The Tates

More adventures at Target

2011-11-30T22:06:00.003-07:00

I know it's been a while, and to be honest, since I discovered Facebook, I have kind of stopped looking at blogs, however, there are some things that are just too long for Facebook...and so I will post it here and link this to Facebook.

Adventures at Target. So some of you know of the adventures that I have had at Target. For those that don't let me know and I'll tell you. But I have to share my latest one...

Standing in line to buy some milk at 9:30 at night. And there is a person in front of me who purchased quite a large amount of items, but because the Customer Service Trainee (as clearly stated on his badge) is finishing things up. As he is about to finish, a front-end supervisor walks up and observes him finalize the purchase. He scans the last item and he looks over to his supervisor apparently to gain approval prior to hitting the total button or whatever...this is when things get ugly.

"Why did you look at her?" The customer demands of the trainee.

"Ummmm..."

"Why did you call her over here?" she shouts

"I didn't, I..."

"Why did you come over here and watch us?" she starts to berate the supervisor.

"Ma'am I didn't come over for any particular reason..."

"Did you think I was going to steal all of this?"

(At this point the three of us, trainee, supervisor and myself are looking like deer in headlights)

"Did you assume that because I am hispanic, I am not able to pay for all of this, so you called someone over to be here to make sure?"

-So at this point, the customer has decided that the supervisor was called over to prevent her from stealing...I feel it necessary to further describe the players involved in this tale. The trainee is a young african-american man who looks like if I sneezed, he'd blow away, the supervisor is 5 feet nothin' and probably weighs about 100 lbs SOAKING WET...the customer is about 5'6' and probably outweighs me...

At this point, an employee that works out on the floor comes over to see what the hubub is. OOPS!

"What do you want?"

"What seems to be the problem?"

"I'm being discriminated against, that's the problem. He thought I was going to steal, and so he called this lady over here, and now they won't answer any questions."

-This prompts the other worker to explain that the trainee is a trainee and the supervisor is supposed to check up on him every once in a while.

"Well why couldn't they tell me that. I didn't know he was a trainee and besides, he had done other people before me, why did you come over when I was about ready to check out?"

"Ma'am it's on his badge, I didn't think I needed to point out the obvious." (I thought that was a good zinger by the supervisor.)

At this point, the customer lost all control (I know as if she hadn't already right?).

"YOU - WILL - BE - HEARING - FROM - ME!" She shouted, pointing at each of the employees in turn.

After she left, I was being about to complete my transaction when another employee walked up to find out what happened.

"Why did he just walk up?" I asked the trainee...Maybe my joke was too soon, because he just about feinted until I told him I was joking.

So the best part is, she went to the guest services desk and demanded to speak to the manager...Guess who they called?

CHRISTMAS

2010-12-25T20:16:00.003-07:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, we did. Yes the fat man came to our house. And we were all jolly about it.

Christmas comes way too early for my bones...

but as you can see the kids were stoked to say the least

Woot woot! Kinney got some juice Every child got a pillow pet. Madison got a dolphin, Carter got a dog, and Kinney got a ladybug Checking out what we got

Carter was pretty excited, even though he doesn't do mornings either!

Yeah a baby! Kinney loves babies Check out her cool "Minnie" winter hat Carter got a tag, to play and read! So did Madison OH MY GOODNESS!!! *SCREAM!*

Yes, Santa brought Madison an "I-pod" (actually an mp3 player)

Can you tell she was a *little* bit excited Carter got a cool remote control monster truck and a skateboard I think he's pleased... Check out Kinney's "Minnie" baby....she loves Minnie and babies! Check out Madison's moves! Shake that thang! Oh yeah! Uh-huh! Boogie on down! I think Christmas was a huge success at our house! Thanks Santa!

Hope you had a merry Christmas as we did

Until the next post....

Temple Square

2010-12-14T19:45:00.003-07:00

I think every Utah LDS family has a tradition of going to Temple Square to see the lights. This year we chose a good night. It wasn't very busy considering. And miracle of miracles it wasn't the coldest night of the year. Every other year it seems that we decide to go and it turns out to be the coldest night of the year and we freeze!

Madison wanted to take a picture of one of the nativities

Carter wanted to take a picture of the lights I love the bright red tree And here's the three in front of the Temple

I hope you enjoy your time at Temple Square, we did

Happy Holidays

Until the next post....

St. Nicholas

2010-12-11T19:39:00.003-07:00

Every year on the first weekend in December St. Nicholas comes and visits our house if we've been good. I don't know how good we were, but he came anyway.

Hope your holidays are bright and merry this year

Until the fat man comes, oops I mean Santa...

Fall

2010-11-06T19:32:00.003-06:00

It's that time of year, when 5 BILLION leaves fall into our backyard! I love fall, the smells, the colors, the sports, the temperature, but I hate that I have to rake and rake and rake and rake some more! It never ends! GRRR!!! Anyway every year when it's time to rake the leaves, we rake them into a gigantic pile at the bottom of the slide for the kids to slide in to.

And away they go... Kinney looks scared, but she absolutley LOVES the slide Carter...Oh Yeah! And Madison...what can you say? I hope you all have a happy fall

Until the next post...

BOO!

2010-10-31T18:29:00.005-06:00

It's that time of year again. My favorite time. Except this year and the last few weeks has been so crazy and sad and insane that I didn't have time or money to get me a costume so I was kind of a Bah Hum Bug for Halloween.

I know, I know stop your beating heart that I wasn't excited about Halloween.

Oh well there's always next year.

This year we had a very scary witch, a creepy glowing skeleton and a cute dancing ladybug!

Madison was our witch..complete with fake purple eyelashes! Then our cute little ladybug, complete with matching tu-tu and wings

And then our scary Skeleton and it had to be the green skeleton because then he would glow in the dark...very important for my boy!

McKinley was terrified of Carter, that's why she's crying, yet she wasn't scared of Madison.

Hope you all have a

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Love the Tate Spooks!

Until the next spooktacular post...

UEA

2010-10-15T18:10:00.001-06:00

For our UEA we decided to go to the cabin since my mom was in Colorado and I don't remember where dad was, so we had the cabin to ourselves. It was a nice little get away just for our family. We hiked and went over to Smith and Morehouse and wandered around. We soaked our feet in the cool stream. Overall a very relaxing extended weekend. We took a few pictures, Here's Daniel and Carter...I love his goofy face of trying not to laugh Kinney is just so cute, I love her laugh and smile! Here's me and the girls.

Crossing the partly dry stream bed.

Usually in the spring that stump they are on is underneath the water

Getting Kinney to laugh making her look like a moose Getting our feet wet! McKinley was NOT touching the water! Such a happy, Dry little girl They weren't very happy, especially after Madison slipped and got her pants all wet. Drying out and soaking up the sun Time to go...off to the truck Until the next post....

Future Cardinell

2010-10-08T17:52:00.004-06:00

We have had Madison participate as a Future Cheerleader. This has not always worked out. Since the Future Cheerleaders perform in February and that is usually when we struggle with Madison falling asleep at 5pm! So she usually is tired, grumpy and crying through the routine. This year we had her participate as a Future Cardinelle. This is great since it's lighter later and she usually stays awake at least through the 3rd quarter. Even then the fourth quarter she usually falls asleep....yes....even with the crazy (Tate) fans screaming and cheering.

Here's Austin...28, 28....Goooooo TATE! And now for the half time show.

Serious Cardinelle face.

Sassy!...It was very fun and cute. We had signed up Carter to be Cardinelle Security and dance, but he wouldn't. He wouldn't even go on stage to be with his class for the primary program. That boy only likes attention when he wants to be the center of attention. Funny kid.

Until the next post....

The Davis County Fair

2010-08-20T16:14:00.000-06:00

We started this tradition when I worked at Michael's. My co-worker Nicole would take a week off for the Davis County Fair, because she had pigs and goats and her kids did 4-H. So we started going to support and see her. The kids loved it and now even though I don't work at Michael's (yeah) we still go to the fair to see her and the animals. This is the petting zoo... here we are petting a turtle McKinley was a little nervous about touching it Here we are petting an emu

petting the pig

The kids were allowed to milk a goat. Pretty interesting....it's something I've never done. So here's Carter milking a goat.

Now Madison's turn This year was very exciting and packed they had an animal show with tigers and snakes and such. Well you could pay to go in and be with the tigers. So as a family we went in and sat with a 3 week old tiger cub. In the cage with us was a baby kangaroo....isn't she cute?! Here's Kinney petting the tiger....still not too sure about these animals Carter wasn't too fond of being in the tigers cage or petting her for that matter. This was about as close as he would get. Kinney on her own petting the tiger...I think she's getting the hang of it. Oh wait, now we're wanting to pick up the "baby" How about a kiss. (The trainer said it was okay) Bye baby tiger! It was worth it, how many kids are able to say that they pet a baby tiger? And she was so small, it was really cool!

And of course at the end of the fair we have to get a picture in their sign. That we had a wild time at the Davis County Fair Kinney's turn! I would encourage you to go. It's free other than the parking...and whatever else you'd like to buy or eat...I'm a sucker for funnel cakes...especially at the fair!

Until the next funnel cake or post....

Girls Camp

2010-08-14T14:39:00.001-06:00

This is my fourth year in a row as camp director. I won't lie, it is one of my favorite callings. I enjoy being with the youth and being in the outdoors away from the world, and having the opportunity to teach. This year girls camp was on a ward level. We decided to go to a church owned camp in American Fork Canyon, called Mutual Dell. It's a short ways up the canyon from Timpinogas. Mutual Dell is a fabulous camp. We had flush toilets, showers, options for canoeing, zip line, confidence course, hiking, a baseball diamond, and tons of room in the great out doors. I would recommend Mutual Dell to anyone in charge of running a Girls Camp. Here's the group of girls...before we started the hike A view from the hike. You have to love the Mountains! Some of the activities we did were provided by the camp. They said they had a low level confidence course and so we scheduled time to participate on the four courses. It was amazing the growth the girls made in a matter of a few hours. Given a choice I would go back to this camp again and again. First up we had the Cable Walk. A cable was connected to trees about 18 inches off the ground. And you had to get your entire team to the end with out touching the ground. It was very tricky.

The next part of the course was the climbing wall. I'm not going to lie, there were some girls that you might call athletically challenged. I didn't know if they would make it. But with a lot of teamwork, leader support EVERY girl made it up the climbing wall. We also had people come to talk to us, Daniel was one of them. It was a great talk

We also learned a lot of this....

The next course was the Spider's Web. Where you had to get every person in your group through a different hole while not talking.

The last course was the Giant's Thumb. You had to take the tire off the giant pole without you or the tire touching the pole. Here are our priesthood leaders helping with the zip line....this is where you crash at the end. It was a blast! Everyone had so much fun on the zip line. Everyone got to ride it 3 times. This is how much crazy fun we had. This is the name of our campsite. Our Last day....sad....wait...WAHOO! It was a lot of hard work poured into 4 days but it was worth it. I hope the girls felt the spirit and had fun, I know I did. The only thing I didn't like was missing Madison's first day of First Grade. Hopefully Mom took pictures. Maybe Daniel will post about the spiritual part of girls camp, I'm too close to it right now to be objective. Anyways... Until the next post....

Carter's new job?

2010-08-10T14:31:00.000-06:00

I am the one who usually mows the lawn. Why? I enjoy it, I put in my headphones and it shows results quickly unlike gardening! Well Carter is at this stage where he wants to help with everything. He wants to help cook, clean, work, build, whatever. Sometimes it's great, other times not so much. Well he wanted to mow the lawn all by himself, so I let him. He mows the lawn while I load the dishwasher. He comes in about 10 minutes later and says he's done. I go out to see his work and this is what I see... It's kind of like racing stripes...

Needless to say, I'll be the one mowing the lawn and he can help somewhere else until he's a little taller and stronger to handle the lawn mower!

Until the next post...

Mom's a winner!

2010-07-24T14:07:00.000-06:00

My mom submitted her name into a contest.....and WON! This is a miracle in itself since she never wins....ever! If she submits my dad's name then he wins but her name is never chosen...until now! She won 6 tickets and meals and a hotel stay up in Star Valley Wyoming for the Super Bull! Now I hope you know that we are Big Rodeo Fans! So of course we were going! It was a long drive for a Saturday and then to get up really early to drive all the way home in time for church. But we made it and had a lot of fun. Here's our cabin that we stayed in, we put the kids up in the rafters... Can you tell Carter is so thrilled to be up that high!

At the rodeo they did a thing called Bull Poker. It was intense! They have volunteers sign a waiver (of course) and pay a fee to play and they go into the ring and sit around a table playing poker. Then when the bull charges the last one to leave his/her chair wins.

