A really good Day!

My girls are so lucky to have Brian for a Dad, he is amazing. He tells them bedtime stories that go on for days, he plays with them, he cooks with them, and he truly does adore them!!! They will have so many awesome memories someday of their great Daddy. Today he took them on a Daddy Daughter date to see " The Princess and the Frog" They were so excited and wanted a picture with him. When I look at this picture I know I am BLESSED!!!

Brian 34, Evelyn 7, Leland 5, and Claire 3 1/2

After the movie I took the girls to the mall to Build a Bear Workshop. The girls got gift certificates from Mama and Big Daddy (my parents). They had a a absolute BLAST!!!!! That place is like a candy store for kids. Claire made a Hello Kitty and got a princess outfit for it, Leland made a Unicorn and got a cute skirt and top, and Evelyn made a Alvin and got him a snowboard. They were so happy and all we can say is a big Thank You!

While we were at the mall Brian took Coleman to night snowboarding. They had a blast and once again Brian ROCKS!

No Coal this year, but Santa is watching!!

We had a great Christmas and A great day as a family!

When I was a kid my favorite thing was the stocking, Santa always made them so fun and it was so exciting to see what was hiding inside. I still LOVE the stockings, can you tell?

About 2 weeks before Christmas we got 2 huge boxes in the mail from Brian's parents and the kids were going nuts trying to figure out what was in them. They opened them first and it was a popcorn popping cart, they LOVED it!!!

Evelyn got all BYU stuff from Santa!!! And hasn't taken the t-shirt off in 3 days.

Coleman got a pair of headphones and a new sled from Santa!

Leland got a Barbie Pet Vet and Claire got a new baby and accessory's from Santa. They also loved their Polly pockets!

Ruby did get a couple of puzzles and small toys, but her favorite thing was the cookie Santa left and discovering M&M's!

This year we really tried to focus on the Savior and I hope my kids felt that, I am truly grateful for Him and I know He lives. I know He loves me and my family and I hope by serving others I can teach my kids what Christmas is really all about!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we went out to dinner and to Temple Square in SLC. It was so beautiful and so COLD!!! We learned a good lesson for next year...bring snow suits, blankets, and hot chocolate! Brian said No pictures! so I have no pictures! Since it was Christmas Eve I let him have his way for once! :):)! After we went home we did our tradition of opening new pj's and cookies and milk for Santa!

All the kids (minus Ruby) in their new pj's!! They were so excited it was adorable!

I love Leland's face here, she was so happy!!! I love the shirt we found for Evelyn it says "Cereal first, Questions later" and if you spend any time with her you will see that she loves breakfast and is kinda a grump until she has it. It was perfect!! And you gotta love the bunny ears!

Brrrrr it's Cold, but OK!

On Wed December 23rd we got invited to go tubing in Park City with some friends. Everyone was so excited until we got there and got out of the car and felt how cold it was. I even got a little whiny, shocking I know! Once we got all bundled up and "decided" we were going and we were going to have fun we bought our tickets and got in line. I was the funnest place EVER, you get pulled up a tow rope in your tube and then slide down these huge slides and then do it again and again!!!! The kids all had a BLAST! and we will definitely go again, but it will have to be a sunny day :) We did go get yummy sushi with our friends afterwards so that was a BONUS!!!!

Due to all the fun I only got 1 picture, I think it does show beautifully how cold it was outside!!

Avalyn, Leland, and Claire! 3 peas in a pod!!

Christmas Sunday

I love getting my kids all dressed up for Christmas and this year was no different, EXCEPT I didn't have to buy a thing :). I now own so many Christmas dresses for the girls that all of them had a dress and that was nice!! I think I might have bought that sweater for Coleman, but believe me 1 sweater is a lot cheaper than 4 Christmas dresses. Having 4 girls can be a lot of fun, but very expensive.

I was on my own due to the fact that Brian had to go out of town-he had a meeting in Maryland first thing Monday morning and had to leave Sunday to get there by then. (I was kind of NOT happy about this and might have told him so) Anyway I headed to church and it was great!!! When I got home Brian called and said his flight was canceled and he was on his way home. YEA!!!!! I think Heavenly Father knew I needed my husband!!! I am so glad they got so much snow and that someone made a mistake in SLC that grounded his plane, it was my lucky day!!!

The 5 best things in my life!!!

December 20th

He's Back!!!

