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!