home again...

Well home for a few days til it's no longer home. yuck. I don't love moving or huge changes...but it will be a good one for us. The house is coming right along and we are hoping to be moved in by Halloween (so Amy & Jared have a place to stay ;) Our Rammell family trip to Cali was awesome and more pics to follow asap. I had to post this picture of our girlies. They both look like their dads in this pic, I think! Mini Mike & Mini Andy? what do you think?

moving.

I hate moving. Ok, I try not to say hate around my kids...I really dislike moving. As exciting as this whole thing is, it is work. Now that I think about it, maybe most of you don't know that we are moving. Well, we are--not too far away, though. It will be a good change for us and I am anxious to have it all over and done. Mostly excited to stop walking around boxes in my kitchen and family room :) and stop having anxiety at night about decisions that I've made in the other house {we are remodeling}. most of all I need to get some new pics up so I can get the "stringy hair" picture off this blog. I am sorry you all had to see it for so long. After this whole moving hoopla, I will make a concerted effort to actually do my hair on a regular basis. yikes.

Star Student

Our sweet Payton was star student of the week last week. The letter of the week was appropriately "P" and he was so excited. We got to make a fun poster all about him and Mike and I even got to go to lunch with him in the lunchroom, which was fun for all of us. Friday all the kids wrote a page for him and they compiled them all into a little book...he was thrilled. Each page was about the same, cute picture of Payton drawn by each kid, the date, and "Payton is...nice. smart. cool." It is cute and he loves it. His teacher said he kept asking all week when the kids were going to make his book. We chatted with her at lunch and after clearing up some concerns she had about Mike {rumor has it he is going to train to BE a UFC fighter for 6 MONTHS...funny} she was really nice and complimentary of Payton :) She said she just loves him and he is a great student. He is learning a lot, brings home TONS of work from school...including many drawings (I am including a picture of one because I thought it was so funny...it's a drawing of bats if you were wondering) and really doesn't mind his homework so much. We love our star student!

4 months of high maintenence

I finally got Avery into her pediatric "well check" and she is "well". Actually, after four months of having an appropriate nick name of "high maintenance"...I am pleased to say that she has turned a leaf and has become a chubby, happy baby. She is a joy to me, I love to squeeze her! Thought I'd give a little update of what she's up to these days. She has officially found her feet and she loves to grab them and stick them in her mouth {see photo}. I think it's so cute. She grabs for toys and sits up so great in her bumbo. She is smiling and talking, laughing and cooing...all those cute baby things. She is also slobbering like crazy. Hoping that ends soon. She is sleeping better all the time and starting to lay down and put herself to sleep. Still loves her binky, pulls it in and out of her mouth, drops it most of the time. She is exhausted by about 8:30 at night...she basically falls asleep in my arms if I don't get her to bed soon enough. That is nice to have a few hours with all the children asleep. She is 13 pounds of love with a slightly flat head on one side :)(why do they tell you things like that? rude. It totally freaked me out) that I am anxiously engaged in trying to correct!! She loves her brother & sister and her daddy. But I think I am her favorite. I feel bad for this third little child...she just has to be dragged all over, in her car seat the majority of the day, no real naps. She is a good sport though, love her to pieces. If you are all wondering why we ocassionally refer to her as "gangsta"...here's the story. Mike has a way of making nick names stick and it has... he turned her bow to the side of her head one day and started calling her "gangsta aves" and then the kids made up a song about it and we all sing it often :) "Gangsta, Gangsta Aves...I'm so pretty I have to say...Gangsta" {repeat endlessly} Anyways...love you Avery girl!

my baby

Ok, so this is out of the blue...Avery doesn't look like this anymore! She is officially 4 months old but that's beside the point. I had a goal to be in bed at 9 like the rest of this family, but I sat and wasted time for another hour or more. I have been playing a bit on the website I mentioned before {and because you all asked so nicely... picnik.com} It is kind of fun and since I have started the photoshop "how to" lessons about 30 times and had to stop to attend to little naughties, this will have to do for now. I played with this pic of Avery...she's a sweet little one. Miss snuggling that little body but I sure am enjoying her giggles and chubby legs. She is happy and a sweet bald little girl.

update pics

Here's a few pics to update the world on what we've been up to. And I have been trying my hand on photo editing website my sis in law told me about!

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Seems as though my husband and this man, BJ Penn, are bound to be life long "bradas"...that is if Mike survives his two weeks of training. Yes, he won the shadowboxing contest and will be going to Hilo, Hawaii to train. Only my husband, that's for sure :) Anyways, thanks to all who voted. I am nervous, I think Mike is too. Maybe that's why he's in the garage training as we speak :) Loves!

chip off the old block?

