The Backyard Beechers

October 2011

2011-11-08T22:54:00.001-08:00

Halloween 2011. My children had the best time ever. They love begging for candy, and are really good at it. Annie got 100 pieces, Ruston go 87 pieces and Lindsay got 68 pieces. I took it away the first night or I am sure Annie and Lindsay would have eaten it all and made themselves sick. Ruston has self discipline I am sure his candy will last forever. In fact I just put the rest of his July parade candy in the garbage.
We went indoor skydiving with our friends Brent and Tiffany to celebrate his fortieth birthday. It was awesome!
I got to go visit my sisters KayLyn and Crystal for a week. We had a fantastic time! We were able to spend two days in Nauvoo and a day in Chicago. It was so great to visit with them, and spend more time with KayLyn's girls.

Lindsay's new bike!
Ruston turned Seven. He loves building his legos and couldn't wait to put together his 1000 piece castle set.

We love Fall

2011-11-08T22:49:00.001-08:00

Ruston's Soccer

2011-11-08T22:42:00.001-08:00

Ruston played soccer this year. His team was the blue dragons. I guess all the kids must like dragons because we played the green, orange, and grey dragons. So much for an original name. It was a great season. He can't wait until the spring season starts.

Lava Hot Springs Sept 3-5

2011-11-08T22:33:00.000-08:00

We went to Lava Hot Springs over Labor day weekend. We went on an awesome zip line tour.

We took all the kids down the river, but Lindsay was the only one who wanted to do it again.

Fish Lake August 26-28

2011-11-08T22:26:00.001-08:00

Deer Hunt August 20th

2011-11-08T22:17:00.000-08:00

Rhett was unsuccessful, but we had a fantastic time. Ruston got to shoot his first gun.

Green River Rampage August 6th

2011-08-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

Cayden & Kanyon's first time repelling!

Half of our group repelled off of the arch at the end of the Negro Bill Hike in Moab. It was really fun to watch.

Story time in Arches National Park

The little hikers.

Rhett, Russell, Ramsay & Ruth competed in the Green River Olympic Triathlon. It was very inspiring!
They Swam 1 mile, Biked 25 miles, and Ran 6 miles!!!

It was an awesome day for the Beechers. Way to go! It was fun for Katie and Bob to have four of their children competing together.

Fishing at Mill Hollow July 30th

2011-08-11T06:46:00.000-07:00

The kids had a blast catching fish and eating snacks. It was a beautiful day.

Cokeville Wyoming July 24th

2011-08-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

We had another fantastic weekend in Cokeville. There is nothing like going to Wyoming to celebrate a Utah holiday.

Ruston is so proud of the hole he is sporting in is mouth.

The girls love camping out!

4th of July We Love Richfield & Grandma Lu

2011-07-07T21:36:00.001-07:00

June 2011

2011-06-26T20:19:00.001-07:00

June 25th The lehi parade was awesome this year! My kids loved it and got tons of loot. Thanks aunt Ruth for sitting in the hot sun with my kids.

Such talent displayed at the Alder family camp out June 17th!

Poor Lindsay she looks anything but comfortable!

Aunt Crystal painting nails even Rustons! Oh Boy! Nothing like Red and Pink nails to make a dad proud.

See what I mean about the talent!

We had a great time! It was fun to visit with everyone.

June 16 at the princess festival

Mindy was a great face painter all the kids loved it.

The day after school got out we headed to Lake Powell to start the summer off right!

May 2011

2011-06-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

Annie's first dance recital. She did great and loved preforming. She also graduated from preschool, but she will go again next year.

May 27th Happy 2nd Birthday Lindsay!

We went to Build a Bear Work Shop! The kids LOVED it and have done everything with their new little friends. I had to draw the line at taking them to the bathroom with them.
The proud new teddy bear owner. She was so excited to carry her own box. It took us a long time to get all the way to the car. When we finally made it we headed down to Fish Lake for Memorial Day Weekend.

Six kids six fishing poles and luckily twelve eyes!

Why sit at a table when you can eat in the dirt under Dean & Lori's camp trailer?
It was a little cold and windy but we had a great time!

A panda bear cake for her teddy bear birthday.

April

2011-04-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

Annie at dance class. She loves it!

April 11th our 10 year Anniversary

Spring Break

Alder Easter Egg Hunt always tons of fun.

We also celebrated my parents 40th Anniversary. It was a really nice day. Way to go Mom & Dad!

Easter Sunday

Annie's 4th Birthday

2011-03-03T13:39:00.001-08:00

Annie had the BEST birthday ever. She got to have 3 Princess parties!
We had so much fun Dancing and acting like real princesses. I can't believe how fast these kids are growing up! It was so much fun to watch her she was so excited about everything.

Tea Party

2011-02-07T00:38:00.001-08:00

Alyson Annie & Ivy

I was just looking at my pictures and realized I didn't post about the cute tea party the girls had with Grandma Kat over the break.
Annie just started preschool and dance. She loves it and can't wait to go to school everyday like Ruston. My kids are all growing up to fast. About a week ago Lindsay was sitting in the high chair saying MOM and I would say what and she would say MOM and I would say what This went on and on so I stopped answering and she tilted her head looked directly at me and said Janice! She is so funny and smart.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-10T08:56:00.001-08:00

We had a super busy and FUN Christmas Season. Here are the cracker houses the kids made.
The kids wanted to eat them that night and I told them no that much sugar would make them sick. So when it was time to eat them Ruston looked and me and said, so is this a good day to get SICK? I had no idea what he was talking about it was funny how concerned he was about it being ok to get SICK. I finally caught on to what he meant and said sure you have 10 mins to eat as much candy as you can and then they are going in the trash. He couldn't finish is house before he had had enough. Annie on the other hand ate all of hers and half of Lindsays!

The kids had a great time making sugar cookies. I found a fantastic frosting that works like easy cheese cans it was so smooth!

Alder Super Saturday

After the Alder party Lindsay cut her finger on a glass Christmas tree bulb. She came to me really calm and placed her thumb on my arm I looked down and saw all the blood dripping off my arm and raced her to the bathroom. I could not get it to stop bleeding and it was really deep so off the the ER we went. She fell asleep on the way there but she ripped the bandage I had put on off so blood was just dripping down her coat for 20 mins. She looked like a war scene by the time we got to the doctors. It took seven stitches to close her thumb up. All the nurses were eating her up as she calmly watched with interest as they stitched her up and she kept saying thank you to them. What a brave little girl.

Christmas EVE

Rusty & Ruth

I made a quilt out of Ruston's baby shirts.
Ruston built his 600 piece pirate ship by following 48 pages of instructions. What determination I only helped a little.
I repainted a toy box for Annie to store all of her dolls and dresses.
We had a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas eve we were in the bathroom brushing our teeth getting ready for bed and Ruston looks and me very seriously and asked "Mom am I going to have sugarplums in my head tonight. Before I could answer his 7 year old cousin Eli says Ya! (Like how could you even question it) It was so funny. So the next morning I asked him if he did have sugarplums in his head he simply said yep.
We were all sitting around the dinner table and Ruston said, How come Lindsay has ELK teeth. None of us got it and then five mins later Grandpa said do you mean BUCK teeth? Ya why does Lindsay have BUCK teeth? We all had a good laugh. My Ruston is so funny.

