The Strupp Family

Jason's Birthday and Christmas

2012-01-13T12:50:00.000-08:00

Jason's Birthday is just before Christmas. I hope I didn't confuse the kid too bad this year--we were traveling to Idaho for Christmas day, so we had an early Christmas. Our early Christmas just happened to land on Jason's birthday (the day before we left to travel)...and I wanted him to have a birthday that was separate from Christmas, so we had his early birthday two days before our early Christmas (his real birthday) and had the real Christmas on Christmas day :)

This little guy is so much fun to have around. Each child that we have I just love the new stages they go through and all the new things they learn. Jason's into the Super Hero stage. He runs around acting like a super hero all the time, I think I mentioned it in the previous post. He got this Captain America mask and shield and LOVES it. That was the first present he opened. Then he did a bunch of super hero poses.

We convinced him there were more presents he should open and he would like the others, too. He did, but wouldn't take off the mask and would only put the shield down while he was busy with the wrapping paper.

He took some breaks to look in the mirror with his meanest Captain America super hero face.

More breaks for poses.

And still more posing. He doesn't even care about the other presents :)

We sure love our little three year old. He brings us entertainment and excitement every day. The last few days Captain America has gotten a break because he now has been running around with green pajama bottoms and does his best (loud) hulk roar. He'll also inform you that hulk does NOT wear a shirt, or shoes or socks. It's quite a struggle to convince him he needs to wear these things when we go to the store or anywhere else. Then as soon as we get home he strips and puts on his hulk pants. Trevor thought it would be funny to put green food coloring in the toilet once as he went, so he would think he was peeing like hulk or something. Jason figured out his little trick and insists that I get the food coloring every time he needs to go. I'll entertain this for a little longer, then maybe introduce a new super hero or something.

Christmas (both of them) were great! Here's a picture of our early Christmas.

And for some reason I forgot the camera for the Christmas in Idaho with all the family around!! Nice. I had my phone so I got a couple with that, but none were very clear so I'm not posting them. Jason got sick as we were driving and continued to throw up the whole way there. Then Ashley also got sick so we spent most of the first day and a half in Idaho with a couple of sick kids. Also the day after we got back, Trevor and Tyler got sick. Along with Grandma and Grandpa. Good times. Still, it was worth it to see everyone and I'm glad the busy times have slowed down a bit!

Christmas Letter

2011-12-10T10:25:00.000-08:00

Hello all!
I figured I’d better get my Christmas letter on the blog since I already mailed out the Christmas cards promising a yearly update to be posted here. Although, I guess if you wanted a more detailed update you could just read the rest of the blog…I digress.

This year has been amazing. We’ve had so many fun adventures and trips. We had a family vacation in C’ouer d’Alene. It was so beautiful and a lot of fun. Cliff and Lisa (Trevor’s brother and his wife) and family joined us for all the fun. We went waterskiing, to an amusement park, and visited Spokane.

Right after that trip, we took a trip to Texas to see some friends be sealed in the temple. While there, we stayed with my sister and husband (Amy and Bart) and family. It was a very fun trip and I LOVE getting to visit family! They kept us busy with fun things even in the record-breaking heat they were having…and it was HOT.

We took a trip (this time without the kids! Thanks Grandma Strupp!) to Bath, Illinois for their annual Redneck Fishing Tournament. We “fished” for Asian Carp. These are the fish that jump out of the water, many times right in the boat. The rules state you can’t take a fishing pole, only a net and a baseball bat—we just used nets… It was more fun than I ever thought possible.

We also went on our first cruise with my brother and his wife (Mike and Alicia). It was amazing, and I’m sure we’ll have to frequent the cruise ships more often. Although it’s probably not a good idea for the waistline…Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Madsen for watching the kids!!
Trevor is still loving work and Montana. He has been really busy this year with work, church callings and the kids and balances it all so well. He loved coaching Tyler’s basketball team so much last January that he’s doing it again this January. His new calling in the Elder’s Quorum keeps him on his toes, but once in awhile he’ll find some time to go hunting.

Kim loves being a mom. I love the different stages the kids are in and watching them learn and grow. I feel like I have a little more free time with just one child at home on school days. It’s weird going to the grocery store with just one kid. It’s wonderful! I still play in the city volleyball league. I was just called into the Young Women’s program at church and was able to go to camp with them this year. I still fill in a few times a month at Trevor’s office and LOVE being able to keep up the hygiene skills, but still stay home with the kids (kid) most of the time.

Tyler turned 8 this year. The highlight of his year was his baptism. He’s such a good kid and really likes school, basketball , swimming and cub scouts. He’s excited because he just got his wolf badge. He continues to be a wonderful big brother and loves to play and wrestle with Jason when he gets home from school. Jason really looks up to Tyler and always asks when we’re going to “pick up Tyler” from school. He also really likes to play his Nintendo DS, but isn’t too obsessive about it…yet.

Hailey just turned 7. She’s a VERY good helper and always asks if she can help me with anything. She finished her gymnastics class at the end of the school year in June and decided she didn’t want to take another class this fall. Instead she joined “Girls Running Club.” She told me the first day that she like it but it was “too much running.” She stuck it out, though and finished the season. Hailey is a sweet, sensitive, loving girl. She’s very responsible and I know when I ask her to do something, she’ll do it right away. She’s also going to be starting basketball in January. We’ll see how that goes.

Ashley is 5 years old. She started kindergarten this year and loves every minute of it. I was afraid she might get sick of it because it’s all day long. Nope. She probably wishes she could stay there after school, too. She loves her teacher and her friends at school. She loves the activities they get to do and the time they get to play at recess. She also opted not to take more gymnastics classes this fall but wants to join the basketball bandwagon like the rest of the kids.

Jason is 3 on the 22nd of this month. He’s finally potty-trained. Hurray! Once in awhile he’ll get to playing and not want to stop to use the bathroom, but I’m excited to not have ANY kids in diapers. He’s quite a little social boy and likes to talk to all the people at the grocery store and at church. He makes us laugh every day with the things he comes up with. Lately he’s really into Superheroes. Specifically Spiderman and Captain America. He wears his Spiderman costume almost every day since Halloween. He also has been watching “Super Hero Squad” every day for the past 2 weeks and runs around saying “Super-squadies, time to hero up!” He also WILL NOT wear his underwear the right way because the super heroes are on the back and he wants to see them. So he wears them backwards. Comfy.

We are so grateful for our Savior’s birth and atoning sacrifice. We count our blessings every day and are so thankful for our family and friends and the opportunities we have. Thank you so much for blessing us with your friendships. We love and miss you all so much!

Love,
The Strupps (Trevor, Kim, Tyler, Hailey, Ashley and Jason)

Hailey's 7!

2011-12-04T15:27:00.001-08:00

Holy cow. Seven years have past already?! I don't know how this happens.

Hailey's been such a good helper this last year. She's very responsible and I don't have to remind her about things. If I tell her once, she does it. She loves school and loves to learn. She's doing great learning how to read and always wants to spend her nights in bed reading books.

Hailey's favorite color is yellow or pink, she loves crepes and spaghetti, and she loves crafts and gymnastics. Her favorite movie is "Barbie Princess Charm School" and her favorite tv show is "Level Up." She's one of my tender-hearted children. :)

I love this little girl.

We had a couple of birthday parties this year for Hailey. We had a little family birthday party at our house on her birthday:

Then we had a birthday party with the kids in her class at the bowling alley the following weekend. That was an adventure. I understand the rule they have at school that if you bring invitations to hand out, the whole class needs to be invited. However, that makes for a lot of kids to handle. I figured a lot of them wouldn't be able to make it. But a lot of them WERE able to make it. Good times. I'm glad Trevor was able to come and help coral the children. They got bored of bowling pretty fast and then we had some pizza and cake and opened presents. Then played some games while waiting for some of the last parents to come. All in all it was a pretty fun time. I'm glad I have such a sweet little girl(s). :) Happy Birthday Hailey!!

The End

2011-11-18T10:04:00.001-08:00

The end of changing diapers, that is...so long as the "no more kids" idea sticks. (Although that was my mom's plan at 4, and she ended up with 3 more...)

YAY! I don't have to ask him every two seconds, either. He tells me. AND he goes #2 in the toilet. :) For a few days it was only #1 (no accidents there) but the other kind was a little touch and go. Now: no accidents for 3 days. And he even stays dry at night. Which is more than I can say for another child...

Anyway, he's very excited about his Spiderman underwear and tells everyone in the grocery store about it. He also has found the little hole in the front of his briefs and is a little obsessed.

Halloween

2011-11-01T13:07:00.001-07:00

The kids at the trunk or treat:

Tyler is a clone, Hailey is a witch, Ashley a dinosaur and Jason is Spiderman. They love Halloween. We got plenty of candy to get rid of, too.

Cruisin'

2011-10-26T12:57:00.001-07:00

Trevor and I were able to go on our first cruise. :) Mike and Alicia (my brother and his wife) went with us. It was so great! We took a Carnival Cruise to Catalina and Ensenada, Mexico. Next time we'll go a little more exotic, but this was a shorter cruise (4 day/4 night) that would fit into our schedules.

This is Trevor, me, Alicia and Mike about to get on the ship. They took a million pictures all through the trip and then sold them for like $10 each. I was a sucker and bought a couple. Ah well, you have to splurge sometimes.

We did A LOT of eating. Here's a picture of our table. We sat here for almost every meal and ordered a couple appetizers each, then a few entrees each. Don't forget dessert. I tried to limit myself to just one. The food was DELICIOUS, and I've never seen Trevor eat so much in my life. Maybe I should take some cooking lessons or something. That may be my problem...

Our first stop was Catalina Island. It was really fun to be there, although a little chilly. We rented a golf cart and drove around the island awhile. We had some lunch and then looked in some of the shops for some souvenirs for the kids. Side note--it was so great going on a trip with just adults. I missed the kids a lot, but every time I saw someone with kids on the ship I thought: I'm so glad we didn't bring the kids. Poor things. Maybe next time, but not for our first cruise.:)

The next stop was Ensenada, Mexico. As it turns out, there's not a whole lot to do in Ensenada...we took a little bus tour up to a blow hole. There are only 3 in the world, apparently. That's where the water forms an air pocket under the rocks by the ocean, and then it forces air and water out through the rocks. Or something.

Next to the blow hole was a HUGE flea market. Wow, what an experience. Those Mexicans are PERSISTENT. That's not politically incorrect, right? They are from Mexico...

We had some lunch at a restaurant by the flea market. This guy did a little serenade for a small fee :)

Did you know a lot of prescription drugs you can get in Mexico over the counter? Who knew. They said we couldn't bring them back on the ship with us, though. So we didn't partake. :) However, at the pharmacy we saw this statue and couldn't pass up the photo opportunity. It's a little inappropriate. But funny.

It was wonderful to be able to spend some time with Trevor, Mike, and Alicia. It made it a lot of fun to hang out with those guys. I hope the people around our dining table didn't get annoyed because we were laughing all the time. I think I need to take more vacations! So, thanks Mike and Alicia for making it all possible. And thanks Mom and Dad for watching the kids!

Come Visit

2011-09-28T12:36:00.001-07:00

I really like people to come visit us. All of you just think about when you can come, then give me a call and we'll make plans. You may even get a free teeth cleaning out of it. (I have to bribe my guests...)

Last week my sister and her two little boys came for a visit. I LOVED it. She has such cute kids, and I always like to spend time with my sister. We did some fun things while she was here, but about the only thing I caught on camera was our trip to the museum.

Still, for those who aren't museum lovers, there are much more fun things to do if you come visit. :) We have Yellowstone close by, an endless list of recreational activities, I'm here, plus our sky really is bigger than yours. Come see for yourself.

First Day of School

2011-09-28T12:09:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures on the first day. It's actually AFTER the first day, but since it was a little of a crazy morning I forgot the camera. Oops. Don't worry, their school doesn't begin at the end of September, I've been sitting on these pictures and catching up with other stuff during the sweet, sweet time I have while they're at school. I do miss them, though. Then I remember how easy it is to take one child to the grocery store instead of 4. School and naps were invented to keep mothers sane. Except for those amazing women who home school, in which case I don't know how they hold onto their sanity. Good work home schoolers.

I added that last picture because Hailey didn't want me to take a picture of them together. She wanted to be by herself and the only way I could get her to smile was to get Ashley out of the picture. Nice.

Ziplining

2011-08-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

I was on the internet a few months back trying to come up with a good Father's Day present. I found a place nearby that does a zip line "tour" with 3 zips. Trevor had never been (and neither had I) so I got him a gift certificate for two people to go. In hindsight, it seems like his Father's Day presents always involve me, too. :) But really, who would want to go zip lining by themselves? Plus, I'm way more fun than any of his guy friends...says me.

We had to use the gift certificate by the end of the 2011 season. Our summer had been busy so we hadn't had any time to go, but we squeaked it in to a free day before the "zip line season" ended.

It was a lot of fun. I thought it would be a little more of a fall at the beginning, but it was kind of like going on a really long slide. Still fun, just not quite the rush I was expecting.

Trevor

Trevor

Kim

Tyler's all excited because he found out you have to be 70 lbs. to go, and he JUST turned over from 69 lbs. to 70 lbs. I don't have the heart to tell him we have like one week left of the season....he'll probably have to wait until next year.

Redneck Fishing Tournament

2011-08-16T11:01:00.002-07:00

A few months ago, Trevor was watching ESPN and they were doing some show on the "Redneck Fishing Tournament" in Bath, Illinois. It's a fishing tournament to try and get rid of Asian Carp. They're taking over the rivers and they want to exterminate them before they reach the great lakes.

I'm sure many of you have seen videos of these carp, either in an email video or onAmerica's Funniest Videos or something. They're the fish that jump out of the water. A lot of times they'll jump right in the boat. Trevor thought it looked like a fun trip to make. So, with our friends Jared and Marci, we decided to make it a road trip.
Please don't look too closely, I'm not really that big of a poser...

We left one evening and drove all night, getting there the next evening to Bath, Illinois.

The fishing tournament lasted two days over the weekend (Friday and Saturday), and it was SO MUCH FUN!

