Taking Life By the Horns: One Smile at a Time

August

2010-09-29T16:27:00.004-04:00

Ok here is August's recap. You should feel lucky to get it, b/c I really want to give up on blogging! I know try not to cry about it, it will be ok :) So here is a quick update.

Brenden's birthday! He turned 11 on August 2nd. We had a fun day at a water park, and then that weekend we had a family birthday party.

Apparently Justin is worried that Brenden won't be able to blow out all 11 candles

Thank heavens he did it, and in one breath! What an accomplishment

OUR ANNIVERSARY!!! 15 wonderful years, and we still haven't had a fight! HaHaHa On the actual day we went to dinner and shopping. After shopping we stopped at cheesecake factory and got a yummy piece of cheesecake to eat when we got home and got the kids to bed. It's great having a built in baby sitter. At least that is what we think! Tori probably thinks different.

We also went to a redskins football game on the weekend. Our first NFL game!! It was sooo fun, we got there early and did some shopping in the skins shops and then went out the field and watched the teams warm up. We got to hang out by the tunnel and high five the players as they went in and out. It was soo awesome. We had great seats except for the drunk kids next to us!

In the picture above is of course a few of the players, but Gene had to get a picture of Chris Cooley #47 b/c he is an Aggie grad. and he is a Mormon boy. You wouldn't believe how big these guys are in real life.

First day of school. I only put on the group pic. not all of the individuals. This year we have two in middle school and one in grade school. The kids have done good with adjusting to new schools. It's probably been that hardest for Brenden, b/c he had to adjust to a new school and middle school. They have great schools where we moved to, and we love it!

Isaac turned two! :( He is so spoiled! Knowing he is the last is a bad thing. I now know why the youngest is usually a brat! I am watching myself create one. It would be different if I didn't know he was the last, but b/c I know it is different!On his actual b-day we just did brownies and ice cream. He loves to blow out the candles, but what kid doesn't!?

He also loved opening presents. Even though they weren't wrapped, he still ripped up the paper after he took it out of the bag.

For his family b-day we did a Diego party. I cheated this year and didn't make the cake like I usually do. I went and bought Diego to put on the cake. Notice Diego was a little to heavy and he sank into the cake.

And there you go, August in a nutshell!

Family Pictures

2010-08-07T12:18:00.006-04:00

So a few months ago we had a good friend of ours do some family pictures for us. But of coarse with the move and stuff we have yet to decide on which picture to enlarge to put on the wall. So I need some votes as to which one you think should be enlarged and displayed on our wall!! :)

1.

Thanks for you help!! ☺♥☺♥

What a sweet boy!!!

2010-06-09T09:57:00.003-04:00

Monday night I was putting Isaac to bed, and Gene was gone to class. Brenden doesn't like going to bed without one of us down on the main level, where his bed is, until he falls asleep. I usually try to encourage him to at least go lay in his bed. Most of the time he sneaks out and watches a baseball game until I get back down. Well last night I heard him out of bed for just a little bit and then I heard him sneak back into his room. When I came downstairs I found this laying on the couch.♥

I am telling you he is one cute kid!! I didn't erase it for the whole next day, it made me smile all day!! If you can't read it, it says: I love you mom you to dad you guys are so cool. I love you have a nice Tuesday I know I will with the picnic and dance I love you. I think he is going to turn out like his dad, which is a good thing. It is always nice for them to be somewhat sensitive!! :)

busy busy busy!!

2010-05-07T12:09:00.004-04:00

A month ago was opening day for baseball season. On opening day all the teams do a parade from the fire department to the school. It is usually raining, luckily this year we just had some wind, but it was still cold. After the parade we do an opening ceremony, and Gene got roped into singing the National Anthem this year. This year Brenden is playing on a travel team, and Izzy ( that is what she goes by during sports) graduated from tee ball to coach pitch. Gene is assistant coach for Brenden's team, and I am team mom for Izzy's team. It is a lot of work, but a lot of fun. We are doing baseball every day of the week except for Fridays and Sundays. Thus the reason I am just getting to blogging about it.

Here is Brenden's team at the end of the parade

Doesn't he look happy? They have to be at the fire department at 8:00 a.m. I wouldn't be happy either!

Here is Isabelle's team, she is the short one in front! :)
I got them to stop and let me take a picture, Isabelle is really happy about it.

Brenden and Isabelle got the same numbers this year and so did our good friends Jordan and Camryn. Camryn plays on Izzy's team, and Jordan is on Brenden's team

Here are the four of them doing the bum dance. For some reason Izzy didn't do it! I don't know if she couldn't figure out what was going on, or if she was just being a stinker!!

The chic fil a cow comes to opening day too! Poor cow everyone is always pulling his tail!

Here's is Izzy up to bat! She is doing really well with coach pitch. I have no action pictures of Brenden, I get too into his games to stop and take pictures.

FINALLY!!

2010-04-15T13:31:00.003-04:00

Isabelle has had this wiggly tooth for 2 1/2 months!! I thought for sure she would lose it on her birthday, but no luck. I refuse to help the kids pull their teeth, it grosses me out. I even make them go in the other room to do it! :) I did have Gene try and pull it a couple of times, but he kept saying it wasn't ready yet! Finally about a week ago it came out. It had a really long root on it, so I am convinced that is the reason for it taking so long to come out?!!? We have had tooth fairy problems in our house. The first problem is how much to give. When Tori started losing teeth Gene wanted to give a quarter.....hello inflation!! I talked him into a dollar. The other problem we have is reminding the tooth fairy to show up!! That dang tooth fairy has made me become the biggest liar. Every time I forget I have to come up with a good lie to explain why the tooth fairy didn't come that night. We have learned to set an alarm since we forgot SO many times!! :)

Spring has sprung

2010-04-09T14:46:00.005-04:00

Happy Easter!! It has been great spring weather here in Maryland (sorry Utah peeps). We had a good spring break with temperatures in the 70's and 80's. One of the bonuses of having a husband for a teacher is that he gets the week of spring break off!! We did a lot of playing outside, picnics, but not much spring cleaning like we should have......oooops. Easter day was a beautiful day, so the Easter bunny did 3 Easter egg hunts. The first hunt was downstairs and in the eggs were items that would remind us of why we celebrate Easter. The second one was on the main level of the house, and that egg hunt included the eggs that the kids had dyed. And the 3rd egg hunt was outside with plastic eggs full of stuff that the "Easter bunny" spent all night filling!! Thanks to Gene for saving up a huge bowl full of coins, we were able to put a lot of money in the eggs this year. I am sure that is not what he was saving for, but it worked out great.

Isabelle, Brenden, Alexis, and Tori dying eggs

Isabelle checking out the loot in her Easter basket!

Isaac trying to figure out what this basket of stuff is, it didn't take him long to find the candy and figure out what it was!

Here is Brenden being Brenden, he can't take a picture without pulling some kind of weird face!!

When we went hunting for the eggs that the kids dyed, Isaac only had one to find, b/c me being the good mom didn't let him dye any eggs. But I did dye one for him, and when he found it he started sucking on it. Notice the blue mouth!!

Victoria checking out her clothes that she got for Easter. It took us forever to find a skirt that was long enough!!! I can't believe how hard it is to find something decent for a girl this age. It either looks too little girl, or it is really really short!!! We finally found two skirts that were long enough at Kohl's!! YEAH!!!

I made all the kids stop and take quick picture for me!

On the Monday after Easter we decided to go to DC and check out the Cherry blossoms and enjoy the nice weather before we had to get back into our school schedule. So we packed up a lunch, some stuff to play with, found a great park that is by the water, and it had free parking. (free anything is always a nice bonus)

Here is Isaac enjoying some grapes, and getting to play outside. He loves being outside, and he cries every time we bring him inside! I guess that is a good thing since baseball season starts next Saturday and then we will be outside most evenings/nights until the middle of June!!

