It's Our Wonderful Life

six months old!

2011-03-25T23:08:00.000-07:00

The twins are 6 months old!!! I am sad and excited that they are growing up so fast.

Beck weighs over 18 pounds, he is a little ball of muscle. He loves to play on the floor and he can get to almost anything by rolling and scooting, I think he will be crawling very soon! He is very independent and curious, his eyes are always as wide as they can be so he can see everything going on around him. He is going to be a joker, he laughs all of the time, especially when I am disciplining Dax (you think I am kidding, but I'm not) We are entertained all of the time by him, he is a very funny boy!

Reece weighs 14 1/2 pounds, and he the same length as Beck, he is just long and skinny. He doesn't have a lot of muscle yet (he is delayed a couple of months from his heart surgery and recovery.) but he is doing great! He also loves to play on the floor, and he can move around a little bit, he is getting stronger everyday. He is the sweetest little boy ever, he smiles at everyone and he loves to cuddle, he is already sensitive to other peoples moods and tries to cheer them up. He loves to watch us and try to imitate what we do, he is very smart.

Both of the boys are great, most of the time they sleep well, and they are very content playing by themselves if I need to get something done. They are the best babies ever and we so lucky to have them!

These are videos the kids wanted to make, we were trying to get the twins to laugh but it didn't work to well, but they are still cute babies and who doesn't want to see that? Enjoy!

We finally got a new camera so I will try and post more pictures soon!

Bugz

2011-03-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

The whole 2nd grade put on a musical called Bugz. Kailey did a GREAT job!
She was a honey bee, her line was
"Just try to be as sweet as me and don't hurt anything."
It was the perfect line for her since she really is the sweetest girl, we think the teacher Knew exactly what she was doing when she gave that part to Kailey.

She was also the star student of the week out of all the kids in 2nd grade!

We are so proud of her, she is wonderful girl and we are hoping her brothers will all learn to be a lot like her. (they probably won't be nearly as sweet, but at least we have Kailey!)

By the way, I designed all of the Ladybug and bee costumes, and sewed a ton of them! I had fun doing it, but my house was messy for a week while I got them all done!

After this play we decided we needed a new camera, since all of our pictures turned out blurry!

I am so sad that we didn't get any cute pictures of Kaileys big day!

I LOVE Coupons!

2011-03-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

I got all of this for 23.41!

I even had Dax and the twins with me when I went to the store.

(couponing tip, have twins and take them with you, everyone is so much nicer when I have my 2 cute babies to look at.)

It's sunny, can we go swimming?

2011-03-25T11:15:00.001-07:00

Every time the Sunshines (which hasn't been often) Dax asks if he can go swimming at least 5 times a day. One day I finally got tired of explaining it to him again, so I decided to show him why. I told him to go get his swimming suit on and then we could go out and I would squirt him with the hose and he would see that it was really too cold. He was super excited!

When we got outside I turned the water on to a trickle and let him play in it for a couple of minutes until he got a little bit cold, then we went in the house to get him warmed up.

However Tyler was working from home that day and he wanted to get in on the action to, so he convinced Dax to go back outside and he had a great time squirting Dax with more than a trickle of water. After Dax was soaking wet and freezing cold we went inside and gave him a nice warm bath, that was deep enough for him to pretend to swim in.

Unfortunately my plan didn't work and he still asks to go swimming all of the time.

Cheap Halloween Thrills

2010-10-31T11:43:00.000-07:00

Halloween is one of Dax's favorite things ALL YEAR ROUND (see his Jan. '10 HALLOWEEN birthday party post, including trick-or-treating in January). So, we were having fun with JibJab:

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/fWiT26OVWsZrMSOG

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

I personally like this one better:

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/eu0lGHW1LcmFIuJs

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Fall, Twins, & More Pictures

2010-10-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

Here are more pictures of the twins and the late, slowly approaching fall (it's come late this year).

Kailey's first day of 2nd grade:

The new minivan, full of 3 car seats & a booster (but in a different arrangement than shown here):

More of the babies:
Taken within minutes of being born (Beck on left, Reece on right).

You guess, which one is on left & which one is on right?

Dax was great at finding different uses for many everyday hospital items.

Ready to leave the hospital.

At home with Grandma Lisa (Cassidy's Mom).

All four kids with Grandma Jo (Tyler's Maternal Grandma).

The babies like to sleep close:

Beck has become a big, thick, strong baby, which has earned him several nicknames already. More faces & expressions from "Bruiser Beck:"

Just as a side note for those of you who may not know, after the babies were born, the doctors found a hole in Reece's heart, and he will have heart surgery on Nov. 17th to patch the hole and possibly replace the adjacent valve. He has grown in length equal to Beck but is outweighed by a good 3lbs. now. He is pretty thin, not very strong, and has labored breathing, but it is good to finally have a date that this will be repaired now.

Unfortunately the new additions have not been easy for Dax to accept, but he has his moments with them, occasionally:
Dax reading to them while they're asleep in bed.

This picture reminds me of the infamous Michael Scott quote from The Office: "Would I rather be feared or loved? Um… Easy, both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me."

Tyler's 30th birthday:

Twins' Photo Session

2010-10-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

Our friend, and a great photographer did a photo session and some the photos are on her blog:

http://blog.jennipricephotography.com/beck-reece-12-days/.

(Sorry for some reason the hyperlink isn't working)

TWINS!!

2010-09-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, September 8th, 2010, at 8:37pm and 8:42pm, Beck Lyman Nelson and Reece Delmer Nelson were born, respectively. Beck was born 18.5" long and weighing in at 6lbs. 1oz. and Reece was born 18.75" long and weiging in at 6lbs. 8oz.

We went to the hospital at 6am and Cassidy was induced, after a long labor, the babies were finally ready about 14.5 hours later. Fortunately she had an epidural so she was able to take a few naps during labor. The delivery was done in the operating room, just in case an emergency c-section was necessary, but fortunately it was not, and after only 3 pushes, both boys were out.

(Beck & Reece, respectively)

"Old Man Beck" makes a lot of good faces:

Ready for the OR:

Sorry it's taken a ridiculous amount of time to post this.

Photo giveaway

2010-06-11T08:52:00.000-07:00

My friend Jenni Price is an amazing photographer, and she is having a giveaway over at her blog. Check it out here.

The Twins

2010-05-26T23:23:00.000-07:00

We are expecting twins!

They are both boys and they are due sometime in September. (September 21st is the actual due date, but more than half of all twins are born before week 37, which would be August 31st.) We are very excited and can't wait to meet them!

The Big Island

2010-05-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

We were a little nervous to go to the Big Island, we had heard that there wasn't as much to do, and there was a LOT of driving. So we were pleasantly surprised when we had a lot of fun. The first day we were there we went to Kahaluu Beach Park. This turtle came up on the rocks right at the edge of the water. Dax and I didn't even have to get wet to see it. Dax thought it was the coolest thing ever.

In my opinion this beach was the best snorkeling spot we went to. There were rocks blocking the waves so it was easy to get in the water, and there were a ton of fish everywhere. Plus there was a great shallow, calm spot for the kids to play in without worrying about them getting run over by the waves, Dax even got in the water here.

