Snow,Snow & more Snow!!!!

We had so much fun the day after Christmas with my sisters Shannyn & Tracy and my brother Richard's families. We enjoyed some Christmas dinner, tasty breakfast from the cafe and tons & tons of sweets! We had a blast playing the game Sequence, telling old school stories of way back when and of course playing in the snow. The kids road the sleds while Brandon pulled them with the 4 wheeler. Some of the older kids made some serious snow forts that were awesome. We made some really fun memories and drank some good ole hot coco.

Madee glowing as she gets to go tobogganing

Jenna had so much fun with her cousins

SISTERS!!!


My sister and her husband

Brandon with some of the kids in tow.



she laughed so hard she had tears

Nate and Nick screaming that the TIPPED OFF!

Emily and pour little sick Josie

SNOW WARS (one of the forts they built)

The biggest kid of all.....Brandon got on his old snowboard and took it for a ride a few times behind the 4 wheeler. We all had a really fun time.

Christmas 2008

Christmas morning was so fun this year. The girls really just appreciated what they got and didn't complain that it wasn't exactly what they asked SANTA for. *just what we could afford after Disneyland!!* and Tucker was hilarious as usual. His little personality is HUGE. So animated, so vibrant, so fun. Here are a few pictures from Christmas Day.

Emptying the stockings


some new wii games to attempt.

Little pet shop animals for the computer

This picture got overexposed because I am an idiot photographer!!! Study Tuckers face though. He was SOOOOO excited for his real choo-choo train. He loves trains.

oh' and Hulky. That is what he calls Incredible Hulk.....Hulky!!

They got some other fun things from Santa this year including all the art supplies to last a year!! It was a very fulfilling Christmas this year. Spending time with each other was so fun and wasn't really stressful this year. We really relaxed and had a blast with my family too.

I am so very blessed to have a beautiful family that shares in my love for our Savior Jesus Christ. We are so blessed to have a Savior. What a day to Cherish His memory. We hope you all had a joyous holiday and tried to also remember Jesus on this special day.

Merry Christmas

DisNeYlAnd

We loved the idea last year of spending Christmas at Disneyland that we thought we would give the kids another opportunity. We went with the Story's this year and had an absolute blast. It rained on us the first day so I didn't want to get my camera wet. We were dressed to the tee with ponchos and all. FREEZING!!! BUT we loved it! Tucker was so funny this year. Wanted nothing to do with the stroller and EVERYTHING to do with the characters. He loved them. Madee was just excited to get to ride the BIG kid rides. She was able to go on California screamin!! Jenna, she just loves it all. She was such a great help to me with Tucker too.

This is over at California Adventures in the Jungle area. Kota & Kenine where his favorite. He got lots of hugs from Kota (even during the show......so funny).
This is Brandon & Tucker attempting to get across the ropes. They did it. Tucker loved this area!

So, even though it was freezing cold, Travis wanted to take the kids on a WET ride...duh. They got it too!! Luckily the sun came out for a little bit after that so they could dry. Silly Travis.

I had so much fun on the little kids rides with Tucker and Madee. These are the little version of the Tea Cups. I laughed so hard.

our little bugs

So exciting.........Madee's first BIG ride. Brandon is in the Green shirt with Madee next to him. Jenna is in front of Madee! Pretty exciting!

some of the characters we got to take pictures with. Tuck couldn't keep his eyes off of them! LOL

Christmas 2008

I am such the slacker these days! I tried so hard to do a Christmas letter along with our family photo and it just didn't happen! Trying to get my cards out was hard enough before heading off to Disneyland for Christmas....

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

I will be adding more pictures from Disneyland and our Christmas holiday with our family.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

NO SCHOOL!!!!!

YEAH....NO SCHOOL.....to much snow!! Yeah right! We sure had fun though. Making snowmen, sledding and snowball fights.

Madee, Tucker & Jenna ready to go sledding

Madee

Jenna


Here they go! ***that hydrant is now covered in the snow after a few more snow storms***

Tucker and his buddy Kennedy

Our amazing Snowman!!

Tucker thought he was pretty cool!

SLC....

So....Brandon was driving home from work yesterday and decided we needed to get out. Get away from life, work, problems, etc. so we decided to make a trip to Salt Lake City. Plan...to have some quality time as a family. To stop the hustle and bustle of December and really have fun with one another. That is what we did. We left Sunday morning and stayed at a dear friends home in Draper. We wanted to go to Temple Square on Monday to see the lights, but that plan was quickly ruined by a snow storm. So, we packed up and went to Thanksgiving Pointe. The kids loved the information about dinosaurs. Here are some of the fun things they did.

