Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!!

Crazy December

How has December gone by so fast. It seems like the month just started yet its almost over!
We have done lots of fun things together. Here are a few highlights of the fun things we've done!

















We went to the festival of trees with some friends. The trees were beautiful and there were some great activities for the kids to do. They got to see Santa, though only Taylee would get near him. They got a bear that was sick. They saw a train and got to do some Christmas crafts.
It was a fun outing!!
























We set our Christmas tree up along with our decorations. The girls loved getting everything out of the boxes and putting it around the house. We got a fake tree last year and it is so beautiful we love it. Even if it doesn't smell like a real tree!
I will be sad to put all of our decorations away. I wish our lights and tree could stay up all year round.





















We had a great ward party at the beginning of the month. We had a "Back to Bethlehem" theme. We dressed up to go to our party! It was a great party and our activities committee did a great job.

Next we have been learning each week about how different countries celebrate Christmas. We learned about Christmas in Mexico, Italy and Sweden. We did a craft and talked about what their traditions were. It was fun to learn about different ways people celebrate.

With all the rain and running around we had to take some time out to go and play outside! Rain boots are a must here. We did find out that we need to replace one set of rain boots due to a hole! They were soaked by the time they ran through the puddles 10 times!! Nothing like fresh air and some fun.

I just had to throw this one in!! He had been getting better at not screaming so much and smiling!! This is him cheesing it!! Oh he is a funny one!

This past weekend we went to a Christmas light boat parade on the river. They had boats that had lights all over them. Some fun ones were..... the school bus, Santa flying fishing and the fire truck. Our kids had so much fun we can't wait to do it again next year.

Last night we had our cousin party. We have 4 cousins that live by us. So some of us got together. We had one cousin out of town and one cousin that had the flu. We had a white elephant gift party and ate dinner and played games until midnight!! it was so much fun. The kids played until they were dead tired!!

Its been a fun December already. We have lots more fun things planned!!!

Bro's wedding

This is really over due and very late!!!!
But we were so lucky to be able to go home for Brody's wedding. good thing that we live on the West coast now so that we can make all these trips home.
So the day before the wedding Tyler and Brody helped Savannah put a puzzle together! They are looking sleepy since they watched movies every night until 2 in the morning!!

































Good thing Doug is an Engineer. His smart skills do come in hand sometimes..... like when Colt tries on his suit only to find he has grown so much in the past month that it doesn't fit. So he ends up wearing Burkes old suit........ which was a little long.. so what does he do? He uses tape to hem the pants quickly!!! It actually lasted for awhile!!! Good thinking on the spot Doug...

















Here is our buddy with his binki. He didn't last very long at all this wedding!! Ty ended up leaving before the wedding started and he came back in time for pictures. Which went not so well!! Then he didn't stay to the reception at all.. He was to tired by then!





















Here's our princess. These dresses are so cute on the girls!






















Our Dad was able to marry them. It was a very special wedding and my dad did a great job.
















Heres most of the nieces in the family. All so beautiful in their dresses and they all play so well together. They have a blast when they are together!

We had a great time and I wish we had a picture of Brody and Mecyale but we will get one soon!
Love you guys!

Early Christmas

Nothing like having christmas early!! We got to go home for Thanksgiving for my brothers wedding! (Which I will post pictures later) So while there we had Thanksgiving dinner, our family Christmas party( played games and opened presents and had a visit from Santa) and had a bridal shower all in one day!! It was an eventful day.

To start off this is what my kids are like when they see Santa.... Not so happy!!!

I had to tell my 4 year old that this was a pretend Santa cause the real santa couldn't come.... still she wanted nothing to do with him. So he told her that he didn't want to touch her either and that got a smile out of her!!! He was a great Santa! Good thing we have good cousins that will come over on Thanksgiving day to help us out!

Here she is saying, " I want an IPod and a PSP, and anything that cost like $300"

She is only 7 and starting with expensive gifts luckily she is pretty easty going!

Now for presents.... our family loves to give gifts that make us laugh. My Dad started it with giving some nice gag gifts to my mother. So some of us think its great to give gag gifts....

So this is what we gave my sister.... a package to help them feel comfortable when they go to Portland. Some tie-die shirts, some dog food for their dog, some granola, some garlic, and a ornament to put their dogs picture on their tree.. Dogs are part of the family now!!

The best part of it is my nephew wore his shirt after the reception. He looked so cool!

For Tylers gift he got a doggie bed. So just in case I send him to the dog house he has a nice bed to sleep in!! My little brother gave it to him and thought it was pretty funny! It was one of the good gifts I must say!! the girls love it for their doggies!!

Doug got a well needed plunger. We like to tease him since he hasn't had a plunger for years. Really you need a plunger when you have cheap toilets just in cast it cloggs but.... now he has no excuses!!

Here is my great family in their ugly sweaters!! This year we all wore ugly sweaters.. Next year we are all getting Snuggies!!! So we will all wear them while we are opening presents...

It was so fun having Christmas with my family. Most of us were there.... Burke was the only one missing cause he was on his honeymoon. There is nothing like being with family for the holidays.

We had such a great time and as usal we always do. Lots of food and lots of laughter and lots of noise!!!

It was fun going home for the weekend!!! We had a great Thanksgiving/Christmas/Wedding!

Making Chocolates

Last weekend we made a quick trip home... First off... it was a horrible drive. The road got closed and we were stuck at the gas station for 2 hours. Good thing we have a 2 year old who loves to scream and who doesn't like to sit in his car seat. It made the 2 hours well lets just say...... interesting. Our next trip I think i will buy some ear plugs!!

But the reason we drove on bad roads was so worth it. My mother in law every year makes chocolates. Now these aren't just ordinary homemade chocolates. She has a whole process and works works works. She makes the centers which takes a full day then she dips the centers into chocolates which takes almost 2 full days. She does all these chocolates to give to friends and to us!! Which we LOVE! So this year i did get a few pictures but the best ones are on my mother in laws camera.
















This is my mother in law. She has 3 machines to temper the chocolate. She is one talented woman. I hope someday I learn how to do this art!





















Even the kids helped a little!! They love Grandma's chocolates and they were so excited to help this year.




















We were so glad to see Ty's brother's family. Here my child is sprinkling some of the chocolates. She got a little carried away with them but had a great time helping.

Thanks Ralene for letting us come and for letting us eat and for sharing the chocolates. They are so good!! Its been almost 5 years since I have made chocolates and it was so fun!!
It was worth the long crazy drive to see our family and get chocolates!!

Happy Halloween

This year for Halloween we all purchased wigs!! We had to dress up for our Trunk or Treat at the Church! My oldest is a disco girl and my next girl wanted to be a witch... My boy is just a boy!! He is not into dressing up at all!

Here is a priceless family picture! I think I need to blow this up and frame it!

And yes.... Ty and I own those clothes.. We have a box full of "old" dress up clothes. We pull them out usually at Halloween time. Guess since we moved here we haven't pulled them out. People were missing out on these great outfits!

Our great friend and "adopted brother" came to see the kids and give them candy. He drove about 30 min to see them. How nice of him huh!! Thanks jr. it was so nice of you.

A Night to remember

Last Friday night Tyler and I went on a great date!! We got a babysitter and went out on the town to our first concert together!! yes some of you may think thats so romantic.. well we could go either way... it was so LOUD my head was ringing for 2 days. BUT..... I loved the concert
We went to Rascal Flatts!! Darius Rucker opened for them.
It was the last night of the tour so they had some fun tricks!!
These are the best pictures I could get.
Thanks honey for a great night out! ( Maybe I should thank him verbally since he never reads this!!)