Cool Snowman!

It's always fun to make a good snowman. This one had his facial features and hair made out of twigs we found in the snow. Since he had a long nose we named him Pinoccio. I wish his "hair" showed up better in the pictures. It was awesome!

It was a good Winter!

Melissa's First Sleepover

Sleepovers are few and far between at our house - and not allowed until they are 9 yrs old - so when Melissa turned 9 this past January she of course wanted to have a sleepover. It was quite a girls night. They started with makeovers. A few years ago Melanie had a sleepover party and they did "blind makeovers" (see picture below).

That was a big hit and they've done many of those since, so Melissa wanted to do the same at hers - but one of Melissa's friends has a very talented hairdresser mother and she offered her services when she heard about the makeovers. I brought it up with Melissa and she was excited. So this time they got pretty makeovers.

So that was a real treat and then they had pizza and headed upstairs to soak in the jacuzzi and watch a movie.

Next was jammies, presents and playing Dance Revolution on the Wii.

Quite a girls night. The next morning Dad pulled them on the sled behind the snowmobile. Who says summer birthday's are more fun?

Things to Remember

December 2010:
Melissa: "Mom, if we cut slits in our sides could we breath under water?"

Rebekah: Barbie = "Darbie"

"Dooonnnnaaa, where aaaarrrrre you??" (Donna is her Grams-she picked this up one day copying Pops and then repeated it all through Christmas. It was so cute - we tried to get it recorded on Grams' phone so she could make it her ring tone, but of course any time we'd try to get her to do it she wouldn't)

James: "I'm not really an away from home person. I get hungry and can't eat in the car."

David: After seeing Toy Story 3 carried his Little People farmers into the car with him and called them "my cowboys."

January 2011:
Rebekah: Flip-flops = "Lop-lops"

February 2011:
David: In the morning = "To-morning", kind of like tomorrow.

I woke up this morning just before the 6:30 alarm to the sound of someone coming down the hall trickling as they came. I jump up to find out who wasn't getting to the toilet in time and find it was Rebekah. She leans against the wall and says "I go potty Mommy." Apparently she'd lost or removed her diaper at some point in the night (thankfully I later found the bed dry - yea for her not wetting the bed! -just the hallway). But that's not the end of the story . . . before we can even get her diaper back on David comes down the hall and says "I'm wet Mom, I peed the bed" (Ugh! -for the third night in a row!!) Happy Monday morning to me!! What's this week going to be like?

Eric is the best!! Among other things . . . . tonight I left him just after dinner with the three little ones and a dinner mess while I took the big girls and their friends to the mall. Came home to kids asleep and kitchen sparkling! Love him!!

Christmas 2010

Yes, we did celebrate Christmas this year - and I guess it was a real doozy since its taken me this long to get it together and post something about it.



We were lucky to have Eric's parents and brother and sister, my parents, my younger brother Russell and his family, my younger sister Angie and her family all with us this year. We terribly missed my older brother Matt and his family - looking forward to seeing you all in May!



I hope our children are grateful. I don't think there are too many kids that get both sets of grandparents plus that many aunts and uncles and cousins all together with them on Christmas morning!! That makes a beautiful Christmas!!



We had a great time - thank you everyone that contributed (and put up with us, hahaha)

We had one tragedy amid all our fun. We all got bundled up and went sledding and Grandma Diane jumped right in and was having a ball with all the kids and grandkids while Grandpa Rex caught it all on film. Well this was to be the end of Grandma's sledding career (or so the Dr. in the ER told us, later that night). Here's her on the way down . . .

-And here's us later in the ER. She dislocated and broke her ankle in 3 places. Surgery was needed, but because of swelling the surgery couldn't be done for a few days. They put a cast on and sent her home to Texas to have the surgery there. One good thing came of it . . .we got her to sit down for more than 5 minutes! Rebekah enjoyed that - she got some snuggle time!Below is a post surgery X-ray. Now we have a heavy metal grandma (haha) Good luck with your continued recovery grandma!

Okay and here's just a little "cheese" from Rebekah.

The Accident

On Dec 6 I had my first car accident. It was scary but thankfully David and Rebekah and I were all okay. The Suburban . . . was not. It was a snowy day and the roads were slick. I was going faster than I should have been and came up over a hill where a car was stopped, preparing to turn into their driveway. I couldn't stop in time and -long story short-hit the tree in their front yard - as you can see below. Luckily Eric's Uncle John was able to come right over and rescue me and the kids.

