December, Christmas, New Year's, Utah

Our December started off fairly normal. Rob and the kids worked tirelessly on their first Christmas puzzle. Alyssa and Ashley can spend hours doing these puzzles! Sadly, I think this was around my last normal day for the next few weeks:( I have never had such a bummer of a December. I started out by getting H1N1 the first week, followed by pneumonia the second week...that wiped me out for the next three weeks. Even once the coughing got better, I picked up one sickness after another. My advice-Get the H1N1 vaccine! My kids were all vaccinated (plus, I think they already had it), and none of them got sick. For that I was thankful!Since Brooklyn & Alyssa both get to go to Activity Days, this year they had to share Rob for the daddy-daughter gingerbread house activity.
At least they could each take pictures for the other:)
Final product...These girls love doing things with their Dad!
All three of the girls take piano lessons from their teacher, Jessie. They love her! The girls all did a terrific job at their Christmas recital! We have had a game group with five couples for the past three years. This year I was in charge of December, and since everyone was busy on the weekends, we decided to do a family night the Monday before Christmas. We had a special visitor come to our party. Luckily, the men were able to pull themselves away from their ping-pong tournament to watch their children sit on Santa's lap:) Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the tournament.
Ashley & Santa...Ashley was my only kid that told Santa she didn't know what she wanted. Ash changed her mind daily. By Christmas Eve she wanted a real dog...She didn't get one.
Hunter may be shy around most adults, but he was not shy around Santa. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he said, "Candy". Wow! Santa could have gotten off really easy this year:)

Alyssa & Santa...She wanted a spy kit.

Brooklyn & Santa...She asked for a Ripstick. She is pretending to be embarrassed because there were boys her age at the party. She was actually VERY excited to see Santa!

A group of the little kids watching Santa leave out of the window...The older kids ran up to the bonus room to watch him leave:)

All 18 kids

These kids actually were all very good. Too bad that all of the boys wanted to play ping-pong, but the "big boys" wouldn't let them.

The night before Christmas Eve, Rob's parents met us at the Mesa Temple and then we went to dinner. I think it was the coldest night we have had all winter...I guess this is winter:)

It was nice to have a complete family picture taken...Thanks, Bob! In case your wondering, my kids did all have coats, but Ashley wouldn't wear hers because she said it made her look fat:( She isn't used to seeing people wear big fluffy coats.

While I was in another room wrapping presents, Ashley, Alyssa and Hunter decided to make a tower with some of the presents from under the tree. Then, Alyssa grabbed my camera and did her own little photo shoot.

She's a pretty good photographer.

How cute is this picture that she took of Hunter?

Where did she come up with these ideas?:)

On Christmas Eve, I was so sick to my stomach, I couldn't do anything. The only contribution I made to Christmas Eve dinner was making Rob's mom's yummy slush. Rob and Brooklyn did everything else! They did a wonderful job!!! I only wish I could have eaten more!I was the first one out of the pass-around, so here is everyone else unwrapping their presents.

Hunter's game

Brooklyn's game

Alyssa's game

And Ashley's game. We played every body's except Rob's and mine.

The girls are so nice to always play with Hunter!

Since I was completely worthless on Christmas Eve, the kids had to find their own costumes for the Nativity. They looked adorable! I love Hunter's face in this picture. He seems to really be adoring a new baby:)

They don't ever last very long before they get silly.The kids in their Christmas PJsRob even made the sugar cookies for Santa with the kids. Sadly, I didn't even get to see what they made:(
Brooklyn's favorite present that she has not yet learned how to ride.
Alyssa's spy kit that she had been begging for.

Once again the girls are playing with Hunter and his toys:) He drove his cars on his new parking garage, and the girls had their zhu zhu's ride down the ramps.
Hunter's favorite present that he hasn't figured out how to steer yet. But he sure looks cute driving it, even if he can't stay on the sidewalk.

