My friend Dresden made a cake like that last week.  This is what she came up with.  It was zebra inside too.

 Poor Russell was so tired and worn out.  There was lots of people and things going on all day.

Here is Morgan showing me my cake.  It was a simple birthday but it was still great (even though I didn't have a pinata.  I was so happy to have everyone there.  And I have to say it is really weird to be 25.  I don't feel like I have aged for about 7 years now.  I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I have a kid.  I am in trouble.

Jordanelle

A couple of weeks ago my friend Demetrius (we went to high school together) invited us to go jet skiing at a lake near Heber.  Toby had to work like always so Russell and I went.  It was a lot of fun.  I didn't get a chance to go out for a ride because Russell didn't know anyone so he was grumpy but it was so nice to just get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful place I get to live.  And not to mention being outside.

I did a terrible job at taking pictures.  I just took pictures of Russell and John (Demetrius' baby). 

But how can you blame me.  Look at that face.  He is so cute.

I think he takes after his mom!  J/K D!

John was trying to take a nap but Russell was making him laugh to much.

Russell and his "pretty".  He is always wearing his necklace.  It's a must have when we go out.

Oh I can't get enough of him!!

Here is D with his boy.  I was a ton of fun.  Again I am sorry I didn't get more pictures of the other people there and what it looked like there but at least I got the two cute boys.  Russell and John that is!!

Estelle's Baby Shower

My SUPER awesome friend Estelle had a baby this summer.  Her cousin, Jasmine, and I decided to through her a baby shower.  Nothing big.  We had lunch at Mimi's Cafe.  It was loads of fun.

 The girls.

 Estelle had a baby girl at home!

 Her name is Cosette.  This is a super cute onesie that Jasmine made for her

 It was a good thing that we had this lunch that Saturday because I think Cosette was born the following Tuesday.

 Jasmine and Estelle.  Estelle doesn't look 9 months pregnant does she?

Here she is.  Sweet Cosette.  She looks just like both of Estelle's other two girls (who look very little alike)  It is weird but so cute!

Congratulations Estelle!!! LOVE YOU!

Once a Week

So my plan to blog at least once a week failed.  I think the problem came from not having anything to blog about.  I have been reading some new blogs and I have seen another side of blogging.  Not just a "this is what is new and what was exciting" posts but they use it like a journal or a place to vent.  I am determined to find more ways to use my blog.  So I will catch you up on the last little while and then try new things.  Feel free to ignore my blog if it starts to get boring or whinny.