Happy Birthday Ang!

Today is my sister Angela's birthday! (I won't post her age, because you'll have a better idea just how old I am) We had a great birthday lunch, (Bajio, yummm!) just the girls. Lexie and Sara were so cute playing together. We missed you Liss, wish you could have been there. I hope this is a tradition we continue, it was fun. Happy Birthday, Ang!!

Our Wonderful Prophet

When I heard the news of our beloved prophets passing, I was a filled with a sense of love and respect. He was such a wonderful man and was such an example to everyone. I will not forget him and impact he has had on my life and for our church. The growth the church has experienced with him as our prophet is so inspiring. Although I was sad to hear of his passing, I also rejoiced. He is with his wonderful wife. I remember his first conference talk after her passing and how much he loved and missed her. I'm so grateful for this wonderful church and the principles that it teaches us. Family is truly forever, and I can't imagine how I would have gotten through this month without that knowledge.

Oh, to be a tween again!

Kelsie is taking this whole tween, almost teen, thing very seriously. She is a champion texter (I'm sure that word is going to be added to the old Webster soon), an expert at IM, can stay up all hours of the night, she is attached at the hip with Angie her best friend, has lots of crazy giggle moments, thinks boys are gross (that's code for hot, shhh don't tell her Dad), and can go shopping 24/7. I think I'm in big trouble, when she is actually a teen. This picture was taken at the sleep over that happened this weekend, they locked themselves in the bathroom for hours doing crazy makeovers. They also assured me that they would be in bed at 12:30, I think it was more like 3, but who's keeping track. I'm so grateful she's found some good friends that have fun together. I want her to make good choices, and have fun during these crazy teenage years.

Our Little Chefs

The kids go to a daycare/preschool twice a week and I go to work at Jason's office. On Thursday they came home all excited because it was Chef day at school. They made brownies and muffins and hats, of course. They were so excited to show me their hats. Well then Rachel made everyone hats, and guess what happened next. If you all have chef hats on you need to cook something right? Well they made brownies all by themselves. Austin had learned to break the eggs open at school and was so proud when he got to show us how he did it. They loved licking the spatula the best, I think I'm doomed now. They were pretty good brownies, if I do say so myself.

Spaghetti Boy

We learned tonight, just how much Kyle loves spaghetti! He had three helpings. He really tried to use his fork and spoon, but his hands were so much easier. And it ended up all over his hands and face.

New Scrapbook Layouts

I did something this weekend that I haven't done for a long time. I actually scrapbooked for me, not for the store. The past eight months or so, I've concentrated on doing layouts for the store I work for (www.myscrapbookzone.com) and haven't gotten anything for me done. I have 11 layouts that need to be done for the store, but I was feeling uninspired. So I pulled a few of the kits I've collected and started a couple of layouts. Then the kids started asking when I was doing one of their layouts, and so I couldn't stop until I had one done for each kid. I'm so excited about what I completed. They aren't the best layouts, but they are done. Here is a slideshow of them. Hope you enjoy.

Happy 1st Birthday Dallin

We want to wish my nephew Dallin a very Happy 1st Birthday. We wish we could be in North Carolina to help celebrate. I took this picture when we were in North Carolina in September. Dallin is always so happy and loves to play with the kids. Have a good day! We love you and miss you!

Snow Day!

It's a good thing today was a holiday, and we didn't have to go anywhere. We got dumped on, almost 12 inches of snow. (We had another inch or so after we took the picture above.) The kids patiently (ok, not so patiently) waited for Jason to get home to go outside, because mom was too cold to go outside. Jason decided that in order to spare his back from further hardship and injury that a snow blower would be a wise purchase. I thought it was a good idea, as well. We are supposed to get a couple more snow storms this week, so i think it will be well used. Anyway the kids loved playing in the snow and eating it of course and Jason had the driveway done in a few minutes, so everyone was happy.

Family Fun

We have enjoyed several evenings of family fun this week. I can truly say the Wii is a lot of fun. Earlier this week the girls challenged Uncle B to a Dancing with the Stars showdown. Bryan didn't to so bad, but the girls still kicked his butt. Tonight we had the Wii Olympics, this was the first time playing this game and it is really fun. Everyone had events that they were better at, so it all balanced out. We could play four of us at a time and we had a blast. The running events where we had to go all at the same time were the craziest. I highly recommend the Wii to everyone of all ages.

