We have an elf at our house!

We would like to introduce our Elf friend straight from the North Pole: Christopher Pop-In-Kins!! One night we received a knock on our door and when we went to answer it, there was a book waiting for us. It was a special book about Christopher Pop-In-Kins and to our surprise he was already in our house hiding up high and watching our sweet kids to see if they were being naughty or nice. He is a great help around our home this month. I think that the kids are definitely on the nice list. Christopher loves to move around and find new places to hide. The kids enjoy searching for him and seeing the fun and creative places he ends up. Here are a few of the places we have found him in our house. He has been everywhere from upstairs to downstairs, on shelves, on top of the Christmas tree, hanging from lights, on top of window blinds and the list goes on and on. We never know where we might find him, but it is tons of fun to search for him and show him that we deserve to be on the nice list this year!

Tyce Morgan Young

Tyce Morgan Young
Born: December 3rd, 2010
Weight: 9lbs. 14oz.
Length: 21 inches

Tyce Morgan Young is finally here! He was born on December 3rd at 4:39pm. He weighed 9lbs. 14oz. and was 21 inches long. We are so glad that he is a part of our family. We love Tyce so much and think that he is such a handsome baby! We are so thankful that he is healthy and doing well. What a blessing and the best Christmas gift that we could receive this year!

I'm Thankful.......

Today is Thanksgiving, November 25th, 2010, so as I post about our family pictures I want to mention how grateful I am to have such a wonderful family. I have been blessed with the most amazing husband and sweet children, wonderful parents, awesome sisters and cool brothers (in-law) and great nieces and nephews! I am so lucky to be part of this family. I am happy to be back in Utah with each of them. What a blessing!! I love you all!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I should also mention that I am thankful for everyone's cooperation to get these pictures done. It was FREEZING cold and even snowing a bit! I am especially thankful for my sister Jen's photography talent. She took these beautiful pictures for us. Check out her photography blog to see some of her other amazing pictures! http://www.jenstaffordphoto.blogspot.com/

It's Pumpkin Carving Time

October 30th, 2010 - Both Sage and Sydnee had field trips to Hee Haws farm this year and got to pick a pumpkin, so I decided that was plenty of carving for us to do. Math was out of town in AZ on a Coues Deer hunt, so I was the lone ranger for Halloween this time around. I waited until the night before Halloween to pull out the newspaper and prepare for the mess. The girls were super excited to turn their pumpkins into Jack-O-Lanterns!



I had Sage and Syd design their own faces and then I did all the cutting. none of us like to grab the pumpkin guts with our hands, so we stuck to using spoons. Luckily it wasn't too bad and we kept the mess to a minimum. We had tons of fun! Easton loved scooping the guts and being a part of the pumpkin carving this year.



We had a fun night and the kids loved the results of their Jack-O-Lanterns. We lit them up and enjoyed them in our house while we watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". I love spending special time with our sweet kids. Sage, Sydnee and Easton are such great kids and I love them so much!! Happy Halloween Eve!

Star Students

Sydnee and Sage have both been chosen as the Star Student/Student of the Week already this school year. I love that they get the chance to be spotlighted in their classes. I think that it really makes them feel so special!



Sydnee and I had a lot of fun printing pictures of some of her favorite things off of the computer after we remembered that she needed a poster the next day. We had been thinking about it for days, but somehow it slipped our minds and late Sunday night I remembered. YIKES!! Matthew was so sweet and he got up extra early on Monday morning to go and buy us a poster board. I also had to pick up pictures at Walmart to throw on the poster just before I went to present it to her class. WOW!! Talk about craziness! Here are just some of the special things about our sweet Sydnee:


*She loves to draw, write, color etc. She loves art.

*She loves riding horses and is the cutest little cowgirl.

*Sydnee loves tumbling and is very talented at it.

*She is sweet and loves to eat sweets too! :)

*Favorite Food: Macaroni and Cheese

*Favorite Color: Pink

*Sydnee loves riding her bike.

*Sydnee loves to have fun and she is a lot of fun to be around.

*Favorite Animal: Zebra

*Sydnee is a happy girl and she makes others happy to be around her.

*She loves swimming and being with friends.

Even though Easton is not in school, he is a Star at our house. He needed to be involved in our picture taking and was actually giving me a smile, so I couldn't resist capturing his cute little face. We sure do love this little man!



