Deep breath

OK so I still don't have a camera to take and post pictures but we are getting one... soon! We had a very fun and crazy Christmas. It was wonderful and tiring and busy and relaxing all in one. Jason sister Robin and her family came to stay at our house which was very fun. Tolson loved having "friends" at our house everyday. He was very sad this morning when he woke up and they were not here and their stuff was all gone too. It really made me appreciate our house and what a great blessing it is. We had Christmas eve at Jason's moms house and had a great time with almost all of his family, everyone was there except one family. : ( We then brought the kids home and put them to bed (late of course) and then we back to moms for the fun wrapping and assembling frenzy that takes place every Christmas eve. WE then got to bed about 1:30 and didn't get up until about 9 when we actually woke Tolson up to open presents. My parents came over to enjoy the joy of Christmas with children and then we had breakfast. we then just hung around for a few hours and then went up to my parents to spend Christmas Day. It again was crazy with small children and lots of food, and again we got to bed late. Saturday was a bit slower but Jason got up early to go play paintball with a bunch of the guys in the family and good friends. I hung out with my sisters and the kids played most of the day. then again on Sunday we went back to Jason's mom's house for Birthday parties. There are four birthdays in his family within a day or two of Christmas. we had a great time and again got to bed late. By Monday I was so exhausted I went to bed at 9pm and slept for 12 hours!!!!!

We had a wonderful time with family and friends and really enjoyed having Christmas morning with just our little family (Grandma and Grandpa were an added bonus) we enjoyed the real Christmas spirit with out little Christmas program on Christmas eve and enjoyed the love shared between siblings and cousins. We are so grateful for all those in our life that bring us so much joy and peace. We are grateful for friends that we include in our family and for family that we count as friends. We are grateful for the Savior and all that his life means to ours.

I truly hope that you have enjoyed that crazy holiday season as much as we have and hope that your New Year will be amazingly blessed!!!!!

FaMiLY pIcTuReS

Ok so we had our family pictures done by a wonderful Photographer! (Thanks Michelle) We went to this cool building complex where we had our engagement pictures taken and had fun messing around. here are some of the best ones......

One of the funniest things that happened that day is that we were trying to take a picture of Tolson swinging between us and he slipped off our fingers and landed superman style on the grass. needless to say he was not happy but we were laughing so hard we had a hard time comforting him. I was bummed we didn't get a picture of that!!! It was classic.

No pictures!

Ok so I am feeling like I have nothing to blog about since I don't have a camera to post pictures of the fun things going on in my life. We are finally ready for Christmas ! Got the tree last week and had fun decorating it. Tolson did a great job and hasn't messed with the ornaments since we put them on. He really is getting soooooo Big. I can't believe some of the funny things he says and does. Jason got the lights on the house last night and apologized several times that it is so late. I don't really care as long as they are on. Some presents are wrapped, some need to be bought still but I am feeling very ready. My sister-in-law and her Family are coming for Christmas and are staying at our house. I am very excited about this but am not excited about cleaning my house and not sure how much I will be cooking and cleaning while they are here. Luckily my Mother-in-Law lives about 5 minutes from here so we will be over there a lot.

Other then Christmas coming there is not a whole lot new and exciting from here in the Kempton Kingdom. Still waiting to hear from the Border Patrol and don't expect to hear anything until at least after the first of the year. It will be very fun to see where we are going to end up.

Well I better get lunch made and get off to start cleaning my house. They will be here in one week. Can't wait to see you Robin!!! Hope you all are having fun getting ready for Christmas and not adding too much stress to your lives. That's not what it is all about! Enjoy this time of year, especially if you have little ones. Its so fun to try to see thing through their eyes!! What an amazing world we live in and what a wonderful time of year. Love you all!!!!

Sad Goodbye!

