Snow!!!

The end of January we took a spontaneous road trip up to Globe with the Wilson's to play in the snow! The boys had so much fun for about 5 minutes then they were freezing and wet (since we don't own snow clothes) and ready to get back in the car to play their DS's and warm up. I wish they would have played longer but it was still fun. I am sure Glen got much better pics than me but I figured it was about time to blog these so they will have to do. Top picture, Brig and Alden. Brig had a hard time walking or anything and was the first to wimp out.

Dallin had fun purposely falling the snow was so deep they had a great time really getting in it. Too bad it was so wet huh.

Alden and Garret had a lot of fun too. Alden lasted longer than the other two boys but Garret and Gavin played much more than even he did.

Kamille, Amanda, and Megan posing for me. I had to get some pics of my super cute nieces especially since by that point my boys were already back in the car trying to get warm. I had a fun time texting Megan the car ride up. These girls are so stinkin cute!!

Lila got to hang out with Scott most of the time. She was bundled up as much as we could get her and despite it being cold out she seemed to really like it. She thought it was interesting when it actually started snowing and landing on her, she couldn't quiet figure out what was getting her.

There was just tons of snow everywhere, my kids being the desert rats they are were just totally amazed they had never seen so much snow and just kept commenting on how much snow was on the trees and everywhere. It sure was beautiful and we had a lot of fun but I am definately glad we don't live in it and have to deal with it all winter.

Happy Birthday Scottie!

This picture was taken a month or so ago and has really nothing to do with Scott's b-day, I just liked it and since I don't have any pics of his b-day it will have to do! We went out to breakfast to celebrate and then Scott was off to a busy day of finishing up pinewood derby cars and running errands and doing stuff for his Mesa Leadership training class. Not what I would personally call a fun birthday, but I guess that is what happens when you start to get old right?? Anyway Scott is awesome, he is a great dad, husband, son, brother, and friend. He is so talented and is just awesome. So while nothing too exciting is going on for his birthday this year I hope he knows how much his family loves him and we hope he has a great day. Happy birthday!!!

Happy 10th Anniversary!

Today Scott and I are celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary! I can't believe it has been that long and at the same time it seems like we have been together forever. I am very lucky to have such an awesome husband. He is my best friend, we have so much in common and like doing a lot of the same things. He takes such good care of me and our family. I am so blessed to be married to him and am glad we have an eternity to be together. In honor of our 10 years I came up with the 10 things I love most about him (in no particular order).

1. He is a worthy priesthood holder

2. He is forgiving of my shortcomings

3. He is patient (most of the time haha) when I am annoying or this kids are driving me crazy he can step in and help.

4. He is creative, he comes up with the best gift ideas for everyone not just me, he is great with school projects and other things we need around the house etc.

5. He is a great dad, he knows how to respond to each kid differently and help them to learn from whatever the situation might be (which is good since I always tell them to go talk to dad about it!).

6. He is a hard worker and has at different times in our marriage worked more than one job so that I would be able to stay home with the kids and not want for anything. He also is willing to help his co-workers out and is willing to help others.

7. He is a good cook (much better than I am) and is willing to cook. He cooks most the time, I am always saying "I was going to let you cook this or that tonight" and he does it with no complaining (probably cuz otherwise he wouldn't get to eat!), he is always trying new things and different recipes, unfortunately for him his wife and kids are very picky, good thing his family is close by to try his food out on!

8. He loves to learn, He has been doing a Mesa leadership class and is planning on going back to school this fall for his masters. He will most likely be attending school of some kind or another until the day he dies. That pans out good for me in the eternities :) j/k

9. He is very smart. He is asked by his brothers and sometimes nieces for help on homework, if he doesn't know the answer to something he knows how to find out the answer.

10.He always gives me compliments. He will comment on how nice the house looks or how pretty I look etc. That is a good way to make a girl feel good!

So as you can see, I definately got the better end of the deal. I am very grateful to you Scott and love you so much! Happy anniversary!

Random Brig Pictures!

While looking for some pictures I was wanting to blog of Lila (that I couldn't find), I came across several of Brig that really made me smile so I thought I would share.

The top picture Brig fell asleep at the counter. He was suppose to be getting his homework page to work on but he got a little side tracked. Next Brig is climbing over the fence this past summer when he was only 3 1/2 years old to catch up with his brothers. They love to play in the "desert" and instead of walking two houses over to cut through some neighbor boys showed them the faster way of hoping the fence. I was shocked he was actually able to get over the little monkey! He is in his pj's and no shoes of coarse. Next up is the "fort" my kids made one of these practically everyday last summer they would get all comfy and watch movies when it was way too hot outside to be out. They had fun and even slept in a few of them.

Seriously??? Where did this kid come from? He can hardly even tip the carton up to get a drink and where did he even get the idea to do this Mr. "too lazy to get a cup"!

Our tv is pretty high up. It sits above our fireplace and I just had to take a picture of him playing video games because he looks extremely uncomfortable, even if he would have laid down the other way, that would have made more sense than this.

