The Marchant Family

Sweet Grandma Wright

2012-01-21T21:53:00.001-08:00

This morning we received the news that Kevin's last remaining grandparent had passed away. Jean Wright, Kevin's mom's mother, was the sweetest lady and will be greatly missed by all her posterity and friends. We went to visit Grandma Wright while we were home for Christmas, which ended up being the last time we saw her. We're sure glad we stopped for a visit, even if she didn't fully recognize us or remember our visit.

Grandma has been without her sweet spouse for 10 years so she was more than ready to go home to heaven to be reunited with him again. We are sure she's happilyy with Grandpa Wright right now.

Where did December go?

2012-01-11T16:03:00.000-08:00

Is 2011 really gone already? And I didn't even do a single blog post in December. Hmmmph. Well, it was a pretty crazy month. We had Kevin's last semester of class work, finals, a ward Christmas party to be in charge of, California Christmas, followed by 3 wonderful Utah Christmases. I think I'll still go back and update the photos and stories soon, since this is my personal journal and I'll want to be able and look back some day and remember.

Until then, here's a sneak peek for anyone who still reads. We did a family photo shoot with my dad's side of the family on Christmas eve. My step-mom is a huge Ute fan, so naturally we did Utes vs. BYU themed pictures. It was fun and funny and the photos turned out great thanks to my aunt Cecily at mychaosmybliss who takes fabulous photos! Although I'm still convinced one day these will end up in one of those Awkward Family Photos calenders :) More to come soon!

The hair Kevin secretly longs for!

Yeah, we're not normal... funny thing is that none of actually attended BYU or the U. Go figure?

Korbin cutie

2011-11-28T13:06:00.000-08:00

This little guy knows just how to push my buttons and simultaneously melt my heart! He makes me laugh so much and brings such joy to our family. We love having Korbin in our lives! Lately he's been so busy climbing in and on and over EVERYTHING! I have to keep a close eye on him. It's funny to watch where he likes to hide and play. He likes tiny corners and little spaces. I think a new one this month will be hiding underneath the Christmas tree. We love you Korbin!

Kevin was hiding mandarin oranges on and around Korbin and he thought it was so funny!

Thankful

2011-11-26T22:48:00.000-08:00

My family has all gone home. The apartment is vacuumed and clean once more. Leftovers are stocking the fridge. The Christmas tree and decorations are up. The kids are sleeping soundly in the other room. I feel so content and blessed tonight! We just spent a wonderful few days with my side of the family who came out to visit for Thanksgiving. We had a jam packed few days full of adventure, good food, and even better company. Best part was when my mom said this was her favorite Thanksgiving EVER! We had a good time to say the least. Here are the highlights:

First stop, The Jelly Belly Factory. We've been here way too many times, but it's a must when family comes to visit.

Me and cousin Sara with our Jelly Belly boyfriend.

We woke up Thanksgiving morning to wild turkeys outside our apartment. Kassidy asked if we shot one of those turkey's to eat.

Thanksgiving dinner was at my aunt and uncle's home. We had a big group and wonderful food! This was a first for the Hicken family to have Thanksgiving in California and mostly be together. These are my beautiful ginger cousins :)

Aunt Jennette can cook up a storm!

Cousins Sara and Justin

The Hicken clan. Everyone but Clark and Kelly's family and my brother and wife were here.

Next came a little turkey induced nap time.

The next day we broke off into groups and went wherever the wind took us. Our breeze took us to the city and sight seeing. We stopped at the Marin headlands overlook of the bridge, then went to Fort Point, had a picnic, and ended with a drive down Lombard street.

Kassidy loves to take over the camera and many of the pictures I posted were taken by her!

From Kassidy' viewpoint

On top of Fort Point. Amazing view of the bridge and bay!

Me and sweet mama!

We had a fabulous week and wish it could've lasted longer.

Happy Halloween

2011-11-01T13:43:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful Halloween in California! The weather was warm, almost too warm--about 76 while trick-or-treating and in the 80's during the day. It didn't feel very fallish, but at least we didn't have to wear coats while trick-or-treating. We had an eventful day full of too much candy, lots of walking and finished with even more candy. The kids had a good time, and we exhausted ourselves because we were all in bed early. I already posted these on facebook so these are pretty much for my grandparents to see. Happy Halloween!

Sweet Dorothy

Scarecrow

The whole group (minus a lion) at the ward trunk-or-treat. All the costumes were homemade which made it even more fun! Although the face paints scared our sweet Korbin :)

What happens at Date Night stays at Date Night

2011-10-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

My sweet aunt came over last week to watch the kids so Kevin and I could go on a much needed date. With school and pharmacy rotations we haven't gotten to spend much time together just the two of us. I had forgotten how much fun we have together! We spent the whole night laughing and talking (I don't think we even mentioned the kids) and acted like teenagers. My favorite part of the night was putting on costumes at Target and acting like spazzes. I think it's really good for a marriage to let free and just act silly around each other.

Creepy

Masquerade

Again, creepy.

Gladiator

Hola!

Got Milk?

Pumpkin Patches

2011-10-28T16:15:00.000-07:00

Although I really miss being home in Utah around this time of year, we have found there are lots of fun things to do in California in the fall. The weather is still quite hot, so getting outside and playing has been very pleasant. We've visited many pumpkin patches this month and played with our great friends. We are lucky to be in such a versatile area where we have so many neat things around us.

Suisun Valley Pumpkin Patch

Noah, Daniel, Caytlyn, Micah, Kassidy, Korbin, Sara

Larry's Produce giant pumpkin with the Tabish's.

I love how much Kassidy looks out for and loves her brother. I hope it lasts :)

Jelly Belly Factory. We did the haunted house inside too. It was a bit to scary for the kids this year. Kassidy wore her princess crown to "shine the bad ghosts away".

Dixon "Cool Pumpkin Patch" playing in the corn bath. So fun!

Jen and I definitely got our work outs riding these pedal bikes around the pumpkin patches. We've had a great time this fall and look forward to the start of the holidays.

Working Out

2011-10-17T14:19:00.000-07:00

Kevin works out at home in the evenings to keep his nice physique :) I would like to watch, but have been forbidden. So I usually try to give the kids baths or read them stories or something during this time so Kevin can exercise. For some reason this night I just couldn't keep the little munchkins distracted long enough and soon daddy's push-ups became a fun ride. Impressively, it didn't slow him down a bit! The added 24 and 35 pound children only increased his strength training. I married a hottie!

Flight school

2011-10-11T22:14:00.000-07:00

Our kids have been into airplanes lately. Their awesome daddy made an airplane for them to play in out of a diaper box. We tricked out the inside with knobs and dials (not sure why I didn't take a picture of that) and they've been playing in them for hours! But they're not very patient so Korbin sits in the plain box next to Kassidy while awaiting his turn.
Since they've enjoyed the box planes so much we decided to take a visit to the Air Museum at Travis Air Force Base. One of the many perks of having a base so close is enjoying neat things like this for free! We spent a couple hours looking at all the neat airplanes and exhibits on WWI, WWI and the Vietnam wars. It's definitely making it onto the list of places to take our visitors when they come. So if you're interested, come on our for a visit!

Dressing up

2011-10-02T21:15:00.001-07:00

We were starting to get really excited about Halloween a couple weeks ago, so I pulled out the costume box. The kids had a great time trying on the old costumes and deciding what they wanted to wear.

My mom gave me this cute frog costume for Kassidy when she was a baby but we never ended up using it. I hoped to use it for Korbin this year, but...

He wasn't really diggin' it.

Kassidy loved trying on her old costumes. She was this poodle when she was 2. The costume is way to small now, but that didn't stop us from having a good time this afternoon.

In the end, Kassidy decided to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz since she has ruby slippers. I finished sewing her dress yesterday. I'll post some pictures soon. And she wants Korbin to be scarecrow. Should be a fun year :)

Someday...

2011-09-20T20:54:00.000-07:00

I feel like lately my vocabulary has just been full of SOMEDAYS. You know, the constant wishing and looking forward to things that will someday happen. For example,

Someday I will have a house with room for the kids to play.

Someday we will have a car that doesn't break down.

Someday we won't have any debt.

Someday I will be a morning person (yeah right!).

Someday I will get a good night's sleep (again, yeah right!).

Someday I will get my visiting teaching done at the first of the month.

Someday my husband will be able to come home and relax with us instead of constantly studying.

Someday we will have money to buy fun things and not worry about bills all the time.

And much more. You get the idea.

Well I feel like it's been holding me back by constantly looking forward to that SOMEDAY. I realize that a lot of these "somedays" will never happen. Like the unrealistic assumption that my entire personality will change and I will suddenly be a morning person...pretty sure that will never happen. Although there are multiple women in my ward who claim that if you do this crazy raw food diet you will suddenly have the energy and desire to wake up at 5 am. Welp. I'll just take their word for it on that one. I like my carbs, and my sleep.

I know we all do this because even that crazy selfish woman who wrote "Eat, Pray, Love" talked about her friend and how she was in beautiful Italy and she said, "Someday I'm going to come back here" instead of enjoying the moment she was ACTUALLY there! (disclaimer: I hated this book and I'm okay with the fact that I am probably the only one.) I am trying to take the word "someday" out of my daily vocabulary and enjoy this simple life I have now. For example, today I realized I am grateful for a tiny apartment that only takes a small amount of time to clean. It leaves me more time to play with my cute kids. "Someday" (he he) they will be grown up and gone and I will miss these days. Then I'll probably have the "Remember when" problem!

But seriously. What are some of your "somedays" and what do you do to enjoy the now?

Gold Discovery Fun

2011-09-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

After the baptism fun with Treyson, the we took a day trip to Coloma County to the first gold discovery site. It was a hot day, but we had a bbq and walked around looking at all the historical sites. By the time we were done the kids were filthy and Korbin had two huge bruises on his head. He insists on walking everywhere. I think he forgets he's a baby and wants to do everything his big sister does :)

A cool teepee made from wood the Indians lived in.

