Linford's Life

The Recap

2012-01-03T23:30:00.000-05:00

So I don't really like doing super long posts...at all. But it has to happen due to my lack of staying on top of updating this blog. I have a beautiful dream in my head that I will be able to post often enough that I could do something a little bit more creative than just a RECAP. Boring. But what am I supposed to do? I NEED to be able to look back and have some memories of this time in our lives!!

Anyway, here it is. Needless to say, it is lengthy.

So before we left for Christmas, Kade and Maggie had the opportunity to ring the bell with Bret for Salvation Army. Kade loved it! Maggie, however did not have such a great time. She is a bit of a wimp when it comes to staying outside when it is cold. Bret said she sat right inside those doors for a large portion of the time they were there. He said that people would stare at her in confusion as they passed. Poor lost girl.

Put her inside where it is warm, and she can be a happy little princess.

So here they are at the airport, waiting to fly on an airplane for the FIRST time (except Landon who flew with me last year for my grandma's funeral). Kade's one wish for the past year and a half has been to fly on an airplane. It was a dream come true for him. Maggie was pretty excited too. Bret was (he admits this now so I can say it) a little too excited having slightly higher than realistic expectations for the whole "plane ride with the kids" thing. Having flown last year with Landon, although he did really great, I think I had a little lower expectations than everyone else. Especially considering Landons' stage in life is one of not holding still. After 3 different planes we got to MT and to my parent's by 2:00am our time. It was hard. And Maggie has a weak stomach(luckily she just threw up once on the way back and Bret got the bag in time).

Really though, we have been looking forward to going to MT ever since we left in August. We were SO excited. This was the 4th year that we had been away for Christmas, so I was happy to go back.

Uncle Oli. They had fun with him. I like him a lot too.

Uhh, I don't know what to say about this one.

Looking outside at the cows. He loved them...from this distance.

Aunt Maren and Kade have such an awesome bond that really amazes me. She can bring Kade out in a way that I don't often see and also in a way that no one else can do. I can hardly believe my eyes when I see him being so open and crazy and comfortable with her. She truly has a gift with him and actually with all children. We love her SO much. Kade REALLY loves her. I think when we got home he was going through Maren withdrawals!

Bret giving Landon a haircut, which Landon quite enjoyed. He was proud of himself to be able to stand there and have dad work on him. It was cute.

So we went to the family cabin while there and had a blast. We went and cut down a Christmas tree. This outfit of my moms is from my Grandpa Swensen's days in the air force and She LOVES it. She says it is warm. I say it is funny.

One of my best friends from BYU-Idaho SUZIE met us at the cabin! It was SO good to see her.

The kids did a little sledding around the cabin.

This is Christmas Eve dinner in the new (unfinished) addition dining room at my parents' house. We have been having this same dinner for Christmas Eve ever since I can remember. It has a whole lot of crab (sometimes lobster), shrimp, artichokes, little smokies, chips and dip, crackers and cheese, and sparkling cider of many flavors. I was really looking forward to this meal in particular!

I really like this photo

And this one shows our strange son trying to eat the table. He held on tight for a while, even while everyone was bouncing the table.

Grandpa introduced never ending gobstoppers to the kids.

I also got to play volleyball at the yearly alumni games! I had a lot of fun even though not very many of the girls that I knew came this year. (we have yet to figure out how to take action shots on the camera)

So skipping back to Thanksgiving, we had our cousins out and had a great time, here are our little pilgrams.

So this year, Kade and Maggie went to 2 different coop group preschools. They had a GREAT time and really loved it. This semester they are back together again mainly for my own sake. It's easier when they are just in one group.

For one of my days, I combined the 2 groups and we went to a martial arts center and got a free lesson! It was a success! I am still considering signing Kade up though. He really liked it.

They did a lot of fun things. They stretched, did lots of punches and kicks with some yelling and grunting, did some blocking and ran around a little obstacle course.
So, here is the finished product of Bret's stand he built this summer (not the greatest photo). We finished it a while ago.

Landon likes to wrestle with Kade. Kade is a good older brother and lets his little brother sit on him.

Ok that's it. I'm done!

I Am a Child of God

2011-11-18T13:30:00.002-05:00

The kids and I enjoyed watching this today.

Reading and Writing

2011-11-16T21:38:00.006-05:00

Kade likes reading time. Maggie likes writing/drawing time. I like them both.

Halloween

2011-11-14T20:41:00.004-05:00

So here we were, all dressed up for the ward trunk or treat. Landon's costume was my favorite. With his stitches still in, we HAD to go with frankenstein. I sewed him a ragged looking coat and we borrowed a wig from a friend. We also painted his face green with a few more "stitches, but with all the slobber, and who knows what else, it got a big faded. Maggie was a cute little supergirl(she won a prize for it), Kade was optimus prime, I was a hippie and Bret was a judge.

This was an interesting picture I thought.

STITCHES

2011-11-02T10:00:00.000-04:00

This is Landon. He is a little crazy. He likes to climb. He doesn't like to fall, but even if he does, he keeps climbing. It took 5 years, but we finally had to go to the ER for a child. 2 Saturday's ago he pushed the kid chair into the kitchen and got salad tongs and then fell back on them. It wasn't a horrible cut, but it was really separated and Grandpa Doug said if we want his eyebrow not to be crooked, we had better take him in. So we did. Here is the little cutie-pie rascal with 3 stitches:

5 Years Old

2011-10-22T20:15:00.000-04:00

Kade turned 5 on the 9th of October!! (This post is SO late) I can't believe that he is so old. He is such a wonderful, sweet. thoughtful, focused, and creative boy and we love him so much.

He had his cousins over for the day and had a blast. The next day some neighbor kids ate left over cake with us, so he was pretty happy about all his friends being able to celebrate with him. He wanted a transformer cake, so Bret and I did a pretty awesome picture of an autobot on his cake. I forgot to take a full on shot of it though. We played some transformer games and had a battle outside with silly string. He loved it. He got a few transformers for presents and LOVED them.

"It will get rid of your waaaaarts!"

2011-09-08T09:08:00.002-04:00

Call us weird, but this made Bret and me laugh...a lot.

The rest of the story

2011-09-05T11:00:00.002-04:00

Before We left Montana this man had a birthday! He is a whopping 29 years!

And for his birthday, I allowed him to make THIS beauty. (; Actually he said it was a great present for his birthday. He did an amazing job. I like how he is getting into wood working(when he can). He has a very good eye and is very patient with perfecting details. This is for our water filter in our kitchen. We will paint it and "antique" it and post the finished product later. I love it.
Then, off to Council Idaho we went! This picture is at a work party for Doug's clinic there. The kids got to ride in this "life flight" golf-cart thingy.

Bret also did a bit of wood working here as well. He made some shelves for his parent's food storage. Kade was interested in it and so grandpa decked him out with some goggles and earmuff things. The necklace was Kade's personal touch.

And awesome wig we found at Grandma and Grandpa Linfords

We went canoeing at a nearby lake

All the life vests we just a tad bit big. It worked best for them to look out the side sometimes.

Mine fit.

Maggie (and Kade) caught a fish with Grandpa!

While there we went to a really fun cabin with some cousins. It was a lot of fun. Although there was a flu bug that passed through pretty much everyone which was not fun, but we got through it.

Then after Council we stopped for a night in Boise with Mckay and Katie. The kids loved seeing their cousins there.

Then we stopped by Heidi and Paul's house before making our way to Indiana. We got to play with some more cousins there too! Then we stayed a night at a hotel in Nebraska then a night in St. Charles Missouri. We got a nicer hotel and swam around then went to the FREE zoo there and drove the last 5 hours home. This is how tired Landon was by the end of it.

And here we are at home. What a long trip! For fun, lets see all our stays on our trip in a nutshell:

Bloomington, IN

Nauvoo, IL
Spearfish, SD

Fairfield, MT

Council, ID
Boise, ID

Murray,Utah

Lincoln, NE

St. Louis, MO

Bloomington, IN

Next year we get to go even farther...The Oregon coast to 2 reunions! ...I think I might die.

Our JULY

2011-08-04T15:55:00.013-04:00

Once again, I am way behind. So today we are covering the month of July plus a tiny bit of August...mostly by photos.

We have had a great summer. The 4th of july was great. We went to our ward breakfast and watched the kids do their decorated bike parade. Kade pulled Maggie and Landon in the bike trailer and was tuckered out by the end. Then we went to the parade downtown, which was...interesting. Then we had a block party with our neighbors. That was great fun. We had badmitten, slip-n-slide, water toys, a jump house and tons of great food and great company. Then we watched fireworks with our neighbors.

A few days later, we went to Nauvoo on our way out West. Bret's 2 sisters and their families were able to come and camp with us. It was SUPER HOT and muggy, but we had a lot of fun. Bret and I were able to go to the Nauvoo temple. It was great and the temple is SO beautiful. Nauvoo is a wonderful place. There is such a strong spirit there.

Our Pioneers

Carthage Jail

Then, on to Montana!

Maggie doing a little exercising with Grandma

Eating out on the new deck

So Maggie found these glasses around the house and Grandma gave them to her. She wore them nonstop for a couple days. So now I have a ton of photos of her in those 50's looking glasses.

Great Grandma Swensen

One of their favorite spots was on top of the huge dirt pile on the lawn. My parents are expanding their basement thus the dirt.

This trampoline was probably the most visited and loved spot of all. Isaac and Lindsey came while were there and our kids had so much fun with their kids. It was really good to see them all.

While in MT we went to the Swensen cabin. We had a blast there. We went to Georgetown Lake, went to Philipsburg and visited the ghost town there. We took 4wheelers and their side-by-side and drove around.

Ghost town

The candy store in Philipsburg is awesome. The walls are lined with all sorts of candy. grandpa got a bag for each child. They were so excited as he let them pick what they wanted.

Outside with their lute.

Kason and Kade had so much fun together. They played non-stop.

At the cabin having s'mores

I and am pretty proud of myself for getting this shot of Bret. He usually is not very receptive to the camera. (:

This girl is a wild woman. This whole trip she has been extremely happy. It's nice to see her like that.

Fishing on the boat. Nice one Kade! (Dad)

Working on the Cabin. It's an on-going project and when we stay there we do at least a little work on it each time.

Bret took this photo and it's a good one, but that dragonfly is nasty looking!

Then we came home from the cabin and had a few more days with Isaac and Lindsey. One day we looked outside and the kids had striped down to their undies(which happened to all be white that day) and were running through Grandma's sprinkler. So we whipped out our cameras.

Playing in the blowup pool

Riding with Grandpa as he moves the dirt pile.

And of course, we had to have a horse ride while here.

And that was the month of July!

A couple days ago we went to a nearby lake for one more ride on the boat and one more ride on the tube. I never got any photos of that though.

Landon was a crazy boy, he wanted to walk right into the cold water and wouldn't stop unless we grabed him. Grandma was so nice and followed him around so he could still think he was being independant!

My dad got bees this last year. I got to suck on a honeycomb-MMM!

These 3 were watching the bees and Bret got these shots. I love them!

Maggie the 3 year old

2011-06-29T21:45:00.000-04:00

Maggie turned 3 on the 25th! We borrowed Sarah's idea of a rainbow party(though ours was not as pretty(: )! She had a blast. We colored rainbows, made fruit loop necklaces and played pin the cloud on the rainbow. She HAD to have cupcakes and we also had rainbow popsicles. We love our spicy little 3 year old so much! She brings us such joy.

Some Summer Fun Photos

2011-06-22T15:20:00.001-04:00

I can't say it enough. We love summer. We have been having so much fun! Here are some photos:

A before church photo of Maggie

We went to the Indianapolis Zoo with our cousins and then went and spent the night at their house. It was so much fun. Sadly, the dolphin show was canceled because the dolphin had a baby. We have never been but we've heard that is the highlight of the zoo. But we still had a lot of fun all the same.

This picture isn't that great, we took mostly videos while there. They had a shark pool with all these little sharks to touch. I told Kade if he touched one I'd give him a sucker and he did. After that he wanted to touch them over and over again. I was surprised at his bravery.

All of the cousins in front of the elephants

It was so hot muggy, and sweaty that day.

Dad and Landy-boy

A photo in the back yard

This sweet little boy had been a GRUMP the last few days. He is getting his molars and they are sure taking their time. This is how he looks at me these days...

Maggie made a beautiful hair piece

Drama queen

We got a slip and slide and the kids LOVE it. They spend all day playing outside with their friends. They have really become good friends with the kids out back recently. It's so nice to have buddies that like to play! Landon doesn't really like getting in the water, he will only timidly check it out.

We went to a nearby State park and "hiked" around a bit. It was really fun and beautiful. This park was really nice.

Landon thinks he belongs right in this spot....all day long.

Playing with cars

Ladnon has been wiped out many times over this past while. He has fallen asleep in the car probably twice as much as my other babies ever did.

Tornadoes and Sunshine

2011-06-01T22:45:00.003-04:00

So there have been a few things going on here. One big thing was that our city had a tornado Wednesday night. It was only an F1 tornado but it was freaky. It touched down about 2 miles from us (we didn't know until the next day). We heard 5 tornado sirens that evening. Bret and I have NO experience with this sort of thing and have decided to be better prepared from now on. At one point Bret looked out the window and saw a green light coming from the lightning in the sky. It was weird, it was hardly windy where we were, but just 2 miles away, HUGE trees were being uprooted, mobile homes being destroyed, and roofs were being torn away. Luckily no one was killed and just 17 were injured. Even though we felt scared and vulnerable that night, we had no idea how vulnerable we actually were. The next evening we drove over to where the tornado touched down and surveyed the damage. I forgot the camera though! I wish I had it because it was shocking at actually how much this supposed small tornado did! There was debris everywhere for miles. Houses by then had covered their torn spots with tarp. Everyone’s yard was covered in branches and uprooted trees. There were some HUGE trees that got uprooted. It is just crazy. I can't believe how close it was! I think that will be the closest I will ever get to a tornado or at least I hope.

