The Basting Family

Snow day!

2012-01-19T19:29:00.000-08:00

WE finally got a snow day here in Cottage Grove! It snowed Saturday and Sunday night.It was so much fun! Snow just makes everything look so much better and pretty too. Don't ya think? Well, the girls (and Rex) LOVED it and played in it as much as they could. Just a few more inches and Rex and I were going to snowboard down our hill....oh well they played on the sled. It was a fun day and a cozy night.

How cute is my sweet family? Rex and all the girls in one photo...love it!!

Laughing while they were building their tiny snowman.

I love Annie's smile here.....

Macey looks so grown up here.....I can't believe it. So cute!

This is the view off our porch.... you bet we had all the blinds open all day! Beautiful!!

Melt. My. Heart.

2012-01-05T23:07:00.000-08:00

Macey and Annie are seriously the best sisters to Olivia. They make her laugh all the time, they share all their toys (except for Squeenkies), help feed her, play with her, Annie even picks her up and rocks her. Every time they are sweet with her it melts my heart. It reminds me on a daily basis why I love being a mother so much and why I love these kids with all my heart. My girls are amazing and make me a better person everyday. They are sweet and loving. Kind and fun. Annie will complement me on my outfit or hair and always holds my hand and Macey will kiss me anytime I ask. And as for my sweet Olivia, I can't get enough of that baby. I LOVE being a mom. It is the best job in the world. And here is just one of the many reasons I am so happy.....

December Recap

2011-12-29T14:50:00.000-08:00

WOW!!! I can't believe that that this month went by sooo fast! I have been horrible at blogging. I have been taking pictures..... but the I haven't taken the time to put them on our blog. Well, December has been crazy busy. I have been hanging out with my sister (so much fun!) crafting, sewing, cooking, playing, shopping:), hanging out with family and friends, and loving the holiday season. So here are some pictures of the last couple of weeks.....
Here we are Christmas tree hunting. There wasn't any snow which bummed out the kids (and Rex) but we found an amazing tree....maybe the best one yet....
It was fun to get out and hike around
I love decorating the tree as a family. The kids are so excited and it really starts to feel like Christmas.
Rex and Olivia and their new trick....it freaks people out all the time.
Annie had her first Christmas program with her preschool. It was soooo cute! I can't believe she is old enough to have school programs..... I remember when I had those as a kid!
Me and Macey smiling after we finished decorating gingerbread houses. So. Much. Candy.
Brianne and I have so much fun together. And our babies are super cute! I love having her here....please don't ever leave :)
Having Christmas dinner with our family. Macey took this picture of Heather, Papa, and Annie....not bad!
Christmas morning! Tearing through presents. We did enjoy a nice church service and yummy cinnamon rolls too!
All the kids together! Ok it goes Brianne's kids: Ezra, Micah, Ryan, Brady's baby: Adelaide and our kiddies :Annie, Olivia, and Macey! The whole bunch! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

I am thankful.....

2011-11-30T22:24:00.000-08:00

I love this time of year. I love that there is a day devoted to giving thanks.There is so much for me to be thankful for. The list could go on forever.... but I won't do that to you so I will keep it short and sweet. I am thankful for my sweet husband. The most amazing man and best friend. My incredible children that make my life complete. I love everyday because I get to spend my time with them. I am thankful for my parents, sister :), brothers, my friends, healthy body, my talents, the Gospel, employment, our house, modern medicine, America, laughter, this beautiful world, and my wonderful life. I have been so blessed and I am thankful for that. ok..... moving on :)

Every year we have two Thanksgivings. Yep. One Basting family and one Beard family. Really it is the best of both worlds. I love it. No choosing who to spend time with, we get it all! We went to Bend to spend time with Rex's siblings. They are so fun! Rex's parents couldn't be there because they are in Canada on a mission.... super cool! But we had good food and a lot of laughs! Then two days later we did it all again with my family at my house. It was the BEST day. I got to do my two favorite things. Cook and spend time with my family. Brianne, me and Heather had a blast in the kitchen while the guys watched football, when shooting and played with kids. They food was perfect and I am so happy we had a great day!
I love my famliy!!! Our Christmas picture...what do ya think?
Aunt Christine is the coolest! She painted the girls nails and they are still talking about it. Thanks Christine for a great Thanksgiving!!
Me and Olivia hanging out in Bend.
Papa and Olivia watching football.... GO DUCKS!
Annie and Ryan eating dinner at the counter.
Oh and how could I not post a picture of us girls at Breaking Dawn. So good.... we had a blast. Brianne, Kari, Heather, Heidi and me all loved it! Thanks again Heather!!

Annie turns 5!

2011-11-17T22:29:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that I have a 5 year old. I mean, seriously, Annie was just a baby. She is the most amazing girl ever and I love her soooo much!! I am so grateful for her and blessed that she is my sweet daughter. I love that she watches the food network with me, entertains Olivia so I can finish my workout DVDs, loves to snuggle, paint nails, do crafts, help with housework, play with Macey, hold my hand, hugs me when I pick her up from preschool, draw my pictures, and let me play with her hair and try new french braids. I am truly blessed to have all my girls. Here are some pictures from the celebrations!!
Starting off the day with our birthday traditions: favorite cereal for breakfast! I am not sure why she picks this one every year, but she must love it. And Rex. And Macey. It lasted about 2 days. Back to whole grain cereal :)
Here are the requested HELLO KITTY cupcakes that were pink and purple. It was a Hello Kitty party.... all the way.
Annie had her first all girls and no parents party at my good friend Amy's house. They had a blast. They got to each decorate their own personal mini cake and I made cute pedestals for them to each take home. There was also dancing, dress-up, games, and the fastest present opening in the history of birthdays! Thanks AMY!!!
We went out to dinner at Red Robin (YUM) which the girls call "The bird restaurant". Here is Macey concentrating on her coloring, cute!!
Annie sipping away!
Ahhh, the Hello Kitty cake at her small family party, she was so excited!
Us all singing to her.... ok mostly me and rex.
And a Barbie and horse....just what she wanted :)

Halloween 2011

2011-11-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

WE had a blast on Halloween this year. It was our first year to take the kids trick or treating and it was a huge success! We had a fun day too!

Annie was in charge of bringing treats to preschool so we went all out and did Halloween treats. Then we decorated sugar cookies, had mummy dogs for dinner, and went out with our neighbors to load up on candy. The girls looked sooo cute in their costumes and all in all..... a great day!

Here are the girls all wearing their Halloween shirts....cute!

Another one...they were laughing at something while I was trying to get Olivia to not be upset about the photo shoot:)

They are so patient to put up with all my picture taking, cute!

Decorating cookies, kinda....They end up eating all the toppings and licking all the knifes. They are only allowed to frost their OWN cookies....Nice Macey,

All dressed and ready to go! I just love Halloween!

Trick-or-Treating

2011-10-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

One of the neat things about living in a small town is that they have a lot of community involvement. Like.....yesterday all the businesses on Main Street opened their doors and allowed kids to trick or treat into their stores. Wow, what a turn out! It was so cool. Everyone was dressed up and my kids cashed in on the candy!

There we all are. A "nice" witch, cowboy(she really wanted to be a cowboy, not a girl) a cute pumpkin, and me....lame, I don't have a costume.

Walking up and down. There were kids EVERYWHERE

Thought this was cute. Rex took this and I didn't know.

A few pictures from carving pumpkins. Olivia sitting in the pumpkin patch on our counter.

Annie digging out the guts, she thought it was gross and Rex did most of it :)

Olivia trying to get into the guts

And little Macey pulling one seed out at a time.... Rex dug out hers too :)

Pumpkin picking fun!

2011-10-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

We ventured out last weekend and went to the pumpkin patch. It was so much fun and really cute! There was a hay maze for the kids, lots of fresh fruit and produce, ice cream, and a pumpkin patch. The weather was perfect and we had a blast!

Macey picked this baby out all by herself, pretty good huh?
All us girls, we take this same picture every year....
Our family picture....it was pretty sunny so everyone is squinting, but not to bad :) I think we are cute!
I love Olivia's expression.....so. not. impressed. Good heavens, I love these kids!
Annie and Macey playing on the pumpkin wagons. They loved the pumpkin patch!

Finially.... I am back!!

2011-10-11T00:10:00.000-07:00

You might be wondering where I have been. Well, we moved!! Yep, new town, job, the works. It was a bit crazy but we survived and we are all settled in and loving our house!! Thank goodness Rex is kinda like me in that we moved in and had everything in, unpacked, pictures hung, garage organized in a matter of days. I wasn't a total slave driver and he never once complained. It just feels good to be moved in and back to normal, ya know? So here are some pictures showing why life has been busy....

All the girls on the porch. I love this porch. Covered and wraps around the house. They can run, play, scoot, and I have nice big windows to see them.

Just being cute. The girls are really excited about having a house. They love it. They run all over and the open floor plan is wonderful. Not to mention the playroom (I will get a pic of that room soon) to contain all the toys... but somehow a few toys still make their way out into the living room....

See, their they are. My goodness we have a ton of stuffed animals. But that cute baby on the right is mine :) This is the living room. It is hard to take pictures but this is the best angle I could get. Lots more space. Love it!

The kitchen. Oh, I am so happy. Do you see all that counter space? I do and I love it. Not to mention cupboard space too. I love cooking up a storm in there! Love all the sunlight too! I caught Macey yawning....cute!

So a week after moving I thought it would be a grand idea to can pears. I have never canned pears. SO why not start now? It was a bit ambitious but 24 pints of pears later, I did it!! I kinda never want to peel a pear again.

Then days later Macey turned 3!!! I can't believe it! What is going on, my kids are growing at an incredibly fast speed. She was so stinking cute and wore the birthday hat through her special breakfast with her very special cereal :) Love her!!

Then we threw a toy story party (she loves Jessie and Woody, just wait for Halloween) and she had a blast!

Then somewhere in the middle of all this Olivia turned 6 months! AHH, did you know that is half a year? I know, weird, but look at that smile! Oh, I love this baby!!

And most recently (as of today) Annie had her first day of preschool. She loved it! She is standing by her coat hook and Macey wanted to be a part of the action too:) I can't believe Annie is in preschool. My baby. She is so smart and loves to learn. Wow, time flies when you are having fun, and the past 7 years have been super great!!

My sleeping beauty

2011-09-13T21:40:00.001-07:00

So ever since we took Macey's afternoon nap away (to keep her from jumping on the bed until 11:00) she will fall asleep all over the place. And I meal ALL over..... take a look.

while snacking......

after swimming... not even enough energy to get out of the car......

waiting for dinner to be made....

after grocery shopping sleeping on the bench outside our apartment.....

this is checking on the girls at night. she migrated down in front of her bed....

reading books...........

and sleeping on our stairs.... I love this girl, she makes me laugh so much!!

A little catch up.........

