The Garners

2011-11-27T14:06:00.000-08:00

WE went on a ski trip for thanksgiving break

Leah went snowboarding.
Abby wanted to go sking :^)

This is the place we went to:) Loveland ski resort

Brynn went snowboarding

Here are all of our kids that went=)

Lilly's 1st Birthday

2010-04-27T11:25:00.000-07:00

Time goes so quickly. It's already been a month since Lilly's birthday. Better late then never right! Here's a few Lilly facts: She loves playing with her sisters, She isn't walking on her own yet but will grab your hand and you have to walk with her everywhere. She likes to pretend to read. Loves to have attention and gets it from anyone she can...plus she has the greatest smile. We are so happy to have her in our family!

2010-02-27T11:14:00.000-08:00

It's been too long since I have blogged. Trent was laid off his job the middle of January and he has top priority on the computer in our house. However, I didn't want February to slip by without having posted something. Brynn was baptized on January 9th. Grandma and Grandpa Hart and Grandma Wanda came for her baptism. We had a great time seeing family. There were so many friends who came as well. Thanks you all for your love!

We are so proud of Brynn and her decision to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Here's a shot of Lilly wishing she could go out and play in the snow. The other girls were in the backyard playing and she had to settle for watching them from the glass door.

Brynn had a great birthday party. She took 4 friends and 2 sisters rollerskating!

In February we learned that Lilly is allergic to penicillin. The poor thing had hives all over her body. I thought I would take some pictures so when she asks how bad her reaction was I could show her.

We've had a crazy few weeks around here. Trent is working hard on trying to find another job. We've had many people express their concern for us and we appreciate it so much. Right now the best thing you could help us with is just praying for us that we can find work.

Reasons I don't blog as often as I should

2010-01-07T13:29:00.000-08:00

That is a swimsuit over pajamas

Look, the swimsuits are out again

But it's worth it!

Brynn turns 8

2010-01-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

Brynn turns 8 tomorrow, I can't believe how fast she is growing up. She is looking forward to her baptism on Saturday. Here's a few pictures of Brynn.With Lilly
With Shea

With Leah

Almost 4

Brynn is such a special girl, we sure are glad she is in our family.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-07T12:53:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas! The girls were so excited for it. I love the memories it brought back of being so excited you could hardly sleep! Grandma and Grandpa gave the younger 3 girls some geotrax. They love driving those trains around.

Lilly was just happy to be part of everything.

Shea loved Christmas this year, here she is with a new princess doll, and below with a new princess outfit that she wore the rest of the day don't forget to check out the shoes!

When it came time to open presents, Abby natuarally chose the heaviest present to open first, thinking that it must be the best present if it's the heaviest. She unwrapped it to find.....Scriptures!

I love the enthusiastic look on her face! Merry Christmas

Wisconsin Dells

2009-12-27T12:21:00.000-08:00

We went on a quick vacation before Christmas up to the Wisconsin Dells. They have these huge indoor waterparks. It's pretty awesome to be able to go swimming in the middle of winter. They place is set up to where they have indoor skywalks so you don't even have to go outside to get to the pools from your room. We all had a great time. Leah loved her floatie suit and would try to keep up with Abby and Brynn

Enjoying Famous Dave's Barbeque

In the wave pool

Shea thinks she's going to do some serious swimming.

Happy Halloween

2009-11-09T09:26:00.000-08:00

Halloween was fun this year. The girls had a great time carving their pumpkins.
Lilly enjoying the afternoon sunshine.

Abby was a bunch of grapes (although she got more guesses that she was "balloon girl")

Lilly was a butterfly, Brynn was a pirate, Leah the unicorn (she loved her costume), Shea the princess.

Abby went trick or treating with her friends this year, she came back with so much candy. Trent took the middle three out they lasted about an hour. Then I had to take Brynn back out.
There is way too much candy in my house right now.

My Eternal Family

2009-10-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

The Primary theme for 2009 is My Eternal Family. I've been focused on that topic a lot this year. We had our Primary program this past Sunday. The kids were awesome. I am so grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that we can be together forever. I am thankful for a loving Savior, for temples where we can make these eternal covenants, and for my own eternal family (which also includes my parents, siblings, etc.) I love you all.

My friend Lindsay took these pictures for us. I'll share more later.

Birthday Month

2009-10-16T10:17:00.000-07:00

October has always been birthday month for me. Growing up, not only was my birthday in October, but my Mom and sister have their birthdays in October too! There was always plenty to celebrate! Then I met Trent and his birthday is October 1st...so the tradition continues. October is just a party month.

Happy Birthday to Trent...he usually requests a pie of some sort for his birthday treat, this year it was peach pie he wanted. There are no pictures of the strawberry shortcake I had for my birthday but it was yummy. Thanks to all of you who thought of me on my birthday. It was so nice to know how loved I am!

Trent out did himself this year, he took the day off of work to let me do what I wanted to do on my birthday and I also was given a new fridge and a treadmill. I love them!

Busy

2009-09-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

Fall has gotten off to a busy start for us. We have Abby and Brynn playing soccer. A few weeks ago Abby scored her first goal, in fact she scored 2 goals in that game!
Leah is enjoying kindergarten. She has done very well in fact her teacher chose her for citizen of the month for September. One day last week she told me she cried at school that day. I asked her why she said that Brynn didn't walk her to her classroom. I had no idea that her sisters were walking her to her class. We are grateful for our family! (FYI Brynn thought Abby was taking Leah to her class that day.)

Abby and Brynn are also playing Iceless Hockey. This is their first season playing and they are really liking it. It's also a lot of fun to watch. Even better there are no practices...you just show up and play!

One day I was helping the older girls with homework. I heard Shea go out the garage door. This is what I saw when I went to check on her. Way to remember to put on your helmet Shea! Never mind that you don't have shoes on, you are in the middle of the street and your helmet is on backwards and it looks like no one has even tried to comb your hair (although I promise it was done sometime that day).

Lilly trying solid foods for the first time. She is now 6 months old and sits up by herself, rolls all over the floor and wants to keep up with everyone else! She is a lot of fun and I am so glad I have such great helpers.

Lilly

2009-09-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

Lilly had a chance to meet her Great-Grandma Hart while we were in California.

Just a fun picture!

Vacation

2009-09-23T11:29:00.000-07:00

The kids have been back in school for close to a month. We are enjoying having a routine again even as hectic as it is. Here are some of the highlights from our trip we took to California. Leah's birthday party at Grandma's house, i.e. trying to stay out of the way of wedding preparations.
Birthday breakfast at Ruby's

Bowling

Eating at some of our favorite restaurants

How many kids can you fit in that pool. Maybe we can convince grandma and grandpa it's time to upgrade their pool.

Enjoying the beach

Hitting some favorite parks.

