Princess Jasmine needs a lesson on modesty!!!!

Every year we give our kids an ornament for the Christmas tree that somehow symbolizes their year. This year we are painting little ornaments and Modge Podging a picture from their trip on the ornament. At breakfast this morning Sawyer & Jaycee were discussing who to put on their ornament-Sawyer suggested that Jaycee should put her picture with Princess Jasmine. She got the funniest look on her face and said, "I don't like Jasmine because she shows her body-she needs a better dress!" For those of you who know Jaycee, you all know that she likes as little clothing as possible. I've never let my girls wear tank tops-she is constantly in them around the house or in short crazy dresses. This comment totally made me laugh! What a funny kid. I couldn't believe what Jasmine was wearing as a mom-it's funny Jaycee noticed as a 3 year old kid! We saw her the next day in the park and she was completely covered-she looked much better!

Disneyland

We surprised our kids and took them to Disneyland for Christmas---it was so much fun!!! On the way there Casey had them totally convinced that we were lost-pretty funny. He told me I was "out of play" which meant I wasn't allowed to talk to the kids or even look at them because he didn't trust me! :) This was at Goofy's Kitchen-pretty pricey but worth every penny...it's a lot of fun and the food is good.

Crazy goofy---he really is funny!!! He visited with us for quite awhile. The kids loved it-who am I kidding???-Casey & I loved it too!

Disneyland is decorated so cute for Christmas!!! The CALIFORNIA letters are decorated, the castle is lit, New Orleans square is amazing, Small World is decorated....so much fun at Christmas!!!! We loved it!

Jaycee loved the teacups-she totally made us laugh!! It's fun to see Disneyland thru your kids eyes!

My brother and his wife came also so Melinda and I took Jaycee and Madalyn to Ariel's Grotto for lunch. Jaycee absolutely loved it!!! She told Sleeping Beauty all about her scary dreams and she sat and listened until Jaycee was done. She posed like this with Cinderella-if anyone knows Jaycee this is so not like her to cooperate and be cute especially when a picture is being taken! It was a blast to just watch her!!! Madi was terrified of the princesses! Pretty funny.

Disneyland.....

Shaylee got asked to dance with the High School Musical show at California Adventure...she did great and had a good time!! It was fun to watch her.

Sawyer and I with our drivers licenses....I am glad he won't be driving for reals for awhile! :)

The Haunted Mansion is decorated like The Nightmare Before Christmas...so fun!!!!

Casey & I in line with the girls for Indiana Jones---one of our favorite rides!

Good old Minnie Mouse-it's always so fun to find these silly characters!

Newport Beach

We decided last minute to take the kids to the beach before we left for home...Sawyer and Jaycee had never seen the ocean and we thought they needed to experience that. They all LOVED it!!

I loved this picture of Sawyer and Casey--Casey is such a great dad and Sawyer really looks up to him!!!

Sawyer had so much fun chasing all of the birds. The funniest was when he tried to attack a pelican-he had a very long beak and just stared at him like "I dare you!" Casey and I had to stop him before he got hurt-we weren't sure what the bird would have done! I am glad we didn't find out.

Shay found a few starfish. We are trying to preserve them-she loves the ocean and dolphins so this is right up her alley! The starfish aren't looking so good...dang it! :)

Our special visitor

Has anyone ever heard the story about what it would be like if the Savior came to your house?? It's been awhile but I think of it often still. Tonight I was starting to lose my patience with my kids-it was past bedtime and totally chaotic because my brother and his kids had just left. He gets everyone SOOOO wound up!!! All of a sudden there was a knock at the door-it was Santa. Here I was trying not to scream at my kids and trying to get them to pick up all of the messes so we could go to bed and the jolly fella stopped in to say hello! :) Humbling. They were excited-he brought them a candy cane and let them jingle his bells. Cute. Sawyer kept saying, "Ya-but that's not Santa!" I ignored him and changed the subject and tried to atleast keep it fun for Jaycee. As soon as Santa left Sawyer said, "Mom, that wasn't Santa. That was Brother Pedersen!" Brother Pedersen is Sawyer's primary teacher and is very easy to recognize. He was right!!! We skipped the Night of Sharing tradition our neighborhood does for Santa-you go to the park and sit on Santa's lap and give him a toy to give to a child who wouldn't otherwise have Christmas. We love it but things have been crazy and today snuck up on us so we decided not to go-Casey & the girls had haircuts tonight, all kinds of lame excuses. As he was saying "You're such a great family!" I reminded him we didn't come to The Night of Sharing and he said that was ok. We didn't go to Santa but he made sure to stop by our house to say hello to our kids. Dang it!!! We will NEVER skip it again! Way to start off the month of December feeling all kinds of guilty! :(

