I have an amazing hubbie!

So once upon a time (6 years ago), Ryan and Lucinda got a new t.v. Since they were too cheap to get a new entertainment center, Ryan re-configured our current one - if you've been to our house, I'm sure you've seen it (if you haven't, it's in the background of this picture).

So then, finally, 6 long years later, Ryan decided to make a new entertainment center himself. Again, because we (and I mean Ryan) are too cheap to buy one when Ryan can make one himself that is custom-made. I seriously don't know how he knows how to do all this stuff when he's never done it before! He is a man of many talents, that's for sure.

Here he is hard at work!

And the almost-finished product! Santa's going to bring us the rest of the cabinets for Christmas if we're good. :)

I know, I know, I have way too many nativity sets for one person, but I just love to collect them!

Catch Up!

Our ward put on a Polar Express party last weekend and it was so much fun! The kids loved it! Here are some pics from that night:

The kids got to wear their pj's (Ryan wanted to but I told him no). :)


They got a bell necklace to help them remember to Believe!


Pictures with Santa - Cole loved it!



Katelyn, not so much...

And on to...
GINGERBREAD HOUSE-MAKING!!!


I think more candy made it into our kids' tummies than actually made it onto the house!


Ryan is wearing my apron since he says I never wear it (how could I? It's been in a box for almost the whole year!)




It turned out so cute, don't ya think?

This is what I found Cole doing the other day!

This is what I found Cole doing the other day - I noticed that our chalkboard countdown to Christmas had been colored on and wondered how...


I couldn't resist taking some pictures of this just to show him how mischievous and smart he is when he's older.



He's just so proud of himself! I love my little Cole!

My sister's visit to AZ

My twin sister, Glenda, and her family got to come visit AZ during Thanksgiving. It was so good to see them - we haven't seen them in over a year and a half! Her kids are so much bigger now. And Glenda's pregnant and so cute! We all got together a couple times, and the kids got to play. It was so much fun! We miss you guys - come visit more often -k- (or talk my hubbie into leaving the state for once)!

Wes, Hailey, Faith, Cole

The cousins all together (minus Ben & Seth's kids)

At least someone's getting some exercise!

Cole is such a strong little 4 year old boy! He pulls Katelyn and friends around with his bike! So adorable! He did mention how he was soooo tired afterward, but hey, he slept great that night!

Happy Thanksgiving from a modern day Pilgrim!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Gobble-Gobble! :)

Halloween!

This year some friends loaned us a green dragon costume for Cole to use - he was so happy with it, and every house we went to people were saying how cool it was. Thanks, Geoff & Wendy!

We got Katelyn a Belle costume (since it's her fave movie), but she would never try it on! Maybe because of the petticoat underneath? Anyways, we were relieved she wore it on Halloween, and she was so adorable! She was so excited to ring all the doorbells and say "Treat-Treat" to everyone and get candy!

Ryan and I didn't really dress up - we just had on jack-o-lantern shirts. But here's a pic of the whole fam together for once (Thanks Papa for taking the pic for us):

We had a lot of fun! And we still have Halloween candy left-over!

Katelyn's 2nd B-day

Here are some highlights of Katelyn's 2nd Birthday!

Ryan made her this awesome Ariel cake (since I wasn't feeling well - you're awesome, Ryan!), which was the first thing she saw in the morning after coming downstairs. She was soooo excited, and guess which movie we had to watch? You guessed it, "The Little Mermaid."

Then, she opened her first b-day present, which in the Fish family is traditionally cold cereal/pop tarts, or a combination of the two. She got Barbie cold cereal and Barbie pop tarts, lucky girl!

Here are some more pics of her enjoying her presents - a princess backpack, new little magnadoodle, lots of bracelets, a noisemaker, ....

A vacuum just like Mom's!

Later that day, we had a little party with the Fish cousins and played Ring Toss (another Fish tradition). Basically, you make a circle with a rope and put all kinds of candy and other prizes inside it. Then the kids take turn tossing a ring and whatever it lands on, they get to put in their goodie bag! It is so much fun, and I actually remember playing it when Ryan turned 23 with his family!



During ring toss, all Katelyn wanted to get was the pretty rings. So at the end, all her cousins brought her the ones they had won and gave them to her! She was soooo happy - she has such nice cousins!


Later that night, we were heading to our niece JoLynn's b-day party (they have the same b-day, just a couple years apart) when Katelyn threw up in the car (not sure if she was carsick or what), so we had to turn around and come back home, clean her, the car/carseat up, etc. Ryan ended up staying with Katelyn while I took Cole for a little while to the party. Katelyn was kind of sad until I came home with this awesome present from her cousins:


And then we just let her "chill" in her new princess sleeping bag with her new Baby Belle from Aunt Mo & Uncle Ken.

She ended up having a great b-day, even with the little carsickness incident.

