Oh Christmas

Hurray! Christmas finally arrived at our house. Finally questions were answered......Is Santa real?.... How will he get down our chimney?... Do reindeers really fly?...... What does Santa eat? ... whew! Christmas morning we were all believers. Kaylee was at her dad's but Santa remembered her too.

On Christmas eve, we all got new PJ's. Putting them on was the easy part, taking a picture was the challenge.

Sexy posing huh!
We are so blessed and feel so grateful for all we have this season and most importantly for each other!

Tagged-Seven things

Seven things I can do:

1. I can read really fast .
2. I can braid.
3. I can remember crazy unimportant facts that I won't ever need.
4. I am amazing at multi-tasking
5. I can find amazing deals at the mall
6. I can talk ALOT
7. I can remember my fight song from high school!

Seven things i can't do:

1. I can't ever seem to lose weight
2. I can't do a back handspring
3. I can't sleep when Brandon works nights
4. I can't imagine being an only child
5. I can't whistle very well
6. I can't sing
7. I can't remember what life was like before having kids!

Seven things that attracted me to my husband:

1. His good looks
2. He has an amazing spirit
3. His nice body
4. He really had great hair when we were dating
5. Hard worker
6. A great kisser
7. He loves his family

Seven things i say often:

1. I miss you
2. I can't wait for a day off
3. I need a vacation
4. I love you
5. How are you?
6. Hey, what's up?
7. Show me how to do that

Seven people I admire:

1. My mom
2. Brandon
3. My kids
4. Carmel
5. Oprah
6. Anyone who can play the piano
7. Alicia Keys

Seven of my favorite foods & drinks:

1. Diet Coke
2. Ice Cream (gelato)
3. Anything my mom cooks
4. Grandma parke's cookies
5. Spicy mexican food
6. Homemade salsa
7. Shirley Temple's

Tagged......anyone (wow I learned alot about myself)

Temple Square

There is nothing like starting out the Christmas season with seeing the lights at Temple Square. We went to visited our favs Nick and Lisa in Stansbury Park and they joined us on the trip. I also decided to pick up my baby sis to come with us. Isn't she so adoreable!

This pic was blurry but the temple in the background looks awesome.

Amazing lights, great atmosphere, our favorite people=A perfect night!!!!

Feeding my addiction!

I went to see Twilight with my Mom and little sister on Wednesday night. I posted some of my favorite scenes in the movie.




I loved when they walked into school together and everyone was looking at them!! It reminds me of something I would do. Oh and Edward looked like a babe in the shades.



The first kissing scene. One word......WOW!

My sister had never read the book and she decided after the movie that she is waiting for Edward! Loved it! It obviously wasn't as good as the book, but it was still dreamy!

Christmas pictures already?

I decided to get matching outfits and take pictures of my kids and my sister's kids for Christmas. Whew, what a project!!!!

Trying to get them all to actually stand together was the actual hard part.

I found this place about two miles from where I grew up! I know its about as country as it gets, but its gorgeous.


This one is my favorite!

The 4th folder

I was tagged by Rachelle.

Find the 4th folder and the 4th picture in it and blog about it!

This picture is when Alliya was born. It was Friday, July 8, 2005! AWWW! Rylan looks so little(he was almost 3). Although I look like crap, I so love this picture.

Tagged...anyone who wants to!

I consider myself to be well informed on the issues and really like following politics. As much as I would love to give a big spill on my candidate of choice, I find that the most important thing is using your voice.... whatever it may be. I love that the people of our country are so different. I am proud to be a citizen of a country where WE get to choose our own leaders. On Tuesday our country spoke, and democracy was achieved. I am so proud to be able to tell my children, niece and nephews that they truly can grow up to be anything they want.

"My vote is my voice . . . and the voice of all who struggled, so that I may have my voice.”

Lyida C. Obasi

Halloween

We had so much fun trick or treating. We got to go along with lots of our friends from the neighborhood. The treat buckets were full to the top!

