this is crowded happiness

Blueberry Picking!

2009-08-13T22:31:00.005-06:00

Yesterday we decided to get out of the house and go do a little blueberry picking at a farm about a half hour from our home. It was so beautiful! The berry bushes were at the base of this mountain. We went with our good friends the Nelson's and had a fabulous time!

They had six different types of blueberries and we decided that we wanted to pick from the blue crop because they were bigger and sweeter!

We all grabbed little buckets and headed into the berry bushes! Berkley was so excited!

(sidenote: she still won't let me do her hair and it was sprinkling a bit!)

If you look into Berkley's bucket you can see ONE little blueberry. She was so proud of that one little berry...we could've gone home at that point and she would have been proud as a peacock over it! I know she doesn't look that excited, but every time she looked into the camera it was to bright and she would look down again.

Emree and Carrin!

Morgan getting ready to gobble up a blueberry!

The rows of berries were pretty close together so some of the branches tried to eat our little birdie!

Kennedy had fun too!

Shalyn & I at the end of our berry picking adventure.

All our work in a flat! The most delicious blueberries and they all came to $10! What a steal!

Of course, we made some delicious blueberry cobbler and Shalyn and I got together and made some amazing blueberry jam! It was my first time making jam and she was the perfect teacher! Thanks Shalyn!

Our next trip....Apples!

WHAT DOES THAT SAY!!!

2009-08-06T15:12:00.003-06:00

How many of you just know that you are done having kids...you can feel it? Brackon and I knew that we were done having kids once we had Berkley. We just felt complete! We were so sure in fact that we got rid of all of our baby things and all of my maternity clothes. So...it was a complete shock for us when we found out on Aug 1st that we were expecting baby #5! How can this be...well, we know how this can be, but...HOW CAN THIS BE?!?!

I personally thought that my jeans were starting to fit a little more snug because I was eating too much texas sheet cake! I was positive that the cottage cheese and yogurt that I had been CRAVING and eating every day for breakfast AND lunch for three weeks was healthy for me and was mad that it had made me put on a few pounds! I decided that I'd better not let myself go so I started to do pilates and PX90! That being said...I know that you don't start getting big when you are only a couple months pregnant, but this is my 5th so I am stretched out like a balloon and yes, my jeans are snug already! I, not being a fan of the "muffin top", have got myself using an elastic on some of my jeans that were a little more fitted so that I can wear them for longer!!!!

We've had a chance to let it sink in and told the girls and they are soooo excited! I went to the doctors last week and found out that I am 7 weeks along and am due March 27th! I've just started feeling sick and it's not too shabby...so far! I'm excited that I was unaware for 7 weeks and I'm hoping that this whole pregnancy with go by quickly. We are also crossing our fingers that we are getting a little boy! If we have a boy then we would've had to get new things anyways so getting rid of our stash of baby things won't seem so bad!

We are excited to strap on this new adventure and will keep you all posted on how things are coming along!

Let's Play Catch up!

2009-05-08T23:51:00.019-06:00

This summer has been CRAZY!!! We have so much to update going all the way back to March! Let's get started!!!

It had been quite a few years since we had family pictures taken and we wanted our good friend, Kimberly Nelson (Tilt Photography), to take them for us before we moved to Seattle! They turned out awesome and we LOVE them! Thank You Kimberly!

This piggy picture is one of my favorites! It was the last picture that we did and the family didn't want to do it...mostly because they had to lay down on lava rock (ouch!) and we were at a 45 degree angle! My mom was there to help out with Berkley and she had to keep pulling us back up on the track, by our feet, so that we could get the picture! We had being shooting for 2 hours at this point...everyone was tired and spent, but I really wanted this picture! Of course Berkley was a no go! Thank you mom and thanks to my family for appeasing their mother!

OUR MOVE TO SEATTLE

A year and 3 months after our move from Atlanta, GA back to Orem, UT, Brackon received another promotion that brought us here to Maple Valley, WA! Our good friends that lived out in California when we lived in Rancho Cucamonga, Joe and Shalyn Nelson, were living out here and we gave them a call when we found out we were coming! We wanted to get the 411 on the best place to live. Of course, they directed us to their neighborhood. Shalyn actually found our home for us! It has been so much fun to be close to them again!

We love our home! We have fabulous neighbors and love the ward too! We live in an 'L' shaped cul de sac and we are on the 'elbow' of the L! We have a great little park across the street from our house that the kids love to play at...when it's not raining! You can see that there is a retaining wall on the far side of the park so the kids can't get out of the cul de sac.

There was quite a bit of rain at the beginning when we first moved in, but the summer has been gorgeous! Normally, we've been told, it doesn't get too sunny until July or August, but this summer has been very sunny and hot starting in May. We are going thru a crazy heat wave this past week and are DYING!!!! It's been in the high 90's and has even gotten to 101 which is a new high in the history of the state of Washington! Some of you may be thinking, "That's not a big deal!" It is when you don't have A/C in your home!!! I know...who doesn't have A/C!!! The folks that say you don't need A/C must not live here in the summer!!!! Our home at 10:30 pm is 88 degrees and it's much hotter upstairs! It is grueling to attempt to get to sleep at night! On the news this afternoon they said that only 14% of homes here in WA have air conditioning! HELLO!!! Granted we only need it for two months out of the year, but talk to anyone that is suffering without it right now and they'll tell you it's worth it!!!

BERKLEY TURNS TWO

Our little Berkley turned 2 on April 2nd, which was the day we moved into our new home so we don't have any party pictures. As a matter of fact, we didn't even have a little party for her. We were going to do one when we got settled, but we all know how long that takes, right?! She's 2 and won't even remember...we hope!

Berkley has such a fun personality right now. She is starting to talk a lot more, but we still can't understand her sometimes so we joke about her being so brilliant that she can speak chinese before she speaks english!!! She loves to talk on the phone and do anything her big sisters are doing.

Berkley is in a big girl bed now and loves it! We moved a TV and DVD player into her room to keep her in her bed. I know what some of you are thinking, but honestly, when you're used to your down time at night and the baby starts getting out of bed and doesn't go to sleep until 11pm, you get desperate!

Our little birdie, also still has her bottle and I KNOW that I need to get rid of it, but truthfully, I'm not sure that I'm ready for it because she takes it to bed and has them at nap time too! I've tried putting her milk in a sippie cup and she will have nothing to do with it!!! I've decided that I need her to help me put all of the bottles in a garbage bag and then we need to throw them in a trash FAR, FAR away from our home...otherwise, I will be diving into the trash if the crying gets to be too much! Wish me luck!

EMREE TURNS 8

Our sweet Emree turned eight at the end of May! She is getting so big. She has such a bubbly personality and I love the way she crinkles her nose when she smiles. She loves to play with all the kids on the block and is friends with everyone. Emree is our little tomboy and loves to wear a hat! She always has one on and more often than not it is turned sideways! We are so glad that she is in our family!

She has a good friend named Derby who lives across the street from us and her birthday is at the beginning of June so we did a combined b-day party!

We had a Mexican fiesta with a pinata...

sombreros and lots of food!

Emree, Maddie, and Derby are BFF's and always have a great time together!

Emree also got baptized! We are so proud of her! Grandma & Grandpa Livingstone came out and so did Aunt Patti and her kids. It was so nice to have them here with us. I completely forgot to take pictures with everyone.

MORGAN

Morgan has become fast friends with the kids here. She is going into 6th grade next year which is Middle School. She's excited and has started to look for things to put in her locker. I remember decking out my locker when I was in Jr. High and loved doing it! It's so fun to see our kids growing up and doing the things we used to do. It seems like so long ago and then sometimes it seems like only yesterday!

Our little Shmoopy has such a fun, loving personality and she loves to tease...wonder who she got that from. ;) She and her friend Abby are inseparable and want to spend every waking moment with each other! They are so cute together!

Abby will probably die when she sees the picture that I posted, but it was the only one I have of her and I think it's darling! I wanted to post one of the two of them together, but there wasn't one!

KENNEDY TURNS 14

Kennedy has been having an exciting summer! She flew down to Utah on the 18th of June, 2 days before school let out, to go to Girl's Camp with her friends. She has been gone for 6 wks and has been all over the place. She has been staying with G&G Livingstone, her good friend Maddie, she's gone to Colorado to see Aunt Honey and her family for Riley's baptism, St. George to visit G&G Curtis and cousins! She has been busy as a bee and we have missed her a lot!

Kennedy turned 14 yesterday and I honestly can't believe that we have a 14 yr old! Kennedy is the most responsible young lady you will ever find! Our neighbors out here say that she's my mother because she's always reminding me of things I need to do! What would we do without our sweet Kenners? We are so glad to be getting her back tomorrow! We have all missed her a lot.

Thank you to everyone for taking such good care of her for the summer and especially on her birthday! She loved going to get her piggies painted with Grandma Curtis and going out to breakfast with Grandma Livingstone. She was so excited to be going to a sleepover with Cassi at Aunt Micki and Uncle Spencer's and to dinner. You are all so awesome!!! We are so blessed to have such an amazing family!

Kennedy starts early morning seminary (6 am) now that she will be in 9th grade. It kills me! So grown up!!!

This is Kenners and her friend Sierra. They have a lot of fun together. She's excited to get back and see her.

Well that about wraps things up for us. We hope that you are all having a fabulous summer! I will definitely do better at updating our blog more frequently since this just took me FOREVER to do!

So Much To Update, So Little Time!

2009-04-16T10:40:00.003-06:00

We have had so much happen this past little while that I need to blog about! We've packed up and moved to Seattle...Berkley turned two...I need to post our family pics that we had taken that I LOVE...and honestly I don't remember everything else, but I know there's more!!! I'm busy unpacking and getting our house all pretty, but once I find a widget of time I will jump on here and get some pics of our new home and fill you all in on everything that has been happening in our busy little life! I have decided to try and keep our blog up at least every 2 weeks! Wish me luck on that one! Of course, I'm thinking if I keep up on my blog everyone else will too since we are so far away and won't know what ya'll are up to....hint, hint, hint.

Trip to St George for Mom's Last Chemo!!!

2009-02-27T13:04:00.003-07:00

Brackon and I headed down to St. George without the kids for mom's last chemo treatment! It was so great to spend time with everyone and especially mom and dad! Mom just looks amazing and has come out of her chemo with flying colors!

Look at that sassy lady!!!!

Coby and Kacie were there too!

Mom started her radiation at the beginning of Feb and is doing well. We are so grateful for what an amazing, strong woman mom is. We love you so much mom!

Cute mom and son pic!

Christmas 2008

2009-02-27T12:50:00.003-07:00

Okay, we are so lame and hardly took any pictures of Christmas...only 4 to be exact. Kennedy is going to kill me for putting this on here, but this is our little family journal and I wanted to have a pic of her on Christmas! She looks darling to me!

