Christmas

Life is crazy today. I can't find enough time in the day to do all that I need to do and when the evening rolls around I'm too tired to do anything. I've been stressing all day about my Christmas cards and getting them in the mail. When I would sit down to work on them Sydney wanted to help too much and I wanted to tell her NO, I'M DOING IT but she only wanted to help a little bit right and what's the harm in that. She also wanted to help shovel the driveway that I have been going to clean off for a while now. I wanted to do it quickly but she kept wanting a turn with the shovel. Again I want to say NO but I stop and smile that she even wants to be with me and help. As I started to make progress again on the cards (they are already addressed) Sarah would wake up and need Mom's attention.

While I silently scream and want to cry from my self-inflicted stress, a calm comes over me and a gentle reminder comes of why we celebrate this season.

So slow down and cherish the celebration of the birth of our Savior.

A little craziness

We made the mistake of letting the girls have some Mt. Dew and Pepsi the other afternoon. We had just gotten to a little meeting about some medical insurance that wasn't supposed to be very long. The agent offered something to drink: water or pop. We asked if they had any rootbeer and she said she would see. She comes back with the other two mentioned earlier. I thought water would be fine for Brooke and Syd but due to circumstances earlier that involved crying and throwing fits and being way too tired, Ryan wasn't up for this battle and we gave in. They have had the occasional drinks of Grandpas' pepsi so it really didn't sink in that it would cause any difference in their behavior. Well I was wrong!!

We left for dinner at Wingers (our Friday night date) and then a trip to Costco. The girls were WIRED!! Now while most of this next wild business is normal it was increased a hundred fold. Running up and down isles, chasing each other around the shopping cart, laughing very loudly and then doing it all again. I found a time that they were looking at some things with Ryan and so I snuck away and looked at my own attention getters. Ryan almost went crazy trying to keep them sort of behaved. I thought I better save him as they were running to play the display pianos they have at Costco. It didn't end there though. They just couldn't sit still. The ride home was CRAZY. It took awhile for them to settle down and get to bed. Glad the next day was Saturday. No more of their own Mt. Dew or Pepsi.

Back in time

I found some pictures from the girls' first day of school. Never too late for pics right??!!

Here Brooke is getting ready to go into her class. My good friend's litttle guy is in her class as well, that is him waiting for her.

Wow, Sydney is a hoot to be with. She loves preschool and has become quite the character lately. In a prayer last night we were being thankful for our primary teachers. One of the names is Ballantyne and after Syd said that, she waited for half a second and added "cards". We giggled for awhile.

And where has the time gone for this little one. She loves being up and is getting so mobile. I spend a lot of my days ooing and gooing with her and the big sisters. She is quite the jumper and is getting the walker figured out, almost! If you can't tell Sarah looks just like her big sisters when they were her age. Truthfully, sometimes I have trouble deciding who is who in baby pictures and I didn't think I would ever do that!

Eight awesome years with this guy

Looking back 8 years ago today, I made the best decision to be with this guy forever! It was a beautiful October morning with just a slight chill to the air and the sun shining bright. A few things I received were; a bouquet of a dozen lavender roses early that morning (my favorite), a very nervous, quiet at times, and full of excitement and anticipation ride to the temple with the handsome groom, and an eternal companion! Eight years later: 4 beautiful girls (one waiting for all of us to come home), a crazy elk hunting adventure, 6 years of undergrad and dental school, many visits to grandma's and grandpa's, lots of hugs and kisses and loves from our girls, lots of learning and patience gained, more fillings than you can count, new friendships, a house, wrinkles, gray hair, and a love stronger than ever!

Thanks for the journey! I love you Ry with all my heart.

FAMILY PHOTOS

I have so much to catch up on but wanted to start somewhere. As you can see my girls are getting bigger and bigger. My husband is getting cuter and cuter. And I am loving being a Mom more and more.

More pics of the girls to come and how our summer was. Sarah is 4 months now and I don't know where the time is going.

