Ella at Temple Square

These were taken by Amber Miller who is out in the Salt Lake Area. She was awesome! If you need someone out in that area, let me know and I'll help you get ahold of her.

From November...

Just wanted to give credit where credit is due....these were all taken back in November by Melinda Smith out in Vernal. She has a facebook page if you live in the area and are looking for a photographer. She does amazing work and is a lot of fun!

Hello everyone! Here I am again, ready to give you and update through pictures and words on our lives. I guess I'll start with the first photo...Brock in his Buzz Lightyear costume! He wore this nearly everyday for about two and a half months. He still asks for it daily, but for several reasons, we decided to be cruel parents and take it away from him. He was wearing this thing not just at home but out in public so consistently that people would see us and laugh and I didn't understand why. It was so normal to me! 

Brock is in primary at church now, and we struggled for a few weeks at first with tantrums and tears about his new class, but he enjoys it now! Last week was the first week I was able to drop him off without a temper tantrum and when he came home he was so proud to tell us about his lesson about the Holy Ghost making us feel happy inside. We are so glad to see the progress that he makes, now if we could only convince him to make progress in the potty-training area of life!

And our crazy Ella! What a little nutcase, huh? Oh we love her! We are so happy to share that just this month we were able to have her baptized. It was such a special day for her and we really enjoyed it. We had several of our extended families come out to celebrate with us and had a great time. The baptism itself of course was beautiful (I cried but I'm sure that's no shocker) and then we were able to spend most of the rest of the day swimming and hanging out with family. It was a tiring weekend, but it was awesome!

Ella stays busy every week with girl scouts, dance class, swim class, and now that she's 8, activity days through church. We just finished selling girl scout cookies and will have to get them deliverd in a few weeks here. She will have two dance competitions this year, one in March and one in May. She is doing very well in school, above average in every subject, especially chit-chatting!

Our little Meer-cat always makes us smile! She is growing so big and we are in complete denial over the fact that she is not a baby anymore. She is spouting out not new words, but phrases almost everyday and my jaw drops in shock every time! I was trying to put toys away the other night and she very firmly said, "no mom! let go!" Then today, she was looking through a church alphabet book that my sister made for the kids and she came across M for Mommy. There is a picture of me on the page and she says to the book, "Hi Mommy! I wuv you!" My heart just melted!

 Chad and I are defintely staying busy. When I spend an afternoon in the car running Ella back and forth to her activities, I often wonder how moms of several kids all involved in activites do it! Do they just live in their cars? I'm sure it will be an adventure to find out! Chad is very busy between work and his calling as Elder's Quorum President in our ward. He spends a lot more time at church now but is enjoying learning from everyone that he is working with.

We were able to make a quick escape to Salt Lake a few weeks ago just for a night to see the comedian Brian Regan with some of my family. We had a delicious dinner before with everyone and then at the show, we laughed so hard our faces hurt! He was hysterical and if you ever get a chance to go see him, do it! We stayed in Salt Lake that night while Ella, Brock, and Miri had a slumber party with two awesome baby sitters. I think they had just as much fun as we did! Take care everyone!

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Happy Birthday, Happy Halloween, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Seeing everyone start to post on their facebook page about what they are thankful for has got me thinking today about some of the things I am thankful for. I guess I'll share a few of them along with our pictures. Hopefully it won't come across as being TOO cheesey. :)

1. I'm thankful for my little boy! I can't believe he is three already! He had a great birthday and is so very happy with his new Buzz and Woody toys! He is also taking after grandpa Wyckhuyse and grandpa Carl by sharring their love of trains.

2. I am thankful for my little princess, Miri! She has surprised me in many ways and one of them is that she loves her cars, dinosaurs, Buzz Lightyear and Woody just as much as the boys do! I peeked in the nursery window a few weeks ago to see her playing dinosaurs with the boys in her class!

3. I am thankful for Ella and what a wonderful big sister she is. Just tonight she was giving Miri rides around the house in the laundry basket and they were giggling wildly the whole time. She was so careful to watch out for her brother while trick-or-treating and is ready to share her candy with Miri.

4. I am grateful for a husband who honors his priesthood, adores his children, loves and respects me. It was said during conference a few weeks ago that the best thing a father can do for their daughter is love her mother. All I could do the moment I heard those words was smile happily because he definitely does and given Ella's sick looking faces just after her dad hugs and kisses me, she knows it too!

5. I am grateful for the blessings the temple promises us as a family and am so glad that we have a temple 5 minutes from our house. The kids love stopping by and taking a walk around the grounds and I love that they are learning how important the temple is.

6. I am grateful for our heater. It got cold today and I think over the summer I've forgotten how cold it gets here. The heater really helped take the edge off. :)

7. I'm thankful that marching band season is over. I love it in the moment and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I am certainly ready for the break and to be a real stay at home mom again! (I think my kids and husband are too!)

