Thanksgiving at the Serrs (Grandma and Grandpa)

We had a great time in Spokane with the Serr family. There are 40+ of us. Yet Grandma and Grandpa Serr love to host us all at a extravagant Thanksgiving dinner. My kids love to eat on fancy plates with name tags and REAL napkins! They feel like royalty. While A and I love to help wash the 120+ goblets, 120+ plates, and 120+ silverware.(ha ha) It is alot of work but it is so fun to be all together as a family.


Did you know that they had a giant wagon in Spokane? My kids were amazed!!!

Sometimes I wish I had a wagon like this to carry all my kids around.(I wonder if they would have a special door to fit my huge wagon, so I could still go shopping!)

M's favorite part was discovering pomegranates. It is now her favorite fruit!!! (What a mess)

Halloween!!!

This was by far the funnest Halloween we have had! All of my kids are still young enough to Trick or Treat AND old enough to get in and out of the car by themselves. I pretty much just sat in the car like a taxi driver and waited for them to go to each house. They were so cute! "Wow! Sister "so and so" must really like us She gave us big candy bars!" or "Did you hear her say that WE were her favorite trick or treaters!?" Every house they each had to announce what they got at the last house! It was really fun.

Hannah Montana (or Miley Cyrus)


Indiana Jones!


A Zombie Princess


Frankenstein


Dopey and Grumpy ( I don't know who these people are!:) )

We had alot of fun carving pumpkins and going to the Zoo with Grandma and D. (who won the costume contest with his great homemade scuba diving costume) IT was a great Halloween!

Fourth of July!!!

I know it has been months since I have blogged but I now that I have a little time of my own (my kids are in school) I have time to document our lives!!! I love it!!!
So here is our 4th of July:



This Grandma and the "crazies". They really liked the hiking part of hiking! I wish I could bottle their energy!

Even Grandpa made it up the steep hike to the waterfalls. It was worth it!

This is the two sweet brothers on the ferry to the waterfall hike!

They kids got to go bungee jumping (well a kids version)! They loved it!



J didn't like to go fast on the alpine slide! Notice the annoyed people behind her who also couldn't go fast! SORRY!!!



This is a shot of the glorious Tetons (well it looked more awesome when we were there)

Cute Victor parade

First fourth of July, it was so fun! We went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming with my parents! They kids loved it. We rode the alpine slide, hiked around Jenny Lake, went to this cute little parade in Victor, and watched some great fireworks! It was great!

Easter Fun!

Easter was fun! It snuck up on me and I didn't do much preparing this year. Thank heavens for the neighbor hood easter egg hunts and the quick dash to walmart, I survived. Here are the highlights:

This is D. Notice the determined look on his face. This years easter egg hunt was very serious for him. He is used to fighting for what he wants!! It was pretty funny!


This was really funny. My Dad called me the other day and told me he had a special surprise for the Grandkids. The kids were excited but nothing could have prepared them for this!!! This is the Grandkid trailer! He pulls it with the four wheeler, and if you look really close you can see that it is made from ski lift chairs! (He owns a small ski resort) He welded them on a trailer to pull the kids around. What a great Grandpa! They had such a good time at Grandma and Grandpa's. We played flag football, basketball, and had rides all day on the Grandkid trailer!

This was a sweet note that E wrote for the Easter Bunny. It reads:
Dear Easter Bunny,
Get these candies on the plate if you like them...love
PS Please do...
PSS I like easter.

He was really excited to leave something for the Easter bunny even though he told his friends that the Easter Bunny is not real! (COOL GUY!)

We painted eggs... It was really fun this year. All my kids got really creative and only one spilled egg dye cup. However it was red....


And lastly... and this is where the pictures end.... I was preparing a wonderful, fancy easter dinner for the rememberance of the Savior when I cut my finger on a can and had to rush to the neighbors house for 6 stitches. (Our neighbor is a good friend and an ER doctor) BUT it was worth it when I heard later that ALL my kids (including the 7 and 3 year old) were down on their knees in prayer while I was at the doctor. I wish I could have been there for that :)

Our snowy Valentines Day!

We had so much fun this year on valentines day. We decided to go as a family skiing. I grew up skiing and I have so many childhood memories skiing with my family.I have been pushing to get them all skiing so we wouldn't have to get babysitters anymore. And this was the first time that we all were able to go. Now when you see this next picture, I DO NOT want any calls from child protective services!!!

I know! I know! He is only three! I was just kidding about pushing to get them all skiing. But he REALLY wanted to go and he would have been ALONE on Valentines Day. So we took him. HE LOVED IT! And he really could ski!


Grandpa was so proud! Can you see the icicles on his moustache?


How many of your parent's still ski??!!! It is so fun for my kids to go skiing with their grandparents! I don't remember doing that with mine!:)


I wish I could have gotten all of them together for a picture but they were all over the hill. It was so fun!


