Christmas

Of all the things Brady got for Christmas this shirt and tie was his favorite! He wore it for 2 days and only took it off to have it cleaned! His Mish-Er-Airie shirt he calls it. Sunday was his last day in Nursery so he got all dressed up. He also got a mini Book Of Mormon, which he carried around singing, Follow The Prophet, all day!

Here are my boys opening Zachies walker from Gramma Caren and Papa Neil. He walks Everywhere on it! So great, and it makes him so happy!

Jeff got this Nerf game from Courtney, he loves it!

Here is the Romote Control Puppy Santa brought to Brady, it has the intellect of an 8 week old puppy! Pretty cool. This is the only thing he asked for (since October). When he came into the room he saw it and said to me, "What is it",

me: What do you think?

B: Mote Troll Doggie. Can I have it?

He loves his dog, so do I. It doesn't cry, poop or eat, and you can turn it off. My kind of pet!

Here is Zach in his PJs from Great Grandma Cusick, they fit perfectly and are so cute, THANKS Grandma! Zach and I were the first ones up, so we played in the front room for an hour. He found the last cookie that Santa left, and he ate it....messy but yummy!

We had all the Cusick's here (minus Elder Newel) for Christmas. We spent everyday together, here are the kids opening their PJs.

Ok, so for posterity, here is my run down of our weekend....

Our family arrived Christmas Eve, which was perfect. We had Pizza and just enjoyed our selves. Cusick kids sang Christmas songs to us, which was darling. Traditionally we all (unmarried) get PJs from my Gma Cusick. She was true to form this year and sent PJs for our kids, she actually makes them all, different each year. We love our PJs, so much so that now my mom buys bottoms for all the women! Thanks mom and Grandma!

We have been running our fire place lately so the kids were very converned that Santa was going to get burned on his way in!

Christmas morning we had about half an hour at our house with Coutney's family, which was great, but cut short by a very excited gramma calling to say that Newel was on the phone and we should hurry over! (remember he is in London). We had him for almost 2 hours, all if us taking a turn talking to him. He is doing great and loving life over there!

Over the weekend we painted ceramics, (Colin's were the BEST!) went bowling, ATE, played frizbee golf, went down town to see Mystere, (AWESOME) and sat around laughing.

The best part was one morning Bean and Lainey sat on one kitchen chair eating crackers and milk...they were feeding eachother, in silence, every so often Bean would give her a kiss and Lainey would just smile and keep eating! She chased him around calling out his name, she loved having another kid around when she woke up! She didn't care much for Zach because he pulled her hair!

Have I mentioned that both Courtney and Heidi are pregnant? They are, and it's great, next year we'll have 7 kids running and crying all over the place!

We are all doing well and are trying to get over the Post Christmas Blues! Luckily we are reminded of our Savior and that the true purpose of this Holiday is His life. We are so blessed as a family and so grateful for our health and homes!

Love to you all, and Happy New Year.

Snow Part Deux

I know it doesn't look like much, but 3 inches was amazing to us!

We all went out to make snow angels, adn sled in the yard when Jeff got home from work, Brady asked all day if he could, "Get Bundled", to go out! You can't tell from his face, but Zach LOVED the snow and the cold-cold weather. He just looked around and was happy as could be!

Best Place to Live!!

What? Snow?? That is right , it has been snowing here all day. We drove all the way to Herriman for some snow last month and now it has come to us! It is true that kids don't understand temperatures....but that they get used to a certain type of 'outside', and it sticks. Brady ran outside in thin gym pants and bare feet and started throwing snowballs! It wasn't until I told him to come in that he cried because his feet hurt!! Silly kid!

We went out 4 different times already, and when Jeff gets home we will go out again.

Zachie loved his first experience with snow, and he SCREAMED when I brought him inside, I took a video to prove it, but that will come later!

Brady and Colin had a very serious snowball fight, as they both have a pretty wicked throwing arm!

You may ask, Why the "Best Place To Live"??? Summer all year long, with some snow right before Christmas, what more could we ask for?

Lights!

We wanted a cute picture, so we got a funny face one instead!

Zachie slept the entire time, which was great, but the only picture of his first time to the lights is just one of a huge stroller!

There was a high school choir there, and the kids loved it, one girl was dressed in a HUGE poofy dress, Carly made the girl hold her! SO cute!

We went with our cousins to the Ehtel M's Cactus garden last weekend to see lights and have hot cocoa, it was great! It could only have been better if our kids had longer attention spans, we drove longer than the time it took to see the whole place, they were bored and ready to go after about 10 minutes!

Would you like a great recipe??? A sure fire way to get your kids to pee the bed?? Ok, here it is, buy them their 'very-own' hot cocoa a half an hour before bed. Easy and fun!!What a great night!

Santa, A Rite of Passage, DONE!!!

We went to see Santa last week....don't let Brady's smile deceive you - he was terrified, but at the last second I yelled, "I'll give you gum if you smile!" It lasted only a second, but he did it! Zach had just woken up from a nap, so he had sleepy face! But he loved Santa, cuddled into him and relaxed. Check out Brady's FUTURE MISSIONARY badge, he loves it, so funny! He wants to be just like Uncle Newel!

