More catching up

Okay, I realized that I really haven't posted anything for a few months. I have been so bad! Just recently some people have invited me to view their blog, and I have also found out that you can do a blog search through Google so I have been snooping around and finding people's blog that I know. After seeing all these blogs and how cute they are, and how often they post I started feeling guilty and decided that I should sit down and add something. I guess right now is a good time to do it because my kids are napping.

All my kids got hit with the stomach flu and they are hopefully getting over it. Carson got sick Monday afternoon and then Keslie got it Monday night. When I sent Riley to school on Tuesday I asked if he was feeling okay and he said yes. That afternoon when I went to pick him up a teacher walked him out and told me that he didn't think that he could make it to the car. I quickly found a bag in the car, and a few seconds later he threw up. He said that he had started feeling sick earlier in the day. I don't understand why he didn't call me. I told him I would come get him if he didn't feel good. When I got home and got Garrett up from his nap I noticed that he had thrown up. So far today they are all doing good. Garrett has slept most of the day. I have also done a ton of loads of laundry - washing and re-washing clothes and sheets. You don't even want to see my kitchen floor right now because it is such a mess. I haven't had time to sweep it yet. I also haven't been feeling good, but when my kids get the stomach flu I start to feel bad (I think it is a psychological thing). I also have been trying to disinfect everything. I hope we are over the worst of it!

Anyways.... where should I start now? I guess I will start with January.

Here is a picture of the kids taken at the beginning of January.



In January Stefan and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. I can't believe that we have been married for 10 years!!! We celebrated by going to Pinetop for a few days. We hadn't been away from the kids for so long. We went to a place called the Whispering Pines Resort. They have cabins there. It was a nice place to stay.




While we were up there we went to my grandparent's place in Greer to see how much snow was there. I got brave and walked on their pond. Yes, there is water under there!




The snow was so dry that you couldn't even form a snowball, but it was great for making a snow angel. I think this is my first snow angel that I have ever made. I think I did a pretty good job for my first snow angel, even if I do say so myself.



We brought some snow home for the kids.

December

At the beginning of this month Keslie's hair was long enough to get it cut and donate it to "Locks of Love". This was her 2nd time donating it. The hair has to be at least 10 inches long. She looks so cute with her hair short (she looked cute with long hair too!).






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Keslie had her musical theatre recital this month. She did such a good job! It was fun watching her perform.




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Carson celebrated his 4th birthday. He was so excited to be four. We had 2 birthday celebrations for him, one was a couple of days before his birthday, and then one was on his birthday. I think he was a little confused about when his birthday really was.





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Garrett turned 18 months this month. He is growing up so fast and is learning a lot of new words. One thing he is fascinated with is lights. He gets excited when he sees a parking lot light. When I started putting up Christmas decorations with lights he was loving it. He couldn't leave them alone.

November

We really didn't have anything exciting happen during the month of November, but we did start a remodeling project in our home. We have a short 2 foot high wall that we decided we wanted to raise so that we could have a little more privacy in our home, and also so that we could put in some cabinets with shelves to store things. We are not done yet with the project, but here are some pictures of what we have done so far. I was hoping that Stefan would get it done before Christmas, but that didn't happen. Hopefully it will be done soon.





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This month Stefan's parents started remodeling things at their home. They used to have a dirt driveway, but finally put in a concrete driveway. I was over there the day that they were working on it and Carson was so interested in what they were doing, and he loved the tractor. The guy let him climb up in it and let him raise and lower the bucket. He was in heaven! The toy tractors will no longer be exciting for him any more. :)






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I decided to put Carson in a preschool class one day a week. He needed something to do (and is it bad to say that I needed a little break?). He seems to be enjoying it.

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We did have a good Thanksgiving with family. We spent most of the day with my family, and then spent a little time with Stefan's family. I love being able to spend time with family. We are so grateful for all that we have been blessed with.

October

In October the kids had a day off of school so we decided to go back to the Tonto Natural Bridge and actually hike down to the bottom. My brother and sister-in-law met us there. It was a nice day for a hike. The kids really enjoyed it, and they are quite the little hikers. We had to climb over a lot of rocks. Carson got really dirty!!












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This month was exciting for Keslie because she lost her 2 top teeth. She lost one on a Friday night and then lost the other tooth the next day.



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Then, of course, at the end of the month was Halloween. The kids had a good time going trick-or-treating. The next day they took most of their candy to an orthodontic office and they gave them money for their candy. The kids were excited about that, and so was I. :) We also had fun carving our pumpkins.

September

September was a slow month. Well, not really slow, but it seemed like not much happened. I had to look back at my pictures that I had taken to see what went on. I think the only pictures I took this month were of Garrett so this month's blog will probably be all about Garrett.
We found out that he needed glasses this month. A lot of people ask how we knew he needed glasses. We saw him going cross-eyed especially when he would be putting food into his mouth. We learned that he is far-sighted (can't see things close up). I didn't know what that meant before, but now I do. He inherited this from his dad. :) Stefan has had glasses since he was 3 or 4 years old. The dr. said that there is a chance that Garrett may not need glasses his whole life. That is what Stefan was told when he was younger, but he still needs to wear his. I guess we will have to see what happens.

He didn't like wearing them much at first, but now he is getting used to them and will keep them on unless we try to fix them for some reason and then he will take them off.




Garrett also discovered toilet paper this month. He had so much fun going into the bathroom and pulling it off the roll.

August

At the beginning of August Keslie and Riley started back to school. They both got good teachers. It was nice to have them back in school and doing something. The hard thing was that Carson didn't have anyone to entertain him (except for Garrett), and Carson isn't one to play on his own.




At the end of the month we went to our ward campout past Pine, AZ. It was the first time that we went camping with all the kids. We first had to find a tent that would fit all of use. Luckily my brother had one that we could borrow. We had such a fun time and it was kind of relaxing. The kids went off and played with all the other kids. There were little pools of water in a field and the kids were catching tad poles. Keslie was probably the dirtiest one out of all our kids. We camped for just one night, but it was worth it. On our way home we stopped at the Tonto Natural Bridge. I had never been there before. I thought that it was really neat. We didn't have time to hike down to the bottom though.

Catching up

Okay, I'm not doing as good as what I thought I would with blogging. It is now December and I haven't posted anything for a couple of months. I am going to start back in August and go month by month up till December. I will have to look at pictures to see what happened during those months. :)