Oh Christmas Tree!

 After some challenges with our Christmas tree being 10ft tall and our ceilings being only 8ft tall, we decided to get a real tree.  This is the first time we have ever had a real tree.  It was kind of a let down to be honest.  We were there for about 15 minutes, and that was that.  Maybe next time we'll have to go cut down our own tree for more excitement.   

Bennett found a few he liked, this being one of them!  

 But here is the beauty we picked.  It really is a pretty tree and it smells nice in my house.  

 Kambri asked me a million times when we could decorate it, so they had a good time doing it.  Among the ornaments that actually survived, the tree looked nice. 

 It was so cute watching them put the ornaments on.  I can't believe how big my kids are getting. It does make for fun holidays!

 My horrible attempt at getting pictures of my kids with their Christmas outfits on.  Brynn was sleeping so I couldn't get one of her and my camera sucks.  But at least the kids are cute!

 I would love to say that Bennett only has this face in a few of the pictures, but it's so not the case. This is what he does whenever I take pictures, he says he wants to do his mean face.  

Hopefully next year I will be more on the ball with Christmas festivities. It was a little hard after moving and having my house kind of a mess.  Oh and yes that is my awesome wall in the pictures, I love it!

Christmas Village

So I will continue to post pictures I have and then catch up later.  We headed to O-town for the Christmas Village lights.  Of course we couldn't have gone 2 days before when it was 40 degrees instead of 20.  My kids were freezing, but they did get to see Santa. Kambri has been so fun this year with Santa.  She wrote him the cutest letter I've ever seen and asks me all sorts of questions: "Mom does Jesus love Santa Claus? Sometimes I feel bad making up stuff to tell her, especially when I have a hard time coming up with something to say:)
Bennett stayed in the stroller most of the time. He wasn't too hip on the idea of walking around.  

Here is cute little Brynnie in her darling hat.  She does not like the stroller so I held her most of the time.  She is so cute I could eat her up!  Her lips are always in this little pucker. Too cute:)

Kambri was so excited to see Santa this year.  Him and Mrs. Claus were very good and very sweet to the kids.  He might have been the real Santa and not just his "helper".

When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she told him that she had mailed him a list.  She was kind of like don't you already know?  But she did tell him she wanted a coaster car.

This might be my new favorite picture.  Bennett wanted nothing to do with Santa Claus, but I still wanted a picture of him with Bennett.  Well Bennett decided to hide his face so instead it was a picture of me with Santa and Mrs. Claus.  Too funny!!!

Here is Brynn sitting on Santa's lap for the first time, I don't think she minded too much. 

The whole gang at the lights.  I'm so glad we live close to both of our families and get to spend a lot of time with them. We always have a good time together.  (I promise Bennett is not in a comatose state, he just didn't want his picture taken:)

Pros and Cons

Wow so I have a lot of blogging to do, but that will have to come a little later.  Now that we are no longer basement dwellers I can reflect back on the pros and cons of living in the basement.  Oh and yes I promise I will put pictures of my house up, but I need to finish a few things.  Maybe it will be more incentive for everyone to just come on over and see it yourself:) 

PROS:                                                            CONS:

               Having only 1 bathroom to clean                          Having all of us use the same small bathroom

               Being so close to each other                                 Being so close to each other
               Having Brynn sleep right next to me                      Having Brynn take naps in the same room as us
               Kambri & Bennett playing together all the time      Having Kambri & Bennett share a room
               Not cooking as much due to lack of space            Spending too much money on take-out
               Not having to clean as much                                 Having all carpet that got pretty dirty
               Bennett sleeping in because the room is so dark    Having our bed right next to their room  
               Watching movies from my bed                             Kids coming out because they can hear the movie                
               Using paper products to limit doing dishes            Not having a dishwasher at all
               Brandon being just upstairs working on the house  Brandon having to work on the house a lot
               Realizing we can all live without as much stuff        Not being able to find all of our stuff
               Knowing where and what my kids were doing      Being claustrophobic so close to my kids

I'm sure I will think of more to add to the list. But I can just say I am so glad I am out of the basement and I LOVE my new house:)
(My list doesn't look like it did in the writing process, but I don't want to fix it:)

Brynnie is 6 months!

Oh my goodness I cannot believe Brynn is already 6 months old.  Seriously it is crazy how fast time goes by. I feel like I am enjoying every second of this sweet little angel.  She is adored by us and everyone around her.  Kambri and Bennett love their Binnie Boo to pieces and I love watching Brandon with her.  He is always giving her kisses and playing with her.  

Brynn at 6 months:

*She is a tiny little midgin weighing in at 11.10 lbs (less than 10%) and 25 3/4 inches (55%). She even weighs less than Kambri did at this age.  Her Dr was a little concerned, but I just think my girls are going to be tiny and petite.  

