Turley Family

will you be my valentine?

2012-02-13T18:26:00.000-08:00

Madelynn got a visitor tonight. her bestest friend Tate stopped by with a question for her...will you be my valentine? circle yes or no. (look at the picture below to see her answer) a love note, a box of chocolates, a balloon, and stickers...not bad for a 6 yr old.

ps dustin you gots some work to do...tate has set the bar high for what to get your valentine!

1st smiles

2012-01-17T21:53:00.000-08:00

ryders 1st smiles! so fun!

ella bella

2012-01-15T20:23:00.000-08:00

i LOVE the cheese smile! this girl can always put a smile on my face. i just wish i could freeze my kids so they don't get any bigger. love her. love the smile.

ear infection

2012-01-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

ryder.
four weeks old.
christmas night fever 99.9 cold like symptoms.
monday urgent care.
ear infection, cold, fever still 99.9, instruction to go to er if temp gets to 100.5.
week and a half later, cold symptoms (better not gone), no fever, still on antibiotics.

HE IS HERE!!!

2011-12-06T15:57:00.000-08:00

Ryder Marvin Klepfer Turley
November 25th
7lb 2oz
20.5in
10:06am

Oh we are so loving this little guy! The girls can't get enough. More pictures to come.

flu

2011-11-15T16:43:00.000-08:00

hope and pray this does not go from family member to family member. i do not need the flu when i am giving birth to our little guy. timing...oh the timing.

some day...

2011-11-04T14:35:00.001-07:00

some day blogging will be on my list of things to do again...for now it's just to get this little guy out of me!

You're My Little Love Bug

2011-09-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

This is miss Ella favorite book. She thinks it's so silly. I love the way it makes her giggle. If you know Ella at all you know this is her to a T!

You're my little lovebug, my funny bunny, sweet as honey, all of this is ture.

You're my punkin wunkin, my peaches and my pie, my bread-and-butter peanut butter, apple of my eye.

You're my ice cream sandwich, my watermelon gum, my soda pop, my lollipop, my yummy yummy gum!

You're my lovey dovey, my stinker winker bear, my silly willy piccadilly, alligator stare.

You're my Bowl of cherries, my toast with berry jam, my snickerdoodle chicken noodle what a little ham!

You're my tootsie wootsie, my squishy wishy cheeks, my tickle toes, button nose, giggles, squeals and squeaks.

You're everything that's wonderful, you're all of the above! But most of all what you are is MY sweetest gift of love!

By Heidi R. Weimer

she is six today

2011-09-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

how do i slow time down?

ella is three

2011-09-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

ella turned three in July. Was that two months ago? times has been flying by. anyone else feel that way? we had so much fun. my little sister and mom were in town for her birthday. we went to one of those bounce house places and then did cake and ice cream. she is so much fun. so entertaining. i love every minute that i have with this little girl.

no more tears

2011-08-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

Ella 1st day of PRESCHOOL!

last school year miss ella cried every day when her big sister madelynn went off to school. she wanted to go so bad. so fun to watch how much she loves getting ready and going to school. school is everything to this girl. she is growing up so much. i can't believe it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE GIRLS' MOTHER AND MY LOVER!

2011-08-18T21:17:00.000-07:00

We wanted to wish Anne Marie a Happy Birthday. We love you and hope all of your dreams and wishes come true.

Love Madelynn, Ella and Dustin.

where has time gone?

2011-08-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

my oh my...madelynn went to kindergarten this week! where has time done? she is LOVING it. at dinner after her 1st day of school she asked, when do i get to go to bed so i can go to school again? she can't get enough of school!

Madelynn and Addison. madelynn has one of her besties in her class!

Ella wanted to go to school so bad. she kept telling me she big too she can go to school too.

it's a BOY!!!!

2011-07-10T19:57:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to be having a little boy! November can't come soon enough!!!