Blessings

What a blessing it has been to watch this beautiful temple be built. I am so grateful for my family-for the knowledge I have that our family is forever. I am very blessed to have such an incredible husband and we together are blessed to be parents to such amazing kids. It brings such peace to my heart to know that the blessings of the temple are real-that no matter what happens in this life we can be together for eternity. I know that this life is such a small part of what really matters...FOREVER!!!

Ahhh!!! Casey and I are soooo blessed!

How it REALLY is when we are trying to take a picture of our kids-sweet Jaycee is spunky and just doesn't like her picture taken! :)

Don't make our dad mad!!!

This morning Casey was making an omelet...Sawyer was being a stink so Casey thumped his head while he had an egg in his hand. This was the outcome!!! He's lucky it somehow broke all over his arm instead of in his hair! :) The funny part is we heard Sawyer tell Jaycee this afternoon, "You better stop that or dad will throw an egg at you!"

Twilight.....

So...I was one of the crazy people who saw Twilight at midnight lastnight. My funny friend ShaLae rented out a theatre and then she made these yummy cookies! I couldn't eat mine until I got home and took a picture of it. So flippin' funny! Love ya ShaLae~thanks for making it happen for all of us! :)
I do have to say I was amazed at how "into it" people are-people dressed like vampires, some were dressed in prom dresses, they were taking pictures at the movie theatre for $10 with a Twilight background, t shirts and charm bracelets for sale, and Village Inn got so crowded before the movie-thank heavens we went way early, what a night! I like to have fun and I loved the books but it made me laugh to see how obsessed some people are. THEY were having fun and living a dream! :) I think it took us ATLEAST 20-30 minutes just to get out of the parking lot-it was nuts! A night to laugh about and remember.

Girls Night Out

Lastnight one of the young women in our ward was in a play at Hillcrest High. I took Alyssa & Shay & Alyssa's cute friend Kelsey to see it...it was fantastic! We loved it! We of course had to go eat before at the only place we ever eat at~Training Table. Yummy! It was fun to hang out with the giggly girls! We bought the new David Archuletta cd and jammed to it in the car on the way there and on the way home-it's so good! Everyone should buy a copy! I am glad my kids still like to hang out with me....I'm sure it won't be long til I embarass them too much. Oh well!

Some people shouldn't have kids.....

Ok-This time I am not referring to me even though I know I am not mother of the year! Today Sawyer was playing at a friend's and Jaycee was at preschool so I ran to Target to get some ideas for Christmas. As I was grabbing my cart I saw a mom walk to the bathroom door which is right by the door to go outside. She had a 2 year old boy and a baby boy that was maybe 6 months old. She had a cart full of stuff she had purchased, it also had her purse and her 2 darling children that are way more important even than the stuff in the cart!!!! I heard her say to her little son, "Stay right here. I have to go to the bathroom and I will be right back." She went into the bathroom and locked the door and left them in the cart outside the bathroom. SERIOUSLY???????? The cart could have easily gone into the bathroom with her-it's the "family bathroom" that is probably made for these situations. I stood close by to make sure nothing happened to the kids and wanted to say something to the mom but I didn't-I just walked away after she was done. Any of you who know me know I am WAY too overprotective as a mom so you know at the store my kids are never out of my sight. BUT I am pretty sure normal mom's aren't that casual. What the heck? I wish I would have said something to her but how do you tactfully say, "Loser! Your kids could have been kidnapped by a psycho. Maybe watch your kids or take them to the bathroom with you. By the way-You're welcome. I made sure they were safe and I'm a stranger so I couldn't talk to them because hopefully you have told them strangers are dangerous!!! Maybe you should turn your kids in for a puppy." See-I'm a little judgemental so I just didn't say anything. Pretty scary!

