Halloween - A Bit Late!!

I blame Facebook. I blame it for distracting me from keeping up to date on my blogging!! Oh well, better late than not at all, right?! Here's our pumpkin carving and the kids in their costumes! Happy late Halloween!

She's not eating the pumpkin, she's kissing it! Aaww . . .
Raquel the Pirate!
Marcus the Bumblebee!
Raigan the Fairy!


I get this look at least a hundred times a day. How can you ever get mad at that face?

School Halloween Party


Candy Coma's

Funny Pics

I know we all say we should just give our kids the boxes for Christmas because that seems like all they ever play with, but I'm seriously considering actually doing it with Marcus this year! He put this together all by himself one day and wore it the rest of the day. Said he was a robot.

Daddy's Little Girl

Seeing Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs in 3-D!!

Raquel's Baptism

Where has the time gone? I just can't believe my "baby" girl was baptized!! It seems like just yesterday that she was as little as Raigan and now she is turning into a lovely young lady. Here she is going to her baptismal interview with her daddy by her side. No worries though, because I gave her the all the answers before she left. Yes, yes, no, no, yes, yes, no.
And here she is this past Saturday at her baptism. It turned out to be a wonderful day for everyone. Todd's parents drove up from California and that made her day even more special. The weather didn't cooperate very much, considering the torrential downpour that we had all morning, but we managed to keep that white dress clean! And her dress turned out AMAZING!! My sweet mother was literally working on it until the night before her baptism, but it turned out awesome. And a special thank you to Margo who made her tear drop pearl earrings for her to wear. Everything went well and Todd's mom gave a great talk before her baptism and everyone loved the video that Uncle Neil sent of one of his songs he sings with his band After the Storm. We had so much love and support from family and friends and we really appreciate all of you!! Thank you to my girlfriends who brought desserts to share at the last minute!! It was a fantastic day that I know we will all remember and we spent the rest of the weekend playing games and spending time with our family. I am so proud of my sweet Raquel and her decision to get baptized!!

Seriously, my hair is driving me insane. Can we say helmet hair? Help. Oh well . . .

Raquel with her Grandpa & Grandma Jarman

Raquel with her Grandpa & Grandma Shelton

Raquel with Lavonda & Annie

One last little tidbit. Funniest moment of the day was my sweet Marcus. He was so excited about Raquel getting baptized and he kept talking about the water. Right before we started he leans over to Todd and whispers, "Dad, dunk Raquel!" and then starts giggling. He thought it was going to be like a swimming pool party I guess. Totally cracked us up right before we needed to be reverent. Thanks Marcus!!

Pumpkin Patch

I know, I know - I haven't blogged in over a month!! Yikes!! I will admit that I have been facebooking too much and have neglected my blog, but I have also had nothing to blog about until recently! So, last Saturday our dear friends Lavonda and Annie and Melissa took our kids to this amazing pumpking patch that they take them to every year. It has become a tradition for our kids to get their pumpkins for Halloween with them and they love it!! They have pumpkins and animals and yummy food and my kids just have a blast there. Here they are picking their pumpkins and feeding the goats and even takin' a ride on the mini carousel!! I love fall and everything that comes along with it! Thanks Lavonda and Annie and Melissa!! You're the best!

Happy 8th Birthday Raquel!!

Eight!! I really can't believe my baby is 8 years old today. I tried to get a picture of just her, but I couldn't get Marcus out of the way!! He was really excited it was her birthday too!! She got to open her presents last night because her Daddy isn't here today. She thought that was pretty cool. Now, I must talk about my girl. I am tearing up just thinking about what I want to say about her. Despite my best efforts to totally screw her up by being her mother, she is growing into an amazing young lady. I thought I'd share some tidbits about our sweet Raquel.

Raquel is super smart and she remembers everything! (And I mean everything. She can remember something I said weeks or months ago. Let's hope she uses her powers for good and not for evil when she grows up.)

Raquel is so beautiful and has the best curly hair ever! (Even though she hates it right now, one day she will thank me for her naturally curly hair. When all of her friends are curling theirs with curling irons, she'll thank me.)

Raquel has definitely been blessed with a love of the arts. She loves to draw and write stories. She loves to play the violin at school and the piano at home. She is super dramatic. And not in just the typical girl dramatic way. She has an imagination that I really can't believe sometimes. She just takes herself away into these imaginary worlds full of imaginary people and I find it quite extraordinary. (She said she'll thank me when she wins her Oscar for best actress in a dramatic role.)

