Maddie Turns 12!

Maddie celebrated her 12th birthday on July 7th! The night before she took her besties, Addy and Sam, rollerskating. She is my fashion diva right now and got to go on shopping trips with cousin Diane and Grandma. She's such a beautiful girl!

The morning of her birthday she woke up to a great surprise! Sadie had her puppies earlier that morning. It was very exciting!

The day after her birthday she got to go to her first girl's camp with our ward to Scofield Reservoir. She had an amazing time and made lots of new friends!

It's Not Fall Anymore!

I've taken a blog break for a while. Life has been a little crazy and I just started feeling like I just might make it through! We've had a lot of good events, and a few bad events happen in the past 6 months. Here's a quick update, of coarse with pictures!

Emmy turned 5 years old in December. I really can't believe that I don't have a baby anymore!

We got a ton of snow this winter, but we had fun playing in it!

Christmas was nice and low key this year. We cut back a ton and everyone was happy! We even incorporated a few new family traditions. And I finally got a good picture of the kids in front of the tree in their Christmas pajamas!

In January, Brandon's mom's health started declining quickly. There were several hospitalizations and we had to put her in a rehab center for a while. This was a difficult, but amazing time in our life. We got really close to her and mended some old wounds. After talking to her doctor we found out that her prognosis for recovering was not good. She made the brave decision to go home with hospice care where we took care of her for a week before she passed on. Since then we have spent a lot of time visiting, feeding, and loving Grandpa Reese. It's truly a blessing how we are given the strength to get through the hard times as long as we stick together as a family.

The day of Grandma Reese's funeral Maddie played one of the lead roles in her 4-H play at school. She was Hansel and Gretel's mom. I think drama is Maddie's calling in life. She really is good at it, so now I need to start looking for opportunities for her to get involved in it more.

Easter came early this year, so we were worried it was going to be snowy and cold. We were surprised with a sunny warm day for our traditional Easter egg hunt at Grandma Guilbert's along with a picnic.

In April, Brandon and I celebrated our 15th Anniversary and had a little getaway to Park City. It ended up snowing on us and Park City was deserted, so we headed back down to Salt Lake for a little shopping at IKEA.

May brought the end of school. YIPEE! I think I was more excited for school to end than the kids were. Bryn graduated successfully from her 2nd year of Kindergarten. Maddie graduated from 6th grade. It seems weird that I will have a kid in Junior High. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was there. I'm not that old!

At the end of May we took a trip to Pocatello to watch Diane graduate from high school. The girls got new clothes because I packed for hot weather and it was really cold up there! I seized the opportunity to try to take some pictures and they actually turned out good!

Bryn is 6!

For Bryn's 6th birthday in August we put together a Candyland birthday party. It was a ton of work, but she and her friends had so much fun- it was definitely worth it!

We had several games and activities for the kids which included:

Candy Cane Limbo

Candy Toss

 

Candy Necklaces

Queen Frostine's Cupcake Decorating

Gumball Relay

Bryn with all her friends and cousins.

We ended the party by giving out cotton candy and Bryn opening all of her fun presents.

Bryn wanted to go to Red Robin for her birthday dinner, so she shared it with Brandon for his birthday too. She had a great time! Love you Miss Bryn!

Merry Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas again this year! It started off with a party with Brandon's family on Friday night at his sister's house in Riverton. It was fun to see everyone again, since we don't get together very often. The kids had a great time running around and having Jaxon chase them!

On Saturday we had our annual Clayson family Christmas party. We changed it a little this year and had soup and salad instead of our traditional Mexican dinner. We still had the kids break a pinata, which is always a favorite, and everyone got their groove on with Just Dance on the Wii. We ended the night by going to the cemetery and putting candles on my dad and grandparents gravestones. It was beautiful up there. Brandon is determined to find out how to light the lanterns and send them into the air next year!

