12-16-2011

I kind of lost my desire for blogging this year. . . . I'm sure you've noticed:) My last post was last Christmas. But, today I just had to sit down and write about Brancyn before I forget. Any of you that know Brancyn, know that he is fanatical about playing Angry Birds. I've had to change the lock on my phone so that he couldn't get into it. Otherwise I would find him secreted away in a closet playing Angry Birds to his hearts content and running down my battery. Well recently when he was told he could not play Angry Birds one day, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He talked Brylee into being a pig , and instruced her to sit on the couch. Then he would 'launch' himself across the room and crash into her. I thought this was pretty creative and was getting a good little laugh out of it. But, it got better. If you've ever played angry birds before, you know that there are different kinds of birds. After you launch the birds, you can tap the screen and make the birds split into more birds, gain extra speed and strength, or blow up. So, after Brancyn had launched himself a few times across the room, he started slapping his chest mid flight (to make himself blow up, seperate, or go faster.) It was hillarious. What a silly kid.

While I'm posting about Brancyn, I might as well add a picture from this morning. This is what Brancyn was busy doing while I was doing my hair this morning.

Brancyn is very into Spider Man and decided to make a web in my living room. . . . And this comment leads me to another picture I have to post. It is my favorite Halloween one of Brancyn. Kade got a new camera for us in October and has been having fun with it. I particularly love this picture

I think he was tired of the pics and just ready to get trick or treating. But, it still made for a cute pic.

December 26, 2010

It always takes a handfull of shots befoe you get a great picture! Can you believe I got matching pajamas made for everyone?!

Liberty, Dad, Mom, Aisha

Brylee, Kayson, and Brancyn

December 25, 2010

At Grammy's, we enjoyed a nice ham dinner and then opened more presents!


The kids were thrilled to find pillow pets from Grammy in the stash. They also were given new matching shirts from Grammy. Uncle Quin sent dodge tag for the boys, littlest pet shop for the little girls, and paint your own piggy bank for the bigger girls. Everyone was very pleased. It was a fun day filled with lots of visiting and food.

Carter, Aisha, Liberty, Alyssa, Kayson
Kate, Brancyn, Halle, and Brylee

December 25, 2010

Kade and I said the kids couldn't wake us up before 6:30. That ended up being perfect. They woke up just a few minutes before that and started to check out their stockings. Right at 6:30, in they came to get us up. Everyone had a fun time opening gift and watching everyone else.


Brancyn hauled in a Mac and shake up Lightening McQueen as well as a remote control Fire Engine.


Brylee was particularly pleased with her first very own Webkinz.



Kayson got wooden snakes that wiggle realistically from Brylee. As soon as he saw them, he pulled them out and started shaking them around while exclaiming that he couldn't wait to show them to Grammy! (Grammy is disgusted/terrified of snakes, so Kayson was being a big pill by making this statement:)


Liberty posing with her arm full of silly bandz.



Aisha got her very own kaboodle to haul all her hair stuff around in. She was quite pleased and hauled it everywhere for the next few weeks.

Kade loving his new watch!

We lazed around for awhile that morning and enjoyed a nice breakfast and then packed up and headed to Grammy and Grampy's for the rest of the day.

December 24, 2010

Everyone is ready for our Christmas Eve tradition of opening a family gift. The anticipation is building . . . . .



We got Mario Galaxy for the Wii!

We thought this would be a fun way to spend some time on Christmas Eve, but we misjudged. This game was not family friendly enough with only 1-2 players at a time. Next time we'll have to think it through a little more and get something that everyone can be included in easier. Oh well, live and learn. At least the kids do enjoy it on their own time:)

December 23, 2010

Dad got off a little early tonight to start the Christmas break. We had just had a new snow fall so we decided to make a snowman and then get a little sledding in. It was a great day for it (almost too warm:). This huge snowman stood for a long time, clear into February before someone knocked his head off. Even still the rest of him did not melt until March when everything else did. He was a great guard snowman all winter!


Aisha, Kade and Kayson


The finished man. Pretty awesome snowman, right?
Brancyn, Kayson, Liberty, Brylee, and Aisha

December 21, 2010

We decided to "Elf" ourselves on the Staples website tonight. This is one of my favorite things to do. It just cracks me up! We decided to do both silly and smiley faces. Here is a look at our silly faces.

Brancyn


Liberty


Kayson

Aisha

Kade

December 19, 2010

Oops! I forgot to put our annual Nativity on here. This year, Aisha got to join us. That put a fun twist on things because most religious things seemed to be new to her. She had already seen pictures of past years, and was excited to be part of the festivities this year.

Brancyn got to be Joseph this year and Kate was Mary

December 21, 2010

I decided to try to do cooking class with Liberty and Aisha once a week. Today was our first try at it. The girls helped me make crescent rolls to go with our chicken noodle soup. The did a wonderful job and were excited about how well the rolls turned out.

