Halloween

Just a few pictures of the girls for this Halloween. Taylor was a girl from Monster High-Frankie Stein, Rylie was the BEST Fancy Nancy in the world, Camryn was a Spider Fairy, and Pyper was a princess.

Garth likes to get in the spirit of Halloween and scare people! :) He stayed out in the yard and scared the few kids who came to our door. Good thing it was a pretty nice night so he didn't freeze.

My "costume" came from Liz and the wonderful internet. It was pretty darn cute. Everyone loved it!

We were able to visit Grandpa and Grandma and see all the cousins who live in town. I think Pyper had the best time! :) She was always the first to say "Ticker Treat!" And always said thank you. It was pretty cute and she was so excited about it. Her ticker treat bucket goes with us almost everywhere. :)

First Day of School

So this year i just sent Taylor and Rylie off to school without much fan fair. I forgot to take their picture that morning and I didn't even walk them in. I did tell them that I loved them, but that was it. Really I don't feel too bad about the not walking them in bit, because they didn't seem to care or notice and it's a little tricky with the other two in the car. But I did get a picture of them by the third day of school. They wear uniforms so I think I'm still okay missing the first. :)

I did get Camryn's first day of preschool.

...and her second,

...and her third. :)

When I dropped her off on her first day, I almost cried!! It was kind of tricky. My eyes started to sting and get a little watery so I walked out before it turned into a full out cry. Camryn was brave and got her journal and sat down at the table to color. When I went to pick her up, her teacher asked if I leave her much. I told her, "No, no I don't. Which is why I almost cried this morning when I droppped her off." Well, Camryn had a little melt down during the pledge (she calls it the judge) and wanted her mom. But she calmed down after a bit and was okay for the rest of the day. She hasn't had a problem since. My only problem is that she thinks she needs to wear a dress to be beautiful. The kids at school won't think she's beautiful if she doesn't have a dress on. I don't know if we can keep this up. Notice the dance tutu with the leggings on the third day of school picture. We had to get creative because I needed to do laundry. I need to go through the bins downstairs and figure out what I might have in the dress department. One day we went over to my friends house, whose little boy is her "boyfriend" and she about had a melt down because I wouldn't let her change out of her clothes into a dress. She said Tage wouldn't think she was beautiful in her shirt and shorts. When we came home she did tell me that Tage didn't even care that she wasn't in a dress. :) She is funny.

Pain

So it's 4:15 in the am. I've been up since a bit before 3. I am in so much pain!!. Last Saturday, I sneezed and hurt myself in the worst way. It has not been pleasant. I keep hoping the swelling will go down and I can move like a normal person, but that hasn't happened yet. I take Tylenol, but I swear it doesn't even touch the pain. Not enjoyable. The worst part of the whole deal is last Saturday I did 2 Tae Bo classes with Mr. Billy Blanks himself and felt really good afterward. Not too tired and my body didn't feel very sore by Saturday night. But then a sneeze knocks me to the ground. It really stinks. And really hurts. It's hard to be the mom when you can't move very well and every step hurts. When it's normal people time today, I have to get some laundry done and do a bit more grocery shopping, oh joy. But who else is there to get it done? (I'm husbandless, the HUNT is going on right now.)
All I have to say is that this better go away!!! I don't have time to feel like this. Dance starts next week and I am the teacher. I have to be able to move, get up and down from the floor, and all that jazz. Right now it's not looking so good.
Are boys really worth all this trouble? My girls never put me through so much pain! I had other issues just last month that caused me great pain. I have a little more that 10 weeks to go and I hope my body can survive it. I also hope it goes by quickly, but I know it won't, it never does. This is why it's insane to have a bazillion kids, your body falls apart!!! :)

August

Happy August everyone. August means school and school shopping, new dance schedules and getting organized for the coming school/dance year. But August also means memories for me. We have 2 dates in August that are tricky ones to "celebrate".
Two years ago we spent the majority of August in Salt Lake between my parents place and Primary Children's Hosptal. I wouldn't change that summer for anything.
Today I'm making pumpkin cookies with the girls. We made pumpkins cookies for one of the lemonade stands we did for Vittoria. Of course I think of Vittoria often, but August is the hardest with the 2 year mark of her death and the birthday we celebrate with her in a special way. I love you Vittoria and miss you very much. Life continues to go forward, but I always think of the way things would be a little different if you were here with us physically. To James and Val, I love you both very much too. Keep moving forward, because I think that's all we can do.
So, I'm going to eat a pumpkin cookie, pour me a class of lemonade and look at a few pictures. I might even have myself a good cry, but that's okay.
I love you Vittoria!!

