A Holly Jolly Christmas!

Blakeley in front of our Charlie Brown tree!
Christmas Eve 2008

Blakeley made Christmas so fun this year. She was so excited to see what Santa had brought her Christmas morning! She went right over and started playing with her Clipo Table. She loved pulling all the prizes out of her stocking. We went to the Costley's house first and Blakeley got so spoiled by her grannie. She gave Blake a cute little TV chair and Colby and Mindy gave her a Ginormous teddy bear. The stinkin thing is bigger that her and she loves to tackle him. Watching her open it was hillarious the box was huge! Christmas afternoon we had lots of fun with the Brian cousins. Blakeley got a darling 25th anniversary Cabbage Patch. She is so cute and Blake just loves her. We had such a fun time watching Blakeley enjoy her Christmas she is always such a ham! Hope everyone had a great Christmas too. I can't believe it is already over, time flies.

Lights at the Bay!

Heard of the lights at Willard Bay? We checked it out this year and it was so much fun. You can drive around and see the lights in your car or you can do a wagon ride. We opted for the warm car! My sweet parents treated us to all the fun. There are a ton of different lights to see and Christmas music playing. Blakeley LOVED it she was just so excited about all the lights, we all loved watching her, and I really loved that we could enjoy from the nice warm car. We had so much fun-Blakeley makes everything fun!

Blake with Grannie and

Blake with Kader

Don't mind her hat hair :)

Seeing the lights with Daddy!

Santa and I are trying to get Blake to say Ho, Ho, Ho!

She wouldn't perform though!

Willard Bay Santa!!

Blakeley did pretty good, when we walked toward Santa I felt her start to grip the back of my arm, she was a bit scared. She wasn't about to "go to" Santa so he said I could just sit on his lap with her! She wouldn't say Ho, Ho, Ho for him, but when he said it, it was funny to watch her face! She has heard us say it so many times and she will usually say it back, but when she heard him say it her eyes just got really big! Santa gave Blake a Candy Cane and as you can see she liked it!

Blake's latest photo shoot!

Here are a few of Blakes latest photos!

As usual Cathy did a great job on Blakes Pictures! She also had the darling idea for her leotard, leg warmers, and cute red tutu outfit!!

I think this picture is so cute, I love when Blake

pulls that face!

Kickin' off Christmas!!

We started off the season right by hosting my friend Christmas party last week. It was super crazy but a TON of fun. It was so fun to have all the babes here even though they probably were the reason it was crazy. It is always nice to get together with the hubbies and eat delicious food, laugh and play games. We always say we should do it more often than once a year! We had a great time here is a cute picture of all the kiddies, what a cute group huh!

Krew, Tripp, Stone, Grady, Lily, Blakeley.

Wow how we have grown!!!

This year we got to shower Jenna and Casey with some

fun things for their new little guy on the way!

Jenna had plenty of help from all the kids!



Sortly after I took these pictures Blakeley was begging to play with my camera, she does it all the time so I let her. After a minute I tried to take it back from her, she threw a fit so I gave up and let her play with it. Well hours later I found it on the playroom floor bRoKEn! Surprise I know , what did I expect. Im just pissed cuz I just barely bought it last December. I really wasn't wanting to buy a new one right now. Does anyone want to sell me their old one?????

I thought this was funny though, Blakeley took this picture with the camera...

right before she murdered it!!!

Extreme Makeover: Basement Edition

We started finishing our basement back in August and as much as I wish this really was Extreme Makeover the TV show it for sure wasn't. It took us twice as long as we thought, we ran into over a dozen problems, called on everyone for more favors than we deserve, and worked ourselves silly, but in the end it was definitely worth it!!! Here are some pics, I thought I had done much better at taking pictures than I did, so sorry there will also be no big reveal like Extreme Makeover or Oprah either!

The Demo and Framing.
The picture in the middle is a pile full of the old Basement we Demoed out!!!

These two pictures are of Rob and Blakeley's art work on the sheet rock.

Robs was so cute he wrote a time line of our kids. Starting with Blakeley and on down the line what he wants all our kids to be named
(I agreed with most of them :))

So then we let Blakeley Scribble too! She thought it was the best!!

