Family Pictures

Yesterday was the first day that we were all together, when the sun was still up, in a long time. So we decided that since the leaves were changing we would take our family pictures. So after Tori got home from school we all got ready. We left the house at 4:00 to start our drive up to City Creek. At 4:01 it started to rain on us! I was so MAD!! Last time when we were going to take pictures it snowed! Can we not ever get good weather!!! Austin pointed out that the darkest clouds were over City Creek...nice. Oh well, we headed up anyway, at least we were spending time together, right? We drove around for a little while trying to pick the perfect spot, and let the rain die down. We took some pictures and the kids didn't complain too much. I have to say that I am not a huge fan of taking my own family pictures. I set everyone up in the positions that I think looks pretty good, try to picture me in there, set the timer and then run, at the same time I am hoping that no one moves and that they all look at the camera when it takes the picture. It rarely turns out. But I keep trying. Next time I will just recruit someone to come with us and take the pictures for me.

This is me running, I accidently set the wrong timer!

I am a little late with this post, but this wonderful snow storm happened on October 4th!!!! It was conference weekend and we were going to go to Rupert on Sunday to drop off the 4 wheeler we had borrowed, wish Austin's Dad a happy birthday and then drive dome through the mountains to get some fall family pics. When we called in the morning to tell everyone we were coming they told us they were getting snowed on, but still come because it should be gone when we got there. When we left they had 1" of snow. When we got there they had 3" and the power was out! So the kids grabbed all the winter gear they could find (and by kids I mean my kids, the adult men in the house, and Auntie Mel). Immediately John had to build a little fort for the snowball fight that he knew would come. And it did. They were even rude enough to throw snowballs at me, the photographer! How rude!The girls loved every minute of it, and were pretty upset when they had to come in to eat!Tori in Aunt Mel's face mask. Kinda surprising that she put it on and left it on.

Dad and Uncle John about to hit each other with snowballs.

Building Forts

I don't know about your children, but mine think that blankets have one purpose, and one purpose only... to built forts with. I guess that the same goes with the furniture, well, that and to jump off.

After weeks and weeks of constant forts in our family rooms (yes both, and somtimes at the same time), Austin and I looked for a way to solve this problem.

One day Austin came home and showed me this website! I was so exited.

Two weeks prior to the girls birthdays, there was literally a new fort built everyday. People would come to my house and I would just think, "my house is usually cleaner than this!!!"

I wanted to give the girls their gift early, just so I could have a clean looking house again, but I didn't.This is the last BLANKET FORT to be built in my house!! YEAH!

And of course it was on Sunday right before they got their "new fort."

Here is the Invent-a-tent! I love it. they have made at least 6 different forts since then, and they are all downstairs where no one can see.

Friends Party

Tori, Summer, Kennedy. This is at their birthday party. Summer is a wonderful neighbor who LOVES the girls, and they LOVE her! They both wanted to have her come over for their party.
Each of the girls made little pizzas, jumped in the bounce house and danced their hearts out in a Freeze Dance contest. It was a fun afternoon.

Top to Bottom:
Summer, Whitney, Tori, Seirra, Nikki, Kennedy, Allison.

Kennedy and Nikki on the bounce house.
Kennedy, Nikki and Allison

Tori is 7!!!

Let pretend again!! It is ...

September 28, 2009

Happy Birthday Tori!!!

Tori also got to open her presents in the morning of her birthday, because Dad, once again, would not be there. Next year he will! She was also given a jumper from Mom and a puzzle. Surprise!

What?!? That is not the same picture as Kennedy's is it! Well, when your birthday is only 4 days away from your sisters, and there are only four members of the family that will eat the cake, we cannot make two regular sized cakes. So they share. One day that will have to change, but for now, we celebrate the birthdays together.
Tori also LOVED testing out the bounce house. They didn't want to get out until it was dark.
Thanks Reann!

Kennedy is 5!!!!!

Lets pretend for a minute that it is September 24, 2009.

Happy Birthday Kennedy!!!

