Back to Burley

One of the days we were in St. George I was out grocery shopping with my mom, Jo and Hailee Mae-and of course my monkeys. Well, of course we got hungry so while my mom and Jo ran to a couple of stores we stopped to have a quick lunch at Wendy's. As my babies were eating I once again realized how easy my life is right now. My kids are so good and easy to handle.

How innocent are they? Just eating their lunch and having a good time!

I love these kids!!

After a long stay with my parents in St. George we headed back up to Burley. We loved spending so much time in Sunny St. George and my parents were very good at letting us crash at their house for a long while. To break up the trip, and to visit my grandparents we stopped in Payson and spent the night with them. It was fun to see them and let the kids "hang out".

Of course Ossie Baby had to be in this picture. Madison is always making sure I know that he is her little brother also.

The night we were at my grandparents my dad made "onion soup." Well, it was supposed to be potato soup but my dad added a whole onion. Between that and my grandma making sure the kids eat ALL their food it was a rough one for Ry. Let's just say Ry lost all his onion soup and then some! I though it was over and he would be fine for the rest of the drive to Burley but about North Salt Lake he was sleeping peacefully when he woke up and puked all over his blanket. Thankfully not in the car.

So, he had to wear my shirt.
If he was a girl he would look pretty cute in it!

On the drive up we needed to stop at this little gas station somewhere between Snowville and Burley because we were running on fumes and I didn't want to chance that again. It was pretty ghetto and I think this sign proves it......

Serious?
There were about 10 of these signs along the front of the building.

We finally did make it to Burley. We were very excited and I was excited to get back to "normal" life.

For New Year's Eve we went and saw "Alvin And The Chipmunks" it was entertaining and we all had a good time. Aaron met up with us at the movie and we were very happy to be back with him. We missed him since he left us on Sunday to go back to work.

After the movie we went home and Aaron, my Dad, Mom, and the kids put together our new kitchen table:) Well, the kids table. Now we have 4 bar stools, and a table for 4 kids. It's awesome!

The rest of the night we spent playing games, eating and watching the ball drop. Madison and Porter barely made it to midnight but they did! Ry and Brayd we out thankfully.
Once again it was a pretty low-key way to bring in the New Year, but we were together and that was the best part!!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Day!

Christmas day was quite enjoyable this year, besides the fact that Aaron was exhausted and just wanted to chill all day. Santa brought each of the kids one present but left the family room looking rather nice.

This is one side shot.

And the other side shot.

But, the first thing we do on Christmas morning is take a picture of them on the stairs. Since Ossie Baby IS part of the family he needed to join in on the picture.

Madison got lots of presents she liked. From Santa she got a "Dippin' Dots" maker. She was pretty excited about the doll furniture from her dad and mom too.

Ossie Baby even got this cute jacket for Christmas. Idaho is pretty cold!

Porter like his presents also. From Santa he got a MP3 player with speakers. He does love his Leap Frog from Aaron and I also.

Ry got this little wiggly cart from Santa and a tool set from dad and mom. At first he was angry that we got him the wrong one but he got over it when we told him we would give it to Parker.

Brayd was pretty excited when he saw Ry's present but he soon got excited about his little bike. He also got a little race car set from his dad and mom.

Aaron got a clean-play DVD player and I got a gift card to go shopping!

After we opened our gifts we headed up to my parents house for some breakfast. My dad made some yummy waffles and Tuff made some most declicious bacon. We then just hung out and watched a movie for a bit.

First though, we had to get our annual Family Portrait:)

Aren't we beautiful all in a row and stuff?

When Russ and Nicole showed up Russ made some sweet jumps and Porter, along with his cousins had a blast.

Porter is getting very good at riding. This I am very happy about. It gets him out and he can release his energy somewhere other than teasing or getting on nerves.

Ry will help Tuff fix the jumps.

While the "big boys" played with their motorcycles, the "little boys" played with their motorcycles.

Cam Man and Brayd are such good friends. Hopefully sooner than later they can live close enough to eachother that they can actually play! They are trouble but they are cute trouble.

