Twister!

On Thursday, we decided to have a family game night, since the TV has been on a little too much this week. (It's hard not to watch during American Idol season...) However, I ended up having to work. So while I was downstairs typing away on the computer, Jared and the kids were upstairs playing games. I was sad to be missing out, so I hurried as fast as I could to get my work done. By the time I got up to the living room, it was Twister time! I joined in on a couple of games, then I grabbed the camera so we could capture the fun. The kids had a blast! It took a little while to get them settled back down, so bedtime was a little later than usual, but it was worth it.

Paging Dr. Bryson...

Bryson wanted a Dr. Kit for Christmas, and luckily Santa paid attention, because he got one. He has been so cute taking care of everyone and keeping us healthy! One night, when I was looking for Hayden to get his pajamas on, I found them downstairs in the hallway playing and I just had to snap some photos! Hayden must have been the assistant. They sure were taking good care of Diego!

Mr. Fix It

Well, I have a few "Handy Mannys" at my house. The boys love Handy Manny and pretend to be him every chance they get. They love to fix things around the house - cabinets, chairs, door knobs, you name it. So when Jared had to replace the handle on the dishwasher, Hayden was right there "helping" him. It's nice to have my guys around to fix things when they are broken!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I just want to tell my husband and my sweet kids how much I love them. They sure make life great!

These are what we sent to Grandmas and Grandpas this year. My kids were sweet (minus a few tears and a little bribery - fudge is a hot commodity at our house lately!) and they let me take them out for a few minutes to take some pics. Then I had fun learning and figuring out how to use digital scrapbooking stuff to make some fun cards. (Maybe I'll start scrapbooking again... the digital thing is FUN!) Their teachers got one of their individual ones, too.

Thawing Out

It sure was nice to have a few "warmer" days. Because of the direction our house faces and the taller house right next to us, the sun NEVER hits our driveway in the winter. Therefore, if we don't get out and get things shoveled right away, it turns to a sheet of ice. (And anything that DOES melt, just creates a huge lake at the end of the driveway!) This winter it ended up being a sheet of VERY THICK ice. We got home from grocery shopping, and I told Jared "Today would be a great day to try and get rid of the rest of the ice on the driveway." So he and Hayden busted out the shovels and started chopping away (literally) at the ice. It was nice to have a clear driveway for a couple of days before it snowed/rained/froze again. It was a beautiful, sunny day!

Revolutionary Eryn

Eryn is in 5th grade, and they are studying American History. They are learning about the Revolutionary War right now, and a couple of Fridays ago they had to dress up as though they lived during that time. Here is what we came up with. Now, don't get me wrong... I love her teacher and everything... but we keep getting VERY short notice on these types of things. I found out about this the day before, so we had to be really creative with what we had around the house. It was Eryn's idea to use a pillow case, and she talked about how the top could somehow lace up... so I started looking for ways we could do it. I found a little bag of gold safety pins and a shoelace, and this is what we came up with. Throw on an old skirt of mine and here is our Revolutionary War Era Eryn!

Wanna Wrestle?

"Hey dad... wanna wrestle?" This is pretty much the first thing that comes out of Bryson's mouth the second Jared walks in the door. Of course Jared always says "You bet, buddy!" Then there's a whole lot of laughing and shouts of "Champion of the world!" It's really funny. Both our boys love it! Even when someone accidentally gets hurt, after a couple of tears they are right back in it wanting more. I didn't have brothers, so this is a whole new world to me. One I don't totally understand, but I love that they have so much fun together!

Kids Can Sleep ANYWHERE!!

Have you ever noticed that kids can sleep anywhere? You'd NEVER find an adult sleeping in half the places that kids do. We have one kiddo in particular that picks some doozies! We find him in crazy places, sprawled out in crazy positions... just SOUND ASLEEP! Most of the day he's "GO GO GO..." but when the batteries start to run out, it's like halfway through his stroll down the hall he just drops. Or sitting at the computer... how do you fall asleep sitting at the computer? How do they do it? I have nights where I can't get comfortable enough in my pillow-top queen-sized bed to get to sleep, and yet I walk out the door and find Hayden snoozing away on the floor of the hall? What? It's one of the many many things I love about kids. They are amazing creatures! Maybe that's the secret to their unbelievable energy. Over the last couple of months, every time we found Hayden sleeping someplace crazy, I took a picture... and the more pictures I took, the more I realized that I would have dedicate an entire blog entry to him and the places and positions he crashes in. I love this kid!

