so blessed

I just have to brag and say that we have THE BEST friends in the world!

random

Kyrie with her besties! She loves her little girlfriends so much. She talks about them everyday, and loves to pretend talk to them on the phone. She is always saying things like, "Mom, do you remember Delaney is going to come to our house again", and "I need to go in the car with you to Delaney's house". She would love to play with them everyday!


It looks like we have a teenager in the making. Dusty with his latest creation, his fireman buddy.

Thanksgiving break

Our scenic trip to Utah started out like this, it was a beautiful drive with lots to see.
It quickly turned into this, and our 8 hour drive turned into 13 hours of driving time. We somehow managed to have a great time together.

Chris decided to let me have a turn driving, and this is how he didn't fit in the passenger seat because of Camden's carseat behind him. I thought it was hilarious - he didn't!
We were able to go sledding down one of the best hills with the cousins and grandparents. Taylor and Kyrie with their friend, "Snow White".The boys had a sleep-over at Sherin's house, so Taylor came to spend the night at Grandma's house with Kyrie. Ky had lots of fun at her first sleep-over. The boys got a new 4-wheeler from their g-pa Dennis for their Christmas present. They were spoiled! They had a lot of fun on it, and thankfully, because now that it is at our house, we don't know where they are going to ride it!
Camden with Great Grandma and Grandpa Anderson.
On Black Friday we decided to brave the cold and the crowd and head to Temple Square. We haven't been in 8 years! I really wanted to take the kids and let them see a little bit. My parents came with us, and my dad had the idea to take the Front Runner. It was our first time riding on a train!
We had a great time. It really was a lot of fun. I am thankful my parents were able to go with us! We had fun spending time with just them. And thanks to Dusty and Grandpa for the yawning entertainment! Camden got his middle name- well really initial from his Grandpa Bruce J Anderson.
Grandma tried her best to land some smootches on Hayden.
Camden and his Great Grandma Lula.
Somehow Chris and my dad got all of our stuff in the truck to go home!

Hayden

I seriously need to capture Hayden during one of his meltdowns. Someday he might outgrow them, I know I won't ever forget them, but maybe someday we can laugh at them. I've never gone into much detail about them pubicly, but I'm ready to share a few more things about them, because this blog is mostly for me and for my family. It is our little family jounal about us that I print into books for us to keep to look back on for years to come. These meltdowns at times consume our lives. Just about everytime we try to do something fun as a family, they try to ruin it! They are part of our outside world as our inside world as well. I have been traumatized by them several times when complete strangers brutally attack me about the subject of them. I have also had those few angels, who were also strangers who reminded me to stand up tall and put a smile on my face while dealing with them. They are fierce and full of anger. They suggest horrible things, that I feel so bad that such a young kid could even imagine. They make me angry, frustrated, stressed, but they also make me feel so desperate and sad and scared for the future. They cause a lot of wrongful judgment, and glares, which with a lot of experience with the situation, thankfully no longer bother me! I feel bad for him, he has so many hard struggles for a little guy that he has to work at really hard to overcome. I try to teach him that it is okay to get upset, everyone gets upset, but there are better ways to react when he does get upset. This last week, Hayden hurt his finger just before it was time to go to school. Chris tried being sympathetic with him, but no matter what he tried, Hayden now didn't want to go to school. We sent him out the door anyway and he started walking down the sidewalk, just got across the crosswalk and intentionally did a belly flop. He decided to plant his body on the sidewalk in protest. A car hurried and turned the corner, the driver stomped on the breaks and ran to his resuce. Another lady yelled out her window, "do I need to call 911?". It was nice of them to be concerned, but Chris pulled him off the sidewalk, drug him to school where Mr. Carter noticed the outburst. Hayden started out his day in Mr. Carter's office - I can honestly say I was greatful someone else got to deal with it all. We never know what to expect from him. I feel that we had a small miracle yesterday - family pictures - it happened! I was so worried that it wouldn't! Even though in most pictures, he isn't fully cooperating and not looking at the camera, he is in the pictures! With an earlier meltdown, I was wondering what we would do, exclude him from the picture? Have him laying in front of us kicking and screaming, or sitting criss-cross with his arms folded and his head down. I can actually see a photo in my head of the 5 of us all posed for the picture and Hayden off to the side throwing a fit. It kinda makes me feel sad, but something I could almost laugh at all at the same time. I don't know what I would've done! I've waited and waited for these pics, and it turned out yesterday was pretty much the only day we could get them taken. Thankfully the prayers in my heart worked! We have pictures! The meltdown didn't start up again until we were at McDonalds after the pictures. I don't think I will ever understand... but regardless of the whole situation... we love our Hayden. I'm so glad he is in our family. He is very loving and sweet. I hope that he doesn't run away as promised! And I hope he knows and understands our love for him.

