The Pyper Family

snow days...

2012-01-22T15:39:00.000-08:00

Well, it finally snowed here in Spokane. After weeks of being well below freezing, the snow finally came. I always look forward to the snow, I think it's fun to be in and it is beautiful. For the first 24 hours. I forget how much I hate it after that! It snowed about 9 inches in two days. On the first day the kids were SO excited to get out in it that as soon as Ben got home from work and started shoveling the drive way they wanted to go out and help him.

Taylor reminded me of the little brother from 'A Christmas Story'. She was the one who was most anxious to get outside.

Got to put them to work early. They looked so cute out there shoveling...

The next day Garret came over to play and they wanted to go outside again...

Of course, after a long morning outside in the snow there is nothing better than a nice big mug of Hot Chocolate!

I love these kids!

And I am already sick of this snow!

Quincy...

2012-01-21T15:37:00.000-08:00

Just a few days after getting home from Alabama, we headed down to Quincy for my nephew Keyton's birthday. He had a party with his little friends and we couldn't miss that! :)

We stayed the night Friday night before the party and got NO sleep, the kids stayed up until like 10:30; but we still had a great time! :) We also tried making that new recipe going around the internet right now, the one that is Saltine cracker toffee. It was OK, it wasn't great, but it was OK.

Anyway, grandma came up for the day for it, too. As always, she was a big hit with the kids; they couldn't get enough of her. :) It was a fun day spent together.

She even took us out to dinner that night before we made the trek home, and they gave Keyton this sombrero and sang to him for his special day! He thought that was pretty cool! :)

{What a cutie!}

Drew's B day...

2012-01-20T15:36:00.000-08:00

Tucker went to his buddy Drew's birthday party at good ol' Chuck E Cheese. I had to post this picture of the two of them. They are good buddies! :)

Bama extra's...

2012-01-19T21:54:00.000-08:00

And here are some extra's from our trip down south. The kids did so wonderful on the plane rides. They were awesome, and the trips went smoothly.

Thank goodness for modern technology:

This little princess took naps on our bed the whole time we were there. It took me a while to wean her of that one when we got home! :) I went in to check on her one day and found her like this on our bed; it's a rough life! :)

One never knows what one will find in grandma's attic. Hence the lion hat!:)

We were there a week without anyone else there. I have never been down to Ben's parents house when it's been just us. It was a little bittersweet. On the one hand it was great to be the only ones there to spend one on one time with them, but on the other hand, it was kind of sad to be all alone in the big house with no cousins to play with. Especially on the days that both grandma and grandpa had to go back to work! Both of them work so hard to be able to spoil their grandkids the way that they do and we are so grateful for them and all of their hard work!

We got spoiled by being taken to lunch and dinner, and one day we went to a Mexican restaurant. I don't know if they believed me how Taylor eats the salsa by the spoonfuls, but sure enough, she did just that while we were there! Silly little lady!

We went and visited grandma at work one afternoon and brought her lunch. She is the head librarian at a private school in Montgomery. Her library is so beautiful! Taylor had fun playing at her desk.

We also got to go to the zoo.

Tucker snuggling up to daddy on the train ride:

Ben made a new friend while we were at the zoo. This Rhino came right up to him and Ben fed him this branch (shhhh...don't tell anyone!). Then he kept coming back for more and more!

Then sadly, it was time to head home. I bought these window clings on the after Christmas sale at Target. Best .20 cents I've ever spent. It kept them entertained for hours on the plane! :)

Both kiddos looking out the window...

Another great purchase, .50 cents worth of foam stickers, also at the after Christmas clearance at Target. These were a great time passer as well...

Once we were home I was a little overwhelmed with all of the cleaning and laundering I had to do, and I think Taylor had the right idea:

I found her like this the day after we got home. It seems we were all feeling the same! :)

Ben at the Chic-Fil-A bowl...

2012-01-17T20:53:00.000-08:00

Ben got to sneak off (on New Years Eve, no less) with his best friend from High School, Jesse to go to the Chic-Fil-A bowl. It was the bowl game that Auburn played in this year. Auburn is his team, and Jesse's too. So they drove to Atlanta, without tickets, and just ended up buying them there. I gave Ben the camera hoping he would take just one picture of the whole event, and he surprised me and came back with a lot of pictures.

Here are him and Jesse in Downtown Atlanta before the game:

Pre-game:

I'm glad Ben got to go to the game and spend some time with his best friend. I had fun on New Years Eve having a girls night with Ben's mom and sisters. We rented a movie and got Chinese take out; and had a wonderful evening together! :)

Christmas...

2012-01-16T21:15:00.000-08:00

At last it was time to celebrate Christmas, Pyper style. It was a blast! On 'Christmas Eve' we did the Nativity Story. Grandma read/spoke about it and the kids put all of their pieces in the stable. We were going to act out a live Nativity, but somehow that fell through.

Then that night after the kids were in bed, Santa's elves went to work helping Santa wrap the last few remaining items and getting all of the stockings filled before the big day. The new room was temporarily turned into the North Pole! :) It was fun just being with the adults, hanging out and enjoying time together!

After we were finished, we were pretty proud of ourselves:

The next morning the kids were delighted to see that Santa had infact come to Grandmas house!

Taylor eating her chapstick from her stocking...

Beautiful Elia with her new headband:

Kira with her new hat:

For some reason, Taylor was afraid of Uncle Jeremy. She really liked him when he had treats to give her, but other than that she wanted nothing to do with him.

Luckily he has three girls of his own who love him! :)

And Ben with his little man...

After the stockings, was present opening time.

Elijah eating his new shoes:

Kaiya LOVING her new pillow. All this girl asked for for Christmas was a pillow and candy canes. Funny, huh! :) She had a great Christmas! :)

And here she is in her new bling:

Elijah attacking his new elephant. It was so funny to watch him wrestle that thing! :)

Rock Star Josh and his new electric guitar!

Another big hit was Tuckers remote control airplane...

Even the big kids got in on that action!

Still a favorite of the week was playing with the DS...

All the girls singing and dancing to the 12 days of Christmas...

Of course, Christmas Carols were played by grandma and sung by all of us. Taylor was grandma's big helper on the piano...

And Joshy again with his guitar. When he is a famous rock star one day, I will have this picture to brag about! :)

Cousin time...

2012-01-15T20:57:00.000-08:00

We left for Alabama on Christmas day for TWO weeks of fun! The one nice thing about Ben's job being seasonal is that he actually gets time to do things like this and we could be gone for two weeks, no problem. The first week we were there all of Ben's siblings were there which means lots and lots of cousin time.

These two are as thick as thieves. I love it. They were playing outside (oh, to be in 60-70 degree weather again! *sigh*) one morning and I told them to look up and smile, and they together, without knowing, made this same face!

Taylor also had a BFF cousin, Kaiya. She is about 4 months older than Taylor and they were finally at that age where they would play together. Here they are in the room that Ben finished for his parents, playing with grandma. They both LOVE LOVE LOVE their Brama-as Taylor calls her! :) This big empty room was perfect for the kids to just run run run around in.

Kaiya loved to feed Taylor...

Aunt Lynlee reading a good night story to the boys...

And Aunt Lynlee also reading to the girls, looks like they were having a good time!!!

Aunt Meg brought these mustaches home from work for the kids to play with and they had a great time with them!

They made random appearances throughout the week...

This year each family was in charge of dinner for one night. On our night we decided to have a hot dog roast. It was a hit! We had so much fun. It's too hot to do stuff like this in the summertime down here, so the winter time it is! :)

Noah & Jonah...

Even Elijah got in on the action...

The grandkids that were there (missing 5)...

Tucker & Jonah...

Here are me and Kaiya. I took their family pictures one afternoon. I love me some Kaiya, she is the cutest thing ever-so social and friendly and talkative. We got along really well! :) And notice what my hair does down there; The humidity makes it curl and frizz!!!

A day in the life of Taylor and Kaiya while we were there. First, run around in just our diapers for a while in the morning after breakfast. Playing in grandma and grandpa's couch...

Next, eating lunch together, teaching each other bad habits. Here they are licking the applesauce off their plates...

Next, watching a movie with Brama (looks like a good one!)...

And finally, after a ton of playing and nap time and dinner time; taking a bath together and getting into matching pj's. We had to take the annual matching outfit picture. This year it was jammies...

We love us some cousin time!!!

Christmas at home...

2012-01-14T16:15:00.000-08:00

If you are counting, this is our third, yes THIRD Christmas this year. We had to have one with just our little family before flying out to Alabama on Christmas day.

Christmas Eve we:

Made cookies for Santa:

We read the story of the First Nativity from the Bible: (Crazy hair and all!)

Then while sugar plumbs danced in their heads, Santa came!!!

The next morning was spent at home with our little family and it was perfect!

Ben's contribution to Taylor's gifts included this recorder; thanks Ben!!! :)

Tucker got some awesome Imaginext Space toys...

And the big hit of the day were the Squinkies. They don't really do anything but they are small and squishy and the kids loved them! :) Thanks Santa!

Lots of Presents were opened and lots of candy was consumed, so that pretty much sums up a perfect day in my books! :) I love this time of year!

Dinner with the Enloes...

2012-01-13T16:08:00.000-08:00

For as long as we have been friends with the Enloe's, Olivia has led a dancing train at every restaurant we have been to with the kids. So it should have come to no shock to me that when we met up with them in Coeur d'Alene for dinner on the night they got into town that the kids were led in a dancing train around Cafe Chulo by Olivia! :) This time Taylor was able to tag along and be the caboose! :) We were just happy to get to see the Enloe's while they were in town. They got here on the 23rd and we left on the 25th! :) We sure do miss them!

Shopping with dad...

2012-01-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

Us girls had a shopping day with my dad for Christmas and had so much fun! It was so nice to get out without kids and husbands and just spend a day with the girls and my daddy! We went to lunch and did some major shopping! :) I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family!

Making treats with Kathryn...

2012-01-10T15:58:00.000-08:00

Kathryn is so good at baking and bringing fun things for the kids to do. Over the holiday's we made a few different treats with her. She brought over these cute gingerbread castles one day and we decorated them. The kids had so much fun!

{I'm not sure when Taylor started smiling with this half pirate-like smile} :)

And then another day we decorated sugar cookies. She brought over everything you can even imagine for decorating cookies.

Angie & Carter...

Cute cousins...

The whole gang...

Thanks Kathryn for the delicious treats and fun memories!

Christmas eve & Christmas with Papa...

2012-01-09T15:03:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas eve & Christmas day up at my dad's house with my siblings. We were once again, spoiled rotten! Delicious food and lots of fun toys for the kids!

We tried to weigh Kenzie on my dad's food scale. Probably the only time in her life it will ever read Overload for her! :)

Kenzie and Taylor playing...

Of course, whenever there is a family gathering, an arm wrestling tournament is bound to happen!

Tucker wanted in on the action...

A big hit of the night was Uncle Ben giving the kids airplane rides. Chris (in his ugly Christmas sweater and all) had to give Ben his own airplane ride! :) Boys will be boys!

Then the fun began...

Once again, Tuckers face while opening presents is priceless. I love it!

We told dad to look out the window and there was a deer in his front yard! (It's a target to practice his hunting.)

The princess tent for the girls was a big hit with the kids. A little dance party may have happened with the kids.

This is how baby Aubrie enjoyed her Christmas...

Santa's visit...

2012-01-08T14:55:00.000-08:00

What, doesn't Santa always show up on a Harley? :)

Santa came to visit us this year personally at my dad's house. The kids were SO excited!

Well, this one for sure was excited...

Cassidy on the other hand, not so much...

Kenzie wasn't too impressed, either...

The kids all got to sit on his lap individually and open a present with Santa. It was pretty cool!

I always love to watch Tuckers facial expressions while opening gifts. He always gets SO excited!

We are so lucky to have a Papa who sets up a personal visit from Santa! :)

Christmas with Grandma 2011...

2012-01-06T13:12:00.000-08:00

Well, it's always Christmas when grandma is in town, but this time it was REALLY Christmas! :) The kids were so excited to have grandma come to town to stay with us for a few days. She decided to come for a few days before Christmas because that is when everyone was going to be here.

Here are Grandma and the kids before Church on the Sunday before Christmas...

She also wanted to take the kids to see Santa. There are so many of them now that she had to jump in to help wrangle them in! :) Unfortunately Cassidy refused to be wrangled! :)

{we did the best we could!}

Since we were at the mall, we decided to stay and do some shopping! Here are Uncle Nathan & cute Kenzie...

Then we came back to our house to play for a bit...

That night, we of course, had a slumber party with Keyton...

That night while the boys were asleep, Grandma Santa came and delivered all of her goods! :)

The next day we had Christmas. After a delicious dinner at Hu-Hot, we got the kids in their pj's and enjoyed an evening together.

Here are Uncle Ben & Carter at Hu-Hot...

And the whole gang...

Cassidy & Taylor in their matching jammies, with Aunt Angie...

And here are Kenzie & Aubrie in their matching jammies...

And Grandma with all of her grandbabies...

Then the fun began...

{that's a lot of people in our little house!}

Saying thank you to grandma...

This little one loves to dance, and she got a laptop that plays music. She was having a great time dancing all night!

Taylor being silly... Love that face!

Then we had to say good bye to our cousins. Taylor wanted to give some loves on Carter, she loves Carter!

We just had such a wonderful time together with Grandma, and were so lucky to get spoiled by her once again! :) We love you grandma!!

What Christmastime means to me...

2012-01-04T12:40:00.000-08:00

Well, this isn't ALL that Christmas time means to me, but there certainly are things that inspire that feeling of the Holiday's...

Christmas Pajamas!

Here's a cuter picture of Taylor's little PJ tutu!

Holiday treat making day. I didn't go all out like I did last year, if you remember, but I did make some peppermint bark for our family and friends.

My once a year craft. This year it was Jewelry making. I made this for my sister in law.

Of course, it isn't Christmas without the yearly visit to Santa. This year we went out to Cabela's for free santa visits and where you can take your own picture! Too bad both of our kids didn't want a thing to do with Santa! :) I love the look on Taylor's face.

Ben's once a year doughnut making. He makes these every year for our Ward Elder's Quorum party. They are delicious! Coated with cinnamon and sugar! It's probably a good thing that he only makes them once a year! :)

Here's to a great start to our Holiday season! :)

We're so glad when daddy comes home!

2012-01-03T13:09:00.000-08:00

Remember how I said that Ben went to Alabama for a week at the beginning of December? Well,

he made it home safely and soundly and BOY were the kids and I excited and happy to see him!

This little girl had this man wrapped around her little finger!

It's a good thing he made it home when he did, because we were starting to look like this every evening, and I didn't know how much longer I could last! :)

While daddy's away....

2011-12-15T15:13:00.000-08:00

Ben went to Alabama last week to help his parents finish a room in their house. And while he was gone, we were some busy folk. I had to keep these two busy so as not to drive myself crazy! :) But we had a good time and I survived not having daddy around for a week.

We got our craft on...

It helped that I have an advent calendar that I put a different activity in each day. It rotates between watching a Christmas Movie, reading a Christmas book, making a Christmas craft and baking a Christmas treat. We got to do a little of each while daddy was gone.

I made a well for our ward Christmas party. We did 'A night in Bethlehem' program and I was asked to make a well for the party. Tucker had fun playing with it as I was making it.

The finished product. I think it turned out pretty good! :)

We also got our cooking on. We made sugar cookies for our friends and neighbors...

{My little helper, who isn't really a little helper at all!} :)

We also made some of my favorite, banana bread muffins with chocolate chips...

We watched a lot of movies. I had the kids bathed and in their pj's by 6 most nights. I think more for my sanity than anything else. :)But it worked and we were able to watch a lot of great Christmas movies and specials before bed time. It was perfect!

