Chad, Candace, Gracie and Mike Staheli

December fun

2012-01-05T09:51:00.000-08:00

I have taken so many pictures in the last month it's amazing. I sat down to blog about Christmas and realized I wanted to blog about this stuff as well. Gracie had her Kindergarten Christmas program and was so excited to play a cop in "Frosty the snowman." I got pretty emotional watching all of the kids and how excited they were to show their families what they have been working on. I was so proud of Grace! She usually gets shy when the spotlight is on her but she did so good! Mikey was so proud of her too. I love this time of year and the older the kids get the funner it gets.

Grace trying not to smile at me

Traffic Cop!

Whenever Gracie gets in trouble it's not uncommon for me to find something like this pushed out from under her door.

Owen had a little accident at church. You can tell he wasn't too upset about the whole thing.

Discovering the Ipad

Poor boy is still getting better

Grace has been taking piano lessons for about 4 months and she is really doing well. It helps to have a dad who is an amazing piano player to help her along.

I love this picture. Owen loves Gracie so much. She is so good to him.

Grace being silly with one of her buddies

December

2011-12-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

I wanted to blog these pictures before Christmas because I am doing my best to stay caught up on my blogging and I know I'll want to blog about that! This is what we've been up to the last couple of weeks....

I look forward to tucking my kids in at night because I never know what I'm going to find. This was Gracie after a long day.

Mikey got an advancement sticker in Karate!

The kiddos are so good to go with me in the mornings to get my drink. They don't complain at all while we go for a little drive.

We got an elf! Pippy the elf came to live with us in December so he could keep an eye on us for Santa. He flew home every night to report on how the kids were that day. Sometimes it was a quick trip and he got bored so he would make trouble. This night he got in a snowball fight with the other toys!

Then he made snow angels in the sugar!

My kiddos making their Christmas lists.

Gotcha Mike!

Toothpaste mess!

Mikey tuckered out playing on the phone.

Pip was hiding!

The weather has been FREEZING so we stayed in and played boxes. This is one of our favorite things to do.

Remember the kitty Grace got for her 5th birthday? Tie has gotten HUGE and Grace still loves him so much.

Oh my boys. They both got SO SO sick for a few days so I took them to the doc. Mikey had to have an Xray of his lungs and he was put on a pretty aggressive antibiotic. Little did we know he was severely allergic to it and he had to get a breathing treatment for his lungs. The poor boy was a champ. Little O is still a little sick but I think they will be all better by the new year. We set up a huge bed on the living room floor and watched a whole lot of movies.

Little O is fascinated with Christmas. He loves all of it.

Giving Thanks

2011-12-10T12:53:00.000-08:00

I am finally blogging about Thanksgiving! Just when I think I have caught up on things another pile of things to do gets dumped on me. Thanksgiving this year was so fun. We headed to Logan to be with Chad's family. I don't know how much I even saw Grace and Mike because they had so much fun playing with cousins. I think Grandma and Grandpa are still recovering from the mess. We missed the Philly family but we are glad we got to see them not too long ago. Here are some photos of the week. (though I took a gazillion more)

My babes in the tub. Wow are they all looking at the camera? Wow.

Family fun center with Russ and Traci!

Bekah got a kitty on black friday. This is the cutest kitty ever.

Chocolate dipped pretzel time!

Dodgeball at the church! Not the best activity to do with a full tummy.

The kids table!

Grandpa gave Riley and Grace the turkey legs. It was a bit much but they tried!

The feast!

Jake showing me his best super hero pose.

Turkey carving time. Big Mike sure knows how to carve a turkey.

Jen on dish duty!

Oh the hair. Max and his hair. I would kill for one of my kids to have a fraction of this curl.

Aimee helped me so much with O

What's the point in having boy cousins if you don't wrastle?

computer time.

Michelle working on the veggie tray. mmmm...

Burning some apple wood.

These are just some radom pics that I had to blog.

I take my kids with me on my morning coke run. They are such good sports to get in the freezing car with me and take a drive while I talk to Grandma and Aunt Case.

School turkeys

Owen is all over the place. He isn't crawling yet but he rolls all around the whole house.

And he is a thumb sucker! I've got to break this habit!

Chad taking a much needed break in his office. I walked out to talk to him and this is what I found. Sneaky boy.

Gracie bundled in bed.

Self portrait

NYC and PA

2011-11-16T07:25:00.000-08:00

What a whirlwind of travel! Chad and I have been wanting to head east to visit family and friends for a long time. And going to NYC has always been on my "list" of things to do. We caught the red eye on Wed night and got into NYC on Thursday morning around 6 am. We met up with Taylor and Austin a little after that. We miss them so much. Our little neighborhood isn't the same without them. Taylor is due any day with babe #3 and she was a champ. We walked all day long. It was so surreal to meet up with them and spend the day in New York. Then on Friday night we headed to PA to spend a few days with Chad's brother and his family. We miss them so much and it was so fun to see the sights with them. Our arms felt so empty without our kids so it was so nice to spend some time with their kids. They have a little girl and two boys (just like us) It was a crazy whirlwind of a trip but we loved every second of it. Now that we are home I am refreshed and ready to take on the holidays!!

(my pictures are from my phone and my camera so they are way out of order.)

Grace and Mike with their souvenirs hats from Jamie and Mason and monkeys from mom and dad.

