one year ago today......

One year ago today was full of crazy emotions!

We moved from Buffalo to Pennsylvania.

This was the last day K got on the bus. It was freezing. I think it was around -7. It was cold.

Moving was a crazy time.

We had all been sick with the stomach flu, C was studying furiously for boards and gone most of the day and night, I was just coming out of my first trimester of pregnancy, K got baptized and celebrated his 8th birthday, and we were busy frantically packing.

It was probably the most stressful time of our lives!

BUT we great, kind, and giving friends, we made it through.

We had friends who came over and helped me pack.

We had friends who brought over dinner.

We had friends who watched our kids.

We had friends who helped us pack up not one, but TWO moving trucks (in the freezing cold).

We had friends who helped DRIVE us to our new location.

I don't know what we would have done without them!

They were our angels.

We really enjoyed our time in Buffalo and are so grateful for wonderful friends who have influenced our lives for good!

Birthday Boy!

This little guy turned nine!!!!!

He wanted to go to Red Robin for dinner, so after opening presents, we headed out.

They sang to him, he was embarrassed, but got some free ice cream-so it was worth it.

One of our traditions is putting streamers in front of their door on their birthday,

the kids love it!

Opening presents, he was so excited! He had to wait until after school because C leaves before they are awake, the anticipation nearly killed him.

The next day we had a science birthday party for him. He just had 3 friends he wanted to invite.

We made toothpick towers using toothpicks, gummy bears, dots, and cheese balls. We saw who could build their tower the highest and the most stable.

Then we made volcanos erupt

The highlight for the boys was making marshmallow shooters out of pvc pipe. It was fun, and a mess. I am still finding hard mini marshmallows all over my house, but the boys LOVED it!

Blowing out his candles on his volcano cake

(fyi, if you buy a pack of food coloring hoping to make the 'light brown' color that the package says, just know it turns out gray)

I can't believe he is 9!!!!

Things about K-

He LOVES party pizzas

He likes his teacher at school

He is pretty responsible

He is 'mr. safety'

He likes things tidy

He doesn't enjoy competition

He is honest

He adores Ben

He doesn't like being 'in the spotlight'

He loves to tease

His favorite show is Phineas and Ferb

His favorite color is blue

He misses Buffalo and his cousins and grandparents in Utah

He is a great little boy!

are you kidding me?

Are you serious?

How can this little cutie be 6 months old?

Time has passed faster than I ever thought possible.

He is PURE joy!

We adore him!

He is 17 lbs. 8 oz. (35% for weight)

He is 27 inches long (75th for length)

His little pouty bottom lip kills me

He LOVES toys that make music

He LOVES phones and watching TV (if it's on, he's looking)

As far as rolling, well... not so much. My personal opinion is that he is pampered. He is constantly held, carried and loved. If he cries, someone comes to his aid. He rolled a couple times at 4 months, but not really since there. I think he is going straight to crawling.

He sits, kinda. He topples over if he loses his concentration.

He LOVES attention!

He loves to JUMP in a jumper thing.

He Loves to eat. He goes from happy to frantic in the same second if he realizes he's hungry.

He brings more happiness and joy into our family than I thought possible.

this kid...

G has been saying some whoppers lately that have kept me laughing.

We were having family home evening the other night and talking about how Heavenly Father knows what's in our heart.

G pauses and says, 'yeah, like blood.' then adds, ' and then our heart pumps blood to our body.' we just smiled and told him he was right. how it went from spiritual to anatomy, only a 5 year old could do it.

The other night C was helping the boys with a game on the Wii-they got stuck on a part and C told the boys he would work on it after they were in bed . As the boys were getting tucked in, G says, ' hey, dad, if you beat bowser, will you come and tell me, i'm pretty much awake all night long. in fact, in practically nocturnal.'

never a dull moment.

farm show

Some friends at our church told us about a farm show, so we headed there one afternoon.

We walked in and there was an array of fried foods. We tried a potato doughnut in powdered sugar-DELIGHTFUL!

The kids loved these little piggies.

don't they make cute cows

G wanted a picture with this alpaca

Ok, so I think this picture is SO funny.

G found a cowboy hat laying on a hay bale, he grabbed it and got into costume, then J found this rope tied to the fence and started using it as a lasso. me oh my, cracked me up

These little horses were by far the kids' favorite!