LOL (laugh out loud)

Just a few things today that have made me smile and literally laugh out loud. First, most of you know we have 3 kids now...yes, 3. And needless to say I will be investing in a mini van asap. I have realized that I am officially "that mom"...the one who is running around crazy trying to get things accomplished, dropping kids off in every direction. It's exhausting! But it's fun and what else would I be doing if I wasn't? I won't answer that because I can think of about one hundred things :) This is what I am supposed to be doing and really, what I enjoy. These kids are such a joy to me. So back to my laughing out loud. I walked past my little calendar in my kitchen this morning and realized that it is still set up as "MAY"!!! That just goes to show when the world went crazy. Thanks in majority to our new little bundle. And I went to change it and said, forget it...I'll wait til September! And then Sydney Kate, what a girl she is. She practiced jumping off the side into the deep end with her dad so she could do it at swimming lessons off the diving board without crying and then go straight to the store to pick any prize she wants. This goes to show that bribery works because she didn't cry today and jumped off twice. Yes, that means I bought 2 prizes...what can I say, I am a push over. So, she chose Giselle & Robert dolls from "Enchanted". Ok, so now "McDreamy" is around our house and every time I look at him, I just have to laugh because it really looks like him and I'm embarassed to say it makes me excited for Greys to start up again! He is a cutie. And so I'm off to bed (with visions of Dr. Shepherd dancing in my head) :)

Hawaii or Bust!

THANKS to all who voted for this silly competition...thanks to you he's #1 and now in the top twenty. So if you have a second, vote one more time and see if he can win this thing already!

Viva Montana!

Mike & I were invited to go spend a few days in Montana with a bunch of couples. It was glorious. My mom came to watch P & S and we took Avery. A big thanks to my mom who took such good care and even got Payton through his first week of Kindergarten. The trip was so relaxing and nice. The atmosphere was just beautiful and so comfortable. And the views out our door were breathtaking. Avery was such a good girl. She loved riding on the boat, it put her right to sleep (we did that a lot ;) and the company was very fun and entertaining. The food was out of this world, really. A big thanks to the Tanner family...
HIGHLIGHTS:
Allegient airlines and the entertaining (though expensive) raffle & dollar game
Our lake suite
Cherry orchards and delicious "ranier" cherries
Taking the boat to dinner & the awesome sunsets
Francis the masseuse
Pizzas in the outdoor oven, delicious pizza sauce & Pizookies with homemade ice cream.
The olympics
The name game
The soda fountain with the best DP ever!
Brannon's entertaining stories and just plain funny self
Watching Mike chase the chickens
Waterslide down the mountain and water that comes from the "earth"...it was freezing!
Spending one on one time with my sweet Aves
Ben & Jerry's
Meeting new people

Hope you enjoy the pics. It really is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

Here's to..

here's to my sweet Payton on his first day of Kindergarten. Oh, he looked so handsome this morning and he was so excited as he tore the last link from his paper chain! Mike and I took him over this morning and pulling past the junior high, he could see lots of cars and kids and parents and he said "wow, this looks kinda scary." But he was fine, didn't even bat an eye when we left him at the classroom. We are so proud of our little, well sort of getting big, guy. He will do so great. LOVE YOU!

Home Sweet Home

Well, back to reality. AZ actually is a nice place to be and there's nothing like your own bed. It was hard to want to leave our wonderful time in Idaho. And lucky lucky me, I got to stay in Utah for 5 days with Avery and just hang out with my family. It was awesome. Kate & I tended babies and hung out with mom and dad. I just loved that time. AND to top it all off, my husband wins an award. He took Payt, Sis and Max to California for the week...even took them to Disneyland. What a trooper! And he even had a good attitude about it. I don't know where I got him, but I sure like him :) I miss my Kate & Arleigh that's for sure. I never knew how much fun it would be to have babies together, me and my sis. She sure is the best friend a girl could have. We got the girls pictures together, we'll see how they turn out. Officially, I do not want twins! It was hard to get them to cooperate...one was either bawling or sleeping or hungry at all times. Oh, and also got to go have lunch with all the Larsen cousins, so fun. These pics are just random shots...the family pic is at Mike's lame 30th birthday party, one of "Aves & Arls" as Sydney calls them, and my girls in their pink tutus that my mom and I made them. hope you enjoy.

Avery & Arleigh Blessing Day

July 6th was a special day around here. We had so much family here to support us as we blessed our sweet babies. Mike and Andy both did a beautiful job and it was such a pleasure to share this day together. I was so thrilled to have all of my living grandparents there and several aunts, uncles, cousins, friends. Though we missed our Andrew, Jenna & Jared! It was just a beautiful day and I hope one that these little peas will look back on and know how special they are. Kate is such a sweet little mom, she loves that girl to pieces and Andy is equally as head over heals. I am just grateful for my many blessings...and so thankful to have Avery in our family.