Halloween, snow & hunting

This post is kind of in backwards order but oh well!

The night before halloween we ate some weird food.

Booberry brew with a hand.

We invited Reggies brother and his wife and baby over and I am pretty sure that the halloween food scared them into never wanting to eat at our house again ;)

We went to the trunk n treat. And then went trick or treating to a few houses. It was actually our kids' first time to knock on doors, even if it was only like 3 or 4. But it was freezing and they were tired. All in all we had a great time for halloween!

Cooper was a police officer.

Kira was a kitty cat.

Kyler was a bear.

We actually had snow BEFORE halloween this year which was lot's of fun.

Poor Kyler got one little touch of the snow and then I brought him back inside. He was NOT happy about leaving the cool white world.

Some time at the pumpkin patch. I love taking the kids to pick out a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch.

Reggie is having a fun hunting year. He started out with a bear hunt,

And then had a deer hunt. Reggie had a great time and I look forward to hunting season being closed, this time around. Usually I am very productive and we skip cooking dinner for the most part and all in all it's no so bad even enjoyable at times, but this time around I was just a grouch!(before, during and after)

Well that's about it for October.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COWBOY!

Cooper is now a BIG 5 year old!

Coopers birthday was last weekend and on Saturday he got to experience his first birthday PARTY! I went threw a list of themes with him: cars, batman, spiderman, robots, monters, halloween, etc. He chose COWBOY. He was extatic about it.

The kids each took a turn on the horse!

Reggie showed em how to rope the tricycle! That was funny and cute!

This is our birthday crowd! I went WAY overboard(but it was his 1st birthday party) O.K. so I went overboard more for me than Cooper. The kids each went away with their own dollar store cowboy/cowgirl hat, a bandana, and few other little party favors. Next year I will try to keep it cheap. (I would totally be happy if we just had the birthday party like always(just with the family) but it was a blast with the kids. All the kids were great and I hope they had fun. I know Cooper and Kira did.

I found this online-it was fairly easy except I had to improvise (it was suppose to be an 8-inch round and a 9inch square). I only had a 9inch round and 8inch square. But all in all. I made Reggie sit there and babysit me while I cut the cake because I was so scared of messing it up. His patience was very short at 10pm-poor guy. Well the horse is suppose to be brown but Cooper really wanted a blue cake because "blue is my favorite color" he says. Aaah cute kid!

Dear Cooper,

You are one heck of a kid! You are a big helper and love to work with Mom and Dad(as long as you don't have to clean your toys up). Daddy loves to know your always right there behind him. You want to be your Daddy, look like your Daddy, sit like your Daddy, put your boots by Daddy's boots! Yet you still LOVE your Mommy! You tell her she is beautiful, and on Sunday you always call Kira and Mommy princesses. You are a charmer and a very smart kid. You can be very serious and straight forward having a hard time with Daddy's teasing but once we tell you he's teasing you are a good sport. You love Kira and Kyler. Kyler looks up to you so much already and thinks you are awesome. You love to love Kyler. You love to play with Kira and it takes up about 90% of your day. You live to wrestle with Daddy. You want to be obedient when you want to be obedient. You love to run. You are a happy positive boy who wants everybody to be happy. You always want to play games(I'm sorry we don't play more). Life or as you call it "the car game" is the game you always beg to play. You like to get dinosaur books from the library, and everywhere you go everybody wants to know you better. Even though you like to be a stinker at times I am glad you are my son and that I get to spend so much time with you. Please don't ever stop flashing your cute cheesy smile at me, and don't stop randomly telling me in such a cute voice "I love you Mommy."
I love you Cooper Lon!!

You are a GREAT kid!!!

I realize I have been a huge slacker about blogging-I'll try to do better :)

Nice people and Guardian Angel

Guardian Angels

So last Sunday...just a few minutes after I get out of the shower, and while Reggie is laying on the bed reading his missionary journal, we hear this really loud CRASH and the sound of glass SHATTERING. So we run to the scene and the kids are crying. We found Kira and Kyler under this (I don't even know what to call it) hutch(is what we call it) that is actually is suppose to go on the sides of the entertainment center but we chose to put it somewhere else instead. Anywho...over on the left hand side Kylers legs were under it and Kira's entire body had been landed on. Cooper...let's see where was Cooper...oh yeah he ran away as soon as it happened...he didn't want to get in trouble. Well after talking to Cooper we found out that he was trying to open the top door and that was when it fell over-on TOP of my babies. Well when we went to get the kids, I picked it up to pull them out and ended up rolling it on top of them, before actually getting it off of them. Well guess what, other than a few tears and a scary experience-NOTHING happened to any of them. Not a single scratch, or cut or bruise. We are very lucky and thank our Guardian Angels. Kyler just hugged me and didn't want to let go. I felt extremely foolish for never bolting the darn thing-because I KNEW it was NOT stable.

NICE OR MEAN?

So are people in the world mean or nice? Think about it-do you think people are nice? Well I think that over all, people are very nice!