Zachie slept through his First Thank Giving! But he was susre to eat after, notice the messy shirt?! Isn't he the cutest little Indian ever? Jeff had the idea that everyone should dress up as pilgrims or Indians....it was a hit, you should have seen Jeff's outfit (I can't describe it here, he'd be mad, lets just say it was GREAT, for a laugh!)

Here are the boys playing at Gma P's....

We weighed Zach at the Dinosaur Museum, 25 lbs..... 4 heavier than his 18 month old cousin!!!

We set up half of our Christmas stuff before Thanks Giving, only the tree left to do.... Beaners loved the stockings, and Zach just didn't want to be left out! It was very fun...I have 3 Nativity scenes, Beaners likes to get all 3 Baby Jesus' and set them next to eachother.

We had a great time in SLC for the past week. We saw almost all of our family (sorry friends). The kids ran wild and played until they were exhausted, we ate and sat and laughed and relaxed.

Jennifer hosted the meal , and it was Beautiful!! She spent hours setting up and cooking to make the day perfect, THANKS JEN! The kids we told to make up a skit, they sang songs, rad stories, did a skit and made up new words to 12 Days of Christmas, making it, 12 Things I'm Thankful for on this Thanks Giving day...so awesome!

We had a great week, thanks to all of our wonderful familes!!!

Halloween

I posted some Halloween Pics, scroll down, they are pretty cute if I do say so myself!!!

YEAH! So we started a BUNCO group....ok, I know, it sounds a bit lame, remember Trina's mom played?

I thought, 'Weird, old ladies playing a game for gifts, why not just buy something for yourself, skip the game?'

But now I have seen the light. Getting together once a month to laugh and talk is the greatest thing ever, forget the prizes!!!

Thanks ladies for playing! Love you all!

p.s. Twilight comes out in just a week! Whooo-hooo, it better be good.

A Cool Idea, Helpfull too!!

So my great friend Car-Pool-Courtney, came up with some questions to get people started on their personal histories, JOURNALS!!, and I think they are genious, and could be a great way to start kids and grandparents talking and remembering together!!

Check out my 'Sites I Love' on the side bar, they are all there!

I am challenging myself to do this too, and am so excited, ENJOY!

Baffins

Here are the boys having 'baffins', in the sink! They had a great time, even when Bean gave Zach a bubble covered binkie!

Talented Boys

Zachie is officially crawling, and he is sooo happy about it! I tried to get just him, but big brother wanted to sing.....enjoy!

what, Halloween?

You may be wondering if we had a great Halloween.... Well we did. Jeff and Brady went to a Rodeo, thank you Matt and Dallin. Zach went to bed early, and I watched UGLY BETTY and read a book. AWESOME NIGHT!! We did a bunch of other Halloweenie things so by the actual day I was a bit sick of it! So here are my chubby pumpkin and my army guy! Pretty dang cute if you ask me!

The Big 3

Thanks Isaac for the great blue balloon....no we are not sure where it went! (; maybe it went outside and flew away like Colin said!

Brady's Birthday was really fun, except for the parts where he dropped 2 eggs and then all the FINISHED cupcakes onto the floor!

Don't worry I made all new cupcakes!

Jeff bought Beaners a Yankees coat, which he loves and wears to watch movies! A lot of family and friends called to sing to him, each time he got shy and hid his face, which he also did when we sang to him at his party!

Grandpa Bobbus was here which was also very special for us. Brady loved each of his gifts, and was so excited playing with them that he even let Carly and Colin open a few!

We had a great time, and now Brady is a BIG 3 Year Old, which he really likes! Love you Son!

Busy Week

Cute baby Zach! He found Brady's 3 day old brownie on the floor and ate it....Can you tell he liked it? First of all, I was making cake and thinking 'I have THE BEST baby, he's just in there playing and having a great time'. Well, he was, but ya know this wasn't what I had in mind! He also SCREAMED when I took it away! Check out the new grin he pulls, I love it!

Red Rock Hikers

We hiked up Red Rock a few weeks ago, it was so nice outside we stayed a few hours. Zach loved his first hike, granted he 'rode' the entire time!
We found a tiny cave the kid had snacks in, and threw rocks out of.

There was a hole in the top, so they all looked down in on us, pretty cool.

Halloween Carnival

We went to a school carnival last weekend with our great buddy Spencer D....aka Buzz Lightyear. (we don't know the other boy!) There was a bounce house, hoola hoops, basketballs, games and prizes, very fun! Brady tried the cup cake walk, but didn't win and gave up, but he loved the donut game, NO HANDS, so funny! We had a great time, followed up by, as Bean says, 'Hot Chocolate Milk'.

I forgot to mention, Brady is an 'Army Guy', it came with the best accessories, a hat and a small machete....other than that he had no opinion about what to be for Halloween. You'll see more pictures after Halloween.

my boys

I did something crafty!!We made these great cupcakes for RS this past week, way fun! Beaners carved a pumpkin... it rotted already, we bought more. Zach can stand a little, he is so proud! He LOVES baby crackers! FOOODDDD!! What awesome boys I have! (oh jeff is great too!!!)

Baby Steps....Almost

Zach is getting too big to carry so I am hoping that this almost crawling thing turns into great crawling and walking.... This is a progression of pictures. He lays flat, then gets on his toes and arches his back, we call it 'getting up high'. He is also standing while holding on to things, a bit wobbly, OH and he broke a bottom tooth today! WOW, what talent. The best is that he squeals and screeches i love it! Enjoy!