Brinlee's Birthday Party

The day after we arrived home from California, we celebrated Brinlee's birthday with family. She got to pick dinner (Salmon, mashed potatoes, beans and corn). Pretty good menu if you ask me. She had a High School Musical cake and got to open presents. She scored with the presents, loved her new coat, but was most excited about her new ipod. She has had Rachel's hand me down for quite awhile and we told her if she kept track of it and took good care of it, she could get her own. She loved the hot pink case that she got with it.

Disneyland for Brinlee's Birthday

Since we celebrated Brinlee's birthday (she turned 7 on the 12th) while we were in California, she got to pick where we were going to celebrate. She picked Disneyland, of course. It was so fitting as it is Grandma T's favorite place on earth. We had a great time and met Marvin (Verita's son) and Christine (Verita's daughter) and their families for the day. January is a great time to go to Disneyland, we didn't have a wait on most of the rides, the temperature is great and it wasn't crowded at all. The kids got to go on all their favorite rides and Brinlee got a special badge telling everyone that she was celebrating her birthday. Her birthday wish came true, which was being able to ride California Screamer, she even got to go twice and she got her mom on the ride with her. She loved it, however, I can't say the same thing for me. She then got Kelsie to go on Tower of Terror with her, since Kelsie is extremely afraid of heights this was a huge accomplishment. Overall we had a great two days and Brinlee had a great birthday.

Saying Goodbye

The day after New Years, Jason, Kelsie and Rachel left for California. They had the opportunity to say goodbye to our wonderful friend, Verita Thompson, who was losing her battle with cancer. She and her family befriended Jason while he was on his mission, and she has been a second mother to him ever since. The kids called her Grandma T. and she spoiled them terribly. It was a sad but rewarding experience for them to thank her and say their goodbyes. They came home on Thursday and on Saturday me, Brinlee and my sister Jamie flew out to say our goodbyes. However, earlier that day she took a sudden turn for the worse and two hours after we got there she returned to live with her loving Heavenly Father. I was grateful to get there in time to express my love and thank her for being a wonderful Grandmother to our family. We were so lucky because the Salt Lake Airport closed a few hours after we left, what a blessing it was to have left when we did. Brinlee and I came home on Sunday, and the whole family flew back to California on Tuesday for the funeral. Talk about sky miles!! Her funeral was such a wonderful memorial, she was such a loving women, taking in several teenagers and raising them as her own. It didn't matter to her that she had not given birth to them, they were hers while they were in her home and forever after that. It was a huge reunion of all the kids that Verita and her husband (Marvin) had taken into their family. Jason and I feel so privileged to be among those she loved. We loved her dearly and will miss her. These are two of my favorite pictures of her throughout the years, the first is at Legoland in 2001 with the girls, and the second is of her meeting the twins. One of the memories we talked about at the funeral was when her and Marvin dropped everything to come help me for two weeks when I was on bedrest, Brinlee was her shadow and she loved it. She was excited that a few months later she got to come back and visit after the twins were home to hold them.

Rockin' New Years

We had a Rockin' New Years at our house. We had 12 tweens and teens hanging out downstairs, my parents, Jamie, Doug & Melissa. We had a great time doing the traditional New Years stuff, watching the ball drop in Times Square, running in the streets banging pots and pans, and playing games. Even the tweens and teens were good. They mostly played the Wii, gotta love High School Musical Karaoke and Dancing with the Stars. Kyle was our New Years pro, you would think at 2 1/2 years old that staying up past midnight would make you a little cranky. Not Kyle, he was happy as can be, this picture was taken around 1 in the morning. We got all the kids home and we went to bed around 2. One added bonus was everyone slept in until 10 the next morning.

Let's get this started!

Thanks to the influence of Leslie and Melissa I think it's about time our family gets a blog. I love seeing their updates and what is going on in their lives. Hopefully I'll be as good at posting as Leslie is and have lots of fun pictures like Lissa does. Wish me luck.