SNOW DAY!

We had a major snow storm not too long ago, and we decided to go out with the camera this time, and take some fun photos of the girls sledding. It was Josie's first time really understanding the concept of what was happening and for her to feel completly freaked out while going down hill. She loved it, but once Danny pushed off from the top and started to go down, she'd cover her eyes, keep smiling, and wouldn't open her eyes till they had stopped. Of coarse after, she'd want to do it all over again. Then there is Kelli who runs up there by herself, and gets a running start and jumps on her sled and starts to speed down the hill. Its so funny to see the difference in each other these lil crazy girls of mine, but they are so much fun and at such a fun age!








We also built a HUGE snowman.. infact, there was one next to ours and ours looked like Godzilla. It was huge. The snow was PERFECT and it wasn't too chilly outside either so we were able to sled for a couple hours. Kelli helped roll some of the balls for the snowman.. and Josie followed and ate the snow up behind them.. It was fun to go and do something with Danny before he had to go back to work..

Christmas Dance Recital

Kelli started to take dance this year at good ole' Luv 2 Dance. My nieces have been taking here for like 13 years and i finally joined in.. Miss Shaundee is her teacher... (yes her Aunt Shaundee) and she looks forward to going to class every week. Her cousin Brooklyn is in her class, and cousins Abby and Halle. Its so fun to get together every week and get to talk to my cousins and catch up on things that are going on.. The girls did such a great job and they all looked SO CUTE in their lil' tutu's. Their song was to "Jingle Bells" and it was OH so cute!





As you can tell, she's a little diva in some of her posing pictures, but she LOVES TO DANCE and practices daily, and even taught her 2 year old sister the entire "Jingle Bell" dance. I can't wait for the many more recitals we'll be attending.

ps: it was pretty awesome to go to the Christmas Recital since all of my cousins were basically there.. cause my other niece Samantha danced right after, and my cousins lil' girl is in that class as well.. so we had lots and lots of support there.

6 years

Where the heck has the time gone?!?! I can't believe tomorrow on December 17 I will be celebrating my 6 year anniversay!!! I feel like I should be in my 30's.. not even at my mid twenties! Its gone by so fast. It hasn't been the easiest, but we've gotten through so many things that have brought us closer together.. not only as a couple but as friends. That will be the "sappy-ist" thing I'm going to say cause I hate it when people go on and on about how wonderful and blissful life is.. because we all know.. thats just not true! Life is hard.. marriage is hard... raising children is hard... finding a job is hard... but all those hard things, are the things that make you stronger as a person, couple, and family.


Although this man can drives me NUTS on a regular basis.. I gotta love him! (But dont fret, I'm perfect and nothing I EVER do bothers him, haha) He's so determined, hard working, funny, honest, 'take no crap from no one kind of guy' and although at times, some of those qualities drives me up the wall..... 2 seconds later they are on the long list of reasons why we get along so well.
I'm so proud of him and all that he's done in his life and is striving to do. We dont know whats next, but we are excited, hopeful, learning patience, and always striving to be better people to each other, our children, our family, and our friends.

not to forget of coarse... over the 6 years of marriage we've brought into this world 2 beautiful little girls who we love so much, and we keep us laughing, exhausted, running, dancing, driving all over, cooking, CLEANING, learning patience, not getting any sleep, cleaning, and at the end of every day.. SMILING.

So, here's to our family of 4.. who started out with a crazy 18 year old, and a cradle robbin' 22 year old who tied the knot 6 years ago... lets keep keepin' it real babe! xoxo

Turkey Leg/Stuffing/and Eat what will run...

Or something like that... Thanksgiving morning, Danny decided that it would be a good idea to run like 17 miles.. but dont worry.. I talked him down to do a smaller one so Wes and Eric wouldn't die.. :) Instead they ran like 8 miles or something like that. I decided to take a cute little picture of these handsome boys before they were off on their trek.


Upon returning, they were still as handsome.. just stinky! haha. Happy Turkey Day run!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This year we had two extra people staying at our place for the weekend.. Dannys brother Eric and his cousin Wes.(they were going to go home to northern Cali, but do to the weather, they had to stay put with us!) Poor guys had to put up with my two little girls and Kelli who clearly had a huge crush on Wes would not leave the poor guy alone! Every morning she could hardly wait for them to wake up.. and when they dont wake up til 11.... its quite a long time for her 4 year old lil' heart to wait! He was so nice to her though, and gave her all the attention she needed! It was a lot of fun to have them around though, and hopefully they had fun. It was kind of chill since Danny had to work, we just kind of hung around.. but oh well. Next time they come up we'll go do something more fun than just being here! Thanksgiving dinner was at my parents house.. we finally had Serge and Michelle with us this year.. but we were missing Scott and Larissa. I forgot to take any pictures til we were pulling the desserts out and everyone was passing out due to the Turkey intake! So here are just a few random shots of everyone at the end of Thanksgiving.

