My BIG kids...

The other day all of the kids came out with pillows in their pajamas and then they'd run into one another and bounce off of each other. It was really funny. They had a blast! Here they are in their bigness... (Kaiya had taken hers out already) Katelin's proportions crack me up! Oh, and that's a stuffed animal in Kaleb's mouth! I couldn't not figure that out for a minute. Hahaha!

Photo class

We went to Salt Lake over the weekend so I could attend a photography class I had signed up for. I loved it!!! We got to take pictures of a mom and her two cute little girls during the hands on portion of the class. We had so much fun with these little girls. They were so cute! I put pics of them on my Photo Blog if you want to see.

While I was at my class Burke took the kids to a kids art museum with his parents. They had so much fun, Kaleb wants to go again. We must go so I can see what all the fun is about! On Friday Cyndy, Burke, Chalei and the girls went to see Rango and Kaleb, Quentin and I saw Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2. Oh boy, it was fun. The boys just cracked up and then Kaleb would lean over and tell me what was going to happen next because he's read all of the books. Or he'd say "I remember this part" each time something happened he remembered reading. I loved it! It was really a fun day.

Today I'm thankful for...

... PLAY DOUGH!!!! I watch little Peter in the mornings. He and Katelin were having one of "those" days today acting like true siblings and so I broke out the play-dough and all of the toys that go with it...silence/fun/happiness!

And I'm SO, so, SOOOOO thankful for my good kids. Kaleb's face cracks me up in this picture. I took this on Sunday just before church.

Today is parent teacher conference day and so earlier in the week their teachers sent home their progress reports. Each time I open them I just feel so happy. They just try so hard and do so good. In areas where there was struggle for Kaleb, there is improvement. GREAT improvement. If he wants to do something good, he puts his mind to it and improves, greatly. Kaiya just loves learning and does so well in all she does. As I read their citizenship grades I have to be honest - I got emotional to see all of the H's time and time again. I'm so thankful that they listen, show respect, do their work, are kind to others, etc, etc. I thought I needed to take them for an ice-cream cone after school today to show them that we notice all the good they do and really appreciate them. After I picked them up I started telling them this in the van and got all emotional again as I told them thank you. Of course they thought I was strange, but I don't care, I had to tell them. It was fun to take them to do something just for them to say thanks. I LOVE my kids!

Hair fun with the YW

My AwEsOmE sister, Tiffany came last Thursday to do our hair do activity. It was so much fun. We all laughed so hard, it was too much fun.

Here are the girls awesome BEFORE pictures: (they had a lot of fun being creative and messing up their hair a ton - so funny!)

And here are the AFTER pics: (Tiff did up do's and also showed them how to do different ways to curl you hair also. It was really great. They all looked adorable and loved getting their hair done.
Here's Tiff doing hair, and some girls trying out the techniques and also helped in messing up hair for before pictures. Oh, and the water bottle WAS mine! Dallice had an accident with the curling iron and burned her thumb, so she grabbed the bottle and soaked her thumb in it - gross! I was finished after that.
Some had to do some model shots afterwards. Dallice got my camera and took a ton of crazy pics also - Danielle and I tried out the modeling, but failed. Mostly me - awesome open-mouth shot - I'm good. But I have to say I've got the fishy face down - if anyone needs a fishy face model - I'm the one!
And the good-bye to Jewel. Her family moved to Missouri last Friday, so it was our last activity with her. We are sure going to miss her giggly self!
Wow, thanks for coming Tiffany, we LOVED it!!!!!

Visit from Tiffany and kids

We were planning an activity to teach the girls how to do fun do's for prom or just everyday also. So of course I wanted Tiffany to come and do it, but I knew it was a long way to come for that. But I decided to ask anyway - she could just say no right?! Well - she said yes! I was so excited to have her come anyway, it had been a couple years since she'd been here so she was due for a visit. They came on Thursday, St. Patrick's day - so we did a little hunt for them. Burke made up clues for them to go from place to place to find the treasure the leprechauns left for them. He rang the doorbell and ran. They went to the door and found the first clue and off they went. Reagan was so funny and asked questions about the leprechauns the whole time. The best was when she asked how big they were and Tiff told her they were really tiny - Reagan asked how they could ring the doorbell then!?!??? Smartie.

All the kids ran to get the next clue, but Oakley was intent with playing on the steps. Love her little mouth - she's so much fun!
It was fun watching them find and read the clues. It was fun. At the end there was some candy hidden in a box for them. Mmmmm.

The girls hung out on the couch together and watched a movie while Tiffany and I ran off to YW. (we had so much fun! That's a whole post in itself - that will come next) I loved seeing all of them play together and just love each other. Cousins are so much fun! Burke watched all of the kids while we were gone. What a guy!

Dads and donuts was Friday morning and the kids school. We told the kids they could stay home since they had cousins over, but Kaiya still wanted to go for the donut part with Burke, Kaleb didn't care. So Burke took the girls and then brought them back afterwards. They were glad they went.
Little Oakley loved this little Hannah Montana guitar of Kaiya's. She would push the button and then start rocking out to the music instantly, shaking her head back and forth. Once she did it so hard she fell back on the couch. It was so funny. I was just cracking up watching her.

Tiffany brought her scissors so the girls could have a hair cut. It's been a while! Kaiya had elastics holding her bangs back, so that's why they're crazy looking - here is her long hair before she got it cut:

I forgot to take one right after because she was so excited to go see it in the mirror. She hopped down and ran. But she is my daughter so I'm sure there will be more pictures posted on here of her soon. Here is cute Tiff cutting away. Oh, I had some friends over last month and we made headbands - I made that one Tiff is wearing. It looks much cuter on her. She can just pull stuff off like that. So cute!
And Katelin's turn. She wanted hers just like Kaiya's - even though Burke told her to say she only wanted a centimeter cut off - she still said - "like Kaiya's" cutie.

