Homeschool Convention/Beach Day

After being married to Kyle for 9 years I am starting to figure him out. So when I really want to go to a 2 day conference listening to homeschool speakers and checking out curriculum I have learned to speak his language. "Honey, do you want to go with me to a homeschool conference and then we can go to the beach the next day"? Of course, he said yes. We took classes on teaching children to serve, organization, Essays vs. Reports and so many other great topics. It was a refreshing time for us to rethink why we homeschool and get excited about the upcoming year. Oh and we got to go to El Burros for dinner!

Then the next day Kyle got his day in the sun and we went with both of my sister's families to the beach and had a great time! It was such a treat to be with them. Here are just a few of the many pictures of our day.

Adia has always LOVED the beach!
BFF's Avery and Lauren


Daddy enjoyed trying to teach Kenyon to skim board.

Princess Adison had a great time.


Kaden enjoyed it as long as he was next to me and far from the waves. He is our first kid to not totally LOVE the ocean! Bummer!

This picture was so cute I had to include it but really he had a great time and spent most of the day looking for food. I'm not sure if he ate more sand or food but regardless he loved it!

Lunch Time!

Auntie Tata was so fun and dug a big hole for the kids to play in!

Brookie has gone with me to the beach so many times in her life and she always spends the day wrapped in a towel complaining she is cold. For some reason though each time we go she thinks she is going to like it.

Little Erin belongs in my family. She LOVES the beach and isn't afraid of the water at all.

BFF's Erin and Adison

Hopefully someday these guys will be BFF's too.

DJ & Kenyon both had a great time but totally enjoy different things!

DJ was excited to learn how to "Buggie Board"

and some other cool tricks too.

And of course on our way home we stopped at Pizza my Heart for dinner and a to check out another beach. The kids looked so cute waiting for the pizza!


And this is my BEAUTIFUL Lauren on the way home with us. I snapped this picture in the car because sometimes her beauty catches me so off guard. Wow!

Baby Kaden is 2!

Kaden John is 2!

(Oh no!)

Talking - not too much. he can say a bit but chooses to keep his words to himself.

Favorite Activities - his all time favorite is riding his razor followed by a close second which is swinging. Whenever we go anywhere with his scooter he draws a crowd by how good at it he is. In fact last weekend some man we don't know was snapping pictures of him on the razor and later came up and quized me about him.

Potty Training - We began it a bit ago due to the fact that Kaden takes off his own poopy diapers at times and even tries to flush them but we quickly learned it is more work than I am willing to give it right now.

Favorite People - He is such a mommies boy right now and I LOVE it! He thinks his brother is the funniest person ever. He adores his dad, Adia and Avery and if I'm not there will let any of them rock him to sleep or kiss his wounds. And as for him and Adison. Well he doesn't enjoy her constant mothering but they are the best of buddies a bit of the time! :)

Foods: Kaden is proving to be a spoiled little baby and can be very picky at times. Peanut butter trails are all over my house right now becasuse of his obsession with it. Other than that pasta, sugar anything, cheese, cereal and pizza seem to be his favorites!

Sleeping: Well he has been in a big boy bed for some time now. He takes his naps and goes to bed well but about 99% of the time he ends up cuddling with mom by 3am. I don't have the heart to send him back because he is my last baby and he's the last one I get to do this with.

Here he is with his favorite bday gift this year!

I'm including this picture because it shows him outside where he is happiest, you can see his razor on the edge of the lawn and his favorite little ducks who we have spent the last month raising.

You can see the joy this swing brings him every single day! Sometimes for hours!

And here he is crying because he snapped himself with the hat.

Happy Birthday KJB!

Mommy Loves you so much!

Avery Taylor is 7!

This precious little baby turned 7 last week!

As usual trying to write my feelings as of now is too much emotionally so I will steal from her journal. Below was written with love on April 21, 200

Avery Taylor

A piece of heaven, a glimpse of God's love,

a beautiful daughter sent to me from above!