Tucker insisted on sleeping on the couch one night. He wanted to sleep out by the Christmas lights. I thought it sounded like a fun idea. I went into my room and read and ended up going to sleep at 9 that night! :)

We ate most meals picnic style out in the living room. Per the kids request...

And we drank lots and lots and lots of hot chocolate!

A few dance parties may have happened...

And we just hung out at home and played a lot! I think it was a successful week. For all of us, Ben got all the work down in Alabama that he went down to do and I am so proud of him! I'm glad he was able to go help his parents, it will be so nice to have the extra room when we are there at Christmas time. And all of us survived up here, and dare I say, had a great time! :)

Oh, and my happiest moment of the week? Getting our storage room organized! I finally did it! This room was a disaster with most things just thrown in and balancing on the things next to or underneath. Anyway, I am a happy lady with this room finally cleaned out! (6 bags to goodwill later)

decorating the Christmas tree...

2011-12-13T14:52:00.000-08:00

Here are the only shots I got as we were decorating the Christmas tree. I love decorating the Christmas tree as a family and listening to a little Ray Charles Christmas. Perfect for getting us in the Holiday Spirit. I can't tell you how many times I've just wandered into the dark living room lit only by our tree lights and just sat and stared at the beautiful Christmas decorations. It's best with a mug of hot cocoa! :)

{guess I'm a little bit more shaky than I thought!}

Pics of the kids...

2011-12-10T14:44:00.000-08:00

I went out a few weeks ago determined to get some good pics of my kids. I always take pictures of other people's kids and hardly ever get good pictures of my own. So, we went out. I was thinking about sending out Christmas cards this year, but have just recently decided against it. Too much work! :) I will next year. So, If I would have sent out cards, these are the pictures that would be on them. We were outside for a total of 7 minutes before the tantrums started and the whining and complaining. Luckily, in those seven minutes, we got at least 3 OK to good shots. And we were done. They were my worst clients ever!

I had Tucker hold up 5 fingers for him being 5 now!

These are the shots that wouldn't have made the card. This is the reality:

Hopefully next year we'll get some good family ones taken!

Four Eyes to New eyes

2011-12-07T14:34:00.000-08:00

A few months ago my husband entered a contest on the radio to win free lasik eye surgery. The contestants had to enter a 4 minute video on why they should win the surgery and then the videos got judged by the am radio hosts. Here is Ben's video that he worked long and hard on. Alas, it did not win and Ben did not get the surgery, but I wanted to share, because I thought it was pretty funny and that he should have won! :) You can see why I am so proud of him! :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2011-12-03T20:05:00.000-08:00

We love this time of year around here!

Having an older brother...

2011-11-29T14:00:00.000-08:00

Having an older brother means you will always have a bin full of cars. Even when your friends have dolls and ponies.

We are grateful...

2011-11-24T21:05:00.000-08:00

We are grateful in our home today. I put up this poster on our fridge a few weeks ago with high hopes of filling it all up with our gratitude. We did it as much as we remembered, but weren't as diligent as my original plan! :) But still, I love looking at it and seeing all the sweet things that my family members have written. The very first thing Tucker wrote, all on his own, was 'Geses' (Jesus). So sweet! It will definitely be a tradition and hopefully we'll be better next year! And of course, Taylor had to add her two cents to it!

We spent the glorious day at my dad's house eating delicious foods, relaxing, chatting and skyping with family members, playing and launching kids in the air and just having a good time. We also watched the movie 'Tangled' which I loved. It was a wonderful, low-key day. And of course, with my dad at the helm, the food was to die for! :) We are so spoiled!

I am grateful for kind and generous parents.

I am grateful for a kind and loving husband who is the best dad ever. He not only wants to spend time with our kids, but he enjoys it. He is supportive and understands my needs and I'm grateful that 8 years ago I decided to hitch my wagon to his. My life has been blessed for it! I am also grateful that he makes me laugh almost every day! :)

I'm grateful for tradition. I made my grandma's pumpkin pies for the first time and I was shocked that they were just as good as when she used to make them! :) (It's ok, you can be impressed!) :) I am grateful for a wonderful extended family whom are my friends.

I am grateful for friends. I got to hang out with this lady all weekend and we had so much fun! She is one of my oldest and dearest friends and I got to meet her little man, Ryder who is two months old-he is so sweet! I'm grateful for her and the time we've shared and the love and support. She has helped me through tough times. I am also grateful for my new friends. Some of my best friends I've only been friends with for the past few years. I am lucky to be around some pretty amazing people, old and new. I love my friends, I feel so supported and loved all the time!

It was also Tuckers actual birthday, but with all of the past celebrations, we kept it low key for him. He got to open a package from my mom in the morning and we played with his new things until we went up to my dad's house in the afternoon. (More on him in another post!)

I am grateful for my two beautiful kids. This little boy is so sweet and kind and is seriously the best big brother. He is always thinking of Taylor and I love watching them together. They genuinely love each other. I am lucky to be their mom!

The day before Thanksgiving, on Wednesday, Tucker's preschool had a little Thanksgiving feast where they got to eat some yummy snacks and learn about the first Thanksgiving meal. The parents were invited, so of course, Taylor and I went. They made pilgrim hats and bonnets for the boys and girls and Taylor even got one. When I saw how cute they were, I had to get a picture:

I sure do love these cuties! I have a lot to be grateful for!

November so far...

2011-11-20T21:54:00.000-08:00

Some exciting November happenings so far...

This was the little's on 11.11.11 @11:11am. Watching cartoons. exciting. I couldn't even get them to look at me.

My dad got home from Alaska! Very Exciting! Taylor was so excited to see him. She just kept on saying Pop, Pop, Pop and pointing at him. She went right to him.

My mom sent Tucker an early birthday present. She got him an Auburn University Tiger pillow pet. He was SO excited. It completes his Auburn collection; to go along with the pillow and blanket she has made him. He was watching TV in complete matching style one afternoon! Thanks grandma! :)

Beautiful flowers are gracing my kitchen table thanks to a wonderful friend in my ward...

This little girl inherited a dolly, her first. Two actually; twins! She loves them. She is such a cute little mommy to them. I didn't think she had it in her, but she is quite motherly! :) Thanks Katie!

She looks like this quite a bit. I love this face. Everything is exciting to her! :)

Our weekely FHE's in the hottub are starting up again. I love it! We have so much fun in the hot tub. :) This is actually Taylor's first time in, I wouldn't let her in last year. She loved it. She saw Tucker going under water and couldn't be left out. She knew exactly what to do!

She plugged her nose right away...

And in she went. Over and over and over again!

I love having this little girl as my buddy all day. Here she is ready to get in the car to run errands with her book and her blankie! We make a great pair! :)

And these are all ready to go to Tuckers preschool tomorrow with him as they celebrate his b-day! :) They are delicious!

It's been an exciting month so far! :)

How to Party like a Pirate...

2011-11-16T21:48:00.000-08:00

Tucker's birthday falls on Thanksgiving day this year. Because of that I wanted to do something a little bit extra special for him to celebrate his day. After all of his talk for Halloween and wanting to be a pirate (which he didn't even end up being!) It got me thinking about a pirate party for him. I didn't even realize that pirate parties were so popular, but I found a TON of ideas on line to throw the best pirate party ever! :) (That and the dollar store had a TON of pirate stuff as well, which was a bonus!) Kathryn offered her house for the venue and we got to work planning.

First, you need the perfect invite. I found these at target, and fell in love! I told him he could invite 5 friends, no more! He chose his friends and they each got one of these babies... :)

Kathryn decorated her house so cute! I know Tucker felt special. Here was her front door as you walked up to it...

Up close, good use of an extra invitation...

The table was set to have some good pirate's grub. Pizza and veggies and apples and dip. All thanks to Kathryn and my dad who provided the food! It helped out a TON, so THANK YOU!

When you first walked into her house, this is what you saw. The boys were a little weary at first. Ben told them that it was his brother, Deadhead Larry skin and bones. My friend Danna pointed out that SKIN and bones doesn't really fit the skeleton. So we changed his name to Deadhead Larry had skin and bones. :) By the end of the night the boys had warmed up to him and he was a hit! :)

Cupcakes I made with pirate flags (homemade-toothpicks, stickers and black construction paper)

Oh, and you also need a great host. Kathryn and I wore our pirate best for the occasion! Thank you again Kathryn for letting us destroy your house!

I also made this treasure map for the treasure hunt that I put together for the boys. I had three games set up that they had to do and after they did each activity they got a clue to where the next activity was. The first one was a game I found that is pin the treasure chest on the treasure map. Whoever got closest to the X won. Then they went and put together a pirate puzzle-one that I already had at our house. For their third activity, they had to walk the plank. I borrowed a kiddie pool from a friend, and put this together. I was going to fill it up with water and put toy alligators in it, but we had to move it out of the way a few times, so it was empty. Not the same effect, but the boys still had fun! :)

Here they are walking the plank:

After walking the plank they got the final clue to find the treasure. The treasure was in the ship in the basement. Yes, I made this out of a refrigerator box! :) I searched everywhere for one and finally found one at Home Depot. I've heard they are hard to come by, so always check Home Depot! :) I also found a Youtube video on how to turn a refrigerator box into a pirate ship. That came in handy! A little Duct tape, some scissors and a Sharpie, and viola! :) I was pretty proud of myself! :)

In the treasure chest in the ship each boy got a goodie bag with (chocolate) gold tab-loons, an eye patch, a pirate hat, and some treasure! They loved it! And they almost destroyed that ship by the end of the night! It got lots of wear and tear! :)

Kathryn had a huge wrestling mat in her basement, which is what the ship was on, so of course, the funnest thing to do on it was this:

And here are all the boys with deadhead Larry...

After lots of running around and playing and being crazy pirates, we finally got to enjoy the cupcakes. (notice my sweet frosting job, I'm a pro!) :)

Cute birthday boy...

And that is how you party like a pirate, my friends. The End.

these two...

2011-11-11T13:58:00.000-08:00

I love my babies! A lot of the time they play so well together.

A lot like this-watching a movie in Tuckers bed one morning...

But then of course, it gets to be like this a lot, too...

This thing is little miss independent...

I was so proud of myself this year for conference. I had snacks and treats and crafts and games all ready for the kids. I was going to do a post just all about conference. But these are the only pictures I took of the weekend. But I think they sum up our favorite things about conference: yummy food and pj's. OK, our second and third favorite things about conference. The first being, of course, listening to the prophets! :)

Refusing to eat at the table, insisting on eating on the floor...I don't know what I'm going to do with her some days!

I heard Tucker laughing and laughing one day and went in to find Taylor tackling him and tickling him. It makes my heart so happy to see this.

This little thing loves to draw. All day she is asking me for a pen or crayons. I can always tell where she has been drawing, because she just draws all of these little circles over the whole page. She is so funny, she will just spread out anywhere to color.

We have dance parties EVERY day. No joke, Every day! Right around that time of day that I have to banish them to their rooms for my own sanity, and so I can get dinner done. I can almost always guarantee that I will hear phineas & ferb, spongebob square pants, imaginations movers or the cars soundtrack music coming from Tuckers room. Those are his favorite CD's. They jump on the bed and dance all around and love it. Most of the time I get dragged in somehow, but sometimes I actually get to get something done while they dance! :) I love this dance time in our family. Usually they (or we) are in there dancing when Ben gets home from work. Oh, and the lights have to be off, and only the lamp light on! Tucker insists.

I took these pictures before church the other day. They just looked too cute to pass up! :)

Since I've been trying to focus on being thankful lately, these two are definitely at the top of my list! :) I am so lucky!

The story of my life...

2011-11-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

I swear all I do all day is follow these two around cleaning up after them! It is the story of my life.

And I wouldn't have it any other way! I am so lucky! :)

KJ comes home...

2011-11-06T14:52:00.000-08:00

My cute little cousin, Kjersti got home from her mission to Brazil. She got home the Friday before Halloween, so we were able to have a fun filled family weekend with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandma.

We all went to the airport on Friday to welcome her home! It was quite the spectacle, and so much fun to be there with family whom I love!

My cute cousins with their missionary sister...

Tucker snapped this picture of Taylor and I at the airport...

Me & KJ...

The next day we had a family get together to celebrate her homecoming and also the birthday of my other cousin, Alena and Alena's daughter Adalynn's 1st birthday. My grandma came up for the day/night as did my mom, my aunt and uncle and another cousin from Portland, and 4 of Kjersti's siblings. It was so much fun to be together as a family. We are kind of overloaded with girls on my moms side of the family. Like my uncle said, ' There are only 6 testicles here and a whole lot of ovaries!' :)

My cute cousins, and cute little Adalynn enjoying her first cake...

Taylor playing with Auntie Darryn...

My Wori & grandma...

Taylor being her crazy Taylor self...

Tucker had been eyeing the cake the whole night, until finally it was time to eat it! :)

I am so proud of Kjersti and her missionary service. It was so much fun watching a slideshow of her mission and hearing her stories, it made me think of Chicago! She is so cute, I love how she would unknowingly add Portuguese words in the middle of all her sentences. Her homecoming on Sunday was so great, she really has grown a lot as a person! We love you Kjersti and are happy to have you home!

Day after Halloween...

2011-11-03T15:03:00.000-07:00

And in true post-Halloween fashion, Taylor is eating purple nerds out of a bowl with a kit-kat stick as her spoon. :) Life doesn't get much better than this!

We've been eating WAY too much candy around here these past few days.

Halloween...

2011-11-02T14:54:00.000-07:00

Somehow Halloween lasted all weekend for us, as I'm sure it did for many! :) I do love Halloween, but by the time Monday rolled around I was kind of ready to be done. :) But we did have a fun time. :)

So, for the past two months all Tucker has talked about is how he wanted to be a pirate for Halloween. So, I have been picking up pieces here and there over the past few weeks. I thought he was so cute for his little Pre-school party last Thursday. I don't think that he liked having so many things on his head and just on him in general! :)

Here he is before school on Thursday:

Friday night we had our ward Trunk or Treat/Chili cook-off. We couldn't get enough of this guy:

Here he is with his rocker mom, Gem...

SO...after months of prepping for a pirate on Halloween day, Tucker refused to wear his pirate costume and decided he wanted to be a ninja. A costume we have had for the past year in our basement. Which would have required NO prep! :) (and didn't)

Some of my friends even showed up and did a zombie flashmob to Thriller after the cook-off. :)

Monday morning we headed to the high school to get some more candy. Once again Tucker had to be the ninja. It was fun seeing all the high-school kids we know and in like a half hour the kids got more candy than they needed for their whole lifetime.

Of course, we spent most of the day on Monday digging through their stashes!

Monday evening we took the kids up to Kathryn's house. After, of course, the pictures by the pumpkins.

The only door Taylor knocked on...

After getting our treats from Kathryn, Tucker and Ben headed out to trick or treat around this great neighborhood that throws a party every year. While Taylor and I went home and made our annual dinner, taco soup. The boys came home, we ate dinner, ate more candy and all tried to go to bed with sugar pumping through our veins. It was a great Halloween day but I took the decorations down as soon as I could the very next day. :)

Carving...

2011-10-31T14:45:00.000-07:00

A few days later, we finally got around to carving them. Ben rented Sponge Bob Square pants-Halloween, and we watched that while we carved. Sponge bob is not my favorite, but I thought it wouldn't hurt just this once. :)

Taylor was only allowed to color on her pumpkin, which made her happy since she loves to draw!

A very concentrated Tucker...

Ben being Ben...

Love that cute face...

Taylor was very excited about her pumpkin. I loved it! :)

Halloween Prep...

