Christmas Pics

Christmas was pretty relaxing this year. On Christmas Eve we opened the presents that we bought for each other from drawing names and of course our Christmas PJ's. Not too long after that the kids got the milk and cookies out for Santa, Tayler sprinkled her reindeer food out on the lawn, and off they were to bed.

Makenna was the first one up Christmas morning, 5 am. Soon the rest of them woke us up and we were unwrapping presents by 5:30 am. By noon Jared and I were ready for a nap. Later on that day we had some of our friends over who were orphans like us this Christmas and we played a few games and ate lots of junk. That pretty much sums up our Christmas. It was great and fun. I think the kids got all they wanted and more......so did Jared and I.

Yeah, I DID IT!!!

Jared wanted so bad for me to go snowboarding this break without the kids. The problem is.....I didn't know how. I have been skiing twice in my life and that was not very pretty. I love the snow but let's just say me and snow sports just didn't mix (unless it was a sled behind a car). Well, I decided to go because he REALLY wanted me to go, it was important to him and I always say that I will at least try some things once, if I don't like it, that will be the end of it. So on Friday morning my friends daughters came over at 6:30 am and off we were to White Pass. Once we were there I panicked a little when I found out you had to ride the lift before you can even go down a hill. AAAAAAHHHHH. Jared is a good, patient teacher. He told me how to sit on the lift (sideways for a snowboard) and that went good, now only the getting off part that was left. I was fully prepared to kiss a pole or fence when I was getting off, but guess what, I did it without a crash or fall. Yeah for me!! (I have to toot my horn on that one, I was even shocked) The first quarter of the way down the hill I wanted to take my board off and smack the next person going by me (I know, road rage except on a ski hill). But much to my surprise it got better, much better. The last 3 quarters went great and so did the next 5 times down the hill. I loved it. I loved going with Jared and trying something he and the kids enjoyed so much. I'm excited to go back and attempt to get better, I do have a ways to go but can't wait for the next time.

December 's Nutshell

Newspaper clipping of Makenna at the Salvation Army volunteering

Our 2007 Christmas card picture. This one was chosen because of Bailey's big cheese. She also decided to eat M&M's right before we were taking the picture, so we had to photoshop the colors you see here off of her shirt. This was the rough draft.

A VERY short clip of Makenna's program

Makenna's first piano recital

Tayler's preschool Christmas Program.

TEAM BLOXHAM

Our bowls of popcorn and cranberried just waiting for us to string them (or just eat the popcorn).

Our little Bailey just excited to be around watching and eating the popcorn (and a few cranberries).

The family stringing popcorn and cranberries to hang on our trees outside. I think Makenna poked her finger right as the picture was being taken.

December has snuck up on us so fast. We have all been very busy and now it is 2 days till Christmas. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! So here is the happenings of our December.

• The girls and I made 250 regular sized gingerbread men for our ward party. Our primary was in charge of the bakery. It was a bit crazy doing it but I think it was a good experience for me and the girls.
• Berek's football team finally had their team party. It was lots of fun to see all the kids and the parents again. Our family has all really enjoyed football this year, and the team Berek plays for is wonderful. The kids are great, the coaches are great, it just has been a good year.
• Makenna was Mrs. Santa Claus in her 3 rd grade play "40 Winks 'til Christmas". We will try to load a clip of her soon.
• Makenna had her first piano recital. She has been playing since the first part of October and is doing quite well. She played beautifully and we were all so proud of her.
• Tayler's preschool had a little Christmas program for the parents. They sang us 4 songs and did a little dancing with it. It was so cute. Nothing like 9 girls and 1 boy, sounds similar to her primary class.
• Delivered tons of treats to all of our friends and neighbors. Another fun Christmas tradition. Hopefully no one ended up with food poisoning :)
• The kids and I volunteered at the Salvation Army helping to hand out gifts from the Adopt a Family program. It is a very neat experience and makes us so very grateful and feel very blessed for all we have. The kids enjoy it and have asked every year about going back. Makenna was even in the paper this year for it.
• Took pictures for the family Christmas cards and sent them to everyone that doesn't live in a 30 mile radius of us.
• Jared took the kids snow boarding for the first time this year at White Pass. They loved it. They said the snow was fresh and perfect. Bailey, Tayler, and I stayed home and made cookies.
• Our family, minus Bailey because of the cold, did the Cable Bridge Run. We all signed up for the mile. Berek ran with his friend, Jared and the two girls ran together, and I decided to go for the 5k and I did it. It made me proud. We saw lots of our friends there too. It was great.
• Now that leads us to tonight. We decided to string popcorn and cranberries. No reason, just for fun. And it was.

