~Striving for eternity together~

Being mom

2011-04-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

Being a mom has so many job titles connected to it. Here are just a few things a mom does...incubator, nurturer, nurse, counselor, nutritionist, care giver, diaper changer, maid, cook, taxi, school teacher, religious teacher and SO many more things. Just having 1 of these jobs is a lot of work, to have ALL of them and SO MUCH MORE is exhausting sometimes. With that there are also some of the most AMAZING moments of your life. I remember bringing all 3 of my beautiful children into this life. It was HARD but SO SO SO worth it. I have learned in my short life that anything worth having you have to work hard for! This is VERY much the case as a mother. You don't get paid with the money you deserve for your many "jobs" you have but you get paid with growth and character. I have a strong belief in God and I believe that he is ALWAYS right next to me in each "job". I believe he has faith in me as a mother and that he sent each of my children to me to be their mother. There are days were I think I wish he didn't have so much faith in me because I am doubting myself. Tonight and the past few days have been difficult for me for many different reasons. Because of these struggles I started doubting myself as a person and as a mother. I felt very vulnerable and I didn't like that (and still don't) but I figure that because it is hard now it must mean that something AMAZING must be coming! I pray that I will be strong and stay close to my God to give me strength. The reason that I type this now is to have as part of my journal. I believe that I learn each day as I read or hear of others experiences and I hope that this can possible do this for someone else.

Growing up

2011-04-05T12:37:00.000-07:00

Remember when you were a kid and your parents would tell you that you are growing up to fast...while you are rolling your eyes in your mind. You think I will never be 16 and be able to date or drive. Well history is now repeating itself except it's my child rolling her eyes in her head. I have become my parents feeling that my kids are growing up to fast. Mattison is 6 1/2 (you know you're still young when you're counting 1/2). She has lost both front teeth and looks SO cute!

Kylee is 3 1/2 and loving preschool with Mrs. Walters. She is VERY energetic an full of life. She idolizes her older sister and wants to do whatever she does. I know what that is like, I remember following my older sister Tara around doing whatever she did. I think that doesn't go away completely.

Brayden is 18 months now. WHAT?!? How can my baby be 1 1/2 years old? Seriously this all happens to fast. He is so much fun! He likes to follow Daddy everywhere he goes. Billy was repairing the guest bathroom toliet the other day and Brayden just squatted and jabbered while Billy worked. He already LOVES football just like his Daddy. He can tell the difference between football and basketball. The boy loves sports!

** Ok I am using my mom's computer and I can't figure out how to move pictures and text and it is driving me nuts! So enjoy the text and you can put the pictures & text together for each child. Just be happy for a new post ok? :) hee, hee**

I miss you!

2011-03-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

So a lot has happened in the last few months! So much I haven't been able to blog. Mattison has lost both of her front teeth and looks ADORABLE (picture to come). Kylee has been learning and growing in preschool. She has an ANGEL for a teacher!! Mrs. Walters has been a great blessing to our lives. Brayden is RUNNING everywhere! He doesn't stop! He eats like a lion and his weight shows it. Actually he doesn't look heavy but you pick him up and he is solid mass! I have still been working at my dad's chiropractic office in the mornings and loving it. Also one of my best friends Jen has been helping me do different repairs around my house. We painted our built-in entertainment center and it looks AWESOME! Next I'm painting Brayden's room (so there won't be pink in there anymore, hee, hee). Billy is doing some handwork around the house as well (like repairing toilets). Such fun! I miss all my blogging friends! I still read blogs regularly but have not had time to go to my mom's to do my blog. We are going to be getting internet again at our house so then I will be more frequent. Until then leave a comment so I know you still love me!!! ;)

Go Ducks!!!

2011-01-10T16:01:00.000-08:00

In honor of the Chase family love for Oregon ducks football we salute Oregon with an adorable flashback of Brayden with his 1st football. So stinkin' cute! Thanks a million to Kierra and her awesome talent!!! :)
We are so excited to cheer on the Ducks tonight as they compete in the BCS championship game tonight against Auburn. Good luck Ducks!!
Lucky enough for us the BCS game is located here in Arizona at the Cardinals Stadium. ESPN has been in Scottsdale all week reporting from Fashion Square mall. So we went down there on Friday and had the game day experience with the kids. It was a blast! I don't know who had more fun Billy or the kids (ok me included). We played games and walked around to all the different vendors and watched ESPN do some commentating. I have to say was actually really excited! It is official I am a football wife and proud of it. We took pictures that I will post later after I download them. We went to the Fiesta Bowl Hall of Fame Museum which was REALLY cool! We have pictures of that too! I made sure to send pictures to my brother in law Daniel so he could be there with us...in spirit of course. He had to stay in Utah to be with his recovering wife and newborn son Gavin Daniel Chase. Congrats! We love you and can't wait to meet Gavin in person! Ok it is time for me to go get ready for our football game and par-tee!! :)
GO DUCKS!!!

SO many things......

2010-11-11T13:11:00.000-08:00

Oh how I've missed thee! So I have not had Internet (& still don't) at home. I have it on my phone but it is hard to blog from my phone. Anyways, so I have missed posting. SO many things have happened these past 5 or 6 weeks. Brayden turned 1! I turned 30! Oh and so many other fun things. So to start...Brayden turning 1!Here is Brayden on his BIRTH day! 1st picture with his daddy!
It's amazing how much they grow and change each day and each month, especially the 1st year of their life!
He is such a happy boy. Some of his favorite things to do are: making noise-whenever and however. For example my parents have these metal chairs on their tile floor and Brayden stands there and shakes them as hard as he can so that it is as loud as he can possibly get it. The louder the better to him-all this is done with a huge grin on his face! teasing his sisters- I swear the kid came out of the womb knowing how to tease. I think it actually does travel in the blood. My dad and husband both love to tease, but as Mattie tells you that Papa (my dad) teases her because he loves her. So now she believes anyone who teases does it because they love you. Good thing because Brayden LOVES his sisters A LOT! Daddy time- he loves to do whatever daddy is doing if it's cooking in the kitchen ,wrestling on the floor or watching football he is there. He loves to throw the football back and forth to daddy. Yes he is only 1 and he loves to throw the football.
I am so happy to have this little man in my life! He makes me smile, laugh, enjoy life and some days makes me want to pull my hair out but it is all worth it! I'll post pictures from his party next time because I have been doing this for a while and my kids are off playing with the horses and I want to watch.
Enjoy the pictures from the past...also a post about my birthday can be read here.

Kylee entertaining...as always!

Kylee at 1 month old...next week she turns 3!

Mattie enjoying her new baby sister...they are SO dang cute!!
Mattie when she was about 2 and had a bad sunburn on her face...and next week she turns 6!
MORE POSTS TO COME! PROMISE!!

Messy faces + Lots of fun

2010-09-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

Kylee showing off how yummy all the chocolate that she just shoved in her mouth is!
This is MY bed almost EVERY night. Yes this is a KING size bed. You'll notice Kylee sprawled sideways across the bed with Mattison right next to her. Then you think it would be ME next to Mattison but NO it is her pet GINORMOUS horse Progo. Where do I fit you ask? The answer is in Mattison's bed. (Little reminder that Billy works nights 4 nights out of the week so I'm going to be sleeping alone anyways). hee, hee
Brayden found a piece of chocolate that Kylee dropped on the floor and made sure to gobble that up as you can tell by his face. The picture truly doesn't do it justice. If you look closely there is chocolate on his finger...the other hand is worse your just can't see it.
Daddy and his little man wearing their hats while watching Mattison and Kylee compete on the horse. This is actually where Brayden learned to clap and that made his Papa very happy. He started clapping after he saw roping. Future roper :)
This towards the end of that same day and this was at Mormon Lake so it was starting to cool down and I couldn't find his jacket. So this is the hazards of having only older sisters for backup.

P.S.
Still dealing with the headaches myself but I think that I am being lead in the right direction right now. Thanks to my mom and a lot of research, my Aunt Linda and my google abilities with Mayo Clinic website. I'll keep you posted! Thanks for your prayers!!

SILHOUETTE MACHINE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

2010-08-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

SILHOUETTE

MACHINE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!
Seriously I WANT this A-MA-ZING machine SO much. I know I could decorate my home in the way I have wanted for so long. Want to see the miracle machine click on the link above.

HEADACHES!

2010-08-26T15:35:00.000-07:00

I've missed a lot of the outside world. The night before last i had a slumber "party" at the hospital. I've been suffering with SEVERE headaches and migraines. They have taken over my little world. I have to an MRI done and see a neurologist. So hopefully we'll have some answers soon.

Perfect meal!

2010-08-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

Anybody want some BABY STEW?!?!
SO delicious!!

13! Now my lucky number

2010-07-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

So if anyone is interested to know why 13 is my new lucky number it is because....that is how many pounds I lost in a week with the new diet I am doing!! That is right 13 POUNDS ARE GONE!!! I had just purchase some new shorts right before I started this and I wore them yesterday I wore them and had to roll them twice so they wouldn't fall down!! :) I love that feeling! I can wear my wedding ring with comfort again! That's right I LOST 13 POUNDS LAST WEEK...and I'm working for more weight to live this body this week! I'll post pictures later.
If you want to know more click on this web address or copy it and put it in your search engine and it will take you right there. It explains how the diet works and it is A-W-E-S-O-M-E! http://drweathersby.com/custom_content/c_15846_ideal_protein.html

Again in case you missed how much...13 POUNDS!! I'm so excited to keep getting back to a better and healthier me. Come join me in this great adventure and if you want a cheerleader let me know and I'll be there!!!

Look at your Reflection

2010-07-20T17:12:00.000-07:00

Copy this web address and take a few minutes to learn a little bit more about why you are a swan!

https://beta.lds.org/youth/mormon-messages/video/our-true-identity?locale=eng

I am a swan (in progress) :)

Question #3

2010-07-19T19:22:00.000-07:00

What is the very 1st thing someone does to gain your trust as a friend?

Question # 2

2010-07-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

What does it mean to "cut the apron strings"?
(how far does that go for you, what things do you eliminate once you are married, etc)

Question # 1

2010-07-17T19:18:00.001-07:00

So for the next few days I would like to post a question a day and hear your answers. I know they might sound silly but it would really mean a lot to me. So here I go with question #1

Question #1
What does "keeping the Sabbath day holy" mean to you?
(Like what do you do on the Sabbath, what is meaningful activity for you on the Sabbath?)

Quotes by Kylee

2010-07-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

These are 2 very funny things Kylee has said to me in the past couple days...Quote 1

mommy says "Kylee how did you get so big?"

Kylee says "Chicken nuggets"

(answered by a true 2 year old) hee, hee

Quote 2

mommy says "Girls time for scripture study."

Kylee says "My turn...and it came to pass."

so cute she thinks every verse of the scriptures begins with this sentence.

Amazing & Inspiring Woman

2010-06-28T20:29:00.000-07:00

So I have been filling in at my dad's office while one of his staff members is out of town so I have not had much time to do blogging. I just wanted to post a special moment that I just had. I was reading Nancy Page's blog (she's on my sidebar) and I was catching up. I enjoyed reading about birthday parties and all the great joys and fun things going on in their lives. Then I got to the post about their angel Quinn. You can read the post by clicking here
As I read this post (and while I'm typing this) I can't stop the tears. I feel the spirit so strong whenever I have heard Nancy or anyone else speak about Quinn. Nancy pointed out some things I needed to hear. Remember the little things-take time to enjoy the joys in life. I remember attending Quinn's funeral, I had just gotten home from my 18 month mission for my church. I didn't know Nancy or Greg but I was in their ward and I know this might sound funny to some of you but I felt like I KNEW Quinn. I still to this day remember the amazing spirit I felt as we celebrated her life even though it was cut so short. She may have only lived shortly in this life but I can tell you I KNOW she has touched and continues to touch so many lives. I want to thank Nancy for her amazing strength and inspiration. She reminds me what I need to always remember-enjoy today! I know that whenever I think of Quinn (or Nancy for that matter) I will think of the little joys in my life...like drinking a fresh squeezed lemonade outside while the sun beats on my warm skin and I look back at pictures of the JOYS in my life and looking forward to the ones in the future. Thank you Nancy!!

Give me GREEN...

2010-06-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

I give you CLEAN! That is right that is my new sales pitch :) So I have just taken up cleaning houses for extra money. I used to do this job when I was a teenager. My best friend Amanda's mom and her friend Chris owned a cleaning business and they hired Manda and I to help. I have already taken on 2 houses and I am interested in some more houses. If you are interested let me know and I will give you estimates on pricing! Once again...

Give me GREEN...I give you CLEAN!

Good-Things-to-Come

2010-06-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

I believe that all can benefit from watching this short message. It reminded me that my plans may be of good intention but not the right time. That at the appropriate time we will be blessed with what we need. I can say with all my heart that I know that this message is true in its entirety. I hope that anyone who reads this blog post will take a few minutes to be enlightened. Have a great day!!!
(Just click on Good Things to Come below and the message will pop up.)