"doe low"

2011-07-08T19:17:00.000-07:00

We wanted to get out of the heat for the 4th of July this year. it was a 116 in mesa, so we took off for Show Low. We had a great time with friends. We went to the Show Low 4th of July parade. The girls just loved it. We were a little sad that they didn't have fire workds due to the fires. I am thinking that we started a new tradition...Show Low for the 4th. When we left ella cried for "doe low" all the way home.

100,000 customers woth out power with a high of 113

2011-07-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

The fire that broke out about 11:45 a.m. Thursday at SRP's Thunderstone substation, just east of Power Road and University Drive in Mesa, damaged one transformer and forced three others to shut down so firefighters could safely battle the blaze.
As the fire was extinguished, temperatures and power demand continued to climb. Just after 2 p.m., the Rogers substation near Stapley Drive and University went offline. The combination of events meant that more than 100,000 customers, mostly throughout Mesa, lost power at various times through the afternoon and into the evening.
SRP crews worked all afternoon and through the night to restore power, first at the Rogers substation, and then at Thunderstone to bring the three undamaged transformers there back online. After two transformers returned to service, virtually all customers had power restored before midnight.

We were the lucky ones who didn't get power until right before midnight! that was night 2nd time this summer we have had NO ac. today i am counting my many blessings and number one today it AC!

the boat

2011-06-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun on this boat. our friends asked us to go on their boat...we couldnt pass that up! we had a blast. thanks mccoy family!!!

The Help

2011-06-04T08:32:00.000-07:00

I just finished this book. I LOVED it. I was so excited to find out that the movie comes out this summer!!!

i LOVE this baby

2011-05-31T09:59:00.000-07:00

she is getting so big so fast...she loves to cuddle and smile and has the best rolls ever!

She did it!

2011-05-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

After me getting a migraine and running out of diapers...and being too sick to go get any Ella is officially potty trained! Happy Day! I think she is most excited cause she knows its a step closer for her getting to go to preschool. For the last six months she cried her lil eyes out every time Madelynn went to school. She wanted to go so bad. I told her she had to be three and she had to go potty in the big girl potty. She knows she gots one down, don't know what I'm going to do when July comes and she is three and she has to wait until aug to go to school.

preschool grad

2011-05-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

Madelynn had a blast at preschool this year. She is so sad that this year came to a close, but she can't wait for KINDERGRARDEN to start! Only if i was as ready as she is. I can't believe my baby is old enough for kindergraden. times goes by way too fast. just have to enjoy every moment of this summer.

my friends lil sister

2011-05-11T16:43:00.000-07:00

isn't she lovely...

sleeping beauty

2011-05-09T16:46:00.000-07:00

our cousins came to play!

2011-05-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ago we were so luck to have some cousins come for a week and play! we had so much fun! I hope they make it a yearly event!

sweet sisters

2011-04-14T22:38:00.000-07:00

my latest project

2011-04-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

ella's room. i still need to get knobs for the dresser, and make pillows for the bed and put pictures in the frames. she is loving her big girl bed. for some reason the pink in the dress pictured funny.

now on to re finishing the crib and changing table...not to motivated to do that any time soon.

she isn't a baby any more...

2011-03-30T23:17:00.000-07:00

i love this baby

2011-02-08T19:15:00.000-08:00

she has the best kissable cheeks!

swiper no swiping

2011-01-27T17:01:00.000-08:00

today at wal mart:

me: ella pic out your undies
ella: dora!!!
ella: swiper swiped my diappies

hoping all goes well with potty training this week end.

christmas at grandy and grampy's

2011-01-20T10:23:00.000-08:00

how cute is he...

