WE'RE BACK!!

OK, so its been a while and I don't even know where to start...here are some random pics from this summer in no particular order since I don't know how to upload them right.

Chance's first day of Kindergarten! He was so excited to go!

Still kinda excited.....

Annnnddd not so excited anymore...

We went to TX for my little brother's high school graduation, here he is with mom & dad

And some of the rest or our brothers, missing Beej, Clint, and Kris

Nick came out to Colorado for a few days & we spent a day up in Rocky Mtn. National Park. Chance LOVES when family comes to visit!

So does Kenedi :)

We were able to drive higher than we ever have before because enough of the snow was melted. It was AWESOME!!

Chance turned 5 in June, he had a sweet Cars party, notice his matching shirt...

He had a lot of friends come, it was so fun! They had a pinata, pizza, bubble games, just lots of kid fun!!

Of course opening presents is the favorite part!

We went to Utah for the 4th of July, this is at the parade in Provo. We also went to the Jonas Brothers concert...they were surprisingly really good. Much better than Miley Cyrus last year :)

In August we went to Yellowstone with some friends, this pic is us trying to get through Wyoming, but had to wait for the cattle drive first. Wow, I didn't know they really did that anymore. Craig was dying to get out there.

Here we are at Old Faithful in Yellowstone...honestly I don't get it. It was cool, but I still don't really know what I was looking at.

The geysers (sp?) smelled like sulfur, pretty cool though.

Uncle Zac came with us on this trip, he was such a good sport, I think he had fun too!!

Chance's first day of Kindergarten! Kenedi really wanted to go too...

Craig's annual horse ride was turned into a motorcycle ride, they had a great time.

Alpine slides in Utah

Chance wanted to go superfast!

Riding the lift up to the alpine slides

Well, sorry this is short and not too witty, it's all the time I've got today. Hopefully when I get back from our upcoming trip I'll have a bit more time to put into this.

HERE WE GO!!

So its been a while and I have A LOT of catching up to do, I'll try to go in order...these are a few pics of my finger painters, I don't recommend trying this at home unless you want colored walls, clothes, floors, and maybe a little on the paper if you're lucky :)

I got a new pair of shoes a while back & Kenedi thought they were for her, she is such a girl...

My fam came in town over their spring break, we had a great time. They went boarding & we took the kids to the Denver Aquarium. This is Tristan with Chance, he came with BJ & Katherine. It was the first time he had a BOY to play with instead of all his girl cousins, they had so much fun it was adorable!!

While at the aquarium, my dad thought it would be fun to try to pet the fish...I guess now he knows what the "Please do not touch the water" signs are for...

Toot toot & grandma hit it off big time, it was really cute, she didn't want me just "mee-maa"

"Pa-pa" and toot looking through the bottom of an aquarium...

There's this spot at the end where you can pet the stingrays, here is a rear view of our group, I thought it was kinda funny, you can see the little feet dangling too :)

Me & the kiddos drove back to good 'ole TEXAS with my fam so that I could go to work & they could play with some of their favorite people....or toys whatever :)

Chance had so much fun playing with the big boys, he was in boy heaven! Doesn't Dustin look thrilled to be in this picture?

Almost everyday the kids wanted to feed the horses, this is them feeding Ozzy some carrots

Kenedi & Uncle Nick, who she quickly took a liking to, she even went with him to his friends house a few times.

Nick & Hannah....awww so cute...

It seems like every year we are in Texas for at least one of my kiddos' birthdays, Kenedi turned 2 while we were there. She wasn't sure what to make of the candles.

The birthday supporters :)

Once we got the candles off she thoroughly enjoyed herself (notice the hair: the humidity gave her a fro big time)

After the cake we all piled in the van & took her to Walmart to pick out her own presents. It was really fun just to give her free reign & see what she went for, she picked out a bubble machine which she LOVES!!

The town of Mead (where we live) had a little town Easter egg hung, it was really cute (and cold, what the heck its freakin April right? It snowed today, I repeat, what the heck??)

The kiddos with their loot, I was surprised they did so well, especially in the 0-3 year age group, there were some really aggressive PARENTS trying to make sure their kids got the most, I almost had to throw some elbows...

