Giving Thanks

we have so much to be thankful for this season, but the one i am most thankful for is my family. i am so blessed to have a husband who loves us all so much and does all he can to provide for his family. he is an amazing father and husband. to speak of my beautiful angels on earth brings me to tears. they are my joy, my happiness, my life. they bring me to my knees everynight to thank my Heavenly Father for their little spirits. they teach me patients, love, compassion, joy, tenderness, humility and kindness. they are my angels here on earth.
this year brandon worked on thanksgiving, so we were able to go eat at the station with all the other wonderul fire families. it had been a very long time since we had seen many of them and the first time for meeting a few. we had a great time. these are some pictures we took.








i have so much to be thankful for. i am thankful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. for his ministry and atonement. i know he lives and he loves me. i am thankful to my parents for their love, compassion and examples. i am thankful to my husband who loves me unconditionally and although it has taken me many years to realize this....i know it to be true. i love my kids. they bring me so much joy and peace. i know that we have a living prophet to lead our church in a way that the Lord sees fit. i have a testimony of music and that music can bring an amazing spirit in your life. i love my family. i know that we can be an eternal family. this is my testimony.

Halloween

don't you love halloween. i do. we love carving the pumpkins, seeing the house transform from a home to a haunted house and candy of coarse. every year, the neighbors get together and tote around on my sisters traitor. it is so much fun. we had about 40 people with us this year.

let the festivities begin!

seeing who can carve the best pumpkin

scary dead brides and trolls! oh my

the funniest, cutest, scariest skeleton around

bff's madee and anna as dead brides. madee won scariest costume in 2nd grade and anna won best over-all costume. too cute...i mean scary 

onward!

BomBerS bLasT

in march of this year, jenna was accepted onto an amazing competitive soccer team. bombers blast. she had a friend invite her out and after a few practices with the team the coach told her she would be playing in the games. they didn't really have space for her on the team, but he saw that she was determined to play. she absolutely loves it and the team went undefeated.they played for the championship spot and lost by 1 stinkin point. they were the only team with that only loss. they took second in a u11 bracket and were the only u10 team. guess that says a lot huh. they had 8yr olds playing on the team against 11yr olds. we love to watch her play and she has really improved her skills with this coach. can't wait to see what next year has to offer her and this team.                                                              GO BOMBERS!

Happy Birthday Madee #7

Happy Birthday Madee Moo!!

trying to get just Madee......haha...Here is the birthday girl. We celebrated her big day a month late. Well...we as a family celebrated it with her in Hawaii! Nice birthday huh. She had fun with her friends. We had a luau theme, being her new favorite place is HAWAII!!

Great-Grandpa McNary came to visit the kids that night.

Hawaii with the fam!!!

This year our family trip was so much fun. We decided in January to take the kids to Hawaii with us this time. We didn't know how they would be on a 5 1/2 hr airplane ride or a 4hr time difference but it was worth trying. I mean who doesn't want to go to Hawaii. We found a deal that we couldn't pass up so we booked it and away we went. The airplane was a breeze. Tucker was fantastic and the girls read a book, colored, laughed and slept. Once we landed in Maui, we were greeted with fresh flower lei's and received our rental car. AWAY WE WENT........

This is a picture of our first sunset. The girls wouldn't come out of the water. It was almost dark, i was freezing just watching them, but they were having too much fun to think about how cold it was once the sun went down.

I think this picture is so funny. My kids half naked and I have a sweatshirt on! haha

The weather was a bit wishy-washy so we decided to go to the Maui Ocean Center. An aquarium the the kids can get really close to all the fish in the sea. They loved walking through the all glass tunnel and seeing sharks so close.

When you are in Hawaii.......a Luau is a MUST. I love music...(like you didn't know that one!) and listening to the Hawaiian culture and history put to music and dance is outstanding. The dancers are so amazing. The costumes...unreal. The food......ok. haha. Jenna, Madee and Tucker were in ahhh. Tucker thought the fire dancing was the coolest. He would grunt after they did. I got it on video. SO CUTE.

We also took them on the Atlantic Submarine tour. We boarded a boat that took us out to sea a bit and then boarded a real submarine.

On our way to the submarine. Not a real clear day. It rained! :(

Brandon with the kids inside the submarine.

Some of the pods of fish we saw. We also got to see a baby shark.


Tucker and Dad looking through a port hole

On our way back. Tucker fell asleep on Dad right away. The time difference was so hard on him.


One of mine and Brandon's favorite places on Maui is Lahaina. This is a very old tree that has hundreds of roots that grow from a branch down. It is so neat. The kids took pictures all throughout the roots, but I am a horrible photographer and they all came out blurry!! duh.


Another day we decided to do a road trip. Are kids are getting pretty good at these. We decided to go see the Northern Coast. (Brandon and I didn't dare take the kids on the road to Hana. I called it the road to Hell! ) So we packed up and away we went. Along this ONE WAY road with cliffs....we found the BEST BANANA BREAD on the PLANET! That is actually the name of the little hut too. It was so good and the candied coconut. YUM. that alone makes me want to go back. This is just a random picture of a cliff. The weather again was not too good. I think it ended up raining all day this day.

On our road trip we went through Iao Valley. It is a state park that has some hiking trails, waterfalls, and beautiful scenery. We got the kids out of the car for some photo ops.

It truly is a sight to see. The natural beauty of Hawaii is breathtaking. I really could live there!!

One of the many waterfalls in Iao Valley



Our beautiful sunsets.

We took the kids whale watching which I think was Jenna's favorite. The whales were SO close to the boat. We saw so many that day. It was really fun

At the end of out trip....our kids begged us to stay longer. We made some amazing memories and realized that traveling with kids isn't all that bad. We actually really enjoyed sharing this with them. BUT........I do also love sharing some memories with just us sometimes. Every couple needs COUPLE time!. We will take them again sometime.

hahahaha what a posser!

Sorry.......................I was just excited about my new do!!! It felt sooo good to chop it off!

The kids have been begging us to take them bowling since my birthday. They wanted to take me bowling, but we decided to go out with my sister Cindy/Jim *from California* and Tracy/Warren to dinner and a movie. We had so much fun watching the kids try to lug those heavy balls around.

Tucker REALLY thought he was ALL that........and some!
Jenna takin' a turn

Madee could barely hold the ball let alone swing her arm! It was a riot!

Artist in the family!!

This year the girls wanted to participate in the art contest at their elementary school. I have never really pushed this because I can't even draw a stick figure! BUT.......my Grandmother was an artist and VERY good at it, so these are their art drawings. I thought they did FANTASTIC!!

Madee won 2nd place for 1st grade

this is Jenna's

Jenna won 3rd for 4th grade.

Pretty good huh!!!

Happy Birthday to me! #33

Very simple, yet PERFECT! Thank you everyone!

me and my man on my Birthday.

nothing like a little homemade treat from Brandon for my cake....my family doesn't do cake!

Tucker kept blowing my candle out....I had to hurry!