Snow Fun

Hurray! It's going to be a White Christmas! The kids (Rob is included in this category) love playing in the snow. It's hilarious. I bundle them all up and send them outside and have to drag them back in again. They are all freezing but won't admit it because they're having too much fun. Myles was especially loving the snow. Like father like son. He screamed and screamed every time I tried to bring him inside. Rob is so funny to watch. He's supposed to be out there "for the kids", but he is so busy playing himself. I get the biggest kick out of it. He spent all yesterday afternoon meticulously building, not a snowman, but what he calls the Foy Snowboard Park. If only I could get him to work that hard on my household "To Do List"! At least I still don't have an indoor skate park in my basement! Gotta love him. Well, Merry Christmas everyone, and if you get bored come on over and practice your jumps and railslides.

Myles was one big marshmellow. He kept falling over!

I still don't have Christmas lights up, but I have this.
Oh yes, I know you're all jealous.

Happy Birthday Mekinley!

Well, my baby girl is 6. Can you believe it? I don't know which was harder, the shock of having her turn 6 or the shock that I'm old enough to have a 6-year-old. Ah! It really does go so fast. Birthdays at our house are at least a week long event when it comes to the kids. Mekinley celebrated her birthday a week early in Panguitch with Grandma and Grandpa Foy and then celebrated it every day thereafter culminating in the big birthday bash we threw for her. This year we went for pizza and bowling. It was lots of fun. For one of her presents I had her go on a treasure hunt. I wrapped up lots of boxes each holding a picture telling her where to go next starting in her room and ending with the present hidden in her stocking. When she opened the first one in which I had drawn a picture of the Christmas tree, she looked at it and said with a great big smile, "Wow Mom! Thanks!" But then after a minute her smile truned into a puzzled look. Not wanting to make me feel bad, she finally said holding my scribbled drawing, "Is this it?" I put her out of her misery and explained that it was a clue. It was so funny.

For her birthday she also went snowboarding for the first time. She's been skiing for a couple of years, but this was her first time on a board. She looked so cute strutting her stuff, and she did really well. Of course Rob says that she is blessed with his style. She keeps begging to go again, so that's a good sign. She does, after all, belong to this family so she really has no choice. But it couldn't make Rob happier that she loves it. Well, here's to one more year with our Kinster!

Plenty to be Thankful For

When you think about it, Thanksgiving is a weird holiday. I mean it's a holiday where the only thing that happens is eating. You spend at least an entire day preparing the feast and all it takes is an hour at most to devour it. And not just eat, but eat until you're so full you're literally sick. Yes, I admit I'm the worst at this part as those of you who know me can attest to. Every year Rob gives me the "You cannot seriously be having another helping!" look and I give him the "Leave me alone--I love to eat!" look in return only for me to get mad at him an hour later for not stopping before my last helping because I am so miserably full. Like I said, it's a weird holiday.

But this year it took my children to remind me that eating is not really all that Thanksgiving is about. Mekinley loves to take charge of Family Home Evening and she had all of us draw "Thankful Pictures." Here is what Mekinley and Sierra drew:

Mekinley: "I am thankful for my family."

Sierra: "Mommy and me."

What more can I say? I truly have so much to be thankful for: two beautiful girls who make me smile everyday, one amazing little boy who keeps things happy, and one husband who is the best dad I could ever want for my children and who is the love of my life. Okay, I know, pretty cheesy, but I do have plenty to be thankful for. Maybe next year I'll actually heed to Rob's warning stare. Hmmm.....probably not. After all, I am who I am.

Halloween

I think Halloween has to be one of the most fun times of the year--especially with kids. They love it!! We had our annual Bell Family Halloween Party with bobbing for apples, witches brew apple cider, decorating haunted houses, doughnut eating contest, pinata, and of course, the scary Halloween story courtesy of the scary old man (aka my dad). It's always tons of fun.

We also visited a pumpkin patch and Mekinley had the best time running through the haystack maze. Then finally came trick-or-treating. Anything with candy Sierra is all for. She loved it. Myles got pretty into it this year too. It was so cute! When they got home from trick-or-treating, we dumped the candy out on the floor and Myles went at it. He'd take little tastes of everything he could get his hands on but get distracted by another piece before he could finish anything! At least he didn't actually eat that much. Mekinley is already trying to decide what she wants to be next year. Happy Halloween everyone!

Skate Park...So Cool

Well we had a typical family night....at the skate park. It was a gorgeous fall evening, and the girls loved it. They rode their skooters all over the place. Myles even loved it. We couldn't keep him off the skooter. He kept climbing on and trying to ride. It was so cute. Of course Rob was beaming the whole time while showing off for his family trying to prove that he's still got it. And he does. Big surprise. So if the next time you come calling at our house and we're not here, check the skate park!

