Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays 2012



Christmas 2012



We’ve had another busy year attending soccer and t-ball games, dance performances, and band concerts. We decided to switch schools this year and all the children are in our local public schools, and have all adjusted rather nicely and are making friends.   I think we’ve all enjoyed watching our little Esther continue to grow and develop more skills.  We were excited when she started walking while Wendy’s parents were in town to share the moment with our family.  The biggest change happened in August when Chris was called to be the 2nd counselor in the bishopric in our ward.  It’s been an adjustment but one in which we are noticing the blessings. Wendy has been dabbling more and more into photography and really enjoys it.  As the New Year approaches it is our goal to keep the family blog more updated so you can keep up and catch our latest happenings there.  Here’s the blog address:  http://cwrfamily.blogspot.com.  


Kaylee:  13 years old  
  1. She’s in 8th grade and is a teenager now.
  2. She’s playing clarinet in band at school
  3. She loves to read.  
  4.  
Katherine:  12 years old   
  1. Likes sewing, and is a quick learner.  
  2. Just made the Intermediate dance team for her school starting in January. 
  3. She’s in 7th grade this year.



Heidi:   10 years old
  1. She has braces on just her two front teeth.
  2. She’s in 5th grade..
  3. Played spring soccer and loved it!  


Thomas:  7 years old.
  1. In 2nd grade this year. Turns 8 in Jan.
  2. T-ball and Spring Soccer 
  3. Still loves to find projects to help out with around the neighborhood.   
  4.  
Ethan:  5 years old
1.        T-ball for the first time.
2.        Can make his little sister laugh like crazy.
3.        Started PM kindergarten this year.
Esther: (1 year old)
1.        Loves to look at books.
2.        Walks all over the place. And loves to climb on chairs.
3.        LOVES FRUIT especially bananas!


Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year
 


With Love,
Chris & Wendy Randolph  
And Family
 



From the Mouths of Babes 2012

While Ethan was cleaning up his blocks he realized they weren't all there, so Wendy looked around the room and pointed out at least three that she could see. Wendy said, “There’s one over by the swing, one under the desk chair, one by the breast pump." Ethan went to the closest one, which was by the swing and then he shot up and ran across the room and said very enthusiastically, “Where’s the gas pump?"

One morning Wendy had cut up a lot of fresh fruit; pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries, green and red grapes. So the kids were enjoying the fruit, and then Ethan (our then 4 year old) says, “Yay, it's a fruit day!" and then quickly popped a pretzel in his mouth.

Heidi was getting a drink of water and said, “I’m getting hibernated"

Our son Ethan, started eating one of those drumstick ice cream cones, and was told to go to the front porch to eat it, a few seconds later he comes in the front door and says he needs to go to the bathroom. And he isn't holding onto his ice cream cone. And Wendy asked him where it was.... he points to the planter box sitting on our porch. He just jabbed the pointed end of the cone into the soil and let it stand there.

So Ethan and Wendy were playing "I Spy" -- and Wendy was naming the colors of something for him to figure out. So she said, “I spy something that is red, white, blue and has some orange." He so confidently and in a sweet voice said, "My eyes".

This weekend Chris and Thomas have been busy working hard outside, and in the process have been replacing a few sprinkler heads, and Wendy went out to check on them one time and told Thomas that he had been a good worker, and then he said, "Yep, Dad and I know how to get dirty!"

Heidi was coming into the living room using a slightly loud upset/whiny voice and kind of stomping her feet, “Kaylee’s hiding things from me that are rightfully HERS!"  Katherine and Wendy cracked up laughing.

Ethan said after waiting patiently for more than 10 minutes while Dad and Mom were visiting with a friend they saw outside as they began their walk, “Mom you said we were going on a walk, NOT A TALK!"

Kaylee says, “I have homework that's due tomorrow and I don't want to do it." Wendy said, “Well then you better get on it soon." Kaylee says, “But I don't know how to do it." And Thomas comes into the room and says rather loudly, "Welcome to my world Kaylee!" Katherine cracked up laughing.

Thomas woke up this morning and asked if he had to go to school. Wendy said, "Um.... Yes!” And then he said, "But it's Esther's birthday, I don't want to miss it!"

Ethan came up to Wendy and said, "Mom, I can make a noise that sounds like a pig, and a lion". She said, "Really?" Ethan made the sound (which sounded exactly as he described it) and then Wendy said, "Wow that's awesome!” He came back with, "And impressive!"