Most pictures we get of Berkley have her squinting. She knows the flash is coming and our camera has a CRAZY flash that blinks a million times before the picture takes and sucks the batteries dry after 10 pics...well not really, but almost!

Emree's all smiles. All she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth!

Our little schmoopie Morgan is excited to open her presents!

Well that's all folks and because it's taken me sooo long to post this I can't even remember what we did Christmas Day. Isn't that awful?! I do know that we had loads of fun.

Emree the Squirrel

2009-02-27T12:28:00.004-07:00

Emree's Class had a little Christmas party and they wrote a play without much help from their teacher Mrs. McTeer. Emree was a little grey squirrel and so hilarious.

The kids sang songs and built a paper snowman and had a lot of fun

Emree was gather nuts for the winter.

When she came back to her tree it had been cut down and she passed out. It was so funny! The funniest part was listening to her tell me what she had to say and do a few days before the play. She kept laughing and was so excited. She had the fluffiest grey tall and we forgot to get a picture of it, but you can see it to the left of her in this next picture.

Hooray for Emree!!! She was the best little squirrel ever!!!

Lights at Temple Square

2009-02-27T12:05:00.004-07:00

This year we headed to Temple Square in Salt Lake with John and Mindy and the kids to check out the lights! It was FREEZING!!!! We were all bundled up and spent most of the time inside the visitors center and Joseph Smith Memorial building drinking hot chocolate. Yummy!

Daddy and Berkley

This year there we hardly any lights. It was kind of a bummer to drive all that way and have so few lights. A few weeks later we found out that it's because the lights are damaging the trees...poor trees!

Morgan and Emree all smiles...nice and toasty inside!

We were waiting for the dad's to park the cars so we snapped a quick shot of Aunt Mindy with all the kids. What a sassy group of ladies and, of course, a handsome gent mixed in there!

It was a fun evening enjoyed by all...especially the hot chocolate...yup, the hot chocolate was our favorite part!

In Desperate Need of an Update!!!

2009-02-23T16:39:00.002-07:00

I am completely aware of the fact that I need to update our blog! So much updating...so little time! We've had a million things happen that we need to add to our family journal. We haven't even added Christmas yet! I will get to it...I promise...I just can't promise when! I know, I know...some of you are saying, "If you would just update when things happen it wouldn't be so overwhelming!" This i am aware of and I need to give it a whirl. However, truth be told, I will probably always 'cram' post. It's just the way I am. My next post will be a doozie so watch for it!

Attack of the Pumpkin Pie!

2008-12-03T18:20:00.002-07:00

The day after Thanksgiving dad Livingstone was getting something out of the fridge. Reecy and Eric were getting ready to head back home to Vegas. While dad was in the fridge he knocked over a can of pumpkin that had a spoon sticking out of it because mom was too tired to put it away in a container the night she made the pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. Reecy was right next to the fridge and was the lucky winner who got covered!!! She was laughing her head off. What a good sport! It even hit the ceiling, but not dad!

This is for you Ross!

Turkey Day!!!

2008-12-03T17:46:00.004-07:00

I started out Turkey Day bright and early to run the 5K Turkey Trot with my sisters Reecy and Mindy. We had great weather and it worked out fabulously since we had TWO turkey dinners, well a lunch and dinner! So yummy!!!

We had Thankmas this year...Christmas at Thanksgiving! All of our family was together for thanksgiving and won't be for Christmas so we had our family gift giving! There are 40 of us when we are all together so we reserve the church and do it over there. The kids loved it! They got their presents from Grandma & Grandpa Livingstone. The girls got webkinz, build-a-bear, and Twilight perifinallia!

This year the Henwoods had our family so they got the older girls shirts and another present that the girls can't open until Christmas or else it would give away one of the gifts they're getting from us!

Berkley got a fun cereal container and some bathtub crayons that she is going to love!

Thank you mom and dad and Henwoods for the gifts. It was so much fun to get together as a family and spend time with eachother! We love you all!

(Yes, Brackon was there! I don't know how he managed to dodge getting his photo taken! Sorry handsome!)

A Little Vaca to St. George

2008-12-03T17:23:00.003-07:00

The weekend before Thanksgiving we headed out to visit the family in St. George. We hadn't been out since mom's surgery so we want to visit and give mom an early Christmas present. Since we aren't able to be there all the time we wanted mom to know that we love her and are thinking of her all the time. We wanted her to feel our hugs even when we weren't there so I made her a quilt embroidered with the words 'Autumn Leaves'.

Brackon wrote an earlier post titled 'Autumn Leaves' that talked all about mom and what a special and strong person she is. It was beautiful and we wanted her to remember that so we put it on her blanket.
Of course we couldn't be in St. George and not hit IN-N-OUT! You can NEVER get enough IN-N-OUT!!!! YUMMY!!

We had so much fun visiting with mom and dad and the rest of the family. Just before we left to come home we had mom get in a picture with all the grandbabies! We love our grandma!!!

Berkley's LOVE of Television!

2008-12-03T17:09:00.003-07:00

Berkley has discovered TV! Here she stands in the playroom watching one of her favorite shows. As of late she has been glued to the television watching Barbie's Princess and the Pauper. She loves the cats in it. Whenever she wants to watch it she will ask for "muuw."

Nice that I allow her to watch TV 24/7! I'm sure that I will get winner mother of the year!

TWILIGHT!!!

2008-12-03T15:22:00.004-07:00

Kennedy and I were enthralled with the Twilight series, like most people were, after reading Twilight! All the women and girls in my family waited on pins and needles once we caught wind that Twilight was being made into a movie! We, of course, all had our opinions on the cast. We were anxious to see how the movie would be and got on line and bought our tickets for the midnight showing when we found out they were available. Kennedy and I, mom, Jeannie, Cassi, Patti, Mindy and Micki all went.

Here we are waiting outside the theater at 10pm!

We were able to sit all together up towards the top of the theater. While we waited we ate lots of popcorn and candy and talked and talked and talked!!!

Here's Cassi, Kennedy and Maddie (Kennedy's friend.)

Me and Kennedy at 2:30am after the movie!
Kenner's won't be very excited about this pic!!

I know that there were mixed reviews about the show, but I LOVED it!!! I can hardly wait to see it again. We'll see if I can drag Brackon to it this time!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

2008-11-03T13:51:00.002-07:00

This was the first Halloween in Utah that we didn't experience nasty weather. Usually it is awful!!! It's either snowing, snowing and raining, or just plain freezing cold! It was gorgeous this time and the kids had a great time. Berkley was a little piggy this year and she loved going door to door to get candy. She wasn't very interested in walking though...she wanted Brackon to carry her around.

Reecy and Eric came down for Halloween so we got to go trick-or-treating with Blake and Ashley! It was a lot of fun to have more cousins to go around with.

Morgan was a fairy and Emree was a cat! Kennedy was a dead ballerina but we didn't get a picture because she was off gallivanting around with all of her friends, of course!
Fun was had by all!

Brackon's arm was a 'bit' tired by the end of the night. Luckily he was there. There is no way I would've been able to carry Berkley around!

We hope that all of you had a Wonderful and Happy Halloween!

Leaves, Leaves, Leaves!

2008-11-03T13:38:00.003-07:00

The weather has been beautiful here in Utah. It has been in the mid 70's for a while now and I am thrilled that we have been able to hold off on winter. The kids have had a blast playing in all of the leaves in Grandma & Grandpa L's backyard. As you can see Berkley is ecstatic about the whole experience! The kids raked up a huge pile of leaves and made a 'nest' to play in.

Berkley thought it would be fun to throw the leaves up in the air. She kept calling me to look at her as she covered herself. At one point she picked up a fistful, held them to her face, smelled them and then started to shake with excitement. Who knew a pile of leaves would provide such entertainment for a 19 month old!

Earlier that night, before our BBQ, the parent all headed to Jordan's final football game of the season. When he got to grandma & grandpa's he raked all of the leaves into a huge pile and all the kids where jumping into it, some even tried diving into it...not such a great idea! Jordan buried some of the kids in the pile as well. They loved it!

A Love of Kitties!

2008-11-03T13:25:00.002-07:00

Berkley has always loved animals, but as of late she has really taken to kitty cats. She loves to read books about cats, watch shows with cats, and even carries around a little stuffed cat that she likes to sleep with. Of course nothing compares to the really thing! This is my brother and his families cat Sammy! As you can see Berkley is thrilled to have him around. My kids would love to have a cat or a dog and we're the mean parents that keep telling them no. How nice that we can live vicariously through everyone's animals !

Annual Livingstone Soup & Scoop

2008-11-03T12:43:00.003-07:00

The Monday night before Halloween mom & dad L hold our annual Soup & Scoop where we all bring our favorite soups to share. It's so yummy!!! Once we're done eating we clear the table and get ready for the 'Scoop' part of the night...carving pumpkins! We have so much fun!
This year we did it out in mom & dad's garage. It's so nice to do it out there so that we don't have to worry about the kids spilling their soup or pumpkin guts all over the floor!

This year my brother John thought he'd make things a little easier and grabbed my dad's reciprocating saw. Poor pumpkin didn't see what was coming!

Brackon was out of town so grandma was being my biggest helper and helped
Emree with her pumpkin.

Me and Morgan carving her pumpkin!

Jace, Kennedy and Cassi carving their's.

The fruits of our labors!

Emree's spider!

Morgan's pumpkin

Kennedy's bat!

Coby and Tiffany Come For a Visit!

2008-11-03T11:39:00.008-07:00

Over the UEA weekend Cob & Tiff came up to visit us. We had a lot of fun going places and visiting with each other. The first thing we did was take the kids to
HOOGLE ZOO!

Morgan, Kennedy, Hannah and Emree

Blake's used to being surrounded by women! He's the only grandson!

Tiffany, Coby, Kennedy, Hannah, Morgan, Emree, Berkley, Brackon and Blake

Berkley is at that age where she wants to do everything on her own. The girls are still always worried about her. Emree wanted to make sure that she didn't trip. Berkley kept getting irritated so Emree tried not to touch her. So cute!

The last thing we did at the Zoo was ride the train. Emree and Hannah were thrilled!

While Cob & Tiff were here we also headed the canyon and went to
BRIDAL VEIL FALLS!

Hannah and Emree had fun playing with the leaves and Uncle Coby and the
kids had fun looking at the bugs in the leaves!

Berkley loved running up and down the trail, but had us worried that she was going to faceplant. We were also worried because there were a lot of people longboarding on the walking path and we were worried that she'd step in front of them and get hurt.

The water was freezing because it had snowed in the mountains a few days before so the run-off was brrrrr cold!!! That didn't stop Blake from taking off his shoes and climbing up the falls.

The kids had so much fun!

Ahh...look at the cute couple!

Hannah, Morgan and Emree joined in the fun! So did Kennedy, but all of her pics were blurry!

Uncle Coby showed Berkley how to throw rocks into the stream and she had a blast picking rocks and tossing them in.

It was so much fun to have them come visit. It's so nice to be close to family!

