Scott, Tonya, and the 4 greatest kids!

Happy Halloween--LATE! It seems to be the story of my life lately. I used to be prompt and on time and now it seems I'm always running late, and I'm thrilled if we make it somewhere just in time. The kids as always had a fun Halloween and I did manage to take a couple of pictures before it got dark--phew! Halloween on Monday....not my favorite. We trick-or-treated for about an hour and the kids were just fine with heading home, there bags were already too heavy to carry after an hour. Scott stayed home with the baby to pass out candy and he was practically in the street trying to attract trick-or-treaters because everyone else on our cul-de-sac was gone (or the houses are empty!) I did end up with quite a bit of extra candy, but I was smart this year and only bought candy that we like, AND I got it for almost free!!!

The kids loved going to the pumpkin patch and choosing their pumpkins, and Isa (I is pronounced as long E NOT short I, just like the iguana on Dora, yes I have seen every episode 500 times because they're still showing the same episodes they showed when T. was 3!!!) Sorry, I digress, Isa had a great time riding on daddy's back! She is the happiest baby, well except when her tummy is empty then she's REALLY ANGRY! But seriously she smiles ALL the time and she adores her brother and sisters. She thinks O. is the funniest person EVER. O. constantly has her laughing. The other night they were giggling together (O. is always laughing) then we knelt down for family prayer and O. was saying the prayer and I. would not stop laughing at her. Needless to say, that was a short prayer because we were all having a little trouble being reverent.

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If your looking for a really good Banana Muffin Recipe, I just posted my new favorite on my other blog.

Has it really been almost 2 months since I posted an update?? I swear time is just flying by! No time for a full update....so here's the Reader's Digest Version. It just occured to me that those under 20 (maybe under 30!) are stumped by "Reader's Digest." We spent the summer trying to get organized, painting, hanging shelves etc. The organized part is still a work in progress, I think I've been working on that one for....oh I don't know...the past 20 years. The question is will I ever be organized??? Anyway, the big kiddos started school this week and they were so excited. They're both at a new school this year and they said it's "AWESOME."
We had a fabulous weekend this past week. We were able to take I. to the temple and have her sealed to our family(not sure what this means...read more here.) I. was not super happy because of the long wait she was hungry and the workers weren't sure if they should feed her, needless to say she was FUSSY but as soon as I handed her to Scott she quieted right down--yes another daddy's girl! Then the chandelier caught her eye and she was totally mesmerized. The next day Scott gave her a really nice blessing and now it's a done deal--she's part of our family forever!

One of these days I'm going to do a major catch-up post, but for now. I made it home just in a nick of time for S.'s birthday--phew! She is a funny bunny...that little girl!




This girls walks to the beat of her own drummer!


115 degrees outside and this is how S. goes to bed!Silly, Silly Girl--Happy 4th Birthday! We love you!

Well, it continues to be an eventful....Life Changing year for our family! We have been challenged and greatly blessed. Let me introduce you to our most recent blessing...

This is our sweet little Isabella (well, those are her feet, click to see the rest of her cute self!)

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It has been another wonderful journey of adoption. What a sweet experience. I love this quote from Monica Blume "You cannot go through an adoption without realizing that Heavenly Father loves you and is aware of the tiniest details of your life. There are no coincidences in adoption." We feel as if the windows of heaven have been opened and poured down blessings which we don't feel worthy to receive. We have been touched so deeply by the courage, strength and heartfelt love of another beautiful birth mother. I've said it before and I'll say it again--there is no act more courageous, more loving, and more selfless than that of a loving mother placing her child for adoption because she knows it's the best thing for her baby.

The girls are over the moon with excitement! T. is so happy that she looks like him although he'd be a tad more excited if she was a boy. We are all just thrilled!!

It was a big week for our family.

O. graduated from Kindergarten--yay!! She's so excited for first grade. She was very nervous about the songs they sang at graduation. She wanted to make sure she got all of the motions just right! It was a BIG deal for her and she was SO happy!

And T.'s team played in the championship game and they WON!! So exciting. He had such a great experience this year. The kids and parents on the team were wonderful and the coaches were great. It was a little strange for Scott to be rooting for the A's playing against the Yankees!

