now what do i say?

more pics of our last run

2012-01-20T13:56:00.000-06:00

i already posted the boring details of my last run. but i thought i'd better add a little more because it was only the second run that the kids have come to... each of the races by the drc has a kids race after, usually it's not very far, but the kids get a racing bib and at the end they get a little prize, rayna ran one lap (about 100 meters), and afton ran 2 laps, so they each got a little pin (afton got 2, for doing both laps), and afton forgot to turn in her little tag-thing so they didn't call her out as a winner, but i thought she did pretty well.

aren't we cute?! this was at the end of the races.

it was pretty chilly that morning. and i was really excited about the sun coming up... unfortunately the thick grey clouds hit about 10 minutes after the sun came up--go figure. but it wasn't bad while running, i just felt bad for the kids ane paul waiting for me... i wish it had made me run faster!

here's rayna finishing her lap--i ran with her because she was nervous

afton did awesome! this was her second lap, and she was still going pretty fast :)

new year's eve

2012-01-17T13:27:00.000-06:00

for new year's eve last year afton planned the whole party :) it's amazing to me how much she enjoys it all. she got everyone to dress-up (though that's a somewhat relative term for us), planned games--button, button, who has the button and tic-tac-toe featured prominately, and made sure everyone was having fun (you'd be surprised how fun those games can be if your 5-yr old hostess is entertaining everyone with them!). there was plenty of food and balloons and crackers. and we even got naps that afternoon so we could stay up really really late (10!!!)

rayna stuffed balloons under her skirt so it would POOF
(i just loved her expression too--so cute!)

just before bed (almost 10!) covered with streamers (yes, paul thinks he's funny)

afton ready with her cracker

the whole party complete with crowns from the crackers, and a couple little toys too :)

okay, i must admit, the rest of us stayed up past midnight, playing games that might pass as more enjoyable than afton's choices, but i think we all had a blast ringing in the new year, and having quite the party for our last night in az! thanks so much to sarah for sharing dominion with us, we loved it (though i evidentally never caught on fully to strategy--i was doing better by the end there)!

we've got just a little bit from new year's day:

this one's actually new year's day. malachi got his own fork for breakfast, and proceeded to eat with it fairly well too. i was impressed how well it worked at least!

we also really enjoyed later church (11) at grandma's house, where the girls relaly wanted to go to primary, so they got to try out a new ward before their own new classes back in tx the next week! i was proud of them for staying the whole time and having fun too! after church we packed up pretty quick so we could head out as soon as possible for our long drive back. the drive was gloriously uneventful and we made it home by lunch time :) here's just a few more pictures from the way home:

and a few sunrise pics from our drive home. this is middle-of-no-where, TX, and i was mostly impressed with myself and my new camera because i took it while driving through the window, and still got some pretty good shots off :)

gotta love those windmills too!

picacho peak

2012-01-14T12:55:00.001-06:00

so one of the things the girls were most excited to do in az was climb a mountain. they've never had a lot of mountain climbing experience, as the average rise anywhere near dallas is best described as a "little hill," but i thought we found a pretty good one for their first mountain. it was also fun to see my aunt and her family again, we don't see them nearly often enough since we moved away from az!

picacho peak:

this is the view from the highway, we hiked up to the little saddle on the right-hand side of the peak there
the hike officially continues up to the peak, which paul and i did about 6 years ago, but it would have been really hard for the kids (especially since we forgot the baby-carrier), and impossible for our cousins' dog.

first we did a little quick-hike to this cute little cave for the kids to play in

the boys got a little ahead of us :)

i was really impressed with afton and rayna both, they both hiked all the way up with only the occasional assistance, and afton refused more than a couple hands' up, she really wanted to do it all herself! rayna stayed relatively close to me, but i was still impressed (amazed) that she did so well!

pause for a cousin picture. this is at the base of the big rock, just before the last climb to the saddle, if you look in the first picture, you can see a large tan rock face just under the saddle, pretty cool, huh?!

enjoying the view and some snacks at the saddle. they climbed over 900 verticle feet, and i think it was just over a mile, each way laterally.

our climbing buddies! thanks so much for coming with us, we had a blast, and we appreciate your help and encouragement too!

the view from the top... and you can see our car, especially if you click on the picture to make it big, we've got the tan spot on the top of that loop :) it was also a great climb for watching trains go by, afton gave up counting train cars pretty fast, but i think we saw 12 seperate trains that day!

malachi really wanted to come down teh mountain by himself... he didn't really believe me that he was too little, and got very frustrated with me when i tried to help him, but rayna needed to use the bathroom, so we were in a little bit of a hurry
(he and i ended up being last down anyways)

it was pretty cool to see how far up we'd gone when we got to the playarea at the base of the mountain too. that's our saddle the sun's peaking through

and rayna loved this cactus the best, she said it looked like a man :) two eyes, two arms. (sorry i missed the front view, we were driving past when she pointed it out)

tucson and tamales

2012-01-12T12:59:00.000-06:00

so you know, with all the pictures i took on this trip... there are an awful lot i forgot to take too :). we were in tucson for more than 24 hours, visiting the taylors (who we haven't seen in a year) and some other friends stopped by from our past (i think we hadn't seen them in more like 4 years!) with their 2 1/2 yr old twin boys (that's right, never even met them before), and i dind't get a single picture of any of them, let alone any cute candids or whatever that would be officially blog-worthy... and we stopped by a wedding reception (gate crashed, actually as we didn't even know it was going to be then til we got there--and in our jeans!) to visit with a few more poeple we used to know from church! but we did have a great time at our little party, and we loved seeing all of you again!
the two pictures i did take in tucson:

nothing like a good batch of tamales to ring in the new year right! and these were fantastic, we were so glad to steal a couple dozen to bring home with us, paul and i have been eating them for dessert for the last two weeks :D

and there's no place like the taylors to find beautiful dress-up clothes! the girls "took turns" with this one, but really afton wore it about the whole time we were there, including playing on the swingset and traipsing through the sand and thorns in the backyard! she's such a tom-boy princess!

thanks agian taylors for letting us come stay with you! and arranging everything so we could do so much in such a short time!

one Thursday morning...

2012-01-11T14:22:00.000-06:00

if a picture is worth a thousand words, i probably don't need to add any to these:

i love afton's reflection in the car window

cinderella...

i just love overalls!

PHX zoo

2012-01-10T18:15:00.002-06:00

i know you've seen a million zoo pics from us over the last three year, but these are a little different, and i even have a few new (compared to our zoo) animals :)

who can see the wolf?

if you click on the picture, it'll get bigger too

hint: over afton's head, grey

pronghorns

who ever would have guessed?! javelina are zoo-animals! not just pests :)
i think they called them collared peccary

roadrunner imitating owl (both pictured)

these guys are just pictured because prarie dogs are afton's new favorite animal!

have you ever seen one of these at the zoo before?
(they were peeking into an exhibit as rayna and i returned from a bathroom run, and i thought it was funny... maybe only if you could see them from the opposite sidewalk...)

gila monsters... and girly monsters ;)

i didn't get a pic of the real dragon, but here's the girls on the statue-dragon! cool, huh?!

the kids were enthralled with the pelicans!

malachi wasn't so enthralled with the iguanas...
sorry, i couldn't help myself...

the girls were so happy to let this guy preen for us.

most of the crew :) i wasn't ready to try to focus this shot and run and jump in it with the timer, but i still like how it turned out

and finally, what do you really go to AZ from TX to see...
\----longhorns! ----/
(though the giraffes and ostriches in the background make up for that a little

a few favorites

2012-01-09T16:24:00.001-06:00

these are a few of my favorite super heros, i'm a little hazy on the details, but i think afton was a princess and rayna had super powers (in the fight against the wicked warlock, because uncle matthew wouldn't be a wicked witch). sarah was particularly tickled by the armrest cover-headpieces :)

i love this one of the girls with grandma

the girls loved their new sleeping bags, they were sleeping together on an air mattress, and when we would come in to check on them we'd usually find them either

snuggled close together

or afton would roll away... i don't think she made it through a single night without rolling off the bed, but it didn't seem to bother her either :)

and speaking of sleep patterns, this was malachi one night--we forgot his blue soft blanket, which he loves, so we borrowed a piece of soft pink fleece from grandma f. before we left tx, and it was nearly good enough for malachi... this pic cracks me up because he managed to stay pretty wrapped up in his blankets, but his feet are on his pillow, and his pink blanket is completely over his head!

three generations of williamson men! i love this one too!

and game time for the napper when his sisters are in bed and he can have some quality daddy-time...
and hit something too!

marshmallow wars and the park

2012-01-07T16:24:00.000-06:00

rayna announced about a week before Christmas that she wanted a marshmallow gun. i'm not sure where she learned about this kind of thing, but i think she was thinking it was more of a marshmallow dispenser... (i think the idea came from an oriental trading company catalog). needless to say, paul and i thought that was a fabulous idea and we went out and got the pvc pieces to make guns for 4 people (not all in the same location for Christmas, but still, it's always a good idea, right?). rayna's was for her, but to share with afton and malachi, but uncle matthew's was just for him, and aunt sarah's was for defense! the day after Christmas we went out to a local park and had a lot of fun!

ready...

aim...

fire!

we were having a lot of fun at the park, and i was playing with my new camera, so there's a ton of pictures from the park... here's some of my favorites:

malachi LOVES climbing and sliding

rayna jumped off the jeep

lots of swinging...

awww, how cute ;)

i loved the light in this one, uncle matt took a bunch of cool shots of rayna and chi on this little climber

grandma and grandpa came too... but they didn't swing or slide at all, can you believe it?! ;)

malachi was hanging from the monkey bars... he's getting stronger!

running update

2012-01-07T10:36:00.000-06:00

inturrupting the Christmas vacation report for my personal running record...
the timing chips weren't working today for my latest 5K, so i'm going with my friend's stopwatch, which said i ran in 30 minutes, 53 seconds... i'll take it, even though i felt suspiciously weak by the end ;)
for previous runs, remember here.