Ok so last Sunday I got released from my calling in Young Women's. (at least that's what I hear, I wasn't there) I have been serving in the YW's program for almost 5 years. I have loved it and will miss it greatly. There is something about being with the youth of the church that gives me strength. They have to deal with so much and are so faithful. They are amazingly talented in so many ways. It is very fun to do activities with them and learn new things. I loved teaching as it gave me an opportunity to constantly be reminded of the things I can do to be better. I am very sad I will miss girls camp this year. (well maybe, you never know) I am going to miss being with them every Sunday and will miss their sweet smiles and hugs. but alas.....

I will get to go to Relief society again and get to actually know whats going on in the ward. I won't have to leave my house every wed night and I won't have to prepare a lesson every week. Don't get me wrong I didn't mind those things I just will enjoy not doing them for a while.

I was not surprised by this release as I figured when Jason leaves for the BP academy I would be released anyway. It will be nice to be home with him every night for a little while before he leaves. For those of you that are not on facebook Jason has finished all of his initial application process and is now ready to be approved for hire and given an assignment. We don't know how soon that will be or how much warning we will have so we are a little nervous about him getting a call and having to leave in two weeks or something but I hope it will be a little more then that. We have been waiting for this for a long time but now that it is closer, its a little scary! (and exciting!!!)

Well goodbye to my beautiful young women and the amazing group of women that I have been able to work with. I hope that you will still say hi to me in the halls and give me hugs and smiles when you see me. I will miss you greatly!

Funny Tolson!

OK so last night I was telling some friends a funny thing that Tolson says and they told me I need to put that on my blog so here it goes.

We potty trained Tolson last month and he is doing great. While you are in the process of potty training you look for any kind of clues if they need to go so that you can catch it before it ends up being a mess. So while potty training Tolson if I ever heard him toot I would ask him if he needed to go potty, to which he replied "no mom I just pop"! I have no idea where he got that from except that it sounds like a bubble popping so he just figured that's what it is so that's what I will call it. So now all the time when he toots he will say "I pop mom!"

Oh the funny things that kids say!!!!

Yard Sale!

Ok so this past Saturday we had our very first Yard Sale! I have never done one and have not been to many. Jason is on our HOA board and suggested we do a neighborhood one and that he would do all the signs and advertising etc. He has been pretty busy the last few weeks so I ended up doing most of it. I am not complaining at all I am just saying! we have been gathering stuff to get rid of for a few months so we had a good stuck. I wish we would have sold more but hey I made over $100 so I can complain about that either! I had to go around to the other houses to tell them that a donation truck would be here after we were done to get whatever we didn't sell or want. That was not a good idea cuz I ended up spending $20 at other peoples houses. I bought a cute train set (well 6 Thomas cars) that I am very excited about for Tolson for Christmas and some Razors (I know, at a yard sale?) for Jason! (our awesome neighbor and her sister are coupon queens so they get really good deals on stuff and then re-sell it for cheaper). I did the yard sale with Jessica and we had a great time. She came over Friday night and we made Pizza and sorted and organized all our stuff. then we just hung out on Saturday while people shopped our stuff. at the end of the day we still had lots of stuff so we sorted through it and made a donation pile (a big one!!!) and put it on the curb. about an hour later I had a lady ring the door bell that didn't speak any english and ask me if an item in the pile was for sale (well her daughter asked me) I told them I was just getting rid of it and they would have whatever they wanted. They took EVERYTHING out there. They didn't even look in the boxes to see what it was before they loaded it in the truck. oh well maybe they will get something from it. it was just funny! anyway it was very fun and now I have some Christmas money to shop with on Black Friday!!!! I am excited about this Christmas as it will be very fun to see Tolson get really excited about his presents and the whole season! I hope you all have a fun Christmas and enjoy getting ready for it.

p.s. my camera Broke :( so I won't be posting any pictures for a while!!!

Alaska 2009!

WARNING!!! PICTURE OVERLOAD!

In June of 2009 our Family took a Cruise to Alaska. My parents had been gone for 2 years on a mission so upon their return (may 2009) we went on a trip with them, their 6 children and our Spouses. No small children allowed. It was so much fun. Here are some pictures of that trip.

This is the Girls (missing Ida) at Butchart Gardens. Jason wants to Build a fountain like that in our yard. Well maybe when we get our dream house he can do that!