2011-09-04T13:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, we have been busy! Too busy to blog you ask? Well, by the time the kiddies are asleep and I am still catching up on laundry, dishes, and toy picking up.... and finding time to hang out with Rex I am wiped out! So today is the day! Well, lots has happened in the last couple weeks! Good stuff. Fun stuff. So here is what we have been up to..... Our little baby is 5 months!! Ahh, ok, rewind this is going by way too fast!! Rex got a new job!!!! Ok, we are super excited and overjoyed! We have been looking since he graduated with his masters last year and finally he found a counseling job in Cottage Grove (20 min away) at the high school. This job is such a blessing and Rex is loving going to work everyday!! Yeah, let the house hunt begin! In honor of this occasion, I made him this delicious Oreo pudding poke cake! Go here for the recipe! Random.... we were at my dad's house and part of his huge 30 year old tree fell on our car. We were not pleased. Thank goodness the damage was a few small dents and scratches and thank goodness for car insurance. Moving on.... Our good friends Nick and Katelyn, from BYU-I (Nick from Sweet Home too and high school), came to see us and we had a blast! We did dinner and bowling, so fun! They have a cute little baby boy, Logan. Katelyn and I decided that we are going to betroth Logan and Olivia to each other. They would make a cute couple :) The girls loved bowling. How cute are those tiny shoes? I loved watching their ball roll super slow to the very end to hit 8-9 pins down :) My niece Ryan came to stay with us for a week and we had a blast. The girls loved having sleep overs and then Heather and Dad treated us to the circus! Super fun, the girls of course love it! A Sunday nap is always good, especially with pillow pet and a cute baby. Macey and Olivia watching Sesame Street with some stuffed animals.... I really don't let my kids veg in front of the t.v. Well, only when I am in the shower.
And last..... Annie was jumping off the couch onto the bean bag and Olivia was laughing so hard! You must see.... enjoy!

One year older....

2011-08-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we celebrated my birthday! I have to admit that I love birthdays. I think that you should always go all out. Make a big deal. Celebrate the heck out of it. I mean it is only once a year, right? Well, I was spoiled. My fabulous in-laws watched the girls (all of them)Saturday night and we went to see Captain America. So good, and fun to go on a date again. Then on Sunday (my actual b-day) we went to church :), and Rex made me lunch, we opened presents, had a wonderful nap, and headed over to dad and heathers to p-a-r-t-y! Well, we mingled with all my best buddies, let the kids run wild and had an assortment of goodies. Rex was amazing and made me my favorite cake, cupcakes and dinner. LOVE MY MAN! It was a great day...can't wait until next year :)

Annie helping me blow out candles

Me and my girls. They were excited to help me open presents.

opening..... I got great gifts, a cute jacket and shirt, cooking supplies (of course), a gift card, a cute sewing book with great projects, a new cd, movie, and ......

THIS! LOVE THIS!! My sweet friend Amy got me this necklace. Isn't it amazing? I love having my girls around my neck. Such a perfect gift for me. Thanks to everyone who made my day special!

The Beautiful Beach

2011-08-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

Rex has 2 days off a week. They are very valuable. One of them is spent attending church, naps, going on afternoon walks, and eating yummy food. (I often go all out on Sunday meals and desserts :) The other day is Monday. What a great day. We always plan something. Last week: the BEACH. We had a blast. The weather was wonderful, we had a spot of sandy beach to ourselves and enjoyed every minute! Being with my family is what truly makes me so happy. I look forward to these days SO much. I love driving home from a trip like this and turning around to look at all my sweet girls. They are perfect. With windblown hair, dirty feet, sleeping so sweet in our car. It makes my heart full and makes me smile.
No trip to the coast is complete without a lunch date to MO'S!
We always hit up the candy shops for taffy and frozen yogurt. Love this picture.
Love this one too, Olivia is there....just sleeping in her seat.
The girls loved this big anchor so we took some photos of the modeling on it.
And one with dad :)
We brought a kite and Macey loved it. She looked so small holding onto the kite, but she insisted she do it herself. Cute!
Love my hot hubby! (and that cute baby squished in between)
Me and my sweet little baby
I love this picture too!! And I love self timers....
I guess our camera has a mind of it's own. It took another picture after or family shot and I like how it turned out. Very unplanned :) What a great day!

Swimming lessons!

2011-08-02T22:26:00.000-07:00

Annie has been taking swimming lessons for the past couple weeks as a present from Papa and Heather (thanks guys!) and she is loving it! Macey, Olivia and I sit and watch proudly from the bleachers everyday. Her teacher is a cute high school girl who is great with her. Annie laughs and smiles through every class. It has been really nice having a little schedual each day. Being at home with 3 little ones means we kinda do whatever we want whenever we want. So.... these swimming lessons of brought a bit of structure to our mornings and I love it! Here are a few pictures from our view.....
Listen to all the rules of the pool....
So happy to be swimming.............
A really cute Olivia enjoying swim lessons, look at that smile :).............
Macey enjoying swim lessons.... just kidding she is totally watching Word World on my phone. I know, I know, but she gets a little bored.... moving on...........
Belly floats and blowing bubbles.........
kicking to her hearts content! She is so cute. She passed her "tots" class and has moved up to "advanced tots"! GO ANNIE!

Summer Fun

2011-07-17T17:23:00.001-07:00

We have been having a great summer so far.....if only the sun would hang around. We are actually doing more exciting activites then just chalk and bubbles.... yeah! Rex is anxiously waiting for a fire... becuase he is a fire fighter, not becuase he is a pyro. We love having him home on his days off! Here is what we have been up too.....

Oh my cute sweet baby, have I mentioned how much I love this baby!! She is amazing and here is her 3 month picture!
My good friend Shauna had the brilliant idea to go to this little farm/market and feed these cute goats! I knew for sure my girls would love it! Oh, and they did. They used up all my quarters feeding those little goats :)
Macey kept feeding the same goat, it was cute.
Brings back memories when I had a goat growing up.... that is another story....dumb goat.
We went to Sweet Home to spend more time with cousins and went to the parade they have there. The girls cashed in on candy and sunshine. They love cousin Taylor, she was so sweet with my girls.
Olivia enjoying the parade from her shaded stroller, lucky baby.
A picture I made them pose for, but they really do love each other. And Annie loves her sunglasses. I love that she wears them on her own....along with her cute hat!
Annie being a goof in the pool, she sat there for hours. I was a good mama and coated her in sunscreen. We love summer!

Fun on the 4th!

2011-07-06T01:12:00.000-07:00

We had a great holiday weekend spending time with ALL of Rex's family in Sweet Home. Rex has a great family. I love them all. He has the best siblings that are all really fun, easy to talk to, down to earth and have great families. His parents are amazing. I LOVE them too! They always make us feel right at home and they would do ANYTHING for any of their kids..... I have seen it and they are so loving. I am truly blessed to be part of this family. So, here is what we did.....

Annie holding baby Brad, the newest member of the Basting family. He was blessed on Sunday so we had fun at Seth and Amber's with lots of yummy food! Next,
Rex and I met Troy! He is Rex's sister new baby! He is so stinking cute! With in the last 5 months 3 new babies have arrived.
Well, since so many people were visiting we were lucky enough to be put up in a hotel for the night. The girls loved it! We let them just on the bed as much as they wanted and then the slept like rocks..... :)
Me and Olivia soaking up some sun.....
Annie ridding the scooter. There was so much to do outside. They had swinging, chalk, bubbles, frisbee, bikes ,pool and a slip n'slide. The kids were wiped out by the afternoon!
Annie and Natalie playing in the little pool.
All my cute girls wearing their 4th of July clothes..... I love this holiday. It is so much fun!
Aunt Shana had the great idea of doing all the girls nails in 4th of July colors. So, Annie wanted flags, so I painted flags and she loved them! Love fun traditions like this!

We had a blast and I am so grateful for my life and the freedom that we enjoy!

Water balloon kind of day

2011-06-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

So I bought a huge bag of water balloons for the girls to play with when it gets hot, so FINIALLY it was warm enough to start throwing! Little did I know that it would take close to 10 minutes to fill about 20 of them up, just to see all my hard work be thrown in the road in about 30 seconds! Oh well, they love it!

Love the colors and their little hands.

Ready............

Aim.............

FIRE!!

I do make them clean up the balloon pieces after they are done throwing them so a squirrel won't choke :)

Olivia is 2 months old!!

2011-06-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that just a couple days ago my baby reached her 2 month mark! Wow, time really does fly. I only have good things to say about this sweet baby. She was a bit colicky at the beginning, but she is a perfect baby now! I embrace every moment with this girl. Every late night, any sad moments, any times that naps aren't quite long enough to finish working out or showering, anytime she is hungry right when dinner is ready and my family eats while I nurse this sweet baby, laundry that doesn't get done, or dirty dishes in the sink.....she is WORTH it! I love having Olivia in our home, what a blessing she is to our family!!

Look at that smile!! Cute cute baby!

And of course the hair is awesome!! I want to kiss her face off!

Olivia is sleeping great and eats like a champ! She is a bit over 11 lbs. and sweet as can be.

Mr. Golden Sun

2011-05-24T15:23:00.000-07:00

We have been enjoying the sun here so much! We make our lunches, take them outside and spend the rest of the afternoon soaking up some warm rays. Thank goodness for chalk, bubbles, and bikes........

The girls LOVE bubbles... we go through a ridiculous amount of the bubbly stuff

Pretty Annie laughing and chasing bubbles

So I was taking pictures of all us girls together and right as I am snapping the photo, I look over at Macey and this is what I see.... lovey, so lady-like :)

I love this baby!! She is so sweet and I can't get enough of her. She is getting more into a routine and we have even seen a few smiles! Now, if I can catch one with the camera!

Annie LOVES hopscotch. We make crazy, bright patterns on the ground and she plays for days on it! She has pretty good balance, too!

Posing by the tree

We take watercolors outside and they paint on paper and on the sidewalk....it all washes away so why not :)
So cute huh!! I love this little face. Her sweet features are starting to show and I love seeing her grow!

Rex and I went out on a little date to dinner and we had a blast! Olivia slept the whole time in her seat, so we just laughed and enjoyed good conversation and food! Love dates like that :)

What is up......

2011-05-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, time flies when you have a new baby. Especially a baby that likes to be held. When ever Olivia goes down for a nap, I use that free, precious, important time to do fun things like.... oh I don't know, laundry, house cleaning, dishes, errands, exercising, showering and playing with the girls (that last one really is fun:). So.... I am just now getting around to blogging. We have been adjusting well and I think that everyone is getting more settled. Nights are going great, Olivia just wakes up once, the weather is warming up and we are ready! {I bought a bag of water balloons yesterday and we are going to go crazy throwing them when it's nice and warm on Friday} Rex just celebrated the big 3-0 b-day and I planned a bunch of fun stuff for him to really make it count! Besides that, just enjoying family time which I love!!!

The girls got "egg" shaped chalk from the Easter bunny, so they are trying it out! The mostly play with them like they are baby birds though :)
Drawing beautiful art
Looking for airplanes, birds, cloud shapes, and warming their little faces in the sun
Olivia chillin in the shade.... but she doesn't want to miss out on the playing outside action
Rex and Olivia sleeping so sweet on the couch... it rough being a baby..... and a dad to 3 girls :)
The only not so good picture from Rex's b-day. I surprised him by inviting a group of his friends over to take him to see a movie. I bought TONS of candy and tossed all those guys out the door to go to a good action flick. Then I took Rex out to dinner, had friends over for cake and goodies and no b-day is complete without a birthday breakfast and gifts! I love you honey!!
Showing Olivia the ropes on cooking.... she likes being held so we make it work! I am training her young to LOVE cooking, just like me!

Our blessed little baby

2011-05-03T18:38:00.000-07:00

My sweet baby was blessed at church this past weekend. Rex gave Olivia a beautiful blessing. She wore the little dress that my mom made for Annie 4 years ago. We had family here in town to celebrate and after church we had a yummy lunch, spent the afternoon outside in the sun, ate sugar cookies, and relaxed. It was wonderful! We love you Olivia!!

