Over the river and through the woods...

Into Christmas we come! I am so excited for Christmas this year! I decided to start shopping early, and guess what, I have been done for quite some time. Well, I do have a few more little things to pick up, but consequently Christmas would be the same with out them I think... 

I feel so blessed this season, things seem a little simpler and slower. I have truly felt the Sprit of Christ this December. We have been visited by the Christmas Elves which have touched me... and we have been able to do some small things as a family to help our children understand how it feels to give to those less fortunate.

I am so grateful to really understand the greatest gifts we could ever receive in this lifetime... an Eternal family...  Understanding we are children of God who are always loved... having a great healthy family who I feel as much love from as I do for me... and mostly our Savior, Jesus Christ. His atoning sacrifice has brought so much peace to me in my life and I know I am yet at the tip of the iceberg of understanding truly what he has done for me. Hopefully I can gain a bit more understanding this year as I feel my own unworthiness to the abundant blessings which I have been so generously given.

Merry Christmas

and a few photos to spread the cheer...

Leaves

Here we are celebrating Fall! I love this season. I love taking pictures of my children in the leaves... They always have so much fun.

This is what I finally decided to do with my children when they were bad! As you can see, just like everything else, they didn't take me real seriously...

Not really, we just had more work to do in the front and Ryan wanted to give them a ride.

Nobody report me to child services okay? just kidding

Number 4

Jordan and Taylor have truly loved and adored Kate from Day 1. They still take such good care of her.

Thinking about number 4 child is totally overwhelming! I can't believe it. However the other night in the middle of some thinking, I was really overcome with peace. It flooded through my whole body. I really am excited to have another baby. My children keep asking, along with neighbors and friends what I want.. I tell them, a healthy baby. I am amazed at the perfect health of my children and am so grateful for that. So many deal with health challenges, and although I know the Lord has a plan for us, I would love another healthy baby. Now my children have started following my lead, they really don't care (Except jordan really wants a brother if he could choose) And usually reply, I want a healthy baby! Back when it was just one... amazing how time flies and perspectives change. I can't think of anything in the world I enjoy being more than a mother... except a wife.

Thanks Ryan for making all of this possible in my life. I truly appreciate all your hard work which allows us to live so comfortably and for me to stay home. I love you.

Terra

Boxing

This was supposed to be a movie of Jordan doing his moves, more of an experiment to try and post a movie.. I think I will forever be in the dark with that one!

Halloween

So pretty much, everyone posts album worthy photos for thier halloween blog. I just can' manage to get those. I don't think about it in time... then I am frantic we we get what we can get. This is us... hope you get a good laugh!

Kate was overjoyed with the candy she recieved! I heard Kate say "candy" all night. You know that look of amazement... "that candy you just put in my sack is for me?" We all had a fabulous Halloween.

Favorite FHE of the YEAR!

Carving Pumpkins!

I always look forward to carving pumpkins on the Monday before Halloween! Guess what Last night was?  Yup, we did it this year. Jordan was able to carve his own mostly by himself. Taylor wanted hers to look just like a picture she colored, and was pleased with the turn out. Kate was the silliest of all, of course, after I put the mouth in hers, she got out a spoon and started feeding it. She talked to the pumpkins all night and all the next day. We put them on our mantle, so every time she passed she would say, "hi" or when we left she said, "Bye, guys." It is so cute. Happy Halloween!

More Apple Picking

Today was so fun. We went over to one of Ryan's rentals and picked from thier apple tree. It made me have dreams of living on a farm. The children each had so much fun. Unfortunately they couldn't reach many apples but we still came home with lots! We'll have apple pie, dried apples, and anything else we can think of with apples for the next little while.

Apple Picking

Helping with Dinner?

I decided to make pizza in a furry and while my back was turned this is what happened! Any mother can relate... it only takes seconds. Oh yes, and they included Terra in our fun!

Little Whittle

So, after thinking about my previous post, I figured I should post where I got the vinyl. My sister works for a company named Little Whittle Vinyl, and you can visit her website at  littlewhittlelettering.com . (sorry I don't know how to create a hyperlink).  She has a whole gallery of graphics you can choose from. I think my next venture would be each state in different colors on my wall in the basement. Fun huh? Anyway, she also can draw up custom orders. Let me know what you think!

Polka Dot Polka!

Okay, So i have the most creative family. Everyone creates amazing things, but this one I was so lucky enough to reap all the benefits. Joanne is in North Dakota and has made a friend with a girl who does vinyl. Well, she has wanted to branch further than boards with words on them and stuff like that. You all know what I am talking about right? So, she and Joanne got talking one day and Joanne is helping her expand her horizons.