Bob and Sue offered to watch the kids on Tuesday so we could go a Night snorkel trip to swim with Manta Rays. I was so nervous to go swimming in the ocean at night, but once we got out there I was fine.

We were on a huge foam ring with a bunch of people from our boat, we all had to shine our lights into the middle of the ring to attract plankton, which would attract the Manta rays. We waited out there for about 30 minutes and all we saw were these fish and plankton. (the white stuff in the water) Our guide finally decided we weren't going to see any Manta Rays and had us start swimming back to the boat. About half way one of the other guides went back to check, and of course there was one there, so we all headed back.

The Manta Ray was so cool, I was very glad we got to see at least one.
Bob and Sue went on a Night scuba trip the next night to the same spot and saw at least 6 Manta Rays.

Our guide found this for us on our way back to the boat the first time. It is a pencil urchin, the only urchin that is safe to touch. (I think)

All Tyler wanted to do on the Big Island was see flowing lava. Unfortunately there was too much sulfur in the air and all the roads were closed to get to the lava flow. We at least got to see some cool lava rocks.

I LOVE history and I was excited to go to go to ancient Hawaiian sites and learn about their history.

This was a temple (I think) that King Kamehameha built. We could not go in, you had to be Hawaiian and practice their ancient religion. I still thought it was interesting.

This was a place for one of the Hawaiian Princesses. It cost $8 for each of us to get in and you couldn't take any pictures inside. Call us cheap, but we didn't feel like it was worth it.

I was a little disappointed in all the historical sites we went to.

On Thursday we went to Hilo. We were excited to go to the Mauna Loa factory, but we were a little disappointed. We all agreed that we are to spoiled by the Tillamook Cheese factory to enjoy smaller factories.

This is the Big Island Candy company, another factory we were excited to try. Disappointed again, but they had GREAT samples.

They also had really cool displays. (just trying to make things even, can't show a picture of one kid without the other, I don't know how we will do it with four! Don't I look HUGE, and I am only half way!)

Bob and Sue decided they had to see the lava flow so they went on a helicopter ride around the volcano. They loved it and definatly thought it was the money. (we decided not to go because we have to pay Dax's hospital bill, not something we were figuring into our vacation expenses.)

This is what Tyler had to settle for to see the lava.

While Bob and Sue went on the helicopter ride we went to the Lyman Museum. My maiden name is Lyman, so of course I wanted to go and check it out. We got there a couple of minutes before it closed so we didn't get to look around , which is a bummer because it looked like it would have been fun.

Our last day in Kona we spent a lot of time at the beach.

This is our last sunset, we were sad but excited to come home.

Maui

2010-05-23T19:51:00.000-07:00

We were so excited to finally get to Maui! The plane ride was 6 hours, I had been dreading it for months, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
Kailey and Dax wanted to get in the pool as soon as we got to our condo. It was hard to keep them out of the water.

Kailey loved the ocean, She was great at body boarding and snorkeling.

Dax loved the sand. He was a little scared of the waves. On Wednesday we went to The Royal Lahaina Luau.

Tyler was excited for the pig and all of the rest of the food.The rest of us were excited for the Dancing.

On Thursday we decided to try The Road to Hana, it was a long day, but we had fun. It was actually a perfect activity, because Dax wasn't feeling to great and he got a great nap in the car.

The view was gorgeous, but the road was pretty scary. Now that we can say we have done it, I am sure we will never go again.

There were a lot of waterfalls along the way, most of them were hard to get to with the kids. We found one that had a great little swimming hole, and it wasn't to high so Tyler could jump off of it. I was pretty nervous that he would get hurt, but he still jumped and had a lot of fun.

On Friday morning we went snorkeling to Molokini. We even convinced Kailey to come, she got a little scared but overall she did great.

We also got to go to a spot called Turtle Bay, there were about 10 to 15 turtles swimming around us.

We tried to drive up to the top of Haleakala on Friday afternoon. Dax still wasn't feeling good and when we got to the higher elevation he started throwing up, so we just turned around and went back to the condo.

On Saturday Dax was feeling even worse. He wouldn't eat or move, he had a fever of 104 and his breathing was very rapid. We took him into an Urgent Care center, but they couldn't do much, they told us to take him to the ER. Turns out he had pneumonia and had to spend the night in the hospital.

The next day he was feeling a lot better, and we got discharged just in time to make our flight to Kona. This was definitely not a fun way to spend my vacation, but I am really glad that Dax is healthy now and nothing went really wrong.

Bedroom redo

2010-04-29T23:51:00.000-07:00

For Kailey's birthday she wanted her room redone, she outgrew the pink a long, long time ago. She has been waiting patiently for a more grown up room.

When we found out we were pregnant we decided to put Kailey and Dax together so the baby doesn't wake anybody but me up in the middle of the night.

The kids were so excited to start painting, they are happy to share a room, they can't wait until it is finished. We are doing a beach, surfing room, we have lots of fun ideas, hopefully we can get them all done. Stay tuned for the finished result.

(By the way it is a very good thing they are ok with sharing, we just found out we have to make room for twins!)

Kailey is 7!

2010-04-29T23:02:00.000-07:00

We love having family close to us, it is so much fun to celebrate with them. We had everybody over for Kailey's 7th birthday. I can NOT believe she is 7, it is going by way to fast!

Our favorite birthday tradition, Heavy, heavy, hangover

(I put this picture on for mom, she wanted to see how big I am getting.)

This is the best present ever! We have so much fun sitting around laughing at the funny faces we all make, they are 10 times more funny when they are magnified. (this is a huge magnifying glass for finding bugs, but it has been used for this way more. if you need a laugh go and get one!)

Perfect Puppy Party!

2010-04-29T22:29:00.001-07:00

Kailey LOVES dogs! so it was no surprise she wanted a puppy party for her 7th birthday. Everybody of course had to dress up like a puppy.

The kids loved their bone sandwiches. This was the easiest party ever, and the kids had a ton of FUN!

Easter

2010-04-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

We had a GREAT Easter!

These are hollow chocolate eggs with a toy inside. Tyler got them all of the time on his mission in France. He searched all over to find them for the kids, and it was worth it, they LOVED them! What a good dad.

Favorite Things

2010-03-30T15:46:00.000-07:00

This is Dax's favorite puzzle, he loves that it is the same size as him.

He is obsessed with bones and the inside of the body, every time we go the library he gets books about bones and reads them over and over. I am hoping he will be a Doctor when he grows up, and it isn't just because of Halloween.

Dax's Birthday (finally!)

2010-03-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

Dax LOVES HALLOWEEN! So of course we had to have a Halloween birthday party. He was so excited to get all of the decorations out and decorate the house. He has asked to get them out again every day since.

We had friends over for some good old fashioned Halloween fun, the kids wore costumes, we had some spooky tunes, and of course we went Trick-or-Treating. We all had so much FUN!

New Year's Eve

2010-02-01T11:04:00.000-08:00

We had a FUN New Year's Eve! We all went over to grandma and grandpa's house.

The kids had a white elephant gift exchange, and then all of us (adults included) played the candy bar game. I forgot how much fun it was!

We had a Bunco tournament, the kids did way better than the adults.

Dax and Brian couldn't play Bunco, so they did some puzzles together instead.

We had an early New Year's Eve celebration for the kids, then they all went off to bed and the adults stayed up and played games.