Happy, Happy Birthday my sweet little girl. O. was SO excited about her birthday..she has told everyone who she meets or talks to during the last week that today was going to be her birthday. We had a blast bowling on Saturday and had cupcakes and presents today. There is no sweeter more compassionate little girl than O. She loves everyone and everyone loves her. It was rainy today which it is NEVER rainy here EVER let alone in May, but it was just like the Monday she was born. She's her brothers biggest fan and demonstrates the patience of a saint with her sister! Scott and I feel so blessed to be her daddy and mommy!

Who are these cute little Kiddos pulling weeds in our yard??? So maybe that lecture did sink in. Those little cuties went out there all on there own and pulled all the weeds on 1 side of the house without being ask---seriously!! AND they said they're going to do the other side today--they're the best!


On another note, we were sitting at T.'s game the other day when T. got up to bat, S. turned to the people sitting next to us and said "that's our kid." She comes up with some goodies!

Can it really be 3 months since my last post?? Well, we're long past due!! Life is so busy and time seems to race by....well except for that week when I got that really ugly flu like (yes I did get my flu shot but this sneaky one got me!) bug. Seriously I can't remember the last time I was that sick and let me tell you time came to a screeching halt and every minute crawled by! My kids were.....well kids! S. as one who knows her wild little personality might expect, totally unsympathetic! And knowing that the cat could not get out of bed and that little mouse went on a feeding frenzy. When I finally dragged myself out of bed on the first day and could hardly walk through the living room because it was packed with toys Tomas from his perch on the sofa apologized for the mess the girls had made and continued to watch t.v. O. felt bad and would have helped me out as long as it did not involve cleaning up after her sister. T. managed to cook frozen pizza and canned soup for dinner the first 2 days and by the 3rd day I dragged myself across the street to the McDonald's drive thru. When I woke up and I use that term loosely because on top of feeling like death warmed over and overcome with exhaustion, I couldn't sleep.....so when I made it to the kitchen the next day and found all of the McDonald's wrappers etc still on the table, I mustered enough energy to have a little chat about AT LEAST cleaning up your own stuff. They all agreed that the LEAST they could do is clean up their own mess. We also had a little chat about service and helping mommy out when she's on deaths door (no I didn't use those exact words!) they all said no problem mom. At that point I confidently asked T. if he wouldn't mind rinsing the dishes in the sink and loading them in the dishwasher to which he kindly replied "ALL of them!" No T. just 1 or 2....why did I just waste my breath on that ineffective speech???? Anyway, I finally recovered and thank heavens none of the kids got sick---phew! Hope that's the last one for anther 15 or so years.

T. decided that he wanted to give little league another shot this year. I was super worried because he only played one season 3 years ago, so after a long discussion about how most of the kids have been playing for the last 6 or 7 years and he may be a little behind, he still wanted to give it a shot. Thankfully he got a great couple of coaches and an awesome team. He got his first hit yesterday and caught his first fly ball---yahoo! HUGE confidence builder! He's got good, athletic skills and is a smart player. He takes coaching really well except when it comes from his mother which is totally embarrassing and what could a mom possibly know about sports????? Sometimes I just have to walk away and not watch because it's so hard to keep my mouth shut....but I do (most of the time)!!! I'm really proud of him because he never quits and he works really hard. So, we're now spending several nights a week at the Ball park.



O. and S. have acquired a new love for playing in the dirt!! They planted flower seeds which they thought was super cool. O.'s class went on a field trip to Plant World, it's a local nursery and they have tons of birds, rabbits, tortoises etc. She thought it was the most exciting field trip EVER...aren't kindergartner's the BEST!!! She loves school...homework...not really loving that. I know we're in trouble when she already doesn't like homework. She loves all her friends at school in fact she loves everyone in her class. She is such a kind hearted little thing; she is always very concerned about anyone who might feel sad or not have friends. But she's also very much a girl who is constantly worried about whether her girlfriends are her friends today or if they are not her friends. Boys just don't have this issues !

S. well......hmmmm she's so cute, so stubborn, sooooo S.! She is way too smart and is really a sweethear when she's by herself. Thankfully she is really good for her primary teacher and I'm sure that this really strong personality is going to pay off eventually.



Scott LOVES his new job! It is truly his arena! I always told him he had the right personality for politics. Me....not so much, I'm too opinionated and I don't much like to listen to the other side. Scott, on the other hand, is a true diplomat. Of course the highlight so far was the annual Dem. vs. Rep. basketball game. The Dems have had the trophy for several years and it pained them deeply to have it stripped away this past week. Scott was the MVP of the game and has the coveted trophy proudly displayed on his desk! I'm sorry I missed the game. This has really been a life changing experience for him and for all of us.

