I KNOW I'M IN SHOCK TOO!

I know it's been a while. Almost 4 months. I did get the emails wondering what happened to us, but all I can say is LIFE! Just busy and this blog is last priority on my list. So I have a lot of catching up to do! Let's see where did I leave off. Oh yes, clear back in AUGUST! Brielle started 1st grade. She loves it!! Especially her teacher Mrs. Stegelmeier!! She is doing very well in school, and her reading is amazing. She is already asking if we can go get her some chapter books. In the back of my head I'm thinking CHRISTMAS!! Brielle is quite the character. The other day I got a call from her teacher, she wanted to verify that it was okay that Brielle was to ride the bus to he friend Aspen's house. Knowing that I didn't write Brielle a note, and I wasn't aware of the situation, I asked the teacher if maybe Brielle had written the note. Exactly what I thought! Her teacher confirmed that Brielle had indeed written the note, but wanted me to be the one to tell Brielle that she wouldn't be riding the bus to Aspen's house. After I got off the phone I had to chuckle to myself thinking, man I never would have thought of something like that in 1st grade. I think I've got my hands full with this one!

As for Carter his vocabulary has exploded!! He was starting to worry me a little, but now that's all out the window! He says the funniest things! He was pretty sad the first couple weeks after Brielle started going to school ALL DAY! He would spend quite a bit of time at the window waiting for her! But Kelsie is now running and talking and can keep up him, so we have a new pair of buddies! We are working with Carter and his potty training. He's so close it's frustrating. But on a good note, Kelsie has been observing and she went on the little potty all by herself the other night. They were getting in the tub and she was acting like she needed to go so we got the potty out. She sat on it a couple times, and finally Jason said,"Ya sis!" She did it while we weren't looking. She must be shy!! So we'll see who's potty trained first!

Kelsie is really starting to show her true colors. I always thought she would be so shy and timid. Boy was I wrong!! Her nickname is baby bobcat! She has a feisty side to her. She is into anything and everything! Everyday she is finding something new to get into, and I'm finding new ways to keep her out!!! She is also lover. She is the child that shows the most affection. She is always up for hugs and kisses, and she gives the best squeezes. She is so fun to have around! It is a new adventure everyday with her around!

Well that's enough for now, I better go I can hear Kelsie in the kitchen digging in something!! Will post more soon. This stupid blogger won't let me move my picture! I'll take a deep breath, walk away and be back soon! It better work later. I know what's wrong! It's in shock that I'm posting so it's froze, or it's possible that it's something else. Any ideas?

We are still out and about!

If you want to read these in order scroll down to the last post. I was doing them in order until Kelsie and Carter started helping me and posted it without me knowing. Such helpful children I have!


July 18th! We are actually home!!

This was the only weekend we were home the whole month of July, just because Jason was on call. And yes he did get called out the whole weekend. So the kids and I just stayed home and played. On Saturday we flooded the lawn and let the kids play in the water. They had so much fun!!

Kelsie enjoying the WARM water, playing with her stick.

Carter running through the water, with his stick!

Brielle making mud pies with Kelsie and a stick. What is up with kids and their sticks!!

They finally have time to smile or at least look at me with all that fun their having!


The kids saw me with the camera and they all wanted to pose for the camera even Kelsie played along!

Brielle 6years old

Carter 2 years old

Kelsie 1 year old

After an afternoon of playing in the water the kids helped me snap beans and peas for dinner. We are so blessed to have a beautiful garden behind our house! Our neighbor, Jim, is always bringing over fresh vegetables from his garden!

Family Camping at Palisades

July 23-27 2009

We started out on Thursday night! Nick and Chantelle with their camper and us with Grandma and Grandpa Richards. We left and little later than we would have liked, because we didn't know exactly where we would be camping. So we arrived at the campsite we wanted and it was almost dark. It was also packed with people! We camped next to what looked like an abandoned RV just for the night and decided we would find a different spot in the morning. Hoping our very close neighbors didn't decide to return late this evening. We woke up and fixed breakfast and was out of there before anyone noticed us! We wanted to camp close to the dam, because my brother's boss had a boat up there he was letting us use for the weekend. After about an hour of looking and waiting we wee able to get two camp spots right by each other right on the lake. It was the perfect spot. After setting up camp we saw the Orme family (my dad's sister) and they were just two spots down. What are the odds of that!

Here is Nick and Chantelle's campsite!

