Christmas Eve

Here is my favorite pic of the night. Do you think they are excited?

Christmas Eve

Okay...just ignore the placing of this pic...it is supposed to be some where in the middle. I am loosing my brain, lol!

We had Christmas Eve dinner over at my parent's house this year. Here is the table o' fun: Steph & Frank & Dizz

Mom(the scrumptious cook) & Brinks, and yes her face is stained orange from her dinner of carrots, yum!
Ryan was entertaining the boys while the adults ate & enjoyed some quiet. My boys LOVE Uncle Rye-Rye, can you see why? My mom had a box of over 1,000 straws...and guess who got in to them?


Ryan was also getting his work out throwing Caleb on my parents bed.


Layne & Brinks, see I did wipe her face off eventually.



After we ate at my parents, we stopped by the Peterson's. Here are the Peterson men trying to get the movie to play....

Sweet Gran Marie & Layne

Everyone watching Transformers on Blue Ray...we can't wait until Santa comes!

Neighbor Goodies

Our mission: Making goodies for the neighbors

I wanted to make some treats for my neighbors. I wanted to get them out early, before every one was all sugared out. Sooooo....I made this EASY, YUMMY recipe my friend Natalie gave me. The best part is it looks like you put a lot of work in to them but they are so simple(shhh don't tell my neighbors). See the recipe below:

OUR WEAPON:

Chocolate Mint Cookies

2 chocolate cake mixes

1 brownie mix

3 eggs

3/4 c oil

3/4 c water

Combine the above ingredients. Roll in to balls & cook at 350 for 12-15 minutes. When cookies come out of oven place an Andes mint on top. Wait a minute until mint melts, then spread mint around. Makes 60 plus cookies.

If you LOVE Andes mints you will LOVE these cookies! yumm... I wish I had saved a plate for me...they are so fudgy & chocolatey!

Then Carter and I assembled them on Christmas plates and I of course had to add some more chocolate.

Carter insisted we tie the plates with a pretty ribbon. He found my big bag of ribbon & has been obsessed with it ever since. He is my decorator, who knew? He also let me borrow his finger every time I made a bow.

We made about 15 plates full of cookies.

The transportation of choice: Papa George's tractor & hay ride

We have been keeping the hay ride at our house until Papa needs it & the kids have been in HEAVEN.

Brody doesn't like me very much these days...he is COMPLETELY a daddy's boy. I call him Layne's little shadow. Do you see the looks he gives me when I come around? Now I have proof....I feel so loved! Some day he will forgive me for having another baby!

Here's my little elves & all the goodies...Caleb looks a little cross eyed...yikes!

Look at the cotton candy sky, so pretty!! I could just eat it up, I love Az sunsets!

Month of November

I can't believe it has been a WHOLE month since I've blogged. November flew by & here is what we did during my blogging hiatus.

FAMILY PICTURES-(big sigh) Well our good friend Rachael Earl took our family Christmas pics this year. Right when we got there, Carter fell & got a huge, BLOODY lip(see below). He kept screaming "I can't say cheese, I can't say cheese". All the hair spray, make up, gel, grumpiness, and bribing the kids for nothing. But, we did a re-take & Rachael did awesome! Here is our little family, I mean BIG family full of little kids.

FAMILY TIME-Grant & Amy came down & we PARTIED hard! The kids LOVE their cousins. We ate 2 Thanksgiving dinners, lots of Neilson's custard, and did some Black Friday shopping, my FAVORITE...we missed you Steph! We also went to see the Temple lights, here is a pic of Carter & Noah....Carter ADORES Noah!
A WEDDING-Brett & Jenifer got married & it was so BEAUTIFUL! Grant did an amazing job, he's a natural just like George. My camera battery died right as we got there, so I didn't get very many pictures. Here are the few I snapped:

We LOVE FAMILY!

Happy Halloween

I can't believe how fast time goes. My days just seems to fly by, there never seems to be enough time for everything, including my 'blogging'...so here goes my Halloween post. Better late then never, right?

The boys had a fun Halloween! We started the night off by going to a trunk or treat at my parents ward. Here is a picture of the 3 boys, the best one I got. I think next year we are just going to stay at our house. It was a little crazy, but luckily we had my parents there to help out.

Here was my little "roo", courtesy of Grandma Terol. Poor Brody, he was so hot under all that fur so we let him take it off after a while.

Here is my sweet Brinks....and cute hubby.

When the trunk or treat was over, we headed home & the boys trick-or-treated our neighborhood. We had a ton of trick or treaters!

After a couple days of endless sugar, wired kids, and a mom who couldn't keep her hands out of the sugary stash(that would be me) the boys decided to leave their candy outside for the Halloween witch. She came while they were sleeping, took their candy & brought them the game Twister. I owe this whole idea to my good friend Summer, thanks girl!! Now bring on the turkey, gobble, gobble!

5 Happy Thoughts

Here are 5 things that made me happy today:

1. A Diet Coke & a Mr. GOODBAR(what I ate for breakfast this morning).

2. Time with BRODY while all the other kiddos were at school and/or sleeping.

3. NOT having to go to the dentist today to fix my tooth. My appt got rescheduled.... further delaying my Christmas present this year(which would be my new crown).

4. LISTENING to a conference talk on my i-pod. Thanks for the great idea Brooke...I don't know why I haven't downloaded conference talks sooner.

5. The thought of getting my HAIR colored by Jenny TONIGHT!! Bye-bye two inch roots...if you don't believe me just check out my picture below!

Traveling with Babies

Traveling with babies. I must admit, it is not my FAVORITE thing to do. The crying in the car(times two in our car, okay three if you count Layne), the sleepless nights, the grumpy babies. But, this past weekend Layne & I decided to brave it. We took our first family vacation. Yes our very FIRST family vacation, with just our little family, no one else. And it was totally worth the hassle! It was so nice to be away from the phone(particulary Layne's work phone), the internet, the TV, the housework, all those things that can distract & occupy our time. While we were there we played games, went fishing, rode the motorcycle and hung out with some old friends, David & Summer. Of course I forgot to get a pic of them. They have two boys the same age as Caleb & Carter and they all got along so well. We wish they still lived by us.

But here are some other pics I managed to take:
Here is Carter riding the mini-motorcycle. He loved it, he just rode around & around in a circle.
We went fishing twice. Here is a picture of Layne getting the bait ready, gross! I am not a big fan of slimy worms, but Caleb is! I had to throw this picture in, even though its a little blurry....she WARMS my heart.
One afternoon we went on the search for Hawlee Lake...after a long drive up a secluded road & two sleeping babies later...oops I mean three...Brinkley was sleeping too...we found it....it was so peaceful & beautiful!
Look how beautiful...and the weather was perfect!
Brinks & I enjoying the lake. I know you are thinking where are her socks...I could have sworn I packed them in the diaper bag.

Here are the boys fishing. We didn't stay long enough to catch any fish, but the boys & I saw our first craw dad!
I am so thankful for the gratitude of friends in letting us stay at their cabin. We made lots of memories that hopefully my boys will always remember. My favorite part of the trip was playing freeze tag in the backyard with my boys....and getting pinned down by Layne & Caleb & Carter tickling me until I cried...I felt like a kid again.