Reggie and I took the kids bowling tonight and on the way home I ran in to Walmart really quick. I just needed milk, but a few things got forgotten at our last grocery trip so I decided to get a few things. Reggie jokingly warned me that if I wasn't back in 20 min. he was going to leave me. I have no watch and no cell phone-so therefore have NO time.

Well, there I am checking out-all I have in my pocket is $70 and I'm pretty sure all I have is $50 worth of food so I wait and then see the total- $110! I was like REALLY embarrassed and was frantically looking in my bags trying to take things out so the people behind me don't get irritated. They asked myself and the cashier how short I was and I mumbled while searching my bags-"like $30 or $40" So now I am really worried about upsetting the people behind me because I mean come on, what would you be thinking? "Yeah good luck getting rid of $30-$40 worth of food" Okay so in the quick second that I was judging the people behind me and after I got the bill down to $83 they asked again "How much are you short?" They then told the cashier that they would take care of the rest! OH MY HEAVENS! Are people really that nice. You know they never even ONCE seemed grumpy or irritated at me taking FOREVER. I tell them "You don't need to do this, really! I have the money it's just not with me, really it's fine! That is very kind of you but REALLY I'm fine."(So do you think I said really enough :)) They absolutely insisted! This couple was so amazing! They even told the cashier to put all my groceries back and they were going to cover all the extra-which ended up being 30 bucks! WOW People REALLY are nice. And was in absolute tears and I hugged the lady and everything. Oh man...well in the meantime Reggie is parked outside with very sleepy kids and 9:30pm and he is waiting for me with the lights on. Some guy pulls up and yells over to Reggie with not very nice language telling Reggie to turn his lights off. Okay-so Reggie has a bit of a Temper, and I don't think think this man was very wise. Then he goes over to the car and Reggie rolls the window down and this guy is yelling at Reg again with not very nice things to say ;) Well do ya think Reggie turned his lights off?-NOPE. He would have been more than happy to turn them off if the guy wasn't so rude, well the guy left which was good, and then Reggie turned his lights off :).(I'm pretty sure I would have wanted to do the same thing, if somebody yelled at me like that) I am just glad because Reggie said the kids probably didn't hear him and I'm glad Reggie stayed in the car and kept his cool.

So...do people yell and swear, or do people see someone in need and offer to help.

Those people were SO nice!

Granted I yell sometimes-at my sweet poor hubby and a little at my innocent kids(I know I'm a terrible mother sometimes) but I hope that for the most part I can be NICE!

Reggie's birthday camping trip!

I got Reggie a camp stove for his birthday!

(of coarse it is so HE can cook me delicious food when we go camping)

Kyler REALLY wanted to sit on it-hhmmm, fried Kyler-I bet it's sweet ;)

This is our wildlife for the weekend. I don't think I have ever seen wild turkeys.

Our exciting camp!

Mommy and Kyler chillin' on our nature walk.

WOW-what a cool rock :)

Cooper and Kira had fun sitting on this tree. Reggie was bouncing it a bunch. Cooper actually fell off and Kira was holding on for her life. Cooper totally face planted.

What a cool sideways growing tree! Cooper was terrified going up as high as he did in this picture, yet he can jump off my kitchen counter!

Kira is such an actress! And very brave! She climbed higher than Reggie until I finally told her to come down. She (pretended) to get stuck and guess who she wanted to rescue her...Cooper. That's right Cooper is her prince charming I guess. While waiting for Cooper to go two feet up the tree she slipped and got pretty scraped up, but she hung on for life again and didn't fall down. She just hung on until Daddy came to her rescue.

CELL PHONE on a camping trip?! WHAT?! Ever since Reggie's Dad had a stroke about 1 or 2 months ago, Reggie has been super busy. The phone is always on his ear(I have got to get this guy a blue tooth) His Dad is doing good but we don't think he'll ever return to work or even be able to drive for that matter, he is a lot different now. So the business has been in much need of Reggie since he is basically the replacement for his Dad. We were lucky to even get a little time off for this trip.

We were at the very end of a long dirt road and camped in a spot with cell service-what luck ;)

I love this picture-Reggie and the kids were getting ready to shoot. The kids were having a blast putting ear muffs on Kyler.

We love DADDY!

Dinner AND a show!

Kira was about to perform and needed Daddy to take care of her bear. Daddy is a great bearsitter.

Here is the show...

After breakfast we(the kids) decided to have an on the spot talent show!

Cooper did his infamous cowboy dance-whoa!

My adorable little Kira doing a little dance and jumping jacks.

Happy 29th Birthday Reggie!

I am a bad wife and didn't come prepared with a cake so when we made pancakes I made Reggie pancakes in the shape of a 2 and a 9 and I was prepared with candles so he blew out the candle on his pan CAKE!

We love to eat good when we go camping!

Happy 1st Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY!!!

He started out so small! He was my smallest baby(by 4 ounces).

I had to call the hospital after we left because I still wasn't sure about his middle name.