We had such a great time getting pics with this wonderful photographer. She is so amazing and does a fantastic job. It feels good to have an updated family photo (at least until Sarah gets older). Can you believe she is a first grader?! Where did my little girl go?
This little preschooler had a great time with the photographer. This is my littlest! Smiles, smiles, smiles and cheeks, cheeks, cheeks.
I love my family!

Introducing..........

We are so very excited to introduce our newest, sweetest, cutest little Kidman.

Sarah Erin Kidman

Born: Friday May 9th

8:58 a.m.

7 lbs. 8 oz.

20 in. long
She was 10 days early and everything is great!

She is named after her great-great grandmother.

Sydney and Brooke are the best helpers and love their new sister so much.

We are thrilled that she is here with our family and feel so blessed to be new parents again. Wow, we forgot what a newborn is like but wouldn't change anything for the world. What did we do without her here!

She is already changing so much.

This one is today. Man, we love her.

Girls, Girls, Girls

Who wouldn't want another one of these two! When asked what our family dynamics are like, Brooke is quick to respond that Dad is the only boy and we have 4 girls (counting our little Rachel) and me of course.

Well if you asked her right now she would tell you that Dad is still the only boy but now we will have 5 girls in our family.....

So yes it has been a long time coming to the blog but we are very excited to announce that this time around we are now 27 1/2 weeks with our newest little girl (due in mid May). I have some selfish reasons of why I haven't put it on the blog yet, mostly I wanted to be more certain that things were all right. And everything is good, healthy and she is moving like crazy! We can't wait for her arrival.

What a memory

Sydney has such a great memory. A couple of days ago we had out the children's songbook and she was singing me a song that she learned in sunbeams.I have always wanted a piano and so mentioned that I needed to save my money and buy us a piano some day. Well today after we got Brooke off to kindergarten I was doing the dishes and Syd came up to me with a quarter she had found. "Mom this is for your piano". At first I questioned what piano and then remembered what I had said. She is so awesome. She is my little buddy.
Here are some pics from her birthday in Oct. with her purple bday cake. I thought I would throw in a Halloween picture of my "kids".

Catch up

Wow, where has time gone? There has been so much going on the past little while. I am not good at downloading my pictures from the camera so this time I won't have pictures but will get some soon.

I will start with September (was that really 3 months ago)! We didn't forget and we celebrated well, Ryan's 29 birthday on the 7th. What a young one!! So I was a garage sale goer this summer and I found a really great (never used) table saw for Ryan. I know, I know, a dentist and table saw aren't the best of friends, but he loves wood work and he promises to be very careful, so there you go! Brooke and Syd helped me make a great card and were so excited to give it to him. We also made it over to family to visit and had a birthday party with all our families for the firt time in 5 years. It was a blast, Costco cake and all.

The end of September Ryan also got to do something he truely loves, salmon fishing in Washington State. He made the trip to his cousin's house along with his Dad and brother Mike. I can't say it was the greatest ever, rain, rain, rain, made the fishing not too great and they came home with bruised egos. Les did catch one, a sucker!! Oh well maybe next year.

On to October... On the 6th Ryan and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. It was General Conference weekend and we made our way to southeast Idaho for a baptism. I had in my mind something planned for the next weekend when we would be home and be able to do something. Well my great man had some plans of his own and surprised me with an overnight trip while my parents watched the girls. I had no idea. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have Ryan as my husband and best friend. I can't wait for the next 7 years!

On October 11th my little Sydney, my baby, turned 3 years old. What a big girl. She is always so happy and is the best player. While Brooke likes to be by my side, Syd is up playing with her dolls. She is so loyal and loves us to death and of course we love her the same in return. She had been wanting a barbie doll with a horse that really bends his legs and whinnies while he jumps. It was so fun to see her happy little face when she opened up that present. It was priceless. We had a pizza party and bubble gum icecream and of course we can't forget the purple cake. She didn't care what it was as long as it was purple. We often hear her saying, "I like that because purple is my favorite".
I love my girls so much, I don't know what I did before they came!