This particular bull did NOT want to play and wouldn't go near the "players" so they said that the players had to get closer to the bull. Here's the kids watching the action! Me and Lindsay with..."the winner" The kids wanted to jump into the picture! And Kinney and Grandpa (neither of which can sit still on hard benches for very long) Over all it was a fun trip and fun memories!

Until the next post....

Chocolate Raspberry Tart

2010-07-10T15:43:00.006-06:00

I did it again! and yes this time as well was all by myself. I made a delicious Chocolate Tart with Raspberries.....thanks again to Paula Deen! I did have to go out and buy a tart pan for this particular project, but as we speak (type) I'm looking up more recipes to use my tart pan. And it's not just any pan it's a removable-bottom tart pan! There's days I wish I came with a removable bottom...especially after eating all these sweets I'm making!

Anyway it's

2 cups crushed chocolate graham crackers
1/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
16 (1-ounce) squares semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1- 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
4 pints fresh raspberries
Garnish: melted semi-sweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Add melted butter, stirring to combine. Press mixture into bottom and up sides of an 11x1-inch removable bottom tart pan. (I found mine at Bed, Bath and Beyond) Bake for 6 minutes. Let cool completely.

In a medium saucepan, combine chopped chocolate and cream. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted and smooth. Add sugar, whisking until combined. Pour chocolate mixture into bottom of prepared crust. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours or up to 3 days.

Just before serving, arrange raspberries over chocolate. Drizzle with melted chocolate, if desired (who wouldn't want more chocolate?) Serve immediately!.....YUMM!!! Okay are you ready for the pics of this yummy treat...really you only need to eat a little sliver, and share with friends...we did :)

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did! and say thanks to Paula Deen.

Until the next post....

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

2010-07-08T15:05:00.002-06:00

I LOVE Paula Deen. She has fabulous recipes! And I have (a no longer printed)..sorry :( Paula Deen's Special Collection Chocolate Celebration Magazine. It has recipes that have chocolate in them. And can I just say she has just used my favorite word...chocolate and I now have 157 recipes that include that fabulous little bean! If you want this tasty little magazine it's going on amazon for about $35. Anyway the reason for this post is because I made something out of it. And just for those of you who know me...I MADE IT MYSELF! No Daniel did not make it! So here's a delicious picture that you just want to lick of my tasty treat!

Okay I lied it isn't in her Chocolate Celebration...I thought it was and then when I went to check it wasn't in there. It's actually in Paula Deen's Special Collector's Issue Best Desserts 125 Irresistible Treats. Sorry for the confusion. If you want the recipe email me since it's kind of long to put in the blog.

Cabin Trip

2010-07-06T11:28:00.001-06:00

We stayed up at the cabin after the rodeo to start working on our "remodel." Actually we are just extending the kitchen so the front of the cabin will be flat, right now the TV room above it has the kitchen below half and the other half is the outside, so it makes it very cold at night in the winter. Anyway the Bindrups were up at there cabin and we had a lot of fun as well. Ty had brought up his motorcycle and let us ride and play around on it as well as his quad, we took the kids on a ride later. Here's Raurrgh jumping it over the rode Madison and Grandpa taking a ride Believe it or not, Grandpa had a motorcycle when he was younger (pre-marriage) Now it's Carter's turn Bindrups had this little four wheeler that Madison (took some convincing) drove for a little bit and is now a huge fan and wants a four wheeler for Christmas! for proof she is actually driving it not just sitting on it for a picture Rodney bought a salt lick and wanted to haul it up the mountain so we could get more deer/elk in the area. So the men dared him to lick it....and they wanted proof so we took a picture

Then they harassed Rollan into doing it

And here's Daniel falling for peer pressure Then of course Dad/Grandpa had to man up and do it Kinney wanted to have some fun too! so she went with Raurrgh for a four wheeler ride

Oh ya. we were up there to do some work. Here's all the cement bags we used

And the result...footings, the next trip we'll pour the floor and then put up the walls and tear down the walls and such...it's going to be a long project but totally worth it!

Until the next post....

We love the Rodeo!

2010-07-05T13:57:00.000-06:00

Oakley Rodeo

2010-07-04T20:35:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again that we go to parades, watch fireworks and spend time with family celebrating our nations Independence. However the traditions I hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day! Our tradition for the weekend of the 4th is to attend the Oakley Rodeo! Here's some pictures from our fun!

Here's our cowgirl...so excited!

Had to try a picture with just her hat colored...fun

Here's McKinley and "B" waiting at the cabin for the rest of the family to get there so we could head to the rodeo.

This is the stool we brought to help "B" up into our "monster" truck. Our new to us Expedition has about a 6 inch lift to it so it makes it hard even for me to get in let alone my cute almost 90 year old Grandma to get in.

Here's Carter ready to GO!

And a picture of his new cowboy boots (they have Woody on them!) Lindsay and Carter at the rodeo waiting for it to start O Say Can You See....or as Carter kept singing....."JOSE CAN YOU SEE! First the Bare Back Riding! Then comes the Calf Ropin' Then the Saddle Bronc Ridin' Next out of the shoots is the Steer Wrestlin' And we can't forget the ladies with the Barrel Racin' Then our families absolute favorite...BULL RIDIN'! the stare down....

It's so intense and we absolutely love it! Afterwards there's fireworks and a dance but we have little ones and "B" usually has someone drive her home while the rest of us drive on up the canyon to the cabin. And this weekend there's lots to do...we're adding on to the kitchen so it won't be a one person kitchen anymore! Until the next post...

Trials/Blessings

2010-06-30T21:32:00.002-06:00

Are trials supposed to turn into blessings? How can you turn a trial into a blessing? From learning from it. Gaining knowledge, patience, ? what exactly?

From my limited knowledge trials come in all shapes and sizes. Whether it be physical, financial, spiritual, emotional, trials come. Some come to us from our Heavenly Father and others our inflicted upon is by our selves through our own actions and thoughts.

Our trial: 2005 Trailblazer

This vehicle was pushed upon us by a dealer. We were young (dumb) and didn't think it through. They qualified us for more than we could afford. We had almost a $500 payment each month, along with rent and two children and other bills.

Then after a year of owning this vehicle things started going wrong. Things kept breaking and we'd fix it and another thing would break. We kept putting money into the vehicle so it would run. Thus forcing us to miss payments. We couldn't call it a lemon because it was always something new breaking.

Things just kept us from paying the car payment...things like Daniel losing his job...twice...being unemployed stops all cash flow and you don't know how to live. Thank heavens for family and the church.

Since we weren't making payments the finance company kept calling and calling and yelling and harassing and making our lives quite unpleasant. Finally they put in an order to repossess the vehicle, we were able to sell some things and borrow money to pay them so we could have this vehicle that would barely run.

This kept happening and finally they said if we did not pay them $4,000 they would repossess the vehicle. Where are we supposed to find that kind of money. Daniels only had his job for a little over 6 months and I am working part time.

Where do we turn?

We turned to prayer. We fell on our knees and asked Heavenly Father what we should do. Our credit was shot. We had no money. And the vehicle would barely run. We needed a vehicle to get Daniel to work and me and the kids to school. What should we do? Should we ask the church and family for money? Or should we just let them take the Trail Blazer? What should we do?

After we ended our prayer we sat in thought for a moment to feel inspiration on what course we should take. When the doorbell rang.

Who could it be? No one ever comes to visit us other than the kids friends and the kids were already outside playing. So they wouldn't ring the bell. We go down and open the door to none other than the re-po man.

At first we were shocked. Because we had just gotten off the phone with the finance company and they said they hadn't put the re-po order in YET. (LIARS!) According to the re-po man he had the order for a full 5 days. And that finance company's tell him to not ring the bell and to just take the car. So that they can weasel out another payment.

We cleaned out the car, with questions from the children and I've never felt so down on myself. How could we let this happen. But then I realized...our prayers were answered. We didn't know what to do, who to turn to and we needed Heavenly Father to tell us what to do. And he did. He answered our prayer. Even though we felt horrible, we had no car, we knew things would work themselves out and that we would be okay. I felt at peace as the nice re-po man took our trailblazer away.

What did we learn:
1-don't buy from a dealership
2-wait, it doesn't have to be done that day (no matter how the salesman pushes)
3-look at other options (you always have options)
4-make sure you can afford it-not that the dealer says you can afford it.
5-blessings come in many forms

I'm grateful for this trial, because it was at every turn, but we learned from it. And I personally gained a stronger testimony, that Heavenly Father does hear and answer prayers, even in ways we don't expect.

Anyway sorry for this downer of a post, but I was impressed to share this interesting spiritual blessing/trial.

Until the next post...

Yummy

2010-06-26T13:59:00.003-06:00

Look at this yummy treat. Sorry I can't remember where I found the recipe, but it's really hard! It's chocolate and vanilla pudding. You put it in paper cups and then freeze it. Once frozen you take it out and put it upside down on a plate and drizzle chocolate over the top. We had sliced strawberries in between the layers which made it hard to eat since they were frozen solid! But they were still OOOH SO GOOD! Enjoy! Until the next post.....

Trying out the Birthday stuff

2010-06-22T13:43:00.003-06:00

Well we didn't have to wait long before we had to bust out that birthday present and try it out, especially now since we have a helmet.

Madison helping him start out Look at him go!

Crash!....it has to happen sometime

Exactly! Heaven Help US!

Check out his moves

You gotta love this face!

I hope you had a wonderful birthday buddy! And here's to many more! Until the next post...

Carter's Birthday Continued...

2010-06-21T13:28:00.000-06:00

After we opened presents as a family we went up to Grandma Shelly's to open more presents and eat cake. A Basketball...he loves to go play basketball with daddy on Tuesday nights at the church Tools, to help him do man stuff with Dad and Grandpa A helmet! for those new roller blades Kinney really likes the helmet too

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear CARTER! Happy Birthday to YOU!

The filling started to ooze out :( I guess I'll have to try again. But it was delicious!

Happy Birthday Carter

2010-06-21T13:05:00.005-06:00

Can you believe it?! Carter is 4 Where has the time gone?! Here's some pics from his birthday I love how he just flings it to the side rip open that monster truck wrapping paper

By far his favorite gift, Madison and Kinney picked it out

Roller Blades to be like his big sister! Love that gun! Here's my experiment. Rollan gave me this cake dish/display for Christmas...it's sad that this is the first time I've used it. But it turned out okay

Yes we made a dirt path out of chocolate for the four wheeler to go on I love my little man Tate...he's Trouble and yet can be so sweet.

Now it's off to Grandma's for more presents and to actually eat the cake!

Olsen Family Reunion

2010-06-12T12:32:00.006-06:00

Every year on the second Saturday of June we have the Olsen Family Reunion. This consists of my Grandma's family. My mom and subsequently me has been in charge of "entertainment" for this shin-dig. We've done Olsen Family Jeopardy, Olsen Family Squares, and this year we decided to do "Are you Smarter than the Olsen Family" and "Minute to Win It" It was a blast. Some of my cousins drove from Colorado Springs to be here. Here's our categories for Are you Smarter than the Olsen Family Here's some of the family Here's our Minute to Win It.....you have to empty the tissue box using only one hand

This one you had to unwind a roll of crete paper using only one hand.

My cousin Melissa was the winner! This one you had a partner and had to make them a mummy without breaking the toilet paper in less than a minute. Here's Grandpa and Madison

Austin and Colten (my cousins boys)

Uncle Doyle and his grandson...who won

And my cousin Dana and her little girl Grace Then we had a cereal puzzle that they had to put together. The other event in this picture is you had to take the blue cup from the top and cycle it through back to the top alternating hands. Over all I think it was a successful reunion, with a lot of fun! Until the next reunion :)

Those dang stairs!

2010-06-09T23:08:00.004-06:00

That's it! I'm taking those cement stairs out! No one will be able to access our house but I don't care! Those stairs are too DANGEROUS! That or my children are just clumsy.

IF you can't tell by now let me spell it out for you...those stairs that back in April harmed one child have now gone and lashed out at my baby girl!

Yes McKinley who has now been walking for what 4 months now decided to try going down stairs by herself. And not just any stairs but those scary, evil , dangerous cement stairs in front of our house and how did she do? Well she decided to go down them with her FACE!

Oh my poor baby!

Then of course I wanted proof of these atrocious stairs and what they have done to tear my family into pieces. And McKinley didn't want to cooperate, she did NOT want me to take her picture and was very upset that I did.

But look...here's what those stairs did!