Brielle trying to stay cool at our camp site! Brielle taught herself how to ride her bike the day before we left. She was riding around camp like a pro! She only tipped over 1 time!!

Brielle riding her bike around camp!

Mom and Chan hanging out at the camper!

Kelsie, Katie, and Mom. If you look close you can see the mesquito bites on Kelsie's face. Yes, we sprayed her with bug spray. But who can resist those chubby cheeks!

This is what happens when you stay up play hard and stay up late!

Like Father like son! How sweet!

It rained on us REALLY hard on saturday afternoon. Then it started hailing quarter sized hail. Carter was trying to play in the rain without getting wet, because he got drenched earlier. That's why he's naked!

Since it was raining for so long we had to find something to pass the time!

Mom is enjoying the rain since she can see it now!

Katie, how inncocent!

Jason was preaching the gospel!

Carter was eating and making a BIG mess!


But after all was said and done we had a beautiful rainbow to look at!



Here are some random pictures of things we did! Enjoy!


We were so lucky Ryan (Katie's B-Friend) could come spend some time with us! He is leaving on his mission in about 3 weeks! Thanks for coming Ryan your so much fun to have around!

Carter walking Orme's dog, Reggie! He loved this dog!

Riding on the boat was a blast!

Carter and Ryan

Nick when he first started wake boarding!

Nick looking better after some practice!

Nick and Chan

We had a great time camping! We lots of great food and a ton of laughs. Brother Greg came with us but for some reason he kept doging the camera. I'll get a picture of you soon greg without you knowing! Good to go, but great to be back! Until next year!

Where have we been?

The month of July has been so busy for us! It isn't gone yet and we still have stuff planned! We have only been home one weekend this whole month. Get ready for an overload of information and pictures.

The 4th of July

Like almost every year we went boating out at Gem Lake. This year the weather was not quite as warm, but we still had fun. We always eat great food, and had a blast on the tubes. Carter and Ryker had fun playing in the pool. They were dumping water on each other and acting like fish. It was hilarious! We eventually took the little ones for a ride on the boat and Carter was brave enough to try the tube with Uncle Nick!

Carter and Uncle Nick ready to ride to tube!

A big rain storm came and so we had to cut our boating short, but it ended just in time to go watch the fireworks in Idaho Falls! For the past couple of years we have gone to Taylor Crossing and watched them on the balcony. What a great view! Also we have a tradition to eat pizza! That is always great! Anything I don't have to cook is always great in my eyes!

This is Jason, Kelsie, Carter, and Ryker (my cousin Kassie's little boy) waiting for the pizza and fire works!

These boys are so silly, we just want them to smile, but NO they have to pose instead!

Carter and Ryker copying Aunt Katie. She wanted them to smile, so they smiled like her!! These two are so funny together!

We had great 4th of July, and can't wait for next year!!!!

Camp Grandpa July 10 & 11!

Last year we had Camp Grandma so this year it was Grandpa's turn. It was held in Palisades, and we were going rafting. Everyone was able to come (besides Bevan who was in China) My family went up on Thursday to help set up camp, and the rest of the gang came up on Friday morning. Here is Justin, Brian, Tommy, Hayden, Jason, and Kelsie waiting to see the rafts come down the river. We sent Brielle and Carter down, and were excited to see how they liked it!!

This was the GIRLS boat! Brielle is in the front in the middle!

This was the BOYS boat. Carter is in the middle holding on to Grandma Donna. This was Carter's second ride. We came camping here in September and Carter took his first ride at 20 months old. After riding in the boats the kids played in the lake, and later that night Grampa Lloyd helped them make their own little bench to sit around the fire on! I wish I could find my other pictures, but I can't so oh well. We can't wait to see what Grandma and Grandpa come up with for next year!

Dippin in the pool!

We went over to Twin Falls on Saturday for, our niece, Matison's baptism. We are so proud of her! I am so glad that Brielle has two older girl cousins that are great examples to her. After the baptism we went to Mati's for food and fun in the water!

Brielle had so much fun playing with Kensington and Matison! She always looks forward to seeing them!

Kelsie enjoyed being outside and watching everyone while showing of her great body in her new bikini! Poor girl has a figure like her mothers! She didn't really enjoy the water so she just sat back and ate!

Carter and his cousin Hayden had quite the time playing on the slip and slide. They would run and slip and fall and laugh. I love the hear the laughter of little kids. It makes me laugh!!!!!

Carter smiled the whole way down!