Decorating the Tree

Our family tradition in the past has been going to a Tree Farm, in the freezing cold, and picking out a tree.. but this year, my mom bought us our own "Charlie Brown" fake tree. Its so small compared to the ones we've had in the past.. but its cute, and we love it. The kids had so much fun decorating it, and we've never lost so many bulbs in all our years of marriage. :)



Not gonna lie, after they went to bed, I had to move things around.. it was a little 'Bulb heavy' on the one side.. the tree was gonna tip! They are my best little helpers though. I love this time of year... snow. sales. shopping. window shopping.... then going in to buy the things in the window.... more snow.. fake blizzards outside. Christmas lights. Decorations all over. baking.. lots and lots of bakig.. and snow.. Oh and of coarse the ability to use Santa not coming as a threat to my children to get them to help out a bit around the house.. is that so bad?! Yeah for Christmas time!

Last Park Day

Who knew that on November 18, in Utah, we could still do a quick park day?!? It was breezy but the temp wasn't that cold... so we decided to go to the park real quick. The kids had so much fun playing, plus, I was able to take some cute pictures of them being crazy!





I have to say, that I'm jealous of what these two crazy girls have... they have a sister close in age, someone who play with all the time, and will grow up and continue to be best friends... I love in the mornings when I go in to get the kids, I notice that they slept together in the same bed.... they love sleeping together now, and not being in their seperate beds. I never had that with my sister... I dont know, something about her being in High School when I was a toddler didn't make for good heart to heart and pretend play time... Now, we are best friends, but it took a long time and growing up to do before we could relate to each other. I'm excited to see these two grow up and go through things together, be in school together, and be each others best friends.

How Thoughtful

So the other day, I was organizing the kids room, and Kelli came running up to me, and in the sweetest voice said, "mom, i just made Josie a bed, isn't that so nice of me? She was feeling tired, so I wanted to help her." They were in my room watching TV on my bed, so I thought she just kind of tucked her in and got her all cozy..... After awhile, the room was too quiet for comfort, so I went in there, and this is what I found...




I thought it was so funny. This is a tiny doll port-a-crib and she was sleeping on top of her pillow, with her huge blanket.... she was so crammed in there.

After about 30 minutes I went in to wake her up, and she couldn't straighen her legs. She just kept saying, "owww mom, my legs... oww."

Halloween Party!

Naturally in Utah you can never predict what weather you'll be handed on Halloween.. rain is better than snow though right?!

We ate some chili and then took some pictures of the kids, and we were off to do some 'Trick or Treatin'...... it had started to sprinkle, but we were prepared for such weather... but then it got worse, and worse the further we were away from home. The kids were dripping wet, Dannys umbrella that he took from my mom broke, and was inside out... needless to say, it was Freezing! Finally, I wore my hood from my jacket, and he used my Roxy umbrella.. better though that the weird flower one he had tho. We barely made it to many houses in my parents neighborhood before we just ran home because it was coming down so hard. The kids all took their costumes off in the garage, and went and got pj's on, and we hung up the costumes and jackets to drip dry! The kids played some fun games, and watched some cute Halloween cartoons, and best of all... destroyed Grandma Bulls basement. (they're little, so they can get away with it)








Josie was so cute when she was 'Trick or Treating'...everytime someone put candy in her bucket, she was so surprised that they were just 'giving out free candy'.. she came running to Danny every time saying, "daddy look! look!" The whole time I was thinking of what Jerry Seinfeld talks about in his halloween bit.. "everyone that we know is just GIVING OUT CANDY?" "I can wear that!"

The kids had so much fun dispite the ran, Kelli's hair was dripping wet, cause her hood wouldn't stay on from running from house to house, and she refused to walk under the umbrella. She was so fast, I never really got a picture of her in action.. but she had a blast!

Happy Halloween!