We had a GREAT time, we are so glad that we live close to family!

Snow!

2010-02-01T10:36:00.000-08:00

We love snow! It hardly ever snows here, so when it does we have to take advantage of it and PLAY!
Kailey wanted to try some experiments, We spray painted the snow with water and food coloring,
and we tried to see each snowflake on a black piece of paper. (it didn't work to well, but it was fun to try.)

We ended our Snow day FUN with hot chocolate with whip cream and sprinkles on top, YUM.

Chritmas Eve 2009

2010-02-01T09:53:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures from our annual Christmas Eve Nativity, one of our favorite traditions. This year Kailey was the angel,
and Dax was Joseph.

Aunt Becky and Grandma made matching pajamas for all of the kids, they loved matching. (especially Dax, who thinks his older cousins are awesome and wants to be just like them!)

Thanks Aunt Becky and Grandma!

Christmas 2009

2010-02-01T09:29:00.001-08:00

I am finally posting pictures of Christmas! Christmas morning!
Santa's gifts.

Opening stockings

Kailey's favorite present, a dog from build-a-bear that Grandma Lisa helped her make!

Dax's favorite present, a skeleton costume that I got on clearance for $2!

Seaside

2009-12-08T22:20:00.001-08:00

This last weekend we went to Seaside for a family vacation. We had so much FUN!
We stayed in a hotel right on the beach. I forgot to take a picture of the view, so this is what our view would have been in the 1940's.
It was beautiful, it was sunny and clear the whole time, but it was FREEZING cold!
It was way to cold to spend time outside, so we found a lot of stuff to do inside.

We swam at our hotel alot, we went 4 times in 2 days.

We went and browsed in every shop within walking distance from our hotel, including the Carousel Mall, and of course we couldn't leave there without having a ride.

We also went to the arcade and had a lot of fun there. (unfortunatley I forgot to take pictures.)

Kailey wanted to go to the Aquarium more than anything!

It was very small and COLD! I was frozen by the time we left.

The best thing was feeding the seals, they were very funny. (video at the bottom.)

There were alot of sea stars, and some fish.

There was an octopuss, however it was asleep and not exciting to watch.

This is an eel, I thought he looked like a sad, old, man.
(I didn't think the aquarium was worth the money, it cost us almost $20 for the family, and we were in there for less than an hour and left bored, I would not suggest going.)

This is Kailey and Dax, the night before we actually went to the aquarium, they were so excited to go, but when we got there it had just closed. They were pretty bummed so we went the next day.

We had a fantastic trip! It was great to have time to just be together.

We tried to go to Mo's in Cannon Beach before heading home, but Dax fell asleep before we got there, so we just took a picture of haystack rock and went home.

(we stopped and got Dairy Queen instead, it is so not as good!)

This is kinda boring, but dax LOVES to watch videos on here, so I put it on for him.

Christmas Trees on the road

2009-12-08T15:57:00.000-08:00

Do you notice anything special about this tree?

We found this tree and about 2 dozen others on the side of the road on our way home from Seaside. We loved searching for them among the bigger trees. What a fun way to celebrate and decorate.

(you can't see as well it as well as I had hoped, but the tree has Christmas ornaments on it)

Christmas decorations

2009-12-08T15:42:00.000-08:00

I wanted all new Christmas decorations this year, but when I went shopping I realized 2 things. first, decorations are expensive!!! and second, I could make most of the decorations myself, so I did. I made all of these decorations using stuff I already had, for under $10!

The Note

2009-11-18T16:41:00.000-08:00

How should I feel about this?

How sad is it that my big 6 year old feels bullied by my little 2 year old?

Any suggestions on how to prevent this, or is it just normal sibling love?

Girls Night

2009-11-18T16:08:00.001-08:00

Doesn't this look like FUN!

I love having girls nights!

This one was particularly memorable, we gave ourselves homemade oatmeal facials and pedicures. We laughed and talked all night, it was just like being back in high school!

I forgot to take an after picture, but I can assure you that our toes looked beautiful and our faces were baby smooth.

Thanks everyone for coming! I am so GRATEFUL to have all of you as friends!

After Halloween Clearance!

2009-11-05T21:47:00.000-08:00

I LOVE Clearance!!! I always go and check after holiday clearance sales. This year I found an awesome Buzz Lightyear costume for $7. I intended to save it for Christmas, but the other day Kailey was playing dress up and Dax wanted to play too. He brought me every dress (yes dress) he could find. I knew Tyler would kill me if I put Dax in a dress (Again, you can only say no so many times.) so I finally decided to pull out the Buzz Lightyear costume and I made his day! He was so EXCITED! He has worn it for 2 days straight, he even wanted to wear it to bed.

By the way when he takes the hood off he is a robot, I love kid's imaginations.

Halloween

2009-11-05T21:15:00.001-08:00

I feel horrible, I thought I was doing so good taking pictures and then I uploaded them to my computer and found out I only had 10! At least I got pictures of the kids costumes.

Kailey was an Equestrian.
Dax was a pirate.

Me, my mom, and my sister Megan were hippies

This is Kailey and her friend Taylor at the Trunk-or-Treat.

Taylor had the best ghost costume ever, she looked so cute.

How could you not love this face?

Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-05T20:36:00.000-08:00

Tyler's Birthday

2009-09-23T15:24:00.000-07:00

Tyler just had another birthday. He loves to barbeque, so thats what we did again this year. we even had the same thing that we had last year. Salmon with our friends one night and burgers with Tyler's family the next night. We had a ton of FUN! Thanks every one for coming!
We watched a BYU football game with our friends, Michelle made this awsome rice krispy treat cake for all of the kids. (I made Cherry Chocolate Cake, which alot of the kids don't like, but it was fine with me, because it is delicous and that meant more for the adults.)

First Grade!

2009-09-23T15:06:00.001-07:00

Kailey is in first grade!
She loves it! She sits right by one of her good friends from the bus stop, they are so cute together. Kailey's favorite part of school is of course recess and lunch.
This is Kailey's favorite school outfit, we had so much fun shopping together for all of her clothes

Flowers

2009-09-23T14:14:00.000-07:00

My friend Sheralyn made these cute little flowers for Kailey and her friends. They thought they looked so gorgeous with them in!

By the way do you know what side of your head the flower should go on? I do now, the right if you are not married and the left if you are, just like a ring. I always forgot, thanks for making it easy Sheralyn.

Washington County Fair

2009-09-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

Tyler's family LOVES the fair, as a result we have gone every year since we moved here and now I love them too. (everything except the animals, I do not like walking around in the disgusting barns and looking at a million different cows, sheep, goats and horses. However my kids like it, so I sacrifce for them)
Dax was so excited to sit on a tractor that was his size! Kailey is getting to big to get excited, but she still let me take a picture.

The cousins enjoying a delicous snow cone.

Fountain Fun!

2009-09-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

This summer we discovered a fantastic park! It has a huge playground that the kids can play on for hours, plus it has a huge fountain and little river for when they get to hot.

It was so much FUN! We can't wait for next summer so we can go again.

Hiking

2009-07-08T22:04:00.000-07:00

We went hiking with Clint and Nicole and had so much fun. It was my first time in 4 1/2 years hiking around Portland. We had so much fun, and I hope that we can go again soon, we are lucky to live in such a beautiful place.

