Jennings Family

The Random Post

2012-02-06T06:39:00.000-08:00

My little model. Stylin' in his new suit!

Maddy's new haircut! Thanks Mindee!

So cute!!

Molly and Ben hugging over Christmas. They are so cute.

We were driving to VA when Maddy drew this. She loves the ninja turtles

Me and Maddy

Playing with Uncle Scott

Look mom! I did my own hair!!

Waiting for the oil to be changed, in style!

Sarah got some very large blow pops and shared them with her brother and sister. I put them in the tub so the house didn't become a sticky mess... they loved them!

Ben's blue mouth

I went to check on Sarah before I went to bed and found her like this

I had all these pictures from the end of the year, and random ones from January so I just made this random post to show them. What an adventure 2011 was! We were able to buy a house, I had to say goodbye to my Pal, Ben starting walking and talking... never a dull moment! I look forward to seeing what 2012 has to offer!

Merry Christmas!

2012-02-06T05:45:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day was extra special this year because it fell on a Sunday. Maddy was asked to sing in Church and I was asked to join her. It was beautiful. She sang the second verse of Away in a Manger all by herself, and sounded like an angel.

We had to celebrate Christmas with our little family before church, because we were going to be splitting the day with both sides of the family... again. I think we've deided that this was the last year for that. Its exhausting. Joseph and I had to get up super early and get ready for church. Then we woke up the kids, they played with their Santa gifts for a little bit, and then we opened presents from eachother. I made some breakfast and the kids played for about an hour before we left for church. We even got their early! It was a very smooth morning.

Maddy had a Barbie Christmas, that is for sure.

Poor Ben, he was so tired, he had no interest in his gift at first.

Sarah is our vain one. She likes to play with her hair and stare at herself in the mirror.

Daddy playing beauty salon with her

There's a smile! He finally came around after he had time to wake up!

Kind of funny to be dressed for church when the kids are just getting up...

I love dress up!

Joseph got me some paint supplies, I hope to find the time to start painting again!

And there we have it. Ben doesn't care about his gifts, he just wants Sarah's

When Joseph first brought him out of his room,he looked at his toy and just laid on the floor. It was too early!!

We had a wonderful Christmas program at church and my whole family came to be with us. It was so nice because not only did we have all of my family (minus Phillip and his clan) but Joseph's side was there too.

After church we headed to the Jennings for a little while. We opened presents and had a wonderful Christmas lunch.

Grace discovered how ticklish her cousin Ben is... SO cute!

We had a great day! But next year I'm going to make it more simple...

Christmas Eve

2012-01-24T21:22:00.000-08:00

I really wish that I could have finished posting about the Christmas holiday by now. I am not the best with technology, and it was a battle to figure out how to get the pictures off of my phone and onto this computer. Grrr. Luckily the tech support lady was very helpful, so I can proceed with my blogging :)

Every Christmas Eve we spend half the day with Joseph's family, and half with mine. For some reason I didn't take any pictures with the Jennings. But there was definitely fun and food and barbies for the girls! We headed off to my parents where we got to build graham cracker gingerbread houses and have an annual Passey Family Christmas program. I wish that Phillip and his crew could have been here! We were lucky enough to have Andrew and his family though.

Classic Maddy face! She built a beautiful gingerbread house with Aunt Sarah's help

Uncle Kevin got Sarah started...

Aunt Sarah helping Jake and Maddy

Sarah realized that she could just squeeze the icing into her mouth, and so she did!

I wish I could tell you what Ben was eating in this picture... I hope it's not a dog toy. Needless to say, he was not interested in making a house.

I realized that Sarah was very sad, and when I asked her what was wrong, she pointed out that she needed some candy INSIDE her gingerbread house.

Problem solved.

Uncle Kevin supervising while Maddy, Reagan and Ryan make their houses

Jake was SO proud of his house!! "Aunt Shawna! Take a picture of mine!!"

I just felt the need to document that I was infact present...
Having a good time with my Ben!

I flipped through a Wilton gingerbread booklet, and decided to recreate a house I saw, to my family's amazement.
I think it turned out great.

Each year my younger siblings Steph, Kevin and Scott have a contest to see who can build the best house. Now that Steph is married, her husband joins in on the fun. I decided to participate and they disqualified me, because, well, I don't remember.

I schooled them.

Scott made a gingerbread man house. Notice the peppermint door on the right side of his ribcage... I was very impressed.

I believe this was Billy's. If you aren't a fan of Psych, you won't understand. If you are, it is supposed to be Shawn's house, and Gus's house, with a pool that spans both backyards. Love it!

Kevin's masterpiece. I don't know what it is, but I love it! Ben also enjoyed carrying it around like a football and eating the candy corn off of it every time we went to Mamacheri's!

Last but not least, Stephanie's horrific and bloody battle scene from Harry Potter. Hello?? Is this what Christmas is all about?? :)

My grandparents came over for some finger foods and our Christmas Program. My grandpa rolled up to the house looking like this:

My little shy Sarah doesn't usually speak to Papa. But when Papa came in with this, she sat at his feet and began talking up a storm! Telling him everything she wanted for Christmas! It was so funny. Maddy was fooled at first too. I love kids!

We had our program and enjoyed our family's talents and everyone's sense of humor. Dad and the boys were crazy! We sang songs, violins were played and stories were told.

Normally this is where the night ends. But this year Andrew and his family were with us, and they brought their trailor and we rounded up some bales of hay so we could go Christmas Caroling! What a blast! We bundled up, filled up an insulated igloo drink thing full of hot chocolate and Andrew drove us around the neighborhood while we sang our lungs off. Sippin' hot chocolate and singing anything from classic Christmas Carols such as Away in a Manger, or Angels We Have Heard On High, to I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus or Grandma got run over by a reindeer! People were coming to their windows and waving, and even coming out onto their porches to listen. I have never had so much fun on Christmas Eve. Highlight of our night!!

It was a fantastic Christmas eve. The only thing missing was Phillip and his family...

Our Nativity

2012-01-04T20:06:00.000-08:00

One Sunday after church, Maddy was inspired to play out the Nativity...

Maddy as Mary, Joseph as Joseph, Sarah as the angel and introducing baby walmart as baby Jesus.

In our family's version of the nativity, baby Jesus was under the manger.

Ben came to adore him...

It was pretty cute!

We also took pictures for our Christmas card:

Merry Christmas!!

Joseph and I got to go on our favorite date of the year... Brookgreen Garden's a nights of a thousand candles. It is breath taking! Literally thousands of candles every where, Christmas music, performances... very romantic!

I know these pictures aren't very good, but I'm posting them anyway!

Lots of lights and garden lanterns!

I love the trees at brookgreen. Especially when there are lots of lights hanging from the branches!

Garden lights above the walk ways...

I know this isn't very clear, but it is a pond filled with floating candles, and lights on top of the walls surrounding the court yard... So beautiful!

Also, not a good picture... I just love how they stick candles inside the brick wall!

Christmas lights hanging off an oak tree... reflecting in the pond

While we're there we make sure to go to one performance.. Bill Oberst's one man monologue of "A Christmas Carol" He is amazing! Then we walk around and talk and enjoy all the candles and lights. If you haven't been there... GO! It is worth every dime! I look forward to it every year.

Letters to Santa

2012-01-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

Joseph was telling me how he used to write a letter to Santa and mail it to the North Pole when he was a kid. I don't have any memories of doing that, but we thought it would be fun to have the girls do it.

After all, it would be a terrible thing if Santa forgot that the only thing Maddy wanted was goggles...

I asked her if she wanted anything else. I said something about goggles being so small that Santa might want to bring her something else. She just looked at me and said, "mom, you are only allowed to ask Santa for ONE thing."

Letters are addressed and ready to be mailed!

Maddy stuck them in the mailbox

Sarah put up the flag

Now we just have to wait 'till Christmas morning...

A night in Bethlehem

2012-01-04T19:38:00.000-08:00

Our ward had the best Christmas Party this year! It was themed "A night in Bethlehem". We all dressed up as if we lived in Bethlehem the night Jesus was born. We mingled around the market to 'purchase' our dinner, (with coins we were given) and even had to pay our taxes! After we were done eating, we followed Mary and Joseph outside, and were able to see a live nativity, and sing Christmas songs. It was so neat!

Naturally I couldn't find my camera, so here are some pics that we took with the phone:

All dressed up!

Some of the Market -The bakery, and the fruit market

The pita market

The meat market

These markets were built by the Tabor City branch, they were nice enough to let us borrow them

We even had a well in the center to get our water from!
(a little friend from the ward was serving the water)

The missionaries were dressed up as the Centurions, they collected our taxes as the night progressed. (We were given money when we got to the church)

They also had a dreidel shop set up. Santa was in there for the kids to visit. They had the kids come into the room in small groups where they would sit and have a story read to them. It was "Teach The Children", a cute story about all the symbols of Christmas. It listed things like the tree, candy canes, presents, lights, etc. And explained what they meant. It then went on to explain how Santa is also a symbol of Christmas. He represents family fun, and the joy of giving and receiving, but he is not the reason we celebrate Christmas. After the story the kids got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. When they were done visiting with him, they got to go into the dreidel shop where they were given little burlap bags to fill with all the symbols of Christmas. The girls were so excited! They even got a dreidel to take home.

Ben kept going and giving Santa a high-five while the story was being read

Maddy telling Santa her biggest wish for Christmas... Some swimming goggles. Good thing we live at the beach! Those things are hard to find during winter!

Our little Sarah was too bashful to say anything... I'm surprised she didn't burst into tears!

Ben and Santa had a stare-off. Then he quickly got down. I was hoping to snap a picture while he was still in his costume, but it was so hot in that room, and Ben was getting flushed and sweating, so we took it off! So our Santa picture shows off those chicken legs and his onesie!

Here are some adorable pictures of Ben. I think I should dress him like this everyday....

Running around the market, showing off his cuteness

Behold!

The Nativty

The youth put on a great Nativity for us. After the presentation, we sang some carols, and the kids got to take pictures with Mary and Joseph. Unfortunately I missed Maddy visiting Mary, so I have no pictures...

What a great party! We had a blast, and are grateful to everyone who worked so hard to make it such a fun night. It was great to have a visual reminder of why we celebrate Christmas.

Christmas Baking

2012-01-04T18:26:00.000-08:00

I wanted to start some holiday traditions with the girls this year. With family being so close, we tend to just do whatever they are doing. We had already built a gingerbread house, so I thought it would be fun to bake some gingerbread men, and some other fun holiday sugar cookies.

The girls really enjoyed rolling out the dough, and cutting out the shapes. I realized however, that I am a control freak! I couldn't stand the girls getting flour every where, or touching things in the kitchen when their hands were covered in sticky dough! I really had to try very hard to just let them have fun. If the gingerbread man wasn't shaped just right, who cares? Right? ( I need counseling.) Its just a cookie! Its going to be eaten for crying out loud!

Aside from my internal meltdowns, we were able to bake some cute cookies. After all the cookies were baked, we invited our friends over to help decorate. It was lots of fun!

Cutting out their gingerbread men

Poor Ben is always banished to the highchair! You can see him way in the back!

Rolling the dough all by herself

Tada!

Sarah's turn to roll the dough

All the kids! From left to right: Sarah, Ben, Mikaela Atkinson, Maddy, Tayte Atkinson
Time to decorate!

Now for the decorating!!

Once the gingerbread men were decorated, we moved on to decorating the sugar cookies.

Time to enjoy the hard work!

Thats my girl! Who needs to wait until the cookies are done when you have frosting...

So. Many. Cookies!

I think I was cookied out when we were done! I'm so glad I baked with my girls. And even more glad we got to have fun with friends!

Our Gingerbread House

2012-01-03T19:53:00.000-08:00

We decided to get creative and make a gingerbread house, to kick off the holiday season. We had so much fun together! Joseph was so cute with the girls. We put Ben to bed and let the girls stay up late. They watched while Joseph and I assembled the house, then got busy decorating.

Apparently you are suppose to wait three hours to decorate the gingerbread house once its assembled...
We didn't have that kind of time! My girls wanted to put candy on it now!