The first Snow

2010-12-05T13:52:00.001-08:00

An Alder Thanksgiving

2010-12-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

We had a great time thank you Dean & Lori for hosting this year! KayLyn we missed you

Indians

2010-11-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

With Halloween over we are ready for Thanksgiving. We had a play date and were Indians.

We made fun headbands and necklaces, then we built a super fort. The boys had a fantastic time hunting for food and the girls had a great time cooking it.

Annie of course was an Indian Princess!

I love this time of year because it reminds us of how much we have to be thankful for. We have been so blessed with wonderful family and friends. We love you all so much. Life is good!

Halloween

2010-11-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

We had a great time carving pumpkins this year. Ruston even stuck his hand inside once! He was much more daring than last year.
Annie wasn't scared she jump right in and pulled the guts out!

Lindsay was ready for a nap this was the best picture of her

We made Sugar cookies and I made sure we didn't give any that Annie made away. She was a finger licking candy touching monster. They even made me a little cautious watching her decorate the cookies.

Too bad she didn't like the red hots they were her favorite thing to decorate with. After she had completely covered about four cookies she tried one candy and spit it out I tried to warn her but she wouldn't listen then she wanted to eat Ruston's cookies.

Ruston got to walk in his first Halloween parade. Too bad he was running past and his pictures were blurry. He was a cute little blue dragon. Here are the girls watching all the costumes. Annie was looking for princesses like her.

One more attempt with the pumpkins look close at Lindsay's face in this one too funny!

Oh Lindsay!

My cute little Dorthy and she just loved caring her dog around

Yes that little tiny hair stickying out is an attempt at Dorthy pigtails

The church Halloween party

Lindsay and Skylee

The Beecher gang out trick or treating

Happy Halloween! Annie wanted to go in every house and sing them a song and show off her beautiful dress. I told her we just ring the doorbell we don't go in and every time she would tell me, "they want me to come in they can't wait to see my dress!"

Legos & Pirates

2010-10-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUSTON 6

I made lego cakes for the family parties and a pirate one for his little friend party.

What a mean group of pirates! We had a super time acting like pirates. We were really loud and played lots of fighting games like cannon ball pop!

They made hooks out of tinfoil and had to dig up a treasure. All the kids had a great time! I have heard from several of the mothers that they have been playing pirates at home too.

I can't believe that you are Six! I Love you Ruston

Lake Powell Sept 24-30

2010-10-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

We got home at 2:30 am Rhett left for work at 4:30 am he worked two shifts and we left at 7:00 pm 41 hours later to drive 6 hours back down to Lake Powell with Rhetts work friends for another awesome week. This time with the kids.
Ryan Jackie & Ruth Nate stopped by to spend a day on the way back from Sunny's wedding

I love this family picture.
It was a great trip, and this tube was awesome because you could get major air and it wouldn't flip over.

Kalee and Annie had a great time playing together

Rainbow Bridge

Fishing Fun

Tiffany and Annie

We found some really cool caves

I learned to surf in the dark

Lake Powell is our favorite place and we just can't get enough of it.

Couples Trip Sept 17-21

2010-10-18T10:04:00.000-07:00

I missed my kids so much and couldn't wait to come home and see them when I go home there was the cutest little notes on my door. They were priceless!

Rhett and I had never wake boarded together before it was so fun!

Rhett and all the guys tried to do back rolls this trip. It as awesome to watch. Kitt landed 4 successfully!

A highlight of each trip is watching Rhett fly off the Wake Skate into the air.

OUR GROUP

Attempting a flip

Ruston started School

2010-09-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

Why look good when we can look like us! Look close at this picture it is really a fun one.

He was so excited for his first day of Kindergarten. Annie had to have her back pack and be in the pictures too!
I can't believe that he is already big enough to go to school. I cried a little when I dropped him off. Annie told me that when she is big enough to go to school I can cry for her too.

Lindsay is walking!!!!!

2010-08-25T20:25:00.001-07:00

Lindsay's lst Corn

Rhett let Lindsay start feeding herself and now she won't let me help her, oh what a cute MESS!

.Annie asked why I was taking pictures of Lindsay and I told her is was because she was a mess and Annie said well I am a mess take a picture of me so here it is.

My baby is finally walking. Actually she is like five days early. Ruston and Annie waited until they were 15 months and Lindsay will be 15 months on the 27th. She is cruising all over the house picking up whatever she can find and taking it with her. It is so fun to watch her grow up

Alder Family Campout Aug 20th

2010-08-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

Jessica & Crystal

Annie & Haylee

Kamden, Mindy, Adam & Gavin

(Bambi (Jessica), Annie, & Haylee

Lindsay & Haylee

Lindsay had so much fun riding this little tractor all around!

Hollee & TanaLyn

Sheridan & Gavin

All the kids had a blast riding this little four wheeler

Ruston, Rhett, & Audrey

Sheridan & Gavin

Audrey

Camille & Annie

We made stick horses

Jessica, Nate, & KayLyn

Haylee, Dad, & Sheridan

Mindy lead us on a fantastic hunt for the Bubble Gum tree. The kids all loved it!

Ruston Loved his snake, and I think Jessica and Haylee ate and swallowed at least 10 to 15 pieces of Gum. Their poor tummies.

Jan & Rhett

Audrey, Haylee & Dean

Brian

It was so fun to have everyone in my family come. Hope we can do it again next year!

KayLyn spent the night and we took the kids over to Thanksgiving Point Gardens.

Bear Lake Aug 14th

2010-08-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

We went up to Bear Lake for an Alder reunion. It was great to see my Aunts & Uncles. It was nice to visit with Grandma Alder and just relax while the kids played in the sand.

Cokeville Wyoming July 24th

2010-08-06T13:38:00.001-07:00

Lindsay Annie Haylee Audrey waiting for the parade to start.

I took a ton of pictures trying to get Lindsay to look but she just kept crawling away. That's right she is fourteen months old and still not walking. Ruston and Annie were both 15 months before they would walk and I have decided that Lindsay is going to follow in there footsteps.
I didn't get one good picture but this one was pretty funny. Maybe saying CHEESE before the picture is not the best idea after all.

Payson Lakes July 6,7,8

2010-07-18T13:49:00.000-07:00

We went directly from Richfield to Payson for the Beecher Family camp out. It was awesome and peaceful up in the Mountains. It was so wonderful to have two straight weeks with Rhett. Annie and Ivy were so cute playing together the whole time. They couldn't walk without holding hands and standing side by side. They were really impressed and worried about the pit toilets. Telling each other to hold on tight and not fall in. They named them COW pottys for some reason, and now every time Annie goes to the bathroom in public place she wants to know if it is a COW potty, and is disappointed when it is not. Rhett and I were the proud winners of our very competitive kee wee races. Sorry for all the slide shows but it seemed like the easiest way to update all my pictures.

Richfield 4th of July

2010-07-18T13:38:00.001-07:00

Going to Grandma Lu's is always fun. The fourth of July is her holiday and we would never miss it! We came back from Lake Powell on Friday July 2 at 11:30 pm cleaned up and went to Richfield on the Saturday the 3rd. It was so good to play with everyone.