8. I'm grateful for wonderful parents who taught me to do my best. I'm not a perfect mom nor will I be winning any "world's greatest mom" awards anytime soon, but I do the best I can. My kids feel loved and safe and that is proof that my best is working out pretty well for them!

9. I'm thankful that I have enough. We don't drive big, fancy cars, I don't wear designer jeans, my kids don't get everything and anything they want, but we have what we need and I know that's a lot more than many people can say.

10. I'm grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. He makes me want to be a better wife, mother, and person. The knowledge that He lives brings comfort in times of need and happiness during my daily life.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you can take a minute over the next few weeks to remember and appreciate all of the blessings in your life!

School Begins!

I guess we've been back into the whole school scene for over a month now, but I'll post pictures anyway! Ella was excited to go back for about a day and then she was over it! She just hates having to get up early in the morning and has told me many times that she would much rather sleep in and be late to school. :) As you can see, her school is still under construction, but it is getting better! Brock and Miri were not too excited to see her go and I think they are happiest every day when they see her bus and hear her walk in the door.

Ella got to participate in a cheerleading clinic the first week of school and she had an absolute blast with that. I'd annoucne that she decided she loves to perform, but I'm pretty sure you already knew that!

Over the past few weeks we've done a handful of football games and marching band shows and the kids love coming to these. Miri was thoroughly entertained as one of the band kids let her "help" play the bells! And Brock will dance around to the band's music and let out a spirited, "GO UTES!" every now and then.

Chad and I are doing well. Thanks to my parents, we were able to escape to Salt Lake for a night and although the trip was much too short, it was nice to get away together! We are all looking forward to Brock's birthday coming up this month as well a much anticipated Halloween! Ella is going to be a mermaid, Brock is going to be his new favorite superhero, Buzz Lightyear and Miri is going to be the cutest little sailorette that ever lived! I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as possible!

Summer Fun

Hi everyone! As the summer wraps up, I thought I'd take a few minutes and let everyone know how ours has gone. It's been busy of course, full of parades, races and all sorts of outdoor fun. We had two parades here in Vernal, both of which I marched in with the marching band and color guard, while Brock and Miri rode along in style, and Ella and Chad enjoyed watching all the cars and horses. I can't say Miri was too thrilled after the first parade and I was nervous to make her do a second but for some reason she enjoyed the second one much more than the first! No cries of protest for that one!

We decided one weekend to get a little brave and take the kids for what we thought would be an easy hike. Well, we were severely mislead and it was quite steep! Lots and lots of climbing, but the kids really enjoyed it. Ella thought the Indian Petroglyphs on the mountain were really cool while Brock's favorite part was...the giant rocks.

We had my sister Brittany and her husband Mark come out for a weekend to visit and while they were here we went to an awesome car show and enjoyed some delicious steaks that Chad BBQed up for us.

And then of course, probably mine and Chad's favorite summer activity so far was our river rafting trip. The kids did not join us on this one, although we told Ella that we would consider bringing her along next year. The rapids were great and we had an absolute blast. We had a spilt second when we hit a rapid that I bounced up so high that we were both thinking I was about to end up in the water, but thankfully, I did not. It was a great trip and we will definitely be doing it again!

One of the most exciting things that has happend in our family most recently has been a major change in Chad's work schedule. He now works Monday-Friday with every weekend off. Horray! It has been just over two years since he has had a nice schedule like that and we are so grateful for it. He can now attend church regularly with us and I no longer have to struggle alone to maintain at least a little bit of order during sacrament meeting...now I'll have someone to help out during the struggle! :) The kids are happy too since this means that (for the most part) Chad gets home earlier in the evening and he gets to help tuck them in bed every night. They sure love that!

Now, I'm not sure when exactly when I will blog again as next week we officially go back to school and that marks the beginning of just over two VERY busy months for us full of marching band practices and shows. But, Ella is excited to start second grade, return to girl scouts and this year we will be adding dance classes two days a week for her to our schedule as well. She also has a week long cheerleading clinic with the high school cheerleaders and they get to show off what they will have learned during half time of a football game. She can't wait and I promise lots of pictures!

Brock continues to grow and learns new words every day. He is constantly asking me what things are so that he can try new words out and see how they sound. He loves having dance parties with his sisters and attempting to wrestle with his dad.

Miri is finding her voice in life as well. She still doesn't say too many words but recently, she has learned how to shriek like a wild animal. Where she learned that sort of behavior we cannot seem to figure out because there is no way she could have picked it up from her incredibly mellow and soft spoken older sibblings. ;) She too loves to dance and has even learned that getting a running start before jumping on dad makes it even more fun! All three of them are an absolute joy and we are constantly talking about how lucky we are to have them.

We hope that everyone has had a safe and enjoyable summer!