Kindergartner Craziness

Can you believe it?! I still can't. I'm old enough to now have a child in school. Everyone told me that once the kiddos go into school, life all of a sudden becomes that much more crazy! Yup, it has. I find myself (yes me) waking up early (huh! I know, I can hear the gasps) to get my little guy off to school. My awesome hubby doesn't go into work until 12, so technically he could get him off to school, but I just need to see that he gets there okay and his hair is spiked perfectly :)

So the first day Dom woke up promptly and was so excited but when we got to his class room he wouldn't let my arm go, until finally the teacher came and directed him to his assigned seat. He sits right in front of his cousin Natalia and time will tell if that will be a good thing or bad. But the little guy came home so happy saying, "Mom this is such a fun day!"

Second day was a little harder to get him out of bed. Got to class and we had forgotten his folder that the teacher reminded me that he needed to bring everyday to school. Feeling like a failure mom at this point...how could I have forgotten his mandatory folder on the second day....thought soon faded when I remembered I packed him an awesome snack that day in cute spiderman lunch bags.

Third day observing the little guy in class as the teacher asks all students to take out their folders(still watching as Dom looks around the room oblivious to the teacher's request) JJ reminds the teacher that he is a late bloomer....

Well that is the start to our school years. We will see how the next 12 years go!

The Many Faces of My Children

My goofy children occasionally will let me snap a good shot. As you can see they are few and far between....

Curly Sue

I decided that because little girl's hair was growing in so hideously we had to do something about it. So I decided to make it curly! The girls at the shop looked at me crazy for doing this to my two year old, but after signing a waver, the girl did it, because I said that I wasn't leaving without it. Riah sat through it like a champ, and looked so adorable afterward.

Noah's Baby Blessing

With all the family in town for the holidays we had baby Noah and Isaiah's blessings together. They were so sweet and powerful both of them. Noah was blessed to be a peacemaker. I already see it in our family. He calms contentious or angry feelings between his siblings with his sweet smiles. It is hard not to feel happy around our happy little man.

You can definitely tell whose baby is who's huh?

One month apart, we just know these two cousins are going to be the best of friends.

Some of the cousins

Twas Christmas

Okay it's February, Valentine's Day to be exact and I'm blogging about Christmas and New Years, how sad is that? After reading my friend Alanna's blog I came to the realization that when you live by family it just becomes harder and maybe the incentive isn't there as much...I don't know. But since this is in place of my journaling(sad, but true) it must be done, and it's better late than never.

So Christmas was fabulous. Since the extended family is getting larger and larger as you read (probably literally considering it's Valentines Day ;) ) we decided to draw names. At the end of the night the kids acted out the nativity, which is our annual Christmas Eve tradition, and Dom and Riah sang a musical number, and I have to say, it was the best year ever. Who knew letting two and three year olds perform a skit would turn out more mature and spiritual than the adults like previous years?


We came home that night and let the kids open their one present on Christmas Eve.....you guessed it...Christmas jammies!!!

Even Baby No got some matching rein deer jammies

Everything was set out and ready for Christmas morn


This is my beautiful nativity that JJ got me for my birthday. Its the prettiest one I have ever seen, I just love the colors in it.


I don't know if you remember last Christmas my sweet little boy only asked for an apple, well this year he upped his request and asked for a flashlight

My Riah just got spoiled rotton by us and grandma with two trunk loads full of princess dress-ups.


New Years was fun too. We invited Adam and Stephanie and Adam's fun mom Olie over to celebrate, drink martinellis, and dance to....

good ole' MJ.
And finally here is a pic of my sweet baby No on New Years day. I have to say he is the sweetest, happiest baby I've ever seen. Sleeps through the night 11 hours and is non-stop smiles. We got lucky with this little guy.

Nightmare becomes Reality

I have been reassured that this happens at least once in every family, and I'm not totally convinced. After about three hours of balling my eyes out, I came to the realization that maybe Heavenly Father is trying to teach me something. Everyone who really knows me well knows about my obsession with hair and maybe this experience is trying to teach me that there is more to life than hair. It was a blessing that my visiting teachers were there otherwise I probably would have killed the boy otherwise known as my son. They must have been playing barber shop and Dominic reassured Riah that he was making her look like a princess. If she only knew. She came down the stair looking like this....






After balling my eyes out with my visiting teachers right there, they laughed and told me to take photos and said that I would laugh about this one day. I sure hope so cause I'm pretty far from laughter even now as I write this at 1 in the morning. I went up stairs to find this horror....

EVERY ounce of her hair and femininity was lying there on my bathroom floor. One of my visiting teachers was very sweet and took her to the beauty shop to see if any of her hair could be salvageable or if a miracle could occur. She came home looking like this with lots of cute bows and headbands.

Look at her, happy as a lark with sucker in hand....if she only knew what she really looked like. I'm debating whether or not to call her a boy or a cancer survivor, what do you think? Hopefully she will be as mad as me when she looks back on pictures to see how her loving brother lied to her when he said she looked like a beautiful princess!!!! Forgive me I am trying to recover.... on a lighter note.... here is our sweet little stuffed turkey for Thanksgiving. These are for you Megg.


I'm almost in tears again as I see Riah with her pretty hair just days earlier...

A Late Halloweenie

We went ward hoppin' this year to two different trunk-or-treats, and got way too much candy so we gave it out to our trick or treaters on Halloween day. I don't think we have ever had that many trick or treaters before and honestly I think that the kids had more fun giving out the candy than getting it. Dom was Peter Pan this year and Riah was none other than his side kid Tinkerbell. My plan was to be Tigerlilly and JJ Captain Hook, but my energy just wasn't there being 9 months prego so I resorted to being a pregnant hippy, that makes since right?



Don't mind the belly just hanging out everywhere...that's just not too cute, but made for a funny pic.