*She started eating cereal and does pretty well with it.  I have been putting butter in it to try and fatten her up (per Dr's orders). She has also tried peas which she isn't a huge fan of.  

*She crawls all over the place and keeps herself pretty well occupied most of the day.

*She can go from crawling to sitting up and has started to put herself up on small things, like Kambri's foot stool by her bed. 

*I love to make her laugh and hear her adorable giggle.  So cute!

*She is a Mamma's girl and I LOVE it!  She will let Brandon hold her more often now, but she is always reaching for me.  We spoke in sacrament meeting not too long ago and as soon as she heard my voice she started screaming and my Mom had to take her out. She loves her Mommy!

*She is still the cuddliest little one. She will lay her head on my shoulder and just snuggle in.

*My good little sleeper has turned into a horrible one!  I don't know what happened.  She has had 2 colds in the last couple of months and is now the world's worst sleeper.  I am officially her personal binky.  Every time I try to give her her binky she shuts her lips and refuses to take it. She gets so mad and the only way I can get her to sleep is by putting her in bed with me and nursing her all night long ahhh!!!! Hopefully this will end when we move upstairs and she is finally has her own bed.  

She is so dang cute and we love her more than anything!  I am so blessed to be her Mommy:)

Happy Happy Birthday Kambri Dear!

My baby girl turned 5! What are you serious? It feels like she was a little one with chubby cheeks just yesterday. She is growing up and I can tell maturing a little bit more. She is a sassy frass and the sweetest little girl ever, all at the same time.  Here are some things about Kambri:

~She is still a tiny little girl weighing in at a whopping 28lbs and 39 inches. I believe 5% to 10%.

~She loves to color, draw, and paint. Pretty much everything artistic.  Her favorite colors are turquoise, pink, and blue. I love her drawings and they are getting better everyday.

~She loves, loves, loves her baby sister.  She carries her all over and wants to be with her all the time. She is a good helper and calls her Binnie. 

~She plays very well with Bennett.  She is usually pretty sweet, they are either best friends or fighting.  She shares a lot with him and they have fun together being animals.

~She can write all of her letters and is starting to read.  She writes really well and will sound out and read quite a few words.

~She is an ok eater.  She will try anything I give her which is awesome, but just doesn't eat a lot.  She loves fruits, vegetables, and Mac 'n' Cheese.

~She is very sensitive to other people's feelings and is concerned when people are upset.

~Her cousin's are her best friends and she wants to be with them all the time. 

~She sees the good in situations and people. Today she told me the snow was pretty because it sparkles. She will tell me every time we go somewhere how pretty the lady working at Wendy's is, or how pretty the girl with the bright blue eyeshadow is. 

~She plays really well by herself and has quite the imagination. And makes a mess while doing it, her room is usually messy:)

~She is very intelligent and says things that are way beyond her years. She is curious and wants to know everything going on around her. 

~She is sassy as can be and can have a serious attitude. 

~We love her more than words can say and thank our Heavenly Father for blessing us with her!

Happy Halloween!

A little late, but on a good note I found my camera yay!!! (It was underneath my bed, ooops)

We had a really good Halloween.  My family came up and we had our dinner in a pumpkin, that my Mom makes every year.  It was a little chaotic in my basement with everyone but we were able to go outside before the rain hit and take some pictures.  

My cute trick-or-treaters!  

 Bennett wanted to be Batman, he looks like a pretty good looking Batman to me. (This is one of his many scary or mean faces he likes to pull) Bennett loved his trick-or-treat pumpkin bag and carried it around with him for days, he even slept with it.  He was so excited for Halloween and wanted to where his costume every day.  

 Oh but he can be sweet as can be too!

 Here is my sweet little dancer. Kambri changed her costume about 4 different times.  For my parent's Trunk or Treat and her school party she was a cute little ballerina.  Then that night she wanted to be a cheerleader, then changed into this outfit.  And to finish the night off she decided she wanted to wear Brynn's mermaid costume.  I really didn't care what she wore, and she looked cute in all of them:) She loved Halloween and asked me every day when it was time for Halloween. 

Our little mermaid, so sweet!  I love her little expression in this picture.  She is as sweet as she looks!

Here are all of the kiddos before we headed out.  We started the night out going to my ward Trunk or Treat.  Because of the rain they did it inside the church.  It was a lot of fun and they don't mess around up here.  I felt like the cheapo with small candy bars.  People went all out and gave out some fun stuff.  Next year I might have to step up my treat giving game!  The kids had a lot of fun.  

