Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We enjoyed our first Thanksgiving with just our family this year. Mia is so young we didn't want to travel with her and expose her to any potential sicknesses (which we seem to have plenty of in our own home as it is), so we decided to stay home this year. The kids were kind of sad that we weren't going to be spending time with our other family members, but they had a memorable day with all of us together.

Ron, Elizabella and McKay helped prepare the turkey. Elizabella was so proud of herself that she touched the turkey and it didn't do anything to her. The kids all helped out and decorated our table so nicely. We even had name cards to show us where to sit so we wouldn't be confussed.



Here is the delicious food that we all helped to prepare. All of the kids enjoyed helping mom make the traditional rainbow jello. Ours was orange and red though, as those were the colors of jello that mom had, so they went along with the autumn theme.

William insisted that we have ham to go with our feast, so we cooked some, just for him, although the rest of us enjoyed it as well.


Siena's favorite part were the rolls. She enjoyed eating much better when she pulled up a chair and joined us all at the table.

We didn't have pie for Thanksgiving, but we did enjoy a delicious birthday cake. The day before was William's eighth birthday. He was so full from dinner, and hadn't been feeling the best on his birthday so he wanted to save his cake for the next day. We didn't mind.

Eight Years Old!!!

Wednessday November 25, 2009, William turned eight years old. William thought it was pretty neat that he didn't have to go to school on his birthday. He was able to open some presents throughout the day. One of his favorite ones was a football that his dad got him. He had fun playing catch with everyone. Even mom went out and played with him.

As a special treat for his birthday all the kids except for Mia went minature golfing at Trafallgas. Ron was going to keep score at first, but thought better of it after the first ball was hit.

Everyone thought it was pretty neat how their clothes showed up under the black lights at the golf place.

That evening mom and dad took William out for a special birthday dinner. William could pick anywhere he wanted to go. He chose to go to Teppanyaki's Japanese Steak House.

We enjoyed a delicious meal and had fun drinking soup from bowls.

The cheif came out and cooked our food right in front of us. William thought it was pretty cool. "It's like dinner and a show at the same time!" Here the cheif made a volcano out of a sliced up onion.

William even ate with chopsticks.

Ice cream at the end was a fun treat as well.

When we got home William had fun receiving the rest of his presents. McKay colored two pictures for William. He was supposed to notice the differences between the two.

Siena REALLY enjoyed William's football.

Siena liked William's football so much, it was hard to get a picture with him and the football because Siena kept trying to swipe it.

William got some nice gifts for his birthday. The one he was the most excited for was his new scriptures. He teared up a little because he was so happy- he must be related to his dad.

William is a very kind and respectful son. Throughout the day, and especially at the end of the day William kept thanking us for having such a nice birthday for him. I thought to myself as he went to sleep, this is what makes being a mom all worth it. I love William so much and am very grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who sent him to be a part of our family eight years ago.

Just Can't Wait Until I'm Eight

The day before William's Eighth birthday he was invited to a cub scout pack meeting. He was so excited to go. Ron had young mens and I needed to stay home with Mia, as she is so young, but he was able to go with a friend's family. He had a lot of fun and is excited to start cub scouts next month.


For part of their meeting William was branded into the Wolf Pack. He was so proud, he wouldn't let us wash his sweatshirt for several days because he wanted to keep the brand on.

Daddy's Little Girls

So last night the two youngest girls kept their parents awake most of the night. Here are some pictures of a very special girl to remind her dad how much he loves his little princess, even when she doesn't let him get much sleep.

Siena loves hanging out with dad evert chance they get.

Apple anyone???

Up for the main course???

Safe and sound in Daddy's arms.

Let's eat again!!!

I'm a "Big" Sister!!!!

Our Fun Fall Vacation!!!

The kids had a couple days off of school for fall break so we decided to head out of town and take a little vacation. We started by going up to Park City where I did some shopping while Ron and the kids played at the play areas at the outlets. The kids were all so good we decided to extend our fun and drove to West Valley City where we spent night at a hotel there that had a fun little water park.