After the hunt we went home and colored eggs, again, not necessarily recommended (notice Kenedi is topless)

On Easter morning we were killing time since church now starts at 1:00 (Ugh!) so me & Chance made this cute little bunny cake, this is definitely the extent of my craftiness (and to be honest, anybody that took home-ec sp? at Midlothian Middle School probably recognizes this)

I am really sorry, I don't know why there are no pics of my handsome hubby, he spent the last month or so flying all over the U.S. and I had the camera, so for all those wondering, he is still part of our family, I just don't seem to have any pics taken lately :)

All ready for Easter Sunday! Aren't they so cute?

Chance carried around his new (my old) scriptures all morning, but when we actually got to church he forgot them...it was devastating.

Apparently I am not the only one who liked these cute, cheap, matching outfits since half of the kids in my ward had on the same outfits! It was actually quite funny :)

So the Easter pics were taken on Sunday, it is Friday, and look how Chance how to go to school...there is something wrong when it is raining & snowing in April.

The latest...

This post will be a bit out of chronological order since I can never seem to upload my pics right, so sorry in advance. Today we went to the park, here are my 3 children climbin around...Toot Toot as we call her loved the tire swing

See how happy she is at the top of the slide??

Then when her very helpful big brother snuck up behind her and gave her a little push without warning, the smile was quickly replaced with terror

The little goof thought it was funny, he then went down right behind her & landed on top of her at the bottom, we could feel the love.

So we got this new couch made of microfiber, apparently it causes a little static (which is so annoying!) but it is quite funny when you hold the pillows above toots head!

Kenedi got her first haircut this past week. It only looks halfway decent when it is fixed, I think I made it worse but I had to get rid of the mullet & the bangs always in her eyes. Instead of having them in her eyes, apparently I went for the dumb & dumber look...sorry honey!

Craig turned the big 30 a week ago, here are he & Chance blowing out the candle on his banana cream pie (I know, weird for a bday cake, but what the birthday boy wants the birthday boy gets ;)) I am so lucky to have Craig in my life, he is better to me than I deserve (except he was actually kind of rude to me today) & he is the best daddy I could ever want for my kids.

OK so this is the cutest story about my sweet Chance that I have to share:

About a week ago I was moving some decorations around & noticed that a picture was missing from my picture board, I couldn't remember what pic it was and soon forgot about it. The next morning I went in to make Chance's bed and this is what I saw on his night stand:

I know you probably can't tell but its a pic of his grandpa. When I picked it up to put back on the picture board he started crying and promising me he wouldn't tear or bend it if he could just please keep it in his room. Seriously, doesn't that just make you want to cry? Its times like this especially when I hate living away from family, because I know my kids miss everyone so much. And yes, those are Christmas lights you see hanging off of Chance's bed, he has them strung around his room & plugs them in every night, apparently a night light & a flash light just don't cut it!

This is pre-hair cut but you will notice, she has a total shoe fettish (and she likes to haul around the training potty) she has on different shoes, neither of which would I ever put on her with that outfit! Isn't her cheese face a crackup?

The day before the above picture, she came into the office to show me her stylin outfit...we may have to start working on her fashion sooner rather than later, notice the shoes...she will make me put her tennis shoes on even over her feet pajamas, she is always putting on shoes, which is cute but actually very annoying!!!

Sorry...Can't Think of a Title...

OK, so I have A LOT to catch up on...this will be totally out of order because I can never figure out how to get the pictures where I want them :) This is our attack cat Figero (aka figgy wiggy). He loves to go after the kids. Notice my new chair sitting in our TV cut out cause I didn't measure before I bought and now have nowhere else to put it....suggestions?

We went ice skating a few days after Christmas with some of mine & Craig's sibs, it was so fun. This is Chance & I trying to get off the ice, he didn't quite get the whole not trying to run on the ice with your skates on idea.
Some of us just holdin the wall up, Craig can't figure out why he looks like a giant next to everyone else in this pic :)
The Larsen family, I have to say, Kinsey did awesome! Aren't they just so cute??

This was one of Chance's fave Christmas presents, the King from the movie Cars. This is us in the car on our way to do the Salvation Army deliveries on Christmas morning. It was a lot of fun, sometimes its hard for me to want to go first thing on Christmas morning, but I always end up glad that I did. It helps put things into perspective you know?

