Pay in Forward 2011

Alright I got this off of my sister's blog so here we go...

I promise to send something hand-made to the first five people who leave a comment here. You must in turn post this on your blog and send something that YOU make to the first five people that comment onyour blog! The rules are the item has to be HANDMADE by YOU and sent sometime in 2011! How fun it that! 

If I don't have your address send me an email or leave your address on a separate post here (i won't publish that one) and then wait for something to come!

Now just some random pics

No wipes case or tissue box is safe from this little girl!!  (Nice hair, btw.)

 She LOVES the piano.  And she doesn't pound like most babies.  She plays with her fingers.  She must watch me teach piano lessons or something! ;0)

 Ten Gallon Hat Lucy

 Look at those rosy cheeks!

 This was the Star Wars table until Paige and Austin made it the fishing table!  We LOVE the fishing game, the shape sorter and the Leatherman tools that Clay and Julie gave us for Christmas.  They are used many times a day at our house!!

 Dr. Bryn explaining something to Daddy!

 Paige and Austin being silly with Mom and Dad's shoes.  (Don't mind the Christmas boxes to the side!  We eventually got around to putting them on the loft in the garage!) :0)

More family visits

We were able to see Brian's Grandma over Christmas break.  Even though this picture doesn't show it, they really love going to see Great Grandma A.!  :0)  They were just too excited to play with her dog, Bella, to sit still long enough for a picture!  Bella was a really sweet dog to the kids, which is saying a lot because the kids kept malling her.  It's crazy how much my kids love dogs!  Maybe someday they'll have one of their own! :0)

 Here's Bella.  Isn't she a pretty dog?

We weren't able to visit Grandpa Bert in the nursing home during this trip, but hopefully soon we'll be able to see him.  Austin talks about Grandpa Bert quite often so we'll have our Grandpa Bert fix soon! ;0)

Visiting my Great Grandma Randall

On our way down to Salt Lake for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas concert, we were able to see my sweet Great Grandma Randall.  She had had a stroke several days before we saw her and we knew we needed to visit her because we weren't sure how long it would be before she passed on.  I'm so glad we did because not even two weeks after this picture was taken, she passed away.  She was 92.  I'm so glad we were able to get this 5 generation picture taken!!  I can't even begin to tell you how blessed I am to be a part of this family!  The women in this picture have had such an impact on me.  They have always been an example of love to me.  They have always been so devoted to their family and most of all, they are constantly bearing their testimony of our Savior and the wonderful gospel by how they live their lives.  I pray and hope that I can become more like these amazing women every day of my life!

 We were able to go to my Grandma's funeral and it was such a neat experience.  The kids were a big handful at times, especially Bryn, but Paige and Austin were so worried about their great-great grandma.  They wanted to make sure she was OK in her coffin and they kept asking questions about what happened to her after she died.  I was so grateful for the knowledge of the gospel that allowed me to explain to them how she was able to go back to heaven and be with her husband again and that she, along with the rest of us, will be resurrected someday.  It was so wonderful to explain to them that we are able to see Grandma Randall again because of what Jesus did when he died for us.  We are able to be an eternal family and always be together.  It was so neat to see them begin to understand that concept.  I'm so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and how happy it makes us, even when a beloved member of our family dies!

Playing in the snow!

We've been able to play in the snow quite a bit this winter.  Brian and the kids made a great snowman in the backyard.  Unfortunately, it didn't last for more than a few days.  Paige and Austin thought it would be fun to kick it and smash it and throw rocks at it.  I felt sorry for you, Mr. Snowman.  Maybe when we get enough snow again, we'll build you again! ;0)

Here's our cute "Purple Marshmallow" as the kids call her.

 Here's the said snowman before his brutal death.

 Brian's brother and his family came to visit for a few days.  After playing for a while at our house we went to Grandma and Grandpa A.'s house.  They have an awesome little sledding hill at the school by their house and we were able to play on it several times while we were there.  The babies didn't last too long because it was so cold (maybe 10 degrees), but we had lots of fun in short bouts of time! ;0)

 Our cute niece, Janie.

 Our awesome nephew and one of Austin's favorite big cousins, Ethan.  (He's one of Austin's favorites because he taught Austin how to play Star Wars with all the sound effects!!)

 Our very talented niece, Ashley.  She could ride on the big sled standing up the whole time.  That takes talent!

 We love this little sled.  It never tips over and it buckles the little babies in.  Bryn LOVED sledding down the hill!

 And last, but not least, our sweet niece, Lucy.  She is such a happy, smiley baby!  I want to hold her again!  (If she'll let me that it is.  She's a very active, mobile baby now!)

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  It was very relaxing and low-key because it was just our little family again this year.  The month of December, on the otherhand, was anything but low-key! ;0)  It was still wonderful, just busy.  I think I wore out my new piano with all of the practicing on it!  My piano students had their first piano recital which went very well, I had to play in our ward's Relief Society Christmas program, our ward's Christmas program and in Sacrament Meeting a couple weeks before Christmas.  I loved being able to play in all of these, but my fingers were getting a little worn out!! ;0)  I wouldn't take it back for anything, though, because music is such a powerful way to testify of our Savior, Jesus Christ, especially during the time that we celebrate his birth.  I'm so grateful that I have the talent I have so I can share my testimony of Him through music.

Now on to our pictures!

Our beautiful Santa baby!!

I really tried to take a good picture of the kids this year in their Christmas outfits in front of the tree.  As you can see, it didn't turn out.  Thankfully we had our family pictures from the summer to fall back on for our Christmas cards!!

