Pictures of our new house, well sort of new....

our "reverent room"
Our front door and part of our "reverent room"
our kitchen, dinning area and looking onto our family room
our kitchen
our family room or "tv room" as we call it

My camera broke over the weekend, so I wanted to post some pictures I took a while ago. This is mainly a post for family and friends living far away that haven't visited Bagdad in a while. We moved into a different house about six months ago and so I am posting some pictures of our house. I am only posting pictures from the family room, reverent room (this is what we call our living room) and the kitchen dinning room.

I am going to try to get my camera fixed and working soon because we went on an awesome family campout this past weekend and I would love to post some pictures and tell a few stories.

My Daughter the librarian!!!

Sarah was doing her homework the other day and we were out in the backyard at the patio table and she told me that if she had my glasses on, she would be smarter. She looks just like a little Librarian! Then she also darted off her seat and ran through the sprinkler with Dot our tortouse, so she is wet in the pictures.... go figure....

Self Expression at it's best...

Cassidy has been on this kick lately that she wants to pick out her own clothes and she wants to dress however she wants. I gave her a few "fashion tips" about plaids, stripes, and what colors go with what, but her response was awesome and I couldn't argue with it. she said, "Well, if that is everyone's fashion that is fine, but I don't want to be like everyone else, I want to be ME, and this is the fashion that I like!!!" Kudos Cass, I wish I was as brave as you!

A soccer playing totrouse???!!!

O.K. here are some recent pictures of "Dot" our tortouse playing soccer and some of Will "watering her". Except, I am not sure we need her to grow any bigger, so maybe he should stop watering her.

Also, today after church I noticed that one of our heavy (about 25lb) lawn chairs was moving across the lawn. I ran to the window and saw that Dot was carrying this heavy chair on her back like it was as light as a feather and making her way across the yard. She sure is strong!!!! Brody has also been trying to get Dot to come "play" with him lately. What he does is go in front of her and bark at her to follow him and play. I am not quite sure how Dot responds, but they really seem to like each other. Also, the other day there were some noises off and on in the desert behind our house and Brody would stand over Dot, protecting in her and bark at the noises. What a sweet couple they make!!!

First Day of School (Again...)

The older kids started school on Monday and I would hate for them to not have their pictures posted as well..... Will wasn't quite so sure about letting all his siblings leave him alone with mom, but then again, he gets to be alone with mom........ Aren't Cassidy and Lund so old?????

California Trip #3 or Visiting Grandma Frazier

We really enjoyed going to the park near grandma's house and relaxing one evening

I am giong to add some more pictures and stuff that happened while on our trip to California. We had a lot of fun staying with Grandma Frazier and we really enjoyed playing "Rumicuba" with her and laughing hysterically and trying to concentrate on the game. I was all ready for my victory dance around the house, except I never won, so I will have to keep practicing that dance for another day.... Someday, I will dance.......

Grandma said that she wished she had Cassidy's hair, so we made it possible by borrowing Cassidy's hair for a few minutes...

Grandma has four arms... (this was Cassidy's invention and she even posed us and took the picture herself)

Can you find the Turtle?????

Can you find the hidden turtle???????
Sarah and her friend Canyon were playing in the backyard with Dot and they decided to "Hide" her under a whole bunch of peach leaves. So, test your eyes and see if you can find the hidden ginormous turtle????!!!!

Hanging with the Short family (California trip part 2)

All the kids together at the beach
Isn't this homemade tepee neat!!!!
"I am pretty sure I rule this house!!!"
Double trouble for sure!
Look, we killed him!!!

o.k. here is another blurb about California. I am going to try to add a blurb each day this week so that I can get caught up on all the memories made while visiting Cali. One of the things we did while in Cali was visit one of Morgan's best buds from high school, Brandon Short. He was also in my ward growing up and my big sister was baptized with him on the same day so they are BB's or Baptism Buddies. He is a twin and he and his wife have twin boys Andrew and Ethan or Alligator and Elephant as I called them. They are so adorable and so full of energy!!! On Friday, they took us to Newport beach and we had a great time watching Brandon teach my kids how to body board and watching her twins dig in the sand and run around. Mandi (Brandon's wife) is really awesome and totally offsets Brandon's rambunctious attitude. He has just as much energy as his boys do and so Mandi has her hands full with those boys! Then on Monday evening they invited the kids and I over for dinner and family night and we had a great time. Family night consisted of singing one song because the boys were so rambunctious and so I felt right at home. The twins also took a liking to wrestling with Lund and actually took him down a couple of times as a team. They work great as a team and could be called Team Energy or Team Destruction or Team Cuteness, you get the picture.. Double trouble for sure. We really appreciated their hospitality and maybe next time we will take Morgan along with us so he can see his best bud for himself! He! He!!

California Trip Part 1

Cassidy and Lund and I went on our first road trip and just got back this past Tuesday. Since there were so many pictures taken and a whole lot of memories made, I will have to segment it all into parts. So for part 1, I will talk about Cassidy and Lund's greatest enjoyment on the trip--- Body surfing, or boogy boarding or whatever you want to call it. They borrowed Brandon Short's body board and he taught them how to work it and then we didn't see them again for hours. They wouldn't come in to eat, rest, or anything. And they were really good about sharing since there was only one boogy board. We went to Newport Beach on Saturday and it was fun, but our favorite beach was Hunington Beach on Tuesday. It was just flatter and we parked close and the kids like the waves better. Here are a few pictures of my new "hang loose" kids....

1st Day of School for Sarah!!

The other kids all wanted to see her off, because their school starts on Monday.
Sarah and her pal from the ward, Canyon. Aren't they adorable together.....

So, Sarah started school this last Wednesday and I think I was WAY more nervous than she was. You see, she has bladder/bowel problems (I am sure you didn't want to know about that). We have been taking her to specialists at Phoenix Children's Hospital, but they aren't quite sure what to do. So anyway, I was really nervous about her starting Kindergarten because they go all day here and I just didn't think that she could handle something like that. So, I had a meeting with the principal and the teacher, who is magnificent and in our ward, and we decided to have her go to school from 11-2:30pm this year and then next year she will go all day. I am thrilled with the plan because it is less stress for her and it will give her a while to catch up and even to be ahead next year. I think that it will make her less anxious about school and it will help me be less anxious about her being in school. On her first day, I went to lunch with her in the cafeteria and then out to recess with her where she had her first accident. She and I quickly fixed her up so that "none of the other kids would know" as she put it and she was back in action. She has a special "magical purse" in her cubbie that has extra clothes for her and so when she has an accident, she doesn't have to tell anyone, she just gets up and gets her "magical purse" and takes care of herself. I hope this all works out because I am so stinkin' nervous for her. The teacher, Ms. Butler, says that she is doing wonderful. I am not quite sure why you need to know all of this, but this has been weighing heavily on me this week, so now you all know my life. Doesn't Sarah look adorable all ready for school????? I love my Sarah and her big brown eyes and happy smile!!!

My little smarty pants!!!

o.k. I just got back from my wonderful trip to California and I am going to do a bunch about that later, but I just had to post this picture because it is so super cute!!! Will was watching me get ready for church last Sunday and he looked super cute and so I put my glasses on him and he was instantly looking like a little smarty pants!! I just couldn't resist taking a picture!!!