So we got started...

Really they just wanted to eat the candy...

But we pressed on!

Sarah was losing patience by this point

But it turned out great when we finished!

Maddy even took a picture of Mommy and Daddy. Pretty good for a 5 year old standing on a chair!

The Dentist

2012-01-03T19:22:00.000-08:00

Maddy went to the dentist the first week of December for her routine teeth cleaning. No cavities! Yay! I had Sarah and Ben with me, which was not fun! (why do I put myself through such torture?) After talking to the hygienist, we decided to squeeze Sarah in for her first teeth cleaning. She is a very shy little girl, and I wasn't sure how she would handle it, after all Maddy freaked out completely her first time.

But then I turn around to find this:

Maddy sat down beside her and held her hand, and told her that everything was going to be just fine.

And wouldn't you know, Sarah sat there and let them clean her teeth, without so much as a wimper. If she was unsure she would just look at Maddy, and that was all she needed! Good thing, because I was wrestling Ben the whole time!! What a good big sister. I was so proud! Oh, and Sarah has no cavities either!

The Crazy Lights

2012-01-03T18:22:00.001-08:00

After we left my Uncle's we headed to Richmond to spend the rest of the day. He took us to a live nativity at his Stake Center. It was really neat! It was progressive... We started out in a room with the shephards. After a scripture was read we were lead to the next room where the Wise Men were. We again listened to some scriptures being read, and then we were brought to see King Herod. Then we were brought into the final room where Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus were. Mary and Joseph sang a beautiful duet too! It was really well done. After the Nativity the kids got to color pictures They also had Nativity's from all around the world that were on display too. Plus some wonderful music was performed. We are so glad we were able to be there!

Later that night Andrew took us to "The Crazy lights'" I'm not sure that I have ever seen so many lights on one house! The kids were amazed. It was so neat! The owners of the house were standing outside where you could talk to them. They had a sign in book and also handed out candy canes to everyone. This house was also featured on TLC, for the amount of lights...

Crazy Right!!

A grand total of 172,298 lights, and 603 handmade decortations

These pictures don't do this house justice! It was incredible!

The girls were loving it! ...and their candy canes!

Ben wanted to scale the fence...

People were driving by in Limo's! There were so many people!

You can check the house out on Christmasonwendhurst.com

After we came back from seeing the crazy lights, the kids put on their Christmas Jammies and hung out for a little bit. I was only able to snap this picture before they scattered!

Left to right: Sarah, Abbie, Jake, Maddy, Noah

We were planning to return home to South Carolina after church on Sunday. However, I got a frantic call from my younger sister saying that my dad was in the ER, because he was showing early signs of a heart attack. I was grateful to have been with my two older brothers when recieving such scary news, and we decided that we would go ahead and leave for home.

Dad had many tests run on him, and was transferred from the Ambulatory Care to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center where they ran more tests and kept him for the night. Everything came back normal, except they did find some tendonitis in this left arm. They attributed the rest of his symptoms to dehydration. Scary! But we are so relieved that he got a clean bill of health and was able to go home the next day!

I am so glad that we were able to take this trip and see some old friends, my Aunt and Uncle, my brothers and their families and my Grandma! There is nothing quite like family!

Our Morning with Alan

2011-12-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

Sarah got to enjoy watching Rapunzell while Uncle Alan prepared breakfast. Ben tried to undecorate their Christmas tree!

Alan was nice enough to make us Grandpa's famous waffles...

The kids had Eggo's, since we didn't think they'd appreciate all the hard work going into those waffles

Phillip looking all grown up, reading the newspaper!

Grandma was supervising...

I had to document this delicious feast... These waffles were so good!

Uncle Alan is such a good host. He made sure we were full!

I wanted to get a picture of Grandma with the kids. I love it! Except it is missing Ben. He wouldn't cooperate.

Grandma said, "Just take a picture of his fit." So I did.

The kids were loving the stairs. I decided to take a picture of them but obviously it was more than Ben could handle!

After breakfast, Alan took us up to the Pentagon Memorial. It was amazing and heartbreaking all at the same time. He showed us around and told us about the events of that day from his point of view. (He works at the Pentagon)

Alan took this picture for us. Hopefully we don't get arrested... (you're not supposed to take pictures of the Pentagon... and a corner of it is in our picture!) Maddy was rebelling and turned away for the picture. Ben was just bundled up really good!

You can see the benches to the right of the picture. Each bench represents a person. If it is facing the Pentagon, it represents a person killed on the plane. If it faces away from the Pentagon, it represents a person inside the Pentagon. Each bench is arranged by birth year, and has the person's name on it. There is also a reflecting pool just under the bench that lights up at night. The youngest person was born in 1998, and the oldest in 1930 if I remember correctly.
It truely was a very humbling experience, and we were grateful to Alan for giving us a tour.

Walking back to the car
The kids LOVED the tunnel that lead to the parkinglot
Left to right: Grandma, Alan (my dad's oldest brother) Phillip and Ben

The girls ran the whole way! It was pretty exciting for them!

We headed back to Alan's to eat some lunch and say our goodbyes. I really hope to see them more often. We really enjoyed getting to know them better. We love you guys!

We loaded up the car and began our journey to Andrew's house in Richmond. He had the rest of the day planned with Christmas festivities!

Trip To Virginia!

2011-12-16T09:04:00.000-08:00

The week of Thanksgiving I found out that my grandma (from Utah) was spending the holiday at my Uncle Alan's house in Virginia. I haven't seen her since my Grandpa's funeral back in March, and I don't know when I'll make it back to Utah. I decided to round up my family and make a trip up there to see her the week after Thanksgiving. We picked up Phillip on our way, and Andrew was going to meet us up there.

We decided to make a stop along the way to visit some old friends from our days in Albuquerque. The Savages!! (And the Kites!) I hadn't seen them since my wedding reception 7 1/2 years ago. It was so nice to see Heather and meet her husband and their boys. My kids enjoyed playing with them too. Her parents are fantastic too, and it was so great to be able to catch up.

Me and Heather

We visited for a couple hours and then headed up to the Washington D.C. Temple, to see the Christmas lights.

Andrew was going to meet us there, but ended up not being able to come. He was missed! Christmas lights have always made me think of Andrew so I missed sharing that with him! The lights were amazing though! As a kid I was able to see the light display at Temple Square several times, and I had forgotten how breath taking it is, and how much I miss it... Being at the D.C. Temple brought it all back to me! I really enjoyed reliving those long forgotten memories.

Posing for a picture! The kids were in awe...

We went inside the visitors center and got to see nativities from around the world. There were so many of them! We also had one of the sweet Sister Missionaries take a picture of us!
Left to right: Uncle Phillip, Ben, Me, Sarah, Joseph and Maddy

I took so many pictures of these Nativities... but I only posted a few.

The Temple, surrounded by lights... Only the visitor's center grounds have lights around them. This is the view from there, with the Temple in the background.

They had a beautiful nativity outside, with a narritive playing through a speaker for everyone to hear.

We finished up at the Temple and loaded up in the car to drive to my uncle Alan's house to visit with him and see my Grandma. He lives in Alexandria, so we had a little drive ahead of us. Now, we have never been to D.C. before. We got the brilliant idea to drive through downtown and see some sights on our way.
Anyone who's been there knows how incredibly foolish that was! My Uncle will never let me live that down. (Can I plead tourist??) We did succeed, but with lots of stress and LOTS of time. Who knew traffic lights only stay green for 5 seconds in D.C.!!

All of these pictures were taken from a moving car... I had to include them since it was such an ordeal to see them!

The White House

The Capitol Building

The Washington Monument! Well, the bottom half anyway!! haha

We arrived LATE to my Uncles house, where he and his wife Denise were nice enough to still feed us dinner...

We really enjoyed staying up late to visit and eat "digestives" and icecream! I learned a few new things about my dad as a child... And it was fun to see my Grandma.

I'll post a few more pics from our trip on the next post!

Family Overload!

2011-12-09T12:53:00.001-08:00

Joseph and I are lucky enough to live close to our families. We love to spend time with them, but it gets a bit overwhelming to cram it all into the same day!! This Thanksgiving was the Jennings "big" year, where extended family comes for a reunion. I was asked to make one of two turkeys as well as some sweet potatoes. It was also going to be a "big" year for my side of the family, with Andrew, Phillip and their families reuniting with the brood we have here already. I had my assignments for the meal with them as well! Plus I was playing hostess (I'm afraid I'm no good at that... Sorry guys!) It was a LONG day, I'm not sure that any side of the family got the best side of me. I'm thinking next year we are going to do one family, and the next year we'll do the other. That way we can spend some quality time with family and relax and have time to think about all we have to be grateful for instead of keeping an eye on the clock.

Two Thanksgiving meals later we found ourselves at home. But I didn't stay long! My sister-in-law accompanied me to walmart for a black friday shopping attempt. One LONG line later, we returned home with what I went for! A new camera! (Nevermind the fact that later on that day it was available on the internet...)

The next day I proceeded to take an insane amount of pictures. When you have 2 parents with 10 of their 11 children, and 11 grandchildren, plus spouses and some great-grandparents, there are many pictures to be taken!!

We started Friday afternoon at the Conway Riverwalk

Addison, Sarah and Maddy

Benjamin confined to the swing... at least he doesn't realize it!

Sarah, Sophie, Maddy, Abbie and Scott

That would be my daughter, with her cousin, sister, cousin and Uncle

(it is so hard to give everyone their correct title..)

Jumping up and down on the bridge

I love those big blue eyes!

I wish I continued to take pictures, but I couldn't because I was involved in what might have been the largest freeze tag game known to man. 9 of my siblings, and 9 of the grandkids and my sister-in-law and my dad, all running around this playground. Once you were tagged you had to freeze until someone crawled under your legs to free you. I don't even think you can imagine correctly the scene unfolding on the playground. One by stander asked my mom if we were a church group... SO funny!

After our game we strolled around the riverwalk and headed back to my grandparents for Thanksgiving left overs.

The kids set up in the backyard, the weather was gorgeous! They colored while they waited for their food.

Maddy with her Aunt Allie (yup, my youngest sister!)

Jake (Andrew's son)

My sare-bear

Porter getting his chub on hard core!! (Steph's son)

My neice Addison (Phillip's daughter) with her Uncle Reagan (my second youngest brother) her cousin Sarah (my daughter) and cousin Noah (Andrew's oldest son) playing with the turkeys that Mamacheri made out of pinecones

Ben with Aunt Neenee

Phillip (my brother just older than me) and his lovely wife Stefani

My mom's dad. We like to call him Papa

At a very young age, Porter has learned to defend himself against his cousin Ben

Phillip and Andrew catching up (my oldest brothers)

Porter and his mama Stephanie (not to be confused with Stefani)

Mom's mom, or Mama as we call her, busy cooking!

Abbie (Andrew's oldest)

Cooper (Phillip's son) although he looks like he could be mine with all that red hair!

My youngest sister Erynn with her niece Addison

Cousins! Sophie (Andrew's second oldest) and Maddy

Concentrating on the game Andrew was explaining

When I was young my mom started a tradition of giving us Christmas Pj's and an ornament on Thanksgiving. It is still going strong, and my older siblings who have their own children have continued the tradition...

Abbie and Erynn are both rockin' their jammies!

My oldest brother Andrew

He always has the best games for us to play when we all get together!

Obviously the game was not interesting for Porter!

Me and Molly (Andrew's youngest) She is so stinkin' cute!!

My mom, Sophie, and her mom Sarah (Andrew's wife, not to be confused with my daughter!!

We have a few duplicate names... makes things really fun!

Scott was rebelling and hiding in his room while the rest of us played downstairs...

Ben and Molly still don't know if they like eachother or not!

The next Phillip and Stef headed home and the rest of us headed to the boardwalk in Myrtle Beach. We are quite the group of people too! So many kids! Mom jokingly said that we should count off to make sure everyone was there, but then someone pointed out how well that worked in Home Alone... we all laughed and crossed the street and began our walk on the boardwalk. Mom was telling me something about a friend of Ryan's and wasn't sure if she had the facts right. She turned around to ask him, and he was missing! He had fallen alseep in the van and we had left him! It was pretty funny. (he is 13, so it really wasn't so bad!) We stopped our walk and the kids played on the beach until Ryan was recovered...

