Little Dutch Girl

For Thanksgiving this year we stayed in Bountiful, even though it was the Linkenhoker year. Whenever we are in Bountiful, Sam finds these dutch shoes and wears them everywhere! Luan ran downstairs and grabbed this hat and outfit and asked Sam if she wanted her picture taken. Of course she did and she looked SO adorable in the costume!! I can't wait until she is older and I can tell her the meaning behind it! 

Love it!

I just love these moments. 

No other words needed!

(Oh, except I should say that Drew is taking a test on a book he had just finished. Such a smarty pants!)

Best Pre-Thanksgiving Ever!

This year I have so much to be thankful for! So my bestie moved to Washington in August (BOOO!), but they decided to go to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving! Yay! So they came a few days early and stayed with us! Oh, how happy this made me! Of course it was pretty busy with them having TONS of people they wanted to see, but I was so happy to have her at my house! Just to have her here made me giddy!! 

Anyway, we got together with some other friends for dinner and a movie (Catching Fire) and it was the BEST night out I have had since....well since they moved! It just has been so hard to not have them to go out on date nights with. So here are just a couple of pictures from our group date. A HUGE, MONSTER Thank you to Malita for watching EIGHT crazy kids. Yes 8 kids!! (She is amazing. Hands down. AMAZING!)

Alayna, me, Sharmy & Missy

LaNae & Ryan, Jed & Sharmy, Me & Vaughn, Shane & Missy, and Kevin & Alayna

I am so very blessed to have these friends in my life. They have all been so instrumental in making Jerome feel like home and like we have family, when our family is so far away. I love them all!

Awesome Helpers!

Mason can warm my heart in an instant when he asks me if he can do the dishes! He has always, always been my great little helper! Drew fights me, and Sam completely ignores me. But Mason. Man, that kid is amazing at helping! 

I just hope that Taysom is learning from Mason and will develop this awesome trait as well! Oh, how lucky I will be if that happens!! 

(Mason is also a great big brother to Taysom! He is so sweet and tender with him!)

Popsicles. YUM!

Last night Vaughn went on a campout with the Young Men. While he is gone I find that I am a lot more lax with the kids. I think it is a coping mechanism to survive sometimes! Anyway, after dinner I let the kids have popsicles before bed. I mean, why not? I'm only 78% sure that they brushed their teeth after...oh well. Vaughn was gone!

Anyway, Taysom loved the popsicle! The other kids ate theirs so quickly that I couldn't get pictures of them. I feel like this is turning into a Taysom blog....Oh well. The others get all crazy when I try to take their pictures, so I have to catch them off guard! 

Sweet Sam

So, I had curled my hair this morning and when Sam came home from school she asked if I would curl her hair so it could "look purty" like mine! Awe!! She is such a sweetheart! (I usually have to fight her to sit still long enough to curl her hair, so it doesn't happen often!)

She looks all sweet here, but she is doing her evil laugh! Totally makes me laugh because you don't expect it from such a sweet looking child! 

Tays and his dog, Max

Usually, Max is outside all day and then he comes in at night and sleeps on his bed in our room. Well this morning I was so sick of his barking. When he is chained up, he sits on top of his dog house and he barks. He barks at squirrels, cats, cars, birds, clouds, shadows....really anything and everything. Vaughn said that if I brought him in he would stop barking. So today, I brought him in to see if I could handle having him inside.

Taysom LOVED it! He was so excited to see Max and he was by his side almost all morning. I eventually got tired of Max's whining (I wouldn't let him leave his bed), So I put him back outside. But I just couldn't help taking some pictures and videos of Taysom interacting with the dang dog. Whom has been unofficially renamed, by me, to 'dang dog'. Which might not actually come out "dang" if I am super irritated at him. There. My secret is out. I lose my cool with him and my potty mouth comes out. Whoops. Please don't judge too harshly! ;)

Taysom is a lot like Mason, in the fact that he is a CLIMBER! I have to seriously watch this kid all the time and I can't even count the number of times he has fallen off the stool or chairs or the couches. 

This outfit makes him look like a character out of Dr. Seuss! I love it! It is one of Drew's. I need to go back to Drew's pictures and find one of him wearing it!

This kid never sits still. This is the longest he has ever sat for any length of time! 

It was also the first time I have turned on Signing Time for him. Guess I found a good show to distract him while I shower! FINALLY!!

Here he is...still enthralled with Signing Time!!

YES!!!

Silly kid, eating straight out of the peanut butter jar. 

That is one thing I should probably buy stock in! Peanut butter and bananas. Just can't keep them stocked in the house!

I've also had to get used to the lights going on and off. Constantly. Vaughn gets frustrated and asks why I don't tell him not to touch and teach him to not do that. Which I agree I should be teaching him not too, but can you see that grin on his face?! He is completely happy while doing this, so why do I have to take away his little boy joy?! What is he really hurting by turning it on and off?! (Do you see how I am really trying to let go of my 'control everything' personality...or maybe its because he is child #4....hmmmm.....

How could I stay mad?!