Victoria and Brenden, again Brenden goofing off because he can't just take a normal picture!

Isabelle and Victoria posing in a cherry tree, notice the cherry blossoms, they were beautiful.

I even got the boys to stop for a picture with the trees

All the kids in front of a couple of the trees. It is always an adventure trying to get all of them to look at the camera!!

I just had to add this picture b/c I thought it was so cute of Isabelle and Brenden! Isabelle climbed the tree all by herself, and Brenden the wimp had his dad put him up there. They had to be careful so they didn't fall out!! LOL

5 year anniversary

2010-04-01T19:17:00.006-04:00

I meant to do this post on my birthday, but obviously I didn't, so I decided I would do it now. February this year, on my birthday, was the 5 year anniversary of when they found out that I had a brain tumor. I can't believe it has been that long! When I take the time to look back on the many miracles in my life, this one is near or at the top. It was quite a scary time, but thanks to all you great friends and family out there, we made it through, and continue to make it. Today I went to the neurologist to find out that everything continues to go well. It is sad that sometimes we tend to forget about these times in our lives, and the blessings that we have. So as a tribute to my five year anniversary I thought I would try to pull up some pictures of what has happened, or what I looked like each birthday these last five years!! :)

Here I am sporting my lovely staples! I don't remember how many I had. I do remember that when the surgeon came in to ask me if I had any question before surgery, my only question was how much hair they were going to shave off. :)

So here we are the next year, my 30th birthday. We went on a cruise with our good friends Rebecca and Curtis. It was the best 30th birthday present you could get!!

Here we are the four of us! We had a great time together playing cards, soaking up the sun, and eating eating eating!!

For my 31st birthday Gene surprised me and sent me to NYC with Holly and Amber!! It was a blast.

We never did make it out to the real statue of liberty, but we did a lot of shopping and a few tourist things!! It was a blast, no kids and no schedule. Yet another great birthday!!

While we were in NYC we did make it to a show. None of the good shows were at the discount tickets, so we went to one called the drowsy chaperon. Not the greatest of shows, but it did have one awesome actor in it, the one and only Gilbert from Anne of green gables!! ♥♥My first crush♥♥♥♥ You better believe we went to the backstage door and waited to see him. I freaked out and we took a bunch of pictures with him!!

And for my 32nd birthday another miracle happened and I found out that I was pregnant with Isaac. After the brain incident I was told not to have any more children. Isaac wasn't planned but he was a pleasant surprise!

And best of all he was born perfect!!!!

For my 33rd birthday my mom flew me to Utah to meet my newest niece Maggie and My nephew Dylan. And I got to introduce Isaac to the family too!!!

AND for my 34th birthday Maryland had a record breaking snow storm, and the kids and Gene had the week off from school. So I took advantage of having them all home and had myself a birthday week!!! It was great!!

So there you go, that is my last five years, and what a great time we have had!!! It's amazing the way you learn and grow from the trials in your life. Thanks again for the great friends and family that you all are!!!!

Happy Birthday Isabelle

2010-03-25T09:59:00.005-04:00

Once again I am behind on my posts! :) Isabelle turned 7 on February 24th, I can't believe she will get baptized next year. She is growing up too fast, I want her to slow down and be my little girl!! This year Isabelle wasn't suppose to get a friends party, but this great couple from church do a magic show, and they wanted to give Isabelle a magic show birthday party. Isabelle is one of their biggest fans. The best part about this birthday party was that it wasn't held at our house, we did it at the church. It was a really fun party. I don't think we are going to be able to do better, so maybe we should stop having b-day parties now! ;)

Uncle Nate and Aunt Katie gave her skittles and $5.00. After Isabelle opened she sang the "five dollar foot long" and decided she could go buy a subway. I think she watches too much tv!!

Next presents from mom and dad. This is a furreal pet. She really wants a real dog, but that isn't happening, so this will have to do!

This is here prebirthday party cake, so we decided to do brownies, b/c they are fast, easy, and yummy!

The Birthday party!!! We had a ton of kids turn out! It was fun and crazy all at the same time. The kids kicked balloons around until everyone got there, so we could start the magic show. Notice, Isabelle is a head or two shorter than all of her friends! :)

Cousins!!! What would a birthday party be without your cousins. These two are the best of friends, it is so cute to see them play together.

The older kids goofing off! I am afraid of what trouble they caused while I was taking care of the birthday party.

Here are all the kids sitting waiting for the magic show to begin!

Here is the magician and his first helper Jayden.

Towards the end of the show he called on Isabelle to be a helper!

They even had a special magic hat for the birthday girl! I am bummed b/c the color is bad in some of these pictures!!

Thanks to our great magician and his lovely assistant Pookie!!! :D

Here is the birthday party cake. We decided a rabbit fit the theme well. This year I decided to try a cupcake cake. I figured it would be easier to serve, and it was. I have to say I was pretty impressed at our finished product. Thanks to my awesome husband for helping!!

Isabelle blowing out the candles! And then we opened the presents and finished up!!

Snow Storm Feb. 2010

2010-02-08T14:01:00.005-05:00

It all started on February 2 and 3rd 2010! We only got 3-5" but in Maryland that was enough to cancel school. It was a nice warm day after the snow fell and so we all bundled up to go and play out in the snow. This was Isaac's first time that he could actually walk in his snow boots, so it really was his first official time "playing in the snow." He actually loved being out with the kids, and cried when I took him inside. Unlike the snow storm in December, this one was a wetter one, which made it easier to make snowmen.

Here's Isaac trying to decide if he can walk on this crazy white stuff!

Isabelle and Victoria made this cute little snowman :)

Brianna and Brenden made this snow thing, I have no idea what it was, but they were proud of it!

Isabelle and Isaac playing in the snow.

I made them all stop playing and let me take a picture.

On Friday Feb. 5th and Saturday Feb. 6th, the BIG snow storm came! They were calling for 20 to 30" of snow. We were pretty excited. Some people in Maryland were freaking out, they don't know how to deal with the snow! :) The flakes started to fall around 6:00p.m. on Friday night. It took awhile for them to start sticking, but they finally started sticking around 8:00. We were constantly looking out the window to make sure it was still snowing. It snowed all night Friday night, and continued most of the day on Saturday. I think it finally stopped snowing Saturday around 5:00. I think we ended up with about 24 to 28 inches. It is really heavy snow, great for building and playing in. Not so fun to shovel. Gene was out shoveling for 3 1/2 hours on Sunday. I watched him from the front window! We only have one shovel, so I couldn't help. But all the neighbors got together and helped each other out!!

Here is Isabelle on our front porch, at this time it was still snowing! I took this picture through the front window, b/c I was to much of a wimp to go out at this point. The wind did blow through most of the snow storm, in fact we not only had a winter storm warning, but we also had a blizzard warning b/c of the high winds.

Brenden, Brianna, and Isabelle playing out in the snow, before the storm was over!

Here is Isabelle in the middle of the snow, notice the snow is almost up to her bum! :)

These next pictures are taken two days after the snow storm. Sunday everyone spent the day shoveling out, so on Monday I took Isaac out to check out the snow. Plus I wanted to see how high the snow was. So I took a whole bunch of pictures for those of you who aren't in Maryland so that you picture how much snow we got!

These pictures are the exact amount of snow!! They aren't what has been piled up b/c of shoveling.

From the street you can barely see the top of his head above the snow! :)

Brianna, Brenden, and Isaac on a mound of snow, and if you close enough behind them is a car that is buried in snow. This is pretty much what most of our street looks like!

Victoria, Brianna, Isabelle, Amy, and Isaac in front of another car buried in snow! I don't think they are going anywhere for a while! :-) I'm glad we weren't parked on the street!!

