Christmas Eve 2010

This year for Christmas Eve we did it a little different. Usually we have quite a bit of Merrial's family here so we have a big dinner and program at his parents house. But this year we just had a few people, my dad and my sister Katie, Peter, Joe and Merrial's parents. So everyone came to my house for the big turkey dinner and program. It was very nice, first we sat down and had a really yummy dinner and then we did the Christmas story of Jesus' birth. My kids had to play all the parts so it was kind of fun. We sang Christmas Carols and then it was time to open our one present for Christmas Eve. Can anyone guess what their presents were? Pajamas! I had a really hard time this year finding pj's that matched, all my kids are different sizes and Brenden is a big boy now. So I just ended up matching the girls and Brenden has almost the same color. But they look pretty cute.

Merrial and Ashlyn taking a nap on Christmas Eve day, so they were ready to go for that night. Isn't that cute!

Addie was the Angel. Merrial's mom Jonnie was telling her what to say and she did such a good job, it was so cute. I have it on video, I will post that when I get it loaded.

Brooklyn playing Mary the mother of Jesus. Merrial's mom Jonnie telling her what to say.

Uncle Peter playing a Shepard with a towel on his head.

Joe was a wise men with the gifts for the baby Jesus. Ashlyn was baby Jesus, doesn't she look happy about it.

Brooklyn as Mary riding Brenden the donkey.

All four kids in their cute Christmas Pj's all ready to go to bed and wait for Santa to come, they were very excited and we had a hard time getting them to go to sleep.

Castle Dale City Christmas Party! Dec 9th

I take the kids to the Castle Dale City Christmas Party every year by myself. This year my friend Tiffany met me there so I wasn't all by myself. The kids always have a fun time, they have blowup things to go on, a hay ride, dinner and of course this is where we get to sit on Santa's lap.

Ashlyn dressed in one of her Christmas outfits at the party.

Addison was so excited to see santa, she jumped right up on his lap and told him what she wanted. She didn't want to get off, but there was a huge line behind us.

Brooklyn on the other hand was scared to death, you would think she has never seen Santa before, she was almost in tears. But she did end up telling him that she wanted a motor scooter.

Brenden was a little shy like he always is, but he told him he wanted a motor scooter also. He was a good sport to sit on his lap.

I was able to take a picture with all of them, this is the first year I have been able to do that. It turned out ok.

After sitting on Santa's lap we went on the hayride and then ate dinner and let the kids play until it was over. It was a fun night, maybe next year Merrial will finally come with us.

First Christmas of the Season

For the last 3 years my family has started coming down to my house for the weekend before Christmas. They usually come on Friday and stay until Sunday sometime. We do Christmas presents on Saturday and we have a big Christmas dinner. Every year we have so much fun that we decide to do it again. Everyone is such a good sport to come all the way down here for it. I hope that we keep doing this tradition, because it makes it a lot easier on us not having to travel.

Merrial always looks so excited!

Addison opening her princess computer.

Brenden and Brooklyn with their new DS games. Loved them!

Shane and Hailey's cute little boy Griffin.

My sister Kate's boyfriend Art and my brother Shane having a good time.


Everyone having so much fun opening presents.

We just want to say thank you for all the fun times and memories that are being made. We love that you all come down and have a good time. Thank you to our parents for all the wonderful gifts, they always spoil us.

October 14th, 2010. A Visit to the Zoo!

Well, since my birthday was on the 13th and the kids didn't have school the 14th or 15th. We decided to head up state. I haven't been anywhere since June so I took the kids to the zoo. Addison had never been so she was really excited to go. The other times we have gone we only stayed for like an hour, this time we were there for 4 hours. It was a lot of fun! My brother Shane and his baby Griffin, my dad and mom all came with us.

Addison loved the elephants, especially the baby one. She kept wanting to go back and see them.

Brenden and Griffin on the rhino.

My brother Shane and his baby Griffin. Look how cute they are!

My little Ashlyn chilling in the stroller, she slept most of the time.

We think that this giraffe was in a trance it just stood there not moving staring at us.

All the kids, you never can get them all smiling at once.

You always have to have a picture in front of the gorilla measurement.

Brenden

Brooklyn

HALLOWEEN!!!!

