Round of Christmas Pictures

So, I don't know if I am going to get around to sending out Christmas cards this year. It just has not happened for me this season. But, if I were to send them out. You might get one of these pictures in them. . . for now, just enjoy them on my blog. . .

Silly faces

This is what I get when I ask Nathan to smile. . .

Now there's a nice one. . .

Lily insisted on wearing the crown.

Kayla and her baby: they cannot be separated.

Daddy and the kids.

Mommy and the kids.

Too bad there wasn't anyone around to take a family shot for us. These were taken right before church, when everyone is looking their best. :) Merry Christmas!!!

Gingerbread House

We spent Thanksgiving with my family this year, which was a lot of fun. The kids LOVE visiting Grandma and Grandpa (and Lori and Kara). One thing they did while we were there was make a gingerbread house with Grandma. As you can see. . . they really enjoyed it!!

A Little Bit of Halloween

I guess my posts are out of order, oh well. Here'a our Halloween photo shoot. Nathan, if you can't guess was Harry Potter. I found long sleeved mens shirt at Savers that I cut the sleeves a little shorter for his cloak. We found the glasses there, too, and just took the lenses out. His wand is a tinker toy. And of course a nice marker for the scar. I'm all for simple costumes!! Bryson's been reading the books to him at night and he is on this Harry Potter craze. It could be something a lot worse. . . :)

Lily was Little Pink Riding Hood. My aunt made this poncho for me when I was little, so it was fun to see Lily wearing it.

Kayla was our sweet little princess.

Group shot. I'm not sure what spell Nathan is about to cast. . .

The best part of the night was giving out candy to the trick-or-treaters once we got home! The kids were wild with excitement, it was hilarious! They would go crazy running around the house screaming and yelling and jumping around, then peeking out the door every 30 seconds to see if there were any trick-or-treaters coming. As soon as the doorbell rang, they raced over and then very calmly and quietly handed out the candy. When the door shut, they exploded again!!

By the end of the night, Nathan was out on the porch yelling to all the neighborhood to come trick-or-treating at our house and that we had Hersheys! It cracked me up! What a fun night!

Happy Birthday, Lily!

Lily turned 4 yesterday! We had a fun time opening a present here and there throughout the day (they last longer that way. . . ) and then we had a couple of families over for cake and ice cream last night.



She loved the shirts from Grandma.

The beautiful dress from Gammy was a big hit.

Dress up clothes are always a big hit! Thanks everyone!!

Lily is a super sweet little girl. She always want to help me with what I am doing in the kitchen. She loves to color and stays in the lines very well. She tells me she will start talking in Primary when she's 4, so we'll see how that goes. We had our Primary program a couple weeks ago and she wouldn't say her part. When Bryson asked her why she was so shy, she responded, "I'm not shy! I'm just super-duper quiet and I don't like to talk!" We love our Lily!

Happy Birthday, Kayla!

My baby turned 2 today! I can't believe it!!

She really is more excited than she looks . . .

Just having fun pushing big sister in the stroller.

A little peek-a-boo for the camera. . .

Thanks, Grammy, for the beautiful dress (and books)! The shopping cart was a big hit, too.


Kayla is the sweetest little girl ever (with the most ear-piercing scream). She keeps us laughing. She loves to have her babies with her at all times and is constantly rocking and wrapping them up in blankets. She enjoys going places with me and is a great little helper with whatever I am doing in the kitchen. She likes to tease and play with her big brother and sister and tries to do everything that they do. We love you, Kayla!

Missionaries, Harvest and News

We got some raspberry starts from a family in our ward early in the summer and we got a lot of raspberries from them! It was Lily and Kayla's favorite thing to go outside each day and check for new berries. For quite awhile we would get about 10 or so a day--which seemed pretty good for tiny little starts! We will miss those this winter!

On September 7th, we had a set of missionaries move in with us. They will be living with us for a year. It has been a really fun experience! We did have to do a little juggling of bedrooms. . . Lily and Kayla now share, Nathan moved into Kayla's and the Elders live in Nathan's old room (it is the biggest). Anyway, a few weeks ago, our first missionary got transferred. We really enjoyed having him here! It made for an easy transition to have two great missionaries living with us!

Yesterday, we actually got a third Elder. So, for the next six weeks we will have the three missionaries living with us.

These next pictures are part of what has kept me very busy this summer. I can't say that it is all over yet, though, I going to be getting a lot of apples in a couple weeks to do more applesauce, dehydrate, and make apple pie filling. Yum! I've got tons of peaches (all gleaned from the church orchard for FREE), some applesauce, pear sauce, and cherries on these two shelves.

I canned tomato sauce for the first time (it made the BEST lasagna. . . YUMMY), stewed tomatoes, salsa, and sweet and sour sauce. Pretty much everything I used for these came straight from the ward garden for FREE.