After that we headed over to our friends Dan & Mariel's Halloween party.  She told me it was mandatory to dress up so I borrowed Betsy's elf costume she made and Brandon wore this creepy mask.  Not sure what he was supposed to be:)  We had a good time with super yummy food.  We finished the night out at the Harry Potter House.  Apparently we moved into the coolest neighborhood for Halloween.  These people in our ward add a new scene from Harry Potter every year.  The police make the road to their house a one way street and have a big sign telling you where to go. It didn't disappoint either.  It was really fun. They had characters from the book walking around and talking to everybody.  Kambri even got to go down a zip line. Next year we will have to make it to the "Mafia Man's" house. This guy lives down the street from me and at 5:30 there were probably 100 people in line to his house.  I guess he gives out really cool novelty candy and fun toys and a lot of it. He told this girl in my primary class that he spends about 8000.00 on candy, wowsa! I'll be sure to show up to his house at 4:30 next year if you want to join me!!! 

October Fun!

 Not having a camera is no fun! My nice sister takes the pictures for me and I have to get them from her!  We had a fun time with the Halloween festivities.  Bennett was very into the carving of his pumpkin. 

 Him and his Daddy carved a deer and Bennett thought that was so cool.  Bennett loved caving the pumpkin, although it made me a little nervous to have him with a knife.

 Kambri carved hers pretty much all by herself.  It was really nice not having to do it for her. She drew the face on and cleaned the pumpkin out!

 Bri and I were having lots of fun making yummy caramel apples.  They seriously were delicious.  

Normally we just do caramel, but I think this might have to be a tradition from now on. I could have eaten tons of these bad boys!

Papa and Brynn!

 Everyone in on their pumpkin carving. The kids had a lot of fun.  They are getting old enough that we can just let them go at it by themselves. 

The cute girlies with their finished products:) Madeleine, Graicee, Victoria, and Kambri 

The gang with our pumpkins! Court did Perry Mason and it looked just like him. Aubrey did Utah State and I think Brandon's deer turned out great! (I didn't rhyme that on purpose)

What did you say!!!???

Oh wow don't you love it when your kids say crazy things.  You have to document them to remember them, and embarrass them later. This was one of those times.  Here is how our conversations went the other day in the car.  

Kambri: Mom do babies come out of your tummy?

Me: (I have tried to kind of avoid the topic so I didn't say too much)

Kambri: Well remember when we went camping in the cabin awhile ago?  I was on the bed where Graicee was sleeping and we were asking questions and Graicee said babies come out of...what's that word again...crotch!!! Ya crotch, do babies come out down here? (pointing in that vicinity)

Me: Well ya they do (trying not to laugh out loud)

Kambri: No they come out right here (pointing right below her belly button)

Me: Well they come out down there.

Kambri: So they come out of your pee pee.

Me: Yes they do.

Kambri: That is disgusting, so they get pee pee germs when they come out?

Me: (Trying not to laugh and fall of my seat as I'm driving, seriously having a hard time controlling myself) No they don't get pee pee germs they wash the babies when they come out. 

Kambri: Oh they do. (then goes on to ask me what's on them when they come out and tells me they then put on a little shirt so they won't be naked)  

That was seriously one of the funniest things she has ever said. And of course the way she said it was even better, I wish I would have had a video camera or something.  Oh and I can't forget cute Bennett either.  I love his incorrect grammar. The other day he said,"When I get growed up I want a truck like Daddy's" And he will ask me" What for this" (What's this for) I kinda get sad when they start to speak correctly!

Look what I can do!

This is my big girl! She has been sitting up for a few weeks now.  She is such a tiny thing and looks absolutely adorable sitting on her own. Kambri likes to tell everyone that she taught her how to sit up.  

I think this picture is so sweet.  Her eyelashes are cute as can be and I love that she is playing with her toes.

And yes she is crawling.  She had been getting up on all all fours for awhile now and would rock back and forth, do some push ups, and usually end up on her face. But last weekend she started figuring out the forward motion.  Now nothing is safe from her sweet little grasp.  

29 things about me!

 I remember my cute friend doing a post on her birthday all about her, and I thought I would do the same.  In honor of my 29th birthday (wow that sounds kinda weird) I thought of 29 things about me, in no particular order. 

1. I don't really love socks and wish I could wear sandals all year long. 

2. I love love love candy and my family always knows they can count on me having some sort of treat at my house. 

3. Random rattling noises in my car drive me crazy and I can't rest until I find out what they are. 

4. I've had the same best friend friend for 26 years!

5. I love to talk on the phone, Brandon gives me a hard time because whenever I walk in the door I'm usually on my phone. 

6. I don't like seafood, tomatoes, mushrooms, hot stuff, and green apple candy!
7.  I'm a pretty go with the flow kinda gal, I don't get too worked up over very many things. 

