Brian and Elise's Family

October 2011

2012-01-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

Our October post is basically just Halloween, which is really exciting around here.

This picture is of Grant's class singing some songs. Grant is in the very bottom left (as you look at him).

Mr. Grant (Mario)

Mr. Ethan (Luigi)

These guys LOVE trick or treating. Our neighborhood is AWESOME, as far as trick or treating goes.

This is how Lily spent her time trick or treating.

I'm sure you can tell, we have a Super Mario Bros theme here. Ethan is Luigi, Grant is Mario, Sasha is Princess Peach, and Lily is a bumblebee (from Super Mario Galaxy).

September 2011

2012-01-19T14:44:00.000-08:00

In September, Lily learned how to walk. (I hope the video works. I'm so sorry if it doesn't.)

The kids had fun running in the sprinklers.

Brian spent a lot of time building a cider press that attaches to our picnic table . . .

and then he pressed apples to make some really yummy cider.

We learned that you can heat up the cider and pour it into old beer bottles and cap them, and they keep quite well. There has been one exception, unfortunately . . .

I ran a 5k. I really enjoyed it, but do wish that I had been able to run with Angie, like we had planned. I'm so sorry that Angie got sick . . . bummer!

We went out for my birthday. When we came home, the kids and our babysitter had a couple of signs up and suprised me . . . it was really fun.

August 2011

2012-01-19T10:12:00.000-08:00

Some friends that we made in South Carolina came to visit us in August. Our kids had a lot of fun playing with their kids. It was really great having them. One day, we took them to Yellowstone.

Here we are, waiting for Old Faithful.

There was a little activity at Reed's dairy as well. The boys enjoyed their rides on the horses.

Sasha wanted a little company. I went with my friend, Rachel, and her kids.

I really wish that I had taken pictures of the kids with their ice cream cones. The cones were discounted for this activity, so I decided to get the kids big waffle cones. They were HUGE! I don't think anyone actually finished their waffle cones. I shared mine with Lily and it was still way too big!

July 2011 - Part 2

2012-01-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

In July, we had a family reunion on the Jenkins side in Colorado. We all settled in the car with the TV and the Wii and drove there. My parents rented a condo in a mountain town and we stayed there one night. It was so nice to see everyone.

My mom brought a lot of candy so the kids could play a game with them (and of course, eat them). This is my mom with Sasha and Sasha's cousin, Camden.

Here's Grant playing the same game with my cousin's daughter.

And Ethan, Camden, my cousin's daughter, with my Dad and beautiful pregnant sister in the background. She's definitely amazing. She was very close to her due date, yet she still traveled all the way from Arkansas to Colorado. Everything turned out just great, she had her little Aiden when she was back home in Arkansas.
Lily was a little sick of the car by the end. Here, we are taking a bathroom break, breather while she enjoys a bit of freedom in the car.

There was all sorts of fun stuff going on at the reunion. The boys loved making foam visors.

So did Sasha.

It was a lot of fun going to the reunion and seeing all of my family. Thankfully, next time, our kids will be a bit older. It's so much easier traveling with older children . . .

July 2011 - Part 1

2012-01-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

We had fun celebrating Independence Day weekend. Diane came up from California, and Julie and her family came up from Utah. We had a wonderful weekend with family.

What could be better than sliding into a pool full of water? Maybe . . . toasted marshmallows . . .

Gotta love those fireworks!!!

There is a splash park up in Rexburg that the kids loved playing in. There is a carousel close by. That was a blast as well.
Julie and Jeff stayed in our house. Sasha shared her bed with Kate. So cute!

Grant's birthday

2012-01-16T12:13:00.000-08:00

So, in an effort to play catch up, I will start with Grant's birthday in June.

We had a birthday party for him with his friends. It was a lot of fun.

He asked for a soccer ball birthday cake. This was actually a lot of fun to make.
Time for presents!!!

We played some games outside for the activity. The kids seemed to have fun.

This was definitely a highlight for Grant. He thought the free presents were awesome and was talking about how he was looking forward to his birthday party next year. Unfortunately for him, we don't plan on doing friend birthday parties every year . . . maybe another time though.

Lily's 1st birthday

2011-06-25T06:49:00.000-07:00

I figured since I have so much that I need to catch up on, I would start on Lily's birthday and work backwards.

Lily really enjoyed her birthday cake.

This is the cake that I made for Lily. It was so much fun!

I hope these videos work and that you enjoy them. Lily does love to be the center of attention. She is such a sweet girl.

More pics of the kids . . . but mostly Lily

2011-03-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

Lily and Jax

We spent some time at Melissa and Zac's house a while back, and they got the Legos out. It was fun to see everyone playing with them.

Lily LOVES paper. That is better to her than any toy she could have.

Sledding

2011-03-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

In January, Ethan's class had a sledding party for a behavior reward. Siblings were invited as well, so we all went. I believe that was Brian's friday off. The kids LOVED it! It was a lot of fun.

Ethan's 7th birthday party

2011-02-17T15:03:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Ethan's birthday with some of his school friends in the middle of January. Here are some of the pictures that we took.

I made a Dragon cake for him and he chose to go with a "How to train a dragon" theme.

Here they are playing "Viking Says".

They had a lot of fun when Brian was the viking . . .

I made a paper mache dragon egg for a pinata. It wasn't very strong, so we had to tie it up with some strap. They did have a lot of fun swinging at the pinata.

This pinata has just about had it . . .

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Here is everyone that came to the party.

Back row L to R: Trey, Kaylie, Dylan, Zoe
Front row L to R: Jonny, Grant, Ethan, Emma

Sasha was about to get in the picture and we did take pictures with Sasha in them, but they looked a little chaotic.