It has been very busy month with the ward, friend, and company parties, lots of shopping, and getting everything together, but it has all been fun and well worth it. So here is our December in a nutshell.

The Nursery's Toys

I recently bought some much needed new toys for our nursery , with some money left from the Primary budget. There were a few I was unable to give them last week because they needed to be put together. Bailey sat by and watched every second of me assembling them. Soon after she had the first run of the new toys. They might just be another present that Santa will have to get.

Our Little Princess

I went shopping for Christmas of course, at Toys 'r Us a few weeks ago. Believe it or not, they still had a few Halloween costumes. They were on clearance for 90% off. What a deal! The only size they had of them that would fit any of my kids was Bailey, so she ended up with this cute princess dress for $2. It is not a cheaply made one either. I should of saved it for Christmas but I couldn't help myself and let her wear it all day at home.

Now for the princess part. She is such a cutie. She is saying a lot of words now. Mom, Da, Tay, Ma (makenna), Bea, and of course my favorite---NAH!!! That is the naughty word. This is the NO for her and it is used quit frequently. She has such a personality all of her own right now. It has just been the last couple weeks that she really lets you know what she wants and how. I love this stage. They become their own little selves, but I do miss the baby. Yes, she is still little but she is no longer a baby---SHE IS OUR LITTLE PRINCESS.

I LOVE SNOW

After having a little bit of a depressing week, something finally pulled me out! SNOW!!! I think God gave us the snow to be a little sunshine during the somewhat gloomy winter. I love the snow. I have missed it so much since we moved here to Kennewick. Last night when I stepped outside and saw the snow I just wanted to lay out in the lawn and let the snowflakes drop on my face.

Today as I was taking Tayler up to preschool a snowflake dropped on my nose. I was so exciteand had Bailey look at it. Her grin became as big as mine. I don't know why something so simple puts such a smile on my face, but it does. Maybe it makes me feel like a kid again. Who knows.

When I picked Tayler up, we decided to build a snowman in the backyard. Berek and Makenna woke up early and took over the front with their snowman and didn't even invite me or Tayler so we decided to up one on them by building ours in the backyard with my special snowman kit. She had so much fun and I enjoyed spending the time with just me and her (Bailey is upstairs snoozing). Tayler is now drinking hot apple cider and warming up with her blanket. Here are our pictures of our most awesome snow"lady".

Thanksgiving

On Wednesday afternoon we packed up our Yukon and headed off to Idaho for Thanksgiving. We stayed over night in Boise, our kids are not real good lasting 9 hours straight in the car even when they have movies t0 watch. That night Jared and I got no sleep at all. You see, by the time we were there, Bailey was all ready to play so she didn't get to sleep till late, then when there was finally a chance for sleep our sweet Berek snored all night!


Thanksgiving morning we got up at 6:30 (5:30 our time), I ran, then we all got ready, ate breakfast and continued on our journey. We reached Jared's parents about 12:15. A few hours later we ate. It was real yummy of course. Then it was time to search the sale ads. What a disappointment this year. No real good sales. Nothing I absolutely needed. It was depressing.


Later that evening we met with my family at my sisters house. It was time for pies. she bakes like crazy. Her plan was to make a pie for everyone-each of our favorites. I told her to make anything she wanted for us, we'd eat anything and I really didn't want a pie all to myself====I didn't need it or the guilt.


That night we stayed at my sis house. The plan was that everyone would meet us there and then we would leave at 4:00 am. RIGHT!!!! I stayed up all night and they all dogged me. Can you believe it. Even though there was nothing I wanted, it is tradition and I don't break tradition (GUILT TO ALL OF YOU) So here I am, wide awake, and nothing to do. Oh and I forgot to add that Tayler and Bailey both were coughing all night--yep they were getting a nasty cold.


We'll my nephew redeemed himself by taking us to Lake Channel to ride motorcycles and 4 wheelers. There is no lake there, just sand, hills, rocks, and dirt. Way fun though. We got lots of good pics.