The other morning, Drew and I had a rough morning. Not that that is rare, but it had been especially difficult. I was feeling really discouraged until I went into his bedroom. 

I could not stop laughing! 

This kid is a serious handful, but more than that, he is a great kid. I think I am too hard on him most times and this made me want to go to his school and just give him a big hug! 

Silly Tays!

These boys seriously crack me up! 

Professor Vaughn

Yesterday, Vaughn taught his first ever hygiene class! He has gone back to school to earn his bachelors in Hygiene (which will allow him to teach). Last semester he had a class that required him to write a lesson plan. This semester he has to actually teach it! 

To receive credit for it, he had to have it recorded and send it to his teacher. So, I got to go! I was so excited, because I wanted to go anyway, but to have Vaughn ask me to go was awesome!! 

Vaughn said he was nervous, but of course he did AWESOME! He is such a natural! The teacher of the class would make comments about Vaughn explaining something "perfectly" and "so well." I was watching her throughout the lecture and she would nod and smile and it was just, awesome!! 

After the class was over, Vaughn asked if they had any questions and one of the girls raised her hand and asked, "when are you coming back?!" It totally made Vaughn's day! Especially, when he got to answer "tomorrow!" 

End of October/Early November

Last week was family day at Vaughn's office. Drew had a couple of cavities that needed to be burred out, and he did awesome! Of course the gas REALLY helped! 

Dr. Wyatt and TIFF working on Drew. I think it helped having Tiff do it. He's known her since he was six months old! (Wow, that is a super long time!) 

We took my dad home to Salt Lake and while we were down there, Vaughn's family had a surprise birthday party for their mom's 70th. We were able to drop my dad off to my mom and make it to the party in time! 

The beautiful cake that Brenda made.

Tays and Sam had so much fun in the leaves! 

I ended up getting the flu Saturday night and it was awful. I have had one sickness after another since I've had my surgery. I've decided I just may give up eating forever. I'm down almost 20 lbs and I want to keep going, so we'll see if when I do start eating if I can keep it healthier! 

Taysom sleeping again. I tell ya, I have an addiction!

One of the few, rare moments of quiet bliss! It lasted for almost a half hour! Sam was watching tv and Tays was asleep!

This kid inherited my love of reading! I am so very glad! 

Vaughn's mom helped Mason with this story. It is so cute! I loved how she captured it! 

This kids is a magnet to the outside! He hears any door open and he bolts for it! I try to let him play outside when it's not too cold!

We went to family literacy night. I was surprised at how many people didn't go. It was kind of sad. But it worked out, because we were able to move through everything quickly! 

Mason said he is excited to eat lunch at school next year! I can't believe he'll be gone all day!! It is so weird and yet so exciting to think about!

Halloween 2013

My dad came up the week after my surgery to help with the kids. I was starting to feel better, but he helped me get the boys up and out the door and that was a huge help. I appreciate all his help while he was here. 

The boys loved his bed time stories and actually looked forward to bed time when he was here! 

We had a fun Halloween! I got SOOO lucky this year. My kids all wanted to be what they were last year! It totally saved me, since I was still on pain killers and couldn't drive to go get new costumes. 

I went in to help with Sam's party! It was so fun to see the little kids in their costumes and see them so excited!

After Sam's we walked over and helped with Mason's party. You're not supposed to bring other kids to the class, but Sam was with me, so I brought her anyway.

They had extra treats so Mrs. Dey told Sam to sit down and have some treats! Sam was in heaven! The kindergarten classes did a costume parade and as they were walking out the door, Mrs. Dey grabbed Sam's hand and took her along! It was so sweet of her! Sam was excited to be included!

Tays stayed home with grandpa and he was pretty worn out when I got home. Can you tell how I knew?!

This kid never sits still, let alone lays on the floor!

On our way to the trunk or treat at the church. The kids got soo much candy ! It was insane !

Tays and Vaughn with tired Ted!

Iron man Carter, Sam & Malita, Mason and Tays. 

Vaughn was standing in between two cars of people we knew chatting with one of them and my friend Kendra and a ym in our ward, Benny kept taking turns throwing candy in Taysom's bucket. Vaughn and I were oblivious! They starting putting handfuls of candy in his bucket when I noticed. I yelled at Vaughn that we needed to move along, but it was almost too late! Taysom's bucket was chuck full! 

After the trunk or treat we headed to aunt Ilene's to see them and Grandma. The kids got tired of us talking and so Malita. (The amazing person that she is) took the kids to trick or treat to Aunt Ilene's neighbors. They had so much fun and were not excited for the night to end!

Random things from October

Random pictures from our life!

Taysom is in love with pretzels. Can't keep them stocked in our house!

Love his little face!

I can't stop taking pictures of my babies when they are asleep! I'm so glad Tays still takes two naps a day! I'm so lucky!

Megan & Bishop Williams holding their son Wynn, Parker and Lisa. 

We went to a corn maze for mutual which also happened to be my birthday. It was fun. Vaughn and I went to dinner afterwards. 

Tays is beginning to climb onto everything! He can do stairs, but can't seem to figure out how to climb off a stool!