Fun out at Wagner's Farm in Corrales, NM

I was trying this smile box thing out!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

2009 NM State Fair and Balloon Fiesta

Naomi and A.J. playing a "No Lose" game at the fair.

On the opening day of Balloon Fiesta- Jason took the family to a place so that we could see the balloons but not have to pay to get into the actual Balloon Fiesta Park. This place turned out to be great!

One day we had preschool at the house and it was raining. The kids were all having fun watching the rain from Naomi's window.

Naomi asked me to take a picture of her and Tyler. They were chewing on really hard candy sour ropes. Tyler had so much blue drool coming from his mouth it was funny!

Our little Ty is growing up on us! He sits up now and can get up on his hands and knees by him self. He is able to get him self from the sitting position to the knees and vice versa. He will be crawling soon!

Daddy and Naomi were having fun riding the rides together at the fair. I just can't ride them anymore. I get really sick!

We were so proud of A.J. this year! He wasn't afraid to ride the rides. At least a couple of them! He screamed and cried last year when we tried to get him to ride the carousel but this year he loved it!

Tyler is now 6 months old!

Tyler turned 6 months on Sat. the 22nd! I can't believe how big he is getting already!

This is him along with his little friend Madison. She is only a little older than he is. He looks like a beast compared to her! Madison have siblings that are exactly the same ages as Naomi and A.J. They only live 2 doors down from us and so it has been a real blessing having these neighbors as close friends!

Tyler is starting to learn how to sit up. As you can see, the boppy pillow is great for this!

These past two weeks Tyler has already cut his 2 first teeth! They are on the bottom and look so cute! He hasn't even been fussy either which is amazing! He is truly our "Angel baby". He is hardly ever upset and is always in a cheerful mood. I just love him to pieces!!

Here is Ty learning how to eat baby food. He was gagging on that first day!

Bailey Hayes, Tyler Thurgood, Carter Martinez, and Isaac Montgomery

This was taken here at the house while hosting a recent baby shower for Sarah Hayes Montgomery and baby Isaac. It was so funny having the babies down for photos. Bailey and Ty kept holding hands and Ty kept pulling Carters hair. It seemed like each baby just grabbed some part of the baby who was laying beside it. Here in this one it actually looks like Bailey was grabbing what little hair Tyler has and Carter and Isaac are holding hands!

My New Preschool Classroom!!

Today was our first day of Preschool! Here are a few little "All about Me" books we made.

Selah Lopez (3 1/2 years)

Naomi Thurgood (3 1/2 years)

Matthew Lopez (2 1/2 years)

Madison Zarikta (2 1/2 years)

Anyse Provost (3 1/2 years)

All of these children live within 5 minutes walking distance from our home. It is so nice to have such wonderful new friends who live so close!

So cute!! They did so well on their very first day! Naomi just met Anyse today and she has already become a good friend! Maybe because she is wearing a dress that Naomi has too!

You notice that A.J. isn't in any of the photos. Well.....he didn't really want to have anything to do with all of this!! I guess he takes after me when it comes to school!

There are 3 other mothers involved in this group besides me. 3 of us teach and Anyse's mom plans out our snacks and field trips- which is a huge help!

We teach on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9:30 to 12 noon. Each week is a different mother. Also, each week is a new letter, number, theme, shape, and state. We are also trying to throw in there a little spanish and sign language. After today, I think we have too much going on!

We have a schedule we follow that includes learning , reading, singing, crafts, potty time, snack time, coloring, and playing.

Messy, Messy, Messy First Day!!

These are pictures of how I recently turned our loft- into a preschool classroom for the kids and our home school preschool group. The above photo is one that I took after our very first day of school! The room looked like a tornado hit it!

I bought most of all my preschool decor and storage boxes at Hobby Lobby. I love that store! I bought everything right before school started and so everything was on sale except for the photo storage boxes. These boxes are great for books, school supplies, crafts, and pretty much everything!!

The world and US maps were purchased from Costco for about $7.00 or so.

To save on money, I am using our small folding table and chairs. It works great!

I love this picture I did with A.J. and Naomi's hand prints and little Tyler's foot prints! How cute is that?!!

I plan on putting the ABC's & 123's up around the room as a border and also putting up a quote in the vinyl lettering. I'll get to that in my spare time! :-)

A.J. is Potty Training!

My friend Sherry has potty trained her 2 1/2 year old, and so I figured if he can learn- A.J. can too! So earlier this month I decided to go ahead and start potty training A.J. The first day was really hard. He had like 7 accidents. I put his little potty chair in the living room area and had him running around without pants on so that he would just get used to sitting on it. I had a jar of M&M's and I was ready to give him some as soon as he would go. I think he went at least once that day in the toilet. The next day was a little better with only about 4 accidents. By the 3rd day he was getting the hang of it!

