I just couldn't resist

So I just stumbled upon this picture and it brought me so many memories.......do you guys remember how dramatic and theatrical those girls would get when they got together? We have hours and hours worth of videos of those girls performing for the camera and the future viewers.

Boys day out

My sweet boys went out on a date. We like doing it with one on one child. Both Troy and I and the kids always have so much fun. And it sure makes kids feel special. Looks like boys had fun!!!

Looking back

I just found this picture of my kids with grandma Tatiana. We had so much fun that day. We miss you Grandma.....come back soon.

When Brooklyn saw this picture she just laughed so hard and said," I.Am.so.funny." I'm glad that she has such a good sense of herself that she can laugh at herself and not be embarrassed.

Rylee's First Talk At Church

The Temple Is a Blessing for Me and My Family

“And verily I say unto you, let this house be built unto my name, that I may reveal mine ordinances therein unto my people” (D&C 124:40).
I want to learn to live my life worthy to go to the temple and have an eternal family.
Heavenly father loves all of his children, and wants us to live again together as families in heaven. Heavenly Father and Jesus have shown us a way for this to happen.
The Temple is a special place where we can make promises to Heavenly Father, and Heavenly Father will make promises to us. A husband and wife can go to the Temple to be sealed together forever. Their children can also be sealed as a part of their family forever. This is a special blessing is given only to those who are sealed in the Temple and keep the promises they make there.
I want to live worthy of Temple blessings. Being worthy means that we are living our lives in a way that Heavenly Father wants us to.
As primary children, we can prepare to go to the Temple by following the commandments, and the advise of the Prophet. We should learn to be kind to others, be honest, obey our parents, and pay our tithing.
I’m thankful that Heavenly Father has sent you to a loving family. I’m happy to know that he has provided a way for us to live together forever. I know if we obey his commandments, we will be happy.

In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Rylee, you did such a good job! We are so proud of you.

I hope I'm alive by tomorrow...

So, I just shampooed my carpet and a few hours later was finding candy wraps on my floor....man, I was upset at my kids.....The fallowing morning as I came downstairs I saw another paper wrapper, thinking to myself,"what kind of candy is it? I don't recall seeing candy with this wrapper." As I brought wrapper to my view a horror strike my soul...."Oh, My Gush!" This is not a candy wrapper, it is SNAKES SKIN!!!!!!

Help, how do I get rid of snake?

My Childhood home!

So the other day my brother in law, Mike, was showing us this system on the interned, were you can find any place on the planet and if some one has taken picture and uploaded it to the system, then you can see it.... Just out of curiosity, my mom and I were trying to find the street we use to live on in St. Petersburg, Russian, and all be darn, some one has actually been there and have taken a picture of OUR HOUSE.....can you believe it? I about fainted, when this image came up...THIS IS MY CHILDHOOD HOME....(if you look at the left corner, it is fourth flour, the window behind a tree.) That was were I grew up!!!
How grateful am I for technologies of today!!! And for who ever it was that was inspired to take a picture of this building....thank you stranger!!!
I was able to walk Troy through streets of my neighborhood and tell him a little storeys here and then, find my school where I walked to as a kid and stores were I shopped for bread and such....it was as though, we got to see a little slice of my childhood home town and I got to share it with Troy. It was really neat!

~I have been taged~ Now you have been taged also~Thanks Alli~

Two names I go by:
1. Hun
2. Mom
Two things you are wearing right now:
1. PJs
2. Garments
Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. Have all of my to do list for this week be done
2. Go to the movie and just chill
Two people who will fill his out:
1. who knows
2. my freind
Two things you did last night:
1. Tought Young Womens class
2. Made russian food with my mom
Two things you ate yesterday:
1. Russian food
2. chocolate
The Last Two people you talked to:
1. Mom
2. My kids
Two things your are doing today (or did):
1. Going to sushi restorant (yes!!!!)
2.Cleaning my yard (yack!!)
Two longest car rides:
1. Rexburg Idaho to Disney land
2. Grace Idaho to Ohio
Two favorite beverages:
1. Diet coke
2. Herbal Concentrate, by Herbalife...it's is VERY good.

Mom's cooking

Grandma is in town!!!!! She always spoils us rotten. Today after church we were making "pelmenie".
Pelmeni are one of the most ancient of traditional Russian foods and have born many names through the centuries. Most historians agree that they originated in Siberia and were probably named by the Komi, a people indigenous to the Urals. In their native tongue, “pelnyan” means “dough-ear,” a reference to the food’s half-circular shape. When the word crossed into Russian, it changed a bit (as most words crossing language barriers do) to “pelmen,” whose proper plural in Russian is “pelmeni.” In English they are known most often only in the plural, perhaps because it is nearly impossible to eat just one of the juicy morsels. Chinese called it pot-stickers and east European pirogies are cousins to pelmeni. Italy also borrowed the concept and created ravioli, which, at least in appearance, are pelmeni’s closest relatives. And now you know a little history behind this russian food.
Troy, however, had his one creation going on...he insisted in putting as much cheese inside as it was possible. It was kind of funny.
They were delicious!!! Thank you mom!