Miles & Emmy snuggling

Maddie serenading Lily

Brandon teaching Grandma how to use her new Kindle

On Sunday morning Maddie woke us up at 7:00 a.m. sharp! She called Grandma and Grandpa Reese and Uncle Bob to come open presents with us. Emmy got a Baby Alive doll- unfortunately we didn't know that it really does pee and poop and it is really disgusting! We have already had the talk about only using pretend food from now on! Bryn got her Rapunzel doll, but the button isn't on her hand. There is a button on her necklace that makes the dress light up and she sings. Maddie got her "you'll shoot you're eye out" gift this year. She ended up with a Rip Stick- I don't know what Santa was thinking. I know for sure we'll be having another broken bone soon! She also got a real guitar since she wants to become the next Taylor Swift. Now we are trying to find someone that will teach her how to play it. Brandon got a Kindle Fire, but it's not as exciting as I wanted it to be since he just got a new smart phone that does everything the Kindle does. Oh well, I will have fun playing with it! I completely scored this Christmas- Brandon got me a new fancy schmancy camera that I was trying to save up for! Not only that, he got me a new lens to go with it. I am really excited to start using it!

I made our traditional Christmas morning souffle's for brunch, and then we went to my mom's house for the rest of the day and to let the kids play with their cousins. When we pulled in the driveway we had 3 girls that had passed out! I call that a successful Christmas!

The Kindergarten Elf

Bryn's Kindergarten class had Elf Day on Wednesday before the Christmas break. She wasn't feeling well, but insisted on going because Grandma Guilbert had made this cute elf costume just for her! Brandon took her to school and said she was the cutest elf there! (Not that he's biased or anything!)

Happy #4 Emmy Lou!

 Emmy turned 4 years old on Wednesday. We had planned on going to Jumpin' Jacks on Tuesday for her party, but I had the flu, so we went on Wednesday instead. There were a few people missing because of the nasty winter sickness that has been going around, but she had a great time! I love this beautiful girl so much! Happy Birthday Emmy!

A Message From Santa

We were lucky to have Santa come visit the church for our ward party this year. It was wonderful not to have to wait in a long line at the mall just to have the kids freeze up at the last minute and freak out!

 Bryn was determined to march up there, sit on his lap, and tell him exactly what she wanted for Christmas... which is what she did! I was very proud of her. She asked for a Rapunzel doll with a button on her hand (the button is very important)!

Emmy was a little hesitant and didn't want to sit on Santa's lap, but she did tell him what she wanted. She asked for a purple Belle doll, which she pronounces puwpbew... I don't know how I deciphered that?!

Maddie on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with Santa this year. She agreed to a  picture with her sisters, but she refused to sit on his lap and didn't even want to tell him what she wanted. (Oh, I love this stage!) Santa wasn't going to have any of that and gave her a big scolding and explained to her that if she is who she is, then he has faith and believes her. She needs to do the same and believe in him and the magic of Christmas. I loved it! (And I got a quick picture of Santa shaking his finger at a very defiant 10 year old!)

We have been having the most amazing winter sunsets recently. Several times when I have been driving home from work I have wished that I had my camera with me, so when we walked out of the church this was the beautiful view we had...

Halloween Time

 Halloween is always a very busy time around our house. This year we made it down to the Red Barn in Santaquin. We stood in a huge line so that we could go on a wagon ride through the peach and apple trees to the pumpkin patch. The kids raced through the patch to find the perfect pumpkin and then they had some fun photo spots we stopped at.

 The Saturday before Halloween we took the kids trick-or-treating on Main Street with about a billion other people. Maddie was a witch (or spider princess), Bryn was Snow White, and Emmy was the Candyland Princess.

 On Sunday we took advantage of the warm sun and carved pumpkins on the lawn at Mom's house. I can't remember the last Halloween it wasn't snowing, so it has to be quite a few years ago. It was really nice not to have the pumpkin guts in the house!

 I took Monday off work so that I could be an actual mom for a day. I helped my friend string doughnuts for the Kindergarten carnival. I had a Halloween party for my family that night and made chili for an army. The chili was a hit, so I would call it a success! I was so exhausted by the time trick-or-treating started that I sent Brandon with the kids and I stayed home to hand out candy. It was so much fun and I hope I can take Halloween off all the time!