Just for Fun

2009-09-02T07:02:00.000-07:00

Sara's Wedding

2009-09-02T06:05:00.000-07:00

My beautiful sister Sara got married in the Los Angeles Temple Saturday August 22, 2009 to Mike Barnett. I was so happy that I could be a part of it. My family is so important to me and I was so proud of her. Thanks Sara for setting a good example for my daughters! Waiting to see the bride and groom outside the temple

Dancing at the reception

Enjoying the chocolate fountain. I think Leah's outfit was the first causualty of the evening

Anticipating the chocolate fountain.

My five daughters.

The bride and groom

Sara and Mike with all the grandkids.

Leah's big day

2009-08-26T11:39:00.000-07:00

We've been on vacation in California for the past few weeks. My sister got married, there will be posts of that later, however we came home just in time for the girls to start school. Leah had her birthday while we were gone. We celebrated at home with a cake the night before her first day of kindergarten. I'm not sure if it looks like she's more scared or excited!
It was pouring rain this morning, so we headed up to the bus stop in the car and I wasn't able to get a very good picture of her getting on the bus.

But it cleared up by the time school was over, here she is getting off the bus. She had a great day, no tears, just smiles and she can't wait to go back tomorrow.

Way to go Leah!

Naughtiness

2009-07-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

Everyone loves Shea, but sometimes she is the definition of naughty.Here she is after getting into some makeup and getting some help with her hair.

Leah and Shea pulling all the fluff out of a pillow and pretending it was shampoo. The pillow did have a little hole in it I was planning on fixing, but really taking all of it out?

Shea and Leah pulling their clean blankets of the clothesline and playing with them outside.

Is it possible to get this messy after eating a chocolate chip cookie?

At our garage sale, I promise they put themselves in the box themselves.

(Funny how Leah is in most of the pictures too! I wonder why that is.)

Just in...

2009-07-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

"Mom this is looserish, who does flashcards in the summer?" ---Abby

Champaign trip

2009-07-20T11:35:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went down to visit friends in Champaign. It was a quick, but fun trip. We did some... swimming
playing with friends

eating some ice cream on our way down

Lilly got in a nap

Picking yummy blueberries

and some lunch

Then we headed home. Thanks for letting us come visit. We had a great time.

The Greatest Picture

2009-07-16T09:06:00.001-07:00

Milwaukee Zoo

2009-07-15T04:55:00.000-07:00

Over the fourth of July weekend, we went up to the Milwaukee Zoo. Everyone had a great time and enjoyed seeing the animals. Trent came with us, I think it had been 9 years since he has gone to a zoo. Checking out some sea lions

Shea all worn out, she had to eat her lunch lying down. She refused to sit in the stroller and ended up walking the majority of the day.

Leah had no problem sitting in Shea's abandoned stroller seat.

Party Weekend

2009-06-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

We had a busy weekend. Friday Abby had a birthday party. We ended up having crazy weather that night. Black clouds rolled in and just dumped rain like crazy. Trent was at scout camp and they had tornado warnings and had to seek shelter. We had to move the party to the basement. Here they are playing American Idol (looks like Abby's sisters took over as the judges)

She wanted ice cream sundaes instead of cake, so we stuck the candles in the ice cream.

Saturday was Abby's actual birthday. I can't believe she's actually 10. She's growing up quickly and we're so happy to have her in our family. We finished up the soccer season on Saturday, Brynn had a team party. Then Sunday was Father's Day. Trent was able to eat salmon (I'm not a fish lover, Trent is, so he gets to eat fish on his birthday and Father's day) Monday was Shea's birthday. She is now offically 2! She is so fun to have around and can always make us laugh! She is talking all the time now. Sometimes when we don't want her to..Like when she's supposed to go to sleep at night or like this Sunday during Sacrament Meeting when she kept saying "HEY" super loud when any one else tried to use a crayon. Apparently she is the only one who can use crayons.

Grandma, she loves the shopping cart you gave her...thanks so much!

Summertime

2009-06-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

Summer has finally arrived. With it comes...cute shirts
playing in your swimming suits all day long

and most importantly ice cream from the ice cream truck!

The Answer

2009-06-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who guessed what I spent. Given your answers you must think I am some shopping genius...I hope I don't disappoint you when I say I spent $17.74 on my items.

Jackpot!

2009-06-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

I love finding deals on groceries. Every week I look forward to getting the grocery ads for the coming week and I plan on what great buys I am getting at each store. I love it! Today, I came out of the grocery store feeling like I was stealing I got such a great deal. What do you think I bought all of the above for? (I also bought 2 32 oz yogurts, not included in the picture)

Here is what I bought: 3 apple juice 15 boxes of pasta 2 cake mixes 2 32 oz yogurt an 8 pack of paper towel 1 box granola bars 1 can of frosting and 1 bottle of sprinkles.

Let me know your guess. I'll let you know what I paid soon!

Saturday Shirt

2009-06-11T08:47:00.001-07:00

This is Trent's Saturday shirt. If you don't know what a Saturday shirt is, let me explain...Trent wears this shirt every Saturday. He does all his projects in this shirt, gardening, house repairs, playing with the kids, etc. As you can see he needs a new Saturday shirt. My parents got this one for him when they were in Hawaii. They are going back this summer, if I'm lucky they'll get him another one.

Lilly

2009-06-03T12:05:00.001-07:00

I am so lucky, every morning I get to wake up and see this cute face!

Last week we had her 2 month check up, she now weighs in at 10 lbs 8 oz.

2009-05-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it's that time passes so quickly, or I just don't have enough time in the day to get everything done that I want, but I'm getting a chance to post.... Lilly is now 8 weeks old. She has her 2 month check up this coming week. Leah loves having a brown eyed sister. Lilly will now smile at you and she loves talking to people.

Leah had preschool graduation this week. She went to preschool at the high school. So the high school students interacted with the preschoolers. Leah had a great time and she really blossomed. I find that she talks more freely to people. Her teachers said she follows directions really well and she participates in the class. However at her graduation ceremony, they had songs that they sang, Leah just sat in her chair...there was no singing or hand motions. I asked her later why she didn't sing. She responded "I was afraid."

Shea keeps everyone on their toes. This week I got to clean nail polish out of the carpets. Markers off the walls. There is still pencil colored on the blinds in my office. I also was able to clean eggs off my kitchen floor because she had fun cracking them while I was in the bathroom. I know you are asking yourselves how does she get these things? This is the child that will find anything that she shouldn't have and use it. The nail polish was in her sister's room. She drags chairs, stools, whatever to get to things, especially candy. While the swing is meant for the baby, I find it much more helpful to keep Shea contained.

Earlier this month our neighbors gave us their trampoline. It has been so great. The girls love it! Abby and Brynn have 8 more days of school. Then we get to see how crazy summer is going to be.