Cute cousins

Treyson caught a lizard

Kevin and the kids in front of a stagecoach in the museum.

Grandma and her kids.

Korbin kept us all busy trying to prevent him from falling and getting anymore bruises.

There's nothing like a juicy watermelon at the end of a hot, busy day :)

Note the bruises and goose-eggs on his noggin.

*Another New post below

Treyson's baptism

2011-09-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

Kevin's nephew Treyson was baptized a couple weeks ago and we were lucky enough to get to go. They are Kevin's only family out here in California, so we were excited when Kevin's parents decided to make the drive out for the special day. The day was really special and we had a great time hanging out afterwards at the pool and apartment clubhouse with cousins and family.

Treyson with Grandpa and Grandma Marchant

Treyson with his mom and dad.

Bathing beauty

2011-09-10T17:02:00.001-07:00

I used to enjoy getting ready. As a teen I could primp and curl with the best of them, sometimes taking over an hour to "get ready" for school. I liked to look nice and is was even fun! Now that's all changed. In the entire apartment full of toys and things to do, as soon as the kids know I'm in the bathroom it's where they want to be. Kassidy plays princesses on the tub while I put on my makeup, Korbin bangs on the shower door while I'm in there, and this:

Now I find myself holding the toilet lid shut with one foot and applying my mascara very quickly. So if you notice my poorly applied makeup or half-done hair (or not done at all more often than not), you can assume I had some busy helpers in the bathroom that morning. Regardless, I wouldn't trade them for the most perfect hair day :)

Random August days

2011-09-07T21:40:00.001-07:00

We've gotten lots of use out of our Six Flags passes this year, and Korbin's finally big enough to ride some rides, which he really enjoyed.

Little man was so tired he fell asleep on the couch for 15 minutes like this.

*ANOTHER NEW POST BELOW

The world through Kassidy's eyes

2011-09-07T21:34:00.001-07:00

Kassidy has been obsessed with taking pictures lately and she's always asking me to borrow my camera. I never know how many pictures she takes until I look a few days later. Here are a few pictures from the point of view of a 4 year old. They make me smile!

*More new posts below

Good friends

2011-09-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

Our good friends are unexpectedly moving and I am not happy. I've chosen anger as my emotion of choice. It beats being weepy for the next 2 months until they leave. It sucks, but we've had some wonderful memories with them to look back on fondly. Love you Frumus!

Rest of Utah trip

2011-09-07T21:09:00.000-07:00

It's September already and I still haven't finished my Utah trip back in July! Geez. I'm a blogger slacker, a blacker, or slogger, whichever. I need to get this done because much more has already happened that's putting me even more behind. Here it is, the rest of our trip.

We finished up in Beaver with horse rides, campfires, a crawdad cookoff, and s'mores. We went camping at Bear Lake with my dad and family, played at the Gateway in SLC, and Kassidy got to go to Build-A-Bear for her birthday. It was a wonderful vacation and we are blessed to have spent 3 weeks with our wonderful families.

Dirty camping boy.

Too funny--April just got a whiff of Korbin's stinky bum! Ha ha!

Hike up to Bloomington Lake.

Swimming part 2

2011-08-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

What would summer be without lots of swimming? I have to say I think this was my very favorite part of our Utah trip. The Marchant family all went to family night at the Beaver pool Monday night. We had a fabulous time swimming together, and we practically had the whole pool to ourselves. They have a great kid pool and grandma Marchant even got it! It was a great night.

Playing chicken

Korbin found these goggles and wanted to put them on himself.

So he tried,

and tried,

and finally, success! What a proud little face!

And then we came home and I put Kassidy in the tub. I went to grab her pajamas and came back to find she had a buddy in the tub with her. What a fun aunt Whitney!

*ANOTHER NEW POST BELOW

Bullion Falls

2011-08-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

One day in Beaver we decided to take a drive past the Big Rock Candy Mountain and up towards Marysvale to go see Bullion Falls. Someone (cough, Kevin) seemed to remember a "simple" hike to see them and thought it would be doable for us all. While the hike was only about a mile, it was a VERY steep uphill the entire time and not a kid friendly hike. Too bad, since we had 16 kids doing the hike. I just have to say that I am grateful for all the buff men in our family doing the hike, or else we never would have made it. Swasey and Korbin did the hike too, so pretty much everyone hiking was carrying a small kid or helping a kid down to the falls. In the end, we all made it there and back safely. The waterfall was beautiful and it was definitely a memorable trip!

*ANOTHER NEW POST BELOW

Summer days

2011-08-29T21:10:00.000-07:00

While in Beaver, on the 24th of July afternoon, we made our way up to Upper Kent's Lake for a few hours of cool fun. The kids had a blast in the water, and nobody drowned, so it was a successful day. We took the canoe up and Scott had a good time pulling the kids around on an old log behind the canoe.

Kassidy, Swasey, and grandma Marchant

Shade loungers: Kevin, Kim, Lydie (sleeping), Whitney, and Bruce

Dirty kids are happy kids :)

The Historic Land of Four Seasons

2011-08-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

Slowly but surely I'm whittling away at our Utah trip. So bear with me post by post :)

Next we went to visit Kevin's family in Beaver. We tease and call it the Historic Land of 4 Seasons because Beaver used to have a billboard that said that when you entered the town. Like no other town has four seasons? Funny. But we really do love coming home to Beaver. It was the 1st place Kevin and I lived as a married couple, and the surrounding areas are so beautiful. My kids love coming to Grandpa Bruce's house because they have a great yard, and horses! We were blessed to have 5 of the 7 Marchant siblings there with us (we sure missed Kelli and Kent's families), so it was a FULL house! 30 people and not much room makes for a wonderful time. We spent a lot of time outside on the deck and playing in the mountains.

Korbin found some "swords" and his cousins entertained him for hours. They need to come visit us because Korbin just loved all the boy time and attention.

Kassidy's getting over her fear of horses, as long as Grandpa's nearby. She and Jared rode Murphy for about an hour in the hot sun. Bruce was such a good sport to walk them around for that long. I think he loves it as much as they do!

These two look more like siblings than cousins :)

Feeding Murphy carrots from the garden. Shhhh, don't tell Grandma!

Aunt Wee-wee and Korbie.

Cute niece Lyndie and her cool kool-aid stache.

The Beaver parade was more than we expected. In fact, most of us left before it was over because it went so long! But even Korbin knew what to do when they threw candy in the road.

Some of the gang. The rest went fishing.

Swimming

2011-08-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

This is taking me forever to update our Utah trip! Oh well. I figure it took me 3 weeks to take all these pictures, so it'll take me at least that long to blog about them all. And I figure it's a little more fun to read about them little by little, instead of in one HUGE post! So bear with me (if you even care).

We did lots of swimming on our summer vacation since the weather was HOT. Here's Kevin and Korbin at the Spanish Fork pool and then us all at Seven Peaks.

My cute sisters rocking their shades :)

At the end of our Seven Peaks night there were even fireworks going off nearby. Korbin loved 'em!

*Two New Posts Below

Friends

2011-08-21T18:06:00.000-07:00

While home I was able to go to lunch with two of my best friends from high school. We try and make a habit of getting together at Christmas and over the 24th of July when most of us are home visiting family. My friend Marie also stopped by my house for a chat, but I didn't take any pictures. We went to our favorite place in Provo, Brick Oven (it's a tradition) and caught up on everything. I love these girls! We can get together once a year or less and it's like we never missed a day. I guess that's how bosom buddies are :) We had a wonderful time and I love hearing about all their blossoming families. I just missed getting to see Alyssa, who's in Michigan.*Another New Post Below!

Korbie's 1st haircut

2011-08-21T17:59:00.000-07:00

Along with turning 1, Korbin had another 1st--his first haircut! We are a short-hair family, meaning we like our boys to have a clean look. I'm pretty sure Kevin will never let our future teenage boys wear the shaggy look :) So Kevin gave Korbin his first haircut. It was pretty entertaining to watch, as well as a little sad to see those baby locks fall off. But Korbin's hair was getting a little long and curly and had this weird old man comb over.

The first swipe made Korbin nervous.

Here's a close-up of the old man comb over.

He was so done at this point. Get me out of here!!

Baby Boy turns 1!

2011-08-17T21:59:00.001-07:00

While we were in Utah my sweet little Korbin turned one year old! It's crazy to think that a year has gone by already, but I also feel like he's always been in our family and I can't imagine our lives with this sweet little boy. We were blessed to have our family come and celebrate with us on his special day. We held a little dinner at my mom's house and let Korbin open presents. Well, Kassidy actually did most of the present opening, but that's to be expected! Korbin didn't really know what was going on, but he was cute and excited through it all.

Kevin made Korbin an awesome baseball cake and I made cupcakes for everyone. We had a great time and were so happy to have this occasion with some of the people we love most in this world! Happy birthday sweet Korbin Moroni! You mean the world to us and we are very proud to call you our son :)

Birthday boy

Korby and Grandma Marchant

Korby and Great-grandma Hicken

Big sis was a great helper through the present process.

Of COURSE he got a baseball toy. Did you worry?

He really wasn't too excited about the cake and didn't dig in like we expected. Although it was WAY past nap time, so he poked at it once, cried, and I put him down to sleep. Oh well, there's next year's cake! Kassidy loved having all the attention be on her brother. She sure loves this little guy :)

Happy birthday Korbin!

Enjoying Nature

2011-08-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

We were blessed to spend a blissful 3 weeks at home in Utah visiting all our family. It'll take me a few posts to catch up on all the hundreds of pictures I took. We had a wonderful time and were sad to come back to school and life in California. While there, my children were able to play outside every day, which is something new to them. Sad huh? I mean we go to parks alot and find things to do outside, but nothing beats having a YARD to play in any time of day.

We had a serious thunderstorm while in Spanish Fork and Kassidy and Korbin enjoyed the experience of playing in the rain. Who says you have to spend a bunch of money to have a great time?

Cute Grandma Shelly (my mom)

I love this face!