Bear Hugging!

A Not so Friendly Bear!


This is Craigdoroch Castle in Victoria, BC. It was built in the 1800's and is very very cool inside. I could live there!!!!

Butchart Gardens was an amazing place. There were probably hundreds of thousands of flowers there. I think we took so many pictures there that my sisters camera refused to work any more. If you are ever in Washington go see it. Beautiful!!!!


Jason was Rock climbing on the Ship! 200 feet above the water! and What a hottie he is too!!!

We had My sister take some formal pictures of all of us on the cruise. There were two formal evenings that we had dinner and went dancing. It was so fun to dress up and party the night away!

Here are all the Girls!

And the whole Family!

it was a wonderful Trip that we will remember for ever! I have always wanted to go on a cruise and who better to go with then your own family!

Dreams!!!!

ok so I have no pictures but maybe I can find some to add to this.

I have lots and lots of dreams, most of them may seem worldly but it is the intangibles behind them that I want the most!

Owning an SUV

Hybrid camping trailer

Sapphire ring for Spencer

No Debt

To actually decorate my house

New bedroom set

New BABY

A weekend away with my hubby

Going back to Australia

Taking Jason to New Zealand

Biking down Haleakala in Hawaii with Jason

Doing a BIG 12 days of Christmas for someone who needs it.

Lasik and laser hair removal ( totally worldly, sorry)

Taking Tolson to Disney land

Letting Jason buy the Truck of his dreams

A full CutCo set of knives

Nice New pots and pans

A huge walk-in Pantry

Many Many more......

These are just some of the fun things I would love to have or do. It may seem silly to post them all here for the world to see but here they are. I have been thinking a lot about them lately and how to accomplish some of them. I do not want them all at once and don't worry I won't go into huge debt to get them. (one of them is to get out of debt!!!!) I hope that sometimes you stop and thing about your dreams.

If you don't have something great to look forward to, then its hard to see past today!

Love/Hate relationships

Ok so now that all that is over with..... I am moving on. I really have a lot to do but not very much motivation to do it. Jason heard back from the border Patrol last week and they said it will probably be another several months until his Background clearance is done so not to hold our breath. I am LOVING that he will still be here for several months but I am HATING that we still have to wait for long. Other then that I have to get ready for a yard sale in two weeks(LOVE the money, HATE getting ready), clean my house (HATE) so I can decorate for Thanksgiving and then Christmas (LOVE), Work on my Christmas sewing projects (yes I said sewing), we have another craft fair coming up,(LOVE) and I decided that I am going to run a 5K with Amber and Allison in December. I DO NOT enjoy running (HATE) but I am doing it to support Amber (cuz I think she is amazing(LOVE)) and cuz I need to lose some weight and get fit (HATE). I do much better at exercising if I have something I am working towards so here I go! Running! other then that I am just grumpy today cuz I had to do the budget for the month (HATE) and there are lots of unplanned expenses this month that I have to figure out where they will come from. UGH! I have a love hate relationship with money (don't we all) SO there you go with all my loves and Hates today. I don't really like the word Hate but sometimes it is just fitting.

Well I LOVE you all and HATE that I don't hear from you more. I hope that with the holidays coming up we can all catch up and at least try to keep in touch. Now I am going to turn on some fun fast music and hope to get some things done around here.

Bummer!

I had no better title then that sorry. So it has been a very bummer weekend. WE spent Most of Saturday in the ER waiting to hear something we already knew. WE got there at about 9:30am and were in our own room by 10:15. Unfortunately we were next to a kid that was in their for being very very drunk and he was very vocal and not very nice. The nurse didn't take any crap from him and was very tough. We were laughing most of the time. well after blood tests, an exam, and sonogram they told us that they could not find a heart beat and that I was having a miscarriage. This did not come as a shock to us because I had been having signs of that for a few days (which is why we went in the first place). I had cried most of my tears in the days before so I was ready. I don't understand why these things happen but they do and they did. I am very glad that I have learned a long time ago that I am NOT in charge but I am glad I know who is. I really have felt the spirit comforting me and reassuring me that everything will be ok. On Friday when I was pretty sure what was going on I was just sooo mad. I kept thinking "it's not supposed to be this hard" I still think that but now I know that Its not up to me anyway and maybe there are things I need to learn so maybe it is supposed to be hard.