This halloween was pretty crazy.. we had to wait til Halloween day to do a lot of our things to prepare because of Dannys work schedule. Kelli every day was asking when we were going to carve pumpkins and she handled it well when we'd tell her day after day, not til Saturday. Saturday morning I woke up early, rolled out the halloween cookies and we started on the homemade rolls for the tradtional chili that my mom makes, and has made every year since I can remember. Danny and I figured that since we were already making rolls, we mind as well make some yummy cinnamon rolls. Man alive, that process takes forever, but the delicious treat at the end is so worth it. The rolls and cinnamon rolls were my wonderful mother in laws recipe, and everyone loves it!

I shockingly enough made Kellis costume.. and she insisted on not having anything else "Indian" on it.. cause its not how she looks on the cover.. I did my best.. she was pretty mad that I didn't go buy her a big diamond... she even told me that lots of stores in the mall that sell big diamonds, and I could run and pick one up real quick if I wanted to... I passed though!

My mom was in southern Califoria for a few weeks while my dad was there on business, and Josie at the last minute informed me that she wanted to be Tinkerbell.. so I had my mom run to the Disney store in Cali, and pick up a tinkerbell outfit.. I think it turned out so cute!

On Halloween, we couldn't find our pumpkin carving tools, so I was running around like a crazy person trying to find some, and I ran into the Dollar Store, and they didn't have anything, but I saw a couple pirate things, and bought em for Danny. We were going to make him an outfit, but ran out of time. Mind you, it was in the childrens section... so the hat was a little small.. but now Kelli has her pirate costume she's been asking for, and it cost me $2 bucks!

Real Family Pictures

Well, after being married for almost 6 years we finally got a real family picture taken! It was kind of a long shoot-- it was after my Grandmas funeral and lunch and my kids were so over it! We took a big group with all my siblings and their kids, and that will be posted soon cause its so fun to finally have a good picture taken. Its at kind of a funky angle, but whatever, i like it!

 

Good Night Sweetheart

Many of you know that I recently lost my Grandma. She fell a few months ago and broke her hip and we all knew that this was going to be the end. It was her first and only surgery in her life. She was cared for at Manor Care and they took such great care for her, and grew to have such a love her for. Which would of been hard to not love her.

She was the kindest, funniest, most clever, and endearing person. She loved to sew, paint, cook, and bake anything and everything. There are so many memories, vacations, holidays, and those intense game nights that we will all cherish, and hopefully remember forever. She was always so loving and so kind, and she will truly be missed.

You know, most people want to write all these amazing paragraphs about their loved ones, and are so poetic about things, but I'm not really that type. I'm more of a, straight to the point kind of person--- but for some reason, I can't think of anything to write about my grandma. All I can think is... how things wont be the same. I know the last 5 years she was going down hill and it was a slow "wearing out" process, but she just had so many good qualities and was such an example and was so balanced in her life that its hard to see someone end up at the point of not being able to care for herself.

But it just wont be the same to not have her around... to hear my Grandpa say his funny and weird saying to her, or to have her try and do the jitter bug in the middle of the room, or teach me the Charleston. Or to have to carry her purse around her own house so that no one would steal it. She was always dressed to kill and always had on her red lip stick. She always carried her money around in her envelopes and had my grandpa on a tight budget so she could buy all her grand children, and great grand children Christmas presents at the end of every year. Her and my Grandpa were such an amazing couple to be around. He talked to her, and will now talk about her with such love you can feel it in the air, and you can see it in his eyes... you dont come across that kind of love often. They were always holding hands, and looking out for one another. Towards the end of her life, she wasn't 'aware' about things that were going on around her, but I went there, on a Thurday afternoon, with my mom and Grandpa, and while my mom was working things out with the insurance, I sat in the room with my Grandparents. He just sat and sang songs to her, and sang 'their' song to her, and her eyes lit up with joy and she would mouth the words with him, while he sang to her. "I'll be seein'g you.... in all the old... familier places..." etc etc.. To see my Grandpa kneel at her bedside for hours, singing, and talking to her about "old times" while he's in his mid 80's... that couldn't of been comfortable, but he wanted to be as close and he could be to her. My Grandpa whispered to her, "its ok Sally, you can go" and her reply would be, "I can't leave you alone." It was so sweet. They loved eachother, and supported each other.. and were there with each other through so many trails, holding hands.



The funeral we held for her was amazing! My sister and 3 other cousins did such a great job, talking about memories, her past, and the gospel. I was a mess through the whole funeral... just when you think there aren't any tears left.. i surprise myself... all my cousins and our children got up and sang.."Families Can Be Together Forever" which I'm pretty sure I said "I have a family............" and I couldn't say anything word. The closing song, was this song called, "good night sweet heart" --- no not the one from Top Gun. and and that point, Danny leaned over and said with tears in his eyes.."this is cruel and unusual punishment." It was the sweetest song, and it was one of my Grandpa's picks, and favorite songs between them. There wasn't a dry eye in the church, and I'm so grateful for everyone who came and supported our family. There were so many family friends there, it just made it that much more special.




