Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was so fun this year. Since I don't know how to upload the pictures in the right order, we will start at the end of the evening and go backwards.
We acted out the story of Christ's birth. Here you see Joseph and Mary with baby Jesus. Then we have the shepherds.

And the wise men bringing their gifts.

Here are Joseph, Mary, Baby Jesus, and the donkey leaving Jeruselem, with their gold, frankenscense, and myrh.

This is Lacey in her new dress. She doesn't like anyone to say she is cute, so we had to keep saying, "You look cool". She won't wear certain clothes she has because she says, "Someone might say I'm cute." Although she did look absolutely darling.

Here is TyLynn trying to convince Santa that she really has been a good girl this year.

Here is Lacey telling Santa she wants a princess castle.

Wyatt is trying to decide whether he has been good this year.

The evening started off with the annual Primart Christmas Eve program. Lacey rang bells to a couple of the songs.

Wyatt was a angel. If only he wore the halo all year.

TyLynn's class sang Mary's Lullabye.

Now they are all tucked in their beds with visions of sugar plums dancing in the heads.

Meagan's birthday

Meagan turned 14 on December 6th. 14 years ago, I was so excited to have another cute little girl. She was bald until she was almost 2 years old. When she was 5 weeks old, she had to be hospitalized for 1 week because of RSV.
Meagan is a very sweet young lady. She has a special talent dealing with handicapped people. She has been very close to her cousin, Kody, since he came from Russia. She has helped him so much over the years and they have a special bond. Kambree, her other cousin, has angelman's syndrome. Meagan has taken Kambree under her wing and formed a special bond with her also. Kambree loves Meagan and her face lights up the room when she sees Meagan.
Meagan has a funny sense of humor and enjoys making people laugh and have a good time.
We love you Meagan and glad you are in our family!!

Decorating for Christmas

The kids were very excited about putting up the Christmas Decorations this year. I'm so glad they are getting old enough that they can do it themselves, while I supervise.

Black Friday

We went to Big Piney, Wyoming for Thanksgiving this year. Travis' brother and sister both live up there. The men were shingeling Dustin's house all weekend. Since Big Piney is in the middle of nowhere, we couldn't do our traditional early morning Black Friday. We had to improvise. We shopped the Black Friday sales online. This is a picture of Zanette and I at 2:30 in the morning shopping on-line. It was fun, but not even close to the fun rush of actually being at the stores.

Puppies everywhere!!

Shadow, our dog, had 9 puppies yesterday. We have 6 black, 2 chocolate, and 1 golden labs. This is her 2nd batch in 7 months. Poor dog - 17 puppies in 7 months. They are so cute. I've decided that puppies are like babies; they are so cute when they are little and THEN they grow up!!! Here is a picture of the cute little things. By the way - they will be ready to go to good homes in January. Let us know what color you want and we will take extra special care of it, until we gladly hand it over to you. Everyone that has one of the puppies from her last batch seems to be pleased. I'm kind of partial to the chocolate ones.

Aren't they just so cute??

Now leave a comment and tell me which one you want!!! thanks!!!!

Cake!

Marissa went to a career field day in Richfield last week. They explored different careers in the home ecomonics field. She decorated this cake all by herself and she was so proud of it. I think she did an awesome job. I told her to keep it up so she can make everyone's wedding cake.

Trick or Treat

Here are our little spooks on Halloween! Wyatt was a ninja, and TyLynn and Lacey were witches. Only TyLynn, Wyatt, and Lacey went trick-or-treating, but the older girls dressed up to hand out candy and then they had a party to attend.

WICKED!!

We had a sisters extended weekend this past week. Kyle (Shane's wife) invited us all out to Denver to go to the Broadway show "wicked" It was awesome!!! I would highly recommend it to anyone. We were all there, except Suzette.
Here are 4 of my cute sisters after seeing the movie "Stepfather", which was a stupid movie, but we had the theatre to ourselves so we had fun!

Here we are eating Pizza. The man who took the picture obviously didn't have a steady hand.

This is Stacy after she just tried to pass all her liquids through security. It worked in Salt Lake on the flight out, so she decided to try it again. They made her pick and choose what would fit in her baggie and confinscated her hair freeze and bottle of milk. Then she forgot her boarding pass at the security checkpoint. She is a true blonde, but we love her.

Here are all of us at the airport. Our flight was delayed so we spent 2 1/2 hours waiting at the Denver airport.

It was a wonderful weekend and we had a blast being together. I have the best sisters EVER!!

