Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Party!

It's time for the Ultimate Blog Party 2010! Time to get out there and make some new friends! I can't wait to meet lots of new people! If you would like to participate, go over to 5 minutes for mom and link up!

If you haven't visited me before, welcome! Please look around a while. I started my blog as a way to share our lives with family and friends who we don't get to see as often as we'd like. When I started, I didn't know the first thing about blogging. I still don't know much, but I'm learning as I go, mostly from reading what more experienced bloggers post. In the beginning, I was working full time as a PreK teacher and didn't have much time to devote to it, so I rarely posted unless there was a special event in our family. But in November, I became a full time stay at home mom. I'm still busy taking care of my four children, but I do find the time to blog more frequently now.

This is me.
I am very rarely in front of the camera because I am always the one taking the pictures. I am trying to make myself get into more pictures with my kids. I HATE having my picture taken though, so it's a painful process for me. :)

Here is my husband Daniel.
He and I met our junior year of high school. He was my date for my junior prom and we have been together ever since. We got married the summer after we graduated from high school at 18. Most people expected us not to make it, but we're still hanging in there after nearly 14 years. It's not been an easy road, but I can't imagine it any other way. I am so grateful to him for giving me the chance to be a stay at home mom!

My oldest daughter is Dakota.
She will be turning 12 years old next week! I can't believe it. Dakota is hard to describe. She is not-at-all girly, but I wouldn't call her a tomboy exactly. She is SUPER smart and reads anything she can get her hands on. She is very much into Pokemon and wants to be a graphic designer and create her own Pokemon games when she grows up. She also loves anything and everything to do with dragons. She is messy, forgetful, and sometimes loud but she makes up for those things by being extremely generous and selfless (at least with people who are not her siblings-ha!)and would gladly give anything she had to anyone who needed it.

Cheyenne is the middle daughter.

Cheyenne, at 9, is the perfect combination of girly girl and tomboy. She loves the color pink, princesses, make-up, anything sparkly, baby animals, and dresses. She also loves guns, hunting, digging in the dirt, climbing trees, and cammo (sometimes even pink cammo). Her daddy is her best friend in the world. When she grows up, she wants to be a cowgirl.

Sierra is my youngest daughter.

We call her smiley. She is 6 years old. Sierra is the most girly of them all, although she enjoys getting dirty with the rest of them. Sierra is friends with everyone. She is constantly singing and will make up a song about anything. Her favorite thing in the whole world is Tinkerbell. She loves to wear dresses and play dress up. Most days she is out of her school clothes and into a princess dress within five minutes of getting home. She has just changed her mind from wanting to be a cowgirl and live on a ranch with Cheyenne when she grows up to owning her own restaurant serving all-you-can-eat chicken nuggets and ice cream. :)

Landon is the only boy in the group.
Landon played a big part in my coming home from work. He is 4 and attended PreK at the school where I worked from August to November but, for many reasons, school was NOT good for him. We made the decision to pull him out and for me to stay at home with him. It has been the best thing we could have done for him. Landon takes medication for ADHD, which helps him tremendously, but he will never be the kind of kid who can stay in one place very long. He is constantly on the go. I learn patience from him every day. :) Landon's favorite thing is Spiderman. He has a couple of Spiderman costumes that he wears regularly. He loves to catch bugs and worms to keep as "pets" and all of them are named Spiderman. He gives the best hugs and kisses ever and loves to sit with me a read books. When he grows up, he wants to be Spiderman (of course.)

So, that's us. My blog is dedicated mostly to our lives as as family. I write about our special times together as well as our ordinary lives. I want to have a record of the things we've done together so my kids can look back at it someday and remember. Please stop back by and visit me again. You never know what we'll be up to.

All of the prizes for the Ultimate Blog Party giveaways sound great and I would love to have any of them, but here are a few that I especially liked:
#6 The Double Stacked A Lot of Love Necklace by Kristen's Custom Creations

# 7 Tupperware Prize Pack from Heater @ Marine Corps Nomads

#16 A custom made tutu from Sweet Patootie's via Peachy Keen

#46 Scentsy Plug in warmer and 3 scents from Amundesn House of Chaos