Throughout October, Ryan went hunting for deer and elk. Luckily (for myself) he didn't get a deer, disappointing for him though. I am not a big venison fan ever since he made me deer steak when I was in my first trimester with Brooke, not a fond memory! But he did get an elk, a great story I will let him tell, wolf, coyote, bear or at least one of those and all.


On October 30th I turned the big 3 0. It was a great day. Ryan made me a cake and I enjoyed my golden birthday(turning 30 on the 30th). I'm not too sad to leave my 20's they were fun but I can tell my 30's are going to be much more. First I have a better sense of who I am and what I want out of life and second I'm not going to worry about getting older, life is just going to get better!


Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays I think mostly because of the great memories I have of being little, the leaves falling and being excited for my birthday and then going trick or treating and getting lots of candy. Well it was no different this year, although I didn't dress up, I got to live through Brooke and Sydney for this part. Brooke was a doctor and Syd was Sleeping Beauty. They had so much fun and lookes so cute. For work Ryan was Mr. Incredilbe. He wanted to be Spider Man because the people at work call him spidy. They think he looks like Toby McGuire. No luck finding a spider man costume though and he had a Mr. Incredible t-shirt from my brother who worked for direct TV so that is how Ryan Parr (aka Mr Incredible came to the Kidman house).


Enough for now, I will do November and December soon.

A Day Full Of Emotions

My day has been full of mixed emotions. Today would have been the due date of our sweet little Rachel. While the day was hard and I was weepy and emotional at different times throughout it I also had such a great peace and comfort knowing that this was the plan our Heavenly Father, Rachel and Ryan & I along with Brooke and Sydney agreed to. Would it be easy? No, the path has been hard but we have never been left alone. The Savior and our Heavenly Father knew we would need Them along with family and friends to help us get throught this. I truly have been blessed with a comfort that comes out of nowhere sometimes it feel like. What a perfect plan we had set before us, nothing was left out.

I think of her often and wonder what her life would have been like here with us. I have read some good books that have strenthened my testimony and shed a little light on why this had to happen and what will happen in the life to come. Ryan and I have stayed close and I am so grateful to him for his love and understanding, I'm not too easy to live with somedays :)

This is Rachel Lynn

She was perfect, just needed a little more time to grow.

These are all some different memories that we were given to always keep her close in our hearts. The top left is a Willow Tree statue called "The Angel of Remembrance" given by my brother Drew and his wife and one of my best friends Kellie, thank you again. The flowers are some from the many we received, and the other Willow Tree box is Mother and child from my Aunt Carrie. The hospital had a company come and they were able to get an impression of Rachel's hand and foot. This was a surprise to me, a great one. And the beautiful frame for the picture was from Ryan's Mom and Dad.

IT'S OFFICIAL.....

It's official I have a kindergartener.....she started on Monday.

Brooke has been so excited to start kindergarten and that has been the subject of conversation for the last little while. We have been talking it up so that she would be exctied and not be scared to get on the bus and be gone all afternoon. Well I really think all that talk was for me instead. Brooke has done really great and I am the one that was afraid if she would be fine on the bus and get to her classroom okay. My confession: I followed the bus to school and without her seeing me I made sure she made it to her classroom. Of course she made it just fine and was all smiles. I forget how much she can do and that she is growing up! As the bus pulled away from our house the tears came (what a baby, I know!). I am glad she is growing and learning and that she can be independant, as long as she comes home and gives me a hug. I LOVE BEING A MOM. Even through the hard times I would never give it up!

So thank you Brooke and Sydney for being my daughters and loving me.

Ryan's shadows

Daddy's girls through and through! Brooke and Sydney absolutely adore their Dad and I think he loves that they want to do what he is doing. Hey we might even have a future dentist on our hands.

Ryan works late on Tuesday nights and when he gets home we have dinner ready for him to eat. The only thing is that Syd thinks she needs to share Daddy's food with him. Both Brooke and Syd have him wrapped around their little finger and he does what his princesses want. What a softy!!!

