August - September

- We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary!

*Sorry, this is the most recent picture of both Dan and I together. It's from this past summer in Oregon*

-Mckenzie and Abby's new word is "TOTALLY". Example: Abby said, "Chocolate is TOTALLY my favorite candy!"

-Red Sox game - Every time we go to a Sox game, they loose... REALLY BADLY... So, I figured I was their "bad luck charm". This year, the Red Sox were having an AWESOME year and we were able to go to a Red Sox vs. Yankees game! It was so much fun AND the highlight of the night was that they won... BIG TIME! However, I must still be their "bad luck charm" because after that game, the Sox went downhill... FAST! They went from win after to win to loss after loss after loss. I really shouldn't go to anymore baseball games. Oh well, it was a lot of fun!

-"Hurrincane Irene" became a "tropical storm" right before it hit us. There was a good amount of damage, but we were completely safe and never lost power. A lot of our friends weren't so lucky, including the elementary school which caused a delay in the start of the school year.

-Mckenzie started kindergarten and she LOVES it!!!

Mckenzie's first day of school was lot's of fun! She wore her new clothes and her new purple flowered headband! It was so fun to see her excitement as she got ready for school and walked to the bus stop. She gave us all hugs and off she went! It made my heart melt when she looked through the bus window and waved good-bye and signed "I LOVE YOU". She may only be 5 years old, but she's growing up! As for Abby, she had no idea what to do without her big sister. She was so sad and cried "Mckenzie's never ever coming back!!!". She was so sad, but once she realized that she had mom's full attention (Katie takes naps in the mornings) and when she realized that Mckenzie indeed would come back, she quickly became used to it all. As for me, it was a tender moment and I couldn't help but reminisce about times like when we found out we were pregnant, finding out she was a GIRL (now that's a funny story), going through the pregnancy with preclampsia (don't wish that upon anyone), having an emergency c-section, her being in the hospital learning to breathe and eat, learning of her fascination with music (I'm so glad we learned that early or we would've had even worse nights), refusing to go to anyone but her momma :D, learning that while driving to help calm her down, you do NOT stop at stop signs or she will cry!!!, watching her roll over, crawl, stand up, walk, get into EVERYTHING, learning to talk, learning her ABC's and numbers, making friends, melting hearts, dancing, singing, reading, soccer, swimming and so much more. Mckenzie is such a sweet blessing to our lives and it's awesome to watch her grow and learn!

-Katie becomes a walker!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!

-Mckenzie cracks us up with how she talks in her sleep.



Mckenzie and Abby are pretty good about going to bed. However, there are some nights where they stay up late talking and giggling. This is how I found them one night. They must have crashed while laughing.

-Abby decided that she doesn't like her name and insists that she should be called "Mckenzie".

-Jessica has officially folded 1,590 American flags! Does that make her a professional flag folder? If not, what constitutes becoming one?

-While cleaning out the girls' toy boxes, Jessica discovered a HUGE swarm of fruit flies and under some toys, she found a bag of VERY old, soggy, rotten carrots covered in more fruit flies. Upon cleaning out the toys and box, Jessica learned that fruit fly eggs are STICKY! At least our kids sneak veggies to eat rather than cookies and candy, right???

-Mckenzie came home from school showing me the sign for needing to go to the bathroom. It's a RUSSIAN FIG!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Dan's Triathlon

Dan has worked with the Young Men in our church all but about 3 months we've lived on the east coast and really enjoys it, especially since he's able to all the things that boys/men like to do. Last year, he put on a young men vs. old men sporting competition for our ward. They played basketball, soccer and then finished up with a triathlon. It was such a huge success last year, that they did it again! This year, they played ultimate frisbee, softball and then the triathlon. Dan's goal last year was to at least finish the race, and he did! THIS year, he didn't want to come in last. He trained Monday-Friday. He'd leave home just before 6 AM to train! Now, if you know Dan at all, you know that he is NOT a morning person, let alone doesn't like exercise. So, this took a lot of effort on his part. His effort paid off! For the swim part of the triathlon, he cut off 4 minutes from his training times AND for his overall finishing time, he shaved off 30 MINUTES!!! HE DID AWESOME! I'm so proud of him for his diligence! His next goal is the "Tough Mudder" that will be held in Vermont May 2012! Google it. It's a pretty crazy race!

A Dehydrating Maniac!

