She loves to Create

week in the life-day 5

here are a few photos from day 4 that i didn't post yet.

 
the girl, getting her hair cut

 
the oldest boy, surfing the internet

 
the youngest boy, playing ball with tara

 
pedi's for the girls

 
and then bbq at uncle mike's house.

 
top block. yum!!!

yesterday was a weird day. it started out beautiful, so we took the kids to the carson valley aquatic center. it was so stinkin' hot! loved it. the place had a few outdoor pools and several indoor pools with diving boards, slides and different things for kids. surprisingly, riley actually went off the high diving board!

 
crazy boy!

 
the girl loves to lay in the sun. she's just like her mama!

 
waterslide fun!

 
then the big boy drove us into town for pizza at wildhorse.

 
and while we were there, it hailed like crazy! weird little system rolled in and then rolled right back out!

 
pizza was super yummy, as usual!

 
wyatt, nonnie and i ended the day with watching big brother in nonnie's room.

another great day here in minden.

A Week in the Life-day 4

thursday was a busy day. it started out with getting up a bit early after staying up late wednesday night to take Kelsey to a hair appointment. that girl has got so much hair and it is so long! she had it completely layered. it totally thinned it out. it looks great! 

after a quick trip through the starbucks drive thru, we headed home to just hang out for a while. we took off at about 3:00 and stopped off at the brand new KTM store so Wyatt could drool over the dirt bikes. he had to settle for a sweatshirt instead! :) we dropped wyatt off at ming's chinese  while kelsey, mom and i went back to the salon for pedicures. a relaxing time was had by all. after, we took a quick trip to marshalls before heading home to get ready for dinner. 

dinner was awesome! we went to my Uncle Mike's house. he made the most awesome meal! we started with watermelon (a nice cool treat) and sausage with mustard for an appy. Dinner was bbq'd top block, potato salad, green salad, garlic bread and baked beans. yum! uncle mike is a great cook! it was great to go to his house and see his new place. 

that pretty much sums up our day. relaxing and fun! no pics with this post. i'm using my mac instead of mom's pc. i'll post pics tomorrow of friday's day. 

week in the life, day 3

the great thing about being at my mama's house, is that she is still on a pc so i can just plug my camera card into her laptop and post pics. yay! yesterday we spent a lazy morning trying to decide what it is that we wanted to do. first we went to the bowling alley, but they were closed. bummer. we decided to try the movies instead. we bought tickets to harry potter 7 3-d and i bought the kids d-box seats. more expensive, but more fun for them!

 
olive garden. it just opened here in carson city not long ago. kelsey loves the ravioli!

 

waiting for the movie to start. can you tell they are all comfortable and ready? so cute.

we killed some time and took the kids to the salon my mama goes to. wyatt got his mohawk touched up and kelsey got those little feathers in her hair.

 

thanks Megan. you did a good job!

after our activities yesterday, we came home and ate a light dinner and watched Salt. i'm not the biggest Angelina Jolie fan, but i have to admit that it was a good movie. i was exhausted last night and headed to bed right after.

the older kiddo's are a bunch of lazy butt's and are still in bed at 10:00am. riley is playing PS3. gonna get these kids up and head into reno for a little shopping and buffalo wild wings today!

A Week in the Life

so, i am doing Ali Edwards week in the life again this year. it just so happened that it worked out while we are on vacation at my mama's house for the week. kind of excited to do something a little different. it's still the same kind of thing i would do at home, but we are just in a different state. a warm, sunny state! i am loving that about this week. it's supposed to be in the 90's, so we will have some great outdoor shots. i found a community outdoor pool that we can go to. i know some time will be spent indoors, but i am loving this sunshine! best part of the morning? coffee outside on the patio before it gets too hot!

and this little guy is enjoying the shade on the patio with me. so cute, but i did put my feet up. i am a weenie when it comes to critters!

not the best photos, but i took them with my photo booth app on my mac. i did bring my camera, but forgot my camera cord. darn it! 

best part of yesterday for me was seeing my children run up and hug their nonny! i got photos of it, but you'll have to wait till after i put the album together next week. i'll share photos of my completed album. 

looking forward to a relaxing week in nevada and spending time with my kids and mama!

