Boys and their cars

Matt took my Dad and Carson to the Auto Show this year. The boys spent a few hours drooling over new cars and trucks. We were happy to let them go and have a great time. That's the truck that Matt wants and don't worry we have it on the 10 year plan.

Carson loved that he could get into the cars to take pictures. He looks kind of tiny in those cars but I am sure it will be coming soon enough.

I don't have any idea what this thing is. But I did hear that my Dad found his future car there. Do you see why the girls passed on this experience?

Better late than never!

So I know that it has been a long time but I needed to get Carson's Birthday pictures up here. Here he is with the whole crew of friends that came to the party. He is a very social kid and he had friends asking to come to his party. At parent teacher conferences his teacher kindly tells me that he is very social and likes to talk a lot. Mom and Dad does that sound familiar?
Here he is opening presents from friends. Having this many boys over for 2 hours can really do you in.

Here they are playing the skittles game. Notice their little chubby cheeks. They were all really competitive and would rather have thrown up before they quit the game. It was really funny.

Here he is in the morning. We have a tradition that we wake up the Birthday person early in the morning on their birthday to give them their presents. This is because we know that they just would not be able to wait until Dad got home from work.

Haircuts

So we have had a few haircuts in the last few months. Natalee was ready to go a little shorter for summer. This is the first time she has had bangs ever. She looks really cute and is growing up really fast. For those of you who have never seen me with straight hair here it is. My friend was kind enough to do this and then take the time to show me how to try to do it. I really like it but it takes a long time to do my hair like this.

Natalee is 11

Where does time go? You know that you are getting old when your child asks for an Ipod for her birthday. She wanted a pink Ipod Nano but because of a friend I got a screaming deal on a Touch and that has entertained her for hours.

Here she is with her birthday party cupcakes. She is looking all grown up. We had a craft party with all of her friends.
Here are the girls taking a break from all the craft fun to eat some cupcakes.

Here are their glitter letters that we did. They turned out really cute. We also did homemade lip gloss, flower clips, flower pens, bath salts, magnets and friendship bracelets. It was a lot to get done in a short amount of time. But once again I have great friends and family that helped out.

We Love You Grandpa!

My Grandpa passed away this morning after a long battle with cancer. I have found out that it is not always fun to be all grown up. When you were a kid you did not have to worry about your Grandparents dying. As an adult you have to learn to pray for things that deep down you really don't want. I prayed that my Grandpa would have comfort and that his suffering would end soon. But my heart hurts today now that he is gone. This was one amazing man. He was an incredible piano player and wrote the song "When Joseph Went To Bethlehem" He could just play by ear. I was so pleased that he was able to play at both of my kids baptisms. My Grandpa has so much patients and love for us you could not help but feel it. My Grandma loves and adores him and it shows. They raised an incredible family that loves each other so much. They helped to make my Dad the man that he is today. My kids asked why I was sad this morning and I told them that he had passed and that he is the reason my Dad is the awesome Grandpa that he is to them. I Love him greatly and will miss him everyday.
I Love You Grandpa!!!

Random Post

So I am trying to catch up on life so much has happened in this last few months. Most of all my heart was broken and I am trying to recover from that. I will hopefully return to normal in the next little while. People tell me that time will heal but the only thing so far that has really healed it is to not talk about it at all. I had one of the parents come up to me today and say thanks and the tears formed again. I really am good if no one talks about it. Also putting me in as a Gospel Doctrine teacher does not help the healing process. I will now stop complaining and move on with the post. ***My brother just called, he had a friend of ours call to see if maybe Matt had left me I guess I should explain myself better. I was released as YW President after 4 years and I had to say goodbye to 15 of what I consider my kids. I know you all won't understand that but it was a very hard thing for me to do. Trust me when you have a call in the YW you will understand.***




Here we are at my mother in laws for Thanksgiving. It is the first time that the whole family has been together in years so that called for a photo. This is the best one that they got on my camera I am hoping that my sister in law got a better one.

