March 2013

We celebrated another birthday the first of this month.  Trey turned 12 on the 1st.  It is crazy to think that we now have another kid going to mutual and another boy passing the sacrament.  No more primary for Trey...he is pretty happy about that!  Both sets of grandparents came to support Trey when he was ordained a Deacon in the Aaronic preisthood.

The day after Trey's birthday Chase, Trey, Layton, and dad went to Magic Reservoir for some ice fishing with Grandpa Yearsley.  They had a great time!

This sweet little girl turned 6 months...

Because of mom's surgery hair cuts weren't done for a while.  Declan's before and after... (side note--as I am compiling this post the boys have all looked at the "before" pic of Declan and have asked me who it is)

 Dad and his little princess

Crazy Hair Day

 Mustache Day--McKay wanted to have a mustache like Zander and Layton (the face paint stained their skin so there was a mustache on their faces for at least day past washing)

We ordered 80 pounds of chicken to freeze...it was quite the job to trim it all and bag it into meal-size portions.  

Dad was so excited when the weather warmed up a bit because he was able to go out and till the garden.  Zander and McKay had fun following him with their big John Deere dump trucks (can I say those have been the best presents ever!  They have played with them more than any other toy.)

Over spring break we went up to Hamer for a couple days.  The littles (Z, M, D, K) and I hung out with grandma while dad and the bigs (C, T, L) went steel head fishing with Grandpa Yearsley.  Trey was so thrilled because he caught his first steel head.  Dad was a little envious seeing how he hasn't caught one of his own yet.

Here are just a couple fun pictures of the kids......

February 2013

Declan celebrated his second birthday at the beginning of this month.

One morning we had fun taking pictures in bed with dad

Mom showed Declan how great baby feet are....they smell good and are so soft.  I am so going to miss having baby feet at our house.

5 months...crazy to think she is already that old.

Story time!  Declan loves to be read to.  His favorite books were "Ten Little Fish" and "Go, Go, Go"

On February 13th mom drove to Pocatello to have a procedure done to her face to take care of some small pre-cancerous spots.  It was awful.  They rubbed acetone all over the face, then put some sort of cream all over it and let it sit for an hour or so.  Then they washed the cream off and put a bright blue light on the face for 15 minutes.  It was so hot that they had a high powered fan blowing on the face.  My face was bright red for over a week and it peeled at least 3 times...even my lips peeled.  Two days after that little procedure I went in for surgery to reattach the outer ligaments on my right ankle.  The day after surgery Chase, Dad, and mom had a redneck BB-shooting contest off the front porch.  It was nice to get out and get some fresh air (notice my bright red face).

One night dad and mom went somewhere and came home to Declan with a bloody lip.  After a day of healing his lip had a weird flap that was poking out.  The part that poked out was turning black and looked as though it might be dying.  We took him to our family DR and he referred us to the local ENT who does some plastic work.  After looking at his lip that DR said we could either wait and let it heal and see how it looked or we could go into surgery the next morning.  Mom asked him what he would do if it was his child and his response was "I would have come in and had it looked at when it happened."  We were quite frustrated with his rudeness.  We later decided against the surgery. (We are so glad we did as it has healed beautifully.  One can hardly tell.)

 This is the picture of mom's ankle after 13 days in the splint before the stitches were taken out.

This is our new goat Billy (left) and the baby goat.  Billy is quite fun because his back legs freeze up when he gets scared.  Even feeding him causes him to freeze up.

Layton made a turtle person out of a stuffed turtle.  He is was proud of his little friend. :)

Some random pictures of the kids!  Watch out....Trey loves to take selfies!! :)

Summer: The Final Month

August seems like it came and went super fast.  It was another busy month, but we were able to squeeze in some fun times before school and everything else started. 

The first weekend in August we made a drive over to Boise to spend Saturday boating with the Barnes clan at Black Canyon Reservoir.  It was so fun to be able to play in the water, go tubbing behind the boat, eat, and enjoy good company!  Jordan brought his jet skis and those added another element of fun, Chase even got the chance to drive one.  Zander and McKay had fun riding the jet ski with uncle Jordan.  Declan wasn't too happy about having to spend most of the day in Baby Jail (ie--the porta crib).  He had fun playing in the water and sitting in the floaty car. 

Dad and mom had to race home after boating in order to be back at church the next morning to do sharing time and conduct sacrament, it was a late night for us.  The older 3 boys got to stay in Boise with Mama and Papa.  They had a fun week doing lots of swimming, visiting cousins and great grandpa Blackhurst, going to stores, working at Papa's garden, etc. 

August was also filled with canning more food (beans and peaches), lots of carp hunting and fishing--Layton caught his very first bass,  the beginning of football practices and jamboree, Declan found the dryer, and LOTS of popcicles were consumed . . .

