This year the girls preformed at their recital and also at a Nursing home. They both did a great job. The Nursing home was a little funny. Some old guy that lives there kept being really loud and making comments about all the dancers. I guess that is what happens when you get old, you loose your hearing and think every thing you say is funny.
Can you tell what he got for his birthday?
He already had 3 light-sabers. But he needed the double one, and then a friend gave him another one. I asked him if he wanted to take it back and get something else. He said "are you kidding, you can NEVER have too much Star wars stuff!" Dad plays with the toys just as much as he does. And the Darth Vader mask was a huge hit. It changes your voice to sound like Darth Vaders and says a bunch of cool things. If you are ever in the mood for a light saber duel you know where to come!
Yep he really is 6!!!!! And turning into a fine young man.
One of the ladies in our neighborhood made us rolls one day. Austin has remembered them and always asks for them. So for his birthday she came over and let him help make them and showed me how to do it.
They had a great time! Happy Birthday my 6 year old.
Tonight for Family Home Evening we went to the "Road Home" homeless shelter and helped serve dinner. My brother and sister-in-law were doing it for a neighborhood project and they invited us. It is a wonderful reminder of how nice we have it. We have so many things to be thankful for and it reminds us to not take them for granted. So many people today are 1 paycheck away from ending up in a shelter. We have a healthy family,food storage and money in savings. We are truly blessed!
This is the Christmas version of the Gingerbread house. My kids love the camera, can you tell. Because it has been so cold lately they have spent a lot of time watching Christmas movies. Here is a list of our favorites. What is your favorite?
1. Polar Express (my favorite)
2. Home Alone (the 3 year old loves this one, she laughs and laughs)
3. A Christmas Story (the boys favorite-with the red rider BB gun)
4. A Muppet Christmas Carol
5. The Grinch who Stole Christmas (the real one not the cartoon)
6. The Nutcracker ballet-on video (the older girls LOVE this one)
Last night as a family we went and saw the light display at Thanksgiving Point. It is $8 a car load and it took us about 30 minutes to see all the lights. Worth the money but not sure it will be a yearly event. They have live reindeer to see also. The kids were kind of disappointed with them, they just sat there and didn't move much.
This is us trying to take a fun family picture. Can you tell which child really just wanted to leave?
What an attitude change after some hot chocolate!!!!
Yes we are still raking the leaves. I think we are on bag # 21!!!! Shawn took the day off just to rake the leaves. This is how my 5 year old helps his dad clean up the yard.
And yes that would be the shop vac sucking up the leaves. It wasn't very fast but he sure had a good time.
My sister and I went to an awesome concert last night. This is the must have picture--you know where you take it yourselves!
This is us with my new favorite musician, ALLRED. He is from Salt Lake and does mostly acoustic stuff. I had never heard him before but it was amazing.
We Shot the Moon was up next. This is the lead singer. They got in a really bad accident just this last week coming to Utah from Rexburg. Rolled their tour bus and trailer after hitting black ice. They all walked away from the crash. So glad they did because they put on a great show.
These are 2 other guys in the We Shot the Moon band. They were a little strange, but makes for great pictures.
This is the only picture we could get of Second Hand Serenade. He did not go out to the lobby to see people like every one else did. Too bad! We had pretty good seats but during the last song we moved up to the front and enjoyed the last song up close. I love when the music is so loud you can't talk to the person next to you!
For family night we put together a Halloween Ginger bread house. I had never seen a ginger bread house themed for a holiday other then Christmas. Boy my kids had a good time.
This is the finished project. Now I am just waiting to see one with Pilgrims on it for Thanksgiving. I am sure my kids will want that one too.
I have such a smart kid! This is Austin with his Kindergarten teacher. He loves school so much. He was actually upset when he found out that there was no school on Saturdays. 
Look at the smile on his face.
This is officially T-ball, but the coach pitches it to them 3 times and then if they can't hit the ball they use the "T". He loves it.
My sweet husband started running this year because it was something we could do together. We ran together in a race in May and loved it. Then I hurt my knee and can no longer run. So he ran this last race himself. He did a great job. He ran the 10K up in Pocatello and he placed 3rd in his age group. He says now that he got an award he is finished racing.
My younger sister got married this weekend. The weather was perfect and the couple looked perfect. Here a few highlights of the fun day.
Then you need to add beautifully arranged veggies and fruit. How cute is all of that!
Then add a ton of sweet flower girls. The mother-in-law to be, made all of those cute skirts. The girls were excited to be included in the celebration.
This would be me and my older sister, why are my eyes closed??? And how come I look like I am giggling??? I have no idea, but it was the only picture of us together.
This is my brother, Cory, and the bride. He stood in for my Dad and was the one to "give her away", he did a great job.
This would be the groom and his older brother.
What a beautiful couple!!!!
Then of course the cars needed to be decorated.
This kids even get in on the action.
So only the older 3 get to start school. But Kambree needed to be in the picture also. The older two wanted matching clothes (just different colors) so people would think they were twins. I remember those days when my sister and I tried to do the same thing. 
We went boating with some of our friends. We had so much fun. My kids think we now need a boat of our own...I think we would need a truck first, oh wait I get new carpet before that and a new fence and...lets just say it is kind of far down on the list of things to buy.
This would be Austin with his "crushes". A few 17 year old girls!
This is Shawn with Shawntell and Paige, they did not want to get off.
Yes this would be me and Paige and Shawn. They tried so hard to tip us off the tube. It was "the best day ever". 
Yes this would be a tooth missing. Shawntell is 8 1/2 years old and FINALLY lost her first tooth. She has 3 more lose. So by Christmas she will be singing "all I want for Christmas is my 4 front teeth."
Sundays are rough at our house. Church is right in the middle of nap time. And by the time we get home and eat it is too late for a nap. Kambree was being really grouchy and ended up in time out, she was screaming and throwing a really good fit. About 2 minutes after being in the corner she became really quiet. I went to go and check on her, thinking she had left the corner when I wasn't looking to go and play. No, she hadn't left, she had fallen asleep. How cute is that!
We went up to my sisters house in Idaho for the 4Th. And while we were there they had a flash flood. It was pretty scary and we feel very blessed that no one was hurt. There is a small creek right behind my sisters house and luckily we were about 45 minutes away when the storm hit. Because the little kids love to play over by the creek. It happened so fast that one of them easily could have been hit by debris or swept down the river as it was over flowing. The top picture is what the park looked like about 2 hours AFTER the storm.
This is what they pulled out of the culvert behind my sisters house. Her house is behind that metal shed. Her basement flooded only a little, but the neighbors on both sides had way more damage.
This was the fun prize they found in their yard!!!! What a day. It is humbling to think of how much worse it could have been. We were all very blessed that day. 
This week we had the "Ashby" family reunion. Lots of fun, sun, and food. We haven't seen the brothers in 12 years. It made for some great memories.
Who needs a cake when you can have cinnamon rolls from the Village Baker! And then add to that my favorite dessert, not sure of the name. Lets just call it Chocolate candy bar goodness. My sweet friend Stephanie made it just for me...OK I did share some of it.
These are some pics of the kids when they are giving me their presents. I really got spoiled, thanks to Shawn, who isn't in any of the pictures because he is taking them all.