Before this though, Landon turned 1!!! (I am WAY late) Another crazy thing! It's so sad, but I love seeing him grow up at the same time. He has such a happy personality. He loves to laugh and have people laugh at him. He is still huge and we love it. We celebrated by having some friends over and I made a cake. The cake was way too sweet so the next week I made a beautiful and delicious angel food cake and we had that with whipped cream and strawberries. I wanted to get a sand and water table, but they are so expensive and I didn't want sand mixed with water which undoubtedly would have happened. I was lucky enough to get 2 free homemade ones from our community center. They had a clinic to build it yourself but we missed it, but they had some left over and gave them to me. They are pretty cool, made with pvc pipe and a plastic bin. Bret also spray painted the stands to look even better. We got some cool water toys (plus some from grandma and grandpa) and all the kids love playing with it.

We had a great weekend. Kade and Bret went to Lowes "build and grow" free clinic that we signed up for to build a wooden airplane. The clinics are free 2 times a month on Saturdays and they give you different things to build. It was crowded and so they took it home to build it. Kade loved it. While they were building Maggie and I painted our nails. AND Bret and I went on a date.

We have been having so much fun and doing so much together as a family. It's like a whole new life. Having Bret around is so fun. Here are some more fun things we've been up too: swimming at the pool, playing in our back yard with sprinklers and splash pads with their neighbor friend, planted a “raised” garden, played games, did some deep cleaning, gone on picnics, ridden bikes, and a few other things.

2 Masters Down, 1 PhD to go

2011-05-04T10:17:00.002-04:00

Bret is DONE for the summer! He is done with his SECOND Masters degree. He passed the MA exams with flying colors and just yesterday finished his last project and grading his students final.

This year has really been the hardest out of all the years of grad school. I thought we had this grad school living thing pretty figured out, but this year was a killer. I have literally felt like a single parent from sun-up to sun-down. I don't want to be a complainer, I really am just so glad that this year is finished. With no looming exams, next year is looking pretty good.

I know that it is an insane amount of schooling to do in order to be a professor, but that is the way it happened and it's alright. There was really no way of knowing exactly how it was going to be before we got into it. It will be worth it and he will be extremely qualified and will hopefully get a good job when he is done. Most of all, it is a journey and we are enjoying it. We are growing together and learning a lot about life and each other. I am excited that he will be a professor someday.

Right at this moment, however, I am not feeling so great. I have a sinus infection that came after a horrible head/body cold. Landon got this cold too. Needless to say life has been tough. Landon got his first earache about 2 1/2 months ago and it seems like he has been sick and fighting on and off earaches ever since. The other kids have just gotten some colds, not too bad, but not great either. I feel bad for Landon though and am very ready for him to be able to act his normal, happy self. I feel the end of this is coming soon.

We have many plans for this break that we have. The Indy Zoo, camping, bike rides, swimming, projects around the house, and of course our yearly drive to the West to see our families. We are SO excited for all of this! We are also SO excited to relax and enjoy spending time together. (First Bret has to reintroduce himself to our kids though) :)
Postings of FUN to come!

And here are some pics from lately. We love to walk outside in the rain...well Kade and Maggie do. I like to watch most the time. The rain here is very different from back home. It rains all day for many days. It rains so hard too. At night we have had some pretty intense storms that are kind of freaky. It feels like someone is spraying a high pressure hose at my window! (Don't mind the pic of me, it seems that whenever I get on the other side of the camera, I have not done much with myself that day...really, I do do myself up, I promise!)

Things I LOVE about THEM

2011-03-31T18:30:00.000-04:00

LANDON

-I love that he is my snuggle-boy. When I get him up from sleeping we hug each other and cuddle. He really does hug me too, not only when I get him up, but random times as well. He just wraps his little arm around my neck and it is so sweet.

-I love that he "kisses" me. When he wraps his little fat arm around my neck he sometimes buries his face in my neck as well and blows or talks into my neck. He will do that to my cheek, chin, head, mouth, or whatever part he can get his mouth on really.

-I love that he laughs. Oh how he can laugh, ever since he was quite small he has been a big laugher. He especially loves to laugh at Kade and Maggie.

-I love that he smiles. Easily. You know when something is bothering him big time if he does not greet you with a smile.

-I love that he looks at people in the eyes. People often comment on how he looks right at them. He checks them out through looking at their eyes.

-I love how much he can enjoy things. That's one thing about this boy, he can thoroughly enjoy experiences and other things. You can really tell when he is enjoying himself. He is different than my other babies-Kade was more reserved about his emotions(mostly), and Maggie was so easygoing that I could hardly tell if she was hating or enjoying something. When Kade and Maggie are doing something and are enjoying themselves, Landon thinks he is in on it too and gets so excited.

-I love his hair. Such a well covered head! Wow! NEW for me!

-I love his chub. It's the one thing I can always count on people commenting on. He is seriously SO BIG. You know how when your baby is in just diaper you can't help but look at them and think sweet things? Well I do the same thing, but I also can't help but think how amazingly chubby he is.

MAGGIE

-I love that she likes girly things. Princesses, pink, dolls, you name it. AND she lets me do her hair and wants it to be done quite often. It is fun for me.

-I love her fun loving nature. She is not the most outgoing child, but she does not always like to watch something fun going on for long. She can't help but want to get in on the action. She likes to laugh and have fun pretty much wherever she goes.

-I love her firecracker nature. Yes, I do...I think. I don't ALWAYS enjoy it or know how to handle it, but it sure does make me laugh. She is not a push over and in a way I am happy about it. It's interesting to me that if she decides she doesn't care about something, then it will not affect her. (i.e. loosing in a game, being teased, not doing the best at something or doing something different than what other kids are doing. And on the flip side: getting in trouble, someone telling her to stop something when she has decided not to.)

-I love her beautiful eyes. I can't get over them. They are huge, long-lashed, almond shaped eyes.

-I love that she loves her brothers. She is a good sister to them. She is a playmate to her older brother and likes to help make her younger brother happy(much of the time).

-I love that she is pretty-much potty trained. I was not in a hurry to potty train her and would have been fine with waiting, but she was really wanting to and showing major potty-training signs. So I started on Friday and we are on day 6 with only one accident and 2 nights with a wet diaper in the morning! She has really done it herself and both Bret and I are blown away.

-I love her sweet side. Maggie is a girl of many colors. This color is my favorite. No matter how mad I get at her, it doesn't compare to how deeply she melts my heart. She can be so sweet.

KADE

-I love how aware he is. Kade is very observant. He is also close to silent about it.

-I love that he wants to do whats right. Kade really tries hard to do good things. When he does something that makes me particularly happy or someone else happy, he beams. It is so cute. I can see that at a young age he feels a need to do what's right.

-I love that he likes to learn. He has taken a huge interest in learning lately. He has asked me to teach him to read. He enjoys it and has quite an impressive motivation.

-I love that he is sweet. Kade is a quiet, sweet boy. He will come up to me sometimes and give me a hug and say that he loves me. He makes an effort to do small things for his family to let them know he loves them.

-I love that he likes charts. Charts work like magic for Kade! Anytime there is a problem that we want to get better or something for him to work on, we make a sticker charts or charts that he gets to cross off boxes when he does or doesn't do something. It works really well. When he puts his mind to do something he gets it done.

-I love his help. Kade is a wonderful help to me. He really can do a great job at picking up a room, making his brother happy, and helping his siblings do things.

-I love that he is funny. I may be biased, but Kade says some pretty funny things sometimes. He likes to make us laugh.

PS. I hate how this blog site messes up my format EVERY time!

Lately...

2011-03-08T21:30:00.002-05:00

Here's some happenings 'round here:

A few weeks ago we were almost to the door of a friends house and Kade was looking down while he walked. He walked right into the metal handrail and hit so hard he fell on his back. He got a nice black eye soon after. I looked for another photo WITHOUT food all over his face, but there was none.

For Family Home Evening one night we took the idea of musical dress up out of the FRIEND magazine (and Jinny's blog-thanks Jin!)

So, no matter how high I hike his diaper or his pants up, this is what always ALWAYS happens. I think either A:he has one looong bum. OR B: His chub is so voluptuous, it just naturally mushes together to form a line.

BUT on the other end there is something else that stands out as well! I love his eyes!

Oh how we love to see the rain here!! It can rain SO hard and for SO long! (Don't mind Maggie-she is in the middle of changing out of church clothes into pj's)

I'm an Activity Days leader(which is for girls 8-11 years old) in my ward and for our last activity we talked about modesty and being unique. We then decorated little poster board dolls with fabric scraps, scrapbook paper, ribbon, buttons and markers to make them modest and unique. They turned out pretty cute and the girls enjoyed making them.

So I go to this thing for mom's every so often at this church nearby. They have a variety of activities that they do. Today I learned about photography, it was really good and I think I learned some helpful things to do. So I was just playing around with the camera today because it was pretty warm and we all wanted to play outside-here's a few of my favorites: (These are not edited, I'm sure Bret would love to get his hands on them before I post them...oh well)

(Hallelujah! A REAL smile! Guess what I did-I told him he didn't have to smile and he got all bashful and smiled!)

PS. Landon weighs 26.9 lbs. He continues to top...or not be on the charts at all sometimes.

A few other tid-bits:

4 more weeks until Bret takes his exams.
Landon has double ear infections.
It’s his first earache.
Maggie is so cute when she says “Akulley” aka:Actually
Kade is getting too big.
Our Bishop is moving, this next Sunday I think we will get a new one.
There was a tornado warning a couple weeks ago.

9 Months and Best Friends

2011-02-19T14:00:00.001-05:00

Landon is 9 months old!

It's sad how fast this first year goes! I feel like he isn't old enough to be 9 months old, yet I think he looks big enough to be 18 months! I love his chub! He is so big though, it is hard to always hold him. He is such a wonderful boy to have in our family. I am constantly amazed at how easily he laughs. I really have never seen such a smiley, laughy baby. He has shown no signs of being afraid of strangers either. He is more serious with strangers, but not afraid. People are often surprised at him when he looks at them in their eyes so easily and for so long a time. He is not ashamed to try and stick his fingers in anyone's mouth. Lately during church in Relief Society, some of the women have been holding him for me (which is such a nice break for me) and he does so well with them and is so easily entertained by them, I love it. Landon is a great baby, but he definitely knows how to whine. Though he is lasting longer by himself now. Recently he has been sleeping GREAT! He has never been the best sleeper for sure and it has been quite hard for me, but oh man I am loving it now! He has 4 teeth and 2 just about to pop. He was a little later(in teething) than my other 2, but once they come, they have come fast. He also just barely started crawling. I didn't mind that he was a little later than my other 2, now I have to do some major baby-proofing the house.

Overall, we cannot get enough of our Landon, he is just so darn cute!

I also wanted to say that I love Kade and Maggie's friendship. They have so much fun together and are each others best friends. I love it. These photos are from the Fall, but I wanted to post them anyway.

Here is a cute one of Kade that I liked

Laugh!

2011-01-08T22:40:00.002-05:00

Kade can get Landon to laugh pretty easily. Landon thinks Kade is so cool too. This time we got a good one on camera. Landon is the laughiest baby I've ever had though, he LOVES to laugh!

7 months, Photos, and Snow!

2010-12-16T16:00:00.000-05:00

This boy is 7 months old!! I can't believe it! We love him so much! He is SUCH a sweet boy!

He fell asleep walking home in the super cold the other day. It surprised me.

The three happy brothers and sister

So we got a new camera for Christmas and have been testing it out (:
It's not the best camera but I think it is pretty good and WAY better than our old one. I have been having fun taking some photos, so here you go...

SO CUTE!

They are such good friends!

Family shot-very difficult considering we were trying to get them to smile at only a camera. But we did get this one.

So we have had some good snows lately and Kade loves to play in it. He spent hours in it the other day without his gloves for a lot of the time and it took me a little while to realize later that day when his hands were hurting that they were sunburned! Poor kid!

We made some carolers for a craft the other day and boy were they a hit! They played and played with them. Maggie constantly wanted me to sing Christmas songs with them and her.

How Do I Sleep? Let Me Count the Ways...

2010-11-29T15:30:00.000-05:00

In this photo she may look like she is so ready and willing to be in her bed. She even looks like she is HAPPY to be there...

Do not be deceived. There are more categories of "super" that she falls into besides simply "super cute." One category that I will illustrate in this post will be "super defiant." Maggie is "super defiant" when it comes to staying in her bed and going to sleep at night. We have tried many different things to try and get her to stay in bed and go to sleep. Some work pretty good, some don't, some work for a while and then eventually quit working. I've found sleep to be a tricky thing with children sometimes. Anyway, right now we're at a point where her schedule of sleep is so whacked up that it's not worth even trying to call it a schedule. So today I was going to try and "fix" her sleeping habits. This is the email I sent Bret this afternoon:

So….guess who’s asleep.

Nope, not Kade.

Yup, that’s right.

I told her she didn’t have to go to sleep today and that she could stay in her bed and read books.

Well, she stayed in bed. (SURPRISE!) AND she didn’t get out. (SURPRISE SURPRISE!)AND she fell asleep peacefully and quietly. (TRIPLE SURPRISE!)

Are we dumb or what!? Don’t we know she does things because she knows we don’t want her to?
The second I tell her she doesn’t have to go to sleep, she goes to sleep.

