Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest

Oh yea! Our family did the Ugliest Christmas Sweater Contest - and boy were there some good looking sweaters!

It's hard to see, but there were some glittery ones, and tight (momma) sweaters. There was even a Christmas tree that lit up.
But here are the winners! Yes, Brian took first place, and I took second! Don't we look awesome! Brian even added a cool looking mullet to his costume! It was lots of fun!

Alec's Baptism

Alec is the happiest boy on earth! He finally was able to get baptized! He has been looking forward to this day for quite some time - Here are some of the people who showed up!

We had an awesome icecream bar that everyone loved!
Isn't he a cutie! It was definitely a fun day for our family.

Thanksgiving in Moab

I wasn't able to get pics of everyone, but the most important one is this one....

Jim and Bud are doing the after Thanksgiving dinner dishes!!!

Brian took the kids on the Bar M loop bike ride - it was 8 miles! The kids were exhausted, but had a BLAST! Isn't Moab gorgeous!

Girl's Night Out! Go Twilight!

Twilight was AWESOME! And to spend the night out with my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law was even better! Ok - maybe not better than twightlight, but a definite close second!

The fun crew was Erika, Judy, Julie, Ashlee's mom (her name escaped me), Ashlee's sis Whitney, me, and Ashlee! We went up to Heber during the Utah & BYU game so there were no lines anywhere! We ate at a cute restaurant called Breadsticks. Then rushed to....

see "Twilight" of course! It was well worth it-us girls were in love!
And then, of course, to everyone else's prompting except for my own, we went and got icecream! We had to sacrifice for Erika - poor girl had her tonsils out that week and was feeling awful, but she was a trooper and came along!

It was such a fun night and I can't wait for the next one!

Birthday fun!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DASH!! What a stud - muffin! Alec is so excited for his birthday, but he tells us that he's mostly excited for his baptism! So here is one of his baptism pics that's he's mighty proud of. He did have a fun birthday with balloon pancakes and cinnamon rolls (thanks to Kristy). A cool skateboard - a fun game called Super Dash - cool binoculars (G & G Shewell)- and $ (who doesn't like money!) He's having a late night birthday party at home tomorrow night so don't come by our house - either the kids will be yelling or I will be. :)

Happy Birthday, Son!

It's always messy!

We had a funny experience two days ago. One of the kids' fun friends was over playing. They were mostly playing downstairs with the dress-up and after a while her dad came to get her. He asked if she needed to pick anything up. She responded "No, they always keep it messy down there!" The poor dad just looked at me and we both laughed. Out of the mouths of babes!

Eric turned 3!

Eric turned a TERRIFIC 3 year old on Nov. 14! Now that we've written it, it has to be true!

He is pretty proud of his light saber. Poor kid - it already broke. We kept telling him to be careful with it, but he couldn't resist "killing" with it. Look what Star Wars has turned him into. He also got a Mr. Potato Head, Carrot Head, and Corn Head. He thought those were pretty funny.

His favorite is the cool shaving kit - so he could shave in the bathtub! Isn't that such a cute picture! He had such a fun birthday - he loved helping make his cake because he knew it was for his birthday. Brian was getting a box of clothes out of the Expedition that my sister had sent up and right away Eric asked "Is that for my birthday!" Everything we did, he just knew it was for his birthday! What a cutie!

It's beginning to look and feel a lot like CHRISTMAS!

It's SNOWING! and not just a little bit of snow - it's coming down like crazy!

Kortney is loving it - it took us forever to get her back inside the house. Her hands were freezing and her pants all wet, but she loved it!

Eric's first words when he saw the snow was "Can I go out in it, Mom?" These kids are definitely winter kids! Their mom - not so much(BRRR). They must take after their dad.

Halloween

We had so much fun for Halloween! The weather was wonderful and there was so much candy that Eric kept jumping and running to each house to get more! By the end of the night he was most definitely exhausted!

Here's my hunk of a chunk Brian - he had an awesome mullet - I was a washed out blonde - Kortney was a cute little fairy!

The kids looked awesome. Korrynn was a fairy - Alec was a skeleton - Spencer was a vampire - Kayley was a secret agent. Eric was a lion (he loved roaring at people when they gave him his candy) The kids had a blast!

Happy Birthday Thanks

I don't have pics yet, but thanks to Kelly for taking me out to get my feet and nails done and we even picked up some cool bags! But especially thanks to Kristy for watching our kids so we could go out! It was awesome - we BOTH felt like it was our birthday - NO KIDS! Boy did the time fly by so fast without them! We were able to go into shops and browse - I've never done that before in Gardner Village - it was a wonderful day! Thanks again Kristy and Kelly.
Spencer made my bed for me, Alec drew hearts on the calendar, and Kayley heart attacked my room. Thanks kids - you're awesome
Then Brian took me out to "Scary Poppins" at Desert Star. It was so much fun - it's always fun to do things with Bri - he even gave them my name so they could sing to all the birthday kids. Yes, I still think I'm a kid. He gave me an awesome jacket and a Duran Duran CD -Thanks hon!
My mom brought up high school memorabilia - it was awesome to look back through all my cool high school stuff - it was actually pretty exciting because I thought I had somehow lost all my stuff (lettermans jacket - cheerleading outfit - yearbook, etc.) My mom cleaned out the basement and found it all again, yea!
Brian's parents gave me $ to go spend on myself - whoohoo!
Mandy called and sent me an awesome card - thanks Mandy - boy do I miss you!
I realized why my birthday was so much fun - I got to hear from my wonderful friends and family and most of the day was kidless! Don't tell my children I just said that!
Thanks again everyone!

