My Joy!

Ryker ~ 2 Years



Tyla ~ 7 Years


MacKenzie ~ 10 Years

Sneak Peak!

I love that I got a sneak peak, but I want to see more!

Family Pics DONE

I am patiently waiting to see our family pictures. I hope they turned out!We had a couple minor wardrobe changes at the last minute. Does anyone else lay their outfits out to coordinate what everyone is going to wear?

Tyla is missing 5 teeth in the very front! She also likes to raise her chin up very high when smiling for the camera!

Spirit Day!

Kenzi was so excited for Mix Match Spirit Day at her school....NO UNIFORMS!!!

Temple Lights

Sunday night we got to meet at my Parents for Cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. Then we headed off to see the Temple lights! It was so pretty and Tyla and Ryker loved the lights and being with their cousins and Nana and Papa! Does it get any better than that?!

Kenzi came down with the flu and was so upset she missed out.



Bailey, Madison, Ryker, Tanner, Josh, and Tyla

Zoo

I love my zoo pass! I love that Ryker is at the perfect age to take at the zoo. He is learning all the names of the animals and their sounds. This kid is so curious and does not miss a thing, even the Cheetah in the very back blended in with the trees!

OH the Family Pictures!!!

I seriously get knots in my stomach when it comes to family pictures. I have my husband who is so against doing them because the kids just stress him out (like they don't for me?) so he is just cranky and like hurry up photographer and get this over with! Then I have Tyla who doesn't want to wear anything but a t shirt and tennis shoes so it turns into a fight before we even get there! Then I have Kenzi who doesn't like whatever I pick out for her and has to argue about it over and over again. Then I have Ryker who is my sweet baby boy and will wear whatever but won't hold still for pictures (he is two) I will it slide for now!

My photographer friend Connie was moving this year due to a job offer her husband got and I had previously won a mini photo session that I planned on using this month but I had to use the beginning of this year instead because of her move. I went back and looked at these pictures to see if I could get away with using for our Christmas card since they were actually taken this year.











After looking at these I think we all look so different. My hair is no longer bleach blonde, the girls hair is way longer and they look older, and Ryker looks so different. He now has short blonde hair and looks so much older! I might sound crazy, but I can't help it!

A family friend photographer of ours was so sweet of squeezing us in for a family photo shoot!

To be continued......

Christmas Time

While Jeff was on his hunt the kids and I put our family Christmas tree up and a few decorations. This year since life is so crazy and the kids have so much after school activity I decided to do something a little easier for our advent calendar. I started collecting kids Christmas books from around the house, yard sales and goodwill. I found some really good ones! I had Kenzi individually wrap 24 books and place in a basket next to our tree. Each night we open one book and I (or Kenzi) read the book to the kids. It is so simple but the kids absolutely love it!


Here is Kenzi wrapping the books! Ryker was trying to help (make a mess!)


after getting frustrated with Ryker getting in her way, Kenzi decided to wrap Ryker up and he just layed there and let her finish wrapping the books.

We have been talking to ryker about getting a "big boy" bed so once we finished decorating the tree Ryker got his pillow pet and layed under the tree telling us that this is his new big boy bed.

The kids opening the first book!

Gobble Gobble

This year for Thanksgiving it was very low key. It was very calm and I like it that way! My Parents went to Vegas for a family reunion and so we went and had lunch at Jeff's parents house with just his parents and his Sister's family. It was very nice and I was happy to help cook this year! After lunch Jeff headed to Globe for his hunt for deer with his friends. I am usually the one to take pictures of everything but I have been slacking big time and didn't even pull the camera out! Shame on me! I hate that!

I did snap this picture from my phone when Tyla got off the bus from school the day before Thanksgiving. She was very proud to say she caught up with the Turkey at her schools Turkey Trot! I wasn't surprised! This girl can run fast and keep on going!

New School

Jeff and I have been tossing around the idea of switching schools for Kenzi but I was so scared because I just love Entz Elementary and all the teachers and the principal there. I just think the classes are getting too big in the public schools and I felt like the students that were the "straight A" students were not getting as much help or even push because the teachers were helping the children who were struggling. I know that this is not at all the school or teachers fault. I feel for these teachers. I know they work SO hard and don't get paid enough. I know lots of schools now teach a grade ahead and I know this would be great for Kenzi. after months of researching so many Mesa schools of all types we were ready to make the jump. I was happy to make the switch and we both felt really good about it and I was super excited for her to not have to rush through reading books and do the AR (Accelerated reading) program anymore and go back to doing book reports! There were also a lot more Academic reasons we made the switch. This was so scary for us. Entz has been the only school Kenzi has known and Jeff has put so much time into this school and has a great relationship with the principal and I have great relationships with the teachers.

