Our Mini McDermott Clan

Pancakes!

2012-01-28T13:50:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, Brett was making breakfast and started some pancakes. He's much better about letting the kids help in the kitchen than I am, so they were sitting on the counter while he worked on breakfast. Somehow they decided to try making fun shaped pancakes. I think the first ones they did were initials for everyone.

They did this a couple of different times, and each time they all had a blast, Dad included. It reminded me of a blog I had found sometime in my blog stalking of a dad who did the same thing with his daughter. He just started doing shapes one day, and enjoyed it so much that it morphed into a new kind of art...pancake art. If you've never been to Jim's Pancakes, you need to check it out. It's incredible. Anyway, Jim published a book of 75 different pancake sculptures (for lack of a better word) and I decided that Brett and the kids had to have it. So for Christmas they got the book and three squeeze bottles to help in the drawing process.

They have now used the supplies two different times, and every time it has been a huge hit. This last time I finally decided to get out the camera to showcase some of their creations. What do you think?

It's a lion....RAWR!

The lion...couldn't quite get a good angle on it before Brianna attacked it. :-)

Albino Ladybugs. :-) Big kids decided after they had started they wanted ladybugs...not enough red led to this...

New Year's Eve with the Thurmans!

2012-01-12T10:50:00.000-08:00

For the last couple of years we have spent Christmas Eve Day with our good friends, the Thurmans. It started the year that we got at least a foot of snow in the days leading up to Christmas, so we invited them to go sledding. Last year, with no snow (sound familiar?) we ended up having lunch at their house and just hanging out.

This year our schedules made it impossible to continue our tradition, so we decided to hang out on New Year's Eve instead. We started off at Blast Off. Since we got there pretty early, there were very few people there and we basically had the place to ourselves, which was awesome. By the time we left it was filling up and we were so glad we did it that way! Then we went to the Thurman's house (our get-togethers are usually at their house...since it's about twice the size of ours. :-) for lunch.

We always have a good time with this awesome family, and end up staying way past what we expected. Here are a few photos I managed while we were watching the kids play at Blast Off!

Miss Brianna is the queen of slides, so she loved climbing up so she could slide down again.


Kylee was in awe of Alyssa's ability to hang upside down. :-)


Poor Spencer. He's 10, almost 11, and is thoroughly bored when we hang out since none of our kids are his age.

Kandy treated the kids to some games in the arcade.

Christmas

2012-01-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

Christmas was crazy this year, as always! We spent most of the month of December listening to Christmas music, decorating, baking, and learning more about Jesus. Our Primary gave the kids a reading schedule for the weeks leading up to Christmas of scriptures in which the birth of Christ was fortold. It was really fun to read those with the kids and try to keep more of our focus on Jesus. Kylee now prays that we will remember his birth in most of her dinner/bedtime prayers. :-)

Kylee had her school program the last day of classes, on the 16th. It was really great having her home for the whole week leading up to Christmas, and I think she was super excited about it too. She did great in the program and was singing her songs for days before and many days after the performance.


Kinda hard to see, but Kylee is wearing a yellow/white striped shirt, and she's right in the middle.

I decided that I wanted to do some Christmas "mini" sessions this year to utilize some of the ideas I've been storing. I had a couple of friends decide to do it, so I was able to do some pics of Aedan and Brianna while I had the backdrops all set up. I had good intentions of doing Kylee's when she was home from school...eventually. :-) We still haven't done hers, so we're missing the 'J' in our 'Joy'. :-) I think I'll still do it even though Christmas is over just so I can have the complete set.

I continued last year's "tradition" of not taking a single photo of Christmas day. Someday I'll probably be sorry, but in the moment it's so much easier to enjoy when I'm not juggling the camera! Either way, we had a great Christmas!

Family Photo Outtakes 2011

2011-12-05T08:17:00.000-08:00

We FINALLY got around to getting some family pics done this year...for the first time in four years. Yikes! And as usual, I did them myself, since the hubster has a photog-phobia (I know, ironic, right?) and would probably be mad for a month if I made him pose in front of a stranger. This condition is also the reason we end up in the middle of nowhere for our pics, so we don't have an audience. :-) But it's okay, because it fits our personality as a family to hit the outdoors and find somewhere new.

Now that I've started the photography blog, the finished family photos will appear there (IF they ever get finished!), but I'll post a link here. Now that it's been almost 4 months since these were taken, I've decided to post some of the funnies (unedited, something I never, EVER do!) here for a laugh, and hopefully a kick in the pants to get some on the wall!

Autumn at Our House

2011-11-30T08:05:00.000-08:00

This fall has been an interesting time at our house. With Kylee in school all day now and my schooling finished, Aedan is beside himself with boredom. Mom is just not cool enough, and Brianna is too little to be much fun. So Aedan has gotten himself into some pretty interesting situations, all in the name of fun.

Aedan decided he needed to do something about all the leaves in the backyard. He filled up the wheelbarrow and wheeled it to the truck in front. This first picture shows his original idea...loading leaves into the pickup by the handful.

Clearly, that wasn't working. So he went for the snow shovel.


While the shovel held lots more leaves, it was a long walk to the pickup with that heavy load. So he eventually put the shovel down and moved the wheelbarrow right next to the pickup so he didn't have as far to walk.

The whole event was really quite entertaining to watch. I was amazed at how quickly he would reach a conclusion and go for a solution. The next day he decided to put away the lawn mower, worried about it being rained on. I found him outside like this:

Using the car ramps to try and get the mower into the shed. :-) Usually we just tip the mower back until the wheels can reach the floor of the shed, then we lift it right in. That little step up must have looked like a mountain to Aedan, so he went for the ramps. Unfortunately, they weren't quite right for the job.

Aedan isn't the only one looking for mischief around here. Brianna fulfilled what must be mandatory for my kids...the first venture into the flour bucket. She was covered in it, as were her trusty blankets that are never far from her side. Boy was she ticked when I took them away to be washed!

Just to show the tradition, here's Brianna and Aedan, both about the same age, both covered in flour. :-)

It certainly hasn't been dull around our house! Now we're done with our fall fun and ready for some SNOW!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-29T09:41:00.000-08:00

Yep, it's me. We're still here, slugging along. :-) I was reminded by one of my BFFs from high school that I've been an absentee blogger, so I thought I'd go ahead and get a start. This one's for you, KelDawg. :-) (How long's it been since someone called you THAT?! haha!) Besides, Halloween was only a month ago, so I'm doing okay.

Halloween around here was, as usually, absolutely insane. From my annual determination to make costumes, to this year's new goal of holding a costume party with friends, it was just completely, certifiably nuts. :-)

When Heather mentioned to me that she wanted to have an honest-to-goodness costume party with some of our friends from the ward, and hinted that maybe she wanted some help getting it done (haha, lot of help I was!), I jumped on board and we made it happen. The original plan was for the party to be held in party tents outside Heather's house, but the wind made the cold simply too unbearable, so we switched last minute to the church. Kinda handy having keys in the house. ;-)

I spent way too much time on the food and decorations, and the kids' costume (which, by the way, were FAR from done at this point, one week before Halloween) so Brett and I barely managed to scrape up some semblance of a costume, just to avoid being party-poopers. We pulled out his jerseys from high school and painted our faces. We decided to go as high schoolers. :-)

The party turned out great and I think everyone had a great time. Here are just a few pictures I managed:

Brock and Heather made the BEST nerds! Made me wonder if there was something in their past... hahah!

Had to double-take when I saw Gordo in a suit...He was a high councilman! hahah!

Kylee got to wear her costume to school the day of Halloween, and they had a costume parade for us to come watch. It was kinda fun to see her with her class. Kylee was Tinkerbell, despite the fact that the wings were not done until after school. ;-)

Ky's friend Kiera was the one in the leaf costume. She's the only one I managed to get a shot of...the kids were practically running cause it was so cold!

Ky's teacher, Mrs. Tokita

After school, the kids and I piled into the car and headed to Blackfoot, something we never do on Halloween. But this year, Grandma Kathy's work decided they would have trick-or-treating in the office for all the employees' kids and grandkids, so we decided to make the trip. They set up a photo booth outside the front door, and it was cold! This is probably the best shot of the kids' costumes. Aedan was Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon. Brianna was supposed to be a scarecrow, but it didn't happen. And I don't really feel too bad about it! :-) These pics were pulled off Facebook, so they're pretty blurry.

Ky and Aedan with their cousins, Hallie, Dewey, and Hank. Aren't those the cutest monsters you've ever seen?? :-)

With Grandma and her traditional kitty-cat costume-slightly updated from the 80's version. :-)

So that's Halloween in a nutshell. A very tiny nutshell. I was sure glad when it was over, but it's always nice when the kids have a good time.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2011-10-01T06:38:00.000-07:00

Today is my dad's birthday! We've always struggled to know what to buy for Dad (and Mom for that matter) for his birthday or Christmas because if there's something he wants, he'll just go buy it! This year was no exception, so today I'm just going to throw up some random pics of the old man and say Happy birthday!

Dad has changed a lot as we've all gotten older, married and had kids. I think the grandkids have made him soft. :-) He's a favorite with most of the grandkids, three little boys in particular, and usually has one of them hanging around. With the younger grandkids, it's all cuddles and adoration. With the older kids, it's usually bunny ears in a photo. :-) But then, he usually gives as good as he gets!

Happy birthday, Dad! I love you, and I'm proud to call myself your daughter!

10 Years Ago Today...

2011-08-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's hard to believe I am writing this post. Ten years ago today, I married my best friend. Against all odds (which included parents ;) we got married VERY young. Well, I was VERY young, Brett was just a bit young. We were silly, in love, and we knew better than everyone else. Unfortunately, I've learned that we did NOT know better than everyone else. Fortunately, I now know that we WERE indeed right about this.

When I look back, I am amazed at the steps that were taken for us to reach that point. I am amazed that somehow I felt everything would be all right, even though I wasn't getting a temple marriage. I like to think that it was what I was supposed to do at the time. Somehow, two and a half years after these photos were taken, miracles started happening in my life that led to the biggest miracle of all, being sealed to my best friend forever. There are so many people who had a hand in that particular event, and I think I need to make sure I thank them, soon. Brett would say they saved him or changed his life for the better. I would say they were taking part in a series of miracles that were meant FOR me. :-)

I have to say, the more time goes on, the less I like my wedding photos. :-) I've been planning and plotting this blog post for awhile, and now that I'm actually putting the pictures here for everyone to see....yikes. Hopefully soon we'll have some new family photos to compare with our 18/19 year old selves.

I have to add a Happy Birthday to Mom McD...and thanks for sharing your day with us! We love you!


I'm so glad someone (probably Mom) thought to have this picture included. This is my great Aunt Fern, and I think this was the last formal portrait of her before she passed away. I will ALWAYS love this photo.


I really like this one too. This is Mom and her mom, Grandma Wowo. I think my Grandma Mac was on a mission at the time, so we don't have one with her.

Happy 10 years of Forever!

Happy Birthday, Kylee!

2011-08-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

After MONTHS of anticipation, Ky's birthday is finally here! She has the hardest time waiting a full two months after her brother and sister's birthdays before she finally gets her turn. To add insult to injury, she also has to celebrate the birthdays of nearly ALL of her younger cousins (and most of the older ones too!) before hers comes around. By the time August hits, we're all ready for the 10th to come and go again! :-)

I decided to jump on the bandwagon and celebrate Kylee's SIXTH birthday with photos.