Ethan opens his presents.

They all had a really fun time. I planned the party, and Brian pulled it off. He's great with groups and kids! What's not to love? After his party, Ethan was talking about his next party. It was pretty funny.

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Random pictures

2011-02-13T16:04:00.000-08:00

I love Lily's sweet face.

One fun thing about having a little girl is finding random stuffed animals/dolls lying in Lily's crib with a blanket over them.

BATHTIME!

Lily at 7 months old.

The snow is so much fun . . . we are ready for spring though.

Sasha has two new favorite activities . . . playing dress up and getting her picture taken.

Christmas 2011

2011-01-23T15:20:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from Christmas day and Ethan's birthday.

Some of the boys presents . . .

Hello Sasha!

After opening our presents at home Christmas morning, we went up to Alta and spent the day with Brian's family. Ethan is opening his birthday and Christmas presents from Grandpa and Grandma.

Grant did love his Christmas present . . .

Lily was asleep while everyone was opening their presents, but later in the week, I got a picture of her relaxing with Grant.

We did celebrate Ethan's birthday, but didn't take pictures. There will be pictures from a friends birthday party that we had for him just recently.

Sasha's 3rd birthday

2011-01-15T14:51:00.000-08:00

On the 18th of December, Sasha turned 3. I can't believe that she is already three. Where did the time go? A lot of our family came. It was so nice of you all to come, thank you!

Sasha blew out her candles all in one blow.

I love the look on Sasha's face. She was so sweet and thankful for her gifts.

She also liked the princess attire.

Happy Birthday little Sasha!

I have to tell you a funny story, to me anyway. The boys were wearing their "play" clothes, so I asked them to change into nicer clothes. After they changed, the came up wearing nice white dress shirts. I figured I did ask them to dress up in nicer shirts. Funny boys!

Lily at 6 months old

2011-01-11T11:08:00.000-08:00

It looks like we had some little fingers touch the lens of our camera, so some of these pictures are blury. They are fun pictures of Lily though. Here is Lily at 6 months old, even though that was a month ago.

California

2011-01-10T15:51:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving in California with Brian's family. It was so much fun! Julie, Jeff and their children were visiting from Utah. Diane was also there. We spent the Thanksgiving holiday with Melissa, Zac and Teagan, who were very gracious hosts. Me, Brian and the kids stayed in a hotel close by. It was so much fun and the kids LOVED playing with their cousins.

Diane brought up the wonder blocks, which are always a lot of fun!

We even got to spend some time at the beach. It was a lot of fun! The boys loved playing in the water. It was a little cool, but they still had a blast!

Even Lily seemed to enjoy it. Actually, she had a hard time. She didn't sleep very well, which made everything not much fun for her. She does have a cute smile though . . .

I love this picture of our beautiful children . . .

Ethan wanted to be buried in the sand. Wish granted . . . Brian and Diane made him into a merman.

While we were down in California, we went to Disneyland. We spent a bit of time at the Lego store. Here are the kids with Lego Woody.

There was a beautiful Christmas tree just after the entrance to Disneyland.

We first rode the Dumbo ride. We could control if we went up or down. The kids loved that part.

The boys could get me to feeling a little sick. I may have had a turn or two.

It's a small world . . .

Diane and some of her grandchildren.

Sasha was able to see some of the Disney princesses. She's loved anything princess ever since.

Sweet Lilly . . .

2010-11-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted much about Lilly. She is now five months old and is so sweet. She has kind of amazed us. All of our children have been very easy babies, but Lilly is by far the easiest. Many times after naps or in the morning, I have to go get her. She won't let me know that she is awake. And when I go in, she has a huge smile on her face. She smiles so easily also. I love this little girl so much!!!

It is kind of funny . . . it looks like we have given up one thumb sucker for another one. Grant, it seems, has given it up (though he may still suck his thumb a little bit at night), while Lilly seems to go for her thumb quite a bit. Anytime she is tired, she loves her thumb.

Our sweet Lilly . . .

Basement

2010-11-17T12:07:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted about our basement at all. We are in the middle of finishing it. I thought I would include some pictures. We are done with the paint, except for touch ups. We also finally have some lights up. We have been using a flood light to get to this point, so the lights up in the ceiling are sooooooooo nice to have. Now, Brian is just working on putting the built ins in. As you can see, he has just put up part of the kids play area. I will do another post when we're finished. We can't wait!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

2010-11-09T08:34:00.000-08:00

For Halloween this year, the boys were punk rockers. As you can tell, they thought it was pretty fun. I really should have gotten orange hair paint, the blue just doesn't show up as well . . . oh well.

At school, there was a parade of all the kids in their costumes. Here is Grant. Since he is in the morning kindergarden class, his parade was separate from the rest of the school. I didn't get Ethan in his parade because it was CRAZY! There were kids everywhere, parents and teachers everywhere, not to mention the siblings that aren't in school yet. Anyway, I guess that's my excuse.

Our neighborhood is AWESOME for trick or treating. It is so much fun! You can see that Sasha was a ladybug.

And this is what she looked like from the front.

And sweet Lilly was a bunny. She was awesome while we were trick or treating. She enjoyed just looking around until she fell asleep.

The kids were sooooooo tired afterwards. Ethan even got a little sick. We thought it was from too much candy, then Lilly and I got sick. Thank goodness we're better now.

Day Camping

2010-10-31T14:55:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we went day camping up in Bone, ID. Ethan found tons of animal bones, and had so much fun searching for them. He also wanted to bring them home . . . so we decided to take pictures instead.

I love their smiles!

The kids got to go on a trip with Uncle Jake. They loved it!

