The Face of Innocence

I heard a sloshing sound coming from my bathroom, so I went to check it out. There is 3 yr old Brooklyn standing there washing her hands in the toilet and wringing out her own toilet paper she had just used. Ughhh........Brooklyn what are you doing? That is so gross!!!! Don't worry Mommy my hands won't be gross, I always dry my hands on your towel. See, (as she dries her hands on my bath towel) Now they are not gross anymore! Then of course my mind starts going...How long has she been doing this? My bath towel? Did she have to use my bath towel? Has she offered me a cookie or a snack from those hands lately? What toys and books has she touched?.... sometimes it's better to just stop thinking and start Clorox wiping.

Our last little Sunbeam

Brooklyn was so excited last week to get to leave nursery and go to the Sunbeam 3 yr old class at church.

Her first little Sunbeam Class and I am so excited I get to be her teacher.

Geography Bee

Nolan came home so excited yesterday. He placed 2nd in the school Geography Bee. It was the 4th, 5th and 6th graders. Nolan (4th) and a 5th grader had the same number of points so they had to answer questions until one of them lost. We are so proud of him. He loves studying maps, reading History books and encyclopedia's. Way to go Nolan!

Family Game Night

January always feels a little blue to us, the rush, excitement and smells of the holidays are over. So we decided to have a family game night. Dean made his awesome chocolate chip cookies.


A comical game of Twister


I played games with James and Brook~ Franklin goes to School, Candyland and Silly bowling

A competitive game of Lord of the rings Risk

"Most Beautifulist Princesses Ever"

So, Brooklyn decided Kylie and I should play dress up with her. We told her we didn't have any. She said "look in your closet thats where I found mine". Hmmmm......


So Kylie put on this dress she wore at my sister's wedding when she 11. I am not even going to ask how she got into it.....


Mine hasn't been out of it's bag in over 10 years. I did get it on but breathing was not an option. .....

Our littlest Princess needed a Princess hair do...

and blue cinderella nail polish.....

and every Princess knows it's all about the shoes!!!!

~The best part was when Brooklyn declared we were the "Most Beautifulist Princesses Ever", so we grabbed some music and the Princes in our house and danced. Dean got out the video camera so the kids really hammed it up and then we watched it. It was so funny and fun! I've decided Unplanned, Silly moments are my favorite. But, the video is for our eyes only....

Holiday Memories.....

So happy the Zhu Zhu hamsters were a big hit!!!!


Brooklyn kept telling us Santa was bringing her a Zhu Zhu pet??? I had no clue what one was or how to spell it, so I asked James and he called me the next time a commercial was on. When I saw it I knew I had to find one, Brooklyn is such an animal nut that I knew she would love it. So with weeks till Christmas I wasn't concerned at all. I have always been an early shopper. So I googled the little hamsters and of course they were the HOT toy this year. Even weeks before christmas I could not just order one. Everyone was sold out or if I could find anything they wanted three times as much for it. So, I tried to talk her into something else. Of course it didn't work and of course this year that is all she was asking for. So I went to both Target and Walmart and ask them what their delivery days were, between Dean and I we hit both stores on all delivery days for the next 2 1/2 weeks and we came up with every piece she was asking for. And to think Santa gets all the credit.........


The shoveling went on and on.....


Dean took this of Brooklyn admiring my necklace, I think it's a sweet picture.


Anticipation........


Kylie playing away on her new guitar....


Male bonding over a new game....and a bowl of soup.

Christmas Letter 2009

This year we decided to post our Christmas letter on our blog, several of our friends did it last year and we loved it. So here it is..


This has been such a fun year for our family. We were able to do quite a bit of traveling this summer to see family and friends. The best part was our kids are all at such fun ages, traveling seemed so easy this year. If I could freeze our kids it would be right now at the ages they are. Dean and I keep busy trying to keep up with the kids activities, our church callings, trying to hang out with friends here and there and trying to keep our house from falling apart. It has been busy but we love it and we wouldn't have it any other way.