Still here, just hiding!

Just so everyone knows, No I am not off of the blogging bandwagon, I am just hanging off the back by my fingernails hoping to regain the strength to pull myself back up. I have some great pics and just don't know where to start. November was crazy at our house with a new primary calling (I am now officially the Prez), being in charge of the reflections program for our school's PTA, and well then there was thanksgiving. I also coached Shelby's volleyball team and joined one of my own, while wrapping up scouts and my stake calling (gonna miss the humanitarian work). December has not been a lot slower, but who could expect that? We have seen so many Christmas programs and had so many gatherings and "parties" that I can't even remember them. Hopefully I took pictures of the good ones. I will admit that I left my camera home on purpose this week because like I said in the beginning, I am barely holding on by a fingernail and one more picture may just be the one to put me over the edge! Merry Christmas everyone. I will not be sending cards again this year, I just can't make myself do it. Maybe for new years! But maybe not!

Halle Turns 6!

Halle turned 6 this week. I cannot believe that she is getting so big. She is our middle child and such an angel. We need her to keep us balanced and keep the chaos in perspective. She has such a tender heart and such a ready smile. All she wanted was a bike and so of course we pretended that we didn't have one for her...she just thanked us for the things that she did get and went on with it. When Morgan brought the bike out it was just a bonus to an already great day. We got to take a poster to school and she was just so thankful for it and so excited about how cute she thought it was (it was really cute, but of course I didn't get a picture). I usually try to make a fun theme cake, a castle, a crown, a dinosaur... Halle didn't care what she got as long as she could eat it with Nanny and Poppy. We had plans to go to the Brick Oven for her birthday dinner, but when she realized that Nanny and Poppy wouldn't come back to Payson after she decided to go to Wendy's instead (much to her brothers and sisters' dismay). We had a great party. She wanted a craft party, late over, movie night, with popcorn. So we did our best. We made bracelets and bead designs, played kiss the prince, and watched the new Tinkerbell movie (with popcorn of course). I think the hit of the party was "heavy, heavy hang over..." We used to play this as kids and it was new to most of the kids at Halle's party, but they laughed so hard when Halle made them a silly wish and when they got to bonk her on the head that I thought for sure there were going to be wet pants. I just have to say that we love this little angel. Some days I wonder if she is just too good to be true ( I will print this and keep it for when she is 13). Thank you Halle for being in our family and helping us to smile every day.

Before the first snow

A couple of weeks ago I made the kids humor me for a few portraits. I was experimenting with my new camera and I had a lot of fun. Warning: A lot of pics to come! As you can see some of the kids were a little more cooperative than others. Notice in the group shot that there is a little fluff of hair in the bottom corner representing Avery. Thank goodness I didn't wait a week or we would be taking snow pics.

Fairies and cowboys and magicians OH MY!

As you can see I have not yet mastered the habit of taking fabulous pictures of everything we do so we had to pose a few. I did think of maybe staging a few trick or treat pics, but that would be CHEESY! Kindof like finding some cute scrapbook embellishment and then taking pics to match. Oh wait, I've done that too. Carving the jackolanterns. Halle's is the heart face (crying), Jaxon wanted Spiderman, Brock made his scarey and Shelby tried for details. Brock spent the day as Charlie Bone...Who? That's what most people said. He is a character in a series of books that Brock has been reading and really likes. Our little candy fairy. She loves wearing the tutu, I am not sure we will ever get it off of her. Giddy up!! Jaxon spends half of his life dressed as a cowboy so we just added a mustache (just like Poppy) to make it a "costume". Halle was the light fairy. Halle could not get enough of all the parties, parades and trick or treating. She definitely worked the wings and thought she was fabulous! Shelby started the fairy thing. She has been reading Fablehaven and wanted to be a dark fairy so we made a tutu and accessorized. It was fun and she was very proud of the tutu she made. I almost forgot our favorite tradition. The meal! This year we had dead man in worms (spagetti with meatloaf shaped like a...dead man) with a side of monster toes and ghostly pudding. We cannot have Halloween at our house without the monster toes! Oh, and I am not staging this one, you'll just have to use your imaginations.

