The Merry Month of December

I was much, much more organized this December (as opposed to LAST year, when I started shopping the week of Christmas...), and as a result, it has been a really nice month! I found myself repeating the phrase "I love....." several times over the month. Here's just a sampling of some of the things I LOVED!

Kayden took charge of getting the Christmas lights up this year (he wasn't very impressed with last year's lights, which consisted of the tree....) The weather has been incredibly mild this year, so putting up lights was actually really pleasant! Kayden did a great job! I loved the house lights!


Taisha turned 13!! For her birthday she wanted German pancakes for dinner and ice cream cake... yummy! I LOVE this girl!!


We went to Soda Springs for Thanksgiving, and all 16 siblings were there! It was so much fun to see everyone! They decided to have pictures taken, and early this month we got the proofs back. Here's our family's proof:

I love it!

I spent a lot of time making things with the kids this month. We made these necklaces for the girls friends.... and yep, I LOVE these! They were so fun to make, and cost just over $2 a piece. Thank you Internet for the idea!

I also helped Kayden make Kristen a quilt. It turned out great! (I love that Kayden is using a ruler to make sure that each of the ties were cut to the exact same length!)

And here are the gingerbread houses the kids made. I love that immediately after the kids made them, one of the first comments I heard was "Hey! Who ate my door?!" It was like a walk-by candy buffet!


I asked Rik to make a manger to add to the nativity things. He re-purposed an old magazine holder, and it turned out perfect! I love it!! (Huge improvement over last year's box and paper towel baby!)


The music this month has been fantastic! Anaya had a Christmas dance performance at the Festival of Trees, which started the month with some fun Christmas music! My poor piano had never been played as much as it had this past month! As you can imagine, McKay was in HEAVEN! He learned something like 16 Christmas songs this month, and practiced them in 2 minute increments all day long. We played a lot of duets together, and I loved it! Even Kayden got in on the piano action. He started piano lessons late this summer, and was busy learning Christmas songs as well. Kayden and I played We Three Kings together at the piano recital. Malia and Taisha both learned Christmas pieces as well, and played and played and played! Our family was asked to sing a musical number one week for church, and this was the first time that we could sing a song with 3 parts (we have no basses in the family....) I loved practicing, and as we were walking back to our seats after performing it, I was thinking how much I loved singing with my family. Right when we sat down though, McKay said, "Phew.... at least we don't have to sing THAT again!" Kristen sang alto with us for our musical number, and afterwards we all went down to the temple to look at the nativity. Have I mentioned how much we love her?


Rik and I went on a double date with Kayden and Kristen to the Jon Schmidt concert here in Idaho Falls. Loved the concert, and loved the company!

I love this year's Christmas tree picture!


The Christmas Eve party this year was so fun! I loved that even though Kayden is older than all the other kids, he's never too old to participate. We had a lack of boys (that would hold still), so Kayden was Joseph for the nativity.



And I loved this picture of all the kids lining up to hit the purple hippo pinata. Can you tell that we go youngest to oldest?


I also loved this picture of everyone doing the chimes. And what I love even more, is that in the picture it looks like everyone is quietly concentrating on what they are doing, but in reality, it was noisy and chaotic, and several times we couldn't even tell what song we were playing! So funny!


I love this picture of Brooklyn as a shepherd, my dad narrating, and Nathan skyping from Afghanistan on the computer next to my dad. I love the technology right now!

Speaking of the awesome technology of today, between Amazon Prime, and my smart phone, shopping was SO much easier this year. It was a piece of cake to check prices, find coupons, and find out what other people were saying about whatever I was looking at. I didn't spend any time buying, then taking back, then re-buying, to get the best price.

I am LOVING the break right now. Rik took all 13 days off, and I have just loved being home with my family. Oh, and sleeping in..... I love sleeping in. And naps, I love them too. I think that just about covers it. =)

Halloween 2011

Halloween got here so fast this year! The kids were excited to carve pumpkins (except for Kayden who just ate chips and salsa!)

McKay was Aang from the Last Air Bender (and LOVED to get right into character as soon as he put the costume on!)

Taisha and Malia were "minions" from Despicable Me

Kayden had to dress up as a viking for his AP lit. class.... but I didn't get any pictures. But here are some pictures of him running at the state cross country meet in Boise. This meet was a little bitter-sweet because it was his very last high school cross country meet. He finished 3rd on his team, 18th overall (which means he got a medal), and his team got 4th. It has been an outstanding season for him, and we are incredibly proud of him!

Kayden - 18th place overall - top row third from the right

Hillcrest Cross Country team 2011 - 4th place - Kayden is on the bottom row second from the right

Senior Pictures

Here are a few of my favorites from Kayden's senior picture shoot.