Brig wanted to start a rock collection. When he asked if he could I said sure but they have to stay outside. After a while he came to get me wanting to show me his new rock collection and this is what I stepped outside to see. Not pictured the rocks also follow the sidewalk all the way down to our drive way. Silly boy. He did a great job lining them up nice and neat though.

Hopefully soon I can find the pics I wanted of Lila and Blog some more!

Trading

Scott informed me my last post was depressing so sorry about that and this one is more up beat (no pictures again though, sorry)! I love trading, today I gave two of my nephews haircuts for some yummy chocolate chip cookies (my favorite). By time we left my sisters house where we had all gathered for our monthly family dinner there were only three cookies left in the bag (Make more next time Chad! J/K) but that is okay they were still good! Then when I got home I cut someones hair in our old ward (two streets over) in exchange for my boys church suits and white shirts to get dry cleaned. I know my sister trades a lot for haircuts too and I think it is the best thing ever. I have traded for 55 gal. water barrels, babysitting and all sorts of things. We should trade more in society everything is always about money and how much you can get for something, if we all traded and shared out talents wouldn't that be so nice??? I think so, too bad the world doesn't work that way huh?

Grave yards and crying babies!

I will warn you right off this is a pity party post so if you are not into that do not read. I was frustrated with Lila not sleeping well and was going to post about that when I read a post on one of my friends blogs about the same thing, I am very glad to know that I am at least not the only one out there, however if anyone has any helpful suggestions please post. Lila is not my first bad sleeper either, you think I would have learned some tricks from the other kids, and I have several books but they are packed away in the non-necessity boxes out in the garage, not that I have the energy to read them.
So back to the beginning...when Lila was younger she slept very well, she would go a good 7 hours (every once in a while longer), then one day about a month ago, she decided she didn't want to sleep anymore and that she had to eat every three to four hours at night. I thought it was because she was teething and not feeling well and that is probably where I made the mistake, if I would have from the very beginning let her cry it out we may not be in this mess. I did try to let her cry for a couple nights I would wait a while and then try to just pat her and not pick her up, leave the room again with her still crying and then do it over and over again until at some crazy time in the morning say 2 o'clockish I would cave and just nurse her so I could finally get some sleep. I gave up on that really fast. So any help would be useful to me at this point!
My second pathetic subject is the grave yard shift, now I am very happy it is only for a month and Scott still has a great schedule (it could be every night), but Scott has to work nights for the month of January, everyone in his department has to have a turn apparently to make sure they know how to do things right in the night. But this is not his first time on the grave yard shift so I knew before he started I was not going to like it and I kept telling myself I could handle it for two weeks it would be fine, then I found out it was three weeks which made me even more depressed and now two days into the second week with a baby that is out of control I am giving my self a pity party. On a positive note, it is a three day weekend so I can attempt to sleep in or nap a little for the next few days. Sorry for anyone who actually read this post I just had to vent for a minute!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Brad!

Yesterday was my dad's birthday. This picture is old it is missing the youngest 5 grandchildren but I love it. My dad is such an awesome grandfather the kids all love him and this is a typical moment with our family all the kids gathered around grandpa. He is always oustide playing with them and the kids all think grandpa is terrific. I love my dad so much and I am so grateful for his example. He is always calm, never yelling or letting his emotions get the best of him. He is always willing to help. He has a strong testimony and I have learned so much from him. I appreciate all he does for me and my family and for him being such a great dad and grandpa. We definately love him and are very lucky to have him as part of our family. Happy Birthday!!!!

The past two weeks of our lives in a nutshell!

I started blogging because I thought it would be a good way to kind of journal our lives. I don't really enjoy doing it, though, and so I procrastinate all the time and at this time of the year, when things get hectic, it is easy to put it off. So this is a really long post! My goal is to do better this next year. I don't have pictures of everything I wanted but these are some that are okay. We start off with Dallin's 6th birthday. We had the Marble's over for a firepit and smore's and hot chocolate instead of cake and ice cream. The kids had so much, and I was a little worried with that many kids around the fire but they did great, all except for Brig who singed his hair by touching it with one of the roasting sticks.
Brig had his Christmas program at preschool. He loves Mrs. Amber's and has a great time with cousins Jalyn and Ryker being in his class. He even sang! I think that is a first for any of my kids to actually sing in preschool. My sister Tanya's little girl, Londyn, is on the far left. She is not a part of the class but Tanya dropped her off in the middle of the night so she could go have Baby Holly at the hospital. Londyn is the exact opposite of my kids and wanted to be a part of it even though she didn't know anyone or what they were doing. It was pretty dang cute! Mrs. Amber even let her and my other nephew Logan stay for the rest of the party after the program was over which they both thought was so cool.

Brig did his best but you could tell he was hating every minute of the program. He didn't take his eyes off his teacher the whole time they were singing and only half-way did the actions. I really enjoy Brig! He is a good boy and very fun.

