The Dance Tech Benefit

Tonight was the Dance Tech Benefit. It was at Hillcrest again this year. I really like it that they have an auditorium Both Cree and T.j. danced and i just thought i would show you how cute they are up there on the stage.

Creedance did a really good job. She is learing to follow so well

T.j. also did fairly good most of his class didn't move. One little boy was all that did the whole class. But everyone loved him!!!

Picture Tag

So here is a picture of Redfish in 2002. It is my Brothers Sam and Nate, my husband, and my uncle Devin. aren't they studly. I think you can see me in the back. I'm starting to look very pregnant with Toph.

If you want to be tagged. go to your pictures and post a picture from your fourth folder the fourth picture!!!

First Performance of the Year

So tonight is the Festival of Trees for all of us at Dance Tech. Creedance is very exicted to be performing again she has been asking to put on her costume all day long!!! T.j. is pretty excited just because Creedance is, it will be his first time ever performing. I hope he does well, but if he doesn't i'm sure it will be just as entertaining. I will post pictures of the performance if i can get them but i'm not sure they would look very good from the side slash back since that is were i will be. Tyler may make it but he has been to Jackson again so who knows. Toph is a little sad that he can't come to the performance but i'm not sure how to take care of all three of them and help with all my classes it will probably be hard enough with the two kids. Well i Just thought i'd show before pic's of the kids.

We have GRASS!!!!!!!

I didn't think it was going to happen but it did. This last weekend we decided just to go for it and laid grass. I have to say that this is not a very easy task but is well worth it in the end. Now we just hope that it takes!!!!!!

The kids absolutely love it. WE go outside everyday and play on the toy and they actually come back in clean!!!! I really think i can get used to the fact that we won't have mud and dirt everywhere all the time!!!

Crazy kids

So i have decided that my kids love to crazy things. A couple of weeks ago while i was at wal-mart i saw some cute raincoats that were only a dollar. And since you never know what the weather is going to be like in Idaho i though why not!! Well the kids picked the sunniest day last week to get their rainboots and raincoats on!!!!

Today they decided after being over at a friends house that they wanted to watch Christmas movies! Not being one to fight i went downstairs and dug through the boxes until i found the one that held all of our christmas stuff sure enough all the christmas movies were in there. So i popped one in for the kids. The next thing i know they want to color!! And not just anything they want to color Halloween pictures. So they are downstairs right now coloring skeletons, bats, and spooky ghosts and watching rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

I'm just sticking with being happy because they are!!!!!!

Reading

So tonight Tyler had a friend that he went to college with call and ask if we would like to go to dinner. And if you know me at all, you know i love to go out to eat so i told him that would be great!!!!!!! So i called my mom and she said she babysit, Yeah again!!!!!!! So we packed up the kids and took them over. I'm not sure Tyler was to excited because we were going to the Olive Garden and we had just been there last Saturday but he must love me because we went again. It was good but not the best going out experience. We paid waaaaaaaay to much for a slice of pie!
Anyway on with the reading story. My kids love the comics. Every sunday when we go over to either of the grandparents they beg to be read the comics. And on occasion(So almost every time) The grandparents cave and read them to them. We got a picture of this a couple of months ago when my dad was reading the paper to them.




So, right now Toph is on a kick to get ten books read to him so that he can get a personal pizza from Pizza Hut. He has been begging everyone to read to him. Every time i turn around he has a book in hand. Some of the time i stop and read others i really just can't. So when we were picking up the kids he was begging everyone to read to him. I was talking to my mom and attempting to ignore him when my dad got home. And of course Toph got grandpa to say yes. This is what it ended up looking like as Grandpa Waddoups read to them.

Aren't they all just so cute!!!! Sometimes it is so much fun to see your parents with your kids. I think that Creedance got the best seat in the house!

Snow in October

So Yesterday things were getting pretty cold around here so we decided we better get our garden all pulled up before the ground got to frozen. So me and Tyler were out pulling corn stalks and trying to get things moved around and ready for this winter we were only out there an hour before it started to snow. It snowed on and off most of yesterday!!!!! When we woke up this morning this is what it looked like!!!

Neighbors back yard

our backyard

our front porch

So I got snow for my birthday this year!!!!! That hsan't happened since I was little. Anyway, my birthday was great on Friday night we had some friends over for dinner. Tyler got a cake and then gave me my presents. I got a new Wii and Wii fit. I'm pretty excited because we have really enjoyed playing with my little brothers. Then yesterday we got to go out for a date. My husband must really love me because he took me to see Mama Mia (which i have wanted to see for a while but i never have gotten time), then he took me to dinner at Olive Garden which he doesn't really like since the last time we went there he chipped his tooth and was not impressed. Ahhhh to be pampered every once in a while.

