First Days of School!

Nyah and Keira both started school this year. Nyah started on the 18th and Keira started on the 25th. They both love it so far.

Nyah is loving her teacher and she loves that she gets to do science this year and has already done some experiments. She was very excited about her car pool name she chose this year. She chose "Wizards of Waverly Place." They have a car pool and they each get to pick the name of their car pool, when we get to the school as we drive in, their car pool name is called into the office via walkie talkie and they announce it in the school, so she knows her car is here to pick her up and she can go outside now. This really cuts down on the chaos that there usually is when picking kids up from school. With school came a new haircut. Nyah doesn't ever keep hair things in her hair and she is getting old enough to have more of a style then hair do's each day. So we got this idea from her favorite celebrity, Selena Gomez. She has really liked it and it works cause it will work with hair this length or when her hair gets longer seeing as she wants to grow it out.

Keira started Kindergarten and she LOVES it. On her first day, I walked her to class and she literally ran in. I didn't get a hug, not even a "good bye." She loves her teacher "Mr. Matt" and she always wants to go. I had to convince her that it was okay for me to come to her class and volunteer cause otherwise she wouldn't want me there. It will definitely be an interesting year with this one, seeing as she gets very distracted! While at her class today, I watched her and I noticed that she gets the most distracted when they are sitting and getting some type of a lesson with less interaction, then she is moving around, fidgeting, playing with things around her, etc. Luckily, in Kindergarten they are constantly moving from one activity to another so hopefully it will go well. Tomorrow she has P.E. though and if any of you heard about the soccer issue know that her P.E. teacher is in for her money. We will see, I am just glad she likes it and has a good time.

Of course we had to have a "Hello Kitty" back pack!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEIRA!!!!!.

So, Keira's birthday was actually on August 19th, and I am just now getting this posted. Anyway last Thursday our little Kiki turned 6! Seriously how did that happen. She will actually be starting Kindergarten tomorrow, which is sad for me. We love Keira, she has the funnest personality and is seriously such a crack up. On the morning of her birthday we had a conversation like this:
Me: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!
Me: Today is your Birthday, your 6!
Keira: Your Joking!!
Seriously, you never know what is gonna come out of her mouth! She is extremely unique, there is really not a single word that would work to describe this child, she's just. . .Keira.

ANIMAL LOVER
Anyone who knows her knows she is obsessed with animals! Any kind of animal. A few months back, she had been telling me that she wanted a pet bird and how she just wanted to catch a bird, like every day we would hear this. Then, one day we were eating dinner and after she said she was gonna go catch a bird out back, so we said go for it. We were sitting at the table with the sliding doors open when we hear "I GOT IT"!!! Then we hear birds freaking out. We run out and sure enough there is a bird in her hands that is trying desperately to get away. I just stood there shocked!! She really caught a bird?!?! How the crap did this happen! We have since had to explain to her that birds like that can't be pets and you can't catch them.

EMPATHETIC
This kid is always concerned for others and if anyone gets hurt she is the first one there to help take care of them or to get a band aid for them. She keeps telling me that when she grows up she wants to be a Doctor so she can make people feel better. I could see her doing that to, or of course any type of profession dealing with animals ha ha.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEIRA, WE LOVE YOU!!!!! For her birthday she wanted a dog cake and I just happen to find this one at Wal-Mart so she was very excited about this.
Time for presents!

She got more of those big headed stuffed animals she loves, now she has them all.

She got the "Perry the Platypus" toy that we have heard about non stop since she saw it. I am still not sure how she spotted it, we were at the store and were in the clothing section and she starts talking about the Perry the Platypus toy she could see which was clear over in the toy aisle. She can spot the strangest things from a mile away.

THE INFAMOUS "PUPPY" PARTY!

Anyone, who has been around Keira has heard that she wanted a "puppy party" for her birthday, she has been talking about it for almost a year now, ya, that's rights she planned this right after she had just turned 5. Of course it wasn't a surprise considering, when she did turn 5 we had heard about the "Hannah Montana" birthday she wanted for a year before that ha ha.