Lake Powell June 25th

2010-07-18T13:05:00.001-07:00

We had the best time ever in Lake Powell! It is my favorite place to go. I had over 500 pictures so here is just a small peek at our trip the last week in June. Lindsay is truly our Lake Powell baby. She was a perfect angel even while cutting her first two teeth.

Tri Triathlon

2010-06-08T20:16:00.000-07:00

Rhett was practicing for another Triathlon. This is what happened when I told the kids they could get their toes wet. They were obeying really well until Annie fell all the way it and then it was a water fight. They loved having to ride home in their underwear. The water was to cold for Lindsay but she wanted to get in too. Instead she ended up eating sand while I was taking these pictures.

Rhett's Third Triathlon.

They had a really exciting race to the finish, way to go Babe! Check out how intense Rhett's face is he was not about to let this guy pass him.

Fish Lake Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

We LOVE Fish Lake!

The kids had a blast. Ruston caught fish. One was completely by himself we weren't even paying attention or helping him it was awesome.

MY Baby is ONE!

2010-05-27T22:18:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday Lindsay!!!
I made a Flower cake for the Beecher Party and a Duck cake for the Alder party. Lindsay loved it! At first she didn't know what to do I had never just given her cake before but she figured it out and really enjoyed it. If you look really close at the bottom right picture you can see the little baby pig tails. They were pretty funny looking but I couldn't let her turn one without at least trying to fix her hair. I can't wait until she gets some!

Ruston's Preschool graduation day. I am so proud of Ruston he is such a sweet boy I am going to be so sad when he starts school in the fall. He did really well singing all of his preschool songs at the graduation.

Green River

2010-05-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

Kallie was so good to play with Annie. Annie followed her around all weekend wanting to hangout with her every second.
Ruston had the best time ever racing around on the little four wheeler!

Sand Sand Sand who doesn't love Sand?

These two were so cute riding around up and down the little hills.

Lindsay's first chip. Still no teeth!

Grandma Lu & Graduation

2010-05-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

Happy 87th Birthday Grandma LU!

Grandma Lu just turned 87 but still goes golfing every chance she gets. So to celebrate her birthday we had a birthday party at the Richfield golf course.

Rhett Graduated from with his Masters degree in Business on May 1st from the University of Phoenix. Way to go honey I am so proud of you!

Racing Rhett

2010-04-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

I am so proud of Rhett!!! He has been working on his physical fittness for the last few months. He has completed P90X and recently raced in two Triathlons. He has lost 40 pounds and looks GREAT! His starting weight was 212 and he is now down to 172. Way to go BABE!

His supporters

This was his last Triathlon in Orem last weekend. He shaved 15 mins off his St. George triathlon.

I am grateful for Rhett's motivation I decided if he could be motivated so could I. I don't have any big triathlon plans but I just completed P90X and feel good about my results. I have lost 18 pounds! I am enjoying taking the kids swimming and on bike rides. Oh and Jessica if you are reading this your old black bike that you got when you were fifteen is still working great Thanks I am still using it.

Easter, Arches & an Anniversary

2010-04-13T22:28:00.000-07:00

We were really busy making things for Easter. My kids loved to die the eggs. Ruston Dyed his fingers green and said "Now I look like Shrek."

They were so excited about the Bunny cake especially when I pulled the candy out to decorate it. What a fun tradition Grandma Alder started. Ruston drew a picture of a bunny for instructions. It was so cute he kept saying make sure you look at my instructions before you do the next part.
We even made bunny sugar cookies.
Stuffing the eggs for the big Alder Easter Egg hunt. One of my favorite Alder traditions my Dad always does a great job hiding them.
Lindsay's first Easter

We decided to take the kids to Arches National Park. It was a lot of fun.

I had a lot more pictures but you get the idea. I can't wait for summer so we can be outside all the time and go camping. Every time I think it is Spring it snows again like today. Rhett and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary on the 11th of April. The weather was nice on our wedding day but the next day we woke up to snow. Last night we stayed down town for our anniversary and when we woke up you guessed it there was snow.

2010-03-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

My Baby is 10 months old today!!! She is crawling and already into everything. I can't keep paper objects away from her some how she always finds them or my three year old gives them to her. Life just got even busier for me, but she is adorable I love her so much.

Lindsay picking on her cousin Skylee

KayLyn came to town so I got to meet her new baby Emily. What cute sisters.

Grandma Alder came down to visit with KayLyn and Nate.

I took my three kids to fly kites by myself what was I thinking??? Annie wanted to run toward the street the whole time Ruston wanted me to help him keep his kite in the air and Lindsay was crying because it was windy and cold. We didn't last very long, but Ruston said it was fun so I guess it was worth it.

Fun Trip Pics

2010-03-01T10:07:00.000-08:00

As I was looking at the blog pictures I realized that I was missing a few of my favorites.
Look closely at Ruston's face it was his first roller coaster. PRICELESS! He was a trooper he tried all the roller coasters he was tall enough for at least once.

Grandma Kat bought Ivy and Annie matching princess dresses for their birthdays. Annie's face was so adorable as she looked in the mirror with her new Cinderella dress on.Cinderella was Annie's favorite princess. She took a few minuets to talk with her and Annie was just dancing with excitement. It was so fun!

Tinkerbell and Snow White waiting patently for their turn.

California Vacation

2010-02-25T08:07:00.000-08:00

We had the best Vacation ever!!! First we went to Sea World to visit Shamu.

All of the shows there were amazing the kids loved them.

Lego Land was so cool. Everything was made out of millions of little legos.

Here we are in Mini Town. They had lots of the popular cities made out of you guessed it Legos. It was awesome with moving cars, trucks, and boats.

Annie's first time going alone on a ride. She even put her hands in the air it was so cute.

We were lucky enough to spent three days at Disney Land.

My Princess

Mickey Mouse's house

Annie was a lot more excited to visit Mini Mouse at her house. In fact she didn't want to leave when it was time to go see other things.

All the girls ready to visit with the Princesses

Snow White was Ivy's Favorite

Annie liked Sleeping Beauty's Pink dress. It was so fun and Magical for Annie. Her eyes lit up and she was dancing around with excitement when it was her turn to meet them. It made my day to she how much Annie was enjoying her visit with them.

Now to Ruston's favorites.

Our group outside of the Bugs Life 4D Movie. (Which was my favorite! It was awesome)

We got to go to Lego Land Twice. Annie and Ivy loved the horses.

Rusty Isaac and Eli with Mr. Incredible

Universal Studios was neat they had lots of characters to visit with right as we walked in the park.

Since we have been home both Ruston and Annie have been talking about the shark at universal so it must have been a little too scary for them.

Annie's Third birthday the day we got back.

2010

2010-01-17T14:49:00.000-08:00

Oh how I love my GIRLS

I wasn't going to post about Christmas seeing how it is almost the end of January but I couldn't pass up this funny picture of my kids Christmas night do they look ready for bed or WHAT!!!
Annie was so tired that she went down stairs and fell asleep on top of Ruston's Toys she has never done that before she must have been so worn out!
Lindsay 7 months playing with her new Christmas toy that makes lots of NOISE What was I thinking?? Actually it is great because it keeps her entertained.
A trip to the Aquarium. Both my kids love to see the fish so we go quit often.
My cute girls on New Years Eve ready to Party
Sledding at Aunt Lori's house.
Ruston & Audrey
Annie is having so much fun she can almost taste it YUCK!
I think that Banjo had as much fun as the kids

We Love Christmas Time!