Now I've Gone To Heaven! NOT

Does this mean I can count the glorious fave drink as breakfast for reals???????
How would it taste????? Not so sure about this.....

Sawyer's Testimony

Today we were driving down Bangerter Highway and passed the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Sawyer started to tell me he had a testimony so I asked to hear it. He said, "I know the church is true. I know Heavenly Father is true. I know that heaven isn't very far away."

Incredible! Amazing little Trent passed away Tuesday so we have had a lot of conversations in our house the past couple of days. We have NOT discussed where heaven is so that blew me away he had thought about that. It's amazing how much these little kids understand...I learn so much from my sweet kids.

Happy Birthday Shay!!!!

I always let my kids choose their favorite lunch on their birthdays and I go eat with them in the cafeteria. It cracks me up...a simple Arctic Circle hamburger and shake makes all the kids so jealous! It would be fun to bring lunch for the whole class-I'm too cheap!

Shay's cute soccer ball cake we made-Casey did a great job decorating it! I had no idea how to make a soccer ball.

Our family-Shaylee has been SOOOOOO excited for her birthday to come and today she got sick. She has a horrible headache! Sad! So we did the best we could-had her open her gifts, blew out the candles and tucked her in bed. She is always so thoughtful and loving on everyone else's special day, it breaks my heart she had to be so miserable on hers. We sure are blessed to have her in our family~she teaches every one of us so much about being selfless and loving. We sure love ya Shay!

Mean Uncle Casey

Casey LOVES to make cute little Logan cry...he is so mean! I don't know how our kids have survived him-he's such a big tease! Check out the look on Cammi's face in the top picture-she wants to kill her big bro! :)

Costume Drama (Still).....

SERIOUSLY?????????????????? Whatever!

Adventures in the Pantry!

My Shaylee is such a funny kid-she is always doing something crazy that cracks her up! :)

I opened the pantry today to get some macoroni and saw a paper that said "read"...it's almost her birthday so I thought it might have something to do with that. Wrong! I put these pictures on in the wrong order and I didn't flip the top one but I THINK it says "Help I am hanging on a cliff over a volcano so please help!!!!!! It is right by a ladder only it is 5 feet away." then there is a bunch of jumbled writing. The other piece of paper has a picture of a person with a ladder that is 5 ft away. I can't wait til she gets home from school so she can give me an explanation! Silly girl-she is probably giggling to herself at her desk at school wondering if I found her silly trick yet. :) I love being a mom!

Crazy Corn Maze

Tonight for family night we went to the Crazy Corn Maze with the Hicks-we had a lot of fun! Jaycee was so funny-she said she was "scared of this forest!" Made me laugh. Casey was the hero of the night-he was able to read the map and get us out of there-those mazes are crazy! I
don't have a clue how he knew where we were. Good thing he's a hunter! :) We always have fun with the Hicks...even Jaycee and Easton ask to play with eachother. I think they got tired of everyone playing with someone and since they are the youngest they get left out of the fun. It's a blessing to have great friends!

Why Heavenly Father only gave me one son.....

Sawyer just came running in from the backyard-he was SUPER excited and was yelling, "Who wants to see the huge spider I just killed before I throw it in the garbage?" I am completely terrified of spiders and he is always bringing me potato bugs or live crickets-makes me lose my appetite for the entire day! Gross!!! SO....when I heard what he had to say I was terrified with what I was about to find. I was totally relieved to see a DEAD very SMALL spider squished on a rock instead of a huge spider crawling in his hand. What a crazy boy!!! Look how proud he is of his kill....natural "hunter" like his dad! Lovely! :)

Super Fun!!!!

So...this is what it looks like when the dishwasher breaks at our house!!! It seriously sucks to wash ALL of your dishes by hand-be grateful for your dishwashers! I turned on the dishwasher this afternoon and smoke started coming out of it-probably not a good sign!? It's dead. After piling dishes on 3 dish towels on the counters I decided the dishwasher might be a great place for the clean dishes to dry~thank heavens it's good for something, right? Who says I'm not an optimist??? haha Hopefully we can decide which dishwasher to buy soon so I can do the million other things on my list-funny how many conveniences we take for granted until we don't have them anymore! We are pretty spoiled!