Our family
Me and my sweet baby.... she isn't wearing her blessing dress because she spit up all over it :)
Some more pictures of what keeps us busy..... Macey is supposed to be getting dressed but instead she is giving Olivia a massage.....
Then Annie, who is dressed, joined in on the fun :)
On Saturday Rex took the girls on a bike ride, they love going on rides with him, I have been told he goes fast....
Here is Olivia's one month picture! SO CUTE!!! I love that sweet face
I just thought this was funny, she is so tiny on the couch :)

Easter Weekend

2011-04-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was full of different emotions. We celebrated Easter and all that our Savior has done for us and we also celebrated my mom's one year anniversary.

I think about the last year and how is has been the hardest year of my life. Many tears, long talks with my sweet understanding husband, sharing stories with friends about mom and really letting it sink in that she isn't here anymore. It may sound weird but sometimes I feel like she's not gone. I remember her so well, her voice, her laugh, everything about who she was and it is almost impossible for me to convince myself that she isn't here. I miss her more than I can explain. I wish she was here to see my sweet kids and baby Olivia. I wish I could talk to her and get her mothering advise about raising kids, all my cooking and sewing questions.... I just wish she was here. I relied on her more than I knew and I am still adjusting to being without her. I still think about her everyday, wishing I could call her and ask if she wants to run to the store with me or go on a walk with me and the girls. My feel my heart swell and my eyes fill with water when I look at my sweet baby and think how she was just with mom. I wish I could ask Olivia about her. Mom loves babies. I ask myself, how am I supposed to live the rest of my life without mom ...... I am so thankful for my friends who have taken good care of me, my sister for always being there, and most of all my husband. I wouldn't have survived the last year without Rex. He is my rock and the reason that I am happy. He listened to me talk about the same fears and frustrations over and over and wiped away millions of tears. He always knows how to cheer me up and hasn't left my side through the last year. Thank you Rex, I love you so much.

I love you mom. I miss you more as the time passes, but I promise to make you proud and to help your memory live on. Always.

We started off the weekend just the right way. One of my best friends and a friend of mom's, Amy, organized a memorial walk in honor of mom. It was sunny and beautiful and we walked along the river. We had a good turn out from Cal Young staff, family and church friends. Thank you Amy, you are amazing and I love you!

Me and Olivia spending quality time together, while she is awake :)

The girls and I dipped peeps into chocolate and decorated with sprinkles to give to friends and neighbors. They loved it! Macey concentrating on the sprinkles.

Annie making a huge mess....oh well, it was really fun!

Hopefully my girls will love cooking and baking as much as me.... they sure like to eat all the treats!

Aren't they cute?

Sweet baby sleeping cozy and warm. I couldn't resist taking her picture :)

My good friend Shauna was awesome enough to put a little Easter egg hunt together in her huge back yard, the kids loved it and had a great time! Thanks Shauna!

Macey looking for eggs, she found like 7 :)

Awww sweet.... I made Annie hug her :)

We spent a could of hours at the cemetery with mom as a family. My sister and her family, dad and us were all there. The sun was shining and we just relaxed talking about good times. The kids were great and just explored all over.

Heather got the girls all matching Easter dresses which were soooo cute!!! I was so excited and they looked great Sunday morning. Thanks Heather!!

Our family picture on Easter Sunday.

My SWEET girls

2011-04-14T14:01:00.000-07:00

We have been hiding out inside sense Olivia was born and my poor kids are getting cabin fever!! It also doesn't help that the weather here is horrible and rainy AND cold so when the sun came out for a few hours the other day.... we took off the the park. So here are a few pictures of them playing AND of course some more pictures of sweet baby Olivia, we just can't get enough of her!!

This is how we start every morning.... everyone gets a turn holding Olivia, nice hair huh?

Macey at the sand park. They loved the sand, it made me feel like I was back in Rexburg with the sand in my hair, teeth, eyes.... good times
Miss Annie enjoying the time outside

This is what cute babies do at the park.... sleep

Olivia's first bath! She loves the warm water and getting her hair washed.

This picture might be a bit dark, but look at that face! Too cute and her eyes are open so I snapped a picture!

Sweet baby Olivia

2011-04-11T19:57:00.001-07:00

Well, we are going on 10 days old!! Our sweet baby is doing great even though last week was a bit rough and emotional. When Olivia went in for her 3 day check up the dr. noticed that she looked a bit jaundiced. They did a blood test and her jaundice levels were higher than they should be and she was re-admitted to the hospital. My sweet girl had to lay under a billi-blanket (a blanket that gives off UV rays to help her jaundice levels go down) for almost 3 days. It was hard to see her just laying there. We couldn't hold her, only if I was feeding her, and then back into the bed. She did great. She laid there and soaked up all those UV's like a champ. The nurses and doctors at our hospital are AMAZING and continually checked on us. Rex and I are fortunate enough to have amazing friends and family to watch the girls so we could both be there with her. I am grateful that Rex was there with me because it was an emotional couple of days waiting for her to get better and it was hard to not hold my new baby. I am so grateful that she is doing great now. Her levels are back down and she is a really good baby. I am thankful for all the prayers and support that we received :)

Here she is under her warm billi-blanket.

She would sleep and eat and that is about it. I am so happy she did so well under the lights because it really helped her heal quickly.
Laying with dad in the sun during a quick break from the bed.
At home with the girls. They really missed her and I really missed them. I was so happy to be home with our family.
I love this picture! Ahhhh, relaxing in front of the glass door.....being a baby is great.

Baby Olivia!!

2011-04-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

She is HERE!!! I am on cloud 9, happy as can be, and smiling ear to ear! My sweet baby Olivia has arrived. Olivia Sharen Basting was born on April 1, 2011 at 4:00 p.m. I know on April fools, but think about the great parties this little girl is going to have :) ok, a quick story: Went to the dr. at 10:00 am yesterday and she stripped my membranes (sorry if that is grossing anyone out). Ok, by 1:00 pm Rex was keeping track of my contractions, about every 5 minutes apart for an hour. We headed to the hospital at 2:30 and my contractions were getting stronger and faster. They got me all hooked up and at 4:00 pm, after about 3 pushes, Olivia was here!!! A 7 lb. 9 oz, baby is ok by me!

As the dr. laid her on my chest, my eyes filled with tears as I looked at my perfect sweet baby that I had prayed for every single day. I looked up at Rex and thanked my Father in Heaven for my sweet baby and the life that I have been given. Being a mother is the greatest calling and I feel privileged enough to be able to have a husband who works hard so I am able to stay at home with my sweet girls. What a great day!! I can't stop smiling and I am in love with this baby! I feel like I know her, I felt her every day and we all talked to her. The girls are beyond happy and want to help in anyway. Annie loves holding her and they were both so excited when I told them we get to keep her forever :) Anyway, here are pictures from our great day!
me and my sweet baby!
7 lbs. 9 oz. 20 inches
Daddy and his 3rd girl! Rex is the best coach, I couldn't have done it without him.
All the girls, I can't believe I have 3!
Macey kissing baby. She calls her Livia because she doesn't pronounce the "O" :)
Big sister Annie
Our whole family!! I love this picture!
Look at that face! I love the cheeks! She loves to nurse, so hopefully she will love to sleep too!!
At home with Annie...... I know Annie is going to be a huge helper, I am one lucky mama!!

A much needed spring break

2011-03-27T22:04:00.001-07:00

I can't tell you how wonderful this past week has been! I love having Rex home with me and the girls. We have done so many fun things over our wet, not sunny break. It is nice to spend time just as a family before our new sweet baby arrives:) So here is what we did.......
Lots of book reading with dad....

and snuggling with mom.....

playing with the new felt food that I FINIALLY finished

and pretending to eat it :)

the kids played in the back of the car while we did this......

we went shooting and it was really fun! Rex is a great shot and it was fun to go on an outdoor date....

even though I look ridiculous and awkward, no laughing :) But I can handle a 22 pretty well myself.... next was

miniature golf with Rex's parents which was really fun and Annie loved it! She did pretty good too. Macey ran around and held her ball :)

The girls love Grandma and Grandpa so we had a blast! We also squeezed in bowling with friends, dinner out, movie watching, dessert eating, house organizing, baby clothes washing, sleeping in and naps for us all!! What a great week!

And of course the 39 week belly picture! I am now at a 3 and this baby could be here any day. I feel huge and I hope she isn't too big :) But I am more excited to hold my sweet girl!!

Baby Update

2011-03-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

Well, today I went for a weekly check-up and everything is looking great! I am dilated 1 & 1/2 centimeters with a couple weeks to go. My dr. was laughing as she was measuring my belly because you could see her back pushing on one side of my tummy and some little feet or heals pushing on the other side. I am getting really excited about this baby and can't wait to have a tiny newborn. My kids seem so big to me, even though they are still little. We got a new car seat for our little girl since the last one has been through two messy kids. I think we are totally ready for her to come....except you forget how tired you are going to be :) Oh well, it is worth it!

I was really excited about the new clean car seat...... the girls were screaming with excitement when Rex turned the box into a house that they love! It is still in our livingroom and is getting a lot of play time. Thank goodness for cardboard.

Snow Day

2011-02-28T19:29:00.000-08:00

We have been having crazy weather here and last week there was a snow day!! Oh, the girls (and rex) were really excited! We were up eating breakfast and outside playing by 8:30. It really wasn't that much snow, but you would be surprised what they will close school for around here :) So we played with friends and built and snowman and were able to have Rex home for the day, which we love.

Holding hands walking to our friends just across the street. CUTE!

Annie rolling the head for the snowman

Macey just being cute, I love her little one piece snowsuit!

All done!!! Whoo hoo, it was already leaning by the time we were heading home :)

Baby belly at 35 weeks! Wow, starting next week appointments every week! This baby loves to camp out in my ribs, but still very wiggly. At this point in pregnancy you for get you can't tie your shoes, eat hardly any food with out feeling stuffed, or even fit into the cute maternity clothes, but I am feeling great and getting so excited (so are the girls)! Can't wait to meet her :)

Heart Shaped Cookies

2011-02-17T09:58:00.000-08:00

We love making sugar cookies here. I am not gonna lie, we love eating them more but for Valentines Day we made and decorated cookies for friends and family. The girls LOVE to help in the kitchen, which I love. I would love it more if our kitchen wasn't tiny, but oh well. We had a great Valentines Day at home.

I cut all of Rex's breakfast and lunch foods into hearts :) then we had a yummy dinner at home, opened gifts that we can do together (games, movies, candy) and shared delicious chocolate fondue after the kiddies went to bed. I love my man, he is so good to me!

My little cooks with aprons and all.... we did a great job on totally making a huge mess together, but it was fun!

Annie is really into decorating.....

Macey is really into eating all the cookies she has licked

Yum, dessert anyone?

It finally happened....

2011-02-08T23:10:00.001-08:00

Yep, we got a mini van. Ok, 10 years ago you would never have heard me say that I would ever drive a mini van, but recently I have secretly been so excited about getting one. I love it!! I am in van heaven. This is the car that I really wanted and Rex looked everywhere to find it. He is so good to me and very sweet for taking so much time to find me a "cute van".... (there aren't many out there :). The girls love the "magic" doors that open at the touch of a button and can't wait to use the sun roof. I am one happy mama. I am excited about the trunk space and tinted windows (so we are not draping blankets all over to keep the sun out of kid eyeballs). We tested it out last weekend at Brianne's when we went to visit. We put all 4 car seats in, drove it to the grocery store, loaded it up and it was wonderful! Whoo hoo!

Don't mind that Macey is totally picking her nose....sorry and Annie is playing around in there.... but cute right?

A Bench to Remember

2011-01-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

Just the other day Rex told me that they put in this sweet thoughtful bench for mom at Cal Young Middle school(where dad and Rex work). I was so touched that we packed up a lunch and went to eat there in memory of mom. The staff at Cal Young is so amazing and they loved mom, they truly feel like family. Thank you Diana, we love you!!

