Another Summer's Day

2010-11-29T18:41:00.000-08:00

Now that Thanksgiving is over I'll update. Halloween was fun. We didn't have too much drama about what everyone wanted to dress up as. We actually saved some on costumes this year. Maddie wanted to use Gracie's from last year, and Cole waited until the day before to decide what he really wanted to be, so we got his at 50% off. Sweet!! We really wanted him to be Ralphie from The Christmas story. When you put black framed glasses on him he looks identical to the boy in that movie. It's SO hilarious. But he didn't think that was "COOL" enough and was embarrassed at our reaction I guess. lol Then he wanted to be a mummy so I bought this white ninja outfit and we were going to wrap rags around him but once he saw how "COOL" he looked he wanted to stay a ninja. :) Gracie wanted me to make her costume but thank heavens I found one on line that wasn't a bad price along with Ty's. As you can see we have a new Dog. Her name is Daisy and she is WONDERFUL with the kids. I think Ty thinks she is his younger sibling and the only reason we got her was for him to pick on. He squeezes her ears and squeezes her muzzle and lays on her and just irritates her and she just takes it. Sometimes she will whimper a little when he's gone too far. But other than that she will just get up and walk away. She's 6 years old and has always been an indoor dog. I'm not liking the hair clean up so we shall see.

The kids were able to go to their schools trunk or treat on Friday and then the church party on Saturday. Sheridan went to the ward party as George Costanza from Seinfeld and he looked GREAT/SCARY!!! He grew his hair out so I could buzz it super close to make it look like he was receding like George. Then he wore a dress shirt with a dress belt, jeans, tennis shoes and his nasty glasses. I don't know if very many people got it but we thought it was funny. lol

The following pictures are what my husband really looks like. lol Much Better!!!

If anyone knows my husband they know he is a HUGE college football fan. Now he doesn't necessarily have one favorite team it all depends who's playing who. Well he has freat friends here that LOVE "CAL" so I thought it would be fun to go to a game with them. It was Sheridan's suprise B-Day Present. My great friend Gretchen came early on a Sat to watch my kids all day and night so we could go. Thanks again Gretchen!!!

Sheridan had NO clue where we were going until we turned the corner to his buddies house. Then he figured it out. It ended up being a GREAT weekend with all of them.

These are our friends. Dan, Katy & Kelly. We went to dinner at the ESPN sports center and had a very eventful dinner there. LOL Thanks guys for helping me pull it off. It was a great weekend!!

2010-10-05T15:08:00.000-07:00

We have been in our home for about a month now. YEAY!!! It's so very nice to have a place of our own again. (Not that we didn't enjoy living with family and everything they did for us.) :)

So a lot of you have been asking for pictures of the house. Well I wasn't going to take any until we were some what settled. We've been a little busy.... kids in a new school, new schedules, trying to get my booty to the gym, making sure I'm at the bus stop or home when Cole, Maddie and Gracie get home..... at 3 different times in the day. That's fun!! lol

And ..... Madeline was Baptized on Sept 25th. So sorry no one received an invitation or announcement.... I was a HUGE slacker. It was great having my parents and Sheridan's parents here. It was a REALLY nice visit with both of them. Too bad it got warm again that weekend. It had been nice and cool the whole week before and now it's nice and cool again. That's just how things go I guess.

We really have nothing to complain about. The kids go to a great school it's half the size of the one they went to when we lived here before. About 45o K-6th grade. We have a WONDERFUL ward and live on the best cul-de-sac and neighborhood! We have about 5 families in our ward in our neighborhood and in our cul-de-sac there are 9 kids our kids ages and they all get along great!! It's so nice for them to be able to go outside and have friends so close to play with.

So below are many pictures..... of Madeline's baptism and our new home. I will be posting an updated actually shoot of the kids next week. So keep posted.

One other thing, I HATE white walls but we have to live with them for now until we decide what we are going to do..... so please forgive them. :)

View from Front Door.

Office to the right of the front door.

Part of the Front room opposite side of office

Other half of Front Room as you can see we have no clue what to do and we had to leave all our book shelves in Lander so.... lol

Family Room

Kitchen

The door to the left of the fridge is a walk in pantry that goes under the stairs then the next door to the leftt is the laundry which also has a big walk in linen/storage closet. To the left of the laundry is a 3/4 bath and across from the laundry room is Gracie's room. I did not take pictures because I thought they would bore you. LOL Plus her room wasn't clean. :)

View looking at front door office is to the left.

Stairs going up..

Upstairs Hall Bath

Hall Way to the M. Bedroom there are two bedrooms behind me in this picture Madeline's and the boys but again they were not clean. I told them if they wanted them posted they had to clean them. :)

M. Bedroom

M. Bath - No judging on cleanliness or lack of lol :)

My only spot decorated for Halloween.

Our lovely back yard that needs a LOT of TLC!

And here was our first rain storm.... I think all the neighbors thought I was crazy to let them go out and play in the rain. LOL The kids loved it, it was pretty warm.

I don't think Madeline realized the water was coming off the very dusty roof. mmmmm tasty!

Well there ya have it. We love it and couldn't be happier. Knock on Wood!!!!

Love You All!!

2010-10-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. This is a quick FYI for a friend of mine. She is giving away an online mentoring session. If you would like a chance to enter. Andee is absolutely amazing at her art. www.thematernallens.com

2010-10-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

Hello world, friends and family!

Most of you know that we have re-located. Those of you that didn’t know we are now in the Bakersfield Ca. area.

I’m so excited to get to know more people and to get into photography here!!!

I’m excited that fall is on the way!! I love Halloween……all the ghosts and goblins and all the other costumes that come out for halloween.

And I am ready to get going on Photography here in Bakersfield, please visit my Photography site by clicking on www.torrienichoalsphotography.com on the right over there to contact me.

NOW is the time to schedule your Sessions, Families, Seniors, Kids or Babes for those Christmas cards, Senior & Baby Announcements.

The first 5 that contact me and book a session by October 15th

Will receive a 50% off your session fee PLUS a 25% discount (one time use) on your print orders including Christmas Cards and Senior Announcements.

Sessions will begin Saturday October 23rd

Click on the Investment Tab to view what I offer.

Please email me in the Contacts Tab at the top of this page.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

2010-07-07T07:27:00.000-07:00

Bitter Sweet!

We have been here in Lander for almost two years and have not had any luck finding a good home that we can afford for our family. We have absolutely LOVED it here with Sheridan's family along with our friends we've reconnected with and new friends we've made and being closer to my family as well.

Sheridan's parents have gone above and beyond helping us, by letting us live with them not once but twice while we've been here. :) Wanda my mother-in-law has had amazing patience with me.... I'm pretty cranky some times and wish I wouldn't have been. Live and learn.

We've loved going to all the family activities here in Lander along with my family in Idaho and Utah. It's been great living so close to be able to do those things more often.

We've had such a hard time trying to find an affordable home here in Lander and didn't know what to do so we have done a lot of fasting and praying. Sheridan received a phone call from an acquaintance of his old boss. Long story short he had an interview with a company called Wheeler Ridge Maricopa, it's another water district in Bakersfield.

And so we prayed some more and thought a lot of how this would affect our kids. We discussed it with them before we made any decisions and after that conversation we decided that it was time to go back.

It will be very sad to leave as it was to leave Bakersfield 2 years ago. Like before I thought we would never come back to Lander and then I thought we would never go back to Bakersfield. Never say never I guess. lol

So to all our family and friends we hope you understand our reasoning and appreciate your support! :)

We LOVE you all and will miss you A LOT!!! But we will be back to visit. And everyone is more than welcome to take a vacation and come see us!!!! :)

With Much Love;

Torrie, Sheridan, Gracie, Madeline, Cole & Ty

My New Life

2010-05-27T08:33:00.000-07:00

2010-05-12T13:36:00.001-07:00

Well I guess we skipped summer here and we are ready to get the Christmas tree back out. UGH Winter has lasted 7 months now. Nope not kidding.....Okay so there were some weeks here and there that we had no snow on the ground but the first snow fall came about a week before Halloween. And we had about 2-3 weeks of 10 to 20 below zero.

Just wanted everyone to feel sorry for us. LOL

Oh, but there is SUNSHINE coming it's supposed to be up to 65 on Saturday and 70 on Sunday. Go figure... that's Wyoming weather for ya. It finally stopped snowing about an hour ago. YEAY!!! So I hope it melts completely between now and Saturday, we are supposed to be having Cole's #5 B-Day party at the park. LOL

This morning our "Lightning McQueen" got stuck as Sheridan was trying to get the girls to the highway to catch the bus. The snow is SO wet. Me and my father-in-law tried to push him through it but we were to week. LOL

So we had to take the Yukon which is only 2-wheel drive and we made it to the highway but too late for the bus so my dear mother-in-law picked them up on her way out to school, then I had to take Sheridan to work and when I got back home I told Cole he was staying home from school because I wasn't about to try and get out again and go off the road and get stuck.

Well that was our fun day playing in the snow. I can't wait for the sun to come out again. We're hanging in there!!! :)

2010-04-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter Everyone. Thought I would post a video for you. We have received about 12 inches of snow since yesterday. Just in time for Christmas....... oh wait it's Easter. I forgot.....I feel like I'm in a time warp and I can't get out...... HEEELLLPPP MEEEEE!!!

Enjoy!

Can you hear the sarcasm in my voice. :) LOL

2010-02-05T13:41:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone

I was going through my files and files and files of photos, trying to organize them once again to do something for my kids. Any how I came across this photo. I thought I had deleted it because I really DO NOT like how I look but I have to say the person standing next to me isn't too bad to look at. I'm still a fan of the show and think it's amazing how long it's been going. This picture was taken in October of 2004. It was a GREAT experience to be a part of!!

2010-01-08T09:10:00.000-08:00

Hello Family and Friends ........ HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

So I just played catchup with all my friends blogs and everyone looks like they are still alive and kicking. So this year I've been super busy taking pictures for Christmas cards for everyone else I never got to my own. I did buy stamps but never got them created or printed in time so if you didn't get one it's not because I don't love you any more NO ONE got one not even my parents. SORRY mom & dad.

Our internet is working good enough to look at everyone's blogs and check my email but I still can not download pictures right now or it will mess it up again. So there are no picture right now, as soon as we get to town I can start downloading pictures again with out having to go to a friends house.

Love Ya!!

2009-11-12T19:32:00.000-08:00

So we've been back with my dear in-laws for 2 1/2 months now and saving saving saving so we can purchase our own home!! :)

In the mean time I've been keeping busy with LIFE!!!! I run to town at least 2 to 3 times a day taking Cole to school and the girls to dance.... and we live 10 miles out. Yep getting a little tired of the drive.