Tournament rules say you can't use a pole (you don't need one), but you can use a net or a bat. :) We caught around 130 fish between the four of us the first day. The tournament had two heats both days--each heat lasts two hours--but Friday we only got through one and a half heats and ran low on gas. There is no gas station in this tiny town, so we had to fill up in the next town over.

This is only about 60 fish after the first heat. Disclaimer: Those are all fake tattoos. Although some drunk guys asked Marci where she got hers...

There were a TON of fish to catch Friday. Sometimes it was all you could do to shield your face and forget about catching because there were so many fish jumping. We were so covered in fish slime and fish scales by the end of the day, it was disgusting. There were a lot of boats, but nothing compared to Saturday's madness. Friday was "Redneck Costume" day. I'm pretty sure a lot of these people weren't in costume...but they could definitely win :) This fishing tournament draws some interesting people. And some drunk ones. Marci and I got hit on more than we ever have in our lives--a lot of times with Trevor and Jared right there with us. We're hot in Illinois! :)

Our costumes were ok, but Marci's was the best with her helmet (this is common so you don't get smacked in the face with a fish--a lot of people get broken noses, etc.) with a rubber chicken duct taped to the top. :) There were several tv stations, as well as the travel channel and photographers for ESPN, etc. Marci got so many interviews because of her chicken helmet. Pretty funny stuff. She also had a boat full of photographers following us around for 45 minutes snapping millions of pictures of her catching fish. Love that girl.

Saturday was less exciting, there were WAY too many boats trying to load off one tiny boat ramp. The fish weren't jumping as much, so we left a little early to try and get an earlier start back home. We only caught about 10 fish in the first heat. Sad. I wish we got some more pictures of the fish jumping, but we didn't get a lot of action shots...the boat full of photographers said they'd send some to us so stay tuned :)

We drove all night again and got home Sunday evening so everyone could get back to work. We stopped by Mount Rushmore for a quick look.

Thanks Grandma Strupp for watching the kids! We had a blast and I know they did, too.

Texas

2011-07-28T06:10:00.000-07:00

We had some friends get sealed in the Dallas Temple, so we decided to make a trip out of it to go to the sealing and also see my sister for awhile. The kids and I went for a week and Trevor joined us for the weekend. Here are some of the highlights of our Texas trip:

A quick note: Dallas was the hottest place in the country during my little vacation there. Good time to visit, I know. It was SOOO hot. I stepped out of the airport and it was like a sauna. So that's why all we did was swim the whole time...

We went to a waterpark that was the perfect size for kids. They had a lazy river, some bigger waterslides, and a kids area that was pretty big. P.S. The cement was SOO hot that the kids all had burned feet from running from lazy river to the slides to the kids area. I had to carry Jason and run from wet spot to wet spot on the cement. It was crazy. Most people kept there flip flops by the edge of the pool to slip on. That would've been smart. I feel for all you Arizona folks. You're probably scoffing at this post because you deal with these things all summer.

Here's Jason with a little girl in the background. They got in a little tiff later because she kept pushing him out of the fountain he was playing in. Little bully. But Jason yelled "No!" at her and pushed her hands off his chest. :)

Ashley and Hailey at the waterpark

Jason got really tired and finally fell asleep. Poor kid, I tried to get him to take off his life jacket when I could see he was going to fall asleep. I didn't want him to be any hotter than we already were. He wouldn't, though. And don't worry, I've come to accept the fact that I look old.

Another day we went to a "splash pad." I'd never heard of one. It's not like a spray park, but more like a bunch of sprinklers on the cement. This is a horrible picture of the splash pad, but I didn't take many pictures of it.

Tyler and his cousin, Rachel.

We also took full advantage of the neighborhood pool. The kids had a great time at Aunt Amy's house. Thank you!!

And the reason for our trip in the first place:

This is Ted and Caroline. We met them in Philadelphia while Trevor was going to school. Ted and Trevor are hunting buddies. Which makes them practically brothers :) We were happy we were able to attend their sealing. We had fun with them for a couple nights while Aunt Amy took the kids. Yay :)

Couer d'Alene

2011-07-11T13:12:00.000-07:00

We decided to take a family vacation to Couer d'Alene this year. We had never been there and had heard how beautiful it is. So we rented a boat for a couple days and had some fun on the lake. Cliff and Lisa (Trevor's brother and wife) and their two kids (Nyah and Sabra) came with us, and it was SO much fun. Thanks guys!

Here are some pictures of our boating fun:

The kids about to do some swimming during one of our stops

Lisa, Sabra, Jason and me

Hailey, me, and Ashley

The day got pretty long for Ashley and Jason. But don't let this picture fool you, they had a blast

They gave us a surf board with the boat rental. This is me trying to figure it out. Trevor was doing really well by the end of the first day. I could do it, but only holding onto the rope. The second I tossed it onto the boat, I fell behind the wake and no more surfing for me.

Whatever

Spokane

2011-07-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

The day after we took the boat back, we just relaxed and hung out. In the morning we spent some time at Cabela's. Then the Cliff and Trevor went golfing at this amazing course in Couer d'Alene with a green that floats in the lake. If I had Trevor's phone, I would download some pictures of it. But I don't...So while they went golfing, Lisa and I took a little trip to Spokane. It's about 30 minutes from Couer d'Alene.

We took the kids to the city park, which was really beautiful and had fun things for the kids to play on. Here are some pictures of the kids at the park: (And since Lisa's an amazing photographer, I'll use all of her pictures--taken with my camera--)

The kids and I

All the kids on the wagon slide

I took this one :) This is Lisa, Nyah, and Sabra

Silverwood

2011-07-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

The last day of our vacation was spent at an amusement park named "Silverwood." It was a lot of fun. You would think I could take more pictures than just the kids on the helicopter ride.

We had such a fun time, it was hard to come back home. But it's alright, we have more vacations coming. So stay tuned :)

Hailey, Jason and me on the carousel

Tyler and Jason

Hailey

Ashley

Nyah and Sabra

Most Patriotic

2011-07-10T20:53:00.001-07:00

We just got home from a great vacation (more pictures of that to come...maybe later than sooner...) and I got a message on my answering machine that I did indeed win most patriotic for the 5K :) I even get a gift certificate. Yipee!

So I checked the website to see what place I took. We'll leave the men out of these standings...I got 3rd among the women. :) I knew I should have tripped that girl that ran by me at the very end! Just kidding. Kind of.

4th of July

2011-07-03T16:18:00.001-07:00

Although it's not quite the 4th, we celebrate around here on the 2nd.

We started out our day by running in some races. Tyler decided he didn't want to race, but Trevor ran the "fun run" with Hailey, Ashley, and Jason. Jason rode in the jogging stroller for most of the time, but got out a couple times and ran until he got tired. It was really fun watching the younger three, they were really cute and they got all excited about the little flags they got at the finish line. Here are some pictures:

All the kids before the race

Near the finish line

After the race with their flags

My race started shortly after they got done with theirs. I ran another 5K. I'm not quite sure how I placed in this one, because they haven't posted the standings yet.

Now, don't laugh at my patriotic getup. They said we should dress up and the best dressed would get a prize. I wasn't going for the prize or anything, I just didn't want to stick out as the one who didn't dress up. Turns out, I was the only one who dressed up. Good times. I don't know if I would've picked up the prize or not because we didn't stick around too long after.

After the race we came back and got ready for the parade. We rode bikes to the parade and watched all the entries as the kids gathered as many pieces of candy as they could. I know, you're probably jealous that our town still throws candy and yours doesn't. I would be too.

After the parade, we grilled some burgers and hot dogs and had a picnic outside. We were planning on going to the rodeo, but I think the kids were pretty tired from the days activities. Trevor and I lovingly remembered how fun it was last year to carry all the tired kids with aching legs back to the car--20 blocks away--while they told us just how tired they were with each step we took. So instead we opted to ride bikes to get some churros at Taco John's for dessert and put the kids to bed at the normal hour. Then Trevor and I watched some tv, and then some fireworks from our front lawn. Excellent. Sorry there were no pictures of all THAT fun!

Some Summer Fun

2011-07-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

Ashley had a birthday! It's a busy time to have birthday's. I hope she doesn't feel like she got overlooked. I didn't quite get the invitations to any friends before school was out. I know she really wanted to have a party at the bowling alley, but instead we invited the missionaries over for dinner. :) She was really excited for the cake and presents anyway, so it all worked out.

Ashley's a sweet little girl. She loves to play with her friends and with her older brother and sister, and is such a good sister to her younger brother. She really takes care of him and tries her best to keep him happy. She already loves to play Tyler's Nintendo DS, or the Wii, or the itouch, and she loves to ride her bike. The last five years have flown--and I've loved every second I got to be the mom of this sweet little girl. I'm sad I won't get to spend all day with her this fall when she starts kindergarten. :(

We went to the town's annual fishing derby. It was a lot of fun, althoug it was still very cold. We didn't catch any fish, but we sure had a lot of fun trying. It was pretty crowded and the people around us had no problems casting over our heads from behind us. Weird. At one point, Jason was sitting on his camping chair and leaned forward. It folded and dropped him in the water. Poor kid, I stripped him and wrapped the blanket around him and took him home to change. We live pretty close, so we came back and kept on trying to catch the big fish. No dice.

School's Out for the Summer

2011-06-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

The kids are so excited for school to be out. They had their little "end of the year" gymnastics program (for the girls) and swimming program (for Tyler). It was fun to watch them perform their "skills." The pictures are kind of bad, but I was trying to keep Jason from running out onto the floor (or into the pool) and then the girls were moving. With my phone, it was kind of hard to get one that wasn't blurry.

Ashley:

Hailey:

Tyler:

And we took a trip to the park with some friends. It was fun for the kids to get out and play in the nice weather (finally)!

We can't wait for more beautiful weather and more trips to the park, bike riding, swimming lessons, etc. I am so excited for summer!

Graduations

2011-06-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

Tyler didn't have a graduation program. But Hailey did for kindergarten and Ashley did for Preschool. Some of the festivities:

Tyler's school does a track meet. This year he did the 50 yard dash, the long jump, and the ball throw. They were only able to sign up for three events :)
Here's the long jump. Which ended up being not so long...we'll give him more time to develop his track and field skills.

This is how Ashley entertained herself during the track meet. Little brothers have it rough.

Hailey's graduation program. They sang a bunch of songs for us and then we had some refreshments. Believe me, I tried to convince her she needed to wear something else. It's not Christmas for crying out loud. She wouldn't listen. I pick my battles.

Ashley's getting her diploma. Her class also performed some songs for us. They were darn adorable. She's excited to go to the big school next year. Or so she says. We'll see when the time comes.

5K

2011-05-31T21:07:00.001-07:00

I know, wouldn't that title have been cooler if it were a 10K? Or even better: Marathon? But no, this is not the case. I've never ran in a race before (I mean post high school) So I figured it was high time. There was a race to benefit children (honestly, I should have looked more into it so I could say that's why I did it. All I know is that it was a children's foundation...) and I decided I would give it a whirl.

Now, mind you--I haven't been jogging a whole lot recently so I decided to start out with a 5K and see how that went before trying other things. I know, I know--there are some marathoners that frequent my blog so I'm a little trepidatious about posting this. But it was fun none the less. Plus, I came in fourth in my age group (ages 23-32. That means they're ALL younger than me :) ) And there were way more than four in that group. So I feel like I've achieved something. Here are some pictures...

And you must know by now how much I hate posting pictures of myself. So this is a big step for me.

I Bet You Wish You Lived Here

2011-05-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

We've had this moose around town for awhile now. We live close to the river, so it frequents our neigborhood. We knew it's been hanging around in our backyard because we've found some "sign"...

Anyway, I woke up this morning and after walking out the bathroom door I saw a big moose butt next to our back door (the back door is right across from the bathroom door.) She was REALLY close, so it surprised me. The moose was faced with her rear right next to the door instead of away--like the picture above. Startled me.

My 8 Year Old

2011-04-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

Tyler turned 8 this month. Am I really that old? Wow. I can't believe how the time has flown. We're so proud of this little guy. He's such a good helper to Trevor and me, he's a great big brother to his sisters and brother, and he's a great friend to all those around him.

I wasn't planning on doing a birthday party for Tyler this year. We had some busy weeks around his birthday and it just didn't look like the time to do it. Tyler kept asking if we could, and I told him I'd call the bowling alley (where he wanted to have his party) to see if maybe we could do it ON his birthday since the weekend before was busy and the weekend after we would have family here for his baptism. Anyway, I called the bowling alley knowing that they probably had leagues going on and then it would be their fault that he couldn't have a birthday party. Go figure, they were ending one session of leagues and not starting the next until a couple weeks later. Hurray.

Tyler was really excited to have a birthday party. We invited all the boys from his class (Shhhh, no one has to know: the rule is, if you take the invitations to school, you have to invite the WHOLE class...so Tyler gave them out BEFORE and AFTER school. Is this teaching my son to bend rules? ) and the boys from church. They all showed up. Well, except one. Wow, that's a lot of little boys. Here's a picture: some of the boys are missing--playing video games or something...

Tyler was baptized this month. It was such a great day--I'm so happy he's made the decision to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

It was an amazing day and I'm glad I got to be there to witness it. Thanks to the grandparents (and uncle) who were able to make it and contribute to the program! You did GREAT!

Congratulations Tyler! We love you!

More Catching Up

2011-04-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a few weeks since I posted. That's just how I roll :) So I found a few pictures on my phone that I wanted to post:

We took a trip to St. George to see my two brothers and families. It was a LOT of fun. I wish I was as good a hostess as my sister-in-law. We had a lot of fun things to do, even though we didn't get to stay too long. Here we are hiking around Zion's. This is Weeping Rock. Cool place.

Ashley decided she wanted her ears pierced, too. She wasn't as excited about it after they did the first one. What a sympathetic mom, taking pictures before I comfort the poor girl...

It's a special treat when they get the star ice cream at Dairy Queen. They get excited.

