Finally!

Well, we are finally moved into our new house. Still needs a bit of work, but livable. Soon, I will start to feel normal again and maybe (just maybe) I might even start blogging again! But I wouldn't look for that until at least after Christmas. Until then, lot's of love to the blogging world! (I miss you:( )

My Cute Kids

Check out my kids short photo shoot HERE

My Brother's Home!

My brother Ryan just got home from Afghanistan and we are so excited to have him back and safe in the states again. Since we haven't seen him in so long, and won't for a while longer (hopefully he's coming here in October), I thought I would finally post some pics recapping the last several months. I made a new post for each of the kids and finished off with some family ones.

WELCOME HOME RYAN!!!!!!!!

WE MISSED YOU!!!!!

Bree

Balancing with daddy. I think we have a picture like this with all our kids.

Pretty in Pink

Bath time

What a messy eater!

Gracie

Cole was playing swords with Gracie and sliced her little nose. Hopefully the scar will fade more as she gets older.

Napping with Grandpa Leishman

Bowling with Daddy

Gracie decided to give herself a haircut this summer. She cut it all the way to the scalp and it's taken MONTHS to get it to even look like short bangs!

Cole

Playing dress up at the Dinosaur Museum in Bozeman, MT.

Dang it! This was suppose to be rotated!

Preschool Graduation (not sure what's with the girly pose, funny boy).
Father/Sons campout. He's pretty doing this in all the photos.

Rylee

Playing dress up at the dinosaur museum in Bozeman, MT.

Shoot! this was suppose to be rotated!

Bowling

Grandma McKee came for Rylee's recital.

All done up, ready to dance.

A Little Bit of Everybpdy

Playing dress up at our monthly family dinner. Rylee is the red power ranger and Cole is the blue one.

Swim park

Walking around Down Town West Yellowstone this summer.

Watching Old Faithful.

Dancing on the beach.

Matching Easter outfits

Family Easter photo.

My Etsy

Things have been so busy, busy around here! We had a fantastic 4th weekend on my in-laws house boat, boating all weekend. Rylee, Cole and Gracie all tried new things this year. I'll be posting pics soon.

Our house is nearly finished and we hope to be moving in mid-august. Probably won't quite make it before school starts, but soon after!

My business is going great and I just opened up my etsy. Please go check it out HERE. I am looking forward to my first trunk show tomorrow night, and another next week. It's fun to be able to turn a hobby into a small income!

Anyway, I'll post pics soon!

I know it's been a long time. So many fun and exciting things have been happening! So if you can finish reading this post, awesome! I'll start at the top:

Justin:

He's been working as a county appraiser since January and is in the process of moving into agriculture appraisals, which he is very excited about. We also bought a house on a 4.5 acre lot. It was bank owned and we got a smokin' deal on it, but it needs quite bit of work to be move-in ready. So that's where Justin spends all the rest of his time. My fav. thing about the house is all the land! It has a small orchard and several fruit trees (apples, apricots, pears, and plums).

Trina:

I have been working a few hours a week as a social worker for a foster care agency. I also started my own business in order to help us out financially (click HERE to learn more about that).

Rylee:

She just finished first grade and excelled in everything. She has developed her creative talents and is working on some art pieces to enter into the fair. She is also getting ready to try out for a town play with the children's theater and is very excited for that. This weekend is also her dance recital (more about that below).

Cole:

He just graduated from preschool and loved every minute he spent there. He is so excited to go on to Kindergarten next year! Cole is also getting ready to play soccer this summer and baseball next year ( we missed it this year).

Gracie:

Gracie is busy learning the alphabet, how to count, and learning all the colors and animals and sounds that they make. I'm amazed how much she knows just by watching her older siblings! She is quite the handful and spends a good portion of every day making trouble, but so far we decided to keep her. I'll let you know if that changes!

Miss Bree:

I think that Bree will probably think her name is actually Miss Bree since that's what I seem to call her all the time. Either that, or Breezer! Anyway, she has learned to roll over, right off the couch one time! (oops) She responds to her name, and spends all day smiling and laughing at her siblings, but I think she still likes me best! (for now) She likes to be held a lot, but that's good, because if she didn't demand it, I might not remember to take the time to do it!

Well, that's a tiny synapses of what's going on in our family. How's yours?

