Macey's cowgirl giddy-up outfit
Treyson, Aunt Ashley, and Cru
Uncle Travis loving on Macey
Grandpa Jim, Trey, Great Gma Julich, Cru, Haley, and Macey
All the cousins minus Treyson because he was just too good to take a picture! Natalie thinks it's Halloween...

Macey 4 months

Macey is 4 months already! We haven't made it to the doctor yet so we don't know weight/height, etc., but I'm sure she's on the smaller end. Her cousin Kole is just a month younger and he's already bigger than her.

{At 4 months}

• Auburn hair
• Eyes are turning greenish/brown
• You can roll over tummy to back, but not often.
• You still LOVE your hands and anybody elses too!
• You love your brothers, but sometimes they love you too much and make you cry.
• You don't like to be left out of the fun! Love when mommy holds you.
• Made your first trip to Disneyland, rode some rides, and you even put your feet in the ocean!
• If anybody gives you attention you will smile at them.
• You are sad when Treyson doesn't pay attention to you in the car... When mom tells Treyson to sit all the way back he says, "But Macey needs me!"
• You are always trying to "sit up"

We love you Macey, you bring a new light to our house!

California Vacation

Disneyland
All the kids... is that a smile from Cru?!
Mom and Macey at the beach
Dumbo ride for all
Fun Newport Beach times... "I can't feel my legs" -Andi

We traveled to southern California for our family vacation this year and met up with our friends the Jenkins from Tuscon, AZ. We arrived on Friday and got settled in by taking a dip in the pool.
Saturday was our big beach day and we woke up to a hugely overcast cloudy day. We had already planned out the rest of the trip so this was the day to go to the beach. We decided to just bite the bullet and go anyway just to say we went. We headed to Newport Beach and surprisingly couldn't find one parking spot! We decided to take our chances and park in the Albertson's parking lot. After a little walk we finally arrived at the beach ready to take in the water... it was FREEZING! I forgot how cold it was so most of us just made it to our feet and that was it, except Treyson and Andi. The kids loved chasing the waves! Our lunch was just as fun... have you tried to make PB&J in the sand? Needless to say the kids ate "crunchy" sandwiches. They just couldn't resist putting their hands in the sand. And another funny part of our beach day was trying to figure out how to clean all the kids off from all the sand. We finally asked some locals and they told us that we could use their hose if we wanted, THANK YOU! I'm not quite sure what was more entertaining --lunch or the hose down?! It was quite the adventure.
The next four days consisted of getting up early to make the gate open to Dineyland and Legoland, but almost never actually making it. We were close though! All the kids had a blast, despite the usual nag for toys, the "I'm hungry" or "I'm thirty" or "I'm hot", and the worried looks from Caden for the scary rides! It's okay Caden, we still love you! We had a lot of fun with the Jenkins, thanks for planning it with us!

Annie Update

Well I was optimistic and was going to post an update a few days ago saying that things were mostly okay. She still is not eating on her own, Jon has to put the IV in her at night before bed (to get her 1200 calories to at least sustain life) and then Annie's parents are there to take it out in the morning. BUT yesterday morning we got word that she was running a fever and she was throwing up SO they called the doctor and he told her to head back to the hospital. AHhhhhh! She found out she has an infection so she is getting antibiotics and they are taking some other cultures to see if there is any others. I haven't heard any news on the baby, other than they are hoping to reach 36 weeks before they think of doing anything with her. Once the baby is out they will take out the gallbladder too, I guess. Not quite sure why they don't take it out now!

TWO Wheeling and Trailing

Treyson is officially riding TWO wheels! We are so excited for him! He has found a new confidence in himself and he is loving the new freedom of riding on his own. I know I had mentioned this before, but I wanted to show his picture and tell him how proud we are of him! Way to go TREY!

So now we are able to take Macey on our rides, she loves it most times, and usually just falls asleep!