As We Waited

2008-11-03T11:14:00.003-07:00

I headed down to St. George to be with Mom & Dad C and the family while mom had her second surgery (Brackon came that night...he was coming from Seattle.) While we waited we enjoyed each others company. There were a ton of us, but they were so accommodating to our family.

Me and my darling niece Demie

Kacie and I were a bit of a ruckus in the hospital! Truth be told...we all were! I'm sure they were happy for our family to leave and go to mom's room once her surgery was over!

The family...we also had uncle Blair, aunt Sheli and Carlye there!

Aren't families awesome?! What a blessing to be able to come together and support each other in our times of need. Mom came out of surgery with flying colors and is doing well. We love her so much and are so grateful for her and the powerhouse she is to our family!

Autumn Leaves

2008-10-08T22:43:00.005-06:00

As I watch the leaves change on the scores of trees that cling to these magnificent mountains, I think of my Mom. Trees have such strong roots anchored into the earth. That strength protects them along with numerous creatures from the elements. They can withstand the strongest of winds and extreme temperatures. Their branches seem to reach toward the heavens. They produce vasts amounts of beautiful leaves. Yet, in the fall, their leaves change color and make way for new leaves that will surely come in the spring. My mother is like these trees. She is deeply rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ. She is a source of strength to me like no other has been in my life. She has weathered much and has yet to face storms that I could not even imagine facing. Her arms, like the branches, have always reached out to those in need and reached up to give thanks to God. Her beauty, like the gorgeous colors of autumn leaves, is unmatched. She is truly awe inspiring! Recently, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has faced so many rough storms over the past month. Yet, she remains so strong and anchored with a resolve to weather them. Even through all of this, her faith has not wavered. There have been tears, but her faith is solid. I can't even begin to fathom what she is going through. Her great hope and faith keep our family focused on weathering the storms with her. I can't help but think of the trees. In autumn, leaves may fall but in spring, after a time of winter, new leaves grow. There is a renewal of life. Although more storms and winter lie ahead, there will come spring and with it healing and renewed life. I love you mom. -Brackon

Our Little Baby Birdie!

2008-08-25T12:33:00.005-06:00

Our little Berkley is getting so big! She just looks so grown up in these pictures. Berkley LOVES to unravel all the toilet paper from the roll and suck on it. If she wasn't so cute we'd have to sell her to the gypsies!

Our neighbors have this little dog named Chico. He loves to come over and play with the kids and get fed. We figure if everyone else in the neighborhood feeds him like we do, that would explain why he's such a chubby little pooch! Berkley loves him and is always trying to hold him!

Berkley loves to be outside! I hope that she doesn't want to be outside all the time once the snow comes. Just because I'm Canadian doesn't mean I like the snow. I'm afraid that I'm sissified to cold weather!

Berkley is at such a fun age right now. She will be 17 months on the 2nd of September and is so happy and fun to be with. She's constantly cracking me up with the things she does. She's at that age where she wants to get into everything. She's discovered how to get up on chairs so she has a whole new world to explore! Such a little button!

The girls love that Berkley folds her arms when we say prayers. She doesn't suffer from lack of attention! Sometimes she gets a little overwhelmed from how much she gets!

Oh What Do YOU Do In The Summertime?

2008-08-22T16:59:00.016-06:00

I'm sure that most of you have had a summer like ours. Summer has been exciting and busy and chuck full of fun! However, I wouldn't recommend holding off updating your blog for this long! We've got a million things to cover! Starting where we left off back in May we have (deep breath) Emree's birthday, Father's Day, Kennedy's trip to Georgia, 4th of July, Kennedy's birthday, YW girls camp, Brackon's birthday, 1st day of School, and finally, Morgan's Birthday ~ WHEW!!! And yes, this is fair warning to the fact that this is going to be a LOOOOONG entry! Of course in the interest of trying to catch up I will do my best at trying to keep things short when it comes to the details, instead of going on and on about it! Some of you are laughing at me right now. The thought of me keeping anything short when it comes to verbalizing anything - I know, but have a little faith and let's see what happens!

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY TO EMREE!!!

Just after Mother's Day our little Emree turned 7. We love her so much. She is such a sweet & loving little girl. So full of life and excitement. The emotions freely flow with her which can be a good thing or a bad thing! Sometimes she will start to cry because she says that she loves us so much and other times you can imagine what it is like! She is very passionate whether it be good or bad! All I have to say is if she is this emotional and the ripe old age of 7, I can hardly wait for the teenage years!!! It's pay back time for our parents. What a riot to watch your children raise their own and struggle with the things they once did. As dad Livingstone has always said, "The Lord has a sense of humor and blesses you with children that are just like you!"
She must take after Brackon!!! ;)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO OUR AMAZING DADDY!!!

Happy belated Father's Day to all of the dad's our there! We are so lucky to have such an awesome, dedicated, hard working, devoted, fun loving, wonderful, and funny dad. We love Brackon so much and are so grateful to him for all that he does for our little family. For those of you that don't know, Brackon travels all the time so he doesn't get the chance to come home every night and hug his wife and kids and get smooches from us! We miss him when he's gone and little Berkley about turns herself inside out when her daddy gets home. She has Brackon wrapped around her finger!! Whenever daddy is home, Berkley wants nothing to do with mommy and that's the same for the other girls when it comes to his cooking! He served his mission in Italy and is an amazing cook! What else can I do but humbly step down from my cooking duties and let him shine!!! ;) We love him so much and are so blessed to have him as our daddy and husband. Thank you Brackon for all that you do for us. You are the BEST!!!
We love you, we love you, we love you!

We are so grateful for our own dad's as well. What shining examples you both are for us and our family. We don't know where we'd be without you and the wisdom and courage that you both show to us on a regular basis. You are the most amazing dad's that anyone could ask for.
How lucky are we to have the two BEST!!! Happy Father's Day!!!

KENNEDY TAKES A TRIP TO GEORGIA FOR 3 WHOLE WEEKS!!!

Little Miss Kennedy has had an exciting summer! In June we flew her out to Georgia to spend 3 weeks with one of her best friends Brooke. Yes, that was 3 weeks without our babysitter! We survived and missed her so much! She had so much fun with the Marcom's. Truthfully, we were surprised that she would fly out by herself , but she did and did great! While she was out there she went to YW camp with the girls from our old ward. She had a blast and got back on the 9th of July after a 3 hour wait on the tarmac in Atlanta! It stressed her out a bit, but she got back in one piece! A million thank yous to the Marcom's for taking care of our little girl. She forgot to take pictures so this is all we have from all of her adventures!

4TH OF JULY!!!

4th of July started early in the morning with me and my sisters running the Freedom Run in Provo. Jeannie and I ran the 10K and Mindy and Reecy ran the 5k. It was such a great way to start the day! I forgot how much I love to run.

Later that day we had a BBQ with my whole family and the Baxter's. It was so much fun to have them with us. We then got ready to head out to the Stadium of Fire. What a great time we had! We went with our good friends, Kimberly and Nelson and their two. Miley Cyrus and the Blue Man Group were the performers and Glen Beck was the MC of the show.

To start the show they had 6 skydivers jump from a plane and land in the stadium. I was thrilled with that and could've had the fireworks and gone home. It was a lot of fun and Morgan and Emree loved seeing Miley Cyrus. Thanks to mom and dad for babysitting Berkley!

HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY KENNEDY!!!

WE HAVE A TEENAGER!!! We can hardly believe that our little Kennedy is now 13!!! It seems like only yesterday that I was headed to the hospital to have her.

Kennedy is very responsible! Whatever we ask her to do she does. She is our very biggest helper! Sometimes we ask her to do too much and she feels like Cinderella of the household! The poor oldest child of every home! We put so much more responsibility on them.

Kenner's is a little shy at first until you get to know her, but once you do she is fun loving and outgoing. She is concerned for others feelings and loves to do things with her friends and cousins. We are so grateful for our sweet Kennedy and don't know what we'd do without her!

YW'S GIRLS CAMP AT MIA SHALOM!!!

In July I was called to be the Stake craft counselor and assistant cook so I was able to go to girls camp for the first time since I was 13 and a YW myself! It was so much fun to be out there with all of the girls and Kennedy. We had the funnest group of stake leaders, you would've thought we were a bunch of teenagers too!

Every morning the fog would roll in from off the lake. It was so beautiful!

Every ward had to perform a skit at morning flag. Our ward did The Ugly Duckling. Kennedy is the first face that you can see from the left.

It rained all 5 days that we were there. Kennedy and her friends at morning flag!

The reason I never wear a hat! I had to do something with that hair of mine while at camp because no way was I going to do my hair or wear make-up while camping!

All the crazy stake leaders!

My mom & dad were asked to do morning side on Thursday. It was so much fun to have them out there. They did and excellent job, as always!

Mom talking to the girls before dad.

Dad got the girls singing with him...

and called me up to sing with him and mom as well!

He talked with the girls for about 40 min. and they loved it! He did such a great job, as always!!! All day long the girls kept coming up to me and telling me what an awesome dad I have!

The walk to the lake was beautiful.

I didn't get a picture of our cabins but you can see one at the camp site across
the lake in this picture.

At the lake the girls played water games in the canoes. The wards played against each other. Kennedy and Maddie didn't want to get in the canoes. So they watched from the sidelines.

On the last day at camp the girls were gathered in the pavilion, because it was raining, for our last flag. As they were doing all of their cheers it was SOOOO loud!
Kennedy and our ward doing their cheer.

As the stake we had our own cheers. Our final cheer we wrote that morning and had a dance that went with it. At the end of the dance we all pointed to Nisa Whittaker, the Stake YW president, and she did the splits. The girls went crazy! They loved it!
I'm in the front on the right.

Kennedy and her friend Maddie!

I realize that camp isn't exciting unless you were there yourself, but I wanted to document it for Kennedy and I when we look back so we remember how fun it was for us!
We're excited for next years camp!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR WONDERFUL DADDY AND HUSBAND!!!

Happy Birthday handsome man! We love you so much and are so grateful for you and all you do for us. You are my best friend and I love you to pieces!
Isn't he a hottie!!!

THE SECOND DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

This year we had Patti and Ben's kids with us on the second day of school and since I am a lame mom and didn't have time to take pic's on the first day, we proudly display the second day!

Laureen and Emree!

Morgan is in 5th grade and Emree is in 2nd!

Tanner and Morgan

All four crazy kids!

As I stated earlier - lame mom - I didn't get any pic's of Kennedy (going into 8th grade) or Jace and when I tried to get pic's of Kenner's the other day she wanted nothing to do with it so we will try again later!

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY MORGAN!!!

Here is our darling Morgan Taylor who just turned 10! How time seems to be whizzing by on us. Our sweet Morgan is full of spunk and spirit. Everything she does is spirited, EVERYTHING! She has a zest for life and loves being with her friends and cousins. She is the only blonde in our family, which makes her unique! She loves to snuggle and give hugs and kisses. We love our little shmoopy!!!

