Dear Anonymous Comment People,

I am tired of your rude and hurtful remarks. I made this blog to record my family's experiences AND as a personal outlet for me when I want to do something besides laundry, cooking, feeding kids, refereeing kids, running errands, or doing homework. I did not make this blog so that I could click on my comments and see that some anonymous person (YOU) had written that my blog is boring or other hurtful things. Right now, I am tempted to shut down the whole blog altogether and find another outlet, but I probably won't because that would mean NO MORE BLOGGING! I can't even imagine how sad I would be if I had to stop something I love doing.......even if I don't do it as much as I used to. Anyhow, thanks to whoever you people are for making me feel downright awful about myself and my blogging. An additional thanks goes to all of my blogging friends who can leave a comment without being anonymous! Way to go! I truly appreciate your comments and I love reading your blogs!

Yours truly,

Bethany

December and ALL that it brought with it.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! Our Christmas was grand and wonderful. I am sure you all can only guess that the following pictures are only going to be about none other than our Christmas.......you are right! You all probably care less about what we did for Christmas, but hey, I am going to bore you anyway.

Although December seemed to fly by, I truly enjoyed every minute of it! I tried to find time amidst all of the holiday chaos to just take time to breath. The perfect solution always seemed to be sitting in the front room by the tree and looking at the pretty white lights. Loved it!

We also put a tree up this year in our downstairs family room. I decided it would be fun to string cereal for the tree and my children decided it would be fun to eat all the cereal off the tree.

We will definitely be making this cereal thing a Christmas tradition.

One day while I was sitting in the living room {enjoying the pretty white lights} I could not get over how beautiful winter looked from my front window.

So I took a picture of it.

The best part about this picture is that Jim is the one on the 4 wheeler with Braddock on his lap pulling some random kid on a sled. Gotta love Jim.

Christmas Eve night was the bestest. We all {meaning my family, Alyssa, my mom, and Jerry} headed over to my sister Jacey's home in Spanish Fork for a Christmas Eve Extravaganza.

This picture was thrown in randomly, but it's cute anyway. Braddock and Emma are laying in their cousin Lucas' bed getting ready for Santa! They loved everything about Christmas!

Anyway, back to the Christmas Eve Extravaganza......................

We all wore our best Christmas attire {AKA: White Trash Wal-Mart Christmas shirts}. We also feasted on delicious baked shrimp cooked by none other than our wonderful mother!

My mom had dogs on her shirt. If you know my mom, you would know my mom would never wear dogs on any of her clothing unless of course......it fell on the night of our Christmas Eve Extravaganza.

I also don't know why they are holding empty stockings.

Me and my sister Jacey.

Me and Alyssa sporting the Christmas fashion {jewelry and hideous pants included}

My cute Jim with Hallie and Ben.

Jim and Jerry wrestling. Ridiculous.

Jim and I! { P.S. Jim's shirt is so creepy and so is my hair.}

After stuffing ourselves with shrimp, pasta salad, garlic cheese rolls, French fries, and lots of Sparkling Cider, it was time to crash and get ready for Santa to come. Poor Jim had to run home at 11 o'clock at night because he forgot our stocking stuffers!

Christmas morning was so much fun. I never thought it would be so exciting to see your kids come out and wonder what they got from Santa! It was so exciting, that I forgot to take pictures! Braddock got some Lincoln Logs, clothes, and books and Emma got a baby doll that came with a bottle and binkie.

And mom?

Well what to my wondering eyes should appear but a....

Laptop computer! My husband is wonderful.

I feel bad that I did not take more pictures of Christmas, but I usually don't during the exciting moments. However, we loved our Christmas! Thanks to all of our family and friends for the wonderful gifts. We enjoyed every minute with all of you!

Okay so our family's Christmas gift was the remodeling of the downstairs. Like I have said before, much of what has gone into this home is blood. sweat. and tears.

I thought I would show you a glimpse of what we have done.

This is one of the guest rooms. It used to be a sick-nasty storage room. When I took this picture, there were beds on the floor for Jim's family that came to visit. Don't worry. They're not there anymore......not that you were worried. Now the room is empty and I need to beautify it.

This room used to be another sick-nasty room that we converted to a storage room. New sheet rock, paint, and flooring did the trick!

Our family room!! Yea!!! My husband rocked that fireplace. He is hot. New lighting, sheet rock, baseboard, carpet, paint, electrical was done by him as well. Did I mention I love him?

Another view of the family room.....

I have so many other pictures to show, but I will do that in a later post as you must all be pictured out!

Now, I will leave you with this picture because it is happy and makes Christmas all that much more grand and wonderful!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Our Family.

A couple of months ago, I began realizing that we so desperately needed to get some family pictures. I have not had them done since before Emma was born [sadly] and made an effort to start looking around to find someone who could take them for us. I was lucky to find Natalie Park through a friend of mine on Facebook and thank goodness I found her because she was just what we needed!

Here are some of my favorites.

Braddock looking like he is praying or going to do a cheer jump???? Either way, I was getting so frustrated with him because he hates the camera and trying to take a picture of him was beyond difficult. Natalie was so patient with us!

So there you have it. I am in love with all of these photos! In fact, I have looked at them everyday for the past week trying to decide which ones I am going to put in my family room and which ones I am going to give to family. There are so many others that I loves that I did not post on here. So much fun!

