Kayla & Kylee

Labor Day weekend

Over Labor Day Weekend Randy got Jon Schmidt concert tickets as an early Anniversary gift. The concert was at Thanksgiving Point amphitheater by the waterfall. It was a perfect night for a concert outside. Jon Schmidt was awesome. We loved all the music that he played. We of course had to buy a CD, so the girls could hear his version of "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. Randy and I had a great night with each other listening to great music.

Jon Schmidt

Randy and I, wow 12 years, really!!??

There were tons and tons of people everywhere.

Then on Monday we went to Seven Peaks for the last time of the season.

Caden and Brynely's favorite slides.

Kayla and CadenBrennan even tried them out.

Caden

I thought this picture was cute of Randy, Bren, and Bryn.

Brennan could not get enough of these slides.

Caden could not either!!

The water was almost too warm!

Just chillin.

Bathing Beauties!!

We had a great day at Seven Peaks. Caden asks me everyday when we get to go back and swim. I had to drive by and show him that they were closed for the season. But he did not care he still wanted to get out and go swim, even if it was rainy. We had a very fun and relaxing Labor Day weekend.

Ready or not........Caden goes to pre-school!

Caden missed his first day of Pre-school, he had a fever, running nose and cough. So he went the next day. He is so hard to get out of bed in the morning, and today was no different than any other. He has to be at school at 8:30am, early I know, the other kids don't start until 9am. Anyway we made it and he did not want to go with his teacher. So I walked him into his classroom and he immediately found some toys to play with and I said good-bye and left. I think that this will be really good for him to go this year. He needs that social part and to play with other kids his age. He will go every Mon & Wed. He is doing good and liking it the more times that he goes. I just wish that we could master the potty training. He does pretty good if you remind him to go. And he does not know how to hold it when he is running to make it to the potty. But all and all, I am just glad to have him out of diapers!!

Caden not sure about this school thing. He refused to wear his backpack!

Caden ready for his first day of Pre-school!

Caden walking out after school, he is in the back by Ms. Jaime.

What does your husband do at work???

Randy sent this to me last Friday morning and this is what he wrote, "This is what I do at work!" I thought that it was so funny. I have no idea what the story is behind the bike, but thought that I would share. At least he gets paid for doing this, right!!!

Back to School........ALL READY?????

Can you believe that it is Back to School time again.......I can't. The girls could not sleep last night, they were all so excited. Brynley ended up in our bed because she had a bad dream about a alligator or crocodile eating her and Brennan. Weird huh? But as soon as I told her it was time to get up, she was wide awake and happy and excited as can be. Which for Bryn is a switch, because she is not, and I repeat not a morning person, especially if she gets woken up. I had to hurry and shower and get myself ready while the girls showered and ate breakfast and then I did each of their hair. I keep telling Kayla and Kylee that they need to start learning how to do their own hair, but they keep telling me that they like me to do it. Which I suppose I will keep doing it until they tell me to get lost.

All growing up my Dad would give us a father's blessing if we wanted one, to start the school year. For me it was a great comfort and good reassurance that I needed each year. Randy being the great dad that he is, asks the girls every year if they would like a blessing. He has been doing this every year since Kayla and Kylee started pre-school. We had a very special family night on Monday where we talked about school this year and what was expected of them at home, jobs, reading, piano, etc. And then they could voice any concerns that they had about the upcoming school year. All 3 girls were bawling by the time Randy was finished giving them their blessing. Each blessing was perfect for each individual. I am so grateful that Randy honors his priesthood. I know that they felt the spirit and we talked about what they were all feeling. Even Caden jumped up into the chair and wanted a blessing. He sat perfectly still the whole time until Randy was finished. It was neat to see each of their reactions. Hugging Randy so tightly. I was so overwhelmed by the love in that room......I wish that we could keep that feeling always. I have the greatest husband and kids!!

Kayla- mighty 5th Grader

Kylee- mighty 5th grader

Brynley- mighty 1st grader

Don't they look cute in their scarves?

Brynley not wanting to take another picture.

She was so excited to go to school all day and be able to eat lunch. She ran home after the bus dropped them off and jumped over the bush in the front yard and said, "Mom that was awesome, I love 1st Grade." as loud as she could. That made me happy that she had such a great day. It was different here without her for half the day. She has moved on to bigger and better learning. Caden and Brennan and I had a good first day without the girls. Brennan took a nap, and Caden watched PBS, while I balanced the checkbook. Then we had lunch and went on a long bike ride and ended up at the park and then rode some more. I just wish that I could get Caden potty trained and not torturing his little brother and then the day would have been perfect.

