Shaylee's Baptism

Shaylee was baptized on November 15th, at 3 p.m. at the San Angelo, Texas

Sunset Drive Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

This post is really late, but Shaylee I want you to know how proud Daddy and I are to be your parents, and how proud we are that you want to always Choose the Right. Always follow the Spirit and you will never go astray. You are a very important part of the church, as well as in our family, and I hope that we will be together forever. You have such a good heart and are always willing to help. Thank you and I love you! Love, Mom

Warren (holding Addy) & Julie (Tyler's Parents), Tyler, me, Stacey (Tyler's sister), Cayden, and Shaylee (and Shaylee looks like she's holding ATTITUDE!!) Oh and Grandma Caudle made the white dress for her, as well as a purple dress for her to wear after the baptism!

Our little family!

Our cute kids! Addy DID have socks on but she never keeps them on for long!

Tyler was ecstatic to get to baptize our oldest child, but it did make him a little sad that he's getting so old, and our kids are too!!!

~Our Thanksgiving~

Me and Ashlyn (Stacy's toddler) rocking

Well the kids and I had the BEST time visiting with my big family during Thanksgiving!!! Well, it started off bad...our car broke down after only driving 2 and 1/2 hours...but after we got a rental the next day, it was smooth sailing! I was so excited to see my two baby nieces that I'd never met, as well as seeing how tall all the rest of the kids have become!! We ate TONS of good food, went ice skating, did a little hairbow making and crocheting, but mainly got lots of good talking time in!! We even saw a little snow for a few minutes!! Mom bought all the grandkids an early Christmas present...Shaylee played with her singing Hannah Montana barbie the whole way home (much to my annoyance, haha!), Cayden loves his fire truck, and Addy has been having lots of fun with her singing toy!! My mom spend some one on one time with Shaylee which was so great. Shaylee also spent a few nights at her Aunt Jennifer's! Cayden was addicted to the Mario Kart game on the Wii and loved rough-housing with the other boys, although they are all quite a bit older than Cayden so he got hurt (mainly in the mouth, poor kid) a lot but had lots of fun. Nicole's birthday was on Thanksgiving and I think she got quite a few things that she loved...probably mainly the Twilight items Mom bought!!! I'm still deciding if I want to jump into the Twilight craze...I'll probably go to the movie soon and then decide if I want to read the books. I'm really bad sometimes...I'm usually crocheting so I don't read much even though I used to LOVE reading. I think I need to get books on Cd or something that I can listen to while I crochet! But at the same time, that's just not the same thing as curling up with a good book and blocking everything else out!!

My dad managed and organized the building of my grandpa's building out on Highway 17, the C&V Auto. Now my mom has picked up where he left off, and is doing the building that is going up right next to it!! I think my dad was amazing for daring to give up farming and learn all about building, the permits, etc. Now I think it's incredible that my mom was willing to help grandpa by learning everything in such a short amount of time and continue with the work. I think I have pretty amazing and talented parents.

Mom combined all of our photos from the trip onto a CD for each of us, and since there are SOOOO many great pictures, I had to narrow it down to some of my absolute favorites!! More pictures to come soon but right now my internet is having issues!!

Cayden opening his firetruck from Grandma McConkie

My sister-in-law Sara holding Addy...the dress Addy is wearing was from my mom, and it has poodles on it, SOOOO cute!!

Shaylee bought Grandma a present, it was a precious moment!

Pregnant Stacy holding my little Addy!

Lucky

After sitting down and getting ready to write this post, I realized I don't have a lot of good pictures of our beautiful, er, HANDSOME dog Lucky. I have a cute video of him and Addy but the file is big and won't download so I'll have to figure that out. We've had some dogs and a cat in our past...mainly pets we were taking off people's hands to do them a favor. Our last dog Missy I found in a Moses Lake pet store and had to take it back to San Angelo, TX with me. Shortly after I was pregnant with Addy so I ended up not having time to get him his much needed training, so we found him a new home. ANYWAY, Tyler and I decided no more pets until we buy a house (instead of rent)...and we wanted to possibly find an adult dog that was already trained...a big dog since we like them the best. So...a few weeks ago I came home from the store, checked my email, and there was an email from freecycle.org. Someone was trying to find a new home for an adult yellow lab. It said he was neutered, house-trained, and very good with kids...how could I resist? I called the person just so I could come LOOK at the dog and try to make a rational decision this time instead of just falling in love with it. On my way home with our new dog, I called Tyler and asked him how much he loves me. He knew something was up. He was skeptical about the dog. Lucky is absolutely the sweetest WHITE Lab. He is 2 years old so he's still a big puppy at times, but even my baby likes being licked by him. Just now he easily scooped up my 5 lb weight in his mouth (for exercising although it rarely gets used...until I used it this morning!) and carried it off! Sometimes he tries to chew toys up but is good about stopping when told. Tyler and I are already in love with that dog and feel "Lucky" to have found him!! He's had atleast 2 previous owners and the first ones purposely had him fighting some violent rottweilers..the second owners gave him his name because he was "Lucky" to be alive. Call me pathetic, but I'm really going to miss him while he stays at one of my friend's houses while we're in Washington!!

Well there you go...more than you ever wanted to know about someone's pet!!!

Addy getting lick attacked!!

Lucky wearing Shaylee's Hannah Montana Halloween wig

The New President

This took place this morning:

Me: CAYDEN, Obama won. I can't believe he won.

Cayden: OH, I LOVE that guy!

Me: NO! We wanted MCCAIN to win! Obama scares me!

Cayden: Ya, he scares me too.

Me: I just can't believe Obama won. What are we going to do??