Anyway I am just rambling but I just needed to put some of my feelings down in writing. I also wanted to say thank you to the good friends and Family that I have around me to help me and support me in the good and bad times. You guys are the best!!!!!

Today I am grateful for:

My wonderful husband
My cute little boy
my health
my home
my faith in the Lord and in His plan for me and my family.

Potty Training Time!!!!

Ok so On Wednesday I started the official Potty training. It has been three days and so far is going pretty good. So many people said that it was sooo hard and yes it is but I guess I expected it to be a lot harder and so it hasn't been to bad. ( kinds like the glucose test when you are pregnant) anyway he is doing really well and doesn't want to put his pulls up on at night even cuz he likes his big boy underwear. He only had two accidents on Thursday and so far today (granted its only 10am) no accidents today. As you can see in the picture I covered the couches with towels and the floor with a blanket. Yes there is a lot of Orange in this picture. Tolson has decided that he likes to pick out his own clothes so i let him and I guess at least I can be glad they are in the same color scheme. oh well so there is the latest update on Tolson and the potty training. I hope that it keeps going well and that I will soon have a fully potty trained little boy. Wish me luck!!!!

Cooking club ( for lack of a better title)

Ok so a few weeks ago I got together with some friends and we learned how to make Gnocchi (I think that's how you spell it) It was soooo fun. Allison taught us how to do it and then we all tried it. I of course am not in any of the pictures (tee hee) and I am sorry girls that they are so blurry. I have to tell you though I went to the Dr later that day and was weighed and was like 6 lbs heavier then I normally am and yes I blame the yummy food. Here are some fun pictures of the day.

Jessica showing off her crazy mad skills in the kitchen.

Emily cutting the noodles the whole time saying "Is this right, are you sure, really is this right it seems like it should be harder."


Amber - see if you can make it in my mouth!!!!!


I think Emily was the winner for the messiest hands. We had a lot of fun hanging out and learning a new dish. Thanks Allison for the new skills and the yummy food. I still have to try this on my own so Jason can have some and I can see if I can really do it.

COOKIES!!!!!!

Ok so I have been wanting to make these cookies for several weeks but have never gotten to it. They are the Land-O-Lakes chewy chocolate chip cookies, and can I just say YUMMY! so I decided to share this great recipe with you all. I know you are thinking they are just chocolate chip cookies but they have a lot more butter and sugar in them then most and they are chewy and yummy! So here you go!

CHEWY JUMBO CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE

4 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups real butter, softened

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbs vanilla

1 12 oz package of chocolate chips (2 cups)

Preheat oven to 375. Combine flour, baking powder, soda, and salt in a bowl. Set aside, Combine butter and sugars and beat at medium, scraping sides, until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla. Continue beating, scrapping bowl, until well mixed. Gradually add flour at a low speed until well mixed. Stir in chips. Drop by the 1/4 cupfuls, 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-14 min. Let stand on the sheet for 2 min then put them on a cooling rack. mmmmmmmm!!! My cousin that gave this recipe to me swears by parchment paper and says it makes all the difference but I have never tried it. Enjoy!!!

30 and thriving!

