Dad's Retirement Party

My Dad officially retired on October 4!  I am so excited for him.  He has worked hard his whole life and has set an example for me and my siblings of hard work and dedication!  I am sure he won't just take it easy now that he isn't "employed" any more, after all he has a new taskmaster, my mom.  :) I am sure my dad is really looking forward to working in the yard and his garden this summer, I know how much he enjoys doing that and now he has TIME!!

We decided to all get together as just siblings (no kids) and do a party for my dad.  We  decided to make it a surprise party  for him because we can never surprise him! It was so much fun, the only kids that weren't there were Brent and Laura, and they came through Sykpe so all of dad's kids were there! He was truly surprised that with all of our crazy schedules we all managed to make it on the same night!

Family Pictures

Mike and I decided we were going to do fall pictures of the kids.  I NEVER order the school pictures, I think they always look bad.  Kaylee is super shy and never, ever smiles at the photographer so we never get a nice one of her that way.  I really want to get a nicer (not just snapshots) picture of the kids each year to see how they grow.  This year I decided I would try and do it myself, since Mike bought me a sweet new camera for Christmas.

We had so much fun with the girls, we went to a place we have gone for several years now to do "cousin" pictures, that looks so beautiful in the fall.  I think the pictures turned out super cute and we were all happy and still talking to each other when we left, even though we did blow off Kaylee's hip hop class to get a few more pictures.  We were worried with as unpredictable Idaho weather is that we would get another good day before all the colors were off the trees!

Of course, things didn't go perfectly smooth, Hayden had a poopy diaper THE SECOND we arrived, and I had left the wipes from the diaper bag at my parents house the night before. Luckily we had toilet paper from the outhouse and water from a sippy cup! Seriously I don't think family pictures EVER go smoothly..... The bigger girls were so wonderful to help get Hayden to look at the camera which was actually harder than it sounds because all Little Miss wanted to do was eat leaves and grass and sticks and dirt! Oh! And she had croup! But she is such a sweet baby that even with croup she was so perfect!!
  
Here are a few of the pictures that I thought turned out cute.....

 I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these girls!

IT LIVES!!!

I've decided to try to resurrect my blog....... We will see how this goes.  Mike and I have been busy busy busy! Mike moved from the jail to patrol, I can't remember if I posted about that, I haven't posted anything in like almost 2 years sooooo its safe to say I didn't post it.  

We also bought a new house and we are so excited about it.  We love our new neighborhood so much! Kaylee loves her new school and Lydia loves all of her friends, and Hayden is just happy all the time, and doesn't know the difference.  That brings me to another life event I missed on here, we had another baby girl! Hayden Michelle was born December 30 of last year!  We love her so much and she is such a joy in our family, she really does complete our little family and we can't imagine life without her.  The bigger girls wait on her hand and foot!  She is just such a sweet happy girl and so  good-natured with those big sisters of hers always lugging her about. 

 The girls are super busy with Kaylee in hip hop and gymnastics and Lydia in dance and preschool I feel like we are always on the go!  I hope that I will keep this little blog up and updated with our family day to day lives and adventures we have!  Only time will tell if I keep this up. I did once upon a time so how hard could it be?

Look! I figured out how to upload a photo! Just like riding a bike!