We also took a family bike ride one evening. My sister Jenny had a hard time keeping up, so my other sister Karina tied a rope to her awesome tricycle and towed her along. This worked great until Jenny would slam on the breaks in panic and send Karina careening over the handlebars. We had a lot of laughs over the 3 mile ride, and we all had sore behinds the next day.

Karina the Stinker...

Kevin

Jenny on her awesome trike

Mom pulling the kidlets. She has killer calves, these puppies were tough to pull!

Kevin bbq us some tri-tip steak one night. So yummy!

Little helper

2011-08-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

My kids always love to be in the kitchen when I'm cooking. Probably because they know if they help they'll get fed earlier. It's not like there's a lot of room in the kitchen (look at the below picture--that's it, the entire kitchen!), and extra bodies make the room very squished! But I do enjoy teaching the kids and having them help me. I want them to have an love for cooking and the knowledge to do it for their families one day. Too many kids these days aren't taught the necessary skills to prepare a meal. Sad! Here are my little helpers when I was baking cookies. "Astrid" the Viking girl was sharing chocolate chips with little big-head :) I love the way she did it, by extending the wooden spoon with the chocolate chip on it. It made me smile watching them share.

When in Utah Kassidy would always beg to help with meal preparation. One thing she could do that was semi-safe was cut watermelon. It made me smile to eat VERY bite-sized pieces with dinner. And yes, we give our children knives :)

*Another New Post below

Homemade jammies

2011-08-13T13:35:00.001-07:00

So I am WAY behind on all my blogging. After a 3 week vacation to Utah-many posts to come-I feel the need for some of my old routine...mainly, blog updating and reading. So here's the first. A couple weeks ago I was cleaning out the kids drawers and came across this old baggie sleeper of Korbin's. He only got to wear it a couple times before it got to cold for sleeveless at night. So I decided to transform the baggie sleeper into a nice breezy jammy outfit for my little man.

And here are my kidlets modeling. I also made this nightgown for princess Kassidy a month ago. It was a first time try for sure! I'll be trying again and fixing all my mistakes I learned from. But she loves it, which makes me happy!

The Moth that wouldn't die

2011-06-26T12:12:00.001-07:00

I've always hated moths. They camouflage and wait to pounce when you least expect them. Their strange sporadic flight pattern leaves you never sure which direction they'll fly next. Those creepy antennae give me the willies, and they are just ugly!! This fear was increased after seeing the movie "Mothman Prophecies" (an admittedly stupid movie, but creepy nonetheless) and after an experience at girls camp where I woke up to a moth in my shirt. I'll never know how long it was in there, but just the thought of sleeping the whole night with that little creep touching my skin was enough to really scar me for life.

Anytime an unfortunate moth happens to find it's way into my home, I turn into "that girl". You know, the one who shrieks and freaks out and runs for a big strong man to "Kill it! Kill it!" Luckily, Kevin humors me and promptly kills the moth without any cruel teasing or chasing me with the moth in the tissue. But after our experience last night, I'm afraid he's joined my team of moth haters.

As I entered my room to get ready for bed, I noticed a little brown creep hanging out in the corner, just out of my reach and above our bed. I gave a noticeable shiver and ran for Kevin. I used the excuse that the moth was just out of my reach (it was) and that I hate them (I do) and Kevin came to my rescue. My hero! He grabbed the moth in the tissue, smooshed it pretty good, and threw it in our bathroom garbage. Done.

Or so we thought.

About an hour later when we go to the bathroom for teeth brushing and face washing and what not, the creepy moth is hanging out by the door! What? I thought you killed it? I did, it must not have been all the way dead. So here comes death number two, into the toilet he goes and FLUSH, goodbye! I can sleep easy now. Then Kevin goes to take care of business and sits on the toilet. All is well for a few seconds, until Kevin's face registers utter panic, he jumps off the toilet, unable to stop the flow immediately, and out flies the moth!! That little creep took a swim back up the pipe and popped Kevin right on the bum before his daring escape and landing up high on the light.

You can image my mixed emotions of fear, hatred for the moth, and sheer and utter hilarity of watching Kevin be kissed on the butt by a moth. He said he expected there was a powder mark on his bum from how hard the moth hit him. It was pretty entertaining, and I didn't even stop laughing to kill the dang thing for the 3rd time. I made Kevin pull up his undies and kill it...AGAIN!

Kevin has now joined me in my hatred and fear of moths. He acts hurt that I laughed at his near death experience, but I'm just glad it didn't happen to me.

Kassidy's 4th birthday party

2011-06-21T20:35:00.001-07:00

This year I took on the task of throwing my sweet 4 year old her first friend party. Now normally I wouldn't let her have one until she turned 6, but many of our good friends will be moving in the next couple months (on to new jobs, military stations, and their homes), and we used this as an excuse to have a party!

Kassidy picked the theme of "Tangled" (that's the Rapunzel story for those of you who don't know) and we ran with it. I found so many cute ideas on the Disney website here that I felt like I didn't even have to be creative :) Here's what we did, along with lots of pictures--I even left a bunch out!

My aunt and uncle were so sweet to help us out. They helped set up and take down and wrangled kids and entertain my sweet Korbin, who really just wanted me to hold him through the whole party. I wish my mom could've made it out to the party, but I so grateful to have Scott and Jennette here with us!

When the kids came in they colored printout pictures of Rapunzel and gang.

The food was a hit. We had pulled pork sandwiches, chips, grapes, veggies and dip and some cute jello boats that I stole off someone else's blog ;)

Blue jello with orange boats in them. These were a big hit with the kids!

All the cute princes and princesses. Kassidy is one loved little girl!

We played pin the frying pan on Flynn Rider. Kevin free-hand drew this poster for me. He's the best!

Kassidy ended up hitting the picture dead on the nose on the first try, so we gave the prize to second place. The kids were good sports and seemed to enjoy this. Can you tell where we had our party? He he..

Next we made Pascal party blowers, after the cute chameleon Pascal from the movie. Although most of these were broken from too much spit by the end of the evening, the kids loved 'em!

See?

Last, we opened presents and had cupcakes. I took pictures with each kid after Kassidy opened their present, but there's just too many to put up here. I thought this one was cute. This is Kassidy's new friend Soren, and he dressed up like Flynn Rider. So here's Rapunzel and Flynn.

My little Kass was very sweet, with no birthday girl melt-downs (pheww!). She loved her party, and got home and had to play with everything new once before bed.

Now I don't have to do another party for 5 years, right?

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful men in our lives! I am very blessed to be surrounded by wonderful men, some of which are father's and some who are not.

I have a wonderfully creative and inventive father who taught me to have desire to make and create things with my hands. He gave me his creative talents, for which I am very grateful. He is very passionate when he gets an idea and I love watching him work. My father is also a wonderful grandpa and loves my kids so much! I love you Dad :)

I'm also blessed with an amazing father-in-law. Bruce is one of the kindest men I know. He's very generous and always wants to share what he has, no matter how big or small. Bruce is also a wonderful grandpa, and my kids love him, especially when he takes them riding horses or playing in the yard. We love you Bruce :)

We also have adopted my uncle Scott as a surrogate father/grandpa since moving out here to California. He's so sweet to take us under his wing and help us out in times of need. He's such a hard worker and has endless service for those around him. We love you Scott :)

There are many more wonderful men in our lives, including my sweet grandfather's and other men in our church who always lend a helping hand or advice when needed. Here's to you men!!

And last, but definitely NOT least is my sweet husband. Kevin is one top-notch papa! He has a deep love for his children and loves to spend time with them. He is the master at making them laugh and always knows how to cheer up a moody 4 year old (that feels weird to say) or tired baby boy. Kevin is the epitome of "great father" and my kids are SOooo lucky to have him! I'm always amazed by his talent for parenting and he makes me want to be a better mother. I love you honey and I love sharing our family with you. Happy Father's Day!

For Father's Day, I made prints of these pictures and put them in a tri-fold frame for Kevin. He loved it! Although I couldn't make them work side by side for this post, here they are. Happy Father's Day!!

Kassidy is 4

2011-06-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

My sweet Kassidy turned 4 this past week and we sure had a fun time celebrating it with her. We did so many fun things that I'll have to break them up into a couple posts. On Kassidy's actual birthday we went to Six Flags with some friends. Unfortunately, the daddies had to work or study :( so it was just the mommies and kids. We have season passes, so it was nice to just go for a couple hours and not feel like we had to make a big long day of it. The weather was very warm, so the kids gravitated towards the fountains. We had a wonderful time!

Here are the kids after lunch. Korbin looks like he's so big!

Riding the Safari jeeps.

Kassidy, Korbin and Finn playing in the fountain.

That evening we let Kassidy open family presents. Grandma Jennette and my cousin Blake came over. We were having a friend party the next night, so this night wasn't too big of a deal. Kassidy sure is a loved little girl though!

Happy Birthday girlie! There are more posts and many more pics to come on her party.

Little girl not so little anymore

2011-06-11T10:29:00.000-07:00

All of a sudden my beautiful baby girl is not a baby anymore! Okay, so maybe not "all of a sudden", but it does seem like her toddler-ness is suddenly gone and I have myself a full fledged little girl. Our sweet Kassidy turns 4 this coming week, and even though I keep telling her she can't grow up any more, she's just not listening to me!

We sure are happy to have this sweet little girl in our home. She's the one who made us parents and we have learned so much from her. Kassidy has the sweetest disposition, mixes with the perfect amount of sass and personality. She's so fun! I could sit and talk about all the smart, fun and entertaining things she does all day. We love you Kassidy, thanks for choosing to come to our family!

A girl's got to get pretty in the morning!

Anniversary

2011-06-05T22:13:00.001-07:00

Kevin and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary this past week. I can't believe it's been that long already. Time has flown by and I can't believe all that we've done and seen and made and accomplished in this short time. I love this man more than life itself, and I look forward to many more wonderful anniversaries with him. Love you babe!