McKay and Elizabella enjoyed relaxing in the hot tub.

Siena and I had fun watching what everyone was doing and enjoyed getting in the water ourselves.

William really enjoyed the basketball hoop and ball they had in one of the pools. It was pretty fun to watch him run, shoot and jump into the pool. We all had fun playing horse.

They had a big fun slide there that William and Ron enjoyed going down. You had to climb up a bunch of stairs to get to the top and then you actually went through the slide on the outside of the building and then came back in and landed in the pool. I tried to get a picture of Ron coming in, but only got his HUGE splash.

Overall we had a really fun time in the water and spent several hours there.

Sleeping at the hotel was a different story as Elizabella kept us up pretty much ALL night as she coughed and complained about her throat hurting. We enjoyed a yummy breakfast at the hotel and then went swimming some more in the morning.

After we left the hotel we headed over to Temple Square and showed the kids around.

William and McKay had fun escorting Siena around. We had to leave a bit early as I started having a lot of contractions. We all had fun and enjoyed getting away for a little bit.

Pretty Baby Ballerina

Look at our beautiful Ballerina. Isn't she cute???

Halloween Fun

For Family Home Evening we had fun carving our Halloween Pumpkins. Ron and Elizabella teamed up to do a Jack-o-lantern with scary eyes and a mean mouth (that Elizabella made personally). William made a cyclops pumpkin and McKay wanted a kitty pumpkin, that mom ended up having to carve. The end results were very "awesome" according to William and will surely scare and "wow" the trick-or-treaters who visit our door.

Last Saturday we raked up the leaves in our back yard and McKay enjoyed jumping in our leaf pile. We also had fun helping a neighbor rake up her leaves (we filled over 12 bags). Of course right after we raked up the leaves we had a storm that blew a bunch more leaves off the trees, so now it looks like we'll have to rake again.

Ron took the kids to the library's Halloween party. Apparently Elizabella was getting a bit fresh with Frankenstein. I guess dad will have to have a talk with her about kissing tall green monsters.

Look I lost a tooth!!!

McKay has had a wiggly bottom tooth for a little while. One day while wiggling it we noticed that he had a big tooth growing up right behind it, so the baby teeth had to go. On Tuesday October 20th Ron pulled out McKay's first tooth. It was pretty dramatic, but I think he thought it was cool to be missing a tooth.

The next Tuesday tooth #2 was pulled as the tooth behind it was starting to come in as well. Mom tried to help pull it, but decided that a screaming boy and a big belly were not a good combination so we again waited for dad to work his magic. Now he is missing both bottom teeth, although the big ones are already starting to fill in the gap.

That night McKay lost his tooth somewhere and was worried about not getting the full benifits from the tooth fairy, so he wrote her a note explaining that he had lost his tooth and wondered if he could still get money. She actually wrote him back, along with giving him a handsome reward as she felt bad that he had lost the same tooth twice in one day.

It's Halloween Time!!!

On Thursday the kids dressed up for their school Halloween Parade.

William decided he wanted to be a Pharaoh this year, so I had fun figuring out how to make his costume Wednesday night. I was actually able to make the whole thing fairly quickly and didn't have to sew a thing. His costume was very unique and he was the only Egypt ion there.

He got pretty excited to get to use makeup on his eyes, just like Mom.

McKay was a very handsome vampire. I don't think it would be too hard for him to get close enough to such your blood!!

Here's William chatting with a neighbor witch and getting some advice on which way the Nile ought to flow and where exactly his next pyramid should be built.

Count McKay casually meanders his way around the school yard in search for his next snack.

Pharaoh William met a beautiful Princess Fairy and kindly posed for the Paparazzi.

Precious Moments to Remember

With everything that happens and goes on each day sometimes the little things that mean the most seem to get over looked. On Sunday, after church, I enjoyed just having Siena snuggle up into my arms. She is so precious and brings such a sweet presence to our home (especially during to quiet hours of rest.) During those quite times it is humbling to reflect upon the deep trust our Heavenly Father places upon all of us parents to care for and love his tender children.