Lilly's Blessing Day

2009-05-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

Lilly was blessed last Sunday. We had a fun time with those who came out to visit with us. Thanks so much for all your love and support! By the way she had a check up this morning. She weighed in at 9 lbs 6 oz and 20 3/4 inch long and was completely healthy.

School Projects

2009-05-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

Brynn came home from school yesterday with this paper. It's based on a cute book about what Mom's can't do. I really liked the part she wrote about My mom can't change two diapers at once. The pictures is very accurate too. You see Lilly and Shea laying on the floor. Lilly is the one crying because she usually cries when her diaper is changed.When Mom came to help with the new baby, my girls had school projects that they were working on. Mom helped a lot with Abby's ancestor doll. Thanks so much Mom! Her project came out great and I also found it interesting to find out about my ancestors who immigrated to the United States. Brynn's car was done with the help of Dad.

Easter

2009-04-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken a week before Easter. We didn't take any pictures on actual Easter Sunday...let's just say that taking all 5 girls to church for the first time was a crazy experience. It was Stake Conference for us Abby and Brynn were allowed to take Shea out for a walk around the hallway, somehow she ended up getting a major goose egg on her head. The story has it that she was running away from them and tripped and hit her head on the metal divider between the glass doors of the church. Shea is doing fine, she has a lovely bruise on her head. Trent and I were given a good reality check on how life is when we are totally outnumbered! We couldn't get Shea to take pictures with the rest of them until she had her blanket (the pink thing on her lap) and she got to hold the baby.
This is my favorite picture.

Update

2009-04-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

Lilly at 5 days old. The girls have been able to do some fun things while Grandma has been here. Here are some pictures from a children's museum they visited.

Spring break is almost over, then it's on to reality...school, soccer practices, etc.

It's been great having my mom here to help, Trent has been a big help too.
The girls have adjusted well to having another sister, they love to hold her and be close to her.

#5

2009-03-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

Lilly Elise Garner was born on March 27, 2009 6 lbs. 8 oz 19 inches 100% loved

Thursday evening around 10:45 my water broke. Trent and I headed to the hospital after calling a friend to come stay with the girls. We get to the hospital and I am telling everyone I see that I want an epidural. Once they get me all situated, ie get changed, put in the IV, draw blood, etc, the nurse checks to see how far along I am. I am at 1cm. I was at a 1 at my last 2 doctors appointments. They tell me the doctor has to see me before I can get an epidural, again I tell them that I go quickly. Awhile later, I ask the nurse when I am going to get checked again, I am told about an hour, I convince them to check me in 1/2 an hour. At this point I am at a 5. They call the doctor to come to the hospital. Needless to say, I didn't get my epidural, by the time the doctor arrived, I was pushing. The baby was face up which made her the hardest one to get out, I kept pushing and pushing and wondering why she wasn't coming. At 3:20 am Lilly Elise Garner was born. She weighed 6 pounds 8 oz and was 19 inches long. She is super cute and we are so glad she made it safely here.

Big Stuff

2009-03-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

Shea got kicked out of the crib last weekend. We thought it would be best to move her into a big bed before the baby came. Leah was thrilled to share her room with someone too. So far Shea has transitioned well. She takes her naps, bedtime though she likes to giggle with Leah and climbs out of bed. I expected all of this and can't complain, she eventually goes to sleep and likes to sleep in her big girl bed.

30 Days and Counting

2009-02-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

My mom keeps asking me how big I am, so I thought it was about time for me to put my pride aside and post a belly shot picture.

What we have been up to

2009-02-10T12:13:00.000-08:00

Trent helped the girls dig out a tunnel in our mountain of snow that gets piled up onto the circle from the snowplows. It took them at least 2 hours, but has also provided endless hours of play time. Leah likes to go out and play in it...she pretends she's a mermaid and that is her island. This is a bridge the girls made by themselves. They also have carved out various routes to go down the mountain like slides. Sometimes I wonder how I get anything done. I was helping the older two with homework and Leah and Shea decide that they need to make an extreme slide by placing it on top of the couch. I was happy to see a little forethought on Leah's part by placing a pillow and blanket at the drop off point.

Again, how does anyone get things done around here? There's always a face (and hands) that needs to be washed.

Helping out with our Valentine tradition of making heart shaped sugar cookies. I've decided that making cut out cookies is really not fun for the mom. There's so much work and mess that goes into it that it takes away any pleasure in creating them. It's a shame the kids have so much fun.

Help! We need a name

2009-02-04T07:11:00.001-08:00

Trent and I are finally getting around to figuring out a name for the baby. Coming up with another girl name has proven to be difficult. So...If you have a great girl name that you would like to suggest please let us know! We are open to suggestions!

Winter Boredom Busters

2009-01-14T11:55:00.001-08:00

So currently we have a weather advisory telling us that it is dangerously cold outside, with winds blowing like crazy and it's been snowing on and off all day. Basically we aren't going anywhere if we don't have to. So with all this at home time, what do you do? If you're Leah, you dress up all day long. Yes it is wonder woman to the rescue from winter blues! She had a friend bring her a bag of dress up clothes yesterday and she' been having fun ever since. I guess it's a good thing it's too cold for her to go outside like this.

We recently got the Wii and Wii Fit, and have found it to be a lot of fun. Brynn is preparing for her ski jump, check out that form. Shea has her own board to stand to participate in the activities.

Abby and Brynn on a mandatory after dinner jog.

Brynn's 7

2009-01-14T11:38:00.000-08:00

Brynn turned 7 last week. She is a lot of fun to have in our home. She is always kind and helpful and likes to help others. She is doing great in first grade and chose to bring in chocolate chip cookies for her birthday treat. She also chose to have a chocolate cake for her birthday. We love you Brynn! A birthday phone call while Shea eats her cake.
It doesn't take much to make her happy!

Mammoth Cave

2009-01-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

Over our winter break we went on a short family vacation to see Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. We loaded up our car Wednesday morning and started out on the 7 hour drive down there. On our way we passed through Indianapolis and had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. The Old Spaghetti Factory. Shea is happy to be out of the car and had fun looking at the Christmas tree in the lobby.
Mmm...You can't beat pasta and ice cream.

Enjoying the sights of downtown Indianapolis.
Once we finished eating we continued the drive to Cave City, Kentucky. I know all of you wished you could have spent New Year's Eve there! The kids had fun being able to go swimming and checking out the hotel room.

The next morning, after our fabulous free breakfast, we headed out to the National Park. It was a quick 20 minute drive to the Visitors Center where we picked up our tour tickets to see the caves. We went on the New Entrance tour which was about 2 hours long. It started out with a bus ride to take you to the entrance of the cave.

Shea had to be independant and sit by herself and didn't want anyone touching her.

