Summer of ‘23

 My kids will soon be at 4 different schools! Ahhhh! 

Emalyn will be at the High School; Liam will be at the Junior High; Avanie & Monroe will be at the Elementary School; Lindy will start Preschool at Kids’ Corner. 

But there’s one more month of summer so I’ll just breathe. And yes it’s now reaching triple digits for the temps lately but I’m not going to complain too much. The mornings are still cool for running and the nights are still pleasant enough for an occasional fire pit s’more roast! 

We did our big trip down to Southlake, TX where we stayed at Doug’s parents’ for a couple days. Then we traveled up to my parent’s in Conway, AR. We all had fun swimming and of course we had our traditional Sonic lunch and slushee. We did some Kite bird watching with my parents and witnessed the mid-construction phases of my dad’s future transportation vehicle- his airplane. :) We all went to visit Brinley’s & Ryan’s gravesite before we left Ma’ma and Pa’pa’s house. The trek back was a lovely 23ish hours total, but luckily we stopped at my sis-in-laws house in Rio Rancho, NM for a respite. That trip is like having a baby - painful and agonizing but worth being able to hold loved ones and make lasting memories. 

Then we went to the horse ranch a couple weeks later! I love that place! It’s Triangle X Ranch just north of Jackson, Wyoming. This ranch is faces the Teton Mountains and is beautiful! The weather this year was as perfect as chocolate shavings on a chocolate mousse pie Doug and I and all our kids were there with Doug’s dad, Kevin. We also had a couple cousins come to - Korrinne and Philip. There were a ton of great families there that we all really enjoyed spending time with.  Not much can compare to loping along on a horse in the National Teton forest on a mild summer day with friends and family! 

Now Emalyn is off at FSY, and Liam & Avanie are about to start their ‘Charlie Brown’ play. In fact, Liam is Charlie Brown in the play! Doug has about three plays lined up over the next 6 months that he is excited to do. I think he will be in at least two of the three, if not all of them - ‘Clue’, A Christmas Carol’, and ‘The Foreigner’. 

I will be officially certified soon as a Life Coach through the Coaching Firm. I’m excited to add this to my personal training & health coaching business! I’ll also be coordinating and working with Doug’s sister Janene who lives down the street. We already to wellness events together but I think it’s just the beginning!!

Til next time, don’t stay the same as you don’t want to be!

! It is 2021 !

Baby Lindy at Home with Grandma

The rest of the Kaufmans in Disney World

Wow! I completely forgot about this blog. I happened upon it because of a giveaway option from my local grocery store.
What?! There was the option to share the giveaway with my blog so I pressed on the option. Ta-Da! Here I am on the blog again after ... 8 years!!! Wow. 

Needless to say, a lot of changes have occurred including more children being born. 

We have Emalyn, Brinley (deceased), Liam, Jude (miscarriage), Avanie, Monroe, and baby Lindy. 

I teach fitness classes and am a health coach. Doug is working with a company called Cove that we hope sells soon! 

We just got back from a week in Orlando with all the kids, except Lindy (she is a busy and loud baby) who stayed home with Grandma. It was a fun week at Disney World and Universal Studios!! I’m pooped. :) 

And today is Emalyn’s 13th birthday! Unbelievable. I remember when she was so tiny in the hospital in her little incubator. Now, she is a teenager! 

She and I might just hop on a flight and head to Vegas for a weekend trip. Of course that is Doug’s idea since it’s Mother’s Day this Sunday too. Two birds. One stone. Ha!

Okay, let’s hope I don’t let 8 years pass again before remembering I have this blog to share moments and memories. 

Why?!

Why is it that I forgot 11 months out of the year that I even have a blog? . . . I do not know. But here I am again doing my annual blog post. I shall do a synopsis of the last 12 months because it really has been that long.

Preschool Pics 2012

Airplane ride

Papa'!

Caught a fish.

Kissed a fish.

The joy of the 1st snow. Liam FINALLY learned to love the snow!

Happy Halloween!! Avanie the Bee.

Good-bye tooth, my old friend. Happy gas or makes me emotional gas? Emalyn was a tough one!

Go Mommy Kara!

Thanksgiving time with the fam from the South! Awww! Love these guys! (2012 still)

Need I say more? (Liam 3; Emalyn 4 1/2)

      Fresh Pine for Christmas 2012!

A little pre-Christmas pony ride. I had to make sure it worked!

 

Playing dress-up with my Christmas aprons. Poor Liam. Sorry buddy, but I will probably show this picture to your future wife. 

Las Vegas Family Trip February (I think) 2013. Dolpins! Look at those cute booties. :)

Jealous of Avanie. Liam had to try the sink.