Cole's 5th Birthday Party

Cole's birthday was actually more than a month ago, but so many exciting things have been happening around here, and I've been so busy, that I haven't had time to do much blogging. So here is all about Cole:

He turned 5 years old this year and wanted a spider man themed party at the park (easy!) So I made a simple cake, got decorations, and we had lunch, cake, and fun time at the park! Cole loved every minute of it. I gave all the kids masks to decorate with markers and sticker, but Cole opted to leave his blank. I guess he thought it looked more like a super hero mask without the stickers! He such a stud! Here are my top five favorite things about Cole:

1. He is super, duper sweet. He tells me he loves me and that I'm beautiful all the time, usually just out of the blue! A girl should have a kid like him around ALL the time!

2. He learns quick! He sometimes struggles with problem solving but has recently begun to put so much more effort into solving his own problems instead of asking me to do everything for him. I can see what a big boy he is growing up to be when I watch him see a problem and figure out what to do to solve it all on his own!

3. He is my favorite boy, and he knows it! I tell him all the time "you're my favorite boy" and he's so sick of hearing it that now he rolls his eyes at me. But recently, we were having a conversation about something he did ( I can't remember what) and he reminded, "because I'm your favorite boy!" What a cutie!

4. He loves all things boy! He recently went to a father/son's campout and took a wooden sword with him (he loves weaponry) and there isn't a single picture of him from that campout where he isn't sporting that sword somehow. He usually has a sword stuck behind him in the back of his shirt or through the belt loop of his pants. He loves swords the most and probably has about 4 of them, of course, that doesn't count the ones he builds out of pencils, tinker toys, legos, straws, sticks, and anything else that might resemble a sword. Even my mother's day card was decorated with little swords that he drew! He calls them Leonardo swords (the ninja turtle) because he wants to be a ninja turtle.

5. And lastly, he is the best little/big brother. He gets along with all of his sisters so well. He loves to follow Rylee around and lets her be the boss. He loves to play with Gracie and teach all that he knows when it's just the two of them, and he often helps me with Miss Bree when she's fussy and I can't pick her up just yet. He is a lover and snuggler. He wants to sit by me everywhere we go and loves to snuggle with his dad at bed time at night. I just love that little boy!

Dance Costumes 2010

These are just some quick shots that I took of Rylee in her dance costumes during her class pictures. Recital is in just a few days and we are so excited to watch her! She took three dance classes this year, and while she often would complain about having to go all the time, she is super excited about being able to perform THREE TIMES!!! Soooo, now she wants to take three classes again next year. (We'll see).

Her first costume is her jazz costume. She is dancing to Miley Cyrus's "Hoedown"

This one is her ballet costume. She is dancing to Elvis Presley's "In the Ghetto"
And last, is her tap costume (may fav!) She is dancing to Tina Turner's "Proud Mary"

Tres Chic

So, after expanding my little business outside of my mother-in-law's studio, I have found that "Trina's Sweet Shoppe" was a rather poor choice in business names. People think I make and sell candy! So, after much help from family and friends, I have changed my name to Tres Chic.

Here are my reasons.

1. It's simple and easy to say.

2. The point of my business is to make myself and others feel pretty and chic!

3. I have three girls, and started to call it "Three Chic" but then figured the Spanish word for three is tres. And while they are pronounced differently, they are spelt the same. Sooooo it's a tiny, tiny play on words!

Check out my new blog/website HERE.

And a huge shout out to my sister-in-law Taryn who designed my logo. Twice now!

Come and See!

I know I haven't posted in such a long time, and so much has been happening around here! But, I still don't have time to post right now about my family happening. This post has only one purpose: to tell you about my "Sweet Shoppe!"

A few months ago I decided I wanted to make a tu-tu for Rylee to wear to dance, then I thought, I have to make one for Gracie and Bree! Then, I thought it would be fun to sell these at my mother-in-law's dance studio. How perfect is that! Only thing is, what do I call this new business of mine?

Fast forward one week. . .

My sister-in-law, Taryn, was visiting for the weekend and walked into the room as I was working on a tu-tu with the colors hot pink, light pink, and brown. She said, "That looks like Neopolitan colors." Ah-ha! And my new business name and slogan was born. "Trina's Sweet Shoppe: A tu-tu for every sweet tooth!"

Now, I name all my tu-tu's after some sort of sweet treat and adorn each one with a little piece of candy.

I'm really excited! I've been doing it almost two months and have already had more orders than I can often keep up with. I'm having a booth at the farmers market this summer and at the town's "Red Suspenders Day" event. (A huge event for Gridley). I have developed an etsy and a blog. My seller name on etsy is trinassweetshoppe and you can go to my new blog HERE.