I can’t stop smiling.

Now what.

I wanted to put her to bed early tonight.

Ahhh sleep problems, you can never ever win.

Love you!

So anyway, I thought it was funny. Another category of "super" is she sleeps in SUPER WEIRD positions! Here are just a FEW for you!

These first 2 are actually pretty normal for her. She gets all the babies and books she can after we leave and falls asleep with them on/beside/under her.

Wedged in the crack

This one was totally surprising

How can anyone fall asleep with their head hanging over the edge??! Let's look at that again...

She makes me smile.

Where Do I Begin??

2010-11-03T11:31:00.000-04:00

Ok, hi everyone... if there is anyone still out there. I'm going to try real hard to get this here blog updated. The main reason being that I am planning on printing all this someday for a journal. But I do like to stay in contact with all you nice friends, and I think it is fun. Most the time. You might have noticed I haven't posted for a while. It's because my life is crazy and all motivation to blog left me for a few months. The motivation returned a short while ago, but still every time I wanted to blog, something more important came to my mind for me to do. So today, I'm putting off a shower (and many other things), the kids are playing trick or treat with pumpkin pails and duplo all over the house, Landon is playing happily in his bouncer (half dressed), and I am POSTING ON THIS BLOG!

So...hmmm...WHERE DO I BEGIN? This is why it is good to update the blog consistently. I don't like updating after a long time has passed.

Let's begin with Landon's story. (this is long) He was born on Friday, the 14 of May 2010. Wednesday I went to the church to do Activity Days. Everyone there was really surprised to see me. One friend kept telling me she could make me some homemade, yummy caster oil brownies! I considered taking up that offer. My mom was here for one week and I WANTED that baby to come while she was here. Thursday evening at dinner a bunch of my water leaked out. It didn't gush and it wasn't a ton and it didn't spur on ANY contractions. I called my dr. to see what I should do and I don't remember what he said, but it was something like it's my call. No help. We called Bret's dad (who is a dr.). He said if all of my water had not gushed out and no contractions were coming, then it is probably ok not to go in yet. He also recommended to go for a walk taking one step on the sidewalk and one step off. My water continued to leak for the rest of the night. I went to bed. At around 3am I woke with a bit of pain. We decided we better go. We actually didn't get to the hospital until about 4:30 am.

You know, it's a weird feeling laying there in the hospital bed realizing there is no turning back and knowing EXACTLY what kind of pain you are going to start to feel. Whenever the nurses left I started to freak out vocally to Bret. I decided I didn't want to do this again, what am I, CRAZY!!? He told me later he considered telling me it was too late, but (wisely) declined that though.

Anyway, luckily it was fast. Contractions got hard and I progressed RAPIDLY. I pushed for under 10 min. and Landon was born at 6am. It was the fastest, easiest and best birth yet! And he was 10 lbs! I pray sometimes that they won't get any bigger though. I could definitely feel this boy was a big one as I pushed. The nurses were joking(I'm assuming) to me that if I wanted to have any more I better take up smoking! The dr. told them that I did great and I can handle big babies.

Landon lost a few oz after a few days, but by his 2 week checkup he had exceeded his birth weight. He loved to nurse. At about 2 weeks he started to get really colicky. I talked to my aunt who knows a lot about health and herbs and whom I have turned to for help before and she ALWAYS has been right on and helped me with whatever the problem was. She suggested going off of all fructose. So I did. I think it took a while to get everything out of his system, but after a while he was a different baby! I went off of all sweet things for around 3 months. Now, I am eating some organic sugar and a little bit of food that has regular sugar in it(like some bread), and just made caramel apples with honey(they were SO good). I don't know how long this will last, but I definitely have benefited from it. I rarely really crave candy, and usually don't crave deserts-unless they are sitting right in front of me...which happens frequently. Because I completely went off of it, we have not eaten out hardly at all. Yesterday I took the kids to McDonald's with a friend and her kids. I had a hamburger and it gave me a terrible headache. I came home and ate some carrots and the headache went away. It might not have been related, but it MIGHT have.
So I'm sticking with this no-sugar thing for a while longer. Either way, I feel good. Best of all Landon feels good.

Anyway Landon is a great baby. He is the spitting image of Kade in every way. His temperament as a baby matches Kade's whereas Maggie was a bit different than both of them. She was extremely laid back as a baby(go figure, she is somewhat of a fire cracker now!). There is one thing though that Landon does that I have never seen another baby have so much of. He laughs and smiles. He LOVES to laugh and smiles SO easily. I just cannot believe how easy he laughs sometimes. (It's not all the time, but a lot of the time). I absolutely love it. He is such a sweet baby and I am enjoying him so much. We are so blessed to have him in our family. We all love him and enjoy him.

Landon has continued to be either off the charts or right close to being off the charts. He is now 5 1/2 months old,and I can hardly handle how fast the time is going. 2 weeks ago he weighed 21 lbs 10 oz. 7 lbs lighter than Maggie! 14 lbs lighter than Kade! Funny. Landon is dying to move! He wants so bad to get up and crawl away to play with Kade and Maggie. He just sits and watches them and acts like he wants to be involved. One day they were being silly and laughing a lot at each other for no reason. Landon couldn't take it any more he started laughing and laughing too! It was really funny. Landon loves to look. He loves to look at everything. I think he will be like Kade, who often, when we go out, is too distracted by watching other people and things to do anything else. A little while ago we went somewhere and Kade asked me if I liked so-and-so's shirt (it was a little friend of his who had a picture on her shirt). I hadn't even noticed the shirt let alone remembered it! He is really observant.

Maggie and Kade are great. They are best friends and play so well together(with a fair amount of fighting). They are great at playing make believe and often I just sit and watch and listen. It's fun. Like I said, Maggie is a fire cracker, but she can also be so kind and thoughtful. She is her own person and a strong one too. Bret and I have come to the conclusion that she gets this strong attitude not from either of us(we were both quiet and shy youngsters), but from my mom. (: We love the way she is even though we don't know what to do with her sometimes! She is so cute that we can't stay mad at her for long when it happens that we are mad at her. She loves to make friends but sometimes likes to pretend like she is shy. Often she says she needs to go see her friends. On Halloween we didn't go trick or treating and didn't hand out candy(because it was on Sunday) so we shut our blinds. This was too hard for Maggie. She kept going to the window and moving the blinds so she could see the trick or treaters. This made the whole evening a bit awkward. She said she NEEDED to see her friends.

And yes, she still LOVES any kind of baby. Especially ones that have pink anywhere on them.

Kade is an accomplished 4-year old now. He had a birthday at the beginning of October. He decided he wanted an ABC birthday party. We had balloons with a letter on them all over the house. We had alphabet soup for lunch. We played a game that was like musical chairs except they were walking on paper plates with a letter on them and when the music stopped they said the letter they were standing on and a word it started with. He got Bakugan and lots of art stuff. His friends must have known that he likes to draw and color. He is really good at drawing, writing and coloring. When I was writing the letters on the plates for the game he was sitting beside me and would look at the letter I wrote and would write it himself. With some of the letters I would say, "ok, this is a little hard to write, so when I get done writing it I'll let you look at it." I would get done and look at him and he would have the letter written and would say, "that's an easy one." He did have a hard time with the s and a couple other ones, but he wrote them until they looked sort of like mine. I was pretty impressed.

Kade is a sweet boy. He is my tender-hearted child and I love that about him. Sometimes his tender-heartedness can go over the top a bit, but he usually is a pretty level boy at home. He is SO good with Landon. I quite often ask him to entertain Landon while I do something and he ALWAYS does. He talks to Landon and tries to get him to laugh. He really loves Landon and Landon loves Kade. Landon knows that when Kade is around there is a chance to laugh. Kade is a great help around the house too. He is most the time a willing and focused helper.

I am in a preschool group with 2 other moms in my ward. It is going great and the kids love it. Maggie is in it because another girl her age is in it and they do pretty well. Kade is learning a lot and loves every second of it. He is really into learning lately and thinks it is so fun. I am glad about this, hopefully it will stick with him! (: We take turns teaching one week out of every three. It is pretty fun, we just choose a theme for the week and fit it to the letter and shape of the week that we pre-decided on.

Bret is busy too. He usually sees us a little for dinner and then gets to his homework. But it goes up and down, sometimes he has more time to spend with us. A lot of times, it's just me and the kids. I do pretty-much everything around the house so that when he has free time he can spend it with the family. He does help out when he has extra time and he gives me great back massages. If you know me, I am a sucker for a back massage. I would always beg my Mom and Dad for massages when I was younger. When I got married my Dad told Bret that he was off the hook and that the job was all Bret's now. Bret has done pretty good. He told me the other day that whenever I am mad at him he just needs to give me a good back rub and it usually does the trick. Anyway... Bret is getting ready to start studying for the MA exams in April. I personally am NOT excited for those, having gone through them(well, Bret actually did it) and a theses in MT. They are annoying and I HOPE he passes(it isn't uncommon that people don't the 1st time). I'm not worried he won't though. Bret is amazing. He is really getting good at managing his time wisely, which saves a TON of stress. He really works hard. He works hard not only to do well, but also so that he can have some time with us, and he does a great job. He is getting really good at not wasting time doing unimportant things. Not that those are all bad, but while he is SO busy and has next to no time for anything, it's just nice that he tries to make any extra time-time with us.

I am involved in a book club. We meet once a month at the person's house who chose the 2 short books we read. This month it was my turn. I chose "Man's search for meaning" and "Night." I've read both a long time ago, but reread them both to be refreshed. This book club has been a fun thing for me.

So, life is crazy. And busy. And fun. And we are so blessed. And we love each other. We are definitely NOT perfect and we don't have a perfect life, but we try to do our best. We try to be good parents and friends and try to do what's right. Because, as I say to Kade and Maggie, when we try to do whats right, we are happy.

So I have a bunch of photos to post, but I think I will try to get to that in another day...soon.

Trip Photos

2010-07-20T22:12:00.000-04:00

Lots of fun!

Plenty of sleeping in the car!

At the hotspring

Linford reunion. Kade decided he liked the hand dryer to blow on his belly

Cousins

Fireworks!

More cousins!

Tubing was so fun-we forgot our camera both times, but got one good one with the cell

4-wheeling at the old mining ghost town

At the cabin

This boy is 2 months now!! He is such a happy baby now! This going off of sugar thing is really making a difference.

We also blessed baby Landon while in MT. He is so big his outfit (previously worn by Kade) barely fit him!

"Playing" the wii

Going on the rides on fairfield swim day. It was their first time ever to ride rides. The suprised us and loved everything and wanted more and more.

I got my hair cut and am really liking it. My mom has never dissapointed me when she cuts my hair!

It's a crazy life

2010-07-02T13:14:00.001-04:00

We are still alive. Here are some things we have been doing.

Left Indiana,

Stayed in THE MOST Ghetto hotel I've ever seen. Poor Kade had to sleep on the floor.

Drove to Salt Lake and stayed with cousins and saw my old roommate Cathy. Went to Idaho and then to Bret's mom's family side reunion.

Witnessed a car accident

Once Kade said: I'm feeling a little whiny. I told him I agreed.

Went to Grandma and Grandpa Linfords

Went to Linford family reunion in Island Park Idaho, then back to G&G Linfords

Saw a moose

Stayed a night at Mckay and Katie's then got sick

Went canoeing

Rode on a bike trail.

Saw Landon smile

Went on picnics

Played with family all day long

Went to a hot spring

Celebrated Maggie's 2nd Birthday!!! She is such a funny girl with attitude. She sang happy b-day to me all day long to herself and got mad when Kade said it was his birthday. We have really enjoyed our wonderful beautiful girl for these last 2 years!

Drove to Montana and have been here for 2 days

We are planning on doing some more fun things while here, stay tuned.

TOTAL HOURS OF DRIVING THUS FAR: 61-ish hours

The kids are so tired of the car to say the least. I am sick of the car to say the least.
But we are having a ton of fun and it is going by WAY too fast.
Landon was pretty fussy when we left so I went off of all sugar and he is a lot happier of a baby. I am glad it is seeming to help with that but MAN it's been hard! He is a lovable boy and is growing so fast and we are so glad he is in our family. We are still adjusting to 3 kids and are finding it is as hard as they say...maybe harder. Anyway, I'll post some pics later.

Brand New Baby

2010-05-19T11:58:00.004-04:00

We FINALLY had our baby!!
We Had a baby boy who was born May 14th (2 long days late) at 6:50 AM
Here are a few quick things about him and then I'll have to write the whole story (for myself to remember) later.
He was HUGE! 9lbs 15.5 oz-YES that is a half ounce SHY OF 10 LBS! I don't know why I should be, but I was blown away at this. He was 22 inches long. He looks exactly like our other 2 kids at birth. They all have looked the same pretty-much. The birth went well-better than I had imagined. I pushed for under 10 min. and was at the hospital in labor since 4:30 that morning. ( I had woken around 3:00 with some pains) So not long at all. I was very grateful for that. OH and we named Him LANDON DOUGLAS LINFORD.
My mom came down and luckily Landon was born in the short week that she was here. She left last night and we are missing her like crazy.

An old post that wasn't posted

2010-05-18T22:09:00.000-04:00

We have been having a few fun things go on here. First we had Easter with cousins and that was a lot of fun. Here are photos of that:

Then Aunt Mar-Mar came and we all LOVE that. Kade wants to do everything she does and doesn't want anything she doesn't want. It has been so nice having her especially with Bret so busy and close to the end of the semester.

We went swimming at a highschool here-Kade loved it and had a lot of fun. Maggie did too, but she got pretty cold.