Blog Blah

To blog or not to blog, that is the question. And it looks like it's been - to not blog - lately. Since that the computer is downstairs it makes is harder to blog because I don't go downstairs. Now if someone or many people would like to come to my place and work on my basement, I wouldn't object and then I'd have more of a reason to be downstairs.... The family room would be finished and the playroom done so we would hang out down here. But, until then, we'll have to make a conscious effort to come down stairs. Side Note-if anyone really would like to help with the basement, the baby gets here in the middle of Nov. and I'd love to have another room done down here. Just sayin'. ;)
So, here's a little post to keep things updated, sort of. Things are good at our house. School stars in a few weeks and that means dance gets back into motion. I'm praying for more students this year, like always, but only having positive thoughts this year. I'm hoping it works. I have a few new teachers to add to my studio and that should put me there a little less or at least my girls there not so often because Taylor is a great babysitter!!
Our little man gets here in November. We're still planning for 11-11-11. If he's early, I won't mind a bit. I have a total of 1 outfit for him and 2 pair of jammies. He's set for the ride home from the hospital and that's it. A boy at my house! CRAZY! But it will be wonderful.
There's plenty more to update on, but that makes for a long post! So, here's a picture just for fun - Dance Technica at the parade last weekend.

Word Verification

So I've always wondered what is the word verification people have to enter when they leave a comment. I think about it every time I leave a comment on someone's blog.
So please, what is your word verification? Do I even have it on my blog? Oh, just checked, I do. :)

New

Since we haven't seen some of our family members in a while, here are some of the "new" things at our house...
Taylor got her hair chopped!!! She has been waiting for this lovely event for at least 8 months. Usually I let her cut it every other year after the dance recital. This past year I asked her to wait until the college did their Locks Of Love event at cosmetology. Well, I waited to hear information about the event and didn't hear or see a thing about it so I had a friend cut her hair. Taylor LOVES it. Side note - found out the Cosmetology department did their big thing this Saturday. Not too happy about that. They sent home info to all the schools but the one my girls go to. Sweet. Not happy at all. We stopped by the cosmetology department and I let them know I wasn't too pleased about it, dropped off Taylor's hair -over 16 inches worth- and they let my girls get manicures. But Taylor missed out on all the other fun stuff they did for those who donated their hair. grrr Next time I guess. Rylie wants to grow her hair out and Taylor will grow hers again. :)

And this "new" thing is for Mary - I still don't like having my picture taken so much, but I've lost a little weight lately and the other night Mary bugged me enough on facebook to get me to post a picture of myself. So here it is Mary,
Now, I still have plenty more to go. My hope is that by the end of March I can lose 10 more pounds and go down one more clothes size. I'm pretty darn happy about my progress though. It's very exciting. I haven't been this size since 2005-2006. And really, I'm probably in better shape this time around too. I workout 3 or 4 times a week and eat SO much better. My friend and I are planning to do a 5k this summer too. Who would have thought I'd want to run a 5k?

So, I've gone from this - hiding behind my kids......to this

And because they wanted their picture taken too. Here are my girls. (Pyper was taking her MUCH needed after church nap.)

The Basement

Here it is folks - the few rooms that are finished.

Taylor has been waiting and waiting for her room to be finished. Well, on Saturday the carpet was finally installed! She (and me too) was so excited about it. She just laied on the floor and rubbed her hand over the carpet. :) Sunday Taylor was sick so we didn't do anything more down there.

Here are pics of the office. It needs to be put together, but you get the idea.

Yesterday Garth and I got the dresser from the warehouse and put the head board up in Taylor's room. Today I got her bed skirt and tonight Taylor and I made her bed. So guess where she's sleeping tonight...in her room!!!
One HAPPY girl! We still have plenty to do in there to really get her set, but this is all she needs for now.

So there you have it. A new post and pictures of the basement. Don't fall over, I'll try to be better. But I make no promises.

And because I have beautiful kids :)
and this picture with Aunt Vale is cute. :)
These are pictures from Christmas break. No pictures from the cabin for quite a while now. VERY sad. VERY big mess. VERY depressing.