Winding Down

Well, tomorrow is the last day of 2009. 2010...weird. We've had a great couple of weeks. Bri's been crazy busy at the office and we've been doing fun things here and there. After Halloween I bought some makeup on clearance and thought it would come in handy some time and sure enough... we got bored and played around. I got progressively better. I started with Elizabeth, then Caroline and lastly Cooper. His was the best IMO. It wasn't the best stuff, and I'm by no means a drawing/painting artist, but they seemed to enjoy it none the less.

We had some fun in the studio. They actually asked me to take their pictures. Now that's something we can have fun doing together! There are some more here if you haven't seen them. I LOVE this one.

We did another round or two of sledding. We went to the Utah State campus hill this time. It was way better! It was a blast. The kids had a great time. Even Elizabeth did some pulling up the hill with Isa on the sled. It was cute and so fun to see the kids enjoying eachother.

Since our last post we've caught 2 more mice. Who knows how many are in this house. Anyone want to come visit! Luckily the only signs of their presence have been in the kitchen. Well, luckily and still gross!

Christmas Eve the kiddos got to eat their gingerbread houses. They didn't get very far. Kind of gross after a month of sitting out!

Christmas was great and so fun to watch the kids open their presents. Isabelle was the funniest. She "wowed" everything. It was super cute. We were blessed with a great Christmas.

I had a lot of fun with this Christmas making gifts this year. I made Cooper a Superman cape which he loves. We've been tying blankets around his neck for the last few months. This one was super easy and fast (thanks to a tip from Mom). No sewing required! I made 2 in less than 45 minutes. I made an apron for Bri and my bro-in-law Paul. I think they turned out pretty good. There were a few other things and it was a lot of fun. I think I might try it again next year.

My cute family. The kiddos are all in their PJ's made by Grandma (Chudleigh). Don't they look cute?! Thanks Mom. I just love Isabelle's face in these.

We hope you all had a great Christmas season and we're looking forward to 2010! Love you all!

Sledding

Brian's been so busy with his choir stuff this week that since we had a few hours this morning, I thought it'd be fun to go sledding. One of the very few reasons to be grateful for snow! Well, or at least one of the few ways to enjoy it... for me anyway. It was fun.

I love my bunch!They can be a lot to handle, but they can also be lots of fun!

Brian is, of course, the more daring crazy one. I like to stand on the sidelines and document it all.

Even Isabelle had fun. She enjoyed eating the snow and a few runs down the hill.

I liked going on the tube. It felt safer to me. It was fun going down on our stomachs. The kids would hitch a ride on our backs. Good times, good times.

Brian's been in charge of FHE this month and has been doing fun things for the kids. Last night we made Rudolph paper bag puppets, the week before was gingerbread houses. I thought he was nuts. I didn't even want to attempt that, but he was so cute. He came home with bags and bags of candy and got to work. The kids did really well and it was actually fun.

Brian and Cooper worked on one together. There were a few fallen roof tops, but it worked out.

Elizabeth and Caroline did their own. Very creative work I must say!

Bri and Cooper's final product...

Caroline workin' the camera and showing her final product...

Elizabeth's final product.....

And eventhough I hate this picture, Brian said I had to put one of me in there, so..... my final product......

Now we're just trying to keep the kids from eating them until Christmas. So far we've only lost a few parts. Good times!

A poem by yours truly...

Hickory Dickory SNAP!

3 mice now caught in our trap

How many will be

Joining those 3?

Hickory Dickory SNAP!

Hickory Dickory one

Your dying was surely not fun

Still alive while smushed

Though your guts did not gush

Hickory Dickory one.

Hickory Dickory two

So sad you didn't get through

Your lungs must have failed

Under the fridge and lost your tail

Hickory Dickory two.

Hickory Dickory three

Your death was the most easy

You got caught by your head

and were hopefully soon dead

Hickory Dickory three.

Okay, kind of gross and we actually feel bad when we see these little mice, but how do you get rid of them  without killing them? We have a live trap out, but they aren't taking the bait (hahaha). Last night Brian and I were playing games and at the designated time (9:42-9:48) we actually HEARD the mice squeaking. The other two nights I heard them eating. Last night I think they were conversing  wondering where their peanut butter was that we've been so kind to put out for them to eat the last few nights. We've tried 3 traps. One (the clamp) they just eat the peanut butter and get away (well, except for number one). The other one is the live trap and after one night,  no success there. The best.... the old school wooden slats! FYI.

Christmas List....

All she wants for Christmas is her front tooth. Ha ha ha!

Christmas Season

We've been havinga great time celebrating the Christmas season. We had Brian's first office party as "the boss" and it went well. We went to a dinner theater show. The food was great and the show was fabulous! Very funny and creative. They exchanged gifts and laughs and it was a good time.

We had our ward party this morning. I've been sewing squares all week for part of the service project. I thought it would be quick, but I signed up for 30 squares and they took a LONG time! But it was nice to do something service oriented. We had breakfast there and then they had a cute children's live nativity. Cooper was a cow I think, Caroline was a sheep and Liz was an angel. It was really cute.

