Just a few things

So all of this post happened a long time ago but whatever. It's my blog and I'll post old stuff if I want to. (Geeze I can be so rude.)Koy turned 6 and we had another birthday party at my in- laws. I think we have had 4 out of 6 parties there. We had our usual crew. It was a fun time. We had pizza and cupcakes. Kody went to pick up the pizza and got 3! I made him go back for more. Then I made everyone eat every last piece so I could prove we needed that many pizzas. The weather was nice but a tad windy. The usual for Cedar, right. Koy got everything he wanted. He had been putting in orders to the grandparents for a long time. He divided up all the stuff he wanted and called and told each grandparent their assignment. They all came through of course. Kody got him his own bow. I'm not talking a plastic little bow with rubber arrows. I'm talking a real bow with his own arrows to match his dad's, along with other archery accessories that I don't know the name of. When we went to Lagoon we stopped at Kody's friends house in SCL that sells bows. McKoy practiced shooting a little bow in the bow shop and Kody decided it would be a good present. So the morning of his birthday Koy opened it and tried pulling it back but couldn't. So Kody loosened it up and McKoy tried again, but still couldn't do it. So after several loosing's the bow finally collapsed into pieces everywhere. We were all laughing because his whole present was now in parts on the floor. It wasn't as funny to Kody so he took his own car over to his parent's so he could take the bow into the shop on the way. They got it fixed and everything was fine after that. Here are some party pics. Koy hanging with the lady guests. I would call him a lady's man but everyone in the pic is related except one.

Me trying to light the candle in the wind.

McKoy getting his 5th pirate ship. He has to have every one that comes out. This year it was assigned to grandma and grandpa Smith.

Taya Ju making nice work of her cupcake.

Talia in the pool with Taya Ju.

Birthday boy Koy. I'm not going to lie folks. He's handsome.

Other party guests hanging in the jacuzzi.

This pic is the day after Koy's party. Grandpa Rich turned 52 and we had a little gathering in my mom's backyard.

Cute girls doing a little slip n' slide

Koy with a biker du rag being cool.

Kimi's baby Lainee before she completely exploded in fatness. She is so fat now that her legs can't fit in the bumbo. She is only 2 1/2 months old. She is in the 100th percentile for weight. That's right. I said 100th. And her dad says she is going to be the fridge for Halloween. PS I gave Kim that blanket. So cute, right?

Now this is at my dad's house in St. George for his birthday. He turned 52 also. I have a lot of parent's to keep up on.

Taya Ju getting a little slip and slide action in her birthday suit.

My dad holding Lainee. She can't even move her arms. She is like a t-rex with a big body and short little arms. Seriously I could eat her. Just a little butter. MMMMmmmmm. She is so cute.

Koy and his buddies (Easton and Stockton) on the first day of Kindergarten. Koy wanted to wear his new Scooby doo shirt. We had a little discussion about it being the first day of the rest of his educational life and that he should wear a nice shirt. He got really sad and I could tell I crushed his dreams. So I did what any responsible parent would do that loved their child. I bribed him. I told him I would buy him a toy at Walmart if he would please wear a different shirt on the first day. So he wore this shirt and what do you think happened when he got to school? Some other kid was wearing that $#%* scooby doo shirt! When McKoy asked why other kids could wear Scooby doo on the first day and he couldn't I took the high road again. I said because those parent's don't love their kids as much as I love mine. JUST KIDDING. But I did say he should thank me for sparing him the embarrassment of wearing the same shirt as someone else on the first day. Koy knows that is a faux pas from the 24th of July, when Kim and I wore the same shirt to the park. (See earlier post)

Koy in his new kicks. Check out those green soles. Super cool Kindergarten attire.

We went camping over labor day. I haven't been camping in a tent since before McKoy was born. My dad brought his camper and Roon brought his. My little family slept in a tent my dad gave us. The tent is AWESOME. The instructions call it a "vacation home" and besides needing an engineering degree to put it together, it was great. It has two rooms in it and a screen porch. There is a light that velcros to the ceiling with a remote control. And it has hanging shelves in the corners with bay windows. You can stand all the way up inside it with room to grow. It is seriously cool. However, it is still a tent and that means cold nights. It would have been fine if I didn't have kids. But I do have kids, so I had Mataya laying on my head and McKoy squished right up against me. It's hard to keep the covers on you when kids are moving them in every direction. Then I was worried about the kids being too cold, etc etc etc. But the camping trip was so much fun. It really made me want to get a trailer. But then I remembered in order to get a trailer I would need another job. So I decided the tent was great!