Shay the Soccer Star!

I LOVE this picture-the action was all on the other end of the field so I thought it was safe to ask her to smile for a picture...she smiled but kept her eyes on the field! :) Her mom is obviously NOT athletic and doesn't understand the importance of paying attention when you are playing a game!

Shaylee has really become such a good soccer player! Her coach has her play goalie a lot-she used to complain but he tells her she's good at it and that's where he needs her. I think that has boosted her confidence! Casey usually sits behind the net and helps coach her but he was hunting this weekend-I usually get anxiety when she is goalie and Casey is gone but she seriously did so good! I was so proud of her-she was confident and excited. She blocked most if not all of the balls (what a bad mom that I can't remember for sure!) and then scored 2 goals in the 2nd half of the game. Way to go Shaylee!!! Last year was fun to watch-this year it's fun but so much more competitive so it's hard to watch as a mom. She has amazing coaches and plays with some fun girls. Only one more game until Spring...it will be weird to not have soccer games on Saturdays for awhile!

Ward Halloween Party

Our ward Halloween party was tonight-our ward is seriously the best! We always have a great time!!! I don't know if I am getting older and more aware of my blessings or what but I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be around so many awesome people! They all make me want to try harder to be a better person. My kids have the best teachers and the girls have incredible leaders for Activity Days. What a blessing. Casey and I dressed up like nerds. (hahahaha!) Just like every day! :) Jaycee was going to be Belle--at the last minute she decided she wanted to wear this LOVELY Santa dress my mom bought her last year (thanks mom!) so she was Santa. Silly girl! I'm learning to pick my battles...what do you do? Sawyer is a soldier like his grandpa-he's pretty excited about that! Shay is a devil...not at all fitting! :) And Alyssa is obviously a cheerleader. Fun times!

Devil Child!

I think that as a mom we live for the FUNNY or SWEET moments with our children to keep us going!!! My kids wanted canned pears and canned peaches before bed. I dished Jaycee some peaches and cut them into bite size pieces-when I cut them she got SOOOO mad and went completely ballistic. Not sure how to spell that word but you know what I mean! I ignored her. I turned around to see her trying to tip a chair over and Sawyer all of a sudden said, "Devil child, devil child!" It made me and Alyssa and Shaylee laugh so hard. What a nerd!

Chick-Fil-A fundraiser for Trent

Hello everyone! Chick Fil A is doing an awesome fundraiser on Monday to help Trent's family. Chick Fil A at The District will donate 20% of their sales for the day, they are having a silent auction from 12-7 with items donated from local businesses and the community, and will also give a free chicken sandwich coupon for your next visit with every $10 cash donation. Amazing! The Southtowne, Layton Hills Mall and Newgate Mall in Ogden are also participating by donating a percentage of their sales on this day also! I have sent an email to all of you that I have email addresses for-if you would like the flyer emailed to you so you can forward it on please call or leave a comment with your email address. Please go eat a yummy sandwich and know you are helping a family that will really appreciate it! IF you for some reason can't make it to Chick Fil A but would like to help I would be happy to get your donations to the family. I won't give you a free chicken sandwich but I will take your donation for them! :)

Prayer

I know there is power in prayer. I know that Heavenly Father loves us-that He is aware of us during our life here on earth. That the things that matter to us really do matter to Him. I also know that we are here to grow and to learn and to become what He wants us to become. I don't really believe in coincidences...I really think that everything happens for a reason. I have always wondered why we have relationships-deep ones like marriage and family and good friends...more distant ones like great neighbors and people we see in passing. I know we have an impact on eachothers lives, that we can grow thru eachothers trials and become something better than we ever imagined during our journeys. Heavenly Father is always there to guide us. We know a family from our old ward who have a son who has fought a very long battle with cancer. He is darling...he is Shay's age. They found out yesterday that his leukemia is back and they are bringing him home to spend some time with him during his last little while on earth. I can't imagine what they are feeling-my heart breaks for his mom because I am a mother and because I think the world of her. Please keep the DuVal family in your prayers...I know they need all of the strength and faith that they can get. If you want to feel totally inspired check out cute Trent's blog-there is a link on mine. Amazing boy-we all have so much we can learn from him.

