The count down finally ended

My kids have been so excited for their uncle Rodney to get back from his mission.  They have been counting down the until he was going to be home and we would get to go to the airport.  They started counting down the days at thirty days until Rodney would get home.  Every morning Mason would wake up and say 28 days or 13 days, whatever the number was that we were on.  It was fun to see how excited they were to see Rodney again.  They have been so proud of the missionaries that we had out and still have out.  In Primary they talked about missionaries and Mason was very excited to let them know he had a aunt and uncle that were out.

This day was a pretty exciting day.  It was my birthday and my brother was coming home so I was pretty excited for my dread 30th birthday because we would get to go pick up my brother.

Here are some pictures of some of the grand kids that were waiting and waiting for uncle Rodney.  It was fun to look at the pictures and see how excited and happy we all were.

The kids could see him coming right here.

Rodney and the missionary that he traveled home with.  He might have been companions with him at some point, but I don't know for sure.

Elly meeting uncle Rodney for the first time ever.  While Rodney was gone there were five new babies added and a brother-in-law.

 Tyler giving uncle Rodney a hug.

 

 Mason giving Rodney another hug because I missed the first one he gave him.

 Jay giving Rodney a hug.  These two served in the same mission.  So that has been a fun thing.  Our boys want to go to the same mission as Rodney and their Dad.

 This was one of my favorite pictures, my Dad and Rodney.

 Rodney and Ryan

 The group of us that were at the airport to meet Rodney.  We are missing one brother and his family and two sisters.

It was fun to see him again and hear about his mission.  The boys are excited to go again in January and meet my sister when she gets home from her mission.  Mason is already asking how many more days.  It could be along two and a half months.

Halloween traditions

Each Halloween we try to carve pumpkins with the kids.  They each get to pick there own and what they want carved on the front of it. This was the first year all my kids were willing to clean out their own pumpkins, which I was really surprised by because I didn't think that Elly would do it but she did.  We had to take their shirts off because they were getting junk all over on the sleeves.

 
 
 
 Mason fell asleep while Tyler and Elly were doing their pumpkins so he did his after they were done.  I was surprised that I was able to get all the pumpkins carved in less then an hour and a half.  We ended up doing these the last day we were home until after Halloween, but Jay was there to light them for the kids.

 I think the kids pumpkins all turned out really cute and they were pretty easy to do this year. They each picked their pumpkin and what would be on it.

 The next day we had sometime to make sugar cookies, frost and sprinkle them before we had to leave.  We didn't have time to take them around to the people that we usually do, but we did get them to a couple of the people.  This is the other fun thing I like to do with my kids at Halloween.  They like to cut out the cookies and put the sprinkles on.  I end up having to frost most of the cookies because doing the sprinkles is a lot more fun.

 Our finished cookies.

While visiting family

When we were up visiting my family my brother-in-law shot his elk and all the little kids wanted to be in a picture with it.  I guess all of them but Elly.  She didn't like it at all.  The other kids were pretty excited about it though.

Homecoming 2010

This post is a little late, but better late than never.

Every year I try to take my kids up to watch my brothers and sisters play in the homecoming games.  The kids love being there for the night before when they have a dinner and the kids all get to paint their names on the street.  This year we went prepared and took some cans of spray paint for them.  The kids each got to put their names on the street.  I forgot to take my camera so I don't have many pictures.  My sister had some on her camera that she sent to me.

 The kids have a great time playing with their cousins while we are there too.

 They love to get their faces painted that night and also the next day for the football game.

 Another thing that is fun for them is watching them light the "C" and watching them light the big bonfire.  When we go and see this it brings back some high school memories for sure.  The kids love it and start taking about it as soon as football season starts.

 Tyler and his two little cousins that he loves to play with when we go to Grandma's house.

The little boys after all the excitement is over with my little brother.

Christmas presents

My little brother is making these cradles and selling them so he can earn some money.  If anybody would like to get one for their little girls let me know so that he has time to get them made before Christmas.  This is what Elly is getting from Jay and I for Christmas. 

They are thirty dollars.  He can paint them white, stain it or just leave it plain and you can finish it how you want it.  They are very sturdy.

If you want one or know of anyone how would like one please just leave a comment and your email.  Thanks!

Pictures of the Kids

I decided it was about time I took some pictures of my kids since I haven't done it for a long time.  The boys haven't changed much and Elly has only changed a little but I still wanted some knew ones of them.  These are just some we ran out and did one day when we had a couple of minutes.  I still need to take them and do some good ones.  These will work for now though.

You see why it has been awhile since I did the kids pictures.  I can never get all of them to look at me at the same time and all have on a normal smile.  I guess it does capture their personalities this way.  I have better luck trying doing one at a time.  I wasn't in love with the coloring of Mason's so we tried again the next day and of course this is what I got.

This kid is something else, but you have to love him because he is a happy and fun kid.

Loving it!!!

It has been almost two months since I have had to change a diaper and I am loving it.  Elly started to show some real interest in potty training over the summer but I didn't want to try that when we would be camping and traveling.  We waited until Tyler started school and then we started.  She has done so well.  She wears a diaper to bed at night still but I can handle that.  She wears her underwear when she goes down for her naps though and she stays dry for that.

It is so nice not having a diaper to change.  She loves her cute little underwear.  They just don't make underwear small enough for little girls so these ones have worked really good, especially on Sunday when she wears her dress.  They cover her bum pretty good, since we all know how modest little girls and dresses can be.

The longest break I have had in the last 6 1/2 years is two months, that was between Mason and Elly.  With Tyler I had a two week break before Mason was born and I was at it again.  So I am enjoying it. 

Boxing

Mason and his friend have been so funny to watch play the Wii.  This day they were doing boxing.  Watching there faces was better then watching the TV.  They were so hot and sweaty after they finished. 

They got so into it.  Their faces they would make and the sounds was pretty funny.  I wish I could video them and put it on here.  These two are cute guys that have so much fun together. 

A bad week...

Two weeks ago Tyler came home from school with a black eye.  He ran into another kid during P.E.  The other kids didn't get anything and he got this nice black eye which lasted the week.  He had a nice bump on his eye for a couple of days too.

Two days later I picked him up from school and he tells me, "I didn't have a good day at school today."
I ask, "Why not"?
Then he proceeds to tell me that he broke to teeth at school that day.  I was just hoping the weren't his front teeth as soon as he said that.  He must have read my mind because he said, "Don't worry it's not the front ones.  They are in the back." 
So he puts in a piece of gum and tells me that it hurts to chew on those.  So I pull over and look at his teeth, then turn around and head to the dentist office.  He ran in and showed them his teeth and since they didn't need to do any drilling they just hurried and fixed them for him.  Ten minutes later we were on our way home again.
The story of how it happened came out once we got home.  When he was on the monkey bars at school he let go and his friend was standing below him.  Tyler didn't know that.  When he landed Tyler's chin hit his friends head and broke Tyler's teeth and gave him this nice bruise on his chin too.  I can only imagine his friend had a nice headache too.  It was a bad week for him. 

It held!!

Most people don't have a problem with this but I do and now so does my little girl.  When we curl our hair it is straight in a matter of moments.  I have decided not to waste my time with trying to curl mine anymore, but I still try to curls Elly's on Sundays anyway.  This sunday she just looked so cute after I finished it.  I knew it wouldn't last so took a picture of her as soon as I finished getting her ready.

I also put a ton of hair spray on it, which I hate to use and her hair held for most of the three hour block.  I know your thinking of corse it held with hair spray, but it takes so much on us that it isn't worth it most of the time.  She did look pretty cute.