Christmas

2012-01-06T13:18:00.001-06:00

so i think my new favorite thing about Christmas is having it on Sunday :) can we do that more often please?
Afton is far and away the most excited about Christmas this year for our family, and was up correspondingly early, so she's the only one i got a picture of eating breakfast (then we were in a hurry to open as much as possible of the stockings and get off to 8.30am church)

she could be in a commercial here, huh?!

naturally i got practically no pictures of the stockings and the cute little things they were able to open before church... i took a lot, but apparently i was too excited to focus on things that might blog-worthy... after church, we rushed home to talk to auntie emalie (on a mission in florida), and it turns out she ended up rescheduling anyways, so we ended up talking to her about an hour and a half later than we thought we had to rush to do... which was fine for the grown-ups, but mom made the kids wait even longer to get to the good stuff! we finished opening stockings while brunch was in the oven, then we ate some yummy breakfast casserole and coffee cake (cake for breakfast! this really is a holiday!) and then talked to emalie for real before finally getting to the presents!
though now that i think about it, i did let the girls each 'open' one present (that we didn't wrap) before brunch, they each got a sleeping bag, which they were very excited about, now we're all ready to go camping again! here are some random pictures i did take of Christmas gifts/children:

rayna's new teddy bear, that matches her bear hat

malachi got LOTS of new trucks and cars, which he loves! he really wasn't interested in that other red present at all (it was a new tool set, he likes it fine too, but not as much as those tractors!)

the kids each got a ring-pop in their stockings that they could eat while we were walking home form church... they were happy to pose for pictures with them, but they weren't interested in looking at me too much :)

afton posing with her dress--i still love these dresses!
here's hoping they fit for a LONG time!

the girls got daddy a hammock for Christmas, the even wrapped it for him, and may have helped unwrap it too ;)

and finally, here was grandma's tree... maybe i should have put that one first ;)

Christmas Eve

2012-01-05T13:32:00.001-06:00

so it got to be Christmas eve, and naturally that means the kids are dressing up to act out the nativity while dad reads... we may not be with my dad, but my kids' dad can read too ;)... so as we finished dinner we hurried to find costumes, and i think the results were fabulous!

Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus and the manger

the angel

the adorable shepherds

the narrator

the whole crew :)
ps, those are sarah's sheep

we love the Christmas story.... my kids act it out throughout the year, but never with as much fervor and support as on Christmas Eve!

travel...

2012-01-04T13:34:00.000-06:00

first, a tiny bit of background... my mom gave me a camera for Christmas... so i took about a million pictures of our trip out to AZ... and i loved it... so now i'm really trying to pare down the number of pictures i post here (though it may not seem like it).

yep... i even have to show the pic of the camera...

where to begin... we planned on driving about 18 hours from paul's work straight through to AZ thurs afternoon, and i even made a paper chain for the kids with places and activities for them to look forward to (and not to ask 'are we there yet') along the way. we always drive through the night if possibel because when the children are asleep they are happy and no one usually has to stop for the bathroom (roughly every half hour when they are awake...). everything was going fine til we got to new mexico. land of enchantment. or so they say... we were routed off the highway around 3 am and told no one was going anywhere so we might as well get comfortable (HA). there were literally hundreds and perhaps thousands of other vehicles routed off where were, we certainly couldn't see any end in sight, and we found a place to stop for the night. fortunately that meant that the kids could get out of their car seats, and they slept the better for it. paul turned the car on every hour or so to turn the heat back on, because it was rather cold (we almost gave the kids their Christmas presents--sleeping bags--early, but decided they were warm enough with their blankets, especially as they barely woke enough to get unbuckled). it was a long night. by 8.30am, we decided to try our luck elsewhere. we knew another highway that runs roughly parallel to the one we were on, and went southwest to it, then we went back northwest to re-connect to the one we were on originally, but about 30 miles further down, because ALL the highways in NM were closed for the duration of the snow. folks, it was 2 days before Christmas, and the huge snowfall seemed to be about 2-3 inches. i'm sure there were places that were more, but it really wasn't that bad. the snowplows were clearly running all night long, and i think if they'd let the cars continue to pass it would have been fine, but it was obviously not my call. so this was our view for the next 2 hours:

as we sat and waited for the road to open (this was after lunch). in the 2 hours we sat there, dozens of cars were sent back, and eventually they circled around and came and parked on the road (when there were too many for the police to send them back). if you can see the black cruiser facing us just past that black car, it was the policeman, we were that close to the barricade. we made some friends, and paul took the kids on a short walk, but since we were planning for Christmas in AZ we didn't have any real winter gear, so they mostly stayed in the car too. (ps, even more frustrating, we could even see some cars occasionally that they were letting drive OUT of the other side of the highway, so it was clearly passable)

note, afton needed my sweatshirt. that's how unprepared we were for snow.

the kids were AMAZING!!! they were mostly playing and being happy, despite being cooped up in the car for so long (there weren't any places to stay in the little town we were stuck in) and i was proud of them!

hooray for toys (and books)

even malachi was happy as long as we didn't try to buckle him!

eventually a lady came running towards her car calling to her friends/family "they're letting us through" and there was a mass ruch to the cars, paul had ours on and inching into traffic as i was frantically helping the very agreeable and helpful kids into their carseats! i don't think anyone will ever know for sure if the lady was just ensuring that they make it to their Christmas, or if they really were letting us through, but there were plenty more people than police, so either way, it worked...

our view as we finally continued to drive. the roads don't look very scary to me!

and a view out my passanger side window, the sides of the road don't look too bad either!

long story short (too late)... we made it to grandma w's house almost exactly 12 hours later than we planned! but we made it, and we slept really well that night :)

final catch-up before the vacation report

2012-01-03T21:59:00.000-06:00

warning, this next few weeks might get boring, i took that many pictures! but first, the last part of december before our stellar arizona vacation!

afton's been SOOO excited about santa this year. she was first in line to see him at the church Christmas party! she told him she wanted snow, a necklace, and a happy family (she got all three!)

rayna and i got to go to afton's school Christmas presentation. this is in the classroom after the show, with one of the girls' good friends, tally. they got to play with the costumes a bit and we had milk and cookies to celebrate.

the class getting ready to perform, rockin' rudolf, the little boy in the front is jesse, another of afton's good friends.
i took some pics of the actual performance, and a video, but afton's on the back row, and there were some boys standing right in front of her for most of the pics. :( they were cute though!)

we went to the arboretum with some friends, and ran into snow white, frosty and rudolf on our way out

rayna was a little enchanted!

and just because i need to include a pic of malachi! he can be SOOO sweet sometimes!

up-to-date... almost

2011-12-20T13:27:00.000-06:00

so a few more things, so we're all caught up for christmas :). we've been really busy, but mostly playing around. here's a picture from a week or so ago, it's just so easy for me to take more pictures when paul's home, and i wanted to record rayna's 'mary poppins' outfit, that's what she calls this dress (i especially liked her knee socks).

