Time of Your life

We had so many Leaves in our yard this year it was crazy. I counted the bags when we were done and it was 40 big lawn bags full of leaves. But I had some great help. My kids worked hard. Carson hiding in the middle of the bags of leaves. He thought it was a great fort.

My neighbor took these pictures of houses in our neighborhood. The whole town looked this way. We had a really bad wind storm in our neck of the woods. It was crazy. It started on Thurday Morning. We had winds as fast as 95MPH. I was really nervous to take the kids to school. The power was out at the High School and at the Elementary school but not at the Junior High School. As I drove the younger kids to school trees were falling right and left right in front of our van. A huge dirt clot hit the side of my car and scared us half to death. I pulled up to the school and when we got inside they told us they were still planning on holding school. I couldn't believe it. So I left the kids and made my way back home. Brook let us know that the High School was in lock down because large sheets of metal where coming off the top of the school so it was not safe for the kids to go home. They had to get away from all the windows and stay in the middle of the school. I finally around 1:00 went...

I think I have explained Advent before in earlier years so I won't go into the details. On our first Advent we talk about the Candy Cane and how it was made and then we have candy cane hot chocolate together I found these cool spoons for the kids. It was so funny to watch the spoons melt in the hot chocolate. For our third advent we give the kids something made of wood. Last year we were pretty lame and gave the kids a pencil that smelled. They were less than thrilled with the pencils so this year we got on the ball early and we found these homemade wooden boxes with a lucky mushroom on top. We ordered them in October so we felt pretty proud of ourselves. They came and we just love them. The kids were thrilled. The person that made them even sent the kids some free wooden tops. They had a blast playing with them.

This year I decided that I what I wanted to do for Christmas was spend some time with each of my kids on a date. I wanted them to have a memory with me. I have been so busy the last few months with school and everything else that needs to be done that it felt like I had not done anything fun with my kids in a long time. So I set up a day with each of the kids and we figured out what we wanted to do together and we went and had a great time. First I went with Brook. We decided to go to the Dickens Festival. We had a great time checking out all of the things they had for sell. I bought Brook some really pretty scarfs and we had some roasted chestnuts. I have never had them before they were pretty good. We also got to ride in a carriage from that time period. It was really cool. Then we went out to dinner. I took a picture of Brook in the carriage but it didn't turn out so no pictures of our date. But the memory will last forever. Second I took London to "This is the Place Park...

My nephew Lex was able to get married in September. We are so happy for him and Lisa. They are another great example to my kids. Such a cute couple. Carson has a crush on Lisa. When ever he is around her he just stares at her and smiles. It is so funny and cute. Jared was very sick the day they got married to the point that I didn't dare leave him home alone so we didn't get to go to the wedding. The kids went to the reception that night and got to enjoy some time with there cousins. I feel bad we missed it. But her is a picture that my niece Heather put up on her blog of the highlights of the wedding.

Our Family with the happy couple All the cousins together My Niece Heather got married to a great guy named Jeff. It was a really beautiful day for them. Heather looked perfect in her dress. She is a great example to my kids and they sure love Jeff. Madison said to me after the wedding "I love Jeff, he is so great." They got married in the temple and at the reception they did a ring ceremony because a lot of Jeff's family are not members on the church. Morgan got to hand them Heathers ring. She did a great job. The only thing she kept doing was wanting to put the ring in her mouth while she was waiting. I had to keep telling her not to do it. I was worried by the time the bishop was ready for her she would be throwing a temper tantrum about it but she didn't. Thank goodness. I love this picture of Carson staying with grandpa at the reception. He takes good care of his grandpa.

Carving pumpkins The kids in there costumes A few days before Halloween we had a party at my moms house. We played games, made a spooky tree and had tons of good food. It was such a fun party. It brought back memories of when I would go to my grandmas house for her Halloween parties every year. I loved it. Time with cousins and grandparents is the best. One of the games we played was were we wrapped each other up as mummies with toilet paper. The kids had a great time doing this.

Morgan's new bike Morgan turned three years old on October 27th. She is such a cutie pie. She is a very self assured little girl. She is the boss of the house. She likes to watch "Dora The Explorer" more than anything else. She sings the song really cute. She loves her curly hair. She is always telling me "mom I love my curly hair" she loves to play with baby dolls and she plays with Carson really cute. She is kind of a bossy little girl to her siblings. She tells them what to do and how to do it. We all just adore her. One of the really cute things that Morgan does is she says to us"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Then you tell her yes and she says "Awesome". I love it. It makes me smile. Morgan is also a daddy girl. She loves her dad. She would pick him over anybody. I know that Jared loves that she likes him so much. I think she has been a blessing for Jared to keep him happy while he is sick. For Morgans birthday we had my mom an...

Carson had his 5th birthday on October 24th. I know I say this with every birthday but I can't believe my little guy is five years old. He is getting to big way to fast. I love this little man. He is such a great kid. He loves to play super heros and he likes to drive his older sisters crazy. Carson is shy outside of our home he doesn't like to be without Madison. Whenever we go anywhere he stays right with her. Carson is a great big brother to Morgan. They play really good together. Morgan calls Carson her buddy. It is really fun to watch them together. Fore Carson's birthday we went bowling. He really wanted to try out bowling so we took him for his birthday. My mom and dad came to watch and we had a great time. (I'm glad they came because Jared was to sick to come and it was nice to have there support) Carson had a great time learning how to bowl. We then came back to the house and had Chinese food(All my kids love chinese food) and cake and ice cream and presents. H...

Because of a friend we were able to go to Lagoon this year. He got us discount tickets. We had such a great time. Morgan thought it was great. She loved riding the little boats the very best. When we got to the park Madison, London and Brook all went together to the big rides and I went with the little guys to the kiddie land. Well Brook took Madison and London on about five really intense rides one right after the other and poor Madison on the last ride threw up. She just couldn't take it. So she ended up going home for a few hours to get her stomach under control. We had a great day and enjoyed playing at Lagoon. Another funny thing is for weeks after going to Lagoon you could hear Morgan walking around saying "hold on tight and have a great day here at Lagoon"

2011 Preston turned 14 on July 29th we were up at the Condo on his birthday which made it really fun for him. We brought up some cupcakes and we made homemade ice cream. He wanted Legos for his birthday so we gave him a set. He had fun putting them together and playing with them with Carson at the condo. Preston is really starting to grow up. He is so great to help me around the house and with the kids. He has a great sense of humor and he is just fun to be around. Happy Birthday Preston. We love you!