May wrap up

We went up for Rich Holdaway's funeral (laurie's dad) doug and tami had us over for a bbq. It was my mom's birthday that weekend as well.

We need to work on Brielle's flexibility. the kids loved playing in the dance studio

Brielle love's spending time with Jemma. sydnee taught them a little dance. Bryson played with his three cousins this yr in baseball (Jake, Payton and Marcus) His uncle John was the coach.

Bryson sure loves baseball. He loves to play catch any chance he can. He is a good little catcher. He is going to play on a summer kid pitch league that plays in some tournaments. He is very excited!! He put a B on one side of his helmet and a K on the other like his uncle Adam who has an A and a K on his.

I love this picture-trey was busting up at Cy

Brielle was the star of the week for her birthday

Trey's preschool graduation-he was not happy. He still has two yrs of preschool left :(
he was soo sad the morning we told him he didn't have school-he didn't understand-he said yes we do-we did the stop sign-we usually run the stop sign and then drop him off after.

Brielle's end of the year kindergarten program. Cam and I missed it because we were in LA. I hae a friend record it and take pictures for me. Brielle was a really good sport about us not being there. Bryson would have had a hard time. It is so interesting how different each of our kids are. Brielle didn't mind when I wasn't at the bus stop a few times this yr and had to go back to the school-After one time of not being at the bus stop Bryson wouldn't let it go. I had to send him with a cell phone so he could use it in case I wasn't there. May was as busy as usual with all the birthdays and end of the year stuff.

Other b-day Pics Birthday

The Birthday Weekend

For the past few yrs we have gotten away with celebrating Bryson and Brielle's birthdays (which are one day apart-bryson on the 16th and brielle on the 17th) on the same day together. Bryson wasn't having that this yr. so we decided to have their friends party (which we said we would do every other yr.) We had Brielle's birthday at noon and bryson's at 2pm. I would much rather do a girls party than a boys party-bryson's friends were out of control. We played some fun dress up games at brielle's party and fortunately Cam had the boys most of the party at the church playing wiffle ball and basketball. It was a full day. I had a vteaching breakfast appointment at 10am and after bryson's party I cleaned up for another party. the guys had father's and son's and then dani, lacie, maren, kayla, and mandy and their babies and girls came over and slept over. Father's and son's was a special one for bryson because he woke up on his 8th birthday at the camp out. Pres. Henderson had bryson, a boy who was turning 12, and a 19 yr. old come up and talked about these significant birthdays. Pres. Lameroux had bryson come up and acknowledged his birthday they all sang happy birthday to him. Sat. we went bowling, to the what women want expo (brielle bought a cheerleading outfit with her birthday money from both grandparents.) went to target so bryson could use his birthday money, and then went to pirate island for dinner. We got bryson a moped, a d. williams jersey and angels hat. Brielle got a new bike, rollerblades and scrapbooking stuff.

May Day!!!!

From the moment we flew into st. george we have been going faster than our legs are meant to go. thurs. morning I went with bryson on his field trip. I have been able to avoid a field trip these last three yrs without too much fuss. Every once in a while bryson asked why I didn't go and this yr he begged so without knowing how crazy we would be, I accepted. I could barely keep my eyes open I was soooo tired!!! It was fun to be with him. we went to a wild animal museam. There were a few things bryson has said these past two days I wanted to remember-one was at the museam when we were watching the a movie of these wild animals and there was a part that told about how the female lions were the ones who had to kill the food and that they were the last to eat. Bryson was so bothered by this and didn't understand. He just kept saying that isn't fair and that the males should catch the food and the females should eat first. The other thing, that night in our family prayer Bryson prayed that Brielle's friends would come to her party. I had sent Bryson's and Brielle's birthday invite's with them on Tuesday and when we came home wed. Brielle's were still in her backpack. I had to go with Brielle on Thursday morning and make sure she handed them out because her party was on Fri. My Sweet Bryson!

Thank you AMEX!!

Cam and I decided last thurs. that we would go to the Biggest Loser finale again this yr. Our anniversary was on the same day and with the month of may being as busy as it always is we decided to fly early that morning and we were going to fly back that night but we would miss the last flight into st george so we had to stay a night. we used our amex points to fly, get a car rental and a hotel room. Because it was on our anniversary Cam decided to find us a nice hotel on the beach in Malibu and got us a convertable rental car. It was simply a dream come true!!! I have always dreamed of running on the beach (a real jog). We arrived in LA at about 9am. We met someone for breakfast, had success at a few shops (cute baby girl clothes-and a few maternity shorts), then made it to the finale. After the finale we headed to our hotel and had dinner on the beach and took up a yummy cookie dessert to our room. We woke up at six and went for the best jog on the beach. It was such an amazing feeling. there is not much better! We were the only one's out there. The air was soo easy to breath. We had our suite on under our clothes-i tried to get cam to get in the water with me but it was freezing cold we made it about waist high and got out. We then had breakfast on the beach and then took a nice nap in our room with our sliding door open listening to the waves and enjoying the fresh air. I tried to soak it all in because just a few hours later we were right back in the ball game-literally. We landed at 430 and picked up the kids and took Bryson to his baseball game.

We are having a baby girl!!!

Last wed. we had our ultra sound and found out we were having a girl. I haven't posted yet that I am pregnant but I am sure most people know. Bad news was that the ultra sound said i measured a week later than I thought but the exciting news is that we are having a girl. I realized that i subconsciously was talking myself into being ok with another boy and I had no idea how bad I wanted a girl because the next day i lost it! even on the table getting the ultra sound I fought the tears. it really was kind of weird because i really was ok with having another boy but now that I know we are having a girl I am sooo excited!!!

Quick trip up North

Last Thurs. one of my really good friends growing up Katie (Barney) Kolowich was given a shower by my other good friends Deborah and Lisa. It's weird because in elementary, junior high, high school and college we were all inseparable! We roller skated together, played night games, walked to smiths, did odyssey of the mind, danced, cheered, school dances, wrote our missionaries (three of us had high school sweethearts and sent off missionaries and all of us married them), roomed together our first yr of college at ricks. Now we are happy if we can all get together once a yr. around christmas for a few hours. Me, Deb, and Lisa all have had kids and now Katie is expecting her first boy. Katie has needed to make sure getting pregnant was safe with her seizures. Needless to say we are all very excited for her. Fortunately Cameron knew how important this was for me to be there and helped me make arrangements for him to take us and the kids thurs. morning to make it that night. We came home the next morning to make it back for a marketing interview and Bryson's B-ball game. Also Sat. we had an all day workshop for all of our managers. Deborah just had her 5th baby, a girl, two weeks ago and Lisa had a sweet baby boy 2 months ago. Katie is having a boy and I am having a girl.

Who has the time!

Whenever I saw people post the stuff they got at the store for a good deal I thought-who has the time, but I could not resist sharing this for several reasons 1-if you aren't doing this or don't believe it's too good to be true I wanted to show you that you should do it especially if you have kids and that it really is true. So a few weeks ago there were some great deals at Albertson's and I had one of my first successful weeks and saved $250, got $70 worth of FREE meat, 12 bottles of lotion for .25, .50 salad dressing, etc. i was sooo excited! This week was another success. Every week I have saved quite a bit. This week I had to take a picture to prove it and document it for me to remember and to share. It seriously is such a rewarding program. You save tons of money, you can work on food storage, and you get tons of food! So here is my breakdown:
4 jumbo boxes of rice krispie's
5 spices (non-generic)
6 boxes of Keebler cookies
8 boxes of wheat thins
4 boxes of Fiber one muffin mix
5 containers of frosting
4 cookie mixes
ritz crackers
22 boxes of cereal
6 boxes of pop tarts (2 fiber one's)
8 boxes of granola bars (a variety)
apple juice
granny bread
4 cans of tomatoes
carrots
celery
onions
potatoes
3 bags of marshmellows
4 mini warm delights (2 to a container)
4 frozen dinners
fresh parsley

And 2 free movie tickets!!!

Are you ready My grand total: was $105.51
My total savings was: $264.65

The best part of it all is that it is sooooo easy. All I use is Grocerysmarts.com Utah code:
The first step is to order your papers (i order 4 sunday papers-and i think it is plenty, but you could get more and save even more!)

The website does all the work for us. I would highly recommend a paper cutter-you can get one at staples or I love the pampered chef one, because you do cut out quite a few coupons. It took me about 1 hour to research and cut out and then I spent about 1 hr at the store. I had to go to the store anyway. It is a little bit of a rush-everytime I checkout I am nervous, but it has gotten to be so fun and I am figuring out a few tips as I go. You just have to start somewhere and it usually takes a few weeks until you have several papers-just depends on the coupons that week.
It is Amazing!!

Bryson's Hip Hop Competition

Yesterday we spent the day at Bryson't hip hop competition. He had one a few weeks ago and came home with a huge 1st place trophy. His group was only against one other team of girls that were older. It was fun for him to win and get a trophy. they were told that this competition would be a little harder to win and there were more teams they competed against. We all thought they would take 1st which they did again but it was really cool at the end they gave a high point award against all the dancers (novice, and beginning) and his team won it and got a huge trophy and then they won the best hip hop routine for the whole competition (against every age group). This was his first year taking so it was really fun for his little team to do so well. He really loved it!

Brielle's dance performance

Brielle

Our Disneyland Trip

Brielle takes violin from the cutest teacher (besides my mom)!! She is the most animated person I have ever met. Brielle loves her. Every year she takes her students on tour and this year they performed at Disneyland over spring break. We talked some good friends of ours to go with us. We left on tuesday and came home on Sat. So we went to Disneyland on Wed. and Thurs with the Jensen's and Bergesons and then on Friday Chris and laurie made a quick trip for Jordan's birthday and came down. Brielle performed twice on friday. The performance was so fun! Brielle just started in january but was able to participate in every song doing something. A lot of the songs Brielle was supposed to just play an open string but during the performance she followed the teacher and was playing all over the place all sorts of fingers and she tried following the teachers bow-it was hilarious and soo cute. She was as confident as could be. During the disney songs she was singing along as well. She had a blast!

At the end of the day waiting for our shuttle back to the hotel. The shuttle was hilarious everyday. We had 10 kids, 5 strollers, and 6 adults and everyone else that wanted a ride. We managed to squeeze everyone in everytime.

I love Brielle's face.

Trey loved the princes just as much as the girls. Those of you who have stood in the princess line, know that it is forever!! Dani stood in it for about 20 min. wed. afternoon when we decided to hit the star wars show instead (which was awesome) We decided to go back the next morning first thing. I sent cam running to get us in line. We were one of the first 30 people so we only had to wait 45 min. instead of 2 hrs. We were so ticked when we got in to see Mulan, Jasmine, and a Prince-no big dress princess>Dani went and found whoever this is but no cinderella, snow white, sleeping beauty-nothing!

Bryson's up on stage using the force

Brielle doing her own thing

Jayden and Bryson up on stage

Cam's valentine's gift

All I have to say is that I have some talented friends who are making me do crazy things, but I love it. I started to wonder if this gift was more for me or for me. We had a lot of late fun nights working on it. I filled each pocket with coupons and next yr. Cam gets to fill it for me. It will be our new valentines day tradition.

Elder Meacham

After we went home on Tuesday visiting Grandpa Johnson we got back in the car and turned around to go back up to my little brother's farewell. There were a lot of family there to support him. Our family alone took up 3 full rows. I was impressed with his comments. He gave a tribute to our grandpa and how he has been a faithful servant. I have to be honest and say that I was really nervous for Greg as his older sister. I am quite protective of my family and would rather do stuff for any of them. I have learned that it is better to let others make their own decisions and just be there to support them. I worry about my own kids when they get older because I just think I know the best solutions when in reality they may be good for me but not the best for others anyway it has been fun to see how mature our Greg really is. He has had 5 moms and now he has the opportunity to live without all of us hanging over his shoulder. I am so proud of him and look forward to his emails everyweek that my mom forwards. He is such a good kid. I loved these pictures Laurie had on her blog with Chris holding Greg and then Greg with Chris. I thought it was also cool to see in the reflection of the picture with Greg and Chris my dad and Wilford Woodruff's (our GGGreat Grandpa) name in the picture.

Grandpa Johnson

My Grandpa Johnson, one who has left a legacy, had a strokeon Feb. 6th and was in the hospital until Feb. 13th. He wasn't expected to do well at all. We were told that he wouldn't be able to eat anything and his speach was very hard to understand. On Tuesday morning the 10th we decided to go and see him up at the hospital because we weren't sure he would make it much longer and if he did he would be very week. We had a very nice visit. Leanne and John also made the trip up. our kids were able to sing to him. He enjoyed hearing music. It was very neat to see Greg (my brother) with him. Greg was there right by his side. Grandpa has had dimensia so he doesn't remember everyone's name but because of the relationship greg had with my grandpa he was one of the grandkids that he never forgot. Greg was quite emotional watching my grandpa. It is amazing to look at the legacy my Grandpa will leave behind. I wish he understood how much he has done. He has some amazing children, grandchildren and great grandkids. He is home now with family taking good care of him. He is actually able to eat a little so we might be able to have him around a little longer.

The Big 30!!

Well Cam started buying gifts for himself in January. We found a desk for him to study at which he has been asking for a while. He also got a nice chair for it. There wasn't anything left for me to get him, but it was a big one this year after all his 20's are over. Our nephew Jake was being baptised on Jan. 31 so Cam's parents were already going to be in town. his sister Shari came down as well. A few weeks before his birthday I decided to throw together a little surprise party with family and some friends. Bishop hooked me up with a nice room at the pasta factory to have dinner. My mom and greg decided to come down for it and spend some time in st. george before greggy went on his mission. Cam had a basketball game that night so right after the game the kids gave him a card that sent him on a scavenger hunt with the firt clue being the last clue that took him to the pasta factory with everyone waiting. when the guests arrived they were given a quiz about Cam. We ate dinner and had cupcakes and ice cream, and watched a slide show about Cam's last 30 yrs.

New family pics

New family pics. erinfonnesbeckphotography.com go to proofing and enter kelsch as the password. warning: there are a lot of pictures! They turned out great. It is priceless to have pictures of your kids. I have looked at them so much. Now I just have to decide what pictures to hang up. there are too many to decide.

Happy New Year!!

Today was our first day with church at 9am. Overall I think I am going to really enjoy 9. I made the mistake of not waking Trey up til 8:30. I had time to do 13 + posts. I had to catch up from nov. and I have a renewed commitment to post even more because I received the best present ever from Cam. He printed my blog from the past year. It is so neat to have. I told him I want one every year. I learned that I need to break up my posts better, so this is why I seperated them so much. After reading the following, you will see this is why I haven't posted for a month:

Laur and Travis came down for new years on their way back to flagstaff. The kids were sooo spoiled over the break to do something everyday for two weeks with their cousins. There were a few days they were over stimulated. Even though it was hard to see it end, it will be nice to get back on a schedule and have the kids back in school. This is a picture of us at the new Pirate restaurant in St george. It was perfect for kids. I think the adults might have enjoyed it even more because the kids were entertained. Cam had the kids help clean the house that day to earn money to spend at the arcades. We took the kids to sand hollow one day to swim (Amie and her kids came also after we took the picture-they would have added 4 more kids). Leanne and John hosted a really fun new years eve party-great food and fun games. It is fun to see how competitive we all are-and how some don't do well with competition.

