Easter 2010

Easter was a bit different for us this year. Scott misses most easters due to truck driving and being in Wyoming so it's just me and the kids. Well this year he was able to make it home for the morning of easter and i had to be to work at 7:00 am. So Scott got up to see what the easter bunny brought with the kiddos and then he had to leave and I got home at a little after 3:00 and we went over to my mother in laws house for dinner and an easter egg hunt, something I usually do on easter.
Although it wasn't the "perfect" situation I think the kids had fun being with daddy and then getting together with their cousins in the afternoon. They were happy with their easter fair as well, Kenna got a little pet shop, tinkerbelle toys and a new dress. Kayla got a dress and these messeging toy things she had been wanting. MaQuade got a new under armor shirt (he lives in them) and a blanket like mine that he had been wanting. Of course along with a bunch of candy and little knick knacks.
Here are some pictures of our easter day! The weather wasn't great.......of course it is idaho......but hey at least the snow stayed away for one day :)
Now finally introducing my little baby great neice Riley. I know i announced her birth in a previous post but i didn't have any pictures to share. Now i do :) She is now 5 months old and is a cute not so little CHUB!!! She already weighs 23 lbs. In comparison her soon to be 3 yr old big sister miss Jasmine weighs 25 lbs. I keep teasting them that soon Riley is going to be handing down clothes to her "big" sister!



Lastly i just had to include this picture of Jasmine. I asked her to pose for me to take a picture and this is the look i got, so typical of this little girl with loads of attitude!!!! But after raising her for 1 1/2 yrs she will always hold a special place in my heart and I am still her favorite Aunt Jenn!!

The Lowdown!!!

Yes it has been months and much has happened. Sadly work and facebook......mostly facebook hehe.....has gotten in the way of my blogging. So I am going to try and give a summed up as much as possible rundown on the happenings in our household!
Our holidays were great, santa brought more gifts then were deserved (as usual) and the kids spent the holiday break playing with said gifts while me and Scott worked!
Then on New Years Eve Lexie gave birth to 10 squirmy little puppies! Sadly one was lost because she was extremely tiny and just not strong enough to win the battle for food. But the 9 remaining grew up happy and healthy. Having puppies was alot of fun and a great learning experience for the kids, but it was tons of work and we won't be doing it again, once was enough for me! Eight of the 9 have since gone to new homes most in Utah and Wyoming, and we decided to keep one of the boys so introducing our new baby Ace!! He's lots of fun and alot of work! The other day i was questioning myself, seeing as how i don't want more children, why in the world did i agree on a puppy. The only consolation is puppies grow and became mature faster then kids...........at least most do keep fingers crossed!I have lots more puppy pictures that can be seen on my facebook page but for the sake of this post i'll just put the one of ace......it already gonna be long enough!
Next on Janruary 9 we celebrated MaKayla's 11th birthday. I can't believe she's 11 already i am really starting to feel old now! For her birthday she had some friends come over for a party of pizza, hot chocolate, cake and icecream and fun playing in the snow!
Next the girls participated in Skyline Highschool mini cheer camp where they spend a few days learning a dance and a cpl cheers and then perform them during halftime of a highschool basketball game. This is Kayla's i think 4th year and Kenna's 2nd they look forward to it every year!
On February 8 we celebrated Kenna's 7th birthday.........again the getting old feeling.......She had a small party here at the house with a few friends playing games and eating pizza and getting spoiled with lots of fun presents! She had a princess theme. Thus the flowing white party dress........she really believes she is a princess, at least thinks she should be treated like one hehe.

