Santa, baby

3rd annual trip to see the "real" Santa Claus at Cabela's. The line was a little long this time, but we made it and I was proud of Mayzie for daring to talk to and even hug Santa, when she had been pretty nervous to meet him. She does NOT like strangers at all. She told him she wanted a Thomas the train playtent. Santa told Beth she would make a cute little elf at his workshop, and that made her feel pretty cool.

We got a bunch of free tokens to use at the practice range upstairs, so they had fun shooting at targets and sitting in the Moose chair :) I wouldn't let Dave buy Bethany a pink BB gun there, so he bought a pink fishing pole instead.





We have been having fun the last few weeks with the kids, making fun treats, watching Christmas movies, and Dave has taken them fishing a couple of times.
This is Mayzie all tuckered out after a hard afternoon of fishing! At least they caught lots of fish.





Mayzie all dressed up :)

Alyssa with her "rainbow cookies" we made for her Activity days; the girls decorating gingerbread men from our neighbor.

Zoey makes for a great pillow.


Our adopted cat Fedor, a Russian Blue, has been getting more than his fair share of playtime as well. I guess the "Cat's in the Cradle" is true at our house.







And for a grand finale, yet another of my children has dressed themselves up as Santa Clause :)

DIY photos

We had fun doing our own photoshoot this year. We went to our park after church, and we brought Zoey; she did pretty good and even wore the Santa hat for us. It was just fun to get some cute new photos of the kids. And we were done pretty fast, which was nice.




This one was David's favorite outtake of Zoey :)

Dancing and Singing

Mayzie is in a creative dance class with her cousin Megan, and they had a cute little recital last weekend. They got to dance in their pajamas with their pillows, to "Santa Claus is coming to town". Mayzie was so excited and loved performing. It was really cute!






This last week Alyssa and Bethany had their Christmas performance for their school choir concert. Forget about having nerves before the show, these girls were excited to perform. I was glad. They did great and it was fun to hear all the cute kids singing. They went to so many after-school practices and worked so hard. We were really proud of them. It was also fun to have G&G Johnstun come down and watch; they'd been wanting to see the Thanksgiving Pt lights too, so we did both. It was a fun night!

Forgotten file

We took a fun camping trip to the Uinta's this summer, and I forgot to ever post it. We went with the extended Blair side of the family. The kids had a blast and didn't want to leave. It was fun to be around the family and enjoy the outdoors, even if it rained on us one of the evenings. Zoey came with us and liked being up in the woods, but realized pretty fast that the lake is too cold to swim in.

Thanksgiving 2011

We started out the day with football. Dave went to the Annual turkey bowl at our park, he got to be quarterback and he also made several touchdowns and the kids got to have donuts, so everyone was happy.


Mayzie-Lyn all ready for Thanksgiving day! :)


Then we headed up for a big feast with the Blair family over at Anna's house this year. She set up one long pretty table, with the little princesses at the front end. The cousins had fun playing downstairs and out on the trampoline. And I stuffed myself with cheesecake and peanut butter bars. There were lots of yummy pies too, I just didn't get to those. I felt very blessed to have my family around me this year and that they are all strong and healthy.



We also got to visit the Johnstun cousins and have more snacks and games. Always lots of silliness and giggling over there. And that's mainly Dave and John :) Then more movies and "Just Dance 3" the next day. It was a nice long weekend.




We had fun earlier in the week as well. I got to help at Alyssa and Bethany's class parties...



We also got to take care of Violet and Calvin while their parents vacationed in Hawaii. They were lots of fun to have around. We'd do it again! Mayzie loved having Violet sleep over and they both loved having the dog Zoey sleepover. Calvin was very sweet and cuddly. The girls had fun playing with him too.


We decided to do our own little Thanksgiving feast (ham) on the Thanksgiving Eve, mainly so we could all tell what we were thankful for and so I could have a chance to use my china. That was yummy too.

It was a fun week. Now the tree and Christmas lights are up so I guess we are ready for the Christmas season to begin :)



Aubrie and Lyss being silly dressing up as Santa and Mrs. Claus. Love those silly girls. Never boring at our house.


Hope everyone has a safe fun holiday season this year :)

Double Digits

Alyssa is now ten! The big 10. This girl has always been an old spirit, a little wise beyond her years. But I love that she still likes all things girly and sweet, and dolls and such. Since she was tiny, she has always stayed a faithful and sweet shadow and companion to me, which has been fun. We joke that she is me on the inside and David on the outside. She loves to shop and read and do math and be domestic, but on the outside she looks like her dad and runs like her dad :)

For her birthday she wanted a lateover/sleepover with her friends. I asked if she wanted to take them somewhere exciting, go out and do something, but nope she just wanted a home party. So we played some fun games (blind bowling, make puppy laugh, oink piggy oink, glow-in-dark hide and go seek with teams) and had dinner, made a yummy vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting, gave the girls fake nails, and her dad surprised her with Just Dance 3, (thanks Halls, Widdisons and Blairs) so we did that too :) It was a really fun easy party.



