New addition to the family.....

Last month we went up to my cousin's house in Northern Utah to pick up a piano. It originally belonged to my grandparents on my Dad's side and since there are only 7 grandchildren on that side of the family and none of them were married or had a house of their own at the time that they passed away, there was nowhere for it to go. So my cousin on my Mom's side offered to "store" it at her house.....and that's where it's been the last 12 or so years. We've been dying to get our hands on it for a while now since September and Kya have been taking piano lessons for a few years and for the time being all we had was a keyboard. Things never worked out to go get until.....until last month finally. When we got there, this cute itty-bitty kitty greeted us at the door. It was love at first sight! Now you have to understand, I am a cat-lover BUT I am very picky about cats that I like. We've actually had 3 cats since we've been married and long story short, for one reason or another none of them lasted very long. After the last one (about 6 years ago) we had decided for multiple reasons that we would just never do another cat.....or any other pet for that matter. But then I laid eyes on this sweet thing. I loved it and cuddled it while the men got the piano moved into the trailer. My cousin kept telling me I could take it if I wanted and I kept telling her, "No, no, we can't do animals." Then as we were getting ready to leave I was saying my goodbyes and then Matthew said those magical words that I'm sure he has possibly regretted every now and then since....."If you really want her you can have her." Oh crap! I couldn't say no after that! So the next thing I know we were off and there was an itty-bitty kitty on my lap! She slept pretty much the whole way home.

The kids were SOOO excited when they saw her. All of them were really nervous about holding her at first though. I love this picture of Kya "trying" to hold her.....

Look how awkward Ember is trying to hold her.

Could you BE any lazier? Seriously?!?

We named her Q-Tip because as you can see she has a dark tail with a little white tip. Mostly we just call her "Q". We considered a suggestion my friend made to call her "Finch" in homage to our first cat that she is a complete replica of. His name was Atticus from "To Kill a Mockingbird". We considered it for a while, but Q just seemed to fit and the name had already stuck with the kids.

Logan is often found snuggling with her.

She got STUCK jumping down off of Logan!

Not joking. It was hilarious!

Peyton absolutely ADORES her and the first thing out of her mouth every morning is, "Where's kitty?" So one morning I decided to take her to her. I went in and Peyton had apparently gotten too hot and had undressed herself!

Peyton would hold her non-stop if you let her. She's actually pretty good with her for a 2 year old.....all things considered.

So far she has been a GREAT cat. She can be very playful and fun, but she'll also just sit and cuddle with you. I have to admit, life feels a little more complete with a pet!

The fruits/vegetables of my labor

Take your pick on the title of this post. I'm still unsure whether people consider tomatoes a fruit or a vegetable. I'm convinced they are a vegetable, but they do produce seeds.....

Either way, these particular tomatoes were very exciting to me because they were from MY VERY OWN GARDEN!!! That's right, I planted a garden this year. O.k. so it only consisted of 3 plants, all of which were tomato, but still a garden nonetheless. I think next year we'll stick to 1 tomato plant and venture out into something else.....carrots maybe? I'm a big tomato-lover, but I think I got more than I bargained for with 3 plants. I was a little overzealous. Give me a break, it was my first garden!

The Flower & The Bee

I was mowing the lawn a couple months ago and had to stop and go get the camera to take a picture of this mushroom before I ran over it. It was all stretched out and looked like a flower. As I got in close to take a picture I spotted a bee trying to make its way over to it. Apparently it was so believable as a flower that it was attracting bees! ;)

Can you spot the bee???

Katie's baby shower

Laura, Sabrina (the hostess and she was actually not one of our childhood friends - we all met her in Jr. High), Katie, Angela, Tiffany

Back in August I went to a baby shower of one of my oldest friends, Katie. This is her first child and it has been quite the road for them to finally be at this point, so it was very fun to go and be a part of this very exciting time in her life. The guests came and went, but me and a few other of our very close friends from so many years ago stayed and chatted (and chatted and chatted) about old times.....talking about all of the different clubs we started, all of the weird things we did (I better not post them here!), and just all of the fun and funny memories we all had from back then. These are girls that I've known for almost 22 years! It was such a fun walk down memory lane and I hope I get the chance to do it again in the near future!