2011-01-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

more then anything, my girls wanted a puppy for Christmas. so my mom got them this sweet little guy. the second dustin walked him through the door we were in love with him. he is so sweet, loves to be held, and cuddled, very playful. the girls can't get enough of this little guy. he is a mix of a toy poodle and a miniature poodle. now all we have to do is decide on a name, it's between maximus, diesel and bear.

madelynn's christmas party

2011-01-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

closest thing to a christmas card this year

2010-12-17T17:08:00.000-08:00

my girls

2010-11-29T11:52:00.000-08:00

esophagogastroduodenoscopy round two

2010-11-22T11:36:00.000-08:00

esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) with biopsy, also known as upper endoscopy. this test involves passing an endoscope, a long, flexible black tube with a light and video camera on one end, through the mouth to examine the esophagus, stomach and the first part of the small intestine.

ella went in for another (EGD) this morning. she had this done in jan. they are just rechecking things out. she is still having alot of trouble with her acid reflux. they think she might have eosinophilic esophagitis (ee). they took lots of biopsies to check for allergic cells. hoping everything comes back negative!

all went well with the endoscope. they gave her differ meds to put her out this time, cause last time when she was coming out of the drug induced sleep, she was a BEAR. the new meds were great, other then it took her forever to wake up. we get the results in a few days.

she is such a trooper dealing with her acid reflux. they switched around and upped her meds. so hoping she can get the calories in during the day and maybe just maybe she might sleep through the night.

* pic were taken with my camera on my phone. so they are super fuzzy.

before the (EGD)

before they put her under

waiting for her to wake up.

after she woke up. she was so out of it.

Dustin's 31

2010-11-19T13:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to Dustin! he turned 31 yesterday.

the great out doors

2010-11-15T10:34:00.000-08:00

ella just loves these two little guys! madelynn saw this picture and said, "these

are my boys, what's ella doing with them? oh my word, i am not excited for whats

to come when they get older!

best buds

ella loved going on rides, the faster the better! she wanted to go on every ride...

she was so sad she didn't make it on this one.

i love sunsets in az!

halloween

2010-11-09T12:23:00.000-08:00

ella wanted nothing to do with the camera

potty talk

2010-11-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

Dustin - - ella where do we go potty?
ella - - on the carpet daddy...
Dustin - - NO! NO! NO! ella where do we go potty?
ella - - out side daddy!
Dustin - - NO! Where do we go potty?
ella - - in the toilet daddy...
Dustin - - YES! WE GO IN THE TOILET!
Ella - - Daddy we go potty on the carpet?
Dustin - - NO! NO! NO!

you know shes sick when...

2010-11-02T10:14:00.000-07:00

she lays on the couch and doesn't move all day. {if you know ella at all that is so out of character for her, she NEVER stops moving ever!}

Croup is a respiratory condition that is usually triggered by an acute viral infection of the upper airway. The infection leads to swelling inside the throat, which interferes with normal breathing and produces the classical symptoms of a "barking" cough, stridor, and hoarseness. It may produce mild, moderate, or severe symptoms, which often worsen at night. It is often treated with a single dose of oral steroids.

a first time for everything

2010-10-28T15:02:00.001-07:00

i want one of these

2010-10-21T15:16:00.000-07:00

i went and took a few pictures of my friends new little guy. it made me just a lil baby hungry!

six years

2010-10-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

friends

2010-09-29T14:25:00.001-07:00

she turned five today

2010-09-23T19:00:00.001-07:00

September 23 2005

1st birthday

2nd birthday

3rd birthday

4th birthday

5th birthday

happy happy birthday to our sweet girl! we love you so much!!!

sleeping beauty

2010-09-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

tulips

2010-08-30T21:21:00.001-07:00

2010-08-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Laurel works for Deseret Book She is currently the General Manager for the Time Out for Women. She has this inspiring and awesome blogger that i just LOVE to read. She has a new book coming out — "He Loves Us and We Love Him: You've Memorized It, Now Live It." I haven't read it yet. But I'm so going to. Laurel is a must-read. You can pre-order the book here. I can't wait to get my hands on this book and share it will my young women. I can't tell you how bad i want her to come speak to the yw in our ward. so laurel if you read this and you are in the mesa az area we want you to come speak to our awesome girls!

some quotes from the book

FAITH "The reality is that faith isn’t about me. It’s about Him. And the Lord Jesus Christ has a pretty impeccable past record…not just in my life but in the countless lives and experiences of God’s children. That is why if my faith is really centered in HIM, then I’m always okay. Always."

