Snow

Mason told me last Sunday that he was going to build a snowman and use the dog hair from the vacuum to make him have a beard. At the time we didn't have snow. Yesterday we woke up to 3 inches on the ground. Mason & his friend Ben build this. At first I was a little taken back by the "nipples" then if you look closer underneath them you see the other details. Pretty funny!

Baby's got back!

The taking of a Christmas Card family picture

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Guess who found us?

It appears that Santa really likes white chocolate oreos, because he left our kids lots of good stuff.

These are the stockings that it took 5 years to finish. Back when I had 2 kids Doug's sisters and I got together and made stockings. I made 4. They were/are beautiful. Our family has grown by a few more kids. Every year I was going to make new stockings for the whole family. This year I actually did it. We know have 7 stockings. Wahoo!

My parents came and spent Christmas with us. Andy & Ally and girls came and had Christmas Eve dinner with us. It's always fun when they come. Grandma & Grandpa played games, stayed up late and shopped together. It was great to have them here. We wish we could do it every year.

This year 2 missionaries from our ward came home on December 23rd. After 2 years their families were all together again for Christmas. I cried when missionaries left or came home starting when Mason was 2. I still do. We bought Mason & Jordan a suit for the funeral. They were walking in Costco right after when a little boy said "Look mom, the missionaries." This has been on my mind a lot. I love having all of my family together. On Tuesday we all went to the dentist. (except Doug...he wants his calming dentist visit) After we all had sparkly clean teeth we went to lunch together. I loved having all the kids together. With 2 teenagers in our home, they are going here and there. Family time is fleeting but still there. I love those times. I know there are only a couple of Christmases left before they start leaving. Scary! I love this stage of life. I love my family and I'm trying to enjoy every moment. I hope you do also!

Merry Christmas!

The Christmas Spirit

The Christmas Spirit

something to tide you over

http://charliephillips.net/videos/theater-7/silent-monks-singing-halleluia.html

A little of everyone

As we all know, life goes on. Here are some of the things that happened before the funeral and some after. One of Doug's friends gave him 4 tickets to the BSU vs. New Mexico St. The boys all had fun. It was a little cold but they survived and at least it got Mason & Jordan to wear pants instead of shorts. This is a bad picture of Jordan playing basketball. He is number 34 but not in black in yellow. This is a very good picture of the back of his head. We have had lots of band concerts. Here is Mason's. I took the camera to Jordan's concert but it had a fatal flaw and wouldn't take pictures. Now it has to go back. Dumb camera!

Kass & Kelsie went to Mason's concert with us. Here is the conversation Kelsie & I had in the middle.

Her: I'm glad that you are here, Mom.

Me: I love you too, why are you glad that I'm here.

Her: Because I feel like I'm going to throw up.

Oh the joy of motherhood. Just in case you were wondering we did NOT have to quickly run out of the concert.
Here are Colten & Kassidy singing with the Valley View singers. Colten is in the white shirt on the back row and Kassidy is on the 3rd row in the white sweater. I think she is tall enough to be on the back row but on the first day of choir practice she past out and fell off the bleachers. Never a dull moment here.

Christmas is coming fast. We are almost ready. How about you?

18 Years

This last weekend Doug & I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. (Doug says that we are now adults) It was 18 years ago that we went to the Idaho Falls Temple as 2 single people and came out a married couple and we have never looked back. We've had our moments where we thought it was going to be a long eternity but luckily those moments don't last. I'm so grateful for that cold December day. It was the best decision that we've ever made. I love this man! On Monday morning our world was turned upside down. Doug got a phone call at work that his dad had passed away. Doug had tried to call Grandpa Leo on Sunday night but he didn't answer the phone. A neighbor found him. He was in his chair by his tv. We are hoping that he fell asleep and just didn't wake up. We are sad but also glad. Because of the gospel we know that Leo & Helen are finally together again, never to be separated. (Helen died in 2000) We know that they are both whole and pain free. We are sad because we will miss them here. The kids were pretty upset last night. We talked about death and the resurrection. We talked about Grandpa's spirit leaving his body, Grandma coming to get Grandpa, how they are together and happy again. We talked about how their spirits will come back and join their bodies and they will be perfect. Kelsie laughed that maybe Grandpa would come back as a little boy and that would be funny to see. The peace that comes with the gospel teachings are indescribable.
I love this picture of these 2 great men. My husband is a great man because of this one. He raised a man that I am grateful for every single day! Thank you, Leo.