For the grandkids birthdays my parents give them money so they can buy whatever they want. Instead of just giving them money in a card, grandma hides the money in different things. She's very good at it and it takes a while for the kids to find where she's hidden the money. Morgan got a package of starbursts! They are very careful when they unwrap and open their little package because they never know where the money will be.

Grandma hid Morgan's money inside the starbursts on the side of the box and inside a starburst wrapper that was wrapped up and looked exactly like the rest of the candies.

Whew!! Okay so this is a ridiculously long post! I really should have broken this post up into more than just one, but I got it done!!!
As far as keeping it short, well I did my best and it still didn't really help!!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

2008-05-13T13:54:00.011-06:00

I love being a mom! I am so very grateful for my wonderful children and amazing husband. It's so much fun every Mother's Day to get all of the fun little things that the kids have made you at school and church.

I can't believe just how quickly the girls are growing up. Kennedy will be 13 in July, Morgan 10 in August, Emree will be 7 May 26th, and our little baby birdie is 1. She just started walking this week! Pretty soon she will be cruising around the house. How I love my little girls and wouldn't trade them for anything in the world!!!

Brackon is so sweet to always let me buy my own presents, even though it drives him crazy. He wants to be able to surprise me, but I'm always finding things that I want and letting him know that it's for my birthday, or Mother's Day, or Anniversary, when they roll around. I need to be better about letting him surprise me. I love you handsome!! Thanks to my sweet family for always making me feel so special and loved. Mommy loves you!

I'm also so very grateful for my own mom and what an amazing person she is. I learned all I know from her and want her to know how special she is to me. She's an angel in my book. Any women who can have 7 kids in 9 years and still be as sweet and loving and wonderful and strong as her she is (and also be an absolutely amazing grandma to 23 grandchildren) deserves to be crowned the world's most amazing mom! Thanks for everything you do for all of us mom! We love you!!!

Now, we also have another amazing mom in our life, mom Curtis. What an awesome mom and grandma you are. You are such a rock in the family and we are so grateful for all that you do and stand for. Thank you for raising such an amazing man and teaching him in the way you did so that he grew up to be the person he is today. We would be lost without him and are so appreciative to you for instilling the qualities that he has within him. We will forever be grateful!

To both of our mother's, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, "All that I am and hope to be I owe to my Mother."

4th Grade Pioneer Trek

2008-05-13T12:21:00.007-06:00

Every Year the fourth graders at Cherry Hill Elementary have a 2 mile pioneer trek to go along with their Utah history class. They get real handcarts and have them dress up like pioneers were dressed back in the day when they were on the trek from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake Valley. Even the chaperons have to dress up! It's a good thing my mom had pioneer clothes that I could borrow. My younger sisters had a trek that they went on once upon a time (I think when they lived in Michigan) so she made clothes for them then.

They gave us groups of 7-8 kids. I had a group of 7 kids, 3 girls and 4 boys. We were lucky and had 5 adults in our group.

Morgan (right), Elle (left), and Maria (center) are best friends and were in a group together.

Morgan and I getting ready to go! I was worried when I posted these that people who weren't Mormon would think that we're FLDS - WERE NOT!!! Fabulous look isn't it?! For as many layers as they wore it's surprisingly cool and comfortable, though towards the end I was dying to take the 'wig' and bonnet off, but we all know that that was not about to happen. I would've terrified everyone! I roasted my rear end off at the end!

We started at the front of the school and as we got towards the back of the school they had all of the other grades out on the lawn waving goodbye to us. It was so cute!

There were 3 check stops that we came to along the trek. There were 10 handcarts altogether and the first 6 or 7 'families' lost their boys to the Mormon Battalion.

The boys in the Mormon Battalion had to go a different route that was a lot longer than the original trek. They even had wooden guns to carry. By losing their boys, the girls were left to pull the hand carts by themselves. We were handcart #9 so we didn't lose any of our boys, but 2 of our boys broke their legs and the other 2 were shot, so they had to ride in the cart. Our poor girls are so little and we had some big boys so parents had to help pull, especially through the field.

At the second check stop they told us that Morgan had fallen ill and needed to ride in the handcart. She was so excited!

Our third check stop was at Strong Hollow. Mr. Strong is one of the 6th grade teachers at the school whose property we used. His family owns all of the surrounding homes and they share the beautiful backyard known as Strong Hollow. Mr. Strong set our 'entry' up and once we got to the back we set up leantoo's (sp?) that our 'family' would eat in.

We all parked our handcarts.

A gentlemen that specialized in pioneer history from St. George came to talk to us and brought a ton of fun things for the kids to do. They made butter.

They had old tools for the kids to see how they did carpentry work back then. These particular ones were tongue and groove tools.

They had a really fun rope swing. The kids had to climb up on a huge rock to be able to get on it.

They made rag dolls that were adorable!

The gentlemen who came told the kids about the first capitol building that was built in Filmore. The building was made out of sandstone so he brought some so that the kids could see how hard it would've been for them to build.

They dipped candles.

All together there were about 10 different centers that the kids could go to. Every time they completed a center they would get a special colored bead that they would put in their little leather bags they made and have hanging around their necks.

Finally they learned a little dance before we headed back to the school. It was really a fun activity, one the kids will never forget.

A Trip to the Zoo....Or NOT!!!

2008-05-13T11:30:00.004-06:00

On May 2nd all of the 1st graders were going to the zoo. Emree was so excited! All week long their class was making different animals with moving heads and tails and talking about it. I was one of the chaperon's and they had us at the school at 8 am. We were waiting for the buses to get there and one little boys dad who worked at the zoo was talking to the kids about all of the new babies and what to look for. Finally at 9:30 am Emree's teacher, Mrs. Poai, went out to the office to find out why the buses weren't there yet. After about 10 min. she came back in and told us that the district transportation office never scheduled the buses for us and there weren't any bus drivers so they had to cancel the trip. WHAT - CANCEL A ZOO TRIP FOR FIRST GRADERS!!! We could not believe it! The kids were so sad.

To try and make it up the teachers had us walk to a near by park to play and eat our lunches. The kids had a great time. These are two of Emree's good friends , Elizabeth and Jessica.

The park had a big pond and the kids were thrilled to find that the ducks had laid their eggs all around in the rocks!

The girls spent most of the time exploring around the rocks. Just before we left the park we took a picture of Emree's class. When we got back to the school they had set up the gym like a theater and we watched the animated Robin Hood and eat Krispy Kreme Donuts! YUMMY!!! Maybe we should cancel trips more often. They rescheduled the zoo trip for May 9th and had a great time seeing all of the little baby animals. The albino alligator was Emree's favorite!

Visiting St. George!

2008-05-13T11:08:00.006-06:00

It has been so nice to live close to family again. Every time we have a chance we head on down to St. George to visit the Curtis family. We had such a great time at mom & dad Curtis' house. On Saturday we had a BBQ and took in some rays while the kids all swam in the pool and played in the hot tub.

The kids LOVE the hot tub! They think it's a special little pool made just for them!

Emree and Demie

Brackon and Dad Curtis were taking care of Berkley.

Coby and Tiffany have a HUGE dog named Abby! She is the sweetest thing and the kids love it when they get to see her. Berkley loved giving her snuggles! Abby makes Berkley look like a dinner mint!!

Happy Birthday to Berkley !!!

2008-04-09T19:46:00.003-06:00

I can't believe that our little baby Berkley is one years old! It seems like only yesterday that I was at the hospital getting ready to have her. What a fun little addition she is to our family. She has such a sweet disposition. Whenever Berkley gets excited she will clench her fists together and straighten out her arms and shake them. It is so funny to watch.

With the size of Birdies cheeks you would think that she has a healthy, hardy appetite, but she is far from that! She eats like a bird, if at all. I was looking forward to moving her from formula to milk, but I'm worried about taking her off of it. As long as she's on formula, if she doesn't eat, I know that she's getting all the vitamins and nutrients that she needs.

When it came time to eat her cake, Berkley wasn't very interested in eating it. She licked her fingers a little and then was more interested in playing with it.

Berkley takes after her father with a love of music. She just recently discovered grandma & grandpa's piano and loves it. Any music that she hears sends her into a wiggle. Not only does she bob up and down like most babies do, but she also shakes her hips back and forth, moves her shoulders up and down, and will wave her hands in the air and clap her hands. The other day she found Emree's I Pod sitting on the coffee table and was trying to figure out how to use the headphones. She kept putting them close to her ears and then letting them go. It was so cute. I put one in her ear and she started to dance.

We love our little birdie and are so glad that she is in our family. What would we do without those chubby cheeks to smooch!

Easter Egg Hunt!

2008-04-09T19:19:00.003-06:00

Grandma and Grandpa Livingstone have an Easter egg hunt for the kids every year. We are so excited to be back in Utah so that we can be here for it this year. Grandma uses caution tape to block off the backyard into three sections . She puts the kids into age groups so that the hunt is fair for everyone. The kids love it! Cassy and Kennedy in search.

Emree had so much fun gathering up her eggs!

Morgan and Sydney just beginning!

In each of the three groups grandma hides a special egg that has money in it. When Maggie started she was not at all interested in anything else, but the special egg. She was so excited to find it, especially since grandma put more money in it this year.

Thank you mom & dad for such a fun egg hunt for the kids and adults. We love you!

Our little baby Birdie!

2008-03-17T12:37:00.003-06:00

Kennedy gave Berkley the nickname Birdie while we still lived in Georgia and it has stuck with her. We'll see how long she gets called that, but our family hardly ever calls her Berkley anymore. She can thank Kennedy when she's older!

I've had a request for more pictures of Berkley so here they are. I can't figure out how to turn my flash off so most of the pictures I get of Birdie are with her eyes closed. This is one of the few where she had her eyes open. On our way to St. George Berkley was crying and wanted to get out of her seat. She got herself so mad that she threw up all over herself and her car seat. That is definitely one way to get out of your car seat!!! We pulled over and had to clean her up. While I was cleaning her seat she was up front with daddy. She was so proud of herself and loved to be at the wheel. She was not happy when we put her back!

Berkley LOVES to play with cell phones and computers. If you have a computer in your lap she's all over you. Whenever I have the computer she wants to play with the keys, but when the girls have the computer she will sit quietly and watch them play Webkinz. She loves it!

There are quite a few of you that don't know what a Webkinz is. It's a virtual pet. You buy the Webkinz (stuffed animal) at the store and it comes with a password on the tag that you enter in and you get to name your pet and then play with them. You have to feed them, cloth them and take them to the doctor if they get sick. You work jobs to make money to buy them things for their homes. The jobs and games are educational. The kids love them. It's a fun gift to give someone. This is Kennedy's Littlekinz room.

Happy Birthday Dad Curtis!