Just plain tired. Cute baby!

2013 has been an eventful year. Literally. I have ran to relay race events - The Ragnar and The Red Rock Relay. Doug and I took a trip to Monterey California, where we ate too much and loved it. We all managed to stay alive during the big Independence Day celebration with Doug's sisters' families. The trampoline did NOT escape some tragedy. And I enjoyed a girls trip to Vegas with the in-laws!  Emalyn turned 5 years old and started Kindergarten!! She loves it. She is a born gymnast, and everyone rants and raves about her at her gymnastic classes. She often walks around on her tippy toes and astonishes anyone who sees. 

Avanie turned 1 year old. She loves electronics and being outside, hoards toys, and scoots everywhere! She is "Scooter Bug" and at church is known as "Piglet" (however, she is the most healthy eater ever). 

Liam is all about the Super Heroes and dressing up in his Iron Man costume. He will be 4 years old in November. He needs to be in karate so he can punch something else besides my butt (it is at a convenient level for him). Both he and Emalyn just finished soccer. I was the coach. Doug cheered us on.  We had a pretty fun time as a family! 

I am back! (again) I can't believe it's been almost a year since I have posted anything on here. Ridiculous! Well there has been a ton of fun in that year. We had our first Christmas at our house and not traveling. We loved it! Santa even visited us. Then we moved to Highland to a wonderful new house with a great yard. Emalyn had her 4th birthday party in our new home and had tons of fun with friends and the new trampoline. We have been able to entertain many of our family members now that we have space for them: Dad and Mom Simpson; Dad and Mom Kaufman; Janene's family. So fun! We are also hosting Simpson Thanksgiving this year. It should be a blast!
NEXT, Avanie Kaufman came into the world on July 28th. She is the most pleasant baby ever. Her smile and giggle could probably create world peace. :) She is not a tiny thing with her length being in the 92 percentile and weight in the 77 percentile but I love that. She will be able to hold her own and be beautiful at the same time. Love her!

Emalyn and Liam are enjoying preschool at Rainbows Preschool and gymnastics at AF Fitness Center. Emalyn is a natural gymnast and Liam is just plain funny to watch (even though he gets stronger and better ever time we go). 
We just had family pictures and they turned out great! (thanks Jenny) I have such a beautiful, wonderful family. Thank you to my husband for working so hard to provide for our great family!

November? Really? I actually forgot I had a blog. Life is so c-r-a-z-y! In favor? Say "Aye".

Well Emalyn was Rapunzel for Halloween (what little girl wasn't) and Liam was Edward from Twilight (actually he was Dracula). Emalyn was so excited about Halloween and dressing up and getting trick-or-treat (candy). I felt like since there were so many Halloween Parties that it ended being a week long. In fact, when Halloween actually arrived I told Em that that day was actually Halloween and she asked,"Halloween again!?!" She is adorable. Liam finally figured out the whole trick-or-treating to get more and more candy. He was pretty much satisifed with that first piece and just wanted to eat it. After about door 3 or 4 though he caught on and let people add to his bucket of candies. He was pretty persistent with the knocking too. Haha! What a funny boy.

He had an all day 2 year old birthday celebration. He got donuts for breakfast and balloons. Then, I took him and Emalyn to Kangaroo zoo. After that we met Doug at the Provo Beach Resort for some kid bowling, even though Liam could care less for the pins as long as he could just chuck all the bowling balls down the alley. :) Next we went and ate some yummy pasta at Malawis and came home for cake and awesome gifts (train set and car track set)! Happy Birthday Liam!

I guess Doug and I have finally proven ourselves worthy to have major callings in our ward. ;) we maybe should have thrown out a few cuss words in front of the Bishop so our trial period could have lasted longer. Haha. Just kidding! We feel really blessed to have been called as counselors in YM and RS. Busy busy! Doug is also finishing up schooling and will be done with his internship in February and graduate in April. Go Doug! Then we are off to different adventures that we know not of at this time. Oh well! And I just started my Group Fitness Instructor course to become certified so I can hopefully teach some fitness classes. Fun fun!

Life is crazy but so very good!

It's here again, already! The summer selling season has arrived.
I can't believe how quick the summer selling seems to arrive. I think every year that it approaches faster than the last year. Well, Doug is in Fort Collins as of today (4/25/11). He is selling in Wyoming but Fort Collins had enough housing for all the office. Thank goodness too!
Well I guess I have to roll back the clocks a little to catch up on our lives and spectaculars.