Brandon stayed home to hand out candy. I had to talk him out of wearing the mask. He would have scared some little kids to death.




We went to the Zoo for the Boo at the Zoo event. We had never been before! It was so much fun!


What a fun Halloween!

New haircolor!

I know I am going to cosmetology school and all, but I really am not into drastic changes. Needless to say, my hair is brown.

Change is healthy for the soul.....I think!

Pumpkin carving!

This is a little tradition we started when Kaylee was little. Daddy helps the kids carve pumpkins. He is the most artistic and always helps them design an awesome pumpkin. Here they are making a game plan....

Kaylee is trying to get hers started


Their favorite part, cleaning the insides out.

It is so fun to watch them do this! Even though it is messy and a little smelly, its well worth it.

Princess and Pirates

Rylan had a pirate and princess birthday party with his cousins! Whew! What an exhausting birthday weekend.

Halloween PARTY!!!!!

Rylan, Logan and Ethan all share the same birthday....October 17! What a awesome day. So, the mom's decided to have a big Halloween party for their birthday!

Their was musical pumpkins!!!
A little bit a "It's my birthday, yeah it's my birthday"
Fun Spider crafts and yummy cookies to decorate!
Eye ball toss!!!
There was even a haunted scary room which was to scary to show!!!

Overall it was a spooky good time!

Rylan is officially 6

That's right, my little boy is 6. We went to Blast Off and Texas Roadhouse the night before his birthday. We had never been to Blast Off before and they loved it! Brandon and I were exhausted from watchin them!

He finally got to open presents on the morning of his birthday before school! What a good way to start the day.

Finding Joy in our Journey

I really took the prophets message to heart about finding Joy now. It is the everyday trials, mishaps, lessons, tears, laughter, and exaustion that makes up our lives. Despite my silly complaints, I love my life and the people in it. I will choose to be happy everyday, laugh to spite my weaknesses and love with all my heart. Here are a few funny pictures of some days that Alliya got into something she shouldn't or made a fabulous mess. I now laugh at, and love, every one of these moments!

Pumpkin Patch

Rylan had a class trip to a pumpkin patch. Alliya and I tagged along with them.

They got to scout out the perfect pumpkin. Rylan really thought he was looking for the GREAT PUMPKIN because he could not decide on one. After about 20 minutes of intense searching, he found his. Whew!
Alliya got to pick one out too. Her criteria.....a little baby one!
Rylan got to help hold the poster on how pumkins grow! This was exciting because their class had been learning all week about pumpkins! Aww, the things we learned in Kindergarten.

Halloween came early...

We got to have our fun neighbors Kennedy and Carter come play one night. I was pulling out the halloween decorations and ran across costumes. This kept them busy forever. Who says Halloween has to be only one day?

Good big brother

The nice addition to Rylan's head was achieved through very graceful moves.......he fell flat on his face on the sidewalk! He managed to do this on his way to the bus stop. Thanks goodness the Madsens live right by the bus stop and Buffy made it all better with a car Bandaid! All Alliya kept saying was "What happened to my brother's brain" She just loves her big brother!

We had movie night and Speed Racer was so good that Alliya fell right to sleep on her bestest big brother! AWWWWW

We love the unexpected!

Brandon decided that we needed to go see his Grandpa and Grandma Parke in Carey, ID. So we took them lunch and visited with them for the afternoon! We just love goin to see them. They always spoil the kids with treats! On the way home, we decided to stop at Craters of the Moon! I had never been there before! We really weren't prepared for the stop. We were all wearing flip-flops except Brandon. Meanwhile, Alliya fell asleep and wasn't so excited about wakin up!
We went into a cave called the Indian Tunnel. It was kinda scary for me but everyone else was fearless.
Brandon decided I needed to be in one of the pictures. Here it is.
The pictures don't really show how big this cave was until ya see Brandon on top of a bunch of rocks! This was a perfect day full of fun, laughter and great memories!