{Colorado Christmas}

We drove 12 hours to Grand Junction to spend Christmas with Kenny's side of the family. Grandma waited to decorate until we were there so that the kids could help.
The boys didn't stop with the tree's, they decorated a sleeping grandpa too!
As we were driving to Colorado, Ian made several video's on Kenny's phone to send to the Aunties. At one point in the video, Ian said, "We have the best aunties in the whole world!" He then continued to list them off, "Aunt Carol, Aunt Kim, Aunt Gabi, Aunt Connie, & Aunt Catherine!" Kenny and I busted up laughing, reminding Ian that Gabi is his uncle not an aunt. Gabi tends to always be with the aunties, so I can see how Ian got confused. My boys can't get enough of Aunt Gabi........

or his dog Louie!
It was cold there, so we spent one afternoon at an indoor community center. The kids had so much fun and we were quite impressed on how awesome the facility was.






Mya had a good time playing with the toys, but by the time I grabbed the camera she was cold and ready to get out. After swimming, the boys played some basketball.
My boys don't do well being cooped up inside, so we spent another morning bowling!

This shot was taken right before the spill!!!! Connie and Owen both crossed the line and slipped, causing both to fall on their tushes, and resulting in Connie having to go to the emergency room to x-ray her wrist. Luckily, she only sprained it.


Christmas Eve we stuck to our family tradition and had fondue, read the Christmas story, sang Christmas Carols around the piano, & then went driving around town looking at Christmas lights.
Mya loved being Connie's first assistant at the piano & tried to sing along with everyone. I love this picture of Owen, because this Christmas will always be remembered as the never ending bloody nose! We will never be able to get the image out of our minds of blood dripping all over his dinner plate onto his steak while trying to enjoy our Christmas Eve family dinner. It was also at this point that Gabi declared that the idea of having children of his own, just got pushed back another year.....unfortunately we keep doing that too them!

I am sad that this is the year that Drew & Ian both told me that Santa wasn't real. I told them that Santa has a lot of helpers and read them a story about a little boy who was a santa's helper by hiding a warm coat on the door step of a classmate who never got to go out for recess because he didn't have a coat. We reminded our children about the true meaning of Christmas & that how it is more important to give than to receive. We took them all shopping to buy toys for less needy children. It was a great way to let them be Santa's helpers & to teach them to remember those less fortunate. We are so blessed.

Christamas morning finally came & the kids were thrilled with their presents.
Drew loves geography & puts together his world puzzle daily.
Ian or should I say Thor!
Owen as Batman! He said to me today as he dressed up, "I have waited my whole life for a batman costume!"
Mya's favorite gift was probably her tic-tac's, with the shopping cart a close 2nd! However, Santa left her a pink retro kitchen at home for her & that is her all time favorite gift!

We had a wonderful time with family and seeing friends in Colorado. We always love visiting there. Drew spent hours playing in grandpa's field and the kids saw deer everyday roaming in the front yard. We love Grand Junction & have made many special memories there. I am grateful to be married into such a fun and loving family!

{Our Angel}

Kenny is in the bishopric at church, which means he sits up on the stand, leaving me to wrestle my 4 kiddos during sacrament meeting each Sunday. My greatest fear with his calling wasn't the time spent away from us for meetings, but the hour and twenty-minutes of church where I would have to keep my kids quiet and reverent by myself. I prayed that I would be able to handle this task at hand and the Lord did listen to my prayers. He sent to my aid, Sister Salyer! She is an amazing woman who loves my children, is patient, and full of surprises! She came & sat in my pew one Sunday and said, "I just love children, would you mind if I sit with you?" She sat with us that day, & I figured there was no way she would come back to sit with us the next Sunday, but to my amazement, she did! She even brought with her individual bags of snacks and activities for each of my kids! The boys were pumped when she pulled out popcorn and rice krispy treats for snacks. It sure trumped my goldfish snack I had brought for them. For activities she brought Mya a little baby doll and bottle and for Owen a collection of Super Hero's! My prayers were answered and since that Sunday, she has continued to sit with me every Sunday and helped me with my kids. Sister Salyer is my Church Angel!
We went caroling at Sister Salyer's house, where she treated us to popcorn balls! She and Owen are the best buddies. He sits on her lap, playing with her jewelry she is wearing, or examining her outfits. One Sunday he started rubbing her legs, asking her what was on her legs, while pulling on her nylons. She told him what they were and he said, "Yah I have some of those too!'
Sister Salyer realized how much Owen loved the toys she had brought him to church & how he is not a good whisperer, so she sent him home with the Super Hero's. She definitely has won him over & now every Sunday morning as we are getting dressed for church all I have to say to hurry him up is, "We better get dressed quickly or some other kids at church will try to sit by Sister Salyer!" He races to put his clothes on. I am so grateful for the sweet gentleness and love Sister Salyer has shown to me and my family. She will always hold a special place in my heart!

{Ho Ho Ho!}

The kids had a great time telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas at our church Christmas party.


On the kids wish list for this year:

Drew - Angry birds and World Map Puzzle
Ian - I Phone and Electric Scooter (he will be greatly disappointed!) Good thing he has 20 other items to choose from on his list.
Owen - Captain America shield and Batman costume
Mya - She keeps saying she wants a house, but I then say, "How about a kitchen?" She just replies, "Ok!"

I can't wait to see my kids faces Christmas morning!

