Picnik, Nine Months & Update

Picnik:

I have found a new editing program that I totally puffy heart. It's called Picnik and FREE! Of course I've been spending time trying all the differnt features so there are quite a few pictures for you to look at today. Good thing my kids are so darn cute, right???

Me and my cute baby

I ordered WiiFit last week and it arrived over the weekend. We've already had a lot of fun using it, especially Aubrey. In fact, she's used it a LOT.

Doing Yoga on Sunday..

Last night her tummy hurt and she wasn't feeling so hot. This morning Drew let me sleep in (baby is having sleeping issues and I'm the one that gets up with her at night) and when I woke up I discovered Aubrey was home. I asked about her tummy.. turns out that today's ailments are actually from sore muscles. LOL Guess we know it works!

Nine Months:

My cute little Kaitlyn is NINE MONTHS OLD!! Is that crazy or what!?!?! These first pictures (in the blue) are from yesterday.

She can say Dada.

She can say Hhhhiiiii while waving.

She has two teeth and loves eating Gerber Puffs.

She started crawling a little over a week ago but still mostly army crawls (since 7 months old) and is quicker than lighting.

As of last night, we were surprised to discover than she can crawl up stairs. :-S

Reason why she has a hard time sleeping: She keeps pulling herself up to a standing position and can't get back down!

She is pulling herself up any chance she can.. let the bumps and bruises begin.

We will be lowering her mattress tonight.

I'm sure I"ll take more pictures of her later.. I need to go hop in the shower now. It's almost 3 in the afternoon, ya know..

Update:

Danno is doing really well. He's still in the hospital due to his calcium levels being low. The cancer was much more severe than expected and his surgery took HOURS longer than expected. I told him that if I find any gray hairs popping up in the next couple of days that he will be blamed for them.

Aw, Crud. Baby's awake.. so much for my shower.

The Band.

Second post for today.. I wanted to tell you about:

The Band.

For those that read my blog or know me, know that I love Rock Band. It's a great family/friends game and so much fun! We're totally loving the new Rock Band Two even more.. lots of fun new song and there is a "no fail" mode so now even Carson and Hayden can join in the fun (mostly playing drums) or we can laugh like crazy while attempting the unbeatable songs.

Here are some shots from last night.

(yes, Drew is wearing dirty work clothes)

Danno (Ok, it's Dan.. be mostly Danno)

Marci & Lock

All of them (none of me- the Guitar Hero).

I was going to write comments on all of us but decided it was getting too lengthy (imagine that: Me, rambling!).

I'll just say that we all fight over 'More than a Feeling' and we can all play a mean Cowbell!!

Now I'll ramble. Last night was our final "performance" for the next little while. sniff, sniff Marci is going to AFRICA for six weeks to take care of Chimps (very cool). I can't believe she's going to be gone for so long!! Totally going to miss her. And Danno is going to be out of commission. He was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer last week and will be having two different surgeries to have it removed.

I've thought about doing posts about his diagnosis but haven't.. how do you write about that? He's the exact same person he was prior to last week.. he feels the same.. looks the same (well, kind of with his twin on his neck..). We all love him just as much now as we did back then. I cried when I first found out and I still feel sick (yet optimistic) when I think about it (which is often). Danno is a huge part of our family. He hangs out here all the time after going out to dinner.. he attends all of our birthdays, most holidays.. plus he's an awesome friend (and my step-brother). My kids adore their Uncle Danno. We even lived with him for a couple of years! And of course he's a Band Member!! lol

It is what it is. I'm glad that we have been able to find the humor in everything. At our Good Luck party earlier this week (you know, good luck to Marci's traveling and good luck to Dan's surgery) at Outback(thank you Joyce for watching the kids!!) we laughed, hard, for over 2 hours while we ate.. and probably caused a couple of tables to leave early. Oops. hehehe Ahhh, good times.

Danno's Surgeons are really looking into what is best for him though and I'm very confidant that he will soon be cancer free.

Kait and My Nice Things

Kait:

This afternoon I decided to go outside for a little bit after Kaitlyn woke up from her nap. I grabbed one of Aubrey's(BIG) bows that happened to match her outfit and took a couple of pictures. Oh, and she's looking down in them because she's trying to grab my lens cap. lol

Did the warmer tones in the editing.. I just love her profile.

Showing the brighter colors.

