Hoover Dam

We crossed the Dam on Thursday on our way to Az. Look at the progress on this bridge! It was so cool and HUGE!!! It's so sad to see how far the water level has dropped. When I first met Brian the water was almost to the top of the spillover and now it's so far down ;(

Balloon Fun!!

My friend Sarah came over the other day and she brought balloons! She made a turtle, monkeys, and swords that turned into pythons ;) How fun was that?!?!
The kids had a blast and she is sooo talented! The next day she came and made spiderman for Jack & JJ.
I need to learn how to do that for entertainment!

I'm Done!

Back in Oct I started a CNA class that I've been wanting to take for so long but just never had the opportunity. I LOVED it!!
So for the last 8 weeks Brian has been a SAINT and took care of the kids, house, homework, bed, etc.. 4 nights a week so I could do this ;)
I left at 5:30 and got home around 8:45 and then 3 Saturdays I worked at a care center from 6am to 2pm and he never complained one bit!!

I had to do a presentation on the bladder and he actually made me a model with tubing and containers for the kidneys and a sky ball for the bladder with red netting as the muscle to hold it in place! He mounted it all inside a 5 gal bucket he cut in half.. totally cool ;) I'm so bummed I didn't get a picture of it but how great is he???
I have to say it was a blast!! I met a gal in my class that has turned out to be a really good friend and a guy at the care center that is a quadriplegic. His name is Emmett and I took Brian and the kids back to meet him and they all love him!! We had him transported to our house for Thanksgiving and he kept saying, "If I live to be 100 years old, I'll remember this day forever!" He just had a huge smile on his face all day and the kids loved him! He talked football and they were hooked lol!
It has been a busy busy busy few months, thus the lack of posts, so sorry! But it also has been so much fun. I would love to take a Phlebotomy class and Biology but we'll have to see how it all works out ;)
I finished the class with a 93%, not bad for an old lady who hasn't been in school in well, FOREVER!!!

Matchup of the Week!!

These boys are hilarious with their football! Unfortunately, the stinkin game was NOT televised and we were not happy!
We thought the Dolphins were goners until we came home from church and Jacob turned on the tv, came running in my room yelling
"Sweet niblets! Dolphins WON!" His face was red and he was grinning ear to ear!!
My brother, Ryan, is a Dolphin fan as well so he and Joey were "going around" via text message, totally cute!
Can you see how trashed their jerseys are? I have to tell them to stop wearing them on occasion or their teachers might report me!
On a great note, we found a website that has authentic jerseys for $23 and we told Santa!! They do come straight from Shanghi so I was a little nervous but they are so cool ;)

JJ

This is what I find when JJ gets a hold of my camera! I usually delete them but I thought, what the heck, lets show the world what my baby boy can do!!
He is such a nut ;)

Pumpkin Pie

Last year Jacob discovered pumpkin pie and watch out! He loves the stuff. Neither Brian or I have ever been a fan so we just let him go with it and for his birthday or whatever occasion we celebrated, pumpkin pie here I come!!
Of course we had one for Thanksgiving and this is a note we found 2 days later:
Dear Mom & Dad,
I don't like pumpkin pie anymore.
That's the truth.
It tastes soggy to me now.
Love, Jacob

Ha!! Isn't that hilarious??!?! Apparently he ate it the last few times because he didn't want to hurt our feelings ;)
I love him!!

Tis the Season

We put up Christmas lights!! Well, Brian and the kids did lol ;)
We had a great Thanksgiving and now we're ready for Christmas.
We have a Santa and 2 reindeer blowup for the front yard and sadly, it's seen better days ;( It wont turn on so now we have a bare yard but that's ok our neighbors have plenty of lights and decorations to look at!
Can you believe little Haylee on the roof??

Lunch Duty

Jacob was offered the job of lunch duty!! He loved it, I don't know if it was more of getting out of class for awhile or getting to each lunch before everyone else lol!!

Encouragement

This is what I came home to the other day.. It just makes my whole day to know that I have my little ones with me and even when I'm grumpy they still love me!!

Haylee's Diary

Haylee is so cute! She loves writing and making little books. This is what I found in her room the other day...

My Secrit Diree
Ellstratd by Haylee Stratton

On a ton of pages she traced her hand and wrote our names on the fingers.
How cute is she??