Drew is 5 now!!!

My little boy has turn 5 years old! Boy, time goes by so fast.
He has been waiting for his birthday for so long. It seems that the whole world was having a birthday for the past 3 months or so. It was hard for Drew to understand why he couldn't have his birthday yet...On the morning of his birthday he came to wake me up and as I gave him his birthday kiss his eyes just lit up.."Oh, yeaaa!" he said. He was so excited that it was finally here.
We went to Chuk E Cheese's with some of his little friends and had a good time.
We love you Drew!

My 5 year old stud!
Drew is very lucky to have Rylee in his life. She was bugging us for almost 2 weeks about all the details of Drew's party and what she is going to get him for his birthday.
His little friends. Thanks to all of you for being there for Drew's special day.
The Chukee!!!

ME in Pictures

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name. (kid version: favorite animal?)

OK...just in case you wondering, here are my answers in words to the pictures I picked.

1. Anya

2. Apples

3. #84

4. Green

5. Troy (my husband that is)

6. Love water, miss diet coke

7. Small town in France

8. Strawberry short cake

9. Pure

10. My family

11. Hopeful

12. Her and I share the same love for daisies

And here how you can play:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.b. Using only the first page, pick an image.c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

Fourth of July

(Troy writing)

We had a great family day. We had a BBQ together and took quite a hike up the Bridal Veil falls yesterday afternoon. We took our Dog "Halo" and all the kids including Brooky. Its was much steeper than I ever remember it and some spots where you'd tumble and break every bone in your body if you actually lived through it... so it was a fun adventure and by the time we reached the top, the mists and sheets of falling water were a great reward for the climb. We forgot our camera, but asked a stranger to take a picture and email it to us!

We bought a box of fireworks and had quite a blast with the kids lighting them last night... then we watched a movie. Anya leaves for a Girls Camp tomorrow through Friday. So most of next (July7-11) week I'll be Mr. Mom tending the kids while she's gone. She's never been gone for this long from the kids before. She got some gifts so each day the kids can search for hidden treasures and open something that will remind them of her. Wish us luck!

Troy's post

So Anya was reading the children's book "Pippy-Long Stockings" to Rylee tonight (with a bit of a Russian accent of course)
But both Rylee and I had to laugh each time Anya called her "pee-pee" long stockeeengs. uh, yeah.. I guess I just admitted to listening to my wife read pippy long stockings to me~ DOH!

Her Little Attitude

Brook entertains us on a daily basis with her 3 yr old talk. Tonight Brooky was playing her V-smile video game and could NOT figure out the alphabet which was driving her dad nuts.. so he said "Brook, I don't wan't to watch you play this freaking game anymore"... and brook said "Oh Dad, just go to your room and watch your own TV" and proceeded to let him know that he had his OWN TV upstairs in his room and this TV was hers. It was pretty funny.

B-ball went well this weekend. We had 6 games! Hailey and the other freshmen played great in the Friday night ("Varsity") game. Some older girls that hadn't been playing for the summer league team showed up, so then Angela (head coach) ended up with too many girls. On Saturday, Hailey played in one "Varsity" game, but because there were so many girls, didn't get as much playing time and sat out the entire first half, which was frustrating for her. Angela decided to have Hailey and Kalen "pick a number" to see who would play in the last "Varsity" game on Saturday, and Kalen won the pick, so Hailey played with her Freshmen team and good thing, because they won their very first game ever! It was a tough one, too. They played a really good team from Puyallup. The final score was 28 to 27, so it was a real nail biter.After Hailey's game, we went to support the "Varsity" team as they were playing against rival Shadle. Brigid and Kalen from Hailey's Freshman team played in that game. They hung in there for about the first 15 mins (they play two 20 minute halfs) but sort of fell apart and lost really badly. She practices on Mons & Tues from 6 – 8. The games will be on Weds & Thurs. They're playing in tournaments on the weekends, too. Last night they practiced with all the girls, and even more girls showed up. I guess there are some other girls that don't want to turn out for summer league, but will probably turn out for the regular season. It sounds like they'll have three summer league teams. Angela will be dividing them up tonight and telling them which team (or teams, she had me sign Hailey up for two) they'll be playing on. So, things changed a little from what I knew last week. We'll see what happens. Angela said that she wants them to play a lot of basketball. They are definitely "team building" and the next season (or two) might be pretty tough. They have a car wash fundraiser this weekend. All of the girls seem really nice and Hailey is excited to play

Way to go Hailey!

We found out last night that Hailey (and three others from her NC Freshman tournament team that she’s been playing on) was invited to play up with the older team (Varsity/JV) for the high school summer league season. What a HUGE honor! So, she’ll be playing on two teams for the summer. She’ll also be going to a mandatory conditioning camp and basketball camp(s) and playing in three or four tournaments.