Here are Ossie Baby and his good friend Daisy also. They are good friends with their jackets and all.

And Beautiful Joanna.......

After it got dark and our tummy's were full with most delicious food it was time to open presents AGAIN! This time from my parents and my parents openend their gift from the kids.

Trini and Tuff had us this year as did we have them. They gave us some sweet stuff as you can see. Thanks Tuffness and Trini! Mixed in with this picture is the stuff that my parents got us also. They gave me some frosting tips-which I love. While Aaron got some kind of light and a digital tire pressure gauge-which he loves.

Thanks Dad and Mom!

Then my parents got to open their presents.......

This year was a very exciting one with the marriage of the "last" sibling. So, we took advantage and blew up some pictures to hang in the room with the saying "Families Are Forever" We even hung up the stuff that night and it looked very cute!

The kids were SO excited about these backpacks that my parents sewed for them. Yes, my dad learned how to use my mom's surger and helped with this project. For those that know my dad, this will be no surprise. These sweet backpacks have a blanket and pillow inside and it is all connected!
Brillant!

Christmas is a very exciting time of year and I am very happy I got to spend it in Sunny St. George!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve in St. George

This year was a little bit of a crazy year with all the moving and driving back and forth for Christmas-mostly Aaron. However, we made it to Christmas Eve and everyone was alive and well. For Christmas Eve it was just the girls that made it. The boys were at their in-laws. I'm tellin' ya, the girls always come home!

Bud was in charge of putting together the Christmas program and she did a great job!

She got all the kids involved and played out the Nativity. We even had songs mixed in the middle of it all. So, occasionally we would bust out a song.

My dad is a beautiful singer by the way:).

I'm not really sure what is going on in this picture but Brayd's face is priceless. He is such an ornery when he wants to be.

Brayd was a little drummer boy.

I'm not really sure what Ry was. Just a floater I suppose.

The program was great but of course all the kids could thing about were their presents. I really need to get them to understand the "true" meaning of Christmas.

And this was their big surprise for the night. A tradition that we have had for 3 years now is Jammie pants with their names on the Bum.

This year Aaron and I got a pair also. Please excuse the "extras" on me.

I am really embarrassed to post this picture but it's the only one we got and everyone is so cute. It's the holidays:)

The night was a little crazy so I didn't get pictures of the kids and their presents from their cousins.

Madison got a cute little apron from Lex-and Heather.

Porter got some legos

Ry got a "spotting scope" well, a flashlight.

Brayd got a "spotting scope" also.

It was a fun Christmas Eve but very tiring!

Rice Pudding Baby!!

It is a tradition in Denmark to have rice pudding at Christmastime. So, since Aaron and Russ both served their missions in Denmark we have brought that tradition to St. George.

In years past we have always just made the quick and easy stuff. This year Aaron requested the REAL stuff. So, Nicole looked it up online for us and we made sure we had all the stuff to get to work on Sunday.

On Sunday we started this little-big project at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. By the time the pudding was done it was 8 o'clock that night. I do have to admit it was quite the process but the fun was just beginning. Next we hide a whole almond in the pudding and whoever finds it gets a surprise.

This is how much pudding we had.....
Yes, it was ALOT!!

To let you know just how big this bowl is, it was 50 inches in diameter. Which is 11 inches bigger than Jo's evergrowing tummy at the moment!

These were all the participants. We hid two almonds for the little kids to find.

These two were the winners......

Yep, Alan and Madison! They each got a ten dollar gift card to Target. Alan has won every year since we started doing this 3 years ago so he was such a kind brother and let Connor have his surprise. He is such a good brother!

Then it was the adults turn....Jason is the only person missing because he was out keeping a look out for our city. Thanks Jason!

And, these were the two winners for the adults.....

Way to go dad and Heather they each got a gift certificate to go out to eat. Heather got Chili's and my dad got Outback.

The rice pudding was quite the project this year, but Aaron did say it was the best rice pudding he has ever had so that made it all worth it. Besides, Rice Pudding is a very fun tradition to have!

Merry Christmas All!!

Snow!!