I've never considered myself a real creative person, but I have been inspired by my oldest daughters creativity. If she can develop a creative talent, than so can I! I've even started to add hair accessories and have had so much fun creating.

I would love as much feed back as possible, here or on my shoppe blog. Thanks for all your input in advance!

Rylee's Seventh Birthday

Rylee celebrated her seventh birthday yesterday and it was so much. The theme she chose this year is Candyland. So, I spent most of the day on friday building a Candyland Castle. It was kind of awesome. (Not the time spent, but the castle). The kids had so much fun playing in it, that it didn't even survive the party. Alas, six hours to put it up, and only 2 minutes to tear it down! Luckily, it can be rebuilt for hours of imaginary fun in the near future (after it stops raining). I had big plans for Rylee's birthday cake. I was going to make a giant sheet cake and decorate with assorted candies to resemble to Candyland board game, but then I thought that would be a lot of work after that castle! So, I made Funfetti cupcakes, had 4 different colors and frosting and 8 different types of candy, and the kids decorated their own cakes! A much better idea! Rylee had a lot of fun and I'm kinda glad it's over. (time for a nap!)

Aaaaaaand, even thought Rylee isn't technically seven until Tuesday, here are my top seven things that I love about this pretty little girl:

1. She is super, super, super creative. Those who know me know that I envy that in people. I often attempt to force creativity out of myself and find it awesome how it comes so easily to some people. Rylee is one of those people. She can find any piece of garbage and see the potential in it. That's awesome!

2. She is a good big sister. She loves to help her younger brother and sisters do things and I often catch then curled up together in bed or on the couch as Rylee reads them a story.

3. She is super smart. She could probably graduate high school if we pushed her! okay, maybe not quite to that extreme, but she is really good at school stuff and still enjoys it so far.

4. She loves to sing. I often have to stop her singing just so she can get stuff done. Even on the toilet, we will hear her singing a song, often one she has made up. And she's not quiet either! She just belts it out wherever she is!

5. She enjoys reading and writing stories. I think I like this about her because it's something we have in common. She loves to read, and so do I, but she usually loves to read stories that she writes herself. And while I no longer write stories now, as a kid, I did all the time and even wanted to grow up to be an author (then I think I discovered boys and anything else I was previously interested fizzled out pretty quickly).

6. She is athletic. She loves to dance, play sports, just about anything that's active. We take family hikes occasionally and she's always wanting to run ahead or play a game to make a leisurely activity more exciting.

7. She is super optimistic and positive about everything. Even when she gets in trouble for making a wrong choice, she will point out what she did right! She is very confident and believes she can do anything she wants. Some of you know that she does not have full use of her right arm, but if you didn't know, that's probably because she has never it make her feel that she can't do anything. It wasn't until she discovered "monkey-bars" that she felt limited. And you know, she came home from school just a few weeks ago so excited to tell me that she crossed the monkey bars that day! She is proof that it is often ourselves that get in the way of goals we want to accomplish, not the obstacles placed before us. Rylee has been such a huge blessing in my life. The last seven years of getting to know her as been a lot of things, but mostly wonderful and exciting. I look forward to the next seven!

Wacky Wednesday

Cole's Preschool had a wacky day last week and he was so excited as we came up with what he should wear for the day. Here is what we came up with, along with the wacky pose for this picture. Fun Halloween socks, one pant leg in sock, one pant leg rolled up, shirt inside out, and hair spiked into 3 rows. He was so excited to go to school that day and to tell me about the wacky things his teachers wore. One of his teachers, her name is Tinker, put her hair in a high pony and stuck a roll of toilet paper on it. What fun!

Bree has been so much fun. I can't believe how fast she is growing. I was comparing this video to one we took just over a month ago and what a change! She's already so different and so much bigger! Here are a few things we've come to learn about Miss Bree:

1. She is high maintenance. She loves to be held and held a lot, but I guess that's okay. Life gets so busy around here that I may just forget to sit and enjoy snuggling her if she didn't demand itoccasionally!

2. She doesn't handle milk very well, and since I'm nursing her, I don't get to have milk (only one of my favorite things in the world!) But since giving it up, she's been much happier and sleeps so much better, so it's worth the sacrifice.