My little sand thrower

Who would have thought it could bring him so much joy?

This was our grumpy clan... they would walk faster than all of us and then sit down on a bench and wait until we passed them. Then they'd walk fast and pass us and sit down again...

Weirdos!

Check out the Sky Wheel! Nice to look at, but I'm not paying

$12 bucks to ride it!

We walked out onto the pier and hung out for a little bit. What a beautiful view!

After the pier we headed back to Mama and Papa's for Thanksgiving part 3... then Andrew and Sarah headed home. It was a great weekend! The only thing missing was Kevin. Christmas week will be great because we will all be together for the first time in YEARS!!

Happy Birthday Maddy!

2011-11-21T06:29:00.000-08:00

It was a long journey to start our family. My timing and the Lord's timing were not in sync. All I ever wanted in life was to be a mom. My dreams finally were realized two and a half years later, just two days before Thanksgiving .Our sweet Madelyn Elizabeth came into the world and she was perfect! All 6 lbs 13 ounces of her, with her red hair! We brought her home from the hospital on Thanksgiving day.

Here are some pictures of Maddy over the years:

It's hard to believe that she is 5 years old today!! What a ride it's been since she came into our lives! She is so smart, and says the funniest things. In fact, I've kept a running log off and on since 2009 of the things she says. As a birthday tribute, I'd like to post some Maddyisms.

MADDYISMS: A collection of Maddy's deepest thoughts over the years:

As we were driving home I told Maddy that I was tired. Her response: “Its okay mommy, when we get home, you can have the night off.”
9/21/2011

Me: Maddy, can you please go play so I can get this finished. Maddy: Why do I ALWAYS have to play? Me: would you rather clean? Maddy: YEAH!! Can I dust?
8/16/2011

I wish I had 16 sisters and 2 brothers. Then my swingset would be REALLY fun!
8/8/2011

Sarah was crying earlier, and Maddy says to me: “aw, look at Sarah! She looks like Lorenzo Snow with that droopy face!” Then Sarah starts to cry even more… So Maddy says: “Well, maybe she looks like John Taylor..”
6/5/2011

Maddy was tickling Ben when I heard her say to him: “yeah that’s right! I’m such a gangster!!”
3/9/2011

“Mom, I vacuumed up the cat food that I spilled. But it’s all still on the floor, because the vacuum isn’t plugged in.”
2/28/2011

Apparently watching Dora and Diego has given Maddy the ability to master a second language. She’s now watching the Mulan bonus features in Spanish…
2/24/2011

"Sometimes, when you're a kid, you get sick and throw up. But that's how you grow!"
2/16/11

I was listening to Maddy sing to Ben this morning. "Hush little baby don't say a word, Maddy's gonna buy you a mocking bird. If that mocking bird don't sing, Maddy's gonna buy you a diamond ring. If that diamond ring don't shy, Maddy's gonna buy you a pork-you-pie. If that pork-you-pie doesn't stay poor, Maddy's gonna buy you a......"
2/11/11

I told Maddy she had to go to time out. Her response? "Care bears don't go to time out!"

Well, the polls are in. I am mean, and she likes Daddy more. Thanks Maddy.
1/10/11

I guess I should examine the content of the movies I show my daughter more closely... Maddy is now refusing to go to college, EVER. I guess the thought of packing up her room and giving away her toys is too devastating. I told her if Andy can do it, she can too... but she said: nope, I'm staying home to play with Daddy.
12/30/10

Maddy asked me if she could eat cookies with me. I told her she could help herself, which through her for a loop, seeing that usually she is limited to one. When she asked me why, I said "Christmas is all about eating cookies!" She looked at me, like I had lost my mind, and said "Christmas is about Jesus' birthday."
12/13/10

Not only does Maddy want 5 laundry baskets for her birthday, she wants a strawberry laundry basket cake, with chocolate frosting.
11/15/10

was listening to Maddy talk on the phone to Uncle Ryan. When he asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she said: "Five laundry baskets."
11/08/11

"Mommy, you are a REALLY good mom, but sometimes, you scare baby Jesus."
11/3/10

Maddy proudly shows me her drawing, then says "Look mom! It's a dallying sailor cat!" I had to go look up the word "dallying".... How is it that my 3 year old has a larger vocabulary than I do?
9/24/10

I overheard Maddy in the bathroom this morning singing to herself. (To the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat) 'Wipe, Wipe, Wipe your bum, wipe it all the day!, wipe it good, wipe it good, wipe it all the way!'
9/23/2010

was joking around with Maddy and asked her if she was feeling enraged... She replied, No, I'm feeling Jubilant. So I said, Do you even know what Jubilant means? She looks at me as if to say 'everyone knows what that word means' and said yeah, it means to be REALLY REALLY happy. Thank You PBS
9/9/10

Me: "Maddy, your sister has been asleep FOREVER." Maddy: "Yeah, but she didn't eat an apple, so she's not in an enchanted sleep like Snow White."
7/30/10

Maddy: Mommy, Do you still love me when you're mad? Me: Maddy, I ALWAYS love you. Maddy: Yeah, and you're always mad.
7/26/10

Mom, can we plant some bird seeds so we can grow some birds?"
6/16/10

My beautiful new niece... if my brother waits any longer to name her she'll have to go by the name Maddy picked... "baby Lickie"
5/25/10

"Maddy! Why do you ask me 'why?' after everything I say?" "Oh mom, its just an allergy!"
5/14/10

Maddy: Mommy I LOVE picking flowers from your garden! Me: Yes Maddy, I love when you pull weeds too. Daddy will be happy that there are no more dandelions in the grass...
4/8/10

Maddy: Oh no! I have pen on my foot! I need to go to the dentist so he can clean it!
3/8/10

So we went to Chuck E. Cheese with my brother and his family this weekend... where Maddy got a little I.D. card with her picture on it. On the way home she asked me if she could drive and I told her no because she couldn't reach the pedals. She replied "I'll try really hard!" I then said no because she didn't have a drivers license. She replied "yes! I do! I got one at Chuck E. Cheese!"
3/8/10

While putting the girls to bed Sarah started to cry (No surprise), then Maddy says to me, "Don't worry Mommy, I'll sing her 'The Eye of the Tiger'."
2/24/10

Maddy: Mommy! I just found seeds in my apple! Me: what are you going to do with them? Maddy: I'm going to make more apples! Like many many... three apples
2/10/10

Maddy: "Mom can you please be quiet, I am trying to read my dictionary." Gee, I'm sorry Maddy, I didn't know you could read!
1/22/10

I asked Maddy what she wanted her new baby brother or sister's name to be... she replied "Baby Gomez" Thanks to Aunt Nee Nee and big Uncle Ry Ry for ruining Maddy. We already have baby dolls named "baby walmart" and "Magic Head"... A real live baby Gomez would be icing on the cake!
1/20/10

took Maddy to the party store to see what kind of birthday party she wanted to have...... she picked "Over the Hill" napkins.
10/22/09

Maddy is on role today... As I'm cleaning the bathroom she comes in and says to me: "Mommy, when I am big like you, can I clean?" Girl you can clean right now!!
9/24/09

I took the pens away from Maddy after she tried to draw on the desk. Her response: "But mom! I have nothing to draw on!" She says this as she sits next to not one, but two notepads...
2/24/09

No it's to cold outside we'll burn up!
February 2010

I will plant my apple seeds in the garden and the tree's will grow big and tall... and then they will tickle you.
February 2010

I will Jack you up! (it was cute when she was two, but then she learned how to use it correctly)

I will UH!(cue the pointing of her finger) I will put you in the car! .......(her substitution for "i will jack you up)
2009

Brrr... Its hot!
2009

That's not berry slice!!

Mommy, you can't play with my stamps because they are for little girls. Your hands are too big, so they will fall out because they are for little girl hands.
February 2010

Aunt Neenee: Maddy? Why are you so mean to me? Maddy: So I can say sorry!
February 2010

Aunt Neenee! I will flush you down the potty!! Feb. 2010

No!!! You're not my sister!!! (when Aunt neenee told her to put on her jammies) 2010

I can't go to Conway Mommy. Conway has spiders, and THAT is embarrassing.
March 2010

‎'I can't eat my spaghetti, I DON'T LIKE spaghetti!' 'Since when?' 'Tuesday's and Friday's.'
March 2010

Well, hopefully that made someone laugh. We think she's pretty funny. We are so glad that she is in our family! I wonder what that silly girl will say today!!

Happy Birthday sweet girl!!

A weekend away

2011-11-17T11:02:00.000-08:00

We loaded up the kids last weekend and headed off to Columbia to celebrate cousin Grace turning one! The kids had a blast at the park, and Grace was as cute as ever! I can't believe she's already one year old...

We stayed at Uncle Ry Ry's house, and the kids were in heaven playing in the leaves he's got all over the yard! Maddy's been asking me for weeks if we can rake up the leaves so she can jump in them. Every time she asks I have to explain that we have no trees... Thank goodness for Uncle Ryan's yard!

Uncle Stephen helped Sarah get a leaf out of the tree... as if there weren't enough on the ground!

They loved thgowing the leaves in the air

Rolling in the leaves

We have no snow here in the south, so she had to do the next best thing...

Leaf Angel!!

Maddy and Mommy!

Ben liked the leaves okay... he loved the headlights on the van even more. So there aren't many pictures of him playing in the yard. He was too busy checking out the van!

Sarah randomly decided that she was done with the leaves and went to chill with Aunt Naomi and cousin Grace.

Family Picture!!

We had a great time hanging out, and can't wait for Thanksgiving to see them all again!

Happy Halloween!!

2011-11-01T18:32:00.001-07:00

Halloween is now a special day in the Passey house. I went from having 8 brothers and sisters to having 10. Reagan and Allie have officially been adopted! I now have 7 brothers and 3 sisters. The oldest being 31 and the youngest is 7! My parents officially have 11 children. They now have as many children as they do grandchildren! To celebrate we went to Cici's Pizza. My grandparents came and we had a great lunch. The kids dressed up too! Maddy got to eat for free for having a costume on (the youngest two are free anyway) We let the kids play in the arcade when they were done eating.

I love this picture of Ben... Joshua was tickling him, and he LOVED it.

Maddy driving the car... Uncle Scott was nice enough to put some quarters in the game for her. She thinks she is now ready to drive our van. Yeah, alright Maddy!

This game wasn't working, but it didn't stop Scott and Ryan from having a great time!

Sarah driving

Benjamin driving!

This is the only game Maddy wanted to play on... I couldn't get her off of it!

Ben was trying so hard to reach the buttons. This boy loves to push buttons!

Sarah wanted to ride the motorcycle... but then she couldn't figure out how to get off. I saw her just sitting like this and couldn't resist snapping a picture.

My silly monkey

After our celebration we headed over to my grandparents house to trick or treat. Ben was so happy to run around outside...

LOVE this boy...

My grandpa wanted a picture with the kids in their costumes. I wish Ben would have cooperated! He just wanted to walk around!
But it's still a cute picture....

Mom look at my candy!!

We headed over to Joseph's parents to trick or treat and then headed home to wait for Daddy! We lit the Jack-o-lanterns and got the kids bundled up for some trick-or-treating with some friends from the ward. They had arranged a hayride to take the kids around the neighborhood. Then Ben had a meltdown of all meltdowns. He couldn't take 2 steps without bursting into tears! I decided 30 minutes before we were supposed to be there that Ben was going to bed. He was in no shape for the night ahead of him. That meant that I had to stay home... Boo!!

But you do what you have to right?

All ready to go! Sarah was NOT happy that I emptied her pumpkin from the Trunk-or-Treat. She was crying and saying that she wanted her candy. She didn't understand what she was about to do... Poor girl. Then she thought Daddy had left without her.

I had originally asked our neighbors to hand out our candy until I got back with Ben. I had assumed that he wouldn't last as long as the girls. This may sound weird, but I've always wanted to hand out candy on Halloween night. We have been married for over 7 years and I have never been able to do it! This is the first year we've lived in a neighborhood!