We miss you mom and love you tons!

Later on in the day, we got home from the grocery store and had locked ourselves out. Thankfully the downstairs bathroom window was cracked open a bit so I had Annie climb in the window (which she thought was so cool) and unlock the door for us. I called her my hero and she was beaming the rest of the day.

All this went on while my moo slept in her car seat with food dried on her little face....cute!

New Room for 3....

2011-01-18T20:57:00.000-08:00

Ok, I didn't know if it would work out putting 3 girls into one room, but it totally does!! Over the weekend (Rex had Monday off) we totally redid the girls room. I mean TOTALLY redid. Colors, beds, decor....the works, and I LOVED it!! It turned out so good, better than I thought and now it is my favorite room. Rex (with a bit of help from my dad) made a trundle to go under this cute bed we got from a coworker of his. It is the perfect solution for our situation! We worked hard all day and after it was complete, we rewarded ourselves with dinner out to Red Robin....yumm!! Here it is.....next makeover: my room.

The before. Nice, I know.
Yeah, all done! I am not sure what Annie is doing, but both the girls are so excited about big beds! I love the banner and the window... ok I love it all! We already had baby bedding to match too, score!
Both my girls happy as can be. Now if I could just keep them from jumping on the bed :)
This is about 11:00 p.m. at night. I have a really good flash apparently.... but a shot of them both sleeping..... so cute!

Christmas Time!!

2011-01-06T18:55:00.000-08:00

On to the Christmas photos..... We had a great Christmas, not the same without mom of course, but we did our best:) All my siblings were here and the kids had a blast! We made gingerbread houses, decorated sugar cookies, ate a lot of food, looked at Christmas lights, played games, watched Christmas movies and sang as many Christmas carols as we knew words to. I love the feeling of Christmas and the spirit that comes along with it. We had all the kids sit down on Christmas Eve and read about the birth of the Savior. Thanks to Papa who let us invade his house all week, we love you and appreciate all you did for use this year!! It was a great Christmas....can't wait until next year :)

Annie, Macey and Ezra decorating (actually just eating the candy) their gingerbread houses
Macey is very proud of her house
My brother Bryce and his cute girlfriend, Lauren
Annie and Ryan love each other and were decorating cookies together
Papa had some presents that were lost behind the chair so since Macey was the smallest she retrieved the gifts
Christmas morning! Macey and Annie loved opening thier stockings from Santa
Annie was really excited about her new electric Hello Kitty toothbrush!
Wearing the pretty Christmas dresses from Uncle George and Aunt Marlene, so cute!!
Macey loves to lay on my lap, so we were just chilling after all the presents were ripped open at Papa's house. She is such a snugglebug :)
And of course a belly picture update! Here I am at 27 weeks!! Wow, almost in the 30's, yeah! Baby girl is kicking a ton and Annie loves to feel her move. I am loving this baby so much!

Our 6th Anniversary

2011-01-02T16:29:00.001-08:00

I really need to catch up on the holiday blogging and photos so first we will start with our 6th anniversary!! Rex planned a really fun trip up in the snow where we stayed at a little cabin and went snowshoeing. It was so much fun!! I have never spent a night away from the girls, so my mother in-law came over to watch the girls. Thanks Donna!
This is how the trip went.... got to our cabin
changed and went snowshoeing for a couple of hours
came back and watched a Christmas movie
ate dinner
went for a night hike
played cards
slept
woke up
had muffins, fruit, and hot cocoa for breakfast
when snowshoeing on a beautiful trail
drove home
played with the kids
cleaned up and went out to a delicious dinner!

What an great couple of days! It was so much fun just to spend all my time with Rex. He really is my best friend and we had a blast together and I love that I feel the most myself when I am with him! Thanks honey, for everything and for planning this great trip. I love you! Here's to a lifetime together!

Hiking right by lake Odell
My cute hubby
Our tiny snowman
Isn't this cabin cute! It was so much fun!
We hiked up to a little shelter in the snow with a fireplace to warm up!

Cute kids

2010-12-16T00:09:00.000-08:00

Ok, these are just pictures of my cute kids by our cute skinny tree. I just love having the lights on all the time, espically at night. Anywhoo, they were just playing on the floor so I snapped a few pictures. I LOVE these girls, they make being a mom the best job in the world and I can't resist the cute smiles and sweet voices they have. Love you girls!

Cute girls!!!

Our cute family picture!

Christmas tree Hunting

2010-12-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

Well, I know it has been way to long but between leaving my camera at my in laws for a week, all of us getting sick, and getting ready for Christmas I have slacked on my blogging. Sorry, but I have so great pictures and updates!

We had a blast picking out our tree this year. The weather was great, lots of snow and Annie loved it! We drove up early Saturday and had hot cocoa fruit, and donuts holes in the car. It was nice to just chat with Rex, listen to Christmas music and enjoy the scenery. The girls did great and we found the perfect tree. We met Rex's sister, her kids, and his dad up there to join in on the fun. I just love having a Christmas tree up. It gives off a warm glow to our house that makes me so excited for this season. We decorated the tree as a family and put up the rest of our holiday decor. I love Christmas!

Rexy and the girls
Annie and Macey resting and watching Rex cut down the tree!
Rex had to climb up part of a tree to cut it down, what a stud!
Our half way decent family picture :)
I am the official light putter upper because I have to have it done just the right way and I am kinda picky :)
Annie loved decorating. I have notice that the bottom of the tree is always being rearranged by someone......
So much fun, I love that the girls are getting really excited for Christmas and all that has to come yet!

It's a ......

2010-11-23T15:22:00.000-08:00

GIRL!!! We are having another girl to bring the grand total to 3 girls (4 including me) to our family! I am so excited and just love having girls, they are my favorite :) And Rex, although he will be severely outnumbered is so happy too! We just want to share the good news!

baby basting 20 weeks.....

2010-11-18T20:09:00.000-08:00

Well, I thought it was about time to start the belly pictures. I like to compare them to my previous pregnancies....just for fun. So here is 20 weeks!! I am feeling great, except for being a bit tired. I constantly crave anything bread related and tons of fruit...and sometimes brown sugar pop-tarts:) Things I used to love don't sound good anymore, which is weird so I haven't even been making that many sweets. Which is really NOT me. So my food blog has lacked sugar goodies. But I know that all the brownie cravings will come back :) I can finally feel little kicks that make me so happy and make being pregnant feel so much more real. I love this baby so much already and I can't wait to find out what we are having......which is Monday morning, yeah!!! Some people might think it is weird, but I love being pregnant. But more than that, I love having a sweet new baby to love!

Annie is 4!

2010-11-15T14:22:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it. Annie is 4! Seriously, where did the time go? She is my little buddy and I always tell Rex that I want our kids to stay kids forever. I love that she always sneaks into bed with me while Rex is getting up and ready for work. I love that she is so attentive and smart. She loves all things girl and animals too. She is sweet and good to her sister and friends. She is my baby and I can't believe that she is 4. I love that she wants to borrow my jewelry and wear my perfume. She asks if when she is older if we can share clothes and of course I always say yes. She loves to be in the kitchen with me and help and watch the food network with me too. I am so proud of her and they little girl she is turning into. I love you Annie, happy birthday sweet girl.
Annie picked out her own breakfast cereal and even wore the birthday hat for breakfast!
Her cookie monster cupcakes were a big hit but turned everyones teeth blue :) Sorry, and my girls got it all over there clothes too. I will rethink blue frosting next year.
Her first barbie from her uncle, she loves it! I found it in her bed the other day :)
And of course her scooter! She is always envious of her cousin Ryan's scooter so now they can ride together :)
The birthday shirt picture we take every year. So she so cute and I love this girl!

Halloween!

2010-11-03T18:53:00.000-07:00

We had a great Halloween and lots of fun activities too! The girls dressed up as Princess and the frog. They were sooo cute and making the costumes this year wasn't bad at all, they turned out great! We loaded up on lots of candy and goodies, which Rex and I nibble on while the girls are sleeping to cut down on the sugar intake :) Our pumpkins turned out great too!! What a great week we had.

Rex, I mean Clark off to work, I mean to save the world....

Visiting Rex and Papa at school. All the secretaries LOVE the girls so we had to show them off in their costumes.

Our Family Photo

Here is the princess, she loved that skirt!

Here is the frog, ready to jump!

Ahhh, hugging. My kids are the best, so stinking cute!

Our little photo shoot outside Cal Young. Posing in the appropriate princess and frog pose. :)

Annie doing Halloween crafts during quite time at home.

Trunk and treating at our church party! It was so fun and EVERYONE dresses up!

Right when we got home it was time to dump everything out and check out the loot! (We used to do this as kids too!)

Our pumpkins! Mine is the spider, Macey has the cyclopes, Annie wanted a happy pumpkin and Rex's is the really good wolf, he is a master carver!

Halloween Festivities!

2010-10-31T16:44:00.000-07:00

We have been doing lots of fun family activities leading up to Halloween. I love when we do all the things that I really want us to do. It makes the holiday seasons so much more fun when you pack tons of stuff in!! So we of course went to the pumpkin patch and picked out the perfect pumpkins.... Macey HATED the hayride. Macey and I walked back to avoid any more tears, but Annie had a hoot. Well, just take a look....At the hay maze which they loved! Who knew that a bunch of hay bales would bring kids such happiness...

Macey, Annie and Kara checking out this really dirty pumpkin...no one would touch it :)

Trying to smile and hold pumpkins....not easy

Macey wanted to take all the baby pumpkins home. She actually made it home with 3.

For family night we made cookie brooms. Scary cookies that were in the shape of brooms that were delish!

Of course we had to do our annual sugar cookie decorating. Annie did great decorating her cookies... all of them were happy

Macey is supposed to be frosting. But most of it made it into her mouth, oh well :)

Us in front of all our glory. It was so much fun!!

Family cookie decorating is the best! Next, Halloween costumes and carved pumpkins! We love Halloween!

Really quick.......

2010-10-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

Aren't the girls so cute reading up on how to be a good big sister? Well, good thing because we are expecting baby number 3 on April 5th! We are SOOOOO excited and I have just been waiting to post, so there you go! We will find out in couple of weeks if it will be another girl or our first boy! Just wanted to share the good news!

These girls are going to be great big sisters, I just know it! Yeah for babies!!

Fun Filled Saturday

2010-10-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, we really packed a ton into our weekend! On Friday we went to Portland as a family. We stopped in Woodburn to look around at the mall, went out to lunch and went to the temple while my loving sister watched our kids. It was a great day! Next to be followed by a wonderful Saturday. We all went on a walk in the morning together while Annie rode her bike and then we were off the pick apples with some friends! We had a blast and the weather was great! After nap time we went to a friends house and pet her horses. She worked with Rex and dad at the middle school and every time we went to visit she told Annie to come over and pet her horses. So we did! The girls loved them. Next time they are going to ride them! We finished the day off with dinner and hot chocolate. After the kids went to bed Rex and I snuggled up on the couch, watched a movie and had a yummy dessert! We had a great weekend!
What a great apple, she ate apples the whole time we were there!
Huddling under a tree
Annie and her buddie Kara, they love playing together
Our family photo, not bad :)
Me and Amy (and her little baby) Amy is amazing!
Me and my sexy rexy!
The girls waiting for the horses to come over to them by the fence
These horses were so sweet to the girls. They fed the horses apples right out of their hands!
Macey actually sat on one for a second. They have kid saddles, so next time we are going all out!

We love Glee!

2010-10-11T23:15:00.000-07:00

Seriously, we love it! Rex and I have been watching the 1st season and the music is so fun. We have a bunch of their songs on the computer so Annie and Macey can dance their hearts out in my room! It is pretty cute!