DIVINE NATURE "Regardless of who your parents are or how they have chosen to raise you, you have inherited qualities from your Heavenly Parents that are 'in your blood.' It's just who you are."

INDIVIDUAL WORTH "Trust that God has a divine mission waiting for you and JUST for you. Trust that He, even now, is orchestrating details of your life to help you fulfill what you were sent to this earth to perform."

KNOWLEDGE "The most important knowledge you will gain in this life will be the knowledge that is put into your heart and your mind through life's experience by the power of the Holy Ghost."

CHOICE & ACCOUNTABILITY "Every choice has a consequence. But, the Lord loves you enough and trusts you enough to let YOU choose throughout your life. And a daughter of God who understands who she is has the power within her to make good choices and then gets to enjoy the consequences of those choices."

GOOD WORKS "One of the characteristics of God's daughters is that we have a natural inclination to nurture other people. We want to love them and serve them and help them. It's one of my favorite things about being a girl. And it's one of the things that makes a girl beautiful."

INTEGRITY "That is the epitome of integrity--not simply acting right when you have the chance to act wrong, but acting right when you have the chance to act...right."

VIRTUE "The culminating experience for a daughter of God who lives the values is being as close as possible to her Father in Heaven and to her Savior as she enters the doors of God's Holy House--the temple."

preschool

2010-08-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

madelynn started preschool today! she is so glad to be back in school.
our baby it growing up!

2010

2009

2008

making brownies with mom

2010-07-26T13:56:00.001-07:00

ella's birthday

2010-07-22T11:43:00.001-07:00

she will be two tomorrow

2010-07-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

she came ready for life and with a personally to suit! we love her so much. she keeps us on our toes.

it goes by way to fast...

some day

2010-06-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

really one day i will put a new post up! maybe if dustin would fix the Internet back to wireless so i don't have to lay on the floor why i am on my computer! that might motivate me!

ella grace 21 months

2010-05-22T23:37:00.000-07:00

Dustin picked up the camera with out me asking him to, for maybe the second time in the last five years. look at what a cute shot he got! i never get ella to look at the camera much less smile! my girls just run when they see me with it.

swings

2010-05-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

madelynn lived on this swing for about a week and a half.

*ps we miss you claire bear!

spring recital

2010-04-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

madelynn had her spring recital today. she recited hey diddle diddle. she did such a great job. she loves preschool so much. she adores her teacher, miss juliette. she sure will miss preschool in a few weeks when school is out for summer! can it almost be summer?

madelynn's preschool class

madelynn and miss juliette

madelynn and tate

madelynn reciting her poem

temple

2010-04-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

for the longest time i have want have wanted to get a picture of the st. louis temple where dustin and i got married. i looked and looked and could not find very many and the ones i found i didn't really like. so when i was back home i went and took some pictures.

easter

2010-04-05T18:58:00.001-07:00

*madelynn has this thing where she won't look at my camera.

park

2010-03-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

so why we are having the best weather that az has to offer, i have been trying to get the girls to the park as much as i can. the girls just love it. madelynn rides her bike the whole time we are there. ella loves her bike, and playing in the sand.

i'm tired of showing my house.

2010-03-04T16:13:00.000-08:00

poor miss ella keeps getting her nap cut short do to us showing our house. she has gotten used to only getting about a hour or so of her 3 hour nap. so the days i don't wake her up, she gets up on her own now after only an hour. but she needs more sleep! she keeps falling a sleep in random place!!! poor thing.

no training wheels

2010-02-26T14:23:00.000-08:00

two days ago madelynn saw her friends bike parked against a house, the first thing she noticed was that there was no longer any training wheels on her friends bike. on our way home she was talking about taking her training wheels off. i told her she had to wait for her daddy to help her. just her luck dustin just happened to be home for lunch that day. madelynn ran up the stairs and demanded that her training wheels come off that moment. duistin tried to talk her into waiting until the week end. with no such luck in convincing her to wait, he went down to take them off. about a hour later she was riding her bike all by herself with no training wheels! she is one determined little girl!

food theripist

2010-02-04T17:39:00.000-08:00

thats who we get to go see tomorrow. life has been crazy. in and out of doctor offices, im in the yw presidency now and we are trying to sell the house and it has to look perfect all the time. how do you do that with two little kids? some day i will have time to blog!

who would have thought

2010-01-18T18:21:00.000-08:00

if you know ella, she will only eat a bite or two of food, and most of the time she just ends up spiting in out. well now that she is on her adult dosage of prevacid she will now eat food. not alot, but she will swallow it!!! she has her UGI on friday and on to the food therapist.