Life

Well, it has been a rough couple of weeks at our household. Everyone got sick! It started with Mekinley and consecutively worked its way through our entire family ending with Rob. Ah! We've been holed up in our house and I'm going crazy! Girls' Night anyone? I'm trying to see the silver lining--maybe this year we'll be healthy for Thanksgiving!

Each of the kids right now are at a really fun stage. I wish I could freeze time for a little while. Myles is finally starting to walk. It is so cute! He teeters back and forth and concentrates so hard. And then when he makes it to his destination, he gets the biggest smile on his face and we all have to clap and shout and give high fives. We all get so excited! Crawling, however, is still more efficient so he doesn't walk as much as he is capable. He also has grown another tooth...just one on his top. It is hilarious. I think it makes him look like the character from Goonies--Chunky I think is his name? Anyway, we all could not adore him any more.

With Sierra I am finally starting to get my sweetheart back. Hallaluia! I have survived yet another terrible 2 stage (or as in my case 2.5-3.5). So all you moms out there with a child this age, it does get better. I promise. Hang in there. Your sweetheart will return, with a few permanent battle scars called a personality, but he/she will return. Or maybe we just get used to it. Either way, it's better. Sierra definitely keeps it interesting at our house. She has the brightest imagination and lots of love. When we were hiking a few weeks ago it started to rain and of course this scared her. She was screaming and wanted to go home. Rob ran down the trail with her ahead of the rest of us and Sierra's wails of "I want to go home!" turned into wails of "Don't leave Mommy! I love her soooo much and she loves me soooo much!" Now that's music to my ears even when it's a high pitch scream.

Mekinley is...well Mekinley. She is the "Mini-Me." She takes care of us all. What would we do without her? Especially when it was my turn to be sick, she told me not to worry about a thing because she would take care of it. And she did! What a sweetheart. The other night we were reading one of her favorite stories, Alice the Fairy by David Shannon. It is the cutest book about a little girl who uses "magic." While we were reading it the lightbulb in Mekinley's head literally turned on. She suddenly got the humor in the story and illustrations and could not stop laughing. She thought it was so funny that the girl calls her mom "the wicked Duchess" for instance. If you know the book, you know what I'm talking about. It was so cute! Now we have to read that book every night and Mekinley laughs and laughs every night and imitates the character. She also loves to play Uno Attack. We play it just about every night. She is actually quite the player and even has her own strategies. She really is growing into her own little person. It is fun to watch, but like I said, I wish I could slow time down for a little while.

Well, that's an update from the Foy family. Just plugging along one day at a time, but I think I'm good with that. Ya know, whoever said it first is right. Life really is about the small seemingly insignificant moments everday that catch your attention and take your breath away. And when you're lucky enough, you can really enjoy them.

Just Another Week

With school under way and the weather cooling off life has taken on a very normal routine. Normally this would drive us crazy, we'd say we're getting old and boring, but actually it's kind of nice. Summer wore us out! Okay so maybe we are getting old and boring.

Myles is so close to walking. He'll take three steps and then realize he's walking so then he'll drop to his knees and crawl. Ah! At this point it would actually be easier if he were crawling. But he is still my pride and joy.

Mekinley scored her first goal in soccer last week. It was so exciting! You would have thought it was the tie breaking goal of the World Cup. All six players, three from each team, were right in front of the goal kicking the ball. They kind of formed a circle around it. You should have seen it, six little legs just going for it and all the parents screaming them on. Of course none of them knew what they were doing and the ball wasn't moving because all the legs were kicking at once. Suddenly one little kick broke the ball free of the circle and it rolled into the goal. And it was Kinley! It was so funny! It just as easily could have been any of the girls, but it was our Kinster. And thank goodness. She was so thrilled! And after it was like a switch had been turned on. She was suddenly a great soccer player! Up until this goal she's been very reserved. It's made us crazy because she hasn't been aggressive at all. She would still get mad and feel bad because everyone wasn't taking turns, but now she's a maniac. It is hillarious and a lot of fun to watch. And yesterday she made another goal. Yea! We might have a soccer player on our hands after all.