The kids wouldn't leave us alone while we played pictionary so we finally let them play. i love Jake's stance. they all loved it

Cam had to draw Oregeno the spice. he is so intense when he plays
Cam doing his victory dance (the sprinkler) after they guessed scrunchie

Me and my three sisters I love these guys so much!

Cute picture of maryann and clayton

Kade and Crew entertaining each other.

Sledding and family party

Bryson Loved Snow boarding

The day after christmas, laur and travis came from arizona and doug and tami came over so we were all there to exchange cousin gifts. The cousins exchanged gifts this year. my kids loved picking out gifts for eachother.

all of my siblings and their spouses
We sang happy birthday and sent off all the balloons to heaven

It was sooo cold!!

playing with christmas toys

Greggy going to town on our new sing it. He was very good-especially at payton's dance game

Check out grandma on Bryson's moon board (from his sister Brielle)

Visiting Grandma Sherrie and Grandpa Glen Kelsch

We went up to Kelsch's on Christmas morning to visit and see more cousins. We were able to see everyone but the Jacksons (they stayed in St George). Adam is a NUT!! He always makes us laugh. The snow was CRAZY. Grandma and Grandpa gave the boys the wiggle cars and Brielle and Kade cute outfits. Cam got a book on spiders (inside story). They gave us a fun game (worst case scenario) and a tortilla press. Uncle cody also made these beautiful frames that framed a beautiful thanksgiving saying handstitched by grandma sherrie-I always love getting stuff she makes-she is soooo talented! We didn't get to spend much time because that night they headed down to st. george for a baseball camp for adam and to visit the Jacksons.

Cam and Matt threw Adam into the snow.-boys will be boys

Cam's favorite part of the trip was making the decision to drive his truck-he loved that he had 4-wheel drive.
The fun wiggle cars

Adam's shoveling get-up

Grandpa always has a way with the grandkids!

Christmas Morning

This was uncle Gregs last year at home before his mission and Leanne, maryann, and I decided to do one last christmas with all the cousins together at g & g's home-Chris, laurie, jo and jemma also joined us-how fun to wake up and see all these toys. We had 11 kids sleep down stairs and santa delivered all the gifts upstairs. he put the presents in families so when the kids came up they we opened presents together in our own families. It really was a lot of fun and not as crazy as I expected.

Bryson got a guitar, a church suit, mario cart wii and disney sing it, b-ball shoes, and a savings accound (he has been begging for one and has saved money to put into it)

Brielle has asked for a violin for 2 yrs now and santa finally got her one. she has lessons starting in january. She is not really into babies but santa loved this doll!

she wanted a machine that put beads in your hair

all Trey wanted was a fast car and a real motorcycle. Well santa found this really cool battery operated bike he loved!! it goes 5 miles an hr and yes a helmet!

Christmas Eve

My Mom made a delicous dinner. My mom gave us her christmas gift (horse blankets for everyone) before we went caroling-they were perfect to keep us warm! She always has a very thoughtful gift with a lot of work put into them! I have to say that caroling was one of the hightlights! My parents have a horse wagon that fit us all. We rode around some neighborhoods and caroled. It was such a peaceful and nice evening. It was fun to ride around looking at all the homes knowing that everyone was inside with family celebrating the birth of our savior. We then came back and everyone wrote a gift they wanted to give the savior on a paper and put it in a jar and in a balloon. The jar we will keep out all year to remind us of the gift we are giving him and the balloons we filled with helium sang happy birthday and sent them off to heaven.

White Christmas

The kids took full advantage of the snow. We had to run to target and purchase boots, hats and snow pants for all the kids because we had none. The kids spent everyday in the snow. they walked to shelley school with sleds and Cam, Greg, and John pulled them on the sled and snow board behind the truck. My parents had so much snow on their street it was perfect.

Kareoke and christmas prep

Greg helping the kids make the puppets for christmas eve. We had a puppet show of the saviors birth. we practiced our songs for the caroling we did christmas eve.

Greggy's birthday

We gave greg a prayer pad-I am sure he will spend a lot of time on his knees on his mission. Oh he was called to Colorado Springs, CO. We will miss him but are very excited for him.

Greg's cute girl friend lauren. She gave him a nice watch and a tie and he made her a blanket. I gave cam a watch for christmas before his mission and he made me a blanket-kind of funny.

Visiting Santa

Visiting Santa at Tuachan. Brielle asked for a violin, hair beading machine.

All Trey wanted was a motorcycle and a fast car
Bryson wanted a guitar, fishing pole, mario cart wii, a suit, and an ipod (he got them all but the ipod)

Trip to LA

Cam and I were able to go to The Biggest Loser Finale again. We had two other tickets and invited Jeff and Kayla Hall from our ward who are big fans of the show. they were like little kids in a candy store at the show. They were fun company. We were going to make a quick trip out of it and drive down monday and come home Wed., but on the way home we were stopped because of the snow and waited an hour to later turn around and found a hotel to stay another night. We were so glad we turned around because so many people were stuck in their cars the entire night. We took Kade because he is nursing and left the other kids with Leanne and maryann-and others who helped-thank you!! The kids even had a snow day. the first in several years! the finale was fun we were able to meet the trainers and contestants. we made the best of being snowed in and went to the the melting pot-so yummy and relaxing with only one kid although it felt like we had more with Jeff and Cam.

Cam and Jeff during a pillow fight!

cam sleeping in the car waiting until we knew if we had to turn around or not. we waited 1 1/2 before we turned around to go back.
At the melting pot :)

Kade was a pretty good traveler. I held him most of the time. Walking the streets of LA

Christmas dance performance

Brielle, Lydia, and Jayni dance out at Tuachan. It was a cute performance! Brielle danced to Susie snowflake.

Christmas ward party

I was called to be the primary junior chorister recently and our primary kids sang at our ward Party.

Trey was so proud to hold up the star and Cam made the perfect little manger.

i love being in the primary. The best part is that Leanne and Lauralee were both called as choristers in their wards so we share ideas.
I had to post a picture of Jeff Hall dancing as part of a modernized 12 days of christmas (I think).

Gingerbread making

This was my favorite way of making gingerbread houses. We have had the kits and used hot glue before but this year Amie my sis in law showed us how to build them by burning sugar to stick the gram crackers together. the kids had a ton of fun. Amie also made some great frosting. Thank you amie. Leanne and her kids came over as well.

2008 Christmas Card

We were at the Dickens Festival this year and saw the Grinch and had to get a picture with him. This is one christmas movie our family watches all year.

Reflections performance

Bryson and Brielle both participated in the reflections evening. The kindergarten sang and Bryson's teacher had the class recite different stories. Bryson entered reflections twice once with a snake he made in his class and then on his own making up a hip hop dance. He ended up winning 1st place for the dance. He came home and started writing a song on the piano for next year. It was a busy night I had all the kids while Cam went over to the Stake Presidents house for a bishopric christmas get together. i met him later.

Thanksgiving 2008

This year the Kelsch family was all down for thanksgiving and we ate at Chuck a rama. It had it's pros and cons. The best thing was the no clean up and once you were done eating you left and didn't keep eating-which could be a con as well-no leftovers, but helped to not overeat-infact I made it the whole day without a piece of pie because right after I taught the afternoon at the spa. I volunteered to teach because they didn't have anyone to and we were going to be gone over christmas. We had a fun evening playing baseball at the church.

go Brielle

Dad's not so graceful slide

My favorite is Amie's face!

Nice Adam!

Trey's got stitches, Mom fainted!!

1. Cam and I have made it 8 yrs without a kid having to go get stitches until now. I am not surprised it was trey because he has acted like he was five since he could walk. he has been able to ride a scooter since he was 1 1/2. He is not careful either and goes soooo fast. We take his scooter with us a lot on the stop sign so that on the way down he can ride it instead of riding in the stroller and there are some steep hills on the stop sign. I love to watch him ride because he looks so graceful and I am usually not scared fo him. but a few days before thanksgiving we had just started our run down and Trey was ahead on his scooter. It was moments later we heard him screaming. He came running back to us with blood shooting out of a hole in his forehead. I quickly grabbed a blanket to stop the bleading. I laid him down and tried to calm him down. Cam ran to get a fitness ridge van to drive us down to the bottom to our car. I took trey down while cam ran to the bottom with the stroller and Kade. Trey had stopped crying before we even got in the van and was fine. I even took the blanket off and thought he might not even need stitches so I waited for cam and then we drove home but I knew I needed to at least take him in to get it checked-i had just been in the instacare one week earlier to the day to find that Kade had an ear infection. The nurse put some numbing gel on his forehead while we were in the lobby by the time we were in the office it was numb and had opened up quite a bit. it was a big hole-started to make me sick. Just as I told the doctor that I was glad cam didn't bring him in because he doesn't do well with gross stuff, I started to get queezy. Then, the doctor started to pull out little pieces of lava rocks! I really started to feel dizzy and sick, so I laid my head down on Trey's bed and the next thing I knew I was being helped to the floor by the nurse because I fainted. I was so glad trey didn't need me he was sooo good. he just laid there smiling. needless to say, he got a helmet for christmas.

Trey's 3rd. birthday

Me and Brielle sporting our new hair colors and matching pj's

We had Trey's b-day party at a fun new park near our home.

Sheri was in town with her sisters-it was fun to see them

Trey wanted anything fast for his birthday.

Well we are getting there. Almost potty trained

Treyson Jay is now three. Time is going by too fast! He grew up so fast. Trey is such a busy busy body! Most people watch him and are afraid for his life-I guess I have just gotten used to it. Bryson and Brielle are usually the one's crying because Trey hurt them. I am a little afraid for Kade's life. Trey doen't really understand soft and shh. He is very loud. The other week in sacrament I kept saying SHH and he finally looked at me and loudly said Mom Kade's not sleeping! He usually head buts Kade for a kiss. He loves his preschool teacher Miss Dani. He loves to be outside and doesn't know what to do if there isn't anyone to play with. I am very grateful for Bryson and Brielle who are usually helpful to play with him. He has been riding a scooter since he was 18 months old, and goes so fast on it. I need to get a good video of it. He loves motorcycles and cars. He loves uncle greggy and adam and his grandma and grandpas. One of my favorite things he does is ask for his bruda (brother bryson). He always say i want my bruda.

I was tagged...

8 shows I like to watch: (we haven't had tv for over a yr so these are ones I used to watch a lot) 1. Oprah 2. American Idol 3. So you think you can dance 4. House 5. 24 6. Biggest Loser 7. Friends 8. What not to wear
8 Favorite Restaurants: Our Spa is my favorite!! i don't like sit down restaurants much. I know, sad! I hate to spend money on food. My mom's kitchen would be my first choice!
8 things that happened yesterday 1. ran 7 miles of the stop sign 2. Managers Meeting 3.Lectured 4. met with a few guests 5. ate sunday's leftover dinner 6. FHE 7. practiced piano 1 hr with Bryson 8.put away the rest of the halloween decor.
8 things I look forward to: 1. The casitas, new guest building and new gym being finished at spa 2. Christmas 3. No Debt! 4. Mission with cam 5. more kids 6. Trey's birthday on friday 7. Stop sign tomorrow 8. Being able to do Circuit Training at the spa with friends and family (When our kids are old enough to stay home)
8 things on my wish list: a clean organized closet, Lauralee and Travis in St. George (all of my sisters and mom could run the stop sign together), Chris and Laurie to move back, and Mom and Dad to get a home here. Master Bedroom decorated, New couches, some of the rooms and walls painted (not by me), Never get sick again and or my kids-ya right!
8 people I tag.. Marcie, amie, Shari, Josie, Dani, Elsha, Lacey, Kayla

HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE

Halloween was a busy day as I am sure it was for most people. We started the day by going to Bryson and Brielle's school parade. It was good to have Grandma and Grandpa Kelsch there-and of course Adam! We then hit the jack pot at Snow Canyon High School. It was really a fun thing for the school to do for all the kids and the kids got more candy there than anywhere. The kids went around to each class and all the kids gave them handfuls of candy. Then we went and did a little parade at the spa for all the guests. Thank you Leanne and Amie for bringing your kids. Cam and I dressed up last minute as 80's workout buffs. Cam was out of control. I was beginning to wonder why I was the one who taught aerobics. Cam teaches a mean Circuit class but his aerobics moves had everyone entertained for the night. After the parade we hit our ward's trunk or treat and finished the night with the good old traditional door to door trick or treating in Leanne and John's neighborhood. They have a great neighborhood. they had a fun get together before and the kids had the most fun on the big blow up toys they had. Here are some of the pictures from our day. Our dentist buys the kids candy from them (5 cents for every piece) so the kids are excited to take all their candy in and get paid.

Bryson as indiana jones, Brielle as Sharpa from high school musical (her wig was off by the end of the night), Trey and Kade were ninjas.

Payton, Marcus, Trey, Jake, Brielle, Natalie, Bryson, Jayni, Lydia, spencer

(Kade, Olivia, and Brigham were not in the picture)

Kade's Blessing

What a cute picture!! We used my Dad's name for his middle name. I love this picture. Isn't my Dad so handsome?

The best pictures I got were with the grandparents. Grandpa Glen we hope you are feeling better! He was so sick and still came to church and was able to be a part of Kade's blessing. Thank you so much and Thank you Grandma Sherrie for the darling pants-they were perfect! Kade had his two grandpa's and every one of his uncles in attendance. Along with his blessing, this was the highlight of the day.
Kade was blessed to obtain every needed ordinance necessary to return to our father in heaven. He was also encouraged to make returning to our Heavenly Father his number one priority in life. What is our number one priority everyday?

We were able to get a few family snapshots taken before the blessing-thanks Matt Kelsch.
I thought the Temple would be a fitting place to go and get some pictures. It was such a beautiful morning ( a little chilly for st. george)
Grandpa and Grandma Meacham drove down that morning



We had so many family members here to celebrate baby Kade. Thank you everyone for coming.

wet and enjoyable weekend

Brigham turned 1!! look at those eyes. He is such a cute kid. Leanne had us all over for yummy broccoli cheese soup. I was in charge of the jello and it was a flop-sorry guys. Brigham cried when we all sang happy birthday to him and it took him a little while for him to get excited to dig in but once he did he loved it!

My baby isn't an infant anymore. I think kade has gotten big faster than any of my others. He is so big. He isn't even 3 months yet. On friday the 3rd. he was a different baby. i guess he really did have colic and he has outgrown it. He was quite pleasant in Lake Powell but he is taking a 4 hr nap right now. He never did that! He is content when he is awake even laughing now. It is sooo fun! I feel like I am playing house with him. We are blessing him this sunday-anyone is invited to come. Our church is at 1pm.
More of Leanne's Brigham
Saturday morning we all got up and got ready to cheer on Cam at our favorite stop sign (at the top of snow canyon-the 16 mile mark of the marathon. I couldn't go to sleep after he left and just kept thinking about each mile he was on. I was KIND OF not really sad to not be running it with him this year. It rained the whole time he was running. It hardly ever rains in st. george. The kids had a fun time cheering him on. We all got cold.
He is the second one in blue. He ran it 12 min. faster than last year even with the rain.
Cam bought us all T-shirts to wear to cheer him on.


Trey enjoying the chips he spilled in my bathroom.

Kade has the cutest puppy face when he cries. it is sooo loud though and his scream is so startlingly (sp) high pitched.
Leanne brought Payton and Marcus and Amie and Eric came with their kids to cheer him on. Thank you guys and Thanks Leanne for your help

Couldn't have been better!