Kindergarten Field Trip

2009-07-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

Kailey got to go on her first field trip at the end of the year. Tyler and I got to go with her, we had so much fun.

Our first activity was at an old school house. The kids had a spelling bee and a tug of war.

Next we went to a climbing wall, Kailey and most of the other kids were scared, only a couple of kids actually went all the way across.

Surprisingly Kailey went all the way across the rope bridge, she was the first girl to finish, we were so proud of her.

then we ate lunch and went for a hike.

after the hike we made an easy craft

and then FISHING!!! the kids thought it was so much fun to hang a string in the water, I think it is because they only got to do it for 10 minutes. We also got to go out in a canoe, which was my favorite part.

Burger King

2009-07-08T20:05:00.000-07:00

We went to burger King a while ago and the kids were so excited that they had crowns, they couldn't stop smiling the whole time we were there.

Celebration!!!

2009-07-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

We went to the beach for our end of tax season celebration.
We went with 2 families in our ward and we had a ton of FUN!

we celebrated Kailey and Taylor's birthdays while we were there. they were really into Lion king at the time so we let them decorate their own Lion King cake.

They got each other the same My Little Pony set. Isn't that what best friends do?

We watched movies, and attempted to have all the kids sleep together, it didn't work.

We flew kites.

We made sandcastles.

We played in the water.

Tyler made a rule in our family that if we go to the beach we HAVE to touch the water. Kailey lives by that rule and was a little upset that everybody didn't go and touch the water.

The men and boys went crabbing and caught us a feast. They really enjoyed it and want to go again.

Our friend Rendall thinks Dax is hilarious and was more than willing to give into his demand of holding a crab. However after Dax got hold of it he would not put it down, for at least an hour. We finally had to tell him that the crab need to go back to the ocean. I have no doubt that he would still play with that crab if we had let him keep it.

See how excited he was.

We stayed a day later than everyone else so Tyler could go surfing.

You have to wear a full body suit to go in the ocean up here, because the water is so cold. It doesn't sound like much fun to me, but Tyler loves it.

Kailey's Birthday

2009-07-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

Kailey is 6!!! (she has been for a while)

She is getting so grown up, I can't believe how long it has been. She is old enough to do almost everything for herself, I miss be able to help with everything, (she doesn't like help) but I love how much fun we have together. I love her so much and I am glad that she is my daughter.

Birthday Morning Kailey wanted cinnamon rolls for breakfast, we made them extra special with candles.

Family Birthday Party
We had a fun birthday party at grandma and grandpa's house. we love living close enough to family to have parties with them.

We play a game called heavy, heavy, hangover thy poor head, when we are opening gifts. It is a highlight of every family party, especially for the younger kids like Dax.

Kailey's most exciting present was her new bike!!! she had wanted it forever and we kept telling her Toys-R-Us was sold out. (which they were, but we already had her bike.) She was so excited when we wheeled it into the room.

Since you can't really see it I will tell you what is on it. It says Puppy love and has dog prints all over it. Kailey was so excited since she loves dogs and blue is her favorite color, it really is the perfect bike for her.

Kailey's Friend party Kailey invited all the girls in her kindergarten class for a garden party.

We painted flower pots, and then planted flowers in them. (I didn't do very good with the picture taking.)

she had so much fun, and she misses seeing all of her friends.

One of her friends gave her this cute dress, I love it, but unfortunately I haven't been able to convince her to wear it yet.

Easter

2009-07-07T14:47:00.000-07:00

So I know that this is really, really late, but better late than never right. We had a great easter, Dax and Kailey loved finding their easter baskets.

Coloring easter eggs is one of our favorite things to do, we wish we could do it all of the time.

Dax liked coloring his hands, better than coloring the eggs, it was pretty funny to watch.

Train Wreck Cuisine

2009-03-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

This website never ceases to amaze me:

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

This was posted by Tyler.

Sweet Moments

2009-03-12T16:16:00.000-07:00

I walked in the room the other day and found Kailey and Dax cuddled up on the couch, I LOVE moments like this.

Guitar Hero Birthday

2009-03-12T15:50:00.000-07:00

Dax turned 2 more than a month ago!!! We of course had to have a Guitar Hero birthday party.

Dax loved his cake. Right now (while I am writing this) he is singing Happy Birthday to himself and trying to blow out the candles again.

We had a bunch of friends over to eat cake and ice cream and of couse play Guitar Hero! We all stayed up playing untill 10, it was a BLAST!

The babies (ok they aren't really babies but I am not ready for them to grow up yet.) had a ton of FUN dancing!

Christmas (finally)

2009-01-26T21:15:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas!!! Kailey's favortie gifts were a $10 personal CD player and camera. Dax's favorite gift was Guitar Hero! Well it wasn't really for Dax it was for Tyler, but it was still his favorite. After Tyler opened it Dax wouldn't touch any of the other presents all he wanted to do was play guitar. This is a video of Dax running away from his presents.

Christmas Eve 2008

2009-01-26T20:48:00.001-08:00

Our Christmas eve always had family, food, fun ,

...and of course our Christmas pageant. This has been one of my favorite traditions for as long as I can remember. I am so glad that my kids get to enjoy it too.

Kailey was Mary.

Dax was a Shepard - for about 2 minutes, then he proceeded to take all of his clothes off, so he became a sheep in his onesie, diapers, and socks, with barking and all.

We usually end with new pajamas (Dax's are some old ones that I just wrapped up because he has so many - thank you, quality hand-me-downs) -
then we went home to go to bed. I am so glad that we live close to family.

The Arctic Blast

2008-12-23T16:34:00.000-08:00

We have had snow in Portland for over a week now! Kailey hasn't been to school, and Tyler hasn't been to work since Dec. 12 (he has been working from home.) Since Tyler has been working from home I haven't been able to do anything on the computer, so I have a bunch of posts to catch up on, and a TON of primary stuff to get ready for the new year. I will be so glad when the snow melts and our lives can be normal again. Although I will miss having Tyler around.

Christmas tree

2008-12-23T16:18:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite family traditions is going to cut down our Christmas tree.

Kailey really enjoyed helping pick out the tree this year, and she even helped trim the end a bit.

Dax loved running around and hiding in all of the trees, and of course he tried to do everything that dad did.

Snow Days!!!

2008-12-20T00:51:00.001-08:00

We have had a week full of snow days! Kailey hasn't had any school this week and Tyler has been working fwom home. it has been so nice to have everyone in our little family at home for a whole week.

Leaves

2008-11-20T14:13:00.000-08:00

Kailey and Dax love leaves!!! They love playing in them, raking them and of course collecting them.

NYC

2008-11-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

It has been almost a month since my NY trip! I have been a total slacker, so FINALLY here are my pictures.The first day we went to The American Museum of Natural History.

Central Park was beautiful, and HUGE.

It was amazing to be walking down a crowded street in the middle of a huge city and see the Angel Moroni all of the sudden appear. We went inside the building and talked to the security guard for a little while, it was so peaceful and quiet inside. The actual entrance to the temple is inside the building complete with gorgeous carved wood doors and all. We really wanted to do a session, but we couldn't leave my two youngest sisters .

