10 months

Today I finally pulled Siri's hair back in a rubber band. It's a little crooked and it took me like 3 different try's but I think its cute and I will probably want to pull her hair back everyday. I love how it keeps the hair out of her beautiful eyes! Why did I wait so long to do this?

See those bright red shoes? Those are mine! My mom saved them all these years and today Siri finally wore them. I love them they are so cute and they are in mint condition, I also have a black pair! My mom has such great style. 

 See, red shoe perfection!

Chamberlain wants Siri to walk so bad. He walks her all around the house. Siri has yet to take a step on her own. For now she likes to scale the couches and stand up by herself when she finds a neat toy.  But I bet it wont be long till she is walking in full force all by herself. 

  Yes, Chamberlain is wearing a non matching bow tie. I had a red tie all picked out for Memorial day weekend (for he and Siri to match with reds and blues at church) and he refuses to wear it. In fact he refuses to wear any of his many ties. All he wants to wear now is bow ties and I only have one! So instead of arguing I just let him wear the bow tie. Note to self get more bow ties.

 I realize that I really don't have many pictures at all with Ms. Siri. Its not because I don't want them, its just because I am the picture taker in the family. Chamberlain however, is slowly taking over that roll. He enjoys taking pictures and took this shot of us after Church. He is getting better and better and I have been thinking about buying him one of these for practice. Plus I have been wanting one for a while now and think it would be fun for him to carry around. I bet we'd get some interesting photos.

As for this shot. I love it.  Siri was ready for her afternoon nap. She is usually all smiles around her dad but when she is tired. She. is. tired. No matter what tricks Josh has up his sleeve to cheer her up nothing will work. We just simply have to lay her in crib and she falls right to sleep.

I cant wait to see what this month will bring. We love every minute we get with this girl. 

Happy Memorial Day Weekend.

Pomp and Circumstance

She made it! It has been a long time coming, it seems. The last of the Mohicans as my dad would say.  The very last child of the Lex and LeeAnne Chamberlain clan to walk the halls of Kanab high. All of the siblings plus all three nephews and one niece were there to celebrate this accomplishment in Sage's life.

It feels like KHS  runs through my veins and now its gone, well at least the attachment to the KHS is.   I have pictures when I was Chamberlain's age in Kanab Cowboy T-Shirts.  The teachers that taught my siblings and I also taught my dad. Crazy, how many people can say that, I dont think very many.  And now the baby is all grown up, ready to leave the nest and onto her next adventure in life. 

Sage has a special place in my heart. I love that girl!  We shared a room when she was 3, and there are countless memories I have of her starting from when she was tiny.  Although there is 12 years between us I think we have a pretty good relationship.  I was the kind of sibling that whatever I was doing I just brought my younger siblings along. Like when I was a senior in high school and we went cliff Jumping at the Lake Powell dam Sage came a long and she was only 3 or 4. We jumped off 60 ft. cliffs and she was there (what was my mom thinking letting her come with us).  Or out to the sand dunes with a bunch of friends she was there again. She stayed with me plenty of times in college. I even took her and my dad to Disneyland with a bunch of college friends. and we (Josh and I) even had the privilege to have her live with us for almost a good 3 years during her first years in high school. And now she is getting ready to move out in a few months and take on life on her own two feet. I'm so excited for her. The best is yet to come for that wise girl named Sage. And unlike her classmates who may or may not lose contact with her over the years, Sage will always be my sister and we will always be connected. I am the lucky one.

Dear Sage,

I am proud of you. You did it.

Your life is just now starting to blossom. 

You have so much to look forward to. 

You havent even scrapped the tip of the ice berg. 

There is so much good to come your way. 

I'm am grateful that I get to be apart of your journey.

Thank you for letting me share this special night with you. 

I love you.

~Ash

My dad got to hand her, her diploma (he is on the school board) as he did with me and the rest of my four siblings. At the time I didn't think anything of it. But now as I am a parent I think/feel what a neat thing to do as a father. I think if would be very rewarding. 

Her small class of like 42. I on the other hand had a booming class of 74.

 

The official graduate. I love that beaming smile of hers. 

The proof! 

Congrats to the class of 2011! (boy is that crazy to type)

Oh and, I guess a little piece of me will always be apart of KHS...well at least until they re-do the trophy case's!

waiting

I feel a lot like this picture.  

Waiting. 

Waiting for the warm weather to be here full time. 

Waiting for the summer activities to start.

Waiting for the pool to open. 

Waiting for our Lake Powell trip to get here.

Waiting for Mr. Burgess to be done with school.

Waiting for our garden to grow, so we can eat those tasty tomatoes.

Waiting to buy more eye shadow since I keep dropping mine and it shatters for like the 5th time in 3 months.

Waiting for Siri to pass the teething phase. Its been painful for her. 

Waiting for Chamberlain to stop using the words poop, and fart.  I dislike those words very much.

I have been doing a lot of waiting it seems.

But while I've been waiting I sure have enjoyed the view. I love how simple life is right now.

I love sundays.

Sunday is by far my most favorite day of the week. It such a rejuvenating day for me and my family . Usually we have family or friends over after church for Sunday dinner and relax. Sundays get even better when its warm out. Like this past Sunday with Tanner, Shelbie and the boys. We laid out a blanket soaked up some sun and watched the boys play.

Yard Yoga anyone?

 Siri is officially standing all by herself. 

 It amazes me how long these boys can ride up and down the sidewalk.

I think they would do it all day if we let them.

 This picture reminds me of a picture straight from the 80's, with tube socks.

