Merry Christmas

These are four happy boys on Christmas Day. Josh's big present was the 'Go Diego' backpack that makes lots of noise and sings all kinds of songs. He has such a groovy dance that goes along with the music that I recorded on our video camera, but unfortuneately I don't know how to download it to the blog. Luke got a 'power ranger' phone (that cost $20) and he loved it until he saw his best friends 'power ranger' phone (that cost $2) and said he wanted one like his friends. He still loved the gameboy games he received. Joe got a helicopter and some art stuff. Joe is happy with anything and everything, to him this was the "best Christmas EVER". Ben got all of the accessories for a Gameboy DS. He was thrilled. His DS will be coming in February after he is finished with his 1 year without candy deal. We had a nice Christmas. I love getting together with family and friends.
Christmas breakfast (compliments of Dan the chef)....Fresh squeezed orange juice (shipped straight from Arizona from my sister), bacon and eggs, and toast. Love Christmas morning breakfasts!!!
Christmas Eve, we went to my sister Lindas house. We had a yummy dinner and then, as tradition has it we act out the nativity. We have had the baby Jesus for many years now and I think that we will have to retire our parts so that someone else can have the opportunity to play Mary and Joseph. We are hoping for someone to take over, we need some new babies, if not, maybe we can handle it for another year. Cutest baby Jesus you have ever seen???
Absolutely adorable wisemen singing "We Three Kings".
Here are some handsome shepherds abiding their flock, waiting for the angel to appear. We also had some REAL talent by Austin playing the guitar and his girl-friend who played the violin. We played the bells and sang Christmas songs. We love this time of year. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and enjoyed the spirit of the season.

Happy Birthday Ben

For Bens birthday we went skiing. We invited the Williams family to come with us. I can't tell you how much of a birthday present it was for me, rather than Ben. It had just snowed and the powder was amazing. I (I mean WE) had so much fun. It was a little harder for the boys to ski in, but it was such a great day for skiing.
The morning was warm, but it got colder as the day went on. We stopped in for hot chocolate.
We came home and got cleaned up and went for a competitive round of bowling with his friends. Ben is now 10 (no more single digits for him). We love him and hope he had as good of a birthday as I did:)

Thanksgiving

This is how we all felt after a delicious meal at my mother-in-law, Nancy's house. The morning started off with a large famiy photo downtown at Busaths. It was cold. All of Nancy's children were there with their families, so it was a lot of fun for her to get a picture. Everyone (including the kids) was very patient. After the photo, we went home and finished the baking and took our portion of the meal to Nancy's. We ate and ate and ate, then played games and then ate some more, because you have to finish the meal with pie and ice cream. We had a lot of fun with the cousins. Especially the ones from out of town. Not because they are the same ages as my boys, but because they are GIRLS!!! We have one girl cousin that lives here in Draper, and we love her, she babysits for us and is wonderful. We went to the Hale Center Theatre one night...
we went downtown to see the lights at Temple Square and went to the Discovery Museum at the Gateway Mall, which was a lot of fun.
Josh barely had to walk, he was carried on someones shoulders the whole time....lucky sucker.
Josh was ready for the cold.
Thanks to Nancy for having us all over for Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun and I am pretty lucky to have married into a great family. I have a lot to be thankful for.

Tuscon

It looks like our kids really missed us while we were gone last week, doesn't it? Our cute niece Kailan watched them for the weekend-they look miserable don't they. Good thing we weren't gone too long...who knows what shape they would have been in:)

Dan and I had the chance to go to our annual conference for camp. This year it was in Tuscon at a ranch called Tanque Verde. Our accomidations were really nice and we had such a great time. Not only are all of the people in the association really good people, but they are a lot of fun too. We played in the annual golf tournament on a beautiful course. The desert is actually very pretty. We were able to play tennis, go mountain biking, hiking, swimming and golf (twice). Oh yeah, did I mention we had to go to a couple of meetings here and there, but overall we were very active. The food was amazing and pleanty of it. It was a nice break and I think our kids had a ball without us for a few days. Thanks for all of the people who made it possible for us to go. We have amazing friends and neighbors.

Fall

I love the fall. It is my absolute favorite time of the year. We (my children) had so much fun playing as I worked hard with my husband to try to contain all of the leaves in one area. Not a chance...
We let them have their fun. (notice the Halloween costume).
My kids are becoming quite the golfers. We have taken them a few times to hit golf balls and it was so much fun. Joe hit a few that bounced off of the black guards and almost hit us. Luckily we were one of very few people out that day and no one got hurt. Joe giggled so hard at some of his crazy shots. We have to work on hitting straight.

Halloween

Oh to be 3 again...What to be for Halloween. Before we got into the costume box, Josh was set on being Darth Vader. We bought the mask etc... and he was excited. After he saw all of the options, he could no longer decide. So, on Saturday he changed costumes every 10 min. Between an alien,a tiger, Darth Vader, Spiderman....
or a mix of the costumes...
He finally chose spiderman. Ben had a difficult time choosing between a hula girl and a hippie, and decided a hippie was better for school.
And so it was for Halloween...Two super-heros, a vampire, and a hippie. Boy am I one lucky mom. Fun was had by all.