Next to come was my birthday.......where i turned to old to tell :( Didn't do a whole lot, Scott was working, I surprisingly got the day off and so since it was a saturday we lounged around the house and then me and the kiddos went out to dinner for all u can eat chinese. YUM!!!
On March 15 my sister Amber had her second child a super cute little baby boy. Landen Isaac weighing in at 6lbs 13 oz. I don't have my own pictures of him to share yet, since i haven't gotten to see him yet, but you can see pictures and hear her amazing birth story on her blog Josh and Amber Hammond (i'm sure most of you have already seen it)
March 19 was MaQuades 14th Birthday!!!! Can you believe he is 14, i mean where does the time go! For his birthday we didn't have a party I just made his favorite dinner of bbq pork roast, cheesy augratin potatoes, salad and rolls with homemade chocolate cake! One nice thing about having a teen is he didn't care about fancy wrapping and all that, so i just gave him his gifts, a new xbox headset, live card and new cell phone, wich was nice, after xmas and so many bdays i was sick of wrapping paper! The saddest part though is i just realized i never got a picture taken of him with his gifts. It's hard when they hit the age that the thought of taking a picture just earns you an eye roll and hiding of the face haha.

On to other things besides birthdays we will rewind a bit. In Janruary Scott was layed off of his job in Wyoming. Thankfully he was able to find a new job but unfortunately he is back to driving truck over the road. It hasn't been much fun going from having him home every week to having to adjust to him being gone for weeks at a time again. We just hope this will only be temporarily and somehow someway we will find a way to have him home, keep your fingers crossed for us!
As for me i'm still working at walmart. Officially i am still a stockman but for the last month i've been working as a people greeter as well..........yes i am a "welcome to walmart girl" It can be funny sometimes, i've begun to lose track of how many time's customers have told me "don't you know your too young to be doing this job" or "wow it's nice to see some young blood at the door" It's not a great job but in this economy i'm just happy to have a job! Because what was suppose to be a temporary thing has turned into a need for us with scott's job switch. Not sure how long i'll be doing the people greeting thing, apparently the managers have an idea of where they want to put me, but right now i have no idea where that is, so we shall see!

I think that pretty much covers the highlights of the goings on in the Squires household over the last few months. I've probably forgotten a bunch of things and will have to put them in another post somewhere someday in the future! But hey "yeah me"!!!! I finally updated my blog :)

Babies, Hair, Bones, Witches and Angels. Oh my!!

It has been an eventful month in the Squires household. First of all I am still working at walmart, it's exhausting,freezing, aggrivating, not much fun and by the end of the day my feet hurt so bad i want to crawl instead of walk. But on the positive side it puts a little bit more money in the pocket book and the best part since i started two months ago i have now lost about 16 lbs, my calfs are solid muscle and would ya know it i have Real biceps....no longer just flab theres muscle in there!!