Expensive Experiment

Matt and I love to watch the Next Food Network star and as one of their weekly challenges they were asked to pick an unusual ingredient to create a dish with Tilapia (fish). Well, Kelsey won with her Macadamia Crusted Tilapia with White Chocolate Buerre Blanc--sounds fancy, huh? And as a non-fish lover I thought it looked and sounded really yummy, despite the fact that it was fish. As some of you have had dinner and such with our family you know that we don't do seafood and we really wondered why... so we decided that on our next date we would venture into Red Lobster and let the experts cook for us and then decide if our relationship with seafood/fish would change. We finally got that chance on Saturday night! Matt decided to go for the gusto and get the Ultimate Feast --crab legs, lobster tail, breaded shrimp, and shrimp scampi and I opted for the tilapia winning recipe by Kelsey. I, myself, was very nervous!!! Our food came quickly, which I don't know if it was blessing or a curse... because I went right in to try my dish.... AND... I am still not a fish person. Matt ate most of his food, as did I, but our experiment proved that we really aren't huge fans of the sea friends. Oh well.

A Funny

Yesterday we took our Sunday nap and happened to all sleep until 6:30pm...oops! Since we were anticipating being up late we decided to watch the Miss Universe pagent (starting at swimsuits --just in time, Matt says) Well after they showed us all the remaining finalists in the swimsuit part we all had our favorites...

Matt-- "My favorite is Australia."

Treyson-- "I like ALL of them!"

We couldn't help but laugh! He's definitely a BOY.

FOURTH of July

We started our fourth of July out by taking a family bike ride (sorry no pictures on that I temporarily forgot where the camera was) because Treyson is riding his own bike on TWO wheels, way to go Trey! After we were hot and sweaty we decided we would go swimming and have a picnic at the pool so we packed everything up and headed to cool down. Treyson has been taking swim lesson so his new found bravery made him fearless and he jumped right into the pool without his floaties and started swimming. Cru swam a little, but mostly wanted to eat red vines, oops, we shouldn't have taken those out until after lunch. And Macey was loving the water too, until she was too tuckered out and decided a nap sounded great. We headed home for naps, ALL of us, and met up later with the Hendersons for a little BBQ. The kids played hard and were very anxious to head to the fireworks. Finally at around 830pm (or whenever "Band Practice" was over!) we headed downtown, parked at Brandon's office and walked a couple blocks to the park where the fireworks were. It was a lot of fun!! Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Rock ON!

Matt and Brandon (Henderson) having band practice!

We've ventured into the world of the Wii and found out we NEEDED to have Rock Band too. It's been great fun for Matt! I found out that I am pretty retarded when doing the drums so I might just stick to the back up singing!

Tagged

Tagged
"The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I had just graduated high school... can you believe it's been 10 years already???
2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
Work on my talk for church
Primary stuff...too much to name
Go to Old Navy and go shopping (is that a "to-do"?)
Plan my menu for the next 2 weeks
Possibly go grocery shopping... I'll see how I feel later.
3. Snacks I enjoy
Fruit --apples and peanutbutter, yum!
Lorna Doone cookies --soooo glad they came out with 100 calorie packs on those!
Salsa Verde Dorito Chips
4.Things I would do if I were a billionaire
Invest WISELY
Pay off all our debt
Go on an awesome vacation ...or two
Buy a slightly bigger home for CASH
5. Places I have lived
Tacoma, WA
Rexburg, ID
St. George, UT
Cleveland, OH
Ivins, UT
6. Jobs I have had
Cashier at Grandpa's Bakery
Teller at Key Bank
Host/Salad Girl at Olive Garden
Carhop at Sonic
MOM
7. People I want to know more about (the challenging part..not tagging twice)
I decided not to tag anyone... if you wish to be "tagged" go for it!

Cautious Optimism

We got news yesterday that Annie is doing much better! We've heard that before and then she has gotten worse so we are taking it with caution. She is now off pain meds, her heart rate is down to normal and so is her breathing. She is still needing a little oxygen, but has much improved. The baby is still virtually unharmed, amazingly!! Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers... they were felt.

Annie

For those of you that know Matt's sister Annie I thought I would put a little post on here for her! About a week and a half ago she was having huge pains and it was bad enough that they decided to take her into the hospital to get checked out. Well, it turned out that she had gall stones, pretty painful I hear. And then that stone got stuck in the duct where the pancreas and gall bladder meet together and basically plugged it up. Because of that it caused her pancreas to get inflammed. Meanwhile (did I mention she is about 30 weeks pregnant???!!) her body is giving out a bit and her lungs are making it hard to breathe. (Can you give the girl a break, please?!) So as today stands she is in ICU taking it one day at a time. PLEASE keep her in your prayers if you can. We love you ANNIE! Keep fighting!!

Macey 3 Months

Happy 3 Months Mace!