Today, I had music on so peaked in my room (she shut the door so no one would see her) to see Annie admiring herself. She is so fun! Pay no attention to the unorganized desk, it gets out of control......

She loves to watch herself in her tutu in the mirror. This goes on and on for several minutes and songs.... Rex was down stairs wondering what on earth was going on :)

p.s. Sorry my blog has been lame.....not much going on around here and I feel like I can't post unless I have a corresponding picture to go with it! I will do better!

Happy birthday to Moo!

2010-09-25T14:41:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that Macey it 2!! Wow, time really does fly, which makes me sad. Macey is such a GOOD girl, she sleeps great, eats like a champ, plays good with Annie and loves to snuggle with me :) I love my sweet girl and I am so grateful that she is part of our family! We had a great time celebrating her birthday with friends and family. She had her little friends over for hippo cupcakes and we also had family over for dinner! Macey loved every minute of it. Happy birthday my sweet Macey moo, I LOVE YOU

Hippo cupcakes, they turned out cute!

She loves blowing out her candles, so we did it a couple of times....it only comes once a year so why not :)

she go new blocks that she was excited about

all her little friends and Jillian, the oldest of the bunch but is so sweet to these girls:)

Really excited about opening presents!!

Me and my sweet girl

Testing out the blocks, they are fun and we have built many castles and houses
My little girl just a couple of days old.....

What a Day!

2010-09-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

We had an interesting day on Friday. Started out like any other day. I drove down to Cottage Grove to open the bank/house for my dad so some big new windows could be delivered. On the way Annie threw up all over her clothes and car seat. Awesome. We pulled over on the side of the road and took off all her clothes and used baby wipes to clean everything up. But I didn't know I only had 4 wipes left. Joy. So on the the building. She was fine and happy as she played in the car naked while the windows were delivered. We got home, cleaned up and relaxed the afternoon away. Then at dinner that night we were eating our big salads (Friday night is salad night) and realized Macey was putting her finger in her nose and her eyes were watering. I whisked her out of her chair, got a flashlight and laid her down only to realize that she shoved a piece of carrot WAY up her nose. I could barley see it. So off the the urgent care we went. Thank goodness there was no line and she was taken right in. She kept telling the nurse, "carrot in my nose" and it was really cute, considering the circumstances. Next the dr. used the biggest pair of tweezers I have ever seen and stuck them so far up her nose I couldn't watch. My poor baby. But out came the carrot and it was huge too! I have no idea how she got that so far up there but it was the size of your pinkie finger nail. Imagine that in a baby nose. Yeah, I know. Anyway she got a sticker and was happy as a clam. Then night ended well with my dad offering to baby sit so we could catch a movie together. What a long day but it is great being a mom.

This is a picture of my cute new wall my sister designed. She has a great eye for design. I love it!! I have decide that she is going to have to decorate my whole house...... whenever we actually get a house:)

Pool Party

2010-09-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

Well, it rained all day here today. Which I secretly like:) I love love love fall. I love the colors, hearing the rain, the cool air, making soup and baking bread, snuggling under blankets with my girls and my hubby and and enjoying all the holidays. But, it is not quite time for that sooooooo..... we look the girls for a little evening swim a couple nights ago when we had a hot day! They love the pool and love spending time with Rex. Usually it is me and them at the pool and I am frantically trying to keep them from running, falling, or jumping in when I am not looking, so this was much more relaxing and I love watching Rex make them laugh.

Isn't my hubby a hottie, espically with that farmers tan. I guess that is what you get for fighting fire in the summer. Oh, my baby is cute too!
Our two goofies
Here is the "train" the girls like to make in there floaties
My sweet family, I am so blessed. What a great summer!!

Photo Session

2010-08-26T13:24:00.000-07:00

On my birthday my brother Bryce took some amazing photos of my girls! I was so excited and I have been wanting to update the pictures on my living room wall. Well, he did great, the girls cooperated, and they are sooo cute! As for my wall.... Brianne was down here visiting and she is a GENIUS and gave my wall a makeover. Whoot Whoot! I will put pictures of that next!! Anyway, here are just a few of my favorites. Thanks Bryce, I love them!

Birthday Bash!

2010-08-20T16:38:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday was my birthday and it was a great one for sure! The celebrations started Friday when the girls and I spent the day in Sweet Home and played all day at Rex's house. Cousins were there and my sister-in-law made me a delicious dinner and dessert!! I had a great day! Then Saturday morning I woke to the smell of waffles and fruit salad that my cute hubby made before he went to work in the morning. YUM!! I had a good day spending time with the girls and even a kid-free trip to the fabric store, thanks Amy! Dinner was my favorite: homemade burgers and curly fries and my "cake" was chocolate trifle! I was spoiled with gifts and lots of wishes from friends and family! On Monday we went to the beach as a family and had the best time! I love my sweet husband and all that he does for me. He is so thougthful and I am grateful that he is my perfect match! Thanks Rex for the wonderful weekend! Thanks to my dad and my brothers too, for all you guys do for me!

Cute hair clips that I made for the girls that I used in a super cute photo shoot done by my brother for my b-day! More pics to come!

Eyeballing my yummy dessert!

Macey enjoyed dessert almost as much as me!

Our family photo at the beach, not bad for setting it on a log and using our timer :)

We hiked to a cute little light house, very cool.

Playing at the beach, a bit windy, but perfect and cool.

photo of the two of us, love you rex!

Annie is too cute! She loved the sand!

Me and my moo! Very excited about our day at the beach!

Nodding Off

2010-08-11T00:12:00.000-07:00

Poor little Macey just couldn't make it through lunch the other day and I caught her nodding off. At one point I ask her if she is tired and she shakes her head no. She is soooo cute trying so hard to eat her toast. LOVE HER!

We went up to visit Rex's sister and family in Redmond and she took us to a really fun pool that the girls loved!! It was zero entry so they could play safely and the ground was soft and squishy. We had a blast! Macey soaking up sun, she loved to sit and splash in the water! P.s. Rex went mountain biking and didn't get hurt, yeah!!

So Little Time

2010-07-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

I have been spoiled lately because Brianne and her family came down again and we had a blast! Of course there is so much we want to do and since we HAVE to eat and sleep we didn't get all the things done that we wanted. But, we did go to the movies, craft, go swimming, go to see my Dad's bank in Cottage Grove, go out to eat, make treats, play out side a ton, and hang out. I love having Brianne here and I am so glad that she stayed to play! LOVE YOU SIS!!

The girls did great and loved being together. Here they are creating art.
Brianne and I made onesies for friends that were or are having babies! It was super hot out so they dried in no time! Love that cricut :)
We also made time for naps.....Papa has been working really hard on his building and Annie was wiped out from playing.
Here is a view of the 2nd and 3rd floor in the bank/soon to be huge home. I love this place and it is changing constantly. I know it looks like a ton of work,which it will be, but wait until it's done, it will be amazing! We are going to start a blog about the remodel so you can see it transform!! It is huge!
I did some baby crafting and made some cloth teething rings so you can throw them right in the wash!
Here is my finished onesie! I love the bird!
And I also made a diaper holder/changing pad! It turned out so cute, I will have to make one for me too!! It was easy and really soft.
Here is is open, pretty fun :)

Keeping busy

2010-07-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

We stay pretty entertained around here and with all the nice weather we have been swimming a lot too! But since it is just me and the girls during the day I never take pictures at the pool because I am sure the minute I got out to get the camera, one of them would jump in. But I did capture these pictures.....

This is what happened when I go upstairs for 20 minutes to blog on my family and food blog!! AHH!!! These girls make me laugh so much! When I came up here Annie did have pj pants on and the living room was spotless! And I don't know where Macey found 1 glove :) I love these kids!!

Next I was working out in our living room (I love workout dvd's) and I looked behind me and saw this. She must be tired from trashing the house.... :) Too cute!

For those of you who don't know my dad bought a 3 story, early 1900's bank that he is now remodeling into a huge house/shop. It is amazing! We love going to help so last weekend we all went to give him a hand. The girls loved it and so did the boys because they got to destroy stuff. Rex, Brady and dad pushed a bathtub off the second floor so here they are pre-pushing.

And Annie and Macey loved throwing scrap wood off the balcony into the trailer to help. All the wood they tossed was about the size of a ruler, but it was really cute!

And of course, I HAD to see Eclipse, so I went with the cutes friend ever, Kari! We had a blast and met some more friends at the theater. Of course we LOVED it and smiled the whole way through!!

This and That

2010-07-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures of when we celebrated fathers dad with Papa. (He wasn't here for the actual fathers day), so we through a little backyard party for him. It was fun and beautiful and he really is the best dad a girl could ask for. The strongest and most selfless person that I know and I realize more and more how much I want to be like him. I am grateful for the men in my life, now more than ever. LOVE YOU DAD!!
Papa and Annie, she just loves her Papa!

Laughing and something I am sure that Uncle Brady said to make us smile big!
opening presents.....Macey had a dinner incident that apparently attacked her shirt and now is topless.....wonderful :)

I was actually feeling crafty so I made a few of these diaper and wipe holders and they turned out perfect! Now no more searching through the diaper bag to realize that I have no diapers and 2 wipes.... problem solved! They are from Noodleheads. Super cute!

Trip to the Zoo

2010-07-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

For the last few days we have been visiting my sister and her family in Forest Grove. We had a blast!! We love hanging out with them and it always makes me sad when we have to leave. But, we had so much fun and stayed busy!! We spend a WHOLE day at the Portland zoo and saw every animal there. The kids loved it so much and we excited about all the animals. We also played at the park, did a bit of thrift shopping, watched chick flicks (thanks hubbies), went to the gym together(thanks again hubbies), played cards, and let our kids play until the day was over! Thanks Brianne for making room for us and we LOVE you guys so much!!

All the girls huddled around the window looking for tigers

Macey petting the goats, she wasn't quite sure what to think, but really wanted to go in and see them :)

Waving at the animals

Rex and the girls looking at the giraffe

All the kids together hiding in a rock, I love all the different faces

Our attempt at a good family picture, not too bad.....

We had so much fun, thank you again Pitts, we love you!!

Seriously, again.......

2010-06-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, the weather has been beautiful here (finally) and so there has been a lot of this going on around here.....

Annie loves riding her bike! Papa has had it at his house and it mysteriously made it over to ours. She loves riding with Gloria, her pet hippo. So I made this....

cute bag so she can carry her "babies" where ever she goes. Now, he also likes to ride his bike.....

Especially with his brother-in-law Pete. They get away whenever they can.... Which is great until .............

this happens.....(warning kinda gross, but not too gross:)

So our awesome friend Dustin, is a plastic surgeon, and is kind enough to take him down to his office at 10:00 at night and give him one of these and ......

13 of these and send him back home. You can imagine how happy I was to see my hottie of a husband limping home covered in blood and bandages. We had a little chat on hobbies that aren't dangerous or hazardous to his health :)We will see if it worked, probably not, but for now he is resting his leg and getting pampered by all his girls!

And Macey is just cute.... so she gets a picture too :)

A little light reading............

2010-06-22T22:39:00.000-07:00

This is what I saw when I was checking on Annie in the bathroom a couple days ago... nice :) Rex was so proud that she picked up that magazine. My sweet baby....oh well, she is so cute she can pull it off!!