Here are some deer that frequent our yard. We always see their tracks, and if we're up early enough, we see them. This was a morning I got up early to exercise. It's a bad picture taken in the dark through a window. But you CAN make out the shape of the deer... :)

Some Weekend Fun

2011-02-28T13:31:00.000-08:00

We didn't have too many open weekends the last couple months because of basketball practice and games for Tyler and Trevor (coaching). So this last weekend we decided it would be fun to try out the indoor waterpark at a hotel in Billings.

It was SO much fun! We didn't get there until around 7:00. But we swam and played for a couple hours and then got up the next morning to do it again before checkout. The kids LOVED it. They all had so much fun, despite the colds they were fighting, and begged to go back after we had checked out and were driving home. Actually that's all I've heard the last two days, "When can we go back to the waterpark?" and "Can we go on my birthday?" and from Jason, "I want to go swimming. I want to go on the waterslide." All the time. I'm hoping eventually it will die down. But I sure am glad they had so much fun!

Valentine's Day

2011-02-15T12:32:00.001-08:00

I know, lots of people get flowers on Valentine's day. This is not what this post is about.

Trevor came home from work carrying these flowers with a big bag over them. Jason saw it and said: "WOAH! That's a big trash."

I thought it worthy of blogging so I can remember it later.

PS He also brought home little tiny balloons on a candy box for each of the girls. What a great dad! (And husband :) )

A Little Something for My Dental Hygiene Buddies (and Cliff & Briana)

2011-02-15T11:33:00.000-08:00

Recognize this rash?

When I was in Dental Hygiene, we studied different things that could occur orally as well as other places on the body. For some reason, I can remember the name of this stupid rash, but I can't remember what movie I watched last week. It's Erythema Multiforme. See the bullseyes/targets all over? Crazy. I came up with the acronym B.E.M. (Bullseye=Erythema Multiforme) to remember it when I went to take our written boards.

Anyway, here's Jason's story: (It's a long and boring one...but it's less for my readers, and more for my memory.)

I noticed red dots showing up in the diaper region, but not on his bottom, just on his tummy and inner thighs. The next day it was much worse and spread out. Plus he was itching it. I didn't want to take him to the doctor, what's the doctor going to do? Tell me it's a rash and it'll go away?

So the next morning it was MORE spread and I was getting worried. So I made an appointment with our doctor. When I took Jason's clothes off to show the doctor, I noticed the rash had changed. It wasn't just red welt looking things, but more of a "target" shape. As soon as I saw that (while in the doctors office) I thought: "hey! I know what this is!" The doctor says: "Ah, see the targets?" Like it's common knowledge that everyone knows what this rash is and how it looks. Maybe they do, who knows. And then told me it was Erythema Multiforme. Even though in my head I though: "BEM, Erythema Multiforme." Because I'm ridiculous like that.

So he asked me a bunch of questions to make sure it wasn't a more serious case--apparently this particular rash can be much worse, and cause all sorts of problems. Then he sent me home. And said it will go away. Of course. To be fair, he did call me that night to see how Jason was doing. Not a whole lot of change.

Then next day, Jason's feet were so swollen I couldn't get his shoes on. At all. Not even close. I also noticed his hands looked swollen. I had to take the other kids to school, and every time I put him in his car seat, he'd cry because he had to move his hands. So sad! He wouldn't hold anything, either. As I was going throughout the day, I noticed his hands swelling more and more. And he wouldn't walk. And his fingertips and toes were turning purple. So I called the doctor's office again. This time I saw the doctors wife, who is a nurse practitioner. The doctor wasn't there, he was doing hospital stuff. This is fine, because I like them both a lot. Anyway, she asked me some questions, called her husband, and then said they wanted to get some blood and a urine sample to check some other things out because swelling doesn't usually go along with this rash. She looked pretty worried about this swelling.

This is where it got hard for me. I don't really have problems holding my kids to get vaccinations. Not a big deal. But they stuck Jason the first time and he was SOOOO good. They got some blood and then he squirmed a bit and they couldn't find the vein again. Then they tried again, and again. And Jason's getting pretty upset because he knows what they're going for. So I'm really having to hold him down. And they tried again, and again. They kept giving him breaks, like this would calm him down or something. They tried for a freaking hour to get more blood and I'm getting upset. Really mad. I know it's their job, and I'm sure it's really hard to get blood from a squirmy two year old. But come on, an hour? And he's mad. And I'm trying to hold it together because the poor kid is really sad that I'm holding him down. Also I forget to mention that the other 3 kids are with me because I just picked them up from school. And we are all in a TINY room. Or it seems tiny with myself, four kids, and two phlebotomists. And the kids keep asking questions. Not the normal questions you would think, like: Is Jason Ok? More like: "When can we get our suckers?" "When can we leave?" And the likes. They finally decide they're going to stop and see what they can do with the blood they got on the first stick. Great. And if they decide he needs more tests, they'll try again tomorrow--or send him to the hospital to get blood drawn. Awesome.

So they gave Jason a sample of a steroid, because the pharmacies in our town are closing down at this hour. And she gives me a prescription for the same steroid to pick up in the morning. Plus I'm supposed to give him a couple antihistamines each day--just in case. So we go home. Jason was finally able to walk right before bed. It looked like the swelling had gone down a lot in his hands and feet. And the rash was already a LOT lighter. The above picture was taken this night.

The next morning, he woke up and you could BARELY see the rash. It was crazy. It seemed like each day was so much worse and I figured when it started to go away, it would be gradual. Also his hands and feet looked great. As we went through our morning, Trevor and I noticed his ear was swelling. We still had to go pick up the prescription, so we went and got that. By the time we got there, his ear was like twice the size of his other one. We gave him the steroid, and down it went. Weird. Also when I was supposed to give him a dose that night, I was getting his pajamas on and noticed it looked like the rash was starting again in other places. I gave him his medicine, and put him to bed. And the next day--fine again. Good times. Also the doctor was great. Wanting to check on him each day, and calling each night to make sure he was doing all right.

The happy ending is: he's fine. Totally fine. But just so you know, steroids make little boys hyper.

Skiing

2011-01-22T15:57:00.000-08:00

How can we pass up $15 lift tickets two weeks in a row? We can't. And Hailey's free anyway because she's 6. This was Hailey's first time skiing (and Tyler's second--although he was quite the expert when discussing skiing technique with Hailey). She loved it, too. YAY! I was a little nervous there at the beginning because she looked much more nervous than Tyler was, but she quickly got the hang of it and can even turn and stop a lot more effectively than Tyler. Shhh, don't tell Tyler.

Don't they look cute?

Featuring: Tyler

2011-01-15T11:44:00.000-08:00

We were finally able to take Tyler skiing for the first time. Trevor and I love to ski, and we really want our kids to like it too. So it was a relief when we took him and he loved it. On the way home he asked if we could go again the next day. Yay! He did great. Half the time we went skiing altogether, and the other half Trevor and I switched off helping Tyler. Here are some pictures:

Tyler getting ready. He couldn't wait to get on the snow after walking around our house in his skis for a few days. We got his skis, boots and poles on Craigslist for $20 bucks! (Although we ditched the poles until the last couple runs so they wouldn't get in his way.) We figured it was a good investment seeing as how we'll make all four kids wear them when they grow into them :)

It should also be mentioned that once he got the hang of the ski lift and getting off, he wanted to go by himself each time. A lot of the time we just hung out at the bottom of the bunny hill watching him get on and off the lift and coming down by himself...

They had a little obstacle course for the ski school kids. When they abandoned it, Tyler wanted to try it out.

And for some basketball:

Tyler loves basketball this year. I love watching these kids play. Even though the picture is really blurry, I had to put in the one above because it's funny to watch them guard their own team sometimes. These kids learn to keep their arms up, and they take it very seriously.

Christmas Time

2010-12-27T11:25:00.001-08:00

I do bake cakes. I promise. But it was such a busy time and Jason wanted a Thomas cake, so I called WalMart. He's such a sweet little guy. His favorite toy right now is Thomas the Train, he talks non-stop, and he loves playing with his brother and sisters and gets mad when they leave him out.

Ashley had a preschool Christmas Program. She had so much fun. Here are a couple pictures in her reindeer hat and witch hat (for a skit). I didn't get any pictures of her in her Santa hat because I videoed the whole thing, but in one little skit she played Santa and did GREAT.

We wrote a letter to Santa and asked if he would come to our house early. You see, we didn't have enough room in our van to take all the presents with us to Idaho, then bring them all (and more) back. So we had an early Christmas. The kids loved it! It was a lot of fun seeing them open presents. They were so excited. This time of year is so great for so many reasons!

Christmas Time Continued

2010-12-27T10:53:00.001-08:00

We took a trip to my brothers house that he has been building (and doing an AMAZING job). His English Bulldog just had puppies six weeks ago. Apparently I thought this was the only thing picture worthy. Forget that all of my four brothers and their families were there, my little sister and her family, my mom and stepdad, my dad and stepmom. Oh we BROUGHT the camera, it just didn't make it out of the bag much...you only get the pictures taken from my phone (and I'm not so good at holding really still to take a good picture)So HOPEFULLY my stepdad will share with me all the pictures he's taken of everyone else...

Hailey wants this puppy more than anything in the world. It's a little sad. And it's the only one left for sale. She wanted to hold this puppy the whole 3 days we were there. She cried when she didn't get to help take them out, and she didn't even want to go to bed because the puppies would cry (and she KNOWS it's because they needed her to hold them. :) )

This is Ashley and my little niece, Emily. My nieces live so far away, so it was nice to see them and finally have some girl cousins for Ashley and Hailey to play with.

Featuring:

2010-12-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

HAILEY. Hailey had a birthday not too long ago. I can't believe how fast time flies. Here's picture before we sang Happy Birthday.

That night when I put Hailey to bed, I was telling her about the day she was born and when I went into labor, etc. She looked REALLY worried when I got to the part about how she had aspirated a lot of fluid and one of her lungs didn't inflate, so they rushed her off to the newborn intensive care unit . I told her it all turned out fine because she's healthy now and just fine, but she still looked terrified. I guess it's still a little early to include ALL the details. Poor girl.

This is Hailey's Thanksgiving Program that her kindergarten class performed. It was REALLY cute and fun to see her and all her class sing and say their lines. I didn't even know she had any lines until I got there. Her line was even the longest and she said it by herself when all the other kids said their lines with two or three of them together. Had I known, I would've helped her practice at home. She never told me, though and I never got any papers telling me about speaking parts. She did great and spoke so loudly and clearly.

Halloween

2010-11-08T13:08:00.000-08:00

And only a week late. We had a lot of fun Halloween festivities. The ward trunk or treat was excellent. A lot of fun carnival games for the kids, and then a lot of candy gathering of course.

We also went trick or treating around the neighborhood. Around here there is one street that closes to traffic that's like a "Halloween Lane" or something...all the houses on this street decorate and ALL the kids in town go there. I've heard that there are big lines and the kids get one piece of candy per house, etc. So we just trick or treat around our neighborhood. Our kids are LOADED with candy. We had one trick or treater at our house, and I think our kids were probably the only visitors at other houses. Needless to say, they were quite a hit at every house and got all sorts of attention...and candy...

Tyler was Mario, Hailey was a Barbie Mermaid, Ashley was a giraffe and Jason was a shark.

We also had this skeleton that was motion sensored and would talk when you walked up to it. At first,Jason wouldn't get close to it (like in this picture). But by the end of the night he wasn't as scared. That's all he talks about still--he says, "the scary guy fell over" (the wind blew it over one morning) and, "the scary guy....ha ha ha" and he mimics the way the skeleton laughs. It's really cute, I hope he doesn't have nightmares.

Three Down, One to Go

2010-11-08T12:58:00.001-08:00

Nope, not potty training (although that too, I guess...but that happened long ago.)

RIDING BIKES!! Ok, so it's old news by now. She's actually been riding for two months. I'm just that good at blogging. Ashley did great, though. It took a lot of prodding for the other two (...one...) but Ashley begged me to take off her training wheels one Saturday while Trevor was gone. So I did and we practiced and by the time he came home, she was showing off her mad bike riding skills. She could even kick off on her own. I guess she was ready. Now if Jason could just learn to ride a bike in the next two months, that will be all four kids learning in 2010. I won't hold my breath.

Not much of an action shot, but I couldn't take any while I was running alongside her, making sure I caught her if she fell over :)

First Day of School

2010-09-18T10:26:00.001-07:00

Tyler had a great first day. Tyler's such a fun kid. He has some kids in his class from last year, but his two favorite friends are in the other class. He has a really good attitude about it though and says he can be friends with all the other kids and still play with his two favorite friends at recess.

I was worried Hailey might be a little shy in kindergarten. She LOVED her first day, though and feels so grown up. She loves getting homework and thinks her teacher is amazing (and she is). The elementary kids have lockers and everything :)

This is Ashley in a box sliding down the stairs. (PS I did NOT make them wear that helmet, they came up with that on their own. I thought it was pretty funny, actually) She has preschool this year, which she loves. But I didn't get a picture of her first day. Boo. Her first day was a week after Tyler and Hailey's and it just about killed her. It's funny, after her first day when I went to pick her up--the teachers were commenting on how different Ashley and Hailey were/are. They said Ashley is more outgoing and wants to answer all the teacher's questions. She plays with all the kids and doesn't cry a lot if she gets hurt :) Poor Hailey--that makes her sound bad. Hailey is SO great, just a little more sensitive and shy than Ashley.

So that's that. They had great first days, and I miss them while they're away. Jason hardly knows what to do with himself. If we ever drive past the school while running errands, Jason yells: TYLER! HAILEY! I'm glad they have great teachers,great friends and a great school.

A Family Reunion

2010-08-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

We spent a weekend at Trevor's parent's house with ALL of Trevor's brothers and sisters. It was really a lot of fun to have everyone there! Bryson, Briana and Scott from Provo; Britta and Brett from California; Cliff and Lisa (and Nyah and Saibra) from Idaho, and us (from Montana :) )

We played a crazy game of whiffle ball...a little safer for the kids to participate. Don't think it wasn't just as competitive. :)

All the Strupp grandkids--except Jason. He ran off right before I snapped the picture. See next picture.

