Christmas Day

With so much going on....I am glad we snapped a few pictures to capture the wonderful time we had this Christmas.



The girls anxiously waiting on the steps to see what Santa brought for them!



Here are the boys waiting as well.



Mady and Makayla see their stockings and are so excited!!!

Mady hugs her stocking she is so happy!

Santa must know how much Jordan loves lemon juice in his water. He got a huge bottle of it in his stocking! :)

Brayden looking through his stocking

The girls unwrapping presents

I got a fun new shirt....YEA!!!

Brayden opening his presents

For Christmas Brayden asked to adopt a live monkey. He adopted one....from an organization that helps monkeys. He got a stuffed monkey and a picture of a monkey that he adopted!

The boys opening more presents.

Grandma Diena made these cool hats for the kids. I had to get a picture of all of them. I think they are super cute. Thanks Grandma! :) As I reflect on this year I am overwhelmed by the numerous blessings our family has enjoyed. I am so thankful for all of my family and friends. We are truly blessed.

Christmas Eve

We had a great Christmas Eve this year filled with lots of family.



Keeping in tradition, we spent Christmas Eve at Grandma Jeri's for Adams birthday. We ate our traditional meal of spaghetti and meatballs. YUMMY!!! After dinner it's the magical musical number....dinging the bells. It is soooo pretty. ;)



This is my little nephew Kash. He got this cute rocking dog and for some reason he couldn't stop sucking on the little bell on the top of the dogs hat. It was so funny to watch.



Here is my Dad holding my nephew Stryker. Jordan is in the background laughing cuz my dad didn't know I was taking his picture until it happened.




So for Christmas, my grandma gave Mady a purse. Well aunt Pam thought it would be a good idea for Mady to remind Grandpa that a purse isn't complete without money. With that idea Mady decided to solicit everyone in the room for money. Dollar after dollar she kept going around the room. Once she hit Megan & Trevor they whipped out what every girl loves most....PLASTIC!!!! I have a feeling this picture is a sign of things to come. ;) I want to thank my family for being such great sports about it! You guys are awesome. NOTE FOR NEXT YEAR: no purses for Mady! ;)




After Grandma Jeri's it was time to head over to Grandma Faye's house. One of Matt's family traditions is getting together Christmas Eve for fondue. We were happy that Chuck, Shawna and the kids could be here this year! We had fun with Alaina, Matt and little Damon.




One of the things Alaina is famous for is her "gangster face". This is something that the family has picked up on and now we have to have lots of pictures of gangster faces.



Here is Andrea giving us her gangster face!



Here's Richards gangster face......WEAK!!! ;)



The kids were spoiled rotten this year. Here is Makayla with her earrings from Grandma.



Jordan is super stoked about his Game Stop gift card!



Grandma Faye scored the PERFECT present! Giraffe earrings for Mady. She LOVES them!!!



I just had to throw in this adorable picture of Evan in the box that Mady's basketball came in. He thought he was pretty funny with it around his neck. How cute is he???



Brayden got a Game Stop gift card too! They are so excited to spend these! Thanks Grandma!



We all had a great Christmas Eve. I am so grateful for family and feel so blessed to be surrounded by them all. Merry Christmas.

'Tis the season!

It's that time of year again right? Time to get all the decorations up and start the festivities. We finally got our tree up and decorated this weekend. Friday night we got the tree out and put up. I made the kids help out by fluffing it. This year Matt and I kind of stood back and let the kids take over that "fun" task. It was fun to watch them. At first, they were very excited. Full of smiles, singing Christmas carols and dancing around. By the end of the night though, not only did they hate each other but they hated that tree too! After sleeping on it, we decided we'd start decorating it on Saturday night. :) We finally got it done late that night.

I finished it when the kids were all in bed. I always love seeing the tree that first night. The kids woke up to the finished tree complete with presents underneath! Mady was way excited! She wanted to start opening presents.

Here are the kids with their advent candy calendars. They are pretty excited to eat their candy. Thanks Grandma Debbie for this fun tradition. We really love it!

Here is Jordan's 100 Grand advent calendar! Wow....he is a millionaire now! ;) I think it's pretty funny how many he put on there. I also love his cheezy grin in this picture.

I have no idea what the deal is with Brayden and his new silly smile.

I think Makayla and Mady had more fun with the little foam decorations then they did with the actual candy! Ahhh the difference between boys and girls right?

It's been a festive weekend and we had a lot of fun together. My favorite part of the weekend was my stunning duet with Brayden of the "pine cones & holly berries song" (aka It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas) I love it because it is the exact same song that I used to sing with my parents while we put our tree up when I was little. After we finished our big duet, Matt challenged us to a kick line which, if I do say so myself, we mastered! It just goes to show that it's the little things in life that matter the most!

Just an update...

I really didn't want to blog about this but I have so many wonderful friends who are concerned so I guess I will just do it....