Ice skating at Rockefeller Center

Times Square

I guess I should explain about the dogs. Kailey was really sad that she couldn't come with me, so I bought her and Dax dog on the first day and carried them around with me and took pictures with them everywhere. I felt like a nerd carrying around a huge bag with two stuffed animals in it, but she was excited when I got home.

Apartment buildings in Little Italy

Little Italy was already decorated for Christmas! It seems like everyone in NY is trying to sell you something. At every restaurant we passed in Little Italy there was a guy outside trying to get us to come in and eat there.

On our last day we went a matinee of Mary Poppins. It was very good.

There were churches like this everywhere, they were all gorgeous.

NYC library, I would love to be able to go here all of the time.

We ended our trip on top of the Empire State building.

This was pretty much the only food cart we ate at the entire time, the nuts were Delicious.

Of course all had to buy a purse. (or two, or four) We had tons of FUN!!!

We are hoping to be able to do this every year. Next year we are going to Seattle!

Good night funny boy

2008-11-08T09:01:00.001-08:00

Last night we let Dax choose what stuffed animal he wanted to sleep with. He chose a bobble head of Channing Frye form the Blazers, and he would not lay down untill we gave it to him.

What a FUNNY boy!

Trick or Treat

2008-11-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

Jack-o-lanterns

2008-11-05T20:48:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin Patch

2008-11-05T20:09:00.000-08:00

picture tag

2008-10-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

This is the fourth picture in my fourth folder It is Tyler and Dax bowling, we went with most of the cousins, it was a lot of fun. We had a month this summer where most of our pictures turned out blurry, we had to send our camera in to get fixed. (luckily we had a warranty) Now we have tons of cute but blurry pictures.

I tag, Kelly, Wendy, Jennifer and Brittney. Go to your picture folders and upload your fourth picture from your fourth folder, then post the picture with an explanation and tag four other people. Have fun!!

Happy Birthday Tyler!!!

2008-09-27T22:09:00.000-07:00

Tyler is getting OLD!!! His birthday was on the 19th, we celebrated with friends, family, and lots of meat. Tyler loves to BBQ. (in fact in college he made almost every meal on his BBQ.) We had to have two parties just to fit in all the recipes he wanted to try. On Friday we had some friends over and Tyler made chicken with three different marinades and salmon. On Sunday we had Tyler's family over and made an inside out bacon cheeseburger, and a bleu cheeseburger. Of course it was all Delicious, and we had tons of fun hanging out with everybody.

Kindergarten news

2008-09-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

Kailey's kindergarten class has 27 kids in it, it is pretty chaotic, there were 18 unexpected kids that registered. Since there are so many the school has decided to add another morning class, Kailey is one of the kids that has to move. We are all feeling a little sad about it. right now she is in the afternoon class with all of her friends, she loves her teacher and Dax takes a nap while she is at school. (that is my favorite part.) I am sure that she will make new friends and love her new teacher but she is still really nervous, it is like the first day of school all over again.
on another note, her current teacher told me that she is in the top of her class! We know she is smart but it always makes me happy to hear someone else say it (especially her teacher!)

Kindergarten

2008-09-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

Kailey has started kindergarten! Her first day was last week, she was so excited to go.
This picture shows exactly how excited she was.

I think she started to get a little nervous, but she still told us we could go before most of the other parents left.

she has been to school six days now, and she loves it, every day she has tons of fun things to tell me. Her favorite thing so far is riding the bus, and by the way, recess really is to short.

We of course had a fashion show with all of her school clothes. but I think I had more fun than she did.

goodbye summer

2008-09-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

We are so sad that summer is over, we had so much fun every day. here are some of the things we are going to miss.

Jumping on our friend's trampoline with the water under it.
Playing in the pool, or any water really.
Eating outside.
wearing dress up clothes and makeup all day

having long, silly playdates
picking berries

and of course eating popsicles to cool down on a hot, hot day.

Imagination

2008-09-09T15:54:00.000-07:00

Do you know what this is? Kailey does, it's a spider car.

Summer Fun

2008-08-05T23:50:00.000-07:00

We have had a great summer so far. All of Tyler's brothers and sisters came for a family reunion at the beach, We had so much fun with them. We did fireworks, took family pictures, played on the beach, went bowling, ran through the sprinklers and just hung out. We miss them all and can't wait to see them again.

Our first house

2008-08-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

We finally bought our own house!!! We are super excited, it is just a townhouse, so it isn't very big, but it is ours and it is perfect for our little family.

This is what we are most excited about, we finally have a backyard!!! I know that it is small but the kids love it and I love that I can send the kids outside to play while I make dinner.

Our kitchen is great because we can all fit! In our apartment we could only fit one person at a time, so only one of us could fix dinner and do the the dishes. Now we can do it together!
This is the only thing, besides painting some walls that we really want to change. It is a tile bakcsplash behind the stove, we don't know what the previous owner was thinking. I want to take it down imeadiatly and put a new tile backsplash around the whole kitchen. Tyler wants to wait till we can afford granite and then decide what kind of backsplash to put up. I hope that I am not stuck with this for to long.
The rest of the rooms still have a ton of boxes and are very unorganized, I will put pictures up when they look better.

Cute kids!!!

2008-06-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

We went to Babies-R-Us the other day to look for baby shower gifts for some friends of mine, we didn't find any gifts, but we did get some great pictures Kailey and Dax for FREE!!! Kiddie Kandids will pull shoppers into get a free 8X10 if they don't have any customers, this is the third time this has happened to us! I think either we are just really lucky, or we have super cute kids. (I think it's cute kids) So we ended up getting a GREAT (cheap) Fathers day present that Tyler loved at Babies-R-Us, who knew.

Shiner

2008-05-23T22:09:00.001-07:00

Dax tripped and fell on the edge of our window seat today. It resulted in a black eye, we think this is probably the first of many. His favorite past times are climbing and Wrestling, he is definitely a boy.
We love his hair, but it is getting a little bit to long. We will probably have to trim it soon, I will be very sad to see his beautiful curls in the trash.

A trip to the beach (in April)

2008-05-23T21:14:00.002-07:00

I have been so horrible at updating our blog, we went to the beach a month ago to celebrate the end of tax season with my aunt and uncle and I am just now posting the pictures. We had so much fun with them and their two youngest kids, we are so glad that they took time to come and visit us.
The first thing we did when we got there was shave Tyler's hair into a mohawk - he didn't have time to cut it during tax season, noticed it was probably the longest it'll be, figured he had several days of reporting to no one, and took advantage of the chance. Kailey and Courtney are about five years apart in age, but they are great friends. they loved dressing the same every day and playing together.
Our new favorite thing to do at the beach is get some live crabs and cook them ourselves. There is a great little boat in Newport, on the historic bayfront, that sells them at a reasonably cheap price.
The morning that we left it snowed. It was so cold the whole time we were there, we were glad to go home.

Kailey's birthday

2008-04-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

Kailey is FIVE!!!
I can't believe how fast the time has gone, I have a five year old, she is going to start kindergarten in less than six months!