2008-03-17T12:26:00.004-06:00

Mom & Dad Curtis

It was dad Curtis' birthday so we headed down to St. George for a little visit and to celebrate his special day with the family. It's so nice to be living closer now so that we can see family on a more regular basis. Fun was had by all as we made pizza's, eat cake and ice cream, and enjoyed each others company! We love you dad!!!

Brackon and his baby sister Kacie!

A Little Taste of Georgia

2008-02-26T14:21:00.002-07:00

Since our move to Utah we have missed our friends in Georgia!! Last week we were able to feel somewhat at home when we got together with our good friends the Shelley's . Rachel and her kids are here in Utah while Steve is in Iraq. Steve gets home on March 11th so they'll be heading home soon, but we are so excited that we were able to spend time with them while they were here and have just a little taste of Georgia in Utah!

Cheerios Has a Birthday!

2008-02-26T13:50:00.004-07:00

Those of you who are familiar with Webkinz will understand the excitement that surrounds these cute little stuffed animals. Well, grandma Livingstone is just as excited about them as the children are and I'm sure that there are more adults out there that are just as excited as well! Here are grandma's webkinz Cheerio the pug and Penny the penguin! On Cheerio's birthday Penny threw a birthday party and invited all of the grandkids webkinz.

As you can see our families have a TON of webkinz! All of these Webkinz belong to only 16 grandchildren and a lot of them came from grandma & grandpa themselves! Grandma made all of the party hats with help from some of the mom's. It took us 2 1/2 hours to make them all. That's love!

Of course we had to have some great goodies for Cheerios party so grandma whipped up some delicious cupcakes. What a fun FHE we had celebrating Cheerios birthday! Thanks grandma & grandpa!

Here are Kennedy's!

Berkley has one too!

Emree got all three of here's from grandma & grandpa!

And finally are Morgan's. She has four!

Tiki Snowman!!

2008-02-15T12:03:00.002-07:00

We've gotten a ton of snow here in Utah! On the way to pick kennedy up from school there was this guy outside of his house playing in the snow! You can see how big he made his tiki man! He ended up on the front page of the local paper. It was so much fun for the kids to see.

All finished!! For those of you that are Dew lovers take a close look at what he's holding in his hand!

Long Past Due Up Date! (Christmas)

2008-02-15T11:27:00.004-07:00

I know that it has taken me forever to get a new entry up, but to my defense, we moved across country, had Christmas, moved across country, and did I mention that we moved across country!!! We are now living in Utah. We love to be around family again, but we miss Georgia & all of our friends a lot!! I'm still have a few boxes to unpack and I'm trying to get all of the decorating in all of the rooms done. Anyways, I thought I'd start at Christmas!

Christmas morning was great there were three families at grandma & grandpa's and we had so much fun.

Kennedy

Morgan

Emree

and Berkley!

How fun to be with family again for Christmas!

Kennedy Gets Glasses!

2007-11-01T20:19:00.001-06:00

On Sunday at the youth fireside we realized that Kennedy needed glasses as she tried to read something off of the projector screen and couldn't until she was literally in front of it (winner mom of the year for not picking up on that one)!!! We took her into the eye doctor where they told us that her world would look a little different to her from here on out! She found some glasses that she loves and just got them today. She's excited and we wanted to be able to get a pic of her up on the blog with her new spec's on!!!

Morgan now wants glasses and keeps taking Kennedy's and mine to try on. Of course, I finally had to have the whole, 'if you break Kennedy's glasses you will have to pay for them' speech to which she responded, "How much are they?" Our sweet Morgan!

The only thing that bothers Kennedy is the fact that her mile long lashes hit the lenses so she has to use an eyelash curler to try and remedy that situation! I'm sure she'll get used to it. Either that or she'll have to get contacts.

Happy Halloween!!!

2007-11-01T19:44:00.000-06:00

Happy Halloween everyone! Our girls were so excited to get out and do some trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Kennedy was a monster bride, Morgan a pop diva, Emree a cheerleader (she threw the cat ears on for special effect), and Berkley was a bunny. Berkley's outfit didn't fit her as you can see from the bulging of the cheeks out of the hood, but I didn't realize it until five minutes before we head out the door when I put it on her and it was too late to do anything about it. She couldn't straighten out her legs because it was a 'bag' that their lower body zips into. She was a really sport the whole night. She loved to watch all of the kids walking around in different costumes!

We went around the neighborhood with our friends that live in our little 'pod' (our street) and had a great time. This is Kennedy and Morgan's good friend Amanda. She lives across the street from us. They are glued at the hip and will all suffer from withdrawls when we move. Poor Amanda started to cry when we told her! What a crazy pair!

Cardboarding Down The Hills!

2007-11-01T19:19:00.000-06:00

Morgan's really good friend Kennedy Garmon and her family are moving to Alabama this week so we got to spend some time with them riding cardboard down the hills at Heritage Park. The kids had a blast! It was the first time our girls had done this. We've gone sleding or ice blocking, but this was new to us and the girls loved it. I was very surprised at how fast you could go on a piece of cardboard!

It was fun to sit on the hill opposite them and take pictures. Berkley loved to watch them! We will sure miss little Kennedy and her family. We wish them the best in Alabama!!

Georgia on Their Mind

2007-10-19T12:03:00.000-06:00

Patti and Ben came out to visit us a week ago. It was so much fun to have them here with us! We got to spend a few days with them and one of the places that we went to was Jim & Nick's BBQ. Brackon and I went on and on about how delicious it is and how much they would love it. Patti ordered the 'Pig in the potato patch' that was literally the largest potato that any of us had ever seen!!!
We all finished eating and patti was kind of leaning over in the booth. The guys were standing up getting ready for us to leave and patti said, "I don't feel very good." To make a long story short she threw up her potato. She started at the booth in a bag and then in the car on the way home. Of course, Jim & Nick's only have paper bags so when she lost it in the car the bottom of the bag ended up breaking out. Poor patti! Luckily, we have a plastic mat down and it didn't get anywhere on the car. We pulled over on the freeway and cleaned it all out and continued on our way. Brackon was driving and later told us that he about lost his lunch when patti lost her's! A fun little adventure for all!!

Berkley didn't know quite what to think of patti and ben when she first saw them, but warmed up very quickly. Here are just a couple of recent pics of her. Sorry that I don't have one of all the girls on here. For some reason I can't get the pics of all of us with patti and ben to pull up so I'll have to take pics of the girls and post them later. You can see one that I was trying to pull up on patti and ben's blog.

Berkley's latest stats - just weighed in at 18 lbs, has her 1st tooth, and is starting to sit up all by herself. Such a big girl!

Hilton Head Vacation at the Grande Ocean Resort

2007-09-13T12:42:00.000-06:00

On Labor Day our family headed out to Hilton Head Island & met up with Rob & Flori (my cousin) & their girls for a little vacation. We had a blast! We stayed at the Grande Ocean Resort & relaxed for few days. Flori & Rob's 4 girls are around the same age as ours and they all LOVE to be together! In the mornings around 7:30am we would walk on the beach looking for shells & investigating the tide pools (shocking I know for some of you, the 7:30am bit). We were quite the sight to behold for most people. Walking around with 8 kids was surprising to some & even more so with the fact that they were all girls! We got asked if some were twins, especially the babies. It was always fun to be the one trailing behind the group to hear the comments people made.

Thank you so much to the Christensen's for joining us! We need to do it again soon! Here are a bunch of our pic's. Enjoy!

This is Berkley's new face that she's been making.

Brackon's 63 Mile Ride

2007-08-13T09:49:00.001-06:00

This is for you Jeannie! You wanted to see pics of Brackon and his bike. He and a few of his friends were in an organized bike ride this Saturday the 11th in Northern Georgia. They rode 63 miles and it was so hot and humid. They'd had heat advisories the whole week and Sat was no exception. This first pic is of him and his good friend Zane. Zane is the one who got Brackon really involved in road biking. Zane did the 100 mile ride with a some of the other guys.
This is Mike he works with Brackon. This was his first ride with the guys. He did the 63 miles with Brackon and Justin. The pic was taken after the race so they were exhausted and had an hour and a half ride home from there. In our ward there are about 12 guys that ride together. Brackon loves it and has lost 30 lbs already.

Berkley, Berkley, Berkley

2007-08-13T08:14:00.000-06:00

Berkley has gotten so big! She's 4 months old now and you can see just how big she is in this picture with Morgan. The girls love to hold her (as long as she doesn't spit up on them) and Berkley LOVES it! She misses them when they're at school. She just rolled over for the first time last night from her tummy to her back. She is such a content baby, but sometimes has her moments so we thought we'd let you see one. We put her in her jumpy seat and she didn't last very long!
My how you're hair has grown! Morgan's baby doll that grandma & grandpa Livingstone gave her for Christmas lost her hair and we thought it would be funny to put it on Berkley. Her head is a little too big for the wig. This picture may be a lot funnier to our family than it is to anyone else, but we laughed our heads off!
I need to talk to Rob and Flori and see what it is that Rob does to get Bea to smile in her pictures. Everytime we take Berkley's picture she stops smiling! It's like standing on your head to get her to do it in pictures. She really is a very smiley baby, but we just can't show you! Her acid reflux is still horrible. I always have to put her down on a blanket with a burp rag because she is spitting up none stop. It's not just after we feed her either. The only time she stops is at night when she's asleep. Poor baby! They say that it should get better when she starts eating solids and sitting up on her own. She can start eating solids next month so we're crossing our fingers that it will at least slow down. Most people I talk to whose kids have acid reflux say that it doesn't really change a whole lot until they are around 9 months to 1 year. We'll see!

We have dicovered that Berkley LOVES books! It's so cute to watch her get excited when we read to her. She loves to hold the books herself as well. She straightens her legs out and points her feet and shakes with excitment. She is also starting to make that noise that Kennedy made when she was little and concentrating on something. It's so funny how each child is so different yet they will exhibit little behaviors that are the same.

1st Day of School

2007-08-13T07:18:00.000-06:00

On Monday the 6th the girls headed back to school. They were ready to be there! The bus leaves at 6:55am so we quickly snapped a few pic's before we headed to the bus stop. It's so early to be going to school, but we're used to it now. In Utah our school started at 9am so when I called their school here in Georgia and was told what time they started, I hung up the phone and started to cry, literally! It cracks me up to think about it now. The tears were more for my sleep than theirs.

Morgan is in 4th grade this year and has a great homeroom teacher. When we went to the open house to meet her she was hilarious and talked up a storm. Now let's be realistic here for a second, we all know that I could talk the ear off a tree so I walked out of there knowing that we would be getting along just fine.

Emree also has a great teacher. She's in 1st grade this year. She's at the age where school is sooo exciting and loves to be there!

Kennedy is now in 7th grade, her 2nd year in middle school. She is growing up so quickly! All the girls are. Kenners loves her math and science teachers. Everyone asks me if I'm excited to have my girls back in school so that I only have one at home. That's not the case because I've lost all of my little helpers. Berkley really misses them too!

Kennedy's 12!

