Our Memories

Dyls First Talk

2011-01-26T13:57:00.003-05:00

Ok...I'm not sure what the rule on this is...so maybe I broke it but since none of my family could make it for the big day, i decided to record it. Unfortunately I am in the presidency and was conducting this particular Sunday so I only caught it from about the middle on...plus it didn't have enough memory to catch the end, but you can at least get the basic idea of how cute he was that day.

Super late super heroes

2011-01-13T15:44:00.034-05:00

I know...Halloween was how long ago? Sigh...Im workin' on it.
Here's Dylan, the inspiration for this years theme. When asked what he wanted to be for Halloween, immediately he shouted "SUPERMAN!!!" His latest obsession. When i found this costume for 9.99 on clearance he about died. He wore it at least once a day leading up to the main event. Then, Jeff and Braydee informed me that they had a Batman and Robin costume from the previous year...all that was left was to figure out Marley. He took it so seriously...like he really was superman. Sound effects and all.

Tryin real hard not to smile.The muscle shot almost broke him...almost. But he is a man of steel. He never yields to his moms teasing to get a smile for a pic.Story time at preschool. Such cute costumes this yearfun little jack o lanterns they made outta water bottles. Dyl loves school.
This pic is super blurry but I love it. Actually all the outside pics are super blurry...go figure.
Don't you love cute little Dorothy with her yarn hair on the right? Dylan and his teacher "Miss Kristine"
Ok, ward party time...here's our little Mighty Mouse. Mom had to get creative because there were no costumes to be found. Apparently not in high demand anymore...lol half the people were like, who the heck is mighty mouse? Notice the "u" is missing...I used sticky felt and cut letters out, she kept peeling them off, or they'd just fall off all night. I wanted to be able to reuse the yellow onesie i dyed so i didn't want anything permanent. I brought backups tho...which she also peeled and lost.This was Marley most of the night...running in the complete opposite direction of me and my camera. Sad i only did point and shoots this year...shoulda done some real pics. That tail didn't last long either. It was soon a sword, then lost.Marley is either helping look for the u that she just ripped off...or is in the process of ripping it off and throwing it on the floor. Not sure which.

"Mighty Mouse!" That's what she'd shout when you'd ask her what she was...with the hand in the air of course. All super heroes do that, according to Dylan.Allow me to demonstrate...without smiling

Apparently this is still considered a "tough" face Marley mad about something...probably because i threatened the corner if she didn't take a pic for me...and there goes that "u" again. ugh.Phew...grabbed it in time.Group shot! Everyone thought I was wonder woman...hello these are not her colors and she didn't have an "R" on the chest. Whatever. I just love this pic...look at Dyls face, so proud to be dressed up with his Dad.
My attempts at a pic of the kids together...first Mar is looking but not Dyl... Then Dyl but not Mar. Oh well....I tried.Random

"Flying"

Uh-Oh...Rick took it very seriously...he dropped his voice like 8 octaves and everything just like the real Batman does to protect HIS secret identity.I'm not gonna lie...sometimes it was a little creepy. Apparently this is where Dylan gets his serious side from...Rick really was Batman that night.Lets punch stuff!

Are you jealous of the bags under my eyes? How about our sad attempt at gel in Dylans hair. We bought black spray paint but then I had anxiety attacks over the back of the bottle that read "most of it should come out"....what? So my son might have gray hair for like three years till it grows out? He was super bummed. But for whatever reason gel was a satisfiable second. And Miss Marley hittin' up the candy corn center pieces...All in all a really fun night.

Jessi OSMOND!

2011-01-10T13:28:00.037-05:00

Wahoo! One of my best buds from growin' up days got married my birthday weekend! It was awesome because my hubby sent me KIDLESS to go enjoy all my old high school chums and I had a BLAST. (Minus Marley's trip to the E.R. back at home on my actual bday...which was also the day I got a positive preggo test...it was an eventful weekend) Now, onto the main event...Jessi's big day!

Me and Val anxiously awaiting the happy couple outside the temple. As you can tell we could hardly contain our excitement

And there she is! Like outta a freakin fairy tale or something. Isn't she gorgeous?

The photographer really had to squish us....hardcore...to make us all fit

Seriously...you could not slap that smile off her face if you tried. Cute Jenny in the background with one of her adorable little girls. I'm mad at myself for not gettin a group shot of all her sisters...they were too cute for words in the dresses Paula made them.

Seriously how much does Don look like his Dad? Hey at least you know he'll age well Jessi!
At the yummy luncheon. The food was amazing and the entertainment and company were so fun. Especially without kids!
Head table...Jessis parents, Jessi, Don, Dons parents

Ew...they are so happy it makes me wanna break something. So happy for you Jess!

Ok get ready...Paula made this freaking dress! No joke...I know this family totally bugs, just wait till you see how cute all the decor was at the reception...

K so the wedding was the day before my bday...then we had a couple days to kill before the reception...so on my bday we all went to dinner at CPK on John Patzold who happens to work there...he hooked it UP! (Thanks John!)Super cute Adri's little one Chandler with Carson....not lookin' too bad yourself buddy! Aww..happy family. Thanks for comin everyone! It was so fun to catch up!

Ok...onto the reception. The ladies lookin all sexy...Danica, Adri and Brayds Loved all the decor!

Yummy food

Super cool venue...reception hall at Sundance
Ok, this is SO Jessi...and of course she made it herself. That girl kills me. Me n' Brigham. All sweaty from dancin' the night away...with NO KIDS! Me and my sista...in the cute Bday outfit she bought for me for my big weekend! I know, she did a good job, right? Thanks Braydee!

I went home the next night to find a cute little party my hubby put together for me...

Yikes...28 is too close to 30. Like his creative candle job? He was pretty proud.

Ok...it's not a party without....Edward and Jacob! Lol...he is so crazy....thanks for my bday weekend honey! It was truly one I will never forget.

Hesperia Harvest Festival

2011-01-05T16:00:00.034-05:00

I know this post is freaking old...its pre-Halloween but i don't care, i need to get some of these pics uploaded! So if you're not interested...look away.

Miss Ry bug ready for the hay ride

I can ALMOST reach her...

Sorry Mar, we wanted a pic, that's why we had to "hold it" rather then get her off you right away...lol...she's gouging my eyes mom! Too bad this pic doesn't come with sound...you'd have to turn it down.

Trying to smile...this was an insanely HOT hayride...it was over 100 that day.

Super cute buds

Okay...fair warning...there are a LOT of animal pics...some even seem repetitious but I couldn't cut them out...sorry. My kids love animals, too bad they'll NEVER HAVE PETS! Sorry guys, moms deathly allergic.

NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED WHILE TAKING THESE PICS...despite Marleys best efforts. I swear she loves them TOO much sometimes...you'll see.

"Marley...be soft with they're ears honey" What you cant tell about the pic is that she was pointing out each facial feature to me...when she got to eyes i had to intervene.

"Marley...do NOT touch their food...they might bite you!" (some of these pics came out sideways no matter what i tried...they don't appear sideways in my folder, just pull up that way for some reason...any ideas?)

oh yeah, dyl was there too...lol i mostly stayed by mar for the animals protection...so shes in a majority of the pics.

Ok...watch these next two...aw shes just playing with the turtle... Nope...she's poking his head because she's figured out it makes him retreat back in his shell...

And...picking him up...Mom had to get involved again

With Mr. Turtle safely back on the ground, she moved on to the baby goats again.

And then...she saw the kittens. It was REALLY hard to pull her away from those. Sorry Mar, DEFINITELY NEVER a cat.

Poor Kitty...Marley was convinced it was her "baby"

This little piggy freaked her OUT at first...she would scream and run from him...and he would gladly chase her, grunting...

Until Dyl explained to her that he was nice...then they were the best of friends Probably one of my favorite pics. Miss Aisley K!

Elly was in heaven

Even Ry bug got in on the action

Super fun day with the cousins...thanks Megan!

Love this last one...pretty much sums the day up, the kids had a blast. This balloon popped about two seconds after this pic was taken...poor Ry Ry

a-MUSE-ing

2010-10-19T19:04:00.024-04:00

On Ricks birthday he had box seats to the MUSE concert at the Honda Center (thanks DOW)...then at the last minute the client backed out (say what?!) so...we were able to bring our friends Rod and Vanessa along instead. In the restaurant the boys started gettin pumped for the big show. We went to eat at Summit House - YUM!They were amazing! Look at that set! It kept rising and falling, it was so cool.In the DOW box...holla! Ok, this pic needs some explaining...this chick was all drunk and all over her boyfriend, pressed up against the glass that separates our boxes...Rick had his back to them until I pointed out to him that he was basically pressed up against a couple gettin' it on...so he decided he needed in on the action. lol...notice the creepy reflection of the performers face in between? love it. p.s. i am NOT kidding (even tho i wish i was) when i tell you that later on that night these two could be seen with her STRADDLING him in his seat totally going for it...um excuse me you have guests in your booth...awkward...and these are GLASS walls...hello we can see you! (did i mention their box belongs to a local law firm? im sure they'd be interested to know what's goin on in their box!)This guy was another favorite of mine. Serious hard core air guitar through the ENTIRE performance. With the most "in the zone" face ever. To say rick loved this band would be an understatement.and of course he insisted we stay until everyone and everything was gone...he had to see how they took down the set. (roll eyes) it was his birthday so i allowed it...even tho it took FOREVER.

fine, if were gonna stay to watch them do this, then you're gonna take pics with me! It was a ton of fun...happy bday bud!

They Say It's Your BIRTHDAY!!

2010-10-12T16:33:00.035-04:00

Maybe it's been too long since I last posted...or maybe I am just totally way too tired right now but for some reason it's not letting me change the order of my photos...i know some of you are really organized and awesome and post them in the order you actually wanna type them out in but mine are usually backward. so...this post wont make a lotta sense the way it flows but...oh well, its not lettin me switch things up.

That being said...this year we celebrated Ricks big 3-0 swedish style. (he served his mission there). It was super fun, I had Ikea cater the meatballs and potatoes and gravy and lingonberries (dont ask - yuck!) plus good ol' Rod stepped up and made some of his awesome homemade garlic mashed. It was good stuff...we had swedish cheeses and weird cracker bread things and a swedish candy table. We also had traditional swedish drinks and other good stuff. It was a lotta fun.

What Bri? Video you takin' a picture of me? great idea.

Pretty much all night Marley could be found being swung around the room by various cousins (Crew pictured here) in the Toutai's baby walker thing. Pretty sure this is NOT how this thing is intended to be used but she loved it. Too much, in fact bratty too much...as in she would scream "PUSH ME" all snotty if anyone dare let her sit idle too long.

Notice the little feet secured on the front bumper? love it. Also love how shes lookin back at Crew like "see, isnt this so fun? you'd WAY rather be pushing me then jumping in the jumper anyway"

Bri and her lil entourage showed up and she helped make a lotta the signs I had hangin round the room...flags courtesy of Brayds, thanks again Braydee! We missed you, you were totally there in spirit tho.Time for a quick Swedish lesson...we had signs around the room with swedish sayings, bottom left English translation, parenthesis phonic spelling...here we go!