**More blog post below**

Family Camp Out

2011-06-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

Kassidy's been begging to go camping practically every day. Since Kevin still has one last exam to study for, and it's been raining for the past 2 weeks, we decided to have a camp out at home. Kevin made an awesome tent in our little living room, we roasted marshmallows and made smores on the bbq, and we watched a movie and slept in our tent. It was a great family camp out and I think it's appeased Miss Kassidy for at least a few days. In the words of our cute almost-4 year old, "We have the best family, EVER!"

Always willing to share a mallow. He even softened it up a bit for you!

The awesome tent build by Kevin.

My kiddos all cozy in the tent.

**Read below for another post**

Girls Night Out

2011-06-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago it was the father-son camp out and Kevin decided to take Korbin for the evening part and not sleep over. So naturally, a girls-night out ensued! My friend Jen and I took our girls out to dinner and then did a little window shopping at the mall. It was a great night, with chit-chat, good food, and the cutest darn 3 year olds ever. I think we should make it a monthly thing :)

At Red Robin with my cute date

The girls with their new friend they made at Old Navy.

Forever 21, hiding out under the tables.

The girls modeling the purses they picked out.

Messy face

2011-05-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

What do you get when you combine spaghetti dinner and mint oreos for dessert? One very messy, but very cute little man. He sure loves him some real people food! (And he out-eats his sister most every night). We sure love this little guy!

My recent DIY projects

2011-05-17T14:44:00.001-07:00

I feel like I've been overcome with the crafting bug lately. I have little desire to clean during nap time like I really should. Instead, when I get a little mommy alone time (it is precious and much coveted time), these projects have been born. Take a peek if you care!

This first one is our new dresser. I couldn't be happier with it. We found it at our Stake rummage sale for $30! It was already in pretty good shape, but with a little wear and tear. I should have taken a "before" picture, but I forgot. My sweet husband fixed it up for us, added a little stain to the worn spots, fixed the broken drawers, and shined it up. I love it! (Please excuse the clutter of my room. Our apt. is really small and my craft table is jammed in our bedroom. Also, Kassidy was watching a movie when I took this pic).

This is my new church bag. I've been wanting to make this for months! I finally got around to it, and I have to say I'm very pleased how it turned out. It's made out of a thicker, home decor fabric with interfacing between the layers, so it stands up pretty well on its own. I put some cardboard in the bottom between the layers too for a more durable bottom.

Add some pockets for those much needed church trinkets, and there is the perfect bag for my primary binders and papers.

This projects was for my kids to play with quietly at church or whenever. I found the idea here. They are dinosaur play mats, complete with a drawstring bag to hold the dinos.
Finally, here are my decorative pillows for my bed. Made from home decor fabric, and my first time doing piping (or cording, whatever you call it). It was actually a lot easier than I expected, and I was satisfied. I cut open to smooshed and ugly Walmart pillows and stuffed the stuffing in these babies. So they're a little lumpy, but they do the job. Not sure why the pictures are a little fuzzy though...

I have a list of many more projects, and fabric galore in my craft stash waiting to come to life. Happy crafting all!

Giants Game

2011-05-03T21:24:00.001-07:00

The Saturday before Easter we were lucky enough to get to go to a Giants baseball game. Our old next door neighbors gave us 2 pairs of his season tickets because he knew Kevin was such a huge Braves fan and the Giants were playing the Braves Saturday. It was the perfect birthday present, and Kevin and Britanna happened to be here to join us!

The weather was perfect, the seats were A-MAZING (12th row on the first base line), and the game was great (especially since the Braves won)! We had a great time, and despite Korbin, Kevin and I still feeling sick, we had a perfect day. We even got a little sunburned. Go Braves! Go Giants!

Cutest little rally baby ever!

Here's a good braces shot if you haven't seen yet ;)

The kids were pooped after a long day and were both asleep by this point.

Easter

2011-04-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Easter this year, full of good food and even better company. The only thing that could have been better was if we were all feeling better. Sickness hit our home for the past week and a half and is finally gone. Yay! I hate being sick and hate even more when my kids are sick.

My little brother Kevin and his wife Britanna came to visit us for Easter and brought with them many goodies from Utah grandma's, making Easter at our house seem a bit like Christmas :)
Korbin got a cool bike that turns into a walker. He's mastered going backwards, but is very frustrated that he can't make it go forwards.
Kassidy had a very Tangles Easter and was thrilled! She's already watched this movie more than 8 times this week already.
Here's my cute brother and his beautiful wife. They were troopers to camp out in our living room and put up with our sickness and limited space.
We also celebrated Kevin's 29th birthday on Easter. Happy birthday babe! It was the first time his birthday's ever fallen on Easter. His big present was going to the Giants vs Braves game the day before, which I'll post about later. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful father and husband in our lives. We love you Kevin! (And I finally got a picture of the braces. Sorry babe!)
We took an Easter Sunday trip to show my brother the Oaklyn temple. Here's my little Rapunzel playing in the fountain.

Later we had an easter egg hunt at my uncle's house, complete with a pinata that I made to look like an easter egg. I have to admit it was a fun waste of 8 hours since the thing was destroyed within 30 seconds. But Kassidy enjoyed it, which was the whole point.

Egg heads :)

We had a great Easter, and of course taught Kassidy to the true meaning of Easter. She loves the part where Jesus comes back alive. I love how much this little girl is learning in Primary and repeats back to us. She and Korbin light up my life and make every day wonderful. I'll have more posts to come about our time with Kevin and Britanna here soon.

Delinquent blogger

2011-04-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

I've been quite the delinquent blogger of late. Blame it on a sick house. It's Kevin's spring break this week and part of next week and of course, everyone at our house got sick. But of course not all at once. We decided to drag it out and stagger it so it's not all over at once! Poo. I'm tired and ready for everyone to be healthy again because we have a fun weekend planned and lots to do. Anyway, I've been working on some projects I need to post and have lots of cute pictures, but no motivation. If you're one of the 2 people who care (Grandma :), just know I'm getting to it!

Quiet Book

2011-04-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

After 3 months of work on this project, it's FINALLY done!! I am so relieved to not have to work on it anymore, and very happy with the end result. My friend had the idea back in January of making a felt quiet book. We took on the challenge, aided by the internet and other people's fabulous ideas, and went to work.

I lost steam about a month into it and the book sat on my craft table unfinished, only to be resumed a few weeks later. I decided to take the long route and sew everything. I've seen some books like this where the maker used "wonder under" and ironed the pieces on. I want my book to get many years of good use, so I sewed everything.

This book took countless after bedtime hours, but I think it's worth it. Next step, I'm going to make a bag for miss Kassidy to carry this baby in to church. She loves it by the way, so it's a success. Here are some pictures of the pages if you're interested.

Snap on shape page.

Barn with adorable finger puppets inside.

Tic Tac Toe board with velcro pieces. Surprisingly, this was the easiest page to make, and it's also Kassidy's favorite page to play with. Go figure!

Counting flower with velcro.

Stackable ice cream cone with a pocket to hold ice cream and toppings.

There's a flavor for any taste!

Button on bubbles. (this was a last minute page because I needed one more. I don't love it, but it works)

Find the mouse doors and windows. This idea was my cute husband's. He was excited to contribute and came up with many more ideas after I was done with the book. I may be adding more pages after I've recovered for a few months :)

There it is!

Hand goes in the mitten.

Kassidy doll.

Kassidy doll's clothes line and laundry basket.

Build a snowman. The pieces just sit on the flannel square.

Here's the pocket to keep the snowman pieces.

Crayon pockets.

Notebook and pen pockets.

Back zipper pocket with Mr and Mrs. Potato Head-like faces with pieces. I'm making a few more accessories and appendages.

*I got some of my ideas HERE....HERE...and HERE.

Need to be BIG

2011-04-04T20:48:00.001-07:00

My "little man" isn't so little anymore. It makes me sad to think how in a few short years he'll be a teenager (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little)!! But seriously, this little guy amazes me every day by the things he's learning and doing. He wants to do everything big sis does, even though he's not even crawling yet. We love you Korbin and are so glad you're in our family :)

P.S. Another new post is below this one.

Eagle Scout

2011-04-04T20:34:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday my cute cousin Blake and 6 other boys in our ward received their Eagle Scout awards. For those of you not familiar with the scouting world, this is the highest award you can receive as a scout. It means hours of work, projects and service and is quite the accomplishment. We were so glad we could be here to see Blake receive this award. It was a neat night, with my uncle Scott awarding each of the boys. He's been a huge part of helping Blake receive this award and is a big advocate of the scouting program.

I found this wonderful quote by President Ezra Taft Benson, former President of our church (1953-1961). I love it and wanted to share it:

"Give me a young man who has kept himself morally clean and has faithfully attended his Church meetings. Give me a young man who has magnified his priesthood and has earned his Duty to God Award and is an Eagle Scout. Give me a young man who is a seminary graduate and has a burning testimony of the Book of Mormon. Give me such a young man and I will give you a young man who can perform miracles for the Lord in the mission field and throughout his life."

Way to go Blake!!

Playing School

2011-03-31T15:32:00.000-07:00

Kassidy is in a wonderful stage where she just soaks up information. She really wants to learn about everything and anything. Lately, she's been asking about letters and their sounds, so I decided (with a great example from a friend) to start teaching her at home. We do school 3-5 times a week, depending on the week. We only do about 30 minute lessons, because that's about all the attention I can keep from Kassidy, and we have to do them while baby brother is napping. It's been 6 weeks, we are on the letter F this week, and Kassidy is flourishing! She loves the one on one attention and I'm impressed with all she knows and how she retains so much information. I wish adult brains were the same way. I'm so proud of my almost-4 year old and her love of knowledge!

Here she is doing math as she sorts cereal during "C" week.

Learning to write the letter D.