'crafting' with some friends. we made a bunch of snowflakes, and we put a lot of them up on our sliding back door, so when the sun shines we have cool shadows on the kitchen floor; it makes for a fun breakfast room.

malachi LOVES this truck now. he plays with it almost every night after the girls go to bed, he's getting pretty good at stacking the blocks and shoving them through the shaped holes, but mostly he drives it around making siren noises :).

most pictures of him i have now look something like this:

he loves the camera, and what can i say, obviously the camera loves him too!

we also had a fabulous visit to the zoo last saturday with daddy... unfortunately i left the camera in the car :(. it was really one of the best visits we've had in a LONG time, partly because we haven't been going as much with that miserably hot summer and then school starting for afton, and partly because paul got ot come with us, but the animals were entertaining, the kids got to see most everything they wanted, and the zoo wasn't crowded at all (it was predicted to be cold, but it turned out to be a nice warm day).
we had an especially great time in the reptile house, and playing at the bug house... of all the weird things for my "cutsey little girlies." we also enjoyed seeing an eagle eating some little furry thing, and an owl feathering a small bird... sounds so much worse when i write it down... suffice it to say, the things i would have taken pictures of would not have involved any of that, but lots of silly smiles, petting little goats, watching the flamingoes, and maybe crawling through the tunnles with the naked mole rats... oh, and afton and paul held a few birds in the children's aviary. we sure have enjoyed having that zoo pass, though i think we're ready to let it expre for a little while, it's a lot harder to get all the way out there with school... maybe we'll try somethign else next year! merry christmas!

afton's school days

2011-12-15T12:51:00.000-06:00

so i tend to do better blogging when i can let the pictures tell the story. i'm not one for taking the time to write everything out, and don't have the general writing skills i so admire in others, but i figure it's time i take a couple minutes and share a little about afton. she's doing really well in her school. she's reading fairly well (understandably slow), and she's a great listener (at school). it's always nice to have someone else appreciate your child though, so it was a really nice surprise when afton got an award at her first 6-weeks (grading period) ceremony back in october. they only give out three kinds of awards, perfect attendance, nearly perfect attendance (missing only 1 day), and a good citizen award for one boy and one girl in each class that do an exceptional job at obeying the rules and helping others. afton was sick three times that first grading period, but she was a good citizen :). it made me happy, and i hope her too.

here she is sitting with some of her classmates on their rug

getting the award from her teacher, ms flores

i know i've posted a few pictures randomly throughout of some o fthe dress-up days at her school. they have a couple things each month it seems where they get to wear something special. as part of drug-free week they got to dress in super-hero costumes or t-shirts. we don't have any of those in her size, so we made one :) she was her favorite (though admittedly, she only knows the names, not who they actually are, or anything like that... she hasn't seen any of the movies), green lantern.

then again, at the end of the second 6-weeks gradin gperiod, afton got an award, perfect attendance. hooray for no more sickness! here she is with a couple of her friends.

i should have some more pictures from her school up soon, she just had her christmas program last friday, singing and dancing and cookies and milk,. and rayna and i got to attend (triple hooray for daddy getting to work from home that day so he could be here while malachi slept!!! !!! !!!). i need to upload those pictures still and hopefully i'll post them soon.

some more dressing-ups

2011-12-15T12:33:00.000-06:00

some more of our silly days...

after church one day

just in case anyone wondered what i look like anymore... rayna took that picture,
paul doesn't take pics, so it's usually me behind the camera--i don't really change too much either

rayna was cold, she borrowed daddy's coat

malachi all dressed up for church in his snazzy vest. i thought he looked so handsome :)

paul's sister emalie just left on her mission and one sunday afternoon paul was writing her a letter (with the girls' help). as he was writing, afton was dressing him up to match her, and he didn't really notice... so we took a pic of the final product to send to her so she could see the effect letter-writing has on her big brother. please note his handbag ;)

trimming the tree

2011-12-15T12:19:00.000-06:00

ta-da!

afton took this pic of the finished product...
it just might look better this way ;)
we love it regardless!

thanksgiving break

2011-12-13T14:05:00.000-06:00

afton had a full 4 days off school for thanksgiving break (since she's afternoon class, tuesday was half-day), so we went to the arboretum with friends. it was a little chilly, but we had a great time (i didn't bring my camera so these are from jennie's fb--hooray for friends with cool phones!).

cinderella's coach

kindermusic with dancing scarves

more at kindermusic

there was free facepainting at the arboretum, and the ring-pops were a special treat left over from halloween. i think both were a huge success! and pretty fancy too!

we had a lovely thanksgiving day with grandma and grandpa f, and some others--including uncle steve and aunt dorothy and since it's been so long til i got around to writing this, we now know they're getting ready to go on a mission (as pres), so that's exciting! i think everyone had a great time, and i know the food was amazing! (though afton claimed the sweet potatoes were too sweet... anyone else ever hear of such a thing?)

malachi just woke up from his nap, so i'm cutting this post really short, suffice it to say, i'm very grateful for my amazing family, and i'm so lucky to be who and where i am!

silly days

2011-11-21T13:45:00.000-06:00

some silly days with our family :)

giddy-up daddy!

whoa! too far, falling here... (ps, afton caught him)

sandwich anyone? (everyone, more like!)

sunday afternoons especially lend themselves to some serious family silliness. daddy's home to build tents and play games :) we love daddy!

malachi likes to play on top of the tent. (he was in the middle of getting his pj's on)

we love frosting!

afton got to lick the rubber scraper

this pic makes me hungry! looks pretty good...

malachi agreed. delish!

and in other news, malachi has a new favorite toy.
it comes EVERYWHERE with us!
sorry this pic is so blurry, i still love it :)

ballet class

2011-11-16T13:11:00.000-06:00

some of you may remember past ballet classes (here and here), but this time rayna was able to participate too, and they both had a GREAT time (pics in random order)

sisters and friends in the balloon-dance

rayna's backbend

part of the duck dance (think chicky-dance, but traditionally it was for ducks so the teacher pulls back tradition)

cute-sy curtsy :)

afton in the duck dance

that child runs fast!

and afton's curtsy

i love this class, the teacher's great, the price is right, and the kids are adorable!

time with friends

2011-11-08T20:31:00.000-06:00

last week rayna got to go on a special outing with her best friend and withOUT the rest of us. this is kind of special because pretty much everythign we've done to this point is as a family (though obviously w/o dad as he's always at work). it was also special because afton was at school, so she's already breaking out of the mold, and it was ray's turn too :). they had a great time at the arboretum, even though it was one of our chillier days, it was far from cold, so i think it was a perfect afternoon to play outside, they look pretty happy too.

rayna's a little "huggier" than dallin ;)

we also had a girly fun morning before school that day, with another friend coming over to our house. afton wanted her hair done like her friend's

afton and grandpa found this enormous caterpillar on halloween...
he didn't quite make it til the next day... oops.

and i just love this one! they look so much alike to me :) and all cuteness!

halloween

2011-11-07T13:55:00.000-06:00

okay, okay, i'm getting on the ball, i've been slow about posting lately (as you'll see), but i figure it's my perogative... or something... anyways, here's the kids in all their halloween glory, getting ready to go trick-or-treating at grandmas house (her neighborhood's WAY better than ours for that). the girls were "scary" witches (though rayna's was a scary ballerina witch...) and malachi was by default (meaning it was a costume he couldn't take off by himself)

this pic was well before halloween, we built our scarecrow again (a little different from last year, but mostly the same). we like him :)

for some reason i absolutely LOVE this picture of rayna :) she refused to wear the witch hat except for pictures, though she was super-excited to wear straight hair at first... oh well, i like her curls anyways!

malachi really only wore the hat for about 2 minutes... and he LOVED trick-or-treating! that's one thing he's super-good at!

these pictures were a few weeks ago. one night we had some halloween-theme decorated marshmellows for dessert. they were also a hit:

and they're pretty, right?

and thanks to maggie for the awesome halloween plates! they love them :). i'm thinking they'll be a year-round addition to our table! thanks so much for sending us that package!

when the rain comes

2011-11-03T13:48:00.000-05:00

for all my fans that have been waiting impatiently for the next installment in the lives of the williamsons (or those that are at bored at work and want something cute to look at, ahem--you know who you are)... about a month ago it rained! we were so excited, that we went running to the door in our jammies, and made grinning faces like these: (we didn't even mind when it was still raining at bedtime!)

malachi was so inthralled, you'd have guessed he'd never seen rain before! (or maybe it was the novelty of running outside to watch it... either way, he was happy too!)

best buddies

2011-10-27T13:09:00.000-05:00

these two truely are ~~partners in crime~~ best buddies. it's really been nice with afton in school for rayna and malachi to play a lot more together. chi naps for a good 1 1/2-2 1/2 hours of afton's 3 hour block at school, but the rest of the time, they're fairly inseperable, and usually super-sweet too! they love giving hugs and playing with babies (real or doll), and i love it!

and did i mention how they work together and help eachother? cute as could be!

ps, that's frozen chocolate chip cookie dough

and even better, they're sharing!

a few little things to make you smile

2011-10-27T13:01:00.000-05:00

reading :) she's been "reading" for years, but only recently has she started really reading! it's so fun! and she's so smart!

evidentally, there's still some sleepwalking going on in our house! this is what i found as i started up to bed one night last week... i'd heard her get up to go to the bathroom, but evidentally when she was finished she couldn't find her bed!

crazy hair day at school yesterday... it's in honor of drug awareness week

there's just something so very, very lovable about this cheesy grin!

dress-up day at the library... though for halloween she wants to be a scary witch...

i got kicked out of my own bed one saturday afternoon at nap time :( but it's still cute ;)

and here's our favorite little daddy, all decked out for church :)

malachi LOVES shoes... all kinds. the girls' are big enough to be easy to put on, and small enough that he can still walk.
these have the added benefit of being tap shoes and they make a LOT of noise on the tiles--hooray!

horse apples!

