Oh Christmas Tree!

We had a great time decorating our tree over the Thanksgiving break. Now we have a 24 hour baby magnet. Watch out tree!

Parade of Lights

Each year when we go to the Parade of Lights here in Afton my dad says, "This parade is so great! We should really make a float". So this was the year. I think Colleen really liked the idea - and got busy making an awesome float. All the kids helped and I think it turned out really great. It looked SO good. They all had fun throwing candy and being a part of the parade. Farmer Jeff even got out his tractor to pull it. I think that was a great touch. Very cool! I need to get another picture of the other side - it was awesome too!

Tag!

8 Things: (I was tagged by Jennie and it has taken me a while to respond! Oops! Too much Thanksgiving fun!)

8 Things I am obsessed with right now:
1. Baby Brannen
2. Rae, Brady & Reese
3. Kelly the Great
4. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog - thanks Bekki, It really makes me laugh
5. Getting ready for Christmas (fun, fun)
6. Keeping the floors clean (they NEVER stay clean, no matter how much you clean them! Ahh!)
7. Looking at Christmas lights
8. Reading

8 Words or Phrases that I use often:
1. Dang!
2. RAE!
3. There's the cute baby! (add very nerdy - baby sing-song tone)
4. Whatever.
5. More golf channel? Really? Isn't it boring YET?
6. Clean up after yourself!
7. Really?!?
8. Be nice!

8 Shows that I love to watch right now: (Kelly and I watch together)
1. Bones
2. ER
3. Smallville
4. Boston Legal
5. Pushing Daisies (you are right - Dave!)
6. Heroes (I'm loosing interest - Kelly is still a viewer)
7. Regis and Kelly (while I'm cleaning/ doing morning stuff)
8. Good Morning America (cleaning too)

8 Things I did yesterday:
1. Went to the beautiful "Parade of Lights" and waved at cute kids!
2. Rocked a baby to sleep - so fun!
3. Cleaned the Kitchen - MANY times
4. Swept the floor - again
5. Ate lunch with Clint and Allison - good to visit with you
6. Watched yet another "cousin play" that Rae and her fellow thespians created for the entertainment of all.
7. Put up and decorated a Christmas tree with 4 cute kids!
8. Changed a diaper or two!

8 favorite places to eat:
1. Pizza Hut
2. Burger King
3. Subway
4. Agave
5. Rulons Burger Barn
6.Taco Time
7. Maverik - hot dog you know
8. Isn't Afton wonderful! So many choices! These really aren't favorites - believe me!

8 Things I am looking forward to:
1. Going to IF with Kelly tomorrow
2. Watching a movie tonight with the kids
3. A good week ahead of the regular routine
4. Getting everyone off to school - and getting the house clean. It will stay clean too - for about four whole hours!
5. Christmas with Bekki and Adam visiting!
6. Getting ready for Christmas (wrapping, buying, planning etc.)
7. Brannen's 1st birthday - it is coming so quickly!
8. My life to come! I wonder what will happen?!

8 Things that are on my wish list:
1. To sleep through the entire night
2. To go on a great family vacation
3. Get some sleep
4. Go on a fabulous trip with Kelly
5. To not be sick!
6. Spend lots of time with kids and Kelly - just us
7. Sleep would be good
8. Magic dinner - it is always hot, ready and waiting. Every night!!

8 People I tag:
1. Bekki
3. Jennifer
4. Katie
5. David
6. Allison
7. Chris
8. Rae

You're gonna smile!

Help! I need captions! These pictures are so funny - they need clever captions! I'm not feeling very clever at the moment - so help! Any ideas?! Come on Jonesy - you must have an idea or two! These pictures just make me laugh!

Reese's Baptism

Reese was baptized on Saturday, November 15 2008. We really appreciate those who were able to come, and appreciate those who weren't - but were thinking about her. Thanks for the calls and well wishes. In a perfect world we would be able to "twinkle" ourselves somewhere instantly - and be with those we love on every important day. We had a really nice dinner at our house after the baptism- and enjoyed being with everyone.

Birthday Party!

We went to Grama Chris's house and celebrated birthdays with them! Reese and Grama both have birthdays in the beginning of November. It was a great time - good food and good visit. We gave Chris a bag full of crochet cotton to "project" with - she seemed fairly happy about that (see the picture). I'm certain that I will be the recipient of some really beautiful dishcloths very soon! Yipee! A guess it was a gift for me too! Anyway, we had a fun time celebrating birthdays again. Love you Grama! Love you Reese!

Brady the Puzzler

Brady had loved putting together puzzles his whole life.  When he was little, little, he would do the same puzzle over and over again.  He is kind of obsessed with them.  Recently, he has been puzzling again.  He has some really cool puzzles that he has been working on.  After you get them together the picture also glows in the dark.  Awesome!  It has been fun to have them out on the table, and watch everyone stop a minute to put a piece or two in.  Kelly is funny to watch - he really likes to work on them too, but he gets easily frustrated.  He just says funny, odd things.  The thing I really like about puzzling - is that everyone is around and talking.  It is fun.  We missed aunt Katie while we were putting these together.  She is a queen of puzzles too.  Come on over - we'll put one together!

Happy Birthday Reese!

We just had a really fun birthday party at our house!  The youngest girl turned 8!  I can't believe it!  She had a really fun party with some friends.  They each made a little pizza to eat, and played lots of games while it was baking, ate and played some more.  She wanted "flower pot" cupcakes - they were cute.  Too bad I let her look at the cake book - it took a while to make those things.  But it was fun.  Birthdays are for fun cakes!  I'm so glad we have a Reese in our family.  She is such an easy kid to be around.  We sure do love her.  She will be getting baptized on Saturday.  She is really excited.  