Kassidy's first Primary talk

2011-03-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago our beautiful little Sunbeam (that's the name of the 3 year old class in our church) had her first opportunity to give a talk in Primary. She was so excited! We worked on the talk the week before and got her all dolled up and hair curled the morning of. She even colored the picture herself. The topic of her talk was "I will follow God's plan for me". She gave a perfect delivery the day of and was very articulate and adorable. I'm a little biased, but I was so proud of my big girl! Since it's not really appropriate to film during church, here's a repeat performance done at home. She was being a little silly for the camera, but you get the gist. (Sorry, this is mainly for the grandparents).

HELP!

2011-03-08T15:22:00.000-08:00

Hey all you uber-crafty women out there. I'm in need of a little help. I'm currently attempting to up-cycle my favorite pair of jeans with a hole in the knee into a cute and flirty denim skirt. I like the A-line style that hits just below the knee. I've ripped out the seams and am ready to begin sewing. Do any of you know of a great tutorial on how to do the rest? I think I could figure it out on my own if I needed to, but I love the blog tutorials with pictures, they're so helpful for a beginning sewer like me. If you happen to know of one, I'd love a link. Thanks!

Korbin pictures

2011-03-02T20:59:00.000-08:00

Our little man is changing too much, and much too quickly. We needed to get an updated picture before he decides to up and grow a beard on us :) My sweet and very talented friend Constance did these beautiful photos for us. Check out more of her stuff here. Did I mention that I have the cutest little football head boy ever? I could kiss this face ALL day!! Here he is at 7 months.

He has 2 teeth now and LOVES to run his tongue over the two tiny tidbits on the bottom :)

P.S. The adorable hat was made by my sister-in-law Kim. She sells them, and MUCH more, including baby shoes, headbands, and all things CUTE on her etsy site "Cotton Corner" here.

Top Shot

2011-02-26T11:44:00.000-08:00

Kevin had school off Monday for President's day, so my uncle Scott invited him to go shooting with him. Normally I would opt to stay home for this, but the prospect of sitting at home alone with the kids another day seemed dull. So we tagged along and ended up having a great time! I usually avoid shooting guns (they kind of scare me), but Kevin educated me a little and I decided to try shooting his Springfield XD40, his .22, and shot a shotgun for the very first time. I think I was actually pretty good at hitting the clay pigeons and I had a good time doing it. Kassidy brought along her mini potato gun and shot everyone with potato pellets, and she even shot a real gun with Daddy's help. Korbin was a champ and kept his earphones on well. He and grandma Jennette (my aunt) went for a little walk to get away from the noise. We had a wonderful day enjoying the nice spring weather.

"Grandma" Jennette and "Grandpa" Scott shooting

I have a hot husband :)

Dead eye! I think she'll be a pro soon.

Don't mess with us.

Shooting clay pigeons

Valentine's adventure

2011-02-23T11:18:00.000-08:00

Valentine's weekend was such an exciting event at our house because it signaled the end of the dreaded block exams and meant we'd be seeing our daddy/husband again! So to celebrate, we decided to pack our little car up with snacks and changes of clothes and head on an adventure. We weren't really sure where were going, we just knew that the day was beautiful and we wanted to go somewhere new.

So with the aid of our trusty GPS, we found our way through Sonoma, past a Coast Guard Training Facility, through a beautiful cow laden town called Tomales, and eventually ended up on Highway 1 and at the beach. We stopped for a picnic in some cool druid-looking rocks, happened to be the ONLY car driving through an apparent biker-friendly town, saw sea lions, some of the most beautiful scenic country, and ended up at one of our favorite beaches, Stinson Beach. Coincidentally, we went to Stinson beach last year for Valentines. Maybe it'll be our new tradition :)

We had a nice time spending the day as a family. The kids really enjoyed getting out, the weather was ideal, and I really needed a tiny escape with my family and handsome husband. I don't realize how much he means to me and what a big help he is around the house until he has exams and is practically gone for two weeks. I love you hun! Enjoy the pics...

Road trip diva

Check out that view!

This was Korbin's first experience with sand. He dug his pink toes in deep and kept trying to eat it. Note that the muskacheer sword in the background had to come to the beach with us.

My kids have the best daddy :)o

Busy working on something cool.

I'm glad families are forever, because I really love mine!

Sacramento Train Museum

2011-02-21T21:08:00.000-08:00

We are situated in the perfect spot, smack dab between San Francisco and Sacramento. A couple weeks ago, Sacramento hosted Free Museum Day. I knew the word FREE would bring out everyone and anyone and I was sure to run into masses of people, but Kevin was 2 days away from Block Exams, which means stress galore and Daddy MIA. Rather than sit around the house feeling sorry for myself on a lonely Saturday, we decided to venture to our capital city and have an adventure!

Kevin's sister Kelli and her 3 boys met up with us at the Sacramento Railroad Museum and we pushed and shoved through the throngs of people to get a glimpse at the infamous locomotives. Kassidy really loved the big trains, I hated the crowds, and Korbin was pretty oblivious. We'll have to go back again to see everything that had a big line to see it. We followed up the museum with a picnic lunch in the 68 degree weather outside (one definite plus to California. February at home in Utah is still in the 30's. We call it "warm" when it hits 50 ).

We should have quit while we were ahead and still had some patience left, but I foolishly convinced everyone to head to Fairytale Town for an hour more. Traffic getting there was HORRIBLE! That should have tipped me off to the crowds awaiting us there, but I was still oblivious. Yikes. The place was packed, but we managed to get in a few attractions before it closed. The kids had a good time, which is was matters right? Kassidy, if you ever read this when you are grown up, know that I risked my own sanity to give you fun experiences. Do it for your kids too! :)

Cute cousins

Cayden was way excited to see the trains!

Kelli with the kids in a boxcar

They had some BIG trains in the museum

This picture reminds me of "A Christmas Story" :)

My little Cinderella

What a fun day!

*MORE POSTS BELOW

Bay Area Discovery Museum

2011-02-21T20:55:00.000-08:00

The Bay area has tons of really neat museums to see, and on the first Wednesday of every month, they're free!! We're excited with the nicer weather and older baby boy to start visiting some of them. Our sweet friends, the Deurksens, invited us along with them for a fun outing to the Bay Area Discovery Museum. It was our first time and the day couldn't have been more beautiful! The museum is situated right at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. The museum is both inside and out and has tons of themed rooms for the kids. Kassidy enjoyed it all and I loved watching her imagination grow with make-believe fishing, train rides, ocean discovery, construction work, and more. We'll definitely be return guests.

Kassidy and Chase were really excited to go in, despite these glum looks :)

Korbin made a friend who was just as cute as himself :) Mirrors are the coolest to 6 month olds!

Cool giant redwood that Kassidy walked through

Kassidy, Finn, me and Korbin in a wicker house.

This was Kassidy's favorite room where she pretended to drive boats, fish, and then sell her wares at a pretend Fisherman's Wharf. So cool! And Korbin was definitely ready for a nap at this point.

*ANOTHER POST BELOW

Muskacheer!

2011-02-21T20:47:00.001-08:00

Kassidy's been really into the Three Musketeers lately. We checked out a Barbie Musketeer movie from the library and it's been her new favorite. She's been begging to be a musketeer. Yeah, my girlie loves to dress up. So I whipped her up a simple mask, which admittedly wasn't that great, I'll have to fix it, but she loved it. Later, her awesome daddy whipped up a couple rapier swords for our little muskacheer. She loves 'em!

It's a daddy thing

2011-02-10T21:56:00.000-08:00

This must be a daddy thing, because Kevin has a picture of his dad doing the same thing to him. This makes me smile! Too bad I'm not strong enough to do this...

Daddy with Korbin, January 2011

Daddy with Kassidy January 2008

Ice Skating

2011-02-10T21:39:00.000-08:00

I'm a little behind, but a few weeks ago we took Kassidy ice skating for the first time. I think it was a hit because for days afterwards she kept begging to go back. She was the cutes little blondie in size 9 skates! After 2 hours, Kevin and I were exhausted and our backs were killing us, but Kassidy wanted to keep going. Maybe we have a future Michelle Kwan :)

This is what you do when your back starts to seize up.

Missing Daddy

2011-02-03T17:24:00.000-08:00

We are missing our Daddy/husband this week. It's block exam time, which means Kevin lives at the library and sleeps about 5 hours a night to get everything done. We have to take our quality time where we can get it. Today we visited him at the library. Kassidy drew a picture of Daddy. Can you see the resemblance?The scribbles at the top say "daddy".

New "Do"

2011-01-29T21:44:00.002-08:00

I was in desperate need of a change. I was starting to look like I did in high school (minus the skinny bum) and my long hair was beginning to be used like horsey reins by my baby. Plus, it's just looking mousey and I needed something fresh.

Before:

After:

Excuse the spastic face and baby snot on my right shoulder. I felt a little weird taking my own picture in the mirror :) I love the short and easy do and Kevin loves the blonde. Only Kassidy is a little disappointed. She keeps asking if my hair will grow back long to the ground like Rapunzel's. Silly girl! Change is good :)

Trying new things

2011-01-26T15:36:00.000-08:00

If you had asked me a few months ago how I felt about skinny jeans, I would have given you an earful about the horrible style, how unflattering they are on almost every body type, the bizarre colors they come in, and how I would never be caught DEAD in a pair. So why is that I now have not one pair in my closet, but two?

I love the comment that they are called skinny jeans, not wish-you-were-skinny jeans! So why have I caved and got myself some? I'm not really sure. I think maybe curiosity had something to do with it. Why would so many women wear them if they were too horrible? Second, I've reached pre-pregnancy weight and I'm very bored with my wardrobe (what is it about getting back to your desired clothesize that makes you want new clothes?). Finally, a bargain was what initially got me into the pants. I found a pair of skinny jeans from Target for a mere $7.00. Who can pass up a bargain like that?! Isn't it sad that an inexpensive price tag changed my cemented opinion of something? Well, I guess I'm just cheap :)

As for the pants, they're not as bad as I first supposed. I think I'll occasionally wear them, as long as my behind is covered by a longer shirt or sweater. I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions on the "skinny trend".

