Dallas Texas here we come!

So my blogging and facebook life has pretty much been nonexistent this last month. The weekend before Thanksgiving, we found out we were moving our family back to Texas. But this time, to Dallas Texas. So 4 weeks ago, the adventure began. For me it encompassed many tears, lots of stress, and many tired nights. But, after a couple weeks to process the change and the house almost completely packed, I feel like I have survived. We are sad to leave our friends and family in Henderson. This really feels like home. But, we know that the Lord has a plan for our family, and that he knows more than we do. So, off to another place, and another adventure!
Emmet and I flew to Dallas last weekend and secured up a home. We will rent for now. The nice thing about Texas is that you get a lot of home for a little money (compared to Las Vegas that is). So, we are excited to have more space. Our family has grown, and we hope to add one more to the bunch at some point. So, we are excited for the upgrade.
This Christmas season has been a whirlwind. The "traditional" Christmas that we always enjoy has been shifted this year. We are spending Christmas in Disneyland with Emmet's family. So, we negotiated with Santa Claus, and he came early. It was a little simpler than past years. A small tree, and no other Christmas decorations. Lighter on the gifts. But, it made me realize that all that stuff doesn't even matter anyways. I am grateful to have my husband and my children by my side. I am also grateful to have the gospel, and to be blessed with reassurance when making these kinds of decisions. I have definately felt the Lord's support through all of this. And although this move has been difficult for us, it has brought our family together during this wonderful Christmas Season. SOOO.......off to Texas we go. We love you all, and thank you for all your love and Support. I have never felt such an outpouring of love! Merry Christmas!

SNEAK PEEK TO HALLOWEEN

The kids school had their annual "Trunk or Treat." It was so fun to get the kids all dressed up and photographed, before Halloween. Now I don't have to take pictures the night of Halloween (hehe). It was especially fun dressing up Audrey. OH WHAT FUN!!! I am in love with that girl. She just pulls on my heartstrings. Of course I love my boys too......how could I not, look at all these cuties.......

Tyson-Optimus Prime

Dallin-a pouting Clone trooper (because I took pictures of Braden before him...oops)

Kyle-Snake Eyes (GI JOE), doing some karate move

The whole clan

Audrey-My fairy princess!

Braden-Harry Potter. (Notice the GI Joe Commander (ie: Kyle) in the background, posing on the trampoline. When Kyle pointed that out, I just busted out laughing.

When kids are ASLEEP, and I download cute pictures like these......I can't help but love being a mother!!!!

Emmet Runs a RAGNAR

Emmet ran his very first RAGNAR this weekend. For anyone who doesn't know what that is, (which I didn't before he signed up for it).....it is a relay with 12 on a team. Each person runs 3 legs. Emmet ran a 3 mile, 3 mile, and 5 mile leg. It goes 24 hours straight. They rented two 12 passenger vans. Put 6 people in each. Emmet ran at 1:15pm on Friday, 12:10am saturday morning, and 8:30 saturday morning. He slept in the van Friday night, and got 2 hours of sleep. I am so proud of him! He did so great, and had a fun time. Being in a van with 6 people you don't know, for 24 hours straight.......is a quick way to make friends! Emmet had a blast!! We went out to see him run on Saturday morning.....here's some of the pics.

Emmet and the kids, BEFORE the race. He was nervous.

Waiting for dad to run his 3rd leg of the relay.

Picture with dad before his 3rd leg....

Once I got out there to cheer Emmet on, I just had the spur of the moment urge to run with him. My mom took the wheel, and drove the kids behind us....cheering us on. I thought I'd run a block or so with him.....(I obviously wasn't planning on it, with my jeans and sandals).....but it was so much fun, that I ended up running the last 2 1/2 miles with him. It was so awesome!!!!! It was fun to be there with him.

Emmet is done!!! This is a picture at the end of his last leg. He did it!!!! What a STUD!

Cute Pics

KYLE got his BEAR!!! Congratulations Kyle!

Kyle is my self-motivated child. It is not difficult to keep on track with his scouts, because he keeps himself on track for us. He got his Wolf 6 months early last year, and his Bear 6 months early this year. Looks like he's got his "over-achiever" personality from his mother.

The Scott Family Circus....need I say more?

Maybe this is a sign of great musical talent in their future.

Doesn't this just melt your heart?

Ready for soccer anyone?

Wait a minute.....you're my only girl......where's the dresses and the tea parties?

First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Dallin's first day of Kindergarten. I really didn't worry at first. I thought he'd be absolutely fine.......until last Friday. I took him to his "meet the teacher" day on Friday, and he was really nervous. So, I didn't know what to expect today. But, he walker right in, not even looking back. He was so brave!

