Visiting Santa

I love that my city here has a drive-thru Santa. You drive up, no line/waiting, get the kids out to talk for a second, take a picture, the kids get a candy cane, then you get back in your warm car and go home. It's great. What's not great is when you've finished all your shopping and you take your kids to see Santa and they tell him something completely different than they've put on the 3 letters they sent to Santa. That's not so great, good thing my kids aren't too picky!:)

Sledding

We had a great snow storm that left a lot of snow in it's wake a week or so ago. The kids had a great time sledding and playing in it. At first Baily was kind of wimpy about playing outside in it, but once she figured it all out, I haven't been able to keep her inside. She asks me every day when we are going somewhere, "I play in snow?", even though it has all melted and is gone. She would ONLY wear her snow suit with out any clothing underneath it! I tried and tried to convince her it would be warmer to leave her clothes on, but she insists and I usually give in. She is VERY independent minded! We have a mini hill right in our backyard and this is where I took these pictures. The first day it snowed I took the kids to a hill by their school. I played with Payton in the car while I watched Trevor and Taylor sled down a big hill, and Baily stomp around in the snow getting in the way of all the other kids trying to sled down. As I was watching them I thought, "I really do have the best job ever!" I love this part of winter!

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a great time on Thanksgiving this year. Although we miss being by any family members, we manage to have a great time with our crew! There is something very fun about playing all day with my kids in our comfy clothes, not having to worry about cleaning the house, and cooking whatever we want!

The kids and I had a blast making pies, Jon and Baily watching the parade on TV, and Taylor being a Rockette! So thankful for my little family this year!

Pumpkin Pie

Here is our pumpkin pie this year!

Happy Thanksgiving.

Germs!!!

I think we've caught almost every germ possible in Utah in the last 2 months. We had a fun weekend getting Trevor over a bad case of croup. After many steamy bathrooms and cold air outside, I think he is getting better. Hopefully we will be over everything by the time all the holidays arrive!

Poor Payton

Payton has had an ear infection that spread to both her eyes. They were red, swollen, and messy. She is doing better now on antibiotics. Can't wait till her eyes look like this again in a couple of days! Thank goodness for medicine!

Birthday Time

Not only is October busy with all the fun things associated with Halloween, but it's birthday month for Jon and Taylor. Taylor had a great birthday this year. We had a family dinner before Jon had to go out of town. Her Grandma Taylor was visiting on her birthday and took her to get a Build-A-Bear (she's been saving her money for 2 years now for one:), then she had a Princess party when Jon was back in town.

Jon had his favorite; meatballs, for dinner and was kind enough to share a princess cake with Taylor. Fun times. I can't believe Taylor is 6 now, she is so fun and beautiful! Happy birthday you two!

Halloween

We had a great, but very WET Halloween. It poured the whole time we had our trunk-or-treat on our street. The kids managed to still get enough candy to make the Dentist proud, but we were all inside and drying off after 1 hour. Taylor and Baily were witches, Payton was a flower (and thrilled about being one too!), and Trevor was a musketeer.

Ready for Halloween!

Busy day today of helping at the kid's School Halloween parties. We are all looking forward to celebrating Halloween tomorrow. Hopefully we find time to actually carve all the pumpkins we grew in the garden this year! I'm excited to take pictures of all my cute trick-or-treaters. Here's my favorite from today I couldn't wait to share!

Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun!

Last week while Jon was in sunny Puerto Rico for work, my Mom and sisters took pity on me and came for a visit. The little kids had a blast with their cousins. I'm still recovering from staying up way too late and talking with the girls. It was so much fun!

Baily and Emma made a lot of bubbles in the bath together!

Trevor and Russell tried to get some smashed pennies on the railroad tracks.

Payton was very taken with Grandma!

Fall Break 2010

A couple weeks ago during fall break, Jon and I decided to finalize the brainwashing of our children to become die hard BYU fans and take them to hike the "Y". The last time Jon and I hiked the Y we were dating, so it was a little more work now hiking 4 kids (2 of which we carried) to the top. But we made it with just a total of 3 scraped knees, 2 scraped hands and lots of encouragement. We had a lot of fun and were sore the rest of the weekend.

Thumbs Up!

A few more items to carry up the mountain than when I last hiked it 10+ years ago!

Baily

Payton and Dad

Taylor and Baily

Conference Leaves

As we usually do, we took the family up through the canyon between conference sessions to see the fall leaves. Beautiful as always. We know this great spot you can stop and hike up a short ways and have a great view. Jon took the kids while I stayed back to nurse the baby. He locked the van and left me, so when I opened my door, the car alarm went off. Jon was half way up the mountain, so I had to grab the baby and run up the hill to find him and have him turn off the alarm. By the time we got everyone situated, Taylor and Baily had both fallen on the dusty trail and were covered with dirt. So, it makes for some pretty funny pictures!

Note the dirty cute face:)
I am loving her fuzzy head!
Another dirty face, I'm so glad we bathed them that morning!

Beautiful Girls and funny kids

I have more time now with just Baily and Payton, since Trevor and Taylor are in school. I can't help but take pictures of these pretty girls.

Payton is just 5 months, but is getting pretty good at sitting up by herself already. She is so fun!

Baily loves her "sparkly" dress, and would wear it every Sunday if we let her!
The kids squeeze in as much play as they can before Trevor leaves for school in the mornings. I was cleaning up breakfast, when I looked over and listened to them for a minute. Baily was Cinderella on a ship, Trevor and Taylor were Navy officers, and lucky Payton was the captain. They were pulling Payton around in her saucer while holding a flag they had made out of my broom. I love how creative they are!

Back to School

Ok, time for me to admit summer is over and the kids are back in school. Summer went by fast, I think I was mostly trying to survive and keep everything together. (Survive we did, I am woman, hear me roar!:) I actually had a lot of fun with the kiddies, and they are excited to be in school again. Trevor is in 2nd grade and Taylor started Kindergarten. Baily scram and pushed me away when I told her she couldn't go into Taylor's class and had to come home with me. Don't think any of my kids have cried when I took them to school, just when they can't go!

Love taking pictures

Now I remember why I LOVE taking pictures!

Where's Summer?

I can't post back-to-school photos yet, I have to get all my favorites from the summer ready first!!!! Wow, summer flew by, we are busy, busy. Payton naps only 30 minutes a couple times a day, so I have little time on the computer, it's a good thing she's so cute!:)

Payton-6/7/10

Since I couldn't really keep track of all 4 kids at our pool this summer by myself, we spent a lot of our swimming time in our own back yard, still lots of fun!

All dressed up for church. Getting 4 ready while Jon is at meetings is sure a lot of fun!


Did the marathon that is swim lessons for Trevor and Taylor, while trying really hard to keep Baily out of the pool and Payton from crying. My favorite part was trying to watch the lessons for a minute then looking back at Baily next to me who had decorated the entire pool chair with her red crayon! That took a lot of wiping to get clean.


Baily and I spent a lot of time taking Payton and Baily's doll for walks in the stroller.



Hmmm, just love the feel of this one:)


Payton loves her blankies!


Took the family up to Rupert, ID to see my Grandma and family. We visited Shoshone Falls, it was really pretty. The kids had a great time playing with cousins. My Grandma was sealed in the Temple to my Grandpa and her 4 children.

This is what Payton thought of her first solids.


And finally, on Labor day we took everyone to see Kennecot Copper mine.(Baily is in this picture, she's just showing her 2 year old independence and stomping out of the picture)