The other night Bret and I had our last married student institute class which was a picnic that we could bring our kids to. So Maren stayed and we went. On the drive home Kade was sad about his bean in a cup that he got from Sunbeams because it fell over and some of the dirt fell out. It looked pretty sad. Maren picked it up and tried to save it, but Kade was really worried that it would die. He also was worried what Maren would eat while we went to the picnic. He kept asking what she was going to eat and why she couldn't eat what we were having. I finally just told him we would have to say a prayer about his bean. Right then he said, "Ok, I'll say it" and went on to say this really long prayer about his bean and how it would not die. He also prayed about Maren and how he was thankful she could make a sandwich at home because she couldn't have what we were having. It was really cute.

Maggie is funny too. Usually when she gets in trouble she know it and always runs to this certain spot to hide (Even though it's not hidden). She thinks she can get away from us there. Here she is thinking she's safe:

2010-03-11T10:14:00.005-05:00

2 nights ago I had a dream(nightmare) that I gave birth to this baby. It took about 3 hours (In my dream). I looked at the baby and she was HUGE! She was 10 lbs 5 oz. I about died in my dream. She was blonde and walking around and worst of all she had my nose...my full grown nose, with the bump and everything. I felt so bad for her! I started talking about how fast it was and the people around me told me I was in labor the whole day before -I just didn't remember.

Oh baby, don't be that big PLEEEASE!!!

On the up side of things it was 70 degrees yesterday! We have been spending a lot of time outside lately and are LOVING the good weather! The kids and me are all happier with this new freedom of going outside.

Also, this morning I was telling Kade to eat his food and was saying "food" in a long drawn out way and Maggie kept saying "no" everytime I said it. So I asked her what it's called if it's not called food then. She said, "Ummm, num nums."

3 Weeks Later...

2010-02-23T10:05:00.005-05:00

We have our car back finally! Those 3 weeks were annoooooying! See our happy car...behind our happy kid:

Oh I love our car. We can go places when we want to! Thankfully we have Bret's sister close to us who came out here with their family twice to let us use their car. We got to celebrate my b-day by going out to eat (with their car). Bret also wrote me a poem for my b-day. It was great. I tell him I always love getting poems and he said that is my Dads' fault. My dad has written a lot of poems over the years, plenty for my mom. I think it's pretty sweet. I also decided to try and make myself some sour cream panna cotta which turned out pretty good.
So we are feeling better and things are going good! I can't believe I am 6 months along already-although I feel like I am 8 months). Just under 3 months and this mystery baby will be here!
I'd like to talk about the kids for a minute. Kade is a fun boy and is quite the jabber mouth. He loves to do his "preschool" and is a great learner. He loves his playgroup buddies and could play pretend with them all day long. He plays pretend a lot lately. He LOVES LOVES to say the prayer. He says every prayer at our house lately. By himself. We figure this probably won't last so we let him whenever he wants to. Maggie thinks she helps say the prayer too and tries to fold her arms and close her eyes. Whenever Kade pauses she whispers to him to say: (thankful) for Mama, Dada, Mine (Maggie), Kade. It is really cute! Maggie asks us what we are doing a lot. Except she never fails to say it like this: What doing HOW? Always in the same tone. She loves when the boys playgroup is here. She jumps right in with them and thinks they are including her too (which they don't often). She is growing up way too fast and says a TON of words now. She pops them out all the time that I can hardly keep up with her. Either that or I don't quite understand what she is trying to say! Maggie has a more defiant personality than Kade. Although if I give her some time to consider the things I ask her she usually says 'K' and gives in. But oh man she has personality! Though no matter how frustrating she can be it is impossible to stay mad at her because she is such a love bug. Not to mention she is really really cute. Right now we are trying to help her understand that no does not mean yes. She says no to everything even when I KNOW she is meaning yes at times. Funny girl. Her and Kade have a lot of fun together. They play really well together now. They are great at bugging each other too.
As for Bret, things are going WAY better this semester. He Presented his thesis from his Masters at the beginning of this semester. It went really good and the professors here told him he did great and they were impressed. He is a lot more organized this semester which helps in every aspect. He is able to feel more relaxed and able to spend more time with us. We all love seeing him more. He is such a good dad to the kids. He really knows how to play with them well.

Oh, here is one more pic of the other happy kid:

ordinary days

2010-02-09T11:30:00.006-05:00

I haven't posted much lately. I have been feeling this total lack of motivation to. Nothing exciting has been happening. Just some regular day stuff plus some sicknesses that seem to never end or cycle their way back into our systems WAY to quickly and consistently. Sheesh, I can't exactly tell what's been Maggie's deal, but it's sure tiring. Oh, and we have no car. 2 Saturdays ago we went to another town 10 min. away from here. The van died just as we were getting to the edge of the other town. Some nice people helped us push it off the road (it was dark outside). One car honked at us. Our super nice neighbors came and picked us up. We had it towed to a mechanic and have gotten rides here and there all throughout last week. The mechanic told us he couldn't fix it and we needed to tow it to the dealer 45 min. away from here. We did that on Friday. So now we are going on week 2 without a car. I really never thought I could manage without a car AT ALL, but this experience has proved me wrong. It IS a HUGE inconvenience and quite hard to be without the car, but luckily we have some really nice neighbors and friends in the ward. Also, thankfully, it doesn't mess Bret up with school because he has always ridden the bus anyway-for free. I have two more things to say: UGH and hallelujah for tax returns! (Yes it's a bummer we have to put it into our car, but we expected to have to do some work on it sometime)

So this morning was particularly hard with the kids. Let me just say EMOTIONAL! (Them, not me, I just tried to keep my blood from boiling over.)I'm not sure what's up, but they are obviously not feeling well. My patience is wearing thin. Then I clicked on my friend's blog and saw this and it made me feel considerably better. Perspective is always good on mornings like these! I think I'll even make some bread today with my 'new' BOSCH! (since we ran out and can't go to the store).

Aren't they cute, we made funny glasses one day.

Christmas update

2010-01-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

Well, yesterday we took down all of our decorations. We got some good decor for next year on clearance so I am excited to have a little more than what we had this year. We were a little sparse/lacking on some good decor. Our house feels empty now-probably because we don't have much REGULAR decor....hmmm.

Christmas was GREAT! It was actually so fun! Christmas Eve we went to the Indianapolis children's museum with Bret's sister Carrie and Family. We were planning on having dinner with them afterwards. It was a free day at the museum so it was SO SO packed it was annoying. Other than that It was the most awesome childrens museum I've ever seen. It had 4 levels of EVERYTHING possible. We are definately going back (actually we are planning on going again next week before we go again to Carrie's house for cousin Seth's b-day party. Kade and Maggie loved it. Dinner was great and we had a lot of fun with cousins. Christmas morning was spent here and it was super fun seeing Kade get so excited about it and also watching Maggie scream "BABY, BABY" everytime she opened a present (that's pretty-much all she got. She is obsessed with anything that is stuffed and resembles a small baby). That evening we went to a ward member's house with another family and had some more great food and played games. It was fun.

The break has been so fun for us. We have planned a lot to do and have been busy enough. It's so nice having Bret around! I will be sad when the semester starts. We have just grown too use to him being here all the time!

New Years we went over to another ward family member house and had a blast. They cooked great food- and we loved it all. One more week of no school!

PHOTOS!

The Museum

Getting into the stockings

Look at that face!

Maggie in all her new things-doing a little hip dance

And the ward Christmas Pics with Santa

Christmas Photo Shoot

2009-12-19T13:57:00.018-05:00

It snowed here a little while ago and Kade got really excited about it and got all bundled up. He had a blast, Maggie didn't last that long, but had fun too. It's weird even now, it's snowing lightly and our grass is STILL green! Green grass in December.

This photo is funny to me, she stuffed her mouth full of food.

My mom gave me Maggie's snow suit. Does it look like its from the 80's? It is, either or both Maren and I wore it when we were young.

So we did a home photo Christmas shoot...I thought they turned out pretty good!

Silly

She loves her "babies"

This is our weird boy. We tell him to smile and he does this:

I really like Kade in this one

Maggie was having trouble holding hands

And our favorites...

Bret used a little bit of his awesome editing skills to move Kade closer to Maggie and blur the background and get rid of some shadows. He is going to make one for me that has a slight snowflake background to it.

Bret did this one for me also, I can't decide if I like it in color or this better

Thanksgiving photos...and our little secret.

2009-12-05T11:25:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun for us. It was really nice to be with family and take a break from...here. We loved having Bret in our lives for a few days. The car ride was pretty hard-we carpooled and had 2 extra little ones, so I was very busy. Small children are demanding! It worked out though. Here are some photos of the cousins:

Tried to get one of all the kids in the car

Cousins

Kissing the new baby

We got up at 3:30 am to go to black friday sales. I almost died from getting up that early, but we made off with some great Christmas gift deals... so I guess it was worth it...I guess.

We also got an ultrasound done by my brother in law while there. Yes, we are having baby #3! A few days after we got back we had the ultrasound from my clinic done and the due dates matched exactly-way to go Nathan! May 12! I am excited for another little baby, but it seems that lately the kids and I have been having a hard time with each other so I think in my head-What have I gotten myself into-how can I handle 3 small kids (when I can hardly handle 2 sometimes)?! I think it will be hard, but I know I will enjoy it too. We could have found out what we are having, but we decided to go with the other route this time. I think it will be fun.

That's all for now!

SICK, BORED, AND GOING CRAZY

2009-11-18T08:55:00.004-05:00

Ok so this is me venting about us being sick and telling the long story, if you want a recap instead, here it is: We got horribly sick (except me for the most part) for ever and had no fun and it was hard.

AHH! We were doing SO good with not getting sick! But, with Bret being at school all day around so many other people, it's bound to happen that he brings it home. He did. 2 weeks ago. I expended all my energies to keeping it away from me and the kids. That was hard and pretty stressful. One week later, things are looking UP! Bret feels better, goes back to school and for 2 days we are excited about doing something together. It just so happened that that week was NOT a busy one for Bret so we were all disappointed that we couldn't take advantage of his extra time. The next week showed signs of not being super busy either-so we were happy about those prospects. Nope! Maggie came down with a fever. I thought it was teething because I felt a tooth starting to pop through. Not until the next day when Kade had a fever did I realize that we were sick again. This was the nastiest flu ever. From what I understand of the symptoms of swine flu-I would say they had it. I was kept sane by Bret and his help....until he got sick again with what the kids had. It was seriously NEVER ENDING!!! This flu kept going and going and going. Maggie did the same kind of thing as Bret. She looked like she was feeling better one day and the next day it was like she started all over with the sickness. I, however was extremely BLESSED to not get sick! It was SO hard caring for everyone and trying not to get sick that I got pretty stressed out. I got a slight cold but that was just about it. I was SUPER tired all the time. The kids woke up so early every day and woke during the night often. Bret tossed and turned plenty as well. So the day before yesterday Kade started looking better. Then he coughed all night long and the next day looked like he started over again. Maggie is doing better today, she is almost back to her old self! Bret is better also, and I am feeling much more rested! YAAAA! Kade slept on the couch pretty much all day yesterday and then slept all night long and seems to be a little better today.

So to bring a little cheer to our home, we bought a real sized Christmas tree (prelit for only $18!!)! We all loved it and played Christmas music and got out our scant suply of decorations. We no longer needed our 4 ft tree, so Kade got to have it in his bedroom and he loves it. It definetly brightened our day. I love Christmas time!!

I can't wait for Thanksgiving break either! We are going to Pennsylvania to Bret's sister and her family. I should be a lot of fun and great for us to get away from here for a few days.

The Amazing Cucumber

2009-11-11T10:34:00.002-05:00

My Grandma sent this to me and I thought it was interesting. My kids will usually eat cucumbers above most other raw veggies and I had no idea they had so much nutritional value.

This information was in The New York Times several weeks ago as part of their "Spotlight on the Home" series that highlighted creative and fanciful ways to solve common problems.

1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B 3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.

2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.

3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance.

4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.

5. Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works great on wrinkles too!!!

6. Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover and headache!!

7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation.

8. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don't have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water.

9. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone!

10. Stressed out and don't have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa?
Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water, the chemicals and nutrients from the cucumber with react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown the reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final exams.

11. Just finish a business lunch and realize you don't have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath.

12. Looking for a 'green' way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel?
Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but is won't leave streaks and won't harm you fingers or fingernails while you clean.

13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls!!
(I did try to get crayon off of a door and it didn't work so well, but maybe I did it wrong or something. I don't know)

And a pic of the kids costuems. They both loved their costume and wore them around the house about a month before halloween.

Pumpkins, Party and Project

2009-10-30T09:00:00.001-04:00

We carved pumpkins for FHE on Monday. Unfortunately Bret has been incredibly busy and has hardly had any time with us at all. So, due to his demanding school, he only got his holes punched out of the pattern he chose. It happened to be one of the hardest patterns too. The kids also ditched me....for bed. It was a lot of work carving those pumpkins! It took me all evening and my wrists were so tired at the end!

They had fun while it lasted though.

Our ward party was on Wednesday and I couldn't think of anything that was cheap that we could be. We thought we wouldn't dress up, but then I found this idea-Popeye and Olive Oyl! It was pretty easy to put together (I did it in the few hours before the party). Just cut out some felt designs and temporarily sewed them onto Bret's church shirt and belt. I put nylons on Bret's arms and stuffed them and drew a tatoo on one of them. Mine was super easy and I had the perfect, huge boots too! We even won an award! I didn't get any pics of just the kids, but I will post those after halloween.