Well around that 3rd day....I thought that I would be smart and put A.J.'s potty chair in his room while he took his nap. That way if he needed to go, he could get out of bed and go in his potty. (By this point he had never gone #2 in the toilet yet) So, I laid him down in his little bed without his underwear on so that he could take his nap. About 30 minutes after I had laid him down, I started smelling poo throughout the house. I kept telling Jason that it stunk in the house! I heard A.J. awake in his room and so I opened his door to lay him back down in his bed. To my surprise and disgust- he had gone poop in his little toilet, but then decided to play in it after wards!! The whole room was filled with poo! It was so gross!

I was so happy that he had gone in the little potty, but never again will I leave the little toilet in his bedroom during nap time!! Ewww!!

He is doing so good today! He will usually only have an accident if he is at someone else's home and we forget to take him potty. He hasn't quite caught onto taking his pants off himself. He goes to the bathroom at our home by him self all the time because we let him run around naked or with only his undies on! He hasn't yet had an accident at church or out in a public place. We have been really good at making sure we take him often when we go somewhere. I am really proud of him! I would have never thought he would have caught on so quick. I have heard horror stories about trying to potty train boys and that you aren't even suppose to start them until they are at least 3 years old.

Back Yard Landscaping and some other fun pictures!!

These are the "Before" pictures of how our back yard looked. There was only dirt and sand in the back.

We thought that we were going to tackle the yard ourselves so that we could save money and so we had all this dirt hauled in for our sod and the guys (Jason, Brandon, Spencer, and Lynn) shoveled it from the front driveway to the back one Saturday.

We got smart and said to heck with this!! We are hiring someone to come finish!

Our neighbor friends- Sherry and Bryan Lopez had a man come and quote their backyard. We liked what they were quoted and so we had the guy come look at our yard. He gave us the same quote and so we pretty much hired him on the spot. They started the work on a Saturday morning and finished that following Wednesday! We were just so excited to get it done so that we could enjoy our yard for the summer!

The above photo is where they were measuring an area off so that they could extend our patio with more concrete.

The finished product!! We are very happy with the work for the amount of money we paid. We got a smokin' deal!! 11 plants and shrubs, 3 trees, 4 boulder rocks, gravel, sod grass, and concrete for our extended patio.

We saved a small area of sand in the corner because the kids just loving playing in it!

I watched the Lund girls for a few hours while their mom did some chores around their house. They had fun watching Snow White, playing dress up, and running around in the sprinklers out side!

Mommy with the Ty bug! He is growing so fast! He is sleeping through the night, rolling over, and laughing all the time. I just love this little guy so much! At his 4 month check up, he was 15 lbs, and way above average in his height and weight (which did not surprise me) :-)

I have pretty much run out of milk for him and so he is taking formula in a bottle now. I only nurse when I "need" to. There really isn't much there to give to the poor guy!

On the 4th of July we went to the Natural History and Science Museum to see the dinosaurs!
We went with our neighbor friends: The Lopez family.
After wards, we went to a nearby park and had lunch together. It was a fun day.
I met Sherry Lopez at the park in our community one day. She and I were talking and
realized that they were having a home built that was only 2 doors down from ours and our
3 kids are exactly the same ages!! They have since then moved into their home and
we love to hang out with them. Sherry is a wedding planner and her husband is
really big into learning Theology. He has a huge Theology library in their home.
They have adorable children and we are glad they moved in!

The Thurgoods' at the 4th of July ward breakfast and bike parade!

Naomi and A.J.'s bikes had gotten stuck at this point.

A.J. is so funny. I try to teach him to pedal and he just doesn't want to!

Daddy and Ty wishing they had gotten more sleep this morning!

A.J. just loves his grandpa Lynn!

Jason recently took about 5 days off so that we could spend time together as a family.
On this particular day, we took the kiddo's to the aquarium and ate dinner inside where our table was right next to an area where we could watch all the fish, sting rays, and sharks swim by. It was a nice outing.

Okay....so this day I brought Naomi into my bathroom so that I could fix her hair before we left for the aquarium. She found my nursing pads on the counter and stuck them on her eyes saying they were glasses! I was laughing so hard and just had to take a picture! This will be one that I save for her future prom date or husband!!

TUMMY TIME!!!

This was the last family gathering we had before Spencer left on his mission for Panama City, Panama. The cousins (along with Lindseys friend) were playing a game of Balderdash.
We are so proud of and excited for Spencer!

I loving matching all the kids for church! Don't they just look so cute!

Naomi and A.J. helping mommy wash the van.

This is Naomi and A.J. with one of their little friends from church- Samantha. I have become good friends with her mommy, Ashley. Their family of 6 have recently moved into our community as well. It has been so fun making all these new friends!

Tyler's first time to try rice cereal. He has gotten much better at keeping it in his mouth!

A.J. at the park near our home. This was one of our park days that we occasionally attend with other friends.

Some last minute bonding between A.J. and Spencer before Spence left on his church mission to Panama. He will be gone for 2 years.

The kids playing in the sprinklers to beat the summer heat!