OK so this last Friday I turned 30!!! I kept thinking it was going to be a big deal and that I would feel different cuz you know its 30. But I didn't really! Last weekend Jason threw me a surprise birthday party. It was so fun. I loved seeing friends and family and just hanging out. We had yummy food and played Rock Band. Jason had borrowed a projector and set it up so it was huge on the wall. Everyone brought a yummy appetizer and Jason made a cake. Yes Jason made it. He snuck to his moms house and made a German chocolate cake for my birthday. I love him so much and that he pulled it all off. My sister and her husband came into town from Safford to be there and my brother drove over from the other side of town to be there for me!!!! I have an awesome Family and incredible friends. We stayed up until 12 playing and talking and eating. It was so fun. THEN this weekend Jason and I were able to go "out" of town to a resort in Rancho Vistoso. My parents took Tolson and we spent the day shopping, watching a Movie (Harry Potter - and yes I did like it) went to a yummy Italian restaurant, sat in the hot tub and just enjoyed the day together. It was so fun and so relaxing to just be us and just spend time together. So I had a great birthday!!! It is weird to think that I am 30 but I don't feel old and I am so excited for all the fun adventures ahead of me in my life. Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes and for being part of my wonderful life!!!

p.s. sorry I don't have any pictures! It was a surprise party!!!

Life in general!

why do I always put a exclamation mark after my title? I don't know but that's just who I am. I have been thinking a lot lately about life. I will be 30 this month and we are still in limbo of what changes may be coming and I don't know, just thinking a lot about life. Its funny how things don't work out how you plan but in the end they are better. I never thought that at 30 I would only have one kid (well technically I have two) but its just weird. I also didn't think that my husband and I would be at the beginning of a career change and possibly be moving. I did think that we would be out of Tucson by now though. We always planed 5 years or less, its been more then that since we got married but still we are close.

I just really am SO blessed. I have such great family close by, I have AMAZING friends that I have so much fun with and learn so much from and I am so in love with my husband and son. I always thought my kids would be about 2 years apart but it has been really nice only having Tolson at home because I can do fun things with him and I get to read to him everyday before nap and bed time. I think as you have more kids it makes it harder to do all those little things that take your extra time. I think it will be really fun to have him be the big brother and be big enough to help out and play with a younger sibling (no I am not announcing anything). I do really hope that we are blessed with more kids but I am glad for how great things have been.

I am just really grateful for all the wonderful things in my life.

Wonderful husband, Cutest funnest son ever, Being a mom

Nice, comfortable home, Cars that work and are paid for

Being able to cook and enjoying it, Green grass in the back yard, Rain in the summer

Great Friends, Having sisters, The church

Jason having a job, Having a healthy strong body

Ice Cream, Flowers, Chocolate

Anyway I am just thinking about all the blessings I have and I know that there is a plan for me and for my little family. I can't imagine going through this life without the Gospel and without the Savior by my side. Sometimes it is fun to look back on life and think about all the fun you had all the blessings and all the stupid mistakes you made. As long as we learn from them then it is all worth it! If we didn't learn anything we weren't looking hard enough!!!

I just wanted to take a few minutes to write about the joys I have in my life!!! I hope that you all can find your joys and hang on tight!!!!!!

Tolson's Birthday!

Friday was Tolson's 3rd Birthday and we had a great day!!!! In the morning he helped me make the cupcakes for the party. He is such a big helper and loves the part where he can lick the beater! (don't we all) This was the before picture, I never got an after one but he was way more covered in chocolate!

We tried to make the cupcakes into car wheels! If you use your imagination you can see it. (kind of squint your eyes and picture a car over them) They were not as cute as I hoped but he didn't care and they were really yummy! They were made with Jr Mints and man were they good!!!!!!

Then we went out to lunch with Aunt Michelle, Morgan and Nana and Grandpa. After Lunch we went to Toy's R Us and played on the toys. He was so cute running from car to car and bike to bike. Right before I took this picture Tolson was in the pink one and Morgan was in the black on. They switched on their own before I could take the picture.

Ok such a boy!!! He sits in the Barbi Corvette and then gets out and looks under the hood. He was messin with stuff and then shut it and got back in and tried to start it! I don't know where he learned that one!!! He is just a boy!!!!

So that evening we had some friends come over for a little party. We played at the park and tried to have cake and ice cream there too but it got too windy! I couldn't even get the candle lit so we sang anyway and pretended! He didn't care he just thought it was cool.

He then proceeded to lick all the icing off of two cupcakes, he didn't even try my yummy chocolaty mint cupcakes! Oh Well!!!