As usual I have had good intentions for weeks. It's long past time to update this blog!!! Christmas was great! Same story as always--I was going to be totally organized and get all of my shopping done early so I could just relax and enjoy EVERYTHING! Not to be....but not for lack of trying. I was a little crazed right up until Christmas Eve, but all in all it was a great time. We were so thrilled to have Nana and Poppi here and were sad when they had to go home. I think they're probably just now recovering. Nana from the baking, crafting, nail painting and other miscellaneous "girl stuff," and Poppi as usual from the home improvement projects! Nothing major this year...well that's the story every year but no home improvement project is ever just a quick thing. I vowed that I would not spend one more dime on this house except for new carpeting, you can bet I'm sticking to it!! Now that I've said that something major is probably going to happen that will cost me a fortune, but I digress. Back to Christmas....We did our traditional Monday after Thanksgiving trip to see Santa. Generally we are the only people in line with maybe one other family which works out GREAT! However, when we arrived at the mall this year I noticed about 15 people in line and I was a little puzzled, and as we got closer I noticed that approx. 14 of those 15 people had dogs with them. Now seriously I love dogs, but let me just say.....DOGS and KIDS are not the same!! Why does your doggie need to see Santa?? I frankly just don't get it, futhermore I did balk a little when they handed me a release form that I had to sign in case one of those dogs bit my kid---WHAT THE HECK???? I have to say Santa was a really good sport and watching the photographers try and get the dogs to look at the camera was really something that causes one to shake her head---at least I did and a little eye rolling too. S. for all her excitement about seeing Santa was not about to sit on his lap. O. had no hesitation--she is the social butterfly. T. just wanted to make sure he got his list to the big man although he was not happy when I informed him that Santa would not be bringing him an electric scooter--what's the point?? Seriously, I thought you rode a scooter for exercise--did I miss something?

Christmas Eve was our fun, traditional soup and salad--I LOVE this tradition! There was a little contention about who would play Mary this year. Joseph was a no brainer. S. finally conceded to let O. play Mary and she would be the angel. Scott played the donkey, the sheep and the shepherd and let me say--he did a bang up job! We did miss Uncle Scott playing the donkey because he does it so well (hee, hee--we love you Uncle Scott!!!) Of course I forgot to grab the camera because I was busy moving the cast around to their places and trying to keep the angel happy---which is a bit of a task--maybe S. playing an angel is a bit of an oxymoron...hmmm hadn't thought about that until just now.

Santa's elves were busy on Christmas Eve. I broke it to the two male elves gently that the dollhouse that I had bought the girls required quite a bit of assembly and then I snuck off into the other room to wrap the remaining gifts!!! The kids fell asleep initially and then were awake most of the night--I have no idea what happened but every time I checked on them someone was awake. Finally I just went to bed. The good news is that they didn't get up until 8ish which made me pleased as punch.

Everyone got just what they wanted---MIRACLE! S. had her heart set on a Barbie Scooter and by some miracle this is just the one that was on sale at Toys R Us--Santa must have been there on black Friday which is a whole other story! O. got a "hairdo doll" I don't know what it's called but I had one when I was a kid and she loved it, but I think she was most thrilled about the dollhouse that she and S. got. T. got a TV for his room---much better than an electric scooter--well that's my opinion. But seriously he was thrilled.



Now on to the new year and lots of changes! Scott has officially taken office although he won't be sworn in until February 7th. Between his regular job, his UNLV job, his coaching job and now his legislative job he's spread a little thin. Me...well just the same old stuff wondering if I will ever get organized or if I will always feel like I'm running in circles. I feel so blessed to have such a great husband who is willing to work so hard for very little pay but makes such a huge difference in the lives of kids and now hopefully he'll have a positive impact on our state. He spends any time he has with the kids and tries to take them with him as often as he can. My kids are awesome---they each have such unique gifts and talents and they're all at an age where they enjoy playing together. T. is such a good sport to think of games his sisters can play with him--he's been coaching them through Monopoly and balloon volleyball lately--It thrills me to see how much they love each other. Oh yes, we do have our fair share of fighting and hurt feelings but that comes with the territory. Our extended family is AWESOME--we are just so blessed and are looking forward to lots of new adventures in 2011!