The Christmas Tree

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year with Steve's family. Once the dinner is eaten we all immediately switch to Christmas mode. We got up early on Friday and went and cut down our Christmas tree. (I was lame and forgot my camera) In the past it has taken Steve a long time to pick out the tree. He loves Christmas and the tree has to be perfect. This year, thankfully he did in record time. We came home put on the lights and decorated the tree later that night. We decided to get it up fast so we could enjoy it before leaving for California for Christmas this year.

Kyle loved decorating the tree this year. He got so excited about all of his ornaments, especially any with his name or picture on them. I loved how he really got into it this year. I had so much fun just watching the boys get excited about the tree. It's amazing how your kids just make each holiday so much more special and enjoyable.

Jackson would look like this every time we put his ornaments on the tree, he just wanted to carry them around all night. Luckily each fit, and there were many, didn't last very long.

Finally understanding that the ornaments go on the tree.

The Finished product! Most of the ornaments were on the bottom of the tree, so we had even things out once the boys went to bed that night.

Girls can play football too!!

The leaves are changing, there is a crisp to the morning air, time for football. Anyone who knows me knows I love football!! (kami I still wish you were a BYU fan, just think of all the memories we could have) I haven't played powder puff football since high school, and thought it was a great time to play again. I had such a huge response from the girls in the original Cranberry Farms ward (before we split 2 weeks ago =( )! We had 20 girls show up to play!!! Thanks so much girls it was awesome!!! I have to give a shout out to our awesome referee Brady Fife. He was very brave to risk the possibility of making 20 women very angry at him including his wife. Steve took a lot of great pictures of everyone. Just a warning about the slide show, it has a lot of pictures, so I hope you have some time.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thanks to all who were able to come. We missed all who couldn't. Lets do it again next Sat at 10. If anyone wants any of these pictures just let me know and I will email them to you.

Halloween

This year we had a massive truck or treat with four wards. It was fun to see all of our friends who are no longer apart of our ward. We ran out of candy well before it was over and had to recycle some of the boys candy for latter trick or treaters. It was tons of fun. We later went over to Steve's parents house and ate chili and some fresh brewed root beer. =) Thanks to my neighbor Michelle Acree, Kyle actually had a costume. I procrastinated Halloween because Kyle's birthday party took so much effort, that he almost had a sorry looking costume. Thanks Michelle for putting him together.







Our neighbor Oliver is an umpalumpa (sp?) and Nicole was Willie Wanka Johnny Depp style. They win best costume!!

The Greatest Show on Earth

Steve's parents were generous enough to take the whole family to the circus last Friday. I am not sure who had more fun me or the boys. I just thought it would be a lot of really weird Carney people there, but a lot of the performers have some serious talents. I still can't believe some of the tricks I saw that night. It was so so much fun!! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for such a great night!!

We parked at the conference center, steve's brother got us all tokens so we could park for free. We took traxs from there. Kyle was so excited to ride the train to the circus. He told everyone who would listen that we were going to the circus. It was cute. Jackson of course loves anything his big brother does.


We were only on trax for a block or two, but the boys still loved it.


Jackson and dad


Family pic


We got to meet the animals before the show started. They had a ton of tigers too.




Lots of little boy eye candy. Tigers, elephants, horses, pirotechnics, dogs catching frisbee's and etc. Can life get any better.

4th of July

This 4th we decided to stay home. Why leave when you happen to live by fireworks that people from all over the county drive to see. We had a quiet dinner with our friends Dustin and Nicole. The boys just ran around stepping/falling on each other's food while we ate. It was great! It's fun to watch them be so active and crazy. Love how Oliver is right in the middle of it. We unfortunately didn't get any pictures with the Lesueur's, thanks for a fun evening.

After dinner we all went to some neighbors house for dessert and firework fun. The guys there were so hilarious. It was almost as good as a monster truck rally. We had fireworks, daring stunts, and even a parade of fire. Luckily nobody got hurt, and we all had a good time. The fireworks were great, and we had a great view. I love fireworks reminds me of all the fun memories I had growing up on this day. Lots of water skiing, eating ice cream with my cousins and stay up as late as we wanted too. Here are a few pics of all the action


Kyle and Cannon just taking in all the action, at least for a few minutes. These calm moments never seem to last very long.