Mason and Davis

This was the best I got when I asked for a smile:)

The fam

Being on this trip really made me want to catch up on my US history. This is Valley Forge. This place is UH-Mazing. So pretty.

Chad found a dollar that you could track where it's been. I think it must have gotten lost right after the first person logged on because it only had one zip code on it.

This thing killed me. For some reason in my mind I pictured it to be this massive statue. When we walked around the corner I couldn't believe how tiny it was! It was still cool to see in real life and to check it off of my sights list.

Museum of Art. Where the famous "Rocky" steps are. This place was huge and so cool.

Maybe Aunt Candace did a little spoiling. (I still couldn't get them to get my name right. I was Aunt Traci the whole time)

Best. Sandwich.Ever.

Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

I saw my kids names everywhere. I think it had something to do with how much I missed them.

Red velvet cupcake. mmm...

All over.

Radio City

They were putting up the tree in Rockefeller Plaza

Oh how I missed them!

On our tour our guide was pointing out some of the sights and he was showing everyone the Apple store, luckily I looked and saw the Angel Maroni peeking over the buildings. The guide didn't even point out the Temple but it was also a big thing on my list to see.

Grand Central Station and the Chrysler building

We went to see How to succeed in business without really trying starring Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette. This show was a bit of a gamble and so were our seats. When we go there we realized we had AMAZING seats and were literally 20 feet away from the stage. The show was SO funny and I'm so glad we went. At the end of the show Daniel Radcliffe auctioned off his bowtie and the winner bid $2300. Crazy.

We love you!!

"Friends" was the only thing that came to my mind when I saw this building.

Tay and baby Chandace (it works right?)

Times square

Grand Central Station

Sppoooookyyyy

2011-11-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! We had a lot of fun this year. The kids were over the moon excited and Monday night couldn't get here fast enough. We had a trunk or treat on Friday then Clayton and Lex brought their girls to visit for the weekend. We had so much fun. The kids loved Gardner village and the witches are always a favorite of mine. We honestly couldn't have asked for better weather. We got rained out last year and it was freezing. It was sunny and warm the whole day this year. Even though we got snow the next day, we were glad it held out till after Halloween.

Grace (a vampire) Mikey (a Knight)

O (a froggy)

Chad and Me, Ricky Ricardo and Lucy

Gardner Village

The kiddos

Horse rides! Grace loved her horse Lucky

Anna B

Mike named his horse Wolverine

Halloween night! Mike wanted to be SpiderMan instead.

Sorting the candy.

This was the first year that the kids got the concept of trick-or-treating. We usually slowly walk around to a few houses but this year we were going way to slow for the kids. They knew the more houses they hit up, the more candy they got. So they were off and running as soon as we hit the pavement.

What we've been doing

2011-10-25T07:28:00.001-07:00

New Room

2011-10-03T15:52:00.000-07:00

Let me take you on a little journey. Our house was built in 1870-something. We love our house. It has so much character. The thing is, when we bought the house we loved all of the character and we didn't really think about the practicality of it all. For instance, there are NO closets. We have a tiny one and there is another tiny one in Mikey's room but thats it. And the hard wood floors that I LOVED when we walked through it, well now they drive me nuts because they never look clean. Oh what I would give to see vacuum lines on my floors. We are also slowly growing out of this wonderful house. We do have three kids now and it's getting harder for us to fit in these three tiny bedrooms. Anyways, we had a bedroom on the main floor that was a bit of wasted space. It was a bedroom, but there was no closet and it was a really odd shape. We have lived here for 3 1/2 years and we could never figure out what to do with this room. So we decided this summer to make it our project. At first we thought we would just paint, carpet, re-decorate. You know, quick fixes. Well if any of you know Chad you know he is the jack of all trades and he can't really do anything small. So, the first step was to see if it was possible to raise the ceiling. So he drilled a hole, stuck the camera up in the hole, and started snapping pictures. Here is what we saw:

Wallpaper. Really, really old wallpaper. But, the ceilings could be raised. Good sign right?

Start Ripping.

Oh ya, the room BEFORE. The hole on the left is where we put the camera. Now to help you understand this room and the process, use the window as a point of reference.

This was the old entrance. The Bathroom door is right outside this door then a hallway.

Chad just getting started. Man if we knew what we were in for at this point, we probably would have stopped.

Mike loved the demo part of it all.

This is the entrance with the hallway missing. There was a hallway down the left hand side.

The pics are a little out of order. sorry.

My dad was here to help with the first day. It was a hard days work!

When this room was built in the first place, they used chicken wire and plaster. So it wasn't like tearing down sheetrock. It was a lot heavier and a lot more work.

Again Mike helping.

There is the wallpaper ceiling

This is the room with the hallway completely gone

After all of the plaster was torn off, we found a little box in the wall. When we first found it we were stoked because we thought we had found a hidden treasure. Like gold and jewels.

That's the box on the left

No gold or jewels. But a note from the owner and a newspaper from the day Apollo 11 landed back on earth in 1969

Next Chad had to patch up the hole.

We didn't know that the plaster was hiding really cool brick. So at this point we decided we wanted to keep it exposed. So we had to prep the brick to be glazed so it wouldn't get dust all over all of the time.

Next came the mudding and taping. This was a nightmare. I didn't help at all because I can't stand the dust. I'm not a priss, but for some reason the sandpaper on the mud makes my skin crawl. My ENTIRE house had dust for weeks from this step.

Finally getting there

Chad had to fill up a strip in the floor so there would be an even surface for the carpet

Almost done! Paint is finished!