Bunko

I hosted bunko at my house this month. Everyone dressed up for Halloween. We had a great time!

The Big 15!

Marissa turned 15 on Sunday! I can't believe my baby is 15. It seems like just yesterday the doctor was announcing "IT'S A GIRL". When I called my mom to tell her we had a girl, her first words were, "Think of all the prom dresses you'll be buying!" At the time it sounded so far off, but now it's only a year away.
Since we tried for so many years to have children, when we found out I was pregnant with Marissa, it was one of the happiest days in my life. She was such a good baby, sleeping through the night starting at 2 weeks old. At one month old, she spent 10 days in Kanosh with my mom while I had my gall bladder out and other complications. She was the first grandchild so everyone spoiled her.
15 years later, she is as beautiful as ever, both inside and out! She has a strong testimony of the gospel. She is a wonderful example to her younger sisters and brother. She is a great friend and has a magnetic personality. She has a great sense of humor and is always saying things to make everyone laugh. We rely on her a lot and we appreciate her tremendously.
She is looking forward to receiving her learners permit soon, so we will let you know when the streets and sidewalks are not safe.
We love you Marissa!!!

Ernie the Eagle

For the high school football homecoming game, I was Ernie the Eagle. It definetely was a lot different than when I use to be the mascot back in high school (20+ years ago). It was fun, but very hot. Now I have something I can cross off my bucket list.
I didn't have as much energy as some of my family members thought I should have had. They were expecting me to be like the Jazz Bear, jumping fences, sliding down railings, and climbing the goal posts. I thought I did pretty good for a fat, 40 year old, out of shape woman.

Broken Thumb

TyLynn broke her thumb tonight. She was playing monkey in the middle (keep away) and fell on her thumb with her cousin falling on top of it. It was really misshaped. The doctor had to reset her thumb. She was pretty excited to get a cast. We'll see how long that excitement lasts.
This is the first broken bone we have had in our family. I'd say that is pretty lucky with 5 kids living in the country.

Flag Football

Wyatt is playing flag football this fall. Here he is running with the ball after the handoff. (white shirt & black pants) He's still running and the other team is frantically trying to pull his belt off, but it just won't come off. I wonder why?

They finally succeeded in pulling it off, but come to find out, Wyatt had tied his belt on instead of just doing the velcro. It was a innocent mistake, because it was their first game. He did run about 35 yards and got a first down, with about 10 yards of it boys pulling on his belt.

Here he is playing defense and pulling the belt off the other team.

Blueberry Pie!

Marissa made a blueberry pie in mutual. It was as good as it looks, maybe even better. YUMMY!!!

Labor Day Weekend

We went camping Friday night until Saturday night and then went back up on Monday to spend the day. We went with Aunt JoAnnn and Brady.

This is TyLynn, Brady, and Wyatt way up on a mountain. It doesn't look like they are too far up, but they are. This picture was taken with the zoom lens, zoomed as much as possible. The boys were looking for snakes and squirrels to shoot with their BB guns.

Everyone loved Aunt JoAnn's laffy taffys, cookies, and pop.

TyLynn

TyLynn is playing soccer. She is on a team with boys and girls. This is her playing goalie. She doesn't like to play goalie very much.

Marissa's playing H.S. soccer

Marissa is on the high school soccer team this year. She plays on the JV team. She is having fun and enjoying it. Between practice every night and games every Tues. and Thurs., we rarely see her. We do enjoy traveling around and watching her. She is #23.

Silly Girl

Lacey is so silly! She hates her hair curled. This is what her hair looks like when she gets home from preschool every day. Within 5 minutes of entering the house, she wets down her hair. When it dries, it is straight again. She also does this after church every Sunday. She has been doing it after church for about a year. I thought once she started school, she wouldn't do it anymore. I was wrong. A day hasn't gone by yet that her hair stays curly very long after returning home.
This is right after wetting it down.

She is also becoming very independent. The first couple days I was out by the bus to get her off after preschool. The 2nd day, she said to me, "Mom, you don't have to come get me off the bus. You wait inside." O.K. So the next day, I opened the door and stood at the door step. When she came up, her reply was, "MOM, I told you to wait inside. I am big! I don't need you to come out. Tomorrow stay inside and I will do it all by myself!" Wow! My baby telling me she didn't need me. I was crushed. She is so so so silly!

F.H.E.

For Family Home Evening last night, we went swimming with Nichole and her kids. We had lots of fun. Here is a partial group shot. Here is Wyatt doing a sommersalt off the diving board.

Here is his dive.

And here is Travis doing who knows what off the diving board.