Spencer Dent jumping over the fireworks. It's funny to see guys get a little crazy once they start playing with fire. Reminded me of my brother, he would have totally done that too.


A few of the guys ran down the street with these in their hands, and I have the picture to prove it, well sort of.


Here is a close up view of what they were holding.



Jackson wearing Spencer's hat. It was so funny watching him run into things.


The magic!!! LOVE FIREWORKS, I just think they're pretty.

FINALLY LEARING TO RIDE A BIKE!!

My neighbor and I have been trying to get our boys to ride a bike for forever. They both insisted they never wanted too! A few Sunday's ago we were outside talking about it and the boys decided they were ready to give it a try. We were not about to let this moment pass, we got their helmets on and surprisingly enough they caught on pretty fast. They are still very slow, but they are peddling on there own. (I tied a rope to kyle's bike last year and pathetically ended up pulling him everywhere)


Just a little push


He's doing it!!!




Kyle and Gavin having a 1 MPH hour race, meaning the first to go 1 MPH wins. Just kidding we are very proud of his new accomplishment, and it did take a lot of effort on his part. We just need the rain to go away before we have to start all over again.

Cancun

Steve and I were able to get away from the snow, and chill on the sunny beaches of Cancun last week. We weren't sure we were going to make it there at first. We got a flat tire on the way to dropping the kids off at Steve's parents house and it set us back a 1/2 hour. When we finally got to the airport every high school kid in Utah was apparently going on a spring break international trip. With the huge school trip the line was so long. Once we finally made it up to the counter we realized that my passport has not been changed into my married name. I didn't bring any id except for my passport, so we had to pay 50 bucks to change my name back to Brandi. We are however grateful that we did in fact make it safely to Cancun.

The weather was beautiful, in the high 80's all week. I saw people swimming as early as 7:00 am in the ocean. The nights were very warm too. While we were there we did two different tours. We went to chichinitza (sp?) which is some of the ruins near by. They took us to a sink hole and an modern day Mayan village along the way. The sink hole was just this beautiful hole in the ground that opened into a large well. There were tons of foliage, birds, and fish; it was awesome. We got some bad information and was told to not bring our suits, so I was bummed when we saw everyone swimming in it. Chichinitza was amazing! I just kept thinking about the lamenites and Nephites the whole time we toured it. Our tour guide really new his stuff and I was just amazed at how creepy the Mayans were. It seemed like everything involved human sacrifices. Some of it was pretty gory, but in the same note they were very intelligent people. There architecture was amazing, and there understanding of math and astronomy was remarkable. I couldn't believe how many of their structures are perfectly in tact after all these years. It was very interesting and we really enjoyed it.

A few days later we went on a snorkel tour. They took us to a reef that was 1 1/2 hours outside of Cancun by boat. It was located a few miles off of a little island now used as a bird sanctuary. I was so scared of sharks, but really excited to do something that to me felt so crazy. The boat had to anchor 100 yards from the reef as to not disturb the habitat. It felt so far away. I kept thinking 100 yards is far away when say a shark is circling around you. Of course nothing dramatic happened, it was a lot of fun and we saw lots of interesting sea life, including a sting ray. Steve happened to see a shark and an eel resting underneath a reef. I however missed out on such a rare spot, it's probably better that way. Steve had a really good time also, and we have decided to snorkel around the world. (Actually my idea, Steve just smiled and nodded his head when I mentioned it to him) After the snorkeling they took us to the bird sanctuary and gave us a tour of the island. They also cooked us lunch, which was probaly the best meal we had the whole trip. They smoked some kind of Bass, it was delicious. The water at the island was so calm, hardly any waves at all. A Manta Ray kept swimming by the shore, and our guide went out and petted it. We really had such an amazing day.