We have hardly any halloween decorations so I made this a while back out of felt and those spongy little decor things. The kids always fight over who gets to put it on for the day. I didn't expect Maggie to be that interested in it, but man does she have a fit when she can't do it. I found the idea off of the pottery barn site and kind of changed it a little to what I wanted. I still have a little bit to do on it because I ran out of some string, but I figured I might as well post a pic now before halloween is over.

Happy Birthday Mom!

2009-10-17T11:37:00.002-04:00

It was my mom's birthday yesterday and this is what we have for her:

3 Years Old

2009-10-10T09:00:00.000-04:00

Kade turned 3 yesterday. He had his friend Beckham and Nora over for a little party. They made trains out of beans and noodles and played pin the wheel on the train, ate cake and opened presents. Kade loved it. He has been talking about his birthday for about a week straight now. We gave him a tricycle that he rode through our small living room and dining room about a million times. He wanted to go outside so bad, but it has been raining, POURING, for a few days straight. I have been loving it. I figure if we were in MT we would have to be inside anyway because it would be snowing and/or cold, so I don't mind the really hard rain at all. There have been a few flash flood warnings in IN, not here though. But I guess downtown Bloomington was car-deep in water last year...
Anyway, we had to tell Kade we would wake up this morning and go ride his bike when the sun was shining. So he went to bed SO late last night and didn't get a nap, therefore I was expecting him to sleep in. NOPE. He woke up way early and marched into our bedroom and announced he was ready to ride his bike. Bret told him to get his blanket and lay on our floor because it was still dark outside. He did get the chance at riding it later though, and loved it. He is really good at it too!

Excited about presents

Mag-watching the festivities

Finally-he gets to ride outside!

I love Kade. He is so special and ads so much to our home. Kade is a very unique person. He has always been very aware of things around him, so aware that it takes him a while to get comfortable with new situations. Bret and I have always planned on having kids that were reserved because we ourselves were very reserved little kids, but still it was a little tough to handle at times. Over these 3 short years though, I have actually realized that I love the way he is and I am thankful for his personality. Maybe it was having another kid who is pretty close to the exact opposite of him that made me think about how nice it is to have such a personality as Kade. I hope that doesn't sound bad, but It really has made me thankful for Kade. I am SO thankful for Maggie at the same time, and would not change her personality one bit. Kade suprises me at how aware he is. When we go somewhere and come back home he will talk about things that people were wearing or things they had that I did not even pay any attention to. He can sit for a LONG time playing with something or drawing a picture. At nursery the leaders tell me he always sits so good during the lesson and singing time and pays really good attention. Even at his party, he outlasted the other 2 kids with putting his train together, wanted to play pin the wheel the longest, and stayed eating his cake when everyone else was done or ran off to play. It made me laugh. What a weirdo, but I like it. He just has a slower pace of life I suppose! (of course he is not always like this, but it does amaze me when he is :)
He is a good boy, but like most his age, the AGE has much to do with the hardships that we have throughout the day! Man it is tough! Does anybody else think that 3 is a hard age?
Anyway, I forgot to get a photo of the cake I made! It was the first cake I really tried to decorate. Well, it was cool, it was a choo choo train and Kade loved it.

Here are some funny instances with Kade.

Me: Kade, let Maggie see her book, you are blocking it with your book.
Nothing.
Me: Kade, you need to listen to mom.
Kade: I'm your mom
Me:I'm pretty sure I'm mom
Kade: No I'm mom
Me: Well then where is Kade?
KAde: he went up in the stars
ME: And who am I
Kade: Joseph Smith
I was getting okra in the kitchen and called out, "Who wants okra?" Kade answered back and said, "I want some oh-crap." I tried to tell him the correct way to say it, but he thought he was saying it right that way.
Kade was staring at Bret's nose and said "Is that not an owie dad?" Bret said, "I don't have and owie" Kade, "Oh, it's just a boogie then."

Oh! I forgot-Kade has been potty training for about 3 weeks and has been awesome at it! It suprised me so much and I am so happy with the way things are going! I'm so happy about it, I can't say it enough. I'm glad we waited until he was completely ready and settled here.

Maggie ALWAYS has to go in and sit with him.

Oh, and if you notice we have 2 potty chairs-the one maggie is sitting on is from walmart(safety 1st brand)-I would NOT reccomend buying it. It is horrible, Kade leaked through everytime, it was as if he peed on the floor. He still didn't like getting on the big potty then, so we went and got the $10 (ish) frog one which works a ton better and is an easy clean up job. So now we use the other one as just a stool.

Great Song

2009-09-15T13:28:00.002-04:00

My Grandma email this to me and I love this song, just wanted to share.

Giveaway

2009-09-14T09:11:00.002-04:00

My old roommate Jess is having a one year giveaway! She is so so talented and has been featured on Good Morning America even. To see her blog click here.

4 years to the day...

2009-09-04T21:29:00.002-04:00

Well, actually 4 years ago from this last Tuesday, this happened:

Celebrated on Tuesday by doing....nothing.

Celebrated tonight by....GOING OUT TO EAT....with the kids.

Aaah, still trying to find a babysitter or even better someone to swap kiddos with. Hasn't happened yet, so the kids come with.

Happy Anniversary to us

INDIANA...and then some

2009-08-28T17:00:00.001-04:00

Well we are here. I hate doing long updates, but if I don't get on top of this blogging thing, it's going to continue to happen. So sorry.

The 3 day road trip went pretty good considering I was PLANNING on it being horrible. It totally whacked up the kids sleeping and we were all dead tired by the time we got here. So it actually helped adjust to the 2 hour difference in time. I brought TONS of surprise bags for the kids and Bret made, with his own two hands (and my dad's tools), 2 amazing travel desks custom made for each car seat. I couldn't have found anything better in a store and they worked GREAT, especially for eating in the car. I will have to post a pic because I love them.
It was also Bret's b-day on the road-yeah, some b-day. We did celebrate it a couple days before we left though, so it turned out good.

I love our townhouse. It is amazing. It has so much space and the 2 story is wonderful. There is a lot of pantry space in the kitchen and a little dining area apart from the living room. That's something that we haven't had before because the apt.'s before were meshed with the living room.

The ward here is really nice. The complex we live in has a large portion of our ward in it and they seem to be very interactive-which helps with adjusting to a new place. We already have a kid swap going with 2 other mom's and boys around Kade's age once a week. We just take turns having all 3 boys at our house for a few hours.

Kade has always been a wonderful sleeper. He adjusts SO quickly that I have come to really rely on it. So when he started having troubles sleeping last week, it was really hard for me to handle. One night he was awake freaking out (like really freaking out) for 3 hours in the middle of the night. But, things are going better and he is sleeping through the night again. Sometimes I have to hold his hand until he falls asleep, but we just barely figured out that he wants the door open and the night light on. Weird, I guess some little kids get to a point where they all of a sudden decide they are afraid of the dark.

Then after that Maggie decided to wake up extremely early for a week and a half. She just slept in this morning and it felt like heaven. This is actually the first day since we got here that I feel pretty rested!

Kids are funny though, a lot of the time it goes like this: Kade does great, no problems and Maggie is having a hard time. Maggie does great, and Kade has problems. Will they ever both go through the good times together?!! (but if that means they have to have problems at the same time, I'm not sure it would be worth it)

Anyway, here are a ton of photos of before we left Montana and after:

Payton, Kade and Kason-SO much fun together!

Kade on the zip-line and Bret and the kids on the 4-wheeler-we HAD to have 4-wheeler rides everyday. They loved them so much it was the perfect bribe!

At the cabin:

The hike

Litte Susie came and saw me before we left for Indiana! It was so good to see her.

Mckenzie and Maggie

A parade! Slip-n-slide fun

This is what we moved all our things in. Bret built it all by himself! (he built it on top of the already made flatbed trailor) He really got into the wood working while we were there!

Bret's b-day party. Kade "helping" with blowing the candles out and opening the presents.

Indiana

No pictures of our home yet, but we walked around campus which is HUGE

In the middle of it we realized we were in a hotel!

They have a ton of really fun parks, but this park is about the coolest I've ever seen. It is gigantic!

Bret's sister Carrie and family live within an hour and a half so we have gone there a few times. They have 4 young kids and Kade loves playing with them.

That's all for now!

4th Fun

2009-07-06T14:02:00.006-04:00

We spent most of last week at the cabin. It was pretty fun. We forgot our camera though. We saw a moose too! It was a mama moose and (we found out later) it had a baby back in the trees where we couldn't see at the time. It was really cool. We sat there and watched it from the truck for quite a while. We came back here and lit fireworks in our yard. Oli and Levi put on a good show for My parent's, cousin Avery and us. It was nice and relaxing...except for the part when Levi decided to go a little too creative. He had put 4 big artillery shell fireworks(the really big ones that are pretty in the sky) in a circle and slanted them all together so he could twist the fuses together to have them go off at the same time. We were all nervous and my dad put a cooler in front of them to block us. He lit it and it didn't go as he planned-go figure. It bounced off the house and landed right behind some of us and we all scrambled. It all happened in matter of seconds. Oli started running away but tripped and Avery trampled over him and tripped. Bret got up and out of his chair and I sort of dove out over my mom onto the grass. I was sure we were all dead. My parents stayed in their chairs and just laughed at us. It was pretty funny-AFTERWARDS.

Swimming in the little pool

I just remembered: This morning Oli found Maggie with a big, live beetle squirming to get out of her hand and she was about to eat it! She is a crazy girl!

Time Out For A Post!

2009-06-30T00:30:00.000-04:00

One word warning- LONG

Wow, I have not blogged for such a long time! And honestly, I don't know if I ever would if I didn't push myself to do it now. There is just so much it's too overwhelming to me. Ever since we left Missoula, it has been pretty busy. After Bret Graduated we did all the fun things that we had been dying to do but couldn't because he was so busy. It was a lot of fun. Here's a few photo's of that:

Went to the Carousel

Went to the spray park a few times

Fed Maggie to the big cow on the road to my parents that Bret has always wanted to stop at.

Took some good naps. I peeked in on her and this is how I found her asleep. Who knows how she wedged her foot in there!

Hiked 'M' Mountain...well, we didn't exactly make it to the top with our 2 tired kids.

Went swimming

Kade went down this slide oooh, about a million times. He had the look of pure joy on his face.

And went to my dad's family cabin!

The cabin is near Georgetown Lake

Yummy toasted marshmallows!!

Then we came home to my brother Levi's graduation:

After that we went back to Missoula and loaded up our stuff and moved to Fairfield.
We got to spend a little time with Aunt Mar-Mar while here. Kade loved that. She is so good with kids.

Then we went to My in-laws and stayed there for almost a week. Bret's 3 sister's Carrie and Teresa and their families, and Shelly all came too. Bret's parent's had some fun things planned for us to do so we had A LOT of fun.

We went on a river bike trail and had a picnic

Cousins! Katie loved Kade-she was his self designated friend/guardian. He LOVED the attention and loved all the little kids to play with!

Maggie got her fair share of attention too!

Went on the canoe

And a hot spring!

MAGGIE TURNED 1!!!! I cannot believe it! That year just flew by and I am sad-but I felt like I enjoyed it pretty well, so that is good. She is such a good little girl and has such a fun personality. It's funny how different your own kids can be. I love them both. Maggie has a more outgoing personality and is not afraid to go to strangers usually. She never went through a stranger anxiety stage. She-like Kade-is a jabber mouth. Although her tone is more bossy...hmmm (: Maggie is a go girl, she does NOT like being left behind! I could go on, but I will just say that she is such a joy in her families lives and we love her so much! She got spoiled and had one party at G&G Linfords and one at G&G Swensens.

Oooh, Kade was DYING TO OPEN HER PRESENTS!!

This was SO cute-her Bertolio cousins made her a birthday sign!

When we got back to Fairfield Bret, Kade, My dad and 2 brothers all took of camping for the father/son outing. Me and my mom were jealous!

Now we are back in Fairfield and preparing for some more fun before we move to Indiana-only a little less than 6 weeks!

Fairfield

Kade the Cute Cowboy

Riding on the tractor with Grandpa

Having fun in the hammock

That's all...finally!

My Graduate!

2009-05-18T00:00:00.002-04:00

Bret Graduated! He got a Masters of Arts in Spanish. My parent's and sister came to the ceremony yesterday. Bret has worked SO hard and has done a great job at balancing everything in his life. This last little while has been very grueling for him and us at home. We have MISSED him!! His thesis is pretty much done (Which he did an awesome job) and we are SO excited to have him around a little bit more! Congratulations Bret-we love you!

Dancing with Grandma

And some really cute photos taken afterwards...

Month Recap

2009-05-09T18:07:00.000-04:00

Here is an update of our last month:

About 4 weeks ago, we celebrated Easter-here are some photos of ONE(went to 3!) of the egg hunt we went to:

This one is on campus. I am trying to enjoy all the beautiful mountains around us before we move!

Buddy Teegan-Kade is squinting because of the sun...He does that every time he is outside-even if the sun isn't that bright. Look at all that Candy behind them. Too bad there were more than a few crazy parents who literally threw themselves on the ground to grab as much as they could. I thought it was a bit ridiculous.

The next day, Aunt Mar-Mar came to stay with us for a week! My sister Maren is probably one of Kade's most favorite people in the world. Although sometimes they but heads (which is kind of funny to see), they have so much fun with each other. I really enjoyed having Maren here-especially during the time when we hardly saw Bret. He was working on his thesis. It was SO nice to have another adult to go places with and HELP with the kids-man was she a BIG help!

At the end of THAT week we went to FAIRFIELD to spend a week. We had a ton of fun! Kade got to ride the 4-wheelers and play with cousin PAYTON! He had a lot of fun with Payton. It snowed while we were there, so outdoor play got canceled for most of the trip.