Her birthdayday started out great Grandma Lisa, Grandpa Mike and Aunt Megan all flew in late the night before to be there when she woke up, and she got FRENCH TOAST!!! She wants it for every meal, so of course that is what she wanted on her birthday, we made it extra special with candles. We planned to go to the zoo but the line was around the building to get in, so we went to Washington Park instead. It was a hot beautiful day, so after the park we went downtown to play in a fountain. For dinner we went to Kailey's favorite restaurant Sweet Tomatoes. (it's her favorite because she can have whatever she wants, within reason.) Kailey was so excited to open her presents all day. Unfortunately we got home late and it was 8 before she could open them, so she didn't get to play with them right away.
All she wanted was My Little Pony, so that is all she got. Now she spends all day playing with or thinking about ponyville, she has a ton of fun setting it all up and rearranging everything again and again. Whenever we go anywhere she tells me at least 10 times she is a little home sick, which means she wants to play, who can blame her, there isn't much else to do when it is constantly raining outside. Well My Sweet girl I hope you had a great birthday! I certainly enjoyed sharing it with you!

Kailey's friend party

2008-04-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Kailey is five!!! We decided to finally give her a real friend party, of course she wanted a My Little Pony party, which was great, all I had to do for decorations was get out her toys.
We had her party on the perfect day, it was 72 and sunny!!! it was her first birthday in Oregon that it hasn't rained.
In an attempt to stick with the theme we played horse, horse, pony instead of duck, duck, goose.
The best part of a birthday party, the presents! Kailey loved all of them, Thank you to all of her friends!!!

One Year Later

2008-03-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

Last year at this time Dax was in Legacy Emanuel Children's Hospital after having Surgery on his heart. All this week I have been thinking about it and how hard it was to see my two month old baby hooked up to all these machines and not be able to hold him or even touch him very much. But then I look at him now, and I realize how lucky we are that he could have surgery. Now he is such a strong healthy boy, you would never know by looking at him that he was born with two holes in his heart.
This is the first time I got to hold Dax in three days, you can't imaging how excited I was! We are so grateful to all of the nurses and Doctors and all of the other staff that helped take care of Dax and all of us. One thing I have to mention is the Child Life Therapy program they help the patients and siblings deal with whats going on. Before we took Kailey to see Dax they gave her a little doll and let her give it shots and IVs and hook it up to all of the machines that Dax was on. They also have parties and activities for the kids to do everyday. Kailey still talks about the playroom and all of the fun stuff they did, in fact Kailey wants to be a Dr. now just so she can go there every day and play. If you ever have to take your child to a hospital (I hope you don't) then I highly recommend Emanuel.Dax is now a healthy strong 14 month old boy. As far as we know he won't ever have to have another heart surgery. He loves to climb on every thing and he is slowly learning how to walk, he is always in a hurry and he still thinks crawling is faster. He loves to play games, wrestle, dance, and give hugs, he is the most cuddly boy ever. He is always smiling, laughing, and talking. We can't imagine life without him. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support!

Bucket Head

2008-03-24T21:47:00.000-07:00

I had to put this on here. Dax and Kailey got buckets instead of baskets this year, and Dax loved his. He would put it on his head and crawl around until he ran into something, then he would take his bucket off and and look around, then do it again. He did this for about an hour, he is such a funny boy, we are always laughing at him

Easter

2008-03-24T21:31:00.000-07:00

We had surprise visitors for Easter this year. My mom and my sister, Melissa came up on Saturday night to have Easter with us. Kailey was so Excited when she woke up on Sunday and found them. Dax was a little shy at first, but he warmed up quickly and had a ton of fun with them. We had a Great Easter and we are so glad that we got to spend time with both of our families this year.

Easter Eggs

2008-03-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

We colored Easter eggs with Grandma Sue this year, we had a ton of fun! Kailey loved having Grandma to herself. (Grandpa Bob was to busy with tax season to come, we missed him.)
Coloring eggs always makes such a mess. I got cheap coloring kits from the dollar store this year, I didn't think they would be that different, but they were. They stained our hands every time we touched them, even after they were dry. I will never buy them there again.

BEST Uncle Ever!

2008-03-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

My Uncle Eric had to come up to Portland for business a couple of times this year, and we had so much fun hanging out with him! I know he didn't like being away from his family but we got to know him so much better we will miss having him over for dinner and having someone else to talk to, Kailey and Dax loved playing with him and now they are so comfortable with him. We can't wait till he brings his family to visit in April (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) so Tyler and the kids can get to know them better too!

Tutus and rain boots

2008-02-29T21:30:00.000-08:00

Kailey's friend Taylor had a birthday party today, I made them these matching tutus. I thought Kailey looked so cute in her tutu and rain boots, she totally reminded me of one of my favorite book characters from grade school, Ramona Quimby. I use to read those books and wonder why anyone ever needed to buy rain boots for school. who knew that I would end up living in the same city where the book was set and have to buy my own daughter rain boots.

Flowers for my mom

2008-02-29T21:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went for a walk in the gorgeous sunshine and we just happened to see this little rhododendron bush with flowers on it. These are some of my mom's favorite flowers, she always wants to come and visit when they are in bloom. We couldn't pick them and mail them to her so we took a picture instead. I hope you enjoy your flowers mom!

FHE Swimming

2008-02-29T20:46:00.000-08:00

Some friends of ours asked if they could use our indoor swimming pool for FHE, we decided to go with them. Dax loved floating around and watching everyone.
Kailey loved playing in the hot tub, she is still a little afraid of the big pool. although she plays on the stairs by herself sometimes now.
Tyler did manage to trick her in one time. He told her that he needed a hug, it only lasted for about 10 seconds.
I had to add this picture in, he is just to cute!!!

A trip to the Fire Station

2008-02-29T20:27:00.001-08:00

Kailey's preschool class took a field trip to the Fire Station last week. They have been learning about fires and saftey for a couple of weeks now and they were all very excited to go!!! I tried to get this picture about five times, I have decided that 3 and 4 year olds move around way to much to get good group pictures.
One of their favorite things was sitting in the truck, Kailey loved it beacuse they were so high. Thank you Officer Tom!!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Dax!!!

2008-02-10T21:08:00.001-08:00

Dax is one!!! Time goes by so fast. His birthday was in January, while we were in Utah so we got to have a party with my family. He loves music so I made a drum cake.

This was at his party at home. His name means water loving, so of course Tyler is hoping he will become a surfer. I made this cake more as a surprise for Tyler, but Dax loved the jello on it so it worked out great

He had GREAT birthdays!!! We can't believe he is getting so big, He is such a fun little guy and we are looking forward to all of the years to come

Happy Birthday Mommy!

2008-01-17T09:39:00.000-08:00

We went to Azteca for my birthday dinner and when they sung to me they brought out a huge sombrero. I didn't really like wearing it, but all of the kids loved , I thought they would have fun looking at their pictures.

Kolohe

2008-01-16T20:27:00.000-08:00

We have some friends who call Dax Kolohe (ka-low-hay), it means rascal in Hawaiian. Today Dax proved them right! He can't walk yet, but he can climb. He tries to climb up Kailey's ladder at least 10 times a day, he usually only gets to the 1st step, but today he made it to the third!!! I know as soon as he walks I will never get to sit down again.