Good-Things-to-Come

Brayden is a big boy now!

2010-06-14T08:54:00.000-07:00

So Brayden loves to say "dada". It is so cute! In fact he said it for the 1st time the night before Billy's 32nd birthday. I told him that is mine and Brayden's birthday gift to him. I hope our last child will say mama 1st. Or at least say Mama before "football" unlike Kylee. Anyways this is video of Brayden boy saying Dada. We love having this little man in our family. He is so fun! He laughs so much and loves that he is mobile. He literally goes anywhere and everywhere, even if he shouldn't be there. :)

New Do-A Line Style

2010-06-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

So Mattison has been asking for a while to get her hair cut short like her cousin Gracie's. So her daddy and I said she could cut it this summer. It's summer! So today her Aunt Erin cut her hair and it looks...AMAZING!!!

So do you think she likes it. NOPE! SHE LOVES IT and so do I!!! I loved it so much I decided to copy her. Actually I got my hair cut first but I still would have had my haircut the same way. ADORABLE! Thanks a million Erin you are AMAZING!!!

Last Day of School!

2010-06-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

She did it, and with flying colors I might add!! We are so proud of Mattison and her great job and completing kindergarten. This is no ordinary kindergarten class. They are required to do a lot of big stuff. A lot more then I was asked to do in kindergarten. She had to memorize and assigned poem EVERY month, 10 spelling words a week, 10 NEW phonograms and review 10 phonograms a week (the 10 spelling words and 20 phonograms were tested every Thursday and then again on Friday for those who did not get 100% on Thursday's testing.) Mattison has great memory so she excelled in both these areas. At the end of the year Mattison was required to test on 70 phonogram. She not only passed but received 100%. Here is Ms. Malone presenting Mattison with a certificate of achievment for reveiving 100% on her 70 phonogram test. The principal awarded the certificate to anyone in the school who received 100%. FYI-that was a special group of students!< This is the principal (in black) presenting Mattison's teacher Mrs. McGinty at the end of the year awards ceremony. I LOVE Mrs. McGinty and would love if she taught more of my children!!She turned 5 in Nov. and she was reading by Dec. which is just amazing. Here are a few photos from the play that Mattison and all the other kindergarteners put on for their parents and grandparents (and any one else who could come). This is Mrs. McGinty again, this time she is in charge of directing all the students. As you can see Brayden was well taken care of and Mattison had a great group of fans there in person and in spirit. Thanks Nana, Aunt Tara, Ava, Kylee, Brayden, Daddy, Mommy and Aunt Ashley for coming to my play (said Mattison ha, ha).

Mattison has already asked to go back to school and she has only been out for 2 weeks. Oh boy this is going to be a long summer. :) Oh well we will just spend a lot of time swimming and enjoying time as a family. She reads by herself for at least 15 minutes a day. She is reading "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" (thanks Aunt Ashley!). We are so proud of you Mattison and all you accomplished!!

Activities at the Chase home

2010-06-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

Getting in to mommy's make-up (while she is trying to clean up one of my previous messes).
Playing with friends.

Wrestling with our buddies.Flirting with the ladies!and so much more!! Then we crash hard!

Time for bed! (Thank goodness!)

Brother Woodward

2010-05-31T18:27:00.000-07:00

Chuck & (his beautiful sweetheart) Marilyn Woodward

So Friday morning I found out from my dear friend Amanda, that her grandpa, Chuck Woodward had passed away. I want to send my love to the Woodward/Moses family. I have been blessed to know this wonderful family for about 14 years now. Chuck served in the singles bishopric with my dad. He was and will always be loved by so many that he served with. He taught through example and love. He left behind (for a time) a beautiful and AMAZING wife! She is such a blessing to so many. Chuck and Marilyn have been together since they were sophomore's in high school. I have heard different family members say that they were the "it" couple in high school. I guess some things don't change from high school because they were still and "it" couple in my eyes. They loved each other so much and you could see it in their eyes! For anyone who may have known this great man, his funeral is being held at the Deer Valley Stake Center (about 29th Ave & Rose Garden Ln) at 10 am on this Wednesday June 2nd. If you are able to attend that would be wonderful. Again I just want to send my love and condolences to the Woodward/Moses family. I LOVE YOU!!!

P.S.
Jen thanks for the picture (I stole it from your blog)! :)

Domesticated!

2010-05-26T07:57:00.000-07:00

So I learned you CAN in fact teach an old dog new tricks. So yesterday I was SO domesticated! Look I'm even wearing an adorable apron my mom gave me. That's right Martha Stewart eat your heart out. hee, hee So here is a summary of my endevors for yesterday...got showered (huge task as any mother knows), babysat my friend Amanda's 2 kids-Kadence (2yrs old) & Jakey (11 months old) as well as watch my 2 youngest-Kylee (2yrs old) and Brayden (8 months old) all by myself. Then I took all 4 kids (again by myself) to my parents house to let out some energy-the girls got to ride the horse with Papa. Jakey sat on the horse with Papa for a picture (sorry the pics are on my phone and I don't know how to get them on my computer). But I do have pictures of what happens to 2 little cowboys after a hard day at the ranch.

Played the recording of Tausha and I singing for my mom. Then packed up all 4 kids again to take them home. Fed them lunch and put them all down for a nap. In case I didn't mention I am doing this all alone. :) Then while the kids are sleeping Ginny comes over (actually Jakey woke up just before she came and she put Brayden back to sleep after we left) so that Billy and I could go to an appointment that we had. Thanks a million Ginny!! Then straight from our appointment we picked Mattie up from school and went home. Kylee just woke up as we are walking in the door. So I have some play time with the kids then I let them watch "Princess and the Frog" for a little bit while I read blogs. I read a blog post from here and was inspired! So I now am watching 5 children and I decide I'm going to make brownies from scratch (that's right ladies no box)
and I also made hot fudge from scratch. Also may I say they were SO YUMMY! Thanks Liz for the great recipe! In fact I called to tell my parents about how domesticated I was today and my dad said (not so sutly mentions he and Brother Fellows will be working hard at the church at 7:30 pm. So like a loving daughter I went and delivered the yummy dessert with a few scoops of vanilla bean ice cream for the 2 hard working men. I also decided to make homemade french fries to go with our barbequed hamburgers and hot dogs. Fresh cut tomatoes!
Fresh cut onions! There was lettace too but I didn't take a picture.
I KNOW! I told you I was domesticated yesterday! I also kept my kitchen clean while I was cooking. Miracles do happen. As you can see my dinner guests were very happy. Billy was here but not in the picture because he was helping with Brayden at the time. Thanks Babe!!

Then after feeling so domesticated and like I had really accomplished a lot for the day I did the following...slept like a baby! Doesn't that look great!

Hide n' Go Seek

2010-05-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

So everyone loves the classic game of hide n' go seek, including me. There is just one thing, I do NOT enjoy the game at 1:30 am! So for anyone who has read previous post know that Kylee is "adventurous" in her sleep. She moves, kicks, punches, walks, runs and hides all while sound asleep. So the other night Mattie had come into my room to tell me her toe hurt. I got her back to sleep and went to put her back in her bed. After I laid her down and had her all tucked in, I checked on Kylee in the next bed. Well at least she was SUPPOSE to be in the next bed. So I start doing my normal search for Kylee. I check all over the floor in her room, NOPE. Then I check under Mattie's bed sure that she would be there, NOPE. By this point I'm getting more concerned so I go check to make sure she had not snuck into my bed, NOPE. So I run out to the front room and this is where I find her....

So I just let her stay there. I put a blanket on her and gave her Binky and blankie and went back to bed. I didn't hear from her again until 6 am. She never once came into my room. It was a miracle.So then the next night I was out at my friend Amanda's house until after the girls were in bed. So I went in to check on them and this is what I saw. Apparently Kylee just does better if she is sleeping near someone or a big fluffy couch cushion.I once again was ok with this sleeping arrangement because it meant she wasn't in my bed with me. Mattie may not agree. :)So why do I even waste the space in the girls room with this mattress when this is all it is...a space waster. It is always like this. She doesn't even take naps in her bed, she takes them in Mattie's bed while Mattie's at school. The other day I put Kylee down for a nap earlier than usual because I knew it was better for her to be safe in bed than me beating her. hee, hee By 11:30 am on this particular day she had poured 1/2 gallon of water all over my kitchen floor, had to 2 pee accidents on my carpet, poured a bowl of popcorn on my carpet and shattered a glass jar on the kitchen floor. Yes, it was definitely time for nap (even if it is in Mattie's bed). ha, ha

A TRUE Friend!

2010-05-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

So I want to take a moment to explain to all of you how much I appreciate and love a TRUE friend. Now let me explain to you what a TRUE friend is to me. It is a person who prays for you! It is a person who does what they KNOW to be right because they followed the Spirit. Now when we receive answers to prayers it isn't always what we want or what we think it should be. But none the less, if you receive an answer to prayer and you KNOW that it is the Spirit directing you to do whatever it may be you can be sure that you will be blessed. Our Heavenly Father sees the bigger picture. He KNOWS us better than we know ourselves. He KNOWS what we NEED even before we do. In the past few months I have really come to know who my TRUE friends are! I was blessed to become friends with an amazing women a little over 5 years ago. Little did I know that there would be a point in my life where I would see her not only as a friend but a sister too. She has been there through so many things. Her and her husband and their family hold a special place in my heart. I have been blessed with another dear friend that I have known for about 15 years. She also has been there to help me and give me strength. These 2 special women in my life mean so much to me. They have taught me, strengthened me and believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. To these 2 beautiful women...THANK YOU FOR BEING A TRUE FRIEND TO ME!!!!!

Body Art

2010-05-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

So Kylee just came to me to show me her new "body art". I didn't quite know what to do at that moment because she was SO proud of her work. So I explained that she is a great artist BUT we only do this on paper! :)She made sure to show me ALL of the "beautiful" art. It spanned all the way from head to toe, literally. hee, heeIt's amazing how you still think their so cute with blue marker and who knows what else all over their face.I love that she is carrying on as if nothing is weird right now. Oh Kylee how I love you even when your "blue".
So a new thought just came to me...maybe she is just rehearsing to be a member of the "Nave" (a.k.a. the blue men). hee, hee

A Day at the Races!

2010-05-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

So for any of you who don't know my calling in my church is Ward Activity director which means I am in charge of creating, planning and executing multiple times throughout the year. Most of the activities I plan are for the whole family but a couple of the activities is for adults only...cheap date night. So hear I am calling everyone together to start the activity.So the kids had a blast! They all new for a few weeks that they each needed to create and decorate their own box car for this activity (with some help of course from their parents). So I and a group of great helpers made a 2 lane obstacle course and the raced.

So here are just a few of the kids racing their cars. They loved their course! Each kid was able to race multiple times.
Here's the big question of the night...who actually had more fun racing the box cars, the adults or the kids. Pictures below are some of the times in questions. I think it was all a pretty good success.

The adults had a different obstacle course...it was much more windy and twisty. Also their were stop signs thrown out at them at anytime during their race. If they "ran" their stop sign they had to run back 4 chairs and then continue on.
We can just say that not all of our adults that night were "law" abiding citizens. :) Some even tried to cause crashes by kicking down chairs into the opponents course. It was all so fun!
Below is one of our more "crazy" drivers...even when he is racing a women WITH a baby on board. If you look in the back I am laughing so hard!Also at this activity the young women in our ward were trying to raise money to go to a church girls camp. All the girls made different yummy treats and sold them for $10 each. They had a success in raising money...because the treats were so good! I was able to sample the yummy cake that was made by the mom and her daughter below. A SO DELICIOUS pistachio cake!Then it was time for the "drive-in" movie. When I said that to the kids they said "What's a drive-in movie?" Man I really felt old at that moment. So we got them all situated and started the movie "Johnny Lingo".After we got the movie started and all the kids sitting down I handed out cups of popcorn for everyone to snack on during the show.Now the kids can say they know what a "drive-in" movie is. They all said they had so much fun and wanted to due it again. I said maybe in 1 year. :) Now it is time to plan for the next activity...the 4th of July breakfast (that is scheduled for the 3rd of July actually because the 4th is a Sunday). So we will be having a bike parade and a big breakfast (pancakes, sausage, bacon and hash browns). I'm sure it will be a blast!!

3 wonderful reasons to love today!!

2010-05-09T14:47:00.000-07:00

Reason # 1

Reason #2
Reason #3

We are taught that motherhood is a divine "calling" of God. I KNOW this to be true. I know it as I look into the eyes of my precious children. Now just because it is divine does not mean it won't have trials. Motherhood equals heartache, sadness, pain, stress, discouragement, tiredness and lack of energy. But with that motherhood equals things that are so much stronger than the above mentioned-pure love, a first smile, laughter, snuggling, comforting, joy, hugs and kisses, late night conversations, 1st times of so many things, I love you's, teaching moments and the knowledge of knowing we can be together for eternity. I am grateful to be a mother and I am eternally grateful to a mother who raised me (and continues to raise me in some ways). :) I am also eternally grateful to a Heavenly Father who in trusted me and my husband to such special children to raise and teach in this life.