In the hospital, the day she was born. We have much better photos of her, but this one is so funny, it's always been a fave. :-)


About 10 months old...Git 'R Done! :-)

2 years old with Hallie

3 years, and already a princess. :-)

4 years old, sporting her new sunglasses. :-)


5 years old, and brand new big sister (for the second time).

Kylee is so much fun for our family. She's a complete goofball and loves to entertain us all. She love when I put music in while we clean...as soon as the living room floor is clean, she's dancing. She takes it super serious, but I can't help but giggle to watch her (and one of these days I WILL manage to sneak a video!). She tries to mimic dancers she has seen on tv, especially ballet, and does it with this super serious expression on her face. There really are no words to describe it, but I love to watch her.

Kylee LOVES school and is so excited to be starting 1st grade. She loved her kindergarten teacher and can't wait to pass her in the hall so she can say "hi." But she's already starting to love her new teacher, whom she has not yet met, and she can't wait to get started. She's also super excited to be at school all day and eat lunch at school (something I'm sure will die away soon!).

Ky lost both bottom front teeth during the last school year, and now her top two front teeth are starting to be loose...she loves showing everyone her semi-wiggly teeth. She still loves to dress up in her princess clothes, which are rapidly becoming to small. She's very proud of the fact that she's taller than her cousin Jesse (he's 5 weeks older, they've always been buds) and that she's the biggest in our family. She likes to volunteer to take care of her younger brother and sister.

Kylee's favorite color changes daily. If she sees something she loves, she'll start "ooo"ing and "aaaa"ing and ask if we knew that was her favorite color. She loves to pick flowers anywhere we go, and will give them to anyone she can find. She loves anything artsy, and begs me daily to "make something". This is why we decided to buy her a mini sewing machine for her birthday, and Brett is building her a "craft" table with a bench for her room. I can't wait to see her excitement when she sees tonight!

Happy birthday, Kylee Anne!

Breakfast at the Park

2011-07-31T06:34:00.000-07:00

I found a great idea in blogland recently that I knew I had to put into action. Friday, the kids and I packed up a picnic breakfast and headed to the park first thing. What an AWESOME idea! We had the place entirely to ourselves, and it was still cool enough that I could enjoy the sunshine without melting. The kids thought I was the best mom ever for a few minutes, letting them play before they even had their breakfast. And Brianna got to spread her mess all over the park, instead of all over our dining room floor. We'll definitely be doing this again!

Independence Day

2011-07-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

I love summer holidays, even when they are so busy and hectic that you end up needing a vacation from your vacation! We had a great four-day weekend this year, since Brett took the Friday before off work. We spent most of that day and most of Saturday at Mom & Dad's house, getting the boat ready to play. We also got to go to Hallie's baptism on Saturday, which is always fun for the kids. Kylee is starting to get excited for her eighth birthday!

Saturday after the boat was finally done (THANKS DAD for all your help!) we were all smoking hot, so we decided to take it in to Jensen's Grove for a quick test drive/cool down. It was nice to get my weekend sunburn over the course of a couple days, instead of all at once. ;-)

Monday was the craziest day of all. We got up early to get some breakfast before hitting the parade here in IF. I love the parade even more as a mom than I did as a kid. I love watching the excitement in my kids' eyes over crazy floats, candy, and seeing their babysitters walking in the parade. So much fun!

After the parade was done we hurried home to change and hook up to the boat. We hauled it down the road to Blacktail (seriously, could we be any luckier to have such a great spot just up the road?) where Mom and Dad were waiting with a great spot. Amy and Jake came with their kids after having spent the night in Island Park, and Sean and Diana brought their family too.

Our kiddos are getting more and more brave on the boat, and both Kylee and Aedan spent some time in the tube with their cousins. Kylee rode with Hallie, so she even got a bit more crazy ride than last year so Hallie wouldn't be bored, and she loved it! Aedan got to ride with both Sayer and Dewey (at different times!) so he was excited to be with his cousins. And Brianna spent most of the time hanging out in the shade with Grandpa.

We had a ton of fun hanging out with family. TONS of pictures (um, do you know me?) but just a few here. If you want to see more pics with the rest of the family, go here.

After a long day in the sun and water, we came home to unload and chill for awhile before fireworks. Brianna went to sleep when we got home and didn't get up again all night, so Brett stayed home while the kids and I went to see the show. If you want to see any of the photos I got of the fireworks, go here.

Happy 1st Birthday Brianna!!

2011-06-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

Our sweet baby girl had her very first birthday last week! I can't believe it's already been a year since this little lady joined our clan...she's such a sweetheart and we love having her around! Brianna is such a mellow baby, most people have never even heard her cry! (Don't worry...we can tell you, she's good at it!) Her big brother and sister love her to distraction, and are often in trouble for manhandling her too much and not giving her any space. Their excessive attention must have been a big part of the reason Brianna didn't feel the need to move on her own for a long time. :-) She learned to scoot on our slick floors around 10 months, and her scoot has slowly progressed to a funny frog-like crawl/hop. It's absolutely hilarious to watch, but she's pretty proud of herself and can really cover a lot of distance in a short amount of time with her little frog-hop.

Just in the last two weeks before her birthday, she finally got her first tooth, on the top (so weird!). She's got about half a dozen more teeth trying to come through, so she's taken to having her tongue out all the time as she's feeling the changes in her mouth. Also in the last couple of weeks, she's started to finally stand with help and pull herself up on the furniture. Before that she didn't want anything to do with it. If we tried to stand her up on the floor, she'd lift her little legs up into a sitting position until we set her down on her bum. :-)

Brianna will eat anything we give her, which is really nice for us! She loves the attentions of her big brother and sister and is often found giving them big hugs and wide-mouthed smooches anywhere she can reach them. She loves to play "paddy-cake" and always skips ahead to the roll-it part, where she rubs her hands together back and forth for the roll it motion, and makes noises with her tongue to imitate the word "roll". She loves to wave "hi" to people, and often will wave for several minutes from her perch in the grocery cart as we pass people. She likes to blow kisses but often ends up chewing on her little hand rather than "blowing" the kiss away. :-) She has recently learned how to throw a temper tantrum, and OH MAN can she do it well! She has the highest-pitched scream I've ever heard, and she throws her whole body into it...it's actually kinda cute. When she was a little baby she used to scream out of happiness, and now she's learned to attach it to her temper.

At her nine-month check-up, she had recently been through a really long bout of being sick, and she'd had no appetite at all. Because of this she hadn't gained hardly any weight from 6 months, so the doctor put her on a high-calorie diet with her formula. Luckily it worked beautifully, because at her 1-year check-up last week she weighed in at 19 pounds 7.5 ounces, almost 4 pounds higher than at her last weigh-in.

We have discovered that Brianna LOVES being outside in any way. She loves sitting on the grass while her brother and sister play, she loves going for a walk in the stroller, and she LOVES going on hikes with us in the backpack, usually carried by her daddy. She has become a major daddy's girl, so she loves hanging with him on our hikes.

Our little sweetheart has the most beautiful, big brown eyes! Well, they're the most beautiful since her big sister was a baby. :-) I love our little brown-eyed girls!

Brianna wasn't quite sure what to think of presents this year, but it was fun to let her try. Kylee wrapped her presents again...she's getting pretty good at it. :-)

Brianna loves her cake! But she loves it so much that she doesn't mess around...she's a fairly clean eater! I'll post some of her cake-smash pics later this week.

We're so glad our little sweetheart joined our family last year! She is an absolute joy to have and we couldn't imagine our little family without her! Happy birthday Brianna Shea!

Happy Birthday Aedan!

2011-06-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

Our little man turned four last week, and he's showing how big he is every day! He tells Brett every day that he's taking care of the girls while Brett's at work. :-) After he's been in trouble with his dad, he always says, "Dad, are we buddies now?" or "We're buddies, huh Dad?" You can't help but forgive him for anything after that. :-)

He still loves Star Wars, though he doesn't get to watch it much since Mom is T-I-R-E-D of it. :-) He now enjoys watching Harry Potter (the early years before it gets too scary) though I think that came about cause he knew I'd always say yes if he wanted to watch it. He loves Spiderman, McQueen, and Spongebob. He also loves to help his dad in any way, especially if it involves tools.

Aedan has memorized all thirteen of the Articles of Faith, and will be passing off the 13th this Sunday at church. We promised him and Kylee that we'd have a pizza party at Leo's Place when they finished all 13, and they've done it! He loves to go to church and loves being a Sunbeam. He's learning a lot of the songs really well, and loves to sing them at home. He has also started singing some of our favorite songs from the Celtic Woman dvd we put in when we're cleaning. It's common to hear him start belting out "Sail away, sail away, sail away" (from Celtic Woman, but also part of the Shrek 4 soundtrak). He has also recently started singing "The Sky and the Dawn and the Sun," another of the songs from Celtic Woman, and it's awesome to hear him. Makes me smile every time.

Aedan's birthday was on a Sunday, and we decided to stick close to home to celebrate that day. He got to open presents from his sisters and his mom, and see the big project his dad's been working on for him.

Kylee wrapped the presents all by herself. :-)

The big reveal:

Brett made Aedan a real workbench, just his size. Brett has been getting really into woodworking with handtools, which requires a serious bench. Aedan loves to play in Brett's woodshop, so he built Aedan his own bench, complete with a tail vise.

Moving on, the present from his sisters...

Real Tools!

And Mom's gift...definitely the dud. Should have made him open it first. :-)

Cars!

He had his dad open the tool set and immediately got to work. The workbench includes a planing stop, which is basically a block of wood fitted into a square hole in the bench. The idea is that you can tap the block down so it is just lower than the piece of lumber you are working on, so it holds it but doesn't get in the way. Aedan just likes to whack it all the way up and all the way down. :)

The day after Aedan's birthday we had a party at the house for his friends. This is the first "friends" birthday party Aedan has had. He's so dang social and makes friends with everyone, I just couldn't help doing it for him. It was also nice to spend a couple days spoiling him and letting him be the center of attention. Kylee gets a lot of attention from dance and school programs, so this helped give him the spotlight for awhile.

We had a "How to Train Your Dragon" party, and invited the boys to come for some dragon training. They each got to decorate their own "shields", receive a Viking axe, and have shield practice.

Aedan's cousin, Sayer

My friend Kandy and Mr. Trevor...So glad they came, even though I hardly said two words to her I was so busy!

Even Spencer got into the games.

And Ben!

And Dewey, the oldest of the cousin "triplets" :-)

Drake!

Shield Practice: Me throwing bean bags at them so they could practice with the shields. Kinda funny, until they started throwing them back. :\

Opening presents was insane-o with all the helpers. :-) I'm still not sure who gave him what.

Amy brought Dewey and Sayer, and stayed to help. It's a good thing too, cause she saved my bacon!

All in all, it was a fun party. We had a family party with the McD side this last Sunday, so Aedan got lots more presents from all his aunts and cousins (and uncles ;). We didn't do a party with my family for him because the cousins were all at the friends party, but Grandma Kathy came and took him to dinner and shopping for a "project". Now he's got a wooden toolbox for his tools that he built with Dad's help.

