Flower Clips for Auction

Head on over to A Daily Scoop where two of my fabric flowers are up for auction. The money raised is going to the Emily Jones Memorial Fund. She is the widow of John Jones the man who died in the Nutty Putty Caves in Utah. There are lots of cute things up for auction and its for a little family who really needs help, so go take a look.

Turkey Run 10K

This morning Seth and I ran a 10k. It was freezing cold when we got there and slowly got warm enough to stand still without shaking to death. Once we got started it was a lot of fun, especially since I got to run with Seth, he stayed with me the whole time, even though I was going as slow as a snail. I did hold onto his arm for part of the run which helped me to go a little faster. It was the longest I have EVER run in my whole life, and I ran the whole time! We finished in 1hr 24 min.
I am really proud of myself, I made a goal last January to run a 10k this year and I DID IT!

I know we look pretty scary in this picture

Sienna Turned 3!

Sienna is such a little ball of energy, and I feel so blessed to have her in our family.
Yes, her presents are wrapped in Christmas Paper... I thought I had a roll of barbie wrapping paper but I couldn't find it. Sienna LOVES clothes, she loves to wander the clothing section of store WAY more than she like the toy section.. She changes her clothes probably five times a day... so she mainly got clothes for her birthday...

..and this puzzle.. she will sit at the table all afternoon doing puzzles and coloring.

Seth wasn't going to be home late, so I invited my friend Leesha over and her kids(her husband was working late as well)... we had a lot of fun making dinner and then having a "candle lit" dinner in the back yard.

Sienna is also a chocolate lover, so I made her favorite chocolate soufles. I am Lamo and couldn't find the cute curly candles I bought so we had to use Meika's nu,ber five candle.. I know pretty lame, she probably would never remember except for this picture that shows the proof of how lame I am.

We really are so blessed to have her in our family...
STORY ABOUT SIENNA
when we were in St. George for the Marathon Seth and I took Sienna to Old Navy while we grabbed a few things. While there she hopped out of the stroller and I couldnt find her... for TEN minutes! After about two minutes of running all through the store I began to really panic. I ran outside to see if she had run out there. I kinda got a little crazy at this point and was running through the store screaming her name and balling... I know, pretty picture! I had almost given up hope of her still being in the store when a lady came up to me and told me that she thinks she may be hiding in one of the clothes racks...sure enough there she was curled up in a ball chewing on some old gum she found stuck to the wall. I cried off and on for the next few hours, not wanting to ever let her out of my site again. I really had a change of heart towards my children after that experience, they are such fragile little people and we are so blessed to have them in our homes and in our lives. I don't know what I would do without them, I am so grateful for eternal families and for the opprotunity we have to be sealed together for all eternity.

Halloween 2009

This year I took the lamo route and just had the girls pick dress-ups from our stash to wear.
Here is Meika all dressed up for her pre-school party... I think she looks so cute, especially with those DARLING boots.

Here are the girls after returning from our trunk or treat which we all about froze to death at. Meika was an angel and Sienna is snow white.

I walked out of my room at 7am to find Meika sitting at the kitchen table coloring and chomping on a giant size snickers... I thought it was hilarious... can you see the snickers on the table. Thats what is so great about Halloween, this kinda of behavior is okay. :)

Halloween night we went trick or treating around our neighborhood. I love our neighborhood!

Nevada Style Pumpkin Patch

We love our casino parking lot pumpkin patch that comes each October and then switches to a Christmas tree farm in November. My girls love all the rides...even though the pirate ship did scare sienna, she still wanted to keep going on it.

Sienna, Meika & Cooper

Sienna & Anthony on a ride very similar to the teacups at Disneyland. Makes me sick just thinking about it.

This picture is really fuzzy, but I thought it was just too cute.

I LOVE the fall season, it is the beginning of some fun filled family get togethers.

St. George Marathon Trip

Look how cute the girls are on our drive to st. george... nothing better than a sister to lean on.

Every year we look forward to the first weekend in October... this is when all the Ballstaedt gang heads to the St. George Marathon. It is so much fun to spend time with all of Seth's siblings and all their children.