2007-08-13T06:31:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday to Kennedy! I have been really bad about keeping up our blog so we are starting back in July. Kennedy didn't want to have a big birthday party so we had a fun day as a family. She wanted to go see the movie Hairspray so we went and saw that in the morning and then played around for the rest of the day until we had cake and ice cream in the evening. I still can't believe that we have a 12 yr old. Wasn't I 12 myself not too long ago?! Crazy how quickly life seems to pass us by.

Kennedy is such a great girl! She is very responsible and so much fun to be with. It has been so fun watching her grow up and mature into a young lady. She's the self proclaimed second mom around the house. On Mother's Day Morgan and Emree brought breakfast up to me while I was in bed. Kennedy was on my bed talking to me when they brought it up and asked the girls where her breakfast was because she was like their second mom. It was hilarious!

We are glad that we have Kennedy in our family. We don't know what we'd do without her!

The 4th of July

2007-07-06T19:51:00.000-06:00

This picture somehow got erased from the bottom of the post so I put it back on again and don't know how to move it to the bottom. This is a picture of Kennedy and Emree with some of the neighborhood kids on 4th of July evening!

The 4th of July was a busy day for us. We were up and out the door by 7:15am to head out to The Silver Comet Trail! The Silver Comet Trail is an old railway path that is about an hour and a half from our home. They removed the railroad ties and paved a path for bike riders. Brackon has recently taken up riding with a group of guys in our ward. There are a quite a few of them, but there was only eight of them that met with us on this particular day. Part of the trail runs along a park with pavillions and a stream so we went there to ride and have a BBQ. Some of the wives even rode, but I stayed back with the kids. Brackon and his friend Justin took the longest ride. They rode 42 miles!!! They were only about 5 miles from the Alabama border! They didn't realize they were that close or they would've kept going.

Emree was our biggest helper and feed Berkley when we got home from the trail. You can see how blue Berkley's eyes are in this picture. Around 6pm we headed to our other friends for another BBQ and fireworks. Berkley was exhausted and feel fast asleep. I would've liked to join her.

Morgan was having so much fun running around with her friends. There was six families there. We all had a great time!

Brackon cooked up some steaks for us. They were yummy! Take note of the In-n-Out apron!
My next door neighbor's boyfriend is a fireman and one of his friends sisters lives down the street from our friends. Every year they have an amazing fireworks show with illegal fireworks so her brother will show up with the water engine just in case.

He let all of the kids climb into the fire truck if they wanted and gave them all hats. They were tickled pink about the whole thing! It was like going on a field trip for them. They were so thoughtful and kind to the kids! It was the highlight of their day.

When we got home the neighborhood kids were all out on the road. Our kids were so excited to get out and spend some time with their friends since they didn't get to see them all day. All-in-all it was a long and exciting day. You'll have to ask me about the firework that malfunctioned and shot out the side instead of shooting into the air when you have me on the phone. One of my girlfriends went into protective mother mode with her children. Picture fireworks spraying all over the place and total caos! She was histarical & very impressive!!! We all learned that night who the real mom is out of the group of us. A big shout out to Stephanie Meredith! We love ya girl!

I just had another pic here with the neighborhood kids that I somehow deleted when I backspaced. Fancy that! When I want a pic removed I can't fiqure it out and when I want it on I delete it! I'll add it again, but it will be at the top of this post now instead of here where I wanted it.

A Smile From Berkley

2007-06-25T20:57:00.000-06:00

Are these not the squishiest cheeks you have ever seen?! People can't believe how big they are. Of course, our families can attest to the fact that these are the only cheeks this Curtis family knows how to produce!
We were finally able to capture her smile on camera. She has been smiling for awhile now, but everytime we tried to get a pic we'd miss it. Her cheeks are so plump that they push her eyes closed when she smiles! Her cheeks are so scrumptious that we just eat her up! We love her to death and can't imagine our family without our sweet little Berkley Paige!

A Day at the Lake!

2007-06-24T17:34:00.000-06:00

The Spiedel's are a couple that we know at church who have a home on the lake. They invited us and a couple more families out to their place on Saturday for a BBQ so we headed out to spend the day at Lake Arrowhead. We spent the afternoon swimming, riding on the boat, tubing, and relaxing! The kids had a blast jumping off their dock and just floating around in their life jackets.

Morgan is a little nervous about putting her head under water. She had tubes put in when she was a baby so she's never really put her ears in the water. This last week she realized that it isn't as scary as she thinks it is! She has been putting her head under the water and having us count to see how long she can stay down. She's gone to six and is very excited about that! She loved being able to practice her swimming while having on a life jacket. She's great at doggy paddling, but gets tired very quickly. We've been trying to teach her to do big kicks and move her arm's in front of her and 'scoop' the water. She's doing great!

Emree is our little fish! She was the only one who would jump off the front of the boat & ride the tube. She went on with Brackon and our friend Richard rode the other one. Richard kept bumping into them and as you can imagine, with it being two men on the tubes, the boat was clipping pretty fast! Dear brave Emree! Our little neighbor Reese came with us too!

The view from off the lake was beautiful!

It took a little persuasion to get some of the kids in the lake because of all the fish. In the middle of their dock was a 12' x 10' opening that we threw bread in and a million fish would swim up. Reese thought that he was going to get eaten by a sea monster. It was a lot of fun. The kids especially loved the paddle boat. They loved being out on the lake by themselves. A great time was had by all!

How Tall is Kennedy? And What about Berkley at 2 1/2 months?

2007-06-21T22:57:00.001-06:00

It's been a while since I've actually had the time needed to sit down and catch up on everything that has been going on in our family. There are five more new entries below this one so be sure to check them all out if you want to see what we've been up to the past month or so. This picture is for you Jean. When we were on the phone you asked me if Kennedy was taller than me. She still has a way to go before she passes me up!

Whenever we put Berkley into her swing, the first thing she does is look up to see the little birds and butterflies that spin around. She loves to watch them! You also have a pretty good shot of her cheeks! She doesn't want to be out done by her sisters and their cheeks when they were little!

A little talk with Grandpa!

We were at the store and Emree wanted to hold Berkley so we put her in the cart so that she wouldn't drop her.

Here are a few picture of different faces that Berkley was pulling the other day.

She was looking at her toy that hangs from her carseat handle. She got very excited and kept pursing her lips. It was cracking us up. Berkley has start to show us her little personality. She loves to talk to us and gets so excited over things. I even managed to make her laugh yesterday. The girls are just loving it! It is so much fun to watch them interact with her. Berkley is definitley not starved for attention! When she gets older we'll have to ask her what it was like to be raised by four mothers!

The Georgia Aquarium

2007-06-21T21:53:00.000-06:00

Mom & dad Curtis came to visit us for a week and one of the first places we took them was the Georgia Aquarium. It is so much fun to see all that they have there. Here are some pictures of all the different animals and sea life that you get to see.

A jelly fish.

Look at all the beautiful colors of the fish behind Morgan & Emree.

Mom & dad & the girls standing with Deepo the fish. There is a cute 4D show that you can see while at the aquarium and Deepo is the star of show.

We thought this couch was pretty cool!

Another tank.

This is the largest tank they have in the Aquarium as you can see when you compare it to the people. It was so amazing to just sit and watch all of the different fish swim around. Very calming.

The tank was full of Grouper fish that were HUGE!

Above is a whale shark. One of them had just died the day before we came.

When you first walk into the Aquarium them have a petting tank that has sting rays and little sharks that you can touch. They have a few more places where you can touch other things as well.

Look how big the turtle is above dad's head!

Berkley and Daddy! Berkley slept for most of the time and Kennedy was at girl's camp so that's why she isn't in any pictures.

These are amazing Japanese Spider Crabs. They can get as big as cars. This photo doesn't give them justice because there is nothing to compare their size to.

Where the penguins live you can crawl into a little tunnel and come up into their "home". You can see one of the penguins next to Morgan's head. He was taking a nap in his little hut. Dad loves to go diving and was thinking how great it would be to get into a few of the tanks. It's amazing to see everything and quite honestly, I think I would crap my pants if I ran into half of the fish and sea creatures that we saw! I don't know that I could ever go diving! I would be the one whose lungs would explode because I was more concerned about getting away from something than taking the time that is needed to resurface. I'll stick to the Aquarium!

Stone Mountain Park

2007-06-21T21:25:00.000-06:00

Another place we took mom & dad Curtis was Stone Mountain. It's about 1 1/2 hrs. from our home. The mountain is all granite and on the side of it is carved three Generals from the Civil war. Only 20% of the mountain is above ground. It's beautiful there. They have little shops like old candy stores and little resturants. Stone Mountain used to be a mining town back in the day and you can take a ride in an old train that will take you through the old town while telling you all about it. They also have a gondola ride that you can take to the top of the mountain and a boat ride as well.

We ate yummy homemade ice cream and sat in the little train depot to stay cool while we ate it. Of course, everything cost a small fortune. To get 4 hot dogs with a little bag of chips and drinks cost over $30 dollars! But that is to be expected when you go to places like this. It was so much fun to have mom & dad with us!

Laser Light Show at Stone Mountain!

2007-06-21T13:50:00.001-06:00

After walking around Stone Mountain's little shops and eating dinner we decided to go back to the blankets that we had lied out a few hours prior to reserve our spot for the Laser light show. They have a show every night from 9:30pm - 11:00pm.

The weather was perfect. It had cooled down and we were waiting...

and waiting. It was around 8pm and we were relaxing on the lawn and it started to sprinkle a little bit. I told mom & dad not to worry, that we were in a drought and that it would probably just sprinkle and then clear up. Everyone else thought the same because no one was packing up. Well, famous last words! Within minutes it was a total down pour! We thought we would get under the blanket and wait out the storm. The rain never let up and by the time we decided to leave we were SOAKED!!! The blanket was dripping wet so water was streaming in as if it had holes in it. Mom Curtis braved the weather to get this next picture. It doesn't give justice to how hard it was coming down.

When we got to the van we looked like wet cats. Soaked to the bone! We were laughing our heads off and couldn't believe it. I was so sticky! We all know that it takes a truck load of hair product to style my hair and it was running all over my face and neck. Mom felt like her pants were falling off because they were so wet and heavy. Emree looks pretty good, but that's because the kids were running while looking at the ground so their backs are soaked. The umbrella was in the van. Look at poor Brackon and how wet he got! Both him and dad got the worst of it. It really was an adventure that we will always remember! We promise that we normally don't treat our guest like this.

A Little Dip in the Pool!

2007-06-21T13:36:00.000-06:00

The girls could hardly wait for the pool to open for the summer. It usually opens before school is out, but this year it didn't open until May 25th. We have had so much fun going to the pool almost every day. We especially love to go around 8pm when the sun is behind the trees and it's cooler. I love it because I don't have to put any sunscreen on the kids (I hate putting on sunscreen) and because it's easier on Berkley. The girls also love to swim when it's dark and the pool lights are on. We always have friends with us and Lauren (Emree's "twin") was with us on this day. The girls had shirts on because we fried ourselves half to death on Memorial Day weekend!

