What we've been up to

She finally crashed at the zoo.

Museum

More of the museum

I am loving Peyton's hair. It is so fun too do. It actually took my friend Becky telling me how to do it. It was bugging me that it was in her eyes and it didn't even dawn on me to put it in pig tails or a pony tail on top!! Yeah once again new to the girl world!! She lets me do it pretty easy, but loves to pull it out!!

Denver Zoo with their friends Trevon and Jadyn,

The pool in Grand Junction
I didn't realize it's been so long since I posted last. We have just been enjoying the spring weather. We took off last minute to Grand Junction with Tyrel for work for just a night to get out of town and enjoyed some shopping and the hotel pool. Now I have been in Denver for almost two weeks. We haven't been up here since August. It has been so nice to be a normal family. It has also been nice to see some friends too. We have enjoyed many parks through out Denver, the Denver Zoo, and the Museum of Nature and Science. We have got to see My friend Carrie and her kids, my friend Tara, and My friend/cousin on Tyrel's side Laura.

Happy Anniversary!!

K so I was so excited about my cool new toilet seat that I didn't post the obvious reason to have had posted that day. It was Tyrel and I's 6th Anniversary on Friday the 11th!! I forgot to post because realistically it didn't feel like it at all. Tyrel has been home one day in that last 2 and half weeks! He had to work two Saturday's ago and then was working on a drill in North Dakota last weekend. So on Friday I took my kids out for my anniversary to a free lunch at a local country store, got a baby sitter to watch my kids so I could go to a church meeting and grocery shopping!! I know I went all out!! Then for Valentine's day I called to see if any couples needed a babysitter and everyone said no, but one friend said her husband was working so invited us to BK with her kids!! Free lunch and BK for my romantic dinners of the year, yipee!!! hahaha But it's ok Tyrel is actually coming home today for a long weekend and we are definitely going out this weekend!!

So as I said it's been 6 years. Here is where it gets kind of sappy. He is really an amazing husband. He works hard, is an amazing dad, and treats me like a Queen. For someone who is hardly home, he sure does an amazing job of staying in touch of what is going on here. He knows are kids inside and out and even when he's home a day or two he can tell when they act out of their norm. He blends right into our routine. He is amazing at making the most of his weekends home and never asks for "me" time. He tries to gets things fixed around the house, spend time with his kids, and time with me. He never tells us to just leave him alone or I want to do this. I have to push him to do something for himself!! He is great listener when I need to vent and great at talking problems out, so we rarely argue, and if we do it's over just as quickly as it began. He helps out with the kids and around the house so much that when I need to ask for it i kind of feel guilty. He definitely makes me a strong person. He never complains so it makes me tough things out and not complain either. Because of him the trials we face have not got me down because he doesn't allow them too. He doesn't let me feel sorry for myself and reminds me all the time to remember how blessed we are. He is always the voice of reason and I always feel the strength of his priesthood in our home even when he's away. He thanks me endlessly for all that I do and in return I am thankful for all that he does!!!

I know I am a dork!!

So I know I am a dork, but I am excited for this post. My sister Sarah has one of these toilet seats and I have wanted one since I saw it and because I hate toddler potty seats, they are so gross. I felt wasteful for buying one when realistically we had a toilet seat lid. But luckily this week the kids totally broke the old one. It was wood and it split down the middle!! So I was excited to go buy this one. As you can see you flip up the first lid and it's a toddler size seat and then you flip it up again and ta-da, an adult size seat!! I know I know the simple luxuries of life!!

1 ALL READY!!

I can't believe Peyton is 1 already, all 17 some odd pounds of her. I just went through a tote of clothes and found tons of dresses my sister gave me for 12-18mo(not that she can fit in those yet), but I remember putting this in a tote right before I had Peyton thinking it's forever away before I will need these clothes and here I am a year later!! Peyton so far is an amazing little girl. She is so happy, independent, and expressive. I have had so many people tell me how amazed they are with her expressions and that she speaks so loudly with her eyes! She is a girl with a 100 faces. She started taking her first steps on Saturday two days before her birthday. She is so cute when she stands all alone or takes a four or five steps she just lights up and gets so excited. Every time she wakes up she comes around the corner and looks for her brothers and gives them a huge laugh and smile when she spots them. She is so easy going that at times I have to remind myself that she's not asleep and go look for her in the house. I have to admit I LOVE having a girl. I didn't think I would love it so much. I was perfectly ok with being a mom of boys. Of course I am trying to decided if it's a girl I love having or just an easy going 1 year old who is almost always happy, I don't expect anything out of, or doesn't talk back and you don't have to bribe to get her to eat all her food. And even though I am not a girly girl I sure have had fun buying girly clothes and a doll for her. It's a nice break from buying trucks,balls, and tools!! Anyways I feel so blessed to have such a cute fun little girl, (but as Cooper says he LOVES LOVES Peyton, but DOES NOT want anymore sisters!!