2011-10-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

We do love to celebrate holiday's around here. Halloween is no exception. Here are some things we've been doing this month to get ready for the big holiday! :)

Making a gingerbread haunted house...

Decorating the mantle...

and the rest of the house...

Ben's mom sent us the awesome haunted house to put together. I love it! We had so much fun putting it together. We will for sure be keeping it for next year! :)

Tucker wanted to make all of his classmates little treats for Halloween. I decided it would be simple, so we put a tissue over a lollipop, tied it tight and Tucker drew on a scary face to make lollipop ghosts. :)

They turned out super cute!

And of course Tucker had so add some Halloween to his bedroom. I don't know where we got these lights, but they are his now! :) (during one of our daily dance parties that happen on Tuckers bed.)

The Pumpkin Patch...

2011-10-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

This year has been a little different from years past. We didn't make it out to greenbluff, even once. We usually go multiple times during this fall season. I just wasn't having it energy wise, or desire wise, to make a trip. And the Agurkis' didn't come into town this year for our annual Halloween bash. I almost gave up completely on getting out to a pumpkin patch, when the heavens opened and Dave, Ben's boss, invited us over to his house to pick out pumpkins in their awesome patch. They had so many great pumpkins! I was so grateful that our kids didn't have to miss out on getting their own pumpkins this year.

I love this picture of both boys with their hands in their pockets. I swear, Tucker is such a little mini-me of Ben sometimes.

All of us...

My mom was in town for a few days, she had gone to Las Vegas to visit my brother and flew in and out of Spokane. So, on her way home, she stayed for a few days. The kids were, of course, thrilled to have grandma here for a few days.

I'm so glad we still got the pumpkin patch experience this year, it just wouldn't be Halloween without it!

Visiting cousins...

2011-10-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

Allen and his family came a few weekends ago. The kids had fun with their cousins.

These two finally are at an age where they had fun together. Their favorite thing to do was to jump in Taylor's crib.

And of course, bath time had to be together...

After bath time these girls were having so much fun together, but of course, as soon as I went and got the camera they both looked pissed. :)

After dinner Uncle Ben made the boys like the best dessert ever! Every type of sweet thing we had in the house went into those bowls- the boys loved it!

We went to the children's museum and they happened to be face painting that day. Keyton had a super hero mask.

Tucker had a dragon face.

Here are some more pictures of our time with cousins & with grandma...

At Mobius, when the boys got their faces painted:

And putting on a magic show at Mobius:

The girls were there playing together as well...

Love this cute girl...

We met up with Tuckers good friend Ella, and her mom (my good friend, Laura) to play with at Mobius. Here are the boys with Ella...

{just like his dad, Tucker has to ruin almost every picture.}

And some more after bath time pictures of the girls...

What a fun filled, packed weekend! :)

Pre-school pictures...

2011-10-27T15:44:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I ordered this professional photo scanner on-line. I got it in hopes of scanning all of our old (non-digital) photos into our computer. I was so excited when I finally got it. My mom and dad had both given me some old family photos to scan. But then things got busy, and the task seemed a little daunting, I kept on putting it off and off. Well, I finally got the scanner out to scan in Tuckers pre-school pictures from this year. The pictures turned out SO cute! But I am so bummed that the scanner-SUCKS!

Here are the super cute/horribly scanned pictures:

Tuckers class: Teacher Barbara, Araliegh, Tucker, Garret, Mason, Kara, Harley, Teacher Kimbo. 2nd row: Kennedy, Monty, Maggie, Cassie, Milo. Front row: Anna, Owen, Bowen, Ty, Hunter & Drew.

I am so glad he is in a class with so many of his good buddies. He truly loves going to school and I love that!

I just might have to return this scanner though! poo!

baby update...

2011-10-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

Well, this has been something that I've wanted to write about but was unsure how I would go about doing it. People have been wanting to know how the pregnancy has been going and for those who haven't heard, last week I had a miscarriage. I was 13 weeks pregnant, so I had to go in and have a D&C. Let me back up. This pregnancy has been a little different from the beginning. (I apologize for the wordy post, but this is for my own benefit and records, here!) :) Anyway, I took the pregnancy test mid-August. When it was positive we were obviously, so excited. I knew that we had conceived sometime late July and that based on my last period (at the end of June) I was somewhere around a month and half pregnant. I made my first appointment with the OB at the end of August and when I went in, they estimated me around 9 weeks pregnant and gave me a due date of April 2nd. They also scheduled me for the ultrasound for the down syndrome testing that they do between 11-13 weeks for the middle of September. I went in then, three weeks later, to be about 11 1/2 weeks pregnant or so. When they did the ultrasound, everything looked good, but the baby was only measuring 8 1/2 weeks. I had no idea why we were so off! But they didn't seem to think anything of it, so I didn't either. And gave me a new due date of April 21st. They somehow could never schedule my ultrasounds and appointments at the same time, so I went in at the end of September ( 2 weeks later) for my monthly appointment. We heard the baby's heartbeat on the little doppler machine and everything sounded good. I was about 10 1/2 weeks. My new appointment for the ultrasound was scheduled the beginning of October. I totally spaced the appointment! :) and they couldn't get me in for another week and a half. My new appointment was for Wed. the 19th of October. I showed up for the appointment at 9:15, what I thought was the time, and they told me my appointment had been at 8:15! Oops! :) But they had to get me in the next day, because they have to do it before 13 weeks and the next day I was going to be 13 weeks. So....that is how I ended up getting an Ultrasound on Thursday the 20th. I went in and had Taylor with me, I was actually surprised at how big the baby seemed for only being 13 weeks! I don't know why, it was just a lot bigger than I expected. She looked around and measured a few things. And I noticed right away that there was no heart beating, or blood pumping. I've had enough Ultrasounds to know that that you can usually see that. But I didn't know if maybe she hadn't turned on a button or something (I don't know exactly how those machines work!) :) She finally, after a few minutes looked at me and said, 'this might be a little shocking but I don't see a heartbeat!' My heart dropped and the tears immediately began to flow. It was just such a shock to hear! I called Ben and he came right over. They had the Dr. come in to talk to us about what happens next. The Dr. suggested I go to the hospital as soon as I wanted to to get a D&C procedure done. There were a lot of tears and questions, but I was so grateful that Ben was there, and it was really good to have Taylor there too, the little love of our lives right now, to remind us that there is a reason and a plan for everything. Almost immediately after the initial shock of it all, I felt so at peace and OK with everything. I never questioned why or was angry. And I only say that because I guess I am just so lucky to have been taught from so little that there is a plan, and Heavenly Fathers ways are higher than our ways, and when I needed that knowledge and peace the most, it was at the very core of me! The rest of the day is a blur, there was, of course, a lot of sadness. But a midst it all there has been so much peace and happiness in our home, it's been a blessing! I went in the next morning for the D&C. My wonderful friend Emily watched our kids all morning so Ben could be with me. I was so nervous, I had never been to the hospital before except to deliver Tucker & Taylor. I had never been put under before! So I was glad to have Ben there with me! But it all went well and smoothly! I literally fell asleep just as the doors to the operating room were opening and woke up 45 minutes later in the recovery room! It was heavenly! :) The whole process went so smoothly, it made it a lot easier to recover both physically and emotionally! So here I am a week later, and I am feeling so good! It has been almost crazy how good I feel about the whole situation. I have no doubt in my mind that everything is going to be ok! My OB Dr., Dr. Brown is wonderful! (Seriously, me and all my friends who go to him all joke that we are in love with him-he's in his late 50's- :)) He is amazing, he gave me some great words of encouragement when I met with him after the ultrasound. He told me that since I have had two healthy pregnancy's that this isn't something I should worry about, or feel guilty about. One in every four pregnancy's ends in miscarriage and it is something that just happens. And that most likely, after I give my body a few months to recover, when we try again, I will be able to have another healthy pregnancy. So that has been totally helping me get through this. If this had been my first pregnancy or if I had been having a hard time conceiving in the past, then maybe my attitude would be different, and it would have been a lot harder to handle. But I feel so blessed! This whole experience has made me even more grateful and in love with the two babies we do have! It has made me realize (once again) what a miracle life is, and bring life into this world is! And I am OK! I have two healthy, beautiful, smart children whom I adore, and even if that is all we ever have, I would be complete! I feel so complete and at ease right now! I think that the hardest part has been having to tell people, they are usually unsure or awkward about how to make me feel better, which is totally normal and understandable, I would do the same thing. But I just try and tell people that we are OK, our family is strong, our faith is strong, and we know that there is a plan, and we are at peace with everything. I have moments of sadness still, but they are few and far between. I am mostly overcome with joy and love for the life I have and the beautiful children and family I have. And thank you so much to everyone for your thoughts and prayers, I am sure 100% that they have helped! :) We are so blessed to have so many wonderful family and friends in our lives! THANK YOU!

These two have definitely been my saving grace this past week:

{how can you not just love these squishy faces???} :)

Owen...

2011-10-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

I found this picture of Tucker and his good buddy, Owen. From Cole's birthday party at Jump & Bounce in September. I love these boys and their faces in this picture are priceless! :)

Mourning the Summer...

2011-10-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

I found a few pictures that I somehow have overlooked from summer. It made me mourn our summer weather a little. I do love love love the fall weather, so it was only temporary, but I do miss just being outside. This was a weekly occurrence at our house all summer long. Ben put Taylor in this pack once while I was gone, and after that she would not let him mow the lawn without her!

Eating outside is also a regular occurrence during the summer that I am missing! Here we are on a picnic at a little park down the street.

Strawberry smile...

Of course, feats of strength had to happen. Tucker & Ben racing...

Taylor can't let Tucker do anything without getting in on the action...

The kids absolute favorite thing to do is play with their dad...

And if Ben does something,

Then you know Tucker's gotta try...

I do love me the nice summer evening weather and I do love me some time with my little family.

While Tucker's gone...

2011-10-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

I am enjoying Tucker being in school a lot more than I thought I would. It is so nice to have some time with just Taylor, and get things done sans Tucker! (as much I love him!) :) I was a little nervous for morning class at first. I've self diagnosed myself with developing OCD over these past few years, and really just enjoy my mornings to clean up my house, get ready at my leisure and then leave when ever all that is done. I was nervous about a)either not getting everything done before we leave in the morning or b) just getting behind on everything at the house and living in a pig sty. Luckily, neither one of those things have happened. We get out in the mornings, (Tucker has always been on time) and I am still able to keep up with my house work and I haven't had a melt down! :) It is actually nice getting out in the mornings and getting things done and then having the afternoon at home to take naps, and clean and organize and get stuff done etc... I've really enjoyed this new schedule we've created. I think I can get used to it! :) It is also nice on days I don't have to go out and get things done, to just come home with Taylor and have some one on one time with her. She has never had that (well not often) and I think it's been really good for her, and me! :)

While Tucker is gone, and even when he is home, Taylor can be found jumping on his bed. It is her favorite place. She goes straight to his room and starts bouncing. She is a funny little thing.

Love the face, Taylor! :)

Tucker brings home a new project every day. Here is one I had to send back so that it could be sent home to all the kids parents' to see.

Each of them drew a page about their family! I was just glad we were hugging! :)

Tucker still loves school. He got the show and tell bag this week, he decided to bring a paper UFO that his cousin made for him in Alabama this summer and a puzzle that my mom gave him of the world that was personalized to our family (it says, 'Tucker's World' on it and all of our names are on it somewhere!) :) He is excited for his turn to bring the snack swan home next week, we haven't had it yet and he is already talking about it! :) And hopefully we get Bunker bear soon, too! Bunker bear is the bear that someone gets to take home every night and you have to keep a journal about your adventures with Bunker bear. Tucker is really looking forward to his turn with Bunker bear! :)

8 years...

2011-09-29T03:24:00.000-07:00

In the midst of all the excitement of Tucker starting pre-school, I forgot to mention that we celebrated our 8th anniversary! It all happened on the same day, so excitement took over at our house. It seems that all sorts of exciting events happen on September 13th! 5 years ago on September 13th, we closed on our house and officially became home owners, and this year Tucker started school! :) Anyway, I can't believe it's been 8 years!

I remember 8 years ago people commenting to me that I didn't seem nervous about getting married at all, and I wasn't! I knew that I had found a keeper and I was so excited! 8 years later I can honestly say I feel the same way. I feel so blessed that our paths crossed and we found each other. It's sometimes been a trying 8 years, but also wonderful and always (with Ben) FUN! :) He honestly makes me laugh every day and I am so lucky!

Preschool...

2011-09-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

We have survived the first two weeks of pre-school! I can't believe my big boy is already in pre-school! He has been asking me when he's going to start school for the past two years now, so it is so fun for him to actually be IN school--He's been ready! He loves it! Every morning that we have had school, he comes out of his room in the morning already dressed and ready to GO! I have to bribe him to even eat breakfast! Last weekend seemed like it was forever because every two minutes he was asking me when he got to go back to school. His teacher is Teacher Barbara. She is in our stake and is wonderful! I got to know her well when I was in Young Women's and she was in the Stake Young Women's Presidency. She is fabulous. His class seems to be lopsided with boys, which he loves, a lot of which are already his friends. His friends in his class are: Garret, Owen, Drew, Milo, Maggie, Anna & Kennedy. And he has already made some new buddies, Bowen, Mason, Ty. Those are the ones I've heard about anyway. It is funny how Spokaneites tend to return to Spokane to raise their families, because a lot of the kids, even if Tucker doesn't know them too well, I know their moms & dads. It's going to make for some fun play dates this year, I can't wait!

Here he is on his first day:

And with Teacher Barbara after getting dropped off the first day:

Some things that he has told me about pre-school so far are that; his favorite thing about it is playing in the back yard. When they get there every morning they play for a while, then have circle time, then snack time and that's about all I got out of him. I am just so happy that he is so happy there, and wants to go every day. On the next Monday after his first week of school, he got all ready for school, but I told him that there was not school today and he said, 'oh yeah, we have three days of school, then four days of no school!' He was sad to have to wait another day to go. I'm just glad we are off to a good start with the school thing, it has been wonderful so far! :) We are so proud of you Tucker, you are such a sweet and smart and fun little boy!

Labor day in Seattle...

2011-09-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

We couldn't pass up a three day weekend without a trip to Seattle! Especially now that we have such a luxurious ride, we had to break it in properly with a trip across the state. :) It was so nice not being crammed into the little Jetta! :)

Doug & Sadie just moved into a house that is right down the street from a great little park. We walked there every morning to play a little basketball and let the kids run around and play on the playground...

This two love their daddy's and loved watching them play basketball...

We went downtown one night to walk the pier and just hang out by the water...

One day was spent at the zoo. I was telling Sadie how I must really love my kids because I DON'T love animals but somehow have managed to make it to three zoo's this summer! :)

They had a really cool dinosaur exhibit that Tucker thought was pretty cool!

The Agurkii... (Jacob was really impressed if you can't tell!) :)

We met this really cute Gay couple. They were so in love!

Taylor was happy, she somehow got a hold of a chocolate cookie...

BBQ'n one night at Doug and Sadie's adorable new cute little house!

That Taylor is one crazy lady!

We went to the beach one night to make s'mores, but all the fire pits were taken, so we just played for a little bit. I couldn't believe how crowded the beach was, but the weather was beautiful!

They all made fun of me for putting Tucker in his PJ's to go to the beach, but how can you not think that this is the cutest thing ever? :) I love jammie kids.

Walking home from the park one morning, this is what we saw. Tucker looks really excited to be on top! :)

Fun at Papa's...

2011-09-17T22:19:00.000-07:00

With summer coming to an end, we've been trying to soak up as much as the good weather before it's gone for good. Papa's house is the perfect place to do that.

4 wheeler rides with dad:

Tucker actually told me to go get my camera so I could get a picture of them. That's a first!