At the end of THAT week, Bret came and on Sat. we went to Cousin Jens' funeral in the morning, and then Cousin (on the other side of the fam) Jarom's reception in the evening. It was a busy weekend full of cooking and craziness and attending those two things on the same day was...bittersweet. It was a wonderful funeral. Jens had planned it all out himself! (He had cancer) It REALLY was a good funeral. And Thank goodness for the Gospel! Through it, we are blessed with the knowledge that we can be forever families!

1 week ago, we went to Couer de Alene to see our new Nephew Ethan's baby blessing. Kade got to have MORE fun playing with cousins Ben and Zach. He loved it. Bret and I were able to go to the Temple while there which was SO nice.

Grandma and Grandpa Linford-Kade also had a lot of fun playing with Grandma!

I liked this pic

Bath Time!

Kade and Ben

All the boys crowding Maggie

We came back ready to relax and actually start to think about packing because in June we are moving to Fairfield before we go to Indiana...but we got sick. UGH! That's all I have to say about it.

Here is Bret messing with our kids hair. He likes to think that Maggie and Kade both need a buzz. I keep telling him that Kade would look bald and Maggie is a girl, it's OK to let her hair GROW. He did get at Kade's hair somewhat though, and only got to "style" Maggie's hair.

Another friend, another giveaway

2009-04-18T19:51:00.002-04:00

My old roomate Jenny is very crafty-click here to check her out.

Giveaway!

2009-04-15T17:50:00.002-04:00

Heather is having a giveaway! Click here! Oh, and if you enter, say that you found out about it through ME...then I will get another entry (:

Born 2 Impress GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-04-10T15:24:00.000-04:00

Born 2 Impress GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

We are moving to...

2009-04-07T16:35:00.002-04:00

INDIANA!

School for Bret starts in August. He got accepted to Iowa, Indiana, and Minnesota. He is on the wait list for Ohio, but we aren't waiting any more. We know that we want to go to Indiana. All the schools have good programs, but in the end it came down to the funding that they offered. Plus there were some random connections here and there that made us think a lot about Indiana. A professor there googled Bret's name a while ago and has been in touch with him ever since he applied to Indiana the first time. He is a member of our church and seemed to want Bret to come there. He even worked out some extra funding and also summer funding for Bret! It was extremely nice of him. It also seemed like quite a few people Bret talked to mentioned Indiana in some positive way or another. And we have FAMILY close by! Bret's sister and her family are just an hour and twenty minutes away from where we are moving. He also has another sister and her family in Pennsylvania-which might be around 8 hours away. We also know a few people who have gone there and loved it and loved the area. Another BIG plus is that it is a place about twice the size of Missoula-so not the big city, whereas all of the other schools are in HUGE cities and we would be right in the middle of them. I would have gone if that was the place we chose to go, but MAN am I happy that I don't have to live and raise my kids in a big city. Nothing against it, but if I had the choice I wouldn't. I am definitely a small town kind of person. I actually went online and started applying to housing in Indiana even before we knew we were going there. It was the only place I did that with, and I'm not even sure why because as you may remember I desperately wanted to go to Minnesota in the beginning. Funny how things change. However, it does make me feel very sad to be so far away from most of our family. I don't foresee us making the 26 hour drive home all that often. But all in all, we have felt very good about going to Indiana. So there ya have it. Anyone know anything about Bloomington, Indiana? For fun...here it is:

Me and the kids went to my parent's house for almost 2 weeks. Bret is insanely busy and couldn't come until the last couple days. We had a great time! I did get a flu bug, but thankfully it was only me and it lasted just one night. Kade absolutely LOVES it there. It is so spacious, they have fun games, 4-wheelers, my 2 little brothers to play with, and we burned my parent's huge pile of junk while we were there. Kade liked the burning a lot. We made doughnuts, shrimp, and all sorts of yummy food. My mom started sewing me a new dress, we went to a scout auction, and we visited my cousin Jens who has been dealing with cancer for some time now. I am so glad that we were able to see him and It was so so good to see him and talk with him. I often think about him and of all the things he has been going through. We also watched conference at my parent's house which was nice. I love conference and really need to read each talk again when we get the Ensign. It's hard to watch conference with kids and all the distractions that happen! Oh, and one last thing that happened there.....

I get kind of bored of my hair sometimes and usually cut it. This time I got a trim and had my mom dye it. I have always highlighted it in the past, so this was a fun change. Levi said I look like a "cold one" (Twilight). Oh well, maybe I can change that this summer.

Diapers and Decor

2009-03-19T17:20:00.003-04:00

2 Cute kids in their diapers...hopefully just one soon.

We atempted potty training Kade, but he has shown a HUGE dislike towards his potty so we are backing off for a little bit. I hear boys generally potty train later than girls, is this true?

I also finished all my projects I have left undone for quite some time. I started most of them before Maggie was born, and now she is 8 1/2 months old. Oh well. At least I finished them.

This one is actually a copy of what I saw on a friends blog. Thanks for the idea friend!

This is the vinl lettering I won from Heather's giveaway!

This one was just an old popcorn tin that I decided to throw in with the other decorations. I liked the way it turned out, but I don't know what to put it it now! It's kind of hard to open with the paper on it so...I don't want anything in there I need to use a lot. Any suggestions?

These last ones were too cute of Maggie playing and sleeping in her crib so I had to post them too.

Awww, her fist pony tail!

3 things..

2009-02-24T15:40:00.001-05:00

I have a few items to blog about....

1. February is a birthday month in our family! We have Brother-in-law Shane (1st), New Nephew Taylor(9th), Brother Isaac (10th), Niece E. (14th), Bret's sister BJ (15th), Me (17th), Niece K. (18) Bret's mom Vurvian (21st), Niece Lily (22), and Nephew Kason (28th)!! I'm probably even leaving someone out! Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL! Exactly a week ago we celebrated my birthday. Bret had been so so busy studying for his comprehensive exam-one that he has to pass in order to get his degree)- and we had just gotten back from the three day weekend at my parent's. So with Bret pretty much non-existant around here(other than to clean up after :), I was busy as well and we didn't have much time to do anything birthday-like. Bret did make me breakfast in bed though, which was very nice. He might have made me a cake from a box, but I am sort of picky when it comes to those and my birthday cake....I think I'd opt for no cake. So I made this yummy gingerbread crock pot pudding cake. It was pretty good. We also went out to eat at a Mexican place. Then we came home and snuggled up on the couch and ate cake. Here is the recipe if you want it. As a side note, I would almost double all of the spices(It was good, but I think it could use more spice) and keep a close eye on it because mine was a little too done and I cooked it quite a bit less than what it said to.
1/4 cup butter, softened1/4 cup sugar
1 egg white
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup molasses
1 cup water
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. salt (I wouldn't add more of this)
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped pecans (didn't have any, and it was still good)

Topping:
6 Tablespoons brown sugar
3/4 cup hot water
2/3 cup butter, melted

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg white and vanilla.
Combine molasses and water until blended.
Combine the flour, b.s., cinnamon, ginger, salt, allspice and nutmeg; add to creamed mixture alternately with molasses mixture, beating well after each addition. Fold in pecan.
Pour into a greased 3-qt. slow cooker. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Combine hot water and butter, pour over batter (do not stir).
Cover and cook on high for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Turn off heat. Let stand for 15 min. Serve warm. Top with whipped cream, cream or ice cream.
Oh and it's best right after you cook it, we tried it the next day and didn't like it as much.

.

2. Maggie is crawling!!! Not very good, but she can move. It's so fun to watch her go through all these different stages. I have enjoyed having her so much. She is such a wonderful addition to our family and we really CAN'T get enough of her. PLUS, she is a really easy baby and so laid back. She will be 8 months old tomorrow. She cut 4 new teeth this month making a total of 6 teeth!

Here is the proof: (oh and she is just in her tights because her dress was getting in her way)

.

3. We quite possibly could be moving to Indiana! Bret got accepted there and they are offering him SO much more funding that we expected from anywhere! It's a great program and he has had a contact there who has really... looked out for Bret with the whole applying there situation. He is also a member of our church. The school is located in a town about an hour from Indianapolis and is about the same size as Missoula. This makes me happy, because I am just not a fan of living in a huge city. (Although I will if that's what happens.) Bret is also on the wait list for Minnesota so we will see what happens! It is so exciting and nerve racking at the same time! I really have mixed emotions about the whole thing and REALLY wish we knew for sure where we are going to live for the next (possibly) 5-ish years of our lives. I guess we will soon enough. Anyway-WAY TO GO BRET!

All About Kade

2009-02-12T23:18:00.004-05:00

Kade’s funny moments: (these are on here because I want to remember them)

When Kade and I were driving in the car the other day, we stopped at a stop light and were just sitting there. I said to him, “Hi Kade.” He said I don’t wanna say Hi Kade, I wanna say, say hi Kaderman. So I said, “Oh, ok, Hi Kaderman" and he said hi back.

One morning Bret was up with the kids and while Kade and Bret were eating breakfast, Maggie was in her high chair playing with toys. Kade looked at Maggie and said “Oh, Maggie awake.” Bret replied, “Yep, Maggie’s awake.” Then Kade said, “Poor Maggie.”

“Don’t spash mine, don’t splash mine” When Bret was splashing Kade in the bathtub.

When we were at Bret’s parent’s house Kade and Maggie slept in the same room with us. We put a blanket over the top of Kade’s crib so he wouldn’t know I was in there nursing Maggie and putting her to sleep. He said a bunch of funny things while he laid there thinking he was alone. One time in particular he yelled out “I…lub….FOOOOOD!”

We went to play group yesterday in the gym of the stake center. Most the time Kade is a little intimidated and distracted by the swarm of kids running wild throughout the gym. He gets quite clingy to me and at times exasperatingly whiny. Other times he is a mini-zombie, engrossed in gawking at the energetic kids. SOMETIMES he does get into it though, and has a blast. Yesterday was one of those days. He had found a ball and was running around with it and throwing it and laughing. He ran back to where I was sitting and yelled to me, “MOM, I YIKE IT!!!” and then continued on.

give-away

2009-01-30T16:48:00.001-05:00

My friend started a vinyl lettering business and is having a giveaway! Check out her blog here!

Home Again Home Again

2009-01-27T17:31:00.000-05:00

Well, after a 6 week break from school we are back at it...or at least Bret is. I am back at home with the kids. After we came home from Idaho, we spent a week here and then my parents came through and got the kids and I. We spent 2 weeks there and Bret came about midway through. We loved it and had SO much fun. Kade had a great time- he loves to have fun with Levi and Oli and they are really good to him. He loves the 4-wheeler too. Maggie was teething some more and had some bad nights, but then my neighbor sent some stuff with Bret and it worked great. Oh, and Maggie turned 6 months on Christmas day! I know-she is now 7 months, but we have only her 6 month stats: She was18 lbs.(75-90%), 28 inches tall(70%), and her head was 43 cm.(75%).

Bret took this of my parent's yard one evening. I love Montana.

Some glasses I found at my parent's house.

Bret has just one semester left here...I am SAD! I really enjoyed being here and having family so close. He has applied to a bunch of states all in a row around the Great Lakes. We will see where we go. I hope so bad it's Minnesota. Why? Because they say he doesn't have to do another Masters degree(many of the other ones say he does because the programs are different from here), so that would cut a lot of time off of school, and because it is 14 hours away. That is the closest and that is doable. Bret also thinks it is a pretty good program. We will see though, I am grateful I don't have to go anywhere far by myself-I have my great husband and kids to go with me!

Another giveaway

2009-01-23T23:17:00.001-05:00

This one is an awesome stroller!! Go here!

giveaway

2009-01-22T20:46:00.002-05:00

My very talented friend is having a giveaway! To check out her stuff click here.

Videos

2009-01-09T19:30:00.003-05:00

Here are some videos of the boy cousins in Boise

Christmas Photos

2009-01-05T11:48:00.000-05:00

This year we went to Council, Idaho to Bret's parent's house. Christmas was so fun and Kade loved all the attention he received from his aunts. He and Maggie also got to meet their Aunt Shelly and their Cousin Sydney! We all had a great time! This is just photos of Christmas and New Years Celebrations, so I have some more pics to post later.

Heidi gave all the girls flowers for their hair! Maggie looks so cute! Aunt Tia looks cute too with her new flower.

Bret Shoveling the sidewalk. There is SO much snow in Council!

Kade loved to sled!

Council is very pretty. It's tucked away in the middle of Mountains.

Bret and I went snow-shoeing

Our New Year's Baby!

Playing Games! I liked this pic of their matching sweaters

Kade getting silly string shot at him...haha

This is what happens when there are a bunch of girls together-tons of pictures! Bret was too outnumbered to do anything about it! He did draw some good faces for Kade on all of the balloons!

Take a Guess

2008-12-19T16:29:00.004-05:00

Can you guess which one of these people is the teacher????

Bret is! This is his Fall Semester of 101 Spanish students. If I didn't know which one was the teacher, I wouldn't have guessed Bret.

Family Photos!

2008-12-09T18:15:00.002-05:00

Our friend in our ward here does photography and is also taking Spanish. Bret is tutoring him for free and he came and took family pics of us! I was SO happy about the swap. The pictures turned out great too. He took around 200 photos and burned a cd with them all on it. Kade was also fairly comfortable with him so he got some good ones in too. We couldn't have gotten such great photos (and selection of photos), I believe, if we had gone to Walmart and done it, so I was thrilled. Since there are so many good ones to choose from, I think I might go overboard on how many I post. Ohwell! I like to look at my kids!

I actually really liked this family one, but if we print it in a bigger size, the kids are a bit blurry

The picture taking was put on hold due to this little girl...