Update

We've had some fun this past week and thought we'd update the blog!

First - Grandma Shewell took Kayley and I out to see "Into the Woods" at Hale Center Theatre for our girls night out. It was supposed to be for the married girls, but no one else could make it so Kayley got to come along - it was so cute and we had lots of fun!

Then we went to Gardner Village and saw all the cute/ugly witches. The kids had a blast - we even dared ourselves to eat at Archibalds with all 6 kids - that was definitely "scarey", but Brian and I were proud of ourselves because we "chose" to be patient about it.
Brian's new beau - love at first sight!
ERIC EPISODE #210 - he helped me paint the garage door when I wasn't around. He opened the paint can all by himself using a screwdriver - just like he saw me do - and then proceeded to paint the wall, floor and Kortney's toe. I think Kortney is becoming his accomplice!

Eric Episode #209

There's not a day that goes by that Eric hasn't done something fun and interesting - I might just start a blog on all happenings of Eric. Mandy and I keep teasing each other about writing a "Mother's Book", but we think people wouldn't believe us - that these stories don't seem quite real. But they definitely are..... So today's story is all about fingernail polish...... And blue makeup.....

Need I say more! Yep, it's in Kortney's hair. It's all over the crib and carpet. It's all over his hands and both dressers. The clue that I had to what they were doing was the strong smell! You know how fingernail polish smells - well, they are the only kids home and when you smell that smell and you know that you haven't painted your nails recently - that's when it hits you and you run as fast as you can, just hoping that it's at the beginning stages. But in this case - they had just finished. I called up Brian and told him that I didn't know if I should cry or laugh! I can laugh now, but I was ready to leave when it happened. LITTLE STINKERS!

Hawks Visit

We had so much fun with my sister's family! They came up to S.L. because their daughter, Athena, was playing in a state tennis match up here. So they got to come up! We, of course, got out our chocolate fountain and gorged ourselves again. Yum Yum.

The cousins all got to sleep in the camp trailer - which was definitely a hit!
And we got to watch General Conference together, which is always fun to do with people for my kids to play with when they're restless.
And Thena - thanks for letting us have so much fun with you! Poor thing, we joked and kidded, and played many practical jokes on her. But we can't help it that she's so cute and fun! And we're not the only ones that think that - not naming any names (Greg J.) :)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom! Still looking good as ever! Don't ask me how I got these pics - I have a few tricks up my sleeve - Don't worry, you'll get them back! We sure love you and think you are wonderful. You are a great mom, always giving and helping others - you're AWESOME and WE LOVE YOU!

You still take the cake! I love this pic - look at how young you and Dad look! I mean - you haven't changed one bit!

Boys Soccer

I forgot to add pics when the boys were playing soccer. Here's Dash (AKA Alec) doing his mighty soccer kick - he was pretty fierce!

Here's Flaco (AKA Spencer) doing his best at tackling and defending. He was so good at defense, he would do anything to get that ball! Lots of fun to watch!

Brian's Bike Trip to Moab

Brian had a meeting for his job down in Moab so he and his coworker, Brad, went for a bike ride also. How can you go to Moab and not go for a bike ride. These are some of the pics he took. Isn't the scenery awesome! Oh, and the background's not so bad too!

There's a little lizard that climbed onto his pants while he was riding around!
His poor friend Brad possibly broke his wrist - he biffed it quite a few times - poor guy! Brian said his success with no scrapes was his advanced training! he he

Kids performance

Kirsty and I got to be the audience of a cute little production! Here's the cast...Alec -Michael Jackson, Spencer - Elvis Presley, Kayley - fan (I think), Courtney - fan, Korrynn - fainting girl

Lagoon! WHEEE

Thanks to Grandpa Shewell we were able to take our family to Lagoon last Saturday! And the best part was that we got in for free and even got a free meal ticket! Actually, the best part was that Grandma Shewell babysat Eric and Kortney!

Korrynn is holding on for dear life on the Tidal Wave, but it turned out to be one of her favorite rides. She was pretty brave - since we wanted to go on all the big kid rides we had her wear tall shoes and even puffed up her hair. She got checked once and was right at 46"! She went on the white rollercoaster, the Wild Mouse and even Collasus (however you spell it). After those rides though she told us she didn't want to ride them again. But at least she tried them all first!
Here are the boys! They loved to go with Dad!
Here's Alec, Spencer and Brian on the Spider. They LOVED it! Kayley and I knew for sure that we would puke - so that was just a boys ride only! We also went on the newer ride WICKED and can I just say that it was WICKED! I've never screamed so much in my life! It was AWESOME!
Thanks again Grandpa & Grandma Shewell - we had a blast!