First off this month we attended a baby shower for my nephew and his wife. It was fun because we got to spend some time with little Jasmine, she is growing up so fast, not in stature she's still tiny lol, but she is talking great and never stops and she still loves her aunt jenn :) although the one person she loves more is Kenna she goes crazy whenever Kenna is around soon as she sees her she runs screaming my benna my benna and tackles her with a big hug it's super cute! On October 28 Lindsay gave birth to a baby girl 8 lbs 6 oz and i think 21 inches unfortunately i don't have any pics to share of the baby because i havent' been able to go up and see her yet :( The funny thing is they named her Riley so now i have a neice and a nephew with that name, told them at least it'll be easy to remember haha. Here are a cpl pics of Jasmine with the girls.
Then on October 20 Kenna came home from playing at a friends house and was just crying because she had fallen off the swing and landed on her elbow. I looked at her arm didn't see any bruising or anything and she did let me move it a little so i figured ok just a typical kid injury and so i gave her some ibprofin for the pain and got her settled on the couch with an icepack watching cartoons. Now she was babying the arm and after the initial look didn't want me to touch it and kept saying it hurt, but this was completely normal behavior for her when kenna gets hurt she is overly protective of the injured area, a tiny scratch she will complain about and not let u touch up to a week later so i wasn't concerned til bathtime. Kenna has been bathing herself for a few months now and i asked if she wanted help and she told me no so i left the bathroom and a few minutes later i heard her in there just crying so i went to check and she was still standing by the tub with her clothes on going i can't take my shirt off my arm hurts too bad. So i helped her out of her shirt and that's when i noticed her elbow basically looked like it had a dimple in the side of it and had started to swell some so i decided we better get it checked out so after a quick wash up in the tub off to the hospital we went. They took X-rays and although they could not see a visible fracture there was alot of fluid in the joint and the orthopedist had said that in children that could be indication of a small crack that cannot be seen due to the swelling, and she was refusing the straighten her arm because of the pain (when getting her dressed after her bath her arm accidently fell almost straight and she screamed in obvious pain). So they put her in a soft cast and a sling with a follow up in 7 days. Luckily at the follow up there was still no sign of fracture so she was able to take off the soft cast and she completely freaked out because she was so scared it would hurt if she let her arm go straight, but by the next day she was fine and playing as normal. Here's some pics i took in the hospital, she's wearing a mask because of swine flu all children must be masked while in the hospital no matter what the reason, she's laying down because she was very tired, it was after bedtime by this time but she was a trooper!.
Then my girls have been begging for weeks to have their hair cut off. They both were sick of long hair and wanted short. I didn't mind because their hair gets so ratted it's always a cry fest in the morning to brush it out, short hair sooo much easier to take care of. Here are some pics of the before and after. On October 25 the girls had their first Primary program and both had speaking parts. They did a great job and it was so nice because my mom and dad were able to come up for the weekend and be there for them. Thanks mom and dad they loved having you there!!! Here's a pic of the kids taken that day, notice no glasses for Quade he is loving his contacts! I know it's not hte greatest picture of him but well he's a teenager now so he's got to "be cool" and hates photo ops lol

Last but not least we had Halloween. Kenna was a witch and Kayla was an Angel. Quade didn't dress up and didn't even go trick or treating this year, he had been sick on Thursday and Friday and still wasn't feeling great on Halloween so he opted to stay home. Me and the girls went to our wards trunk or treat and then went around a neighboring neigborhood.
I think that pretty much sums up our month! Whew i've really got to try and blog more often :) Hope i didn't bore you too much!! haha

So much to Blog.......So little time!

Hey everyone!! Yes we are still around and yes we have been up to things, just haven't gotten them posted so here they are!
On August 31 the kiddos went back to school. Quade 8th grade, Kayla 5th, and Kenna 1st grade. Yes for the first time in 13 yrs I have no kids home all day long. What by chance do i do with my time? Well for those that don't know on Sept. 1st i started a job, my first job in 11 yrs, thus the reason for no time for blogging! I am working at Walmart as a stockman/cart retreival, no it is not a fun job, yes it is extremely exhausting, i get home from work and i can barely walk and the next morning I literally crawl out of bed. On the plus side i'm paid for it, although not much lol, and 2 i have decided to look at this job as getting paid to work out, so instead of paying a gym i make money to get in shape, since in a typical full day i probably walk a total of over 10 miles worth, i plan on picking up a pedometer so i can figure out how many steps i actually take in a day (reverse psychology so i don't say to heck with this haha) Below are some pics of the girls on their first day, Quade took off before i could get a pic of him.....teenagers!Back to school time also means, football season!!! This is Quade's last year playing grid kid and next year onto school football. The season has been OK so far, they had a bye their first week then lost, won, then lost last game. Not the stellar season we looking for but 2-2 in standings due to the bye and we have high hopes for the next games coming up. Here are a few pics of him decked out in his football gear. Plus the team picture, i just love how they did the team shots this year at the fountain so much nicer then your typical line up in rows team pic....this isn't the professional pic just one i snapped with my phone while pics were being taken. If you would like to see the prof pics as well as some really great shots from the game visit www.zeldashouse.com, the gallery and then Eagle Rock Blue 8th grade...one of the mom's from our team is a photographer and she has gotten some great pics during the games. Quade is number 36.