Christmas Day

2007-12-31T08:45:00.001-08:00

We went to Tyler's parents house for Christmas day to play games, hang out with each other, and of course to open their gifts. The kids all love opening presents a second time.
All of the kids asked for snow on Christmas, and none of us thought it would happen, it hardly ever snows here. But the kids got their wish, it snowed for close to three hours, however it didn't stick for very long, and they never got to play in it.
Merry Christmas to us, Dax can climb and get into everything!!!! He would not leave this ladder alone, he kept climbing it until we took it away, He is so big. Well we had a Wonderful Christmas and we hope that you did too!!!

Christmas Morning

2007-12-31T08:23:00.001-08:00

This is our living room on Christmas morning. Kailey was so excited that we thought she would be up very early, she didn't wake up untill 7, however Dax us woke up at 6:30 it will probably be the only christmas that we have to wait for her to wake up.
Grandma Sue and Grandma Jo came over to watch the kids open their presents, Grandpa was sick so he got some more rest. This is Grandma Jo opening her present from us.
Dax is teething, so his favorite presents were things that he could chew on, he carried his new toothbrush around all morning.
Kailey loved helping Dax. Notice their cute matching pajamas pants that I made them, I am sad that we din't get a good picture of them. It was a great christmas morning!

Christmas Eve

2007-12-31T07:35:00.000-08:00

Last year we had a Shepards dinner on Christmas Eve, and we enjoyed it so much that we decided to do it again. We had foods that the Shepards would have had on the first christmas, bread, cheese, dried fruit, Smoked Salmon, and sausage, then we all sit on the floor and eat. It was very simple but very fun.
Tyler's Grandma was able to come for christmas this year, we were very excited to spend time with her.

Kailey and Daphni sang Away in a Manger for us, Kailey doesn't usually sing in front of anyone except us, but this time she did a GREAT job! Sorry the video is sideways, about half way throught the song I realized how I was recording, but I didn't want to lose any of the song, so you get to watch it sideways, sorry. (remember to turn off our music at the bottom of the page before you watch the video.)

Santa Land

2007-12-22T10:31:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday we went to Macy's at Meier and Frank Square to see what the new Santa Land is like. Meier and Frank used to dedicate one whole floor to Santa Land, it isn't quite that big any more but it is still a lot of FUN!
Kailey is SO shy sometimes, she never told Santa what she wanted so hopefully he will bring her the right gift.
This is one of the cars from the Monorail that used to go around the old Santa Land, Tyler used to ride on this every year when he was younger and Kailey got to ride on it the last year that it worked.
They had all of the Reindeer, except Rudolph, it made Kailey a little sad.

This is The Salvation Army outside of Macy's, there Where probably 12 Guys dressed as Storm Troopers, one Jedi, and one Ewok. What is funny is that Kailey wouldn't talk to Santa but she shook hands with a Storm Trooper.

Kailey

2007-12-22T10:17:00.000-08:00

Kailey wanted her own slideshow too, so she helped me make this one. she chose all of the pictures and the glitter.

Dax

2007-12-22T10:11:00.000-08:00

Dax is getting so big!!! He makes us laugh all the time with his Facial expressions, we thought that you all might want to get a good laugh too.

Oh Tannenbaum

2007-12-05T22:17:00.000-08:00

We are so excited for christmas!!! On saturday we went out to cut down our christmas tree from one of the many tree farms around here.

We drove around for quite a while until we found the erfect place.
We finally found a Beautiful 10 foot Douglas fir for a GREAT price. (all of the trees were $15) We were so excited to get home and decorate it.
Dax is getting to heavy to hold for a long time so we made a nice little seat out of branches for him to sit on while I had a break, I was hoping that he would stay on it and not get all muddy, but of course that didn't happen.
Finally our tree is ready to go home!!!
When we got home and tried to put our tree up we decided that it didn't work where the ceiling is high enough, so we had to cut off about a foot. we were sad, but at least we have some great firewood for christmas day. Here it is all decorated, well kind of we don't have a topper yet, and already a strand of lights is out, but now we are really ready for christmas to come!

Zoo Lights

2007-11-28T21:26:00.000-08:00

We went to the Zoo Lights on Friday. It was colder than usual, we left at 5:30 and it was already freezing outside. Kailey had fun for about 1/2 hour and then she was just too cold to enjoy it any more, Dax on the other hand lasted almost the whole time, he loved looking at all of the lights.
Kailey's favorite animal is the giraffe, so of course we had to get a picture in front of one.

They have some very cool and original lights.
This was our favorite display, there were hippo and crocodile heads coming out of the river, there was also a monkey swinging across the trees, and an eagle swooping down to scoop up a fish from the river. Even though it was freezing cold outside, and the kids were kind of whiny we still had a great time!

The Children's Museum

2007-11-13T21:53:00.001-08:00

We have the best library in the world! They have passes to alot of stuff around Portland, one of them being The Children's Museum. We have been a couple of other times, but this time Grandma came with us, so it was even better.
You can't tell in this picture but Dax is standing up, he is getting so big!

Of course Dax tried to eat everything, I stayed very busy trying to keep stuff out of his mouth.
instead of having sand to dig in they have little rubber pieces, it is great because they don't get all over everything.
There is a little store and cafe with tons of pretend food, carts and even a check out counter. Kailey loves to play shop so this was great for her!
Kailey is making a sandwich for Grandma at the cafe.

They have so much to do, one of our favorite places is the clay area, they have tons of clay and tools, they will even fire your creation so you can keep it forever. I tried to get Kailey to make something for Tyler for christmas but she was to busy cutting and rolling, oh well.
You can't go to The Children's Museum without using the face paint, Kailey is now old enough that she wants to do it herself, she does a great job coloring her whole face, this time she even did her hands.
she also painted Grandma's hands. I was hoping to get my mom's ring in the picture too, but the date covered it up, maybe I will put one on later.
She looks BEAUTIFUL!!! We had a great day, I am so glad we get passes from the Library so we can go again soon!

Oregon Coast

2007-11-13T20:32:00.000-08:00

We went to the beach this Saturday, The weather was perfect!!! We stayed in Lincoln City, but went down to Newport for the day on Saturday.We love the Historic Bay Front in Newport, everytime we have been there before there have been maybe ten sea lions, this time there were hundreds, they were everywhere and they were so loud! kailey kept covering her ears
Kailey and my mom.
Kailey and my sister Melissa.

Dax is such a great little guy, he is always happy.
My mom loves lighthouses, we went to the Yaquina Bay and the Yaquina Head lighthouses
We got some fresh crabs to boil and eat that night, they were so good!
Dax loved the steam from the crabs. He kept trying to grab it. Oh and by the way my mom and Mike got engaged!!! Mike took my mom to Proposal Rock in Neskowin on Saturday morning and popped the question, we are very excited for them!!!

Trick or Treat

2007-11-04T22:52:00.000-08:00

We had a great Halloween! On Tuesday Kailey had a party at preschool, they played games and had crafts, Dax and I got to go and have fun with her. On Tuesday evening we went to our wards Trunk or Treat, Kailey loved playing the games, her favorite was the cupcake walk, just because of the prize. she had fun trick or treating at the trunks, but she didn't say trick or treat or thank you at all. On Wednesday we went trick or treating the old fashioned way, door to door. Dax loved it, he loves to be outside and look at new things. Kailey did really well, she actually said trick or treat and thank you loud enough for everyone to hear her. I think it was probably because there weren't as many people around. We got a ton of candy, Kailey organized it all into seperate piles on thursday morning, and her new favorite game is candy store, she puts all her candy on the window seat and asks tyler snd I to come buy it with pretend money. She hasn't eaten very much at all, she keeps trying things and spitting them out cause she doesn't like them, she will only eat tootsie rolls, suckers, and smarties, she is so different than me. Kailey can't wait for next Halloween, she has already decided that her costume is going to be a mermaid, but I am sure that it wil change.