On Jan. 30, I took Alyssa to her orthodontist appt. at 7:30 a.m. We then came home and played Wii with everyone. At about 10:00 a.m. we decided that we should go to either San Diego or Utah. Or course the kids all chose Utah. We frantically packed the car and dug out all of our snow clothes, and we were on the road by 12:30. Unfortunately, in all the excitement, neither of us did a weather check for Utah. From Flagstaff to Lehi, we hit one snow storm after another. Even with 4-wheel drive, we had to turn around 30 miles north of Kanab and drive a different route through Hurricane. 12 1/2 hours later, we finally arrived. Since my kids are too smart to surprise anymore, we once again decided to surprise my parents. The next morning my brother invited them over for an early morning breakfast, and we all surprised my parents as they walked in the door. For some reason it never gets old seeing the excitement of surprising everyone:) The kids were all excited to see snow, and Rob was excited to be able to do fireworks on New Year's Eve. It was really cold!!!

Since I have two brand new nephews, some of the adults were lucky enough to watch the fireworks from the window. I can't believe it, but I didn't even get pictures of my two new nephews. Since August, my family has had 4 babies born. The newest addition are Kya, Parker and Case. They are all absolutely adorable! I can't wait to finally meet Kya one day:)

On New Year's we spent the day in the snow. The men and the kids all built snow bunkers for a snow ball fight.

Ryan's looked strong...

But, I think Rob had more helpers.

Ashley finally realized that everyone wears big fluffy coats in the winter.

Even Rufus played in the snow.

I love this picture...Cooper and Hunter just couldn't resist eating the snow:)...Even with the dog running around...YUCK!

Everyone was taking shelter behind a bunker except for Ashley...It wasn't long before Ryan nailed her in the face with a snowball. She definitely looked like the most wounded warrior when she came walking into the house.

In the end, Rob and Adam won...Ryan and my Dad lost. Their bunker got destroyed!

Ryan has a big ice fishing sled that he let the kids take down the sledding hill in front of my parent's house. For some reason he and Rob decided to let the kids pull it up the hill and it took FOREVER!

The kids had so much fun once they went down:)

Grandpa and Cooper

Rob took the kids down and Hunter did not like it...but everyone else did.

The saucer sled was a better fit for Hunter.

Ryan wanted to take Cooper and Hunter down one last time before we went in for the night. Hunter cried the whole way up the hill, and the whole way down.

The boys went rabbit hunting. Apparently, they shot a lot of bullets, but nobody hit anything.

Whitney and Rex

Stephanie and Ryan have some friends that let us come over to their house and ride their horses. Alyssa was the only one brave enough to brush the horse.

These three were all scared to get on the horse, so they had to watch Gracie and Alyssa to make sure it was okay.

They started with the mini horses...

But, eventually they all graduated to the big horses.

Except Hunter:)

Alyssa

I'm not sure Kinzie ever graduated to the big horses, but she sure looked cute riding the mini:)

Gracie

Even Baby Colton rode the horse.

Cooper finally woke up from his nap and joined us. Such a grumpy little face for the little boy that all morning couldn't stop talking about riding the big horse. He quickly cheered up once he went for a ride.

Ashley didn't want to get off...

So she rode the donkey. This stallion got 2 horses pregnant and they both delivered babies on the same day...Wow!
I got the horse with the kids saddle and the itty bitty stirrups. Seriously, I should have just ridden bare back:) I had nothing to put my foot in when it came time to dismount:/ Or course nobody wanted to help me because they were all busy laughing and taking pictures...Thanks guys!

I've known my dad for 32 years and I never knew that he didn't drink hot chocolate...neither did any of my siblings. He told us that he didn't drink it because he got burned as a kid. Once we all teased him and Rob wouldn't let it go, he finally agreed to try it again after decades of not drinking it...His response-"This is actually pretty good." :)

We were in an earthquake the morning that we left to drive home. Unfortunately, everyone in the family except for Kristi slept through it. BUMMER! It was a 2.9...I guess we are all very deep sleepers!

For Hunter's birthday/Christmas present, my parents gave him this water/sand table. He loves it! Finally something dirty to play with:) Rob bought him some army guys and Hunter goes from one person in the family to the next asking them to play war with him. Today he came up to me and told me it was my turn because his dad played with him two times and I had only played with him one time.