8. I'm not a germ-a-phob and don't mind if we all share drinks or eat of off the same utensil.

9. I wish I was more of a clean freak, but I just don't have it in me:)

10. I like to wear the colors pink, gray, and black.

11. I pray for more patience everyday and to be a better Mom, and I worry about the job I'm doing. 

12. I have done a back flip on skis.

13. I love spending time with my family and we are together all the time.

14. I have a testimony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and my Savior Jesus Christ. 

15. I don't like scary movies and would much rather watch a cheesy chick flick. 

16. I never have nightmares and I remember most of my dreams when I wake up. 

17. I have been to New York and Washington DC for the day. 

18. I would love to be a host on Good Things Utah. 

19. I don't have a nickname ( unless you count that Brandon calls me Sweetie)

20. I'm an outgoing person and shy has never been a word to describe me. 

19. I try hard to be a good friend and they mean a lot to me.

20. I'm a responsible person and have a hard time with flaky people. 

21. I love my kids and my hubby more than anything in the world, and feel very blessed.

22. I like to travel and I want to go to England and Italy one day. 

23. I was voted the biggest flirt in 9th grade:) 

24. I love to read and wish I could do more of it. 

25. I feel bad that I'm not more involved with the world around me (I kinda live in my own bubble)

26. I really want to learn how to sew. (one day when I get a free second)

27. I wish I could sing and I joke that when I get to heaven I better have a good voice. 

28. I want one more baby, if I can convince Brandon:)

29. I am a night owl and like to stay up late and sleep-in in the morning.

 There you have it a little about me:-)

Fall

So I wasn't too excited for it too get cold and become fall. I would rather have it be 90 and hot than 40 and freezing. But since I have absolutely no control over it, I figured I might as well accept the fact.  At least I have a gorgeous yard to enjoy the awesome fall colors.  I can't say it enough that I love experiencing all of the wonderful things about our yard.  Every season adds to the love I have for it.  Even though now our yard is completely covered in leaves:) 

I have so many more things to post about, the fun things we have been doing, Brynn sitting up, and rocking back and forth on her hands and knees, our first egg from our chickens, and the remodel. But my camera went MIA so it might be awhile.  The remodel is going well, I picked out my carpet today yay, the painters are almost completely done (I love it) and the counter tops are coming on Friday.  Not too much longer, now I just have to pick out lights. I'm having a hard time anyone have any suggestions? I will try and post pictures soon!

The Basement...

We have been remodeling for about six months now and I guess it's probably time to put up some pictures of our living arrangements. It's not too shabby, but I'll be honest I'm getting a little sick of our one bedroom apartment down here. Oh and did I mention I don't have a DISHWASHER!!!

Here is our kitchen, it is really nice and actually has quite a bit of storage. The basement was finished about 8 years ago and was done really nice so all we did was clean the carpets and paint. But really I might be willing to pay people to come clean my dishes, or do some favors, really anything. If you ever come over you are pretty much guaranteed to see dirty dishes in the sink.

So my camera sucks and I need a new one (all of you photographer friends no judging please) But this is the another view of the kitchen from the living room area. The lovely green pool table aka kitchen table, is where we like to eat or put junk whatever happens at the time! And those cabinets you see act as my pantry, its pretty snazzy!

This is our living room area. It's quite nice, you can watch a movie from pretty much anywhere in the basement. If Bennett wakes up too early I put in a movie and go back to bed and I'm only 15 feet away from him. I actually will miss that when we move back upstairs.

Turn the corner and here is our bedroom. Yep that's right folks our bedroom is in plain sight of everything else. Oh and this is how it looks most the time (minus the husband sleeping on the bed) Dirty laundry, crap piled up places and bed unmade. That's how I role these days. Do you see all of those doors, most of them are nice big closets. I don't think I could have made it down here without them! Oh and Brynn sleeps in her pack 'n' play right next to the bed. One big happy family:)

This is Kambri and Bennett's room. It was meant to be a game room so there are two entrances, one right when you walk down the stairs and the other on the other side of the basement. And it doesn't have any windows so it gets really dark and Bennett will normally sleep in, bonus! They are doing a lot better at sharing a room than I thought. I think Bennett will have a hard time having his own room when we move upstairs. We finally took the front off of Bennett's crib and turned it into a toddler bed. I was scared to do it, but he is doing awesome at staying in his bed at night. When he gets in trouble I put him on his bed and he will sit there and yell, "I want to get out" It's hilarious because he has the mentality still that he is still stuck in there, too funny!

Here is the kid's closet. It is a total mess (try fitting three kid's crap into one closet) But I do love the shelves and drawers. I love how all of the closets are made and this is how we are doing them upstairs.

There you have it, our life in the basement! Total chaos, mess, not organized, and usually stuff everywhere. One day my life will get back to normal!

Oh Baby!

How cute is this? These all all of the precious babies that were born in our family this year. Dash is Brock and Betsy's baby, Charlotte is Danielle and Nathaniel's, Brynn is our angel, and Royce is BriAnne and Court's. They were all delivered by Dr Bierer (whom we absolutely love) and this is the card Bri sent him. How much fun are they going to have when they get older. Oh boy I think we will have our hands full:)