With all this being said I have to say it has been so hard. Kenzi made friends right away and even a friend from her cheer team is in her class and the work hasn't been too tough for her, but she HATES it! I mean HATES it! She comes home in tears almost every day. I asked her why she hates it so much and she says it is just weird and very different and the teachers are not as nice. She told me she is trying to be positive about it but she just can't.

I am one sleep deprived, tired and emotional Mama!

JDRF- Averies Army

This is our third year as a family walking a 5K for Juvenile Diabetes. We always look forward to this walk supporting our friends who have a daughter with diabetes.It is a great reminder to be thankful for your health and your kids health and that you may have your own trials with your own children but so do a lot of either people. I can't imagine all the work that the Dunn family has to go through for their sweet Avery.

Halloween

This year for Halloween we did the same thing we usually do. We went to our neighborhood carnival where they have tons of fun games , prizes and food. The kids love this! Kenzi loved roaming the blocked off street playing with her friends, Ryker loved running away and Tyla loved the bounce house! After the carnival we came home and got ready for trick or treating! The kids were excited except for Tyla. Tyla hates Halloween because she hates dressing up and she is terrified of all the scary costumes the kids wear! I talked her into being princess witch and all she had to wear was her tutu skirt and hat! Deal! KEnzi was a witch too and Ryker was a cardinals football player! Ryker absolutely loves the cardinals and can spot out anything cardinals when we are at the store!

My camera is not downloading pictures from my computer right now so all I have is this one of Ryker from my camera on my phone. I will add pictures later!

Eye Surgery

A month ago Jeff and I had to take Tyla to get Muscle eye surgery. I have been dreading this operation for months for several different reasons. Tyla hates going to any doctor but especially her eye doctor. She has been through rounds of eye drops that was an absolute nightmare for her! Jeff would have to hold her down every morning before school while I put this stupid drops in and she would be kicking, biting and screaming! I was waiting for CPS to be knocking on my door!She didn't sleep for all those weeks we had to do the drops because she had such anxiety about doing the drops when she wakes up in the morning. She would come in our room all hours of the night and just start crying "no drops please Mommy". It was awful! I felt so bad for her and I tried to explain why we had to do it and she just didn't understand. The reason for the drops was to try to make her good eye blurry so that she could try to use her bad eye and avoid this muscle surgery. After all that the drops did not help and surgery it was!We decided to not tell Tyla about the surgery until the morning of because we knew she wouldn't understand and would not get any sleep for weeks if we told her because of her anxiety. The doctor called the day before to tell us what time we need to come which was 10:00AM, but then they go on to tell us that she can't eat or drink anything after midnight! Are you kidding me?? This is seriously so stupid to make a child do this! I had to take Tyla's water bottle out of her room when she fell asleep since she wakes up and drinks water. I had to tell her when she woke up at 4:20 that morning that she can't have her toast! She lost it and for a couple hours Jeff and I had to re direct her attention on other things and it just was not working! This girl is on a routine and was dying of thirst and wanted her toast! I thought about taking her for a walk or to play at the park, but I knew that would make her more thirsty. Jeff stayed home with the other kids and I put Tyla in my car and I had to go to the post office so we drove all the way to Gilbert's post office and then drove around for another hour. I was so tired and so annoyed that her surgery wasn't at 7AM instead of 10. We go home and get Jeff and off to the hospital!

We explain the entire process to Tyla and how the doctor loves her and is going to make her eye better and when she wakes up we will go get sonic and go home! I won't go into to much detail about the hospital experience that emotionally pushed me over the edge. I will just say she freaked out in the waiting room and all the rude people staring at Tyla have no clue what was going on in Tyla's head. People should really be educated. The Surgery got pushed back to 11:30 Awesome. They finally took her back and Dr. Pachtman was so good comforting her and she was OK leaving with him. Jeff and I patiently waited and they finally brought us back and she was still asleep in recovery and when she woke up and I saw her I couldn't hold my tears back. It was so sad seeing her eye bleeding all over and she was so confused on what just happened. She looked up at me and asked for Jeff and only one of us was supposed to be in there but the nurse was super nice and let Jeff come in. Jeff dropped us off at home and went to the store and came back with sonic slush, sprite, potato chips, starburst and Ocean Blue for Tyla. All of her favorite treats!