I sent Joseph off with the girls and put Ben to bed. Then prepared myself for Trick-or-Treaters! I actually really enjoyed seeing all the different costumes. I'm still amazed at how rude a lot of the kids are. I can't stand kids who ring the doorbell repeatedly, then don't even say Thank You when you give them candy!! But on a lighter note- I had multiple people tell me my house was nice, and some tell me that it smelled really good. (Thank you Pumpkin Spice candle!!) But the best part was when this boy who appeared to be about 12 told me that I was pretty. I gave him an extra piece of candy :) I decided that handing out candy on Halloween was good for my self esteem... ;)

Our porch... The lights change color. It made the kids happy.

The kids were out for just over an hour. Joseph decided to bring them home because it started sprinkling and it was cold! They got home just in time too... Not more than 5 minutes later it started to pour!

The girls came home and told me all about their adventures and then checked out their loot.

I helped Maddy sort hers like I used to when I was little. She was so sweet and gave Joseph and I some candy.

Sarah was excited to see all of her candy too. She told me all about how "Daddy talked mean to a ghost so he didn't scare her" (not quite how that happened) but in her eyes Daddy is her hero!

Another Halloween has come and gone. Hopefully next year Ben will be able to enjoy it!

Trunk Or Treat

2011-11-01T16:55:00.001-07:00

I missed a few pictures from our pumpkin carving.. So I thought I'd post a few before the Trunk-or-Treat pictures

The girls decided to help their daddy clean the last pumpkin. One spoonful at a time.

I was there too! I have crazy eyes in this picture... It is never a good idea to give me a knife!!

Me and the girls

Shortly after our pumpkin carving we got the kids dressed up in their costumes and headed to our ward Trunk-or-Treat. Really it was a Halloween carnival of sorts. They went ALL out! One of our ward members is a P.E. teacher, and he decided to bring a parachute for the kids to play with. I was SO excited. This was pretty much the only thing I liked about school when I was a kid! I told Joseph as soon as I saw it- "this is the BEST Halloween party I've ever been to."

Maddy thought it was pretty sweet too!

Maddy and her little boyfriend. She LOVES this boy...

About to lift it and go under!

Helping to put it away

They had a chili cook off too. There was some amazing chili! I'm not sure the kids were impressed, but I sure enjoyed it.

Sarah enjoyed the dessert table! She ate cookies and bat brownies... and she had a little cup with jello. The jello had a gummy worm in it. She ate that and then tried to drink her jello. After a few tries she looked at me and said- "mommy, my drink doesn't work. It's broken!"

It was so funny!

Maddy had a few treats too! ...but no dinner. SHOCKER!

After dinner it was back to the fun and games! This one was great- you had to eat the doughnut that was tied to the string without using your hands...

After a few tries the doughnut fell off the string so she had to eat it with her hands... tough break Maddy!

Next we got to go on a hayride! There is a farm next to our church and they were nice enough to let us use their field. This hayride went a bit faster than any hayride I've ever been on! I thought we might fall off! We had a kid "fall off" on our ride... or so we thought. We're thinking now that he jumped! Another was dangling his feet and his shoe came off. It took a while to find in the tall grass!

Took this one myself!

Ben seemed a bit uneasy this hayride...

Family picture!

After the hayride we went in to play a few more games... They had a cake walk, and this cute bean bag toss. Maddy got the bean bag in on her very first try.

Sarah walked up to the cauldrons and plopped the balls in. Ben just ran away with the balls.

They loved it

There was also a haunted maze that was put together outside. My girls loved it, much to my surprise! Maybe because it wasn't so haunted when we discovered it. After the maze we had the Trunk or Treat. The kids got a lot of candy and had a blast. They were so tired after that, so we headed home.

Our friends from our old ward came over after their party so we could play games. We put all the kids to bed and then raided our kids candy to make milk shakes! Best Butterfinger milk shake ever.

And a great end to a great day!

Carving Pumpkins

2011-10-31T09:47:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning started off great... I hung some pumpkin lights over the table that a friend had given me the night before. The kids were so happy! They change colors from pink to orange to purple.

We also had a special Halloween breakfast! Cinnamon rolls with orange frosting!

As if they don't get enough sugar on Halloween... Might as well have some for every meal!

Joseph had to go into work for a few hours, but when he got back we decided to carve the kids Jack-o-lanterns.

We started off outside... but it was so cold!

Ben was very interested in the pumpkin guts...

yeah... he was eating them... and happy to do so.

Eat it up boy!!

Okay, I stopped him. I couldn't take it, it was SO gross.

So he found some chalk to eat instead!

Thus ended the pumpkin carving outside...

We moved inside where the kids were warmer, and much less distracted!

Cheeeeeeese!!

He's at it again!!

Eventually we had to put up the baby gate and ban him from the kitchen...

Joseph busy hollowing out the pumpkins!

Sarah kept looking at Ben then back at her pumpkin lid while saying, "I don't want to eat dis. Dats gwoss."

Maddy wanted her name carved into her Jack-o-lantern. Then she hammed it up and posed with it. Is this girl full of herself?? Yes she is.

Cocoa decided to supervise Ben

Cocoa you FAIL!!

Here is again, eating pumpkin guts!

Ben's finished Jack-o-lantern

He is also finished helping....

Sarah's finished Jack-o-lantern. She wanted one with "free eyes, and free moufes"

Here you go Sarah, Three eyes each with a mouth.

Ta da!!

The kids worked so hard they needed some halloween cookies... once again, I was worried they might not have enough sugar!!

Now bring on the Trunk or Treat!!

A Halloween Storytime

2011-10-31T09:24:00.001-07:00

I have been taking my kids to storytime at our local library since Maddy was about 10 months old. Now that we have moved out of Myrtle Beach, I can't seem to leave our favorite librarian and try the storytime at the library where we live... So every week I drive about 35 minutes to see Ms. Sue Ellen at the Chapin library. The week of our Halloween Party is my favorite by far! Well worth the 35 minute drive! The kids get to dress up in their costumes, and they have Halloween stories read to them, sing Halloween songs and fingerplays. They do a Halloween craft, and then Party! It is Maddy's favorite storytime too because Daddy always comes..

My little Witch Sarah, ready to go!

Maddy borrowed this costume from our good friends... (home made!!) She kept saying, Sarah is a willing witch and I am a lovely ladybug.

So happy! Ben was still taking his nap so I don't have any before pictures of him

This is the first storytime where Ben has listened! It needs to be Halloween EVERY storytime... He's hard to handle!!

My little Monkey

Daddy showed up half way through (he usually comes to the party at the end...) Maddy was THRILLED to be able to sit with him during the stories.

Ben socializing...

They made pumpkin masks, then got their party treats! They got to frost pumpkin cookies and eat other goodies.

Another great party in the books! And looking forward to next year!!

Trip to NC

2011-10-31T06:13:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again! We went to visit my older brother and his family up in North Carolina. We've made it a family tradition, this being the third time we've gone. They take us to a cute little farm where there are fun activities and a hayride for the kids to enjoy. We had a blast.

The five cousins!

Ben loved this ghostie

Family Picture!

The kids get little pumpkins that they can decorate with stickers, or color with markers.

Sarah loved going down this cat slide

Such a ham!

Ben thought his pumpkin was a ball... he kept throwing it

Decortating with Addison

Running through the GIANT spider!

Maddy getting her face painted

Frankenstien!

Sarah.... Bat Girl!

Sarah getting her face painted. She wanted a pumpkin

Mommy and Maddy

The witch on the bench weirded Ben out...

He wasn't sure what to do!

He just knew he wanted to get away from that face!

Playing on the tractor with Cooper and Addison

Mommy and Sarah!

Riding stick horses...

Ben liked to run down the bowling alley and grab the pins, instead of rolling the ball

Now for.... The HAYRIDE!!

Ben wasn't all that amused

Maddy was terrified the first year, and a little less terrified the second year. We were wondering how the third year would be... She started out insisting on sitting on the right side of the ride. She said the spiders were on the left side. When we got to the spot where the spiders were in the past, they weren't there, and she was THRILLED. SO full of joy. Then Addison says: "hey look at the spiders!" Maddy instantly went into terrified mode:

Good thing Uncle Phillip was there to save her!

Sarah didn't know what to do with Maddy in tears and everyone else smiling...

Why is Maddy scared of stuffed possums?

Ben thought that the whole thing was taking too long

This spider is creepy, but Maddy wasn't scared of this one...

Ben just wanted to get off... He doesn't like to sit still

Running around the kiddie corn maze!!

Maddy loved running around with Uncle Phillip and her cousins!

Ben flat out loved running. He didn't care if it was by himself or with the cousins. He just wanted to be on the move!!

My sweet Scarecrow..

We had a blast at the farm like we always do! We love to go visit with Phillip and his family. Can't wait to see them again!!

Conference Weekend

2011-10-23T18:39:00.000-07:00

Conference weekend we were invited up to a lake house in NC. We had a great time with a couple of families from our ward. The kids had a nice sunroom over looking the lake with a ton of toys to play with while the adults listened to our Prophet and the Apostles address us. What a wonderful weekend! In between sessions we went out on the boat. People were tubing even though it wasn't even 70 degrees outside! Joseph and I didn't even put our swimsuits on because we didn't plan on getting in the water. Eventually he gave in and went out on the tube in his clothes... Yeah, he got thrown in too. I wish I had pictures! I didn't even think to bring my camera... I was busy holding on to Ben anyway... Maddy and Sarah even went out on the tube!! I hope to get some pics from a friends camera soon... Sarah doesn't love riding on boats. She gets very lathargic and won't move. But when Aaron asked her if she wanted to get in the tube you would have thought it was Christmas morning! She was smiling ear to ear! They got on with some older kids and we went very slow for them. They had a blast!

I got to go on a bike ride around the neighborhood Sunday morning. I felt like I was a kid again! It was so fun! The kids got to play at an amazing little park too. I did remember to bring my camera there!

Having fun on the pirate ship!

Sarah loved to climb this... she called it the "spider web"

My favorite picture...

She didn't expect to slide down so fast!!

The pirate ship had a pole to slide down to get below deck

Maddy loved it!

Having a blast on the tire swing!

There was one for big kids and one for little kids

Ben LOVES to swing!

Maddy took Ben on the tire swing, but he wasn't sure what was going on

We had a blast with the kids and with friends. It was a great weekend filled with fun and wonderful messages from our church leaders!

Sarah's first haircut!

2011-10-23T18:06:00.001-07:00

Before I get to the pictures of my sweet little Sarah, Here is one worth a laugh.

It has been a HOT summer, no doubt about that. So when my kids got up a few weeks ago and it was only 70 degrees, they decided to dress for the weather...

You would have thought it was snowing!!

Anyway... My sweet little Sare-bear is 2 1/2 now. She's always had more hair than her older sister, and I never wanted to cut it. But it was starting to look stringy so I made an appointment with the one and only MinDee. Sarah was very excited.

Before...

Yes, she has a huge bruise on her forehead. When I asked her what happened she said she fell on a barbie.. I knew barbies were dangerous!

I was really sad for her curls to be cut off!

All ready!

Tada! I know she doesn't look a whole lot different, but now it is all even, and not so stringy!

Of course, I saved her locks in a little baggie...

Now onto some misc. pictures that I have taken:

Maddy lost her baby for her dollhouse and I told her I would get her a knew one for her Birthday. Not good enough. She wanted one that day. So I made her use her own money. She decided to buy a whole family. (an african american family) The girls LOVE this new family. Now the original family is referred to as "mommy, daddy, little girl, and babies" Apparently this new family actually gets individual names! Sarah was looking frantically for Sean a week or so after this family moved into the dollhouse. I had NO CLUE who this "Sean" was. Finally after not understanding her description (it's blue) I asked Maddy where "Sean" was. Immediately Maddy went and got the new daddy from her room. She said "this is Sean. And his wife's name is Tara. Like my friend Benjamin's mommy." So now we have Daddy, Mommy, little girl, baby (one is still lost), Sean, Tara and new babies.