Kayla and Kylee have locker combination this year. Which at Back to School night last night they were both having a melt down that they couldn't get their lockers open. They spent about 45 minutes practicing opening them. But, today informed me that now the locker thing is "easy-peasy" WOW the drama!!! Kayla and Kylee have Mr. Earl this year. They were nervous about having a guy teacher, but they liked him after their first day.

Caden will start Pre-school in another week and a half, just twice a week, which I know that he is going to love. Then I will have 4 kids in school. What to do with my free time??????? What free time I have miles and miles of to do lists. Wish me luck, I will need it.

Another Weekend in Idaho

After our camping trip with Randy's family, Kayla, Kylee and Brynley went home with Randy's family to spend the week in Idaho with grandparents, & cousins. They had a ball, here are some of the things that they did while they were there:



1) Rode home with Uncle Rusty



2) Helped unload Saydee's trailer, did laundry



3) Played at Saydee's house



4) Ate hot dogs and mac-n-cheese



5) Spent the day with Uncle Rusty- 4-wheeling, playing X-box



6) Went to the store with grandma & grandpa



7) Played night games



8) Went to a movie



9) Went swimming



10)Played with the baby kittens



11) Played with Hank (Saydee's Dog)



12) Stayed up late



13) Built a rope swing at Gpa D house



14) Climbed the trees and trimmed them for Gpa D



15) Had a BBQ, ate homemade ice cream and root beer



They look forward to going to Idaho every summer. I have a hard time when they are gone, I miss them and they are a big help to me, but I let them go anyway. Let's just say while they were gone I didn't get a lot done. I played with the boys and I was lucky if I got a shower everyday. The boys and I had fun together. So this past weekend we headed back up to Idaho to pick up the girls and to bring down Adam's girlfriend, who just moved back to Woods Cross to finish up her dental certificate, so that Adam could ask her a certain question??????? Jessica thought that she was going to surprise Adam( my bro) for his birthday, that it what I told her, but the surprise was really on her. On Friday, on Adam's birthday, he headed up to Rexburg to walk around campus and propose to Jessica. A few of us came along to witness the happy occasion and to set up their picnic in the park.



Brynley, my mom, Kayla, Kylee, Cindy, Paighton all waiting inside the Spori Building on campus waiting for my brother to show up.

Adam asking Jessica if she would marry him!!!???

Putting on the ring, I guess she said yes!!!


This is Brylee, my neice, my computer would not let me move the pictures, so they are out of order. Brylee is so stinking cute.....she is 3 months, 15 pounds, and has tons of fat rolls. I think that Brylee looks exactly like her mom, my sister Cindy, when she was a baby. I could not get enough of her.

Kayla and Kylee bringing out the roses that Adam got for Jessica.

Jessica and Adam

It is official .......December 19, 2009 the date has been set.

Congratulations we are so happy for you two!!!!




I set up a picnic in the park for them with red and pink plates, utensils, place mats, flowers, etc. They had Subway(one of their favorites) and Strawberry Shortcake. While they were eating we headed over to the Splash Park in Rexburg. I have heard about this place, but have never been. They kids loved it and did I mention it was free, can't beat that.

All the kids loved the slides. The red ones were their favorite.

The bucket on the top fills up and then spills over, it was cold, was all K & K would say.

Then they had the water that would shoot up out of the ground. Caden and Brynley loved running around through all the water. Then we headed back to my parents house to eat, jalapeno poppers, jalapeno chips, jalapeno hot dogs, chicken, homemade root beer, homemade ice cream, chocolate medallion cake (one of my mom's recipes) and strawberry shortcake. They food was so yummy!!!

Kayla (future bride)

On Sunday after Church the girls all took turns trying on Aunt Cristie's wedding dress. They even got Jessica to try it on. They had fun playing dress-up, putting on all of Aunt Cristie's prom and homecoming dresses that were downstairs in the closet. Kayla and Kylee want Gpa to save this dress so that they can wear it at their wedding in 15 years. Do you think they will still want to after all those years?? We will see. Jessica is 20, only 10 years older than the girls, WOW, don't want to think about that.

Kylee (future bride)

Kayla

Brynley (future bride) and Jessica as the bridesmaid

Jessica as the future bride and Kayla and Kylee as the bridesmaids.