YES! Christmas did come to our house! :-)

2010-02-04T08:20:00.006-05:00

This posting is for you Aimee, now you can quit bugging me about updating my blog! ;) Christmas really did happen at our house, it has just taken me a month and a half to get it on our blog! We had a good Christmas, we just stayed in Maryland and had Gene's parents come to our house. We were lucky enough to have a white Christmas, that doesn't happen much here on the east coast! Next year we hope to spend Christmas in Utah!!!!

Here are the kids sporting their new Christmas PJs

I don't have many other pics of Tori on Christmas morning so I thought I would throw this one in of her opening her pajamas on Christmas Eve. The girls showing off there jammiesThe boys! Brenden is always happy to have a brother around!

Isaac showing off like he always does!

Brenden got his real NFL football just like he wanted!! Now I just have to stop him from throwing it in the house!!

Gene got me a snuggie, and I love it!!

Isabelle in another pair of pajamas, and these ones came with matching pjs for her baby

Isaac is kissing the baby on the book! It is his baby book that I made for him!

This is the rocking horse that santa brought Isaac, he isn't quite sure what to think of it.It didn't take Isaac long to learn how to rip the paper. Next year we might be in a little bit of trouble with presents under the tree before Christmas.

I finally made Isabelle a baby book!! She has been begging me to do it for quite sometime, and I finally got one together for her this year. I still have a lot more to do for her. Luckily I found this great deal through photoworks that the first 25,000 people to make a book got it free! I got two, one for Isaac, and one for Isabelle! Actually I did 3 b/c I made one for my mother in law! :) I love a good deal!!!

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!!!!!!!!

2009-12-21T22:13:00.004-05:00

Friday they were calling for a snow storm to come into Maryland that should bring 8 to 12" of snow. By Friday late afternoon they were calling for 10" to 20". I was glued to the weather channel to make sure it was really going to happen. The problem with Maryland is they call for these big snow storms and then they never come, so I have to watch the weather channel to make sure that they do come! :) Friday night at about 10:00p.m. we started getting some snow. At 5:00 a.m. I got up to look out the window and make sure that it was still snowing, and it was. It was a continual snow all night and then all day on Saturday. It was small flakes so it didn't look too crazy! By midday we had a good amount of snow. At about 4:00 I went and tried to measure, but I only made it a few steps and measured close to the house, and at that time it was measuring about 16". It snowed until about midnight Saturday night. They say that we ended up with about 23" of snow, and we are loving it. Here are some pictures during the day, and the next day!

This is the top of Gene's car after he had cleared a little bit of it off!

Gene preparing himself to dig us out! I was nice enough to let him do all the work!

Isaac checking out snow for his first time ever!

Pretty much he looks like the kid from the Christmas story. The things we do to our children just to get a picture!

Gene slowly introducing Isaac to the snow.

Brenden and Isabelle all bundled up and ready to go and play in the snow!

Isaac in his snow hat!

Poor kid!!! But he is darn cute!

It's never too late!!

2009-12-17T07:52:00.005-05:00

I have decided better late than never. I want to blame my lack of posts on the holidays, but really that is just a good excuse. Really what I want to do is yell at my dear, lovely husband and tell him that he started this dang blog so he should contribute in posting!!! Here are some pics from Halloween. We were lucky enough to have nice weather, which meant we got to go trick or treating for a long time. Trick or treating for a long time means LOTS of candy. We have this awesome deal in our house that you get to pick your top 10 or 15 favorite treats to keep to yourself, and then the rest of the candy goes into a big bowl to "share"! :) I think it is a great idea, and I came up with that one all by myself!

Brenden and Brianna as ninjas

Isabelle as my little Dorothy, I even splurged and got her ruby red slippers!

Isaac dressed up as two different things, on Halloween night he was the lion, and Isabelle was Dorothy!

Victoria was a "dead model" ?? Don't ask, I have no idea, we just smile and nod!!!!

Here is our little stinker!! I bought this costume when I found out I was pregnant. It was a GREAT deal at children's place. But when Isabelle decided to be Dorothy, she also wanted Isaac to be the lion. Luckily we had two Halloween parties to go to, so he got to wear both costumes.

Seriously the cutest skunk I have ever seen! :)

Brenden and Brianna Getting the guts out of the pumpkins

Just a little shot of everyone gutting out the pumpkins. Isaac can't decide if he likes it or not!

The finished pumpkins. Isabelle did a cat, with some help!

Brianna and Brenden did the bat all by themselves! And no one lost a finger!

And Victoria did the happy pumpkin

The last month of summer!

2009-11-02T09:41:00.006-05:00

We began the month of August with Brenden's 10th birthday. Our family, and Steve and Adri Ann's family headed to Altoona, PA. for the weekend to see Gene and Steve's grandparents. We celebrated Brenden's birthday day in Altoona and then had a friends and family party a few days after we got home. I can't believe Brenden is ten!!! He will be going to middle school next year. Because we weren't at home for his birthday day we got Brenden a Boston cream doughnut(Brenden's favorite) for his cake. I really think he liked it better than the actual cake. We were even able to fit all ten candles on the doughnut, as you can see in the picture below!! :D

He is pretty proud of himself for blowing out all ten at once! LOL

While we were in Altoona, we went to the outback for dinner. We requested two booths, and we put all the kids in one both and the adults and babies in the booth behind it. It was great!!! The kid's waitress was AWESOME, she pretty much took care of the kids for us and we got to enjoy the meal without taking care of the kids. We left her a really big tip. I'm telling you she really did it all!!!! She is seated with the kids in this pic.

Gene has decided we are going to be an equal opportunity family with NFL football teams. The kids went with my NFL team, and love the broncos, but we have decided to be nice and cheer for the redskins too. If you notice in the pictures above brenden has on a redskins jersey, that is what Gene gave him for his Birthday. The football cake has a skins helmet on one side and a broncos helmet on the other side.

Isabelle taught herself to ride a bike without training wheels. I tried to help her, and Victoria tried to help her learn, but Isabelle is too strong willed. So instead of fighting her I finally told her to just do it herself. It only took her about 10 minutes and she was doing it with no problems.

At the end of August school started. I love the first week of school because the kids are sooo excited to go that they are up and ready without any whining and complaining. All three kids are in full day school, just like last year. Kindergarten is all day here so this year is not a change for any of the kids.

Brenden is the big man of the school, this year he is in 5th grade.

Isabelle is going into 1st grade, but that isn't much of a change because she did all day school last year too.

Victoria thinks she is sooo big this year because she isn't a little 6th grader!! You gotta love the drama that comes with a girl! ;)

Isaac turned one on August 28th. I can hardly believe that my baby is one. We are sooo glad to have in our family! He is defiantly our little miracle. I don't know if he is ever going to walk because he doesn't need to with 3 older sibling doing everything for him.

We wrapped Isaac's present with a blanket because it was too big to wrap and easier for him to unwrap with just taking the blanket off. He didn't know any different. Isaac loves little Einsteins, so we got him this ride on rocket that has the Einstein characters that ride on it, and it makes all kinds of noises.

Here is Isaac opening the rest of his gifts from friends and family.

Gene and I made Isaac a little monkey cake for his birthday. I think the cake is almost as big as him.

I couldn't resist putting this picture on here. This kids is so dang cute!!

We also made him a cake in the shape of the #1 with his name on it. This was Isaac's personal cake to destroy and eat. I did not let him eat the whole thing!!!

2009-10-26T20:59:00.001-04:00

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The last days at the cabin!

2009-10-26T14:07:00.003-04:00

Meal time!!! It is always interesting at meal time especially when you are feeding 18 kids and 12 adults. The cabin had this great big table outside and it was perfect for everyone to eat at. The kids loved it b/c they got to be outside eating. The adults loved it b/c it made for less mess in the inside. It really was a lot of fun, and the weather was perfect. Each family took there turn cooking so that made it a little easier on everyone, unless it was your turn to cook! ;)

Brenden, Nolan and Cody, eating and talking! We are just glad they aren't throwing food!!