Sierra, as always, has kept us entertained this week. Last Saturday Rob was gone so the kids and I had a little party. We had pizza and popped some popcorn and were watching a movie. Sierra loves popcorn, but she also loves her dad. When there was just a little popcorn left she told me, "Mom, Daddy loves popcorn; we better save him some." I thought it was a sweet idea. I told her to just set it on the counter to save for him. But a few minutes later she was eating the popcorn again. She caught my eye, but I didn' say a word. I really didn't care either way. But she said, "Mom, Daddy doesn't like popcorn that much. We'll just save him a little bit." Fine by me. She kept eating but made sure she left him a little bit. A few more minutes later, she was up at the counter eating the popcorn again. She saw me see her eating it but again I didn't challenge her on it, but I could tell she felt guilty. She said with her eyebrows furrowed, "Um....Mom? Daddy doesn't like popcorn." So that answered it. She could eat all the popcorn guilt-free. It made me laugh. After all, she really did try to think of her dad. The popcorn was just too tempting.

Well, that's it. I told you we're boring. But who said boring has to be a bad thing? Just try explaining that to Rob.

What I love About Being a Mom

Last night as I was laying in bed my day was running through my head. I was feeling frustrated, stressed, and pretty overwhelmed. Just for starters as to how my day had gone, I had found a container of chocolate frosting in my fridge. It wasn't that old, but I didn't have plans to use it anytime soon so I took it out of the fridge to clean out. The dishwasher was already going so I just put it on the counter to deal with later. A little while later I was vacuuming the stairs, the last thing on my list of a full morning cleaning the house. I left Sierra and Myles in my kitchen/living room. When I left them Myles was playing with his truck and Sierra was coloring. Pretty safe, right? After all I was just vacuuming the stairs three feet away from them. My bad. My very, very bad. I had done maybe four stairs when I noticed it was too quiet. I peered around the corner of the stairs to check on Sierra and Myles, and there they were, sitting in the middle of my floor covered from head to toe in chocolate icing, not to mention the three foot chocolate icing radius surrounding them. They both gave me the biggest grin ever, and Sierra said in the way only Sierra could with a full mouth, "Mom, what ya doin' with the chocate cake?"

Even last night in bed, I still wasn't seeing the humor in it. My thoughts then wandered to motherhood in general. I was trying to remember what it felt like to not be tired, and honestly, I couldn't remember. I started thinking about all of the challenges we mothers face like a constantly messy house, a lingering headache, the dreaded upcoming flu season, the sleepless nights, I could go on and on. But then my mind wandered to the real challenges such as if I'm raising my children the right way with strong morals and values, good character, kind empathetic hearts, etc. Am I teaching them the right things and keeping them healthy and safe? Okay, so now there was no way I was going to fall asleep. I had thought myself into a panic.

But then I started to think about what I love about being a mom like Sat. and Sun. mornings when the kids climb into bed with me and Rob in the morning and we snuggle, talk, and play. Like reading stories at bedtime with Sierra on my lap, Mekinley snuggled into my side, and Myles trying to wiggle in somewhere. Like going to get Myles in his room when he wakes up. He is always so happy to see me and jumps and laughs and smiles and lets me snuggle him for a minute. Like hearing about Mekinley's day at school. She gives great juicy details. Like listening to Sierra "sing" in her beautiful falsetto. Like watching the girls at their dance class. They both try so hard but are anything but graceful. Like giving Myles a bath--he loves it. Our best pictures are of him in the tub. Like blasting our favorite music and dancing ourselves silly. Like eating popcorn and snuggling while watching a "chick flick"--already--with Rob rolling his eyes. Like listening to them pray with such thoughtfulness, innocence, and meticulousness. Like Sierra smothering me in kisses. Like watching Rob with the kids. It gives me goosebumps (ladies you know what I'm talking about). They love him as much as he loves them. Like coming home to them after I've had a chance to miss them. Like watching them sleep....

Suddenly I felt at peace and yes, happy. And I finally saw some humor in the chocolate icing incident. Motherhood really is the most difficult thing I have ever done and will probably ever do. But it is also so worth it. So next time all of you mothers out there are having a hard time getting to sleep because of the craziness of your day, take it from me, take a deep breath, count to ten, and go watch your kids sleeping. (These are some of my favorite pics.)

First Day of School

Last week was a pretty tough week. Between Mekinley starting kindergarten and weening Myles, I was feeling like an unneeded mother whose babies were growing up too fast. After a few days of tears, however, the freedom kicked in--and now I'm doing great!

Mekinley loves school. She really was more than ready. Her teacher is Mrs. Kershaw. She comes home everyday and gives us a play-by-play of her entire day. She sounds like such a grown up and more and more like me everyday. Rob and I have to keep ourselves from laughing. It is so fun. She really has grown up over night. She did tell me the other day that school was kind of "boring and hard." When I asked her why she said it was because she has to keep her "eyes on teacher the whole time!", which is one of the classroom rules. Mekinley is so literal and so ready to please that I can just picture her in class sitting straight in her chair with her eyes glued on her teacher, not even blinking let alone looking away. I tried to explain to her that it would be okay if she needed to look down for a minute, but Mekinley couldn't be convinced. How cute!