So I waited until she fell asleep to get a better picture of the awful road rash all down her face, and yes she did get a black eye (not horribly black...more of a purple) and a fat lip and of course the road rash....
Anyone know any good lawyers, who will help me take those stairs to the bank or to justice and if that fails I guess I can always wrap my children in bubble wrap?!

Until the next accident...I mean post....

Soccer!

2010-05-22T22:49:00.004-06:00

SOCCER

With the end of May fast approaching comes the end of our soccer season. (Side note or an FYI a season starts in the fall either August or September, has a winter break, and then start back up in the spring and ends in May) This is Madison's second season of playing soccer and it has been so much fun! We had one little girl from our team last year who has just blossomed. And their skills are much better than their first year.

Daniel, of course, is the coach and I am the cheerleading soccer mom (my dream in life is now fulfilled)

There has been tears shed from falls, fights and words thrown and almost a walk off caused by parents and an over exuberant opposing coach (Daniel was the perfect diplomat and took the ball and went home) Their were many wins and only a few losses. But over all a very fun soccer season!

And in the fall not only does Madison get to play but Carter can start as well...he's PUMPED! to say the least...always the little sports enthusiast!

Here's our soccer star

It was fun and let's hear it:

WAY TO GO BLUE DOLPHINS!

Until the next post....

May Mayhem?

2010-05-16T21:18:00.000-06:00

May, I can say was quite uneventful, other than some home personal drama that I'm not going to share to the world. But it's here as a reminder to me, to learn from the trials that we are given. That choices we make have a ripple effect even though we think they will only effect us as the chooser. Especially when we have a spouse and family. This blog is more like a journal for me, and yes I am a horrible journal entry maker....that even though this says that I posted it in May it's January and I'm trying to post and catch up. It's also a blog for our extended family so they can know what is the goings on of our lives as the smaller but no less important Tate Family. But a storm wave of life came upon our small boat and nearly sank us, but thankfully we have the Gospel and The Atonement to help buoy us up in those times of great trial and hardship.

Thank you for letting me vent and not air my dirty laundry...
Until the next post.....

Mother's Day

2010-05-09T21:51:00.000-06:00

It's that day in May that we like to celebrate...

No not Cinco de Mayo, but who doesn't like a little part-ay?

It's Mother's Day!
A day we honour our mother's
Of course there is my own mother who has gone through A-LOT with her 2 sons and 3 daughters, and yes I did give my mother some (very little) grief while growing up...but I can say I am not the one who gave her the most grey hairs!

But I am very thankful for her in my life and the love and support she gives to me and my family. Now that I have my own growing brood of children I respect and love her even more for what she had to go through. (My troubles have only just begun...) I am glad to call her my friend. (I Love you MOM!)

Then there is my mother-in-law, who has given me her son and has accepted me into her family. I know I felt it took a while to become comfortable at their home and to feel like she accepted me, but those are my own feelings and misgivings. I am very grateful for her love and support and for her talent in raising a worthy priesthood holder in her son. Every day (Sunday especially) I feel like we grow closer and I'm glad to be a part of her home.

And certainly not to forget those FAB-ulous grandmothers...
Grandma Beck and her insatiable giggle and the way she can tickle Daniel into a fit of laughter! And how she gets frustrated when playing games. And cries over presents...which is so sweet!
and
Grandma B because she is ...how you say?...PERFECT! She is one who can fix anything and EVERYTHING! (don't believe me ask my kids...oh no it's torn...mom, we need to take this to "B" to fix) She always has a listening ear and at almost 90 still watches her great-grandkids and goes on excursions across the country and out. When I grow up I want to be like her!

Anyways after my tribute to the mothers in my life ...we gave for Mother's day a photo album to the kids grandma's (our mom's) it was full of pictures of them...of course! what else would it be full of?...(if left up to Daniel it would be the pictures that come in them already...tee-hee)

So here are a few pics (ha do I ever do a few???) of our Mother's Day Photo shoot:

Of course here's the 3 little angels

Carter and running, jumping and basically just being a boy!

100% BOY and one Grandma in particular just can't say no to that face!
playin' on the tracks
McKinley OBVIOUSLY wanted to get down and was so happy to be there!...the stink!
check out the tongue...don't know where she gets that (wink-wink)
Trouble with a capitol T!

That little lock of bangs kept falling into her eyes and face it drove me nuts! where was my hairspray?!

Mom! I want to get on the train like the big kids!...lift me up!
See now I'm a happy girl!

A flare for the dramatic
and of course Carter had to do it too

Then we went and played in my parents yard. McKinley LOVES this slide and wants to do it over and over and over and over...well you get the point. Even though in the pictures she looks like she's terrified, she's loving every minute of it!

The girls
Life with boys!
Of course we had to get one of their feet...this is especially for Marla :)
and this one is my FAVORITE, and Daniel has it as his wallpaper on his phone. So sweet...
and just as she's waving goodbye....until the next post....

Cancer

2010-05-06T16:54:00.004-06:00

My aunt Jes was diagnosed earlier this year with Breast Cancer. She has a rare kind that chemo won't work, I guess it goes through the blood or something like that. Anyway she had to have a mastectomy. Well her partner put together a team to race at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Lindsay and Karen ran in it while Mom and Dad cheered, we weren't able to make it because of Madison's soccer game but we made it at the end to eat and celebrate! Cancer really forms a person, makes them stronger in time. Emotionally and spiritually that is. I'm impressed with Jes and how she has taken this situation. It was a good day. Until the next post...

Boondocks!

2010-04-30T17:03:00.008-06:00

For work they gave us some appreciation. The district hooked up with Boondocks and if you were a Davis County School District employee got free admission with an Ultimate pass. This includes laser tag, mini golf, bumper boats, batting cages, kiddie cove, go-karts, slick track and rookie go carts and a fun card that had $5 on it to spend in the arcade. It also gave a 20% discount to my family. So dad took the day off work and we went at about 10am to play the day away. So it was my mom and dad, Karen, Lindsay(for a while) Daniel, me, Madison, Carter, McKinley and then Rollan and Sam came at about 5.

Oh my gosh we had so much fun! This was our favorite...we rode it over and over and over and over.... That's what we were #1...woot woot!

Here's Raurrgh showing his Grrr face! And Daniel, there's really no explaining him And they're off! Away we go! Go Grandma and Madison! And it's a fight around the bend... Kinney was left in the dust...Boondocks really isn't that much fun if you are under the age of 3 Carter really wanted to go on the bumper boats, even though it was over cast so we didn't warm up all to quickly Get him! I love it that they have matching mischievous grins Grandpa and Kinney hanging out! Where'd she go?! So sweet! This was the rookie slick track and we convinced (told) Madison to go on it. She didn't want to drive by herself. She's a little nervous But see...mom and dad were right...she could do it...and look at her go! After a while it was on to the great sport of miniature golfing! keep your arms straight and eye on the ball. Yes, yes you do see correctly, that is Randy Julander carry a golf club!

Shocking! I know! Now it's Grandma's turn And Carter was our expert....basically you dodged when it was his turn at bat! And of course Daniel...the pro! We were right next to the train track...it was pretty loud but the kids thought it was cool! Yes the signs say don't go beyond the signs, and yes Rollan is behind the signs, but he was making sure it went in so we could get a picture of the fire that blows out the top of its head....and no we couldn't get a picture of it, it was too quick! :( Next it was on to the arcade to spend our $5 each! To see my parents doing this was hilarious... This was Kinney's favorite! Around and round we go! This was another big hit. Everyone had to try it first up Madison and Raurrgh Then Carter and Sam And Grandpa and Grandma Karen and I got hooked on dancing and yes I kicked her butt! :) It was such a fun and long day we left at about 11pm completely exhausted!

Until the next post....

STITCHES!

2010-04-26T21:19:00.005-06:00

It all started on the Saturday evening of April 24th. We had a fun day and were winding down the days festivities of yard work, cleaning the garage, and playing outside. When I decided since it's Saturday I'll throw McKinley in the tub while the other two pick up their toys and put them away, then they can have a bath and then dinner and off to bed by 8:30! Fabulous!

So I send Daniel to the Jr. High to the recycle dumpsters, since our paper recycling box is overflowing.

I barely get McKinley's naked body in the tub, when Madison comes in and tells me Carter is hurt. Now those of you who know Carter, this is an every 20 minute phrase...mom, me hurt myself....dad, me hurt myself.....and you get the picture. So I tell Madison, he's fine, just tell him to jump up and brush it off.

She replies with...No mom, he's really hurt.

Madison! he'll be fine, I'm giving McKinley a bath, he'll be okay.

No mom, he's bleeding.....and that's when I hear the wailing!

He comes around the corner into the bathroom and he is spurting blood from his face! I'm serious..it was SPURTING! Those of you who know me, this is the time that I pass out and come to thinking it was all a dream. No, I was BRAVE! I grab a towel and shove it on to his face...(Daniel later chastises me for grabbing a huge bath towel, but hey I wasn't thinking..."let me get a washcloth, that will be easier to transport" at least I wasn't on the floor!) I hand Madison my cell phone and tell her to call dad. I pick Carter up and try calming him down, but that's a no go. So I take him down the stairs and set him on the porch and tell him to watch for Daddy. Meanwhile Madison is telling Daniel to come home and I'm screaming at her to tell him to come home NOW! And yes McKinley is alone in the tub. I race back upstairs grab another towel, dry her off, grab some jammies and am shoving her little body into them as fast as possible when Daniels screeches to a halt in the front of the house.

He tells the kids to load into the car. He grabs a washcloth and exchanges our extra long bath towel for it. I throw McKinley in her seat and strap her. Madison is being so brave and is talking to Carter. And we head to the hospital with Carter going pale in my arms. On the way Daniel asks if I called my mom?....what you think I thought of that, no I am freaking out! I'm not thinking ahead of what we are going to do with the two girls! Sheesh, I'm barely standing myself!

Needless to say my knight in shining armor came to the rescue and whisked us off to the hospital, called my mom, and handled the blood, so I didn't have to. My Hero!

Daniel drops me and Carter off at the door for Davis Hospital...(BIG mistake...never go there!)and goes to park the car while we get checked in. As soon as we have shut the door Madison bursts into tears. She is so worried about Carter! And she held out her brave face until we weren't there, how sweet is that?!

My mom meets us at the emergency room. And her and my sisters talk to Carter and then take the two girls home. I'm so thankful for them and being there so they weren't traumatised anymore than they already were. (Poor Madison!)

We wait and wait and wait, and finally they call us back. When the doctor finally comes in most of the bleeding (spurting) has stopped and we are watching TV. The rest I don't know about, it's just what Daniel has told me because I knew he would have to have stitches and I knew I couldn't handle it, so I left and stood out in the hallway...not a fabulous choice since I could hear him screaming and crying, but at least I didn't have to watch it.

So while I'm in the hallway, the doctor gives him a shot to numb it and it's also to make it stop bleeding. Well it did just the opposite, it made it start bleeding again! Daniel is having to lay on top of him so that the doctor could make tiny stitches so it wouldn't leave a train track scar on his face. The nurse is trying to blot away the blood, which has begun spurting again. Finally, it seemed like an eternity, I'm allowed back into the room. However they had not cleaned up so there was a TON of bloody gauze's strewn allover. And there sits Carter sobbing in his daddy's arms. I'm feeling slightly queasy, since we hadn't eaten, and from all the blood and trauma.

Yes we are finally leaving the hospital at 11:30pm! What a night. Yet to only have it continue into today!

As we were being discharged we asked if we needed to clean it or what care needed to be taken to prevent infection. The doctor said none, lacerations and sutures on the face rarely get infected because our face is clean.

Have you ever met a 3 year old with a clean face!?!?

So today I was concerned after I got home from work because his stitches were oozing blood. So I called our pediatrician, and he said they shouldn't be oozing blood and to go back to the emergency room to have it taken care of.

So my sisters come and get the girls again, and I call Daniel and let him know what's going on, and my mother accompanies me to the hospital with Carter.

Carter is terrified! Sobbing that he doesn't want to go to the doctor's again. We get into a room, and this time we have a different doctor, but the same nurse. The nurse was wonderful, he apologized and was so sorry that we were back in again. The doctor comes and looks at it, and says it looks fine and sutures tend to ooze a little since you basically stab little holes in your skin from stitching them up. Then he puts his finger in Carter's mouth and presses against his stitches. Then he squeezes with his other hand on the outside of Carter's mouth right along his stitches. And then he pushes and squeezes at the same time and pops out the infection like a zit! This huge amount of pus springs from his face, Carter is screaming, I barely make it to a chair before all the color drains from my face and I collapse. My mom is holding Carters hands and the nurse is helping hold Carter's head still as the Doctor continues to push and squeeze until all the infection is out. He then gives us a prescription for an antibiotic, and tells us to come on Saturday to remove the stitches instead of Friday. Since there was infection he should keep the stitches a day longer.