Isaac and Isabelle eating breakfast in their pajamas

The whole crew. Now that's a lot of kids!!!!!

Rebecca, Victoria, Rylee and Haylee

Here's another pic. of the whole gang, from the other end of the table.

Katie had here birthday while we were up at the cabin. So we celebrated it with the girls tubing down the river. I don't have pictures of that, but I wish I did. It was a little bit of a rough ride, and the second time we went down my mom got caught in the undertow and melissa had to drag her back up on the tube. Apparently when my mom got on the tube she noticed that the top of her swimsuit had fallen off!!! LOL She pulled it back up as fast as you can while riding a tube down the river!! She will probably kill me for telling that story, but it is just to funny not to share. After tubing and dutch oven dinner we sat by the fire and played big booty, and sang to Katie and had cake!! Lots of fun!!!!!

Katie and her birthday cake

Gene, me and Victoria by the fire.

Brenden and Nolan half asleep, but hanging in there!

Carson, Brenden, Cody, and Nolan playing in the fire, like all boys do!

Lava hotsprings family reunion

2009-10-15T13:23:00.004-04:00

July 22nd-26th the Munns family went to a cabin in Idaho for our first ever family reunion. It was the first time me and my brother and sisters were all together since December 2004 (I think)!! It was a lot of craziness, but mostly a lot of fun. We had 18 grand kids and 12 adults. We all stayed in one cabin, except for Amber and Brooks, and they brought up their trailer to stay in. On the second day of our reunion we went to lava hotsprings for a day of swimming. Luckily my mom grabbed my camera and snapped some pictures. Here is what we have captured in pictures.

Gene, Isaac, Karl, Zach, Megan, Nathan, and Isabelle, hanging around.

Here's Megan, I am sure she is trying to find all 6 of her children. :)

Some of the guys got brave and jumped off the highest platform diving board. This is Brooks

Gene and Karl discussing who is going to be the first to go?!?! :D

Nate jumping, I think he might have peed himself! ;)

Amber and Maggie Jo hanging out in the water

Brenden climbing out of the bottom of the BIG slide. All the kids that were tall enough to go on the slide did. They are really steep slides too!!

Amy, Isaac, and Isabelle hanging out in the water. Isabelle was like a little fish, we couldn't get her out of the water!

Katie and Dylan. We had so much fun talking and hanging out, it was great!

Isabelle and Rebecca, they look so much alike you would think that they were twins!!

Dylan's hairdo and Isaac's first haircut

2009-10-05T13:08:00.006-04:00

I'm still catching up, but someday I will be caught up!!! :D While we were in Utah Gene convinced me that it was time for Isaac's first haircut. It actually worked out perfect b/c our good friend Maurie has given all the rest of the kids their first haircuts. We went and spent the day with Bruce and Maurie, but unfortunately the only pictures I got were of Isaac's haircut. He sat on my lap and was very good, he didn't even cry. Maurie didn't allow us to have her in any of the pictures, so all you can see is her hands. He looked so big after his hair cut it made me sad. But no worries his hair is all grown out again, and he is currently sporting the cutest mullet you have ever seen!!! LOL :)

Isaac's sporting his new haircut, isn't he handsome!!

My brother Nathan's little boy is 3 1/2 months older than Isaac, and has tons of hair. Ever since I have seen this cute kid I have wanted to put a pony tail in his hair!! One day when we were in Utah, Katie had to go get her haircut, so I got to watch her kids. As soon as she left I got out the hair stuff and started on Dylan's hair. I couldn't resist getting pictures of it! I sent my brother pictures via text message. He wasn't happy with what I had done to his kid, but he was still in Nevada, so he couldn't do anything about it!! It's great being an aunt!!

Dylan sporting pig tails

And here he is sporting one ponytail. Personally I like the pigtails better! :)

Good times with Grandma and Grandpa Great!!!

2009-09-25T11:44:00.002-04:00

Whenever we go home to Utah we try to spend a good amount of time with grandma and grandpa great. We love them so much and love going to be with them and letting the kids get to know them better. My grandma is always cussing me for moving away. Not being able to see them is one of the downfalls of living so far away. I am glad that my kids always remember who they are when we go to visit, it makes my grandma a little happier. Grandma and Grandpa are the funniest old people you will ever meet. They fight like an old married couple, but in the end you know they still love each other.

Grandpa is always the one teasing, weather he is picking on grandma or one of the grand kids!
Here grandpa is being a goof off again. Dang I love that guy!!!

Grandma and Isaac. Yes her eyes are closed, that is something we all do. It is hard to get a good picture of the Munns family without someone having their eyes closed!

I love this picture of Grandpa and Isaac, they both look like they are up to trouble.

Kids pics Summer '09

2009-08-31T12:49:00.017-04:00

This has to be one of the hardest post I have done. While we were in Utah my friend Aimee introduced me to her friend Angie. Angie has a hobby/side business of taking pictures, and she does a dang good job!!! So me, Aimee and Angie went up to Sherwood hills up sardine canyon and Angie spent a good couple of hours taking pictures of the kids!! It was sooo fun and the kids did a good job, and Angie did a GREAT job!! My only regret is that Gene wasn't there so we couldn't get family pictures. The hardest part about this posting was trying to decide what pictures to post. I love almost everyone of the pictures, and it has taken me a good hour and a half to decide on a few to post. I am not going to put any captions with the pictures b/c if you don't know my kids names and faces, then you shouldn't be reading my blog!! :) I did get a couple of pictures with just me and the kids, unfortunately I wasn't planning on doing that so I am in crappy clothes and my hair isn't done! :( Thanks Angie for taking the time to do this for us, I can hardly wait for our next trip to Utah to get more pictures done!! WARNING there are a lot of pictures on this post!! :D

The 3rd and 4th of July

2009-08-28T12:10:00.004-04:00

So in Logan they have the fireworks on the 3rd of July instead of the 4th. I have never figured out why they do that, but who cares. We got to spend the afternoon, and evening with my good friend Aimee. We went to her work party with her, it was held at the Logan pool. It was really warm water, so it was lots of fun to swim in and you didn't get cold. In fact it was so warm I could have stayed in it all day and night. After playing at the pool we headed to watch fireworks on the lawn in front of her place of employment. Thanks Aimee for a fun day and night, and for the free ice cream, and free swimming and the free glow sticks!!! LOL

It was so warm even Isaac liked it!

This was my attempt to get Isaac's picture while watching his first fireworks, as you can see it didn't work! :)

For the 4th of July we headed out to Howell with my sister Melissa and her kids, and Brooks, Amber and Maggie. Brooks took all of us boating!! It was a blast. The kids got to boat, swim, ride the tube, and whatever other crazy ideas they came up with. Uncle Brooks is all about doing crazy stunts, but we love him anyway! :) Thanks Brooks and Amber for sharing the boat with us!!

Brenden has become too brave and did all sorts of tricks in and out of the water. I think Brooks is rubbing off on him! I can't decide weather that is a good or a bad thing

Victoria and Rylee eating some snacks and enjoying the shade

Maggie and Isaac enjoying the shade and eating rocks

Garrett and Brenden taking a break from their craziness.

Reagan, Rylee, and Victoria on the boat with Brandon.

Tori hanging out on the boat!! Who knows what she is doing!! ;)

Isabelle driving the boat, she thinks Uncle Brooks is the coolest!

Isaac loved the boat, it rocked him to sleep, and he took a good two hour nap!!! It was great!

