the walker monkeys

My Sweet Logan

2011-10-02T04:37:00.000-06:00

My Logan is a goofy, loving, funny boy with a heart of gold. I remember when he was blessed 8 years ago, they said "he will bring people to the church." I will never forget those words and now I am beginning to see the signs of this.

The other night I was sitting on my bed getting ready for work and he came in, exhausted, and laid down on my bed. He got all comfy in my blanket and then said "oh, I almost forgot." and he got out of bed and knelt down and said his prayers. My heart melted.

Last night as I was getting ready for work, he was reading me a book. Then he said "after I'm done with this book I'm going to read Harry Potter then I'm going to read The Book of Mormon."

And finally, as I left last night for work, he ran out to the car, kissed me on the cheek and said "I love you with all my heart!"

I honestly couldn't be more proud of my boy. He has such a sweet spirit and a truly amazing testimony that makes my testimony grow and my heart swell. I admit I am terrible about kneeling to pray. I lie in bed and pray most of the time and for him to kneel next to my bed, without being prompted, really set an example for me. And the fact that he has The Book of Mormon on his list of books to read is amazing. I am slowly reading the Book of Mormon but maybe we should read it together. I believe what was said in his blessing is already coming true. I know that some day he will be a fantastic missionary and I pray that he will stay this sweet boy forever....no matter how big he gets. :)

First Surgery

2011-09-18T05:52:00.000-06:00

Last month we went to Boise for eye appointments for the kids and went to the zoo. At the zoo Alexis started complaining that her stomach hurt. I, of course, went to my usual"do you need to poop?" immediately. She stayed in the car while we ate after the zoo and was miserable the rest of the day. She started vomiting on the way home. She continued to throw up for the next day. I assumed that she had a virus. On the morning of day 3, she was no longer vomiting but was crying because of the pain in her stomach. I took her to our doctor and he ordered a CT scan and blood work. We went to the hospital and the CT scan confirmed appendicitis with possible rupture.

Poor Alexis! She was so scared to have surgery. She was very brave. The nurses kept telling her what a great patient she was. She didn't complain during the IV or the blood draws. While we were waiting for the doctor before the surgery, two nurse friends of mine came upstairs to give her a blessing. I'm not sure if the blessing helped her or me more. I felt so much better after it.

The anesthesiologist gave her some "happy medicine" (Versed) prior to taking her back to surgery and we were all laughing at her because she couldn't stop smiling. Even as they wheeled her around the corner into surgery she was still smiling.

Thankfully, her appendix had not ruptured. She only had to spend one night in the hospital. Her nurses and doctors were amazing and she received great care. She had hardly any pain and recovered very quickly. It's amazing how fast kids bounce back!

The surgeon gave her pictures of her appendix and pictures of it being removed. This was a big hit the first week of school when her teacher put them in the overhead projector for the whole class to see on the big screen. :)

Those three days she was sick, Ed would not leave her side. I mean literally would not leave her. I had to drag him outside to go to the bathroom. Funny how animals know that something is wrong. He is so protective of her! When she came home from the hospital he once again wouldn't leave her side. It's so nice to be loved and we are so grateful that Alexis is healthy again.

GREAT Read!

2011-08-14T04:15:00.004-06:00

I just finished reading this and I CAN'T WAIT to go see the movie. I loved, loved LOVED it!!

Mady Gave Herself a Mullet

2011-07-22T19:29:00.002-06:00

Who Knew.....

2011-07-22T19:22:00.004-06:00

....That you could have so much fun with one fake mustache??

Easter 2011

2011-07-22T19:16:00.003-06:00

Grandma and Brookie

2011-07-22T19:14:00.002-06:00

I love this picture.

Mady and Brookie get glasses

2011-07-22T19:00:00.001-06:00

Mady turns 3

2011-07-22T18:55:00.001-06:00

Brooklyn turns 5

2011-07-22T18:34:00.003-06:00

CHANGE

2011-07-20T23:08:00.004-06:00

It is often said that change is for the better. Is it? And who says this, because I'm not so sure I agree. I'm not such a big fan of change. In the seven months since I last blogged (yikes!!) LOTS has changed!!!!

All of my kids had a birthday. I hate that they're growing up so fast! :(

My parents moved out of their house that they've lived in for 43 years. The house that I grew up in. The new house is about 3 times as big and is BEAUTIFUL!!

My mom and her siblings began cleaning out my grandma's house to get it ready to sell. That's the house my mom grew up in and the only house I've ever known as "grandma's".

We moved into our new hospital. It's very pretty and much bigger and nicer, but I spent the last 12 years working in that other one.

I have to work with two new pharmacists on my night shift. One I really enjoy and the other is a pain in my butt and I don't like working with him. I really, really miss working with Tom and Shannon. Tom and I always joke that we are "work married". We have worked together since I started at Kurt's Pharmacy 13 years ago. I miss working with him. And Shannon is about to have baby #2 :)

And today I was diagnosed with Diabetes. UGH!! It shouldn't be much of a surprise. I mean when you have a family history, you're 100 lbs overweight, your activity level is at a minimum and you eat whatever you want....what's to be surprised about?? I am however, very bummed. This is a big change. A lifestyle change. I just started on oral medication and have already began watching what I eat. I hope to increase my activity and get this thing under control!! I enjoy having feeling in my extremeties, being able to see and like having full-functioning kidneys so I think I'll cut back on carbs and sugar! The doctor asked me today if I've had any additional stress since my last check in December and like a fool I said "not that I can think of'" DUH!! I guess I should refer her to this blog post. ;)

The South Hills

2011-01-21T09:00:00.006-07:00

This year, in my true procrastinator fashion, we waited till the last day to go visit the house in the South Hills with the really awesome Christmas lights. Even if it was New Years eve, it was still impressive as usual.

These people decorate EVERYTHING on their property. It is very impressive. It takes them 3 months to put it all up and 3 months to take it all down and their power bill during the 2 months the display is up is over $2000 a month. But still, they do it every year and it is still very impressive.

This year Mady was super excited to see any Christmas lights. Even if a house only had one string up, she thought it was so cool and would point and say "look at the Christmas!" So we knew we had to take her to see this house and she couldn't get over it, she LOVED it!!!

this is the shot from the top of the lane

Logan was apparently attacked by a gigantic Nutcracker.

it was FREEZING cold but Mady didn't care, she had to take in every single string of lights!

the house. Just so you know, these pictures don't even begin to do this justice.

Mady and aunt Lisa

Reagan and Lexy

Bryan and I discovered that sweatshirts were not quite enough to keep us warm.

While the house and the lights are impressive, our personal favorite part is the camel!!

I always seem to take pics of people with their eyes closed, sorry Bry!!

His name is Bull and he LOVES to eat carrots!!!

Lisa and Lexy feeding him carrots

he's a nice camel

Montana, Lexy, Rafferty and Reagan

Playing Catch-Up!!

2010-12-14T12:48:00.003-07:00

I have been a blog slacker lately!! I couldn't find my cord for my camera and I was so behind on posting pics and blogs. So there are months worth of memories comin at ya!!!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-14T12:22:00.007-07:00

This year we had Thanksgiving dinner at the stake center in Jerome.

The ice on the building was gorgeous!

Brookie and Reagie

Lisa, Montana, Reagan and Lexy

The fam.....

My baby binos

Mady and Brooklyn had so much fun playing the piano and dancing!

Daddy decided to see if the kids wanted to hang from the basketball hoop

Mady wasn't a big fan

Logan liked it a little better tho

he even did it all by himself!

Thanksgiving was nice. I'm not sure I can ever get enough of eating delicious food surrounded by my family, but we sure did miss grandma Bagley this year. It's hard to get used to having the holidays without her.

Halloween 2010

2010-12-14T12:09:00.005-07:00

Because of the way Halloween fell this year, we sort of made a weekend out of it! It was fun.

This was night one....

And night two.....there were a couple costume changes....

Sisters

2010-12-14T12:04:00.002-07:00

The act like best friends and they fight like crazy, mostly over the same toy, but at the end of the day they love each other!!

A BIG Day at Our House!

2010-12-14T11:57:00.003-07:00

The era of binkys at our house has officially ended!!!

Alexis used one for 5 years, Logan for 3 years and Brooklyn for 4 years. Mady didn't want to have ANYTHING to do with one since birth. As a mother, I didn't know how to handle a baby that wouldn't take a binky. On the other hand, it was so nice to not have to break her of it.

One day, Bryan told Brooklyn that it was time to be done with the bink and she agreed!!! For the record, we had told her that for MONTHS before, but for some reason she finally agreed with us!!!

So daddy let her cut them ALL up!! She totally loved it; thought it was awesome!!

I am proud to say that Brooklyn is binky-free and so is the Walker home for the first time in 9 years!!!!

Date Night

2010-12-14T11:38:00.003-07:00

Logan and I went on a date night one night, just the two of us.

We went to my favorite restaurant and had dinner together and enjoyed our one-on-one time.

Logan is such a sweet boy and sometimes he gets tired of getting picked on by his sisters. It was so much fun to spend some time alone with just him and make sure that he had my undivided attention.

He took the camera over and took the rest of the pictures, plus lots more, mostly of every decoration in the place!