 

super long catch up post!

it's been too long since my last post. since then, the kids have finished the school year, we took our family vacation to maui and kelsey has already started cheer! our weather has not been really great lately, but when the sun is shining, i am at the pool. i feel like i need to take advantage of every bit of sun we get since we only have a few months of it! 

so, riley finished fifth grade. this was really difficult for me. the fact that all my kids are out of elementary school is so unreal. it seems like yesterday that i was walking wyatt into kindergarten while holding a three month old riley in a front carrier. my how time flies! I brought all my kids to the school a few days before the last so that i could get a picture of them with riley's teacher. mrs. bariao (tracy) taught all three of the kids first grade and then riley was lucky enough for her to move up to forth grade and loop to fifth! so cool to have started jacob wismer with her (wyatt in 1st) and end with her (riley in 5th).  this is her with all three of my kiddos...

and one of her and riley on the last day. i was a wreck!

kelsey looked beautiful for her 8th grade graduation. one of her best friends came to get ready together for the last day. they both looked great!

and amazingly, they both spoke during the ceremony!

we left the very next morning, bright and early for Maui. what an amazing time. the kids relaxed, jeff and i relaxed. i really just didn't want to come home! here are a series of photos from the trip.

a bunch of white boys on the first day. so manly!

my handsome boy wyatt

my riles got a little pink. this little fish can't keep sunscreen on since he's in the pool 24/7

purdy girl!

all the kiddo's at whaler's villiage.

riles and dad in the pool, practicing their snorkling.

a beautiful day comes to a beautiful end. love maui sunsets.

the next day, we snorkeled. SCUBA STEVE!

and this guy came up on the sand to say hi. so cute!!!

and we went to the maui ocean center. this place was awesome!

the jelly fish were so cool!

i can never get enough of watching the sun set!

the kids went boogie boarding.

the waited for good waves....

and occasionally got one!

we went to a luau that we had never done before called "the feast"

with many a photo op!

mama and her girl!

some real up-close entertainment!

just a beautiful production, all the way around!

we went to kihei for a day to boogie board, but the weather was nasty, so we grabbed lunch at a sports bar and headed back to our side of the island. 

we had great bbq at famous dave's.

we layed by the pool.....

and played in the pool. 

this was such a fun trip and i was not ready for it to end. back to reality we came! back to iffy weather and the constant..."i'm bored"! really? i'd ditch reality for that paradise any day! :) love me some maui! 

so we are trying to keep busy. the boys are riding this weekend. kelsey is enjoying time with friends. jeff is once again participating in the member/guest open at pumpkin ridge and i'm headed to the beach with my girlfriend sbd.jr. good time ahead for this weekend! more to come later!

 

 

 

it's birthday season!

i can't believe the birthday season is upon us! Wyatt turned 16 on May 28th. i can't believe i have a sixteen year old! crazy! here are a few pics from his birthday...

 nice hat buddy!

group shot! what a bunch of goofs! austin can never be serious! :)

the weather over the weekend was amazing! we were able to spend some time by the pool. it makes me long for summer even more. the nice weather disappeared again and we are back to clouds. total bummer. i did manage to get a few shots around the pool though.

love this kiddo!

the girl loves laying by the pool. she's just like her mama!

wyatt and jason headed out after all of kelsey's friends went home. they are so funny. i think i have a photo just like this one of the two of them in Kah-nee-ta. i should try and find it and post it. it's from a few years ago. would be funny to see how much they have changed.

a totally rare moment between the teens! i love this picture!

the little guy turned 11 today. i can hardly believe the baby of the family is growing this fast. it makes me happy and sad all at the same time! yesterday we had a party for him with his friends at Sky High. the kids love going there and jumping on the tramps. riley had gone to his friend sam's birthday that morning and they had all gotten rip city shirts. they all kept them on at riles party, so a lot of them still matched. so cute.

group shot!

kelsey worked on her jumps. that face is priceless!

a few of the neighborhood boys.

blowing out the candles on the cake that jeff and i tried to make look like a hockey rink. it looked great till it got smooshed with the foil. 

tonight, we are headed out to dinner with some family. riley already got his big present this morning before school. as with his brother and sister, he got a phone for this birthday. he will be in middle school in the fall and walking to school so all my kids got their phones the birthday before middle school. he is so excited!

next up? kelsey's birthday this sunday and then birthday season is over around here! whew! bring on summer!

 

 

 

 

 

weekend of hockey

this past weekend, jeff and i took riley up to vancouver for the challenge cup. what a great weekend of hockey. they played 6 games total. they won 4 of those six games and thankfully riley was not in the net for either of the losses. he would have taken it hard. they played yesterday for the bronze medal. it was a very physical, tough game. we lost a few boys during the game to injuries and one of the boys was ejected from the game for a bad hit. it wasn't intentional. he was really upset about it. it happened right after the game started and he pretty much missed the whole thing. there is a big rival between the two teams that played and the other team played really dirty. their coach is a dirtbag. at the end of the game, he wouldn't even shake hands with our players and coach. he just walked off the ice. a real class act! riley had an amazing game. he had a ton of saves and one very beautiful glove save that everyone thought surely was going in. NOT! :) he rocked the net for sure. 

these boys (and one girl) played their hearts out and i couldn't be more proud! 