2011-10-26T13:56:00.001-05:00

many of you may not have heard of horse apples before, (they're also evidentally called osage oranges, though i just learned that one a little bit ago), so this is a horse apple: they're from big trees, and they smell rather okay (at least they don't rot too fast), so we collect them from a house along our walk from afton's school. they make great toys, and we love them. that is all. ;)

please excuse the binky, he had just woken up from a nap

there's not too much sound in this video, but you can see that despite out postage stamp sized backyard, the kids still find plenty to do to play with these little balls. (and despite the fact that they have a million other balls they play with too... these are new and therefore far more special)

clearly, we love our horse apples.

crocheting gone crazy

2011-10-17T14:19:00.002-05:00

so i've never been really very humble about my crocheting (though i have occasionally been humbled by yarn). but i'm really proud of how these dresses turned out! hopefully they'll fit for a long time too, the pattern's pretty forgiving, though i'm worried that i made rayna's shoulder area too small and it won't lsat for too much longer... we'll see!

these were some experiments with crocheting thread (as opposed to yarn)

they like spinny-dresses

rayna's turn

so you can see the pattern a little better, for those that are interested

my other recent past-time, doily plate mats (not really place-mats, just for the glass dinner plates :)

and just cause i started with this one, i made this dress for a friend's baby, and i thought it turned out pretty good, it just took a little longer than i'd hoped, and it was smaller than i planned on too... go figure!

and the baby dress showing off the skirt

i think i'll stick to yarn again for a while! but i am taking requests ;)

school days

2011-10-12T13:04:00.003-05:00

recently afton had picture day at school... me being cheap (and hello, this is pre-k, not graduation!), i didn't buy the school package. i did however take a couple pictures that morning before sending her off to school for the day. these are a couple of my favorites:

and since rayna didn't want to be left out, here's a few more of my favorites:

and that afternoon, they were playing school, afton's the teacher "cause i know how now cause i go to school" i liked the hello-kitty-school-desk-tablecloth-thingy :) and all the books lined up. malachi was being troublesome, so he got religated to the bumbo, which he's far too big for, and which worked to keep him seated approximately 2 seconds (aka, just long enough for the picture... he sure earns the nickname

"Trouble!!!")

most of the time it was more like this:

and on a completely unrelated note, for those that expressed interest in our grilling experiments, here's a couple more:

the bread was great, we loved it, we were hoping the broccoli would be similar to roasted, it wasn't as good. we'll probably stick to roasting it in the future the only trick with the bread (and most veggies) is to brush a little oil on them so they don't stick. we used olive oil on the bread.

arboretum, part 2

2011-10-04T13:47:00.000-05:00

cinderella's coach, it was hitched to a topiary horse! and the seats were "spark-ly"

he was trying to climb up there, but the pumpkins on the sides weren't helping him, so i boosted him up for a picture

we loved this gourd, looks like a giant pear! (she's pretending to take a bite)

a couple of the pumpkin houses had these cute little mobiles

what can i say?! i love this one, and it's not even posed!

happy kids!

rayna wanted to take some pictures, and yes, i was there too ;)

again, just to show off some of the other gardens, i thought the whole place was simply lovely!

there were also fairy tale castles up for the summer, and those were still around, so we had to visit some of our favorite castles, don't worry, i won't post too many of those... cause i didn't take as many this time ;)

and we did manage to run into afton a couple times on her field trip ;)
this was at the beauty and the beast castle

and rapunzel's tower, where we had lunch

chi too!

arboretum, part 1

2011-10-04T13:22:00.001-05:00

last friday was afton's first school field trip, they were headed to the pumpkin patch at the arboretum, and it was all day school (8-2.30 instead of 12-3), it was also the last day of our year pass to the arboretum, so as soon as we dropped her off at school, we raced home and got ready ourselves to head off to the arboretum ourselves! rayna and malachi had a blast posing for pictures. it was gorgeous weather, probably the nicest we've had in months! and everything was beautiful! hence the dual posts, i narrowed my pictures down to merely about 20 ;). some of my favorites:

rayna insisted on holding a pumpkin whenever she posed with them, which was everywhere

malachi kept posing, but he wouldn't really smile, he'd just climb up on the pumpkins and grunt at me til i looked at him... i wonder if he's remembering last year?

these two were being SO sweet, i LOVED it!
ps, note all the different kinds of pumpkins? there were tons!

still wouldn't really smile, but he sure liked being photographed!

just to give you an idea of all the pumpkins and gourds they had on display... and dramatically!
they had a series of houses that were cinderella-themed

again, just an idea of how many pumpkins they have here!

more posing

i don't know what he's doing here, but i loved this one too :)

and stay tuned, there's more!

next 5K

2011-10-01T21:14:00.000-05:00

i just have to record this so i remember, and this is a good place to help me with that ;)

--feel free to stop reading here if you wish--

my first 5K was in May, and i ran it in 31'30"
my 2 mile relay was in august (miserably hot in other words), and i did about 22 minutes
today was another 5K, and i've been sick for a while, so i've only gone running twice in the last two weeks (and both of them were short and coughy--for lack of a real word)... i didn't have a lot of hopes, but since i was signed up, and the next race isn't for a while, i figured i'd better try in anyways... and i was proud of myself! i didn't have to walk at all, and i finished in 33'15" (beating my friend teresa by 1 second ;)--nothing like a little healthy competition to get a fluckiger running!). my only goal going in was to not walk, and i did that, but i figured i'd be closer to 36-40 minutes, so i'm really glad i had teresa there to run with.
any other fluckigers want to race sometime? jacob? anna? katharine, i'm assuming you're not quite ready yet, but in a few more months, i imagine you'll be able to cream us all... i figure we live far apart, but we're trustworthy, so if we plan it right, we can just race on a given day and post our times :). i just mention it cause i figure this counts as healthy competition :)

just playin' around

2011-09-28T12:47:00.000-05:00

these were from a few weeks ago, just playin around at the park :)

and afton found this cool bird's nest on the way home, it was just sitting by the sidewalk, i particularly liked the wet wipe/dryer sheet thing that was sticking out of it.

conversation after church this week

2011-09-20T20:24:00.000-05:00

A: there's a church activity at 7.30 and i want to be in it and you need to call naylani's mom and tell her i'm going to be in it.
(ps, friday... talent show)
Me: what do you want to do?
A: um...
Me: it's a talent show, what talent to you want to show people.
A: um... i can play the piano
Me: but do you know how to play the piano?
A: (matter-of-factly) yes mom, you just hit the keys! see (unmelodic demo)
Me: we'll see... ... ...

girly girls and silly boy

2011-09-15T12:50:00.000-05:00

our update today is brought to you by the letter R and by the number 6:

1) rayna wrote her own name. be creative, you can see it!
(ps, the R is sideways and the A's are upside down)
(pps, note the practice Y's on the top row, that's a tricky one for her!)

2) ballet class has started again, this year rayna's old enough to be a part of it all too!
(ps, yes i did buy her some tights, she no longer has to wear striped shorts)

3) happy grandparents day! sorry we didn't actually celebrate, though afton's school invited grandparents to come help make a special project. it was a family tree, though she hasn't brought it home yet. thanks mom for coming down and joining her! and for stopping by afterwards so rayna could see you too! we're sure glad we live close to you!

4) no caption required!!!

5) i just LOVE this picture, the close-up's on the top of the sidebar. how happy can you be!

and 6) malachi loves climbing, anywhere, anytime, but this is my current favorite. he likes sitting in the bathroom sink. usually stealing someone's toothbrush (like mine--blech!) but he's cute!

what can i say, my kids make me smile :) hope you're having a great day too!

afton's birthday

2011-09-13T14:27:00.000-05:00

afton made it to FIVE last week. it was a strange day for me and paul to realize. funny how the kids keep getting older, and we don't ;). i had very good intentions of chronicling her birthday with photos, but you know what they say about intentions... so here's a few i did manage to get (most of the highlights at least!)

first, we had ballet class (more on that later) and playing with friends at the park. it was sort of spur-of-the-moment, or we could have invited a lot more friends :). after nap time we went up to grandma's house to go swimming, the water was a little cooler than most of the summer which made it about perfect! no pics of that. afton did get to invite her best friend joshua and his family to join us, and i think we all had fun!

playing in the sandbox

one of the most important things of a birthday is a pinata, this was partly as a reward for figuring out how to keep dry pants through the night, and partly for her birthday... either way, it's good!!! unfortunately a homemade pinata wasn't the best idea, at least this one wasn't...

it was a one-hit wonder... :( but it had candy in it so i guess that's good!

somewhere in here i feel the need to mention that dinner was won tons, per afton's request, and they weren't necessarily very pretty to look at, but they tasted great fresh (i made them in advance), and were still pretty good re-warmed for the actual b-day :). mostly i have to mention that because i think it's funny that my 5-yr old wants won tons. i wouldn't have known what that was at 5... and if i'd known it had cabbage in it i probably wouldn't have even tried it! i love that my kids (especially afton) are willing to try new things!