On the back pages she wrote out the whole song Families Can Be Together Forever, which just happens to be one of my favorite songs :) She was singing it out as she wrote it and it melted my heart.

I love my little family and I'm so grateful to know without a doubt that we can be together forever!!

Halloween!!

For Halloween we went to the mall, a radio station was broadcasting and the stores were handing out candy!! While we were outside the DJ came up to the kids and put them on the radio, wow that made their day lol!!
The employees were all dressed up, here are some funny costumes we saw....

There were WAY to many guys dressed like girls!! It was so gross, the kids wouldn't even look at them... hairy legs in booty shorts and tank tops with their bellies hanging out, yuk!!!

Haylee was Cinderella, Joey was Phineas, Jacob was Ferb, JJ was Perry the Platypus, and Brian was Dr Duf........
It was so funny to watch JJ, he had no idea what we were doing but after about the third store he put his bag up with a smile and said "Thank you!!"

He refused to wear his little beak but he was still adorable ;)

When we got home we took the kids around the neighborhood. Halloween is not my favorite but it was fun for the kiddos ;)

Mrs McFarland

This is Haylee's teacher!! LOL, she is so funny ;)
I love the kids school...all teachers and staff dressed up and they had a parade around the school for parents to watch. Jacob's teacher was a blind Dr! I wish I had pictures of everyone.
I'll post pics of our family tomorrow when they all dress up!!

That's MY Diet Pepsi!!!

I walked in to find this little stinker trying to open my drink!! The lid was tight so he got my can opener thingy what ever it's called.... how funny that he knows to use it!!!
He made me laugh so I had to give him a little bit but from now on, it goes on the top shelf in the back!!

Fort

Another sleep out! Brian moved the couches and brought in a tarp to make the kids a fort, they loved it!!!

Look at Me!!

Last Saturday I was ambitious and made homemade hoagie rolls!! As Brian says..."These are ridiculous!"
They were so yummo and I was pretty proud of myself. I mean, just look at the shape!
While I was waiting for the dough to rise, I made oreo ice cream and ooooh yea... bbq sandwiches for dinner with homemade ice cream for dessert???
The blog link for Real Mom kitchen is my new addiction.... I love making her stuff and I've been in the kitchen a ton!!

Haunted Storytime!!

This time when we went to the library, they had a witch! She told scary stories and had a book that made crazy scary sounds!! When we were all done singing and dancing we made haunted houses!!

Loader

Another fun day with daddy! The kids are off of school for fall break so Friday we went to work with Brian, literally! He has us loading forms and moving 2x4's for hours!! We came home filthy and tired but it felt good to get some exercise!!

Brian & Jerry

Brian remembers sitting up on the curb machine with his dad when he was JJ's age.... So it's still Jerry and Brian but the rolls are reversed and Brian is the daddy now!! ;)

Doing good!

Joey still loves his braces!! He is so good about what he can and can't eat and even if I give him something he can't have he reminds me, how cute is he??

Boat Races

Mariette and the owners of the restaurant she manages were in a boat race at a festival in Tennessee last weekend.
This boat is made of a huge block of styrofoam!!! How fun would that be?!?! Her team came in a super close 2nd place but she had fun anyway!!

Another One Bites the Dust!

Haylee had another loose tooth! She was complaining over dinner that she couldn't chew so Brian went to work trying to pull it out.... look at Jacob holding her head lol! After a few attempts and her getting upset Brian gave up and the next morning she pulled it out herself!!
Joey had a loose tooth yesterday and when he complained about it Haylee told him: "If a little first grader can pull out her own tooth then I think you can too!"
My kids crack me up!!

Football

Did I tell you how happy we are that football has started again?!?!?! We have so many teams that we love, what a great way to end a Sunday!!

Story Time!!

A friend called me to meet her at the library on Wednesday for story time. JJ had a blast! The librarian read stories, sang songs and then had a craft for the kids to do!
JJ played with this hot air balloon all day ;)
I'm so going there again!!

LOL??

Look what I was following the other day!!! For some reason I couldn't stop thinking about Dave LOL!!!
I'd say only in Utah but I know better!

Family Fun

How much fun are we?? Brian had to transport the curb machine to two different jobs this past little bit and of course we always love to hang out with daddy!!
Yes, we're geeks!!