This week!

When you send out a request for snow, you just might get what you ask for and WOW! My kids had a blast spinning around on the 4-wheelers. I always get nervous since Sean rolled one in August, resulting in a very scary trip to the ER.

Emma, Alex, & Haili

I walked out to get pics of the kids and when I turned around I felt like I was looking at a giant Gingerbread house! Just missing the colorful candy.

Here is Alex and Emma trying to run over Haili...I swear my boys life-long goal is to give their mother a heart attack!


Alex got some serious spins going.

Sean had fun making and throwing snowballs at everyone!

Monday afternoon I get a call from the girls school that I should attend the Tuesday assembly. I had no idea why, but I grabbed my camera just in case and headed over to the school. It turns out that Haili had entered two paintings in the Reflection contest and she won one of them and got an honorable mention for the other. So I was all proud and snapped some pictures of her. I was about to leave, but decided to stay and to my even bigger surprise Emma had entered a story and won an honorable mention as well. The girls won tickets to the Hale theater and Clarke Planetarium. They were so excited!

Emma accepting her ribbon and tickets

Haili getting her medal and tickets

Thursday was the school program, so Scot and I went over to watch. I have to admit that it was a far cry from Ivy Hall's AMAZING Christmas programs, but the girls looked cute and we enjoyed it anyway.

Emma is on the front row to the right of the girl with the green shirt.

Haili is right in the middle of this picture.

Christmas Dance Recital

The girls did such a great job on their dance for the Christmas recital. We just love to watch these girls dance and improve each year.

Haili was not too happy about this costume, but on stage it was way cute and fit the dance perfect! She is so girly that anything that looks like it might be for a boy makes her crazy.

Emma was walking around backstage pretending to be a chicken with all her feathers on her behind (silly girl).

My camera's batteries died just as I was trying to take pictures of their dancing....darn! I swear every dance recital either my video camera has low batteries or my digital does. I've got to get better at checking these things.

Sooooo, I've signed up for the adult Jazz and Zumba classes starting in January at my girls studio. It has been 20 years since I danced and I'm a little nervous!

Sean overheard me telling someone what I was doing and said, "Moms should not take Dance lessons, that is just weird!"

Here I was thinking I was doing something so cool that all the other moms of teenagers probably aren't doing, but no I was so wrong!

Oh well, I'm still going to do it and maybe I'll even practice in the basement while he is practicing his drums...ha ha ha ha....that will teach him!

Emma's Baptism

Emma was Baptized Saturday, December 6, 2008

She has been looking forward to this day for several months, learning all she could about what it means to be baptized. I was so fortunate (ha ha) to give the talk at the Stake Baptism. Emma had a large group of aunts, uncles, cousins, Grandparents, and friends there to watch her. It was a very special day!

My Father-in-law made it home just in time for the Baptism. We were so glad he did!

Emma is such a little sweet heart and I just love her to bits!

Here is a group picture of some of Emma's cousins. She has 7 more cousins

that were not able to make it. Are family is growing:)

After the Baptism, we headed over to our house for brunch. Scot made his to die for whole wheat/flax waffles with homemade blueberry syrup mmmmmmm! We also had fruit, sausage, and bacon. It was a little chaotic with so many people, but we made it work.

I swear Sean never takes a break from his cubes!!!!

Look, he has Jordan starting it now...good grief!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at my sister's house with her family this year. It was my niece's 2nd Birthday, so we celebrated Wednesday night. Every time she would open a present she would hold it up to her and say, "Oh cuuuute". It was too cute!

The girls really got into their "Gingerbread whatever"! They made trains, houses, and filled their board with lots of candy!

Mmmmm....I just want to eat it!

Working ever so carefully!

Scot and I really love spending time with family and we are very grateful to have such a wonderful extended family.

Ahhh...We miss this! She just crawled up on Scot's lap. He kinda liked that!



My dad and step mom came for dinner, then stayed to play games. My brother drove up also, so we ended up with 14 people for dinner. Notice my Dad's mustache:) He grows some kind of weird facial hair every year at this time because he travels and plays keyboard with the Bar J Wranglers. Check them out, they are coming to town in a couple of weeks!

Sean recorded this from his phone last year...very shaky. This doesn't do the show justice so you'll just have to see it live. It is great for the whole family. My kids Loooove it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N2YFYNKCOs

Bar J Wranglers will be performing at the Utah Valley University McKay Events Center in Orem on December 17 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $10 http://www.smithstix.com/

Emma LOVES to put puzzles together and she was so excited for Grandma to help her.

My SINGLE brother was just hanging out with Emma patiently waiting for the turkey to get done. Does anybody else feel like they are ALWAYS waiting on the turkey? Seriously, why does is seem to be cooking fast the first couple of hours, then you turn the oven down just a bit and it seems to take forever!!!!

My adorable and HILARIOUS nephew keeps us fully entertained with his never ending energy.

The guys went 4-wheeling Saturday and even ran into some snow. They saw 3 Moose!!!!! It was cold, but they had a great time.

I didn't take any pictures of crazy "Black Friday", as I was way too busy trying to protect myself against the crowds while grabbing a much needed Christmas present! My sister and I braved the cold, crowds, and craziness by venturing out at 4:00 A.M. to get all our Christmas shopping done. By 10:30 A.M. we had accomplished that, including fillers and stocking stuffers! My only issue was trying to get everything home and hidden! It was challenging, but we made it.

Dating, Driving, & Flying

I'm a little late posting a big "HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY TO SEAN"! Sean turned 16 November 20th.

I can't believe it, but yes it's happening. Sean will be driving and dating!?!?!? I have to say, well ok brag about Sean. He is such a wonderful son! Literally from the time he was born, he has been the most easy going, brilliant minded, quick witted personality, and of course adorable child. We are so lucky to have him in our family.