It has taken me a while to post our trip because I took a ton of pictures. I had been very nervous about this trip for a few reasons-one we had 14 kids under 8 and mine (Trey) most people were nervous for because he is fearless, two-I was nervous about Kade being so young and three I was scared to go after being so sick (worried I wasn't 100%). Anyway, it turned out to be a lot better than Cam and I were expecting. Chris had a house boat for us and even stayed in a tent so that me and laur with new babies could stay inside. Trey was meant to be outside-he was in HEAVEN!! He was soo easy there. He loved the beach and he swam with all the cousins literally all day. The weather couldn't have been better. I have never been to Lake Powell with such good water-it was glass all day and was so warm. It was warm enough but not too hot outside. the nights were even a little chilly. We had almost my whole family there-except for Doug and Tami and their family (we missed them). I felt so good. It was the first time in weeks that I felt normal. The food was great and was really easy. We were all just in charge of one day. Kade was really easy. The best part of it was just being with family and I just loved watching my kids have sooo much fun with cousins. We all hated to go. Trey follows me around the house saying, now what am I going to do. He was so much easier there than he is at home. The kids really were a lot less stressful than we all thought. They all just kept jackets on all day and they just played on the beach. My brother Greg was the one who requested this trip before he sends in his mission papers. He turns 19 in dec. Chris was the one who made it all happen and was so great to take a ton of boat trips anytime anyone wanted to go out Thank you Chris. We had a lot to do with the wakeboard, skiing, the molecule, surfing, the slide, fishing (thanks travis) and waverunners (thank you Matt!!)

Cam jumping our boat waves
Laur and I had Caden and Bryson two days apart and now we have Crew and Kade a month and 10 days apart. We spent a lot of time inside with the babies.
Bryson and Caden all over again-except Crew is the easy one this time.
My mom was soo good to help with all the kids. Thank you mom.
Little Sadie, Lydia, and Trey loved the molecule.

My sister-in-law Laurie made these cute headbands for us and we all lived in them. they were great! Thank you Laurie!!
This is Laur (my sister), Laurie, my sister Leanne, Me, my sister Maryann and my mom.
My brother Chris and his daughter Jemma (brielle had so much fun with her). I love this picture.
Clayton, Maryann and Jayni.
One of Bryson's highlights was getting up on the wakeboard. When he was three we put him on a bike without training weels and he just started to ride so I wasn't surprised when he got up on his first try. He thought he was pretty cool doing it one handed.

All the grandkids minus 2 more boys and one girl (doug and tami's kids). there will be 13 boys and 5 girls (tami is having a boy in dec. and has two boys and one girl)
Our little ducklings on a boat stop.
I love this picture! My dad used to grow a beard everytime we went to Priest Lake. My dad spent a lot of time keeping the houseboat deck wiped off and had the little kids wiping their feet before entering.
Cam and my dad fought over the book Emma (Leanne brought it). They both finished it.

I loved surfing-I had never tried it and felt like I was in the ocean. It is really fun!
Bryson
Greg and Clayton had a fun time on the waverunners. This is them racing. Clayton said it was the first time Greg won.
Sadie loved going down the slide with Travis

The boys loved fishing-thanks travis!


the fish going down the slide

Hooper survived Trey. The kids had a lot of fun with him. What a great dog-never barks and is great with kids
Cam and Trey going down the slide
Laur brought some really fun crafts for the kids. They painted frisbies, keychains, bookmarks, and made treasure chests and magnents (thanks Laur!)
We all got a kick out of watching Travis on the air chair. Chris, John, and Greg all got up too.

My big, little, handsome brother Greggy.
Jemma and Brielle
Mom and Dad
Marcus getting up on the wakeboard.

Greggy doing his backflip.
My beautiful Brielle

Nice Greggy!
the chips were missing and we found them up on the hill with Sadie, Jemma and Trey
Dad getting Mom wet on the waverunners

Houseboat meal ideas

We are getting ready to spend a few days at lake powell and are in charge of one day of meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) I know a few of you were in lake powell this summer and wanted to see if you had some EASY meal ideas. I am thinking of preparing breakfasts casseroles before hand and bbq sandwiches on rolls for lunch and chex mix and rice crispies for snacks for the kids and fruit. I haven't thought of dinner and dessert. any ideas? I am not set on my breakfast or lunch either so any ideas would be great! Thanks....

Cam my Man

I didn't even write anything on my last post because i have been no good for the past week. I didn't even feel good enough to sit and type at a computer. I still haven't quite figured it out either. I have been fighting something now for three weeks off and on. It was everyday this past week that I just couldn't get out of bed. I threw up a couple of times but I just didn't have the energy to do anything! Nothing sounded good to eat and my head got really heavy when I would be anything but horizontal. I had a doctors visit on friday and he just did the doctors cop out thing and gave me an antibiotic. I know it's all they can do without more tests but I hate taking an antibiotic if I don't know what I am taking it for and I wish I could say it was helping. Poor Cam has done everything this week-cleaning, laundary, made my meal for the week, worked, and even ran a 20 mile race on sat. He is training for the marathon. Leanne ran sick and still made it in 3 hrs and 6 min. she started a little behind Cam-they probably would have come in at the same time. It took everything I had to just take the kids to cheer him on and we didn't even see him run in because he was faster than we all expected. I knew he would do well but I thought it would take him at least 3 hrs and he made it under three hours so we barely missed him. I am jealous of his strength but at the same time grateful. Being sick is the most frustrating thing ever! I hate not being able to take care of my kids and the house. I felt like I was pregnant but that is not the case. this past week the bishopric gave the ward a challenge of not going to the store for two weeks and we have been just fine with not going but I did have cam get me some sprite and my medicine. Fri. night after the doctors, I actually had about 2 hrs that I felt good and was able to go see Brielle, Natalie and Lydia dance at the snow canyon half time. Brielle was sooo excited! she said she wants to cheer instead of dance. It will be fun to see what she ends up doing. Lydia was all smiles-she loved the attention. Cam took Brielle and Trey up North for addison's baby blessing. It killed me to not be able to go, but I have to get better. i can't do this any more. Infact i told Cam that we just have to start doing less so that we can be more effective-we are getting old I guess or we just have 4 kids. I am sure part of what I have, had to do something with the subway hike. I was just as sore as I was after the marathon and not because it was that intense of a hike. it was long, a lot of down hill and way more than I had done in 6 weeks. it is soo sad how fast you can get out of shape. i did 10 miles 3 days before Kade was born. I was sooo sore for 4 days. The hike is amazing! there were several parts where you are afraid for your life. the freezing cold water was a shock! maybe my body is still overcoming the shock. I was so grateful we went with Cody who has done it dozens of times and Cam helped me in a lot of spots. I just wanted to make it home alive to my little babies. It didn't help that when we got there the ranger stressed the chance of a flash flood. he said there was a 60% chance that we would see one or be in one. Needless to say I was thrilled to make it out alive! would I do it again-of course but just not 6 weeks after having a baby and still nursing. Cam was pretty persitant that I went with him because we have never gone and we took one of the producers of the biggest loser and his wife. Amie and Eric were brave enough to watch all of our kids. i felt so much better leaving them with family -mainly Kade. Thank you guys! I haven't even updated on Kade. My last post I was very frustrated but I have had some weeks of really a new baby. The doctor game him prevacid which seems to be helping. He is growing way too fast! We will belss him not till October because all of Cam's family was going to make it to Addison's blessing in sept. and some of them will try and make it to Kades so we didn't do it on the same day. Kade will just be a little heavy to hold in the circle.

Family Olympics

Singing a new tune about more kids

My favorite store lately-urban renewal is a really cool store on blvd. I am not even sure how it works. It may be a consignment store, but they have old and new stuff for very reasonable prices. They always have unique finds there. I found Bryson and Brielle desks for their rooms. They were so excited! The bed I found the day before Kade was born was from there as well.

Bryson's 4 drawer desk real wood ($40)

Cody and Kristin came down last weekend. It was really nice to see them! We were also able to meet cute and very sweet addison. I am sure seeing how Kade is made them really appreciate a baby that doesn't cry. I was able to get some cute pictures of her because she was so easy. I haven't even been able to get any more of Kade since he was 3 days old because of his random difficult episodes. I had to remind myself that I did have a very easy first and second baby. I hope I didn't scare them away from a 3rd or 4th because you love them all the same and they do eventually outgrow it (hopefully sooner than later) I am now just hoping Kade's doesn' last as long as trey's difficult infant stage which seemed to be a yr.

I really need to get some pictures above the bed now. I took the bed spread off so you could see the platform. I love not having a bed skirt and I love that it is closer to the ground (easier to kneel at). Heavy solid wood and Leather headboard ($400)
Brielle's vintage old school girl desk ($20). They fight over sitting at it. Also a perfect place to keep her school work. She started Kindergarten this year. Just like any other one starting kindergarten she was very excited. It is crazy to think my mom just finished with the school thing. This was the first year in 34 (?) yrs. that she hasn't had someone is school and we are just beginning. It is always crazy to have one of your kids start kindergarten because it is the first day of sooo many school days. You only have that day once!
Cam called at 3 o'clock to see how I was doing and he could tell in my voice that I wasn't great so he ran home and I couldn't hold back the tears. Kade had been crying all morning and wouldn't sleep. I have been extra emotional this past week. Kade has some great days but the days that he won't sleep he is just crying. I keep thinking he is growing out of it but today it wore on me. probably because Trey and Brielle both have a fever as well. Trey wanted me to hold him and the house kept getting messier and messier. When Cam came home Kade fell asleep and Cam cleaned up everything and I was able to rest (blog). I am so grateful for him and the times when Kade will sleep. When people would ask how many kids I was going to have my response used to be, if this baby is as hard as Trey was, we may be done. I can't say that anymore because I know I don't really want to be done at 4. Now I am saying, I am going to keep having kids until I have an easy baby so that I can end on a good note :) We will see if that changes. I am soo grateful for the good days that Kade has. He has actually been pretty good in the car and stroller (for our workouts which is very important!) He is getting soooo big and it doesn't help that he stops crying when I nurse him because I end up nursing him a lot ( I am glad I am through the first month of nursing-the first two weeks to a month is always hard and I had nursing issues with Trey that I haven't had) I thought kids don't get sick in the summer-my kids have gotten sick twice since he was born. fortunately because I have been nursing, Kade hasn't gotten sick. I really can't complain that bad because I am getting good sleep. We go to bed around 10 and he sleeps next to me and nurses all night. When he starts to wake up I just roll him over to the other side and he goes right back to sleep. I have never had to be up with him at night. Now I feel bad about complaining about him because he has been asleep for 4 hrs now and I need him to wake up to eat.

Leanne, Jessica, Amie and I have started up our meal swap again and I love it. this week we had flatbread pizzas on the grill, french dip roast beef sandwiches, and yummy chicken and noodles. a cooking group is the best. I recommend a group of 4. Everyone makes one meal 4 times and then you swap. You only have to shop and prepare for one meal and you get 4 great homemade meals. Get a group of 4 people that you see on a regular basis that preferrably live close together.

Where do I start?

waiting for our flat tire to be fixed. We were parked in the parking lot of the tire store to see about getting our tire fixed and were rear ended in the parking lot :)-you can tell I was thrilled! The kids were excited because they were able to go in and watch TV. Bryson couldn't even look away for the picture.




Click on the collages to make bigger.


greg swimming with the kids. Bryson, brielle and trey jumping off a rock diving board at Toby and Josie's condo. Trey is out of control. cousins on splash pad and golfing. Kade in his swimming suit. The finish line Cam did for out 24th of July Ward 5 K. I walked it with Kade (he was only 2 weeks then).




below: san diego sea port village balloon making, padre game

the guy didn't know what he was asking for when he started

playing swords with Trey and Bryson
Trey attacked and popped his sword.
legoland and padre game


Long version of our trip:





OK so every year we try and take the kids to San Diego to see a Padre game, visit the beach and go to Legoland. Well I figured since the kids only had a few weeks before school and Cam is always up for a trip (especially the Padres), i mentioned to Cam that we should take a quick trip and see a game or two. I have learned that unless I am ready and serious I should never mention anything to cam even just-let's go shopping, or get a movie or a treat because he makes anything happen (which is a great thing). I am the opposite everything has to be thought through. A quick, inexpensive trip turned into several unexpected costs and tues.-sat because the padres played on wed. and fri and when Cam saw that I had things packed and ready tuesday he decided he wanted to go tues. night. I usually shoot down most of cam's spontaneous ideas so I decided I would go with it. The adventure started with a $200 speeding ticket on the way to vegas and then cam told me he got a room at a casino. I had to remind him that we had 4 kids and a casino probably wasn't the best idea but we couldn't cancel so we took all 4 kids through the casino at 10 o'clock at night and I just wanted to cover their eyes but we were already getting enough looks. My blood was boiling by now. Cam was sweating by now and was just lucky that Kade didn't wake up because he would have started screaming and I probably would have lost it, but we made it to our room after waiting in line for a good 20 min to check in. We didn't get to sleep til about midnight and the kids were awake at 6 so we gathered our stuff and took off (not sure if cutting off 2 hrs of our trip was worth it-actually I am-it wasn't). We stopped in barstow and went to a few shops then made it to san diego an hour before check in time so we had to kill an hour with 4 kids-we basically just drove around. we did find a metor and went into a souvenir store and got bryson a new padre hat. Cam was excited about his hotel find that was supposedly within walking distance of the stadium that had free cook to order breakfast. We drove up to the hotel and found out it was valet parking only and $30 a day to park. I hated having to unpack everything that we wanted all at once-just another stress to add with 4 kids which increases our bag number quite a bit. It was very apparent that we were out of Utah with everyone staring at two young kids with 4 of their own kids. It is so sad that what is one of the most important things in the gospel (the family) is such a strange and crazy thing to the world. We had about an hour before the game. I failed to mention that Kade has decided to be cholicy (sp). so at this point if he is not sleeping, or eating he is fussy with stomach issues. i have never had a baby with his strong lungs it is a little scary when he screams. We started walking a little after 6 the game started at 7 but the hotel being within walking distance turned out to be about a mile. We brought a chair that sits low to the ground which took up most of the stroller and when we got there they told us no chairs so cam had to walk it all the way to the other side of the stadium. We looked at each other and thought what else could go wrong. I felt like I was in a movie with a live audience. Kade actually cooperated through the game. I just held him the whole time and nursed him with my back against the stroller. The great thing about it all was that it was beautiful weather! We had to wear jeans and jackets. such a nice little break from the heat. The next morning we took our time getting ready for legoland, had breakfast-poor cam was juggling 4 trays of food. I had Kade in a front pack. We went to the lobby to get our car. There was a huge line for the valet. We waited in the lobby for about 20 min. before we asked how much longer and they told us that our tire was flat in the parking lot. so we took the kids back up the room and Cam went and put the donught (sp) on and we went to a tire store and spent $150 on a new tire. Again Cam and I said could anything else go wrong when a man in a 1950 cadillac rear ended us while we were parked waiting for our tire. I had to take a deep breath. the kids were watching a movie and felt a little jerk but were fine. the man was taken to the hospital because all he knew was his first name. He really shouldn't have been driving. We made it to legoland at about 2pm. we would have dropped legoland but we already paid for the tickets. Legoland was torture for trey because he couldn't ride any of the rides and he wanted to ride the big ones. Cam also had to go on most rides twice because Bryson and Brielle weren't tall enough to go by themselves. I didn't take a cooler of food with us because I didn't want them to turn us away at the gate but they didn't even check our stroller so we ended up paying $60 for lunch and because the kids couldn't ride a lot of the rides by themselves and we didn't want to wait 30-60min twice we played a lot of their carnival like games and the kids won stuffed animals. I think we ended up staying maybe 5 hrs. another waste of money. the kids would have had just as much fun at the hotel-oh well. We were going to go to the beach on fri. but after seeing our luck decided not to and walked across to sea port village and shopped their cute shops. Kade slept the whole time :) We were fortunate because the times he was most fussy was in the hotel. he was actually pretty good at legoland and slept a lot. We then came home and Cam swam with the kids and then we stayed in and rented Maid of Honor and the kids speed Racer from our room. The kids napped and then we went to the game. Fri. was pretty smooth. We had our free breakfast one last time on sat. and headed home. Right before we went down to our car we checked our bathroom for stuff and the toilet had over flowed and the floor was covered with soap bubbles. We just left. Kade slept the whole way home!! He was way fussy that night at home and fussed all morning sunday but fell asleep right before church and slept through church and a little more when we got home. Cam gave the spiritual thought in ward council on patience. Our patience was defininetly tried. I had people in san diego tell me I was brave (I know they were thinking CRAZY). i started telling people he was a month because I felt stupid saying 3 weeks. I have stopped eating any dairy and he seems to be doing better. We have been giving him gripe water and gas drops and some pill that the doctor gave us for acid. He isn't spitting up a lot but the pill seems to help too. Monday and Tuesday he was quite pleasant so I hope we have figured it out. We swam all day yesterday at Toby and Josie's condo and amie's house and then all the cousins came over and played in the splash pad. Payton and marcus slept over.

random pics of last week

we went to the roadrunners game with maryann and clayton and greg.

bryson and brielle love seeing the mascot saturn. he signed their baseballs
trey got a ball signed but is scared of the mascots
brielle, bryson, b trey and jayni enjoying their traditional snow cones.