I'm so glad we have this little man in our family! It sure is nice to have another "man" around the house, and he definitely does take care of the girls. ;-) Happy Birthday Aedan!

Kylee's Kindergarten Graduation, and Stuff

2011-06-14T06:54:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official. Kylee has graduated successfully from kindergarten and summer has officially begun! For some reason, Kylee was super excited for summer, even though she loves school and was sad to be out of Mrs. Millett's class. Weird girl. :-)

Brianna, hanging out with Grandma while we waited for the graduates.

The lady with the mike is Kylee's teacher, Mrs. Millett. We really loved her this year and were so glad there were no problems!

I had my camera all set and we were in the second row, so I took a quick photo of each of Kylee's friends as well. It was a simple little ceremony, each kid came up for a certificate and to shake their teacher's hand. Kinda funny. This is Kiera, one of Ky's friends from church.

Another neighbor and friend from church, Andrea.

Kylee's newest and "bestest" friend, Dajia. These two were super close because they were in the same class. All of Ky's friends from church were in the other class.

And there's my girl! She picked out her clothes this day...thought she'd be super special in her pettiskirt. ;-) Lucky it was clean!

Later that day while Kylee and Aedan had their quiet time, Brianna and I sat out in the sunshine to warm up from the chilly morning. She was making some seriously funny faces. This is her rolling her tongue.

A Short Story That Went Long...

2011-06-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

Almost 5 years ago, we moved from Nampa to Idaho Falls (with a brief stint in Blackfoot between) and bought a teeny-tiny little house for a really great price. The house was super small, less than 600 sq ft, with only 2 bedrooms. But, since we only had Kylee at the time, that wasn't a big deal. Plus, we were planning to enclose the carport and turn it into a master bedroom/bathroom plus a dining area and laundry area. A quick and easy project, since the foundation was already there, as well as the roof. Then, after a quick 2 years of living in the house, we would turn around and sell it to harvest the equity of our hard labor.

After we bought the house, we called the building department to look into getting a building permit for the project. This is when the floor fell out from under our grand plans: we were informed that the only way we could convert the carport was if we created a driveway from the front of the house around to the back and poured a concrete pad for parking cars in the back, since the requirement was to have at least 1 parking spot that must be 10 ft from all sides of the property. The driveway in front of the house was too close to the street, and the area to the side of the carport was too close to the side of the property. Ick.

Not only was our quick and easy addition no longer possible, but we also found out about this time that we were going to be adding Mr. Aedan to the family (quite unexpected) and our cute little house was soon to be way too small. So an addition it must be.

We went back to the drawing board and finally came up with plans for our house. Unfortunately, the cost was such that we would have to either find lending or work on it very slowly over time. We chose the latter, hoping to avoid debt and do the work as cheap as possible.

Wow. We were smart. :0) We had some crazy experiences. Some we have vowed to never repeat, and some that taught us well enough that we think we can do it again. We had TONS of help from both our families and some of our greatest friends here in the ward, such as when Dad and Jake spent a day helping Brett pour the footings, the day we roped Bishop Eborn and Dan into helping us pour the foundation walls, or the day the whole McDermott clan came to help frame the place. Wow. Don't think they knew what they were getting themselves into...and I'm pretty sure they'll never get into that again!

It was a long, hard haul, but we finally finished our addition...more or less. We moved into the bedrooms early in 2009, and have slowly been finishing odds and ends ever since, including a deck (made out of the redwood from the deck that's been on my parents' house for years...they chose to tear it down for their own addition just in time!), and siding the old part of the house to match the new (with some help from Chance and Colton).

The new siding was so nice, it covered up this nasty old white stucco that was crumbling all over.

We also replaced the chain link fence on the side of the addition with wood and a gate, added a large storage shed in the backyard that Brett scored at work for free, and added several raised garden beds.

Then in January of 2010 we managed to pull together the money to redo the kitchen...the atrocious, tiny kitchen. It turned out SO nice! The pic below doesn't show it very well, but the worst part of the old kitchen was the cabinet that came out into the already narrow entry to the kitchen. And it wasn't just the lower cabinet, but the top, so it really blocked a lot of the view between rooms.

So many blessings came when we were finishing the house, like when Brandon came to visit and saw our dismal attempts at Sheetrock and mud, then asked a friend/ward member to help us out. They saved us!

Kylee was super excited when the carpet finally went in.

My photography has been slow, but there are some times when it really seems to help us out. This spring we were blessed to have enough extra "unclaimed" income come in to be able to FINALLY buy couches. We had a nice black couch that we bought when we were first married. But when we moved back from Nampa and into Mom & Dad's basement for a few weeks, it wouldn't fit into the basement and we were out of room in storage. So we had to give it away, and Mom and Dad gave us their old couches from the basement. That is what we've been using ever since, and they were SO bad!

See? Ick.

Goodbye to the green and peach monsters!

Aaahhh...much better.

Finally, almost 5 years (instead of 2) we have come to the point where we can put the house on the market. We chose to wait until I finished school, because our house was literally bombed the entire last year of my schooling, and there is NO WAY we could have kept the place clean for showing at that point.

So, our Memorial Day weekend was filled with laundry, cleaning, scrubbing, mowing, weeding, planting, and more cleaning. Oh, and paperwork. But we did it! Too bad it's going to be FOREVER before it sells, but at least this is a step in the right direction!

**I have to say, I KNOW I took more photos of the whole process, but I'll be darned if I can find them! Anyone who knows me knows I took a zillion photos, so the computer must have eaten them. :-)

Kylee's Dance Recital

2011-05-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

Dance has ended for the year, and with it Kylee's class was part of a massive dance recital held last Saturday at the Colonial Theater. When I say massive, I mean MASSIVE. There were two acts, and the show ran from 6-9:30 pm. Kylee was part of the second act, so we had to be there shortly before 7, and stayed to the bitter end so Kylee could be part of the curtain call and "bow". It was her favorite part, so I'm glad we stuck it out.

She performed two dances: the first was her ballet/jazz dance and the second was a tap dance. They still didn't know their tap dance very well, but it was cute to watch them try! I took tons of photos, but shortly after the second dance started I decided to switch to video, so at the end of the post is a partial video of her dance. The photos aren't great, and it's a little hard to see her in some, but they're kinda cute anyway. Enjoy!

2nd Dance (Tap) - Kylee's in the back circle, facing the camera

Kylee's on the far left in the next two:

Running off the stage after the dance...how do you like their feather butts? ;-)

And the best part, the curtain call! Kylee's teacher, Miss Brittany, is in the green and yellow. She teaches Zumba at the studio and was part of a Zumba performance during intermission.Kylee is the 4th to the left of the teacher.

Now for the video...a little blurry at first, and the last 20 seconds are apparently of me walking away from the stage (oops) so you can skip that part. Short, but pretty cute!

Brianna Banana

2011-05-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

Just some random photos of my littlest lady..she's growing so fast! She is now 11 months, still has no teeth, does not walk or hardly even stand, and doesn't even really crawl - she scoots. :-) But she's got the most contagious laughter and smile around, she loves to wave, blow kisses, clap, and recently said "hi" instead of waving. She LOVES her brother and sister and can often be found being toted around by them, hanging out in one of their rooms or in the backyard with them, or trying to get into the bathroom when one of them is in there. She loves to give Aedan "kisses" and wraps her arms around his noggin (after he sticks it in her face) and gives him big, sloppy, open-mouth kisses all over his face and hair. She's such a sweetheart, we can't get enough of her!

With the recent turn in the weather, we have tried to spend more time outside. Brianna LOVES being outside! She loves going for walks in the backpack or the stroller, or just sitting on the grass and exploring her own little world. In these pics, she was happy as a clam because we finally came outside. She was not too happy about the hat, however, which belonged to Kylee once-upon-a-time. One thing I've discovered is that Brianna's got a bigger head than Kylee at this age...the hat barely fits! :-)

When I first put Brianna on the grass (when she has bare legs) it takes her a few minutes to be comfortable with the poky stuff on her legs. She always sits for a bit with one leg up in the air.

These videos are just kinda fun. You'll have to excuse my inability to properly focus or to turn them right side up and just enjoy the smiles, the laughter and other sweet sounds, and the silly frog-like scoot of our little lady!

And, one last random photo...Aedan was playing outside yesterday while Brett worked in his shop. I looked out the window (and what did I see?) to see Aedan writing his name with the sidewalk chalk. (Sometimes he gets a few letters backwards, like in this pic, but most of the time he gets it exactly right!) I am completely amazed still that he can do this...his big sister and his dad taught him how to do it, and now he writes it all over the place (along with "mom"). What a stud! ;-)

Graduation...Finally

2011-05-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

It's finally over! It took me more than a week to be able to post about graduation, because I'm still not entirely caught up to the fact that I'm done. I've spent the last week and a half kinda puttering and accomplishing very little. I'm waiting for the panicked "I only have XX weeks until I have to go back to school!" thoughts to hit, and it's not happening. I guess it will finally be real in August when I'm still at home. :-)

I'm really glad I decided to participate in the graduation commencement. I knew it would be long, irritating, boring, etc etc. But I also knew that when it was over I would be glad to have the closure. Nearly five years has passed since I had no homework, no class schedule to plan, and no babysitters/daycare to arrange. Part of me still feels like I'll be going back soon, and I think about the people who are still there and preparing for fall semester. I know this is all just rambling, but that's pretty much how my thoughts are trending about graduation...weird.

Anyway, long story short, here are some pics of the end of my career as an undergrad...yay! (They are also quite possibly the first photos of me to be published in at least a year. :) It was great to be able to celebrate with all the family who came, both to the graduation and to the BBQ later that afternoon. Everyone had fun with my camera, so there are some pretty fun shots here.

It really was fun to be graduating at the same time as my sister. It turned it into quite the party for our family. And as we are the first of our siblings to earn a bachelor's degree and all the jazz that comes with (commencement) it was kinda exciting for our parents. And after her post about it here, I guess I'll stop feeling silly to be graduating 10 years after high school at the same time as my 4-years-younger sister, and start thinking maybe it was meant to be that way. :-)

Amy and I (along with our husbands) decided to give our "stole of gratitude" to our parents, to thank them for all they did to help us reach this point. We both know that our husbands were the ones who dealt with the daily stress and financial burden of getting us through school. But our parents have also raised us in a way that taught us the value of an education, and they always made sure we knew that we could do anything we wanted.

Since I never watch the news, I was super surprised when my friend Jolene sent this link on Facebook (and so glad she did! It was kinda goofy to see myself on video!). So along with the first photos of me in over a year...I made the news! :-) I don't know how long the article/video will be available, but I wanted to include it anyway.

And, we finally figured out why they make us sit through the hooding of the doctorate candidates. Both Amy and I came away feeling like we want to continue our education. Um...dumb? Maybe, but we'll see. We're both taking a couple years off first. :-)

Thanks to everyone who supported me and listened to me whine through this crazy journey! I have had so many friends and family to give me the boost of encouragement needed just at the right time, I never would have made it without the help! Now, to find something else to talk about... :-)

This Post is NOT About Easter. Okay, So It's About Easter

2011-04-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

Hahah, sorry for the enormous post title. I love after holidays when the sidebar lists of blogs are riddled with similar or identical post titles...so I thought I'd mix it up a bit. :-)

We had a great Easter this year. The sun came out and decided to warm us up a bit, which was a very welcome treat. With church being at 9 am, we told the kids we'd have to leave the eggs hidden by the bunny outside until after church, and it nearly killed them to wait. They did, however, have some special treats on the couch when they woke up, which helped prevent any mourning over the delayed egg hunt.

