It's Done!

It's 2 in the morning. I've been working on this thing in photoshop for a good chunk of time now and I'm happy to say, It's Done! Wish my kids luck with me tomorrow.

And thanks to Ginger, once again, for some great shots!

Ryn

How can my sweet little baby girl go from here...

...trying to lift her tiny little head...

...to here in 3 short years?

So, SARYN IS "FREE" or when really thinking hard about it, "tha-ree". She turned 3 on November 13, 2009 and is very proud that she can finally hold up 3 fingers to show her age.

It took some effort, but she got it! That and giving a thumbs up have been the tricky things lately for this little girl. Here's her thumbs up over the summer (Sydney's behind her doing it correctly), but now if you give her a thumbs up she may give you one (thumb) back.

So Three things I LOVE about Saryn are:

1. First things first, this little girl loves purple more than any other color on earth. Pink comes in a very close second, but if she has the choice between pink and purple, PURPLE takes the cake. Spencer blew the biggest purple balloon he could for her birthday and Sydney, so thoughtfully, surprised her one day by choosing a book called Purple is Best when it was her library day at school.

For her birthday, most of us (who had purple attire) wore it especially for the girl who loves it most. Maybe I should go buy Jeff a purple shirt.

She wore her purple shirt out for birthday dinner to Red Robin.

2. She is as girly as a girl can get -- playing with baby dolls, strollers, dress ups, fashion shoes, purses, jewelry, wearing lip gloss, painting nails, dancing and all that fun stuff...

But she can also hang with da boys!!!

Here she is sporting her hat with cousin Braden, who she adores.

And also with Spencer. I particularly love Spencer's face in this picture.

And remember this picture of little man?

Saryn's right there with him!

Plus she's not afraid to handle nasty Texas roaches. So Gross! We washed really good after this encounter.

3. She is without a doubt my most independent so far. She struggles through things in frustration but will NOT want your help. Examples:putting on her shoes, dressing herself and climbing on the counter to wash her hands (especially after nasty roach encounters).

And since I can't stop at only three things I love about her, I will included some of my favorite pictures of her too. She loves her "MIMI" and takes it everywhere.

If she could take a bath 10 times a day she would, so the morning of her birthday she wanted to take a shower in her swimming suit -- OK by me!

She's funny!

And cute!

And can pucker up better than almost anyone I know.

Nicknames: Ryn, Rynnie Roo, Rynners, Roozer, Rascal, Sweets, Rynnie Tin-Tin

Happy Birthday Saryn!

There is Beauty All Around

Can you see the beauty in this?

I became giddy when I saw these recycle bins lined up on the streets of our neighborhood the other morning. Call me crazy, but it was a sincere excitement of "Yes, I can do something to help my community" type of feeling. I feel terrible throwing away so many school papers that come home each week that could be recycled or the Wednesday ads that I never pay much attention to. I know I could collect them, load them in my car and drive them over to the school to recycle, but that's not really the first thing on my list of things to do -- or ever on my list for that matter. So I'm excited to say that I have my very own recycle bucket! Yay!!

The other people that find the beauty in these babies are my school kids!! I don't know what type of lessons they put together in schools to teach recycling, but that is one thing I know my kids know! If only they could get this excited about math and science! Spencer even came home and knew exactly what the bucket with the triangular arrows was. He's in preschool for crying out loud and was showing his excitement! Sydney always want to pick up trash pieces off the ground to recycle.

So, let's do it!

Thankful

I'm Thankful for creative people who put these Mormon Messages together. I love this one!

Happy Thanksgiving! Oh and I'm Thankful for the best hubby in the world who I married NINE years ago today. Love You Jeffrey!

October in a Nutshell

Have you ever seen anyone get THIS excited to go to The OIL RANCH?

Well, we were! It's just THAT fun! We've done it plenty of times before (this was our 5th year) and we still never tire from going. It's tradition. Sydney missed out this year because of school, but one of these years I'll pull her out for some fall farming fun.

This was Saryn's first time to say "yes" to getting on the horses alone.

She got to try out the funnest Indian swings on the planet!

Spence enjoyed them maybe even more than I did -- and that's saying something!

He got to sit next to his idol, cousin Blakey for the hay ride.

I got to hang with my girls.

And see all that TEXAS has to offer.

We got to pick out pumpkins and take pictures in the sun.

Now for the home stuff...

We decorated the house so cute with some old laminated die cuts a friend gave me after she was done teaching (9 years ago). I found them this year in a filing drawer and was so excited. See, it's good to hang on to things every now and then. You may just make yourself happy one year that you never chucked that old stuff you've been meaning to.

We made Halloween cookies.

And read stories while they baked.

Then when Dad came home, we got to frost them.

Here's a little snap shot of our babies this year. Isabelle and Shayla will be running all over the place next year!

On to costumes...

