Red Cliffs!

Oh! the beauty of large red cliffs, huge climbing rocks, streaming water and FAMILY!

Abigail actually did all the hiking by herself this time. She even kept up with Daddy's long legs...mostly.

And we can't forget Alex...he is still on oxygen but doing better and finally getting to enjoy some outside time!

These are the days when I REALLY wish I could get a new camera. Most of these pictures only came out because of a lot of adjusting in Photoshop and they are still not great. :( Put it on the list, right?! :)

Allie's First...

Yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of a big bang coming from the other side of the house where my kids sleep. I heard a couple of moans from Allie and so I jumped out of bed to see Allie lying on the floor in the bathroom. When I got to her, her face was as pale as a ghost and it looked like she had passed out for a second. She has done this often so at first it didn't bother me much. But then she started dry-heaving and it took a while for her color to come back. I checked her eyes to make sure they were dilating and following my finger which they seemed to be. She eventually got some color back but she continued to complain about her ear hurting which is where she fell. I waited a couple of hours to see if it would eventually pass but by 10am she was still complaining (which she rarely does) and her color didn't seem too good either. So I called the Pediatrician to see if I should bring her in. They said I should so we were there within a half hour.

The doctor checked her out and said that she couldn't see anything wrong but that she wanted a CT scan because of the loss of consciousness and throwing up; both bad signs after a head injury. Well after a few more hours registering at the hospital and waiting in several more waiting rooms she had her scan. The funny thing about Allison is that she will rock climb steep rocks and try most anything dangerous but when it comes to anything related the the doctor she is TERRIFIED. As soon as I put her on the scanner she looked at me with those big blue eyes like I was leaving her in a den of lions. The doctor was so awesome though and talked her through everything and put a heated blanket on her which she loved. His voice was almost hypnotic to her and she calmed right down. We then had to leave the room where we just watched through a window but she was so brave and SHE DIDN'T PASS OUT AGAIN! Yeah! Her head was OK from the fall but they did find that she has a really horrible sinus infection. One of those really bad ones that doesn't show really any symptoms but can cause vertigo. So we are unsure if the sinus infection caused her to have vertigo, pass out and fall or she fell and then passed out. Either way, she is on a strong antibiotic now and seems to be doing much better.

Spring Break and Easter

I know these pics are little late but here are some of our pictures from Spring Break and Easter. We spent Spring Break in Las Vegas with my sister, Stacy. The kids had fun visiting, shopping, swimming, and eating lots of candy. Thanks Stacy for letting us crash your house!!

The kids braved the cold pool waters because they wanted to go swimming soooo bad!

Abigail dying her first Easter eggs. She loved it!

Here she is putting glitter on one.

Allison was a little TOO excited about dying eggs and split the egg wide open! Maybe she has super-strength we were unaware of...

Kody is TOO old to go Easter-egg hunting but if you hide enough money to make it worth while then I guess anyone would be willing to look for a magic egg! :)



The kids couldn't wait to see the prizes each egg held...




The kids were mesmerized by a 3-D movie...

Tired out after a long day of shopping, eating and swimming...they fell asleep where ever they were...

My Sweet Abigail!

It is crazy how time flies! My sweet Abigail turned two last month. Every time one of my kids has a birthday I always reflect on what has happened since they were born; how our lives have changed and where we are going in the future. Abbie, more then any of my other children, has taught me that Heavenly Father sends each of our children at the perfect time in our lives to teach us the things that need to be taught to us at that specific time. Abbie was actually our most easy baby. So easy, in fact, that unfortunately she was also more easily neglected. From the day she was born I had to wake her to feed her, make myself hold her because she easily sat where ever I put her and she just smiled and was content with life. Sometimes I wondered if there was something wrong with her because she was TOO easy. But looking back at the things that happened during her first two years of life, I know Heavenly Father knew we needed her and her wonderful little personality at just this precise time in our lives. She has come out of her shell since turning two. She readily says "No" (except if you ask if she wants candy), she is also my little tattle-tale, and she loves to hang out with adults more then kids. She is stubborn and can actually throw worse tantrums then her older siblings...when she does. She is stingy with her kisses but loves giving hugs! She is very sad if her Dad or brother leave for the day without her giving them hugs goodbye. SHE LOVES BABIES! She will walk around with one in each arm, cradling them, hugging them, patting and rubbing their backs, putting them to sleep, feeding them. She has done this from the time she could carry a baby and still shows no signs of stopping. She will be a great mommy!

