Lawry's Prime Rib

Christmas Eve Dinner at my house has traditionally been at a nice restaurant. This year we went to Lawry's and it was WONDERFUL, the prime rib was unbelievable, it reminded me of Guilver's (a restaurant I love in Southern California).
Here's Max, Kai and my little man Aidan.

Madisyn, Chynna, and Irelynn

Mike and I with little Nicole--my family kept telling me I looked so nice, I didn't think I looked that great, but I guess I never really get dressed up around them, they all acted genially surprised that I could look nice.

Nicole stole the show, she was so cute and actually very well behaved except that she liked playing Peek a Boo with the table clothe. When the carolers came by she was mesmerized by one and would not look anywhere else is was quite cute. Everyone loved her stockings that look like shoes. All in all she was the star tonight.

Aidan listening to the carolers.

Christmas Eve was Grandma Lucille's favorite night. She would look forward to it all year. When she passed we made it a tradition to go to her gravesite every Christmas Eve.

Early Christmas

We ran over to Grandma's house to have a little early Christmas. The kids loved opening presents. Aidan got a cool truck with horse trailer and ATV, that he loved from the beginning.

Nicole got foam blocks, and I think she might have thought they were food, maybe a teething toy?

She also thought opening presents was really cool too.

Madisyn got a really cool Cinderella magnet paper doll. But it came with a book where you get to design your own dresses..and Madiysn loves that stuff. She already started her designs in the car on the way home.

Then we ran over to Kurt and Shadoe's where we swapped cousin presents and everyone LOVED everything they got. Madisyn had helped make the magnet boards and magnets we gave the girls, and was really proud of her work.

My Water Dog

Lacey and water, if you've watched Marley and Me that is sometimes my dog. When we come to Nana's Lacey thinks the pool is for her, and gets right in making herself right at home. The water was actually really cold, but as you can see Lacey didn't care.

Thanksgiving Point Lights

It has become a family tradition to do the lights at Thanksgiving Point, and this year the end was even better, because the pictures of the Nativity went along with the song I had taught the kids to sing for the sacrament program, so Madisyn and Aidan sang right along with each picture. It was really sweet, and made teaching the kids all 6 verses worth it.

Spaghetti by the Handfuls

Nicole wanted none of her baby food, and was throwing the biggest fit until I let me sit on my lap. As soon as she sat down we all realized what she wanted, SPAGHETTI and she wanted it ASAP. She slurped and slurped with two fist fulls. I think Spaghetti might be her favorite food.

Lights at Temple Square

Mike has been working a ton of hours, but he always still finds the time to do things with us as a family, I could've found a more wonderful man! Here we are at Temple Square enjoying the lights and staying warm. The night was actually great weather we were dressed too warm, but in Herriman it was rainy and cold so we thought the temple might be the same. The kids had fun looking at the Nativities from the other countries and watching the Nativity on Temple Square. I also had us all walk up to the Statue of Christ in the Visitor Center, and when we got to the feet of the statue Madisyn sang quietly "Angels We Have Heard On High" it was really special. She is one special little girl.




Madisyn is such a beautiful little girl. She will be 8 this year and will get to make the choice if she wants to get baptized. I know it's still years away but one day I hope she stands in this same spot in a beautiful white dress with a wonderful man next to her.

"We Believe"

I have a friend named Whitney that Wins more things then I do!! Although I did win a car on the Price is Right, so I can top her with that, but she wins all of the radio games there is. So they were giving away 4 tickets on the Polar Express and Whitney won!! So she called me and said "You are the only one that will drop everything and go TODAY to the Polar Express." She gave me like 2 hours to get everything in line for my baby and Madisyn (who I had to get out of school and tell her she wasn't going). It was Crazy...but as she said I dropped everything to take my little 4 year old on a magical journey to the North Pole.

What is it about boys and trains? The ride to Heber is a little long, but the kids really do like seeing the trains.


Mrs. Santa Claus was our first visitor with a beautiful English Accent. She even shared her delicious cookie recipe, although I don't know where to get 5 reindeer kisses, but the 18 cups of little kids laughter won't be too hard to come by at my house.


All in all the ride was wonderful, the kids loved looking out the window on the way out and then on the turn around at the North Pole they played on the I-touches, but hey they had already seen the Big Man what else is there?

Take a Picture of my Lego Dudes

So Big...

DeEtt and Juli have been working on So Big and today she was that perfect little monkey and did all of her tricks super cute. Here's So Big!

Guess What?--What Aidan?

Guess What? Now for Christmas Guess What? I want Lego Batman and Guess What? Holden has it and Guess What? It has Joker and Guess What? It has Joker's Girlfriend!.....and Guess What? We can beat it and then Guess What? We can be Joker's Girlfriend.



