Christmas Day...

Christmas day is so fun when you have three kids. I love getting ready Christmas Eve, I think I was more excited than the kids. We put our cookies and milk out, sprinkled reindeer food on the lawn, and had a fun Christmas Eve party over at papa and julie's house. Lots of eating and a fun game of spoons for THREE hours! Uncle Matt=Ledgie's best bud!
Ryker with his best bud, papa.

My fairy girl with Julie, nice camo coat Jules!
Sissy got a barbie doll house from Santa!
She loves to organize and decorate for hours, she is her mother's daughter.
(Trying to keep Ledgie out of it has been a joke)

Ryker got a microscope (that is tipped over) and bug slides to view!

He wants to go out and catch bugs now so bad. Melt snow, melt.

We had a wonderful Christmas with lots of family to be with. What a awesome year it has been, Ledger growing from baby to boy, Hallie getting baptized, Ryker being dad's shadow with a love of animals, Shane working hard at the buisness and we love that he is always home (if not hunting). Hope 2010 will be another wonderful year!

Winding Down...

I don't know why I feel the need to update, but I do, after 9 days of no posts. Busy, like everyone else this time of year, it seems to take over your life. From Releif Society Christmas dinner, to one year check up doctor apt., to finishing up Christmas, wrapping until midnight, to neighbor deliveries, to on, and on. I know I am not the only one who is busy in this world, but I finally feel it winding down ready or not. Finally it is time to take a breather and remember the true spirit of Christmas. Papa and Julie did the 12 days of Christmas for our little family and what fun that has been, taking time to read the scripture passage on the outside of each package and then the reveal. What a great reminder of why we do the things we do for our loved ones this holiday season. The love, the giving, the service, the reminder. I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and hope life is winding down, that you will be able to take a minute next week and do something fun and traditional with your little ones.

The Big One Year Boy!

It is so hard to beleive that a year has gone by. But boy, what a year it has been. A beautiful six pound boy was place in my arms on December 9, 2008 at 2:45pm. He was such a good baby when he was little, then started to get a personality of his own. He has always been a mama's boy, attatched 24/7, even toys don't entertain this guy! After waking up five times every night for the last year, I finally hit my boiling point. We (me) have given him an awesome birthday present of crying through the whole night without getting him out, first night on Sunday and needless to say it is Wed. and we (shane, me, hallie and ryker) are still camping out downstairs hopefully this last and final night. What a wonderful little spirit he brings to our home. Hallie constantly mothering him and Ryker trying to get him to wrestle, until he cries. We are so greatful we have our little Ledgie to keep us on our toes. Happy One Year Birthday my Boy!!!

Weekend for Hallie...

The beautiful baptism dress
New set of scriptures from mom and dad.

Proud parents

Hallie here with her dad, feeling very nervous right before we left for the church. She did great and it was a very special day. Lots of wonderful family and friends that supported her. Confirmed by her papa who did an outstanding job, and then the bishop sprung on me to bear my testimony. You can imagine, what a boob I am. Sunday she got to go up in front of everyone to show off her beautiful dress, and a glutten for punishment I got up again and shared my testimony. What a great weekend we had with family and our special event.

Miracles

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving in our home town of Pleasant Grove, Utah. We spent five days visiting friends and staying with Shane's family. Had an awesome Thanksgiving feast thanks to Ma, Janalyn and Laurie. Tons of shopping done and christmas bought the weekend was winding down fast. Saturday morning I received a call from Julie saying my dad has had a heart attack and is now in surgery. My heart sank, as I pulled off the side of the road from getting a pedicure and said a little prayer asking heavenly father to let him stay with us. He was out and in recovery within a couple of LONG hours. He is doing great, even though he is weak he is here with us and that is all that matters. We are so blessed to have all of our family members living and enjoying this journey together. What a wake up call for me...I need to say I love you more often, to speak kinder every day and enjoy every moment I have on this earth with the family I love.

Birthday Tribute to our Hallie Bug...

There is just something about your first born coming into your family and changing the way you look at life and how you live your life. I look back on the last eight years you have been in our family and tears come to my eyes at how much you have grown. When you were little, you were chubbier than Ledger, and people stopped to tell me you looked like you were going to pop. When you were a toddler, you always said MYSELF! when wanting to do something on your own. You have always been a little nervous when it comes to new things, (you get that from your mom unfortunatly), but when you do it, you love it. You are our happiest princess, a very big helper to me and dad, and the peacemaker of our family. There will always be a special place in my heart for you as our first baby. I thank our heavenly father every day for you and your spirit in our home. I love you, Hallie with all of my heart and wanted to wish you a very Happy Birthday on your special day! Love, Mom

Happy 8th Birthday Hallie! (Friend Party)

Hallie decided for her birthday party she wanted to go to Skateland and rollerblade. She invited 12 friends and all but 2 made it. We had a lot of fun, Papa came and was the girls entertainment for 2 hours playing "tag your it" on skates. He was a hit, the girls asked if he could come to their birthday party. Thanks dad for making it fun! Hallie got a lot of great gifts, she has some great friends. Today she wanted donuts for her treat at class, and then dinner at Gerdie's with the family. More celebrating to come... Papa and Hallie

The lovely guests

More lovely guests

Tinkerbell Flower cake of course

Friends skating at Skateland

A Good Deal!