Jag alskar Sverige....translates to "I love Sweden".....sounds like "Yah elsker Sver-ee-yay"Get it...Logan is making the flag...Tjena.........translates to "hello"........sounds like "Sh-en-a"Dang Rick...you're HOW old?Doesn't this sign look long? This is the Swedish birthday song...don't worry I had to solo it like four times to get everyone ready to sing it to him...that kid owes me big.This is how big the sign really was...Har ni fest eller..........translates to "are you having a party?"....sounds like "har nee fest eller"...pretty straight forward that one. Jattebra......translates to "very good"......sounds like "yet eh bra"

Even his mom had to try on the birthday swedish viking hat.Me an my big ol' thirty year old husband...with our matching shirts...dont hate!Thanks for all your help Nessa!You too Megan! Ahh...the boys...what can i say? It was IMPOSSIBLE to get one where they werent pinching each other or grabbing rear ends or doing something ridiculous. Rod just saw what the boys in the next pic were holdin'...what can i say? He's a big fan.There he is...the Beib. This was actually Rods gift to Rick...apparently he wasnt aware that ricks not as obsessed with Justin Beiber as he is...we didnt have the heart to tell him tho, I mean, you saw how excited he was. There was a moment where I couldnt find Marley...i know, shocking right? and finally found here all alone...in the middle of the nursery...silent...creepy...playing with toys....did i say creepy yet? as in horror movie creepy, like shes gonna look up at me with glowing eyes and fly across the room. No? Guess its just me then.What mom? bounce houses and a dj and all the candy i can eat? No thanks, i'd rather sit here and listen to farm animal sounds alone.Bieber ended up being a big hit that night...he disappeared more then once...usually cradled in these ladies arms.Party people!! (meant to be sang loud like that rap song...you know the one)See, this is annoying...this totally should have been the first time you saw Justin bieber...when he was opened by rick...ugh...stupid blogger. He does look kinda excited huh...i take it back rod, looks like he's a closet fan.Cute lil mister Nash, fully appreciating the candy table.Dyl picked this out for rick...he was SO excited to give it to him...it's a Leonardo ninja turtle snuggie!It apparently HAD to be leonardo " cause he's blue and he has the swords...hes my favorite, mom"Birthday boy in the birthday chair wearin the birthday hat...bounce houses and Dj...what more could you ask for (thanks DJ will!)Phew! What a LONG night! they crashed as soon as they walked in the door. Thanks again to everyone for all your help! It was a total blast and i coudnt have done it alone.

Balboa Beauties

2010-09-22T01:05:00.006-04:00

Here ya go Brayds! Braydee wanted me to post some pics from the beach house this year...unfortunately i don't have the cute ones uploaded yet...and NONE of these are edited but here's a few to hold you over.

good idea mom...lets dress in fall colors in the middle of summer...orange brown and green...ew. round two was SO much cuter...and so much more "us"...ill just have to keep you all in suspense until i get around to posting them.

Summer Bummer

2010-09-16T13:33:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it's almost time for Halloween...

I'm just not ready yet to say goodbye to summer...I live for the barefoot carefree days. I am the laziest blogger ever Rick finally helped me clear some memory a couple days ago so im finally uploading pics off my camera. Hopefully I'll be better about this now.

Hooray for Easter!

2010-04-11T16:32:00.036-04:00

Well this post isn't as late as most, but that's only because I still haven't posted about ten that I meant to so...those will just have to be extra late so I can get these up here. Obviously these are not edited AT ALL but if I wait for that to happen, it probably never will. Here's a few shots of the kids in their Easter clothes when we went up to Utah to visit Braydee and Jeff for the annual snowboarding trip.

The kids were super stoked when I told them that sunglasses were on clearance buy one get one free at childrens place and they got matching glasses for their outfits. For some reason my kids love to wear glasses...

especially Marley. She will wear them all day if I let her. Weirdoyes Dylans hair looks sick because he was WAY in need of a haircut...don't worry i cut it before this post is over. Dylan loves to throw in his randomness whenever he can...i think that's like the zen praying move he's doing there with the fingers....who knows but the face def goes with it. After some frozen fingers I decided to thaw my kids out inside on Braydees beautiful couch. I love the color...I know these next pics are insanely dark. Sorry.

Marley just wasn't feelin it. So i snapped one or two then made Dylan make up for it. Sorry Dyl

This next one is one of my favs...it just really captures his personalityonce again, what a weirdoonto the Pasadena egg hunt at Nana and Bumpas...for some reason most of my pics are of either the back or side of marleys head. probably cause she will NEVER hold still for even a second for a photo. ugh cute little piggies thoi love these with nanas white flowers, aren't they pretty? shes an awesome gardenersomeone (okay DADDY) forgot Marleys cute matching socks and shoes..so the poor kid went barefoot. Oh well...I triedBri hid an egg on the roof! Silly Bri...Once Marley figured out there was candy in the eggs...the hunt suddenly became a lot more fun and a lot less pointlessi just love those chubby cheeks...she spent a good ten minutes tryin to get that one openLittle Miss Aisley Kay...she's gonna be a beauty, just like her mama!thats better...i told you i cut his hairI'm still learning about angles and lighting...so bear with meWhat a poserPoser #2...actually number one, dyl is still learning all he knows from this oneI usually get quite a few of thesebefore i get any of these...but they're well worth it once i get them. I love this pic because I got Nana's smile in the background and didn't know it until just now when I was doing this post. Now i love this picture.Marley has developed her own method for opening the eggs...she grabs an egg...sticks it in her mouth
and bites just hard enough to make it pop...still hasn't broken a single one yet!now that's talent! I am not joking. This is how she opened each and every one of them...what a crazy girl
And last but not least, little Rylyn Reese...she is super cute and Marley wants to eat her up every time she sees her. She's such a good baby and is so much fun, always smiling and laughing

Well, that's it for now...hopefully Braydee will get off my back for a little while. Easter was so fun and we especially loved that conference was the same day. It was a very special, spiritual Sunday.

Stair Sleddin'

2010-03-08T18:04:00.003-05:00

I was in the kitchen a few weeks ago and heard this scream come from the living room...i ran in to find dyl flying down the stairs on our sled, laughing hysterically...so of course i grabbed my camera and made him do it again. Enjoy.

What did u do last week?

2010-02-24T19:23:00.018-05:00

Probably not this...unless you also live in Southern California and are enjoying an 80 degree winter...

I love this next one
run Lilly run! (dyl has a hard time with l's so this is wiwwy...kinda cute)

drippin' wet

time to dry off on the bikesCan you tell how much this kid hates riding bikes?love the shirtless back...such a boy!

ok...anyone that has a son is welcome to move onto our street...dyl is surrounded by girls. which, by the way he doesn't mind showing off for...just like his daddy :)

they came up with this pose all on their own

a few days later Ty and Crew came down for a visit...so there were plenty of nights spent in Grandma Daltons awesome spa

Marley just ADORES Nash. He's not so sure about her...all he knows is that when she's around he's bound to be knocked over by her attempt at a hug. He keeps his eyes on her whenever she's nearby, it's really funny. They're about four months apart and he is the cutest little chunk ever...he totally reminds me of my baby Dyl...aw...he's growing up so fast!

Mar and Matthew...sorry for the red eyes...this is a rush so im not editing anything

These two were too funny together, two peas in a pod

gotta have a shot of the half bum suits...don't you just love that?

anyways it was a super fun week...summer we are excited that you are just around the corner.

DiSnEyLaNd

2010-02-12T16:26:00.087-05:00

Don't you hate it when people type like that? I do...in fact it really bugs me...

OK this post took me over a freakin hour to do and then it didnt save over half of what i had typed...ugh...so that being said, it is very very long post but i know that some of you will appreciate it and you better leave comments BRAYDEE because nobody believes it just wont let u.

since we renewed our passes we've been hittin up the ol' d-land quite a bit these past few months...so i thought id post a few pics, random and from multiple trips with different people but i just gotta show one of our favorite destinations once or twice a month....

First Jeff and Laura came down for Thanksgiving...ya i said thanksgiving...i know thats old and im lame, whatever im over it...we took the kids for a day of fun but the usual parking lot was closed...so we had to park at some random hotel lot really far away and take a bus to the park...which really wasn't a big deal considering we didn't have that much stuff...

p.s. i need to take a moment to publicly apologize to Laura! ive been to disneyland probably more times then i can count but i have NEVER parked at that weird lot and we didnt have a gps and i got us sooooo lost! it took almost an hour to correct! SORRY LAURA! i should never have been your guide.

are they excited...i can't tell...

we decided to kill a little time while they got their passes sorted out. love that the christmas decor is already up in November.

some nice lady stopped by and offered to take one of the both of us

he loves this old fire engine

let the line waitin' begin!

i just love this pic...dont know why considering its off centered and they have red eyes but i just do.. p.s. it was pitch black in there so i think i did a dang good job

ugh mom...dont distract me!

love my little blaster buddy

laura tryin to tell her kids that this is gonna be fun and ty totally NOT convinced...it's dark in there..he knows what's in store. i just love the cute little look of concern on his face in this pic.

i love takin pics while the ride is runnin...u never know what you're gonna get. can you tell how much dyl loves the matterhorn? jk, he really does like this ride...i dont know whats goin' on in this picture.

this one's kinda weird but i like it so...here ya go!

they made it! don't you love crew's face, "ty why didnt you warn me?!? i was totally led into that blindly!"

after we had thoroughly traumatized our children we decided to kick it down a notch and ride something they might actually enjoy. can you tell how much he hates this ride? its probably one of his top three favorites. i just love this pic of him...wish the lighting was better though.

here's what it looks like to everyone in line behind you when you've got five kids in a group. get over it people, there's three moms here, why is this so unbelievable to you?

i just love alice in wonderland

this next one is for my siblings...remember when mom used to make us take pics here every time as kids? let the tradition of torture continue (sorry mom but it is NOT cool to be in junior high pretending to knock on a miniature door so the make believe rabbit can let you in)

they didnt seem to mind it...yet....just you wait kids! give it ten years.

next, onto my least favorite ride...my stomach just cannot take these anymore

the girls cup:

and the boys cup...plus me

this next sequence of pictures is by far my fav...how can you look at their faces and deny the magic of disneyland...all you haters out there can eat your words as you watch them LOVE this ride...(p.s. they werent even hardly turning it at all..thats what makes these even better) they were just laughing hysterically the entire time

the ladies man...this was taken moments before a member of the litter crew came over to ask us to "please get our children down from the light pole...it really isn't safe" its times like these i really wish i could flip people off.

hooray! small world! for those of you rolling your eyes, the kids love it! plus it was way cute for christmas time. p.s. that's lauras bro and sis in law curt and angie (sorry for the spelling!) when they heard she was comin down to hit up disney they decided they had to come too! so fun! i especially loved all their cute disney gear...i wish rick even LIKED disneyland...sigh

ok i love this pic...probably because i love this kid. i dont know what it is about crew but i just am one of his biggest fans...i think he has one of the most adorable little faces, i love his personality and his voice kills me. im so glad he and dyl are buds.

ok this pic was way harder then it looks thanks to the escaping children and constantly getting your face scratched off by the freaking pine needles.

last ride of the night was the train that tours the park. ty was dyin to go on it all day so we decided to go out with a bang. the kids loved it and it was nice and relaxing for us mamas...phew, who knew a day at the happiest place on earth could be so much work!?

what? go again tomorrow and leave the kids at home? SURE! bring on the 3d glasses pics...you take them every time you go no matter what.

scott and catherine gettin into it...yes rick and i took one too but i am NOT posting it...so there

i love this next one

cheese!

this is laura's attempt at looking scared on command (don't worry she totally redeems herself in a couple seconds) for the record laura is terrified of rollercoasters so i think she was a good sport for goin on screamin...its a pretty good little coaster.

ricks crazy wind blown hair look...i know, creepy right?

and here we go...i knew she could do better...see eveyone else laughing at her sheer panic? shame on you all!

sorry could you really not get the full effect, allow me to zooom in. there is Laura completley freaked out...and there is scott dying from laughing so hard. next time you can ride with me laura!

how bout tower of terror? oh crap you hate that one too? oh well lets ride it anyway...here we are right before take off....laura's just tryin to find her safety bar

and there we are...im in the far right corner, followed by rick, some random guy, scott, catherine and in the other corner jeff and laura - who is holding on for dear life and has a look on her face like someone is holding a gun to her head....we're havin fun...right?

ok after that we went on rides she actually enjoys. in her defense the only two rides she didnt like were tower of terror and screamin. but i had to post this next pic, even tho my head is already big enough without being the focal point of a picture, because i love lauras face! i love takin random pics when nobody expects it...you always get the most fun facial expressions.
it was a super fun night, thanks guys!

Yay Braydee's here! Lets got to Disneyland!!!

waitin for Soarin' over California

crazy cousins

the guy was nice enough to take one of the whole group...dyl loved LOVED this ride

possilby one of his all time favorite characters....MATER!

ew...im gonna take one for the team and post this jsut cause its fun to have these kinda pics...but i KNOW how bad i look...thanks

anxiously awaiting the bumper bugs

a quick shot of them before they take off (we thought ais was too short to ride bumper bugs so they took her on this so she wouldnt be upset...but then she was tall enough so she got to ride 'em anyway)

Gotta love the caterpillar ride...well, the kids do anyway

bring on the bugs!

switchin up the picture taker...

which ones do you like better? bugs life or toy story?

who doesnt love to cuddle in line with your sweetie? even if they're total bums like rick who repeats all day "the happiest place on earth...or the most magical place on earth" whenever we wait in looooooooong lines or get pushed in a crowd or walk by a not so hygenic bunch of people...so he's not the biggest disney fan...that explains a lot, right?

are you nervous? we're about to take off!uh oh Bri!

way too much fun, love this ride!

in case you can't tell...let me explain just how gay this picture is...Bran and Rick sat together because we got the very front row on screamin...which, by the way, is the ONLY way to ride that ride....anyways...they thought they should hold hands and scream together for the camera...see my face? ew.