After boating we went to hang out at the city center in Howell. We roasted hot dogs, and made hobo dinners and of coarse for dessert we roasted marshmellows. Mom and Jerry met us at the park for dinner and fireworks. We lit our own fireworks and I am happy to say that we didn't start anyone or anything on fire. With my family that is something that we are good at doing, so it is always a good 4th when nothing but the fireworks start on fire!!! :)

Here's the situation! :)

2009-08-16T22:26:00.002-04:00

I really haven't forgotten about our blog it is just that we have been busy all summer, and then when we got home from vacationing in Utah my computer wasn't working well. So I have a new computer now, but I have no pictures on the computer, and I think a blog is boring without pictures. I do have some great pictures from Utah that I can't wait to blog about, and Brenden turned 10 the first of this month and Isaac turns one in a week and a half. Plus I have to get the CD from my lovely husband that has all these really cute pictures of our kids that this really nice person took!! All that just to say be patient I promise I will update my blog soon!!

ORIOLES!!!

2009-06-23T14:32:00.003-04:00

While Victoria was playing in Florida with the neighbors, Gene and I decided to take the other kids and do a few fun things! On Friday, June 12th it was Mormon night at Camden yards, home of the Orioles. Mormon night means all Mormons get into the game for just $6.00. So we packed some treats got dressed in our Orioles wear and headed to the game. Of coarse we were all excited, but we have also been spoiled by some great seats Gene can get through one of his work contacts and we knew with these tickets we would not be so close. It was Isaac's first time going to MLB game and I was hoping he would do good, and he did! Unfortunately it wasn't the best game for the O's, but still worth going to the game. It was perfect weather which always makes it nicer. I also got to see my boyfriends Nick and Brian, Nick plays right field, and Brian is the O's second baseman! LOL Anyway it was a fun night at the ball field, everyone had a good time, and it was floppy hat night, so we got a few free Orioles floppy hats.

Here is a picture of one of my boyfriends Nick Markakis! I tried to get Gene to name Isaac Nick, but he refused to name our child after an athlete that I thought was cute! :)

This picture here is Brian Roberts, he is only a year younger than me so there is always hope with him! ;) He is Brenden's favorite baseball player! I couldn't find a really go picture of him, so this one will have to do!

How could you not love this crew here. Aren't they the cutest O's fans you have ever seen!!

Brenden taking care of Isaac. He is such a good big brother and he can't wait until Isaac is big enough to play sports!!

Isaac at his first O's game sporting one of our free floppy hats!! :) He is also sporting something orange that he ate for dinner on the corner of his mouth, at least he stayed with the color scheme! LOL

Victoria turns 12!!! WOW

2009-06-17T15:43:00.003-04:00

I can hardly believe that Tori turned 12 this year. She has finished her first year of middle school and now she is going to be going to Young Womens! I am soo young I just don't see how it is possible that I have a 12 year old! :) We do have a theme going on this year with the kids birthdays, and the theme is........ see how sick you can get on your birthday. Victoria did a good job at carrying on this tradition that Isabelle started and was throwing up, coughing and sneezing on her birthday! NO FUN poor girl. We did a family birthday get together the day before her birthday, and then we had to wait until the day after her birthday to do cake and ice cream with friends! Victoria had a fun surprise for her birthday that she didn't get to find out until two days after. Our neighbor surprised Victoris and took her and Alexis (her daughter) to Florida to visit Disney world, Universal studios etc. They left on June 10th and won't be back until June 20th. I have gotten a lot of pictures from them and Tori is good to call every morning and sometimes at night depending on how tired she is. Isabelle and Brenden have been very good not to be jealous of her. They have even admitted to missing her, and I think Victoria is a little homesick. Victoria will return from Florida and be home two days and then she will leave to Young Women's camp and on a trek. I am a leader in Young Women's but b/c Isaac is so young, I am not going to camp this year. After Tori gets home from camp she will have two days and the we are packing up and going to Utah for 3 weeks. It will be a crazy busy summer for her!! I am so proud of Victoria and her accomplishments! She is wonderful big sister, and a great example to her siblings. She does well in school, and gets excellent grades (she doesn't get that from me)! I am proud of the young women she has grown into, and the values she has. She is a good example to her friends and is good to stand for what she believes! She has always been strong willed, but I now believe b/c of this she is going to go far in life!! We love you Victoria!! And remember just b/c you will be a teenager next year, it doesn't mean you have to act like one!!! :)

Alexis (this is who tori went to Florida with), Brenden, Tori, and Isabelle!!
We decided she didn't need a character cake this year, so we just let her pick out the flavor and we wrote her name on it! :)

So we could keep the sickness from spreading we cut a big piece of cake for Victoria and put candles on it, so when she blew out the candles it didn't get her sickness on the whole cake!! :D

She still wasn't feeling a 100% good this day, but by the next day she was feeling much better!

Memorial Day!!

2009-06-02T11:49:00.005-04:00

Sorry there are a lot of pictures, but I took a lot that day and I had a hard time not posting most of them! :) Memorial day weekend was filled with nice weather, no baseball games, and lots of family time. Saturday we did a lot of cleaning and playing at home. Monday we packed a picnic lunch and headed to one of our favorite parks that has a lot of play equipment, a baseball field, a soccer field and a basketball hoop. It hardly ever has any people there so you pretty much get the park to yourself most of the time. We had a great time and had great weather to go with it!!

Here's Brenden playing ball, that is his life! He walks around with his mitt on and a ball most of the time, even when he is in the house. Check out those muscles in his arms!! :)
I told Gene to make sure to get a picture of Victoria so I could have one to post on the web page, so he got this one with her posing, I meant for him to get an action shot! LOL

Isaac swinging in the baby swing for his first time! Isabelle couldn't wait to put him in!

Isabelle taking Isaac down the slide for his first time!! She is such a good helper with him.

Isabelle up to bat. She loves baseball ALMOST as much as Brenden. I love having a little tom boy, I am hoping with her being a tom boy that will eliminate some of the drama. I am keeping my fingers crossed!!

Isaac got tired enough that he took a little nap cuddled up with me, under the trees!!

This is Tori's favorite thing to do at the park, swing!! She does it pretty much the whole time she is at the park! That is why this park is her favorite b/c it has the "big" swings!

Isabelle loves these things, not me it almost makes me sick just looking at them going around!

Me and Isaac swinging, this is his first time on the swings and he loved it, he was laughing the whole time. Gene took a video of it, but it could make you sick watching it, so I decided not to post it!!

Isaac with big smiles while he is in his stroller. He is such a happy baby!

Brenden being goofy up on the monkey bars. The kid is such a ham!! He gets it from his dad!!

Let's play ball!!

2009-05-27T11:19:00.002-04:00

The ball field has been our lives for the past 3 months, but I have been slow on doing a post about it! Isabelle and Brenden are both playing. This is Isabelle's second year in tee ball, and Brenden just moved up to kid pitch. We spend most of our nights and Saturdays at the fields, but it is fun to see the kids doing something they love. In tee ball the kids have 5 chances to hit off a coach pitching to them, and if they don't hit then they have to use the tee to hit. Isabelle will proudly tell you that she has only had to use the tee once this season! :) Brenden was picked to be one of the pitchers this year. At first I wasn't sure I was happy about it, but he has ended up being one of the better pitchers on the team. Brenden is a lot of fun to watch play ball, it reminds me of when we used to go watch my brother play. Brenden has had some great diving catches, and has done a good job pitching. He struggled at first with hitting off a kid pitching, mostly because he was scared they were going to hit him with the ball!!! LOL I told him I would pitch to him for practice and he would get used to getting hit with the ball. He has overcome his fear now and is back to being a good hitter, and he is loving the fact that they can steel bases this year.

Here is Isabelle suited up to play catcher. I love it when she plays catcher, the equipment is bigger than her!! :)
A closeup of Isabelle in the catchers gear.

Here is Isaac watching one of the games. I think he thinks this is his second home. I am soo glad he hasn't started crawling yet, it makes ballgames much easier.