Before: (I can't believe how long her hair was! - eek!)
during...
after: she's got some curl. SO cute!!!
Before Tiff and her kiddos took off we went to the park and played. They got some energy out so they could sleep on the way home. Nice!
THANKS for coming!!!! We loved it!

Goodbye's are no fun

My friend Darcy lived here in Green River for about 8 months (?) and now her cute little family moved away closer to family where they built their first home! I need to see this house, I've heard so much about it. On Wednesday my friend Annie called me while she was out walking and when she got to the park told me that Darcy was there and that they were leaving that day. I remembered I hadn't said goodbye and rushed over with Katelin. Luckily we caught her to get some pics before she left. She is such a sweet lady, someone who is just real and kind. She was also my visiting teaching comp, I'm going to miss that lady!!! I loved getting to know her.

Darcy and Annie - best buddies. :)

Darcy and - well you know who that is - ME! (and my cute necklace my mom gave me - mhm - thanks mom)
Darcy's little guy Colton - he is seriously the cutest little boy. We all exercise together in the morning, it's going to be weird showing up and they're not there. :(

Omi visit

My mom came and stayed with the kids while Burke and I went to Grand Junction last weekend. THANKS MOM!!! The kids had so much fun as usual. The went on many walks, watched many movies and colored and got many prizes and treats...WHEW!!!

Since we were gone, I didn't get any pictures of their fun, BUT here they are on our drive across the street to the train station or train stop I should say, where we dropped her off and said good-bye. Love you and thanks again! :)

Burke and Jenni

Our names have always just gone together like peanut butter and jelly - it's Burke and Jenni! We got married on March 9th, 10 years ago! So much fun!! Burke said it's been a breeze, just so easy. I busted out a laugh and he looked at me and I said - oh sorry. He laughed too and said he was kidding, whew! As we see it as a whole it does seem that way though. It's in the moments of those hard times you don't see it that way, but you press through and love and it breezes by.

The other day Burke called me into our room. He told me to look at how cool his hands glowed with the sun hitting them. We decided we needed a picture of it. Awww, how cute. I really think it looks cool too. I hope we can always continue to find cool little things in life to share with each other.

My mom came and watched the kids for us while we went to Grand Junction for Friday and Saturday. We stopped on our way to take some pictures. We had to throw in some shadow pics also. We made a heart! Do you see it?!

At the hotel we tried to take some pics. I had it on the timer - it was set for 2 sec. I didn't know how to change it, so I tried to run, but didn't make it, Burke looks cute there waiting though - hahahaha:
We decided to just do the old hold it ourselves and take the picture. Worked just fine.
We had fun - saw some movies, went shopping, worked out at the exercise room - twice, went swimming and just had fun! Thanks for coming mom so we could go!

My friend Taffee requested wedding pics of us back in the day, so here you go! :) 10 years ago, the younger, skinnier us:

March 9, 2001 Bountiful Temple

Progress!

Since Burke's dad was here over the weekend he took advantage of that and put him to work building shelves for our shed out back. They are WONDERFUL! I got everything put back in there and we can actually find things now. It is so great. Here they are getting dirty to get the job done right.
And they are sturdy! Not that Katelin weighs anything, but still!

After the work was done, there was jumping and playing. Grandpa even got on and Katelin jumped for him since he was too tired. What a nice girl.

Oh, and some more modeling of the shelves, by Kaleb.
Success!
Sunday morning we were all ready with time to spare! So we sat and chatted. It was really nice. We love having company. Thanks for the visit Grandma and Grandpa Simmons!!!

Surprise calling

Last week Burke and I were asked to meet with the Stake President in Moab. We were trying to figure out what it was, of course. We were clueless as to what was waiting for us. I came to the conclusion, for some odd reason, that it was about Trek. Why the Stake President would need to talk to us about this was beyond me, but that had to be it. Burke thought it had to be for me - hehehehe - well he was wrong!

Meet our new High Councilman, Brother Burke Simmons:)

His dad and mom were able to come down this weekend so they could be here for church today. After he was sustained in sacrament meeting his dad was able to ordain him to be a High Priest. It was really special. I'm grateful he was able to come and do that.

I just love this guy. It was fun to sit by him in church today and feel nervous/scared/excited/etc. with him. When people ask us questions about his new call, we are pretty clueless. This is all new to us and we'll just learn as we go. I'm grateful for the opportunity of growth it will bring to our family.

We had the kids come in the room with us when he was ordained and also set apart. They were so quiet and good about it all. In Kaleb's prayer tonight he thanked Heavenly Father for dad's new calling. He must have felt the importance of it all in that room. What a sweet boy. I'm thankful for our sweet family.

Projects

Burke built me a shelf in my craft closet. Now I can get to things MUCH easier. :) I'm a happy lady.

I've also wanted shelves in the middle of the girls closet. He surprised me with doing these the same day also! I LOVE them AND HIM!
We got this little side table from Burke's Grandpa. I wanted to paint it to update the little thing. I remembered I wanted to take a before picture after I had almost painted the whole thing! So here it is after I had started, but you can still see the old wood color with the old handle on it.
And after:
I used one of my roller stamps to paint on the edge. Then I created and cut out the wording with my Cricut. I love how it turned out.
Here it is in it's new little cozy corner. I love the color it adds to the room. :)