The kids are having a great school year and they all love their teachers. We had a fun Halloween. I'm in the Young Womens Presidency and the Young Men and Young Women were in charge of putting on a Halloween party for the Primary kids. We had some really fun booths. We had Fortune Telling, Touch and Feel, Doughnut Bitting, Crafts, Cake Walk, Carmel Apple Tasting, Photo Booth, Fishing for goodies, I think there were a couple more.

Any how it was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time. I ran the photo booth and got some cute picture of anyone that wanted their pictures taken.

This was our first year allowing the kids to go door to door trick or treating. It was a lot of fun. Ty was hilarious! He wouldn't carry his own bag but he would run up to the doors and YELL Trick or Treat then he would take the candy out of the bowl and put it into Gracie and Coles bags (Maddie was with a friend) then run away YELLING HAPPY HALLOWEEN to every door! They got a lot of candy this year and it wasn't just smarties and tootsie rolls it was all the miniature candy bars. Let's just say it go polished off VERY quickly. :)

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!

2009-09-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

One more thing....

Today is 09-09-2009 it's pretty cool and it's my daughters B-Day she is now 7.

HAPPY B-DAY Maddie.

We told all the kids that this year there B-Day gifts from Mom and Dad was our trip to California but we are still going to have B-Day Cake and Candles for the three of them. Ty's B-day was August 2nd, Gracie's August 28th and today Maddie's. We already celebrated Cole's back in May.

Have a great one!

2009-09-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone. So I made my site to let anyone leave a comment if you like. :) If I end up having problems then I will go private and do by invitation only then.

Thanks for your interest. Hope life is treating you all well!

2009-08-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

We're BACK!

So I've decided to come back to blogger. Know one knows when I update my other site... not that I updated that one often any way. So we will see how this goes but at least you will know when i've posted.

So here we go......

This summer we went to California for a two week vacation and to check on our house. Our first stop was Bakersfield, we had a great time with lots of our friends. We stayed with our good friend Lynnie. She is like our California Grandma to my kids. She was so sweet to us and took such great care of us. Yummy breakfasts every morning!! My friend Jen set up a BBQ with everyone and we hung out at some other friends house for most of Sunday and Monday. I was bad and didn't take my camera (i'm on the search for a little one for random pictures instead of having my other one out) Any how we had a lot of fun seeing everyone and trying no to let our skin melt off our bodies. It was good to visit Sheridan's old place of work and to take my friends pictures of her kids. If you would like to see them click on the link to my photography blog on the top right. Yep over there. :)

Here are some pictures of my kids friends I apologize to everyone else for not having my camera out at the BBQ, where were your cameras??? HMMMMMM??? LOL

I had to get a picture of an oak tree up in Tahachapi. I LOVE this picture!!

Here are my kids with Liliana, Isaac, & Everett we LOVE them!! :) We cry for you guys to come visit us too Everett......(that was in one of his letters to us...too cute)

Then off to San Luis Obispo and Avila Beach......I would move there in a heart beat. I love smelling the ocean air, I love down town SLO and the oak trees!! :)

Sheridan and the boys waiting for mommy to come out of Pottery Barn. I so wanted a vase I found but knew it wouldn't make it home. :)

Miss Gracie in the "Gum Alley" .....isn't that nasty LOL Kind of a cool back ground though LOL???

and the BEACH..... it was so great I even went in up to my knees....not a fan of getting all the way in I love to just listen, watch, and smell. :)

I know lot's of pictures I have a ton more ....

Then we were off to Bass Lake with our friends the Raytis' and there 3 little girls. I almost got up on a wake board. Ty just wanted to ride everything...... ride in the boat and ride on Jet skis, he loves riding on anything and everything.....Cole wanted to get in the water but every time he did he would freak out.... so he was like his dad and just stayed in the boat. Maddie thought it was so cool that you could just get in the lake and swim with your life jacket on so that was her favorite thing to do. She almost tried to ski but it was too intimidating for her. Her friend Mimi (Madeline) got up on her first try.... and of course I didn't have my camera..... what kind of photographer am I? :)

Our friends were great hosts and we had SO much fun with them we have plans to go back every year. Too much fun!!!

Here is a series of pictures of Gracie skiing!

She went for 1 1/2 miles down the lake....by the time she was done she couldn't open her hands they had cramped up and were hurting really bad. Talk about a death grip. lol

Here's Sheridan with Ty for his ride on the Jet Ski...... when it was Gracie's turn she got on and tipped them over... it was quite funny.

The kids with their friends!

We really didn't want to leave Bass Lake, I think it might be my second favorite place.

So off to Utah...... we drove for 16 hours in one day..... I don't reccommend driving the whole way across Nevada to ANYONE... We thought we would never make it. We showed up at Mark and Caroles house (our aunt and uncles on Sheridan side) at 1 a.m. We usually stay at their house when we are passing through. Carole made me promise that we would come someday and stay for a couple days..... so we made good on our promise! We were able to meet our cousin's Katie and Tawnya and there kids in Salt Lake and Jessica was even able to hang out with us. It was so great to see them! I need to go find those pictures.

Any how that was one of the highlights of our summer it was a great time. The other highlight was how much my kids saw their cousins from Utah.....4 times I can't believe it, it was GREAT.

Today was the first day of school... the girls had a great day with their new teachers and we love North Elementary!!! Go "SUPER STARS!!!!

2009-05-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone this will be the last time I post an update about my website being updated.

Here are my website address' if you want to add them to your lists

web.me.com/torrienicholas

and

web.me.com/torrienicholas/Photography

(they are case sensitive)

So long blogspot! :)

2009-03-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

Website updated!

2009-02-27T08:32:00.000-08:00

Finally another update. Just curiouse, please leave a comment here. Does everyone want me to notify you on this site when I have an update on my website? I think I will just leave it up to everyone to check and see, I did post a link on my face book so I think every time I update it should alert those of you on facebook.

2009-01-31T23:35:00.001-08:00

web.me.com/torrienicholas

UPDATED!!

2009-01-24T18:20:00.001-08:00

I think this is the only way you can find out if I've updated my website so I will just post here to let you know.

I've updated my website. Go check it out when you have the time.

web.me.com/torrienicholas/A_Work_In_Progress/Welcome.html

copy and past this link into your web browser, do not type www.

2009-01-20T10:31:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. For my new site to work you need to type it in with out the www. so just type in web.me.com/torrienicholas

On my new sight if you want to leave a comment you can either leave one here or you can go to the photo's tab and double click on a photo and a comments link will show up below the photo. I'm glad you all want to still leave comments. I still might use this sight every once in a while. Or I may come back all together if the other one doesn't work out. I will be using this one to check up on all of you though, so I'm not shutting it down.

Love ya!

2009-01-17T18:11:00.001-08:00

I've decided that blogger is no longer for me. I found a new way of sharing what goes on in our life. So visit us at our new location. www.web.me.com/torrienicholas

Hope to see you there!

2008-12-11T10:01:00.000-08:00

Well here you go. Here is my first Wedding Announcement photo shoot. With my fritzy camera, and no photo shop (only photo shop elements, UGH) and actually no real knowledge of what I'm doing. Thank you Jake and Shyla for trusting me and letting me take advantage of you. Your both so gorgeous and dashing.

So I realize I have a lot to learn about aperture and lighting among other things but it was fun to go out and begin something I've wanted to do for a very LONG time.

2008-12-08T13:32:00.000-08:00

I'm really late posting about Thanksgiving so here goes. Like always, I have a ton of pictures.
We had a great time with the family. Sheridan's sister and her 4 kids came up to see everyone. Our kids were very excited to see their cousins. They had so much fun. I only have one picture of them all together we were so busy playing.

We had an Awesome Thanksgiving dinner. Everything everyone brought was so yummy. I went through a little withdrawl from not doing it all myself this year. We really missed being with our family away from family "The Norris'"! :) But it was nice to be with our family.

We all met at the church. Grandma & Grandpa Twitchell all of Sheridan's syblings, and his Aunt and Uncle and their 3 girls. It was really nice.

While my sis-in-law was here we did a photo shoot with our family. I wasn't really up to it but we haven't had a family picture taken since Cole was 9 months old. Pretty sad, I know. Jess you did an AWESOME job. Thanks SO much for taking the time. Someday maybe we will live close enough to have a business together!!!! :) LOVE YA!!!!

This next one was everyone's favorite. All you mothers out there know that this is how you are really feeling/acting during a photo shoot when you want everyone to behave and act like your little family is perfect. LOL (I can't figure out why this is underlining the text once again) UGH!

The dog in front of us is one of the many dogs here, her name is Reba. Everytime we would count to 3 she would hop into the picture. I thought it was kind of a cool picture anyway.

Look how adorable my little baby boy is. I can't get enough of him!

Look at my husband sticking his hiney out. :)

Gracie was getting really tired of taking pictures, she just wanted to play with her cousins. It was a really nice day out that day. As you can see we are NOT freezing!

Here's our little poser Miss Madeline.

They were sqeezing their cheeks to stay on the little shelf on the fence for this picture. Ty's little hiney was small enough so he was comfy. :)

The following are my FAVORITES!!!

How tender are these two pictures. lol

That's it for the photo shoot. The following are random pictures I've been taking since Thanksgiving.

The boys both had croop last Tuesday-Sunday so this was them going out into the cold air to help them breath better. They sounded awful even though they look like they are healthy.

Here is the "Original Marlboro Man" chopping wood, just look at theman power. Mmmmmm!

Just me messing around. I like this angle not too big of a double chin. :)

So I'm in love with this filter. Can you tell!?

Gracie has always wondered who used to live in that little house.

The kids love this tire swing.

I love these gnarley willow trees.

FINALLY DONE!! Until Next Time!!

2008-11-19T07:24:00.000-08:00

Shipping Day.

Most of you know that Sheridan's family has a ranch. They have a Cattle Ranch which means they raise beef cattle. Every spring the mama cows have baby cows then in the fall they sell the baby cows.

This last weekend the baby cows were bought and loaded up to be shipped to a feed lot in Nebraska where they will eat lots of yummy feed and get really fat. Then we all know what happens next but we won't talk about that.

The other sad thing is that for the next two night all the mama cows call for there babies, ugh, Mooooo, moooooo, mooooooooo. All night, sad but it was a little tough getting to sleep.

So here are some pics of the event.

This is the loading chute that the cows walk up into the semi truck. Cole thought it was fun to ride on after they unhooked it.

Here come the trucks. The buyer wanted to separate the girl cows from the boy cows so there were two different trucks.

Sorting the cows. There is also a "Brand Inspector" she makes sure that all the cows have their brand on them and that they aren't someone else's.