Sage's teacher sent home a poster that we could just fill in and that ended up being a lot of fun too. Sage didn't want to print out pictures to put on it. She just wanted to write in all of the information. Easy enough. We did decide to color the poster though, because it would look a lot cuter that way. :D Here are the things the poster had on it and Sage's answers. These are just a few of the things that makes our sweet Sage so special.


*I am special because: I help others and I am nice. She is very tender hearted.

*When I grow up, I want to be: A Teacher. She'd make a great one!

*I help others by: Cleaning up for them. She is a great helper.

*Favorite Color: Red, Blue, Green (She keeps adding to the list! I love it!)

*Something I like to do at school is: Math and Art. She is very good at both!
(A mix between Dad (Math) and Mom (Art). How fun!)

*Something I like to do at home is: Play the computer.

*Favorite Food: Ramen Noodles

*Favorite Animal: Giraffe

*Favorite Book: Dr. Suess


We love both Sage and Sydnee and they are definitely Stars and school and at home. We love to watch them develope their talents and appreciate the good helpers that they can be. Our family would not be the same without them and their individual personalities. We are proud of our girls and what special people that they are.

Random Kid Cuteness!!

We had quite a few nights that while we were getting the girls ready for bed Easton wanted to lay on our bed and watch a show. We decided that would be okay. We planned on getting him in bed right after the girls, but in the mean time he zonked out with toys, milk or stuffed animals in hand.

I always think that kids are extra cute while they are sleeping. It is probably because you can see their true sweetness. I couldn't get enough of our little man sleeping on our big bed.

Too sweet!! These pictures are just so peaceful. Ahhh.... makes me want to take a nap.

Kids feet are way too cute!!

Sydnee and Easton have such a good time playing together when Syd gets home from school. They were tired this day and were pretending to be asleep. I love to play along and make a big fuss about my cute kids sleeping. They try to hold straight faces, but end up cracking up over time. I loved how they were snuggling together on the couch. It was cute and cozy.



One morning as we were waiting for Jana to pick the girls up, they were having a lot of fun being silly together and hugging each other. I couldn't resist snapping some pictures. These girls can have so much fun together. I love all of the moments when they are best buds. They get giggling so hard sometimes and it makes me giggle right along with them. I love all of my kids. I am so thankful to be their mom, even on the tough days. Moments like these sweet ones really bring me so much joy and happiness. Thanks to the best kids in the world for making me happy! :D



One night Sydnee wanted to take pictures and have me take pictures of her. She is such a cute little muffin. We had fun together while Easton was sleeping on my bed and while Dad and Sage were playing the computer. It's always fun to have one on one time together.

Backtracking ..... 5 Months Pregnant

I guess that I am going backwards with my blogging. My sister Jen, www.jenstaffordphoto.blogspot.com, took this picture for me when she took our family pictures back on August 12th, 2010 , so I was around 5 months pregnant. I just thought that I had better add it to my blog before I forget. I will post pictures from our family photo session soon. I love how our family pictures turned out and I am thankful that my talented sister could take them for us! Thanks Jen!

Having Fun in Salt Lake City

While Kristie was here visiting, she really wanted to visit Temple Square. I was excited to be able to tag along with her and her mom. Today was Easton's birthday, September 14th, 2010, so we had a mom and son date and had tons of fun! We parked under the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, so we started off there and then headed to the Beehive House to take a tour. These pictures were taken outside the Beehive House and the Lion House is the building that is in the pictures.



The Beehive House is beautiful inside and there was a lot to see and hear about. We ended up on a tour with some people that didn't speak much English, so it was a very simplified tour. We would have love to have heard more details, but it was still fun and interesting. This is Easton in the family store and a picture of a room where the family did a lot of entertaining.

Kristie, Easton and I on the steps of the Beehive House.



We walked over to the Temple through all of the beautiful gardens. It was such a nice day. The gardens were amazing and the Temple is always such a gorgeous sight. Even though Easton doesn't look to thrilled to be on a birthday date with his mom, he really was having tons of fun!



Easton LOVES Temples, so he was happy to sit and look at the beautiful Salt Lake Temple. We love to sing the primary song, "I Love to see the Temple" and he thinks that all castles and some churches are Temples. He is such a sweet boy! I love him so much!





