Karla chooses to be baptized

It has been so exciting and so neat as Karla made the choice to be baptized and walk in her Savior's foot steps.  It's been neat to watch her gain a testimony.  And I insisted it was her testimony and not mine. And she has bloomed!!  So Mom and her went and picked out a white dress.  She knew which one she wanted.  I had her try on a few more just tobe sure, but she knew her mind.  And she looks beautiful. 
We were so blessed to have so many family who could make it.  Aunt Cyntha, Ben, Jamie, and Alleah came up from Las Vegas.  They did some house hunting while they were here.  We are so excited to have them move just the next town over this summer.  Grandma K and Aunt Helena made it from Idaho.  They started at 4 am and drove out the day of, but then they got to stay and celebrate Easter with us.  It worked out really well.  Granddad Mike and Granny Sandy came down from Spokane.  They spent Friday afternoon with us too.  It was a lot of fun.  Then from those who live here we had Grandma Julie, Uncle Garth, Aunt Susan, Grandpa Tingey, Grandma Tingey, Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Dot, and their current foster kids, Uncle John and his sweetheart, Grandma and Grandpa Cook.  It was great.  Bishop Sintay and a few friends from the ward and the Stokers from our old ward rounded out our group.  We felt very loved.
When we showed up to the church, it was a little nerve wracking to realize the guy who was suppose to unlock the church and fill the font was out of town.  We missed that one.  Everyone was very patient as we got a key.  We started the font filling and set up.  Usually it takes 3 hours to fill a font.  So we rearranged things a little.  We had the whole program.  We then baptized Karla.  The bishop coached us on how to baptize in very little water.  It really doesn't take much, but by the time we went to baptize her it was full.  It was cold, but it was full. And she was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by her daddy.  She was then confirmed and given the gift of the Holy Ghost.  We are so proud of her.  As she reads her scriptures and shares with us the scriptures that seem to speak right to her heart, I am amazed at her faith and grasp of the gospel.

You are what you eat: every day

http://www.empowernetwork.com/nefnews/blog/you-are-what-you-eat-every-day/

What do you do every day?  Come see what I try to do every day at the above link.

Bits and peices

I love this picture of my sweet family.  We really do love each other!!  And we enjoy wrestling and cuddling.

 Here is my little bundle of joy shortly after we came home from the hospital.  My sweet angle!!

 8 days after Kolten was born, thankfully he was healthy enough, we went up to my dad's wedding with Aunt Dot and Aunt Cyntha.  He was shocked we came.  It has been the start of building a new realtionship with him.  So far, so good. And I like this wife a lot better than the last one too.  Is that awful to admit?

Part of the reason I wanted to go was because I wanted to my Aunt Sandy who was coming out.  She lives in CA and that trip is a hard one to make.  It was fun to get to visit with her.  We hung out with her until we HAD to leave.  We got back to Richland just a few minutes late for Todd to run do our paper route.  But we enjoyed the time together.

If you were looking for Kolten or Kylee this was where you'd find them.  Kylee couldn't stand to be away from our baby.  Kaylyn and Karla also enjoyed being close to the baby--but when I told them to leave him alone, they would.  Kylee quit asking and would just cuddle up with him. We all love our baby boy!!  But Kylee's not the only one cuddling up.  And Daddy and Mommy got really tired. 

 But occassionally we played hard enough that it wasn't just mom and dad that got tired.  Here is Kaylyn sitting at dinner.

And my big boy!!  I can't believe how much Kolten is growing.

Halloween 2012

 Before Halloween we had crazy hair day--here are the girls with their crazy hair.  The girls enjoy dieing their hair.  It was this color or a faded version until March!  And we bleached, died, bleach, and re-died their hair to get it back to it's natural blonde.  Kaylyn's didn't last very long. :)

 Kolten made such a cute pooh bear.  He is just rolly polly enough that he looks great!!  But he did not like his costume.  So you will see we let him be Monster Mike on actual Halloween.

