New Years Eve

New Years Eve we were able to celebrate being together with Jeremy's side of the family. Two of his sisters came into town with their families. The cousins had a blast together. The usual is playing upstairs with toys and running around the bonus room. Kaitlyn snagged Aunt Becky's lap and had her read Cinderella. I got to play "Little Piggies" with Tori's toes. Ally played like crazy with Audrey and the rest of her cousins. The boys played pool downstairs and sat around. We all ate lots of great food. As it got a little later in the evening, papa watched "Father of the Bride" with the grandkids as the kids propped pillows under their heads on the floor. Oh! and we can't forget the kids gift exchange...can you see the excitement at the Christmas tree? This was our opportunity to celebrate Christmas with everyone. The kids loved the gifts and gift-giving. It was a great evening.


Kierstin and Becky are the youngst siblings and are great friends (as you can see below). Kierstin is pregnant with her second, a baby girl due in February. Becky is pregnant with her fourth, a baby girl due in April. What fun to be able to share the experience with your sister. More exciting news in the family is that there are two more babies coming this year. Jeremy's brother Leif and his wife Rachel are expecting twins. They are due in July, but we expect them a little sooner for health reasons. What an exciting year! Congrats!!!

Snow Day!

The afternoon of December 29th we got a little surprise, SNOW! The girls and I were out doing some errands, when we discovered the flakes. As we got closer to home, they got bigger and bigger and were not letting up. Our carload was very excited! My neice Sidney was able to spend the afternoon with us...unfortunately I didn't get any pics :( We made it to the store to pick out favorites for dinner and dessert. On our way out the store the girls enjoyed sticking their tougues out to taste the snow. On the way home luckily, the coast was clear when sliding onto our street. Jeremy made it home safe and put the snow tires on which allowed the girls enough time to eat, play and have a good time. The girls are already wondering when the next time she will come back for a visit. Any idea Becky?

We love being on our property and beautiful setting the snow provides. It brings such a feeling of peace.


We were sad daddy had to work the next morning. We still got our taste of fun playing. It only lasted an hour before the girls got too cold.

Christmas Day 2009

The girls woke up at 3:30 AM, excited that Santa had came and ate his cookies and milk. They came to our room expecting to open gifts right away. Here was the deal: if we opened gifts, they are to go right back to bed. The deal was made, a half hour to open gifts, they went back to bed and slept until 7:45 AM.


One of the highlights for Jeremy and I is the generosity of our girls. Kaitlyn made us a gift at school and insisted we open our gift before they open any of theirs. Here's the poem that goes with the gift:

Flour and sugar makes me sweet.
A little molasses can slow my feet.
Add more cinnamon now I smell great.
Blend soda and salt, hurry, don't wait.
Egg and 'short'ening 'cause I'm still small.
Mixing gingerbread can be a ball.
A pinch of ginger just for glee.
To wish you Happy Holidays,
From your Ginger Kid - ME!

Thanks for the fun gift Sweetie!


The greatest joy of the day was to see the sweet reactions from our little ones. Santa brought the main items from their wish list, cowgirl boots and outfit, with an added bonus: dolls. Not just any doll, they were specific to their items of interest, horses and ice skating. I LOVE the look in Kaitlyn's eyes and the sweetness of Ally's smile. Thanks for the wonderful morning Santa!


This was our first Christmas home. This may sound strange, most of you know our family is in the area. Let me clarify...this the first first Christmas, we've remained at home with no where to go. My parents and Jeremy's family (what's left in the area) came over for a delicious dinner and good company. Thanks to the family for the yummy contributions! Grandma, thanks for attending and blessing the food...we are so glad we were able to share the day with you!


The kids were thrilled to be together and have the opportunity to celebrate Jesus' birthday. I love the excitment on each of their faces.

Christmas Bell 2009

Here is this years addition to my bell collection. At the beginning, Jeremy didn't have the intent to start a collection. After he saw my excitment the second year (getting door bells), he realized what he had started. The following picture displays bells I've received in previous years. I wish they were in order, but I'm a little lazy....it's something I'll have to fix another time. Thanks for the collection Sweetheart, it means a lot!

Christmas Eve 2009

Our family with Jeremy's grandfather, Paul


Jeremy's dad's (Tom) side gathered at 4pm (thanks Katie and Aaron for hosting!) From top left: Jeremy's sister, Lairen, Jeremy, Jeannie (Jer's mom), Tom, our family, the twins (Aunt Julie's granddaughters, can never tell them apart, sorry girls!), Amy, Jeremy, Mark (Uncle Jim's son), Eric (Aunt Julie's son-in-law...married to Vickie), Uncle Randy, Uncle Jim and his fiance Jackie, Kaitlyn and cousin Rachael, whew!!!