Saturday-Wednesday Dan was dehydrating all kinds of things in preparation for the Young Men's 30 mile, 3 day hike in the White Mountains, New Hampshire. He bought 15 lbs. of meat to turn into jerky, pineapples, strawberries, blueberries, apricots, etc. He was so diligent. He had 3 dehydraters going almost non-stop for 4 days. Lot's of late nights! I love the way the fruit smelled, not so much the jerky.

Legos

I love that Legos can occupy children for long periods of time!

Washable Paints

Mckenzie got a huge artist set for Christmas from her Grandma and Grandpa Bastian. It included washable paints, an eisle, tons of super nice paint brushes, jumbo ink pads (washable too) and lot's of paper! The girls absolutely love it and I LOVE it because it keeps them entertained for hours AND I've learned that when this company says "washable" they mean washable!!! (I'll post some pictures of their paintings later)

Having A Bad Hair Day?

I OWE MY MOTHER...

This is an email forward that I received that I thought was hilarious!

I Owe My Mother ....

1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE .

"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside.. I just finished cleaning."

2. My mother taught me RELIGION.

"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.

"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"

4. My mother taught me LOGIC.

"Because I said so, that's why."

5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC .

"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."

6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.

"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."

7. My mother taught me IRONY.

"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."

8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS .

"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."

9. My mother taught me about CONTORTION-ISM.

"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA .

"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."

11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.

"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."

12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.

"If I told you once, I've told you a million times.. Don't exaggerate!"

13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.

"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.."

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION .

"Stop acting like your father!"

15. My mother taught me about ENVY.

"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."

16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.

"Just wait until we get home."

17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING .

"You are going to get it when you get home!"

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.

"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to get stuck that way."

19. My mother taught me ESP.

"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"

20. My mother taught me HUMOR.

"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."

21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT .

"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."

22. My mother taught me GENETICS.

"You're just like your father."

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.

"Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"

24. My mother taught me WISDOM.

"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."

And my favorite:

25. My mother taught me about JUSTICE.

"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you !"

But, there is one missing from this list~~My personal all time favorite!!

My mother taught me about CHOICE.

"Do you want me to stop this car?"

The Last 8 months...

If you're reading this, you are either peeing in your pants or in severe shock that you're seeing our blog updated. I have so many pictures and many things to blog about that I've gotten to the point of eing overly over-whelmed (if that makes any sense). However, I made a promise to my mother-in-law that I would update my blog this week. I made that promise on Monday and I'm not starting it Sunday night at 6:12 pm. Yes, I am a TERRIFIC procrastinator. Anyway, I decided to update my blog month by month, so this post might get rather lengthy. Let the uploading pictures and telling our story about the last 8 months, BEGIN: I'm starting with January just because my last post (dated in Feb.) was a half attempt to update.

JANUARY:

-January just wouldn't be the same without a trip to the American Girl Store.

-Katie is 3 months old and smiles all the time. You'd think she was a first-born with how many pictures I've taken of her already.

We finally had Katie blessed in our church the end of January. The weather was horrible during the month and January, we kept putting it off so family could come. It was a wonderful baby blessing, even if Katie cried the whole time. Yes, I know she is wearing a pink dress and I love it!

-Abby had her ear tubes taken out the end of December and by the beginning of January, she had ruptured both eardrums. ugh. I included this picture of Dan and Mckenzie because they went sledding while Abby was sick. Abby was NOT happy about that!

-Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dean bought the girls little "laptops" and they love playing with them. All I need in this picture to finish it off is Dan working on his laptop.

February:

- We were able to visit family in Colorado and Idaho and I was horrible at remembering to take pictures while there, but this is what I have:

- Lane (Jessica's brother) had wrestling tornaments while we were visiting and we were able to go to some of them.

He did a great job and Mckenzie decided that she wants to be a cheerleader. Dan isn't the happiest about this decision. (This is a picture of Mckenzie cheering. I know it's not a great picture, but the lighting was aweful and my kids were jumping on me).

-Mckenzie got 8 inches cut and we LOVE it! It's so cute and it's sooo much easier to comb her hair!

-Katie is resting on her Great-Grandma Whaley's baby blanket. I'd tell you how old the blanket was, but that'd mean you would know how old my Grandma is...

- Aren't Abby's eyes beautiful!?!

-Abby and Mckenzie played lot's and lot's with their cousins in Idaho! They surprisingly have girl cousins their own age! Dan has like17 nephews and 4 nieces!