Just waitin for ToWeR oF tErRoR...buggin

Totally not sure he wants to do this. Actually totally sure he does NOT want to do this.

He actually loved it! there's Bri in the upperleft corner in blue, next to rod who braydee and rick managed to block with their hands...then vanessa upper right, brayds meg n bran followed by rick, the dyl and me.

Dyl and Elly...who is NEVER too shy to strike a pose

Braydee and Rod (not competititive AT ALL!) had a bit of a competition on Thunder Mountain (Dylans favorite ride, also known as :"the really really fast train") to see who could keep their hands up the longest without putting them down...needless to say it lasted long after the ride...nobody was about to give in.

Bri n Nessa

Anyways we had a ton of fun all three times we went...the only thing not fun was postin the dang thing. oh well...we sure love disneyland, next time you're in town lets go!

Strike a Pose

2010-02-05T15:43:00.022-05:00

Okay so these were Marley's one year shots with King and I totally forgot about them...so they're about six months old but oh well, I'm posting them anyways. warning...there are quite a few and some are very similar so if you don't want to look Ill understand.

This is right around the time Marley discovered how to stand on her own and was taking one or two tentative steps, so whenever we got a standing shot she was very excited and proud of herself.Of course Dyl wanted to jump in there...he never misses an opportunity to ham it up. He was a little over three in these pics...i love the posing and the huge scab on his cheek (he still hasn't learned not to MESS with KK!) None of these pics have been photoshopped yet but I didnt want to wait anymore to post them.Unfortunately Dyl has started the super cheesy smiling phase whenever he knows his picture is being taken so King luckily got a lot of candid shots.This next one is one of my absolute favorites!Switchin' it up a bit, let's get one last use out of our Easter clothes!

Are you serious? OF COURSE I'll jump for you! I dont have to sit still and smile? Here she is wobbling alongAs you can see, most of these were single shots because it took a million of these:

"Dylan, please don't choke her bud!"

"Dylan, you're squeezing too tight, that's why she's crying honey, she doesnt like it"

"Dylan, you're scaring her!"

and these:

"Dylan, that's not okay, why did you knock her over!"

"She hit her head bud, that's why she's crying, you need to say sorry to her"

"Come on, just sit up for ONE FREAKIN PICTURE AND WE'LL BE DONE I SWEAR! but you cant swing her around while Grandpa is taking it...Dylan?!?"

Before we finally got this:

Thank you Grandpa for your time and patience and talent...WE LOVE YOU!

Oh yeah, i DID do a knotts post...huh...

2010-01-19T22:43:00.000-05:00

thats what i said when i found this post that i never finished like a year ago so...i cant even find where i was getting the pics from thats how organized i am but heres a few of dyl with his cousins at knotts...ill find the rest and finish later, meanwhile i spent FOREVER tryin to change my freakin background and got nothin but a blank header that wont let me put pics in it! ahhhhh! help me! so now im burnt out and wont do a decent post. sorry its late and im tired...good night folks!

dyl thought he was so old hangin with the big boys all day...well most of the day, as many rides as he could get on which i guess wasnt too many with them. still, he felt big. can you believe how huge the twins are? they used to be my little sunbeams! yikes!!

p.s. LOVE IT when he sticks his hands in his pockets...he's all boy - everyone leave me alone about cuttin his hair, he doesnt look like a girl!!

Dyl was super stoked to ride this ride Katie...

not so much...notice anything missing from the pic of the ride actually in motion? haha...her aunt Laura would be proud.

Dyl laughed the entire time though...which made me laugh, and pretty much everyone else standing within earshot...dont you just love the deep throaty little boy laugh? its one of my favorite sounds.
i had a ton more but who knows where the heck they are...sorry guys! it was a really fun day!

So what, I'm lame

2010-01-18T00:51:00.007-05:00

Ok it is now ridiculous how long its been since i updated...honestly, that wedding wiped me out though...I had fun and it was an amazing experience but i had NO IDEA how much work shooting a wedding is! im just glad the pics came out and that she looked amazing and enjoyed her day.

that being said i am way too overwhelmed to do this in any type of order or any way that makes sense whatsoever so i'll just start stickin a few random pics on here till rick gets home from his meeting.

My little spunky monkey Marley...well that's the nice name I have for her...I'm not kidding i am SO counting down the days till Feb 21 when she can go to nursery!

It's kinda a love hate relationship...like, she hates to be loved by him

Both boys not feelin so hot and crashin on the couch...kinda cute. I have to admit I was extremely impressed with Dyl for makin it to the toilet or the throw up bowl every time, even outta a dead sleep in the middle of the night.
oops, ricks home! sorry people! but no worries my friends, he goes outta town tomorrow and wont be home till Thursday afternoon so i'll have plenty of time and NO excuses to get caught up on a little postin'.

Elyse & Albert

2009-11-04T18:08:00.021-05:00

Here's a few pics of me learnin how to do bridal and engagements...kinda randomly thrown together, some are edited, some aren't...they'e not in any particular order and for some reason are comin out rather grainy...but only on the blog so no worries...im not THAT bad :) Any tips from you pros would be appreciated...thanks for being such a patient bride Elyse...you looked beautiful!

Belated Birthday Post

2009-11-02T17:29:00.031-05:00

"SAY WHAT!?" Marley's a little peeved that it took me this long to post her birthday...considering it was over two months ago...oops. Sorry Mar, how bout I make it extra long with slightly grainy pics...

Don't let their good looks fool you...

When you ask them for help to decorate your party...you just might end up with less then perfect signs...if you can't spot the error in the next pic, please add your name in the comment box so I never ask for your help with birthday signs either. that's okay girls, i love you anyway...even if you argued with me when i pointed out the error...big mistake, you might have me in math but i am an english WHIZ!

Anywhooo...let's hit the pool, shall we?Little miss Caitlyn...sorry i always spell your name wrong...isn't she cute when she's drippin wet?Meanwhile I left Bumpa to stand guard over the birthday presents...who's gonna mess with this guy?Time for cake! cupcakes that is...having a little girl is so fun!

Marley wasn't the biggest fan of being sung to...

but man o man did she LOVE her cake! look at that smile after the first bite!

then...let the face smashing begin...WAY more exciting then Dylan's first...sorry son, you eat like a girl.

Um...it's all gone, you can unclench your fist now
Miss Elly and Ais enjoyin their cupcakes

Dyl excited to get hisDylan has been obsessed with butter for a while now...the other day i came downstairs to find not one but three sticks of butter unwrapped on the counter, luckily he had "only" eaten through about half of the first one before I caught him....YUCK...anyways....he has decided he likes "cake butter" even better and kept licking his off the top and asking for more. Just like with real butter and toast I had to firmly put my foot down and say "no you have to BITE it, not just lick it off the top...eat the cake too!" I'm sorry Marley are you a little bit upset about having your face cleaned and your cake taken away?Well, get over it cause it's time for presents!Probably the biggest hit was the baby doll from the Linfords, thanks guys! It's her first baby doll!

Marley couldn't wait to pull the baby out and love her, and hug her and...bite her fingers? uh oh

oh and lick her face...thats sweet...right?
ok, let me explain this next pic...in case you don't immediately recognize him, that's pirate rod from Dyl's bday post (or wod as dyl calls him)...anyways...rod always makes fun of the fact that i put big flowers on mar's head for church (by big i mean, the palm of your hand so...completely normal and cute size...he's a guy what do you expect?) anways...he decided to find the biggest flower possible and make mar a headband to top all headbands...it attaches with velcro to a sports sweat band and even has a back up band thats blue with a white stripe for her more casual days...thanks rod

she still looks cute so - in your face! we all got a good laugh outta his gift...and he made it all by himself, i was impressed.
aw...nana and bumpa

proof that she actually did smile on her birthday...for some reason i always catch her scowling

the nana's

love love love her profile...definitely dalton

Cute little cuddle bug...when she's tired she just wants her daddylove the scrunchy face Well that's it...can't believe my little moo is already one! time flys...thanks to everyone for coming and to my Aunt Beth and father in law for takin extra pics for me...i used some in this post. More posts to follow soon...Rick finally FINALLY got my comp fixed this week and I have a LOT of catching up to do...phew, that otta hold ya for a little while tho.

Divin' Dyl

2009-08-25T17:52:00.003-04:00

Here's Dyl's latest trick...thank you Scott for bringing your cool underwater helmet cam!

Baby Girl

2009-08-19T19:45:00.010-04:00

Im waaaay behind on pics...lemme just put a few of my lil Marley Moo before I have to post about her bday on Friday...these are 9 month shots, untouched but I was playing with my new lens so...humor me. I STILL haven't posted her 6 month shots...what can I say? Where do I sign up for mother of the year?

Seriously...i NEED to squish that face...multiple times...daily.

Still Got IT!!

2009-08-12T15:08:00.001-04:00

Shiver Me Timbers...Dylan's 3!

2009-07-23T16:31:00.044-04:00

Seriously, I know all parents say "where did the time go?" but honestly...holy cow. I cannot believe Dylan is already three! He asked to have a pirate party so we decided to keep with our tradition and have it at my mom's pool...pirate swim party, hooray!

Here's the totally excited birthday boy in the cute crown our friends Vanessa and Rod made for him.

And here was my attempt at making a pirate birthday banner...hmm...what looks wrong here?

Oh! I know, it should say, "Happy birthday captain dylan...not Happy birthday day captain dylan" I totally didn't even notice until the party was almost over.

Having a party at the pool is the best because the kids entertain themselves...here's Marley tryin' to keep it real like the big kids and a few other water shots.

Miss Elly Jean - always willing to strike a pose!Okay, my mom gave Dyl this huge inflatable whale for his bday...and all the kids loved it, even MarleyJust lookin' back to make sure Dad's still there... She was laughing hysterically, she loved it.

Miss Caitlyn (hope I spelled that right!) splashin away...sorry, a few of these pics should have been flipped.

Rick MADE me get in one shot. So i MADE Bri get in with me

Megan and Nana hangin' out...thanks again for making that yummy salsa Megan - you're the best!

This lame attempt at a treasure map was done as the guests were arriving, in the scorching 102 degree heat...so lay off me. Once again, this pic should be flipped.

Here's a little sneak preview of what Marley's first bday will be like next month (once again HOLY COW)...unlike her brother she dove right into that cake. Dylan just kept poking the cake with one finger and licking the icing off...so boring. Not Marley, she figured out it was faster and more efficient to just lick it off the plate.

Dyl got lots of really fun gifts, everyone was so generous, thank you all!
ARGH! look out, at a pirate party there's bound to be...PIRATES!Onto the pinata! This was the first year I've done one of these, but the kids really loved it. Dyl started it off of course...

everyone anxiously waiting their turn

Miss Kora pirateThen AisleyAvaAmanda (mandy) Alanna

Elly DavidMatthew

Kialeya (totally butchered that spelling, sorry Margie!)ConnerColeCaptain BriAnd finally, the moment you've all been waiting for...Rod Ewing. He was a good sport and decided to give it a try...actually more like he was determined to bust the heck outta that thing no matter what.he was even willing to put on the pirate stuffno matter how ridiculous he lookedthe funniest part was when he got really into hitting it, but Rick kept swinging the rope really hard so it was hard to get and Rod starting swinging like crazy and...tripped over the tree roots! I almost died laughing...sorry Rod! But to end things on a happier note, Marley did find the stash of otter pops
and loved every last drop outta themwith a look letting me know she'd fight me to the death if i even thought about taking them away.

So anyways...we missed all the friends and family that couldn't make it and want to say one more big thank you to those who did. Dylan had a blast and I think the rest of the crew did too...all in all a birthday success! "A pirates life for me" (so lame)

TEXT ME!!