Here we are playing monopoly. The boys love to play monopoly, even though we all know who is usually ahead. I don't think we have ever played until the game is over, which may be why the boys love it. We have a lot of fun!

Ethan's first baby tooth lost . . .

2010-09-27T13:31:00.001-07:00

Ethan lost his first tooth on Friday. Here he is to show how he looks minus a tooth.

This feels like a major milestone to me. I think it is because he's starting to loose his baby teeth, and even though he's not a baby and hasn't been for quite a while, this is his way of telling me, "I'm not a baby anymore mom" . . . I guess I need to act accordingly. It's so rewarding to see them grow up, but is quite hard at the same time. My little Ethan . . . wonderful boy.

Lillian turns three months old

2010-09-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

Here is Lilly at three months old.

Here are our beautiful girls.

I have the best video, but I can't get it to work. Hopefully I can figure it out, so I can post it soon.

Bikes, School and a little mischief

2010-09-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

In August, Grant learned how to ride his bike without training wheels (with a little help from Dad). He loves it now! Now he can keep up with Ethan.

Lilly also turned 2 months old in August . . . but she is now 3 months old. Those pictures will be coming soon.

Sasha's the mischievous one in this post. It's funny, I have a picture of Ethan very similar to this one of Sasha. I had just given Lilly a bath and Sasha was next. Unfortunately, she forgot to take her clothes off.

And here is our makeup artist . . .

School started on August 30th. Here the boys are waiting at their bus stop . . .

and getting on the bus. If you look at the picture pretty close, you can see that Grant is quite excited. The boys have loves school so far. Grant's first day was rough, but I think that's mainly because I was there (it was only an hour and they asked that someone come with the student). He's loved it ever since. Now I have the two girls at home during the day. It is quite nice going shopping with only the two girls, though I think Sasha misses the excitement that the boys provided.

July 2010

2010-09-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

There was a company picnic at the end of July. The kids had a ball. They had about 10-15 blow up toys and also little games that the kids could play to get prizes (they got prizes no matter how well they did). There was also all you can eat/drink cotton candy, snow cones, pop, dinner and Schwan's ice cream. This was all free.

Lilly enjoyed her day in the stroller either napping or just hanging out. What a great little girl!

Ethan took this picture of a raspberry plant. I figured I should at least post a picture to show how we have spent some of our time this summer.

And our little children have often come out to the garden barefoot.

Lilly seems to enjoy her little chair. She loves it outside!

Air Show

2010-08-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

The weekend of July 24th, we went to the Blue Angels air show. We actually bought tickets and went. We left the house around 10:30 a.m. and got there around 12:00 p.m. Brian was thinking he might drop off me and the kids, but when we saw how crowded the highway was, there was no way that was happening. So, we went to one of the designated parking lots and waited in a very, very long line for a shuttle to pick us up. The kids actually did quite well considering how long we waited. When we got there, we found a place to sit and watch. It was pretty fun, but the kids got tired of it pretty quick. They were all ready to go but we hadn't seen the blue angels yet. We decided that we had time to take the shuttle back and watch the Blue Angels from University Place (this was right by the river with the airport right on the other side). There was a really good view from University Place. We decided that maybe that is what we should have done in the first place. Oh well . . . maybe next time. Here are some pictures that we took at University Place.

Helping Grandpa Durtschi

2010-08-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

Lillian is one month old

2010-07-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

My, how time does fly . . .

Independance day weekend

2010-07-12T15:46:00.000-07:00

We began our 4th of July weekend with a hike in Teton Canyon. Jake, Angie, Julie and Jeff and their children all came with us. It was really fun and short. Toddlers only have so much endurance. They were really cute though, and they did quite well. Of course, I only got a picture at the end of the hike. Here we are . . .

After we came back from the hike, we spent the afternoon at Grandpa Grant and Grandma Beth's house. The kids all took a nap so they could stay up late for the fireworks. Here are Grant and Sasha, all dressed up warm since it can get pretty cool at night.

Many thanks to Rachel for getting the boys nice and warm to watch the fireworks. They were well taken care of and did look quite cute in their somewhat oversized clothes. We spent that night at Grandpa Grant and Grandma Beth's house (Thanks!!!). It was pretty cute, these guys had their chairs out in the afternoon, and we weren't able to do the fireworks until about 10:00 that night. They were sooooooo excited!

The fireworks were so much fun to watch. And it's not the 4th of July unless you have sparklers, right? Apparently, I only got Grant doing the sparklers, but they all enjoyed it. I loved the way the boys looked. I think Grant looks a little bit like Dopey, especially with the hat and the big slippers.

The next day, we went to the parade in Victor, ID. It is always a great parade and Grandma Beth picked out a great spot to watch it. It was so much fun! Thanks Beth! Rachel made that big bag that she has in her hands, and the kids all picked up the candy and put it in that bag. They ended up getting so much candy, it was like halloween all over again! They even got popsicles, as you can see. This was one of the highlights for the kids and will be something that we will probably do every year.

Happy 5th Birthday Grant!

2010-07-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

Grant turned 5 years old on June 30. We didn't have a big party for him. Jake and Angie did come over to celebrate with us and we had a good time. He was pretty excited and I think he had a pretty fun day.

One of his gifts was this 3-D coloring thing. He does love to draw and color, so this was perfect! I didn't get any pictures with his other gifts, but he did seem to like them all.

I like how he looks in his 3-D glasses. Isn't he a cutie?

I looked over at Sasha, and she was sitting in between the babies taking care of them. Jax and Lilly didn't seem to mind.

Welcome baby girl Lillian June!!!