The girls are especially excited for Adam and Jessica to get married, they get along really well with Jessica. They all really hit it off. Wedding are always exciting. Brynley loved it last year when she got to be the flower girl at Ryan and Angie's wedding(Randy's older brother).

Four Generations

Kayla, my dad, my grandma Darrington, Kylee and me

On Sunday afternoon we headed to my aunt house in Pocatello to celebrate my Grandma Darrington 92nd birthday! My gma has dementia so she does not remember us. She sometimes remembers my Dad, but does not remember anybody else. It is sad to see her like this, she was pretty somber on Sunday, different than other times I have seen her. I don't think that she liked having so many people invade her territory. Their were 51 of us there. My Dad has a big family 8 siblings. So not even half of the family was there, with her kids, grand kids and great grand kids. My grandma was telling my Aunt Marie to push us all out the door. My Aunt replied that we were all here to celebrate her birthday" and my gma, "well I didn't ask you to."
I thought that was funny. My dad was trying to get her to let him see her box of chocolates that she got for her birthday, but she had a death grip on them. My Uncle Richard (who my gma lives with) was telling us that the other day gma woke up and declared that she was Queen Elizabeth, and later that day told him that he was driving on the wrong side of the rode, this was England. I wanted to document this story so that I have it to look back on. Regardless of her trying to kick us all out I love my grandma and have many memories of her growing up and going to visit her and gpa on the farm. I was glad that we were in Idaho that weekend, other wise we would not have gone. It was good to see so many other aunts, uncles and cousins.

Reynolds Family Reunion

Randy decided one Sunday night after talking to his mom on the phone that he was going to plan a reunion. So he got on the Internet and started researching for campsites. Sent out an email to all his family and wam, bam, we went camping 2 weeks ago with his family (his parents, 2 brothers, & 2 sisters and their families.) He ended up finding a nice campsite just outside of Lava Hot Springs, ID, 15 minutes, near Grace ID. We had a lot of fun, for being a spur of the moment vacation. Randy did a great job planning and correlating everything. I just help with the food assignments and then bought it.

Staying warm with hot chocolate after getting out of our warm beds. We were the only tenters besides Randy's Brother Rusty, everyone else had a trailer. So we got to eat and stay warm in the trailers. Thanks guys!!!

My kids could not get enough of Uncle Rusty, even Brennan preferred him over Randy. Caden was his shadow, and would go running when the 4-wheelers or Rusty's truck would start because he wanted to go where ever he went. Kayla and Kylee were pretty much inseparably from good 'ol Rusty too. They adore him and can't get enough of him. Rusty was a good sport and entertained all the kids and played with them.

One afternoon we went swimming at Lava Hot Springs. I have not been here since I was a kid. No one dared to go off the highest diving board, but the girls loved the medium high board. This is Kayla standing on the board waiting for me to take her picture.

Randy and Rusty were the only brave souls to go on the new slides that went straight down.

Brennan loved the fresh garden carrots and chiz's (Best ranch ever, too bad it is only in ID.)
He couldn't get enough on his carrot. That afternoon some of us went to the famous hot pools while Randy and Rusty took the older girls to float the river in rapids with tubes. They had a blast, they have some very funny videos that Rusty took. They made some great memories.

The next day we found a gorge close by and stopped to take a look.

Then we headed to Bear Lake, the Paris Tabernacle and the Bear cave where we ate lunch.

I love Bear Lake, it is so pretty there. I love how the water is so blue. On the day we went it was cold, Like 55 degrees, only a few brave souls ventured into the water(Karlee, Saydee and Brynley) I forgot Bryn's suit and she really wanted to go in, so I let her walk out in her underwear. She was freezing cold when she got out, thank goodness aunt Robyn brought extra towels and uncle Steven started his truck so she would stay warm.

The other kids played in the sand and swam in the water.

Brennan loved it, he was covered in sand in 5 minutes.

Of course Caden had to get all wet and play in the sand too.

Then a few of us headed up Bloomington Canyon to hike up to Bloomington Lakes. It was so beautiful and peaceful here. This was the 2nd time we have done this hike. It was colder and rainy, so we were the only ones there. The guys and kids did a lilttle fishing while the rest of us just sat and enjoyed the scenery. I tried to put some other picture on, but I am not loving blogger right now and my computer. I could just scream!!! My sister-in-law has a ton of good pictures on her blog, check it out robynlonghurst.typepad.com

We had a great time despite the weather. It was windy one night, it hailed and rained the next day and then the sun came out on the last day. We all made the best of it and it was so much fun. Until next year.............................