As we made our grand entrance in to Burley my kids were very excited to see that Smith's grocery store had the little carts.

My beautiful kids with their grocery baskets.

This is the only way they are "happy" shopping with me.

After we were finished doing our shopping the kids wanted to go outside in the snow and doing some snowman building.

Madison and Ry made a snowman while Porter was doing some jobs inside.

Ry used Porter's hat while Porter was inside.

He was very excited when his job was done and he got to join in on the fun. I don't think I have ever seen him work so fast in his life.

The first Snowman my kids have ever built all by themselves!

They were so proud and so was I.

Porter threw this snowball at me after I was done taking the picture.

It's a good thing they were far away or things could have gotten bad:)

Brayd tried to go outside and play but it was too cold. So, he stayed in and helped me make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. They were yummy!!

We Made It and Life is Great!

I don't have any pictures to go along with this post because I am at Cycle City and I can barely figure out all the picture stuff on my own computer so there's no way I would be able to do it on a different computer.

As I said in the title, Life is Great. I really do like this little city. I did meet the Relief Society President in my ward and she is very nice. She brought us some oranges last night and by the time the kids got home from school and had their afternoon snack they were all gone. I guess I should buy them once in a while.

Our house is pretty much put together-well with the furniture we have:). The upstairs stays rather warm but the downstairs doesn't stay very warm at all! We walk around in our coats and scarfs EVERYWHERE! I even keep a pair of gloves in the car so I can put them on while driving. It really is super cold up here but it's fun to look outside and see the pretty white ground.

Madison and Porter are NOW enjoying their new school. Porter had a rough first day. He told me he cried at school and didn't answer a couple of boys when they asked if he wanted to be their friend. That night he came to my room and was crying hysterically telling me he didn't want to go to school the next day. I told him to go in and go to sleep and we would talk about it in the morning. I was hoping he would forget about it and after sleeping he would feel better and forget that he didn't like school. Well, no such luck. After telling him he could go "underground" when he got home from school, telling him I would buy ice cream and cones AND threatening that the state would make him go live with people that would make him go to school; he finally agreed to go back to school.I was very happy that after school he was happy and told me he liked school again. I did find out today that he did cry the first two days of school but he didn't today. That's a step in the right direction.

Madison is one of 5 girls in her class of 13! Yep, now I understand why the office was excited when I called to tell them I had a 2nd grader being transferred to their school. Madison's best friend is Victoria, but she goes by Tori. She hangs out with all the girls in her class though and remembered their names after the first day of school. She is really liking school as usual and tells me her spelling words are too easy. Porter tells me the same thing. Let's be honest though, we live in Idaho.

Ry, Brayd and I just hang out together. We take Aaron lunch at noon, pick up the kids at 3:20 and have dinner done by 6. It's nice to have the days broken up a bit but still have time to do things.

This morning after putting away ALL my food storage I went up stairs and was laying on my "mattress" when Ry came up and our converstion went something like this....

Ry: Mom, what are you doing?

Me: I'm having a rest.

Ry: Well, you have to baby-sit your kids.

Me: Will you baby-sit for me?

Ry: I'm not going to baby-sit Brayd!

My Ry is such a good boy. Then Joanna called me so I had to get out of bed anyway. Thanks Jo:)

We did have quite the adventure driving up and it was definately a move I won't forget soon but it went well and was quite entertaining. I will have to post about that later when I have the pictures because the pictures really do speak a thousand words!

I miss everyone back home but I am still really excited to be on this roller coaster ride with my little family. I know we will grow closer as a family-if Aaron doesn't kill us all first-and it will be a growing experience for us all!

Watch for the post "I Made it to Heyburn with a Trailer in Tow." No guarantees it will be anytime real soon but it will come!

On Our Way To Heyburn Idaho

Our original plan was to move to Heyburn so Aaron and Russ could work. Well, plans turn out a little differently as always and we started the trek a day late because of the weather. The plan was for Nicole to drive Russ' truck, with motorcycles in the back, Russ to drive the sweet white dodge that is 2wheel drive pulling a trailer with all their stuff in it. Aaron would pull a trailer with his truck with the stuff we were taking and I would drive the Yukon with the kids......

