Lost time

I will have to appologize for the lack of entries for the past few weeks. They have been very fun and very busy, but the main reason for the lack is that my camera broke a few weeks ago, so I didn't have any pictures. I finally decided that I would write down some of the memories and funny things that have happened over the past few weeks.

Andrew and Michelle were married in the Bountiful Temple on October 11, 2007. It was so wonderful to be able to go and share in that wonderful experiance with them. My fondest memoy is of the night before when both families were able to attend an endowment session as Michelle took out her endowments. My wonderful husband made is in the nick of time (ok they did hold the session for 5 minutes), and almost my entire family was there with their spouses. The only ones missing were Anthony and Sarah, who were flying in from California at the time. The day of the wedding was wonderful, and we enjoyed being with the family.

That night at the reception Ryan and I and our kids did leave a little bit early, because we were so exhausted. When we got home and got into bed I was excited to get a good nights sleep. Boy was I wrong... at about 12:00 that night Aby woke me up crying and yelling for me. She had to go to the bathroom, so I helped her off the top bunk and took her to the bathroom. Then I went back to be telling her to turn off the light when she was done. A few minutes later I hear crying and she is calling my name. I went in to see what was wrong, and there was poop in her underware, on the toilet, and her leg. Needless to say she had an accident. So I cleaned her up and the poop got some clean underware out, and disposed of the dirty ones. Then as I was tucking her back into bed Brooklyn started to cry, all the noise had woken her up.....so after a midnight snack and some rocking I finally made it back to my bed. Then around 1:00 in the moring I heard Kenzie crying, after finally deciding that she was not going to come into my room and lay down by me like she usually does I went in to check on her...she had thrown up all over her pillow and pajamas, and hair. So I clean up her bed gave her a quick bath, and rocked her back to sleep. At this point I was sure that nothing else could go wrong.....At 3:30 that same morning Kenzie threw up again, and I had to repete the process. After that I was able to sleep until Ryan was off for work. Interestingly enough he claims to have not heard any of the goings on that night.

The next morning Kenzie said she was doing good, so it was off to the sand dunes for a day of 4 wheeling with my family. We had a great time, and Aby made her first solo ride on one of the smaller 4 wheelers. She loved every minute of it and is excited to go back and ride again. Thank you to my family for letting us come and play with their toys.

Aby Ballet

I asked Aby what 2 things she really wanted to do this school year. The first was soccer and the second was ballet. We are very blessed because there is a ballet school in Centerville that is very reasonably priced, and I was able to sign Aby up for beginner ballet. This has been a wonderful experiance for her and she loves to go and dance. The best part is when she gets home she will teach Kenzie some of the things that she has learned. It is so much fun to see her teaching and helping Kenzie. (I may be a little biased, but I think she got the teacher gene.)

Here Aby is in the circle and they are playing a game sashaying around the circle with the music. It is fun to watch, because the circle never stays the same size or shape.

This is one of the times that the kids were practicing moving in partners to the music. The teacher calls it "step step down." It is really the waltz movements. Aby is in the Down part of the practice.

This was right after they finished the bird dance for the first time. You can see part of the "Bird Dance" if you watch the video. It is really cute. I can't ge the video to center on the page sorry. I hope that you enjoy watching it anyway.

Kenzie Gets a Haircut

Last Saturday was a very busy day for me. I had a lot of errands to run, and I needed to get to a baby shower and Karsons Birthday party. So I left Ryan in charge of Aby and Kenzie while I was running around to different stores in the morning. When I got home later that day I called the girls into the bathroom to do thier hair. As I was brushing Mckenzie's hair I noticed that there were chunck of hair that were missing around her ears and the front of her face. My sweet Kenzie had decided to cut her own hair. Now to my credit I did not scream at her, instead I calmly asked her if she had cut her own hair. The conversation went as follows:

mom: Kenzie did you cut your own hair?
kenzie: yes (with a smile on her face)

mom: Why did you cut your hair?
Kenzie: I had to get the snarls out mom (duhhh...)

mom: ohhhh I see.

As you can see from the pictures we did have to cut off quite a bit of her hair to get it to look normal again. I am very grateful to have a good friend in my ward who cuts hair. She cut the hair to her neck line, and the feathered it around her face adding bangs for the really short hairs in front. All in all Kenzie is a classic beauty who looks like a little pixie with this haircut, and I am not sure that I will let it get long again. She really looks very very cute.

Who can get mad at a face like that. She does know however, that she is never ever to cut her own hair again. If you ask her who cuts her hair, she will say "only Randi!"

Finishing the Basement

Ahhh we are finally finishing our Basement. It has taken a lot of years, and planning to get it figured out but we are doing it. We hired out the framing, plumbing, and sheetrock (mudding and sanding included). Ryan and I (with help from a wonderful family) will do the electrical, painting, and finishwork. Tyler will lay the carpet.
The first thing that had to be done was to get everything that we had put into the unfinished part of the basement into the garage, or finished room. We call this room the Cathedral of The Sullivan's, and Yes is goes from floor to cealing. Including putting stuff into the middle of the couches. It really was a work of art.

The First thing to go were the walls surrounding the stairs, then we turned the stairs around, and had them go down into the great room instead of hitting the dead end of the storage room. The only scary part was keeing the girls away from the "big hole" in the ground. We put up a gate in the hallway, and were very vigilant. The hole was there for just over 2 weeks.

