Ty's Pumpkin Run

So at Ty's elementary school every year they have a pumpkin run. It's first thing in the morning and we get to go watch. They start at Kindergarten and go up through the grades. They start with the Kindergarten girls first, and then the boys second. The top 10 in each race win a pumpkin! It was SO CUTE!!!
As you can see- he won a pumpkin. He came in 3rd. This pumpkin didn't last very long, though- he dropped it and cracked it. So he came home with a little smaller one, but still good! He was so excited about it!!

Here he is before the race. Every kid made their pumpkin to put on their shirt.


I really like this picture- he's in the black in the middle. It was funny to watch them- they kept looking at eachother. If they would have just looked ahead, they probably would have gone faster.
Since this was my first pumpkin run experience I didn't really know where to stand. So I was in the middle, I missed him at the finish line. Next year! Good job Ty!

Hangin' with friends

So every Monday for a few hours I watch a couple kids so their mom can go to Ty's class and help out. Then she watches Mary while I go on Tuesdays. I love it. They all play really good together for the most part. Left to right: Mav, Tyra, Karson, Dax, and Mary. Dax comes 3 times a week.
Kars and Tyra get along really good. I love that he has someone to play with. These pictures are kind of funny, though. I put Shrek 2 on, and they all just went and sat like that. I didn't have to pose them or anything. Do you see that they are actually looking past me?
It's funny how much better they at snack time than they are at the table. This week Kyri was visiting. That day was a little crazy.
Okay so this is Mary and her little boyfriend Ben. They have a blast together, and they are so funny! They are always taking care of eachother. Ben is always trying to give Mary everything, and Mary forces him to eat pretzels. They are a lot of fun. Sorry about this picture (you know how much I love to get the back of heads) and I won't even go there with the little goalie on Karson's team flashing them...

FINALLY!!!

Okay so I'm sorry- I've been a little bit behind on my blogging here... I've been putting together a Ward cookbook. I had to have it in yesterday to the publisher and I probably got about 200 recipes from ladies the night before (nothing like waiting until the last minute!). So I was up all night but I got them done- all 300 recipes! I'm really excited about it now that I'm done. But next time I think I better think a little bit first before I open my mouth. It seems to making a lot of work for me lately! Anyway- If anyone is interested in buying one let me know. Hopefully it will be here before Christmas. Oh- and since I'm thinking about it... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

I got tagged...

Okay- so it looks like I got tagged... I don't know if you guys want to know this stuff- but just read it anyway!

MY HUSBAND

What is his name? Kregg Samuel Clemens- I call him "PUNK"

How long have you been together? Oh man... I guess a little bit under 10 years. We were friends before that, though.

How long did you date? About 11 months

How old is he? OLD!!! Kidding- he's 31.

Who eats more? He does- unless I'm pregnant. Then he doesn't have a chance.

Who said "I love you" first? Hmmm... That's a good question! It was probably me- I pretty much instigated everything...

Who is taller? Me in high heels! Lucky for him I never wear high heels.

Who sings better? I might sing better- but he's a whole lot more creative. He rarely sings a song with its original words.

Who is smarter? Definitely him- he has one of those photographic memories, too. It makes me so mad sometimes!!

Whose temper is worse? I'm pretty sure it's me. But sometimes he freaks out at the stupidest things! Oh wait a minute- so do I.

Who does the laundry? I do. Although he doesn't mind doing the laundry part- as long as he doesn't have to fold anything!

Who does the dishes? We both do. He's awesome!! If I empty the dishwasher (the easy part) he will load them (he thinks that is the easy part- SUCKER!!).

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do.

Who pays the bills? Neither of us! Totally kidding- we both do.

Who mows the lawn? The landscaping guys!!! IT'S THE BEST!! But if we had a lawn to mow, it would be him. That was the deal- he would mow the lawn, I would shovel the snow. Looks like I have another great deal!

Who cooks dinner? Both of us. It works out really good.

Who drives when you are together? It depends on if I am picking him up from work or not. It's usually him.