Cayden: Well, someday when I grow up I can be the Hulk and SMASH the city and SMASH Obama!!

Tyler walked into the room next.

Cayden: Do you know who won Daddy? The evil Obama!!

Hmmm! Interesting answer...I think my 4 year old has been watching a few too many superhero cartoons. Tyler and I definitely believe that the outcome of this election is a sign of the times. The part that was the most disturbing was seeing clips on the news of how African Americans/Blacks, all they cared about was getting an African American/Black man in as President. The fact that Obama won't say the Pledge of Allegiance or wear a tiny flag lapel pin on his jacket....which means he doesn't respect our flag therefore doesn't respect our country...doesn't matter to them in the least, and it obviously doesn't matter to the young kids who got out and voted...who are being raised to be extremely liberal...wanting an extreme change in government which is not exactly what this country needs. The truth is...the world is getting scary...and it's going to keep getting scary and no President can really stop it at this point...but Obama will be able to help it get scary much quicker. I think it's sad but I guess it was expected that this election would turn more into a racial contest than actually about this country's issues and what it needs.

I am going to try not to get too negative because I don't want to become one of those people that always talks bad about our President, but I can tell you that mine and Tyler's family will be beefing up our food supply along with all the other supplies we could need in an emergency. We are also going to be working on getting much more Spiritually ready...because the 2nd Coming is not too far off now.

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My next post really will be about our new dog Lucky!!

Thanksgiving in Moses!!!

YAY I'M SOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!! So just in the last couple of days things have fallen into place for me and the kids to drive to Moses Lake for Thanksgiving!! I can't even express how excited I am! Earlier I started dancing around the room like a maniac (moves I haven't busted out for quite awhile!) and singing at the top of my lungs the old 80s song "I'm so EXCITED, that I just can't HIDE it, I"m about to lose control and I think I like it!". Well my 4 year old son was trying to watch a Spiderman documentary so he was smiling but kept laughing while telling me to stop because he thought I was being weird and he was trying to watch the tv. Addy on the other hand thought I was HILLARIOUS and laughed the whole time. I KNEW there was a reason I love babies so much...they think I'm funny!! All my siblings and their families will be there at my mom's too so it's going to be the biggest house party that neighborhood has ever seen!!!! YAY for HUGE families and the Holidays!!! It's been like 15 months since I last visited my family so I'm STOKED! I know "stoked" is probably way outdated but that's only word to describe it!!!
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In other news, we got a dog named "Lucky" a few weeks ago...I'll be writing about him in my next post!

Update on Cayden

Cayden had his surgery/extraction/child TORTURE at 8 a.m. this morning. Someone came to take him back to the room and I'd told him I'd be with him the whole time, but they didn't want me to come back since it'd be done quickly...and I'm guessing because kids act a little more brave when their parent isn't there to baby them. But I was upset and almost cried as I had to peel his hand off my arm and let him go. I tried to crochet while waiting but my hands were pretty shaky. Cayden and Addy haven't been sleeping well so I haven't been sleeping well...and with all of the recent events...I was just exhausted and worried. Well anyway, in a matter of minutes I was able to go back and see him. He looked scared and his eyes were bloodshot. I couldn't believe how incredibly long teeth really are until I saw his! One of them had already started to darken, proving it was dead and going to come out eventually, one way or another! The front of his gums were pretty chopped up from the accident, so they also put 2 dissolving stitches up there so that it won't cause problems when his adult teeth come in! (They didn't put any stitches in where the teeth were pulled though) The two teeth on either side of those front teeth also got affected by the accident, and may eventually fall out, but they aren't affecting his ability to bit down so were are leaving them put. For a couple hours he couldn't see anything very well, but now after resting, and then taking a nap, he seems to be doing really good. Right now he's eating one of his favorite treats...yogurt. He keeps saying that he can feel his adult teeth growing!! I was supposed to teach Joy School again tomorrow but luckily I was able to switch with another mom, so he'll be able to stay home and rest tomorrow, too. I'm just glad that he may be able to be all done with the doctors and dentists for awhile and start to heal up!!

Cayden's Trampoline Accident

Wednesday evening I was watching out the back window of the house as Shaylee and Cayden were jumping on the trampoline. They are always out jumping...when it's not too hot outside! The blue pad that goes around the springs of the trampoline was a joke and shredded up from the wind long ago...so we let our kids jump on the trampoline without a pad, OR a net around the whole thing! I know, go ahead and let out that *GASP!*. Anyway, I saw Cayden kind of fly through the air like he normally does, but this time he landed face first onto the springs area. I was looking away when it happened, but turned around just to see Shaylee helping him up. I yelled for Tyler casually because I wasn't sure if something was wrong, but then Shaylee screamed as Cayden turned to face us, and I saw the blood pooring down all over his face. I screamed loudly for Tyler and I basically started running around the room in circles. I think I went into shock before Cayden! Tyler bolted outside and brought Cayden in. We put him on the table...it looked like someone had taken scissors and cut from his lip...up. His teeth looked weird...but it was hard to see with all the blood. I've never thrown a diaper bag so quickly in my life...and within about 3 seconds I'd woken Addy from her nap and had got her buckled up and ready to go. We flew out the door and I drove...shaking and speeding like a wild woman... while Tyler held our son and tried to calm me down (Cayden was in complete shock at that point). I cried while Tyler and two nurses held my son down as the doctor gave 2 shots in the gums, and 5 stitches. For days his upper lip looked more like a duck bill, and he couldn't hardly open his mouth so I had him drinking water through a dropper (which he LOVED because he would squirt our new dog and Addy with it!) and I had him eating Addy's soft, disolving snacks. The E.R. didn't say anything about his teeth so we thought they were fine. After a couple days he had an appointment with his Pediatrician where he had his 4-year old birthday shots as well as a flu shot, and the doc examined his mouth and sounded really concerned, because 3 of his front teeth are all messed up!! (He was also a little concerned that Cayden was 4 lbs lighter than last year on his birthday...he's drinking 2% milk now to help put some more padding on that body!!) I was glad to see that someone was as concerned as me about his teeth!! Today he saw an Oral Surgeon who took x-rays...and with the opinion of a dentist that is a friend of his...he decided that the two front teeth must go. One of the teeth he is actually biting down on...and the other one is rubbing...so to compensate, Cayden has been trying to OVERbite with the bottom teeth! At first I just imagined all of his pictures over the next few years without front teeth. Vain and selfish I know. Now I'm more concerned about his speeth though, since he hasn't mastered being able to say words correctly that have two constanants (you know, "fr" "tr"...etc). I know it'll be okay...I guess it's just the incredible guilt I'm feeling, from thinking that if Tyler and I were okay jumping on a trampoline with no pad on it, that my kids would be fine, too. NOW we want to eventually buy one of those expensive ones where the springs are actually UNDER the trampoline, and a net goes all the way around, so there is no way to hurt yourself on it. With our luck though they'd be jumping on that and his mouth would hit Shaylee's head and the exact same kind of accident would happen. Wow I wish I could put my kids in a safety BUBBLE!!! Luckily this is our first big accident so we are very fortunate. Poor Shaylee cried so hard the whole night because she said it was her fault because she was purposely jumping too high. I love my children...even when they drive me nuts, they have such tender hearts.