Luckily, Brett didn't have PEC due to the holiday, so we had a little time to spare before heading to church (for the first time since our time changed!). This allowed us to get pics of the kids in their GORGEOUS new Easter outfits that Aunt Jen bought them. These were NOT saved for the Easter bunny, because I wanted the kids to be able to tell their auntie thanks for the spoiling. :-)

Look how ridiculously cute Brianna is in this bonnet! I couldn't help using it...I thought it made her look like a Cabbage Patch doll. :-)

Unfortunately, our little setup left Ky's dress completely hidden, and I didn't have time to try another pose. This pic below is the only one I could find of her dress...totally goofy pic, but you have to see the dress!

Finally, they got to put on play clothes and hunt for eggs...it took them all of 30 seconds to find the lot...I think next year might be time for some harder hiding.

The dress Ky is wearing in the next two pics, and the one Brianna is wearing below, as well as Aedan's Spiderman tie, are the ones ~~I made them for Easter~~ the Easter bunny left. The dresses don't quite fit perfectly, since I couldn't try them on as I sewed, but all in all they turned out pretty dang cute!

Once in awhile Brett gets a hankering to play with my camera, which is the ONLY time a photo of me will be seen. :-) I'm not entirely sure what Ky was doing in some of these. Check out Brianna's face in the last one. :-)

All in all, we had a great Easter. I hope you enjoyed your holiday too!

Family Home Evening, and More Projects!

2011-04-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

Our family home evening last night got a bit rowdy. It all started when Aedan spent his $5 on a set of Spider Man games. That led to:

The making of Tootsie Roll ropes...


'M' is for 'McDermott!'

Tootsie Roll rope tug-o-war...

Measuring of the Tootsie Roll rope...

Eating the Tootsie Roll ropes...

A couple rousing games of "Go Spidey"...

Or in Aedan's words..."Go Spicey"...

Where the kids learned to keep their cards close...

Happy kids...

And lots of debris.

All in all, we thought it was a success. The kids decided it was a party, and I think it was the best FHE we've had in awhile! So if you get the chance to play Go Spidey, jump on it!

Now for a few more projects. I've finally decided what I want to do with my living room (miracle of miracles) and have started slowly incorporating the colors. First up, a mirror that's been hanging in my hallway since we moved in...we've had it since we got married. This is it with the mirror already taped up.

This is an after shot of the mirror. I painted it in light blue, and lightly sanded the edges to darken it up a bit. This is a terrible photo of it though.

Next, another frame that is home to a picture of the Savior. I got this frame from my great-aunt Fern when I was baptized. I've put a new picture in, but kept the frame. I decided it was time to update it to match my LR.

This "Families are Forever" sign is a lot smaller than it looks, so it's almost anti-climatic in it's size. It's a dark blue/almost black color, which went well with my previous black-on-brown scheme, but I'm tired of living in the dark. I thought I'd try to keep the face of it the same and just paint the border.

These two turned out....I dunno...jury's still out. They need something, maybe a dark wash, and I think the matte around the photo needs to be painted now, but something. Any ideas??

I got three of these frosted glass bowls on clearance at WalMart for $1 several years ago. They haven't really had a home, so it was nice to find a place for one of them. The glass vase is one of several that has been kicking around for years, so again, nice to find a home.

Ta-da! A few coats of spray paint and the glass has taken on a whole new look! They are now front and center on the entertainment center, next to my spiffy new art work! The vase will hopefully soon be sporting some "cherry blossoms."

I had this frame on my plant shelf in the dining room, with a pretty photo of a barn. I think I'll make a beadboard frame for the barn and use this frame in my living room. This is a nest "specimen". Specimen art has become pretty popular, and I actually didn't like this at first, but it grew on me and I had the supplies, so it made the cut. I still need to get some fake robin's eggs to go in one of the nests.

This next piece is something I got from one of my good friends and her mom at my bridal shower...a long, long time ago! I've always loved it, but I'm tired of the colors and the phrase is very much overused now. It's been on the shelf in my coat closet for awhile (a fact made very obvious by all the dust!), and I think it needs to be rediscovered. I was originally thinking I might paint the three sections in the yellow, green and blue for my living room (and ditch the raffia!). But I don't really have any place for it to hang there, so it might become an Americana themed heart to go in my dining room. Now I just have to 1) do it, and 2) decide if I'll put any words on it. Any good ideas?

That's it for now. I have tons of stuff I'd like to finish for Easter, but we'll see if it happens. This is turning into a week from...well, it's a week. Wish me luck!

Projects

2011-04-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

I've been having a blast lately with various projects I've taken on. Most have been small projects - something I can work on when I'm not in class or doing homework. Somehow I think all these fun little things have helped keep me sane this semester...which makes them priceless. :-)

First up, I made a garland out of mini tissue paper pom-poms. They are made with the same technique I used for the big poms from Kaili's 18th birthday party. They can be a bit frustrating, but I think they're so pretty and fun that I get over the frustration pretty quick. This is hanging in our front window, and while it's not as noticeable from outside as I would like, it adds some fun color to our living room.

I've been searching for quite awhile for an idea to hang bows/clips/headbands. There are tons of ideas, but I hadn't found any I really liked yet, until now. I love the idea of this tutu bow holder. This is the first one I've made, and I gave it to my neighbor for her new baby girl.

The bows clip on to the ribbons on the skirt, and at the very bottom are velcro loops for headbands. When I make mine, I may have one entire ribbon of loops because we have so many headbands.

Not exactly a project, but still fun. My birthday was a couple weeks ago, and it was pretty low-key. Brett bought me a reflector/deflector for my photography, but he gave it to me early so I could use it right away. My friend, Jolene, brought me this absolutely AWESOME painting she did just for me. She knew how much I loved the quote, and I'd even told her that someday I was going to "commission" a painting from her with the quote. She went ahead and surprised me with one for my birthday. I love the texture and the colors of this little beauty!

My sister, Amy, made me this awesome table runner (of sorts) for my dining table. We've both been admiring this circle runner for sometime. The reason I call it a runner of sorts is that we made it in more of a square shape, rather than long and skinny, because we thought it would work better on my square table. Add a pretty little bowl and it really brightens up my dining room! Now I just need to decide what to put in the bowl. :-)

This project was a bit more involved and took a couple weeks to finish. I've loved seeing the alphabet bean bags in blogland, and decided I wanted to give them a try. I decided to do both capital and lowercase letters on one bean bag (cause that's a TON of bean bags!). I also made a set of beanbags with all of Kylee's sight words from school. All FORTY of them. Yikes. It really was a simple and fun project, if just a little redundant after awhile. :-) I used the freezer-paper stenciling method for the letters and words and I LOVE the colors! I just used scraps for the bags and it was nice to cut back ~~hardly any of~~ on my scrap box.

Aedan was so excited to have his very own alphabet letters!

I also made these fun bags that cinch at the top and have a vinyl "window" in the front to hold all the bean bags. They were super easy and I think I'll make some more this summer to help organize the kid's rooms. Aedan's bag was made out of some black fabric with bright green shamrocks (I've had it since I made blankets for him as a baby!) and lined the inside with a tan fabric with gold threads running through it. I thought the gold and the shamrocks went nicely together. :-) Kylee's bag is the one below, with pink gingham (used to be curtains) and the inside is this fun butterfly print (used to be a shawl) that is sparkly and shiny.

And, last for this post, I made myself a couple skirts! I've tried sewing clothing before and was not at all satisfied. But with the emergence of blogland, sewing has become a much easier and more enjoyable task for me. This skirt is called a circle skirt, and it's so super easy it's ridiculous. I'm finishing a couple more, and this is the first one I've actually been able to wear so far. Sorry for the dumb pic...kinda hard to aim the camera from ten feet away. :-)

I love this print...I keep thinking I should make some pillows or something out of it...it's just fun!

That's all for now. I'm working on some decor for my living room today, and lots of projects for the Easter bunny, so there will be more to come!

Grandparents in the Temple, and a Before and After

2011-03-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was such a fantastic day. Our family has been anticipating it and talking about it for quite some time, so I promise it should be done now. :-) Yesterday many of our family were able to attend the temple while our grandparents, Wowo (Louise) and Gene received their endowments and were sealed to one another. Mom was also sealed to them. What an incredibly exciting and spiritual experience! We have all been amazed to see the transformation that has come over Grandma in the last couple years, and for me at least, surprised by some of the things we never knew about Gene! It has been such a great thing for the whole family.

Needless to say, by the time the session and sealing were done, Grandma and Grandpa were beat, and all they wanted to do was get out of there. But I waited after everyone else had left and ambushed them outside the temple. Hopefully someday they will agree with me that they really needed a picture of the two of them outside the temple. The photos were quick, and you can tell they're tired, but I love them anyway.

Next, I just wanted to share some fun "Before and After" pics with you. :-)

Yum!

K, Mom, I'm about done now...

Enough with the stupid camera, Mom!

Aaaah, much better.

Haha, even covered in potatoes she's a sweetheart! :-) Happy last week of March!

Gotta Love a Good Surprise!

2011-03-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I helped my friend throw a surprise birthday party for her oldest daughter, Kaili. If you read my blog much, you'll be familiar with Kaili and her BF Justin. Kaili turned 18 last week. While she told her mom and dad that she didn't want to have a party, they decided to have us put something together while they took her and Justin to dinner.

It was SO much fun to scheme with Cindy over the party. She got some of our friends from the ward in on the action, and Kaili's sisters and I went to the church early to set up and decorate. I'm so glad we've found so many great friends in the ward and that Cindy was willing to let me help and share in such a special day. Happy birthday Kaili!


Aubrey helping me test the quick backdrop

Table decor: LOVED making these pom poms!

Everyone who showed up a bit early helped pitch in to get the decor up in time!

She's coming!


The big reveal. :-)

Kylee & Justin


No one remembered matches. :-) We made her fake it. haha


Our friends, Jolene and Blaine...don't you think he looks a little creepy here? ;-)

Our friend Val helped with the party too!

Kaili with her mama, Cindy

Brianna was napping, so her and daddy came later.

The whole fam-dam.

FINALLY! A New Car Seat Cover...

2011-03-22T10:40:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, we decided to break out one of the carseats we had sitting in the shed. It's perfectly suitable for infants up, but we generally used it when they outgrew the infant carrier seat. But with me traveling to Pocatello 4 days each week with Brianna and Aedan, it was becoming a pain in the rear to change the car seat base all the time between the car and the Tahoe. So we decided to get the bigger seat out and put it in the Tahoe.

That was all fine and well until I saw the dang seat. I have no idea what possessed me to store it looking the way it did, but it was GROSS. It had food and melted crayon all over. We used it a couple times with a blanket under her bum, but it just wasn't cutting it for me. So I decided to follow this tutorial from Make It and Love It, and refashion a new cover for the seat.

Wow. What a project. It went really well the first day that I tore into it. All the individual pieces looked perfect as I put them together. But, being an imperfectionist (yes, I made that up) when it comes to sewing, the execution of putting them all together was not great...exactly. To make matters worse, the seat cover I was using for a pattern was not much better, and the sides were not well designed...they never stayed on the seat. So by the time I got to the point of adding sides to make the whole thing stay on the seat....well, I kinda gave up. :-) It's been sitting in our dining room, a nasty carcass of a car seat, ever since.