This is kind of silly to post, but I love getting a good deal!
This week at Target they have wii games buy 2 get 1 free. Which is a great deal if you have ever priced them. At the front of the store they have their fun kid ones for 14.99 ea. So I bought 6 games, printed 3 coupons from Krazy Koupon Lady online the night before for a 10.00 off coupon purchase of 2 wii games only at Target.
Long story short, buy 6 games at $14.99 (the cheaper wii games, but my kids love them), this means 2 free and then 30.00 off in coupons which makes each game $5.00! I was a little sceptical of this offer, because I am not a coupon clipper, but I thought this good of a deal was worth a try. I handed the cashier all three of my coupons and without question she scanned all three, and handed me my receipt...$29.95 for 6 wii games! SCORE on Christmas gifts.

Baptism Preview...

The big day is Dec. 5th, but we were so excited I had to post these, the invitations are on their way. I can't beleive my little girl is going to be 8 this year!

Fall FUN!!!

Hallie bug
Our potatoe head pumpkin family: Hallie got a princess, Ledger got a skeleton, Ryker got a pirate. Decorated pumpkins and no mess! Gotta love that.

Throwing what leaves we had in our yard!

This pictures is suppose to be Ryker and his throwing up leaves, sorry, pretend this is Ryker.
Ryker making a snow angel in the leaves

Hallie making her leaf angel.
Best Friends!


Top Ten Things We LOVE about Fall:

1. Conference Weekend

2. Cooler Weather

3. Less lawn mowing

4. Pumpkin Pie

5. Turning the clocks back!

6. Changing Leaves

7. Costume Hunting for Halloween

8. Reflections of Gratitude

9. Hunting season of course

10. New Moon Movie(Twilight series)

Stairs and Crawling in 1 Week...

This little boy figured out how to crawl Tues. and was doing the stairs by Thurs. evening. Holy smokes, bud you have to slow down, I just can't keep up! Rolled off my six foot high bed last night, woke everyone up in the neighborhood...where do they sell child restraints??? cute little diaper bootie!

Crawling! Yeah, our first baby that has figured out how to crawl. My other two were bum scooters. You had a big sissy teach you every day for two weeks! We love our sis.

Takin' a Breather!

17 of those puppies is a work out for a chubbie Ledgie!

Giving me a cheese when I kept telling him No, No, don't go up one more. Yeah right, he'll show me who is boss!!!

Never a Dull Moment...

Yes, this is our live kitty, that Ryker trapped into a zip lock bag and zippered the top closed. I turn around from the computer and saw him carrying this sack around. I swear there is never a dull moment in this household. Everyone needs a Ryker in their home!!! Luckily it wasn't Ledger's head who was inside. And once again, Yes, we are back to trying out the cat buisness. For those that don't know the cat stories...we have lost seven in a year and this maybe the eighth!

Dressing Up...

Shane and I were out back talking and pushing Ledger in the swing, Hallie and Ryker were inside playing in her room. About fifteen minutes later they come out holding hands, Hallie saying look mom, Ryker wanted to be an indian. Within a second, I said what is on your face? Hallie spoke up and said I used a black marker to make him look like an indian. Oh great, hope it isn't a permanent one. I told him it probably wasn't going to come off and then I headed inside to grab the camera. He looked like this the rest of the evening, even told me he wasn't going to wear shoes anymore, because indians don't! Luckily soap does wonders even with marker. He screamed the whole time I scrubbed and said he wanted to be an indian forever. The joys of dressing up and getting to be someone else for a day. Holding his arrowheads bought at the fair
Hallie, our awesome artist

She thought she should be in one pic because she did such a great job.

our little indian

A Beautiful Bird..

Shane's friend that we met through craigslist is into falconry. He has fourteen of these beautiful birds. We traded him a dog box for a pointer elhew puppy, so while bringing the puppy, he thought he would bring the bird too. It was awesome to see this bird up close, and watch him eat a dead sparrow out of Shane's hand. Shane is now looking into a new hobby (in his spare time, ha ha) of being this friends apprentice, only we would start out with a red tail hawk. The falcon became very anxious around gunner and I had to lock him up. It was funny to see him call/talk when he got nervous.
Eating the sparrow.

Almost a blueish tint to his beak and eye feathers, this one is not full grown.

Pretty impressive to have one up close, Shane's arm got quite tired after the whole neighborhood came out. We didn't care about the new puppy after watching this thing for an hour.

New Calling...Bear Scout Leader!

Hip Hip Horray!!! After three years of enrichment I was called to the best calling of all (since it is only my first week)...Bear Scout Leader! We have four boys so far and I am soooo excited for a change in callings. This will be such a fun time to get to know the scouting program for Ryker and Ledger when they are old enough to come in. Now my only problem is finding a sitter once a week for an hour and a half! I thought being in charge of super saturday was a blast, the scouts aren't going to know what hit them!

09/09/09

It's hard to imagine our Ledger is 9 months old today on 09/09/09. It has gone by soooo fast . We are so greatful this little guy has joined our family. He is at such a fun age, very vocal, loves to eat anything he can get into his mouth, happy most of the time, loves to play with brother and sissy, attatched to mom, and best of all still likes to snuggle. We love you Ledgie, you bring us all lots of joy and smiles!

Once in a Lifetime...

Shane had the opportunity to go to Alaska (his dream hunt) and stay with friends that live there at least until Tues. and then they will be our next door neighbors. It was a great chance to go because he didn't have to pay a guide fee, which you normally pay as a non resident to hunt on their turf. He was happy to have gotten this monster after ten days of being away from us and a nine hour four wheeler ride in. He also had the chance to catch some silver salmon, which will be awesome on the bbq. Thank you Matt for being Shane's alaskan guide! It was a long ten days and we are glad to have him home, at least until the next hunting adventure...