The first week of September as usual we attended the Eastern Idaho State fair. We gorged on yummy fair food and rode the rides until our heads spun! And yes that is MaKayla riding the mechanical bull in the pictures below. Kenna was going to ride as well until she saw Kayla fall off and that scared her so she ran off crying because she was suddenly afraid. Note for next year if Kenna says she wants to ride she goes first, thankfully the guys were nice enough to refund her ride money.
I must not forget last week I took Quade to the eye doctor and he found out he can wear contacts. He is extremely excited, because now being a teen he hates wearing glasses and thinks he will be so much cooler without them (until this year this was never an issue). I just hope he really does like them because of with his eye problems contacts for him are extremely expensive and insurance will only cover 1/4 of the cost.
In other growing children news, today Makenna reached a milestone in all kids lives, the training wheels have officially come off of her bike and she's riding like a pro. We've tried taking them off before now but she was always too scared but today it was her idea to try without and off she went she seriously rides like they've been off for years not just a day and is extremely pleased with herself......my baby is growing up!
Last but not least, today the girls and I took Max and went to Bark in the Park, it's an annual day for dogs they have games, agility and obstical courses, Ask the vet and other fun booths all about dogs. I have to say as much of a terror Max is as home he is that perfect to take out in public. He listens very well, doesn't bark at anyone, sniffs and plays very nicely with other dogs, and will lay down quietly when told. The extreme opposite of Lexie, who is very well behaved at home and a terror in public, she whines barks, tries to fight with and basically does not like strange dogs that are close to her in size, can't sit still in that setting cuz of all her nervous energy wich is why she spent the day at home!

So there it is! I promise i will try and find more time to update more regurlarly again!

Yes it has been awhile!

It's been awhile since i posted, but there hasn't really been anything much to blog about lately! Sadly Katelyn left on July 5 to go down to Utah to spend a cpl weeks with her Great Grandmother and on the 13th we went down for the day to spend her 17th bday with her, then on the 18th she flew back home. It was really great having her here and we miss her very much and look forward to her return hopefully at christmas!

Since then we really haven't done much this summer. Most days are spent at home with a continuous stream of friends in and out of the house throughout the day. I'm really glad my kids have friends to spend time with but i'd be lying if i didn't say i can't wait for school to start so i can have some quiet time without lots of kids in and out all day haha Other then that we've gone up to rexburg a cpl times to play at the new splashpark they have there and even ventured to rigby lake for a afternoon.

Last week Football officially started. Yeah!!!!! I love football season, right now we are in the midst of 5 days a week practices but i enjoy it. Games start the week of the 25th and i absolutly cannot wait!!

Today was the annual Greenbelt Duck race and of course the girls and i went along with one of Kayla's good friends who is also named Kayla. There was a face painting booth and one of the ladies there was extremely talented and would do whole face animal faces. Kayla decided to be a tiger, Kenna a Jaguar, and friend Kayla was a cheetah. They turned out really awesome
After face painting and doing some art projects the girls took turns spraying a firemans hose and then we waited for the ping pong ball drop. A helicopter flies over and drops down hundreds of ping pongs red balls are worth a prize and white balls a treat, we happened to stand at the perfect spot this year and the balls were dropped directly on top of our heads so each girl were able to get a treat and a prize. Then Home Depot has a tent where each year they have a different wood projects the kids can do, this year it was a race track. The tent was very crowded so we brought our projects home for the girls to put together.
All in all it was a fun day, despite the fact that the weather was kind of chilly to begin with!