Fun with the Pitts

2010-06-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

Brianne and her kiddies came down last week and we had a blast! We were so happy to see them and spend time with them. I love when Brianne is here. She is my BEST friend. We can talk about anything and we have so much in common. Having her around makes me happy, makes me feel better. We talk about mom, crafting and all our dreams about the future. We got lots done including: a bbq with Sweet Home friends, a 10 mile bike ride (including all 4 kids), shopping, cooking and baking, movies, yard work, and lot of laughs! I love you Brianne and thanks for taking the time to come spend time with us!

P.S. these are totally random pictures :)

The girls figures out the could hang under the table.... they thought it was so cool!

And Macey and Ezra too :)

This is how Ezra felt about wearing a helmet :) HA!!

My first paying gig! One of my friends asked me to make U of O graduation cupcakes for her hubby! They turned out great!

On Peterson Patrol

2010-06-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

Well we got back from camping and 2 days later we went to our friends house to house sit and watch their kids while they went on a lovely warm vacation. We had a great time pretending we lived in a big house, with a bigger car and 5 kids. It was smooth sailing. Everyone got along great, we made dinner every night, watched movies, went on hike, played Wii, and lots more! They are great kids and we love the Peterson family!

A full car! We took a quick trip to Sweet Home and took the kids out to lunch at A&W, played at Rex's parents house, and went on a hike!

We went hiking on the muddiest trail ever!! What good sports! We also had our nephew, Kase, who turned into Hayden's new buddy. Grandma Basting kept Macey so she could nap :) Thanks Guys!

Little Buddies.....really they get along great!

At Soda Falls, pretty huh?

Annie striking a pose, cute!

Tents, dirt, fire, smoke......

2010-06-01T21:08:00.000-07:00

Yes! We went camping with Rex's family over the weekend. We drove to Grants Pass and camped at Indian Mary. We had a blast! It was so much fun! The kids got so much fresh air and sunshine, lots of yummy food and we had a chance to hang out with family. A fun filled weekend that included........
Setting up our little tent, which fit us all just fine, nice and cozy... then

'SMORES!! No camping trip would be complete without making a huge sticky mess right?
The girls loved them! The minute I said "Smile", they both shoved marshmallows in thier mouths... lovey
Dad too!! He loves a perfect 'smore :)

This campground was awesome! They had a big park for kids too! A huge hit for my girls.....

We also went on a hike right next to the Rouge river. It was beautiful! Except for the bushes and bushes of posion oak and jagged rocks that if you slipped off the path you could end up floating down the river..... but very fun. Ok next......

An awesome parade that was HUGE!! I mean giagantic! It lasted 2 hours and was packed full of great floats and tons of candy :)

The kids had front row seats :)

They had a great time with thier cousins and we had so much fun with our family! Thanks to Seth and Amber who planned this great trip and mom and dad for all thier hard work and yummy food! Love you all

BNL

2010-05-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

On Sunday afternoon (don't judge too much :) my dad and I drove up to Portland where Brianne and I went to a Barenaked Ladies concert. It was sooo much fun! See, the BNL (barenaked ladies) is my mom's favorite group. She loves them! For my 15th d-day my parents took me and Brianne to one of their concerts and they have been going ever since. My dad bought these tickets months ago and they were a b-day present for my mom. She was sooo excited! Mom's d-day was 2 weeks ago and so dad gave the tickets to me and Brianne to go instead. Thanks to mom playing their music all the time, we knew all the songs and had all their cd's thanks to dad.

We had a great time just talking before the concert started and as the lights went down and the music started and the band appeared, my eyes filled with tears. I kept thinking, mom would have loved this. It should be her and dad here. We loved every second of that concert and we decided that every time they come to Portland, we will be there. Brianne is my best friend and being there with her made it perfect! She is so much fun to hang out with! Love you sis! Thanks dad, it was a blast!

They are sooo funny! They talked to the audience in between each song and you can tell by their chemistry that they are all best friends.

Snapping pictures right before it started!

You will all know this song......

Graduation!!

2010-05-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

Well, we are trying to get back in the swing of things and last weekend we had a good distraction. REX GRADUATED!! He officially has his masters degree in school counseling. His family all came down and we went to the ceremony (which wasn't that long, yeah! :) and then had a little bbq party after. I am so proud of Rex. For the last 2 years he has gone to school, worked 2 jobs, had homework, group projects, tests, papers.....taken care of all of us, found time to hurt himself mountain biking and he never complained. I am grateful for his hard work and dedication so that we can have a good life. What an amazing man! I LOVE you Rex and I am so proud of you!!

Now..... we have to find a job! Wish us luck!

Rex and the Dean of NCU

Me,Rex and Dad. Dad encouraged Rex 2 years ago to pursue a masters degree..... thanks dad!! You are a great example to us!

Everyone is so proud! Rex and his family.

I can't believe that he is done! Wow, it went by pretty fast.....well when we were in the middle of it it didn't seem like it, but yeah, all done!

Of course I had to make cupcakes!! look at all those little graduation hats... so cute!!

My mom

2010-04-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

My sweet mom passed away suddenly on Friday from Acute Leukemia. We had no idea until it was too late. I miss her so much. I can't believe she is gone. I know that Heavenly Father needed her to come home and I know she is in a better place but it is hard for me to believe that she isn't her. We did everything together....everything. We shared a calling at church, we went grocery shopping every Thursdays at 10:30, watched chick flicks, went to wal-mart, jo-annes, target, bank...everywhere together. And then we were at their house almost everyday. She is perfect. She made everyone a better person, especially me. I am so grateful that she is mine. I am so glad she taught me how to be a friend, mom, wife, a good person. Because of her I am going to be better and make this world better. She was perfect for my dad and watching their marriage over my life made me the wife I am today. There is so much more I want to say to her, so much more I want to write. I love her and she will forever be with me. I know that someday I will see her again because I know that families are forever. But, it hurts so bad. I had no idea that anything would hurt like this. I have an amazing dad and family and we will be stronger together. I miss you and I love you mom.

Night hike in Scotland, I always wanted to be a mom, just like her

Best friends forever, the best parents in the world

At the William Wallace castle in Scotland

The best Nanny. She made all their ties, dresses, pj's, ....she is amazing

Rise and Shine

2010-04-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

This is what Macey looks like when she wakes up from her nap! :) I just love those warm soft cheeks!! SO CUTE!!

Easter, round 2!

2010-04-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

Well, last week my sister and her kids came down to visit and have a later Easter celebration. It was soooo much fun! We had a great time and stayed busy! We colored and cut hair, did crafts, went to the movies, colored eggs, played games, ate lots of food, and to finish off the week we all went to church as a family and had a Delicious Easter feast. Bryce and his girlfriend, Lauren, also were there so we had a blast!

Digging in the wet sand box. Those girls played outside every sun break we had!
Brianne and I making some candle holders. They were not done so I will take a picture of the finished product.

Uncle Rex is the best! Ryan and Ezra loved him and he entertained all the kids so well! Thanks honey!

Coloring eggs with crayons and stickers. We didn't want to have to deal without making a huge mess, and they kids only dropped 4 out of 12, not bad :)

Nanny is a rock star and made all the kids Easter pjs! They are so cute running around in them. Thanks so much Nanny, we love you!!

Macey in the middle of an Easter egg hunt! She was so excited about her eggs. She just carried them around.

Nanny and Papa with all the kids. Yes, my mom is awesome and made Easter dresses and tie for the kiddies!

Our attempt to take a family picture before church. Lauren is taking the photo, thank you, and all the kids are getting squirmy :) Bryce did a little photo shoot with his super fancy camera, so I will post those soon! SO cute!

Easter

2010-04-12T16:22:00.000-07:00

I know it has been way too long since I have blogged, so I will post over the next couple of days so I don't overload on pictures! We had a great Easter, spending time with friends and family. Annie left out carrots and water for the Easter bunny who stopped by our house and left the girls some goodies!! We had a yummy dinner at our friends house and enjoyed conference all weekend.

Sitting with their baskets and goodies. Notice how the carrots have been nibbled :)

Having a bit of tea for breakfast with their new tea set

Macey with her loot, she was pretty happy about the baby snacks

Annie trying on her new shades. She has been wanting some sun glasses and some how the Easter bunny knew, sweet!

One Fish, Two Fish.....

2010-03-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took a day trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. It was sooo much fun! We had the best time and the weather was beautiful. The girls loved all the different exibits espically the otters, sea lions, and puffins. Macey even touched a star fish! I love those kind of days where everything goes perfect and everyone is happy. We are having a wonderful spring break.... and we love having Rex home!

Rex and Annie looking at a school of fish

Macey touching the star fish, she loved the water!

The girls loved the fish!! It was really cute to watch them be so intrested!

Me and Annie, took a picture while we were looking at the giant star fish

Watching the sea lions swim, so very graceful!

Diver Annie

Outside the Aquarium

Another family picture taken by a nice little old man :)

Macey LOVED watching the puffins! She was laughing and screaming!

Rex is the BEST!!

2010-03-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have the best husband in the world!! Really, I do! I believe that we were destined to be together :) He is my perfect match and my best friend. He makes me laugh so much, loves and plays with our kids, cheers me up when I am feeling down, supports me in all my ideas and dreams, works hard .... and best of all when I see him walking toward the door at the end of the day, I still get butterflies in my stomach! I love this man! The other night Rex went to our 24 hour walmart for a baby Tylenol run at 12:15 a.m. He came home with baby medicine and NEW MOON!! Yes, he got in line with teenage girls to bring me home the next chapter of TWILIGHT!! He is so amazing! Just wanted you all to know ....:)

I am one happy girl...

Sidewalk stories.....

2010-03-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

We haven't really been doing anything around here that has been blog worthy but it bothers me when I go to long in between posts.....so here are our sidewalk stories. Here are a few pictures of what we do when the weather is nice....

We needed to take the car seats out for a little bit and the girls thought that is was so much fun to sit in them. Apparently car seats are so much better on the sidewalk than when they are in the car :)

Macey and Annie love to "paint" with water :) It is so wonderful because it dries in no time and they think they are really painting. Yesterday we had to stop Macey from drinking the dirty paint water, lovely.

We LOVE chalk! Whoever invented sidewalk chalk is a genius and I love them. We do hopscotch, trace shadows, and practice writing our names. Sometimes it gets a little carried away and find drawings on the door, bench, car tires, clothes, and Annie sometimes colors Macey :)

I have been loving the sunny weather aside that it has been a little windy. Oh well. I am very excited for spring break and spending some time as a family! I have projects to work on, crafts, job hunting, cooking, and family to all look forward too!! And hopefully more exciting pictures too :)

Watching the stars come out

2010-03-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

The other night Rex was working late so I decided to take the girls outside to watch the stars come out. Well, we bundled up and went outside to see that it was a cloudy night. So we deiced to look for random cats instead which was a huge hit! We also listened for frogs and the girls walked around outside until Rex came home. It was lovey to get some clean fresh air :)

Sitting on the bench looking at the clouds...

On a quest to find cats.... there are a million cats around here so we did find a few!

We have a couple of tutus that we have been given so the girls were dancing around last night, it was too cute!

sunny weather.....happy kids :)

2010-03-01T14:48:00.000-08:00

The past couple of weekends we have had great weather and that means get outside all day and wear those kids out! They love being outside and so do we, so we are all happy. A couple weekends ago we met my brother-in-law and his family at an animal reservation to do some hiking. It was more like kid friendly hiking because it was all pretty much flat. We happened to get a few cute shots..... but just a few because those kids are fast! And then Rex met his brother again this weekend at the Logging show. He took Annie while Macey stayed home with me and she napped :) and I actually got some house work done! We are glad we have cousins so close!

Taking a break after all that running....

Rex loves taking Annie with him... she also loves riding in the beat up old pick up with him :)

All the kids getting scooped up

What a pretty smile. She told me she had a great time at the "tractor store" or what we like to call the logging show

Lets Play a game.....