Here we are in the cave. To begin the tour you have to go down a lot of stairs. The cave was incredible. There were these big open areas, narrow areas where you can look over the stair railings and see far, far below. (It made me a little nervous how far the drop was) But it was totally worth the trip.

The girls all did a great job. Leah took it nice and slow going down the stairs and mentioned everytime she felt a drop of water on her.

Some of the neat formations we got to see. They say it takes about 100 years for a stalagtyte to grow about an inch.

Mammoth Caves is the longest cave system in the world having over 300 miles of caves. It was really neat to go see.

We had to refuel with a picnic lunch after our tour.

We had a fun trip it was nice to go and do something different. Hopefully the kids will remember it. I can see it now...Remember when mom and dad took us to mammoth caves and made us go on that really long hike down all those stairs and we could have fallen and died, and then they turned out all the lights and it was completely dark and I couldn't see anything because we were so far below ground that no light got that far. Ahhh, sweet childhood memories!

Christmas Morning

2009-01-05T11:24:00.001-08:00

On Christmas Morning the girls have what they call "Christmas cereal" which is usually something totally unhealthy like Crunchberries. Leah has been looking forward to having her Christmas cereal for days.

Brynn's excited about her giant sized chocolate bar

Leah got her pony.

Shea quickly took ownership of the pony.

Leah learning from her mistakes...Keep your presents out of reach or someone else will inherit them.

No dog, but Grandma and Grandpa did send her an MP3 player.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

2009-01-05T11:04:00.001-08:00

We had a fun Christmas Eve, the girls were so excited for Christmas. While we are far away from family we try to keep to the traditional Christmas Eve program...the nativity, talent performances, laying out the stockings, and leaving Santa treats.This year Brynn left a booklet of questions for Santa to answer. There were 14 questions all together. Some of my personal favorites were "How do you get to all the houses in the world?" "How many elves do you have?" "Can I see one of your reindeer?" and "Can I be one of your elves?" Santa did take the time to answer all her questions.

Abby was a shepard. The top of Abby's list this year was a dog. (It was on the top of her list last year too.) Poor Abby, Santa left no dog.

Leah's list was great. She wanted a pony (we are talking about a real horse here), she also wanted a unicorn and a real magical wand that way she could just use her wand and her room would be clean.

Christmas anticipation!

2009-01-05T10:50:00.000-08:00

Last month was a crazy one as any December is...I finally feel like I have time to post on the happenings of our family. I received a new calling towards the end of November, I'm now the Primary President in our ward, apparently the Primary puts on a Nativity pagent for the Ward Christmas Party each year. So here was our attempt at putting that on. It really wasn't too bad all the costumes are made and the script has been written, you just have to organize it. Leah on stage.
Abby as one of the Heavenly Hosts.

Brynn was a donkey

Leah was one of the sheep.

I guess the best part about the Ward Christmas party is eating jello and desserts for dinner. Our table did have a tableclothe on to begin with, Shea just kept lifting it up and knocking everyone's drinks over. We decided to ditch the tablecloth.

The Bennets

2009-01-03T08:56:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, I love Jane Austen books. The picture above is from the PBS version of Pride & Prejudice (If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it). Anyways, the main character in the book Elizabeth Bennet comes from a family of 5 girls....So now that we are having our fifth daughter you can officially refer to us as the Bennets!

As a side note, not all of the Bennet daughters made wise choices, we sure hope our daughters do!

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T16:49:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! We enjoyed our traditional Thanksgiving meal so much we had to show you how much we loved our pie. Here are some of the things we are thankful for: Brynn: I am thankful for my bed.
Abby: I am thankful for the color pink.

Leah (don't you all wear a princess dress to eat pie in?) : I am thankful for my blankets, dressing up, my friends, and playing, and for all of you guys. I am thankful for everything, but not yucky stuff.

I think Shea is thankful for Oreo pie.

Halloween 2008

2008-11-10T12:17:00.000-08:00

We had a great time trick or treating on Halloween Night. The weather was great, no need for jackets. Everyone had fun getting candy, including Shea. Shea kept wanting to eat whatever was put into her bag. Leah went as Snow White, Shea was a clown and Abby and Brynn were both vampires. Happy Halloween!

Surprise It's Five!

2008-10-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

We are excited to announce that we are having another baby. Definitely a surprise and I'm nervous just thinking about being responsible for five kids. But we are thrilled anyway. Of course we are all hoping that this one might be a boy, but we are always happy with what we have been given. I am feeling great, just tired but then who isn't tired! My due date is March 28th. I realize that I'm slow to share the news...perhaps I was in denial for awhile!!!

Fall fun

2008-10-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

Shea waiting to be buried with leaves.

Out enjoying some fall fun!

Shea Update

2008-10-28T11:22:00.000-07:00

Finding her belly
Helping Leah color

Enjoying some yummy apples!

I realize it's been awhile since I've mentioned what Shea is up to. She is all over the house now. She runs to keep up with the other girls and loves to be involved with whatever they are doing. She speaks a few words, but is starting to pick them up more quickly. She learned two new words last week, bird and ball.

Leah and Shea are now buddies. Leah goes to preschool 3 mornings a week and Shea is always so excited to have her come home so she has someone to play with. She is so much fun to have in our home.

Soccer Season

2008-10-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

The fall soccer season ended last weekend. Brynn and Abby played this year. This was Brynn's first season playing it was a lot of fun watching her play. I would guess she liked playing forward the most, she scored several goals throughout the season and was really fast too. Her coaches would put her on defense for a quarter or two each game, and she would take the ball up the field anyway.

Abby really caught on to soccer this season. She learned that she is best at defense and claimed it as her own, towards the end of the season her coaches called her their defense super star (all while Abby was trying not to smile). She had a great season too and it was lots of fun to watch her learn how to play the game even better.

We can't wait for the spring season to start!

Happy Birthday Trent

2008-10-01T13:27:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to my sweetheart Trent!

I am so grateful to be married to such a wonderful person. He's a great father a hard worker and we have lots of laughs together. I hope you have a great day! I love you!

By the way these are pictures from our trip to the Bahamas. We had a fun time being able to get away and enjoy each other's company. Although you can't tell I think snorkeling was Trent's favorite activity.

Leah's 4!

2008-09-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

August 21st was Leah's birthday. The two pictures above are on her actual birthday. She had fun opening her presents and having a family party. If you look closely at the brownies there has already been samplings by the birthday girl earlier in the day. She had a birthday party a few days later with her friends. This was her first birthday party she has had. We're pretty sure she had a fun time. It was complete with a treasure hunt, relay races, water balloons, opening presents and eating with her friends. We are so happy to have Leah in our family. We love that she is independent, a great sister, and has an incredible imagination. We love you Leah!