When it gets hot, off come McKoy's clothes. Look how cute Jada is. She is such an old woman but still loves camping.

Mataya in my dad's trailer. She likes the feeling of screen door in her nose.

Relaxing!

BYE

I have been neglecting my life

OK it's been rough these last few weeks. I love blogging so much and I've been awful at it lately. I must say Kindergarten is seriously kicking my trash. The schedule is CRAZY and the work is so so so so busy. I have been staying late (which I rarely do) and not taking care of myself or my family. I got sick of course because I ALWAYS get sick after school starts. This took exactly 1 school day before my throat started to hurt. However...I really do love it! The kids are the cutest EVER! I will get this Kindergarten thing down, I will. Besides school being crazy so many things are happening. McKoy started school and is in my afternoon class. That has been part awesome, part difficult. I find myself being really hard on him which I am working on. He is trying to figure out the boundaries in school. Like not getting into my desk and helping himself to the fridge during class, etc. But he is so darling and I love watching him make new friends. Mataya started going to a new babysitter who we LOVE. Sloane Prisbrey lives just around the corner and is awesome. It was way hard for me to leave her with someone other than family but she is adjusting. McKoy is with her some of the mornings before Kindergarten so that helps. She is talking much better now. I can understand her but most others still have a hard time. I take her to the heart doc on Friday and we'll see how she is doing. Kody is hunting for 10 days. Yes I said 10 days. I know, I win the award for best wife allowing such ridiculousness. (that is a show on MTV if you didn't know) He already went antelope hunting and bow hunting for deer. Now he is elk hunting in Wyoming for 10 days. He has been being really nice this last month but I will probably need something more materialistic to keep me happy. He will have to come up with a really nice present such as diamonds or something. Last time he bought me tickets to Chelsea and then got all embarrassed when Billy Batty asked him about it. He tried to deny that he got me the tickets to make up for hunting. Sorry Kody, this is my blog and I'll tell on you if I want to. Now I want to talk about my cousin Talia again. Everyone needs to read her last post and let her know what an amazing mama she is. I want to hurt people that hurt her, and make them suffer. She is AMAZING and needs to be told. So please go to her blog and let her know. Even if you don't know her, she deserves it. Here is her blog http://jedtaliasmith.blogspot.com/

Summer so far...

Pioneer Village at Lagoon This is the parking lot at Lagoon. Kody always looks so dang happy on our family vacations. This is shortly after he told McKoy he couldn't ride any rides in flip flops because I forgot to pack other shoes. Thanks dad! Nothing like making your son cry before we even get there. And for the record you can ride anything you want in flip flops.

More parking lot fun! Kody and Koy on the bumper cars. Some ride that involves water. I prefer dry rides myself.

Koy and I waiting in line for a ride.

I love McKoy's face! He isn't sure. After this ride he LOVED every one!

They don't let little princesses on the big rides so she did a lot of waiting, but she didn't mind.

After Lagoon we went and visited Grandma Smith. This is Kary's mother and she lives in Salt Lake. We love you Grandma!

2 babes at Seven Peaks

Koy isn't afraid of anything. Ok he is afraid of spiders but not any rides.

A little T-Ball action

More t-ball action

The lake on the hill. We had never been there before to swim. We only went fishing once there last year. Thanks Rachel for inviting us. We probably still wouldn't have gone if you hadn't called us. The walk to the car really sucks but otherwise is was a fun time. Yes, I am complaining about that walk. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to carry ALL of our stuff by myself. When will these kids get bigger muscles? I seriously had this hicky looking mark on my arm from carrying all the bags.

McKoy and Mataya playing with the kids.

Auntie Jeanette and Mataya on the fourth of July. Mataya has an obsession with sunglasses and shoes. We have to hide both because she always wants to wear them. If the sunglasses fall off she gets super ticked and she can't put them back on herself. That is where the hiding part comes in.

Just another day at the park.

This is us sweating to death waiting in line for McKoy to climb the rock climbing wall.

And it's finally our turn.

Kody took this picture to show how embarrassing it is to show up at the park in the same shirt that your sister is wearing nine months pregnant. Yes we did that and NO we didn't plan it. I went home and changed before the BBQ because she has a limited wardrobe at this point.

Kim's annual 4th of July barbecue.

More barbecue pictures

Getting ready for the fireworks to start.

Kim has her baby, Lainee Lindsey Hardin.