We're so glad to have you in our family, Katelyn, and can't believe how much you've grown!
From this sweet little baby (3 days old):


To this big beautiful 2 year old girl:

We love you so much, sweet girl!

A whole month to catch up on!

I know, I know, I've been a slacker about posting! Sorry, this post will probably be long, but here's what we've been up to:

Ryan's sister and her family came to visit, and we got to do a "field trip" with their family to Superstition Farms where the kids got to pet a very tame bunny,feed goats and a horse, and hold a rooster (though neither of my kids would - they were being sissies that day)! It was pretty fun, and it was great to see Mo & Ken!

Petting the bunny - they're still talking about that!

Katelyn & Ryan

I just couldn't help snapping this cute pics of the kids excitedly
waiting their turn to feed the goats!

Our kids really got into Halloween this year - for the whole month beforehand, Cole kept dressing up in costumes he made up. These are just a couple:

A Spiderman flower!

I think he put on every item of clothing in his closet for this one!

Here's Katelyn all ready to go trick-or-treating with her 6 treat buckets (it's 2 weeks before Halloween here). I think she's a little too excited about all that candy!

I still have a ton of stuff to post, like Katelyn's b-day, Halloween, etc., but I have to go get ready to see Twilight (the midnight showing)! Some of my gal pals and I are going together - I'm so excited! I know, I'm officially a nerd! Those of you who know me already knew that though.

I promise I'll post the rest of our happenings soon! I know you're all wanting to see pics of the kiddos at Halloween and Katelyn's b-day, so I'll try not to keep you waiting too long -k-?

I Don't Want to Be Five!

The other night I awoke at about 3am to Cole knocking on our door and crying - "Hello? Hello?" I think he was still asleep because our door was not locked and he didn't come in. Anyways, I ran over to him and asked him what was wrong. He said, crying, "I don't want to be five! Is there any way you can make me four again? I don't want to be five!" I assured him that he was still four and that he was only having a bad dream, and not to worry. He finally calmed down and then I had him come and sleep in our bed until it was time to really get up.

In the morning, Ryan asked him what he had been crying about and he said "I don't want to be five!" Ryan asked why and Cole answered, "Because then I have to go to kindergarten! I don't know what they do in kindergarten!"

Ryan assured him that he still had lots of time left to be four and that he would know what to do in kindergarten when he did turn five since he has been going to preschool and learning his letters, etc.

I would never have thought that Cole would have nightmares about going to kindergarten! Now that he's brought it up, I don't think I'm ready for him to go next year...I'm glad he has time to still be four too!

Trip to San Diego

Ryan's parents rented a beach house in San Diego for a week for the whole family to go and hang out. It was amazing! Literally, you could walk into the backyard and there was the beach! We had so much fun playing in the sand and the waves. I even tried boogie-boarding, believe it or not. The kids had so much fun playing with all their cousins that they didn't want to come home! It was nice to get away from all the everyday stresses like work/school, etc. and just hang out with everyone. Thanks to Papa and Lainey for inviting us to the beach house - you guys are great and we're so glad we got to spend some quality time with the fam in such an awesome place!



While we were there, we got to take family pictures on the beach, which was so neat! Our kids were having meltdowns, so we were lucky to get one with everyone smiling and looking towards the camera! So now we have a better pic for the blog instead of last year's Christmas picture. Thanks to Ken's cousin for taking the pictures for us! We got to take pictures as an extended family as well, which was quite crazy with about 16 little ones to corral.



Since we got back things have been pretty regular, getting back into the routine and what-not. Ryan came home a couple days ago with some buckets of paint and started painting the rooms of the house! Now we have all of the downstairs painted except the office - it looks way better! Thanks, Ryan!

A little update...

So Cole started preschool a couple of weeks ago - I am so proud of him! He goes three times a week for a couple hours. He's doing really well and so far it's mostly review for him. It's great for him to get used to the classroom environment and following directions, etc. He's so excited to do his homework! (Yeah, wait till he has REAL homework; then he probably won't like it so much!)



Katelyn was sick a couple days ago with a phantom illness - not sure what it was, but
she had a super high fever and vomited one time. I felt so bad for her! I stayed up with her on the couch and we both finally fell asleep sometime in the middle of the night. She's doing much better now, thankfully! Now she's back to her sweet little self - giving lots of kisses and hugs (to us and the dog, Bella) and doing girly things!

Yesterday we went to Tucson for Ryan's niece, Ann's, baptism. It was so beautiful and you could really feel the Spirit there. We got to hang out with Norm's family afterwards for awhile and it was so much fun! They have six kids so they have plenty to keep them busy outside in their backyard. Luckily it wasn't too hot (there was a storm rolling in which cooled things off quite a bit) so they could enjoy it. I forgot the camera, but the kids had a lot of fun on the see-saw, jungle gym, and playhouse.