Back to Business

2008-09-08T09:55:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year again. School has started. There are soccer practices to get to. Life is busy once again. Although I have to say routine is good in our family. Brynn is in first grade and gets to stay all day. She enjoys getting to have lunch at school and comes home exhausted! Abby is now in 4th grade. I can't believe it! She has tests to study for, projects to do, and not enough time to get everything done. Leah can't wait to start preschool in October. For now, she gets to rule the house for 6 hours everyday. Shea and Leah are getting pretty good at playing together. And I feel like I have a chance to get things done.

Beach House #2

2008-09-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

We spent another week at another beach house with Trent's side of the family this year too! We had lots of fun catching up with everyone.
Brynn and Leah stayed at home instead of going to a baseball game. Trent brought home some cotton candy for them, and yes they got to eat it for breakfast. Some things you can get away with on vacation!
Serious Uno playing
Leah loves this game.
Grandpa Mark enjoying some cookie dough.
Another week of playing in the sand.
We had a great time!

Beach House #1

2008-08-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

Time to catch up on our summer vacation. The first week in California we spent at a beach house in Newport Beach with the Harts. We had a great time catching up with family. Playing in the sand and the water.

Climbing a rope structure after eating at Ruby's

Abby really love boogie boarding this year. It brought me back to when I would go out all day in the water. Now I'm a wimp and wish the water was warmer.
Shea loved it!

Leah and Rusty running from the waves.

Elder Richard G. Scott

2008-08-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Elder Scott came to speak to our Stake. We left our house with plenty of time to make it to the meeting... about an hour and 45 minutes early. Abby really wanted to sit where she could see him. (At Stake Conferences before we end up in one of the other rooms where you watch on TV). We arrive at our Stake Center about an hour before the meeting starts. After finding our seats I decided it would be best to walk around the building with the girls. So we walked around and after a few times around we found a shady spot to sit and play a few games. We were playing charades when a car pulls up and our Stake President gets out and so does Elder Scott! He is about 20 feet away from us we go over to meet him. We got to shake his hand. He told me what beautiful daughters I have. He talked to Abby for a minute. He asked her what her name was she said "Abby" and he replied "My name is Richard." It was really neat to be able to shake the hand of an apostle. He had love emanating from his countenance. It was awesome!

Reaching the Valley

2008-08-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

In Wyoming we stopped at Little America and had some tasty ice cream cones. This was our last stop before arriving in Salt Lake. On our way out I was telling the kids that this was the way the pioneers went to get to Utah. Abby asked if it took them 3 years...it really is an amazing thing they did coming out west so they could be free to worship what we know is true.
Shea meeting Great Grandma Hart for the first time. We stayed at my grandma's for a couple nights. I've always had the best memories at my grandma's house, it was fun to let my kids have those memories too.
Visiting Temple Square in Salt Lake
The Garner's had a fun party for Abby's 9th birthday. It was lots of fun being able to celebrate with them.
Shea meeting Uncle Danny
I wonder what her wish was.
Shea's birthday is two days after Abby's, so we celebrated her 1st birthday too!

The Beginning

2008-07-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

We started our trip in the middle of June, during the floods in the Midwest. This was our first stop. We had just crossed over the Mississippi River into Iowa. The Mississippi is in ithe background. Notice the happy faces, I don't think they understood just how long we would be driving. When we got back on the highway we found out the I-80 was closed due to flooding. We were taken on a 2-3 hour detour, but we did get to see the entire state of Iowa. It was really sad to see all these farms that were completely flooded.
This was our hotel the first night. We were happy to finally make it there. The girls really liked that they got to stay in a castle.
Here is another rest stop. This one is in Nebraska, although I'm not positive I would guess that the playground equipment was made out of old farm equipment. The girls loved it anyway.
We stayed in Denver with my sister's family for a few days. We had fun with cousins and playing at the sprinkler park.
We also got to see the Wilsons! They are friends of ours from Champaign who moved out to Denver it was lots of fun catching up with them.

We're Back

2008-07-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

We got back from our 5-week vacation on Monday. I drove with the girls out to California and back. Trent flew out to meet us about halfway through our vacation. We had a great time and had fun seeing so many people. Thanks to everyone for taking such good care of us!

Last Day of School

2008-06-06T19:52:00.000-07:00

Today was officially the last day of school. Abby had to go to school for an hour this morning. Brynn's last day of school was yesterday. I think Brynn had a memorable last day of kindergarten, there was a tornado warning so all of the kids in school had to put their tornado drill skills into practice. They said they were like that for about an hour. Crazy.
To celebrate the last day of school we made funnel cakes for breakfast. We all know there is lots learning going on for the last day of school, so why not a nice healthy meal to start out the day?
Here is Abby in her tie dye shirt she made at school.
We went to a little waterpark this afternoon, when we got home Brynn was eating a nectarine and out came her first tooth. She was so excited. I find it rather ironic that it's the day vaction begins because all year long she has been asking me when she is going to lose a tooth because everyone else has missing teeth. Now that's some peer pressure! We will have to find out if the tooth fairy comes tonight!
We also had some friends over to play tonight. We were heading out to the backyard to play some soccer and I see this turtle on our lawn. I couldn't believe the size of it.
The kids were fascinated with the turtle.

Wayne and Vicki

2008-06-06T19:50:00.001-07:00

Grandpa Garner and Grandma Vicki came to see us a few weeks ago. We had so much fun seeing them. The girls were all so excited. We had a fun time showing them around our town.

Leah

2008-06-06T19:30:00.001-07:00

This picture says it all for Leah. Here she is taking center stage, outside with no shoes on and I'm sure she's anticipating when she can get off the bench to go pick flowers off the bush that Mom has said not to about 1,000 times.

I had to dedicate a post to Leah and some of her doings lately. Where do I start? Oh yes let's start with a black felt tip marker. I'm sure you can imagine where this will go to. How about all over our carpet!!! Brynn and Leah were playing mermaids or something along those lines. Leah must had found it necessary to mark her territory. When I looked in the front room there was a massive circle drawn from a black felt tip marker. To make this worse it was new carpet that is a pretty light color. I did not take pictures of this to post (although I'm sure many would have found it amusing) I didn't think it was so funny to be scrubbing carpet for 2 hours. FYI a vinegar and water solution worked wonders for this!

Now that all felt tipped pens were purged from our home I felt safe, but no, about 2 days later I notice that someone had cut fur from a sister's favorite Webkinz. Abby now keeps her Webkinz in a secret location when she noticed that her racoon webkinz was missing whiskers on one side and that fur had been cut from other places. Interestingly enough, all of Leah's Webkinz are undamaged, but Brynn and Abby's were not so lucky.

Leah's arts and crafts options are now very limited.

I have to admit that Leah can come up with some great lines:

"Mom, does Jesus have a car?"

Plus she is very honest:

"Mom, you have big underwear."

Even with all of this she's a lot of fun to have around.