Esophagogastroduodenoscopy

2010-01-13T08:08:00.000-08:00

this is what ella gets to do today!

esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) with biopsy, also known as upper endoscopy. this test involves passing an endoscope, a long, flexible black tube with a light and video camera on one end, through the mouth to examine the esophagus, stomach and the first part of the small intestine.

let you know how it goes!

***update! all went well as soon as i found the dumb place. there was NO parking at this hospital. i just ended up parking on the other side from where i needed to be. after a 10 walk we went to the place they told me to go, they then directed me over to a differ building for children. they said it would be faster to go back and get my car and drive over, i didn't want to do that hike again, so i ended up walking another 10 min for them to tell me that i need to go back to where i was.

they didn't find anything wrong. they took some biopsies. we are waiting on those results. should come back next week. so she is continuing on her adult dosage of prevacid and awaiting her next test an UGI.

getting ready to go back

after she was done and starting to wake up she was yelling for her baba, she was starving so they offered us a popsicle to give to her. she went back to sleep with a popsicle in her mouth, she freaked out when we took it out she stared yelling at us with her eyes closed she wouldn't open them.

the girls are sick again!

2010-01-07T20:14:00.001-08:00

the girls have pink eye again! both have ear infections. maybe when my kids get better and i am not living at the doctor office i will post about christmas and our trip up to ut.

cousins

2009-12-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

i have a cousin that i call jenbob. {her real name in jenifer but most call her jen} we are two week apart in age. both have red hair. she lived about 5 ish hours from me when we were growing up. i would get so excited for the holidays cause i know we would be making a trip up to IA and i would get to see her. she would come down for a few weeks over the summer as we got older. we went to efy's together. she came down and we went to school dances together too. the best was our spa nights we would do. she was my 'sister from another mother' we had so many fun memories. she was the best still is the best! well madelynn had this cute little cousin who is 6 months younger then her. and they just love each other. i can see that special friendship developing like i had with my cousin jenbob. madelynn LOVES to call brynley and she just talkes her ear off for like 30 plus min. and asks to call her everyday. madelynn is so excited to go back up to ut over christmas to see brynley.

{jenbob on left me on the right}

madelynn and brynley

sick

2009-12-07T14:59:00.000-08:00

i am not okay with being sick with the flu that is now turning into a really really really bad cold and i am not okay with madelynn and myself having pink eye on top of it!

family pics

2009-12-01T19:10:00.000-08:00

we had family pictures taken by my sweet sister in law while we were in ut. it's our 1st picture we have of us four. i have been running from any one behind a camera pointing it in my direction. lame i know. the only thing that could have made the pictures better is if my girls weren't crying the whole time. funny thing how out door pictures in november in ut equals crabby cold little girls. thank you liz for taking time out of your crazy busy week to take our pictures.

meet my therapist

2009-11-14T15:03:00.000-08:00

therapist ther·a·pist (thěr'ə-pĭst)
n.
One who specializes in the provision of a particular therapy.

this is leslie. today we ran a half marathon. over the past few years we have trained for some races. in doing so i have found that the hours i have put into training have turned into personal therapy sessions. not that leslie is "specialized in the provision of a particular therapy" but she is a good friend who listens, laughs and has the best stories to tell. i have very much enjoyed the hours we have spent together laughing and talking and getting a great work out.

halloween...was that last month already?

