Introducing "Super" Bella!

We got a "Porkie" puppy today, whose 7 1/2 weeks old. That means she's half pure-bred Palmeranian and half pure-bred Yorkshire Terrier. So no barking, no hair, & lots of cuteness! Carter even loves her & he's afraid of every animal. Leah named her Bella but Carter wanted to call her a super hero name like "Super Man." So he started to call her Super Bella and I think it'll stick. I'm hoping she'll potty-train faster than Carter did. :)

Leah has off school for the next couple of days and I'm sure she'll get no shortage of attention. Carter was already wondering when she could sleep with him. :) Cute!

Kids in 20" of fresh snow

Ok, where have I moved to? Seriously, one day Leah comes home with mud freckles because it rained mud. I can't even see out of my car or house windows. Then it warms up so much that all the snow melts and we're starting yard work. Then in 24 hours it dumps 20" of snow. Aaah! The kids did have a bunch of fun though and that is what it's all about...I guess. :) I did get to make hot chocolate at least. Yes, Carter ate snow until his face was red and freezing.

Cousin Weekend Extravaganza!

We got to have several days jam packed with cousins on both sides of our families. We had a blast and the kids all got along great. No drama, no fights, even over toys. Loved it. Mom Galloway watched Tom & Suz's kids while they were gone for a wedding so she brought them up for a few days. LeAnn came over with Nora and then Trish came over with her 3 boys to play too. All the kids played, the husbands worked or snowmobiled, the women worked out and went to "He's not that in to you" movie when husbands came home. Fun! Then my Bassett cousin's came up for a visit and caught up on the last couple years. Cade & Nick re-lived the BBQ fest they had in Lovell. Carter loved teasing Nick until he'd get tickled. Love these guys!

Carter's kissy face lined with pizza sauce...yum!

Draper Temple Open House

This was awesome! Thanks to Melissa for hooking us up with tickets and planning this. We got to tour with Mom Galloway and the kids did fantastic being reverent. I got choked up a couple of times explaining to the kids the different rooms and their purposes for when they get older and come for themselves. Talk about make a Mom cry! They each got a brochure, cookies, and picked their favorite rooms. A wonderful opportunity that we'll take again.

The Day of LUV!

What a nice day, and of course Cade made us a lovely dinner. Leah made homemade notes and cards which are always sooo cute too.

Hangin' out with the Hansen's

It is well known that we love to play with John & Torrie (with new baby Chase to come). We ate at the Czech restaurant (with Chip & Melissa, and Q & Brian too), came to their Super Bowl party, and Cade has been snowboarding with John as well. We like any excuse to play with these guys. Next time, hopefully when Chase arrives!

Bowling - FHE

Ok, I don't boast of being a great or even good bowler but when my 7 & 4 year old beat me, that's saying something. Once I realized that I didn't get to use the bumper's, then I reverted to my throwing it backwards, between the legs, method and I could get at least some pins down. Cade got lots of strikes and spares which turned out to bother Carter because he didn't get to make any of the movies appear on the screen after he bowled. So he's "so over bowling!" We had a fun night and I'm glad my kids are too young to mock me...yet. :)

Cade & the kids. That is not dirt on Carter's face,

he had Sharpie'd his face earlier in the day.
Fun times, fun times! Leah's crazed bowling face. She did try lots of ways to get a strike.

Moments of Zen & funny kid sayings!

I think it's from the Kung Fu Panda game but one night at dinner, I was trying to get Carter to calm down and this is what he did followed by the Oooohmmmm sound and deep breaths. He did it so many times, I snuck away to get my camera. Of course Leah wasn't going to be left out of the fun so she started too. Funny sayings the kids have had lately:

1. When asking Leah which new pictures I should get printed in black and white to replace the old ones in the picture frames she responded, "Mom, I'm only 7, I've never been any older!"
2. Carter has been getting scared of the dark more lately and if you walk up behind the guy he'll jump and say, "You're really freaking me out!"
3. In Carter's prayers, he randomly throws in things that he's thankful for. Lately we've heard he's thankful for walruses, toilets, reindeer that can fly, and Jesus doing or not doing any number of things. Tonight he held maraca's while he said the prayer and shook them up high any time he mentioned something about Jesus or the Spirit. Leah & I were bent over laughing so hard we each got a whack on the head from a maraca before he closed the prayer. :)
4. When asked why Leah had told a lie about not bringing all her homework home to do she said, "I didn't want you to be mad." My response was, "I wouldn't be mad, we'd just need to do the homework but I wouldn't be mad about it." She said, "Yeah but I didn't want to do all that homework." :)
5. Carter has started saying that I can't kiss him as much as I do. He says, "No kissy, kissy...only huggy, huggy!" To which my reply is usually tickle torture followed by hugs and kisses. Until the boy can stop me, he's gettin' kisses!
6. Leah's been working on talking nicer to me so when we were looking in the mirror together and she mentioned how long her hair was getting I agreed and said that about my own hair too. With as much as she could restrain her attitude she thought for a second and commented, "Yeah, I bet an ant would think your hair was really long. It would take a year for an ant to climb my hair though."
7. Carter couldn't explain what he wanted to order from Arby's drive through so he unbuckled, got out of the truck, went up to the sign, and pointed at the picture. I just giggled as the confused people behind us saw me getting him back in the truck and buckled so we could move on. Oh, by the way the mozzerella sticks are good!
8. Leah was talking about how she's excited to get the Gift of the Holy Ghost when she gets baptized this year and how she just feels empty until that happens. I told her she's not empty inside, she has her Spirit that's why she's so smart and funny. She said, "Well Heavenly Father made me funny, He did!" To that I agreed and laughed.