TA-DA!!!!!!

We are still trying to sort out the furniture situation. I'm thinking sectional? And also, the wires and the tivo will be behind the wall, we just have some re-routing to do. But you get the idea.

And I have CARPET!! I must say, Chad dumped probably 200 plus hours into this room. I am so grateful for a husband who works so hard and teaches himself how to do things if he doesn't know how. I am starting to love this home even more.

a few....

2011-09-20T16:09:00.000-07:00

There is far too much to catch up on. So we'll sum it up in photos.....

O. Not to be mistaken for a chipmunk with cheeks full of winters stock.

Oh his smile. This baby can smile.

We went to a small event that was going on at the Spanish Fork airport. Remote controlled air show, breakfast, and plane and helicopter rides.

Gracie started soccer. Not to brag or anything, but she is pretty much awesome.

She had to take her turn sitting out. Not a job she took lightly.

Sleeping O. He even drools milk. This just shows you he never has an empty tummy.

Mike started pre-school. He is a pro already.

Back to school dentist appointments. They love the dentist.

Owen loves to suck his fingers. The two middle are his fav.

We headed to Utah Lake on labor day. It was sooo windy but the kids had fun.

Picking the "perfect rock" for rock skipping.

This is what happens when I let my son dress himself.

Gracie lost a tooth! She is getting so big I can't stand it.

We went to Cjane's rooftop concert series. It was so much funner than we thought it would be and I think we will go every month from now on.

Chad and the kids made me a candy-gram for my birthday. Chad admitted it was the worst candy-gram ever.

Up North

2011-08-31T11:32:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend. We headed to Logan to visit Chad's bro who was in town for work. He lives practically across the country and we never get to see him. Lame. It was really good to see him and little Mason. Mason is Mikey's age and I thought I tried and tried to get him to warm up to me but to no avail. He wasn't a fan of Aunt Candace. (I'll have to work on that Lyndy!) It is still a little early to do apples, but we still dried a few and harvested honey. There is just a tinge of fall in the air and I love it. I'm not ready for summer to end but I always get excited this time of year. Grace started school and I turned 27! More on that later. I'll catch up at some point! Oh ya, and Owen is the fattest, cutest baby in the world.

My B-day present from the in-laws. I LOVE Halloween! Especially Halloween decor filled with candy and money!

Fattest baby ever.

My boys taking their afternoon nap. It seems like just yesterday I was taking a picture of baby Mike. Now look at him, he almost fills up the whole couch!

Gracie and Aunt Michelle

Drying apples!

The kids got along great. But we sure missed the rest of the fam!

Again with the chubby

Spinning honey

We took a fun little fourwheeler ride to the top of Crow Mountain. The kids loved it.

We got to the top and Gracie said "Look mom! It looks like a big quilt like Grandma makes!"

The in-laws house on the left. This place is heaven on earth.

Grace started soccer! I love watching her.

My doc who delivered O. He couldn't believe how big he got!

Cute little cousins

On the loose!

2011-08-18T21:39:00.001-07:00

I just had to post today. Grace has her first loose tooth. I think I'm more emotional about this than sending her to school! Her little gappy smile will never be the same!

Camping

2011-08-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we decided to load up and go camping. We are running out of weekends in the summer so we thought we better squeeze in some trips. We just went up Spanish Fork canyon for the night. The kids loved every second of it. I sure love my little fam!

Owen was a trooper the whole time. He honestly did so good.

I snapped a few pics because he was so happy!

Mikey got right to work throwing things in the fire.

Kisses for brother

It was almost dark when we got there so Chad took the kids on a quick hike.

The camera was a bit foggy because it was early in the morning, but I couldn't pass up such a cute picture. O is getting so fat. His fingers look like he is having an allergic reaction!

The next day Grace and Mike decided to hike again.

Time to clean up!

Summa tyme

2011-07-27T07:21:00.000-07:00

I say it every year, I love living in Spanish Fork over the 24th of July. It seriously rocks. The town is so busy and everyone seems to be in a little better mood. This year Chad was involved in helping our scouts at the flag burning ceremony. It always makes my eyes water watching them burn the Macey's flag thinking about all of the men and women that gave their lives protecting the flag. Then I think of my own Dad and his sacrifice he gave in Vietnam. I love being an American! The weather has bee H.O.T. I have loved it though. And so have the kids. I love that they are worn out every night when we go to bed. Little O is doing good. He has acid reflux, which makes for a fussy baby, but he is such a joy. I love him so much!

Mikey at the splash pad

ahhhhh cool water

Owen HATES water

at the flag burning

we are re-modeling a room in our house and we found a little box inside the wall that had this newspaper inside. It was dated July 22 1969. The day Apollo 11 landed back on earth.

that is the small box on the left

at the fair!

Gracie holding Mikey's hand because he got a little scared

mmmm Italian Ice

Our ward participated in the Childrens Parade again this year and our theme was Spanish Fork, The Place 2-B where dreams come true. All of our kids dressed up as what they wanted to be when they grew up. Grace was of course a dancer. Mike was a missionary and Owen was a doctor.

All of my Primary kids! I love them so much!

My boys.

The grand parade was on Monday this year. The kids loved it so much but we sure missed the Gardners.