This was a horrible experience to say the least. We had the home teaches come over to give Carter a blessing Sunday night and Carter went into a fit, crying that he didn't want the doctor to touch him. I feel so bad for my little guy.

It came to a total of nine stitches.

How did he do this, you ask? Well from what Madison and he has told us (remember that neither parent saw what happened) He was running toward the house and tripped and slammed his face into the cement steps leading in to the house.

So here's the pics....

We tease that he looks like the Joker

He is not happy that I am taking pictures, but it's a first and probably not the last.

My brave little guy!

So that was our exciting weekend, which I never want to repeat, ever! He's a trooper, and has had moments (very few...so far) that he thinks it's cool to have stitches. Maybe in a few days it will be cool.

Until the next post.....we'll try to stay safe :)

Rollerblading

2010-04-13T20:54:00.003-06:00

Madison is not our most coordinated child, (that would be Carter) but for Christmas she got roller skates, which ended up being too small . It's a good thing Santa allowed us to exchange them and we got roller blades. (Also because Daniel said they would be easier to learn on...even though he, himself, does not know how to roller blade) Anyway so we got Rollerblades for Madison. And with the weather becoming warmer we have ventured out to try them. However Madison is VERY concerned that she is going to fall and hurt herself. She does NOT want to land on her bum!

What to do? What to do?? What to do???

This is what we decided on, to protect her from the evil sidewalk!

I love how Carter is staring at her "pillow-bum"

That is what you call a booty!

She has gotten a little better over the last few days. But she is still very worried about falling. I thought this was too funny not to share :)

Until the next post....

Baby Animal Days

2010-04-10T23:34:00.001-06:00

Almost every year we take a trip up towards Logan to the American West Heritage Center for their Baby Animal Days. It's a lot of fun and the kids get to see farm animals, and pet them and the volunteers and workers dress up in pioneer clothes and teach/show you different things. This year (sorry I didn't take pictures of it...but I'll overload you on pics anyway) we learned how to sheer a sheep. It was pretty cool. Gave new meaning to the phrase..."like a lamb to the slaughter" the sheep didn't make a single sound. So on to the picture overload!

Here's out cute family

a cute little goat, I wanted to take home with me!

I didn't need to bring a goat home with me....I already have one!...named...CARTER

this little piggy....
McKinley: I'll just look at the piggy....
Bunnies
Can we have one?...PLEASE!?
a little lamb
okay I'll touch this one
petting a cow/calf

The last 2 years they have had baby turtles that you can hold, they are so cute! and surprisingly not slimy. I wanted to take one home with us, but nothing survives the Tate household!

look how cute! a tiny turtle...awwwwww

Riding a pony...the helmet was a little big. And at about the end she started to kick her legs but then the ride was over.

too much fun!

He was more than a little nervous

This year's main attraction was baby bear cubs.
The kids spent a while here watching them climb all over
Then on to holding the chicks. Madison's chick was freaking out, but then she called it down just like a little mother hen.

The kids really liked the ducks and wanted to take them home with us to. Dad said no!

McKinley wasn't sure at first, but then decided to give it a hug and then it was okay to touch.
It was a lot of fun. I'm glad it's only a once a year trip. The benefit is that the kids slept all the way home! I think I did too, it was a long day but full of fun.

Until the next post....

The HUNT!

2010-04-06T21:35:00.007-06:00

It's fun to watch the kids hunt for Easter eggs, although from the looks of it, some were not that hard to find. The kids had fun and were wild and crazy at the hopes of a sugar-filled evening. McKinley, although new at this type of adventure, had fun carrying around the eggs, she didn't want to put them in the basket with everybody's. She found 'em and she was keeping 'em!

It may look like a lot but it's just because the coloring books and felt coloring pages wouldn't fit in the buckets!

Hey these things rattle!
his hands just can't hold all of the eggs at once!

Come on McKinley...put it in the bowl with the others.
Faster, faster!
Oh My Goodness, Run before it all disappears!
Here's a few of McKinley, she loved it, despite the pink nose. It was quite chilly and windy!

Here's my cheesy girl! What a face. There's not a lot of Carter because he wouldn't stop to let me take his picture!
Hidden everywhere!
Up high!

The Golden Egg!...it held tickets to the zoo!
Colors and eggs galore!
what can you say with this picture? hmmm, it's Carters FAVORITE thing!
sorting out their haul!

All in all it was a fun Easter. The kids enjoyed it and really that's what makes it all worth while for me. My enjoyment is seeing their faces lit up with excitement. I love holidays, especially one's with food and chocolate! The funny thing is that when it was Madison, there was a lot less eggs and candy, but what's funny is that the Easter candy would last till at least Halloween. Madison is just not a candy, sweets kind of girl. Now that Carter's around and knows what's going on this candy will last maybe a month, MAYBE 2, if we hide it and are lucky. He can sniff out candy, I swear! We joke that he'll ride his bike out in to the road and he won't hear us screaming to get out of the road. But he can be downstairs and you can open a candy wrapper 2 flights up, with the bedroom door shut, locked in the dark recesses of your closet and he is there instantaneously! However McKinley is right in the middle, not obsessed over candy like her brother but she does have a weakness, which is Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, she absolutely LUVS them!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, until the next post.......

Easter

2010-04-05T21:44:00.008-06:00

I have one word for you....

I love coloring Easter eggs, Daniel loves it because then for DAYS after he can have egg salad sandwiches...yummm! The kids love it and I find that even months later they tell me..."mom remember when we dipped the eggs in the cups with color?" Me: yes...they say: "can we do it again?" they love it and it's a fun tradition. So here we go!

I love the colors! so bright and vivid!

Madison can pretty much hold her own...

Carter needs help from dad with taking it out of the "color dip"

Let's see if Kinney can handle it....?

I added this one because it made me crack up...Madison and her faces?!

Carter's doing well.....no spills...yet!

We decided to just let McKinley watch.....good thinking mom!

Coloring and making cool designs!

Into the color bath!

Now we have a tradition that came from my family. When there was still snow during Easter, we would go to the cabin and we would decorate Easter eggs up there, and the Easter bunny would come on a "jet-propelled snowmobile blast" according to my brothers when they were younger (I don't know they might still believe that) and would hide candy in the cabin while we were sleeping. Well back to coloring Easter eggs, the leftover dye we would take outside and throw it in the snow. So we would have rainbow snow for Easter at the cabin. We haven't had snow like we did when I was younger and so we still carry on the tradition except we have a rainbow colored sidewalk. It's still a lot of fun and the kids enjoy throwing the rainbow dye and making a huge mess on the sidewalk that stays for days. Here's our color splash tradition....

we had to have the truck lights on so we could take the pictures, and as you can see...yes it was snowing! Gotta love Utah and it's fickle weather patterns!

Well we had a blast coloring eggs and making a mess! I hope you had a fun Easter. I'll post the Easter egg hunt tomorrow. Until the next post....

All Tied Up!

2010-03-25T22:25:00.000-06:00

I come up from doing laundry and what do I see before me?

This cute little boy with his mischievous grin!

Look Mom, I'm wearing my ties!

Yep, they are all hooked on to his t-shirt!

Really there are no words for what this guy can get into. He really does make me laugh! He is our child of extremes, his own emotions, and his ability to evoke our emotions from one extreme to the other. He can get me so angry and upset, but yet he can be so sweet and laugh out loud funny.

Oh what will he think of next??

A funny thing happened...

2010-03-13T11:39:00.004-07:00

at Target.

So I have told this story to some...but now it's time to tell of my irresitble charm and physique...

The other day I made an emergency run to Target for some OJ and Milk. Nothing unusual...just a quick run. I make my selections and head toward the front of the store. It was later at night and at Target they only have like 2 registers open so sometimes you have to stand in line. As I approached my selected line, I notice a man in front of me, he too seemed to be making some 'emergency' purchases and had all of his items in one of those handheld baskets...you know the ones that never seem to balance correctly therefore making them very difficult to hold and in reality end up hurting your hands if you put anything in them...

Well the line began to dwindle and now there were only three of us, the person being checked out...this man in a kind of red/rust colored hooded sweatshirt, and me. All of a sudden he starts...it was almost like the light bulb turned on and he exclaimed..."Aw, crap" promptly picked up his handheld basket and walked away. I didn't think much of it and stepped forward replace his position in line. The lady in front me now was paying for her items, and I began to prepare for the small talk that inevitably is about to come from the cashier...when all of a sudden I am greeted with two petite hands placed firmly on my buttocks...a squeeze ensued.

Knowing for a fact that my lovely wife Jenn had not come to the store with me, nor has she surprised me with a supporting visit to the store...I whirled around...a young 20-something with dark brown hair and lovely eyes (I know they were lovely because at this point they were about as big as saucers)...was quickly removing her petite hands from my buttocks and she was turning a violent shade of red...similar to her boyfriends hoody and my jacket.

After several seconds of absolute petrified silence...she let out a "Oh-my-gosh" and proceeded throw out about as many apologies as I have ever heard in my life. With a big grin...I responded...that's okay...happens all the time...

See I am irresistible.

Brown Bear Barney

2010-02-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

Madison brought home from Kindergarten a stuffed bear. His name is Brown Bear Barney. He came with his own brown bag and a story book that told his story. Included in the bag was a school made story book that the kids add to. Each child gets to take Brown Bear Barney home over a weekend. Well the weekend Barney came home with us we were headed up to the cabin to get away and play...Let me tell you Barney has never had so much fun in his entire bear life! Here's what he did....

However Grandpa had him doing other things!

Drying out from sledding!

Barney roasting over an open fire....

It was a fun trip...as is always a trip to the cabin to get away, and I'm sure Brown Bear Barney will never forget it!

Cheerleading

2010-02-20T19:39:00.000-07:00

Last year Madison participated in a clinic for "Future Northridge Cheerleaders" it was alot of fun. But the year was a totally different story! Madison is exactly like her father!...when it comes to her sleep habits. Daniel's parents would try everything to keep him awake during the winter, because Daniels body said...it's dark outside I should be asleep! Which in the winter he was going to sleep at 5:00...Madison is the same, we try everything from singing to shouting and everything outside and in between, she just does not, can not stay awake. So having the basketball game in February at 7:00PM is not good for Madison. She starting falling asleep during the first quarter, so by the time half time came around Madison was beyond grumpy and upset and so she cried through most of the cheer number. Check it out!

Sooo TIRED!
Pulling it together...sort of?

Still no smiles...

There's one...maybe?

So after a little talk we decided we are not going to try to do cheerleading again next year. We...I mean she was just not built for late night cheering during the winter months. Oh well, it was still fun...and besides we won!

Gymnastics

2010-02-17T19:24:00.000-07:00

GYMNASTICS!
For Christmas Santa brought Madison gymnastic classes. So at the end of January and into February our Saturday mornings we were found at the Davis Gymnastic Center, watching Madison trying out the different things that gymnists do. It was fun. She was more coordinated than alot of the other girls. But for some reason she can't get the beat of the music. Hopefully in time she'll get the beat.

Here she is stretching...was I ever that flexible?

Just like her mom, she is double jointed...it looks kind-a gross.

Look at the back bend!

It was fun and now she is even more interested in gymnastics, if only it wasn't so expensive. But this little sampling of gymnastics was well worth it ($35 for 6 weeks) !

McKinley

2010-02-16T14:52:00.003-07:00

Well McKinley is 1 and I haven't posted like I was in January. Heavens that was a record month of 11 posts. Well so sorry to all you blog stalkers that don't leave comments but do follow our blog, I have totally been slacking for the month of February. For shame! :(

Anyway McKinley went to the Dr. for her one month check up. She now weighs in at a hefty....19 lbs 2 oz. She is in the 25th percentile for her weight. (And Daniel was worried she was going to be fat!)

She is 29 1/4 inches tall. So for her height and head circumference she is in the 50th percentile, so she's a skinny average little girl. She had to have 3 shots and her blood drawn. She was NOT a happy little girl.