Kids are so weird.

Now for a random story. I was taking out the garbage one morning when I noticed some ducks waddling out from in between our house and the next door neighbors. I went inside and called to the girls because I wanted them to see how cute they were. When the girls came outside I was surprised that these birds walked RIGHT up to them. My kids were terrified so they ran back into the house. I followed them in and went to tell Joseph about these ducks. I opened the front door to show him and they were standing on our porch!! Naturally I decided to feed them some breakfast... bread! The girls thought it was fabulous... until one tried to come inside the house!

On the porch

This one was eating a piece of bread when I snapped this picture. Its totally makes him look evil and mean. Not the case!

I can't believe how friendly they were!

(I also noticed in this picture that my rug has words across it. Not there when you look at it on the porch! I guess it was super faded when I bought it and the flash brings it out!)

What a crazy life we live...

End of Summer

2011-10-23T17:46:00.000-07:00

I am so behind! What's new though...

SEVERAL weeks ago we went to the beach as a family. Our stake was doing a youth service project and Joseph was asked to help cook lunch, so we decided to make it a family outing! The kids and I just chilled on the beach while the youth picked up trash. After Joseph's responsibilities were done we got to spend some quality time with our kids.

Maddy and Joseph jumped in the waves...

She thinks she's a model...

Ben had a blast eating sand. So. Gross. But look how happy he is!!

Sarah made a friend with an older girl (about 10 ish). She caught Sarah a little fish and put it in her bucket. Sarah watched that little fish for a LONG time before I made her let it go. You can't really see it though.. but it's there!

Sucking on a piece of ice... She was "so thirsty" Nevermind the water bottle that was FULL of water!!

Ben and Joseph taking a walk down the beach. Ben is never happy unless he's on the move!!

We had a great time and it was a perfect end to a HOT summer!!

Who does that??

2011-09-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer Maddy came out of her bedroom about 10 minutes after being tucked into bed. She was hysterical... I couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. Finally I realize that she is flipping out about a loose tooth. I tried to keep calm (inside I was flipping out because she is only four and a half!!) She was convinced that the ice she was chewing earlier was responsible for her wiggly tooth. I explained that it was apart of growing up and that calmed her down and she went back to bed. Joseph and I were sort of anxious about this losing teeth thing. We really didn't think it would happen for a couple more years. Is it normal for her to have a loose tooth already?

A few days later she informed me that she had another loose tooth. I figured she was just saying that because she got so much attention the first time around. But no, she wasn't kidding. Both of her bottom teeth were lose. Not even barely... straight up LOOSE. I wasn't going to mess with them, I just wanted them to come out on their own, so eventually I forgot about it.

On September 2nd (I remember because it's my big brother's birthday) she came into my bedroom while I was doing my hair, and asks if she can put her tooth under her pillow. I immediately stop what I'm doing and ask her to repeat her question, she then holds out her little hand and there is her perfect little tooth. To say that I flipped out is an understatement!

I was so emotional about it! My baby lost her first tooth!! (she probably thought I was crazy..)

All I can do is think about how Maddy's little face is forever changed. She will never look quite the same. She looks older! She's growing up! All she can think of is the tooth fairy. When she gets her money, she's going to buy her baby brother a new pool floaty. (she's been saying this since she discovered her tooth was loose. Ben's floaty blew away... ) What a good big sister, wanting to look out for Ben!

Needless to say, that night Maddy went to bed without a problem!

She even put a sleep mask on... Her tooth safely tucked under her pillow in a ziploc bag.

In the morning she was very excited to find a dollar under her pillow. Joseph took her to walmart so she could buy something (with some convincing that Ben was fine without his old floaty) She bought herself some M&M's and paid for them by herself. She got .25 back and her own receipt. If you know Maddy, you know she was WAY more excited about this receipt than she was about the candy, or the change!! She still has it too, folded up in her special box. I took a picture of my baby girl's new smile, and pretty good thing I did, because it didn't last long... That night, she lost the other one!

Who does that?? I mean, Seriously??

Two teeth in 24 hours... and she's only 4 1/2 years old.

I believe the tooth fairy might need to get a second job to keep up with this kid!!

Oh, and my little guy got his first haircut with the clippers... So. Hard. Note to self: don't try and cut your 14 month old's hair with a 4 year old assistant. Way stressful. But the end result was good! He looked normal anyway!

Doughnuts and Skittles

2011-08-24T05:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I realized that we were out of milk. Not good when you have three cranky kids who want their cups filled up! I took Sarah to the store ASAP to buy some milk, and while we were there, we picked up some yummy doughnuts for breakfast. My kids were THRILLED. It was like Christmas morning...

It's as if he's saying "Cheers!"

This crazy boy inhaled his doughnut, and then ate what Sarah left behind. She was more interested in her chocolate milk, plus she had a KitKat in the car on the way home from the store. (and yes, it was barely 9am) Like I said, it was like unto Christmas morning. My kids couldn't figure out why I'd willingly give them this much sugar in one meal! I'm sure they'll survive. I too was given the magnificent breakfast of doughnuts and chocolate milk on more than one occasion as a child. And I was able to develope proper eating habits! Well, most days... :) After all, pretty much every morning the kids are forced to eat the boring whole grain cereals with little to no sugar in them....

Ben was a MESS. I think his sugar high was wearing off too...

I think it's a bit obvious that the next step for Ben was the tub.

I was trying to snap a picture of him when he tries to suck on the handle... but this time he only held on to it.

It really is the funniest thing. He will get on his tippy toes and suck on the handle of the tub... Why? Who knows. Why do my kids do half of the things they do??

Now, if this doughnut thing wasn't enough for you... this will be the icing on the cake.

Anyone that knows me well, knows my love for Skittle art. I accidentally discovered this so called Skittle art as a wee highschool student. I had two older brothers serving full time missions for our church, and I wrote letters to them as often as possible. (Which was A LOT seeing that I would write them letters in class instead of taking notes.)

This is a bit graphic, read on at your own risk :)
One day in my history class I was writing one of these wonderful letters while eating some Skittles. When all of a sudden I lost focus and one of said Skittles fell out of my mouth and rolled onto my paper. Leaving behind a streak of color ... Then, an idea was born. As gross as it is, it is great fun. And yummy too. I proceeded to lick my Skittles and make my brother a beautiful picture. It has evolved into putting a small handful of Skittles into your mouth, getting them nice and wet, then letting them fall out of your mouth onto a peice of paper. You then wiggle the paper around while the Skittles do their thing. When you are done with that color, you suck them back into your mouth, and eat them! (I know, it sounds super gross...) But hey, don't knock it until you try it!!

(*Fun fact* I made a piece of Skittle art as part of an art project in college... and totally got an A. "Wonderful use of water color" the professor said.) Heh heh heh.

Have I lost anyone's respect yet??

I now have a younger brother serving a full time mission for our church. It would only be fair for him to have one of these masterpieces. So I decided to teach my daughters how to do it for FHE. Best night of my life.

Sarah loved the fact that she could eat the candy, spit it out and eat it again!

Maddy caught on pretty quick... she's good too!

My budding artists

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Maddy's Masterpiece

My Masterpiece

Sarah's Masterpiece

Where is Joseph's Masterpiece you ask? After all, this was for Family Home Evening. Well, he sat at the table and watched in horror and disgust, as his lovely wife and daughters painted with their spit. He was traumatized. Well, that, and someone had to hold Ben!! I think my daughters have discoverd a new favorite way to "paint" haha! I hope Elder Passey likes his art!

After our art class we went outside to enjoy our backyard. (Something we rarely get to do since it's been SO hot lately)

We went for a walk around the Cul de sac and then pulled out the bubble machine.

Ben was trying to eat the bubbles

Maddy was jumping around like a crazy girl. Maybe it was all that sugar....

Ben discovered water from the last rain storm, that was hiding in the drawer of their outside table. That kept him busy for a long while.

Daddy and Ben relaxing in the "flying saucer". This might be the only thing we like about our swingset...

It was a great way to end a fun day.

Beach BBQ!

2011-08-23T13:42:00.000-07:00

The family decided to have a Birthday BBQ, in honor of all the August Birthdays in our family. Funny, that most of said family members were not in attendence... But that didn't stop us from partying!

We headed down to the state park to play at the beach and then have a cook out when the men were off of work. We met my mom and the kids at the beach and played all afternoon.

Ben LOVES to put things in buckets or bowls. So having a sand and a shovel to put into a bucket kept him busy for a while.
He loved watching Allie build her castles too.

As always, Sarah was attatched to Erynn's side. ALL DAY. Poor Erynn. That has to get old! But hey, It's a nice break for me!! Maddy floated back and forth between the boys, and the girls. Depending on who was having the most fun.

We had a water fight, and chased eachother around... I had a great time. The kids were really good too! We packed up around 5 or so and headed up to the shelter that we had rented. Dad and Joseph cooked hotdogs and hamburgers, and we had us a birthday feast. Potato salad, baked beans, chips and some good ol' root beer. And of course... cake. Ben was SO tired. He fell asleep in his stroller after his sugar high. All day at the beach followed by a sippy cup of Hawaiian Punch. Yeah buddy.

He slept for a few hours too! We had to wake him up to put him in the car!

Papa and Mama were able to come too. It's always fun to get them out to the beach! I guess they deserve the credit... The BBQ was their idea!

My "Mama"... She made the most amazing baked beans...

I took this picture as the sun was setting. (of course, the sun doesn't set on the east coast... so no pretty sunset pictures...) However, as the sun was going down, HUNDREDS of dragon flies started swarming around the pond. It was beautiful!!

I couldn't get a good picture... but in this one you can see one zooming by! It looks like a flying saucer! I wish I could have taken a video. It was so neat to see.

We were able to go with my mom and watch, while she and the kids did an inventory of a Sea Turtle nest. She and the kids volunteer with the turtle patrol at the state park. It was neat to see Ryan, Erynn and Josh be able to sort the turtle's eggs, and see how many hatched and made to to the ocean. They were so proud!

We stayed well after dark, and had a great time. Last year Andrew and his family were able to be there... Hopefully we can do it again soon and get the whole family there!

Temple Trip!

2011-08-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

We had the opportunity to take the kids to the Columbia Temple last weekend. My mom, my sister and I got to take some family names through, and it was a wonderful experience. Joseph walked the kids around the Temple grounds for a little while, and then Uncle Ryan came and picked up the kids so Joseph could join me. The kids loved being there!

Ben is just starting to walk well, and thought it was great fun to be able to walk around outside!

He was cracking himself up!

Sarah was all smiles too. On a side note- we are trying to potty train her (with NO success) but amazingly when we got to Columbia she was dry! So I asked her if she needed to go potty and she said no. Then I said, "Do you want to use the potty at the Temple?" She excitedly agreed, and I took her.. and she went!! I thought it might be the beginning of a new trend... Has she had success since? Nope. Maybe if we lived closer to the Temple, we'd have more luck...

I love this picture... They just held hands and walked off together.

Maddy is such a ham! She has been learning about the Temple at church, and has been learning the song "I love to see the Temple" as well. When we were walking around the grounds she just stopped and burst into song. She sang both verses to "I love to see the Temple"! She was VERY proud of herself. Then again, that seems to be a state of being for her.

Daddy and Ben

Family Picture!

Our family is forever...

These next few pictures are very out of place after seeing pictures of the Temple... But I'm blogging about my life right??

Here we go...

Why is it so entertaining to wear underwear on your head? Combined with that face... it really is something to laugh at!

Maddy has spread the joy of it onto her younger sister.

Sarah actually thought to pull her hair out from the leg holes! She was calling herself "Llama Llama Red Pajama" for anyone who has read that children's book. (If you haven't you should! They are so cute!) I guess she thinks her hair looks like llama ears. Silly girl!

Our little Ben is getting so big! He now eats his meals at the kids table instead of the high chair. And he's SO proud.

The sun shines right through the window and blinds the kids in the morning. I have to keep the blinds shut until late morning... but Ben still has light coming through onto his face!

For the record... I LOVE this table. Our kitchen table is over carpet, so I have this little table set up in the kitchen. My carpet would be a disaster without it!

