Putting up the Tree

Bryon had been playing Christmas music for weeks, but the day after Thanksgiving was the official start of his favorite season. The kids were so excited to get everything up. They helped clean the house and rearrange things so that we could put it all out.
We had a problem with lights on the tree and so we had to pause to fix it. The kids all found things to occupy themselves with with they impatiently waited. Ethen and Rebekah decorated each other as the Christmas tree and Sam got a hold of the bulbs. He thought they were really shinny balls and starting throwing them. He broke a whole bunch before we put the lid back on the box. The older kid decided that it would need to be Sam's turn this year to put on the star.


I think that Bryon enjoyed it more than anyone else. He sure seems to be having a great time hanging ornaments.
All of these activities took place in the afternoon. I was having WAY too much fun shopping like crazy with my mom. We were awesome this year and got everything we went for.
We woke up at 2, left the house at 2:30 and were at Walmart and Kohls by 3. Kohls line wasn't too bad, but my mom stood outside for 45 minutes in the cold just to get me towels and pillows. Then it took her 90 minutes to go through the check out line.
Walmart was surprisingly crowded at 3am. I saw a ton of people I knew from work and realized that I need to quit telling people my secrets. I was able to get everything into my cart and ready to check out by 5:20, but my mom wasn't done yet so I explored the not crowded sections of the store.
Emily texted me at 5:30 and asked if I was awake. I had been up so long I was ready for a nap. Of course I wasn't as tired as she was. She had already been to 2 malls, Kohls and Babies R Us by then.
Crazy I know, but it seriously is my favorite day of the year.
Thanks mom for going with me even though you didn't by anything for yourself. It was a blast.

Thanksgiving 2007

We had Thanksgiving at my parents house this year. We went to see Enchanted with the extended family before heading to their house for dinner.
They have 3 pear trees in front of their house. They are always the last trees on the block to loose their leaves. They left them all on the lawn so that they kids could play in them this year.
Sam was so excited about the whole thing. He even wanted a rake to help get the pile bigger. He would rake a bunch of them and then just flop down into the pile. Ethen loved that the pile was big enough for us to bury him completely. Our camera takes great action shots, so we got a few of the kids jumping into the pile.
It really makes you want to have trees.
Dinner went off with only one hitch. The 10 lbs of potatoes that Bryon peeled, burned in the pressure cooker that malfunctioned. We all suffered through the fake potatoes without too many complaints.

Sam joins Rebekah in the Bath

Sam is a Fish!

It has been confirmed by 18 months of research. It isn't only his middle name anymore.

Rebekah was taking a relaxing bath and then she started screaming for me to come in. Sam and decided that it was time for him to get clean too and climbed on in. He hasn't been able to to that before so I was shocked when I saw him splashing with her, fully clothed.

Pictures of the cousins

Candice and CaMarley Kade

Ches, Bailey and Clatyton

Abby and Bubba

This is my favorite shirt

Saying goodbye to warm weather

Our last day of 60 degree weather. We spent the afternoon the park across from our house.

Darth Sam and Anakin Ethen

Ethen was playing with his Darth Vadar mask today. I don't know why he couldn't find any of his lightsabers, but today Darth had a cap gun. Sam of course loves everything that Ethen does so he wanted a turn. I let them both run around the house and fight each other for a while.
Sam's favorite thing to play was just to put the hat on backwards and walk down the hall bumping into things.

Great Therapy

Some of the girls from work decided that we needed to have some time to ourselves once in a while.

We made a date for the 10th and went to Chili's for dinner and then to see "Dan in real Life"

The Food was good, the movie was good, even the shopping was good. But honestly the best time that I had was just driving around in the car from place to place. We laughed so hard that Jamie started crying. I know that Laurie was having a good time, but half of the pictures that we took of her don't show it.
Emily had this great idea to smuggle microwave popcorn in the theatre. He purse was stuffed full of Halloween candy, cans of pop and two bags of popcorn. To bad we didn't eat any of it. She mostly just threw it a people.
I haven't laughed so hard in a really long time.

Moments to remember
1)Zit on my butt

2)Wenis-the skin on your elbow (Steph)

3)My neighbor Jack Asked (Steph)

4) Emily is a Chicken *!$@ (Janet)

5)Jamie Crying

6)Janet's Lemonade

7)The guy sitting next to Emily

8) the guy hitting on Hollie

9)remind me of some more. This list will get pretty thick if we keep going.

Why we don't play ball in the house

It is a very sad day at the Buchmiller's

Ethen decided that he wanted to play baseball downstairs. This activity went on with out parental knowledge. Rebekah came upstairs a little while later with the pieces of the Temple that Bryon and I had on top of our wedding cake. It has sat on the entertainment center for 10 years.

When Ethen saw that I was crying he felt really bad. I guess that we was only afraid of getting in trouble, then he saw how much it effected me. He promised me that he would save all of his allowance money until he could buy me a new one. He asked how much money it cost. When I told him that 10 years ago it was $40 and that it was probably more than that now, he told me "it's going to take me a while to save that much, but I will buy you a new one" Thanks bud!

And the Award goes to????

Micheal Hansen

We would like to express our appreciation to the Hansen family for sharing their contagious disease with us. There really is no better sign of friendship.
Thanks for the Croup. Sam is loving it.
Smooches

For details see Emilio's blog.

Sam's new words

Today he said
nanna - Banana
and echoed my "hmmmm" when I was looking for a banana.

Ethen also said some new words.
He told me this morning that he was "afraid (he) couldn't go to school today, because my leg hurts." Yes he went anyway.

Rebekah the Brain

We all know that Rebekah is really smart.
We discovered this year just how smart she is.
We got her results from the end of the year tests at her first parent teacher conference this year. She aced them all. She was above the national level, not to mention the school and district level. She is reading on a 4th grade level now and she read too fast (124 words per minute). Her teacher says she needs to slow down. Last year she got the Student of the year award. We got a note last week saying that she got the Student of the Month award for October. Starting a little early this year I guess. She just informed me that she got a pencil for the Student of the Week award in September. I didn't even know. If she comes home with the Student of the Day award next week, I think I giving up.

Giving In

I have wanted to put a family picture on here for a while but have been a little hesistant. I hate the pictures of me lately and for good reason. Last year I was diagnosed with post pardum thyrioditis. Basically when all your hormones calm down after having a baby, mine take off again. Apparently this has been a problem after each child. So instead of loosing weight, I gain. Now I am on medication to fix it all, but still...

So I am giving in and posting it anyway. This one was taken at my grandpa's funeral

Rebekah's Baptism

Rebekah was baptized on October 13th, 2007

She had a beautiful dress for the occasion. We had tons of family and friends there to make it even more special. Each one of our family had a part to play in the program.

Bryon of course baptized Rebekah, I sang a song and Ethen said the prayer (he practically begged us to let him). Sam of course was the meeting distraction. I let him wander around the chapel. He knew almost everyone there so I was okay with it. The next day was church and he thought he could do the same thing. That was a great meeting.
We planned on having the luncheon at the pavilion behind the church, but of course it had to rain. We crammed 40 people into our teeny house. I jokingly said that we should have everyone line up in the garage, pass through the kitchen to get their food and then downstairs to the basement. Nobody seemed to mind that even though there was enough chairs for everyone to sit, you had to be really friendly with the person you sat by.
Rebekah received scriptures from her grandparents as well as numerous other baptism and birthday gifts. It was an all out great day.