Halloween 2009

We made the voyage up to my parents house for Halloween this year. My mom and dad have never got to be around my girls for this holiday, and Jake was in Vegas, so we went up there. I was really worried that Teya wasn't going to wear anything, because everytime I tried to put something on her, she FREAKED OUT!!!! She kept telling everyone that she wanted to be a "Dumbo" (elephant), so I called my mom and had her try to find an outfit. I honestly think that she thought Halloween was something she got and she was going to get a toy Dumbo. But luckily, I got her in one of Tai's old dance costumes (cheapest was to go).

I still can not believe how pretty Tai looks in this picture! She and I had been going rounds about this costume too. It was a costume that I had worn when I was a little girl. It is a genie. Well it has a tube top, and I told her she had to wear something under it or she wasn't wearing it. Knock down-drag out after knock down-drag out, she finally decided that wearing something under it was ok!!

For trick or treating, we went down to my sister Lacey's neighborhood. They have tons of houses right there together. That meant we got to go with the cousins.

Hillarious

I know that I have other things that I should be blogging, but my friend Suz sent me this and I though I would share it with the world!!!! Go Cougars!!!

Waking up

This is what I was woke up to at 6:00 am this morning. How cute is that? My body must have known that I was missing a photo opportunity and it knew to get up!!! LOL

I have been pretty amazed with how smart Tai has gotten the last little while. Here's why:
1-My brother Dustin gave her a DVD called Letter Factory for Christmas last year. She has watched it a couple times over the year, nothing serious. We got it out a while back and she watched it a couple times on a trip to Vegas. Well now she can tell you what sound each letter makes. I am in awe! If that wasn't cool enough that she picked that up all on her own thanks to that DVD (go get it everyone!), but now when she says words, she is starting to figure out what letters are in that word, due to the sounds that word makes. She tries to figure out what letter that word starts or ends with, and also what other letters she can hear in the middle. She has been doing this for a couple months, which means she was doing this when she was 4. What???? I don't think I even knew what a letter was at 4, let alone what sound each letter makes. Kids just keep getting smarter and smarter at earlier ages!!! You go TAI!!!!

2-She has become a walking encyclopedia on Dinosaurs. The other night we were out to grandpa and Grandma Quarnbergs and she was telling them all about dinosaurs. They couldn't belive it. Not only can she tell you the names of the dinosaurs (even I can't do that, those are hard to say and remember), but she can tell you if they are omnivores, herbivores, or carnivores (huge words), and how to tell the difference between those three, how big each dinosaur is, what their preditors or prey are (huge words again), how fast they can run, if they migrate, how they protect themselves from other dinosaurs, how their bones got to be fossils and on, and on, and on. It is actually pretty cool. She is now telling us that she wants to be a Paleontologist and dig up a “whole dinosaur” with a hammer, chizzel and a brush. I just love it!! Keep dreaming big sweetheart and someday we will see you out on a dig site, digging up your very first WHOLE DINOSAUR!!!!

Tai at a BYU game

Tai has been asking Jake and I to take her to a BYU game, so we bought one of Aaron & Suz's extra tickets and we took Tai. She LOVED it and has been asking to go back. I even got her a BYU shirt to wear. The guys and the girls had to split up because we only have 4 seats right by eachother. I sent Tai to sit with Jake, and here is what I kept looking over to see: He would hold her high up in the air and she would dance.

My little BYU girl:

Sitting with daddy:

Suz and her kids, Payton & Addie:

When we were walking back to the car, Jake kept right on holding her high in the air, and she just kept on dancing and shaking it:

BYU Quarnberg Girls

Jake ended up having to work for one of our home BYU Football games!! I know it was like against all we stand for, but hey, it happened. So at the last minute I needed to find someone to go with me, so I asked Mal. She said "Yes" and away we went. We had so much fun together. I kept grabbing her arm and throwing it in the air to help me cheer for the BYU Cougars, she even bought herself a cougar shirt, there is no turning back now!! She and I had a great time together!!! Thanks for going with me Mal and having a fun girls day!!! I am so glad that you are my sister!!!! Now I have someone to help me put up with all these Quarnberg boys!!!

Tanner's homecoming game

I decided this year, that the girls and I were going to be FESTIVE for Tanner's last homecoming game. (Yeah, he is a senior!! Sad huh? I met him on his fifth birthday-Jake brought me from college to meet all his family at Tanner's family birthday party, sniff, sniff!!! My how time flies, now he is all grown up!) Anyway, we went out to my mother in law's house to see if she had any of the right colors!!! I can always count on her to come through for me, so that I didn't have to go spend $2.00 on tole paint!!!! Man that would have been a tragedy. :) :) Mal and Karter were out there, so they joined in on the fun and this is how we all turned out:

Teya wouldn't let me paint her face, so she got some on the back of her hands!
karter sat so still.