Londyn hung out at our house for a couple days while Tanya and Nick were at the hospital. I don't think she really got that she was getting a sibling but she loved talking about baby Holly and playing with Brig. The two of them started dancing to music on the TV they were watching and it was so cute they actually looked like they knew what they were doing. Dallin was dissappointed that Holly was not born on his birthday, but the day after.

The weekend before Christmas we had a party at my parent's house. Alden had been playing hard all day and I thought he was just tired. He layed down and I had him hold Lila for me. They looked so cute together; that is until he puked all over her, right as Santa was walking in to door too! All the boys ended up with a stomach bug. Luckily it was a quick one and we were done with it after three days.

Alden missed Santa but the rest of the kids got to see him. Dallin got some of the throw up on him so he changed into clothes that were a little too small and luckily i had extra clothes for Lila too. I missed the whole Santa thing trying to help Alden and after that the party kind of fell apart.

Christmas Eve we went over to the Thurston's to try again. We met at the temple first to look at the lights. We always have so much fun there. The kids love going in the visitor center.

At Grandpa's the kids played games, opened presents, and acted out the story of Baby Jesus being born. They have such a fun time doing that. They were excited to get their pajamas. We went over to Scott's sister's house after that and decorated cookies to leave for Santa. The boys were so excited I thought they would never go to sleep but they actually did pretty good.

The boys all had a great Christmas and were very happy with what they received. Santa left them an Xbox 360 and mom and dad gave them Nintendo DS's so they are video gamed out!! They play every waking second unless i am getting after them to go play and get some fresh air. The kids each drew a siblings name to buy a present for and Scott is creative enough to help Dallin. He had him draw a picture of a butterfly (to go with her room decor) and then he took him to find a frame for it. It was so sweet and cute of him and he was so excited to give it to her. We spent Christmas evening at Scott's parents house and i, of course, forgot the camera. We had fun having a white elephant exchange and the kids had a puzzle exchange. There was lots of food and fun games. We had a great time.

After Christmas in one of our many attempts to get the boys away from the video games for a while we went across the street to the park. Scott took Brigs training wheels off and helped him learn how to ride. He picked it up quick and loves being a big kid. He claims that now he can ride in the desert behind the house like his brothers. We will have to see about that!

Santa Picture

We went to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa this year. I stood in line while the kids checked out all the cool things in the store with Scott. They had a blast. I never knew that store was so interesting and entertaining. After we saw Santa, we went and ate at the Toby Keith restaraunt "I love this bar". It was fun. Very loud, but the kids were at their own table and the adults were at a table. our waitress did a great job with a group of 26 and the kids were all very well behaved. Scotts mom and dad were there along with sandee and her kids, Ryan, Heidi and their kids and Glen and kim's family. Too bad I forgot my camera so no pics of dinner. :(

Thanksgiving in Utah!!!

We stopped in St. George on our way up to Provo and had Thanksgiving lunch with my dad's family. They are so Awesome! I have the best family anyone could ever want including extended family. My Aunts are the best. I could write pages on how awesome they are but for times sack I will only name a few. Starting at the left Kim is so crafty and always has some sort of project for us to make. She always has even as a kid had stuff for us to do. Laurie use to make the cutest clothes for us and is just the sweetest person ever, very caring and loving. Darla would do anything for anyone. I will never forget how much compassion she showed me when I had a miscarriage several years ago and she drove so far out of her way to bring me dinner and make sure I was okay. Dori is like a sister to me. I was lucky enough that she lived with my family for a while growing up and I have just always loved hanging out with her.
My boys had so much fun playing kickball and football after we ate with all the uncles and cousins. This park next to Dori's house was so nice. The weather was absolutely perfect and it was just a beautiful day for Thanksgiving.

Grandma T, me, Lila and cutie pie Abby watching the kids play.

We had a great time eating a second Thanksgiving feast in Provo on Friday. Tanya's family was the only one who didn't make it since she is too pregnant, and Liz since she was working. Tara showed all the kids how to make turkey's out of cookies and candy and we had fun hanging out in the church building eating and playing. What a great time we had!!!

These are the youngest grandkids (for now). Hyrum is the youngest but soon to be the biggest. Lila is the smallest little peanut and Kariah and Sam are in the same boat. Sam is a big boy too. it is fun to see the size differences.

Hyrum is two months old and about 16 pounds. Lila is 5 months old and about 13 pounds. I couldn't believe the difference in them!

Lots to blog about from Utah...

Our family had so much fun in Utah. We spent Friday evening hanging out at BYU. We went to the bookstore and bowling (which my camera died so I will have to get pics of some of those things from my mom when she gets back in town next week) and to the Bean museum. The kids loved the animals there. Here is Dallin with the "Liger" (tiger/lion mix)
The boys infront of the jaguar

this elephant was huge!!! I couldn't believe all the animals they had in here it was crazy.

Alden by the tiger.