Aunt Julie, holding Kaylee, Todd (Julie's son-in-law, married to Rachelle), Devon, Vaughn, Rodney (Julie's son), Tanner (Amy's son), Grandpa, Aunt Julie, Toby (Julie's husband), twins (Vanessa and Valerie) with Grandpa Paul, the boys and Liz (Julie's daughter) with Grandpa.

The evening was great...so much fun to see everyone, lots of great food and tons of fun for the kids. They had fun seeing and playing with cousins they didn't realize they had. Thanks for coming everyone!


After the get-together at Katie's, we headed for my grandmothers. A 25 minute drive was 45 (unbelievable on Christmas Eve!). This is my mom's side of the family. She has a brother Steve and sister Peggy. Again, fun to see family, great food and an opportunity to meet another member of the family, Athena (my cousin Scott's daughter, 5 months). We had a Christmas ornament gift exchange (a change from previous years, used to be any gift under $25).


We had lots of entertainment from the two little ones. Mya (my neice) and Oliver (Scott's oldest) were so much fun to watch and got along really well. The main picture here was the best attempt to get the kids to hold still for a picture. I think it turned out really well, you can tell how much fun the kids had (and that's what counts....creating the memories!!!)

Christmas Preparations

This is Kaitlyn prepping her cousin Lauren's gift. She insisted to curl the ribbon herself!

O Christmas Tree

Christmas brings much joy in our home. All year, we look forward to the opportunity to decorate and carry out the many traditions we love: time together, extended family gatherings, Christmas songs, countdowns, decorating, bread, lights, readings, programs, cookie making day, 12 days of Christmas, visits to neighbors and friends, gift making and giving, the joy of remembering our Savior Jesus Christ. It truly is an amazing time of the year.

Growing up….one of the most wonderful feelings in the world was waking up to walk down the hall and view the lit Christmas tree in the living room. There were so many sweet moments and memories which came about, including viewing rudolph’s nose out the window one Christmas Eve. I enjoyed every moment in that living room with my family. In my eyes, it is the most important decoration of Christmas.


We were thrilled to begin decorating on the 27th of November. It began with our tree. We’ve been in our home for 4 years. Betty and Denis left us the tree and it’s fun to see it come to life. I love all the ornaments, mostly from the memories behind each one. You might notice the homemade snowflakes and cross stitched symbols. Mom made those when I was young. A couple years ago, we collected pine cones from our trees and painted the tips gold…a fun family project. There’s the star, the angel, the manger and many others which represent the significant symbols of Christmas. Most ornaments were received from friends and family….I’m thankful I’m still able to remember who most of them are from  You’ll notice we have a collection of books under the tree. These are pulled out of Christmas boxes each year so they are not forgotten on a book shelf. The books are fun to read, a couple of them are count downs with a story to read each day of December, helping us to remember the reason for the season. We are thankful for our tree.

Lollipop Ornament

Ally came home from school with a present for mom. Her intent was to have me wait until Christmas day, but the suspense made her break (after one afternoon). I love the fact that she is more excited to give than receive. I thought Ally was really creative. She made a lollipop in art class. A clever idea! We found a way to wrap around the branch and it looks great on the tree. Thanks for the lollipop, My Sweet Ally!

Christmas Bread

A family favorite. If your interested in the recipe, turn to last year's post. Yum!

Our Little Bride

Turned around to find our girls playing so cute! Here's little Kaitlyn already for her wedding :)

Peeping Chickens/Pregnant Goats

Our chickens are hilarlous! They peep through the window for a taste of what we're upto. Can you see "gabriella" though the window, sitting on the bench? It's been fun and we're happy to say we've been getting fresh eggs daily for over a month (6 a day if we're lucky).

Another update: our goats will be delivering come the 1st of the year (terrible time for the little things), but we'll make it work. Chloe is already showing signs of delivering in the next week or two. Should be lots of fun :) Hopefully I'll be more consistant with my posts!!!

Bye Bye Camo

Camo was a good dog, but we will not miss his barking and over excitement. His new owner came from Montana, driving the morning after making his decision. Jeremy will miss having his two dogs....I'm sure he'll have another in the future, I just hope he'll give it some time....lots of time.