Bethany, Meika & Sienna (at the finish line of the marathon)

Hayliann & Sienna on a hike to see the sliding rock ponds.

Meika was very excited to find this little "walking stick"

Here is the sliding rock pond thing, I guess usually there is a lot more water, the kids had fun playing in it. The water looked so nasty, it had to of been full of all sorts of nasty things.

We has such a fun time and can't wait for next year.

"Camping Trip"

My parents planned a camping trip to southern Utah, it turned out to be not really a camping trip at all... we stayed at a cabin, and never once had a campfire.

We did have a blast making up dances, doing cheer stunts and playing football.

Seth got in some much needed naps.

We did a lot of relaxing and a few people got some reading in.

Krew & Sienna. There are four little ones all about the same age and when they are all together there is going to be trouble. This trip we had an incident with little people eating rat poisoning. Always fun to call up the poison control!

A Man Experiencing Childbirth

I saw this on another blog and was dying laughing as I watched it... it is really amazing to think what a womens body goes through while birthing a baby, it is very much a miracle.

He PASSED!!

Seth took the NV bar exam July 28-30 and since that week we have been counting down to the day the results would be posted, and today finally came. I can not tell you how relieved and excited I am

for Seth, he is so glad to be done with school and with the bar... whoohooo!!! If you want to see his name on "the list" with your own eyes click HERE...

So if you see him, give him a big pat on the back, because he is awesome!!

Conference Weekend

(I love this picture of the First Presidency leaving the conference center)

I absolutely LOVE Conference weekend, its a chance for the family to be together learning from our wonderful leaders. It is really such a uplifting time for me, I always learn so much and am always given a little boost from the great speakers. Here is the link if you would like to watch it, it is on saturday & sunday morning and afternoon. You can watch it live on your computer or on your t.v.

It has been fun getting our kids to listen, last conference I put a bowl of little candies up by the T.V and if they heard someone say temple, prophet, pray or scriptures they got to run up and grab a candy.

We will be in St.George spending time with family over conference weekend, I hope everyone gets a chance to watch a little of it!

~All About Meika~

A lot has been going on with Meika lately....

She lost ANOTHER tooth, and now has a cute little space on the bottom.

She started Preschool, and it LOVING IT!! She has a few little kids from her primary class in with her so it makes it really fun!

....And she celebrated her 5th birthday last week!! I can't believe she is already FIVE, time sure does fly by... She is doing a nice pose before heading off to school, she was so excited to take some treats to share with her class.

We celebrated by having a few friends over for a chef party, it was so much fun! We made little pizza's, decorated cupcakes, made donuts and even ate some cake! We were all very stuffed by the end of the party.

Seth and His Car

(Long Post feel free not to read, mainly for journaling purposes)

A month or so ago Seth was driving this cute little car around in 115 degree weather with no AC, because is was going to cost $1400 to fix it. After using my car as often as he could to drive to work he decided that he wanted to sell this car and share my sweet little mini van. So he put it up for sale and of course didn't get very many interested buyers.. (no one wants to be driving around with no AC in vegas) He lowered the price and got some interested buyers, he brought them in to sign the Bill of Sale and get the title and couldn't find the title!?! ( This was really funny to me) So he told them that as soon as he found it or got a new one he would let them know. Called the DMV they had sent it to the wrong address and were going to mail it to our new address and it would arrive in 7-10 bussiness days.

Had some new interested buyers, they gave him money to hold the car for them until he recieved the Title. The next day they called wanted to buy the car without the title and just get the title from us once it came... Seth agreed, wrote up a contract (saying that he would have the title by the end of the month or would refund the money and she could return the car) and the car was sold.

Well 7 days go by and no title, so he calls the DMV, and of course, they mailed it to the wrong address AGAIN!!! So he has to refund the money.

She brings the car back (after a million annoying calls and texts to Seth) and to our suprise has fixed EVERYTHING!

-new brakes

-fixed the leak

-fixed the air conditioning

-Cleaned the engine

-Touched up the paint

-fixed the engine light(which had been onf or the last 2 years)

Seth paid her $200 for the parts, which is nothing compared to what it would have cost to have all those things fixed.