Here are a few amazing and uplifting quotes to inspire mother's and all mother figures throughout the world today!

I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

We women have a lot to learn about simplifying our lives. We have to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying to prove something. We have to learn to be content with what we are." — Marjorie Pay Hinckley

The grand and the simple. They are equally wonderful." — Marjorie Pay Hinckley"There are some years in our lives that we would not want to live again. But even these years will pass away, and the lessons learned will be a future blessing." — Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Wash my car daddy! Wash my car daddy!!

2010-05-04T15:05:00.000-07:00

So one of Kylee's favorite things to do these days is to tell her daddy that is is time for her and daddy to "wash my car daddy!" So a week and a half ago they did just that. They had help from Mattison and their cousin Ava this time too. By the way above is not a typo- Kylee really does think the Taho is HER car.
So here is Kylee running from her daddy spraying her with the hose. As she is running she is yelling "Daddy no spray me!" (as she is yelling this, she has the biggest grin on her face). :)

Now it is Mattison's turn for a spray down. Can you tell how much my girls just "hate" being sprayed. That is why they want to wash the car regularly. I love watching this time with my girls and their daddy. It is so much fun!This is where Ava Bean stood the whole time...away from the hose! She is laughing so hard here because Billy is spraying the girls and she thinks it is hilarious.

We love when Ava gets to come play at our house because she has so much fun playing with her Kyky and Mattie. Also she thinks Brayden is her little baby. She is the first one coming to rub his head if he is crying or takes him toys to play with. She loves her baby cousins. Pretty much Ava loves anything smaller than her. :)

Potty Training a stuborn 2 year old may kill me!!

2010-04-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

The title pretty much explains this post. Kylee potty trains when it is convenient for her and ONLY when she wants. I used to think well parents just need to stick it out and they will give in...NOPE! Kylee is not that way. She WILL NOT do something unless it is HER idea. This face scares me because I know she just thought of something mischievous to do.

Today she is trying to really test her boundaries! For example about 10 minutes ago she told me to shut up. I actually don't know where she got that because we don't say it at our house. Anyways. Also anyone who knows Kylee knows she really only has 2 volumes...LOUD...and LOUDER!!! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this girl (hence the reason she is still going strong). But today would have for sure been one of those days when I would have gone to my mom's house to get a little help because Billy is pretty sick so he is not able to help. To bad my mom is out of town with my dad until tomorrow. They have been gone all week and I miss them (for more than 1 reason). Brayden is getting more speed with the army crawl and working on the leg and arm crawl. So he gets mad if we leave the room and comes after us now. :) So that adds to the fun. Anyways, Kylee- I look forward to the day when one of your children is reading this and is laughing. I love you Kyky Bug!!! I also look forward to tonight when you (and I) are doing this because I am exhausted from today.

Man on the MOVE...even through a tornado!

2010-04-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

Yep! Brayden is on the move. Nothing stops this boy now! When I say nothing I mean NOTHING! He even crawled through a Mattison/Kylee tornado. I now know why tornado's are always given a persons name. Because it reminds us of our childhood or of our children's childhood. We have double twisters at our house all the time (and I'm sure soon enough it will be a triple twister).So I was trying to pick up the girls clothes and organize them a little differently so that they would stop making such a mess trying to find something to wear. Brayden decided to come in and "help" me. His way of helping was to crawl over to one of the piles of clothes I had set aside and pull them apart. Mommy's big helper!

You can see the mischief in his eyes here. He is looking at what thing he wants to tear down next. Even when he makes a mess he is cute! Brayden continues to bring so much joy and laughter to our home. His sisters love him to pieces! I am so eternally grateful for my beautiful family...even if they sometimes turn into tornadoes.At this point Brayden discovered he can crawl under Mattison's bed. What is it about going under Mattison's bed? I find Kylee asleep under there all the time as you can find in past posts. He was pretty proud of himself though (secretly I was too because he is getting around so good).

Here is a little video Brayden doing his thing! Enjoy!!

You wish Krista were your sister!!

2010-04-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

So you see this DELICIOUS bread ring? My A-MA-ZING sister Krista spent a great deal of time making this YUMMY orange/raisin bread for my family and for my other sisters Tara and Erin and their families. Krista is a GREAT CHEF, is FUNNY, loves to LAUGH and LOVES her nieces and nephews! She made these for us for Easter and we devoured it! Plus we put my mom's homemade orange marmalade on top and it was so DELICIOUS! I just want Krista to know how much I love her and I am so grateful to her for all she does. Her and my mom make us WONDERFUL dinners on Sunday. I'm so blessed to call her my sister for eternity!!!

Big boy and his baabaa!

2010-04-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

So Brayden is becoming such a big boy. He likes to hold his own bottle when he eats. Aunt Erin loves to watch him hold his bottle all by himself. I have to agree it is very adorable. He is just growing up so fast!
So he starts awake and ends up...very asleep! Oh is just so cute!!

I just love having a little guy around the house. He has one thing that I would like to change...Brayden likes to cat nap! That doesn't work for me. So we are working on keeping him awake and letting him take a longer nap. We are so grateful to have this adorable boy in our family. We love you Ironman!!!

A Beautiful day at the park!

2010-04-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

So last Friday Mattie didn't have school and it was a beautiful day outside so we went to the local park as a family. It was so fun!! Kylee loved running all along the jungle gym and yelling "Hi mommy!"Mattie was showing off her monkey bar skills...she is awesome!!

Then Kylee and Mommy went down the slide together! Yeah baby!

Brayden was so good as usual. He walked around the park with daddy some and then played in his car seat with some shade for a little bit.
Daddy loved playing with kids at the park and enjoying the great weather! He is so handsome!

New Car

2010-03-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

This the car I bought when I got home from my mission. It has been with our family ever since. It started to get a little to tight for our growing family and my kids needed better air conditioning...they are sweaty. :)

So we were able to sell our Jeep for a good price and with that money and our tax return we were able to buy Billy's dream car (for a family) without a loan! So Billy's happy about the new car (as am I) but even more exciting to me is NO PAYMENTS!!! It so funny after I told that to my dad about buying it with out a loan he gave me a fist bump. That was a "way to go, that's my girl" fist bump.

Thanks to my AWESOME cousin Chad who helped us so much by finding this car for such a fair price and helping us get everything situated!! You rock Chadwick!!! My girls are in love with the car! Every morning when Kylee wakes up the first thing she does is runs to the front window to make sure the new car is still there. Then she screams "The car is here, the car is here!!" It is so cute!!! Funny thing is that Billy is just as excited. The first time I drove the Tahoe he called me after I had been gone for about 4 minutes and asks "Do you like the Tahoe? Doesn't it drive so nice?" I said "Yes, I like it and it does drive nice." Billy replies "Ok, I just wanted to know how the Tahoe was. See you later." I'm sitting there waiting for a "have fun" or "how are you?" but no that was a call about the CAR! He did say I love you at the end of the call at least.

Happy Birthday and some sibling love

2010-03-10T09:57:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to wish a great friend of mine (more like family) a VERY Happy Birthday!! Don't worry Brooke I won't tell everyone it is your 30th birthday. Actually I am posting this a few days late because I have been really sick but I am on the mend now thank goodness! Love you Brookee!!
I love these adorable pictures of my kids loving and smiling at each other! Mattison is so good about making her brother and sister happy. If Kylee get's in trouble she runs to Mattison and says "Matson hold me." It's so cute!

She also knows how to get a nice big smile from her baby brother Brayden. To him everything she does is SO funny!

A good "crack" for the day!!

2010-03-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

This is a good "crack" for the day! This is one of the reasons I wanted to go private with my blog so I could post cute pictures of my kids that are funny to share to only people I trust.

Who doesn't love a little "crack" now and then?

GOING PRIVATE!!!

2010-03-02T12:30:00.000-08:00

So I am finally going to do it...I'M GOING PRIVATE! There are just to many scary people out there who can see so much about my family. My family means the world to me and I want to keep them as safe as possible. So for that reason I will be going private. Please leave your email address so I can invite you to my blog officially! I love my readers and want to keep them I just feel better knowing a little better about who that is :)
P.S. I'll delete your email address after I write it down so no one can copy it :)

A New~ New Year's Tradition!

2010-03-01T09:08:00.000-08:00

I know this is way late but is still so worthy being blogged about. So Billy had to work on New Year's Eve night until 7 in the morning. One of my bestest friends was also home alone that night due to the same situation-working spouse. So we decided we could party without them! Amanda and her 2 adorable kiddos came over to party hard! We had dinner and then we played for a while. Then after about 30 minutes of dealing with the kids and their excuses of why they could stay up and how they weren't tired they went to sleep. By this time it was around 9:30pm but it felt like at least 12:30am! Amanda and I went and laid in my bed and watched some tv (tv that we can't usually watch with our husbands). That's right...wedding shows! We both love to watch that show "Say yes to the dress". We were talking and laughing and enjoying just being silly. All the sudden we look at the clock and realize that it is 11:50pm. We were so surprised that we had made it that long! We thought we would fall asleep by 10pm. :) So we make it to midnight and we laugh some more. Then we talk about how we wish we could try wedding dresses on again. Then we look at each other at the same time and I say "Yes, it's in my closet!" So we jump out of bed at 12:30am and we go into the family room so that we don't wake the kids and we get dressed in my wedding dress. Not only that we took pictures!

I know what your thinking "Oh so fun! Wish I could do that!" You can!! Amanda and I decided that this is a new tradition and we would love to have more dresses and more friends to do it with! So let me know if you want to join this good time for next year!!

Go ROCKSTAR Tara!!!!

2010-02-24T10:59:00.000-08:00

So for any of you who do not know my sister Tara is a ROCKSTAR!!! She is a VERY busy mom, volunteers teaching aerobics 2 days a week, teaches dance 4 days a week, helps kids with homework, cares for Ava Bean while the other kids are at school. Then she keeps a clean house, makes dinner, eats healthy, looks amazing! She has a very fun but time consuming calling which she goes above and beyond for. She has a fun personality that makes you laugh for days! She is a hard worker not afraid to get her hands dirty and she is creative too! Also her rockin' husband works 24 hour shifts at least every third day as a Glendale fireman and is attending school also. So he is very active and has to be away from the home for long periods of time which leaves Tara to be WONDERWOMEN which she does VERY well! (man I wish I had a picture of Tara when she was dressed as Wonderwomen for Halloween once, it would fit so perfect here). hee, hee Then on top of all of that and so many other things that I didn't mention she decided to join a group of runners and do a relay from Prescott to Tempe. I know she's a mad women! I just want my sister Tara to know how amazed I am by her and her AWESOME abilities! She is a great example to me and she is so dedicated in all she does. I love you TK!! So her relay race startes this Friday the 26th and finishes Saturday the 27th so come cheer her on! She has 3 legs of the race. (I posted all the race details at the bottom of the post including maps of Tara's legs of the race.) Good luck Tara, I know you will do AMAZING because everything you do, you do AMAZINGLY!!

These are her three legs of the race. The first one she will probably start around 8:30 am, and that one will be the furthest away so she will understand if you will not be able to be there.
Her second leg she will probably start about 8:20ish pm. Her third leg will be on Sat morning starting at about 9am. The whole race ends at Tempe Market Place and her team is estimating they will finish around 3:00pm. (if all goes as planned:)
Her three legs are pictured in order. (Just click on the map to enlarge it)
Leg 1

Leg 2
Leg 3
Come cheer my AWESOME, AMAZING, ROCKSTAR OF A SISTER on in her race!!!!

Growing up is hard to do!!

2010-02-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

That is right I Brayden Neuel got my first car! Is that not the hottest car bouncer? Thank you Amanda for the fun toy! I love that I can rest my head on the seat. Perfect!

Aren't I cute? This is yummy!

Ok that was some hard play time, now I need a nap....goodnight!

Hey I had so much fun I even made Kylee fall asleep.

Alright I'm awake again...sort of.
Ok so I have been really busy....as some of you know I went to the hospital from some stupid RSV thing my mommy keeps saying. All I know is they stuck some nasty tube down my nose and sucked the heck out of it. Why didn't they just ask me to blow? That would have been a lot easier and less uncomfortable! So here I am in the hospital bed with my arm taped to a board to hold it still for the iv. I learned I could suck on the end piece and at least that was fun. I'm doing much better now. Thank you for all your prayers!
Then I was able to go celebrate my Nana's birthday with all the adults and my fun cousin Parker. Happy belated birthday to the bestest Nana ever!!!!
I think Parker was ready to go home at this point though...hum, what do you think? Either that or he was mad because his mommy and Papa were holding the yummy dessert in front of his face and not sharing. Maybe a little of both. :)
I also have a new fun little chair that I can sit in all by myself! That is right this bumbo rocks!!
They even let me eat in it! That's right folks I'm learning to eat real food. It's pretty good the only thing is my mommy can't feed it to me fast enough. Oh well she will learn.
I can sit on the table in it. I guess my sisters aren't suppose to but they figured that since I can do it so can they. Whatever.
Well I need to go now because all this typing has made me hungry. I hope you have a fun day, I know I will!