Emree's 6th Birthday

2007-06-21T12:08:00.000-06:00

Emree's birthday party was supposed to be a very stress free party with a bounce house and sno-cone machine to keep the kids entertained so that we could relax and just watch the kids play and have fun. The party was from 12 - 2:30pm and the only thing I had planned for activities was decortating your own little heart cake and opening presents. I figured that the kids would just want to jump and eat sno-cones. Well, note to self, prepare games that you can play to keep 25 kids entertained in case your "party" doesn't show up! What a total nightmare!! The bounce house and sno-cone machine was supposed to show up at 11:30am, plenty of time before the party right? Well to make a very LONG story short, after 7 phone calls and racing around to figure out what to do with the kids, my party showed up at 2pm. It took them 15 min to set up so the kids had 15 min to play in the bounce house and eat sno-cones before their parents arrived. I, of course, got everything for free and will never use that same company again. We can laugh about it now, but it really was a complete wreck and I was just a tad bit furious when they showed up. Definitely a party to remember and a lesson learned - always be prepared!!

Emree and one of her best friends Lindsey eating their sno-cones! Emree had a great time with all of her little friends and all was well when her party got there!

Kennedy and Dalin were a huge help in getting the sno-cones ready for the kids. It was a really fun little machine to have. I would love to have one of my own.

Finally we give you a picture of Berkley!

2007-06-07T15:07:00.000-06:00

Morgan had her little friend Kennedy sleep over last night and she wanted to hold Berkley and have her picture taken so here is the most recent picture of Berkley. She is growing so quickly! We took her to her two month appointment on Tuesday and she weighs 12 lbs 8 oz. & is in the 90th percentile! She's trying to keep up with her sisters! We have a bunch more pics that we need to post so we'll post them in the next few days, but we wanted to get a picture out for those of you that have been asking. We will be better about posting pictures of Berkley so that you can watch her grow along with us!

Happy Mother's Day!

2007-05-13T17:08:00.000-06:00

Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms!!! We hope that you are all relaxing and having an enjoyable day with your families. We especially want to let mom livingstone & mom curtis know how much we love and appreciate them and all they do for us. We couldn't ask for mothers more amazing than they are! Thanks for all your love, patience, and wisdom through out the years. We love & miss you both so much!

These are the latest pictures that we've taken of Berkley. She will be 6 weeks old tomorrow, but these pic's were taken when she was 5 weeks. She already looks a lot bigger then these photos! We need to get on the ball and be better about taken pic's.

We just can't seem to get enough of those cheeks of hers. I'm surprised that they aren't raw from all the kisses she's been getting, especially from her sisters!!!

Berkley's eyes look so dark in this picture, but she has really beautiful blue eyes. We'll see if they change to brown like her other sisters did. Morgan's eyes didn't turn until she was 6 months so we could have a bit of a wait before we know for sure.

Berkley has started to smile at us and is a lot more observant of her surroundings. Every time we put her in her swing she looks up right away to look and the birds that go around in a circle above her. It is so much fun to see her little personality start to develop. She only wakes up once a night and goes right back to sleep after she eats. She will sleep anywhere from a 6 to 7 hour stretch. Now if we could just get her to go to bed before 11pm-12am we'd be set. We really don't have any complaints. How grateful we are for our sweet baby Berkley!

Teacher Appreciation!

2007-05-04T16:02:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday our ward held a teacher appreciation night for the kids school teachers. The kids wrote special little notes telling their teacher how special they are and then each child gave their teacher a certificate that they had signed. Emree invited her kindergarten teacher, Ms. Davis. She loves her to death and was so excited to have her there! Emree sat on her lap the whole time.

Of course, there was refreshments and Emree shared a plate with Ms. Davis. It was a really nice evening and the children loved doing something special for their teachers!

Ms. Davis is such a fantastic teacher! She truly loves the children that she teaches and is so patient with them. We are so grateful to her and all that she has done for our sweet Emree. If only all the teachers loved their job and the kids as much as Ms. Davis does! She really goes above and beyond!

Berkley's Blessing Dress

2007-04-24T13:58:00.001-06:00

This Sunday the 22nd we blessed Berkley. Brackon did such a beautiful job! She is 3 weeks old! It has gone by so fast. She is such a good baby! Very content and happy! We are so blessed to have such a sweet baby! (Sorry for the next pic. I don't know how to erase a picture from a post once I've copied it to the blog and I had forgotten to flip it. If anyone knows how to do it without erasing the other pics I'd love to know!)

Berkley LOVES her binki and she was fusing when I was trying to do pics. I gave it to her to help her fall asleep so the next pics have binki marks on her cheeks if you look really close.

We all know how much of a chore it is to get babies to do what we want them to do for pics! She was finally asleep!

Berkley is such a sweet little baby and we just love her to pieces! We'll continue to post lots of pics so that you can see how much she's changing! She looks like she is so chubby but she is still so tiny. Mom and Dad Livingstone can attest to that!

I made her blessing dress 14 years ago when I was at Ricks College. It's a good thing that I had girls! Each of them was blessed in it, but I didn't get very good pic's of the other girls in the dress and I wish I had. It would be fun to display them all in it. I guess we'll have to put it away for their daughters now!

Grandma & Grandpa Livingstone Come to Visit!!!

2007-04-24T12:48:00.000-06:00

C

We were so lucky to have G&G Livingstone here with us for a week! We had so much fun being able to visit with them and spend time with them. On Saturday night we went bowling and about half an hour into our game they started "Cosmic Bowling." The black light affect was exciting for Berkley. Her eyes were the size of bowling balls and of course the loud music was a little too loud for a baby so we just covered up her ears and played on. It was so much fun for all of us! Of course, taking a picture without the flash to show the whole experience doesn't work our so well!

The girls had their own lane because they needed the sides up. I should have bowled with them! Mom and I brought up the rear, while Dad and Brackon showed us up!

Morgan was very excited to show us how she could do the splits!

We also went to Smokey Bones, one of our favorite BBQ places!

We love to have Grandma & Grandpa visit us and are always so sad to see them go! We will miss you soooo much!

2 Weeks Old!

2007-04-16T17:16:00.000-06:00

Here are some pics of Berkley during her 2nd week of life. This is proof that she does have "bird legs!" More to come!

Berkley-First Week Photos

2007-04-09T09:10:00.000-06:00

The ride home

Finishing up first Bath

Squishy Cheeks!!

Berkley and Daddy

2007-04-03T20:19:00.000-06:00

Berkley just 1 day old. Does she make me look younger?

-Brackon

Berkley Paige Curtis

2007-04-02T17:17:00.000-06:00

At approximately 11: 45 am this morning we helped bring our 4th daughter into this world. Berkley Paige Curtis was born 7 lbs. 15 ozs. and 20 inches long. She came rather quickly. Marcie was induced, the doctor broke her water and 45 minutes after that she was ready to deliver. She pushed 3 times and out came Berkley chubby cheeks and all. She has long "bird" legs which is a change for us (all of our other girls had chubby legs). Marcie and Berkley are resting well and we will welcome them home on Wednesday, April 4th. Below are some pictures of this awesome occasion.

Belly, Elephantitas of the Ankles, & Berkley at 37 1/2 weeks

2007-03-21T15:19:00.000-06:00

Those of you who have been asking for a belly shot, here it is! I've been expanding quite quickly the past two weeks. I'm still not as large as I normal get so I don't have a lot to complain about, (truth be told, when you are in your thirties and pregnant ,there is a lot to complain about), but my ankles are a sight to behold! They are in the swell-as-large-as-they-possibly-can stage so when ever I take off my socks or shoes or boots my ankles are like silly puddy and have conformed to whatever shape they were in. This next picture was after Brackon and I had been to the Temple and I had been in my boots. It looks as though something has knod on the inner parts of my ankles!

I went to the specialist today and had my last appointment and ultrasound with them. She is weighing in at 6lbs. 7ozs. and has got herself some cheeks! She didn't want to be out done by her sisters. For those of you who are talented in the art of actually being able to see images in ultrasounds you will be able to see her chubby cheeks hanging down her face. So cute!!! In the larger picture I have her as though she is standing up, to help you out a little. The ones to the side are of her face sideways with the top of her head to the right!

We are so excited for her to come and can hardly wait to kiss those chunky cheeks!!! I have an appointment with my regular doctor tomorrow and we'll see if I've progressed any more than the 2 cm and 50% efacement. We could have her as soon as monday if they decide to induce me because of the distance we are from the hospital and how quick my labors are. We'll keep you posted!

Quilt of Death!!!

2007-03-21T15:05:00.000-06:00

Here is Berkley's quilt that took me FOREVER to make!!! I will never make another rag quilt again!!! Mom wanted me to post it so that she could see it. Poor mom, I complained religiously about what a nightmare it was to make. (Thanks for listening to my barking Mom.) I'm really excited about how it turned out. Hopefully it lasts forever because it was quite the task. I'm thinking that if I had made really huge squares that it wouldn't have taken as long to make it.

View from the Top

2007-03-14T11:17:00.000-06:00

While returning home from Cleveland, OH yesterday late afternoon, I snapped these photos of the sun setting from the airplane. As most of you know I do quite a bit of flying for work. I often take for granted the gorgeous sunsets and views that I get to see from 25,000+ feet. Here is one that I could not pass up. I showed this to Kennedy and Morgan and they thought that the clouds in the picture were the ocean. Enjoy!

A Quick Trip to Charlotte!

2007-02-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend our family headed up to Charlotte, North Carolina to see our cousins. We are so excited to have Rob and Flori living so close to us! It has been a long while since we've seen them. They are about 4 1/2 hours from us which is a hop, skip and a jump when you consider that our families live soooo far away in Utah! We got to their home Friday evening and left Sunday afternoon. Not nearly enough time!

We had a house full of six gaggling geese! Each of our girls is only about a year in age difference and within 15 min. they were glued at the hip and having a fantastic time. Flori is also pregnant and due the month after me with, of course, another little girl. I'd say we worked that out just perfect!

On Saturday we went to this fun place called Imagine On (if I remember correctly) and the kids had such a blast. They had a section where the kids can dress up in animal or princess costumes and play in this huge area where they had a palace with a dinner table set up with play food and plates, etc. The girls are sitting in the reading center in this next picture. They also had a shoemakers place where the kids could make shoes and a Jack-in-the-bean-stock area with a slide.

Of course the most exciting place of all for six little princesses was the Cinderella coach! There was quite the wait and anticipation to get in there. They didn't get to sit in there for very long, but there was so much to do that they had other things to occupy their time.