Phew! A Few Days Off... kind of

We had a 4 day weekend the first part of October, so we headed to Island Park to get away. This has been one of the busiest starts to the school year we have ever had. My two oldest kids, were just bombarded with school and church responsibilities, and had piles of homework on top of everything else. For the first time, I watched them get further and further behind on school assignments. So this trip to the cabin had a different feel, because everyone had work to catch up on, even Anaya had a one page final draft that had to be written.

We drove to the cabin in the snow, and it had snowed the day before as well, so when we got there, the kids pulled out the cross country skis and spent quite a bit of time outside skiing. I think I took a nap. Later on that night, Malia and Kayden were working on homework, Rik was working on work, and Taisha and I made aprons (the girls are making these for Christmas present for their friends.)


We thought about going into Yellowstone again this year, but between the cold and the amount of work everyone had to do, we just decided to go get some ice cream in West Yellowstone, and then head back to the cabin.


Kristen's uncle and cousins were also in Island Park, and they took Kayden home with them so he could watch the final night of Kristen's Jr. Miss performance. The next day though, Kayden and Kristen drove up to the cabin. Part way through the day, I decided to take everyone for a drive up to the top of Sawtel Peak (Rik still had work to do, so he stayed back at the cabin.) This is the coolest drive! Looking from bottom of the peak, it's almost unbelievable that you can drive right to the top! The views were stunning! It was an entirely different weather system up there though. Lots of snow, and wind.... and it was COLD!!

Kayden and Kristen drove up to Island Park after they went to sacrament meeting, so they were still in church clothes, and I don't think any of us were anticipating the amount of snow up there (and we weren't even all the way to the top yet!)

(See my van behind Kayden? That's where it got stuck in the snow, and where in my attempt to get it out of the snow.... got it even more stuck! Then everyone had to get out and try to push... even Kristen volunteered, and got out to push in her high heals, but that didn't work. Kayden finally told me I was doing it all wrong, I let him take over and he somehow got the van unstuck (without driving off the mountain), while I was busy slipping and tipping over in the snow.... one second I was standing next to Kristen, and the next I'm right in the snow. Kristen tried to catch me.... again in her high heals! Ya, I'm that cool...no pun intended.)




It was so nice to get away as a family, even for a few days. When we all piled into the van, just about to leave for the cabin, Rik asked me to say family prayer, and I didn't get too far through the prayer before tearing up, and getting emotional because we were all together, in the van, going to the same location. I was so glad everyone was there. Too bad I was at the peak of a "bad cooking phase." Just about everything I made just was a little off for the whole trip. On the plus side, I didn't eat myself into a new jean size this trip!

Just keep running, runing, running... or playing volleyball!

I think this high school has one of the best cross country coaches around. They have so much fun. Malia was really apprehensive about running cross country this year, but she will tell you it was the best decision she has made, and is already looking forward to next year. Cross country is over for Malia, but Kayden still has a little bit more training to get ready for State. He's also had a great year! He's been 3rd on the team the whole season, and has done really well! Malia and I were watching him run, and she asked my how come I don't yell. I had to explain to her that I get so emotional and proud watching them run, that I literally can't yell. I'll have to work on that I guess.







The middle school volleyball season is only a month long, but it was an exhausting month for her! It was a great learning year for her, and she kept up well!

Odds and Ends from September and October

We have been lucky enough to have an absolutely beautiful autumn this year. It's been jam packed full of sports, school and church activities, harvesting, and all sorts of fun things!

Here's some pictures of all the fun stuff:

Kayden and Kristen at the State Fair

(Is it just me, or does the drawing of Kayden remind you of Rik? Maybe it's the eye brows?)

Malia and friends at the back to school dance that she helped plan
Homecoming parade float (and yes, that's Kayden's bed in the middle....)

Homecoming dance with Kaylee

Kayden would have really liked to go to Homecoming with Kristen, but she was busy preparing for the Jr. Miss competition (I guess it is called the Distinguished Young Woman scholarship program now), and wasn't able to go. She won the academic and talent portion, and overall won 1st runner up. As far as I'm concerned, "Distinguished" doesn't even begin to describe how outstanding this girl is. So proud of her!

First choir concert of the year, and it was in the Stephens Performing Art building in Pocatello. Top notch singing, and holy smokes, the acoustics were incredible!

We have be harvesting all sorts of vegetables and fruits this year! In fact, I think I might be have "harvest overload," if that's possible. Over 50 bags of corn, 30 bags of carrots (and that's not including all the carrot sticks I've put in the kids lunches), I can't even count the bags of zucchini and squash, spaghetti sauce, salsa, peach and pear jam, zucchini brownies and breads, peach muffins, cucumber and tomato salads, and we're still not all the way done yet! We're going to harvest the last little bit and get it all taken care of tomorrow. I think my hands have aged 20 years doing all this work!