Until today. Drumroll...Okay, don't do that. It's not that great. But it's done. And I like it about a hundred times better than the old nasty one! (I can't find the pictures I took of the old one, so I guess you'll just have to imagine it.)

Brianna's Paddy's Day Outfit

2011-03-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

I finally finished Brianna's new outfit for St. Patrick's Day today, and I just couldn't wait to share it! (In my defense, I've been busy caring for a sick baby who couldn't care what day it is, so I'm not to upset about being a day late. Besides, which a name like Brianna Shea McDermott, she deserves to have the luck of the Irish all year long!)

I started with a plain white t-shirt I found on clearance at WalMart for $1....yep, a buck! Then I added the shamrocks...they're made out of hearts cut from various green fabrics and attached to the shirt with heat 'n bond before sewing them on. Then I sewed the stems.

When I finally finished the shirt, I decided to make her some leggings/tights to go with, since green is not a common color in her wardrobe. I followed the tutorial here at Made By Rae, and it was slick! I think it took me all of 5 minutes! I added the ruffle bum as an afterthought.

It's a lot cuter before she stretches them out, I should have put the ruffles closer together. Also, the knit fabric I used seemed to be SO stretchy, but I guess not. These are a bit tight on her.

Then I rounded it all off with a new headband clip of green rosettes, using the same fabric from the shamrocks and the leggings. I think I may add a little pearl in the middle, what do you think?

I think the entire outfit may have cost me $1.50, $2 tops.

Spring!

2011-03-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

Goodness, five posts in a week...something is definitely wrong here. I think it may be my version of spring fever! Today was not exactly warm, it didn't even reach 50 degrees, but it was much warmer than it has been so the kids begged to spend the afternoon outside.

The first days of spring bring us a lot of bike riding:

Even in the rain:

And only after digging the bikes out of the shed:

Goofy smiles:

And more genuine poses:

Kylee practices her skipping:

And when it's really sunny and welcoming (making for a very happy mama),

they just might get lucky with a treat:

The baby girl is finally starting to get better, and we got lucky with a hint of her beautiful smile:

And to top off our lovely spring day, the kids wore themselves out enough to give mama some quiet time with her sewing machine. Happy Spring!

Doodles

2011-03-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

We've been noticing for some time that Kylee is really getting into art. She loves to color now and she is actually quite good at it. When my friend Jolene (a fabulous artist herself) posted a "doodle" on her blog, I knew I had to show it to Kylee. To my surprise, Aedan loved it too!

This is Jolene's finished doodle:

You can see (and buy) more of Jolene's work here.

And here is one of Kylee's:

Jolene later told me about the doodles offered by Rich Davis, another great artist. His doodles are so much fun...anything from Doodle Bugs to Doodle Flowers and Doodle Robots. We've been doodling all over the place, and every once in awhile we learn a new one.

Since it's pouring outside today, and we're home with a sick baby sister, it was time to break out a new doodle. Today we learned how to draw "Lumbardo", a new doodle bug.

Kylee's:

Aedan's:

Then Kylee decided to do a frog again, since it's been awhile,

and Aedan begged for Ekey the Robot.

Aedan's: Ekey (sorry, I didn't rotate it, so you'll have to tilt :)

I know they aren't as good as Rich's, but I'm pretty sure they're brilliant for a 3 and 5 year old! :-) Kylee drew a frog for her teachers when they were studying the letter "F" and was pretty proud of herself. Rich Davis also sells a product called Pick and Draw. Take a look if you go to his website...I think it may make it into an Easter basket this year, along with a book Jolene told me about that teaches doodles similar to these. If you're looking for some rainy-day activities, check it out!

Spring Fever

2011-03-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

Yep, we've got it. I love winter, everything about it. I like having an excuse to stay home, snuggle up, and watch a movie or read a book. And I love playing in the snow with the kids. We didn't do much of either this year, so winter got REALLY long for us.

It's amazing how the simplest things can entertain my rugrats for long periods of time. It had been awhile since we'd broke out the painting supplies, we've been so busy with doodles (I'll post about those soon too). When they came home from Grandpa's house Saturday with pockets full of rocks, I decided paint was just what we needed. :-)

Goofy, fake-smiling boy!

Yes, my house is a mess. Don't judge. :-)

Take a look at Mom and Dad's blog to see why the kids were hanging out at Grandpa's Saturday...we had a girls' shopping day! :-)

Gratitude

2011-03-11T08:17:00.000-08:00

I don't often post anything very serious or heavy on this blog. It's not in my nature. I have a journal that I keep online (at LDSJournal.com, if you're interested); this is where I put the more important thoughts and things I want to remember. Today as I was typing my journal entry, it turned into something completely different from what I had in mind. As I typed it, I knew I wanted to share it. More than anything, I'm sharing it to make my thoughts public and to hold me to it. So after you read this (if you read this) if you ever hear me complain about these things again, I want you to smack me.

Sorry for the heavy. Back to foolishness later. And on a lighter note, this is my second post today...scroll down to see my sweet find last night!

Today, my gratitude for the things I have is overwhelming. The news is full of coverage of a massive earthquake and resulting tsunami that hit in Japan yesterday. The damage is devastating. The pictures are horrific. The earthquake was offshore, but it registered at 8.9, one of the strongest quakes ever. The resulting tsunami sent 23 foot waves crashing into Japan.

Our world is in turmoil. Earthquakes are becoming a regular occurrence. War is everywhere; we are still fighting on multiple fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Egyptian people recently overturned their government. The Libyans are attempting the same. I'm not nearly as informed about these events as I should be, but I know it's insane.

How can I read and hear about these events and not be grateful? I have so much. I have a warm home to sleep in (that we complain is too small and too close to neighbors, and not in a good enough neighborhood). I have three beautiful, healthy children whom I love with all my heart (that I complain are running me ragged nearly every day). I have a devoted, supportive, and loving husband that helps me make it through every single day (who I don't tell enough how much I love him). I have an eternal marriage and a temple recommend (that I never use because I'm too scared to go). I have my membership in the Gospel and the calling that puts me in the company of wonderful men and women every day (and I complain when there's too much church). My husband has a steady job that pays us much more than so many people around us (and we complain because it's not exciting, it's frustrating, and it's too far away). I get to play with the money I make in my fledgling photography business that I enjoy passionately (and I still can't get enough money).

Don't get me wrong. I don't spend my whole day complaining. Well, at least not every day. I don't hate church and only occasionally get overwhelmed with my calling. I know I have these wonderful blessings in my life. I just don't take time to slow down and be grateful for them.

I have so much to be grateful for. Today, I am going to work on my gratitude. I am going to get off the computer, clean my house that I am so blessed to have. Play with my children who love me despite my flaws. Follow through on my commitments to offer a few minutes of my service to those men and women who choose to make less money and educate our children. And most of all, I'm going to do my best to remember how I feel right now, and keep it with me every single day.

Score!

2011-03-11T06:30:00.000-08:00

Can you say SPRING FEVER! We have it bad. Probably has something to do with the fact that we haven't had time to even do any of the fun things winter has to offer. We didn't even go sledding once this year. Yuck. Last night as we finished up dinner, Brett and I were both antsy to do something, so he suggested a trip to the library. I know...whoo. But hey, at least it was something. :-)

When we got there we saw some big signs saying there was a book sale in the basement. I've always wanted to go and have never made it, so Brianna and I headed downstairs while Brett ran herd on the big kids. When they say book sale, they MEAN book sale! There were probably almost as many books in that basement as upstairs. And the most expensive? $.50. Woot! So, needless to say, with the rugrats running around upstairs and me lugging Brianna, I didn't look long. But right inside the door was a table labeled 'free', so yeah, had to check that out. And what did I find, you might ask?

Yay! Raise your hand if you read Judy Blume as a kid! I was pretty excited. I recently re-read the first Boxcar Children book and loved it, so I thought these would be fun to add to my library. Plus, it won't be very much longer before Kylee is into chapter books, and I think she's going to be a book hog like me, so hopefully she'll enjoy some of her mom's classics.

Aedan

2011-02-03T19:17:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling lately like I leave Aedan out of my posts a lot. It's not done on purpose, but he's just at that in-between stage where he doesn't have much going on. Compared to Kylee's school programs, dance class and recitals, losing teeth, etc, and Brianna being a baby who changes literally every day, poor Aedan just doesn't have much that's fun just for him.

My handsome little man is almost 4 years old. He goes to "school" 4 days each week at the ELC on campus, and he loves his class. He growls at his teachers rather than saying hello. He is a sunbeam at church and LOVES not being in nursery! His favorite songs are Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, I Am a Child of God, and I Love to See the Temple. He loves his baby sister like crazy and loves to be crazy to make her giggle. No one can get the laughs out of her like he can. He still begs to bear his testimony every fast Sunday, so those in our ward had better prepare themselves for Sunday, cause we missed it last month. :-) He's definitely a Daddy's boy. So when Brett has to leave, he tells Aedan he needs him to take care of the girls for him. Now Aedan readily volunteers to "take care of the girls".

Aedan still doesn't have anything super exciting going for him right now. But he is one of the coolest kids I know and I'm SO glad I got the chance to have a boy amongst all my girls. Today I was looking for something to photograph for a challenge I'm participating in, and when I decided to use one of the kids I decided on Aedan...just so he'd get his second in the spotlight. :-) And I LOVE how this photo turned out, so I thought I'd share it.

Videos

2011-01-31T08:54:00.000-08:00

Just some fun videos we've taken with the new camera...the kids are always begging me to let them make a "movie"; I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to get an external hard drive very soon!

This first video is Aedan singing Popcorn Popping...and I want you to pay close attention to how he says the popcorn ball would smell. :0)

This video was posted to Facebook awhile back, but it's too cute, I couldn't resist. It's like an instant ray of sunshine or an automatic smile. Great medicine for a lousy day...

Randomness

2011-01-28T17:57:00.000-08:00

There has been absolutely nothing exciting going on for us the past few weeks. Unless you count starting school again (and driving to Pocatello 4 days/week), our car breaking down about 100 yards from the top of the hill at Targhee (not the best spot), or....well, that's about all I can come up with, but I'm exhausted. :-}

On a much more exciting note...I got a new camera! Brett convinced me to upgrade (convincing was necessary because it was way too hard to spend that much cash on what I consider a toy!) and I got it the first week of classes (of course, it couldn't have come during my break so I'd actually have time to play with it). It was a couple days before I even had the energy to play with it, but it's been a ton of fun. It's bigger, better, and it shoots video. :-) Without further ado...the final photos taken with my old camera:

Isn't she purty? :-) I still haven't had a ton of time to play, and when I do have time I don't have much energy, so there's nothing tremendous to share. But the kids love the video option, as you'll see as soon as I can get them uploaded, and I know it will only be a matter of time until I can spend more of my energy on this lovely. :-)

Now for a bit of randomness. No, most of these were not taken with my new camera, but the old. And they were mostly all in terrible lighting and with little time to spare, so since the quality was not great I decided to play around with some edits.

This is what we call Brianna's "talking on the phone" pose. Kylee named it, can you tell?