Kennedy is finally 5! She has had a countdown since the end of August when her cousin Kyler turned 5. IN the morning she got to open her presents, Mom made her a dress and she also go t a puzzle. (because Tori's birthday is in 4 days we will celebrate again in the middle, on Sunday, and they will both get another gift together)

Dad was not home for Kennedy's birthday (except in the morning) so she got to go to the hospital and eat lunch with Dad and all the other residents. That was pretty special for her, they treated her like royalty.
Do you like the jumper?Grammy came to Pocatello to spend time with both Kennedy and Tori for their birthdays. Where is that picture you wonder, well, I forgot, but this is Kennedy opening grammy's present.

We had a little party for the girls on Saturday where they got to each invite 3 friends, and we borrowed a bounce house from a friend. This is Kennedy testing out the bounce house the night before the party. They LOVED it!!

Today was a very busy day!! I cleaned and did some laundry in the early morning, then I took pictures, then it was lunch time. During Layton's afternoon nap Kennedy and I worked on Preschool. After that I started on the peaches that I had gotten this week (YUM).

This was Layton's music that I got to listen to for a LONG time during the canning process!

At least he was occupied and not climbing all over me. He did that later, and kept calling me dad!! I tried to correct him, he still calls me dad. When Austin got home, he started saying mom, so I can't feel too bad.

First Haircut

This is Layton's first haircut. I know, he is pretty old to have never had a haircut, right? He just doesn't have much hair, and it is blond, so it really looks like he has no hair, so we have never cut it. It was just getting a little too long though, so I made Austin do it for me. Layton would have never held still with just me there. He thought it was pretty funny at first, but after a while he would just move his head to get rid of the clippers. That is where I came in. I had to hold his head and his hands. Fun times. He did do pretty good, so did Austin.

(Please excuse the dirty mirror, it is bathroom cleaning day, and now they are clean.)

Now Layton is back to looking like he has no hair again. :) Oh well, he is still pretty handsome!

First Day of School

this was Tori's first day of 1st Grade!!! (I can't believe that she is old enough to be a 1st grader!) She was so excited to go to school. She helped me pick out all her school supplies, especially the Tinkerbell lunch box, that is all she really cared about anyway. She picked out her own outfit and laid it out the night before. She even went to sleep within minutes of getting in bed. Tori did wake up with a tummy ache (nerves) and didn't eat much breakfast. When we got to the school I told her we would come in with her to help her find her class again, she told me no she was fine. I insisted! She is not old enough remember? As we walked in Tori was clinging to me, Kennedy was crying, and Layton was trying to grab everyone and everything in sight! It took Tori a few minutes to finally let go, and I made a dash out before she started crying (or me). When I got outside a friend, who also has a son in the class, told me that Tori came up to her and gave her a great big hug, still nervous I guess! Thanks Ad! She came home from school so happy and excited to do it again! That night in Tori's prayer she said thank you three times that she had such a fun day, and please bless that tomorrow she would have fun too. And she did.

The whole gang. Well, all that were able to come. Which as you can see, was quite a few!

Gina

Mari

Giff

Damon

Dallas

Yesterday we got to go up to Lake Cleveland for a little mini family reunion for the Gillette family. It was so much fun. I have been in the Gillette family for 8 years now and just barely got to meet a few members of the family, original members. We had a lot of fun talking and eating. Some hiked into the lake, others drove there, like me. We cooked Salmon that Austin's Dad and Uncle caught. And man WAS IT GOOD!!!!! i LOVE SALMON!!!!!
and I LOVE a good Gillette fish fry!

Then we sat around the camp fire, then played and played and played and played some more on the big swing. We kinda acted like little kids.






Me (Rachel)

Kelsy

Kate

Faith

Chatting around the fire

All the cute kids.

Uncle Jerry cooking up the fish.

MMMM good!

Some of the cousins.

It was a blast! Thanks Aunt Nancy and Uncle Randy for organizing it! Until next year...

Island Park

Tori loves to pose for pictures.

Layton is trying to have fun while the other kids are fishing, mom is just mean and didn't let him leave the blanket to get into the dirt.

Kennedy wasn't really in the mood to fish, so she just pretended like she was fishing with this stick.

Uncle Dave helping Brenner catch some fish. Well...casting out the line HOPING to catch some fish.

Brenner

Terrill and Kyler fishing. I think that Terrill undid more snags than anything. He is pretty patient!

Layton's favorite activity at the cabin was racing across the room to climb up the very dangerous and scary (to mom) stairs. He would laugh as he was crawling across the room!

Tori, Kyler, Kennedy, Brenner

All five cousins

Uncle David took Tori and Kennedy on many four-wheeler rides. Thanks Dave!

Funny

So last night was a terrible night for Layton and I. I am not sure what was going on with him, teething, off schedule during the day, not feeling well maybe, not sure but he decided that one minute after mom crawled under the covers would be a great time to wake up crying, and then not stop for 4 hours. That is right he was awake from 11-3. Mostly. I tried to let him cry it out, he got louder. I tried to cuddle him, feed him a bottle, lay on the ground next to the crib and hold his hand through the bars, nothing. Finally at 2 I was so exhausted I pulled him out and laid him next to me on the floor. (Austin is on a very demanding rotation and Layton does not hold still in bed, so I choose the floor) It took about 40 minutes of moving and moaning (from Layton) before he was finally asleep, then I let him get into a deep sleep before I moved him back.
Needless to say, in the morning I was exhausted. I got everyone breakfast and then Layton was ready for a nap. YEAH! So I told the girls to play nicely, not to answer the door and DO NOT DISTURB ME! yeah right. That lasted about 20 minutes then they were yelling and hitting each other. I threatened them and they were quite for the last 20 minutes. When I woke up they were downstairs laughing and giggling with each other, then I found...
I found it quite FUNNY! I told them to work out their problems and if I needed to I would take care of things when I woke up. I guess this was Tori's way of taking care of things.

Layton is ONE!

My baby is ONE!!! It is so sad and exciting at the same time. I cannot believe how time has just flown by this last year. Layton is still just the happiest little guy, even when he is teething. I do not know how Austin and I got so lucky.

I was so excited to have a summer baby to celebrate with ice cream cake. All day long all Layton wanted to do was open his presents that were stacked on the cedar chest. We invited lots of family and friends over to celebrate with us. Layton seemed to love being sung to, but what he really wanted was the candle! Layton never did eat a bite of his cake. I tried and tried, so we just gave up and let him do what he really wanted, rip the paper off the presents. Oh how he loved that. The girls too, and Nash, his cousin.

Uncle John and Aunt Gina also celebrated their birthday's this past week so we were able to sing to them also. It was a fun filled day.

Can you tell what his favorite toy? Good thing there were two big balls, Nash and Layton were having some struggles, Layton was very possessive of his toys.

Dillon, MT

It is that time in Austin's residency experience where we get to start trying to find a "real job." It is a little fun and a little stressful. For us, we want to pick the perfect place because we want to stay wherever we go, little stressful. But at the same time we are having lots of fun considering places we never thought we would consider. Never dreamed that I would love Pocatello so much that I would not want to move, ever. Never thought Austin would want to move to Rexburg, and definitely never thought we would consider moving out of Idaho again. Even when the call from Dillon came I told Austin NO! Don't even think about it. Well, he did. And we went. And we liked. Sometimes I don't so much like being an adult who has to make hard decisions, but I am and I do. We really like all three possibilities, it is going to be one very, very tough decision. Pray for us!!

Layton's climb

These are not the greatest pictures, but I had to catch Layton doing his new thing... climbing over people who are in the way, or close to in the way, or not even in the way, just fun to go out of HIS way to climb over. Kennedy thinks it is HILARIOUS! So he does it over and over again.

He tried it on my niece Kaylee this weekend, she didn't seem to mind, so he continued to do it. Poor little Kaylee.

4th of July in Rupert!!

Rupert is where I grew up, and it is a great place to take my kids every year to witness great LOVE for Country and State, (and a small little town). The parade is WONDERFUL! There are always tons of great floats, horse back riders, cheerleaders and so much more. We always sit with my family and eat popcicles and yell to the kids to get more candy (there is a TON of candy thrown). This is just one of the amazing floats, they all seemed to have moving parts this year. I also hope you enjoy the tops of my siblings heads! :)

This is how Layton enjoyed the parade. It was an extremely hot day and it was nap time, and with that combination, Grandpa Fennell's lap was absolutely perfect. He didn't even budge when the fire trucks went by with their sirens blasting.

This little horse with the carriage, that I got an AMAZING picture of, hehe, is Grammy Gillette's horse, Tango. This is the horse the girls have been learning to ride on. It was fun to see her in the parade.
After this we all we out to Aunt Sherma's and had so Fried Chicken and saw our hearts out in the pool. Fun times.