This 'n That

Matthew likes to be....just like big brother. These two boys are so cute. I love how they play together, even though there's such a big age difference. Matthew thinks Tay is the greatest thing ever. And even though Matthew gets into all of big brother's awesome stuff...Tay is pretty patient with him.

And little Miss Lainey...is still being pampered by everyone, especially our Rachey. Rachel was reading her a story today. I just love how good Rachel is with her!

Here are our too funny boys tonight at bedtime. Matthew always climbs into bed with Taylor. He probably thinks that one of these nights I'll just let him stay there. (And I would if they'd sleep...but they won't, so I don't.)
And here are the girls. Brooklynn and Rachel wanted me to let Lainah sleep with them tonight. I told them to wait a year or two...but Lainah looks pretty proud of herself for making it into the big girl's bed at least for a few minutes!

I'm A Nut

Brooklynn learned this cute song in preschool during the fall when the leaves were falling and squirrels were gathering their nuts. She would sing it in the car to us all the time, and it always just made me laugh to hear how cute she sang it. So I got a video of her singing it a couple of months ago. She is just so cute and fun. I also think it's funny to watch Matthew dancing to her singing in the background. Truly, what a nut.

Anyone Moving to Cleveland?

If you know someone who is, then we know of a house they should buy! Ours of course! So our house officially went on the market Monday. Follow this link to view the house.
http://thuernaglehouse.blogspot.com/

Hi Daddy!!!

Dear Daddy...

Because you were gone, Mommy let me sleep on your pillow last night. I really like your pillow. It is perfect for me. It has the perfect amount of softness. No matter how much I wriggle during the night, I stay nice and comfy with it. It doesn't make my hair do the whole baby fuzz thing, and it also helps with my tummy bubbles. I hope that you don't mind me taking over your pillow while you're away...and well...maybe you should start shopping for a new one because I'm growing quite attached to yours.

Love always,
Little Lainey

Look at me, I'm smiling and talking now!

Matthew is Two!

On Monday (the 9th) our sweet little Matthew turned two years old. He is such a funny little goofy guy! He can always make us laugh, usually without even trying. He loves cars and trains, balls, and tools. He is all boy, which basically means that he loves to play hard, get dirty, use tools, and eat yummy food. He also has a sweet, tender side to him, and still loves to snuggle with Mommy. At bedtime, he enjoys getting big brother in trouble by persuading him to play ball or to throw stuffed animals at each other instead of going to sleep. And he also enjoys waiting until big brother is asleep and then throwing his rattle bear at him. What a little goof.

Mommy fixed one of Matthew's favorite dinners, "Hawaiian Haystacks."

If you've never had them before...they're yummy. Rice with chicken and gravy, cheese, olives, green peppers, tomatoes, pineapple, cashews and topped with maraschino cherries. Since he loves cars...I made him a car cake.

He loved it...and was so excited to play with his new cars!

Here is the gang!

Taking out the candles and sampling the frosting.
Birthday boy cutting his cake with Daddy's help!

Matthew also loves books, and he got 3 of our favorite Dr. Suess classics.

And what more could a little tool-loving two year old want than his very own work bench?
After seeing him fall asleep with it like this...we're pretty sure that he likes it okay.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!!!

Here is a little clip of him blowing out his candles. Once again, he has us all laughing out loud.

What's Under Your Bed?

So we are getting our house ready to put on the market and I've been doing a lot of sorting. Today as I was boxing up some of the kids' room decor, I remembered that when we moved here I had put some pictures underneath my bed because there just wasn't room for them on our walls! So, I pulled them out to put them into boxes as well. I came across this fun little collage of photographs that Andy and I had put together to display at our wedding reception. I just took a few minutes to remember those fun times that we had together...and to laugh at our cute little kid pictures.

I didn't have time to pull the pictures out of the frame and scan them into the computer, so I just took a picture of each of them. The quality won't be all that great, but I thought they'd be fun to post anyway.

Ahh....Here is a picture of me at about 3 months old.

And here is cute little baby Andy. Well, maybe not so little, but cute anyway!

And then we have the toddler shots...I think that I'm two in this picture.

I'm not sure how old Andy is in this one, but I'm guessing somewhere around 2 or 3.

In the summers, my brothers and I used to play in the irrigation water that would overflow into our front yard when grandpa watered our pasture. Our front yard was on a little hill, so the water was only on the bottom. Anyway, we would float around on inner tubes and run and splash for hours. It was so fun. Notice how light my hair would get in the summers! Can't you just see the mischief in his eyes? Brooklynn definitely got daddy's eyes...and that look of mischief that is always present. So cute. And his shaggy white-blond hair just cracks me up! I love the total concentration here. Most likely what you don't see in this picture is my older brother, Trever, poised and ready to blow out MY birthday candles!!! I'm 5 in this picture.I love this picture of Andy. Mostly because he still looks just like this when he blows out his candles.And here we have graduation pictures. This is me and my best friend, Kelli Sommers. Kelli, we had so much fun together!!! Kelli was also my maid of honor at my wedding.And this is Andy and his best buddy, Roger Meeks (Hey Rog! We expect a comment from you on this one!) Roger was also Andy's best man at our wedding.