Kenedi opening her presents from Santa, she totally got into the paper ripping. She & Chance both helped us open our presents too :)

If you can't tell, Chance has a Cars thing going on right now. This was a tractor from the movie, he had made me watch probably 100 commercials on this darn toy. Yes, he knows how to pause the tv, come and get me, then unpause it so that I can watch the commercial. Does that mean he watches too much tv? Or is he just really smart? Hmmmm.

Christmas Eve just wouldn't be complete without our live Nativity. Don't these three men just look so wise? Thats what I thought.

Seriously, I doubt Joseph was quite this cute :)

So Craig borrowed some sweet pants from his grandpa's closet...aren't I a lucky girl? You should see the even sweeter shorts he got for Christmas from my brother Nick. I might get in trouble for explicit material with the blogger authorities if I posted the pics of him in the shorts :) Lets just say they let him breathe plenty....

A couple of days before Christmas all the Copples drove to Flagstaff to ride on the Polar Express train, it was really fun for the kids. You may not be able to tell by this pic of Kenedi & her crazy hair.

When we got to the North Pole Santa boarded the train & handed out bells to all of the kids, this is Chance raising his hand to tell Santa he was a good boy this year...which he was. Especially when we ate dinner earlier that evening and forced him to eat when he said he wasn't hungry, then immediatly after eating (still sitting in the restaurant) he proceeds to barf up everything he ate. He didn't make a peep, just puked in his cup, said he still wasn't hungry, and walked off. I know, we deserve awards for being the best parents ever. Sadly we don't have a pic of that...I know you're disapointed.

During the train ride, the conducter & his elf helpers read the story of the Polar Express, which the kids got to follow along in their own books :) This is Chance, Cailyn, & Talli. These three can cause quite a rukus when they are together.

Me & my buddy waiting for the train to start. Do you think he's excited?

Chance & Talli just chillin...literally, it was colder than Colorado!

Our little fam waiting to board the train....like I said, colder than Colorado. It snowed like 37 feet that night, almost.

Part of the fun of the Polar Express is you get to wear your PJ's on the train, so all of the grandkids got new matching pj's to wear. Chance was so excited he FINALLY has someone he can match!! Woohoo for Chance & Drew :)

All the kiddos in their new duds...don't expect us to get all of them posed & smiling....or even looking at the camera.

Chance had a Christmas program with his preschool. It was held at this church build in the 1800's, it had no electricity or insulation & it was probably around -20 degrees outside. Hense the angel that looks like he's on steroids. We won't mention that he was the only male angel since all of the other males chose to be wise men...This is him telling santa he wants a race car & a gun helicopter whatever that is.

So his preschool is a Christian (but not LDS) school. This is the group singing Chance's very favorite song, "Mary had a baby, YES LORD!!" repeated about 100 times getting louder with every verse.

We made treats for our neighbors & some people in our ward before going out of town for Christmas. This is Kenedi "helping", we can pretend that spoon got washed before reusing :)

My other little helper, his favorite part is rolling the peanut butter cookies in the sugar & putting the hershey kisses on. He is actually becoming quite the little helper. Please disregard all of the mess in this pic.

Kenedi protecting Dixie (the dog) from Figgy (the cat). Yes, my hubby likes to sneak the dogs in the house occasionally....it better only be occasionally :)

Anyone who has talked to Chance in the last couple of months has more than likely heard the name Trudy a time or two. Here she is, they made a gingerbread house together, he says she's his best friend. Yeah!! He's making friends :)

Good Times!!

WINTER IS HERE!!!

Ooops, I left the car out last night! This is what it looked like after Craig shoveled it off, I thought we were gonna have to miss church...

Doesn't this guy (Cameron) remind you of Dustin? They are about the same age and have very similar personalities too. He is the sweetest kid, loves Kenedi to death! Even though she scowls at him constantly, he never gives up.

We had some families from the ward over to make gingerbread houses. The kids had so much fun, although it was kind of messy!

Yes, this is in our front yard. Its pretty cool unless you need to go somewhere fast.

Kenedi doesn't like the cold too much....or her mittens.

The dogs love the snow, we are thinking about making them sledding dogs...any suggestions?

The kids ready to go play in the snow for the first time this year!! Don't they look happy?

We can't keep Figero out of our Christmas tree! He is obsessed with trying to get the ornaments down, its a good thing we got the shatterproof Costco sweet ornaments huh?