2009-12-17T08:58:00.000-08:00

We have been doing lots of little Christmas Crafts and every day Ruston kept asking when we could make our graham cracker houses. So here they are. For anyone who knows Annie everything has to be a princess so naturally she wanted to make a castle.
Ruston's comes complete with even a fire to keep warm. It was really cute how detailed he was about what he wanted to create. (by the way Ruston did his own hair doesn't it look GREAT!)

We Wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-16T15:51:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Catch up time

2009-12-08T06:03:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Grandma Lu this year it was really fun.

Lindsay is starting to sit up by herself!

Lindsay's first time swimming

She did great but was happy to get out and get warm and cozy

BOO!

2009-11-02T17:22:00.000-08:00

Party at Beth's

Annie looked so cute, but she complained that it itched so we switched to Tinker Bell Skylee & Lindsay's first Halloween!

Annie wore her Tinker Bell 4 days in a row so I got to try a few different hairstyles.

Pirates and Fairies. The dress Lindsay has on was my Tinker Bell costume 26 years ago.

Ready to go and get the CANDY

We had such a fun Halloween Week!

Leaves are Falling

2009-10-19T22:11:00.000-07:00

I love fall. The change in the weather, the leaves, and sweatshirts. We went for a fun drive up American Fork Canyon on Saturday it was beautiful!!!

Three Cakes and a Wedding

2009-10-10T15:11:00.001-07:00

Ruston's birthday was on Sunday October 4th, so to celebrate I ended up making 3 cakes a robot and 2 dinosaurs. The first dinosaur had it's tail pointing down Ruston said "mom what's wrong with it tail" I had no idea that the direction of it's tail could make such a big difference. The next day when I made the dinosaur cake for his kids party the first thing Ruston said was "Mom you fixed it's tail now it looks like a REAL dinosaur." One week before Ruston turned five I was trying to get him excited about his birthday and turning five thinking that he would love it because last year he wanted to be five so bad, but instead he looked at me and very seriously said "Mom can I please be 69." I laughed so hard what a funny kid. The other day I had taken the girls in the stroller on a long walk Ruston wanted to ride his scooter. On the way back after we had been walking for a while Ruston was really slowing down he said "Mom wait up I need to get worn in," not understanding what he meant I said come on Ruston lets go I am ready to get home and he said with a bunch of attitude,"Mom I am like totally worn out so I need like ten mins. to get worn in so I can go fast! Oh how I love my little guy. October 9th was Crystal's big day. My brave little sister trusted me to do her hair and luckily it turned out the way she wanted. I actually had a lot of fun doing it and it was great girl time.

The happy couple! All the Alders
My family is getting so BIG it was supper that everyone was there including week old Kamden

Hollee Ruston Audrey

Annie wants to be a princess every single day so she was really excited to see princess Crystal

Mom & KayLyn made all of the cute little dresses

Annie was a real challenge to take pictures of she wouldn't put her hands down or look at me, but she still looked cute.

More smiles

Beecher Lake Powell Trip

2009-09-15T22:04:00.001-07:00

We started out our trip by hitting a little bat. It was a really loud thump for such a small bat. Driving around looking for the perfect camp spot
I love that this is the first day and Annie already looks like we have been there a week. Her hair was so tangled poor girl.

Cute Ruth lost her bandanna the first day maybe next time she will take it off before going tubing

Second day already to PLAY!

SAND SAND everywhere even in my nice clean Hair.

Right after I gave Annie a bath she was dumping buckets of sand over her head

Boats are perfect for a nap

Saul Eli Jessica Annie Isaac Jackie Alyson

Nate Ruth

We had a blast playing king of the tube. Rhett had a slight advantage with Nate's broken finger.

Just chillin at beautiful Lake Powell
Trying to catch some rays, but they must have been hiding because nobody got very tan or burnt
Awesome hike up Hole in the Rock. We went on a few little hikes. Ruston loved to explore everything.
My Lake Powell baby had another fantastic trip

These are just a few of the pictures I took we had so much fun. I can't wait to go back next year!

Fish Lake

2009-09-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks Grandma Lu for the fun time at Fish Lake we love you!

Our Life in August

2009-08-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday August 16th Bob & Katie just got back from a trip to Hawaii!Isn't this little outfit so cuteThe purple girlsLindsay's new playmate Skylee is finally here My new hair color for those of you who haven't seen me yetRuston's first day back to preschool

Bedtime Stories/giggles

Lake Powell

2009-08-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic time in Lake Powell!!! It is our favorite place to go, Ruston has been asking me every day for a whole year when we could go to Lake Powell again. We really made the most of it wake boarding, tubing with the kids, and hanging out on the beach.We hiked up to Rainbow Bridge. If you can't tell this is Ruston's Pirate face. Ruston and I had a priceless discussion one night about Peter Pan and how he loves Lake Powell too. The next day we were cruising around and he spotted a big house boat with a Pirate Flag boy was he excited about that.

I was a little nervous to take our ten week old baby to sit in the HOT SUN with the SAND and wind but she did awesome. She was happy almost the whole time and slept way better in the tent and boat then I ever imagined. It was truly a vacation! And boy did I need it! Rhett was wonderful to help me out with the older children and we all loved spending quality time with him. The kids were really sad when we got home and he had to go back to work/hunting. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Summer Just Started

2009-08-16T22:05:00.000-07:00

I had my TEN year High School Reunion the end of July. It was fun to walk through good old Granite with some of my friends. I loved high school, life was so worry free, but I would not want to go back.You are not suppose to step on the seal but since they are going to destroy the school what could it hurt.It was fun to giggle with the girls again

I feel like my summer just got started even though it is coming to an end. We had a great time with the Beecher family while Russ & Jessica were in town. Thanks Bob & Katie for spoiling us!

We went to Timpanogos Cave and the kids did awesome on the hike up Ruston kept up with the Big Boys and didn't complain until we were going back down which I thought was funny because it was a lot easier then going up. He kept saying Mom my legs are just too wore out.We also hiked up to a waterfall in American Fork

My kids love to party and man we have been living it up! We just got back from a trip to Lake Powell I will post pictures later. I am having so much fun I hate to see summer end.

July Fun

2009-07-29T21:57:00.001-07:00

We went with Bob & Katie up to Cascade springs for a little nature walk.Here we are ready to go to the South Town Expo to see all the parade floats. They had some really cool floats this year.Ruston and Annie were so excited to sleep in their new tent with their new sleeping bags!Outside movie party with POPCORN thanks to RhettJust hanging out at the Cokeville paradeAfter the parade it got a little windy and cool but the kids still wanted to play in the stream
I love this picture of Adam and Gavin (Who is having fun and who has had enough?)

Thanks for the fun weekend!!!

Lindsay's Blessing

2009-07-13T10:31:00.000-07:00

We blessed Lindsay on July 12, 2009. My wonderful Mother made this beautiful dress for Melanie's blessing and I was excited for Lindsay to wear it also. I am so happy that Rhett was able to bless her he did a great job. I feel so blessed and happy to have such a great husband and father to my children. Thanks everyone for coming to support us. We had a great turnout our family filled up half of the church and it was really fun to visit with everyone. (KayLyn & Jessica we missed you guys and your families!)