Well at 8 a.m. tomorrow (Wednesday) I will be taking Cayden in to be "put to sleep!" with an IV, and then have his two front teeth removed. What a week for my poor son.

This pic was taken today...stitches all gone!! Considering the doc at the E.R. had a lazy eye, I think he did an INCREDIBLE job making sure his lip was lined up correctly while stitching it up!!

This pic was taken a day after the accident...along with the pic that's at the top of this post.

Schau, Der kommt Jens, mit dem Moped!!!

Anyone who took German from Frau Way in High School should be able to appreciate and understand the title of this post! She used to make us stand up, look out the window, point, and yell this! (It means "Look, here comes Jens, on a moped!")

Anyway, so Tyler has a friend from work who has this little scooter. One day everybody in the Lube Center was laughing at Tyler as he squeezed onto it, with his knees almost up to the handles...and rode around the parking lot. Well Tyler actually REMEMBERED that I'd mentioned how we really need to come up with some fun dates, so....he asked his friend if we could borrow it for a few hours. His friend and his wife thought Tyler was for sure joking...so he didn't end up bringing it to work so we had to go get it...the whole time he kept saying how crazy we are and that I must be a really cool wife (which I didn't argue with of course)! This little scooter gets up to about 45 mph on FLAT land...and since it falls under the "golf cart laws" we were able to drive it on 35 mph roads without having to have a special license or anything. So...we drove on over to Chilis and at dinner...where the waitress ended up getting "googly-eyed" at a bunch of guys at another table so she charged us for an extra drink that she never brought us...I had Tyler leave her a note that said "You never brought the drink you charged us for, it came out of your tip!" Hey, we still gave her an almost $3 tip! :-) Anyway, then we went to the mall for awhile, and then picked up some diapers at Target which I got to hang onto while riding on the back of the scooter! Needless to say, EVERYONE who saw us on it was dying laughing...including us!!! The sad part is Tyler and I got "dangerous" adrenaline rush just from riding around on that little thing!! We would have been uncontrollable speed demons if we were on a REAL motorcycle!! I've been on a lot of fun dates...but being on that little scooter with my best friend/husband, laughing so hard our faces were aching (atleast mine was!!)...was the best yet!

Yes I have a WAY cheezy smile when I'm having fun (luckily my hubby loves it!), and yes I have a white shirt on under that pink one...it's hard to see in that pic!

Learn to Crochet

This is kind of random but I ran across a website that seems to have a pretty good tutorial for learning to crochet (of course this is coming from someone who already knows how...but I think it's good because lots of people commented they loved how she taught!) She shows a few simple concepts...which then can be used to make Amirugumi Animals, People, etc (crocheted in "rounds). Anyway, if you are wanting to learn to crochet here's the link. Maybe someday I'll post my own tutorial, but for now hopefully this will help some of you that I know would like to know how to crochet! So, grab a hook (an H, I, J, or K work well when you are beginning....the bigger the better so you can see the individual stitches well) and some regular yarn (called "Worsted Weight"...should be somewhere on the label...never use a furry, or really skinny yarn to start with, that'll make learning SOOOO much harder), and give it a try! For about $2 for yarn, and less than $2 for a crochet hook...all from Walmart...you might be making the best investment of your life! Well...it will atleast give you hours and hours of fun!

http://www.hookandneedles.com/2008/03/22/amigurumi-tutorial-1/

The Innocence and Simplicity of Children

Cayden: Mommya, Mommya
Me: Yes Cayden?
Cayden: You knows, we are a family
Me: We are?
Cayden: Yes we are
Me: Ya, kind of a messed up family sometimes, but we are a family
Cayden: Ya, and you's an Angel
Me: an Angel?!
Cayden: Yes, you's an Angel, Sissy and Addy are just Sissy's, and me and Daddy are mans!

What do you say to that? I almost needed to pull the car over for a minute because my eyes started to water so badly!

