ElfYourself

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/NKOdC0xPqCkzu83kG59I

Billy put this very funny (short) video together online. That's why he's not in it. It's only available for viewing until I think January 15th. I hope you enjoy.

The count down to Christmas has begun.....

I can't believe how fast November flew by. It CAN'T possibly be December already.

We had a FHE earlier this month on being good examples - "let your light shine". The kids and dad colored candles as an activity. All my little artists love to color.

We had a sleep over with Eleanor the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving. She is so CUTE! We have so much fun when she's around.

All the kids

Everyone piled into the closet to pretend it was a cave.

When Tammis came to pick up Ellie she wasn't ready to go home. We twisted her mom's arm and she got to stay longer. We all went to the park.

The kids all agreed that having cousins was a great thing.

Can you say "BAH HUM BUG"?OH...There's a smile...of course Aidan's taking the picture.

My sister Elizabeth and family came to visit for Thanksgiving. It was fun to have them. I picked Tatum up from AMTRAK on Tuesday night at 11:00 pm. She is 19 and attending Western State College of Colorado. I was holding out to go to the Twilight movie with her. It was good and we had fun.

Aidan fell deeply in love with Tate while she was here. He was her shadow. The day she left (at 3 am) he woke up and realized she was gone, and cried his heart out. Aysia tried to console him, telling him she wasn't gone forever. But he was heart broken.

Dinner at my mom's was YUMMY!

Everyone relaxing afterwards.
Aysia and Koda

Taylor, Takoda and Lil Al

We saw a lot more of Amanda this weekend due to Taylor's visit. They go together like potatoes and gravy; root beer and ice cream; waffles and syrup; cookies and milk...etc.

Amanda is very happy to be holding a pair of DC shoes I bought her on Black Friday for Christmas. Yes, she had to leave them here until Christmas Day.

These are the kinds of pictures you get when dad gives a camera to the kids. Glad it's digital and not film you have to pay to be developed!

Ever wondered what Aidan looked like up close and personal? No need to anymore.

Aysia and Takoda posed for each other (a lot).

My sister and I (crazy "grown-ups") decided to go shopping at the mall on Black Friday. They opened at midnight. We decided to be first in line...we needed to go to Game Stop. They had a Play Station 2 at a great price. Elizabeth wanted to get one for her girls. I also have wanted to get Wii Fitness. So off we went to get in line at 10:20 pm. My friend Katie who is an avid BF shopper sent me a text at 9:00 and said they were already lining up. Silly, silly, silly...we drove over and there were only two guys waiting at the doors we had chosen.

So we waited in the car for a while and eventually got in line. It wasn't too cold, but we were surrounded by teenagers. We kept wondering what the heck we were doing at the MALL, and where all the parents were to these kids.

When they opened the door we would have made for a good laugh (we laughed at ourselves) as we ran down the mall to Game Stop. We were FIRST in the store and FIRST out! :)

We also hit Gymboree and Victoria's secret. We decided to hit a few others later in the day after going home to bed.

We got a lot of shopping done on BF. I went home to bed and was woken up by Billy texting me for a breakfast burrito at 3am. He went out to sell hot chocolate with Taylor and Tate. They didn't have much luck. The lines weren't as big as in the past at the usual places. Even Billy hadn't seen anything he was willing to wait in line for; thus the hot chocolate idea was born and flopped. Alec didn't sleep well that night either.

I went to Toys R Us later and then we all headed back to the mall. Then to Target and Famous Footwear. I've never shopped so much in one day before!

But it was fun to be with Elizabeth and our girls.

She looks dang good for being up half the night!

No pictures of me!

There is so much more to say, but it will have to wait. This has taken me two hours already. I'm tired. Ciao for now.

November

Our family has had it's share of sickness in the last two weeks. Aidan and Alec had the stomach flu the Saturday before Halloween. Aysia came down with it the Tuesday before Halloween. I am so very grateful I came down with it after my preschool party was over and we had enjoyed trick or treating! I was sure I would be sick for the big pre-k party. The Lord truly blessed me - not to skip being sick - but to get sick at a more convenient time. Billy lucked out and skipped it. He was very good with the kids on Saturday. I spent most of the day in bed. He took them out for Aysia's favorite breakfast - McDonalds. Later they went to play at the park.
My dad called me to see if I would mind him taking Billy to the last BYU home game on the following Saturday. I told him Billy deserved it. (Billy had been hoping for an invitation).
Now I'm sick again with a terrible cold. Hope this isn't a sign of how winter is to progress.

Eleanor and Chloe came home with Aidan after bowling on Wednesday. They play so well together. You'd never guess Ellie was only three. Eleanor stayed long enough to get to play with Aysia after her dance class. Aysia ADORES Eleanor. Tammis commented "Aysia has always loved Eleanor. Even before she was born." I can only think of one another baby Aysia has been more excited to be born - Alec. Maybe it was her age at the time Ellie was born, but I think (as does Tammis) they were good friends in the pre-existence.

Aren't they CUTE!

We went to Adison's Birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's. The kids had a blast. Adison was so excited for his birthday. Christy gave my kids enough tokens to keep them there all night plus some.

Alec likes driving.

I let Alec loose on the place. He had a lot of fun. He played a Virtual bowling game. He threw the ball, and half way up the ramp it would drop away and the TV screen in front of you would show a computerized ball hitting the pins. He got a lot of gutter balls, but he clapped and jumped up and down like he was bowling 300.

