another blogger has been born.....................

My darling mom made her own blog over the weekend and now I finally get to show off her many talents! Check out her blog and her artisitc creations!
http://sagebrushstudio.blogspot.com/

a sneak peek!!!!!

I can't even wait to see the rest of our family pictures Wendy took this weekend.............She sent me a couple so I could get excited. Thank you Wendy for putting up with my- shall we say- energetic family!!!!!

a rainy afternoon........

Many of you have been asking about who has been taking these lovely pictures of my kiddos. It is none other than my sweetie friend Wendy Shepherd. She has recently started up her own business here in Flag and I must say she is great with kids! here is her pricing if you are interested. Christmas is right around the corner you know.....................

http://www.wendyshepherdphotography.blogspot.com/

I LOVE these pictures she took this afternoon of Livia. The big pink chair is any little girl's dream to sit in. I also love how you can see the rain falling in the one with Livia and the umbrella. Fabulous!

This child is just so..........

I had a list of things to conquer this morning and Tate was being his usual difficult self so even though it was only 9:30 in the morning I gave him a little box of nerds to entertain him. (giving this kid sugar is like fighting fire with fire so I don't really know what the old brain of mine was thinking.) Well, it seemed to do the trick and I had a kid that disappeared for a great length of time. When I went to check on him I asked if he ate all of his candy and he just looked up at me with a great big smile- "Just my nose says thank you mommy!" What does that mean I wondered- "Say it again Tate"- "My nose say thank you for that treat that was deeeeeelicious!" upon closer examination I see that there are bright pink nerds hanging out of Tate's nostrils. "What the honk Tate!?! did you put your candy in your nose?!?" I began to get a little frantic remembering how my cousin put a button up her nose when we were little and it had to get removed by the doctor and also my niece put a plastic bottle wrapper up her nose and had to make the same trip! I asked Tate if he could blow the candy out of his nose- he tried and the little guys just started flying out as if he was a machine gun. This only made him happier about what he had done so I was scared he would now want to put anything he could in his nose in order to become the human semi-automatic weapon! What do I do in a situation like this?- I lie........ "Tate, if you stick things up your nose it will make you throw up. (he has a huge fear of throwing up) so you better not ever do that again- plus some things get stuck real good and you would have to go to the doctors office to get it yanked out and it hurts- bad!" He looked at me thoughtfully and then sat down and said "Thanks for saving me, mommy." hilarious. and if this wasn't all bad enough, the child began walking around his room and popping the booger nerds right into his mouth!!!!! I had to leave the room for fear that I would throw up. Kind of a gross blog entry- sorry!

So Rach passed this blog my way and I could not stop laughing. It is a total spoof on the Mormon housewife blogging craze! We all need to laugh at ourselves every now and then. Whoever is behind this either has way too much time on their hands or is possibly the funniest person ever created! enjoy it. Click on the link above!

weekend fun

It is always good food and way too much fun when we go to visit our cousins in Prescott! Livia even got to go a few days before Tate and I to spend some extra time with Ms. Avery (thanks Aunt Tess!) we had such a good time making pumpkins and putting up Tess's fall decorations. I honestly did not want to come home! Now that the kids are both in preschool, I had to be the responsible parent and get us back to our routine. See the little Baby frog? Tess's street is hopping with these little critters everywhere. Tate couldn't have been more happy catching frogs with Taylor and then terrorizing them. Avery and Livia were so cute when it was time to go- I like the picture where Avery is telling Livia they will play again soon. Too sweet.

tough lessons to learn

A tough one indeed! Livia is obsessed with wasting toilet paper! She always has been- kind of a weird obsession, I know...... It is used as barbie and baby doll clothing, bedding for all of her random creatures, stuffing for paper pillows, bandages for broken bones and of course she uses it for any spills that need a quick mop up. I have explained to her that we are going through way too much toilet paper and she just is not allowed to use it for anything accept what it is intended for. She has continued to ignore my wishes so I had to come up with a more aggressive plan. On Tuesday, I had planned to take the kids with me to the store to pick out their reward for chores. I gave them each a couple dollars and told Tate that he could pick something out that his allowance could pay for. Livia, however was told "Livs, I am so sorry but since you have been wasting all of our toilet paper it is your responsibility to buy our families toilet paper for the week................" Her eyes were huge- I saw that it was sinking in. She then asks me "So I am going to buy some toilet paper and then I get my reward?" "sorry Livia, you have just enough money to cover the cost of the toilet paper and that is all. I am so sad that you have to buy this instead of a prize you must be so bumbed." her eyes filled up with tears as she saw Tate pick out his prize and how excited he was while she dragged along her toilet paper behind her. I was feeling so sorry for the poor kid but I knew I couldn't turn back now- It was a lesson that I had to follow through with. Let's just say Livia is the Toilet Paper Nazi now! She demands that we only use three sheets! Needless to say, I think this lesson has been learned.

A few of my favorites........

Pics via Wendy Shepherd

Tate's first day of school......

Tate is such a social little bug. Poor Livia has to have me at her side for the beginning of anything (primary, school, birthday parties) where as Mr. Tate runs ahead of me yelling "bye mom- you can go -k-?" He was so excited to be a big boy and wear a backpack just like the big kids do. I am loving having them both in preschool right now because they each have their own little special thing going on. Man- couldn't you just eat him up? I love this little man.................

first day of school

This morning I awoke to a tap on the nose by a fresh breath little girl. She had gotten up early- made her bed- got dressed and even brushed her teeth before waking me up to make her some breakfast- I think I could really get used to this routine! Now if I can just teach her to get Tate dressed and the Dishwasher unloaded all before I have to get out of bed. Oh this little lady..................she is just a responsible little soul who has such a big heart. She loves school and socializing and feeling like a big kid. I just adore her insight and humor! I am so excited for her to be going three days a week this year because she needs to get on her own more. Her little brother has really been bugging her towards the end of the summer and I was at a loss of how to handle it! This seems to help because Tate does not take her for granted after being separated from her for a little while. I love these pictures of Livy because she was literally so excited she was vibrating all morning- she could not for the life of her stand still for a picture!