Going Private

I've decided it's time to go private with my blog. If you would like to continue to read the new blog, please leave a comment with your e-mail address and I will send you an invitation. I have changed the comment moderation and your e-mail address will be hidden. Thanks for visiting :)

Red Crayon

I had a nice surprise when I opened my clothes dryer today. My sweet daughter, Zaylia, left a red crayon in her shorts and most of the clothes now are speckled with red crayon! I have them soaking, but I'm afraid they will be ruined. So if you have any tips, I am all ears.

Amazing

Amazing, I'm actually posting on my blog!

We've had a busy couple of months and I finally downloaded all our pictures from the past 2 months. A few of the highlights from the past two months, starting from the most recent include:

Jazilyn's first birthday. She wasn't quite sure what to do with her cake.

Then she decided to just go for it!

Yum, I think she likes it!

Kylianne and Zaylia started dance lessons. This is Kylianne's third year and Zaylia's first year. They were both very excited!

On Labor day, our extended family went fishing at Pass Lake in the Unitas. We ate a very delicious trout dinner that night!

The girls pet a possum at the zoo.

Our visit to the zoo wasn't complete until the girls rode the carousel.

We saw this strange van on the road on the way to the zoo. I never knew there was someone who liked stuffed animals this much... hmmm, except maybe Toby. For any of you that don't already know, we have a HUGE beanie baby collection, and they are NOT mine.... (Except for the one that Toby proposed to me with, I suppose.)

Kylianne started Kindergarten!!! I still have mixed emotions about her and Kindergarten, but she absolutely loves it.

We went to Idaho for a family reunion and my sister-in-law Danae snapped these adorable pics of Jazilyn.

Kylianne had her Suzuki book one piano recital with her teacher, Grandma Shari while we were in Idaho.

Aunt Carlene playing around with some of the cousins in Idaho. We had a slip'n slide out and none of the kids knew what to do, so Carlene got to demonstrate :)

The girls had lots of fun with their grandparents, cousins and aunts and uncles in Idaho. I wish we could see them all more often.

Uh-oh, Grandma Shari locked her keys in the trailer. Kylianne came to the rescue!

Last, but certainly not least, we went camping in the Unitas for a week. We had a few sleepless nights, but it was a fun trip with lots of yummy fish!

And if anyone is actually still reading this, here's hoping my next blog post will be sooner!

Yellowstone

Our family enjoyed a quick trip to Yellowstone National Park this past weekend. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we are glad we were able to sneak away for a few days.

On Friday, we went on a 2 hikes around some of the geysers, hot springs and mud pots with our 3 little girls. That in itself was an adventure! One of the wheels on our stroller kept coming loose and at one point as we were taking the stroller up some stairs, the wheel fell off and started rolling down the stairs. Luckily someone grabbed it for us before it rolled into a boiling hot spring! We fixed the stroller and watched it a bit closer after that "incident".

It started raining during one the hikes and so I got the umbrellas out, which in hindsight was not a great idea. Many tears were shed as the girls fought over who got the hold the pink umbrella. We finally we decided that Jazilyn needed it the most, so Toby tied it onto the stroller. (I wish I would have snapped a picture of that, it was ingenious...)

Then Zaylia fell off of the front of the stroller on one of the hikes and scratched her knee, poor girl. She acted like she could barely walk and limped around until I carried her the rest of the way. Luckily we had a first aid kit in the car and we were able to make it all better with a bandaid. It must have been a magic bandaid because she was able to walk and run perfectly fine as soon as the bandaid was in place.

On Saturday, we went to the grand canyon of Yellowstone park and saw the waterfalls.

We also loved spotting the wildlife at Yellowstone. We saw many elk and buffalo and some were right next to the road! We also spotted a fox, a bald eagle, two baby deer and a few big horned sheep.

As were on our way out of the park we were lucky to spot this right next to the road...