Isaac and I go and cause problems in the dugout every once in awhile. The girls love to hold him. Isabelle plays basketball and soccer with a lot of the same kids, so they have known Isaac since he was born.

Here's Brenden getting ready to pitch! His team is the Florida Marlins. Each year the kids get to be a major league baseball team. Last year Brenden was the Yankees and it about killed us to wear Yankee colors.

I didn't have many pictures of Brenden so I decided to put in another pitching picture!

Here's Isabelle getting ready to bat, and yes she has a pink batting helmet and a pink glove, thanks to her Nanny. Her dad wasn't going to invest in pink stuff!! LOL

Kids pictures 2009

2009-05-15T13:45:00.002-04:00

So we finally did it, we went to JC penney and got the kids pictures taken!!! It is always an experience, especially now that we have four kids. We did luck out this time and instead of getting some high school student for the "photographer" we did get a guy who seemed to have little more experience. I probably shouldn't complain b/c you get what you pay for! We never buy school pictures, we prefer to go and get them done where I can pick the pose that I want to buy! :) However when Victoria brought her school pictures home they were really good, so we decided to break down and buy them. SO I don't have an individual of her b/c my scanner isn't working and I couldn't scan in her picture, that is why I posted the group picture of the kids. I actually don't like that picture of them so I didn't buy any of them. The "professional photographer" only took two pictures of the kids, and neither of them turned out. I really don't know how anyone could expect to take two shots of 4 kids and expect to have a good one!! Besides it's digital, take all you want, there's nothing to lose! LOL Anyway here are a few of what we got!

All the kids, notice Tori's nice look, she begged us not to buy this pose, and of course we didn't!! Middle school is such a fun age ;) bring on the hormones!!!!

Isaac 7 months old, this is an odd age to get pictures done but I have been really bad about getting him in to do professional pictures so I guess 7 months is better than nothing!! :)

Brenden 9 1/2 years old!! Isn't he sooo cool!! LOL His friends are currently trying to pay him $10 if he will kiss his girlfriend! LOL

Isabelle 6 years old, and full of spice. She kicked a kid b/c he tried to kiss her! :) Her dad is very proud of her!

Easter morn/day and spring break downtown DC!!

2009-04-27T13:59:00.005-04:00

Easter was just Easter this year, nothing too exciting! Although the Easter bunny did bring lots of candy to our house, and if you know us, we LOVE candy! We had a fun Easter egg hunt in the morning, luckily church isn't until 1:00. That evening we had Gene's parents over for Easter dinner. I miss the Munns Easter celebration, they never did the "nice" Easter dinner, we went up on the "hill" and rolled eggs down the mountain and roasted hot dogs over the fire for dinner. I prefer that over the ham, and rolls and all the dishes that come with a nice dinner.

Isabelle Easter morning, checking out all of her loot!! :)

Brenden stops checking out his stuff to give the camera half of a smile!

Tori is only half awake in this picture and would probably kill me if she knew I posted it on the blog! Good thing her "boyfriend" doesn't know our blog address!! :D

Isaac had to wait until after church to see what the Easter bunny brought him, b/c he slept through most of Easter morning!

Here they all are ready for church, the picture didn't turn out too good b/c I was doing it on my own, Gene had already left to go sing at another church before our church, and Isaac loves shadows, so he wouldn't look at me, just my shadow!

Easter weekend was also our spring break. We didn't have a lot planned, but the Monday after Easter we went into Washington DC in hopes of seeing some cherry blossoms. Unfortunately it was a very windy and rainy spring so most of the cherry blossoms had been blown off the trees. We did however luck out and get some nice weather which makes it nicer to walk around and see the sites, and play some frisbee. We even sat on a blanket and had hot dogs and pretzels.

Coloring Easter Eggs!!

2009-04-15T10:16:00.004-04:00

Like most families at this time of year, we colored Easter eggs the day before Easter. It is getting easier with the kids getting older. Of coarse Brenden did manage to spill a whole cup of dye all over the table, chair, and floor. Luckily everyone else was done and so it was a little easier to clean up. Isabelle didn't like to use the dipper that they give you to dip your egg into the dye. She said "my egg will fall off and I don't want all of my eggs to be one color, I want them to have different colors on them!" Wait until you see the pictures of her fingers. They were BLACK by the time we finished. Gene was worried about how we were going to get them clean for Easter Sunday. I did manage to get most of it off, with a little fingernail polish remover, rubbing alcohol, and sanitizer. Sadly enough, the sanitizer was what got most of it off!! A little scary, but it worked!!! :)

Man can you see the excitement in Tori's face?!?! This is how exciting it is when you become a tween! :) Really she had fun doing it, she just takes it a little more serious now. She was happy that I didn't make them dye eggs in their underwear this year, instead I let them wear old tee shirts! Dang I am a nice mom!!

This is Isabelle's fingers after dying a couple eggs

We had our neighbor Brianna come over and dye eggs with us. Brenden is always cool in everything he does, even if it is just dying eggs!!

This is how Isabelle dyed all the eggs!! See her fingers bathing in the dye! She can be so bullheaded sometimes. I even tried letting her use a spoon, but that didn't do what she wanted it to do! BTW Nate that is me in the background making a Denver Broncos egg!! :)

Here are her fingers closer to the end of dying eggs. She still managed to get them darker than that......................................amazing!

Real boys can run in heels!!! That's my boy!! :)

2009-03-30T17:27:00.002-04:00

A few families in the neighborhood got together for a birthday party this weekend. As the adults were sitting around talking the kids surprised us by all dressing up in our dress up clothes! After that they decided to go outside and do a parade down the sidewalk so everyone could see them. The best part was when we looked out and my rough tough ball playing boy was in my prom shoes (high heels) attempting to run up and down the sidewalk. LOL I had Gene get the camera so we could get it on video, it is going to be great bribery later in life. It isn't the greatest video and you are going to have to tilt your head to the side a couple times during the video, but it is funny!

Bragging moment for the mom!!! :)

2009-03-24T12:28:00.003-04:00

So Isabelle was asked to give a talk last week in primary. Thank heavens for late church because of course I forgot! :) So I get up and start writing the talk and then have Isabelle come help me finish it with some of her own words. Then I think to myself, this has some really big words in it I better read it over with her a couple of times so that she can be able to get through the whole talk. At this point I am planning on standing up with her and helping her give the talk. I will let her read her "word wall words" and then I will help her with the rest. So I print out the talk and we sit together on the couch to review it. And what do you know Isabelle reads almost every word, by herself!! She was so excited to give the talk that she practiced it ALL afternoon. When it was time for church she informed me that she would like to do the talk all by herself and I can sit on the front row just in case she needs help. So she got up when it was time and she stood at the little podium and she gave the talk, all by herself!! I am soooo proud of her!! I can't believe what a good reader she is! :) I will post the talk, so you can see what she stood up and read! Sorry as a mom I have the right to brag every once in awhile!!

Here's her talk:

I will obey my parents.
Heavenly Father wants parents to teach their children the commandments. This is a great responsibility for our parents.
As children, each of us have responsibilities too. Heavenly Father has said: "Honor thy Father and thy Mother." This is one of the ten commandments.There are many ways to honor our parents, we honor them when we show them love. One way to show them love is by being helpful. There are many ways that we can be helpful to our parents. I like to help my mom with baby Isaac. I give Isaac his toys when he is sad. I like to help clean the house. I like to clean my room.
I can help my daddy by picking up the back yard.

I like to obey my parents.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen

Six year old birthday party!!!