SpiderMike muscles

Owens Blessing

2011-07-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

When we found out that Chad's brother would be in town while we were up there for the reunion, we thought it would be the perfect time to bless little Owen. All of his family was there (Minus the Travis Staheli's ) and Owen would be just the right age. I talked it over with my family to make sure we wouldn't hurt any feelings. You know, the usual "it's our third baby, it's not even a required ordinance, it's soooo far from Kanab, no big deal" While all of those things were true, the day of the blessing came and watching the men in the circle hold my baby and knowing that none of them were my flesh and blood was harder than I thought. I really missed my family. At least I'll know on the next baby, I WANT EVERYONE THERE! The blessing was beautiful. Chad did an awesome job and I love him so much for staying worthy to receive inspiration for our kids. I only took one picture this day. It was one to remember :)

Reunion-4th of July

2011-07-05T07:57:00.000-07:00

What a fun week! We had the Staheli Reunion this last week from wed-sun. It was SO fun! The kids loved every single minute of it. When we go visit Grandma and Grandpa usually there aren't many cousins but this time there were lots to play with! Chad's brother and his family were here from out of state so it was the perfect time to have a reunion. His other brother that is out of state couldn't make it this time and we missed them so much. Here is a re-cap of our week!

Austin, Tracee, Grandma, Grandpa, Bekah, and her new camera :)

Mikey lighting sparklers

Chad and O dog. (Side note: We made tie dye shirts for an activity, hence, the tie dye)

Fireworks!

Grandpa

Keith and Scott. Scott broke his arm jumping off the swings the day after they arrived. Poor kid!

Austin, Tracee, and Bek

Michelle

My Gracie

Davenport girls

Ohh Jakey. He is the most darling boy!

Russ and Traci

Davenports!

Grandma

Proof I was there. I'm feeding the boy. This is what I did the ENTIRE time. Seriously, every 40 min.

Hulk muscles

Grandpa and the firework loot

there is nothing like the view at grandma and grandpas.

Playing before fireworks

Grandma made Owen and AMAZING quilt. I'll post pics later, but this is her working on it.

Wiped out

I love this picture of Chad and his mom. She is so cute.

The boys made a slip n slide for the kids. It was so fun and the kids played for hours!

Chad giving Mike a push

Bubbles

Sword making

Silly string shooting

Scavenger hunt race. Each family was on a team and it was a race to see who could finish first. I was holding Owen so I just watched. I was laughing so hard watching everyone run around the property.

Games with G&G

Making tie dye shirts

Getting the sand ready for some volleyball

little Mike in big Mike's hat.

Sooo much good food. BBQ's at their finest.

The boys worked so hard on putting a patio together for Grandmas garden

Comic book reading

Owen got a little tired playing apples to apples

Crafts

Mike got a new backpack. It has a handle you can pull out and Mike wanted it out the whole time. So he walked around with it like this the whole time.

Playing Kinect with the PA Stahelis. We hated that they weren't there!

Lunch at the Zoo!

Oh Max. I couldn't get enough of this kid. He is the.happiest.baby.

This was just a quick re-cap. We had so much fun and made great memories. And it was 100% drama free. I don't know if that has ever happened at any family reunion in the world! We loved every minute of it. Thank you so much Mike and Linda for putting this together. We'll remember it forever!

The story...

2011-06-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

So the story goes:

Most everyone knows the pain this pregnancy was. We fought and fought to keep this little boy baking. Starting at 27 weeks, I had to have progesterone shots every Monday, not to mention specialists, ultrasounds, the whole shi-bang. It was terrible. Well, when 37 weeks rolled around I was ready to have this baby. I had been contracting to the point where I felt like I was in Labor for weeks. The doc stripped my membranes on week 37 and 4 days. I sent out a text to my family saying " we will probably have a baby this weekend!" Then.... nothing. Nada.... Nothing happened. If anything happened, I think it slowed the process down! I stopped contracting and was feeling better than I had in months. Chad had me walking and working but nothing worked! Oh well, the baby wasn't due for another couple of weeks so we thought we'd just wait! Then on Tuesday the 31st, I woke up and my water broke. I wasn't going to worry because I knew if I was actually in labor my body would let me know. So I just went about my day and I was contracting quite a bit. Not a ton, but enough that I noticed. So then around 3pm I had THE WORST contraction and there was another "gush" and I started contracting hard every three minutes after that. Around 6 I couldn't even talk through the contractions so we decided it was time to go!

Things were awesome after that. We were the only ones having a baby that night so we had the floor all to ourselves. I was at a 5 when we got to the hospital so I got my epidural pretty quickly. I think it was around 7 pm. My epidural was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. I could feel everything with the contractions, I could still move my legs, I just couldn't feel any pain. It rocked. Then the doc came in at 11:45 and said "Do you want a May 31 baby or a June 1st baby?" We wanted to wait until the first but I started bleeding so they had to get the babe out to make sure it wasn't him. 3 pushes later he was here! 11:54 pm. It was grand. He didn't have a name for about 24 hours but we decided on Owen Grant Staheli. He is darling. And already getting so big!

Baby O

In his hospital shirt

Leaving the Hospital!

Schnuggles.

My three. I love that Mike is trying to put his finger in his mouth. And also his face.

Chad facetiming with his family.

Grandma Lydia. Words can't express my gratitude to this lady. She has been here the second I needed her. She had just as hard of a time getting this baby here as I did! The house feels so empty without her. You know mom, we have an empty house next door. Just something to think about :)

First time being held by dad!