Oh my heck! I can't believe I REALLY got a DS!  Wow, wow, wow wow! 

Oh my heck!  I really can't believe that they got me all of these wonderful balloons!  It is so much fun to twist myself up in them!

Now, I'm stuck.  Help me, mom!  Dad!  Anyone!

Brannen

I learned to smile while squishing my nose up and showing my two front teeth!  

 Fairly adorable!

The Kids

Happy Halloween everyone!  Here are the rest of the gang all ready to go trick-or-treating.  The mummy of the group was headed to a party at a friend's house, and is far too old for trick-or-treating.  She improvised the costume for the picture, by pulling it off of the wall behind her.  Reese had to be something beautiful - a dancer (there's a stretch!), Brady was the standard "football player" - however he gets more points this year for added creativity with the dreadlocks hanging out of the helmet.  I think it is a great touch.  They are quite the handsome group!  

Yoda Himself

                                           Let's go get some candy or somethin'!

Here he is!  The jedi master himself!  This entry is devoted totally to the one and only Yoda. He was such a great trick-or-treater.  He had a fun time, and was highly amused by the whole business.  If you look back at his newborn pictures, it will be very obvious as to why the boy had to be Yoda for his first Halloween.  He was born Yoda.  

          Getting ready to trick-or-treat with Reesie at her school

                      Brannen is totally a "Mummy's Boy"

Jack-O-Lanterns

I have a great pumpkin carvers!  I'm so glad that they are old enough to handle this messy task by themselves now.  I can just leave the room as the seeds and goo end up all over the place.  I leave them to their work - and remind them, as they are dropping goo all over the floor, that they get to clean it all up.  It is a wonderful system.  They even carved a pumpkin for Brannen!  Great kids!

Go Take a Hike!

Around here, you just gotta take advantage of nice weather when you have it!  It has been so beautiful lately.  Some really perfect fall days.  We enjoyed one such after noon by taking a hike in Grover Park.  While on a bike ride, Kelly found a neat fort that someone built, and he's been wanting to show it to the kids.  Some Sims kids wanted to go with us, so Jeff decided to tag along too.  Jeff also brought his GPS unit to find a "geocache" that was hidden in Grover park.  He put in the coordinates, and the kids found it by themselves.  They each traded a prize for another prize.  It was a really fun afternoon.  Beautiful weather for a hike.   I can just feel months and months of below zero around the corner!  Yikes!

This hike might be scary!  Oh no.  I'm not sure that I want to go.  I hope Dad will protect me!

whattsup?

I'm just chillin'.  Kickin' back.  Wait'n for the game to start.  Ya know. The usual.  

More Crazy Hair!

Rae loves Middle School!  She has been having so much fun in her new, big school.  She is involved in absolutely everything possible.  That girl hates to be bored.  The school recently had "Red Ribbon Week" - I'm not sure if it is a National thing or not, but anyway it was an anti-drug awareness week.  Dress-up days were part of the "just say no" campaign.  It was very interesting to see Rae walk upstairs every morning - we just couldn't guess what the next day would look like.  The only day that she looked fairly normal was "Cowboy Day".  Yea, she can do Cowboy Day without much of a stretch.  

We Miss Cousins!

Two weekends ago, Jennifer's cuties were here in Star Valley visiting their dad and we got to steal them away for a while on Sunday afternoon!  My kids had a GREAT  time playing with them.  The Fullmer kids really miss seeing and playing with these cousins!  We used to see them almost every day.    I can't believe how old they have all gotten!  Jude speaks in complete, big kid sentences!  Wow!  Halle loved Brannen, she wanted to help me tend him all afternoon. And Blythie was just wonderful.  What a sweet girl.  What great kids.  Remember to give them to us in your will, Jen.  We miss you so much!

Happy Halloween

Getting ready for a bath!

Why are baby bums so darn cute?  Totally pinch-able!

October 11th!

This is what we did on saturday!  The kids went sledding!  They always are excited for the first snow of the year.  We have to pull out the snow clothes -that have been tucked away for not long enough-  get all bundled up, and spend the afternoon screaming on a sled in the field, behind Rae- driving crazy on a four-wheeler.  Great times.  Ughh!  It could have waited another month, or two!  Maybe it will melt again?!  A little bit more fall?!  PLEASE!!

Crazy Hair Day!

When you're in second grade you get to do lots of silly things!  One of which is crazy hair day!  If your class is really good,  and you earn enough good behavior tickets you can vote on which crazy thing your class wants to do for the day.  You could wear your pajamas to school, have extra recess, have a movie party or of course have crazy hair day.  You can tell by Reese's picture which crazy thing won the popular vote for the day.  Oh those CRAZY second graders!

Happy 13th Rae!

We can't believe that we have a teenager at our house!  Crazy stuff!  She is a pretty sweet girlie though, so I guess we'll keep her around a little bit longer.  I think she had a good birthday.  We celebrated with Grandpa Barry of course.  His birthday is Oct. 2nd - so he and Rae always have a fun birthday together.  She didn't want cake this year - she wanted cake batter - go figure.  So Reese made her cake batter, I made Grandpa a carrot cake and we all ate and ate.  Happy Birthday Rae and Grandpa!  Love you!

I can sit!

HANDSOME BOY!