Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Um Wow, has it really been this long since I have posted!!
Obviously it is time. My New Years resolution is to update at least once a month, hopefully twice. (Don't tell anyone, but I think it was my resolution last year too)

Here is the gist of what happened last from my Christmas letter that I never sent:




Michael is on his second year at Access Data as a Software Engineer. He won first place for his “angry bird” costume at work (check it out on his facebook page). He took 3rd place in his spelling bee getting thrown off by Ba-nan-a.  He serves as the Eleven year old scout leader in the ward.. it is fun to have him be Judson’s leader. We celebrated 12 years of marriage this year! Hurray! He is such an amazing husband and father, I still think of him as my “mission blessing”. I don’t know what I would do without him. His super power is Patience. 
Our favorite place in the world! Hotel Park City. Celebrating our 12th anniversary!
I talked Michael into letting me do this for Halloween. We won $20 from his work costume contest! First place baby. (OK we tied for first, but it sounds better to just say first place.)

Michael helping Judson with one of his Arrow of Light requirements.

I, Kiki, had an exciting year. I was able to have a 10 lb benign tumor removed from my uterus. (I can think of easier way to lose 10 bls, but hey, I will take what I can get). Recovery was about 12 weeks and I was beginning to wonder if it was worth it. But now I am so grateful that I was able to have that taken out. I feel great and have more energy than before. I also was able to lose over 60 lbs, so that helps with the energy level as well. I ran the Las Vegas Ragnar again this year and it was a BLAST. (I think we should do a family team one year). I am serving as the Relief Society secretary in our new ward and seeing the blessing from that calling already. Her super power is Determination. 
Before and After Stevie (my 10 pound tumor). Umm, why didnt' anyone tell me I looked 7 months pregnant?

The Las Vegas Ragnar. My Ragnarcisist team was AMAZING! We had so much fun!
Michael and Kiki and Dana and Jared sealing to the babies.
The Tassin siblings together again. Ben came out on a "mini-mission" to help out one of the youth of his ward. It was so fun to all be together again.

Judson is 11 and  in the fifth grade. He is growing up so fast that he is almost as tall as me.. I know, not saying much.  He is defiantly a tween, I am getting more eye rolls than I used to; but he is still a sweet kid for the most part.  I will enjoy the cuddles while I can get them. (shhh…don’t tell him I told you that he still cuddles). He is quite the artist and loves to draw and paint.  He started taking art lessons in March and we have seen dramatic improvement. He even won first place in his age group for the Strawberry Days Art Contest (Check out my blog for some of his art).   We are so proud of him for  earning  his Arrow of Light and loves having Michael as his scout leader. His super power is Obedience. 
Judson's first day of 5th grade. He and his friend designed the Logo for their School mascot. He is wearing the T-shirt with the Logo. Pretty Cool!


Carma is 6 and in first grade. When I asked her teacher how she was doing the second week of school her teacher said “She is driving me crazy!”. Hahaha!  Well, I know, she is a talker and marches to the beat of her own drum. I guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree there. That Michael is a talker…haha. She is doing better in school now and the teacher has discovered her brilliance. She is the best reader in her class and reads at a much higher level than the rest of her class.  She was a trooper this year when she got her tonsils out. I honestly have never met a sweet child than Carma, she is without guile and such a wonderful example to me of love. Her Superpower is Love.  
Carma's first day of First Grade.

Carma was having a hard time adjusting after our ward split, she only knew one child in her class. So, I had a tea party for her to get to know the other children in the class. It was so cute and fun.
Silas's mom captured this picture, it is one of my all time favorites. They are not posing, this is normal behavior. How cute is that?

Wyatt is three.  He is our baby and doesn’t mind being the baby. When asked if he wants to go on the potty he says “Nope”. I say “Wyatt do you want to be a big boy or a baby?” He says “Baby!”.  There you have it, he is a genius. He knows what is up once you “grow up”.  He loves Spiderman. I have never seen a child read books, song books, magazines, newspapers, coupon books the way he does. His hand reenacting a scene from Spiderman or some Superhero show. You will have to see my video on Facebook to know what I mean. It is a crack up. His superpower is Imagination.
Michael grew these sunflowers in the summer. Look how tiny the kids are next to them.
This is my sweet boy. I just can't quit kissing him and when I look at these pictures I know why. He is precious!!
Wyatt's thrid birthday party was a Car's Theme. (He wanted Spiderman, but I talked him into Cars b/c I have the feeling that he is going to be into Spiderman for years. He loved it. I had fun making this Mater cake.)