Now, while you're ignoring how hideodorous I look in this photo, I'll point out two things: Brianna's face buried in a giant cup while she's guzzling all of my water, and Kylee jumping in, never one to miss a pose. :-) Love my girls.

That's all folks! I'm working on a post of projects I made for Christmas (I know, it was a month ago already) and probably one of a winter wreath I made that was kinda fun...probably because I actually started and finished a project for once!

So Much Energy!

2010-12-30T12:51:00.000-08:00

Ah, winter. Thank you for bringing your fresh, clean loveliness to our neighborhood. We do appreciate you taking the time to cover up all the broken down vehicles and badly worn houses. It's such a nice neighborhood in the winter.

I do love winter, but I definitely do NOT love cooped up kids! After almost 2 weeks of being out of school and stuck at home (minus several fun holiday adventures), the kids were starting to climb the walls. Today, instead of rest time, I bundled them up and kicked them out the door. :-)

Except for this little beauty. She and I are having some quiet time together. :-) Happy New Year!

Christmas and Stuff

2010-12-27T12:38:00.000-08:00

Holy moly, can you believe another Christmas has come and gone? I'm not at all ready for it to be over...I really love the anticipation of Christmas. But, I am enjoying the lack of stress for a couple more weeks before classes start again. ;-)

Our weeks leading up to Christmas were crazy and exciting as ever. I finished finals and actually managed to pass all of my classes, though I have to agree with a friend on Facebook who said, "Next time I decide it's a good idea to have a baby AND go to school, somebody shoot me." Or something like that.

A couple weeks before Christmas, our Kylee lost her first tooth! She's had both bottom teeth wiggling for awhile now, and this one managed to pop out when I was flossing her teeth. Unfortunately, it was a little overzealous in its popping, and we never did see the little bugger again. :-( But I wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy, and she still stopped by Ky's pillow that night to leave $2, just in time for Kylee to take it to school for the Candy Cane Shoppe.

The last day of school for Kylee included the annual Christmas program, which includes all Kindergartners, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. I didn't know Kylee would be wearing a hat, so I put a flower in her hair that day. I guess they didn't want to mess it up, cause the dang hat was in her eyes the whole time. :-)

This is Kylee's friend, Dajia, in the green.

Another friend, Andrea.

Ky's teacher, Mrs. Millet, is the second from the left, in glasses. All the teachers sang a re-written version of Winter Wonderland, all about teaching in an Elementary School. It was pretty cute.

Poor Brianna has gotten the short end of the stick for her first Christmas. I haven't taken hardly any photos of her, or of any of our Christmas festivities this year. But I did manage to get a few the day her brother and sister put the reindeer antlers on her. :-) Brianna also had her 6-month checkup a couple days before Christmas. She weighed in at 14 lbs 14.5 ounces!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Kylee's Dance Performances

2010-12-10T10:51:00.000-08:00

We've been super busy lately (what else is new?). On top of school, work, and church callings, Kylee has had two dance performances. In November, she danced for the first time at the Festival of Trees, and it was a blast to see her up there showing her stuff! :-) She found us in the crowd and immediately started waving and (if you know her, you won't be surprised) sticking out her tongue. Yep, that's my girl. :-) The lighting was not great, so I didn't get very good pics at that one.

Kylee had another dance performance this week at the Hillcrest Performing Arts Center. When we signed her up for dance, I was really excited that she'd have so many performances. This week I wasn't so sure. But we managed to get her there almost on time, she danced her one dance, and we were out of there in an hour. :-) The photos from this performance are much better due to the stage lighting, so I wanted to share them really quick, even though I should be studying. :-)

Falling Behind...

2010-11-14T19:45:00.000-08:00

Oi! I cannot even imagine what it will be like to be done with school, but I'm pretty sure it will be quite an improvement! This semester has been pretty much kicking my butt, and we're all so ready for it to be done. The two night classes each week are making things difficult for the whole family. In fact, Brett has reached burnout too, and took the entire week of Thanksgiving off with us. Now we're just counting down until we can have our break!

Along with school, we are still busy in church. I almost got a break from the RS...for about 30 seconds, before they called me to be the 1st counselor. Guess I didn't do a good enough job, and I'm getting a second chance. :-) Brett took his PE exam at the end of October, and while we don't yet know the results, we both feel that his preparation paid off and that he most likely passed. If this is the case, it will mark the end of a ten year journey for us and we look forward to starting the next!

Brianna is growing super fast and she's to the stage that is just a blast. She's loving the bumbo even more, and will probably soon be sitting up without it. The swing is no longer acceptable to her; she does her very best to throw herself out of it (as you can see in this pic!) and the only thing that will keep her in it is if the fish mobile is turned on. She loves her big brother and sister like crazy, and giggles nonstop at their antics, especially Aedan. When we would be pulling our hair out and getting ready to holler for him to settle down, Brianna starts in with a big old belly-buster laugh.

Kylee is loving Kindergarten, and she is learning so fast! She is still in dance and we are getting ready for her first performance this week. They had a Halloween party in her class, for which she had nothing but her cheap dollar store hat, because her lame-o mom hadn't finished the costume yet. She says she forgives me. :-)

This is a terrible photo, but I was taking it through the one-way mirror that we use to watch her dance class.

She got to wear her costume to school the Friday before Halloween for a party, and then we got to watch her and her classmates sing a bunch of songs for their Halloween program.My mom came and took Aedan and Brianna to McDonald's for breakfast so I could go into Kylee's classroom and help out with the party. Then we all got to watch the program.

This is the quiet sign they are supposed to give when the teacher wants them to listen.

Can you see her? I forgot to bring in my telephoto lens and was kicking myself. She's in the back row with the mondo witch hat. :-)

After school, Kylee, Aedan, Brianna and I met Aunt Amy, Uncle Jake, Sayer and Sari for Trick or Treat Street at Snake River Landing. (Whoo! Mouthful!) Brett was in Boise taking his PE exam, but we decided to do something fun without him. We stood in line forever, but the kids thought it was great.

Yoda and the Toolman. :-)

Sari the Rockstar

Brianna was whatever costume was clean at the moment. :-) She was a BSU cheerleader, a pumpkin, and a ghost.

My "mean old" witch and Master Yoda!

"The force is strong with this one!"

Kylee and Aedan thought they were hilarious with this one. Apparently, so did Brianna.

Halloween was a ton of fun, but all in all I'm glad it's over! On top of school, church, kids, housework (what housework, have you seen my house??), Kindergarten, dance, and who knows what else, I've decided it's time to make my photography official. I've had so many people hire me to take their photos, I decided it was crazy not to jump on it and start a blog, etc. So, if you want to check it out, you can see what I've been doing at the new blog. :-) This is one of my recent favorites from a Senior session I did last week.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but for now this will have to do...time to get ready for another Monday!

Kindergarten, Dance and So Much More!!

2010-09-09T11:19:00.001-07:00

**Disclaimer** I just realized how many exclamation points are in this blog post...Prepare yourself. In my defense, it's been incredibly overwhelming the last couple weeks...! :-)

Wow, it has been one heck of a couple weeks for us! I started school two weeks ago (after a frantic search for a sitter), Kylee started kindergarten on the 30th, and dance on the 2nd. Dance lessons were her birthday gift from us, so let's hope she continues to enjoy this extremely SPENDY birthday present!

Kylee and Aedan on her first day of school. She was so excited she could hardly stand it!

And of course, with her ginormous backpack. (By the way, I think I have the prettiest little kindergartner around!)

Can't leave Aedan out! He was going to "school" at the ELC in Pocatello for the first time too! The poor kid can't make up his mind about all this. He's always terribly sad when we leave Kylee at school. Then he gets excited to go to his school, until we have to drop Brianna off at the neighbor's before heading for Pocatello. Then he bawls for 20 minutes about wanting his baby back. He's usually okay once we get to the school, but by the time I pick him up, he's ready to get his sisters back! Look how grown up he looks...it could almost be him going to kindergarten!

After we all got home on the first day, Kylee and Aedan were inseparable! They literally sat on the couch like this, hugging and snuggling, through an entire movie! They're not used to being apart all day like that.

Now we are always hearing all sorts of stories from Kylee about what she did in school.

Kylee's new dance class started the same week as kindergarten. She has one class each week, and she's going to be learning Jazz, Ballet, and Tap. They're starting with Ballet, and it is SO stinkin' cute to watch them! The first day they had to try and skip, and it was perfectly sweet to see them running and hopping! Today, they tried to learn how to use a hula hoop...and I'm pretty sure we will soon own a hula hoop or two!

Kylee gets even more girly and posey when she's in her dance clothes. Grandma Kathy (and Grandpa Will, indirectly :}) bought her the dance clothes, and she gets to twirling and wiggling her hips as soon as she has them on!

With all the excitement about Kylee's new adventures, we've had to really try and spend some time talking to Aedan about his day as well. He and Mom are getting to spend a lot more time together than normal. After we drop Kylee off at school (if we don't have to go to Pocatello) we have almost 3 hours to run errands or go home and make breakfast. Today Aedan decided he wanted Pig Pancakes, and he got to make them! We also spend lots of time together on the days we go to Pocatello. His favorite thing to do in the car lately is to make me pretend that he's the dad and I'm the kid. :-)

Brianna is growing up so fast! It makes it terribly hard to leave her each time I go to class. I never had to leave Kylee or Aedan for this amount of time or this often when they were babies, and it's really been difficult for me. But it makes the time we are together that much more special, and I haven't even found myself getting frustrated when she's fussy. So maybe it's a good thing, I don't know.

Thanks to the Bumbo we borrowed from Grandma Kathy's house, she gets to sit up by herself several times a day. She absolutely loves doing it, but she can only last for maybe 20 minutes each time before she's pretty much wiped out.

We get lots of smiles out of her, especially considering that she has two willing entertainers!

One of the best things about the Bumbo is that Brianna can sit on the kitchen counter and help me cook (or clean)! This makes an incredible difference on the amount of work I can get done! Isn't she beautiful?

So, that's what the kids have been up to. We've been incredibly busy since school started. I've started my last year of school before I finish my bachelor's degree in Business Management (Thank Heavens!). Along with spending two days on campus in Pocatello, I have two night classes here in Idaho Falls that are 3 hours each. So between my classes, FHE, and Brett's Elder's Quorum meetings, we are completely booked each and every night of the week! No wonder I wake up on Fridays with a huge grin on my face! (Okay, maybe that's exaggerating, considering I still have to wake up at 7 to get Kylee to school on time.)

Brett has also had his nose to the grindstone the last few weeks. He's studying for his Professional Engineer's Exam at the end of October, which will finally complete his training and certification to become a licensed Professional Engineer. NINE years to get to this point is definitely not something to throw away, so he's studying as much as he can to make sure he passes the EIGHT HOUR exam!

On top of school, we are still busy at church. Brett continues to serve as the EQ President in our crazy ward, and I'm still in the RS Presidency. It certainly makes for some hectic Sundays, but I'm pretty sure our Bishopric and their families have to put in far more time, so I won't complain. We really do love our ward, even though it is one of the strangest wards we've ever been in! (Statistics, not people) :-)

Kylee's Birthday

2010-08-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

Kylee is 5! I can't hardly believe that she's getting so big, but at the same time, it just fits. :-) Kylee turned 5 on August 10, and we were able to celebrate that day with a bunch of her friends. She was so excited about her birthday, and now that it's done, all she can do is tell everyone she sees that she's 5!