First Day of School 2010

2010-12-14T11:35:00.003-07:00

Alexis, 4th grade

Logan, 2nd grade

Soccer Days

2010-12-13T22:35:00.006-07:00

I love soccer season. I love to watch my kids play and we were lucky enough to have beautiful weather to boot!

on the sidelines....

A Sweet Little Note

2010-11-30T02:24:00.003-07:00

I woke up one morning with this note from Logan lying on the bed next to me. He is such a sweet, thoughtful boy!!!!

In case you can't read it, it says "Mommy daddy these are for you gise (guys) the Milky Ways are for mom and the Laffy Taffys are for daddy."

I love that boy!!!

Crazy Hair Day

2010-11-29T05:31:00.002-07:00

Every year at the kids' school during Red Ribbon Week, they do a different fun day for the kids. One day was crazy sock day, another was hat day....this was crazy hair day. We decided to color their hair blue, their school color, to celebrate crazy hair day. They loved it!!

Octoberfest 2010

2010-11-29T05:10:00.005-07:00

This year for Octoberfest we met mom and dad and Lisa, Reagan and Montana downtown in Twin Falls. There was supposed to be lots of fun activities on Main Street.....so we thought. Turned out it was totally lame! I mean, really lame! It's a good thing that we can have fun together as a family regardless of how lame Octoberfest was :0)

The kids got to decorate cookies at the Cookie Basket.....

We found a werewolf costume for Logan to wear for Halloween at one of the second hand stores downtown.

The beautiful thing was, Mady was horrified of it! And since we aren't nice, the kids put it on once or twice and we all laughed hard at her reaction. I said we weren't nice......

And then we all went to one of our favorite restaurants on Main Street and had ice cream and french fries!

The planned activities for Octoberfest may have been super lame (apart from the freakshow) but we had a great time together as a family.

Its Been HOW Long?!

2010-09-06T05:43:00.003-06:00

15 years!!!! That's right, I graduated from high school 15 years ago. Oh my word, I'm old.

One of my classmates organized a 15 year reunion and even though we didn't have a big turn-out, it was a lot of fun to see some familiar faces and catch up.

We had a family picnic in the afternoon and then an adult only dinner that night.

I laughed really hard and was happy to see some people I haven't seen in, well, about 15 years!

It's crazy how fast time goes by!! Is there any way to slow it down...just a little bit?!

Wagon Days 2010

2010-09-06T04:41:00.006-06:00

Every year on Labor Day weekend, we try to go to Sun Valley to the Wagon Days parade. My dad LOVES to go to the Silver car auction so mom and the rest of us go to the parade then have a picnic and wander around Sun Valley. It is a lot of fun. This year mom, Lisa's family and my family all went, and Bryan got to go too!!! He usually has to work but we were happy he was able to come with us this year.

The Wagon Days parade is all horse-drawn. It's pretty cool. We really talked up "seeing the horsies" to Mady on the way there. We arrived a little early and when we were there, and the horsies weren't....she was not happy!!

and then the horsies arrived....

...and she was SO EXCITED!!! She couldn't clap hard enough!

(am I the only one that HATES to have their picture taken? UGH!)

After the parade, we went to the lake behind the Sun Valley Lodge and had a picnic and let the kids play.

Bryan and Montana lounging

Lexy's poor sunburn! The sun was to our right during the parade and we were all a little "redder" on our right sides than our left. And YES, I did put sunscreen on my kids first (but they still burnt).

Brookie never misses an opportunity to strike a pose.

Logan spent most of the day trying to perfect his dam.

And Mady, my child that was scared to death of sprinklers not too long ago, LOVED playing in the lake!!! She didn't even mind that it was freezing cold, she was too busy hunting for rocks at the bottom.

Reagan even had fun playing with the other kids.

Bryan took Alexis and Logan out on the paddle boat. They had a blast!

It was a really fun day. We ended up spending so long at the lake that we didn't even get to go hang out at the car auction with dad! I was a little bummed about that. It's fun to see how excited he gets looking at all of those awesome cars. There's always next year!!

Pull Up a Chair

2010-09-06T04:15:00.004-06:00

As if 6 chairs at our dinner table isn't enough, it appears we are going to be needing one more.

It looks so innocent at this point....but don't turn your head!

Because he is paying attention.....

And then if you don't look then this is what happens.

But if you really aren't paying attention...the big dummy gets right up on top of the table.
You would think that those short little legs would keep him out of things... and you would be correct....however, it's that long body that gets him into lots of trouble (and on kitchen tables)!

A Dozen Years

2010-09-06T02:38:00.005-06:00

This August, Bryan and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. Twelve years!! Bryan says it only feels like 20. We have never made a huge deal out of anniversaries, as a matter of fact we have actually forgotten it a couple of times! I wanted to do something special but I didn't really do anything about it (typical me), so my friend stepped in. My friend Suzy told me to get a babysitter and meet her at the bridge at 8pm. That was all we knew.

We arrived just as the sun was setting and there was Suzy and her husband waiting for us and a blanket and picnic basket lying on the grass. She planned a romantic, quiet picnic dinner for just the two of us!!! It was such a nice surprise!!

Our view!

Our dinner! Complete with a fresh picked bouquet of roses from Suzie's daughter.

It was so quiet and peaceful.....and quiet. It was probably our nicest anniversary to date. Thank you, Suzie for making our day so special!!

Happy Birthday

2010-09-02T13:57:00.002-06:00

....to my grandma Bagley today.

It's so weird to not have her here to celebrate with us. I hope she is celebrating big up in heaven today!

The Big Dummy

2010-08-25T23:49:00.006-06:00

Being the good friend that I am ;) I was helping my friend look for a new dog while she was here visiting. While looking, I found and fell in love with this basset hound at the animal shelter. I went and visited him and then thought about it for a couple of days. Then I went back. I know, I never should have gone back! But I'm glad I did. We brought Ed home with us. The kids fell in love with him and he loves the kids. He is particularly Alexis' best friend. He loves Alexis!!! He follows her everywhere and sleeps with her. He adores her. Alexis has done very well at taking care of him. She feeds and waters him and takes him for a walk daily.

Although he came with the name, Ed, he has earned the nickname of "Big Dummy". Look at those eyes, come on. How could you not call him that?

Aside from eating some garbage and some accidents in the house, he really has been a great dog. He has a great personality and he is awesome with the kids. I am really glad that the big dummy is part of our family!

Yeah, he doesn't believe that he should have to sleep on the floor. Why would you sleep on the floor when there are perfectly good couches and beds in the house??

My Birthday

2010-08-25T23:05:00.006-06:00

This year for my birthday, my mom took me out to lunch at one of my new favorite restaurants, Eagles, on Main Street. It was a lot of fun. She made me a "cake" out of baberuth bars (they are sort of like a rice crispy treat) and Lisa and her kids came along too.

After the delicious lunch, we watched the kids play in the fountains on Main Street.

I had a great birthday and the kids had a blast playing in the fountains!

Dierkes Lake and Shoshone Falls

2010-08-25T18:35:00.009-06:00

After the birthday party we headed over to Shoshone Falls and Dierkes Lake

~ut oh! someone upset the princess!~

~Alexis liked it~

~Brittany, my mom, Logan and Jordan~

~looks like Logan was replaced by Brookie~

~Angie and Alec, with his twin Colby peeking in the shot~

~bill and dad~

~the princess~

~Logan. He must've been telling a good story~

~And then Bill locks his keys in the car. He was too much of a man to call a locksmith. NO! don't do that! It took a little time and patience but by dang he got in!~

~Jordan didn't appreciate the company of the Canadian geese at Dierkes~

~but they didn't stay away for long~

~they all walked around the dock on the lake~

Brooklyn Turns 4!!!

2010-08-25T17:58:00.007-06:00

Grandma Bagley's funeral was on Brooklyn's birthday so we decided to celebrate her 4th birthday the following day while we were in the canyon for our photo shoot.

~the birthday girl!!~

~she wanted a Belle cake, and grandma Haney delivered!!~

~her and her buddy, Colby~

~opening presents~

~Logan was just as excited about her presents as she was~

~pinata fun!!~

~Brittany cleaned up on candy!!~

~Mady was happy with just a sucker!~

The Family Photo Shoot

2010-08-25T15:15:00.011-06:00

Mom decided that since it had been 6 years since our whole family had been together that we should have family pictures taken. We called our family friend, Tori, and she did a great job (if you need her let me know!) This is everyone except one son-in-law and 2 grandsons.

~the siblings~

~the grandchildren~

(except Mady who was being terrible that day)

~the parents~

~The Haney fam~

~awww, we love our brother~

~Lisa, Montana and Reagan~

~The Riley's~

Jordan, Angela, Brittany, Alec and Colby (Shane, not pictured)

~the Walker's~

(Rafferty not pictured)

~the Haney's~

Bill, Kim and Jake (Dylan, not pictured)

~me and 3 of my babies~

Mady chose not to participate, which was pretty much her theme for the day.

~a cool shot~

~this was before we all slid off the dock ;)~

~yes, we really are this crazy~

~cute pic!!~

~LOVE this pic of Brookie and her aunt Lisa!!~

then she took some random shots of the kids playing on the playground.