2011 has been good to us. I can’t believe the year is over. The older I get the faster it goes, and I swear I say that every year. We are blessed with family, the Gospel of Jesus Christ,  health, employment, and so much more. We have been blessed to have my brother, Timmy, live with us. We love having him here and my kids adore him.  I am so grateful for the Lord and His hand in our lives. I pray to know his will and have the courage to live it. I hope to have a stronger relationship with my Father in Heaven, the older I get the more important I realize that I  know nothing and AM nothing without Him. It is amazing that the older I get, the less I know. I am so grateful to feel the love of our Savior through this amazing family that I am so blessed to be a part of.   I love all of you so much!! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and an even better 2012.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Judson's Recent Art

Judson has been taking Art from Mrs. Julie for about 3 months. His talent has improved quite a bit in that short time. Well worth the money! Here are his semester projects:
I don't know what this technique is called. It is where you take a pin and scratch off the surface to "draw". It looks pretty cool!

This one looks even better in person. I love all of the detail in the feathers.

AMAZING is all I have to say about this one. I think we are going to enter this one in the Strawberry Days art competition.

Random pictures of May



Carma at her first Pioneer day.


Carma's School had Pioneer day and they encouraged them to dress like a pioneer. The day before I decided to make her a bonnet and skirt. Thank you Ronna for saving me.. I would have still been working on that bonnet.Here is a link to the bonnet tutorial I used. http://givenmoments.blogspot.com/2008/01/bonnet-tutorial.html

Do y'all like the traditional "Pioneer Fabric" that Carma chose. She is adorable if I do say so myself.. and I DO!

Wyatt's Twin

Trish's son Clayton and Wyatt could be twins.  The first time I saw him I was shocked at how much they looked alike. I had always said that her girls could be mine b/c they looked like my baby pictures. 
They are so cute together! Trish said that Clayton asked if he could live with us. She said "Well, I am your mommy and I would miss you." He said "I will tell her that you are still my mommy but I still want to live there."  Pretty funny. It is probably b/c I let them eat popcorn and make a mess in my living room.
Judson's Shoshone Indian Presentation
(Caption on page reads) Judson gave a presentation on the Shoshone Indians in for his forth grade, end of the year project. Judson chose to do a bean mosaic for his project. He also had to give an oral report.
 Can I tell you how miserable he is when he is asked to talk in front of people?  However, he did a fantastic job.

If you notice, Wyatt joined Judson during the middle of the presentation to help him out a bit.  He was jabbering about the Lego magazine and distracting the other kids (not to mention Judson)  and caused a little bit of giggling. I tried to get Wyatt to come sit down, but the screaming it caused was even more of a distraction.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Carma


Friday, May 20, 2011

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Our Arizona Trip

This was the coolest natural landscape I have seen. It looked like aliens dropped them off.  Jesus must have had fun creating this part of the country with all of its colors and rocks. 
Can Wyatt make any more of a mess with a marshmallow? You can't even see how messy it is. It was ALL over. Marshmallows now banned from road trips. 
Last month we went to visit Nonnie... we started out our 14 1/2 hour drive. It was actually a beautiful and scenic drive. Some of it bordered the Grand Canyon. We stopped at Cliff Dwellers ...(not the cool place that Michael remembered as a child, but these cool rocks. We did stop at the acutal cliff dwellers, but it looked too steep for Wyatt to hike and I was dumb and only brought my flip flops. Maybe next time.) Anyway, it was such a nice drive and we had fun even just driving. I couldn't believe how cold Arizona was in April! I packed for summer thinking it would be super hot, I was freezing half the time.

The rocks in this picture are some of the coolest natural landscape I have seen. It was such a great photo backdrop and the kids loved it, but it was so windy and cold we couldn't stay as long as they would have liked.
Can I just tell you how much my kids LOOOOVVVEE Aunt Nonnie? And here is just one of the reasons why... She plays with them. She is a kid herself and loves video games (something I don't). I love how special Nonnie makes my kids feel, I am so grateful to have her as a sister and an aunt to my kiddies.
Ok, so this picture of the girls was taken at their house, but obviously not on big pea pod or cabbage. It looks kind of funny, but they are too cute in it. I have fun doing this page.

We got to Nonnies on a Sunday and stayed until Wed afternoon. Too short of a visit, but Michael was getting too stir crazy. The babies are too sweet and getting so fun. I was shocked at how much they have grown in just 2 short months. Makenna is even getting rolls on her thigh. The funniest thing about them, especally Makenna is that she will continue to stare at you when you look away and when you look at her again she smiles SO big, like she got what she wanted. It is THE CUTEST! My heart just melts thinking about those cuties.

Carma and Juddy were in HEAVEN being with Nonnie, the spare minutes she could pay undivided attention is now limited, but they don't care and treasure whatever they can get. It is so cute. We played Rock Band and Cooties. The babies make it limited of what we can do now.