2010-06-10T08:52:00.001-07:00

We had our baby girl, Lillian June, on Tuesday, June 8 at 11:32 am. She was 7 lbs 8 oz and of course, we think she is beautiful!

Here she is . . .

Jake and Angie were so so so nice to watch Ethan, Grant and Sasha for us while I was having Lillian. Jake even got up early to come over so the kids didn't have to wake up so early. Thanks a ton Jake!!!! They took the kids to the zoo and then came over to visit. Here are all of our beautiful children.

We were able to get Kai and Jax in the picture also. As you can see, it was a trick getting all of the children to look at the camera at the same time. But it is fun to have the picture.

Here is our first family picture with Lillian.

For those who want to know the whole story, this is it. My labor started at 2:00 am on Tuesday. The contractions were about 10 min apart and not too bad. I couldn't sleep though, so I got up and got things ready. Of course, the contractions progressively got closer together and stronger. At about 6:00 am, we called Jake and asked him to come over. He came over very quick and we were able to leave by about 6:20. We got to the hospital at about 6:45 am and I was dialated about 4 cm. I was actually a bit surprised at this point, because the previous two appointments that I had, I just wasn't progressing very much or fast at all. So 4 cm was good news. They set me up on the IV and gave me some saline, and then I was able to get an epidural. I was not anxious at all to go through the pain this time. I was amazed at how little of the pain I felt. Brian and I had a wonderful experience because I wasn't in horrible pain and mad at him. I am now feeling more of the after effects of the epidural, but all in all it was a very good experience. Anyway, my water broke right after they gave me the epidural, although it wasn't extremely obvious. The Dr came to break my water, and that's when they figured that my water did definitely break before. I labored there pain free until around 11:30, then they thought I was ready. The nurse had me push a little bit to make sure I was ready so they could call the Dr. I pushed and then they had to hold the babys head in until the Dr came. I had her at 11:32 am and she was amazing. We brought her home yesterday around noon, and Brian has been so wonderful! I've been able to nap a bit and I actually think I will go take a nap after I feed Lillian. We hope you are all doing well! And if this story feels pretty random, it's some of the sleep deprivation talking . . .

I love my children!

2010-05-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

There are many days when all three of our children run around and play with each other. When they were doing that one time, I realized how great it was. Even though they can be noisy, it is wonderful to see and hear them enjoying each others company. I love it how the boys also include Sasha and how she just jumps in to play, even though it can be a little dangerous for her.

When we have the warm days in between the cooler days, we try to work on our yard. Ethan is holding up a fish flag that he made. We were really excited because we finally have flowers this year.

We put in a fence a few weeks ago. It was a lot of work, but is finally in so we are thrilled. Now our garden and other plants are protected a bit from the fierce winds that can come in the spring. We also have a little bit more privacy in the back yard, which is pretty nice.

Here Brian and the kids are spreading a bit more bark. Brian is working right around our blueberry bushes that we planted earlier in the spring. Our grass is starting to look pretty good this year too. We still have a few bare patches, but those should fill in by the end of the summer and we are working on getting rid of the weeds that have infested some of our grass. Oh, the joys of yardwork!

I had to post this picture of an alien that Ethan made at school. He told me that it has three heads and four arms. I love it! I love it when he comes home with something that is truely his, and not just a sheet of paper that he has colored.

9 years

2010-05-26T11:42:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, Brian and I celebrated our ninth anniversary. I can't believe it's been nine years already! Thank you, Brian, for the past nine years. They have been wonderful!

It is quite amazing just how hard it is to find pictures of just the two of us. It may be time to get some pictures done . . .

Monster Trucks!

2010-04-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

On April 17, there was a Monster Truck Rally in Pocatello. Brian bought tickets for himself and the boys. They had a lot of fun and the boys LOVED the monster trucks. In fact, they have built Monster Trucks out of legos since then. Here are some pictures that Brian took.

Sasha and I had a girls night while the guys were out. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that. We did paint fingernails/toenails, curl hair with the foam rollers, and eat popcorn while watching a little girly movie. We had a lot of fun.

Playing catch up

2010-04-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

I know that blogging is NOT a hard thing to do, but for some reason I don't do it with any regularity. So this post I will be playing catch up. Here are pictures from the beginning of the year till now.

We celebrated Brian's birthday at the end of January. Jake, Angie and Kai came over to celebrate with us. We had some dinner and some ice cream cake.

For some reason, I told them I wanted red frosting. As you can tell, it didn't turn out that way. I was kicking myself, because of course there was the possibility it would turn out pink. Brian decided to don his pink shirt to match the cake.

In the middle of February, when the snow started melting, we decided to go out and build a snowman. Grant and Sasha were taking naps, so Ethan and I went out by ourselves. It was Ethan's idea to use frozen blueberries for the mouth and blackberries for the eyes. I thought that was a pretty good idea . . .

Until the next day when the berries started melting . . . maybe a halloween snowman?

The next morning Grant, Sasha and I went out to build our own snowman while Ethan was at school. The snow was so hard, there was no way that was going to happen. As you can see, Sasha is just enjoying eating the snow. That does get a little gross as the snow starts melting and they start eating snow from pretty much anywhere. We ended up sleding off a small hill instead. It was pretty fun!

In about the middle of March, we decided to get some baby chicks. We were going to raise them and then butcher them for meat (I know that sounds horrible, but what else do you do when you get chicks?). We don't really have room for egg layers, so anyway, that's what we did. They were really cute when they were small, but unfortunately they grew fast. They do grow fast and we knew that, it still surprised me though. At the beginning of this week, we decided to see if some friends of ours wanted the chicks (actually chickens at this point). They have about an acre of land, and just more room than we do. So, they are staying at our friends house for now.

