My life the past year.

It's crazy how life changes.  I haven't blogged on this blog for a year!  It's make me sad that I haven't recorded some of the events and posted pictures of cute Remington growing up!   He is a handsome boy now - 15 months.   He signs and is starting to say a few words.   Cadence is doing amazing in 1st grade and Cooper is loving his pre-school.  

I have been busy building a business with Paparazzi Accessories.   It has been good for us financially.  It does take time and requires sacrifice, but that comes with every business or job.   I guess it is better than going back to teaching full-time.  I've been very successful with this cute $5 jewelry and feel very blessed to be in the position I am in.  I have a big team and I do a lot of parties.  So I make money both through selling and leading a team.  

This is me at the convention in Las Vegas.  Because of my rank in the company, I had to walk the runway.  It's totally not my thing, but I made it fun and was silly.  So sense in being serious!

The next couple of months will be busy for me.  I guess it is good that Chris isn't working right now because I will be out of town for about 12 days this month.  I'm doing the Ultimate Women's Expos in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles. It is crazy how life changes.

If anyone wants a party, let me know.  I can do one or I can refer it out to one of my team members.   If  you know anyone who is looking to earn some extra cash or build a profitable business, the commission is 45% and it is still a new company!

You can read about becoming a consultant on my Paparazzi Accessories and Jewelry site.  I will be opening my website back up for selling it soon,  You can buy some great $5 presents at Jewelry For Five.

Remington is Two Months!!! (And his Birth Pictures)

I'm sitting here in shock because I took Remington to his 2-month appt. today! My tiny, precious newborn is two months old!!!! He's as healthy as a horse and gaining a lot of weight (12 lbs. 6 oz). I'm grateful for a healthy baby who is so so so easy going and good. That makes life much easier. He loves to be held and wants to be around people (especially me)! I'm in love!

We will be blessing Remington in our church in Sunday. I'm excited to see him in his dapper white tuxedo. I'll have to post some pictures next week!

I realize that I never have posted his adorable infant pictures. My friend, Tina, of Pristine Photo took them! I think they turned out great!

This is my favorite picture. Cooper, my three year old, loves tractors and trucks. I grabbed this Tonka on the way out the door as we were going to the photo shoot. I was hoping he would fit in the back! He DID! Barely!!!

Tina bought this 100 year old baby buggy a few days before the photo shoot! It is a great prop! We got so many cute ones of Remington in the buggy. Most of them are up closer, but I just had to have one of the entire buggy!

I learned quite a few photography tricks while Tina shot the photos. I love head shots of babies resting on their hands! What a handsome boy!

My kids' favorite photo was when Remington decided to pee right after this shot. Let's just say he sprung a major leak up in the air and Tina caught it on camera! So funny!

I got 30 awesome pictures of Baby Remington! You can see a few more HERE. I'm grateful for the 2 hours that Pristine Photo took capturing the perfect poses of my precious 8-day-old baby! With my first two kids, I just got the 30-minute session at JC Penney. While I liked the pictures, I really wish I would have gotten some amazing pictures like these! I love Pristine Photo and highly recommend Tina for any and all your photography needs!

Here is Cooper and Remington and Cadence now! At two months, Remington is alert, interacting, starting to smile and coo, and the center of our universe! We love having a baby at our house.

He is such a sweet little monkey! We love you, Remington!

See Me Give Birth!!!!

Have I ever mentioned that I am very blessed?

Well, to make a long story short, I was in the right place at the right time and was offered something I couldn't refuse. A very kind stranger photographed Remington being born so I could have pictures of this amazing experience forever. These are just a few of the 400 photos she took. More touching than the photos is the slide show she put together to the perfect song. I've watched it at least 50 times and I still cry tears!

Please experience the joy and happiness our family has felt for the past 3 weeks by watching Remington's birth story. Don't worry, it is classy and doesn't show anything that would embarrass me.



Go to Jada Love Photography. Go HERE and type in "remington." (Under client login.) Grab a tissue and watch.


Then to show my appreciation and your appreciation for this beautiful gift, go to Ashley's blog HERE and leave a comment letting her know how this touched you or whatever you want to say.

I will forever be grateful for Ashley's gift of her time and talents. I highly recommend Ashley's talents of capturing precious moments. If you need a photographer for any ocassion, consider her. I don't know how long she will leave the slide show up so view it as many times as you want as soon as possible.


Thanks!

Our New Creation!

We are proud to show our newest creation.

Introducing:

Remington Cache!

8 lbs. 12 oz.

20 1/2" long

Born Monday, June 27 at 5pm.