When it first started, baby Jesus was in the manger and Isabelle went up there to pick "Him" up. Everyone thought it was pretty sweet. Then a minute after Cooper went over there to check the baby out. He was trying to open the eyes.

After the nativity we had Santa come visit. Elizabeth came up to me after her turn and said, "he's not real Mom."

Me:"Oh yeah? Why do you say that?"

Liz: "Because he's wearing tennis shoes."

I thought that was so funny and so observant.

It was cute because Santa had them ask for a gift for someone else, like a brother or sister or whatever. I should have listened closer to see what they were saying, but I was trying to take pictures of course.

And then we got a family one. It's been about 3 years since we've done that. We've had 2 more kids since our last one. Boy how our family has grown!

Thanksgiving

So I had this great photo idea I wanted to do this year showing everything I was thankful for, but the time got away from me and another year went by without it. Maybe next year. We had a great Thanksgiving with the fam (minus Jill and fam) in Sandy. Good food all around and my favorite.....pie! I discovered pecan pie with whip cream. Delish! We have pecan every year, but I've never tried whip cream on it. New fave.

Mom and Dad were great hosts as always. Mom did a great job decorating the table and making it pretty and she even made everyone their own white chocolate pumpkin drizzled with milk chocolate. Mmmmmm. I was in charge of the rolls and of course they were still in the oven during the prayer, so I stayed on roll watch duty but thought it was so cute to see everyone in their prayer mode, so I took a picture. Obviously someone was peeking while they should have been listening...... CAROLINE!

Thought these pics of the kids being reverent were cute.

8 Years

So I'm kind of posting everything backwards. Our 8th anniversary was November 16th but there was too much going on to get out really. We did manage to make it out to lunch, but that wasn't enough time alone!  Since we were going down to Sandy for Thanksgiving, my Mom, sister Caroline and Dad helped to watch the kids while we took the day to play. We started out with lunch at Z-Tejas. I really like that place. It was yummy and a meal uninterrupted is always nice. Even if there's no conversation (but there was) it's nice to eat in peace.

Afterwards we had  a little bit of time and did some window shopping and then headed up to our 3-D movie at Gateway. It was an expensive nap. JK. It was a great movie and the 3D was fun, but the lapping water put both Brian and I to sleep. He slept probably 50% of the time. I nodded on and off but caught most of the movie. It was fun. We were sitting behind a "friendly man couple" and they were playing with their I-phone. I've never really seen one in action so I was watching as they were going through their pictures and we got a peep show before the show! I'll be more careful when spying next time. :)

Afterwards we checked out their free exhibits. Brian tried out being a weatherman. He did a good job. I'd watch him on tv! :)

Although some may say man didn't really walk on the moon ;),  I thought I'd  give it a try and no, I don't know what I'm doing with my hand.

We had another break in between activites and stopped in for some ice cream. How I love me some good ice cream ! Super yummy! Ice cream was followed by some book browsing at Barnes and Noble. That's always relaxing to me. I could do that all day. So many good books and interesting things to read.

Our evening ended with a play at the Desert Star Playhouse theater. It was a fun change up. Brian was their biggest supporter with his boo's, hissing and loud laughter. It was a great night. Here's to 8 more!

Ouch!

The other day Cooper and Caroline were spinning on our office chair while I was out of the room cleaning. All the sudden I hear Cooper totally crying and I run in there to see he and Caroline in a serious embrace. Caroline was trying to comfort him. I didn't know what happened until I look at his head and he had this huge goose egg on there.

Elizabeth said it looks like he has a nose on his forehead. I'm assuming he fell off and bonked it on the corner of the desk.

But even with that huge bump on his head I still see his beautiful brown eyes first.

Oh nuts!

This past Saturday we took the girls to the Nutcracker. They were so excited and I was so excited to see them so excited. We got them dressed up and did their hair in buns and then went over the rules for taking big girls out to dinner and the rules for the ballet. They of course weren't really listening to me since they could see all the new Christmas lights that everyone had put out around their houses. Oh well. We haven't taken them out to eat at a restraunt in about 2 years because the last time was THAT BAD! This time was very enjoyable though. We took them to Texas Roadhouse so we could use the free dinner Liz got from taking 1st place in her reflections. They sat down and immediately started coloring. Brian and I got to watch a little of the BYU vs Utah game, but we also had some conversation with them. We got our food, ate, finished the fourth quarter of the game and then headed out to the ballet.

We got to the ballet and as soon as we were in our seats Caroline turned to me and said, "thanks Mom. I pereciate it." She's so grateful about so much. Elizabeth kept asking me questions and her reply was always, "cool". She's getting so grown up. I loved watching them and seeing their eyes light up and just really enjoy it. I loved watching them smile and seeing them clap. It was a magical time for me, not watching the ballet, but watching their reactions and joy. I loved it! At the end Elizabeth turns to me and says, "I'm exhausted!". I just laughed. It was so funny to hear her say that, but I think she meant bored. The last 20 minutes felt like forever, but all in all, it was really fun and a great night out with the girls!