MaZageens and Nazguls

2011-01-18T13:16:00.000-08:00

Do you remember these things? 20 points if you knew that this is a Nazgul from Lord of the Rings. Welcome to the nerd club. If you'll recall, the Nazgul makes a horribly evil screeching sound as it's descending to slaughter the happy elves and dwarfs and such. We happen to have one such Nazgul living in our home.

Don't let his adorably kissable cheeks or big brown eyes fool you. This little Nazgul has the most ear piercing screech known to man (or elf). He chooses to employ this screeching power at the precise moment after I've put my head down on the pillow and begin to drift off to la-la land. How does he know when this precise moment will be? Nazgul powers. He has them.

We desperately love our little Nazgul, but I'm actually starting to wonder if they make shock collars for babies. You know, the kind that gives a minor volt for barks, or Nazgul shrieks. Okay, so maybe that's not acceptable by society. Any other suggestions? A muzzle maybe?

*Side note: If you're confused by the other part of the title, Nazgul's big sister says MaZageen for magazine, and it just rolls off the tongue when paired with Nazgul. Must be all the zzzzzzzzz's (which have been stolen from a very exhausted Nazgul mommy :)

Way behind-Christmas catch up

2011-01-17T21:32:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling swamped by my lack of posts and need to catch up. No real excuse, just that I'm tired and don't want to backlog a month's worth ( a very busy month) of posts. So here's a mini version of our Christmas with probably only 1/20 of the pictures I took! If you don't care, don't scroll down, lot's of pictures :)We enjoyed an early Christmas at home in California with our little family. We were spoiled by each other :0
Korbin got a mirror to stare at his cute big baby face all day. He loves it!
All Kassidy asked Santa for was a pink computer so she could do homework with Daddy. Santa delivered and we had one very happy 3 year old!

Future baller, just like Daddy :)

We started out our Utah Christmas break at my mom's house in Spanish Fork. We had a family party and a way too early start to present opening (hence the sleepy faces).

Kassidy loves her uncle Daniel and he's a really good sport to play with her always :)

We love our Grammy!

Lot's of time was spent with my favorite people-my grandparents.

Many tea parties and princess dress-up sessions later, we were done with phase 1 of 3.

Next we went down south to Beaver:

We had a big snowstorm while in Beaver and took full advantage since we are missing our white Christmas in California. Kass and I made a snow-blob.

Better than a horse!

The Marchant clan went to go see "Tangled" in Cedar City. Kassidy insisted on loudly exclaiming which part was coming up next since she'd already seen it.

Doing puzzles with Grandma and cousins was a highlight for Kassidy.

We finished up our Christmas break at my dad's house in Bountiful.

Daddy and Grandpa introduced Korbin to guns and leather work, which I'm sure will fill many of his future Christmas gifts :)

It's SO FLUFFY!!

We had a fun Christmas with all our families and enjoyed our time home. It went by way too quickly!! Although, it's good to be home and in our own beds again. We are counting down: Only 2 more Christmases until we are hopefully back in UTAH!

Santa Claus is comin' to town

2010-12-14T13:40:00.001-08:00

The tree is up, the presents are wrapped, the house is decorated, and we are more than ready for Christmas to be here. We are ever so (NOT) patiently counting down the days until the 24th when we make our long drive out to Utah to enjoy the holidays with our families. Until then, I am attempting to find things to fill our long and car-less days while having a fun and festive time with the kids.

Daddy is MIA at school all day every day as he is taking exams for the next two weeks. He's a hard worker, sometimes getting up at 2 or 3 a.m. just to get a little more studying in! I don't know how he does it, and I'm glad it's him and not me :) Although, we really miss him being able to enjoy the festivities of pre-Christmas with us. Also, he takes the car to school, so we are pretty house-bound. Still, the days are ticking down and we'll soon be going home. We can't wait!!
I took Kassidy and Korbin to go see Santa at the mall last week with some friends. The set up was adorable, like a winter wonderland, and all Narnia themed. They had a huge dome with fake snow to play in. Fun and a mess! We were cleaning fake snow out of crevices all day. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let you take your own photos, and they wanted $20 for a 5x7 picture. Being a tightwad with no money, I had to pass. So standing in line is as close as we got to a picture :) Kassidy loved Santa and he was so sweet!

Cotton Corner

2010-12-08T22:35:00.000-08:00

Kevin's very talented big sister made us this adorable little hat. I LOVE it!!! It fits my little football head boy perfectly :) If you're interested, she started an etsy site. She sells custom hats and bows and more. Check it out, they'd make great gifts!

www.etsy.com/shop/cottoncorner

Good helpers

2010-12-08T22:22:00.001-08:00

My kids love to be on the bed when I bring in a warm batch of laundry right from the dryer. They are great helpers and Kassidy helps bury her brother under the clean clothes. He loved it so much he decided to take a nap right next to sister's clean undies :)

Can you spot the kids?

Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T21:15:00.000-08:00

Since we didn't have enough time off school to travel home, we had another Thanksgiving here in sunny California. We invited Kevin's sister Kelli and her family (she was a trooper to come since she just gave birth 5 days earlier!) and our friends the Tabish's ended up coming too. It was a wonderful day full of delicious food (yes, I cooked), good company, Christmas movies, playing with friends and cousins, and playing games. It gave me a warm cozy feeling and felt like being home. I guess home really is where you're surrounded by friends and family :) Here are a few, ahem, (a lot) of pictures.

My little helper and I preparing the bird.

The boys, Kevin, Scott and Andrew.

Cute Jen and Korbin.

Best buds Kassidy and Sara.

Cory and the newest addition to the Marchant/Fletcher family...Braxzyn! Only 5 days old.

The kid table. These 4 played together so well all day!

Watching Elf and playing Boggle.

More turkey (aka rice cereal)!

Doesn't Kelli look so good for just having given birth?

Here's to many more wonderful Thanksgivings with the people I love!

Another post below.

Kelli's new addition

2010-11-26T21:06:00.000-08:00

Kevin's sweet big sister Kelli just had baby #3 last week and we couldn't be happier! We were lucky enough to get to see them in the hospital and have the two older boys come stay at our house for a couple days. Kelli's family just moved out here near us a few months ago. It's nice to have some family close by!

New baby boy was 9 lbs 3 oz and 22 inches long. We like 'em big in the Marchant family! He and Kelli are both healthy and doing great. Kelli and Cory named him Braxzyn K. Fletcher. Big brothers Treyson and Cayden are really excited. Congrats Kelli!

Korbin looks GIANT next to newborn Braxzyn! And he's only 4 months old :)
Waiting in the hall with my kids so we don't crowd the small hospital room.

Things I look forward to:

2010-11-17T22:56:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: I truly love being a mommy and everything that comes with it. This post is all in good fun and highlights some of the things we mommies go through every day.

Things I look forward to when my children are grown:

*Taking a shower without having a conversation with a toddler in a princess outfit on the other side of the glass.

*Eating a meal and not hearing, "But I don't like this!"

*Sleeping through the night!!!

*Going to the bathroom alone (I don't even shut the door because someone always comes and finds me )

*Being able to quickly run into the grocery store for a gallon of milk without having to unload the kids. It's quite the production.

*Having a clean house that STAYS clean!

*Going to the movies with my husband again.

*Actually having a date night that doesn't include little people :)

*Not feeling like a milk cow (sorry boys, but it does happen).

*Having nice things and not worrying about them getting broken.

*Not having to watch Dora, Super Why, Sesame Street, and EVERY Disney movie ever made.

*Having nice things, not disposable things.

*Reading a book in one sitting. Right now I get about 10 minutes at a time while I'm feeding Korbin.

*Watching an entire movie without having to pause it.

*Not having to carry a humongous diaper bag everywhere I go.

All in good time Robyn, all in good time.....

He's an eater

2010-11-15T21:33:00.000-08:00

I am tired. This is to be expected since I have a 4 month old. But seriously, kid, why do you have to wake up every 2-3 hours! Korbin was a great sleeper last month. We were getting 6-7 hour stretches. It was bliss. So what happened?! I know, he's still young and trying to get into a routine. Maybe he's having a growth spurt. Who knows. But I am tired.

My solution was to try and fill up his little tummy to capacity so hopefully he'll sleep a little longer. I need this for my sanity and so I can be a good mommy the next morning.

The plan didn't really work. He still wakes up about every 3-4 hours now. But man, isn't he cute eating his rice cereal? On to plan B...a live in wet nurse.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

2010-11-10T23:00:00.000-08:00

I have truly been blessed in my life. Not only do I always have the essentials (food, water, shelter, safety, transportation, etc.), but I have been blessed with what I consider to be the most important thing, which is knowledge that my Father in Heaven loves me wants what is best for me. I know without a doubt that we are his children and that we can return to live with Him again. I know that we were sent here to be tested and tried, and sometimes life is inexplicably trying, so that we can be better people. We don't always understand all that happens to us here, but I have faith that our Father does know. He will always be there for us when we feel we are ready to talk to Him.

I'm feeling especially thankful during this holiday time (what is it about this time of year that makes everyone so much nicer and happier? I wish it were more like this year round. ) for my faith. It has sustained me during difficult times in my life. I haven't had anything heartbreakingly difficult happen to me like some people. I have my health and all my family is still alive. I am mentally sound (I think) and my children are adorable and healthy. I have an education, a home, a husband who loves me unconditionally, and amazing friends. I live in a free country and feel safe walking outside my door. And this is just scratching the surface of all that I have and am thankful for.

Most important in this list of things are the people I have in my life. Where would I be without them? I feel that life would be most depressing if I thought this was the only time I would see them, during this short existence. I know that I will be with my family and friends again in the next life. I know that through the blessings of the temple, I can be with my family for eternity. I feel truly comforted by this knowledge. Elder Dallin H. Oaks (he's a general authority in my

church) says we need to have "an attitude of gratitude". I encourage you all to keep this in mind, not only during this month, but always. I'm also grateful for the technology that allows me to share my thoughts, feelings, and testimony with anyone who cares to read it.

the many faces of hAlLoWeEn

2010-11-03T21:46:00.001-07:00

Remember this?