I don't think he cried more than one time the entire hospital stay.

My little Kyler Leo...

He looked so skinny and small...

he grew to be one of my chubbier babies
...and now
here he is in all his sweetness



...still wearing cloth diapers

...and SO DANG CUTE!

I can't get the pictures off of my new memory card(I am not so skilled at the computer)

So Kylers birthday pictures will remain in my camera until I figure it out.

I can't believe my little boy is ONE today.

Kyler said his first word a few weeks ago-it was 'bye' and so cute. He would say 'baa' and then start waving all by himself.

Today he started clapping for the first time, and I swear he said amen after the prayer.

He is so funny.

He can be screaming mad and waiting on his food but when we bless it-EVERY time we say the blessing he is completely quiet and still until the prayer is over.

He is the biggest tease ever!

and he is such a flirt-At the rodeo last weekend for Pioneer Days, this girl sat behind us and she kept talking to Kyler and Kyler would get super goofy and smile and talk and then he would bury his face in my chest and hide and be shy and then he would do it all over again.

Kyler has made everyone around him very glad to know him and we are very special to be a part of his family.

Happy Birthday Kyler-I Love You!!

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig

I am so happy to be home I could probably DO a little jig!

The life of this...

and this...

is finally over! I am so happy! We have been here for a week and I don't think we will be leaving any time soon. Poor Reggie had leave for a couple days this last week, but is now also happy to be at home.

Over the past 3 months, I would pack up the kids and follow Reggie to work or be a single parent while he goes off to work for about 5 days. That has been our lives about 90 percent of the last 3 months. I will say that when we would tag along it was like a little work vacation, but now...aahhh to be home again. The traveling circus has retired to Snowflake once again. We have been to Colorado, New Mexico, and we were able to stay at my parents house in Pima a few different times.

After being gone for 3 months and home one week this is what I realized...

1. I am very tired

2. um, where is the maid? "towels in room 311 please" :)

3. my kids were only sick once in the past 3 months

4. we have been home a week and every body has either allergies or colds

5. our house is HOT(good ol' swamp coolers when it's humid-they do NOTHING)

6. I LOVE and appreciate my home way more than ever before

7. I enjoy cooking-however dislike cleaning up

8. I am glad to be home and buy healthy food-and EAT it.

9. I love my ward

10. We live in a great community

11. We are very blessed

12. I REALLY need to appreciate Reggie and his job more

13. my kids have been playing none stop with each other since we've been back

-HAPPILY playing! :)

Well I hope to be posting a little more frequently now...many stories of the last few months to come soon...

Kirana Manea!

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY KIRA!!!

Kira turned 3 yrs old last Sunday. I can't believe my little B is already 3!

Kira is

sweet

loaded with personality

RED HEADED(with the red headed attitude and all)

strong minded

smart

dancer

singer

princess

wild

loud

quiet

funny

big tease

fun

beautiful

green eyes

sensitive

tough

actress

stinker

attitudicidal(did ya get that)

tender

rambunctious

active

girly

strong

spunky

My mom always said Kira was like a little pixie and she reminds us all that she is just a little Tinkerbell *sweet with attitude.

Kira's name is Kirana(Hello) Manea(Beautiful). Reggie served a mission in the Cook Islands and spoke Mauri there and so she is Hello Beautiful!

Ok so Kira was potty trained almost completely-she finally went like a week with out having an accident. One hour before her birthday party-she pees. So there went her cute little Birthday outfit and bows. Right at 6:30 when Reg's family was going to be there - she pees again. There went another outfit. Oh my goodness I was running out of clothes for her. I guess it was too much excitement. We went to see my parents because of work Reggie had in Safford and the entire weekend I was cleaning up pee! Oh my gosh am I exhausted from that. We will be going again and I really hope I can remember to remind her so she doesn't have an accident on my parent new carpet again!

So my parents have recently acquired some really nice statues and their living room is filled with them-in the last year the room has been painted, re-carpeted, re-furnished and then some. Well leave it to B to now have all the grandkids banned from that room. She doesn't mean to do harm, she is just always going never stopping. She can't even sit still to eat. But I love her for it. I love my little energizer bunny! Without her energy it just wouldn't be B!

Just so everyone knows(she got the nickname B when she was born. Cooper couldn't say Kira or Baby-but B is short for baby. Well B just stuck and we call her that all the time even still)

More Tea please!-oh I mean Hot cocoa!

Kira loved her Tea set and the little table and chairs!
Wade is Reggie's brother and the kids' favorite person ever!

Kira was so sweet to let Cooper help her open all her presents!

She really is a sweetheart!

Lately she says "my name princess"

Kira's birthday party was the night before her birthday, but on her birthday we went to Pima so my parents got to see her on her birthday.

Kira-blowing out the candles on her Tinkerbell cake!

I love you Kira-every moment I think of you! You add so much sweetness to our family and just enough spunk! Life would be very dull without you! Happy Birthday my little princess!