2009-07-21T23:39:00.001-04:00

Hey guys, long story short my cell phone flew off the roof of my car on the 210 fwy and I had to replace it...so, it's the same number but I lost ALL your numbers...please please please text me with your name so I reprogram 'em all in. Thanks!!

Gotta Love Boys

2009-06-08T15:34:00.007-04:00

Seriously...little boys crack me up. Everyone should have one.

Disney Fun

2009-06-04T18:14:00.009-04:00

While Brayds and Jeff were down we also went to Disneyland. Dylan is one of the few kids who runs up to the characters and gives them hugs...which isn't the best thing because he doesn't understand the concept of waiting in line to hug Pluto. Most of the other kids his size were bawling while their parents made them take a pic. Dyl just stared at them like they were crazy.

Meanwhile Marley looked crazy...seriously, all her pics she looks freaked out by the camera or something. I promise she's a smiley girl...just not for the camera. Handy Manny...

The crew...Bri and her friend Colin and the newlyweds

Auntie Brayds with Mar...thanks guys we had so much fun!

Father Son Campout

2009-05-29T17:06:00.011-04:00

The weekend after mothers day Rick got to take Dyl on his very first Father/Son outing. They had so much fun! I managed to find a spider man fishing pole on clearance at Target the day before they left so...Dyl was in heaven.

They got to do tons of cool guy stuff while they were there, like:

Fishing (he doesn't care that there's no hook attached, he just likes casting it out and reeling it in) Hangin' with buds (Dyl was Mr. Popular with his fishing pole, Rick said he was a very good sharer --is that a word?)

Feed the ducks (or throw dirt at them...not too sure what exactly is going on in this picture)

Touch yucky bugs and other nasty things

Throw rocks in the water (apparently the bigger the better)

Make silly faces

Read books

And of course, sleep in a tent. All in all an awesome trip.P.S. I KNOW there are no pics of the FATHER in any of these..what the heck? I said, "Now honey, make sure you get lots of pics so I can scrapbook it for you." I guess it never occurred to him that he should ask one of the twenty guys from our ward there to take a shot of him with his kid. Oh well, you'll just have to take my word for it that he was there.

Hittin' the Beach

2009-05-19T11:51:00.021-04:00

All right...it's been a long time since I posted, but my dumb computer crashes about once a week now so...it makes it hard. I still don't have my photo shop uploaded this time so none of these are edited but I don't really care I just want to get something up here so I can stop feeling guilty about the piles of pictures that are starting to get ridiculously old. This is actually a more recent set of pictures but they're all I really had access to considering this is Ricks laptop and none of my stuff is on here. We had to do an emergency download so I wouldn't lose my files so...this is whatcha get!

Brayds decided to surprise us all a couple weekends ago and just showed up with her hubby for some fun in the sun. So...we went to the beach of course and had a blast!

Bri, Jeff and Brayds
My little ruffle bum having a blast! She loved the beach, except that we wouldn't let her crawl in the sand, that made her a little mad.
So Braydee decided to take care of that and let Mar "walk" around a bit. She's so different from Dyl...grass, sand, cold water, hot water, etc. it doesn't phase her a bit, she loves it all. Dylan always had to get used to each new texture or temperature before he would get into it. Not Marley!
Dyl was in a more...reflective mood. I don't know what the heck was up with him that day, he just kinda was in his own little world.
He definitely wasn't in the mood to get his picture taken...little punk. He frowned like this in every shot.
Jeff learned how to skim board, he got pretty good near the end of the day. Pretty burned too, he and Braydee got roasted...silly Utah-in's
For some reason I didn't get any action shots of Jeff or Brayd's so Bri's gonna get all the credit for learnin' him how
Meanwhile Marley just "hung around"...lame I know but I'm not really into the typing part right now for some reason, sorry!
Hmm...where's Dylan? Oh there he is! Like, five lifeguard towers away! My son is NOT a fan of the water at the beach, and the sand can only keep you busy for so long so he loves to chase the birds. Unfortunately the birds don't understand the concept of STAY BY MOM so...he ended up down the beach a ways...while I was playing with my camera...since he wasn't allowing himself to be photographed I wasn't watching him close enough. So here is proof on the internet of what a great mother I am. (That black mark is Bri's head...this is where she caught up to him and tackled him to the ground)
Meanwhile Marley was having the time of her life on the blanket. Eventually they made it back to us...I love these next two pics
Proof that Nana was there...and that I wasn't the only irresponsible adult. (Rick was there and Papa too but they were working in the car...LAME!)

Their spoils from the million mile trek across the beach...Bri found a dead crab
And Dylan found a shell...I was trying to blur their faces and keep the object in focus...I slightly did it on Bri and failed miserably on Dyl. P.S. I figured out why later - thanks King for the photo lessons! Jeff reminding us which way to the beach...wow Brayds, look at those guns!

All in all a great day, come back soon, we miss you guys!

Pretty in Pink

2009-04-07T00:19:00.011-04:00

I think I happen to have just about the happiest baby there ever was. It's hard to catch this girl not smiling or laughing, and Grandpa Dalton sure got some cute shots for her 7 month (supposed to be 6...oops...blame Braydee for getting married!) The problem is she loves loves loves her tongue and wanted it in every shot as well...oh well, she's still pretty darn cute. Now everyone can stop being mad at me for not posting about Marley in forever. Here she is in the cute little dress and purse Grandpa Dalton bought for her for a photo op, thanks Grandpa!

She had fun just rollin' around on the backdrop, playing with her purse. Too bad you can't really see her best features that well in these shots, she has the biggest brown eyes with the most amazing eyelashes, they're unreal. Marley is just about crawling, she can army crawl all the way across the room, sits up really well unsupported and likes to say dadadada and baba and mamama, but of course she has no idea what they mean. She loves the sound of her voice and grunts and growls and laughs and screams and squeals, she sure is a lot of fun. And her favorite person alive is still Dylan, who is very protective of her. I just love being a Mommy!

Here Comes the Bride...

2009-04-03T18:36:00.017-04:00

Okay...because I am SO slow at posting things...these were taken up in UT about a month before the big day (which already happened). I took my camera and followed my sis-in-law who actually knows what she's doing (thanks Laura!) and just shot a few of my own. Here's some of my fav's...unedited because I don't know how the heck to do that yet. I did manage to turn them to sepia with photoshop, which sadly is a big step for me.Some shots I left in color after Sepia because I kinda liked both ways. Those of you who are pros, any tips would be MORE then appreciated. Anyways...here she is, my totally stunning sis Braydee lookin' all grown up and beautiful.

Ok, I got a little carried away with this first one adding crazy texture and stuff to make it look old but don't worry, I learned my lesson and didn't do it on any of the others.

A little pouty but I'll take it. My mom looked at my shots and was like..."she looks angry...why does she look so angry...why isn't she smiling?" So, in Braydee's defense absolutely all of my shots were either candid or taken while she posed for Laura so she never knew when I was clicking away...she really was a VERY happy bride.

This next one was kinda funny, I just thought it would be fun to have a pic of how she walked around town all day and didn't even notice the shoe repair sign and didn't think it would be one that would really be worth looking at considering she's following Erica around the side of the building, I luckily managed to not get Erica in the shot and this ended up being one of my top three favs...not sure why I just like it.

This last one was just to show what the heck we did with that couch in the snow...yes we carried it all the way out there! Poor Braydee...talk about dedicated, she was absolutely freezing and had snow in her heels and was stepping in powder that went well above her bare ankles. She couldn't feel most of her body for most of these shots so, pretty much a trooper and lookin' good the whole time.

Thanks Brayds for letting me practice on you, I'm loving figuring out all this photography stuff.

Fon-tucky

2009-02-09T23:02:00.021-05:00

This was just going to be all one long enormous ridiculous post about everything we've done since last summer but I decided instead to break it up a bit because I know myself and I'll get burnt out halfway through or something and just never post anything ever again...so, here it comes...in stages...as I feel like it.

Ahhh...home sweet home for all of you that have never or will never get to visit. Fon-tucky never looked so good...right? Well that's nice of you to say but that's only because you chose to overlook our attempts at fitting in with our white trash neighborhood...jk, especially to any neighbors reading this, our neighborhood is MOSTLY not white trash...with the exception of the bright blue (newly re-painted...why the heck didn't I get a pic? It SO would have completed this post) bright yellow and bright pink houses right next door to one another that gave off the essence of Tijuana...The house with the scary drive-by looking fence that completely encompasses the perimeter of their home with wrought iron that has spiky points on the tips and looks like it would fall over if you leaned too hard...(that one's still up...maybe I should include a pic...it is the ONLY house in the neighborhood with a fence period in the front yard...not to mention one that even blocks the driveway)...or maybe the house where the wife got drunk and bashed in all the windows of their car...anyways, I'll give you one last chance to play a little "I spy" before I ruin it all for you and point out the obvious. To be fair one of the items is not visible so I'll give you one freebie. How many can you spot? Don't be too critical now, lets keep in mind this was a bank repo.

Number one...and probably one of the most obvious: Enormous hole in our not so enormous yard...It's been there for several months now...it's not going anywhere anytime soon...how did we manage to get so lucky as to have an unplumbed hot tub in our front yard? (now that really WOULD be white trash) Enter pic number two...the stump...the stump that is STILL there after several months...I need to back track and tell you that we pulled out a couple white birches from our front yard that just needed to go...and this is what's left of 'em...Actually I wasn't going to but I'll go ahead and upload a few more pics to better explain this story and get ourselves into some real redneck jokes...
This is how people in Fontana pull a tree...if they know my nephew Brent that is...

And this is what a tractor will do to your neighbor's driveway if you don't secure the little legs the right way....

I'm sorry maybe this pic isn't really the best angle...here, this one will really let you see how massively we ruined their driveway...while they watched...while we had the missionaries there to help...which leads me to another pic I wasn't planning on using but hey, that is really just another piece to the puzzle. And that piece to the puzzle is the elder (who will remain nameless) who makes Brianna wish she wasn't a member yet so he could convert her....Anyways...back to our little game...perhaps you were too distracted by the hole to notice our fence-less side yard. It didn't used to be but thanks to the tractor it became and still is an open door to all who wish to visit our backyard oasis.
Finally the best part...to me anyway...and even tho this pic only lasted a few hours...it added just the right effect to my blog. Yes, our car is up on cinder blocks with no tires or hub caps or rims or whatever...my brakes were out and my extremely good at everything husband fixed them and had me up and runnin' in no time...thanks hon!!
So anyways...thanks for tuning in and playing. We've really worked hard on this place, well Rick has anyway and it's certainly come a long way. I'll post interior pics as soon as we're done. It's amazing how much of a transformation has occurred. Rick really is unbelievable.

P.S. Yes the wind IS always blowing out here...really hard...and a quick disclaimer, we really are not in the ghetto, I tend to be overdramatic when telling stories...so what it makes them more fun. We live within a two minute drive to Victoria Gardens...above baseline...no worries people, my children are safe and so are you if you choose to visit.

Okay now time for a few cute and random pics because Adri requested some of my children...It doesn't matter how red neck we looked, Dylan was in HEAVEN when a tractor showed up in our front yard. Brent was really good about letting him climb on up and pull some of the levers. It was funny to watch though because Dylan has always had a weird love for trees, he like talks to them and everything and when he realized what the tractor was doing to our two birches he was horrified and kept yelling "look out tractor...oh no, the trees...look out!" Like he refused to believe that his lovable tractor would ever do such a thing on purpose.

Here is my son's amazing morning bed head...I got a few angles to give you the full effect. P.S. I usually have more in my fridge then a bunch of orange juice and butter. Don't judge me.

Had to get a shot of the back.
Eating the breakfast of champions...or at least the breakfast of our house...everyday...gotta love go-gurt!
These pics are all so random...oh well, here's Dylan who found Bumpa's glasses and ran around the house in them bumping into walls or just getting dizzy and falling down where he stood because he couldn't judge distance or gravity too well with them on. Okay, I know, ENOUGH ALREADY...this is turning into the ridiculously long post I swore I wouldn't do...but don't worry my friends, we still have quite a bit of fun left to post...like the trip to the Bahamas when I was seven months pregnant with Marley...or the cruise for Thanksgiving...or Braydee's engagements and bridals...our latest trip to Utah...plus just other fun random photo shoots with my kids...stay tuned and I swear I'll post something soon again, if I can get all my pics off my new camera to convert small enough to post...figuring out all the technical stuff makes posting take too long and no fun so that's why I've been putting it off...but I will promise to try to do better. There...now have a great day.