2009-11-12T21:40:00.001-08:00

dustin just loves to smile for the camera

if you look closely you can see madelynn and tate holding hands

part of the group we went out with

a few days before halloween, madelynn started to stress out about how we were going to do her hair. she wanted it to look just like Tinkerbell's hair. she studied the beginning of disney movies to make she i know just how to do her hair. it was so cute.

we went trick or treating with a group of friends and had a blast! madelynn was loving every moment of the night. ella totally got into it too. she was trying to keep up with the big kids, always a few steps behind. ella was a stinker and i didn't get any good pictures of her.

ode to shelby

2009-11-01T19:48:00.000-08:00

this cute girl is shelby. oh how miss madelynn loves her. {and so do i} there is not a day that go by that i don't think of this sweet girl. as many of you know madelynn has a blanket affectionately call shelby blanket. before i had ella, shelby made me a blaket for her, when madelynn saw the blanket she ran up and said my shelby blanket, and that was it, she wanted nothing to do with her baby blanket and everything thing to do with her new shelby blanket. now comes the sting cheese, at our house it's shelby cheese, because at one point or another madelynn eat sting cheese with shelby and thats what it's now called. every sunday madelynn gets so excited when we sit down in sacrament meeting, cause she knows that shelby is going to be at church and i have to point out where shelby is. madelynn asks me a few times a week if shelby can come over to play. she doesn't get that shelby is 10 and is in school all day and isn't one of her playdate friends. i always get a huge smile on my face when think of this cute girl and how my madelynn looks up to her. so thank you shelby for being the girl that you are, and for being so sweet to my madelynn. we love you miss shelby!

poke a dot pumpkins

2009-11-01T10:16:00.000-08:00

so i finally got around to doing my poke a dot pumpkins yesterday, yes i know on Halloween right. madelynn has been bugging me to do it for the last 31 days.

some day i want a little boy

2009-10-26T22:40:00.001-07:00

{okay if you know me at all you know i can't spell, and even when i re read things i still don't catch the errors, so Dustin thought he would be helpful and edit this post and apparently he is now going by de-licious}

Dustin has always said he thinks we are going to have all girls. he says it's just a feeling he has. i plan to prove him wrong, not that i have to much control over it. i grew up with two big brothers. i lived at sporting events. i thought it was a blast. not that my girls can't play sports...its just girls sports aren't the same. i LOVED having brothers. not that brothers are the best every moment...i did want to kill them every now and again...more or less when i started to date. aaron you know what i am talking about. boys are no drama...trust me we have all the drama we can take at the turley house with our two little girls. anyways i love my girls and feel so blessed to have them...i just want to have a little Dustin aka de-licious some day.

i was editing pics and this sweet mother and son moment made me think about how some day i want a son....that's how i got on the wanting a baby boy kick!

my bestest friend came to visit

2009-10-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

sisters

2009-10-05T16:47:00.001-07:00

this was my little conversation i had with madelynn this morning.

me: you are being extra nice to your sister today.

madelynn: ya thats cause i decided we can keep her.

me: oh really...

madelynn: ya i love her.

me: well thats a good thing.

hello kitty

2009-09-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

we were at sams club last week to pick out birthday cake for madelynn birthday party. she flipped out with she saw the hello kitty cup cakes. "mom i want that one...HELLO KITTY!" she said. i think every one in sams heard her. i didn't even know she know who hello kitty was. i made her look at the rest of the cakes...but her little heart was set on hello kitty. we had a great time at her birthday party, the high that day was 102! not to bad! i think we were all melting by the end. we were lucky to have dustin parents down from ut, it was fun to celebrate with them! madelynn told me she didn't want any presents if she could just have a pinata. i think that was every ones fav part of the party...other then dustin his fav part is the cake...no surprises there.

my baby is four

2009-09-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

it feels like yesterday... it was the morning of September 22 my mom had just gotten into town. i had to call the hospital to see what time they wanted me to come in to get induced. i was so excited to have my baby, what i heard next devastated me, they told me that they had no room, they had so many people in having babies that they were putting girls in the halls, and closets, they said it might be a few days before they could get me in. i couldn't believe this. all that day i was sad and frustrated. i went to take a nap and woke up to my phone ringing, it was another hospital saying they had room for me and to come on in. it was about 7:30 ish when i got to the hospital. i was so excited, next thing i knew it was 4:15 in the morning and i heard the best sound any mother can hear that first cry! In that moment my life changed as i held my madelynn effie! i can't believe that was four years ago. happy birthday sweet girl.