You have dark blue eyes and auburn hair.

This month you went for your first swim and you loved it.

You are a lot more aware of your surrounding and you are starting to grab toys if we hold them close to you.

You hate to sleep in your room for naps, but love to snuggle with mommy!

Bunny Troubles

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Bunny,

It is with great regret that I must tell you that your little bunny's life has been cut short by a careless driver, myself. I am truly sorry to tell you this. I was briefly glancing off in the distance and your little one jumped right in front of my vehicle. There was no time to react and I'm sorry that bunny did not make it across the street. I feel terrible about this! I thought I should let you know that I have never done this before and I hope it never happens again. I apologize again for my actions and I know that words can not fill the empty space in your bunny home. I hope you with find it in your hearts to forgive me.

Your Neighbor


{It's happened!!! I have run over my first road kill... and I felt terrible! I had to get it off my chest...}

Mr. Naked

Anybody that has been around us lately know that Mr. CRU likes to always pull his shorts down and then proceed to take off his diaper if I don't catch him in time. I know it is a little funny but it's driving me nuts!! He is always coming back to me with a wet leg or two and then I have to search the house to find his little "marking". You would think he is a dog for as much as he does!! Gotta love the kid though because he's so darn cute...

Macey 2 Months

Macey Nicole

2 Months

May 31, 2008

10 lbs. 6 oz.

22 1/2 in.

This month you've learned to smile (5 weeks) and you love to "talk" to us.

You love to suck on your hands!

Enjoys being sung to, playing pat-a-cake, and watching your brothers.

It's a TiVo life

TiVo was on our "wish list" when we graduated dental school and moved and we had no idea that it would be sooo great! Well, we had some idea, but didn't know the impact it would have on our lives. Living on the east coast all our TV shows started around 8pm or 9pm so we could get the kids in bed by then no problem, but living here they start at 7pm. So here's where TiVo shines... recording our shows so we don't miss a moment of the latest vote off, basketball score, or the funny joke. How did we live without it before? Am I the only one that is totally in love with this ingenious invention?!

I had mentioned that it has had an effect on our family as well... What kid do you know pauses the TV while he runs to the bathroom? Mine. What kid is asking to pause "real life" because he is a bit confused and forgets that life is not TiVo? Mine. And who thinks about rewinding the cutest smile from the baby or the funny thing that a kid has just said? That would be me. I forget the difference from real life to TiVo too... oops.

So for those of you that have not taken the plunge and done the TiVo thing, you are missing out! Who would not want to fast forward through all the commercials and watch your show in a fraction of the time????? You have to get it! Enough said.

Memorial Day Fun

This year we had Matt's whole family in town together so we took advantage! We headed up to Zion's National Park and went hiking. We had quite the group with two newborns, three one and a half year olds, and three preschoolers, with one pregnant aunt. It was a lot of fun to see all the beautiful colors up there and take part in a fun family outing. After the hike we rode the shuttle bus back down and headed to Oscar's restaurant, a favorite of grandma and grandpa Hammons. Despite our hour wait for food (which is whole different story), we had some yummy food.

After heading home I was stricken with an upset stomach all evening. I felt like I was going to "lose my lunch" the whole night. I was finally able to go to bed, but was awaken with a mad dash to the bathroom. There went my lunch...

It still was a fun weekend with the whole family. We loved the visits from Aunt Molly and Uncle Elliott and Aunt Annie, Uncle Jon, and Shelby!

Big Blessing Day

Today was Macey's big day... Blessing Day! She did great! We bathed her the latest we possibly could to avoid any blowouts or spit-up messes in her pretty dress and she was a happy girl getting ready. She probably knew it was her special day and she was excited. (I'm sure!) We made it to church 20 minutes early, which is a small miracle in itself, and Macey stayed awake and happy all the way through her blessing and then dosed off for a small nap until lunch time. Daddy gave her a beautiful blessing along with Gpa Hammons, Uncles John, Jon, and Elliott and "Gpa" Bruce. Great uncle Glen couldn't make it due to upset stomach.
We were so blessed to be able to have all the family in town that we did, sad to have our other family in Washington miss this special day. Wished you could have come!
Cru and Grandma Hammons
Grandpa Hammons and Treyson

{We would have got a picture of Macey and dad, but he was too quick to get out of his suit that I didn't catch him in time...}

Fun in the Water!