 Here is Garth.  Mom made his costume after his favorite power ranger.  We then attended her ward party.  It was a lot of fun.  Trunk or treat.  Chilli feed.  And walk across the stage show off.  They even had a best costume contest.

 Here is my tigger and my butterflies or pixie for the party.  I have to laugh--here is Kylee crossing the stage.  And this is classic Kylee!!  She is our little movie star.

 We spent one afternoon with  my dad.  And here is the jack-o-lantern that the girls made!!  I love all the eyes.  I didn't take my camera up there.  But we made cookies.  We painted and carved pumpkins.  We enjoyed being together.

 I went as Thing 2 for actual Halloween.  But Thing 1, my sweetheart, decided to stay home and get some extra sleep.

 But he helped me get our Mike into the car.  Kolten seemed to like this costume a lot better.

 Kylee--our diva--could not wear the same costume twice in the same season.  What were we thinking?  So she went as little red riding hood.  We went with Aunt Dot and her foster kids to safe street.  We enjoyed the bouncy houses and the trick or treating.  We then ran over to my ward's trunk or treat.  It was fun to see everyone.  When we got home--there was a lot of trick or treaters.  So we went Trick or treating for 4 whole blocks.  The girls had a blast.  Kolten was such a trooper too.

Pumpkin patch

In October, it was so fun to watch this sweet boy smile.  He really does have a very sweet temperment.  And for the most part, he is a very happy boy.  I am one lucky momma.

He is also wearing his superman shirt because I was a Mann before I became a Nef.

 In October, Aunt Dot invited us to join her ward's homeschooling group to go to the pumpkin patch.  It was a lot of fun.  Here is the pumpkin that Kaylyn picked out.  She also got to ride in a cute little train pulled by a four wheeler.  And then we got to go to the petting zoo.

We also got a fresh made pumpkin doughnut.  Yummy.  There was a fun slide and a tree house.  We then picked out several pumpkins for making into jack-o-lanters and then later into canned pumpkin.  It was fun because I got to go with Dot's foster daughter--and my new best friend.  The babies came too.  Because it was cold they stayed bundled close to mom or grandma.  We even were able to all car pool out together in my new big car!! 

Every day life summer of 2012

On our way to the Nef family reunion, we drove through this fire.  I am grateful it wasn't worse and we didn't get stopped.  I pray no one was hurt.  It looked like all that was lost was crops--we felt bad for that poor farmer though.

 We are in the era of losing teeth.  This is Kylee's first lost tooth!!  She was excited to finally be like her sister.  Karla has lost several.

 We have a picture of Grandpa Nef on his tractor.  This is the cook version.  This is Grandpa Cook picking corn. 

 I couldn't go out and help with corn.  It was around the time that Kolten was born.  But Todd and the girls went out and canned some corn.  We actually freeze it.  And we found out that we love the pint sized bags better than bigger bags.  We don't waste as much that way.  But Grandpa thought we were silly.

The girls are finally big enough to be big helps.  And they are good helpers.  Here is Kylee with Grandma Cook.  We are canning out in there porch.  We enjoy putting up food with Grandma and Grandpa.  We feel so blessed that they are willing to share their food they can glean living out there in farm land.

Silverwood trip

 Last year, Karla and Kylee's school offered a reading challange: the reward were tickets to silverwood.  The girls worked really hard without being prompted.  And they not only met the challange but more than doubled the minutes required.  They worked so hard.
With Todd just out of school and the baby being born, we weren't sure we could do it.  And yet, they had worked so hard.  So we talked about what other expenses we would have with the trip. 

 And the girls went to work to help us get to Silverwood.  When they found penny's or coins they put it in our silverwood jar.  They probably got us a tank of gas in coins.  We would often talk about it too.  They would ask to go out to eat or get a new toy.  We would ask them "do you want to get xyz or do you want to put the money in our Silverwood jar?" They would often choose Silverwood.  They were so proud of the fact that they helped us go on our vacation.