This is the chute where the cows go into the truck. It's small so they can't turn around even though some how cows are contortionists and can still manage to turn themselves around and head the other direction.

Loading the cows

Loading some more

PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME GOOOO... Cow's do not like to go through narrow spaces, especially when it leads to an enclosed area.

The Bull jumped the fence and walked around to the side of the truck trying to figure out where all his babies were going. He was kind of scary.

Here's my "Marlboro Man" anyone who reads www.thepioneerwoman.com knows what I'm talking about. :) He's the one looking away. lol

Here comes Miss Gracie in her Red coat (used to be her aunt's) and her new red "Fat Baby" boots, to come see what all the commotion is about.

The rest of the chitlins.

Ty wanted to help sort the cows too, he would get so made if anyone tried to take his stick away.

After they were done loading cows at Sheridan's parents place we all went over to Grandpa Twitchells to load the rest. Ty stayed with Grandma Nicholas and took a long nap. Thanks Grandma for watching me!!!

Grandpa Twitchell over seeing... He's such a quiet man.

Sorting cows again. Oh, and who is that hot man? Oh, yea that's my husband!!! I really love him in his element.

Jacob (Sheridan's brother, some of these cows are his) running the gate as the cows were sorted.

This is "Big Ty" as Cole calls him, he is also Sheridan's brother. He came to help that day too.

They started at 6 a.m. bringing in the cows, and by the time they were all loaded I think it was around 3 in the afternoon.

That same night Jake took us all out to dinner. It was a cute little place called the Roost, I should have taken a picture of it. I guess a lady from New Orleans came after Katrina (she had lost everything) and started her restaurant in Pavilion (smaller than Lander). It was nice to go out and see people. lol

Cole only had one really bad moment he threw his jacket and some how it landed on the floor right between three tables. I don't know how it didn't' land on any ones plate or head.

Thanks Jake and Shyla it was GREAT!!!

Jake with the girls, he's great with kids!!

The girls are great putting up with all his teasing. :)

Big Ty and Little Ty (as Cole calls them)

FINALLY POTTY TRAINED
(with the exception of a couple accidents and on purpose episodes)
Being in the country has helped with this a ton. Whatever works right!? :)

We can actually go places and he will tell us he needs to go, and he will stop playing and pee outside and if he has to do the other he will run inside. It's GREAT!!!

2008-11-17T07:03:00.001-08:00

First Weigh In..............TODAY

Anyone joining my Holiday Weight Loss Challenge? I know my mom and sister are going to do it, but if none of my other family or friends are going to then we are just going to keep it private on my families blog.

The rules are listed below. Today is our first weigh in, if you are reading this late today then just weigh yourself right now and post it under this post in the comments section. As long as I have your weight posted sometime today then you are in the game. If not then you wont be a contestant and you definitely won't win the "Pot" or the great support from your friends in this journey.

Hope I see some other contestants. ;)

2008-11-14T10:50:00.000-08:00

HOLIDAY WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE

My family just got done doing a weight loss challenge and my dear husband won. So my mom and another sister thought about starting another one through the holidays.

Anyone interested in joining us???? Women only this time, let's face it MEN just have too much muscle mass. You guys can have your own contest amongst yourselves. :)

The first weigh in will be Monday November 17th. The rules are listed below. I think this will be a great way to keep things in check through the holidays.

The more who sign up the bigger the pot will be, what motivation.

Whoever loses the highest percentage of weight will be the WINNER. (Just like on "The Biggest Looser")

THE RULES

Rule #1 - Yes, you must list what your starting weight is by 11:00 p.m. Monday the 17th. Pacific Time for those of you in CA. . If you do not post your starting weight by the deadline then you are not in the game. (sorry)
Rule #2 - Weigh yourself every Monday morning on the same scale, and post your new weight that day here on my blog. If you want, whoever posts there weight first you can post your weight in the comment section of that post.
Rule #3 - Each person puts $20 in the pot for the winner.
Rule #4 - You must pay the winner no later than a week after the challenge is over.
Rule #5 - You must NOT starve yourself to lose weight.
Rule #6 - Play fair!
Rule #7 - Last weigh in will be Monday January 5th (that gives us 7 weeks)

FYI;

*You weigh the least in the mornings.
*I will post up to date results (% lost) after I have received all new weights.
*Starving yourself will take longer to lose weight.
*Cardio, strength training and diet combined give the best results.

Optional - Before and After pictures. (of the scale if you like) ;)

One more thing, let's encourage each other on the blog.

There's a great free website to help keep track of your calories and exercise until you get used to what and how much you should be eating, it's amazing how fast things add up. Then you can see what you are actually eating everyday. www.sparkpeople.com

Does anyone have a great idea for a motivational saying or quote for us???

2008-11-11T09:23:00.000-08:00

Here's what's been happening.......

Cole has had so much fun that he get's so sleepy he falls asleep at the computer with his pants undone. I wonder if he was getting ready to go to the bathroom or just returned.

We go down to the corrals some times to visit the yearling horses, there were some cows on this day too. Ty thought they were pretty cool.

Ty watching the young horses, this mama horse is keeping a watch on him.

Come here baby horsey.

Getting curious about that little thing on the other side of the fence.

Sniff....Sniff....

OK, maybe not that close...

This was my favorite, it's like friends standing there trying to make something out of what they are seeing. lol

A couple weeks ago we went out to watch Sheridan his brother and dad doctor some calves. Not new one's there about a year old I think. It's like giving them there immunization shots. Once calf had gotten his leg caught in some wire, so fair warning the following picture is a little nasty but my camera was on the fritz AGAIN and they are blurry too so it helps the stomach. They cut the wire off and shot it full of penicillin.

This is what Cole does if he finds a rope. Although this one was tied to the poor calf that was getting the wire cut off it's foot.

OK, moving on.

HALLOWEEN TIME!!!

We started gutting one of the pumpkins and found out it was about 3 inches thick, so we decided to draw on them this year instead. I think sometimes this is better any way.

We found this cute little double pumpkin that looked like a little bum so we bought it for Ty. He was asleep when all the action was happening.

The girls had their carnival during school the day before Halloween. I was unable to go because they didn't want other little one's running around and if you went they needed your help. So kind of a bummer but kind of nice also. It was free so that's a big plus!! Here are the girls that day they had their faces painted and wanted to take a picture on grandpa's tractor.

On Halloween everyone was able to sleep in, well at least the kids and I. The girls didn't have school that day, the district had made it a teacher work day or something. So we started our day with a Halloween breakfast: Jack-o-lantern pancakes with choc. chips, orange buttermilk syrup (I ruined my mother-in-laws glass cook top doing that one, long story and a lot of tears but we are replacing it after we move out.) ....and orange milk. The kids thought it was great!! The rest of the day they just played outside with each other.

That night the town has trick or treating at all the local business's so you just walk up and down main street. It was really nice, everyone was very friendly.

And here are all our cute kids. Gracie a Pirate, Madeline a Cheetah Girl, Cole Spider Man of course and Ty our little Monkey Boy, (this was so fitting because I call him our little skinny monkey baby all the time)

2008-11-10T08:43:00.000-08:00

I'm sure this is not an update anyone is expecting and I wasn't sure I wanted to post it but this is what I was thinking about today and wanted to get your input.

Is there such a thing as a "Best Friend" or "Best Friends" anymore?? Just a question.

Do we use that term as adults or is it to juvenile?
Do we just have "Really Good Friends" "Good Friends" and "Friends"?

If we don't have Best Friends anymore and have "Really Good Friends"
"Good Friends" and "Friends" what is your definition of each?

I've had discussions over this topic and wanted some more input from the world out there.

Plus I'm feeling very isolated and friendless right now so this may have sparked the topic. ;)

2008-10-24T15:27:00.003-07:00

Finally updating, I have to back track a little so there will be several new posts so just keep scrolling down to catch up.

Our last trip in California was to Bass Lake and Yosemite.

Our origional plans were to go with our good friends Dan and Katy Raytis and there 3 girls. Unfortunately they were sick and could not go, but insisted we go with out them. They were so gracious letting us stay at their families lake house on Bass Lake. We had so much fun we stayed for 3 nights and had a blast. It was so quiet there, it was just what we needed right before our big move.

It was close enough to Yosemite so we went there all day Saturday. It had rained the night before and was overcast most of the day. Cole ended up getting car sick and threw up all over himself and of course we had no extra jacket or clothes for him. So he was stinky and wore Sheridan jacket most the day. (Poor guy, but we were an hour away when it happened)

Yosemite is amazing the pictures won't do it justice. Those of you who have been will agree.

Ejoy the following...

BASS LAKE

The Lake House....Right on the beach you can't see it but right behind the bushes is a HUGE deck.

View from the house.

The kids throwing rocks into the lake.

We got out some pretzels and feed the geese. Quite a few more came but my camera died.

Ty found the only mud hole. :)

2008-10-24T15:27:00.001-07:00

Yosemite

These were some of my favorite pictures, there were so many more but I tend to over do it....I know there's still a lot.

View of the Valley from above.

Upper and Lower Falls

Half Dome

View from the river

So Pretty

Our next stop were the Redwoods in Yosemite National Park.

2008-10-24T15:25:00.001-07:00

The Redwoods

The kids thought they were really cool, plus there were tiny controlled fires going on all around us.

No editing done in the following photos.

Look how tiny all the people are at the bottom of the photo.

This was about the only picture I got of Cole, I had to sneak up on him, he was so camera shy that day.

Look, I'm in the picture. :0

Oh, there is another picture withe Cole.

Just a little tree on fire. And my stinking fritzy camera.

2008-10-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

Moving Day

Sniff, sniff, baaahhaaaaa. Ok, enough of that....

It was so weird to just turn my home over to 3 strangers and let them pack it all up. I will say they did a great job as far as I know right now. I only have let than 1/4 of my stuff until we sell our house.

Around Cedar City this is what we were driving in.

When we arrived in Wyoming there was between 12 & 18" of snow on the ground. Not sure why I didn't take a picture of it. It took all last week to melt. It was hailing a couple of days ago.

2008-10-24T15:23:00.001-07:00

We gave the girls a week off before they started at their new school. Here they don't have school boundaries, you just register, you can request but they ultimately place you where they have room. There are 3 elementary schools here and they only have 2-3 teachers each for K-6. So pretty small compaired to Bakersfield. So fare there curriculum seems to be on the same level as Cali if not a little more challenging for Gracie.

