Santa Made It......

Hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas.....

We had a Great Christmas Here...

We had everyone here Christmas morning for breakfast including "Grandpa Lynn" We thought it would be easier to have breakfast, that way everyone had the rest of the day to visit family or just go home and take a snooze...
Bruce got the BEST gift.....Tools all in one case. No more looking all over for tools. He also got a sander, and a gift card.



Nathan, Emily, Erin, & Jason waiting for their next present.




Amanda & Brandon.....we couldn't get Mckai to sit still long enough to take a family picture, he was to busy with his toys.

Nathan & Emily

Erin opened a new Helmut for her four wheeler rides with Dad. The old one was getting to small. And this one should cut down on all the dust that Erin gets all over her face.

YEAH.....It fits. She has been so excited about it. She sleeps with it every night.

A new Trike for Mckai.....although he calls it a motorcycle. He also got a spiderman helmut.

Good thing uncle Jason was there to guide him around and show him how to use the pedals.

I just love Christmas... Happy New Year to All!!

Christmas Lights and Dinner

Every Year for Christmas we go see the Temple Lights and go out to dinner. This year was no exception.

We went to dinner first. We go to the same place every year .....Sizzler!

When we got there the table had a present on it. When Mckai saw that it didn't have a bottom to it, he made a hat out of it, and wore it most of the night.

Mckai is starting to become a little bit of a ham for the camera.....(Which Grandma MaryAnn loves)

Brandon and Mandy

Emily & Nathan

Erin & Jason

I love the Temple at night....the lights are so pretty. There is just one litte secret about this year and going to see the Christmas lights........

We ...(ok, just Me)... were to cold to get out and walk through the temple to look at the lights! So we drove around the Temple to see the lights, and I must say it was so nice and warm inside the truck, that I do believe the Temple lights never looked better!

We also went to the Vine Street house to watch and listen to their display.

I think next year we will go see the lights on the day after Thanksgiving, that way it might be a little bit warmer.

Hoping Everyone has a Very Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!

Re-doing the Kitchen...

We are finally geting around to getting the Kitchen done. We saved it for last, that and we couldn't work in the yard anymore, cuz it was getting cold. So the yard will have to wait till next spring. But YES the kitchen is getting a HUGE facelift.

Heres how the Kitchen looked before we started tearing it out. Just not quite enough cabinets to put all my junk in.

The top cabinets came out really quick. It helped to have "Mr. Brawn" (aka Nathan) here to help tear it out, I think it took all of ten minutes

The bottom cabinets however were a different story. We literally had to take it apart piece by peice.....those cabinets were in there for life and all eternity!! And the countertops were the same. The next time I do a kitchen (which will be next to never) I will seriously consider laminate, that stuff is really durable and dang near impossible to pull out.

Finally everything is out, and ready for the cabinet guy to get started. And yes that is a bucket under the taps. We have always had a small leak under the sink, from the time we moved in. But when we took the sink out, it became a gusher, and made a huge puddle (lake) in the basement! My favorite saying when something goes wrong is " No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" And I have said it almost everyday since we started this project.


UPDATE: We are nearing the end of the remodel project, the microwave and stove are the last to be put in which (crossing my fingers) should be today or tomorrow.....YEAH! I wont be posting pictures of the new kitchen, for awhile anyway ...that way you will have to come by and see it.

Happy Anniversary

Thanks for putting up with me all these years. You are such a great husband and father. I love you TONS!!

Christmas Tree

I don't think we have ever put up our christmas tree in November. But this year we did.

We bought a new one with lights allready on it (boy those suckers are expensive) anyway, we got it all put together and found 4 branches where the lights didn't work....soooooo frustrating! After a 1/2 hour of trying to fix it we decided to just put alot of ornaments in that area, and hope no one notices.

Erin is such a cutie she loves putting ornaments on the treee. She would stand back after each ornament and say "cute tree" I love it!

She was such a big help we couldn't have done it without her, she made it so much fun.

Finally all done....now for the rest of the decorating.

Mckai the Basketball Player

Mckai working on his post up moves,

Hey...who's ready to catch this pass?

Finally...

Now You See It......

Now You Don't !

Nathan....You really should try and "smile" when your mother has the camera. because you know I will take the picture one way or another!

It's nice to finally see that "hairball" gone off your chin.

Thanksgiving.....

I remember doing this in grade school....it was Fun then and it is Fun now! I'm always grateful for all that I have, not just during Thanksgiving. But for some reason it just seems to be more evident during this time of the year.

Happy Birthday to You !

YEAH!....A Playmate!

Mckai was lucky the other day...Colby stopped by to play. He is the son of one of Nathan's friends. These two got along so well. They just played all afternoon. Going from one activity to the next.
First they started in the sand box.



Then over to the trampoline.....

And then the slide....they were so good to take turns and clap for each other.

Then a stop to watch the cement truck pour the cement for the new ramp.

All the that playing, makes two 2 year olds thirsty.

Hey is that a big gravel pile?....You bet!! lets go spread it around!

Playing hide and seek with Erin....

Back to the trampoline....theses to can make anyone tired!

Whew....back to where we started ...... The sand box.

A New Ramp

Bruce's Dad (Lynn) needed a new ramp that was easier for him to get down and up. But first the old one needed to come out.

It's a good thing the "Braun" showed up to help Bruce with the "Tear out". Thanks Nathan.

A good way to get your aggression out (swing a sledge hammer) also a good way to get sore muscles! The second crew showed up to haul off all the pieces. Thanks Brandon & Brett.

Finally the new ramp getting poured. There was lots of help, which was needed. Thanks DJ.

The New Ramp

Carving Pumpkins....& Carameled Apples

This year for my birthday, I thought it would be fun to carve pumpkins and make carameled apples. After a little bit of grumbling, (mostly from the boys) us gals Love doing stuff like this. They all dug in and got started. And I think they had alot of fun!


Mckai watching everyone carve, deciding he needed to carve too. So we found a very dull butter knife so he could carve his pumpkin.


Sometimes its a little harder than you think to get that top off!

Nathan ..."Are you sure that knife is big enough?"

Erin's got her pumpkin...actually it is Jason's, and since he was done first he let Erin have it.

Mckai's favorite part was just getting his hands in the pumpkin seeds and squeeshing them. He kept trying to put the seeds back in the pumpkins! Because of course at grandpa & grandma's house "when you take something out, you put it back"

Emily made carving pumpkins look way to easy.

Mckai was smelling the pumpkin and trying to blow the candle out.

Finally the Masterpeices are all finished...Great Job Guys!!

And of course here are all the artists.

On to carameled apples......it was alot easier than I thought it would be. We just melted caramels, and then swirled the apples in the caramel. We found out it works better if the apples are really cold.

Heres Nathan giving it a try. He kept trying to double dip, so he could get as much caramel as possible on his apple.

Erin's got hers. Now the hard part....eating it without getting sticky!

Thanks everyone, it was a wonderful birthday. I loved celebrating it with my family, And thanks for the new chair, it is very much appreciated.