He did it!!

Rich got accepted to P.A school! I can't tell you how proud I am of this man. He has definitely put in the hard work and dedication to get an offer from the University of Saint Francis. It has been a long hard year, and I will be happy to say goodbye to 2009! But I am grateful for the lessons we've learned as we have struggled to pursue this dream. We have learned patience though this whole process, and that things don't always happen exactly how we think they should. It has not been easy on either of us getting rejection letter after rejection letter from different schools across the country. It can be very discouraging reading a letter saying they don't want you, but it has also been very humbling and made us want to try even harder to accomplish this goal of getting accepted. I can't tell you how many times I've driven by the mailbox and not wanted to check the mail in fear of getting one of these dreaded letters. And many times I have hidden these letters from Rich and waited until the right time to give it to him. I have recently felt the Lord's hand in our lives as both of have been at our breaking points with trying to get accepted. I really feel that the Lord stepped in and helped us get into this program. This acceptance couldn't have come at a better time! What a perfect Christmas present and a great way to end this year. The crazy part is that this program starts on Jan 6! Rich has to leave in a few weeks to start school in Albuquerque. I will stay here until our house sells or until our financial aid comes through and I'm able to move out there with him. I really hope it's before our baby is due!

I think I'm most excited because there is now a end in sight! In two years, my kids will have their dad back, and I will have a husband with me at home.
I seriously can't stop smiling!

Weston is 4!

Weston turned 4 on Saturday! He really is growing up so fast, he has the cutest personality and knows how to really make us laugh. The first year of his life was very difficult on the both of us, he had chronic ear infections all the time and he was colic. He cried A LOT, and I cried along with him! These past couple of years, he sure has made up for being a hard baby because he really is a joy to have in our lives. Happy Birthday Wes!
We LOVE YOU!

Weston wanted a spiderman cake, so we just made the same cake we made together at Halloween but put one of his spiderman toys on it. You can't get any easier then that!

Weston has had his eye on our neighbor Austen's scooter for a long time. Anytime he see's it outside he try's to go over and use it, until I catch him and tell him it's not his scooter. So he was happy to get his very own scooter, he's been riding it down in our unfinished basement. He's loving it!

Thanksgiving 2009

We spent Thanksgiving in Idaho this year with my sisters families, my parents drove up from California and picked up my grandparents in St. George on the way. Everyone was there!

We also celebrated my grandparents birthdays while we were all together. My grandpa turned 84 and my grandma turned 79. All of us kids are especially close to our grandparents since they lived across the street from us while we grew up.

This picture would be complete with all 12 grandkids, if Landon was in it.

We had a pie contest with my sisters, my mom and I.

We asked my grandpa and grandma to be the judges, we gave them a sample of each dessert. My grandma is the QUEEN of pie making, she is known for her famous pies. My grandpa was the stake patriarch back home, and when people would come to receive their blessings she would make them a pie. She was known in our stake for being one of the best pie makers!

As they started to sample the pies, they found it hard to choose which one they liked. So we decided to do a secret ballot, everyone wrote down on a piece of paper which one they liked the best! We had a tie between two desserts, my sister's coconut cream pie, and my moms chocolate trifle. I later found out that Rich voted for my mom's dessert! I'm not surprised, he's not a fan of cheesecake, but I thought I would atleast have his vote!

Landon waiting patiently for someone to feed him...

Holly cutting the turkey...

The table...

Everyone had a pumpkin cookie name tag on their plate...

Dishes, Dishes and more dishes!

The highlight of Thanksgiving for Rich was probably playing football the morning of Thanksgiving with my brother-in-law Josh and his friends. He said it was probably one of the funnest games he's played in. The day after Thanksgiving Rich and all the guys went clay pigeon shooting. When they got home, they watched all the kids while the girls went and saw "Blideside". I LOVED the movie!! You gotta go see it.

My sisters, Caroline and Lauren

Look at the size of those Idaho potatoes! They were so fresh, they still had mud all over them.

Anytime my grandma saw dishes in the sink she was all over it! And... she washes them the old fashioned way, no dishwasher!! She thinks it's just as easy, I beg to differ!

Making a thanksgiving craft

Consequences of a long shower...

I don't know if you can see very well in this picture, but there are hundreds of little beads all over my kitchen floor. I should have taken a panoramic picture so you could see that my entire kitchen floor was covered with craft beads!!
This is my dilemma, I like to take long showers in the morning before I start my day. It's the one small moment in the day just to myself. I even give myself a little pep talk in the shower, I really do! I tell myself... my kids are going to spill milk today, they are going to make messes, they are going to fight, color on the walls and they will do things that will test my patience. Then I say a small prayer that I will not lose my temper and that I will be a good mom and have a good day. But when I take 20 minutes in the shower instead of a quick 5 minute shower, I can always count on coming out to a BIG disaster! It usually involves the boys trying to pour milk themselves, crayons on the walls or the couch, cereal mushed up all in the carpet or something is broken. The other day Blake got my lipstick out of my purse and colored all over the wall! (Thank goodness for magic erasers.) My kids know that once I hit the shower the house is theirs! I sometimes wonder if my long showers are worth the mess at the end. What do you think? I'm thinking they are worth it, because every morning when I'm in the shower I KNOW my boys are up to something, but I still continue to take my long shower. Maybe it's because I know what's waiting for me when I get out.

Halloween 2009

Hee-Haw-Farms

Our dentist office sent all their patients tickets to Hee-Haw Farms for a family fun night. It was a lot of fun, and I was surprised how the lines were pretty short for the activities they had planned for everyone. They served chili, cornbread, carrot cake and hot chocolate. They had a really good blue-grass band playing. If Rich was there with me I'm sure he wouldn't have busted out his dance moves :) I was such in a rush to get out the door that I forgot my stroller and Blake's bear leash. I was REALLY bummed about that, Blake weighs a ton so he's hard to carry and Weston can run off so quick and get lost. Brooklyn is starting to get more and more helpful to me with the younger two kids, so that's been really nice!

Hay Ride

Trying to stay warm!

Eating some cornbread during the ride...

Animal tractor ride

Flying swings...

Going down a giant slide on a gunny sack

Weston's Masterpiece

Weston and I were watching t.v the other morning, and on Good Things Utah they were doing demonstrations on some fun Halloween cakes. Weston was glued to the t.v while he watched the chef assemble and frost the spider cake. I think it's so cute that he is so fascinated with cooking shows. I would even say that he likes baking with me more then Brooklyn does. Here's a picture of Weston with his spider cake, he's very proud of it!

(By the way, we just had a piece of the cake and I think Weston dumped something in the cake while it was mixing when I wasn't looking, something tasted kinda weird to me. Hmm... the kids liked it though. Or it could be the prenatal vitamins I'm taking, sometimes everything I eat taste metallic to me. Maybe it's a good thing the cake tasted a little funny to me, now I won't be tempted to eat it :)

Hike at Bridal Veil Falls

We went on a little hike up to Bridal Veil Falls this past weekend. It was sooo pretty! There were tons of photographers there taking pictures of all the trees and the leaves changing colors. I was wishing that I would have dressed the kids up a little nicer and done Brooklyn's hair, I wasn't planning on taking so many pictures I thought we were just going to walk around. We had a great time, and it was a warm day for October. You should take your family there before the mountains are covered with snow!

Brownie Batter Fun

This is what happens when I leave the brownie batter bowl unattended for two minutes...

They made a huge mess, but atleast they were sharing :)