Sweetest little bundle of joy!

We are home from the hospital and happy to be a family of 5!!!!

Cadence, the almost 5-yr-old will not put the baby down! She is loving being a big sister to a tiny baby!!!

In just two days, Remington is much less puffy, opening his eyes, sucking on a binkie, nursing well, pooping like crazy and being spoiled! We love our new creation!

Happy Easter

I just wanted to say Happy Easter to all of you! We had a great Sunday.

Our family spoke in church! Cooper, 2 1/2 yr old, got a little nervous and wouldn't talk. Dad told the congregation what Cooper had planned to say. Cooper held a picture of a sun he drew and Dad said, "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam to shine for him each day. Jesus is a rockstar!" That is my son's testimony!

Cadence, 4 1/2 yr old, read most of her talk about saving worms that were crawling into the road and drowning in the gutter due to the rain last week. She likened that to be like how Jesus saves us from death because of the resurrection. She drew three pictures for the congregation to see!

Chris and I spoke about Christ overcoming death and atoning for our sins. I shared a few stories (the empty egg and a mission story about a Jewish lady realizing that Jesus was the Christ) and a personal experience how I know I will see my deceased father again. Death is NOT the end! I'm grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It brings me much joy and peace!

Here are the kiddos on the way to church. Cooper insists on wearing his pinewood derby medal for the coolest looking vehicle. (His was a semi truck!)

After church, the Easter bunny came and brought some new spring clothes, books and other little gadgets. Many eggs were hidden and found! The kids loved it, but they know the real reason we celebrate Easter is to celebrate Christ's resurrection.

I hope you had an enjoyable Easter!

Hula Hooping Cadence In The News!

Cadence was invited by our good friend (and my former student), Jen, to participate in the Special Needs talent show. Jen was going to hula hoop and wanted others to join her. Cadence was up for the fun. We found a hula hoop at DI a few days before the big event for a $1. Coincidence? I think not:)!!!!

Cadence really enjoyed participating and did a great job along with Jen and the rest of the crew. I got it on video and she had to watch it a few times before she went to bed!

The hula hoop act made the front page of one of the sections on the local newspaper, The Herald Journal. Here is the link!

How often do you go to the pet store? What kind of animals do you see?

My New Year Plan!!!

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So this coming year, I have a few big goals!

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1. Stay sane!

2. Gain less than 50 pounds!

3. Learn how to manage THREE kids, a job, a blog and a life!

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Yes, my big announcement is that I am pregnant. I made one of those cool skeleton shirts with a fetus skeleton to tell some of my family and friends. It tooks some (my mom) two days of me wearing this shirt before she asked if I was pregnant. Others it took one or two minutes. It was fun to wear around even if it wasn't Halloween. I used the heat transfer material from Silhouette to make the shirt. I recommend the product!!! It worked great!

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I am due June 30, but will probably get induced a few days prior to this. (Our insurance starts over on July 1 and we have already met our large deductible this year due to my knee surgery. I don't want to pay the deductible again!) We will find out the gender in February!

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I have been great friends with the toilet for the past 2 1/2 months. I'm hoping that friendship will end soon or I am going to lose my mind. It is so hard not being able to open the fridge or cook for my family without puking!

Here is a close up of the shirt. I took it as I was wearing it so I realize the picture isn't that great. I should have taken it off!!!

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Wish me luck in obtaining my goals!

Halloween 2010

This year for Halloween, I suggested to the kids that they be Mickey and Minnie with the clothes I made for our Disneyland vacation. They thought that was a good idea......for a while. That saved me having to make or find new ones!!!

We were invited to a Halloween party at Groll's house and I went to D.I. to find a robe to finish off Chris' wizard costume. I found a graduation gown for $2. Good enough! I also looked at a lot of the kids costumes too. They were cheap ($2-$4) so I bought some for dress-up. Cooper LOVED the Spiderman costume and Cadence loved the skeleton. Her friends, Jack and Piper, were skeletons this year and I think that she wanted to be like them. They switched their costumes to skeleton and Spiderman. I ran out to the barn and grabbed some of my mom's clothes from the 70's. I should have put on Cadence's Minnine ears because then I could have been a Minnie from the 70's instead of "being my mom 30 years ago".

It rained on Halloween. We went to the church for dinner and Trunk-or-treating and then knocked on about 15 doors. I think trick-or-treating is the best thing about Halloween. I love snitching a few candy bars from the kids:) Here the kids are posing in front the big wooden bear Justin and Ruth (our former neighbors) left for us. The kids put spiderwebs all over it.