Sierra also started her preschool last week. She calls it "Houseschool Musical." She always comes home with so much "homework"! Well, once again it's been lots of fun at our place.

Blank Snowboards!

Blank Snowboards is open for business!! Finally!!
Check us out at www.blanksnowboards.com and spread the word.

Hiking in the Uintah's

Over Labor Day we went up to my parents' cabin in the Uintah's. It was beautiful! We went on one of our favorite hikes, and I'm proud to say that Mekinley and Sierra are born hikers. They do a great job with minimal whining (I know--surprising) and love it. I think Mekinley's favorite part was doing "Dirty Dancing" on the logs and Sierra's was when we got a little ahead of Rob and Mekinley we hid behind some rocks and when they came by we jumped out and scared them. What fun!

Las Vegas, the City of ..........

A few weekends ago we went to Las Vegas to spend some quality time with the Foy family. We stayed at the Red Rock Casino living the high life (or to Michael, the everyday life--for those of you who don't know, Rob's younger brother works for Red Rock). I got to go to Phantom of the Opera with Rob's mom, Lana. It was amazing. From the second the organ struck its first note, I was mesmerized. What a show!

We also spent a lot of time swimming at the casino pool, the family-friendly section that is. We were actually supposed to have a cabana for the day, but the reservationist accidentally reserved Michael's usual spot, the cabana at the topless pool! Oh, yes. I'm not kidding. When I went to check in to get our cabana that Michael had reserved, the young, male lifeguard staff lit up when they told me we had a great spot at the "Cherry Pool." By the reaction of the staff I thought that Michael must have really pulled some strings to get us a great place. As I was proudly following the lifeguard who was taking me to our place, I spotted Rob and the kids across the pool and beckoned them over to come follow us. The lifeguard looked confused and said, "They can't come with you," pointing to our kids. When I looked at him completely bewildered he said with a small grin, "No one over the age of 21." Still not catching on, the lifeguard finally said, "It's topless." My jaw dropped to the floor, and then I started to laugh. Needless to say, we just camped out on a beach chair for the day. Thanks Michael! But I guess it wouldn't really be Vegas without a little nudity.

Anyway, we had a fun time and didn't completely melt. And on the car drive home I got to listen to Twilight on book on tape.

Boating at Pineview

This past weekend we went boating with some good friends from Reno at Pineview. It was beautiful as always, even though the water was a little rough and crowded. I even went surfing behind the boat. Can you believe it? Finally, for the first time in a very long time, the forces of nature came together just right. I wasn't pregnant (thanks Rob), I had a great teacher (thanks Danny), I had a very hard act to follow and so I at least had to give it a try (thanks Annie), and I had the most amazing cheerleading section (thanks girls). It was a blast. Rob and Mekinley also strutted their stuff on the surf board. North Shore here we come. What a great day. Thanks Danny and Annie!

I know. I made it sound more knarly than it is.

Next year Kinley will be solo.

Mekinley, Danny, and Malia

Happy Birthday Myles!

Myles turned 1 on Aug. 22. I can't believe it's been a year already! And what a crazy year it's been. I will be the first to admit that three kids has taken me by storm, but Myles has been worth every minute of it. He truly is such a fun and happy boy.

Lately he's started to become quite attached to his dad. I know! How dare he? I don't like it one bit. In fact, his favorite word is "Da Da." He says it perfectly and reaches for Rob. I've tried and tried to get him to say Mom, but with no luck. He'll purse his lips together and say, "Mmmm," but that's about it. After all I do for him! He also betrayed his loyalty a few mornings ago when Rob was still home when he got up, which doesn't happen very often. He would not let Rob leave. He clung to him and screamed, "Da Da Da Da Da." Of course, Rob was milking every minute of it and making it worse. When Rob finally snuck out, it took me an hour to get him happy again. He used to have eyes for just me, and I don't like sharing him.