Fourth of July

This year the fourth of july wich is one of my favorite holidays anyways was even better since it was the first one we got to spend with Katelyn. Also we were joined by my sister traci and her hubby mike, and my mom and dad, and for brief moments tyson..........missed you amber, josh and paige.......well maybe not josh ;) hahaha j/k!!! As well scott's family was with us, including a surprise visit from my nephew jordan who has been in Utah spending time with his dad this summer.
We started out our 4th in the usual way with a yummy bbq at our house along with scott's family. Near the end of the bbq is when my parents arrived after the long drive up from St. George. After eating we escaped to the shelter of the house to avoid about a 10 minute downpour, but it cleared quickly and it was off to the river for the fireworks! Even though they don't start until 10 we always go over 4-5 hrs early just to hang out and wander around the river, to me that's as much fun as the fireworks themselves! Mom and Dad even walked the whole greenbelt, all 2 miles, you go guys!!!
Here are some pictures from the night, i don't have alot because well my camera accidently got left in the Durango and i never walked back to get it and our phones although take great daylight pics have no flash so once we lost the sun picture time was over. Some favorites are the one of the big bald guy snuggling a baby doll, that's one of scott's good friends john and somehow he managed to get him to pose with his daughters doll, the blonde in the picture with jasmine is his little girl ashley, can ya believe she's only 18 months old??
Traci and Mike met us before firework time and tyson stopped by briefly before off with his friends once again. Everyone had a great time, i just love the 4th here!!On Sunday we were suppose to go up to wyoming for Scott's company's summer party but we were all pretty wore out by all the traveling we have done lately and elected to stay home and i'm glad we did. First off we took the kids over to TSR to ride the go karts, something they'd been talking about for weeks before katy even got here. After gokarting we stopped by tauphus park to let the kids play for awhile and somehow a grass/pinecone/pineneedle fight broke out amongs scott myself and katy. It was alot of fun even though i was picking grass out of my bra for the rest of the day, thanks hun!!
When we got home, Jordan and Colleen came over to visit and wouldn't you know it a water fight broke out, i think this was about the 4th or 5th water fight to happen over the last two weeks, albiet the worse all party's involved were soaked, i got pretty wet at first but then being the smart one i am got my camera and used it as a very convenient excuse as to why they could not spray me no more :) It was too funny they were even going after colleen so she ran out and stood in the middle of the street so they couldn't reach her, good thing we don't get much traffic!

After all the water we feasted on yummy bbq ribs and baked beans. All in all a very good day. Then on Monday sadly we had to say goodbye to Katy :( scott had to take her to utah to spend a cpl weeks with her great grandma and other family members on her mom's side. It was great having her here and we miss her like crazy already!!!! I definately think she fit in very well with this crazy group!!