During that time the framing was finished in the Basement, and the electrical work was started. Tyler and Ryan were my hero's during this time. Tyler gave up a few evenings of family time to come and help us with the stuff that Ryan couldn't do. Ryan spent a few very late (4:30 am) nights finishing up and running wire, phone, and T.V. cables. In the above picture you are looking at the future laundry room, and the stairs going up.

In this picture you can see the great room, and the future bedroom. At the end of the hall you can see is a small bathroom. (I am so excited to get a second bathroom.)

This is Ryan working on one of the nights with the power cords. He is such a wonderful guy, and put in so much work.

Grandpa not to be left out spend two saturday's and a few week night working on my new banister. It is wonderful and very sturdy. Here Kenzie is watching him cut and measure for the end Newell.

Ahhh finally the sheetrock and my basement is starting to take shape for real. This is the hallway leading to the batheroom and the door to the bedroom.

You can see now the hallway and the laundry room. You cannot really tell from this picture but that is only a small pillar at the end of the stairs, and then they are open and we will put in a banister. I love open spaces.

This is my new Banister, Grandpa did a great job. I don't have to worry about my kids anymore. We will paint this Banister white to match the trim and molding on the walls in the upstairs family room.

This is another view of the banister that Grandpa did, and yes I really did buy that much cereal at the store. When I was carrying the boxes down the stairs (which still only consist of a 2 x 4 nailed in) I tripped and fell down the last 4 stairs I wasn't hurt that bad but I did get a few really impressive bruises.

Aby Plays Soccer (Sorta)

Aby started playing soccer this year. She was so excited that she will get to be big like Braden and Karson. We are very glad that Aby enjoys sports and playing out doors. She is definatly like her mom though, (not much for competition) She is getting much better though. Aby loves her coach and enjoys kicking and playing with the other people on the team. Her hardest part is focusing on the ball and not doing ballet on the field.
This is Aby at home before her first game. We had gone the previous week and bought her cleats, shin guards, a ball, and a bag. (this was a package deal) Aby was so excited to be playing. You cannot really tell right here but the shirt actually went down almost to her ankles, and the shorts are rolled 4 times at the top. (they ordered really really big uniforms.)

Aby is the one who is standing in front of the coach. He has been a wonderful coach and is really patient with the girls. I am the assistant coach and have had to take over a few games while he is out of town. This has been fun for me but I really think I just enjoy cheering and laughing on the sideline.

This is Aby's team, the girls are from a big area, two are from Centerville, and three are from Farmington. One girl is in our ward, and Aby and she are already good friends. We were very glad that they were on the same team. Names are: Aby, Sierra, Kira, Macy, Lauren P., and Lauren M.

This will give you an Idea of how long the shirt was. Grandma cut the shirt and sewed it up so that she wouldn't trip on it. I do have to tell you that her shorts have fallen down at least one time each game while she has been running. I think that if she were older she would be mortified, but right now all I can do is laugh and help her pull them up again. I do keep trying to tie them tighter each game.

My goofy kids

My kids are some of the best things that have ever happened to me. They keep me on my toes and keep me laughing. This day they had been playing downstairs, and when they came up they had potatoe head ears in. I started laughing to hard.

Aby took it one step further and put all of the potatoe head things on. I couldn't help but take a picture. Aby is just starting to get a sense of humor and figure out when to laugh at jokes and funny movies. It is fun to watch.

Brooklyn loves paper, and the more the better, here she is playing with a coloring book. I love to watch her grow and learn. I just wish that she would learn to crawl so that she would be happy.

New York Vacation part 4 (The End)

This is Jones Beach, Atlantic ocean. My kids were not prepared for the difference in waves from the sound to this beach. Aby went running down the beach to the water when we very first got there, and almost got swept away, thank you Monica for saving her. This did make her and all of the kids really timid for most of the day around the waves unless they were with the adults. The adults however had a great time playing in the huge waves.
This is Aby in one of her more brave moments, she would play chase with the waves or sit with me, but for the most part just enjoyed digging and playing in the sand.

Kenzie on the other hand could spend all day in the water everyday. Here she is smiling at Andrew in the mud fight.

More people join in the mud fight fun. Andrew and Michelle were great sports about playing with the kids and letting them play with them.

This is Ryan body surfing, he had a great time, and thought that the water was great, he and the other guys spent the first couple of hours playing in the waves and learning how to body surf the best. Many of them swallowed pleanty of sea water. I was not that brave, but i did manage to get out and float on the waves, and that was fun.

This was Ryan getting up after getting into the shore, It wasn't this picture, but one time Ryan was thrown down on the sand, the wind was knocked out of him, and he scraped up his face pretty good. After that he decided to spend his time playing with the kids in the sand and reading his book in the shade. Just as a side note, Ryan did not get sunburned!!!! For us this is a major step Ryan always gets sunburned.

If you look close at the side of Ryan's face you can see the scratches and brusing. When Ryan went back to work a few days later, he had most of the guys he worked with convinced that he had been mugged on the way to the baseball game, That was until one of his friends who lived by a beach in Brazil started to laugh and said "You got pounded by a wave." So much for his story of heroics.

Later after the Beach we went back to the hotel changed, and went to the Yankee's baseball game. It was fun, but we were very tired. We had great seats though, we could see the whole field, and no one was behind us. We were the very top row. It was great I just couldn't look down the rows.

I would like to thank my parents who payed for most of the trip and did all that they could to make it a fun trip. Also thank you to Monica and Aaron for taking us places and showing us what they do in Connecticut. We had a great time and will remember it always..