Here is Ethan at an Easter egg hunt that we had at Jake and Angie's house, in their almost finished basement.

L to R: Ethan, Grant, Teagan, Melissa, Kai, Whitney, and Brian looking for treasures.

Diane (Brian's mom), Melissa, Whitney (Brian's sisters), and Teagan (Melissa's son), came down around Easter to visit. They visited with us on Saturday. Here are Teagan and Sasha enjoying the Connect Four game. For some reason, it was a big hit among the toddlers.

Jake, Angie, Kai, and Jax were also able to come visit. Here is a picture of all of the grandchildren. L to R: Baby Jax, Kai, Ethan, Sasha, Grant, Teagan

My apologies to the Durtschi family who have already seen the Easter pictures. I always forget my camera and if I do have it close, I forget to take pictures, so I "borrowed" the pictures from Melissa and Angie. Thanks Melissa and Angie! I also couldn't figure out how to center these pictures. The pictures on top were no problem. Oh well.

Happy Birthday Ethan . . . a little late

2010-02-23T13:49:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Ethan's birthday the day after Christmas, which happened to be his cousin Teagan's birthday. Ethan's birthday was on Christmas day, but we just got so busy that we decided to celebrate his birthday with Teagan at his favorite pizza place called Leo's place. It was so much fun and the kids had a blast. We sang Happy Birthday to Ethan and Teagan, then here is Ethan blowing out his candles.

One of Ethan's gifts was a sheath that Brian made for him. It holds his sword that Brian made for him last Christmas.

Here is our handsome boy. I can't believe that he is already 6 years old. Where did that time go? He was so excited to be turning 6. He talked about it for quite a while before his birthday. I guess that's what birthdays are about when you're young.

Christmas Post

2010-01-31T13:32:00.000-08:00

Yep, I've obviously been a slacker. Here are some of our pictures from Christmas. We opened our Christmas presents in the morning before breakfast. The desks in the background, Brian made for the boys. They LOVE them and use them all the time. Sometimes Sasha even uses them. Hmmmm, maybe a present for next year . . .

Here's Sasha holding the stocking stuffer that Ethan got for her.

After we opened presents at our house, we went and spent the day at Brian's dad's house. Here's Sasha with the present that they got for her. They got her a stroller and playpen combination with the bear/doll that she is holding.

For some reason, I didn't get a picture of the boys with their present which was a K'NEX roller coaster set with a video attached to on of the cars. We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed our Christmas. There are more posts to come . . . I promise.

Our 4th

2010-01-16T09:43:00.000-08:00

I don't think that we have told everyone yet, so I thought I'd post about it here. Brian and I are expecting our 4th child June 9th. I thought it was going to be early to mid July, but I was wrong. We had a doctors appointment yesterday and actually found out a lot more than we were expecting. They did an ultrasound to see how far along I was, and they were able to tell the sex of the baby. It's a girl!!!! We are so excited. We were really hoping for a little sister for Sasha, and it looks like she will have a little sister. The lady said she was 90% sure, but it definitely looks like a girl to me. Anyway, we just wanted to let everyone know. We hope you all are doing well!

Love,

Brian, Elise and family

Sasha turns 2!!!

2009-12-19T14:37:00.000-08:00

I don't know where the time went, but yesterday Sasha turned two! I can't believe it. We wanted to have a very little celebration, so on Thursday night, Jake, Angie and Kai came over to celebrate with us. Here is our sweet little girl.

Sasha even blew out the candles herself. I was quite impressed. I think because of the examples of her older brothers, she understood what she needed to do and did it.

Here are Kai, Ethan and Grant enjoying the birthday pie. (We're not huge cake fans . . . )

Sasha loves her doll that she got from Uncle Jake and Aunt Angie. She did get other gifts also, but this is one that I took a picture of. And obviously, I forgot to wash her face off. Oops!

Happy Birthday Sasha! We love you!

Las Vegas!!!

2009-09-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

So, I asked Brian to take me out for a night for my birthday. I wanted a whole night away. I hadn't slept a night away from the kids, except for when I had another baby and was in the hospital. Many of you know, when Brian does something, he either does it the very economical way, or he goes all out. Well, this time, he went all out. He surprised me, somewhat. He planned everything, and a week or two out, he told me we were going to Las Vegas. He still kept some secrets though. We left on the evening of Friday, September 18th, and came back on Monday, the 21st. It was so much fun and a much needed break.

One place that we went to was the M&M store. There was a fun factory like thing to walk through, and then the store.

The main surprise was that he took me to "The Phantom of the Opera". He also got us front row tickets. It was amazing! I'm still singing the songs, and we went on Saturday night.

He also splurged and reserved us a room in a very nice hotel. It was the Encore, and it was beautiful! There was an indoor garden, with flowers and trees. You can see behind us, they also had balls of flowers hanging from the trees.

This was where we checked in and out, in the hotel lobby. Butterfly images were everywhere. Here is a link to our hotel if you're interested. http://www.encorelasvegas.com/#/homepage/ We had the resort suite, king size bed.

When we were waiting for our shuttle to the airport, we saw several Rolls Royce cars that were owned by the hotel.

We realized that we weren't that interested in taking too many pictures, because it's just us. We're kind of boring. When you have kids, I think you realize that. The kids are just so much more interesting.

Another thing that we saw was the water fountains at the Bellagio. Here is a link to what we saw, if you are interested. This may be a bit silly, but I did choke up a little bit when we watched it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R5KAmLNHdw

We spent a lot of time walking down the strip and through all of the hotels on the strip. Some of those hotels are pretty amazing!