Oops!

We broke Cierra's leg! While she was jumping on the trampoline with my kids she got "popped", which they love to do to everyone. But it also "popped" her leg! We feel just awful! Her parents have been so good about it - they have a tramp also, but she's had to miss lots of school because of it. Don't come to our house to jump on the tramp! I guess it's ok if you sign a waiver first! SORRY CIERRA!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Kelly!! You're awesome and we love you!

Yea!

Korrynn played with a friend during recess in Kindergarten!!!!! We met this cute girl around the corner named Cierra. They are both in Miss Keith's class and so I thought... "why not." So I talked to Amber about trading off picking up the girls - luckily Cierra is more forward - just what Korrynn needs. We've had her over quite a lot and Korrynn has gone over to her house quite a lot and finally Korrynn decided to play during recess with Cierra instead of watching! We are so excited! Cierra is an answer to our prayers!!

DUP Museum

I got to go with my sister-in-law (Erika), her friend (Christa), and my mother-in-law (Judy) to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum. It was actually really fun and there were so many amazing things to see. Behind us there's a carriage that they used during pioneer times! We also got to see the wagon that Brigham Young was brought into the valley with when he said "This is the place." We got to see tons of old clothes and furniture and books. There were dolls and dishes and anything used during pioneer times. It showed a lot of the past prophets clothing and belongings. It was lots of fun!

This is an old fire engine that the DUP restored - it was pretty cool!
Here's a dress that one of the beauty queens wore. It was so detailed and delicate - this one had seagulls sewn onto the dress! So much detail!

What Do?

Mandy and her family will understand this title! But this is what our family has been doing just recently....

AAGGHH! Yes, I did it - I bought a chocolate fountain for our family. And no, I have no idea what got into me. It was crazy I admit! You have to melt 3-5 lbs of chocolate just for the machine to work and so there is tons of chocolate that is so tempting. We set it up on a Sunday and got lots of fun things to dip into it and then went crazy gorging ourselves. It was definitely fun, but man were we sick. We have decided that the next time we get the chocolate fountain out will be when there are TONS of people to help eat it all up.

Brian finally got his way - we are the official owners of another trailer. I strongly suggested that we wait until spring for our tax return, but you know how husbands can be when they're focused on one thing and one thing only. So about a month later we got a "great deal" of a trailer! This one is a hard top so no cranking up the pop-up trailers anymore - our other one broke so if anyone wants their husband to fix up a broken pop-up tent trailer then it is yours for free.
The kids are so excited and there is tons of room. Now all we need to do is hook up and go! Yeehaw!

BIG TOMATOES!

Just for you dad! (Arthur-just in case you don't know who you are :) I know this pic is blurry - but you get the point. Our tomato plants have been producing like crazy - And BIG - we are so proud of them. You can see who is most proud of them!

Our upcoming piano star!

Kortney loves to play the piano - it always calms her down when she cries. She may be a piano star soon! Lots of practice!

Boys new room

We finally finished the boys room! We got them new bedspreads and pillows and then I was so excited for them, that I painted! And you know how you're so excited just to do something new that I even brought up Kristy to show it off! She did the right oohs and aahs to make me feel good! But most important - the boys love it! They spent a lot of time in it yesterday - so much that we had to give them a warning to come down for dinner! They even made their beds and cleaned their rooms without reminders - yeah!

Back to School

Yea! First day of school for the kids - they were so excited! And so was I! Well, truthfully, I actually was a little sad because they have been such a big help this summer and they were so fun to be with. Of course there were the not so fun fights, but they are such cuties. All I can say is that it was nice to have "quiet time" - if you know what I mean!

And you'll have to notice that Kayley has contacts! She's so excited!

This is a pic of Korrynn's first day of Kindergarten. She is not a morning person, so it took a little extra bit of pushing and pulling to get her up - we finally told her that if she didn't get up, then we would have to put her to bed 30 min earlier than everyone else - that got her up - she hates going to bed before everyone else.

Awake and ready! We hope!

She didn't talk much, actually she didn't talk at all, but at least she did walk into the school without us - that was a big first step for her. We have definitely been praying and fasting for this little girl of ours that we are so concerned for. I think she'll be ok, but I know there will be more trials for us to go through for her to get over this big step of talking and socializing.

After Korrynn got home she said Miss Keith was the nicest teacher and that she did everything the teacher said and even ate her treats! Yeah! And she even said that she loved Kindergarten!

Girl's Night Out - Happy Birthday Mandy!

How cool can a group of girls look! We have Spy girl (Kelly), Frizzo (Karen), Watwam (Julie), B'Ump (Birthday Girl, Mandy), and Swiper (me)

After the first game (which Julie won - only because she wouldn't tell anyone her tricks) we all were sweating and taking off our heavy jackets.Not sure what Julie is doing here - (Karen's not sure either) but it was so much fun we didn't care .
It was so much fun - we ended up at Sonic for icecream and drinks and talked and laughed and had a great girl's night out! Happy Birthday Mandy!
Mandy - we miss you and love you tons! Can't wait to see you again!