Weekend Away

Jaysen's brother, Bob, was nice enough to let us use his cabin for a weekend and so we decided to run away a few weeks ago for a much needed weekend away. We took some friends with us too and we all had a really good time.
We made s'mores......

Looks yummy doesn't it?

It was definitely cold outside though.....Lots of snow....

Of course, that didn't keep the kids from wanting to play outside. :0)

The proud builders of this awesome snow fort. :0)

Of course, much time was also spent playing in the hot tub.

We had so much fun and plan on taking Bob up on this offer again REAL soon. :0)

Annual Christmas Candy Making Day!

This year I told myself I was going to take it easy and only do a few simple things for my Christmas candy.....{yeah right!}

peppermint bark and marshmallow chocolate fudge....

peanut butter cups and the ever so famous peanut butter ritz cracker sandwiches covered in milk chocolate...

lots of chocolate covered pretzels too....and not pictured are the Moose Munch popcorn mix, hot chocolate stirring spoons, and Red Velvet Whoopie Pies. {Can you hear my thighs getting bigger?}

I have done this annual Christmas Candy making day for almost 10 years. I think I started doing it the year that Landon turned 1 year old. I haven't missed a year since. There was one year where I had to do it solo, but the rest of the years I was able to do it with family or friends. I have never had the same group two years in a row though. I love the new recipe ideas that people bring with them each year and it is so much fun to spend the day with such fun people. I wish I had taken more pictures this year, but I'm pretty sure my hands were coated in chocolate for about 7 hours straight. I did get this cute picture just before the chocolating began.....

This is Mackenzee and Hannah after they frosted a few cookies. We were waiting for the rest of the group to get to my house and the girls were dying to "help" in the kitchen. Don't you just love how they decided that the frosting was just better straight out of the jar? I caught them double dipping their knives in the frosting container. Can you say sugar high?

Thanks so much Ellen and Montay for your ideas and for your willingness to get crazy in the kitchen with me. I hope the mounds of chocolate you took home made it worth it! :0) See you next year!

Girls Night December 2009

The last Girls Night of the year I decided to have everyone come over to my house and get crafty. I had a lady come and bring us all of her beads and show us how to make bead watches. From there we all decided to make bracelets and necklaces as well. It got kind of crazy. But WAY fun!!!
Amy, Ellen, and Julie

Yes....two entire tables full of magical wonderful beads. It was heaven!

Michelle, Heather, and Melissa

Paulette is over on the left side of the table with her girls. They helped all of us figure out how to get it all put together and were super awesome. Thanks so much Paulette!

We had a lot of fun that night and I have some really cute jewelry to prove it. :0)

Still no takers for January Girls Night.....hopefully someone jumps in with an idea and saves the day so we can keep the fun going! :0)

Girls Weekend

My sister-in-law, Holly, was able to arrange for us to have a Girls weekend in September at a condo in Utah. So, a bunch of us girls packed up our crafty stuff and headed off for a weekend away.

We enjoyed some Farr ice cream on Saturday night BEFORE dinner. :0) It was SO good...
Obviously Tessa and Montay enjoyed theirs too. :0)

Holly brought Olivia with her too....her very firls Girls Weekend.

Here's Holly making some hair bows...

Lyndsey and Tessa hanging out....

Montay showed us all her mad sewing skills and made some aprons and jammies for her girls for Christmas. Can I just tell you how impressed I am? I had no idea she could get her sew on like that!

By the time we were done it looked like a tornado had gone throught the place. We had so much fun though....thanks so much Holly for hosting such a great weekend! We are going to have to do it again REAL soon!

First Day of School

Monday was the first day of school. Because my sister, Crystal, has been staying with us her daughter, Genea, got to be able to go to school with Landon this year. Normally I take my kids to school on their first day, but both Landon and Genea were WAY too excited to ride the bus to want me to take them. So, instead I waited with them at the bus stop. :0) Landon, being the almost 10-year old boy that he is, decided that the studly outfit I had picked out for him for the first day of school was not the right choice. He did wear the shirt I wanted him to wear....but he covered it up with his BSU hoodie. The brand new stylin' jeans I wanted him to wear....got shoved aside for some old worn out shorts. His reply when I asked him why he wasn't wearing his jeans?......
"WHAT? I like these shorts."
Yeah....good times.

Here is Landon, our next door neighbor Noah, Genea, and a new friend that just so happens to be in Genea's class. They all wait together at the bus stop and it has worked out so well.

The boys were super excited to see that their favorite bus driver, Shane, was their driver again this year. Apparently Shane is the nicest bus driver out of all them. That's what the boys say anyway....

The report at the end of the first day was a good one. Genea made friends in her new class at school and LOVES her teacher. Landon's friend, Hatim, apparently came home early from Africa and so he was able to be at school on the first day. Hatim and Landon get to be in the same class this year.

I guess this means so far so good. Of course we haven't even gotten through week 1...

Basketball Camp

Landon just finished up his week of basketball camp. His friend, Cole, went along with him, but they ended up on different teams. The camp focused on teamwork and being positive even when you don't win. {Which was perfect since we tend to have a problem with that kind of stuff around here}. Landon had so much fun and I'm hoping he remembers everything he learned so he can show off his new "skills" during basketball season this winter.

Snap! Crackle! Pop!

We watched the CSI fireworks this year over in the Lowe's parking lot with the Dixon family. Of course, we made sure we turned our radio station to the station that was playing the music to go with the show.

Mackenzee and Magge danced in the middle of the street to the music that was playing.

Awww....aren't we cute? :0)

Maggie's first sparkler {I think}. Montay had to REALLY convince Maggie to hold it.

Mackenzee decided to get brave this year and do one by herself.

The three boys {Rhett, Landon, Cole} put on a little sparkler show for us. They did magnificently. :0)

Poor Rob was the official sparkler lighter. I'm pretty sure he ended the evening with toasted fingertips.

This picture gives a clear idea of exactly how Mackenzee felt about the fireworks we were lighting in the parklot while we waited for the show to start.

Obviously, the boys were a bit more impressed than Mackenzee. :0)

The girls loved the fireworks, but were just so funny about the noise they made.

I'm not sure if Mackenzee thought the fireworks were going to fall out of the sky and land on her or what, but she wasn't taking any chances....

Here is our fun little group as we wait for the show to start. Jaysen was off to the left trying to light our fireworks.

Anyway, it was a nice evening. I have found that it is much more fun to experience these kinds of things through the eyes of the little ones because it almost like being able to see all of it happen again for the first time.

Independence Day!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend over the 4th of July. We had a really enjoyable day just hanging out and relaxing. You know...the stuff I enjoy doing best. :0)