Myles' new favorite game is peek-a-boo. When you say, "Where's Myles?" He gets all excited and covers the side of his head with his hands. He can't quite get to his eyes. When he removes his hands he has the biggest, cheesiest, toothiest (only two bottom teeth) smile and then you have to say, "There he is!" This sends him into hysterics. It is so cute! He also loves to talk. He blabbers and blabbers with such an intent expression on his face. I only wish I knew what he was saying. He's also decided that he's had enough of baby food. About a month ago he started to refuse to eat it. If it's anywhere within his reach he chucks it with a very loud grunt. So now he eats pretty much everything--as long as we're eating it. There's no tricking him either. I'm also afraid we have another chocolate fiend on our hands. His first experience with it was when Kinley had a chocolate shake. She held her cup up to him so he could have a taste. He took one small sip out of the straw and completely lit up with the widest grin. He took a hold of the cup with both hands and wrestled it away from Kinley. He would not give it back, and if she even came close to taking it from him he screamed. He then ate the entire thing. Ever since then he devours anything chocolate he can get his hands on. This made his first birthday cake a great treat. He stuffed as much as he could into his mouth and just kept going. The more everyone laughed and cheered, the more he ate. It was so adorable. He loved the attention almost as much as the chocolate cake.

Myles is not walking quite yet. I think he's too efficient at crawling that he has no use for it. He climbs up onto everything and can stand by himself, but as soon as he realizes he's on his own, he gets scared and falls down. One of these days he'll take off, and then we'll be sorry. I have a feeling there will be no stopping him. He is, after all, his daddy's boy. And speaking of Daddy's boy, Myles loves to play the guitar with Rob. He climbs up on Rob when he's playing the guitar and strums and strums. He also bops his head like a true rocker and bounces up and down to the music. Of course Rob is beaming. Now if only he could do an ollie on a skateboard already, Rob's life would be complete.

Myles also continues to amaze me because of how much of a boy he is. After having two girls, I get the biggest kick out of watching him play. He's just automatically drawn to balls and trucks, and he knows what to do with them. He plays pass and catch with balls and rolls them away from him so he can then chase them. Last night he also got a few trucks for his birthday and he pushes them all around the house, content for hours. That's our boy.

Well, I hope you had a very happy birthday Myles. And there are many, many more to come. We all love you so much.

Boating at Mantua

This past weekend we went boating with some friends at Mantua. It was a blast. We were all our usual selves. Rob of course was in his best form and giving everyone a show. Mekinley tore it up wakeboarding. Sierra had a death grip on the bar and would not let go even for fruit snacks--except she surprised me and went on the tube. Myles smiled and played while Rob dreamed of the day when he would be on a wakeboard. And I stuck my butt out on two skiis while reminding Rob that he knew what I was when he married me and I have nothing to prove. It was a gorgeous August night and made me not want summer to end. Thanks guys for inviting us!

(In case you haven't noticed, I blog mainly so I can show off my pictures....especially when it comes to Myles.)

24th of July

We had a great traditional 24th of July in Panguitch. We watched the parade and the girls got loads of candy, although I think Mekinley was a little disappointed she wasn't in the parade herself. The highlight this year was when the fire trucks sprayed the hose into the air. Trust me, you haven't experienced the 24th of July, or small town Utah for that matter, until you've experienced the Panguitch parade. A small part of me, though, is always a little sad on the 24th in Panguitch. One of my last memories of my grandma was when she and my grandpa came over to spend one 24th in Panguich with me and Rob. We took them to the parade, the BBQ in the park, and even showed them the waterfalls coming out of Panguitch Lake that we drop in our kayaks. My grandma loved it. She talked about it every time I saw her after that. I miss you, Grandma.

We also went to the park and the girls went on a pumped up water slide and Mekinley put on a velcro suit and was thrown up onto a velcro wall. The girls also ran in the kids races. Sierra was honestly so far ahead of the other three year olds, but about four steps from the finish line she decided she was done. She seriously just stopped dead in her tracks. All of the other kids caught up to her and passed her into the finish line. It was hilarious. When we asked her why she stopped, she simply said, "They weren't my friends." Mekinley ran a good race as well, but had a slow start. Next year we'll get them.

One day in Panguitch we also rented a Rhino and went into the hills. Of course Sierra was too afraid, but we couldn't go fast enough for Mekinley. We also hiked to the hidden falls. It brought back some good memories. The last time we hiked to the falls was almost ten years ago (Has it really been that long?!) when Rob and I were dating--except you probably couldn't call it that--when we were "hanging out". Ah!! That was back when he was still trying to impress me. It really was the date that changed things for me. It was then that I started to see that Rob was more than a snowboard bum. It was also amazing to see that it hadn't changed much in ten years and that there are still places so beautiful and for the most part untouched. It was also fun to see Mekinley in the same place we had been long before she ever came around. I don't want to wait another ten years before I see it again.

Ten Years Ago....The day that started it all....

....little did we know....

...ten years later...

We haven't aged a bit!