I think they turned out pretty cool!!

~Mady's little tear-stained face! I told you she was awful that day!~

Family

2010-08-25T14:52:00.005-06:00

Well the one good thing about a funeral is that it gives the family a chance to all get together, and it had been WAY too long since we had all been together. So for that, I thank grandma Bagley for planning the family reunion this year. It isn't how we would have liked it but she did do a great job of getting us all together.

There were many fun evenings spent out on mom and dad's deck just being together and laughing and having a good time. And here is some of the proof:

~I love this picture of Brittany!!~

~my sis, Lisa~

~my aunts Donna and Debbie~

~Codee and my aunt Jean~

~I'm not so sure what's up with the face, but that's my uncle Charles~

~many, many games of Skipbo and Uno were played!!

my nephews Jake, Alec and Montana~

~there's my other sister, Angela!~

The Funeral

2010-08-25T14:05:00.009-06:00

~Alexis, Mady, my nephew Colby, and me~

~the pall bearers: her grandchildren Dee, Lance, Bill and Jesse. Her Great grandsons Montana and Jordan and my husband and Annie's husband Bill. All in their white ties :0)~

~grandma picked out a beautiful light grey casket with pink roses~

~Codee and Brooklyn~

~Brittany, Angela and Jordan~

~my brother Bill~

~me and my Mady moo~

~the whole Haney fam~

~Lisa picking her flower from the arrangement~

~trying to give Mady her flower from the arrangement~

~my pretty Mady~

~my beautiful niece Brittany and her flower~

The Viewing

2010-08-24T16:24:00.007-06:00

~ The siblings~

~That is Grandma's sister Bertha (Tiny) in the flowered shirt in the back
My dad, sister in law Kim, brother Bill and sister Angela in the front~

~ Grandma's brother LaVonne and sister in law Carolyn

(and yes, that's me crying in the background)~

~my uncle Charles, and aunt Jean~

~This is the quilt my mom made for grandma for her 80th birthday.

It had a picture of all of her kids and grandchildren on it. It was part of the display at the viewing~

~here are the last of her temple ties that she made along with the thank you note from the First Presidency of the church for the ties she made and sent them.~

~more of the items grandma had made that we displayed. A rug, some quilt tops she was working on, an old, old blanket she made my mom along time ago among other things.~

~The bouquet from the grandchildren. There is one for each of her grandchildren~

~The bouquet from her children. There is one white flower for each of the girls and one pink rose for Charles. ~

My Grandma Bagley

2010-08-24T14:46:00.013-06:00

~dad, mom and grandma~

December 2009

~ The bracelet she made~

~ her and Mady~

December 2009

~ Thanksgiving 2009~

***deep breath*** This is what has caused my writers block. I know that I need to write this blog but I also know how hard it's going to be so I've put it off for this long. I suppose it's time.

My grandma Bagley left this earth on June 15th, 2010 to be reunited with my grandpa Bagley. She had not been well for a short while before she passed away. She was living at the nursing home in Twin and I was able to go visit her as often as I could. It was nice to have her that close. The area around her lungs kept filling up with fluid and it would cause her to be short of breath so they would admit her to the hospital and drain it and then she would feel better for awhile. Well, these episodes began to happen closer and closer to the next. The doctor told my mom that she probably had 3-6 months left. As hard as that news was to hear, grandma was OK with it. She knew her time was near and she knew that she would never go back to her home again, but she was OK with it. She was at peace. We knew that our time with her was limited so we enjoyed her as much as we could in what time we had left. Oh how I wish the doctor would have been right about the time frame he gave us. Grandma left us just 3 weeks later.

She started having trouble breathing and so they took her to the hospital again. They drained the fluid off of her and she looked great. Charles and his family and Donna and Duane came down and we all went to the hospital that day and visited her. I can still see the smile on her face as she laid back and watched us all visit around her. I can still see her smile as Charles held her hand and told her how much he loved her. I can still see her smile as she watched his kids wander around her hospital room. I can still see her smile as I kissed her and told her i loved her as I left her room that evening, telling her I would see her tomorrow.

The next morning her lungs began to fill again. Already. The doctor told my mom that they would just continue to drain it for as long as grandma wanted them to. Well, an hour or so later things took a turn. Grandma started to suffer. Not much, but a little. She was in pain and she hadn't had any pain up until this point. They decided to give her some medicine for the pain and anxiety and so it was this that calmed her enough to take her last breath. She passed from this earth with her daughters by her side.

Lisa and I went to clean out her nursing home room the day she passed. I thought I could tough it out, but man that was hard!!! The staff was so kind and they all told us how much they loved grandma and what an amazing lady that she was and that she would be missed. Putting all of her things in a box and knowing that we would never go back there and sit with her and put a puzzle together with her was so hard. My grandma was such a talented woman and made so many wonderful things for so many people over her time. The last things that she made were 2 beaded bracelets that she made in physical therapy at the nursing home. Lisa and I found them when we were cleaning up and we decided grandma would have wanted us to have them. To this day we both still wear them, every day. I love to look at it and remember her.

The funeral was beautiful. There were so many people there and Brett Thompson gave the most amazing talk about her. I would really like to have a copy of that! Grandma had made over 300 white temple ties. She made for the missionaries, her family, her friends and she sold some. She even sent some to the first presidency of the church and they sent her a hand written thank you note. Her temple ties are all over the world! For her funeral, all of the pall bearers wore one of her white ties. It was awesome. At one point in his talk, Brett had everyone stand who had a hand-made tie from my grandma and I was amazed at how many people stood. She loved to make them and she thought that everyone needed one. I will forever treasure that white tie that Bryan had the privilege of wearing as one of her pall bearers.

My grandma was an amazing, kind, loving, faithful woman. She has always been such an example to me, and to everyone, and her examples will forever live on in us. And for that I am so thankful. I am so happy that she has been reunited with the love of her life. They were apart for way too long. I'm so happy that she is with her parents and siblings that passed before her too. I just miss her so much. I miss her funny little smile when we teased her. I miss her telling stories to my kids. I miss putting puzzles together with her. I miss being able to call her whenever we have a get together to come along with us. I just miss her.

I am thankful for the 32 years that I had with her. I am thankful for the 86 years that He gave her here on this earth. I am thankful for everything she taught me and everything that she was. And now I am thankful to have an angel watching over me.

Yes, I'm Still Alive....

2010-08-24T14:42:00.003-06:00

WOW!!! It has been soooooo long since I've posted that I couldn't remember by blog address!!! Yeah, that's pretty bad!!! I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still alive and yes, things have still been happening in my life and I have soooo much to get caught up on!!

Goin Swimmin

2010-05-26T01:01:00.004-06:00

Blowing Bubbles

2010-05-26T00:29:00.006-06:00

Just Call Me Sandra...

2010-05-19T04:23:00.008-06:00

...see the resemblance??

My Baby Turns 2!!

2010-05-18T09:45:00.009-06:00

My Mady turned 2 last week. This was a little bitter sweet for her mommy, my baby is growing up so fast! She is such a sweet little monkey. She has a very large vocabulary and a pretty large attitude too. She has such a fun personality and we just enjoy her so much! We celebrated her and Reagan's birthday together at Idaho Pizza.

Grandma Haney made her a Minnie Mouse cake, she was so excited!!

My niece, Reagan, 14 years old.

Grandma made her a Mickey Mouse card and it was her favorite part of the whole party!!

The card!!!

Brooklyn helped open every present. She really wanted everything Mady got! Mady loved opening presents this year.

Awwww, giving Minnie kisses!!

Logan's Prayer

2010-05-12T19:42:00.005-06:00

In Primary this year, the kids get a little spiral notebook with a picture of Jesus on the front and a Happy Birthday pencil. Logan got his in church last week and I found it lying on the table. I LOVED all of the little pictures he drew and particularly this note he wrote. I wanted to steal it and keep it forever but instead I decided to just take a picture of it and share. Man, I love this kid!

It says "Thank you for the state. Thank you for mom and dads. Thank you for our live, for baptism. And I say these things in name of Jesus Christ, amen."

That's the translation, but his mis-spellings are so much more interesting!!! He has such a big heart!

My Mothers Day Gifts

2010-05-12T19:32:00.005-06:00

My kids ask me every year what I want for Mothers Day and my birthday and I just tell them to make me something. I love their homemade gifts more than anything else. This year Bryan got me this vintage Cabbage Patch Kids lunch box. I love it!!! It so reminds me of my childhood! But you know you are getting old when you have to buy things from your childhood at an antique store!!! yikes!!

All the kids made me a tissue flower in Primary on Sunday. Brooklyn made me that sweet little picture of her hands and it says "These are the hands you used to hold when I was just 3 years old".....oh, I love it!!!!

Logan made me a pencil holder. It says Happy Mothers Day on one side and has a picture of me sitting at the computer on the other side. LOL, I guess he knows me too well.

And Alexis made me this flower pot with a flower in it. She also made me a card that said "even though we fight, I still love you." Oh boy! LOL

I loved all of my gifts. It was a very nice Mothers Day. I am so blessed to have such wonderful children!!!