Saturday was not as fun. Bailey started to get real sick and by 3:00 we were in the Emergency room. She had a high fever and was not breathing well. Finally after 3 hours they gave her a strong steroid and put her in a room on the pediatric floor for monitoring. Finally 6 hours after that, she was breathing much better so they let us go home.


Finally on Sunday we left for our long 9 hour trip home--and it was long. I now remember why we don't go many places that take more than 3 hours to get there. Were glad to be home and finally today I can say Bailey is doing much better. I'm not sure if I would repeat this Thanksgiving but we did enjoy seeing everyone and hanging out with them. Thank you everyone that helped out!!! We love you and miss you.


Here are some pictures of the highlight of our trip.

BEREK'S FIRST TIME DRIVING A 4 WHEELER

JARED ON MICHAEL'S BIKE

MY NEPHEW MICHAEL

Halloween Post Finally

NIGHT TIME PICS

Wow, finally I can put up my Halloween pictures. Our computer has been in the shop since Halloween and we just got it back this afternoon. It still is not working write so who knows, I may be out another two weeks.

I loved Halloween this year. At the last minute, around noon, I decided to decorate the house. I don't know why, well kinda. The kids begged for us to get a fog machine and Jared said go ahead. I was at Wal-Mart picking one up and decided you can't just have a fog machine, that's corny. If I get a fog machine, I need spiderwebs. And not just any spiderwebs, the glow in the dark ones that need black light! Then there is the strobe lights. If there is fog and spiderwebs, there must be strobe lights. Then if you do that, you need bats and zombies. So off on a Halloween binge I went and by the time the kids got home from school, it was complete. Jared was pretty surprised too. I LOVED IT.

We took the kids and their friends to the ward Trunk or Treat and then came home and went around our neighborhood with some more friends. The kids got a few full size candy bars and one house was even giving hot chocolate to the parents. Our neighborhood is definitely a fun one to come to at Halloween. Most of the houses decorate and do it well, plus they give out the good stuff :) We had so many kids come this year. I bought 14 bags of candy and we still ran out. CRAZY. It was so fun though. Bailey even understood what was up and protected her bag from the older ones.

It was definitely a fun Halloween. We did forget to make homemade root beer this year and we do miss seeing all the family and cousins dressed up, but other than that.....it was GREAT!

Pumpkin Carving at it's best!

We were a little bit behind this year. Usually I have costumes and costume bought by the first week of Oct. This year I wasn't as smooth. It wasn't until yesterday that the kids were able to get their costumes. Wal-Mart was out of pumpkins so luckily Yokes had plenty left.

We carved our pumpkins last night. Since the little girls (that includes me) can't use sharp objects yet, we had Mrs. Potatoe head parts for pumpkins. I thought it was a pretty cool idea. So Tayler and Bailey did their pumkins by themselves with a little help from me poking the holes.

It was lots of fun and they all turned out pretty awesome. Berek and Makenna did their own, all by themselves this year. Usually Jared and I help them out a little but they wanted none of that this year. Berek did the RIP tombstone with a ghost, Makenna did the cat with a moon, and Jared did one to win his little princess,Tayler's, heart-Cindrella. I loved it. He is definately the artist in this family.

Weekend with the Family

Here are a few pictures of Makenna's baptism. Her dress is the one her aunt made that she wore at the Miss Tri Cities pageant. She looked so pretty. It was a fun day. The next few are ones of the family sleeping (or trying to). No one would give John a blanket so he went and got a towel????? I'm sure it worked out well.

THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH

Sunday at 10:30 am, Jared and I left for the airport for our very first trip in 12 years-alone! We were going to the "Happiest place on Earth", Disney World. My sister, Andra flew here from Chicago Saturday afternoon for Makenna's baptism and then as awesome as she is, stayed to take care of the kids while we went on vacation. I never could have gone without her here watching the kids.

So we said good-bye to the kids at church and off we went. I have to admit, I cried when we left. I couldn't imagine not seeing the kids till Friday night-late night. The flight wasn't bad, we got to watch TV the whole way, makes the time go by quicker. We finally arrived in Orlando at 11:00 pm (8:00 here). A bus from Disney picked us up and took us to our resort (that's what they call them, I call them hotels). Later they brought our baggage right to our room, we didn't have to even worry about the baggage claim. We got our room key, not only was it our room key but our tickets to all the parks and charge so at the end of our stay we only had one payment to make not fifty to keep track of. I loved that.