We went to Dr. Pachtman's office 4 days later for a check up and he said the eye looks great and the red should clear up by the end of the week. Great! Then he turns to me and says "I would like to try the drops again" Umm...What? He said now that we corrected the muscle he would like her to really still work on using the bad eye. He ordered the drops at my pharmacy.

I have not had the heart to make Tyla do the drops yet.

Please don't judge me.

Little Sponges

The past couple months I have really been thinking about how times are so much different then when I was a child and how much more our children are exposed to. The other day MacKenzie and I were driving down the road blasting the radio in my car sharing our love for music and Kenzi looks at me and says Mom one of my favorite songs is the one that goes like this and she starts singing the words to me and I about ran into the car in front of me! I totally knew the song and it has a great beat, but I never really paid attention to the words until then. Hearing such a bad message come out of my child's mouth made me sick to my stomach, yes I was thankful for her innocence of not knowing what those words meant, but I knew some changes needed to be made. I was at the bank yesterday and I was telling my friend who is our banker about what hap pend in the car with Kenzi and she asked me if I have ever heard of Beckah Shae? Nope. She started playing her music and it sounded upbeat and she had a great voice. She told me a little about Beckah how she is a Christian singer and how inspirational her music is with great messages. I went home got Kenzi and went on YouTube and found all these amazing songs and even some remixes of Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber with different more appropriate lyrics.

If any of you have children who love music the way my children do, please check out Beckah Shae. Our kids are like sponges and soak everything in, even bad messages in songs. They might not understand what the song means today, but it won't be long before they do. Check this song out. It is my favorite! Turn your speakers up and listen to the great message!

Double Digits

My MacKenzie is now 10 years old! I just can't believe it! I am so proud of Kenzi for how hard she works to get awesome grades in school and get 100% on all her AR tests. She has become such a great cheerleader for her level 2 cheer team at Desert Devils and she keeps improving weekly!She is the best "Sissy" ever to Tyla and Ryker and would do ANYTHING for the both of them. She is a Daddy's girl, but also loves spending time with just me (like this Saturday she wants to spend the day with me cleaning and organizing her closet listening to country music!)She is getting really good at babysitting, drawing, and doing hair styles! There are so many things that I love about Kenzi and could go on and on, but one thing that always stands out to me is how good of a friend Kenzi is to everyone. She is so sweet and caring and always there for you. I love that she doesn't care what is "cool" and what people think. I remember in first grade she came home from school one day and was telling me about her day and she told me she felt sorry for this girl in her class because she has no friends and her Mom is in jail and her dad works two jobs and so she decided to be her friend and include her with her other friends. It seems like this has happened every year and Kenzi is always the one to be a good friend and I love this about her so much. She always tells me she wishes her school had a class for Tyla there so she can watch after her and play with her on the playground just in case nobody else is. She has a heart of gold and I love her so much and am so grateful for to be the oldest sibling and such a good role model.

Here is Kenzi on her 10th birthday! we walked outside to go to school and fun the entire yard heart attacked by her bestest friends ever who love her so much! Thank you Schureman gang!

We didn't do a party this year. We are keeping things "low key" so we went to Matta's for dinner and she brought Sassy along of course and tyla begged for Jordynn to come to! we ended the night by going to Yodipity next to Matta's for some yummy ice cream and toppings!Tyla, Jordyn, Ryker, Sassy and Kenzi


Happy Birthday Kenzi! We love you so so much!

My First School

Ryker goes to a little "playschool" in my neighborhood a couple days a week for two hours (that go by way too fast). His teacher is Miss Kristen and the school is called Spuler Sprouts. It is super cute and just fun! It is more playing for the kids, but also teaching. This is so good for Ryker because he is with me everyday all day so he is learning to live without me for a little bit and learning he has to share with other kids! each day he brings home some cute artwork he did and he is so proud and can't wait to show his big sisters what he did at his school!