Thanksgiving:

This year we went to Texas for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun. My only complaint is that I had to work for 3 solid days!! But it was still a really good trip. There were 33 people over for the dinner so it was loud and crazy which makes it more fun right? We saw more movies in that one week than I have seen the whole past year! I saw Madagascar 2 (which of course was on my must see list), Twilight!! (which I loved & want to see again), and Australia (which was long, but overall pretty good...and Hugh Jackman is pretty hot...huh?). We ate lots of good food thanks to Mom & Aunt Susan and just had an overall great time!!

They had to rake leaves before they could build their bonfire so that they didn't catch the whole yard on fire! Of course even leaf raking is fun with Grandpa running the show.

Chance at one with nature. Too bad he missed the grass.

Grandpa's specialty, homemade rootbeer. The kiddos go nuts over it.

These two were inseparable. It was so cute for Chance to finally have a BOY to play with!! Maybe now he won't play with dolls so much...hmmmm.

Check out these wheels...the guys were driving the girls around. It was so cute, although they didn't quite understand that they weren't bumper cars.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you, I am on Ozzy. Only for a few minutes though. We tried to get a family pic but the animals were not cooperating...the four legged ones that is.

Part of the Thanksgiving gang, the coolest part :)

My little cowboy!

So much fun!

Best buds, hanging out in the tent in grandpa's room. Watching movies, how cute is this?? They even slept in it at night :)

Random:

I thought it was awfully quiet...

Our sweet 5 Star Hotel In Colorado Springs...on Pfizer of course :)

October...

October has been a busy month! I went on the annual girls trip which was a total blast!! See Marianne's blog for pics (she is the picture taker of us gals). The very next weekend we went back to Cali for the annual Copple California trip which was soooo fun. We hung out at the beach, swam in the pool, & took the kids to DISNEYLAND!! We had a great time. Then was Halloween, which the kids were both sick so we forced them into their costumes & to a couple of houses in our neighborhood just to say they went trick-or-treating :) The next night Craig & I got to go to a BYU vs. CSU football game with a bunch of people from our ward. It was really fun, except this dude sitting right by us was totally obnoxious. I wanted to kill him, he was screaming the entire time, banging on the benches, jumping up & down, swinging things around, just being a total dork! Here are some pics for those of you who have been aking :) I also added a few videos, pretty funny stuff... This dude wat out of control at the football game, he was hoarse by halftime...
Actually a really good game even for non football watchers :)

The kids were sick on Halloween, so this is the only shot of them. Blue Power Ranger & Stinky Monkey!!

Nana & the kiddos minus baby Drew waiting for the parade to start

Where dreams come true :)

Riding the train around, it was really hot!

Chance was scared of Buzz Lightyear, but he loved the ride!

Craig took this pic while the teacups were spinning...

Chance & Cousin Talli, how cute are they??

Chance found some sweet shades

Sandcastles!!

The 2 Ken's :)


So Chance LOVES to watch Tom & Jerry. The other night I walk in my room & he is doing this crazy boxing dance along with Tom in front of the TV, this video doesn't quite do it justice but it was hilarious!!

This is of Chance's first soccer game, you can't miss him :)

Misc. Update...

A couple of weeks ago Chance had his first soccer game...he doesn't quite get it & wants to quit after about five minutes...but doesn't he look cute anyways?? This pic looks like he is actually playing but the problem is, he was kicking the ball in the wrong direction :)
And if he wasn't kicking it towards the wrong goal, then he was always kicking it out of bounds...we're working on our soccer skills, we need some of his uncles to come work with him!!

After Chance's first soccer game we went to the train museum in Golden where Thomas was visiting!! We got to ride on him, the kids had a ball! We didn't want to wait in line for the close up pictures with Thomas, so we improvised :)
Me & the kiddos ridin on Thomas
Again the line thing...& Chance was a little scared of Sir Toppom Hat

Don't you think he'd make a pretty girl?

Big man all ready for his first primary program in church...isn't he a stud?? Don't look too close or you'll see some remaining marker on his hairline.

The kids got ahold of Figero again...doesn't he look happy?

Today we went on a field trip with Chance's preschool. We went to a pumpkin patch & took hayrides & got to pick out pumpkins. Chance loved it! (I don't know why this is underlined & half blue & can't figure out how to change it) He wanted a green pumpkin instead of orange like everybody else...go figure :)
On the ride into the pumpkin patch. Kenedi refused to look up.
The view from the patch....ahhhhhhh.