I finally did it

So, for those of you who keep track of who visits your blog, I'm not stalking you. I finally started my own and was visiting all of yours for ideas. They are so cute. Our blog is: www.sheltonbombers.blogspot.com
It is still in the works but decent enough. I am trying to figure out how to put our weather on it, music, and how to get a bigger picture right when it comes up. By the way, Ann and Brit, I love the pics on your blogs...so cute. Joni, do you have one? Well, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

When should we do girls weekend???

Hi everybody, I am trying to cordinate my schedule and Austin's leave and my first trip to Disneyland (wahoo!!!) and girls get together all for July. The sooner we pick a date the better I can plan to be there. The weekend of the 17th sounds really good to me since Karie already mentioned that date as a possiblility for her. Do we have a date set yet?

Fun Times

Everyone's kids are so cute, I finally decided I needed to add mine in. Halloween was fun and luckily we had great weather. Since then we had our first winter storm about 10 days ago. Lots of snow and it was cold. I found a buddy to work out with in the mornings and when we went out in the storm, my thermometer said 11 degrees. Yikes. Anyway, my little baby is now walking...first steps a week ago. I am kind of sad. I have loved having a baby so don't tell Trent but I won't make it much longer if she grows up any more. Just kidding.

I have a funny story. I left one night and Trent was home with the kids. The boys were jumping off the bunk bed I guess and Brayden said, Dad, I'm glad your home. Mom doesn't let us jump off the bunk bed but we get to do whatever we want when your home. Trent was like, "No you don't, I have rules too." Brayden didn't agree but when he told me the story I said, yes you let them do whatever they want and eat whatever they want too. I am usually the bad guy. Well, I heard a crash and Amelia is crying. Not a good sign.

The Banks or otherwise know as the "Superheroes"

The kids had fun being superheroes for Halloween. The girls loved it of course, but it was so cute to see Brayden get so into it.

I also wanted to say that we can use the my family's cabin in July. We share it with my mom's family, so my uncle will put out the calendar at the begin of the next year, and I will see what weekends in July will be open. My cabin is super fun, and there is lots to do right around the area. I hope all of you are well. It has been fun seeing all your kids in costume. I still have a picture of most of the kids at the carnival at Midwestern our first year. Half the kids weren't even born, but the ones that were it seem crazy how big they all are.

Bingham Bandits

When Jeremy and I went to Hawaii and were introduced to Matsumoto's shave Ice, thankyou trent and karie, jeremy started looking ito getting a machine. Last year at Jeremy's extended family halloween bash we had shave ice so now that is our annual booth for the party. Jeremy wanted it to be official so we made a sign.



Taylor spent the first hour or so of the party in this bouncer and slide.

our little pirate puppy with his pirate sis.

This was Cadens favorite booth of the night. He worked really hard to fill his bucket back up with candy last night. Today on the way home from school he said that party saved me, so I could get more candy since I was all out. I'm sure he and Taylor will be attacking Ella soon when their candy is gone by tomorrow or Thurs.

There was even a tight rope, the scouts built it and so they left it for the party. Even Taylor walked across.

THis was before our ward party.

Arr Matey!!

I dressed up on Halloween night but thought I ended up looking more like a gypsy than a pirate, so I didn't really dress upfor any of the parties, most of the time I felt like we were lucky to get out of the house with the kids in their costumes.

We were the Bingham Bandidts because we bought a little foam pirate kit and decorated it and named our ship Bingham Bandits, the kids loved the fitting name for our theme this year.

Love seeing all the kids and moms in costume and dads with mullets.

Mathews' Halloween

We had a great Halloween! It didn't feel over the top this year, and thankfully, we didn't get a whole lot of halloween candy either ;)

It all started with our neighbor's halloween party where James and I went as Wayne and Garth.



Then the ward Trunk or Treat. NOTHING like the Trunk or Treats from our AZ days, thats for SURE!





And then Halloween night. Where our little Rodeo Queen was a bit "Halloweened out!"







I LOVE seeing all your cute kiddos in your Halloween posts, although frankly its a little scary not recognizing some of them that have grown so much or that I've never even met!

DeMill Halloween

Hello to you all! We had a great Halloween out here in Ohio. The past weeks have been really chilly and it was seeming that summer jumped right into winter and forgot about fall. We were pleasantly greeted Halloween day with 70 degree weather which made the festivities all the more enjoyable. Admittedly, it is hard for me to have fun when I'm COLD! Plus, I was trying to figure out all week how to keep the kids warm and still make their costumes visible since covering them up with coats would have instigated some monstrous fits (especially from our 4 yr. old!) It is a tradition on Halloween night to eat soup and bread sticks for dinner before we hit the neighborhood and gather our spoils. We all had a really fun time. I thought it was great to be free from a swollen belly and to be able to walk more than twenty feet without having to sit down for a spell. Dashle was quite humorous as he was determined to walk the entire time and maintained tight, clenched fists around his bucket handle. We would offer to hold it for him, but he would have none of it. Instead of "trick or treat" he would say, "peeaasss (please)" and then "a- doe" (thank you). Then as he walked down each driveway with Shyler after collecting the goods he would pause and look at me with a scrunched face and say, "cheeessse!" ( I was the photographer). So cute!