Here's Jason, in different clothes than he was the day he ran off. Just pretend he's in church clothes and standing nicely next to the other children, like a good little boy.

Hailey, Ashley, and Nyah getting ready to ride the horses. Nyah's quite the little cowgirl. She even gets a twang in her speech when it's time to ride. SOOO cute.

Lisa with Ashley and Grandma with Nyah. The kids love riding the horses!

We were able to get a bunch of family pictures (thanks Lisa!) And as soon as I have some copies I'll have to post them (Lisa? :) )

We also went skeet shooting so I'll have to post a picture of that one day.
Lots of fun over the weekend with the family. Lets do this again, OK guys?

Some Summer Fun

2010-08-26T11:20:00.001-07:00

That's right, my kids haven't started school yet. :) So we still have some fun going on. These are random pictures from over the summer. I was going through the card on the camera and thought maybe I should share :)

The kids kept asking if they were going to get to do "gymnastics camp" again this year. It's way overpriced and very little gymnastics going on. More like a day care...but they had fun last year, so we signed them up again this year. Between their story time and craft time, I was able to get some pictures of the gymnastics they did.

Tyler (the one on his back) on the trampoline.

Ashley swinging on the rings.

Hailey swinging on the rings.

We visited grandpa and did some fun things at his house, including a ride on the scooter with grandpa. This makes me laugh. Never in a thousand years did I think my dad would buy a scooter. More of a motorcycle/4-wheeling kind of man. He is getting old though...

Hailey and Grandpa.

Jason was relaxing one day while eating his pizza. Such good manners. One day I'll teach him you shouldn't put your feet on the dinner table.

Because We're Spontaneous Like That

2010-07-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

It's hard to be spontaneous with little kids. You can't just pick up and go places without planning--at least that's the way I see it.

Last weekend Trevor had a couple days off because he was supposed to go on a scouting thing. Well, long story short: it fell through. So after he got back from a morning golf outing, we wondered what we would do with the rest of our very rare time off together. Not wanting to waste this precious time on something that NEEDED to be done, I said: I think we should rent a jetski and go camping. And he said: OK. And so we did :) And because we're also such a good team, it only took us an hour to gather all our junk and pack it in the truck and rent a waverunner. I was pleasantly surprised.

Avert your eyes from the pasty whiteness that is my legs...first time out in the sun...

He's sleeping :) It was funny when we would take Jason out for a little ride, he wouldn't say a word. Didn't smile, didn't scream--just acted very nonchalant. Like he didn't care if he was going for a ride or not. It was kind of funny. We know he liked it because he begged to get back on once he was off, but when we were out on our ride, he was SOOO quiet. Anyway, must've been pretty relaxing (plus he was tired from going to bed late and no nap) but he fell asleep on the jetski! Poor kid.

The kids did really great on our camping trip. Makes me want to go more often!

Daddy's Boy

2010-07-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

Jason loves his dad. He's finally gotten to the point that he doesn't cry for 10 minutes after Trevor leaves for work. That's probably because with Trevor's "summer hours" he leaves at 6:50 a.m. and Jason hasn't woken up yet. Rest assured Jason will wander the house after he wakes up (and intermittently throughout the rest of the day) whining, "Daddy, Daddy."

Then, when Jason hears the garage door open--whether it's Trevor or not--he gets all excited and runs downstairs to greet dad.

If Jason gets hurt, it's not me he wants to hold and cuddle him, it's Trevor.

When he's in his carseat to drive somewhere, he doesn't want me to get him out, he wants Trevor. Heaven forbid I do get him out, he squirms to get down to run to Trevor's side.

I gotta admit, Trevor's the best dad ever. And it doesn't even hurt my feelings--I think it's endearing to see my baby boy love his dad so much.

Jason always wants dad to sit and rock him or hold him when he gets home from work. In this picture it's about 5 p.m. Definitely a bad time for Jason to take a little nap, but he grabbed his blanket and binky and climbed up in dad's lap to watch a little Sports Center...and they fell asleep. I guess they were a little tuckered out.

A Little Bathroom Comedy

2010-06-29T11:19:00.001-07:00

This happened a couple months ago, but when I think about this story, it makes me smile. So I thought I'd share.

We were all at church and I was helping Ashley in the bathroom. There was a guy at church that needed to talk to me about something and when he saw Tyler he asked, "Where's your mom?"

Tyler answered, "She's in the bathroom wiping Ash." (You might have to read that part aloud to get the full affect:) )

It took him a second to realize what Tyler meant, but had a good laugh with us as he told us what happened.

Some Recent Pictures

2010-06-15T13:40:00.001-07:00

With the summer beginning and Tyler out of school, we wanted to plan some fun things to do during the summer. It's been raining a lot here, though. So we haven't been able to do a whole lot. But here are some pictures of our recent adventures...

I can't believe my kids (except for Jason) actually got into the water. All three of the older kids got their swimsuits on and played in the water for a good 45 minutes. It must've been about 50 degrees outside and the water was probably about the same. Brr. Trevor ran the van the whole time so when they finally decided to get out of the water they could get in the warm van. They had a good time though and kept asking to go back in the water after we got them out and dressed. Crazy kids.

We've had plenty of time to play in the rain, that's for sure. And they've taken full advantage.

Don't know why this is flipped? Whatever. Trevor got some packages and the kids played in the packing peanuts for like 2 hours. I love it when they entertain themselves and play together for so long like this! Had to document it.

This was Hailey's preschool graduation. I can't believe she's going to kindergarten. She had a great year in preschool with a lot of really fun activities.

I'll try and remember the camera when we go places. Trevor's really good about bringing it along, but if I pack...not so much. We (me and the kids, Trevor had to work) took a trip to my mom's not that long ago and did all sorts of fun things. We went to the zoo and visited Aunt Amanda and Uncle Brett and Grandma and Grandpa. But no pictures to show for it...maybe Amanda will send me some? :)

Just Because

2010-05-17T10:10:00.001-07:00

It seems like everytime I turn around another year has gone by. Trevor took this picture of the kids the other day and I was looking at it and marveling how much older they all look. Tyler was thinking he'd be funny and throw something as the picture was taken. Such a fun age :)

When I do the girls hair I sit them in these little rocking chairs--they're just the right height. Every time I get a chair out for one of the girls, Jason drags the other chair over so he can get his hair combed...what little hair he has. Never wanting to be left out. Notice the look of sheer joy on Ashley's face? And yes, she does pick her own clothes (and socks) out herself most days.

I love this picture. My kids bring me such happiness (most of the time) and I can't believe how fast time flies. This one is of Jason--he just makes me smile. He's such a good little guy and so happy. He's growing up so fast!

I Want Some

2010-04-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

This is what Jason does when he wants what you're eating. It's really cute and he's been doing it now for quite some time, but I wanted to post a picture of it because it makes me laugh. And if I'm using this blog as sort of a photo book/journal (I know, sad how I don't post more often if that's what it's for) I better have some pictures to help me remember the cute things my kids do before I forget :)

6 Feet

2010-03-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

is how much gum a three year old can eat and swallow before her mom realizes she ate the whole pack. Yep, in like 10 minutes. I'm a good mom. If it's true that gum stays in your body for 7 years (which it isn't) this one will have a lot of gum to clog up her system. Not that I would normally blog about something like this (I hardly blog about anything anymore...) but just one of the many things I want to remember someday down the road. Note to self: Do not open the bubble tape and give it to your child in the backseat on the car ride home.

On the bright side, at least it wasn't chewed and put in various places all over the van.

Scuba

2010-03-12T21:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I'm computer illiterate. I started with the post below, and then tried to put these two pictures in the second post. It didn't work. So instead of doing it all over, just read the next post before this one :)

That's a starfish on my head. Our instructor ("Divin' Ivan") put it there.

That's a LOT of bird poop. Click to enlarge.

So there you have it. A little taste of our trip. We saw a lot of things under water and I can't believe what a whole different world it is under there. We saw all sorts of fish, lobster, sea urchins, baracudas, seals, you name it (well, no sharks this time) But it really was amazing and I can't wait to go on an other trip!

Scuba Diving

2010-03-12T21:39:00.001-08:00

Alright. You see? I do things worthy of blogging about, I just am a little busy and don't get to the blogging very fast, or ever.

So Trevor and I have joined the ranks of the scuba certified. My brothers and a sister are certified and wanted to plan a trip to Catalina Island. They invited Trevor and I to go, and we were really excited. We took our scuba classes and then were able to do our open water dives on the trip with the instructor that went with us.

It's been a long time since we've taken a trip with just the two of us (and most of my family :) ) Well, actually we haven't done that since we've had kids. But finally I'm not pregnant or breastfeeding (it's like I have my own body!) and we thought this would be something really fun that we've always wanted to do.

Anyway, Trevor got an underwater casing for our camera and took some pictures with it. So here they are. And for future reference, I'll try and be a little more dilligent about blogging.

Trevor and I getting ready to go. That's a lot of gear, huh? The water by Catalina is really cold so we had full wetsuits, gloves, hoods, booties--the works. And even though it's a huge pain to put it all on, especially if it isn't dry from the last dive, we were SO glad we had all of it, it was freezing!

This seal played around us for a good long time. It was really neat. I tried to touch him/her? a couple times because it came so close, but never did. It was on our first dive and I was a little apprehensive...

Trevor

Kim

Basketball

2010-01-20T11:40:00.000-08:00

Tyler started basketball this year. I know the pictures aren't too action packed, but I was cheering too much to stop and take any good ones.

He likes basketball, I just hope he can get a little more...agressive as the year goes on. He's such a sweet kid he just lets people take the ball from him.

And I found this picture on our card. Trevor must have taken it, but I thought it was really cute. Jason loves that rocking chair. When he sits in it he feels so big and proud of himself. It's really cute.

Sheer Genius

2009-12-30T11:06:00.001-08:00

I didn't put this together--thank heavens...but my talented brother-in-law, Sam, did at the request of my parents. Isn't it cool? If only I could be so creative. I thought I'd post it because I thought it looked so cool. This my whole family--brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and parents. In case any of you have a hard time figuring what it spells out, it says: MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

Christmas Letter, as promised...

2009-12-17T11:07:00.000-08:00

December 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

I figured I’d better post our Christmas letter as promised in some of the cards you may have received. I wasn’t planning on doing a Christmas letter this year, but I really like reading the year’s happenings of other families, so I decided to make our news to others optional. I guess if you are reading this—you decided you wanted to hear about us :)

It’s been another busy year, I guess I can expect that for another 17 years at least. I know I put in last year’s letter that we were probably staying in Oklahoma for another year. Well, we didn’t. Shortly after sending out that letter, Trevor decided to go look at some practices and he found one he loved in Montana. We were very lucky to be able to sell our house in such a crazy real estate economy, and it seemed like everything fell into place. So right after he took terminal leave from the army, we moved to Montana to start our life in this beautiful town. Once we got here, they put us right to work in the ward and made us feel right at home. We love it.

Trevor: Is the best boss ever…in my opinion. He’s had a lot of fun learning the ins and outs of a business, all the while doing what he loves (dentistry). I guess they heard what a good YM president he was in our past ward, because they put him right in as YM president here. Either that or he needed more practice? He still loves to spend days off and evenings playing with his kids and they can’t get enough of it. We love this man.

Kim: Is staying at home with all these little monsters…and loving every minute of it. Eventually when the kids get a little older I’d like to work a day or two a week…I miss working! I didn’t think this would happen, and it probably wouldn’t have happened if Trevor didn’t come home every day talking about the dentistry and all the things I miss in the dental office. Other than that I stay busy in the Primary. Who knew I could love other people’s children so much!? It’s so much fun.

Tyler: Is a big 6 year old first grader. He LOVES school and I never hear: “Do I have to go to school today?” It’s funny how proud I feel when he reads to me each night. My little boy is growing up! He hasn’t lost any teeth, yet. But he does have a few permanent teeth coming in. A couple behind the baby teeth and he won’t touch those loose teeth. I keep threatening him that we’ll just have dad pull them out…we might have to resort to that here pretty soon. He looks like a shark with those rows of teeth. He’s such a good brother to his little brother and sisters. And such a big helper to me!

Hailey: Just turned five and is in preschool this year. She tells me everyday what she’s doing at her school and who is boyfriend/girlfriend with who. In preschool! I know, a little young for that. It scares me, of course. She’s such a sweet little girl and such a big helper with Jason. She and Ashley are little buddies. Their newest game is “Sisters.” They hold hands and run around the house saying: “Let’s be sisters!” I know, it’s only cute to a mother. But it makes me feel good they like each other.

Ashley: Is such a character. I always tell Trevor how her looks don’t match her personality because she has this curly, bouncy hair and such a girly little face. But this girl is tough! She does like her girl things like Pollies and Barbies, but she’s a little more Tom-Boy than you would picture when you see her. She likes to get dirty and wrestle with Tyler. She’s a little too rough with Jason sometimes when trying to wrestle with him, and I have to remind her he’s just little still. She also has found a love for school because it makes her feel big like Tyler and Hailey. She goes to the “mom’s preschool” where we switch each week and she LOVES it.

Jason: Has grown leaps and bounds from last year…but I guess they do that first year. He turns one on December 22nd. I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since I had him!! I have enjoyed him so much. I have enjoyed every baby, but I think I was a little more uptight and worried about the older kids when they were babies. He crawls as of about a month ago, hopefully he’ll be that slow in walking. He says “Mom” and shakes his head “No” and jabbers a whole lot…well, more yells a whole lot. He’s just found how to hit and thinks it’s pretty funny. I have a hard time telling him “no” because when I say it seriously, he starts bawling like I hurt his feelings or something. The youngest is always the most spoiled, I guess. I’ll have to work on that.

Thanks for enduring the news of 2009 for our family. We sure love and miss all of you and hope to see you soon! Merry Christmas and have a wonderful 2010!

Love,
The Strupps

I'm Thankful

2009-11-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

I know it's a little cliche to post how thankful I am for stuff during Thanksgiving week--I am thankful the rest of the year. But it's just been one of those weeks where I keep thinking about how really blessed I am.

On facebook there are a lot of people who have posted something they are thankful for each day. While I have not participated in this, I have been thinking about it all month.