Hey Mindy thanks for the collage idea it is a great way to post a ton of pictures

2009-07-12T21:46:00.000-07:00

We had a great time in Richfield for the fourth. Grandma Lu always puts on a great PARTY!!!

We played from sun up until after dark golfing, swimming, soccor, four wheelers, parades, and fireworks. What a BLAST!!

The kids got these fun kits from Home Depot after the parade they had a great time building them. Annie wanted to paint hers all by herself and did a great job.

One Month Old

2009-06-27T18:50:00.001-07:00

A lot of things have changed in the last month for one thing it takes three times longer to leave the house these days. We love our new little girl and are so glad she is here. Summer is my favorite time of year I love to be out playing. We were able to take the kids fishing, to the lehi rodeo & parade, and to several parks to play. I can't get enough of it. Lehi Parade
Annie wanted to bring her purse to the parade and it was great to hold all of her candy. (Which she was eating as fast as she could)

Rusty was so excited to see Santa Clause at the parade it was really cute and kept asking all kinds of questions about why Santa was watching the parade with us.

Family of Five

2009-06-27T18:17:00.001-07:00

One little, two little, three little beechers!
A little girl to love and cherish!

Where did the last two weeks go?

2009-06-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks of pregnancy took FOREVER, and now Lindsay is alread two weeks old. Her is her first bath at home.

One week old

Annie got a lovely bump on her head in a bouncy house but she still looks pretty

Our proud "BIG" brother

Jessica's kids are in town for a week while she is at girls camp so Jackie hosted a big sleepover for the boys and the girls got to party it up at Grandmas.

Two Weeks old

Baby Lindsay Is FINALLY Here!!!

2009-06-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

After waiting for our baby to come for what seemed like an eternity she is finally here. We are so excited to have her join our family. Ruston keeps saying "now we have a family of five, right Mom, there are five in our family now." Five is his favorite number. In fact he wanted to skip four all together and just be five. Anyway now to the delivery story.

So my doctor stripped my membranes three different times in hopes that this baby would come sooner, but we had no luck and scheduled an induction date for her due date May 27th. We checked in to the hospital at 11:00am. The nurse didn't think the baby was head down so she did an ultra sound, and the baby's head was still not down in the pelvis. She said I had an extreme amount of water which is probably why the baby hadn't dropped. My doctor came in at 2:00pm and tried twice to break my water. He couldn't do it even with his long stick. It was really painful so at that point I decided to get the epidural. The anesthesiologist had to do it twice (LUCKY me). After the epidural was in life became easier I laid around for four more hours. Then a little after six my doctor came back to break my water again. He was able to break it this time and he called me Lake Powell because there was so much water that it was running over the bed on both sides. After all the water was out things turned into an ER show. The cord slipped down under the baby's head the doctor tried for a few minutes to push it back up but then decided that I needed an emergency C-section. So the drama began with nurses ripping the cords out of the wall, undoing my IVs, running my bed into every door and wall possible until we reached the operating room. It was crazy, and I went into shock my body would not stop shaking. When we got to the operating room they were working quickly to remove the baby and sanitize everything. They knocked me out using my epidural IV, I am so glad I didn't have to stay awake during the procedure. There is nothing like watching your hands and legs shake uncontrollably. Two hours later I woke up hurting, itching, and shaking.

Lindsay was born at 6:48pm. (about 10 to 15 mins after the doctor said C-section) It was so quick Rhett didn't get dressed in time to see the baby come out. Lindsay was in shock from being removed so quick she had some fluid in her lungs and needed an IV, so I didn't get to hold her until around 11:00pm after they cleaned me up and moved me to my hospital room. She looked so beautiful when they handed her to me. No birth marks or cone head I guess there are some benefits to a C-section. She was only 7lbs 7oz and 19 inches long. We were expecting a much larger baby, I guess all the water made me measure bigger.

The doctor wanted me to stay in the hospital four days, so I was able to come home Sunday afternoon. We are so thankful to have a healthy beautiful baby girl.

Thanks for watching the kids Crystal

Rachel

Ruth & Nate

Big brother Ruston

Annie & Lindsay
Our sleepy girl

Grandpa & Grandma Alder

A big thanks to everyone who helped with my kids while I was in the hospital!

Rick's Wedding

2009-05-22T22:49:00.001-07:00

It is about midnight and I am having some painful contractions. (Keep your fingers crossed) I thought I might as well blog about today's wedding events. Congratulations Rick and Camille after years of waiting you finally got married!The Draper temple was really nice. Camille's family was telling everyone that Rick swept Camille off of her feet. If you were there you know what I mean.Grandma Alder & Annie waiting for the Bride & GroomFinally a smile from AnnieAudrey & Gavin playing with the little fishRusty & Audrey dancing the night away! Audrey was really cute asking Ruston to dance with her, Ruston was a little crazy I was afraid he might hurt her dragging her around the dance floor, but she couldn't get enough of it.The happy couple sharing their Wedding Cake Congratulations Guys we love you! Have a fun Honeymoon

Happy Birthday Oakley

2009-05-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

Farm Fun for Oakley's 2nd Birthday! I love how none of these kids are looking at me. I was trying so hard to get their attention. My cute Buckaroos!

Cute country girls who thought the chickens were

TOO STINKYThis baby really needs to come before I Pop

Levi & Annie

We need to get Rusty around horses more often he did not want to ride the little pony. (Doesn't he look happy)

Annie was loving it smiling the whole time

Check out the difference in my children. Annie is feeding the pony with her hands

Ruston is dropping his on the ground far away from the pony

Thanks Greg & Rachel for the supper fun party!

Spring is in the AIR

2009-05-05T17:39:00.000-07:00

Grandma Kat took all her grand kids to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point. The flowers were beautiful! It smelled wonderful too.

Ruston and Annie have been playing with their babies a lot lately getting excited for our our new baby to come. Ruston is constantly asking me how much longer we have to wait. Lately I am feeling his impatience I can't wait for this baby to come, I am so tired of being pregnant!

Our First Camping Trip in 2009

2009-04-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

Ruston loves camping and has been asking to go for weeks. So Monday for family home evening we had a little cook out in the backyard after Rhett's game.Rick was kind enough to start our fire for us, and help the kids cook their hot dogs while Rhett set up the new picnic table we got for the kids.Then on Friday night we got to go REAL CAMPING. It was a lot of fun! We went to Cherry Creek with the Kitt, Brittney & the kids. They were kind enough to let us sleep in their trailer because it was freezing outside. Kallie who is eight drove us around on the Mule all day long. Annie loved it and didn't want to get off.
Rhett and Kitt got a good ride in while the kids played around camp

Annie got a little sunburned on her head and cheeks. I guess it is time to purchase the Sunblock. I felt like such a bad Mom for not bringing any.

HAPPY EASTER

2009-04-12T20:26:00.001-07:00

Our Kids had a great time finding their Easter Baskets in the morning! Annie ate most of her candy before ChurchAfter dinner we made these super cute baby chicks in nests
Even Ramsay wanted in on the fun!!!