Who is more stubborn? Me- hands down. He's so lucky to have me.

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Neither of us are ever wrong. He just lets me win.

Whose parents do you see the most? mine.

Who kissed who first? Him- FINALLY!! It took long enough!

Who asked who out? Oh man... there was a bet... maybe we aught to not go into that...all I can say is that Jim Carrey WAS married to Lauren Holly.

Who proposed? He did. He's so sweet!! Mmmm- The Garden... yummy!!

Who is more sensitive? That's definitely me. And he's so good about letting me vent on him!

Who has more friends? I guess that is probably me, just because I'm a little bit more social than him. He doesn't need them as bad as I do, too.

Who wears the pants in the family? Yep- that would be Mary. Hands down.

Now I'm supposed to tag someone: Lacie, Wendy, Justen, Abby, Melony, and anyone else who wants to be tagged :) either in email or on a blog.

Hope I didn't bore you to death!!

playing dress up

They love getting out the Halloween stuff (wonder where they get that from??). So we just played a little bit! Ty would make a cute girl, wouldn't he?

Mary's first haircut

My good friend Kat came over last week and cut Mary's hair. I was a little worried about it- just because I didn't want to lose her curls in the back, but lucky her... her hair stayed curly. Now she doesn't have a tail! It's real cute- even though these pictures really don't show it real well. Mary was real good while Kat was cutting her hair, too. It consisted of me making a lot of faces.

Ty singing "YELLOW"

So Ty learned this song at school- he sings it all the time. And as you will see- Mary has become quite the bully...so we tried again. Notice in the second one Karson's favorite part- "He is such a happy fellow"...Karson cracks up still. He's cracking up right now because I'm talking about it. But he's funny. A couple days ago, just out of nowhere, he starts laughing hysterically. I asked why he was laughing, and he said because it was so so funny. When I asked him what was so funny, he said, "Laughing is funny, mom!!" He continued to laugh for a good 5 minutes after that, just laughing at his own laugh. It's times like that, and when Ty sings a song and decides to do a spin dance move right in the middle of it, that reminds me why I love being a mom. And as bad as this is, I actually crack up watching Mary think that she can take on Ty who is twice her size. By the way-sorry about the camera shaking at the end of the second one- Mary was trying to take me down. My kids crack me up.

Another Update on Mary

Yesterday the counselor from Nevada Early Intervention Services and an occupational therapist came over to get an update on Mary. They did a complete evaluation of all of her fine motor skills and all that stuff. She will be 2 in November- and right now she is at about 21-22 months- so pretty much right where she should be. They are concerned about her sensory skills (why she can fall all the time and not freak out- is she not feeling pain?), and maybe all of her hitting and bodyslamming other people. I kinda think it's because she's hitting her GLORIOUS two's, and that she has 2 older brothers, but they were a little concerned. So Kregg and I will have to take a test and return it to them next week.

Do I look like my bro or my sis?

Holy cow- I can't believe I look so much like Traci! I thought me and Tony looked a lot more alike. Oh well- what do you do???

Who do I look more like?

Who does Ty look like?

So I tried this because my joe-cool cousin Justen did... It was fun! So here are my kids... and HA HA HA to all of you who thought my boys were spittin' images of their dad... Ty even looks more like me by 4%!! It's probably because we are both sticking our tongues out. Give it a try and let me know, okay?

Who does Karson look like?

Who does Mary look like?

Can you believe that Mary looks equally like me and Kregg? Ha Ha Christa- you thought she looked so much like me... TOLD YOU!!! Ha ha ha...

Mary singing with the answering machine

Happy Birthday Ty!

Can you believe it? Ty's 6!! He got a bunch of dinosaur books and a fishing pole- he was so excited! He had a really good day, too. It just so happened that it was his turn to be the helper at school. Plus he got to wear a crown and a sticker all day. He got to give all of his classmates monster suckers. Then that night he had his soccer game, which he did really well at.
Mmmmm- gotta love the Dairy Queen ice cream cakes. If you have never tried one- I HIGHLY recommend it. It's better than all of the ice cream cakes I have tasted (and believe me- I've tasted a lot), plus we have a lot of history with them. My dad actually worked at the first Dairy Queen that started the ice cream cake. In fact- it was his boss Mr. Prichard. My dad takes a lot of pride in that, and frankly I'm very happy about it. It means more ice-cream cake.
So all of the other pics that I took of Ty were fake smiles. But I say something like, "Banana Hot-Pants" and I get the genuine grin. You would have thought that the cake would do the trick, but no. It's banana hot pants.
Happy birthday buddy! We love you!!

Update on Mary's MRI

So we went to Vegas yesterday to hear the results of her MRI. It turns out that her heart condition is very mild, and she isn't going to need heart surgery! In fact- we get to visit the cardiologist only once a year now!! It's pretty exciting for us- she is such a blessing in our lives. And we are so excited that we get to check this off the list! Now we get to concentrate on the fact that she is not even 21 pounds and she will be 2 next month!

Weekend up at our friends Cabin

We have some really great friends in our Ward that invited us up to their cabin just outside of Cedar City for the weekend. SO NICE!!!! Their cabin is probably the biggest cabin I have ever been in and it was just beautiful!! They were such great hosts- we were totally spoiled. Our kids had a great time. They spent most of their time on the 4-Wheelers and the Ranger. They also had a really huge room downstairs so we played a lot of octopus tag and mother may I. So fun! This pic is of my friend Carrie with her daughters and Karson all piled into the Ranger.
This is Kristopher and Ty riding on the back of the Ranger while the rest of them are piled in the front. Kristopher and Ty are one day apart- they had a great time together! This really is a great picture.


This is what the Ranger looks like- in case you were wondering... It was really fun to drive around in.
Karson and Mary both had a great time jumping on Todd. He's a great sport!

Baby it's cold outside...

So my kids had a blast taking out all of the hats and gloves to get ready to go up to the mountains. Mary wore these mittens for 2 days straight.

She loved this swing chair! It was so cold up there- it was great!!! It even snowed on and off all day Saturday. It's pretty wild going from Mesquite that has still been in the low 90's, to the high 20's on Sunday morning! Brrrr!!!

Odds and Ends

So this is Ty at dinner when he is in such a hurry to go and watch Sponge Bob and we won't let him until he's done eating. He gets it from his dad.
Rare moment of Mary falling asleep on mom.
Ty has been making recipes at school- so of course we have to try them again when he gets home. Except it's like this..."Mom- do we have cheese?" "No- but we have peanut butter!" "Mom- do we have raisins?" "No- but we have chocolate chips!" "Mom- do we have licorice?" "No- but we have coconut!" Being a mom is fun.

Chuck E. Cheese

After the park (oh yeah... you probably haven't read down to that part yet, sorry) the guys went to the game and we went to Chuck E. Cheese's. We figured, what a better way to kill a few hours in Vegas??? With kids anyway! Sorry- no pics of Ty- he was gone so fast... only came back for more tokens.

These pics of Mary were the rare few of her not screaming her head off. She fell off one of the cars and got a nice big goose-egg. She was not a happy camper. Too bad when you are at Chuck E. Cheese's.

I'm lovin' this!

Kregg did a great job making sure that Bradley and Mary made it up and down the slide alright!

Don't let this sweet little face fool you... this little one is a RUNT on the playground! She has no fear. She already thinks that she can climb up everything and go down everything and she goes like 1000 mph everywhere so I can't even turn my head for one second. I remember my boys going through this stage, but I don't remember it being this bad. Maybe it's because I have to watch them too!! Or maybe it's because Mary is more of a little spit-fire than them. Who knows. She had a blast, though.

Swimming in September

My friend Kayla who was visiting from SL and her kids and me and my family got to go down to Vegas for a day so Kregg could go to see the U play UNLV. We met up with my friend Johanna and her fam who were in from Winnemucca, and their friends. So fun! We went to this park that has the fountains to play in and a fun playground. The kids loved it!

Ty loves to lay out and get warm.

Karson and Brent dodging water...