Ho Ho Ho!

Twinkling lights at Christmas time never seem to get old to me.  I can remember being a child and eagerly anticipating the day that the city put the stringing lights up that zig zagged their way across the street from lamp post to lamp post.  I would look out my bedroom window each night gaze at the bright colors.  The only difference today is the location and type of Christmas lights.  Last year we tried to go see a Christmas light display in a near by town only to get there and find out the wait was 2 hrs.  umm, not so much with 4 small children.  This year we were a little bit more prepared (thanks to a great neighbor) and were there 30 minutes early and the 4th car in line.  D took the kids to play at the nearby park and I waited in line.  There were lots of ooo's and awww's from the car as we drove through the park filled with light displays.  There were disney characters, Christmas characters, trees, elves, etc.  At the end, you get out of the car and go into a lodge type facility and continue the Christmas adventure.  Santa was there, the talking tree, a puppet show with scrooge (which all the kids thought was funny), a beautiful concert with carolers all dressed up, a train room, and treats!  :)  It was really quite fantastic.  :)  I wish I would have gotten more pictures of the lights, but maybe next year.

Here are our cute 4 kids with Santa!  :)

Let's get ready to RUMBLE!!!!

Lo started basketball last month and today was his first basketball game.  THIS is definitely THE way to introduce a team!  :)  It made me chuckle!

Logan is having a great time.  He plays hard and is loves it!  :)

It's Thankful TIME!!!!

Thanksgiving day is always a great day.  Good food.  GREAT pies.  Wonderful friends or family or both.  BUT THIS Thanksgiving was particularly great for me.  I was able to run with J in her first 5K.  She has been running and training and is seriously a machine!!!  She did AWESOME!!  We were hoping to keep our pace under 9 min. 30 sec.  Our pace was around 8 min. 30 sec. per mile.  :)  This race was pretty hilly since it was in KY but she still rocked!!!  She came in 3rd in her age group and came home with a horseshoe metal!  It was sooo much fun to run together.  PLUS, Aunt Shi and Aunt Kim ran with us also.  

PLUS (I know could it get any better) we ran thanksgiving morning so we can eat all the pie we want... right???  LOL

I love that they have to keep asking where are they???  LOL  

After lots of yummy eating, Uncle Bob pulled out the greatest craft!  tie die with permanent markers and rubbing alcohol.  It was GREAT!!  and all the kids were very creative.  :)

I am SOOOO grateful for my family.  I'm grateful for all that we have been blessed with.  We have our trials, just as everyone does, but I truly feel blessed to have my family, a home, and my testimony of Christ!  SOO Happy Turkey day everyone!! :)

It's my birthday week, It's my birthday week.....

Happy BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! :)  I had a GREAT 32nd birthday today.  One of my favorite things to do is make my birthday cake.  I like to bake and I like to eat chocolate!  :)  SOOOO  For this year, it was a chocolate layered cake with chocolate mousse and heath bar inbetween the layers.  The top was garnished with lovely ganache and more heath bar!!  Oh and 32 candles of course.  :)  Z helped me blow my candles out before I could even take a breath in!! LOL he's so funny.  I'm glad I have a bit of help!  :)

Halloween!!!!!!!

BOO!

We are READY for some CANDY!!!!!  Meg was a butterfly (which you can't really tell, but that's o.k.  It was so cold out everyone had their coats on anyway).  J is a witch and she made her tutu all by herself.  Log is a mummy---umm, how do you keep up the wrapping???, and Z was a ninja (umm, very fitting for him!!)

Everyone had a great time and filled their buckets full.  Unfortunately this year we didn't receive a lot of trick or treaters--probably because of the cold.  

One of my favorite things this year was listening to Halloween music.  Anytime we would go somewhere in the car we would listen to Halloween music on my iphone.  The kids LOVED the spooky ones and really had a fun time. They got tired of hearing monster mash (it came on a lot).  Z loved ghost busters (especially the part that says, "I ain't afraid of no ghosts") Lo loves Thriller by Michael Jackson, and the girls were pretty happy for anything that came on.  :)  Anyway, it was pretty fun!