Sydney was a beautiful Egyptian Princess -- Cleopatra

Spencer was nice enough to wear his Taekwondo uniform (which we paid a pretty price for and he didn't end up loving the sport) and was a Karate Master. He didn't complain once!

Saryn was a beautiful Cinderella and really looked like her with her short blond hair cut and cute features

Shayla was our traditional plump baby pumpkin this year.

They got to participatein the parade at the ward Halloween Party

and do some trunk-or-treating

This was Halloween night. Also, when Saryn was really feeling under the weather. Don't let her smiles fool you...

...because this was how she was really feeling.

On to the pumpkin costume that has been worn by every kid so far. I love this costume because it's big, round, and so cute! Plus, it keeps them warm on cold Halloween nights (this year it was a bit chilly). The cutest is when they crawl and the big orange roundness swings from side to side. So, here is Pumpkin wearer #1 -- Sydney at age 1 (2003).

#2 -- Spencer at 13 months. The only kid to walk in this thing (2005).

#3 -- Saryn, extremely excited about it when she was 11 months (2007).

And then #4 -- little Shayla at 10 months this year (2009). I love how her teeth match the costume!

That wraps up October. Oil Ranch trip, a bit (but not so much) of cooler weather, lots of candy, cookie making, still getting over illnesses, and wearing fun costumes.

Sa, Sa, Sa, Sydney!

S-E-V-E-N

Sydney turned seven on the 19th of October. She only had two requests for presents. Getting her nails done and getting a pair of roller blades. We kept the birthday festivities very low key this year and just had a family birthday party. Before I get into that, I wanted to jot down a few things about my girl.

SEVEN things I LOVE about SYDNEY...

1. She is a performer and always puts on quite a show.

2. She was voted Coyote Champion 2 years in a row by her classmates for being a great friend and a good listener in class.

3. She's very fashion oriented and likes to come up with some pretty creative outfits and hairstyles. Even though sometimes I have to bite my tongue and let "her be her". Does it really matter that she like to wear her hair slicked back (the wet look) and put a headband in place where a sweatband would go? Nope. She's totally into wearing glasses with the lenses popped out, which is actually really cute. Here's a shot of her with a couple of her lens popping out friends.

She's also very creative (still part of number 3) when it comes to art work and making things for the house. Here's some high-heeled shoes she drew up.

Here are some napkin holders she surprised us with one night for dinner. They are made out of tissue paper and card stock. Creative, huh?!

4. She is obsessed with a new science project she learned at school with milk, liquid dish soap and food coloring. Since then we have gone through more milk than normal. I keep reminding her she doesn't need to use that much milk, but I am happy that she gets so excited about science.

5. She is the oldest grandchild on both sides and is so great with all her cousins.

6. She is one fantastic sister and a HUGE help around the house! Even though Shay's half her size, I'm glad she requests to wear this around the house to help calm her sister.

7. She is my oldest baby and that means that she has to go through everything first. She is the guinea pig--sometimes things work and sometimes they don't--but she hangs in there with all of my imperfections and I will always be so grateful to her for that!

Nicknames for this girl: Syd, Squid, Sqidders, Sissy (from Saryn), Sweets, Punkin and whatever else she lets us call her.

Now for the pictures of her special day at the nail salon.

The nail lady made the whole experience really special for Sydney and she even got her coworker to help sing happy birthday to Syd (in their own cute English as a second language way).

The finished product.

Grandma and Mom had to get one too. Why don't I get these more often?

Grandma and Grandpa came for the party along with Sean, Allie and their kids.

Jeff made tres leches upon Syd's request. YUM! Don't know what went wrong with this one because the cake, for some reason, didn't soak up all the leche goods. Still so yummy!

Since then she has often been caught doing her homework while wearing these...

Happy Birthday, Sydney Girl!

Don't Come Near Us

WE ARE SICK.

We've been sick on and off for what feels like months now. First it was swine. Yep, the dreaded swine, which in the end wasn't too terrible. I think I may have had it and Spence may have, but Saryn was the one who tested positive for H1N1. We went on a wild goose chase searing for a pharmacy that would compound the Tamaflu into a liquid form for her and Shayla (Shay's was just a precaution). Luckily we got some and the rest of our crew didn't have any problems...until I got a call a couple weeks ago from the school nurse an hour before school let out saying that Sydney was running a fever. I went to pick her up and saw three other kids from her same class in there too. What I thought would be a short lived fever turned into a four day fever with a blood shot eye and throw up. Not fun. The vomiting didn't happen too often, which was good and it wasn't swine or strep throat. She did miss 3 days of school (with lots of make up work), a soccer practice, game, and a primary program she worked so hard on to memorize her part. I thought we were in the clear for a while and then just a few days ago, Saryn caught what Sydney had and Spence is following suit. It's been an adventure in our home. I think I'm ready to have good health flowing through our house again.

So, if you're wondering what we've been up to, this is it...

We'll keep pumping the liquids, chicken noodle soup, and videos to pass this cruddy time.