Finishing off 2012

We finished off 2012 with family time and relaxing.  Christmas Eve we spent with my family.  We had a "talent show".  Ella and Grandpa played Jingle Bells on the guitar.  Tyler practiced and practiced Joy to the World and played it wonderfully on the piano.  

 We had a fun nativity scene.  Ella and Tessa were our angels.

Tyler, Michael and Jordan were fantastic wiseman. 

Darren and I were the cow and donkey... I was the cow... Darren the donkey. 

My sister had us do a nativity book about the animals and people at the manger.  

 See Darren with the Donkey.  Reading his part.... It was a bit of a joke- oh boy!

 I dont know what my parents will do as this family grows more.  There just isn't much more room for more stockings.  But each stocking has our names sticked on it.  We are a growing family.

 I found this on Ellas bed a few days after Christmas.  I was glad to see her playing Barbies with all her old friends too...

 New Years Eve we spent with friends.  We celebrated at 11:00 because we were all tired.  Streamers are about to explode.  We are excited for 2013.  I will have a son get baptized (holy cow!!!) and a daughter start kindergarten (oh my!) and have a new baby join our family.  It will be an exciting year!

Balls family Christmas

We got to have our Aunt Nellie hang out with us for Christmas this year.  Ella was so excited to have Nellie do her hair for church.  It was cute and curly.  Then Nellie pulled out necklaces and earrings for herself so Ella ran to grab her own jewelry.  

After church Nolan and Corie came to down.  Nellie gave all the cousins a lovely noisy making instrument.  They loved it.  

Corie is only 2 and a half weeks behind me.  Pretty exciting!

She is having a boy and I am having a girl.  They will be great friends I am sure!

We headed up to Logan late on Christmas day.  Corie and Nolan had our family this year, so you will see why this gift made me smile.  Baby Marshall is the baby in Corie's tummy.  And he is so sweet, he picked out some cute little mittens for our baby... that is still in need of a name. 

 It snowed all day in Logan, so we didn't get out much but we sure enjoyed fun time together.  Ella and Nellie colored this Barbie purse, painted each others nails and combed Barbie dolls hair.

 There was some fun pile on Dad time.

 (on a side note, prior to all this christmas fun Darren fixed up our downstairs bathroom.  I was very proud of his plumbing abilities.)

Cyclocross season at its end

 Darrens weekly Cyclocross season has ended.  It was so exciting at the end.  Kyle, Bob Dan and Dalls all racing against each other.  It made the race so much more fun when it was a battle between friend and friend.  I thought Darren was unbeatable but ... when you sleep in and don't exercise all the time, he can be beat!  The LaRiviere kids and my kids had fun at races.

Dalls in front, with Kyle close on his wheel. Dan was in the lead! And off course Bob always won. 

Tyler and Ella loved their races.  The kids race the same course as the adults.  The length can range from 1-2 miles.  Pretty good for kids.  Tyler came in 1st and 2nd on several races.  He is competitive and needs some more kids to challenge him. 

Ella wouldn't smile in this picture because she had just rammed her tummy into her handlebars.  I was glad she wasn't crying at this point.  She is tough but getting your breath knocked out and a gash on your tummy doesn't help!

Now that races are done, I hope to enjoy some weekends skiing with the kids and Darren. 

Tyler is learning Spanish still.  He loves it. 

Ella hangs out with me- this is her temple with angel Moroni on top. 

We went to an amazing nativity in Sugarhouse.  Really neat, with live actors and animals. 

Ella wanted to climb in the dryer the other day.  I laughed as I took a picture and remembered three years ago when she did the same thing.

November 2009

I got to celebrate my 33 birthday.  I ran in the morning, too a nap at 8:30 am. ate good food, worked on some fun projects and ate chinese for dinner.  then, hit the sack early because I was exhausted.  

it was a great birthday. 

Ella finished her preschool for the year 2012.  She had a fun program.  

She cant wait for it to start again in January.  

Tyler on the other hand... he's pretty excited to not have school for two weeks!

A few fun pictures

The other night Darren had to go to a campout so Tyler, Ella and I went to my neighbors house to babysit her triplets so she could go on a date.  T and E loved it.  They argued about whose turn it was to hold the bottle and who got read the baby books.  This picture makes me smile.  They both read him a book while he drank.

Saturday mornings are a hot breakfast mornings.  Waffles, eggs, pancakes, french toast... yum!  

Tyler loves to help cook them. But Darren always seem to poison them with adding some chocolate chips in.  The kids love it! I think they love it that I DON'T love it!