The Eye Appointment

2010-05-11T11:39:00.006-06:00

As I had mentioned HERE we took the kids to Boise Monday for their appointments with the Pediatric Opthamologist. It was very informative to say the least! I knew Logan had poor vision and was going to need glasses and possibly a patch to correct his eyes, and I was concerned Brooklyn may need glasses, but I was mostly concerned about Mady's eyes. As I had mentioned, her eyes do this weird drifting movement occasionally and I wasn't sure what we were going to find out about it. Well, it turns out Mady's eye movements are called nystagmus and it is a result of Ocular Albinism. That's right, I said Albinism.

OK, we've all known for at most, 7 years now, that 3 of my kids have white hair, eye brows and eye lashes. When Logan was born they had a Pediatrician check him to see if he was Albino. The doctor opened his eyes, took one look and said "no." Well, as I am learning, there are different degrees of Albanism. I just thought you either were or you were not and I assumed you had to have pink eyes to be Albino. Well, I was wrong. Apparently you can have cutaneous (skin) Albinism, Ocular (eye) Albinism and of course it can affect their hair. Of course my kids have no pigment in their hair, and apparently they have very little in their eyes too. The Opthamologist said that a normal retina will be a pink color, but in my kids, theirs are grey and you can see almost all the vessels through them. But they do have a little pigment because their eyes are blue.

There is nothing you can do to treat Albinism, but with Ocular Albinism you can only treat the symptoms. The doctor said that Mady's eyes are the worst (have the least amount of pigment, and the nystagmus) so she will continue to follow her. She is also far-sighted and has an astigmatism in both eyes. We are just going to keep an eye on her and hope that this won't have too much of an affect on her vision.

Logan's vision is bad. His left eye is weak but his right eye is much weaker so his brain uses his left eye more since it is stronger and therefor his right eye turns in a little. We are going to go pick out glasses for him today after school and the doctor wants to give him a few months to get used to the glasses then she will patch his left eye for a couple hours a day to strengthen his right eye.

Brooklyn (like the other two) is far-sighted and has an astigmatism in both eyes. She needs glasses but since she is young and seems to do well with near work, we decided to wait a year and let her grow a little before starting the glasses. Of course the doctor said that if she begins to show signs of having trouble with near work or struggles in school that we can start her on glasses sooner.

The doctor also referred us to a Geneticist for a genetic work up. She said it is a very long wait to see them but since the kids won't be in child rearing age for awhile, we have time to wait. She said that we have a 25% chance of having a child with Albinism......and we have 3 of them...in a row! I guess that means that we are extra, extra, extra special!!?!?

Mothers Day 2010

2010-05-11T11:33:00.008-06:00

This year for Mothers Day we decided to have a pot luck dinner at the nursing home with grandma Bagley. She is hanging in there but gets tired so easily, so we all went to be with her for the day. The food was delicious (of course) and the company was great. She enjoys watching the little kids run around and she really enjoyed having us all there to be with her. It was a special day.

Logan's 7th Birthday

2010-05-11T11:15:00.008-06:00

My Sweet Logan turned 7 years old last Friday. If you don't know Logan, you are truly missing out. He is such a character, so unique and special. He has a kind heart and such a funny sense of humor. He is constantly making us laugh and we are so blessed to have him in our family.

For his birthday this year we went to Maxie's and had pizza and salad for dinner with our family and Grandma, Lisa and his cousins. My mom made the cutest cupcakes for him!! (if I ever find my card reader I'll get pictures uploaded.This was before I got my new camera so I only had my cell phone to take pictures with). They were crazy little monsters with yummy ganache eyes and tongues that stuck out. They were so adorable and delicious! Logan got a Nintendo DS for his birthday this year. He has been wanting one for soooo long. I may only see the top of his head now for a long time. We have to limit his time on it or he'd play till he went blind. We had to go to Boise on Monday for doctor appointments so we took them to Pojo's as part of his birthday present and they all got to play the games. They had a blast.

A Couple Conversations With Logan

2010-05-01T13:50:00.004-06:00

Me: Logan, what do you want for your birthday?

Logan: Some of those Playmobile dudes. Like 2 or 4 of them. How much do they cost?

Me: They are all different prices, just depends on what you want.

Logan: Well, if they are like $1 each, then I want 2 of them. And if they are like 1 cent each, then I want 4. If they are like $14.99, then I only want one.

************************************************************************************
Me: Where did my old Logan go? The one that was happy and being a big helper?

Logan: He went to the market.

Me: When will he be back cuz I like him better than this whiny Logan.

Logan: At about 2:30.

Me: Let me know when he gets here.

Logan: He went to Boise...................................and he took your car.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

2010-04-07T04:53:00.003-06:00

Last week I met with Alexis and Logan's teachers. Alexis has straight A's. She is excelling in every subject. She is an excellent student. We received a letter from the school not too long ago saying they were going to test her for the Talented and Gifted program. She said she did the testing but we haven't heard any results yet. She enjoys school and she really likes her teacher. They are a really good match.

Next was Logan's conference. Logan is doing very well in school too. He is reading 57 words a minute which equates to an end of 2nd grade level (he's in 1st grade). He loves to read and has really picked it up so fast. We are so pleased! He is doing pretty well in math but needs a little improvement so we continue to work on it at home.

The teacher then asked me a question about a "sensitive matter". "Does Logan wear underwear?" she asked. Oh boy! No. The answer is no. That child just doesn't like underwear and never wears it. Apparently there have been some "incidents" on the tire swing at recess and she expressed that she didn't want Logan to get teased. Holy cow. OK...point taken...he now wears underwear everyday. :)

She also mentioned his vision and expressed concern about him seeing the board. I took him in for an eye exam and found out that Logan has amblyopia, an astigmatism in both eyes and is far-sighted. Holy cow!!! Poor kid. Turns out that because his vision is slightly better in his left eye, his brain chooses to use that eye more so his right eye kinda turns in at times. I'm surprised that considering his far-sightedness, that he reads so well! The doctor referred us to the pediatric opthamologist in Boise for follow-up.

I have also scheduled appointments with her for Brooklyn and Mady as well. When Brooklyn saw her for her tear duct surgery when she was 10 months old, the doctor said she was near-sighted and should be re-checked at age 2. OOPS! How about age 4?

As for Mady, since birth she has had this weird thing where her eyes, both of them, will sort of drift over to the side and then back again. I have noticed that it doesn't happen as much now as it did when she was a baby but they seem to do it more when she is tired. I mentioned this to the doctor and he said that sometimes it can be congenital and can often affect their vision. So, needless to say, on May 10th we are having one big family appointment with the pediatric opthamologist and we'll keep our fingers crossed for good news!

Grandma Bagley

2010-04-07T04:29:00.005-06:00

A few weeks ago my grandma Bagley got sick again. She has been so healthy lately. Mom and Debbie took her to the Emergency Room one evening and they admitted her. For some reason her heart was in A-fib and her heart rate was way too high. She had a fever and they suspected possibly pneumonia and a kidney infection. They put her on IV antibiotics but still for days her heart rate remained in the 13o's. Way too high. After about 3 days of antibiotics her heart rate slowed down to a normal rate. She began to feel better and had talked the doctor into letting her go to my mom's house rather than the nursing home for a few days of rehab until she was ready to go back home. I stopped in to her room the morning she was to be discharged as I was leaving work. She was laughing and joking with me and the nurse and seemed close to her normal self. I kissed her goodbye and went to Smiths with my mom and dad. While we were shopping my aunt Jean called from the hospital and said that grandma had had a stroke while she was showering. Mom and dad rushed to the hospital but I stayed home with my kids. I was exhausted from working all night and very worried about my grandma. She was just fine! I had seen her just a couple hours before and she was fine! I sat home and cried all day.

Finally, when Bryan got home I went to the hospital. Oh my goodness, it was so hard to see her that way. She had slept most of the day but awoke just before I got there as the neurologist was examining her. According to him and the MRI, she had 3 small clots that came from her heart. He said they really hadn't done much damage but they affected her optic nerve. He was confident that she would recover quite well physically, but she may be blind in her right eye and that she would have difficulty moving her eyes.

That evening she just lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. She didn't try to talk or move and her eyes weren't lined up. Oh my gosh. I thought I had cried all I could cry but it was soooo difficult to see her like this. It just broke my heart. We would talk to her and she would either blink or sort of half smile in response but that was it.

The next day my parents and I went to the hospital to visit her. As we walked down the hall to her room, I saw her sitting in the chair next to the bed and she saw me and smiled!!! I was so excited! She had walked down the hall and was sitting and starting to talk a little, although her speech was a little slurred. Her eyes were lined up and she said she didn't see double and could move them all around. What a relief!! She had no recollection of the previous day's event but today was a huge improvement!!

Unfortunately the doctor insisted that she go to the nursing home for rehab before she returned home. Even though she hates that place, he said she would only have to stay for 2-3 weeks just until she was strong enough to go home.

She has been at the nursing home for a week now. She works very hard in physical therapy because she wants to make sure she gets to leave that place! Every day she seems a little more like herself. It is so nice to see her making a recovery from all of this. I was so worried about her. My grandma has lived 86 wonderful years and although she is anxious to be with my grandpa again, it is obvious that Heavenly Father is not ready for her to return just quite yet. I feel so blessed to have her here, and I am thankful for each day that we have to spend with her.