...Yep, that's a baby grizzly bear. We had told the girls that we might get lucky and see a bear, but I highly doubted it. I am very surprised that this bear was right next to the road and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. It was a great ending to our Yellowstone adventure.

There were so many amazing sight to see, I'm sure we could have spent a week up there. It's been at least ten years since I have visited the park and I really hope we make it back there before ten years have gone by.

Waterfall

I've been itching to go a hike for a while and so Toby and I decided to head up to Waterfall canyon yesterday evening. When I put my camelbak on the straps were really loose. I wondered why for a few seconds until I realized that the last time it was used I was very pregnant with Jazilyn. It definitely has been way too long since we've been hiking!

Toby never has hiked up waterfall canyon and I haven't been up there in over 10 years. It was a nice little hike and the waterfall at the top is breathtaking. As we were hiking back, we enjoyed this beautiful sunset. The perfect ending to a great day. Hopefully we will have the chance to hike a few more mountains this summer.



Earlier in the day we took the girls swimming. Kylianne and Zaylia are so much more daring this year. They both will now jump into the deep water unassisted and that is a huge improvement from last year. They both love to do bobs and Kylianne has just about mastered the back float. Jazilyn loves the water too and wasn't too happy when it was time to go.

Rainbows

We were all doing a little bit of this

and this

last weekend at Bear Lake, when out of the blue, these "magic rainbows" appeared in the sky.

I have never seen rainbows like these before and they were beautiful and added a little extra to our trip. It was cold bear lake trip, around 60 degrees, but we had fun. The girls played in the water for a few minutes and decided after lots of shivering to just play in the sand.

We were fortunate to stay at my sister-in-laws cabin for a few days and enjoyed some much needed r&r. We were also able to spend some good times with uncle Andrew and aunt Crystal before they moved to Texas. We will surely miss them both and hope they can move back soon!!

Arson

Yesterday around noon, I was helping Kylianne with a piano lesson and noticed that many of my neighbors were out in the street. I was curious and went outside to find smoke coming out of my neighbor's house (3 doors down). I ran outside to see if there was anything I could do and was told by another neighbor that the fire department was on there way.

Then someone screamed, "She's still inside, I just saw her in the window". My heart just about stopped, there was a lot of smoke coming out and I was really worried about her. She seemed like such a nice lady. Every year she would bring around fresh produce she had grown in her garden for us and was always kind to us and the girls.

Back to the story--A couple of neighbors ran to her door and started pounding and telling her to get out. The first police woman arrived at this point and when she heard there was someone inside she beat the door down and pulled her out of the house. She started screaming and fighting the cop and wanted to go back inside. Unfortunately, she started the fire in her house by setting off fireworks in every room of the house. Apparently she had a lot of problems and was just about to have her house taken away and wanted to end it all. My heart hurts for her, it's such a sad story.

She also has 4 dogs and she had kept them in the house with her too! It just makes me sick that she wanted to take their lives as well... Luckily, all the dogs got out safely and are doing fine.

It took the fire department a good 2 hours to put the fire out and the house is pretty much destroyed.

My neighbor was charged later Saturday with arson, disorderly conduct and cruelty to animals, with possible other charges pending. I never would have thought she would do this and I feel so sorry for her.

This a pic of the fire dept trying to get control of the fire...

sleepy girls

I love snapping pics of sleepy girls, I just love how peaceful they look, especially Zaylia. Anyone who has ever been around Zaylia when she wakes up understands that she is NOT a morning person (or really anytime she wakes up). I learned a long time ago the consequences of waking her up, she can get pretty scary, so I avoid that battle at all costs...

Even though she probably still needs them, Zaylia doesn't take naps anymore (it was too hectic when Jazilyn was born and I gave up trying) but sometimes, like in this picture, she falls asleep on her own when she's watching TV.

Ah, so peaceful...


Here she is again on top of my favorite couch, she crawled up her while Toby and I were watching our guilty pleasure, American Idol. She looked pretty comfortable to me and I wanted to leave her there for the night because I really didn't want to wake her up (see above).