Next day was the Castle Bounce house party which she shared with Uncle John. The kids loved it. We had Hawaiian haystacks and various chocolate cakes, and the kids just danced together, then ran outside to jump in the bounce house, then again and again more of the same. She got spoiled by her G & G Johnstun and got a green wiggle car, which she loves. And a walking pup
from us :)


Then Sunday she got to spend time with the Blair side and we celebrated 4 cousins at once! We had a pasta bar and peanut butter chocolate cake, and watched a fun magic show put on by the cousins. Fun weekend for Alyssa!


I love my Alyssa with all my heart and she is lots of fun to have around. I think we'll keep her :)

Trick or Treat

Couldn't have asked for nicer weather on Halloween night. Some of us went around in flip-flops. The girls just kept going and going, even after it turned dark. Mayzie would ask me to carry her pumpkin between houses, it was too "heavy". I happily obliged because she was being such a trooper. They had lots of fun.
We went through a giant bowl of candy before 8. Lots of older kids trick or treating too :) Then we ate dinner and watched some Halloween shows together.
Fun night :)


School parade- Awesome weather!


I had fun going to Alyssa and Bethy's class parties.


We really like their school, and their teachers especially.
The kids are taught to be so supportive of eachother's accomplishments. It's cute :)

Fall fun stuff

Gardner Village has a cool "witch scavenger hunt" that we went to with our awesome friends, the Struhs'.



The park near our house is full of pretty fall foliage right now, so we decided to spend time for FHE running races there and taking some pictures playing in the leaves. Lyssa is a fast little stinker. I think she can outrun me and Aubrie now, but barely :) But Dave still beats us all, except Zoey.


We took Suzanne's lead and decorated our door. The girls loved coming home from school to find their new front door. We already have some new scarier ideas forming for next year :)


Mayzie has had fun dressing up as Rapunzel for dance class and Ariel for preschool.

Officially Spoiled

The girls had a really full weekend so far, and it's not even Halloween Day yet.
Friday night we went to our school's skate night. We planned to stay a couple hours, and ended up staying 4+, way past bedtime. Dave looked like a real professional out there, :) even skating with Mayzie in his arms. They have a cool track to go around too with jumps, that the kids loved. I rode scooters with Mayzie a lot. There was a really cool skate off for 10,000 bucks and it was really entertaining how well they could break dance and do tricks with skates.
Sat the girls were up bright and early practicing for their talent show dance. Aubrie choreographed a dance and they are going to perform this week to "Dynamite". It should be fun to watch.
Then there was a big Halloween Carnival at the park near our house. Mayzie loved the giant bounce slide, and there was a creature show with scorpions and giant lizards and such. We put Zoey in the dog costume contest, she won 2nd place as the "Big Bad Wolf" with Bethy as Red Riding Hood. She won a bunch of pet supplies.

Then we headed up to visit the grandparents in Kaysville. We had cupcakes and pictures with all the Johnstun cousins.


Then we headed over to the Blairs for the annual Halloween party. The kids were all doing fun activities, decorating pumpkins, playing games, getting fake tattoos.

The parents were commenting this is really nice and calm this year, but we didn't realize Grandma had a trick up her sleeve. At 7pm she told the kids to come look out front. They all came running to find Grandma's big surprise was a big stretch limo ready to give them all a ride into town. They all piled in (15 kiddos and 4 adults) and they felt like a celebrity for a moment. They arrived to a fancy ice cream party that Grandma had set up for them at Grannie Annie's. So super spoiled! Needless to say they were in heaven, and Bethany and Lindy said "Is this real life or is this a dream?"
They'll have this memory forever, I'm sure!

I overheard them bragging about it at church today... we'll have to work on that part of manners some more, I guess :)

Cascade Springs

It is becoming an annual tradition for us to head up on the Alpine Loop to see the leaves turn each fall. We love stopping to walk around the Cascade Springs trail. I love how excited our little girls get to be up in the woods and enjoying nature. Bethy said she wished it was her bedroom there :) We were there at the golden hour and the yellow aspen trees were just glowing. So pretty and peaceful up there. Aubrie was babysitting, so we missed having her in the pictures.