Sheet Rocked, Tiled, and Blakeley in a box!

Move in day or is it Move down day?

Blakeley "helping" and enjoying her new playroom.

Although she seems to play on the stairs the most!

We are so grateful to everyone who helped us turn our basement into such a fun place to be. We love it and are so happy to have the space!! Thanks to everyone and to Rob for spending countless hours and late nights to make our home better, Love You All!!!

A Lot to be Thankful for!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. It was our year to be with the Brian's and I got to learn how to make something new. I was in charge of bringing the Sweet Potatoes and the Pies. I did some pies a couple of years ago and thank heavens my mom helped me again this year with the crusts so those turned out great but this was my first attempt at the Sweet Potatoes. I used my moms recipe and can I tell you they were DeLiTEfuL! Basically we had to baste them every 15 min in butter and brown sugar, so no wonder they tasted so great huh! It was such a yummy dinner and we as usual ate WAY too much!

Reading With Daddy!

Thanksgiving 2008

Rob and I had to speak in church the Sunday before Thanksgiving and as usual I was so nervous but I am really so grateful that we were asked to speak because in preparing for and giving my talk I learned so much and realized I have so so much to be thankful for. Lately I have really been getting caught up in the future and what I want in the future (a new house, and new car, a vacation here, etc.) and I finally realized I just need to be grateful for what I have now and the other things will come in the future. I have a home and food to eat, I have a husband who is such a hard worker and has a good job, I have a beautiful daughter who is healthy and happy and makes me laugh everyday. I have family who love me and helps me out whenever I need it. I have friends who bring me joy, laughter, and friendship. I have so much that I need to focus on instead of just wishing for and wanting things I don't. There was a quote I found that said

"It is not happiness that makes us grateful, But gratefulness that makes us happy!"

Twilight Dorks, Don't Judge Me!

The Stars aligned for Tesh and I and we got to see the Twilight Premier first hand. Cute Amber that plays Dball with us had 2 extra tickets for the junction, what could be better than assigned seats on opening night, and after some coaxing Tesh gave in and said she would go with me. We got a little concerned when Tesh saw people arriving in the prom dresses on the news, she text me and asked me to pick up her wrist corsage for her and I said only if she will put my hair in an up-do with babies breath! But really it was a site, rob was concerned that I was really leaving the house in my "Team Edward" shirt but I figured Im going so I might as well! Besides the movie, the best part was leaving to go to the bathroom with Tesh and having the previews start when we were in the lobby. Tesha screamed and sprinted to the bathroom. Hollering out to me "I don't want to miss anything!" She is hilarious, up until that moment she was so embarrassed to be there-then needless to say I was a little embarrassed that she was sprinting to the bathroom. Seriously though the movie was great, I really want to see it again so I can enjoy it more. I was just so anxious to see how everything was going to play out that I didn't enjoy it like I should have. I thought Bella was perfect and Edward grew on me. It was a way fun night thanks to Amber again for doing all the hard work to get us the tickets, and thanks Tesha for all the fun memories!

Leggo-Ouch!

Poor Blake! We have officially named her accident prone. We went to Carters to buy her some jammies last night and she insisted on playing on the Leggo table. Rob sat with her while I looked around. But, she just thinks she is so big trying to get on and off the chair by herself and playing like a big kid. Well sure enough she lost her balance and fell over on a Leggo that was upside down. What luck huh! She was crying and Rob called me over. I wasn't all that concerned at first because she falls over about every five minutes, but Rob said it was bad. Her forehead looked horrible. I was nervous at first, but seconds later she was reaching back toward the table wanting to get down. So I put her down and she stopped crying and went right on her way playing again-like her forehead wasn't indented with a Leggo block! So I'm 95% sure people who see her think we are abusive and I can't blame them (it looks pretty bad.) I have been putting on neosporin and vitamin E like every 4 hours today so it will heal and not scar. Just log this in the book of "Blakeley's Accidents" I have a feeling there will probably be many more in her future... unfortunately! (these pictures really don't do it justice.)