It looks like Jazilyn is following in her footsteps. She doesn't look very comfortable though, poor little girl.

Kylianne's dance

Kylianne's dance class recently danced at a competition. Her class won overall for her division, and Kylianne made sure everyone knew that her class was the best! She really loves to dance and is constantly twirling and prancing around the house. Zaylia would love to follow in her footsteps, so next year I will have 2 little dancers, plus Kylianne will be in kindergarten. I'm afraid my life will be a little crazier, hopefully I can handle it :)

Enjoy the video, Kylianne is on the far right.

6 months old!

Jazilyn is 6 months old! We had so much fun with her 6 month photo session. She was a great sport and gave us many cute smiles. Only at the end did she get a little annoyed. We almost did not get the main picture above. I brought the background, which is a quilt I made for Jazilyn (many, many thanks to Lori and Alison for helping!) and I really wanted a picture of her with the quilt. Jazilyn just did not want to cooperate so we almost gave up. Thanks to our favorite soothie pacifier and a very patient, fabulous photographer, we caught these cute moments.

These past 6 months had flown by and Jazi is growing so fast. I honestly couldn't ask for a sweeter baby. She sleeps so well for a 6 month old, I put her to bed by 8 and usually don't hear from her until 6 or later. I know, I am so spoiled, it is wonderful! All of my babies have been really good sleepers for the most part which really isn't fair because my mother tells me I was absolutely horrible. Sorry mom!

Jazilyn loves her big sisters, they can get her to laugh and smile easier than anyone else. She also loves our cat, Keeya. When she sees her or even if I say "there's Keeya", she gets very excited and starts kicking her legs and moving her arms. When Keeya is near, she also loves to yank out her fur. Luckily, Keeya has had practice with this kind of abuse from older sisters and just runs away if she has had enough.

Now for a funny story from tonight - Toby was feeding her some peaches and he said "Jazi, open wide, open wide, Jazi, ahhhhh" . (Now imagine Toby saying that while opening his mouth wide-lol). I think she was a little frightened because she started sobbing. It was so sad, but also so funny. Toby and I couldn't stop laughing, poor little baby girl.

Streptococci

Yeah, we get to add Strep throat to the Chadwick's list of ailments this winter! We just keep catching everything this year and it's driving me crazy. I have no idea where this one came from, but whoever it was is in big trouble!!! Luckily, just Toby and I have it and by some miracle all three girls haven't shown any sign of it, yet... So we are keeping our fingers crossed as Toby and I get rid of this awful junk.

Once there was a snowman, tall Tall TALL

Apparently, winter isn't quite satisfied and dumped on us again this week. My brother, Nate, came over and helped the girls build this tall, cowboy snowman. The girls loved playing in the snow (hopefully for the last time--come on spring!) Sad to say, this is the first snowman the girls have built. We have have had ample opportunities, but just never got around to it. Thanks to Uncle Nate, we now have a perfect snowman that in the sun will be melting, SMALL Small small.

It worked!

It looks like my spring cleaning paid off, or feels like it at least. We enjoyed an absolutely beautiful day yesterday. The weather man reported a record high of 66 degrees, which felt amazing!

It was warm enough to open the windows up and go outside to play. The girls were very excited to ride their bikes even though Zaylia refused to ride her new "big-girl bike". She can't quite figure out the pedals and wanted to stick with the 3 wheeler, little stinker. We'll have to work on that one later.

We also cooked up some delicious abc burgers (avocado bacon cheese) outside on the grill, yum! It's too bad that this weather won't stick around much longer. The weather man is predicting rain and snow until next Tuesday, bummer. I guess that means I need to get going on some more spring cleaning...

Now for a story about the picture, don't we have an amazing view? I sure think so! I once stood on the very peak of the mountain pictured above. Now that was an incredible experience. I would post a picture but it was about 11 years ago and I'm not exactly sure where those pictures are... I guess I'll just have to take more! I am planning on making that hike again this summer with Toby, so when we do, I'll post the pictures.