-While in Colorado we were able to see the majority of Jessica's family. Here's her Grandma and us:

-Idaho was a lot of fun! We went snowboarding at Kelly Canyon (don't recommend going just 2 months after having a c-section) and spent time with Max (Jessica's brother who's going to BYU-I) and Dan's family. It was a wonderful oprotunity to go to Idaho at the time we did because 2 of Dan's brothers, Jonathan and James, were getting ready to leave for their missions and we were able to see them one last time. Oh, and we met their girlfriends too!

This is Jonathan, his super sweet girlfriend, Mary, and Katie. I love this picture!

-While in Idaho, we were able to get a family photo of all his family. This includes his parents, 7 brothers, 1 sister, 5 daughters-in-law, 1 son-in-law, 17 (I think) grandsons and 7 granddaughters! There are more pictures, ones that you can see everyone, but I got this one off of facebook so it's not the greatest. If I can find my disc with all the pictures from that day, I'll upload some more, but this'll have to do for now.

March:

-We have a roller! Katie is rolling and rolling and rolling!

-Jessica starts a new incentive program for the girls using:

-Speaking of Shrute Bucks, here's a conversation I had with Abby:

Abby: Mom, my money (Shrute Bucks) didn't walk away.

Jessica: Ummm, ok.

Abby: It was in my purse when I woke up. My money doesn't have legs, so it couldn't get up and walk away.

Jessica: ok???

-Jessica went to Washington to do a wedding photo shoot for her old roommate, Rachel. Although super nervous, the pictures turned out great! It was awesome to see Rachel and be there at her wedding!

- Jessica's mom flew up to Washington the same time, so her and Katie were able to spend a day or so with her momma and you can't go to Seattle without going to the Russian bakery in Pike's Place Market! YUMMMM!

-We found a random cd from our wedding day. We have no idea where it came from or who took the pictures, but it was fun to see. You want to know what's funny? I can't find the cd! I'll have to search for them again and then update this post later.

-Dan is STILL the YM President and having lot's of fun. They went snowboarding and Dan learned first-hand that the snow out west is A LOT better! If I remember correctly, they went on a campout, too.

-Mckenzie throws a HUGE fit and screams "THIS IS THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE!" Drama, Drama, Drama!

-Bree (Jessica's sister) visited during her Spring Break. It's always fun to have her come out. The girls LOVE Aunt Bree. We play tons of games, eat lot's of yummy food (I tend to not buy yummy treats unless we have company, so the girls like that) and I had a babysitter. Dan and I even were able to go to the North End of Boston (the italian district) and have a DELICIOUS dinner and then canolli's at Mike's Pastry! YUMMMMM!

-Dan was sick one day and worked from home. The girls were SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!! Dan asked, "Is this a normal day for you?" HA! I wish!

April:

-There's still snow on the ground, but at least we can see some of the ground now and the Bravada isn't burried in 4 ft. + of snow. We spend A LOT of time indoors this winter.

-Katie tries oatmeal for the first time and LOVES it! She's growing up way too fast!

-Jessica had a migraine that lasted a couple of days. Abby came up and cuddled Jessica and asked, "is your headache gone from your forehead mommy?" She really is a very nurturing 3 year old!

-Easter was low-key and it was nice to teach the girls about why Easter is important and reflect on our Savior's life, purpose and His Atoning Sacrifice for each of us.

-Growing up, the Easter Bunny (aka Jessica's mom) would make a trail with candy from my bedroom to the living room. The girls love this tradition.

-Dan's work gave him free tickets to go see Disney's "African Cats" and the girls loved getting their faces painted. The movie was really good and I highly recommend it.

-This is an email I sent to Dan: "Well, Abby has officially decided to not be stubborn (well, for the time being) and FINALLY let me know that she in fact CAN read the letters in the alphabet. I knew she could read some of them, but I've never been able to get her to tell me all of them. Today, she did! HOORAY! Now she thinks she can read anything you give her. stubborn little girl."

This was Dan's reply: "I love the beginning and ending statements. 'well, Abby has officially decided to not be stubborn... stubborn little girl".

-Mckenzie thinks the vacuum needs pj's too.

-Jessica woke up to watch the Royal Wedding!

- Let the girls jump on my bed and I officially became the Coolest Mom in the World!

-We hiked in the White Mountains of New Hampshire! The girls loved it... until we got lost.

see Mckenzie's walking stick in her hand? she thought it was the coolest thing ever! I know, Abby has BEAUTIFUL blue eyes!

Abby and Mckenzie were NOT happy with each other at this moment.

May:

-Dan told Mckenzie to do something and Mckenzie replied, "I'm a little preoccupied, Dad". REALLY??? REALLY????

-Katie starts crawling! Oh, and decides that baby wipes taste yummy.