we are headed into a holiday weekend. it's always a busy time of year as it is birthday season in our household. we kick it off this weekend with the oldest boys' 16th birthday! it's a biggie! can't believe my little man is growing up so fast! seems like he was born yesterday. time flies way to quickly! 

circle of life

this past week, kelsey had practice and try outs for the whs cheerleading program. they choose girls for three different squads. they have varsity, jv and jv2(freshman). kelsey was SO sore after the first night of practice. she hasn't been working that hard for a while and it was really kicking her in the butt. the practices for try outs started on tuesday and unfortunately by wednesday night, kelsey had a full blown cold, complete with a nasty cough and sore throat! poor thing. by friday evening, her voice was toast. she had to go into the gym and try and be as loud as possible, while feeling like crap! here she is before the try out, at home getting ready!

of course, she is not without her constant appendage, err...ah...phone! :)

after her try out, we raced home to pick up the rest of the family. friday was jeff's birthday and we had a winterhawks game to get to. sadly, it was the last game of their season. they were defeated by the kootenay ice. i am so proud of those boys though! they haven't made it this far in a very long time. anyway, kelsey and i hopped online as soon as we got home to see if they had posted the results of tryouts yet. they had, and SHE MADE IT! she is on the jv2 squad along with her friend makayla. she had this waiting for her in the office at school today...

the attached card says "congratulations Kelsey M, you've made the 2011-2012 JV2 squad. she was so excited! i am so proud of her. it really feels like yesterday that i was trying out for my high school cheerleading squad. i wonder if my Mom was as nervous as i was. 

we have a parent meeting tonight and her first practice is thursday. not even an official freshman and it's already starting. she is so stinking excited! Me toooooo!

this weekend is our last tournament in canada for riley's spring season. the challenge cup is always a fun tourney and by the looks of it, it will definitely be a challenge. we are playing some really good teams. 

this past week, wyatt upgraded his dirt bike. he went from an 80, to a 250. huge jump, but he certainly won't be growing out of it too soon. looking forward to getting some pictures of him on it at some point. he also invited a friend over to swim since we had some 70 degree weather. jeff heated the pool up and the kids have been asking to swim a lot, even in the rain! crazy kids. this is Wyatt with his friend Jadyn

nice girl. seeing them splash around in the pool is making me long for summer days by the pool. summer won't come fast enough for me! we will be starting our summer out with a trip to Maui, and then i am planning on getting some relaxing time by the pool.  until then, i'd better head back to the laundry room. ugh! story of my life!

 

the joys of boys

wyatt recently talked me into having a bunch of his friends over. he promised it would be the last sleep over before summer. yea, right! when i got up the next morning, i went into the guest room to get the vacuum and walked in on this...

half the boys had slept in here. when i walked in, the ones who had slept on the floor, hopped onto the bed for a photo! goofs! the other half of the boys were upstairs in wyatt's room, sound asleep. notice the time on the clock? yea, after 11:00! lazy butts.

the day turned out to be beautiful and we decided to barbecue for the first time this year. jeff made yummy ribs for the boys. riley enjoyed the heck out of them!

as did the rest of the boys who hung around for dinner.

jeff is truly a grill master!

we've been super busy lately, as always. trying to fit in time to create. it's hard. my craft room is still the "crap room" for right now. finding the time to get in and clean it up is darned near impossible! this week was staff appreciation, which i am co-chair of and we spent the week showering the teachers and staff with goodies, breakfast, lunches and today....ice cream sundaes and the drawing for the raffle baskets we put together. 

today's is also my friend Cindy's birthday. happy birthday cin! Plans for the weekend? Um....this!

 

oh, heck yea! winterhawks head into the final series before heading to the cup! so excited! they won the final game of the third round and became the western conference champs! so happy for them. so looking forward to this series! i will be at both games this weekend! come on out and support if you are local! 

month in a blur

it has been over a month since i last blogged. i've been crazy busy around here. in the last month, i have turned 40

been to canada for riley's last tournament for his winter season

been to my mama's in nevada for her birthday and went up to heavenly

attended riley's 5th grade performance. totally bittersweet as it is the last performance i will ever watch of one of my kids at that school. they were so cute

went to las vegas with some good friends and had a great time

view from our room

and while in vegas, i got my "be brave" tattoo 

i think it's a rule that your tattoo artist has to be a little whacky! 

after las vegas, we were home for less than 24 hours and took off for canada again for riley's first tournament of his spring season. they did pretty well. i still have yet to upload those photos. 

this month has gone by in a total blur. we just have been so super busy. we have a few weeks home and then our traveling starts all over again. jeff to vegas again with wyatt for super cross, me to palm springs, maui in june and a few trips to canada in between. 

if i could manage to stay home, i could probably get items listed in my store. as it is, i am playing catch up with word of mouth orders. 

off to try and tackle more laundry. it never ends!