Liberty and Aisha

December 17, 2010

We had a new little foster girl come to live with us this month. Her name is Aisha. We found out right away that Aisha loves doing hair. This worked out perfectly since the kids had crazy hair day at school the first day she was staying with us. She helped Liberty and Kayson with some crazy do's.

Brylee, Kayson, Aisha, Liberty

December 15, 2010

Today was our preschool Christmas party. There was plenty of "merry" making as the kids worked on crafts, read Christmas stories, and danced with their jingle bells. We are glad we have such great neighborhood friends to do this with.

December 9-11, 2011

We decided it was time to try a Salt Lake trip again this year. It is so fun to go and see the lights at Temple Square and to just enjoy a weekend away in the middle of all the holiday craziness.

We started out on Thursday night and went as far as Malad. We stopped for the night at Tiff and Miles house. It was fun to see their cute first home and spend some time with their family and Nicole. Tiff and Miles let us make personal pizzas for dinner and then we visited while the kids enjoyed movies dowstairs.

Thanks for letting us crash!

Liberty, Bently, and Brylee


On Friday morning, we took off for Salt Lake City. The temps were pretty warm for December, but that didn't mean we had good weather. As we got closer to the city, it started to rain and increasingly got worse. We made a quick stop at Walmart and picked up a few umbrellas. When we got into Salt Lake, we started our tour at the Conference Center. The kids enjoyed it. Last time we went, they were too young to really make the connection, but this year the kids recognized it from General Conference.

Kayson, Liberty
Brancyn, and Brylee


This was the most exciting part of the tour for the kids. They thought it was so cool to watch the back of the waterfall from inside the building.

Brancyn, Brylee, Liberty, and Kayson


The umbrellas proved to be the other most exciting part of the trip. The kids have been begging me to buy umbrellas for the last couple of years, but I never do (I hate how quickly they seem to get broken.) They had a great time with them.

Brancyn and Kayson



Liberty, Brylee, and Kayson


By the time the lights came on, we were pretty frozen, so we didn't stay out long. But for the short time we were out, we enjoyed the beautiful colors all around us.



Liberty and her "pro" posing, I couldn't get her to just stand there. What a goof:)

Liberty, Brylee, Kayson, Brancyn, and Kade

December 4, 2010
Today was our neighbors annual gingerbread house extravaganza! The kids look forward to this every year and this year was no exception. Treats, creating fun houses, friends, and a good movie make for a very fun afternoon.


Liberty and Brylee and the girl table.


Liberty's masterpiece.



Kayson with his house. ( He was so proud that he made me take a picture of each side.)

Brylee showing hers off.

Brancyn enjoying this tratidition for the first time.

Thank you to our wonderful neighbors!

December 3, 2010
Tonight was the ward Christmas Party. Kade was asked to help with a musical number, but didn't feel like he had time to get one ready. He told the activities committee to ask Liberty. So they did! Liberty said yes. So she prepared a song out of the children's song book. I thought she did wonderfully. So far she has only played in front of a small audience at recitals, but tonight she played in front of 200 people! Way to go Liberty.


We also enjoyed a wonderful meal catered by BYU-I, a song by the primary, another musical numbers by Sister Earl, and a Christmas story told by the MC. We finished off the night with a visit from our favorite jolly fellow St. Nicholas himself!

Liberty

Kayson

Brylee

Brancyn

And no tears for Santa Claus this year!!!

November 28, 2010

Tonight when I was getting Brancyn changed for bed, he was being a really big wiggle bug. So Kade came over to him and put his hand on his chest to hold him. He told Brancyn that he was holding the soccer ball on his shirt (so that Brancyn wouldn't get mad about being held down.) Brancyn thought this was pretty funny and said that he wanted to kick the soccer ball on his shirt. Kade ran for the camera knowing this would be a good video. Enjoy!

November 28, 2010

Tonight we decorated our kid Christmas tree. We invited Grammy and Grampy up for the festivities. The kids enjoyed themselves and were exctied to see their new ornaments. Liberty got Lady and the Tramp puppies, Kayson got Chip and Dale, Brylee go Mulan, and Brancyn got Lightning McQueen. After we were done, Brylee came upstairs and asked me why she got Mulan. I told her it was because she liked the show so much and also because we had boys from China here this year and that the ornament would help her remember. Then I double checked with her and said, you do like Mulan right? She said yes and smiled. Then she said that maybe she would get Mulan again next year since she liked her so much. I told her that maybe she would, but maybe she would get something else she liked instead. She then says, I like Grammy, it would be funny if I got her. Lol, I thought it would be funny too. What a little nut!

Liberty was our photographer for most of the night (that is why there are so many silly ones) The rest of them Kade captured.