It's pretty sweet when your kids say they want to be just like their dad.

My kids are posers! I barely have to say anything. I simply turn the camera towards them and they instantly pose (sort of like Tina Fey when impersonating Sarah Palin).

Here's our biggest cheeser of all!

Big Daddy had to step in and help Thomas the Tank Engine, Tinkerbell, and Dr. DeMill Juniorette retrieve candy from this spooky house. It didn't matter that the bat flying around was fake! It was flying and that was all that mattered!

Coy even got in on the action as a little bear cub. The night seemed uneventful for him as he slept the whole time. I probably would've, too, if I couldn't sample the treats. What's the point of staying awake if you only have gums?

Halloween in Detroit

Halloween tends to be a little over the top here. I swear people put up more decorations for Halloween than they do for Christmas. We love our neighborhood and the kids had a great time trick-or-treating. The weather was great Halloween day which worked out well since Damon was on call and I had to take the kids and little Rock out! I am feeling great and trying not to stress out to much about my newborn this time around. I really am enjoying him. He is much more easy going than the first two. Is that because they have to be? Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

Here's Rock Thomas Kalcich. We named him after our Grandpas. Well, my Grandpa was named Roscoe, but everyone called him Rock and it just fit!
Born: October 15, 2008
8 lbs. 8 oz.
21&1/2 inches

Caywood Halloween

Jade was a fairy and Elise was a skunk, Jade's old costume. I did dress up as a hula girl but didn't get any pictures of myself. Jason didn't dress up and didn't even make an effort. Maybe the trick is to get him a mullet wig.

The Jensen's Halloween

Here are our Halloween photos! We had fun :) I posted detail about our fun at our family blog. Can't wait to see all your kiddos!!! Happy Halloween

A Manwaring Halloween!

Here's our family on Halloween! We LOVED it all!

Home At Last, Home at Last

Okay guys, I will start my own personal blog since I use this one as my own anyway. Your all probably sick of hearing from me. Whatever, Jenny got me pumped up already for girl's weekend next year. So, we made it home and we are finally one big happy family all together again. Okay, maybe we aren't so big because all you guys keep poppin' em out like rabbits. I love it though, don't get me wrong. But as I was talking to Trent we wondered if it was just our class that is like this. I mean, even for mormons, we ALL have a lot of kids in a short period of time. Most of the other mormons we have met have theirs spread out a bit more or are done after two or three. I guess it doesn't matter, but I think it is funny that we are all the same.
Anyway, Trent doesn't have to go to Guam so hurray and it is not likely that he will go to Iraq, so we are hoping he will only have to do one deployment for the whole payback period.
It is so nice to be together again and have a helping hand.
I do have a dilema. Lane isn't doing so great with the potty-training and this is the third attempt. Any suggestions. He will go, but only when he wants to and it's convenient. He's not scared of it, just plain out defiant and /or lazy. Also, what do you do when you have a picky eater? make him eat it, give him a new healthy option, let him starve, make two dinners??? yeah, life is fun isn't it.

Idaho Cabin

I love this idea! Amy- will you be in charge? It would be nice if someone near her could volunteer to co-pilot the effort.

Let's pick a date. We had said that it would be on the second weekend of July, but I don't know if you want it on your birthday every year Amy?!!? Any other suggestions? I guess it all depends on what's available too. I went on www.vrbo.com and checked out a few cabins. They were all wide open for July.

Kami, let us know when you find out more about your family's cabin. For now, we'll just see what else is out there just in case. Sound good? Amy- let me know what I can do to help!!

I'm so excited!! I'm off to make a ticker for the sidebar :)

Amy brought up a good point...

We really should pick who is in charge of the Girl's weekend next year. Everyone please respond to this post with your vote or to volunteer to host next year's girl's night. I'd be happy to host it here, but I'm sure you people out in the easterly regions would like it to be a little closer to home??!?!?

Also, Don't forget to post a photo of your kids in their halloween costumes :) Our ward trunk or treat is this saturday, so I'll be posting next week! I LOVE this time of year!!!

BTW- CONGRATULATIONS to all the new mommies and new babies!! It looks like we'll have another one here soon- i just read Katie's blog. You're so funny Katie!! Anyone know how we could organize a "virtual baby shower?" I've heard of them, but have never done one. We could do that every once in a while, if y'all are interested.