I love these beautiful mountains I get to see everyday. I love all the changes that come with the seasons, the white snow in the winter, the green in the spring and summer and the vivid red, orange and yellow in autumn. I have never lived anywhere without mountains and I feel like they are a part of me and my identity. I'll even admit that whenever I visit a place without mountains, I feel a little homesick for them.

Spring Cleaning

Toby surprised me with an elliptical for Valentines day! I have wanted one for quite some time and I am super excited to use it. We needed a place for it and decided on the "Bronco room" (aka Toby's junk room). We spent Toby's day off cleaning, de-junking and organizing the room so it would fit. It took some time - that room is filled with a lot of pretty much useless junk as Toby has a really hard time throwing things away. Come to think of it, that's probably why Toby is pretty much amazing at fitting more stuff in spaces than I would ever think possible. And that is also why Toby is always responsible for packing, he can always find a way to fit twice as much as I ever could.

We are almost finished with the room, a bit more organizing and the room will be perfect. The elliptical now has a home and I promised myself that I will use it everyday (at least I'll try).

I'm in spring cleaning mood now, and I want to get everything else cleaned, de-junked and organized! I am hoping that by doing a bit more spring cleaning, spring might just decide to show up soon. It has warmed up a bit (I think we made it to 45 degrees today), and I sure am excited for warmer weather. I feel like we have been cooped up for quite a while, and I've been a bit anxious with our new baby and all the junk that's going around. Our cute little nephew, Kaiden, landed himself in the hospital last week with RSV. He is home now and doing much better, but I feel even more paranoid than usual. I feel like my girls have caught everything this winter, another reason I am ready for spring!

When it rains it pours

Today started out as a wonderful day. We went down the the Draper Temple open house and it was absolutely beautiful. It was a nice and organized tour and I am glad I was able to take the girls to see it. It's open until the middle of March, so if you have a chance, I highly recommend visiting.

So after the visit, Toby now wants to move to Draper lol. Hmmm, maybe someday, maybe not? It is a beautiful city, with every retail store you could imagine and the houses around the temple are amazing!!! That's another reason to go on the tour--to see all of the huge houses up by the temple, too bad we'd never be able to afford one...

I have a lot of great memories from Draper. My grandpa Adamson grew up in Draper and when I was a little girl we often visited my great grandmother Stella in Draper. I also have loved hearing many great stories from my grandpa about his childhood in Draper. (He always has a great story to share.)

After the temple, we met up with our friends Andy and Gretchen and their 3 little boys at the Mayan restaurant and had a great time catching up with them.

So onto the woes of the day....

It was cold in our house when we got home. There is a thermometer on Jazilyn's baby monitor and it said 65 degrees!!!! So I turned up the furnace and it wouldn't turn on. I am really hoping it is an easy fix and we don't need a new furnace! I have a couple of space heaters that I use for the basement, so we'll be okay for now. But add the deep freezer that stopped working on Sunday and the "garage door incident" from a couple weeks back and I want to scream!!! If one more thing breaks in the house, so help me.....

Happy Birthday Kylianne!

Five years ago, I was priveldged to hold my new sweet little baby girl in my arms. Five years later, I still feel so lucky to have Kylianne for a daughter. She is such an amzing little person, so full of energy and love and as sweet as little girls come. I cherish every minute I get with her and it makes me cry to see her growing, it goes by way too fast!!!


Yesterday we celebreated her 5th birthday, princess style. The requested cake was a pink princess castle and the gift she wanted more than anything was a pink tiara! I love this princess stage--it so much fun!

Toby found the cutest set of pink golf clubs and just had to give them to Kylianne for her birthday, looks like he just got himself a new golf buddy!

Kylianne has been looking forward to this day for a very long time. She asked me on Zaylia's birthday (Dec 14) how many days she had until her birthday, and she has counted down everyday since. When she woke up this morning she showed me how much taller she was and informed me that she was also much smarter now that she was five. She also asked if she got to go to school now. Not quite yet, just six short more months and I will be sending her off to Kindergarten. I am NOT looking forward to that, I'll have to get the Kleenex box ready for that day. I love having Kylianne around and I'm not looking forward to that day...

