Getting Ready For Christmas

This year we had the little ones decorate the tree first.

They had loads of fun putting all the ornaments on the lower half of the tree.

As each child got a chance to put ornaments on the tree, they gradually moved up the tree.

If you came over to our house, you'd notice that all the ornaments are now on the top half of the tree.

Tractor/Worker Boy

Our cute little boy loves tractors!  I mean LOVES tractors.  We have some tractor books and he knows all the different types -- from excavators and backhoes to forklifts and dump trucks.  If he sees some as we are driving, he yells, "Mom! Mom! Esxcabator!"  It's really cute.  Reminds me of my brother, Ty, he loved tractors too when he was a little boy.

Almost every Saturday, Bruce goes outside to work in the yard.  Hunter has to be Daddy's worker boy.  He even says, "Worker boy, Dad?"  It's so cute.  This past Saturday Bruce was filling in the hole from the massive trunk of the oleander bush.  Hunter was helping.  He had a shovel, a big one, and he was shoveling dirt into his little wheel barrow. 

Halloween's coming!

Last weekend we had a Halloween party with all the cousins at Nannie & Papa's house.  It was SOOOOOOO much fun!

After much deliberation and costume choice changes, here they are!

Sarah wanted to be a skeleton, but when she saw that those were only in the boy section it was a no-go.  She decided on a rock star.

Breanna wanted to be a cupcake fairy.  I found this cute cupcake material and made her a skirt. Then made 3 different size cupcakes with felt to put on her crown, her wand, and her shirt.

Rebecca & Hunter were going to be a cowgirl/cowboy, but couldn't find hats, so we settled on an ASU cheerleader and ASU baseball player.  Both were thrilled.

We had the cupcake fairy, Tinkerbell, and a witch.

 

There were also fun games to play! 

Tossing a coin to win a fish!

 Sarah won the fish for our family!

A cupcake walk!

 Pumpkin painting

We must spotlight the cupcake fairy with the cutest cupcake at the party -- Baby Andie!

 A fun game of Bingo to end the night!

A big thank you to Nannie & Papa for some fantastic chili and rolls,

and an especially fun Halloween party!



Birthday surprises and a bean

So many things going on in our family these days that it's hard to find time to keep up the blog.  Here's a post dedicated to catching up.

 Last week we celebrated Breanna's 5th birthday.  Bruce made her cake for the family party.  It was a crown and he got loads of help putting the candy on it.  She also got her first friend/cousin birthday party.  A princess party of course!  We played Kiss the Prince, decorated wands, danced at the Royal Ball, and found the king's treasure.  Later that afternoon, she ran up to me, gave me a hug, and said, "Thank you, Mommy for all that you did for my fun birthday party."  Ahhhh, so sweet.  She got extra kisses and hugs that day.

On Breanna's actual birthday, Rebecca decided to put this baby up her nose.  It's a bean from the game "Don't Spill the Beans."  Apparently one bean got away.  I was putting Hunter down for a nap and Rebecca comes running in and crying, "Mommy, GET IT OUT!"  I'm trying to ask her what she means, but she's screaming, "Get it out of my nose."  UGH!  I tried with tweezers -- and for future reference, you are NOT supposed to do that.  I tried the "kissing technique" -- I googled it online -- basically you cover your mouth over theirs and plug the side of the nose that doesn't have the object in it and blow.  No luck!  I finally took her into the doctor's office and the nurse couldn't get it out.  She sent us to an ear, nose & throat doctor, who got it out with a little suction and tweezers.  Next time, which I truthfully hope there never will be, I'm using the vacuum. 

You'd think Rebecca would have learned her lesson, but no -- later that night after Breanna had opened her gifts there was one of those silicon packages.  Yep, she got it, bit it open, and thankfully didn't eat any.   I think she'll keep things out of her nose, but we're still working on keeping things out of her mouth.

Just Happiness!

I'm so excited!

I just can't hide it!

We finally got a piano!

I've been wanting one for some time, but was looking for a good deal -- and good deal I got!

Bruce and my brother went and picked it up yesterday.

I had to call them just to see how close they were to home.

When they pulled up my heart was racing with excitement.

My fingers were itching to play -- oh, and itching badly!

After they got it all set up I got to sit and play.

Pure happiness!

Sarah wrote this during church today.

It says, "A picture of the girls with present and printed above it is

 "Our Dad is great like our Heavenly Father.  He is a present."

I thought it was priceless!

I'm so glad my little girl loves her daddy so much!

First Day of School

Me:  Sarah, how was the first day of school?

Sarah: It was AWESOME!

Me:  Really?  What did you do?

Sarah:  Just some really boring stuff!