This was us....

This was Russ and Nicole.

Well, we got into our trip a ways....About to Hurricane and realized that the trailer that was holding our stuff was riding way low. After a phone call Aaron let me know that I would be pulling a trailer as well.

So, this is what I looked like!

We got on the road all ready and geared up for this trip. It was a little scary at certain points during the trip when the roads were a little slushy and my windshield wiper got ice on it. Of course the ice was right in the middle of where I needed to see out my window.
Things were going good and I was getting in the groove of things, the weather was getting better and so were the roads. Things were going a little too well!

About Nephi this is what happened....

Yep, I ran out of gas in the Yukon. So Aaron passed me in the truck and backed up to tow me. I was thinking...I can do this, I can do this. Well, then he ran back to me and said "Drive the Truck!" What? Are you serious? There was no time to argue so I got in the truck and drove the extra long load-pictured above- about a half mile to the 2nd Exit Nephi. That's right we were trying to make it to the Maverick so I actually passed a couple of gas stations. That's o.k. it was a good experience and we got some yummy food at Arby's, filled up with gas and hit the road again.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful thankfully and we arrived in Heyburn at about 9:00 p.m. It was a long day but wasn't too bad:)

Makayla Jo McInnes' Blessing Day

My sweet little niece and tough little nephew were blessed and baptized on the same day. This was so we could leave and head to Heyburn. I just realized I didn't get any pictures of Connor. I was kind of scarce in the picture taking. I was too busy talking...What? It was a very special day and Aaron had a very good experience standing in the circle while Paul gave Connor the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Makayla surrounded by those who love her!

With Ry and Cam.

Lexi is So happy to have a little sister! I think Heather is just as happy not to have another boy!

Some of the party with crazy Uncle Jason! Oh how we miss him!

Is this better Bud? Do we need to look a little like this?
We miss family SO much and are very excited to go home for Christmas and spend LOTS of time with them! We love you all!

Leaving Friends

As most of you know Aaron and I don't stay in one place for too long. We have however stayed in our house in Washington for quite a while. We have made some life-long friends and met some of the best people ever!

I mean look at Heather!!! Who would ever leave her? I love you, pretty girl!!

I have to give a shout-out to each one of these sweet girls I am such good friends with.....We did so much and I miss our weekly dates already!

Brent and Lyndsi Martin along with Mike and Jill Nielsen were the first friends we made in the ward. Lyndsi is such a good friend and is ready and willing to help anyone whenever they are in need, or not! She is such a sweet girl and is very Christ-like.
Jill is so talented in everything she does. She was my first visiting teaching companion and we were very good at going every month. She is very quiet but hilarious also. Her home is very comfortable-so comfortable I fell to sleep at her house numerous amounts of times!

DeAnna Cluff was my visiting teacher companion after Jill dogged out on me:) DeAnna and I were just as good at going every month. DeAnna is such a sweet girl and will drop anything to help you. You will never even know it was inconvenient for her. And.....she kept my boys hair looking fabulous. Thank You!! Josh was a pretty cool guy too. Even though he didn't talk much:)

Heather is such a fun, cute, and funny girl. Not only do we have the kind of friendship that is so low maintenance, but she is THE BEST piano teacher out there!! My Madison grew so much in her musical abilities and her personality by having Heather as a friend also!! Madison misses you Heather! Brent once again was a cool guy. He did talk though.

Melissa Garn is such a sweetheart. I can go over to her house and feel just as comfortable as I do at my own sister's houses. She has such good kids and was always willing to let my kids come play with her good kids. And....we work well in the kitchen!! As for Jordan....well, you know he's a good guy too.

My awesome friend. I listed them in the order I met and became good friends with them. We had some good times together some involved all, some just a few but they were all excellent times and we miss them so much. Hopefully we will be home soon enough and not miss out on too much happenings!

This group wears me out!! I love them so much but I was obviously exhausted from the week of packing!

I Miss Ya'll!