The First ONE!

Yesterday was the day I volunteer at the school. I put Kels on the bus and then go right to the school. I have enough time to give each of the 3 teachers one hour. That is how it is supposed to work. I think it has worked that way once or twice this school year. Yesterday was no different. I started off in Kassidy's classroom. She came in from lunch almost hysterical. "Kels has blood on her neck" I asked her where Kels was and she was with the nurse. I gave Kassidy a quick hug and then went to the nurses office where there were a lot of people trying to figure out what had happened. The nurse looked at her and said that she would recommend going to the dr. because it might need to be stitched up. I looked at it once and decided that I would take her word for it. (yuck!) I took her to or physician and the first nurse said "I don't think it will need stitches but let me get a second opinion." The second nurse came in and said "Yep, I think he will want to put some in." UGH! I almost called Doug. I wasn't sure if I could handle it. You see, Kels is brave but me, not so much. They numbed her up (didn't like that) and then let us sit until the dr. came back from lunch. Kels then fell asleep on the table. Can a person get stitches while they were asleep? I was hoping, but no. The dr. walked in and her eyes popped right open. He was very good with her. He put one stitch in and was about to put another in when she just started crying. He decided that one was enough. The nurse then steri-stripped the rest.

Kels wanted to go show Doug how brave she was. Especially in light of this last weekend when Doug sliced his finger open. He didn't want to get stitches so he just put really tight band-aids on it but it probably should have been sewn. I couldn't take Kels to his office with the clothes that she had on because it is not even close to Halloween so we bought her a new outfit. She doesn't want me to take a picture of her stitch but she would let me take a picture of her new outfit. She said she isn't smiling not because it hurts but because she is "bored".

Luckily the day ended on a high note. Kels has a blanket that her grandma made for her that she sleeps with every night. She accidentally left it at Aunt Dana's this last weekend. We have found a replacement (Grandma crocheted a blanket for Mason that I thought would work.) but Aunt Dana's box came yesterday. She was able to finally sleep with her "bows" (her blanket has bows on each square and she puts her fingers through the loops when she goes to sleep) It ended on a good note!

Funny

Do you read the comics? I swear that the comic strip "Zits" is taken right from our house. Here is yesterday's. http://www.arcamax.com/zits/s-654964-533348 and here is today's. http://www.arcamax.com/zits/s-655613-997223 So true! It's a favorite of ours.

Finally a new post

I know that I've been slow to update. That is how it goes in my journal too. New Years Day gets an update and the next update is ... next year if I'm lucky. At least this is better then that right?

Thanksgiving!!!
We went to Blackfoot first and stayed with Doug's sister and then had breakfast with Doug's dad, Leo. Doug's sister, Janet and her family came up and ate with us. Then we stopped and saw Jerry's family and Wayne's. We got to see everyone on Doug's side except Sue. It was yummy and the company was excellent. After visiting we piled back into our small mini van and traveled to Sandy. It was loud and great. The kids all had a ball. This is the kids eating and then the adults ate. Crazyfun!!! 39 total. The oldest is 16 and the youngest was 19 months old. (there are 2 more coming, one in December & one in February) Everyone was there except Nate & Gwendolyn & Sinjin. They didn't make the trip from CA. We missed them!

Are you wondering how you put that many people to bed? This is the only time my kids get sleep overs. This is my parents toy room. (finished just before everyone came. Great job!) This is the 10 and under crowd. We usually come and make beds for them around 9-10ish. Then they talk/giggle/play until they finally fall asleep around 11pm. Then they are up at 7. That way everyone sleeps in the car on the way home. It's always a very quiet ride home.

This year one of my mom's neighbors let some of us crash at their house while they were gone. It was very nice. Only big kids were allowed over at the "Guest house". They bought a new game called "Killer Bunnies". They liked it.

The big boys slept in the "Guest house" family room. It looks a lot like the toy room only with bigger bodies. They would play xbox until we finally tell them to shut it off. I'm grateful they have cousins that are also their friends.

