Happy Anniversary Dear!!

Its hard to believe we've been married 14 years already.

We've been so blessed - I'm glad I get to share all of this with you!

To celebrate we had cake (Brodyn loved the frosting), Ryan cleaned out

the fridge for me (isn't he awesome?!), and then we made 3 batches

of raspberry jam to share with our neighbors and some to enjoy for us too :)

Santa!?!

These are the Santa shots we got at the church party last week. They were excited to get to see Santa this year (as you see, Brodyn is the exception), but unfortunately Santa had to compete with a visit from Grandma & Paka, and even Santa doesn't hold up in our kid's eyes!!

We made sure to get in lots of cuddles and loves that only Grandma and Grandpa can give. They even got to open a present each. The girls got beautiful Christmas dresses and Brodyn got a John Deere trike that he got to help Grandpa put together. You can tell that your kids have awesome grandparents when they cherish your children and make them all feel special and loved. The kids were in 7th heaven, thanks Mom & Dad - We Love You!

Christmas catch up

I can't believe how fast this month is racing by me! I haven't posted for awhile, so I thought I would share some pages from my Christmas scrapbook to catch up a little. Of course I'm behind on my scrapbook as well, but that I'm going to blame on the sicknesses we've been trading around in our house the past two weeks.

1st day

On the 1st day of Christmas we cut our Christmas tree!

I can't believe it's December!

I finally got my 25 Days of Christmas album outline done last night, so I'm up and running with my Christmas scrapbooking project

(I'll post some pics later).

This is today's picture. We went up on the mountain to cut our

Christmas tree.

All the off-roads were blocked with snow, so we had a harder time finding a tree than usual, but the girls had a lot of fun with Ryan and it was just nice to be together and get away.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It was tough, but I finally was able to get some good pictures of our yeahoos. I may be biased, but I think they are pretty darn adorable.

I cut both Brodyn & Ainsli's hair this morning, then I straightened Brei's hair, so they looked liked they all literally got older before my very eyes. (I wish they would stop that).


Aubrei is becoming such a beautiful young lady. I am very proud of how hard she works at school, plus she is an amazing helper at home. I don't know what I would do without her.

Its the perfect time of year to let her know how thankful I am that she chose to come to our family through such miraculous means. She has a gentle, loving spirit and has touched many, many lives already. I am thankful she is such a special daughter and a great big sister too!

I want Ainsli to know thankful I am to have her in my life. I'm thankful for her strength of spirit and her enthusiasm for life. She is such a good example to me. She is doing very well in preschool and is such a great big sister to Brodyn. She is always looking out for those she cares for.

Brodyn is a light in my life. I'm so thankful he still needs his mom and wants my cuddles and loves as much as I do. I've experienced enough to not take this special time for granted.

I guess I'm thankful for Ryan too :) He was so tired tonight, but he stayed up to finish the dishes and grate the apples for apple roll so it wouldn't hurt my hands. He is such a sweetheart. He makes me feel cherished even when I far from deserve it :)

See, I have all this and more to be grateful for, I just need to take the time more often to stop and remember all that I have been blessed with. Heavenly Father knows exactly what I need and he has blessed me so much more than I will ever feel worthy for, so I'm also thankful that's not how our Heavenly Father works. I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

I'm thankful for you!

This is Brodyn's most common look at the moment "Guilty". He thought it was most unfair that I wouldn't let him eat the bread crumbs I had torn for stuffing. He thought he was pretty sneaky laying on the table sneaking pieces of bread. As a mom I am thankful that my kids still think that if they cover their eyes no one can see them. It works wonders at catching them in the act!

I even saw him proudly showing Ainsli what he was getting away with!

We were all happy to see the arrival of our "birdie friends", as Ainsli calls them. While Ryan and I like that they eat all the crab apples, the kids love watching them. I still don't know what kind of bird they are, they seem so big sitting in our tree, the other day we had close to 20 sitting among the crab apples while we were watching Aubrei walk home from school.

Cindy & Allie

Cindy and Allie came over today for a mini photo shoot. It was so much fun - what an adorable little girl. We got some great shots for her birth announcement. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites!

Bathtub fort

This post is for mom. Here's B playing in his new favorite place, eating his favorite food. He's such a silly boy lately. He makes us all happy.

This is one of my favorite pictures. There is nothing more important than supporting and being there for your loved ones - no matter what. Dad is so good at this, he has always been in this role in our family and I'm thankful for his protection and his support.

At times like these I want to make sure to focus on how sacred family relationships are and that we should cherish them and try to always make them stronger. I'm very thankful for my family - we're not perfect, but our love for each other is.

Experiences make us stronger

I had been planning to post some pictures from Grandpa Priest's funeral after I had finished some scrapbook pages, but things have been too crazy gearing up for the craft fair next week. So I thought I share some thoughts and my favorite pictures before the memories fade.

The hardest part of losing Grandpa for me was seeing how it affected Dad and Aubrei. Its tough not knowing how to help someone you love who is hurting. I was so thankful we could be there to try and support him. I really think it helped him having Aubrei there, they have such a special relationship and she is so tender-hearted.

Last week was parent's week at Studio 48. It was fun watching the girls & Ryan in action.

Brodyn didn't like being left out, especially in the gymnastic classes when he saw his dad.

This is one of my favorite pictures of our little tricksters. We were at Sagebrush Elementary for their trunk-or-treat before we headed over to the church. We got a lot of fun comments on their cute costumes. Brei & Ains got upset that so many people thought Brodyn was a bear instead of a monkey - so Brei started swinging Brodyn's tail around (silly kids).

Happy Halloween!

Here's a pic of my sillies after they finished one pumpkin mess. We had so much fun.

Today I'm thankful that Halloween fell on a Friday so that I didn't have to try to wake these guys up this morning. We had a fun night, but it was a late one. The girls have already gone over their candy and I've already noticed their castoffs in B's bucket. He doesn't mind - he loves suckers - anything STICKY actually.

I'm just trying to figure out this blog - so more posts soon I hope!