Well i better go help Toph get ready to play in the snow and then get all of us into our church clothes.

Crazy weeks

So i'm not very good at blogging frequently and i can't even say i will try harder because sometimes it just isn't a high enough priority. But i will when i can!!!!

Every once in a while we should all look up. (Especially when there are fish on the ceiling)

These last couple of weeks have been crazy!!! We planned a trip down to Utah two weeks ago. T.j. had appt.'s with his doctors there and we thought it would be a good family time since Tyler has been gone so often lately. We wanted to leave here wednesday night and get there before to late and try to make it a long weekend. That didn't last very long because Tyler wanted to be home Saturday to work on the sprinklers( which i have to say are moooovvvvving so slooooooooooooowwww!) So Wednesday morning i wake up not feeling so hot. I'm nauseaus all day and trying to help my mother-in-law with the apple pie filling she is helping me make. By about 2 o'clock i start to feel a little bit better so me and the kids get everything pulled together for the trip.
Tyler got off work a little early so we were set to go at 4. We made it less than a mile on the freeway when the van will no longer speed up. So we pull off and head back to our mechanic. We can't just bail on the whole trip because t.j. has to be there by 10 the next morning they really frown on missing your appt's and it could take forever to get another one. So we call Tyler's parents and they said we could borrow their car. So by five o'clock we are headed back to the freeway and the kids are screaming that they are hungry, so we make a pit stop for dinner.
We did finally make it to Utah and the hotel. We all went to bed with out to much screaming. The next morning we swam in the pool and then headed to the dr. appt. Which went alright but i always feel frustrated when we go. They didn't really know why he was limping they tried to fix his prosthetic and it is a little better but the doctor wasn't worried about the way his bones are kind of turning to the side. And told us the only thing he could think of to fix the limping would be to file off a section of his bone that kind of sticks out we will only go with that option as a last resort!!!!

Going for x-rays!

Playing ball with dad.

Trying to clown around.

By now the mechanic has called us and told us the transmission on our van is dead!!!! Yeah just what we need right after buying our house. So then we are faced with the decision to fix it or get rid of it and truthfully i just wanted to have a nice trip and not think about it. We did have a good time on the trip. We went down to provo and visited my sister and brothers.
But the stress kicked in on the way home. The only car we have that works is an old VW bus, and me and it really don't get along very well. I have driven stick before and have never had a problem but me and this car do not see eye to eye, so there is no way i am driving it until we decide what to do. My dad must love me alot though because he is letting me drive his truck around until we have something figured out. He even let us drive it up to his cabin last weekend to watch generel confrence with him and the family.

Playing at the park in Provo.

My kids had a great time up there. They love all the attention the Aunts and Uncles give them and just want to get more every time they see them. They got to play at the pool while the men went to the priesthood session. And loved getting rides on the motor bikes and the four wheeler.
We have finally made a decision to buy a new van. But i'm still stressing out way to much. I've been doing preschool here and had book club here last night. Tonight i was a silent person in a play. And I have been trying madly to help with all the canning. I hate to have my mother-in-law do all the hard work when i get all the benefit. I even burned myself trying to make jelly. I hope it taste good anyway.

Dance starts again!

Today was our first day back to dance. We are in the new studio, and it is very, very nice!! It has three different dance rooms and is alot bigger than we were in before. Creedance is in the J/B/T 1 class. She is so stinking cute. I am sorry i am still trying to figure out how to turn the pictures i think there is something wrong with me i keep trying to turn them and they still come sideways. Yes and creedance started preschool and is so excited that she keeps asking me how to write things.

Any way i teach ( o.k. so i just assist i'm still not up to the task of teaching my own classes yet sometimes i just get to overwhelmed and need not so much stress) four classes. So far it has been great only 2 criers in the Toddler class which is amazing we have had classes were all of the kids cry through the whole first time. This year is a little bit crazier with getting the kids places since toph is at school in the morning and then i have to pick him up to take him to my mother-in-laws. By the way is so great to watch the kids when i am teaching.

Kindergarten

Yah! We all survived Topher's first day of kindergarten!!!! The morning started out early. I had told Toph that he could shower and dress when he woke up and then to come and get me to make his breakfast. I didn't know that he would wake up at 6 o'clock. All was well though. He had his favorite breakfast(one-eyed sailors) got his teeth brushed and still had plenty of time to make his bed, get pictures taken, and to become nervous!!! I think he is trying to get back into the house in this picture. He ended up doing just fine though!