Brian is also amazing! I will never forget what he did. We had an amazing time. Thank you Brian!!! Also, thank you so much Jake and Angie, for watching our kids! We owe you big time!

Fair!!!

2009-09-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

We went to the fair a couple of weeks ago with Grant, Beth and Rachel. It was a lot of fun!

Rachel and Ethan were able to see what it was like being weathermen. They would put a blue cloth over the body of whoever was there, and you would just see their head on the map. It was pretty fun.

Howdy!

Grandpa paid the guy some money to get some stuffed animals for the boys and to let them throw a few darts. They both did actually get a balloon each. They were quite excited!

The boys LOVED the rides. They only went on a few, but the look of pure delight on their faces was priceless!

Grant and Rachel rode on the swings.

Ethan got to make this plane move up and down. There was a lever that you could push from the inside. He loved that he could control it.

Grant and Rachel rode on the bumper cars . . .

and Ethan and Grant couldn't get enough. They loved watching them. Of course, they wanted to ride them too, but I guess it can sometimes be hard being a bit too little.

Sasha pretty much just got to enjoy the ride. Luckily, she did take a nap, so that made her and us parents pretty happy!

Ethan starts kindergarden

2009-09-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

Ethan started Kindergarden yesterday. He was so excited! He was up pretty early getting ready. He actually didn't ride the bus yesterday though. For the first day, they had the students bring an adult friend (parent, grandparent, neighbor . . . ). So, I went with Ethan while my neighbor watched Grant and Sasha for me. Here are some of the pictures that I took while at school with Ethan.

The students drew pictures of their families. He drew each of our initials by the person. We are all holding Sasha up over our heads.

This morning, Ethan rode the bus to school. He was so excited to get on. I believe in this picture, he is looking at the school bus coming.

He was so excited to get on the bus. The bus driver actually had to talk with him about watching her to see when he could get on. He thought she was ready, but I guess not. In this picture, you can his little orange back pack. He sat right in the front seat.

He's looking forward to going to school tomorrow. I think it will be a fun year for him!

Ethan can ride his bike!!!!

2009-08-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

Ready! Set!

GO!!!

Last week, Ethan learned to ride his bike. He was so excited! It was actually quite amazing. We were out playing with friends, and one of our neighbors helped him on and held onto his seat. She said he circled a couple of times, and then he was going so fast that she had to run to keep up with him. I guess he was ready! That was all that he wanted to talk about for the next week. It is still his favorite thing to do. Amazing!

Brian and Ethan went on a bike ride together through the neighborhood. They really enjoyed themselves.

Day Camping

2009-08-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we went camping for a day with Jake, Angie, and Kai. We just left in the morning and came back in the late afternoon. We really had a good time! (Angie, I borrowed some of your photos. I hope you don't mind.)

Brian, Ethan, Grant and Jake rode the 4 wheeler up the mountain with a trailer to stock up on fire wood for hunting season.

We just love the face that Ethan makes for pictures. The funny thing is, he's not making a face. He thinks he's just smiling. Funny boy!

Sasha had a really good time eating all of the junk food that she could. Hello Marshmallows!

Jake and the kiddos relaxing by the fire.

Grant had fun too. Ethan picked out his own marshmallow stick, actually I think he picked out several. He had a hard time keeping track of them.

Angie, Kai and Sasha eating some grapes. Kai was so nice to feed Sasha. I think after all the junk food, the fruit was a nice break.

Swimming Lessons

2009-08-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of August, the boys took some swimming lessons. They did really well and had a lot of fun. They are also not afraid of the water anymore. Here is Ethan with Coach Jessica.

And here is Grant with coach Haylee.

On the last day, they did a swimming safety class. They taught all sorts of things. One thing they did is teach them how to use a life jacket. When Ethan and Grant were both together, I had to take a picture of it.

Each day, at the very end of class, everyone would get together and put their hands together and yell "We love swimming!" It was pretty fun.

Just to tell you how good the swimming lessons were for the boys, even Brian said it was worth paying $40 per child for swimming lessons.

Sasha hung out with me by the side of the pool while the boys were in swimming lessons. She was pretty good.

Rigby Lake fun!

2009-08-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

We went to Rigby Lake with our neighbors about a month ago, and had a really good time. L to R: Ethan, Grant, Chloe, Dylan, and Jodi.

Funny Ethan!

Grant had a fun time too!

And yes, Sasha was there too.

INL Picnic

2009-08-25T07:34:00.000-07:00

In July, there was a company picnic for all of the INL employees. The kids had so much fun. There were probably 20 huge jumping castles/slides. The boys had a blast. There was also free food, ice cream, pop, cotton candy, and snow cones.

I love the mid air shot!

There was also face painting. Sasha sat patiently.

Grant's is a sword.

Little car for Ethan.

July 4th fun

2009-08-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

We celebrated the 4th of July at Grant and Beth's (Brian's Dad and Stepmom). It was so much fun! One of the favorite activities for the kids was riding in the golf cart with Grandpa. Ethan and Grant even got to sit on Grandpa's lap and steer it for a while. They LOVED it!

This is one of the cute hairdo's that Melissa did for Sasha. So cute!

Everyone enjoyed playing the Wii also. It was so nice to be able to enjoy everyone's company and relax a bit. Thanks Grant and Beth!

Happy 4th Birthday Grant!

2009-08-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Grant's birthday on June 30 with friends and family. It was so nice to see everyone who came. And he was so excited!

He wanted a Zelda shield cake for his birthday. I did the best that I could. I can't believe that he is 4 already. Where did the time go???

The Zoo!!!