Okay P.P.S. I know I said I would post a few of my CHILDREN and not CHILD...jeez, gimmie a break, I don't have anything new on my computer so I could post some of Marley a couple months old or you can just wait and I promise I'll make it worth your while. Besides Marley just had that blessing post so it's not like I'm playing favorites...okay, done for real. Over and out.

Stay Tuned

2009-02-09T22:22:00.000-05:00

Stay tuned...a new post is coming

Blessing Day

2008-11-30T16:39:00.014-05:00

Marley's blessing dress was the most beautiful dress I've ever seen, thanks to my extremely talented mother-in-law who made it especially for her with very little input from me. All I told her was that I wanted it off white with a vintage, 1800's look to it. She is amazing! If you look closely you can see all the little flowers on the chest area that she did by hand and the adorable bonnet that had matching flowers on the ends of it. I know this was a big task and that she worked really really hard on it and I hope she knows how much I loved it and how special this dress will always be to Marley. Here's my happy baby telling Grandma how much she loves her dress.

Here we wanted to get a full length shot to show the entire dress, Rick's going to be photo-shopped out eventually but for now, there he is.

In this shot the lighting is a little weird and makes the dress look kinda yellow but we only took a few of her sitting up (well, propped up anyway.)

Then Dyl got his chance to hold her...she wasn't so sure about that and neither was I so we only got the one shot. At least Dyl's looking, right? Cheesy smile and screaming Marley but at least his eyes are open and he's facing the right direction. I'm not picky.

This was my favorite shot of her, I had it blown up really big and I just love it because she's smiling but managed to finally keep her eyes open while doing so, plus you can really see all the detail in the dress when it's blown up big enough.

We took Marley out and took a few shots of Dyl, I must say
I was pretty pleasantly surprised. He smiled for the most part and tried to hold still so Grandpa could get a decent shot.
His favorite of course was when Grandpa took a photo shoot of him as Bam Bam.Good job once again King!

Lil Sis

2008-11-18T11:48:00.002-05:00

Here's my sister Braydee and her boyfriend Jeff stealing my idea for Halloween but doing a really good job at it. Don't they make a cute Bam Bam and Pebbles? Almost as cute as Dyl and Ais.

Tricks and Treats

2008-11-07T20:04:00.028-05:00

We had a pretty crazy busy Halloween, it was so much fun. It all started about a week before with the good ol' Fontucky ward party...where we were pretty much the only ones dressed up, and we went pretty all out too so we felt real lame when we showed up as the only adults in costume. Here we are, Captain Hook, Peter pan and two side kick pirates... Lucky for us Bran and Megan decided to come with their crew to complete the ensemble. Here we have Ais as Tinkerbell, Elly as Wendy, Meg as Tiger Lilly and Bran as the Indian Chief. I think we had more fun dressing up then anything else. Here's a cute pic that Megan shot of our little Peter Pan, Dyl's favorite movie of all time.

Bri and her friend Logan came as a random witch and king (Logan's last name is king)

Aisley and Dylan both really got into the whole "Trick or Treat" thing.
They were so proud of all the candy they got. Dyl would have like, five dum dums in his mouth at a time...gotta watch that kid.

Wendy, Tink and Peter, best buds...sometimes

The next night Rick and I went to an adult costume party...yea no kids! jk, it was kinda fun though to dress up and go to a party like we used to when we were single. We altered the costumes a bit and had a blast, dancing and eating yummy mexican food for our friends bday.

Then the night before Halloween when we went with Val and Ed and Catherine and Scott and Sharon and King and Val's friend Michelle to Magic Castle for Ed's birthday. It was a lot of fun and gave me an excuse to get a new dress! Gotta love that, and you really gotta love the great deal I got it for!
Magic castle is this huge magic place where you have to either be a member or know a member to get in, guys can't get in without a suit coat and girls have to have semi formal attire. There's a restaurant inside with amazing food and you just spend your evening walking around to get into different magic shows and stuff. It was pretty crazy since it was Halloween eve, they did a lot of stuff that I'm pretty sure only happens once a year.

Then, Halloween night we went to my parents Trunk or Treat. I decided Peter Pan was boring, it was just pants and a shirt! So...I decided to run to Joann's fabric and make a quick bam bam costume...which ended up being a big hit. He won an award for "funniest costume." Everyone thought it was hilarious, he ran around all night with his club saying "bam bam!" Just like the cartoon.

I had bought some extra fabric so i made that into his trick or treat bag...which of course my dad insisted on calling his "man purse" all night and wouldn't let him carry it around.

Later that night we stopped by Anise's halloween party (for some reason I didn't get any pics there...i was a really cool party though) followed by Bri's. Here's Bri (spiderman) with her buds...totally takes me back, especially since they have "G.T's" too...sigh, back in the day, right guys?Bri was a good sport and lots of fun and played games and had a good time, while a lot of her lame friends were "too cool" or something. Logan and Summer each get a shout out because they at least tried bobbing for apples...Bri was the only one that really got in there though.

Marley just hung out with Dad while Mom chased Dyl around. Lets just say he was NOT too cool for bobbing for apples...or anything else that would make a mess. Notice in this pic she's at least semi dressed up...I spent so much time working on Dyl's outfit, I didn't really think about hers until it was too late. She spent the evening in her seat sleeping for heaven's sake, why try?

Needless to say it was a long night and Rick crashed on the couch until I told him we could leave. Marley, on the other hand, is ready to party...just like her Mama.
The next night was Trunk or Treat in Pasadena for my Nana's ward. Now Pasadena's got it goin' on, first of all how cool is it to have Trunk or Treat the night AFTER halloween? I think all wards should do that, and second, they had an Inn and Out truck that handed out free Double Double's all night. Yum. I found out Aisley was coming at the last minute so I quickly turned Dyl's man purse into a Pebbles costume that actually ended up working out better then I thought it would. Megan and I were the only really good parents that allowed their toddlers to run around half naked and barefoot in the rain. We sure got a lot of looks and a lot of totally buggin' comments like "whoa, looks like Pebbles and Bam Bam must be freezing!" In that annoying voice that means, "I hope their mothers hear and pick up on what I'm saying" In our defense, it was warm despite the rain and the ground was warm too, I took off my flops and felt it myself. Besides, my son prefers to be naked and barefoot and it was halloween so I decided to let him run wild.

Megan went as a nurse. Jk, she just got off work and had to run. Dyl sure loves his Aunt "Meg-an" It's the funniest to hear him say her name, I love it.

It was a really fun night and we had a great time. The next day was Marleys blessing...her dress was unbelievable...stay tuned for pics of the big day...and that will pretty much wrap up our extremely busy, but fun halloween.

"We are a happy family"

2008-10-29T00:48:00.021-04:00

Okay...these are old but Braydee has been so buggin' because she wants to see how they came out since she flew back to good ol' UT before we got them back. These were taken a couple weeks before Marley was due...I know, lame right? Who takes family pics when you know a new addition is only weeks away? Well, its rare that we have the whole gang in town so we shot a few at my in laws thanks to my amazing father in law, we got some pretty nice shots.

The whole gang...

The Nana and Papa (soon to be Nanny...trying to change a name is a bit difficult when your two year old is already used to the old one...and corrects you every time you mess up by calling her "Nanny")

All the kiddo's...left to right Brayds, Me, Bran and Bri (p.s. could I be any more enormous with child?) Father and son...Mama and her girls...do you like how I cropped out as much of my fat as possible? The guys...who's that sneaking into the back left corner you ask? A possible new addition to the Papavero clan...Brayd's boyfriend, Jeff...(we approve :)The ladies, including our sis in law who's obviously gorgeousThe grandkids...minus Marley of course. Left to right it's Aisley, Brielle and Dyl...I loved this pic because he's laughing, one of the few where he wasn't totally fighting it.Brano and his fam

If you don't know this next one...stop stalking my blog...

The happy couple
Here we are again...p.s. do you love Dyl's face in that last one? That's pretty much how he was the whole time...when he wasn't running away, refusing to take them at all.

Here you go Brayds...this was my fav one so I played with it a bit, here's the original...

cropped

black and white

Okay, that's pretty much it, do you like how many times I said "p.s." in this post? Oh well, at least now Braydee can finally sleep at night. Jk Brayds, I love ya!

Terrible Twos

2008-10-23T15:09:00.006-04:00

A few weeks ago Rick had to go to Fresno for work, so we decided to come along for the ride. It was pretty fun, the kids did really well in the car, we stopped a lot so that helped. Everything was going pretty smoothly until he had a meeting to go to and decided to drop us off at the park until it was over. Dylan decided to have a complete meltdown because I wouldn't let him stand out in the middle of the skate park while millions of teenage boys jumped rails and flipped over curbs and stuff. Oh yeah, it was extra fun when I had to run out, infant in hand to retrieve him when he got up and bolted to the middle of the ramps and stuff while I was breastfeeding Marley and couldn't jump up immediately to stop him...clever little devil. Pretty sure I was extra cool when he kept running away from me, laughing in the 105 degree weather so I'm getting hot and sweaty and ready to beat my child.I finally got him with the help of a "skater boy" (the only one not shooting me dirtly looks for allowing my toddler to ruin their sweet you tube videos of their killer moves) and dragged him back to the picnic tables where he decided to roll in the dirt, kicking and screaming for over an HOUR and wouldn't let me touch him...so, what did I do? Well...first I videoed, then I took pictures. Did I mention the meeting went long and the park trip was 2 1/2 hours? Awesome.

Marley's Room

2008-10-16T12:28:00.005-04:00

Here's a few pics of how Marley's room is comin' along. I'm not even close to done yet but here's the colors I'm workin' with...green (I love green) hot pink brown and white. I still have to make and put up her hot pink curtains, buy a rug, put up the white picket fence, hang the watering cans and flowers and put up the pails of grass. Little girl rooms are so much more fun to do than boys.Those bins on the left were supposed to go under the crib but...they barely wouldnt fit. Bummer. They'll probably end up in the closet. Gotta love that dollar bin at Target though.

These pics are kinda old, I took them when Mar was only about a week old. Luckily I had gone out and bought all the stuff the day before I went into labor. Here's a close up of her bedding that I got an AWESOME deal on at Target. I found these pillows in the home decor section and fell in love with them. You can't really tell in the pic but they are sewn all sloppy stitch with fat thread. So they look kinda like a little kid made them.
It came with different sheets but I didn't like them as much so I found these hot pink polka dot sheets and also some brown polka dot sheets in a different aisle and grabbed them.
Anyways...I promise I'll post with more recent pics soon. Life has been crazy, as usual and I need to get my camera cleared out so...I thought I'd post these to hold you over.

Say Cheese!!

2008-09-17T17:51:00.006-04:00

Yesterday Marley had a little photo shoot with Grandpa Dalton. She's almost four weeks old, I can't believe it! Here's a few cute ones...keep in mind he hasn't touched these up yet.

too bad she spit up in this one, I love the angle!

had to get at least one bare bum shot in there, gotta love those little buns!

one of my definite fav times caught on film...when she's sleeping! Thanks Grandpa Dalton...we love you!

Miss Marley Marie

2008-08-27T15:22:00.029-04:00

Okay...let me first start with a preggo pic since everyone was dying for me to post a bloated fat pic of myself throughout the pregnancy and I never did. Here I am large and in charge about 3-4 days before I went into labor. (taken at our new house)

Then we went to the Redlands temple one last time the night before I went into labor. I started having minor contractions during the session...

Here's Rick doin' what he did through most of the labor. He was there for the hard part and for the part that really mattered, but otherwise he was out cold. He even missed my water breaking! Which was so loud it woke my mom out of a deep sleep...it sounded like someone threw a huge water balloon up in the air and let it come crashing down.

This is the first time I saw her...right after delivery.

Here she is right after they cleaned her up. She was 6 lbs. 11 oz, 19.5 in. long. She was born August 21st at 2:47 a.m.

The proud Papa.