This year we were very busy. On Wednesday the we had the ward Halloween party where the kids had a truck or treat. Then on Thursday we went and helped at Brooklyn's school party, but Brenden's class didn't get theirs because they were bad. Also, Jonnie went to Brooklyn's class dressed like a witch and read them a Halloween story and had an activity with them. They totally loved that. That night we went down to the Castle Dale City party were they had a dinner, with pumpkin carving, a witches convention and a costume parade.

Jonnie after she came home from Brooklyn's class.

At the city party in the Witches parade.

Friday night we decided to carve and decorate pumpkins, usually we do it the Monday before but we were late this year. We had so many pumpkins coming out our ears this year, this insurance company that does stuff for us brought us two giant bins of pumpkins in all sizes. So we started painting some first and then we carved 5 pumpkins. It took us forever.

Brooklyn and Addison painting their pumpkins.
Brenden had moved on to gutting his
Brooklyn digging in her pumpkin, trying to get out all the stuff.

Here are all the pumpkins on our wet front porch.

Here they are all lit. We had a ghost, a crazy face pumpkin, a skull, a witches hat and Merrial carved the wolves. I think they turned out really good this year, we always have fun doing pumpkins.

Saturday we started the day off with Addison puking all morning long. The older kids went with Merrial to move cows. We were suppose to go have dinner with some friends of ours at 3:15 but Merrial and the kids didn't get home until after 3pm and I had to frantically get them ready in their costumes because we were also going on a hayride trick or treating with these same friends. Addison was feeling better by this time so she was all ready thank goodness. We got to our friends just in time for the hayride, it had started to rain a little bit so we went to a few houses and decided to go to the schools trunk or treat. We got there and it started to pour on us, in just a minute we were soaked! I even had an umbrella but it wasn't helping, by the time we got done with that the kids had enough. We put all the kids inside the car and Tiffany and I sat on the hayride in the pouring rain all the way home, just a few blocks up the street. But it was far enough to have us dripping wet. So our Halloween was cut short by the weather but we still had a wonderful time with friends and family and the kids got way to much candy.
All four of my children dressed up for Halloween. Brenden was Iron Man this year, they all look so good.

The girls, Brooklyn was a pretty witch she didn't want to be an ugly witch, go figure. Addison was Princess Jasmine and Ashlyn was barely fitting in Addisons old kitty hat that she wore. She is my big girl.
Here are the kids on the hayride before it really started to rain. It was a lot of fun, hopefully next year it won't rain on us.

October 17th, 2010 Ashlyn's Blessing

We blessed our sweet little baby on the 17th of October. We had some family come down for it. Not everyone could make it, we just wanted them to know that they were missed. Merrial had Gracelyn's family, LaDawn's family, Joe, Craig and Jonnie, Justin's family and Jonnie's Aunt Sally. I had my Mom and Dad and my sister Katie and her boyfriend Art. Merrial did an excellent job on Ashlyn's blessing. He blessed her that she was going to be a leader and was going to keep her brothers and sisters in line. That would be really nice. Because he blessed Addison that she was going to be a peacemaker and that is totally opposite of what she is. I would say she is the instigator. I just wanted to thank all those that came again, we were glad you were there.

Ashlyn on her blessing day. All three of my girls have worn the same dress. She is 6 weeks old.

The girls. They are always mauling her, giving her kisses and hugs and always wanting to hold her. They love their new baby sister!
Brenden and his little sister. He is finally starting to like her, at first he wouldn't even look at her. Now I catch him talking to her and holding her for a minute.


Always have to have a family picture and this is a pretty good one.

Brenden's Flag Football

Brenden has been playing flag football the last month and a half. He loves it and he is so good at it. I am not just saying that because I am his mom, he has like turbo legs. He is a really fast runner and he just gets the ball and takes off. He is the team secret weapon, he is so little that they just don't think he can do anything and all of the sudden he has the ball and in the in zone.

This is him in full motion. It is kind of funny because when he has the ball and running I yell faster, faster and our friends by us are like how much faster can he go with out his legs catching on fire. I am so proud of him, he is such a good boy.
Getting ready for another play.

Here he is quarterback, handing off to his buddy Brett. This year there was only 2 third graders on this team, Brenden and Brett Olsen. All the rest of them were either 1st or 2nd graders, they had a lot of fun being the older kids on the team.