Annie really captures the magic and excitement of the egg hunt

Rhett and I just celebrated our 8th Wedding Anniversary! Where did the time go? We went to Wendover to watch Lorrie Morgan in concert. It was really fun and a nice break from the kids. Here's a big shout out to Lori & Dean for taking our kids over the weekend.

Here is what we looked like eight years ago.
Unfortunately I think we have aged and put on a few pounds

Is Spring really here?

2009-04-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

Ruston has been begging to go camping for a few weeks now. We keep telling him that it is still to cold, but he insisted that we at least picked up his camp chair from Grandma Alders. It has been the toy of choice for 3 days now. He has played pretend camping for hours roasting imaginary marshmallows and setting up pretend tents. Notice that they have there winter coats on even though it looks like spring outside.Coloring Easter Eggs!

Most of our eggs are cracked because Annie loved to squeeze them until they broke. She had so much fun moving the eggs around and putting stickers on them.

I let her have the yellow because I thought it would be the easiest to clean up if it got spilled, but she soon realized how fun it was to dip the eggs in all the colors, and amazingly we didn't have any spills, probably because I was standing over her the whole time (which she didn't like, she is little miss independent and didn't want any help).

Sick Kids R No Fun

2009-03-31T09:05:00.000-07:00

Last Night was awful! I was up every hour with at least one of my kids. I thought Ruston was just having Nightmares until the morning when he threw up everywhere. Annie has a terrible runny nose and is so unhappy. What a day, and it has only just begun.

So Annie has been potty training for a few weeks now and she is doing really well. Yesterday I went to the store to purchase the food for the Relief Society Birthday Party Dinner that I am in charge of. I took her into the bathroom as soon as we got there so we wouldn't have any accidents and everything was great until we were checking out and then I noticed everything was wet! YUCK! Luckily my purse took most of it and the food that got a little wet was in containers, but there was still a big puddle on the floor. Oh what fun!

Ruston wants to be just like his Daddy. The other morning it was really funny I walked in his room to tell him it was time for breakfast and he was searching for a white shirt and he wouldn't come up stairs until he found one. When he finally came up stair he had on his sunglasses, white shirt and soft black pants just like dad, then I noticed his feet, also just like dad with socks and flip flops on. Oh brother the things Rhett is teaching our children.

Mindy this picture is for you

Test Results

2009-03-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that Ruston's test results came back good. There was no information that said we would have future problems so it could have just been a random seizure with no apparent cause. For now we will just have to wait and see if he has any more, but I think everything is fine. We had a great time with Amy while she was with us. I am getting bigger every day and starting to look and feel uncomfortable. Which stinks because I still have 9 weeks left. Ruston keeps asking how much longer until our new baby comes out.

Why do you have a Tree on your face?

2009-03-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! The first thing that Ruston said today was "Mom why do you have a TREE on your face?" When I started to tell him about wearing green on St. Patrick's Day he said "Why would someone pinch me!" He was very concerned about being pinched and wanted a tree on his face too. We had Green pancakes and Green ricecrispy treats. It was a fun day.

Say Cheese!

Amy is staying with us for a while. We are having a great time playing games going on walks and making treats.
Well for those of you that are wondering Ruston's Test went ok. The EEG tech was super nice and Ruston did a great job holding still. We don't know the results yet but I think everything will be ok. He loved staying up late the night before and didn't mind getting up at 4:00 am. I played every game I could think of with him to keep him awake until the test, and I think he was loving every minute of the attention while Annie and Amy slept. The tech hooked a bunch of wires to his head to measure his brain waves. They were different colors and it reminded me of his aunt Ruth's yarn braids.

The first part of March we went and flew a kite in the park it was the perfect day for it! We even got the string all the way out.

I took the kids swimming at the Legacy Center for the library story time party. Annie was such a big girl jumping in the water and wanting to swim and float on her back all by herself.

Seizures?

2009-03-10T17:57:00.000-07:00

I was really scared and concerned today as Ruston had a seizure first thing the smorning. It made Katie nervous enough that she called 911. After the seizure was over I put some water on his face to try and help him become more coherent. We decided while 911 was still on the phone that we probably didn't need them after all, but a nice police officer still came to check on Ruston. Ruston was still extremely white and the police officer strongly suggested that I take him to the doctors to find out what had caused the seizure. So I made an appointment with Rhett's Uncle Phil and he scheduled some lab work and an EEG for next week. Ruston was crying so hard when they were taking his blood that I started crying with him. Poor little guy! His blood work came back normal so now we just need to wait and see if they can tell anything from the EEG. I am really hoping and praying that this was a one time thing and will not be something that we have to face through out his life.

For anyone like me who doesn't know what an EEG test is I looked it up on Web MD and it sounds like a fairly simple test. The biggest problem is going to be getting Ruston to hold still for a long time while they check his brain waves.

Happy Birthday Annie

2009-03-01T22:16:00.000-08:00

My little girl just turned TWO. I made a butterfly cake for the birthday party with the Alder side. I love how excited she was to have her cake! Too bad she didn't get to blow out her own candles. Isaac and Ruston had it covered.

All the kids were so excited for Annie to open her presents and she took her sweet time. Aunt Jackie gave Annie a really cute pink purse and cell phone which she open second so she had no interest in any of the other gifts until one of the kids would start to open it then she would say MINE and grab it away. Thanks everyone for the fun party.
Trying to make everything fit in her new shopping cart.
The next day when it was time to leave the house Annie would not leave without all of her new bags. It was really fun to watch her try to take everything at once.

February Fun

2009-03-01T21:57:00.000-08:00

Grandma Kat took the kids to paint a plate. It was a lot of fun. I thought that I would be able to help Annie with hers, but she wanted to do it all by herself. After Katie painted a butterfly on it Annie painted right over it. Uncle Ryan quickly became Annie's favorite uncle when he was feeding her straight sugar in a Fun Dip package right on Grandma's couch. It was so funny to watch. When they were done she ran right to the Kitchen got another package and brought it to Ryan to open. We all laughed and when Ryan wouldn't open it she walked around the room trying to get everyone else to open it for her.

We read the book "If you give a pig a pancake" then made pig pancakes for dinner. Ruston thought it was awesome, and Annie loved the chocolate chips.

XOXOXO

2009-02-14T19:45:00.000-08:00

We visited with KayLyn Nate & Jessica today.

Happy Valentines Day! So I have not been the best blogger lately. And this time I am going to blame it on my children who are keeping me soooo busy. This week Annie decided that she wants to potty train. Lucky Me! Actually she is really excited about it. At breakfast we gave her a little potty seat and she only had one wet diaper all day long (during her nap). She went in the potty at least 6 or 7 times today. So day one went really well except the fact that she wants to try like every ten mins or so.

Terrible Twos Came Early!