Decorating for Christmas, Family BBQ at School, Turkey Trot, Thanksgiving, Day in the Desert, Hunter's Early 3rd Birthday

Christmas decorating starts early at our house. Only I think we were a little late this year, because it was the first year we had all of our neighbors asking us why our lights weren't up yet. 1 1/2 weeks before Thanksgiving, one of our neighbors starting putting up their lights. Rob had already been strategically planning his display for weeks, but he didn't want to seem too eager. As soon as he saw the neighbors had started, he paced the garage and front yard for about 30 minutes, until he couldn't wait any longer. He quickly grabbed his first set of lights and went to work on his masterpiece:) Rob has two daughters that share all of his hobbies...Alyssa and Ashley. They love to hunt, fish, golf and even hang Christmas lights. Ashley was so helpful to check which strands worked, and which ones didn't.Hunter is my only child that has OCD. He spent his time putting all of the boxes into a neat row.
Hunter was fascinated by the village pieces that I put on our mantle. I love his cute reflection in the mirror!
Brooklyn height really came in handy this year. The other 3 kids only decorated the bottom part of the tree, but Brooklyn stood on a bar stool and was able to decorate almost as high as I can:) She was much more diligent that the other kids. She decorated most of this tree for me. Alyssa helped with the other tree, but she only lasted about 15 minutes.
Don't mind the top part that doesn't have lights or all of the branches. I promise we completed it the next day:) We ran out of lights, so this was as good as we could do this night.
Every year the kids have a family BBQ at school. This was the first time that Rob was in town for it. About a week before the BBQ, the school sent home a letter asking us to RSVP and let them know if we were going to buy food at the school, or bring it ourselves. I asked Rob what he wanted to do, and I told him that every year I just grab something at Subway or somewhere else and I bring it to the kids. He insisted on eating at the school telling me we would be missing out on the experience of the school BBQ if we didn't eat the school food. I hesitantly said okay and checked the boxes for the amount of hot dogs/hamburgers that we needed. As soon as Rob saw the lunch, and saw that all the other parents brought their own food, he immediately denied ever telling me he wanted to eat school lunch...After his first bite, I don't think we will ever be eating school lunch again:) My kids sure like it though:)
Apparently Rob missed the memo on the financial problems our schools are having. He raided the ketchup and mustard packets, the plastic utensils, and even the napkins. I had to remind him we weren't eating at McDonalds...Luckily we were able to share some of it with our friends:)
Rob spent at least 30 hours putting up our lights this year (by my calculations). The kids helped with some of it. After days of this madness, Ashley asked me on the way home from school if Dad was going to be putting lights up that day. I told her yes and asked if she liked the lights. She said, "Yeah...but we don't get to see Dad that much":( Luckily at this point he was almost done.

Every year I think there is no way he can add more, but he did it again. Dad, do you have another poem you could write?

Since Ashley helped Rob with the lights across the grass, I guess she thought it was okay to dance and jump between strands. Luckily she didn't break any lights. I can't say the same for myself. A few days ago when I was pulling into the driveway in my car, I heard a crunch...crunch...crunch...crunch. After I realized I was driving over lights, I decided I was already far enough into it, I had better just step on the gas and finish the job. I took out two strands of net lights. I thought that it still looked pretty good, and nobody would really notice, but where do you think we had to go that night?...Michaels...to get new lights:)

Rob and Hunter putting up the train around the tree

Our Thanksgiving morning started with me running the 10k Turkey Trot. It was so much fun and I plan on making this my new tradition. Next year all of the kids want to run the Fun Run as well.

A few of our friends ran the race too. Brooke and Jeremy were a lot faster than me. Look at Jeremy jump that rope:) When I left for my race, Rob told me that he and the kids were just going to stay home and play Wii. I was really sad that they weren't going to come and meet me at the finish line, but I didn't say anything. When I came around the last corner before the finish line, I seriously got tears in my eyes because there on the sideline was Rob and all of the kids. I was so happy to see them! Brooklyn had wanted her own t-shirt so bad, she was luck enough to find one laying around that someone had dropped.

I didn't even come close to beating the turkey, but at least the kids got their picture with him:)

My friend, Kaye, ran this race with me, despite the fact that she is much faster. Sadly this is the best picture I got with her. Our other friends, the Bonds, ran as well.

Since I knew I would be tired after running, I made most of our Thanksgiving dinner sides and pies the night before. I put the turkey in the oven before I left, thinking we would eat about 2:00. The turkey was done so early that we ended up eating at noon. I think that is the earliest Thanksgiving meal I have ever had! Thanks to some help from the girls and Rob. My girls are at the perfect age where they love to help in the kitchen. They all wanted to set the table, and Brooklyn washed all of the potatoes.