Chillin' in "the bucket"

A few family shots...as you can tell by the ONE with Dyl...he wasn't really feelin' it today. So we shot a couple without him.

Dyl was very excited to meet his new sister. When we held him up to look into her little bucket-bed the first thing he said was "Oh...gosh!" It was hilarious, we luckily got it on video. Then he insisted on holding her "hicks, hicks" which for whatever reason has always been what he says when he wants us to pick him up...so we let him hold her and he kept giving her kisses. Love at first sight.
Still at the hospital...with the puffy face. We ended up staying only a day and a half...she came at about ten to three in the am...so we stayed one more night and left the next afternoon.
Dylan loves to "help" with Marley...we have to keep a close eye on him. He especially loves to work the swing. I can tell already that they're gonna be buds.

We'll end with my favorite pic...this one looks the most like her...you know when you take a bunch of pics of a new baby and half of them look like a completely different kid? Well, this pic is definitely our little Marley.

So Big!

2008-06-11T01:57:00.007-04:00

As Dylan nears the big number two we've noticed a slight shadow on his lower chin...so...it was time to break out the shaving cream. Okay...just look at his face and you will know just how big he thinks he is. Dyl cracks me up, he has to do whatever his dad is doing. I just love this age!

He held perfectly still the whole time Rick smeared the cream on his face.
I love how this pic shows how skinny his little waist is. He thought he was so cool when he realized his towel matched Rick's. Usually he freaks if I use a towel anywhere near him, if he had it his way he's air dry after every bath...but this time he couldn't wait for me to tie it around his waist while he looked for his razor on the counter.
Not the happiest face ever but the camera was getting foggy so I had to get what I could and get out. He was a little upset here because I was making him wipe it off (his sensitive skin reacts to stuff so quickly)...anyways...he still had fun being big like dad for a little while.

I'm lame, I know

2008-05-30T16:16:00.003-04:00

Okay it's been ridiculously long since I last posted...but boy have we been busy! I swear I have a few pics of the Dyl but have yet to be organized enough to get them posted...my apologies. I will TRY to put them up after this post. I promise. Everyone wants an update on where the heck I disappeared to for the past almost two months so...here goes:
We FINALLY closed on the house, WAY later then expected (I think about a month or so). To make a long story short it was a very stressful closing and we had to get carpet laid before they would let it be officially livable (but who wants to lay brand new carpet BEFORE they paint, right?) So we snuck in to paint first and luckily the woman before us had decided wallpaper was definitely the way to go so first we got to strip a million pounds of wallpaper (still not done yet!) and paint as quickly as we could before the carpet layers came the next day. Then we had to get it appraised in time or else the deadline would not be met and they could back out of the deal...with our upgraded carpet and paint job. Needless to say we spent many late backbreaking hours getting it done and the loan went through. Now we just need to get the downstairs flooring taken care of so we can get our furniture sent down from our storage in Utah (which takes two weeks) which we want done before we leave for the Bahamas (which is in just a little over two weeks) so...the crunch time never ends.
Meanwhile Rick has been overwhelmed learning the ropes with his new job and trying to not get too far behind while trying to deal with the house mess and a pregnant raging wife who doesn't want to strip wallpaper anymore but has to because it's really the only thing she can do to contribute because she is pregnant. Somebody buy that boy some ice cream.
Dylan is loving not having our full and complete attention 24/7 as it enables him to get into anything and EVERYTHING he shouldn't. I never proudly announced that he is completely over his biting phase, has been for months and now doesn't even hit or push except for on rare occasion and usually only if instigated by the victim. I am a true believer in time out. I know that he's really technically too young for time-out but that's only if you want him to sit on a specific chair or something and really understand he's on timeout and that he did a no-no. If you're like me and are fine with just traumatizing your child for 30sec to a min (I swear that's all it takes) then just pick any room in the house (the safest most child proof would be my choice, after all, we're just traumatizing him...we don't want any serious injuries that require ER visits where we have to account for our bad parenting) and shut them in. I promise you it could be their most favorite room of the house with the most toys and as long as it's not their idea to be in there...it will do the trick. If you are as desperate as I was to end the bully baby syndrome, this took less then a week to enforce. Now all I have to do is ask if he wants timeout and he wises up immediately. I think it's the thought that everyone else is out playing and he's by himself that drives him crazy, but honestly, this punishment makes sense to me...you can't play nice with others so you have to be by yourself. The punishment fits the crime. Afterward we always open the door to his little tearful face and tell him why he was in there and ask him to say sorry and he always wants to hug you to show he truly is...it makes me sad to hear him cry but I can't argue the dramatic change it has brought. We no longer have to follow two steps behind him at the park or be on his back 24/7 when he's playing with his younger cousins. It's a miracle! Even if someone hits him or takes his toy away (nursery) he doesn't fight back anymore. Well, most of the time anyway. He did manage to back my grandmother's car down the long driveway into ours though...that was a lot of fun. Long story short you really can put a car in neutral even if it is turned off and in park...and if you are parked on a slight declined driveway your car will roll on it's own with your grinning toddler inside and no matter how hard your 80 yr old grandmother pushes it from behind as it almost rolls over the top of her while she's screaming to you who are inside (I swear doing something important), it will still continue to roll down the longer then necessary driveway and right into your car, which is thankfully parked at the end of the driveway, keeping your grandmothers vehicle from crossing the street and crashing through the neighbors living room.
Dyl's paragraph is so ridiculously long I'll just attempt to wrap this up here. Baby girl is growing right on schedule, she is just as busy as her brother was in the womb so you can imagine that combining that with insane heartburn makes for a really good night sleep. Big shout out and thank you to my ADORABLE beehives back in Michigan who sent me a beautiful blanket they made for our little one on the way. I loved the pictures you sent along with it and keep them in my wallet. As soon as Rick gets our scanner up and running I promise to scan the pic of you all holding it up and post it on here for everyone to be jealous. Today I get to go out to Upland to visit my dad in the hospital and hopefully take him home. He's been very sick for over a month now and has been in the hospital for over a week but even with all the antibiotics his fever keeps spiking and his head hurts and coughing and vomiting, etc continues. After a bunch of CT's and X-rays and blood work the docs are officially stumped and have agreed to let him go home with IV's and meds to let my mom take care of him till they figure it out. My dad wasn't made to stay in a hospital - he's done. So that took a lot of the time we didn't have this week. I was glad to get to go visit and sit with him to help pass time and take care of him when my mom wasn't available.
So yes, to answer the simple questions that didn't require all this other babbling, we are still living in Pasadena with my grandparents, still working on the Fon-tucky house and still trying to get this parenting thing figured out before our trouble doubles in August. I'm sure there's a million more things that have happened that I failed to mention but frankly this post is way too long, even I don't want to read it. SO...with that...take care all and let me know how YOU are.

The Name Game

2008-04-20T17:59:00.002-04:00

Okay everyone...naming a baby is so hard! I think that girls are definitely the hardest (probably because I already had a boy and had a pretty good sized list going when I found out I was preggo again since I swore it was going to be baby boy #2.) The funny part is that when I found out I was preggo with Dyl I thought it was going to be a girl (I guess all I have to do is go with whichever my gut doesnt tell me it is!) and I had the LONGEST list of girls names, all of which I really really don't like anymore. I totally had the name picked out for this one if it were a boy, it's the name I voted for Dylan to be (Rick won that one obviously) and the name that our next baby boy definitely will be - Gavin. I just love that name! I always have but unfortunately it's not really one of those gender neutral names so I'll have to hold out. The only name so far that I even like a little bit is Marley (Marlee?) and I'm kinda on the fence with that one. Anyways...any help would be great! Thanks everyone! I have a list coming from my beehives in Michigan which I'll post for votes. The top name for Dyl was going to be Jenna...I'm just not crazy about it anymore but it doesn't totally bug me so I'll throw it back into the mix...if you all want to send your ideas I'll post a little poll just for fun (I guess more fun for me then you, most of you probably don't really care especially since half my friends are all preggo too and need to think up names of their own but for those of you who want to, send me any and all you like!) Okay...I'm gonna try to post some pics now - bye!

More Easter Fun

2008-04-06T20:38:00.003-04:00

I mostly wanted to post this because I love this pic of the three cousins. Left to right it's Aisley Kay, Elly Jean and Dylan Richard. These were pics Megan took, I don't have my Easter pics downloaded yet but thought I'd at least put these two up.

Here is my masterful hiding job since I was on egg patrol this year. Laugh all you want to (everyone else did) but it WAS the last egg found! Booyah!

Ward Hunt - Upland style

2008-04-06T19:55:00.013-04:00

Here's just a few quick pics of Dyl and his cousins at the ward egg hunt. Dylan was still trying to figure out the whole concept at this point. He finally got the hang of it near the end but the big kids were not shy to run up and grab an egg right as his fingers were about to touch it. If I didn't really want him to have candy I probably would have said something...he was just as happy with me taking them out of his basket and putting them on the ground for him to put back in the basket again. Here he is waiting in line for them to let the kids out to hunt.
Gotta love the truck basket I found on sale at Target. Not really Easter-y but, oh well!
After a few pointers from Dad he started catching on.
He and Ais decided to look out for each other and block the big kids while the other one filled up on eggs. The were cute to watch, Aisley would give Dyl an egg and they would both say "tay-too" then Dyl would hand it back to her and so on.

After it was finally over Dyl and Elly sat to compare their prizes and enjoy some yummy cookies. It was so cute, Dyl walked up and sat next to Elly on one of those cement things in the parking lot at the head of each space. Megan quickly snapped a pic while they sat and giggled together. It was a fun morning.

Oh yeah...

2008-04-01T03:02:00.003-04:00

Sorry to keep everyone waiting! I finally got a chance to put some pics on Rick's comp so hopefully I can catch up a bit this week...Im tired and headin to bed but thought I would end the suspense that I'm sure you're all in...now you can all go back to eating and sleeping. I was trying to think of some cute way to tell but I'm outta ideas and short on time and just want the word out. Anyways...

Looks like most of you were truly inspired...I sure wasn't...I posted the first vote just for fun and mine was boy...so me and three others (I know Adri was one 'cause she fessed up) didn't see the pink comin'. Any name ideas would be most appreciated. Lets post a bunch just for fun, everyone can comment on how cute or lame they are - keep in mind our last name is Dalton and for tradition's sake the middle name will most likely be Marie (not my fav) unless something else is just so cute I can't pass it by. Goodnight all!

Little Fish

2008-04-01T01:26:00.004-04:00

Dylan has really gotten into swimming lately and holds his breath really well. The second you even mention swimming he starts getting overly excited and searches for his swimsuit. The first 10-15 min or so he refuses to let his feet stay on the step any longer then .5 seconds which drives me crazy because I keep insisting he needs to stop and catch his breath between swims but he refuses. He was born for the water. He's gotten to the point now where he can swim a few feet by himself, he was even better about using his arms and legs and swimming horizontally but ever since we went in Nana's spa the past few times he can reach the bottom and has developed some bad habits. So, for the first few attempts here he keeps trying to put his feet on the bottom and then ends up doing more of a doggy paddle type swim. Anyways...here he is!

This next one is Dylan doing a belly flop. He just loves to climb up on the side of the spa and make a big splash.

No Time!

2008-03-22T16:46:00.004-04:00

Sorry everyone that I have been the absolute most boring blogging buddy latelty but with the never ending, never fun house hunting going on I have had no time. Also, when I do post there's no pics because we still don't have our computer hooked up and I don't want to download my pics onto other peoples computers...I guess I'm just weird like that. Anyways...more soon to come I swear! P.S. I find out the day after Easter (Monday) whether number two is a boy or a girl...so...I'm gonna copy Adri and have anyone who's interested guess just for the heck of it. Hopefully this kids not shy!

My little angel

2008-03-03T00:19:00.004-05:00

Okay...so Dylan has been into biting lately and it is driving me CRAZY...it didn't start until we came down here to Cali and for some reason it seems it's not going away any time soon. Everyone I talk to is like, "don't worry, my kid did that too and it only lasted for 2-3 wks" That's great and everything for all of you but we're going into our third MONTH here. What the heck? Poor Aisley gets the brunt of it but she's learning to defend herself better. Lately he's been hitting, pushing, scratching and pinching too. Now that the long awaited 18 months have passed and he is eligible for nursery...we get to go too since he's been so aggressive. Ugh...it used to only happen if he was attacked first...now he'll just walk by Aisley on his way to the kitchen and grab a fist of her hair and yank, then continue walking like nothing happened...or he'll be totally playing and happy and then will just decide to lean over a bite her or smack her on the head with a remote control or something and then acts shocked when we yank her away crying and punish him...Any suggestions on how to nip it in the bud before I kill my kid or die of embarrassment at the park when he attacks a random strangers baby?