A Night in Bethlehem

The little ones dressed as biblical characters for the ward activity "A night in Bethlehem". We had a great time at an evening well planned. Note to self...bring the camera to the activity next year!

Thanksgiving 2009

Mom's Birthday

Okay....mom did NOT want me to take this picure and I promised I would not post it....but...can you tell how happy everyone is? I had to post it. I did come up with a compromise that I'm hoping will result with a good laugh.

Mom was feeling terrible....out of a 3-4 weeks sickness, her birthday was the worst of them all. I have to say, the family was excited to celebrate. Thanks for joining us Heather and Mya. We were happy this worked out and hope mom knows how much she is loved. Another note: mom really didn't look bad, just tired.

A lesson

Halloween morning the girls and I headed out with mom to visit grandmother. It was to be a girls morning. Jeremy didn’t have plans and certainly didn’t know what to do with himself. What did Jeremy decide to do? Well if you know Jeremy’s love for hunting and the outdoors. You can probably guess. Let’s just say two of the roosters were a little too noisy so he prepared them for Sunday’s dinner! He text me photos while we were away and was so pleased with himself. We didn’t say anything to the girls until they led on to what was happening the next day after church. This was when dad had the meat on the BBQ (it looked a little different and I had made a comment about it). What! (crying) Dad!!!! Not “Feathers” (who’s name used to be nuts…that’s another funny story). Luckily, Jeremy remembered which rooster was which. “Feathers” was safe this round. The girls were devastated and we had to have a lesson on the purpose of raising chickens. We explained how eventually this will have to happen to all our chickens but when that happens we’ll have other chickens to enjoy and lay eggs. Luckily, the lesson worked and we haven’t had any issues since. The girls (especially Kaitlyn) thoroughly enjoyed the meat, as you can see in the picture.

Halloween 2009

I couldn't help but show all three pictures of our little Dorothy. The first, her pretty blue eyes. The second, her fun-loving personality. And the third, her genuine sweetness.


We still couldn't get daddy to dress-up, we had fun anyway. I tried to get out of dressing up, but felt the pressure from the little ones and gave in. They insisted I get dressed and quick. A hunter is what I came up with...I had literally 2 minutes to throw sometime together.


This is the first year dad had the opportunity to trick or treat with us. We are happy halloween lined up with his scheduled night off. The evening started with trunk or treating at the church and then heading out to Grandpa's neighborhood. Can you tell the girls scored the candy big-time We are happy we could enjoy Grandpas company.

Pre-Halloween Fun!

Tradition got a little twisted this halloween. Since Becky and Steve moved away, this is the first halloween the cousins haven't trick-or-treated together and the first year Grandma and Grandpa arean't here to see the kiddos all decked out in their costumes (they're out of town). Katie and I still managed to find a way to get the kids together. A local town had stores open for trick-or-treating on main street tonight. What fun the kids had to get a head start on their candy collections. My kids had a blast and are looking forward to trunk or treating at the church tomorrow and trick-or-treating for the first time with Papa in his neighborhood. Seems weird to say this is the first time going out with Dad, but he actually gets to stay up late (crazy work schedule) since he doesn't have to work on Sunday. Should be a good time....let's just say....CANDY, CANDY, CANDY!!! (As Garfield would say)


Monday night prior to Halloween = family night with pumpkins, halloween jello jigglers and Garfield's Halloween Event. The girls helped design their own pumpkins. Ally and Daddy on one pumpkin and Kaitlyn and I on the other. Can you guess who is who's?

Sister Susan

Our family is fortunate to have so many friends and family in the area. Everyone is always offering their love, support and kindness. I have to admit we are quite spoiled. Everywhere we go, it seems Ally has a mother-like figure. Ally became pretty attached to one of her previous primary teachers. She's had a difficult time letting go and often sits with Susan (who has recently been called to play the piano in Primary) instead of her class. My hope is that her the teachers aren't offended, for I know she adores them as well.

Thank you Susan for stopping by, it meant the world to Ally!

The Party

Ally asked for three items for her birthday; Hana Montna wig, notbooks and a nu bik. Yes, I listed them exactly as she spelled them (wish I could find the list, it was so cute). Kaitlyn threw a huge fit when we went to purchase the wig. She was devastated she didn't get one too. Luckily, Ally was willing to share.




