Mason's Birthday

Mason two years ago. (Where has the time gone?)

Yesterday was Mason's birthday. We all had so much fun with him. He had a Ka-Chow party (that is what he calls Lightning McQueen). He seemed to like all his toys and he was so adorable swinging at the pinata. We love you so much Mase!!!

Get Those Cameras Rolling

Okay I am posting this video as inspiration for all of us. I found this video in my picture files just now and my first thought was that he was never that small. He is almost 3 in this video. I mean I truly don't remember his voice sounding like that or even his face looking like that. It made me cry, I mean really cry and I had to watch it twice. So get those video cameras rolling. Capture those little voices and little faces while you still can.

Valentines Day

Oh what a day!!
I am exhausted!!
We had a fun, busy day today. I think that the kids had a good day and that is the second most important thing to me today. The most important of course, is that my husband knows how much he means to me and that he knows that I want him for a valentine forever. (By the way I know this makes some of you want to gag, and um, sorry about that.) He of course is not here with me right now because he is out being amazing and conquering the world for us. And thanks to a friend of mine, I thought I would let him know what I thought of him on this here little blog.
So here a few of the reasons why I want to spend the rest of my life with him...
1. I guess that I should start with what he is doing right now. I love him because he works so hard for us. I don't know another man that works as hard. And the most amazing part is that he does what he does every day with a smile on his face.
2. Which brings me to number two. I love him because he comes home from working so hard and he doesn't just lay on the couch and demand "me" time. No, he comes home and gets on the floor and plays with the kids and talks to me about my day and tells me about his and picks Bryce up from school and talks to him about his day and the list goes on and on. He is like the Energizer Bunny. How he does it I will never know, but I do know that I love him for it.
3. Another thing that makes him so amazing is that he doesn't treat people like he is better than them, ever. No matter who they are, he is not better. He is truly humble.
4. He goes without. There are so many things that I know he would love to have but he doesn't because he loves us more. I respect him so much for that.
5. He puts up with me even when I don't deserve to be put up with. (There are not a whole lot of people that could, believe me it is no small task. I definitely have my moments.) And really it is not just putting up with, he loves me.
6. He teaches me not to take life too seriously. He is such a good balance for me.
7. He makes me laugh. He did the very first time I laid eyes on him and he has never stopped. I may not laugh as much as I used to, but I do still laugh. One way that I know he loves me too, by the way, is that whenever I do laugh it makes him so happy. And he will usually say "You're so pretty when you smile", or "I love to hear you laugh." I told you he loves me.
8.He is such a good dad. Whenever I hear him playing dolls with the girls I am reminded of it. And it always makes me stop and thank the Lord that they have such a good dad. He doesn't just play with them though, he also makes sure that they respect him, and even me. And most of all he loves them. They are such amazing kids because of him. And I am so so grateful.
9.He will shop with me and take me to chick flicks and watch chick shows like the Bachelor. And let me clarify for his sake, that he doesn't do these things because he likes them, but because he likes me. He even offered yesterday to take me to see Twilight. Didn't I tell you that he loves me.
10.I honestly could go on and on and on. So I guess I should wrap it up with number 10. He can still make my stomach flip flop. I didn't know that was possible after three kids and mortgages and lots of hard stuff. But he can.
Anyway like I said I know some of you want to gag, but hopefully it makes him want to smile. I love you, Happy Valentines.

The Girls

You Guys...

Today was a rough day. I slammed four of my fingers in the garage door. You know like in between the rows of panels. Yeah it hurt let me tell you. Then I took my kids to In n Out to try to brighten their day with a milk shake. (We have kind of been stuck in the house a lot with sickness.) As I sat there in the booth I could totally feel everyone notice me and look at me like I was crazy for coming with all of my kids. So after we had that experience, that involved Halle pulling napkins out of the napkin holder and Bryce wheeling around the place on his Heelys and Ella taking the lid off of her shake and spilling it down the front of her, I realized that we were totally late for kindergarten. So then I was trying to get the kids into the car alive without being run over and in my effort to that end I piled a bunch of stuff on top of my car, my diet coke, Halle's pacifier, my sunglasses, and I think a couple more things. And then after I spent 5 minutes trying to get Halle to comply and sit in her car seat, you guessed it, I started driving with all that stuff on top of my car. I mean really who does that? Really who does that? Thank the Lord one of the guys that had been watching my like I was some form of entertainment inside In n Out stopped me and told me that all of that stuff was on top of my car. I mean really who does that? Then of course we were late to school. Then I got home and spilled my diet coke all over the kitchen table. The one thing that was going to brighten my day, gone. To which I cried! Cried! Who does that?
Usually life is not this hard.

