Christmas with Connie and Verl

We had an early christmas celebration with Connie and Verl, it was a blast.  Brooklyn got a cupcake cookbook, which she loves! Brady = binoculars, Emree = Teddy Bear, Beckett = Thomas the Train book and trains, Carson = Bedtime story book and CD.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year.  All of my sisters were able to come and 1 of my brothers.  It was a blast.  Tyanna and Kayla got to come on Monday and stayed the whole week.  It was so good to hang out with them and just be together, it makes me sad that we don't live closer.
Here is a recap of our week:
Monday: play dough and sugar cookies with the kids.  Had FHE with everyone, watched some mormon messages on  Thankfulness and talked about things we are thankful for.
Tuesday:While the kids napped us girls went to Walmart to get some groceries and fabric to make toques with. That evening, Kayla, Me, Emree  and Tacey (3) went and watched Brooklyn  play some basketball. We got some pizza for dinner and we started making toques, cutting out fabric and all making all the pieces needed. I  worked on sewing the first one and figuring out the pattern.  It ended up taking me forever to figure out the first one, then the rest were fairly easy, but we stayed up until midnight trying to get some done.
Wednesday: We spent most of the day making toques for everyone, they turned out soo cute even though everyone's is about a size to big oh well.  Ezra and Janae showed up around 3, so we got to have dinner with them and we all stayed up and visited until late.  It is so fun to be able to just sit around and visit after the kiddos have gone to bed. 
Thursday:  This morning we went and did some service projects for people in our ward.  I LOVE that my family are hard workers and that this sounded fun to everyone else, because it sure did to me.  We cleaned out gutters, raked leaves & walnuts, pulled out apple trees and had a blast.  It was a beautiful morning, a little chilly but sunny, we had a blast being outside and working together, just like the old days.  The rest of the day we spent cooking, eating and cleaning up dishes, the meal was great and everyone helped out so much! Brooklyn made the pies and they were delish!  After dinner and hte kids were in bed we stayed up visiting.  One by one the spouses disappeared to go off to bed and just us siblings were left.  We stayed up until 2:30!!!! I have not stayed up that late for years!  It was so fun to really catch up with everyone, and we mostly just shared memories of growing up, Mom & Dad, sports, farm, cousins, everything, it was so fun!
Friday:  We went to the Stake Center to run off some energy.  The little kids all played whatever they wanted on the one side and us older "kids" played basketball on the other side.  It is so fun that Brooklyn and Brady are getting older and can play with us now.  Pretty soon they are going to be able to beat us all!
Saturday:  Chas and I went to a baptism in the morning, came home ate lunch and then everyone got ready to go swimming.  They had a lot of fun swimming.  We came home Kayla made some Chicken noodle soup for dinner, which was delish! then we played some Settlers! Fun night of play games!
The rest of the crew left Sunday morning and it was sad! We had such a good time! Thanks for coming!

Our camera is broken and so the only pictures we have are ones Brooklyn has taken, which are pretty good, I think.  

This is the Lightning Tree, the Fullers told us it was actually hit by lightning, so that is pretty cool.  The kids like to go down there and hang out, there's a little creek that runs by it on our side of the fence.

The girls room is  a light yellow which turned out really good.  The color Brooklyn started with was really bright, so I am glad we toned it down a bit before we actually painted!

Here is the boys room, we have since put the bunkbeds back together so they have more playing room.

This pool was a life saver this summer, the kids spent hours in it!  Which was really nice considering I was kind of preoccupied with the baby.

Carving Pumpkins and Family pictures!

 We tried to fit Carson in to get a cool picture, but he was too big.  Darn!

Emree lost a tooth, she was the bravest of any of the kids thus far, didn't even flinch or cry!  She is a tough cookie!

Our basement is coming along, albeit slowly!  It will be so nice once it is finished and the kids can actually come down and play in it!

We got some great family pictures taken!