Tai loved every minute of it!

At the game, Karter loved watching all the boys warming up! I was glad I caught it in a picture how excited he was.

And then there were my two little cheerleaders! Tai and Teya were dancing all over the place, loving all the attention. Imagine that!

I have wanted to get a picture of this for quite a while. Pretty cool!

That time of year again

When the leaves start to change and the weather gets a little chilly-we know it is time to bring the cattle home. I love, Love, LOVE the fall, and pretty much everything that comes with it, other than the super cold weather.

The "Round-Up" week started out with an overnight camping trip up to the Grazing Pasture with daddy. He was going to be getting up really early to get his horse saddled and get ready to meet all the other Cowboys, but we were on strick orders to just hang out and have fun when we woke up. Of course my little Teya was the first up and had to go potty. So out of the really warm bed and out into the really cold morning. That had done it for me. I got the girls up, cleaned up our bedding and into the truck we went to head home. As I was closing the last gate on our way out, I turned around to this picture!!! Gorgeous!!!! I got feeling a little bad for Jake since he was going to be staying in the trailer all week and it was FLIPPIN' cold up there so we ended up driving back up there the same day to bring him an electric space heater (which he said "SUCKED"-and didn't help)! But we were lucky enough to catch the guys right after lunch and so the girls got to go on a horse ride:I know that I am a little biased, but gosh my cowboy is darn cute!!! The girls DID NOT want to get off Arizona. They love to ride horses!!!

Matching Cousins

The last time we went up to my mom's, she suprised all the girls with matching jammies. They were so darn cute. Thanks Grandma!!!

Quarnberg Punkin' Patch

It was Kendall's birthday last weekend, so we ALL got together. Not to many times in a year are all the Quarnbergs & Grandma Whicker there for a picture. So I made everyone stay for a quick snapshot, thanks to timers on cameras. Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Tanner have had a really nice garden this year. They have had Kipp help them do a lot of cement around it and they built up with rail road ties for the garden. So while we were all together, Grandma wanted all the grandkids to go out and pick a pumpkin. The kids all loved it and Grandma was so excited that she grew them!

Teya picking her pumpkin

Grandma cutting each of the pumpkins off:

Once again, none of the kids wanted to look at the camera, but we had to document each of their pumpkins that they picked!

Grandma cutting out Tai's pumpkin.

Sunday afternoon when it's cold outside

This is what the girls wanted to do after confrence on Sunday. They got out their rubbermaid full of stuffed animals and covered daddy! They thought it was so much fun!

Running back and forth to bring the animals out of their room.

My parents call Teya a little bunny rabbit because she always does this with her arms. yes, that is daddy under there!

Nasty Note:

A couple weeks ago I talked to one of the Salina City workers and was told that we were sent a letter (that i hadn't got yet) about our weeds. I was told that we had so many days to take care of them before we were to be sent a VERY strongly worded letter and then an officer would be sent over to our home to cite us. I was stunned and asked, "you will send an officer over to give me a ticket for my weeds?" She said yes! What the crap??????!!!!!!??????? So a little tid bit for many of you that don't know that we moved to Salina and bought an older home and fixed up. We have been living here since the middle of July and have done quite a bit of work to it. Got the front and back yard looking nice and green and mostly weed free! Our neighbors had been taking care of the yard for quite some time, so it didn't need a lot of work, just daily TLC!!! We have a total of about 3/4 of an acre but most of that is fenced off in the back. Well, those are the weeds that they were having a fit about, the ones in the very back. So here are some pictures of it- Yeah, they were big and out of control, but I am only one woman. I can only do so much when my husband is gone A LOT!!!! But whatev!!!!!

So the below picture is what our house looks like now that we have done some updating. Still a work in progress, but see where I put the arrow? That is where the weeds are. Do you see them? Well, they are kind of hard to see from the road. That is why we were a little baffled at our note!!! Apparently the other kinds of people that got these "nasty notes" are the ones that have all sorts of CRAP in their yards. You know the kind with 7-8 broken down cars, old strollers, broken kids toys, rubbermaids stacked 4 or 5 high, and all sorts of unimaginable junk. So you can now call us the trash of Salina!!!! Here is what they look like up close. I know a bit large and in charge:After the "note" Jake decided to try and mow them over!!! Let's just say, lawn mowers are not meant for that type of work! Our kind friends even loaned us their goats to help with the weed infetestation! The girls love having them back there. They get to pet and hang out with the goats! It is kind of funny. We just moved from the perfect place to have pets and we never had one, now we live in the city and have a cat and 2 loaner goats!

While Jake was away:

I loved it when the girls wanted to talk to Jake on the phone. I especially loved it when Teya talked to him, this is what she looked like:I think we were the only ones out for a walk the day it rained. The girls had so much fun with their umbrella's. Thanks grandma Paula for those!!!!