Ella

Washer and Dryer

We have had quite the week. Monday was bloody noses and Tuesday was puke and Wednesday was diarrhea and then of course the rest of the week was just the normal 10 loads worth. So I just wanted to give a little shout out to my washer and dryer. Let me say first that they are nothing special. They are 6 years old, my washer is not even front loading, in fact they remind me very much of what my parents had when I was growing up. However, despite their inadequacies and their failure to be new and improved and their lack of a really cool color that makes the laundry room pop (you know like those jewel tone ones that they have on the Maytag commercials), they still get the job done. They are still a modern appliance that makes my life better and for these reasons I am thankful. We spend many an hour together and I just wanted to give them the recognition that they deserve in my life. So Maytag washer and dryer I salute you. I thank you for your hard work and long hours and loyalty to me and the fam. What you do is truly essential to my sanity.
Oh and PS, Washer, could you work on doing a better job at stain removal. Sometimes the lack of effort is really astonishing.

Gingerbread House with Aunt Telsey

My sister is the best. I love her so much. Anyway she has a tradition of making a gingerbread house with the kids every year. And it is really cute because Bryce remembered this year with out being told. He loves special time with Aunt Telsey.

Well of course we had to take a picture of it before these two big bad kids ate it all down. Anyway thanks Tels we love you so much. (That is if you ever check this.)

A Few More Christmas Highlights

Here are a few more of my favorite Christmas memories...We had so much fun when some of our favorite friends came over to exchange gifts. We had pizza, read a story about Jesus birth, opened one present each, did a hand print craft, and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and ate cake. We are so thankful for our friends and so glad that we could celebrate Christmas together. This is my adorable nephew Colton and my adorable niece Kaitlin. They came to see Bryce's performance and we loved having them there.This is Mason opening one of the presents that we got him. I love this because he loves this skateboard so much and it makes me want to buy him everything in the store. This was Christmas with my Dad's side and these are all the second cousins. I just love that we got a picture with them all in it. And I am so pleased with the number of happy faces in this group shot.

At the same party we had a competition to see who could create the best gingerbread house. Ours did not win, but we looked cute trying. Our kids totally sabotaged us and traded to a new team right in the middle of the competition. What is up with that Bryce and Ella? Oh and Halle helped a lot by eating all of our supplies. Good lookin out Hal.

I think that the prize definitely went to my Dad's group. They built a mansion! Way to go guys.

Kindergarten Christmas Performance and Parade

As you can see I am trying to catch you all up on our busy holiday adventures. This is one small taste of Bryce's performance at the Kindergarten Program. And this was definitely one of my highlights from kindergarten so far.

These are pictures of Bryce's Polar Express Parade. Thank goodness for dads. Jarrod is fully credited with helping Bryce build his Christmas Train.

It was so cute to watch them parade by all the older kids in the school. They were so proud of their trains and the big kids really cheered them on.

Christmas Picture

So here is how we really got our Christmas picture this year...

Let me start by telling you that Halle happens to have two personalities. One is sweet and funny and just about the cutest, most fun personality you ever saw. The other however is very stubborn and uncooperative and happens to sit in time out a lot. As you can see in the first picture, my effort to get an amazing picture was not going well at first, and you can guess which personality I was dealing with. So I was on my own for this(daddy was at work) and I had to come up with something fast. So I had some white M&M's(white being important because it wouldn't make a mess). And Halle of course, actually lives for chocolate. And lucky for me as long as there is an endless supply coming her way you can actually flip the switch on those personalities. So all of you that thought she had such a funny huge smile. Now you know that it is because she ate about 20 M&M's. Who said that bribery was bad? If it gets the job done isn't that what really matters.

Fall

I have decided that it is officially fall in our dear sweet town. "But it is January" you may say. Yes well I am not sure what to tell you except that someone forgot to tell the trees. I must say that all the fall foliage is so beautiful and today the kids were even enjoying playing in the leaves. Hmmm, I wonder when winter will start.

Halle

Big Day

So yesterday was a big day. I went with my sisters and my mom to pick out my baby sisters wedding dress. (I really am so struck that this is already happening.) I love my sisters and I love how close we are, it really makes days like that amazing. We laugh and make fun of each other and other people and we eat of course. What a forever fun day though. I will never forget it. The part that I will remember the most is how excited and deliriously happy she looked. She found the most amazing dress and she couldn't have looked more beautiful. I obviously can't post pictures so you will all just have to wait till the big day.