Goodbye!!!
(Hope you enjoy all these pictures of me Grandma Chase :) hee, hee)

Strict Obedience & the Octopus

2010-01-25T17:59:00.000-08:00

In the Book of Mormon we learn of the story of Nephi when he is commanded by the Lord to slay Laban the evil king. Nephi is troubled by this because he doesn't want to have to slay any man. He then learns through the Spirit that "it is better that one man perish then nation dwindle in unbelief". So Nephi was STRICTLY obedient. He was blessed for following the prompting of the Spirit. I was also blessed SO very much for following the direction of the Spirit. I was STRICT in my obedience (which is not always the case I must sadly admit) and I ran as soon as I was told in my mind to do so. Two weeks ago I was standing outside the church building after aerobics visiting with a good friend. My (VERY active) 2 year old, Kylee was standing next to me in the parking lot playing with my keys. She just stepped a couple of steps away from me (towards the direction of Happy Valley Rd-a very busy road). I got the STRONGEST prompting to run! Not walk or even speed walk but RUN! I did as I was told and by the time I reached my much faster child than me I was pulling her off the curb. Within 1 SECOND of pulling her 6 cars sped by. I held Kylee as close as I could to my chest. I sobbed!!!! Then I sobbed more! I could not stop because I realized how close to losing my precious daughter I was. If I would have even stopped to think about the prompting or to question it I WOULD NOT HAVE MADE IT IN TIME! That thought is very scary. But I am so grateful that I was strictly obedient. I'm grateful to my Heavenly Father for giving us such a precious gift as the Spirit! Now a guess a few things I can learn and have learned from this experience is there is nothing to substitute STRICT obedience, that the Spirit can bless and SAVE lives, that I need to continue in my STRICT obedience to the Spirit and maybe most of all KYLEE NEEDS TO LEARN STRICT OBEDIENCE!!
Then this last week at school Mattison did her first school project. She was asked to make a object from the sea using 100 objects in celebration of the 100 days of school. So Mattie and I together made salt clay from scratch. Shout out to my mother in law who gave me the great recipe for the clay...Thanks a million! So anyway she decided she wanted to make a pink octopus. We put 12 cheerios on each of the 8 tentacles and three more cheerios to make her face equaling 100 cheerios. She did a great job and her teacher Mrs. McGinty said she was very proud of her great work. Way to go Mattie! By the way YES she really did do most of this by herself, she is such a great girl and very smart!

It's a beautiful life!

2010-01-11T14:28:00.000-08:00

Brayden is such a joy to our lives! Yes buddy I mean it!!

Here is our family enjoying our 16th annual Christmas Eve party with out Townsend family!

Mattie always loves the "White Elephant gift exchange"
Here is Brandy and I saying cheese :)

Gates, Tausha and (I think Addi) and Lance's wife

Here is mom and Krista enjoying Rig. He is such a doll! Mom was so lucky and held him a majority of the night! I held Addi for quite a while (but still wanted more).

Here is part of the adorable McMurdie family

Earlier that day Mattie and I built our very 1st gingerbread house. You will notice that there is white frosting all over the front of the house. That is because it is holding the broken pieces together. Mattie was getting so excited that she accidentally dropped the front piece. We made the best of it and still had fun!

I'm pretty sure this is going to have to be an annual Christmas tradition now :)

This isMattison and Kylee dressed in there pretty dresses for the Christmas Sunday at church. The loved that they matched, hair and all. Brayden and I unfortunately missed this Sunday because I had spent the whole night before at urgent care with him. He had double ear infections, respiratory problems, cough and high fever.

He is doing good now! He is growing each day finally. He is learning to laugh and loves to smile as big as possible. More Christmas pictures to come!

Goals with a brand new year!

2010-01-07T19:14:00.000-08:00

So my husband was talking to him mom on the phone yesterday and she asked Billy "Why hasn't Brianne posted on her blog? I miss the pictures and stories!" So Billy told me and I was so excited! Some of you may think that is weird but I was excited because someone missed ME in the blogging world! So anyways to the reason of why it has been so long is...New Year's goals! So here they are:
1. I HAVE to read my scriptures before I can turn on the computer to do blogging or check my emails (priorities were rearranged :) )
2. To exercise 3 times a week
3. To do some type of service everyday for my hubby
4. Attend the temple more regularly
5. Be more positive

So those are my goals! I have to say I have done them to the best of my ability so far. I haven't missed a day of scripture study and it feels AMAZING! Also I went to Tara's aerobics both days this week and I am going to work out with Amanda on Friday's! Feels good! It has been fun trying to find little creative ways to serve my husband. The reason I did the 3rd one is because as we are taught in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the more we serve someone the more we love them. So I thought what better way to strengthen my love for my husband than by serving him.
I also want to attend the temple more regularly. I know that I can receive so much strength and guidance there. It will help me to accomplish my 5th goal of being more positive! I believe that these are all attainable goals and I look forward to accomplishing them! Happy New Year everyone! TONS of pictures and stories to come in the next post and I promise to do it soon! :)

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-23T18:16:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from the Chase Family!! I love this picture of my prized possessions...my kids!
We have had a great year and look forward to enjoying the next year together. We are so happy to have welcomed Brayden to our family. He is such a joy and a blessing to our family. Mattison and Kylee are learning new things each day. Mattison is LOVING school and can't get enough of it. Kylee loves having one on one time with mom and dad. She is a VERY energetic fireball. Brayden is as we say in our family, elevation sensitive (only likes to stand) but he is so cute anyway.

Billy and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary and are looking forward to eternity with each other. We have learned together and grown together. We have learned that no marriage will survive if Heavenly Father is not at the top of your priority list. We have been blessed with testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are blessed to have such amazing family and friends! We want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love Billy, Brianne, Mattison, Kylee and Brayden Chase

1st timers

2009-12-16T14:39:00.000-08:00

So we have had a few 1st timers at our house these past few weeks. One of those being Kylee went on the potty!!! Wahoo!!!

Then my baby girl went on her first school bus ride.... wait a minute! Wrong baby girl. :)
>

There we go...here is MY baby girl getting on the school bus for her first field trip as a kindergartner. They went to a play called the "Ice Queen" and then went to Phoenix Children's museum. Mattison had a great time!

When I went to pick her up from school that day I immediately asked "What was your favorite part of the field trip?". With no hesitation Mattie says "The school bus!!" I said "Really? Why?"

Mattie says "Because you don't have to wear seat belts!". Oh the joys of a school bus. hee, hee
This is Mattie's amazing kindergarten teacher Mrs. McGinty going on her big adventure with her class. She said it was such a great success and all the kids really enjoyed and were so well behaved.

More 1st timers to be posted but I need to go get some stuff done around the house. To be continued tomorrow.

Gifts for Christ

2009-12-14T19:48:00.000-08:00

So this Christmas season I have really had a lot of different feelings. Happiness, joy, excitement, dread, sadness and peace. Some may think a few of these adjectives are a misprint but they are not. I believe that there will be a day when I will come back and read some of my posts or a member of my family will and we will receive strength or understanding from it. This will probably be one of those posts. I have to say that I am typing this post while crying at the same time. Today has been interesting. This afternoon I went to wash my hands and the water was not coming out. For the first time in my life the water to my home was shut off. For me this is VERY embarrassing to state but I do it for a reason. As I realized what happened I went straight to my husband and asked him what we should do and how we were going to pay the bill so we could have our water turned back on right away. I said I was NOT going to call my parents or family and ask for help. I knew that as husband and wife we needed to find $100 and fast! So we sat and discussed it for quite a while. I sat in a chair and cried as I tried to think of what to do. I then knew what needed to be done and I cried even harder. I went to Billy and told him I knew what we needed to do to get the money. So we took all the ornaments off of our tree and put them in a box and returned our beautiful tree that we had bought last year back to Costco. I cried most of the time while we took them off while also trying to explain to my 5 year old daughter about why we were taking her decorated tree down. So it all worked out and we got the cash back for the tree and paid our bill. This whole Christmas season I have been really trying to teach my family that the very best gifts we can give for Christmas are gifts of service. These types of gifts don't usually cost money but they for sure give the best rewards! So this year as we celebrate we may not have everything we want but we will have everything we need! I'm so blessed to have such a great family who I love and who love me. I am especially grateful for my Savior who knows EXACTLY how I am feeling at this time in my life. I know there are so many people who are so much worse than our little family and I pray that I will take any opportunities I am given to serve them. I know that we are so blessed that my husband has a job and that we can be provided for. So at this time I am reminding myself what I have been really trying to teach my kids this Christmas season...the best gifts we can give to Christ for the celebration of his birth is service to those in need. Those who are so much worse off then us. Christmas isn't about the tree or the gifts underneath it, it's about the family that is kneeled in a circle praying to our Father in Heaven. Merry Christmas!!

P.S.
We will be going back on Saturday morning after we get Billy's paycheck and buying another tree from Costco with the money that we would have used to pay the water bill. So just a week without a tree but it will still be missed in the mean time. :)

Sharing & Gangsta Kyky

2009-12-04T15:31:00.000-08:00

I love these cute moments! They both wanted to
sit in the pink chair so they decided well then why don't we both sit in it. If only they resolved all their conflicts this way. :)

Meet Gangsta Kyky! That binkie makes her look especially tough don't you think?She as so proud she put all these on all by herself. So cute!!!

It's Christmas Time!

2009-12-03T07:44:00.000-08:00

So it is officially time to decorate the tree. Mattie was so excited to decorate the tree. She wouldn't stop talking about it until we got it out. This year I decided to let the girls be in charge
of decorating the tree. Billy put the decorations up on the high branches. I have to say they did a pretty good job. One of the best things about it is how proud the girls are of "their" tree.

As soon as Mattie wakes up she runs to the tree to turn the lights on. Then she says "Mommy isn't the tree beautiful?". It is so cute!
Honestly this is what Kylee was doing for a big part of the time.....digging through the boxes!
But here she is telling me about the ornament she put on the tree ALL BY HERSELF! She was so happy.
When Mattie got the angel out of its box she said to me "Mommy, the angel looks like me! She has blonde hair too!". I couldn't stop smiling because she was so excited.

Here is Billy doing his favorite part of the whole decorating experience...putting the angel on top of the tree. Looking good babe!This is what Brayden did while his sisters decorated the tree...chilled and hmmm what do you think those flared nostrils means? :) Good thing daddy is holding him. hee, hee
Now the real important thing here is to see how long the tree STAYS decorated with a very active 2 year old around the house. Merry Christmas everyone!

Hotel Fun!

2009-11-27T14:42:00.000-08:00

So while we were in Oregon we stayed in a hotel. This was my kids first time staying in a hotel. Let me just say the girls LOVED it! They thought it was great there was a pool INSIDE the hotel and that we had hot breakfast every morning with lots of different choices of food.

I know this picture is sideways but it is just so cute! Also luckily the girls didn't discover a new game until the last day...jumping from one bed to the next.
They laughed so hard they could hardly breathe. In fact I think Kylee ended up getting the hiccups.

This is Brayden after his shower for the night. Isn't he the cutest baby wrapped up in a towel?!

We had a lot of fun staying at a hotel together (even if we are all stuck in 1 room for a long time). It was all so new and exciting that it wasn't a problem. Thanks for all the fun memories La Quinta Inn! :)

Oregon Trip

2009-11-25T10:13:00.000-08:00

This is what happens after 18 hours of driving. :)

So this last week we traveled to Medford, Oregon for Daniel's (Billy's baby brother) wedding to an amazing girl named Brittiny. We drove for 18 hours to get there with a 2 month old, 2 year old and 5 year old. Just to clarify YES we are crazy! The sacrafices we make for family. :) The wedding was beautiful! We are so happy for Daniel and Brittiny! We were able to be with the entire Chase family, it has been a few years since that has happened.

The cousins had a great time playing together.

We were also able to get together with some GREAT friends who live in Klammath Falls, OR. Billy grew up with Craig. He has an amazing wife Molly who I had got to know through blogging.

I can now say we have met and I am so blessed to have her as a friend. I'm trying to find an AMAZING job for Craig so they will move here. :)

They have 3 handsome boys (Kole, Chase, and Krew) and 1 adorable daughter (Christa). Molly and I are trying to set up a arranged marriage for Mattison and Chase. He is the one she is sitting next to on the couch.

We had a great time driving through the snow to get to their house. Molly made us a great dinner before we started our journey home. This day was also mine and Billy's 6 year wedding anniversary! Love you babe!

This is the tempurature outside while we were driving to Klammath Falls!

I guess we see where Mattie get's her silly faces from! Like father like daughter!

It took us 23 hours to get home! Ugh!

We let the kids play in the car while we got gas. Then we stopped and had breakfast to stretch our legs.

As you can tell it was tiring and on some levels made us delirious. hee, hee

We made it home safe and loved the trip. I do believe it is safe to say though that we won't be traveling there for a while (especially not by car with small children).