Carving pumpkins was a huge hit. The kids painted some at Montessori and carved one at home. They loved the candles inside!

Since Halloween was on a Sunday (and we participated in most Halloween celebrations on Saturday) I decided to make Dinner in a Pumpkin for Sunday. I was a little nervous, but it turned out great. Basically, I made this casserole type mixture and then baked it inside a pumpkin for 2 hours. The pumpkin bakes down. When you scrap out the mixture, you also scrap out the pumpkin and eat it. It tasted good. Pumpkin tastes a lot like squash! HERE is the recipe I used. I think I will make Dinner In A Pumpkin a yearly tradition.

Other Going Ons!

We go up the canyon to Second Dam for BBQ's a lot. Sometimes we invite people we visit teach/home teach, neighbors, friends or people we haven't seen in a while.

The kids love to roast marshmallows, play near the water and walk on the pathway around the lake. Second Dam is my favorite place to BBQ in the canyon! It's so beautiful and accommodating!

The kids love to play with fire! We get to keep a close eye on them all the time!!!

The kids attended the Nibley Days parade. They were right at the beginning and got SO MUCH Candy! I love parades (especially after I eat the cinnamon salt water taffy!)

Summerfest

When Summerfest rolls into town, we take a night to head over to look at the arts and crafts, eat some food and listen to the music. When we first got married, Chris would never come dance or be crazy with me. But now that we have kids, he will relax and have some fun! It was a salsa band and the music was awesome for dancing!

Cadence didn't love the loud music in the beginning, but she warmed up to dancing and had a TON of fun moving on Dad's shoulders. Cooper didn't love the loud music and stayed in the back. Chris and I took turns dancing in the front and the back!

At first, we were some of the only adults up dancing, but I saw some lovely ladies from my ward and pulled them up to dance! They had a ton of fun! I don't get why people are so afraid to get up in front of a crowd and be crazy! It is fun! You gotta love Teri and Estella!

You go to love Summerfest!

The Kids' Gigantic Carnival Birthday Party

Both of the kids birthdates are around the 4th of July. We celebrated with family, but I didn't have a party for their friends due to many reasons. (I had surgery, Chris was out of town, we had a vacant apartment we had to clean, fix and rent, and vacation.) I decided a few weeks ago that with school starting soon, I couldn't delay any longer. I threw together this party in less than a week.

Because the kids have a lot of friends and are very social and we love to be inclusive, we had over 45 kids at the party. The ages of the friends ranged from 15 months to 14 yrs. Most kids were between 2 and 6 yrs. I divided the older kids (7 or older) and the younger kids into "helpers" and "participants." When I made the invitations, I taped on a little piece of paper saying I needed lots of helpers for this party and invited the older kids in the families to be my assistants. I got a great response from everyone. The older kids definitely wanted to be involved. Some even came over to my house throughout the week to ask what they were going to be able to help with. Some gave requests to be in charge of certain games.

Before the kids showed up, I set up nine stations, divided the younger kids into nine groups (based on age and friendship), decided where each helper would be stationed and wrote each participants name on a lunch sack. When the kids came, I had the participants play "Duck, duck, goose," while I explained to the helpers their duties and places. I had one helper assigned to each station and one helper assigned to each of the nine groups (they would rotate with the groups and keep the small groups together.) The groups had only 3-4 kids in them. That way there were 2 helpers at each station.

Instead of doing tickets that the kids would redeem for a prize at the end, I just gave each group leader a treat or prize to put in the lunch bag right before the groups rotated. There were a few kinds on candies, a balloon that could be blown up at home, a band aid, stickers and some little cheap trinkets I bought at the dollar store. After I had explained to the helpers how the party was going to work, we divided the participants into their small groups with their leader. (Luckily some moms stuck around. It is a little difficult for 7 year-old to keep a group of 2-yr -together and moving to each station.

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I had each station placed strategically throughout our yard so we just had to rotate counter-clockwise when I blew my whistle. The first couple of rotation were a little rough, but after the helpers became a little more familiar with how it worked, things went much more smoothly.

At most of the stations, I had two activities. If one was inappropriate for the age group, they could do the other OR if they finished one activity, they could do the other. Back-up plans are a great thing.

These are the stations.

1. Knock-down-the-cans/Sandbox

I saved the food cans we emptied for a couple weeks, washed out the insides, took the labels off,
and had a birthday game. We put two piece of OSB on the dirt in shade - one to stop the balls the kids threw and the other for the kids to step on!

The helper set up the cans, gathered the balls and cheered the kids on!

