A New Face

Funny how I always think, "I'll just change my blog real quick!" Three hours later...
Well, thanks to my Dad, once again, we had a great turn out on family pictures. I had these pictures planned for september, but we ALL dread picture day! So, since yesterday was probably our last snowless day, I begged my dad to come over and shoot us, at home, where if they didn't turn out and it was miserable, I could just send the kids in to bed!! FORTNATELY for us, my Dad is a photo genius and the pictures turned out great! Thanks Pops, you're the best! Love you!
Happy Fall everyone!!

Happy Halloween...late

I thought I'd post anyway. We had a lot of fun, like usual. And, like usual, I didn't take a lot of pictures. Oh well.

I had to write it down

After a really good sunday school lesson on geneology last week, I decided I've really been missing the boat on my own family history. I definately need to be better. And I loved the comment, "you can't wait till your a grandma to start, then you'll be the oldest and there won't be anyone else to ask anything." This is so true. I'm totally missing out! And so is my posterity! So this is my attempt to be better. I won't be good at it and I'll always forget to write things down, but today I'm going to write this:

River came home from school today with a decorated halloween cookie. It was really cute! I asked him if his teacher made the cookies and brought them to school? He said no, "we made them AT school!" (He gets so funny when he's serious and trying to be right. It makes me smile!) Grandma Kathy asked, "do you have an oven at school?" He said, "no, actually you made it mom, and I snook it in the middle of the night and took it to school!!!"

It wasn't so much the word "snook" (even tho when I type it, I'm laughing again!) as the way he says such grown up (in his mind) words! Kathy and I couldn't help but giggle. And I wanted him to say it again because it was so cute, but I didn't want to embarrass him. He was so serious again and I wanted him to be right. He didn't know that "snook" isn't a word. We were just laughing because he is so dang cute! If only he could be 5 forever!

Thanks Kathy for encouraging me to keep a notebook. I think I will and I promise to try really hard.

Did I tell you about the time I locked myself in the chicken coop?

So, It's early in the morning and I need an egg. Woosh, wind blows the latch down. Lock tight. No escape. It's freezing cold, I'm in my robe and slippers (duh) and the kids are about to wake up. No use sreaming, the kids sleep like the dead and no neighbors for 4 acres on all sides. No, I have to cram my body through the chicken size door from the sheltered side to the ouside mesh side. Scratch my head. Scratch my face. Scratch my arms. Scratch my back and crush my ribs (all of them) not to mention all the chicken crap I'm crawling through and the stupid chickens that are staring at me like I'M the idiot. Suddenly I'm half my original size, but I'm out. THEN I have to jam my fingers through the wire mesh, rip off all the skin (every finger) pop a knuckle, barely reach the lock, slide it over, pull my bloody fingers back through the cheese grater wire mesh, pop my knuckle back in, push the door open and POOF, I'm out. Yay. Smelly, poopy, bloody fingered and all scratched up. You cannot EVEN imagine my relief. Worst day of my life. Hopefully, the funniest day of yours!
Had to be there.

PARTY! PARTY!

Check out pics from Cayden's birthday bash. We ALL had way too much fun!
(PS I am obviously not good at blogging anymore. Just ignore it!)

This was Cayden's favorite present this year! And we've been launching it A LOT!
Dude wanted to party too!

Vadar Pinata only made it to the third person!

Lanae took us on a way fun scavenger hunt!

And, my all time favorite b'day party game!

Waterballoon volleyball was a hit!

...tho, I think next year, we'll let Chuck E Cheese clean up the mess!

Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday to the cutest kid EVER!I can't believe seven years have gone by! I swear he was JUST my little man in a little teeny body. Now look, all grown up. Still the same face tho. I LOVE this kid! If you ever want to laugh or make potions Cayden is your man! Happy birthday Cade, love you "more than eternity"!

Too tired to change this one, turn your head!

No, we didn't give him a hot dog for his b'day, just haven't had his party yet!

Summer Lovin

Just a few of my favorite things!

WE LOVE SUMMER!

New York Baby!!

Can I just say how much I love New York! This was our third trip, but first time in the summer and it NEVER gets old! We had so much fun this time with the greateset tourguide EVER, Stephie! She's been a nanny in CT for the last 2 years. She and Tucker's other sister Kelly, who somehow didn't make the blog (love you Kell), but is also a nanny out there, showed us the town! I was a little bit sad to leave my kids for the Fourth of July, but they had fun and the trip was worth it, minus the dink fireworks. They claim to have this grand, so many thousand dollar, firework show on the Hudson, but let me tell you...they aint got nothin on Utah!
Enjoy my oh-so-long photo blog and never mind the collage at the end. It didn't work out and I'm too tired to mess with this post any longer.Wicked was by FAR the best broadway show EVER!!

I love this picture of us in front of the fountain at Washington Square Park.I had to throw this one of my happy face shopping at H&M!

Tucker at the top of The Rock motion sensor thingy. It was pretty cool looking. The color motion sensors follow you around the room. You can see Tucker's color right then was green.

Waiting with Steph at the train station.

Tucker and Steph at the top of The Rockerfeller building.

Even tho the Yankee's didn't win, we had a blast and the crowd was amazing! The most fun I've ever had at a baseball game!

The Babe's signed game ball at the new Yankee Stadium museum.

Tucker at the signed ball wall.

Inside St John the Divine cathedral. The largest in the world...they say. It was pretty cool.

My most scarry adventure...rollerblading with a million other people in Central Park. It looks like I'm smiling, but I'm actually about to ALMOST fall here. Never did tho! Maybe next time I'll rent a bike!

Bubba Gump's for dinner. Sooooooo good!

THE best crab legs in the world!

Their gift shop was pretty funny!

This stupid gas station overhang was right in our view of the fireworks. We would have moved, but we would have had to move all of Manhatten too. The firworks were ok, but I had great company!

Thanks Steph and Kelly for yet another great Hyde adventure!! Miss you already!

Kaleigh's Weekend Adventure

So this is Kaleigh's birthday weekend and we wanted to make it a fun one. So friday we drove to Waterfall Canyon for a "little" hike. This was our first family hike ever so naturally I thought we'd walk a little, maybe make it to the river, play a little by the water and then come back. Our kids are still pretty young and any time we walk anywhere, their "legs are going to fall off!" I thought for sure they would wimp out. So little faith from the Mom. Well, not so. We had so much fun and ended up hiking almost 2 miles! I kept asking if they wanted to turn back and they never did. In fact, even when we needed to turn back, they didn't want to. And we were not just walking, we had to climb over huge boulders. Sometimes they fell... a lot of times they fell, but they never stopped and never complained! I was so impressed with them and so overwhelmed with love for them that at one point walking back down, I cried a litttle. It was such an eye opener for me. There's just something about nature that brings out the love! It really was a blast! Not to mention beautiful!

After we got home, we decided to surprise Kaleigh with her long awaited pink DS. She somehow got it in her head that she WAS getting one for her birthday and then we of course caved! It was fun to see her reaction! And it will be even more fun to see her quietly playing for hours!

Saturday (today), the big day, was excellent! We always have fun at Grandma Great's pool, but even more fun when it's a party! All her (ok, my) favorite people were there and all her presents are her "favorite"!!! And interestingly, six entire feet of subway sandwich is NOT too much. I thought for sure we'd be eating soggy leftovers for weeks!

We have such a great family, on both sides! " We're so blessed. And my darling little "Booger", I can't believe she's three! Happy Birthday big girl, I love you!

A little FYI. Kaleigh's name and spelling is a mixture of my middle name Leigh and my best freind (since second grade) in the whole wide world's name Katie Lee!