So, here goes. I'll try and keep my list short...but I am thankful for a lot of things.

1. My husband. I'm not trying to be mushy or anything. But the man is amazing. Pretty much everything I am thankful for has to do with him in one way or another. He's such a hard worker. He's really motivated and works toward his goals. He's an amazing father and an amazing husband. Plus, he's super hot. I almost hope he doesn't check our blog because he'll be embarrassed I went on and on about him. So I'll move on...

2. The gospel. Ok, in hindsight I should've listed this first. But in all honesty, I thought of my husband first, so that's the way I'm leaving it. Really? Where would my life be if I didn't have the church in it? I can tell you I wouldn't be as happy as I am now. I KNOW it's true. One of the best things about the church is the focus on the family. I'm so grateful that I get to be with my family forever. Oh there are so many other things the gospel has done for so many lives...ask me if you'd like to hear more :)

3. My kids. I love my kids. Of course there are those frustrating mom moments. Everyone has them. But I love those kids more than life. Everytime I look at them I can't believe I have the opportunity to raise them. Sometimes I feel so inadequate--but they are such good kids, I can't wait to see where life takes them. I hope I can teach them what they need to know.

(They were making an "L"--long story)

4. A good job. Not me, my husband. I hope in an economy like this where so many people are struggling, this doesn't sound like I'm rubbing it in. But we(he) have a job that pays the bills, and for that I feel so lucky.

5. Good friends. I really lucked out in this area. Growing up until now I have had some of the best influences in my life by way of friends. I can look back and really see some pivotal moments in my life and see how so many times my friends have played a HUGE role. I hope my kids can feel the same way as they grow up. So far so good...but the oldest is only 6 1/2.

6. Where we live. I love it here. I know some of you that have the wonderful opportunity of living here don't love it as much as I do :) But that's the great thing about coming to a new place--I get to experience it for the first time without hearing everyone's opinions of it all my life. IT IS BEAUTIFUL!! You can look around and really know the earth didn't happen by accident. That's right, I don't even mind the wind in the winter. And so far, it's really reared it's ugly head a few times. You guys weren't kidding!

Alright, I'll leave my list to 6. Just know that I could go on and on. I'm not usually a "show your feelings in blogging" kind of girl. I'm more of a shallow blogger where I talk about what we've been doing as a family (lately those posts have come less and less frequent, but I digress) So just so you know, this is a special occasion. Don't expect it too much more.

Halloween

2009-11-04T13:18:00.000-08:00

Ok, ok. I will finally update my blog. But don't expect anything good because I'm talking to my mom on the phone right now :) I'm such a multi-tasker. Here is a picture of the kids on Halloween night. We had some friends visit us for the weekend. Their kids and our kids get along so well. It was a lot of fun! Friday night we had a ward party and we got all the kids dressed and ready. They had some carnival games and then trick or treating door to door inside the church. Good times.

Saturday night we got all dressed up again and went trick or treating. The kids got some great candy that I will be helping myself to. They even got a few (each) full size candy bars--I remember that was like the holy grail when we were kids.

So, in the picture the kids are (top to bottom, left to right) Ashley, Tyler, Dylan, Hailey, Taya and Jason.

I'll try to post more often, sorry about that :)

To Buy or To Build, That is the Question

2009-09-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I forget that I don't necessarily need pictures to post something...but it's so much funner to look at pictures!

Anyway, we've been really busy lately and it's not even anything in particular that we've been busy with (maybe callings?)...so I haven't posted in a long time. But I've been contemplating a lot lately about if we should buy a house or build one.

We moved into a house that we rent, and have a one year lease. We wanted to look around the town and see what areas we wanted to live. I don't really want to move anymore, so whatever we do--I want to stay there. At least for a while. So I kind of waffle back and forth about if we want an "intermediate" house to live in for a few years until we have saved up the money to build the kind of house that I want. For the record, Trevor thinks I want too much house, but I'm the one who has to live in it all day... Plus I don't want to rent longer than a year, seems like such a waste of money once you've owned your own house.

On the other hand, I don't want to build and then be strapped because we outbuilt our budget (and I know these things ALWAYS cost more than you intended). But if we buy a more affordable house and then down the road decide to build, I'm afraid we won't be able to sell our intermediate house--not a lot of houses moving in our town right now (maybe things will change, but I'm not really sure considering the size of the town).

What do you think?

A Trip to the Grocery Store

2009-07-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

This might be a better story if I was a good writer. I am not writing this because I want you all to think I'm tough or amazing, because you all have experienced every bit of the following story. I write this so that one day I'll look back and laugh. And also I need to vent a little bit.

So, I needed to go grocery shopping today. I was planning on leaving right after Jason's morning nap (so he would be happy for the majority of the trip). I know, some of you might wonder why I would take all four kids to the grocery store instead of wait until my husband got home to go alone...well, because the kids are USUALLY pretty good, and because I don't want to waste the time I have with my husband in the evening to go grocery shopping. So there you have it.

Jason finally woke up at 11, then I needed to feed him some rice cereal and we were off. I also just need to preface this by saying Ashley was feeling fine this morning...

As we get in the car, the kids want to know if they can have a tattoo at the quarter machines at the grocery store. I tell them if they behave themselves, they can get one at the end of shopping. We're driving, Ashley tells me she doesn't feel good and lays down. We go to the store anyway.

We get to the store--they have ONE, count it, one grocery cart in the entire store with the car on the front--it fits two children in the car, then Jason sits in the front of the cart by the handle, and Tyler will walk or switch off riding in the car. Hailey still is walking a little slow and limping since the cast came off (hence the need for her to ride), and gets upset as I'm trying to cross the road to the entrance--I'm going too fast. I calmly tell her she needs to ask me nicely to slow down and not to cry about it. Anywho---my cart is gone. I usually get this cart because we're not in Utah, and people just don't need it as much here so it's always available. But wouldn't you know it, it's not there. Blast.

I get a normal cart and put Jason in the front, Ashley inside the basket part because she's not looking too hot, a little green actually, I tell Hailey she can ride on the front. Tyler can walk. Hailey's mad because she wants to ride inside the basket, and so starts the waterworks. I tell her no tattoo. She cries harder and begs for a tattoo. "Give me one more chance." Ok, one more chance, but she'd better show me she can behave and talk like a big girl if she has a concern. "Ashley, are you OK? Do you feel like you need to throw up?" She says no. She doesn't feel like she has a temperature. So off we go.

I have quite a lot of groceries to get, and I don't know what I'm going to do with Ashley in the basket once it gets too full. It didn't take long before she got upset with the stuff piling up beside her. I ask her if she wants to walk, she says yes. All through the grocery store Jason's getting more and more upset at being stuck in the cart. Despite the toys I'm giving him. What, you don't want to still suck on the pen after 45 minutes? How about this box of fruit snacks? It's fun to chew on. So I get Jason out to hold him, and Ashley's resting her head on the cart. Poor girl. "Ash, do you want to ride up here?" (By the handle) She does, I put her in while holding Jason in the other arm--he's happy to be held. Now I need to pull the cart, it's too heavy to push and steer with one arm. Hailey has asked about 29 times if it's time to get a tattoo and if she's behaving OK. Yes Hailey, when we leave you can get a tattoo.

We finally make our way through the entire store, up one aisle and down the next. When it's time to checkout, I decide it would be easier to just hold Jason while I pile my overflowing cart full of groceries onto the belt. A nice clerk helped me from the next checkout line. I've now asked Ashley about 10 times if she's ok and if she needs to throw up, because she's laying on the handle of the cart. She assures me she doesn't. I tell her we'll lay down when we get home and we'll hurry.
Almost there. Trying to fish out coupons and debit card out of my purse while holding Jason. I swipe the debit card and out of the corner of my eye I see Ashley losing her breakfast all over herself and the floor of the grocery store. I try to catch some of it. I don't know why--reflex? Because one hand obviously couldn't hold it all, and I caught her mid-stream anyway. Now what? I'm holding Jason in one hand and Ashley's breakfast in the other. The clerk hands me some paper towels to clean it up. So I get to work one handed. Meanwhile Tyler and Hailey are telling me if they smell it they will also throw up. I tell them to go over and look at the pictures on the redbox. Hailey wants to know if she still gets a tattoo. I promised her she could, apparently. I ask Tyler is he'll come over and take Jason--that's a funny joke. Jason weighs about as much as Tyler (I'm exagerating, but he can't hold him while standing up) and Tyler says he can't because he'll throw up. I guess this is when the clerk decides I need some help, despite her aversion to my daughters puke on the floor, and takes Jason from me...so I can continue to clean up. Then she hands me some cleaner. Thanks. She also mentions Jason is really heavy, but she'll hold him anyway despite her back problems. I'll probably get sued.

Paper towels and glass cleaner just don't do a good enough job. But I get it mostly wiped up and stored away in a plastic bag to throw away on the way out. Ashley's feeling much better and wants a piece of gum at the quarter machines. Ugh. I don't want to touch anything with my hands till I have sanitized (in the diaper bag in the car) but I dig out some quarters that I put in my back pocket--knowing I had to have them handy at the end of the grocery trip. Hailey gets her tattoo, Tyler (and yes, Ashley) get a piece of gum. I take off Ashley's clothes in the car to put in a plastic bag (DANGIT, I just put in the LAST batch of clothes before we left) and sanitize everything. Get the kids all belted in and the groceries in the back...all the while the popsicles are melting. Jason's crying now because he's tired again.

We get home and I carry Ashley in--wearing only panties, no shoes (Ashley, not me). Start the bath water. Hailey wants me to put her tattoo on. I get all the groceries in and turn off the bath water, get Ashley in, put away the popsicles and refrigerated stuff. Get Jason in bed. Put Hailey's tattoo on. Put away the rest of the groceries and switch the laundry. Then blog :) Now Jason's awake and I have to fold laundry. So, there you have it. What a day. Thanks for letting me vent, I feel much better.

PS Ashley's feeling much better, ate quite a bit just now, but Hailey just fell asleep on the couch. Great.

My Family

2009-07-18T11:13:00.001-07:00

I tried to fit this into the next post, but my pictures are too big. Keep reading, there are more posts below :)

The 4th of July

2009-07-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

This year my whole family was able to get together for the 4th of July. Yep, all 10 kids and MOST of the grandkids, except for three (we missed you Lieren, Blake and Nadia!!)

So here is a picture of my family--compliments of Melissa :) Thanks for taking on that crazy request!

We all went to Stadium of Fire this year. My mom reserved 54 tickets! We had some other friends and family along. It was a lot of fun--I can't believe all the screaming girls for the Jonas Brothers. They were ok, although I don't think I've heard any of their songs. But the fireworks were amazing, as always. And it was fun to let the kids see a show like that.

Although Hailey got a little tuckered out...if you look closely, you can see all the ash all over her.

Jason didn't quite make it either...

Some pictures from the last couple months

2009-07-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

I'm a little hot and cold lately when it comes to blogging...here are some catchup pictures:

Ashley had her 3rd birthday in June. It was a fun day for her but I'm only going to post one picture of it :) She's such a fun little girl. Ashley's pretty tough and loves to wrestle with Tyler. Her favorite food is Fruity Pebbles, her favorite color is blue and her favorite thing to do is "go to the park". Her least favorite thing to do is clean up toys. We sure are glad Ashley is a part of our family!

She has taken quite a liking to roly polies and collects them everywhere we go. It's pretty funny to watch her because she'll get about 20 in her hand at once and then wants a container to put them in...and don't try to sneak the container out of the house, she won't have it...

This is only the beginning of her collection. I should have taken a picture of the complete collection...but it's really an ongoing thing, always adding to it every day.

Tyler went on a father/son campout with Trevor when we first moved here. He loved every second of it. Trevor has also taken him golfing a couple of times and now Tyler only wants to go places with "just the boys"...

It's fun for me to see the relationship that Tyler and Jason have. Jason ADORES Tyler, and vice-versa. Jason loves his sister's too, of course, but when you really want to get him laughing you just put Tyler in front of him. I just thought this was a cute picture to illustrate the brothers relationship.

BOOO for Broken Legs!!

2009-06-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

Ugh. I promise I'm not a bad mother. Hailey was jumping on a trampoline...I don't even really know how it happened--she fell, but not off the trampoline, and no one jumped on her, so who knows. But it's broken now, and she has to wear this for 4 weeks. At least it wasn't the two months Tyler had to wear his. 4 weeks doesn't sound so bad except that she's already complaining that it itches. It might be a long 4 weeks.

So, here's a picture. I know--it's the coolest dinosaur cast ever. Plus, they said she could swim in it if she wants because it has a gortex lining. Cool, huh? Except they said it might start to stink so they wouldn't be doing any swimming until she's ready to get it off :) She also got some stickers at the doctors office...as you can see.

Also, as promised I will post more about our move, town, etc. in a bit. We have more adventures than broken legs.

We're here!

2009-06-04T21:23:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted. I think eventually I'll be motivated enough to post pictures, but not tonight.

We've finally made it to Montana!! It is BEAUTIFUL here. I really love it and am excited to get to know people in the community and at church. It's been kind of a whirlwind of activity these past couple weeks. We officially closed on our house May 22. Then we had until June 1st before we could get into our rental house in Montana, so we drove to my mom's and hung around a couple days.

We were able to see Aunt Briana and Uncle Scott who entertained the kids at the waterpark...aunts and uncles are the best. We also got to see Aunt Britta on her way through. The kids were so excited and loved every minute of all the family attention.

Then we drove the rest of the way here and moved all of our stuff in. Yuck. We have been unpacking boxes for the last few days--good times. Trevor's been running all over the place trying to get all the business stuff done...

Anyway, the craziness isn't over yet. Once Trevor starts work and we're in a little more of a routine, I promise to post pictures and more stories about our adventures. Until then...

Redneck Girl

2009-05-12T11:39:00.001-07:00

We told the people who are buying our house that we were going to do landscaping before we put it up for sale...so now they still want us to do that...

Anyway, Trevor's been working on the landscaping and Hailey has been such a big "helper". She's been following Trevor everywhere with his projects. Imagine my surprise when I found my daughter out in the front yard looking like this:

Always wants to be just like Dad.