So for an update in our life. I have yet another sinus infection. I had one for the entire month of December and finally after Christmas was over it. Now I have one AGAIN! Madison has started gymnastics and did a cheerleading clinic I'll post pics tomorrow, once I find the camera. Carter is being tuff as a little boy. Daniel is now 31, we celebrated his birthday yesterday. He got a computer for Valentines Day, his Birthday, our Anniversary, and any other upcoming holidays. We were burning up our laptop, and our other computer was ancient and wouldn't work and had porn on it. (to sum up that statement: our computer went online by itself and downloaded porn so when you turned the computer on it would bring up porn before going to our home page. Disgusting, and we had a huge phone bill since the computer was dialing 900 #'s)

So now we need to transfer stuff from the laptop to our *new * computer! Yeah! This week though is going to be crazy! We have the Blue & Gold Banquet on Wednesday. And then on Friday... woot, woot...off to the cabin for a little weekend getaway!

Anyway I'll post more tomorrow along with some pics.
Until tomorrow.....

McKinley's Birthday

2010-01-26T14:24:00.017-07:00

Happy Birthday McKinley! On Sunday we had McKinley's birthday party with family. It was fun although McKinley was not the happiest birthday girl. Poor little girl had a bright red bum! So we went over to Tate's and we brought cake and ice cream. Here's the birthday girls cake....

So we sang Happy Birthday. However she didn't blow out the candles, she was a little nervous about the whole thing and as soon as we ended the song Carter blew the candle out before she got a chance.
Here she is chowing down her birthday cake. Well she started out daintily picking it up and took a small bite. Then the face stuffing began!

We opened presents and since Christmas she's gotten better at tearing apart the wrapping paper!

It was fun watching her open presents and getting so excited. She would throw the clothes on the floor and the On The Go Purse that she got she pounded on the box and would laugh!

On Monday (her actual birthday) We went to McDonald's for dinner, she absolutely loves their fries. She also ate about 1/4 of my hamburger...little miss piggelty wigglety!

After dinner we came home and had her open presents from our family. We had her sit in the reading chair.

Obviously she was not impressed with the shoes.... The next picture is of me trying to give her another present and she is NOT interested, because she wants the big present that we were saving for the last.

Her "big" present was one she picked out herself. It's a cute little baby that plays peek-a-boo.

I think she had a great birthday. From her Grandma Shelly she got a TeaPot that sings with teacups, and treats. (It's a British tea pot) :0) She also got a Fisher Price Little People Ferris Wheel that plays music that she loves (it goes along with her Noah's Ark Little People that she got for Christmas) She loves playing with her teapot and purse...it's so cute, she's getting so big! Anyway happy birthday baby girl....

Until the next post.....

One year older...

2010-01-25T18:37:00.012-07:00

Happy Happy Birthday from all of us to you! McKinley. One year older and wiser too. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. It's amazing how fast they grow up. She is still such a sweet, happy baby. Everyone who knows her LOVES her hugs. She actually wraps her arms around you and squeezes your neck. And when Daniel comes home she bounces up and down calling out da-da-da and gives him a huge hug. Now that's the way to come home. She has such a personality. She fakes you out on kisses, she goes in to kiss Daniel (you know the baby open mouth kiss) and right at the last second turns and pulls away and then laughs. I love her giggle. We've been trying to record it, but like the rest of my children, she does NOT perform on demand. She still is refusing to walk she might take a few steps if she is persuaded by a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Other than that she prefers to crawl and is pretty fast. She is an expert on the stairs. McKinley loves to sing and dance, anything that plays music (toys, tv, radio, i-pod) she bounces up and down to the beat. And at church when we sing she has to sing along!

Well the other day I took a trip down memory lane looking through her baby book that we give to the Grandma's, and I can't believe how much she's grown and changed. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

The birth announcement we sent out...
Her first professional pictures...and every child has had to have a naked picture and here she is...
I love this one
In her blessing dress

Oh how sweet
Our family about 4 months later
Just the kids
Madison has this same picture in the same outfit just facing the other way
She's starting to cry, but you really can't tell
passed out on the beach...
Football season...our football cheerleader!

Our amateur photo shoot

You know the first year has a lot of firsts. She's gone sledding, snowmobiling, on vacation to Yellowstone, 4-wheeling, to a rodeo, camping, to girls camp. She's had her first Christmas, Fourth of July, Easter, holidays. She's said first words, she's started crawling, taking steps. She started eating real food, drinking milk, getting teeth (we still have 6). We get to turn her car seat around. We've had Dr. appointments, shots and ear aches. Her first smile, hug, laugh, kiss. Even when she cries, it's okay because she has a cute little trill. There is so much to cherish, and it all happens in 12 months, 365 days. Where has the time gone. Treasure every day with your child, you don't want to miss a thing. Aw the sentimental notes of a mother.... Anyway off my soap box. I'll post birthday party pictures tomorrow. Happy Birthday little girl!

Cabin Getaway

2010-01-20T20:54:00.014-07:00

Over the weekend we went up to the cabin, to snowmobile and relax. We left Friday at around 1 in the afternoon and got to the cabin at about 3. We were able to relax and sleep in, play games, and just enjoy each other's company. We stayed up there until Monday and got home at about 5pm. We had our own little "church" meeting up there. We talked about scriptures. Dad talked about faith and Alma. I talked about consistency in the home from the General Conference talk by Bro. Bednar. Mom talked about Gods Love also from a general Conference talk. Daniel talked about temptation and making our weaknesses strengths. Madison and Carter were in charge of primary and gave little talks about Jesus and that we love Him and He loves us. It was nice.

Normally we go to the cabin and it's rush, rush, rush. Since you usually don't get up there till late and you need to get up early to fit in all the snowmobiling and sledding and fun before you head home at about 4. So sometimes it's more stressful than fun. But this time since we were up there for four days we could take things slow and easy and rest and truly enjoy ourselves.

So we have lots of pictures from this mini vacation, because we had alot of firsts. Madison went sledding by herself. McKinley went snowmobiling and sledding for the first time. As per the previous post we saw a vole for the first time. So get ready for picture overload.

Here's McKinley in her mittens

Isn't she cute?...
I thought this was priceless, we had just got to the cabin so we were trying to unload and get a fire going in the stove to get the place heated up...needless to say she was highly offended that no one was paying any attention to her.
Karen spent alot of time doing homework...or cabin work
Doesn't she look so innocent...she's only missing a halo

Here's Carter working his basketball moves in the cabin. Once it gets dark, there's not alot that you can do other than play games or go to bed.
Saturday morning here's Carter getting ready, trying to put on his helmet by himself
So cute...look at those big blue eyes...don't let them deceive you!
Now there's the face we all know too well!
Madison ran through the snow. She could hardly contain herself she wanted to ride with Grandpa on the snowmobile so bad!
Off heads Carter to ride with Dad
Look at that grin!
And there they go...
Chillin' in the cabin

McKinley had a rough night and woke up around 11:30 for breakfast. We have this "vintage" otherwise really old highchair up at the cabin and she would twist herself around whenever she sat in it.
I thought this was a cute face as if she was saying "what?...I like sitting this way!"
Here is Madison and Grandpa sledding down the hill. No matter when we took the picture, and whether or not Madison knew we were taking a picture...every picture we have of her sledding or snowmobiling she has a HUGE grin from ear to ear.
Here's Karen and Madison...check out the grin :)

Check out Karen's hair...you can tell they are bookin' down the hill! Too much fun!

Now here is McKinley on her first ride down the hill. Sorry I'm covering her face so the snow won't spray up in her face.
Here we are at the bottom...she loved it. We would keep going down, and she would kick her legs, once she spit out her binky and jabbered the rest of the way down. She was like that on the snowmobile as well. We would go over bumps (lack of snow) the ride in was VERY bumpy, and non-bumpy parts she would bounce up and down. She would also lean out so that the wind was in her face. Daniel looked back and half expected her to stick her tongue out like a puppy.

Now here is Madison going sledding in her own sled, by herself, for the first time! The only picture without a grin...

After that she came running into the cabin screaming "Attention Everyone! I went down the hill ALL BY MYSELF!" then ran back out the door to do it again! The next picture is McKinley in her snow gear, she couldn't move very well so she didn't like it very much.
Doesn't she look like a squishy marshmallow
Here I am sledding down the hill from Bindrups cabin, it's intense, or is it my bones are older so it hurts more? hmmm...
Now Daniel did not grow up sledding and snowmobiling. When we got married is when he was introduced to the winter world. So in the past nine years we haven't stayed over the weekend like we did this year, and if we did stay longer than two days my brothers were there and the boys would go snowmobiling. So this year was really Daniels first year sledding our intense hill that spans approximately 10 acres. Needless to say we had to give him some pointers on how to sled. Sledding is an art.

1-You must steer/brake with your feet/boots, not your gloves. We know this from experience, my mother hated us sledding because in one winter season we would go through 3-4 sets of gloves! So we've learned to use our boots...they're sturdier!

2-You have to lean around corners.

3- Spread your legs further out and bend your knees when you break or angle your feet out so the snow spray doesn't spray into your face

4-Hold on for dear life...this is survive or go down the hill as a giant snowball

Maybe we should have told Daniel these things before his first run down the mountain?!

He came out with hair grayer than his father
well it didn't stop him there he goes down to the bottom of the hill.
Here comes our pick up crew. Carter did sled one or two times, but he preferred the snowmobile. At first he was riding in the basket in the back and my mom asked him if he wanted to ride up front. He said, "Yeah, me like riding behind" well my mom picked him up and pulled him to sit in front of her...he then said, "or me like driving." This picture he's not happy because he got in trouble for messing with the gears and putting it in reverse and then gunning it and almost running over the tube...needless to say Grandpa was NOT happy!
This is how we are towed back up the hill. Fun huh?! Beats walking!

Here's Grandma flying down the hill...

Piling out of the tube...it's hard on our old bones.
Warming up with some HOT COCOA! YUM! (of course with marshmallows!)
Carter is potty trained, but this is his first time to the cabin since that blessed event occured. So this is his first time peeing in the snow. Daniel was ready to kill him. He had to pee every 5 minutes!!...No Joke! He thought it was so cool to pee in the snow...so we had ALOT of yellow snow.
These tracks were all over the place, I never did see the rabbit that made them, but I thought I'd share the picture of our visitor.
Now this is just sweet. Grandpa had the touch to get her to fall asleep, that or she was just completely exhausted from all that fun. And yes she does sleep with her eyes partially open...creepy I know. But still this is a sweet moment.

Here's our cabin, sweet cabin. Quaint, yet there are a lot of good times had here and good times to come.
And here we are...finally the last picture of our mini "vacation" In this picture it looks like the kids true personalities show through. It was a great time and I can't wait to head up there again. Until February...new adventures await.
I hope you enjoyed the pics. I know this is a REALLY LONG post...sorry! but it was fun! :) Until the next post....

The Vole

2010-01-19T22:10:00.007-07:00

Over Martin Luther King's Day weekend we went to the cabin with my family. It was a great get away and the kids had a blast snowmobiling and sledding. I'll post more pictures later, but I did want to post about our creature feature. Now my parents have had our cabin since I was about 12 years old, and it's a very old cabin, but we love it. We take very good care of it, but since it is in the great outdoors, mice tend to get in to the cabin. We have traps set and we haven't had a mouse in a LONG time. We did have a squirrel die once inside the cabin, but that's another story, and that was a long time ago as well. So getting on to this trip to the cabin we found something in the traps. Dad is the designated disposer of items found in traps, but he had to show us that it wasn't a mouse. It was a vole. What is a vole you say....well we had to take pictures because the kids thought it was awesome.

They are very tiny creatures, and aren't as pesky as mice. Anyway we disposed of them and had a good laugh over them because they reminded Daniel and myself of a King of the Hill episode. Hope you have a giggle..we sure do. Here is the clip

Our Only Cousin

2010-01-14T13:18:00.004-07:00

Megan and Greg (Daniel's Sister and husband) now live in North Carolina. They were able to make the trip out here to us in Utah on New Years Eve. They landed in Utah basically at midnight so they were able to celebrate New Years Eve the entire flight across the country. Not so fun for their one year old, since by the time they landed it was 4am their time. It was rough getting over the jet lag. But Macy did cling to two people in particular...Aunt Kaitlin and Grandpa. She was a little weary of our crew. She is used to playing by herself having all her toys and just her mom. Well she was awakened to the terror that is Carter. Madison was really good with her, and I'm happy to say she motivated McKinley into walking. Since Macy was walking all over the place, McKinley wanted to as well, but the problem was that she wanted to use Macy for support....see any problems there? Anyway it was nice to visit with them and see them since we don't get to see them as often anymore...sometimes by web cam (which is great) but it's nice to actually feel someone in your arms when you hug them instead of a computer screen. Anyway here are some pictures of when we had to say goodbye to our only cousin...

Here's Carter squeezing her guts out...poor Macy...Carter just has so much Love he can't contain it or himself.

