Chidester Life

A Busy Easter Weekend

2009-04-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

We had a great, busy Easter weekend.
Friday morning Snowflake had its annual Easter Egg Hunt. I read about it in the paper and everyone was talking about it so my kids insisted we go. It was really windy (when isn't it?). The event was held at the golf course where they divided it up by age group. I took Mason over to the 1-2yr old section. They blew the whistle and they were off! More like the moms were off. You wouldn't believe the site, moms and dads pulling their 2 year olds by the arm trying to get as many eggs for their tots as they could. I spotted one pre-teen boy gathering as many as he could in his shirt to give to his little sister. It took all of my will not to yell at him. Meanwhile Mason is hunting at his slow, 2 year old pace. I wanted him to be able to hunt on his own and find his own eggs, to be a "big boy". Well, he didn't get very many because of it. My feelings, parents shouldn't be allowed past the "go" line. Let the kids hunt. Not the parents for their kids. Ok, that's the end of that rant. They need to put me in charge of this event next year. ;)

Here he is with his 5 glorious eggs! (I'm not bitter)

Saturday, April 11th was Parker's birthday! He's 5! He's been telling averyone he's 5 for the past 3 months so its now official! He figured he was as tall as his 5 year old friends, so it only makes sense that he is 5 too. We made him a tire cake. LOL! I say we because Josh actually helped me on this one. While I was putting the layers together part of the cake broke. I was really frustrated and ready to throw it all away but Josh insisted he could fix it. So I let him. He grabbed his putty knife (he cleaned it off first of course) and treated the cake like it was drywall. At it worked! Remember I said a while back that I'm sick of the fact that he can do almost anything?? Well, he pretty much can. But I will never let him touch my hair again.

Sunday morning the Easter bunny came leaving the kids great baskets of treats and toys. The bunny made a HUGE mess, leaving a trail of grass all over the floor. I'm still vaccuming it up. I think next year I'll lock the door. Sunday night we had dinner at a friends house and had an Easter Egg hunt there with their kids. Fewer kids+more eggs equals better luck. Some of the plastic eggs were camo colored so those were a little harder to find.

So thats our weekend! Hope yours was a happy one!

Knock on wood, Liz!

2009-03-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

I forgot to knock on wood last week when I told Josh's step dad that our family hasn't been sick in a long time. Guess what? Yep, Mason is sick! He has a horrible cough, runny nose and fever. Poor little guy! He is napping now. Has been for more than 3 hours. On the bright side, he's very mellow so there's a lot less cleaning up to do around the house.

A Funeral and an arch

2009-03-24T12:33:00.000-07:00

We got back home last night from a quick trip to Utah. A good friend of ours, Susann Allred (Suzie) passed away on Wednedsay. We've known her and her husband Les for almost 10 years. They have 10 kids together and they were such an awesome couple. During their last few years together, the two were inseperable. If you saw Les, you saw Suzie. Little did they know that sharks were swimming around in her brain. She died of a brain anurism. Suzie was great. She reminded me a lot of my mom. Her kids and grandkids were her joy. Always tending her grandkids and just as sweet as can be.
Les asked Josh to sing at the funeral and he did. He sang "In this Life" by Collin Raye. He did an amazing job. I was astounded at how much better he sounded in a microphone. I didn't think he could ever sound better. He played his guitar along with it and missed a cord, that bothered Josh but it really didn't matter. People came up to him afterwards and asked him if he was famous. LOL! That made Josh's day.

Our route home took us right through Moab. We couldn't just drive by without going to the Arches National Park. Josh and I have been there before when Kenzie was just a baby but you can never see too much of this beauty. The scenery is absolutey amazing!

Here we are with the Delicate Arch in the distance. We couldn't hike up to it because it was a little chilly for the kids. Plus, we had the dogs with us and pets are not allowed on the trails.

Delicate Arch

More photos in the park:
I think they call these "windows".

These are the La Sal Mountains in the distance.