Joanne came in town this week. In anticipation of coming in town she called and asked if she could do one of her "sample rooms" for me! Hello, I was thrilled. So we thought of ideas. Mostly I wanted polka dots, Joanne envisioned more, she had the bird idea. I told her my conditions were the colors had to be unisex.... and that I totally trusted her and her skills.

This is what she came up with. She mingled the birds with the polka dots and made it all cohesive! I absolutely love it. When Kate came in for the first time, she said, "WOW!" It was too cute. Taylor loves having her room all decorated. Although I did wake up this morning with Kate coming to me with a big blue dot in her hand. I went in thinking that was the only taken off, but no there was a a nice even row of dots in the corner. After threatening them with... obviosely something that will not work, all my children promised not to touch them any more.... Needless to say I had to take the picture today so I could record what it looked like if any further creativity got sparked by my children!

Taylorina Katerina my soon to be ballerina

Taylor doing her "ballet." I told Taylor I would teach her "dance class." She is so excited even though she knows I know nothing about dance. Any suggestions? Well, I told her we would get a book and we could go through it together... Today however she just wanted to dance. My mom came over with 30 yards of tulle to make tu-tu's and they turned out so cute! Kate hasn't taken hers off all day, she loves it.

Luckily for my girls there was enough to make a tu tu for their mommy! I wasn't brave enough to sport it out for the picture and the girls didn't want to stand up, so this worked out better!

Kate adores her sister, as I have mentioned previously and was so excited to put on the same thing that Taylor had. I love watching these two.

Kate in the middle of her "tweel" as Taylor would say.

You Are a Yellow Crayon

Your world is colored with happy, warm, fun colors. You have a thoughtful and wise way about you. Some people might even consider you a genius. Charming and eloquent, you are able to get people to do things your way. While you seem spontaneous and free wheeling, you are calculating to the extreme. Your color wheel opposite is purple. You both are charismatic leaders, but purple people act like you have no depth.

What Color Crayon Are You?

A cut and paste from Heidi's Blog. I edited it a bit. Glimpses into my time in Vegas..

Kathy using her amazing talents to fix my forever thought to be retarded nails. Unfortunately I have bitten them all off. I will have to wait til they grow out again to try her filing method.
Jordan with his cousins, Mckelle and Madison pulling funny goggle faces.
He finally learned to swim....

Little sweet Ellie Jo! She is such a tender little girl.
Nice jump, Mckelle!
Night time hot-tubbin'

Ryan and Mike tease each other about having "kissing cousins" we'll try to keep it to hugging

Aunt Heidi and Taylor!
One night, we watched Narnia and Ella Enchanted on a projector outside on their basketball court! It was perfect temperature! Oh, that night was so great--so FUN!

Here's cute Tay-Tay and Jo-Jo! Bestest Cousins!

Here's just one of the times we decorated cupcakes! Kathy bought all the "bells and whistles" to making decorating cupcakes so fun!
More swimming....
....and night swimmng!.....
Madison- can't you just tell in her face how much fun she's having? I love it!
We were so sad to have this week end! But the girls, like I posted earlier got to have a blast out on the town!

My sister in law and her girls in their new back yard! They just moved to vegas and were so happy to find grass. You must know it is about as big as you see there! So tiny, they went from an acre in Indy to this!

~Me and Heidi~

I am so blessed to have you in my life.

Here we are at dinner at Claim Jumper--YUMMY! So here we are at ... LUCY!...My new favorite store!

Of course we HAD to take pictures! We couldn't believe all we purchased. So fun! So girl-like!

Oh, did I mention our TWINNER SWEATSUITS? Did we feel silly? Not a bit... well, I didn't anyway. But this was SO my kind of night! Good food, good friends, good clothes...

Okay the reason for so many bags is partially because we had to put the clothes that we came into the store in something... that gave us each an extra bag.

At first Kathy thought a disguise would be better...

You know when you're shopping so long that you just end up looking at everything? Even after you've finished up the transaction? Well, that happened to Heidi... We were all done, about to leave--finally--and then Heidi spotted them...."refreshing citrus towelettes" ...she started rubbing the tester all over her arms and neck...Mmmm....it smelled soooo good! Then I and Kathy noticed what I was doing, and looked at the bottle she was pulling them out of, they weren't for bodies, but for yoga mats! I didn't think they'd hurt her, but she still decided to RUN to the bathroom to wash it off. ...In our comfy, matching sweatsuits...we're finally ready for a good chick-flick!This was such a great night! A great memory made! I love you guys!