2009-01-26T20:26:00.000-08:00

I am struggling with Annie lately. EVERYTHING is a battle. She will not keep her diaper or clothes on, she will not eat, she will not sleep, and the constant whine has got to stop! The other day she took off her diaper during nap time and wiped poop all over her crib, blankets and clothes. It was so gross I didn't even want to take a picture of it. She won't even be two until the end of next month but her TERRIBLE TWOS are in full swing. Other than the constant struggle she is a doll wanting to play dress up and house. She loves her sun glasses and purses.
We went swimming with Rick and Camille on Saturday night. The kids had a blast. Annie was jumping up and down the whole time when she could touch the bottom. Ruston is becoming a lot more comfortable with putting his face in the water. I think I am going to put him in swim lessons again. He is loving preschool an the chance to do something on his own without Annie. He always says something like I get to go to school because I am big and Annie doesn't get to come huh. Right Mom just I get to go huh.

I got together with some of my high school girlfriends today and it was really fun to talk about old times and let the kids play. Thanks for hosting Brandee!

Surprise!

2009-01-08T21:06:00.000-08:00

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise! I was totally sure I was going to have a BOY, but today I found out it is definitely a little girl. It will be so fun to have two little girls together. Ruston is a little disappointed and confused that he is not going to have a brother, but he is still excited to be the big brother. So if anyone has any cute girl names send them my way.

Ruston started preschool today. It was adorable to watch his excitement.

Well Jessica I have to tell you that Annie has learned all of Ivy's tricks. We might just have to bust out the duct tape. She will not keep her clothes on. She undressed herself twice before we made it out the door to go to the library and once while we were there. (it was quite embarrassing because there was a lot of moms and kids there for story time, I bet they didn't come for the strip show) Any hints on what to do would be great!

Happy New Year

2009-01-06T15:03:00.000-08:00

Cindy Lu Who came to visit our Christmas Eve party. Doesn't Ruth look great! Thanks Jessica for the fun gifts Ruston was so excited about his matching game with our Lake Powell pictures.
Annie loved her new kitchen. It was a really fun Christmas. Our kids were really excited about everything. We went sledding with our Brittney, Kitt and the kids it was awesome, but cold.

Christmas FUN

2008-12-21T20:04:00.000-08:00

I have been having as much fun as my four year old. (if not more) The day it snowed a ton we stayed inside and made gingerbread houses out of gram crackers. It was going well until the roof caved in. Instead of fixing it we turned it into a railroad car.

If you couldn't tell our marshmallows are snowmen.

Rhett took Ruston outside to build a snowman but the snow was too soft so they had a snow fight instead. They couldn't even pack snowballs.

To everyone who sent us a Christmas card thank you. To all of our friends and family that didn't receive one from us please don't feel bad we didn't get around to making one this year. But if we did we definitely would have sent you one! It might have even looked something like these pictures we took Saturday.

We wish all of you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS & a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We just enjoyed the annual ALDER SUPER SATURDAY. Thanks Mom & Dad it was really fun. I love my family so much and it is always fun and crazy when we get together.

I just want to let everyone know how much we love and appreciate them. This past year has been rather challenging to say the least. I became very emotional today as I thought about how blessed we are, and how many things are going right for us. I cried all through Relief Society today as I thought about the real meaning of Christmas and the birth of our Savior. I could not help but feel of his love for me and my family. I hope that all of you take the time to feel the spirit of Christ as you celebrate this Christmas Season. An overwhelming feeling of peace, love and gratitude came over me and touched my heart in a way that I will never forget. I am so thankful for my wonderful husband and family. Thank you Mom and Dad for all the fun Christmas memories you provided us growing up.

2008-12-16T12:40:00.000-08:00

Ruston wanted to make sugar cookies for Christmas time. He was so excited to be my helper, but when he turned the mixer on powder sugar went everywhere. While I was getting the camera he was busy licking all of it up as fast as he could. It was really funny then Annie wanted in on the mess and it was time for me to step in and clean it up before it got tracked all over the house.
Last night for FHE we took the kids to the ZOO lights. It was cold but we dressed warm enough to have a great time with no Whining. Ruston liked the alligators and snakes the most. Annie got to watch a monkey jump to a branch right in front of her face it was pretty exciting.

Sorry these pictures are so bad I couldn't get the night setting on before my batteries died.

I love Christmas Time!

2008-12-11T18:12:00.000-08:00

I have truly been enjoying this holiday season. It has been so much fun to experience with my children. Ruston is so excited about everything. I love watching his face light up and his eyes sparkle when we talk about Christmas. We set up a tree and I let Ruston decorate it and I didn't even move the decorations he put on even though they are all in one spot almost tipping our little tree over. Next we set up a little Christmas tree with a train around it on the ping pong table so the kids can play with it all season. It has been a hit!

Annie loves her Daddy anytime he is around she wants him to hold her. Which I love because then I can work on my stuff without her on my lap.
I went to the doctor for my four month check up and everything is great, my next appointment I will find out what we are having my guess is a boy but we will see.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T18:24:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We went to my brother Adam's house and had a great time. Rick hit my pinkie finger with the air hockey puck and I didn't think I would recover, but today it seems to be fine. We missed KayLyn and hope that she had a nice day.

I am grateful for a lot of things but messes aren't really one of them. Annie has been testing out her independence lately and I have had a lot to clean up. On Thanksgiving morning I ran down stairs to get a can of green beans and when I came back she had dumped out the entire box of cereal trying to get more.

Tonight she decided that her pancakes needed milk on them and dumped milk all over her plate the table and floor. I was five feet away finishing a skirt for her Christmas but could not get there in time.

Ruston loved the skirt and want to be a ballerina. Actually it was really cute he said "Mom now Annie can be Cinderella and I can be the prince."

Ruston decided to cut his own hair, so I had to buzz the rest off. He is very proud to look like uncle Rick. He got a lot of attention from everyone about his hair cut so I am hoping he doesn't do it again. I am so thankful for my awesome family and friends. I love being a mom even with the challenges. I have been so blessed.

Dino Fun

2008-11-18T19:54:00.000-08:00

For family home evening we took the kids to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. Ruston is so into Dinosaurs these days he couldn't wait to go again and Rhett had never been so it made for a great night.

Digging for bones

Shark Attack

Building an Island

Excited & Expecting

2008-11-03T17:46:00.000-08:00

Hey for everyone we haven't told yet we are expecting a baby the end of May. I went to my first appointment today and I am 11 weeks along. I am really excited about it. Ruston is telling me that if I have a new baby Annie gets to be his baby. Today he told me that I couldn't change his baby's diaper. I asked if he wanted to and he wrinkled up his nose and said NO I guess you can do it.

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-02T20:01:00.000-08:00

We had a great Halloween. We went to Grandma Kat's Halloween parade at her elementary school. Ruston loved all of the costumes. He was fascinated by all the big hair wigs. Then we trick or treated his aunts Ruth & Rachel at their jobs. We went to a trunk or treat with the cousins after which the cousins got to have a sleepover party. It was so much fun for Ruston.

Cowboy RUSTY

Annie loved eating all the candy she could sneak. She was a witch with major attitude! If anyone tried to take any candy away from her she would throw a fit kicking and screaming. I kept thinking how fitting her costume was.

Back On Line

2008-11-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

Many of you know how impulsive Rhett and I are. We decided to up and move from Stansbury Park to Lehi. We are going to stay with Rhett's parents for a while and pay down some things. So after two weeks with no Internet I had had enough!! Today about 1:00am Rhett got me back on line! I was so excited I got up about 6:00 am ready to find out what I had missed over the last two weeks. I love the World Wide Web. Seriously what would we do without it, I have been going crazy.