Making s'mores in papa's backyard. Always a summertime favorite!

And this little girl loves her some roasted mallow:

Officially a mom...

2011-09-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

I just need a child in soccer and you can officially call me a soccer mom! :) With peanut #3 on it's way we knew we needed a car upgrade, majorly! I've been driving my little Jetta for the past 8 years. While it has been a good car, and it was perfect when we were first married, it is teeny tiny! When the four of us were all in it together, we had to maneuver in particular ways in order to all fit comfortably! Even when he wasn't trying to, I could feel Tuckers feet in my back at all times! And it's a stick, which is hard for me to begin with, and even harder when you have two children in the back seat. It was a hassle never being able to bring friends anywhere. Once in a while we would unlawfully sneak a friend in the middle between the kids. But forget about a car seat or even a booster fitting in the middle, even without a seat it was tight!

Anyhoo...anyone who knows my husband knows how frugal he is. I was worried that I would end up with a sedan and be in the same position with three kids as I am now with two! :) Luckily good sense (and a great deal) got the better of him and he came home with this baby:

I was in shock! I actually had a dr. appointment that morning and after picking up my kids at a friends house went home. I opened the garage door and saw this mini van sitting in our garage. I figured Ben was home and that he was test driving it. I had to go to the bathroom so bad, so I ran inside and didn't really take a good look at it. When I was finished, I called for Ben, but he WASN'T home. So, I ventured back into the garage for a closer look. After opening the driver side door, I saw this:

People think it's pretty crazy that he bought a car without even telling me, but I totally trust him! He isn't going to stop until he finds the best car for his money. And my dad went with him to take a look at it, and he got the ok from him. I totally trust those two together to get a great car! And it has been great! I swore years ago that I would never drive a mini van, but I really am in love! :) Taylor and I sat in it for like an hour after I realized it was ours to keep, just playing with the knobs and buttons and seeing all the cool things it can do! I love it-it's a dream!!! :)

Taters...

2011-09-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

This little bit turned 18 months a few weeks ago and started nursery. Hallelujah! This is on her first day of nursery! What a sweet girl! I love this girl so much! Also her first time wearing little piggy tails! :) So cute!

Some info about our little lady:

She weighed 22 lbs. which is the 25%

She was 33 inches tall which is the 50%

She is the funniest little girl I know. She is sweet and sassy all at the same time. How is that even possible? She is all girl and all drama. She can go from crying to laughing in a single breath. She is so loving and sweet, and always gives kisses and snuggles. But will for sure let you know the MOMENT she is unhappy about something. She is also the most beautiful little thing-I love those big blue eyes. She is so fun and playful. She is independent and is starting the phase where she just wanted to try everything on her own. And boy does she love to scream. She is addicted to her blanket and her binki. I can't tell you how many times a day I have to fetch those two things for her! She is so fun to be around, when she smiles she scrunches up her nose and it's so dang cute! She sings to herself ALL the time! Especially when she's tired. She is just a chatterbox, talking to me all the time. Some of her nicknames are: taters, tater tot, stinky lady, stinks mcgee, lady love, and little bit. She currently knows her animals and sounds and she LOVES animals. I think even more than Tucker does! She stops at the sound of any music to dance, and she is absolutely the best dancer around! (She learned all of her moves from me) :) And we just couldn't love her any more! What we do without our tater tot? She means everything to us!

Oh, and she is going to be a big sister-which should be quite interesting!! :)

Carter & Angie come to town...

2011-09-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

While my mom was here Carter and Angie also came for a week. We were sad that Uncle Nathan couldn't come with him, but we'll take what we can get!

We, of course went swimming...

Tucker has decided that he doesn't even want to wear a life jacket anymore when swimming. I am not sure where all this confidence has come from, but I am so glad he is finally confident and enjoying the pool and swimming. He is like a little fish and even swimming with his head under the water! I am so proud of him!

cute cousins...

cute Carter...

Angie had a wedding to go to one day so we got Carter for the afternoon. Angie told me not to worry about putting him down for a nap. Apparently he wanted a nap after all and gave himself one. He fell asleep like this while watching cartoons. :)

We loved having our cousin Carter here to visit! :)

Grandma's visit...

2011-09-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

My mom came into town again to spend some time with the kiddies. They always love it when grandmas here! Since we were in full summer swimming mode here, she accompanied to the pool a lot, we ate out a lot, we played a lot and we got spoiled and loved on a lot! :)

We decided to play tourists in our own town one night and spent the evening playing at riverfront park...

We love riverfront park!

Tucker trying to act upset. He couldn't hold it for long...

This girl loves her grandma...

I don't know why we even bother with the carousel. Both of my kids start out like this; all smiles:

Yet they both always end up like this:

This is how Taylor looks whenever Grandma's around. She knows Grandma will hold her and be at her beck and call...

Thanks for coming grandma, we had a great time! :)

Quincy...

2011-08-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my sister in law called me to ask me if we wanted to come visit for a few days. My brother was going to San Diego for work for the week and thought it would be a perfect time for some cousin bonding. We, of course, jumped on the idea of taking a little road trip, even though I swore not to leave my house for at least 6 months after all of our summer travels. :)

We drove the two hours to Quincy and had a great time with our cousins. These boys love each other (for the most part) :)

They just got a fire pit in their back yard (which will actually be a yard soon!) :) So we made some smores one night.

This little girl, was of course, lovin' the marshmallows.

We played and played and played. We swam, we went on bike rides, we ate, we had a great time!

We went over to Wenatchee one night to ride our bikes on the cute little bike trail they have down by the river. It was the perfect summer evening and it was so nice to be out and having fun with our cousins!

I caught Tucker & Keyton holding hands while waiting for us at the cross walk...

I'm not sure how, but Tucker ended up falling off his bike, and he thought it was pretty funny...

Cute boys by the river...

And all the cute kids by the river...

Thanks for having us guys, we had a great time!

What we've been up to since we've been home...

2011-08-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

Since we've been home, this little one decided to drive the tricycle off the back deck and gave herself a fat lip...

Good thing she's so dang cute! :)

Eating lots of pop-sickles. I got in the mood to make our own and just bought lots of kool-aid. The kids have loved it!

Visiting with our friends, the Enloe's while they were here. Playing and swimming at the Christensen's house! Tucker loves his best friend Carter!

Three silly boys!

Lots and lots of summer evening walks and bike rides! The month of August is the best up here in the Pacific Northwest. I would say summers are the best, but since it didn't start getting warm until August this year, all I can say is August! :)

And Lots and Lots and Lots of this...

We have our three of four pools that we make our rounds in! :) Thank goodness for friends with pools and pool memberships! :) Thanks guys!

This little boy is a fish now! About three weeks ago he would barely get his face wet with water and I don't know what happened, but one day it just clicked and he started jumping off the diving board and actually going under water and swimming and loving it! Actually, what it was, was that when the Enloes were here, we went out on the lake and Eric just threw Tucker in the lake like three times (with his life jacket on). He started crying the first time and Eric felt bad but Ben told him to do it again and then again and after the third time of being thrown in, he was fine! :) So, thanks Eric! I am one happy mama!

Here is his perfect cannon ball form! Not bad! :)

And I'm not sure what this is...

FHE at the Orndorff's one night with friends. Look at all those boys, I love it! :)

Oh yeah, and even doing flips off the diving board! Crazy kid!

This little girl just loves to soak up the sun! :) (just like her mommy!)

I watched my friend Emily's kids while she was at Girls camp one day and we went over to their house to swim. I didn't think Tucker would like the unsteady tube to jump off of, but I just can't get him to stop now! :)

Of course, many many lake outings. In the paddle boat at Liberty Lake with my good friend from high school, Kelly...

Taylor wasn't so sure about the cold lake water, but Tucker jumped right in...

Some cute pictures of my girl and her new favorite past time of swinging...

My good good friend from High School, Emily came into town for a baby shower. It was fun getting together with old friends and staying up way too late chatting! There is nothing better than old friends!

It's been a fun month of swimming, bike riding and playing with friends! I love the summertime, it is way too short up here in Spokane!

Last one of Alabama, I swear... :)

2011-08-17T22:18:00.000-07:00

OK, here are the rest of the random pictures from our trip. I never can decide which ones to post and which ones to file away, there are always so many cute ones.

Here are the two babies, Angelynna & Elijah enjoying the park...

Baby Elijah, I love that chubby little face...

And Angelynna; And yes, she is naked on a picnic table at the park. That's just how we roll down south. OK, not really, my mother in law would be mortified but I don't think that she reads this blog often enough, so I'm ok to post this picture. :) She had a major blow out at the park, what else were we to do? Speaking of the south, Tucker was telling everyone before we left that he loves to go to Alabama because he gets to wear his underwear all day! I'm sure my mother in law would be happy to know that that is how he is portraying the south! :)

Tractor rides with grandma are always a hit...

We found this fabulous pool last summer like within our last three days of being in Alabama and were so excited to go there like every day this summer. So, one Thursday afternoon we get all dressed up and ready to head out the door and we decided to call them to find out if we could bring floaties or not. So, we searched their number, called them, asked them they told us that floaties were ok, but that they were only open on Saturdays this summer! We were so bummed! We only got to go once, but boy did we make it worth it! :)

One of the themes to our trip this summer seemed to be SHOPPING, as it usually is! It is just getting harder and harder to actually get to go out with all the kids! The Gap was having this great sale on all their kids clothes, so we would take turns, one day half of us would go and the other half would stay and watch the kids, and the next day visa-versa. Of course, we did our usual TJ Maxx and Target trips as well! :) I seriously got all of my kids winter clothes shopping done; I am so glad. Anyway, all the kids got some new Sunday clothes, and we had to get a picture of them in their new suits and dresses on Sunday.

Taylor in her pretty new dress and shoes...

And the treasure hunt. The awesomeness that was the treasure hunt. These boys loved it! We hid jewels and made a map and they had a ball going around the property finding the jewels where the x's were. :) So fun!

The big x with all the loot had a treasure chest even!

The map...

On another day when it was too stormy to go outside, we went fishing inside. Grandma and Aunt Meri were on one side of the 'water' and all the boys got to fish for treats. They had so much fun!

Of course, the girls had fun with Grandmas curlers...

The annual cousins picture with the train engine at the zoo. It was so unbelievably hot that day!

Best Cousins...

Taylor had fun swinging at the zoo...

And I thought this picture was too funny. Elijah looked to be really enjoying himself! :) Looks like a miniature football player.

Uncle Ben playing softball with the kids in grandmas cul-de-sac...

Tucker in action catching a ball to get Joshy out...

All the Pyper girls, Kira, Sophie, Taylor & Elia. As my sister in law Laura said (the girls' mom) Taylor looks just like my girls with a little Taraka flavor to her. :) And it's true, I can definitely see the similarities!

And there was never a want for some puppy love. This girl absolutely loved the dogs, and there are plenty to love on down there! :) I had to document this girl lovin' on the doggies!

Whew! Our Alabama trip was, as usual, wonderful and we were sad to see it end! But we are already looking forward to Christmas, we love being with our cousins and family! They're the best!

Just tryin' to keep 'em alive...

2011-08-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

I'm just here trying to keep all the living things in this house alive today! We've had a rough couple a days. I started throwing up Saturday night, Sunday morning it hit Ben and Sunday afternoon Tucker got it! We spent all day Sunday in our cave of a house not knowing what time it was, but Ben and I taking turns sleeping! Gotta love days like that.

Trying to keep him alive, he wants to eat so bad but everything is coming back up!

Then I looked over and saw this and realized my plant is really sick too. So, watered this baby to keep him alive!

Oh, and we inherited two fish from some friends; Cooper & Pinky. I looked on the mantle and noticed that their water was brown and murky and like half way down the bowl so they could barely swim. So, I had to wash the bowls and give them clean water and I fed them.

It's a lot of work trying to keep everyone alive around here! Hopefully after all of this, things will start picking up around here! :)

Uncle Terry's...

2011-08-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

Here is the whole gang at Uncle Terry & Aunt Debbie's:

This is our second annual Folmar/Pyper reunion at Uncle Terry's and we had so much fun! Uncle Terry is my mother in law's only brother, only sibling for that matter. So as you can see we outnumber the Folmars by quite a bit! :)

Elle on the lion in front of their house...

Taylor doing her nasty scream. I love the look on my mother in law's face in this picture, she's horrified! :)

Here are Tyler and Mae Caroline...

And Uncle Terry himself...

They have the best pool/picnic area.

Everett eating a cookie in the pool...

Baby Elijah & Aunt Lynlee. This child is so chubby, I love it! He was 5 months old while we were there so I brought down some 6-12 month clothes for him that I had found. He's already into 18 monthers!

Aunt Meg & Elia...

Tucker & his daddy...

Jonah caught a little lizard in the pool...

Uncle Jeremy seeing how high he can get his cannon ball splash! Not bad! :)

And I found a male model while we were there...

Once again, we had a fabulous time catching up and playing with our cousins. I love that Tucker gets to get reacquainted with his 2nd cousins every year. Elle is his same age and they always have fun together!

Six Flags over Georgia...

2011-08-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

One day we picked up and headed to Six Flags. Here are some more pictures of our fabulous trip. We seriously had SO much fun and it was so fun being together!

Taylor wearing Aunt Meg's glasses...

Super Aunt Meg. David dared her to jump out with her cape on at an unsuspecting family as they walked by and salute them. And sure enough, she did it! :) It was hilarious! :) I love Meg!

These two boys were so cute all day in their matching capes and holding hands. I love it!

Part of us getting ready to head out on a ride...

Here are Tucker & Ben on a kiddie roller coaster. It doesn't look like Tucker is enjoying it all that much. But I think he's enjoying it more than that guy in front of Ben! :)

Of course, Thunder Rapids. We took up one entire ride. You can see Tucker (with his little cape on) looking back and not wanting to look forward! :) He was so brave and wanted to ride all the rides, not that he enjoyed them all. I think he saw his older cousins trying them and wanted to be a part of it! :) I was proud of him for at least trying!

This is what Taylor did when she saw her dad from the side lines... (after eating a pop sickle)

Best buds...

Uncle Ben and all of the grand kids...

Me & Sophie were a force to reckon with in the bumper cars! :) We had a good time!

Aunt Meg won some animals for some of the kids. Taylor, naturally, thought that they all should belong to her.

We were there seriously until they shut the gates and kicked us out! We were having so much fun! We of course, had to stop at the carousel before leaving...

A picture a day...

2011-08-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

If a picture a day could keep the dr. away, then I'd be the healthiest woman alive! We were in Alabama for 13 days and I want to share a picture a day of our trip there.

Day 1:

My father in law has a client who owns a floral shop. He gets free flowers whenever he wants! He came home on our first day there with $400 worth of flowers. We spent hours arranging them and trying to do them justice! None of us are florists, and you can tell. Still, they were beautiful!

Day 2:

To the park! There is a beautiful river running through downtown Wetumpka. In fact, the movie, 'Big Fish' was shot in Wetumpka. We went down there and played. 115 degrees isn't so fun when you're outside in the heat of it! We ate and played and then ran home as fast as we could to the nice A/C! This little girl from the moment we got off the plane went straight to grandma and didn't want to have anything to do with me the whole time we were there. She was grandmas little shadow and always wanted to be held by her. I thought it was cute, I just didn't want grandma to get burnt out of her by the end of our stay. I'm glad to say that that didn't happen! :) We joked all week between us that she was 'our' daughter.

Day 3:

No trip to Alabama is complete without a tractor ride/nature walk with grandma. This time the kids were lucky enough to pick peaches right off the trees in their garden and eat them on the way!