2010-02-24T13:32:00.000-08:00

It is called "What is in your purse?" I was inspired when last night I was searching high and low for my cell phone and I dumped out my purse and started to laugh! There is so much random stuff in there. It makes me proud to be a mommy!!

To the normal human eye this looks like a regular bag..... but don't be fooled, it is a magic bag!!

Ok, ready to laugh? 2 diapers, wipes, a water sippy, Annie's fluoride tablets, sunscreen, baby Tylenol, a bath toy, Hugh Jackman movie (Who doesn't carry Wolverine around with them), 2 binkies because 1 is never enough, a hello kitty pen, lip gloss, a paint brush, 3 ponies from Annie's horse collection, wallet, floss, fish crackers, a clippy, plastic spoon, 6 cents, my watch, a pig and an old grocery list! I feel like Mary Poppins! Amazing that all of that stuff fit in my bag!

Graham crackers and milk

2010-02-21T19:48:00.000-08:00

Papa taught Macey this......and she caught on right away!

DUNK

DEVOUR

DRINK

DONE!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

2010-02-15T19:35:00.000-08:00

We celebrated my dad's birthday last week and had a great time!! We had his favorite dinner and I made owl cupcakes (picked by Annie) and opened presents. Annie also picked out his present which he loves! I love my dad so much. He is amazing and such a good example to me. He is patient, loving, easy going, kind, and incredibly selfless. I trust him and his opinion and respect his hard work. He has done so much to make his dreams come true!! Thanks for all you do dad! I LOVE YOU DAD!!

Papa and the girls with his new present. Annie loved this whale, and it is a pretty cute stuffed animal.

Blowing out the candles. Annie of course is helping. She loves Papa soooo much, they are great buddies.

Here is a picture of the cupcakes. The owls symbolize how WISE papa is :)

Group shot!

And the family tradition of making sugar cookies. Rex and Annie decorating....

And me and Macey playing with the camera. I got to decorate a few but Macey didn't want to participate, just eat them..... so we played :)

This and That

2010-02-07T18:12:00.001-08:00

Just a few pictures of us staying busy. I am looking forward to Valentines Day. I love that it is totally ok to be romantically cheesy and spoil my husband. I have lots of goodies planned for him :) It is going to be great! We have a busy week coming up full of cookie making and decorating, activity days to plan and operate, my dad's birthday, and Valentines day prep!! Yeah!!

Here is my cute Valentine's Day banner I made!! I love my cricut...have I ever mentioned that :)

The other day I heard Macey wake up from her nap, when I went in the girls room I found this ....... CUTE!

And then this..... so happy to be awake. Macey loves to play with Annie.

Classy, I know. But for the record, it was washed out and ready to recycle. Funny though.

Puddle Splashing fun!

2010-02-02T20:51:00.000-08:00

It has been raining here, shocker.... so we still go out side to play and walk. Macey loves to walk because she is much more stable and doesn't trip as much so we brave the weather. So, I let them splash as much as they wanted and they had a ball! They were laughing so hard, it was pretty cute!

Kinda a side note, but I am getting so excited because Rex has a few months left of grad school! He will be done with classes in April and done with his internship in June. Then onto job hunting.... :) I am so proud of him and I am grateful that he does so much for our family, what a stud! LOVE YOU HONEY!!

The girls splashing.... Just so you know Annie picked out her clothes :)

Macey Moo is so cute!! I just love this baby!

Annie loves her umbrella, one of her favorite presents from Nanny and Papa, she is a great helper and is a wonderful big sister! Love her!

Me and the girls, I love that I get to spend everyday with them!

Not a whole lot going on.....

2010-01-30T12:25:00.000-08:00

I wish that I had fun events to blog about but we haven't been up to anything really exciting around here. We always stay busy, but sometimes not a lot of picture worthy moments. Here is what we have been up to in the past few weeks.....

Made some super cute valentine's day blocks....

Macey enjoying lunch and she is too cute to not take a picture of....

Annie wearing Mr. potato head earrings, she forgot she had them on and wore them for like 3 hours....

And after a long day of playing, falling asleep halfway standing and playing with all her stuffed animals... TOO CUTE!!!

Well, we have birthdays, holidays and more crafts coming up so much more to post about! yeah!

Look at those pearly whites!

2010-01-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

Annie took her first visit to the dentist on Thursday and did great!! She was really excited. They told me they would do what they could so that she would be comfortable and not scared, but they did the works on her! She let the hygienist do a full exam on her and smiled right through it. She has healthy teeth and gums...yeah, thank goodness since I am the one brushing her teeth :) I am so proud of her and she looked like such a big girl sitting in the dentist chair. My baby is growing up tooooo fast!! Way to go Annie!

Annie is really excited about her new toothbrush that suctions to the counter :)

And also she now realizes that she can make wired faces at the camera.....joy.

Off to a good start.....

2010-01-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

Well being that it is a new year I have made like 1,000 resolutions. Ok, let's call them goals or things to be accomplished. A lot of them are projects that I want to do, things I want to make, fun and easy. Well, so far I have been very productive. Here are so pictures of my latest finished products....... Oh, I actually do have resolutions. To name a few, go to bed earlier (Rex and I are night owls), practice the piano every week, read more books (that aren't Twilight.... that one will be hard :) Moving on.............

Ok, this I am proud of only because it took a long time to make! I made Annie and my niece Ryan each a quite book for church! They turned out great! I worked on them every night for 2 weeks leading up to Christmas! Whoo! This page it the alphabet that matches an animal for every letter.

This page is to make ocean scenes with different animals and ocean life. I also did a jungle page too.

This is one of my favorites, shapes!

And we must practice our colors too :) There are also pages for Annie and Macey to color on with washable makers too. This book is great. I can make more pages and it keeps Annie and Rex busy at church for like a half an hour! :)

Cute huh? Wondering what it is? It is a needle holder. Perfect for me, for some reason my pin cushion eats my needles, but not anymore!

See, handy right? I love the bird and colors.

Annie and I made finger puppets, it is a mouse :) I love using felt! I have lots of projects coming up with felt!

And my little sewing helper. Don't worry I am a good mom and this is a little kid pin cushion with NO pins in it :) Well, a new week starts tomorrow and I have lot of stuff to create! .........and laundry to do :)

Reading Rainbow

2010-01-05T22:52:00.001-08:00

I just thought this was cute :) I made this "reading corner" when I decorated the girls room and not once have they sat in it. I mean they love to listen, read and look at books, just not it the comfy pillow corner I made. Well today, I was just about to do Annie's hair and I came into the room and YES they were sitting there. So I dashed down stairs and found the camera in just enough time to snap a few shots! I love my cute girls so much!!

"What are you reading?" Annie was reciting this book, pretty much.....

Just relaxing and being cheesy of course!

Great Grandad

2010-01-03T19:29:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas break my grandad was able to spend the holidays and break with us and it was really fun to be around him. We haven't seen him seine I got married so it was about time!! I hope that we kept him busy, we did lots of fun activities and he was able to hang out with the guys. I have so many great memories of being around him and my late grandma, but this time I was able to talk about more grown up stuff. About how he met my grandma, being in a war, raising my dad..... I was great! And he met is great grandchildren. Thanks grandad!! Love you!

my little family with great grandad

My family (my dad and his dad if you couldn't tell :)

And again our wonderful friends from Sweet Home/Lebanon came to hang out with us while they are on their break. Thanks guys, we always have so much fun!

5 Years and counting....

2009-12-29T21:51:00.000-08:00

A few days before Christmas Rex and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! It was such a fun date night. We are huge fans of the "dinner and a movie" date, simple but we always look forward to it! We had a great time at dinner, actually having a conversation without keeping the kids from throwing food, taking their shoes off, or wiggling out of the seats. We laughed and gave our cheesy waiter a pretty good tip :) We went to Avitar (yes we actually went to an expensive movie) with Nick and Katelyn. They met us in Eugene to help celebrate, and we are glad they did! Love you guys! The movie was great, I wasn't sure at first but I loved it!! So much for the eyes to take in...beautiful! A great night all in all!! I love my sweet Rex. He is perfect for me in every way and I can't imagine my life without him in it! He is an amazing father and husband and my best friend. I have the most fun when I am with him and he always makes me laugh! He reminds me to not take life to seriously and his smile is contagious. I am one lucky girl! LOVE YOU! Until next year!

Ahhh.... 5 years ago. And today....

so cute... Rex made faces in all the other pictures :)

Beard Family Christmas

2009-12-29T21:19:00.000-08:00

My mom and I have been planning a big family Christmas for weeks and last week we had such a good time!! We had lots of activities planned and I think that everyone had fun!! We had all of our close family here, which is great because we always have so much fun when we all get together! Here is a few things we did .....
The men when out shooting and stayed out there for hours so we know they were having so much fun destroying things. Then on to.....
Making gingerbread houses as a family. Everyone was decorating together. A lot of candy was used and eaten...
Me assembling the houses. Yes, that is a glue gun on the counter.... we didn't have time to let everyone frost the house onto the milk carton so we improvised. Worked great!! That night while reading the Christmas story we put....
All the girls in their Christmas eve jammies.... so cute! Ezra was around there somewhere. For some reason the girls were always playing monster and running from poor little Ezzie. He is a good sport :) The next morning....
Annie was so excited to see that Santa left her a baby stroller and a camera! She loves them both, there are a million pictures of all of her toys :) Although Macey's face says it all......
I love this face!! She was so excited to see her new books and blocks! So cute!! We next opened presents as a family at my parents had a yummy breakfast and dinner they we got together and......
The whole family playing games Christmas night. It was really fun!! While we were playing.....
All the kids watching a Christmas movie together, we can't believe they all stayed there for a full 10 minutes :) It was a great week and so much fun! I love my family, I love Christmas and the wonderful season that is about the birth of our Savior and showing others we care. Can't wait until next year!

Spending time in Sweet Home

2009-12-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has been so long! We were visiting Rex's family in Sweet Home for some pre-Christmas fun! And boy did we have fun! Grandma and Grandpa of course spoiled us and always take such good care of us when we come. We opened and exchanged gifts, watched 1,000,000 Christmas movies, played with family and cousins, ATE, and had a wonderful dinner with our good friends who were visiting their family at the same time! We had so much fun, thanks for everything mom and dad Basting!! WE LOVE YOU!!p.s. I didn't get a ton of pictures, but I got a few!

With our best friends Nick and Katelyn. We grew up with Nick and then we lived RIGHT next door to them in Rexburg when we were all going to school. All of us would stay up till 2 a.m. playing games together. :) They moved to Texas and we miss them soooo much!! LOVE YOU GUYS!!
Snuggling on the chair. Grandmas house is always warm and cozy!

Jumping on the bouncy cow, a huge hit!

White Christmas

2009-12-12T11:20:00.000-08:00

No, it didn't snow here..... but Rex did surprise me and take my on a mystery date this week! It was sooooo much fun! He had been planning this for quite some time and wouldn't tell me a thing! But Thursday night we went out for dinner, did a little shopping for the girls and then after 10 minutes of trying to find a parking spot in downtown Eugene we finally made it to the "surprise" portion of the evening. Rex took me to see the play "White Christmas"! It was SOOOO good and I just love the movie. It is a classic romantic musical comedy and I had never seen it until we were married and watched it with him for the first time. It was in a little lounge theater, cozy and intimate. I love when Rex plans stuff like that, it is so sweet and thoughtful, I have the best husband!! Thanks honey, I love you!!

Ok, if any of you haven't seen this movie, you must rent it and watch it before Christmas, you will love it!