So after a HUGE wind storm started we headed over to our house. (lucky we live across the street) We played and opened presents. We did our families traditional "Heavy Heavy Hang Over" song and bopped him on the head with the presents. He loved it and thought it was soo fun to have his friends there.

Even the adults got into the action!

It was soo fun to have his friends over to play with him and enjoy his birthday! We are so lucky that his friends parents are our friends too so we had fun hanging out and visiting! We are soo blessed to be here and have such a great group of people around us. Thanks for coming and helping celebrate Tolson's 3rd Birthday!!!!

All night long and the next day all he could talk about was seeing his friends again!!!!!

Slacking!

Ok so I know I have been slacking a little on the posting. No good excuses except well.... no good excuses. I love reading everyone else's posts and seeing whats going on in their lives. Maybe its cuz my life is not very exciting. WE are still in Limbo waiting to hear from the Border Patrol. Jason has a Dr. appointment today to see about his wrists. once we get that in they I guess we just wait some more. Tolson Birthday is Friday and he will be a big 3!!! I am very excited about this and I will have something to post after Friday! We are having just a few friends to the park for some cake and ice cream. I am going to try to be creative and make some cup cakes look like tires and am going to do a few fun little games. We went to the Wal-mart (ugh!!) last night to get his bike and they didn't have the one we wanted. It was not a very fun trip and I HATE going to wal-mart. Those of you in the rest of the country will not understand. I think our wal-mart is the most ghetto, gross, crazy people filled, Wal-mart in the world. Soooo anyway we went to get a cute little tricycle for Tolson Birthday present I had looked at them and wanted to get one but thought it would be fun to go with Jason and get it together. So I got a babysitter for last night and we went and the whole time Jason was just not happy. They didn't have the one we wanted and when we left Jason was like "I hate Wal-mart". Anyway we went to the Hummer dealership and looked at H2's so he felt better. I am still not sure what we are going to do about the bike but I am sure we will find one we like.

Anyway I am getting excited about this birthday! One thing we did buy was underwear for Tolson. I am going to wrap it up and give it to him as a present. I am normally opposed to doing that for kids cuz I think its kind of lame (no offence to anyone that does that, I just remember getting things like that growing up and not liking it.) BUT I am going to start potty training right after his birthday so I want him to be excited about it and I thought if he got it for a present he might be better excited about them. so I guess the trip to wal-mart was productive after all.

well I guess I better stop rambling and get Tolson to bed. I just have to say that I am in love with the blogging world and am so glad that other people are better at this then me! I love hearing about my friends lives and their joys and sorrow and excitement and fears. I am glad to be a part of that and am glad you are all willing to share with me.

I hope you all have a really great day.

Thing I am grateful for today:

1. Brady Gray (he is tolsons brother from another mother)

2. Chocolate

3. Blogs

4. a dishwasher that works well!

5. My awesome Husband who will go with me to wal-mart even if he hates it.

Fruit Pizza Flopp!!!

OK so I said before that I was not really creatively inclined! Here is the evidence.

I tried to make a fruit pizza on Sunday and I failed miserably. I make the cookie dough from scratch and rolled it out onto the pizza stone leaving a bit of an edge so it would expand. Well I guess I didn't expect it to spread so much. I went to check on it and it was dripping over the edge and onto the bottom of the oven. Soooo I put a cookie sheet under it to see if I could still cook it enough to use it.
SO the cookie sheet caught a lot of it but the stuff on the bottom was still cooking/burning and every time I checked on it smoke filled the house. I should have taken a picture of the bottom of the oven after I took the cookie sheet off. It was horrible. And I don't have a self cleaning oven!!!! So needless to say I did not make a fruit pizza! Alas I will try again!

Progress in the Back Yard!!!

For those of you that saw our backyard as a barren wasteland you may be surprised to see all the green. Yes we have grass now! I know we are crazy for wanting to grow grass in Arizona in the summer but it worked and has not been too bad either! We are making progress on the master plan for the back yard so I thought I would fill you all in as we go along.