They go to North Elementary and Maddie's Teacher is Mr. Hemmingway and Gracie's Teacher is Mrs. Robertson. (her husband went to High School with Sheridan) Everyone know's who Sheridan mother is she teaches English at the Jr. High here. Gracie told me it was really weird that everyone knows who she is kind of. :)

Everyone is very nice, they had us come in last Friday for a tour of the school and the Principale Mr. Omen's wife used to babysit Sheridan's youngest sister Siarra.

So far the girls really like school and are making friends. Maddie told me there is a little boy in her clase that tells her she is "Beautiful" every day. LOL :) too cute!

On Monday evening (There first day of school) Maddie had her first school performance. The class had been learning some cute little songs that help them read and Maddie was able to perform in one of them.

Here is Mr. Hemingway and then Maddie's Song.

The girls also go to school an hour longer and don't get off the bus until 3:50. Long day but they enjoy it. It's too bad Cole isn't gone all day. He is having a little hard time while they are gone but as soon as they get home all 4 are outside playing. With plenty of room.

I've been telling everyone that Sheridan's parents have 1800 acres. Don't know where I came up with that number. I thought for sure that is what he told me. I was just a bit off, they actually have 24o still a TON!!

Anyhow that's it for now. I will try and keep you posted more often. We appreciate all the love and support from everyone and all the help!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-12T19:50:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone, just a quick update on our travels. We didn't leave Bakersfield until 8:30 p.m Friday night. Thank you Krystal for watching the boys for 12 hours, oh my goodness I still can't believe it was that long, and for dealing with all the potty issues. Gretchen thanks for vaccuming my house for me and taking the girls for the rest of the afternoon/evening. And thank you Mary our neighbor/friend for the YUMMY dinner the fish was AWESOME!!

I have many more to thank but like I said this would be quick. So we left at 8:30 and reached Barstow at 11:00 ( we were pulling our car behind us on a trailer we were both DEAD tired so we stayed in a hotel there (don't ever stay at the Day's Inn) I was awaken at 4 a.m by people loudly arguing out our hotel window and using VERY foul language, it lasted for a good half an hour or more. The scary thing was is I was in one room with Gracie and the baby and Sheridan had Cole, Maddie and the dogs next door. Luckily the kids didn't wake up. Any how, we left the next morning around 9:30 and had to stop every 2 hours to either let the dogs out or the kids. We were welcomed to Utah by snow, the kids thought it was great, Maddie woke up from a nap when we stopped for Dinner and said she was freezing and wanted to go back home. :( We FINALLY made it to Mark and Caroles house (Honeyville) by 11:20 p.m. so about a 14 hour trip that would have normally taken 11/12 if we wouldn't have been hauling a car behind us and two dogs. The dogs were in the back of our Yukon with Madeline, she did really well with them and they were doped up to help them relax, we think the medice had the opposite affect on Jack though.

We are off to Lander tomorrow, all the roads were closed there today and Carole was more than happy to have us stay another night. :) We are excited to get there and get settled in a little. We just hope part of our house arrives safely. We had an awesome crew that packed up and loaded our house.

Ok, I'm going to stop now this wasn't very quick, I don't think I'm ever capable of a quick update. :)

2008-10-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

Temporarily signing off....

The packers come tomorrow, then load the truck on Friday and then we are off to Wyoming. YIKES we still can't believe this is happening but are looking forward to it just the same. Goodbye to all our Bakersfield friends we will surely miss you and we will be back to visit some day!!!!!!!!

Love You all!!!!!

2008-09-28T21:05:00.000-07:00

Warning: A flood of pictures to follow;

We've been doing a little traveling lately. We wanted to visit some places we have already been to and wanted to see one last time, some places our kids haven't been to and wanted them to experience something different.

Trip to San Luis Obispo

Cole sitting in Pottery Barn

The kids in Pottery Barn (to bad I couldn't afford to take anything out of pottery barn)

This is the Mission in San Luis (with a filter)

The next few photo's are at Avila beach. We were all having a jolly old time and then we had an unexpected visitor emerge from the ocean. The kids thought it was so COOL!! We figured he was coming to wish us well on our move and would miss us!!

View from the mountains of Morro Rock

SAN FRANCISCO!!!

This was the view from our hotel room, the kids thought it was cool watching the planes come in over the water.

Ty was excited to leave and ride the luggage cart. He has been so funny, on both trips we have stayed at a hotel. We always try and stay at the Embassy Suites because it's two rooms. So we have a small living room area with a pull out sofa and then a bathroom and a bedroom with two beds. We do this so there is plenty of room to move around and so we don't have to have two seperate rooms for everyone. Why am I telling you this?.... the reason is although we have plenty of room Ty hates being in the room, he would much rather be roaming around the halls or in the court yard checking everything and everyone out. On this trip Sheridan had taken him down to go get the luggage rack and when they came back to the room Sheridan said as soon as he went to open the door to our room Ty just started screaming.......lol "No don't make me go back in there" hahaha. Too funny I thought so I had to share.

I haven't been to S.F. in 15 years and the Golden Gate Bridge is still an awesome sight.

As we arrived the fog hadn't quit burned off yet.

View from the other side. (not in focus) :(

It ended up being a SUNNY day despite the fog on the bridge.

We walked to the first tower of the bridge. The kids thought it was so neat to be over the water so high up.

Ty just hung out in his stroller.

I was dodging cars to take this picture. lol JK But my camera was outside the car window.

After the bridge we decided to check out Pier 39, we had a bowl of Clam Chowder in Sour Dough Bread and Ty thought the pigeons were great. Everyone thought he was so cute chasing them and then he picked up their poop. It was great as we hear a lot of people at once saying eeeewwwwww. :) Luckily we caught him before he did some taste testing.

We also went to Ghirardelli square and had ice cream, YUMMO! As we were walking around the city Cole found this huge leaf and wouldn't let it go. Everyone wanted their picture taken with it.

Cheeser

Textures of S.F.

Then we decided to drive around the city and go down Lumbard street. Holy steep batman. The kids were amazed at all the hills in the city. I didn't get a good picture of Lumbard street but got some others of the city that I really liked.

Well that's it for now. This weekend we are going to Bass Lake with our friends, it's also by Yosemite so we will take the kids into the park to see the ginormouse trees.

2008-09-18T20:37:00.002-07:00

A lot of people have been asking us why we want to leave California and go back to Wyoming, in the middle of "NOWHERE" (so everyone thinks because Target is 3 hours away). OK so we are in the middle of nowhere (but there is a Super Wal-Mart 1/2 hr away and they are a lot nicer than Wal-Marts in Cali). I thought I would post a couple of pictures that I have taken in the past to show you why we are going to the middle of nowhere.

The scenery and clean air. I know you've seen this picture before. This is the view from behind Sheridan's parent's house.

The gorgeous sunsets.

My husbands love of Ranching.
This really is his passion. You should see him in action. I wish I had a better picture out on the range.

Our love for our families. This is Sheridan's grandpa Louis Twitchell. He is 76 years old and is still Ranching.

Grandpa Twitchell's hand and baby Ty Louis Nicholas' hand

Grandpa Nicholas

Grandma Nicholas

Grandpa Dixon

Grandma Dixon

Cousins...

more cousins!!!

And Aunt's and Uncle's of course!!!!!!!! :)

I'm sure I will show LOT'S more once we are there so I will continue later. Even though it will be so hard leaving our home and families here in Bakersfield, we are excited to be closer to both sides of our families and see them all more often, and for our kids to experience different new things.

2008-09-18T20:37:00.001-07:00

After 11 years of marriage we finally have our own REAL bedroom furniture. It arrived today and you should have seen me. I was like a little school girl trying to contain my excitement. And yes I know it's too big for our bedroom. It would actually fit better if the bed was under the window but Sheridan didn't like it that way. But hey it will only be this way for 3 more weeks. Holy Cow we only have 3 more weeks. YIKES. K I'm not going to think about it or I might have a break down. ;)

This is Sheridan's night stand. I only needed two more inches for it to fit. GRRRR
He didn't want a nightstand and I told him that was dumb, that he was going to have a night stand. They had two different styles so I thought this one looked more masculine with the doors.

And this one is more on the feminine side. We need new lamps. Gracie asked me this question tonight. "Mom, how many people do you think have those kind of lamps anymore" So is she telling me they're dated or what? hahahahaha The cool thing is each night stand has one plug to plug into the wall and then 3 other plugs that you can plug your lamp, phone, alarm clock into at the back of the night stand so you don't have cords running everywhere. Nice feature.

And here is the magnificent bed. LOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEE IT!!!!!

2008-09-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

It's OFFICIAL!!! Our house is on the market. So I guess we really are moving. YIKES!!! We signed the papers a couple of days ago and later that day I walked into my kitchen and it totally hit me. I was thinking "oh, my gosh we are selling our cute little house, I don't want to sell our house, I'm not moving, we are not selling this house" Ok so the moment only lasted for about 1 minute but it was a LONG minute.

I looked out the window today and there was this guy in my yard digging a post hole and I was like dude what are you doing, I barely caught myself before I opened the door to find out and realized that he was putting up our sale sign. Phew, glad I didn't yell at the poor guy. That would have been a great embarrassing moment.

This morning I received a call around 8 a.m. asking if it would be o.k. for someone to come and show the house between 1-2 this afternoon. Of coarse. So I got Cole off to pre-school and hurried home put Ty down for his nap, (yes he went down for a nap at 8:30, he had been up since 5:30).

I've been cleaning and de-cluttering for that last couple of weeks and just yesterday I had cleaned out the pantry and this morning was doing the linen closet. But you know you want your house perfect especially when strangers are coming to your home with out you there to explain certain things. :)

I still had things to clean, the shower, dusting, sweeping, and other odds and ends. Thank heavens Sheridan helped me clean up from yesterday after school children's messes. And more laundry that had to be done.

Ty was great and slept for three hours while I finished, we went and picked up Cole and came back ate lunch and left. At first I wanted to hang out and spy on who was coming to my home. But knew I could't do that for possibly an hour. Then I was like oh, I should take pictures of my clean house, for memories sake.

So here they are. Would you buy our house??

Our bedroom furniture is coming next week!!

Sorry that was a lot of pictures but hey I don't want to forget what my house looks/ed like. Especially when it is this clean. My kids are going to go crazy with me constantly telling them to clean up. We hope is sells in a couple months if not sooner. Who knows with the market the way it is now.

Wish us luck!!!

2008-09-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone! I know my blog has been blocked and it wasn't because I didn't want you to view it. We have some news that we didn't want traveling too quickly if you know what I mean. Now everyone can view again.

So our news is that we are moving closer to home. Yep we are taking a leap of Faith and moving back to Sheridan's home town in Wyoming. I can just tell you it's been so hard deciding what to do. But we feel like this will be a good time to go back for our kids.

