Conference

General Conference started out rather nicely. Ashlyn had her conference book out that she gotten at Activity Days. She was doing her conference bingo. The other kids were in and out of the room listening/playing. But let's face it. It didn't last for long. By Sunday afternoon the house pretty much looked like......

...this! The girls were up playing in their room (probably making even MORE of a mess) and the boys were creating havoc down with us. As a side note, I did hear a few of the talks amongst all the noise and rather enjoyed it.  Especially the talk Saturday afternoon by Elder Anderson, the two talks Sunday morning by Sister Dalton and President Monson. And the talk Sunday afternoon by Elder Cook. Now to get dinner ready for the missionaries who will be over in 1 1/2 hours. Thank goodness for my trip to Sam's club yesterday because they pretty much made dinner for tonight. Hope the missionaries like Chinese food cuz it's sounding pretty tasty to me.

And to end.....a couple of funny Brandon sayings:

          A couple of days ago, Brandon and I were singing "Old McDonald" together. When we finished he said, "mom, you sing like a girl". I said, "that's because I am a girl", to which he replied, "no you're not.....you're a mommy". But when I asked him if Daddy was a boy, he said, "yes". Go figure.

          Then, after conference just now, as Paul is cleaning up the mess of a playroom, I hear Brandon  singing to Daddy, "You love Mommy. You love Mommy." Seems rather sweet huh....but sing it to the tune of Nah nah nah boo boo and it gives it a whole different feel. Ha! Gotta love that kid.

Blasts from the Past

I was looking through some old photos tonight after a friend emailed asking for pictures from a few years back. It got me thinking about all the pictures I don't have on my blog that will never make it into a photo album. Because let's be honest, if I didn't blog about it, it didn't happen. Haha...just kidding. But seriously, it use to be so much more time consuming to load pictures onto my blog. So I didn't put up as many. So from time to time I have decided to go back and blog about things that didn't make the blog earlier. Or maybe it did and I only posted one or two photos, when really I would like lots more. 

So these first set of pictures are from back in April of 2009. At Underwood Family Farm. I'm pretty sure it was a ward playgroup day that only me and one other girl showed up to. 

This is my favorite picture of the day. Brandon had SO much fun playing in the enormous sandbox. But man was that sand nasty. It was like dust it was so dry. It got over everything. And if you know anything about me, I hate dust and chalky type things. But despite my disgust, I couldn't pull him away from it. He was in boy heaven. Rest assured, I scrubbed that little guy from head to toe as soon as we got home.

This picture cracks me up. It was from March of 2009. We had just moved into our new house and we didn't have our tv up on the wall yet. So Leah was watching our little portable tv. Fell asleep right there in the middle of her show. 

Back to April of 2009. Santa Barbara Zoo. A spring break outing. I believe I went with Rebecca Kellogg and her (then) two boys.

That toad is so huge it looks fake.

Usually the only way I get shots of myself is to take them...myself. {lovely angle}

This is my brother's four wheeler. He took advantage of our new garage and asked to stow his stuff there until he was able to move into his own house (he was currently in escrow). The girls decided to try them out. (They didn't really go anywhere. Just sat on them for a few minutes.)

And then we go a bit further back to December of 2008. I'm not even sure if I blogged about this. Daddy helped the girls make a gingerbread house. I know the pictures look like a "blissful family evening", but I'm quite positive there was major sibling strife over who got to put what piece of candy where. 

But the finished product came out well and the girls will (hopefully) only remember the good times. {Well, I guess not anymore, since I just reminded them of their fighting.}

And for cuteness sake, my little boy Brandon with Grandpa Ron. (Okay seriously, Carter wore that same outfit just today. Little did I know at the time that it would ever fit another Schoeni child.....EVER again! Ah...how time changes things. Not again though. Don't worry. It will be passed on down to a friend as soon as Carter outgrows it.)

Okay, that's all for now. Stay tuned for future "blasts from the past". 

School Pictures

The girls got their school pictures back the other day. I didn't order a bunch (I never end up sending any out so it becomes a big waste of money), but I still like to get a few just for memories sake.

Here's Ashlyn's 3rd Grade picture. She looks like she is thinking, "just hurry and take it and let me leave".

Leah on the other hand looks like,  "Go ahead, take my picture. The camera loves me. I could do this all day."

And then here is Ashlyn's class photo. Her teacher is posing with their class pet, "Dash"- a bearded dragon.

Leah with her class. See that little blonde girl on the far left, second row from the top. That's Gracie. Leah's declared BFF. We hear about her ALL THE TIME! According to Leah, Gracie has just about everything and gets to do just about everything. {Lovely}

And then just for fun. Some pictures of the boys. Carter is looking SO grown up these days. I am in denial that his 1st Birthday is fast approaching. I wonder if I can squish him down and keep him from getting older??

Such a {nice} brother trying to make Carter smile for the camera. I'm sure Carter was {thrilled} about it.

Back when Ashlyn was in Kindergarten she had to do a presentation. It was her first presentation in school. It went something like this, "Hello my name is Ashlyn. I am five years old and I like Princesses". She was so nervous. She didn't want to do it. We practiced it over and over. The day of came and she would have done anything but go to school that day. But she did great on it. Scored an 8/8.