There's McKinley trying to use Macy as a support...they are about the same height McKinley is a little bent over since she's about to lose her balance or support (Macy)

When we first went over to see them Macy and McKinley gave each other a huge hug and no one caught it on film (or digital film) so when they were leaving we tried to get another picture of them hugging....Macy wasn't so willing. Poor thing had been sick a couple days before and really only wanted Grandpa...so this shot is the closest we could get after that Macy would straight arm McKinley and not let her near.

Macy and Madison

How cute....look at my posing queen
McKinley was so jealous of Macy's hair, she ended up pulling it several times...sorry Macy...but she does have gorgeous curls...I'm even jealous

Anyway they left on the 8th and we miss them terribly...I guess that gives us a reason to come visit :)

We love them and miss them and it's hard to say goodbye to our only cousin, but we did....until next time....

Christmas

2010-01-13T14:09:00.005-07:00

Well now it's almost a month later but better late than never. Christmas at the Tate's...Daniel couldn't sleep so he woke up Madison who woke up Carter, who all three drug McKinley and myself out of bed.

This is Madison checking out her stocking...Oh my! Jonas Brothers pencils to match her Jonas Brothers pajamas!
Carter checking out his stocking...the most important stuff comes out first. None other than the....CANDY!

Me and McKinley sooooo excited to be awake!

Look at that face! What on earth are we doing up at this hour. McKinley's first Christmas, I don't think she's quite ready for this. (don't look at my double chin!)

Here's McKinley checking out her stocking

We all get several movies...Madison loves Disney's Ice Princess
This is Madison's reaction to Santa's note....he signed her up for a month long gymnastics class every Saturday.
Carter chillin' in his Mickey chair...I was so stoked about these chairs (Santa got them on a killer deal...in August at Walgreen's for $3) Love them killer deals...Love Walgreen's too

We have a tradition that Santa leaves his sack with presents in it for each of them. They are cute sacks that I got at Michael's when I worked there (now over a year ago...so not missing it...anyway) so Santa leaves this sack and they take presents out and unwrap them or tear the paper off in a frenzy. I think it adds a little bit more control and less chaos Christmas morning. Anyway the kids really like it. This is Carter searching the contents of his sack.
Now for the big items...Madison got roller skates! Yeah..she's so excited, except I don't know about her and balance, anyway doesn't matter now...bad news...they don't fit! Bummer.

Carter's big item...drum roll please...Hospital please stand by...a Skateboard!
McKinley got a walk and ride by Playskool, that she can walk behind or we can convert o a little ride on scooter thing. Sorry no pic, but she was NOT in the mood to pose for a picture!

Anyway after our Christmas, we headed over to Daniel's parents, where the kids were spoiled and Daniel and I got $$ for TIRES! woot woot! hey we really need tires! Have you seen our tires they are beyond bald. Then we went to my parents house where they got a wii for Christmas, so we played for a little bit. Then headed off to Daniel's Grandma's house. Then after a little breakfast we headed home to rest for about two hours before heading over to my Grandma's house for dessert. Where my Grandmother gave us her history. I refused to read it until about 2 weeks later because I don't want her to think that once everyone has and read her history that she can go....because she can't! She's one of those special Grandma's that is going to be twinkled. Anyway after that we headed home for a short rest before heading over to Daniels parents again for dinner. After a rest there we went to my parents to play the wii, then finally at about 10 we went hone again, home again right into bed!

I hope everyone's holiday was just as good...Merry Christmas!

Until the next post....

Christmas Gift clocks

2010-01-12T16:27:00.000-07:00

Check out this awesome clock I made for some Christmas gifts! It's a clip clock so you can clip photo's to it. I saw it online, but it's only available in the UK and costs around $40. Aren't they cute!

Anyway I had to brag a little about my craftiness :)

A week with my Sisters

2010-01-10T15:25:00.007-07:00

So if you read the previous post you'll know that my parents went to Texas for 5 days for Rodney's basic training graduation. Well while they were gone, we kind of watched the girls, yes Lindsay and Karen are old enough to take care of themselves, but we invite them down for dinner once in a while so they won't starve or poison themselves on the food they cook. We invite them for activities like we went to Temple Square and Lindsay came along....so we watched out for them not babysat them.

Anyway Saturday it was snowing and Lindsay of course was freaking out! She kept calling and wanting help shoveling the snow, we kept telling her to wait until it stops snowing! Anyway there was a break in the storm so we headed up to help shovel snow. We helped because my parents have a really big driveway and the 4-wheeler wasn't hooked up to the snow plow to make it easy so we had to shovel by hand. Well we finished shoveling and Lindsay went downstairs to put her boots away and came up crying, or screaming obscenities, I can't remember. Anyway the basement had flooded!

I proceed to call my mother in Texas, they said they were cold because the wind was blowing...I had no sympathy for her because we were in a snowstorm and they were at Sea World. We started bailing water, Daniel talked to my dad, and we ended up shutting off the water....this meant that Lindsay and Karen were moving in with us until my parents got home Sunday evening if they weren't delayed by the storms.

So Lindsay and Karen came down and we had a sleep over the kids thought that was so fun! Sunday morning was not so fun: 4 adults showering, 3 children bathing, and all dressed, pressed and ready for church by 11. Our home teachers were able to meet my sisters, since they came over after church. For those of you who have been to my house, it's really not big enough for that many people. My parents came in Sunday evening, to no water at their house. So there was take out for dinner and work, work, work to no avail. They were no closer to figuring out the problem of the pipes. Monday goes by still no water. Tuesday, goes by still no water. My parents have alternated going to my grandmothers house and my house for showers. Karen and Lindsay have taken up residence at my house. Wednesday dad calls the city because he's dug a hole to the pipes out by the barn, because he thinks it's clogged or frozen out there (at first they thought it was the pump) The city says yes that pipe is the sewer pipe...nope they were wrong it was the Weber Basin Water Line. So that had to be fixed. Finally dad gave in and called Roto Rooter since it's been 5 days with no water. They come out and find that the pipe is frozen and that the pipe is only 18 inches deep. The reason why it froze is because the two girls didn't use enough hot water. Now dad is out there in his hole trying to thaw out frozen pipes. They went and bought charcoal briquettes (do you know how hard those are to find in the winter?) and lit them and had them burning all day to help un-freeze the pipes. Dad would turn the water heater up to scalding and haul buckets of hot water out to pour over the pipes. They would shoot hot water up the pipes to help melt the ice. Finally a week without water. The pipes finally thawed and the Julander house had water! Rejoice, rejoice! Hallelujah! It was quite a week. Nerves were tested...and what a week before Christmas....Yikes! Glad to have that trying week over with. Here's some crazy pics of life with my sisters.

It's not very pretty when Karen gets a hold of the camera!

Turning her nose up at my dinner!....that's it! No Soup For You!
Oh Lindsay!

McKinley eating cars

Oh..cute! the love of an aunt....it's just sweet

Carter chillin'

Madison taking pictures

oh goodness..what can you say

A week with my sisters...I feel the same!

Rodney Basic Graduation

2010-01-09T14:50:00.001-07:00

So for those of you who don't know, my brother Rodney joined the Air Force Reserves. He left for Basic Training in October and went for about 8 weeks. After that he is able to go to Maryland to go to tech school where he is learning to be a Metals Technician (for those of us who don't understand that job description he's learning the valuable art of welding). In December was his graduation from Basic Training, wait I'm getting ahead of myself. He left in October, had to spend his 20th birthday in Basic (he told no one so he wouldn't get harassed). So we sent him birthday cards that the kids made, with crayons, markers, stickers and such. We sent him a Halloween picture of our family. We drew hand turkeys for him for Thanksgiving. He did get to call and once when he called we were at my great aunt's funeral. So nobody had their phone on or with them, so he left sad messages on our phones...I wanted to cry. He was able to go into a gas chamber which he thought was completely and totally AWESOME! He was adopted for Thanksgiving. They have a program in Texas called Adopt an Airman. SO he was well taken care of for Thanksgiving. We wrote him letters, the only people in our family that got letters and a postcard back was Madison and Carter! Hello I'm his sister and he didn't even write me! Now I know where I stand. So now in December is his graduation, because of Christmas and job, financial matters I couldn't go, but oh how I wanted to be there. So my Dad, Mom and Grandma flew out for his graduation. Here are his pictures:

This one is actually one from when he arrived. The branch President sent this to us, to ensure us that he was being well taken care of.
Here is his military photo

This one is the day of graduation, hugging my cute 89 year old grandmother.

We are very proud of his willingness to join, if he didn't serve a mission the military was the next best thing. At least he's driven and doing something. Anyway I'm proud of him so I thought I'd blog a little about it.

I'm proud of our military family members....my love goes out to them.

3 year old breakfast

2010-01-05T14:41:00.004-07:00

It was a normal Sunday morning on the 13th of December, and we were all getting ready for church. I had jumped in the shower. Madison had finished her breakfast and was getting dressed in her church clothes. Daniel was getting McKinley dressed while Carter finished his breakfast. Well Carter finished his Eggo Waffles that Daniel had fixed for him and was still hungry. So Daniel ran down the stairs and put another waffle in the toaster and didn't give it a second thought. Well Daniel continues to get McKinley dressed and then he starts getting himself ready for church. I'm done in the shower and do my hair and call Madison in to get her hair done. As I open the bathroom door this smell hits me. It was awful. Right then we hear Carter say..."look at the smoke" Daniel goes flying down the stairs because smoke is billowing out of the microwave. I ask what he put in the microwave, and his reply is nothing. We then go around opening the doors and windows and turning on the fan above the stove so the smoke will disperse. Daniel then goes to the microwave and opens it and what does he find? This...

well Carter is at that stage where he wants to be big and do EVERYTHING himself. So he wanted to cook his own waffle. So he drug a chair over to the toaster and got his waffle out. He climbed up the counter to get a plate out of the cupboard, and put his waffle in the microwave. He then pushed a button...which one we don't know. How our microwave works is if you push the number 3 it starts cooking for 3 minutes....so needless to say he cooked it for SEVERAL minutes, to be that burnt. Here's a close-up:

so lesson learned...microwaves and three year old boys don't mix!

St. Nicholas Day

2010-01-04T20:26:00.005-07:00

St. Nicholas Day takes place on December 6 each year. This holiday is widely celebrated in Europe. St. Nicholas Day is an honor of the saint and not specifically tied to Christmas, although Santa Clause is derived from St. Nick.

My Father went to Germany on his mission and brought (well you really can't bring it) home this tradition of St. Nicholas. We actually didn't celebrate it on the 6th because it was too hard to remember, so we celebrated it on the first weekend in December. And now that I have a family we celebrate it. We even celebrated it before we had kids, but now that we have children it's much more fun. Most things that you enjoyed when you were a kid are more fun once you have kids of your own.

I found this little blurb about how to celebrate St. Nicholas Day.

Instructions

Step 1: The night before St. Nicholas Day, tell your family about the legend of St. Nicholas. Historically, St. Nicholas was the Christian bishop of Myra, a Roman province in present-day Turkey. One of the most famous legends holds that he saved the dignity of three young women by leaving a bag of gold for each one, possibly by dropping them down a chimney, where one fell into a stocking hung to dry.

Step 2: Have children (and adults) leave their empty shoes outside their bedroom doors when they go to bed on the evening of December 5th

Step 3: Fill shoes with small gifts, toys, candy and coins (edible coins wrapped in the gold foil are popular in Germany). Little gifts including something religious, are the custom.

Step 4: Enjoy a delightful morning as children relish their new gifts from St. Nicholas. Make a festive breakfast and have some family time and Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Well we talk about St. Nicholas and this year I found some cute little ceramic stockings, that a battery operated tea-light candle sits inside from Tai Pan Trading. (I should have taken a picture of them because they are so cute...there's always next year.) So we "lit" the candles and left them by the door in hopes that St. Nicholas would come. In our family tradition St. Nicholas brings you a new pair of shoes. Inside the shoes you get an ornament for the Christmas tree and candy. (That would be Carters favorite part.)

So here's the pictures of what St. Nicholas brought:

The kids boots filled...or should I say overflowing. Madison got 2 soccer ball ornaments, Carter got a football and a basketball ornament, and McKinley got a snowman ornament. Most of McKinley's candy was eaten, not by her, but I bet you only need one guess as to who ate it

And Mom and Dad's shoes.

It's fun having different traditions for different holidays. I'm glad we have this one it reminds me of my father, and the history there. Anyway....

Since we were completely slacking (beyond busy) during December. We'll try to catch up with all that happened so be prepared for many more posts to come. Till the next post...

