More pictures from the Utah trip!

Well it's 4:15 a.m. & I can CANNOT fall back asleep...so you get to see more pictures of my trip to Utah! I took a LOT of pics, so I picked some cute ones, and some that are more like "blooper" ones to keep you entertained!

My brother Dave & his wife took this pic, they are great at taking photos, as well as editing!

My niece Haley (Dave & Sara's oldest) with Heidi's two little girls!

Heidi & I in front of the temple after Mom's wedding

Heidi's, Tami's, and my family went black-lite mini golfing...unfotunately this pic turned out a bit fuzzy

It's a good thing Heidi brought a loaf of bread...it kept these three kiddos happy for a little while!! The two babies on the left (Heidi's and mine) are only days apart, and then the one on the right (Tami's) is 2 months older. It's funny how they are all built completely different, but they all have the cutest blonde hair (my poor baby being the "baldest")!?!

Addy was so not working with me, and Cayden kept putting his arms in the air...we did get a decent pic, but this one kind of summed up how...what's the word..."entertaining?"...it can be to have a 17 month old AND be pregnant, haha!


I had to try to take this shot quickly...Addy was having too much fun pulling flowers...

Cayden & Ashlyn (Stacy's oldest child)...to0 cute!

Here are my kids just hanging out with Joseph Smith


Pictures of kids under the Christus really help put life into perspective for me. Anytime I get frustrated with the kids, I can pull up this picture and remember how important each of them is to our Heavenly Father & Jesus...and that I need to do my best in raising them!!

My sister Tami, her youngest child McCall, and her crazy (but definitely fun) hubby Travis!!

Heidi's son, Drew, LOVED picking up Addy...unfotunately SHE wasn't too keen being picked up by anyone but Momma!

Shaylee was a total "mom" on this trip...she read to the kids before bedtime...helped them get dressed and helped with their hair in the mornings... it was fun to see her with that much patience!

Travis took some pics of us, trying to get the top of the temple in the shot...I had to include this pic with his legs in the shot because it cracks me up. The angle of the shot is SO not flattering when you're 7 1/2 months pregnant, but it was also cute how Cayden was holding my belly!

Cayden, Addy, and Megan (Tami's daughter that is Cayden's age)

Now it's 5:40 a.m. and I have to be up in about an hour to get Shaylee & Cayden ready for school (school starts at 7:40 a.m. here!!)...maybe I should atleast TRY to get a little shut-eye!

My Mom's Wedding

I'm FINALLY posting about my mom's wedding! As most of you should already know, my dad died a few years ago, unexpectedly. Earlier this year, Richard Kimball Sanderson came into my mom's life unexpectedly! From the beginning of their relationship, things just fell into place and felt right. On August 8th, my mom and Kim were married for time in the Bountiful, Utah temple. It was such a neat experience to get to be there and witness this. Kim seems to have a lot of the wonderful characteristics that I've always loved about my dad. I know that he will take good care of my mom, as well as my little sister Nicole. I look forward to many family functions in the future where I can become better friends with Kim. I miss my dad, every minute of my life...but the great thing is that Kim isn't "replacing" my dad...he is someone we are adding to the family...and I can't imagine a better person to add. Thank you Kim for finding my mom and making her happy. Thank you mom for listening to the Spirit in all your decisions. Life is short and we were all meant to be happy!!!

These first 4 pictures were taken by "Dilly Dally Art". I love how happy my mom looks in this first picture!!



Here are Kim's and our families combined! 11 kids total now...I'll let you count the grandchildren, haha!



Here we all are at the temple...Tyler wasn't able to come down with me...but see how perfectly he could be photoshopped in, in both this pic and the other family pic? :-)

I can't believe I made that trip alive! I drove down to Utah, 7 1/2 months pregnant, with my 16 month old, 4 year old, and 8 year old! It actually wasn't that bad...except for the night of my mom's dinner...it was a beautiful catered dinner...Addy was being a HUGE pain and I ended up having contractions the rest of the night (the dinner was delicious though!). We stayed at Heidi's and she was so kind to keep us for a whole week and feed us! It was so fun to see all my other sisters and brother and their families, too. They all tried to help with Addy and such whenever they could which was very much appreciated!! Mom & Kim's new house is so big and beautiful...it was fun to help mom get things organized and make it into a home. My daughter Shaylee has such a big heart...she cried all the way to Utah because she missed her Daddy & other grandparents, then cried all the way back to Texas because she missed Grandma Sanderson and all of her cousins! After a wonderful trip, it was nice to eventually be back at home. My feet got SOOOO swollen on that trip! I'm happy that so much of my family is only a 2-day drive away now instead of a 3-day drive...although I'm also sad that it will be more of a rare occasion that I go back to Moses Lake...now that my mom and Kim are living in Draper, Utah. Life goes on though...and I'm sure I'll come up with some kind of excuse to drive the extra day to visit Moses again...especially since I do still have relatives there!