Our first day we went to Magic Kingdom. That is the little kid paradise. We loved it too. My favorite ride there was Pirates of the Carribean. We spent the whole day there, going non stop till around 8:00 that night we sat for the light parade and then right after that, the coolest firework show. It is definately a magical place for adults too. We felt like kids again.

Day 2 was spent at Epcot. Now this place is cool. I loved going around to the area that they have spots for all different countries (can't remember the name) We ate in Japan and after picked a few oysters out of a aquarium. They then popped them open and there was our pearls. It was so cool, fun, neat, I loved it. I got a blue and white pearl that Jared hade made into a necklace for me. We liked the idea so much, that we picked thier pearls, that we did it for each of the girls. Their first pearl necklace. How lucky are they, I waited till I was 32 for mine. I loved Mexico too. They had some fun shopping there. Everything from each area was from that country so I was excited to bring the kids home a few things from there too. We tried a few rides in Epcot too. My least favorite was Mission Space. I have NEVER in my whole life gotten sick on a ride. I guess there is a first time for everything. They warned when you got on the ride if you have motion sickness, heart problems, yadda yadda, to go on the MILDER ride. We thought we were safe so we loaded on our ship. As soon as we blasted off, my stomache got queezy. After about a minute, I reached for the barf bag located in front of every seat. Might I add, this is the ONLY ride in all of Disney World with vomit bags on it. I did not vomit, tho9ugh there was much dry heeving. Jared came off the ride a bit sick too, looking around for the nearest garbage can, just in case. That night we ate at the very first Planet Hollywood and then after went to La Nouba, Cirque du Soliel. That was so neat. I have never been or seen anything like this show. It was the best thing we did there. I recommend this if you ever get a chance.

Day 3- MGM studios. This was a fun park. Lots of good rides, Tower of Terror, Rockin' Rollercoaster, and quite a few fun events to see. The Rockin Rollercoaster was our favorite there. It was an indoor rolllercoaster that was pitch black but had the black lighting. There were cork screws, loops, you name it. It was the best. We hurried off from that to go to a show called lights, motor, action where they had stunt cars and motorcycles putting on a show. Very exciting. That night we went to the most hilarious comedy show. It was alot like Who's Lin Is It Anyway. Very funny, and even clean jokes.

Day 4- Wild Animal Park.This was okay, definately more for the kids. We spent only a half of day here and then went back to Epcot. We didn't get spend as much time as we wanted to there because we had the Cirque show. They had a wonderful firework show there also.
Everything was so fun. A lot of people were surprised we were going there, of all places, without the kids. Why not?. I felt we were able to enjoy every minute, and take our time. It was so great spending time with Jared. And you know what the very best thing was.....holding hands all day everyday. It was like we were dating again. Yes, we missed the kids and thought of them alot but every moment was wonderful. I can't even explain. (I know, I'm getting a bit too mushy)

Day 5 was spend shopping and catching a plane. We had a delay in SLC which drove me crazy. I wanted to see my kids. We came home to a WELCOME HOME sign and kids waiting for us.

Thank you Andra, for making it possible for us to go. You are a wonderful sister and I love you so much. I don't think you'll ever know how much I appreciate all you do for me, just because.
Thank you Jared, for the wonderful second honeymoon. I loved it and love you so very much. I never had a boring moment with you. You made me laugh harder and more than I have in a long time.

Makenna's Day

Today my sweet Makenna was baptized. I can't believe she is eight. She is such a sweet girl and it was such a nice day. We invited a non member friend of ours and were so happy and excited that she came to share the day with us. There were four kids in all that were baptized. Her Aunt Kathy was able to speak on baptism. I loved her talk. It was for the little kids and it was perfect. Makenna was so excited to be baptized and I really feel she took in every moment. She was able to wear the dress Aunt Kath made her for the Miss Tri City program. Again she looked like an angel. We decided to have her comfirmed today while all of our family was here. It was so nice to have such a large group of family here. It was definately a blessing for us. I know Makenna felt very important because of it. After everything was done we all met at the park, had a picnic, and played a little football & basketball. I was so proud of her when we got home to see her writing about it in her journal so that she would remember how she felt and thought. What a wonderful day. What a wonderful spirit Makenna is to us. We are so blessed to have her as our daughter. She has such great love for people and is an all around sweetheart. I am sad the day is over, but there will be more to come. I will post some pictures of her soon (I forgot my camera and had to borrow one).
Thank you to all the friends and family that came and called. It ment a lot to us and Makenna that you all took the time out of your day to think of her. We love you for it.

