Christmas is almost here!

Well, Ryan and I are ALMOST child-less. Grant, Hayley & Zack flew out of Vegas and Darby & Sadie went to their Dad's all on Sunday. Chloe will be here until the 23rd or 24th, then she will be up north for Christmas also.

To start our child-less Christmas, Ryan and I went to his company Christmas party. We were asked to wear 'Cocktail' attire. It was kind of fun to get dressed up and go out together.
(The kids weren't officially gone, but we had a good time practicing.)








If you wanted to see our Christmas card before they actually go out, here is is!

(Just in case you were wondering, yes, we were inspired by a lovey lady, who one day met this fellow....)

Another week....

The past week has had almost an event a day. (Like that is anything unusual!)
Thursday and Friday Chloe had the Christmas dance concert. Almost every day this month she will have Trilogy performances. (Trilogy is the elite, performing choir at the High School.)
Friday, December 4th was my Birthday! It was a great day! Sadie received a 'Dean's List' award at school and got to walk through the 'W.'

In the evening Ryan and I went to "Christmas in the Canyon" at the Tuacahn Amphitheater. It was fun, but VERY cold.
Saturday, we got our Christmas Tree and celebrated my birthday with the family.

These are the roses Ryan gave me for my birthday!

Monday night we decorated our Christmas tree for family night. (I guess I should take a picture of our tree)
Wednesday night was the Christmas Concert for the elementary school choir.

And then Novemeber was over....

It always amazes me when I look at the calendar and another week (or3) has gone by.

This last month has been busy and we are just gearing up to get busier! 3 Weeks from tomorrow is Christmas! (Yes, Just 21 SHORT days.)

Nov. 19^th was Darby’s 11^th birthday…

Thanksgiving Day, we were here in Washington with the family here. Then we left Friday to head to Thatcher, AZ to party and hang with our Arizona family. It was a very long drive, but overall a really great weekend! I forgot my camera when we went to Arizona, so I will have to rely on other people sending me pictures of the weekend.

I do indeed have plenty to be thankful for!

More Pics

Last night was Brigadoon's closing night. Before the cast and crew went to tearing the set apart, I made Chloe pose for a couple of pics. She did a great job! I am very proud of her.

Brigadoon

Wow!
Last night was opening night of 'Brigadoon' at Pine View High School.
Chloe has a pretty big role as 'Meg.' She did a great job delivering her songs and entertaining the audience. the show was great and Chloe was fabulous!I'll work on getting some better pictures. (They ask for no flash photography during the performance, so it may be difficult, but I'll see what I can do.)
Brigadoon has always been one of my personal favorite musicals. My sister Cindy had the role of 'Fiona' when I was 4, and there is a song, "Heather on the hill" and "Go home with Bonnie Jean" so as a little kid, I thought it was family's musical.

Halloween Pics

We were in Payson, AZ for Halloween because Kyla (Ryan's Niece) was baptized that morning.

So, we all went out dressed up....
It was a lot of fun. At Dave & Amy's Stake Center there was a chili cook-off, costume contest and a Trunk-or-Treat.

Eating some tasty Chili!

Awaiting the costume judging results....

Catherine & Rich passing out Candy.

Well.... Maybe

I know, I said I'd try to write something more substantial occasionally, but my kids are just so dang Cute!


This is the end-of-trimester performance for Hayley and Grant's theater classes.
The pictures of them in their individual groups were too dark.
(Hayley is in green, front and center in the picture on the left and Grant is on the 2nd row in the picture on the right, being way too cool to have his picture taken.)



This is the Halloween Parade at the Elementary school.
Sadie - the Candy Corn Witch
Zack - the Ninja
Darby - the Can-Can Dancer

I Never Know

I always think I should have some earth-shattering; wonderful pictures or a great inspirational story before I post anything. But, when it comes down to it, my life isn't filled with a lot of spectacular events. It is filled with a lot of great, small things that happen with coming and goings of everyday life. Anyway, I am going to try to write a little more often, about the little more mundane and maybe give a little more accurate picture of me...

Sadie's Baptism

Last weekend Sadie was Baptized! Ryan baptized her, and Uncle Mike confirmed her a member of the Church!
It was so great to have so much support from family, friends and ward members. There were over 50 people there to support Sadie. It was a great weekend! We absolutely LOVED having so many of the family here!
Thank you all so much!

A Few Pics...

Here are a few pics of what we've been up to

The Washington County Fair


Hayley's Birthday


Zack's Birthday


Sadie's Birthday

Back to School

Thursday, August, 13th started the new 2009-2010 school year.
Chloe is a Junior in High School (yes 11th Grade,) Grant is in 7th Grade, Hayley is in 6th Grade, Darby is 5th Grade, Zack is in 3rd Grade and Sadie is in 2nd Grade.
I tried to get pictures as everyone left for school, but of course, I missed one.
Grant & Hayley left first. The bus comes for them at 7:01. So it was still a little dark when they left.
Then I took Darby, Zack & Sadie to school about 8:30. (It was much lighter outside at that point.)
Chloe didn't have to be to school until 11, because the first day the High School does Sophomore orientation for the first half of the day, and by the time she left, I had forgotten about picture taking. (About par for me)

One Year!

Ryan and I celebrated our 1st Anniversary yesterday! I can't believe it!