Gotta Go To Work

2009-03-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

So Parker's new phrase is, "I gotta go to work.'' He and a few other little boys in the neighborhood are building a "club house" 2 doors down at his friends' house. They're gathering old wood, breaking down wood pallets and they even found tons of nails down in the wash behind our house. (Even though he's not allowed to go down there). Its crazy how much they've built! I'm a little worried because they're building a roof over it too and I'm so afraid its going to cave in on them. So here's my dilama...Do I let boys be boys and just let him have his fun -I mean work- or do I put my foot down because its a little dangerous?
Yesterday he came home looking like Pig Pen, even with dirt in his nose! I say, let him just have fun. Josh says, no its dangerous. What a switch, right?? Josh and his brothers were hellians doing things 10 times worse! You'd think he'd think different.
Hopefully Parker will lose interst and move onto something else soon.

Chidester family Update

2009-03-05T09:20:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since I updated our blog. Lets see...whats new. Well today is Kenzie's birthay. She's 10! I CANNOT BELIEVE I am old enough to have a 10 year old. This morning I sent her to school with a giant choc chip cookie to share with her class. She was so excited!

She requested a basketball cake so I made her that too. (That did not turn out so super amazing so I won't show you that)

Some of you know we got a couple horses. A family in our ward gave them to us. We have a fenced corral next to our house anyway. They are so beautiful.
This one is Blaze. He's 2 years old and a bit of a knot head, we just need to work with him more.

And this is Oopsy. She is 11 and Blaze's mom. She's really sweet and really easy going. She'd even let you hop on her back and ride bare back if you wanted. She's also REALLY pregnant. Probably ready to give birth next month. That'll be interesting for us!!

A family of 6, two dogs and 2 horses. We're just one BIG happy family!

Fun's Over

2009-02-25T08:21:00.000-08:00

Well the fun of a puppy is over. The kids no longer do their duties to help. No cleaning messes, no carrying it around, no playing with her! The puppy has started nipping at their feet so all they do is run from her. She still yaps each night, and she prefers to pee on the carpet instead of the dirty outdoors. Oh what to do!

Puppy Love

2009-02-16T09:38:00.000-08:00

Meet our new puppy Oreo. I don't know what breed she is, a mixture of a few I think. She's a really sweet dog and the kids love her. It's a little difficult having a puppy. We are working on potty training and she cries at night. But I think she's getting comfortable here. Even Sunny has stopped growling at her.
Look at how cute she is:

Mason even held her for a while. Yes, he likes to touch animal's eyes and he squeezed her a little too hard but the puppy's fine. She loves to be held. Sidney carries her around all day like she's a baby. She even puts her Build-a-Bear clothes on her. Its really cute.

Its hard work to have a puppy but I'm making sure the kids help out. They put Oreo down for her "nap", they clean up the messes and take her out to go potty.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!
Last night we had a basketball practice for Makenzie's team but Josh forgot to get the key to the gym (he's the coach) so we brought back the whole team to our house for a little Valentine's party. We had pizza, watched a movie and decorated cookies. These girls are not only good at basketball, they're also really creative! Check out their creations:

And one of the taste testers. I think he approves.

Mason is 2!

2009-02-02T08:07:00.000-08:00

This is a few weeks late since Mason's birthday was on Jan 18th, but better late then never, right?

My baby has turned 2! He's such a big boy that it feels like he's been 2 for a while now. He's such a big boy that people who don't know us well ask if he's a little slow developement-wise because they think he's at least 3 and should be talking like a 3 year old. (Yes, someone has said that to me.) They are always surprised and apologize when I tell them he's not even 2 yet.

Here's him on his big day!

He even blew out his own candles! I was so surprised!

He loved his birthday and has been singing the birthday song ever since. Mason had some serious issues when he was born so it is an understatement to say how happy and blessed I am to celebrate 2 wonderful years with this little guy. And many many many many many many more!

Lots more birthdays to come...
Josh- Feb
Kenzie- March
Parker- April

What was I thinking????

2009-01-27T06:44:00.000-08:00

You know the saying "never mess with a good thing"? Or how about "don't try this at home". Or even the one "your husband can't do everything"
I didn't listen to this advice! I was looking at my hair on Friday thinking that my highlights have grown out a little. My mother-in-law is the one that does my highlights for me. She's licensed and she's great at it. I have all the colors and supplies here at the house for when she comes to visit. Well, my husband insisted if I have all the supplies here, then he could do it for me. I stupidly said "ok" and called my mother-in-law to get the right ratios to mix the color. She warned me it wasn't a good idea but once again I didn't take the advice. The idea was to do a few streaks of blonde and a few red.
Here's what happened:

Ya, that's not the lighting, it turned orange! The whole top of my head was orange! Sidney whispered to Kenzie, "I don't want mom to go to the basketball game tomorrow because everyone will think she smokes". Too funny.
So after emailing that pic to my mother-in-law she advized me of what color I needed to go buy to cover up this mess.
Here's how I look now:
Not bad but not good either.