Day 4:

Bubbles in the shower! Tucker looks forward all year to be able to take showers with his cousins and play. They have so much fun! :)

Day 5:

Treasure hunt!!! They boys have really been into finding treasure at grandmas house. They know that her house is old and there is a story that says that a previous owner of the house had lost her (really big) engagement ring somewhere on the grounds. They are always looking for it. So, we whipped up our own little treasure hunt. Grandma and aunt Lynlee hid jewels while I made a map. A little dirt and wrinkling of paper and a lighter around the edges and there you have it! :) The boys found the map and finally found their loot! I will post more pictures later!

Day 6:

Cute little cousins. These little girls are only 4 months apart. After SO many boys, it's nice to finally have some girls around!

Day 7:

These two are so cute! BFF's! I love it! We went to the zoo and as usual these boys were inseparable. They are inseparable the whole time we were down there! Tucker loves him some Jonah!

Day 8:

Auntie Meg finally arrives! The boys had so much fun watching movies, reading books and playing angry birds on her I pad. Those I pads were the hit of the summer!

Day 9:

Stuck inside due to bad weather, but we still had a great day playing with cousins inside! Tucker, Jonah & Everett; I love these boys!

Day 10:

Two words: Six Flags! Two more words: 25 people! It was crazy but it was Oh so fun! :) We had a blast! The big kids got to do big kid things, the little kids got to do little kid things and we just had so much fun and had a blast being together. Ben's family members are big roller coaster riders, so they were all in heaven. We had a great time. Here is Ben with all of the kiddos.

Day 11:

BBQ/Family get together with his aunt, uncle and cousins! Here are all of us, in all of our water logged glory! :) We should have thought about doing the photo before the swimming, but we were too focused on that yummy pool! :) Oh, the pool is heavenly in that heat! :) I love his aunt and uncle and cousins, this is our second year in a row doing a little reunion BBQ and it is so much fun! These are Ben's only cousins! In this picture about 85% of us are Pypers, but the other 6 people are the Folmars! :)

Day 12:

Nature Hike with Aunt Meg. Complete with walking sticks. Love it!

Day 13:

Our last day was spent packing and getting ready to go, but I had to snap this picture of these cute matching girls. I think it will have to be tradition that they get matching outfits. Here is the one from last summer:

This year these two little girls lucked out and got all new wardrobes thanks to their grandpa! He loves to shop and he loves to find deals! And boy did he find some cute outfits! He seriously came home like every day with one or two outfits for them, most of the time matching ones. Too bad they live in Alabama or we could match Taylor and Kaiya the same every day! :) We love our Kaiya cousin, she is too cute!

Once again, we had a wonderful time in Alabama and had a wonderful summer! We were sad to have all of our visiting come to an end, but it was SO nice to come home and just be home! For those of you paying attention, that is 11 states: Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Alabama, Georgia & we flew out of Nashville to go home. We went up there and visited with Ben's brothers family for a bit and flew out of there, so Tennessee! Here is a map of our travels:

We miss everyone so much, but it is OH so good to be home! :)

Chica en Chicago...

2011-08-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

We drove down to Chicago on Monday morning, July 4th. We spent the day with Jason & Kayla there and then they dropped us off at a family I know from Chicago from my mission and then we stayed Monday night with them and they dropped us off at the airport the next day.

The list of things on the docket for Monday were:

to go to Giordonos Pizza:

{sadly, this is the only picture I got as my children were MONSTERS in the restaurant and we wanted to get out of there asap! I didn't get a picture of the delicious thick crust pizza that Chicago & especially Giordonos is famous for!}

Next stop, Navy Pier:

{This is the place where Ben proposed 8 years ago, almost to the day from when we were there! I love Navy Pier, it will always be a special place for me! :)}

Navy Pier is the Pier in downtown Chicago on Lake Michigan it has a whole bunch of fun things to do, like mini golf, a Ferris wheel, a whole bunch of vendors and restaurants. So, we just had a great time walking around and playing.

Tucker & I rode the Ferris wheel, just like Ben & I did after he proposed! :)

Navy Pier, from above...

I love this city, the beautiful Chicago!

Me & Tucker...

That afternoon they dropped us off at the Hurtado Family's house. I love this family so much! They are members in Chicago and I spent a year in their ward in Chicago as a missionary! We became tight! :) Hna. Hurtado is a great friend of mine still!

This is Tucker and their youngest son, Iver. He was about a year when I was a missionary and I called him my novio (boyfriend) and I called him Gordito. He was so chubby and cute! Now he is this tall and skinny cute 11 year old and he was so cute with Tucker, playing with him and being so nice! What a cute cute boy! :)

And this is Taylor & Isis. Since we were there the night of the 4th, we got a great show just right outside in the back alley way! :) Fireworks were going off all night all around us!

And this is Taylor eating her first Arepa. It is a typical Venezuelan food that is so so so delicious! It is essentially a thick homemade tortilla/bread thing filled with delicious meat and cheese. I couldn't make it if I tried probably, but Hermana & Hermano Hurtado know how it's done and they were fantastic! :)

Hermana Hurtado runs an in home day care and so the next day the house was full of kids, which Tucker loved! :) He had so much fun with his new friends. I'm glad he isn't shy, he really enjoyed his time with all these kids. We went to a little inner city park just a few blocks away from their house.

After the park we headed back to their house so Taylor could take a nap before we headed to the airport. I went in after a while and found her like this:

Here we are before going to the airport, wit the whole family...

Ilan, Zaida, Isis, Taylor, Me, Iver, Ivan and Tucker...

And just to show you what gordito looked like when I was a missionary, here we are Christmas day 2000 with Hermana Bytheway, my companion.

I love this family!!!

Me, Taylor & hermana...

I was sad to have such little time with them, I wish I had had longer. But I was excited to get down to Alabama and have fun with our cousins! :) Next time our trip to Chicago needs to be longer and Ben definitely needs to be with us! :) I missed him in Chicago!

In the land of Beer & Cheese...

2011-07-31T16:15:00.000-07:00

Since we only had a limited time in Milwaukee, we jammed every day with as much as possible! We sure had fun, though! Friday we went to the zoo! Milwaukee has a great zoo and Kayla had volunteered there, so she was like our own personal zoo expert! :)

Cute cousins before the zoo...

I was just happy to be able to spend time with this beauty...

She loves her daddy, he can always make her smile! Oh man, she's adorable! And such a dreamy baby, too! I don't think I heard her cry once on our whole trip!

Tucker getting close to the tigers...

Taylor's favorite were the monkeys. She started making noises just like them and loved it! :) Jason got a video on his i-pad, I'm going to have to get it from him! :)

The way I prefer to do the zoo, is from the train...

kissin' fools...

This little girl started eating solids while we were there. Not sure she liked it so much! :)

And my personal fav, the Milwaukee 3rd District indoor farmers market. I truly got to taste the best of Milwaukee. Here we are eating brawt, brew and cheese curds (My FAVORITE!). The brew is Sprekers Root beer, yummy! We have truly been to Milwaukee now! Count us in!

After the farmers market we headed to the Children's museum and had a great time.

We walked downtown a bit to see the city and the sights. Taylor fell asleep in her stroller, just like this...

funny lady!

That night Kayla & I left Jason home with the kids and hit the town! Milwaukee has this huge outdoor music festival every year. There were like 10 stages and all these big name bands and singers, I was really impressed. The group I wanted to see more than anything while I was there was Maroon 5. I am in love with Adam Levine. Don't worry, Ben knows about this love affair!

We got there at 7 and the concert didn't start until 10 so Kayla and I just hung out and listened to some other no name bands and chatted and had a good time. We actually got really good seats since we were there so early. By 9:30 a SEA of people had formed and we were lucky enough to get on the benches, but it went back forever!

Finally the show started. It was so great, one of the best concerts! Probably just because I love their music, but I was in heaven! :) I think all the ladies were, Adam is so smokin'! :)

And there he is, in all of his rock and roll glory...

It was so much fun to get out with my little sissy and be away from the kids for an evening of fun with her! :)

The next day was Sunday and I had to take a picture of Kenzie making this face while asleep on Jason's shoulder. So stinkin' cute!

We resumed our motherly roles and made homemade chocolate chip cookies, went on a walk around the cute little park across the street from them, ate delicious frozen custard and watched the best movie ever made, ponyo! :) If anyone has ever seen that movie, I am sorry. I wish I could take back those two hours of my life! :)

I wish we had more time in Milwaukee with them, but it was a little hard fitting 6 people into their little 700 square foot apartment, we were jammed in like a can of sardines! I am sure they were happy to have their home back after our invasion! They have the cutest little place though and I was happy to just be there with them and to see where they live and their little life in Milwaukee! If only it were a little closer...

Road Trippin'...

2011-07-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

Well we made it. Looking back on it now, it's all just one big blur, but my sister and I made the trek half way across the country with our three children, and we're still alive to tell about it. We loaded up on Monday the 27th (three days after I got home from the trek) and headed out east. It was a tight squeeze and I felt bad for the three little ones jammed back in the back seat all together. Day 1 we drove about 7.5 hours and stopped in Livingston, MT where my brother in law's grandmother lives. It was so beautiful! She literally lives in Yellowstone. Her house had the most amazing views and she was so kind to have nice warm beds for us and a nice hot breakfast in the morning. It was a much needed break after all day in the car. (little did we know what lied ahead for us!) :)

Day 2 we got up early and headed out to Rapid City, SD. Another 7 hour drive or so. We wanted to stop there because that is where Mt. Rushmore is and we thought it would be a good resting place and you can't go much more than 7 hours with kids in the car in one day. We stayed at a hotel with a great pool! So, even though we got there like at 8pm and I should have put my kids to bed right away, they were dying to get in the pool. So we stayed up until 10 swimming that night! :) They had to kick us out of the pool when it closed.

And then after swimming we were starving so we ordered room service and got a pizza delivered to our room. We were in heaven. It was so nice being in such luxury after spending two days in a car!

This is what I woke up to the next morning. Both of my kids are wild sleepers! I was tucked in that upper corner there all curled up in a ball.

Day 3: The next morning we headed up to Mt. Rushmore. It was pretty cool. There isn't a whole lot more that you can do than just take a few pics. So we stopped and took a few pics, changed a few diapers and headed on our way.

Tucker found my camera and I found a few gems...

That third day was the hardest. We were driving for a total of 10 hours that day, not including stops. We drove through South Dakota, southern Minnesota and Wisconsin. There wasn't a whole lot to see than flat fields that went on forever and ever. The kids were rock stars though and were great! We did have to stop about every 1/2 hour to an hour for potty breaks, food breaks, leg stretching breaks. But it actually didn't seem all that bad.

We got to a place in Wisconsin that night around 11pm called the Wisconsin Dells. It is like a mini Las Vegas in Wisconsin. Well, without the gambling. But it is this tiny little town that has just blossomed out of nowhere and has all these huge themed hotels with water parks and theme parks. It is only about 3 hours from Milwaukee, but we needed to stop and I thought that Tucker would love to stay in a place like this. So, Jason drove out and met us there. He said that when we pulled in that night both my sister and I were bug eyed and laughing like maniacs. So maybe the trip did take it's toll on us, but we were just too much in our own little world to notice! :) We stayed at this really cool African themed hotel that night and woke up the next morning and stayed all day playing at their water parks.

The outdoor park:

This is cute little Kenzie at the indoor park in the baby water swings. One of her first times being in the water like this.

And here is Taylor in those same water swings...

My beautiful little lady...

After a while in the indoor park, we ventured outside. It was a nice and hot day, but the water outside was fa-reezing! We still enjoyed our time; and Taylor enjoyed these nachos :)

Later that afternoon, we headed into Milwaukee. Those three hours were nothing compared to what we had just driven over the past 3 days. I was so so so happy to finally be in Milwaukee and have one leg of this trip under my belt. I feel like after doing this, I can do anything!

Some highlights of the trip were listening to Justin Bieber over and over and over! He was our musical inspiration for this trip. Somehow we left without any CD's except Justin Bieber and Bruno Mars. So that was the only music we had the whole time! I have the entire Justin Bieber CD memorized now. Another memorable moment was the roast beef incident. Taylor was in the middle the whole trip; So that meant that Kezie's rear facing car seat was within arms length of her. We always found things in Kenzies car seat because Taylor loves to throw things. Well, one day we had eaten lunch at Arby's. After going through the drive through we were on our way. A few hours later when we stopped for a potty break we found Kenzie with a huge piece of Roast Beef covering half of her face. We were dying. It was the funniest thing in the world to us at the time. :) And cute little Kenzie didn't even ever complain about it, just went on her merry way with a piece of roast beef on her face, poor little girl. She definitely learned what it would have been like for her with older siblings. Taylor tormented her and Tucker just loved and loved on her! :)

We had 5 days to spend in Milwaukee and we were so happy to finally be there and get to spend this time with Jason, Kayla & Kenzie. Now the fun can really begin!

Trekkin'...

2011-07-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

Oh the pioneer trek! :) I went on the trek with the youth of our stake as the photographer! I was so lucky to have the best job on the trek! :)

Here is our ward at the stake center bright and early Monday morning...

The first day we got to this beautiful area to set up camp...

We played games and danced and sang. Very Pioneer style. :)

Had lots of firesides and devotionals...

This is my friend Marianne, my partner in crime. We were both photographers...

Along with this crazy lady, whom we fell in love with! I can't tell you how much fun I had with these two girls. They totally made the trek for me! We had a blast.

The next day we were off trekking. This is how we had to wrap up our feet with duct tape so the stickies wouldn't get in our shoes. They were BAD!! This is only the first day, by the end of the week, people were duct taping up their whole calves!

Here are the kids on their way...

Us photographers got pretty dehydrated the first day after all the running we did and were banned from trekking any more. So the next two days we got to ride in cars to all the stops and take pictures of the kids during the breaks and of course, at night and in the mornings. It was so hot that I don't know how these kids and ma's and pa's were able to do it for three days straight! We here in Spokane were having like 70 degree weather so to get thrust into 90 degree weather while having to wear 8 layers of pioneer clothes and push hand carts while trekking was tough! I was so impressed with everyone!

A self portrait in Marianne's sunglasses...

All of the handcarts lined up before the women's pull...

Our fabulous stake presidency...

They did such a great job of putting this whole thing together! I know the kids really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it! I was just glad to be able to go and be with the youth, I love being with the youth, they are all so great! We are so lucky to live in such a great stake!

When I got home on Friday, I was greeted by these two little dirty faces and this beautiful home made sign. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that my children were alive and well and clothed even! :) I had to pawn them off to friends houses all week and of course, Ben took them in the evenings. I am sure that they had a great time with friends and their daddy at night.

This is such a small portion of my pictures from the trek, I took 1200 pictures total! But they are turned in and the video is being made and we get to see it on Saturday night. Can't wait!

Summer summer summertime....

2011-07-11T17:39:00.000-07:00

My schedule this summer has been pretty crazy. That is the reason for my lack of blogging. Here is a look at what our summer has/will look like...

June 20-24- Pioneer trek with the youth of our stake...........check

June 27-June 30- Drive across the country from Spokane to Milwaukee, WI with my sister and our THREE children........check

July 1- July 5- Spend a few days in Milwaukee visiting my sister, brother in law and niece....check

July 5- Spend the night in Chicago with a family from my mission (with my two children)....check

July 6- Fly from Chicago to Birmingham, AL (traveling alone with my two children) :)...check

July 6-July 19- Spend two weeks in Alabama with Ben's family to spend time with our cousins...in progress!

Ben is meeting us here in Alabama for the last week so he can actually see his family this year and so we can fly home together and we are SO exited to see him! He comes in tomorrow! We have been having a wonderful time with family and friends and I will have a TON to blog about when I get home after the 19th! :) Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

More family foto fun...