Spring Break 2010

2010-04-07T04:13:00.003-06:00

Pretend that the child in the picture belongs to me....or that I even know this kid. Humor me. I have once again lost the charger to my camera battery and so I haven't taken any pictures for about a month and it's killing me. Time to break down and buy another charger!! So until then, bear with me and the lack of personal photos!

This year for Spring Break, Bryan had to work :( he couldn't get any time off so we drove up to Boise on his day off. We tried to make the most of it since it was only going to be one day. We rented a nice, brand new Suburban. I know, it's only a 2 hour drive, but let me tell you it was so nice! We had lots of room, Mady LOVED the DVD player, and it was clean!!! Bryan fell in love with it but I tried to not let myself get attached because as much as I loved it, I surely didn't want to pay for one!

We promised the kids we could go to Chuck E Cheese. They had never been there before and they were very excited. I hadn't been there in ages! They all had a blast. Logan was in heaven surrounded by video games and Alexis was only playing the games that gave her tickets because she wanted to make sure that she got more tickets than Logan. Brooklyn and Mady also had a great time. Mady walked around to all the tables and stole the hot pepper shaker and when we took them from her she collapsed to the floor and pouted (it's pretty cute). The pizza is not very good but the games were fun. Logan wants to go back for his birthday next month.

After Chuck E Cheese, we went to the mall and did some shopping (my favorite part!) and then we went to Build a Bear. The kids all got new BAB animals from Santa so we let them go pick out an outfit for their bear. They had a blast. Who knew accessorizing your animal would be such a difficult decision?? After an exhausting day of shopping we ate at Red Robin and came home. Not the most exciting Spring Break, but a good time was had by all none the less!

Insomnia

2010-04-07T04:06:00.003-06:00

It's 4 am and I can't sleep. This has pretty much become my reality. I worked last night, came home and slept almost 5 (interrupted) hours....and yet I can't sleep tonight. I sorted coupons for hours....played facebook games....watched a movie....read the newspaper....read some blogs....and now here I sit, listening to the gentle sounds of my husband soundly sleeping next to me and the music from the DVD's main menu (I'm too lazy to get up and turn it off).

Working two night shifts a week has really sent my body into a weird pattern that even IT doesn't understand. I want to be awake all night long and sleep all day. Unfortunately, my children tend to disagree. It does however give me time to think and realize, I have completely neglected my family blog!!! Man how life just flies by! Perhaps I'll use this early, early morning and my inability to sleep in a positive way and update my blog!!! :0)

Words To Live By

2010-02-07T01:54:00.003-07:00

It has been a rough couple of weeks for me. There is not really any explanation for it, I just haven't been my usual,happy self. It's starting to wear on me. I hate feeling this way but I don't know how to fix it. I was happy to read my friend Sarah's blog and see this post on "words to live by." I liked it so much, I copied it. I hope you don't mind Sarah, but I need to remind myself of some of these things more often and I thought this would be a great place to look back on it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Words to live by
HANDBOOK 2010

Health:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants. 4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
5. Make time to pray.
6. Play more games
7. Read more books than you did in 2009
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:
11. Don't compare your life to others... You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don't over do.. Keep your limits.
14. Don't take yourself so seriously.. No one else does.
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Society:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come.
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

Brookie Meets Sharpie

2010-01-14T02:03:00.002-07:00

she was so proud of herself!!

Mady and Mommy

2010-01-14T02:00:00.001-07:00

I love my moo bear!!

The Dollhouse

2010-01-14T01:51:00.003-07:00

Brookie got a new dollhouse for Christmas from grandpa Don. I think she's played with it everyday since Christmas! She loves it! And apparently so do all of her new animals.

The Stake Christmas Concert

2010-01-14T01:32:00.001-07:00

Alexis got the opportunity to sing in the primary choir at the Stake Christmas program. It was an AWESOME program and the whole fam came out to support her!

I love this picture of my parents and Grandma Bagley!

These pictures of Grandma and Mady reading a book are precious!! I love it!!

Alexis is in there, I promise. Right smack in the middle.

Logan can always manage to entertain himself.

Aunt Lisa and Montana and Reagan came too!!

Bryan was happy to be there.

And Brookie.....

...oh Brookie!

This is How Logan....

2010-01-14T01:02:00.004-07:00

.....plays video games at aunt Lisa's house.

Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa's House

2010-01-14T00:48:00.005-07:00

I love these pictures of grandpa Haney showing Mady the Christmas tree ornaments!

grandma and grandpa spoiled Brookie....

...and Logan....

...and Alexis!

and Mady but she was too grumpy to open any of her gifts so we didn't get any pictures of it.

Christmas at the Walker House 2009

2010-01-13T23:38:00.005-07:00

don't be fooled, we had the hardest time getting her to open her presents. It took her all day to get through her gifts at her pace! (literally!)

go Lexy!!

the princess got all of the princess barbies....
cash...one of Bryan's favorite gifts!

Lexy and her new DS game

Lexy and her stack of gifts

Logan and his stack of gifts

Santa brought Brookie a My Little Pony and some Little Pet Shops in her stocking!

One of the only pictures of Mady smiling. She was so grumpy!

Brookie proudly standing in front of her stack of gifts.

It was an excellent, blessed Christmas. We spent the whole day with family and kept it really low key. What a great day.

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-12-28T14:34:00.003-07:00

This year for Thanksgiving we had a Thanksgiving/family reunion at the church. The whole family wasn't able to make it but we still had a good turn-out.

These are all the cousins that were there. From the youngest, 18 month old Mady, to the oldest, 15 year old Montana.
Fun times at the game/craft table!!
My nephew, Montana and cousin Brenna.

My grandma Bagley

Me, happy. (look what I'm reading!!!)
Thanksgiving; a time for family, good food, and planning your Black Friday shopping trip!!!!

Halloween 2009

2009-12-28T14:19:00.003-07:00

Wow, could this post be any later?? I lost the cord to my camera and so now that I've finally found it, you are getting to see my little monkeys all dressed up for Halloween....3 months late. At least it's before next Halloween!

Not the best picture, but Mady was the cutest little chicken!!!

Alexis was a scary vampire.

and Logan was a pirate skeleton and Brookie was a Barbie witch!

Possibly the BEST Idea Ever

2009-11-19T13:31:00.004-07:00

I found the coolest blog the other day and I've been having so much fun looking thru all of the fun ideas they have on here DesignDazzle.blogspot.com

This is my favorite tho!!! Rain gutter book shelves!! Brilliant idea!! These are so awesome! I just had to share. They have a tutorial here if you are interested. I can't wait for Bryan to get home and see his new project!!! ;)

How Does It Feel.....

2009-11-02T14:41:00.003-07:00

....to have a street named after you???? Well, pretty dang good, thank you!

my good friend, LaNell sent me this picture. I think it's awesome!! She can't even go to Colorado without having constant reminders of me!! :0)

Mady, Can I Have a Kiss?

2009-10-09T12:14:00.002-06:00

Muah!!

Mady's Eyes

2009-10-09T11:52:00.004-06:00

The other day Mady found 4 cans of soup. She played more with the soup than I have ever seen her play with an actual toy. She stacked them, unstacked them, put them in a bag, took them out, carried them, pushed them in her stroller...she played for HOURS with the soup!

Then she moved on to bigger things. She got into the cupboard in the kitchen and got out the Cascade rinse agent for the dishwasher. She squirted it all over the floor. We mopped it up and threw her in the bath, then she went off to bed. No big deal.

That was about 8pm. She woke up at 5 am the next morning just screaming. I gave her a sippee and she stopped crying for about 20 min, then it was back to the screaming! We put her in bed with us and she was inconsolable. Screaming, crawling, kicking, arching her back. It was very obvious that she was in a lot of pain. We gave her some ear drops for pain thinking that maybe she had an ear infection. Then we gave her some Tylenol. Nothing soothed her. Then it occurred to me, she hadn't opened her eyes yet. I called poison control to see if maybe she could have gotten some of the Cascade in her eye. They suggested we take her to the ER.

I took her in and the doctor confirmed that she did have an ear infection but wanted to check her eyes just in case. He put numbing drops in them and that was the first time in 3 hrs she opened her eyes. Then he put some other drops in to look at them under a blue light and sure enough, she had chemical burns on her corneas! Oh my goodness!! So sad! I felt like the worst parent ever!! Poor, poor Mady! What I couldn't figure out though, is why it had taken so long for it to hurt her?

He sent us home with an antibiotic for her ear and drops for her eyes. She slept most of day one and woke up crying every 30 min or so. Still never opened her eyes.

Day two she opened her eyes about a quarter of the way and could see enough to walk again. This is pretty much what she looked like all of day 2.

Today is day three and at times her eyes are open all of the way. She is in a good mood and seems almost completely back to normal. The nurse said eye injuries heal quickly so we are banking on that and keeping our fingers crossed for no permanent damage. Poor Mady! It broke our hearts! Bryan stayed home for two days and helped with her because she kept trying to walk with her eyes closed and we didn't need another trip to the ER!! She required a very close eye. He was a huge help with her. Now...off to the store to buy locks for the cabinets! I know, I should have some already but no one had really ever bothered them before. Lesson learned!