I came home to 2 children, and 4 boxes of peaches. My mom, my friend Kodi, and I canned peaches for 4 hours this morning. After a morning of bottling peaches, and a little chatting.....it was time to pick up the kids. When I picked up Dallin, he was in full tears. I wasn't the first mom in line to pick him up, and he though I had forgotten him. But, aside from that, everyone survived their first day. Whooohoooo!

Our top happenings in Spring

I found my cord that uploads photos from my camera to my computer. And, after uploading all 258 pictures, ranging back from February til now.....here is what we've been up to the last 3 months. We've celebrated 5 birthdays (Audrey (1), Kyle (9), Braden (7), Uncle David, and Grandpa Tolboe), Celebrated Easter (3 times-once with ourselves, and once with each set of grandparents), Started Soccer with Dallin and Baseball with Braden, Planted a Garden, Audrey's learned to walk, Visited Red Rock during Spring break, Improved our Cup Stacking skills, Recovered from being sick multiple times, Gone to Youth Conference, Played, Worked, Caught Lady Bugs, and Chased a bird out of our house. I LOVE SPRING!!

BOOBOO's

I love being a fly on the wall....listening to some of the funny conversations that go on in the back of my Suburban. I have a friend who just had a baby, and we swung by to pick up her son to play. Dallin and he were sitting in the very back. This is how the conversation went:

Dallin: "Does your new baby eat from your mommy's booboo's?"
Friend: "Booboos? Baby's don't eat from Booboo's. Booboo's are ouchies. The spanish word for ouchies is "booboos."
Dallin: "But, babies drink milk from mommy's booboos!"
Friend: "No, babies eat from mommy's CHEST."

Every family and Every Child has a different lingo for every day things, but one things for sure..... they both got the concept down!!! It did make me laugh when this was the first thing Dallin asked when his friend got in the car. I just love listening to kids talk amongst their friends!

MY!!! TOOTHBRUSH

So, a toothbrush is a HOT commodity around our house. We have a million of them, in fact, I think my kids have at least 2 each. My idea when I bought them 2 each, was that they could each have one toothbrush upstairs, and one toothbrush downstairs. We also have about 30 toothbrushes in our food storage. So, you'd think we wouldn't have any toothbrush problems, right? WRONG!!! It seems that the kids don't really navigate to their own toothbrushes, but to ours. It really irritates Emmet, and has become a family joke. Emmet is always pleading, "Don't I at least deserve MY OWN toothbrush!?!" The kids always take ours.
SO.....let's get to the funny story...a couple nights ago, Emmet decided to go through the toothbrushes in our downstairs bathroom, and throw out the old ones. All of our toothbrushes seem to migrate to the downstairs bathroom....so he had to go through quite a few. Well, he made a BIG mistake!!!! Braden came upstairs last night in full on ELEFANT tears! "Daddy threw away my toothbrush!!" You would've thought the world had ended, by Braden's reaction. But, I finally got him calmed down and talked him into being okay with picking a brand new toothbrush (out of the food storage room).....and he could chose any color he wanted! That seemed to satisfy him. Well, this morning after brushing his teeth, he got out the permanent black marker....and wrote a very "clear" message on his toothbrush. "BRADEN's toothbrush. Nobody touch it!" Here's the picture, can't you tell that's what it says?
DON'T MESS WITH EMMET AND BRADEN'S TOOTHBRUSHES!!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday TYSON

Happy Birthday Tyson!!!
Tyson Turned 3 years old last Tuesday February 10th. He's officially three, and officially potty trained! I have found that 3 is the magic potty training number in our household. Once I gave up the power struggle of trying to train my kids before they were really ready......the last two have been a cinch. Tyson is wearing underwear, not having any accidents, and not needing a reminder either. When he walks out of the bathroom, he grins and says "I'm a big boy!"
Life is good!!
Here are a couple fun things about Tyson:
*Tyson was my very first tummy sleeper and thumb-sucker
*Tyson is a a 10 year old in a 3 year old body: He understands everything, helps himself to anything, and doesn't miss a beat when running behind his big brothers.
*Tyson is persistent. He knows what he wants, and he'll keep pushing til he gets it. That means that we as parents need to be consistent. Still trying. Sometimes I'm so tired, I just give in to him. I'm sure this quality will be a huge strength when he gets older. As for now, it definately tries our patience!
* Tyson has a favorite stuffed doggy, and a soft fuzzy blanket. He loves anything soft. I bought Audrey a really soft and fuzzy pink blanket. He clinged onto it before she was even born, and claimed it as his. He slept with it every night, until grandma replaced it with a brown one (a much more manly color!)
*Tyson gives the best hugs and lights up when he smiles.
*Tyson is very polite. Ever since he was very young, he picked up on "thank-you" and "you're welcome." (we cannot take the credit) If he does something for us and we don't say thank-you, he'll automatically tell us "you're welcome."
*Tyson loves gum!!! Grandma Tolboe started that one!
We love you Ty!!