P.S.
Today Brayden is 2 months! How does it happen so fast? We love you little man and are so glad you have joined our family!

Happy Birthday Girls!!

2009-11-18T07:14:00.000-08:00

So my baby girls have both had a birthday. Kylee turned 2 on Sunday and Mattison turned 5 yesterday. On Sunday we had a fun evening with all of my family. We had a yummy spaghetti birthday dinner! Then yesterday Mattie went to school and I went and volunteered in her classroom for a few hours. She loved it! Then we came home and Mattie and Kylee opened their presents then we made cupcakes.

Let me just say YUMMY!

Once again Mattie wanted spaghetti for her birthday dinner. We were lucky to have some dinner guests- Papa, Nana and Grandma Weathersby.

Then we had Kylee and Mattie blow out birthday candles on their cupcakes(since Kylee didn't get to on Sunday).

We have had a few couple of days. Mattie then was able to open her birthday presents from Aunt Krista and Grandma. She was lucky enough to open her present from Nana and Papa on Sunday with Kylee. Thanks everyone for the great presents! Happy birthday girls! Mommy and Daddy love you both SO very much and are so happy to have you in our family!

New Do!!!

2009-11-16T16:18:00.000-08:00

When you have the BEST hair stylist in the world you let them be free with theirs shears! :) She is AMAZING!! THANKS Erin! If you want an appointment with her click on her blog from my sidebar and leave a comment for her to contact you. She is worth every penny you will spend! Promise!!!

I LOVE my new do! What do you think?

Mattison's fun toy

2009-11-11T11:21:00.000-08:00

So for anyone who doesn't know Mattie LOVES her brother Brayden SO very much! She thinks he is hers. As soon as she wakes up she checks on Brayden and he is the 1st one to get a kiss goodbye when she heads off to school. He is the 1st one she greets when she returns home from school. She loves to hold him! In fact yesterday Mattie and her daddy were disagreeing on who was going to hold Brayden 1st after I was done feeding him. So this is a picture of how Mattie put her brother to sleep. This little guy LOVES to snuggle.

After she had him to sleep she needed to get up and doing something so she, as she called it, made him a pillow crib. :) So cute!

Then she decided he needed a blanket so she decided to use her sweater as his blanket. It is just so cute to watch her play mommy to her baby brother.

P.S.
As I was typing this post Mattie was holding Brayden and playing with him. I stood up to check on him and caught Mattie giving Brayden some of her apple juice. She thought she was doing such a great thing sharing. As you can tell we are still working on teaching Mattie what she can and can not do with Brayden. :)

Pigtails and growing up

2009-11-09T13:40:00.000-08:00

So I just love Kylee in pigtails! How can you blame me? We like to call them her bushy tails and she laughs. :)

Brayden is growing (mostly longer, not much baby fat). It is so fun to watch him grow! I love this picture of him yawning so big. It is so hard to be 7 weeks old and growing. He already has some very specific personality differences from the girls. One thing that is so different is he gets cold. He HATES being cold! He wants to be wrapped as tight as possible in any blanket right up against you. My girls weren't ones and still aren't who get cold. They are always sweating it seems like. My girls also weren't ones who liked to be held so tight and for sure didn't like their blankets tight on them.

Mattie is doing so good in school and loving every minute of it. Brayden is so blessed to have to sisters that love him so very much.

Brayden's Photo Shoot

2009-11-07T07:47:00.000-08:00

Yeah baby the pictures are in! So if you go to the link below you will get to see the slide show of pictures from Brayden's photo shoot. I love them and don't know how I am going to decide. The song that plays whole you watch the pictures is so cute. Also I you will please leave comments and tell me which ones you like the best that would be a great help. If you are interested in doing a shoot with Kierra after seeing these adorable pictures I'll give you her info and make sure to tell her I sent you! She is great and is very flexible and she comes to your home. The only thing is if you want her you have to do it soon because she is moving to Idaho in the middle of December! Enjoy the slide show!

http://www.kierraburnsphotography.com/clients/BrianneC/

I want to be a child again!!!

2009-11-05T12:40:00.000-08:00

So I want to be a child again. I want my biggest concern to be how I didn't finish my homework for school or that I wasn't chosen 1st for kickball on the playground. You know that old saying "When it rains it pours!". Here at my house it feels like it is raining hail balls the size of basketballs! Yesterday my AC broke in our house which wouldn't be that big a deal this time of year but of course right now we are having a record breaking heat wave. Then the brakes in 1 of our cars are needing to be done (never a cheap fix). Also I just got my bill from the hospital for Brayden's delivery, $300 for me and $200 for Brayden. Some may not think that is a lot but like I said we are having a hail storm at our house! Also we are trying to save enough money to attend Billy's younger brother Daniel's wedding in 2 1/2 weeks. We thought ok we just will do a quick tune up of the car and get 2 new front tires and the jeep will be great to travel in. WRONG! The engine light just decided to come on and I don't have any idea why! Seriously I do not want to be a grown up right now! I know a lot of people have it a lot harder than me and this wouldn't seem like much to some but in my little world this is a lot to handle. I know we will get through it some how but it doesn't mean it will be fun. Sorry this post is such a downer I just really needed to vent. Maybe I just need to go watch the interview of Nie Nie and Christian again on Oprah. :)

Halloween success

2009-11-01T14:33:00.000-08:00

So for any of you who don't know I am (with Billy) the ward activity leader. We have 2 active people on our committee and that is it. So I planned, organized, decorated, set up, purchased needed supplies, kept the activities going that night and did the clean up. My 2 committee members didn't show up that night and my husband had to live an hour into the night to go to work. So needless to say I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the night. It was all worth it though because we had a great turn out! We had so many soups to eat and 3 pinatas and a big trunk or treat! It was a lot of fun. I had a lot people say it was a lot of fun. This activity was on Friday the night before Halloween. Then on Halloween we took the kids over to my sister Tara's house to trick or treat in her neighborhood. My parents were there and Grandma Weathersby and Aunt Krista along with all of Tara's family and mine. It was a blast! I love doing anything that I get to do with my family! We missed having Erin, Steve and Parker there though. This year Kylee was a cow. This is the beginning of the night.

This is the end of the night! :)

Mattie was Sleeping Beauty for the 3rd time in a row. :) She wants to be Sleeping Beauty every year.

We always laugh when she tells us what she wants to be each year.

Brayden went as his cute self, Mommy's little quarterback! :) It is hard to do Halloween as a 5 week old. :)

Anyway Halloween was a success now it is time to get ready for our trip to Oregon in 3 weeks for Uncle Daniel's wedding! :)

29 years baby!!!

2009-10-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

That is right I'm 29 years old today! Yes I am still in my 20's for 1 more year! So I am going to copy my sister Tara here. I would like for my birthday as many comments as I can get :). I would like anyone who knows me, loves me or wants to know me to leave a comment. Share a memory you have had with me. Thanks so much!! I can't wait to read ALL of them!!

Brayden's 1st football pictures

2009-10-21T14:58:00.000-07:00

Yes we start young in this family. Football is a must. A friend of mine asked if she could do a photo shoot of Brayden when he is born. I said "Yes, of course!". So last week he had his 1st photo shoot and here is a sneak peek. Go to http://kierraburnsphotography.blogspot.com/ Enjoy because they are adorable! Thanks Kierra!!!!

My Hero and the BIG change!!

2009-10-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

So as many people know my amazing father was called yesterday as our new Stake President. We found out late Saturday afternoon. To tell you the truth me and the rest of our family were not that shocked. Well at least us girls. My parents on the other hand were a little more stunned. All growing up and to this day my dad has
been my hero. I wanted to do whatever I could to make my dad proud. He loves all of his daughters so much and it showed ever day. He loves having all of the family together as much as possible. I think if my dad could have it his way we would all live on the same property. No joke! When my baby sister Erin got married to her wonderful husband Steve they were going to be living in Mesa. Steve already owned a home there and he had a great job. I thought my dad was going to have a mini break down with his baby being a whole 45 minutes away from him. I am happy to report he has survived it (barely. hee, hee) My parents are such a strength. My parents raised us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They taught us through example! There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't think how happy I was to know that my dad loved my mom SO much! My dad would go to the moon and back to make my mom happy and that meant a lot to me. He was always there to share his testimony of the Savior with us. He loves working with the youth and young adults of the church. He has a great heart and a honest mind. He travels a lot with work that he is involved in with his profession. I have heard many stories from people that he comes in contact with about how impressed they are with his integrity. He always stands up for what he believes in no matter the cost. He serves the Lord with all his heart. We have not sat together as a family in church since 1988 because of the different callings my dad has held through the years. My mom has always been amazing about sustaining him in those callings. I never heard her complain about how he was gone a lot with his calling or how it was hard for her to sit alone with all 4 of us girls during church. I just want to say thank you to my father for being my hero and living up to such a high standard. Thank you for being such a great example and teaching me that it is important to accept the callings you are given in the church (even if they will come with many challenges and lots of time needed away from the home). He always puts his family 1st (after God). Last of all thank you for always loving our fantastic mother and always respecting her. Thank you mom for being such an amazing EVERYTHING! I love you both very much.

P.S.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY AMAZING SISTER TARA!!! ISN'T TURNING 29 YEARS OLD SO FUN? :)

Precious Time with Brayden!

2009-10-15T15:29:00.000-07:00

Brayden loves his Daddy! This Brayden after his big photo shoot. :) Details on that to come. He was so tired after that he sleep for 5 hours straight!

This is Ava Bean holding Brayden when he is about 1 week old. Every time Tara went to hand him to her she would lay back so Tara could lay him on her. It was so funny!

Seriously they are so cute! Don't you love how they are both sucking on a Binky here? I do!!!

I thought this was such a cute picture. It was like he was totally listening to what his older sister had to say. Mattison loves to take care of her best brother as she says. hee, hee

Sorry about the red eyes here but it is still such a precious picture!

It is amazing how much he is growing and learning each day! Love you Little Man!!!

Like Mother like Daughter

2009-10-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

So all growing up my family teased me about how crazy my hair gets, especially after a great night sleep. We joke that Rolf the hairdresser came to visit me in my sleep. He always does a number on me. I have come to discover that not only does he still work on my hair at night he goes into my little Kylee's room and does her hair now too. Pictures to prove it below :)

Ok so this was my hair for Halloween last year but I still thought it was funny.

So you will start to notice that Rolf's great work is a lot cuter on an adorable little girl than her older mommy.

r>We call these her bushy tails! She loves them.

So Kylee and I would like to thank Rolf for all his hard work each night. It is ok to take a break every once in a while though.

Best husband ever!!!

2009-10-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to my amazing husband! This past week I have not slept very well at night. My husband works nights so when the kids wake up in the middle of the night I deal with it. At 1:30 am last night I was helping ALL 3 children. Now this was not the only time I was up last night so I was already tired. I am well aware that many people have it a lot harder than me and that I need to (as my dad would say) "cowgirl up" but I do not do good with little sleep. So my husband goes to work at about 8:15pm and gets home around 7:40am the next day. He will come home and let me go back to bed for a couple hours and he will stay up with the girls. I love him so much!! I know Heavenly Father knew I needed a man who would be involved in raising his children. I am so grateful to have a man who loves me so much! He loves me and his children so much and it shows. Thank you Billy!! You are a great man and I love you so very much!

P.S.
He also did all my laundry for me this morning while I was sleeping! Seriously he is amazing!!!

Why me???

2009-10-06T16:07:00.000-07:00

So do I have a sign on my head that says I'm a great person to scam! So today I got a text from a friend asking me about "my" weird post on my facebook wall. I was very confused by this text, especially since I haven't posted on my wall in months. So I called him up asking what he was talking about. He told me he thinks someone must of hacked into my facebook account. It said things like "Ask me how I earned $761 dollars from google. Click on this link." blah, blah, blah! None of that was me (except the blah, blah, blah part hee, hee). I hate being the victim of any theft just like anyone else. The fact that someone can hack into my facebook account which is suppose to be confidential or when I had my credit stolen and I had to deal with the mess of getting it all straightened out. It was a long few months of trying to get it all fixed. Anyways I just want to say to the world right now..."leef me alone, I no want you scams or theft!!!!" You have to say that with a spanish accent to make it sound right :). Have a great day!!! Hope you are all victim free! :)

Independent Princess X2!

2009-10-04T14:15:00.000-07:00

Mattison went to our churches annual princess ball with her daddy as her prince charming. She had a blast!

She danced the night away. She danced with her daddy, cousin Gracie, lots of friends and Uncle Steve when Gracie would allow Mattie to get near him. :) Gracie had Steve as her date because her daddy had to work. So Gracie figured since Steve was her date she didn't have to share him. hee, hee I think it is safe to say that Uncle Steve is loved!

Mattie loves getting all dressed up and getting her hair curled. She even gets a little makeup to wear. I kept getting text from Billy while he was at the dance saying "It is SO hot in here!" I'm so grateful that Mattie and Billy had such a great time. I'm even more excited that next year he is taking BOTH of the girls to the dance. He could of actually taken both the girls this year but he said he wouldn't be able to spend much time dancing with Mattie if Kylee were there because she doesn't hold still. I knew this was true so I kept Kylee home and let Billy enjoy the night out with Mattison.