Mindy & Lori told me that I had been tagged for Quirks I have so here they are:

1 I have to have a detailed plan. I like to know exactly what, when, where, and why we are doing anything. (This drives Rhett nuts because he is a fly by the sit of his pants kind of guy)

2 I like to have it quiet during a discussion. If we are driving I will turn the radio down to talk to Rhett and he will turn it up before he answers me it drives me insane.

3 I waste a lot of time analyzing my purchases. Just this week I was looking for a new pair of brown boots for winter to ware with skirts or pants. I found a pair I kind of liked and instead of just buying them, I thought I wonder if I will find something I like more. So I went to four more stores and came home empty handed.

4 I don't mind washing dishes but when it comes to pans I would rather leave them in the sink until I can no longer stand the clutter and then I take care of them. It would be a lot easy and cleaner to just wash them all at once.

5 I don't like it when picture frames are not straight on the wall. Like if they have been bumped so one corner is higher then the other. I went into a house the other day and every picture was messed up. (Probably from kids running through the house, or throwing things) If I would have known the person better I would have fixed all of them. Instead I just stared at them the entire time we where there unable to ignore them.

6 I feel stir crazy and claustrophobic when Ruston or Annie is climbing all over me or touching my face. I need my bubble!

Four Fun!!

2008-10-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

We just celebrated Ruston's fourth birthday! I think he is getting old enough but he would much rather be five. He lists everyone he knows who is five and tells me as soon as he is done being four then he will be five. It took me along time to convince him that he had to be four first and couldn't just skip it.

Annie had so much fun at Ruston's party but for hours before it started she was begging for cupcakes. She would grab my hand and drag me over and point on her tippy toes.
Audrey wanted a horse balloon instead of a dog or a dinosaur. I made the mistake of telling her to get her dog balloon to take it home and she said "Jan it is not a dog it is my bea-uti-ful green horse." the long tail should have given it away
We took the kids fishing and they couldn't get enough of it so after all the candy fish were gone we busted out the magnet fish and poles.

Annie finally got her cupcake! Truth be told I think she ate at least three!That thing around her arm is not a purse but her skirt. She took it off and wore it around like a purse for at least an hour it was so funny.

Crazy Ducks

2008-10-05T11:27:00.001-07:00

My friend beth and I took the kids to feed the ducks one afternoon this week. These ducks are use to being feed all day long by different kids that come to play at the lake. I guess they haven't recieved as much food now that school has started, because the ducks were crazy and attacking us.

This duck ate the bread right out of Annie's hand and scared her half to death. She was so upset, poor girl. Don't worry that duck got kicked!

Fall

2008-09-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

I love fall weather, and all of the colors. I took the kids on a picnic up the canyon to show Ruston the leaves and to gather some for an art project. It was beautiful. I was trying to take some fun pictures but the kids would not hold still and it was a little colder than I thought it would be, so Annie has beautiful snot in all of the pictures, oh and I should have given them the lunch afterwards so they weren't wearing it. So the pictures didn't turn out as I had hoped, but it was fun.

Annie would not let me hold her hand or help her in anyway so she kept falling down on the rocks. She was more interested in picking up other people trash then the leaves on the ground and she got really really mad when I pulled a half empty beer bottle away from her before she could put her mouth on it.

Kids These Days

2008-09-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

So yesterday my 3 year old told me that he NEEDED an ipod. Oh brother! It is crazy how much technology has changed the world. When a small child thinks he has to have the latest in electronics to survive you know you are in trouble. The rest of the day he fought Rhett for his ipod begging to hold it and play with it.

Fish Lake

2008-09-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

It is always so much fun to go to the cabin at Fish Lake

Grandma Lu's Great Grand kids are growing in number

Nancy took the kids on an awesome treasure hunt!

I would like to give a big shout out to all of the amazing cast members of our skit night. We had a lot of laughs, and the costumes where great!

Thanks Grandma for another fantastic time at Fish Lake! It was fun to visit with everyone.

WHAT IS IN THE WASH!!!!

2008-08-29T00:32:00.000-07:00

Oh man you think by now I would know to always ALWAYS check Rhett's pockets.

I actually checked all of the pockets on everything before I went in the laundry room and did two loads, then noticed one of Rhett's pants on the floor and decided to throw them in the third batch. To my surprise I found a "package" of gum all over my towels and washer machine. I spent time removing the gum from the items before putting them in the dryer so I wouldn't have a big mess. Unfortunately I didn't get it all and ended up scraping it off of my Dryer walls. Not exactly what I wanted to be doing at 1:30am when I should be sleeping.

Lets see... over the years I have washed more than my share of items in Rhett's clothes such as: nails, screws, pens, papers,& gum. The two most damaging where a blue pen in one of the pockets on Rhett's church shirt. Needless to say my whites where bright blue...that one took a long time to fix. The other was unfixable. I was doing laundry and Rhett came in took off his pants in the laundry room and went to the shower. I of course picked them up and through them in the washer and went on with my day not realizing that his cell phone was still in them. Ya it was completely broken. So you would think by now I would remember to check since Rhett doesn't.

Good Bye Crystal

2008-08-28T23:46:00.001-07:00

Yahoo!!! After many many hours of work on my homemade video of Lake Powell (which I had to create twice & spend several hours on the phone with tech support) it is finally done and it turned out cute.
My littlest sister Crystal moved back to Logan last weekend to finish school at USU. She was kind enough to come spent the night with us before she left. We had a blast swimming and feeding the ducks by my house. She probably hates me calling her little because she is all grown up now but to me Crystal and KayLyn will ALWAYS be the "Little Girls". (Whether they like it or not)Just Kidding.

Amy loves to go down the side at the Tooele Pool because she can scream Yahoo Yahoo Yahoo the whole way down.

Crystal I hope you have a fantastic time during your last semester

Lake Powell

2008-08-25T17:12:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic time at Lake Powell!
Lake Powell is so much fun, and beautiful!
It is my favorite place to go boating. I haven't blogged lately because I have been spending every free moment I have making a DVD of our trip for our friends that took us. I finally finished it but to my disappointment I am not able to burn it to a DVD. The program I used has a glitch and I might have to start completely over so I am way bummed out about it. Between the three of us girls we had over 1,000 pictures not counting video so it was quite a project. We are lucky enough to get to go to Lake Powell again with Rhett's family next week. Ruston and I are so excited! He absolutely loved the boat rides and sleeping out under the stars.

Jan & Annie

Brittney Kelly & Jan

Rhett & Ruston

Our Fun Group

Thanks for the good times! We love you guys!

Fishing

2008-08-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

The "GUYS TRIP" 2008

Dirk Greg Ken Dean

Flaming Gorge

Rhett has gone with the guys on a "Guys Trip" for the last eight years. This year they went to Flaming Gorge on a guided fishing trip. They caught a ton of fish and had a blast! I am starting to wonder when I am going to get a "Girls Trip."

We took the kids out in the raft on the Stansbury lake by our house. We live close enough to the lake that we just picked up the raft and walked over to the lake. Rhett brought back a duck call from Maryland for Ruston. The duck noise was going the whole time we were on the lake. I am not sure that we convinced any ducks to come close to us in fact I think we scared them away!