The day before Thanksgiving, I made lemon cheese pie. My favorite pie that my grandma always made. When I was making the crust, Hunter asked me what I was making. I told him I was making lemon cheese pie. He said, "No, pumpkin pie!" I said, "No, lemon cheese pie!" We bantered back forth for a while until he went into the pantry and again told me pumpkin pie and proceeded to count all of the cans of pumpkin in my pantry. He then pulled out a can and put it on the counter. That night when we were eating pie, I gave him a small slice of all 3 different pies so that he could taste each one. The only piece he ate was the lemon cheese pie. After he was done, I asked him what his favorite pie was, and he told me pumpkin pie. I told him the one he ate was lemon cheese pie, but he could not admit it was his favorite:)Pumpkin, however, was everybody else in the family's favorite. Alyssa could have eaten pie all night long. I had to cut her off once the sugar high kicked in:)I was a nice wife this year, and I didn't set my dining room table with my Christmas dishes so that Rob could do his annual Christmas puzzle with the kids. This happens to be one more hobby that Ashley and Alyssa share with Rob. Brooklyn read a book while they did the puzzle, and Hunter just knocked the pieces off the table.Once Rob thought he was finally done with his lights, we noticed that a section of our icicle lights wasn't turning on. It couldn't have been a section on the bottom level, it had to be on the top...and at the highest pitch in our roof. To avoid getting on the roof again, Rob climbed the ladder to the opening above our front porch, and stood on the edge to fix the broken bulb. Once again, height came in handy this Christmas:)

The finished product looks so much better in person, but these are the pictures I took.Rob's amazing!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went out to the desert with our friends. We took the rhino and guns to do some target practice. Grace and her friend "Choncho" have a lot of fun together.

Sarah and I looked much cuter as we were leaving on the rhino...

After nearly being shot to death, we arrived safely back to base camp wearing goggles:) Yes, that's right...goggles. Thank goodness Derek and Sam had theirs to let us borrow. I had to take a contact out because of all the sand in my eyes. I kept hearing the theme song for Indiana Jones the whole time we were driving. It seemed like every corner we turned, there was another group of people shooting randomly at targets. We would just have to step on the gas and duck:)

Hunter and Max

Who would grab a cactus??? Oh yeah, Brooklyn would:) She grabbed this cactus and it was really stuck in her hand. Once I was able to get a picture, we started first aid:) Sorry Brooklyn! I have a really good first aid kit that I thought had anything we could possibly need to help us. Unfortunately, I didn't have tweezers in there. Luckily, Sam had a set. This cactus was very stubborn, but eventually we got it all out...I think.

Alyssa won't even admit she is friends with Sam, but they sure seem to get along well together:)

Hunter didn't bother to tell me that he had to go potty. He never has accidents, so of course I was unprepared. He had to go without pants the rest of the afternoon.

These guys sure look like friends to me:)

Brooklyn adores Baby Max! A couple of weeks ago our friends got a new dog. As soon as Brooklyn heard, she said, "Now Richey's have everything on my list...A baby and a dog". I just can't keep up with Joneses.

Ashley and Hannah

Another hobby Ash shares with Rob.

The one safe place we find to shoot has a sign that says "No Shooting". Go figure!

Alyssa is now asking for a pink .22 for Christmas. I'm vetoing the request...I think she is too young.

Once we moved on to the higher powered guns, the kids had to find ways to entertain themselves.

Rob and Derek were great with the shotgun.

I hit my target with the muzzle loader and Derek's handgun, but I don't think I ever even got close with the shotgun...This thing is too HEAVY!

Sarah was about as lucky as I was:)

Kids can make a jungle gym out of anything.

Since Hunter's birthday is only 6 days before Christmas, we have vowed to always celebrate it early. We had planned on doing it a month before, but we kept putting it off. On Monday, Hunter saw Rob and I buy him a Lightning Mcqueen toy (I guess we weren't as sneaky as we thought) and he wouldn't stop asking me for it once we got home. When the girls got home from school Rob said, "Why don't we just celebrate it tonight?" So, he took Ash and Alyssa to Target to finish the shopping, while Brooklyn and I made cupcakes. It was a no stress party, I didn't even have to plan for it:) Can you guess what Hunter's favorite movie is?