The best part of a newborn!

Bryson's new favorite activity. it is so fun to see Bryson get so excited about going golfing with dad. He spent about a month earning the money to buy his own clubs. It is easier to get him to practice and clean his room when I tell him he won't be able to go golfing on Fri. with Dad. Check out his blog http://www.bkelsch.blogspot.com/ to see more of his pics. He was so excited to come home and post his golfing pictures. I was never a fan of Cam golfing but now that he can take Bryson it is easier to justify.
everyday Kade looks different. We still can't decide who he looks like. He doesn't look as much like Bryson and Trey did
It was fun having uncle Greggy come and visit. He has 17 nieces and nephew's that love him so much! Trey couldn't get enough of him
Kade's favorite sleeping position

splash pad not quite finished but the kids couldn't resist and the fake grass. we haven't set up the rest of the swing set and we left the sand box. the kids love the tramp!
Gas smile.
Our church isn't until 1pm and I decided that I would start getting ready and if it worked out I would go. I have a hard time not going when I have taken the kids swimming and have gone shopping. How hard is it to go to church and sit and listen. well it worked out for us to go. I even had a little time to get some pictures of the kids in their outfits I bought back in April. I couldn't resist Kade's little outfit.
I didn't get a good pic of the outfit. By this time Kade was done.
brielle drying off on putting green. I thought we were doing the putting green mainly for Cam but the kids love to play on it. Our backyard is not big but I think we made the most of it.

baby kade I think this was the second night I was home with Kade. i walked in to Cam and all the kids in our bed. I love this kid. He is so entertaining. You never know what you are going to get. He is out of control!!
The wii has saved our summer. They love the new Wii fit. they haven't played it all week with our backyard done, but it's nice when they are bored and it's too hot to be outside.
Cam is the happiest that the backyard is done. He did a lot of work. His poor hands had blisters

One week old

I have been meaning to post about the arrival of Kade but that was probably the first and last post Cam has done and will do-at least until another baby. i thought it was so cute that he came home from the hospital and stayed up til one doing the post and had to get up at 5:30am so I wanted to keep reading his post. He spent the next few days trying to catch up on sleep. I felt like he was the one who had the baby. it is a good thing that i am fine on little sleep. i have actually enjoyed our nights when I get to just hold and feed kade and i sleep sooo much better when i can have him with me. i think I have some sort of separation issues after carrying a baby around for nine months i have a hard time sleeping without him. Anyway-i felt like i was in labor for a month. it probably didn't help that i was doing too many things to try and get him to come early-he ended up coming 10 days early-(3 according to the size he was in the ultrasound at 20 weeks). Wednesday I was sure he was coming and woke up with the same contractions but they were just 7-10 minutes apart but they were hard. I kept waiting because the hospital was going to call me to come in to get induced and I didn't want to go in unless the contractions were 5 min. apart so i spent the day finishing laundary, getting the house clean, cam ran a bunch of errands, we even got a new bed we bought the night before put together-i was really excited for. We weren't looking for a bed but found one I really liked. i really hated how high our old bed sat. i couldn't kneel at night by my bed and i hated trying to get in and out of it. i always had to help the kids up even brielle. This new bed we just use our mattress (no box springs) and it sits lower. Our kids slept at Leanne's the night before incase the hospital called early so I was able to get a lot done without them. We even went to Olive Garden for Dinner wed. night-Thanks Leanne. The hospital called at 12:30pm and told us to go in at 1:30pm. There were times that I was tempted to go in earlier because I felt like my contractions were getting pretty strong but we waited. it was such a long morning and afternoon. it was amazing how much we could get done with no kids. When I got in, I was dialated to a 5 so the nurse didn't give me pitocin because I needed to get started on the strep antibiotic so that it could be in me for 4 hours. I got the antibiotic at 2:45 and delivered Kade at 6:53pm-perfect timing. The doctor showed up at 6:30 to check me and I was a nine-I really felt ready to push at 6 o'clock but needed to wait until at least 6:45. It is so crazy with all of my kids the feeling of needing to push comes so fast and there is not much time after that. I usually haven't had to push a lot with any of the others. infact with the first two the nurses had me push and quickly told me to stop because they needed to get the doctor first. With Trey and this one I told them that when my kids are ready they are ready so they did call the doctor at 6 and he was there by 6:30. Kade was our biggest and I felt it. I had to push a little more and I was getting bugged. it still was maybe 10 times so it wasn't that bad but I was already tired and maybe the 4-7oz bigger than my others makes a big difference. Kade came in weighing 8lbs. 2 oz. He hardly cried at all in the hospital. the nurses kept commenting on how calm he was, but I remember Trey being like that as well so I wasn't going to let that get my hopes up. he is still in the sleeping stage where I have to wake him up to feed him. My milk is very much in-and am playing the guessing game of should I pump, should I wake him up or should I wait til he wakes up to feed him. That keeps me awake more than he does. He is nursing well though and I haven't gotten too sore yet. I had yeast infections with trey so I am still paranoid about that and I am still struggling with finding a bra that works-my back hurts! Lauralee and her kids came the day Kade was born they missed the birth by 5 or 10 min. My Mom and Dad walked in as I was pushing-they drove down from AF and Cam's sister Amie was there. Lauralee and her kids stayed at our house with my mom. the kids had a lot of fun. It would have been nice to have the splash pad done. It is done now and the grass gets put in on friday. very excited!!! Lauralee and I spent some time playing around with my scrapbook program making some pages and announcements (her baby is due next month). I have gotten a few fun pictures but have left my backdrop up to get some more. I am hoping to walk our ward 5K on the 24th. I really do feel great. I still look 6 months pregnant. My stomach gets stretched out a ton and takes at least 2-3 weeks to look kind of normal. the first thing Brielle said in the hospital was, is there another baby in there. I can tell Trey is a little confused at times as well. I am just reminded that having a newborn is my favorite thing! I love holding him and just staring at him. He looks more like Brielle to me. i really was just expecting a boy to look just like Bryson and Trey. Trey was just like Bryson to me. Brielle had a totally different look. She had dark hair and dark skin. I loved that Trey reminded me of how Bryson looked as a newborn and I wanted a girl to help me remember Brielle so it was a fun little surprise to have him remind me of Brielle. The one thing that I kept saying when he came out was-he is so big- 8lbs 2 oz isn't even that big. I was able to come home around noon the next day. There was quite the welcome party at home for Kade. Leanne and her kids, Laur and her kids and my mom were all at the house with balloons and a sign for Kade. The kids had made welcome cards for Kade. It is funny how they looked forward to getting the balloons and sign to cheer for us as we drove in the driveway. My mom has been able to stay the whole week. She was cleaning anything she could find that was dirty-from garbage cans to walls to kids. The sink rarely had any dishes in it. I am afraid to have her gone because I am sure the reality of having four kids and a clean house is not as easy as it has seemed. We had our first outing today. The kids went to amie's house to swim. I went for about one hour and sat in the shade-we were going to meet at one so I started getting ready about 10:30. It was quite warm so we didn't stay long. I took Kade home and Leanne took the others after they were done swimming. It is very nice to have family so close. I was reading what I wrote and realized that I don't take the time to make sure the sentences flow or have correct punctuation-they aren't even complete and I have a lot of run on sentences (like this one). We have had some amazing meals and a lot of fun gifts-thank you everyone!!! My mom made a really cute blanket while she was here. I will post more pics soon.

New and Improved Kelsch Family - Kade is HERE! 8lbs. 2oz and 20 inches long

Uncle Clayton and Aunt Maryann, thanks for coming you two and Jayni!


We were glad Amie was there, I put her in charge of the camera, she did a great job,
thanks Amie!



Laur and Leanne, Thanks for watching Bryson, Brielle and Trey.
It was so great to focus on the task at hand.




Grandma and Grandpa Meacham. They arrived as Michelle was pushing. Trudy called out our names as she came to the door.

The new and improved Kelsch Family. B, B and T are so excited to have a new brother. They each wanted to hold him and didn't want to pass him off to others. Isn't this a good looking family?

Michelle, Kade and I just after delivery

Just after Delivery, Michelle did soooo good!

Ode to my sweet wife:

Michelle I love you. I thank God every day that I have you for eternity. You make me so happy!

Michelle has uncanny ability to always be right. I find myself whether just talking or perhaps when we are disagreeing with each other, needing to humble myself and let go of my stubborness. She is a very wise woman. I don't think I have met anyone so strong yet so sensitive. She can come off as a no nonsense kind of girl, however, her heart is open to everyone. She has always been involved in helping other people overcome challenges they are facing. I can remember even when we were dating in Highschool, I used to tell her to not get so involved, but she couldn't stand to see others unhappy. She has always taken little thought for herself, and instead applied to those around her. I get excited at the end of the day, because I know that she and I will spend time talking about the things that happened that day. She is so easy to talk to and gives great advice. I think she learned early in life the value of hard work as she was the manager of The Pearl Of The Orient in American Fork at age 16. She paid for all of her schooling at BYU and finished her Bachelors degree in 3 years. I have yet to meet someone who thinks as much as she does. She is a great motivator and friend. Michelle, here's to you, the love of my life!

You make me happier day by day and I fall more and more in love with you.

May the Lord bless us and our family as we seek his help in becoming more like him.

Not Yet but enough excitement!

Trey was cheering for the loud fireworks
Cam's grand finale
Cam trying to round brush Brielle's hair
These two can sleep anywhere anytime.
I am hoping Kade is as good
of a sleeper as Brielle and Cam
Cam was a good sport to light the fireworks

because no one else wanted to
Eric was really enjoying himself
Bryson and Brielle loved running around the fireworks

Our fourth of July wasn't very exciting because all I really wanted to do was have a baby. We went to Pizza Factory with Eric and drove down town to attempt the fun activities they had which looked like a lot of fun but with sparatic contractions and the heat I wasn't really up to it and Cam and Eric convinced me and the kids that we should do our fireworks at home and go to the roadrunner (independent baseball league here in st george) game tomorrow night because they were doing their fireworks then so we drove back home and did our own fireworks-which the kids love to do more than just watching big ones in the air. I think it lasted 10 min. We then watched Vantage Point. I thought it was a pretty good show. My favorite movies are suspense movies. We went to the baseball game the next night with Maryann, Clayton and Jayni and Eric. the fireworks after were worth sitting through probably their longest 4 hr game. They started the fireworks at 11 but they were pretty cool. The kids love the baseball games and I have never had fireworks so close over my head before. Plus they serve 25th Main cupcakes and snow cones. There was a nice breeze and they have misters that helped keep us cool. Cam was hoping I would go into labor late saturday night or early sunday morning (he could get out of conducting) so he was feeding me Castor Oil and it did nothing to me either way. I ended up taking an entire bottle over the week. still nothing. I am still one week early. I had another appointment on monday-it wasn't that bad. I had progressed to a three and last night I really thought baby Kade was coming. We did the full stop sign that morning. this entire pregnancy my goal was to keep doing the stop sign (parts of it) as long as I could and I did want to do the full thing (9.5 miles) at least once in my last month and I hadn't done it yet so when I couldn't sleep monday morning at 5 I decided to go into the spa to see the guests off on their hike and have Cam meet me with the kids at 6:30 to do the full thing. We had quite a bit of shade and it wasn't too hot because we started early. I was very tempted to get a ride down in the spa vans but we had time and walked all the way back down and did the full thing. i was limping quite a bit the last mile because of my hips but over all it was not bad because we did it pretty slow. when I am not pregnant it usually takes us 1 1/2 hrs. It took us 3 hrs. I was trying to hurry the last mile because I didn't know what time it was and I had to go lecture. anyway I thought I was going to go in last night but fell asleep and woke up to no more contractions. I did test positive for the strep B (i think that is what it is) virus and the doctor said I need to be on the antibiotic for at least 4 hrs before the baby is born so now I think I have had my excitement. I haven't been induced with any of my other kids because I enjoy the excitement of going into labor on my own but now I don't want to go too fast and not have the antibiotic for 4 hrs because I feel like when I go with this one I will probably go pretty quick. Can you tell I think things through way too much-it drives Cam CRAZY! I think the waiting is harder for him. Long story short, I am scheduled to be induced on thursday so the excitement ends. It is a little wierd to choose his birthday. i guess he could still come tomorrow but if not, thursday will be the day. there is a little excitement knowing that. Our splash pad, putting green and fake grass should be in this weekend so the timing works out pretty good. Lauralee comes on thursday with her kids and my mom will come on sunday. I am very anxious to have my energy and mobility back. I just hope I can be patient enough to take it easy after if I have to. I am hoping to be able to bounce right back but know that things aren't always that easy with nursing and a newborn. I am way excited to see what this little boy looks like because Trey was Bryson all over again (only his looks). I am also very excited for another fun personality to join our family. I really love this time in our life-even though very crazy and more often than not my patience is tried. I know I will wish I enjoyed it more because they are growing so fast! I was so glad we were at church on sunday for Cam to conduct. i was very touched by his testimony. He was talking about what "life" is all about. He mentioned how to some it is all about "worldly" things and others it's about family and the gospel and he mentioned that everyday we have opportunities and it is what we do with those opportunities that matters. He talked about how Bryson begs all day to play catch or golf and how it is so important for him to take the time to do so. Brielle loves to just be with Dad-everytime he is going anywhere she is the first to beg to go. I loved when he started to talk about Trey because for as short of an attention span that he has he stood right up looked directly at Cam and had the biggest smile when he was speaking about him. It was crazy because he didn't even say his name he just knew he was talking about him when he said he has a son that everytime he calls home he wants to talk to Dad. that is what life is all about. I am so grateful for Cameron. He really helps me try and take the time to enjoy the moments that really do matter and spend time together as a family with eachother and with our kids. I love to be with him. Well I hope to not be in the hospital too long (the rooms are so small) so we should have a new member of our family we can start to add to the Kelsch Blog on our next post. How exciting-until then.