This was cracking me up. Chad was starving and Mcdonalds was the closest place, so he got the 20 chicken nugget deal. I have to admit, chicken nuggets never looked so good :)

Getting ready to go!! (The pictures are obviously backwards)

To hold off mom

2011-06-18T09:42:00.001-07:00

I am having a hard time getting this thing updated with the birth story. So here are some pics to get you by. And by you, I mean my mom.

See you soon!

He's here!! Nameless, but here!!

2011-06-01T07:38:00.001-07:00

This was the best labor in the world. We are so lucky! The baby boy doesn't have a name yet, but he is 7 pounds 1 ounce 19 inches of pure darling!! I'll update when I get more time, but thank you all so much for your love and concern!

Summer nights!

2011-05-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

What a fun weekend! The weather was so awesome and it finally started to feel like summer. Today it is rainy and gloomy but I think these rainy days are numbered. Besides, we'll be greatful for all this moisture when the garden starts to grow! On Friday we went to the green house to get some things for the garden. Then on Sat we got up early and got started on the planting. I was contracting pretty bad so Chad put me in a chair and made me direct the putting in of the garden. I was sitting in direct sunlight, in shorts, for the first time of the year. I got FRIED. Like a lobster. I don't know what I was thinking. I put plenty of sunscreen on my kids and forgot about myself. I'll do better from here on out. Promise. We went over to the neighbors for some fun in the pool and a little BBQ. I love these summer days!! Mothers day was also awesome. The elders took over Primary so we all could go to Relief Society. It was SO nice not to have anything to worry about on Sunday. What a stress reducer. Chad and the kids made me a darling card and the kids made me some jewelry which I happily wore to church. Chad also made me a CD of some of my favorite songs and he took me out for dinner while my mom was here to watch the kids. All in all it was an amazing weekend. I'm so excited to get this baby here so we have something else to take pictures of!

35 wks. I can't believe we've made it this far.

My mothers day card

Enjoying some pickles at the BBQ

And watermelon

Mikes Spider-Mike muscles

Roxy and Tie. Yes, I take pictures of my pets.

A little crack action

Gracie and Dallin

Addie took Mikes ball. He wasn't having it. He has no issues chasing a girl

Super heroes!

The water used to fill the pool was straight mountain run off so it was so cold! The kids didn't mind until they got out.

Doing super-hero tricks

Planting the garden! Mikey got a little too hot so he took his shirt off.

Blowing on a dandelion making a wish

Sprinklers!

The kids helping Grama Lydia and me paint a dresser

The Staheli kiddos and the Gardner kiddos

Heeereee bunny bunny...

2011-04-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun Easter weekend! Chad hasn't taken a day off in.......well forever, so we left Wed night and headed to Logan. It was so nice to spend a few days up in the sunshine. Then when we got there, no sunshine. It rained most of the weekend. We were going to stay until Sunday but we had things to get back to so we headed home Saturday afternoon. We had so much fun coloring eggs, watching movies, hunting eggs, and playing with cousins. I'm glad the weather held out for our hunt!

There is a new baby horse by our house and Gracie LOVED him.

This picture cracks me up. Grace is acting like the chicken. I caught her in the act :)

Talk about a lazy sunday.

Coloring eggs!!

It's hard to see this one, but Mike went on a walk with Grandma and he took off down the lane, so she had to send a cousin after him.

Grandpa Mike is planting a new orchard up by the house so Burke and Chad helped plant about 150 trees.

Gracie's cousin Chloe sent her a Flat Stanley to spend the weekend with us and we get to send it back to her class in Cedar. Grace wanted to take him everywhere! Even to feed the baby goat.

Roasting marshmallows

Mikey just used his poker as a sword.

We celebrated Jen's bday while we were there. Any excuse for chocolate cake!!
Happy Bday Jen!

The girls and Grandpa

Rock band

33 weeks! I finally passed where I was with Mike. Man do I feel pregnant. You are all so nice saying I'm so small but I don't ever remember being this uncomfortable with my other kiddos.Watch, I'll probably pass my due date.

Saturday morning egg hunt...... and they're off!!

Everyone got their own color of egg. Mikey was blue and he did such a good job finding all 25!

Grace and Riley

Poor Mike kept spilling his eggs

Checking out the loot

After the hunt we found baskets with new outfits!

Grandma and Grandpa bought all of the kids an Easter outfit. They all looked so cute!

I had to post a picture of Chad's Easter cake. I'm so lucky I married such a well rounded guy. Who makes a cake from scratch like this?!

A day in the life...

2011-04-19T18:48:00.001-07:00

There is no reason for this post, other than I didn't want my pregnant body to be the first thing people see when they visit. I'm so grateful for modern technology because I always have my phone with me so I can take pictures of the sweet moments I share with my babies. Here are some random ones from the past few days:

Mike scratched his chin today and he couldn't get used to the bandaid.

Gracie after our afternoon nap. She fell asleep on her hand and it left the perfect imprint on her face.

We are only missing Chad! We all have to sit on the same couch for cartoons.

Worm hunting

Lunch time!!

31 Weeks

2011-04-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

Well, we are 31 weeks down. I am taken back a bit when I think that when I was this far along with Mike, he was born in a week. This pregnancy has been a pain in the patoot. I never thought puking 3 times a day would be the least of my problems! I'm not going to bore you with the details, but basically we are trying to keep this baby in as long as we can. That includes shots and ultra-sounds (not the fun ones) weekly and lots and lots of help from the grandmas. We are so lucky to have so many people who are willing to help us out. This baby is so lucky to have so many people who want him to be born healthy and full term! Things really are going good. We are literally counting down the days and weeks before he comes. Getting baby things ready isn't so easy from the couch but we will be more prepared this time than we were with Mike!

