Electric Light Parade

December 6th

The electric light parade is one of my favorite things to do in December. We usually go with all of the Persons and I just drag the Jarman's with us. This year none of the Persons were able to come. I was very sad about that, but the parade went on. We got there a couple of hours early as usual and were able to get great seats thanks to Jaymi's mom and Richard. They went even earlier than we did. The kids ate dinner while we waited and played in the street. The parade always kicks off my holiday season and it really gets me in the Holiday spirit.

Spencer and Lizeth

Rylie was all bundled up.

We dressed warm and drank lots of hot chocolate

Happy Thanksgiving

November 27th

Happy Thanksgiving! We spent the day at my Mom and Dad's house. All of my Mom's side of the family came over and ate with us. We had a great day. I only got this one picture of my family. we were too busy eating and playing. Brent and my Dad left early to go with Mark on his elk hunt.

Kaylee's Party

November 22nd

Kaylee had a return to Neverland party for her 5th birthday. The kids had fun getting all dressed up. I thought it was a great way for the boys and girls to get to dress up for a party. It was a lot of fun.

Allie(Tinkerbell) Ethan(pirate) Kaleb(Peter Pan) Kaylee(Tinkerbell)

Happy Birthday Brent

November 22nd

Brent turned 31!!! WOW! I am married to an old man, me being a young 29 year old. It seems like just yesterday that I gave him a card for his 16th birthday. We got up and he opened his present which was an ipod and then we met Spencer and Lizeth for breakfast. After that we went to Kaylee's birthday party. Then we went to Jesterz with all of Brent's siblings and their spouses. It was so much fun. Happy Birthday Brent!

Baking Day

November 21st

We decided that we wanted to get together and have a baking day. We had a great time and our kids were so good. We each brought everything we needed to make 3 treats. Combined we were baking 12 different things. I am tired just thinking about it. We made bread, cookies, rolls, bars, chex mixes, and things that were dipped. It was a busy day but everything was so yummy and it was nice to have goodies to share. I think that maybe next year we just won't tackle so many different things.

Loni, Jaime, Jennifer, Mom
The kids did arts and crafts at the table

Dipping chocolates is always fun

Ethan's Farm Field Trip

November 19th

Ethan had a field trip with his kindergarten class to the farm. I went along as a chaperon. I had a great time with the kids. They had lots of fun things for the kids to do. They learned about all the things that they use corn to make. They picked a whole bag of vegetables, rode a little train, and were able to check out all the animals.

Ethan was pumping water to float his duck to the other end
This is the squash that Ethan picked. It was HUGE!

Another parent owns a charter bus company and donated the buses. We got to go in style. I am so glad that I was able to go and spend the day with Ethan and his class. I wouldn't trade these moments for anything!

Kaleb crashed out

November 11th

Kaleb was sort of having a rough day as you can probably tell. He was asking for something out of the fridge and I told him, No, because it was almost dinner time. He threw himself onto the ground and started to cry. I decided to let him do his thing, figuring that he would cry for a second and move on. Well he did cry for a second and then instead of moving on he fell asleep. I will never understand how kids can just fall asleep anywhere.

Spencer's Graduation

On November 8th we went to Spencer's graduation. He received his associates degree and is still working on his bachelor's. We are all really proud of him. After the very long ceremony was over we all went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. YUMMY! I always love Mexican food!

Spencer (I will forever picture him as an 8 year old)
Landon, Ethan, Brent, Kaleb, and Mark

Jaime, Ella, and Allie

Wayne, Chase and Brooke

Spencer, Lizeth and Lizeth's family

Brent and Rylie

Rylie loves to hang out in the snugli where she can see everything that's going on.

Melanie and Will's Wedding

On November 7th My cousin Melanie got married. Yea! Will is a great guy and we are all so excited for them. They were married at the Boojum Tree. It was such a neat place. Melanie always wanted to get married on a beach. When she found this place it was perfect. It was tropical and very cool. The reception was a lot of fun. We took Ethan and Allie with us. They danced and had a great time.

Melanie and Will

Grandma and Uncle Dan

Janine and Mom

Jaime, Allie, Ethan, and Brent

(We all sat at the BEST table)

Back to Work

Well, it has been a fun filled Christmas season. This was the first year I have ever saved 3 full weeks of vacation for the end of the year. It is actually kind of depressing coming back to work because I've sort of become accustomed to not working and getting paid for it. I've now decided that that's what I want to do when I get older... If I cut out work, then there's time for family, hobbies, garage cleaning, yardwork, the gym, even cooking breakfasts and lunches for the kids.

It's funny how I get so excited for Christmas, shopping and wrapping gifts for the kids, having Christmas with Great Grandparents, then Grandparents, then Parents, then Brothers and Sisters and Cousins. Then, by the time it is all over, I'm so sick of the christmas wrappings and empty toy boxes, along with toys and toy parts everywhere, it's easy to see it all go away for another year.

My mother has been in town for the past couple weeks and it seems we have had a family get together just about every night at one of my brother or sister's homes, thus the lack of blog activity for December. I actually had a list of things I needed to get done while I was off and have only been able to get maybe half of them done. Oh well, now that I'm back to work, there's "just no time."

B: