What are we going to do?

Cassidy is already wearing clothes that are too tight and too small. She came in wearing this the other day. They are Build-a-Bear clothes and shoes!

My Baby is 8! I can hardly believe that she could be that old. She came into this world without a cry, just wide open, observing eyes- and she hasn't stopped.

Patrick and I are constantly telling her how glad we are that she came first. She is such a wonderful example for her younger sisters. She keeps us all on track. She came knowing and loving good things. Her prayers always amaze us at the things she comprehends. She is thoughtful and loving. What more could a parent want?
She had her birthday party yesterday and as she was blowing her candles out, I wondered if I had taught her all that she needed to learn. That is something I keep worrying about as she prepares for her baptism. I know that she is ready, but I don't know that I can take the credit.

We Love you Lexy! Thanks for being such a blessing!

Mexico side note

I forgot to mention one of the most crazy things that happened in Mexico. On Sunday we went over to where my brothers were staying for the first time. We were having church there and just hanging out trying to keep the kids from not wanting to go in the water. Some of the older kids were playing around and we thought nothing of it. Then one of my nieces informed us that Lexy and Kelsey(my oldest niece) were stuck on an elevator. So we had to go to the eighth floor were sure enough they were stuck. They were all having elevator races and some how broke the elevator that they were on. So after getting a little upset at Lexy, because she hadn't told me that she was going outside, I was a little panicked. Here we were in Mexico - what if they didn't know how to get the elevator opened or didn't have the right tools. We were able to crack the doors open and then my sister wedge her shoe in between the doors till help arrived. Thank goodness it was very simple and they got them out right away. Of course this was the best lesson for Lexy, she never left again without telling me first.

Mexico 2008

We just got back from Mexico last week and so I have finally recovered and can post once again. This is how our trip started - what was suppose to take only 4 hours took 7. Thank goodness Mitch and his family were with us and helped us pass the three hour wait. There was a really bad accident ahead of us and so all of us got stuck, Randy was 10 cars behind the accident and had to wait 5 hours.Here we are trying to figure out a new game while we waited.
We did get to the beach safely and here are the first few pictures. It was so sweet to watch Cassidy pull her little wagon full of beach toys.

I think when ever we go to the beach we have a picture like this. Patrick just loves laying in the water and there is always someone on his back. Where am I? Of course behind the camera trying to get a tan.
My Mom wanted all the kids to take a picture while we were there. So Patrick snapped a few from the side. Do you see Cassidy's little pose? All of the pictures have here doing this sexy pose. What are we going to do when she is 16?

While we we there we went to the Aquarium, if you can call it that. It was probably about 1000 square feet of old fish tanks with a chain link fence around a poor sea lion. To quote Patrick, "If only the animal activist knew about this!"Behind Patrick you can see the fish tanks. He is looking in a big water barrel where they had other bigger fish.
This is where they kept the sea turtles.
And here is the sea lion. My brother Randy paid money to go in its cage and feed it. Kalley is standing by me and wants me to write that she was scared of it, she thought it was freaky.
On the floor they had a couple little tide pool things. So the kids got to touch sea cucumbers, anemone, and see hermit crabs.

Here is Kalley holding a sea cucumber with my brother Mitchel and her cousin Jolie (A'Lisa's daughter).
Here is my Mom trying to convince Lexy to touch something. The rest of my girls don't have a problem with that.

This is Patrick and Lexy enjoying authentic Mexican churros at the Mud Mall.

The kids had fun finding these tiny snails crawling in the ocean.

Here is my girls with my two oldest nieces Kelsey and Sydney. They had fun making a sand castle for the tiny snails.
But of course when you are at the beach nothing is as fun as a swimming pool. My kids were bothered that I made them go down to the beach. All they wanted to do was swim in the pools. Cassidy tried on her first set of floaties, and loved to float in the deep part.

At the resort they have face painting. The girls had this done when we were there in 2004 and so they couldn't wait to do it again.
Here are just some fun beach pictures.

Like mother like daughter! It was fun for us to wake up every morning and take a walk on the beach with Lexy and look for sea shells. My Mom also loves to do the same thing, so we would all walk together.
Here is Patrick and Cassidy with the Mayan Palace behind them. You can't tell but Cassidy was holding herself because she needed to go to the bathroom. Without fail we would walk all the way out to the beach (and you can see how far that is) and I would have to turn around and walk Cassidy back to the bathroom. It was such a far walk that by the time we got to the bathroom she had usually already had accidents - and it wasn't the clean kind.
Here she is posing, after the potty break, of course!
Cassidy loves her Grandpa more then anything . Here they are hanging out on the beach together.


Part of the fun for the guys was flying the huge kite that Mitch brought. Here is Randy having his turn with Patrick and Mitch waiting for theirs. It was so windy - or either the kite was so big- that they were sore the next day after having to hang on.

Randy and Mitch's family stayed out another place since there wasn't any other rooms at the Mayan Palace. So we would take turn driving the 30 minutes to their place every other day. Here is Kalley with Mitchel's boy Cobe. They were finding a bunch of tiny hermit crabs and snails.
The last night we got fireworks and set some off . The girls loved the sparklers the most, since they didn't make any noise.


I just need to thank my Mom and Dad for the wonderful memories. It was a great experience for the kids to spend time with there cousins and get to know their aunts and uncles a little better.

A day in the life of a Chicken Farmer!

I am a little late in posting this but here is Cassidy with the first egg we got. We got this from one of our Chicken that has two names - Old Faithful (since she laid the first egg and has every day since) as well as Ceruso (from the "Water Horse"). When you open the coop, and she is laying, she makes the same sound as the Water Horse.

Funny story from a couple weeks ago. We were getting about 9 eggs a day until I realized that a chicken wasn't laying in the coop. Here is the culprit - Sweetheart. She is my favorite because she is so pretty. She was able to fly over the fence and get out. A few times we found her in our neighbors yard (thankfully it is vacant at the moment). First I would look on the side of our house to see if she was laying on our trash pile. But when I would come outside and couldn't find her I would call her name and she would fly up on the wall and come home. One day I found an egg on the trash pile and so we would look over there to make sure that there wasn't an egg rotting. When the trash finally got taken away we discovered 14 eggs hiding there. Yep, she had been laying there and they would roll down to where we couldn't find them. Now that the trash is gone she is back to laying in the coop. I tried to catch her on the trash pile for this picture but she wasn't cooperating.

Now for the sad part of being a want-to-be chicken farmer. We lost our first Chicken on the 17th. It happened to be Patrick's birthday and so the kids thought that was very unfair. We think that it just got too hot. So that night after some birthday celebrating Patrick had to construct a misting system for the chickens. I tell you what, these Chickens keep getting more and more expensive. Needless to say if anyone wants to purchase eggs I sell them for $2 a dozen. Just trying to make up for their food cost and the pent house that they are living in. Here is a preview of our next family photo.

Mulan at Broadway Palms

For the last three summers we have enjoyed going to Broadway Palms for a show. This year we got to enjoy Mulan. Here are the girls after their lunch waiting for the show to start.Afterwards you get to meet the cast and take pictures with them. This is the Emperor and the Grandmother.

Here is General Shang, Mushu, and Mulan. Cassidy wasn't interested in seeing anyone except Mulan.


We have so much fun watching these shows. Next year they are doing High School Musical so that will be the post next summer.