Conference weekend.

2011-04-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

My poor blog. Things have been happening in our lives I promise. I was put on bed rest because this little baby is threatening to come early just like Mikey. So along with that you'd think I would have PLENTY of time to blog. Not so. I find it is hard to get motivation for anything these days. I know I am going to look back and wish I had documented this time better. I have had a lot of fun reading my journals from when I was pregnant with Gracie and Mike and this time is no different. So even though my next few posts might be really lame, I'm committing to doing it anyways. Because if I am bored out of my mind, my readers might as well be too :) We have had to stay pretty close to home for the last few months because we need to be by a good hospital in case this little boy decides to join us soon, so needless to say I have had a bad case of cabin fever. So when conference weekend rolled around I was pretty excited to head up to Logan. We go every year and the boys usually do the orchard pruning but this year it was just Chad and I so he just helped his dad with some random outside projects. And it has been the weirdest weather so we didn't really know what to plan on. It was about 60 on Friday then on Saturday we woke up to about 5 inches of fresh snow. Spring is right around the corner, I can feel it in my bones. I'm so excited to soak up the sun. I look and feel like death has been knocking at my door (even though it hasn't) so this change of seasons is just what we need. I have more pictures I need to post, but this is all I have time for, so you'll just have to be patient while I catch up.

Miss Grace

Of course Mikey wouldn't get off Grandma and Grandpas new fourwheelers

Getting the plot ready for the new orchard.

Mikey wants a ride!

The three Mike-a-teers.

Gracie and Mikey watching "diarrhea" of a wimpy kid

No words... just pictures.

2011-03-18T19:06:00.000-07:00

Witches

2011-03-16T21:23:00.001-07:00

Santa brought Gracie Roald Dahl's book collection for Christmas. Every day I read to the kids and we just finished the witches, so we rented the movie to celebrate. Well, I forgot how scary that movie is for a 3&5 year old. We came up to bed and found this:

Poor babies were scared to death! Oh I love them so much. I am really taking in these last few months of being a mother of two. I'm one lucky Mamma.

Dentist!

2011-02-23T19:30:00.001-08:00

The kids went to the dentist a couple of days ago and it was Mikeys first time. I honestly thought it might scare him but he was a champ! The hygienist kept telling me how good my kids were. Something a Mamma never gets tired of hearing! The results were in and they both did great!

X-rays!

Getting ready

About a boy.....

2011-02-20T19:06:00.000-08:00

My Mike turned three today. Amazing. Three years ago today, I sat in recovery thinking to myself, there is no way this baby boy is going to survive. He is too tiny. Too fragile. Too perfect for this life. He came to us with no warning two months too soon. I knew this baby was different. I knew from the time I got pregnant that there was something "off" with this one. The night he decided to make his entrance into this world I finally knew where all of those feelings were coming from. I thought this baby was just going to be here for a short time to teach me something I needed to learn. I didn't get to hold Mikey until he was almost 24 hours old. When the doctors came in to give me an update on him I couldn't believe the news. "he is perfect in every way" they said. "He just needs to gain some weight, then he'll be able to go home." That has been the story of Mikey's life for three years. He is perfect in every way, he just needs to keep growing! The time that followed after his birth was a blur. Looking back now I can't believe we survived it! We are so lucky to have this kid in our lives. He wakes up almost every night with growing pains and that tiny little 4 pounder is now a fond memory. He is a tall, loving, healthy, thriving little boy. I can't wait to see him as an older brother. We love you so much Mikey, Happy Birthday!

2011-02-14T10:01:00.001-08:00

J dawgs

2011-02-13T19:43:00.001-08:00

We had a pretty relaxed weekend. We had to do some things in Provo so Grace suggested we eat at the "special sauce place" We LOVE J Dawgs. They honestly have the best hot dogs in the world. I snapped a few pics!

Mike ate a pickle and I got the perfect pic :)

Disappearing act

2011-02-07T18:45:00.001-08:00

Here's the thing. At my house, we have a TON of random things floating around. I have a neighbor who is so sweet and gives me a huge bag of Avon stuff every year. I have friends who give me old toys they no longer need. I like to shop and buy said random things. I often find these things in random places. Places they shouldn't be. I also have thing that are not so random. Like toothpaste. When I get a new tube of toothpaste out, I expect it to stay right where it belongs. Why should it ever leave the bathroom drawer? So you can imagine my dismay when I go to brush my teeth and it is nowhere to be found. This hasn't happened once or twice, we are talking every couple of days. So tonight I was fed up. "Grace! I'm sick of using spiderman toothpaste!! Where is mine!!" so I sent her on a hunt. Success!! Two brand new tubes were recovered. And there is a little less frustration in my night time routine.

Gracie getting ready for the hunt.

It's another.......

2011-02-05T18:08:00.001-08:00

BOY!!! Yahooo!!!!!

And more importantly, he is totally healthy. 22 weeks down, 18 to go.

Independence

2011-02-04T21:19:00.001-08:00

This is what you get when you let Grace pick out her clothes.

Another test

2011-02-04T20:39:00.001-08:00

Dixie College turned 100 and we were able to go to the celebration and watch our good friend George Whitehead mc the whole thing.