What's been happening around here....

2009-12-07T13:41:00.000-08:00

This week we were able to squeeze tons in, I love weeks like that. We decorated our tree and put up our decorations, had a girls night out, did a second run with our Boutique, PLAYED with friends, and finished off the week watching the Christmas devotional and having a lazy Sunday. Perfect!

Me and my best buddies Chante' and Lucy from high school having fun night out! Lucy sang in a beautiful Christmas program and we went to listen. Then off to Red Robin!

Rex and Annie relaxing after church :)

Macey found one of Annie's markers while she was coloring and decided to color her cracker and her mouth....don't worry they are non-toxic

Putting ornaments on the tree....

So happy!

I am always in charge of putting the lights on, probably because I want them to look a certain way.... and yes I am wearing rubber gloves. Hey this way no sappy hands :)

All us girls getting out the Christmas decor! Yeah, we love this season!

Thanksgiving Weekend!

2009-12-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

We had such a fun Thanksgiving! We packed everyone up and spend 3 days in Redmond with Rex's sister and family. We had a great time! We ate lots of food, played games, talked, went to the movies, and to finish off the weekend, went Christmas tree hunting and found the perfect tree!! What a great weekend!

Rex with the girls in the snow!

All the girls got cold after a while, soooo we played in the car while Rex loaded the tree :)

The perfect tree!

Annie and Grant playing in the trailer, she had so much fun with her cousins!

I love this picture!! Look at Macey, she was so excited! WE had a great weekend together!

New Moon

2009-11-22T16:26:00.001-08:00

Last night was sooo fun!! I was in heaven watching New Moon! I loved it and it was just perfect! Brianne and I were so excited to watch it and of course sad when it was over. That's ok, I will have Rex take me next time :) Yes there will be a next time :) I had so much fun going with a bunch of girls and after we had dessert and talked. Such a fun night out with the Twilight boys!!

Brianne and I wearing our Edward shirts :)

In our amazing seats right before it started...... I know it is almost the same as the one before, but we were so excited!

All the fans, Brianne, Mom, Lauren (my brothers cute girlfriend) and my friends Kari and Amy. Thanks girls, so much fun! Up next, Eclipse in 6 months!! Yeah!

New Moon

2009-11-19T20:37:00.001-08:00

2 days.... yep two days until the best day! I am really excited because me, my sister and some friends have tickets to go see New Moon on Saturday night. Yes, I love Twilight. It is true. Love the books, love the movies.... Love it all! It may seem silly but it is secretly really fun and Saturday night is going to be won-der-ful! GO TEAM EDWARD! I am sure you will all hear about the night of New Moon very soon!! YEAH!

Button House Boutique

2009-11-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

This past weekend my mom and I had our first boutique! We have been working on everything for about a year, and a lot in the last 2 months ( as you can tell from my lack of blogging). We have been busy, but it went really well! Lot of people supported us. It was a lot of fun too! We had everything from signs, Christmas ornaments, decorations, home decor, baby blankets and crochet hats, pre-made soup and brownie mixes, kitchen decor, homemade soap and more!! It is hard to believe that we made it all!! Anyway, here are a few shots of the house all decked out in our goodies! Macey was there for both days and she did great!

The main room. It had lots of Christmas items and we even had a tree full of ornaments.

Macey petting the cute reindeer under the tree. She really like it.

A little desk with small home decor on it.

Our baby section. It was fun getting ready for this, there was so many things we wanted to keep ourselves!! We are having another one on Dec. 5 for anyone who wants to come!!

Annie is 3!!

2009-11-10T16:08:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that my little girl is 3!! AHHHH! It seems like it is going by way to fast, and I like my sweet little babies..... but boy does she make us laugh!! She is very smart and can count and speak in Russian. She loves to have snacks, read books, be cozy on the couch, play with babies and animals, color, and be outside. She loves her family and is very sweet. She has a strong personality, but is very loving and a good girl. We love her SO much and I know that my life is 1 million times better because she is in it! She makes me a better mom and I am extremely grateful for her. I love You Annie!!

My little Baby....... wow look at her now................

Her birthday shirt, we take a picture every year in it! What a lady!

Speaking of ladies, she wanted ladybug cupcakes, so I did my best! They were really cute.

So excited about her baby doll!

And her new beanie, she is awesome and will wear hats!! We had a great day!

Awwww....

2009-11-05T00:06:00.001-08:00

Can't ..........make it ..... through..........lunch :)

She is so stinkn' cute!! I love this baby!

Halloween Fun!

2009-11-02T09:46:00.001-08:00

We had a great Halloween. Even though we only had 2 trick or treaters.... sad I know, we really had fun as a family. We started off the festivities by our traditional holiday cookie decorating....

Annie decorated this cookie all by herself. Frosted it too! I thought it was cute and smart how she did eyes and a nose. Next....
Macey roamed the floor and under the kitchen table to find candy that didn't make it onto the cookies. And she was successful!! She found an m&m and gobbled it right up!

Our family shot and a few cookies in there too. Next we delivered them to our much loved friends :) Moving right along... On to the .....

pumpkin carving. Rex looks forward to this very much. Probable because his carving creations always turn out WAY better than mine. He truly has a carving gift.

Yes, his is the impressive scarecrow on the end. They turned out good, but the next morning we woke up and saw that the squirrels were peckish during the night and ate them. :( That's ok because we dressed up and went to a Halloween party!!

Here we are, our little farm family! My handsome logger husband, my two baby cows, and me as the farmer. We had a great time and the costumes were a big hit! Over all, a great weekend!!

One Busy Saturday

2009-10-27T23:26:00.000-07:00

We have been go go go around here lately. But it is good to stay busy! So on Saturday we crammed in a ton of fun stuff!! First off bright and early I ran in my first 5K!! It was great! One of my best friends, Amy, coached me through it and we ran like the wind!! :) We finished right about 27 minutes. Not bad. It was really fun and funny since lots of people ran in Halloween costumes :) Moving on to a Nemo b-day party that the kids loved! Next, off the the pumpkin patch with Grandpa and Grandma Basting. We had a blast!! Hayride, pumpkin picking and the weather was perfect! We came home and made dinner for our guests and finished the night off by hanging out with my family over dessert! A great day!

After the race. Aren't we incredibly attractive... uh YES

My cheering section. My sweet family and my mom (my inspiration) came to watch me run. I have such a great family. Thanks so much!

Walking around the corn maze. Annie loves playing with Rex!

Annie picked out her own pumpkin. She thinks it is " so much cute"

All of us on the wild hayride. We really had a great time. I love when we spend time all together :)

Macey posing on her pumpkin. This was her second year to the pumpkin patch!

Oh my, these kids are cute!!

Us a year ago, wow time flies!!

The first few steps.....

2009-10-23T19:23:00.000-07:00

Macey is starting to walk!! Just with in the last few days she is really getting brave! It is so funny to see her go. Lots of falls, but she doesn't mind one bit! Here is a quick clip of her stumbling to me! Love her laugh!!

What a crafty week!

2009-10-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

I had the best week last week! My sister and her cute kids came down to visit and we had a week full of crafts, laughing, and playing! It was so much fun, I mean I always have fun when we hang out, but when all us girls get together it is smiles all around!Plus, we got tons done. We worked sun up to sun down and played with the kids everywhere in between! I love Brianne so much and I am grateful that she is my best friend. My mom is awesome and helped a ton with the kids, made us dinner every single night, dessert and helped out with all our crafting needs!! Thanks for everything mom!! Thanks Brianne for coming down, we love you! And a huge thanks to my sweet hubby who put our kiddies to bed every night so I could stay late with the girls!! Thanks honey, I LOVE YOU!

These babies did so great!! They played good together and are so darn cute, even if they are eating cheerios off the floor...

First we started by making our kids Halloween costumes. All the girls are going to be cows... more pictures to come on Halloween :)

Annie and Ryan just love each other. They entertained each other all week! What good girls. Just having pop corn and enjoying some sun shine.

Look at that table! Ahhh! Yeah that happened everyday and then we would clean it up and start over again the next day. Here we are making our NOEL Christmas banners. So cute!

Lovely!

All done, I love it! Thanks to my cricut which I also love so much!!

A close up of one of my favorites.
Last, we made FHE signs. It took a couple of days, but we finished them! Yeah, what a fun week!

A closer look....

The girls make dipped pretzels, or what we like to call: princess wands!

It was so much fun and I am so grateful to have family so close!!

What a week!!

2009-10-08T14:58:00.001-07:00

Ok, I know I haven't been on here in years....ok days, but it seems like a long time for me. We have had one of those weeks... You know what I am talking about. Where everyone is sick, hurt, things go wrong with the car, house.....anyway. In our family we had a long couple of days. Something happened to everyone. It started with Annie getting two ear infections, one in each ear. Accompanied by runny nose and 101 temp. Lovely, you can imagine how much sleep we did NOT get around here. Rex has really been into mountain biking lately. Great, good exercise and a chance to hang out with his friends.....until he wrecks, hurts his neck, cracks a rib, separates muscle from the bone, and scratches up his back. Oh goodie, not to mention the happy little urgent care bill we will receive in the mail. Joy. My sweet Macey is the best. She has a little runny nose but my angel has been sleeping through the night for weeks and hasn't failed me yet!LOVE HER! So that's it..... moving forward to next week. I just know it will be better than last week! Macey practicing her walking, she has definitely mastered looking so cute!

Rex pre wreck. He LOVES riding and I am glad that he has a good hobby, I just wish it was safer.....like knitting. He is really good at being cute too!

Party round 2

2009-09-30T13:43:00.001-07:00

Macey was lucky enough to have another little party. Honestly, it was an excellent reason to get together with family and friends and eat! We had a great time and Macy sure enjoyed herself and her cake! I am still trying to absorb the fact that she is 1!

I was so excited to make these for her party! I got a great cup cake cookbook from my mom and I really wanted to use it. I am so glad they turned out!

Pretty huh? Good thing I am a perfectionist or this could have been ugly :)

She really could care less about the open flame right in front of her :)
Yumm, it's all mine!

I found this little toy at a yard sale a couple weeks ago for $1.50! Her and Annie love it! What a steal.... and it is fun to watch her shake that little bootie!

Macey turns 1!!

2009-09-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that my baby is one!! Where did the last year go? Fastest year ever....yep I am pretty sure! Wow, I did good and didn't cry, but seriously, why do babies grow so fast? Well, it was pretty low key, we are having a little party this weekend, but of course she had to try some cake. She did like her cake, but really wanted to share it with all of us! I love my Macey moo and she is such a sweet baby. She has brought so much happiness into our home and lives. I can't wait to see her little personality grow...... and her hair too :) Happy birthday my sweet girl!

There she is, finally made it!

One day old...... and then flash forward......

One year!! I love those eyes and cheeks.

She liked the candle but didn't really know what to do! We said "blow" and she starting blowing air out her nose :)

Yummmmm

Opening her new toy...... stacking cups!
Me and my sweet girl

Felt Pumpkin project

2009-09-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

My extremely intelligent friend, Amy, shared this GREAT quite time, church, soft toy idea! I am so excited because Annie loves it and it DID occupy her at church today! Thanks Amy! All you do is get some felt from the store (about 30 cents each :) and cut out a pumpkin shape and lots of different eyes, mouths, noses, and accessories (hair bows, mustaches, earrings...). That's it! I am going to make a snowman too with scarfs, hats and button options! Have fun!

Annie couldn't wait until Sunday, we broke it out Friday afternoon!

Hard at work....

Ok, so we veered off subject a little bit, but isn't she cute with a huge black mustache?