This was a conversation Cayden had with me in the car on the way to pick Shaylee up from school. He then explained how he learned all this at church from his teacher...about that Mommy's are angels. He told me all of this on Thursday. When I had asked him on Sunday what he had learned, he didn't remember. Isn't it funny how little kids remember things just at the right (OR really wrong) time? I definitely believe that our children are SO much closer to the Lord than most of us on a daily basis, and that it's not coincidence that they happen to say something that you really need to hear at that very moment.

Finding Hope in the Sky

Have you ever had a REALLY bad day? I'm not talking about accidentally burning your husband's dinner and the kids driving you crazy...I mean something life-altering crappy...getting possbily life-altering crappy news. Well a couple weeks ago I had one of those days. I was completely stressed out over it but tried not to show that to my husband. Our whole family went over to his parents house to visit and such. Tyler had a meeting after that so he left from there in one of our cars, and I drove home with the kids in the other. On the way home, I felt out-of-it, just exhausted with worry...when I looked up into the sky and saw the sun streaming through the soft, blue clouds, leaving gorgeous streaks of sunlight. I've seen this many times, and it always makes me imagine what it will be like when Christ returns to the Earth for the final time. This time though, the streaks of sunlight through the clouds covered an entire half of the sky. It was amazing. It made me smile the rest of the drive home, and to me, it was a way of the Lord showing me how much he really does care, and how present he actually is in my life. I'd never doubted him, but this little sign gave me the extra comfort I needed at that moment.

Sick Season AGAIN?

Well my little family has been sick on and off over the last 3 weeks!! Mainly colds, coughs, and body aches. BUT, I think everyone is doing better...even Addy has been doing better. Over the weekend I couldn't even put her down, and although normally I can lay her in her crib and she goes right to sleep, I had to rock her all day long. Truthfully it's nice at this stage when she stops squirming long enough for me to really cuddle with her, though. Here are some pictures of her when she fell asleep in her jumper the other day! She's NEVER done this, she normally whines when she's done jumping! I was doing the dishes a few feet away and I realized she wasn't banging her rattle anymore. This is what I found! She's a major thumbsucker when she's tired so of course it's in her mouth. It was too sweet though. She slept for 20 minutes like that (I didn't have the heart to move her...she looked so peaceful) and then she looked at me, grinned, and started jumping again!! What a character!! Unfortunately today I took her to the doc and we figured out why she was so cranky over the weekend...she had an icky throat. So...now she's on antibiotics. It always makes you feel like a SUPER mom when you don't catch those things...but I was giving her infant Tylenol occasionally because I knew she wasn't feeling well so atleast I unknowingly helped ease the throat pain!!

The Circus!

On Saturday I was able to leave Addy with Grandma Caudle, so that Shaylee, Cayden, and I could go to the Circus!!! Tyler was sad to miss it since he's never been to one before...and I only remember going once when I was little...so this was a fun treat! Although once I saw the adult price I probably would have choked on my gum if I'd had any!! Luckily I had free kids passes...but $16.50 for one adult is a little hard to swallow...that could have bought me enough yarn to crochet a blanket!! Haha! Then of course they try to steal the rest of your money with all the things they are selling!! Luckily I fed the kids before we went...so after I bought them Cotton Candy, I told them if we didn't buy anything else, we could get Happy Meals afterwards from McDonalds.

It was a fun circus! Well the first half anyway...after the first hour the kids were ready to go. Shaylee was upset about not getting to ride the ponies or elephant (which I would have loved to let them do but I didn't bring enough cash since my ticket was so spendy...she also had a head-cold though so she just wasn't handling all the excitement very well) and Cayden was running around wild and wanted to go home. BUT...we got to see black bears push strollers around, poodles do the "train" and do balancing tricks, THREE motorcycles rolling around in a really-not-so-big metal cage (shown in one of the photos), girls climbing up ropes and swinging gracely from them (shown in one of the photos), girls climbing up long ribbons and doing all kinds of tricks, a young female contortionist, and then in one of the pics you can barely see a man hanging by his mouth way up high...and the girl carely hooked her feet to his (no ropes, contraptions...NOTHING, just wrapped her feet around his a little) and hung there. CRAZY!!!

Even though I have a pretty decent camera, there was just no way of getting a good photo with all the movement...and we weren't allowed to video tape...but oh well. It would have been fun to stay for the next half of the show, but atleast we had fun while we were there, and hopefully next time we go Tyler can come and the kids will last a little longer!!

The Only Way to Take Sorrow out of Death, is to Take Love out of Life!

The title of this post was something that was put on a display during a church lesson a few weeks ago. I wrote it down as soon as I got out of class (my husband had my pen) so that I could share it. I've never felt like there is anything wrong with never stopping grieving over my dad's death, but if my family members haven't heard this quote I thought it might make them feel good, too.

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Tonight while I was helping Shaylee with her homework, I decided to put the video Heidi made of pictures of Dad with incredibly inspirational music in the background. Our home is always incredibly peaceful when that DVD is playing. Cayden was paying the most attention. Once I looked over at him just in time to see his arms reaching out from where he was sitting, and then wrapping them around eachother back to his chest. My heart about burst. I asked him if he was giving someone a hug. He got really embarassed but finally said "yes"...he didn't think anyone was watching! Then I asked if he was giving Grandpa McConkie a hug and he said "yes".