And I saved the BEST for LAST! Tell me how this is comfortable?!

Pirates?

So what do you do when your 5-yr-old comes downstairs and says "Look Mom! I drew this all by myself?" And you turn around expecting to see him holding a piece of paper with a masterpiece doodled on it? But instead you see THIS... and then your 3-yr-old runs downstairs to show you he has done the same thing?

I laughed! What else can you do? I told them it looked great and that they were very creative. Bryson was a little disappointed when I told him he'd only get to keep it on for a little while (since he thought he'd look great if he showed up to school with such a cool mustache), so they made the most of it while they could and pretended to be pirates for a little while. Hayden's stayed on a little longer since he didn't have school... and thank goodness it was just eye-liner. Soap and water did the trick. Can you imagine if they had used markers? I did, however, hide that eye-liner pencil a little bit better :)

Nine is Fine!

Well, Kaitlyn turned 9 last month. She and Eryn came with me to do a photo shoot for some friends, and we decided that we should take some official Birthday pictures of Kaitlyn. My girls are always so good to let me practice on them, and what better opportunity than to get some shots on a special day. I decided it was about time I got these cute shots edited and share them. Kaitlyn is such a sweet young lady. She is a really hard worker, and her grades and the cleanliness of her bedroom show it. She is friendly and thoughtful. We kinda like her! She is in third grade, and it's hard to believe that this was the last birthday that she would be an age in the single digits. Next year is the big 1-0! It's crazy to see my kids growing up, especially when I remember third grade and age nine as if they were yesterday. It makes me reminisce a little bit - I had Mrs. Gorham at Forbes Elementary... my friends were Sara, Mandy, Christy... boys were yucky... Michael Jackson had just released the album, "Thriller" (which I got for my birthday that year)... I was excited to learn cursive and times-tables... good times! Now it's fun watching my girls going through some of those same things (including enjoying Thriller - HEHE). We love you Kaitlyn.

Maybe we'll get around to taking some "11-yr-old" pictures of big sis... c'mon Spring!!

Superstition Mountains

New Year's Day was a nice, relaxing day. We slept in late and took our time getting ready (well, most of us anyway - Jared and Math actually got up at the crack of dawn and went dove hunting!) We decided that on our last day in Arizona, we'd head back out to the Superstition Mountains and take some family pictures. The goal was to get there around sunset, but we didn't time it quite right... so we were battling with some harsh, patchy sunlight and dappled shade. We waited a little while (and Hayden got attacked by a rogue cactus - seriously, Jared could NOT get those spines out. He had to use his teeth, and poor Hayden was screaming his little head off!! Mean old cactus!) We finally had enough shade to take a few pictures, and managed to get a couple of good shots. (Even if there ended up being a cactus or two growing out of our heads... we struggled to get placed in the right location!) What a cool place! The mountains are amazing. There is said to be some treasure buried up in them - people are actually still looking for it up there!

Here are the ones I did of Jess and Math's family. We sure love these guys. We had the best time ever with them. They really know how to show someone a great time. We miss them so much and can't wait until the next time we are able to get together!

And here is the one Jess took for us. The kids were so good to cooperate - and we always get a priceless expression from our 3-yr-old!

We had a WONDERFUL trip to Arizona. We enjoyed every minute we were there. We were sad to have to leave (especially knowing we were coming back to 20 degree temperatures in Utah!!) We left really early the next morning... and it was a little bit shorter drive since we went the correct way home (it was still really long). When we hit Utah County it was definitely winter. It was snowy and cold, the freeway was stopped due to an accident (thankfully it was on the opposite side of the freeway), and apparently the power had been out just before we got home. What a great Welcome Home!