There has been a couple good deals on chicken lately, so I have taken advantage of that and gotten large boxes and canned them. It is sooooooo nice and convenient to use!!! It is super easy to can--and it is delicious. :)

So, that's a little of what's been going on here.

Also, Perkins Law is expanding! Bryson hired a secretary a couple months ago to help him keep up with his work load. Today, he gave a job offer to another attorney and it was accepted, so the firm is growing! He will be moving offices in December to a nice building that used to be a law office. It will be very comfortable and actually cheaper than where he is now. So, a good move!

Oh, and I have the Egyptian Flu. Yep. I'm going to be a MUMMY. :) May 12th is the day for #4 to arrive!

That's about it for us!

Good Deal!

So, here's my great deal that I got in on! It ended on September 11th, so sorry, it's too late, but I found out about it on A Thrifty Mom (here's the link: http://athriftymom.com/2009/09/10-emergency-essentials-gift-card/). So, if you add the Preparedness Pantry button to your blog and email Emergency Essentials with your address info, they send you a $10 gift card. Well, I did it and I got my $10 gift card in the mail today! Yea!!

Silly girls and soccer boy

The girls were being cute and silly last night, so I took some pictures:

Nathan started playing soccer this year. He's still a little timid out on the field, but he is so excited about it and has lots of fun. :)

This and That. . .

I tried to get these pictures in order, but they are worse than normal. Oh, well. . .



Here is my first attempt at creative hair fixing that I've done. I was pretty pleased. . . I did it on Lily, too, but it wasn't quite as good. Also, I am more impressed that I took this at the end of the day when Kayla was in the bath. :)





We took a quick trip to Utah a couple weeks ago. We were able to visit some friends. Here is Nathan and Lily with our friend Izzy, who was our friend in Las Vegas. It was fun to get together and play again!





And the moms. . . me and Molliee. I love visiting with friends that you haven't seen or talked to in forever and it's like nothing has changed between you. I miss you Mollee!

Here in the middle of these pictures is Nathan's first day of school picture. He was very excited and had no troubles at all as I took him to school, out to the playground and then waited with the other moms for the bell to ring and watch the teachers come outside and show their classes where to line up and all that. It was a little bit of an emotional day. He had a great time, though, and the girls and I are adjusting nicely to having every other day to ourselves. :) (The kindergarden schedule is crazy. . . he goes Tuesday, Thursday and every other Monday--full days).

The day before school started, we had a slip and slide party at some friends' house. They have a hill in their backyard perfect for a long piece of plastic!

And, just randomly, the kids are enjoying licking the bowl after we made a cake for my mom's birthday. My parents came through briefly on their way to take my sister, Lori, to BYU. Crazy, it seems like I was just getting dropped off there. . .

And we are back to our Utah trip. We got to see a lot of family in a short period of time. :) Here is a picture of Nathan with his cousins Cooper and Cameron. These three were all born within a three month time span.

And that is all for now. Sorry about the randomness! Time is precious and sometimes I just have to catch up on a few events at a time. Other than that, life is good!!

Our Trip to Chesterfield

We had a great time going to Chesterfield, Idaho, for our annual 24th of July trip to visit Bryson's parents and any other family that can make it. Here is a random sampler of what we did:

Lily loved to sit on Pa's lap and give him hugs and kisses. She is such a loveable, cuddley little girl. :)



Same with Grammy. . .

We got to hang out with Daylen, Ashley, and cousin Brooks

The brothers (Bryson, Daylen, and Brad) got to play some Ladder Golf, and the kids enjoyed taking a turn at that. Nathan was actually pretty good!

Grammy and the girls, all ready for church.

Daylen dug a great firepit for us to roast some hotdogs and marshmallows. You can see how much Kayla enjoyed that!

The kids could never get in enough four-wheeling rides! Bryson took all three of them at the same time, several times.

Nathan and Lily got to go fishing with Daddy in a nearby canal.

Lily had a lot of fun telling Pa jokes and making him laugh!

Here's Kayla lounging in the camping chair around the camp fire.

The nearby town of Bancroft has a really fun parade for the 24th. They throw out tons of candy! Bryson, Daylen and Brad trained Nathan to bring them all of the Bit o' Honeys. :)

Cousin Johnny was a lot of fun to be around, too! (Along with Brad and Keriann!)

Kayla learned quickly that if she waved, everyone would throw candy to her. :) In fact, often she would just walk up to some else watching the parade and hold her hand out and they would give her candy! (I sure would, she's so cute!)

We also drove into Lava and floated the river, which was a lot of fun! Nathan and Lily even went. I don't think they quite knew what was going on until we actually got on our four man tube in the river with them in the middle. Nathan LOVED it. Lily, didn't like it at all, but she was a trooper still!

We had a great time and look forward to this trip every year! Thanks Pa and Grammy and everyone!