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I can't watch that DVD without crying. I know my dad is in a wonderful place doing important things right now, and over time I talk about him a little less to other people, but my heart will never stop aching to see him again, and I'll never stop wishing he was here to give me one of his big bear hugs, and giving me one of his smiles that always said that no matter how bad life seemed, there was a way to fix it, and that life is wonderful. I'll also never stop hearing him singing in his deep, comforting voice when the hymns are played at church. I remember one of his old, rough brown wool sports jackets rubbing against my arm when I'd sit by him at church. He liked to rub his 5 o'clock shadow facial hair on our face like it was sandpaper!! He always had packs of Breath Savers in his church jacket pockets...I remember they always made me thirsty! If he was the one waking us up in the morning, he'd do it by singing the BYU Fight Song...although he could only ever remember the first couple of lines...so now I do that to my kids... but they only get to hear the first couple of lines too since I don't know the rest!! He LOVED BYU Sports. We went to several basketball games, and I remember going to a football game once with my dad, brother, and Cassidy Baker. David, Cassidy and I painted our faces blue and white. We had seats in the opposing team section which was awkward, but I don't remember that stopping us from cheering as loud as we could. The other team got quite a laugh making fun of our team Spirit when BYU lost the game! I remember my dad cheering so loud in the music room while watching his games that we thought something was wrong!! When he couldn't get a game on tv, he'd go listen to it faithtfully out in his truck in the driveway by himself!! He was a fast skiier. He NEVER fell...until one time I saw him tumble down the hill aways and did the splits in the air!!! I was probably about 10 at the time and I remember thinking "There is no way he's okay after that!?!" I believe his knee had problems after that...and my mom had a bad back that required several surgeries, so eventually they weren't able to ski with us anymore. When we had a problem or had done something wrong...my dad would calmly take us in his office and show us articles that General Authorities had written that applied to the problem...and then have us figure out what we needed to do to make things right. I never saw or heard of him losing his temper or saying a bad word (which was rare for farmers...even LDS ones!!). Getting Diabetes was hard for him....because before he was diagnosed with that, I remember riding out to the farm with him on many occasions and we'd always buy "DOTS" candies...or see how big of an ice cream cone we could make at the CONOCO gas station!! Sometimes he'd buy us Jelly filled doughnuts...Mmmm! In the last couple of years I've heard several very funny stories of my dad getting caught by family friends...eating something he shouldn't have at restaurants, etc. He'd say things like "Don't tell Sharon!!". I laugh everytime I think of him saying that, because all my mom would have done was got frustrated and said "PAUL!!" Well anyway, it wasn't the diabetes that took him...nor any other physical explanation...just that the Lord needed him.

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I'm writing these memories on my blog mainly for journaling purposes since I'm a fast typer so it's easy for me to record things on here. I'm not doing this to keep letting people know what an incredible man he was...although if hearing his stories inspires you, then I'm glad I typed them out for you to read!!! Every now and then I'll include more stories as I remember them. I just have so many little memories that I want to make sure my kids will be able to read or hear about!!

So far...the perfect day!

This morning started off with me waking up at 6 a.m. (that's about an hour and a half early for my usual morning!!) I was the first one up and I got ready for the day. Meanwhile, I heard Shaylee and Cayden wake up...then Tyler woke up to get ready for work. Addy woke up as I was getting everyone's cereal (I had planned on making pancakes but I think it'll take awhile for all of us to get used to eating a big breakfast so early in the morning...none of us were very hungry!!) After breakfast we had "prayer bones" (what my family called it when we got on our knees for a family prayer around the table) The kids said goodbye to daddy, and the other 4 of us started walking to Shaylee's school, which is a few blocks away, for her first day of 2nd grade! I felt really old when I met her teacher. I'm pretty sure she's younger than me. This year Shaylee was nervous...but didn't seem so concerned when it was time for me to go. She already knows a few of the kids in her class, and she's always extremely well-liked by everyone she meets, so I know she'll have a great day. The other three of us walked back home. I asked Cayden what he wanted to do...he said "Turn off the lights, get the blanket, and watch Goonies!!" So...that's what we are doing, only since it's morning and such a beautiful day outside, we kept the lights on and opened up the blinds. Have you ever watched a movie with your parents that you told them was really good...but then while watching it you realize how many inappropriate things are actually in it that you hadn't really noticed before?? Well that's how it is when you have kids...you realize every single bad word, etc. I loved Goonies when I was younger. Now I realize that I can't let me kids watch it without me because I have to skip like the whole first 5 minutes or so of the movie!! I have always been very naive, so I'm sure when I was younger, I had no clue what one of the scenes in this movie was about...even though it was pretty obvious! Well anyway, the point of my post is, it may only be 9 a.m

.... but so far it's been a very peaceful day!!

College, and Hairbows!

*Tyler finally got all set up with school. Tomorrow he and I are going to drive down to Midland to get Tyler's tuition voucher so we can pick up his books at the college. He has registered for classes at Midland College but will be doing all the classes he can online. I missed the deadline to start taking online classes from BYU-I to finish up my Associates Degree there in the fall, but I'm getting everything lined up to start again in January. Science classes with labs are one thing you can't take online so Tyler and I may end up trying to take a science w/lab here at a local college (we have ASU and Howard College here). It's exciting to start getting "edumacated" again :-)

*Also...I know I should probably make a separate blog to share the crafts I've been working on but I don't know if I want to have to remember another blog name and do the upkeep for two blogs. Lately I've been crocheting some cute little newsboy caps for girls, and I've also become a little addicted to making bow and headbands!!!

*If you like the items I make, feel free to check out what I have on ebay. Here's a link that should take you to my items. My names is: togglesandtrinkets

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZtogglesandtrinkets

I usually don't have much on there at a time but right now I have several. I'd also be happy to do some custom orders so let me know if you're interested. The next couple of days I'm going to work on Korker bows and will try to get them on ebay soon. Bows don't seem to sell TOO well on Ebay unless the seller combines shipping (which I do) so I'm thinking about checking out our local boutiques and see if there's a market for these. (Although the thought of keeping up an inventory when I have 3 children makes me a little nervous so IF I do that...I'll definitely EASE into it!!) I don't know...as my family knows, I always tend to have Big Plans that don't always tend to be followed through!!