We are REALLY going to miss our "family" here AKA EVERYONE!!!!!!!! I will be like Lani and cry all the way but I will try to be a big girl about it. :)

So we have been scrambling to get our home ready to sell. Any one want it??? ;)

The kids are very excited about moving closer to both Grandparents and closer to all their cousins. Plus Cole desperately need wide open space to expend all of his energy. Holy COW, (no pun intended) But he is a busy boy and his brother thinks he is the best thing so soon we will have two with double the energy. Like Sheridan says "An idle mind is the devils workshop" Don't know if that quit applies now but anywho.

Sheridan will start at his new job (well actually his old job) on October 14th. We are planning on leaving October 11th.

There you have it and I apologize to family and friends if I haven't had a chance to call you personally to tell you the news but we have been super busy.

If you want all the details give us a call.

:)

2008-08-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

TWILIGHT

So I have this friend that went on a little trip to Oregon. She went to the little town where some of Twilight was filmed and got her picture taken in front of "Charlies" house and took some more pictures of other places. I thought it was pretty cool. If you want to see you can check out her blog at www.ourwalktoremember.wordpress.com

2008-08-14T16:43:00.001-07:00

Even more things that have gone on this summer!!
I found Madeline and Cole in the bathroom washing their hair with hand soap.

The kids had their second swimming session with Miss Terry and her helper Kaitlyn. They had fun! The first class in their first session with Cole was very interesting, he screamed and screamed "I WANT MY TOWEL!" I wish I would have had my camera that day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TY!!! #1

I always make my kids their fist b-day cake. So this time around I made a baseball for Ty's birthday. All the other kids were a little hesitant getting into their cakes on their 1st birthdays. As you will see in the following photo's he didn't seam to have that problem.

Our B-Day Boy!!

We have a video of singing to him I will post later but I was bad and didn't check to see if we had candles. We didn't so we used a match instead.

Here is the Cake before....

And after!!

Look at how intense is little face is.

He was able to pick it up, little stinker.

Going, Going,

Fhew he put it down

Mmmmmm, smooshy smooshy

He just had to taste it everywhere.

After a quick bath he opened his presents. He really didn't need a lot of things. Some shoes and a couple toys. He was happy!!

And the latest thing I FINALLY did was update our pictures of the kids and moved them around. These are in big frames, the pictures themselves are 8x10 and they are on the big wall in our front room. I love it what do you think? There are some lines in the glass from back ground light from the living room window.

2008-08-06T12:48:00.000-07:00

Continuing on.... Next stop Samaria, ID. The kids and I went to see my BFF's lol Heidi and Celeste and their kids. Heidi has 3 of her own. Shianna 11?, Braden 5 and Boston almost 2? (I'm bad at ages and birthdates). Celeste also has 3 kids Ty 5, Rylee 3 and Kody 1.

We were camping at Heidi's parents place aka "The Willows" it was so much fun. They have a little pond that only came up past Gracie's knees so we didn't have to worry too much about the kids playing in it. The kids had fun playing in the Canoe, and the rope swings they had. There was also a place down in the Willows my kids called the forest. (how deprived are they?) lol

It was so much fun seeing all of their kids, and how big they are getting, well the getting big part wasn't fun I just wish kids would stop growing sometimes. It makes us all feel old. ;)

Fun catching up on what our families are involved in and how busy life has been. I felt bad though, it was towards the end of our trip and I was getting a little grouchy with my kids so I probably wasn't the best company for my friends. I promised them next time I will see them first. :) So Sorry Heidi and Celeste for being a grump. I'm still looking for Wacky Six though. :) That was a fun game.

I had a lot of fun taking pictures of the kids in such a nice setting. I wish we had places like this closer to us. We probably do, I just haven't found them yet.

The kids had fun with sparklers on one of our nights there.

All three of us were prego at the same time and look what happened. ;) What cute kids!!

Ty & Maddie I finally got him to have a normal smile. lol

Miss Rylee and Cole are a month apart? (I really need to get birth dates from you all, even though I've asked a million times, ugh)

Ty was loving this bike, and getting stuck under everyone's chairs.

The following are some of my favorite photo's. My friend Celeste took pictures of all the kids and they are on her blog. I failed to have her take some with my camera. (can I get copies?) ;) I wish I would have taken a picture of little miss Boston she was hilarious she was a little scavenger getting into everyone's drink and food and constantly on a table. She was so funny and cute though you couldn't get mad at her. :)

This was a little park just up the road by the "Blue Goose" store where the kids could get penny candy. They had fun doing that.

After our visit with them we headed to Utah to pick up Sheridan from the airport and to see Uncle Mark, Aunt Carole and their youngest daughter Jessica. Sheridan's parents and his youngest sister Siarra drove down from Wyoming to see us off one last time. We had a lot of fun with them too. I wonder if Carole has posted the funny pictures of us being crazy yet on her blog??? We had a nice dinner with all of them plus Sheridan's Grandma and Grandpa Nicholas, Uncle Boyd and Aunt Ellen, Aunt Nancy and her Daughter Melissa and her husband Chris and their 3 1/2 boys. Baby on the way, who has been born since. Hope I didn't miss anyone. hmmm. Forgive me if I did.

Then it was finally time to head home. Hallejuh!!! Not that we didn't enjoy every minute, but
4 1/2 weeks is a long time!!!

So this was our final shot and a great example of how we all looked on the way home. (with the exception of the driver, my dear husband)

LOL

Let's just say we are happy to be home but miss family and our friends far away terribly!!!!!!!!!!

School starts on one week from tomorrow!!!! We can't wait!!!

Love you and and to those friends we were unable to see this trip we hope to see you next time and so sorry we couldn't make it. Let's just say fuel drained our budget. UGH!!

2008-07-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

......moving on to Idaho. We had a great time in Idaho too. When we arrived at my parents my mom had brought home these huge cookies, my sister actually took this shot, she couldn't resist.

We were able to make it to our Randouise (Randy & Louise, my parents) Dixon reunion. The fam actually moved the date so we could be there. Thanks so much family!!! :)

The reunion was a lot of fun!! My brother Russ and his wife Camille were in charge this year and they did an AWESOME job. The theme of the reunion was "A Knights Tale" We started off by going to Freeman Park in Idaho Falls for a day full of games and food. I have to say I was quite the All-Star player, I made 4/5 touchdowns playing two hand touch football. I was quite amazed with myself and I think I impressed my husband too. lol Let me just say I felt it the next day. :) Then that night we all settled down to watch the amazing fireworks that Melaleuca does every year. When the fireworks were over my brother had brought his projector and we watched "A Knights Tale" until the traffic was gone. I think we all passed out half way through the movie.

This is Cole with his cousin Isaac, my sister Katie's little boy. My sister took this shot too. :)

(the field in the back ground is where I made the touchdowns) :)

This was a little creek at the park we all went to cool off in. I will say it was hotter than Hades that day. Ugh

Here are the kids and their cousin Janie with their glowing jewelry. ( I don't know why this is underlining.)

My sister Nan and her daughter Lynette and future ....... hus....I mean missionary Bailey. (Sorry Bailey if I didn't spell your name correctly.)

\

The next day the festivities continued with a lot of fun games and yummy, yummy food. Let's just say if you were hungry it was your own fault. We had games in the canal by my parents property, one game was running the gauntlet. That was fun to watch, I did not participate. We had newspaper sword fighting, and another game I don't remember the name of. A participant had to be the horse while the knight rode on his shoulders with a sword(sharpened stick) and had to run around popping balloons and throwing soaker balls at my poor sister-in-law, then wacking beach balls off a pole. The kids had a blast and the horses were worn out. I had fun taking pictures. :) We also painted our own coat of arms.

Just playing in the canal.

Aunt Katie doing what she does best..... playing with the kiddies.

Playing in the sprinklers across the street. These are country sprinklers. lol

Daddy being the horse for Cole, I even captured the balloon popping.

Daddy being the horse for Maddie.

Daddy being the horse for Gracie, let's just say that horse was dead after all that work. lol

Painting our Coat of Arms.

Cole getting ready for his battle. What a cute little knight. He would kick any other knights bum.

See what I mean. lol

After the reunion was over they handed out prizes to all the kids. Cole picked this one which I think was very fitting for all his funny little expressions he has.

After the reunion was really over all the cousins went home, which wasn't too far for some and farther for others so then we had find entertainment for my kids. We went to tautphaus park zoo with Grandma Dixon (who took the whole week of work off to spend time with us, thanks Mumar) cousins Zaine, Quinn and Aunt Tammy. The kids love going there. They also have a little amusement park with little rides they could go on.

Maddie and her buddy Zaine.

Kids at the zoo, the otters were sleeping.

The kids loved the petting zoo.

Gracie sewing with Grandma D. They made these cute little slippers out of wash clothes. Very creative my mother is. They have worn holes in them they love them so much!

We would find rope and string tied up around and through things and finally figured out it was our little boy. He would do this everywhere. He was quite good at untying them too.

Cole liked making Mac n' Cheese with Grandpa D. This was a very rare moment for old pop's so I had to capture the moment. lol,, JK Love ya dad!

After visiting with all the family in Idaho we continued on to the land of Napoleon Dynamite. Yes, that's right. We went to visit my two sisters Nan and Katie. The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins there and making marshmallow popcorn. They love it. Isaac had a Artic Cat car that he and Cole drove around all day, it was amazing how fast Cole caught on and could drive it. We had a lot of fun, my sis Katie gave me a facial for about and hour one night it was SO great. Thanks Kate!!! Maddie had to have one too. It was pretty cute. I wish I had pictures while we were there but they were all blury, my camera battery must have been dying. Anyhow we had fun. My sister Nan had her living room remodeled and a new deck out the back, it was really nice, they've done a lot of nice remodeling to their home it looks good. My poor brother-in-law Reece was layed up after having knee surgery and was having a hard time staying down. Hang in there Reece. It was great seeing them all. Poor Leslie was beat on by our little knight on their trampoline, it was so funny to watch, she is 13? and he is 3. LOL You were a good sport Leslie, (when are you coming to see us???)

Our whole trip was GREAT. We really miss our family and hope to see them sooner than later. Sheridan and I are in charge of the next reunion in two years and are starting to come up with a lot of fun idea's. We can't wait!!!

to be continued..........

2008-07-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

WE'RE BACK!!

We have been home since Monday evening and we are trying to get back into life. We had so much fun on our trip everywhere we went and have many many pictures to share. So I am going to start off with the first part of our trip and update each day.