Tucker and Madee in a cave. It was pitch black in here. Tucker was pretty convinced there was a monster coming to get him.

This was a really fun activity for the kids. They dug for Dino's in the wet sand and had fun playing.


Jenna & Madee tying to divert the water over to them.

This was another really fun thing they loved. They were archeologist's. Uncovering the bones hidden in the sand.

P.S. Thanks Shylah for a fun time!

some serious competition=BLONDE BOMESHELLS!

Madee getting ready for the start of a game.



Dribbling the ball down field.

My beautiful Madee.

Saturdays have consisted of soccer, soccer and more soccer. Both Jenna and Madee had a great season and have really enjoyed this year. Madee was on a team of all BLONDE GIRLS!! So, they dub'd themselves the Blonde Bombshells. Funny ha.
Madee was a little timid at the start of the season, but by the second to the last game she was on FIRE! Her last game she scored 4 goals. Now that was the Madee we knew from last year!! Their team went UNDEFEATED!!!! She got the award for Best Ball Controll. Good job MADEE!!!


****I am waiting for some special pictures of Jenna and will post about her team later!

Jenna's Cheetah Girls

Jenna's 5th year of soccer.
Jenna throwing the ball in bounds.

This was my FAVORITE picture this year. Look are the form!! I blew it up for her room and put it in black/white. Jenna's team this year played positions. We thought that it would put them ahead of the game for next year....and it did. The start of the season was a little shaky because of the confusion of positions, but by mid season they had it down and did amazing. I am so proud of Jenna this year. She really took up a pretty hard position and mastered it. She played stopper which is a defender position and still managed to score 2 goals. Jenna was awarded "The Anchor" & MVP of the Year!
She really was the glue that kept the team together and we found several games that she never came out. Good Job Jenna

Halloween

As usual.....we had a blast on Halloween. We had our school parade first thing in the morning, then off to class parties we went. Tucker and all!! Then that night we had about 30kids *or so it seemed* on 2 trailers and has a really good time. The weather was beautiful. Tucker didn't want any help this year. Couldn't hold his hand or his overflowing bucket. He is a big boy and was really trying to pull his weight, or should i say carry his weight in candy. The kids got lots of fun treats.

Diamond Valley School Halloween Parade. Jenna with her classmates. She was a vampires.

Madee with her BFF Anna. Madee was a pretty scary witch!


Little Tuck was Batman! He wanted nothing to do with the camera though.


Or his sisters. I think they scared him! LOL

Jenna

Madee

Me & Kathrynne Brewer!! She dressed up when we went Trick-0r-treating. I had been dressed up all day for school parties. I was not doing it again!

KAUAI.......ahhhh

This year for our Mommy/Daddy vacation, we went to Kauai. It was very different from Maui and we were having a hard time the first few days. First, we felt guilty for being able to go on a nice vacation when so many of our friends are struggling financially. It seemed to affect us more then we thought it would. Second, the weather was not real good for the first 3 days. It rained everyday, all day. We still did some fun things. After the sun came out and greeted us it allowed us to see the beauty of Kauai. That is when we finally relaxed!! The first day we just drove around and tried to see the different towns on Kauai but was soon lost. It got dark about 1 hr after being there. We both enjoyed massages that were amazing. Some of the other activities we did were.....snorkeling in many different areas, driving the island, zip lining through the jungle, hiking to waterfalls, nice dinners and most of all relaxing and loving being with each other. We had a blast once we let everything back home go.........it really is a beautiful island.

Our room was on the ground level with access to a small beach. This was the view outside our Lanai.

This was part of our beach

Our little friend that came to visit on 2 different days. Brandon took this picture to see if the kids would think he was really petting her. He was really standing about 5ft from her just below a shelf of sand.

This is part of the Grand Canyon in Kauai

Another view.....hee hee

Zip lining

Yep...i really did it. I cried on my first one.

We went on a zodiac boat tour to the Napali Coast. It was breathtaking. We encountered tons of dolphins on our way. They were jumping and playing all around us. We wanted to all jump in and swim with them.

This was the Napali coast

Another view of the Napali coast. Sorry the sun was so bright. There were some amazing waterfalls. Our tour guides took us into Pirate caves with our boat and we were greeted with some amazing waterfalls falling onto us. SO FUN!!!!