This Morning

This Afternoon

Tonight

Poor Girl, I think it already looks better than it did this morning. I love all her faces in these pictures.

Happy Halloween

We had a fun Halloween showing off our little Flower girl Blake. I was racking my brain to come up with a fun tradition that we could do every Halloween. It isn't much but I decided last minute maybe Jack-O-Lantern Pancakes for breakfast would be a fun place to start. I colored the batter orange and then made the face out of chocolate chips. They were actually really good, Blakeley loved them and shoved them in getting totally messy. We had fun seeing family too. We went to Gr and Gr Hales for yummy soup and cousin fun, then to Grannie and Papa's to "trick or treat" and last we met up with the Brian cousins! We had a lot of fun and Blakeley was really good-she actually liked wearing her costume. She of course got scared a few times, and by somethings that weren't scary at all. She lost it when she saw Rowdy, the Brian's cat and Jan put her glasses on to read Blakeley a story and apparently she thought that was scary too! I hope she grows out of this fear by next year. She is just so tender hearted sometimes. We had a fun time with Blake and just can't believe how big she has gotten since last Halloween. She was a lot of fun this year.

Flower Power!

VISIT GRANDMA AT WORK DAY!

We have a fun tradition to take the kids to see grandma at work in their Halloween costumes. It is a lot of work but a lot of fun! We went to see Grandma Jan and then to lunch. It is cute to see all the kids in their costumes.

We have Transformers-Hayden and Macguire, Wonder Woman-Kale, Marine-Hudson, Lady Bug-Harper, and of course Beautiful Flower-Blakeley!

So Suprise! Blakeley was scared of the Transformers (see previous post.) It is so sad that she keeps getting scared!

We had another Grannie to visit! Grannie Sheryl!

And then...

we went with Grannie to her ward Halloween Party! Blake had a great time.

She got to try out the Halloween Fish Pond...

Oh Yeah! I got a pencil.

That's age appropriate for a 1-yr-old. Minutes later, she stabbed herself in the eye with it, so Unky Kade went back and exchanged it for a sticker that she could choke on. jk.

Then Kader took me through the costume parade!

You can see from this picture she was DONE by then. And by done I mean CoOkeD! She was burning up in there.

Halloween Fun!

Halloween Celebrations have begun! We went to Dave and Heidi's annual Halloween party on Friday. It was a lot of fun as usual. Rob went as "Rob" Zombie, I was a "got milk?" model and Kade went as Maddee.

Karah and "Maddee"

Blakey thought Kade looked funny, she kept laughing at him!

Rob looked REALLY scary! Blakeley got scared when she saw him and started crying. How did she know he was scary? It was so weird that she knew that wasn't right. Anyway she calmed down eventually but we didn't let her see Rob again. Rob felt SOO way bad he was so worried she would remember it was him. She forgot all about it later and was just fine. Poor girl.

Then, on Sunday my mom had us play some fun Halloween games. We played play-dough pictionary and the boys had to eat an apple that was hanging from the ceiling. The Brian's dominated of course! Here are some fun pics...

Mapping out their strategies


Eat those apples!

*
Good Work Guys!

Blakey wanted to give it a try
Oh, Yummy!

Blakeley carried this apple around for the rest of the night. She ate a ton of it too. It was cooled and I think it felt good on her little teeth! It was funny.

Feeding time the Zoo

First I just Had to post this picture because I loved Blakes little outfit this day!

So look at what a cutie she is...

Okay, My buggs has really been chowing down on her food lately. There is a condition... I have to let her feed herself and she has to get as messy as possible! If I let her do this she will eat a TON of food.

She is pictured here on three separate occasions eating mac and cheese, chicken carbonara, and top ramen...




Mac and Cheese, With a Cheese!

Chicken Carbonara
This one was hilarious/embarrassing cuz we were at Union Grill!
Top Ramen

She just makes me laugh! She gets so into it and she literally can not shove the noodles into her mouth fast enough. Its kinda hard for me to let her feed herself sometimes because she gets herself and my kitchen SOOO dirty, but she eats better and I guess she has got to learn some how. At least it's entertaining!