Me:  Breanna, how was the first day of school?

Breanna:  AWESOME!

Me:  What did you do?

Breanna:  We colored, sang songs --

I loved everything, Mom!

A little girl for us!

HA! You thought I was expecting again -- didn't ya?

Just introducing -- Hunterina

I guess this is what happens when you have three older sisters.

Dear Tooth Fairy

Sarah: Mom, does Jesus have connections with the

t-o-o-t-h-f-a-i-r-y?

Me:  I don't know.

Sarah:  I know He talks with the elves and with Santa.  I was just wondering if He talks with the tooth fairy.

The tooth fairy did come.  All money was counted and she's going shopping today!

Bruce and I volunteered to go to Youth Conference this year.  We've never worked with the youth before and it was a lot of fun!  We really enjoyed the kids in our family and were really impressed with all the youth of our stake.  Good kids!

We rode up to Cannonville, UT in a big bus.  There were 38 youth and 42 adults.  Since we were a "Mom & Dad" we got to present a devotional -- ON THE BUS!  Not the best conditions for teaching youth, but it all worked out.  Once we got to the KOA, we had to set up our tent.  Our area happened to be sand and our tent was not holding up.  The stakes would stay on one side, but then when it was pulled tight on the other side, the staked side would pop up.  Our friend, Marcus, thought to tie it to the nearby picnic table and stake it behind one of the wood platforms.  We didn't sleep much the first night for fear that our tent wasn't going to hold up.

The 2nd day, our group was the first to go to down to Hole in the Rock (the book Undaunted was based on the pioneers who went to establish the San Juan Mission).  After the turn off from the freeway we drove abt 40 miles of dirt road, then 20 miles of four-wheeling.  It was quite the roller coaster ride.  One of our girls commented that this is a Disneyland roller coaster ride gone bad.

We stopped off at Dance Hall Rock -- absolutely gorgeous. The rock formation was it's amphitheater. It was awesome. Here we are with our little family!

After our long and bumpy ride -- took us 4 1/2 hours to get here -- we saw the magnificent Hole in the Rock.  It's called that because they literally had to blast a hole in the rock.  It was amazing to think the pioneers went down this "road" with their wagons.  Most of our youth hiked down, and came back up panting and out of breath.  We only had two who didn't drink enough water and became dehydrated.  It was an incredible site!

Bruce hiked down to the ledge you see in the left photo.

Once we got back from the hole we got showered and headed to the park at Tropic to have a BBQ and dance with the youth from there.  It was loads of fun!  We had the most amazing food crew!  Loads of good eats all weekend!  We slept much better that night.  There wasn't as much wind and our tent seemed to be holding up.

On day 3, we packed up camp and headed to Ruby's Inn Campground to be closer to Bryce Canyon.  We borrowed a little 3-man tent instead of setting up our "mansion" again.  After setting up the tent, we headed to our group area to make our dutch oven stew as a family.  Our "kids" did an awesome job of chipping in to help.  We made cornbread and stew, had a few devotionals, and then headed off to our service project -- pulling weeds at the ball park.  Thankfully, that day had some cloud cover.

After our service project we got 2 1/2 hours of free time -- which was much needed!  Later we had an awesome dinner, a talk by the stake president, and testimony meeting. 

Day 4 -- we got up at 5am and headed to Bryce Canyon for a sunrise devotional.  It was incredible!  We hiked down a little ways, then got too nervous about my knee.  It was amazing to think about how this canyon was formed by water, ice, and snow.  Just incredible!

We were a little haggered by now due to the lack of sleep, but it was a lot of fun!  We had an awesome group of kids!

We didn't take the bus home because we wanted to stop by Bruce's Aunt Alma's house.  We rode in a jeep with our friends, the Seiters.  It was a fun trip home.  All the talking we did made the trip home so much faster.  We were so happy to see our kids and they were happy to see us! 

Our Trip to the Lake

This weekend we headed up north to go fishing with Bruce's brother's family.

It was so much fun!

Sarah, Breanna & Rebecca showing off their fishing gear. Mr. So-Stinkin'-Cute loved every minute of fishing!

If only I could ever get Rebecca to look at the camera.

He sat on this rock most of the time "casting" his rod.

Cute bonding moments with Bruce getting the rods set.

He finally gave up on trying to keep the bait on the hooks.

Eventually the kids had no hook and he'd cast it out then they'd reel it in.

The highlights of the trip -- Brent caught the one and only fish in the area, the kids loved checking out the fish, and Hunter loved the worm -- even put it in his mouth for a mid-morning snack -- fortunately his mother is grossed out by that sort of thing and he took it out immediately.

It was a great trip!  Thanks Turleys -- we'll have to do it again!