Coy's Big #2

I can't believe Coy is 2 now! He is getting so big! He is pretty fun, and has the cutest personality. He can be quite the little mischievous stinker from time to time, and he gets into EVERYTHING he is not supposed to while giving you the "I am doing something naughty" grin. He makes me laugh (most of the time) and he loves to play with and torment his brothers and sister. He is quite the kid. Happy Birthday bud!


This was Coy's bat cake. I thought it turned out so cute, and he was so excited when he woke up from his nap and saw his "birf-day tate!" He just sat and looked at it for a little bit and had to show everyone when they came over.


He was pretty excited about his birthday. He wasn't a hundred percent sure what was going on, but he loved that everyone was paying attention to him.


He had just finished opening presents and him and Gentry played with them for a while before the fighting started. Those two can't play for longer than five minutes before starting to beat on each other! Gotta love kids.


He was one proud little bugger with his goggles and new helicopter that night before bed. I love how easy it is to please when they are so small!

Halloween

All the kids were pretty excited for Halloween. Tre was Mega-tron, Gentry was Snow White, Bridger was a bat, and Coy was Scuba Steve (notice the flippers and shorts). Coy was scared of his Halloween costume, (which was an elephant) but he wanted to wear goggles so I thought of Scuba Steve. He loved it.


Gentry loved her costume after I battled with her to put it on for school all morning. But once she went to school and came home she didn't take it off all night.


Bridger was my vampire bat. He really didn't care about the whole Halloween thing but he was a happy boy that night.


Coy thought dressing up was pretty fun after he wasn't so scared of his costume.


I know this picture is blurry but I wanted to get his flippers from behind because they wouldn't stay on straight and they looked hilarious!


Tre and Aiden were pretty tough transformers!

Our Days Around Here

Our days around here are usually crazy ones! With four small kids it is bound to be that way...


Tre and Gentry head off to school, but not without hugging Coy until he freaks out and wants left alone.


Gentry is only nice to Coy when she is leaving for school. For some reason she all of the sudden wants to hug and kiss Coy when any other time of the day she is running after him with her claws out.


Bridger is usually always happy in the day. The other day Gentry's Snow White wig came in the mail and I had to see what it looked like because she was still at school. So Bridge was my guinea pig, but he didn't care one bit that I was trying the wig out on him. He thought he was pretty funny. I laughed so hard at how calm he was with it on his head. He didn't touch it one time, he just left it alone. He is a goof!


Coy is my mischief maker around here. He gets bored when the kids are gone. For some reason he has a thing with my mascara and almost every day he gets into it and eats it and paints himself with it. So here is what he looked like after a great mascara snack. And if you think he is dirty, you should see my walls, Gentry's bed, and my mascara tubes!


While the kids are gone is when I get all my baking and cleaning done. I usually bake bread once a week and then finally, I made my own butter! I was so excited, it was so easy and it actually tastes really good! I was quite proud of myself, and I know pride is not a good thing, but come one, I was excited! So see Gini, it isn't hard and it does turn out yellow!

First Annual J3 Ranch Rodeo

Casey had a ranch rodeo at his arena Saturday. It was a lot of fun. They had six teams consisting of four guys and had four events; team branding, trailer loading, ranch doctoring, and muley roping. I didn't get any pictures of the muley roping, it got too dark for my camera by the time we got to the last event. The cowboy's families came out to watch and there were a lot of people who came out.


This was during the first event, team branding. There were two teams at a time going for this one.


A lot more people than we expected showed up to show their support. There were a ton of kids there so they all had a blast. This is only a few of them, there were more behind the hay and watching the rodeo. They were everywhere. Casey joked that next rodeo he will charge by the kid instead of each contestant!


Gini and Renae Jaques kept score, along with Bud and Amy.


Mike Pearson, James Pearson, and Dustin Wells were all on Daniels team. During the trailer loading, they had to rope the calf and get it loaded into the trailer, and shut both latches on the trailer in the shortest amount of time.


...almost...


Ah, and it is in the trailer.