3. She sleeps 5-6 hours at night, and I'm lovin' it!

4. She has begun to smile, giggle, and coo a ton more, so we spend a lot of time desperatelytrying to make her smile. It must be humorous to observe what an adult might do to make a baby smile, but what a reward!

5. I change her diaper at least every hour or two and it's never clean! We go through more diapers with her than I ever thought possible!

6. She has brought so much joy to our little family and made us feel more complete. There's six of us now! Can you believe it!?

7. She still has so much hair and it's still brown, which I'm really excited about since our kids always look so much like Justin, maybe Bree will resemble me with her coloring. And BIG blue eyes. Such a pretty girl!

Sweet Bree

GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Oh! . . . and I forgot . . .

a few more for the previous post

19. 2 trips to the E.R. (one for "nurses-maid" elbow and the other for taking a bunch of allergy meds).

20. climbing onto her dresser and jumping off onto her bed (she hasn't missed . . . yet!)

21. she has chewed on or eaten dog poo, goat poo, and her own poo.

22. banging on the window of her room with the handle once used to open it.

Just what's on my mind!

The Terrible, Terrible Twos!

Gracie has definitely redefined what it is to be a two-year-old for me. I can count on just one hand the times that Rylee and Cole got into things and made messes that were either nearly impossible to clean, or destructive. And that's combined! Gracie on the other hand, it's pretty much a daily event. Here are just a few examples of some of the things she has gotten into:

1. diaper rash ream

2. laundry detergent

3. Oriental oils (more times than I can count)

4. lotion

5. hand soap (she rubbed it on her face because she thought it was lotion and it got into her eyes. That made for a very unhappy toddler).

6. black magic marker (all over my mother-in-law's white cabinets)

7. make-up (of all kinds)

8. markers, highlighters, pens and pencils (all over walls)

9. hormone cream (hopefully she doesn't start developing too early!)

10. ripped pages in books, notebooks, and many of the kids books.

11. sidewalk chalk on the fence, house, and windows (luckily, that's easy to clean)

12. Beans

13. dog food and water

14. she likes to eat the dogs snacks

15. ashes from the fireplace that were left in the backyard (snow! snow!)

16. She has ripped and colored all over Rylee's homework

17. She loves to take all her clothes off (and her diaper) and run through the living room, rubbing her bum, dancing, and squealing "nakey! nakey! nakey!" She even has what we call her "nakey dance."

18. and on, and on, and on.

Keep in mind, these are just the things that I can think of right away. I'm sure if I put more thought into it, the list would easily double, possibly triple. You would think that I would be able to get it under control, this being my 3rd child, but Gracie has proved be determined. I think she possible lays in bed at night thinking, "what can I do tomorrow to make my mom want to pull her hair out?" Grrrrrrr!

But probably the most frustrating thing about it is, she's sooo cute doing it! Whenever we find her doing something, her reactions to getting caught are so hard not to laugh at, or the way she looks with diaper rash cream all over her body! What does a mother do!

Baby Bree

Thank you, Taryn! You did a beautiful job on these announcements!

Back to Photography

Now that I'm beginning to get things under control around here (at least to some degree), I'm trying to get back into some of the things I used to enjoy, such as reading, exercising, blogging, and taking pictures. This morning I got to take some pics of Baby River. He was a super easy subject and ultra cute! You can see more photos of him HERE.

I'm still here

It's been such a long time since I've felt like getting to my blog on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong, I love blog-stalking and I stalk every one of my friends/family that you see in my list to the right, but alas, whenever I come to blog I get so caught up in everyone else's blogs that I either A) run out of time, or B) don't feel like it! But, we are still here enjoying life.

Life in California has been an adjustment, but a good one. We love spending time with family and now we have so much of them around us (at least on Justin's side). I love that my kids get to grow up around their grandparents, especially as they get older and stop regarding my little tidbits of wisdom as something important.

Bree is growing far too quickly and still struggling to figure out her days and nights. Hopefully we'll be able to get that under control soon. Rylee is loving everything about school (reading, bus rides, lunch time, recess, and even math) and excelling at it all. Cole has a good time at preschool and can't wait for each new day at school. He finds the long wait between school days obnoxious and can't wait to go back. Gracie is developing into quite the little trouble maker but what's worse is she's hilarious! So sometimes it's hard to discipline her when you can't stop yourself from laughing, only encouraging further destructive behavior!