Howloween

2007-10-29T21:13:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we went Trick or Treating at the Zoo, well, it wasn't really trick or treating. It was a scavenger hunt, not exactly what we planned, but it was still fun. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, about 70 degrees and sunny, the perfect day for the Zoo.
We went in the Lorikeet cage and Tyler held the birds for the kids to see, Dax wasn't quite sure what to think.
The tiger's birthday is around halloween, they turned nine.
This is the fence around the tigers, Kailey and her friend Taylor love to swing on it every time we go.
At the end of our scavenger hunt we got a treat bag, we had a ton of fun!!! By the way, Kailey is a fairy that looks kind of like Tinker bell, and Dax is Peter Pan. Aren't they cute!

Blazers Fan-Fest!

2007-10-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

Tyler, Dax, & the #1 draft pick, GREG ODEN. And, for what it's worth, Greg was a bit enamored with D-boy.

Kailey, Tyler, Joel Przybilla (the current center), and Dax. Joel was originally holding Dax up on his side, and Dax was very distracted by the carnival strength game in the back and wouldn't look at the camera, so he and Joel played a tail chase game, until Dax looked at the camera, it got a big reaction from the crowd.

This is Martell Webster, Kailey and I ran into him at Toys'R'Us and he talked to us for a little while, but tonight there were too many people, and he had to get ready for the scrimmage, so, no pictures with him.

Dax was pretty excited, and here's our ball, we got it signed by Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla, and Darius Miles.

While Kailey was trying to take a cute picture, Dax just wanted to watch the game (that's my boy).

Home of the greatest (future) team in the NBA, just wait, you'll see.

This is where the basketball magic happens.

Family trip to the pumpkin patch

2007-10-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

We always go to the pumpkin patch and pick our pumpkins, and we have been curious about the Roloff Farm from Little People, Big World, they only live about 30 minutes away from us and they are only open during pumpkin season so we decided to go on Saturday. We took a hayride tour of the farm, this is their front door, and carved pumpkins. The brown film on the windows is to protect the integrityof the light inside when they are filming, it was all over their house. There was a sign on the gate to the farm that said "By entering you are releasing to be shown on TV"
This is the Western town, it would be so much fun to play here every day. they made tunnels under the whole town with trapdoors popping up all over.
This is the pirate ship and part of the tree house, it was really bumpy right her, so the picture is blurry, sorry.

This is Molly's castle, it is not finished but it is going to be great. Their Farm is Awsome, I would love to grow up here, there was also a sand volley ball court, a basket ball/ tennis sport court, and a soccer field. Their kids are so lucky!!!

These are all the pictures of us at the pumpkin patch. We had a ton of fun, and got very, very muddy!!! Kailey is very excited to carve her pumpkin, she has been drawing pictures of faces that she wants to put on it, look for a post soon.

Yeah it's Saturday!

2007-10-17T23:12:00.000-07:00

Kailey loves Saturday because she gets to spend the whole day with daddy! Last Saturday Tyler had to run some stuff to the office, so we decided to make a fun trip out of it. First we went to the Rose Garden and then to Washington park. We took a lot of picture, and Dax went down the slide all by himself for the first time. WE had a great time and we cant wait for all of the saturdays to come!

Kailey's 1st field trip

2007-10-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

kailey's preschool class went to Baggensto's Farm Pumpkin patch today. She has been excited all week! When we got there we took a hayride to the pumpkins.

The kids had to pick a pumpkin that they could carry, Kailey found a lot that she liked but couldn't carry. she kept picking them up and saying "nope this one is to heavy." When she finally picked one she made me carry it. This is the potato barn, the potatoes were all the way up to the ceiling. it was pretty cool.
There was a little hay maze, the kids played in it for a long time. Kailey is tall enough to see over the bales, but not tall enough to see the way out. She could see me so she kept yelling at me that she couldn't get out. before we left she figured out how to get through on her own.
It was a very fun day, and a great 1st field trip. I am sure that Kailey is excited for all the ones to come.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2007-10-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

Tyler's birthday was on September 19. Kailey really thought that we needed to have a party on his birthday so we had Tyler's parents over for dinner and ice cream. We went to breakfast on Saturday with family, and had cake and ice cream on Sunday with friends.
Dax loved the presents. I can't wait till christmas.
We play a game called heavy, heavy hang over, where we hang the present over the birthday person's head and sing a song, all the kids love it. Kailey was doing it to Tyler and tipped the present upside down, everything spilled out behind her, she was so worried that Tyler might see his present before he opened it. It was pretty funny.
Bob (Tyler's dad) always gets the coolest birthday cards. Happy Birthday Tyler!!!

The Puyallup Fair

2007-09-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we went up to Puyallup, Washington to visit Tyler's brother Scott and his wife Wendy and their family. As a bonus we got to go to the Puyallap fair! Tyler's cousin Christopher and his family met us there. It was so much fun, apparently it is one of the best fairs in the country, are we lucky or what?
The kids always like the petting zoo, but their favorite thing to do is ride the rides.

Kailey's favorite ride ever is the merry-go-round.

Four year olds driving a car, Scary! Kailey always talks about having her own car, so this ride was a close second to the merry-go-round.

This is a hot air balloon ride, and Kailey was a little scared but she said it was a lot of fun. It helped that she was with Rachel and Andrew. This is Kailey's first time ever on a roller coaster, we try to get her on one every time we see one. This time we succeeded by bribing her with cotton candy. She was a little scared while she was standing in line, but she climbed up and got in all by herself. as soon as the ride started she started freaking out, she only went around one time (they stopped the ride for her). By the time she got off she was crying hysterically, we felt so bad. We still got her the cotton candy and we are hoping she will still want to try again when she is older.
Dax didn't get to go on any of the rides, but he did get to navigate our way through the fair. He did great! It was a very fun day, we can't wait till next year!

Preschool Finally!

2007-09-09T22:53:00.000-07:00

Kailey's 1st day of preschool was Thursday September 6th. she was so excited she could hardly wait. She gets to go every Tuesday and Thursday form 9 to 12. It is going to be a great break for both of us.
We are so happy for her, but sad too, in one year she will start kindergarten! They grow up way too fast!

Fun Labor Day

2007-09-09T22:20:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun Day! Tyler didn't have to work so we decided to party! We went to the last Portland Beavers game of the season and they actually won!
Tom and Becky and their kids went with us, it is always more fun with them.
Dax is the cutest kid around! He is already showing his team spirit.
After the baseball game we went to the zoo and went in the butterfly exhibit for the first time. It was actually very cool, Kailey loved it.
The zoo keepers found some dead butterflies and let us touch the wings, I know it sounds gross, but when else are you going to be able to feel how soft they are? We had a GREAT family fun day! Hopefully we will get to do it agin soon.