We are grateful for those who joined the celebration; Aunt Lairen, both sets of grandparents, great grandma, Aunt Katie, Lauren and Audrey. Ally had an easy list of favorites she wanted for dinner; Hamburgers, ceasar salad (with lots of croutons) and salt and vinegar chips. She didn't even want cake! Usually, it's german chocolate, this time: brownies with PB cups in the center. Let me just tell you they turned out terrible. Sorry everyone! Two days prior, I made a set for Ally's class and they turned out great! A couple of the boys in Ally's class even told her how much she rocks for bringing them (this was a huge highlight for her).


So I love the pictures above! The greatest feeling in the world is seeing your family members happy. Ally beamed the entire weekend. It was a weekend we all needed.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart! Thanks for sharing all your favorite things with us!

Birthday Morning

Ally was the last to wake up. We all were waiting for her footsteps, leading to our bedroom. Along the walk across the house, she would find her bike in the entry way. The bike was a big hit! It made two girls very happy (Kaitlyn got Ally's old bike). Ally's face lit up even further when she realized the bike was given to her by some family friends. Thanks Brenna and Lori!

I was thankful we were able to spend the morning together. It was a lovely morning, which allowed the girls to ride the bikes for a few minutes. Good thing we did, since it poured later in the day! Per Ally's request, we had blueberry pancakes. I was able to get the girls dolled up for there primary program at church. Then we all were able to work together to get things prepared for the party, immediately following church.

Grandma remembered!

Ally's favorite restaurant is Olive Garden. A couple months ago, Ally mentioned how special it would be to go to lunch with Grandma for her birthday. We're so glad Grandma remembered. Ally was all dressed up (her choice), without even knowing Grandma was coming to pick her up for the afternoon. Grandma surprised her by taking her to the Olive Garden and having the staff sing to her (you view those pics from mom's blog). Mom, Allys says "thank you for taking me out to lunch and spending time with me...I've really missed you"

Ally's Night

We gave Ally a few options for her birthday plans. Horseback riding, disney on ice, or a date with mom. Let's just say I wasn't pick #1. The horseback riding will have to come on a later date since our friends weren't available. This is the same friend that promised a horse when Ally turns ten (we're still hoping she'll forget).

Ally's friend Meri was able to join us for the date. She rode the bus home with Ally. She and her mom were so sweet. They remembered how much Ally loves horses and got her a couple horse crafts. Each girl painted a model horse, after popping homemade pizzas in the oven. After dinner, the three of us took off for bowling and ice cream. I was amazed the girls bowled for two hours and didn't want to stop! I saw a new side of Meri...a competitive streak! It was her first time bowling and she did great! They both were too cute; Ally doing her granny shots and Meri giving it all her might! We ended the evening with a trip to DQ. Cherry and Chocolate covered cones (Ally's new found favorite).

This including the next couple posts will be a weekend full of Ally's favorite things!

Daddy's Lil Hunter

Ally's been begging for the opportunity to hunt with Daddy. She finally got her wish and was up by 5:30 ready to go! On their trip....hiking was a highlight when they saw a "mama deer". Shooting and holding the grouse (daddy shot it, of course) was the other highlight. As you can see the date wiped her out when she fell asleep on the way home.

Papa 60th Birthday

We're glad Katie came up with the idea to have a surprise for Dad. All the extended relatives were invited and we were thrilled to celebrate "papas" milestone. Happy Birthday Tom!

Field Trip #2

I feel so fortunate that I've been able to attend all of Ally's field trips. This time, we headed for the pumpkin patch and down pumpkin lane. It great to spend time with Ally and get to know the children and the personalities she gets to assicociate with daily. The top right picture is only half her class.

We got BOOed

This is our second year getting BOOed (a knock, drop and run). It's always fun to see how many houses can get BOOed by Halloween.

Glowsticks

Kaitlyn was so cute cuddled up with her puppy and glowsticks, I couldn't resist a picture!

The glowsticks were a huge thrill after opening a package from Aunt Christine, Uncle Nathan and their cousins. Included in the package: glowsticks, a halloween book, pencils and erasers. Thanks so much for thinking about us! We love you and miss you tons!

Birthday time....Hannah Banana's 7

Hannah is Ally's best friend (our neighbor's granddaughter). The girls had a blast celebrating at Chuck E Cheese. Thanks Jen and John! All the girls have loads of fun playing together. When t-ball started up last spring, lots of time was created for Kaitlyn to play with Emma (Hannah's little sister). They've had a blast playing together and luckily Kaitlyn is no longer the third wheel...a huge obstacle for the two older girls.