While in the a hall at school one day Wendy and Ethan hear a strange animal sounding noise coming from the girl’s bathroom, and Ethan starts laughing and said, “Whoa! Is there an elephant in there?” 

Ethan was eating crackers on Wendy’s seat in the van while she was busy volunteering with traffic duty one morning, and Wendy said, "Why did you eat crackers up here, and get crumbs everywhere? You are such a stinker!" He said, "You mean, Brat?"

Wendy noticed that our son, Thomas, had his hair wet and had combed it more toward the side, rather than his normal "forward" style. Wendy asked him if he was trying to comb it more to the side now. And he responded with, “Yes, I'm trying to look extra genius."

After running into our Bishop at Costco, Thomas held up his hand like a "Vulcan". And he asks the Bishop if anything looks familiar about his hands. The Bishop says, “Are your fingers Vulcan?" Thomas replies with, “No, my fingers aren't broken!"

Ethan was playing with Esther, our 1 year old, and they were playing "blanket train". What is it? He has a blanket on the floor, she gets on it and sits or lies down and then he gently pulls it across the floor and she laughs!

While in a grocery store Thomas and Wendy were looking for some pizza sauce. It's a store they are not too familiar with, and he knows we like to buy generic if possible. So as they are looking, Wendy says “I don't know where it is." And Thomas says, “Are we looking for the genetic kind?"

Wendy said, “I guess we should get your coats ready to wear since it's so cold outside." Ethan said, “It’s a good thing I'm fluffy then!" Wendy said, "You mean a fluffy ostrich?" (He has been pretending to be an ostrich lately) He said, "Yeah!" Heidi says, "It's a good thing your a Randolph" and Ethan replied, “No, I'm a Fluffdolph!"


Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween 2012 - A Glimpse

I know -- STOP THE PRESSES !!  I'm patting myself on the back for getting this done the night of! 
And I'm blogging about it!  Enjoy the glimpse of our night this year! 













Friday, October 19, 2012

Rock Canyon Oct 2012

 We've lived in this place since July of 1999 and just this last weekend did we actually get out and discover this amazingly gorgeous place. (Actually a few of our kids have gone on field trips up here, but Chris and I have never been up here)  I'll tell you... it will be a place that gets visited quite a bit from now on!  So, so pretty in Autumn up here.   The kids were excited and brought bags for collecting leaves, and we came home with a lot!    Once we were home a few of them attempted to make some paper plate wreaths with the leaves.  Which turned out really cute.    They also found rocks that they really liked and so we came home with a few of those too.       We got lucky that while we went up there the rain had stopped, because it was a rainy weekend.  So we might not have been able to do our family pictures this weekend, but we did get some fun pictures up in Rock Canyon.   It's just East of the Provo LDS Temple in Provo, Utah.   I'm not into rock climbing but there are fantastic places to do that up there too.   So many people were there.     So here are some fun memories... some pictures by me, and some by Kaylee.   

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I love this picture below!! So many fun colors to see, its just so gorgeous and heavenly!
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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Look who's a year already!

I can hardly believe she's already 1! 
I decided to do an unplanned photo shoot with her this morning that
lasted for about 10 minutes.  And I finally feel like I have a keeper image! 
I wish she would have one of those all out smiles, but she's still
cute like this. 

Maybe next time!
I love this little girl! 

Monday, September 10, 2012

My handsome 5 year old!!

I love this little boy so much and can hardly believe that he's old enough for Kindergarten already!  It's a bit lonely even though I still have Esther (his 1 year old sister) at home.


But he is so excited to be going to school finally and everyday he gets too impatient about having
to wait till 12:10pm to go to school.  Yep, he has afternoon Kindergarten.

But he's loving it, and today just happens to be "Orange" day at school. 
 

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Happy 1st Birthday Esther!!!

A year ago today I was in the hospital waiting to have this precious little girl !  I can hardly believe that it's been a year already!  She started walking nearly 2 weeks ago, and has been so excited about it, that she actually tries to "run".   She now has 6 teeth that have broken through the gums.  
She likes cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries, grapes. 
Bread, animal crackers, cereal.  

She sleeps from about 7:30pm at night till about 7am in the morning.  
Takes two naps a day still. 
She loves playing with her "drum" toy. 