Happy Halloween!!!!!

Fall pictures 2012

I LOVE fall.  I LOVE fall pictures.  But mostly, I LOVE my kids!!!  I took some pictures of my kids at a beautiful park near our own home recently.


I love taking my kids pictures.  *I love that I don't have to pay someone else.* :)  I know that my pictures may not be up to professional level all the time (or most of the time), but I feel they are sufficient and I get the 'real' faces of my kids. :)  I love Darin for getting me involved in photography.  We had recently graduated from BYU, J was still baking and had 2 more months before she made her grand entrance.  D and I had talked and decided that I would be a stay at home mom as long as that worked out for us.  We felt that it would be best for our family.  WELL,  I was use to being a busy college student with things to do 24 hours of the day and NOW I was in a small (VERY SMALL) town with absolutely nothing to do but wait around for D to get off work and J to make her show. ( I now look back at that time and think of ALL the awesome things I would do with that time, but oh well)  ----ANYWAY, back to the story.-----  Darin came home one day with me bursting at the seems with boredom and lovingly told me, "You need a hobby." :)  It wasn't much after that that D came home with a gift--my first camera.  :)  I took a few classes and have gotten a bit better over the years with a few camera upgrades and some awesome models!

J is soo BEAUTIFUL!!!  She is growing up so quickly.  :)  LOVE her!

 L makes life so exciting.  EVERYTHING is exciting to him!! :)  LOVE him!

 My snuggle-bug Meg.  I can't believe she is 3 and is taking full advantage of the 'baby' status in our family! :)  LOVE her!

 I can't even look at Z's pictures without laughing.  This kid seriously makes me laugh all day.  He was laughing at such a young age and has been laughing ever since.  EVERYTHING is funny to him.  I LOVE listening to him laugh!!  LOVE him! :)

Halloween Festival

We found out about such a GREAT little Halloween Festival in our area.  EVERYTHING is free.  They had bounce houses, pony rides, wagon rides, trick or treating in a 'haunted' trail, animals to feed, face painting, etc,etc,.  It was a kids paradise!  :)  I kinda liked it too!  :)  J was visiting a cousin so she wasn't able to come with us.  We missed her lots.   Here are the happy kids!  I LOVE festivals.  I REALLY love free festivals!  ;)

 Lo thought this was sooo funny!  LOL  He loved feeding the goats!

 Playing games with daddy!

 spider man, spider man!

 Mimicking the skeleton

 Face painted up--butterfly, spider, and the hulk

 Me and 3 of my kids! :)

 The incredible hulk!!

A little more dancing than sweeping!! :)

Lo is such a fun, energetic kid.  When he hears a good beat, he CAN NOT keep his little body from movin'!  (He gets that from my side of the family!)  :)

General Conference!!

I love General conference weekend!  I have so many fond memories growing up listening to the prophet while we do some craft that was meant to keep us quiet and listen.  Playing conference bingo and listening to and helping my mom make a yummy lunch in the kitchen.  I don't remember a whole lot of what was said in those years, but I for SURE remember how I felt--how our house felt during those weekends.  I have a testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true and that we have a living prophet today on earth that God speaks to and through.  I know I can feel the spirit witness to me those truths.  I have found out this truth for myself and I love it.  :)

I try to create those same feelings and memories in my house now for my kids.  I don't know if anyone can do this as well as my mother, but I try.

We have our traditional biscuits and gravy brunch, a fun craft, conference bingo with treats, and playing quietly while we listen to inspiring talks of faith from the prophet and apostles.  :)

We also decided to take a walk in between conference sessions.  We let the kids lead the way and we ended up bush wacking it off the trail and had to walk through a farmers field to make it back... oops.  But we found a great vine to swing on half way through!  :)

Pictures from our conference walk!  :)

 The tents that they brought up to be nice and cushy while listening.

I look forward to 6 months from now for another General Conference weekend.