Teya's hair looked so funny/cute this day, so we sent a picture of it to Jake!

Tai has been blowing bubbles for a couple of years now, but she still wants me to watch every one of them that she blows!!! Good job Tai!

Preschool starts

While we were gone to Las Vegas, Tai missed the first two days of preschool. But when we got back, she was ready to go. So here she is on her first day of school!

Vegas with kids???

Well I attempted it!!! Not going to say that it was a TOTAL loss, but it was kind of a wreck. I had asked my parents if they wanted to go to Vegas with me and the girls so that we could go see Jake. (He works down there for two weeks at a time, and we were kind of missing him). I got rooms for $25 a night at the South Point and we headed down. First off Tai was fine, she was the easy one, but Little Janie Bop was OUT OF CONTROL!!!! She would lay down at any given moment and just cry, wanted to go where she wanted and if everyone didn't like that, she screamed (total two year old)! The only thing that made her happy was swimming and riding the escalators (over and over and over and over).

Here are a couple pictures of our happy trip:

We finally got the girls to ride in the stroller together. I guess at some point you just need to break down and buy a double stroller. It was a contstant battle with us and the Shaws, they had a double stroller that EVERYONE wanted to ride in, at the same time!!! But we managed, good thing for taking turns-Thanks Misty for sharing! We took the kids to F.A.O Schwartz (huge toy store) and let them each pick a toy. The three oldest girls all picked the same thing-a Barbie car that came with two Barbies. The girls thought they were so big so carry their own bags around.

Teya of course headed right for the stuffed animals. She had her heart set on a pink "Dumbo" (elephant) until she saw the horses. Then she changed her mind, but as soon as we left, she wanted the elephant! I kept trying to talk her into something Barbie, I know my girls a little to well and knew they were going to fight over the car and barbies, but Jake told me to just let her get what she wanted. Boy was I right! I ended up going back there on the way out of town to get another Barbie car, I was tired to hearing them fight! I am a sucker, I know, but you can only handle so many fights a day!

My mom went to Express and bought some clothes and that entertained Teya for a while,she tried on the shirt and showed it off. We went to eat and my girls were so loud and bouncing all over the place. Misty and Braydan's girls were so well mannered, and just sat there. Sorry again guys for the distraction!

The day we arrived in Vegas, Teya was so tired, so lucky for me, my mom and dad stayed at the hotel to let her have a quick nap until Jake and Braydan finished up work and then they came and met us. With a little alone time, we headed to the M&M Store. Tai was in heaven. It was kind of fun to let Tai pick out her favorite colors of M&M's and also to pick out some for her sister. But be WARNED!!!!! There is not a sign that states exactly how much those M&M's are. UUUMMM!!!$12.99 a pound!!!! What the flip??? Well luckily we only had about a pound and a half!!! it cost me around $17.00. Only in Vegas right? But on the flip side of all this we spent that much money on M&M's just to have them get water logged in the cooler on the way home!!

We went to see the Shark Encounter! It was fun and the kids all loved it! I even gave my parents a night off to go do their own thing since Grandma Snell and Uncle Alan had come down to Vegas too!


Outside the shark encounter there just had to be stuffed animals. Teya jumped at the opportunity to get a bunch of matching aligators together. She even tried to get me to buy all these for her.
Country family in the BIG city!!!
Thanks again Dad and Mom for going with me and helping me with the girls when Jake was at work. Even though it was a little stressful, we still had fun-thanks to you both!!!! I Love you!!!

The girls having fun out of the strollers!

Teya getting to do just what she wanted: up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, well you get the picture!One last picture before we headed back home! We love you Jake and sure miss you when you are gone. We were glad to come see you for a couple days!

In the words of Suz...

I got on my friend Suz's blog this morning and my eyes watered so much from reading her take on what happened this last weekend at our first home BYU game. We have season tickets with some of our best friends Aaron & Suz Shaw and we ALWAYS have a good time, no matter the outcome of the game. So I stole her whole blog, she just put it all in the right words:

Cougar Post-Game Round-Up

So, if you haven't heard, BYU lost on Saturday to Florida State, at home. BYU not only was ranked #7, but had not lost at home since 2005, so needless to say, it was a huge disappointment.

Luckily, we have some great friends who know how to have a good time, no matter what.

We have made it our little "tradition" to have our tailgates AFTER the game because traffic is horrible getting out of Provo. We figure, better to sit and hang out in the parking lot and enjoy some food and fun while the traffice clears out, than sit in the traffic and get home about the same time.