This is what used to be the "big boys". Not because of their size but because we were a house of mainly girls until we started to get married. Most of the them play bridge. Even Bart can be talked into it, on a good day. They stay up until 2-3 playing. The girls usually talk for awhile but we don't have the same stamina.

One of our family traditions is going around the table and telling what we are thankful for. This year I'm very grateful for the Holy Ghost. I'm grateful that he doesn't give up even when we don't listen. If we have a desire to be closer to our Heavenly Father he will direct our path. He will take our worries and make our load lighter. The gospel is a great thing! I'm also very grateful for family, mine and Doug's. It's great to have friends on both sides. I love spending time with them all. Happy Thanksgiving, a little late!

Do you bleed blue?

Saturday's game was a big rival game. Bronco's vs. Vandals. Blue & Orange vs. Black & Yellow. We had bought 3 tickets because Doug's sister was supposed to come up. Lots of things happened and she couldn't make it. We missed her! But C was excited to get to go. We tailgated with Nan (a co-worker of Doug's who is a HUGE BSU fan. Season tickets, tailgating, even travels to some of the away games...my idol) They were all very welcoming. Tailgating is huge here. See all the blue & orange tents. People bring their huge TVs and satellite dishes to watch the pre-game &/or the real game.
This month Horizon unveiled their BSU colored plane. It did a fly over. There was a little thing over the Vandal coach not getting on his assigned flight because it was this plane.


The seats were awesome. We sat closer then we do for the HS football games. There were 2 Vandal fans right in front of us for the first part of the game. They were not impressed with all the blue and cheering. They were asked to watch their mouth. They left not long after that. We would have been nice.
There was a lady who sat right in front of us who took this picture for us. She would give us all high fives every time we scored, which was frequently. Lots of spirit.

It was very cold. Thus the brown coat. I told Doug that next time I'm getting one of those Blue & Orange winter coats that my sister's would just cringe at. (so not what to wear) (see the guy in a white baseball cap in the above picture...oh yea!)

It was great fun and in the end we came out with a big W.

The theme for the day was "Remember, it's up to you to stop 'Vandal'ism."

We missed you, Blackfoot Bullocks!

Zeitgeist Half Marathon

This is the real reason everyone came our way. Maybe I should search for more races for them to run! We went to the finish line and cheered them on. They were all incredible!

Ally came in first. She has run a half marathon every month for awhile now. Craziness!

Next in was Lisa. She is like 5 times faster then I would be. Way to Go!

Next in was Amy & Troy. They were wishing they had trained more on hills. (everyone was) Amy shouldn't be smiling this much after 13.1 miles.

Emily and Nate came in together also. Emily is in the long sleeve purple shirt and Nate is in the white shirt with black hat. Emily is a trooper. She has been battling the swine flu for the last 3 weeks and is still. She is on steroids and cough medicine and still wanted to run. They both did great!

Weekend craziness but great fun!

This weekend was full of family fun. It started with Brown's coming up on Thursday night. Bart & Doug went fishing and Dana and I took the kids to Nampa to play with Ally & Emily. Brown's really wanted to see the old State Penitentiary. It was interesting. I didn't know that they spook it up for Halloween. It wouldn't take much to scare people there. It's kind of creepy already.

This is a lot of us in solitary confinement. Here's another one. I don't understand how people can go crazy in here by themselves. (said very sarcastically)

Interesting part of Idaho's history.

Saturday morning we went downtown for the Veteran's Day Parade. M & J both marched in it. Fairmont gets the bonus points for playing while they walked by us. Capital played up until they saw us and then played again once they passed us. I'm sure it was on purpose. M tried to hold a straight face as we yelled for him but lost it at the end. Silly boy, we are to loud to ignore!

I am very grateful to the families of those who have served and continue to serve to protect our freedoms. A parade doesn't do it justice. Thank you!

To my weird running family

I have a family of runners. Most have run marathons. They always try and convince us non-runners to run. "It will be so fun to finish together..." Do they really want to run 15 minute miles? That is the pace I love. I like to talk while I run/walk. If I can't do that then where is the fun. According to that pace it would take me just over 3 hours to do a half marathon. A full marathon would take me longer then 6.5 hours because I'm sure that I would have to puke a few times during that time. My thoughts have been more a long the lines of "if you have to pack food to keep going then you are exercising for way to long".