Emalyn and Liam are becoming greater friends ever day, and I love it. Emalyn is still a little bossy, but Liam is still a little bit of an antagonist. However, they are catching on to each others' ways and embracing them. ;) Liam likes to wear ball caps and mommy's shoes (he gave up on trying to walk in Em's princess shoes), and Emalyn likes to wear her ballerina skirt, her heels, and her purse. They both LOVE going outside. In fact, Liam cries his eyeballs out whenever someone leaves our house cause he doesn't get to go outside when the door opens (no offense to all those people who we told he must be crying cause you were leaving). He also still manages a way to fall on his melon-head at least every other day. Oh, but he is my cuddle bug! And I am working on channeling his energy for the greater good.
Emalyn is still quite the gymnast. She jumps, stretches, and climbs with those little legs so much a person would think they were made of rubber. And she is as cute as ever cause now we can understand more the sweet little things she is saying to us. She is also my big helper!


We have taken a couple vacations in the past couple of months. One on March 3rd was just for a night at the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. The kids had a blast going swimming. Doug got a an hour massage. I got room service and a bubble bath. :)

Then, Doug and I took the kids to Las Vegas (3/28-30/11) and stayed at the Vdara in the new City Center. It was so nice. We went swimming a couple times, and Emalyn loved going up and down the stairs in the pool. Liam loved getting out and then jumping back in (into Doug's or my arms, although Liam would have jumped no matter what). We went to the aquarium at the Mandalay Bay, the Lion and Dolphin exhibits at the Mirage, and ate at the Rainforest Cafe. The Belagio had a beautiful butterfly art exhibit that we walked through several times. When we were walking through the Mirage hotel Pete Rose was sitting at a table signing autographs. Doug wasn't going to get one at first cause "he doesn't do stuff like that" but when we walked back through he couldn't not get a ball and autograph. The famous Pete Rose gave me a great compliment. He said, "If having kids gives you a figure like that, then you need to keep having them." Thanks Pete!

Finally, Doug and I took a couple's retreat to Cancun, Mexico!! We went April 7-11, and L-O-V-E-D it. Another couple went with us and so it made it that much more fun. I felt like I was in seventh-heaven being waited on while sitting on the beach reading a book in the warm sunshine.
We went snorkeling and saw some really neat fish and coral formations. We all took much needed spa time and got massages as well. This trip was so nice to spend time with the hubby and get some time for me before the summer began! When's the next trip?!

That is the end of the trips for now, but we had some great partying this past weekend before Doug left. We celebrated both Doug's and Emalyn's birthdays early. Then we had a fantabulous Easter Day! The kids have definitely had there fill of cake, ice cream, chocolate candy, and jelly beans. And I think I have too, but it was worth it!
Happy Birthdays! and Happy Easter!

Yes. We ARE still alive despite our blogspot disappearance.

Recap:

June 2010 - The kiddies and I came home from summer sales while Doug went to Wyoming to finish out the summer. We never looked back but remained grateful to be in our home. It was rough to not see Doug except for an occasional weekend. Glad that summer is over!

September 2010 - The annual elk hunt in Colorado. The kids did great camping! We sure do have some little troopers. Emalyn even slept in her very own tent, all by herself. It was freezing at night but we all bundled up enough to not notice too much. The nursing during the middle of the night was definitely the hardest part but it was all so worth it. We loved being with family and "roughin' it"!
October 2010 - Doug and I finally had a prom night together. I know, how sweet. It is always nice to get out with just the hubby. APX did a formal night and it was fun to dress up and get out. We also took a little weekend excursion to Sundance. The weather was beautiful and the leaves were changing colors so it made hiking that much more spectacular. good times! Doug and I also recently went to Cabo for just a few days (3 days in Dec.). The trip was so last minute I didn't even have time to plan for any pictures. :) I did beat Doug at horseshoes though, went to the spa, and got an awesome tan.
More in October - Happy Halloween! Emalyn was Tinker Bell (along with half of the little girl population) and Liam was Tigger. They were so cute and adorable!
November & December 2010 - Happy, Happy Birthday to LIAM!! He turned the big ONE! We had his birthday at Kangaroo Zoo, which he slept through half of it. haha! He sure was excited to just get to the eating part. Poor kid that's really all he wanted for his birthday I think - cake.
Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!! We did a LOT of traveling in these two months. We took a couple weeks for Thanksgiving to drive to Arkansas and back up to Northern New Mexico to spend time with my family and with Doug's family. Several members of my family had yet to meet Liam and most of Doug's family had not seen us since last Christmas. We definitely needed the reunions. Doug went hunting while in Arkansas and got a beautiful coyote. And the kids had a blast playing with all their cousins over the holidays. Pa'pa gave Liam his first haircut on December 27th and became Emalyn's all-time favorite.