I sure got a lot of comments about my crazy kids. Who like to go straight down the hill. Escpecially little M (a.k.a speed demon)! When we got in car E asked me, "what is a maniac?" I told him and asked where he heard that. He told us that someone told him that on the hill!:) It's a good thing they wear helmets!
And the best picture I should have taken was them ALL sleeping on the way home!

For dinner, we had scrumptious fondue. (Side note: Strawberry fondue recipes are just not the same as chocolate):)
It was fun but MESSY! I don't understand how come the kids can't understand "let it drip over the plate!" But we ate on the floor so it was okay!

Just a few last memories...

Just a few more Christmas memories before I close the chapter on 2008! This year as a family we made 300+ sugar cookies for our neighbors. It was quite the undertaking and I'm not sure what the neighbors thought of our "kid quality" cookies. BUT they were delicious!!! (Thanks for the recipe JEN!) We had such a good time and made such a mess ! I will probably be cleaning dried up cookie dough until next year when we do it again!(thanks again JEN :)) Here is a picture of us in the process!



This is a symbol of what we all did all Christmas break! Some might call it being lazy but I call it rejuvenating!!!!!!!



This is what we did most of December. We ALL learned how to embroider! (Another great idea from Jen) It was so fun and I hope the teachers appreciated the effort of my kids. It was amazing to see how much ownership and pride the kids took in making something all by themselves for their teachers.

AND... Just one more memory. This is my favorite gift I got for Christmas this year. J gave it to me. Even after the entire month of sewing she decided to make me a homemade, hand sewed, cell phone holder. Isn't it adorable? On the back she glued a clip (her brother's future missionary tag)He only got a little mad when he saw it! It was Christmas!! I definitely get alot of comments when I wear it. I've tried to explain to J that I don't want to wear it out by wearing too much, but she just said she will make me a new one!! She is so great! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Christmas Program

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is the program that we have the kids put on every year. There is something very special and a little sac-religious about role playing the birth of our Savior. It helps to bring the spirit of Christmas to your heart. It helps to remind us what this whole crazy season is really about. This year was a good year. The kids were attentive and there was NOOO crying. YEAH!!!

This is a picture of Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus.

Christmas Memories!

I've been sitting here looking at some of my Christmas decorations. I don't have many! I realized that the ones I keep have a real sentimetal value to me. I think it is interesting that Christmas time brings so many memories and most of them I cherish! So I thought I would share some of them with you.

This is a very special piece for me. I am almost "idolistic" when my kids touch or play with it. I remember one Christmas we went to New Mexico to visit my Grandma for christmas. She has since passed away but I remember she had a Santa and Baby Jesus exactly like this one one her coffee table. One morning I got up before everyone else, and she was up sitting on the couch and we sat in the dark with the Christmas tree lights shining and we talked about life and stuff. It was wonderful. She held the little baby Jesus, and she told me how special he was to her and how much He has changed her life. So when I saw the statue in the ceramic store I knew I had to buy it. My Mom and I both painted them together which added another memory. It brings back such good memories.



This decoration has significant meaning behind it. One year my sister Chelsie (who passed away 18 months ago)made this for me. She was probably only 13 or 14 and was so proud of herself. It was probably one of her first crafts she ever made and it took a long time to make. She didn't even wait until Christmas to give it to me. She said, "I am sure you will want to use it this year." And then year after year she would come to my house and just sit by it and watch the lights. If you look really close, at the bottom are little people playing in the snow. I just love it, it makes me remember all the fun times my family and I shared in the snow.



This was the first christmas decoration that we recieved. At our wedding reception someone gave it to us for a gift and I don't even know who it was. But I love it. If you look close you can see the broken twigs from all the loving kids who want to get a closer look.



This is a sweet gift that one of my best friends gave me! Thanks Jen! It was at a time in our lives when we both had no money. We were all going to school and trying to learn how to be mothers. She used to make gifts like this for all the neighbors and didn't even keep one for herself. She has always been generous to everyone around her. It just reminds me of sweet peaceful days.



These are our stockings. I LOVE THEM because they bring back so many memories of my childhood Christmas's. When I was growing up my Mom us each stocking with felt cutouts on them. We each loved the symbol on our stocking. I was a santa. My mom told me that her mom made her stockings just like that too. So I decided that I wanted to make some just like them for my kids. SO I did. They don't look as beautiful and cute as some of the stockings that I have seen but they bring alot of memories back for me.

Christmas Celebrations have begun!

So we started December out with of course some treats! (And yes I am 0-1 for days on my no sugar diet!!) But it was so fun! I just love days like this. When everyone is busy making something great. The kids were so proud of their houses. I thought I'd better put them on here.

Too busy to even smile for the picture!

Carefully crafted by J

She wanted Santa to see it so that is why she is so excited to take the picture!

Even the C man got into it!!!

D and Dad's smiley face house!!!!