Thanks again to Natalie for taking such amazing photos of our family even if they were not perfectly posed, they describe us perfectly. If anyone lives in Utah or wants to get their pictures taken in Utah, visit her site HERE . Not only is she talented, but she's reasonable! Give her business and trust me, you will not be disappointed!

Halloween.

Halloween was pretty exciting in our neck of the woods. I started the morning off by running a 5k in Salem provided by our good friends, the Salem Hills High School Cross Country team! Key word in that sentence is HILLS! Yes, there were some moments while I was running where I would have preferred falling over and dying than enduring those treacherous hills, but somehow I endured! I completed the 3.2 mile challenge in 27 minutes and decided afterwards that my next race would have to wait until we approached the warmer months.

This here picture was stolen off of my dear friend Marilee's blog. We even dressed up in costume for the event!

{My eyes look creepy. This was intended for Halloween}

So this was not on Halloween, but we all know that celebrating Halloween should begin at least a couple of weeks in advance. Me and my buddy, Braddock decided to make some yummy sugar cookies. You can't go wrong inviting a three year old boy to make a mess on the counter.....or can you? He loved rolling out the dough and digging his little hands into the flour container. I think, however, his satisfaction peaked when he got to decorate and taste test {numerous times} the frosting.

We also celebrated my niece and nephew, Del and Melanie's birthday. All of the kids were greeted at Grandma Marilee's home with pirate attire and swords. I'm seriously inlove with his moustache.

So costumes............Do I really need to explain more?


We had to REALLY talk Braddock and Emma into getting into these masses of fluff and fur. Can you blame them? I had the bear costume hanging in their closet a week before Halloween and every night when I put Braddock to bed he would say, "Shhh, mom.......can you hear the bear? He's snoring." I really think Braddock was convinced that it was alive. Finally, after much talking through and BRIBING, we managed to have them in costume for Halloween night. We did not go door to door, but instead headed over to the good ole' Trunk or Treat that our ward put on. I vote that that is the best way to trick or treat for toddlers and I am sticking to it!

September & October Highlights.....

I could write a novel right now if I wanted to on how busy we have been the last month, but I won't bore you.
{Here are some of our highlights} :

1. Date night with the kiddies.

Jim was super busy the last couple of months with work, which meant mom couldn't leave dad to entertain the kids for the night while I relaxed.

So what did we do?...........Built a fort! What else?!! We've been watching movies while under this fort and sometimes I was even brave enough to give my kids popcorn which always resulted in a good vacuum the next morning.

Under our fort.

2. Mom's Birthday Celebration
On the 12th of September, we flew my mom up here to celebrate her 30th birthday!! (Okay, so I edited the numbers a little bit). It was so nice to have her up here and the best part of it was..........

........We got to watch her beat a pinata!!! (I guess Sesame Street was our only choice?)

We love you, mom and can't wait to have you up here with us!

3. Spending a number of days at the park.

The weather here in Payson, Utah is pretty much celestial-like right now. It's been nice to have rainy cold days, but I sure do treasure the sunny ones too, and so do my kids! We've even gone a few times with my friend and her cute little boys.

I heart these faces.

Baby Krew: Is he not the cutest thing ever?!

4. Hayride

We headed over to the Red Barn in Santaquin where they offer a fun 10 minute hayride to their pumpkin patch! This was Braddock's birthday present from mom and dad. A tractor ride, pumpkins, and an icecream cone........what more could a kid ask for?! {Also on a side note: their maple nut icecream is divine}.

Auntie Lyssa came with!

Our family.

Isn't mine and Emma's hair awesome?

5. Birthday party for Braddock.

Jim's mom put on a lovely birthday party for Braddock!

{Braddock used a portion of the pinata as a party hat.}

Thanks, Mom for making Braddock's birthday an extra special one!

6. Adding some "fall" to our home

If you know me, you know I love the months of October through December! It means pumpkins, candles, blankets, cornbread and chili, Christmas music, sweaters, family, and putting out your festive home decor.

I love rod iron pumpkins.......

......holiday wreaths and signs.....

and anything else I can find to put in my house!

7. A new calling.

Two weeks ago, Jim was called to be Elders Quorum President in our ward. This has been a calling that has kept Jim on his feet and me, once again, having lots of time with the kids to myself. In no way am I complaining! We have seen the blessings flow from the time and energy he has put into it.

Other highlights have included:

-finishing my research paper for my Human Development Lifespan course.

(it's not due til' December.....which means I'm a nerd......and also I don't have to worry about it through the holidays!)

-took the kids to see Toy Story 3-D. It was a hit! Braddock still says, "Mom, we went and saw Buzz Lightyear last night, huh?!" (he doesn't understand the concept of time yet)

-Sudying, studying, studying for my math final

-Wiping noses

-Being cautious about my diet for three weeks in a row(first time ever)

-Watching old western movies with Jim every night.

-Eating apples with peanut butter (thank you, Jenna for the brilliant idea!)

- Going to D.I. and trying on costumes

-Cleaning and organizing my unfinished basement

-Skeet shooting with the Elders Quorum

All in all, we have had a busy, yet enjoyable month!

Happy Fall, Everyone!