A Gift for the Grandparents....

We spent weeks putting together a special present for Granny and Grumpy this year and it was sooooo worth it! Within seconds of receiving them Granny was already tearing up, true to form! I knew they'd love it the minute I heard the idea from a friend of a friend!!! Kaitlin & I made these jars over a couple of days time span... and we tried to give them a bit of personality and flare to match their recipients! Inside the jar are memories, qualities, etc. their children and grankids , each written like a little note individually, that we all admire or remember about them or times together! Granny of course read all of hers within days, or maybe even hours! I think she read Grumpy's as well!!! I wonder where I get this NO PATIENCE gene from?!?!?!?!?

Christmas Eve...

I love xmas eve! We hosted at our house this year and it was a blast! Italian sandwiches, family, a fun gift exchange game and more! Tawna even brought some of Frances Mowers traditional xmas eve Lake Arrowhead Cheese Dip!!! That stuff always seems to disappear super fast... this year I think Kaitlin ate more than her share!!!

A few more Random December Pics...

Lauren visiting Santa!

While we were out xmas shopping and Kaitlin was in charge Lauren got ahold of a black sharpie and drew smiley faces all over the sliding glass door, the back block wall, and the play cars in the back yard that her & Emmy ride in. So, Kaitlin & Lauren had to clean them off!!! They both learned a lesson that day!

Lauren adds a few decorations to the tree...

Emmy out to lunch with the girls one day wearing her cute reindeer headband that Daddy got her!

A Visit to The Cabin...

French fries are a main food group for these two...


Grumpy and the gang...


Maddie girl!





Emmy all bundled up!




Playing in the snow on the deck! This was a fun and short trip and we hope to go up again soon. We had good food (of course!), played games, watched movies and Grumpy took us on a great walk around their neighborhood and showed us where their lot was and how the runway/airstrip goes right to his future garage! He can land and drive his plane right into their hanger at the future cabin! AWESOME!!!

Random Pictures from December...

Kaitlin's Christmas Dress...






















Our Handsome Little Man...

























Maddie Girl all Decked Out...
























Lauren Pearl...
























And... Emmy! Later at church she threw the biggest tantrum EVER out on the concrete sidewalks for about 30 minutes in this beauty!!!



























The kids scarfing down mac & cheese after church...


Emmy playing dress up...



Lauren in another one of her strange get-ups...



Maddie with her Body Mask she had to do for her latest book report. It's the main character in her book... Kaitlin helped draw the bird!



Kaitlin in a shirt we made for her to wear on game days for her volleyball team. She did a great job with all of the art work and the back looks fabulous too!



Emmy partaking in the "sweet nectar" or "black death" aka: coke!!! Kevin, Lauren, and Emmy are addicted!



Playing some ball in the backyard...




Emmy with her friend in the theater watching a movie...



Aurora!



Cinderella...


Kevin prepared this gourmet meal for Emmy one day... Peas, Cheetos and Banana! YUM!


We moved, yet again, over Thanksgiving weekend and this is how we "contained" the 2 little girls one day while packing up the trailer!

Daron's always throwing out the gang signs and Lauren loves to be cool with him!

Chance and Faith came to spend an evening with us and this is him crashed out after hours of fun at Aunt Taya's and Uncle Kevins house!

Faith & Maddie...

Good Times!!!

Christmas Concert...

Daron & Maddie had their concert and sang awesome Christmas music! Daron had a solo/skit part and did great too. I like to hear the kids sing, but the music director drives me INSANE and I'm thinking after 3 years of going to this concert, with all of it's craziness and RULES (all you fellow parents of kids at the same school know what I'm talking about:)) about paying the kids to skip it next year!!! It will just be Maddie because Daron will be in junior high with Kaitlin, so I told her she'll get $5 if she'll consider ditching it in 2010!!!

Thanksgiving in Heber...

We(our mini family) spent Thanksgiving in Heber with Granny & Grumpy, The Mowers, The Jarvis', and Grandma & Papa Harmon. We had great food and good times!!! It was relaxing and lots of fun. The girls made pies, and lots of yummy eats, we went over to Bison Ranch across the highway and fed the horses, the kids ran circles around the deck outside & played with moon sand (thanks to Aunt Jade) and we ate till we wanted to burst! Then Kevin and I got a much needed nap before getting on the road home that day!

The girls at Granny's kitchen bar in their cozy footed jammies! Emmy did not like to be tied in...

Lauren & Grumpy eating the beloved popcorn!!!

Our Pies!!! The cutouts were a cute touch... the ones that look like music notes are actually cherries. I made a cherry pie for my sweetie!

Making new friends at Bison Ranch...

Nathan, Kevin and Lauren meeting one of the horses & its owner...

It was a really great Thanksgiving!!! Thanks for hosting Mom & Dad!!! :)

P-A-R-T-Y!!!!!!!!!!

A slumber party for 13 of her closest friends on her 13th birthday was the plan...


(all of these are out of order, but I was up ALL night with LOUD girls roaming our house...)

This is at breakfast this morning... Kaitlin requested crepes and Kevin obliged!


It was hard fitting all of these girls into 1 pic!

Kevin cutting away...

This is when I had to wake them up this morning after their VERY LATE NIGHT of ghost stories, karaoke, LOTS OF FOOD, and talking about guys!

They looked ROUGH!!!!

This is some of them dancing and singing to YMCA on karaoke last night...

PRESENTS!!!!! She was already in some kind of sugar stupor by this point!!!

We sang happy birthday and had ginormous costco cupcakes!

A frosting fight broke out, or so I hear, and it didn't happen again since I told Kaitlin anything that happened was her responsibility to clean after everyone else was gone!

More presents... :)

FRIENDS!!!!

Tasia & (________?) singing to American Idol Karaoke game

And even more presents...

Talking about STUFF!!!

The Drama! Serious conversation...

The Decorations... they looked soooooooo good!!! Kevin and me are talented peeps!


Dessert & candy station...

Popcorn station...

The whole room...

Junk, junk and more junk...

All in all it was a blast! Kaitlin had such a fun time with all her friends and that always makes us happy! We had crepes and headed off to New Moon this morning and had more popcorn and candy and soda... all of these girls teeth are going to fall out!

Thanks to my wonderful husband who's such an awesome Dad and went the extra mile funding the party and helping with bettering the decorations and all of the last minute stuff!!

Thanks to Oma who watched Psycho Ruth (lauren) & Squishy (Emmy) all day Friday so that I could run errands for the party... and for all of her clean up help, food help, and Lauren help during the party!!! It was nice to have her go to the movie with us today too!

Thanks to Jade who came and drove caravan #2 to get ALL these girls to the theater today and gave up her Saturday morning with her family to be with us!!! It's ALWAYS fun for me to have Jade around!!!

Thanks to Tawna who invited Monkeygirl Maddie over for a fun sleepover with Faith and took them to their own little showing of New Moon today!!! I know Maddie had a blast!!!

Thanks to Daron who helped with anything he was asked to do Friday and Saturday for the party and his big sister!!! He was great!!!

I still can't believe she's 13!!!!!