Festival of Lights!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving my family went to see the Festival of Lights, the kids have been asking for years if we could drive in the back of the truck and this year we did it!! They had a great time!

Black Friday & 4 Christmases!!

Nothing makes me more excited than, BLACK FRIDAY!!!!!!!! We made great time and I truly finished everyone on my list! I purchased gifts for about 15 different people!!! I think it is so funny to watch people run for a good deal!! We left at 4:00 am (my neighbor Jen joined my mom & sister-in-law and I! We were like a well oiled machine!! We hand 4 cart FULL in 10 minutes at Target with more than we needed, so we just passed it back to people behind us who had not been as sucessful (sorry to brag, but we are AWESOME!!). Later that afternoon my brother Shuan & his wife Tammy, my Dad & Mom, and Ryan & I (we missed you Nate & Ashley!) went to see 4 Christmases. We LOVED it I don't know why the paper gave it a D+ we laughed until we cried more than a few times!!

Thanksgiving!!!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving Dinner at my mom's house! It was just my mom & dad, my Grandma Hirst, Cousin Chantelle and her niece Danika, My sister-in-law Tammy (my brother Shaun was at the fire station working), my brother Nate, And then my kids & Ryan & I. It was so yummy I brined my Turkey which made it taste awesome!!! Then we went to pies at Robby's & Christy's with Ryan's side of the family. We sat and looked at ads for hours just deciding where we should go shopping!

O' Christmas Tree!

I LOVE Christmas trees!!! This is our tree this year! It takes forever & ever to put up, but I love it so much when it is done! The 1st picture has the kids standing there, so you can tell how tall it really is, 15 feet!

Pure Torture!!

We watched the sad loss of BYU vs Utah. We had friends over for the game which lightened the sting a bit.

GOOOOO COUGARS!!!!!!!!

I HAD to change my background from red to BLUE! It should be an awesome game tomorrow!!!! The Cougars are going to win!!

Coleman Wrestling!

Coleman has found his new favorite hobby, wrestling! He pretty good at it also!

Invention Convention!

Ashlynn's Hopscotch game for the "Invention Convention"! She did a great job on it, we played it the night before she turned it in at it was really fun!

Senior Grandparent Day!

Senior Center Grandparent Day! My dad is the director over city recreation where I grew up! Which includes the senior center. It was a Grandparent Craft day so we went! The kids had a great time making turkey's with Grandma Great & Grandpa!

Pretties!

Jaxsyn loves "pretties" that means lipgloss, I forgot that I had handed it to her while we were driving home & this is what we found when we unloaded from the car. She sparkled for 2 days!!

Christmas Letter!

Merry Christmas!

We've had a great year in 2008!

It's been a year of discovering new talents and loves.

Here's a quick update to catch you up!

Ryan, is still working at Blendtec and loving his new position that he started last year. He discovered his love of scuba diving while we were on a cruise with friends. He goes whenever he can fit it in! He is also loving watching our children grow and start playing sports, he is their biggest fan.

Chelsi, is still a busy stay at home mom! She loves the quiet time she has with Jaxsyn before the chauffeuring begins in the afternoon. She has discovered her new hobby of blogging and loves to save our memories on the computer instead to scrap booking (which she doesn't love)! She loves watching the children grow and and the crazy things they do that make her laugh (even though there are still times they make her want to cry!!)

Samantha, is the best babysitter-in-training. She loves to clean when watching the kids for mom's short trips to the store. She has discovered her love of gymnastics, she is getting really good at the bar. She loves "hanging-out" with her friends, and was so proud of growing old enough to be given a little more freedom, and sadly learning the consequences of pushing the limits of that freedom to far.

Ashlynn, is our compassionate little girl. She is very aware of the feeling others are having, and sincerely feels their happiness, or sadness with them. She has discovered her love of competition dance, she has begun dancing EVERYWHERE, she always is doing a dance move! She loves being mischievous and that spirit often gets her in trouble, but she always has fun until Mom & Dad find out.

Coleman, is our active young boy. He is always outside with his friends either playing flag football, bear in the woods (We could not explain the rules even if we tried!), jumping bikes, or just playing in the snow. He has discovered his love of sports, he was a star playing soccer and is loving his new sport wrestling. He loves being in Kindergarten, he is a great student and very helpful in his class. He loves being right and is very spirited in his ways of showing you, which is teaching both mom & dad much patience.

Jaxsyn, is still the charmer. She can charm anyone she meets, she also knows she can, so she often gets whatever she desires. She has discovered her love of friends & play group & nursery. She can play outside or inside with her friends for hours. She loves everything girl: pink, pretty shoes, her hair certain ways, and baby dolls. She has her normal 2-year-old tantrums, but actually is fairly reasonable.

Click on the other links below this letter link on the side bar, to see a few of our favorite memories this year! We will have our blog open until after Christmas and then we will make it private again, so if you would like to continue as one of our guests please post a comment including your email address.

Early, but too cute not to share!

I already took my kids Christmas photos, so they can wear there Christmas outfits to Church at Christmas time. They turned out okay, usually I am more impressed but it only cost $25 at Target for all the photos we need, so I can't really complain!!

Gratitude Turkey!

For FHE on Monday we made a Gratitude Turkey (idea from the Friend). Each kid had to come up with 5 things they were thankful for, and then Mom & Dad added a few so we could use it for a count down. I know one day they will realize how blessed they are, but until then I'll just keep reminding them!

Coleman lost his 1st tooth!!

Coleman was running around yelling "I lost a tooth!!!!" It was really cute even though he had tested my nerves so much earlier that day. That's what kids do, just when you are so mad at them they do something really cute! Ryan was out of town, so Coleman wanted the tooth fairy to leave his tooth behind. I told him to yell really loud and maybe she would hear him and leave the tooth. She did, but he lost it before Ryan got home (hehehe kids!)!

One More Halloween Photo!

My brother was the shower costume the kid from Karate Kid wore. It looked really good. That is Bailey my niece too. I think they all looked great this year.

Halloween 2008!

Halloween is always fun in our family for a few reasons:
#1 Ryan loves to dress-up, so it makes everyone join in the fun!

#2 School Parties & Programs

I helped in Coleman's Class Party!

Ashlynn had a Monster Mash Dance Program at school!

Jaxsyn almost fell asleep during the program.

She danced to the Monster Mash! She did great, she loves dancing. She dances around the house all day, everyday.

#3 Pumpkin Craving at Grandpa & Grandma Hirst's House

#4 Ryan's Family LOVES Halloween too, so Robby & Christy throw a Halloween Party! Here's a bunch of photos of the fun!

#5 Candy, Candy, Candy!

Sick Day!!

Ryan went buffalo hunting with Rick so we were just enjoying our weekend, when I ended up gettiing sick. That night Ashlynn got sick and then Samantha the next morning. So we took a sick day from church, the kids watched movies all day. It was actually pretty fun!