there was a pretty good pile of presents too! i was impressed!

this pic reminds me of one from my childhood... i think it was my 6th b-day and i got one of the old-fashioned my little pony's, but the grin and closed eyes were similar, maybe next time we go to grandma's i'll pull it out and scan it in for comparison's sake...

afton wanted a raspberry-jelly roll cake with green pudding-cream 'frosting.' a little too sweet for my tastes, but it made for a GREAT pic, i love how you can see the flame flickering in the last candle, and the puffs of smoke from the others, every so often i luck into an action shot!

and just to show the other kids were there too, malachi playing in the sand
(this is his new pose, btw, he does it a LOT!)

rayna was really excited about afton's new barbie-belle-ballerina...

and i should mention, malachi missed most of his nap that day, and considering how much trouble he usually is when he's tired, he did a great job!!! and was asleep long before we hit the highway on our way home.

just a few little things

2011-08-28T17:50:00.001-05:00

so it seems like time to update somethings, but i'm not sure what :). naturally i look to my pictures as a guide, basically what they tell me is, it's too stinking hot to do anything so we're languishing away here...

but the laundry's getting dry as fast as i can hang it outside!

note rayna's sticker earings, she LOVED them, despite the funny face :)

we had a great time with uncle matthew when he came to visit, though i think this was the only day i actually took pictures :( sorry there weren't more!

my absolutely AMAZING cousins made matching skirts for rayna and afton... they wear them ALL. THE. TIME! i actually had to hide afton's from her for a few days! (i haven't got any great pictures though, this one was acutally in the background of another photo when i realized i hadn't taken any good ones i copied it just to show the skirt... they're INCREDIBLE!!!)

daddy helped the kids built a tent from the clean laundry :) they were sad when we had to eat dinner with those chairs!

afton's scrabble game, she'd pull out the letters and i'd help her line them up so she could sound out the words, she figured out all those words though we've barely done any 'reading' before! i was amazed.

happy boy. doesn't like to talk, loves being the center of attention

happy cucumber. tasted good, one could say it brought a smile to everyone's plate ;)
(sorry to those that saw this one on FB, i just love it so reposted it)

also, something i don't have any pictures for, paul just completed his third HHH (hotter than hell hundred) 100 mile bike race!!! he felt really good about it, and got his best time ever (6 3/4 hours) despite over 100degree weather :)

GO PAUL!!!

and double congratulations to auntie em, who just got her mission call to florida!!!

(alligators and hurricanes and drug dealers OH MY!)

lunch time conversation

2011-08-24T22:42:00.000-05:00

afton and rayna at lunch:

a: ouch, i just bit my tounge!
r: you aren't supposed to eat your tounge, silly, you're supposed to eat your food.
a: (emphatically, if slightly garbled from pain) i know!

hehehe :D

first EVER day of school!

2011-08-22T13:10:00.000-05:00

and how did that happen?!

afton's in pm pre-kindergarten so we played with some friends a bit this morning (so as not to think about waiting for school to start)... but now it's official. we're committed. :) (and excited!)

so excited for the backpack... seriously, why is that always the kids' favorite?

when we dropped her off she was happy to start playing with the little 'play house' area.

i can still barely believe it, but it seems to be done. i guess we'll get a real report in about 2 more hours :)

more pics of malachi

2011-08-18T14:58:00.000-05:00

so i just uploaded pictures form the last 2 weeks, and there's not really anything exciting (not that we didn't still have fun, but i guess i just haven't pulled the camera out much). however, there are a ton of pictures of malachi, he's quite a silly poser! here's a few of my favorites:

gotta love pudding!!! and with my own spoon!!!

playing with rayna :)

who could resist those eyes?! and with the kissy-face already ready?!

rocking the feet up

he loves blowing... i know the pic is a little fuzzy, but it still makes me smile :)

ps, i don't usually have my child running around naked or even half-naked... i just realized that

this post would make it appear otherwise... not quite sure how that happened...

fork video

2011-08-01T20:53:00.000-05:00

this really is as boring as it sounds... a week or so ago malachi was crying so much he wouldn't eat his dinner. through a series of points, grunts, and not a whole lot of sign language (darn!) we finally figured out he wanted a fork to eat with (even more ironic when you realize that afton and rayna still generally don't eat with forks!), and this was the result:

july

2011-08-01T14:19:00.000-05:00

i'm not sure whether to say, where has july gone, or thank heavens july is finally over... a little of both, perhaps. this month has gone by fast, but it was so hot and miserable that i'm kind of glad it's over ;). it still surprises me hot very hot it is, you'd think i'd be used to texas (or az) summers by now, but i'm miserable! anyways, we've had a lot of fairly lazy summer days, and not a lot of big exciting things (cause really, it's too hot!). so here's a few pics to put things in perspective:

sometimes things seem a little topsy-turvy here, but we're helping eachother, so i think we'll turn out all right

rayna's perspective through the camera lens

afton likes to come jumping up behind daddy and land seated on his shoulders, i have it on video, but it's only like 4 seconds long, so i thought the pic would almost do it justice

love these happy sisters!!!!!!

there are a lot of big shoes to full around here too!

malachi's favorite spot, he spends significant amounts of time here.

another of rayna's pics, showcasing her skirt,
she wears it almost every day (til mom takes it away)

rayna's birthday tutu

peek-a-boo!!! hehehehehehehehe!

mmmmmmm blue sucker!!!

who's got a birthday?!

2011-07-22T14:00:00.000-05:00

someone we all look up to!

someone who's always reading and studying (though i must admit, in this pic he's reading harry potter, nothing too strenuous).

someone who's always getting snuggles, even when he wishes he were sleeping

someone happy

someone loved!

very loved!!!

happy birthday paul! we love you very much, and appreciate all you do for us!

nothing like working long, hard hours (easily 60-70), for long, long semesters (gee, 4 whole days off for summer break!), and still being an amazing daddy, a busy church-worker, and the best husband i could wish for! hope your next year is the best ever :)

(and the next, and the next, we're looking for lots of best ever moments here ;)

fourth of july!

2011-07-05T15:15:00.000-05:00

we love the fourth of july! we love our country and our freedoms, and we love parties!

here's some pictures from our independance day parties (first, the allen celebration from the 25th june):

afton trying out a hot air balloon basket, she could have pulled the fire cord, but she was a little nervous of the noise it would make

checking out the fire engines, always a big favorite of the kids

loving on the giant cow

malachi fell asleep during the fireworks show that night... it was a late night!

and from the actual fourth:

nothing better than a berry-spangled french toast!

or a berry/yougurt parfait

there may have been some chicken fighting going on that day in the pool... (and paul and i may have been the champions, but no one took pics of us battling it out, so that will evidentally remain a mystery ;)

there was also a nice afternoon nap time scheduled into the day (love having babies!) and a ton of fantastic food! i guess i didn't get pictures of that though... i guess that tells you how much fun we were having! hooray for good friends, good food, and good entertainment!

there was a lot of "firework" dancing

crouch, "BOOM" jump!
a lot of dancing!

me and chi chillin' and watching the fireworks

yep, me and paul were both there,
love the night shot with the closed-eye-flash!

and a bunch of the fireworks from both nights:

i need some help

2011-06-29T15:09:00.000-05:00

anyone that has some suggestions, i'm in need. i've been trying to start running again (it's been like 15 years... and when i was a teenager i still didn't run all that much or far, but i enjoyed it then, so i'm saying "again" even if it's not technically accurate) and i need some motivation. what do you do to motivate yourself to exercise? how do you exercise with small children? how do you eat healthier (without "dieting", which i hate and refuse to do)? any ideas?

ps, i've been jogging in the evenings after paul gets home, and usually that works for me, but it's so HOT! and i haven't been going as long as i want, i still like it, and i still feel good, but i get so thirsty (even if i drink as i go i feel dehydrated). i also go on long walk/jogs some mornings (with afton on her bike and the other 2 in the stroller, but i can only go as fast as afton... and that's not very consistent or very fast). i know i need to do more, but i can't figure out a practical approach.