Don't Lick the Snow! Yeah Right...

We got the snow outfits and gear so the kids had to try this stuff out. Carter kept trying to get it to stick to his face like bubbles would to make a beard. That's what he did until his little face literally has cuts on it from the snow. We didn't have a sled so I pulled them around on a tote lid in a huge garbage bag. Plus, I'd pick them up and chuck them into the big fluffy piles. This all lasted 30 minutes and then we were done. Cade took a lot longer than that to shovel all of it. :)

Misc Moments of Jan '09

We got a late night, one hour fix of our friends the Jackson's who came up for a funeral. Hey, we'll take what we can get of our AZ buddies. Leah made pictures and packed travel snacks and Carter got to wrestle and torment Lucas. We're glad they let us keep them up on an exhausting whirlwind trip for them. Love ya!

My Misty!

Same weekend we got to hang out in our sweats / pj's all weekend in a Bear Lake cabin with the Broadhead's to celebrate Trish's bday. Leah loved playing with Nora.

Take a look at Casen's sledding shiner! Ouch!

Ryker is the best baby! So happy and cute!

New Year's!!!

Bring on a New Year, I'm sooo done with 2008! (as long as this new one is better financially and health wise that is!) :) We got to spend the night at Brady & Holli's family cabin at Bear Lake while the kids slept over and the wonderful Parkinson's house. We bought goodies for each sleep over and had a great time playing games and visiting with old friends that we haven't seen for a while. Brian, Cade, Monica, Brady, Holli...she's counting like that not giving someone the bird. :) We're getting ready to party.

Travis & Monica Bright
Cade got in on Brady & Holli's (with new baby) self-portrait shot of themselves. We made fun of Q's fear of PDA when after having these guys as best friends for 10 years, traveling many times with them, this was the first time we've ever seen them kiss and this was their response. I think Brian was happily surprised! hee hee

Who is this masked man you ask? The man that I love...
let the good times roll babe!

Misc. Moments at the end of '08

My little buddy Jillian from Lake Chelan, Washington. We got together for some lunch and catch up time after a doctor visit for Leah at Primary Children's Hospital. We had a great time catching up since the mission days and meeting her cute little boy. I love her!

Leah, Casen, Carter, and Daxton sliding down the stairs at the Broadhead ranch. :) They play pretty well together, until someone gets hurt. :) Then they cry a bit and get right back to playing. :)

We got to see Santa and get some pre-Christmas goodies. Carter wanted nothing to do with him but Leah got her present requests in just to be safe. :)

TWILIGHT MOVIE PREMIER!

I can't believe I forgot to put this on before now. It was sooo much fun to go with a bunch of ladies from Providence that I'd gotten to know in the short time being here. They got my ticket and waited in line for an hour before the show. I went and got Little Ceasar's Pizza and walked it right in. The assistant manager didn't like this since our group was so big and only 20 people from the front of the line. I told her that it's better if we eat so we don't throw up all the popcorn and pop that we'd be buying for the movie. We weren't going to be in trouble because the manager is the one who hooked us up with tickets.

We had so much pizza left over we offered it to the poor guys that were dragged to the movie with their significant others. Then the pizza box floated up the rows of the theater like one of those bouncy balls until it was all gone. That was really funny and could've been the best part for those guys surrounded by sooo much swooning girliness!

The Polar Express in Heber City

Although our tradition started in AZ, we wore the pj's, slippers, and brought the book. I was shocked at how many people didn't get into the festivities like we did. We had fun being here with our Broadhead family / friends. Leah couldn't get enough of snuggling little cousin Nora who was trying to figure out what was going on. She really like the cookie part of the ride.

My Trish, Dax, Casen, and Brett-head. He's probably the only person I know that can fall asleep on a moving train with kids climbing on you and all around the car making noise. He woke up in time for Santa though. :)

SANTA!!!

Ringin' the bell!

Getting tickets punched.

Singing songs on the way back to the station and we even got to meet Mrs. Claus who handed out cookie recipes.