I am glad these 3 have a special bond. From experience I know there is a wonderful friendship that can be had between a daughter and father. My own Dad is so amazing and great. There is nothing better than being Daddy's little princess!!! (even after you're married) haha

Bings and Goldens

June in Emmett, ID means cherries! We traveled the 20 miles north so we could have cherries to our hearts content. There are quite a few u-pick orchards and we found one that we liked and had cherries where we didn't have to walk back through the trees too far getting more cherries smashed on the bottoms of our shoes. We got lots of bings and quite a few goldens as well. My personal favorite were the goldens this year as they don't make the mess that bings do and they were also sweeter. We had fun picking one weekend with just us, and then the next weekend Ryan's Mom Patty and his brother Mike came and we loaded up some more. Ryan had to work and so he isn't in these pics. We have made cherry pie and a few other recipes with cherries and just enjoyed eating the rest.

I'm pretty sure she ate more than she put in the bucket!
Also on this trip we were going to visit the old ghost town of Pearl, ID. We got on the old gravel road and read a mileage sign that said Pearl was only 9 miles. It was fun driving and feeling like I was up on my Grandpa's ranch in SE Idaho. Well we drove some, and then some more and when we reached our 9 miles and a little more there was no ghost town in sight. It was nap time and hot and we were all tired so decided to turn around and head for home.

Where's Pearl?

As we were driving this deer was in the middle of the road. It ran off quickly but not before Mike was able to get it on camera

Kids say and do the craziest things!

It is so fun being a Mom to my 2 little girls Brooke and Sydney. I thought I would pass on some fun things that have been said and done in our house the last few weeks.

Recently we were flipping channels and stopped on a PBS show showing the Weiser, ID fiddle festival. They were amazing, especially the little boys that won the national competition (who are from the Treasure Valley!) For those of you who don't know, that includes Boise, Meridian etc. None of us play the fiddle or violin but were intrigued by their talent.

At the end we asked Brooke if she wanted to learn how to play the violin or fiddle and her response was this!

"No I think I want to play the flute, I already know how to play the violin." She has never even held a violin! "It is really easy, you just hold it under your chin, move your hand around and push the stick back and forth." At this point we are holding back our laughter as she then explains that is why she wants to learn to play the flute.

This next one is also Brooke: She is talking to Ryan, telling him what she told the neighbor girl.

Brooke:"I told Briana that you are popular." Ryan:"you did?" Brooke: "yah I told her you were popular because you wouldn't let me go to her house and play." Ryan: Do you know what popular is?" Brooke: " Yah it means you're mean!" Then they argued back and forth about the definition of popular!! Apparently at our house we don't want to be popular.

Here is one from Sydney: Brooke was in the bathroom and hollered to Syd to come and hold her hand. (I know this sounds weird already, but you gotta do what you gotta do). Sydney says "just a minute" and pulls the play telephone that she is playing with to the bathroom door, leaves it there, but before going in tells the phone, "You better stay out here phone, it is going to be stinky!!!"

Kids are so cute!!

I thought I would throw in a picture of the girls and Grandpa Kidman, aka Grandpa Les. This was in April and the day turned into a cold windy one and so this is how we roasted some dogs.

Sunny days in Meridian

These are the famous farmers of Meridian! We have had so much fun with our garden. This was taken a few weeks ago and you should see it now. We have been harvesting lettuce, peas, and small carrots. The radishes were done a few weeks ago. Ryan was so excited about his garden this year that when we had a warm stretch in March he planted the peas, lettuce, radishes, and onions. Since then we have added green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, cucumbers, zucchini, red and green bell peppers, jalapenos, spaghetti squash, and a watermelon. We hope to have a bounteous harvest! I guess we also have a bunch of strawberries and some raspberry bushes.

Brooke and Sydney are just like their Dad and always want to be in the garden. They are great little helpers. We have sunflowers bordering the west side and they are lucky to even be alive after the girls walked all over them!
After Ryan planted some things in March, Brooke took the seeds from an apple she was eating and without telling me went and planted them outside. She then proceeded to have me come and see and this is where she planted them, on the patio! She even watered them. Maybe we forgot to fully explain the process of planting and growing!

Syd is always so happy and more often than not this is what I find her doing during the day, whether it is in the house or outside. One day she will be such a great big sister!