Friday Fun

2009-05-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

This last Friday we went up to Oklahoma City to visit one of Trevor's friends. We did all sorts of stuff. We went to the Science Museum (which was SO cool--Trevor and I were having so much fun, we hardly took any pictures of the kids :) ), we went to Toby Keith's Bar and Grill (delicious) and of course, Bass Pro Shops. All in all it was a pretty full day. I wish I had more pictures to show our fun!

Trevor's Last Day

2009-04-24T14:11:00.001-07:00

Today was Trevor's last day as a military dentist. His "official" date of seperation is June 10th, but he has some leave (vacation) days saved up so he starts "terminal leave" on Monday :)

Anyway, in celebration of this event I wanted to post these pictures of some of the people Trevor worked with at DC2 (Dental Clinic 2). He had some good times with these guys and he'll miss them!

PS The guy that's holding Jason is Colonel Prince. He is one of Jason's FAVORITE people (and vice-versa). Colonel Prince always gets Jason laughing pretty hard. I guess Jason will need to find a new best buddy.

Rattlesnake Festival

2009-04-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

Every year in Apache they hold a Rattlesnake Festival. It's really like a carnival with a whole bunch of vendors selling stuff (sunglasses, t-shirts, and of course: rattlesnake paraphernalia). It's a lot of fun. We figured we had better frequent the Rattlesnake Festival one last time before leaving Oklahoma.

We paid the $1 to see the snake pit this time :) This was a room where they had an enclosure with a BUNCH of snakes in it. They have a couple guys in there talking about rattlesnakes and holding them up for everyone to see. It was crazy, the snakes were striking at them and everything. There are a LOT more snakes in this pit, we just wanted to get Ashley in the picture.

The kids loved the rides. I tried to convince them they needed to go on the bigger rides with me and Trevor, but they didn't want to. Boo.

There are always a couple people working the festival that carry around rattlesnakes to show people--the rattlesnake's mouth is sewn shut at each corner. Anyway, they had a spot where you could get your picture taken with the snake. Hailey (surprisingly) and Ashley jumped at the chance, but Tyler wouldn't do it.

Erick came with us. Here's Erick eating some rattlesnake. Not all that good. We had some a couple of years ago when we went with some friends and it was mostly breading and bones. Not too much meat.

Good times. We'll miss the annual Rattlesnake Festival!

Bathtime

2009-04-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

Jason LOVES the bath. I mean, he REALLY gets excited when I put him in the bath and I think it's so cute. I took a picture while he was somewhat still, but this is a rare moment in the bath. He's usually kicking and yelling to show us his excitement. It's pretty funny.

I blocked out the family jewels because I don't want to embarrass the poor kid (anymore than I already have) in the future--if he's to look through this blog.

Also, I wonder when kids start to recognize certain words? Anyone know the answer to this? When I ask him if he wants a bath, he gets this big grin on his face. I don't know if it's because he knows the word "bath" now, or if it's because I'm smiling at him when I ask.

Easter

2009-04-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday was pretty eventful. I woke up early to speak in the serviceman's branch. It was really neat. Our Relief Society presidency all spoke on the Savior and His life, crucifixion, resurrection, and applying the atonement in our lives. There was such a wonderful spirit there and it was really neat to be able to experience part of Easter with the soldiers that were there in training. Plus, it was a little weird to sit through a sacrament meeting with no kids...makes for an even sweeter experience to concentrate fully on the (other) speakers and to reflect on Christ during the sacrament.

After I came home, Trevor had the kids mostly ready for our church. So I did their hair and he took the kids to pick up one of our friends for church (more of that story to come...) I played Easter bunny, threw the turkey breast (yep, the wild one) into the crockpot, and then met everyone at church.

Here's a picture of Hailey and Ashley in their Easter dresses that Grandma Strupp bought for them while she was visiting:

After church the kids had their egg hunt. Here are a couple pictures of the kids looking for Easter eggs. I don't know how other people feel about Easter egg hunts, but I always had them as a child and I think I turned out OK...

Then we ate the turkey. It was OK, I still like store-bought farm turkeys, but whatever.

We had our friend, Erick, over for dinner. We've been doing a few things with him the past four or five weeks because he's been in training at Fort Sill. It's been so much fun hanging out with him and the kids ADORE him. I wished I would have taken pictures of him playing with the kids--they LOVE him and won't leave him alone! He seems to have fun though, or maybe he's just being nice. I'm pretty sure it's because he misses his own kids so much, I told him he could come borrow ours anytime. (Thanks Erick--and thanks Tera for letting us have so much fun with Erick! Looks like you better come visit soon, he won't be here much longer...)

I hope you all had a wonderful and fun Easter, too!

Brian Regan

2009-04-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

So, my home page is set to the CNN website--because that's where Trevor set it. So I always read over the headlines and actually it's a good way to keep me informed since I'm not an avid news watcher. Point is, I saw a story about the comedian Brian Regan. I noticed his name because my friend Maggie mentioned him in a blog post once and how much she liked him. So I watched one of his videos and thought he was pretty funny...although I'm not a huge fan. Anyway, I read the story and I just found this pretty profound, he said:

"They say a formula for comedy is comedy equals tragedy plus time. A difficult or uncomfortable situation takes place, and then you laugh about it later down the road. Sometimes I wonder if I could be so mentally healthy to subtract the time part. Like what if there is a flat tire, and it's raining outside? Instead of laughing a month later, why not laugh while you are changing tires in the rain?"

Anyway, I thought this to be so totally true. If we were to take life a little more lightly, how much happier and healthier would we all be? Just a thought. If you'd like to read the whole interview, he seems like a pretty cool guy. You can find it here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/04/14/brian.regan.comedy.tour/index.html

I don't know how to hyperlink :)

Turkey for Easter Dinner

2009-04-11T07:10:00.000-07:00

Trevor loves a good Turkey hunt. Here's his latest kill:

The last wild turkey we ate was kind of gross. Anyone know a good way to cook wild turkey? I think it will be our Easter dinner...

P.S. I posted a lot today, so keep reading previous posts :)

Tyler's Birthday Party

2009-04-11T06:38:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures from Tyler's birthday party:

As I mentioned in the previous post, we took full advantage of Grandma and her horse while she was here :) During his party, Grandma took all the kids on a horse ride. They loved it! I took pictures of each kid on the horse, but there are too many pictures--so I'll just post Tyler's horse picture.

We did the horse rides at the park, and wow--the kids really came out of the woodwork. We must have had 30 extra kids begging for a ride! We gave as many rides as possible, before we had to go do the pinata and Grandma had to take the horse back to the stable. Thanks Grandma for taking all those kids for a ride!!

Horseback Riding

2009-04-11T05:44:00.000-07:00

Grandma Strupp came to visit last week and we had so much fun! She brought her horse (and dalmatians) with her because she was on her way home from a dog show which included a "road trial" (she shows dalmatians--a road trial is where the dalmatians follow alongside the horse and take commands? As far as I understand it...) So we took full advantage of the horse while Grandma was here. These are some pictures we took of Hailey and Ashley riding the horse with Grandma.

HAILEY

ASHLEY

Jason and Hannah

2009-04-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

You should know this is what I'll do if I babysit your children. But they just looked so cute!

Grandma came to visit. We had SOO much fun with Grandma. Plenty more pictures of that to come...
Jason totally has eyes for Hannah.

Jason's had this hat since he was born (thanks Lisa Gladwell!) We've had some more cold days and I figured I better break out the hat. I knew Grandma would especially appreciate it because she has dalmatians that she shows in dog shows.

?

2009-04-06T20:39:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty sure she gets her fashion sense from me.

Life Changes

2009-04-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to blog about this for awhile, because so many changes have been happening over the past couple months. I didn't want to post prematurely if anything fell through--but it looks like things are falling into place. :)

So, first and foremost: We're moving to Montana! I'm really excited about this. It really looks BEAUTIFUL. I haven't been there yet, but I'm sure me and Trevor will take a trip to househunt (or maybe rent-hunt?)soon. I'm a little leary to say the exact city, seeing as how our blog is public and all...I guess I'm a little paranoid that way. It looks gorgeous and has all the things we really wanted in a city (exept the wonderful friends we've met here). If you're really curious, you can email and ask me what city :) Here's a picture I found on a website:

Pretty, huh? Trevor found a practice that he really likes. He put in an offer and it is now under contract. WOOHOO! I'm excited to be starting this new chapter of our lives.

Second: We sold our house. This is a little bittersweet. I have grown quite attached and didn't think it would be hard to leave something like a house behind. I'm not too sentimental when it comes to things like this, but I really love our house! It worked out well though. We hadn't even really put it up for sale--here's the story:

I had talked to a realtor last October about when she thought I should put the house on the market (with the economy and the market, etc) because I didn't know how long it would take to sell. Plus, we had a couple projects left like the exterior painting (pictures in previous posts) and the landscaping (not done yet) so I kind of wanted a timeline to know how much time we had to get it ready.

After talking to the realtor we didn't think much about selling the house because for a few months we toyed with the idea of staying here another year. Well, Trevor decided to look at some practices, and when he got back we thought we'd better get the house ready to sell because he found a practice he really liked. A couple days later, the realtor I had talked to in October called and asked if we were planning on putting our house up because she had a couple that really wanted to see it--they had been looking for awhile and hadn't been able to find what they wanted. I guess with the things they told her that they wanted in a house, she thought of our house and decided to call us :)

I told the realtor the couple could come see it if they wanted but that we didn't know exactly when we were going to list it. They came to see the house, and loved it and wanted to put in an offer. YAY!! So we listed the house (I guess we needed to list so an offer could be put in). And the house was under contract a couple days later.

Grandpa Comes to Visit!

2009-04-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

Whenever any grandparent comes, the kids get SOO excited! And who wouldn't when they all have special treats to spoil the grandchildren (as pictured--you can see the toys and treats in this picture a little) and of course the non-stop playing and attention! My (Kim's) dad came to see us for a few days, and we had a lot of fun playing with the kids, visiting, and going to some fun places...of course, I didn't bring my camera along to any of these fun places...but here is a picture of Grandpa and Jason. As you can see, Jason was excited too :)

We sure had a fun time with grandpa, next we get to look forward to grandma coming! (Trevor's mom) More spoiling and fun!

Lobster-Fest

2009-03-22T19:18:00.000-07:00

Trevor decided last night that we should get a Lobster and cook it. It was pretty fun and educational :) It's an old wives tale--they don't scream when you put them in boiling water. It was really good to eat, but a lot of work to take him all apart and a big MESS. His juices kept splashing everywhere. I think next time we'll stick with Red Lobster.

Spring Break Trip to the Zoo!

2009-03-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

This last week was spring break for Tyler. It was really a lot of fun to be able to do some fun activities with all the kids. We took a trip to the zoo with some friends--it was quite a big group and we ended up splitting into smaller groups, but it was so much fun to take the kids to see the animals.

Don't get me wrong, the animals were a big hit--but I think playing on this rock was the highlight of the trip! They talked about it the whole rest of the day...
Here are a few of the kids that went to the zoo that day...

All of the kids were sooo good. I was pleasantly surprised that they hardly complained or fought the whole day :) Except for the occasional tiff over who got to sit in the stroller next...

This ostrich kept trying to peck at everyone. We kept telling the kids to stay back from the fence so the ostrich didn't bite them. Then some man came up and was being such a good example by teasing the ostrich and putting his fingers through the fence and jerking them back when the ostrich went to peck.

End of the day and they're all still smiling.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREVOR!!

2009-02-24T19:24:00.000-08:00

It was Trevor's birthday today--we celebrated a couple days early though :) Here are some pictures of the festivities:

I know, he's so handsome! Look at those dimples. He's really not 5, but I didn't have that many candles. I don't plan ahead, I guess.

We had all his favorite's that night: Carbonara (sp?) pasta, grape kool-aid, and "better than almost anything" cake (at least that's what it's called on the recipe I had...) it was really yummy.

The kids had a good time blowing out his 5 candles and opening his presents. Don't mind the spiderman wrap--like I said, I didn't plan ahead-- and that's the kind of wrapping paper we had leftover. Ah well, it all gets ripped up anyway, right?

I'm not so good at putting my feelings into words, but I love that man sooo much. I don't know what I would do without him. I'm so glad we met 9 years ago and have come to have the life that we do together, along with our 4 wonderful kids. I wouldn't trade any of it for the world and I'm so glad I have eternity to spend with him. I love you, Trevor--- Happy Birthday!

My Kids

2009-02-18T12:53:00.000-08:00

I was really getting sick of seeing my name move down on everyone's list of bloggers--you know, the list that says when that blog was last updated and the longer you wait, the lower on the blogger list you are? Mine was last updated a long time ago--so I figured I'd take this picture and post it so I could be toward the top of the lists again :) I don't have much to blog about lately but baby stuff. And as much as you all like to listen to me brag, it gets a little old sometimes.

Anyway, my kids are cute--even though some of them don't have their hair done, and some have breakfast on their shirt--they are adorable. So here they are. And a little shout out to all my Twilight friends--notice Jason's shirt? It's a little crumpled, but it says "Cullen 17" :)

Jason's Blessing

2009-01-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

Trevor blessed Jason yesterday at church. It sure was a good day--I feel so blessed to have such a woderful husband and four healthy kids. Isn't he a handsome little sucker?

Our New Baby Boy!!!

2008-12-27T12:47:00.000-08:00

It's a Boy! Born December 22, 2008
Jason Trevor Strupp
8 lbs. 15 oz.
23 inches

I am so grateful that everything went well and we have a healthy baby boy! He's such a good little guy--I don't know what I did to deserve such good babies. I know he's only a few days old, so I shouldn't count my chickens or anything. But so far he's been the best little baby anyone could ask for.

Here's the story. If you don't want all the gory details, you should skip to the pictures.