2009-08-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

At the end of May, we went to the Zoo. The kids had a lot of fun. We went with Jake, Angie, Kai, Alicia, Garth, and Palmer. Here are some pictures of the kids feeding the goats.

Obviously, they were pretty tired when we left.

Feeding the ducks

2009-08-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

We fed the ducks by the river one day while Elise's parents were visiting. The kids LOVED it, as you can see from the pictures.

Brian made Sasha a wooden spoon from an apple tree. Here is a picture of her eating from it. Of couse, I got her with her eyes closed. The spoon is beautiful though. I'll have to get a better picture of it, because this picture just doesn't do it justice.

Lots of fun picking rocks!

2009-08-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of the kids helping us pick rocks. We were picking rocks, so we could plan grass seed. Elise's Mom and Dad came to visit and helped us. Thanks Mom and Dad!

This happened back in May, but I thought I'd just keep going, and eventually I will get to our summer pictures. You know, it would be much easier if I blogged as we got more pictures instead of letting the pictures build up. Hmmmmmm . . .

Our trip to Mesa Falls and Yellowstone

2009-06-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

My parents came to visit from Arkansas at the end of May. While they were here, we took them to Mesa Falls and Yellowstone. That was a long day. Anyway, here are some pictures that we took.

That far off speck that you see is a bear (the one just in front of the white van).

I had to include a picture of Old Faithful!

We saw a lot of buffalo. They seemed to like the road quite a bit. It took a little while to get around them.

Here we are at the upper Mesa Falls. My mom is taking the picture.

The boys had a lot of fun. Do you see the rainbow? There was actually a double rainbow. It was pretty neat.

Catch up

2009-06-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have been horrible at blogging. I'll be playing a little bit of catch up here. Just some fun pictures since we have moved.

Here are some fun pictures of the kids helping Brian with the huge piles of dirt in our yard.

I think maybe she didn't like riding on the tractor. What do you think???

They did have a blast playing in the dirt. The piles were just too much fun!

Here are the big piles that were in our front yard.

Here are the piles that were in our back yard.

Thankfully, our piles are spread out all over the yard, we put the sprinkler system, picked most of the rocks, planted grass seed, and have been watering it since the beginning of June. The rain that we have had has taken care of most of the watering. Now that it's nice again, we're back to using the sprinkler system.

Thank you Brian for all of the work that you have done! I'll try to post more soon so I can catch up.

Happy 8th Anniversary sweetie!

2009-04-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

Brian, I wanted to say Happy Anniversary. I am so glad that you asked me to marry you. You have made my life so wonderful. I didn't know that I could be so happy being married, but I am. It has been a wonderful 8 years. It has gone so fast. Thank you for making it wonderful! Thank you for being so fun, loving, and honest. It's nice that we can tell each other anything.
Thank you for being such a wonderful father to our beautiful children. They also are so lucky to have you for their father. Thank you for playing with them. Thank you for also making them a priority.

Thank you for being so happy and for helping me. You do help me so much. If I've had a hard day, thank you for holding me and helping me get through the tough time. You calm me down, and make me look forward to each day. Thank you! I love you!

Finally blogging again!

2009-03-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

Hi All! I just thought I'd put a few pictures up of some things that have happened since the move. We are getting settled in our house. We love being here and are so happy that we get to see Brian every night now.

This is a picture of Kai and Sasha, when I was watching Kai one time. Sasha was giving him a little tour.
This kids watching a movie shortly after we moved in. I've never seen Sasha sit and watch a movie like that. I was amazed.
I found Sasha trying out the new lazy susan in the corner cabinet.
This is Ethan's draft of a scream extractor. He decided that he wanted to draw out how it is supposed to be, that way Brian will have some idea of how to make it. At the top, he meant for it to say "Use Wood or Metal". I thought this was pretty funny.

Moving

2009-02-10T08:15:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to let you all know that we will be moving next Monday, on the 16th. I will not be posting until we get settled in our new house. I will be letting you know what our new address will be probably by mail. We hope you all are doing well and we'll let you know when we're settled.

Love you all!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

2009-01-27T10:04:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Ethan's 5th birthday on the afternoon of Christmas Day. It was a relaxing day, as you can see from the pajamas. He has been very proud to be 5 years old, and he has told many people that he is 5. I can't believe he's already 5. That went way too fast! We love you Ethan!

Merry Christmas!

2009-01-26T19:29:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of our Christmas morning. We had a lot of fun playing with the toy guns.

Sasha's first birthday

2009-01-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a video and some pictures of Sasha's birthday. We had some of the Driggs/Alta family over to celebrate with us on the December 17th, and then we had to celebrate again on the 18th, Sasha's birthday. I know this has been a long time coming. Anyway, Happy 1st Birthday Sasha! We love you!

Some fun pictures of the kiddos

2009-01-13T13:57:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of the kids that I took right before Christmas. It's a bit tricky trying to get Sasha to smile at the right moment.

Funny Ethan

2009-01-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

We took this picture just after Thanksgiving. We thought this was pretty funny. Ethan has a hat that came undone at the top, and this is what he thought of to do with it. Pretty silly boy! We love him so much.

Sasha and Palmer

2009-01-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

I have been very lax about posting here, so here are a couple of videos of Palmer (our nephew) with Sasha. I will post more in the next couple of weeks.

News for the Durtschi Family

2008-12-23T14:25:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, Brian got a job at the INL in Idaho Falls. We are currently looking for a house and are so excited to be moving there. Brian starts his job on January 5 and will commute until we find a house. Actually, the plan is for him to go down at the beginning of the week and stay with Jake and Angie some nights. Hopefully I can come down with the children sometime during the week so we can see Brian. We are so excited and we just wanted to let you know.

A bit of winter fun!