We were so busy in March that we decided to celebrate her birthday this month during Easter break since we would be with family already. Here are the pictures of her birthday. I also attempted another crazy cake. (I can't bring myself to make just a rectangular one.) I was a little nervous since just last week I threw an entire cake away because something went terribly wrong! This one actually turned out... whew!

G & G C. got Abbie a "Abby Cadabby" doll that sings and looks like it is floating in the air. As you can see she LOVED IT!

Flashback Friday

This flashback is going to take us back to only about 7 months ago. Right after we moved, and no longer had Internet, our family went to Disneyland. WE LOVE DISNEYLAND!!! Especially Chris! Chris isn't passionate about a lot of things but if anyone mentions Disneyland his eyes light up and he acts totally like a kid again. This makes me very happy since most of you know Chris is a very big stress-case! Anyway, we never got to post pictures of our amazing trip so here are just a few from our three day trip!

DAY 1 - Grandma and Grandpa came and it is so nice to have them help with the kids. We did decide to leave Abigail home (after much sadness and stress from me) but I am so glad we did because the older kids had much more fun and we were able to go on almost every ride together. We have decided to make a family tradition of going when each of the kids are between the ages of 4-5. That is the best age for them to enjoy most of the rides but they still love all the make-believe!

I saw a couple of the little girls running around with face paintings and really wanted Allie to have one so we looked for a face painter and got her face painted. She LOVED IT!

We actually got stuck on Splash Mountain and had to get off the ride half way through. Luckily it was after the drop!

We went to the Princess Lunch for Allie. It was a little expensive but totally worth it. We didn't have to worry about standing in line to see each of the princesses and the food was 4-star quality. We got autographs and pictures with all the princesses!

This was probably the most exciting part of the whole trip! We went to California Adventure early one morning and while waiting for them to open the park, the security gaurd there fell in love with Allie. I guess they pick one family every day to "Open" the park and we got to be the family. We got to hold the rope, sign the "Tower of Terror" book that stays in the "Hotel" and be the first one on the ride...we actually got our own "elevator"! It was pretty awesome and our kids got such a kick out of it!!

When we got home we gave Abigail a Baby Minnie and as you can see she loved it!

Happy Birthday Keith!

This post is for Chris' youngest brother Keith. He is turning 18 this week! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEET! (That is what Abbie calls him.)

HAPPY 18! Here are some pictures of him from this last weekend at prom!

I love this Age!

I love this age of my children. They are getting old enough to reason with but are still full of imagination and laughter. Every year I want to do something for April Fools Day but something always comes up and I never do. This year, I was determined to do it. I have seen "April Fools Food" before and thought that would be perfect since my kids are you used to me making different things all the time. It would definitely be believable! HEHE!

So I decided to make "Chicken Nuggets" and "peas" with "BBQ sauce" and "Ranch" to dip in. I made "cupcakes" for dessert.

Chicken Nuggets = wafer cookie with peanut butter dipped in crushed corn flakes
Peas = Green Laffy Taffy rolled into balls
BBQ Sauce = Seedless Raspberry Jam
Ranch = White leftover frosting I had in my fridge with some green sprinkles in it.
Cupcake = Meatloaf with dyed blue potatoes on top

I told the kids they could have as many cupcakes as they wanted. :) Allie started eating the cupcake and being the sweet and positive girl she was, said (with a weird expression on her face) "mmm, this is good." Austin wasn't afraid to tell me it was the most disgusting cupcake he had ever had. He really thought it was a cupcake. They still didn't get that it was an April Fools joke until they started eating the "chicken nuggets" dipped in Ranch. Then Chris and I said...APRIL FOOLS! Austin loved it. Allison didn't quite get it but saw that Austin was laughing so laughed with him. It was a fun night!