August also brought the start of school (August 27th).  We now have two kids at West Minico Middle School and two at Paul Elementary.  It is crazy to think that Chase is in 8th grade now.  Trey is in 6th grade and in middle school.  After the first couple days of school Trey came home and said that middle school is "way better than elementary school."  Layton is in 4th grade and our Zander Man is in  morning kindergarten.  Zander was SO excited to start school and to ride the bus.

We finished off the month celebrating dad's 37th birthday.  We had Pizza Hut's meat lover's pizza for dinner along with salad, soda, and fruit.  Then dad opened his presents which were a carp hunting arrow, a gun target, and money.  Then we finished off the night with his cake--Oreo Cheesecake Cake.  It was yummy, but super rich.  It was fun to celebrate the wonderful man in our lives and all that he does for us.  He is the best dad and husband that we could ask for.  We are truly blessed!

 

  We had a great Summer and look forward to what this fall has in store for us!

Another birthday

Zander had been counting down to his 5th birthday for MONTHS . . . he was so excited when it was finally June 11th.  He knew that when he woke up the next day it would be his BIRTHDAY and he would then be FIVE!  It is fun to see how excited they get for birthdays when they are younger.  Zander got to have lunch out with just dad and mom.  He chose to go to McDonalds where he got a kids meal (a rarity in our family) and then got to play on the toys.  He loved it! 

For his birthday dinner he choose to have Ranch Cheese Pizza, yummy jello/cream jigglers, krab salad and fruit.  

After dinner he got to open his presents which included a remote control car, money, shirts, pajamas, race car track, candy, training wheels and new handle gribs for his bike, a pool, and his favorite--RING POPS!

We finished off the evening with ice cream cones and Cookie Monster cupcakes.

We are so blessed to have Zander in our family.  He has such a sweet personality.  He is the first to make sure that everyone tells mom thank you for making dinner.  He loves to smile and make us laugh.  He loves playing with his little brothers, but also wants to be like his big brothers.  Happy 5th birthday Zander . . . we love you! 

Happy Birthday to Layton!

Layton celebrated his 9th birthday on May 19th...I seriously cannot believe he is alreay NINE!!  He is such a fun blessing to our family.  He does very well in math, actually all subjects, at school but math is his favorite.  He enjoys creating things with his hands--clay, drawing, etc.  He is curious about everything and likes to learn how to do new things.  He is a ball of energy that never seems to want to sit still, wish I had half of his energy. 

He had a pretty lazy day for his birthday since he had the day off from jobs so no mowing the yard for him.  He was pretty stoked about that.  For his birthday dinner he requested Beef Taco Skillet, Raspberry Pretzel Salad, Krab salad, and mixed fruit.

 

After dinner he got to open presents and go on a very long treasure hunt (thanks Trey) to find his new bike.  Some of the fun things he got for his birthday were an mp3 player, jolly ranchers (his fave candy), money, a t-shirt, and more candy. 

 

His request instead of cake was his favorite dessert--dirt cups so I made a GIANT dirt cup!!

Happy Birthday Layton!  We love you and are so glad you are part of our family!

11 year old!!

Posting this has taken me much longer than I had planned .  . . . Anwyay, Trey celebrated his ELEVENTH birthday March 1st!  I can't believe he is already 11!!  He was pretty excited that his birthday feel on crazy hair and pajama day at school.  Hence the purple hair and pjs in all the pictures.  He had his friend Jackson over to play his new Wii game and dinner.  For his birthday dinner he chose quite a few things--Corbin's pasta, twice-baked potatoes, garlic bread, apples, and krab salad.

 Following dinner he got to open his gifts--a cool camo shirt, $20, hiking boots, mp3 player, jolly ranchers, Hunger Games series, and another book.  He made quite the haul. 

 For his birthday "cake" he requested cheesecake.  So we bought a sampler with several different flavors and everyone got to try at least 2 of the flavors.  Trey's favorite was strawberry swirl.

We are so blessed to have Trey in our family.  He is such a fun boy, with a great laugh.  He is a hard worker and great student.  Happy Birthday Trey, we love you!

Declan turns ONE!

I know I say this all the time, but where the does the time go?  It really does NOT seem like it was a year ago that we were rushing to the hospital to have baby Declan.  The memory of it all is still fresh in my mind like it happened last week and here my baby is now ONE year old.  Declan has brought so much joy to our family.  He has the cutest laugh and such a bright smile.  He has grown up so much in just the last little while.  He can go up and down the stairs on his own, he now walks more than he crawls, eats everything and anything we eat, and wants to be right in the thick of things with his brothers. 

His birthday was a pretty low-key day since he really had no clue what was even going on.  We ordered a free birthday cake from Albertsons, which was perfect because there was just enough for our family with no leftovers--therefore, no temptation!  Declan dove right into his slice of cake.  He shows signs of being a cake lover (like his dad & mom), unlike his brothers.  He had no interest in opening his gifts, but was excited to play with them once they were open.

His one year stats--he weighs 24.2 pounds (75%) and is 30 inches long (60%). 

We are so grateful that Declan is a part of our family.  Happy Birthday Declan! 
We love you!