*3 year-olds are so funny!*

Tonight since Tyler wouldn't be home til a little later because of a church meeting, I let the kids put on a movie in their room to fall asleep to. I go in and check on them, and this is a conversation my son and I had...

Cayden: "Mommy, wait!"
Me: "What's the matter Cayden?"
Cayden: "I have a pwoblem"
Me: "What's the problem?"
Cayden: "I'm, I'm fwustrated" (frustrated)
Me (holding back a laugh): "Why are you frustrated?"
Cayden: " It's just me. I'm fwustrated with ME. My ears go PHEW, PHEW, PHEW, PHEW, PHEW"

He told me this earlier too about the noise he hears in his ears...so although the conversation was really funny watching him concentrate as he thought of what was wrong...on the other hand it worries me that he says he hears this noise in his ears a lot. Tyler doesn't think there is anything they can do at his age to tell if he hears something for sure, but luckily he has his 4 year appointment coming up next month so I can ask the Doc then.

Where Does the Time Go?

Nothing too exciting has been going on here lately. Well I take that back. The other day Tyler invited a friend from work, to go to church with our family! He plays basketball with Tyler & the missionaries once a week and he's only 18. He seems to really look up to Tyler and is always asking him for advice, etc. Throughout that day he kept telling Tyler that he really is going to go with us to Church. Well during that day, Tyler kept praying in his head that Elders Quorum wouldn't be boring so that Sterling (Tyler's friend) would enjoy the lesson. So guess what happened? That night, Brother Baxter calls to ask Tyler if he can give the lesson on Sunday for Elders Quorum!!!! We got a good laugh about that. The lesson is about Death though, so I don't envy Tyler, but I know he will do a great job. I told Tyler that he's going to end up being lifted up to Heaven for his missionary work and I'll be stuck here on earth. Luckily he said he wouldn't go without me and the kids :-) That probably sounds a little funny?! Eh, anyway, then Tyler's friend told him yesterday he might be doing something else now. I told Tyler though he's still going to get all those blessings for mustering up that courage in the first place!!

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Well Shaylee got sealants put on her teeth a few days ago...and she's super excited about school to be starting on the 25th, especially since she just got a pretty purple Hannah Montana backpack! Cayden is really into having me print superhero coloring pages for him lately. He colors them (he's gotten so good at coloring lately!) and then has me cut them out for him. They don't last as long as superhero figures but they sure are cheaper!! Addy cracks me up. Everytime I look at her she gets a big grin. She's such a little chunk, too!! She's been practicing slowly barrel rolling across the room, and she's also been tucking her knees under her body and then pushing them out. The other night I caught her in the same position Shaylee always slept in as a toddler... on her tummy, but knees under her body so her rear-end was sticking way up in the air!! I laughed so hard when I saw that because it reminded me of when Shaylee was younger. How time flies. My babies grow up too quickly. It already makes me sad to think that someday there will be no more babies...well until I have grandbabies, but that can't happen for MANY more years.

So Pretty...Grandma Caudle says she looks more and more like a McConkie! Boy I see a lot of Shaylee in her sometimes though!!

Cayden is showing off his super cool Swimsuit from Grandpa Caudle. I think the floaties make him look like a Ninja Turtle, haha! He's fearless in this swimsuit...he jumps straight into the deep end without even thinking! Dangerous though how much courage he has!

Lost in a sea of Care Bears!

Shaylee & Daddy being tough! I got these for Tyler on Father's Day so we can duke it out!

Addy and her friend from church - Savannah (Yes her mom thought of the name from the movie "Savannah Smiles"!!! Love that movie!) Her mommy's name is just as cute - Pollyanna!!

I am not just a Mommy, I'm a Woman!

Here is a conversation I had with my son yesterday in the car.

Cayden: Mommy, MOMMY!
Me: Yes Cayden?
Cayden: Mommy's are Womans!
Me: They ARE??? (Sarcastically, trying to hold back a seriously laugh)
Cayden: Yep, so YOU are a Woman! You's a Mommy AND a Woman!

I have to say that I'm impressed that my 3-year old (almost 4) understands that even mommy's are real women, or just the fact that we are individuals! Well, maybe I'm reading too much into that, but I like to think he has that deep of an understanding! :-)

Live Each Day to The Fullest

I just ache today. An old friend from high school and his wife, lost their two-week old baby yesterday to a heart defect. Since having kids, my biggest fear has been to lose one. My family has been very fortunate/blessed to not have had to accept death often, atleast until my dad passed away. It's so hard to see sweet Spirits leave this earth when they are still young. My dad wasn't really young, but he was far from old and although it's hard for anyone to let a parent go, I had an extremely hard time. But, I could never blame God...he's the reason why we get to experience life at all, the good times and the occasional bad times. As much as I hate to feel hurt, especially from a death, I hate to watch my friends hurt even more. I wish I could take away their pain and make it all better. Luckily, that is what Christ is for. He has felt every hurt, ache, pain, etc. that we experience. He can understand everything, and can help give us comfort.

Just from pictures I could feel Kimball's sweet little Spirit. He has touched my heart and my life. In remembrance of him and all the other people/children who pass away after a short time on earth, I will try harder to make each day a wonderful day, and enjoy each of my children and my husband. I'll try to take more pictures of my babies, and spend less time on the computer. I'll try to reach out more not just to the people I know, but especially to the people I don't. I'll try to be a better person so that I can be with my family forever when it is time.

No sleep...but I have healthy teeth!!