Justin finally got a new job and has his first day tomorrow. He is working for the county as an appraiser and is really excited to get his foot in the door of a new adventure. I go back to work tomorrow as well. I have mixed feelings about that. Even though I only work 5-6 hours a week, leaving Bree behind is still hard. But I'm excited to help contribute to my family.

That's the down-low on our family lately. I'll try to get more motivated about my blogging again and post some new pics of Bree (which you may see above this post).

More Photos of Bree!

Baby Bree is here and we are both on the mend. (You can see more pics of her HERE) I've noticed that I haven't posted a single thing about my pregnancy other than to announce that she was coming, and that she was a "she." And even worse than that, we completely forgot to take any photos of me pregnant, even the day she was born (which was our tradition) and so I have maybe one or two photos where you can see that I'm pregnant. How sad! Poor Bree will think I never thought of her! But, in fact, I did all the time. We were so excited for her to get here and just love having her here now. All the other kids absolutley adore her, Gracie maybe a little too much, and we're all adjusting well.

Bree has a completly different look than our other kids. I'm hopeful that she might look like me! Her hair is dark and EXISTS! Hopefully it will stay dark as she starts to lose it and it grows back. So far, she does not sleep very well at night and Justin and I are often left very tired during the day. Luckily I have a husband who is willing to suffer with me with the "up all nights." But, even through our tired eyes, she is beautiful and wonderful and everything we ever wanted! Just like the others! Thanks so much for all the well wishing and congrats from friends and family. We appreciate so much all the help and support we have received both from those around us and those from afar. We miss our Arizona friends terribly, but are excited for our new life here in California and the new friends we have made here.

Lots of love to all!

(Now that I'm not so pregnant anymore, I'm hopeful that I will have more desire to get back to my blogging.)

Cole's 1st Day of Preschool

Lucky for us, the popular preschool in town had a spot open up over the holidays and Cole got to start school today. He was so excited and we were so excited for him. He wanted to wear a faux-hawk in his hair for his first day so his hair will be crunchy. What a funny kid! He made a few friends that he got to play with and is excited to go back on wednesday.

This is what happens . . .

. . . when you forget to cover the baby's bum with a diaper while changing a dirty one!

Bree's Baby Blessing

Since my parents were here for Bree's birth, we decided to go ahead and do her blessing while they were here. Since she was only 5 days old when we did it, I didn't want to take her to church. So, we did it at home! Had I known you could do that before I probably would have done that with all my kids! It was so nice to have just our family around to participate in the blessing and knowing that everyone there loves and cares about her the way we do. She was perfectly quiet nearly the whole time, and then let her daddy know when she was done being balanced by a bunch of men! Then, of course, lot's of pictures afterwards to remember who was there.

Funny Story

I'm blogging about this mostly so I don't forget about it and remember to write it in Rylee's journal.

When I was a kid, my dad use to tell us that he can take our spirits out of our body, and we believed him because that's exactly what it felt like! I'll explain. Do as follows:

1. use one hand to squeeze the wrist of your other hand that is in a fist very tightly and wait a few seconds. If you do this on someone else's hand (your kids) you will also rub their fingers and knuckles toward the wrist (pushing the blood down out of the hand).

2. open fisted hand very slowly (to my kids, i then push on the tips of thier fingers like thet're buttons and count to five).

3. Lastly, pinch the middle of the childs hand while letting go of his/her wrist (or just let go of your own wrist if doing this to yourself) and it will feel like someone is pulling out your spirit (when really it's just the blood rushing back into your hand).

Well, recently, I taught this cool little trick to my kids telling them that I was pulling thier spirits out and then I would return it. As I said "spirit" I thought to myself "That's probably going to come back to bite me." Well, on sunday, it did.

The sharing time lesson in primary yesterday was about THE SPIRIT! The teacher used a glove and her hand to demonstrate how we have the spirit in us. Dialogue went as follows:

Teacher: Can anyone tell me what the spirit is?

Rylee raises her hand and is called on.

Rylee: The spirit is what helps us to be good and make good decisions, and . . . (here's the part that kills me!) my mom can take the spirit out of our bodies!

Teacher: Noooo, mommy's don't take spirits out of kids.

Rylee: Oh no! My mom can take the spirit out of ANYTHING!

What must that teacher be thinking at this point! I can only imagine what they heard in that innocent sentence. Funny how just one phrase can mean such different things depending upon prospective! I guess I better explain to her teacher, and maybe use a different word to explain my magic with my kids!

Hope you enjoyed a laugh!