After the girls played we went to the most delicious pizza place and ate lunch. Flori and Rob had these coupons that had us buy 4 - 14inch pizzas. As they all came out we were a little embarrassed and thought surely we would have another meal out of them. Even more embarrassing however was the fact that we went home with only 4 pieces of pizza. It was so delicious and we devoured them very quickly! You'd have thought we hadn't eaten in a week. To mine and Flori's defense - we are eating for two!!!

There was much weeping, whaling, and gnashing of teeth when it was time to go - mostly on Emree's part! The girls are so excited to have new found cousins so close and Brackon and I are excited to have Flori and Rob back again. We had such a great time and look forward to getting together soon.

They closed the schools for this?

2007-02-05T20:04:00.000-07:00

The other day, we were hit with some brutal weather, they even closed the schools for the day. As you can see from the picture below, we didn't dare leave the house because we were "frosted" in! -Brackon

Atlanta Thrashers Hockey Game

2007-02-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

While waiting at the Atlanta airport for a business trip to Dallas, TX, I was seated next to Marion Hossa. He is a leading scorer in the NHL and was on his way out to Dallas to particpate in the NHL All-Star game. His publicist asked me if I would change seats with his mother. She is Russian and does not speak English. He wanted to be able to sit next to his mother. I gladly acquiesced to his request. He in turn promised some tickets to a hockey game.

They were great seats in the club section. We had a blast! The girls love hockey! I suppose its the Canadian in them. Here are some pics we snapped while at the game.

The beautiful Maple Leaf was high above the ice as flames poured out of the Thrasher's mouth. -Brackon

Update on Berkley

2007-01-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

Here's Berkley's latest photo. It looks like she's blowing bubbles, but it's actually her umbilical cord. I went to the specialist on Wednesday and the doctors told us that Berkley's cyst's on her brain are gone! So no more having to worry. While they were doing the ultrasound she yawned! It was so cute to see. We are so excited to be having another little girl after 6 years. The girls are so anxious for her to get here and to be able to cuddle her. I'm ready for her to be out of my tummy! Perhaps I will think differently with the midnight feedings. We are starting to get ready for the big event. We just painted the nursery last weekend and are anxious to get the rest of her room put together. The girls are enjoying playing with their friends in an empty room! They have been having dances and are having a sleepover tonight in there. Who knew that an empty room would be so much fun and keep the house so clean!

A Merry Christmas with a Belly That Shakes Like a Bowl Full of Jelly!

2006-12-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and are gearing up for the New Year! Our Christmas was quiet and relaxing this year. This was our first time not having any family around. We sure missed everyone, but had a great time being lazy and taking it easy for the day. I stayed in my jammies all day long, which is not much different from most days when I can get away with it! It's so nice to have pregnancy as an excuse to stay comfy. The changing belly and ever shrinking wardrobe makes it easy to stay in p.j.'s!! Every year on Christmas Eve our girls get a new pair of jammies and they were excited to show them off. Emree especially enjoys "striking a pose."

For FHE one night our girls made gingerbread houses. Morgan and Emree also made some at school so our counter was overcome with their creations. Having five made it hard to sneak and throw them away. There was quite a void left on the countertop!
Emree was the one who let us know that we needed to for sure save her's. So far she hasn't notice them gone!

Here's our latest belly shot! Ross, I think I'm starting to pass you up. I saw your tummy on Blake's birthday photo's and you look great! Hopefully the last three months will be good to me, but that is very unlikely. I'm just hoping that Berkley doesn't weigh in over 9 lbs! Only time will tell!

We hope you all have a very safe holiday and want to wish you a Happy New Year! We look forward to seeing some pics of your family from your new camera Jean! You need to take a pic of Cassy and Grandma and post it so that we can see the growth spurt that has taken place!
We are having an 80's New Year's Eve party that Brackon has planned so we'll be sure to share pics. If any of you have any ideas of how to dress a pregnant lady in 80's I'd really appreciate it. We all know that there is NO WAY that I am going to climb into a pair of leggings at this point. I really feel that I should be excempt from the party attire, but I guess that would make me a party pooper! Love you all!

20 weeks pregnant & Twins?!

2006-12-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

Okay Ross, you showed me your belly so here is mine! Scary that I have 4 more months to go, but a bit exciting because I'm usually bigger by now, as most of you can attest to!

NO, we are not having twins, but here is Emree's twin! This is one of Emree's little best friends out here. Her name is Lauren and they are in the same Kindergarten class. There teacher got them messed up a lot at the beginning of the year. Lauren just lives up the block from us. They have a great time together. Emree keeps saying that they are twins and we've let her know that they aren't really twins because they weren't born from the same mom. She seems to think that if they lived in the same house they would be and has informed us that she could go live with the Machelli's and assured us that she would come visit us! We would miss her too much. We wouldn't have those cheeks to smooch on!

No pictures

2006-12-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

For some reason I can't post any pictures on our blog right now. I'm not sure if it's because I have too many on my latest posts or not so I thought I'd try to post without any and see if that will kick everything into December so that I can put pics on. We'll see!

What a Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

For Thanksgiving Grandma & Grandpa Curtis came out to visit us. It was so nice to have family here with us since family is usually so far away! They were here for 4 1/2 days and that, of course, went by so quickly. Grandma and Grandpa took lots of pictures of the girls while they were here. I didn't end up taking any with my camera because it would've taken all the fun out of it. So much more fun to have your pictures taken by Grandma and Grandpa, then by mom and dad!

Here we are with Grandma and Grandpa at one of our favorite BBQ restaurants 'Smokey Bones'. No, this was not our Thanksgiving dinner! We had a HUGE dinner for the 7 of us, but we didn't get any pictures of it. It was a cozy dinner that we spent the day cooking for and it was literally over in 10 min.! Everyone gets their food quick when there are only 7 people, as opposed to the 36 that Grandma and Grandpa Livingstone had.

It was so much fun having Grandma and Grandpa Curtis out here with us. We can hardly wait for them to come back! Emree was stuck to Grandpa the entire time! He was exhausted by the end of the trip I'm sure. Grandma called us when they got into Vegas and let us know that Grandpa felt like he had lost an appendage!

They've decided to name me Berkley Paige!

2006-11-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

Here I am all squished inside my mommy's tummy! Yes I am very flexible and figure if my mommy isn't going to do some exercising then someone had better! I can't believe that I still have four months to go. I'm not quite sure where I'm going to fit! We were at the specialist on wednesday and they found another cyst on my brain, but the doctor told my mom and dad that it was nothing to worry about and that they should be gone by my next appointment in two months. Now mom and dad don't have to worry anymore!

They got a great shot of my piggies. I'm trying to decide what would look better, flip flops or mary janes?! Maybe I will be like my nanny and have a gazillion shoes! Hugs and kisses to everyone.

Missed Times!

2006-11-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

I found some more pics of the family that I should have added to my last post. Love you guys!

I Love My Family!

2006-11-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

I have the best family in the whole wide world!!! I just wanted my family to know how much I love them. I was loading my pictures from my camera onto my computer and was looking thru them all and I had forgotten about these pictures from Nanny's funeral. Being out here in Atlanta we don't get to see eachother very much anymore and it makes me realize, even more, how blessed we are. I am so thankful to have family that I can call up anytime to visit, laugh, and sometimes cry to. I am so grateful for each and every one of you. I love you and miss you!

Trick or Treat!

2006-10-31T18:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everybody! We hope that all of you had a wonderful time trick or treating! We were so excited to be going around in just our costumes and not covered up in jackets and gloves. It was quite a change from Utah! We went around with our neighbors and had a great time. (Now I know that some of you will look at the back drop and think that I couldn't possibly have my Christmas tree up already, but YES I do. My sweet husband was dying that I would put our tree up on Halloween!)

Because we were unable to attend the annual Livingstone pumpkin carving party this year we held one of our own with all of our neighbors on our street. It was so much fun and everyone loved it! Note to self for next year; in less we want molding pumpkins on Halloween night, be sure to carve pumpkins a couple of days before halloween and not a week before. Our batteries were dead in our camera when we had our party so we couldn't get any pics, but here are the fruits of our labors from that night!

We missed being with our family and friends for Halloween this year, but loved making new memories with our good friends out here! Happy Halloween everyone!

Did You Say Rancho Cucamonga?

2006-10-29T15:58:00.000-07:00

How fun is this! Last sunday we got a new sister missionary in our ward. She was sitting next to me in Ward Council and she looked so familiar. When the meeting was over I saw her in the library and told her that I thought I knew here from somewhere, (which we all know I always think that someone looks familiar to me) and she told me that she thought she knew me as well. When I asked her where she was from she told me California and then made the connection. She told me that she was from Rancho Cucamonga and that we were in the same ward when Brackon and I lived there. Who knew that I would run into someone that I knew in Cucamonga all the way over here in the South! Anyways, we had them over for dinner tonight and had such fun catching up. Her name is Sister Olson and she is the sister with the darker hair. We wanted to put her picture on the blog so that her parents could see some pictures of her and know that she is doing fantastic and is a wonderful missionary, as I'm sure they knew she would be! Sister Olson wants her parents to know that she is feeling better and only had a cold. She also got cursed out in the parking lot for the first time. She says, "Apparently people don't believe that we have a living prophet on the earth today." She just wrote her parents so they should be getting a tape soon. Hugs and Kisses from her!!!! (We did not break any mission rules in this creation process. Sis. Olson did not lay her fingers on this keyboard.) We have great sisters in our ward and it has been so fun to have them in our home every month.

Still a girl!!!

2006-10-18T15:07:00.000-06:00

Well I went for a doctor's appointment today and got another ultra sound and our sweet little baby is still a little girl! When we first found out she was a girl, the doctor said that it was a 90% chance. Brackon still doesn't want to name her yet because we still "don't know for sure" if it's a little girl! He is holding out a glimmer of hope that the 10% could give us a Curtis salute sometime here and be a late bloomer, however, with each ultra sound given and still no bits and pieces, I think that he is slowly coming to the realization that his hopes for a boy are not to be. I have two more ultra sounds in November. One on the 15th and another on the 22nd. I will be 20 weeks at that point so if nothing else presents itself then we'll probably name her. Bless his heart for being willing to live in a home chuck full of estrogen!!! I've always joked that if we had another girl he could get a dog. Perhaps we'll have to buy him one, but with his luck, it too would be a female. We love our daddy and are grateful that he is excited to be having yet another little girl to pull at his heart strings! She too will have him wrapped around her finger! We'll have to wait until they are married and then we'll have four boys!

Our 4th daughter develops as we save money...for "4 weddings and funeral"

2006-10-16T11:53:00.000-06:00

A Recent Significant Event

2006-09-08T14:39:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago we were blessed to watch our second oldest daughter, Morgan, enter the waters of baptism. It was a great day for our family. What made it even better was that Grandma and Grandpa Livingstone flew in just for the baptism. It was great to have family here with whom we shared this special day. We miss all of you and love you very much!

Under Constuction

2006-09-08T14:16:00.000-06:00

While Emree is busy building her fort in her bedroom, we are busy building our blog so stay tuned...Yipee!!!!