And here's what I looked like 5 days before this fiasco:

A big thanks to my mother-in-law, Sheila and to L'Oreal Preference color Ash Blonde 7A for covering up my problem, though I shouldn't have gotten into such a mess in the first place.

Lesson Learned!

2009-01-16T07:31:00.000-08:00

Here's a LO I did from a Pagemap sketch. The theme is something sweet. So naturally I chose my sweet little Parker. (Yes all my kids are sweet but he's the cuddliest).

Christmas 2008

2009-01-10T12:05:00.000-08:00

I know you are all wondering where the heck we are. Sorry. Life was really crazy with the move and all the new changes. We like our new town, Taylor. Everyone is really nice. And its so nice to have Josh home each night. The girls like their schools and their teachers are great. This is the first time the girls went to different schools. Sidney goes to Taylor Elem (grades K-3). Kenzie goes to Taylor Intermediate (grades 4-6). But they still ride the same bus. Parker has his interview for preschool next Friday and we are crossing our fingers!
We spent Christmas in Utah this year. The kids and i got to stay for 10 days while Josh had to back to work for a few days. This was one of my best trips home yet. We stayed busy visiting family, going to the movies, girls night, date night, play dates, sledding, shopping, and much more. Here are some highlights:

Sidney's Christmas concert:

Christmas morning:

Visiting Family:

Grandma Chidester

Of course Josh and Jamison had to jam their guitars a little

My oldest brother, Dave's birthday. Can we say "over the hill"?

Cousins:

And of course we were able to enjoy all of that wonderful Utah snow

There is so much more but my computer is so slow right now. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and happy new year!

Sidney's Baptism

2008-11-16T19:32:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday (Nov 8th) Sidney was baptised! We are so proud of her for making this decision. I can't believe she's old enough! Time flies. We had a really good turn out at the program. I looked back at who was attending and I saw several little girls with their moms. It was so cute. Pete's family came from eastern Arizona (we got to see their new adorable baby Thomas), my dad came from Utah and Josh's mom and step dad came from Utah too. Sheila of course made a yummy brunch for everyone afterwards. We have such a good ward. We love them all. It's so great to know that no matter where we move to (or how often) we always have a ward family. We're never alone. What a comforting feeling. I feel truly blessed.

And of course I have lots of pictures...

She looked beautiful in her white dress

Grandpa loving his grandkids

Josh and Sid

Sid with her nana

Proud parents

I'm A Sister!

2008-11-09T11:34:00.000-08:00

I submitted a layout for a challenge on Sisterhood Of Scrap and I was chosen to be sister of the week. I feel so honored since I have been following this site for quite some time but finally decided to enter a challenge. Check it out and leave a comment!
http://sisterhoodofscrap.blogspot.com/

Halloween

2008-11-02T10:07:00.001-08:00

Halloween started with a little halloween parade at Parker's preschool. They were all so cute!

Then we carved pumpkins. Parker was so funny. He was talking to his pumpkin saying, "Its ok pumpkin. I'm just going to cut your head off, ok?" Then he didn't want to put his hand inside the pumpkin to gut it because he thought it would bite him. So Sidney gutted it for him.

Then is was time to dress up and go trick-or-treating. Mason finally let me put his monkey costume on.(Though not the head). Makenzie was a bat and Sidney was a chic diva. They could hardly wait till 6:30 when dad got home to treat-or-treat.

Bringing home the loot!!

And my favorite pic of all...(it reminds me of Ralphie on A Christmas Story)

In Search of the Great Pumpkin

2008-10-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

Maricopa has one pumpkin patch in town. And all the pumpkins were really good ones. Josh and I were picking out nice pumpkins saying, "this one's perfect". -Trying to speed the kids' choices up. Parker picked up a pumpkin and said "this one's perfect." We laughed so hard because it looked like a flat butt. And it was probably the worst one in the patch. We should have got a pic of it.