Our first stop was in Wyoming with Sheridan's family. Sheridan's sister Jessica and her husband Bryan and their 4 children came to see us while we were there so the kids were entertained a lot. From riding horses, the tire swing, playing with grandma's toys, swimming, BBQing, celebrating 2 B-Days (Uncle Jake and Aunt Siarra's), let's just say we kept busy. Oh, and the biggest thing of all Sheridan finally received his infamous custom made saddle. I will go into that later. :)

Wanda my mother-in-law was so great to let 12 extra people into her home in the middle of re-construction of their home that was flooded in a freak rain storm last summer. Their home looks so great, it was a blessing in disguise. Now she has the kitchen that's she's always wanted!! :) It looks great Wanda, can't wait to see the finished product.

So the following flood of pictures is from Wyoming.

This is Ty with his cute little cousin Paisley.

Little Paisley again, I couldn't resist this shot.

Uncle Jake's B-Day all the kids wanted to help him blow out his candles.

Cole eating Twitchell's home made ice cream. Mmmmm goood!!

I love this picture of Ty peeking out of his hood with Great Grandpa Twitchell in the background.

Just hanging out with the cousins.

We went to "Sinks Canyon" right by Lander. It is where the Popo Agie River "sinks" (goes underground) for 1/4 to 1/2 mile then comes back out. It was flowing very high this year.

There is a story behind this photo. I'll try and keep it short. We Sheridan, I, Maddie & Cole went out with Grandpa Nicholas and Uncle Jake to help them set up their gated pipe for irrigating and Sheridan and I had a BAD case of allergies, the next photo will show how bad my poor husband.

It took a couple days for his and my eyes to get back to normal.

Cole loves his cousin Conner.

Grandma Nicholas showing the kids how to plant flowers.

Here is the infamous saddle, for those of you that don't know... Sheridan has wanted a custom made saddle from Steve Mecum for a long time. I put his name on the waiting list 2 1/2 yrs ago and he got it while we were in Wyoming so he was able to use it for a couple days. Let's just say he was in heaven!! (and his Christmas, Birthday, Father's Day, Valentine's Day etc... will is now taken care of for the next 20 years!! lol)

MY FAVORITE PHOTO'S

(I have more that I took up in St. Lawrence Basin, where the boys pushed the cows to, but I took them with Jessica's camera because my battery died.)

Love the clouds.

Husband's boots, his dad made these spurs for his mom.

Gracie looks dang good in a hat.

Cole at their favorite park.

Cute Baby Ty very content outside.

Well that's it for now. Of course I have a ton more pictures but didn't want to bore you all so I will continue in the next couple days with more, but from our next stop. IDAHO!!

To be continued.....

2008-07-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone, just a quick update. We have been on vacation for 2 weeks now and it has been so much fun. I will give more details and pictures when I have more time. Probably not until we get back home.

We are now in Idaho getting ready for a family reunion.

We were with out the internet while in Wyoming and we actually survived!!! LOL :) I have a lot of catching up to do on all my blogger friends/family. But don't have time now.

We hope all our friends in Cali are doing well and we miss you! But are thoroughly enjoying our family here and are not sure we want to come home. ;) For now.

Take care and we will see you in a couple more weeks, 2 or 3??

2008-05-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

Click on the link above to view my first Heritage Makers project. It was so much fun to make for my mom. The whole family helped out, thanks everyone!!

2008-05-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

Cole's birthday was last week. I was a bad mom and scheduled a Heritage Makers "Celebration" (party) on his b-day and didn't even pay attention to the date. So... we had his b-day party the night before.

I made pancakes just for him for breakfast (after the girls had left for school of course) and then we took him to pick out his cake. He loves chocolate just like his dad.

My friend Jennifer was having a garage sale and was getting ride of a ton of Geo-trax (Fisher-Price trains), so guess what Cole got for his b-day? I think he was content, he stayed up until around 11pm playing with them.

We also got him some Tupperware toys as you can see in the pictures. We had them growing up and thought he might get a kick out of them. I'm not sure what they are called.

He wouldn't get dressed so I apologize for the immodest pictures. :)

What a cute little stinker he is. Oh, and did you know that 3 is the new 2. LOL Ugh!

2008-05-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

Gracie had her first piano recital. She did a wonderful job and is loving piano. She comes home and I don't have to remind her very often to practice. Madeline on the other hand forgets to practice and I forget to remind her but when her piano teacher comes she plays her song once with the book and then has it memorized and plays it for her with out the book. She is doing well also. She was not in the recital because she had just started a couple weeks before.

2008-05-06T21:01:00.001-07:00

Happy Belated Daniel

2008-05-06T21:00:00.001-07:00

Don't send a lame eCard.
Try JibJab Sendables!

2008-04-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

Well Hello Everyone.

So I have not been blogging for a while. My sister-in-law Jessica came last week to help me start my new Independent Consulting business with Heritage Makers. (plus she just needed an excuse to come and see us).

I am so excited. I think after the many different things I have tried, I have finally found my niche. I am now an Independent Consultant for Heritage Makers. I will try not to go too much into it. I am going to make a separate blog for that. It is a digital story booking company. They are all about the story behind the pictures. They have the easiest online digital studio with over 30,000 pieces of artwork you can put in your book. You never have to worry about purchasing upgrades every year, never worry about your disc breaking or getting scratched, you can download all your pictures to their site so you have another place they are stored in case your own pc crashes. Any way I love it! If you want to check it out a little more go to www.mytimelessmemories.net This will take you to my "Heritage Makers" home page. (if you just go to Heritage Makers.com you will just get some random consultant. You can click on the tab at the far right that says "Start New Project" this takes you to a page and shows you different projects you can create. Just mess around if you want. You won't be able to publish anything but you can see how things work. Let me know if you want more info.

Ok enough of my plug.

Here are some pictures of when Jess was here. She is such a sweetheart and loves our kids to death. We really missed Bryan, Harleigh, Conner, Riata, and Paisley though. We so wish we lived closer together. Maybe we can get Bryan to come out here and sell Loomix. :)

Jessica did an awesome job with her presentation, she is going to be a great sponsor, I just hope she doesn't get sick of me calling her all the time!

All three of us had fun staying up late one of the nights reminiscing and paid for it the next day.

What else, I've just been busy creating my first book. I am making 5x5 brag books of my kids and then I'm going to make a storybook of Sheridan's childhood. The kids are always asking for him to tell them stories about when he was a kid. So what better way to capture those memories and pictures than to publish them in a book. That way they will have them forever and someday share the stories with their children. Jessica did this for her husband and it turned out great and her kids LOVE it!

There I go again. Sorry I can't help myself.

Here is Ty trying to bite her chin off, this is what he does when he's hungry.

I wish I would have taken more pictures but we just never stopped talking and we were all just enjoying her company.

We love you Aunt Jessica, can't wait to see you and the rest of your family this summer!

2008-04-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

Tag I'm it, DARN IT AGAIN!!

A Decade ago I was.....

pregnant with Gracie and working as a Manager for a Regis salon while Sheridan was working on his Masters degree at Utah State in Logan Utah. We were both primary teachers in our ward for the same class. We lived in this cute little white house with red trim. Back in the day when we only had to pay $350 for rent. It was the best house with an infestation of hobo spiders and slanting floors. (It really was cute though and I loved it even though it had spiders. eeek, I'm getting chills just thinking about them) We had the sweetest land lord, J.R. Windley. He had a great dog, he was this huge Yellow Lab named Harleigh.

5 Things on my to do list..... (for tomorrow)

1. Run on the treadmill
2. Clean up pee all day, and hopefully not the other. (Cole is FINALLY potty training, YIPPY)
3. Work on my story book for Cole
4. Practice hair on Kristina's for prom
5. Enrichment night

5 Places I've lived....

1. Logan, UT
2. Lake Havasu City, AZ
3. Lewiston, Ut
4. Shelley, ID
5. Preston, ID

5 Job's I've had...

1. Mr. Pizza ( making fresh pizza)
2. Hardware Store, (cashier)
3. Allegro Salon
4. Regis Salon
5. DI

5 Things people don't know about me...

1. I worked at the DI they show on Napoleon Dynamite.
2. I love to dance with my husband (country two step, NOT line dancing)
3. I'm a computer junkie, but it's only for wholesome things, digital scrapbooking, blogging, emails. (I am working on prioritizing my time though).
4. I'm very demanding (ok, maybe everyone knows that about me)
5. I really DO NOT like getting my picture taken.

I'm not tagging anyone unless you would like to participate.

2008-04-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

I found out I can take really close up pictures. I've been trying to get my camera to do this for ever and every time I would get this close the images would go out of focus. Well I decided to stop being like a man and get the owners manual out and read the instructions and tada.. all I had to do was turn my lens so two little arrows matched up (two choices) and flip a little switch. TOO easy, I was actually mad. So here you go.

Ty's came out fuzzy (he moves around so quickly) so I have to re-take his but the other three.... aren't they to die for. I am there mother. lol

Coles Eye

Gracie Mae

Madeline Rose

Cole Grant

Ty Louis

2008-04-08T15:15:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged by Carianne....I don't have a middle name so I used my maiden name. Here it goes.....

These are the rules: You must post the rules before you give your answers. You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name. After you've been tagged, you need to update your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details.

D - Doing what I can
A - Always wanting to do more than I can.
W - Wants to enjoy the moment in the moment.
N - Not knowing what else to say about my name.

L - Loves photography ( not of myself)

I'm am now tagging, Lani, Jessica de Kock, Jenessa, Katie (my sister), & anyone else. Only if you want to.

2008-03-31T21:04:00.001-07:00

I just love this picture!!
Here is a photo from below that I enhanced a little. He is our little "Chicken Leg Baby" not that he is starving by any means but he still has a ways to go to catch up to his older brother at this age.

HAPPY EASTER!!

2008-03-31T18:22:00.001-07:00

Kids Getting ready for their Easter Egg hunt. They could hardly stand it.

Sheridan drank the easter egg water. YUMMO!

2008-03-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, who else is totally addicted to the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer. I just finished the third book "Eclipse"and can't wait to get "Breaking Dawn" coming August 2nd. I went on Stephanie's web page and the play list to the Movie "Twilight" is what you are listening to now.
I love "Edwards Lullaby" song. It's so sweet.

If you haven't heard of these books yet you must drop everything right now and rush to your closest book store and buy all three and don't stop reading until you've read each one. Then start reading them again for the second and third time like my friend Lani. ;)

Enoy!

2008-03-21T20:25:00.001-07:00

We have been on spring break for 7 days, and I don't think my children will be looking forward to the next one. hehehee. As you can see, we have been doing spring cleaning during spring break. We started off last Saturday by going through the girls room and letting them decide what toys to get rid of. A little motivation didn't hurt anyone, (they earned a little cash) so they ended up giving away a BIG rubbermaid bin full of toys. They have also been cleaning windows, cupboard doors, doors, baseboards and walls. I think it's been wonderful. My house is so sparkly now. (don't know how long it will last, so I am enjoying it)

As you can see they cleaned very hard!