2008-12-23T13:01:00.000-08:00

I think the pictures speak for themselves. We now have a lot of snow here. I would guess about 2 feet, I'm actually thinking more, but my estimates seem to be a bit off. The boys love it!

Big tower of Wonder blocks

2008-12-03T12:12:00.001-08:00

Brian's mom has this huge box of wonder blocks. We all had a lot of fun playing with them. This was one of the things that we did with them. As you can see, it was a bit taller than Brian. As far as pictures from Thanksgiving go, this is it. I clearly forgot to take many pictures, but we did have a really good time. We hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving!

2008-11-19T07:12:00.000-08:00

Ethan has been so excited for his birthday. So, he wrote out the number 5, cut it out and then taped it to a birthday candle. He also did one for Grant, when he turns 4. I asked him if he wanted to do one for Sasha, and so he did. I thought this was pretty sweet.

Durtschi Look-alike Meter

2008-11-10T10:27:00.001-08:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

Durtschi Look-alike Meter

2008-11-10T10:24:00.001-08:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Durtschi Look-alike Meter

2008-11-10T10:14:00.001-08:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology - Family tree template

Ethan's writing

2008-11-06T08:38:00.000-08:00

I thought this was great and wanted to share with you. Ethan wrote this on his own. This is what he told me it said. "This is for Ethan, but this is Ethan's. Soon I will be five, this means 5." Of course, I added the punctuation and correct spelling. The big 5 at the top is the 5 at the very end because he ran out of room. He said he wrote the 5 at the end, so that Grant could understand that five means 5. I thought it was pretty fun.

It's offical!

2008-11-05T12:26:00.000-08:00

Sasha is now a crawler. It's official. She seems to enjoy this new found mobility. It's pretty fun!

2008-11-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

Here is Sasha just after she was born. After about 10 hours of labor with no drugs (pretty crazy, I know), she finally came. They finally broke my water and she came 12 minutes later.

Now here's what you do:
Go into your pictures and open the 4th folder
Post the 4th picture in your folder

I would like to see into the picture world of Alicia, Julie, Melissa, Brenda and anyone else who is curious what picture you will find. You are officially tagged.

An Angel, Christmas gifts and who is that guy????

2008-11-02T18:57:00.000-08:00

Here is our little angel. Sasha had some angel pajamas, that actually had the wings. I thought she looked pretty. Although, it did take some work trying to keep that "halo" on.

Here is Grant, attempting a scary face. I love his mad/scary face. It makes me smile!

Here is Ethan with his very scary face. Are you scared????

This was taken when we were all out trick or treating. I'm not in the picture because I didn't dress up. Fun, fun, fun!!!

Sugar Cookies!!!!!

2008-11-02T18:50:00.000-08:00

We decided to make sugar cookies in Halloween shapes. The boys helped a lot and loved it! They also did most of the cutting with the cookie cutters. They did a great job!

Next comes the frosting. Grant loved to frost them and then eat them. Ethan was more into getting them ALL frosted ASAP. We had a lot of fun.

Sasha sampled the finished product. Of course we all did, but I actually got a picture of her trying them out.

Playing in the leaves

2008-11-02T18:39:00.000-08:00

The boys are having fun playing in the leaves with Sasha. What you don't know, is that she is a little sad about it.

Do you see that HUGE pile of leaves? You don't? Yeah, Brian had to use the rake at work, so I had to make due with a broom. Just so you know, that doesn't really work. We played out in the leaves for maybe 10 minutes, it wasn't actually that fun because there wasn't a very big pile. Also, it was close to time for Sasha's nap and so she was crying towards the end.

Kisses??? Anyone?

Grant "reading"

2008-10-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

Grant has found a book that he loves to "read". Of course, he just remembers the words, but he loves it! I had to get it on video.

Ponytails!

2008-10-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

I decided to try to put Sasha's hair in a ponytail. Here's what I came up with. It's fun having a girl! She just didn't want to put that book down.

Boys will be boys

2008-09-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Ethan wanted a bungee cord so that he could connect the tricycle and his car. He found one and this is what he did. We saw the boys this afternoon pulling each other. It was pretty funny!

Sasha army crawling and clapping hands

2008-09-19T20:25:00.001-07:00

Hopefully this works. Here is a video of Sasha clapping her hands. It's pretty fun, because I can sing "If You're Happy and You Know It", and she will clap along. I love this video!

Here is a video of Sasha army crawling. She does get up on her hands and knees, but no crawling yet. It will come with time!

Playing with the blanket

2008-09-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a video me playing with our children with the blanket. What a joy!

Sasha has teeth now

2008-09-07T18:33:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd get some pictures of Sasha showing off her teeth. Yes, she finally got them. It's fine with me that she was a little late.

Here is Sasha playing with her newest toy. We pop them up and then she shuts them. She's getting very good at it.

Two Days Later

2008-09-05T18:56:00.000-07:00

Yep. I think we need to hide the markers. What do you think? They were supposedly taking a nap.

Ethan and the red marker

2008-09-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

So, Ethan decided that he wanted to write on his face with a red dry erase marker. Yeah. I really don't like it when they draw on their skin, so I was trying to ask him not to do that, but how can you do that with a straight face while looking at his face? I couldn't. So we ended up taking a picture of him. He was pretty proud of himself. That's why he went to Grant to tell him how "hilarious" he was. So, of course, Grant has to draw on his face too.

And there you go. Pretty funny boys! What a joy!

Starting to blog

2008-09-01T08:23:00.001-07:00

Ok, I'll try this. Hope it works.

Here are some pictures of the boys playing with play doh, and Sasha watching. Thanks Robert and Rebekah!