She uses the baby sign for "more",  and "milk", "eat/food".  
She has the prettiest eye lashes that go with the perfectly round, wide open eyes!  
She sometimes will answer "yes/no" questions when asked them, with the 
appropriate head movement. 

She loves being outside! She loves our dog Amber. And now, calls 
every animal "amba"  

She says, "Mama"  and "dada" very well. 
and says a word that sounds like "brea" for "bread". 

Ethan has a special bond with her.  Pretty much from the beginning.  He beams when he sees her, and her eyes light up and a big smile flash across her face when he comes into the room.  He can seriously make her do the "belly laugh".   

She likes to grab mommy's keys, play with the "phones".  She likes anything that plays music. 

I love this little lady!  She's been an absolute blessing to our family. And she has so many people that love and adore her!  I look forward to this upcoming year and all the milestones she'll reach by the time she's 2! 


September 6, 2011 




September 6, 2012


Thursday, August 23, 2012

A few teasers....

I've been a  LITTLE busy lately. 

But that's okay. 

I feel ALIVE.  Probably for a few reasons 1) getting out and walking the last few days a few times a day to take my children to and from school.  2) I've been busy behind my camera once again.  And I LOVE IT!! 

I've gone from having 6 kids home all day for summer, to having just 2 until next Wednesday the 29th!

Life is good! 

I have desires to keep this blog up more frequently now that my baby is not such a newborn anymore.

I have goals and ideas and someday I'll achieve most, if not all of them.

Here's a snapshot of some things I've been busy with.  



FIRST AND FOREMOST:  This little Lady is now 11 months old (when the picture was take just a few weeks ago). She's gotten so grown up so fast.  She'll be one in just two weeks!!  She is such a precious sweetheart though.   And we love her tons.   (This is my daughter Esther)   


Here's a recent family shoot I did.  They happen to be family and it was fun spending time with them, that I wouldn't otherwise have gotten.  There kids are so cute. And along with being cute, they were really wiggly too.  So we didn't get too many pictures before the little guy fell into the water.  And I probably would have really tried for more things, but I felt bad for him, because he was so cold and wet.  It was still lots of fun though.  Thanks Christensen Family!

Here's a little Princess who I offered to take pictures of for her parents since I knew her mother at college back in the days of Ricks College (1997-1998) living on College Avenue in Rexburg, Idaho.  Fun times. 

And this photo shoot was still fun despite not being able to use the location they intially wanted because of some construction. Luckily this spot was right across the street.  And even though there were other groups that were busy doing pictures too, we still managed to get some family shots that turned out cute. 
 Or at least I think so.  
Not to mention my other children that needed me as well. But one of these days I'll get the hang of being super mom!

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

We've been a little MIA ....

I've been trying to access blogger from Internet Explorer and have nothing but problems.  So after weeks of being frustrated I've gone to Firefox... and guess what ???    It's letting me do a new post!!  YAY!!! 

Might not be a big deal to any of you, but to me, it's HUGE!!!   So many days I've wanted to blog about something but because I wasn't able to access it at the time, it's gone to the back of my priority list. 

So here's a family update: 

Chris.... still busy working as an accountant at his job, and he's been there for almost 7 years come this July.

Wendy .... taking on the yearbook project for the school our children currently attend and has announced this is the last year she'll be doing it.  

(We've now lived in our home for 11 years!!  As of the beginning of March) and now we're in the process of doing an addition.  Next step.... either test for asbestos and lead and/or  find someone to draw up our plans for the addition that we'd like to do.   We'll get back to that after our little rendezvous in California to see my brother get married.  

Kaylee ... She's less than a month away from turning 13!!!  I seriously can't believe it!   And if you get a moment and know my daughter  --- we're creating a surprise book for her at the end of the month and any advice, memories, favorite book lists, recipes  -- really anything you'd like to share with her that she might know how many people are pulling for her and support her, that she can refer to over and over again through the next several years would be awesome.   Remember SHHHHH!!!!! 

But she's also involved with an after school ballroom class and loves doing that.  She's also really great with her baby sister.

Katherine.... She's also involved with the after school ballroom class, and has a really fun time with that.  She also loves to read!  She's reading all the time, I sometimes have to force a book out of her hands just to get her to come help me with dinner.