Our friend made a funny face, but the affect it had on Kade was not what he expected....

Getting sick of all the pictures....

I LOVE this one

All done!

Spanish Speaker and Superwoman

2008-12-04T15:27:00.004-05:00

KADE
Kade is a funny boy. He loves it when Bret reads to him in Spanish. We have a few Spanish books and Kade calls them all the same thing. He says "meeko-meeko." "Dad, read meeko-meeko peas?"(oh and he says it really fast) He's heard Spanish in a few other things and he shouts out meeko-meeko! I don't know how he decided that was the name for Spanish! We think he is a funny boy.

MAGGIE
Maggie likes to roll from her belly to her back. She doesn't like being on her belly but she likes to roll there. It's hard to roll back. I look at her on her belly and wonder if she thinks she is superwoman from the way she holds her hands and legs out and up.

Thanksgiving Vacation

2008-12-01T17:49:00.007-05:00

We went to my parent's house for the week. It went by too fast. We had a great time and Kade absolutely loved it. When I say love it-I mean that he was so hyper happy about being there he woke up at 5:15-6:00 am practically the whole time we were there. He woke up ready to play. It wasn't really a problem for Bret and I actually. Kade slept in a different part of the house in the same room as Oli and when he woke up so early Oli gave him to my parents who then layed with him until they were sure he would never stop talking until they got up. I was glad it was them and not me. Thanks! He was so loud and happy the whole time. It was great to see him loving it there and having so much fun with Levi, Oli, Maren, and my parents. My cousin Avery was there also and he warmed up to her by the end of the visit.

Levi and my Dad were chopping wood and Kade went outside and helped out. He is afraid of their dog and wouldn't leave my dad's lap for a while, but my dad made him get down after a while and help. He was funny to watch.

Kade got to ride on a horse while we were there and he was more brave than I thought he would be! He liked it! We took a pic of it on Maren's camera and I have yet to get it from her...

We were trying to get Levi to smile without being a goon. I don't believe he knows how. Kade got TONS of rides on the 4-wheeler. He loved that too. He would laugh and yell the whole ride.
Maggie made a new friend-cousin Avery!This girl likes her feet! It's funny how flexible babies are. She can even suck on them if she tries hard enough.

This is my parents right before their ride on my dad's motorcycle to the grocery store to get hot dog buns. My mom looked really funny. She didn't seem to care though. Kade loves his sissy. He likes to shower her with anything he can find when she is on the ground. Here he has all the blankets off his bed, a bunch of toys, and a bunch of books all for her pleasure. He is pretty proud of himself. Sometimes I think she feels too showered.

Dress up much?

2008-11-23T19:57:00.006-05:00

Friday, when we were getting ready to go see Tia Troy perform (which by the way-she was awesome! She sings, plays the guitar and writes songs, very talented) I went into my room to change out of my t-shirt I had been wearing all day. Then Bret helped Kade bless the food and in the middle of the prayer Kade thought it was necessary to point out that I had changed my shirt. He said "Cute Mama," pointing at my shirt. I had to ask myself, hmm is this a bad thing that my toddler notices when I wear something other than t-shirts?

Well, we went to a game-here we are! UMT vs. Idaho State. UMT won.

Here we come Fairfield! We are going to my parent's house on Tuesday to spend Thanksgiving!

Another one...

2008-11-13T15:10:00.000-05:00

Ok sorry, here is another tag

8 T.V. Shows I love to watch
1. Biggest Loser
2. Survivor
3. Baby and Wedding story
4. Makeover shows
5. Rachael Ray's show
6. Iron Chef
7. I
8. Don't
8 Know, although I enjoy watching martha stewarts show every now and then

8 Things that happened yesterday
1. Got too little of sleep
2. Read Leven Thumps
3. Picked up Bret from school and went to Albertsons
4. Went to the playgroup
5. WIC appointment-Maggie is 4 1/2 months old and weighs 16 lbs!!
6. Talked to my mom
7. Nursed-because that's what half the day is when you have a baby. plus a million diapers.
8. Cooked, ate, and cleaned up dinner

8 places I love to eat at:
1. Red Lobster
2. Olive Garden
3. Subway-it hits the spot sometimes
4. That sushi place around here...don't remember the name, but any good sushi place.
5. Home/here
6. My mom's house
7. Mongolian Grill
8. Macaroni Grill

8 Things I am looking forward to
1. THANKSGIVING at my parent's house
2. CHRISTMAS at Bret's parent's house
3. Seeing Twilight
4. Summer...Its just so HARD to keep Kade entertained inside all day!
5. Giving my parent's their christmas present-I think they will like it
6. Dinner
7. The weekend! Yay!
8. Kissing my kids when they wake up-they are so cute

8 things on my wishlist
1. bosch
2. food storage
3. For Bret's PhD to not last 6 years more
4. A nice BIG diaper bag that holds stuff for 2 kids.
5. Cute baby bedding for Maggie's crib (inherited from Kade)
6. A house with a yard (someday)
7. an apple corer like my moms
8. aaand, some moolah

8 people I tag ( i know I've seen this tag floating around so you don't have to do it if you already have)
1. Jinny
2. Melissa
3. Summer
4. Courtney
5. Dawn (or Nathan)
6. Darcy
7. Lacee
8. Lindsey

One Word

2008-11-07T11:54:00.003-05:00

This is a tag from Jess, each answer is supposed to be only one word...

1. Where is your cell phone? chair
2. Where is your significant other? school
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? Fairfield
5. Your father? Great Falls
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? Jessie (Romney-I don't know why, but you were in my dream!)
8. Your dream/goal? Happiness
9. The room you're in? front
10. Your hobby? lots...
11. Your fear? death
12. Where do you want to be in six years? Home!
13. Where were you last night? survivor
14. What you're not? superwoman
15. One of your wish list items? BOSCH! (long shot)
16. Where you grew up? Fairfield
17. The last thing you did? shower
18. What are you wearing? pj's
19. Your TV? off
20. Your pet? beta
21. Your computer? blogging
22. Your mood? TIRED
23. Missing someone? hubby/fam
24. Your car? minivan :)
25. Something you're not wearing? makeup! haha
26. Favorite store? Target (me too Jess!)
27. Your summer? Maggie
28. Love someone? Bret
29. Favorite color? green?
30. Last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? days (ago)
I tag: Lindsey, Summer, Katie, Jessie-it only makes sense since I dreamed about you!

Crazy Conservative Homemaker

2008-11-05T23:16:00.003-05:00

Disclaimer: I'm just feeling like writing some thoughts down. Obama was just elected and it made me a little mad...so sorry if I ramble. Don't worry, I'll get over it.

Well, it looks like my fear has come true. Barack Obama is to be the next President. I guess I am still in a bit of shock. I was not a big fan of McCain, but I knew I didn’t want Obama. Actually, quite a few conservatives where not in favor of McCain either. I heard on talk radio that he received votes from only 80% of conservatives. I think that Palin did him and his campaign good, but he himself was too interested in “reaching across the isle.” It ended up costing him. Neither side was very thrilled with him apparently.

Now we have to deal with Obama for hopefully just 4 years, but possibly more. In fact, we have to deal with a liberal dominated congress as well. I’m afraid of the radical bills they will pass. I’ve heard they have been trying to pass a bill that gives a date of return for our troops. I have also heard that if a “date” is set to end the war, then the terrorists with just hold off till we leave then go back to terrorizing (which could perhaps come back to haunt us). I know that many people have different feelings on the war, and I don’t know enough about it to say whether or not it’s really going the way it should and so on, but those things DO make me nervous. Everything about Obama makes me nervous.

What’s going to happen about drilling offshore to help lower gas prices? He may well put a ban on it.

Will he give illegal aliens drivers licenses…I won’t be surprised, he seems to be quite partial to illegals. (Of course, McCain was no better on this issue)

Obama is pro “fairness doctrine,” which is pretty-much a violation of the first amendment.

He is in favor of universal health care. What happened to competition?? What happened to FREE MARKET? When there is no competition, then the quality of service typically goes down (that’s why there are so many under-qualified teachers in the government run education system). A good economy needs competition. Although a few people from countries with universalized healthcare like the so-called “free” healthcare, the means definitely don’t justify the ends. Sure it’s great to help those who are less fortunate than us by helping out when we can, but it should not be the government’s responsibility to force the rich to help the poor. That takes away our agency; we should be able to choose between right and wrong. All I know is that when the government sticks its hands into too many things, it almost always limits our freedom. The way the constitution would have the government run is not the way it is going to be run (or even presently running)! Sometimes I feel like they think we are so stupid, we need to be told how to do everything. We THE PEOPLE need to make more of our own decisions. But the sad part is that the government is gaining too much power. Unfortunately, the majority of Americans are allowing it to happen.

I heard that instead of voting for or against many issues as a senator, he quite often only voted “present”. I went online and looked at his voting record and…it’s true. Weird. Why would someone vote present so many times? Does he not know where he stands? Where you stand on issues is not supposed to be a SECRET when you are an elected official. Maybe he wasn’t sure which people he should be trying to please at the time.

Obama says that 95% of us won’t be taxed. I don’t buy that. Even if he does just tax the people who make over $250,000, who do we think will end up paying for it? These people he is planning on taxing are those who provide jobs. If he taxes our employers, and they don’t want to/can’t carry that tax burden, it will eventually come out of the pockets of the middle class employees. Not just that, he will raise the death tax. Did anyone hear him slip up with Joe the Plumber? He said “I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” When government “spreads the wealth around,” I believe it’s called socialism. YES, I believe that we should try to live the law of consecration, but socialism is Satan’s version of it.

Worst of all he is for abortion. Isn’t it weird how people who are for abortion call those who are not “anti-abortion?” We are PROlife. It’s as if they won’t acknowledge that part of it. He once said about his daughters, “I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.” PUNISHED with a baby!? According to Obama they should not have to deal with the consequences of their choices. Does that make any sense? The Christian Defense Coalition responded to Obama by saying that his comment is “not only a slap in the face to every child born to a young mother, but it diminishes the great joy that children bring to their families regardless of the circumstances in which they were born.”

But Wait! Bret and I are so glad that Proposition 8 Passed! It’s nice to know that there are still people who have morals-even in California-with San Francisco being the supposed gay capital of the world. It is a miracle and the Lord had His hand in that one.

Anyway, I know things are going to be ok. Things aren’t that bad. Don’t take me as an extremist, I just wanted to vent. Thankfully, my life doesn’t revolve around what happens in the government. I AM glad that all this election stuff is over with! It also makes me very thankful that we can look to the humble and INSPIRED leaders of our church as well as the Lord for guidance and example and not politicians.

BEWARE...

2008-11-03T11:46:00.011-05:00

...THIS IS A LONG POST!

I think we are just about Halloweened out after this week. On Tuesday we went to a lady's house who is in the Spanish department with Bret. They have this pumpkin carving party every year and this was our second year going. There usually are some foreigners there who have never carved pumpkins before. They seem to really like it. It's fun meeting them as well. The lady's husband was really playful with Kade and Kade loved it! He had so much fun!

On Wednesday a girl in my ward asked me to watch her daughter who is a little younger than Kade. Her regular babysitter couldn't do it, and she was desperate...and let me tell you it was HARD with 3 young kids! Although she is a good little girl and Kade and her played really well together most of the time. My playgroup had a Halloween party that I dressed all of them up and took them to it. (Which was a brave act on my part!) It was a little hectic, but we had a good time and got some good candy from all the festivities that went on there. Kade was dressed up as this little tigger:

We also carved pumpkins on our own this week. Kade actually liked digging his hands in the guts! I was pretty surprised! He is quite the little copy-cat. If I used the spoon; he would use the spoon, if I used my hands, he would use his hands. He does this sort of thing when we eat dinner as well...for the most part unless he decides he doesn't like something.

Then on Thursday we had our ward Trunk or Treat. It was a lot of fun and Kade got a bunch of candy from that! Maggie was SO SO cute in her little flower costume. Bret and I tried to look like we were dressed up too... And Kade also looked really cute in his cookie monster costume that Grandma Linford sent him. He thought it was pretty cool. By the end of the night though, he was ready to have that extra head off of him! He was really good at saying trick or treat...apparently he knew those were the magic words to receive candy!

OH! I keep forgetting to post about Kade and his NEW BIG BOY BED! (Thankyou craigs list once again) We were going to put it up and get him use to it, but he was acting like he liked it so much we decided to try it out. It went really well. The first few nights he woke up once in the night and cried out for about a minute then went back to sleep. The funny thing is that Kade doesn't realize he can get down when he wakes up-or even when he goes to bed! He just lays there until he falls asleep or until we come get him when he wakes up. During the day he is obsessed with getting in and out of it or grabbing all the blankets off of it and dragging them out to the front room and having me spread them on him five million times so that he can go "nigh-nigh" on the ground. Odd boy! I think he is pretty funny though, but spreading the blankets on him does get old!

And I just wanted to post this cute pic I took of him before church yesterday. He looked so cute I had to get one before he took the tie off and un-tucked his shirt.

Baby Laugh and Temple Trip

2008-10-26T21:05:00.007-04:00

This is a little bit of Maggie laughing. She laughed harder in the bath, but this was still really funny and so cute! Don't mind about what I am saying. We were watching tv and it was part of a comercial and I started saying it to her. It was her second real laughing episode so it was kinda special to us.