Tyson chose a heart cake, instead of cupcakes (in lieu of Valentine's Day I suppose)
A little help from Dallin blowing out his candles

He knew just what to do with his presents!!

Plastic bat has been misplaced, so a broom will have to do. He personally requested a pinata for his birthday. Luckily last year, Kyle's birthday pinata didn't get too mutilated. This is a recycled pinata....yeah!! (It did get mutilated this time around though!!

A Little Dirt Never Hurt

Audrey has a fascination with dirt. She loves to go outside and practically sprints (sprint-crawls) to the open sliding door when her older brother's leave it open. (which is often......still working on that one). As soon as she gets out the door, she heads straight for the rocks and stuffs a bunch in her mouth. It doesn't matter if she's been outside for 2 seconds, I always have a handful or rocks to swipe out of her mouth. This time, she headed for the dirt pile. A little change from the normal route. A little dirt never hurt, right? That is better than a used cigarette butt found on the park sidewalk. (YUCK!!!......and yes she was chomping on it). I'm beginning to look forward to the day she walks. She's getting there. I know I'll be chasing her everywhere.....but at least I won't find anymore unidentified objects in her mouth.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!!! It is always so wonderful to start a new year and have the opportunity to set new goals. There is something refreshing about this time of year. If I thought I could stay on top of a zillion New Year's resolutions.....then I would add "be a better blogger" to the list. But, although I continue to try......that doesn't always hit the top of the priority list. So.....again, here is a re-cap of our holidays. I did a lot of my Christmas shopping early.....so this was a very calm Christmas season for us. It made it really enjoyable! Since the shopping was out of the way, all we had left to do was EAT. And EAT we did! Luckily "exercise" is up top on the New Year's resolution list. (= (pictures are in order from recent......back) I still get mixed up on how to keep my uploaded pictures in the right order.

Audrey's 1st Christmas!!! She wasn't awake yet when all the boys woke up to see if Santa had come. (6am) We let her have her beauty rest. But, don't worry, she didn't miss out. She got her turn at opening her presents, and crawling around with a bow stuck on her bum. (No.....I did not plant that one!)

Christmas Eve is here, and I had to dress her in red!! Oh how I love to dress my little girl!
We had a Christmas Eve Turkey dinner at my parent's house. My mom and I divided up the cooking. After dinner we looked up Santa's location online, and the kids tracked him until bedtime. In between time, we set out cookies and a note for Santa, sprinkled reindeer food on the grass for the reindeer, and read about baby Jesus. The kids would keep running back and forth into the computer room, to see if Santa had switched locations yet. There was so much excitement in their eyes. Kids make Christmas!!! The best part was the letter the kids wrote for Santa. It included a "P.S.- We hope your reindeer don't get gas." ??? Don't ask me where that one came from. But, we got a kick out of that!

If you turn your head to the right.....you'll see that our 6" snow storm here in Henderson Nevada ended up breaking half our tree off in the front year. Our measly little Nevada trees....can't even handle a little snow. The news said we haven't seen this much snow in like 30 years or something.

The Snow and the Fun have just begun. The day after we got snow, school was cancelled and it was time to PLAY! I spent my day listening to Christmas music, baking homemade rolls, keeping Hot Chocolate on the stove, and helping kids go through millions of clothes changes. (When you don't have much snow.....you don't have good snow clothes.)

Backing up to December 4th, Dallin turned 5. He is maturing into such a sweet boy. He's so snuggly and takes good care of his little sister. I can't believe he is already 5. He'll be in Kindergarten next year (crazy!!)

Did I mention he's physical too? This is the way Dallin says "Thank You" for a birthday gift. I don't know that his cousin Hayley really knew what to do with this.

December wouldn't be complete without Dallin's Christmas Preschool program. He was a shephard. He was a natural actor......must take after his Aunt Heather! (wink wink Heather)

With the new year, also comes an important birthday. And no, I'm not shy about proclaiming my 30th Birthday. I am proud of it.....and ready to celebrate!!! I turn 30 this Friday January 9th. I look forward to a decade of new wisdom. Some day, I will be wise.....that is my goal!! (=

Emmet is taking the day off.....and we are spending the whole day together. I get to drag him wherever I want to go. Thanks to my mom for watching the kiddos. I couldn't ask for a better way to spend my birthday!