A Binki-Free Life

2008-10-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

We are on our way! Today is Day 4 of a binki-free life. I made up my mind that Monday was the day I would wean Mason off of the pacifier. He was way too attached and of course way too old for it. It hasn't been easy but it's getting better. Day 2 was propably the worst. He had been asking for his "bee" since the day before and I just kept telling him no. He finally looked at me and said as clear as day, "I unt my binki." As if I hadn't understood him before. He has never pronounced binki right before. It was so cute. But not cute enough to give in. Today he is happy and smiling and hasn't asked for it once. I am so proud of that little bugger.

Shnepf Farms

2008-10-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

On Friday we picked the girls up for school and headed for the Arizona State Fair. But then someone told us about a farm in Queen Creek that has pumpkins, rides, food, music and much more. So we went there instead. We had a blast! The kids' favorite part was the "spooky train ride". The train takes you around the farm and into a short stretch of woods where real life ghosts and monsters jump out at you and scream, making Parker jump every time. Mason just looked at these people like, "what's with you?" Everyone had so much fun!
I took these pics with my smaller digital camera because I thought it'd be easier to carry around. I wish I hadn't. They didn't come out as well.

They even had grown up tricycles. They were so much fun!

Mason on the carosel. Every pic of him he has a binki in his mouth! I'm so tired of it. My goal is MONDAY!! I take it away on Monday. Wish me luck!

Checking out the pumpkins...

Josh and Mason watching the blue grass band. At one point Mason got down and boogied all around. He is a dancin fool.

The kids got their faces painted. They turned our really cute.

Najavo Nation

2008-10-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

The kids and I went up to stay with Josh for a week on the Navajo Nation reservation (it was the kids' fall break). There wasn't a whole lot to do but we brought all of our bikes and did a little sight seeing. The country is beautiful out there!
During our visit to the red rocks (in the pics)I got the truck stuck in the sand and couldn't get it out. I was so scared and worried. We walked out to the main road where I flagged down the next car and a nice lady gave us a ride back to Josh's job site 15 miles away. (I was crying like an idiot by then). Later Josh and a co-worker headed out to rescue the truck. I asked him how he got it out, did he pull it? And he said, "I drove it out." I swear I tried that!! I didn't know where the 4W drive was. Now I know.

D-Backs Game

2008-10-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

Josh and I got to go to the Diamond Backs vs Colorado Rockies game last weekend with the Young Men and Young Womens. I was called to be an advisor in the Young Womens. Yay! So now I get to follow along when the ward does fun stuff like this. I know the D Backs won but couldn't tell you the score. Too busy chatting to pay attention.

This doesn't do the fireworks show justice at all. It was awesome! I need to do some research on taking good pics at night.

The stadium. Don't ask me what it's called...I told you I wasn't paying attention.

Us!

I'm Bragging I know...

2008-09-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

We got a letter from the Orange County school district in Virginia saying that Makenzie achieved a PERFECT SCORE on her 3rd grade SOL test last year in MATH and HISTORY. She achieved a 600 in both subjects. Woohoo! We always knew she was smart but didn't realize how smart! We are so proud of her.

My Birthday

2008-09-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

Josh is working near Winslow, Arizona (about 3 1/2 hrs from here.) He stays there 4 days a week and is home for 3. He's building a school on a Navajo reservation. Its extremely interesting. Anyway, my birthday was on Wednesday and I spent all day with the "poor me's" because Josh wasn't home for my birthday. (Even though I got so many calls, emails and cards from my wonderful friends and family.) What's worse is that he acted like, "sorry, there's nothing I can do about it." But around 4:00 he surprises me at the door with a balloon bouquet and a beautiful rose bouquet. Awe!! He also had a babysitter lined up to take me out for a nice birthday dinner. Love you Josh!..... . .I told him next time, don't do that.

Let them eat cake! Next time I'll remember the spoon.

Visit to the Chidester Gang

2008-09-09T18:20:00.000-07:00

Another visit to The Chidester Gang. These kids have so much fun together. They get along so well. Except for in the incident where Parker punched Jesse in the face because Jesse wanted to watch a movie intead of play with him. But he's sorry! It's so nice to have family close by.