On our way home we all stopped at Shoshone Falls. It was amazing!! Jason took this great picture with the kids of the falls and the cool rainbow in the back! It was so fun to see everyone and can't wait to see you at Camp Grandpa in about a week!

Wedding Fun!

Sorry about the no show post last week. I was a LITTLE busy to say the least. I was working on my brothers wedding cake! Posting was the last thing on my mind. But it turned out great! So last week we had a busy week of wedding stuff. Friday was a BBQ at my mom for family. There was over 100 people there. Even though there was that many people it really didn't feel like a zoo. My mom has a huge, BEAUTIFUL, yard with lots of stuff for kids to play with so everyone had a great time. She served BBQ pulled pork sandwiches that people are still talking about. They were amazing. she had a lot of great food to go with those like baked potatoes ( that's a lot of potatoes to wrap in foil) fruit salad, green salad, relish trays, chips, sloppy joes, hot dogs, 3 kinds of cookies, brownies, and yummy drinks. It was so DELICIOUS! After all that excitement the next day was the wedding. Now I was nervous. I had to get the cake there and hopefully in one piece. Thanks to the excellent driving skills of my husband it made it there safe and sound. I did sit in the back with it for my own piece of mind! But it made it and I finished decorating it and it looked beautiful. The wedding was amazing, and they both said yes! So I now have a new sister-in-law! YAY!! Chantelle is so much fun!!! We are excited to have her in our family! As soon as the pictures come I'll post some pictures of the cake and wedding! Check back soon for yet another post!

What have we been up to?

What have we been up to! Well a lot? Brielle finished Kindergarten the end of May and is so excited for 1st grade. She asks me at least twice a day, "When do I get to go to school and eat and eat in the lunch room?" She had a program about a week before she got out. They sang all sorts of songs and had an award ceremony. Brielle's last report card was straight A's and she scored very high in her reading. She can practically read everything all by herself. We are very proud at how well she did this year and can't wait to see what next year brings. Now we are just enjoying not having to get her up early and get her in bed early either. It's so nice not having to worry where you are at 8:30 because it's bedtime. So she is enjoying summer vacation, she just wishes the weather was better! Carter is doing amazing with his speech. He is saying so many new things each day! I can't wait to take him to his check up and show them how amazing he is. We are working on potty training, but today is not a good day so let's not talk about it. I wasn't going to post this but since I accidentally erased my first post I had time to think and since I want to embarrass him when he's older here's what happened. He took his diaper off and pooped on the bottom of his sippy, and them he brought it to me. I was mad and glad all at the same time. I was mad because, that is soooooo gross. I just threw that sippy way. And mad because it wasn't in the potty. But on the other hand I was glad that he didn't just poop on the carpet and leave it for Kelsie to find. AND that takes talent to poop directly on the center of a sippy. I couldn't do it! Wish me luck on this adventure. So besides all that drama he is enjoying going outside playing and discovering all the dirt and bugs. He really likes to ride to 4-wheeler and motorcycle. Like father like son!!! Kelsie is growing so fast I can't believe it. She will be one in less than 2 weeks. Her two bottom teeth Finally broke through the day before Mother's Day. What a great gift for me!! Now her two top teeth broke through last week. So pretty soon she'll have those hippo teeth. She has been walking along the furniture since March , but she still isn't walking by herself. When you hold her hands she practically takes off running. I'm sure if her bully of a brother will stop pushing her down she will be running soon! He hair is growing fast too! She has an alfalfa pony on the top and a mullet in the back. It won't be long before she'll have devil horns. She started saying mom, dad, bye, and yes. She is very smart, so Carter and Brielle better watch out. She recently started patting us on the back when we pick her up, and hug, snuggle, or console her. Isn't that funny how they catch on to that kinda stuff so young. Well that's a quick update check back soon for some pictures and more updates!

New Look and New Name!

There are some new changes to our blog! We've changed the name so don't be alarmed. I hope you check it before you delete it, because it is still us! There has been a lot of change around our house, and so we are adding some changes to the blog. First of all, I want to blog a lot more so starting this week we will update on our family life every Thursday( unless something exciting happens and I can't wait to post it), but I promise a new post every Thursday- so watch for new stuff! Second- I added a new list of my favorite blogs that have to do with coupons and free stuff. We have been doing the coupon thing for a while now and it's so fun to see the deals I can get and how much money I can save. So check the coupon blogs for cool stuff and freebies! Anyways have fun looking at all the new stuff I have added and check back often for new stuff!