2011-06-21T22:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some more shots taken from that day of family picture fun! :)

And some outtakes...

Happy Father's day!

2011-06-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

Yeah, we know we're lucky!

Ben gave ME a massage, mopped the floors and cleaned up after dinner today! Either I'm the worst wife ever, or he is the best husband ever! :) He also got breakfast in bed, a nice 4 hour nap after church and his favorite 'husbands delight' for dinner, so don't feel too bad for him! :)

I'm leaving on the trek tomorrow though so we'll see how he does for a week being Mr. mom! I'm sure he will have a great time!

And I can't mention Fathers day without mentioning this guy...

We are so lucky to have him so close! He does so much for us and I don't know what we'd do without him! I am so blessed to have great fathers in my life! I love you Kevin Campbell, Rick Pyper & of course Benjamin! :)

Here are some pics from our fathers day meal. You can't end a dinner a papas house in the summer time without roasting a few smores! :)

{this was also after having an oreo milkshake! My kids are so spoiled by their grandparents- All four of them!}

You also can't have a dinner at papa's house without having a little soda...

Kayla visits...

2011-06-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

My little sister and her family are in town from Milwaukee, WI! It has been so much fun having her home! I love having her here to hang out with! I wish they lived closer. We went to the melting pot for her birthday one night. It was so much fun!

Since Kayla was in town, my mom came up to see her. We watched Carter one day while Nathan & Angie packed. (tear) They leave ON fathers day for Las Vegas! We are so so so sad to have them leave us! I got some cute shots of Carter while he was here though.

It was so cute, Tucker & Carter were playing so well together and wrestling and having a grand ol' time!

Then they got distracted by the TV. :)

While this little one passed out! I love it when she sleeps, it's the only time that there is peace and quiet around here. Seriously!

recent happenings...

2011-06-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

Yet another shower! This time for my dear friend Gen. She is having a little girl any day now and we are so excited! She also has a little boy about a year younger than Tucker so we are on the same track! :) (she just a year after me) :) I love Gen. We've been friends since the 7th grade! I can't believe it's been that long; time flies by so fast! :) It was so much fun being there to celebrate with my long time friend. There is nothing better than old friends! :)

I want this chair for Taylors room! :)

Gen's mom made her a quilt for the baby's room. It was very sweet, Gen got very emotional and even started crying! :)

And the two of us, after all these years we are still good friends... love her!!!

And this is Taylors newest trick. The fish kiss face! I love it! Her kisses are the cutest!

This however, is the face you will most likely see coming from our angelic daughter...

The other night Ben wasn't at home (don't remember where he was) and I had a headache so I was just lying on the couch and Tucker came in and wanted me to play with him in his room and I said, ' ok, give me just one more minute...' and then I vaguely remember him saying something about a trail to his room. Well, a few minutes later when I finally decided to peel myself off the couch I found this trail of carrots going from the couch I was sitting on to his bedroom door. I asked him why he left me a trail of carrots and he said it was so that I would remember how to get to his room. (Because our house is just THAT big!) :) It was so funny and random! :)

Our next door neighbor is a member of our ward and she is getting a new fence installed so Ben had some of the young men come over and help remove the existing fence. Austin, a young man in Ben's class knocked on our door with a mannequin head on. Not sure where he got it or why he was wearing it, but it was pretty random and funny! :)

The boys had a great time punching Austin in the 'face'. Oh, boys....

Parties...

2011-06-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

We have been in full party/shower/reception mode here these past few weeks. My friend Laura is having a little boy and my other friend Ashley is the cutest decorator/party thrower. I took some pics for Laura. Everything was so cute!

All of us at the shower. It was so much fun! I'm so excited for this little boy to get here!

Next up was Tuckers good friend, Garret's birthday. Another trip to Chuck E Cheese and Tucker was happy! :)

The whole gang. Also there was Tuckers new friend, Maddox. They are new in our ward and Tucker loves Maddox and they play so well together. I love that Tucker has such great friends! It makes my heart happy!

Then we threw a baby shower for another friend of mine, Tiffani. She doesn't know what she's having so we decorated in pink AND blue. We did it during our ward playgroup and it worked out perfectly! :) The kids played at the park and we got to party with Tiffani! :) I love our ward playgroup. The ladies in my ward are so great, I love spending every other Wednesday with them!

Taylor loved all the good food at the party! :)

Then...it was a happy happy day for Tucker when the Enloes came in town for the weekend and Carter was here! Carters cousin got married and Tucker was so happy to have his best friend back! We went to Five Guys one day for lunch before they left. They just opened in the Valley and it was my first time, and I loved it!

Taylor loved it, too. :) It looked like a tornado had been through after we were done!

Shar sent me these from her phone on the night that Tucker spent the night up with Carter at her parents house! I love these boys. I hope they stay best friends forever! :)

Whew...I am all partied out, and this is just the beginning of the summer wedding/party season! :)

(OK--I'm not partied out, I secretly love it and am SO looking forward to it all-the receptions, the traveling, the showers and parties-all of it!) :)

grandma...

2011-05-31T23:07:00.000-07:00

My mom stayed a few extra days to visit and watch Carter. This little girl loves her grandma. I swear, I am non-existent when grandma is around!

She got them matching Superman pj's. Tucker thought it was pretty cool that they even made girl superman ones for Taylor.

Then she took the kids to jump & bounce. I love Carters faces in these next two...

She had fun taking the two little ones down the slides...

My birthday...

2011-05-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

I am so spoiled! I know I am. Ben always makes me feel so special on my birthday and really works to make things fun for me! This year he planned a surprise dinner with some family and friends at a new Asian buffet here in the Valley. It was kind of crazy with me trying to plan things, a few of my friends trying to plan things and Ben trying to plan things. But in the end it worked out and I was totally surprised! :) What I thought was going to be a small dinner with a few close friends turned into a little surprise party! :)

He even got me an ice-cream cake- My favorite!!!

Me & my little brother, Nathan...

Me & Tara...

Me, Ben, Nathan & Angie with my mom. She came up just for my birthday! Thanks mom!

And all of us with my dad. My mom didn't realize her camera was on Manual focus so it wasn't focusing right for these pictures.

And me and my girlfriends who came...

A few days later one of my best friends, Katrina took me downtown for Olive Garden lunch and some much needed girl time and shopping with our friend Tara. It was so nice! :) I am so lucky to have such great friends!

THEN.... Just when I thought my birthday celebrations were over. Ben surprised me EVEN more. My mom was here and so I guess he thought he'd take advantage of that and booked us a hotel for the night and surprised me with WICKED!!! :) Wicked just happened to be in Spokane, and I really wanted to go. But with plane tickets and trek stuff and other stuff, I just couldn't justify spending the money on going. Well... Wicked does this lottery ticket thing. Where for every performance they do a lottery to people who enter to win tickets. So, we had to be there two and a half hours early to enter our names, it is open for a half an hour and then they chose names. My name was chosen so I got two tickets and they were only $25!!! I felt so lucky! Wicked, dinner at the Catacombs and Creme Brule for Dessert; It was the perfect night!I love my husband!

Ben didn't love it, but I thought it was so cute; and I can see why it's a perfect girls night.

Ben and I before the show...

The next morning, it was so nice to just sleep in and relax reading my book before out noon check out.

My mom took the kids to Chuck E Cheese (of course!) that night for dinner and these are some cute pics I got off of her camera. I love my kids! :)

Taylor is a dancing maniac. Whenever she hears music she stops and starts shaking her little body!

Tucker in deep concentration...

She has so many expressions, I love it!

Once again, I felt so loved and spoiled on my birthday and I am so very grateful for my wonderful friends and family who make me feel so special!

Tucker & Taylor...

2011-05-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

Since the sun has been out, we've been hitting the park as often as we can. Here Taylor is on a lunch date with spongebob.

And this little lady is finally cruising around! :) I love having her mobile, it's so much fun!

And she also loves my soda. I made the mistake of letting her have some of it once, and now whenever she sees me with a soda, she whines until she gets a sip!

Playing outside with daddy...

I had to get a picture of Tucker with a fire hydrant. He is obsessed with them. Seriously, every time we get in the car, we have to play the game of who can spot the most fire hydrants. Every. time.we. get.in.the.car. We pass this one on our way in to Old Navy and he thinks it's so cool that he can actually touch it and play on it. So I had to get a picture of him with it.

I love bath babies...

And here is my little stinker. I love this girl! I gave her the spoon to my brownie batter the other morning. I was making them for a friends baby shower. Needless to say, she was in heaven. :) I think this face pretty much sums it up! :) Love her!

How was I blessed with two fun, adorable , albeit stubborn and independent, but totally wonderful little kids? I love 'em!

The Cottons...

2011-05-27T22:29:00.000-07:00

We watched our friends kids the other night so they could go out for their anniversary. It was so nice out, we just had to be outside. Being cooped up for so long has made us hungry for the outdoors. The boys had so much exploring and playing.

Of course, the biggest boy of all had to get in on the action! :)

Tucker gets a little crazy with Taylor sometimes. He loves her too much and too crazy sometimes.

Of course, a race had to happen. Tucker loves to run and race!

I took this cute picture of their little lady, H. She is so cute! :) I couldn't keep the grass out of her mouth, but we had a good time! :) A little grass doesn't hurt, does it?

We are so happy the warm weather is starting to come and we are so happy to have such great friends to play with! :)

mudders day and such...

2011-05-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

I had a fabulous mothers day this year. I woke up to a beautiful bouquet of flowers complete with homemade cards, chocolate covered strawberries when I got home from church and a day of relaxing, reading and napping. Seriously, Ben took the kids up to my dads house right after church and I had an empty house to myself all afternoon. It was a-mazing! :)

But I do love those two little ones who have made me a mommy. And I have a wonderful husband who makes mommy hood so much easier for me! I am one lucky girl! :)

We went out to dinner for Angie's birthday and this little girl was having fun playing with her daddy. I love that little face! :)

Uncle Nathan creepin'...

Tucker got majorly sick this week. He started throwing up on Wednesday night and didn't stop until Saturday morning! I had called his Dr. on Friday afternoon to ask what signs I should be looking for for dehydration and they told me to make sure he is going pee every 12 hours. So, that night before he went to bed, around 9pm I made sure he went to the bathroom. A few minutes later I noticed that I didn't hear anything coming from the bathroom. So we went in and Tucker was just laying on the floor with his pants around his ankles. He was so weak he just couldn't move; poor boy! We decided then that it was probably a good idea to take him to get some hydration. We were in the ER for about 4 hours and he had to get two bags of fluid! They kept on saying, 'he is just as dry as a bone...'. Yea, make me feel even worse than I already do! :) I just felt so bad for him, he had it bad! You will notice in the picture below we had a lot of gatorade and ginger ale for the boy. But no worries, he is all healthy now and we are happy to have our big boy back! :) Which brings me to this next picture. Taylor had gotten into a bottle of sprite and not only sat in the puddle of it, but bent down and was licking it up off the ground. :) This little girl is just like her momma and loves food, drink and anything that is a snack or treat! :)

We went out to the new Brazilian restaurant in Coeurd'Alene to celebrate Andrews mission call to Brazil. It was fun being with family and friends to celebrate a wonderful thing.

Kathryn & her boys...

Ben, Ben & Chase...

Ben & The Orndorff's...

Me & Ben (and Chuck coppin' a feel)...

It's been an eventful past few weeks; these children (and husband) keep me busy!

one great weekend...

2011-05-02T15:37:00.001-07:00

We just had a great weekend. Some highlights have been:

two words, Royal wedding!

I DVR'd it on Thursday night so as to not miss a minute of it! :) I watched it with some friends on Friday afternoon while we had a play date with our boys. I may or may not have watched a few more times on my own throughout the weekend. Ben asked me last night if he could delete it and reluctantly I said yes. I had my fill. But I loved the ceremony. I loved what the Bishop had to say. My favorite part was when he said in a way all weddings are royal because when we marry we become kings and queens of creation. I loved how he truly made marriage out to be noble and an honor. I also loved her dress-she was stunning! And Prince William is so dreamy! I've had a crush on him since I was about 15. :) It was fun to get caught up in this fairy tale this weekend.

My mom is here visiting. She is watching my nephew while my bro and sis-in-law are in Vegas looking for a house! They are moving, so it is bittersweet; but we are so excited for Nathan to start school! They will be missed! But it is fun having my mom here. We played and had Pizza on Saturday night with her and Carter;

Right after Ben & Tucker got home from here:

Saturday afternoon Tucker & Ben went to the circus! Tucker had so much fun! His favorite part was, of course, the cotton candy! :) ha ha. He loved the animals, but when Ben asked him if he wanted to ride an elephant, he did NOT want to! :) I am actually surprised that Ben was able to take this picture of the clown, he is deathly scared of clowns! :) They had some fun boy time.

My mom & the sister missionaries came over for dinner on Sunday so Tucker & I went into our backyard and picked our first bouquet of flowers from our garden.

This was great for two reasons: first, it means that the weather is finally getting warm enough for the flowers to come out. Summer is on it's way, finally! And second, sister missionaries! I love it! There are Spanish speaking Hermanas out here in the Valley right now and I've had so much fun going out with them as much as I can these past few months. It's great to brush up on my Spanish and help out the Hermanas, I remember those days! It was a perfect Sunday afternoon having the missionaries in our home. Tuckers been wanting me to speak spanish all day today! :)

Other exciting events this weekend consisted of a hot date on Friday night with Ben that turned into an impromptu double date with our good friends, the Nelsons when we saw them driving by us. :) Dinner, Bowling and FroYo. :) Doesn't get better than that! :) I am so blessed!

A few that I've found...

2011-05-02T14:48:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos that I found on my computer that I had to share. :)

I just love this girl. I mean really, look at that face! :)

I don't exist when grandma is around. Seriously, both of my kids love their grandma!

Taylor always has to do whatever I'm doing. She is seriously like a little mini-me! :) Most of the time, I love it.

Here are the two group shots from Easter. Keyton wasn't into picture taking at all, and eventually just went inside! :)

This is after Keyton left...

And I love Taylors face in this one. So cute, with Papa! :)

Tuckers pre school had a little Easter egg hunt at the park this week. It was so much fun, a little chilly, but fun. On the way home Tucker shared one of his Bit-O-Honey's with Taylor. She then fell asleep. I had to get a picture of her with it hanging out of her mouth! :) Another reason why I love this girl! :)

Easter 2011...

2011-04-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

We had a fabulous Easter this year. I love Easter and spring time. I love what Easter means and represents. I always think of the empty tomb and that makes me think of Jerusalem, and I have nothing but great memories and feelings about the Holy Land and the spirit I felt there. Anyway, even though Easter is a little more commercialized than I would like it to be, we still enjoy ourselves with our family and those we love. And I always feel the spirit.

I try and keep the Easter baskets low key and simple. I got the kids their swimsuits, a book or two and some candy.

Of course, Taylor dug right into the candy and enjoyed every second of it! :)

After church we headed up to my dads house for an afternoon with family and delicious food! Allen & Kelli and their *growing* family came up for the weekend and of course, the kids had so much fun with their cousins.

These next few shots are for grandma, who got the kids all matching outfits. They looked so cute all matching at church! :)

Here is a very typical Taylor face. :)

Cute Cassidy and her 80's side ponytail! :) Love it!

Tucker totally posed on this rock all on his own.

And Keyton, who wanted nothing to do with pictures, joined him. :)

Cute Carter! A little mini-man.

Our family picture... (sorry, our Easter church clothes came off right after church!) :)

Me and my baby girl!

Taylor and daddy.

Then some Easter egg hunts. It was fierce. But we had a few and the kids got their fill.

Dying eggs...

