1 year old already!

Not so sure of cake/frosting

Diving in!

Loving it!
He earned himself a bath after this one.

I can't believe Ty is already 1! This year has flown by. Ty has been so much fun. He has four teeth now. He is so much happier now that the top two have poked through. He is taking a few steps at a time without holding onto anything. He prefers crawling as he can get there (wherever there is) faster. He motors up and down the stairs wherever the action may be. He has regressed to waking up once a night (I blame it on his latest ear infection). He still gags and dry heaves if I feed him something he doesn't like. He is getting really good and feeding Chandra (dog) anything that he prefers not to eat himself. Chandra positions herself right by Ty when he sits in the chair and just waits to be fed. (At first this was funny but not so much anymore). He is not really saying much yet but he seems to say Chandra - not mom or dad! Ty is usually not scared of strangers. He will reach his hands out to be held by a stranger as long as they talk to him first (never had a kid do that before). Ty weighs in at just over 24 pounds. Ty has a smile that melts my heart and a laugh that makes me giggle. He is so easy going and we all love him to pieces!

snow...ballet...Thanksgiving!

What a fun time a year it is. We got our first snowstorm of the season. We ended up with an extra long Thanksgiving break due to 3 total snow days. The snow didn't stop us from loading up and heading to Meridian for Thanksgiving. We packed up the Tahoe like we were the Grizwalds. On the very top was our bags, hanging off the back was the dog kennel, and inside were all 8 of us and the dog in the back. CRAZY! We had a great time with family and meeting our new cousin Kadence. My mom, Ashley and I got up at 4:15 and headed to Walmart for black friday shopping. I was glad my mom came along since we were in line for 2 1/2 hours and we couldn't leave to shop so we made a good tag team. The three of us had a good time together and stayed out until 1230 shopping.

Packed in! The ride home wasn't as fun as our team BYU
just lost to Utah from a missed field goal.

We got to celebrate Justin's birthday after Thanksgiving. The cousins all loved watching him open his 30 presents.

Kayla was a troll in her ballet performance of Hansel and Gretel. It was an amazing performance with the cutest costumes ever.

Her dad gave her 3 roses after her final performance

Mikayla and Abby

Girls Get Away

We so enjoyed shopping, eating, going to a movie, and visiting!

Teresa, Tamie, Chris, Tasha, Me, Janae

Moncia & Tasha

Lots of damage done!

A little Pecid AC to go around the table and everyone was great!

These last few weeks our family has been plagued with illness which nearly stopped me from heading out to Utah to party with friends. I left it all behind and had a fun weekend with my adopted sisters and 2nd mom, the Leishmans. Thanks to Dave for watching kids and hauling them all around to their many activities.

Cade has gotten braces for the second time and also his first fillings from the Dentist. Mikayla has had teeth pulled and fillings. Valerie has had the throw ups. Ty has been sick since his last surgery with double ear infection, cold, throw ups, diarrhea, and teething! (Hooray his top two teeth just came in yesterday!) We are now down to 3 to 4 dirty diaper changes a day rather than 13. Hopefully everyone is on the mend including me gaining back my sanity after a fun relaxing weekend.

Halloween

So I am posting Halloween a little late but at least we celebrated it! Once again we were hit with many tricker treaters and eventually ran out of candy. We put up our sign saying we had no candy, turned off the lights and closed the door about 8pm. It was kind of a rainy night but the kids had a blast and came away with way too much candy and a much anticipated upcoming trip to the dentist.

Katie, Maycee, Mikayla

Ty and his buddy Joe

Ty

Kierra & Ashley

Valerie

Mikayla

Valerie, Jemma, Conner, Hailey

Surprise Cade!

Cade turned 14 on Monday, November 1st. On Friday (the day before Halloween) I decided to throw him a surprise Halloween Birthday party. I had been planning it for a week with the help of a few of his friends. I even decided to invite GIRLS! I called them myself and pretty sure I scared them to death. I think he knew something was going to happen but did not know when. He forcefully went to a campout that night at 5:00. At 7:00 Dave went to pick him up by telling him he needed to help clean the church. More grumbles.... He stopped by the house to pick up Ashley and when he opened the door all of his friends yelled surprise!

Will, Jenna, Cade, Tehia, Libby, McKinnley, Brennan, Kai, Nikella, Adam, Cole, Kole, Skylar, NiCole, Braeden, Makaylee ?

His friends brought him a lot of CANDY including this poster made by Nikella Greener.

I had soooo much food in addition to pizza that I thought would be scarfed down by hungry teenagers but surprisingly I had a lot left.

We went on a scavenger hunt in 3 different teams. I recruited a few friends to help drive and record. It was a blast. They all enjoyed watching themselves after the hunt. All 3 teams got everything on the list even if it meant calling policemen off the road!

Video Scavenger Hunt

10 points:
Find a stranger to spell "FRANKENSTEIN" forward and backwards. (10)

A team member hugging a stranger (10)

Find a stranger who will act like Dracula and say, "I want to suck your blood" (10)

Video team trick or treating at one house (10)

Team member hugging a stranger (10)

Ask a little kid to sing Mary had a little Lamb (10)

Two group members hanging upside down on monkey bars making monkey sounds (10)


15 points:
Your group in grocery store holding a pack of hotdogs singing "I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Weiner" (15)

3 team members being pushed in a shopping cart (15)

Get 2 total strangers to sing and do the motions to YMCA with your entire group. (15)

Someone in group chugging a whole can soda and belching (15)



20 points:
Going to store and making a human pyramid (20)

Find a stranger who will let you wrap them up in toilet paper like a mummy. (20)

Go to a grave yard and find a tomb stone that has J somewhere in the name. (20)

Group walking through Kentucky Fried Chicken flapping their wings and making chicken noises (20)

Everyone in your group standing outside Wal-mart entrance singing a Christmas Carol and welcoming people to Wal-mart (20)



25 points:
Get a policeman to sing the theme to COPS, "Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do" (25)

Las Vegas

Dave took me on a birthday trip to Las Vegas last weekend. He made all the arrangements from flights to shows. I just enjoyed myself and left all 6 kiddos behind with my mom. We shopped a lot, ate a lot of crab, went to Lion King and the LaReve. It was so nice spending time together. We stayed at Planet Hollywood towers which led right out into a mall. We never had to visit the casinos. It was great because I never got a headache and we didn't smell like smoke. Thanks Dave for an awesome trip!

Da Girls

All the girls......and Dad!

Back again for surgery

While waiting for surgery, Ty discovered T.V. He was so excited watching Barney. The nurses were all laughing at him dance around.

This go round for Ty was soooo much better. He had a Dr's appt. Thursday and outpatient surgery on Friday. Of course they were behind so we waited and waited. Ty did amazingly well considering no food or bottle from 7am until 3pm when they finally wheeled him off to surgery. I got to see him about 5pm in recovery and finally felt relief that everything went as planned. I can say I really don't want to wait in that waiting room anytime soon! 4 surgeries in 10 months of his little life is plenty. I have lots to be grateful for and feel blessed to have Ty as a part of our family. Thanks Cam & Erin for watching Valerie and Hailey all day. They loved going to the zoo with their cousins.

All done! 10 months old and weighs 22lbs 7 oz. What a cute chunk a lunk!

Yummy!

My little bro and I just celebrated our birthdays. We are exactly 12 years and 1 day apart. Thanks Cam and Erin for treating us to my favorite dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.


Dave wasn't able to be there but he is making up for it by taking me to Vegas this weekend. He has even done all the planning himself!