(and i'm posting this in part so i don't have any more excuses)

afton's new look

2011-06-27T23:01:00.000-05:00

before:

after:

and not only new bangs, but also a tinkerbell bun :)

ps, the rest of her hair is the same

stay-cation, part 1 addendum

2011-06-27T13:43:00.000-05:00

conversations between naomi & rayna during the night of the babysitting:
1st time to bed
N: Rayna, lie down
R: I can't
N:why not?
R: it's night time, i'm old now, and my back hurts
N: ok, lay on your tummy
R:it hurts too
N: lay down, and i'll rub your back
(she was out by the time i got up to her on the bunkbed)
2nd time i put her to bed (aprox. 1:20 am
N: R, where do you want to sleep? in mom's bed, your bed, or aftons bed?
R: one minute, i'm thinking
(20 seconds later)
R: I've decided!
N: where will you sleep then?
R:daddy's bed.

hehehe :D

sunday afternoon pile-ups

2011-06-26T13:35:00.000-05:00

so, now that we have sunday morning church, it seems the afternoons always end up like this:

i guess it's because we like to wake daddy up from his sunday nap ;)

malachi's first bike ride

2011-06-25T14:51:00.000-05:00

about two weeks ago malachi got to go on his first bike ride with dad. he was a little frustrated at first, seriously dad, that helmet's partly pink (poor little brother), and he DOES NOT like hats of any kind (we've already lost 2, though some of our friends found the second one), and as much as he likes being outside, he'd rather be running away from mom or dad than sitting behind someone.

but dad, this helmet's got pink flowers on it!!!

however, it only took about this far:

bye-bye!

before he realized this was going to be fun!!! and they had a great ride, so that when they got back home and dad took chi's helmet off, he tried to put it back on so he could ride some more :).

ps, this is still paul's old bike, he had already gotten his new one,

but the baby seat doesn't go on it, only the old one...

why am i getting the feeling we're not going to be selling this one?

stay-cation, part 2

2011-06-23T21:02:00.000-05:00

so the best part of our stay-cation was actually after the conference. we had paul nearly all to ourselves from june 7-12! we got some good shopping in, and my apartment has not been cleaner since we moved in three years ago (i can actually get stuff done, and it stays clean when there's another adult around... for a few hours at least), and paul cleaned the carpets, and bought his christmas present (he got $ towards a new bike, but he hadn't had time to look for one til june! seriously folks, he's THAT busy!). and best of all, we went blackberry picking! malachi you'll see, is a natural:

love them berries!

okay, this one admitedly has nothing to do with blackberries, but i thought it was cute :)

afton could eat blackberries three meals a day, seven days a week if allowed!

and yes, we got 4 bags! YUM!!!

we actually probably didn't do too much more than usual with paul home, but we appreciated it all a lot more! we also had plenty of time playing with blocks:

we were rather proud of how we got this tower to balance on rayna's ear.
afton was too wiggly to get more than a couple blocks.

and this tower is nearly as tall as rayna!

both girls LOVE building towers for chi to knock down. and he loves to oblige! what a great easy activity!

stay-cation, part 1

2011-06-23T14:25:00.000-05:00

there's nothing like a little "time-off" for daddy, while he's got a conference for which he's supposed to be general go-fer boy, for a great family stay-cation! fortunately for us, it worked out really, really well!

paul's last day of practicum (essentially an unpaid mandatory internship) at galaxy counseling center was tuesday may 31. the conference (the name of which i have forgotten) started officially thursday, so paul was still really busy that week. fortunately, the conference was taking place in the fairmont hotel in downtown dallas, and double-fortunately the person in charge of the conference was paul's advisor, and he managed to get two connecting rooms for us for thursday night, so the kids and i got to go down to dallas and have a little time with paul, and have a great vacation too! we LOVED the hotel!

the girls, and kitty, coloring on fairmont hotel stationary.

i think everyone's favorite part of the hotel was actually the view (though i didn't take any pictures). the kids all went straight to the window-wall upon entering the room and pointed out various items of interest (fountains, people, cars, a swimming pool on a parking garage roof, lots of really, really tall buildings with cool windows, lighting, painting, etc)

needless to say, the hotel beds were also a major fascination point (not to mention the tv that you could see from the bed...)

the kids and i went on a little walk while daddy was particularly busy, and right next to our hotel was a building i'd told afton about once before, and she remembered, so we went there first. it's called fountain place (the big green building with the triangle-shaped point for those of you that remember the dallas sky-line but don't know/remember this place). there are fairly extensive (for the city) grounds under/around the building that are covered with water and fountains. most of them are small like these, with trees and tables and benches and things to enjoy the view. they also have a great "dancing" fountain, that squirts water straight up in patterns. the kids all enjoyed sitting and watching that (again, no pictures) for a little while.

fountain place

malachi needed his own "bed" and though he didn't make it through the night in it, he loved having a place of his own

when daddy was finally done with business it was too late to go to a restaurant for dinner, so he picked up some texas barbeque for us to enjoy at the hotel. yum!

friday morning we thought we'd take a trolley ride (since we didn't have time to go swimming before daddy had to be off to another meeting... darn conference!). since i was more or less sitting still for the next hour, i took lots of pictures :)

here we go! (yes rayna was a little nervous, though she got over it pretty quickly)

see, i told you she got over it! and yes, i was there too.

malachi was having the time of his life!

our driver was a retiree that studies dallas history in his spare time, so he assured us he could tell us more than the average driver, and i'm sure he did! he was a great tour guide!

he also let us ring the trolley bell when we were disembarking. it's a button on the floor so you can just step on it, though chi liked to bang it with his hand. the girls were a little more nervous, though afton did ring it once.

if i'd gotten around to posting the pictures right after we got back i could tell you how old this trolley is... i remember it was from melbourne, and it's been in more or less continual use since it was first made. the only real modification is the a/c (thank heavens!)

the best part of the hotel experience for me though, was friday night. my beautiful amazing loving awesome sisters came to watch the kids at our house so paul and i could have a date-night. though i'm not sure that's the right phrase because i had three hours to myself while he was still conferencing. (that's right folks, three solid hours to do absolutely nothing without any kids!!!) then we had a late dinner and walk through west end. it was nice to enjoy the energy of the city, and have a little break from the routine of the average day. thanks so much missy, nicki and naomi for watching the kids that night!

memorial day

2011-06-13T13:43:00.000-05:00

so memorial day was great fun for us this year. we went out to lake lavon (which may be filthy and a little gross, but it was warm, and the day was beautiful!) for a little picnic with a bunch of friends. i think there were 5 families in all, including 13 1/2 children under 6. and lots of good food and laughter.

ready... set... come on mom, let's go already!

the kids were ready to go by the time they finished their breakfast cereal.

what makes you think i got into the charcoal daddy was packing?

mostly we spent a lot of time wading in the shallows of the lake, and eating. some of our friends have this little raft that they bring to share. all the kids love it or are scared to death of it, though i guess that's the way with most water toys. we also had plenty of squirt guns and a few other land-activities.

one of only two pics i actually took at the lake, and the other was worse... i'm just not a good photographer... but yes, this is paul's turn to take some afton boating.

unfortunately we had to leave early to get paul off to school for some last minute preparations for his conference poster presentation (more on that soon), but fortunately, the kids did great and all three had naps in the car as we got paul to school and us back home, where we switched out some of our stuff and reloaded to go up to grandma's house in the afternoon so we could see our cousins again before they moved off to utah (actually, we ended up seeing them one more time before they left this weekend, but we didn't know we'd be able to at memorial day).
we love this country we live in and love to have holidays to celebrate the freedoms we enjoy, and we especially love having a little extra fun time with daddy and our family and friends!

a few little things to make you smile

2011-06-11T21:22:00.000-05:00

afton devised this treasure hunt for me and rayna to follow (we had to stay on the papers), i think the treasure was a toy, but i honestly don't remember... but i loved how excited she was about the whole thing.

and since i evidentally didn't take a single picture of rayna's birthday parties, here's one of the girls playing with one of her gifts. (she also got a barbie that she loves, some bubbles, a purse, some water toys, and a few other things i can't think of at this moment)

this just makes me smile :) what a goofy boy!

and a classic pic of three kids "together"

eating

2011-06-11T21:07:00.000-05:00

i know, more old stuff... ketchup ;) but since we're on the topic of food, here's one of afton's favorite things (this video is about a month + old, she's much better now, and this is something she picked up completely on her own!)

and one of malachi with a similar problem, he decided on his own that this is the only way to eat:

(ps, yes, those are dry cheerios and they won't stay on the spoon. once he gets them balanced on the spoon he tries to flip it over into his mouth, and they fall off, usually he gets mad and throws them on the floor, but here he's performing for the camera)

aquarium may 23

2011-06-09T13:50:00.000-05:00

and of course, one more thing we had to take emalie to was the aquarium (though she hates slimy things... we're so rude!). thanks to our friends that take lots of pics we've got a few cool ones!

the sting ray tank... all the kids got wet, but only a couple were brave enough to actually touch the rays

jelly fish. i thought it was cool

there's supposed to be an octapus in there, i'm thinking that's a starfish on top of it? or do you think it's just starfish?

the kids could spin a dial and change the color og the light to reflect on the jelly fish. the LOVE this idea!

we debated for a couple minutes wheter that lizard was real or not... then it moved! he's a very patient lizard (moniter?)

afton now wants a pet hermit crab
rayna does not... emphatically.

malachi wasn't afraid to touch the horseshoe crab!
(but only with one finger)

afton and her good friend amelia watching sharks swim by

and this guy's always a favorite with us. usually he holds perfectly still no matter how long we watch him (you can see the moss growing on his shell), but for some reason he was very active this time, so we got a little video of him. the girls like to point out that his shell is only as long as chi is tall, but he weighs more than daddy. he's a freshwater snapping turtle, btw.

