The Tree

This year I was pretty unmotivated when it came to the tree.  Mark got it down while I was shopping on Friday (by himself which he shouldn't have done, it is on the top shelf of our garage and weighs a lot.  The ladder slipped out from under him, the tree fell, but he was fine.  A banged up shin was all. He sent me a picture of his leg saying he was going to the ER and it was broken.  I didn't show much sympathy in my response because I knew hew was joking.  In his reenactment of it for me he jumped off the ladder and landed like spider man, right on his feet, of course. :)) H Anyway, we got around to decorating it for family home evening on Monday night.  I let the kids do quite a bit and didn't really bother to rearrange things.  They are getting better though.  Leila was pretty excited about it.  Every time she put a ball up she'd say "wook mom!  I did it!"

Maybe one of these years we can figure out how to dress up the outside of our house without having to risk spider man falling off the roof too.

Thanksgiving Weekend

I look forward to this weekend every year.  My mom and Cami came over the night before Thanksgiving so we could make the pies.  We had this down this year and made 6 pies in about an hour and a half.  It usually takes us all night it seems!  Banana cream, pumpkin, bittersweet chocolate, coconut cream, and cheesecake with chocolate ganache.  They were all delicious, yes I tried at least a little of every one over the next couple days. :)

Thanksgiving morning Mark took Charlie to his Turkey bowl, looks like a new tradition for them.  Charlie got to play on his team this year and scored three touch downs with Mark as the quarter back.  He was in heaven.  They had a great time.

I took the girls to the gym daycare and did their annual turkey burn, 25 minutes of running, 25 minutes of biking, 25 minutes of boot camp.  It was a good burn and our team took 3rd!  That was a shock.

 I know, I'm so cute.  Paige's husband Russ was a good sport to be on the team of all girls.

 Boot camp session.  Go Cam!  I'm in the back corner attempting to do burpies with a belly, not fun!

We had dinner at Colby and Erianne's this year.  The food was fantastic, as always, but poor Charlie started feeling sick right as we sat down to eat.  After dinner Mark ended up taking him home, luckily he did because sick he was.  He threw up a couple times that night.  I stayed for a while with Kenya.  Leila missed the whole thing because she was napping then was home with Mark.  Not our ideal Thanksgiving, I didn't get a family picture, or hardly any pics for that matter.  

Just a couple of these goofy girls...

 Okay, they can be cute too. :)

I went home after a couple hours and we watched "Brave" together with my little family.  I was grateful to have them and pretty content with the day even though it wasn't "typical" because I am so blessed with a loving husband, 3 wonderful kids, and a happy home.  

 Watching Brave.  

That night Cami, Erianne, and I decided to hit Target since it opened at 9:00 pm this year (crazy!)  We made it through the crazy (despite me almost losing my shopping cart that I left with a total stranger in line, panic!) and came out with some good deals.  Every year Cami, my mom, and I go to the Outlets on Black Friday and a couple other spots but this year my mom was sick and had to ditch out on us.  We were bummed but didn't let it stop us, the next morning we headed to City Creek for some more shopping and lunch.  A fun day but I was exhausted by the end of it.  We went to dinner that night with my siblings and the next day was project day, painting Charlie's room that we're redoing took all day, we're rearranging the kids rooms to make room for this new babe.  Mark set up bunk beds the day before and the transformations are almost complete.  We went out again that night with my family and saw Lincoln.  It was a busy, fun Turkey Day weekend.

Charlie's Birthday Weekend

 Eight years old!  This was an exciting year for Charlie, aside from getting baptized which happened a couple weeks after his birthday, it was the year for a friend party and he was so excited.  It was hard to limit the amount of kids, but man parties are expensive!  I wanted him to keep it at 10, we ended up with 12.  He chose Boondocks for his destination, which made it a breeze for me.  After eating pizza, cake and ice cream, and opening presents they all chose to do laser tag and each had some money for the arcades.  The boys had a great time and it just confirmed to me why I don't do boy parties in my home. Love all their energy, just not inside my house.  :)

 The birthday boy in his new shirt.  Mark and I went to the school to eat lunch with him on his birthday.

 The past couple years I keep telling him we're going to just buy his cake, then somehow I talk myself into making it.  

 Cole, Logan, Easton, Kage, Jake, Hayden, Mitch, Charlie, Brock, Ethan, Boston, Ethan

He was thrilled and so grateful for all of his presents, most of which were Utah or football associated.  They know him well!  After the party he had his best bud Brock come over for a late night, they pretty much played Charlie's new xbox NCAA football game that he got from us and did lots of laughing together.  The next day, Saturday he got to go to a private showing of Rise of The Guardians with his aunt Kristen, played with friends all day, then go to go to the Utes Black Out game that night.  We had a family get together on Sunday for him so it was quite the eventful weekend!  Love this boy and can't believe how grown up he's getting!

19 Weeks

 It's never fun taking these pictures for me but I do like to document it.  If it's one thing I've learned it's that I should appreciate my stomach where it is, no matter how big it is because it's just going to get bigger!

At 19 weeks we went in for our ultrasound and found out that we're having a healthy baby girl!  Honestly, I was once again a little shocked, and a little shocked that I was so shocked!  I got a little emotional after, kind of a lot emotional.  I am not sad to be having another girl, it's just weird that I'm not going to have another boy, because we are done. :)  I felt like I was disappointing Mark and Charlie, plus my family was kind of hoping for a boy too, there are so many girls.  I didn't tell anyone for a few days, I wanted to make an announcement at Charlie's birthday, but we did decide to tell the kids because I didn't want Charlie to be sad about it on his birthday.  We told them that night and Charlie was kind of upset at first.  We had to explain to him that we were excited that she looks healthy and this is what Heavenly Father wanted for us and that even if it was a boy he wasn't going to be able to play football with him for many years like he was hoping because they'd be pretty far apart in age.  Then Mark took him aside and told him that this just meant that they would be able to do everything together, and after that Charlie has been totally fine about it.  Once I told my family on Sunday ( I felt so guilty deceiving everyone!) and was able to talk it out a little I seemed to feel much better about it.  I don't want this little girl to ever think she wasn't wanted, it's not that at all, it's just a mind set that I needed to wrap my head around and I did. :)

Besides, who wouldn't want one more of these cuties!

This is how I found them watching a show.

A Recital And A Snow Storm

Charlie started playing the piano this year, I have been hesitant to put him in lessons, despite Mark's pushing for it, I just wasn't sure if he would enjoy it, sit still for the lessons, pay attention to his teacher, all that stuff that comes with his personality, but this year I decided he could hopefully handle it and I have to say I have been so impressed and proud of him!  He is doing great in his lessons and practicing.  He practices in the morning before school and has his lesson once a week before school and that really works well for him and us.  Then I don't have to pull teeth after school when he wants to play, getting him to do homework after school is all he can handle, this one loves his friends.  He had his first recital and chose three songs to play, one was I Love To See The Temple.  He also played that for the postlude music in primary.  He said it was embarassing to play at the recital but he did great.  

 After his final bow, trying to get out of the spotlight, which is strange for him.

We had a really great snowstorm come in this weekend too.  For a couple days straight it snowed and for three solid days my kids were out there for hours.  Mark brought the four wheeler out this Saturday after the recital and pulled the kids on the sled across the street in the empty lots.  Even Leila loved it.

 She could barely walk through the snow it was so deep for her.

Leila didn't stay out as long as the older kids, what is playing in the snow without hot chocolate after?  She was thrilled to get some "hot chockie" as she calls it.