Then my favorite part of the day, dinner! I swear, my dad is going to be the chef up in Heaven! This is my Heaven on Earth! :) Ham, ribs, and salmon. To. die. for. We are never disappointed when my dad cooks for us, which luckily for us, is quite often!

I made personalized cupcakes for everyone for dessert.

We then just kicked back and relaxed all afternoon. It was a perfect day!

The next night before Allen & Kelli left to go home, just us adults went out to the new Brazilian restaurant in Coeur d'Alene. We love the Brazilian restaurants and this one did not disappoint! :) It was more fun just being out with my siblings and dad without kids. We had a great time together! Thanks Dad!

And thanks Jani & Nathan for watching all FOUR of our kids! :)

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a more meaningful Easter thought. I loved this! We are so blessed!

Happy Easter everyone!

How Great Thou Art...

2011-04-23T14:14:00.000-07:00

I love this hymn and obviously and I thought that this rendition was so beautiful and meaningful with Easter coming up. I love the way Carrie Underwood sings it with so much feeling. I thought that this was the perfect time to share. :)

Happy Easter everyone! Enjoy!

tucker pyper photography...

2011-04-21T21:57:00.000-07:00

I love looking at my camera and finding tuckers pictures. Mostly because they show some great shots of what our days are truly like, and moments between my kids that I wasn't a part of.

And, of course, the shots of the things that are truly important to Tucker.

Easter Eggs with Grandma...

2011-04-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

Grandma came into town to visit and, among other things, we dyed some Easter eggs.

This little boy was, of course, VERY into all the action and wanted to dye all the eggs himself.

i love this little girl!

One of her favorite things to do is to play with her big brother. She is such a fun playful little girl!

The babies weren't sure what to think of the whole egg dyeing thing at first. :)

Here is Taylor dipping her animal cracker in the dye! :) And no, we did not let her eat it after that! :)

Carter wasn't so sure about it at first, either.

He decided he better check the dye with his fingers. Ya know, just to make sure. :)

Yup, looks good! :)

And grandma and her grandbabies with their finished works of art! :) Not too shabby for 2 babies and a pre-schooler! :)

We always love it when grandma comes to town and this visit was no different!

A little bit of grandma is good for the soul!

Thanks for everything, Grandma, we love you!

conference...

2011-04-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

My favorite weekends of the year happen in April & October; General Conference! We went up to my dads house to watch it and eat delicious food. We were fed both physically and spiritually! :) It was perfect!

Taylor had chocolate and was happy for the rest of the day!

We had fun putting Taylors bottle in Jon's mouth while he was sleeping! he he, we are so sneaky!

And Taylor getting comfy with Kathryn! :) Love this girl!

A day in the life...

2011-04-13T16:21:00.000-07:00

With the weather so crappy lately, here's a little glimpse as to what we've been up to:

These next three photos were by Tucker.

Here is what our basement looks like most of the time. Disaster zone!

family portraits by Tucker...

And we wonder where our kids get their craziness from!

You obviously don't want to let a Pyper get a hold of your expensive technical device. You saw what I did to our net book. Now here is Taylor eating her taco soup off of a cell phone. (an old cell phone that is now a toy phone, but still...)

Here's Tuckers crazy face...

And speaking of my cute boy, let me just brag a minute or two. This little boy is so smart! He came to me the other day and told me that he had written this sentence:

"The rocket blasted off"

He is totally reading three and four letter words and writing words all the time! I am one proud mama!

We've been going to Mobius a lot. I loved this picture of Taylor and her whale spout! :)

This little one loves to play in the drawers in the kitchen while she is at my feet while I'm trying to cook ALL THE TIME!

Farm animal bowling with Tuckers backugan. It's always really exciting around here!

Taylor loves to play in Tuckers room. This is a pretty typical face for this little drama queen!

Making cookies has been a big hit these days. Yes Tucker is indeed licking THREE utensils covered in cookie batter.

This little girl was just happy to have some chocolate chips. :)

If you notice, she has quite a few bruises on her head and face, its because this little girl is finally standing on her own and is falling and bumping her head all the time! I'm hoping she starts walking soon!

Anyway, the moral of our story here is this:

please, please, PLEASE hurry and get here summer, we need to get out of this house!

The Agurkis family comes to town...

2011-04-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

The Agurkis family came into town a few weekends ago and, as usual, we had a fantastic time together. We are so lucky to have such great friends. Taylor was happy to have a play mate more her age. The got into some glitter Christmas tree ball decorations I had; and had a ball (ha!) playing with them.

{oh by the way, the next day Taylor was pooping glitter! Like a true princess should!} :)

The reason they came was for Doug's birthday. It was no Dirty thirty, but thirty-two aint so bad either. :) We made him a delicious sea food dinner and gave him a tub of jelly beans (he loves them!) and he seemed content! :)

We went to play at river front park one day and had to take a ride on the gondola.

Girls in one car...

Boys in the other...

The beautiful (green?) falls... :)

This is a pretty common face for Taylor right now. She is the funniest little girl I have ever met! She has so much personality at this young age. Makes me nervous for what's to come!

Next up on the docket, was to feed the ducks.

No, Jacob you can't go into the water!

No, Taylor you can't eat the bread, it's for the ducks!

{They hadn't quite grasped the concept of feeding ducks yet!} :)

{Beautiful Spokane!}

Had to get a family picture on the garbage goat! :) HA!

This is why we love our Agurkis family!

Tucker takes after his dad in so many ways. He saw this rock wall as we were passing under the underpass and had to climb it. He got most of the way up before Ben went up to help him. Such boys!

And of course, the big red wagon! :) Taylors first ride down, I believe!

And Jacob's as well! I love that cute little smile! :)

No trip downtown is complete without riding the carousel. Well, I don't ride it. I can't ride it! Just looking at the thing go around and around makes me queasy. But I'm just he photographer anyway! :)

Finally the big dinner was here. The feast was grand. The company was delightful and the satisfaction was complete! :) (yes, we had to bring in some of our patio chairs from the back porch- our families are growing!) :)

And Tuckers favorite moment of the weekend. The ice-cream cake. OK, it was mine too! :) Thanks for having a birthday Doug, so I could have an excuse to consume the deliciousness that is the DQ ice-cream cake! :)

OH, and congrats on becoming a MASTER! We are so proud of you. It's about freakin' time! :) And thanks for being Ben's best friend! We love you!

March...

2011-03-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

I am convinced that I have the cutest kids on the planet. I may (or may not) be a little biased. :) How can Taylor turn EVERYTHING she does into something cute?

Eating popcorn for example...

She loves the stuff and we love her! She now has two words in her vocabulary: Dada & Uh-Oh. I love hearing her say both of them. She always grabs my phone and puts it to her ear and says Dada dada dada over and over again! :) And whenever she trows or drops something she says Uh-oh. I think I could listen to her say Uh-oh forever, it is so cute! :)

Take TC Two-face for example.

Who is TC Two-face you ask? He is the newest member of our family. On Sunday after church after getting dressed into our lounge clothes for the rest of the day(and after the daily discussion of weather or not it's warm enough for Tucker to wear a tank top or not) Tucker decided he was a rock star and needed a rock star name. It was like the heavens opened and I looked down upon the back of the box of Resses Puff cereal in front of me and it said, I kid you not: 'How to figure out your DJ name' (or rock star, in our case) And it said: 'First take the name of your favorite super hero villain; Then put the first letter of your middle name in front of it.' I asked Tucker who is favorite villain was and he first said Joker, so we tried out C Joker and it just didn't have the right ring to it. So I suggested we added his middle AND first name initials. TC Joker. Getting better. Then he decided he wanted a different villain. I told him all the villains I could think of and he chose Two-face. So, TC Two-face was born and all day Sunday graced us with his presence. :)

And here he is in all his glory:

Mean (eh...Ugly) bowling faces, yeah...we got 'em! Who knew Tucker was such a rock star bowler, he got 63 points. I think that is about what I get when I bowl! :)

St. Patricks day came and you can be sure we were NOT getting pinched! Green pancakes and green milk for breakfast. (although you can't tell in this picture!)

Here is a better picture of our green food! :)

And a fabulous lunch with friends to celebrate the impending arrival of baby girl Mortensen! :) My good friend is due to have her last baby on April 7th! :) I love that we are all wearing green! :)

Oh, and if your computer screen looks like this, it looks like you're in the market for a new laptop! I dropped our net book and completely shattered the screen! I am SO mad at myself! I always try and balance too many things in my hand at once. This time the net book got it! In related news though, I am a better mother for not always being tempted by this thing sitting right at my kitchen table. :) We actually went on a walk today and took advantage of this gorgeous weather we have been having!

Hope you are all enjoying this beautiful weather outside like we are! :) yipeee for spring!

da Lakers...

2011-03-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

We thought that we were the only people in Spokane who liked the Lakers. I say we, but I guess I should say Ben. The rest of us are Lakers fans just by default! :) But some of our good friends are actually from the LA area and love the Lakers just as much as Ben does! So the Lakers games have just been good excuses for us to get together for yummy food!

I couldn't resist when I saw this tee-shirt at Old Navy! Now Ben has his very own Lakers girl!

Looks like Taylor inherited my love of dogs! :)

Raptor Reef...

2011-03-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

We went to Raptor Reef a few weeks ago to try and get out of this cold cold weather! It is a little indoor water park with a wave pool, a little kiddie area and a few big slides. Taylor was too small for me to even take her in the wave pool, so we were confined to the kiddie area, although she didn't like that much either because of the spraying water, but we still had fun! :) My kids just take a while to warm up to water. I know that I've ruined them. Any future children that I have I am going to start dunking them and showering with them from infancy! :) I was afraid that the other people there might call us in for child abuse the way we were forcing them into the water at first! :) Of course, once they warmed up to it, they had a blast! Tucker was just barely tall enough to go down the big slides with an adult! So he even went down a few times with Ben. He ALWAYS had a scared to death look on his face as he reached the bottom of the slides, but once off the slide, he would talk about how fun and cool it was and always wanted to go again! :) And him and I had a lot of fun in the wave pool. We would hop on an inter-tube and ride the waves! It was a perfect mid-winter break for our family! :)

Nathan & Carter came with us too and somehow, the only picture I have of Carter is this one of him falling! :) Carter LOVED the water! He is in Hawaii this week with his mom & dad, and I'm sure he's enjoying those Hawaii waves! :)

Tucker & Ben going down one of the kiddie slides...

My dad came just to hang out and be with the kids and he ended up holding Taylor most of the time. :) I gave him a bottle of water to let Taylor drink from and I came back and he was squirting it in her mouth like she was an animal! :) It was pretty funny!

That Papa, thought he was pretty funny! :)

Oh, and here is a cute one of Carter & Papa. Papa likes to rub his beard on the babies and make them cringe! :) At the end of the day when we were all getting dressed back into our clothes, all the boys were in the dressing room and Nathan thought that Ben had Carter, and Ben thought that Carter was with Nathan and somehow Carter totally escaped the mens bathroom, fully clothed and bee-lined it straight for the water. He ran right in as far as he could go and then fell, fully clothed, back into the water! :) I don't think that Nathan & Angie will ever let Ben live that one down! :)

Taters had a model shoot. I think that she would have liked it more if water hadn't been so cold. I was surprised it was so cold for this time of year. She definitely warmed up to it faster than Tucker did, but after just 20 minutes or so, her feet were literally blue and she was shivering! Thats why she sat with Papa, all wrapped up in her towel most of the time. She did love to watch all the exciting things going on, though.

And even made a few new boyfriends...

It's so much fun to have family close to play with! I can't wait until we can take these water park adventures outside! :)

gifts from grandma...

2011-03-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

My mom is known for spoiling her grandkids and it was no different with Taylor for her birthday. Even though she had already gotten Taylor some gifts, she sent her another one from Milwaukee (where she had been with my sister) that came a few days after Taylor's birthday.

Taters got her first I-pod. A princess one-let the princess toys begin. :)

{On a side note, I think this generation of kids are going to grow up thinking that everything has an I in front of it. Tucker thinks Diet Pepsi is called I-Pepsi. He calls Ben's contacts I-Pods; and I hear him putting I's in front of random things all the time! And now my one year old has an 'I-Pod'. :) }

And of course, Tucker got a little something special. :) He got a pair of flip flops.

(I love his facial expressions-he was so excited!)

And a new book! A Tucker book!

Tucker always sneaks kisses from Taylor. :) I love that they love each other. Her face always lights up when she sees him and he is always trying to make her laugh and smile.

But, of course, the best part of the package was the bubbles. These are what Tucker played with for hours! :)

Nothing like getting an unexpected surprise from Grandma to brighten our day! :)

Thanks Grandma!

Tucker is such a sweet boy, right after opening the gifts, he said to me, 'I know...We should call grandma and thank her for our new presents!' He is always so grateful, even with Ben and I.

2011-03-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

My helper...

and my UN-helper...

I swear I spend all day just cleaning up after her! :) AND she's had RSV this week which means we've spent a lot of time at home. By the end of the week I was running around in circles, between the breathing treatments, antibiotics, steam showers and her not sleeping! Me being sick is one thing, but it breaks your heart to have your baby sick! :(

Anyway...Tucker on the other hand is going through a phase where he wants to help me with everything and do everything on his own.

these days...

2011-03-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

Tucker seems to be in Superhero land. All.of.the.time.

This girl seems to be at my feet. All.of.the.time. She's my little shadow. I love it, most of the time! :) Tucker was NEVER a mama's boy, he was so independent and happy with anyone that I'm not used to a child who wants me to hold her all of the time! I just can't resist that cute little face! :)

This boy has discovered the computer. Does it really start so young? We've entered a whole new world of parenting, here.

This boy just keeps growing like crazy! These were his Christmas jammies, that fit him in December. The top is all of the sudden showing his midriff. Totally immodest!

At his last Dr. appointment, he was 42 inches tall and 42 pounds!

And I just had to include this one that was taken right after the above picture. So Tucker right now! My silly boy!

This girl is always trying to feed me. Can I blame my weight gain on her?

These two love their baths together. Tucker loves splashing...

And Taylor loves yelling.

So it works out pretty well for the two of them. I have no doubt in my mind that once Taylor is able to hold her own against her brother, that she will give him a run for his money. He loves her so much, but pesters her SO much. It will be interesting to see how things go with them once she is a bit bigger. Will our sweet Tucker be able to hand the wrath and angst that Taylor has built up inside of her? :)

Tucker brought this to me the other day, it's Lightening McQueen, the Dog. I was pretty impressed!

I meant to post this with my list of goals for myself for the year. But forgot about it. (surprise, surprise!) And I'm totally embarrassed to be putting this on here, but here is a shot of what my 'food storage' looks like right now. If you can even call it that.

Some water, some spices and about 4 boxes of food from the cannery. I think I have some flour, sugar, dried onions, potato pearls and black beans. If anything were to ever happen to us, we would NOT be eating very well! I've just had it in the back of my head for months now that I need to start working on this. That is another goal of mine for this year. A good friend just taught me a couponing class, and I would slowly love to start getting into that. It's not even about the saving so much money part, although that is awesome, but its the building up food storage part that totally has me wanting to do it. I am so jealous that she can cook from her food storage, and would love to get to that point at our home. It's a little overwhelming, but I'm going to start out small. I will post another picture of my food storage at the end of the year so we can see the progress! :)

And that pretty much sums up what we have been up to lately! Oh, and we were totally late for church today because we forgot about day light savings! How did we forget about that, seriously!? Isn't it like usually posted about or talked about everywhere! :) It was 8:45 and we were feeling pretty good about ourselves being on time for church and Ben looked at his phone and realized it was actually9:45! We got to church and the foyer was filled with the late comers! :)

Bi-Polar March...