THIS ONES FOR GABE

This video is for Berek's cousin Gabe. I finally was able to load a video that looked okay, that you could actually see. Anyway, Gabe loves Berek and always tells me he is going to come watch Berek. Since he is too far away--here is a bit of a game he can watch. Berek is the noseguard (middle) #92. We love you Gabe.

Bailey

Bailey loves to play football. When she sees anyone holding a football she walks up to them and says "CATCH". It is the clearest word she says. Once you toss her the ball she tries to run/walk off with it. It is so cute. Yep she is walking now. Boy does time fly. It was just a month ago she had no desire to try, then all of a sudden, off she went. It had to be her idea I guess. That is how most of my kids have been, if they want to do it, it gets done, if it is my idea---good luck. Bailey also wants to feed herself. She tries to take the spoon away from anyone trying to feed her. We try mostly to give her little finger foods. That way she is a bit happier. Such a big girl in a little body.

GIRL'S NIGHT

Last night a bunch of friends got together for our GIRL'S NIGHT. We do this every once in a while. The night started out with a friend of mine, Nicole, picking me up at about 5:15, and we headed to the craft store. I needed to returned something and we both needed to pick a few things up. After about 30 min there we left and went to meet up with everyone else at Azteca, a mexican restraunt. There ended up being 11 of us there. It was a real fun time. We celebrated Allison, another friend, an my birthdays. Our friends are great a really spoiled us (thanks again, I loved it all!!!)
Earlier on in the week one of Jared's patients gave him 2 tickets to the Hockey game, Tri-City Americans and Spokane. He was going to go with me, but changed his mind and told me to take Nicole (I think he just wanted me to have a fun night with friends and didn't want me to end it at 8:00). I'm not one to miss any game I have tickets to, so me and Nicole headed to the Toyota Center for HOCKEY. We only ended up catching half of it but it was still tons of fun. I even got a special bonus of sitting next to a drunk guy that kept trying to talk me into buying him another beer. Luckily he disappeared somewhere (I think he was so drunk he got lost). The Americans won in overtime 4 to 3.
By this time it was about 9:30. The mall was closed so we decided to hit Kohls (new store here, just opened this week). I called another friend to see if they were all still out and about and it just so happened that they all went to Kohls too. We met up with them again, did a little, okay a lot of shopping ( I spent my birthday gift card from all my buddies), and by then it was time for dessert. I don't know what time it was by then. Off to Applebees we went.

A few of us wanted dessert but not a whole one, so the waiter said there was one called a "BITE SIZE BROWNIE" for $1. WOW what a deal so Jenn and I ordered it. It came out and we couldn't quit laughing. When they said a bite, they meant it. Okay maybe 2 bites but I have never seen such a tiny dessert in a restaurant before. We took small bites and it was chocolaty enough that was all we needed. We ended up home about 12:15am. It was a blast. I had lots of laughs and lots of fun. A well needed and enjoyed night. Thanks everyone for planning and coming. It was so fun.

I didn't bring a camera so we took pictures of us at the game with the cell phone.

Video's YEAH!

Thought I would load up a couple videos of the kids. Still not much going on here. Football games every Saturday. Makenna is starting piano lessons this week. That is about all the excitement going on here.

Berek's first game. He is the center, #92. I have a better video of him from the game this last Saturday I will post later.

Makenna wakeboarding. This is the only video I have of her. She always goes A LOT longer than this but it is still cool to see her on the water.

And last here is Berek wakeboarding. This was one of our last times of the year going.

FALL

It has been another week of not much exciting happening.
As of Monday the boat is retireing for the year. It is so sad. We have thouroughly enjoyed that boat this summer. It will be greatly missed. Jared and the kids have snowboarding to look forward to, I'll just have a sore bum. You see, this year is the year I am going to attempt to snowboard. I conquered the wakeboard, hopeing that might help me out a bit this winter. I just don't want to break anything. It will be exciting though. I'm sure the kids will get a good laugh.
I am looking forward to Fall. I love Halloween, the season for homemade rootbeer.MMMMM. And who wouldn't love seeing all the kids in their costumes. I love going out with my kids trick-or-treating, who knows, this might be the year I returned to my costume days.
Yep, the holidays are comming and I'm getting excited. Enought of my rambling ....

