Christmas Activities

We had so much fun at home for Christmas. We stayed at my Mom and step-dad's house and got to hang out with all the family.

This is my niece, Mattea, she is the cutest little thing. Her hair is hillarious and so I would do it every morning when she would come over.

Rylee loves her Pappa. One night it was really quiet and so I went in search of her and found her curled up next to him asleep. It was so cute.

My sister, her boyfriend, my soon to be sister-in-law, Blake, and I went downhill skiing. It was really cold and got foggy near the end but we loved it. It brought back a lot of memories. I started skiing when I was 3 and we would spend almost evey weekend up there when I was little.

This is my dad with the kids. It was nice to be able to hang out with him and my step mom at their new house.

This is my Grandma. She is the sweetest lady and she just loves babies.

We also went sledding at the golf course with some of my cousins. We laughed a ton that day.

Here is Blake, Rylee, John, and my mom watching from the top of the hill.

We also got to spend a lot of time with my dad's side of the family. All of my grandparents' kids, grandkids, and great grandkids were home for the first time in years.

On Christmas Eve we had my brother, his fiance, and kids over for an appetizer night. We tried some new recipes and they were really good.

My kids loved it when Uncle Mark was around.

Christmas Vacation Part 1

For our Christmas vacation this year we went home to Canada!! This was the first time we had been to my families so it was a lot of firsts for Blake.

So we packed our 8 suitcases, 5 carryons, 3 children, 2 adults, and stroller in here,

And we drove,

to Vegas! We got to walk some of the strip which was really cool. Blake had never been to Vegas before and it had been 20 years since I had been.

This was inside the Belagio hotel.

We stayed at the Tuscany Suites and Casino. It was really cheap, really big rooms, and near the strip. If you ever stay in Vegas I would reccomend staying here.

The next morning we got onto this plane and went to see our family.

Eli meets Santa

Big boy now

Eli thinks he is a big boy now. He can't sit up for very long but he does it for about 30 seconds. It is so cute. I got hime weighed yesterday and so at 5 1/2 months he is 16 lbs. He is the most smily baby ever and oh so very sweet!!

Got Mush??? or Green Beans

Eli has been eating baby cereal and food for about 6 weeks now and absolutely loves it. He eats a ton of it. When he is really hungry he will start crying for more before you he even swallows the bite that he has in his mouth. It is hillarious. He makes a mess but has fun doing it. He eats cereal, grean beans (pictured here), squash, and carrots. He is like his mamma and hates peas. He will down an intire jar of anything else but when it comes to peas I have to fight to get a few bites in him.

Photo Shoot

A few Saturdays ago Blake and I decided to take pictures of the kids. So here is what we got.

Eli is 4 months old in them. At the time he was 13 lbs 9 oz and 25 inches long.

Salt Lake

We finally broke down and decided that we need to get a car for Blake. So we went looking and couldn't really find anything around here so we woke up on Friday morning and thought what the heck lets go to Slat Lake and get one. So we hopped in the car and headed out. We lucked out and bought the first one we saw. We got an amazing deal on it. While we were waiting for the guy to put new tires on it and stuff we headed over to the Temple. It was a beautiful day out and so fun to walk around.

Pumpkin Carving

For Family Home Evening last Monday we carved our pumpkins. I realized that I must be allergic to the inside of pumpkins cause as I was carving them I got hives on my forearm. So Blake had to finish. The girls had a blast designing the faces.

The finished result

Rett Awareness Fundraiser

My really good friends Kalli and Justin have a little girl named Lauryn. She has Rett Syndrome. Which is a neurolgical disorder that mostly effects girls. Kalli decided to do a fundraiser to help raise money for research and awareness.

Here is Kalli and her mom in front of the information table.

They had an awesome turnout and awesome support from the community. They had a lot of things donated to raffle off that night.

They also sold shirts and other things to make money.

There was a purple people eater costume contest. We didn't enter it but Rylee wanted her picture with him. She was too scared to do it herself so I had to take her.

At the end of the night we were all so tired but it turned out great. They raised a lot of money for research.

Here is Kara, Kalli, myself, and Mandy.

Swearing in

On October 1st we travelled over to Boise with Brad and Devri so that the boys could get sworn in. It was a really neat experience. We didn't realize that it was an actual hearing.

Here is Adam, Blake, and Brad with the state seal.

All the wives joined in for a shot.

Blake's family also came. It was nice to be able to share it with family.

When Blake and Brad had gone over to take the Bar they found this really yummy sushi place. Blake came home and told me that we were going to go to it when we went back for the swearing in. I was not thrilled at all. I have tried it once before and didn't like it. Well I thought I would be adventerous and try it out......

I am now in love with it and working hard to perfect making it at home. It is so yummy!