Now, let me tell you a little bit about Jake....he is a real cowboy. Up until a few months ago, he lived on a ranch, worked on a ranch, and played on a ranch everyday. He herded cows up the mountain with horses every Spring on horseback, and about this time every year (probably in a week or two) he herds the cows back down the mountain to the ranch for the Winter. The heffers have babies, they auction of the good ones, and start all over again.

He still helps at the ranch, but now mostly sells cowboy gear. Seriously, the real stuff...boots, hats, shirts, buckles, saddles, the spiky things you wear on your heels to poke the horses (spurs?! And another piece I can't remember...) and all of that fun stuff! (Remember, I'm a California girl...the closest we got to horses were the Cleisdales at Sea World).

Anyway back to my point, Jake is the REAL deal. And don't worry, he was probably the only guy at the game wearing a cowboy hat and boots with his BYU shirt, and it was awesome. And to boot, (no pun intended) he had a LASSO in the truck.

So, naturally, we played the classic game of Cowboys and Heffers.

Now Aaron is from the country, and it is true that you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy, so he was pretty excited. Jake showed him how to prep the lasso,

Then Aaron tried to round up Jake (unsuccessfully)

Then Jake showed us how it was done and called his "heffer" over (seriously, called his wife a heffer, which, as you can see, is totally off base, so he can get away with it.) Anyway, I wish I had my camera ready when he caught her, because not only did he get her, he got her around the ankles and she about went face first into the asphalt!! That would have been sad, but forunately, she only suffered a little rope burn around her arm, so we laughed hysterically for a long, long time. Here was after she got back on her feet, but before Jake helped her out

Thanks, guys, for all of the laughs! Jake, glad you didn't get a ticket...and, Tiff, I am so glad even with two kids a piece, we are still desirable to the old men at gas stations working the counter.

And, Cougars, let's rope up the Rams.

Max, please throw to the boys in blue. O'Neil, hold on to the ball. And Jan, do not touch the ball. Do what you do best and pound the Rams and the ball into the ground.

If you can all do those things, you will win the game, and we can all celebrate without Jake trying to tie up his wife in the parking lot.

I thought I better post a picture of the rope burn that I endured all in the name of "fun". I am just glad that I didn't recieve road rash all over, because I seriously thought that was my fate this time as the "heffer"!!!!! Thanks Aaron & Suz for all the laughs and good times, there is never a dull moment when we are together. And thank you mom and dad AKA "Nell" for watching the girls for us so we could go and have a blast!!!

You guys are the best- Thanks for being our friends, even though we are the biggest dorks ever!!!Had to hurry and throw this picture in. Our two guys love to watch the Cougars warm up. And I really think Jake was about the only person there in a cowboy hat!!!

Teya Jane

I am still a little behind on all of my posts from this summer, but I came across this picture from the 4th of July up to camp Shalom, and I just had to hurry and post it because it was one of my fav's from this year. She is definitely my challenge child, but I just love her so much! She is always making me smile and upset in the same moment. I rarely have a photo where she is looking at me and smiling, but I guess if this is what I get when I ask for a picture of her looking at me with sort of a smile, I will take it!!!

"OH MY GOSH"

Yes, ESPN that is what we say in Provo!! I had to laugh at the comentators when they said that! And yes, we are all thinking WOW!!!! I must admit, this was one of those games where I got so flippin' frustrated that I almost changed the channel for a second to calm down, but I DIDN'T!!!! Our Coug's came out on top of a HUGE GAME!!! Anyone with a heart, is feeling a little bummed out for Oklahoma's starting quarterback, that really sucks! But another one of those "I gotta admit" moments, I was a little uncomfortable watching their freshman quarterback with his "Chester the Molester" moustache. Sorry, just not a huge fan of those, they creap me out a bit!!!! But back to COUGARS--Yahoo for you!!!!!!

Camping again

We decided to head back up to the trailer one more time before Jake headed out of town for two weeks to work in Vegas.
Here is our humble little camp spot. We haven't quite got all the fixin's of die hard campers, but it works and it is so fun! This picture that Tai took reminds me of a little old couple sitting on their porch. The grandpa is asleep (Jake just had his eyes closed) and the grandma just watching what is going on:

Tai loves to be in pictures!

The girls and daddy throwing rocks in the creek. Daddy accidentally threw Tai's "favorite" rock in the water, so he had to go help find it.

Goofing off:

Every rock that Tai found was "so pretty" and she was going to take it home to show her friends. She ended up bringing home like 10 rocks!

Teya just loves to explore and throw rocks. Tai would bring one to me to save and Teya would grab it and before you knew it, she was throwing it in the water!!!

Cousins

We all got together to celebrate Kempton's 5th birthday party and of course since all the kids were together I wanted to get a picture. We are very seldom ALL together, so these photos are rare! And once again, photographing kids is never an easy thing trying to get them all to look at you for one split secont. But look how cute the Quarnberg grandkids are!