Easton enjoyed putting his toes in the water. He thought it was pretty cool! He had shoes on for the first part of our tourist adventures, but then was complaining that his shoes hurt. I guess they were too small and they were hurting his cute feet. Well, I didn't know what to do other than take them off and let him go bare foot the rest of the day. Luckily he spent most of the time in a stroller, so it didn't matter too much.



We headed to the South Visitor's Center and on the way we stopped to see this fountain on the Temple grounds. I have always thought that it looked like an upside down turtle shell. Too funny! Easton loved watching the water spill over the edges.





It was fun touring around Temple Square with Kristie and her mom. Kristie is a member of the church, but her mom is not. It was fun to see Temple Square through the eyes of someone that is not LDS. I loved every minute of our time there. We went inside the Assembly Hall. The details never cease to amaze. It was beautiful. Don't you just love Easton packing around his new birthday toys. He couldn't set Woody or Dinoco Lightening McQueen down. They needed to take all the tours with us too. ;)



We went inside the Tabernacle also and had some sister missionaries give us the tour. They told us so many interesting things. It was fun to listen to the history of the building. I could have listened to all the stories, history and details all day. It was so interesting.



We then headed over to the North Visitor's Center so that we could go and see the beautiful Christus Statue. Easton loved seeing Jesus. I enjoyed the spirit that I felt and loved being there with my sweet son and best friend. What a special day.



Easton was so good during our adventures. He just makes my heart so happy. I'm glad that we could have such a fun day together.



Best Friends! Love you Kristie! :D



We were excited to head across the street and tour the Conference Center. It is such an amazing and huge building. We just took a quick tour because we were running out of time. We were able to see the main auditorium where conference is held. It is a massive 21,000 seat auditorium. They were actually setting up for conference while we were there. It takes quite a bit of time to prepare the auditorium for the different events that are held there. We also saw a lot of artwork as we walked the halls. Every piece of art in the Conference Center is the original artwork. The paintings are so gorgeous. I loved looking at the huge paintings as we working our way up to the gardens on the roof. There was one bronze statue that really stands out in my mind and I feel that it is worth writing about so that I will always remember. It was a depiction of the first vision. Joseph Smith is kneeling on the ground before our Savior and Heavenly Father. The statue was on a revolving platform and as you turn it around you can see that Heavenly Father has his arm around His Son and for some reason that really got to me. I felt the spirit so strong and couldn't help but get teary eyed. It just reminded me how real our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are. They truly have a special relationship with one another and they love each of us so much. It made me think of how loving our relationships should be with each and every one of our own family members. It was so beautiful.



The view from the rooftop gardens was beautiful. There are 4 acres of gardens on top of the Conference Center. Pretty amazing. The water features were not running today and there was some sand blasting going on, so we were not able to see the gardens in all their beauty, but it was still neat.

We finished up our day by eating at The Garden Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It has such a gorgeous view of Temple square. The atmosphere is wonderful and so is the food. We had a fun time chatting and enjoying one another's company. I am so glad that Kristie and her mom could come and visit. I am so happy that I could spend the day with them today. If only it could have been longer, but I will definitely take what I can get! After we ate, we headed up to Park City to drop Kristie and her mom off to spend a little time with Kristie's sister who was there for her work conferences. It was raining on our drive there and by the time I was dropping them off it was pouring. It actually worked out for the best, because it was a really fast drop off. We said our goodbye's with quick hugs in the car and that was it. I didn't have time to get emotional and think too much about how long it would be until I see Kristie again. She is truly like a sister to me and it is tough living so far away from her. I loved having her live two doors down. We spent a lot of time together and we were able to be completely ourselves and we loved each other for that. What a great few days! I'm so grateful to have had that time together. Love ya tons and miss you Kristie!!

Special Guests for Easton's Birthday

I was very excited when my best friend Kristie told me that she was coming to Utah for a few days. I could hardly contain my excitement!! Her sister had a work conference to attend in Park City and had invited her and her mom to tag along. I was so happy to have Kristie and Grandma Lou come and stay overnight with us! It was fun to have them here visiting.



Kristie and Easton have always had a special friendship. Easton would always go to Kristie and even preferred her over me when we were both around. :D I was always happy that he loved her so much. I know that he could feel how much she loved and cared about him. It made me happy to know that he was always in good hands when he was with her. Easton and I were both blessed with such an amazing friend while we lived in Arizona and we are so glad that we will be friends forever.