He got a little scared when he didn't recognize anyone but when we found his teacher and he saw the other kids waiting he went over and got in line. He walked right into the school without looking back.

He got to lots of fun things and the other kids were excited when he got home. I offered to take him out to lunch to celebrate. Somewhere like burger king or artic circle. He asked if we could go to Texas Roadhouse because he loves the peanuts there. We didn't go for lunch though because i wasn't about to take all 3 kids into a nice restaurant by myself so maybe dad will be able to go with us tonight. What a spoiled kid. Oh yah he is very proud of his kung fu backpack.

Summer

Well i can't believe how long it has been since i have written. We have gotten t.j. a new leg, been to redfish, had all my brothers and sisters here at seperate times. It so nice to see family. We have done lots of swimming. And swimming lessons for the older kids. Oh and my brother Nathan and his wife had a little baby boy, his name is Boston Jay Waddoups and he is adorable and i am just now realizing that while they were here i didn't get any pictures of him.

in front of the lodge

Redfish was wonderful. We had the greatest time. We didn't get to stay at our regular campsite, but the only real downside to that was there was no flushing toilets. We played on the beach all day, we skied and tubed to our hearts content. Christopher and Creedance even both kneeboarded. T.j. thought he wanted to try to but he didn't like the cold water very much and i wasn't sure he could hold on!!!

Christopher
Creedance

The kids loved going to the store and getting treats and trying to make sure they all got something good while they were there with some of the toys that they bought they decided to make a band and decided my brother jake would be the band conductor. I have to say it was really cute watching them play with their cousins. I threw in a couple more pics of the vacation.

The drive up was long.

T.j. really seemed to enjoy just being there And here are my crazy brothers cliff jumping

This week Topher starts kindergarten and Next week Cree and t.j. get to start dance lessons. So i guess we are coming to the end of our fun summer!!!

The House

Well life has been busy lately. We are having a great time being in the new house. The kids seem happy most of the time and even though Tyler is still doing more than he can handle it is starting to feel not so hectic. Of course i'm not so sure i should say that since me and t.j. get to go back to Salt Lake tommorow to hopefully get a new prosthetic. His is to tight, he has ripped off the big toe and the strings that hold it on are falling apart. Anyway i thought I would post this family pic we had taken this weekend. I also thought i would send some pic's of everything when we had finished but hadn't moved in yet!!

The Kitchen



Living room

Master bathroom

boys room

creedance's room

Laundry room.

I can't find the pictures of the master bedroom or the basement. So when i figure out where they went maybe i will post them.

We are moved!!!!

So we didn't get to move over the weekend but we did get to move in on Monday!!! It has made it a fairly crazy busy week. I don't seem to be able to get enough done in a day, and it seems that i just keep finding more and more boxes, and more and more things that have to be done. but i'm so excited about being here that it all seems worth it. I'm not sure Tyler agrees I think he is still stressed out to no end. Well i got a ton to do, just wanted to let you know that we are in!!!!!!

So this weekend is suppose to the weekend to move hey i have been saying this for forever and i'm not even sure i believe myself anymore. Tyler finished the bathroom and has finished most of the little things in the house i'm suppose to finish touch up paint and clean up today. But the problem is we still have no cement, and if you don't have steps into your home they will not let you have your certificate of occupation. Which of course you need to move in!!!! We have been waiting for weeks for the cement people to come. They only ever show up on days that is poring and tell us there is nothing they can do. But of course on the nice sunny days they are no where to be found they always wait a couple more days again until it rains and show up again and pretend it is our fault that they can't lay the cement. Anyway enough of being mad at the cement men.
Topher had his first t-ball game yesterday. Of course it was beyond hilarous because of all the little kids out there that don't know how to play not to mention don't have enough of an attention span to pay attention so they start playing in the outfield. Plus our coach didn't show up instead he sent his mother who acted like the kids were ten ( they are 5-7) and was yelling and telling us all our kids need to go to the batting cages. I actually thought we did great since the majority of the team and only played t-ball at the previous 2 practices. Anyway topher loved it and is very excited to get to play more.
Creeedance is looking forward to getting to do a cheer camp next weekend in Rigby. This of course is going to cause problems if we end up not moving this weekend and we have to do it next weekend. Anyway they go to camp for 4 hours on friday. Then there is a parents performance. The next day they get to be in a parade. Cree is excited but i'm not sure understands what a parade is!!!
T.j. continues to be more and more wild!!!! Every time i turn around he is terrorizing something or someone. He has figured out how to open doors and things just tend to get more and more crazy. But we love him and he sure seems happy most of the time now.

