Merry Christmas

We are going up north for Christmas and we thought we would wish you all a merry Christmas. We hope you all have a fun time with your families and friends.

Happy Birthday, Brinly!

So Brinly finally turned six yesterday. It seems like she has waited an awful long time to reach this mile stone since all of her friends are already six. We have practically celebrated Brinly's birthday all month long. Between her little friend birthday party, getting sung in Primary a week early, taking cupcakes to school, dance parties, and a family party, phew. I still think those few years have gone by way too fast even though she doesn't seem to think so.
She is such a great helper when she wants to be. She loves playing with friends. Her new favorite thing to do is jump on the new trampoline she got for her birthday (atleast when the weather permits). She loves her sisters and has taken on quite the role as being big sister to Skylar. She loves to draw and color. She does really well in school and is learning to read! She loves dance and playing barbies with her sisters. We love you Brinly! Happy Birthday Brinly!

Dance Recital

This last Saturday, the girls performed in their Christmas Dance recital. This year was Brooklin and Madison's first so it was a little scary and exciting for both of them. First of all, I can't wait for Brinly to learn how to do her own hair (nuf said). Three girls in curlz and makeup! Anyway, I was glad I atleast had Brad to help get the girls' costumes on. Needless to say we were about 10 minutes late to rehearsal, but just in time for the girls to go up on stage to practice their number once before the main event. I walked Brooklin and Madison behind stage and thought that was a piece of cake until, Maddie started falling apart and would not for the life of me dance on the stage. She bald and her teacher had to hold her the whole time. So I'm thinking great! The recital was about to start and of all days she had to fall apart now! Well after much coaxing, bartering, and hugs and chats from mom, dad and grandparents, Maddie finally went to sit with her class to perform.
It just so happened that Brooklin and Madison were placed right next to each other and right next to their cousin Taylee so it worked out perfect for the cameras and the photographers. Brinly was born to perform and pose. She did great and it was nice to see her do a little more than just hand motions and blown kisses. The girls were beautiful and all did so well! We are so proud of them.

The Black Friday Chaos

Well to start off I told myself I was not going to be one of those crazy people getting up at 0'dark thirty just to save while beating people to the punch and standing in rediculously long lines. After telling myself that, I reluctantly decided I was going to go to JoAnn's Friday morning in hopes to save some money on a project I'm working on for Christmas. I was only going there and I was going early enough that hopefully I would not have to stand in line so long. I made the mistake though, of opening up the newspaper Thanksgiving day to check out the "deals". Why???????? Of course the words "sale" and "Best Buy" tend to do something to a person's brain (me) and I get curious. Mistake! Next thing I knew I was planning my morning out and how on earth I was going to be able to get what I wanted, how I was going to make the opening on time to each place, and weighing out whether or not it would be worth it. I ended up getting up at 4:30 am to make it to Wal-mart by 5am to get what I wanted, get in a line as fast as possible and check out before I had to be to JoAnn's by 6am just to find that even with only 6 people in front of me, I ended up waiting in line longer than the entire time I was in Walmart, with that many more people mind you. Then on the drive home, I got to thinking about my receipt from Walmart and realized I got charged more than the "deal" I thought I went for. So before 8 am I strolled in to walmart yet again, only this time to stand in line at the return booth to get a price adjustment. Then come to find out that the product I bought was not the exact product on sale (difference only being the box!) so I just about had every manager called up and customers next to me on my side analyzing the "deal" between the ad and the product in hand. Can I tell you I was so frustrated after that, even though they fixed it for me, that I had to go home and have a nap. I'm not so sure I will do that again, but every year seems to suck me in! What the heck!!!

Happy Birthday Brad

So yesterday was my wonderful husband's birthday. We went to a cabin this weekend and just chilled. It was nice not to worry about much at all and enjoy the quiet. Well as much quiet as we could get with four kids that is. Nonetheless, it was nice. We stayed one night up in East Zion and came back late afternoon yesterday. We had dinner with Brad's family and celebrated Brad's birthday with his favorite cake (homemade German Choc.) with ice cream and opened a few gifts. I hope you had a good birthday, hun! I love you!

Happy Halloween!

Here are some pictures of the girls in their costumes at the few events they had to dress up for last week. Brooklin and Madison at dance with cousin Taylee and friends Maycee and Rylee. Brinly with her friends Abby and Annabelle.

Brinly at her school Parade struttin' her stuff! Then all the girls right before trick-or-treatin'.

Carving Pumkins for Family Night

So we decided to carve pumpkins again this year. I'm thinking it will become an annual ritual. The girls seem to enjoy it. Grandma and Papa came down to join us as well as Aaron and Lisa. It made the experience more fun. Thanks you guys for coming and helping carve the girls pumpkins.

The weekend

So this weekend was a little crazy for me. It all started with a Relief Society Visiting Teaching Conference our ward decided to put on. I was asked to sing in a group at it so off I went to that at 8:15am-10 am. Then I had to pick my kids up at my neighbors house cause they so graciously offered to watch the three older girls until I got home (Brad was working). I went to go pick the kids up and my sweet neighbor told me her husband had to take their oldest daughter to her tennis lessons and that I needed to hurry and pick the girls up, but when I got there as soon as I found that out, no one was home. Poor Iuri had taken his four kids and my three clear to Ivins to drop Aydia off. So I had to wait for him to get back so I could take Brinly out to her school carnival by 10:45am. He got back just in time for me to pick the girls up and drive out to her school which is about an 8 min. drive from home. ! Her Kindergarten class was performing a few little chants they had been learning. Then I needed to go volunteer at the bounce house booth for an hour. My wonderful mother & father-in-law showed up to watch Brinly and to help take the girls around for the hour that I had to be at the booth. Thank you, thank you again!They left and I took the kids around to a few more booths until I was worn out and Skylar had had it. We left around 2:30pm just in time to lay the girls down for a nap before our wards trunk-or-treat @ 6pm. Brad got home from work around 5:30pm and I was madly waking kids up and getting them all dressed up for the party. Good thing a little mascara isn't as challenging as all over face paint. The girls turned out really cute and thanks to Brad for getting Skylar ready while I finished with the girls.
After the party, we took the kids to pick up pizza, came home and ate, bathed the girls for church the next day & put them to bed. Phew!!! Then it was time to finish my lesson for YW! What a day!!

PIctures of our four beautiful girls!

So here are a few pictures that my friend Miriam took of our girls. We had a hard time getting all of them to be cooperative but we managed to get a few cute ones.

Skylar is 4 months???

So here are a couple of pictures of our adorable little Skylar. She is now weighing in at a whoppin' 15 lbs. and measures 27.75" long. She flips over almost as soon as she is layed down. Where did our baby go? Why do they have to grow so fast. We are enjoying every minute with her but I wish she could slow down a bit.

Trip to Zion

I know this has been two weeks in the making, but cut me some slack. Four kids, YW lessons, scrapbook club, making costumes, canning, and whatever else, has been keeping me a little preoccupied. So here are some pics of a couple weekends ago from a family trip we took to East Zion. It was so much fun. We stayed in this beautiful cabin at this resort and just hung out really. Most of Brad's family was there. We scrapbooked, went four wheeling, played games, ate and chilled! I really need to work on getting my camera out before the end of the trip.


Here are Brad's parents and Grandma Great