Here's a cute side note. Alec has started talking a lot more. I mean things you can actually decipher into English. I made pizza the other night for dinner. He kept saying peeza, peeza, peeza! OVER and OVER! He now calls anything that is a triangle shape Pizza. I made myself a Quesadilla for lunch a few days later and he wanted some of my peeza. He also saw some triangle shapes on a quilt on Aysia's bed, he pointed at it, looked up at me with triumph on his face and said "pezza!" So now I need to teach him a triangle is called a triangle, pizza just happens to be in the shape of a triangle!

Artists at work.

Aysia invited her best friend Summer to come over after school last Thursday. Aidan invited Chloe to come play - at Aysia's request to keep him occupied. They had apples and carmel dip for a snack. They painted many masterpieces! All my children love to color, draw and paint. The main staple in the diaper bag on Sunday (besides diapers) is paper and as Alec calls them "colors". If I need to keep him busy for a while, paper and anything to write with - especially a pen - will do it. He also loves play dough. He will play long after the other two kids are done.

I don't have any pictures, but we went and had cake and ice cream for Jana and Byran's birthdays this last Sunday. Their house is beautiful! I could easily live in just the kitchen alone and be happy. The boys sure seem excited to have their own rooms and be able to spread out. It was nice to get together with the family. We don't do that much with Gramee and Poppi in Germany. I told Christy I am so sad for the situation with Michael's Job. However, I feel guilty that I'm also glad she isn't moving so far away...yet. Aidan would be lost without Chloe. Aysia has recently found new reasons to keep Adison around (his Nintendo DS). Aysia unlike many little girls really likes video games. She has realized Adison does too, and he can give her pointers on how to get past the dragons and other things in Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. While Aysia is obsessed with Super Mario Galaxy, Adison plays a wider range of games - so at this point, Aysia is now better at just the ONE game then Adison.

Well, we are going out tonight. I better clean the house up a bit before Micall comes to babysit.

PARTY, PARTY, PARTY!

I can't believe how busy the last two weeks have been! I had my preschool party yesterday, so I can breath for one day! Tonight is "Trick or Treat"! The kids are so excited. Aysia keeps asking me how many more hours, and it's not even 10 am yet.

Grandma's party was a lot of fun! Apparently it didn't go off just as Grandma had envisioned, but everyone else thought it was great. I'm glad I wasn't Jonathan trying to figure out just what she wanted.

It was a big production

James (JR), Taunie and Myles shared a dance.

Lots of cousin's, some I barely know were there.

Grandma enjoyed her great grand kids. She told me later she was very touched Aysia came running back to tell her Happy Birthday as we were leaving.

At one point all the kids were waiting for Grandpa/Uncle Brent to lasso them all.

Suprise, suprise...Alec is first in line for some cake!


Katherine Hall was also very touched Aysia remembered her from primary. She used to be "Captain CTR". I think most of out primary would remember her. Aysia is just very outgoing, friendly and loving. She gave her a hug and talked to her.

We went to Cornbelly's Corn Maze in Lehi on Monday for Family night. Amanda actually wanted to join us, which is a rare treat. The kids adore her and wish she'd come around more. Thirteen year old girls have a lot more interesting things to do with their time I guess.

All the kids.

Aidan and Alec on the Hay ride.

Daddy took Lil Al on the cow train ride.

Amanda with Alec.
Aysia thought it was a very bumpy ride. Aren't most cow rides bumpy?

Aysia at her school Halloween parade. She is NOT Hannah Montana. She is Hilary Duff. I know...It's hard to tell the difference. Hilary wears page boy hats, short skirts (Hannah wears pants more) and ankle boots, which you can't see in this picture (Hannah wears cowboy boots) and Hilary's favorite color is pink.


Aidan is Bumblebee. That's the transformer...not the insect. He didn't want to wear his mask, but that's ok. You can see his cute face this way.
He's enjoying the pre-k party. We missed having Aysia there this year.



...since when did vampires like cotton candy?
My vampire boy won't keep his cape on. But he's cute anyway.
Grandpa Williams was on guard duty at the party. He wasn't allowed outside the party room. The Taylorsville Fire Department was not invite to the party.

We enjoy going to the Murray Farmer's Market. Our favorite thing to buy is Schmidt's Salt n Pepper corn. As you can see Alec LOVES it.

I was released on Sunday from my RS calling. I am sad. I really enjoyed being in RS, and I even liked teaching every few weeks. They say when you get comfortable you get another opportunity to grow and learn. This next calling will be a very BIG learning experience. I have to say right now I'm VERY nervous. I do really well with little kids and Adults. Teens however are off my radar. I hated High School, now I get to experience it again vicariously through the Laurels. Everyone says I'll love it. So I need to start praying for this unrealistic fear to go away. The bishop set me apart and gave me a great long blessing. I don't think he left anything uncovered. I should be healthy and open to the spirit to guide my words. I should have time for everything without getting tired. Wow...I'm tired all the time as it is! So here's to the new adventure.

We had a bumper crop of pumpkins this year. We have already given 8 beautiful orange pumpkins away.

We carved two in Pre-k, and will carve the other three later today with the kids.


Here are the Motley rest. Some are orange and some are still green. Some are half way between orange and green. I think the green streaked ones are pretty cool. The kids and I are going to go sit out front and sell them for $0.50 each.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!