{Newest Addition}

I have waited to post this blog for a month, because i wasn't sure if our "newest addition" to our family was going to be a permanent addition! While I was in Kansas visiting my sister in November, Kenny sent me a text message saying he had a surprise for me. I was excited and asked him to give me a clue. He sent me this picture!
My heart started racing because I did not recognize the little dog in the picture, but knew Owen was on a trail by our house with Cassie, our black lab. My first thought was that they found this stray dog and that my Veterinarian husband was just doing a good deed and going to take the lost dog to the clinic. He then sent me this picture.........
I was enraged! The rule in my house is NO ANIMALS ALLOWED! I immediately called him and told him to get that mangy dog out of my house. He told me that it was just given a bath and a very clean dog and that the boys love him. He told me to give the dog a chance and to be open minded. Kenny has always wanted to have an inside dog and thought this was the perfect dog. It was a rescue dog and had gotten sick, & Kenny saved it. He then told me that if we could keep the dog I could go with his sisters to Greece! Sold... we are now the proud owners to our 3rd dog, Leo or Louie, depending on which child you ask. And yes...he is slowly growing on me!

***He has moved from only coming inside at night to sleep, to a kennel in the garage with Shelby and Cassie! Win, win for all!

{Pack Meeting}

Drew joined cub scouts when he turned 8 and loves it! He even commented that the best part about turning 8 is going to cub scouts! He has learned the cub scout promise and has had fun working on his achievements to receive his wolf badge.

At his first pack meeting, Drew had his bobcat badge pinned on upside down. He couldn't turn it around until he did a good deed, which he did by holding the door open at a store for several people, without me asking him too, & then told me, "Mom, I did a good deed!"
Drew then pinned on me a mother's bobcat award! It is great to have Drew in a program that teaches him so many life skills and allows him to feel apart of something. I can't wait to watch him on his journey to become an Eagle Scout. I am so proud of Drewsy!

{China}

Mya is successfully potty trained and loves to go to the bathroom by herself. However, I caught her the other day trying to go potty standing up like the boys. When I told her that girls need to sit to go potty she looked down at her girl area and asked, "Mya penis?" Now majoring in Early Childhood Education, I have taken many classes that have taught that you always call the parts by there proper name, so as to not confuse a child. That is what I did with my boys, but for some reason I do not love the sound of the word vagina! Kenny was very adamant about what not to call it, but had never told me what he thought was a good word to name it. So as I was stuck with this dilemma as to what to tell Mya, I decided I would stick to what I was taught, & told her, "Boys have a penis, but girls have a vagina." I said it quickly, changed the topic, & thought, hopefully she won't ask again for another couple of years! Her response was simple, "Ok!" Whew......that discussion was done, back to playing with dolls. Unfortunately, she did have to go to the bathroom again, where she started saying, "Daddy has penis, Dew has penis, Ian has penis, Owen has penis, and Mya has China! She was beaming and all I could do was laugh and agree with her! "Yes you have China!" So much for not trying to confuse her! Someday I will have to explain that China is a country, where people live, and not the name of her .........! Until then I am good with it being called China!

{Great Fun Thanksgiving Break}

Ian is sitting by me as I blog and came up with the title for this post. This past week the boys have been home from school for Thanksgiving break and we have had great fun! We have kept ourselves very busy creating all kinds of things from candy houses to Angry Birds.

Friends came over for sleepovers.

Toothpicks and marshmallows kept my kids busy for 2o min...that's good for my boys!

Drew is in LOVE with Angry Birds!

Ian, Owen, & Mya spent a morning painting. Ian says, "It was so much fun!" It started with paint brushes and ended with body painting! All I could do was laugh because my favorite massages are mud wraps & I figure paint must feel just as good as mud being smeared all over your body.

Ian's icky, icky, hands! (added & typed by Ian)

Round 2....bath!

The weather has been gorgeous this week so when we weren't inside creating masterpieces, we were outside playing. Picnic lunches were eaten everyday as the boys played with all their neighborhood friends. We spent hours playing kick ball, soccer, and going on bike rides.Yesterday was the highlight of the week for the boys. Kenny and Mya weren't feeling well, but we didn't want to be stuck inside on such a beautiful day in November, so I took the boys and we headed to San Clemente to spend the day at the beach! We tagged along with the whole Westbrook family and had a great time. Those Westbrook boys married some great girls and it was fun to hang out with all of them.

Drew and Chandler building sand castles.

When Owen wasn't terrorizing the sea gulls, he was busy playing in the sand.

Drew and Ian were excited to try out their new body boards. It took awhile for them to figure out which waves to catch, but they quickly figured it out and rode some great waves all the way in!



Drew and Ian were ecstatic when the waves pushed them all the way back to shore! I wish I could have videotaped their laughter because it made me so Happy!

Drew and Chandler caught & made friends with sand crabs. While Ryan taught Ian about fishing in the ocean!

Unfortunately they didn't catch anything!

I am in a book club & the book for this month is, "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin. I have loved reading this book and have highlighted several key points that I want to make sure that I incorporate into my life, so that I am living the happiest life that I can. I have a great life and I am happy. I just want to make sure that I appreciate it more.

In the book it says, "The absence of feeling bad isn't enough to make you happy; you must strive to find sources of feeling good. One way to feel good is to make time for play!" I love this thought and was thinking of this all week long as I spent time with my kids. I jumped right in and played with them. It made me happy to take time to be silly with them. We created special memories that I will always treasure and I hope they will too. It also says in the book to keep happy memories vivid. It says, "Happy times help boost happiness in the present. When people reminisce, they focus on positive memories." With this knowledge I am grateful for my blog. It has helped me to do just that. This blog is for my children. They love to see pictures of themselves and to read about the things we do in our family. I hope that the happiness that it gives to me and my children can be infectious and spread to those who read it.

My children are a tremendous source of happiness to me and I am so grateful to have them in my life. I thank the Lord daily for letting me be their mother. I want them to always know that I will always love them.

We finished our Thanksgiving week of fun with a dip in the pool. I'm glad we made time to play hard this week.

*And thank you to Ian for helping me compile this post! He chose ALL the pictures!