I know very little about cars, so I won't try and explain it. Those of you who do can see it, and those of you -like me - who don't, just know it was considered totalled.

Here's Rebekah's injury. The top of her coat zipper - a plastic zipper- cut her chin, and she must've bit her tongue because her tongue was bleeding for a moment after the accident. Her and David were both sound asleep before the accident. Its scary to think of how fast that all happens - that the force of her flinging forward was enough for that plastic zipper to cut her chin. I'm so thankful for carseats and that her injuries were so minor.

Here's my injury. My leg must've flung forward and hit the bottom of the, well whatever that's called where the emergency break is attached, you know what I mean. Again, very thankful for the minor-ness of the injuries. We were very blessed.

And this is the new vehicle. It was a pain to have to look for a new car right before Christmas -especially when I was already way behind in my preparations for Christmas, but the insurance was great, Eric was great (he always is) and we found a great replacement. It's almost exactly the same except a year newer, less miles and **a moonroof** fun for me!!

Thanksgiving in the Smokies

So, for Thanksgiving this year, we packed up the kids and drove to Gatlinburg, TN where we met Eric's parents and brother and sister. We were able to spend the whole week and had a WONDERFUL time! Thanks Rich and Donna for everything!

While in TN we were able to spend Sunday with some old friends, attend the ward we used to go to when we were first married and before we had children. It was so great to see the faces of so many people who were like family to us and who we have dearly missed over the years. There are some wonderful people in TN!

The Smith's and Jim Ford are some of our favorites and we enjoyed every minute of their hospitality! Thank you! The kids had a great time feeding and sitting on Millie's horses.

Rebekah found little girl heaven when we went to Shane and Mandy Smith's and she found their little girl Taya's room. All the big kids went out to jump on the trampoline so she had the room to herself - and she made herself at home! Thanks for sharing Taya!

Apparently she thought this horse was "just her size" hahaha.

Hiking in the Smokies was a lot of fun!

Cool barn, huh? There was this old pioneer settlement up in the Smokies we checked out

She didn't really sleep in there, but she could have! -and she enjoyed playing in it. She sure looks like she just woke up, huh?

Snuggling with Grams - it doesn't get better than that!

We spent lots of time at the indoor waterpark. Way fun!!!

At some point when no one was looking Rebekah found a pile of laundry and apparently took a liking to Pops' boxers. She tried them on and danced around in them. We all had a good laugh!

David is our little sweet tooth if I haven't mentioned that before. He came in our room one afternoon like this. I can't remember now if it was brownie mix or hot chocolate powder, but I guess he couldn't find any better source of chocolate for his craving. Of course when asked, he didn't do anything - too bad the evidence was ALL OVER HIM!

It was a lot of fun! We wore them out!

Girl Pampering

While in Tennesse we had a little girl time. One night we all put on drugstore fingernails, ate candy, laughed, and sat in the jacuzzi.

Here's all our beautiful hands with our lovely drugstore fingernails - notice Kelsey's hand does not have fingernails on - well she did put them on, but quickly realized she couldn't text her friends and so they quickly came back off.

All the girls.

Shopping in Gatlinburg.

The resort we stayed in had a spa and so of course we checked it out. I didn't get pictures of everyone but here's what I have. Melissa got an Ice Cream Pedicure - so here she is enjoying a big bowl of ice cream smothered in hot fudge while she gets her pedicure.Melanie got a facial (well actually two, but that's another story - it was her lucky day). She thoroughly enjoyed it. I was surprised she didn't want a pedicure, but she said she thinks its creepy to have someone mess with her feet. Hmm, interesting for a girl her chews her fingernails AND her toenails! And I got a pedicure, my first one ever. I know its not a flattering picture, but I was in heaven. That chair was a massage chair -and it was AWESOME! I could've sat there all day! Everyone was surprised when I chose purple and blue with sparkle edges - I haven't painted my toes or fingernails in years so I thought I'd make it good!

Here's Melissa's and my toes after the pedicures. So fun!

Here's all of us after our treatments. What a great afternoon at the spa!