zoo may 21

2011-06-09T13:35:00.000-05:00

of course while emalie was here we had to take a trip to the zoo! it's one of our favorite places (and that membership thing really comes in handy too!) we had lots of fun with the giraffes and elephants (real and statue), and we liked visiting with the gorilla and chimps too (one old chimp threw a banana peel and a couple pebbles at us!)

we've always got to stop to play with/on the elephants

these guys are huge! and they were moving a lot more than usual (though that's still not saying a whole lot).

these galapagos tortises were a BIG favorite this trip, we took lots of pics with them

afton played photographer for the last part of our trip, so there were a lot of interesting pictures, here's some of my favoites:

afton was very excited to find some of those very rare flowers, dandilions, so she took a picture of them.

aunt emalie, from afton's perspective, i thought she did a pretty good shot!

self portrait

i just though we needed one more rayna shot :)

see, i told you there were a lot with the tortises!

crow museum

2011-06-09T13:21:00.000-05:00

back to may again, we went to the crow museum of asian art with emalie (may 20). it was a fun little trip, with some cool artwork (and of course there was plenty of weird stuff too). i think we all had fun. i didn't take any pictures inside, but here's a few from out:

the girls loved the lions, especially afton, i also have a pic of her trying to put her head in the lion's mouth

malachi was suitably impressed with the water fountain...

and of course, no trip to downtown dallas is complete without a few pictures on the DART train...

believe it or not, this is one of rayna's favorite things EVER!!!!
(perhaps it's easier to believe she was really tired)

malachi was also super-excited to be on the train! and afton couldn't sit still...

we had a ton of fun with auntie emalie, making balloon animals, blowing bubbles, folding oragami, playing at the park, walking to the woods/creek, eating far too much yummy food, and laughing up a storm, we're so glad you came to visit us!

camping

2011-06-07T19:13:00.000-05:00

our ward had a campout may 13-14, so we went (what better is there to do on friday the 13th?) we had a great time, though i didn't take many pictures. here's a few highlights:

the sand volleyball made for a great sand box, there were always so many kids in it that no one could play volleyball, but they had a blast!

i didn't take this one, but everyone was impressed with rayna's bed head!

yep! that's a blanket you see there... that morning was COLD! crazy to think of now, just a few weeks later when we're over 80 all night long...

malachi had a blast... what more can a little guy ask for?! grass, mud, sand and a lake!

i know crazy, you weren't sure what i looked like anymore cause i'm never in pictures.
(ps, in my defense, paul NEVER takes any pics)

my favorite, the car ride home, chi was flirting with me around his seat :)
he's such a cutie!

i wish we'd taken more pics, it was a nice trip. the campground wasn't too far, and though most of the people that came were only there from late evening to early morning, we had a lot of play time too. there was baseball, catch, football, sand, wading in the lake, TONS of yummy food, and zillions of people around to play with. we also went on a little hike with some of our friends the next morning, about a mile and a half i think. our kids did great and i think we all had fun! (except poor auntie emalie, who arrived the morning of the 13th and was feeling a bit sick while we were camping :P fortunately she got better pretty fast and we still had a lot of fun over the next few weeks with her, more on that coming soon...)

silly girls with silly hair

2011-06-05T20:48:00.000-05:00

afton's latest favorite hair style has been "horse hair" i actually kinda like it because it stays out of her face this way, though i must admit, it's a little silly ;)

one day rayna wanted to get in on the horse hair too

and those curls make anything look good!

of course, rayna's got a few of her own ideas for hairstyles that blow my mind completely... yes, that's a zucchini she's holding with her hair... what can i say, she loves her vegetables (though she's not a big zucchini-eater!)

and this one may not be hair-related, but i like it just the same. afton had a green mask and "crown" to hold back her hair :) i love this kid!

baby birds

2011-06-05T20:38:00.000-05:00

remember these baby birds? they grew up!

they were really cute as they were learning to fly

watched this guy fly/fall from our bush to the neighbors bush

by the way, i looked them up and they are mockingbirds, i wasn't sure... i'm not very well versed in avian identification. it was a pleasant surprise one evening (21 may) to sit outside with malachi and watch the babies practice flying... 2 days later i never heard/saw them again!

happy birthday rayna!

2011-05-28T09:10:00.000-05:00

i can't believe how fast you're growing up!

and happy breakfast!

a couple more cute pictures

2011-05-08T21:30:00.000-05:00

these were last sunday, seriously folks, what's not to love?!

little lady

big girl

hehehe...

hair cut

2011-05-08T21:20:00.000-05:00

just before easter i decided to chop it all off... it took weeks of me thinking about it before i determined that i wouldn't cry this time (like i did last time i chopped it). it just seems such a shame to not cut enough for locks of love, that i feel like i have to, but chopping 10+ inches of hair can be traumatic if you're as vain as i am.

before:

after:

i didn't cry (didn't even want to, maybe that means i've matured?). i did go back and even it up a bit in the middle especially. and i did "hide" the cut for a few days in buns and the like, til i got used to it. no one noticed til well after i started wearing it normally again, which sort of cracked me up (it's 11 inches folks, that's a lot of hair for a trim!). i'm still debating getting it styled or shaped or something, though i don't really have any ideas. it seems the only long hair styles now-a-days are long layers, and my hair is too thick for that. please send suggestions! (especially if they come with pictures)

mom run

2011-05-07T22:02:00.001-05:00

today i participated in my first ever 5 km race! i know that's not far for all the marathoners in my extended family, but i was still proud of myself, and wonder if i have to keep signing up for races to motivate myself to keep running... i can tell it's good for me, but i still don't like it very much (though it should get easier as the semester ends for paul and he's home more evenings, it's really hard to find the motivation to go running at 10 pm!) it was an especially fun race i think, because kids <5 could do a little 50 yard dash and they all won medals, so afton and rayna had a blast doing that. some of our good friends ran with us, and i think we all felt okay about how we ended up too. i was in 7th for my age group (out of only 17, but who's counting?!) at 31.5 minutes. here's some pics from our morning:

afton stretching

rayna "stretching"

yep, another stretching picture, they cracked me up! i've never seen them stretch before running around before i didn't even see anyone else stretching out around them!

me and my girls getting ready to run! (ps, the lime green and dark purple were intentional)

all the kids lining up to dash 50 yards. they ran lots of small groups so 4-6 kids ran each "race" (we're right in the middle with our friends)

rayna wanted mommy to run her race with her, we did good! that's rayna's best friend dallin with his daddy next to us. dallin's actually a great runner, but he was having a 2-yr-old moment. i think he ran his own race later.

afton with her "badge" (she didn't want a medal).
*note the tip-toes

and rayna won too!

baby birds

2011-05-07T22:00:00.000-05:00

we'd been watching a little nest in the bush just outside our front door for about a week when suddenly on malachi's birthday, we saw something new! (i wish i'd thought to take a picture of the eggs before they hatched) here they're all asleep, but the first time we saw them after they'd hatched, they were all awake and crying for food, it was cute, but i rushed the kids inside rather than take a pic because i knew the parents avoid the bush when we're outside (gee, a trio of crazy kiddos under 5, i'd avoid them too... if i were a bird!). they're really cute though! and we check on them probably 3 times a day now :)

it's hard to get a good picture cause i'm so short...

malachi's birthday

2011-05-07T21:35:00.000-05:00

as i mentioned earlier, malachi had a birthday! we had a fun day playing with friends and not taking naps (at least, not long enough!); and we were happy to have grandma and grandpa bring some aunties down for dinner and a little party. i'm just sorry we were all so tired and had to keep it so short :(.

in other news, afton and rayna had a great time opening presents:

a new lawnmower!

can you guess what this one is?

grandma also brought balloons, which all three kids had a blast playing with all afternoon today!

there were also some other toys: a blue baby doll (chi LOVES babies!), a truck and car set, a rubber duck, and some treats and cards.

and of course, there was cake!!!

malachi didn't hesitate to pick up his cake as soon as it hit the tray (the girls 'helped' him blow out the candle before we gave it to him) and shove it in his mouth. i love this picture because you can see how he scrunches up his nose as he takes a bite :).

and after some ice cream too, this was one happy 1 yr old!

and for those that might care, this was the cake before we cut into it:

1 year

2011-05-06T14:07:00.000-05:00

this past year has gone by so incredibly fast... i still can't believe that i have a baby, let alone a toddler! so here's a quick year in pictures, hopefully worth more than my thousands of words could be:

brand new

peek-a-boo

1 month

2 months

blessing day

yummy

and all of the sudden, he's standing!

goofy sisters

new teeth (though they don't show in this pic)

on the move

ta-da!!!

happy birthday baby boy!

dance parties

2011-05-02T14:43:00.000-05:00

we like to dance a LOT around our house (no we're not any good at all, but it's fun!) and we frequently have mini-dance-parties, some of them in costume. (ps, when we have costumes we don't even need music!) here's a few pics of some of my recent favorites:

i don't even think the kissy-face was intentional, but it cracked me up!