The rest of the week was spent laying by the pool or the ocean just enjoying the serenity. Steve went golfing one morning and I tagged along and drove the cart and read my book. We went and walked around downtown Cancun a few times too. We had a great time together, and were really excited to see our boys once the trip was over. It was a really nice break for me, I didn't even get upset when Kyle randomly pooped his pants last week. I am glad I have such a wonderful and fun husband, and great kids. I think Cancun could help me remember that again, say sometime next year, anyone want to come.

slideshow - Powered by Smilebox" src="http://www.smilebox.com/globalImages/blogInstructions/blogLogoSmilebox.gif" width=420>

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Tagged

So I never do these, but I promised Susan I would. It seriously takes me forever to think up something even remotely interesting. I have been thinking about this for a few days and nothing special has come to mind, but I am going to do it anyways. I really love reading others blog when they get tagged.

10 YEARS AGO: I was going to Ricks college in Rexburg Idaho freezing to death. I had never experienced a winter quit like that, I couldn't even walk anywhere without falling a hundred times.

5 THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST: Fold laundry, Make my bed, play a game with Kyle, thats about it, today is Saturday I really don't want to do anything.

5 SNACKS I ENJOY: Sprite, Sprite (I love soda), apple pie carmel apple from disneyland or rocky mountain chocolate factory, gushers watermelon fruit snacks, Black Forest gummy bears.

5 PLACES I'VE LIVED: Tucson, AZ; Danville , CA; Rexburg, Id; Malmo, Sweden; Lehi, UT =)

WHAT I WOULD DO IF I SUDDENLY BECAME A BILLIONAIRE: Pay off my house, and travel to Sweden so I could have their yogurt one last time, donate to charity? What could you do with a billion, seems like way too much. Although Mitt makes it look good. Maybe a house in the Hamptons.

5 JOBS I'VE HAD: MOM =), Human Resources @ SJC, Water dept @SJC, US Bank (loved being a teller), Whole Grain Bakery (ahh some good memories)

5 THINGS YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME: I have a twin sister that has blue eyes and blonde hair, I have a bad habit of biting my nails, (I am sure you all know that because you have seen me do it) I LOVE watching college football and the Jazz ( I hate missing a game), I am scared to death of Sharks (I have atleast one scary shark dream about every other week), I want to go on the amazing race.

Now I tag: Cheryl Wellman, Tari Brandi, Becca Brandi, Kami Adamson, Mindy Holman

Rest of Disneyland

Here are the rest of the pictures we took at Disneyland. Steve is not in a lot of these pictures. He decided he liked being the photographer rather than getting sick on all the rides. I should have taken more pictures of him when did ride them. We had such a blast as a family. This vacation is going on top as the best Vacation ever so far. I can't wait to go back. Disneyland anyone next February?

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

The Dream Suite

So on our last full day at Disneyland my niece Brittany won their Grand Prize, a night in Walt Disney's apartment with her family called the Dream Suite. She was randomly picked as the winner of the prize. (can tell anyone later how it all happened too long for this post) It was absolutely amazing, still can't believe it happened. Disney was really generous to let us the extended family participate in a lot of the activities that my niece and her family won as part of the Grand Prize. We were able to be with them when the Queen of Martygraw (I really suck at spelling, but you get the gest) Queenie and her band introduced us to the suite in front of a large crowd. We then got to go up and get a tour of the Suite. It had a sitting room, guest bedroom with bathroom, master bedroom with grand bath, courtyard, and large balcony over looking Disneyland. (I am a Disney Novice, so I am not sure what we were overlooking) After the tour of the suite my brother and sister in-law Todd and Kim and their family got to go eat at the Blue Byou (sp?). We met up with them after dinner and got to be Grand Marshall's in the parade with them. It felt a little wierd strolling down main street in a double decker bus waiving to all we passed as though we were someone famous. It still makes me laugh when I think about it, it was an experience, but really fun. The Disney staff allowed us to hang out in the suite until after closing, we were then allowed to go out and enjoy the rides with a private party that had rented out the park until 1 am. We of course were losers and only lasted until 11:30. We walked our tired selves and children back to the hotel and crashed. It was really amazing to be apart of something so special.

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Jackson's first birthday

Happy Birthday Jackson!!! You are such a fun little boy and we love you very much. We love having you in our family! We look forward to lots, lots, lots more birthdays!