Just watching a movie.

2011-02-04T20:34:00.001-08:00

Yep. Watching a movie.

Twas the season

2011-01-04T14:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm finally getting my Christmas blog done. I didn't feel like I took a lot of pictures since the last time I blogged but I guess I was wrong! I took a lot! We had an awesome Christmas this year. It was our first one all alone and it was very quiet! It was nice because I didn't have any distractions from my kids and I was able to watch and enjoy every minute of it. Right before Christmas my sister and her family came to visit so it was nice to have some family around for a bit. Than right after Christmas we headed to a cabin with Chad's family. We are small in numbers these days but we still had so much fun.

Right before Christmas we got a MONSTER snow storm. I couldn't believe how much snow we got.

The plow put all of the snow right in front of our house so the kids had a fun hill right outside!

That little black thing is Mike. He was loving every second of that storm.

I took a quick drive around to see the snow and when I drove past the city park I noticed a tree laying on the ground. The snow was so heavy and we that it broke a tree down!

Baby James

Mckenna and Casey

Mikey got a Motorcycle from Parker! It is his new favorite.

Christmas eve Jammies!!

Santa came!

He ate his cookies and Rudolph ate his carrot

I wasn't too into taking pictures Christmas morning, so I only got a few.

Gracie in her dress-ups and Chad helping Mike with his new dragon.

Onto the cabin! It wouldn't be the full experience without some tens&2's with Grandpa and Kaye.

Grace and Riley going to play in the snow!

Grandma took the kids for a walk

It was Freeeeezing.

Mike's turn to go down the hill!

mmm.... snow.

Riley's turn!

The cabin

crafting!!

carving the turkey

Gracie found grandpas glasses

Linda and her folks

The look of death

Making suckers!

Fa la la la la la la la la

2010-12-23T12:21:00.000-08:00

Tis the season. Since announcing our news, I hope everyone is cutting me a little slack for the lack of posts. It took everything in me to post this one! I know I'll regret it if I don't do it, life is happening now people! Anyways, my pictures go too far back to update everything, so we'll just stick to Temple Square. My family and I went to SLC to see the lights and have a night on the town. We just ate some dinner and walked around for five minutes. It was right after the cold front moved in and it was FREEZING. But the kid's loved it and it is a tradition from now on so we knew we had to do it.

Just a random pic of me and my Lizzy Poo

Gracie made a gingerbread house at school. I was so proud of her! She did a great job.

It's possible he is the cutest ever.

And so are they.

Yay! We are both looking!

We were all supposed to close our eyes, Gracie is just the only one doing it right :)

success!

More sucker making! This time went a lot smoother.

Merry Christmas everyone! For the first time in my life I am spending Christmas with my own family. Not at my house, not at Chad's... at our home. I'm so excited. A little sad, but mostly excited. I can't wait to start traditions with my own kids and to see their faces on Christmas morning. There won't be much to distract me from that this year. So until 2011, Goodbye!!!!

This week

2010-12-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went to Logan to visit Chad's parents. I always love going up there this time of year because of all the snow and the fog. The kids always love to go sledding and make gingerbread houses. They have been pretty bored around the house so it was nice to get out and go visit family. Before we left we had to get the tree up! The kids were such good helpers this year.

Sledding! This was in the middle of the day but the fog was so bad you could hardly see.
Grace was catching Mike before he went to the bottom of the hill

Grandpa and the kids coming up the hill

Little Mike

Grandpa and Gracie's turn!

Mikey's turn!

Grandpa and Grandma got a couple of black kitty's. They sure are cute!

Gingerbread houses!!

Gracie and Dad vs Mom and Mike

Mom and Mike's

Gracie and Dads

Making suckers for our sucker tree!! We mostly made a mess. And like five suckers.

Yep, I'm one of those people that takes pictures of their animals. This is how we found Roxy and Tie asleep last night.

Can't contain ourselves!!

2010-12-01T15:51:00.000-08:00

We are over the moon excited to announce our 4 will become 5 in June!
(reason for blog slackoff.)

Finally

2010-11-30T17:23:00.000-08:00

I finally got it working. I'm not sure what was up but here we are! Our week was nuts. Last week I decided to go to Kanab on Sunday night so Chad could have a few days to get caught up at home. BIG MISTAKE. The weather wasn't too bad but people don't know how to slow down in the snow so there were like fifteen accidents from I-70 to Beaver (about twenty miles) The kids and I were stuck on the freeway for 3 hours! It was amazing. Really. Worst trip ever. Angels were with us because it could have been a lot worse. The kids did okay thank goodness for DVD players. When they started getting restless we just put on our snow stuff and played in the snow! What normally takes 4 hours took us almost ten. argh....

Grace on I-15 north of Beaver

Finally at Grandmas! Gracie and Anna painting their nails

Ohh baby Carsyn. I love this gal!

What is a trip to Kanab without some Junction take out?

Of course Grandma bought the kids matching jammies. Grace and Anna put them on quick and ate their ice cream.

Baby James started pulling this stink face. It was hilarious!

James and Carsyn

The day before Thanksgiving. Let the baking begin!

Lex got her clip in extensions and we all just had to try them on.

By far my fav pic

James and Mike

Dax got to spend Thanksgiving with us this year! It was so fun to have these little boys play together. We can't wait for Dexton to come join them!