ymca nursery this is annie speaking

2009-09-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

this is erica, i met her ten years ago this fall. she and i worked at the ymca nursery together. she loves to give me a hard time about how i used to answer the phone at work. i never thought that job would have been such a blessing in my life. i made a life long friend from it, we have seen and been through so much together. i was able to spend the afternoon with her when we were both visiting missouri this summer. i miss her so much and really think she needs to move out to az and live by me.

sunshine

2009-09-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

madelynn started her 1st day of preschool today at sunshine preschool. madelynn loves school and couldn't wait for her school to start. she spent most of the summer asking when it was time to go back to school. i love that she has an excitement
about school and learning. she is such a happy sweet little girl who brings me so much joy.

a new little hobby of mine

2009-08-28T14:11:00.000-07:00

i have a new hobby scrap booking...well digital scrap booking. i have to explain my self. i am not a scrapbook-er, i have tried it, i hate it. {don't take it personal if you are a big fan of it, that's awesome, i want to be like you. i want to love it believe me i have tried to make it a love of mine} it's just me, it takes so much time, makes a huge mess, it's expensive...the list of things goes on. so i am the enrichment leader in my ward and wanted to make cute posters to hang up in rs and hand outs for the up coming enrichment's, so i downloaded cute digital scrap booking kits to try to make something out of them in photo shop. I GOT HOOKED as i was making them i thought i can do this. it's super addicting! so i have started to digital scrapbook little events going on in our life. {i'm no pro, don't think i ever will be or want to be} but i have enjoyed this new little hobby. i never thought i would be a scrapbook-er, but i love it.

my new lens

2009-08-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

i LOVE it!

and his beautiful wife and daughter

2009-08-24T12:40:00.001-07:00

a big brother

2009-08-20T20:07:00.001-07:00

and his cute boys

watermelon

2009-08-11T20:23:00.000-07:00

the one and only food ella will eat...yummy watermelon!

sisters, sister...there were never such devoted sisters

2009-07-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

cousins and an auntie claire bear

2009-07-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

oh how madelynn misses these two sweet girls

claire, avery, madelynn

one year ago...

2009-07-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

my little ella was born! i can't even believe how fast this past year has gone. we were back in st. louis {missouri} for her birthday. it was fun to be able to celebrate her big day with family. we even had dustin on the web cam for singing her happy birthday.

she really wasn't into eating the cake, she just played in it, just like she does with all food, she takes a few little bits and spits it all out.

who do i look like

2009-07-09T19:02:00.000-07:00

some days i think ella looks so much like me when i was a baby, and i see alot of the "ott" side in her, way more then miss madelynn who looks just like her daddy. but then other times i don't think she looks anything like me and i see dustin in her. maybe she is just a good mix.

friends

2009-06-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

friend-

{noun} a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.

sunday mornings

2009-06-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

i love Sunday mornings...for three reasons.

1. i love that i get to wake up to my silly wild-haired girls and get to cuddle with them all morning long!
2. the only morning in the week we get to just hang out as a family with no where to go.
3. cinnamon rolls

museum

2009-06-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

We went to mesa's museum for youth this week. It was so perfect for Madelynn. We went with some friends that are moving up to UT this week end. sniff sniff! I'm still in total denial they are leaving us. Anyways they have a side of the museum that is for 0-4. It was awesome for Ella to be able to run around and play. Then they have a side for older kids, the have a monster exhibit right now Madelynn loved it so much. I think we will be going back...it's something to do to beat the heat here.

Have you ever read this book? It's the cutest book. They have a room dedicated to this book.

Talmage and Madelynn dressed up as the little guy in the book.