Here is Natalee with her award for Reflections at her school. It won an award at the school level and now moves onto the region level. When we get her art work back I will post a picture she really did do a good job.

So the boys headed out to hunt again. They got out just before the first snow fall. No luck this time. I might have to buy the boys some guns so they will bring one home.

The truth is that I really don't want a dead deer hanging in my garage but my little son so badly wants to get one. He is willing to be hauled across mountains at the break of dawn in the freezing cold on only hours of sleep. I really do hope they succeed soon.

Here are the kids on Halloween. Carson had to sneak up behind the girls for this picture because Addie did not love his mask. Grandma and Grandpa had all kinds of fun things for the kids. I remind my kids how lucky they are to have GREAT Grandparents.

Natalee was a Old Time Detective and Carson was a Zombie like the ones on the Michael Jackson Thriller video.

Here are the pumpkin crew. They each carved these cute pumpkins. The scooping out of the seeds is not Carson's favorite thing. Natalee is always game for anything.

My Mom and Dad took me and the kids to a Lego Display. The artist was amazing and we had a great time.

Carson LOVES Legos and he was amazed with all the pieces of art. He came home after and tried to build some of them. He told me that those were harder than they looked.

We went up to a Park City museum to see these pieces and we were blown away. It was really cool. My Dad is the king of finding crazy and fun things to do. We really appreciate the fact that he has that adventurous side in him. Thanks Dad!

Disney World 2009

We spent a wonderful 10 days in Disney World a little over a week ago. We love to leave life behind and spend some time together. Sorry about the extreme amount of pictures to follow.
This is a scary picture because Natalee looks so ready in this truck. Wait a minute she is not even a teen yet.
We went to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Carson saw it on TV the first day that we got there and I gave in on day 8. It is not like me to drop the extra hundreds to do something like that but the look on his face when we walked in with the tickets was worth every penny. They loaded up on the candy and the Halloween fun.

Ok so stay with me on this one. We met up with my Sister in laws, brothers family while we were there. My kids LOVE their kids. My sister in law has done a good job at getting these kids together when she is in town. Now my kids call them their cousins. It was so much fun to go around with other kids.

Thanks to Erinne and Brian for meeting up with us. The kids loved running around and we loved talking and sharing all our Disney secrets. There family loves Disney just as much as we do.

Here we are in front of the castle. The weather looks scary but it was great for us. We had the cloud cover and we seemed to miss the 3 times that it rained while we were there.

We also rented a car and drove down to Tampa to meet up with my Uncle, his wife and her daughter. We has a great time. My uncle brought all kinds of toys and noodles for the ocean. We sat in the water talking and having a good time. The kids built a castle in the sand and we enjoyed the relaxing day. Thanks Uncle Brian for driving down to see us.

Here is Natalee with her Crab dinner. She was in heaven with the Disney Dinning Plan. She was considered an adult so she got to order from the adult menu and she has $expensive$ taste.

Here is Carson in the Animal Kingdom I told him to look like the skulls. He did an awesome job. We has a lot of fun joking around all the time.

Here are the kids in front of Expedition Everest. This is one of there favorite rides. We went on it 4 times in one day.

Here is Carson with his Bacon Double Cheeseburger. He enjoyed the food also. But his favorites were the Chicken Nuggets, Burgers and Mac and Cheese.

This is at Epcot in front of the lake. The sunset was pretty so I made the kids stop for a picture.

I love this picture. The kids did their best impression of the statue. We were in the countries and saw many cool things.

Matt hates that I made him take this picture. But it is kind of funny.

We met the stars of the movie UP and got this great picture. Our kids are too old for the characters but we made them wait in line for this one.

Here are the kids after we rode the Rockin Roller Coaster. That is also one of their favorite rides. I am not even sure if they know who Aero Smith is but they loved the ride.