In some ways, it seems much longer than a year that we have been married. I definitely can't imagine life without Ryan anymore. But, sometimes I still feel very much like a newlywed, so in that respect, it is hard to believe that it has been a year already.
Our lives are so crazy and so busy most days that time has just flown by. Days, months and weeks have melded together in running kids here and there, going to school programs and the daily grind. It is nice to have a chance to actually reflect on the big picture.

We spent Saturday evening/night and most of the day Sunday at Zion's National Park. The people that I work with had given us a night at Zion Canyon Bed & Breakfast for our wedding, and we hadn't used it yet. So, we had a great, relaxing night (and day) away.

(This was the view laying on the bed in our room. WOW!)


Ryan is such a great guy! I am SO grateful to have found him, and to have him in my life. Last Friday, I came home from work to a dozen roses on the table, caramels (better than chocolates for me) and a white chocolate & caramel covered apple. But, aside from the BIG things, there are daily things that endear him to me, probably more than he knows.
He always helps with dinner, and clean-up. He is just as over-whelmed with laundry as I am, but he totally helps out none-the-less. He takes care of mowing and watering the yard. (In spite of his allergies.)
Last month I had girls camp. (I am the ward camp director.) While I was stressing about all the last minute 'things' I needed for the camp and campers, Ryan was taking care of the things I needed. He packed all of my things. (Chair, flashlight, sleeping bag, mess kit, pretty much everything I needed that I hadn't gotten around to even looking for. He even loaded up the Tahoe for me.) He really is just a great guy!

I am looking forward to many more anniversaries with this handsome man!

Since I am a slacker, and didn't have any pics from the 4th of July, I scabbed one from Darby & Chloe's dance teacher.

A slacker

It is amazing! A person would think that with 5 of our 6 kids gone, I should have TONS of free time, right? And here it is JULY 9th and I am entering my first blog of the month.
We have been gone more than we have been home so far this summer. Most of the days we have been home, have been work days (So basically, we have still been gone more than we've been home.)
Let me re-cap the last few weeks.
June 17th: PUPPIES! Yes, 5 beautiful little puppies! I didn't really want them, but here they are and they are as cute as cute can be. LOTS of work, but darling.
Father's Day weekend June 19th-22nd): On Friday night, we went to the Manti Pageant, then slept and Grandma & Grandpa Picketts' house in Redmond, UT. Saturday we picked up Chloe from youth conference, took Darby and Chloe to spend the weekend with their Dad. Ryan and I stayed with the Garcia's Saturday and Sunday nights. Monday morning we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. (It was FABULOUS!)
The temple is beautiful, and the spirit is so strong. I am so glad to have had the opportunity to take the girls. I wish that Grant, Hayley and Zack could have gone too. Even without being dedicated, it is so apparent that the spirit of the Lord is present. No words... just awesome!
Monday was Grandpa Bracken's 75th Birthday, so we came home and had cake and home-made ice cream.
The 4th Of July weekend was another crazy one. Darby and Chloe had gone up to Provo with Mike & Brenda for Stadium of Fire practices on Thursday. Friday night, Ryan, Sadie and I joined them.
Saturday consisted of a parade in the morning, then the men (boys) went golfing, and the rest of us explored the street fair and chilled at the hotel. We ate an early dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory, and then got ready for the STADIUM OF FIRE. The show was great! (Much better than last year!) Even though I am not personally familiar with much of the Jonas Brothers music, they put on a very good live show, and I think almost everyone enjoyed it. This was Darby's first year dancing and she thought it was great!
On July 5th, Sadie and Darby went to stay with their Dad for a month. So Chloe is the only one at home with us.
Maybe we'll have a quiet, uneventful month! Not likely!

New Entertainment

Okay, so this isn't something many people would blog about, but here I am.
As a general rule, we wash approximately 2 loads of laundry every day at our house, when all 8 of us are there. There are days it is less, and to compensate, there are days we wash WAY more.
Lately, we have had a series of break-downs.
The shower in the master bathroom was clogged completely.
The washer started leaking, so we brought in Ryan's old washer and the switch went bad. Ryan ordered a new switch online but taped the existing one together to limp by until the replacement part arrived.
Then, the water heater went out. It was under warranty, but the serviceman couldn't come look at it for 6 days, then once he came, he told us it would be another 10 days before he could be back to replace the part. It wouldn't cost us anything, but still no hot water. The replacement part arrived and Ryan actually fixed it 5 days before the repairman was scheduled to come back. YEAH!
During this whole time, we were watching every load of laundry because our washer was draining faster than the pipes in our house could manage, and the washer had to be turned off about 6 times per cycle, to keep the drain from flooding. So, not too long after the water heater was fixed, the new (old) washer gave out due to being turned off and on so many times.
So, to get the kids ready to go for summer visits to other parents homes, and get ready for fishing trips and family reunions we did laundry at the laundry-mat. Other than getting all the wash done in an hour or so, it was pretty much a pain the rear.


SO, last night we bought a brand-new LG Front-Loader. It is beautiful! It uses less water (so it doesn't flood the kitchen when it drains,) it can wash bigger loads, (Hooray! Less loads!) AND we can watch the clothes as they wash, so I have told the kids we will be getting rid of all the TV's and watching the washer!






Isn't it beautiful?