Nothing yet

I thought I better do a post or everyone would think I haven't posted because I had a baby but unfortunately that is not the case. I technically have at least 2 weeks left. i was excited well not really because I hate these doctor visits but I was excited to see if there was any progress from last week because last week I was at a 1 1/2 and he said the head was down. Well I guess down meant that it was his head and not his bum because today he said his head didn't feel like it had "dropped." I was so dang preoccupied with staying calm with him stripping my membranes that I left his office without even asking if I had dialated anymore and he didn't even say anything so now I am really bummed because I am sure if I was a 2 or 3 he would have said something. the last thing he said was see you in a week. I hate those visits more than still being pregnant. i really want to have it before next monday but it is not looking like it. I have heard too horrible of stories about taking caster oil that I haven't gone there-yet. you would think taking 6 mile walks would help but nothing. anyway I just wanted to vent and also let everyone know that no, not yet. I am sure I will be giving another update next monday. We had a fun and very very lazy weekend. Cam got us tickets to the st george muscial production of High School Musical. It was high school quality but the kids loved it. Trey actually even sat still through it. saturday Cam ran 14 miles so we slept in and layed around most of the day. We were in charge or taking our spa guests to dinner that night. Our registered dietician takes them to chuck a rama every sat night and has them try to stay within 500 calories and she was out of town so we took them. Cam sits with the kids on the other side of the restaurant. Bryson and Brielle love it. we then went to the roadrunners baseball game. they loved it too. Bryson watched the whole thing and Brielle and Trey were intrigued with the mascot birds. it really is a fun family activity. Last week Cam made a picnic dinner and we took the kids up to snow canyon in the evening. We ate dinner and then the kids and cam rode their bikes down to the bottom. they loved it so much they wanted to do it again so we drove back up and let them ride back down. It was beautiful. We usually are there in the morning but the evening was quite nice.

If you have a minute

Bryson has been begging me for months to do more on his blog and I finally helped him add some pictures and he wrote what he wanted and now he is asking to see if anyone has commented. I know it's been a while since we have updated his blog and we I will try and be better at it for him but if you get a second please check his out and leave a comment. It's cute how much he wants to blog. I told the kids that after their jobs I would do one thing with each one of them-whatever they wanted and Bryson wanted me to do his blog. thanks

www.bkelsch.blogspot.com

Friday photo shoot & My Birthday

Friday we had a little photo shoot with Jayni (maryann's girl)and Lydia and Brigham (leanne's two youngest) We got some cute pictures.

My Birthday was really a fun day. a while back I saw that there was a 5 K that was on my birthday so I told Cam that is what I wanted to do and we invited Leanne and her kids, Maryann and Jani came and Amie and Eric and their kids joined us as well. Our kids have know about it for a couple of weeks and trained a little. Cam bought them new running shoes and we told them we would go to IHOP after the race. They were excited. They have done one other 5 K and loved the prizes after and the excitement of people cheering. The race didn't start til 8 and to we were to be lined up at 7:30 so Cam woke the kids up at 6 to give me my presents. I have ordered a few things that I wanted for the baby but Cam still went to town at Bath & Body and got me a perfume set from estee Lauder, a digital frame, and the kids picked out a cute notebook they wanted to give me. they see me writing things down all the time. My sisters gave me a cute watch that I have really wanted and a cute diaper bag I wanted (thank you- I love them!!) Anyway we then went to the race at about 715 and when we pulled up we saw Leanne, amie and eric and maryann and Clayton there. We were the only ones there. They were there setting up the park for the days events. there were maybe 20 other people that showed up before 8. We were 17 of the maybe 40 people that did the 5K. There wasn't really even an official start-they said ok go. It really was interesting. They were giving the kids candy before the race so as soon as we started the kids were complaining of side aches. Payton really amazed us all. right from the beginning he took off and didn't stop til the end. He was the first one done. Bryson and Brielle did really good. They jogged most of the time with a few walk breaks. Trey was the youngest one registered to walk. He jogged a lot of it but took quite a few breaks on the stroller. Jayni came along in the stroller. Eric had to stop and pump up his stroller 3 times. I enjoyed the workout. My favorite part was when Marcus was getting tired he said, why would you want to do this for your birthday this isn't fun. And Natalie said she never wanted to be invited to a birthday party like this again. I think they all enjoyed IHOP after. After the race, Brielle and I got pedicures. She loved it. We came home and got ready to take the kids to Kung fu Panda. a really cute show. We came home took naps, and relaxed a little then went back to town square to get our prize for being the biggest group to race and Trey got a bear for being the youngest racer. Our group prize was kind of lame. we got about 6 books, an oil change, a three day pass to a gym, and a gift certificate to orange peal (we do love orange peal). The kids were able to get a few tickets and ride some rides but the highlight was the dunking machine. We went and got a bite to eat at Charlies and came home and had Cake and Ice Cream (baskin robbins-yummy!) It was a really fun day. the kids were wiped out. Thank you everyone for coming to the 5K and to eat with us. It was fun! I also got a nice card and money from mom and Laurie sent me some cute flip flops-thank you Laurie-you are always so good to remember. Heidi was also in town and stopped by to say hello-always fun to see her. I felt bad that the schools didn't get a better turnout for their 5K and activities but I felt special because it felt like they did all that work just for me. It was a great birthday! Here are some of the pics-I am really bad at putting stuff in order.
I really liked the movie! It was funny.

Marcus being dunked by Bryson






Our 5 K group. They even had balloons for me :) My belly looks so funny.

Bryson and Marcus
Brielle and Mom-she did so good and was so tired.
after at IHOP
getting our pedicures.

Why do I do this every time!!

Yesterday we spent the day at the new washington rec. pool. It's the largest indoor pool in Utah. It has a lazy river, a big slide, and several little toys to play with. the kids had a blast. the side walls are open to the outside so you can enjoy the sun. Here is Lydia, trey, brielle, marcus, bryson, and payton

Here is Cam going to town on our backyard.


Last Friday night we went to the main street splash park. they showed Ice Age outside at about 930 when it got dark. it was really a fun thing to do with the kids. It was our first time to the splash park. I had no idea it was so fun. again the kids loved it. This is Payton sitting on a block of ice. the kid who sat on it the longest won. his dad kept talking football strategies to keep him distracted-it worked he won.

There are finally fun things to do in st george to say cool. it is too bad none of them are closer to us. We wish we had the washington rec center near us.

Trey is obsessed with his scooter. It really is such a fun thing to watch because he is so small and goes like he is 10. If you ask him how old he is he will sometimes say 5. When we were at westgate Chris was telling the kids that they had to be 5 to be in the hot tub and then he asked Trey how old he was and he had a little smile on his face as he said 5.

Bryson jumping ramp

This is my fourth pregnancy now and you would think that I would learn my lesson about wishfully thinking my due date is earlier. this one I have justified because the last two were early and well this one should be even earlier-right? Well according to my dates, my due date isn't until July 20th, but the ultrasound said the 13th and I have been saying two weeks earlier than that-which would put me at less than two weeks away. Cam and I did our usual stop sign walk today. We are still doing six miles but I have slowed down a ton. I am so anxious to be able to run it again. the kids ran 3 of it today to get ready for our 5K on saturday. i am sure I will be walking most of it-mostly because it looks really funny when I do run and people look at me like I am crazy. anyway I had a reality check today and thought I really could have 4 weeks left and I told people 4 weeks left 3 weeks ago. I do it every time. However today was a full day on my feet and I am feeling some contractions but they keep going away. I have never been induced and I really like going into labor on my own-it is fun and really this is what I enjoy most about the pregnancy-the unknown delivery date. it is so exciting to actually go into labor. I could have an independence day baby or we could be mid July. i can't imagine me going past the 13th even if my real due date is the 20th-see there I go again. I even say with each pregnancy that i am going to just say the real due date and then everyone will be surprised when I go early but I don't know why I can't. anyway, june has been so much less crazy than May was. We are tearing out our backyard because we can't seem to keep the grass alive and now we know why. it was growing on cement. Well not real cement but the ground was nearly impossible to even break with big equipment. Cam finally got a Jack hammer that is made to break through cement and it did help. we are putting in a residential splash pad, a small putting green, and small underground tramp and getting rid of the wood chips and putting fake grass. it is sad that we moved into this house only two years ago with a fully finished backyard and we are already redoing it. Oh well, we are excited and hope it will be fun. I would like to get it done before the baby comes. Also, after 6 years of working i am hiring someone to do my job. She moves here from Chicago on sunday, so I really do need at least a couple of weeks to train her. i still plan on being involved after the baby but she will be able to get a lot more done and I can worry about being a mom. I hope I am not getting too excited and trying to make something happen that isn't right with her but I do feel good about her. Next week i will be checked by the doctor so we will have a better idea on when this baby really is coming. As for now, I am trying to find motivation to clean and organize.

May's a wrap

These pictures are in no order. this is Me and Trey going down the Alpine slide.

Laurie brought up dinner and cheesecake to Park City for Chris's birthday. we swam after
We came home on thursday and celebrated jayni's birthday on Friday. Her birthday is on Chris's birthday.

Thanks for the Music!!!

I don't think we will ever be able to top this event. May was very eventful but the 24th was the most exciting day of all. Grandma Johnson wanted to honor my mom on her birthday for the 20+ years of teaching violin. She just retired in February. We held a surprise celebration. Grandma rented the city hall and Leanne and Laurie planned the rest. I don't think it could have gone any better. It was perfect. Her response was perfect and genuine. There were 70-80 people there from family to friends to past students. This picture was of Chris presenting her birthday gift. when the suzuki car came out my mom always said she should drive one because she taught the suzuki method. Well my mom needed a new car and it was fitting to get her a new suzuki car.

i was impressed with my little brother greggy. He gave some great comments about mom

Bryson, marcus, and Sydnee played a song on the piano
One of my favorite numbers was lauralee playing
Brielle and her cousin natalie graduating preschool together

Her reaction when we all started singing happy birthday was priceless!
She was totally surprised and in shock
A crowd favorite was lauralee's kids-Caden,Matthew and little sadie who wasn't shy at all
Leanne found a perfect very fitting song, Thanks for the Music, that all of my bro's and sis's and their spouses sang at the end. It was hard to sing without getting emotional when we thought about how much my mom has influenced our lives with music

Cam and I wanted to stay and see Cam's brother, Adam's, all-star baseball game and my brother greg's high school graduation so we made a week of it and stayed at westgate in Park City until Thursday.





We have a two bedroom timeshare and so we got the presidential suite with a hot tub on the porch, a steam shower, 2 huge jetted tubs, and even a badae sp? in the master. the kids had fun swimming and playing the wii.

The kids loved playing with their cousins on the grass at Adam's game. he did great!!
Love the face Adam!

Our last week.

In my last post I mentioned everything that was going on and justifying why I hadn't posted for a while and I failed to mention that none of what we were doing was without help and my house was and still is not in order, and I am not very effective. we are however seeing the light. I was able to finish the laundry and take a shower-didn't quite get to the hair. I can't complain though because that is what makes life so rewarding. We would not appreciate the calm enjoyable times, we wouldn't learn and grow without being stretched. We wouldn't build the relationships in our own families without these moments. I have to admit that I am very excited for things to slow down this next month and take time to prepare for our new baby. I am sure as soon as we feel like we have a handle on life we will be dealing with the next hurdle. i need to thank my sisters for being patient with me. I know they get sick of hearing about everything that is going on because they are the ones I vent to and I have been very brief during other conversations. i am truely grateful for the gospel and my family. Here are a bunch of pictures from the last week.

Bryson gets a kick out of Trey. He didn't even attempt using his fork.
This little guys is the cutest baby! he has the funnest smile and smiles at anything. He is a Mommas boy-everytime he sees Leanne he cries and wants her. I have to thank Leanne for everything she has done. She really has made my stress less just by helping with my kids and helping with all the birthday celebrations. thanks you!!!
Brigham couldn't stop staring at Grandma it was so cute
Brielle and Grandma Sherri. Sherri and Adam came down to my mom's house to wish Bryson and Brielle happy birthday. it was great to visit and very nice of them to come and see us because we were only up for one day and it is always hard to see everyone in one day. Thank you!
Bryson and Grandma. They love getting their own money.
Payton at Jump on it. He was having fun posing for pictures. Jump on it is such a great place. kids 0-3 are free and they have all sorts of blow up toys for them to jump on and in. and the rest of the place is full of tramps with plenty of padding.
Brielle and Jemma have so much fun together. Jayni loved the tramps she is trying to stand up
Bryson loved it!
Brielle helping Jayni
Look at all these cute kids. Bryson was closing his eyes making a wish. payton was concentrating on his wish as well. Bryson Brielle and Payton all blew out the candles together.

Chucky Cheese. Jordan, Jayni, Marcus, Payton, Brielle, Jemma, Lydia, Trey, Brooklyn (shari's little girl), and Bryson. We didn't get elle or cash in the pic. but these were all the cousins that made it. Right after Chucky Cheese we went to jump on it. Then we came back to Grandma Meachams for a barbeque and cake and ice cream.
This was my favorite gift. Several months ago I was asking Brielle what she wanted for her birthday and she said a picture of Jesus and her to hang up in her room. We found this at Desert Book and thought it looked a lot like her. She loved it. I also bought the long silky night gown that they sell there that she is wearing. she has always wanted it but I never wanted to spend $40 on pjs.
Finally Bryson got his wii. he has asked for the past two birthdays and christmas's and we never wanted to go out of our way to track one down. Or everytime we thought we might we just never conveniently found one so when cam and I were at target looking at what we wanted to get them for their birthdays we thought we would just go and see if they had one and sure enough they did so he was thrilled! We also got him guitar hero. they haven't had much time to play it but when they do it really is fun. they both end up sweating after boxing each other or baseball or bowling. This was the only way to get me to buy a video game-one they don't sit and play. They actually get some exercise. we will see how long it takes them to figure out that they don't have to stand up.
Again Leanne to the rescue. she is always taking care of our hair. Brielle decided on her birthday that she wanted Leanne to cut her hair. she loves it-so do I.
Trey, brigger, Brielle and Jayni at grandma meacham's

ok this was the highlight for me last week. Brielle had a dance recital and I was laughing so hard I started crying. I had no idea that brielle had it in her. she is always sooo shy. the gym was full of people and she was so dang animated. I was dying and wondering what happened to the Brielle that can't walk into her church class or preschool alone. She had so much fun it was fun to see her love it. Cam was going to miss it because of Bishopric meetings but after her first number I called him and said you have to come and see this. they danced four numbers. She loved watching all the older girls. She came home and danced infront of our big mirror all night. I will try and get a video clip from Leanne. Leanne are you able to put one on from your camera for me. My video camera is not digital. Brielle with her cousin Natalie. It has been so nice having a girl cousin Brielle's age live so close. They had preschool together and have been taking dance. They play so good together. Brielle never gets to play dress up with all her boy cousins so she loves to have Natalie around. She begs to play with her everyday.
Bryson at his first grade program. i was far back so I didn't get a great picture but I did get a lot on video. we woke the kids up at 6 to go running. Bryson rode the scooter a lot in snow canyon but I was laughing because he kept yawning during the program. is that child abuse?