First day of school

The first day of school crept up on us this year probably faster than it ever has. Maybe because it started earlier than it ever has. Geez, I expect it to start in July within the next couple years or so!

September (9) - 4th grade: She continues to amaze us with her "smartness". She reads well beyond her reading level (she's currently in the middle of the 6th Harry Potter book), she flies through her math papers, and has become even more of an amazing speller! She is enjoying her new school and thinks it's pretty cool, but thinks it has a dumb name!

Kya (7) - 2nd grade: So far she is LOVING it! She has continued to love reading (and do very well at it) and has really taken a liking to math, and is becoming an amazing speller as well! She has adapted well to her new school and especially to not knowing anyone in her class when school started. She's already made a bunch of new friends.

Logan - Age 4 - Preschool: I have been taking Logan over to the Literacy Center here in Lehi. It's a free community program that is run by volunteers and focuses on early reading. So far they haven't done much, and sometimes it's frustrating because it's only 40 minutes long which is barely enough time to drop him off, come home, and go back and get him. But hey, it's free and he seems to enjoy it.....most days! And it gives him something to do.

Running to catch the bus. There was no need, we were there PLENTY early!

Annie & Kya

September & Ariel

Waiting to get on the bus.

One of Kya's best friends, Courtney (who is Ariel's little sister), is actually only in kindergarten this year. They started a week later, so we had to take more pics on her first day of school!

Kya & Courtney

IM Flash Open House

Every year Matthew's company (IM Flash Technologies) holds an Open House for friends and family members to come take a tour of the facility and see what they do there. It is a pretty fun day and they set up lots of different stations for the kids to learn things at....with plenty of candy along the way. Then they have a nice, big catered lunch....followed by little carnival games and activities outside....along with more candy and treats! Well, since the kids can never get enough candy, this is something they really look forward to. "Wow, Dad, this is where you work. Hmmm, interesting. Oh look, CANDY!!!"

Putting on the "bunny suits" that they have to wear in the "clean room". These suits help keep dust particles to a very minimum.

Reunited and it feel so good....

I had been missing my YW like crazy since being released in January! I have stayed in close contact with most all of them and they occasionally come to visit me, which is always a fun surprise. Some of them had mentioned doing a little reunion activity together in the summer which I thought was a great idea. One of my favorite activities (and the girls) was going to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point, so that's what we did. I was prepared to take tons of pictures as usual, but as it turned out all of the batteries that I brought were DEAD! We managed to get a couple pics on the last little bit of battery charge. Afterwards we came back to my house and roasted marshmallows and starbursts over our fire pit and just sat and told funny stories and giggled! At one point we were all on the trampoline together and laughing so hard and being so loud that Matthew and the kids could hardly hear the movie they were watching inside the house. Oops! I didn't want the night to end, and neither did they. Allie started saying we should do a sleepover, which I actually probably would have been all for if I'd have planned for it. It would've been a perfect night for it too because it was the night there was a huge meteor shower. But the night had to come to an end. We lost track of time and they were there til almost 11. We had such a fun night! One more memory to add!! I sure do miss and love those girls! I wish they all could have made it, but maybe next time. Trust me, there WILL be a next time!

Peyton's 2nd Birthday

We did another joint birthday party celebration for Peyton and Logan on the Cluff side. It was not extravagant at all and I got VERY few pictures (I usually go overboard), but it was a fun night!

Peyton lounging in her new "Tinkerbell" chair, who happens to be one of her favorite people in the world!

Peyton on her new tricycle. Now she'll hopefully stop stealing the neighbors little car ride-along toy!

Logan blowing out the candles on his cupcake.

Attempting to have Peyton blow out her candles. She was apparently more interested in the frosting.

