My little Rembrandt

I had to post this picture of Ty's artistic abilities. You may not be thinking it is anything great but, I think it is wonderful. He just turn four years old and I was very impressed by his details. They have fingers and toes and most of them even have five, they have belly buttons, ears, I mean come on I still draw in stick figures. I just thought it was well thought out and cute so I thought that I would share:)

******Ashton's Birthday******

I know that I am a total slacker, Ashton's Birthday was almost a month ago and I am just now getting this on my blog. Hey better late than never right? This year we gave Ashton a choice to either have a big family party or to get a big gift and he chose a gift. I think he made a good chose because he really needed a new bike. This was the bike he had before and if you can tell it is very small for my BIG six year old.

Yeah this is his new bike that Grandpa and Grandma Slade pitched in to get and it was daddy's job to get it put together. This was way after bed time but he was too excited to wait so he talked Cory into putting it together.

How many men does it take to put a bike together?

No Birthday is complete without a icecream cake YUM!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY BIG SIX YEAR OLD!!!

(Where does the time go?)

Survival Mode

Sorry that it has been awhile since my last post. The last month I have been on what I call survival mode. As you can see by the little baby ticker that I am pregnant with our fourth child (yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!). With every new child there comes a wide range of emotions... excitement, fear, a prayerful heart, nervousness, love and many more. But, in the beginning it is feelings of nausea, exhaustion, being overwhelmed, and feeling like a horrible mother because my other three kids kind of survive on there own in a way. So to say the least my blog has been put on the back burner until I can get past the worst of it. I am not there yet but, I am hoping to see the bright light very soon:) I am due in September and if this baby is as healthy, energetic, adorable, and fun as my other three than I will feel very blessed and overjoyed.

MY BIG FOUR YEAR OLD

My baby boy Ty turned four years old on February 13th! We decided to take him to Pirate Island because we have not been there yet and he thought it sounded like a lot of fun. It turned out to be a BLAST!!! We invited everyone in the family that wanted to join us and to our surprise we had about 30 people there. One of the gifts he got was a Bumblebee outfit he has worn it every day since.

Doesn't Ty Aunt Brooke look hot in her Pirate Hat! His cousins Logan and Beckham loved the place too they kept raiding the souvenir shop it was so funny.

Isaac looking on as Ty opens his gifts.

Here is Grandpa and the boys playing games it was hilarious Grandpa had just as much fun as they did. We ended up with 977 tickets in the end and around 600 or more were from Grandpa. It was a really good day lots of family, lots of fun, and the food was way better than Chucky Cheese, we will definitely do it again sometime. Happy Birthday to my (little sorry big boy) Ty!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME :)

January 29th was my 32nd birthday (scary that I would admit that huh?)! Life for the last couple of years have been overwhelmingly hard. Some of the hardest in my life but, I am sure not the last of hard times. But, you know what I have survived and continue to survive so yeah for me. I digress, I didn't want to go into a sob story. The reason I said that was so I can explain that for my Birthday all I really wanted was to do something fun, relaxing, and something that got my mind away from life. I got exactly what I wanted!! The day of my Birthday was pretty normal mom stuff. I did get a lot of nice texts, a visit from my wonderful in-laws, some calls, and some horrible HAPPY BIRTHDAY songs (you know who I am talking about Ryan lol). In the evening Cory and I went to Tepanyaki's for dinner ( my favorite) with my parents and we were going to go bowling afterward but, it was too long of a wait so we bought ice cream and went back to their house to play games. It was very enjoyable. We got a baby sitter for a change so it was a relaxing night. The only down fall was I didn't get to spend it with my brother Joe. His Birthday is the same day and I think other than his mission this was the first time we didn't get to see each other. It's ok though he had obligations and it get harder and harder the older we get and the bigger our families get. I did miss him though but, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOE also!! I hope he had a good day too. Plus my Birthday didn't end there the next day I was spoiled by a couple of life longs friends. My two friends that I have known for about 21 years took me out to lunch at RED LOBSTER (another favorite), they got me a really cute necklace, and then we wandered around the mall for a little bit. Once again I didn't have my kids I love them but , it was nice to be without them for a few days. Then one of the most wonderful things of all was usually when I come home (when dad is in charge) the house is... to say the least a disaster. This time it was spotless!!!! Cory spent the time I was gone cleaning the whole house toilets and everything. It was beeaauutiful:) I know that to someone else my Birthday didn't seem like a BIG party but, I thought it was perfect. I had loved ones around me and it was very peaceful and stress free. So THANKS to all who thought of me, I luv ya!:)

CHRISTMAS VACATION

This holiday season Ashton had a first, he lost his first tooth!!! Then just a few days later he lost another! So he really did want his two bottom teeth for Christmas. He didn't even cry or fuss when it started to bleed all he said was ouch and he actually pulled the first tooth out all by himself. The second one came out with the help of Uncle Joe and his dental floss trick, THANKS Joe:)

Jordyn is enjoying a book that she got from her G-pa and G-ma Russell for Christmas. She loves to climb up on this chair I think she thinks that it is her Princess Throne.
I love this picture of Cory:) This is what he was doing when the kids were seeing what Santa brought them for Christmas. The funny thing is I didn't know what he was so tired about. Mrs. Claus did all the shopping, wrapping, and laying things out. We had a very nice Christmas and I hope everyone else did too!!!

After Christmas during the break the natives were getting restless so we decided to take them sledding. It was their first time outside of our yard. They loved it! I think Ashton is going to like snowboarding because without any encouragement he stood up on his sled and went down the hill. I little comacozy(sp?) but he thought it was a blast, plus the place that we went sledding had a snowboarder doing some short runs and jumps and he thought that was soooo cool. He had asked several times since to have dad take him snowboarding. Maybe next year, Can I wait until he is at least SIX?

Ty had a lot of fun too but, I am not sure if it was from the sledding or from the eating of the snow(what is up with this kid). It was like pulling teeth but, I convince my "snow bunny" into letting Ashton take a picture of us.

Oh and by the way HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!!!!!!!!!!! I hope this year brings everyone SINCERE JOY, PEACE OF MIND, A TRUE LOVE OF FAMILY AND LIFE, AND AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR LORDS PLAN FOR US:)

A CHRISTMAS FAVORITE

Last night the Slade Family(minus my oldest brother and his family) went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. I feel like the Christmas season isn't complete until you do that, it is one of my favorite things to do. We all went to dinner before, then went and saw the lights, and then my little family got hot chocolate after. It was a perfect evening. Everyone was happy (including the kids) and we had a lot of fun!

Sorry my camera isn't a professional one and I am definitely not a professional so take that into consideration when you see the pictures:)

Jordyn looks like a little boy because she is wearing hand me downs from her brothers. A very cute girly coat is on her Christmas list to Santa. Don't get me wrong she was still adorable in her "Christmas Story" pose and her curls coming out of her hat.