I know I know I know

Mothers Day morning-I wanted to get a picture of me in my Moo-Moo Cam brought home from his mission and I thought I would never use it, but I love it when I am pregnant.
The kids love jumping off of our bed onto the love sack
Trey at cousin natalie's birthday party
Bryson-showing off
It is soo funny to watch Trey try and do whatever everyone else does
My yummy breakfast. I had already eaten one sandwich and hashbrowns and I try and only have OJ on special occasions-I would drink it all day if I could
Brielle finally got sick of waiting for us to help her ride a bike and finally taught herself
It is so fun to watch the boys play. Bryson is so serious. He sure loves his Dad being the coach
My manicure/pedicure that Leanne, Maryann, Amie and I all got the saturday before mothers day-an early present. I know I didn't have time to blog but my toes were looking scary and i couldn't reach them.

I am not on blogging probation-I just have had no energy at the end of the day to write anything. Busy is good but we have been a little too busy for the past two months. After my last post Cam and I were able to go to The biggest Loser finale. It was a fun experience but it is more exciting on tv than it is live. We were able to get tickets to see the play Wicked. it is by far my favorite musical now. it was soo cute and I loved the music! it was a fast trip and when we got back we really haven't had too much time to even breathe. Leanne said this morning that she felt like just shutting down until May was over and i feel very much the same-however there are a lot of fun and exciting things going on. Here is a fast overview: Cam's sister, Amie, had her birthday on the 7th, We had our 8th anniversary on the 12th, Bryson's birthday is on the 16th, Brielle's is on the 17th, Payton is on the 17th as well. We missed celebrating Caden's on the 14th and Travis on the 16th, Maryann's is on the 21st, Mom's is on the 24th, and Chris and Jayni on the 28th, Greggy graduates on the 29th, Payton gets baptised on the 31st, we had Bryson's Piano recital on the 12th, Brielle has a dance recital and her preschool graduation, We have Baseball Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs night the entire months on May and 1/2 of June. Bryson has his 1st grade program on the 19th. On top of all of this I have spent the past 4 weeks training, and scheduling an entire new schedule not only for the summer but we now have two classes at every hour because John has booked us to and over capacity. We are getting ready to start building our new housing building, expanding our current Gym and building a huge new gym, with a large lecture hall that seats 60 +, a full sized basketball court (aerobics studio), two conference rooms, 6-8 more offices, a game room, and even an elevator. The building is beautiful! We are also very excited to start on 16 condo's that will be beautiful. Cam and i are hoping to get ourselves one. We hope to get through on all the city planning and start building by July 1st. I had a wonderful Mothers Day. Cam had to be at the church early so he got up early and made me breakfast and woke the kids up to give me their thoughtful cute gifts. Here are some random pictures from the past month. I hope you all haven't given up on me. I am excited for June and can't believe that after June we will be having another little boy. We have been faithful with our stop sign workout. i have had to slow down a ton. While everyone runs, I am just trying to keep moving. I am still teaching and have had to teach more these past few weeks with our new schedule but I think I have most of it covered now. I hope to document all of these fun events coming up so it won't be another month before you hear from me again. i have still checked in with everyone else's blogs to not feel left out. Cam is decorating the kitchen with balloons and crate paper for Bryson and Brielle's birthday tomorrow. i think he may be more excited than they are. We are all very lucky to have someone who amongst a busy and crazy life he makes sure we have fun together. We have decided to make our anniversary a family celebration. Cam and I love to spend a lot of time together and we are able to with our Job so we really cherish the time we have to spend together as a family. We went to target and let the kids pick out a new game and we came home and played it together. We got the game sorry and we have played it two or three times since. the kids love playing games together. I have been so grateful for the weather. it is still not too hot. We have had a long spring. it may all change this sunday but I enjoyed it while it lasted and now I only have to make it through june pregnant. We are going to take the kids to chucky cheese and jump on it (up north) on saturday to help celebrate their birthday so if anyone wants to join us we would love to have you. This year the kids are opening their presents on fri. (bryson's b-day and we will spend time together on sat. and have cake and ice cream on Sat. (Brielle's b-day). they have shared birthday's every year. We had fun watching the last Jazz game with Toby, Josie, Elle and Cash even though they didn't win. We haven't been able to keep up with all the games and I have tried to catch as much of American Idol as I can. Go Utah. Anyway more next week.

Boring tag sorry

My cute cousin Heidi who is the queen blogger tagged me and I don't want to disappoint her and i am in need of a new post-sorry it is boring...

1-what time did you get up this morning? 7 am
2-what do you eat for breakfast? Cam makes the kids pancakes every morning because that is the first thing trey asks for when he wakes up and Bryson could live off of them. he makes them way better than me.
3-favorite CD of the moment-I would have to say Cam's mix he made for me to use in circuit. mainly because it adds energy to the class
4-what kind of car do you drive? mini van
5-favorite sandwich? charlie's flyer
6-favorite item of clothing? N/A I am pregnant!!
7-If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation where would you go? To my mom's house. It's too tiring to think of anywhere else
8-what color is your bathroom? the same cream walls as when I moved in-and whatever towels are hanging-usually bryson's spiderman towell and brielle's duck towell
9-where would you retire? we already live here-st george
10most memorable birthday? a day with my mom and sisters
11-favorite sport to watch? Cam's church ball
12-are you a morning or night person? neither
13-what is your shoe size? 8
14-pets-no
15-What did you want to be when you were little?
16-what are you today? a Child of God
17-what is your favorite candy? anything with chocolate
18-what is your favorite flower? none
19-what is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? april 15th
20-what are you listening to right now? cam telling me to stop
21-what is the last thing you ate? blue bunny
22-do you wish on stars? no
23-what faith are you? LDS
24-who is the last person you spoke with onthe phone? Cam
25-Hair color? brown
sorry heidi I couldn't finish...check out heidi's blog for the rest of the questions and anyone who needs a post, go for it.
24-
11-

Easter Sunday

so can you ever take too many pictures? This was us this past week. Marcus had his birthday party on Monday, Laur and Travis came down late monday night, tues. the kids played, We ran the stop sign tues and thurs morning, the kids decorated eggs, laur and travis took off on thurs. Cam's mom and dad, and Cody and Kristin came down for one of adam's baseball tournaments, saturday easter egg hunt, Cam playing with kids (he started charging money) and Sunday morning I tried to get some easter pics with the kids dressed up. I hate choosing the best one so I need help. Let me know what your favorite pics are of Bryson, Brielle, Trey and the three of them together. I have labled the collages and there are 16 pics in each collage numbered four across. Some of they are just funny so I added them. It was soo much easier to add this many pics in a collage but you can click on the collage and make it bigger-some of the pics got cut off and there are some duplicates but you can get a good idea. Also do you like the color or sepia? I have 11 x 14 frames for their individuals and I guess will do sepia again? After posting this past week I realized why I was tired. Sunday night we had a yummy easter dinner with john and leanne, maryann and clayton, cody and kristin and eric and amie. This time of year we get a lot of visitors and for good reason it is beautiful!! Brielle's easter dress was a cute spagetti strap dress with a cardigan she was to wear over it. She took her dress first and was trying it on and cracked her door open and looked at me with a mad face, so I went in to see why she was so upset. she was so mad because she felt nervous and didn't like how much skin she was showing. She was so much happier when I gave her the sweater she was to wear over it. It is amazing how kids know at a young age what is right and wrong. I haven't ever talked to her about having to dress modest but this was a good opportunity to let her know why she felt uncomfortable. It goes to show us that children learn these things at a very young age. this is why it is so important to create habits while they are young. I just hope she continues to feel uncomfortable revealing too much as she gets older. Oh and Brigham (leanne's baby boy) was so frustrated with all of the comotion (not really he just is in that stage )he scratched his face.

collage one

collage 2

collage 3

The Biggest Loser Fans

For those of you who watch The Biggest Loser, they will be mentioning our spa tomorrow during the show-there is a great pic of Cam running up snow canyon (I took the pic). They chose our spa to use as a prize giveaway for the challenge that week. If you missed it go to http://fitnessridge.blogspot.com to see a video clip of it.

Skiing adventure

catching up

Grandma on the mini racer. It goes ten miles an hour-she got a little out of control and dented the wall.
oops
Look out cam!!

The MVP giving greg a hug for helping him shine.

Greg getting his award for being on the all state team and winning
My Mom and Dad loved watching Greg play this year.

giving rocks to the refs.
One of his assists to the MVP of the game
A beautiful 3 point shot
He had 2 or three of these cool assists. We all thought he was going up for a layup and then missed but he was setting it up every time for a dunk again for the MVP. He really made him shine. He told greg he didn't know he could do that.

Greg's biggest fans!

I really don't have a great excuse for being so behind. We were in and out of town last week but as for the two weeks before just didn't get around to it. I feel like I do with my journal-every entry is...so sorry I haven't written.....Anyway we just officially survived the kids spring break. Spring break can be such a pain if you haven't planned something-which we really didn't. We knew we wanted to spend some time with the kids and last min. we decided to take them up north to visit family and try out snow skiing with them for the first time. We went up on Monday night and picked up Jemma and checked out Jordan from school and took them to Jump on it-an inexpensive fun activity for the kids. they loved it! It is a warehouse that is full of trampolines on the floor and walls. Kids 0-3 are free and the others were only 4 bucks. the older kids are 8 bucks. they have 4 or 5 blow up slides and tramps for the little kids. Trey spent most of his time with the big kids on the big tramps. I was ticked I forgot my camera. Tuesday night we were able to see Adam's baseball game. He is starting first base on the varsity team this year. he hit a nice double. It will be fun to see him play these next two years. they play quite a bit of tournaments in st george-so we will be able to see a few. We were also excited to be able to see Greggy's all star game. He was the only one from AF chosen to play. He was loving it. He had so much fun playing with tall talented players. His talent was a put to use. He had several assists and 6 or so points. The MVP that night asked him if he could give him is certificate because he had some fun assists to him and his dad asked him if he could take him out to dinner. It was great to see him have sooo much fun.

Bryson's Blog

Bryson has been begging me to start him a blog so here it is. you can check out his latest basketball pictures at www.bkelsch.blogspot.com

The rest of my top ten things I love

I was going to post one of these each day and never got around to it and when i finally did, i didn't have all the pics I wanted and I was having issues downloading some of them onto blogger so they are out of order and I am missing number 9. here are the rest of them.


Here is my sweet and sassy Brielle. She is 4 now and is very excited for a new baby. She will be a lot of help. She definetly challenges me emotionally. She is a daddy's girl and buts heads with me quite often. I have a great desire to be best friends with her in the years to come. I love her.

I love family and I love our growing family. My favorite thing to do is to be together with eachother.

I am so grateful for a savior who knows us individually and knows our needs and what is best for us. I am a pretty strong headed individual and like to think I know what's best but try to be in tune with the Lords will. We had our ultrasound on Friday and Bryson wanted a girl so that our family could be even and brielle loves to pick out pink stuff so was hoping for a girl as well. Trey has and continues to challenge me physically so I was thinking it might be nice to have another girl because we have a lot of boys in the family. Really another boy is the last thing Trey needs to have to beat up on. Leanne has three and one girl and we think Laur may be having another boy and her one girl and that would put me at three and one as well. Cam was hoping for another girl to spoil as well. We went into the ultrasound expecting a boy because that is what we saw on Laur's machine and sure enough we are having another boy. it really isn't bad because we do have sweet Brielle, but I left telling Cam that I am going to have to think of a cute name to start getting excited about another boy. don't get me wrong I love my boys and yes they are easier emotionally and are cute as can be. I just wanted an excuse to buy some cute new girl clothes. We have soooo many boy hand me downs that there leaves very little to buy-(I know that should be a good thing) That night Cam and I were saying our prayers and Cam prayed that we could think of the right name for the baby and as soon as he did, the name Kade popped into my head and I have never even heard or thought of this name and felt really good about it. Kind of crazy but after the prayer I was excited for our little Kade to come. I am grateful for the small and simple blessings we receive because our Heavenly Father and Savior know our needs.

I am so inspired and grateful for a mother who is like the energizer bunny. here she is keeping the grandkids busy and entertained at one of greg's b-ball games. she is constantly doing something to help others. Cam loves to visit because she spoils us with yummy food and motivates us all to do more. We love when she comes to visit because she is always trying to find somethings she can clean or cook for us. She was and is my motivation and inspiration and my sisters motivation to exercise. I am so grateful for her example in every area of her life. Thanks you MOM!! I love you sooo much.

I am truely grateful for what Cam and I have been able to do with a lot of sacrifice and hard work. Of course we thank the Lord everyday for giving us the strength to do what we have. I often times look back and think how in the world did we do what we did for the first 3 years! I love that I know that we didn't do it alone and we couldn't have done it alone. We have been so blessed but I also feel a very strong responsibility to do all we can to help the growth of the church and know that with these great blessings comes great responsibility and am very excited that we can offer our time, talents, energy and everything that we have been blessed with to the building up of his kingdom.

My Sweet Bryson! He has such a big heart. He is always wanting mom and dad to be proud of him. He is very talented and has a strong desire to work hard at those talents. he loves basketball, and baseball-not so much football. his piano teacher every week is impressed. I love that he enjoys practicing. he is soooo sweet to his brother and sister.

I have wondered lately if my mom was excited to have 4 girls in a row. Wow -growing up there was a lot of drama-I hate to admit that I was the cause of most of the drama, and I had noo idea what a blessing my mom and sisters would be in my life. That is another reason I was hoping for a sister for Brielle (we probably will have another or a few more children so she still has hope) My Mom and sisters are absolutely my best friends!!! Lauralee is the best older sister. she never acts like she knows it all like the oldest would probably do. she has always been a friend first. i am soo grateful for the friendship that I have with Leanne. she is truely unselfish because she never expects anything back. I love that she is laid back and is up for anything. And Maryann I feel like I owe the most because I wasn't the best older sister growing up and even when I was married i was the bossy older sister that still struggles with how to be a friend first and not the big sister. she has truely impressed me with how much she has overcome and is continuing to work through. She is a great mom and sister. i am so grateful for her patience with me and friendship. We really are spoiled to have eachother.

My second thing was my sassy Trey. he is the cutest little boy. he acts like he is 5. he has been riding a razor scooter since 1 1/2 and goes down hills like he is 5. he is obsessed with dribbling a basketball. he dribbles a ball like he is 5. He is full of energy! he is quite entertaining during sacrament. He loves to make people laugh. it is never boring with him around. I am a little worried for Kade. I love him!!

My ninth thing was the ensign. i have had the ensign has been a great blessing in my life lately. I love the everyday life stories from others and the apostles that can guide us in our choices. there have be a few specific talks lately that seem like they were written just for me.

anyway there they are

3 New blogging friends

Check out Carson and Cami, Wade and Dani, and Matt and Jessica's new blogs from my links

10 things I love!!