And Ella has started to read.  She is excited. And loves to show off to everyone. But has a hard time sitting down and reading the whole book.  No problem... we just read half at a time.  I give most of the credit to that great computer program she does- Waterford Rusty and Rosy.  Best preschool program ever. 

We hope to head off skiing tomorrow.  It is always fun the first day because they kids legs have to remember how to do it and they are TIRED!

The Rest of Thanksgiving Weekend

We had the most wonderful feast for Thanksgiving Dinner.  I love food.  I love food a lot!

Darren learned how to brine a turkey this year.  It was so moist. Pat found THE MOST amazing stuffing recipe in the world.  I put it below so I would never loose it.  Corie brought Lion House Rolls and pies bigger than my head! 

Everett was so ready to eat. This picture made me smile.

 After lunch we headed out for a walk and bike ride.  Good thing or I wouldn't have been able to eat any pie.  I had to make some room. There was some fun soccer playing that happened too.

Grandma and Grandpa Balls slept over.  We watched Hugo with the kids.  Then the next morning we headed up to the Clammy Cyclocross race.  It was so much fun.  My kids love to race around, like their Dad.  

(Tyler loves to take photos. I let him hold the camera and before I knew it he had over a hundred pictures taken)

Saturday we had a big cyclocross race at Wheeler Farm.  It was a great dan because Dan beat Darren.  It was awesome! These four boys have been friends for half their lives or more.  And I really like all their wives.  Score for me!

Tyler and Ella got to race in the kiddycross.  Tyler got second place.  Ella was amazing.  They cant wait for the race this weekend.  

We got our tree up and lights up too.  I was so happy when I came down Saturday morning and saw my kids reading our stack of Christmas books we got out :)

All in all... it was a wonderful weekend.  I wish it could never end.  

Tyler summed it up well when he said with a sad face on Sunday night. Dad, You have to go back to work tomorrow and I have to go back to school.  ahhhhh!

Kneaders Bakery Stuffing Recipe

1/2 cup butter
2 cups chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 lb pork sausage
2 (14 ounce) chicken broth
9 cups kneaders asiago cheese croutons
Directions:

Place croutons in large bowl.
Brown celery and onion in butter, add pepper and chicken broth.
In another skillet brown sausage.
Pour vegetable mixture and sausage over croutons.
If the mixture is not wet enough add ¼ to ½ cup of water or chicken broth.
Cover and bake at 375° for 25 to 35 minutes.

Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/kneaders-to-die-for-stuffing-188209?oc=linkback

Not sure what to do...

I have tons of great pictures I wanted to post of our wonderful thanksgiving weekend. But blogger.com says I have used my 1GB of free blogger space and if I want to post any more pictures I have to start paying for their website... its only 2.50$ a month but thats LAME!

So I dont know if I should change to a new blog or pay to keep using this one. 

SO for now, they let me upload these few pictures and more will have to come. 

We had a great weekend with the Balls family.  It was so nice.  Ella and Grandma made Indian Hats with the cousins. 

Tyler set the table and made a fun turkey centerpiece. 

We played outside. Went on a walk and a bike ride, played soccer. 

Wonderful!

We did have an early Thanksgiving feast at my parents house.  These little girls are bound for trouble.  They run around like mischief already!

A good quote by Abe Lincoln- 

If you look for the bad in others expecting to find it... You surely will.  

School pictures

If I was a school picture buying kind of mom- I would buy this picture in a heart beat!  That is the best smile in the world!  Tyler loves to practice his piano and loves to do his reading homework, because it is his time to cuddle up with me.  I hope he will always stay his sweet kind self!

We went to Parent Teacher Conferences last night.  It was nice to have Darren there who speaks Spanish, since Tyler's Spanish teacher doesn't speak English around students.  Darren said Tyler sounded really good when talking to his teacher.  I loved listening to him speak Spanish! 

Candace's son Michael got baptized this weekend and they also blessed their baby Liesel.  I didn't take enough picture for sure!  

Rachel and Eli came down from Seattle. 

Jenny and kids came down from Pocatello.  

Ella used to tell me all the time 

Mom- I love you because your the best. 

Now she says

Mom I love you way more than my friends. then she says... tell Dad and Tyler too... I love them way more than my friends!

I love my kids!

 We have been doing a lot of this.... raking!  Darren also pruned all our trees and it looks so much better.  But... this means our garbage cans will be full for months!  Ella said yesterday. I am going to be so sad when the leaves are all gone... I love raking them up and jumping in them.