And the fun continues...

2011-07-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

The kids have had a pretty good summer. (at least I think so!) We have gone swimming once a week, storytime, playdates and visits with relatives. I just started taking the kids to a free movie at the theater once a week too. We stay very busy!

The kids also find time to entertain themselves. Here is a cute picture of Benjamin...

He swiped Sarah's banana and climbed onto the couch to eat it. I found him just like this!

This just might be the loudest thing I've ever let my kids do... I think my ears are still ringing! They had a great time though!

We were invited to the art museum with some of our storytime friends. They have a "Babar's World Tour" exibit. It is completely free, and the kids get to visit different countries with their passports. There is a lot of dressing up and pretend play. My kids played for 2 hours, and didn't want to go home! Of course, I was so worried that I'd be late that I left without the camera. I only have a few pictures that one of the other moms took. We will definitely go again before it leaves in September!

The kids got crowns to wear, along with paper passports. Here they are listening to different languages, and looking at books about each country. Maddy was learing Japanese.

They had a room full of tables and chairs and LOTS of play food, and chef costumes. The kids didn't want to move on from that room!

One of the rooms had a fashion runway (see the lights?) Here is Ben with his friend (they are only weeks apart, with matching red hair!) They were working the runway... This room had fancy dresses, and suits with tons of accessories for the kids to model. SO FUN! (Sarah was there too! I promise! You can see her pink polka dot shirt in the background!)

There are so many pictures that I missed out on, and rooms that I haven't talked about. I can't wait to take the kids back!!

At the end, the kids got to write postcards from different countries and "mail" them. Then they could write a thank you note on the dry erase board! I'm so glad we were invited to this... What a fun day. If you have the opportunity to go, I think you should. The kids will love it!

Fun with Friends

2011-07-26T06:27:00.000-07:00

We have been having a blast this summer. We got the kids a pool for the backyard, and they have really enjoyed it! We had a huge thunderstorm a few weeks ago, accompanied by massive winds that blew our pool away (there was no water in it, just patio furniture). I had to drive around the neighborhood with the kids trying to find it. We found it, and I was able to get it home, but apparently it has a teeny hole somewhere. A couple hours after filling it up it started to deflate on one side...

Sarah having a good time... and she's actually smiling!

Our poor droopy pool... The kids didn't care! They still had fun with their friends!

Maddy playing with Mikaela's squirt gun

We have also discovered the beautiful River Walk here in Conway. We walked a small part of it a couple of weeks ago, and then invited my parents and siblings to join us for Family Home Evening last week. It was so nice!

Natuarally, Sarah was attached to Erynn. There was no separating them!

Ben was enjoying himself too!

There is a really neat park there too... The kids had a great time playing on the playground. There are also picnic tables that I think we'll take advantage of next time. Ben tried out the swing for the first time... He LOVED it.

We decided to continue down the path, and see where it led, but Maddy was not happy. She just wanted to play on the playground.

I wish I took more pictures! The path continues along the river and there are bench swings all along the way for you to swing and enjoy the view. The trees and flowers are just beautiful. There is also a large gazebo with several rocking chairs overlooking the river as well. I am definitely taking my -out of town- family members when they come visit...

Now, after this wonderful evening in nature... we invited the family back to our house to help us build the swingset we got for the kids. WHAT A PAIN!! We love it now that it's finished, but it took a week to build. Joseph worked on it every night for a couple of hours, and even had family come help. Grrrrr. Lets just say that the instructions weren't that clear, and pre assembled parts weren't assembled correctly. I guess all that matters is that it's done, and the kids LOVE it!

I thought this picture was funny... Maddy is jumping off the slide backwards and somehow I caught a picture of it!

It has a "flying saucer" on the far left side with a 200 lb weight limit, so I get to lay in it with the kids. I totally love it. Sarah doesn't like to swing. She wants to sit and not move... so its nice to just plop her in the saucer with a pillow. Ben loves it too! The kids haven't been able to enjoy it too much with the temperature reaching 110* plus with the heat index. But any opportunity they have, they are outside. We like to have our friends come over and play too... We love the Atkinsons!!

Ben's First Haircut!

2011-07-26T06:12:00.000-07:00

My sweet little baby is not so little anymore.... He had the cutest little curls on the back of his head, but only when he was sweaty, or at the pool. When the hair wasn't curled, there was nothing cute about it... unless you are into the whole mullet look!

I've been wanting to cut it for months now... but I needed more hands, and someone to take pictures! So I asked my wonderful friend Jen to cut it for me! What a good friend :)

BEFORE

We gave him a sucker and had Maddy entertain him... Her idea of distracting him was getting him to give her licks of his sucker... What a sucker! He thought it was the greatest thing in the world.

No more curls!

What in the world am I doing in this picture?? Let's try to ignore that and focus on how grown up Ben looks!

What a big boy! Thanks a million Jen!

Red Head Appreciation Day!

2011-07-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

I've heard that by some date in the distant future, there will be no more red heads... Something about the gene for red hair being recessive... Is it true? I have my doubts, especially seeing that all three children I have given birth to have red hair. I am trying my best to make sure the red head population sticks around :)

I believe that red headed children hold a power that they are unaware of... You see, I can't go to the grocery store without being stopped, and my children praised for the color of their hair. The person who stopped me then proceeds to tell me a story about their family history, and how they used to have red hair, or a relative did and how they were so hoping for red headed grandchildren... but alas, no luck. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say to these people...I'm sorry?

Finally I got some information I could use! Yesterday, Marble Slab had "RED HEAD APPRECIATION DAY" if you have red hair, you could come in for a free scoop of Red Velvet icecream. I'm so glad my husband, and children could be rewarded for all their hard work as Red Heads...
Ben LOVED his, and ate it ALL! ....and cried when it was gone

They let the them have one mix in, and much to Sarah's liking, she had Red Velvet icecream with M&M's!

Maddy took this picture... Pretty good!

We picked Joseph up from work and took him out for his free scoop... It may have been 11 am, but it's never too early for free icecream!

Maddy also had M&M's in her icecream. She was much neater eating hers though...

Thank You Marble Slab!!

It's about time someone recognize these people for all they contribute to society with all of their red hair! haha! Actually, where is the recognition for the Mother's who gave birth to these red headed people! No icecream for me?? Sadly, I just sat and watched my four red heads enjoy their icecream. Maybe one day they'll have "Brown Hair Appreciation Day!"

After our moring icecream run, I took the kids over to see my grandparents. Ben LOVES my grandpa's wheel chair... I'm always worried he's going to stick his hands in it, and Papa is going to drive off no knowing. It is so hard to keep Ben away from it! But today, he got to ride it! He sad on Papa's lap, and took a ride around the house. He LOVED it!

This boys loves some WHEELS!

He then tried to figure out how to drive it himself...

Maddy was jealous that Ben was having all that fun, so she went for a ride too. I think Papa was a very happy man... He's better than an amusement park!

Later, I trapped Ben in his stroller... He kept looking at his wheels, then at Papa's wheels. I don't think he was impressed with his... Silly boy!

CAUTION!! I needed to vent... read at your own risk!!

2011-07-08T07:50:00.000-07:00

I never do this... I usually keep my opinions to myself, and bottle my feelings up. But I came to the realization this past weekend that I can't be that way anymore. It's not good for me, or my family. SO here it goes.
The subject of today's rant is WOMEN and MOTHERHOOD.
Why must women be so judgemental of other women? of the way other women mother? Why can't we embrace eachother, and support eachother? Motherhood is hard enough without having to dodge bullets from other women who "know better". I am in no way trying to say that I myself don't do my fair share passing judgement... (or more than my fair share!) But I have come to the following conclusions, and in order to relieve myself of this built up frustration, I thought I'd blog about it.
(BEWARE, the list goes ON and ON!!)

Just because I have three children, and you only have one, does NOT make me more of a mother than you.

I may have physically given birth to my children, but THAT in and of itself does NOT make me more of a mother than a woman who has adopted.

I am not less of a mother because I had my labor induced -with all 3 of my babies,(all for different reasons) at a HOSPTIAL (and didn't give birth at home...) and not only that, I HAD AN EPIDURAL! (GASP) and to add to that, I rather enjoyed NOT FEELING ANYTHING! (oh the HORROR)

Just because I kept my babies with me all night long, and didn't send them to the nursery doesn't make me a better mother than one who sent hers... It is there for a reason after all...

Women who nurse their babies are not BETTER than women who use formula.

I am not cold, and HEARTLESS because I let my baby cry in his crib at night. After a year of waking up round the clock for him to eat, it's about time to nip this in the bud... TRUST me when I tell you, the kid has NO bonding issues! He's bonded alright...

Just because my child has his own room, and I don't "COSLEEP" doesn't make me less of a mother either... Just sayin'. That might work for some families. But not this one. If it works for you, more power to you! When did we start caring about where everyone slept anyway?

When my children are acting the FOOL, I put them in time out. (After a warning of course). It is not damaging them emotionally. I would like for my children to learn that there are consequences for acting disrespectfully... better they learn it now, than when they start school. There are consequences for every decision that we make, good or bad. Whether we choose to recognize that or not.... If you have a different method of discipline that works for you... HOORAY FOR YOU!! I really do think that's great! But don't throw me under the bus, and make me out to be a monster because I found what works for us.

I'm a "stay at home" mom. That is a choice that I made, and I am happy that I made that choice (most days... ;) That in NO way makes me a better mother than one who has a career, by choice, or by necessity.

I'm sure I could go on and on... My point is that we don't all have the same road to travel. Would it be so bad to just rally around eachother? Share things that we've learned along the way? (maybe when asked, and not in a "I can't believe you do that! You SHOULD be doing this..." kind of way? I'm not saying that you can't build yourself up, or give yourself a pat on the back, just don't do it at someone else's expense. Being a mother is hard enough in it's own right, without everyone else telling you how you don't measure up.

*whew* I feel better now...

Independence Day!!

2011-07-06T12:48:00.000-07:00

Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate... (Christmas being THE favorite.) Every year I listen to Joseph excitedly recount the actions of our forefathers that lead up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I always feel the need to sign up for an American History class... Anyone who has been to our house has seen Joseph's bookcase... It is full of books on George Washington and the Revolutionary War. He loves to learn about it, and share that knowledge with others. And every year, I enjoy being reminded of all those who gave their lives so we could be free... and all those who have fought, are fighting, or who lost their lives fighting to protect that freedom that we still enjoy today.

We celebrate with both sides of the family, every year. It makes for a long day, with family and friends, LOTS of good food, fun on the Black River, and FIREWORKS!

Of course, my camera battery was acting up, so I was completely dependent on my family members to take pictures, and send them to me! I've learned that Joseph's family is on the ball... mine? not so much! So I only have pictures of the first half of the day.

We headed down to Georgetown to spend the day with Josephs Aunts, Uncles and cousins. They own some property on the Black River, and we BBQ, and have fun on the River. It was so hot! Maddy and Sarah down a Caprison while they wait for their turn on the boat.

They are so cute! They were holding hands while they watched Daddy knee board...

Ready to go!

Sarah was fine until the boat started moving.... then she closed her eyes and went limp!
I kept asking her if she was okay, and she'd shake her head no... But then when she was asked if she wanted a turn driving the boat -she hoped right up and did just that!

Maddy driving
She did so well! She did everything she was told to! We even got stopped by the river patrol... I don't know if that is what they're called, but they wanted to make sure we had the right safety equipment on the boat and that we weren't drinking. I thought they were going to bust us for having a driver that was under the age of 5... But they didn't seem to care!

Sarah Driving

When he said "hold it steady" she'd jerk it to the right... I was sort of scared for my life! Okay, not really, but she did scare me a little bit! She was all about it though! When she was done, she came and sat back by me, and went right back to the whole eyes closed and body limp thing. Crazy girl!

Watching the other cousins out in the water

After our boat ride, Joseph got talked into knee boarding. He got the hang of it thanks to his cousin Ethan. (knee boarding right next to him in the blue life jacket) But he is SO sore! He loved it though!

Next year I want to try!