Raquel is very confident and makes friends very easily. She has been uprooted and moved quite a bit in the last few years, but I never worry about her because she adapts so well and easily makes friends because she is such a good friend. (I asked her once if she was nervous going into a new school and she looked at me like I was crazy and said, No, why would I be?)

Raquel is a great sister. She loves, loves, loves it when Nicholas is home with us and she is very motherly to Marcus and Raigan when she wants to be! (When she doesn't want to be we have this little thing called fighting in our house.)

Raquel is a wonderful daughter and we couldn't be prouder of her. We love to watch how she grows and learns in the gospel each day and we are so happy that she has chosen to be baptized next month. Never change Raquel because we love you so much!!

Todd left this morning to go to Utah to see Nicholas, so he woke all of us up at 6:30 am to say Happy Birthday to Raquel. This is what she got in her bed first thing on her birthday!! What a silly daddy you have Raquel!!

Today was also Marcus's first day of preschool. Mommy was so nervous for him, but I think everything went well. Let's just say this - his teacher didn't call and there were no notes in his bag for me - so we'll call our first day a success!! He looked so grown up and I actually really missed him. I didn't cry though, so I think I am getting better at this whole letting go of my kids thing. He gets picked up and dropped off by the bus, so when I asked him what he liked the best he said riding the yellow school bus because yellow is his favorite color!! Yesterday we went to his classroom for a little meet and greet. I stayed with him while they went through what they would be doing in preschool each day. He loved play time, but wasn't having any of circle time. When we left he said goodbye to his teacher and then we walked out of the room and he looked at me and in his most loud and clear voice told me that his teacher was SO BORING!! Aahh! I really hope she didn't hear him! Good job on your first day of preschool Marcus!

P.S. - Sorry for the crappy pictures today. My camera was acting all weird today taking pictures that look kinda smoky. I thought for sure my camera was breaking, but then I cleaned the lense off with a q-tip and now they are as clear as a bell again. Darn. I was really hoping it was broken so I could get a real camera. I keep letting Marcus play with it in the hopes that it will die and Todd will be forced to get me a new one!!

Aahh, my kids . . .

So, the other evening Raigan was laying on the floor in front of me being SO adorable. She was all cuddled up in a big blanket with her sweet little head resting on a pillow. Could not have been cuter. I was just sitting there watching her and I looked at Todd and said, "She is just so sweet." And then, all that sweetness promptly sat up and belched the hugest burp I have ever heard come out of someone so small!! And we all died laughing, so she pretended to fake burp the rest of the night since she got such a great reaction with her first one. She doesn't crave attention at all and is nothing like her mother!! LOL!!

And then tonight, my Marcus pulled another one. Literally. You know of course it has something to do with his weiner because the kid is fascinated with it right now. I was changing his clothes and so he had nothing on but his underwear and wouldn't you know it - he had his hand down the front of his undies. Except for this time he has found something new to do - he was using it as a gun!! I am so not kidding!! I can't make this stuff up. He was pointing his thingie at us through his underwear and shooting us. I don't get it, but apparently he is a normal boy, so let's just hope someday soon he'll get over his little obession. Hopefully before his first day of preschool on Thursday!! LOL!!

Hey, they give me good material for my blog, so I'm not complainin'!!

Girlfriends!!

It's been so great to be back here with all my sweet ladies. We've already gotten to hang out twice in the week I've been home!! Friday was Rene's birthday and we all went out to breakfast at our favorite little eatery, Berryfield's Cafe. It was nice to catch up with everyone and to just be silly and laugh. I love my girlfriends!! And Rene really loved her birthday dessert, didn't you Rene?!

Then Saturday a bunch of us went and saw the new movie All About Steve (Bradley Cooper - yummy!!) up in Olympia. We met up with my friend Rachel who is notorious in my book for smuggling in illegal food at the movies. And we are not talking about just a candybar here people. She usually has a bag full of food and last night was no exception. She sits down and pulls out a box, a box!! And it contains a grilled tuna fish sandwich!! Cracked me up. And of course, smelling it the rest of the movie was super awesome. Thanks Rachel!! And that was just the first course. Food just kept coming and coming. She is so little too, so I have no idea where she puts all that food!! You crazy thing. After the movie we headed back south and ended up at Applebee's until 12:30 in the morning. We had great conversation (wink, wink) and lots of girly silliness. Thanks for staying up so late with us Heidi. (Who is very pregnant with baby #4!) And that is a dessert shooter Clarissa is sporting and we were really tired!! I love girls night out!!