For the last few weeks, not only do I have my baby waking up 1 or two times during the night (which I'm perfectly okay with since that's how it is with a baby!!) but also Cayden has been waking up 2-3 times each night!!! To top it off, Shaylee woke up last night. Here is how my night went:

11 p.m. - Tyler and I go to bed
1 a.m. - Cayden wakes up
4 a.m. - Addy is talking and laughing in her crib. A feeding puts her back to sleep!!
5 a.m. - Cayden AND Shaylee wake up. Cayden wants to know if he can play in the living room with his toys. I say no so they get drinks of water and go back to bed
7 a.m. - Tyler gives me a kiss goodbye before he heads to work
7:30 a.m. - The kids wake up

I used to be dead to the world when I slept, but since I have a baby right now...I wake up to the tiniest noises. Our bedroom door stays open at night since it can get hot in there otherwise...but our door is about 4-5 feet away from Cayden's...and the second he starts opening his door in the middle of the night, I'm awake. AHHHHHH!! I feel like it's been forever (atleast 3 weeks!!) since I got much nighttime sleep at all!! It would be helpful if it wasn't so dang hard for me to fall back asleep everytime I get woken up, but it takes about a good half hour each time!!! Luckily Shaylee is a huge help with Addy and usually comes and steals her in the morning, puts her in her bouncy seat, and let's her hang out with her while she and Cayden play!! Sometimes it gives me a whole extra hour of peace to sleep so that I can function that day!! By the time I get up, Shaylee is usually tired of playing Addy's mommy...but it'll probably be a long time before she really understands how helpful she is!!!

OHHHH, and about the teeth...Tyler and I finally have dental insurance through his work and we're able to go to the dentist yesterday for the first time in years. THANK YOU MOM FOR GETTING MY TEETH SEALED WHEN I WAS YOUNGER!!! The Dentist said that my mouth looked great because luckily the sealants hadn't worn off. No cavities for me!! I do still have my crossbite (big suprise) and need to have my wisdom teeth pulled. I was really nervous about a problem with my teeth though and thought for sure I'd have to have a root canal...but it turns out I just have sensitive teeth from all the whitening products I've used! I have to alternate my whitening toothpaste with the regular kind. I can handle that!!!! Now Tyler on the other hand....5 cavities. He knew he had some. He also needs a bridge to put in a gap in his back teeth since he had a bad tooth a couple years ago that we didn't have the money to fix so he just had them pull it out. Anyway, all in all it was a very successful trip, and Tyler's insurance is great so atleast getting his cavities fixed isn't going to cost an arm and a leg!! (just an arm, haha!)

Addy Jumping

Okay so the video is sideways. I tried to save it right-side up. I've had a heck of a time getting videos to load on here at all so feel lucky I got this one up!! I'm still trying to get it to load one of Addy rolling over. She is now doing about 4 rolls in a row across the room...maybe someday I'll get that on tape, too! It's fun to see her in her jumper now because she just barely figured out how to actuall JUMP in it, so she'll stay in it for a good 20 minutes!!

Hannah Montana

Several month back I was so happy that we didn't have Disney Channel, because it meant that I was able to avoid the whole Hannah Montana madness!! A few months back my husband decided that the handful of (dirt cheap) local channels just wasn't cutting it for his Sports needs, so we had to upgrade. I have absolutely nothing against the Disney channel, I really like it most of the time, but now my daughter has gotten sucked into the craze. So....about 3 weeks before the big 3D Hannah Montana concert, we went to Walmart to see if they had any of the free 3D glasses you needed for it. They told us they'd had TONS that morning but they went quickly. So...I went on Ebay and found a set of 10 Sharkboy/Lavagirl 3D glasses and ordered them so that we'd be all set (there I also found why all the Walmarts were out of the glasses...people had hoarded them and were selling them on Ebay...why would I buy them from them when they were supposed to be free but they decided to be dishonest and take more than they needed to try to make a profit??!!!). Anyway, Tyler even missed a big fun shindig that was happening out at the local card shop, just so that we could all watch the concert as a family. It wasn't too bad, although I was dissapointed she didn't sing that "7 Things I like about You" and Tyler was dissapointed that she didn't sing the duet with her dad. I have to say that the song about missing her Grandfather was a tearjerker, though. I love that my husband is a bigger ball-baby than me as we get older...it makes me look like less silly!! Of course I didn't know that song had made him cry til it was time to take off the 3D glasses! Oh and something weird...after I took of the glasses, I was seeing things in color for like the next 20 minutes!! (The red and blue from the glasses...only I saw the colors in each OPPOSITE eye!! If that made any sense!?) So far Miley Cyrus seems to be okay. Let's hope she keeps sticking to decent morals...that would be a change from all these other young popstars and actresses!!

New Callings

After being in the Primary (at church) for 4 years straight...I finally get to go to Relief Society, and Sunday School with my husband!!! I served as the Secretary, the 2nd Counselor, the Sunbeams teacher, AND the 5-year old class during those 4 years, and I did enjoy it. I will miss my 5-year olds, but I LOVE finally getting to go to sunday school with the hubby and meeting more of the women in the ward with this new calling. Well here it is ...Compassionate Service Leader. Ya, laugh it up. Not that it's not an important calling, because it's actually an incredibly important calling, its just not one most people would really want since it involves calling people up and asking them to serve by taking a meal to a family, etc. Luckily I've already sent around sign-ups for people willing to bring meals in the future...so I've got a starting point. With a young baby it's nice to not have to worry about preparing a lesson or anything for Sunday and I can just focus on my family.
I don't think I posted that Tyler got his first calling awhile back. He is the Elders Quorum Secretary! It's helping him get to know the other men there and he really enjoys helping plan some of the activities. He has already put together a basketball missionary project! Tyler already takes a few of his friends from work to play basketball with the missionaries & other members on Thursday nights...so he got the idea to have a big Saturday basketball tournament. There has to be some members & nonmembers on each team so they can all get to know eachother. Then after all the fun and games they'll have a meal provided and have some little tables set up with some lds info on them in case they want to take something home. I think it'll turn out really great!!