Beautiful girl

This is a picture I took at girls camp. That is my name I carved in that tree 15 years earlier.

This summer is so busy! I can't quite keep up with anything. We went on a little family vacation in June to Lagoon. I used my -teacher's get in cheap coupon- and we had a blast! McKoy rode pretty much every ride there. He is 5 (except today is his birthday and so he is now 6, but I am talking about stuff that happened a few weeks ago and it sounds more dramatic if I say he is 5) so anyway he is 5 and he rode Wicked! If you don't know what ride that is let me just say it is fast and scary and he had to sit in a booster seat just to ride it! Yes,they put booster seats on roller coasters. I didn't know either and it sounded weird but we got to cut in line because the booster seat line was shorter than the regular seat line, so I accepted that it is weird. I grabbed his little wrist and held on for dear life because I was afraid he was going to fall out. Kody stayed with Mataya so McKoy and I rode it alone. Anyway, he rode everything and was NOT afraid of anything. It was a blast. The next day we went to Seven Peaks. Same thing happened there. He rode everything and was fine with all of the slides. We had so much fun! I had never been there before and loved its guts. I didn't take very many pics of Seven Peaks because we rented a locker and the camera was in there most of the time.

Then we came home from vacation just in time for the 4th of July. We did our usual. Parade, park, sit on Maye's porch, bbq at Kim's and watch fireworks. It was the same as every year and one of my favorite holidays. I love doing the same things over and over. Oh Oh, I almost forgot something so funny. We let off fireworks on Kim's driveway for the 4th. We had 47 people there including our kids. That was just family. So Tamra (Kim's sister in law) bought fireworks and we let them off. Well there was this big huge firework that we decided to save for the grand finale. It said $29.99 on the side and was really big. So Mikey lit it and it sparked for a really long time and that was it. Well everyone was preparing to go when Talia remembered a package of fireworks she had purchased. It looked like a package of bottled water. So we are all yawning and most of the kids had fallen asleep when Mike lit that thing. It shot in the air, 3 huge fireworks that exploded right over our heads! It scared the #$%& out of all of us so bad. Then 3 more shot in the air, and then 3 more. It scared everyone so bad that all the kids were crying and the adults needed to change their underwear. It was so dang funny. I was laughing so hard I was crying. We were not expecting that thing to be so awesome. Talia said they were out of fireworks at Smith's but they had that one package for $60. She thought it was a package but it was just one single firework! I love that girl. She is hilarious. The cops didn't come because we lit all legal stuff this year but that last one was truly crazy.

The next thing to happen was Kim had baby number 3! Lainee Lindsey Hardin was born at 9:58am on July 11th. She was 8 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches long. I filmed her debut like I did her other kids' births. It was perfect. Seriously she came out on the second contraction of pushing. It was so fast. Her hair is light almost blond! She looks just like a Hardin baby.

So after the birth of Lainee, I had to go to girls camp. That's right... me... camping... in a tent...with my ward...for 4 days 3 nights. It really turned out to be fun and I learned a lot. There is such a strong spirit at camp with all those girls. The speakers were great and it was a great experience for me. The girls in my ward are so amazing. Much better girls than I was at that age. At least their attitudes and willingness to help were probably better than I was. I had a great time...and then cried in my driveway when I got home. I missed my kids and it was just too long to be gone. Next time I think one or two nights will be good. Kody thought it was long too. He has never stayed with the kids by himself for that long. I've never been away for more than one night at a time. And wait til you hear this. Kody cleaned the whole house for me to come home to! Really! It was really sweet of him. I'm telling you people he can be a good one when he wants to be.

So that brings us to today. McKoy's birthday. I will do a birthday post when I get the pics put on this thing. So until then...

