Sequoia

Our Girl:

This is the new cool and frequent thing Sequoia loves to do. I walked in her room and she said, "Hey Mom! I'm just driving my car!" with her hands up driving the wheel. Other days its a boat, airplane or whatever she can conjure up. She is imaginative, we love it!

It was after bedtime and I found this little one hiding in my room with a marker in hand. Ah!! It seriously took a few days for it to all fade.

She is imaginative.
She has one happy and feisty attitude all within a minute's span!
She hits (we are working on that one).
She can count to 20, give or take a few.
She was potty trained, until she decided it was too much work and now refuses (she does still go poo poo in the potty every time).
Her best friend in the whole world is her big brother.
She her favorite food is chocolate, close second are peas and corn.
She loves chapstick.
She is the MeSsIeSt eater!
She loves to jump off the couch onto the bean bag.
She loves books.
She makes the funniest voice impressions of objects or people!
She makes us laugh.
The most precious thing she owns is her blankie.
She loves baby dolls and cars.
She points her finger when she's angry.
She has the "Phister" scowl.
She likes kitty cats.
She likes to play Hungry Hungry Hippos.
She loves to play/fight with her cousins.
Her favorite fruit is a banana.
She can recite the alphabet and knows all her letters by sight.
She nods her head and says things very matter of factly (like her Mommy).

Quotes:

"Oh that's my favorite color!" applies to all colors.

Any time she puts a dress or skirt on she will twirl around saying, "Oh I can spin like a princess!"

(While standing on a stool in front of the toilet) "I want to go pee pee like a boy."

She was walking down the stairs with her Hello Kitty rain boots and fell. Me, "Whoa, are you ok Sissy?" Quoi, "Yeah, I fell on my cute boots!"

She says "last day" when talking about yesterday.

Lincoln

Our Boy:

He loves school and everything about school!
He can count to 100+
He gets dressed all on his own. (sometimes a few times a day)
He is starting to sound out letters in words.
His favorite show is The Backyardigans.
He bawls if Daddy leaves the house without giving him a hug and a smooch.
He does not like veggies, except for carrots and spinach leaves.
He is a good helper and will clean up his own room.
He is such an emotional boy when he's exhausted.
He loves his teachers and at school and in nursery.
He is such a cuddler. He loves to be hugged, give smoochies, and just be close to Mommy and Daddy.
He can write his name.
Sequoia will always be his best friend.
He is just a happy child.

Quotes:

While saying a prayer with Daddy for bedtime one night (Mommy was gone), Lincoln prayed, "Please bless Grandmas and Grandpas, please bless Mom will come home safe... in a spaceship."

Lincoln talking to Quoi in the bath tub, "No Sissy, you don't have a pee pee." "Oh, I don't have a pee pee?" she asked. So I stepped in, "Well Sissy, yes you have a pee pee too, its just on the inside, and Lincoln's is on the outside." They repeated it a few times and life went on, so I thought. Now there have been multiple times when they've informed people that "Lincoln has an outside pee pee and Sissy has an inside pee pee." And its just randomly out of nowhere. Wonderful.

Lincoln brought be a picture of Mommy and Daddy in it and said, "Look what I found." I said, "Oh yeah, that's Mommy and Daddy." He shook his head and said, "No, that's Mommy," and then raised his fingers close to his face, wiggled them around and said, "and that's an UGLY MAN!" He said it so funny like it was yucky or something. I laughed so hard! Not because of what he said but how he said it. Mike loved it when we told him later!

Lincoln fell a few times one day and ended up with bruises. Mike was talking with him later that night and said, "You got some good ouchies today, huh?" Lincoln said, "No Dad! I got some bad ouchies!"

Lincoln: "Mom, can I have a baby in my belly?"
Mom: "No buddy, I'm sorry but only girls can have babies in their bellies, and only when they are bigger."
Lincoln: "Oh ok........ When I'm smaller I want to be in Sissy's belly."

Yesterday is "last day"

Life:

I know I am so bad at writing things down! I'll try to do better! Life for us here in Casper/Bar Nunn is actually pretty good. We are starting to really like it here and are getting back into a routine. We really like our neighborhood and where we live. It is a bit of a bummer to have to drive 15 min to get to town, but I'll trade that for when we are home and away from business. We still live in a cul-de-sac and by a lot of houses, but it is not busy at all. Bar Nunn population is 2000. I love it!