So, here is the cake. I must say the dogs eyes are a little creepy.

The decorated kitchen

We made "dog ears" for everyone as well as decorated a "dog kennel" which we took all their pictures in.

The Dog Kennel

All the "doggies" at the party

In the kitchen, we made a "doggy obstacle course" they had to go through it a few times, then we had them going through it and we had some Scooby snacks and we would have them do tricks for us like; speak, roll over, chase your tail, etc. Then they would get a Scooby snack for being a good dog. It was so stinking funny and the kids really got into it.

This little doggy got mixed up were she was supposed to go and got stuck.

We had a pinata of course by request from Keira, she kept saying "I want a puppy piata"

For me, it was a little creepy that we were giving these kids a stick to smack a dog with.The end result was really creepy, it ended up decapitated and mutilated.

They also got to "adopt" their very own puppy, they got to choose their puppy, a collar for the puppy and they got an adoption certificate. I don't know why I didn't think to take picts of this, but I didn't.

Time for cake!She was VERY excited for the presents!I thought of a great idea this year for the opening of the presents. You know how at a party, when they start opening presents and all the kids crowd the birthday kid and no body can see or move. Well I put a piece of tape along the carpet and told them not to cross it. When Keira was opening the gift they had brought they could come up and sit next to the couch to see close up. It worked like a charm ha ha!

She had a great birthday I think and got everything she wanted most of which was different types of large stuffed animals, she got 4 of them. She is getting quite a collection of stuffen animals. Yay for me, I just LOVE having stuffed animals, but it's not as if I can hope to get rid of any of them, she loves them all. I am just trying to find the best way to organize them without them being in the way.

Anyway, now another party is over with and yes you guessed it, she has already chosen what she wants for next year. . . . . she wants birds!! Yes, that's rights a bird birthday is what she wants, not surprising coming from her, but seriously?!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIKI!!!!!

Going Private!!

So, I have decided to make my blog private. I have been getting all these random people comenting in other languages, which to be honest is a little creepy. Anyway, I will do it sometime in the next few weeks. So, if you want to be added as a reader feel free to add your e-mail for me. Thanks.

The Runia's Summer Fun with a little Extra (TONS of pictures!!)

Okay, so I finally updated this! Summer is so hard to do blogging, we are always doing something and I never have time to do anything on the blog. Of course it doesn't help when I don't download my pictures off my camera very often. Anyway here is what we did all summer long and I added a few right after Connor was born that I hadn't added yet. So, I did it all in separate posts, I figured that would work better then one giant post, it goes until the title of Cherry Hill and then it will be updated for now. . .

Connor's Room

With the help of our friends we painted Connor's room, this of course was before he was born but I didn't post it until now.

We decided to write messages to Connor on the walls before we covered it up with paint. No more purple walls, almost sad though, they have been purple since Keira was born so for about 5 1/2 years.

We of course couldn't get through the day without a Chevy Chase moment. Jared was up on a little step ladder and coming down he tripped of course, stepping on a can of green paint (the can was sealed shut, had not even been opened yet mind you) he stepped more on the edge of it and it tipped bringing him to the ground hard. The paint can was completely squished and paint went every where with a pile on the carpet. We got most of it up and you can barely tell where it was spilled. Our poor clumsy family.

This is what these two little monsters were up to while we were painting. Look familiar oh ya, this is the first time they created their lipstick art work the other post was the second time. As you can see Jayda is thrilled with her creation. Oh, it's a good thing they are so cute.
The end creation was worth all the hassles. I love how his room turned out!

Connor's 2 Week Pictures

So, I never posted these I realized, so I thought I would do it now. Here is some of my favorites that I took, of course there is a lot more but I couldn't post them all.