Watching you develop this 1st year of your life

has been so rewarding & exciting to see!

Personality plus is what you are. Your a bundle of joy

and the definition of the phrase "ball of energy".

You started crawling way too soon

& walked before the books say you should.

Everything so far has been at high speed

just like we should have known that it would.

I've watched you get mad so many times

& bang your sweet head on the floor.

You cry every time daddy leaves to go to work

Oh, the sadness you feel over a closed door!

Those 2 front teeth that stick out of your gums

& that wonderful pucker face I just adore.

The way you bounce on your sisters bed

& that squill you release as a sign of pure joy!

I've enjoyed watching you climb on everything

even though all you hear me say is "Avery no".

The stairs just outside and the stool in the kitchen

even the ladder to Adia's bed that finally had to go.

Those are some of the things I enjoyed seeing this year

and why I'm so entertained by the challenge of you.

You've brought so me so much joy and are such a precious gift

I can't to see what Avery my 1 year old will learn to do!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Mommy loves you more than you know!

Here are a few pictures of the Avery I was writing about...

at birth...

Meeting big sister...

Ready to go home...

Hanging out with dad...

Climbing on her favorite piece of furniture...

Time sure flies! Here she is with her 1st baby brother!

And here she is now... my little girl is getting so big!

I LOVE YOU AVERY!

(even though you have a crazy temper and some major attitude these days!)

Look What I Got Today

I really like this picture... it shows her personality so well!

I so enjoy being a volleyball mom and look forward to many more years being this little girls biggest fan!

Crazy Kaden

Here is my little man in action... he is so coordinated. It's amazing how much the little ones learn just by watching. Isn't he cute!

Baby Shower Bliss

This past weekend I had the privelage of hosting a baby shower for my dear friend Stephenie. She is due pretty soon to have her 2nd baby girl and I was so excited when she said I could do this for her. In the first 3 years of our marriage I hosted about 15 showers and since we have moved here this is the first one I have done. It turned out SO CUTE and for those of you who know me well you know "cuteness" is always my goal! Plus I am super lucky to have a wonderful party loving, party genius kind of friend named Glory who helped me out with the details and helped a ton. Oh and it extra helped that her daughter had a birthday party the day before that just so happened to be using the same color scheme so of course I got lucky with some of those things too. Also I have to give myself credit here for doing the cutest and the cheapest shower I have ever done all in one party. I was very resourceful (aka borrowed a lot and made a lot).

Now before I show you all the pictures you have to know that I saw a blog post awhile back to the theme of "she's going to POP" and have wanted an excuse to improve on it for since I saw it. Well, this was my chance.

This was on thw wall at the entrance to my house and everyone signed it after the shower for a scrapbook page for baby Railey...

Here is the table at a glance. It's actually turned here for good lighting but this is what you saw as you walked in...

The party POPcorn (it was all themed around this) and you can see on the sides the buckets used to serve it...

Here are some of the goodies...

and the drinks...

Party decor (& my gift to her)...

Party people...

Party favors...

Although for the sake of my blog I am focusing on the party details I have to be honest that in the end I look back at that day as a special day with some great friends. I really do feel so blessed to have such a great group of girls in my life! When I moved here I felt so alone for so long and now I feel surrounded by close friends who I really love and appreciate so much!

Soccer Star

We got Avery on an indoor league for soccer and once again we are enjoying watching our little star in action. Most of the girl out there are 7 & 8 and she keeps up just fine and even stands out! Last week she had her first attempt at goalie and she did so good! Seriously I had at least 5 parents (some from the other team) come up to me at different times to ask about her.

The pictures are taken through a glass wall so don't mind all the reflections...

#9's my girl!

She is always so intense!

And of course sometimes she messes up. She just missed the ball...

Last week she took a really hard fall and popped up super quickly. After the game my mom asked her how she got up so quick to which she replied "grandma, in soccer it is all about the ball".

Oh and let's not forget that she has the cutest fans!

...of course since they are so little she had to make a sign for them to hold for her!