Ellie's 1st Ponytail!

Yahoo! Finally, at 15 months we can put some kind of ponytail in Ellie's hair! It took a little to distract her so she wouldn't pull it out, but in the end the ponytail stands.

AYSO Soccer Camp

Baylie had so much fun attending her very 1st AYSO Soccer Camp. All the coaches came over from the U.K. and so they talked with these sweet accents. Coach Chris was her instructor for the week and he was really great with the kids. Though she had already started practicing with her AYSO team, this camp really made her feel like an official soccer player. Her confidence really built throughout the week. She started off carrying her ball into camp, and by the end of the week came out kicking it.

"Wacky Wednesday"

One of her favorite parts of the week was Wacky Wednesday-they had to dress "wacky" (imagine that). Baylie really wanted to spray paint her head to look like a soccer ball, like we did with Isaiah last year, but I wasn't sure it would fly with longer hair and all. So, instead we decided on 8 ponytails.




During the week they also had a "soccer quiz" in which Baylie made it into the "finals", eventually winning it. She was given a special award for this at the end of camp, which she was pretty excited about. According to Baylie, this award proved that she was better at soccer then her brother. I have no idea what the quiz was about, in fact, I'm not even sure the coach remembers. For all we know, it could have been about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I love time with the girls!

Let me just say that I have some of the best friends in the whole world! So, I'm going to make a little tribute to them! This last week we got to celebrate Cheryls 28th birthday! A girl needs a night out sometimes, and we try to get together as much as we can. Here are a few of our most recent as well as some memorable...

We celebrated Cheryl's birthday with the good old dinner and a movie. We saw The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2...cute. We had a great time, though we also missed the girls who couldn't make it. Happy Birthday Cheryl!

This summer, me and my girls were able to fly up to Wenatchee, Washington to see my family. My little brother Jared was leaving on his mission, so we wanted to see him one last time before he was off to the MTC (serving in Honduras). We missed Isaiah & Doug a lot, but taking a girls trip was so much fun. I loved being able to focus a little more on each one individually.

My friends also took me out for my 29th birthday! I cannot believe I'm 29! That means next year it's 30! I never thought I'd say this, but hopefully this birthday will make me look a little older. You should hear the comments I get from total strangers when they see I have 3 kids! My favorite is, "Please tell me your at least 18!" The best was about a month ago when we were having mutual at an advisors home. Her friend came over and as the girls were talking about going to school at Dwyer Middle School, she turns to me and says, "so, do you go to Dwyer too?" Seriously...middle school? I know I look young, but come on! We died laughing!

My very best friends in the whole world are my sisters! This was at the end of a very fun week in Cancun with my family. I only wish that we saw more of each other. We are all spread out, it's so sad. Heather is in Houston (Kingwood) Texas, Amy is in Yakima Washington, and Lisa is in E. Wenatchee Washington. But every time we get together, it's always the best! I miss you!

Our friend Melissa was able to get us VIP seats to Dancing with the Stars through a friend of hers who works with ABC. To make a long, but very exciting story short, this included seats 2 rows up from the floor, and VIP passes to meet the stars afterward. If you saw this particular episode, you may have seen us being interviewed about who we thought should stay or go! Seriously, what a fun night! Here are a couple of the pictures we got that night...yes, that's Donny Osmond!

Let's not forget about Cameron!

A summer full of the beach

I think we've literally spent 50% of the summer just hanging out at the beach. This summer has been really chill, and we've enjoyed every minute of it!

They love burying things in the sand, including their little sister.

Isaiah & his friend Gavin, waiting to catch the perfect wave.

He caught it!

Ellie's favorite thing to do after being in the cold ocean, is laying in the hot sand. She loves this!

I don't know if this was more Baylie's idea or Doug's? You should have seen him rolling in the sand last week...completely covered. But, the kids love it just as much as he does.

We are so proud! 1st time out, 1st time up. Go Isaiah!

Ellie Bean

Ellie doesn't do Tae Kwon Do. She doesn't do gymnastics, play soccer, dance, play baseball, or sing. She can't swim, can't talk, can't feed herself, and she walks like a drunk. She doesn't have the attention span to watch TV or listen to a lecture, and isn't intelligent enough to know that roach motels are not supposed to be sucked on.