Grandma Lou bought a yummy cake for dessert, so we decided we had better put a candle in it and sing to Easton for his birthday, since it is his special day tomorrow. We opened presents, hung out and had a great night! Happy birthday to our special little man! We love you more than you will ever believe! Tomorrow, on Easton's real birthday, we are heading up to Salt Lake for some fun while Kristie and her mom are in town! :D

6 Months and Growing

These pictures were taken on 9/12/10. I don't really enjoy my baby bump pictures, but I take them for memory purposes. I decided that I would post these goofy pictures for those of you who don't see me and haven't seen me pregnant this time. These are a little outdated, so just imagine me much bigger. :D Don't mind the goofy posing one, but I feel silly posing for the camera just for the sake of capturing the size of my stomach, so I had to act a little crazy. We are counting down until our baby boy arrives and it looks like he will not arrive any later than December 3rd. I'm hoping that he will just come earlier than that. I don't want to go to my induction date. So far we've had Sage 2 weeks early, Sydnee induced 1 week early and Easton 3 weeks early. I'm crossing my fingers for another 3 weeks early! :D I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Happy Birthday Easton!!

Wow, I cannot believe that my baby is two years old! He is getting so big, so fast. This year I asked Easton if he wanted a Lightening McQueen or a Buzz and Woody party and he chose Lightening. His favorite movies are Toy Story 2 and Cars, so I knew that we had to go with one of those for his special day. He was so excited about all of the fun Cars stuff that we had and that made me happy.

I decided that there was just too many things going on and I couldn't have separate parties for each side of the family, so we did a big combined party with everyone on September 12th, 2010. I am so glad that the weather was beautiful and that we could be outside, because it would have been EXTRA chaotic to have 33 people all crammed inside our house. (2 great grandparents, 4 grandparents, 10 aunts and uncles, 12 cousins and our family of 5!) Whew, that is a ton of people. We were so glad that so many of our loved ones could come and celebrate our little man's special day. We were missing one family though and wished that the Kiesel's could have been there too. We missed them.



I always have a great time coming up with a fun cake for my kids parties. This ended up being really easy, but no matter how easy, it always ends up taking quite a bit of time to complete. Easton was so excited about his Lightening McQueen cake and that truly made my day. He just kept talking about it and wanted to peek at it all day long. He even talked about his cake for days after the party. This is exactly why I love making special creations for my kids. They seem to love and appreciate their cakes so much. That really makes me happy!



Easton was a little shy about the singing, blowing out candles and having so much attention focused on him, but I could tell he was having fun too. He blew out the candle and was ready to eat a piece of his yummy cake! I think that everyone was ready for some cake and ice cream. We seemed to have just enough to feed the crew! Thank heavens!



Our cute kids had a great time during the birthday party. Sage and Syd were such amazing helpers. They are good sisters. Easton is lucky to have them and they are lucky to have such a sweet and fun little brother.



What a handsome kid! I love this little boy SO much!! He makes me smile and laugh every day. He is so smart. He shocks Matthew and I with the things he knows. We never know what kind of amazing (or sometimes naughty) things might come out of his mouth. Easton brings a lot of joy and happiness to our family.



When it was time to open presents we had Great Grandpa Grace go first. He gave Easton a card filled with money. There was $4 inside and Easton was so cute that he tried to give it back. I think that he must have figured that Grandpa accidentally put it in his cool card. I'm so happy that Grandpa and Kathleen could come over and spend some time at our house.



Easton had a great time opening presents and he loved everything that he was given. He was excited to see what was waiting inside of each gift. Thanks everyone for the fun things that you gave to Easton. You were all WAY too kind!



Thanks Papa Bob and Grandma Cheryl for spending the day with us. We love you tons!



Thank you Grandpa DeMar and Grandma Patty for coming to spend time with us. We love you a lot!



Another picture of our family. I've made it a tradition to take a quick family snap shot on each of our kids birthdays. I think it is a fun way to remember what we all looked like during that time of life. I'm so grateful that Easton came to our family. Two years ago I wasn't sure what I would do with a boy, but he has been such a blessing to our family. He is a fun and happy little guy and we wouldn't trade him for anything. Our family would not be the same without him.