Christmas!

I know this is extremely overdue and I have had a couple phone calls from certain people harassing me because I haven't updated (you know who you are!!) So, here is a quick-crazy abbreviated version of our Christmas. All of the pictures are in weird order-I don't have them time to put them all in chronological order--so deal with it :) For Christmas this year we headed to Salt Lake on the 23rd. We stayed at Brian's parents house, along with his sisters and their families, so it was a FULL house. The kids loved it-always someone to play with. On Christmas eve Brian's mom had all of the kids over to make candy trains, it was such a cute idea. I think Porter ate more candy than he put on his train. Then that evening we went with my family for our traditional Christmas eve dinner with my dad's family. We used to have it at my Grandma's house every year but we have grown so much we now have it at the church house. I love it because the kids can run all over and no one cares! (I don't have any pictures of half of the stuff we did because--I forgot my camera!!DUH! Brian's dad let me use his for most stuff, but I missed alot of things too, like Brian in a fireman outfit-seriously SOOO HOT!! :) ) That night the kids opened their jammies. And the next morning Santa came and spoiled everyone. After the kids opened presents and we could get them dressed we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Downward's house for Christmas breakfast and more presents!!! We had a great holiday and had fun seeing everyone! Enjoy all of my random pictures of our wonderful Christmas!!

All worn out!!

One of the many pictures Aspen made us using her art supplies!!

Porter's backpack from my parents--he loves his monkey "packpack"!

Brylee's cute hat from my mom!

Porter got a tool kit from Santa and it came with safety goggles--so cute--gotta love the boogers!!
After taking off the safety glasses!

Aspen's pink binoculars--so she can see the coyotes!!

Porter sharing his Geo Trak with Hayden!

This was a failed attempt to get a picture of all the kids Christmas morning! Porter wouldn't even try!

A new "heehee!!"

Porter's tool kit and a beautiful shot of Brylee!!

I am thinking they should get started on the makeovers NOW!!!

THE MESS!!!

Porter slept in Christmas morning and Steve just couldn't wait for him to wake up on his own so he drug him out of bed half asleep!!

Candy train assembly! (aka eating lots of candy!)

Not our baby--if you couldn't tell :)--we just borrowed him from Holly! borrowed babies are my favorites!!!

Everybody is so intigued by baby Jackson!

Allright so now I updated--yay me!!!

Porter's 2!!

Porter turned 2 on December 14th! We celebrated at home by ourselves. We had a Truck cake made for Porter. He loved it he kept saying, "My truck birtday take!!" He is obsessed with heehee's (horses) so he got a horse that neighed, and his friend Kady gave him a truck with a horse trailer. He loved it all. Brian and I bought him some nerf guns, and unfortunately they were a little to hard for him to cock, so he has to bring it to us to cock, then he would shoot his sisters, the mounted duck on our wall, the ceiling fan and anything he could see! Porter is just getting crazier and crazier. He has tons of energy NEVER slows down, he has even stopped taking naps!! He is such a stinker, when he does something he knows you don't want him to do, he says "haha" like the annoying kid on the Simpsons. He loves tormenting his sisters, I can't tell you how many times a day I have to say "Porter leave them alone" "Porter don't do that!" "Porter stay out of there!" He loves his Daddy and runs to the door EVERYDAY when he hears Brian's truck come home. He always wants to go to Brian's basketball games "Daddy basitball". Anything Daddy is doing he wants to do! And whenever we get in the car he asks "Daddy work??" He loves to go see Brian at work. When the girls are both gone he misses them so much, he asks for them constantly! Porter has won the hearts of many, people in our ward are always coming to us just to talk to Porter and get knuckles! He even has his first crush, one of my wonderful young women , Hali. She babysits quite often for us and the kids all love her, but Porter will stand at the door crying "Hayee, Hayee" when she leaves. He loves to sit with her at church and kisses her incessantly, I think he is in love (and truthfully I think she loves him too). I have my days when I want to duct tape him to the wall so he can't get into any more trouble, but I wouldn't trade it for anything! He has been so much fun, and he finds something to be happy about everyday, especially if it is something that makes me unhappy! We have to try REALLY hard when he does something naughty to not laugh, but dang he is so cute and 100% all boy and it's so fun!!! We love our Porter B, and are so glad he is part of our family!!!!

This is how I found him in bed after a nap!!! YEP he is a boy!!

Just like Daddy!!

TROUBLE!!!!

Brylee's 4!!

Brylee turned four December 1st, but we celebrated early when my family was up for Thanksgiving. She was spoiled with lots of fun "girly" toys. We had the cutest "My Little Pony" cake made for her--and I have no idea what happened to the pictures of it!! Brylee is quite the character lately, she is very much into anything "girly", princessy, little barbies and pink. She tells me all of the time that she wants to ride a horse "like a princess" (side saddle), and everytime I do her hair, she wants it to look like a princess. We have fights everday because she wants to wear a dress EVERYDAY, if I make her wear pants, because its freezing or she has worn the same dress 3 days in a row, she tells me "You never let me wear what I want!!" and I have a flash forward vision of her as a teenager, and I cringe!! She can also be really sweet, she wants to cuddle and be held alot, she loves to kiss Porter-mostly against his will. Brylee has no volume control and never has and she defintely has a very distinct voice, it's just one more thing that adds to Brylee's amazing personality. If I needed to describe her in one word it would be "personality". She is always been my smallest child, but she has enough spunk and kick to fill a child 5 times her size and 5 times her age, she knows who she is and what she wants all the time and most of the time I can appreciate that. She is thriving in preschool and loves her teacher and classmates. Brylee is so much fun to have in our family, she keeps us on our toes and keeps us laughing. No doubt, she is a little girl with BIG dreams!! Keep dreaming big, Brylee Jean- We Love You!!

Our Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving! My family came up for the weekend. We were constantly going! First, of course, we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner! Yummy!

Here's the spread! Cheese!!

Melinda and her fiance' Issac!

The kid table!

The night after thanksgiving we drove up to the southhills to see a house that puts up a TON of lights and you can walk around their yard and see them. They usually have a camel that you can feed carrots to, but he had other "obligations" (just ask Kristin she will tell you the whole story)

Trying to stay warm!

Aspen's Thankgiving Feast

Aspen's school had a "feast" for the kids at school! They dressed up as indians and pilgrims. I went to the school and helped cut up fruit for the kids, and helped serve the kids. Aspen thought it was great to have me at her school! She loves school and gets so excited for all of the programs and projects they do!

Cory's Home!!

My brother, Cory came home from his mission in Charleston, West Virginia, on Thursday November 19th. We traveled to Salt Lake to be at the airport and spend some time with him. Everyone was very excited to see him, especially Aspen, she talked about it for weeks before. And everyday she would color pictures for him. It was great to see him, I think he grew a couple inches--he is soo TALL! He towers over all of his sisters now!

Here he is coming down the escalator!

The kids all made signs!

Here is Porter's sign! Everyone at the airport thought he was so cute with his sign!

wELCOME HOME CORY!!