My Passport

2008-05-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

Last week I sent in all of my stuff to get my passport renewed. I get to go to the Bahamas this summer with Trent and my parents and my siblings and their spouses. (No kids!) Trent surprised me with tickets to go for Mother's Day! I got my passport back today so I'm ready to go.

Open House

2008-05-13T10:39:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe that the school year is almost over. My kids have 3 weeks left and it's summer time! It was open house at their school a few nights ago. It was fun to see their classrooms and all the things they do during the day. It brought back some fun memories for me. Abby is finishing up 3rd grade. This year she learned cursive writing...much to her dismay. most of the time while she was doing her cursive homework she told me how dumb it was. And that she was just going to print when she was older. (Although I didn't agree outloud, I was thinking that really they should spend that time on keyboard skills, etc, really who cares about cursive writing?) She also spent a lot of time doing multiplication and division. Her favorite subject is reading. She loves it and would read all the time if she could. Her least favorite subject I quote from Abby herself: "My worstest subject is grammar."
Brynn has learned a lot this year. She is reading and writing and loves everything about school. I can't believe she's almost through with kindergarten. It is such a fun year with all of the projects they do. Below is a picture of a rocketship she made to go with their transportation unit. They also got to go on a train for a field trip. She still gets excited about going to school!

Grandma Came to Visit

2008-04-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

Trent's mom came to visit us this past week. The girls were so excited to have someone come to visit us. We had a fun time and some crazy experiences. Wanda came in Monday afternoon. Trent came home early from work that day because he wasn't feeling well. He hadn't felt well the previous day either. By Monday night he was having pain in his lower right abdomen. He decided he better go to the hospital. So he drove himself to the emergency room (his choice, I asked him if he wanted anyone to come with him) About midnight I get a call from Trent that they are going to do surgery to take his appendix out. Things went smoothly he was able to come home Wednesday. He is healing well, just a little sore still.
So with Trent in the hospital I had to use my extra helpers to plant our garden. Wanda helped us get it ready. The girls had fun planting the seeds. We started with beans and sugar peas. We will plant our tomatoes and peppers, etc. in a few weeks.
Here's my garden helper. She was eating a ginger snap and dirt.

One of our excursions took us up to Wisconsin to visit a Cheese Castle. On the internet it pictured this great castle. I thought it would be a great place to check out. The Cheese Castle turned out to be a hole in the wall place right off the freeway. We had fun anyway.
Saturday, we left Trent at home to recover some more and took the train into Chicago. We had a picnic in Millenium Park and had fun seeing the sights and walking the street. (Okay, so I heard a lot of complaining about being tired and my feet hurt and I'm hungry. I can remember doing the same when I was younger. But when we asked them what their favorite part of the week was, it was going to Chicago.)

While Wanda was here she broke one of her ribs when she put Shea into her crib. So here are my invalids. Thanks for coming to visit Grandma, who knows if she will ever want to come again!

Some April Actvities

2008-04-17T03:39:00.000-07:00

We have been working in our yard. Trent found this rototiller at a garage sale last year, we are trying to clear out some of the weeds at the back of our property to make more room for our garden and some more grass. I think Trent had fun with this project.
Brynn has been back to playing babies with Leah and her friends. She loaded up her stroller with everything she might need for her baby. In case you can't tell she has her scooter, soccer ball, Webkinz, etc in her stroller.
Leah told me she was going to take a nap. I don't think she did any sleeping!

The Duck

2008-04-15T09:34:00.002-07:00

Last week I went out our front door to walk the kids up to the bus stop. As I went outside a duck flies right in front of my face and startles me because it was so close. I look over and see a nest with some eggs in our flower bed. I was concerned the rest of the day because the duck didn't come back. The next morning it was back sitting on it's eggs. Now the kids check everyday to see if the duck is there. We can't wait to see the ducklings.

2008-04-15T09:34:00.001-07:00

2008-04-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

Shea's First Ice Cream Cone

2008-04-15T09:19:00.003-07:00

I think the pictures tell the story. We started out by giving her a taste of Trent's ice cream cone. Needless to say she ended up taking over the ice cream and eating it all by herself. I think she enjoyed it, don't you?

2008-04-15T09:19:00.001-07:00

Spring!

2008-04-07T06:53:00.000-07:00

Abby's excited to play outside and wear her capris.

Spring has arrived! Here's a shot of the girls having their first picnic of the season. They invited some friends from the neighborhood to join them.
Brynn enjoying an ice cream cone.
Leah's serious about riding around on her wheels.

Shea loved the swing.

Happy Easter

2008-03-24T12:14:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter!

Happy Birthday Grandpa, have a fun day.

2008-03-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

Lately Leah has been practicing her cutting skills. She will sit forever and cut a piece of paper into the tiniest pieces. She can actually follow lines pretty well if there is something printed on the paper she can cut it out. I thought this was a great shot of her working on her latest skill.

Here's the next picture, yes that is her hair on the carpet, and on the slide although you can't see it very well. I really debated about taking a picture of this (Obviously I don't want to encourage self-haircuts) but I figure I might as well laugh about it because there's nothing else you can do. If you can't tell where she cut her hair look at the left side of her hair. Her hair was in a little ponytail at the top of her head when she cut it, she must of pulled it down and needed to know what would happen if I use the sissors on my hair.
Before I confuse anyone by this disgusting picture, don't worry it's a loaf of bread. Trent wanted to bring some rye bread for a potluck lunch he was having at work for St. Patrick's Day. He found a recipe and I followed it. I thought no big deal, I've baked many loaves of bread before this is just one more recipe. I don't know what went wrong, but it didn't rise. It was this heavy brick of dough that I ended up chucking it at the garbage can and it took out the phone on the way. Trent saved the dough and put it in the oven.... this is how it turned out. We found a different recipe for a different kind of bread and he took that to work. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2008-03-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

I thought you might enjoy these pictures. Shea has learned to crawl, her favorite place to go is the windows at the front of our house. She loves looking outside. We all can't wait for spring to go out and enjoy it.

My crazy life

2008-03-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

Last week Abby decided she was going to run away...let's just say we were having a difficult day. She went upstairs and packed a few things she brought a blanket, her purse then she came and got some things from the kitchen...cookies and water. Then she ran up the street. About five minutes later I noticed she was in our backyard, eating her cookies. I took this picture without her knowing. Don't worry, she was back home within 20 minutes.
I went grocery shopping the other day. Sometimes it seems like a never ending task, I'm always grocery shopping. I brought Shea and Leah in and was going back out to bring in the groceries and found Shea like this. I thought it was pretty funny.
Would someone please wash this child's face and maybe comb her hair?
During this same shopping excursion Brynn was asking if she could watch a movie when we got home. I said no, that she needed to play with something. She was all mad and said she wasn't coming in until I let her watch a movie. So I closed the garage door and went inside. I came out with the camera, she was still pouting but decided to smile for the camera. The outcome? Brynn came inside and played puppets with Leah for the rest of the afternoon.