(Jessie the cowgirl)

Well, come actual Halloween day she changed her mind and wanted to be this...

(Snow White, posing very dramatically)

And three days later she's decided that Halloween's not over, it's "on", so we're still wearing costumes at our house. Here's the most recent:

(she's Astrid from "How to train your dragon")

Yes, our girl has a mind of her own, and much like her mother, she's very indecisive on her apparel for the day :)

We had a wonderful Hallo-week here in sunny California. Fun all around!

Here's Korbin, checking out his cute buddy in grandma Jennette's mirror. Don't you love the little rat tail hair patch that's still left?

What is this stuff?

Until next year!

Ward Halloween party 2010

2010-10-27T22:43:00.001-07:00

Our ward held a Halloween party this year since Halloween happens to fall on a Sunday. I guess they're not usually a "celebrate the demonic holiday" ward, so I was very grateful for the festivities :) We invited our non-member neighbors and Kevin's sis and fam who just moved out here. Kassidy had a blast, and despite the pouring rain outside, the trunk-or-treat was moved into the halls of the church and it was a big success! The primary also hosted some carnival games, making the night a huge hit!

Here's Kassidy the yodeling cowgirl and Sara and cupcake baker. Could there be any two cuter girls? Don't answer that any other way beside no because I will argue that you're WRONG!

Korbin/Woody and aunt Kelli. Kelli's due with boy #3 in 3 weeks!

Pharmacist Daddy and Woody

Power Ranger cousin Cayden, Cupcake Baker Sara, Cowgirl Jessie Kassidy, and Giants pitcher Lincecum Lauren

Kass with the cute spider she made.

My aunt and uncle with Korbin.

Good times! Thanks FF 3rd ward :)

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-25T22:28:00.001-07:00

While looking for a fun playdate activity to do this week, we came across the most adorable pumpkin patch in Suisun Valley. We spent a wonderful 2 hours there and the girls had a blast! Here's a peek:

Sitting on a pumpkin throne with a stick scepter

Love these kids!

Hanging out, just the boys :)

Getting lost in a kids corn maze with only left turns :)

Pumpkin bowling at corn cobs

Waving atop the hay pyramid. Aren't they cute?

We have great friends and love doing things like this with them.

I love fall!!

The sewing bug

2010-10-17T14:10:00.001-07:00

I lucked out this month when my friend bought herself a new sewing machine. The old machine made its way to my hands, making me feel like it was an early Christmas. I've been wanting a sewing machine for a while, but haven't wanted it bad enough for it to be my entire Christmas or birthday present just because I wasn't sure how much I would actually use it. Lucky me, I now have one for free! It's work great and I'm determined to teach myself to sew.

Except for my 8th grade TLC class (remember that?), I have zero sewing experience. Well, my little yodeling cowgirl stated that she wants her brother to be Woody (from Toy Story) for Halloween. I couldn't see how I was going to be able to find a very miniature cowboy costume for my 3 month old, so I decided to take a whack at sewing my own. It's been a lot funner than I expected and a nice release from a busy day being mommy.

I still have a long ways to go, but I'm learning from my mistakes and having a good time doing it! Thank goodness for the internet. I've been able to find tutorials and free patterns for lots of fun projects.

Here's Kassidy's costume, and NO, I didn't make it. But I did make her a trick-or-treat bag out of Korbin's left over fabric.

Korbin's cowboy vest and badge

I had so much fun with the vest that I decided to make Kassidy an apron so she can help me cook. The pattern is really cute. You can't tell, but it's an orange paisley print. Don't look too close or you'll see all my mistakes :)

Here's to many more late night sewing projects!

Things I say daily

2010-10-15T15:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm struggling with my blogging lately. No particular reason. I've been having one of those months where I feel super busy, but when I look back I can't particularly see what I've done to be so busy. Eh. Maybe it's having 2 kids. Whatever.

Anyway, lately I also feel like a broken record and have realized that I repeat certain things MULTIPLE times a day. Here are just a few I've noticed (mommies, these may sound familiar):

*I love you

*Do you need to go potty?

*Get out of Korbin's face!

(Kassidy has a bad habit of getting right in her brothers face and making obnoxious noises)

*You're my buddy!

*Play nice

*Let's go!

*Hold my hand

*We missed you (to Kevin when he comes home)

*Hi baby (to Korbin)

As you can see, my day is filled with scintillating conversation. I really do enjoy my days with my beautiful kids. Korbin has been such a wonderful baby! He's so relaxed and easy going and doesn't require much to keep him happy. I've really enjoyed having him around these past 3 months. He's my sweet little man!

Blessing Day

2010-09-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

We blessed our sweet baby Korbin yesterday in Spanish Fork. We came home to Utah for a little vacation (thanks to a Jewish school with lots of random holidays :)) and decided to do it where most of our family could be present. It was such a beautiful and special day for our family. Kevin gave an amazing blessing! Lets just say I'm excited to see what Korbin's going to do with his life because he was promised some pretty neat things. I hope he lives the way he should so we can see all those blessings come to pass.

We had a great turnout from our family and friends and were so grateful for all the sweet support from everyone. I took a bazillion photos and don't want to post them all here since it takes forever. So here are a few and I'll put the rest on good old facebook.

This is Korbin and his cousin Swasey. She's only 3 weeks younger than Korbin and he looks HUGE next to her!

After church--here's the new Marchant clan!

Korbin is so lucky to have a daddy like Kevin! I hope he follows in his daddy's footsteps :)

Grandma Marchant

Grandma Shelly, Korbin, and Great-Grandma Hicken

Dance Class

2010-09-19T21:11:00.001-07:00

My friend and I decided to sign our daughters up for a dance class taught through the city. It seemed like a good idea since Kassidy loves to dance and is such a little performer. She's not quite old enough for organized sports yet (which Daddy insists she will love), so this seemed the next best thing for this year. After coughing up the registration fee :( we made our way to the store to find a dance outfit. Kassidy picked the brightest pink outfit they had; the one with shiny rhinestones and a tutu. That's my girl! She's been asking to wear it every day for 2 weeks now and calls it her "dance-atard". Makes sense, right?

The big day arrived and we showed up at class. I guess Jen and I should have forseen the issues to come. Kassidy and Sara spent the entire class running around in the back of the room and ignoring all the comments from the teacher to sit down, hold still, get off the mat, stop dancing in front of the mirror, and so forth! They were hysterical to watch and Jen and I just laughed through the entire class. What did the teacher expect when she took on a class of 3 year old girls? These two were adorable and ignored requests to separate from one another. What are friends for if not to get in trouble with you? Well, there's always next week...

I kept taking the picture one second too late after her twirls.

Aren't they adorable? They're just the best of friends and caused quite a bit of mischief for their poor teacher :)

Attempting to do a somersault, or a "roll-over" as her teacher kept calling it. No wonder none of the kids could do it, they didn't know what she was talking about!

Baking cookies

2010-09-19T21:08:00.000-07:00

One day while Korbin was napping Kassidy asked if we could bake cookies. She loves helping me in the kitchen and is such a quick learner. We made sugar cookies and decorated them. More of them ended up in our tummies than on a plate in the end. I just love this fun girl!

Marchant visit

2010-09-06T21:08:00.001-07:00

Kevin's parents came out to visit us for a quick trip over Labor Day weekend. I really mean quick trip because they spent 2 of the 4 day vacation driving to and from our house. They must really love us! We were excited for them to meet Korbin, he's their 21st grandchild. We spend a wonderful weekend at the beach, touring some historical naval sites on Mare Island, attending church, and then went to the Gold Rush Days in Old Town Sacramento. It was a wonderful weekend and we were sad to see them go. Kevin's parents are such sweet grandparents and love all their grandkids so much, so Korbin was no exception :) Thanks Marchants!

Little man in the carrier on mommy's front.

Getting in a little history on Mare Island. This is at the park and the thing behind us is a semi-suicide missile. Someone had to climb in that top missile and ride it toward the enemy and then release the bottom missile at the right time and hope to get away quick enough. I'd hate to have that job! I'd probably just die of claustrophobia!

It was pretty chilly at Muir beach, so I made a little barrier with the umbrella so Kassidy could build a sand castle. Korbin's hiding back there too in his carseat.

Family date night

2010-08-30T21:45:00.001-07:00

Date now as of late has been non-existent, so after a long week I decided we all needed a break and a night out. We used to love to bowl together in Cedar, so we headed bowling. Kassidy had a ball, Korbin was good as gold and oblivious, Kevin won and I got a strike. It was a fun night--I have a cute family:)

Keep reading, more posts below.

Touro carnival

2010-08-30T21:37:00.000-07:00

Kevin's school held a little carnival for a "Big Brother, Big Sister" volunteer activity and we decided to tag along. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed spending the day outdoors with Kevin.

Kevin's classmate, Thien, painting Kassidy;s arm.

Yes, she asked for Buzz Lightyear. Didn't he do a great job?

All the volunteers. You can see Kassidy up on Kevin's shoulders on the back row.

(Keep reading. More posts below)

Bedroom updates

2010-08-30T21:32:00.001-07:00

With all the baby changes going on I forgot to post about the changes we made to Kassidy's bedroom. We upgraded her to a big girl bed, and after much deliberation (I was so indecisive) we found a bunk bed with liked. Kassidy transitioned over very well and is loving her new bed. Her very creative daddy had the idea to make her bunk into a secret princess getaway and made her (with the help of my talented seamstress mother ) a pink curtain that encloses her bunk. It was so creative and fun and Kassidy loves it! I attempted to make a VERY pink room into a mixed boy and girl room for when we move Korbin out of our room and into his big crib. Of course we went with sports, how could you not with a dad like Kevin? Kevin found the cool picture of Babe Ruth hanging on the wall and it just seems to add to the room. We loved how it turned out, even if it is a big of a crowded room.