Chelsi reading the book to them. Madelynn feel in love with this book.

This is what Ella wanted to do. Play with the blocks and run around.

this was the painting room.

0-4yrs old side.

pony's

2009-06-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

Madelynn has always wanted to ride a horse! When we were up in UT she got to ride this sweet little horse names licorice. She couldn't stop talking about it. We had such a fun time in UT, we never have enough time to see everyone and do everything we want when we are up there! Maybe some day we will visit more then three days!

weddings

2009-06-09T21:03:00.000-07:00

We went up to UT over the week end for Dustin's little brothers wedding. We had a great time with family and friends. It was another super fast trip, some day we will have time to spend a while up there and get to visit with every one!!!

Graduation

2009-05-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

We had two Gradulations as Madelynn calls it. Madelynn Graduated from preschool. She had a blast this year at preschool and is having a hard time understanding why she can't go and what summer break is.

Dustin Graduated from ASU!!! We are so excited and proud of him! He has been doing the school thing for the last four years, which is how long we have been married...I don't know what I am going to do with a hubby who isn't in school! He has worked so hard at this going to school full time and working full time, it's a big accomplishment! Way to go Dustin! Madelynn was so cute, she wanted to bring her grad hat to wear to her daddy graduation!

Dustin parents came into town for his graduation, it was so fun to have them visit. Madelynn was so sad to see them go! It was a fun week end, other then Ella having double ear infections and I ended up in the urgent care with pneumonia. We are all doing better now.

{so the lighting was horrible at the graduation, so i had my iso 1600 and when we went out to take pictures out side, i totally forgot to change my iso so all my pic are so grainy...i'm so buged...oh well}

Ella's before and after

2009-05-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

We are done with Ella's helmet! We are so excited that she is done, just in time for the 100 degree weather! She did so well with it! She was a little trooper, she never cared once about having it on. I think we got some great results with it, all said and done it was totally worth it.

Mr.Cook

2009-04-21T16:42:00.000-07:00

When I was 1st married (about 2 ish months), I was working in the Solon one Saturday morning. I was in the middle of cutting a clients hair when I got a phone call from my husband, the girl at the front desk told him i would call him back when I was finished with my client. I guess he made it out to seem like an emergency and soon enough the girl come back and says your husband needs to talk to you he needs to know how to scramble an egg. This was my 1st clue that my hubby doesn't have a clue how to cook! Which leads me to 5 years down the road...to the other night. To say Dustin has a sweet tooth would be the understatement of the century. I guess he was trying to satisfy it...I walk into the kitchen to find this:

When i laughed and asked why in the world he would have a tooth pick in the batter...he quickly replied, getting a little defensive, "that's what the box says to do....that's how you know it's done." I then tried to explain you cook the cake for the time is says on the box, then you take the cake out and then stick a tooth pick in the center and if it comes out clean then you know it's done. He then told me to read what the says to do...
Box instructions:
Bake: following the chart below. add 3-5 minutes to bake time for dark or coated pans. Cake is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

ready or not here i come

2009-04-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

Ella has been cruising around the furniture for a while now, but to day she did it she took those 1st steps! 8 months and walking! So here it is...

My friend Chelsi

2009-03-30T15:03:00.001-07:00

I did a photo shoot of my friend Chelsi and her family a few weeks ago. I had so much fun! I love taking pictures, and they were such sports with me taking a million. I couldn't help my self..they have the cutest kids. Chelsi moved to AZ {i think 2 years ago} while her hubby went to school, she has become such a dear friend to me and now she is leaving me. I am so sad about it. I keep telling her she is not aloud to go back to UT...she just doesn't seem to listen! She will be greatly missed when she leaves in June, and Madelynn will miss her little buddy Talmage so much.

eight months

2009-03-17T16:01:00.001-07:00

cousins

2009-03-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

We went to the park a week or two ago with Madelynn and Ella's cousins Jr and Brenner. We had so much fun. We love having them so close!

Brenner Jr Madelynn Ella

Ella's 1st time in the sand

Jr and Madelynn

Brenner