For those of you who don't know, about 8 weeks ago I found a lump in my left breast. Several tests later they decided it would be best to have it removed and do a biopsy. I had surgery on Tuesday and everything went well. Yesterday I got a call and the Dr. let me know that the tumor was benign!!! I am recovering fine and am very glad to have it out and the whole ordeal to be over! I want to say thanks to everyone for all their prayers, love and support. My phone has been ringing off the hook and I feel blessed to have so many people in my life with such wonderful kindness. I love you all! Thanks again!

Better late than never right???

Ok...So I am super slow but I am finally getting our Halloween pictures up!!! For some reason, in the past month, our family has decided we had nothing better to do than spend all our time in hospitals/Dr. offices! ;) So anyway, I am sorry it has taken me so long to get these posted.

This Halloween seemed a bit different. Our kids have gotten a bit older and are not as into it as they used to be. It was sad for me on one hand to see them getting so big, BUT, on the other hand...it was super nice not to have to go out trick or treating all night. :) During the day, we took the kids to see High School Musical 3. The girls LOVED it! Brayden was a trooper for going and Jordan dodged the bullet because he was spending the day & night with his BFF Drew! After the movie we rushed all over to try to find green hair spray for Brayden. After failing, we grabbed purple and hurried home to get everyone ready. The kids...AKA Minnie Mouse, Sassy Pirate & The Joker....were anxious to get out the door for candy. This picture was taken before we got Joker's hair sprayed.

Once they were ready, the kids headed off to do some mad trick-or-treating. They walked together with some friends around our neighborhood. Makayla makes a pretty mean lookin pirate doesn't she?

Mady finally got to be Minnie Mouse after 2 years of the costume being sold out! Mom planned ahead this year and bought the costume in March. She is sure glad that Mady didn't change her mind before Halloween came around! ;)

Meanwhile....at home, I handed out candy dressed as a basketball player with an Afro while Matt dressed up as...I think a Vietnam vet gone bad??? Not exactly sure what it was but he was pretty freaky. He was hiding in our window well and scaring the kids as they came to the door. Yes..we did have some leave in tears. Sorry to all the parents in our neighborhood by the way! As the night went on...we finally had one group of trick or treaters that were especially fun to scare! Jordan and his friends came to our house and Matt scared the crap out of them! After the fun, Matt took them up to some of the bigger houses that are well known for giving out king sized candy bars. Above is one of the houses that my kids have to go to every year. It's HUGE! Everyone had a great Halloween but we are glad it's over! :)

Fall Wonderland????

This morning I woke up to quite a surprise. I looked out the window and what did I see???? WINTER!!! We had our first snow storm this weekend. It looked like the middle of December outside. The kids were all so excited to go outside and play. After church we went to my parents house for dinner and the kids and Grandpa made a snowman.



This is their creation. He has a fabulous Mohawk and stunning winter gloves!



Here are Makayla, Brayden and Mady with Mr. Snowman! Thanks for helping us build this fun snow guy Gramps...you are the bestest!!! The snow is a reminder that winter is fast approaching. We will have lots more chances to play in the fun white stuff. :)

Thank Heavens for Little Girls

Makayla and Mady had the chance to take a cheer clinic at Woods Cross High School. They spent 3 days learning a dance and some cheers and then they had the chance to perform at one of the High School football games.




Here they are waiting for half-time. They are making the WX with their hands for Woods Cross!



Even though we couldn't see the girls out on the field among what I am guessing were about 300 girls....we all had a great time watching and cheering at the game! It's fun to have little girls to do fun girly things with! :)

Trailer Trash Birthday Bash!!!

Friday was Matt's Birthday. I decided to throw him a trailer trash party! We asked everyone to dress up (or down) in their trashy clothes and come out for some good trashy fun. Above is the invitations I had made into post cards. For food we had hot dogs n burgers, pork rinds, spray cheese and of course spam!!!



Matt was enjoying his new belly that he could rest things on! Look mom...no hands!!!



Rich, Andrea and Evan. Once again, I have to say that Rich took the cake when it came to dressing up! Right down to the Natty Light!!! We love you guys!



Rich and Matt bump beer belly's!



Trever, Megan, Kash, myself and Matt posed for a picture in front of the House Rules drinking poster!!! Even Kash had his candy cigarettes!



Here is Doug eating a hot dog! Who needs plates anyway?




Matt & Jodi....We are so glad you guys could make it. We miss having you as neighbors! Matt showin a little leg in this picture.....AWESOME!!!



Looks like Ryan is partying it up! He looks like he's about to fight someone in this picture! What a tough guy! ;)





Marianne, Holly and Doug hanging out on the couch. Behind them...our lovely family shrine. Nothing says home like pictures taped to the wall right?





Matt got some fun presents also! Here he is with his Nascar UNO!!!





Happy Birthday Honey!!! I hope you had a wonderful time at the party. I heart you!!!