Now for what's been going on here. Berek's team won their game last week, 24 to 6. I love football and watching him play. It was the highlight of my birthday. This week they play a pretty good team. We're excited about it.
Makenna had her interview with the Bishop on Sunday for her Baptism. For those of you that don't know and would like to come, it is Oct 13 @ 4:00. She is very excited. We have lots of family coming up for it. It should be lots of fun.
Bailey has not been feeling to good this week. I'm starting to wonder if maybe she may have a milk allergy. She has vomited once a day since Sunday, right after a bottle of milk, and usually in the evening. She still drinks one or two other bottles during the day and nothing happens so who knows. I guess we'll just wait and see.
Tayler hasn't been up to much. She needs something to do though. That girl has way too much Energy bottled up inside her. I'm hoping next year to get her in soccer, I think she would love it.
Well that's all folks........

Happy Birthday John

Most recent picture I took of John

Today is my big brother, John, birthday. I figured he needed someone to blog about him 'cause he's a pretty cool guy. John is a very good brother! Jared and I have moved more times than I want to count and John has been there with 95% of them, and not only ours, but the rest of my families. Don't ask me why, I would try to make up an excuse after the first few, but he always helps. He is good hearted too. John has always tried to help every one of us out when he knew we needed it. He is alot like my mom in the sense, he will never buy himself something new but has no problem getting something for the rest of us. He is an awesome uncle. My kids love him! They get so excited when he comes to visit and try to think of ways to keep him here when it is time to go. Tayler even said if he would live with us she would be willing to give up her room. He really loves all his nieces and nephews and they love him. He is so patient and good to them. John also takes a lot of crap from all his brothers and sisters. We all have this habit of teasing, sometimes too much, and John seems to be the funnest one to tease. He takes it real well. If it were me, let's just say by now I'd be an only child.

I have some real fun memories with him but my favorite is after I had Tayler. I get post partum depression real bad so the month after I had Tayler, John & Mom would drive 40 min. to come see me and visit or take me on a little road trip to keep me company. They were so fun!! We even got lost one time, or thought we were. There is one other, when we went rafting in Jackson, but that's another story, right John!!!

I hope you had a happy birthday John. We all love you.

Happy #12 (a week late)

It been 12 years since I married my sweetheart, Jared. He is my best friend. My funnest times are with him. I laugh the hardest with him. He knows how to melt my heart-which sometimes isn't easy. All of the hardest times of my life he has been there holding my hand, walking with me through every minute. He has been there with me with my highest of highs and my lowest of lows. The things that were and are important to me, he has always supported me in them. We spent a lot of time going to Pocatello to see Mom, even when we could have been going on other vacations, but I wanted to spend time with her and he was there with me. I'm so thankful for all of the Christmas Eves and mornings we were there. He never complained. Now I have wonderful, fun memories with her and my family I don't think I would of had if he hadn't been so supportive of them then. That is something priceless that means more to me than anything I could ever have. Thank you for that Jared. I am so proud to say your mine.

He is such a good person. Jared has the qualities that you don't see in many people. He is very giving person. This isn't always easy for some people. He has never had a second thought about helping someone out. It in not even a question for him, if he sees someone in need he helps. He is a good father. He has never missed a game, play, or any activity that they have been in. He always wants them to know he is there, even if it means missing out on some fun himself or taking off of work early. They know that and love him for it too. He is a good person all around. I love going into his office and hearing the people that work for him saying how much they enjoy working for him, how he treats them.

Our anniversary was September 8 but we ended up going out the night before. We went and got massages. Love them!!! I wish I could get one everyday. I think when we both were done we were ready to snooze. After that was an awesome dinner at Bonefish Grill. I love that place. It's not very cheap but for special occasions it is just right. They have an appetizer called Bang Bang shrimp that is awesome. I am never a shrimp eater, hate it actually, but this stuff is a killer. I could eat all of it myself. We finished the night off with a movie and then went home. Almost 6 hours away with NO KIDS! We came home to Bailey asleep in Johns arms, Tayler on the other side snuggled up, Makenna right next to Bailey leaning against John, and Berek on the floor right in front of them.