It seems I always start having some contractions each night a few days before delivery, so I wasn't too alarmed when I did Sunday night (again) and figured I would go to bed to see if I could sleep through them. I did. At least I did until 2 am and they started getting too close together that I couldn't go back to sleep inbetween. So I got up and decided to finish my laundry and pack my bag, etc. This went on until about 3:30 am when I decided I should probably wake Trevor up and we should go. The contractions seemed really close together and I didn't want to miss my epidural window :) So I woke Trevor up and told him we should go to the hospital. "Why?" he asks. Funny. He was half asleep though.

So we go and they make sure I'm in labor, etc. etc. but I was only dialated to 5. The nurses call my doctor who tells them he is going on vacation in 5 hours and wants me delivered by then. So he told them to hook my up to some pitocin to hurry this along and he was going to come break my water. This from a doctor who wouldn't induce me until 41 weeks. Oh well, I'm fine with hurrying along the delivery. So, we did all that, and I finally got an epidural. Which worked INCREDIBLY well, by the way. Then Jason was born at 8:06 am.

Here is Jason's first picture:

The kids were SO excited to come see their new little brother. They've been so helpful with getting me diapers, binkies, change of clothes, etc. And they always fight over who gets to hold him. I know, this picture of me is really becoming. I would photoshop myself out if I knew how, or at least make the pregnant nose (why do noses get so fat there at the end? or maybe it always looks like this? Yikes.) and remaining belly smaller. But since I can't, here's reality:

Now, I took this picture a few days before having the baby (3 days actually) because people keep asking to see pregnant pictures. It's always fun to look at such a spectacle as Pregnant Kim. I wasn't planning on posting it after seeing what I looked like--but since I had the baby and am no longer pregnant, I changed my mind. So here it is, Kim at 39 weeks pregnant:

Christmas!!

2008-12-27T12:35:00.001-08:00

I wanted to post this Christmas Post below the "Baby Boy" post so the other post was the first thing to see :) So, it's just a little out of chronological order.

Anyway, we had a WONDERFUL Christmas. My mom and dad(stepdad) came to be here for me when the baby was born. They brought Amanda and Brett and their little boy (also Jason :) ) So we had a full house and SUCH a fun time! I was really excited to be home from the hospital on Christmas Eve to spend with the family.

We woke up and got our stockings:

Opened presents--not a whole lot of pictures of the mayhem--but we did get one after with all of us by the (dead)tree:

And Jason slept through it all (don't ask me why this is turned 90 degrees?):

Hailey's Birthday

2008-12-04T14:31:00.000-08:00

Ah, the business that was November. Somebody told me once (no names...) that they hate it when people update their blogs and post a bunch of posts at once. So...sorry :) There are 3 posts that I was going to put into one huge one. But I didn't want to shrink my pictures and they won't all fit into one post. It takes a whole extra 30 seconds.

Anyway, keep reading after this post.

So, the end of November was Hailey's 4th Birthday. I can't believe how old my kids are getting! It's so much fun watching them learn and grow.

I signed up to have the missionaries for dinner and didn't realize until I got home that it was also Hailey's birthday. But it turned out well--she thought we were having a birthday party for her and she loves the elders. I hope that was ok with them that we sprung a birthday party on them. One day when I'm an energetic and motivated mother, I'll have a REAL birthday party. With kids and all. As for now, she didn't seem to mind it was just the family...and the missionaries.

As for this picture:

I'm a little apprehensive to let you all in on a little secret. I am now a follower of the Twilight series.

At first I didn't want to read them because I had heard what they were about and it didn't really sound like my thing. But then a bunch of girls from my ward asked me if I wanted to come see the movie with them and I thought it might be a fun ladies night out kind of thing. So I went.

I liked the movie, there were mixed reviews. We were all talking about it on the way home and I said something like: I should read the books sometime. To which my friend replied that she would lend them to me when we got to her house. What could it hurt?

I started reading TWILIGHT the next day. I don't know that I put the books down after that. Poor, neglected family. It is pretty fast reading--but I think it took me like 6 days to read all 4. They were surprisingly good! TO any of you who haven't given them a chance: you should try it. I guess it's more of a girl thing, though. I know some guys like them, but my husband wouldn't and I know my brother didn't.

Anyway, that's a picture of the girls I went to the movies with. Good times. So thanks to all of you for taking me!

Again with the house

2008-12-04T14:11:00.000-08:00

I know, I know. Who cares what home improvements we're embarking on now? I do. So you all have to sit through it and compliment me at the end on what a good job we're doing :)

We started painting the exterior of our house. It turned into being a much bigger job than I had imagined...like Trevor told me. Don't tell him he's right though :) But we finally finished it and I'm so proud. I got to help on this project again--hence, the proudness.

Here are a few pictures:

This is a picture of when the house was all powerwashed. It looks HORRIBLE. Don't worry, that's not what it looked like before the washing--but the paint was REALLY peeling and so we wanted to powerwash, sand and scrape, etc. Then prime (the white that's done in this picture.

Here's an after picture of our painting job. I know--it's pretty much the same color. But I'm so original I figured it would be easier to cover if we went with the same color, but nothing too dark so we didn't have to use two coats. We may as well have, because we had to prime the whole house anyway. Oh, and Trevor doesn't think the trim is dark enough or that there is enough contrast. But I'm not about to redo it.

Trevor took this picture because he got a bunch of slack from the neighbors for letting me climb up on the scaffolding when I was 8 months pregnant. Bunch of whiners. Plus, Trevor had no say in it. In his defense, he tole me I shouldn't be up there--but what's he going to do about it when he's at work? Don't worry, I was REALLY careful and it was REALLY stable scaffolding. Trevor's friend from work had his dad drive it to us from Tulsa. It's like 4 hours from here! We don't even know his dad, just drove it down for us. There are some nice people in this world.

The Wildlife Refuge with Grandma and Grandpa Strupp

2008-12-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

Trevor's parents came to visit us in November--I have just been a little too busy and preoccupied to post all these new posts. So...bare with me.

We took Trevor's parents to a few places around town. We had a LOT of fun, although they were probably bored out of their minds because we live in such an exciting place...they even kept begging me to let them help us finish painting our house. I couldn't let them do that on THEIR VACATION. Plus, I was having fun doing it. So I declined. We were so glad they were able to come visit. I hope they felt like it was a restful vacation even though my kids would NOT leave them alone!

Hailey and Ashley on Mount Scott. Overlooking the lake.

At the wildlife refuge, feeding the groundhogs. They were pretty tame, as you can see--they would come up and eat from our hands!

There are other animals like buffalo, longhorn cows, etc. to see on the refuge. But feeding the groundhogs was the highlight :)

Tagged

2008-11-12T14:52:00.001-08:00

Ok, I've been tagged by a couple people--one was "Six Random Things About Me" and one was "Seven Random Things About Me". I'll pick six :) So, here goes:

Six Random Things About Me:

1- I don't like shopping. I already used this for one post a year ago. But it still remains true.

2- I've self diagnosed myself with adult ADD. Not really..but sometimes I start a story and get off on tangents and totally forget about the point of the story in the first place. And I don't like long movies because they're too painful to sit through. Also used in a previous "tag" post of mine. Maybe I should just go back and copy that one...

3- I've recently found I really love to paint. Not art painting, I'm just not that creative. But house painting. I painted our house (inside) a couple years ago when we bought this house--because then I found I could help with the whole "remodel". But that was less fun because the house was freezing (middle of winter, furnace didn't work yet) and it was late at night (we were living in a rental while we fixed up this house--Trevor would work on the house during the day, and I would go paint when he got back at night.)

Anyway, the point is--we're painting the outside of our house now. It's taking way longer than expected and it's kindof a long story--but when Tyler's at school and the girls are taking a nap, I go and paint outside. It's such beautiful weather and I feel like I'm accomplishing something. It's kind of therapeutic.

4- I like country music. I guess that's a random thing. I like other music too, but I started listening to country when I worked at Hallmark and they played it all day long. Good stuff.

5- Ok, only two more to go. Hmm. I make my husband take me to all the Christmas Balls the military has. Actually, we've been two years in a row. They were both stupid. So maybe not this year. Plus, I would look like a cow (a pregnant one--I might need that tent, Paige :) )

6- My husband has more shoes than me. This isn't saying anything about my husband having a shoe fettish--because he doesn't. I just don't have a lot of shoes because I think they take up too much room in my closet...and it probably goes back to the not liking shopping thing.

So, there it is. Six random things (sorry I couldn't come up with any more interesting tidbits...) I don't know who to tag either, so if you feel like sharing...feel free :)

Halloween

2008-11-03T19:20:00.000-08:00

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We had a ward Fall Party where the kids got to play lots of games and do a little trick or treating inside the church.

On Halloween night we went trick or treating--I know, if anyone pays a lot of attention to what they dress up as every year, you'll notice it's the same as last (well, Tyler was a power ranger 2 years ago) but it was their idea. Tyler and Hailey's costumes are a little small, but they wanted to squeeze one more year out of them.

It was really fun taking them trick or treating. The kids wanted to go trick-or-treating with some friends, so we had the Jones over to our neighborhood. They ended up watching my kids the whole night while I was in the back of the pack slowly moving along with Ashley. :)

Trevor decided he would have some Halloween fun and decorated our garage. It looked really cool but I couldn't find any really good pictures of it, so this will have to do.

This is the front, there's a door cut on either side to walk in and out.

Inside the garage there was like a "U" shape walkway where you walk past a scary looking dummy, then to Trevor for the candy and then out.

In the center of the "U" he had a graveyard with some tombstone's, skulls, ghosts, etc. etc.

Oh, and to top it all off, he had a fogger to fill the garage...but not just any fogger. He made a cooler with a tube to "chill" the fog before it entered the garage. Apparently this is supposed to keep the fog low. It looked pretty cool, but I do like to tease him when he gets ideas like these.

It was a big hit with the neighborhood kids, but in hindsight--I should've stuck around to stand outside and give candy to those poor tiny scared kids. Some are just too young for that. I know my kids were always scared at houses even remotely scary. Oh well, next year if Trevor decides to do it again, I'll remember to stick around for the little ones.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

Our town is so exciting...our pumpkin patch isn't even a real pumpkin patch. This is the only one we could find that's even a little close to us. That's OK though, I don't think the kids know the difference between a real pumpkin patch and a volleyball net at the closed waterpark with pumpkins spread around the field.

We went with Hailey's preschool to "the Pumpkin Patch" and let the kids each get a pumpkin. They had a lot of fun. They were pretty funny though, all the kids wanted tiny pumpkins instead of big ones to carve--but all the easier for me so I don't have to carry my kids big pumpkins out to the car. Here are some pictures of our fun...

Oh yeah, Tyler went yesterday with his class at school to this same pumpkin patch. Apparently there's a substance abuse class that goes along with the pumpkin patch. I know, when you think "Pumpkin Patch" doesn't "substance abuse" immediately come to mind? Unfortunately, the class was full and our preschoolers didn't get the exciting lecture on substance abuse...only the "pumpkin patch". Thank goodness.

Tyler did ask me though if I know what the new drug is--he informed me it's medicine. :) I told him he was right, we aren't supposed to take any medicine unless the doctor gives it to us. At least he learned something.

Backsplash

2008-10-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

We finished the backsplash in our kitchen a couple weeks ago. I was so excited--I think that's like the last thing INSIDE our house to get done before it's "finished". Actually, Ashley's closet doesn't have doors--well, we HAVE them, they're just not ON the closet. Right now we're working on painting the outside of the house, pictures of that to come--but I digress.

Anyway, here is a picture of the backsplash...more importantly, the part I did on the backsplash :) My poor husband. He worked on it all weekend and was pretty tired of it so he decided to stop and finish the last five feet another day. (It was late and he had to get up pretty early--he had already done the whole kitchen) So I made him show me how to use the tile saw and I finished it while he was at work. You'd be surprised how long it takes to lay 5 feet--bunch of measuring, cutting, then recutting--walls are kind of a pain because you can't lay it all out to see what needs to be cut and do it all at once. You have to keep laying as you go--then going in and out of the garage to cut what needs to be cut :) ...all the while trying to get it laid before the mortar starts to get too hard. (Pretend you don't see dirty dishes in the sink.)

So, I'm pretty proud that I was able to help and that it looks decent--plus it's still on the wall after two weeks so I must have done something right.

About the frog...I know, it's not that exciting--and all of you who live around here have already heard this boring story...

When I went to go clean out the pan of water under the tile saw (the next day) there was a frog in the pan. I don't know how he jumped up there. The tile saw was on a table that was at least 3 feet high. With nothing around it to jump on and then up to the table. I don't even know how he got in our garage. Crazy. So I went to get my camera to show Trevor the picture of the frog when he got home, and the frog jumped out of the water onto the garage floor. Exciting. I know.

San Antonio

2008-10-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we took a trip to San Antonio. It was A LOT of fun. We were able to stop by and see my friend, Nancy--that was GREAT. I haven't seen her in a LONG time. Then we went to the riverwalk, and to Sea World. Here's a slideshow of some of the pictures we got:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Fire Station Field Trip

2008-09-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are a couple pictures of the Fire Station field trip. It was really a lot of fun--I think the moms had more fun listening to all the stories and what everything is on the truck than the kids did. Oh well, I guess they're a little young. The firemen showed us all around the station and slid down the pole for us. They showed us the truck and all the different hoses they use for different occasions. Then they let the kids sit in the truck and try spraying one of the hoses. It was a lot of fun--Hailey is always so excited to see what the next day at preschool will bring!

Hailey's off to Preschool

2008-09-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

So, this was a week and a half ago :) I'm catching up! Some friends and I decided to start a little Joyschool for a few of the little girls Hailey's age. They are so cute! I had them this week and it is so funny to listen to some of the things they come up with. Anyway, Hailey LOVES to go to school and feels so big like Tyler. She asks everyday if it's a "school day". She has such a good time. This week we had a "safety" theme. So we took a field trip to the fire station. More pictures on that to come...

The Blue Hole

2008-09-18T11:08:00.000-07:00

This is the Blue Hole. It's in New Mexico--I guess it's pretty popular among divers (like the deep sea divers--tanks and all) If you click on the pictures to enlarge it, you can see all the divers in their wetsuits getting ready to go down.