Everything Sean does or shows interest in, he excels at....music, art, school, rubics cubes, computer knowledge, sports, etc, etc, etc. Over the years I have had many of his friends' parents compliment on the kind of boy Sean is and how good of a friend he has been to their son/daughter. It is so fun to watch him grow up and up, now standing at 5'10''!

Sean testing out his new drum sticks that he got for his Birthday.

I made a gift basket with lots of Sean's favorite treats, the staples for any teenager like; peanut butter cups, Mountain Dew, Sunflower seeds, gum. Then I tied balloons to the package and attached a cute stuffed animal. I delivered it to the school and requested them to sing "Happy Birthday". I didn't do it myself because I wasn't trying to induce a heart attack having his mom sing to him, just wanted to embarrass him a little! It worked and he said the whole class joined in on the song! He called me to thank me and said he was very surprised. I think he kinda liked it.

My mom has a fun tradition that she has done with all my kids since they were little. She takes them out to dinner, their choice, then shopping for a Birthday gift. This means that they get exactly what they wanted. Sean and Emma went together, as their Birthdays are days apart and had a delicious Red Lobster dinner and fun shopping at the mall.

Saturday night we decided to go up to Ogden to do the IFLY indoor skydiving experience. Sean was a natural, of course! He thinks he's ready for the next step, like plane jumping!!!! Haili, Emma, and Scot also did it while Alex (was sick and had a headache) and I (had to get pictures) just watched.

Getting all the gear on

Emma & Scot ready for flight

Sean was so excited!

Haili getting her helmet on behind him.


Here he is! The instructor holds onto them for the first little bit to get them familiar.

Oops, she grew a part and is now a boy!!!

I previously posted my sister-in-law's belly with my newest baby girl niece growing inside. The second ultrasound discovered that the baby was certainly not a GIRL, but a BOY. Can you believe it? He was not shy about revealing this to his parents, as they have already purchased cute and frilly dresses!

I have to admit that when we found out Kristen was pregnant, I said that I thought she was having a boy. My instincts are still good:)

I just love pregnant tummies...so cute!

Twilight Geeks

I stole this off of Katie's blog

According to my 16 year old son, I am such a Twilight geek! Never mind that he waited for Pirates for over 10 hours when it came out opening night.

I'm not the sorta girl who rushes out and has to see the latest and greatest movie, but when my friend Katie invited me to go to the midnight showing of Twilight, my giddy inner child came out and decided to go for it! Scot had actually bought us tickets for Saturday, yet I knew he was not super thrilled about seeing it. He opted to stay home with the kids (I'll have to owe him).

We went to Chilli's for desert before the show and when we arrived to the madhouse they call a movie theater, Katie's soon to be sister-in-law had so politely saved us seats...sweet! I even saw quite a few people I knew like Jane and several Ivy Hall moms. I also ran into a couple old neighbors.

The movie was great, but I was bugged cause I was sitting next to an overweight lady (not you Katie) who was breathing so heavy! It kinda drove me nuts and at times I would look over just to see if she was awake or if she was asleep and snoring my ear off....sigh! She was completely awake and breathing like that!!! It distracted me from getting into the whole Edward obsession LOL, but seriously it was annoying.

Support MDA

My friend, Chandra Jewell confessed to having a big heart and will be arrested on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008. She is raising money for her bail for "Jerry's Kids" to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Chandra is such a good sport and is REALLY getting arrested. If you'd like to help kids with MDA, go to this website and place a donation.

https://www.joinmda.org/2008americanfork/cjewell

Good ol' family fun

Sunday was officially Emma's Birthday, but we use any old excuse to get together with Scot's family for a party! It is pretty amazing to have all of his family so close, in fact both his sisters, his brother, and his parents all live within a few miles.....pretty cool!!!

We did the traditional birthday cake and presents, then just hung out laughing and enjoying each other.

Emma ready for church in her new birthday dress (it was also our Primary program today)

Blowing out 8 candles can be pretty rough!

Notice the green thing she is sitting on. This is some strange toy that she saw in funfinity months ago. She has wanted this "sledchair" ever since she saw it and Grandma surprised her by getting it.

Hey, I take what pictures I can get of Alex!

This is my brother Kimball with Tugzi

Preston, Jordan, Hayden, Casey, & Taylor

5 of my 9 nephews and nieces on this side.

Ashli with Grandma (I used to watch this girl when she was a baby while her mom worked)

Aunt Janna (awesome aunt) with Alyssa

My newest niece is growing inside Kristen's belly...Can't wait to hold her!

My baby is 8?

It can't possibly be true, yet I'm afraid it is. Emma turns 8 tomorrow, November 16th. She is truly such a blessing to our family. We are constantly showered with kind words, loving hugs, and sweetness when she is around, yet she has it in her to give us a good laugh every so often.

She loves her friends, her family, and her Tugzi (She treats this dog like the younger sibling she never had.....much to my disgust, she showers him with hugs and kisses-yuck!)

Yesterday, we had a little party with a few of her good friends. My super talented and crafty daughter, Haili organized and led the party with all kinds of games and crafts. I sat back and watched them have a good time. They made jewelery, played pictionary, made individual pizzas, decorated little cakes, and marched around in a cake walk for prizes. Emma loved every minute of it and thanks to Haili, I did too!

Thank you to my friend Cinda, who helped me clean up and keep the party moving along!!!

Haili, Nicole, and Macyn decorating their cake.

Macyn and her masterpiece.


Heavy, Heavy Hangover thy poor head. What do you wish with a bump on the head?


Emma's "TACO PIZZA"

Emma opening her presents

Kailee & Addi eating their delicious pizza that they made themselves.