On our actual anniversary we went to Bereks football game, went boating-Jared rocked at his backroll, and the kids went shopping and made us a real yummy dinner. And they even fed us in front of the TV with their TV trays. How cool is that!

I love you Jared!

Johns Visit

Uncle John came to visit us for a week and the kids loved it. He spent a lot of time with them and spoiled them with too much CANDY! He even watched the kids for us on Friday night so we could go out. Now here is the reason I now believe in miracles, he changed not one, but two poopy diapers. John, I am proud of you.

We had a lot of fun playing jokes on John. I wanted to help him quite drinking too much pop so I put "STOPS IT" for nail biting and thumb sucking, on his straw without him noticeing. It was hilarious seeing his face. He didn't think so, but I loved it. It was all out of love.

Before he came, Makenna and I saw a huge 100 oz. mug at the gas station that was calling Johns name, so once he got here we surprised him with it. As you can see in the pictures, Bailey loved it too. I've never seen a mug so big before.

We really enjoyed having John come visit and are excited to see him again.

ALL WRAPPED INTO ONE

It's been a bit since I've blogged so I'm just putting up a bunch of pictures and then filling in the blanks.
On Saturday, September 1 was Berek's "BIG 10th) birthday. He chose to go boating, imagine that. These kids are such water bugs. Anyway, we saw one of his friends there so we had him come on the boat with us. It was a day full of wakeboarding and tubing. The Thursday before his birthday we had a party with his friends, and what did we do? Take a wild guess. There were 5 boys he invited but they all were awesome on the boat. They were so funny, we were listening to the radio and the "Delila" song came on and every one of those boys were singing. These were the tough, sports playing boys and I couldn't believe they were singing. It was hilarious. It was tons of fun and would love to take them all out again. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAR!

Monday, September 3 was Makenna's birthday. We went boating for her birthday too, that's what she wanted. We had a lot of fun. Makenna was jumping a little on her wakeboard, all around we all had a good day. Then on Tuesday she had a party with her friends. She chose Chuck E. Cheese of all places. The girls all loved it, I hardly saw any of them until cake and present time. She was a bit spoiled this year and got a cake from Dairy Queen. Makenna is now 8 and will be getting baptized on Oct. 13th. She barely missed the Sept. baptism date by 2 days, darn it. She is so excited. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAK!

Now to Tayler's first day of school. She started school on Thursday, September 6. This was a long awaited day for her. We even had to go school supply shopping for her even though she didn't need them. Tayler even pick out a Tinker Bell messenger bag instead of the normal backpack this year. She loves preschool, loves Mrs. Yolanda, and loves her friends. It is a class of 8 girls and 1 boy. Poor little guy. This was the most excited part because all boys have cooties except for Connor who she says is her boyfriend, and has been for the last year. She loved her day and is very excited that her first treat day is on her Uncle Johns birthday. Tayler is becoming such a big girl. She has grown so much from last year.

Now brings us to this last Saturday, our anniversary and Bereks first offical football game of the year. It was so excited. He started out just on offense as the center. They decided to put him in a few plays when we were on defense and after that, he played the whole game, offense and defense, and let me say---HE ROCKED IT! Not just because he is my kid and all, but he did so well. It was so exciting to watch him and see him really go at it. I'm really starting to enjoy football, which I wasn't ever sure that would be possible. We taped the whole game and even watched it again later that night. I will try to post a bit of video later.

That has been our last couple weeks. Hopefully now I will keep up on it now the kids are in school.

First Day Back to School

The love of two siblings.

My Makenna looks like a little lady.

Love that cheesy smile!

The day has come! The kids weren't too excited about posing for their "Back to School" pictures. But we've done it every year and we will continue every year.

Makenna was nervous about her first day. She always is until she meets her new teacher. Berek said he was okay, but once we were there and waiting to go it, he seemed a bit nervous. They both loved their teachers. Makenna is in 3rd grade and has Mrs. Chapman, Berek is in 5th grade and has Mr. Rutherford. He is happy because not only is his teacher a boy but he also doesn't believe in homework. What kid wouldn't love that.

Their day seemed to go well, they were happy when I picked them up. The house was a bit quiet without them, I guess you could say I miss having them here. It is crazy during the summer and all I want is just one day of quiet, then when their gone, I miss their voices. They are my little buddies. I love them!!!