Summer begins

It is almost here!!! We should hopefully be moving in next weekend. I am going to just stick with hopefully still for now. Tyler should be finishing up the bathroom and trim this weekend. And the plumber and electrician should be there to finish up next week. We may not have a driveway right away but hopefully it isn't to far out. I am very excited to move can you tell!!!!

The big dance recital was last week. It was fun but also overwhelming, there is always so much to do and not enough time to do it. My good friend Jessica got married on saturday. Creedance was one of the flower girls and she was really cute!!!! Then me and tyler's anniversary was on sunday. We got to spend a little time together which is always nice since it has been so hard to come by lately. Overall last week was great.

So far this week we have had the last dance parties were the kids get trophies and prizes. Creedance and Topher loved it!!! Christopher had his last day of preschool yesterday and was kind of sad about it. He wanted me to call his teacher after we got home and see if he could come see her again. Hopefully starting t-ball tonight will get his mind off of that!!! It will have to stop raining though for the little guy to be able to play. Then tomorrow my father-in-law is taking me and T.j. down to Shriner's. His leg has been to short for awhile now and we need to get that fixed.

So life stays busy as always, and hopefully it will stay happy!!!!!@!

Life goes on

Wow I can't believe how long it has been since i have written. We have been keeping very busy around here and it doesn't seem like i get a whole lot of time at the computer.
The house is coming along great we have drywall, paint and cabinets. Things are getting close to the end and now it feels like it may never get done. The siding is on but the yard is still the same as before the snow so we have all the outside stuff left to do. Tyler and I have layed the tile floor in the bathroom and our next project is to tile the shower and around the tub.

Topher is still loving preschool. He has really gotten into legos lately, which means i am really getting sick of stepping on legos and finding them everywhere while i am trying to get things packed up. He has also decided that he needs to help me more and had me make him a chore chart that he carries around all day until he gets it done!!!!

Creedance turned 4 in February!!!! She is growing like crazy. We went up to Green Canyon for her birthday. She loved swimming ,playing, presents, and her strawberry shortcake Cake that i made for her.

Copyright 2008 - Tyler Hopkins Photography

T.j. is getting even wilder. He falls down all the time. He has figured out how to get to everything we try to hide from him in the house. So i know to run like crazy if i even hear a tiny squeek of a chair because that means he is getting into something. I'm constantly finding him on the counter with his mouth full of chocolate. We did get rid of the bottle a month and a half ago. I'm so proud of myself!!!! He also loves to shove dvd's into the vcr. He thinks he can watch shows that way and gets really upset when it doesn't work.

Tyler is soooooo busy all of the time. I can't wait to get to spend some more time with him eventually!!! O.k. so we did take a weekend off for his birthday and went down to Utah to get some photography stuff that this guy gave to him. I think he is more excited about the photo stuff then alot of the things on the house.

I've been sick off and on. It hurts so bad to breathe sometimes, that all i can do is lay on the couch and try to relax. I try to help as much at the house as i can but know that sometimes me and the kids just need to be out of the way more than anything. I'm starting to get tired and stressed out , but can't wait for warm weather so we can go outside and play. Can you believe we had snow this morning. Crazy, huh!

All the fun

Christmas turned out great. The kids loved their toys, and haven't broken any of them to much yet!!! We got to spend alot of time with family and Tyler was home for almost a week and a half so we got some much needed family time!!! Our house is moving along well. It is almost completely framed in!! Tyler has been working all day today to get the basement floor defrosted in hopes that we wil be able to lay the floor by the middle of next week.

We have been down to Salt Lake to get T.j. fitted for a new leg. We took Jake's friend Andrew Mack down with us to drop off there so he could head back to New Mexico. The kids loved having him in the car, and hopefully we didn't scare him too much!!! We are hoping to be able to go back some time in the next couple of weeks and get t.j's new foot. He has been growing so much and really needed a new one!

We lost our dog yesterday! Tyler had taken her over to the house while he was working and she ran off. We looked for her all night last night, made posters this morning and were putting them up when we saw her down the street. An extremely nice guy found her last night and kept her with his dog and was walking them around in hopes to find her owner. We are so excited to get her back. We realized how much she means to us and Tyler is definate that he does not want any other dog.