We went to the temple on Saturday with some friends in our ward. We took our kids and their boy who is 1 year old. They watched Maggie and Kade while we went to a session, then we watched their boy while they went to a session. It was really nice to do it that way. Although it was a LONG and TIRING day. The car ride was tough-I was smashed in between Kade and Maggie's chunky car seats in the back. We were stupid and forgot about the time change from Washington and Montana and ended up having to stay even longer for our scheduled session(it's a small temple and you have to schedule yourself into a session), and the kids were TIRED! At one point on the way home all the kids were screaming. At another they were all sleeping. It was crazy. They didn't get naps and so finally on the way home fell asleep(after they screamed off and on. Kade had a lot of fun with his buddy Teegan though. They played outside most of the day and the weather was fairly nice too. It was really nice to go to the temple as well. I was gratefull for the chance. It is a calm and peaceful haven in this busy and crazy world we live in. It was worth it to go.

The fam outside Spokanne WA Temple

And cute, little, chunky cheek Maggie

WHO IS 4 MONTHS OLD THIS DAY!! WOW!

Odds and Ends

2008-10-19T22:15:00.004-04:00

So, I decided we needed some (cheap) Halloween decor and found how to make these little thingies on the internet. They are kinda cute. The trees are made out of paper grocery bags all twisted.

I love love this thing. We just got it and I was more excited about it than Kade. It's nice because we have a PLACE for all the little toys and we can actually ORGANIZE things! We went on a little hike a little while ago and Maggie looked so cute all bundled up. The funniest thing happeded last night as we bathed the kids. Maggie usually HATES baths, but the last few times I have sat her up and she does ok. Last night she started cracking up! She laughed a ton!! It was SO funny to hear her. By the time Bret got the camcorder she had quit-wouldn't ya know.
This boy loves to swing....forever.

Kade turns 2!

2008-10-16T13:10:00.008-04:00

A week ago we celebrated Kade's second birthday. I can hardly believe he is 2. I CAN believe that he is acting 2. Actually, I don't have to believe; I see it every day. Anyway, we had a family that lives in our complex over to have cake. The next day we went to Fairfield and had another party with my family. Kade loved the all the candle blowing, gift opening celebrations. Especially with my brothers Levi and Oli there to play with him and his new toys. So here is a timeline of pics of our little big boy Kade, and his life thus far:

Kade had a tough time being born and wasn't breathing at first. He had to be connected to all this stuff for a bit.

2 months

5 months

8 months

10 months

1 year!

18 months

Kade sitting on my dad's lap while opening presents

Kade and Oli

Maggie and me watching the whole thing

Kade liked blowing the candles out so we relit them and let him blow them out a couple of times

We decided to use my sister's camera and my mom's and they ended up being a little blurry. Suprising, considering their cameras are both way better than ours.

My parents gave Kade this cool car track thing and Kade was really loving it. We got home Sunday night and Bret unloaded the car. The next day the car thing was nowhere to be found! I searched the house and later searched the car and found nothing! Bret thought he might have loaded it out of the car but set it down to open a door and forgotten it there. Things around here get stolen easily by little kids who aren't taught to leave things that aren't theirs alone. This is what I thought happened to it. I was pretty mad. We have this neighbor who has asked me for old toys because she takes them apart and makes "art" with them. Interesting lady, thats all I have to say. So Bret got home and decided to knock on her door. She had it. Randomly, she was expecting a friend to drop off a car toy and she thought that was it when she saw it sitting outside our doors. It was already taken apart, but she put it back together for us. I cannot say how glad I was. Even though it is a little toy he will grow out of, I wanted him to at least get SOME play out of it. I was excited for the hours of entertainment it would provide for him during this time that we can't go outside as much because of the cold. I am very glad we have it back.

We are home and happy, although the past few days have been not so happy because we all got sick. Bret got really sick. I don't like being sick. I REALLY don't like when my kids and husband are sick. Today we are better though.

Free Handbags

2008-10-09T16:56:00.002-04:00

This website is giving away a cute handbag each hour. If you want to enter go here: http://www.handbagplanet.com/contest3

Kade Moments

2008-10-01T16:07:00.003-04:00

I want to remember the little things that Kade does or says. He quite often cracks us up!

·The other night when we were putting Kade to bed, we were halfway through his little routine and Bret and I were acting kind of goofy, and all of a sudden Kade decided he was sick of it and said, “Please nigh-night? Please?” I guess he was sick of our goofiness. So we put him to bed and he was happy to have us go.

· Our apartment is a little annoying to get to from the parking lot. It is around the backside of a big building so it takes a few minutes for Kade to walk the distance. Usually we have to remind him to come and keep walking, but one Sunday he was so hyper-happy about nursery that he was running everywhere. He happened to be ahead of us this time and suddenly halted to a stop, turned and said to us: “Come Mom, come Dad!”

· Kade is GREAT at praying with us most of the time. He folds his arms and tries to mimic all of what we say. One time while Bret was leading him in prayer and waiting for him to say it all, Kade randomly put in a thought of his own. “Be nice dad.” Maybe he thought Bret needed an extra reminder for the day!

He is really starting to try and put words together on his own and it is so funny to hear what comes out!

Saturday Fun

2008-09-28T16:22:00.007-04:00

Not much has happened here in Missoula for us, so you get to hear what we did on our saturday. We had a good time, but it might not be too exciting for others to hear about!

So after this summer, Bret pretty much HATES garage sales. I, on the other hand, have become more addicted to it. I LOVE finding good deals on things we need....and want. Kade's b-day is coming up so I have been thinking about what I want to get for him. One idea that I had was a Cars race track thing:

I found one minus the cars brand(but the same exact thing still) at a sale for $1. Kade loves it and has a ton of fun with it. It sells at Walmart for $21. I have found most of Maggie's and Kade's clothes at garage sales. They are still like new when I find them. It saves us so much money and since we are lacking in that area anyway, it works well for us to go to garage sales. But I can understand that Bret hates them, I might too if I was a guy. Well, yesterday morning I fed Maggie and put her to sleep and took Kade garage saling with me. We had a good time and I found this brand new train set for a dollar. Since we already gave him the car thing, we are waiting to give this one to him for his b-day. We also did a little grocery shopping. It was nice and easy with just Kade and me. Then we came home, got Maggie and Bret and went to the farmers market. I really like the farmers market. We walked around and got some items and went down by the river for a while. When we were walking back to the car we remembered a friend gave us a Macie's gift card for maggie. We went there and picked out 2 CUTE outfits. One of them would have cost us $5 extra, but the lady who checked us out said she was in a good mood and took off the $5! It was really nice of her. All in all,(BIG Thanks to WIC and our friend) we spent a total of 1 $ for all this good stuff:

Those are huckleberries and I am really excited to make something yummy with them! I LOVE having these great veggies to eat also. I get really excited about having fun, healthy food to eat. We came home exuasted, but happy. Kade was so tired that he fell asleep on the 5 min. trip home. It was really funny because he hardly ever falls asleep in the car that easily. Maggie actually fell asleep in the car too. She usually doesn't like her carseat. It was cute. 2 peacefull sleeping kids in the car...very rare so I enjoyed it to it's fullest. I topped the day off by going to the general relief society broadcast which was awesome. It was a good day.

Here is Maggie being her cute self:

She is 3 months old now! She weighs 13 lbs 12 oz. Kade is doing really good with her now. He actually hasn't hit her for some time. He LOVES giving her kisses!

Kade also thinks that it is fun to put Maggies headbands on himself. He calls it baby's hat.

Blessing Day Photos

2008-09-07T17:18:00.010-04:00

We got back yesterday from our trip. We didn't end up going to Apgar because it was supposed to snow and be too cold. We did however, stay in a nice hotel and Kade got to swim in the pool. Levi had soccer games there in Kalispell so Bret came to pick me and the kids up. (that sounds weird to say still-"the kids") We had to leave earlier than I would have liked to because Bret had to speak at a baptism.

Here are some pics from last Sunday. Maggie's blessing was very nice and we were happy to have our family there. My mom made her dress for me when I was blessed and Maren was also blessed in it.

A few Family Pics, Kade was in dire need of a nap, so he got a little uncooperative

Aunt Mar Mar

Kade sitting happily in his own-sized seat

Both of our parents came. Christie, Tia and Hannah on his side, and Maren, Levi and Oliver on mine.

I thought this one was funny because he looks like such a little man in it

I love this one

Since last week was our anniversary and I didn't have any pics, here are 2 favorite:

Anniversary!

2008-09-02T15:45:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was our Anniversary. We have been married for 3 years! Wow! Time flies. 3 years is really not that long at all, but I can hardly remember the feeling of not being married to him. It feels so normal and natural now. When Bret and I were dating I was thinking about going on a mission. He told (wrote) me that he loved me and I told him I wanted to go on a mission. He was pretty sad. I talked to my brother Mckay about it and he told me that his mission was great...but being married has been greater. And, I have to agree-even though I didn't actually go on a mission, I am glad I married Bret instead. Thanks Mckay! We got engaged the same weekend as Isaac and Lindsey and married a week after them. It was SO fun to go through all of that as the same time as them. Lindsey and I went through the temple for our first time together. I felt like it was a great bonding experience to do all those things at the same time.

Being married is a wonderful thing. Being married to Bret tops it all. We blessed Maggie on Sunday (pics to come) and had his family stay with us. They left yesterday and I left after them to come home with my family for the week. We are planning to go to Apgar (glacier park) this weekend and Bret will come for a night and then we will go back to Missoula. So our Anniversary was a little short-lived...well actually not lived at all, but we were SO happy to have family come and visit. We are thinking we'll just celebrate it next week sometime. It was a little sad we didn't even spend much of the day together though! On the way to Fairfield I thought about a few things that I love about Bret:

-He is so kind to everyone!

-He has a great work ethic, which as a wife and mother, I am very thankful for.

-Kids love him. We have many nieces and nephews and I can tell whenever we see them that having Bret there means playtime for them. He is good with all ages of kids.

-He can talk forever to me. I'm kind of weird because when I go to sleep it calms me down for him to talk to me at night. Sometimes I have to tell him I'm done listening though!

-He also is a great listener and can think of great questions to ask people. He makes people feel comfortable because of his question-asking ability.

-He handles me very well...I can be kind of bratty to him sometimes.

All in all he is a great husband and I am very thankful for him. I love you Bret! Miss ya!

Oh, my parents don't have any pics of our wedding on their computer, but I found a few of our reception and engagement..

2 Months Old..Already?

2008-08-27T17:52:00.007-04:00

Maggie was 2 months old a few days ago. She is such a good baby-it amazes me! She has such a laid back temperament (most the time, but hey, she is still a baby). I can set her down and she will be fine for long periods of time. She just sits there! Then when she is getting antsy to be picked up she goes crazy kicking her feet. She will stare at our eyes until we look at her and when she gets so much as a glance-she smiles away. She is quite a little smiler! She loves it when we simply hold her and coo back and forth with her. Her cry is so little and sweet sounding to us. Little girls are definitely sweet! I really like having a girl and never realized how much fun it would be. Maggie is still sleeping remarkably well. She wakes once around 4 or 5am then sleeps some more. Sometimes she will go all the way until 7am before she wakes. Of course there are those random not so great nights… Overall she is a great baby and we are all so happy she has joined our little family.

Lounging with Dad

Kisses for Maggie...

Un-spectacular Quirks Tag

2008-08-24T19:03:00.003-04:00

Lindsey tagged me for 6 un-spectacular quirks:

1. I have my clothes in my closet organized by color-I get in major organization/cleaning moods and can't stop sometimes. I think that is a Smith gene.(That is my mom's side of the fam.)

2. If I had the choice between a GOOD back massage and my favorite dessert, I would go with the back massage. I would die for a masseuse of my own.

3. I rarely take Tylenol, even when I have a bad headache. When I do take pain killers, all I think about is if my liver will be ok.(exaggeration, but it still crosses my mind) I am quite into alternative medicine.

4.I am an extreme thrift shopper. Practically every piece of clothing Kade has is second hand or found on sale. I shop sales pretty much exclusively. I am pretty good at finding deals and am a little proud of it. I love garage sales. Although hopefully we can purchase some new items once we actually have a real-life income.

5.I love to listen to talk radio. I love Laura Ingrahm, like Rush Limbaugh, and can handle only SOME of Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.

6. I sleep with one of those cover-your-eyes masks because it helps keep my eyes shut when I am trying to go to sleep and also because I don't like the light at 5 or 6 in the morning. (I don't sleep very well)

Oh, I thought of one more, I hope it's legal to put 7:

7. Adam's apples gross me out and my husband has a big one. He thinks it's weird and tries to get me to touch it sometimes.

I tag:
1.Jess
2.Melissa
3.Summer
4.Tia
5.Jinny
(and anyone else)

Our Mini Michael Phelps

2008-08-18T19:03:00.003-04:00

Now all he has to do is learn how to swim...

Wheel of Fortune

2008-08-16T13:48:00.009-04:00

I like to watch Wheel of Fortune sometimes and Kade has gotten into it. This is just a little bit of what he does:

(OOPS, I accidentally put a little bit more of the video than I was planning! It takes too long to upload, so I am leaving it on. Oh, and sorry-it is a little messed up on parts-I don't know why.)

He often shouts out certain letters even if the people on the show don't say them! We think it is really funny! He LOVES to cheer and yell at game shows. He is getting so big and so smart that it really surprises me what he knows. The other day I had three pieces of paper with a square, circle and a triangle on them. I told him what they were called and then asked him to hand me each one as I said its name. We played this game ALL day. He loved it! I love my Kaderman!

Here is Kade (cheesing it) and Maggie:

Maggie is such a good baby! I feel like she is getting big way too fast. I love her newborn cuddly stage so much!

Also, Maggie has a new COUSIN! We are so excited to have Hailey in our family! She and Maggie are exactly 7 weeks apart! They are also similar in weight-Hailey was 9 lbs 3 oz. They both have dark hair as well. Congrats Dawn and Nathan!