Christmas at Nany and Papa's

What a great Christmas vacation we had this year!! It was so fun to be all together with our whole family. It has been a long time since we have been all together. Once we were all together we realized that it feels like it hasn't been very long since we have been together.


Every night of our stay in Utah was packed with so many fun things. The kids didn't get much sleep, but they got memories that will last forever (at least for the parents). I love all of these people so much, I'm glad that we got to be all together around the holiday season. Here is a list of all that we did together. We went to see the lights at temple square. My favorite thing to do at Christmastime.

We went to the new exhibit at the Chirch history museum. It is an exhibit about Latin American saints. Jayden and Maylie dressed up in their mexican costumes.

Jayden and Hayden driving away...

Three little girls in dresses. Nany and Papa got some beautiful new wood floors and we had a dance with all of the kids dressed up. It was so fun to spend the night dancing and having so much fun.

Jayden and Maylie. A little worn out.

Kalea was so excited to see all of her cousins. She was dressed up all pretty and asked to be called princess Kalea. She really wanted Dallin to be her prince, but he wasn't too thrilled about this.

Dallin and Joshua are best buddies. They sure have fun when they get together.

Sheldon and Adrian. Don't they look so cute..

Elise and Kalea. They had such a great time together. We drove up to the mountains so that Kalea could see some snow. Sad to say we found very little snow at Christmastime.

Andy and Elena on Christmas morning. They spoiled us for Christmas. What a great uncle and aunt.

All of the kids got a visit from Santa. Too bad Santa kind of spoiled Christmas for Kalea. He told her that she had been naughty. This did not make her very happy. Crazy Santa...

Early Christmas Morning

We celebrated Christmas on December 23rd this year since we were going to Utah. Santa had some great presents in store for the kiddos and they were quite excited. Elise got a giant dollhouse for her barbie's as well as the wedding barbie which she wanted so badly. Dallin got a spy video car and Jayden got a giant boat for his airplanes.





Christmas is so fun for the little one's, but Santa sure didn't have fun setting up this dollhouse. It took him 6 hours to get this assembled.

Dallin's Baptism

My computer hasn't been working that great. But, I have to write about Dallin's baptism. It was actually a crazy experience for me, but a wonderful experience for Dallin. What I would give to be a kid again and see the world in a childlike way.

On the day of Dallin's baptism, he was baptized at 6 p.m. This was quite late for the little ones. We didn't have much time to eat dinner before, because everyone was staying in different places. Then when we got to the church there was a lot of baptism's this day. So, we had to have Dallin's meeting in the high council room. It was nice to have a lot of friends and family there, but the room was too small and we didn't have a piano, and the kids were not very happy being in such a tight space. I was surprised that we could actually go through the program. But, when it was all said and done, it was done. Dallin was baptized and received the holy ghost which was the most important part.

Dallin wrote in his journal the next day, "I just got baptized and it was the best day of my life. I felt a warm feeling after I came out of the water." This made it all worth it.

I am so happy for Dallin, he has been looking forward to this day for so long. It is so nice that he didn't remember the craziness of the day, but he remembered the feeling that he got when he came out of the water. Now, I hope that he will make good choices. It is scary to watch your kids grow up.

Elise's Room

Nany came and painted this beautiful tree in Elise's room. I made her bedspread. I also made some curtains, and painted her dresser an off white. I had so much fun doing her room. Elise has always loved pink, and I have been dying to decorate her room for many years. It's so fun having a pink girl.

Justin's Grandma insisted that Elise get this daybed. This was pretty much the last thing she told Justin before she died. So we are glad that we can use this bed now.

Halloween and Other Stuff

For Halloween this year we had Rapunzel, Flynn Ryder and Dracula. The kids had fun carving pumpkins. This year I decided that I wanted to make the kids costumes. I had fun making Elise's purple Rapunzel dress and her long hair out of yarn. I made Dallin a Dracula cape, and I was getting tired of making things, but my great friend Joanna showed up with a sachel for Flynn Rider, just what I needed. We had a great Halloween this year.

Pumpkin Patch Time

Fall is here and we have been having so much fun at our local Pumpkin Patch. We got a season pass and go once a week. It is such a fun place. I just love the Fall. Elise and Jayden lassoing a fake cow.

There is a corn sand box. I love the corn more than the sand. It is a great idea.

The kids love feeding the animals. They especially love the chickens and the Emu's.

Jayden and his friend Leeya.

Dallin had to find the perfect pumpkin.

The girl scouts had a scarecrow contest. The kids liked this Jack in The Box scarecrow.

There are some bunnies in this box that the kids love. I think I wouldn't mind a pet bunny.

Elise and Carter Waite. We went to the Pumpkin Patch one day with Lindsey and her kids.

Elise found her best friend Eliza at the pumpkin patch and they even had matching jackets.

Messy House, Fun Times

So, I decided that I want to remember the bad as well as the good. It is definately hard to keep up with cleaning and laundry when I have so many other things that I want to do. So, I decided to neglect cleaning for one week. I decided I was going to sew and play with my kids for one week. I got a lot of sewing and playing done and it was nice to take a nice break from cleaning. But, after a week I definately needed to go back to cleaning because my laundry room started looking like this....

So, instead of cleaning I got to sew for about a week. It was so fun, much more fun than cleaning. I made this really pink bed spread for Elise's bed. I made Elise a tangled costume, a fall skirt and a new jean skirt. I also made Dallin a Dracula costume and hemmed up some of his pants that really needed work. I think I want to do a sewing week every now and then.

Elise got this really fun ballerina cookbook from the library. We decided to test out some things from her cookbook. She loves ballet and cooking. I just love the fun things that we can find at the library.

Elise and Jayden love to play doctor and nurse. They want me to lay on the couch while they check my heartbeat. This doctor costume is my favorite thing that I have ever bought for my kiddos; Dallin loved this, Elise loved this and now Jayden loves it.

Jayden got a new bike for his birthday. He is such a bike lover. He has ridden his bike all the way to the park a few times, and just loves this bike. I just love watching him on his little bike.

I really want Dallin to handle money better. He has a hard time saving money, he loves to spend money. I had this idea with jars. We have a little piggy bank, but the money would get lost, so I thought jars would work better because we can actually see the money. So, now when Dallin gets paid. He gets paid in dollars and change. We give him points for specific jobs that he does. When he gets paid he has to seperate his money 10 % for tithing, 10% for mission and the rest in his spending jar. When he gets $25 in the mission jar we will deposit this in his bank account. Finally, we have figured out a simple system to make money and Dallin enjoys doing jobs and likes to do an extra good job, because he gets an extra point for doing an extra good job.