Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

We woke up to this beautiful morning a couple of days ago.Later that same day Josh, Uncle Joseph, and the girls built these awesome snowmen. I didn't even realize we had that much snow.

Our First Snow

Our annual Gingerbread house night at mom and dads! You can't tell really well in the picture but our gingerbread house has a FOR SALE sign since all our properties are for sale right now! However, GOOD NEWS, today we signed a contract for someone to buy the spec house!!

Brody's Gingerbread GREEN house

Shari and Bailey made Santa's workshop. They did a great job, they made reindeer out of tootsie rolls and even had Rouldolf with a red nose! What cuties.

We had a great time! Our family is busy getting ready for Christmas and enjoying time with family. Jamie asks multiple times a day when it is going to be Christmas so she can open her presents.

Look how we have grown!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Josh's family and then again the next day with my family! That weekend we got busy putting up the Christmas Tree.


I tried to get a picture of the kids but this was the best I could do all of the other pictures at least one kid is crying.Jonas turned 6 months old and is such a joy in our family.

And the girls just love him, if you couldn't tell!

AND EVERYONE loves GRANDMA.

When Shari and Jamie were babies Josh would sit them in his lap, turn on music, and then move there hands along to the beat of the drums. In the video below you will see the effects of that!




Also on Thanksgiving weekend we had a family reunion and Grandma's Christmas Party. The video below is part of the song we sang for our talent. If you listen closely you will even hear Jamie sing a few times!

Where did the time go?

Where have we been? SICK. It seems like we spent most of Oct. and Nov. sick. We started with the Swine Flu. Everyone but Jamie and Jonas got that and it lasted for a week. Then determined not to get the regular flu too the girls and I got the flu shot. I have never had the kids get the flu shot but since it is Shari's first year in school I knew we would be exposed to more germs then ever so I thought we would try it this year. The district health didn't have the shot but they had the mist and said that would be fine for us and even recommended it over the shot so we said okay. Well the next day Jamie had the flu and she got so sick. One night she cried and moaned almost all night and the whole next day so I took her to the doctor. He confirmed that the flu mist had more then likely given her the flu and she was starting to get dehydrated. I had to keep a close eye on her and try to get liquid in. Thanks to a wonderful husband and grandpa, they gave her a blessing and the next morning she was so much better.
Now I have strep throat and have been sick all week. At the same time I was sick Shari got a 24 stomach flu. I'm starting to think maybe we will just hibernate in the house for the winter.
In between all the sickness we did get to enjoy Halloween.


Shari and her 2 cousins

In memory of the first time my mom met Josh he was a punk rocker and I was a hippie (or hippo as Shari kept saying). The first time my mom met Josh was when we were in High School and Josh had spray painted his hair orange for Halloween. Needless to say my mom was alittle worried when we started spending so much time together, but when he came over again looking normal she felt better!

Jamie was suppose to be a princess but she had just recovered from the flu and was really not in the Halloween spirit. So she just put on her favorite dress and let me curl her hair. Doesn't she look excited about Halloween, haha!

Jonas was our chubby little pumpkin! Isn't he cute!

Shari was the cutest pink cowgirl. She loves Halloween and she got to have a party at school and do the Halloween parade which just made everything more fun!

Also somewhere in between sickness we enjoyed a few days in Utah. Below are pictures of the kids at a place called Jungle Jims. They had a great time there and were true friends riding all the rides together. We went in the middle of the week so there was almost no one there so they got to pick any ride they wanted and get right on.

Even mom got to play in this one. Josh had a turn too but we didn't get a picture.

Another day we went to the "Childrens Discovery Center." It was a lot of fun for the kids below are just a FEW of the things they did there.

In this picture they wanted to be just like Aunt Sheila, who will one day fly helicopters! They were playing with the buttons and one of them made the sound of the helicopter taking off, the girls jumped out really fast. It was pretty funny!

Shari made it all the way to the top a couple of times.

Jonas slept through most of the vacation so here's just a cute picture of him at home! He such a good baby (I say that alot, I'm just so happy about it!) and I'm thankful every day for him and the girls.

Last but not least we celebrated our 8th anniversary. WHAT A GREAT 8 YEARS IT HAS BEEN!

Oh ya, and for those of you who are still wondering what my calling was..... I was called as the Primary Chorister. It can be alittle hectic when Josh is teaching his class and I am leading the music but we make it work and I am enjoying it.