can you see the concentration as she shakes those hips?!

afton's surprisingly graceful when she keeps her feet still ;)

too cute! maggie, this party was in honor of your birthday (and early bath time), they got to dress-up before bed :)

we also LOVE kung-fu panda around here, and watch it roughly 3x/week, at least in part. and the girls' favorite parts are the fight scene at the end (aka, the funny part) and the credits. there's always a lot of kung fu, dance, and jumping mixed together. the tv's pretty quiet, but you can hear the kung fu fighting song in the background,

and some more of the jumping,

i LOVE this girl's curls!!! (and even her dress floating up!)

i think this one may be my favorite action shot ever!!! afton's got jump!!!!!!

first hair cut

2011-05-02T14:13:00.000-05:00

so, i've always though malachi's curls were cute :)

but a cousin pointed out he's started to look a little like an oompa-loompa...

unfortunately, daddy and grandpa both agreed he was getting a little girly, and needed a trim at least around the ears... which would have meant a mullet, which i was not going to let happen. so this is what happened:

(sorry he looks a little drunk, he was blinking when i snapped the shot)

he doesn't seem to mind at all... and i've evened the last of the curls up a little too

easter egg hunts

2011-04-30T14:45:00.002-05:00

as you might guess, i completely forgot to take any pictures of all my kids all dressed up in their cute little matching outfits for easter... oops. however, we did get to have a fabulous easter egg hunt at aunt dorothy's house which was amazing! and we did have another little hunt at grandma's on easter sunday (after church) (have i mentioned lately how much i love living close to grandma's house?! i'm sure i haven't said it enough!!! we love you--and some of us 'lof' you ;) anyways, enough talk, here's pictures:

"hunting" for an easy one :)

after the basket upgrade

what! you're supposed to open them before you eat them? why?!

one of the reasons i love dorothy's house, gorgeous!

and one more little party crasher... it's a skink, if you don't speak reptile ;)

the ever popular egg-on-a-spoon relay...

more eggs...

someone found the special silver egg!

another lizard? is this becoming an new easter tradition?

and i gotta throw in another picture of chi... he's just too cute!
ps, note that he's already in his pj's, he's the main reason i didn't get any pics of all the kids together :(
though i could have done it earlier in the day, so i can't hold it against him...

happy easter!!!

general conference and afton's toe.

2011-04-30T14:23:00.000-05:00

general conference is always a big deal at our house, unfortunately not necessarily because of the messages yet, but i imagine the kids'll grow into that ;) basically it's a favorite because we get to have "conference rolls" (aka cinnamon rolls) and we get to eat them on mom's bed. this is a HUGE deal! this is our saturday morning tradition. it was a little tricky this year because daddy/paul was out of town (in canada at a conference of a totally different sort), and malachi's old enough to need a little more attention. what that means is, we tried hard, and we look forward to reading the messages in the ensign ;-).

this year we also had the added excitement of going to grandma's house on sunday to watch on her tv, and afton managed to drop one of those hand-held sprayer-hose attachment things (you know what i mean?) on her toe... it hurt her... a lot. this is what it looked like a few days later:

and a few weeks later:

no more toenail. she was glad by the time it started bleeding though, because it didn't hurt as much (not as much pressure), and by the time it came off completely it didnt' hurt at all anymore. now she's just a little miffed that she can't wear toenail polish until it grows back in. i think she can handle it :).

playing around

2011-04-26T13:03:00.000-05:00

some of the fun things we've done lately (ps i love spring!)

picnic for dinner (we've done this one twice, i've got a special post for the other time coming soon)

malachi does NOT get to dress himself... i rarely get to pick out his clothes either, i think this was rayna's idea... poor boy.

this is one of the kids' favorite things to do, tip the stroller over and climb all over it... this one comes in particularly handy on those rainy days... we also love play-dough (thanks auntie elaine for all the cool play-dough toys from christmas, we love them!)

"look, look, look. mama, look at me!!!" "what is it rayna?" "ummmmm..... a popsicle?"

and afton's sting-ray

there may or may not be a lot of 'horsing' around going on here too... though most of us are not exhibitionists.

what can i say, he just likes being naked!

hope you all are having fun and keeping busy :) happy spring!

cinder-chi

2011-04-23T21:10:00.000-05:00

get 'em started young i always say :)

(or as the scripture says, train up a child in the way he should go...)

now if i could only get him to put his toys away...

iris

2011-04-21T22:31:00.000-05:00

so we have some irises planted by our front door, and they don't get quite enough sunshine to bloom very well, so it's always exciting when one does bloom. unfortunately, malachi LOVES them... and he likes to sneak over and pick the buds... and eat them. :'(

this bloom was the first one he picked. i removed it from his mouth, stuck it in a babyfood jar with some water, and two days later, it looks pretty dang good (at least considering it was bitten by an 11 month old).

there's gotta be a life's lesson there, any ideas?

sleepyhead

2011-04-13T14:53:00.000-05:00

i just love this picture... it makes me laugh! rayna was literally falling out of bed :)

ps, after taking her picture, i did roll her back in.

ballet class

2011-04-07T17:01:00.000-05:00

so afton did ballet class again this winter. i think she had a blast, though last fall was her favorite (remember?). she's a great poser either way :)

we let her get dressed up for the last class, her friend amelia is in the pink behind her.

back bends (sorry it's all so fuzzy, most of my pics didn't turn out great, it was too far away and dark)

aren't they cute?!

they were being bees, buzzing around with their little wings up, to the bumble bee boogie of course :)

i LOVE this one!!! she was "popping" her "balloon" and even though i cut her head out of the pic, you can see how much fun she's having!

blogworthy... (or NOT!!!)

2011-04-05T21:25:00.000-05:00

you know, some days are just more blogworthy than others... but seeing as how i need to vent a little, tonight just might be blogged anyways. it really wasn't that bad of a day, though the girls were fighting and whining a lot. i decided bedtime could be a little early because of it, and got rayna into bed around 7.15. i had malachi asleep by 7.30 (sounds good so far, right? WRONG!) and afton was calmed down with a few stories and a foot soak (she busted her toe on sunday, and i'm betting it won't be long before teh nail comes off... i'll tell you more later, for the interested). and by 8.05 she was heading up to bed. meanwhile, rayna was crying and demanding various things (more lights, "i don't want to go to bed," etc) and screaming (the bloody murder kind, not the nice little crying/whining kind) alternatively for this entire time. when it came time for afton to go to bed too, i told rayna if she didn't calm down a little afton would have to sleep in my bed (this usually works, because she likes to have someone in there with her). within minutes, the screaming took over and i went back up almost immediately to move afton. more screaming... more screaming... more screaming... abrupt cessation of screaming "mommy, i think i threw up" ... correct. but just on the blanket (thank heaven!), so no major bed/jammy-changing necessitated. okay now back to bed... more screaming... more screaming... i hate screaming... that was more than an hour of near constant screaming folks... it won't surprise me at all if she's hoarse as a crow tomorrow.

btw, she finally calmed down enough for me to talk to her (after her banging on the door trying to get out while screaming) and within 2 minutes of me leaving her with a hug and a prayer and a reminder that mommy always comes back... she's sound asleep. pfehw.

why do my kids scream so much? :(

stargazing

2011-04-04T22:07:00.000-05:00

i tried to add this pic the other day, but for some reason the computer was having trouble with it. we went out a couple nights to see what we could see. it was a nearly full moon the whole time grandpa was here, so we couldn't see as much as we would have if it were darker, but i think everyone (including a few of our neighbors) had a great time with grandpa's telescope.

we got a close up view of the moon, the andromeda nebula, the pleiades (seven sisters), betelgeuse (beatle juice), and a few others. as you can see, even the girls had a great time looking. i wish it hadn't been so cloudy!

airplane museum (18 march)

2011-04-04T22:02:00.000-05:00

we had a great time visiting the airplane museum, though i must admit i didn't really take the time to read anything about the planes/etc, i had fun taking pictures :) here are a few of my favorites

ready to climb aboard?!

that's right folks, i even got in a pic or two ;) one of my fav helicopters

malachi had a blast once we got to the play area

fortunately for him, dad and grandpa went off to the computer flight simulator, so the kids had plenty of time to play around. i think they (especially chi) would have been happy to spend the entire time here!

welcome captain chi!

flying another plane!

we were fortunate to go on a day that had special tours. there were two WWII fighter planes there that we could climb through and see. i think this was the highlight for everyone except chi.

rayna sure knows how to make that plane look big, but i couldn't believe how narrow they were inside, and they must have been amazingly loud and bumpy!

fortunately, afton got a turn with the camera, and she caught grandpa in his true character :)

we sure had a great time visiting, and i imagine the adults at least had a renewed respect and appreciation for the WWII fighters that worked these tiny planes to serve and protect our country! thanks again grandpa for taking us.