I LOVE this picture. It totally captures how much my girls all adore their little brother. Look how happy they are for him:)

Each girl picked out a present to give him. This is what Alyssa gave him.

I love that he was even excited to get clothes:)

This is what Ashley gave him.

This is what Brooklyn gave him.He loves to play in his new Mac tent, but he doesn't have any interest in sleeping in it:)

The girls are so nice to play cars with Hunter. I guess they owe it to him for making him play Ken when they play Barbies:(

Brooklyn helped me frost the cupcakes. She was so offended when everyone ate one of the cupcakes that I had frosted and nobody chose one of her's. But after all of her complaining, I looked at which cupcake she chose...it was one that I had frosted. I guess next time I'm going to have to let her frost all of them.

I cannot believe my baby is 3! Hunter is a dream child! He never had one moment of terrible 2's! I love you Choncho!!!

And, so does everyone else!

Dana Point, Las Vegas, Ragnar, Utah, 2 Deer Hunts, Halloween and the Rest of Oct.

President's Club '09

Every year Rob's company does an award trip for the employees who make their goal. This year it was at the Ritz Carlton in Dana Point. The hotel was gorgeous and we had so much fun being on a trip with just the two of us. Unfortunately, we forgot to take our camera...I guess that's what happens when we don't bring our kids along:) We had to use my phone for the few pictures that we ended up taking. This is the picture of the view from our balcony. This was the other view from our balconyOne of my favorite parts of the hotel, were the fresh flowers in vases throught the hotel. The day we arrived, the flowers were purple...a few days later they changed them to orange.
More flowers

We spent a day doing a tour of Newport Beach Harbor. Rob was chosen to be the captain of our boat.

This was the view from the treadmill in the gym at the hotel. This made running a little more enjoyable:)

Isn't this gorgeous?!!!

Brooklyn's 4th Grade Musical

The day after we got home from our trip to California, Brooklyn had her 4th grade musical. I may be a little bias, but I think Brooklyn is the most beautiful 4th grader:) About 25% of the 4th graders missed this musical, due to an outbreak of swine flu.

Alyssa Got Braces

In September Alyssa went to the dentist for a cleaning, and we were told that she might need braces because her permanent teeth didn't have enough room to grow in. 2 weeks later, she had 5 teeth pulled and new braces. This is her before picture.

I cannot tell you how excited this little girl was to get her braces. Her two sisters are insanely jealous:) Alyssa got to choose her color pattern for her elastics...she chose purple, black and orange...for Halloween.

After

Las Vegas

Rob babysat overnight with all 4 kids for the first time ever. I left for Vegas the day before he did to run the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay. He had them for 2 1/2 days and even drove alone with them for 5 1/2 hours to get to Vegas. He did a great job! Unfortunatley for him, now he might have to do it more often since I know that he is fully capable. We stayed and Rob's brother's house in Vegas, and the kids had so much fun playing with their cousins!

Kids are easily entertained:)

I drove up to the race with my two friends Kaye and Rebecca. We had two teams this time, and they ended up on a different team:( I did however, get to run on the same team as my brother Adam. We had so much fun with the kids in our van. I use the term kids, because I was the oldest person in our van of 6 people. Is 32 really that old??? Natalie and the kids met us all at the finish line. Hunter and Rex had a little too much fun playing in the dirt waiting for us to run into the finish line.

My team running in...For some reason I am always at the back of the line...Maybe it's because I was wearing flip flops:(

All of us with our medals

My girls all plan on running these races when they are old enough.

After the race, I had about 1 1/2 hours to take a nap before going to the BYU/UNLV football game. I had only slept for 20 minutes in the past 36 hours during the race. I'm so glad we went though!

Rob was so excited to finally be able to go to a BYU game again! I'm not sure why we were all wearing our BYU shirts, but Rob wore light blue. At first I thought maybe he forgot to pack his BYU shirt, but a few days later I saw it in his suitcase. That's a little weird Rob:)

We had GREAT seats in the north endzone of the stadium. You would never have believed that BYU was the away team. The stadium was at least half full of fans wearing blue. UNLV's color is red:) We are so sad that they have dropped to 25 in the rankings:(

Rob left during half time to go and get more snacks. He was like a paparazzi with the BYU team. They went back onto the field right next to Rob.