Heidi ... Just finished up performing a one night program talking about the history of Utah with the rest of the 4th grade students at her school.  And is finally participating in a sport --- soccer!  She picked it and asked if she could play and we agreed.  So now, I'm quickly trying to learn all about soccer because I don't know very much.  But the good thing is, she's a rather natural player and is doing good as a forward. She's pretty aggressive with it and we're looking forward to seeing her grow in this sport.

Thomas ... Now 7 years old and has been since January is busy playing soccer as well.  He's a different kind of  player than Heidi and seems to be geared more as a defensive player.  And his reading has been improving a great deal as we've been reading scriptures regularly now for nearly 2 months.

Ethan ... He is so ANXIOUS and gives an "evil" laugh every day when he counts down how many more days until his birthday.  (April 10)  We dyed eggs for Easter the other night and he got so wowed by the simplest things and get really excited.  I love seeing how he thinks about those around him and the things around him. He's constantly asking questions and learning lots.

Esther ... Nearly 7 months old has reached so many milestones this last month.  She's crawling and sitting up on her own, she claps her hands, eating food more regularly, she's starting to sit up while in her bed, and sleeps on her tummy.   My favorite thing that she does lately, she gets her hands on the floor and has her feet on the floor with her bum in the air and then she puts her head on the floor between her hands as if to do a somersault.  She's getting so big so fast and I'm trying to soak up every moment of it.


We've been without our cable subscription for nearly 2 months and it's been AWESOME!!  As a couple Chris and I are becoming closer and we're a team all the way!  We're reading scriptures as a family and I can tell a difference in attitudes.  However, with all the good things, we still have some night owls -- yes, you know the kind, the ones who don't want to go to bed.  Yeah, we're working on that still.   So there's a little update on us.  And more posts to come with pictures later.   

Monday, January 30, 2012

Choices, Choices.....

Okay so let me begin by saying, that I am long over due for a new hair style!!! 


I mean it's totally pathetic ... I repeat PATHETIC that I have pretty much had the same styled hair most of my married life.  I did go short for a little spell and discoverd that I don't like short hair on me.  And of course, with just having a new baby about 5 months ago, I'm really feeling the itch to do something fun, flirty and creative with my hair.  So I'm going out on a limb here and will let "YOU" decide which hair cut I'm getting this coming Saturday. (I hope it can happen Saturday!) And I have been considering some hi-lights -- but mostly I picked these pictures because of the cut.  So here's how it'll work, on the side -----> there is a "survey/quiz" and it'll have these options. Just vote for the two you like best.   And come Friday I'll go with the one that has the most votes. 


First one while I was pregnant back in August 2011--


BEFORE:

POTENTIALLY AFTERS:

A)

 B)

C)

Do you have another suggestion ?  Leave a comment with the link to the picture.




Had to do it that way because, I couldn't save the picture.

I'll revisit this on Friay.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

This is what I spent my time doing on Christmas Eve...

So this year I set out to make home made stockings.  I picked the fabric up at JoAnn's while they had all their fleece at 50% off. Which did save me a lot of money.  I had Heidi and Katherine with me at the time while I picked out the different prints. And I was happy to find out when we got home and showed everyone which print we picked out for them that they all liked our choices.  Esther is the only one that really didn't have a say and probably won't be able to let us know for a few more years still.  I was able to cut them out just fine and had an idea of what I wanted them to turn out like, but I can guarantee you that they all look different.  The first ones had the most noticeable flaws, and by the end I was able to almost master the look I was shooting for in the beginning.  So the way I see it ... they all have CHARACTER!  And they are home made with love and time which is way more than one from the store would be.  The kids didn't see any of them completed before they went to bed on Christmas Eve -- as I stayed up most of the night sewing and cutting out the last 8 pieces that weren't cut out already.   And for the top (white) part I just used fleece there as well. And I think they all turned out cute -- but what do you know I think I'm a little biased.  I used strap material in white and black for the loops that were sewn in to the stocking as I sewed up the edges.  Now our Christmas's will have a little more fun and personality with these delightful additions.  We missed out on having any stockings up for decorations this year until Christmas morning, but at least now they are made and will be the ones we use for the next several years. 
  Above from left to right :  Heidi,  Thomas, Ethan,  and Esther

Below from left to right:  Chris (aka DAD), Wendy (aka MOM), Kaylee and Katherine



So what did you make this year?  Any plans to make new items for next year?