This is a picture of us two goofy kids while we were dating. This was taken during my reign as Miss Idaho...about a week before I left for Miss America in Atlantic City, NJ. Andy was in school full time at ISU and didn't make it over to Boise very often. I had appearances scheduled for nearly every day of the week, and also worked part time at the capitol building, so our time together was very limited. But I sure did love it when he made it over for a visit.
This one is a picture of us at the Idaho Falls Holiday Parade, the day after Thanksgiving when they light up the temple and river Christmas lights. I was doing another Miss Idaho appearance. It was FREEZING! I had on a fur coat over my chauffon dress...brr...but I also had my engagement ring on (yippee!) and I had one hot red convertible and a hot driver to go with it. :) I didn't have very many appearances on the eastern side of the state, I stayed mainly in Boise, so it was always a real treat when I was able to travel back over to Idaho Falls and spend some time with my sweetheart. We were engaged for 8 long but extremely busy months.


So there was a little trip down memory lane for me! Life goes by so quickly. It's hard to believe that Andy and I have been married for nearly 11 years, and that we have 5 beautiful children. I think the most amazing thing, is that I still feel as young as I did when we were dating. We joke around about how we'll be 25 forever...and on our birthdays we always say that we're turning 25 again. But really, that's how it feels...we're still just in our early twenties...except that there all these little people running around our house calling us "Mom" and "Dad."

Yes, It's Coming!

So the geese have been flying home the past few days...honking away as they fly over our house. I love the sound of geese in the late winter/early spring. The returning of geese is concrete proof that Spring is really on it's way, and I trust them a lot more than a silly little rodent who pops his head out of the ground. I even trust the geese more than our local weather guy. Although, they drive our cat "Zippy" nuts. He runs from window to window when he hears them flying overhead and he does a sort of little kitty growl thing. The mighty hunter in action. Ya right, in a showdown between our kitty cat and a Canadian goose...well, the goose would win. Regardless, the sun is out, the temp is supposed to be warmer today, and Spring is in the air!

An Alternative to Brushing

Throughout the duration of Andy's 4 year dental education...he's had the opportunity to work on many types of patients. Those who are meticulous about dental hygiene...those who brush everyday but never floss, those who swear that they brush and floss daily while he is using a large spoon to scrape the years of plaque from their teeth, and those who just want him to pull out all of their teeth so they can do it the "easy" way...dentures.

Well, I found this picture and immediately thought about those of us who dread brushing after every meal. There is an alternative. Try scraping...apparently it works for this guy.



Warning: Side effects may include increased facial and nasal hair growth as well as widening of the nasal openings. Splinters from wood can cause gum irritation and in some cases have been known to produce unsightly infections in and around the mouth. Individual results may vary.

High School Tag

How fun Bridi! Thanks for tagging me on this one, it brought back a lot of memories! :)