Ben and Granddaddy watching from the dock

As if Granddaddy wasn't tall enough...

I guess Ben needed a higher view of everyone else in the river!

Or maybe this was the only way to keep Ben still... Either way, Uncle Ryan was a huge help taking care of him while we went out on the boat.

Look! Another picture of me! Maybe I'll just not get my camera fixed so I can be in some pictures!

Ben, me and Joseph's cousin Emily

I love this... Joseph's cousin Tim took this picture right before we headed out. Ben is trying to escape, and Sarah is pondering in her thinking chair.. TOO funny.

We headed to my Grandparents house for the Passey style celebration. We BBQ'd, and had a birthday party for Ben. When it got dark we had fun with fireworks. I bought $25 worth of fireworks from Walmart. I'm positive that my parents and siblings were NOT impressed. They referred to it as their PRE show. (thanks guys) But, my children loved them, and my 3 month old nephew liked them too. Once the "GOOD" fireworks started, all the kids under the age of 5 were terrified, and ended up in the house before it was all said and done. SO, at least my fireworks were enjoyed by the children.... right? Hopefully my mom and sister send me some pictures so I can post them on here!

Ben's First Birthday!!

2011-07-02T10:05:00.001-07:00

One year ago, my life forever changed when this little boy came into the world. (and not just because I haven't had a full nights sleep in one year either...) What a sweet little boy we have. He is full of life, and has a smile that literally lights up a room. I can't believe he is already a year old! I find myself wondering where the time has gone. Ben is my cuddley baby, a mama's boy to the core. I have enjoyed watching him grow, and look forward to the future. Happy Birthday to my baby boy!

Poor baby! Turning one isn't all fun and games. It means Dr's offices and SHOTS. I should have planned this a little better, but Ben had to have his 12 month check up ON his birthday... He's 21 lbs 4 oz. A far cry from the 7lbs 9oz baby that was placed into my arms one year ago! He was not happy to be at the Dr's office, and was ready to leave before the nurse even had a chance to give him his shots. He was devastated when he got his shots and cried until I walked out the door. Then he gave me this "yay! we're outside!" look and was a happy boy the rest of the day! He helped me pick out his birthday balloons ( and I took a picture with this hat, because I wasn't about to spend $8 on it!)

We are having 2 parties for him... we have too many people in our family to get schedules all lined up! So we celebrated with Joseph's family, and our friends. We just had them over for pizza and cupcakes. No biggie.

Ben LOVING his birthday pizza!

This picture is actually of him eating his cupcake, but Uncle Ryan was holding the Croquet mallet over his head, and he thought is was great...so I snapped a picture!

He loved the frosting from his cupcake! He kept licking his lips over and over!

Grandmomma and Granddaddy eating their pizza

Presents!! Sarah couldn't handle the fact that they were for Ben. She kept opening them, and then trying to hand them to Ben. I told her to stop, so she started carrying them to Joseph. When he wouldn't open it, she moved on to Granddaddy... She know how to get what she wants!

Here she is trying to give me Ben's card... It wasn't exciting like his toys!

This toy was a big hit! When Maddy turned one we got her a fisher price farm. She didn't care. When Sarah turned one, we gave her a drum with other instruments inside... She didn't care! But this time, I got it right!Our gift to Ben, (I love Ross!) Ben played with it for a while, and left all the other toys alone! I knew I liked this kid!

Happy Boy!!

I realize that these baseball cupcakes pale in comparison to Sarah's Dora cake... but hey, I tried!

Ben loved it, so I guess that's all that matters!

I decided to give Ben his sherbet cup outside... This proved to be a WISE decision.

He attempted to eat with a spoon...

Then to licking...

Then it melted enough to slurp...

Yup. It was good.

Yeah buddy!

Ben went strait into the tub soon after this picture was taken! He seriously LOVED this sherbet!!

Our girls loved it too! They also loved having Mikaela and Tayte to hang out with.

The adults set up a game of Croquet in the backyard. Maddy thought they were crutches...

They played until well after dark It was great. I think they had a good time. Glad we got to celebrate our little Ben's birthday with family and friends. We are going to have Birthday party round two with my parents and grandparents on the 4th of July! Ben's going to think every year people light fireworks just for him!

Family and Friends

2011-07-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

(this picture goes at the end of this post... but I'm not technology savy...)

June has been a fun month for us! We've had family and friends visiting pretty much evey week all month long! First, my brother Phillip and his family came to Myrtle Beach for business. They were able to squeeze in some time with us while they were here, and we had a blast! We took the kids to Ripley's Aquarium, and then to the park at Broadway at the Beach, followed by swimming at their hotel's pool. Unfortunately I have no pictures of the pool. My only keepsake from that trip is a reciept for Maddy's new flip flops... Hers went missing during our swim. Who would take old worn out flip flops? Who knows.

Ben's ready to see some fish!

Sarah trying to decide if she wanted to touch it or not...

Trying to squeeze in the shark bubble!
This was a shark tank with a bubble for the kids to pop up into, while the sharks circled around them. Getting a picture with all the kids looking AND waiting for the shark to come around was way to complicated though...

Oh my gosh! Look at that!!

Pretty neat to see a shark swim right over your head!

Then to see this one just chillin' right on top of the tunnel we were under...

Maddy attempting to show off the tank of tropical fish

Love that smile Maddy...

The kids LOVED this slide... Sarah even escaped a time or two while we were looking at other things. She wanted to stay there...

Sarah found Dori! But where's Nemo?

Ben was so good!

Checking out the sting rays with cousin Addison

The girls trying to pet the sting rays...

The kids had a great time at the aquarium. We played at the park for a little while, but not too long, it was SOOOO hot! You can see how red Sarah's cheeks are in this picture.

For some reason, (maybe I was sweating to death) I only have this picture of Sarah from the park. She was so scared to go across this bridge. But then once she stepped onto it, she loved it!

The same weekend, Uncle Stephen and Aunt Naomi came down. Of course, where there is a Stephen and Naomi... There's GRACE!!!

Sarah "holding" baby Gace (as Sarah calls her)
It was fun to see them over Father's Day weekend. I'm realizing that I need to take more pictures! How lame that I don't have anymore of us together!

We also had a fun adventure at Costco... My tire pressure gage had come on in the van. We have nitrogen in our tires, so I had to drive to Costco to have them fill up the tire, and while I was there I was going to run a few errands. Well.... I managed to leave the house without my wallet. I couldn't go back to get it (its a 30 minute drive) and as luck would have it, I had run over a nail. Costco only repairs flats on tires that were purchased from them, and once again, as luck would have it, only my back 2 tires are from Costco. The front tires are the original tires from when we bought the van, and of course, the front tire had the nail! Luck then went my way, and my three years of being a Costco employee paid off. They fixed my tire anyway, and I promised to return with my wallet and replace the front tires (they are due anyways...) The problem was that it was lunch time, and I was stuck there until they could get to fixing the tire. The free samples weren't yet in full swing... and my kids were hungry! That is when my very good friend Jen came to the rescue! She came down to Costco, and bought us lunch, and hung out with us until the van was ready. What a good friend!

and then Maddy and Ben were hamming it up, but for some reason that picture is at the beginning of this post!

Never a dull moment in this family...

Quality time with an old friend

2011-07-02T08:11:00.000-07:00

My Best Friends little sister knew that Erin and I hadn't seen eachother in a couple of years, so she planned to have here wedding near to where we live. Well, I'm sure that wasn't her reason for having her destination wedding here at this beach, but hey! I got to see Erin and her kids, plus all of Erin's family! We played at the beach together, and then Maddy and I got to attend Mary's wedding. Of course the pictures are out of order, but what else would you expect coming from my blog? :) Erin's cousins burying Maddy
Tada!! I was a big fan of Maddy being stuck in a hole. I only had to keep track of 2 kids at the beach, since I knew Maddy wasn't going anywhere! haha

Mommy and Maddy at Mary's reception

Dancing with Erin's daughter Natalie

Maddy and her princess dancing (she thinks Mary is a princess)

Dancing with Mommy (she didn't hesitate to let me know that it wasn't as fun as dancing with the Bride!)

From left to right: Natalie, Evan (Erin's kids) Sarah, Maddy & Ben

And now the rest of the beach pictures!

Ben's very first trip to the beach... He LOVED it.

I must say, my three kids were pretty easy on me... considering I brought all three of them to the beach without Joseph!

Ben LOVED crawling around in the sand. AND into the waves... even if they rolled right over him!

I love that Erin took these pictures! Most of the time I am the one taking the pictures, so I'm never in any of them! Now my kids will know that I was apart of their childhood!

Maddy and Natalie jumping waves

Ben and Mommy...

Everytime a wave rolled in, Ben would clap! He was so cute! It was a great beach trip. I'm not sure that Sarah had any memories of the beach because it's been so long since we have been! So all the kids were loving every minute of it!

We had a great time with Erin, and the wedding was beautiful! It was so nice to see her family again. I hope that it isn't two years before we see eachother again!

Now for some pics of the kids doing what they do...

Storytime with Daddy! AND yes, Sarah is wearing a skirt on her head like a lamp shade...

Bathtime! Ben loves to chew on his toothbrush! The kids love playing together in the tub... it's almost as fun as the swimming pool...

One night after putting the kids to bed, Maddy kept screaming about how Sarah wouldn't leave her alone. When I went in to see what was going on I found Sarah in Maddy's bed. Maddy posed for the picture, and then demanded that Sarah get into her own bed!

These kids are a trip!

Busy Busy!!

2011-06-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

I have come to the realization that my blog pretty much consists of pictures of my kids. But lets face it, nobody reads this blog to see what opinions I might have, or my views of anything... They want to see the kids!! So here we go!!

We had a very busy May. Normally we go nowhere, and just do whatever it is we do... which would be to spend some time with my parents and siblings, and Joseph's parents, plus my grandparents... and Joseph's Aunt and Uncle... Gee, maybe that's why we never go anywhere! We have a lot of people we get to go see right here at the beach!! Well, in May we had the opportunity to go to Columbia to visit Uncle Stephen and Aunt Naomi (and cousin Grace of course!) and see Uncle Ryan too! It was a very interesting trip with the power having gone out for a couple hours... at night... But with a couple of flashlights we had fun anyway! We also got to play in the backyard with squirt guns and a little pool in between thunderstorms! The girls really enjoyed chasing Uncle Stephen around with the squirt guns, but the pool was a bit on the cold side...

They really enjoyed having the hose sprayed over them as if it were raining

Filling up the squirt guns

I'm not sure that Ben was too impressed with the pool...

Yeah... he was a bit cold!!

Since Aunt Naomi is the BEST photographer ever... she took some pictures of the kids.

My sweet little Maddy

We took the opportunity to have a picture taken of all 4 Jennings grandkids together. Isn't it funny how they all have red hair? Yeah, there's no denying that they are related!!

from left to right: Sarah, Maddy, Grace, Ben

We had a great time up there, but it was VERY short. We really need to go up there more often.

The next weekend we got to drive up to Virginia to see my oldest brother Andrew and his family. Abbie (Andrew's oldest daughter) was baptized, and the entire family (minus Elder Passey) was able to attend. We all stayed with Andrew too! Well, except Phillip and his family. It was crowded, but a lot of fun. All eleven of the Passey grandchildren were together, and we were able to get a picture!

From left to right: Molly, Abbie, Jake, Sophie, Ben, Addison, Noah, Cooper, Maddy, Porter and Sarah

The whole family... including a cardboard cut out of Elder Passey! Dare I try to name them all? Lets see, from left to right: (Back Row) Andrew, Molly is in his arms, Cardboard Kevin, Scott, Shawna, Ben, Joseph, Dad, Mom, Stefani, Phillip, Cooper, Stephanie (she's holding Porter) and Billy. (Middle Row) Ryan, Robbie, Allie, Erynn, Sarah. Now the front row: Sophie, Noah, Jake, Sarah, Maddy, Abbie, Addison and Joshua.

Whew. That is A LOT of people! And to think that only 4 of the 11 are married and have children!!

