Oh is it 2011 already??

So, I have been planning to update the blog for almost a year now! WHAT? Where did the time go? I have been putting it off forever and since I kept putting it off, I put it off even more because i felt like it would take me forever to catch up. So I am doing one blog for the past 6 months, hope you enjoy!

Things that happened in the past 6 months:

1. In July I had a major surgery (a hysterectomy) and my Mother in law came out to help take care of me and take me and the kids back to Utah.

2. In August we were in Utah visiting our families and enjoying our family reunions for both sides of the family. This included Boondocks (a family fun center), Pineview Dam, Bear Lake, a rousing Minute to Win it tournament won by yours truly, Swimming, family pictures, dinosaur museum and spending time with family and friends. It was a great way to recover.

Brielle also started first grade! And joined a musical theater group called Sonshine!

3. In September Parker FINALLY got rid of his Binki! (or for you Southerners Pacifier) and Benson started his first season of Soccer! He loved playing, he was afraid to run after the ball and he never scored a goal, but he sure had fun!

4. In October Benson turned four and had his preschool friends over for a little party! He asked me to make frog cupcakes, and a Jack and the Beanstalk cake. He Loved it!

We also celebrated Halloween! Between painting pumpkins, parties, and two trunk-or-treats, they had a great time.

5. In November baby Adilynn and I got to go to Spokane Washington so I could get a root canal. While we were there my nephew Will was baptized, so I had a chance to see most of my family for the weekend! It was great! Poor Doug had to deal with a throwing up Parker the whole time I was away... :(
Also in November Doug got a new job! He is now working at Oak Ridge national Laboratory (ORNL). He works in the Real Estate Department doing their real Estate Acquisitions making sure everything is legal. It is a whole new experience but overall has been a good move. We also celebrated Thanksgiving by having a HUGE dinner at our house with a few different families. It was a great way to give Thanks! We also gave thanks that Adilynn started crawling this month!

6. In December we of course just LOVED getting ready for Christmas! It was so magical this year, the kids were so excited about everything and it made it so fun for our family. We did all the baking and gingerbread making and caroling to celebrate the season. Brielle was able to sing a solo in the Christmas musical program in Sacrament meeting and she did so great. It is so fun to see her do something she loves to do, and do it so well! Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were of course wonderful. We had our adopted Grandparents; Don and Wanda and the missionaries over for Christmas Eve dinner, and then on Christmas day we just relaxed and didn't get out of our pajamas all day!

7. January was pretty much a blur. We had a few snow days that kept all the kids home, some of us got sick, we had doctor appts., our dishwasher broke, my tire got a flat and I started exercising. I really am glad to say that January has come and gone.

8. Now it is February. This past weekend we got to go and stay with some of our friends and attend the temple! It was a fun little trip. Next week we get to celebrate Adilynns first birthday! Hopefully I can keep this updated this month and I can fill in the rest of February while it is still here!

Well, that is it. A whole six months in one blog. Our life is pretty exciting right?

Our Spaghetti Sauce!!!

Doug and I decided that it would be fun to put our HUNDREDS of tomatoes to good use so we made our own spaghetti sauce and canned it! It was so much fun, we were up until 1:00 in the morning doing it, and we took pictures to document the process! It was not the most cost effective thing to do, but we loved doing it together!



First step it to peel the skin off the tomatoes and then squish them with your hands to get the seeds and water out. Then we diced all of the other ingredients that went into the sauce.



This is a picture of the spices and yummy veggies we added.

Then we combined the tomatoes with the spices and let it simmer for about an hour!

Then we went through the canning process. Our friend let us borrow her pressure canner and it is really fun to use. This was the end result! Doesn't that look yummy?

Conversation with Benson

This is the conversation Benson and I had the other morning.

Mom: Benson what do you want to be when you grow up?

Benson: I really think I want to be a dad.

Mom: Well, how many kids do yo want to have.

Benson: I am going to have one hundred kids!! (thinking for a minute)... And I think that I will have to drive a bus to drive all my kids around!

Mom: WOW! That is a lot of kids are you sure you want one hundred kids

Benson: (Thinking again)... Well, maybe I will just have four kids, then I don't have to drive a bus!

Another masterpiece

Here is another one of Brielle's GREAT masterpieces. It is called "the little lamb." She is going to make it someday!

Adilynn 4 months

It seems a little strange to put a post about Adilynn at four months when she is just a few days away from being five months old, but oh well. She is our little princess. I seriously count my blessings every day because I have her. She is truly a wonderful baby. She eats great, she sleeps through the night, she is generally happy during the day (except for the few ear infections), and the whole family just dotes on her all the time. We love this baby girl! Here are a few pictures!

This is the face that I get to wake up to every morning!

Adilynn's first time eating baby food! She LOVES to eat!

Faces of Summer

Playing at parks
Eating ice cream
And playing so hard you just fall asleep during lunch

We love summer!

To mothers everywhere!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbYLKVgwztY&feature=player_embedded

Thanks Alice for this link. This is an amazing message!

Warriors Path and Bays Mountain

This past Memorial Day we decided to take advantage of some much needed family time! We headed up north to visit Warriors path State park and Bays Mountain State park. It was a fabulous day together.

Warriors path is next to a beautiful lake and has a HUGE playground for kids. It is an awesome place. There was a tree house lookout, tons of playground equipment, a Narnia trail where you can follow the story of the Chronicles of Narnia, and endless fun The AMAZING Playground
A boat ride! (It was harder to push than you would think)

Look at those smiles!
This is part o the Narnia Trail, the white stag above and Mr, Tumnus below
The Beavers house
Mr. Tumnus's house
Brielle made a new friend at the park (which is not surprising, she makes friends wherever she goes!
The "monkey" on the monkey bars!
These two are best buddies!
My sweet little babe!


Bays mountain is so neat, if anyone is around the area, it is so worth the hour and a half drive! It has a bunch of different animal habitats where we got to see gray wolves, owls, bobcats, birds of prey and deer in there natural habitat. The wolves were the BEST! I have never seen wolves so up close and personal before. The park also has a big Planetarium. It had an amazing show, and I think it was the kids favorite part!

I love this picture, I think it is so sweet!
The BOBCAT
THE DEER
THE OWLS
THE GRAY WOLVES

THE TURTLES

LILY PAD COVE

BEAUTIFUL!!

The whole day was perfect, and the trip only cost 25.00 including buying lunch! I would do all of it again tomorrow!