Lincoln is going to school now 4 days a week in the afternoon and loving it! (I don't love the driving all day long, but he loves it so I'll live:) He is officially no longer a "special education" student! They just did a bunch of tests and he is now just a payed preschooler. He has been fantastic. His teachers love him and say he is their "model student." Wahoo! We are so proud of him. While going over the testing scores with me, they said he was passing the tests all the way up to the 6 yr old level in almost every category. I'll take the "model student" student over the "lead vest student!" He has come a long way and is really such a sweet boy and pretty well behaved. Love you little man! Good job:)

Life has not slowed down completely since moving here. I was called into the new Relief Society Presidency here in the 5th ward as the 2nd Counselor about a month ago. I have really enjoyed it. I have gotten to know so many new sisters here and already have some pretty good friends. It's a busy calling, but I still don't feel anywhere near as stressed as I felt when I was in young womens. I think I'm going to love serving in this calling.

Mike so far seems pretty happy at this new shop here in Casper. Still a stressful job, but it has been a lot better. We actually get to see him more! I love it! And I'm sure he loves to be home and relax sometimes. He drives about 11 minutes to work, which is so great considering where we live, and I see him almost every day for lunch. He still travels, but it seems like its more for meetings and trainings than going hours on end without sleeping. The kids are absolutely loving having their sweet Daddy around:)

Mike's Birthday, Family Visit, St George

Happy Birthday to Mikey!
(of course a month late)
We had family all coming out here a day after Mike's birthday, so I was stressed getting the house ready for everyone. So the day before Mike's birthday at 10:30pm Mike was so sweet to volunteer to go grocery shopping for me. It helped out so much. Then he came home with this...

A 55" Flatscreen. He walked in and said, "I don't get to go shopping late and by myself anymore." It ended up being a great birthday present for himself!:)

We still need more cute decorations on the walls downstairs, one day!

Mike's birthday cupcakes. He loved that the kids decorated them just for him:)

Fun time with family! Grandma and Grandpa Goodman, Morgan, Annie and boys, and Ty all came to play at our house! I'm so happy they did. It was fun to share our house with everyone and just chat and play.

The kids played outside a bunch.

Grandma, Grandpa and Annie just enjoying watching kids be crazy.

Baby Tragon, soon to not be the baby:)

Quoi playing in the middle of all the boys, and showering herself with rocks.

They all love their Grandma Susan.

Quoi and Damon

We had a wonderful weekend with the family out here in Casper. We got to go to church together, eat some delicious Cafe Rio Pork, and play some games.We are so happy the kids get to know their cousins and get to play with them. They all did pretty well together.

Grandma and Grandpa took off super early Monday morning (Labor Day) with Morgan and Annie to head home. Ty left with our family later in the morning and we took off for ST GEORGE! It was a wonderful trip because more than half the trip I got to drive Ty's car (we dropped it off at Annie's) and Oh was I in heaven! No kids, stick shift and an audio book to listen to! I loved it! I was feeling pretty guilty when we were driving through "the sisters" before Evanston in stand still traffic when I saw Ty get out of his seat, pull the froggy potty out from the back of the van, and get little Quoi out to go potty! It was so hard to just watch, but what do you do!? Thanks so much Ty!:)

We had a blast down south! It was nice to relax and not be stressing about every single thing that comes daily. We got to spend a lot of time with Kash and Harlee and got to see baby Brittyn only a few hours old! Oh how I wanted a baby holding her! It was fun to get to play with Annie's family and all the boys, then Kim's family and all the girls:)

Sequoia and Harlee
These two girls! One minute so sweet to each other, the next minute hitting and yelling. Knowing both their personalities individually, it was fun to watch them go at it.

Kashlynn is such a big girl now and was very good for us.

Ty and Rachel are always so great with the kids. And the kids just love them! They taught them a new version of "Red Light, Green Light." Red-stop Green-go Yellow-slow Blue-GO CRAZY! And the kids would! They loved it.

New Baby Brittyn!

"Aaawwww...."

We got to go visit with Brandon and Lindsay while we were down there and see their beautiful baby girl, Halle!