1. DID YOU DATE SOMEONE FROM YOUR SCHOOL? Yes
2.WHAT KIND OF CAR DID YOU DRIVE? 1986 Honda Civic
3. DID YOU PASS YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE TEST YOUR FIRST TRY? Yes
4. WERE YOU A PARTY ANIMAL? I wasn't wild and crazy, but I was always out with friends
5. WERE YOU CONSIDERED A FLIRT? Probably
6. WERE YOU IN BAND, ORCHESTRA, OR CHOIR? Band until Sophomore year, and I made it into the audition choir, but then didn't have space in my schedule to do it.
7. WERE YOU A NERD? No
8. WERE YOU ON ANY VARSITY TEAMS? No
9. DID YOU EVER GET SUSPENDED/EXPELLED? No
10. CAN YOU STILL SING THE FIGHT SONG? Yes. How embarrassing.
11. WHO WERE YOUR FAVORITE TEACHERS? Coach Whit & "Major" Mr. Mitchell
12. WHERE DID YOU SIT FOR LUNCH? Most of the time I used my lunch period to do student council business, but when I did eat, I sat with my friends at the center round table in the commons.
13. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S FULL NAME?Rigby High School
14. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S MASCOT AND COLORS? Trojans, Maroon and Gold
15. WHO WAS HOMECOMING ROYALTY? I was Homecoming Queen, Ty Shippin King, court was Jill Collette and Kelly Burnside...and I can't remember the rest.
16. IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND DO IT AGAIN WOULD YOU? I had a blast in High School, and it would be fun to relive a few of those days just for the carefree nature of them...but no, I wouldn't ever go back to do it all over again.
17.WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT GRADUATION? Just all of the excitement, and a little sadness...and then the all night party!
18. WHERE DID YOU GO SENIOR SKIP DAY? We went to Lagoon for our Senior trip...I remember being threatened by "Lefty" (asst. principal) to have Sr. trip day cancelled if more than a certain number of our class skipped school on "senior skip" so I don't remember sluffing. . . on that day anyway. (giggling) I skipped a lot of afternoons, but my parents read this blog so that's enough info.
19. WERE YOU IN ANY CLUBS? Yes. Quite a few.
20. HAVE YOU GAINED SOME WEIGHT SINCE THEN? What a question! ahh...Yes. About 30 pounds.
21. WHO WAS YOUR PROM DATE? Matt Williams
22. ARE YOU PLANNING ON GOING TO YOUR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION? I hope to make it to the next one, I've missed the first two already! (Yes, I'm old...1995 grad)
23. DID YOU HAVE A JOB IN HIGH SCHOOL? yes. I worked summers at a department store called Lamonts.
24. WERE YOU AN HONOR STUDENT? yes
25. DID YOU TAKE SEMINARY? yes
26. WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER YOUR MOST FUN TIME? I can't choose just one. I loved being with my friends, whether that was rock climbing, snow mobiling, movies, dances, toilet papering, and I LOVED student council. I loved everything that we did, and being so involved in my school.
27. WERE YOU CONSIDERED SHY OR OUTGOING? Both at times.
28. ANY LAST MEMORIES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE? One of my funniest memories was from the "Kiss the Pig" assembly we did. We had 3 donation cans out in the main hallway for a week and the can with the most money had to kiss the pig. Our principal was one can, Mr. Schell (Chemistry)...and I can't remember the 3rd can...Lefty? Anyway, Mr. Schell and Dr. Wilcox (principal) tied. I was doing the announcing at this assembly, and we brought in this huge pig, the student body was roaring...anyway, I called out Dr. Wilcox and he was a good sport and kissed this gross pig on the snout, but Mr. Schell wouldn't come out. Well, I called for him over the microphone several times, thinking that maybe he didn't hear me or something, and then I made an excuse for him to help him save face. After the assembly, me and a couple of other student council members were cleaning up and putting sound equipment away, and we were headed toward the main hallway, it was lunch time, the halls were crowded...and then my memory goes into slow motion. The crowds part and this angry little man (who limps because he had polio as a kid) comes run-limping as fast as he can towards me, throws his arm out, points at me and yells "YOU!!!" Randall Raymond, Andrew South, and I have sound equipment in our arms, but it was tempting to drop it and run for my life. Anyway, Mr. Schell cussed me out in front of laughing students for "humiliating him" in front of the entire school. I was in shock and actually just stared at him open-mouthed. It was awesome. I'm actually laughing about it right now. That was an awesome day. I got so many high fives from everyone. The funny thing is, is that Mr. Schell was one of my favorite teachers, and I was actually one of his favorite students...so I must have just caught him on a bad day.

Here's another good one. To any of you reading this who remember David Browning. :) He was a legend. My Junior year I was on the newspaper staff and we were working after school in the Mac lab...anyway, David, and Jordan, and a few of us changed the "beep" settings on the macs...you know, when you make a mistake and it goes "beep"? Well, we used the external microphone and programmed in a few colorful words and weird noises. Then we got back to work on the newspaper. When we left that evening, we forgot to change the settings back to normal. Well, our newspaper advisor, Mr. Beck, used the Mac lab to teach Journalistic English (a soph. level class) and that afternoon they had a big surprise when they went to use the computers. Mr. Beck was teaching them some new layout techniques, so they were all making A LOT of mistakes. We got in big trouble for that one...but just thinking about it has me laughing all over again!

I tag Kyla, Tacie, Ammie, Katie F., and Mohna!!!

Lainah's 2nd Week in the World...

Lainey's 2nd week has been filled with lots of nap time, and lots of snuggle time with mom and with brothers and sisters. We did have to make one trip in to the preschool this week, and even though mom was careful to cover her completely, it didn't take long for teachers and friends to pull the blanket off "just for a peek." Brooklynn was so proud of her baby sister and wanted to show her off to everyone. Mommy was glad to make it back out to the van with relatively little contact! I know, paranoid...but it's cold and flu season!

Some things we've noticed about Lainey already...

She loves to be talked to, and if she could smile, she would! She gets this happy look on her face where her entire face just lights up and her dimples show...it's so cute.

Her sneezes are the best. She puts her hands up by the sides of her face and does the complete "ahhhh....choo!!!" It's hilarious to hear that coming out of a tiny little baby.

She's starting to turn her head towards mommy when she hears mommy's voice. This morning, I was holding her while helping to get Brooklynn ready for church, and when I looked down she had picked her head up and was looking up at me. I was so impressed at how steady she held her head and how she was just watching me and listening to me. Ahh....moments like those melt mommy's heart.

Lainey likes mommy's electric blanket as much as Mommy. When I get her undressed to rub lotion on her, change her, brush her hair, etc...I put her on a blanket on top of my electric blanket set to medium. It keeps her nice and cozy while she's undressed and she loves it. She stays so nice and relaxed.

Lainey loves to be snuggled up into tight places, like her carseat...or someone's arms, or...the changing table part of her bassinet. Yep, that's right...the changing table. She actually hasn't ever slept in the real bassinet yet, it just seems too huge for her. She sleeps all nice and cuddled up in the changing station cradle...it fits her just right.

She doesn't mind sleeping while Matthew "watches" her and Taylor watches Matthew.

Week two has been fun! She is a little sweetheart!