2009-03-17T15:04:00.003-04:00

It finally happened on Friday, March 6th we had 7 six year olds come to our house!! It was quite the party. The girls would run around and scream that lovely high pitch six year old scream and the boys would just run around. We did have some organization to the whole craziness!! We ate pizza, played musical pillows ( we had to use pillows because we didn't have enough chairs, but it was probably better and safer!!), and then we played pin the bow on Hello Kitty!! Of coarse we finished the party off with cake and ice cream, opening presents and a pinata!! What more could a kid ask for. At the end of the party Gene and I looked at each other and decided that every other year isn't enough space between kid birthday parties. It was a lot of fun, but there was also a lot of craziness too! :) I called my little sister Amber and gave her some advice since she just started having kids, I told her to start off on the right foot and only do birthday parties every 4 years!!

Here are all the kids finishing up with their pizza, and getting ready to go run around!!

This little boy decided to put the move on Isabelle as he got his picture taken with her! LOL

Hello Kitty after we got done with the game

Isabelle pinning her bow on hello kitty and her friends are on the side cheering for her.

He Loves to laugh!!!!

2009-03-02T17:07:00.003-05:00

Isaac is a very smiley baby and we love to make him smile and laugh. He has the greatest belly laugh that is very contagious. He is also very ticklish, whenever I am getting him dressed and my fingers go down his sides or close to his armpits he squirms and laughs, it is great!! :) I attempted to capture one of his laughing moments on video. It isn't his best laugh, but it is still cute! We love our little Isaac!!

Bad Timing and Happy B-day Isabelle!!!!!!

2009-02-27T10:36:00.005-05:00

I was origanally going to wait until after tonight to blog about this but we had a change in plans after last night!! I will explain.......... Tuesday Isabelle turned 6 years old, I can hardly believe that my baby girl is 6!! We had a small get together Tuesday night with a couple of our neighbors and our little family, to celebrate Isabelle's birthday with cake, ice cream, and of course presents. It was really fun and we are so glad to have such great neighbors. Isabelle got plenty of gifts, and I think she had a pretty good birthday! This year we told Isabelle she could have a kids b-day party. We have stopped letting the kids have a party every year and now we just do one every other year, or longer if I can get away with it!! :) So Friday February 27 from 6p.m.-8p.m. was the plan for the kids party. The theme is Hello Kitty per Isabelle's request! SO all day yesterday and late into the night last night Gene and I got the house and the food ready for the party. We made and decorated the cake, filled the goody bags, hung streamers of hello kitty, blew up hello kitty balloons, you know the works. At about 11:45p.m. Gene is finishing drawing a big hello kitty face so that we can play pin the bow on hello kitty. As he finishes the drawing, we hear coughing from Isabelle's room, and followed by the coughing is throwing up! YEP Isabelle is in her room throwing up!! AAHHHH Needless to say it continued through out the night and we are moving the party to Friday, March 6th!! I still haven't figured out what to do with the cake that is currently decorated and sitting in my freezer, I don't think that I dare try to keep it frozen until next Friday.........DO I???? No I am sure we will do another one for next week. Any way here are a few pictures from her actual birthday. When we have the party I will take more pics and post them too!! Happy Birthday Isabelle, we love having you in our family!!

This is the cake that is currently in my freezer, I am sure next weeks will look the same! :)

Isabelle getting ready to blow out her candles. We actually made brownies for this party

Check out the loot and the neighbors brought even more presents!!! It's tough being a kid! ;)

Isaac and Amy go to Utah

2009-02-13T12:39:00.003-05:00

The end of January me and Isaac got to fly to Utah, so that Isaac could meet the family. We also go to meet Nate and Katie's newest Dylan and Amber and Brook's new baby Maggie Jo. Dylan was born in May of 2008 and Maggie Jo was born January 8th, '09. We only got to go for a week, so we were limited on how many people we got to see, but we were glad to have the short visit and see the family and friends we did get to see. The other kids were sad that they weren't able to go. They love Utah, and seeing family. But hopefully this summer we all will be coming to Utah for a big family get together!! Here are a few pictures of our visit.

Isaac testing Maggie jo's bumbo chair

Left to right: Katie and Dylan, Becky, Grandma great, and Daniel (becky's baby) Amber and Maggie, Amy and Isaac

Isaac sporting the new hat grandma great had made for him!! LOL

Dylan and Isaac taking a bath in grandma's sink

Isaac and Grandma great

Grandpa great, Dylan Munns and Isaac Summers

Dylan and Isaac chillin!!! :) Cute boys

Grandma with Isaac and Maggie Jo

Maggie Jo and Isaac

I had a picture of Isaac hugging maggie, but it looked like he was wrestling her and I thought that Brooks might not like that one so I didn't post it!! ;) Brooks is just a little over protective with his little girl. She totally has him wrapped!!

Washington DC temple lights

2009-01-19T15:08:00.000-05:00

Gene and Rebecca did a concert at the Washington DC temple vistors center December 27th. We have never been to the lights at the visitors center before, and Isabelle loved them. So on the way back to our car after the concert we hurried and took a couple of pictures. Lukcily this is the end of my Christmas pictures for this year! :)

Christmas Day

2009-01-17T13:05:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures of the kids opening there presents. Isaac liked
to eat the wrapping paper. Somehow Victoria avoided getting her
picture taken while opening presents, so there aren't
any of her.

Christmas Eve PJs

2009-01-15T18:11:00.000-05:00

It is a tradition in our family to open one present on Christmas Eve. Usually that
present is pajamas. This year we managed to finding matching PJs for the
whole family from Gene down to Issac. Can you believe that childrens
place carries adult sizes.........sometimes. Here are few of
the pictures we took. Only one more posting and
I will have all of Christmas blogged! :)

Christmas Eve

2009-01-12T12:06:00.000-05:00

This year for Christmas Eve we went to Gene's parents house.
The kids all got to act out the birth of Christ. Gene's mom
made costumes for all of them to wear. It was a great
way to remind the kids of the true meaning
of Christmas!

Isabelle as the angel! :)

Victoria as Mary and Joshua (my nephew) as Joseph

Isaac as baby Jesus

Brenden as one of the wiseman. (he made sure he got to carry the gold!)

O Christmas tree!!!!

2009-01-08T12:36:00.002-05:00

I guess it is better late than never!! Here is our Christmas tree this year. We actually put it up on December first, but because of the craziness I didn't getting any Christmas blogged until today!! I thought I would start with the Christmas tree and blog something more in a couple more days. Hopefully if I stay ontop of things I will finally have all of Christmas blogged in about a week!! :) I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!! And hopefully we will get to see you sometime this year!!

The kids with the missionaries. It is a tradition for our family
to have the missionaries over to help set up the tree!!

The whole family with the missionaries!

Brenden being cool with the missionaries!

Isaac decorating his first Christmas tree! LOL

A blast from the past!!! LOL :)

2008-12-10T16:35:00.007-05:00

This one is for Gene, he has no idea I am doing it, but I am laughing soooo hard I thought I might as well share with all of you!! You have to love facebook! One of Gene's college friends posted these picture of Gene and his friends from Florida State. So these are before his mission! With my brilliance ;) I saved the pics to my computer so I could share them with all of you! Have fun, and laugh all you want, I am!! :)

Merry Christmas to ME!!!

2008-12-09T11:10:00.010-05:00

For my Christmas/Birthday present this year I got tickets to Reba and Kelly concert.

This is me (kind of) with Reba in the back!! :)

Anybody that has known me for a long time knows that Reba is one of my FAVORITE singers. My in laws suprised me with this gift the end of October. They would've waited longer, but they were afraid I was going to buy tickets. The best part is that we were sitting four rows back on the floor!!! HOLY COW!!!

Gene and I went to the concert on Nov. 22, and it was great, well atleast Reba was!! I was star struck!! It was great to be that close to someone I have admired for a long time!!