Costumes

As you can see, I am totally safe at my house. I have two very powerful, very capable and very serious super heros to watch over me. There is no way any bad guys will dare come through my door. Thanks to their cousin Spencer who bought the capes for their birthdays, Halloween will be a little easier to deal with this year. As for my other two boys, it has not been this easy. One wants to be the "Scream"guy with blood coming down his face...Eeew! The other one is at the stage where dressing up is a little stupid, but for sure wouldn't miss out on it either. For example: Darth Vader is cool, but dressing up like him is not. SO...not sure what we will throw together at the last minute, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Potty Training

Ahh...the joys of potty-training. I couldn't have a happier pupil to work with, don't you think? It should be a piece of cake....right? So I thought that Sunday would be a great day to start. We had our Stake Conference (which was so good) in the morning, and we had the rest of the day to focus. He did so well. He went every 2 minutes (which was fun) and was excited to wear "big boy" underwear. He did great with going pee, now the big hurdle was the poop. Little did I realize that he would have, today of all days, DIAREHHEA. Just a FYI to all of you who have not potty-trained yet, don't do it when your child has no control over the poop part, it is not fun to clean up. So, today is a new day and we are crossing our fingers that he has that problem fixed:)

Update

O.k.,O.k., I know that the picture of my three adorable brothers was getting a little old, but I had to wait until I could find time to sit and breathe!!! The last few weeks have been a little bit crazy. We went the ranch on conference weekend. We had such a great time. We made Luke pick all of the apples and didn't let him come down until he had enought for an apple pie.
Ben took Josh for a spin on the motorcycle to teach him how to ride early, we do things a little bit differently down at the ranch...
We woke up in the morning and found about 30 wild turkeys in the orchard and all Josh had to say about that was "Mom, SHOOT THEM!!!" Nice, huh?
When we got back we had Lukes birthday, which happens to be the same day as our anniversary, "fun" is not the first thing that comes to mind to have to share that day, it is actually makes for a crazy day... we will do it differently next year:) Look at his cute friends, Josh was just a bit too excited to be at Chucky Cheese, and Ben...what is he doing? Don't know, but what I do know is that I am learning too much about boys and how to be a mom to 4 of them!!!
The highlight of the past few weeks is Joes baptism. My cute, sweet Joe was smiling from ear to ear from the time he woke up on Saturday until he went to bed. He is one happy camper. My mom and dad were in town for it and that made it really special. We love our JOE.

So, now, about our anniversary. I was in charge this year, (we switch every other year). Dan's years are always so much more creative and fun. He is so good at suprising me or doing something sweet. Last year was our trip for Scotland and I think that he thinks that was enough for the next ten years. Although it was so much fun, I don't think he actually wants me to be in charge of it that many years in a row, and here is why...I must confess that I wanted to something great, but time ran out so quickly that I had no time to plan, and plus, I am not that creative. So, after doing Joshs birthday, Lukes birthday, and thinking about the baptism (and doing a flower show inbetween), I was not up for the task. WHAT DO YOU DO FOR AN ANNIVERSARY? I asked a lot of people, and dinner and a movie was about all I got. So, I did make a reservation at a nice restaurant (the day of) and then looked at the movie choices and it wasn't much. So, I acted like I had it all planned and we were going to do something great. After dinner, I told him the movie choices and we were on the same page...Nothing...so I decided to go miniature golfing (WHO DOES THAT for their anniversary?) They were closed. Then I thought of the brilliant idea to go shopping and maybe visit Rachel at the SPA (good idea). We went to the mall at 8:45p.m. and realized quickly, the mall was closing. No massage, no shopping spree, ugh! We got back in the car and I mentioned renting a movie and we both had the same reaction...naw...we were too tired, and went home! Doesn't that sound like fun? If you want me to plan any of your upcoming events please let me know.

Brothers

I forgot to mention what amazing brothers I have. I am really lucky to have 6 wonderful siblings. My brothers are very talented, handsome and kind. They set a pretty high standard when I was looking for a man to marry. They are great examples to me and I love them. I knew that my husband would have to have the qualities that my brothers had and I have to admit that I married well. :)
O.K. so I couldn't find a current picture of my 3 handsome brothers. This picture was taken at our wedding, they clean up pretty well, all dressed up in tux's. My oldest brother on the left was not too thrilled about the thought of his youngest sister getting married. He tried to smile and give us his best wishes, but it was hard for him. My youngest brother in the middle felt bad when, at the moment the picture was taken, our 5 tier cake was knocked over by one of the groomsmen who thought that it was time for the dancing to start. My other brother was just plain shocked that Dan actually said "yes". Sure love them! xoxo

Sisters

spring at the ranch

Now that my sisters know that I have a blog, I have to acknowledge them in some way. My sisters are amazing. I am so lucky to have such fun, good-hearted, beautiful, kind etc. etc.... sisters to look up to. I have three sisters, I don't have a picture of the three of them together, so I will have to post one of my other sister later...I am sure she will be so excited!!! By the way the two adorable children they are holding, are responsible for making me a GREAT aunt. Sounds sooooo old. They are the first great nephews in the family (identical twins).

So, here is to you my sisters!!! Sure do love you and can't wait for the sisters trip this year...where to???

It's time I joined the bloggers

Couer'd Alene, Idaho

thanks to Christine, I am now part of the blogging world. It's about time, because I think that we were the last ones in North America to get cable T.V. and high speed internet, so I think that it is appropriate that we are the last ones to get a blog spot-oh no, maybe the Tuttles will be:).

O.K., so I am sitting here trying to figure this whole thing out and I am really not computer savvy. I am hoping that blogging (what a weird name) will help me feel better about failing at my attempts to be a dedicated journal writer and scrapbooker. I hope to have a lot of fun with this when I figure out how to do all of the cool stuff!

p.s. I don't mean to brag--, but I think that I have pretty cute kids!!! We had a great vacation to beautiful Coeur d' Alene Idaho after camp. I love traveling with my kids.