Summer Rut

Does anyone else seem to find themselves doing the same thing day in and day out during the summer? I guess this applies mainly to people who have kids in school during the school year...but maybe not? For some reason, the summer days last SOOO long...I guess because my oldest daughter gets bored easily. She NEEDS school and it'll be nice when it starts up again. For some reason, the less kids I have at home, the more energy and drive I have to tackle big projects like organizing closets, condensing things in the house, etc. That's mainly because I have less children to distract me...but I don't think that's the only reason? I don't know. I just feel like I've fallen into this summer rut where every day is pretty much the same. I guess I just need to get my lazy body out and take the kids to some new places. Sadly we still haven't been to the local Nature Center, or the public pool (we go to Grandma & Grandpa Caudle's to swim). It's also been a long time since we went to Mr. Gatti's (basically a Chuck E Cheese), and we still need to check out the Zoo in a town about an hour away. Cayden has never been to the Zoo!!! I guess the main problem is that it gets so hot AND humid here, that if you really want to go anywhere...especially with a baby...you have to head out by about 8 a.m. so that you have atleast a couple hours before it gets yucky. I've gotten a lot more used to the weather here over the years...but I guess at the moment I'm just really wishing it was Fall already.

It's ALL About the Competition!!

Okay, so it's not big news that us McConkies have a bit of competitiveness in our blood, but last night I realized I have a little more than I thought...atleast when it comes to competing with my husband!! Tyler had mentioned yesterday that the All star game would be starting after he got home from work. I'm not sure exactly why...but watching sports on tv isn't that exciting for me. I'd rather either be AT the game, or playing the game myself! I mean, I LOVE opening and collecting baseball cards. I have a great Mariners collection. My favorite card being a dual Griffey/Griffey signature card of Ken Griffey Jr and his dad! I also have some jersey patch cards. But I decided I'd really like to get into it more with Tyler because he really likes it when I'm next to him during a game, even if I'm just crocheting. I told him that since he knows a lot more about each team...if he'd let me pick which team I was going to root for, and if he would root for the opposing team, that maybe it'd help me pay more attention. We could also pick a reward for the winner. The prize was a neck & shoulder massage. Well I picked the American League. In my opinion most of the game was pretty slow. The score was 0-0 til like the 5th inning!?! Anyway, I actually got so into it that I made Tyler stay up for a few of the extra innings...but by about midnight we needed to go to bed because we both had to be up pretty early (him earlier than me!). Well lo and behold, the American League won, so guess who gets a massage tonight?? Woot Woot!! Anyway...through that one little game and a teensy bit of competition, I learned more about myself, and found yet another way to be a fun wife/best friend. What are best friends for anyway, right?! :-)

The Ugly Bug Ball

"Once a lonely caterpillar sat and cried

To a sympathetic beetle by his side

I've got nobody to hug

I'm such an ug-i-ly bug

Then a spider and a dragonfly replied

If you're serious and want to win a bride

Come along with us, to the glorious annual ugly bug ball

Come on let's crawl (gotta crawl gotta crawl)

To the ugly bug ball (to the ball to the ball)

And a happy time we'll have there, one and all and the ugly bug ball"

I know that atleast my family members remember the movie "Summer Magic" with Hayley Mills in it. This song is from that movie and I love it!! I really need to try to get ahold of that old movie! Anyway...Tyler found this really funky looking caterpillar in our carport the other day. Doesn't it look like it's wrapped in leaves?? Texas has some crazy/psycho/cool looking bugs! I haven't had time to try to find out what the name of this caterpillar is but if you find out, let me know!!

Recent Pictures

Remember that dress I had crocheted and put in an earlier post? Well Addisyn FINALLY fits in it. The neck was still big but the rest of it seemed to fit her well. She was looking pretty fancy this last Sunday for church. Funny how babies seem to be the best dressed people in families huh?! But who can help it...they are just too much fun to dress up. Babies bring out the little girl in all of us and sometimes we just want to really dress up our doll!! Oh, unfortunately the bonnet is still way to big...she has a medium to small head. Her outfit probably would have been a bit "much" anyway with it.

Also, lately Addy has been acting like she's teething. We can't find any definite teeth coming in, but she's felt warm for a few days now, she's been cranky, falling asleep a lot easier at random times from exhaustion, is drooling like CRAZY, and is chewing on things. She has discovered her thumbs! My husband and I are very much anti thumb-sucking so we try to give her teethers. Luckily though she doesn't seem to be sucking on it, closer to chomping! I guess that's not a good thing either, but I'm sure it'll be short lived. Occasionally I can't help but look at her with her thumb in her mouth and think it's cute! Of course then I remember the deformed thumbs I've seen on people that were thumb-suckers when they were young...and remember stories of people having to always have braces when they are older...and I zap back into reality and pull her thumb out of her mouth!!

Addy looks like she's checking out those pretzels.

And YAYYYY, the other jumper arrived!!! Weeks ago I bought one on ebay that didn't have the tray, and it was definitely not right for Addy. She is tall but her chin barely went over the top of that thing. If you buy a jumper, definitely invest in the kind with the tray. They are pricey (this was cheaper since it was a gently used one from Ebay) but hey, they store easily for your next baby!!! Of course only buy one if you have a convenient door FRAME (with TRIM) to hang it from!!