Kelly was just ok! She needs to take some lessons from Reba, like how to dress and other stuff!! Seriously I think Kelly looked like she had gotten out of bed and came to the concert, I don't know why she is paying people to do her hair and makeup!! Reba looked great, I hope that I look that good when I am as old as her! The night was great!!! Thanks Mom and Dad Summers it was a awesome experience!

Sorry I didn't take time to edit the pics, so they are a little dark!

Isaac talks.........sortof!!

2008-11-14T12:28:00.003-05:00

Isaac is at afun stage right now, he is starting to talk, and we all love playing with him!!! I tried to get a video of him today, but he HATES the camera! Here is what I got today, and I will try and get a better one of him when the kids are around to talk and play with him. ENJOY, we are!!

The Things We Put our Kids Through Just to Get A Little Candy! (You know that's what it's all about.. Admit it!)

2008-11-02T21:04:00.004-05:00

A devilish angel, her sidekick chipmunk, a mermaid and her friend...the bumble bee.

Can you say PRE-TEEN?!?!

You should see his Alvin 'moves'!

Taking applications for Prince Eric!

Seriously... what have I gotten myself into?

Not that there can ever really be TOO much candy in the Summers' home but we have enough to make Wonka envious! It was a fun night - great weather - walking around the neighborhood with our friends.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-29T11:54:00.004-04:00

A couple weeks ago Gene's parents took our family, and Steve and Adri Ann's family to a pumpkin patch. We got to pick pumpkins, go on a hay ride, and go through a corn maze (Adri Ann and I cheated and crawled through some corn stalks to get out of the maze sshh!!). Isabelle and her cousin Justin had a blast "riding pumpkins." Isaac actually liked it, but when I was putting him in the car seat he started screaming, so I had to have at least one good crying picture of him!

Costume Parade at School!

2008-10-22T11:33:00.005-04:00

Yesterday at the kids school they had Halloween party. I didn't decide to take the kids until the day before, and at that point we had no idea what anyone was doing for Halloween costumes!! Yesterday before the party Gene and I pulled out the dress up box and the Halloween costume box, and let the kids pick out their costumes!! Brenden's is the most interesting, I think he is a clown?!?! I am just glad that he dressed up. He is a funny kid, and doesn't really like to dress up. So here are the pictures of our first round of costumes, we have one more party to go to and then Halloween night!! I am sure we will be picking different costumes for the next party! :)

Isaac's blessing

2008-10-20T15:10:00.003-04:00

Isaac was blessed on Sunday, October 5th!! We did a small at home blessing with a few friends and family. It was small, but great!! Isaac is such a joy to our family. And as Isabelle would say, "he looked so handsome on his blessing day!" Isabelle makes sure that Isaac looks handsome whenever we have to go somewhere important!! She is very concerned about him looking handsome! Luckily she approved of the blessing outfit Gene and I picked out for him and she said he looked very handsome. I think he looked very sweet, and is already getting too big too fast!! :(

Many Faces of Isaac

2008-09-29T21:26:00.003-04:00

Check out this handsome little guy...

Just after a nice bath...

A nap on the couch; don't we all wish we could do more of this?...

I'm ready for my close-up!...

Go away, bad dream!...

Yes! Peace, at last... in my bouncy chair. Perfect.

Izzy - on the field

2008-09-29T12:56:00.003-04:00

She goes by many names... Isabelle, Belle, Stinky to name a few. But on the soccer field, she's Izzy! She is much more aggressive on the field than her siblings were at this age and a hoot to watch. In a league of 5 & 6 year-olds, she is one of the shortest ones out there... but don't tell her that! She has no problem getting in there with kids almost 2x as tall. Go Izzy!

One particularly funny story is while she was running down the field with her team mate (who had the ball), the coach yelled, "Izzy, go to the middle!" (meaning he wanted her to go near the goal so her team mate could pass it to her) She instantly made an about-face and ran to the middle of the circle... at MID-FIELD! She did it... she "went to the middle"!

She doesn't get to play goalie all that often - her favorite is fullback - but when she does, the gloves are a must! :)

Eleven Days of Fun!

2008-09-06T14:34:00.003-04:00

Eleven Days Old Today!

Taking a bath at home... and surely happy about it.

Look out ladies... we've got a looker!

Isabelle, Brenden, Victoria & Isaac on his first outing - Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Now that's a motley crew! (still at the Inner Harbor)

Ah... the perfect ending to a perfect outing. Sweet dreams!

School Days!

2008-09-06T13:18:00.004-04:00

Isabelle started Kindergarten this past week - and Amy is none-too-excited about her being gone for a full day. Izzy, on the other hand, is having a blast! Equipped with all her supplies and donning a new outfit for the first day (thanks, Nanny!)... this little spit-fire is ready for anything!

Brenden finds himself in 4th grade this year! His favorite 'subjects' are P.E. and Recess, for sure... and probably Math. He likes his teacher and will hopefully warm up to other academic subjects as well! Oh, and Amy takes credit for his first-day-of-school clothing... sheesh. Whatever team THAT is (insert evil laugh by Gene)!

No Place Like Home

2008-08-28T21:46:00.003-04:00

Hospital food was good but not THAT good! We were pleased to leave the hospital with our new little guy at lunchtime today. There is much truth in the old saying that "there's no place like home".

Isaac is getting used to his new surroundings and his siblings are MORE than excited to have him around. Do the words over-stimulated mean anything to you? There is enough energy in this house to run the power-grid for a small island in the Pacific! We just can't get enough of this little guy... He's a keeper!

Now that we're home and back to 'normal' life, I'll do my best to keep up with the blog. Check back often as I hope to update at least once/week.

Cheers! Oh... and "GO SKINS!"

love,

gene

Isaac's Firsts

2008-08-27T10:16:00.005-04:00

Along with his first breath, first cry, first glimpse of life in this world... Isaac had a few other "firsts" yesterday.

His first visit from his siblings (who just can't get enough)...

His first touch from Isabelle...

His first bath...

His first drink from a cup... (glucose mix due to low blood sugar)

His first snuggle-time with Mom...

His first "that's my boy" moment with Dad...

His first serenade from his proud sister, who sang "Good Night, Isaac" before departing the room...

And many more firsts yet to come...!

OMG! Not a Middle-Schooler!!

2008-08-26T12:00:00.004-04:00

So... like we totally had a baby girl...like, IDK... 11 years ago... and now she's like in MIDDLE school. No way, dude!

OMG! When did that happen? Like, she has a gym locker... and a lock... and a uniform to wear. She's totally cute but WHOA!... those hormones (and the roller-coaster of emotions) create quite the ride.

So... she totally loves gymnastics, anything pink, and can recite all the lyrics to any Taylor Swift song. OMG! Did you just see the Jonas Brothers? They are SOOOOOO... cute!

Labor Day

2008-08-26T10:18:00.005-04:00

Shorter days... Cooler mornings... Wide-ruled filler paper... Lost lunch money... All signs that Labor Day is near!

Summertime is coming to it's natural end and, this year, labor day has taken on new meaning for this family. Only a few days away, we thought we would celebrate early by welcoming a brand new baby into the chaos we know as... life.

August 26, 2008
6:15am - the alarm sounds (one last night of uninterrupted sleep, well for Gene anyhow!)
7:20am - kids are on the bus and headed off to school - little do they know we are on our way to the hospital!

10:15am - all settled into the room and INDUCTION has officially begun...

11:45am - Dr. Parshad arrived, checked on progress and broke Amy's water

1:00pm - Epidural is in place and Amy is resting!

3:15pm - Dilated to an 8 and will be ready to push soon!!

3:57pm - Isaac Terry Summers makes his debut! 6 lbs, 13.7 oz and 19.25" long...

He looks like he was cut from the exact same mold as the other three kiddos!! Amy was amazing and we are all thrilled for the UNeventful pregnancy and delivery.

Your thoughts, prayers, concerns and love have been a fortress for us. We can't thank you enough. We (all) love you!