Can't Sleep

I don't usually have a problem falling or staying asleep but tonight my mind is racing. (Or maybe it has something to do with the 2 1/2 hr. nap I took today. My philosophy is that if you can take a 2 1/2 hour nap without waking up you must need it!!)
Today I got asked to do a new calling at church and with a new baby it is hard to do about any calling. I really think I would enjoy the calling but I am still worried about it. I have been teaching the 11 year olds in primary and when I had Jonas they gave me 3 months off. I just started teaching again 2 weeks ago and so far that has gone ok but it hasn't been enough time to tell if it is going to work and now they have asked me to do something different. I have never, and never planned to, turn down a calling but I think when you have a new baby you have to take that into consideration. The bishopric will be calling me tomorrow to find out my answer. Oh, what to do. Thank goodness my husband is supportive and will help in any way he can but he is in the young men and also has responsiblies.
Also we are probably going to put our house up for sale and between this house and the spec house (which still has not sold) we will live in which ever one doesn't sell. It wouldn't be all bad, the spec house is beautiful and everything is new but I just don't want to pack up and move AGAIN. Also we do have a person that wants to buy our spec house but they want to sell their home first and who know how long that could take. We want to build our own home one day but we are TIRED. We have fixed up every home we have lived in for the past 6 years and it seems like we constantly have a project to work on. It has been great but now that this home is 98% done we just want to enjoy it and rest for awhile. Our luck we will sell the home we are in now and move to the spec house, sortly after that someone will want to buy the spec house, and then watch out mom and dad because we are moving in with you!! HAHA
Well, its 1am and now that I have that off my chest maybe I can go to sleep.
Oh, one more thing for you out there who like to scrapbook or just like pictures for that matter. There is a website called ARTSCOW.COM, it is really cool with tons of free stuff. Check it out!

Growing So Much

3 months old

Daddy's Little Boy

Busy Bees

We have been busy bees working in the yard the past few weekends. Josh has been building a shop AND putting in the sprinkler system at the same time. Thanks to a lot of help from Josh's dad and Joseph we are finally finished with the sprinklers.
Jamie and Shari were big helpers too! Even I got out there and was digging in the dirt.
Is Josh helping or just supervising??

Josh and Alan only cut 2 sewer lines when they were digging the ditch for the sprinklers so we had a couple of extra big holes.

After a hard day of work Jamie fell asleep in the swing.Shari is just faking it!

Shari starts SCHOOL

Shari's first day of school was Aug. 24th. She was pretty nervous at orientation on Friday but by Monday she was ready to go! She is having a great time and is making new friends. The second day when she got home from school she had a crying melt down about three times over little tiny things, I think she was a little STRESSED OUT. But things have been great since.

Her favorite part of the day is riding the bus home from school. She gets dropped off just behind our house and she wouldn't even let me meet her at the bus stop she wanted to do it herself so I took this picture from the very corner of our yard! On the second day I stood on our back step and watched her walk home. She got about half way and yelled, "mom, go in the house!" Man, its a good thing I didn't try to give her a BIG kiss when I dropped her off!

I forgot to take a pict. at the school on the first day so we took one on the 2nd day. By then I think Jamie was getting alittle jealous so we had to take one of her at the school too! It is going to be an adjustment for Jamie to not have Shari with her all of the time. There have been a couple of time that I told her she could go play at grandma's house but she didn't want to go unless Shari was going to. She plays really well at home by herself though. And she has taken a nap almost everyday when Shari is at school, I don't know if she is bored or just really enjoying the quiet time!!

Where did summer go?

Shari is starting school on Monday (tears) and I can't believe it is finally here, the day I will send my baby to kindergarden. She is so excited and that helps take away some of my nervous. So where did all the summer days go?
In July we had a family reunion on my dad's side of the family. We had a lot of fun! Below is Shari with some of her cousins playing an obstacle course game.

Also for part of the reunion we spent the day at the Pocatello Pool, the kids had a fun time there once it stopped raining on us! Josh, Jonas, and Jamie just trying to stay dry. While waiting for the rain to stop we went to the zoo across the street and then that afternoon got back in the pool.

Shari, Bailey, and Grandma! What BABES!

We also spent some of our summer days at the pool with friends. Jamie is trying to show Ana how to go underwater.

And of course, swimming lessons. The first few days were a battle to get the girls to get in the pool. Shari took a few minutes to feel comfortable and Jamie took a few days! Finally one of the days I got in the pool with her and that help a lot and she was able to get in by herself after that.

Below is a picture of them playing their favorite game, "what time is it Mr. Shark."

I'm sure Shari is telling Jamie just how she is suppose to be doing something!

Is any one tired of swimming yet??

Well after a long day at the pool there's always time for a nap!

Jonas is actually sucking his thump in the above pict and he does it all the time. Which is really great because when I lay him down he just finds his thumb and goes right to sleep. Below he is taking a nap with his cousin Brooke.

Last, its not summer without a day in the mud. Shari and uncle Spencer made a mud hole to play in, unfortunately I didn't know Shari was in the mud with her nice white shirt on until it was to late.

Josh spent most of his summer days out in the sun working, they have been very busy. He has also has been busy at our house putting in our sprinkler system and building a shop. Once both those things are finished we'll probably decide we will move into the spec house after all and the fun will start all over again! (Let's hope not!)

Hope everyone else had fun things to do this summer too.