Never a Dull Moment

2008-02-24T12:57:00.000-08:00

Abby received the Student of the Month Award under the theme friendship. We're so proud of you Abby!
Here is Leah taking a nap on the couch. She was waiting for me to play a game with her, but ended up falling asleep before I got there. Here's my poor parenting confession of the week: She was up last night about 2 am. I put her back to bed, when I went to get Shea up this morning (at 5:45), Leah's bedroom light was on. I checked on her and she was sound asleep in her bed? How long had her light been on and what was she doing in the middle of the night with her light on?
Another poor parenting moment. Notice the nice bruise Shea has on her nose, that would be from pulling out a cake pan and bonking her nose with it. Does it make up for poor parenting if you take a picturs and blog about it?

So this week has been a bit crazy for my family. I started the week off sick. Cough, fever, chills, I went around the house in my hat and gloves. This has now been passed on to Leah and Shea. Hopefully it will pass quickly. We've also experienced car repairs, soccer practices, activity days, friends over, Trent and I went out on a date, scouts and Shea turning 8 months last Friday. Sometimes I wonder what we did all week, but we usually find plenty to keep us going! Have a great week.

Projects

2008-02-17T06:40:00.000-08:00

Trent has become quite the handyman around our house. His latest project has been installing recessed lighting in our family room. Let's just say it's quite the project. I think it has been a lot more work than he thought it was going to be. But the finished product is great.

My Answers

2008-02-09T18:00:00.000-08:00

Here's my answers:
1. What was the best thing you cooked last week?
I would say roasted BBQ pork , my kids would say chicken nuggets and fries they told me the house smelled like Steak N Shake (a Ruby's type restaurant around here)

2. If money, time and babysitting were no object, where would you go and with who?
I would love to see Rio with Trent.

3. When was the last time you cried?
During Pres. Hinckley's funeral.

4- Five things you were doing 10 years ago?
Working for BYU Vending, getting ready to graduate from BYU, living in Provo's ghetto, cutting off my own cast after foot surgery, being a newlywed.

5 - Five things you were doing 5 years ago?
Living in Cypress California, going to Disneyland, taking care of Brynn and Abby, going to parks, driving the Civic.

6- Five things you were doing 1 year ago?
Pregnant with 4th child, teaching piano lessons, hoping no one in my ward would die, helping Trent look for employment, doing dishes by hand.

7 - Seven of your favorite hobbies:
Cooking, exercising, reading, being a mom, going over the grocery ads to see what great deals I can get, going to garage sales, watching Lost.

8 - Five favorite foods:
This one is hard: strawberries, chocolate, Oreos with milk, sandwiches, really good tomatoes.

9- Five places you've been:
Jerusalem, Cairo, New York, St. Louis, Yosemite

10- Five favorite memories: (in no particular order)
Of course marrying Trent, giving birth to 4 girls, seeing Abby get baptized, winning CIF, anytime with my siblings (except for when they locked me in the luggage carrier.)

This is what happens with 4 Girls

2008-02-04T08:06:00.001-08:00

This is what happens to you when you have 3 older sisters and they decide to play hair salon.
And this is what happens to you when you have 4 daughters who are begging for some clients at their spa.

Have a fun day!

Snow Day!

2008-02-04T07:50:00.001-08:00

Snow days are a new experience for me. Having grown up in Southern California I never had a snow day in my life. It's a new experience to have a phone call early in the morning with the teacher telling you there's no school today. It's fun telling the girls that when they wake up. It's like an unexpected vacation. And yes, they are eating snow cones made from real snow.

The snow plow piled this huge mound into our circle. The girls had fun riding down the hill and onto the street.
Usually Leah doesn't last too long out in the snow. But today she had a great time.

Brynn's Birthday Party

2008-02-04T07:36:00.001-08:00

Brynn had her birthday party at home. She invited several friends from her school to come over. They had fun eating pizza, playing games, and just having a party.
Brynn loves her new Webkinz. She named it Snowflake.
Happy Birthday Brynn!

Birthday Brynn

2008-01-11T14:06:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Brynn! We hope you had a great day. It's been a fun six years.

Grandma and Haylie

2008-01-11T09:19:00.000-08:00

Look out Sara, Here is our own cover of the Noels
We went to the Children's Museum in Chicago. Leah had a great time going down this musical slide.
In the Invention Workshop. They had to build flying machines and time how long their aircraft stayed in the air.
Getting ready to go sock skating.

Grandma and Haylie came to visit us over Christmas break. We had so much fun with them. I don't think Abby and Haylie were apart for more than half an hour the whole time they were here. Thanks for coming to visit!

More Christmas

2008-01-11T09:09:00.001-08:00

A new Webkinz for Abby.
Brynn loves her teddy bear.
Our friends the Scotts came to visit us after Christmas. It was so much fun having them come. We got a snowstorm and the kids were able to make a snowman.
I just thought this picture of Shea was cute. She had her six month checkup. She is 16 pounds and 15oz. Shea is so fun to have around. She is starting to eat more solids, loves to sit up by herself, and loves her pacifier.

Christmas

2008-01-11T06:11:00.000-08:00

The day before Christmas we built a huge marble run.
4 Sisters
Here is our nativity. Trent was Joseph, Abby was an angel, Shea was Baby Jesus, Brynn and Leah took turns being Mary and the Wise men. I wonder what gift Leah brought?
Shea enjoying Christmas morning
Santa brought Leah this Dora scooter.

Assembly and Santa

2007-12-18T11:26:00.000-08:00

Brynn was Citizen of the month for the theme of generosity. She was so excited to get her award. Way to go Brynn!
Here's Abby and Leah waiting in line to see Santa at our ward Christmas Party. Leah waited in line to realize she really didn't want to sit in Santa's lap.
Abby saying her lines for the Nativity Program. Brynn was scared of Santa. I don't think she has ever sat in his lap. She told me that's not the real Santa and wanted no part in it. This reminds me of last year's Christmas party. Santa was our home teacher and Brynn said "That's not Santa, that's Brother Price."

Shea sitting up by herself.

December Doings

2007-12-14T22:58:00.000-08:00

Here is Leah cutting some green beans for dinner. She worked so hard to snip the beans, she got about 5 beans in the pot in about 5 minutes.

We made gingerbread cookies. Leah wanted to sprinkle the sugar on. Do you think there is enough?

Abby loves to shovel snow. She did a great job shoveling our driveway. Then she went on to do the sidewalks.

Here is Shea enjoying her toy.

Wouldn't you love to spend Sunday afternoon under the Christmas tree?