There was a big hole in the ground that was a magnet for kids. Coy especially loved this hole and played there the entire rodeo. He was a gray little dust bomb by the time we left that night.


Dustin Wells and Daniel


Mike and Dan during the calf doctoring event.


Samantha loved playing in the hole too. She was covered in dirt because Coy kept throwing it on her, little stinker. But she just kept playing and never flinched, she is so cute!


Bud and James looking over the final scores of the night. Jesse Jensen's team took first place. It was a pretty fun night.

Family Pictures, Finally!

Makala did our family pictures for us the other day. She does such a great job! She actually got my squirmy little kids to look like halfway calm children! They turned out so cute, I am excited. sorry there are a lot of pictures on this post, but there were so many fun ones I tried to put on as many as I could.





Coy wanted to throw dirt so bad that when Dad got mad at him it broke his heart. Dirt was way funner than pictures!










These pictures were taken toward the end, and Coy was done. He didn't want to stand when he could run and play with all the neat horse stuff that was at the Parkers. Dan was having a fun time trying to get all the boys to sit still!























All in all they turned out great! Thanks Makala, you are the best, they are way fun.

Gentry Lu

I took Gentry to a pediatrician yesterday who specializes in childhood behavior and autism. I have started noticing things about Gentry the last little while and wondered if she had some form of that. After talking to the doctor yesterday and while she sat and evaluated and watched her for over an hour, she told me that she was 90% sure (not 100 because Gentry wouldn't talk to the doctor so she had to watch and listen to they way she interacted with me and the toys in the room) that she has PDD or Pervasive Developmental Disorder. In other words a high-functioning form of Autism. This has killed me the last few months since I have really noticed it, but I know that it will be okay. I know that if we get started on therapy with her now that she will be able to deal with it when she gets older. It is just extremely overwhelming right now especially when I have two babies younger than her. But I know that Heavenly Father knows her and our needs and he will help us through this trial and to learn to deal with it. Gentry will always be Gentry! The doctor told me that she would always have her little Gentry quirks, but I think that will be just fine. She is quite the little girl, and she is always making us laugh. We love her to death and wouldn't change a thing about her!

My Little Clown

I love when babies get their little personalities. All of mine have gotten theirs really early and I love when they hit about a year and a half. All the things they do are so funny. They are discovering everything around them and how to use it and they are discovering who they are. Coy is right in the middle of that stage right now and he makes me laugh everyday. Here are a few pictures I have taken of him the last few days....


Gentry got a new dress from Grandma, and Coy HAD to wear it. The funny thing was he didn't just wear it for a second, he had it on all day!

I put Gentry in the tub and then walked out of the bathroom. When I came back in this is what I saw....


Clothes, diaper, and yes, shoes all still on. He thought he was so funny!

The Fish Hatchery

I decided it would be really fun to take the kids out somewhere a few weeks ago. It was finally beautiful outside and Daniel was studying for finals. So I figured that we could go down to the fish hatchery that is just a few miles from my house and let the kids play and see the fish. What a trip that turned out to be. I realized that with 4 little kids, even the smallest, simplest outing is a big production! We got to the fish hatchery and I tried to get everyone to eat first. Of course Coy was right up to the table anxious for lunch. Tre joined him a few minutes later but there was no Gen....


Gentry didn't want to eat, instead she climbed up a tree and then got stuck! I had to climb up the tree and pull her out! It was a good thing Ruth came, I thought I could do it by myself, but after Gen got caught in the tree and Coy wanted to run in every direction, I realized I was crazy!




We went down where they have a big window that looks into the water so you can see all the fish. The kids thought that was pretty fun and didn't want to leave. We stayed there for a little while.
















Gentry thought the fish were pretty neat. She had to show "granny-D" all the fish.


There's the sturgeon they have down there now. They used to have two great big ones that were almost 100 years old, but somebody threw poison in the water and killed them. People these days, I really don't get it.


This is what I looked like packing all my little munchkins around. There was a big bus of older people that were down there also and I must have been quite the scenic attraction because a lot of them took double looks!