A Very Active Week

First of all sit back, relax and get comfy, this is going to be a long one with lots of pictures, hope it is enjoyable and doesn't bore you to tears :)
As i said in my last post, last weekend we went camping in island park and spent a cpl days going through yellowstone park speaking for myself i had a great time, i think Kayla and Kenna enjoyed themselves and Katy and Quade enjoyed day 1, i think they were over it by day 2 though haha. Below are some pictures from our time at the park.....my personal fave have to be the pictures of Quade and Katy all snuggled and asleep in the truck, who'd of thought the teenagers would wear out before the "old" parents!
After seeing old faithful, with apparently is what will always happen when the Squires go camping it starting to rain hard and continued gowing from a drizzle to a downpour back again for the majority of the rest of the evening after we got back to camp. That night we were all exhausted from the long day so everybody hit the hay at around 11 pm early for this group. Then about 15 minutes after we had all settled down and were beginning to drift off to dreamland Kayla and Quade had thought they smelt fire, wich was at first brushed off due to the fact we'd just had a campfire outside, then Kayla turned to Katy, i didn't hear her say this, and said what Katy thought was "fire under the bridge" and she thought she was saying something about a fire outside, but then she rolled over and noticed it was "fire under the fridge" After that all the kids starting yelling fire louder and i sat up and sure enough there were flames coming out from our 5th wheels fridge. In what is still surprising to me no one paniced and the kids moved away quickly and got out of the camper and scott was able to put the fire out with the fire extinquisher. No one was hurt thankfully and since it was so late at night we chose to stay even though everything had to be unhooked on the camper. What it seems to have happened is this was the first time we'd used our fridge on gas mode, and although it wasn't a propane fire the electrical switch that ignites the pilot seems to have overheated and caused an electrical fire. Monday we take it in to find out the full extent of the damage. This seems to be our luck, i forgot to mention in my lagoon post that while there scott was trying to manuever out of a tight spot and the trailor jacknifed too far and shattered the back window of his pickup, 2 claims in one week, i'm sure our insurance company is loving us by now!
Saturday, despite the fire we decided to continue with the plans of our second day at the park, but go home that night instead of staying til sunday morning like we'd origionally planned. And i'm glad we did for my first time of memory we acutally got to see bears in yellowstone! This day we had taken the small loop up to mammoth and when we got up there there was a group of ppl at the side of the road so of course we were scanning for whatever wildlife it might be and i noticed a black blur going around the hill but it was too quick of a glance to tell what it was. After we parked we went over to the group and a lady asked us if we'd seen the black and cinammon colored bears, but by the time we'd gotten out they had disappeared around the hill. So we went back to the parking lot and up to the trails around mammoth. Less then 5 minutes later we heard what sounded like a gunshot so everyone stopped and turned around and there was a park ranger on top of the hill and down came running the two bears. Apparently they had been heading toward the little town so the ranger had fired off a firework type flare to scare them in the other direction. It was the neatest thing to see, the little cinammon bear disappeared out of our view fairly quickly but the black bear was not having it, he rounded the hill and then stopped and stood up on his hind quarters looking around, it was the neatest thing to see, but unfortunately i have no pictures because my camera sucks and chose at that exact moment to not want to work. The rangers ended up having to fire off a second flare in order to scare him away. After we were done on the trail and went back to where we were parked we saw a park ranger and she told us that apparently the bears had ran straight through the parking lot where not 5 minutes before we had been standing so we narrowly missed a very close encounter with a wild black bear. I'm glad we saw it from a safe distance on a hill myself :)
After that we saw a mother bear and her two baby cubs, the pictures aren't great, cuz again, my camera sucks, xmas wish numero uno a new camera, so they don't look much more like black dots and smudges but we could actually see them alot clearer then the pictures show all in all i think we counted 7 bear that day.
On Sunday Scott's dad was able to come over to visit, he was in town for his class reunion and the timing couldn't of been more perfect since Katy was here as well and got to meet her Grandpa. While they were here we went over to the river and took some pictures of everyone and scott's mom even agreed to join us because scott didn't have any pictures of his parents together so they graciously agreed to take one for him :)
Then on Monday we packed up, yet again.......i've enjoyed the time with the family but i am so over packing for awhile......and headed up to Wyoming to spend the week with Scott since he had to get back to work. Alot of the time i know the kids as well as myself were bored, as is there isn't a whole lot to do up there and Scott has one roomate who works nights so they had to be very quiet during the day so that he could get some sleep. We did happen upon the Pinedale library and it is a very nice little library and they were doing some activities for the kids with puppets, putting on a show and then making puppets of there own, below the bottom right picture MaKayla is the puppet on the right, she did a small skit with another girl. The other pictures starting on the left showing how very big Max has gotten........oh side note, Lexi is prego due around the 25th of this month...... pictures of the kids playing in the very cold water of the lake, they only lasted about 15 minutes since the water was freezing. And the picture of Lexi this was really funny on thursday i was loading up some things in the car that we were no longer using to prepare for going home and i had gone inside to get some other things and apparently she wanted to go for a ride so bad she jumped into the trunk of my car and didn't want to get out. Lexi Loves going for rides.
Finally last but not least, hope i still have your attention haha. i had to include this final photo. Quade and Katy have had alot of fun wrestling around with each other almost daily these last 2 weeks and one day their wrestling got a little bit crazy and this was the result, Katy's knee or foot went through the wall, and so scott made her pose by her hole while he took a picture haha Now we are once again home sweet home, oh how i've missed you! And looking forward to the 4th of July festivities tomarrow!!