Aidan's favorite saying right now is Guess What, and it drives me crazy. But when he gets excited that is what comes out of him mouth. Guess What? I still love him tons.

Putting Up Christmas

My Dad always put the angel on our tree, and so as tradition Mike always puts the star on our tree.


Aidan loves the Nutcrackers. Every year that is his thing to set up in front of the fireplace. Christmas Eve we have to move them to the sides so Santa can come in.


Madisyn and Aidan were really big helps, until Madisyn had to leave for school, and then...


I lost my Aidan helper to the Indiana Jones Lego Game and ...


Nicole just smiled and got into things. But she is super cute, not much of a help at 10 months.

Buckle Up 10 Times

Aidan refused to buckle up his own seat belt, and I was tried of reaching over and putting it on him, so we made a deal. If Aidan buckled his OWN seatbelt without any help 10 times then he could be a Playstation 2 Lego Game. Finally HE has done it and we raced to the store and got the only Lego game they had ... Indiana Jones.

Feliz Navidad

Madisyn's semi-annual gymnasics perfomance was a HUGE success.

Madisyn's song this year is Feliz Navidad. She completed multiple round off backhandsprings, standing backhandsprings, front and back walk overs, and side Aerials.

Aerials were her big accomplishment this year, she has been working really, really hard on them. After class she would always give the 401 on her Aerial progress. (Aerial is a cartwheel with no hands)



We love that Juli gets to come see the kids. Madisyn loves her Aunt Juli tons. For Christmas Madisyn wants a guitar and I think that's because Aunt Juli has one.


Aidan as you can see wasn't too thrilled about going, but he did have his ipod touch to keep him entertained. I think he watched the Incredibles, but for Madisyn's performance he had to turn it off, and watch his sister.


Juli's great too because she helped try to rodeo Nicole, who really didn't like sitting and watching her sister perform.

This is Great Weather Dad

On the drive home Mike commented on the weather and how bad it was. Aidan jumped right in and said "Dad this is GREAT weather, I love snow."

On our drive home we drove past two accidents and tons of cars going super slow. A 7 hour drive from LAS to SLC turned into a 10.5 hour drive of SNOW CRAZINESS!!

Family Rockets

Ever since we had our little rocket fun this past Summer, Grandpa has wanted to shoot off rockets. So for Thanksgiving weekend we all had to create our own rockets and the girls took Friday painting and decorating theirs. Madisyn loved her rocket.




This is Aidan's GQ pose. --Look how deolate the ground is. I always forget Vegas is a DESERT, with NO vegetation. We all commented on the fact that it felt like a CSI investigation, we even found some random items like book covers, cell phones, things you would find in a CSI investigation. We told the kids not to touch anything.


Keaton, McClayn and Madisyn.
Madisyn loves coming down and playing with her cousins.

Thanksgiving with Mike's Family

This year we had Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa in beautiful Las Vegas. The drive to and from was a little scary though.

Here is Madisyn and Keaton putting the names on each of our plates so we know where to sit. This was very serious to the two of them.


Aidan didn't help much just played or watched his i-pod or i-touch, but he is not crying or whining.


This was the kids table, and the Cool Table, because Mike and I were there.


Here's everyone else at the Grown-Up table.


DeEtt out did her self again, with some beautiful wonderful pies.

MaSHed PoTAToeS

Nicole likes mashed potatoes and she likes smearing them all over her face!


We had to take a picture.

Juli's Birthday!!

Birthdays at our house mean BREAKFAST in BED and wonderful pictures without getting ready!! :)

Look how happy my little ones are. We got Juli a Date Night Board, so they can keep track of who does what for the date night.



Breakfast, made by Mike and look how much Nicole Loves Juli.


Madisyn and Nicole getting ready to go in and surprise Juli. We told the kids that it was Saturday and they needed to let Juli sleep at least until 9 am. If it was up to them we would have been down there at 7 bright and early.


YEAH!! Surprise, Juli's parents and sister came up to surprise her here at the house. It was a wonderful surprise for Juli and we'll never forget the Secret Admirer...

Pillows...

Which one is pretending?



Aidan's smile gives him away.

Madisyn had left her pillow out in the family room and when I came back in the room this is what I found. She was just too tired. Whenever a pillow is put in front of her she loves to just lay her head down, even in mid crawl, it's pretty cute, almost as if pillows have a power over her that she has to lay her head down. This time though she didn't just lay her head down she was out.

Madisyn Made Dinner

Madisyn made Supper Nachos Tonight for Dinner. Not only was her presentation beautiful they tasted great too.

Kimber Gets Baptized

Mike's cousin and Madiysn's friend Kimber got baptized on Saturday. We had brunch with the family, and then played on the church stage. There were over 8 kids getting baptized that day, so it was crazy. There were two in Kimber's ward getting baptized.