So Kylee has had a new fascination with wearing a swimsuit as much as she can. She will wear it as long as we let her. She gets mad when we have to take the suit off to change her diaper.

Billy says he doesn't understand why she wants to wear multiple outfits or swimsuits through out the day. I then have to explain that she is a GIRL and this is what GIRLS do. BOYS play with trucks and get dirty. GIRLS play dress up and change outfits as many times a day as they can. It is just how it goes. :)

Pictures of Brayden's 1st week!

2009-10-01T15:31:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to have Brayden here with us!! He is such a great baby! He looks exactly like his daddy, even more than Mattison if you can believe that. I didn't think that was possible. So here are some great pictures of him this last week.

Isn't he so reverent? :)

You can't see it but his shirt says "Mommy's little quarterback". So cute!

Kylee is enjoying having a little guy around. You'll note her hair is a little crazy but atleast she is dressed.

My two binkie babies :)

One picture with his eyes open having daddy time. The next few pictures are of what he does most the time.

Ashlyn holding Brayden for the 1st time.

Sydney holding Brayden for the 1st time.

Now the delivery story of my little man. It is a long story but it is a story I never want to forget because it is such a blessing!

The day before Brayden was born my amazing sisters Tara, Krista and Erin threw me a AWESOME football themed baby shower. Pictures to come, I forgot my camera that night so I have to get pictures from my mom's camera. Anyways the shower was great and we got so much amazing stuff for our little guy. Thanks everyone who was there! Thanks to my great sisters for all their hard work and time that they put into the shower. So one of the games that night was to guess when I would have Brayden so I couldn't tell anyone that the whole time I was at my shower I was in labor. :) Yes you read that right! As soon as the shower was done Billy drove me to the hospital and I was admitted. Brayden was determined to come sooner than his due date which was fine with me as long as he was healthy. At 11:30 am my doctor broke my water and within 10minutes I went from a 7 to 10 in dialation. My contractions were very intense. I had an epidural but I asked that they don't give me the full dose because I wanted to be able to feel when contractions were coming to help me push. Within 5 minutes of breaking my water I told Billy get me the nurse now I think it is time. He said no he just broke your water and you were a 7. I said get the nurse now please. She came in and sure enough I was a 10. They ran and got Dr. Nelson and 5 minutes later is was out. I did one session of pushing and he was out. It was very fast!!! He was purple when he came out and I was concerned. They hurried and took him from me and they bagged him to help him breath and the stuck a tube down his mouth to suck out some of the extra gas and stuff that was in his body. They put a c pap machine on him to help him breath. He would take in oxygen fine he just wouldn't breath out as well. He was in the NICU for the 1st 24 hours of his life. I was stressed I just wanted to see my baby and know that he was okay. They took my epidural out and from their everything for me changed too. I had been having a headache durning the pregnancy but I just tried not to think about it. Then when they took the epidural out my headache went to unbarable. I was in excrutiaing pain. Everytime I tried to sit up I threw up and I felt like my head was going to crush my neck. With sometime the discovered that I was having a spinal headache. Meaning my spinal fluid was leaking where my epidural had been. So they drew a bunch of my blood and they placed the blood in the spot where my epidural site was. It is called a blood patch. I felt relief and was so happy. I still had to stay down and not stand up but atleast my head didn't hurt. Then the next morning I sat up and it was happening again. They said that the 1st blood patch must not have gotten it all. So they went in AGAIN and drew more of my blood and did another blood patch. So this is like have 3 epidurals now. The doctor said "Oh yeah here is some more fluid". So they made me lay flat on my back for 13 hours without movement so the patch would heal right. So it is now Sunday and I haven't left my bed since I delivered Brayden. I felt so much relief though that I didn't care. I was able to go home that evening and I was so happy. My legs were very weak because I hadn't been able to use them for days. I didn't get to see my baby for about 6 hours. I got to NICU to hold him and within 2 minutes I was throwing up again so I had to leave. I was balling!! The one amazing thing is that after I threw up I was waiting for my nurse to come get me to take me to my room and I talked to Brayden as much as I could and just told him I loved him. As I did this the stats on his machines were beeping. His nurse said it is because he was doing so good. Him hearing my voice was making his oxygen level go to 100 which it hadn't done until I started talking to him. That helped me know my baby knew who I was and that I loved him. I knew everything was going to be okay after that moment. I thank my Heavenly Father for the great miracles that happened during this time. Welcome to the world Brayden!!

He is here!!! Welcome to earth Little Man!

2009-09-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

BRAYDEN NEUEL CHASE
born on Sept. 25th
at 11:46 am
weighed 7 lbs 3 oz
19 1/4 inches long

Brayden and mommy are both doing great now! There were a few bumps in the road for both of them but they are happy and healthy now and very happy to be home!!

Brayden has lots of blond hair and looks just like his daddy! Shocker I know. :)

His sisters are very happy to have him home (and mommy and daddy for that matter). We look forward to getting to know him more and more each day. Details of the birth will come in a later post.

Pregnant bellies & kicking our feet up!

2009-09-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

So I finally let Billy take a picture of my pregnant belly to show those who do not believe me when I say I feel and look huge! Also please ignore my frizzy hair! ha, ha

This picture actually doesn't even do it justice. This is me at 33 weeks. I am excited for Brayden to join our family but nervous at the same time.

Then as I was sitting at the computer that same day checking my email and blogs I look at Kylee and this is what I see.

She was just sitting back with her feet kicked up drinking her juice enjoying a movie. It was to precious not to take a picture of. She loves to be the only kid at home when Mattie is at school. She loves it when sister comes home don't get me wrong but she loves her one on one time. She better enjoy it now because in a few weeks things are going to change again. :)

Green Sticker Reward!!

2009-09-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

Ever day Mattie comes home from school I check her folder for what her homework assignment is for that day and to see what color behavior sticker she got for the day. Green is Great! Yellow is Good. Red is BAD! Mattie has NEVER received a red. Anyways she came home the other day and she had received a green sticker! Yahoo!! I was so excited and I wanted to make sure to point out to her how proud mommy and daddy are that she got a green sticker. We want to really draw great attention to wonderful behavior. So I told her that because she received a green sticker in class that day we were going to make homemade chocolate chip cookies. Needless to say she was very excited.

Of course this is always an interesting endeavor with 2 little girls and a very pregnant mommy but we had fun!

At one point in the process of making these yummy cookies I realized my brown sugar was hard as a rock so my loving husband went out in the smoldering heat and got us some fresh brown sugar so we could finish making cookies. I checked to make sure we had all the other ingredients before he left. So daddy returns we add our brown sugar and 2 more ingredients when I go to get the eggs out of the fridge. (The only time I didn't check to see if we had because we ALWAYS have eggs). NO EGGS! Once again my loving husband goes to the store and gets us eggs. First we even went to see if we could just borrow some from the neighbor but of course they weren't home.

So we eventually go ALL the ingredients into the same bowl and we started cooking our reward. They turned out delicious! You forget how much you love homemade cookies when you have been buying the bulk Costco brand of pre-made cookie dough because it is so much easier. :)

Both the girls had a great time putting different ingredients in the bowl and then watching at how it all came together to make something so yummy! What a fun memory!! I love you girls! Also on a side note 2 days later Mattie came home with another GREEN sticker and she was so excited to tell me when she got home from school. I love how much she loves school!
Oh yeah and this is how Mattie ended up by the end of this cooking session! She is just so dang cute! Thanks Aunt Krista for the adorable apron!

Where were you???

2009-09-11T11:49:00.000-07:00

Where were you 8 years ago when our country was attacked? I remember I was getting ready to get in the shower to get ready for work. I went to turn my cd player on and the weirdest thing my stereo turned on. I don't remember turning my stereo on. I then heard the dj's saying that 1 of the buildings from the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane. I ran and turned on the tv where I watched stunned and shocked! I watched as the 2nd building was hit. I remember feeling so many emotions, numbness, shock, fear, anger, sadness and more shock. I remember feeling warm tears running down my cheeks not even knowing when the tears started. I ran to my dad's bedroom where he to was getting ready for work. I was crying and telling him that the World Trade Center was under attack. I felt like my breath was leaving me. I was lightheaded from emotional overload. My dad was saying to me "What? What are you talking about?" Then we hurried to turn his tv on and there it was the horrible scene of reality. I was praying that my mind was just playing tricks on me and I was in a nightmare and I would wake up soon. Unfortunately it was all to real. I continued to get ready for work while crying the whole time. Praying continually for all those people who were there. I prayed for their families. I prayed for a way that I could help. I remember praying ALL DAY! When I got to work there was a numb silence in the huge corporate building. Nobody felt that we had anything important to say. We had employees who were from New York who didn't know where their family was or if they were alright. All of those employees were sent home to focus on their families. I went and donated blood as much as I could (which is a huge thing for me because I HATE needles) but I knew that their were people who were more in need then me and they NEEDED blood. I helped raise money to send to the relief fund. I am so grateful that I had and continue to have a Heavenly Father who showed me that I can make a difference and that he can't stop evil from happening but he can call on us his children to help those who are in need from the aftermath of such situations. Lastly I wanted to share this video that is posted on lds.org it is about a 9/11 survivor and how he is still a survivor in many other ways. Please take 8 minutes out of your day to watch this video. It can and will help you reflect on what is really important in your life.

God bless America! This truly is the promised land and Satan knows it so he will do all he can to try to destroy it. Don't let that happen! Stand up for our country! Thank you to all our military for your dedication and service!

P.S.
If you feel like reading a few more inspiring blog posts about 9/11 go to these blogs
http://cherylweathersby.blogspot.com/ or click on Mommy Dearest on my list of blogs
http://elizabethbryant.blogspot.com/ or click on Lizzy Writes on my list of blogs

Strength of a lion!

2009-09-08T16:47:00.000-07:00

So Kylee and I had just picked up Mattison from school and on the way home both girls had fallen asleep in the car. So I called Billy and said "Can you come outside and carry our girls into the house please." So Billy came out to get them and they woke up slowly as he was getting them out. They both insisted he carry them both at the same time. Needless to say that is not a light load but he was nice enough to hold them a few seconds longer than needed so that I could get a picture of this precious moment.

I'm so glad my girls have a daddy who loves them both very much! He loves when they want to snuggle and have daddy time.

Thanks honey for being such a great daddy and for being such a great part of our daughters lives. I am also very excited to see you with our son who will be here in a few weeks!

Mattie's breakfast choices!

2009-09-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

So Kylee woke up at 5:30 am and said "Toys" and goes running to the family room. I said "NO. Toys is asleep and in a few minutes WE will be asleep again!" So I took Kylee to bed with me and she was asleep quickly. Then at 6 am in came Mattie. I made her lay in my bed for 30 minutes before I just decided to let her go in the front room to watch Disney channel for a while until Kylee woke up. Kylee slept until 7 and I as pretty happy. So Kylee and I are heading out to the family room to join Mattie. Mattie is very excited see us both. She quickly confesses to me that she had some chocolate pudding and then just a little bit of brownies that she ate with her fingers. It wouldn't have been hard to figure this chocolate situation out though because the evidence was all over her lips.

So I told her that she doesn't have those things for breakfast and we went and had a more suitable breakfast. I then went to make Mattie's lunch when I walked by the brownie pan......WHAT! She ate a little bit more than just a small bit. I don't know what do you think? The whole right side is her "small" piece that she ate! :)

You'll notice that she also was careful enough to put the plastic back over the top of the brownies. What a little monkey!

It is nice to have such an independent child but apparently we still need to work on health choices. Not that brownies are healthy at any point of the day! hee, hee

The winner is...! True Joy! You are not alone!

2009-09-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

In my last post I asked for all of you to share something funny or something that would really make me laugh because I needed it. Okay people seriously I only got 5 comments (and 2 of them were from my mom)! I guess only my mom and a couple friends really wanted me to laugh. :( Oh well. So my amazing mom went above and beyond and posted 2 times! Both were VERY funny so she is the lucky winner! Thanks mom for always doing what you can to make me smile and for being such an amazing friend!

On a more serious note I recently felt a strong prompting from my Heavenly Father telling me to go to lds.org and I would find what I really needed to hear. I followed the prompting and this is what was at the top of the page.
I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of each of us and that he can help us understand what we really NEED at any particular time in our lives. If it be to be uplifted or to help us stay strong or just to tell us he loves us. I have felt so much recently that I was running up that "heartbreak hill" and never seeing the end or even the top for that matter. Today I can say that I can see the top! Even though I know that everything worth having takes hard work and persistence, I also know that it is attainable if we have Jesus Christ on our side. I know that there will be many more hills and mountains to climb throughout my life but I pray that I will stay focused on what really NEEDS to be done to allow me to return to my Heavenly Father and Savior and to be with my family for eternity.

Need a good laugh!!