The pile of block in the back corner will someday be gone but for now ... well there it is! But look at the grass! Yes this is in Tucson folks! Isn't my husband amazing!!!!

We had our first casualty of the project...a broken rake. It was on its way out anyway but we helped it along. oh well I am sure there will be more.

SO this is that start of the path that will go from the porch all around the grass area. Jason worked on it on Thursday night for a few hours and got about 10 feet done. He is amazing and I am sure it will soooo awesome when it is all done.

On Saturday we were doing a little work out there mowing and picking weeds and cleaning out the sand box and we needed to trim the edges of the grass. We don't have a weed wacker so I used the scissors and trimmed it all by hand. Now you may laugh but I was glad I could do something to help. The backyard is Jason's domain (as is the garage) but I want to help so I don't feel so useless. So I got the scissors and went all around the edge and trimmed. It wasn't too bad but we went to Home Depot (Tolson's favorite store) and looked at edgers/trimmers that afternoon. It seems we will have to add to our tool collection as we continue on this project, which I am sure Jason wont mind at all. WE are excited about what it will look like when it is all done but it will be a lot of work until then. We have been waiting for the weather to cool off a bit and then we will really get going! I will keep you all posted.

Childrens Museum

Family Home Evening this week was going to the Children's Museum down town. We met the Grays there and Tolson and Brady had a great time. Tolson wasn't a big fan of the dinosaur room but liked everything else. It was a great time.

Tolson and Brady Had a blast playing in the Fire truck!

They loved being together! I swear these two were best friends in the pre-existence!

They played in the submarine for like 20 minutes. They pretended they were driving it and loved pushing all the buttons and spinning the dials.

Tolson loved the Train room! He is a big fan of trains and thought it was so cool to ring the bell. This is looking down through a tunnel that was the front engine of the train.

We had a great time and love watching tolson play and explore! Its especially fun when he has a great buddy to go with. Thanks Brady for being such a good friend!!!

Cool Jon Schmidt Video

I love this video. He talks at the end about arranging it for his 7 year old daughter! anyway I hope you like it as much as I did!

Creative attempts

Ok so I was teasing on facebook the other day about starting a blog called creatively declined. I try lot of new things all the time and I am sure when Jason is gone for 5 months I will have lots of evening time to fill with things. I think instead of starting a new blog I might just post these attempts on here. I have been trying my hand at different kinds of cooking, sewing, jewelry making, I struggle with decorating but would like to get better and many other things. I figure my blog is called Kemptons kingdom and should share things that go on here in the castle so I will be posting all these things on here. Now I just need to get better at taking pictures of these happenings and document the fun. So there you go! Here is a forewarning that there will be some random posts about the little things I am trying! Hope you all enjoy the ride!

Camping on Mt Graham

Ok so some days I feel like my life is in limbo. I don't have a whole lot going on or a lot to report so I feel like my blog is kinda boring. But at the same time its really just for me and whoever want to know whats going on with my life. So really It doesn't matter right?

Well this weekend we went camping (pictures to come later) It wasn't real camping as we were staying in a cabin with running water and a kitchen etc. but it was still in the mountains and still fun. We went to Mt Graham (over by Safford) with Jason two cousins and their families. there were 6 adults and 7 children in a little one bedroom cabin. it was very fun but a bit noisy at times. Tolson had a very rough night the first night (which means of course that I did too) He fell asleep on the bed I was going to sleep on so when we got ready for bed we moved him to the floor. well about 12:30 he woke up and freaked out cuz he didn't know where he was and where mom was. SO I tried to settle him down and had him come onto my bed with me. Well Tolson has NEVER slept in my bed or with anyone else before so he would not fall asleep. I tried everything I could think of until about 3:00am he fell asleep laying on my chest/tummy. well then I had to figure out how to move him off me and next to me without waking him up and find a way to still sleep on this twin bed. So needless to say I didn't get much sleep the first night. Poor Jason was awake the whole time I was trying to get Tolson to sleep so he was tired too. WE survived and then the second night we gave him benadryl. Now I am not a drug parent but sometimes you need your child to get a good nights sleep and this was one of those times. I think Jason cousins thought I was terrible but I don't really care. He slept well and so did I . That night two of the little girls that were with us took turns screaming and crying throughout the night. I felt so bad for their parents cuz we were all in the little cabin and they were doing their best to get them to be quiet but you can only do so much with a two and three year old in the middle of the night. SOOOO minus the sleep factor we had a great time. We just relaxed and played cards and eat really yummy food. I love being in the mountains and not having a lot of distractions. We went to go visit my sister who was camping up there too and just walked around and looked at the creek and the flowers and trees and it was so fun. We really want to get a little travel trailer some day so that we can go camp in the woods and still have some of the great comforts of home.