It was such a great day, and such a great way to remember some one.. thats what I love about the church, is focusing on the life that was lived and not the death! Its such a great way for everyone to get together and tell stories and share their memories.

Love you Grandma...

Who will I marry Mom????

A question that started with my 4 year old daughter the other day while driving in the car. Why in the world is this a major concern? I'm not real sure, but she was intent on finding out what she needed to look for. For a while now, when all my little nephew and nieces get together, they are always pretending who the Dad and Mom are, and who's married to each other... but the other day, after my MONTHS of drilling into her head, "you can't marry Thomas, Nate, or Seth... they are your cousins".... Finally set in her head, and panic started.. If I can't marry them, then who do I marry?? This is my conversation with my daughter while driving in the car:

Kelli: "mom turn the music off, I have to ask you a question."

*I turn off the music
Me: "whats up Kelli?"

Kelli: "so, if I cant marry my family, who am I going to marry?"

Me: "well, I dont know. You probably will meet him when you're going to school with you get older, like in college or something"

Kelli: "so he'll be my boyfriend? Like forever?"

Me: "yeah, but you shouldn't have a boyfriend til you're ready to get married. That way you can date and find who you want to marry"

Kelli: "what should I look for when I'm dating???"

Me: "He needs to be nice, go to church, funny, cute, smart... (and while i'm thinking of more things to say, and before I could say anything else, she says..)

Kelli: DANG! Sa-rissa (my SIL: Larissa) is SOO lucky, she got to marry Scott and he's all those things!!!




It was so cute, and the only thing I could think of to say was;

"Your RIGHT Kelli, Larissa is so lucky to have met and married your Uncle Scott."

She just nodded her head and said.... "well, I better start dating then to find another one like him...."

So here is to your Scott. You've always been such a great brother and willing to help family and friends out whenever its needed; Whether its done silently without anyone knowing, or ripping up carpet to lay wood floors down while on your vacations, or re-vamping a barn for your friends wedding. You are such a great example that even a 4 year old can see that you are something special. I'm so lucky to have you as my oldest brother, and your example I know has been so easy for the rest of your brothers to follow, since I'm lucky to have 4 brothers that are so willing to give, and to serve just like you. Thanks for your example, I'm so happy that Kelli recognizes such great qualities at such a young age, and has you and the other uncles to look to for love and guidance
Love you Scott. xoxo

Lagoon Trip

The day we drove home at 5:30 AM from the Cabin, we slept, woke up, and were at Lagoon before noon. The kids had so much fun. Isn't it funny that once you have kids, the only rides danny and I went on here a Dragon ride (me and kelli) and a Lady bug ride (danny and Kelli).. then the kids went on a bunch of kid rides and had a blast. We loved the train ride, and all the animals were walking around and doing things, so it was fun to see them get so excited about it. Danny and I were hoping to go back that night and have a baby sitter watch the kids but we never made it back... its sad when you spend about the same amount of money to get into disneyland, and you dont get to go and do any adult rides... oh well, i got my dippin' dots that I love and generously shared with my kids and husband, and we got to have a blast on all the rides with the kids....

note to self: next time dont leave the ferris wheel for last.... Josie MIGHT wrestle you and try and jump out at the top cause she's so exhausted from the last 24 hours of craziness.... ;)

Cabin Trip

Who doesn't love a quick trip up to the cabin?? We decided to go up for an over nighter.... which seemed like such a fun idea! We had stuff for smores, dinner, snacks, movie treats, breakfast.. it was gonna be great! Things were going fantastic, we went on some hikes, went exploring, ate dinner and treats, watched a movie and all stayed up late.... until.... bedtime. *dun dun dun* Josie was restless, crying, screaming, wandering around in the pitch dark.... meanwhile, kelli isn't doing much better... SO, finally at 5:30 AM I woke danny up from the couch, since Kelli was in the master down stairs, and i was taken my turn with the 2 year old monster upstairs in the loft... and I told Danny; "lets go home" We got home slept for a few hours and are now all scared from the whole experience. We went a couple weeks later with the whole family, minus our California family and danny since he had work, and we just did a day trip. It was better that way.. Here are a few pics of our happiest moments of the Cabin Trip...