Kaysia turns 7...

Last month Kaysia turned the big SEVEN!  I can't believe how fast my baby girl is growing up.  Not only is she 7 but she is 7 going on 17!  She is into music and loves watching movies.  She is great at playing the piano and LOVES to put on make-up.  This year her birthday landed on the Saturday we celebrate Thanksgiving with my extended side of the family and the Friday before her birthday was a big relief society activity I couldn't miss.  I felt so bad that I couldn't give her a birthday party like I did Kyson, but I think it worked out great in the end.  I took her and two friends to go get pedicures and ice cream.  She thanked me for the best birthday ever and asked if we could do it again next year.  One of her little friends that was with us said, "This is the best day of my life, thanks Mellisa!"  Who knew pedicures were so great, even for 7 year olds!

At Dairy Queen.

We (when I say we, I ultimately mean me) made these flip flops during our pedicures to show their pretty tootsies off.

Halloween...

Halloween was a busy time for me.  My grandfather passed away just before and Jason was working on a big project at work all week.  Mother of the year didn't take any pictures!  I did however take pictures of the kids when I told them about their new sister we will be welcoming into our family in March.  They got home from school that day and waiting for them was a cup and hiding in the cup was a cupcake frosted with pink frosting.  This year the kids decided they would be Woody, Jessy and Buzz.  I also bought Jason and I Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head costomes to go with the theme.  Unfortunately we didn't get to wear them and I took them back : (

Kyson turns 5...

Kyson turned 5 this year.  I can't believe how big my kids are getting.  This year we did a friend party after school one day and then had our usual family party.  He wanted a Transformers cake (which I didn't attempt to make, unlike years past).  He had a lot of fun.  I love having him in our family.  He loves being around people, playing games and building stuff with his Trio blocks.  He is such a good big and little brother (when he wants to be) and can be so helpful.  I just love this kid!

Picking pumpkins...

Every year we go to a neighborhood party hosted by J&J Nursery.  It's always a lot of fun, complete with hamburgers and hot dogs, a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch and some pumpkin picking.  This year Jason was at home laying grass in our backyard so somehow I tackled 3 kids and 6 pumpkins (one for each person in the family including the unborn).  Thanks to my friend Jill and her husband, I was able to get the pumpkins back to the wagon!

Camden and Kyson on the hay ride.

Kaysia and my friend Missy on the hay ride.

Camden and his pumpkin.  He's the only one that stayed close enough to me so I could take a picture.  The other two ran crazy through the patch!



Soccer Season...

This year we were crazy busy with soccer.  Kaysia and Kyson both played and we did 3 games per week.  Although Kaysia's talent is playing the piano, she really enjoys playing soccer.  Here is a picture of her team warming up..

This year the field was DOUBLE the size as last year.  Kaysia isn't used to a lot of physical activity (she's enjoys rather lazy activities, part of the reason we insist on soccer) so the bigger field was a big adjustment.  Here is a picture of her after playing 2 quarters...

Towards the end of the season the bigger field wasn't as big of an issue and she really enjoyed herself. 

Now Kyson is a different story when it comes to soccer.  He LOVES it and is actually REALLY good at it too.  He scored at least one goal every game (most the time multiple goals, but who keeps count right?).  The look on his face is PRICELESS after he scores a goal.  He is so proud of himself and it is one of those mommy moments that melts my heart!

Ahead of the kids on his way to a score a goal.



He's so proud and I just love being his mommy! (I'm pretty proud too.)

I can't wait to put Camden in soccer.  We actually had to go buy some soccer nets to take with us to the games because Camden was SO mad that he couldn't kick a ball into a net too.  He quickly learned that you don't play soccer outside the white lines and he wanted to be in the game too.  Poor kid still has a couple years!  I know he will be super good at it too.  He is a born athlete!

Kaysia's CrAzY Hair day....

This year Kaysia had a crazy hair day for spirit week.  Since her hair is SO long and SO thick, I knew we wouldn't be able to get it to stand up straight (as she requested).  I left 40 minutes available in our morning routine to "improvise" on her mop of hair.  This is what we came up with...

I thought we did a pretty good job considering I had NO IDEA what I was going to do when we started.  But the next day....THAT was a crazy hair day!

I guess now we know for next year!

The (almost) Finished Backyard...

Remember WAYYY back when??  Our yard looked like this....

After A LOT of dirt (3 full dump truck loads) and a lot of moving around of dirt, we went from a swamp to this...

Then after a LONG few months, LOTS of hard work and an UNMENTIONABLE amount of money, we finally have THIS....

We haven't totally finished they yard but what is left is a few weekend projects we are going to tackle next spring.  We ran out of good weather and thankfully for us, this year the good weather lasted quite a long time!  I am VERY glad to have it done and am pretty impressed with the final product.  The kids will have a fun place to play this coming summer while mommy and new baby kick back!