One of my blog friends posted this video. My hat is off to this man. Very impressive. And to my family who are coming to our neck of the woods this weekend to run a wickedly hilly half marathon...here is a new goal for you.

Last Halloween Post, I promise

I know what you are thinking..."not another Halloween post, get on with it". Halloween is for the kids, right? Here are the ones who actually got to go Trick Or Treating this year. It's Colten's last one. They all made out like bandits. Colten was good old Scooby Doo. Kelsie was a cheerleader but couldn't carry her pompoms because then how would she hold her candy? Kassidy wanted to be a Kid Lawyer. Doug helped her with some business cards. They said

Kid Lawyer

at your service

123 Juris

Prudence Ave

SueTown, ID

$83,704

Don't make me go all Habeas Corpus on you!!!

An added bonus was that Doug made her look up the words in the dictionary so that she would know what they mean. She went to school with a pocket full of business cards. Whenever the teacher was not happy with a kid then she got up quietly and gave the kid a business card. Her teacher this year is a great sport and thought it was hilarious. Kassidy's teacher ended up with a card by the end of the day. They all had fun!

Eagle Project Fundrasier

We have 2 boys who have Eagle projects. They both have a plan and now just need funding. We decided to try something new and a little different. We had a "Fear Factor" party for M & J's friends. The friends were charged $10 to attend. We had 14 kids there. Not as many as we were hoping but enough to have a fun party. We started with "Lickin' and Stickin" .

Then we moved onto one of my personal favorites. The marshmallow toss. You take a shower cap and shaving cream and marshmallows. It makes for a fun mess.

We had a "pop chug" where a few of the participants ended up on the floor. They don't drink pop much and it didn't sit well with them. They all survived and no one had thrown up at this point.

One of Doug's favorite challenges is "Eat up, it's good for you" It involves the two of us going to the store and buying whatever sounds the grossest. This year was exceptional. There was pickled green beans, wasabi, anchovies, sardines in mustard sauce, cocktail onions, goat's milk (brings back memories of growing up) and of course the pickled pigs feet. Most tried it, some couldn't make it go down (notice the garbage cans very close) but everyone learned something new. One boy actually liked the anchovies. The pigs feet were touched by everyone but no one had the guts to eat it. I really can't blame them.

Our last challenge before the camera batteries died was a cupcake relay. They had to eat a cupcake without hands. It doesn't sound too hard but they were individually wrapped first.

The final came down to 2 people. M & Tyler. They got to fish 50 gummy worms out of cooked spaghetti and prune juice. Tyler came out ahead. He got big money and "100 grand". I think, a good time was had by all.

Frightfully Fun

Halloween is a fun holiday around here. The school and work celebrated on Friday. Doug's job always goes over the top. Here is what happened this year. Can you tell which one is Doug?

Not that one and the rats are a nice touch. They all had a good time except for little Miss Katy. My sister-in-law Ally and her kids went with us to see them. Katy (2 years old) didn't like it AT ALL.
Happy Halloween All!

weekend

Our last weekend had everything to do with music. Jordan had a concert on Friday night. Here is a little taste. He is sandwiched in between 2 of his good friends or otherwise known as his competition next year for Jazz Band. (Nick & Ben)

Mason had his District III Marching Band competition on Saturday. They have worked really hard and I think it looked "Incredible". Now Mason swears he has more time to devote to actually doing his eagle project not just planning it. ( I couldn't get the video to load, sorry. I'll try again later)

Both the boys are marching in the Veteren's day Parade on November 7th. Anybody want to come this way?

This week

I'm sorry for the lack of posts. We have been a little under the weather. Everyone had a fever and aches except for Jordan and Doug. It has been a loooong week. I think we are on the upswing, finally. Tonight was a football game. Kelsie & Colten went with us. I don't know why people complain about doing stairs. Kelsie could do them all night. She loves it!

I finally got a picture of Mason all dressed up.

Colten waited all game to dive into the end zone. He waited until the game was over and once my camera was ready I told him to go for it. Kelsie went for moral support.

Capital won easily and Colten & Kelsie fell asleep on the drive home. It doesn't get better then that. The last marching band competition is this Saturday. Good luck Mason!