Joseph and I got to go up a day before everyone else and go sight seeing. Andrew took us to the White House of the Confederacy, as well as the Confederate museum and the Capitol building. It was so interesting! We need to go up and see some more!

This is a picture of me and Joseph... Not that you can really see us! We are in front of a statue of George Washington.

When we got back from Virginia we celebrated my birthday, and then of course my dad's birthday is just 3 days after mine! We had a cookout with the family at my grandparents house. It was a birthday party/Memorial Day celebration. I made my dad a cake, but we didn't have the right # candles to put on it. So my sister and I just decided to put ALL the # candles on it! haha

Happy Birthday old man!!

I think he got a kick out of it!!

After the cook out we went swimming at my parents neighborhood pool! The kids loved it.

Now, here are some random pics from the last month or so. Ben crawled off to the kitchen and spilled Maddy's water. He was having a great time playing in it before I noticed what he had done!!

My two handsome men!

And last but not least, my three kiddos were having a blast playing in the closet today. They are too cute for their own good. I love these kids!

Home at last

2011-05-19T09:22:00.000-07:00

Well, my computer is being crazy, so these five pictures are out of order. After you see them, you'll be able to tell where this post was supposed to start :)

Kitchen
Master bedroom

Dining room

I finally found the charger for my camera... So here are the long awaited pictures of our finished house!

The girls love the table and rocking chairs in our backyard

Here are some pictures of the interior... I would have taken them when the house was empty, but with the charger being lost until yesterday, we'll just have to live with these! Just don't laugh at my attempts to decorate, or at my old furniture. It was either new furniture, or a house... I went for the house!

Family Room/ Great Room

Opposite wall, with plant shelf above the hallway

You can get a better feel for the room in this picture...

Front of the house...

Kitchen with office nook. We have our old desk in there.. It is at the top of the list for replacement! We just haven't found one we like. I can't wait until we do find one so my window isn't blocked! Oh well for now..

More kitchen, you can see the girls table stashed by the door that goes out from the nook. I make them eat in there so they don't get food on our carpet.

Check out our DISHWASHER! We are LOVING it. We don't argue about who has to load or unload... I think we are both excited to do it. Wonder how long that will last?

I still can't believe I've lived without one with three kids...

Ben's Room

ALL boy, well, all CUBS. It is SO nice to have him in his own room! I don't know how I managed to have all three in one room before...

Hall bath
I love these adult height counters... I forgot to take a picture of the master bath, but I guess I've posted pictures of that before. A bathroom's a bathroom

Maddy and Sarah's room

Maddy's side... I haven't framed the painting of the hundred acre woods yet, and it is going to go somewhere on that wall.

Sarah's side. I have the girls blessing dresses hung up. Maddy was blessed in the one on the left, and Sarah was blessed in the one on the right. Which also happens to be the one that I was blessed in. I would have had Maddy blessed in it, but it was packed in a storage unit in Albuquerque! Luckily I was able to have it by the time Sarah came along.

Shout out to Aunt Stephanie! She gave me the picture of the sister's hugging (over Sarah's bed) YEARS ago... I had to hang it in the girls room

I'm still in love with their closet doors. They swing all the way open! Plus there is a light, even though it isn't even a walk in closet! Ben's room is the same way. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!
We have most of the kids toys stored in the large linen closet in the hall. It works out really well, all the toys are out of sight, out of mind after they go to bed!

We have lived here for just over a month now, and are loving every minute of it! The girls love playing in the yard, and going on walks. (on sidewalks!!) They get so excited when they get to talk to a neighbor! (did I keep them that sheltered?) Closing on the house was drama filled, and we actually moved in 10 days before we closed. We just had some unexpected delays that were no fault of our own, nor the builder... the house was done in time. (too stressful to think about it) Since Joseph has a great relationship with our builder, they allowed us early occupancy (which I was grateful for) but we couldn't get comfortable in our new house until we knew it was "ours" I refused to hang up any pictures until we actually closed... just in case! We are pretty much moved in now, we just have a row of boxes in our garage to deal with. But hey, we have a one car garage, and our van is parked inside, so it can't be too many boxes!!

We get to go visit Andrew and his beautiful family, so hopefully I will have some cute pics to post later...

Seven Years already??

2011-05-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Joseph and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary! I can't believe it has been 7 years already, but then in some ways it seems like it should be longer... Meaning, that I can't remember life without him! We have been through a lot in the last 7 years, and I know we have much more to experience together... I look forward to many, MANY more years to come, and the adventures they will bring!

A few pictures from our wedding... just for fun.

May 15, 2004

Our first appearance as husband and wife!

Albuquerque, NM Temple
(it was so windy!)

I just love this picture...

We now have three beautiful children and we just bought our first home. I wonder what the next 7 years have in store...

"Pal"

2011-03-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest men that I have ever had the blessing to know, returned to live with our Father in Heaven today. My Grandpa Passey, also known as "Pal". While I am completely heart broken, I am incredibly grateful for the time that I've had with him. He was able to meet all of my children. I actually started this blog for him, so he could stay up to date on what we were doing. Just a week and a half ago we were on the phone with eachother while he was looking at the new pictures I posted...

This is my favorite picture of the two of us. It was taken back in 2003. I believe he was leaving to go back home to Utah, when I asked him to tell me the story of "Rindecella". He used to tell it to me when I was little. It is Cinderella with mixed up letters... The moral of "Rindecella" was something about "If you want to Lall in fove with a Pransome Hince, don't forget to Slop your Dripper" So upon my request, he just put his arms around me and started into the story... I loved it just as much then as I did when I was little.

Another picture of him that I love... I'm so grateful that he was able to attend my sealing to Joseph, as well as me going through the Temple for my own endowments. What a great experience to have my parents and grandparents at the Temple with me on the most important day of my life...

"Pal" and Maddy. This was taken in May of 2007.
For some reason, I don't have pictures of Sarah and Ben with him, or any recent pictures with Maddy! I'm hoping that my mom or sister might... My kids loved when he came to visit. Mostly because that meant we were going swimming at the hotel they were staying at!

Grandpa's are very special to their granddaughters.
I loved having him come visit... I loved our phone calls... and I will miss him terribly. I will cherish every memory I have.

I love you "Pal"...

Flooring and Trim

2011-03-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

My in-laws drove by our house today to see the cabinets. They let us know that the vinyl had been put down in the kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms. Naturally we had to go see it too, so we drove out there to discover that not only was the vinyl in, they had put all the interior doors in, as well as the trim!

living room

Hall Bath

The closet doors in the girls room! I thought they were going to be sliding doors, so I was very excited to see that they weren't!

Kitchen

Vinyl Floor

Laundry Room

interior doors and trim

Master Bath

The next step is to caulk and paint. . .

Cabinets!

2011-03-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

I knew the cabinets were being installed on friday, so I loaded up the kids and headed out to the house to check it out. Maddy and Sarah were excited to see the cabinets in their bathroom. Right away they were picking which drawer they each wanted.

Joseph was busy helping to put on the hardware

One side of the kitchen... The large opening is for the refrigerator, and further down is where the range and microwave will go.

Same side from a different view

The best cabinet installer ever -RON- busy doing his thing!

This is my most favorite side of the kitchen. Why? Because the space between these cabinets is for a DISHWASHER. I can't wait for the luxury of a dishwasher! We are missing a wall cabinet as you can see. It wasn't shipped for some reason, so it will go in next week. So there will be a large wall cabinet on the other side of the window.

Master Bath- Yay for two sinks!! Sunday mornings are going to go a LOT smoother when Joseph and I aren't trying to share one sink and one mirror!

Putting on more hardware...

The interior doors are stacked in the garage, so they will be going in soon!

Birthday Girl!

2011-03-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

Our little Sarah turned 2 on wednesday! I can't believe she is already 2...

Recently, she has become very attached to Dora the Explorer, so we had a Dora themed party for her. We invited family over for cake and ice cream.
Before the festivities, we went to storytime and brought cup cakes to share with all of Sarah's little friends. She loved it! Of course, when they sang her Happy Birthday, she glared at them.. ( no surprise there! )

After story time we headed over to Mama and Papa's house. Mama had a neat present for Sarah, a little computer that teaches shapes, colors, and... SPANISH!! Now Sarah can be even more like Dora!

I made her a Dora cake, I think it turned out alright! It looks better than it tastes. The frosting is vanilla, and then it's tinted various colors to make it look like Dora. Brown frosting should be chocolate... at least in my mind. So when I ate a piece of Dora's hair... it just tasted weird! But Sarah was so happy when she saw that she had a Dora cake. Too bad she spent most of her little party glaring at anyone who dared to say Happy Birthday...

At least she got to spend a little time with her favorite person on the planet. Aunt Erynn. She LOVES her Aunt Erynn! She couldn't stay long though, so the smiles didn't stay long either.

We are so glad that Sarah joined our family two years ago. She is such a smart and funny little girl. I look forward to this next year, and seeing her personality blossom. We love you Sarah!

Here are some random pictures from the last few weeks. All the pictures that I have posted have been of the house, so I thought I'd put a few of the kids up...

Ben is sitting up on his own, so I figured with Maddy's help he could join them in the tub. It makes my life so much easier to bathe all three of them at the same time, and they enjoy it too!

Ben LOVES being in the tub with his sisters!

Sarah climbed into the drivers seat when Uncle Ryan came to visit. We were checking up on the progress of the house. She didn't want to get out of that seat! Sorry Sarah, you still have 14 years before I'm ready for that, and even then, I probably won't be ready!

Now for the weekly update on the house.... except it is from last week! oops!

They have started to put on the siding. I'm loving the color... it's a soft yellow, and I was worried that it would be to bright, but it's perfect.

The original plan for this house has a solid door going into the breakfast nook area. Since we shortened the windows in order to put in a desk, the builder didn't think we had enough light. So he put in a french door, at no extra cost to us... YAY! I am SO happy about that door....

As for the interior, it is now taped and mudded. Next they have to sand and prime, and then the cabinets and counter tops will be installed!

family room/dining room

dining room/kitchen

kitchen/nook

nook

Master bedroom

Hopefully they will move our closing date up a week. We won't know for sure for another 7-10 days. I can't wait!

Do they ever rest?

2011-03-10T05:52:00.001-08:00

The realtor on site emailed us these pictures last night. They were taken yesterday, March 9, 2011

The drywall is up! This is the kids bathroom

View from the hallway into the kitchen

This is a view from the front door into the living and dining rom. We have a neat plant shelf that runs along one side of the room.

Master bedroom - I LOVE the tray ceiling!!

This is another view of the master bedroom, the walk in closet is on the left, and the bathroom is on the right.

Master bath going into the bedroom

Maddy and Sarah's room

Benjamin's room

Garage

Garage from laundry room doorway

Coat closet that is in between the laundry room (left) and Ben's room (on right)

Laundry room

Joseph stopped by on Monday while the crew was putting in the insulation. They recommended that he add some additional insulation before the drywall was put up, so he and Aaron Brock went and got some, and started insulating the kids bathroom that shares a wall with the dining room. He had to get back to work, so I went with him that evening to insulate between Ben's room and the laundry room and between the kitchen and the master bath. The idea is not to hear the toilets flush when eating... and in the case of Ben's room, not to hear the washing machine or dryer as much from his room. It was fun, until we ran out of daylight! We had to finish though, because the drywall was going up the next day, after the inspection. So since we were almost done, we decided that I could just pull our van up and shine the lights into the house. It was great, until 10 minutes later the battery died! I know, I know, I should have had the car running, but I never thought it would die in 10 minutes! So there we were in the dark, on a Monday evening... stranded. But then we realized that we actually knew someone in our new neighborhood who could help us! We probably interrupted their family home evening, but Russ Hall was more than willing to come and jump the van for us. THANK GOODNESS!! I think I'm really going to like having a member of our ward living so close to us. (That's just not that common here!) I'm sure that won't be the last time they come to our rescue, and hopefully we can return the favor in the future.

As far as the house goes, today they are supposed to be mudding and sanding. They may start painting tomorrow, or wait until monday. Either way, the cabinets are being delivered next Thursday and installed on Friday!! (the 18th) At the rate they're going, I think we'll be in before April 15th.