(Read on, there's another post below)

Updates...finally

2010-08-30T21:20:00.000-07:00

Wow, I just realized how long it's been since my last post. I'm sure my 2 whole readers are real disappointed ;) Time has no meaning for me now, the days and nights just kind of blend together. I am totally loving being the mother of two beautiful children and I think I'm adjusting to things pretty well. We've managed to get out of the house at least once a day and Kassidy's not trying to throw her brother down the stairs or anything. In fact, she's taken to being a big sister like a duck to water. She loves to tend Korbin and is the best big helper I could ask for. I'm so blessed!

They both love to take baths together.

Love this little man!

Soooo tired, but it's worth it :)

Changes

2010-08-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

I guess pictures are first since I can't get this to switch:

Two peas in a pod.

I can't believe I have 2 kids!

Kassidy and Jenny pretending to be Old Navy manequins :)

Grandma Russon came and met us at a park while she was out for a wedding. We were glad to see her.

I have the most handsome men in my life!

Little guy loves his baths

My cute uncle, aka Grandpa Scott, with Korbin

I have been a total slacker and had zero motivation to blog these past 3 weeks. Granted, things have been pretty busy. After a blissful 5 days home with our precious baby boy, we had to go back to UCDavis hospital and spend 5 days in the NICU with Korbin. Unbeknownst to us, he contracted Staph Aureus somehow and got these strange boils on his skin. He was totally fine though, and the only bad part was that it took the doctors 5 whole days to figure out he was fine. They just didn't want to send us home until they were absolutely sure he didn't have anything worse.

So here we are in the real day to day of things. Kevin started his second year of pharmacy school yesterday and I am trying to juggle having 2 kids and doing things on my own. It's been a bit of an adjustment, and I take my hat off to all you who have 2 + children. I'm starting to appreciate my own mother (she has 5 kids) even more if possible. I love my kids and enjoy being a mother more than anything, but it's HARD! I only got 4 hours of sleep last night and I struggled with trying to be a happy, fun, structured mother today. It'll all come together though, practice makes perfect! Here are some pictures of our growing baby boy and our visitors of late.

Kassidy loved having her aunt Jenny to play with :)

My wonderful mother came out to help us during our second hospital stay and spent 11 days with us. She was such a help!

Our little man

2010-07-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

Everything's backwards and I can't fix it, sorry! Pictures first and then the story is at the bottom :)

Gotta represent for Kevin's school :)

Proud Papa

She makes the funniest faces :)

Excellent!

I think he looks a lot like Kevin

The best big sister ever :)

Our first family photo with all four of us.

Arriving at the hospital around 2:00pm

As Kevin so kindly posted earlier, our little guy is here! 11 days early and as cute as a button, Korbin decided he just couldn't wait another minute to be with us, and boy are we glad! Quick story, just as much for my memory benefit as for those of you who actually care :)

I woke up with contractions at 5:30 am Friday morning. After trying to just ignore them most of the morning, and giving Kevin a slight warning that I may be calling him at work, I ended up conceding that this was the real thing at about noon. I called Kevin from work (he had a 30 min drive back home), got all our stuff ready, made Kassidy a lunch and we were off! We dropped Kassidy off at some friends' (thanks Tabish's!) and made the hour drive to our hospital. By the time we checked in, my contractions were 6 minutes apart and I was dilated to a 4-5.

Things moved along pretty quickly (at least I think so) and I dilated about a centimeter an hour. I got an epidural when I was at a 7 because the contractions were pretty darn painful. After that, it was a breeze! Kevin and I rested and watched tv for a couple hours until I was complete. Everything went really smoothly and peacefully. I didn't have to have any help to get Korbin out and he wasn't under any stress. Our little guy was born at 8:23 pm after only 23 minutes of pushing. He was the most beautiful little guy I've ever seen! 6 lbs 13 oz and 19.5 inches, he's just a bitty little guy. I remember thinking, "That wasn't so bad. I could totally have more kids," after the whole delivery. I guess that means it went well. Our prayers were answered because this was a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) for me and it determined how the rest of our deliveries will go.

Korbin is the sweetest little baby and such a joy to have in our family. He has a beautiful head of dark brown hair--something new to us since Kassidy was bald until 2 years old :) He is a little snuggler and a good sleeper, during the day at least. He still has his days and night mixed up. Although I don't mind playing with too much during the night when it's just the two of us.

Kassidy is adjust wonderfully and is the best big sister. She asks to hold Korbin all the time and will hold for an hour if we let her. She gives kisses and says, "Aw, he's so cute!" as she holds his little hand. I think they're going to be the best of friends.

We've been very blessed by our friends and family and ward members and have been very well taken care of by everyone. We can't wait for all our family to meet him!

Korbin Moroni Marchant is HERE!!!

2010-07-17T01:09:00.000-07:00

Korbin Moroni Marchant
Born: July 16, 2010 8:23 p.m.
Wt: 6 lbs 13 oz
Ht: 19.5 inches
Robyn and Korbin are doing Great!

Newport Vacation

2010-07-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

***Multiple posts below, so scroll down!***

Since our moving plans fell through, we decided to meet up with my family for their vacation at Newport Beach. Kevin and Kassidy had never been, so we had an adventure. We spent a week staying in a beach house about 500 ft from Newport beach. It was beautiful and fun to wake up on the beach everyday. We spent a couple days at the beach, went to an Angels baseball game, saw Toy Story 3, and spent 2 days at Disneyland. Disneyland was definitely all our favorites since it was Kassidy's first time and only Kevin's 2nd. We exhausted ourselves with 10 hour days at each park and did and saw almost everything. I was surprised how much I was still able to do being this pregnant. There were a few times I took Kassidy and my little sister to do some tamer rides while the big people went off. But it was a fun experience and we had a ball with my family. We were definitely worn out by the time we got home. I couldn't remember how to put up a slideshow, so this is the edited version of all the photos. Sorry, there's a lot!!

With Kenai and Koda in the Disney California Redwoods

Meeting the princesses was definitely a highlight for Kassidy and Jenny.

This made Kassidy's day! Aurora is her favorite.

She was one tired little princess

I love my family!

Betcha can't see me!

Kassidy loves her Uncle Danny

Having fun at the beach

At the Angels vs Dodgers game

I took Kassidy and Jenny and did some tamer rides while the older kids did some coasters.

Kevin and I were probably more excited than Kassidy because we knew what to expect.

The family at Disneyland!

Do you like my pirate face?

Bugs Life 3D movie, aren't we hot?

My sister Jenny and Kassidy on the bugs life ride

On the Pirates of the Carribean ride

Kassidy meets Princess Tiana and was in heaven!!

With Buzz Lightyear. Kassidy looks scared, but she was loving this!

Pirates

2010-07-06T16:50:00.000-07:00

Living in "Festival City USA", aka Cedar City, Utah, we became accustomed to seeing bizarre spectacles at the park. There was always a festival or fair or some shindig going on downtown to enjoy with it's fair share of characters. We've seen a different breed of characters since living in California, but now we've found a festival where we feel at home. Vallejo held a pirate festival a few weeks ago and we ventured to explore the crazies of this new state. Okay, so they're not all crazy, maybe just a little childlike and want to dress up. There's also a fair share of sluts who use this festival as an excuse to pop out their goodies :) Bucksome women were aplenty! Kassidy loved seeing all the boats and booths and some pirates were handing out little plastic dubloons. Good times!

Grandma's dress

2010-07-06T16:47:00.000-07:00

Kevin's mom is such a talented seamstress, she crocheted this beautiful dress for Keassidy's birthday. She was really excited to wear it to church that week and we had to stop and take a few pics on our way. Each of the girl cousins that turned 3 this year all got one. So cute!

Happy Birthday Kassidy!

2010-06-19T18:03:00.001-07:00

My little angel turned 3 this week, I can't believe it! She has been such a joy and blessing in our family and we wouldn't know what to do without her. She's also been such an easy child, which worries me a little for the coming year and all the changes. I hope she stays this good! We spent a fun day at Six Flags, then went out for Chinese for dinner (Kassidy' choice), and ended the night with presents and cake. It was a long, fun, and exhausting day! Kassidy was such a sweetheart, she kept saying "thank you" and "I love you Mom and Dad!" all day. We didn't have a birthday meltdown like I was expecting. Kassidy was a little spoiled this year. Next year I'll be smart and realize that grandma's send way more than she needs so we should only get her one or two presents. We had a nice time celebrating our baby girl!<

My due date came and went, and still no Kassidy.

We were so happy to finally meet our little princess!

Kassidy at one year old

Kassidy at two years old
a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MQcPyrivpOU/TB1r1g-I0MI/AAAAAAAABKs/9qp6GjOSSN4/s1600/June+2010+057.jpg">

Grandma Marchant made this beautiful dress for Kassidy by hand. The stitching was intricate and SO beautiful! She loved it :)

She was too excited when she woke up that we let her open a couple presents

Kevin did a great job making Kassidy's cake

I love this face!

I think she's sick of princess stuff because she asked for a cars and trains this year :)

Kevin had just as much fun setting this all up as Kassidy did playing with it.

More posts below!

Six Flags

2010-06-19T17:56:00.000-07:00

Thomas the Train is always a favorite, and one of the few rides I can go on too.
Kassidy's birthday was this week--I can't believe I have a 3 year old!! For her birthday she just really wanted to see Shouka, the killer whale at Six Flags. Since we have season passes, we thought we'd take advantage of the gorgeous day and spend some time seeing the animals and doing a few rides. Kassidy loves all the water animal shows! It was really hot too so the girls ran through a few of the outdoor fountains to cool off. We were pooped after a long day of fun :)
The baby giraffe was so cute :)

Cooling off in the fountains

There's another new post below

Summer lovin'

2010-06-19T17:51:00.001-07:00

I realized we've been doing lots of fun things that I need to update before we do even more fun things and fall even further behind. With the warmer weather comes more outside activities. We've been taking advantage of our apartment pools, which have been great! Kevin and Kassidy were having a great time, and Kassidy's buddy Sara showed up to swim a little later. They had a good time together, as always.