Year In Review

JANUARY

January was uneventful. Except that Abby got invited to an award ceremony for the video she made last year. She got a second trophy for her video.FEBRUARY

Grace turned eight in January and was baptized by her dad in February. We had fun with all the family that came for the event. I am so proud of how hard all my kids try to do what is right. MARCH

Robb's brother, Devin, got married in Nauvoo. Robb and I got to take a trip by ourselves out there. We got to be in the Nauvoo temple for the wedding, we saw Carthage Jail, and had a fun time spending time together. It was really windy and cold though.APRIL

The kids and I were able to take a couple trips to Vegas to visit my parents this year. This time we went during Spring Break without Robb. This was just one of our fun activities on our many trips.

MAY

Brady graduated from preschool. He loved his class and his teacher but it was time to move on to Kindergarten.JUNE

In Lehi they celebrate Lehi Round up days. They have 2 parades and a lot of nights of rodeos. This year the girls got invited to do a cheer clinic and march in the parade. I can't believe my kids are this big. Robb and I also snuck away again and had a quick four day trip to New York. We had to see Yankee Stadium before it closed and we saw Wicked on Broadway.

JULY

We took our kids to the Stadium of Fire this year. Miley Cyrus performed. We were lucky to know lucky people that could get tickets.

AUGUST

This was a busy month-Robb and I were in charge of his family reunion. We had a family Olympics (with games, flags, and medals). Then at the end of the month the kids started another year of school. SEPTEMBER

Brady was finally old enough to be involved in activities like his sisters. He really wanted to play Soccer but his crazy mom missed the sign ups. He played flag football instead and enjoyed it especially defense very much. OCTOBER

Trick or Treating with cousins is so great. NOVEMBER

The kids participated in a program at school. The girls made videos and Brady drew a picture. They all did great.DECEMBER

We had a great Christmas.

Christmas

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!

We started celebrating the day before Christmas Eve. We have had the tradition the last two years to get together with Chris' family for a party. This year we had a brunch. We ate Crepes, had a nativity, and sang Christmas carols. It was fun.

My parents, my brother Jordan, and his cute pregnant wife Nicki came to stay and celebrated Christmas with us this year. It was great we spent Christmas Eve finishing stuff up, eating our favorite soup and bread bowls, hunting for PJ's, and having a Christmas Eve program.Don't the kids look cute in their new PJ's? We also take a family photo every Christmas Eve. This year we didn't have to rig it to get everyone in, my dad took the photo.With so many people here we had hang our stockings with a tow rope.Brady got his double sided light saber.

Grace got her Skateboard.Casey got a fun helmet that makes noise and he pretends to drive a motorcycle around.And, Abby got her sewing machine.We got tons of snow right before Christmas. SO Jordan took everyone out sledding in an empty parking lot close to our house on Christmas Day.Even when they fell off. So, much snow it didn't hurt.

Casey thought he was big and could do it and laugh by himself.A little of our new WII before bed on a long busy day.

A busy time of season

So, December was very busy as usual. The girls had a concert at the Scera with their drama groups. For some weird reason I have no pictures of this. Abby also had her concert at the school. She loves being in a choir at school. It is great the principal runs it and they do actions and everything.Tree Decorating and decorating the house.

I love decorating but I have a hard time letting it get done and not have it be my way. Especially when they think it is funny and first just throw the beads on.

It looked nice when they did it the real way ( even though it still wasn't how I would do it) and I didn't have to do it this year.I loved it and was more relaxed this year. I even let the kids help put up my village which I usually always do myself. It sure was a lot faster. This is the kids around the tree like the whos in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

Halloween

Halloween was fun but long this year. The girls are in a drama program in Orem and they had a Halloween costume party on a Wednesday. Then our ward always does a Trunk or Treat, but they want us to be home on Halloween. So, we dressed up again Thursday and went to the Trunk or Treat. Then the kids had to be dressed up for school and Trick or Treating on Halloween. I am a little sick of green paint still.

Halloween is fun. We go with Karina and Elise around their neighborhood. We also always love to go visit Robb's Aunt Shanna.Abby and Grace have been very into the musical Wicked this year, so we used this idea for this holiday. Abby is Elphaba (the green witch).Grace was Glinda (the good witch).The boys love Star Wars and decided on their own what characters they wanted. Brady told me his idea first which was Commander Cody.And, Casey wanted to be like him. So, when I went to get a Commander Cody I found a Captain Rex costume and he loved it.For not being into the Halloween holiday I think I do ok dressing up my kids.

Reflections

Our three kids that are in school entered a program called Reflections. It is all art areas (music, theater, dance, video, literature, and visual arts) and the children have to do every part of the project by themselves. Abby entered last year and inspired everyone this year. The two girls each made a video and they won medals and are moving onto the next round from their school to the area we live in. And, Brady drew an awesome picture and got a ribbon and a certificate for participating. I also gave Brady a trophy. I thought his was awesome. Since Robb is in Dallas he missed the school assembly so I thought I would put these pictures on so he could see.

I know I have been slacking since July. So, I spent all day today catching up before Halloween tomorrow. IT is a lot so don't feel like you have to read it all but we have been having fun.

My Jedi

While we were in Disneyland, we got to see a Jedi training show that Brady enjoyed. The first time we were there we sat on the far side in the front and they didn't pick any of the kids to help out. It was a great show though.So we went back on the last day and Robb took him early so we could sit right in the middle front. He also wore his Clone wars t shirt and they picked him. He got to fight Darth Maul it was neat. These are some pictures we took but hopefully in a month or so we will have some better ones of him actually fighting Darth Maul.

Disneyland

We took UEA to go to Disneyland for a family vacation. We decided to take the whole week off and it was great. We left on a Saturday night, after the BYU game , and stayed in Las Vegas that night. We drove on a blizzard part of the way there. But once we got there it was hot and sunny. The first night we were at Disneyland I surprised the kid with new Disney PJ's.

The park was so cool and decorated for Halloween.It was fun to see the kids there all together and old enough to enjoy the trip. (Casey still talks about staying in the hotel) We stay in the Howard Johnson across the street. It is great and within walking distance. Everyday we would go home around lunch time and have lunch and swim. They had a big pool and then this great play area for kids. We enjoyed the pixar parade together and our favorite character of the whole trip Crush (from Finding Nemo)We went to Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast one morning. As you can tell it was very healthy.One night while we were in LA I took the girls to see the play Wicked. We had a great time riding rides together and had a great time spending lots of time together without trips or other interruptions.

Then the next Saturday we headed back to Vegas very tired. We got to Vegas and the kids were brave enough to get in my mom and dads pool even though it wasn't heated and they had been in the hot tub.