 Grandma Julie and Uncle Garth came with us.  Originally I was going to just send Todd and the girls.  But we all went up for the day.  It was a lot of fun.  Grandma even gave Todd and I a chance to ride two of the bigger rides together.  I had never gone on the ride that takes you so high up and then drops you.  But Todd gave me courage and we rode that together.  He was tickled pink to take me on it for the first time ever.  I was wondering for the first half of the drop if I had made a huge mistake, but we both survived to tell the story.

 Kylee really wanted to go to the water park.  And we were headed that direction, but we got distracted by Karla's ride--which took way to long.  The water park closed before we made it there.  Kylee was really sad.  So this year for her birthday--we are planning on going back and going to the water park first!!  We might not do much more than the waterpark this time around, but that will be fun too....except this year I might need to stay home.  We will see.

 Mom even had a phone interview while we were up there.  I think we all had a great time.

It's been a while

Life has been crazy.  We have moved to Richland.  We were in the process of trying to buy a house, and in the last minute, it fell through over stupid stuff.  Thankfully it wasn't our stupid stuff, but the house's stupid stuff.  We were sad.  And everyone once in a while I think we almost had . . . .  But we found a nice A house in Richland.  We are loving having a yard again.  I very much enjoy having a washer and dryer here at the house--even if we are on our 3rd set since moving in.  That's what I get for buying craigslist, but it's been good to us for the last few houses we've been in.  We are not cut out to live in apartments anymore!!  And it seems like we moved into the ward we need to be in for now.  We have felt home here a lot quicker than most places we've moved.  And for that, we are very grateful.  Even if occassionally we miss good friends in other wards.
One week after moving, we had Kolten.  I have posted some about him.  I am hoping to catch up soon.  I know I have needed to be better about journal.  Guess what--here is where I journal.  Blogger for a while wouldn't let me add anymore pictures--and that through off my grove.  But they are letting me now--so here we go again.  Right now, he is 10 months old.  He is big compared to my girls.  21 1/2 lbs.  I don't know what I am going to do as his little sibling grows bigger and bigger in my tummy.  Carrying him up and down the stairs winds me already!!
Have I mentioned, we got a surprise just after Valentines Day and we are expecting another little-- I hope--boy.  And so far, things are going better than feared with this pregnancy.
I am not working as a home care provider.  I am enjoying having my schedule freed up more.  And I am trying to keep a cleaner house and be a better mother than I feel I've been the last few years.  I still do papers--but only the Horn Rapids area now.  It's a good route.  I hate getting up every morning so early, but I appreciate the income, and it's a good route.  We still occassionally get calls from our other route. 
Todd is working for PCS as a driver.  He enjoys it.  He runs stuff, mostly car parts but sometimes other stuff too, to Lewiston, ID and several towns surrounding it like Clarkston, Cottonwood, and such.  Although it is good work, it is a 14 hour day 5 days a week.  He gets up at the same time I do.  And it is wearing on us.  The upside, we like the overtime pay.  He makes more in overtime than he does in straight time--and for now between the two we are making our bills.
God has been good to us. Kaylyn is becoming quite the big girl.  She is mostly potty trained.  And she loves to follow her sisters around, although she enjoys while they are at school too.  It sounds like she is up playing with her brother now.
Kolten is about to start walking soon.  He just got his first two teeth and have several others trying to come up.  He is sweet and happy.  It's nice for me that he is such a good baby.
Karla and Kylee have done chess club this year.  Todd enjoys playing with them.  It's a game Todd and I enjoyed as kids.  Although Todd and I have never played each other....hmmm.  It is amazing to watch as these girls grow and develop.  It's hard to believe how grown up they are.  Karla was just baptized, but I'll talk about that in my next post. 
For now, it's time to get back up and go back to work.  But next time I have to sit down and relax I hope to update some more.