She was starving, but I still had to get pictures! And baby's naturally just don't like me:)

We stayed the night at Annie's on the way to St George, then on the way back stopped and played so the kids could get some rest and Ty and Rachel could get their car. Thanks for feeding us Annie and letting us mess the house up. It was a good stop in between.

A children burrito.

On the way home. He loves books, what can I say?:)

This little monkey! On the way to St George (about a 12ish hr drive), she wore undies and went potty in the froggy the whole way there. After less than a week, on the way back she wore a diaper and did not ask to go potty once! I don't know what happened but she has decided she is just not into it. Big bummer.

Totally random. Mike found this disgusting/cool thing in our driveway one night and I just had to get a picture. Don't know exactly what it is?

Bar Nunn, WY

Gooners!

We were shopping for some shirts for Mike and the kids found ways to keep themselves entertained. They just make me laugh!

A few weekends ago we decided to get to work on the basement and put it baseboards. I still have finished my job of sanding them down and touching up with paint, but it is looking better! And I actually want to be in the basement now. Now we just need family to come visit to see our work!:)

My scanner is being lame, so later I'll post some pics of how the upstairs looked before we got to work. Its been fun to have our house and work on it to make it ours! There are 5 bedrooms, 2 baths up, 1 roughed in bath down (one day), and we actually have 2 living/family rooms instead of 1 as before and a garage. We are loving it!

Actually, its sad. The power went out today, and since I've never had a garage of my own, I freaked out thinking I couldn't drive the car today because it was stuck in the garage and the door wouldn't open. I called Mike and he set me straight quick. Whoops! I rely so much on the lazy man's way, I don't think about the hard way:) So I just left the garage door open after we left because why would I want to get out and shut it, then open it again when I got back?? :)

Some pictures of the basement before:







And the basement after:

I love my purple room! I'm so happy Mike suggested it, let alone gave me permission. Thank you so much! We got new couches too. It took forever, but I finally found my perfect purple pillows.


As you can see, Lincoln is in almost every picture. He followed me everywhere. I'm sure he's so tired. He looks so precious. (And he loves green apples)

I love how open the room is. I'm not sure what will be on this side, but I'm sure something will find its place there.

Don't mind the mess! Still not finished, but progress!

This room is a storage room with some shelves and a utility sink. It will be great for future, but it is so dirty I haven't stomached myself to clean it yet. I like a clean house, so I just pretend it doesn't even exist yet:) But I think I will love it when it is clean!

Down the hall to 2 bedrooms and unfinished bathroom

This is the back room, soon to the guest bedroom. We had to move everything away from the walls. This is my project before we get visitors!

Quoi loves to feed Mickey and her animals. She is a wonderful cook!:)
The other room downstairs is now the toy room/computer room. It will be a while before I get around to decorating this room, but one day.

She is going to be a great Mommy:)

Pictures of half of the house upstairs (bedrooms and outside to come):

The front entryway, front door to right, garage door to left. I usually am not a fan of split levels, but I love this one! There is plenty of room so you don't feel crammed when you walk in (there is more area behind wall to left)

View from front entryway.

Down the hall to our 3 bedrooms upstairs, bathrooms and laundry room the area to the first right.

The kid's frog bathroom that they love. Lincoln jumping! He totally looks like his cousin Logan!

The kitchen. I love all the counter space. Just not a fan of the green counter tops, and the green carpet too!

The living room
(I hope I can post the pictures of the house before! Yellow and green walls! I really like the gray tones compared!)

The way the house looks when I want to take a picture...

The way the house looks.

At least they are cute! Lincoln is into pillow fights right now.

I know this area is ugly! There is a small doorway area connected to the toy room downstairs. It was one of my favorite things about the house! If you go in through the hole on the right...

we have this area. There is so much storage space down here!

It would have been super cool to finish it and make it a kid's play area, but I think I like having a storage area more:)

Quoi is reading to monkey:)

Painting turned into body painting. I put them in here so I didn't have to stress (as much:)

They really are so silly!

There was a storm outside. After wondering what happened to Mike, I found him enjoying it:)

Part of the backyard.

This is what happens to the play dough when Mommy walks away for 2 minutes.