FIRST OF ALL

OK first of all I was in the hospital today for nine hours waiting, with absolutely nothing to do. So I was reading every one's blogs and could not comment on any of them. That's right, for whatever reason blogger has been keeping me from leaving comments on every one's posts. It's frustrating when you type a big long comment and then it won't post. I get really mad. So sorry that I cannot comment on anything you all are sharing. ANYWAY Kody was supposed to go into surgery at 9:00 am this morning. He got up at 6:00 and went and played basketball. Came home and showered, then we got in the car and headed to St. George. We got there on time and they prepped him for surgery, started his IV, got him dressed, etc. At about 9:30 Kody said he saw the doctor coming. Then a nurse came and said there was a patient in the ER with chest pain and the doctor would be back when that was taken care of. After 4 hours of waiting for him to come back we were getting a little impatient. Kody suggested I go get lunch and come back. He obviously couldn't eat and was starving but no reason why I have to suffer. So I got in the car, made some phone calls, and headed up the road. Of course as I'm driving the phone rings and they are ready to take him back and need me to come back to the hospital. (The doctor likes the family to wait in recovery in case he needs to talk to them) The nurse, Derek, said to get something to eat and bring it back. So I ran into Durango's, got my food and headed back. I then watched 16 and Pregnant and Made on MTV until they brought Kody out of surgery. He did really well. They switched the old pacemaker with the new, and left the leads that are attached to the heart alone. It went fine and well. Then we waited for another 4 hours while he recovered until they would let me take him home. It was a long day but worth every minute to make sure the device keeping my husband alive is working properly. Thanks to everyone that sent messages. We love ya'll! Oh Oh Oh I almost forgot. In the middle of all that my principal called and offered me a Kindergarten position at my school. I've been in first grade for 5 years and am now going to give Kindergarten a try. We'll see how I do!

More Heart Surgery

So right this very second I am sitting in the hospital with Kody. We are waiting for the doc to come and get him. He is getting a new pacemaker today. His battery is running low on the one he has now. The surgery should be smooth and I will take him home later today if all goes well. He should have gone back by now but the doc had to go to the ER, so we are just waiting. This is the third heart surgery for our family in 8 years. This is the least stressful one but it is still surgery on someone I love. I will let everyone know how it goes later. TTFN

Taya Ju Turns 2

Happy Day! Birthday Girl

the balloons

the cake

the mama

the cousin and brother (PS her cousin is only a few months older. Can you say TALL)

the entourage

More entourage

Blowing out the candle

sampling a delicious funfetti cupcake made by the mama

opening presents with some helpers

Tal said the cake was too pretty for just one person to cut. So we did it wedding style while Kody rolled his eyes in the background. He was just jealous.

After the present opening and cake eating we walked to the park so the kids could run around. This park is only a few steps away from my house.

So June 8th rolled around again. . . And Mataya turned 2! What a fast couple of years. We love our baby girl more than anything -except our baby boy. We love both our babies OK. Anyway, so my friend that taught second grade at my school last year (Kristi Godfrey) made the cake. It was amazing! I made cup cakes which were also mighty tasty. We had a small family gathering to celebrate her big day. She got so spoiled as usual. My sister gave her a little stroller to push her baby dolls around in and she LOVES IT! Whoa don't mess with a girl and her stroller. If McKoy even looks at it she gets mad and pushes it where she can enjoy it all to herself. I took her to the Doc yesterday which was a week after she turned 2 and here are her stats:

Weight 19 pounds 14 oz 0 percentile

Height 33.5 inches 41st percentile (applause for this please)

Head Circumference 44.5 2nd percentile (applause for this one too. First time on the charts for head)

She has gained 6 pounds since she turned one! Isn't that amazing! She looks so great! Everyone that sees her agrees she looks fine and is just going to be petite. What she lacks in body mass she makes up for in sass. She is seriously so funny! We love her guts to death. She isn't mean to other kids really. I think she is kind of scared of them but she is seriously mean to her brother. She will stomp a foot and slap the ground if he makes her mad. She doesn't talk a whole bunch but she can say Ba Ba No! She calls McKoy Baba. We don't know why but he responds, so she just keeps doing it. He loves her so much. He told me our next baby should be a girl so she can be just like Mataya. Too cute! Mataya loves being outside. McKoy got a little Cadillac Escalade when he turned 2 which Mataya loves to ride around in. She can't reach the pedal so McKoy drives and she rides until the battery dies. She also loves to ride bikes. She has a little seat on the back of my bike that was McKoy's but now she sits in it. She will go in the garage and cry by my bike until I take her for a ride. I love riding my bike so it works out well for both of us. She loves eating popsickles in the shower and playing with her princesses in there too. At bed time I'll say it is time for bed and she will say, "Dada Hide!" Then she and Kody will hide from me under a blanket so she doesn't have to go to bed. We have a little quote in her bedroom that reads "My finger may be tiny, but I can still wrap my daddy around it." When I see Kody play princesses or hide and seek, or jump on the tramp with her (that's right we got a new one) I melt. It's too cute. We thank our lucky stars we were blessed with our little peanut. Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!! (yes I know she can't read, but it felt like an appropriate way to end this post.)