Shawntell opening her Christmas present.

Miss. S opening the wonderful J.Wride jacket...I think it is funny that she thought we had gotten her Capri Suns, and that she really seemed OK with that. It was even a flavor she liked :)

Winder Dairy and Cindy Lou Who

We did our usual family tradition of going to Winder Dairy for scones and honey butter. Santa Claus was there also, so we got pictures of the kids with him instead of pictures of our food :)

Then Miss.P had to dress up as her favorite Christmas character for school. So she went as Cindy Lou Who from  "The Grinch who stole Christmas". We stuck a plastic cup on her head and pulled it up into a pony tail, then tucked the ends under. It turned out way better than I thought it would.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

(WARNING: this will be a fairly personal blog post...so if you're not up for that today I advise you to not read any more)

The Good

Last night my brother and his family just showed up on my door step. They live in Pennsylvania! I had no idea they were coming. In fact he had called me and was talking to me on the phone when the doorbell rang. I told him I needed to get the door and that I would call him back...man I love a good surprise! I screamed and screamed...then sat down on the stairs and began to cry, yep the good old fashioned ugly kind of crying. I have missed them so much. Dustin is going to school to become an ER dr. He just got word this morning that he passed his last test and WILL be graduating this summer, woo hoo!

The Bad

The reason they came to town is the bad part.  Laurens father is dying of cancer and they needed to be with her family. How ironic is all this...my father died of cancer the night before Dustin and Lauren were married. Dustin and Lauren are amazing people and the Lord knows they can handle this, but it still breaks my heart to see her family go through so many of the same things my family went through 7 years ago.

The Ugly

There are a few ugly points to this story. The first is the ugly crying I did...I am not a pretty crier. The other ugly part is the conflicting emotions I am having over seeing them. I love these guys so much, I am so happy they are here...but I feel so bad that Lauren and her family have to go through all of this. It's not fun. I feel bad that Dustins children will grow up without knowing either of their amazing Grandfathers.

I feel that I should end this post on a good note...so here are some sweet pictures of my brother, Dustin, and me :)

A house of Ginger...

Yep...a little family time building a Ginger bread house. The pre-made kits are the best :)

Family photos....

It has been 2 years since we have done family photos. It's amazing how much we all have changed. Our good friend Wendy Carter at http://www.vizionphotographyblog.com/ took them for us. Check her stuff out. Right now she is running a fantastic winter special. 

 Miss. K (5 yrs)

 Mr.A (almost 8 yrs)

 Miss.S (10 yrs)

Miss.P (12 yrs)

We truly are a crazy family...and I am ok with that

Date night! My sweet husband took me to the Johnathan Jones concert down in Provo the other night. It was a super fun show, but some of the opening bands were pretty bad. So we kind of got bored, what does my husband do....take crazy pictures of course :)

OK this last one isn't too crazy...but we were pretty bored.

And on to another concert, haha. One of our favorite bands played in West Jordan...so we HAD to go. And once again the opening band was pretty boring. All I can say is "like father like son".

J.Wride was great as always...you are missing out if you haven't been to one of their shows. It is kind of a mix of jazz/pop music. Very addicting.

Mr. A was mad that we couldn't get him a J.Wride T-shirt because they don't come in little kid sizes. They felt kind of bad that he was sad, so they did this to him...

That made him happy, crazy kid.

Then at one of the shows we went to, while watching them play a lady asked us if we were Courts parents (the bass player)! Um...no. But they do look like they could be related don't ya think.

 If Mr.A gets his picture taken we all need them taken...agreed.

This is their way of trying to make me feel taller...not quite sure it worked.

So next time if/when they come back to West Jordan you all should come and hang out with us...and we will take funny pictures together :)

72 hour kits

We decided that for Family Home Evening tonight we would go through our 72 hour emergency kit and replace things.  Let me just say, it has been awhile.

We replaced the water, and are in the process of getting new food to put inside. But the funniest thing (my favorite part) is the exchanging of clothes.

Miss.K's pants were a size 2T, she now wears a 5.

Mr.A's pants were a size 5 and he now wears a 7.

Poor Miss.S has grown about 5 inches this year, her shirt was even too small for Mr.A.

And Miss.P with her black sweats that are 6inches too short...oh what a fun night. 

My clothes and Shawn's clothes still fit (too bad I was hoping I would get a little taller :) Well we are good to go now with clothes that fit everyone...at least for a month or two.

Halloween stuff...

 Mr. A had a little bit of an "Attitude" before we started to carve the pumpkin...(he was mad I was making him dump the garbage's before the fun could start. See in the back of the pictures the garbage's not quite put away, haha)

This is the 1 pumpkin we got from our garden...it grew on the same vine as our famous Pumsquainni.

This is part of the dinner we had...spider dogs? I thought they looked fun. The kids only kind of  liked them.

Here is a picture of the 3 that went Trick-or-treating. They always like to do a crazy picture and then a normal one.

We had a Hippie a Lady bug and a Ninja.