I was having issues getting more pics on here & getting them moved down to the bottom of the post, so I'm going to make another post of the pics I took on our trip!

Like we have anything to steal!?

Last night Tyler & I went to bed around 10:30 p.m. By that I mean, HE fell asleep instantly and my pregnant-self rolled around for an hour (I'm up every hour at nights nowadays...only 3 weeks to go!) Anyway, at 11:30 p.m., our dog Lucky started barking like CRAZY and ran to our side door where our carport is...running back & forth (this dog has one mean bark). As Tyler was trying to wake up, I thought I heard the side door rattle. Tyler finally jumped out of bed, & by the time I got myself out of bed, he told me not to move. His eyes were so big...I knew he must have seen something/someone. While he'd been peeking out the front window, a guy probably not to much younger than us, with no shirt on and lots of tattoos, walked right out of our carport, across the street, and laid in the grass all casual of a neighbor's house, like he owned the place! Tyler called the cops and we left our lights off so we could watch the kid. The cops came and started questioning him and pulling out his i.d. for him. The guy turned out to be drunk, and had a baggy of cocaine on him. Tyler & I finally ventured out to check our carport...where we found one of the sliding doors to the van wide open! We usually don't bother locking our van but we learned our lesson! I don't think the guy even had time to look around in the van before Lucky scared him off...but I do think he was hanging out across the street to see if we'd been woken up or not, and planned to saunter back over to the van after a few minutes. The cops told us that it sounds like the kid might have a white van too and was confused....RIGHT. We had the cops look around in our van a little to make sure he didn't drop any drugs in our van! They hauled the kid off...and let's just say my husband has a much greater appreciation for our dog!! Tyler had never heard our dog bark like that...but I have...last year when Tyler was gone overnight, he barked like that at 2 a.m., and as I looked out the window I saw a man quickly getting off our grass & moving to across the street. Since then I feel very safe in my house with Lucky nearby!! Tyler was extremely "frazzled" this morning and needed to talk it out a lot. I've actually been very calm the whole time!? Every now and then I wish we had a smaller dog...because he is an indoor dog & this is a small house, but it's things like this that make me realize how nice it is to have him part of our family!

My next posts will be about my Mom's wedding that was earlier this month, and school starting! Sorry I'm so behind!

When it rains, it pours...atleast in West Texas!

For the last few days, we have been having some crazy storms...that are so loud that it's been hard for anyone to sleep around here! Tonight Tyler decided he wanted to drag me down the street to play in the water. I wasn't too excited as he handed me the umbrella, but it turned out to be more than fun watching him wade out to his knees in the water...and even try to lay down in it! I had to hold his flip flops for him because the current was trying to sweep them away. At one point a garbage can floated down to us, and then it continued to pass a few more streets! Whenever it rains hard here, the end of our street ends up completed flooded. The ground here is so hard, and our lack of drainage systems cause some crazy flooding around here! The water level gets so high, that you can literally grab an innertube and go floating down the street (unfortunately we didn't have one)!! Anyway, Tyler said that was the most fun he'd had all summer, and would have woken up the kids to come out if they hadn't already been asleep for

awhile!

Updates & a few pictures!

UPDATES:

*Shaylee is 8 1/2 and has finished 2nd grade! She also currently has the chicken pox even though I'm 90% sure she was vaccinated! She hasn't had a fever or felt sick...but she definitely has the spots all over the front of her to prove it!! She LOVES to do crafts. Recently I showed her how she can draw pictures with a pencil on Watercolor paper, and then paint the picture with Watercolors...& use extra water to fade. She has made some beautiful pictures of flowers and the neighbors' houses!