I had a meeting to go to one night and when I got home I found the gingerbread house decorated.  Great job, Brian, Paige and Austin!  I had the house put together, but not decorated, for several days and I don't think the kids could stand it anymore.  I was just done with it because the dumb "royal icing" burned out my hand mixer.  I wasn't very happy!!  Luckily Bri is a good dad to help the kids finish it.  It looks great in my opinion!

On Christmas Eve, we did one of the activities in the December Children's Friend.  It was really supposed to be done on each day in December until Christmas, but I was a slacker and didn't get to it until Christmas Eve.  It worked well either way, though, so that's OK! ;0)  The kids loved decorating the tree after reading the Christmas Story scripture that went with each ornament.  Such a great idea!!

We decided to keep the tradition I grew up with and have the kids open the presents they gave each other.  Paige had Bryn, Austin had Paige and Bryn had Austin this year.  They each did a great job picking out the presents because they still play with those toys.  Yippee!!

 Austin got this castle with a knight, dragon and catapult.  The catapult works quite well! ;0)

 Paige got this "FurReal" puppy.  She named it Lily.  It moves it's head and tail when you pet it.  Paige can't let it out of her sight and has to sleep with her every night.  (It was a sad week and a half when we couldn't find Lily.  Paige said a prayer that she would find her, though, and a couple days later found Lily under her mattress!)

 Bryn loves her little ball toy.  She does it over, and over, and over...  The best part...it doesn't have annoying music or sound effects.  It's just the ramp.

 Aunt Kandra, Uncle Brandon, Sydnee and Dawson had us for Christmas this year.  Sydnee HAD to give these suckers to Paige and Austin.  Aren't they HUGE?!?  Paige still hasn't eaten all of hers and after Austin ate the equivalent of 4 normal suckers he threw his away and said he couldn't eat anymore of it. :0)  They said they were good, though! :0)

 Here's what our Christmas looked like after the kids went to bed on Christmas Eve.

 Our stockings and Santa's gifts to the kids

 The cards that Paige and Austin made for Santa.  As you can see, Santa enjoyed the cookies they left him and the reindeer loved the carrot snacks, too.

 Christmas morning.  Do all of my siblings remember pictures like these every year?!? ;0)

 Bryn enjoying her Ring Pop from Sydnee.

 Paige's awesome presents!  She got a full-size dollhouse, some books, fruit leather, a shirt, some pants, a ballerina Barbie, Barbie clothes, Princess and the Frog movie, a puzzle, a letter game, a hula hoop, Lily and the outfit she's wearing.  She definitely scored this Christmas! ;0)

 Austin and his loot.  He got a basketball hoop and ball, some books, a couple shirts and pants, a puzzle, a letter game, a sword, more train tracks and trains, fruit leather, Toy Story 3, his castle and a storage tote for his cars.  What a lucky boy!!

 Here's Bryn's stash.  She got a little computer, "CD player", a ticklish hippo, books, balls, her ball ramp, some outfits and her favorite things in the world, shoes!!  Grandma and Grandpa A. know the way to this girl's heart!! :0)

Brian and I did get some presents, too. ;0)  Bri got a tool box, a hand sander and a shop-vac.  Glamorous presents, I know! ;0)  I got new snowboarding pants, jeans, jewelry box and a new camera.  Yes, Brian always spoils and surprises me!! ;0)



Thanksgiving

Sadly I don't have any pictures from Thanksgiving yet.  My mom took most of the pictures since I was dumb and didn't even take my camera out of the bag.  (In my defense, though, the bag with the camera in it was in the cottage and it was just too cold to go back and get it when I thought of taking a picture!  Yes, I'm blaming it on Wyoming winter weather!!)  Once I get the pictures from my mom I'll post them on here.  For now you get to enjoy a picture of our Paige after she was practicing piano.  You can see some of my Thanksgiving decorations on the table, so there you go! ;0)

We did have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  All of my siblings except for Keith and his family were there.  We really missed them but had a good time with the rest of the fam.  Besides having a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, we played games, watched lots of football, shot some guns (that's just a given in my family), laughed at all the cousins playing, and helped my mom and dad clean and organize some (OK, a lot) of their things.  We went through old books and photo albums/pictures which we divided up between the kids.  The best part of this was the reactions of all of our kids when they saw their mom's and dad's old books.  Paige and Austin LOVE reading the books we brought home and I LOVE reading them because they bring back so many memories.  I remember reading "The Naughty Puppy", "FeatherFin", "Glitterby Baby", etc. and now my kids can enjoy those same books.  Love it!  It was also really neat to look through my mom and dad's old photo albums.  It's been a  really long time since I've seen those pictures of my parents' childhoods and of my ancestors.  There were even several pictures of my grandparents that I had never seen, so it was great!!

We also helped my mom organize her craft supplies, fabric and patterns.  We were very productive, let me tell you.  Plus, we were able to score some awesome supplies.  I'm so excited about some of the patterns I got from her.  Carebear, dinosaur, truck patterns, along with princess costume patterns, and many more.  I'm so glad we were able to help my mom and dad with this.  We gave so much to DI, threw away the things that needed it, and cleared a lot of the items in their storage unit out.  Great job, Mom and Dad!!

So, yes, we had a wonderful, productive Thanksgiving.  How about you? :0) 

I haven't posted since Halloween?!?

Where has the time gone?  Has it seriously been almost 3 months since I last posted?  I know it's been a long time when my dad calls me and tells me I'm in trouble because he hasn't seen posts about his grandkids for a while.  (He called and told me this almost a month ago and I'm just getting to it.  Sorry, Dad!)  We have been busy with school, church callings, vacations during Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, projects (mainly sewing projects), and just raising 3 busy kids.  We have lots of pictures that will soon be posted so beware of the picture overload in advance!  Well, here we go!!