If they got tired of the can game, they had the option of playing in the sandbox. The kids LOVED the sandbox!


2. Ring Toss

I checked this ring toss out from a resource center where my kids go to storytime. It was free and easy! I love that!

The helper gave the rings to the kids and told them where to stand! The kids loved this station!

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3. Face Painting

This was the station my kids (and every other kid - even the helpers) were thrilled about it! Face painting!!!! I asked a couple of moms to do some simple faces. I used Halloween make-up I bought on clearance last November.

The birthday boy loved being a cat!

Mustaches, beards and eyebrows were the most popular requests for the boys. Butterflies around the eyes where what the majority of the girls wanted!

4. Bowling

I set the bowling (which I also checked out from the family resource center) on our front porch. It is enclosed so the ball and pins would stay in a contained area. Sorry! This is a great picture.

I had to two helpers here to set the pins up, and direct the activity!

5. Tin Can Stilts/Sidewalk Chalk

My husband was asked to make peach cobbler for a funeral a few days before the party. I saved all the bigger tin case he used for stilts. I'mnot sure what else to call them. This was on a sidewalk so they had an even place to step. The older kids liked walking around on them.

The younger kids just did sidewalk chalk. I didn't want anyone getting hurt!

6. Bubbles

I had a bunch of bubbles! One of the oldest helpers blew bubbles for the kids to pop and chase. The kids could also blow bubbles too.

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7. Dress-up

I set up a tarp with a whole bunch of dress-ups on them. The kids could dress up how they wanted and get a picture which I need to get developed and take to them with a "thanks for coming" paper.

I had a floor length mirror outside so the kids could see what they looked like! I checked out a lot of the crazy hats from the resource centered and borrowed a few more dress-up from a friend in addition to what we had. There were plenty of dress-ups to try on!

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8. Ball Toss/Balance Beam

I think this was the favorite of the activities. I jsut cut shapes in a piece of OSB and got some small balls the kids could throw through the holes.

The helpers decided to make it interesting by kneeling behind holes and trying to get the participants to hit them. Who doesn't want to throw balls at silly people?

My husband also made a balance beam. He took a 4x4 and nailed two 2x4 on each end to keep it from turning over while the kids walked on it. I forgot to take a picture!

9.Tape The Nose on the Clown/ Hit-The-Ball

I drew a clown without a nose on a posterboard. I cut out some round circles for the nose. We taped the clown onto a fridge that just died and hadn't been taken to the fridge graveyard yet. It worked great!

The kids wore a blindfold and taped the nose on. The older kids got turned around a few times before they got to tape the nose on the clown.

When they were done with that, they could hit the wiffle ball with the plastic bat. My husband tied a rope between two trees. From that rope, he tied the wiffle ball hanging from a string to the middle of the rope. Every kid who comes to our house wants to hit the ball. This is perfect so we don't have to sit and throw a ball constantly. Plus, the kids can swing until the hit it!

After we rotated all the groups through all the stations (about 5 minutes each), I brought out popsicles for everyone to eat. I had some water and lemonade out the entire party that people could drink from if they got thirsty! The cupcakes were just normal cupcakes. I had to make 5 dozen and didn't have the time or money to make them fancy.

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On the invitation, I wrote that presents were NOT expected. My kids have a ton of little toys and really don't need more. But most people still on insist on bringing toys so I wrote not to spend more than a $1 or $2. After the cupcakes, the kids opened presents. Because of the number of kids, I didn't ask them to sit and watch. The helpers could go play the games they helped with and the younger kids could do whatever they wanted to!

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For party favors, I had a big box of books. Kids could take one or two. I'm a teacher and books are so much better than candy or toys (in my opinion). The books were used and I got them free from this book company in my town. I love using my resources!!! This was in addition to the little goodies they got at each station.

The helpers got a book and a Lik-A -Stix. They thought that was the bomb. Here is the only picture I got of me!

Here are the birthday boy and girl with their painted faces!!!! They are just so cute!!!!

Cadence and her very best friend. They are inseparable. She lives next-door to us!

Here is the picture of most of the people at the party! A few had already left and some chose not to be in the picture! This was a big, fun party and I am glad that we could include so many people! I'll have to come up with something like this for next year. Once my daughter gets in Kindergarten, she probably won't want to share a party!

I only spent about $40 on this party! I didn't have fancy decorations or extravagant favors, but the kids loved it. I also think that if I would have put parents in charge of the groups or stations, it may have gone a little more smoothly, but the kids would have missed out on a great opportunity. I was exhausted after it was over, but it was well worth it!

Happy birthday kids! I love you!