But dang she's cute.

She's so cute, she makes up for all of it.

And she is smart enough to know that when the garage door opens, daddy's home. Then the laughing and screaming begins, and we really don't care how dumb she is.

...Ok, she is only 1 year old. Nobody in the world is smart at that age.

(Doug wrote this :) Kristi is not insensitive enough to write something like this about her own dumb kid.)


Don't mistake my humor for a lack of love for this little girl. She is the light of my life. She drives me nuts I love her so bad.

Our Baylie girl!

Baylie is going to start Kindergarten this year! Aaahhh! I can't believe I'll have 2 kids in school! They're not kidding when they say kids grow so fast. This last year Baylie participated in gymnastics, swimming & preschool. I was so proud when her gymnastics coaches wanted to move her up to the "advanced" mighty-mites class. That's my girl! Although, I'm not sure if it was the gymnastics she loved or the really sparkly, colorful leotards. Anyway, she's decided to temporarily retire from that sport and move on to AYSO soccer and dance. Her first soccer practice was this week and she is soooo excited to play-not to mention the excitement about her pink soccer ball with butterflies all over!





Her most favorite things she's done this summer is, wakeboarding & tubing at Grandma & Grandpa Mortensen's, seeing cousins & family in Washington, sending off Uncle Jared on his mission to Honduras, swimming, playing at the beach with her friends, sand toys and the water, park days, riding her new bike, the Orange County Fair and the circus.

Baylie's an interesting kid. She's totally all girl, but she loves legos. She's cuddly, giggly and sweet, but sassy. She's really funny (when she's not trying to be), but obnoxious. She's a daddy's girl unless she's hurt, and wants to be just like her mom. She's just Baylie. And we love her!

What's up with Isaiah

Isaiah just finished a successful year of Kindergarten & is totally looking forward to 1st grade. This last year he's been involved mostly with AYSO soccer, gymnastics, swimming, and Tae Kwon Do (his biggest craze at the moment). His main motivation at first was because he wanted to become a "Ninja". He said, "I wanta be a ninja because they run on walls...walk quietly...do cool flips." He was recently involved in a tournament where he won 1st place in the take down, and 2nd in board breaking. He was stoked! He will soon be testing to get his green belt.


Things he loves, other then training to be a ninja are, his mom :o), legos, bike rides, his electric scooter, scooter rallies, father son outings, math problems, gymnastics, swimming, playing with his sisters & friends, soccer, going to the beach, boogy boarding, body surfing, wakeboarding & tubing at Grandma & Grandpa Mortensen's, slip & slides, climbing, reading, puzzles, games, perler beads, knock-knock jokes, XBOX 360, Great American Yogurt, Wipe Out, American Gladiators, Lake Arrowhead cabin & camping.

New things he wants to try this year are surfing, motorcycle riding & snowboarding.

We love Isaiah! He is a crazy little kid with a lot of energy, but also has a sweet, sensitive side with a desire to do good. We wouldn't trade him for anything!

Here it goes!

So, I'm FINALLY trying out this blogging thing by creating my own family's blog...and feeling slightly defeated! Who knows, maybe I'm too much a perfectionist and I need to let the little details slide. But then I remind myself how much I love the little details!

This is one of those things that is so hard to do in the beginning, but in the end you are so glad you did. Let's just hope this one lasts, unlike the millions of other great ideas I start but never finish. Ask Doug, he'll be the first to tell you that I get bored pretty quickly with new hobbies that sound like the best idea ever. For instance, like me wanting to train again for another marathon. But, as I started running again, just the thought of it wanted to make me roll over. Or the P90X workout videos I bought from an infomercial that I swore I would do every morning and night. Those videos were great, but they only lasted a few weeks-maybe I'll pick that one up again. Scrapbooking goes in phases-too bad I'm like 5 years behind and only started like 7 years ago. Doug even bought me the cricut machine for Christmas last year-I should probably learn how to use it. Then there's the hairbows I've been meaning to make, the finishing of my college degree, the weekly committment to healthy eating, the swimming, dancing, and spin classes I've been wanting to pick up, living by a budget, actually folding the laundry, and anything else that could possibly improve me. Hmmm...I'll get there someday.

In the meantime, I'm going to try my very best with this one!