Last week we decided to get together with friends and head to the water park downtown. It's a fun little place where the kids just love! Treyson said "That was the best day ever mom!" It is always fun when they really enjoy themselves! Let the heat begin...
Treyson and his buddy Isaiah
They are having tons of fun!
Cru and his buddy Dallin... which one is which?! We get them confused all the time because of their blond hair!
Treyson and Isaiah again... the water was pretty cold, brrr.

Batman, Bubbles and Babes

Cru is so thrilled to have his very own batman cape now-- I found one in my stash!
Fly away Batman! Off to fight crime... or just get the bubbles.
Blow hard, but soft. It's so hard to try to teach kids to blow bubbles. Keep working Cru.
Macey is now smiling away!
Macey and her new cousin, Kole Brandon, who is just a month younger than her.

New Kids... and they aren't mine!

This morning I let Treyson talk me into turning on the TV before morning "chores" were done {i.e., make bed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, get dressed} but the catch was that mom got to pick... and I of course picked something that I NEVER get to watch anymore, the Today's Show! Since cartoons rule our lives it seems these days, I took my chance to get a little "me TV".

Anyways, I just love how the Today's Show does music concerts on their show and I was surprised to see that this Friday The New Kids (on the Block) are preforming!! I was taken back to my childhood when I was obsessed with Jordan and the New Kids. That was my very first concert I ever went to, ten years old, without mom and dad. Two of my friends, Trina and Colleen and Colleen's older sister went to the concert. We even rode the bus up to Seattle and went to the concert in the old King Dome... now that was a long time ago, that building is since been taken down.

So for all of you New Kids fans, or shall I say old New Kids fans, reminisce this Friday with a walk down memory lane. I know I will...for old times sake.

The vote is in!

I saw this in an email I got today on my "6 week old baby" and I giggled about it. Thought it was fun enough to share with all of you coming up this year on your 3rd!

Mother's Day "Tea Party"

Here is the remnants of the fancy tea party table...
Macey's first "tea party" --she was all ready in one of her cute dresses!
Treyson with Ariana and Annika.
Couscous salad --yummy! Recipe down below.


Last week I decided that I needed to have a fun "mommies lunch" and invite some fun girls to our house for some yummy food. It was convient enough to have Mother's Day soon so I called it a Mother's Day Tea Party. Now, I don't own a tea set, nor could I find one on such short notice (or lack of time) so we just had punch and apple juice for the kids. It was so fun to get together with friends and have some chat time while the kids played. I was sad that I forgot my picture taking until just at the very end so I didn't get the full table of goodies and the wonderful mothers that attended. I hope to carry this on... anybody interested?! Yummy food and good conversation? I'm in!

Here's our menu ~

Chicken Salad Croissants {8 Servings}
2 large cans of chicken
1 C sliced red grapes
1 red apple chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1/3 cCalmonds, sliced
2 T lemon juice
3/4 -1 C mayonnasie
salt & pepper to taste

Couscous Salad
1/2 C uncooked couscous
3/4 C chicken broth
2 T olive oil
2 T fresh lime juice
1 T red wine vinegar
1/2 red bell pepper
4 green onions
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 C chopped cilantro
1/2 C corn kernels
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained
salt and pepper

Tea Party Punch
2 cans lemonade
1 can pineapple juice
1 gallon cranberry juice
2 liters gingerale
4 C crushed ice

We also had ...

Fruit ~watermelon, strawberries, pineapple, grapes
Veggies ~carrots, celery, snap peas
Mini blueberry muffins
Goldfish crackers
Apple juice
Dove chocolates

One Month

I'm a little late on this post, but I thought I better put it anyway. Macey turned one month last week and here is her picture with piggy. She is getting cuter by the day (despite the sad baby acne) and has started smiling to us! Enjoy.

Boys will be Boys

You know you have boys when...

While doing laundry this week I heard this annoying noise in the dryer and I figured that it was just a zipper or something like that. I continued to ignore it and when the load finally got done drying and I put everything in my basket... there was a raquetball and a golf ball that got a good cleaning through the wash.

I can't keep them out of the rocks, sand, wood chips --anything that requires a good hose down afterwards.

They NEVER want to take baths!

They laugh over the smallest noise coming from their bums...

I can't keep them clean.

They HATE to dress up.

They pick their boogers --and eat them!

Despite all their boyish habits you just gotta love them, crazy and all!!