Here are some pics of her party. Thanks to all our great friends who came to celebrate with us!

Ice cream is a hit! This is Kylee with her friends Kiera and Zion.

Kylee, Kiera, Zion and Caleb (hangin' with the girls) :-)

Kylee doesn't just make friends with kids her age...she makes friends with the whole family! ;-)

We celebrated briefly that evening after Brett got home. Kylee was so excited for more presents, it took her about 1.3 seconds to open them all...thus the crappy pics! Aedan bought some watercolors and an art pad for Kylee. Brianna gave her a Littlest Pet Shop...Mom and Dad gave her a boring shirt for school...but her BIG birthday gift is that we're enrolling her in dance for the year! Yep, it's a pretty stinkin' expensive birthday gift! She's going to be learning Jazz, Ballet, and Tap, and she should have 3-4 performances throughout the year, so we'll let you know. She was super excited when she got to pick out her dance clothes with Grandma Kathy (with Hallie's expert opinion as well!) and try on her ballet slippers and tap shoes...so CUTE!

Can you see all the makeup on her face here?

I Need Your Help!!!

2010-08-17T18:58:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year again...time to decide what to enter into the fair! I LOVE the fair, so this is one of my favorite times of the year. But now that I've started entering photos, it always creeps up on me!

So, here's where you come in, because I need your help! I have a few photos I definitely plan to enter, but there are several more that have been suggested, but I'm not sure of. So I'm going to post them here, and I want to hear your opinion whether any of them are worthy of enlarging, matting, and entering in the fair!

Don't hold back...I can take it. Even if that means you have to tell me I stink and to keep my day job (which would be a problem, since I don't have one). :-) Just let me know if any of them scream "Pick me, pick me!" and you'll save me a lot of anguish and self-doubt! ;-)

Brianna's Blessing

2010-08-09T06:18:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a special day for our sweet Brianna. We had many of our family and even some friends join us at church for her blessing. Brett's a busy guy on Sundays. He gave Brianna a beautiful blessing, then hurried and brought her back to mom before blessing the sacrament. :-)

Brianna was so beautiful in her gown that Grandma McDermott bought for her. Grandma found the dress at a little store in Blackfoot, and called to ask me to come down and help her pick one out. When I got there, she had a stack of dresses set aside that she liked and wanted me to see. I went through those, then probably every other dress in the room. Finally, I settled on one of the original dresses Grandma had picked out. :-) Now, every time someone would compliment Brianna's dress, Grandma "Dermott" would tell me how I did good picking out the dress. But she forgets, she picked it first! Thanks, Grandma, for buying Brianna such a beautiful dress!

Along with the dress came the most beautiful bonnet. I've never been a huge fan of bonnets on my babies. In fact, I didn't even use the bonnet that came with Kylee's blessing dress, and opted instead for a small white bow. I didn't think I would use a bonnet this time either, especially because Amy and I have been having so much fun making bows! I thought for sure we could come up with a beautiful headband for the blessing, and even made a flower out of the lace on my old blankie! When we found the dress, however, I decided to use the bonnet, partly because the dress I chose was an antique white and it just seemed to fit, but also because it was too pretty not to use!

After the meeting we invited all the family back to our house for a lunch, and it turned out great. It seemed like everyone had a good time, and I KNOW everyone got full, because there was SO much food!

As I was doing the dishes last night and thinking about the day, I realized I had learned a few things, and I thought I'd share them.

Family pictures don't have to be formal.

Even crying babies are beautiful.

Moments like this are worth all the shouting, time-outs, and frustration.

Sometimes old-school is so much more beautiful than what's "cool".

And a few more things I learned, without photos:

You don't have to have a camera stuck to your face at every party.
When entertaining, everything does not have to be prepared before the guests arrive. It's okay if they have to wait a few minutes for dinner.
The house does not have to be sparkling to have a good time. If the floors don't get swept, the laundry not quite finished, or the junk mail not quite sorted, the party will still be a success.
If you don't have the perfect shady yard to offer guests, they'll find a patch of shade and be perfectly comfortable without your help!
Accept offers of help...whether it's handing someone a knife and a cutting board, or letting them go in your daughter's messy room to get some clothes for the kids to play in, it's okay to say "Yes, Thanks!" Even if that means your son will be playing all day in a t-shirt, shorts, and a cummerbund. ;-)
Life is too short. Some things are better enjoyed than stressed over.

Well, that's enough from me! We had a wonderful day and thoroughly enjoyed the company of our family and the friends who came over after church. Brianna is a very special little girl to have so much family who love her, and great friends who will be a good example to her as she grows! Thanks to all who were here with us on her special day!

4th of July Fun!

2010-07-09T12:05:00.000-07:00

Somehow we ended up not having any plans at all for the 4th of July weekend (I don't know, it could have something to do with the fact that we had a 2 week old baby? Mmm...maybe not.) which left us deciding last minute what to do with our free time. We decided to take the kids to the parade in Idaho Falls for the first time.

Brett really doesn't enjoy parades, so usually I end up taking the kids with my family to the Blackfoot parade on opening day of the fair. It's fun for the kids, but kinda boring after so many years because the floats are all pretty much the same. So it was surprising how much fun we had going to the parade in Idaho Falls. While a parade is always a parade, it was fun to see the different schools, different businesses, and what they all came up with. (Unfortunately, I forgot the camera, so maybe next year!)

This year we were invited to have a BBQ with our friends, the Thurmans, to celebrate the 4th (which was, of course, celebrated on the 3rd). We don't get to see them very often since they moved out of our ward, so it's always a blast to make plans and hang out. After dinner we all loaded up and found a good spot to watch the fireworks.

The kids had fun in the back of the Tahoe. (Yes, I know, I forgot to blog about my new car!) We loaded it up with blankets and pillows, and they, of course, had to be lifted in and out about a million times each. :-)

Left to right: Aedan, Ben, Allyssa, Kylee, Spencer (or half of him)

Ben...he's such a ham!

Spencer

Aedan and Ben, chilling in the Tahoe...

Brianna Shea

2010-06-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

Well, she's finally here! Brianna Shea McDermott was born Wednesday, June 16, 2010 at 3:42 pm. She was 7lbs 13 ounces, which for those of you who actually know me, just about knocked my socks off. She's SO tiny! She's smaller than either of my other two, and I've decided it just makes her that much more snuggly. :-)

Labor was induced yet again with this little one (something about an impatient mother), so it probably took longer than it would have if I had waited. But I was comfortably numbed by the epidural, so it wasn't bad, other than my own impatience. Delivery was a breeze, Brianna was a trooper with absolutely no problems. We are so blessed to have such healthy babies, and to have such a sweet little girl join our family!

When we were delayed a couple hours by the hospital, and ended up with WAY too much time on our hands with too much to anticipate, I followed my sister-in-law's lead and had Brett take a final belly shot (actually, one of the only!)

Happy Birthday Aedan!!

2010-06-12T07:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm only a week late with this post, so that's pretty good right? I decided I'd better get it done before this next week or it will get lost in the shuffle.

My "baby" turned 3 last week! I can't believe how big he's getting. I was sorting through some of my photo files a couple weeks ago and found some really old ones I took of Aedan that I never use because they were not very good. But as I looked closer, I realized they were taken on his first birthday! Good or not, they had to stay!

My little man has gone from this:

To this!

Playdoh from his sister

Waiting patiently to see what mystery Dad's bringing around the corner.

A new bike!

Helping Dad adjust the seat.

Test driving for the first time...

It's getting to be a bit of a tradition to buy Aedan a new bike for his birthday, but judging from his expressions above, I don't think he minds the repetition much! We also celebrated his birthday with the McBride family at our house. Unfortunately, the tractor cake I made for him met with an unfortunate accident called Kylee, Aedan and Sayer. :-)

This is what his cake looked like, more or less. Unfortunately, the Twix, donuts, and M&Ms proved far too tempting to resist!

After that fiasco, I kinda lost my drive to bother with pics and didn't get any that night. But it was pretty special because his Great Grandma Mac got to be at that birthday party for the first time ever, so Aedan thought it was pretty cool.

The next day we celebrated with the McDermott clan at a BBQ potluck. Aedan was so wired it was difficult to keep up with him. In fact, though I know what he was given, I have no idea who most of it is from! So thanks everyone... :-)

Flying kites for the first time!

Aedan's kite was kind of a dud...

Craters of the Moon, and More

2010-05-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

First I want to mention that this is my second post today (I know, I'm kickin' butt!), so if anyone actually reads this stuff, there's another new one down below.

A couple weeks ago Brett decided to take a couple days off work just to get a break. He took a Monday and Tuesday off, so we had four days to play and have fun as a family. Since we aren't going to be taking any long vacations this year, with me pregnant for a few more weeks then a new baby after that, we have been learning to explore our own "backyard" a little more. We took a picnic one day and found a nice spot up near Kelly Canyon to just get out of the car and enjoy the warm weather. We started a little hike, but it wasn't a very good spot for the kids so we didn't go far.

On Monday we decided to pack another lunch and drive out to Craters of the Moon. Neither of us have been there since we were in elementary school, so it was new to all of us. The kids had a blast!

Aedan was our "leader" the whole time. We couldn't hardly keep up with him, especially me!

Ever since we went to Oregon last summer, it has been a game for these two to find these information boards with maps and pictures.

Kylee was helping Aedan "read" the board.

Easter 2010

2010-04-08T07:06:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter this year with the kids. Easter happened to fall on Conference Sunday, which made it nice to stay home for church instead of rushing to get ready. When Kylee found out the Easter bunny had STOLEN our eggs and hidden them outside, she could NOT understand why we made her wait until after breakfast and bath to go find them.

She was so quick this year that I had to distract her with a picture of her bucket, just to give her brother a second to catch up!

He took full advantage of the opportunity...

They both managed to make a haul though, and paused for all of two seconds to let me get a picture.

Later that afternoon, we went to Brett's mom & dad's house for their annual Easter/birthday party. They do a massive egg hunt outside every year, with a separate area for the younger kids. This year, the girls (Kelsi and Makenzi were too old for the hunt, so they took charge.) decided Aedan should have a head start.

He kept looking back at the hordes of bigger cousins. I think he was expecting to be mobbed any second for taking all the eggs. :-)

I think he caught me on this one!

By the time he finished, Aedan could hardly keep his bag off the ground!

Pam had planned a bunch of games for everyone to play in to win prizes. Anytime there is a competition, the brothers get involved.

Ken was busy working on a project, but that didn't stop Jim, Jason, Chad and Brett from stepping up to the plate.

Brett quickly took the lead, but could feel Jason hot on his heels...so he got a little excited.

This is what he'll do to beat his big brothers. :-)

It was a great Easter, and we really enjoyed the time with family. Now we can start getting ready for summer birthdays and one BIRTHday in particular. :-)

Another Great Trip

2010-03-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took off Friday morning and headed to Utah. The original purpose of this trip was to take our kids to Disney on Ice in SLC Friday night. We decided that since we won't be taking any extended vacations this summer like we did last, we'd make this a kid-friendly weekend vacation. So on our way down we decided to stop at the Hill AFB Museum, based on the tip from a friend at church.

I would highly recommend this museum to anyone who travels to Utah! It's right off the Interstate, and it's free; add to that the fact that it's pretty amazing and you have a great little side-trip.