2011-03-10T21:15:00.000-08:00

March is supposed to come in like a lion and out like a lamb. But up here in Spokane, March seems to be a little bi-polar. Lion one day, lamb the next! On the day that I took both kids in for their yearly check up they both got shots. After the shots the Dr. told Tucker he needed to go jump on the trampoline to get his legs to feel better. He took off with that one and insisted. It actually wasn't a horrible day for March, so off we went to jump and get his legs to feel better. :)

Taylor had a great time, too. I think this was her first time on the trampoline. And she always loves doing what her big brother is doing!

Tucker was jumping as I took these pictures, so most of them are blurry.

Then we had to play soccer since we were outside. Tucker loves soccer! He keeps on telling me that he wants to take soccer class. I can't wait to sign him up for soccer tots in the spring. I wish that my brother or sister were still coaching there, he would love to be able to take a class from one of them! :)

But boy, what a difference a day makes! I thought that the groundhog like saw his shadow or something so that spring was on it's way.

But this was the VERY next day!

{Taylor all bundled up ready to go!}

Tucker found the car brush in the garage and had to help me brush off the snow around the house.

The trampoline first...

Then, of course, the soccer net...

The drive-way...

and the car...

I can't wait for the snow to go away! Please spring, hurry up and get here. :)

Rock Star...

2011-03-08T10:34:00.000-08:00

In other family happenings, we are in LOVE with this song on Sesame Street.

I love everything about this song. The tune, the beat, the words and the message, the way he sings it, the way he dances. :)

Tucker is totally in a rock star stage. We have dance parties all the time! The other day he came in with his hood over his head, crossed his arms in the rock star stance and and said, 'I'm rock star Tucker, I came here from California.' I don't even know where he would have learned that California is where the rock star are, but apparently he already knows. I Love that boy-- even more than I love this song! :)

Our favorite CD's to rock out to are:

Over and Over and Over and Over and Over...

Another major happening in the household is that this little girl is now a pony tailin' wearin' woman!

You get a bonus in this picture, a shot of the pony tail AND her new favorite face to make! :)

She is no longer just a baby, but turning into a little girl! (And a sassy little booger!) Time needs to slow down, AND I do love this girl, too! :)

goals.temptations. and other random thoughts...

2011-03-07T23:30:00.000-08:00

This post has been swirling around in my head now for the past few weeks. I just haven't had time to sit down and put it down into organized or even recognizable thoughts.

Of course, with the beginning of a new year (which was now over 2 months ago!) things like goals and personal growth etc. etc. etc. are on the mind. I'm not going to go into detail about ALL of my goals for the year of 2011 or all of the things I am focusing on this year to become a better person-there are MANY! But here are a few I wanted to share.

I really want to lose some weight. I would be happy with 10-15 lbs. This has been really hard for me. I have been really lucky in my life thus far and haven't really had to ever worry about my weight. I mean, I've never been the skinniest girl on the block, but I haven't had to worry about it either. But I am getting older and my metabolism had definitely taken a turn for the worse. I've finally come to terms with the fact that I actually have to work on this if I want anything to change. I don't have the luxury to just eat whatever I want anymore. The problem with this is, is that I have absolutely NO self control when it comes to food. I LOVE food! I have a really hard time saying no to food. This means more gym time for me. I would much rather go to the gym to lose weight than watch what I eat. It's not the greatest plan, but it's what works for me. Anyway, I have a few things that stand in my way...

I could eat a whole box of these in one day! I HAVE eaten a whole box of these in one day.

I'm trying to slowly change (baby steps) some of my eating habits. I have discovered a few new snacks that I love.

I am seriously in love with this cheese! It is the perfect snack to tide me over when I'm feeling the need to munch! We are obsessed with it at our house right now!

I'm still far from being the kind of eater that I should be. I mean, I'm not going to change my bad habits over night; but I have already lost a few pounds simply by watching what I eat. I'm not necessarily counting calories, but just trying to be more conscience of what I eat and not eat totally mindlessly. Little by little I am getting back into the gym and will hopefully get these last few extra pounds outta here for good!

Next goal is to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I started this after we got home from Hawaii. I have to say that I'm doing pretty well. The last time I read the Book of Mormon all the way through was my mission. (embarrassing to say!) I've been so scattered in my reading of the scriptures over the past few years. I'm pretty scatter brained in most of my life and scripture reading is no different! :) The problems I've encountered with this goal are:

Yes, I really do watch all these shows; it's embarrassing! The bachelor is my guilty pleasure (I'm watching the women tell all episode right now!) The biggest loser is a show that I go in and out of. I have a really hard time that it is TWO hours long each week. (not that I watch it live. ever.) I am always excited for American Idol and ever year I get hooked! :) I also enjoy american idol parties with my friends each week. I love love love Parenthood. I tend to cry like every week! Modern Family is hilarious! The office is, of course, an old favorite! And who do you think you are is so great! I just love it! I, of course, don't watch any of them live. And don't even know which days they come on. But it is true, that I watch them all! Our DVR broke down last week and I realized how bad it is! I was like lost without it! But anyway, how did I get on this tangent? Oh yeah...the Book of Mormon. I need to read before TV, I have a tendency to just want to veg and do nothing after putting the kids to bed. Once I get to bed I have to pry my eyes open to read. I'm really trying to read before TV. So, that being said...I will keep you posted.

Other things I would like to work on: more & better FHE's (Family Home Evenings). I would like to read each Ensign cover to cover. And get to bed earlier!

So, there ya have it! I have a lot to work on. But these are the things that I know will make me a better person, a happier mommy and a more trimmed down me! :) Wish me luck!

baby girl turns 1...

2011-02-21T23:08:00.000-08:00

I can not believe that my little baby is already a year old! There is no possible way! Seriously, where did the time go? I can not even begin to tell you how much I love this little girl! Honestly, I was a little disappointed when we first got the ultrasound with her and were told it was a girl! I wanted another boy SO bad! I had this grand vision of buying bunk beds and having them play sports together, etc etc etc... and they were all dashed when we found out she was a girl! But boy how happy I am now that she is a part of our family! I can't even describe how she completes our family. And I'm even typing this as I listen to her scream in her crib! She was so a great sleeper before we left for Hawaii. We had begun the training of her just putting her self to sleep, like I would put her to bed semi awake and she would fall asleep on her own. We knew we were in trouble when we were talking to my mom one night and she told us that she was rocking her to sleep every night because she was just too cute to let go! Talk about 10 steps backwards! I mean, don't get me wrong, I love rocking her to sleep, but I just wanted to get her trained to fall asleep on her own before she started standing up on her own and she was pulling her self up on the side of her crib, because now she just stands there. I go in every 15 minutes and put her back down and just tell her it's time to go to bed and sleep. (until I give up and just put her in my bed with me, it really is just SO hard!) :)

Anyway...back to my beautiful baby! The thing I have learned with Taylor is that there is just no way around guilt as a parent. There are some days I just feel so bad for her because she is just dragged around and around, here and there and doesn't get a nap in (except in the car). But I feel guilty about that, so the next day we stay in ALL day so she can get in some good naps and I feel guilty for Tucker because he is cooped up all day and gets all wild and crazy! Anyway...Taylor is just our sweet chunky baby girl whom we all love and adore! Well, she isn't all that sweet, actually! She is a stinker! She is so different from Tucker as a baby! She has attitude and she has sass! She makes you work for her smiles and affections and she lets you know exactly how she is feeling by either her grunting and screaming or her throwing of her food or toys, or her totally contagious laugh! :) And that is why we are ALL THREE in love with her! And the poor thing just doesn't know what life is like without having someone (Tucker) squeezing, rubbing, loving, kissing, patting, pulling, or snuggling on her!

What would I do without my taters?

We had Nathan, Angie & Carter over for some Cafe Rio dinner on the night of her birthday. (she told me it was her favorite, it was all her idea!) :) And I made some cupcakes. We just kept things simple. I have learned my lesson about planning too much for a child's birthday when they could care less! :) ha ha! So we kept it simple and it was perfect! Tuckers first birthday cake was a piece his Aunt Kayla's bridal shower cake; they were on the same day, so this was a step up from his! :)

I love this succession of photos of her with her cake:

At first she wasn't quite sure why everyone was singing to her...

But she loved the attention...

Daddy had to feed her her first bite, she wasn't really sure of what to do with the cake...

After she tasked the goodness of the frosting, she dug right in! Just like her mama, doesn't hold back when it comes to food! :)

A little upset when all the frosting was gone! :) I should have put more frosting on!

Then on to opening some gifts! Thank you Carter! :)

Having fun with her new toys!

The coolest present she got was this cool piano from my mom! We have been having fun playing on it! It is one of those cool ones that you can dance (or crawl) on to make music! It is so cool!

Happy birthday my little Tater tot! We love you SO SO SO much!

I just took her in today for her 1 year check up and she weighed 21 lbs. and 6 oz. and was 30 and a half inches long! Such a big girl!

Funny story about the Dr. I took both of my kids in for their yearly check ups (yes, Tucker was a little late on his!) And I love their doc! She is wonderful. I take them to Dr. Simmerman at Valley Young People's Clinic. I have been taking Tucker to her since he was born and now Taylor. I love that she knows and loves my kids! She was asking Tucker a whole bunch of questions, ya know, about shapes and words and numbers etc.. and Tucker has really been into rhyming lately, he is always trying to rhyme things together and he is usually really good at it! So, he was, of course, showing off and he got really excited and asked her if she wanted to hear him rhyme and she said, of course! So he starts looking around the room and he said, ' Door....WHORE!' He obviously had no idea what he was talking about but we both just burst out laughing! It was the funniest thing I have ever heard. Of course, Tucker loved that so he started saying it over and over. This is going to be fun when he starts rhyming things with his own name! :)

By the way...she is already asleep, the little angel! :) i love her!

Post Edit- I think I got a little distracted when writing this and didn't mean to write that the only thing I've learned since being a mother of two is about guilt! :) While that is true, wouldn't that be sad if that were the only thing I've learned! :) I also wanted to write about how much more I've learned about love. The crazy thing about love is that it grows! I was a little nervous before I had her that I wouldn't be able to love another child like I loved Tucker. He was our whole world for over 3 years! I was so scared that having another baby would take away from him some how. But it has been amazing to me how my capacity to love has just increased and increased. There are still days where I feel guilty (read above) because I can't meet every need of both of them every day. But I sure do love them both more than I ever thought I could love!

Since we've been home...

2011-02-20T13:43:00.000-08:00

One thing I forgot to mention was the fact that this little lady decided she wanted to start crawling while we were in Hawaii! Yes, she was 11 1/2 months! :) My kids are late crawlers and walkers; they don't like to use those big ol' legs of theirs! :) My poor mother had a lot of chasing to do while she was here! :)

Superbowl fun! I thought that this cake was so cute that Kathryn made! :)

Tucker was just happy to have a big chocolate football to eat during the game. And while none of us were super excited about the game (lack of interest in the teams) we had fun eating delicious food and spending time with papa again! :) Between my dad who is like the best chef of delicious and savory foods and Kathryn who is a wonderful baker of delicious desserts, we eat like kings!

I also had to add these little things I made for my new little niece. I'm trying really hard to solidify my status as the favorite aunt to my little sisters new little one. :) I sent her some new accessories, because what girl doesn't love accessories? :)

Speaking of...And I know this isn't my news to share, but I HAD to post this picture of little Kenzie May Croskrey! She is the most beautiful baby I've ever seen! She was born on Wed. Feb.16th. We were crossing our fingers that she would wait until 12:01 to come so her and Taylor could have the same birthday, but I guess she wanted to come in her own time! Oh how I can't wait to meet her! :) Love you guys!

the day of love...

2011-02-19T16:42:00.000-08:00

Our motto for Valentines day at the Pyper house is keep it simple! As long as there is chocolate involved, I am happy! :)

Taylor woke up with her fabulous bed head and had her first chocolate-for breakfast! :)

Tucker had a little (girl)friend over to play! :) We love Kendyll!

I had seen this cute idea for valentines day cards a few years ago before Tucker even needed to make cards. But...now that he is in pre-school, I was so excited to be able to make them! :) I have since seen them on a few of my friends blogs, and think that they are so much better than going out and buying generic v-day cards! :)

You just take an exacto knife and cut a slit at the top of the hand and the bottom of the hand and slide the lolli-pop right through! So cute! :)

Taylor had a great valentines day! As usual, she was happy as long as she had food!

Holiday's are so much more fun with kids! :) I loved getting Tuckers cute little home made valentines day cards and gifts that he made for us in pre-school.

And of course, I am lucky enough to have a wonderful Valentine; going on 8 years now! I {heart} my Valentine! :)

Banana bread tradition...

2011-02-14T00:05:00.000-08:00

OK, I had to post these pictures really fast because they are so funny to me! Every single time my mom comes to visit she buys like 5 bunches of bananas! I don't even want to know how many she went through during her 11 days at our house this time! :) It makes me laugh so much. At Christmas she brought 3 bunches with her then bought 2 more while she was here. She was only here for 6 days! But she is a picky eater and has to have her bananas be the perfect color and consistency or she won't eat them. These pictures make me laugh because here we are, the day after grandma leaves, making banana bread...once again! It has become tradition that after she leaves we make a few loaves of banana bread because we have SO many bananas! :) We have done it now for the last 3-4 visits... Love you mom! :)

Luckily we love banana bread!

Tucker stopped, on his own, to give Taylor a little kiss!

Last Hawaii post...

2011-02-13T17:19:00.000-08:00

OK, I really need to stop looking at these pictures over and over and over! Ben and I have been in mourning since we've been home! It was REALLY hard to leave the island and say good bye to paradise! (and come home to freezing weather!) But I've got to get back to reality here, people! :)

Seriously though, on our way home, we were going through every scenario we could to get ourselves back to the island. Like, how can we live in Hawaii forever? hmmmm.....

I was so so so excited to get home and see my babies! 11 days gone from them was a LONG time! It was funny, we VERY purposely planned this trip just the two of us. Our friends whose house we stayed in, even called us a few months before we left and asked if they could come. Ben told them that we really wanted it to be just the two of us. And we had considered having my mom or dad fly over with the kids for the last week; but we nixed that idea as well. It was funny, though, after 4-5 days we were thinking that it would have been great to have the kids with us. Or have some friends with us. :) Now, don't get me wrong, I loved every minute of our vacation and am SO glad we got to do this without the kids, I just think that 11 days is a long time to be away from them! I found myself thinking, 'oh, Tucker would love this, or I wish I could Tucker could see this, or do this' Anyway... now we know for next time, and I really can't wait to come back here with our kids one day! They would love it! But we were so lucky to have my mom stay with the kids! Thank you Thank you Thank you mom, we are so grateful for this time we had just the two of us! What a wonderful grandma my kids have!

Anyway, here are a few more of some of my favorite pics!

On our way to dinner one night! I am a total packaholic! Seriously, 25+ different outfits for 11 days on a beach? What was I thinking?!

This is a really old/cool church downtown in Kona. We walked by it a lot and every time, I thought it was so beautiful! Hawaii is such a Christian state, I think because Christian missionaries were some of the first to settle in the islands. Anyway, there were very cool and old churches EVERYWHERE! I don't think I've even seen that many churches in the south! :)

Hiking along the water one day...

The day we hiked to Akaka falls, along the path...

On the hike down to the black sand beaches on the north shore...

Ben feeding a bird at dinner one night...

Black sand beaches...

The Lava flow fields...

It's amazing that anything can grow at all in the lava land...

The most AMAZING sunset at southpoint...

Thanks grandma, for watching the kids! Thanks to all our friends who helped by giving my mom some much needed breaks from the little ones while we were gone! We are so appreciative to everyone!

And most of all, THANKS Ben for planning the most amazing trip ever! I am SO lucky!