We've just recently discovered that Cole closes his eyes every time he takes a bite of food when he is eating. It's pretty hilarious.

I just thought this sweet little face was too cute. I just had to share it with you. He still has quite a ways to go to catch up to his older brother at this age in weight.

2008-03-11T14:47:00.000-07:00

Here's two little girls singing "Two Little Girls"

2008-03-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

Colors of Spring It has been so beautiful here the last couple of weeks. I thought I would share. (I hope the weather isn't teasing us though) I captured a bee busy at work on this nice day.

Then Madeline and Cole thought it was warm enough to go running through the sprinkler until they discovered the water was still freezing.

Here is Cole's latest art work. At least it's on paper this time.

Cole started going to pre-school this week. He goes twice a week for 3hrs a day. The first day he went he came home to eat the rest of Maddie's lunch (his ritual every day) and I found him passed out on the living room floor with a bite out of the sandwich. He slept this way for 2 1/2 hours. I love that he burned off some of his energy!!

Ty like's watching his sisters play in their room, so he gets surrounded by all the babies.

This is so ya'll can't say I am never in pictures. Here's my latest cut and color.

2008-02-24T15:54:00.000-08:00

A while after we put all the kids to bed we go check on them to make sure the girls light is off and they are really asleep and that Cole isn't getting into mischief. The last couple of nights we have found Cole asleep usually on the floor after he has taken his Pj's off. Well this time this is how we found him (not sleeping).

Yep, in all his glory, hiding under a blanket. We said he wanted to be naked.

These are Cole's buddies. Issac is on the left, and Everett on the right. They get to play together twice a week and have a ton of fun. Cole jumps up and down when he finds out that they are coming over or that he is going to their house.

Cole wanted to make his own PB & Honey sandwich. (my kids don't like jam). As you can see he is just like any other kid. Loves to lick the knife more than spreading it on the bread.

Cole is definitely our little character at the moment. I wish I could record all his little faces. He is too cute and keeps us on our toes.

I spoke in sacrament today and right before they blessed the bread, Cole stands up yells as he waves "HI, MOMMY!" I LOVE HIM TO DEATH!!!!! I REALLY do!

2008-02-17T21:53:00.001-08:00

On our way to do some more branding.... This is up near Porterville, about an hour NE of Bakersfield. We think these are Walnut Trees.

Sheridan went riding with his friends to go gather the calves. The kids got really bored so we ran down to the local gas station and got some treats.... still waiting. Gorgeous country to look at.

Here comes our "Man From Snowy River" (that's for you Lani) :)

Waiting to get started.

Sheridan the roper.

My two Cowboys, aren't they handsome!

Cole found a friend! He followed this dog everywhere he went.

Hmmmm.....so what are you doing to that poor baby calf?

The girls got bored after a while and went to play on the rocks.

Then a nice lady (Dawn) took all the kids on a hike up the mountain.

Their little legs got tired so they got a ride back down on the 4 wheeler. I was just praying it wouldn't roll. eeek.

Here comes Maddie and Cole....Gracie had to wait for her ride. Please don't roll.

PLEASE DON'T ROLL.......

It was a lot steeper than it looks.

Notice how the driver has a helmet but none of the kids do. UGH!
Grumble Grumble.

Cole & Maddie thought it was the coolest thing.

Gracie's turn

She seems to be a little more nervous.

Ok... they all made it down safely. Phew!

Our little Madeline was the most interested in the branding and everything it entailed... including the "Rocky Mountain Oysters" in the bucket. Maybe she has a future in animal science, or veterinary medicine.

One tuckered out little Cowboy. This is how we find him most nights. Curled up in his little spot on the floor. What you can't see under his blankets, are his puppy, moose, a couple cars, Woody (from Toy Story) and some books. lol

I wish my kids were this wore out every weekend. They had so much fun, it was great for them to just be able to be outside and have space to roam just about wherever they wanted. Maybe someday! :)

2008-02-17T19:38:00.000-08:00

Here is a video of Gracie singing all 50 states (while holding baby Ty)

2008-02-15T07:16:00.000-08:00

This is how the week started. I was on the treadmill, the girls were cleaning the bathroom and we had left the hall closet open. I came into the living room and Cole was washing his hair with lotion. As you can see I didn't totally freak out because I took the time to take a picture. I think that helps me calm down..

Tuesday we went to watch Sheridan brand cows with his friend. He goes every year and they do around 300 -500 calves. They start early in the morning and get done late afternoon. They have a bunch of people there to help so they get done pretty quickly.

Here is Mike Echeverria, Sheridan's friend. He is one of the Ranch owners.

One of the ropers. It was pretty fun to watch them miss. They had a couple young girls that were roping too and they did better than the guys. :)

Here is my Chocolate Cowboy. The boys and I didn't get there till about 10. They had a bunch of snacks for everyone and Cole dug into a chocolate eclair, YUMMMMY!! Isn't he the cutest thing!! :)

Getting ready to notch the ear. This is one way they tell that the cow is theirs. They brand them, tag one ear and notch the other one. Poor cow...

Notching the ear....

...and another cow...

....hmmm....getting home sick...

Look at the scenery, looks like we're back home.
This area, is about 30 min east of Bakersfield, on the Tejon Ranch.

Just hanging out, wishing he could help.

Here's my other little cowboy wearing his Carhartt overall's.

Yummy hat!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The kids wanted to make heart cookies with sprinkles. They had a lot of fun. Maddie kept licking her knife so we had to make sure we didn't give her cookies to anyone else, and Cole had eaten all of his by the time he was done.

When Cole was done frosting he thought it would be fun to squish the frosting with his hands. On his way to wash his hands, daddy did hand prints on the side of Ty's face. He thought that was pretty funny....

Well that's been our week so far. Tonight Sheridan and I are going to the Crystal Palace for our Valentine's date to go dancing again. Have a good one!

2008-02-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

Well I finally figured out how to do this stinking "Playlist" of music. It's great, though I did find all the songs from my friends blog. But I like them too. Now my husband he is not Celine Dion's biggest fan but I really LOVE her new song, "Taking Chances". Hence what you are listening to.
What do you say to taking chances?? What are your dreams, or better yet what do you have a true passion for?

I would have to say that my passion is taking pictures of my kids. I really do want to get better at it, but for some reason I think I have a fear of actually sitting down and learning everything there is to know about my camera and how it works. My other passion is, well I don't know if it's a passion yet but I'm working on it. I really want to get in Shape not just on the outside but also on the inside. After all that is what keeps us going is our insides, right?!

I have such great control over my children's health. "You've had enough", "You don't need to eat more than one cookie, it's not good for your heart" "The darker color green the better for you" "You don't need to eat this late." As I'm eating 3 cookies or more past 8pm, when they are out of sight.

I really need to reshape my thinking and honestly set a good example for them, even when they are not in the same room. I hate it that I eat so much. I am definitely NOT comfortable in my skin. I am going to become a good example to my kids, while taking awesome pictures and soon I will be comfortable enough that you will catch a glimpse of me in those pictures too!

So here we go, now that I've admitted to all of you what I want to do and become, I hope it will hold me accountable for wanting to take a "Chance" on my passions.

So tell me, what is your true passion, what are you willing to take a "Chance" on??

2008-02-10T13:48:00.000-08:00

K, so I've been tagged by Tammy. I guess I can't ignore it any more so here you go

What is his name? Sheridan Grant Nicholas
How long have you been married? 10 years
Who long did you date? 1 1/2 years
How old is he? 33
Who eats more sweets? depends on the day, week, month
Who said I love you first? he did
Who is taller? he is, by about 3"
Who can sing better? He can, he wakes up singing, he comes home from work singing. You can say one word and he will start singing a song about it.
Who is smarter? He is definitely, he is a walking encyclopedia just like my dad.
Who does the laundry? we both do
Who pays the bills? me
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If you are looking at the bed, he does
Who mows the lawn? he does, and it's the best one in the neighborhood, (and most of our neighbors have gardeners)
Who cooks dinner? me
Who drives? he does
Who is more stubborn? we are BOTH stubborn, just on different things
Who kissed who first? he did
Who asked who out first? he did
Who proposed? he did
Who has more siblings? I have 13 and he has 4
Who wears the pants? we both wear pants, but only I wear dresses :)

Can you believe it. NO pictures.

If you catch this, I tag Gwen, Torrie, Camille, Katie and Mickaela.

2008-02-04T11:30:00.001-08:00

This is actually going to be really short. (I have the flu, not the stomach kind thank heavens)
So like many of you we were watching the Super Bowl and when Jordanne Sparks started singing the National Anthem, Sheridan started singing too in a very deep loud voice. Ty was sitting on my lap and got the saddest look on his face and started crying. Sheridan stopped and Ty stopped crying, then he started singing again and Ty started crying again. So of coarse I had to go grab my camera and record.
Pretty sad and funny at the same time! :)

2008-01-25T21:52:00.000-08:00

One more trip to the doctors. I, Cole and Madeline took Ty to the Dr. AGAIN today because all day yesterday and most of the night he would just moan, hm, hm, hm, hm and I think he nursed maybe 3 times at most for only a couple minutes each. NOT good! He still would eat rice cereal though, that was good! His breathing was getting better but I was worried there was something else going on and the weekend coming (would have lasted a week, had I not taken him in) I didn't want to take any chances. So off we went.... sure enough he has double ear infections and one of his eyes is getting infected.

This is a list of what my poor 6 month old is doped up on.

1. Albuterol breathing treatments. (4/times a day, for two more days)
2. Oral steroid for his lungs. (2/times a day, for four days)
3. Omoxicilon sp? for ears. (2/times a day, for 10 days)
4. Tylenol for pain. (every 4 hrs as necessary)
5. Eye drop for infection. (3 /times a day for a week)

I hope he sleeps good tonight, not TOO good though. I did verify with the Nurse Practitioner that all these meds together were ok and she said yes. He actually hasn't taken the oral steroid yet. UGH I hope tonight is a little better than last. At least he has nursed better today!!

My poor little guy! :(

2008-01-23T19:34:00.000-08:00

Well this should be a short update we'll see. This last weekend we went up to Paradise, Ca about a 7hr drive north of us to go to Bleu and Mickaela's reception up there (my youngest sister). We left Thursday after Sheridan came home from work. The girls happened to come home from school with nasty coughs but we went anyway.