Tomorrow's Labor Day, so that means a day off from watching kids (besides my own). Don't get me wrong, I love all the kids I watch, but sometimes it's nice to have a little break!



Hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day! -Lucinda :)

P.S. - I'm doing a little scrapbook challenge on my friend Ruth's blog: Go here to vote! http://www.tinybabybubbles.blogspot.com/ or click on the Ruth and Joel link on the right.

This challenge was to scrapbook a layout in teams of a high-powered woman in your life. I immediately thought of Lainey, my mother-in-law. She's my hero in so many ways! So that's what my layout is of. My layout is #5 - there's only 2 more days to vote!

My New "Rig" - courtesy of Ryan

So I watch a little boy named Mark before and after school and drop him off/pick him up at the bus stop as well. I was mentioning how it was getting really hard to get all the kids to the bus stop one day to Ryan, and a couple hours later, he came home with another double stroller. He used conduit pipe, bolts, screws, washers, etc. to hook two double strollers together. Now I can fit up to 6 kids in the big stroller if I need to! It's so awesome! It's a really good workout, too!

He took the above picture of me pushing it back from the bus stop for the first time (loaded with 6 kids, I might add). Do I look tired? I was sweating buckets, I'm sure!

I've gotten the strangest looks from people as I'm walking to the bus stop. One guy said, "You have to be babysitting - no way can all those kids be yours!" Another said, "You've sure got your hands full!" All the moms at the bus stop want Ryan to make one for them too!

Anyways, those of you who know Ryan will appreciate this "rig" and those of you who don't will probably just laugh because I'm sure it looks quite ridiculous. Either way, Ryan rocks for doing this for me!

Our newest niece!

My brother Joel and his wife Lisa had their 3rd little girl a couple weeks ago - her name is Shae Margaret and she is soooo adorable! I can't wait to see her again - if I can ever get out of the house, that is!

Stampin' Up Convention

Last week I had the opportunity to go to the Stampin' Up Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah (without the family). It was the first time I'd been on a trip without the fam coming along, so it was a little different! Ryan and the kids survived with help from friends and family (thanks so much, by the way!) and I had so much fun!

I went with my upline Kresta and sideline demonstrators Chris and Michelle. We all shared one hotel room, so it was like a slumber party every night!

The convention took place at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake, where some Winter Olympics events were held - it was massively huge! The first day of convention, we got to go to Memento Mall (where they have lots of cool Stampin' Up logo merchandise).

This is us waiting in line to get into Memento Mall.

We also checked in and received our bags with lots of FREEBIES! We got 3 brand-new stamp sets and the new catalog! It won't even be released to the public until Aug. 11th. It is so amazing with so many fun new stamps and accessories! Can't wait for my workshops so I can show my customers all the new stuff!

Another highlight was going to the Salt Lake Temple with my demo friend Lisa. I don't have a cell phone and I hadn't been there since I was 12, so trying to meet up with her for a temple session was a little tough. We finally found each other and were able to attend the temple together. That temple is sooooo beautiful! All of the intricate woodwork and painting was breathtaking. I only wish Ryan could've been there with me as well. My camera wouldn't take any good pics of me in front of the temple because it was too dark, but Lisa is supposed to send me a pic from her camera, so when she does, I'll post it here.

We also got to go to Stampin' Up's head office in Riverton. It was an amazing building - when you walked in there was this huge rock formation with a waterfall and everything. We got to go to the Idea Room where all the head honchos come up with their amazing ideas. It was this huge room with comfy couches and bean bags with a great view of the Wasatch mountains and there was ping pong and air hockey tables also. This is a pic of me and my friends chillin' on a couch in the Idea Room.

In the same building is the shipping warehouse where all of our orders are filled. We got to see the "picking" line - it was pretty hi-tech!



We also had lots of fun classes and presentations to attend where we all got some great new ideas. One of my favorite classes was the Make n Takes. They had 6-7 projects for us to do with the new stamp sets that were freebies to us, with some new techniques, too.

Another fun thing to do was swapping. Basically, everyone brings card fronts and sometimes 3-D items to swap with other demonstrators. I made about 100 cards to swap, but some people made up to 500! People were swapping everywhere...in the elevator, in the hall, walking to classes, in the lunch line...basically anywhere you could find someone who was swapping! I got to meet some really neat people. One of them was a gal from Canada named Gerry. She was traveling by herself and was staying at our hotel, so we kind of "adopted" her into our little group. She is so smart with her business and had lots of tips she didn't mind sharing. She was also super nice. Here's a pic of Gerry with our group on the last day of convention.
So basically I came home tired from having a slumber party every night, but bursting with new ideas and excitement for all the new products, etc. I'm glad to be back home in my own bed and I really did miss the kids and Ryan so much!