-Mother's Day! We talked with Jessica's brother, Spencer, on the phone. He's serving a mission for our church in Long Beach, California. It was awesome to talk to him! Less than a year to go and he'll be home!

The girls and Dan gave me charms for my Pandora, Dan made me a yummy breakfast AND a DELICIOUS dinner AND and AMAZING carrot cake (of which I ate too much of), AND he cleaned up the dinning room and kitchen AND took out the trash! When I'd ask him what I could do, his response was always "just go relax". It was nice to relax and spend time with the girls without worrying about cleaning an preparing meals. Thank you, Dan, Mckenzie, Abby and Katie! I am truly blessed with a wonderful family!

-The girls are all sick and I'm amazed at how quiet it is!

-Jessica decides to speak only Russian to Katie. It's not the easiest thing to do, but it'll be so worth it! Just need to make sure a Russian dictionary is always handy.

-Jessica caught a big, mean looking rat. When it looked at her, you could tell it wanted to attack! So, Jessica caught it (with a frying pan) and somehow managed to put it in a ziplock bag. She poked holes in the bag so it could breath. After a little while, the rat tried running around (in the bag) and bumping into things. Jessica picked up the bag and the rat threw up ALL OVER the inside it and the throw up started to leak through the holes. Gross, I know! Good thing it was only a dream, right?

-The girls have a new nickname: GREMLINS. Fitting, don't you think? Oh how I love those little Gremlins.

-Do you know what "Cantiloggs" is? According to Mckenzie, it's "Cantiloggs" NOT "Kellogs".

-Bree comes for her annual Summer trip! Here are some pictures of a mini-photo shoot with Bree.

-Memorial Day was spent putt-putt golfing (or as Dan would call it "miniature golf) and then a bbq and swim at a friends house. It was a GORGEOUS day and we are ready for summer!

June:

- Mckenzie turns 5!!! We went swimming (of course), ate at Red Robin, opened presents and ate cake! I always let the Birthday person choose what kind of cake they want. This year, Mckenzie had me make a 5 LAYER carrot cake! It had to be "5" layers because she was turning 5. I'm just glad she wasn't turning 10; that would be a VERY big cake! It was really rich and really good!

- Jessica's brother, Lane came to visit! During the school year, Lane is always in some kind of sport, so he isn't able to come. It was great having him here! The girls absolutely LOVE Uncle Lane! We picked strawberries, bumper boats, ate YUMMY ice cream at Kimball Farms and went to the beach for the first time this year and swimming!

We also did a photo shoot with Lane while he was here. Here are some pictures from that.

-Dan bought a camera lens from the Ukraine and it's REALLY heavy!

-And of course, having the most beautiful daughters in the world, I can't help but take pictures of them. Here's just of few:

-Katie is learning to cruise the couches!

- Had an AWESOME trip with just Dan and Katie to Portland/Seattle. We went to Snoqualmie Falls, Pikes Place Market, ate Russian food, did a photo shoot for an awesome family, spent time with my old roommate Rachel, ate at Marzano's (A DELICIOUS italian restaraunt), went swimming, had Jamba Juice (don't ask how many times), went to Olympic National Park (including Forks, WA if you're a fan of Twilight... I'm not, but it was funny to see the tourists), drove down the coast of Washington and part of Oregon, went to Canon Beach and had an all-around WONDERFUL time with Dan and Katie!

-Russian Food at Pike's Place Market-

-Snoqualmie Falls-

-You can see more pictures of this photo shoot when I FINALLY get my website up and going. I'll post a link to it when it's all up and running, but for now, this will have to do. My internet is being way too slow.-

-Olympic National Park-

-Canon Beach-

-Dan went on a hike with the Young Men/Venture Crew into the White Mountains. He had a lot of fun and said it was beautiful up there. (not sure where Dan put these pictures, but I'll try and find them and post a couple)

-One day in June: Through 2 rooms, Mckenzie yelled "ABBY!!!!!!???!!!" Abby replied, "WHAT!?!" Mckenzie yelled back, "I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!" Abby yelled back, "I LOVE YOU, TOO!!!" The conversation then ended. Why can't they always yell things like this?

-During kindergarten screening for Mckenzie, Abby BAWLED her eyes out and kept saying over and over, "MCKENZIE'S NEVER EVER EVER NEVER COMING BACK!!!" It's good to know Abby loves her big sister and wants to keep her.

July:

-We went to Colorado and Idaho in July.

-We left Boston and arrived in Colorado around 12am and from there drove through the night to Idaho. It wasn't the easiest, but we managed. It was great to spend time with Dan's family.