About 5 weeks ago we sent Tank to obedience school, I kinda got used to him being gone. I was a little nervous about having a puppy in the house again. Not to worry the training was worth the money, he has been like a differnet dog! He still has his moments, but he has learned so much that makes our life with him much more bearable. They taught him "place" which is a bed he has to sit on whenever we say place and he can't get up till we say so. He knows kennel, sit stay, come, no leave it, and heal! He also has a shock collar with a remote so we can zap him whenever he miss behaves. I love Tank and I have to say he is one good looking dog!!!

He already weighs 45 lbs and is only about 6 mons old. He is as tall as Daisy so I am sure he is going to be big, which I love. I dare anyone to break into this house with him waiting for them on the other end. Hehe!

Jingle Bell Rock

The girls had their Christmas Dance Recital on Dec 12th and it was so cute. They both love dance so much and they were so cute on the stage. I was a very proud Mommy!

Leland is getting really good and she knew her dance so well.

Claire loves dance, but is still learning for sure. She looked so cute on stage and would do the right move at the right time every once in a while :)

They had such dry skin, Claire was sporting a nice chapped lip all the way to her nose.

Early Christmas Present!!!

Sometimes the fact that Brian works all the time is a BONUS!! About 7 months ago Brian told me one of his company meetings would be at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas and I immediately told him that he better start saving points because we were taking the kids. I am so glad I convinced him to do this because it was a vacation we will never forget. He really only had to work two mornings and the rest of the 5 days we had as a family. We were lucky enough to have Ruby stay with my Mom and Dad! This Resort is amazing and I highly recommend it!!! Totally worth the money!!!

We all had a Blast!

Carrie Underwood was giving a concert at the resort on Saturday night and I took Coleman, Evelyn and Leland. This girl can sing!! Coleman and I liked it the most, Evelyn would have probably rather been in the bed asleep (she is no party animal), Leland loved it and thought she was really pretty and liked her outfit! lol!

Coleman going down the BIG slide, it was insane!! He and I were the only ones that had the guts to do it. Brian is weak sauce!

The girls loved all the water slides and pools!

The beach was great and the water was such a beautiful color!

I love the beach!!!!!

ps all my pictures are on FB if you want to see them!

Thanksgiving 2009

This year for Thanksgiving we got invited by some really good friends to their cabin in Park City. It was such a fun weekend and we were so grateful for the invite. Our kids love each other and they were giddy to have so much time together. We enjoyed playing games, talking and hanging out. The kids got in the hot tub, played pool, watched movies and played on the computer. Leland, Claire and Avalyn wanted to sleep in the same bed-they never left each others side. So Cute. Evelyn enjoyed playing with the big kids and with Zack ( she says it is like having a little brother). We had great food and great company and feel so Thankful!!!

Boys will be Boys!!!

Coleman and Eric have birthday's about a week apart and are such great friends!

Kailyn was such a sweetheart to Evelyn, it made her feel so special that Kailyn gave her so much attention. They even slept in the same room 1 night.

Kailyn is 13 and Coleman loves that he is taller then her, they always have fun together.

It was cold outside the little ones couldn't quite take the hot tub, so we filled up the big bath tub and let them get in and play.

I am so grateful for my family and I know they are mine because the Lord loves me. I am not sure what I did to deserve them, but I am so blessed they are in my mine forever.

It is so crazy that after so many years I would see Jonathon at the grocery store and that Brandy and I would become such great friends. I am blessed to have her as my friend.

I Love this little girl!!!!

I am blessed to be married to my best friend and my life would be empty without him in it! I am Thankful for this man and for the great life we have together.

These kids had so much fun together and couldn't resist eating a little sugar from one of the desserts I made.

The Bonnette Family. I met Jonathan at EFY when I was 16 yrs old and we remained friends for a few years afterwards. We lost touch after high school and crazy enough I ran into him in Alpine, UT about a year or so ago. I am grateful I got to meet his family and that we have all become such great friends. I look forward to many more memories in the future.

Jonathon fried the turkey and it was insanely good-I mean really really good!!!!

My favorite Thanksgiving dish-Sweet Potato Casserole!! How beautiful did that turn out, it makes we want to make another one right now!!!!

2nd grade devotional

Every Friday at the kids school is a devotional, at some point during the year each grade does one and the Friday before Thanksgiving it was the 2nd graders turn. The theme of their devotional was about the founding of America and how the Lord played a part in it from the beginning! What a awesome experience this was, these kids shared with us how the Bible was made available for all to read and how that helped fuel the desire for religious freedom. Evelyn was so proud of herself and after watching this it helped me realize what great leaders these kids will be someday.

Basketball Babe!