Ain't That a Kick in the Head?

2008-02-07T12:51:00.000-05:00

Okay...I have to admit that I am a ginormous fan of Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and other big band type music from that era. I LOVE IT! To honor the Valentines spirit of things I've put one of my fav's on the top of my list...but don't worry, there will be plenty more to come!

Gotta Love Frankenmuth

2008-02-05T20:58:00.000-05:00

Not really too sure how to spell that. While I was back on my weekend trip to say goodbye to Michigan, Rick took me to Frankenmuth for the ice festival. It was so much fun. Unfortunately it was the last night of the show and it was raining so quite a bit of the sculptures were ruined or in the process of falling apart but we were still able to see quite a few that we liked. Here's Rick by our favorite one of the night...in case you can't tell it's two bears balancing on one another.

Excuse me for looking like a man but with all the rain I decided to hide my carefully curled hair under Ricks beanie (what a gentleman) and my coat and scarf...the scarf that got left behind by the way on my second flight when they decided to land on the opposite side of the airport that can only be reached by busses that take you out on the airstrip that go REALLY slow and make too many stops just 10 minutes before my next flight boarded. Running preganant while having an asthma attack paid off because I made it about 4 minutes before takeoff. Lucky me, right?

There was this way too expensive chicken restaurant that we checked out before deciding to dine elsewhere...it did have this really cool/classy/misleading chicken picture spot which would lead you to believe it was the type of place that would have decent prices...oh no my friends...the amazing wooden chicken was just a way to get you to pay more then you would for Bennihana (Gengi to all you Midlanders) to have some fried chicken - no joke.

We really liked this one for some reason. I think it was just the last one of the night so we were getting a little more daring with our poses. It was a really fun night in spite of the rain. We finished it off with some yummy Olive Garden where, thanks to first trimester fun I ate a whole two bites before I thought I was going to be sick. Gotta love pregnancy.

I've got some fun pictures from our time in Midland that I still need to post, they are all on my other lap top so I will do a tribute to Michigan with one long post full of old pics.

Where the heck are we?

2008-01-30T14:56:00.000-05:00

Let me let you all in on a little bit of the drama I call "my life." Okay...so it all began back when the final leg of Rick's training was wrapping up...we knew we would be shipped out but didn't know where. They had pretty much assigned us to Florida when that new job that I wrote about came in and they switched us to L.A. Well, because we were planning on Florida and because we didn't come down for the holidays my mom decided it would be a while till she would see us again so she flew Dyl and I down for New Years and the infamous Rose Parade.
Two days before I was scheduled to load us up and ship back to Michigan, Rick got the relocation call and told me to stay in Cali rather then fly Dyl back and forth and that he would be here by the 28th...so...roughly two weeks. So...I decided to fly back the weekend of the 28th, leave Dyl with his nana and grandma and help Rick finish up the packing and say goodbye to the friends in Midland that we were sad to leave. Well...a hundred dollars later I had my new ticket, scheduled to leave the 24th to go get my husband, who had been away from us for a month by this point.
The day before I flew out Rick called and said they bumped him back at least two more weeks and that he would not be flying back with me. I debated taking Dyl but once again it was a quick two week trip, which is what we were trying to avoid in the first place. So I left, went for an amazing weekend alone with my hubby and sadly and tearfully said goodbye to him on the 29th when I went through that horrific ordeal coming home.
Now they're telling him it could be shorter then two weeks but it also could be longer. It is just so frustrating because in retrospect, had we just flown out the 14th like we had originally planned, we would have been with Rick this past month instead of Dylan wondering where they heck I put his Daddy who he can't seem to find no matter how loud he calls his name as he searches room to room down the hall. It is truly heartbreaking. And of course Rick is convinced Dyl won't remember him when he finally makes it home again. Needless to say Rick isn't exactly the happiest camper, he misses his family and is sick of being alone.
So here I am, back in Upland waiting for some kind of hopefully good news as to when I can get my husband back. We're fasting this Sunday that it will be soon. It sure is hard being apart. At this point it will be at least one and a half months, possibly two until Dyl and Rick will be together again. I think the hardest part by far is the not knowing...if we just knew there was an end in sight we could hold out until it arrived but they just don't seem to have any answers and that is very frustrating. Any prayers would be appreciated :) I'll be posting some pics soon from my fun weekend with Rick.

NEVER FLY NORTHWEST

2008-01-29T10:03:00.000-05:00

I just needed to get the word out that I am officially boycotting northwest airlines. Never fly with them. They have the poorest customer service I have EVER experienced. Long story short I arrived 25 min. prior to my flight's departure at an airport the size of a living room with approx. 4 gates total...no other terminals....that's it, 4 gates. I get to the front desk where there is already another couple standing there, ringing a buzzer. He's been there several minutes by this time. We had checked in online but the stupid computer wouldn't let us through without a nw agent...no one was coming. They announced final boarding so the wife frantically ran up to the security and told them to hold the plane because we were still up front waiting for someone to help us. This is still 20 min. prior to leave time. He says they are considering it a "locked flight" and we will not be boarding the plane. Even though we can see the stupid gate and ticket lady from where we are standing no one will come over and check us in. The flight that was supposed to leave at 8:20 am TOOK OFF AT 8:05 WITHOUT US!!! The stupid front desk lady comes out at 8:10 and says..."okay, lets get you guys taken care of". She books me for a flight over five hours later...completely missing my connections and making me miss seeing my Dylan. I am SO upset. She just kept saying the whole time that we "should have been on time." How annoying. Calling didn't help either, they just stood by the fact that company policy states we have to be there 30 minutes early, not 25 to board the plane. When I said, "you know what, no one has even apologized to me, which I feel is the least they could do." The stupid lady says..."Why should we apologize for something that was your own fault?" And that, ladies and gentlemen, is northwest airlines customer service at it's finest.

Update

2008-01-29T00:13:00.000-05:00

Here's a very quick update for all those questions people sent my way. I'm almost 11 weeks along now, the baby is due August 21st. The baby and Dyl will be 2 years and a little over one month apart. Umm...what else? I'll be delivering at San Antonio Community Hospital, where I worked while we lived in Cali and where my mom still currently works. I've gotta run because I'm leaving my husband tomorrow to fly back to my baby and it's already past midnight!! Take care everyone!

Hmmm....

2008-01-18T01:45:00.001-05:00

Real quick...for some reason it won't let me change the order of my latest post...so because i started it first it comes after the ps i love you post but for all you who don't scroll down, our trip to the zoo got put under it for some reason.

P.S. I love you

2008-01-17T16:54:00.000-05:00

I know I'm cheesy but this song is a shout-out to my hubby because I miss him so much and because it will be an entire month apart before I come home to help pack. I LOVE YOU RICK!

Lions and Tigers and Bears - Oh My!

2008-01-17T15:23:00.000-05:00

Last Friday Megan, Bri and I took the little guys to the L.A. Zoo. It was so much fun! We left right around nap time and were worried about cranky babies but they were out after about 10 minutes in the car so they got a good lil' nap on the way there, thank goodness.
We were also worried that the little babies might not really get it but as you can see by the look on cute little Aisley's face they were VERY excited to be at the zoo.

Dyl jumped right in there. He was so excited about every animal we saw. This was our first stop, at the meercats and he kept pointing and saying "Ooooh...wassat?" With a genuinely curious expression on his face. He is such a funny little boy.

Here's Bri and Miss Elly showin' the flamingos how it's done.

These next few pics are at the ginormous turtles. We let the kids sit on the rocks and watch them crawl sloowwwlly by. Dyl was fascinated by them.

I loved how cute Elly and Ais looked in the little Tutu skirts I made them. Dylan sure had fun not being the only kid and hangin' out with his cousins all day.

Are you ready for the bird show? These two sure are! The kids had SO much fun here. They got to see lots of really cool birds from around the world fly up and down the isles and over our heads and stuff.

I love this next pic. They had fun music blasting really loud so of course Dyl and Elly had to get up and dance. I'll try to attach a video of Dyl dancing...it was hilarious.

Then Elly was chosen to go hide a soda can up on the stage for one of the birds to find. He found it pretty fast and went and dropped it in a recycling bin. It was cute.

On to the monkeys, by far Dyl's most favorite part. It was cute because the kids could press right up to the glass and be face to face with them, which of course to them was very exciting. Monkey's are his favorite animal and he of course started singing the monkey song and jumping around.

I had to include this pic because it actually was a pretty cool shot. I don't know if you can really tell or not but the baby turned around to face the daddy and started beating its chest like Tarzan. It was funny. I pretty much should be a professional photographer for National Geographic or something.
Okay, these next two are my favorites because there was this one little monkey that loved Dylan, Dyl kept putting his hand up to the glass and the monkey would put his hand's on Dyl's through the glass, then Dyl got excited and started smacking the glass with both hands which the monkey thought was pretty cool so he started copying Dylan. Dylan loved that this little furry monkey liked his game and started dancing around. Then the monkey started laughing at him. It was so funny to watch.
Had to include the giraffes even though this post is already way too long because they are my favorite animal to see.

Here's Megan and Bri growling back at the big black bear. It was actually kinda freaky because his ledge was so high up and the gate was so close it seemed like it wouldn't be too hard for him to clear it if he decided to jump.

Me and the Dylster checkin' out the hippo. We sure had a beautiful day at the zoo. We're so glad we're going to be close to family so we can have more fun s with cousins for a while. P.S. that's my new chopped hair! 5 1/2 inches baby! It's growing on me...still miss my long hair tho.

Fun in the Sun

2008-01-15T18:16:00.000-05:00

We've been having so much fun down here in Cali with all this warm weather, while it's snowing on my husband I'm hittin' the beach! Dylan sure loved the beach this time around. It took him a few minutes but eventually he was pretty sturdy walking through that sand. It didn't take long until he was venturing out on his own, further and further away from the group. He loved sitting up on the sand hill watching the waves crash below. This kid just loves to be outside.
He loved chasing the birds. His aunt Bri taught him to sneak up on them by putting his finger to his lips and making the "shhh shhh shhh" sound really loud. Of course they heard him coming from a mile away and would fly away long before he got anywhere near them but he still thought it was hysterical.
His cousin Elly taught him how to fill buckets with sand. He usually got distracted about half way through and wanted to just dump them out but she was pretty patient with him. As patient as a four year old can be anyway. :)
I decided to snap a few of him standing on the skim board. He liked it as long as it was NOT in the water. He loves the pool but still has to get used to the ocean a bit more. Don't worry, I'm sure his Daddy will be more then willing to be the one to get him used to that. He's already making surfing plans!

On our second trip to the beach the kids decided to make a stick fort.

So Dylan of course was more then willing to help gather the sticks! He was in heaven.

Here's all the kids in their fort. Aisley mostly watched from the blanket but she liked standing in it with the rest of them once all the work was done.

Just thought I'd end with a gorgeous view of Catalina just to let you all see what a beautiful day it really was. You usually can't see it from the shoreline but it was very obvious that day. This is the island where Rick and I spent our honeymoon by the way. Love you honey, miss you so much! Can't wait 'till you join us!

We're Goin' Goin' Back Back to Cali Cali!!

2008-01-14T16:17:00.000-05:00

Well we finally found out where we're being relocated to...Los Angeles! Hooray! We didn't even expect this in our wildest dreams. We were all set to move to Florida and this new job came in last minute without a location attached to it. Rick read the job description and felt like it really was a good fit for him. It required an engineering background and he got more and more excited as he looked further into it. We finally decided to make the decision and take the leap of faith to accept the job without knowing where it would take us. Rick called me first thing that morning and told me the exciting news that we were assigned back in good ol' So' Cal. Needless to say we will definitely miss all the good friends we made back in Michigan but are happy to be back near our families again. Rick's scheduled to being his new job January 28th...wish us luck!

Another Year!