The kids were happy by this point just to get out of the car. The weather was awesome, so it was nice that a large number of planes were on display outside the museum. The kids were fascinated!

It was rare for me to get a photo of Aedan looking at the camera. He was absolutely beside himself with excitement over all the planes. Most of his photos look like this:

Or this:

You can't hardly see them, but down in the bottom of the picture is a teeny-tiny image of Brett holding up the kids. They were trying to give me something to measure against this fantastic plane. Look how huge it is! I think it was a transport plane, and it was simply mind-boggling. It was bigger than the museum itself (in height), which is no mean feat as the museum had hundreds of planes inside too!

A little closer-up:

Since we were literally next door to the AFB, we were treated with numerous fly-overs (or whatever you might call them) while we were outside. It was kinda fun, and more than a little tricky, to catch one of these buggers in the viewfinder and get it focused!

This is Brett's all-time favorite plane: the P51 Mustang. He was in heaven. :-)

Umm, did you know helicopters could have two of these things??

This was a baby plane the kids got a kick out of. Looked like something we'd have as a backyard toy.

And of course, the original...or one of them. A Wright Bros plane...totally cool and mind-boggling to see! You definitely wouldn't catch me up in the air on one of these suckers!

All in all, it was a great stop on our little mini-vacation. Disney on Ice was awesome too, and the kids had an absolute blast. We had more fun watching them than watching the show. But unfortunately, I thought we wouldn't be allowed to have cameras, and didn't want mine confiscated, so I didn't get any pics. Saturday we also took the kids to an aquarium near Jen's house in Sandy, but again, no pics. So a great trip, but you only get to see a small part of it. :-)

One of my hobbies...

2010-02-15T18:01:00.000-08:00

Ever since last summer, one of my "hobbies" has been couponing. If you're not familiar with this new little epidemic, it's pretty amazing. Basically, I save bookoo bucks by shopping with coupons, but I think the process has changed some from when our parents did it. Most people hear coupons and say "I don't think so." But, I took on the challenge, and it has been pretty amazing!

Since my mom has recently become the Enrichment counselor in her R.S., she is now in charge (partially) of Enrichment for her ward. My mom has always kind of made fun of us girls for the couponing stuff (Diana does it too) and has always been a skeptic. But now that she has to come up with clever ideas for R.S., she has been considering the coupon class idea.

Today I had to do some shopping with coupons, and ended up with some pretty great deals. The best was a trip to Albertsons, in which I got 2 packages Double Stuff Golden Oreos, 5 cans Bumble Bee tuna, and a 4-pack of Charmin t.p. My total after tax came to $1.06. Mom got a kick out of this and asked me to document it, so here it is.

My total spent today was $36 (and some change). What you see in this pic is what I came home with, but here's a list, in case you can't see it all:

8-pack Sparkle paper towels
4-pack Charmin t.p.

3 boxes Frosted Flakes
3 boxes Frosted Mini Wheats

1 box Apple Jacks
1 box Fruit Loops

10 cans Bumble Bee tuna

4 cans Del Monte diced tomatoes
4 cans Del Monte fancy sliced green beans

1 box Ronzoni Smart Taste penne
3 boxes Ronzoni Smart Taste spaghetti

1 4-pack Dannon Activia yogurt

2 pkg Double Stuf Golden Oreos

Up
Star Trek

It's always fun to calculate total savings, and even percentage savings, after a day like this. For the one transaction that totaled $1.06, It was an $18.04 savings and about 97% off. Who knows, maybe we'll convert my mom after all. :-)

On another note, I was calculating the average savings of all of this, and found that it was only about 50%, which is not that great. But then I took out the two movies, which I bought on sale for $9 each with no coupons. Considering this, I spent about $18 for everything else...that's much better! ;-)

PS: If anyone is actually interested in learning about this madness, you are welcome to ask me. But there is a guru website I love that has all the information you need. Just go to The Krazy Coupon Lady.

Can you tell?

2010-02-09T08:11:00.001-08:00

Can you tell from my new background that I'm getting spring fever? I have always loved winters in Idaho, and always tell people who complain to move somewhere warm. But having young kids in the house COMPLETELY changes that! ;-)

I don't have any new great pictures to post, or any recent happenings. I just thought it might be time to mention that we are expecting a baby girl this summer! Yay! So for the two people who read my blog that already know, now you know again. :-)

Sledding

2009-12-30T11:46:00.000-08:00

The week leading up to Christmas was kinda nice for us...Brett called in sick on that Wednesday, and after a few hours sleep he woke up feeling great, so we kinda scored an unplanned day off. We decided to bundle kids up and go sledding. We have just two small saucer sleds, but they were perfect for the kids.

We went to Tautphus Park, where we heard there were some fun hills to sled. What we found was perfect for our kids, but totally boring for older kids. Which is probably why we had the park to ourselves!

The kids absolutely had a blast on the sleds. We each went with them a time or two, and they went by themselves a lot. It was a short trip though, because they didn't have good gloves so their hands got cold fast.

So the next day, Christmas Eve, I was at the store and found some Thinsulate mittens...perfect! I also found a new hat for Kylee, since hers have disappeared, and we decided to head to the park again. Once again, the kids had a blast. They probably sledded for about 45 minutes this time, until the little bit of snow was pretty much gone. I took a bunch of photos both times, and you can just see the joy on their faces!

Kylee tried to get on the sled herself...on her knees.

Whoops! Down she goes...

Luckily, instead of being terrified, she thought it was great!

Aedan kept pulling his hat up...it reminds me of an old man!

New Pics

2009-12-21T11:05:00.000-08:00

Last week I finally carved out a few minutes to do pics of the kids. It reminded me of why I never do it anymore! We got a few good pics out of the 2-300 taken, so I guess we could call it a success.

This pretty much sums up that attitude of both of my children while I tried to get decent pics!

Santa Came to Town!

2009-12-21T07:11:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday night was our family Christmas party with the McBride crew. Our good friend Santa stopped by for a quick chat with all the kids, and he even gave them a sneak peak into their Christmas presents.

Kylee and Aedan did awesome! Neither one of them was scared of the big guy at all. Kylee did good last year too, but Aedan has always been pretty nervous before. This year he kept trying to take the other kids' turns!

Kylee informed Santa that she wanted a new movie...Snow White, to be exact. I can't wait to see if Santa pulls through for her! ;-)

A Little Holiday Fun

2009-12-10T09:31:00.000-08:00

Last night was the Christmas party for Brett's work. For those of you who don't know, he still works for the City of Rexburg. For their Christmas parties, they just give everyone wristbands for the entire family to enjoy an evening at The Rex in Rexburg.

If you've never been there, it's like a huge rec center. There are 6 theaters, a large bowling alley, an arcade/pool room, and a kids play room with one of those huge inflated jungle gyms. They have concessions, and will even deliver a pizza to you in the movies! That was kinda interesting.

As part of the deal, we got to choose from movies or bowling for free. We decided to give the movie a shot, and took the kids to see Planet 51.

It was actually a pretty cute movie, and both kids actually sat through the entire show! I'm sure that contributed to my impression of the movie.

After the movie we ended up bowling a game with the family of one of Brett's coworkers. That was the longest game we've ever sat through. It was really fun to talk to some of the people Brett works with, and their families, but man it takes forever to let a 4 year old and a 2 year old bowl!

The kids loved it though, and we decided it was a pretty great night. And, no pictures of the night, because I left my camera at my parents house on Thanksgiving and haven't gotten it back yet...withdrawals! I'm picking it up first thing today after class, so there will probably be some new family pics up soon. Merry Christmas!

Tillamook

2009-11-16T07:56:00.001-08:00

So three months ago (on our not quite fully blogged vacation) we took part of our last day in Oregon to visit the Tillamook cheese factory. This was one of the highlights of our trip. It was an absolutely fascinating place. We learned a lot about the company, tried several different kinds of cheese, discovered we like our safe yellow flavors, and even had some fresh ice cream. Here are some of the photos we took while we were there.

This was a big attraction. Kylee loved sticking her face in the cow for a picture, and she also loved all the attention from the people waiting to do the same. This place was packed!

And of course Aedan got to be the farmer, with a little help from Dad.

Then we climbed a flight of stairs to what I imagine would be called the viewing deck, or something like that. They have huge windows up there that look down on the factory. We really had no idea what was going on most of the time, but it was fascinating to watch the cheese come out different machines, get cut, weighed, bagged, cut some more and packaged for the store. These were some HUGE chunks of cheese!!

At the end of our 'tour', we decided to treat ourselves to some fresh, Tillamook ice cream (despite the fact it was barely 10 am!). It's kinda hard to see in this pic, but look at how packed the ice cream stand was!!

When I ordered pumpkin ice cream, Brett looked at me like I'd gone mad. This is Brett, eating my pumpkin ice cream. :-) It was simply to die for, and the second I find some in the stores, it's coming home with me.

Kylee simply devoured her strawberry.

Aedan got tired of his strawberry fast...and drooled over Brett's mint chocolate chip.

All in all, this was a great stop in our weeklong trip, and I would recommend it to anyone who is on the Oregon coast.

Fair Photo Entries

2009-09-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

Most people who read my blog (my sister, maybe my mommy??) already know I submitted some photos to the fair again this year. It turned out pretty well, despite the fact that I waited until last minute and didn't get them matted very well, again. Here are the 10 photos I submitted:

This is one of a series of three photos that were entered together, of Wyatt and Tait on the tube. I couldn't get over the expressions on their faces in this one, so I followed it up with crazy photos of them getting buried in water. Most of these have been posted from the 4th of July, so I won't put them all on here.

This is Pam, I think she was 8 months preggo? And Jesse, listening for his baby brother Dallas. He must be one heck of a cute kid, cause this photo won 1st place in the Parent/Child category. YEAH!! I love blue ribbons...

Beautiful Makenzi...she's only 13, but we entered this in the Portrait/Woman category.

Julia Davis park in Boise.

My Aedan, playing in the sand in Oregon. Can't believe this one got nothing, I absolutely love it!

Aedan's feet, the same day as the last photo and the same beach. This one got a 2nd place ribbon in the body parts category.

This is the falls on Rogue River, near Union Creek. I blogged about this one too...

The Oregon coast...

Kylee, jumping in puddles at the park. This one got an honorable mention (pink ribbon) in the body parts category. Kylee thought she scored big when she saw the pink ribbon, instead of a blue. :-)

Kylee and Aedan at the park.

Fun Stuff

2009-09-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend our neighbor, Kaili (yep, sounds just like my Kylee), asked me to do her hair for her homecoming dance. Not only did I do about a million ringlets in her gorgeous blonde hair but I ended up waiting for her boyfriend to come so I could take some photos. For having a nearly dead battery, nearly no light, and no time to plan, I thought we did pretty well. Thanks, Kaili, for letting me come have some fun!

Some of these photos have a bit of crazy editing going on...let me know if you like or dislike!

With some mishaps during their day date, we ended up being pretty far behind schedule on getting them out the door to dinner. Sadly, by the time Justin made it to pick Kaili up, the light was almost gone and I didn't get hardly any good photos of the two of them. We tried it again the next morning outside the church, and the light was better but the wind was impossible! This was one of my favorites from Sunday. I love her crazy hair and their happy smiles...