Seth & I were talking about how funny this was, how it was this really annoying event that I was so bugged at Seth about, but it turned out to be such a great blessing. We have been so abundenlty blessed these last few years and this is just one more thing to add to the list, I know that our Heavenly Father is aware of our needs & wants, even if they are as simple as hating arriving to work covered in sweat! :)

Brave Little Girl

Saturday Morning Meika was taking a bath and we were talking here is how our conversation went...

Me: Wow, Meika your tooth is so loose, we should pull it out.

Meika: Who, you?

Me:No way thats so gross!

Meika: Dad?

Me: Oh no way he would be so grossed out!

Meika: ......Okay hand me a tissue.

I grabbed a tissue and the camera and this is what happened next!

Isn't that Hilarious!! Seth and I were dying laughing when I showed it to him...

Look how little it is.

She was so proud of herself, and was even more excited to go to bed so the Tooth Fairy would come.

We made a little pillow to hang on the outside of her door (I heard the tooth fairy is really lazy and didn't want to have to deal with sneaking in under pillows).. there is a little pocket on the hangy thing for the tooth and money swap.

When She woke up the next morning she came running in to tell us the Tooth Fairy had come, but she only left money! The money and pillow had purple glitter all over it, so Meika told me that, "The Tooth Fairy is really REAL!"

Two Really Loose Teeth

(Sorry for the gross picture)
I can't believe that my little baby is old enough to have loose teeth. Her two middle bottom teeth are getting super loose, you can see they are not even by her other teeth anymore. I think I need to make something for her to put them in for the tooth fairy... Sounds like a fun project. Does anyone have any good ideas for dealing with the whole tooth fairy thing?

Swap Meet

I was talking to my friend, Catherine, about the Swap Meet that The Nester did and we thought it would be so fun to do one with some of our friends, so.....

Wondering What to Bring?
~2 or three household items you no longer want and if you have time, a finger food or dessert to share.

The Nester explained it well when she described what to bring to her party, so I will just use her discription...

"If you are like me you have a box of stuff in your coat closet or in your hutch that holds some houseware items you just don't use. Maybe that stuff is too good to sell at a yard sale for .25 cents but not your style. Maybe you just don't have a place for it. Bring that stuff. If everyone can bring at least 2-3 items that would be great."

EXAMPLES

Vase

Lamp Shade

Decorative Plate

Fabric

Mirror

Photo Frames

Pillows

"No clothes, no books {unless they have to do with decorating} no toys--but wouldn't it be fun to have a swap for all of that stuff too?"

So if you are interested in coming please leave me a comment with your e-mail so We can send you an invite and give you more information about how we are going to do the swap...

Six Years and Counting

This last friday Seth and I celebrated our 6th anniversary, it is so crazy to me how fast time has gone by.

Here are six things I love about sethie:

1. His Smile

2. His kind heart

3. His Piano Playing abilities

4. How much he LOVES his 3 little ladies.

5. His dedication to supporting his family

6. I love that he LOVES to be with me!

I feel like we have been so very blessed these last six years, I couldn't have asked for anything more. I love you Sethie!

Ballet Started this Week!

Meika started dance this week and LOVED IT! Its so fun to see her really enjoying something, last fall when she did soccer it was such a chore to get her there and she would constanly ask me when they were going to go on the stage. Doesn't she look so big?

He's Back!

We are SOOO excited to have our Daddy back, he has been so busy the last three years with school and work that we rarely got out to do fun family adventures. Last Saturday we enjoyed having Seth join us on a trip to Lake Mead to feed the crazy fish.

Seth had fun looking at all the boats and dreaming of having his own one day.

Okay so if you haven't been to feed the fish at the docks, you are seriously missing out! There are TONS of fish, this picture doesn't show off how many fish there really are. When you walk to the edge of the dock the fish start swimming over, then when you throw them food there are so many fish you can barely see the water, they are crawling all over each other...They are really ugly fish, but we had so much fun watching them inhale the popcorn.