Family Pictures

Alyssa & Shay
Sawyer & Jaycee
All 4 of our kids
Jaycee & Casey when we were done...she looks happy, huh?

We did family pictures tonight-I am excited to get them back! These are some pictures I took with our camera while we were up there! I really thought it was going to be a huge disaster! I did Jaycee's hair the way she wanted it and right when I finished she went to her bedroom-slammed her door, ripped off her sweater, tore out her headband and said she didn't want to get her picture taken! Yikes! She was actually really cute and fun for the most part during pictures but she was ticked when I snapped this picture of her walking with her dad after. She makes us laugh. It was fun to see our kids-they were all so cute. These memories will be priceless, they are growing so fast.

Perspective....

I went to the "Coke Store" today to get a diet coke and put gas in the Expedition while I was there. :) I got excited when I pulled in because I saw gas was $3.44 a gallon. For a minute I thought, "Holly cow! That's cheap!!!" Then I realized it really isn't cheap-it's just better than $4.00 a gallon. Seriously crazy! I was happier paying $72.00 to fill my car instead of $95.00 but won't it be nice if gas comes down to below $3.00 again!? I think in high school it was only $1.00 or less. Crazy how times have changed! So it's better than it was but it will be nice if it gets even better...right?

Dinosaur Museum

Cute crazy kids...I don't think they were supposed to be climbing on the exhibit SO I hurried and said "Guys-Say Cheese" then I told them to get down!
Silly Jaycee buried herself in the sand-her pants were FULL of sand. Nice! I had just vacuumed the car of course.....
Sawyer and Jaycee had a great time in the sand and water table-messy is great when you are a kid!
Jaycee and her friend Kennedy-they are always so silly together!

Today we went on a field trip with Sawyer and Jaycee's preschool to the Dinosaur Museum. The girls were off track so they got to come too-it was a lot of fun! Tonight Sawyer begged us to take him to Petco-he loves it there! I took him to get new shoes last week and he talked me into to going to Petco-then he made my mom take him again-now he's been bugging Casey about it ever since he got home from hunting. I think we are the only family that hung out at Petco on a Friday night. Good times! I love how simple kids are-the free entertainment is always the best!
It's been a fun day!

Casey's home!

So Casey went hunting for the weekend-he actually got home Tuesday but I have to say it is so nice to have him back! He LIVES for hunting-I am glad he loves it-but it's always nice to have him back! We all really missed him. He didn't get a deer-bummer! I mean that seriously and sarcastically!!!! Bummer for him, a tiny bit of a relief for me (although I know it would make him so happy so it would have been fun for me in that way.)
Sawyer has such a huge tendency for croup and Casey handles it, he remembers having it as a kid so he is so awesome at helping Sawyer thru it. Sawyer woke up Saturday with a croupy cough but no croup-he played his soccer game and did fine. Not 100% but he played. Sunday he woke up with croup at 7 am-I gave him a steroid I had on hand from his pediatrician and had him miss the Primary Program (the girls did great! It was THE BEST primary program ever-so spiritual and sweet!) and took him to my mom's. Monday morning-same story-croup at 7 am...missed preschool. Tuesday morning at 1:15 I woke up to hearing him and knew he was in trouble-he could not breathe! So scary. I started the steamy shower, tried to get him to relax and prayed so hard...so weird to have Casey gone and not have the Priesthood in our home during a moment like this! I knew in my heart I couldn't get things under control so I called my sis-in-law Melinda to come sit with the girls and a neighbor to come until she got here and booked it to the ER. They were great-the breathing treatment they gave him had him breathing and asleep within a minute. This has only happened to this extent one other time-it was when Casey was home alone with the kids and I was at St. Mark's Hospital after having Jaycee so he has had to do this alone too. What an experience! This picture is of him in the ER...they put the thing to check his oxygen on his birdie finger...funny...I told him he looked like ET! Such a cute kid and we are glad he is ok and our daddy is home! :)
WAY different note-I hope everyone got to go to Women's Conference! My friend Erin had an extra ticket so I got to go to the Conference Center with her-amazing talks. I LOVED President Uchtdorf's talk...we are so blessed to have inspired leaders to help us prioritize our lives and lead us during such crazy times. I am excited for General Conference this weekend!