We enjoyed our "No school" day. Mommy supervised Daddy putting up the new closet doors (and had a few laughs in the process). We played everything from Barbies to dress-up, to cars and blocks before it was time to leave for gymnastics. We need more days like these.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!! Its hard to believe that its 2009 already, WOW!

Its been so nice not to have to go anywhere, especially since we've had so much sickness and yuck in our house the last 2 weeks. Most of us are feeling better, just in time to get back in the swing of things on Monday.

We had a great Christmas and thought we'd share a few tidbits. . .

on Christmas Eve we eventually got to open pajamas (daddy got called in to work, unfortunately). The kids had a lot of fun and went to bed tired and excited for Santa to come.

Aubrei adores the beanbag Grandma & Paka got her. Ainsli first noticed the special barbie that Santa had left for her, and Brodyn loves the farm that Santa brought him.

We have been so blessed and its nice to be able to share these special times together. It was fun watching Brodyn catching the excitement of everything.

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!!