 Well now it was Leah's turn. And here's the difference between the two. I totally forgot Leah even had this presentation until just a day or two before she was suppose to give it. We practiced it just a couple of times (mostly to make sure Leah knew what she wanted to say that she "liked"). She wasn't nervous at all. In fact, she was bugged with me that I even made her practice it more than once. Then I was told by her teacher that she even volunteered to go first. This is what she said, "Hello my name is Leah. I am five years old and I like Pizza". She also got an 8/8. 

Two very different girls I have. But it makes life more fun, so I wouldn't have it any other way! 

A little friend came to visit

The kids found this preying mantis on the top of Brandon's little car toy a few days ago. They quickly ran inside to try and find their McDonald's preying mantis toy from the movie "Kung Fu Panda". They said they wanted him to have a friend to play with. Unfortunately, they weren't able to find it. But they did have fun watching this little bug crawl around for quite some time.

Ashlyn's Baptism Day

  

I really couldn't have asked for a better day for Ashlyn on her baptism day. It was such a wonderful day. Everything went so smoothly and I think Ashlyn will really remember and look back with fond memories of the day she was baptized. 

                Ashlyn was a lucky girl and got to start the day out with a manicure and pedicure with her Best Friend Grace, whom she also got to get baptized with today. The girls are only one month apart in age, so at the beginning of the year, her mom and I decided it would be so fun to have Ashlyn wait one month to get baptized so that they can share in their day together. I'm so glad we did because I think they really loved having each other. At least, I know Ashlyn took comfort in knowing Grace was going through the same things she was that day. My poor little girl was just so nervous. She did such a wonderful job though and I am so proud of her. 

             I got to get up at the end of her baptism to say a few words to her. I know I THOROUGHLY embarrassed her with my crying, but through choking back my tears I think I managed to tell her how much we love her and are proud of her. She is such a good and sweet little girl. Ever since she was tiny, she has always wanted to do what is right. She is sensitive and kind hearted. She hates to see others get in trouble and she will do just about anything to not get in trouble herself. She always makes sure we say our prayers and read our scriptures and you can tell she has such a genuine interest in learning about and knowing her Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope she always keeps that desire. I just love her to pieces and I hope she is able to look back on her life someday and feel that it was a pretty good one.

Brandon got in trouble for not putting his clothes on, so he had to sit in time out. Not five minutes later, he was out like a light. We had to really work hard to wake him up. Poor kid has been running non stop lately.

Practicing for their song, "When I am baptized". They did such a beautiful job.

 Paul's parents flew out from Iowa to be here for Ashlyn. I was so glad they could come.

                                     

                                                                 The Waldron family.      SO very glad we could share this day with them.

After the baptism, and after much indecisiveness on my part, we decided to have the family and a few friends over for dinner. We had so much help from my parents and in-laws that it all went so smoothly and I think everyone had a good time. I know I did anyway.

On a completely unrelated note: Here is a picture of Paul with a "mugtuk" doll; the IPhone app he and some friends worked hard on for months. So proud of him. And we really hope it does well. In the background you can see on the TV that Paul put together a slide show of pictures of Ashlyn from the time she was just born up until now.

My beautiful nieces, Kylan and Khloe. I cannot believe I didn't get a single picture of my family at the baptism. I'm SO sad about it. 

At least Heather took a family picture of just them and sent it to me. Otherwise, I would have nothing.  I'm so grateful so much of my family could come. It really meant a lot to us. 

Some friends and family that were able to come out to the baptism were:

Beth Tait with her two kids Tyler and Audrey.

Tina Phillips with three of her kids Braden, Ashlynn, and Ethan.

Brooke and Jason McCoy with her family.  Luke, Darby, Baylie, Paisley and Ivy.

Becky and Hyrum Osmond and her family. Dewy, Timmy, Ellie and Baylee.

Jenny Fogg (The Primary President) and her husband Daryl. 

Jeanyce Klivans (Ashlyn's primary teacher).

Tanya Pascua (a counselor in the Primary who also gave the talk on the Holy Ghost) and her three kids, Tala, Taden and Tadgh.

Carolyn Snow (the Primary President in CC2nd ward and who also gave the talk on Baptism).

Bishop Stratton (who conducted).

President Lindberg (The Stake President).

Ryan Livingston (a little boy in Ashlyn's primary class).

My mom (Dana Briggs) and stepdad (Ron Briggs)

Paul's Parents, Gary and Kathy Schoeni

My brother Tyler and my SIL Heather and their kids. Blaike, Kamron, Kylan and Khloe.

(I hope I didn't forget anyone)

Ashlyn was also baptized the same day as a friend from our old Canyon Country 2nd ward, Tanner Lyche. So that meant Michelle and Camille (good friends of mine) and their families were also at the baptism. It was nice to get to share the day with Tanner too. 

****(added the next day)****

I asked Ashlyn if I totally embarrassed her when I got up at her baptism and she said, "no, it made me happy". Bless her sweet little heart. I just love that girl. She also said she was kind of sad her baptism day was over because she had such a good day and felt so happy!