Christmas with the Kranks...

2009-12-31T15:41:00.002-07:00

Albert Einstein said..."The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results." Well call me insane.

Christmas has come and gone and along with it marks the one year anniversary of when our little blog was started. For those who have followed for a long time...you will remember that my first post was about Christmas...How much I disliked all the running around and stuff...well another year has passed and yet another Christmas came and went...we didn't change anything from last year and once again...I found myself getting irritated midway through the day. This year in fact I was this close...(for those who can't see me...I am holding my fingers very close together)...to calling one of the visits off. I went anyway and I guess things worked out okay. The kids got more stuff...which prompted us to have to buy shelving in order to accomodate all the 'stuff'. Maybe my memory isn't as good as I think it is...but I don't remember having this much 'stuff'. I guess this is the benefit they have of being the first grandchildren on both sides of the family. Although on my side there is another with which to spread the 'stuff'.

Okay I may complain but I am very grateful to all those who helped this Christmas. Because of the loss of job we were very afraid that it would be a lean Christmas but people pitched in and helped, for which I am very grateful.

Well is New Years Eve and it's time to start thinking about resolutions. I have lots of things I need to work on but don't think I am going to make my list too long...goals have to be attainable and all that. But here's to being a better father and husband...to making sure that my family always has what it needs and to being a better person in general.

There at least I look good on paper!

Black Friday

2009-11-30T19:33:00.003-07:00

I absolutely LUV Black Friday. I love the rush, and energy and the amazingly great deals! Daniel says that something comes over me around 9pm Thanksgiving Day. It's so fun. This year was totally awesome we stayed out ALL Night Long, and all day long...I basically stayed up for about 39 hours and was so utterly and completely exhausted, my bed never looked so good! Angels sang when my head hit the pillow. But as an avid Black Friday Shopper there are some rules everyone needs to know.

So here are the Ten Commandments of Black Friday!

1- Thou Shalt Have a Plan
2- Thou Shalt Wear Good, Comfortable, Supportive Shoes
3- Thou Shalt Not Take a Cart, Unless you have a designated person with a cart whom stays out of the way!
4- Thou Shalt Go as a Group (besides it's more fun that way)
5- Thou Shalt Have Designated Items For Each Person to Retrieve (ie: 1-gets DVDs 2-gets games, etc...)
6- Thou Shalt Not Whine
7- Thou Shalt Never be a Line Jumper! (at Target you will be thrust from the store or arrested depending on how far you push security)
8- Thou Shalt Keep Your Ads With You at ALL Times
9- Thou Shalt Have FUN, if you don't get what you came out for oh well, no big deal, If you do get what you were after...You So Totally Rock!
10- Thou Shalt Get Out of MY Way! :)

Happy Shopping!

Daniel

2009-11-17T12:57:00.003-07:00

Yeah! Daniel has a job, he started on Monday, and is completely thrilled about the great benefits of working for the state. The only problem with the new job is that I no longer have a babysitter for Carter and McKinley. Everyone has been blessed with work right now, and thus there are no babysitters, for two adorable children for three hours a day. Anyway we are happy that he's working. It makes Christmas less than dire for us. Anyway the reason for this post is because one I haven't posted lately and two we have baby pictures of Daniel. We haven't ever had any to see and the last gathering the Tates' had an Aunt had brought her photo album and there he was all chunky and rolls to behold, but the funny thing was that he looked exactly like McKinley (or is it the other way around). So check out Daniels baby pics:

Doesn't McKinley look like that baby...

Playing in the sand at Antelope Island

What a cute little boy

I'm sorry but check out Brian's hair... and that cute little boy in his lap eating...that's where my kids getting playing with their feet and eating.

So there you have it, Daniels baby pics. Anyway not much for this post but it's beginning to be that time of year where there's all the hustle and bustle. Programs to attend, treats to bake, food to eat, time with relatives (could be good or bad), and everything else life throws at you. Well I have to go get things in order for the birthday fun since Madison will be 6 on FRIDAY! Where has the time gone...well that's a whole other post. Until next time...

Hair Cut

2009-11-09T16:26:00.007-07:00

Okay I have an announcement to make...I was brave. Not just any kind of brave, the brave that mom's fear, the day their child becomes independent and knows what she wants and how she wants it. Madison wanted to get her hair cut short like mine. There was absolutely no way! I have NOT cut her hair since she was born (other than the occasional trim of the split ends). She has been pestering me and pestering me about cutting her hair. And I must admit that brushing the tangles and snarls out of her hair and having her cry HUGE crocodile tears was not pleasant for either party involved. So then having Daniel home and having him hear the morning routine, he started pestering me about it. Saying "it's just hair"...and for any mother who has any child born with no hair knows that... it is NOT JUST HAIR! This hair symbolizes alot ...like when she was a baby and people asked you what your baby is, you can now plainly see that she is a girl! with beautiful golden straight hair that comes down almost to her butt. I love her hair. You can do so many things with long hair... piggy tails, pony tails, all sorts of braids, you can have it curly, flat, kinky, twisted. However I slowly came to a conclusion that long hair for her wasn't fun, she would like it flat with nothing in it, but she's still an active girl and being outside running, playing, riding scooters and bikes her hair would come in a complete mess, and that's when we would brush her hair again and the tears would inevitably come. It would break my heart, a mom doesn't enjoy her kids crying, especially over hair. I bawled when Madison cut her own hair and she was then given bangs...that was a year and a half ago.

So now Daniel is pestering me, and Madison. Then Daniel pulled out the stops by saying "you know she could donate it." How sweet and tender to be able to give to someone in need, and who am I to deny my child that gift of giving. Dang it all Daniel! So I resigned to the fact that we were going to let Madison cut her hair, as long as she donated it. So we hopped on the Locks of Love website and explained to Madison all about cancer, and how this illness and the medicine made the little girls hair fall out and how sad she would be without any hair. We showed her pictures of patients, and pictures of how they donate it to make wigs. She was ecstatic about it. That was what she wanted to do. So now we have the task of setting an appointment and actually going through with it. So last week we called and set the appointment with Penny. (She does my hair and nails, Lindsay's hair and nails, and Karen's hair.)

So today is the day at 1:00 we head to Penny's with a car full of mostly excited people. I'm still not sure about this.
Here's our before pictures:

getting ready in the chair.

Penny gets her in the booster and puts her hair in a pony tail and measures it. Then she gets the scissors. There's only a split second left to turn back. I'm screaming STOP! NO! DON'T DO IT! oh wait that's all in my head...however I am holding my breath and might pass out. Breath Jennifer remember it's only hair and it will grow back.

There's no going back now.

Here it is her golden locks of hair and yes...sniff...I'm doing okay

Now its in the talented hands of Penny.

Have to have a picture with our talented stylist. SO CUTE!
Would you just look at that smile, she's practically bursting, she absolutely LOVES her hair!
Here's the back, a cute little A-Line.
And here she is holding her chopped locks to donate. Can you believe how long it is! But the end result is gorgeous!

Now it's off to the Grandma's and Grandpa's to show them her new look and we have already texted those out of state about her new do.

Halloween

2009-11-06T22:19:00.011-07:00

Well here it is a week into another month and things have not slowed down any and we have been completely slacking in the blogging department. I completely blame Daniel, well not completely...I've been doing couponing lately and this wonderful website of fantastic freebies. Well on the website it had if you become a fan on facebook of edible arrangements they will send you a coupon for 6 CHOCOLATE dipped fruit for FREE...well who could turn an offer like that down...definitely not me, it had two key words CHOCOLATE and FREE. So I joined facebook. Well that was a mistake..I found this game, I already own a version of this game, but not this fast paced, one minute timed, bonus crazy version...I'm addicted. I've now spent quite a bit of time playing this game. It's Bejeweled Blitz. Yes I'm pathetic I know.

Anyway I made McKinley's Halloween costume, with some talented help from my mother and grandmother. I'm getting ahead of myself. Thursday Madison was allowed to wear her costume to school. Only the kindergartners get to wear costumes and they do a little parade to the other kindergarten classes and up to the office. Madison went as a genie, since I wouldn't take her nice Wendy costume (night gown) to school, and recess. So here's our genie:

Wish granted

We carved pumpkins, Daniels absolute favorite part of this season. The kids absolutely hate scooping out the pumpkin guts. What's funny is that Carter is such a boy and can miraculously get dirty or dirtier in .05 seconds but he absolutely hates to get dirty with slimy pumpkin guts. He can't even finger paint without wanting to wash his hands every 5 seconds. So here he is scooping pumpkin guts not touching the edges of the pumpkin

disgusted look on his face

Madison concentrating on her pumpkin

Ewwww~! Pumpkin Guts

And now drum roll please....
Our finished products!
Mine is Malificent's dragon..the epitome of evil

Carter wanted Bruce for Daniel to carve..."Hello, name's Bruce" (insert Australian accent)

Madison chose Snow White for Daniel to carve ...."I'm wishing..."

Here's Madison's she designed on her own. It does not have three eyes, the square in the center is actually its nose.

And then Carter had to have one that was throwing up it's guts. However he did not want to spew the guts everywhere, mom and dad had to do that because he had had enough guts. Blech!

Madison then had to dress up in different costumes and have us take her picture. So here is Madison's very own Halloween parade of costumes (there's only two you saw the third...the genie. First we have the devil ... check out my spooky decor behind her

And here's the most wicked witch you've ever met

Really isn't she cute?

Well here it is Halloween night and our dressed up Halloween crew. It was wonderful we all participated and coordinated our costumes. Daniel normally doesn't dress up but this year he did. We were from Peter pan. Madison went as Wendy, Carter obviously went as Peter Pan (there was no way I was getting Daniel in tights) McKinley went as Tinkerbell, I was Captain Hook and Daniel followed me around as the crocodile. He was vary clever and had a metronome in his pocket to simulate the tick-tock of the crocodile clock.

Here's Wendy and Peter hugging

This is "we can fly" pose

Captain hook and Tinkerbell join the picture (let me tell you the mustache was completely annoying, I don't know how men stand to have them. It kept tickling my nose and would get in the way when I ate or drank.) And check out the awesome Tinkerbell costume.
you have to see the whole Captain Hook costume
Here's the whole crew with the crocodile too.

Here's all the kids together (and you can get a better look at the awesome Tink costume, Daniel convinced me that I could make one for cheap and it turned out awesome...not that I have any talent in sewing, Grandma and Mom helped ALOT, but it's shiny and sparkly and it zips all the way down the back, so we put a white onesie on and then wrapped the costume around her and zipped her up and then put the elastic wings around her arms. Form fitting clothes (like Tinkerbell's are not only hard to sew but extremely difficult to maneuver a 9-month little girl into). So I'm extremely pleased with the way it turned out. Without any further delay here's the kids:

And we hope you all had a safe and...

McKinley's 9-months and Family Pics

2009-10-27T23:10:00.006-06:00

Well today we took McKinley in for her 9 month check up and she's an average cute little girl. She ways 18.25 lbs and is 27 1/2 inches long. She's growing and is a pleasant little girl unless you put her down, or is hungry. Let me explain... McKinley cries when you put her down but as soon as you pick her up she is quiet and completely content and sometimes (most times) is pleasant in your arms. When Carter was this age he would cry whether you were holding him or not. So since she's so good in your arms it's hard to put her down. When she's hungry she growls at you if you don't feed her fast enough...especially mash potatoes, you don't get to have a bite in between hers, you can only feed her. This is how pleasant she is... today while we were at the Dr.'s she didn't have to have any immunization shots however she is in the high risk group for flu so they suggested, recommended she get the flu shot...so we said definitely give our girl the shot! So the Dr comes in and checks her over, then he lets the nurse come in to do the dirty work. They lay her on the table and the nurse stabs her....I would be in tears, but all McKinley did was whimper a little sigh and THAT WAS IT! No sucking in and crying huge crocodile tears, no screaming or gnashing of teeth....just a little whimper and we went on with our day.

Also today is Rodney's birthday...so a happy birthday wish goes out to him, he turns 20 today so he will be no longer labeled as a teenager. However he doesn't get a birthday bash, party, cake or any well wishes. He's in basic training at Lakland Air Force Base. We all miss him but hope all is well there. It's been hard for our family to see him go, but he left very excited to be going on such a grand adventure. He's at basic for 8 weeks and then goes to Maryland for 15 weeks. I had a hard time seeing him go, he would take Madison swimming about once a week, and she loved it. That was one reason why it was so hard to see him go, that and it's always hard to see family leave. It was the same when Daniels sister and her little family left. I love our family and hope all of them know that...

Anyway enough emotion...here's some pic's we took before he left...