They watched them for a good portion of the night. We saw them pull up to 1,400 lbs, it was pretty neat. I think K would have sat there all night.

These two pics are of J and G showing off their muscles and how strong they are.

we will for sure be visiting next year!

i stand corrected

The Snow has arrived!

It has been so fun! We have gotten two late start days, which mean I have two extra glorious hours in the morning. No crazy running around and having all 4 kids out the door by 7:30. I love it!

J couldn't wait to get out and play in it.

K was most excited to jump on the tramp

Of course snow angels had to be made

This was G right as he landed his 'CANNONBALL!!!!"

I thought you could only do that in water, i stand corrected.

The funny thing was, was that G came in not one minute after his cannon ball asking for a paper towel, because his face was covered in snow. Funny kiddo!

NO! Not that!

Well, it's confirmed! Our little J has pink eye! YUCK!

Which means it's only a matter of time before everyone in the house has pink goopy eyes. Ggggrrr.

Poor little gal.

She woke up this morning crying because she couldn't open her eyes up.

They are actually looking a lot better! And thats with only 2 doses of eye drops.

Hopefully it goes away quick and doesn't make her feel too sick!

Poor kiddo.

She has been watching movies all day, mostly at the request of K, he is terrified of her germs and wants her confined to a single area.

Here's hoping for a quick recovery!

dont believe everything you read

Contrary to what you may have been hearing or reading lately,

not EVERYWHERE in the east has been blanketed by snow.

This is what it looks like here.

There has been no snow plow woes, no digging cars out, no cancelled school, no snow ball fights, no shoveling driveways. No nothin'.

Dry as a bone.

Saturday was 50 degrees.

It's back to the 30's now, but no white stuff.

I think it snowed on Thanksgiving, which melted within a few hours, and it snowed one other time and the snow was gone in 2 hours.

I think we are in a 'dead zone' for snow.

I guess we will see. I do remember last February, we got a ton of snow, so I guess we will see what the future holds.

I am just wondering if I should take back the winter boots we just bought for J.....

Happy winter everyone!

birthday boy

My great husband turned 34 this year! In fact, just a couple days ago.

There are so many things I love about him.

I love that he keeps with our family tradition of running through streamers on your birthday. (We usually do the streamers over the kids bedrooms for when they wake up, but C leaves early and the kids wanted to do this for him.) He is such a great sport!

I love that he lets the kids open his presents for him just because they LOVE it!

And I love that even when he was unsure of WHAT the gift was, he still looks very appreciative and says, 'thanks'. ( I had bought him President Monson's new book, but it wasn't here yet, so I put a picture of the book in a box and wrapped it up....)

I love that the kids chose funfetti cake for me to make for him and he enjoyed it as much as they did.

I also love that although my first attempt at lemon meringue pie (one of his favorites) was less than amazing, he still kept trying to assure me that, 'no, it's good'.

BUT I also love that I could see through it and finally cornered him on the pie to which he responded, 'it's kinda gelatinous'

Blowing out the candles... I think B was helping him.

As his birthday gift to himself, because let's face it, he always has to buy something for himself (he bought ALL of his Christmas gifts this year)...

he made himself a work bench on saturday-it turned out pretty great too.

He is a great husband and father. He has a great sense of humor that keeps me laughing. He is my best friend and my support.

We love you and hope you had a great birthday!

NeW YEarS EvE PaRTy!

We had last minute New Years Eve party, it was great fun!

With some fabulous food. Cheese fondue, chocolate fountain, all sorts of goodies to dip, shrimp, chips, little smokies, you name it, I think we ate it that night.

There were 8 adults and somewhere around 17 kids.

I was amazed! The kids were AMAZING!

They basically sat and watched TV while the adults played PIT and SNORTA (a new game we got for Christmas that was SO fun!)

We had such a great night.

Around 10:30, we decided to ring in the new year. We found Hong Kong's new year and had the kids count down while we watched that.

Here the kids are just gathered watching TV

There was toasting and kissing

Watching the 'new year' ringing in.

After ward, the kids went outside and did some fireworks...

it was so fun!

Great Hopes for a wonderful new year

ps.. as a side note

How is it that my kids didn't get to bed until 11 and were still up at 7:20 the next morning?