Happy fall everyone!! Miss you all!!

PS we have made a change...

So after 9 months pouring over baby name books looking for a
name for our baby we finally agree on the name Alisa right? Wrong! We brought her home and the name just didn't fit her. We all had a hard time with the name and my biggest fear with the name Alisa was that she would forever be correcting everyone on her name because it is too close to Allysa and that name is very popular right now. So when the name just wasn't fitting and in her few weeks of life not one person pronounced her name correctly (including grandparents!) we were in rather a delema (if that is how you spell that!) I didn't want the child to have an identity issue throughout life and Austin wanted to be able to call her something besides "the baby" so we began hunting again and we both fell in love with the name Ashlyn. (which means "a dream or a vision" in Gaelic for those of you that like meanings of names.) Oddly enough, we never even came across Ashlyn in our nine months of searching (although it is in the baby name book, I double checked.) So we went ahead and resubmited the birth certificate and she is officially Ashlyn Simone Healey. I just thought I would let you all know so if I mention Ashlyn you wont all think that we had baby girl Healey number 6 already. However we had better start picking out names now if we ever want to name that baby! Anyway, Ashlyn is super sweet and we all love her to pieces. She has had a bad run of colic and thrush over the last several weeks though and has felt rather miserable. So needless to say, this is the first moment that I have had to post for awhile. Have any of you dealt with thrush before??? I have some questions if you have! Anyway, Congrats to Britt, Ann, and Jill on your sweet new arrivals! It is fun to see so many little boys with awesome moms comming into this world. It gives me great hope that my daughters will find wonderful, righteous husbands to marry someday!

New Baby

Hey girls wish I wasn't so blog illiterate and knew how to double post. We had our little guy Monday morning. We are all so happy to have this new addition in our home. Zachary Douglas Bingham 7# 12 oz and 19.75 in. long. He's healthy and beautiful. there are a few more details on my blog, I'll post more on this one later.
Congratulations Ann and Brit, I hope you both recover quickly, I think your forced to when older kids are at home. Hope your hubbies get time off to help you rest. Wish we were all together so we could commiserate about nursing and such.

Happy Belated Birthday

Pics of us at wedding in Utah and then some at seaworld in texas. Busy fall. This is only one I can find as 28 year old.

Sorry, I guess this birthday post comes a bit late. I forgot that I had to do it and I am not quite sure what to put exactly but here goes. I had a fabulous time celebrating my 28th birthday...ha ha. My boys contracted the rotavirus...so I spent lots of time that week cleaning up diarrhea and poop. Lucked out with Amelia because she got the new rotavirus vaccine so didn't get it. At least they held it in on my birthday and started again early the next morning. I was in Vale, OR with my in-laws as Trent is in San Antonio for training. His parents actually work in the temple on Wednesdays so it was just me and the kids at home. We just hung out with our puke buckets. Then when they got back, they took me out to eat at the Starlite Cafe, the only restaurant in Vale. And, that's about all. Trent wanted to buy me an ipod but I told him to wait til we got home so we could do the research and figure out exactly what I want. He sent me a cute card though.

As for turning 28...hmmmm. Not much different. Right now I am selfishly in my own world only concerned with me and my family. I am not involved with any clubs or organizations as I have been all over the country and not really settled in anywhere. We've been stationed in Minot for 3 1/2 months but I've only physically been present there for about 5 weeks total. I am getting ready to head back after being gone for 6 weeks. Projects I've been working on are just food storage and parenting strategies. I have been visiting valuesparenting.com in order to be a little better at mothering and am making plans for when I get home. I've develped more of a love for motherhood over the past few months and my three little ones are my prized possessions. We have lots of fun and they are good kids. Amelia is the apple of my eye. Right now I am actually in Texas with her visiting Trent just for the weekend. The boys are still in Oregon. We do way too much traveling, but family is everything.

My mother-in-law has been teaching me to can while I've been here so we have done peaches, pears, applesauce, jam, tomatoes, salsa, and tomato juice. I have been dehydrating tons of fruit that I've bought from the local orchards and farms. It's been great. I am trying to continue implementing raw foods (traveling makes it a little harder) and if I get my workout in, I feel pretty good about life. Things I would like to do more of include reading, triathlons, and playing more piano.

Sorry this is so random. I'm not all that exciting but hopefully doing what's important in life. Happy to hear everyone is doing well and all those little ones are arriving safely.

Belly Shots

These were taken a week and a half ago, I have been meaning to post them. The kids had fun taking these baby belly pictures. I sure have missed seeing you guys and those of you who have also had growing bellies.
We are all so excited for a new baby to be joining us very soon. ten days to go until my due date, so any time now.