So we don't leave the other cute girls out, here's a couple pics of Zaylia and Jazilyn taken at the party.

OUCH!

Poor Toby. Today he was trying to be a great handyman and was fixing our garage door. While I was helping him, he came across one of those "warning-do not remove" tags. I thought he read it, but I guess I was wrong. A few minutes later, while I was inside, I heard a huge crash--I ran to the garage and found him with a bunch of huge cuts on his arm. He found out later that the warning tag said not to tamper with spring (the part that turns and pulls the garage up and down) or any part of the garage door it is attached too because it can cause serious injuries... While the cuts are not bad enough for stitches, it looks like they really hurt. I feel bad for him and I'm very glad it wasn't any worse.

The funny part--When he was wallowing in pain he wondered if he'd still be able to play guitar hero. Well, it sounds like he hasn't had much of a problem there.

So the moral of the story--those warning-do not remove tags are there for a reason...

I am sick of having sick kids!

So we really haven't had a great start to 2009, medically at least. It's been one thing after the other and I really hope we aren't starting a trend for the new year. It all started with Kylianne and the stye in her eye. I've never had a stye and neither have any of the kids, so naturally I was a bit concerned and took her in. Easy treatment, just eye drops for a few days. A few days later, Kylianne's other eye got really pink and apparently she had pink eye which meant more eye drops.

A few days after that Zaylia's eyes started to get pink and puffy and what do you know. I found out that putting eye drops in a 3 year old's eyes takes some creativity. She decided really quickly that she did not like them at all.

Of course we couldn't stop there and Jazilyn's eyes started to get pink too. More eye drops, which were a lot easier because she could not get away, but she did not like them at all. I felt so bad when she cried because of the drops.

After that, Kylianne's throat started to get sore, and Toby's throat had been bugging him for a few days so I sent them in to the doc (again) for a throat culture, hoping it would be something besides the dreaded virus. (You know when you go to the doc and wait for a hour to be seen in a waiting room full of who knows what kind of germs and then told it's a virus, get lots of rest and fluids, grrrr.) Toby had been gone for a couple hours and I was getting worried so I called and Kylianne was getting a chest x-ray and they were worried she had pneumonia and were talking about admitting her into the hospital!!!!! I felt like a complete failure as a mother, you think I would know if my kid had pneumonia. After the x-ray they said it was borderline bronchiolitis/ pneumonia and we were sent out to get a nebulizer, 3 different prescriptions and told to keep her away from the other kids. After 2 more visits to the the doc, her lungs are clean and the other girls show no signs of breathing problems. So hopefully we stopped that one clean in its tracks.

But that's not all folks--Just last Saturday morning I woke up to find Zaylia had the stomach flu. Then it got passed on to Toby and now poor little Jazilyn has it. I feel so bad for her, poor thing. She is being a sweetheart about it though and still seems relatively happy.

Now I am just really, really, really hoping that doesn't get passed on to Kylianne and I. I sure have been lucky, I feel great and am very happy I haven't caught any of this junk yet. The lack of sleep these last couple weeks, however has been a bit annoying.

So for now I have the kids on quarantine, nothing in nothing out.

Here's to hoping we can get healthy and hoping all of you out there in cyberland haven't caught this junk.....

Thank Goodness for Circuit Breakers

Zaylia (aka miss mischievous)

Plus

the penny daddy gave her to put in the penny jar

Plus

the nightlight in her room (do you like the pink walls?)

Equals

Needless to say, I am very glad my house is still standing. When I showed Toby, he couldn't believe the penny and the plug had actually started melting . He was fascinated. At this point he went on to tell me quite a few stories about what he did to outlets when he was a little boy. I think I know where she got it from and now I am a little worried about what is in store...