A Sunbeam, a Sunbeam

Needless to say, Anna did not like that I walked her up to the middle of the stairs, sat her down, and left to take her picture. Madeleine, on the other hand, loves to climb these steps!

Anna is our sweetheart. I don't know how we are so blessed to have her in our family, but I'm glad we do because we need her.

There is a closeup of Anna's flower that I made for her hair.

Poor Hop Hop got dragged down the redrock stairs by her ears! Ouch!

I can't believe that I have a child old enough to be a Sunbeam! That just seems way too old for me. It's crazy how fast it happens. One day babies turn into kids and it feels like we missed it even though we were here the whole time. I love this girl more than I can say. It's fun to watch her as she transforms into a kid.


This post is mostly for Mom so that she can see the girls in these sweet little dresses she sent. These pictures were taken after church, so their hair was a little wild. I had fun making their little hair flowers. Madeleine did have two, but one fell out on our way out to the car. Mike had to stay for choir practice, so I thought I would take a couple of pictures of the girls on the steps to the chapel. Where is Henry? It was SUPER windy, and he had fallen asleep during primary, so he was nestled into his carseat out of the wind while I took their pictures. My next post will be all about Henry, I promise.

Hot Chicks!

Introducing the newest additions to the Reynolds Family... Ten baby chicks! We have 4 Black, 2 White, 2 Brown, and 2 Buff. Anna says, "I want baby chick on my lap, Mommy. Chick on my lap, mommy." And Madeleine absolutely loves them and is extremely careful with them. Why does Anna look like a little Grandma in this picture? I love her!
I hadn't brushed her hair yet after the bath... And now that I think of it I probably shouldn't have let these freshly bathed babes hold their chicks for some pics... Oh well...
Double trouble... This picture was taken a little later when her hair had dried.
Anna's chick climbed up onto her head, and she was not happy about it!
These girls are good at sharing their chicks. We are excited to build their coop and collect their eggs this summer. We think that they will be fun pets and hope that they will like being in our family.

Their trash, our treasure

Mike and I have recently began shopping thrift stores, KSL.com, and craigslist for used things. It's really fun. We needed a new fish tank stand when we moved to this house because our tank doesn't fit underneath the cabinets here like it did at our last place. We had looked online at a lot of stores and also at pet stores when we would make it to civilization and we decided that we just couldn't afford one... until I looked at ksl and found this one used. After sanding, painting, and sealing, it looks like this. It used to have a lovely 80's oak finish, but we felt this black antiqued look went better with our black and dark furniture.


Our poor rainbow got a little stressed out we think when the tank was cleaned, and unfortunately passed away the day after we had put the tank on the new stand. We loved this rainbow, were happy with his growth and hope that he made it to fish heaven.

Christmas Past and Present

Christmas 2005, Madeleine's 1st Christmas was spent in the Orem Condo. We had just moved from the yucky Provo house that I'm sure all who visited will remember. This year was especially fun because Grandma Laurel and Grandpa Jerry were visiting!
I couldn't resist posting this one of Madeleine playing with her Christmas toys that year in her diaper. Look at those rolls!
Christmas 2006. Madeleine's 2nd Christmas was spent in that same Orem Condo. I wish I'd have kept that sleigh.
She opened the blocks first and really we could've stopped there because she loved them and didn't want to open anything else. We sure do miss our kitty, Cleo. She is the best cat in the world.
Christmas 2007. Our next Christmas was spent in our Loa Apartment and it was Anna's 1st Christmas, Madeleine's 3rd. I don't miss those stairs! We cut our tree down at Fish Lake that year and I hope I'll always remember sliding down the mountain with our tree, children, and saw!
These girls have a great time with pretend play. Madeleine was afraid to come downstairs because she thought Santa would be waiting to watch her open her presents.
Christmas 2008. This Christmas was spent in the Loa "Pink" House. Everyone in town calls our new residence the "Pink House" because although no longer pink, it was for many years.
We had a new addition to our family this Christmas. Madeleine is really into the Elf movie, so she named him Buddy after the main character of that show. I hope our Uncle Buddy is not offended!
Madeleine and Annaleise spent the day playing princess birthday/tea party. Again this year, Madeleine was afraid to come out to see what Santa brought until we assured her that Santa had left to take other kids their presents.
Henry's first Christmas was spent cuddling his presents and watching his silly sisters.
Michael spent a lot of time decorating the living room and it looked great, so I thought I'd share.

We moved ten days before Christmas this year and so we didn't get decorations up until the night before Christmas Eve. When I went to post pictures of this Christmas, I browsed back through Christmas Past and decided it might be fun to take a trip down memory lane. 3 out of 4 of Madeleine's Christmases have been spent in different locations. I hope this isn't obnoxious. I wonder where we'll be next year.