Parker and Jesse got their own wheels. Parker needs some bigger ones.

Makenzie and Elizabeth the tree huggers

Mason and cousin William jumping. Check out that blue sky!

With all these kids in the same room, there wasn't much sleep going on. I had some pretty grouchy kids the next day.

Parker's a Pre Schooler!

2008-09-08T16:41:00.000-07:00

Parker finally started school! We've been talking about preschool for probably about a year and he's finally made it. Fyoo! I enrolled him in the Jungle Explorers preschool. It's held in the teacher's home where she has transformed part of her house into the classroom. He goes M-W-F and so far he loves it. On his first day I snuck in a little early and watched him interact with the others and I was so proud of him. He was laughing and having fun. Im so glad he's comfortable there.

Parker is ready...he has been for months! Right down to his old hand me down Bob The Builder backpack. (Which I wanted to replace with a new one but he put his foot down.) Whatever makes him happy.

For the first 15 minutes, the kids play in the backyard and unwind. Parker ran towards the toys as soon as we got there. He's not shy!

Reminiscing Summer at the Beach

2008-08-29T16:45:00.000-07:00

Well, Labor Day is around the corner which means to me that summer is over. I wouldn't mind getting some cooler weather here soon. Here are a few scrapbook LOs of our trip to the beach (Nags Head, NC)

Sidney...posing

This is my friend, Sasha's little boy, Josh. I LOVE this picture of him.

My 4 beach bummies

Kite flying on the beach...what could be better?

First Day of School

2008-08-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

Parker's big day is next week. Today he was happy to say "see ya" to the girls.

Lining up

Sidney waiting....and waiting....

The girls have to wear red, white or navy polo shirts. Talk about easy school shopping. (But not as much fun)

It's the first day of school...the day the girls have been looking forward to for so long. I enrolled them in a public charter school called Legacy Traditional. They have to wear "uniforms" and its a bit of a different carriculum than public school. It'll be a little challenging but I think they'll do just fine. Problem is there was some construction delay in the new campus (this is only their second year running) so until all the buildings are complete the school was forced to split the school into 2 half day sessions for a few weeks. The girls are in the PM session which is from 11:40 - 2:40. Since the kids all get up around 6:30 there was a lot of anxious waiting around all morning. Sidney wore her backpack at 9 and wouldn't take it off. Their first day went really well. They were both happy and talkative on the way home from school. I was so releived!!

Losing it

2008-08-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

The girls lost the exact same tooth only two days apart from each other. Crazy,hugh considering they're 19 months apart. It's a busy week for the tooth fairy!

My scrapbook layouts

2008-08-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

I finally unboxed my scrapbook stuff so I've been scrapbooking like crazy lately. For me its great therapy. Something that makes me sane while Josh is away. These are our summer photos. Several of these were done for challenges in my myspace groups.

A day with family

2008-08-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

Cute Parker having fun.

Mason and Josh in the lake.

Jesse, Parker, Sidney, Kenzie and Elizabeth toweling off.

See what I mean...

We took a much needed Saturday off to visit Pete and Charmaine's family in Safford. It was so nice to swim in the lake and let the kids get reacquainted with their cousins. The more time I spend here in Arizona I'm finding there is a little beauty around us. Its not all cactus and sage brush. (Well there's still a lot of that.)

Saying Goodbye

2008-07-29T17:21:00.000-07:00

(Dave and the kids, Steve's family, Sasha and Corina)

Just a few of the friends and family from Virginia we are missing.

Our Move to Arizona

2008-07-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

Our journey across the country has ended and we now begin life in Arizona. The drive was long and nerve racking because we both had to pull a trailor. I was so nervous my hands gripped the steering wheel so hard the whole way. Once we arrived in Arizona we stayed in a hotel for another week until we found a place to rent. We're renting a cute little house in Maricopa. Its small but it was easy to move in to (being one level) and it'll be better for cooling. Yes it is HOT!! We bought a little kiddie pool for the kids but noticed that the water runs warm, not cold. They enjoyed it anyways.
Our life has taken a new turn with a new city and state and a new job. We feel very blessed and are happy to be back on the west coast. (Excuse me, I should say west side of the country. You are right, Fred.)