luv photos

I take so many pictures of this kid! It is so much fun, I love digital. I look back at the pics I have of Dusty and Hayden - I hardly have any and the quality is so bad! I wish I had adorable pics of them when they were babies too! I loved photography back then, in fact in High School that's what I wanted to do was become a photographer. I loved developing film and printing pictures in my photography class! But I am so glad we have moved from film to digital. It makes it so much funner, escpecially when the kids to want to photograph are so stinkin cute!

bdays

We are getting old! I can't believe it is really happening!
Chris and I had some great birthdays! Chris's day was filled with screaming kids, and friends that came over for a bbq. And he ended up getting 2 knives, since how the first one I got him was not the knife he hinted about! My birthday really was a great one. Some friends had me over for lunch, I got a phone call from a cousin/one of my best childhood friends, lots of birthday wishes and I was spoiled by Chris and the kids. Dusty made me a happy birthday knecklace, and Chris got me a pedi/mani and an external hard drive for my computer.

I'm not sure what happened to the cute, loving cards we used to get from Dusty. He is
still using his creativity - just in a different way!

"I love U...I hope you have a happy birthday...P.s. Hayden thinks you are crazy because you never had twins" ???"It's a really Happy Birthday for you because you won a new car!"
"Not just any car, a card"

"from: figure it out yourself to: Chris"

Thanks for the cards Dusty Boy!!!

Halloween 2011

The kids had a lot of fun planning and carving their pumpkins this year. Kyrie has had hers planned out for a few weeks, she needed a pink pumpkin. I had this great plan to paint her whole pumpkin pink and carve out a butterfly for her. The butterfly was carved, the pumpkin was half way painted, then the butterfly collapsed! Chris came to her rescue and used his pumpkin to make her a pink kitty! Our pumpkins were loaded with seeds this year, that is the best part of it all - We love toasted pumpkin seeds! Chris's employer held a Halloween party at the roller skating rink for the kids. They had a lot of fun, they loved their first experience on real skates. Kyrie did really good as long as she was holding on to something or was on the carpet. Dusty and Hayden spent a good portion of the first hour on the floor. And ?lucky? Hayden got to spend the second hour in the trailblazer. You'd think that he'd rather be skating, but I guess kicking and screaming and having an awesome meltdown was much funner. Oh the things he misses out on. Just about everytime we do something fun, we find out he can't handle it for some reason.

The meltdowns I was talking about, well he almost didn't make it into these pictures either. He spent a couple hours on the stairs to the basement - kicking and screaming - all because we asked him to pick up a few toys. Maybe I should start taking pictures of these events, because they are what our lives are really filled with! Hayden was finally able to get control of things just in time for pics and trick-or-treating!

There is something about being a girl that can make life a little complicated at times. Choices... sometimes we want them all, and how do we choose just one? The boys decided almost instantly what the wanted to be for Halloween, Spiderman and a Power Ranger. Camden didn't know it, but he wanted to be a frog - just like Dusty and Hayden were at that age. But Kyrie wanted to be everything: a Princess, Tinkerbell, she wanted an Ariel and Minnie Mouse "cos soon", she needed to be a kitty Kyrie like Dora, but she finally decided to be a Cowboy Princess. She chose the crown over her cowgirl hat. So many choices!Her cowboy princess hair. Several people ask me if she has a hard time sitting still or if she cries when I do her hair. Not this little girl, she tells me how she wants her hair for the day! She will cry if I don't give her the ponytail style of her choice!Here is part of our trick-or-treating group. We all had fun going door to door, then back to our friends house for homemade chili, yum!Logi and Kyrie
Hayden and Cade