It's pretty deep--as the picture shows :) I'll have to ask Trevor to remind me why it's there--I guess there's a spring at the bottom where all the water is coming in? I don't really remember, he read about it. But we stopped here on our way home to stay the night in a hotel, and this Blue Hole was like 1/2 mile from us, so we visited it before the long drive back home.

And this is my crazy husband. It was pretty cold outside that day (weird for New Mexico) like 55-60 degrees. And the water is freezing, I think it was like 42 degrees or something ridiculous like that--seriously, the sign above is lying. That temperature must be on a mid-July afternoon or something. Really, it was COLD. But Trevor decided he couldn't pass up the chance to jump in a couple of times. So he did--we didn't have any towels to dry him off, so we used the kids blankets. Everyone around was staring at Trevor for not having a wetsuit for this, but being from Idaho...he's used to this cold water :)
It was fun, I was a LITTLE jealous and wanted to try it out. I didn't for a couple reasons: the shock of the cold water would put me into labor (not to mention the looks I would get), and also because then we REALLY wouldn't be able to tell the kids they couldn't do it.

Baby Names

2008-09-18T05:43:00.000-07:00

Now, I know I promised lots of posts to come--I just haven't gotten to them. So today I will try and catch up with any spare moments I have.

When we were on our vacation, we had a baby shower for my little sister. This was like 3 weeks ago :) She's since had her baby...

Now, this said sister had in her list of names the only boy name Trevor and I could agree on: Jason. I told her she could use it if she'd like (like she needs my permission, she DID have her baby first) because I didn't LOVE it--and if she used it, then we would be forced to come up with something else.

By the time the baby was born, her and her husband had narrowed their list to two names, one of which was Jason, and they were going to see which name fit when they saw him. Well, apparently he's a "Jason"

Now me and Trevor are stuck with what to do. I think we should go with one of the many other names I like (ie Austin, Brian, etc) but he seems to think there are enough duplicate names in my family (plus he doesn't like the names I like), what does it matter if we use Jason, too? I think it's a little too soon to duplicate a name (all the other duplicate names are like uncle/nephew-25 years apart) and my sister thinks this is a ridiculous idea. Like we should listen to her... :) Any opinions out there?

The Wedding

2008-09-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

So, we took our vacation to go home for Briana's (Trevor's sister's) wedding. It was a LOT of fun to be able to see everyone and finally meet our new brother in law :) Things were a little crazy because we drove and only had a little bit of time to see all the family before we had to drive back.

Here is a slideshow of the reception in Bountiful. A couple stories:

1. Hailey had on a really cute dress to begin with. Not the one in the pictures, it kind of matched Ashley's, but wouldn't you know it--she threw up all over it on the way to the reception. All my kids were sick with some ailment at one time during our vacation. Good times. Plus, Hailey gets carsick too. So that didn't help.

2. There are some pictures of Tyler dancing with a little girl. This was the groom's niece, Parker. She was so cute--she came and asked Tyler if he'd like to dance (there was dancing at the reception) and he told her he "didn't know how to dance very good." Then Trevor pushes him toward Parker and says, "she'll teach you." It was so cute. Everyone was stopping to watch her teach him how to dance :) My little boy--such a ladies man.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The New Driveway

2008-09-03T12:17:00.000-07:00

So, I have PLENTY to blog about. This is from a couple weeks ago (before we went on a little vacation). But I only have time to post one thing this time, so I figured I better go with the oldest pictures first.

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

I'm telling you, he can do anything. Concrete is one of his favorites, though. Trevor worked construction through college. He really likes hard labor--weird, I know, but I'm not complaining. Anyway, our driveway looks one million times better. And I'm so excited to finally DRIVE on it (he wouldn't let me drive on it for 10 days--but we were on vacation anyway.)

First Day of Kindergarten

2008-08-16T20:06:00.000-07:00

My little boy is growing up. It's a little sad to see them go off to school for the first full day of school. I'm always worried about what words he's learning on the bus (or any new anatomical terms he has not yet heard). I always worry about the kids at school and whether they'll want to be his friend and play with him--he tends to be a little shy at first. I DID worry about his teacher (after a less than stellar teacher last year), but after meeting this year's teacher I think she's the best thing since sliced bread. So I worry a little less. Here's a picture of Tyler before school.

I didn't even cry.

He told me his first day of school was good, but he didn't make any friends. I then proceeded to assure him that it would be like last year where he didn't know the boys and girls at first, but pretty soon he would get to know them and become friends. Then I asked him about recess and he told me all about some of the kids he played with and the people he sat by at lunch. I asked him if these people were his friends and he said they weren't because he didn't know their names. Funny kid.

After all is said and done, I hope I've taught him well enough about right and wrong. I hope he's got it through his head he should not talk or go with a stranger. I hope I've taught him the things he shouldn't be doing, even if his friends want him too. And I hope I've taught him to be who he is no matter what. I know, a little sappy.

Waterskiing and Tubing

2008-08-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

We went waterskiing this weekend with some friends. It was a LOT of fun. I really miss having a boat--one day we will...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I wanted to post this little video. Bear with me--the beginning is a little boring. The friends we went with had never seen anyone do this before, so they were impressed enough it convinced me to post the fun tricks Trevor's learned on a tube. It's kind of old news (to us)because everytime we go tubing, it's Trevor's favorite thing to do. He IS amazing :)

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Here are a few pictures of us too. The kids had a lot of fun on the tube--I should have gotten some of Hailey and Ashley on the tube. Oops--but since we were both in the tube with them, we didn't think to take pictures.

Yep, I did go waterskiing. I know, a little taboo when you're pregnant. But I asked my doctor and he said if I was REALLY CAREFUL and I also had to wear something besides my swimsuit for protection. Without going into too much detail, he tells me a really common injury is when you hit the water in a sitting position and it temporarily "inflates"...an area you don't want inflated...this causes like an air embolus = bad for pregnant women. So he told me to wear some shorts or a wetsuit besides my swimsuit to protect any areas from inflation :) But as far as hitting on my stomach, it's still early enough the baby is low and protected by all the bones around. Just so you all know, I wasn't being negligent...and I didn't fall, I let go :)

I didn't get any pictures of Trevor waterskiing because he's better than me and makes me look bad. Just kidding. I was trying to keep all the kids sitting down and I forgot to grab the camera...conveniently :)

Ultrasound--IT'S A BOY!!

2008-07-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

I had my ultrasound today. I was so excited I almost posted a picture of some parts--but I figure that's a little overboard. I was so convinced it was a girl. I'm sure you've all heard me say that over the last few weeks. But it was a nice surprise to find out I was wrong (of course we would have been happy either way :) )

I love ultrasounds and watching all their little movements and seeing their face (sortof). The poor kid had the hiccups for the last 15 minutes of the ultrasound. I felt bad because you could see each time he hiccuped it jolted his whole body and his head would jerk back. They've gotta get some kind of whiplash or something, don't you think?

So, now for names. You all have to give me some ideas because for the last 3 months we've only been talking girl names. Trevor and I both can agree on Jason, but my sister likes that one too--and she has her boy before me. That's OK, I don't LOVE it, I just like it. So--give me some ideas...

RETRACTION: I just wanted to print a retraction for the last post. Ashley was potty-trained for all of two days. Now she ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT sit on the toilet. She's a stubborn little stinker...screams and runs away... When I have the time and energy, we'll duke it out and I'll break out the bribes (besides the pee-pee dance) But since we'll be going on vacation soon, I figure it can wait. My apologies for the hasty post.

Potty-trainin'

2008-07-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

I know--it's a little silly to blog about this. But I'm just so happy :)

For awhile now, Ashley tells me she has to go potty. But it's usually copying what Hailey does. If Hailey comes to me and is jumping around and holding herself--Ashley will do that, too. So, I figured it was a little too early for that and Ashley just wants to copy Hailey. Well, whenever bath time comes--Ashley says she needs to go (right after Hailey says SHE needs to go). So I sit Ashley on the toilet and she'd sit there for like a half second and say: "I'm done!" And, of course, nothing to show for it. But no skin off my back--I was taking the diaper and clothes off for bath time anyway.

When is it a good time to potty train? For Tyler, he wasn't having it till he was three. We tried and tried. Hailey was a little over 2 1/2. My mom says girls are always faster? But Ashley just turned two like two weeks ago--I guess it's been a month...and if she's ready... I always just kind of scoffed at people who said their kids were potty trained but they still had "accidents" nineteen times a day and they were like 1 year old. Or those people (no offense if you are one) that "potty-train" since BIRTH and every time the kid eats (drinks) they sit them on a bucket. I know people who do this (no one that frequents this blog, though). I'm just saying, I'm under the impression that kids have to develop those muscles down there and it just doesn't happen until about 2-3.

Anyway, a couple days ago Ashley tells me she needs to go and when I sit her on the toilet, she says: "Go away mom" and pushes on my leg to leave. Whatever, I think, as I go help the other kids with their clothes for bathtime. And as I gather the dirty clothes from them and their laundry basket--I hear a tinkle in the toilet! So I do the "pee-pee dance" for her, and tell her how proud I am of her, what a BIG GIRL, etc. etc. But I still think this is a coincidence. She probably didn't need to go, but was sitting there long enough and happened to go.

But the next couple of days, she keeps telling me she wants to go potty. It's usually at an inopportune time--like when we're in the van driving somewhere. So I think nothing of it. Then yesterday when she told me at home she needed to go--I put her on the toilet and she went again! YEAH!

Today, she even pooped on the toilet. What in the world? That was the last thing my other two would do. They would be all potty-trained and I would have to coax them to poop on the toilet. Not Ashley. I was so proud and happy. Could this mean I have like four months of diaper free children? Crazy. We've had diapers since April 2003. I should've taken some pictures. Sorry about the "no visuals"--use your imagination :)

Comparisons

2008-06-28T20:04:00.000-07:00

Tyler at six months

Hailey at five months (and Tyler and Aysia)

Ashley at six months

I was looking at pictures of all the kids as they were growing up, and I was noticing that my babies seem to be getting thinner and thinner. Tyler was a pretty big kid, I'd say Hailey was about average, and Ashley maybe a little below average...Well, not according to the "charts" but just from comparing them to other babies I see around.

I promise--I'm not getting lazier as a mom and not feeding them as much as I have more kids. In fact, probably the opposite. Now that I have more mouths to feed, I fix bigger meals. And actually I'd say Ashley is my biggest eater. That girl can put it away! She's always the last one at the table, too. Not because she's slow, but because she goes back for seconds and thirds. I keep asking her if she's done eating yet and she keeps telling me "no"--then keeps on at it. I guess she just has Trevor's metabolism. It's just not fair. It makes me worry about what the poor child that comes next will look like. If he/she is scrawny, you'll know it's because they're trying to follow the trend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY!!

2008-06-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago was Ashley's 2nd birthday--I can't believe how fast the time flies! She's at such a fun age where she's learning so many new things and talking (well, yelling) so much. Here are a few pictures of the fun we had. Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) were also there to celebrate with us--I just didn't have any pictures of them at the birthday :)

She did have a shirt on...before the cupcake.

This is how Ashley says she's two. To hold up two fingers on one hand is just a little too difficult.

She's a goofball.

Hailey was kind enough to help speed up the unwrapping process. Ashley didn't mind, so Hailey opened most of them--that she also helped wrap.

The Waterpark

2008-06-02T12:07:00.000-07:00

Before we went swimming at the waterpark (they were REALLY excited)

Afte we went swimming at the waterpark (the next day).

Just a note, they didn't get sunburned that bad, Tyler and Ashley got it the worst on their backs and we CAKED sunscreen on them. 45 SPF, in case any of you were wondering. Hailey got a little burned on her shoulders, but she sure is milking it for all its worth. Whenever I get the aloe out for Tyler or Ashley, Hailey starts fussing like her sunburn hurts and she needs "awoe". Funny kids. I guess that's what happens when white baby skin sees the light of day for the first time.

The waterpark we went to is really pretty fun. My friend, Jen, asked me if I wanted to get a season pass with her while they were on sale for like $30. I know--CHEAP. And, Hailey and Ashley are free. I would only have to buy one for me and Tyler! But I didn't get one thinking how busy we would be for the summer and how I probably wouldn't want to take all three kids by myself all the time...they all don't know how to swim and I'm overprotective what with how they could drown and stuff...Plus Ashley's crazy and would run off at any chance she gets...

But I'm kicking myself now. The sale is over, so now season passes are $50 each if I can get two other people to buy passes (the group rate) or $60 with just us two. The kids LOVED it. We stayed there all day (hence, the pink shoulders and backs) and they played so good the whole time. No naps and all.

The waterpark has a little kid area that they played in most of the day. They have waterslides and everything for them--they're nothing to scoff at either--they have some pretty big slides for the little kids. Tyler kept running off to go on the slide and I kept telling him he can't leave without someone with him or tell us where he's going. But then I would turn around and he would be in line for the waterslides again...without telling me. Hailey was pretty cautious. She would go down the slides with me or Trevor, but everytime we would convince her she's big enough to go by herself, she'd bump her head on one of the turns and it was all over. Ashley, on the other hand, WOULDN'T go with me. She wanted to do it by herself. If Trevor wasn't with me, I had to go down the waterslide first, and then the lifeguard would help her on the slide so I could catch her at the bottom. They loved every second of the day, and it was the least sick I've felt in a LONG time :) Just a little suprise treat for those of you who read this long story. Maybe I'll bite the bullet and buy the stupid passes.

Dragonflies

2008-06-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

Trevor saw a dragonfly outside with a broken wing and thought the best thing to do is to bring it inside and let the kids play with it. They sure did have a good time, though. Squeeling every time it flew a few feet trying to get away, and then picking it back up and passing it around. Don't call the animal protection agency on us.

But while I'm confessing, I should have gotten pictures of the baby bunnies they caught in our backyard a couple weeks ago. They had two in a box for an hour (to show Hailey when she woke up from her nap) but then I made them let the bunnies go. We caught a turtle last week, too. But that was totally by accident. We went fishing--who knew turtles like worms? I also made them set him (or her) free. It's just fine. They sure think their dad is the coolest when he does stuff like this with them.