The kids table (I love that the girls are playing cards and the boys are on the Ipad)

Grandpa and James

Chase chugging some lemon juice.

Aunt Rhonda and Ty. We missed Hayden this year!

I was in charge of Yams this year. I didn't find out until after I made them that it was an option to buy them in a can.

Dax man

Waiting for the big dinner!

For some reason this is one of the Cutler family's favorite past times. Find a camera and take as many silly pics as you can. I only posted three.

My cute mamma.

Again with the stink face. (James, not Casey)

Chad wishing he could sit at the kid table

The feast! And yes that is gravy in that silver pot.

Everyone in attendance! (minus me)

Clayton literally passed out after dinner

Clean up!

Nap time. (me, Casey, Kenna and Chase) You can't even see Casey but she is right next to me.

Bingo! The kids were intense

I love this pic because of the background people

Raking leaves to play in!

Also, Chad turned 30 on the 28th!! Crazy. I feel so bad I didn't get more pictures! I was too in the moment I guess. His big gift was we signed him up for flight school! His first flight is on Thursday. He is pretty stoked! Even though it scares me to death I know he'll do awesome! I Love you babe!

Chad reading his picture book we made. 30 reasons we love him.

Opening the book that says Pilot 2011

It was a really fun week! I'm glad it's over. Bring on Christmas.

Attention anyone who cares!

2010-11-29T19:36:00.000-08:00

I Caved. I sat down to update tonight but MY CORD WON'T WORK! How annoying. I promise and update is coming.. Things to look forward to:

- Thanksgiving
-our TEN hour drive to Kanab
- Chad's 30th b-day
- What I'VE been up to.
- What happened to Mike's darling long hair??

Oh man... so much to look forward to.

Also, If you don't live in walking distance of me, I will be sending you a Christmas card. We just got our photos done by the phenomenal Sara Boulter and I wan't you all to drool in jealousy. And I'll whip up a clever poem too. So send me yer address. Here is my email so if you are paranoid like my friend Liz other people won't see it.
candacestaheli@gmail.com

Love you guys!

Haaallllloooweeeeennn

2010-11-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty good Halloween this year. I LOVE Halloween but for some reason I was in a funk this year. We didn't do most of the stuff I wanted to and I didn't even get out all of my decor. I don' t know what my deal is! But we still had fun. The weather was terrible so we did a trunk or treat inside. I hate trunk or treats because I think you have to work for your candy, but it was so cold I didn't put up too much of a fight. It was still fun!

I told the kids they had to fill up on veggies before the could fill up on candy!
Gracie going to school in her costume

Carving pumpkins. Mike loved it.

Chad, not so much.

Our new addition. Google TV. We have been talking about a new tv for FOUR years. We finally broke down.

Family pic. Gracie the Cat, Chad the cop, Mike the Spiderman and me the convict.

Chad taking Mike around

Leave it to my daughter to hurry and eat her candy before it was even over.

Dallin and Addy. Cute little neighbors.

Gracie and dad checking out the loot. Grace called Grandma Lydia to tell her all about her night.

Happy Halloween!!

Deer Hunt 2010

2010-10-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

We were finally able to make it out to the hunt this year. We haven't been able to go the last 4 years. It was way past due. The whole family was headed out on Thurs and stayed till Monday, but we could only go Friday and Sat. I'm actually glad because it was FREEZING and rainy the whole time. No one shot anything, we didn't even really see anything, but we still had fun. And the kids loved it. As much as I would have liked the kid's to see a deer it's all about making memories anyway right? I'm glad we could go, but it's nice to be home!

Mikey "helping" pack

Helping dad drive on the dirt roads

Dad, Parker, Mom and Clayt setting up

Mikes fourwheeler was too weak to drive in the mud, so he pushed it instead

Grandma and her sidekick Carsyn

Kenna and Gracie

Chan and Daxman

Mikey sure had fun with Grandpa Rog

A camera? Sure we'll pose!!

mmmm Marshmallows

Mikey and the poor kitty

Gracie sulking because she didn't want a picture

Dax

Breakfast!!!

Opening day, everyone got their orange!!

Poor kitty again. He froze.

Jerry and James. Twinners.

The Glovers

Chase and his girl (I can see the resemblance)

Clayton taking his baby girl for a ride

Sorry ladies, he's taken :)

Scoping out the bucks

The whole crew (minus Chase) Don't look too closely ;)

Falllllllll!!!

2010-10-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

I don't know if any of you ever feel the pressure to blog, but I sure do. Honestly, we have been so busy, but nothing worthy of a post. The biggest thing we are up to is Chad is building a fence for our yard. This project is HUGE. We saved some cash by buying the fence from scraps and Chad has had to sand the rust, re-paint, learn to weld, learn about rotting wood, and that's just to name a few. I'm so proud of this guy. I love his attention to detail. We get so many compliments on it and it makes the house look so classy. I can't wait to see it with Christmas lights! So even though this is no-big-news post, it's what we've been doing!!

Drying Logan apples. I love the colors.

Gracie and Mike testing the apples before church

Sorry Tay, you knew I'd post it :)

The kiddos

my very own handy man

We have the south side almost completely done

The kids LOVE to help. They are learning so much from him.

A side note: Roxy and Tie have become quite good friends. It is SO cute to watch! I love that they can play, then it keeps them off my couches!

Hi.

2010-10-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog, I really haven't forgotten about you. Life has slowed down and I don't have anything to update! So until next time........
Stay fresh.