Winter....ALREADY?!

2009-10-06T01:03:00.007-06:00

This is what we woke up to the morning of October 4th.

I guess I won't be mowing the lawn today!

I thought it was too early for snow last year when it snowed on October 11th! Guess I was wrong. The snowflakes were huge and it snowed almost all day. The power was out for awhile in several areas. The snow was so heavy!! You can see that it bent my hedge almost in half (Which is probably where it should be anyway, it really needs trimmed!) It collapsed the canopy over the deck at my parent's house because it was so heavy. Bent the poles and everything.

The kids had fun with it though. They started to build a snowman...he never quite got finished. They got too cold and wet.

But the best part about snow in October, is that the next day it's almost completely melted. All but the big ball that was to be the bottom of the snowman.

And to Mady and Logan, on day two, this big snowball became a big snow cone!!

Brooklyn Starts Preschool

2009-09-23T01:04:00.004-06:00

.....for real this time!

We finally finished jumping through all the hoops to get all the testing and what not done, so Brookie began preschool Monday morning.

She qualified for the preschool program through the school district because of her speech and language. She scored very high in her developmental areas but she not so well in the speech areas.

She was excited to go to school Monday morning. Her daddy packed her a lunch just like he did for everyone else so she didn't feel left out (even tho she doesn't eat lunch at school). She thought it was awesome and she ate it as soon as she got in the car after school.

She went right in and hung her backpack and jacket up and then kissed me and said "Bye bye, mommy."

I'm glad that she likes it. It has made it so much easier. She is really a mommy's girl so I was concerned about how she'd deal with leaving her mommy, but she did great.

Next week she'll start riding the bus like the other kids and I'm sure she's going to love that!!!

Our New Dog

2009-09-14T08:26:00.003-06:00

I was over at my aunt Jean's house the other day and I had never seen her dog, Sonny, before. They had him for about a year (yeah, I know, I need to visit more often) and when I saw him I fell in love. I don't know why, but I was instantly in love. Jokingly, I asked her if she wanted to trade Sonny for our dog Jackson. She looked at her husband and said, "Sure."

We worked out all the details and we traded dogs! Kinda funny but it has been a perfect fit for both of us! Sonny has such a great disposition. He is awesome with the kids, doesn't poo in the house, doesn't bark, doesn't run away, can catch a ball and loves to play. Jackson loves his new home and Jean and Rick are training him and say he is already a much better dog.

Labor Day Parade

2009-09-13T20:36:00.005-06:00

This year the kids and I made a last minute decision to join my parents and my sister in Sun Valley for Labor Day. Every year they have a Wagon Days celebration with a wagon parade (no motorized vehicles) and a car auction which my dad LOVES. While my dad was drooling over classic cars at the auction, the rest of us went to the parade. My niece Reagan marched in it but I was having some camera issues and so I didn't get a picture of her snapped in time. Sorry, Reagan!

Everyone was just a little goofy, if you couldn't tell!

While all of the "floats" in this parade are pretty cool, nothing tops the finale. This is, I think 6 wagons long, and pulled by 20 mules. It has a difficult time making the turn down the main street every year but they do it somehow. It is very impressive!

After the parade, we went to this little lake and had a picnic with grandma and then did a tiny bit of shopping (Sun Valley has a great second-hand store!) and met up with everyone at the car show. It was a great day. Everyone had a lot of fun. Especially Lisa! She got a new Range Rover at the auction!!

*disclaimer* My lovely 3rd child got ahold of my camera and broke the lens cover. Thus the pretty black smear in all of the pictures. I was so upset! The last 3 cameras we've had have all been put to rest because the lens broke! Bryan came to my rescue and bent this part back enough that it stays out of the picture and I can still use the camera...therefore I don't have to give Brooklyn away like I had initially threatened. Yay for daddy!

Brooklyn's First Day of School?

2009-09-13T20:23:00.003-06:00

I took Brooklyn in to do an evaluation with a speech therapist to see if she would qualify for the preschool program through the public school system. The therapist said she would figure it all up and then call me with the results. A few days later the secretary at the preschool called me and set up the bus route and told me school started at 8:45 Tuesday morning.

I was so sad to have my little Brookie leave to go to school!! She is such a mommy's girl I wasn't sure how she would handle it, especially having to get on the bus and leave her mommy behind! The bus never showed so I took her to school. The room was filled with little kids and they were playing with toys. She happily hung her backpack up in her cubby, with her name on it, and began playing. Then the director came in and said "Oh I can't have Brooklyn here yet! I still need to do my assessment and set up an IEP." Ummm....huh? Apparently there was a communication problem within the preschool. I then had to take my daughter, who was now happy to be leaving her mommy, away from all the new toys and kids and go back home. Talk about traumatizing your 3 year old!! She didn't want to go but she reluctantly went along and was easily bribed with a trip to Target to forget about it all.

We have since done the assessment and the IEP will be this week so I am assuming (I probably shouldn't do that!) that she will start school next week. I think I will verify it with the director before we try to go again!! The good news is that she is very happy to be leaving her mommy behind to go to "my school". Poor mommy. :(

The New School Year

2009-09-13T20:01:00.003-06:00

This is actually the 3rd day of school because my camera was missing for the first 2 days.

Logan loves his 1st grade teacher. He is starting to read and he wrote his first sentence on his own the other day at home. It said "The bol is on the desk." He was so proud, and so was I. He loves to take his own lunch to school with him! He would eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day if it were up to him, he thinks it's great! I love the money it saves me too! ;)
Alexis' 3rd grade teacher is new to teaching this year. So far it seems to be going well. Alexis loves school and she seems to really like her teacher too.

A few days before school started the kids got new hair cuts. Alexis decided to get an A-line hair cut. The stylist was afraid to cut it because her hair had gotten so long! Alexis was very positive that is what she wanted so she put it in a ponytail and cut it all off!! She donated it to Locks of Love and Alexis was very happy to do that!! She has such a huge heart! Her new hair cut is adorable and so easy to manage, she really loves it.

New Coupon Blog

2009-09-09T15:55:00.003-06:00

OK, so I've had lots of questions about couponing and what sites to look at and what's on sale this week....SOOOOOO.....I started a new coupon blog. That way those of you who could care less, don't have to see all the coupon garbage! But for those of you who are interested, head on over and FOLLOW ME! The new blog is a work in progress but at least it's up and running. There will be lots more fun stuff to come as well!!

Thru Logan's Eyes

2009-09-02T17:28:00.003-06:00

Logan: "Mom, I like Brooklyn."

Me: "You do?"

Logan: "Yeah because look what she gave me." (shows me a stack of Pokemon cards)

Me: "That was nice of her!"

Logan: "Yeah, I think God will like her."

:0)

(I'm pretty sure he's right, I think He will like Logan too!)

Brooklyn

2009-08-07T13:45:00.006-06:00

We have had Brooklyn in speech therapy for a few months now and while she is still hard to understand at times, she has made SO MUCH progress!!

For example: She just walked up to me wearing her brothers flip-flops on the wrong feet and Alexis' tank top on, with her head in the arm hole and her arm in the head hole and no underwear on and in her sweet little voice she says " Mommy, I go with you?" I said " Where are we going, Brookie?" She answers "To Disneyland."

:0)

What Can YOU Buy for $20??

2009-07-31T14:52:00.003-06:00

Well, here's what I bought for only $20:

Albertsons

2 6pk packages of Cottonelle toilet paper
1 bag of Doritos
1 gallon whole milk
1/2 gallon chocolate milk

total out of pocket: $3.35

Target

1 package of hamburger buns
2 bottles Soft Soap hand soap
5 boxes of Pop Tarts
1 box of Fruit Snacks
5 Weight Watchers frozen meals
1 bottle of Mt. Dew
2 Cranium WOW board games
2 Cranium Hullaballoo board games

total out of pocket: $17.13

total saved between both stores: $117.20

that's a savings of 85%!!!

A Conversation With Logan

2009-07-24T15:16:00.004-06:00

I think Logan is getting tired of Alexis always picking on him.

Logan: Mom, can we take Alexis to the zoo?

Me: Why? You want her to live there?

Logan: Yes! With the Lions!

Later the same day.....

Logan: Mom can I go live at someone else's house.

Me: Where do you want to live, Logan?

Logan: Somewhere where they need a new boy.

Me: Why do you want to leave, buddy?

Logan: Cuz Alexis is ruining my life!

Me: But I will miss my little boy!

Logan: It's OK, you can just call me.

Organic Coupons!!!

2009-07-21T14:31:00.003-06:00

Go here to print lots of great organic foods coupons. Two of my favorites are the Annie's Mac and Cheese and the Organic Flax Cereal!! Those are so yummy!!!

Thanks Summer's Savings!!

All You Magazine....more coupons!!!

2009-07-21T11:52:00.003-06:00

Thanks Deal Seeking Mom for this great deal on All You magazine! She is offering a 2 year subscription to All You for just $16!!! Rumor has it that the price of this will go up in August to $19.95 a year so go to her site now and subscribe! All You is a magazine that can currently be found at Walmart for $2.24 an issue. It is packed full of coupons every month!! Another great source for some awesome coupons. Follow her instructions for how to subscribe and check out her list of coupons found in this month's and next month's issues!