I decided to use these top ten valentines pages to share with you the top ten things I love one at a time to finish off the month of February. This last week was the week of stop sign experiences. These are two things I love-My strong husband and beautiful snow canyon. On Tuesday Leanne's stroller was flat and so we put all the kids in Cam's stoller and he ended up carrying Brigham in the front pack as well because we weren't keeping up and he wanted a better workout. Of course we didn't have a camera but people were dying when he passed them. We couldn't think of a better way to start Valentines day than with the stop sign. On Friday we were out to do it again but this time we had 3 extra kids and Leanne forgot the handles to her double bike stroller because her other stoller was still flat. Anyway we were still determined to make it work and to not lose any time by going and getting the handles so we tied the bike stroller to Cam's stroller and he pushed 6 kids-at least 200lbs up hills. Again we were dying pushing one stroller and yes people looked with questionable faces as Cam and 4 women and about 10 kids walked up the hill. And again, we didn't have a camera. The greatest thing is Cam's attitude all he could say was If life gives you lemons you make lemonade. He also loves it for the workout-he is a little obsessive about a good workout and I lOVE IT!! These are two things that are going to get me through this pregnancy-The stop sign and Cam.

Valentines Dinner

I only wish I got a picture of the 30 kids at my house. If we can talk the babysitters into it, we need to do it again-the kids had as much fun as we did.

Well the dinner was yummy with no wait and lots of friends to enjoy it with. I think we will make it an annual event. Here are a few pics from the night. I meant to get a picture of Cam and I but forgot. We had a great night though and the house with 30 kids is still standing :) Thanks everyone for coming! It really wasn't a lot of work having it catered and with everyone else that helped. Thanks Jessica for the darling decorations. I think it turned out great.

Valentine's Dinner-ultrasound and Brielle's Dance

Laur brought Travis's ultrasound machine and this is trey pointing to the machine saying my "brodo" We think it's a boy. We will see next friday if our guess was right.
Monday Brielle had a dance recital. I decided to put her back into a dance class and see how she likes it and I am really quite surprised at how much she enjoyes it because she is pretty shy and isn't very confident infront of others performing. She was soo giddy before the recital and had no problem getting on the stage and performing. I have a hard time spending the money on dance when they are this young but she felt soo good about herself after she was done. I think the costumes are fun too. I am not sure what the girl next to Brielle was thinking.

Unlike my cousin Heidi, I think Valentines Day is a silly holiday. It is my favorite holiday candy and it is cute to see my kids get excited to exchange valentines. I so don't like going out to eat with everyone else doing the same thing waiting hours for food that isn't even worth waiting for and is a waste of money. I don't care for flowers anytime-I think they are a waste of money because they only last a few days-I know there are a lot of you out there that love them and that's ok I would rather the money spent on something else. Don't get me wrong I think it is nice to celebrate love but I just don't like the traditional gifts and activities. I guess it's kind of like christmas for me-Remember what you are celebrating-the ones you love and that means that really the only important thing is that you are together and you enjoy it. Anyway this is my attempt to actually enjoy the holiday-I had the idea of getting some friends together and making our husbands dinner and if turned into 60 people now being held at the church and we are having it catered. I am excited. it should be a lot of fun. We are taking pictures of each couple as they come in. We made a gift bag for each couple with bath and body lotion, and bubble bath, 0 bigelo lip gloss, a cd of love songs, a few candles, and some candy. We are going to play the celestial companions game and learn the walz. I have 8 babysitters coming to my house for about 30 kids. I will let you know if the attempt worked :)

The invite said dinner was 25 but it will be 30 including the tip-we would have spent more going out to eat so we hope it's good :)

Blogging Probation!!

Last Monday night, Cam came home with me on the computer and the house a mess, no dinner cooked and no FHE planned. He is very patient and helpful all of the time but when we were arguing about something else he pinned the computer thing on me and said you spend too much time on that. Of couse I didn't agree and it was easy for me to justify me being lazy because I am pregnant-right oh and the kids did have a very rough day that day. So I wasn't in the mood to do his FHE or eat so I went in the room and spent the night there (he sent the kids in with dinner for me)-oh and I forgot the computer so was left with Sister Marjorie Hinkley's life story and the ensign that were on my night stand. I had already read most of the ensign but after reading most of the book that really made me feel quite guilty because we all know how amazing she was, I picked up the ensign and thought to myself, "maybe there is a talk that will make me feel better." Like I said I had read most of the talks already but the one that I missed was on how to keep PRIDE from getting in the way of your marriage. OK OK!! I slept it off and Cam and I worked things out the next morning. I was still a little prideful in the morning and it took me longer than it should have to talk to Cam about how I felt bad about not doing what I should be doing more of. It is hard to not let pregnancy be an excuse, but I can't because I feel great. I haven't blogged since because I have made an effort to do a little laundary, make sure the dishes are done, take care of kids first, clean up a little (I'm not even talking deep cleaning) before I do so. Needless to say there hasn't been any time left. the quote on Leanne's blog about the importance of women keeping a journal made me feel better about blogging again because my journal has been lost and I have done more record keeping with blogging than anything else so I am back but I just need to spend less time surfing others-mainly those I don't even know. Anyway, Seinfeld was great! Cam and I saw O on thursday night. I fell asleep during it. It was amazing but too much of the same stuff. On Friday morning we ordered room service and then went to the Vegas temple. It was tempting to just go shopping, but every year I ask cam what he would want to do for his birthday and he always says go to the temple so we did. As we were walking in a man stopped us in his car and asked cam if he would be willing to do a family name for him. I told Cam, "that man in heaven is sure glad we made the decision to come." We were also the only couple that was there (it was a very small sessio) so we were the witness couple. we have been the last 3 times we have gone. It also has been a long time since we have done sealings and they asked for volunteers so we were also able to do some sealings after the session. It was a nice morning. We still had plenty of time to shop before seinfeld. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed seinfeld. We were 12 rows back. He was really great. It was one of those shows that you didn't want to end. I would go again. Cam was laughing so hard. We had a great time. We ended his birthday by going to macaroni grill. It was yummy :) Maryann and Clayton stayed at our house and watched the kids all weekend-thanks Maryann! Eric and Amie (Cam's sister and her husband) and their 4 kids. are staying with us until their home in Orem sales. Eric has started as our marketing director and is doing an amazing job! Our kids are spoiled to have them here. Jake is going to school with Bryson so they get to ride the bus together, eat lunch together and play at recess. They didn't get to have the same teacher but they are having a great time. Natalie and Brielle go to preschool together on t &th and dance on wed. Spencer is very nice to Trey. Trey usually bothers him. They play quite well together. And Amie is taking care of their sweet new baby Olivia. She really is a good baby. This really is a lot of change for them but we sure love having them down here with us. There is a lot going on with 7 kids so it's never boring :) We had a great weekend. Lauralee, Caden, Matthew, and Sadie stayed in St George with us while Travis went to Park City for some meetings. Me, Leanne, Maryann, and Laur ran the stop sign on thurs. morning. Friday we took the kids to Sandhollow to swim. They loved it!! We had 15 total kids under 7. I lost my camera charger so I didn't take any pics. Friday night we all got babysitters and went to dinner and saw 27 dresses (it was cute). We ran the stop sign again on Saturday and then went shopping without the kids. Leanne cut lots of hair on sat. and we took the kids to McDonalds for an ice cream and to play on the slide. McDonalds was the perfect place for 15 kids. Oh Laur did bring her ultrasound machine and we think we are both having boys. if that's true Leanne, Me and Laur will both have 3 boys and 1 girl. It was great to see the baby so active and a good heart beat. Sorry about the boring post but I just wanted to catch up.

He knows

If you read my last post I wasn't going to tell Cam tonight what I got him, but I kinda had to anyway.

Cam came home tonight and said since we are going up north next weekend (which I have told him to throw him off) my mom is going to have a birthday lunch for me on sat and a film crew would be there interviewing his sister-I am not sure of the details. Which would normally be great but I needed to tell him what I had planned for his birthday so he could let his mom know. Anyway some of Cam's closest friends and family know how much he loves Seinfeld and when we were driving home from California after Christmas I noticed a billboard that said Seinfeld Feb 1 & 2nd. It was perfect! So I came home and ordered some good seats. We are going to go down on Thurs night and want to see phantom and spend the day friday-friday night is seinfeld and we would come home sat. morning. He was excited. I didn't get to wrap it up so it was kind of lame how I told him but it's good he knows cause now he can look forward to it.

Sorry the suspense will have to continue :(

I have been home sick with the kids all week. Trey started with a fever sat. night and then Bryson and Brielle got a fever on Monday. I really thought they would be fine for tonight but this morning I asked Bryson if he felt ok to go to school and he said no. He was still hot-I just wanted to see what he would say when I told him that if he was too sick to go to school then he was too sick to play in his basketball game. When he agreed I knew he should stay home from school for a 3rd day. I have been trying to keep our kids away from anyone especially little Brigham so we are hoping they are good enough for the party tomorrow night. They have actually been doing a lot better today so hopefully they wake up with no fever. Sorry for the false alarm. I know Cam was bummed to think he was getting his gifts today and didn't so pray for him :) He has been the only one to not get sick-he usually doesn't. Does anyone know if I can take sudafed 14 weeks pregnant? I thought it was all in my head and I was making myself sick because all morning I was blowing my nose and when I had to go teach my nose stopped running and I was able to make it through my three classes, but immediately after my classes it was like the hose was turned back on. The lord blesses us is so many ways. I was so grateful my nose wasn't dripping durning my classes. Hopefully I have news tomorrow.

A VERY BIG DEAL!!!

Well in 9 days (Feb, 1st) is the big day!! Cam turns 29. If you know Cam you know that Holidays especially birthdays are a big deal. He is always reminding people of the day and not to worry about the gift just as long as it's expensive :) If you know Cam he is always joking as well. These are two things I love about him. Our kids (and me) are very spoiled with attention, fun activities, thoughtful gifts and love all the time but even more so on our birthday's and other holidays. I am sure a lot had to do with his thoughtful and creative mom. Holidays and birthdays were always memorable for me growing up but were never as big of a deal to us so every year I try and let cam know how much I love him and be creative, and thoughtful. It's hard because it's not anything that I could buy that he would love because if it's something he can buy for himself he just buys it or it's boring because he could just buy it. Well this year, I can't buy him the present with 4 wheels that he wants. I know he will soon just buy the truck he wants and that's part of the excitement about getting a truck is searching and picking the perfect one out for him. Anyway this year I am excited to give him the gift I found. We are celebrating Lydia's birthday tomorrow and I asked Cam if he would like to celebrate it with her and get his present early (the timing works out better anyway plus I am excited to give it to him)-He cried at first but after all the anticipation of everyone telling him he will like his gift he agreed. So tomorrow I will let you all know what Cam got for his birthday.

Our last two weekends

I have been meaning to write about the spa's weight loss competition we are having. We invited any employee and their families who wanted to be a part of it. The one who loses the highest percentage of body weight in 12 weeks wins $1000.00. It was amazing to see the turnout we had. We had about 50 people come and weigh in. Obviously I can not participate but Cam, Leanne, John, and Eric our brother in law and his wife, Amie, are participating. Leanne has been putting updates of her progress on johnandleanne.blogspot.com. Eric has been participating in the spa's program this last week and has put updates of his experience on fitnessridge.blogspot.com. Cam has been working out hard and fortunately I have been able to keep working out trying to be a good support. We love Snow Canyon!

Friday I had my first OB appointment and I have to admit that it is my least favorite part of having a baby. I hate the monthly appointmets. They seem like such a waste of time. I was able to hear the baby's heart beat though which was good.

Today was a beautiful day! We took the kids to snow canyon. The weather was so nice.

Trey is crazy on the scooter!

Brielle learned to ride a bike this weekend. She was soooo excited.

We were able to visit Grandma and Grandpa Groen last weekendThe kids had a really fun time. It was good to visit.

Bryson and Brielle were so happy to spend time with Jordan and Jemma. We went up and saw their new little puppy hooper. It was fun to spend some time with them.

Last weekend we had to take a stair climber up north and exchange it for an elliptical. Cam wanted to make the most out of the trip and got us tickets to the Jazz game against the Suns. We have never splurged and paid for good seats but this time he wanted to sit lower so he got on line and got us good seats for $75 a piece. We got two seats for us and two for the Mark and Kristie Wheeler. We went to will call to get our tickets and they weren't there. They told us that since we went through a third party there was nothing they could do. We stressfully waited until 8:30 and then decided that we should buy their cheapest tickets (which were $40) and sit in the seats that we bought because we were hoping there was some mistake and our tickets just didn't make it. We got into the game and came to find that the four seats we bought were seats that were occupied by season ticket holders. We were quite bummed to thinked that we were scammed. Oh to make it worse the "cheap" tickets we bought were all spread out. We were prepared to go sit in the only 4 seats together on the top row when the ushers felt bad for us and found us 4 seats about 15 rows up from the court. We were prepared to call it a wash but the best news was the next day i called and the company was refunding our tickets because it was a mistake so we ended up getting great seats for $40. It was worth the stress!

Scrapbooking tips

My family will understand how funny it is that i am giving scrapbooking tips. That's how easy digital scrapbooking is because I am horrible at being cute and creative and Leanne always had to make my pages cute. She always had the best writing. Anyway here is what I have done. I am sure there are other ways and probably better ways. Once you learn it is sooo easy. I followed these step by step intructions from this site:http://www.sjhblogdesign.blogspot.com/. It really sounds a lot more confusing than it is and once you do it once it is easy. I also bought the fxphoto program to design my scrapbook pages (a lot of people use photoshop-I would like to learn it) I just save them as a picture and upload it as my header. I haven't printed any pages yet. I am working on a book using shutterfly and adding the scrapbook page I design as the picture. The 12 x 12 book is about $50 ($2 a page) but they always have deals. It looked kind of expensive to print the 12 x 12 as individual sheets. It was about $6.50 a sheet. You can print an 8 x 10 for 1.50 or an 8x12 for 1.50. I haven't looked into it very much. Kinkos may be a good option. I will let you know. Also Nate and Katie on my list of friends has some really cute ideas. She designs blogs for people and has some cute new projects also for sale at katiedesign.blogspot.com. It is great to be able to make your own baby announcements, cards, pages, etc if you learn but if you don't want to, she does a really good job. I am still learning but would happy to do anyone's blog if you want me to. Good Luck!

Getting distracted

I have been meaning to do a new post because we did have a fun weekend but everytime I go to do the post I get distracted with digital scrapbooking. Sorry I will try and do one tomorrow. I spent all night while Cam was at Bishopric downloading fun fonts, paper, ribbons, etc.. I think it is so amazing what we can now do on computers and not have the mess from cutting, and gluing not to mention getting out boxes and boxes of stuff. Anyway that's what has been taking my time and now it is after midnight my time past.

Palm Springs Christmas 2007

I am a little behind on updating my blog because the day after Christmas we went to Palm Springs to see Greg and Dougs basketball tournament. We used it as an opportunity to spend time together as a family. It was a lot of fun to watch Greg play. He is a good baller. It is also really neat to have Doug coaching. I got a new camera for christmas so I took quite a few pictures. Here are just a few ok a lot. Lauralee's boy Matthew
Maryann and Clayton

Lauralee and Maryann can you guess who is who


Princess Jayni (maryann's girl)
she is too cute!

Matthew

Miss Jayni

Trey and Lydia they are inseparable

Bryson on his Christmas Wave. He loves it!