0ct-nov.09

Evelyn has been wanting to play basketball for a few years. Now that she is in 2nd she is old enough. Brian and I weren't sure she would be a very good, but she REALLY surprised us and was great!!!!! She scored at least 1 basket per game. it was so cute, every time her coach would do subs she would run up to him and say "don't take me out please please." Evelyn loved playing and her best friend was even on her team. It was really fun watching her learn a new sport and for her the attire was a bonus! :)

Not the best picture, but Brian took these so it's not my fault.

Go Evelyn Go!!

1 year check-up!!

Ruby turned one a few weeks ago and today she had her 1 yr check-up and I was excited to see how "healthy" my baby girl was. If you haven't noticed it doesn't look like Ruby misses to many meals. She loves all food especially raspberries and veggie burgers, she literally inhales them. I love all my kids the same, but Ruby has been nothing but a joy since the moment she came into this earth. The Lord truly blessed us with a perfect baby. She has learned so much lately and I just want it to all slow down. My favorite thing is getting kisses from her, she opens her mouth wide open and goes in for the smooch! I'm NOT kidding I kiss her ALL day long and she seems to quite like it! All the kids want kisses first thing in the morning and as soon as they get home from school. I had to take a few shots of my heart and soul, she makes every single day for me.

Ahhhh!!!!

Don't you want to kiss those lips and checks, what a cutie!!!!

I love this so much, I know I will eat my words one day but there is nothing cuter than her sucking her thumb. She LOVES her blankie and thumb they are a package deal and it just melts me!!!!! She has to have her blankie to sleep and it is so cute at night when we can't find it and all the kids go running because they want to be the one to find it and be Ruby's "hero." She has completed our family and we all feel blessed!!!

Here were her STATS:

weight 23lbs 7ozs

height 30.5 inches

She is in the 85th percentile for both...healthy indeed!!!!

Puppy Princess

Claire is full of personality and yesterday was no exception. She found this costume and insisted she put it on. She made us call her puppy princess and asked us to pet her all day. Claire even had all the kids walk her on a leach. She wore it to car pool and when it came time for bed she HAD to sleep in it, you pick your battles with child and She won this one. This morning at breakfast she pretended her food was a dog biscuit, Evelyn said she is so crazy and I have to agree. Although there is never a dull when she is around, we wouldn't have her any other way!!!

Can you tell it is a couple of sizes to small?

Here she is all cuddled up in her bed, my little Puppy Princess!!!

She cracks me up!!!

Here is Claire and her pet pig....she said the pig needed to watch Dora saves the Crystal Kingdom with her and I couldn't help but take a picture. One day she will laugh that a ceramic pig was her favorite lunch companion!

Veggie Burgers are one of her favorites, yum yum!

A real Lifesaver!!!

I can not begin to say how much we loved having Brenda come and help us when we had the flu. The first part of her trip was pretty rough, lots of sick people and laundry and dishes and on and on. She worked her little tail off!!! I am sure when she saw the laundry room she wanted to cry..it was so bad!!!! ( I was so embarrassed, it got out of hand so fast while I was out of town and then sick). She did load after load after load, and we are all caught up thanks to her!!! We couldn't have done it without her, having such a wonderful Mother-n-law is such a blessing!!!!!

She helped Coleman with his State report on West Virgina, he had waited till the last minute and had his rough draft due and only 2 days to do it all in. I was NOT happy with him and I really wasn't up to doing all that work with him, well Brenda jumped right in and did the whole thing with him, I was so happy!!!! That was so awesome, I have helped with so many projects it could kill somebody (Brian always seems to be out of town or at class, so it all falls on me-BO), so to get a break from this one was a BIG deal!!! I couldn't go without saying a HUGE THANK YOU!!!! She also read a LOT with Evelyn and helped with all the homework, which was a lot since they missed so much school. She even joked that she should move out here and the kids could come to her house after school and she would help with all the homework and then send them home. I thought that was a great idea!!! I mean a REALLY great idea!!!!!

Brenda I hope you know how much I appreciate all you did for us and we love you so much!!!

These kids sure do love their Memere!!!

Claire loved watching Sleeping Beauty with her Memere!

Reading Heidi on the back porch!!!

Let's Party

Tonight we had Brian and Ruby's birthday party. Leland and Claire didn't get to go Trick or Treating so I promised them I would do a Halloween party. Evelyn was in charge of the games and did a great job. She made a ghost hunting game, pumpkin bowling and pin the pumpkin on the ninja (which was her). We had a yummy dinner of Tacos (Brian's favorite) and of course a yellow cake with chocolate frosting!!! All in All it was a great family night. :):)

That is one big family!

All the girls in their costumes.

Me and my Unicorn

Birthday Cake!!!