Ellie's 8th Birthday

Monday was Ellie's 8th birthday. And what a day it was. The poor girl was sick and had to stay home from school. She still managed to make the best of it. She's such a good girl and doesn't let little things like being sick ruin her day. She somehow managed to enjoy it and let us enjoy it with her.

She seemed to be feeling better as the day went on. Then, just as I was putting the candles on her cake, she ran to the bathroom to throw up. She never even had a piece of her cake. Of course, she could still smile. What a good girl we've been blessed with.

We hope you still had a good birthday, Ellie, and we're so excited for you to be baptized next month. It's been a great 8 years!

Someone slow this boy down!!

The other night Justin was downstairs at the computer while Truman played on the floor by him. I went down and sat at the bottom of the stairs. I was sitting on the second step when all of a sudden, Truman was right next to me. We couldn't believe it, so we watched and helped him to see if he could make it all the way to the top.

He did it, and he was one happy boy!

Happy Birthday, Gregg!

Sunday was Justin's dad's 57th birthday. I don't know if there are enough nice things to say about this guy! He is such a fun grandpa who always does special little things for his grandkids, and few people are as kind and charitable as Gregg. We hope you enjoyed your day and thanks so much for letting us spend it with you.

Happy Birthday!

Anna's Thanksgiving play and North Carolina pics

The first graders at Anna's school did a cute little Thanksgiving play. Anna, although dressed as a pilgrim, played the part of the blue turkey. She had a fun time and was so cute waving at Ogden and me the whole time.

If you can't find her, she's on the front row, white shirt, pink flower skirt.

Ogden and Anna after the play.
And here are a few pictures from my trip to see Sally and her girls in North Carolina. Sally's husband, Aric, was deployed to Iraq in September, so I got to go out and visit and fly with them back to Idaho. We had so much fun and I just love those girls so much!

Addie is such a silly little girl. I had so much fun spending time with her.

Sally even took me to see the beach. It was quite chilly, but very pretty and I even picked up a few shells to bring home to the kids. Nothing like free souvenirs!

Megan, Addie, and Sally and Olivia.


Megan would crack us up every night trying to do bridges like Addie. She was so proud of herself for lifting her little bottom in the air.

I had such a good time and I'm so excited we get to spend even more together now!

Thanks for the great stay, Sally!

Birthday Wishes!

Okay, so I realize that I have been MIA for quite a while now. I've been super busy and even spent a week in North Carolina with my sister. I'll post a little on that later. First, I need to catch up on some very belated birthday wishes. I think I was so overwhelmed with all of the birthdays that I missed, that I kept on putting off getting posts up, so here it goes!

Today is my super cute niece, Megan's, birthday. She is 2 now and has definitely won my heart. We had so much fun together while I was staying with her and I'm so glad she'll be here for a while so I can watch her grow even more.

On December 1st, my brother-in-law, Kevin, turned the big 3-0. Kevin is such a good, soft spoken guy and is a great help to the whole family with all of his skills as a physical therapist. We hope you had a great birthday, Kevin.

Justin's youngest sister, Natalie, turned 23 on the 30th of November. Natalie is such an adorable girl who knows how to have fun. I absolutely love being around Natalie, it could be that she and Justin are so much alike, but I just love her too and she even makes a nice running buddy. Hope you had a great birthday, Nat, and thanks for letting us celebrate with you.


My nephew, Micah, had his 2nd birthday on the 29th of November. He is one handsome guy who just makes your heart melt. We hope you had a fun birthday and we can't wait to see you later this month.
My sister-in-law, Kaylin, turned 25 on the 20th of November. Kaylin is so crafty and such a good decorator. She also has one cute little boy who looks a lot like her. We hope you had a great day, Kaylin!

My niece, Kate, turned 3 on the 18th of November. She is such a doll and full of spunk and I just love to watch what she is doing. Thanks for letting us share your belated birthday with you, Kate. You're such a little princess.

Justin's mom turned ... on November the 17th. What an amazing mother-in-law I've been blessed with. She is so amazing and talented and so much fun for my kids. She always has such fun activities planned and is one amazing cook! And we just happened to name our second born after her. Happy birthday, Anna!

My nice, Halle, turned the big number 8 on November 15th and is getting baptized this Saturday. Halle is such a fun girl and comes up with the cutest things. I don't think there is anyone my girls love playing with more than Halle. She is such a doll and always keeps everyone on their toes. Happy Birthday, Halle!

Ogden's 4th Birthday!

Sunday was Ogden's birthday and now he's officially 4!! What a big kid he is, although he pretty much thinks he's 14. He had a pretty fun day,though. We kept reminding him how lucky he was to get to go to church on his birthday, so he thought that was pretty cool.

He's finally moved on to a real boy bike. No turquoise and purple for this kid any more. It kind of helps that the tires on the old bike were so bald that you could see through them. I can't wait to see the stunts he'll learn to pull on this one.
He told us that he wanted a Star Wars cake. It seems to be a Star Wars year for him.
These are what we came up with to share with the family Sunday night.

Ewok cupcakes

And if you're familiar with Star Wars, which I thought everyone was until we told my cousin, Marcus, that we made Ewok cupcakes and he said, "What's an ewok?", then you might recall the scene we tried to recreate here.

It turned out to be a pretty fun day for our newest 4 year old.

Happy Birthday, Ogden!

Happy Birthday, Sami!

Our niece, Samantha, turns eleven years old today. What a wonderful girl. There are few sweeter than Sami and she's such a great helper. We hope you have a wonderful day and we're excited to get to see you this weekend!

Happy Birthday!

Do We Scare You?

We had some strange little characters at our house Friday night, can you guess who they are?

Truman as Yoda
Ogden as Anakin Skywalker

Anna as Minnie Mouse

Ellie as Dorothy

Getting ready to spook the neighborhood

And, yes, I am one proud mother! Can you believe that organization?

Pumpkin Carving

We carved pumpkins Monday night, and these are the results.

The kids each drew their own designs and we went from there.
Ogden's scaaarrry design.

Anna's- we're not sure what to think of this one.

Ellie designed and carved hers all by herself this year. Can you tell?

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Birthday, Alyssa!

Yesterday was my niece, Alyssa's, birthday, and in all my haste, I never even opened the computer yesterday and neglected to give her a birthday wish. Alyssa is such a sweet girl with an amazing love for animals. She's also one very helpful big sister and babysitter. We hope you had a great day, Alyssa.

Happy Birthday #10!

Caves!

On Saturday we were planning on taking a hike, but Justin got tied up doing some scout stuff, so we didn't have as much time as we planned. We decided since we already had a lunch packed and the kids were all geared up, we'd just go take the hike at the rest stop. We decided to try the new path on the east side this time. It's crazy, but our kids love it there.

Justin and the kids finishing up their lunches.
The kids loved posing for pictures. The girls kept finding a rock to stand next to.

Anna

Ellie

Truman, happy to see we're done!

The girls had so much fun finding little caves to climb in to along the way. We decided that since we had some extra time, we'd take the kids to the elephant hunter's cave just out of Idaho Falls. They had so much fun, Ogden on the other hand, took a while to adjust.

Thumbs up to the elephant hunter's cave.

It was a fun day, and when we were through, we headed to Aunt Lois's for her yummy tacos!! and then played some wii with my cousins Adam, Mitch, and Jaci.