Christmas morning!

Christmas morning was a BLAST this year!


The boys patiently waiting to open their gifts.




Brinley and her new doll house. I had wrapped all the dolls that go with it and she came out and saw the house and said in the most devastated voice, "there are no dolls! Where are the dolls?!" I guess I shouldn't have wrapped them!

Bry with his money book.

After the kids got done opening all their gifts, we had a note in the bottom of their stocking that said they had one more surprise but they had to find the magic room. We had filled up the office with balloons and they had to find the presents. They went nuts with their pins popping all the balloons. They each had 3 boxes. One with an airplane ticket, one with a disney cruise ticket, and one with a pirate outfit. One night on the cruise there is a big pirate party that you dress up for. We are so excited! We leave in a couple weeks. So glad we have something to look forward to! Florida here we come!

We followed it up with a mickey mouse breakfast! So FUN!

Merry Christmas!

December is such a crazy month! I have needed to get caught up on my blog for a while now and just haven't taken the time to do it. So here goes a million pictures! I love Christmas time! I love getting my house totally decked out! It is so much work and every year I wonder why I do it but after it is all up, it is totally worth it. It is so fun to watch the kids get all excited! This year we did the advent calendar and I wish I would have taken more pictures. We really tried to do something together every night. We did miss a couple, but all in all we had a blast! This is our advent village. There is a window or door that opens for every day.


1. Christmas Karaoke


2. Read Christmas stories and have hot chocolate.
3. Watch the Grinch stole Christmas
4.Ward Party
5. Make Christmas cards.
6. Go to Forgotten Carols
7. Family movie night
8. Make Christmas cookies

9. Didericksen family home evening


Every month we get together with the Didericksen's to have a combined family home evening. We love it and the kids look so forward to it. This month we decided to do a service scavenger hunt. It was so fun! We had a list of different things to do, divided up into 4 teams and had 45 minutes to get as many things done as we could. Some of the items on the list were:
*Pay for someone's groceries and help them out to their car
*Pay for someone's dinner
*Ding dong ditch someone and leave a gift
*Take a picture of a farm animal (Have to throw in a little challenge)
*Pay for someone's gas
*Help someone wash their car
*Etc....
One group even sang to everyone in Casa Del Rey! It was a ton of fun and a great way to be of service. It was fun to watch the look on people's faces!

10. Christmas coloring fun
11. Family game night
12.Make bread men and soup
13. Go see Princess and the Frog.
14. Stay at Little America

We stayed over at Little America and had a ton of fun. The kids love to go swimming and it is a nice little break to get away in the hussle of it all!
15. Drive around town and look at lights.
16.Make a Christmas craft.
17. Didericksen family Christmas party.


18. Ginger bread houses.


19. Coon Family Christmas party


I am so thankful for this time of year and for the opportunity we have to celebrate the Savior's birth and to remember all the many blessings we have been given. I have been especially grateful this year. I think with Jay R.'s career it has been an eye opener for me, to not take the simple things for granted. It has been such a blessing for our family and we have felt the Spirit ever so close this last little while. Life is so fragile. I am so grateful for my kids and Jay R. and I hold them all a little closer! What a blessing to know that families are forever. I am grateful for the time we have been able to spend with our families this Christmas. What a wonderful time of year!

We have a new little niece and cousin!

We are so excited to have sweet little Cambree in our family! She is such a doll! My oldest brother Max and his wife Sherrie are adopting this little girl. She has had a hard life and it is such a blessing that she will be a part of their family now. They met this little girl just a few weeks ago and everything has just fallen into place. I know our Heavenly Father has had His hand in this and it has been such a great experience for us to witness. We love you guys!

Happy Halloween!

Little Princess Cinderella all dressed up and ready to go trick-or-treating. At the last minute she changed her mind and wanted to be Fiona. Why does that always happen? The day of Halloween comes and they want to be something different! Needless to say, while we were getting ready she would say, "mom, does my hair look like Fiona?" My reply was, "yes, exactly like her." Next, "mom, does my make-up look just like Fiona?" My reply, "of course." So when it came time to put the dress on I knew we were going to have some issues. She had a melt down but quickly recovered and we were off!



Bryton was a zombie skeleton, Connor was Dracula and Carson was a ninja. Brin refused to get her picture taken next to the boys. I guess she thought they were too scary!


Didericksen cousins with Grandma Soelberg. We never get to see her on Halloween so I was glad I was able to get this picture with her. And she made us some yummy chocolate covered popcorn!


Grandma and Grandpa Didericksen's house.

Every year after we get done trick-or-treating, we go to my mom and dads house for dinner. Always excellent food and good company!

The boys and dad all looking a little exhausted! We had a great night!

Halloween Party at the Orgill's

We had a blast at Brad and Niki's Halloween party. Not sure if I should post this picture of Brad or not! I wish I would have gotten a picture of everyone. So many hilarious costumes. I think Rhett and Kelli Butler's was the best. Rhett was Richard Simmons and Kelli was Jane Fonda! So funny!

Brinley starts DANCE!

Brinley's first day of dance. She was so excited!

Looking so cute in her new tutu. So glad she is all GIRL!

Character Day at School

The boys had character day at school. They had to choose
a character out of a book and dress up like them. Carson was Long
John Silver from Treasure Island. Connor was and Indian Chief
from Indian in the Cupboard and Bryton was Davy Crockett. They had a party and then a parade for all the parents to see. They had so much fun and looked so cute!

Fall family pictures 2009

BRYTON

CONNOR

CARSON



BRINLEY...she was being so fun for this photo shoot! She was loving every minute of it. Big difference between the boys and her. It was like pulling teeth to get them to take a few pictures.

The annual PUMPKIN CARVING