We had a little mis communication between mom and I about sleeping arrangements (kind of funny) :) so I had booked a couple nights at "The Paradise Inn" we didn't arrive there until midnights so we were really tired. We pull in and I was thinking oh, great is this another SLC Motel 6???

Well it was roomier. Other than that I think it was a negative star. We tried turning on the warm water and all we got was sputtering air. (their broiler had broke the day before and so the water hadn't made it's way bake through the pipes) When the water did finally come, Sheridan wouldn't let me see it because it was about the color of Diet Coke he said, mmmmm yummy! LOL

The heating was one of those REALLY OLD wall units and then just had blinds on the windows, no black out curtains and the porch lights were on all night until dusk they finally went out. LOL
Anywho, our rule of thumb now is to ask if there is an alarm clock in the room and if there isn't then we probably shouldn't book it.

So the next day we found out where mom and dad were staying (at Bleu's Aunt and Uncle's) and they invited us to come stay with them the second night so we definitely took them up on the offer. Absolutely NO regrets on that decision!!! VERY WONDERFUL Family!!

The reception was really nice, and I LOVE LOVE LOVED the backdrop. It was great how it was set up.

We arrived home Sunday night and the girls coughs were getting worse so we ditched church. Then Ty started coughing and has progressively gotten worse. Yesterday and last night I was thinking he was starting to sound like the girls did when they had RSV, so I took him in to see the Dr. today. He said yep he sounds like he might have RSV. Well they took a swab and it actually came back negative, which is great. But the doctor said it is most likely Broncial and to keep giving him breathing treatments, suction the nose and he is on an oral steroid for his lungs. Poor baby. So let's hope he doesn't get RSV. It's not fun as most of us know.

Ok, I have to stop now which I'm sure your glad, I guess it wasn't so short. Ty is very tired and cranky.

Love you all!!

2008-01-13T18:11:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone

Ty and I are back from Utah. It was a definite whirl wind of a trip. We left Bakersfield Friday at 3:30 pm to get to the Burbank airport (about an hour and a half with traffic). We arrived in SLC around 11:00pm. Finally received all of our luggage and car seat. Brand, Katie, Issac (sp?) and Trina came to pick us up and we arrived at our hotel around midnight. (Motel 6) WHAT A DIVE. UGH but it was great just so see my family again, we didn't really notice that we were in a large closet. LOL We actually bumped it up to a half star because it had TV and Hot water. YIPPY!!!

I hadn't eaten since lunch so I was starving. We stopped by mom and dad's hotel to get some cold pizza, it was the best pizza ever. :) Yummo!

I think we stayed up yacking until about 1:30am. We all attempted to sleep between the yelling people outside, a car alarm going off forever. Trying to nurse the baby in bed while Trina kept trying to spoon me LOL just kidding, she didn't. I did have to plug her nose only once from snoring. Poor Brant and Katie had to share a bed with Isaac(sp?) . At one time I looked over and Isaac was lying across the bed with his feet on Brant and his head where Katie's should have been, Katie was towards the bottom of the bed curled up like a cat! LOLOLOL oh the memories we have created by changing our hotel arrangements. :)

In the morning, Katie was picked up to go do Mick's hair while the rest of us jumped around in the shower to get ready. (NOT together by the way) ;)

Went to the Temple for the sealing. It was so nice. I really missed my husband being there. (back home taking care of our other three) It was great to go and be reminded of our covenants we made when we were married and the blessings we have and will receive. There was also some PDA going on afterwards. EEEWWWW. Newly wed kissing.. ;)

Then we all waited for the new Bride and Groom to come out to have there first photo shoot. Mickaela's dress was gorgeous!! Bleu has my brothers syndrome. "Baby Face" ;) Love it!!

After the Temple we went over to the stake center and had a wonderful Lunch!!! I was starving yet again. lol We didn't dare leave our hotel to have breakfast for fear of coming back to an empty room. lol

I thought this was pretty funny Trina had her 3 inch shoes on and little Nettie didn't have any shoes on. Trina looks like she is 7ft tall.

Cousins Ty and Quinn got to meet for the first time. What cute little boys!! They both look just like their older brothers.

Ty and Aunt Nan (I love your hair Nan)

Ty kept cooing and talking to Uncle Reece. Reece said it was because he was better looking than his dad. LOL

After the luncheon/dance (I did get one dance in with my dad) Brant and Katie took me up to Honeyville to visit with the Nicholas family for a short while. We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Nicholas' around 7:30/8pm stayed till about 9 and then went to Mark and Carole's and caught up some more on the happenings going on. I think we finally went to bed around 11 Everyone sounds like they are doing pretty good!!

The next morning we went to Jerimiah's for Grandpa Nicholas' 94th birthday. (8am) It was wonderful food, the exact kind of breakfast I like. Not the healthiest mind you but it was really good!!! ;)

The night before while driving to Honeyville my friend Celeste (from Logan) called me on my cell phone returning a call from weeks before. She found out where I was and wanted to meet up with us that next day. I had told her that it would only be for about an hour but she didn't care. She just wanted to see us. What a GREAT friend I have, to just drop her plans and drive an hour to come and see us. It was a lot of fun seeing her new little one Kody and to see how big Ty and sweet little Rylee have grown.

The time came to leave, and I was really sad, I think I was too tired to cry. Carole took Ty and I and to the airport and we cried then. I hate leaving ALL my family & friends.

We had a good trip back to Burbank. Sheridan and the kids came to pick us up. We arrived home Saturday night around 7pm. Got the girls showered and in bed and then realized we needed milk and some other things before Sunday. Sheridan ran to the store. The baby was ready for bed so I went and laid down with him, Cole climbed in bed with us and we all sacked out at around 8:30 pm I guess. Sheridan came back from the store and was wondering where everyone went because all was quiet. lol He didnt' want to disturb anyone so he slept in Coles bed.

Got up early to be to church by 8:45 came home had lunch and then Ty and I went and took a 3 hour nap. Aaaaahhhhh. I feel much better now.

Wow, I really try not to type too much but I always seem too.

I've heard little baby Reese (Carole's grand baby) gets to go home tomorrow from being in the hospital with RSV. Poor baby.

Love you all and we will see you this summer!!!

2008-01-03T20:10:00.000-08:00

Well Christmas break is coming to an end.....aaaawwww I'm a little sad about it..................... NOT. LOL
No, I have enjoyed my girls home, they have been a great help with Ty and playing with Cole but it's time to get back into a routine thank heavens. :) There has definitely been a lot of FUN, and a lot of FIGHTING but it's been great.

I am posting quit a few pictures but mostly so Grandparents can see what Christmas gifts they each gave to the kids. ;)

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

WISE MEN STILL SEEK HIM!!

This is my Nativity, it was so much fun setting it up for the first time. I just love the
"Willow Tree" collection. It looks even nicer in person.

Santa brought Ty a bouncer! He didn't like his swing so we gave it away to someone that needed it.

Ty and his Gifts from all his Grandparents! (hat from Grandma & Grandpa Nicholas)

Ty says thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Dixon for his cute warm outfit!
He has another cute hat with two pompoms on top but I don't have a picture of it yet.

Ty says thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Nicholas for this cute outfit! It says "Let's Play" on the front. Also for the pj's, hat and jeans.

He also wants to thank Grandma & Grandpa Twitchell for his church outfit! It's a little big right now so when he gets bigger I will take a picture of him in it.

Cole says thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Dixon for his cute shirt and his "Mac" truck from the Movie "Cars" he LOVES it!!

Cole says thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Twitchell for his much needed jeans. These are soo cute!!

See how cute my outfit is put together from Grandma & Grandpa Dixon and Grandma & Grandpa Twitchell. THANKS!!

Cole says thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Nicholas for his Pj's, Sweater, & Woody. He loves them, they keep him very warm. Oh, and now Jesse has a friend. ;)

Cole and his Christmas, (can you tell how happy he is) lol. We made him take a break from playing with his train for the picture.

Santa brought Cole a Geo Tracks train set and a bike. All Cole wanted to do Christmas morning was play with his train. We had to make him stop playing to open his gifts when the rest of us were done. He could care less about opening any other gifts. It was pretty funny!

Maddie says thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Dixon for her "My Littlest Petshop" Pets, she loves them A LOT!! And they go great with what Santa brought her this year.

Maddie says thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Nicholas for her pj's, the "My Little Pony, Sweet Shop" and Boots. She loves them!! Haven't taken a picture of her in her boots yet, she wants to wait until school starts again. :)

Maddie says thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Twitchell for her Pj's, Shirt and Skirt Ex-Tender. She loved the skirt Extender, now she can wear a dress that has been missing it's slip and it's long enough for her. (FYI-A skirt extender is to wear underneath a skirt/dress that you already have that isn't quit long enough, it shows out the bottem and makes any skirt/dress longer and very cute!!)

Maddie & Cole in theire Pj's from Grandma & Grandpa Nicholas, WARM!! (yes we still get cold in California)

This was a tradition in my family. After we were done opening up our gifts we would make our beds and put everything we got on our bed for everyone to see. My girls love doing it. So here is Maddie & her Christmas! Santa brought her the "Littlest Pet Shop" jungle gym thing at the end of her bed and a pink plush talking "My Little Pony"

Gracie says thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Dixon for all these AWESOME books. That is the word she said as she opened them. Oh, and her "Hannah Montana & Miley Sirus"CD She already knows most of the words to her CD and has read 3 books. She is the Energizer Bunny when it comes to reading. I wonder who she takes after!? ;)

Gracie says thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Nicholas for her Pj's, Earings and Boots. She loves them all. Same as Maddie though she wants to wait and wear her new boots when school starts.

Gracie says thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Twitchell for her Pj's, Shirt and Skirt Extender also. It is helping her skirts last longer. She just won't stop growing taller. ;)

Gracie and her Christmas. Santa brought her a Porcelain doll that I don't see in the picture (oops) and High School Musical 2 DVD and dolls.

Gracie and Maddie in their Pj's from Grandma & Grandpa Twitchell. Cole being Cole on the edge. :)

I love the mess after opening gifts. It always seems to linger all day too. ;)

This was so funny, Sheridan kept stuffing the football in Cole's under ware. Where did it go?? Oh, there it is! LOL

Well you know how earlier I stated that there was lots of Fun and a lot of Fighting. Well here is the end result of fighting. Except Maddie wasn't fighting she was just the victim of one of Cole's targets. He just decided to whack her with one of his canvas box cubbies he keeps his toys in. He's lucky we didn't have to take her in for stiches. The next picture shows more.

The swelling went down by the next morning and then we could see the real damage. I need to take one more picture because now it is really scabbed and looks even worse. :(

She is still beautiful though!!

Hope you endured all the photo's. Love you all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!