I think all children need an uncle like Tanner. 

Siri loves, loves, loves Tanner. She so flirts with him. She bats her eyes, smiles and coos a ton when Tanner holds her.

the week in pictures

We have been so lucky to have Shelbie and the boys staying with us for a couple of days.  It has been so much fun to have them.  The boys just played all day like boys do. They played mostly on the tramp, which was awesome since they were dead tired at night! 

Baby Lex was too funny. 

He loves to get a rise out of Ms. Siri. He loved to tease her and make her cry. He would hit her (not hard) and Ms. Siri would throw her head down or ot the side and cry, cry, cry.  And Mr. Lex would act so surprised. It was hard not to laugh because Ms. Siri is so dramatic!

I'll prove it while I was trying to get a picture of all 4 kids. 

 Mr. Lex just hit Ms. Siri and she threw her head onto Chamberlains lap and cried. Hudson was pulling Lex back saying Baby no. I love the look and all 3 faces! 

 Now Mr. Lex is crying. Look at those dirty looks from Chamberlain. And Hudson bless his heart is trying to help Mr. Lex who is almost as big as him.

 By this time they are over it. Hudson is smiling as always and Chamberlain  is looking at his rolly polly.

 Yep Chamberlain is really over her crying!

As I type this the house is clean and quiet, the babes are sleeping in their beds, but I would trade it all for the craziness, laughter and mess we had all week.

We miss those guys.

let the soccer season begin!

This is Chamberlain's second year of soccer. It is amazing to see how much he has grown and matured since last season. Last year he was not old enough to play, but they let him play due to lack of kids to sign up in the 4-5 age bracket, and he was still one of the tallest players at age 3.  This year he is of age and he is by far the tallest.  I love to see the difference from this year to last. Last year he just had fun running up and down with the pack of kids around the ball.  He would kicked the ball to the closest goal, it didn't matter if it was theirs or not. Lots of goals were scored in the opposing teams goal.   This year he is much more aware of the rules and the goal that he is going for. He is much more of a team player and recognizes others that are playing with him. He cheers much more for his teammates and even when the other team scores a goal. I get so much joy from watching him having fun out on the field. 

I think my most favorite moments are when he scores a goal and instead of cheering and jumping up and down, he turns around and looks for me directly.  His cheeks turn red and he gets real shy and smiles really big, but almost not to show any excitement in his emotions. I love it. He scored 3 goals out of the 5 goals made Saturday and every time he would do the same thing. I loved it. He is such a sweet kid. 

  Just to see how tall he is these are some of the tallest boys on his team. And when he was given his shirt he immediately said "Dad, I do not want this shirt, its the stinking Ute color!" We then had to talk him into wearing a red shirt for the rest of the month.

The boy in the green is the tallest on his team and yes the picture is at an angle but Chamberlain was still a lot taller than him.

I have a picture exactly like this one from last year. Yes Josh has had that green shirt for 6 years now. I wish he would let me buy him more shirts. Oh and we have the addition of sweet Ms. Siri. I still get blown away at how beautiful those mountains are. Such a pretty place to play soccer. 

This was one of chamberlains 3 goals. I like how he has broken away from the pack of kids.

I hope he is having as much fun as we are watching him play. 

I think this is what enjoying being a mother is all about. Its about finding joy in your offspring. It delights my soul when I see my children having pure joy, succeeding at something they are working towards, learning something new and applying it. I delight in watching them grow spiritually, physically, and mentally. I am blessed to have these two little ones.

I cant forget about little Ms. Siri she sat happily the entire game in her jogger. I think she enjoys being outside in the warm sun.

incognito

 

 {Pictures taken by Chamberlain jumping on the tramp}

Remember this post when Chamberlain got his first black eye? Little did I know that Siri would be joining that club a few weeks later.  However, she is a lady and does not like to show her battle wounds. That, or maybe the wounds wouldn't show up very clear in the picture. She has a huge bruise on her left cheek and under her left eye. She and Chamberlain had an accident involving a chair. Siri was holding on to the chair and Chamberlain fell off the chair and the floor won. Ouch.

today

Oh goodness, today was just one of those days.

You know the kind, where its nearly dinner and I realize that I am still in my workout clothes and have yet to shower for the second day in a row. Nice! I have huge pile's of laundry that I need to do so my kids, husband and myself can have clean clothes to wear this week. Not only clothes but floors need to be mopped and vacuumed, toilets need to be scrubbed, rooms need to be cleaned and the list goes on.   Except Ms. Siri decided that she did not want to nap today so I could scratch a few of those task's off my list,  and instead wanted me to be near her a all times, but hey as long as we were outside she was happy so that's just what we did. Forget house work. We enjoyed the nice warm sun under our big shady tree, and Siri enjoyed eating a dandelion. I only realized this because her lips and cheeks were stained yellow. Awesome. However, I'm not too worried since I read this here, and I have also heard of people making Dandelion jam. So Im really not all that worried.  

Thus being said I forgot I took these pictures of Chamberlain the other morning when he dressed himself with his favorite color from head to toe. It made me laugh. 

I love my little boy!

I had to add this one as well, its just too cute. 

shade of blue and a bow tie

My brothers always had bow ties growing up and its about time I got Chamberlain one. 

I wish I would have gotten him one sooner. He is  so handsome with a bow tie. 

I love it. Josh was skeptical at first but I think he caved once he actually saw it on him.

The Easter Bunny brought us shades of blue for our Easter dress ups.

I think they all look lovely.