2009-08-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

So you know how they say "Laughter is the best medicine!". Well I need a little of that medicine right now so I am asking that anyone who reads this post tell me the funniest joke or tell me the funniest story and who ever leaves the comment that makes me laugh the hardest will get a special prize. It will be something unique to that person so make it REALLY good readers!!! Thanks in advance!!

Lovin' on Parker boy!!

2009-08-26T15:37:00.000-07:00

So Mattie was so excited to meet her new cousin for the first time! The look on her face here explains it all. I didn't get a picture of it but back in the corner Kylee is crying because she can't get near the baby because she is sick. She kept saying "Parkeer". (I tried to spell it how she says it because it is so cute!)

This was also Billy's first time meeting he's newest little nephew. It made him even more excited to have our little guy join the family.

He is just so dang cute from every angle!! I can't believe he is 1 month old already!

I love you Parker boy!! You just get cuter each day!!!

Erin just recently had pictures taken of Parker that are priceless. If you want to see them go to Steve and Erin's blog on the side of my blog!

Mattison + Kylee= cute moments!

2009-08-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

So one morning I came into the front room and stopped right in my tracks because I saw such a cute sister moment. Mattie was just sitting there playing with Kylee's hair. They were both very content just to be together. I love that!

Then they were sitting as close as possible to each other as they could get to watch a movie. Kylee loves to be anywhere Mattie is. She especially loves her time with Mattie now that Mattie is in school for such a large part of the day. Just as they say "Distant makes the heart grow fonder."

This was on a quiet night when the girls had actually agreed on a mutual movie to watch. Mattie set up a little bed for both of them and Kylee thought that was just heaven. Man I just love these moments of love!! I am so looking forward to meeting our little guy Brayden! He is going to be a fun addition to this cute little group of kiddo's we have now. :)

22 Minutes of TANTRUM!!!

2009-08-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Don't let this adorable little face fool you this post is titled 22 minutes of Tantrum for a reason. This morning I was trying to get breakfast ready for the girls so that I could get Mattie's school lunch made while they ate. They were watching Little Einsteins and just as I come in the front room to just check on them Kylee is pulling all the dvd's down off the entertainment center. I said "Kylee no! No, no!". She then looked at me, took her two mischievous hands and grabbed another arm full of dvd's and threw them to the ground. To make matters worse she is looking AT ME while she is doing it and then she says "ha!". Like she was teaching me a lesson that this is what happens when you tell ME no. I then proceeded to tell her no again and she repeated the same scenario as before. With the "ha!" after and everything. I knew in that moment I HAD to take charge and let her know that believe it or not I AM THE MOMMY! So I went over to her and told her to pick them up and put them back right now. She just looked and me and walked away. So I took her hand and calmly (no joke) walked her back to the pile of dvd's on my floor and again instructed her to pick these up. She looked at me and started to walk away. I quickly took her hand to make her stay by me. This did NOT make her happy. She started crying and throwing herself around. She was crying "I want binky!". She said it over and over and over. I told her she could have binky as soon as she put all the dvd's back where they belong. Oh my gosh then did the tantrum begin!! She was throwing herself on the ground and rolling all over the front room screaming! I heard a little voice in my head say "Stick to it. Don't give in.". I knew that voice was right but I didn't like seeing her cry. Don't worry though I listened to the voice. I STUCK MY GROUND! I finally got it through to Kylee that this wasn't going to get any better until she picked up the dvd's. So 23 minutes later.........the dvd's were being put back were they belong by my feisty little baby girl. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! I stuck my ground and Kylee learned that mommy can be pretty stubborn too. I know there will be more of these lovely tantrums to come but I am happy to say that I succeeded in not giving in. I love you Kylee!!

Bravery!

2009-08-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

So I always thought I knew what it meant to be brave when I was younger. I now think that the brave means so much more than what I thought as a child. The other day I opened up Nie Dialogues to find Stephanie's first picture of herself since her plane crash 1 year ago. She posted it for all to see. At that moment I had even more of an understanding of what brave means. To me bravery means to stand up and keep on living even when you want to go in to a hole and hide. I know there are times when I get down and all I can think of is how I want to be in bed and don't want to get up. Then I think of Stephanie and all the difficult things she has had to go through in 12 months and realize that if she can continue to live each day and stand brave against all the struggles that she faces each and everyday than I surely can. She hiked the Y mountain on the 1 year anniversary of her plane crash. She set that goal for herself and she DID it! Today I want to stand a little taller like Stephanie and Christian and set a great goal for myself. I invite all of you to join me in this quest to be a little more brave. Brave against temptation, Satan and the things of the world! To just be brave enough to be yourself no matter who is around. Be brave enough to share your love with all those you come in contact with. Thank you Stephanie for your bravery and for helping to strive to be a little more brave in my faith in myself and in my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ!

Where is Kylee??

2009-08-13T16:13:00.000-07:00

So the other night I heard something weird in the baby monitor. It sounded like Kylee was talking in her sleep but it was muffled so that made me want to go check on her while she was sleeping. It was about 4 am at this point. I quietly open the door to just look at my girls and I see Mattie sleeping peacefully so I crack the door just a little more to check on Kylee in her bed. Except there is a problem...Kylee isn't in her bed! What? So I start looking all around the room and I am starting to get worried because I CAN NOT find her! Then something little catches my eye. It looks like little toes sticking out from under Mattie's bed. What?

So this is what I see and I lift up the bed skirt to Mattie's bed and there is my little Kylee sound asleep UNDER her sisters bed. Totally content to be in the dark covered area. I was trying so hard not to laugh really loud and wake the girls. As you can see the flash of the camera woke Mattie up but only for that second thank goodness.

So I got down on my hands and knees (after I stopped laughing so much) and scooped Kylee up to put her back in her bed.

She is the craziest sleeper I have ever seen! She talks in her sleep, walks in her sleep and even laughs in her sleep. She doesn't even stop when she is sleeping! The girl is always busy and keeping me on my toes. Hey Kylee let's stay in our beds from now on. :)

Mattison's 1st day of Kindergarten!

2009-08-10T15:31:00.001-07:00

So today was Mattison's 1st day of kindergarten and she was VERY ready. She was so excited when she woke up and realized that the day had FINALLY come. She is attending a great charter school where they are required to wear uniforms and I think it is great.

This is on our way to school this morning. She was all smiles!

Kylee was also very excited. She had no idea why but she could tell everyone else was excited so that was good enough reason for her to join in the fun.

Daddy actually did pretty good this morning sending his baby off to school.

I have to say I think I also did pretty good. :) I learned that there were quite a few other LDS kids in her class and I know it sounds silly but that gave me comfort.
After the kids drop their backpacks off at their classroom doors they can play on the playground until school starts. Mattie likes this idea!

So now it is time for school to start and Mattison was very quick to put her backpack in her cubby and sit right down at her desk.

I took this picture when she didn't know it. She had been sitting there for about 3 minutes and just could not figure out why we weren't starting school yet. As you can tell here she is ready to get this party started. Let's just hope this enthusiasum continues all her life.

As soon as we pick her up from school she tells us she had fun and she is hot and needs a cold water bottle. Oops mommy forgot to send a water bottle to school with you. So here she is chugging my cold water bottle.

Then we decided it would be fun to get her a ice cream cone from McDonald's to celebrate her 1st day of kindergarten. I think she liked this celebration. Wish I had a picture of her AFTER that ice cream cone was finished. It would leave no doubt in your minds that she enjoyed it.

I'm so glad you enjoyed your 1st day of kindergarten Mattison! Mommy, Daddy and Kylee missed you a lot today but we know you will enjoy your time at school. Love you baby girl!! Now time to go do your homework!!! Seriously :)

Sleep?!?!

2009-08-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

What is sleep?? I'm not very sure because it seems like I am getting less and less of it these days. I guess it is all just part of motherhood and being almost 30 weeks pregnant. So here is another thing about sleeping, 2 nights ago I had to put the girls to bed by myself without Billy's help because they were going to bed about 15 minutes later than usual and Billy had to get to work. Our normal routine is Billy gets almost completely ready for work then puts the girls to bed then finishes getting ready and goes to work for the night. The girls like this routine and honestly so do I. So anyways back to 2 nights ago when I was in charge of putting them down. Kylee didn't go to sleep until 9:30 pm!!!! Mattison didn't go to sleep until 10:00pm!!!! What the heck! I thought I was doing everything the same way Billy did each night but apparently NOT! So the next night we were back to normal and Billy put them to bed. I am NOT making this up the girls were asleep by 7:45pm last night! Once again I say, What the heck!!!!! He was in the room no more than 5 minutes and the girls were out cold. I spent more than 1 1/2 hours with them before they fell asleep. I guess it will just have to be Billy's job forever! :) hee, hee

Oh yeah and a little side night at 9pm I called my dad and said "Do you want to adopt my second child? She will not go to bed and I am exhausted!" This is my dad's response "ha, ha, ha, ha, ha". Yeah lots of sympathy. Then he says "Have fun!" Thanks for the great advice dad!

New Roomates!!!

2009-08-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

So last week my great friend Ashley told me she wanted to take my girls for the day so that I could have a day alone with my amazing husband. So yesterday was that lucky day! Ashley came and picked the girls up at about 10 am and kept them VERY entertained until she brought them home around 7:15 that night. Billy and I decided (more so me hee, hee) that we were going to take advantage of the time alone. Billy took apart the full size bed that Mattison had been sleeping on so that we could put 2 beds in the room. That is right, Kylee and Mattison are roommates!! Kylee has officially moved out of the crib. I figured in about 9 weeks or so their is going to be a new baby invading the crib so no time like the present to put her in a toddler bed. Needless to say it saved us a ton to not have the girls here and in the way to put the beds together and situate the beds the way we wanted them.

The girls LOVED it when they got home! They were so excited to share a room. They both slept through the night last night in their own beds. It is a miracle that I am very grateful for. Then they have been playing in their new room together all morning. Kylee has already taken a 1 hour nap in her new bed too. She is way excited to be such a big girl like sister!

The girls had a blast with Ashley! She took them to Grams house (Ashley's grandma) where Grams had cookies and ice cream with all the yummy toppings. They had pizza while they were there. Then Grams and Ashley took the girls to the $1 store and let each of the girls pick out like 5 or more things each! Needless to say they had a blast with that. They each brought home a bag of goodies from the store. Then Ashley headed to her mom's house with the girls to go swimming. Thanks Kim for helping Ashley with the girls in the pool it is for sure a 2 man job if not more when Kylee is involved. They got to play with the dogs then they headed to Ashley's apartment to have dinner, movie and a bath! The girls had a blast with Ashley and all her family! Thank you soooooooooo much Ashley, Grams and Kim for such a wonderful day for my precious girls and for my amazing husband and I who had one on one time for the first time in a while. Also thanks to my mom who gave Billy and I movie tickets to go on a date while the girls were out on their adventure. Billy and I finally got to see Harry Potter 6. Now on to the next adventure........waiting for Krista to get home so we can start getting Brayden's room ready for him! It is a football themed room of course. :)

34 YEARS!!!

2009-08-01T07:47:00.001-07:00

I wanted to wish my parents a very HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! My parents have now been married for 34 years! I'm so blessed to have such a great example for what a marriage should be. I have always been blessed to know that my parents love each other VERY much. My mom and dad are best friends and they love spending time together. I love to see how much my dad loves and cherishes my mom. They take care of each other the way a husband and wife should. Thank you mom and dad for setting such a good example for what a marriage is all about. I'm not saying that their marriage is perfect but they know that they want to be together for eternity so they work at it everyday. I love you mom and dad!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to these last 34 years and many more to come!!

Kylee lovin'!!!

2009-07-31T09:10:00.001-07:00

Kylee is my little climber! She loves to keep me on my toes. :) She had just finished eating dinner so she was striped down to her diaper to save her clothes from being destroyed. I left her and Mattie for 2 seconds to get the bath water on. This is what I came back to find....

Do you see why we call her a monkey??? So you also like how she is looking at me like "What? This is normal." Good thing your cute Kylee bug!!! Love you!!!

Welcome Parker!!

2009-07-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

So I'm so glad I can finally do my post on welcoming my newest nephew to the world! I had to wait for his mommy to feel good enough to do the official announcement on her blog first. Seriously he is so adorable!!

Is he not the cutest burrito baby?!?!

He just laid there asleep holding my finger so tight! I loved it so much! He was obviously laying across my round pregnant belly and it was hilarious because Brayden (my little guy in the tummy) was kicking Parker right where he was laying on me. Brayden was kicking so hard it was actually making Parker stir awake. I'm sure Brayden was just saying "Hi" and he would see him in a little while! I'm so excited they will be so close in age!

I wish I could have held him longer but after only a few minutes of holding him the nurse came to check him and then more visitors came so I still need a little more one on one time with my little nephew!

Good job Erin and Steve!! He is so a keeper! I love you Parker McKay!!!

Gratitude!