Tide Coupons

2009-07-21T11:27:00.003-06:00

Thanks, Annie for this great link!!! Go get yourself some Tide coupons!!

Some of My Favorite Deals This Week

2009-07-21T09:35:00.004-06:00

Need some energy? How about FREE energy?? At Smith's, when you buy 10 Amp energy drinks in one transaction, they are $.99 each. Great deal, right? Well, you also get a FREE $10 Smith's gift card with purchase!! FREE AMP!

If you haven't printed your milk, cheese and yogurt coupons yet then do it! If you have printed them before, they reset so get right over there and print 2 more of each. When doubled at Albertsons these make milk about $.45 a gallon and cheap cheese and yogurt!! These coupons are only available in Idaho and Utah so make sure and enter an ID or UT zip code to get them to show up.

Albertsons has their 8oz bags of shredded cheese on sale for $1 a bag. Buy 4 bags (= 2 lbs) and then double your $1 cheese coupon and it makes the cheese $.50 a bag!!! A great time to stock up on shredded cheese!!

What would you do for a Klondike bar?? Well, go get a $1/2 coupon, print it twice, then head to Albertsons. They are on sale for $4.99, and BOGO free. Double 2 $1/2 coupons and they become $1.50 a package. When you buy 4 packs in one transaction, a coupon for $4 off your next purchase will print!!! (that makes 4 packs $2!!)

Are you becoming addicted to couponing or is it just me? Well, if your coupons are becoming too hard to organize then maybe it's time to create a coupon binder (or coupon almanac as my husband so lovingly refers to it). Costco currently has a great binder with a handle for $12!! That is a great price! But, with their coupon, you can get $3 off!!! This is about half of Target's price for a similar binder. (it's on my birthday wish list!!) I've had a lot of questions about my almanac so I may do a post later with pictures if you are wondering about it.

Also, don't forget, Target announced in last weeks ad that they are now matching competitors ads for identical items!!! Take a copy of the ad with you to show your cashier, use some Target store coupons and pair them up with manufacturer coupons to make for great prices at Target. Don't forget to check the Target store coupons here and here frequently! And remember, a store coupon can be paired with a manufacturer coupon on the same item!

Remember Those Good Coupons?

2009-07-14T11:07:00.004-06:00

Use the links I gave you TODAY at Smith's you can get the large boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios for $1.50 with coupon. These are the 26 oz boxes!!!

Smith's also has a Keebler deal that ends today. When you buy 3 Keebler cookies or crackers you get $3 off instantly at the register. The Keebler Fudge Shoppe cookies are $1.99, when you buy three and use your $1 coupon these are FREE!!!!

Good Coupons!!!

2009-07-11T18:53:00.005-06:00

A great $1 Honey Nut Cheerio coupon just became available! Go here to print yours now!! Remember, you can print it twice! Use it with your Albertsons doubler and get free Cheerios!

And a great $1 off Keebler Fudge Shoppe cookies coupon here. Print it twice!

If you have a baby or little one, then go print some of these great Johnson & Johnson coupons too!!

FREE Arby's Roast Sandwich

2009-07-10T16:25:00.004-06:00

Go HERE for a FREE Arby's Sandwich with drink purchase. Just print the coupon and use it by July 13th!!! Enjoy!

thanks Deal Seeking Mom!!!

Great Cascade Coupons

2009-07-10T11:55:00.004-06:00

Go here and click on the coupons, fill out the form and in a few weeks they will mail you a booklet of coupons. I received this booklet a couple weeks ago and there are some good coupons on Cascade, Dawn, Swiffer and others in there!

FREE Chocolate!!

2009-07-10T11:31:00.003-06:00

Every Friday thru September, Mars is giving out coupons for FREE chocolate. Go here and fill out the form!! It's only for the first 250,000 people each Friday....so go NOW!!!

My Favorite Thing About Summer

2009-07-08T18:56:00.003-06:00

While it's not my favorite season, I do enjoy summer. It definitely has its perks. I love the warm weather, the long summer days, vacations with the family, and of course my second favorite summer thing....fresh garden tomatoes! Mmmmm, what's better than a fresh garden tomato?? Well, I'll tell you........

BIG BROTHER!!!!! Oh my gosh, the best reality TV show ever!! If you don't watch, or haven't ever seen this CBS reality show...tune in people!! Watch it with me, enjoy the best thing there is this summer!!!

Starts tomorrow evening on CBS at 7pm. Set your DVR. Do it!!!

Mady

2009-07-05T12:14:00.003-06:00

Some updated photos of my Mady Moo Bear....

You have to look good for the camera!!

she doesn't like to share the camera!

cute sisters!

what I call "scrunchy face" ...so cute!!

If that's not a pose, I don't know what is!!

Baseball Season

2009-07-05T11:54:00.004-06:00

My kids at their ball games. I am going to miss baseball season!

Logan at his tee ball jamboree with his medal!
waiting for his medal

my little slugger

Lexy is a power hitter! Holy cow! Some of the other parents nicknamed her "Homer" and "clean-up crew" it was cute, she was pleased.

Lexy on base

It was a fun season. Alexis did well, as usual. Logan was a blast to watch. Those kindergarten kids did more playing in the dirt and with their shadows than with the ball. It was hilarious and entertaining.

Deals

2009-07-05T11:01:00.006-06:00

Here are just some of the deals I got this week with coupons:

Smiths: Pink Lemonde reg $3.99, I paid $.25 each.

Target: Smart Rinse $2.99, regularly $4.59. Not a great deal but still good and my kids love it. Dryers ice cream $1.66 a gallon, Eggo Bake Shop muffins $.50 a box and Ponds facial towelettes $.48 each.

This was at Target. I paid $.75 each for the Ziplock containers and the snack bags were free.

This was at Albertsons (you'll have to ignore the healthy factor of this particular transaction)
this one was a little more expensive because I had to buy the Fat Boy's without any coupons so those made the price go up but the total was $21 with a savings of $33.

This was also at Albertsons. Total cost $14 with a $28 savings. This was a little more expensive because of the dish washing things. But it's worth noting that the Cascade rinse agent was free with coupon!

One of my favorites that isn't pictured was 2 gallons of milk at Albertsons for $.45!!!

Newspapers for Coupons

2009-07-02T16:23:00.003-06:00

I have talked to a lot of people recently that were interested in getting started couponing and I have been referring them here for more info so I will start posting more of my coupon stuff on here if you are interested.

I have been buying the Idaho Statesman because they have Redplum and Smart Source coupons and the 1st Sunday of the month they have the P&G coupons. The Times News only has the Smart Source coupons. If there are good coupons that I know I will use, I buy several papers, usually 3. The problem is that the Sunday Statesman costs $2 and that adds up.

I just called the Statesman and they offer a "coupon subscription" for 4 Sunday papers for $4 per week. That's only $1 per paper!!! So if you are interested, give them a call, they deliver to Twin Falls and this Sunday is the P&G insert!!!

Idaho Statesman subscription department: 208-377-6370

Brooklyn's 3rd Birthday

2009-06-26T12:53:00.005-06:00

Ok, so the pictures didn't end up in any particular order, but oh well. We celebrated Brookie's birthday at my sisters house in Jerome. The Lion's club had to run the food booth at the horse races so since we were all over there, we stayed to party!

Lots of pinata candy! Actually way too much candy for 6 kids!!

Mady really enjoyed the pinata candy!! Particularly the suckers!

I love Logan's face in this picture! She picked out a ladybug pinata for her party.

grandma Haney decorated a princess birthday cake for her.

She was so excited opening up her presents! It was so cute, she kept saying "Wow!"

Lots of princess stuff for the princess!

A "rellellella" shirt! (that's how she says Cinderella)

she loved her princess cake

the party girl!!

Fathers Day

2009-06-26T12:47:00.002-06:00

Yes, I know I'm late getting it posted, but I just wanted you to see my "super dad" from fathers day. Although he had to share his day with Brooklyn's birthday and me having to work at the horse races, Bryan had a good day.

He is the best husband and baby daddy (haahaahaa). We love him so much, he is our super dad!

Freedom Isn't Free

2009-06-18T11:02:00.003-06:00

One of my friends is currently serving our country in Kuwait and he posted this story on his facebook page. I was so moved by it I thought I would share:

True Story....

Luke AFB is west of Phoenix and is rapidly being surrounded by civilization that complains about the noise from the base and its planes, forgetting that it was there long before they were. A certain lieutenant colonel at Luke AFB deserves a big pat on the back. Apparently, an individual who lives somewhere near Luke AFB wrote the local paper complaining about a group of F-16s that disturbed his/her day at the mall. When that individual read the response from a Luke AFB officer, it must Have stung quite a bit.

The complaint: 'Question of the day for Luke Air Force Base: Whom do we thank for the morning air show? Last Wednesday, at precisely 9:11 A..M, a tight formation of four F-16 jets made a low pass over Arrowhead Mall, continuing west over Bell Road at approximately 500 feet. Imagine our good fortune! Do the Tom Cruise-wannabes feel we need this wake-up call, or were they trying to impress the cashiers at Mervyns early bird special? Any response would be appreciated.