The Yates Family

Coach Meacham

Mom and Dad in their Caveman color christmas outfits

I am not sure who enjoyed Bryson's Wave more

Caden, Matthew, Bryson, Payton, and Marcus

Marcus going for a ride. The kids loved the lazy river

Greg's Fan Club minus Chris, Laurie, Jordan and Jemma who got there the next day. I think there was 24 of us there. We missed Tami and her kids.

Cam and Brielle

My favorite gift this year! My mom made the cutest activity bags for the kids in an attempt to give them something to do during the games and for the trip to Cali.

Brielle said Santa must think I was really good when she got her doll house

Our new tradition of a movie and a game on new years eve.

We got together at Leanne and John's house on Christmas Eve

Bryson and Brielle helping me make toffee for the neighbor's.

2007 christmas card

I elfed my kids!!

Click below I elfed my kids they got the biggest kick out of it.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1320535386

Tuachan Nativity Family Night

A bunch of us from the ward met at Tuachan to see the nativity program and lights they do every year- oh and santa. It is short and sweet. When Mary was coming in on a donkey I was talking to Brielle about how they had no place to go to have baby Jesus and Brielle turned to me and said, "Mom I am crying." sure enough I saw a tear roll down her face. How sweet is that. We were all bundled up because it was chilly! We met at our house after for hot chocolate, cookies and donuts. Thanks Katie and Gretchen and Dani for bringing stuff over. Thanks to everyone who came it was a fun night and we missed those who didn't make it. Maybe next year.

Christmas questions

Below are pictures to the christmas questions my sister in law Laurie had on her blog. Thanks Laurie it was fun My answers are below the pics. I didn't really lay it out great but oh well.

Last monday night we made our gingerbread houses with Dani and Wade and their kids. Last night we had a fun family home night at the Tuachan nativity play. i will post pics later.

Prego craving! My walks aren't going to be enough with this for 9 more months

Our tree topper this year

Our lights that the kids think are boring and our neighbors gave us a snowman this year. Kinda of fun. Cam wasn't really excited but he couldn't say no to our neighbors.

The nativity Cam's parents gave us one year and every year one always gets broken so we are a few pieces short and this year the little sheep is already broken. Maybe I shouldn't get it out until they are older.

Answers to Christmas Questions

Here are some christmas questions that I got off of my sister in laws blog and it was fun to read her answers and I wasn't going to answer them myself until I started thinking about my answers and it was fun to think of them so I would love to hear your answers as well.

Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Wrapping paper under trees on christmas morning but I think it is fun to use baskets, boxes, bags or gift bags sometimes for gifts to others.

Real tree or artificial?
artificial but I bought a christmas tree spray that makes it smell like christmas

When do you put up the tree?
We put it up before thanksgiving because we usually go up north for thanksgiving and it's fun to have it up when we get home plus it's a lot of work to only have up for a month so we usually have it up as soon as thanksgiving is over if not a little before

When do you take the tree down?
It's fun to get everything out and up but I am usually ready to get it all put away a few days after christmas sometimes we wait until the new year.

Hot chocolate or apple cider?

neither-I know boring

Favorite gift received as a child?
I remember when we all got a cabbage patch kid and one year pound puppies my mom made. I also remember the matching dresses my mom would make. I remember when my mom had greg on Dec. 22 and Dad was incharge of christmas this year. Leanne and Dad went to Walmart on Christmas eve and bought random stuff. i got a wooden dog chest that later became our sock basket.

Do you have a Nativity scene?

Cam's Mom and Dad got all of the families a nice nativity set a few years ago. I really love it! I do need to get one that the kids could play with.

Hardest person to buy for?

Definetly Cam. he buys whatever he really wants. Once he wants something he finds a way to get it. All he wants this year is a brand new Tundra. He will go without this year :)

Easiest person to buy for?

Kids are easy but I love to shop for my mom because she needs everything! She is one to go without because her whole life she got us what we wanted.

Worst Christmas gift ever received?

The only thing I can remember is when Cam was on his mission he sent me an entire outfit. Not only was it interesting-it was a size 2. It never fit me and I wasn't about to send it back to him.

Mail or email Christmas cards?

Both. I love to receive Christmas cards but I am not good at sending them. I would like to be better. I made my friend josie and Leanne's christmas cards with a new program I bought so I think we will try to take a picture tomorrow and make one and send one out. I can always count on my friend Deborah to have a cute card and picture and I always get it early and I love it so I wish I could do the same for others. I try.

Favorite Christmas movie?
I like the Christmas Shoes movie. It is so sad but helps you appreciate what you have. I liked Elf and my kids love the santa clause movies-I should say Cam and the kids.

Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
I always remember on christmas eve deciding if everyone got a fair amount of gifts and if not or if someone was left out we would redistribute the gifts. I remember using gifts my dad got from school or something to give to someone else-a teacher, neighbor or friend.

Favorite thing to eat at Christmas time?
My mom's toffee no question! Cam loves his mom's jam cookies. I will have to learn how to make both. This year I am attempting the toffee to give out as gifts because that is what I remember my mom doing every year and we all loved it! cam just bought the cookie skillets at Tai Pan and that is all I have felt like being pregnant. i think we have had them 4 or 5 times and we are having them tonight. What's sad is that I can eat a whole one alone. I would recommend the skillets for a gift-we love them!

Clear lights or colored?
I remember when people started hiring someone to put their lights up and they were perfectly straight well for some reason I do not like the real straight office looking lights. I like the lights that are not perfect colored or not. There are some colored lights I do not like. My kids think the white lights are boring and they always ohh and awe when we drive past colored lights. They think our lights are boring because they are just white.

Favorite Christmas song?

I love Amy Grant's Chritmas songs of course Breath of Heaven.

Travel or stay home?

Last year was the first year we stayed home and this year we are staying home again and actually having chritmas alone with our little family for the first time. It will be fun. This year we are taking off to California after Christmas but I think it would be fun to drive up north next year on Christmas day.

Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
Absolutely not! I am so bad.

Angel or star on top of the tree?
Star. but this year we have a santa hat because our star kept falling down.

Our crazy week!

Well today was the first day that I really did nothing but play around with my blog and as you can see I had fun. We have had a crazy two weeks. We went up for thanksgiving which was fun and ended up staying over sunday to pick up Dave (a guest that stayed at our spa for 6 months to lose weight to go on a mission) at the airport monday morning. We took him back to st george to let him say goodbye to everyone here before cam took him up to the MTC on Wednesday morning. Cam came back home that night. Friday we turned back around and drove up north to go to a Kelsch Christmas party. We have known about the party for a while so even though we were sick of driving we knew we should still go and see family so we did. We weren't expecting the crazy snow on saturday morning. Anyone who has driven the stretch from st george in the snow knows it is not fun. What is even crazier is that we didn't even go to the party. Cam didn't want to risk a dangerous drive home after the party that didn't start until 6pm and he didn't feel like he should miss two sundays in a row so we packed it up and left for home at 2pm. The kids were not happy!! I am so grateful that Cam was adamant about leaving because I thought, we came up this far we should probably just go but it was the scariest drive home and I can't imagine doing it in the dark. We drove 20 miles an hour most of the drive! It was so nice to arrive in st george with not a flake of snow on the ground. I know when everyone up north woke up to snow it made their day well not ours. We were able to see Greggy's game on friday night which really made the drive worth it. It was so fun to see. He scored 25 points. This is his last year at AFHS so we hope to see as many as we can. I need to get a picture of Cam but I am waiting until he gets a little puffier because he got his wisdom teeth out on Monday. The funniest part is that he wouldn't let me go to the grocery store by myself because he wanted to make sure he got enough ice cream, shakes, pudding, you name it he found it. He was still drugged up walking through the store and we stopped at the movies store on the way home. He really hasn't taken advantage of the situation as much as he could. he was working that day. He is really getting sick of not being able to eat and take big bites. I am excited to be home for a week.

Our Thanksgiving

Our shopping trip up to Park City. Uncle Greg put trey to sleep with his music. Jordan, Adam, Brielle, and Bryson

Grandma Kelsch

Grandpa Kelsch

Our kids earn their allowance by rubbing daddy's feet

Visiting with the Kelsch's on Thanksgiving day

Me and my cute grandma Meacham

Lucky was supposed to pull the kids in the cart but it wasn't wanting to hook up so Cam was the one volunteered to pull the kids around. He worked off his Thanksgiving dinner real fast.

Trey was not excited!

Riding Lucky was the highlight of the day for the kids.

Bryson's thaksgiving day program. (he's the only one looking at the camera)

We ate dinner at Doug and Tami's house. I wasn't feeling great that day. We had a great run that morning. I came home and couldn't get warm and didn't feel like eating much. Although Turkey and potatoes were the only thing that sounded good. I didn't even have a piece of pie. Being sick on thanksgiving is a great way to not overeat. We had a nice day.

Our weekend

This weekend was an eventful weekend Leanne came over at 8:30am to go shopping. We got some fun Christmas decor and some materials to try at making some bulbs for our tree. We were looking all over for stockings because we both have kids without. The kids just want their name on them. We thought about making them for a few minutes but I didn't want anything too fancy, or country so I ended up buying $2.00 Walmart stockings and writing their names on with felt markers. It will do for this year and maybe one of these years I will find what we want. I came home and met Cam at the church. He had all the kids at the primary program practice. The Bishopric was cooking them breakfast. I took Brielle to a Princess party and Leanne and I tried making our christmas bulbs. Not a success-we are still working on them. Cam put up the lights and came and grabbed me to get a picture for the blog. Then Leanne told you about our shopping experience. We took 8 kids under 7 to the mall to try on Jeans. It was a success! Leanne, Maryann and John all found a pair. The kids even got to see Santa. Brielle was the only one who wanted to sit on his lap. Leanne's kids did also-they loved it. Sunday the kids had their primary program. Cam got to come and sit with me and Trey. Bryson and Brielle did great. Brielle was especially cute. She memorized her part Matthew 5 vs 16. I wish I could have taken a video of it. She made Cam and I both cry. One of the neatest parts of the program was the closing song. The congregation stood and sang count your many blessings. It was amazing to look at all the primary children and realize the many blessings right in front of us. The kids and I started decorating the tree while we waited for Cam. Brielle fell asleep at the table waiting for him. We are excited to see everyone this weekend. We hope you all are taking the time to enjoy the season. It can fly by too fast. I am going to try and make the most of it this year. We will be up north for thaksgiving. We are excited for Barrett's wedding this weekend as well. We also get to go see Toby and Josie's new baby Cash Jay Christesen. We are hoping to make a trip up to Park City for some shopping. Have a wonderful thanksgiving everyone!!

I love good days

Today was one of my ideal days. I love it when I am not flustered all day and when a day goes right and is somewhat productive. I am sure it was because it started with a run. Cam woke up at 6 and wanted me to go running and I politely declined because I didn't want to kill myself. it is hard to keep up with him. I told myself that if I didn't go with him I would run Bryson to school. I got up to Bryson practicing the piano. Then I got Trey Brielle and Bryson ready to run. Maryann brought Jayni over for me to watch so I got her and trey a bottle and got them all outside and Cam had taken the van with the stroller in it so instead of using that as a good excuse I ran down to my friends house and borrowed her double jogger and we were all on our way. Bryson rides his bike while I push the kids. it is 4 miles there and back. I then had two cavities filled at the dentist, had bryson's SEP's at school. i told his teacher that I wish I could take credit for him scoring above average but it's not because I have spent a lot of time reading with him. He has such a huge desire to learn. We stopped at the book fair and bought him the high shcool musial chapter book. He then had his first piano lesson today. He has been begging for a few years now and the other day prayed in our family prayer that mom and dad could find him piano lessons. He was sooo excited and really enjoyed his first lesson. When I came home I made my cooking group meal. I made biscuits and gravy. It was easy and I thought yummy. I made it to our R.S. Dinner tonight and to top the day off, Leanne came and taught Yoga for a bunch of girls in my ward (our walking group). I love days like today. Thanks Leanne for coming tonight.

We are having number 4!!

Cam and I have been ready to be pregnant for 6 months now and I was getting a little nervous when it wasn't happening but was confident that the Lord knew what was best. It was kind of nice not to get pregnant the first time trying like in the past. Needless to say we were all very excited. At dinner before I even took the test, Brielle prayed that I could be pregnant. Even though it happened 4 weeks before the prayer she felt like she had something to do with it. She carried the test around all night telling everyone. She really wants a little sister. I secretly hope that we are having twins and that is why it took me til now to get pregnant because they will be born in July and my mom doesn't teach in July so she can come here for a month. Just a thought. It's fun to dream. I am only 4 weeks along so it is a ways away. After 6 other tests that were negative it was fun to see the positive sign. Brielle came in this morning and said hello to the baby and said my belly was getting a little bigger. It will be a long 9 months!!!

Our Yellow Friend

Here's our yellow friend that helps keep the kids safe. We live on a quiet street but it's still nice to have. It's hard not to slow down when you turn down our street at it's the first thing you see in the middle of the road. I don't think the owner of the development is very happy because there are several homes and lots up for sale in the neighborhood and there are a lot of 3 bedroom homes that are popular for older couples and the several bikes outside and the yellow man may be scaring them away.

Bryson and Brielle are good to put him out when they go out to play.

Trey is 2!!!

Our cute little Trey turned 2 yesterday. Trey's terrible two's started three weeks after he was born. He was always a handful and still is. He is hilarious though. I laugh and am so amazed by him everyday. He is my little stinker. Bryson is sweet, Brielle is sassy, and Trey is a stinker. He is into everything and wants to destroy everything. He thinks he is 5. He stays up with all of the cousins. i laugh so hard at him and his cousin Lydia. They fight like crazy but they beg to play with each other. If I ask Trey if he is stinky he blames it on Lydia even if she isn't here. He is very cunning yet sweet. He was a horrible sleeper up until 1 1/2 and now he is second to Brielle at being a good sleeper. he takes long naps and sleeps long nights. We love it. We are just now thinking that we could have another one. I was hoping for another girl when I was pregnant with him but after having Trey would love more boys or girls. He has been a fun handful.
Our neighbor friend Jayden, cousin Payton, little lydia, friend (wants to marry Bryson)Tylee, Brielle, Bryson, Birthday boy Trey, cousin Marcus and cousin Jayni

It was so Trey to sit on his cake.

His favorite Toy that the UPS driver brought 5 min. before we opened presents. He will get his little car today in the mail. We were so happy that he at least got this race track. He loves cars.

The whole gang

This was not something we told Trey to do. We all looked over and he was taking a bite of his cake. I had him do it again to get a picture.

They are all their dad. Bryson has his dad's memory and Trey and Brielle both have Cam's humor. Trey is so full of energy and wants to be outside all day. We have a yellow safety guy that we -put in the middle of the road when he is outside.

I've been dreading this tag thing, but here it is:

I guess I am to write 7 interesting facts about me. Here it goes...

1-I am not the shopper. I guess I should say spender in the family and it's not Bryson, Brielle or Trey. I love to shop and could take my time and not spend much but Cam likes to go but not spend hours. He learned early in our marriage that if you can't beat um, join them! I enjoy shopping with him, most of the time, because he has better taste than I do. I have a hard time buying anything even little things for the kids and especially for me because he is great to give his opinion :). He is pickier than I am.
2-One of my favorite things is a great workout and when it's over. Especially a hard workout. There aren't many things that feel so great. The only great