So we had a fabulous weekend and love spending time with family. Jason and his two cousins spent a lot of time together growing up so they are really close. Their wives are great and we all get along which I love. I hope that when we move we can still try to keep in touch and spend dome time together every once in a while.

Well I hope that you all had a great weekend and are loving life. I look around each day and am so grateful for all that I have been blessed with in my life. we may not have the nicest house or all the "things" that we want but we are happy and healthy and we have wonderful friends and family around us!

Hope you all take a moments to look around and see the small stuff in life that really is the big stuff!

Secret hiding place!

Ok so Tolson and Emma (one of the kids I watch) have discovered the coat closet. I know its an odd picture and don't judge me for the mess but they love it under there. We cut out the back of the closet to get some extra storage under the stairs. We also put a little light in there. Tolson thinks its the coolest place in the whole house. I can hear them under there playing house (well sort of) and singing songs and laughing soooo hard. I am glad that I can witness all these cute things that they do. Today they found my baby doll and fed her and put her to bed. They were reading stories to her and then telling each other to be quiet. It was very cute!

Kids, kids, everywhere!!!!!

What a crazy week. Not bad crazy though so its was ok! I had a total of 11 kids at my house this week. Some I had for several days in a row but I didn't have all of them at the same time. And the great thing is that I still got a few things done. I am really feeling the cleaning out and throwing away bug and hope it sticks around a while. I think knowing that we will be moving sometime in the next year or so (anywhere between 8 months to 24 months) makes me want to start now. especially because I am hoping to be having a baby sometime in there too. I just don't want to be stuck trying to go though everything by myself feeling tired and sick and having to get it done right now. I mean really we could get the call to go to Academy in 30 days and we will be moving to who knows where so I will want to put the house on the market as soon as he leaves and I want it to be already done and ready! SO I am getting the bug and trying to get things sorted through and organized. But with lots of kids here it makes it kind of hard. So really this week I didn't expect to get anything done and I did so yeah for me!

Well Jason's tests start this week. He has an Interview with three agents on Monday that is supposed to take 4 hours and then Tuesday he has his Fitness test and medical exam. We sent back to missing information from the background stuff so I hope they get started on that soon. This really is a very exciting time for us.

OK so I had to say goodbye to a good friend this week. They are in the border patrol and he is graduating from the academy and is assigned to Las Cruses New Mexico. I am excited for them but sad that they will be gone. Really who knows maybe we will get sent there too. Well, we went out to dinner on Wednesday (me, Kirsten(the moving one) and Emily. We were all in the same ward before this one and our families hung out together. We were the curly girls. Anyway we went to dinner at Austins and it was so yummy and fun to just sit and chat(no kidos). We stayed until they closed and then went to Emily's house and just visited and reminisced about old times and how much we have grown and learned in the 6 years we have been friends. We ended up staying up talking until about 2:15am! crazy but true! I will really miss her and her cute little family but I am so happy for them. Best of Luck Kirsten!

Well I have no profound thoughts for you this week! I love my life and the joy that is mine because of the blessing my Father in Heaven gives to me! I love my Husband! He is the most wonderful man in my life! I am so lucky to have him! My little man is getting cuter and cuter! I know you all will agree! He is the cutest little boy with a fun, happy personality!