The response: Regarding 'A wake-up call from Luke's jets' On June 15, at precisely 9:12 a.m., a perfectly timed four- ship fly by of F-16s from the 63rd Fighter Squadron at Luke Air Force Base flew over the grave of Capt. Jeremy Fresques. Capt Fresques was an Air Force officer who was previously stationed at Luke Air Force Base and was killed in Iraq on May 30, Memorial Day. At 9 a. m. on June 15, his family and friends gathered at Sunland Memorial Park in Sun City to mourn the loss of a husband, son and friend. Based on the letter writer's recount of the fly by, and because of the jet noise, I'm sure you didn't hear the 21-gun salute, the playing of taps, or my words to the widow and parents of Capt. Fresques as I gave them their son's flag on behalf of the President of the United States and all those veterans and servicemen and women who understand the sacrifices they have endured.. A four-ship fly by is a display of respect the Air Force gives to those who give their lives in defense of freedom. We are professional aviators and take our jobs seriously, and on June 15 what the letter writer witnessed was four officers lining up to pay their ultimate respects.
The letter writer asks, 'Whom do we thank for the morning air show? The 56th Fighter Wing w ill make the call for you, and forward your thanks to the widow and parents of Capt Fresques, and thank them for you, for it was in their honor that my pilots flew the most honorable formation of their lives.

Only 2 defining forces have ever offered to die for you.....Jesus Christ and the American Soldier.. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

Lt. Col. Grant L. Rosensteel, Jr. USAF

I think that sometimes while we live comfortably in our free country, we forget about what our service men and women are sacrificing to provide our freedom and safety. This is a great reminder. Next time you see a member of our military, thank them for their service!!

Deal of the Day

2009-06-17T16:24:00.005-06:00

Great! Now I've crossed over into one of those freaky coupon ladies. First it was my upgrade to the coupon binder (which I'm still a little embarrassed about) and now I'm taking pictures of my purchases. Crap. I may need an intervention soon. All freakiness aside, I had to share this awesome deal.

4 bottles of All 64 load detergent, and 2 bottles of All Small and Mighty detergent.

retail price: $63.94

my awesome price: $14.40!!!!

I usually use Tide, and one bottle of Tide is more than I spent on all of these bottles. So here's hoping I like All!!

How'd I do it? Well, All Small and Mighty was on sale for $4.50 -20% in a coupon back on a next purchase - $4 in doubled coupons. I doubled 1 $.40 coupon on the big bottle of All but it rang up at $3 a bottle!! The shelf said $12.99. I don't know why, the cashier didn't know why but we went with it and I bought all they had on the shelf! (insert pat on the back! )

Coupon Secrets Revealed!

2009-06-13T14:25:00.011-06:00

I have been having a great time couponing! It took me a little bit of time and research, but I like to think I have pretty much learned the ropes. It takes a lot of work, but in the end it is SO worth it! I have spent many late nights awake clipping and filing and reading blogs about where to find the best deals, and I have found some great ones! My favorite was one of my last transactions at Albertson's. I bought 7 Kraft Easy Mac cups. I spent $.18 and saved $8.33!!! Smith's had their premixed Koolaid containers on sale and with my coupons I ended up paying $.50 each for them! The regular price was $3.99. I also bought some Country Time Lemonade premixed containers for $.25, regular price was also $3.99.

I have had a lot of people asking me for my secrets and advice. Well, I don't really have secrets. Most of my "tricks" I have learned from what I have read from others and trial and error. But I have saved so much and decided to share some of my favorite websites with you so you can too, if you'd like.

I follow a lot of blogs and a very easy way to do this is to create a Google Reader account. It's on the google sight and it's way easy and a great way to browse thru all your favorite blogs without having to go to each one of them individually.

My two favorite blogs are krazycouponlady.blogspot.com and dealseekingmom.com. If you are just starting, go to krazycouponlady's sight and read the 10 days section. Great information on everything you need to know to get started. I also have several others I follow, if you'd like those as well, let me know.

I also like pinchingyourpennies.com if you go to the state forums, they have a list of all the great deals at local stores in your area. There is also a place on here to print off shopping lists of things that are on sale and coupons that may apply for stores like Smiths, Albertson's and Walmart.

I buy multiple newspapers each week, especially if there are good coupons in them. I have also started buying the Idaho Statesman because it has more coupons than the Times News does. If there are good coupons, paired up with a great sale, usually you can get things for free or really close to it and this makes it great for stocking up.

There are also a lot of coupons available to print on the Internet. Some of my favorite sights are:

coupons.com, smartsource.com, redplum.com, afullcup.com (this sight has Target store coupons available which can be paired with a man coupon for added savings!!) and albertsons.com also has store printable coupons. Remember when you print these off, usually you are allowed 2 of each coupon so don't forget to go back and print them again!

Ebay also has tons of coupons available to purchase. If there is a great deal that comes out to free with coupons, you can go buy some on Ebay and stock up. I did this with Kraft salad dressing. It was free with the coupon so I bought 10 coupons on Ebay for $3 and now I have my years supply of dressing for $3 plus tax!

Albertson's has been doing a lot of double coupon deals lately so see if your store is participating because this makes for awesome deals. They double man coupons up to $1 but there is usually a 3 coupon double limit per person per transaction. Please follow the rules, for the sake of those of us that do, so that you don't ruin it for everyone. They have stopped allowing people to do multiple transactions at a time so that everyone in line doesn't suffer behind you, but I still see people trying to weasel their multiple transactions in. Kmart also does doubles and sometimes triple coupons as well, so you just have to watch their ad to see when they are doing it.

If you have any questions just let me know and I'll do my best to help you out if you need it. Like I said, it takes a bit of work and if you're not ready to commit to the little bit of work to get a great deal, then this isn't for you. But if you're ready to cut your grocery bill in half and stock up on the things you are going to use for free or close to it, then jump in with both feet and get going!!! Best of luck!!

My Big Boy

2009-06-03T17:18:00.003-06:00

My big boy graduated from kindergarten on Tuesday. It's a little bitter sweet for me. He's my only boy! And while I am so proud of him and how far he has come....he's my only boy!! He did promise me that he'll always be my little boy so I guess I have to come to grips with the fact that he's going to grow up, whether I like it or not.

Accepting his certificate from his teacher, Mrs. Moore.

Atta boy, Logan!!!!

His star student award from Mrs. Moore. I am also proud to say Logan was the only person in his class to get the perfect attendance award!!

They were promised soda after graduation so as you can see he was pretty proud to have his own can of soda!

Man I'm gunna miss his teacher! She was so awesome with Logan, and her and I grew to be friends. She had a baby a few weeks ago and so she's not going to be teaching next year. I was bummed because I was hoping Brooklyn would get her for a teacher in a couple of years. She was a perfect fit for Logan. He learned a lot from her and really matured this year. I had my doubts at the beginning of the year, I even talked to the doctor about possible ADHD, but Logan proved me wrong. I think he just had some growing up to do. He really made a lot of progress this year and we are so, so proud of him!!

My Smart Girl

2009-06-01T15:57:00.006-06:00

Alexis accepting her awards from the vice-principal and principal

Holding up her awards for reading and straight A's!!! She and only 2 other kids in her class were in the Accelerated Reading program but this award was for reading for 650 minutes at home. They got the certificate and a pass to Roaring Springs!

Her teacher, Mrs. Carlson, giving her a trophy for math. Only 8 kids in her class made it to the goal of addition and subtraction to 18, and they all got trophies for it. Alexis went on even further than that and is doing division now.

She's just as proud as I am! She loves school and as you can see is such a great student. She doesn't want summer to come because she doesn't want to be away from school for that long.

Way to go Lexy June!!!!

YUMMY!!

2009-05-26T09:23:00.002-06:00

This is how Mady eats her Mac and Cheese!!

OCD

2009-05-23T14:32:00.005-06:00

Ok, so I have a new obsession. Seems there is always something new and exciting for me to obsess over....Anyhoo, this time, it is coupons!! I decided to start clipping coupons out of the newspaper a couple of months ago. But then I was introduced to a little thing I like to call "coupon club." No one talks about coupon club!! It was like this whole other world! These coupon freaks knew how to work a coupon like no other and they didn't want to share their secrets! Boy, was I intrigued!! I did my research, looked into a few blogs and websites, and in no time I was in the same boat as the other coupon freaks! Now when I walk into a store, I always have a stack of coupons in my hand ready to use.

Bryan says every sentence I say starts with "I have a coupon..." He should be excited about all the money I'm saving him, right?! I have done really well. I have learned how to work it and get lots of free or close to free things. I think we have our year supply of cereal and BBQ sauce, and salad dressing! I got the BBQ sauce and the salad dressing for free after coupon, and I didn't pay over $.88 for any of the cereal. It's become a new personal challenge of mine to see if I can beat my previous savings each trip to the grocery store. Today, I am happy to report, that I spent $18 at Albertson's and saved over $68!!! See, how can that not turn into an obsession?! At least this obsession, although it involves shopping, is centered around saving!!