*Cayden is 4 3/4 and has finished Joy School & is excited to start Preschool this year! I've been working with both Shaylee & Cayden on these books that have their own level of math, writing, reading, etc. and they BEG to do more and more pages...I have to actually LIMIT them so that they are able to really absorb what they are learning before learning new things! Right now, Cayden LOVES Super Mario Brothers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

*Addisyn is 15 months old, and getting more funny by the day! She is a VERY happy child. When she thinks her dad is home from work...she yells "DADDA!" at the top of her high shrilly voice & runs to the baby gate to wait for him! She actually loves nap time...but isn't as excited about BEDTIME anymore! She LOVES our lab "Lucky" and LOVES playing with Shaylee & Cayden. When they are playing in the bedroom together, she is entertained FOREVER! She's started to say cheese (her favorite food) by saying "SHEES" and gets that funny toothy smile on her face as she says it! If I ask her to get me her cup, bowl, etc that she is using for her snacks or drink that day...she is VERY quick to go search for it & bring it to me for a refill! I'm amazed at home much they understand at such a young age!

*My pregnancy is going VERY well! I'm 6 months along & luckily haven't gained as much weight as I did with Addy so far! I think I gain less weight with the boys than I did with Addy because I don't crave as much junk food! We're excited to have our 3rd ultrasound in 8 more days! Tyler is still working hard at his job. The other day he was given an engraved plaque and pen for his years with the company. I appreciate all of his hard work that allows me to be home with our kids each day!

Addy always looks so innocent while pulling out all the videos & DVDs!

Cayden - The Joy School graduate

Giving Lucky some lovin'

This is a face you only see when she is REALLY frustrated...she was trying to get something out of the closet and it was stuck!

*Food & Water Storage*

I know I owe "ya'll" a lot of pictures considering it's been a month since my last post...my Internet Explorer Browser refuses to work now on my desktop...and Netscape Navigator is driving me INSANE!! But I promise pictures atleast by sometime next week!?

It's sad when it takes a scary situation such as a Pandemic to make you realize you better listen to the Prophet...but it's still better late than never!? The last few days I've been doing a lot of research into proper food and water storage...and finding unused spaces in my very small home (that has no garage) for that food and water! I've actually been getting really excited about it!
Today I ran across some YouTube videos that were extremely helpful in showing food packing. He also made some videos showing what your food storage will look like in 10-15 years if you don't use more updated ways of storing your food!! I need to start rotating the wheat I have that my dad sealed...so these videos were so helpful!!

Here is the link to the YouTube videos by P.A.W. Productions...watch them...they helped me feel much less overwhelmed about the process, and the guy isn't really boring to listen to!!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/delta69alpha

Good luck with your food & water storage!! Even if this flu going around isn't the reason we'll end up needing our food storage...we know that time will come...whether it's because of a tornado, earthquake, or just merely because we have no family income & need to live off of our food supply for awhile!

Birthdays...Oh, and WE'RE HAVING TWINS!?

Once upon a time, on March 5th 2009, Tyler Caudle turned 28 years old. His kids bought him an Elmo that blows kisses, and a Medal to wear at work that states that he's Over the Hill (we do that to him like every year!). The kids and I also bought him a nice tie because somehow his keep ending up in the laundry, and they usually accidentally get washed?!



Addisyn Mae Caudle celebrated her 1st Birthday on March 16th, 2009. She was very dainty while eating her cake. Her favorite present seemed to be her Tigger that she got from her Grandma & Grandpa Caudle. She loves to give it hugs and kisses.

I don't usually buy (or make) wheat rolls, but one day I decided to buy them. To my surprise, everyone loved them... and apparently Addy couldn't get enough of them!?

Yesterday I was craving something with pumpkin in it, so I made pumpkin bars with icing. I think they were a big hit as today's late morning snack!

As I cooked these pumpkin bars, and the house filled with a delicious pumpkin smell, I started to miss Thanksgiving & Christmas so badly it ached. I think I had that reaction because I miss being near my family, and those are the times that it's a little harder to live so far away. I have a goal this year to make a blanket for each one of my kids, & my husband, for Christmas. I told Tyler last night that maybe if I cook something holiday-smelling every few weeks, it will remind me to keep busy on all those blankets so I get them done in time!! Tyler's & Shaylee's blankets are already started...& Addy's & the new baby's will be the fastest to do since they can be small!! I'm still deciding on how to do Cayden's.

Also, thank you to everyone for your comments on my dilemma with the neighbor girl...I have taken all advice into consideration :-) Luckily we haven't really had any other problems with her!

OH, AND APRIL FOOL'S!!

NO WE ARE NOT HAVING TWINS!

(I would have said TRIPLETS but Twins is a little more believable ;-)