2009-07-19T15:39:00.001-07:00

So today I have felt a strong desire to share something very important. This post is mainly for me to put my thoughts down in writing and for the day when my kids read it. I want my kids and their kids and all of my family to know of my gratitude for my Savior and Redeemer even the Lord Jesus Christ. Today we had a return missionary speak in our ward. He had only been off his mission like 4 days. As he was sharing his mission experiences and his testimony my heart was burning with the spirit. I felt such a strong conformation from the spirit telling me that what he was sharing was true. I am so grateful for the knowledge of the Holy Ghost. It is through the promptings and whisperings of the spirit that I can tell with 100% conviction that the gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth today. That we have a living prophet today who leads and guides our church through divine revelation from our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. I KNOW that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that everything in this precious book that we read is true. Every answer we would need from our Heavenly Father can be found in the scriptures. He speaks to us in many ways. He speaks to us in personal ways and we just have to have an open heart to hear it. I am so blessed to know that I can be with my family for ETERNITY! This gives me great peace of mind. I look forward to the day when I can be reunited with loved ones who have already left this earth. My prayer is that I can be a better example to those around me of all these important truths that I know to be true!

Sister Lovin' # 2

2009-07-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

I LOVE MY SISTERS!! So yesterday I went with my girls to see my parents since they had just go back from San Diego. On my way over to my parents I called my sister Erin's salon to schedule a VERY much need hair appointment before she went on maternity leave. They told me she was booked sold until her leave. I was so sad!! I talked to Erin and she said she would call if she had any openings all of sudden. She told me that my sister Tara and both my parents still needed appointments too. Oh boy! Lucky for me, Tara and my parents Erin had a cancellation that allowed all of us to get in that same day. Tara and I hopped in my car and drove to the salon. Luckily my parents said they would watch my girls and then when they had to leave to come to their appointment Krista said she would watch the kids until we got back. I'm SO grateful to Krista and my parents for watching my girls and Tara's kids so we could get our hair done! It meant a ton to me. Thank you!!! Thank you Erin for calling right away and fitting us all into your busy day!! Also thank you for being so gifted at what you do. When Erin colors my hair it takes 2 bottles of color and even more color to pull it through to the ends of my hair. I have VERY thick, coarse hair so it takes a lot to get my hair done. She always says she has to do 2 separate hair cuts on me when she does my hair. 1 cut for trimming length the 2nd cut for thinning my hair so it is manageable. One time when she was shampooing my hair she got it all wet so she could put shampoo in it. When she went to rub the shampoo around she felt that the whole center of my scalp was COMPLETELY dry! That was a moment when Erin realized a little more what I go through to wash and dry my hair each time. hee, hee I think it was a fun day at the salon with my 2 sisters. Tara was able to be Erin's assistant and helped put color on my hair. Tara seemed to have a lot of fun with that. I enjoyed the one on one time with Tara in the car. We talked about different things. Nothing huge or important but nice because we were together. So this is a big, HUGE love shout out to all my sisters! Thanks for all you do for me and I LOVE YOU!!!

Sister Lovin'

2009-07-15T15:47:00.000-07:00

So the past couple days Kylee has really been loving on Mattison. She is wanting Mattie to hold her and love on her. It is so cute! So I decided to take a couple pictures of these precious moments because unfortunately it isn't always this way and now I can have documentation that they do love each other even if it isn't EVERY second of everyday. :)

This was last night when we were having dinner (pre-bath as you can tell by their crazy hair and messy faces). Kylee had been sitting in her seat but decided she wanted to sit on Mattie's lap and have Mattie feed her. It was really funny!

Then this was this morning when Kylee had woke up from a brief nap. Apparently she just wanted her sister. She went to Mattie and had her hold her while they watched a movie together. I just love these great little moments!

I needed to remember how adorable they are, especially today as it has been a more difficult day. Kylee woke up this morning at 5:35 and Mattie woke up at 5:45. Why you ask.......good question!!! I pray it doesn't happen tomorrow!! :) Don't worry baby girls mommy still loves you (this should be obvious since we are all still alive today. hee, hee)

Bye, Bye Blankie!!

2009-07-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

When Mattison was 9 months old I was diagnosed with cancer and so literally one day I had to stop nursing her cold turkey. It was hard on me and Mattison but Mattie found a way to comfort herself. She started sucking on her soft pink blankie and that was that. She sucked it anytime she was sad, mad, happy, tired or sick! I couldn't get it away from her. We were finally able to start weening her from the blankie slowly. It couldn't leave the car, then couldn't leave the house then finally she could only have it in her room. Right before we left for San Diego Mattie and I sat down and had the bye, bye blankie talk. She said "Yeah I don't need blankie I'm a big girl." If I knew it would have been that easy I would have done it a long time ago. I explained to her that blankie would stay home while we were on vacation then when we came back she could wrap it up in a pretty box where it would stay FOREVER!!! Once again she was all on board. So here are the pictures of Mattie saying goodbye to her precious blankie. (Honestly though I think Billy will miss her blankie more than Mattie will. Whenever she would get so mad and he couldn't get her to calm down he would just tell her to go get blankie and calm down. hee, hee) I should have taken pictures of Billy saying bye, bye to blankie. :)

You will notice I put packing tape around the box so it couldn't be opened. ha, ha

I also loved how she signed it :)

Way to go big girl!! Mommy is so proud of you!! Yes Billy I am proud of you too!

Trip to San Diego!

2009-07-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

This is how the girls traveled to San Diego. Thank goodness! We left for Cali at 4am right after Billy got home from work so that the girls would sleep most of the trip.

Fun times with the family!!

I missed this sweet thing so much!

Fun times at the beach!!!!

We couldn't get mom's nose out of this great book! :)
This is what happens to the children after such eventful days. You'll notice the youngest and smallest takes up the most part of the bed! :)

This is Krista on her 27th birthday at a yummy mexican restraunt we love to go to when we are in San Diego. It is in Old Town and it is yummy! The only down fall was the wait for our food was so long but oh well.

This was a very successful vacation! I'm already looking forward to next year's trip to San Diego. Plus by then our little man will be with us!! Yahoo!

Moving to San Diego!!

2009-07-06T18:25:00.000-07:00

So I am moving to San Diego!! Ok not really but I would if I could. At least while I was pregnant. :) I am so hot with this pregnancy and so the AZ heat is killing me. I have now been in Cali for 8 days and wish I could stay until baby Brayden comes to join our family but that is just not going to happen. The weather is perfect here. It has been in the 70's with a light breeze. BEAUTIFUL!!! We are returning home tomorrow late. We plan on driving during the night so that the girls will sleep. We had a wonderful 4th of July. Mattison was in a little bike parade and she loved it. She said at the end "Mommy my knees hurt." She said that but she was still smiling. We have enjoyed our time together with family and look forward to next year. Pictures will be posted later. Sorry it is just not easy to post pictures when you are using someone else's computer. Happy trails!!

Shout out to my Honey!!!

2009-07-02T16:21:00.000-07:00

So me and the girls are in Cali having a wonderful time enjoying the beautiful weather. I can actually function being pregnant in this weather! :) The bummer part of the deal here though is that my hubby had to leave after day 3 to return to work for 4 days. He has been gone 2 days now and I am REALLY missing him. My heart goes out to single parents I don't know how you do it. I just want to tell my husband that I love him sooooo much and I am counting down the days and hours until you are here with us again. My husband is a very involved daddy and a very loving husband. He rubs my back ever night before I go to bed. He actually called me today and said he misses rubbing my back at night. He is so sweet! I love you honey!!!! XOXO (the X's are for kisses and the O's are for hugs-what movie is that from Billy?) Miss you and love you!!!

Off to the beach!!

2009-06-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

So at 4am this Sunday morning we are heading off to San Diego!! I can't even begin to tell you how EXCITED I am. My brain can't even comprehend the fact that I don't have to go to work for 1 1/2 weeks! My body and mind are VERY ready for a little R&R. I don't really know how much resting I will get because let's face it Kylee is still my daughter and she is going with me along with my other daughter of course Mattison. I'm bummed though because Billy has to come back AZ to go to work for 4 days then he gets to come back to CA. I'll miss him so much!!! I am way excited to see my best friend my mom and my sister Tara and brother-in-law Aaron and their 4 adorable kids!! Also for anyone interested we have decided to name our baby boy Brayden Neuel instead of Jarren. :) So I will miss you all but I am looking forward to going to cooler weather!!!!! Love you all!

Exhausted!!!

2009-06-24T19:49:00.000-07:00

So on Monday Kylee woke up WAY too early.......5:45am! Yes you read the time right. So I had to be to work that day by 7 and Billy was playing basketball already at the church so I got up with her. I had to get ready with her "help" which is always interesting. At about 9:15am Billy called me at work and asked if I could talk for a second. Luckily I had about 60 seconds so Billy precedes to tell me about what was going on at home while I am at work. Billy said he was in our bedroom picking up some stuff and Kylee comes in the room ever couple minutes just to make sure Daddy is still in there. This is very common for Kylee. Then he said the last time he saw her check on him she did the "I love you" sign in sign language and closed our bedroom door behind her. He didn't think much of it. Then about 3 to 5 minutes later the home phone rang so he opened up our bedroom door to go down the tiled hallway to answer the phone. The only thing is that when he went to step out of our bedroom this is what he found.......

That is right, Kylee is passed out asleep on the tile floor. Kylee honey this is why we don't need to wake up at 5:45 am!!! Billy said she was snoring too! When he went to pick her up and put her in her crib she didn't even budge. Needless to say Mommy was very jealous she got a nap! :)

Then that night we were doing our evening ritual of helping the girls pick up their toys before bed. This is Kylee's way of contributing to the process. Sit in the box where all the toys are suppose to go then you just can't put the toys away! Problem solved in the mind of a 19 month old (or so she thought). Good thing she is cute because she is very mischievous also!

Also I wanted to congratulate Mattison me little miss smart girl!!! She has a November birthday so she is suppose to wait a whole another year before she started kindergarten but Billy and I prayed about it and felt we needed to have her tested early. Luckily we found a new charter school testing early kindergarten children. She went and did her screening and the advisor said she is VERY ready for school and that she would put her on the enrollment lists that day!! She was VERY excited to hear that (to say the least). She said do I get to go to class now? The advisor and I both laughed at her enthusiasm and explained that school didn't start until August 10th. Almost everyday since the test she has asked if it is time to start school. Billy and I are very proud of her and her excitement for learning. Good job baby girl!!! Then the advisor talked to me a few days later and asked me if I would be willing to help them interview for the 3rd kindergarten teacher they were looking to hire. I said yes and was very excited when they asked for my help on input in selecting a teacher. Should be an adventure! :)

Happy Father's Day!!!

2009-06-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

These shoes are too big on me, as you can plainly see.
Even when I am grown though, they'll still be big on me.
The reason is quite simple; I'm sure you will agree.
No one can fill these shoes quite like my daddy.

Happy Father's Day!
We love you!!

House Guest

2009-06-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

So as of yesterday we have a new house guest that my girls are so excited about having here. He is a little more hair than most our house guests and he goes to the bathroom outside (old fashioned like :) ). Welcome to our house Buddy! I know Mattison and Kylee are hoping this is a permanent situation but I know you are hoping the opposite. Buddy has only been here since yesterday evening and he is already exhausted.
Wait!!! You are NOT Buddy!!!

Here is our real house guest! :)

More than 1 reason for a closet!!!

2009-06-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

So the other day Billy and I were trying to get some stuff put away and so Mattie and Kylee went into Kylee's room to play. I thought how nice it is that the girls are playing so good together in the other room so Billy and I can get our project done faster. Then it got a little to quiet for my taste. I have learned to much silence when kids are playing equals TROUBLE! So I go into Kylee's room to find this...... So here is a great video of Mattie doing the robot. It is so cute to watch!

I hate listening to me talking but the video is cute. :)

This is Kylee's new love....sunglasses!! She'll be already for the beach. hee, hee

Missing my mom!!

2009-06-16T19:41:00.000-07:00

So my mom and dad left to go to San Diego with my older sister Tara and her husband Aaron and their 4 adorable kids. My dad is staying for a week and my mom and Tara's family are staying for 1 MONTH!!! That is right i said 1 MONTH! I am a really close to my mom so to have her gone that long is not a fun idea. So far they have only been gone 2 days and I am already missing my family terribly. I do have to say though I actually haven't seen any of my family since last Wednesday because I was so sick and I didn't want to get any of them sick especially before going on vacation. So I am looking forward to staying in touch with my mom and my sister through blogging and phone calls! Thank you technology!!! :) I am looking forward to meeting up with them in 2 weeks. My girls keep asking to go to Nana's house and I tell them she is not home and they look confused like "What she always needs to be there?". So Kylee finally decided she would call her Nana so she brought me the home phone and said "Nana". So I called Nana so she could talk to her mini me (aka Kylee). For anyone who does not know, Kylee is my mom's sidekick. She will go anywhere Nana is. So I think Kylee and I will have the hardest time having my mom gone! So here are some pictures of the girls to keep you happy for a couple days mom. P.S. Yes the bath water is suppose to be pink it was dissolve ball my dad gave the girls as a gift. Needless to say they LOVED the pink water with little floating hearts in it! :)