Seeing the World in Our Own Back Yard

Last week for "fall break" we all needed to escape this crazy life and so we took off for an exotic local. Yep, we went to Salt Lake City for a couple of days. We had a great time and there was no long hour drive involved (which was a real bonus since Halle was throwing up for most of Friday). We started off by going to Gardner Village. This was purely my choice. I wanted to go and get the girls some cute tutus for Halloween (they are all going to be fairies). Apparently all the other moms in the state were also buying their daughters tutus because it was crazy!! We decided to take a couple of cute pics and then be on our way (I stopped at Joann's and bought tule so I can make our own tutus). They have the cutest witches scattered everywhere at Gardner Village and the kids thought they were great. Halle especially loved the hula hooping witch. I also wanted to take the opportunity to take some portraits with the perfect backgrounds there. Unfortunately, I was so busy getting ready to go that I didn't notice that Halle's clothes didn't match, Shelby's hair wasn't done and the boys were wearing hats, so Avery is the only one who got her picture taken. I am loving my new camera! Thanks Morgan! We checked out the aquarium in Draper next. It was actually pretty good for an aquarium in a desert. The kids thought it was so cool. They got to touch some "Sting rays" (really a manta ray) and they had a huge octopus that was freaky! We were worried that we wouldn't have enough time to see it all in the three hours before closing, but we were done in an hour (I think we forgot it was an aquarium in a land locked state, not Seaworld). We stayed at a hotel in Midvale and so the kids had a great time swimming. I am taking more and more after my parents, because I did not get in the water. It was COLD! and I am a WUS! Our Saturday activites included going to the zoo and shopping. Our kids never get tired of the zoo and I can never believe that we actually think we can take five kids shopping. For the most part it worked out, we didn't lose anyone at least. By the third hour Morgan was headed for home, no ice cream, no movie, no potty break! Th zoo was actually really fun. We got there pretty early in the morning and went to see the Tigers first. The tiger was actually up and walking around, he even got in the water. We also got to see them feeding the leopard and even the cheetah was up and walking around. That made the trip worth while for Brock. Jaxon loved the monkeys and Avery, who is just getting into the world around her was so excited. Shelby was comparing everything to the Denver zoo and Halle just wanted cotton candy. All in all it was great and the kids didn't even know we weren't somewhere exotic. Jaxon kept telling everyone "we are at a hotel". When they would ask where he was from and he said Payson we got a couple of funny looks, but we are just thankful the kids can have a great time anywhere.

Official Business

I usually only mention football in a why me poor me way ie: the football widow, longest three months of my year, he's at football (said while rolling my eyes in a very mature fashion), etc... So...This is ode to my fabulous husband. he is definitely passionate about his hobby. He is dedicated, and he is generous. This week he was even quite famous as his game (Orem vs. Springville) was televised and then he made the newspaper. He did a great job on TV and the announcers even talked about him specifically (they were complaining about the number of delay of game calls he was making... Stinkin' Refs!). Anyway, with 15 games a week and 5 months of the year taken up with this "hobby" I thought I should at least aknowledge this part of our life. It truley does make our lives better and I am glad that he has something that he loves to do so much. Love you hon! Have you ever seen a herd of zebra that looked like this? Tee Hee Hee

You'll never believe this... okay you will

So, I took the cutest pictures of Jaxon and Avery playing outside. They were playing in the sandbox, riding Jaxon's 4 wheeler with Avery in the wagon, playing in the stroller and sharing apple slices. It was the cutest thing ever! Here's the part you won't believe. You are going to have to take my word for how cute they were because I just deleted my whole memory card. Go me! So all of the great pictures of Jaxon and Avery's birthdays, GONE! All those cute pictures of the first day of school, GONE! The pictures of Halle hula hooping in front of the whole school for our WOW assembly, GONE, GONE, GONE! Even the pictures of Morgan officiating at Cougar Stadium during Fall Camp, GONE! (No, I didn't tell Morgan that and yes, I checked my recycle bin and guess what... they are GONE!) So I learned a lesson and am really glad I have this blog cause at least I uploaded a few pics. p.s. I wonder why my kids are always so dramatic...must be from Morgan.

I'm a Survivor

Yes, it is possible to survive soccer season. However, I did doubt it there for a while. The good news is that next year all 3 soccer kids (Jaxon, Halle and Brock) will get to be on seperate teams so I can try to be in three places at once instead of just two. We really did have a great season. Halle is a superstar! She is awesome as a goalie and an aggressive little kicker. She scored more goals than anyone else on her team. Jaxon is hilarious! I know, you're shocked! He actually kicked a goal the last game of the season. I wish I would have captured the look on his face as he ran around yelling, "we won the game! we won the game! Did we win the game?" We still had more than a half to play but he was sure he had saved the day. A lot of the time he was just tackling his teammate Liam, but when we could get him to focus he had a lot of fun. Brock tried really hard. Let's be honest. We are just thrilled any time we get him off of the couch. He really wanted to be great and gave it his best effort. Unfortunately I think he may have gotten his speed gene from me (yes, Brian and Garrett, that means he's really fast!!) Brock did get one goal and played goalie in one game as well. The important thing is that we had fun! Oh, and that we won more games than we lost ;)