The whole family

Mom and Dad with their kids

The boys

All the boys

Just the girls

Mom and her girls

Mom and her boys...

The grandparents with their grandkids

Aaahhhh how tender...

my cute brood

McKinley not handling any more pictures...possessed baby...I love that Carter is huddled in the corner as if saying save me from Kiney...and Madison's expression is priceless...

Anyway enough for now, until the next post...

We WON!!!

2009-10-16T22:12:00.006-06:00

Go Northridge! We won, it was a great game full of excitement, running, screaming and I'm not just talking about my kids...hey who am I kidding both Carter and Madison were out cold by the end of the first quarter. Carter did end up waking up during the last quarter but Madison as we speak (or type) is still out cold but at least now she's in her nice warm bed instead of an ice cold metal bleacher. Take notice that McKinley was not asleep (she did sleep through the third quarter but was awake for the excitement of the fourth) she bounced on my lap as she always does, I figure that it's her inner cheerleader, cheering on Austin, or maybe she bounces from all the excitement and being outside. Anyway...It was exciting, I got there late (I had a class to attend) and when I got there the score was 14-7 Northridge leading. There were some great plays, however there were some interceptions...tsk tsk. But we still ended up winning 49 to 21 however this game has a HUGE moment to one player in particular. Austin scored the last touchdown of the game which was his first touchdown for Northridge! We screamed, we yelled, we cheered, we cried...no wait there's no crying in football! We were ecstatic for #28 and I am glad we were there to see it, I wish we had video of it, maybe we can score some team footage from one of the coach's or maybe they don't have that in high school, I don't know these things, but I do know we are thrilled and excited for Austin! I just had to post this once we got home and the kids warmed up. We are all very fired up over this, Brian was practically giddy walking away from the car after dropping off an asleep Madison. Well goodnight all and one more for the road...
GO NORTHRIDGE!
..28...28...GOOOO TATE!!!

Northridge Football

2009-10-16T14:21:00.007-06:00

Okay so Austin (Daniels brother) is playing on Northridge Varsity football team. We couldn't be more proud...well we had a lot to do with it :) anyway Daniel is all about supporting his brother which I completely agree with so we go to as many games as possible within our range and it nearly kills him when we're late and if we have to miss one...I mean for heavens sake he's only a sophomore and more than likely he will be on the team when he's a junior and a senior there will be plenty of more games to see. However we support the Tate team and can I say how proud I am of myself for making something for football to cheer on the team... and if I don't say so myself looks dang cute! Marla and Brian bought the 2 kids t-shirts that say Friday Knight Lights...well I thought McKinley was left out (not really...they just don't sell support the team onesies at the football games or I'm sure Grandma would have bought one) So I took it upon myself to have McKinley included. I made her a cheerleader. We had to search everywhere for a black onesie....hello can't anyone sell a plain black onesie? No of course not that would make this undertaking a whole lot easier. Finally I found one at quilted bear. I have some iron-on material that I can print the image from my computer, and got going. On the front of the onesie is the Northridge emblem, on the back it says TATE with a football with-in the words. I then made a tu-tu and a matching headband.
The front:

The back:

So the we have all enjoyed going to the football games...Madison usually ends up falling asleep, but hey that's Madison, McKinley usually falls asleep as well, but hey that's a babies life, and then there's Carter who absolutely loves it. So Last Friday (yes this post is a week late) was the homecoming game...so we all got dolled up in Northridge colors to cheer on the team who played against Roy High and we WON! 36-0 this is huge since it's been a while since we've won, but that's best left to the rantings of the parents of the players. Anyway we have a cheer for Austin... he is number 28 so we say..."28, 28, gooooo Tate!" Yes I know it's simple but the kids LoVe it, they sit and watch for Austin and have a blast here's our Tate team photo:

Tonight is the game against Clearfield and I have an inside tip actually it's from Clearfields coach that he had to suspend some of his starters...so he's pretty sure they are going to lose so Yeah another win for us...knock on wood. Don't want to jinx it. Well wish us luck against the Falcons tonight and I'll post tomorrow about our long week. Till tomorrow...

The toothless wonder.

2009-10-13T10:02:00.006-06:00

Okay so it's been a really long time since I have taken the opportunity to post something on our blog. But something happened last night...but let me back up.

About 2 months ago we were having dinner with the Julanders. It was a proud and defining moment for the father of the house. He had attempted many times (without success) to grow corn suffecient for eating and grow enough to make it worth while. Well he had finally succeeded and we were celebrating the moment with dinner and enough corn to feed the whole family. We were all sitting around and enjoying our meal when Madison exclaimed loudly, "OUCH!!!" With great concern we looked over at her, mid-bite into her corn on the cob, she had stopped suddenly. "My tooth hurts!" At this point she was crying as though she had just taken one of Carter's well placed right hooks. I leaned over and examined her tooth and sure enough there one of her bottom teeth had shaken itself loose. Everybody told her that it was normal and that she would lose the tooth soon. Yet despite all attempts to soothe her, she was not convinced.

For the next few weeks we instructed her to continue wiggling her tooth and it would be ready to come out. Still Madison was not convinced, in fact she refused to wiggle the tooth at all. Well for those who don't remember (I sure had forgotten) a tooth that doesn't get wiggled doesn't make much progress with regards to coming out.

After several weeks more, the permanent tooth underneath had finally lost it's patience and the tooth finally started to make some progress. She could almost turn the tooth completley on its side. I finally convinced Madison that she could let us try. Jennifer and I discussed, quietly, the many options for removing a tooth, some of which are kind of funny, but finally decided that the least invasive and concerning would be just a simple yank.

I pulled Madison into the bathroom and got some toilet paper to get a good grip. I looked into her worried eyes and told her I would be pulling on the count of three. 1....her hands gripped my legs as she prepared for the worst. 2...I pulled at the same time she took a deep breath to gather her strength and courage for the next number. She looked at me as if she had just been clubbed, but the look of shock and even outrage quickly turned to amazement as her toungue identified the gaping hole that was now there in place of a tooth. She asked, "Is it out?" As I turned over my hand to reveal the precious tooth, her grin came in earnest. She rushed out quickly to share the news with Mom, who was just as excited as her. After a little bleeding the ordeal of pulling a tooth was all over however the ordeal of losing a tooth was about to begin.

Madison shared her newest treasure with her brother, who later came and asked me, 'I want to try!' We were already getting ready to go and visit Tallest Grandpa and we instructed the kids to jump in the car. By the time I finished my request Madison was strapped in and honking the horn for us to get going. We started driving away and Madison called Grandma Tate who is visiting Megan in Texas, she told Grandma, Kaitlin, Megan and Greg and probably would have told Macy if she had thought about it. We instructed Madison that when we got to Grandpa's that she shouldn't tell him, just give him a big smile and see if he notices. Well we got there...she rushed in jumped into Grandpa's arms and smiled as big as I have ever seen...right in his face. Amazingly, he noticed...though i am not sure how. We spent about 10 minutes at Grandpa's house and she was ready to go and show the other set. We called B on the way and told her, and called Rollan and Sam so they were aware.

At Grandma and Grandpa Julander's there was even less restraint. She walked through the door and announced to all present...I LOST A TOOTH! Rodney was the next to get a call and then the night was over. She was excited to get a visit from the tooth fairy...so excited that when she woke up at 1 AM she felt it necessary to wake up mom and dad and let us know.

Jennifer staged a visit from the fairy by sprinkling glitter on Madison's bed and even put some on her lips as if the fairy had checked her mouth to verify facts. Below are some pictures of her and the missing tooth.

Trip to the Zoo

2009-09-30T22:50:00.006-06:00

Well since Daniels been home and Madison and I are off track we have a lot of free time...not really with submitting resumes and maintaining a house, but hey we took a day off and headed to the zoo. We really wanted to see the baby elephant. However the zoo has been a busy place, actually they got real busy about last year and have been delivering all summer. We saw the baby elephant, a baby giraffe, baby snow leopard, baby meerkats, baby sand cat. We didn't see the 3 baby tigers and the baby Siamese crocodiles.

Here's the baby elephant.

Here's us in front of the elephants

Isn't he so cute and little next to mama elephant

Here we are in front of the baby giraffe.

Baby giraffe

Madison and Carter on the tiger statue...check out Madison's fierce look!

Here's the baby snow leopard, it was hard to get a picture with where they were taking an afternoon siesta in the sun

Madison and Carter wanted a picture with the Gorilla statue. So here's Carter

And now Madison

For some reason the kids wanted their pictures taken, so why deny the kids and a photo happy mom. Especially when normally Carter is camera shy and too busy, and Madison has to be in the mood to have her picture taken and then when she is in the mood she is such a photo pose-r. Anyway it was quite the fun and baby filled day at the zoo. If you have the opportunity I would definitely go, just for the baby elephant, he is so tiny at 300 pounds, and so cute. When we were there he kept going and walking through the mud and he would go and play and roll the ball around. And just like any baby in between all this he kept nursing....play, nurse, play with ball, nurse, walk in mud, nurse....

Have a fun filled day and go to the zoo....until the next post.

The Journey Home

2009-09-28T14:11:00.012-06:00

Well Grandpa and Madison were the first up so they went to Big Springs and fed the fish, they then came back and woke everybody up. So it was a great breakfast and load up the cars with our gear and treasures, clean up the cabin and on our way to Big Springs. We usually float Big Springs but this trip we didn't have time and it was really cold. So instead we went and watched the huge fish and the ducks. There was an unexpected animal there...a muskrat, which surprisingly are very good swimmers.

Big Springs

Check out the huge fish

The ducks kept eating the fish food....you can see some fish in the water.

The Muskrat

Madison feeding the fish

Here's Carter...notice the binoculars he never went anywhere without them, even on the way home.

McKinley enjoying being out of the car

After Big Springs we went around the river to the cabin that John built (it's sad but I can't remember his last name) but he was short only 4'11" and one of the very first to build up in the Island Park area. I tried to take a picture inside but the lighting was awful so they didn't turn out very well. John was a master craftsman and has a particular design that is specific to him, he also used nature in his decorating and was very resourceful. He had coat racks made out of hooves. It was a neat little tour of his quaint cabin. Madison wanted to take a picture of all of us in front of it. Hey look I'm in another picture...wow that's a total of two now for me :)

Here's Madison sad to be going....

On the road again, just can't wait to be on the road again.... we stopped at Herriman and wandered around all the buildings were locked and I didn't have my camera out. Sorry but we walked around and looked at the old schoolhouse, the boys dormitory and the farm. It was interesting but it would have been better if we could have gone in the buildings. So back in the car and on to Los Mesa. It was beautiful. The upper falls were gorgeous, however I didn't like having to go up all the stairs.... but on a positive note at least we were out of the car.

The Family at Los Mesa Upper Falls

Grandpa and McKinley

Here's all the stairs

Stairs, stairs

and more stairs!

Even Carter's has had enough stairs. Laying down on strike of stairs.

Here we are resting at the visitor center for Los Mesa

Inside they had two couches, this one had a buffalo skin on it

This one had a black bear skin on it, Carter was intrigued by the paws, Madison was tired and ornery and was freaking out about the bear.

Kissing the black bear

It was an awesome visitor center they had a room full of skins, and prints and they were labeled of what they were. They had different antlers, horns, bones, nests, eggs and more, it was awesome, the kids thought it was really neat. While we were there two guys came in (one was really cute and tall, Lindsay had her eye on him) but they had no brains. They wanted to find a way to get down to the lower falls so they could raft over it. The rangers thought they were nuts, so did we, but the rangers showed them on a map how to get there, the guys were disappointed because they had to hike a mile in and then a mile out without a trail. We left hopefully they made it. Now it's time for some serious car time....lovely. Well actually we drove for about 30 minutes to Rexburg to have lunch. We drove by the Rexburg temple, sorry no pictures the camera was now packed away in the trunk. Now we have some serious car time. We hit about Mallad and McKinley screamed from there to about Willard, it was a lovely time for all. She had completely had it, no more car seat and if she was going to be miserable EVERONE was going to be miserable right along with her. Well we made it home, alive and in one piece but very grumpy! Overall it was a great vacation. Daniel was excited to see the kids and treated us to pizza for dinner which McKinley absolutely loved...

Helping dad shove it in her mouth.

We missed Daniel alot and I would rather go with him on vacation it just wasn't the same without him and even the kids missed him but we called every night to tall him about our day. He had stayed home for some interviews however I'm sad to report he did not get either of the jobs we were counting on so now it's back to square one with only a few weeks of severance left. Can we say Stressful! Anyway what a great experience for the kids. Until the next post....