Done, done and DONE!!

The new theme for Primary this year is I Know the Scriptures Are True. So after seeing my sister in law's blog about these easy scripture cases I thought hey lets make them for the whole Primary. So I did. They turned out so cute. The girl's all have thier names, a butterfly or flower,and the theme. The boy's have the theme, their name, and an activity they are into like a sport or hunting or whatever their mom's told me. I had fun making them, but after making 42 I am glad to be done. Best of all too, was when I handed them out last Sunday I only had like 4 left over, all the other kids were there. I thought for sure I would have some forever tyring to hand them out each week. We are trying to get the kids to bring their scriptures each week so after learning they all have at least a Book of Mormon we hope to see them all with scriptures. The kids get so wrapped up in the scriptures as we try to use them most sharing times!! I am so excited for the new theme this year and I am so grateful to see our primary growing. We have been having over 30 kids that last couple of Sundays which is really good for us!!

Today was a pretty good day.

Today was a lot of fun. It was like 45 degrees sunny and beautiful. Tyrel's dad had to come to Cortez for something so he took us out to lunch and then the Elder's Quorum had a bowling activity so we got to go to that then we came home for Pizza and Root Beer floats. And best of all because of it our kids all crashed like at 7pm!!

More with Dad

So on Tyrel's Saturday's home he tries to squeeze in jobs that need done outside, playing with his kids, and spending time with me. He is amazing and fulfilling everyone's needs in a such a short time. Here are just some pictures of him and the boys on a Saturday. He is always working outside when he's home, but if the boys go out he will have them work with him or stop what he's doing and do something with them!!

Our Sled Hill!!

K so we don't actually have a sled hill, but for not having a hill on our property I have to say this is a pretty good sled hill for ages 5 and under!! My boys love sledding and so I turned our snow burm into one. At the bottom of the burm I shoveled a little bobsled like track and a walking path back up. Where the burm was the property is just enough sloped that the burm gives them just enough momentum to keep going!! i have to admit I was pretty impressed with my engineering skills and my boys loved it, so I have to say it was a sucess. Now Cooper begs for more snow to come so he can go again!!

New Years

Well last minute we lucked out to have some friends over for New Years Eve. We had our friends Sarah and Brian Balfou and their three kids. They also brought another couple and their two kids. We have fun eating a lot of food, playing games and amazingly all the kids stayed awake!!

A Week with Dad

So in between Christmas and New Years Tyrel's work decided to give him the week off. They didn't think it was worth him driving up Tuesday and back on Thursday. So we got to have him an extra week. During that time we got 2 feet of snow. It was fun to play in and I was especially happy to have him home for once during a snow storm to do the shoveling!! This time last year I was on a snow plow for four days straight!! But once again it was a blast to have Tyrel around.

Cowboy Christmas Party

Tyrel's Grandma and Grandpa threw a Cowboy Christmas dance the Monday after Christmas. There were over 100 relatives there. It was so much fun. My kids still talk about it. Their favorite part was the banditos that rode around on stick horses and have loved to play that since. Tyrel of course had a blast Country dancing. He loves it, too bad he got stuck with a wife that is horrible!! He even got into it by lip syncing Toby Keith's " I wanna talk about me" with his brother Sackett playing a kids guitar in the background. It was hilarious and I even caught it on video!! Will post later! Anyways it was a lot of fun and it is always fun to get together with family, especially a fun one like Tyrel's that makes it fun.

Christmas in a NUTcrackerSHELL

Well because I am so far behind I thought I would just sum a Christmas to get it down. First of all before Christmas Tyrel's work flew me up to Denver for there Christmas part and my mother-in-law watched the kids. It was great to get a night out. Much much needed. The Christmas party was ok itself but his work put us up in a really nice hotel downtown Denver. Tyrel and I went and toured the Botanical Garden's with all their lights, had dinner at the hotel with his work and then snuck out to a late movie when the party started getting a little too loud. It was great to have that. Then for Christmas we went to Tyrel's families house. It was so fun. The kids had a blast and it was fun to have two kids, three plus my nephew get excited about Santa and Christmas. Of course Grandma and Grandpa spoiled them, but that's ok. I can't so it's nice someone can. We had a big dinner Christmas eve and read the nativity story. Christmas morning we did present and had breakfast, which thanks me wasn't as great as I thought it was supposed to be. Oh well it's food!! Then we shot some clay pigeons. Then we went to Tyrel's Aunt and Uncle's for Christmas dinner, which I always love seeing them. They are a lot of fun. Then that night I played with the kids at the church with their new Christmas toys while the guys played basketball.