Closing this blog

I am closing this blog and opening another. I will be adding everyone to Mandyandkids.blogspot.com. Feel free to add me, Hunter, Hannah, Emma-Kate and Oakand to your page! Love always

Mandy and kids

Alopecia???

No picture to accompany this post.... My little Emmy was crafting tonight - with scissors - and she suddenly disappeared beneath our center island in the kitchen - with the scissors. When I walked around the island to see what she was doing, she jumped and said, "Oh my goodness! My hair is falling out!" Sure enough, there was a pile of 2 - 3 inch hair lying on my kitchen floor. Thankfully, the "alopecia" only affected an area of her scalp that isn't very noticable. Needless to stay, little Emma-Kate will no longer be crafting with scissors as it tends to aggrevate severe and sudden cases of alopecia in 4 year old blonde girls!

Camera Weekend

Reddy was home this weekend and it was a pretty lazy weekend. I let Hannah and Emma-Kate take some pics this weekend and they took some works of art....

Oakland is trying to escape.. he hates picture taking unlike me and Emma-Kate, who love it!

Heather has been bugging me cuz I haven't let her take any pictures of me for a long time.. so here you go, Heather....

Party at Grandma Rosie's

The girls : Hadley, Hannah, Morgan, Heather and Emma

Me and my rooster named Oakland.

Gavin and Hunter.

Morgan and Hannah

Behold! A personality!!!

It is a miracle! Our little man has FINALLY found his personality and it is a Cute one!

They are scary and they are spooky....

We are a little slow this year and just got our pumpkins carved tonight... and made YUMMY pumpkin seeds too!!!

OH SO SPOOKY AT OUR HOUSE TONIGHT!!!!!!!

I've been tagged

Yeah! I do have at least two friends (ok - one is a cousin) and someone finally tagged me! I am no longer the smelly kid that no one wants to play with! Thanks Mindy and Gina for making me feel loved!!

The rules are:
*Link to the person who tagged you
*Post the rules on your blog
*Write six random things about yourself
*Tag six-ish people at the end of your post
*Let each person know he/she has been tagged
*Let the tagger know when your entry is

1. I have always wanted to be an actor. I have never told anyone that before. I actually got picked to be an extra on Touched By An Angel once but I chickened out on the way there and ended up going to my moms instead.

2. I love the smell of cottonwood trees. Everytime I smell them, it makes me think of Lagoon for some reason.

3. I have this sick need to constantly re-arrange my furniture. I do it almost weekly. It drives my family nuts. Sometimes I do it late at night when I cant sleep and when they wake up in the middle of the night for a drink, they trip over furniture that wasnt there when they went to bed.

4. I have two reoccuring dreams.. one is that I can fly. I literally flap my arms and fly. It's the best feeling. The second is that my entire graduating class didnt actually graduate even though we were given our diplomas. We had to stay another year. Weird huh?

5. I love the 80's! 80's movies and 80's music! Can't we just go back???

6. I miss Declo. I miss the slowness of life there. I miss NOT having to commute in traffic for almost three hours a day. I miss volleyball games for my kids and all the things I thought I hated growing up. Who knew?

Catching up...

We haven't blogged for about a month so I thought I would catch up on my blogging a little...

I used to be mean to Katie about letting Jack bounce himself to sleep in his Jungle Jumper... I think with her next baby, I will keep my mouth shut.

We put up some Halloween decorations and got in the spooky spirit and decided to decorate Halloween cookies. Here is Gavin, Hannah, Morgan and Emma-Kate posing. Heather and Hunter at the cookie decorating party

Heather, Hunter and Gavin

The girls concentrating on decorating the PERFECT cookies!

My little 'mini Me' mugging for the camera

Oakland loves his puppies

No blog is complete without a pose from Emma-Kate.

We also spent about a million hours at a bounce house yesterday but I entrusted the photo taking to Heather and it seems I got about 10 photos of her and her cousin and one of Reddy's niece's husband. Those are great memories!!!!

We also got a new dog about two months ago but I just haven't thought to post a pic of her. Her name is Roxy and we were told she was a Rat Terrier mix. I think it was a small lie... you decide..

Oh Crackers!

Oakland is getting more and more interested in everything everyone else is eating. His dad was having crackers and Oakland was staring and begging with puppydog eyes. So, here is Oakland experimenting with his first cracker.

I love Mr. Pippo..

REVISION - Yes, the binky is PINK! But, beggers cant be choosers! All his "boy" colored binkies had disappeared and the little man MUST have his binky. So, an emergency run to Smiths could only produce a pink bink - they had one package left that included a pink and a green one. The green one has already vanished so we are left with the pink bink! Don't you know - REAL men like Pink!!

Oakland loves this blue hippo that plays music! They are sleeping buddies!

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday and... Happy Birthday!

I have to beg the older two to pose but not Emma-Kate! She can strike a pose anytime, anywhere at a moments notice!

Dad taking the kids for a four wheeler ride. It is usually a fight to see who gets to go first.

Oakland on his first four wheeler ride!

Jack wondering why Oakland his setting in HIS seat!

I'm a big boy now!

Wow! I am sure the toddler girls are lining up to catch these two eligible bachelors!

Is Jack trying to gently and loving pat Oakland on his head OR is he getting ready to whap him a good one? Only Jack knows!

We had three of our kids have birthdays within two months of each other so, we held out and just had one birthday party! We had some friends and family over for a BBQ and the kids swam in the pool. Jack and Oakland were super models once again! Happy Birthday to:



Morgan Michelle - turned 7 on May 24



Gavin Ray - turned 11 on July 2



Hannah Grace - turned 7 on July 26

Hmm.. 'nannas

Okie had his first taste of solid food! By the way he is attacking the spoon, you would think the kid was starving to death!

This one is for Okie's Aunt Shawnae

I have such special children!

These photos really need no comments.. they speak for themselves!

Please watch your kids!

Saturday night I went running up the canyon behind our house and as I was coming out of the canyon, I noticed a red and white helicopter hovering awfully close to my neighborhood. At first, I thought maybe someone had been hurt down by the lake. But, the helicopter kept getting lower and lower and as I came running out of the canyon , it landed right on the street that runs to our home. Turns out, it was a life flight helicopter. The whole neighborhood was coming out in full force to see what was going on so, Reddy and I plus 4 kids made our way down the street. Turns out a 4 year old little boy nearly drowned in his aunts backyard swimming pool. I am fairly certain no one in our neighborhood owns a built in ground swimming pool so it was most likely your standard variety 12-24 inch kids pool. This was just a strong reminder to always watch your kids when they are swimming! And to drain your pool when you are done swimming for the day! I haven't heard how the little boy is doing but we hope for the best!

And, no blog would be complete without an update picture of my little chunky monkey!

Random Pics

Emma-Kate, fashion designer - Heather, Morgan and Em - Hannah, The toothless wonder - Heather and Okie - Brock antagonizing Oakland... or is it the other way around?