We absolutely LOVE having Peyton in our family and can't imagine life without her. I wanted her so badly to be a boy (for multiple reasons), but now I don't know what I'd do without my baby girl. We affectionately call her our chunky monkey since she has quite the curvaceous little body for someone so small in stature (she'll be lucky to pass me up in height). It's hard to believe that she had such a hard time gaining weight when she was first born. (She lost a lot of weight after birth and wasn't back up to her birth weight until 3 months old!) That girl is an absolute bundle of energy and has more personality in her little finger than most people even have altogether. She is an absolute character. She is very curious and is constantly doing all sorts of naughty things as soon as I turn my back, but you just can't stay mad at her because the very next instant she is making you laugh SO hard! And she knows that she can make you laugh! She also does something I've never had an issue with with any of my other kids....she is a tattle-tale like you wouldn't believe! The second someone starts saying something that sounds like they're mad about something, she'll hurry and say, "Logan did it." Or she'll come to you and tell you what her sibling are doing whether it's naughty or not and expects to receive praise for doing this. She LOVES Hannah Montana and is often heard walking through the house belting out one of her songs. She also loves to sing and dance to The Killers, The Fray, and Green Day.... among others. She has a one-track-mind and is absolutely relentless about what she wants until she gets it. Hopefully someday this will come in handy. Right now it's just plain obnoxious! Some days we're ready to give her away.....for free, to the first taker. But most days we just can't get enough of her! We love our Pey Wey!!

Bear Lake summer fun

We usually have the reunion for my Mom's side of the family sometime in July up in Bear Lake, but this year it was August that worked best, and this year that date happened to land on Peyton's birthday. We weren't so sure we wanted to go at first because of this but it also happens to be my brother, Chuck's birthday, so what the heck. I have far too big of a family on that side to have a chance to really celebrate her individually (there were also about 5 other people there that had a birthday just within the week), but we did celebrate a little while we were up there, and then celebrated with Matthew's family when we got back. It turned out to be a pretty chilly day, so there was no going down to the lake this trip (dang!), but the kids did enjoy the usual favorites....

Playing in the boat converted sandbox.....

Playing on the big swing.....

Riding on the "train"......

And last but not least.....playing in the AWESOME array of dress-ups there are to be found at the Hirschi Hideout! Check out these glamor girls!!! ;)

(This one is actually my cousin's wife's wedding dress.)

They look like they just stepped out of the 90's!

First shave

For Logan's birthday we gave him a Car's themed "shaving kit". He wanted to get going on his manliness right away! His excitement was hilarious! What I find funny though.....is WHERE he gets the idea of shaving like this though. Matt does shave with a manual razor, but he doesn't do it in the "typical" fashion. (i.e. with shaving cream) Is it just in a boys nature??? Is this one of those things that boys are just BORN with the knowledge of? It sure seems like it.

And here he is clean-shaven. He looks a good 3 months younger without that 5 o'clock shadow!

Logan's 4th Birthday

My little boy is now FOUR years old! When did that happen??? He has grown up so much this past year it's been unbelievable! And I mean that in multiple ways. Physically he has grown quite a bit. He is very tall for a 4 year old and often wears size 5 and even 6 clothes. He is already at the height that Kya was when she was 5 years old.....and Kya was very tall (still is) for her age. I think this kid has the potential to be very tall....but thanks to me being his mother, I don't think he'll quite reach his Dad's stature. He has also grown so much socially and emotionally. He is a completely different kid than he was a year ago. And yet still so much the same. O.k. I admit it, he's a LOT like me......a walking contradiction. What do I mean by this? Well, he is such a happy kid, but he is also very moody. He can be very tough (he shows this by beating "things" up - not people thankfully), but he is also so dang sensitive. (Yep, our most sensitive child is our one and only boy!) He's very energetic, but he's also laid-back. He can be such a loner and loves to be by himself, but there are days you can not disconnect him from your side! With Logan you never know what you're going to get. He keeps us guessing that's for sure!! But we sure do love that kid! He definitely makes us laugh!


He is constantly getting the girls scooters out and riding them (which they're not very happy about), so we figured it was time to get him one of his own. I think he'd be out there all day if I let him!

Peyton always has to be a part of the action and since she doesn't have a scooter of her own, she'll find whatever other transportational-type item she can find. This car happens to be one of her favorites. It's the neighbors. She routinely "steals" it out of their garage.