Isn't my lil man so cute? I love him so much!

STOP!

I feel like time is going by way too fast lately! This coming week milestones are being made and it is already starting to hit me...hard!

First off this sweet baby of mine is starting a fun little preschool and today he got to go meet Mrs Kristen and the kids that will be in his class! He was so excited and walked right in and started playing!

How can this lil man be mine? He is my baby and just looks, talks, and acts like such a big boy! He needs just STOP growing!(Don't mind his baby acne that showed up this summer that he picks at daily because it drives him nuts)

Second, My MacKenzie will be turning 10! TEN! are you kidding me? How do I have a child in the double digits? I think this one is definitely the hardest for me. I am not ready for this girl to grow up! Time needs to slow down please!

Finally, I only have a few days or so to say I am in my 20's! Doesn't that sound so young? I can't believe I will be 30!

I hate this fast pace world we live in and I just want time to slow down! That's my venting for the week!

Kamsty Getaway!!!

A couple weeks ago I did something I haven't done since I have been married to Jeff. I took a "Mommy/Wife Break". My friend Kami treated me to a night at Arizona Grand! Between the two of us we have 10 kids and we managed to pull it off with no kids! We are awesome! We soaked up the sun all day long, going down the lazy river, sitting at the end of the wave pool letting the waves hit us, and laying out getting our tan on and laughing until the sun went down! We then went to our room got ready went out to dinner, came back and watched a really funny movie and ordered 4 Dr. Peppers to our room which cost us $28.00 but was worth it! We went to bed and slept in and then came home to our families feeling rejuvenated!

As a Mommy I have always thought this is a selfish thing to do and that I would feel guilty, but I can honestly say I had ZERO guilt and I highly recommend it to all Mom's out there! (These pictures aren't so good, I need to stop using my camera on my phone)

Tyla Turns 7!!!!

I don't even know where to begin. My Pretty Princess is now SEVEN! This year is hitting me hard! I am not sure if it is because next month I will have a ten year old or because I am turning 30 in two weeks or because my baby is turning into a big boy already!

Tyla is a special blessing to our family and to anyone who has connected with her. Her smile radiates and melts my heart every time. Tyla has taught me so many life lessons and has made me a strong person. She really embraces life and is just happy over the smallest things. Tyla loves her Sissy MacKenzie and looks up to her all the time. She has managed to steal Justin Bieber from her and every time we take Kenzi to cheer she begs me to let her do cheer and gymnastics with Kenzi. She loves dancing and practicing cheer moves. She is a little fish who loves to swim and everyday after school she asks me at least 100 times when Daddy will be home so we can all go swimming! Then when Jeff comes home she kisses and hugs him a million times even when we are swimming and if he doesn't kiss her on the lips she makes him do it over again! She loves Ryker and asks him all the time if he is tyla's baby and when he makes her mad she tells him that he is not her baby anymore and that Mommy is. They are best buds but both have strong personalities that sometimes clash but I think when they are older they will be best friends. Tyla loves food and wants to snack all day. Her favorite foods are hot dogs, chicken tacos, turkey, chocolate, bananas, grapes and apples oh and "yellow chips" AKA Lays potato chips! Tyla loves Angry Birds and her ipod touch and anything Justin Bieber! She watches his movie everyday and listens to his music A LOT! I think someday that Tyla will be in track or even cross country. This girl can run and she is FAST!

In the past we have always had just family birthday parties for Tyla, but this year she actually has some very close friends who she doesn't get to see enough, but who she absolutely loves and our like family to her so I really wanted her to cherish these times and remember how much they all LOVE her so we had a small layed back swim party with The Schureman family! I think Tyla was in heaven the entire time and that smile as you will see in the pictures never left her face! We had a BBQ with all her favorite foods!The party couldn't have been any better!


I walked outside to check on these two lovebirds and I couldn't resist posting this picture! Sorry I had to! Ryker and Jirzy!
Jordynn and Tyla - BFF'S!!!
Ty and Tess!
Tuff and Ty!
These four are the best of friends! Tess, Tyla Jordynn and tuff! They are always fighting over Tyla and asking for their own turn to come stay with Tyla and play! They love her so much and Tyla is all smiles every time she is around them!



Happy Birthday Tyla! We all love you so much!