We got our Christmas Tree last Saturday. Trent took the Abby, Brynn, and Leah sledding and then they went to get a tree. They all enjoyed getting it ready and decorating the tree. If you look closely you can appreciate Leah's decorating at the bottom of the tree. She put most of her ornaments down there.

Snowy Saturday

2007-12-01T12:51:00.000-08:00

It's a snowy Saturday, Trent took the girls to go see the Nutcracker. I stayed home with Shea who is conviently taking a nap. Trent put up Christmas lights in our front yard today with lots of "help" from the girls. I also had lots of help when we made brownies.

Here are some recent funny quotes from the girls.

Abby: "If they didn't invent Barbies we wouldn't play nicely."

This was said after I commented on how nice they were playing together.

We had our Primary Program a few Sundays ago. I was trying to work with Brynn on her part she was all frustrated, crumpled up her part and said "I just want to throw it in the garbage." Which she did. By the way, she said her part beautifully.

One Saturday our next door neighbor was mowing his lawn. Abby, Brynn and Leah were out on the deck conspiring. The older two were whispering things for Leah to say. This is what she was yelling at our neighbor: "HEY MAN, SHOW YOUR BOOBS." (He usually mows his lawn without a shirt on, but for some reason he didn't this time.) Classic Leah.

Outings

2007-11-21T12:04:00.000-08:00

Saturday we were able to go to Wisconsin and visit the Jelly Belly center. They show you how they make Jelly Bellies and of course give you Jelly Bellies to eat.

Tuesday we went to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. We decided to take the train into the city. That was a lot of fun, the kids thought that was great. Then we took a city bus to get to the aquarium. After seeing everything, we took a taxi to get back to the train station. During the taxi ride, I couldn't get Leah to sit down. She kept sticking her head through the opening to the front of the cab. Playing with all the buttons I am grateful she has to sit in a car seat in our cars. Brynn said it was the funnest day of her life. I think they all liked being able to ride on all the different forms of transportation more than the aquarium itself. It was a fun experience to go into the city like that.

I'm thankful for....

2007-11-21T11:39:00.000-08:00

What a great time of year it is to stop and think about all the things we have to be thankful for. I'm thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the many blessings that come into my life as a result of the gospel: Eternal families, temples, the priesthood, commandments that keep us happy through our obedience, scriptures, my testimony of Jesus Christ.

I am thankful to be a wife and mom. I have the greatest family, from my parents & siblings to my spouse and kids! There is so much that I learn from each one of you.

We listed the things we were thankful for in FHE this week I thought I'd share some of the thoughts around our house: Leah: grapes, candy, blankies

Brynn: toilets, house, family, toys, clothes, fireplace, friends, back & front yard, Jesus

Abby: clothes, furniture, bed, pillows, house, Webkins, electricity, songs

Shea: Although she is too little to say anything here are the things we know Shea loves, baths, her passy, rice cereal.

Halloween

2007-11-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay in our posts, we've been working on our office and the computer was disconnected for awhile. We had a fun Halloween. Brynn and Abby had a Halloween parade at their school. We went trick or treating...Leah was skeptical at first but once she realized that she was getting candy from everyone, she was running from house to house. We are glad to know that everyone is safe in California, there were many prayers said for our cousins!

By the way, Leah is out of candy yesterday I overheard her ask Brynn for a piece of candy this is the conversation:

Leah: Brynn can I have a piece of candy?

Brynn: (Silence)

Leah: Brynn say yes.

Grandpa Comes!

2007-10-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

Dad came last week to visit with us. It was so much fun having him here. We went to the Rainforest Cafe for my birthday. We rode bikes with him Leah recently was put on the training wheel bike she thinks it's so great. Everytime she rides, she tells me she goes fast. Please check out Leah's mankle here.

Unfortunately we did not get to see Dad's mankle, we were privledged to see this classic Sunday look of shorts with black socks.

We did show Dad Lake Michigan. For those who haven't seen it, it looks like the ocean. All you can see is water on the horizon. Thanks for coming to visit us Dad or should I say Grandpa.

CUIM

2007-10-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

The answer to CUIM is children under the influence of missionaries.

My kids go crazy whenever we have the missionaries over for dinner. It doesn't matter what we say anytime they are over it's like we have a bunch of monkeys in our house? Why is this? Last time the missionaries were over, I was putting the food on the table and Leah pulled down my skirt! Luckily, I stopped it before it got too far.

The crazy thing is I can remember being crazy when the missionaries were over when I was growing up.

CUIM (pronounced quim)

2007-10-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

Since Dad is here visiting, we had to post an acronym...Can you guess what a CUIM is?

Examples:
Sara crying at the sight of a black missionary.

Leah eating dinner under the table when missionaries are over for dinner.

Lincoln Park Zoo

2007-10-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the girls had a four day weekend. I took them to the Lincoln Park Zoo which is in Chicago. I was really proud of myself for being able to get down there and back without any problem. Thanks to my parents for teaching me how to drive in a big city with lots of interchanges. The zoo is located by Lake Michigan and tons of skyscrapers around it. It was really neat. The girls loved all the animals, I think I heard the most about the apes. They thougt it was funny that they could see the gorilla's butt-crack. That's the first thing they told Trent about the zoo...nice. I have to mention that Leah has been working on the number three and was very excited to see that there were 3 zebras.

Picture Day

2007-10-05T03:41:00.001-07:00

Picture Day was last week at Thompson Elementary. I thought I'd take some pictures before they went to school.

Water Tower

2007-10-05T03:30:00.000-07:00

Out here in the midwest, every town has a water tower. A few weekends ago, we walked to ours. Here's some of the pictures. Notice how excited Brynn is about walking.

What did you say?

2007-09-17T18:48:00.000-07:00

As every parent know, sometimes your kids say the funniest things. I've been trying to write some of them down lately. Here are some of the winners:

Abby: "Parents are so annoying"

Leah: "She's ugly" (This was said in the chapel while she was pointing at some lady)

Brynn said the funniest thing the other day while Leah, Brynn, and I were in the office in our house. Here's the conversation.

Brynn "How come it smells?"

Carin "What does it smell like?"

Brynn "Like rotten eggs that came tooting out of a butt."

The Fitzgeralds

2007-09-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had the Gary Fitzgerald and his family over for dinner. They live about 30 minutes away and we are in the same Stake. My kids were happy when they found out there was some kind of family nearby. We had a fun time getting to know them. They have 3 girls 14, 11 and the youngest (Emmie) just turned 8. Abby and Emmie were best buds right away. I thought it was funny that Gary described Grandpa Fitzgerald as "scary grandpa". We had fun remembering the glittery ceilings, not touching the plastic fruit, and having major pressure to be on your best behavior. Gary's wife Michelle said that whenever she was over there Grandpa always spoke fondly of "The Harts." There was lots more to our conversation...but I better not post it all.