2008-01-06T16:17:00.000-05:00

Gotta love the rose parade! It's a Papavero tradition. We've been every year since before I was born. It was so much fun this year taking the Dyl, we were sad that Daddy had to work (brace yourselves, this is a long post on his behalf since he's all alone in freezing Michigan) but the parade sure was a blast. Dylan LOVED the marching bands, I think they might have been one of his most favorite parts, other then the three train floats and the man on stilts (that last part will make more sense in a minute.) He hung out with his cousin Elly, who absolutely adores him, and had the time of his life.

Here's the Papavero girls, me, Bri, Megan and Brayds. Being with family is one of the best parts of this annual tradition. Braydee and Bri were the troopers who staked out the spot starting at 4 am two days before the parade, Bri even slept out over night with her cousins. You gotta be die hard to get our awesome spot every year.

Dylan with the balloon his Aunt "B" spoiled him with (Braydee). He sure got a lot of attention on this trip. Aunt "Ba - pronounced Buh" (Brianna) hooked him up with one of his new favorite drinks...Sunny Delight - (yuck!)

Brayds and her latest and greatest boyfriend, Jeff capturing the true essence of the parade madness. They block off the streets and it's a giant free-for-all where the kids roller blade around shooting silly string and playing football etc. in the middle of the road.

Here's one of Dyl's favorite floats cruisin' by. He of course stood up and started shouting "Choo Choo, Choo Choo!" at the top of his lungs followed by "Wooooooww..." as it rolled by. It was a cute circus train with little circus performers running along side it doing tricks and stuff. There was also a man who walked the whole route on stilts. He was so cute with Dylan.
He walked across the street to Dylan and stood in front of him, Dylan stood up and reached his hand up towards the guy so he bent over and touched Dylan's hand...it was so cute!

The parade stopped for a second so the girls grabbed Dyl and ran up to take a shot next to a float. It was hard to get Dylan to look at the camera because he was so distracted by the huge float right behind him.

Miss Aisley Kay sure enjoyed the parade too! She is such a smiley baby. Here she is with her mama and daddy (my brother, Brandon).

The marching bands really are one of the best parts of the parade. They usually get really into it and some bands even dance while they play, it's very fun to watch. I thought Dyl would like it but might be a bit hesitant about the loud drums and stuff but he didn't mind at all, he got up and danced every singe time.

After the parade Bri had fun showing Dyl how to blow Elly's annoying trumpet that she got at the parade. Dylan thought it was so funny to blow in it, then put it up to Bri's mouth and have her do it really loud. What a good aunt. We all know how long those fun "games" usually end up lasting...she was a good sport though.

And finally...I just couldn't leave this guy out, for reasons that I am sure are obvious to all of you now that you've seen his picture. It was the perfect way to end this blog. No matter how energetic he looks in this pic, it seriously doesn't fully convey to you how over the top this guy was. You would think maybe that he was doing some cool tricks with those hoops or something considering he was with the circus float with all the jugglers and acrobats and clowns and people performing pretty cool stuff but...nope. This guy just kept jumping with pointed toes, not even out to the sides cheer-leader style which is semi-impressive. No, he just jumped up in the air with his rings held out to either side. THAT'S IT. And he was SO excited about it, I mean you would seriously think by the look on his face that he had just swallowed fire or something amazing. He was by far my favorite, and you have to admit it is a pretty amazing picture considering he was getting ready for another HUGE jump. Gotta love the rose parade. HAPPY 2008!!!!

Family Pics

2007-12-18T13:59:00.000-05:00

First I need to formally apologize for the lack of posts on my behalf. It's not entirely my fault...our computer is on the verge of crashing and we have to operate out of "safe" mode...which really sucks because you can only use a portion of the screen and it takes FOREVER to upload ANYTHING...including pictures...so now you see why I haven't been posting. It also decides to randomly shut itself off...which is really fun if you've spent the time creating a post only to have it disappear seconds before publishing.

That being said I think I'll just go ahead and dive right into some old pics I need to take care of. Here's some family pics we took before thanksgiving (also before it snowed...that's right...we had a WHITE thanksgiving!) We ended up using one for our Christmas card...(that's right, i actually got my act together this year and will be sending them out shortly!) So I obviously won't be posting that pic but, these should give you an idea of what's coming. We had a really fun day in the Midland Forrest, about five minutes from our house. Dylan loved exploring all the trees and rocks and leaves and especially the sticks. P.S. don't laugh too hard at how off centered the first pic is...we had our camera on timer, balancing on a stack of cardboard boxes on our stroller...Rick had to run to get into the pic in time...so, with that in mind I don't think it turned out too badly.

Pumpkin Patch

2007-11-14T15:14:00.000-05:00

Just before Halloween we went with some friends to the pumpkin patch so the kids could check out the animals and pumpkins, Dylan was in heaven once he saw the tractors.
Once again, like father like son. Rick is always trying to convince me how we really do "need" a tractor. Now that it looks like it's going to be a
2-1 vote...I might be in trouble.

I just love this shot, it shows just how small Dylan still is, no matter how big he acts! He thought these tractors were so cool, he kept trying to climb up them and see how they worked. They had a smaller tractor to pull the kids on a cow train but my camera died before I could get the pics, of course! I was so mad at myself for not checking the battery. He was able to sit on that one and turn the wheel and stuff, he loved it!

His other favorite part was the goats. They kept coming over to see if Dyl had any food, which he didn't, but they licked his hands anyway and that sent Dylan into the loudest giggles ever.Later we found this pumpkin that had "Dylan" carved into the side of it, spelled the same way and everything. My friend took pics for me, it was pretty cute...all in all a very fun day.

FRUSTRATION!!

2007-11-05T23:50:00.000-05:00

Okay...I may not be a genius, but I'm not stupid either, why the heck can I NEVER get a video to work on my blog? HELP! Tell me if the following video works for ANY of you, it keeps telling me it's not available now and to check back later...what the heck man? Any tips would be most appreciated.

P.S...I'm not too proud to mention that after doing spell check ironically the only word misspelled was genius...sweet. I should have just left it the wrong way, maybe you all would have thought I was a very clever jokester.

PPS...haha, you know it's late when you spell check after writing your "PS" and now the only word misspelled is...drum roll...."misspelled" I think the double s's look stupid.

PPPS no you're not crazy, jokester came up on abc check too but that one WAS on purpose as it was the perfect made up word for that sentence. That's it, goodnight, I am VERY tired thanks to the insane amount of time it took me to download, re save to a smaller size and re download the new version of this dumb video just to have it all not work in the end.

Dyl's Tricks

2007-11-05T23:34:00.000-05:00

Here's Dyl doing some of his favorite things. Make sure to mute the music at the bottom of the page before you start the video, it's kinda a pain once the video starts.

This is Halloween!

2007-11-02T13:31:00.000-04:00

Okay...even though I have a ton of things I need to post before these, my mom's dying to see how the lil stinker costume worked out, plus i should probably get this posted while we're still close to Halloween, cause at the rate I'm goin' it won't be posted till after New Years. I also know it's a bit late to put Halloween music on my page but I don't care, it's perfect for this blog so I'll leave it for a few days or so. Pump up your volume otherwise you won't get the full effect!

Here's my little skunk ready to go...that face makeup didn't last long and I soon had to upgrade to liquid eye liner. Dylan LOVES to wear this costume and even loves having his face done, he held perfectly still and watched my hand the whole time, I think he liked the way it tickled his nose.

Mom and Dyl at the annual Midland Pumpkin Festival. Dyl was completely shell shocked by the long line of kids in costumes parading by us, he ended up really getting into it and loved showing off his cool costume. We went with our friends Erica and Justin Jones, here's Dyl with their little love bug, Brooklyn, she and Dylan are good friends because unlike other toddlers, baby Brooklyn just lays back and lets Dyl steal all her stuff without a fight. She does keep a close eye on him though...we're tryin' to teach him that that's not going to win him major points with the ladies.

Finally, Halloween night. Rick and I went as "skunk patrol" thinking that would make more sense then pest control, but apparently not. We got so many confused questions about our costumes! Like, "Hey, Brother and Sister Dalton, how come your costumes both match, but Dylan's doesnt?"...that would be because HE is the skunk and WE are the SKUNK PATROL! "Skunk patrol? What's that?" NEVERMIND. Oh well, we tried. We had badges that said skunk patrol and little patches with animal paw prints and a huge bag of candy labeled "skunk bait" that we carried around on our backs, it was a lot of fun. These pics were taken at an after trick'or'treat party at our friends house. Unfortunately there weren't any pics from actual trick-or-treating because it was raining the entire time but we did it anyway...that costume was so thick, it kept Dyl warm and dry and we did an entire neighborhood loop with a family from our ward.

Had to get a side shot in there...don't you just love how his tail sticks out? Any time he took a step it swung from side to side.

All in all it was a really fun night, even with the rain. Dylan thought it was so fun to knock on doors, then get to pick anything he wanted out of the bowl of candy! He was polite and said "tay-too" at just about every house. He also tried to enter every house, thinking we were coming for a visit or something and was WAY excited whenever anyone had a dog, since that's the only animal sound he'll do on command. Whenever he sees a pic of a dog in a book, hears one barking outside or gets asked "Dylan, what does a Doggy say?" He replies "woof, woof." It's hilarious. One house we had to finally go pick him up and carry him because he was so busy barking at the little dog in the window.

Would you mind a skunk climbing in through your front door if he was this cute?

Down 'n' Dirty

2007-10-31T14:37:00.000-04:00

First let me start by saying that I finally got so sick of all my pics and text being cut off by the template I used to have that I got rid of the cute background and had to go with this ugly one for sanities sake.

We had the missionaries over for dinner a while ago and after Dyl got good 'n' messy he decided to be super silly. He climbed up on top of the coffee table and started smacking his tummy and dancing. Certainly not a shy kid.

Here's a few shots to prove I'm not kiddin' around when I say he's the messiest eater in town. This next one is a bit blurry but I love how it captured his mood, he was giggling hysterically, he had us all laughing.

By the time I got him in the tub that night he looked like he had a uni brow, it was hilarious, but by the time I grabbed the camera, he had already wiped a little of it away, just picture it going all the way across and connecting both brows perfectly. How can something be so gross and so cute all at the same time?

Can't Wait To Show Rick

2007-10-30T15:07:00.000-04:00

FORE!!!

2007-10-27T09:31:00.000-04:00

Like father like son...it seems like I say that a lot, especially lately but Dyl just loves to be like his dad! Rick took us probably over a month ago now (I am SO behind on blogging) to the driving range to play a little golf. Dylan absolutely loved it. Mom....not so much. I just don't get what's so fun about this supposed "sport" (probably gonna receive some backlash about that last comment.)Dylan sure had fun though and I guess that's all that really matters. Daddy helped him learn to putt and how to pull the flags out of the holes on the putting green (which the other serisous golfers really appreciated too...I'm sure they thought he was adorable as he yanked the flags out and got in the way of their shots)After the terribly exciting putting green we headed on over to the driving range...which I guess is a step up from putting but seriously, after you hit about 5 of them...where's the fun? Probably because I don't know what I'm doing and my hands start really hurting and I get frustrated easily...that might have something to do with it. Oh yeah, the cold didn't help much either. Daddy really appreciated Dylan pulling out his tee every time he tried to set up another ball to hit. It was the funniest thing because by the look on Dylan's face it really looked like he thought he was helping. So when Rick moved further down away from us, of course he followed to be sure Dad had someone there to remove his tee's.
I finally convinced him to let Dad hit one. But you can tell it's killing him and he's standing by, ready to pull it out in case Dad changes his mind...or takes to long to hit it. Look at that form! Good swing honey.
Finally, Dyl had had enough and decided to sit back and eat a snack...yummy granola bars. He thought this little seat was so cool (dumped out the balls and turned over the bucket) and so did Dad because he sat there for the longest time just watching, giving Rick a chance to actually hit some without his paranoid wife shouting "Don't swing, he's too close!"
All in all it was a pretty fun day, ending, of course, with wrestling...I wonder why this kid is willing to take on anyone who challenges him...could it be because he wrestles with Dad every night? Oh well. Hope everyone is enjoying the change in weather, I hope to get caught up enough on my blogs that I will actually have some October pics in the October list of blogs! We're up to 9.28 so...getting closer!