And if you were wondering, she no longer likes the feeling of grass on her legs.

My Nice Things:
I'm sure most of you have heard or even said the phrase, "This is why we don't have nice things." I say it often enough.. well yesterday was the variation and I wasn't so happy about saying it.

It started out by Aubrey yelling, "Moooommmmm... Carson threw...".

Those are words that a mom never wants to hear. Ever.

Allow me to show you: My Nice Things
Can't quite tell what is on the floor, the couch, both chairs AND my piano?

Here's a close-up.

Still can't tell?? It's cat food, my friends. CAT FOOD. And as if that's not bad enough, it's CHEAP cat food (for the stray kitties that are oh-so-cute). For those that haven't had experience with cheap cat food: IT STINKS! And when the warm sunlight is shining into your front room.. it's even STINKIER! (is that a word??)

I can't even begin to explain how nasty my front room smelled. Everyone gagged and then bee-lined for the door. But even there wasn't safe.. the stench lingered. Nice. Being the responsible adult I figured I should probably do something about the mess.. ugh.

Thank goodness for my DYSON and Oust!

(love the yellow one!!)

So yeah.. buyer beware of Nice Things and Cheap Cat food. Oh, and Carson.

Our weekend away.

This past weekend we went out of town.. and what better way to tell you about it than with pictures!! :-D Sorry! hehehe

This is where we went:

Brigham City! It was my mother's 40th High School Reunion and she was kind enough to pay for me and my siblings (and kids) to go up there and stay for two nights at a hotel. Why would we want to do that? Because I lived there until I was 10.. talk about a walk down memory lane.

That night we all met for dinner at Pizza Hut and celebrated my nephew's birthday (forgot my camera!!).

Also saved Carson from running out into Main Street. Somehow he escaped from the restaurant (think he went out with my brother's kids) and as I discovered him in the parking lot, he bolted off.. it was awful.. he got so close to the street! I was totally shaking after and it was just bad. BAD. Unfortunately, he is back into the running stage again. Ugh.

After that we went to our old neighborhood and walked around the block. My kids had to hear "When I was little, I...." about a million times. Ok, truthfully, they heard that the ENTIRE trip. I'm pretty sure that's why Aubrey ended up driving around with her cousins in my brother's van.. she figured out how to escape my stories. It was really interesting to see how much smaller things were than what I remembered them being as a kid.

This was our home.

Back at the hotel, my kids had such a great time! Looks like my hotel research paid off with the millions of reviews I read.. it was actually a nice place to stay.

Look at that happy face!

This was a hot commodity the entire trip.. Phones on a chord! We haven't had a landline for probably 7 years now so my younger kids rarely see a "normal" phone. I disconnected the back of them so they could be played with.

Carson figured out that he can't open the door by himself. Muwahahahaha My niece holding Kait. She looves holding her.. The next day we did lots of walking around.. We went to the Library and then other downtown locations.. Drove by my old elementary school.. and then stopped at John Adams park. I used to throw rocks into there!! Love this picture. Kait was not happy that I wasn't holding her, if you can't tell.

For lunch we went to PEACH CITY!! How could we not???

My sister and I were laughing at the memories of all the nasty gum under the counters. I had to look. HAD to. SO GROSS!! May I never look again.

After lunch we went over to the Tabernacle and walked around for a few minutes. Was able to take some neat pictures from all the light in the background.

Drew and Kait (if you can't tell)

Then we went back to the hotel to change diapers/nurse the baby and sat around for two hours while my family went to a museum. Had I known we would sit for TWO hours we would have gone.. but what do you do.

We had a low-key dinner and just hung out at the hotel that night.

On Sunday after we checked out, we went to the cemetery. My grandparents are buried there.. the kids enjoyed walking around and looking at all the really old graves.

This is my child stealing a grave's flowers. Nice.

I really liked these pictures of my family.

My SIL and niece. Her kids.. Really love this one.. my nephew in the middle looks like a mad scientist or something.. sooo cute!I love you too, John. My sister and her girls. ADORABLE!!
My mom and step-dad.

We went to Subway for lunch and I was able to get some good pictures with the older three and my mom..

I just love the faces that he comes up with. LOL

Right before we left Hade and my niece were outside playing. I love how the coloring turned out after I edited it.

And there you have it! If you actually looked at everything (and your computer didn't crash while waiting for them to load) then you deserve a shiny gold star sticker!!