-His Grandma Blaylock had her 90th birthday party. She wasn't expecting us to come, so when we showed up to the party, she was really confused. It was nice to spend some time with her. We hadn't seen her since 2008!

-We also went to the Idaho Falls firework show with Dan's brother, Jacob and his family, Toni, David, Stanley, Tori and Walker. We had a great view of the fireworks and the IF temple. Afterwards, instead of sitting in traffic, we went to their hotel room and made ice cream sundaes.

-We loved spending time with Dan's parents, siblings, grandparents and the girls LOVED playing with their cousins! The girls also LOVED Grandpa Wood's garden and "helped" whenever and however they could! They insisted on helping Grandma Wood get the eggs from the chicken coop. They thought it was so cool that they could eat the eggs, too! We enjoyed shaved ice (oh how I miss that stuff) and Johnny Carino's and to the hospital where Mckenzie was born and to Rexburg Rapids; a new and very cool waterpark in Rexburg. We were even able to do a session at the Idaho Falls temple which was so nice!

-The day before Jessica's birthday, we drove back to Colorado and had lot's of fun there, too!

-Jessica got her hair done (one of her favorite things to do) and for dinner we all went to Magianno's. This is when we met Emily, Max's girlfriend. She's super cute and super sweet!

Sorry, no pictures of that day. oops.

- Going to the rec. center is something we usually do while in Colorado. There's a fun indoor swim park that the girls love. The girls love playing water games with Dan!

- Max convinced us to go pond jumping! I was terrified. My brothers have been working on a jump for quite a while now and it's a pretty high jump. You start way up on the hill, ride a bike down it (it's steep), oh did I mention the brakes don't work too well, go up and over the ramp and into the pond. Can I just say, IT IS SOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!! Granted, I did something to my ankle and could hardly walk that night and it STILL hurts, but it was WORTH IT! Max is pretty fearless (he doesn't have very many responsibilities right now in his life), so he decided to be more adventurous than I would/could be.

MAX:

DAN:

JESSICA:

-Mckenzie thought it was pretty cool, but she opted for a canoe ride with Daddy.

-Mckenzie and Abby loved going for motorcycle rides with Max. Max doesn't seem to have a concept of speed limits, but he was so good and careful with the girls. He even made sure that they wore the right things that would protect them enough.

-Since my family was in charge of TREK (if you don't know what trek is, it's for the youth of our church. they reinact the pioneer crossing of the plains. they go up to wyoming in the same places that the pioneers went. I haven't done it, but I hear it's really neat!) for their stake and it was 2 weeks after we visited. It's a HUGE undertaking. They've been preparing for it for 1 1/2 years! So, you can imagine how busy they were putting it together. So, it wasn't the best timing for us to visit, but it was still nice to see and be with everyone and even help out some.

-About a year after Dan and I were married, my mom had these boxes full of bananas that although they had been frozen, were going bad. So, we decided to have a banana war and we took the 4-wheelers and the Excursion out and drove around throwing bananas at each other. Years later, we were still finding banana stuck in the inside of the Excursion. Well, we had SO much, we decided to do it again. We bought bananas, tomatoes, plums, apricots and I think something else, but I can't remember. Anyway, we coerced Emily (Max's girlfriend) to join us. She didn't want to, but in the end, she had a blast! We all did. It's one of our favorite family things to do! The 4-wheelers were working, so we used a truck and the Buick. HA! SO GROSS! SO FUN!!!

-Dan had to work in Ft. Collins some of the time. He doesn't mind going too much because he gets to eat at all the places Jessica refuses to try. This time he tried Etheopian food. Jessica was able to visit one of her best friends growing up, Lisa. Jessica loved eating REAL mexican food. That's something we miss as we live in an area that does NOT have mexican food. Sorry, but it's not. Now, italian food, we have INCREDIBLE italian food out here!

-I stayed one night in Ft. Collins with Dan so he wouldn't have to rent a car when he finished work. While I was gone, Mckenzie got stung by a bee (bee's are SOOO attracted to her). They wanted to keep it to show me when I got back. They insisted on saying a prayer with my mom for the BEE. Kind of sweet. Kind of silly. Kind of weird. :D

- Last, but NOT least, we went to see the last Harry Potter movie! It was awesome and I can't wait to see it again! It actually makes me a little sad knowing that it's all over.

-There, I'm caught up... well, at least I'm caught up through the middle of July. Thank you to all my devoted readers out there (what 2 people???)