I love baby hands and feet

Nyah's Birthday Party

So, this was the start of our INSANE weekend!! We had Nyah's birthday party, Nyah's gymnastics performance, Nyah's baptism, and Connor's baby blessing all in one weekend!!! People thought we were crazy, we are of course, but there wasn't really much we could do about how it worked out. I had always planned on doing the Baptism and Blessing all in one weekend cause I figured it would work better for anyone that had to travel. Now the gymnastics performance couldn't be helped, I don't get to pick the day and time. The birthday party we didn't have a lot of options with either because if we had done it the weekend before her birthday, well that was memorial weekend and that just doesn't work, and then if we waited another week it's just getting a little far from her actual birth date, so there ya have it. Okay so I am just crazy, but we did it!


Nyah this year wanted a Taylor Swift party. So, they don't have any Taylor Swift birthday party things, we had to do our own thing.

I made these invitations, which I was proud of for doing. I tried to make them look like a concert ticket (I blacked out certain parts for obvious reasons).

We had plenty of friends there.
We first got their nails done and sparkles put in their hair to "get ready" for the concert. Then we had a relay race to put on "concert clothes" then came the concert. We had the karaoke machine out and the girls took turns in groups or by themselves singing whatever they wanted.

Then of course we had the dance party. Nyah looks so funny in this shot ha ha.

This was the decorated kitchen

Here was the cake

It ended up being a pretty good turn out and they all had a lot of fun.

Nyah's Baptism

Well, we she did it. She got baptized. That was a tear jerker moment for mommy. She is growing up way to fast and there is nothing I can do to stop it. She was so excited and was not scared even for a moment. I am so proud of her!Daddy's Little Girl, growing up before our eyes I still want to take her out to get some nice pictures of her in her dress. I will post them when I do that.

Connor's Blessing Day

We blessed Connor in June. It turned out so nice. We had a lot of family and friends in attendance. We did the luncheon afterward of course, it was a nice end to our INSANE weekend.

It hard to even get a decent family picture, Jayda looks thrilled. That's okay.Jared and his son!We could not have pulled this weekend off if it hadn't been for the huge amount of help we had from friends and family. They helped with food for both after the baptism and the blessing, helped take our kids to places they needed to be, helped with the birthday party, helped do Nyah's hair for the baptism. You all know who you are, so THANK YOU!!!!
I had to post this, my friend found this lady that makes these awesome cookies. I thought they where so cool. We had some for the baptism and the blessing. If you look closely some of them had their names on them as well.

It turned out great! We pulled off the huge weekend of birthday party, gymnastics performance, baptism and blessing! It's exhausting even thinking about it, but it got done and we enjoyed every minute of it.

Lake Powell

We got to go to Jared's favorite place in the world again this year. . . Lake Powell. We went with my parents and some friends of theirs. We camped in Paige and then put the boat on the Lake every day. It was so much fun. So, Keira's absolute favorite place to ride in the boat is in the bow. Well one day she was right up there similar to this photo only without Jayda and we were riding along and then all of a sudden she just fell backward hitting the floor of the boat. We did not hit any waves, there was no sudden jerking of the boat, oh no she had fallen asleep and fell back! I am so glad she didn't fall forward!!! After that I had to keep checking on her to make sure she was not asleep sitting up there.

They loved to go in the water in their tubes, they could have done it almost all day.

We went to the dam which was neat to see. We also went to Rainbow Bridge but of course I had forgotten my camera that day. My mom had hers so we did get pictures but she has them and I have not gotten them from her yet.

Our little boater.

Jayda loved getting the boat all muddy and then washing it off with the watering can, it was very cute.

Keira was VERY safe (unless you count the falling asleep in the bow of the boat incident) as you can see she was going to make sure she would not drown. She has her life jacket, her tube, and shallow water. . . very cautious!

Out little baby boater, he was so good. He wasn't a huge fan of the life jacket but he didn't put up much of a fuss. Every time the boat was moving he would always fall asleep.

Jared got to water ski, he was very happy about that. It has been a while since he has been able to.

Proof that I did go on our vacation.

My parents friends that came had a two daughters, Nyah's and Keira's ages and they all got along great. Nyah talks about Mckenzie all the time and has been writing her letters since the trip.

We had so much fun and were not ready to come home. We would love if we could go every year to Lake Powell. Of course Jared would live there if we let him.