Max Hall

Rob gave "five" to the players as they walked back onto the field. He thinks they thought they were supposed to know who he was:)

The kids had so much fun at the game! Ash especially loved the cotton candy:)

Some nice lady offered to take a picture of our family after the game. Thanks nice lady:)

We were able to meet our beautiful niece Paisley for the first time. This is Rob's sister, Brittany's new baby girl. Her dad, Ryan, did a great job on her blessing.

Rob's parent's cabin looked so cute decorated for Halloween. Is there any question as to where Rob gets his outdoor illumination skills from?

Utah

My brother, Ryan, changed my parent's go-cart track from dirt to concrete. It looks awesome!!! Rob is the current day-time record holder of the go-cart track, and Ryan is the night-time record holder.

Ash looks a little scared riding with Grandpa:) This is about the spot where Alyssa and Hunter crash...pictures will follow:)

My brother, Dave, got home from serving in Iraq for 4 months. He lives just outside of D.C., so he had been home for 2 weeks before he flew to Utah to see all of us. We all met at the airport to welcome him home.

Dave, Maren and Liberty (and Baby Kya in Maren's tummy). We are all so proud of Dave and all the other men and women who risk our lives to defend our liberties! Dave got home just in time for a new baby. Maren had Baby Kya on Sunday. She is gorgeous!

I love this picture of Hunter! This one is definitely better than when the little kids were all playing swords with their flags.

My mom and brother

My mom spent a month before we all came to Utah to visit making quilts for all of the grandkids and men. They all turned out sooooo cute! Jessica, are you still bummed that they all have to stay at Mom's house?:)
Since my sister, Jessica, married into a Hawaiian family, she has finally decided to learn how to do all of the different Hawaiian dances. They perform as a family in Missouri. I never knew your hips could move like that Jess:) She taught all of the granddaughters how to do a dance.

Happy 10th Birthday to my baby Brooklyn! I cannot believe she is that old! We had a costume Halloween party, like always, only we forgot to bring our kids costumes this year. Luckily Natalies's mom has all kinds of costumes at her house. Natalie took the girls over and dressed them up. Brooklyn was Miss Utah. Brooklyn was so excited for her birthday, she wore her birthday crown all day on her birthday...and she even tried wearing it the next day:) We love you Brooklyn!!!

The bakery near my mom's house has never let me down! Until this year:( I called the baker and told her that I wanted a witch cake. Instead, I got this. Thanks to my sister-in-law Stephanie, she helped me spice it up by adding all of these plastic spiders. It turned out cute after that:)

I tried to add new games this year, since we always do the same things for Brooklyn's party. We did pumpkin bowling on the basketball court. It was great for the older kids, but the little boys just wanted to knock down the bottles that the girls were trying to roll the pumpkins into.

The next game we did was wrapping the kids like mummies. This turned out to be lots of fun. Rob was determined to wrap Alyssa faster than anyone else.

Taylor wrapped Ashley

Kinzie wrapped Hunter

Taylor did a great job with Ash

Ryan wrapped Gracie

Dave wrapped Libby

Our last game was a hat and broom race. The kids & adults loved this one:)

The birthday girl

Doesn't Rob look cute wearing a witch hat?:)

Brooklyn opening her presents

Rob wanted to mix things up this year and have the kids go down to the "Haunted Forest" and scare the adults. The kids all thought it was a great idea, until they got too scared walking down into the forest:) Cooper had a blast scaring the other little kids with his mask:)

Brooklyn blowing out her candles

Hunter was so exhausted after the party that he fell asleep eating his cereal. He was even still holding his spoon:)

Remember the go-cart hill??? Well, we told the kids that they could only go counter-clockwise around the track because we figured the other way would be too dangerous because of a big hill. Apparently, counter-clockwise was just as dangerous because Alyssa crashed riding her razor, and Hunter did a flip and landed on his face when he was simply running around the track. Alyssa put her brakes on as she was going down one of the hills, and the scooter stopped, but she kept on going. Her face got banged up pretty badly.

And, she broke a bone in her hand. The night it happened, we didn't even know she had broken it. By the next day, when it was still hurting, my grandpa got her an oppointment with an orthopaedist that he knew to get it xrayed. It was Brooklyn's birthday that day, so we didn't want to spend the day in the emergency room. Once we got to the orthopaedist's office, we were in and out in 20 minutes. Xrayed and casted. Plus, I only had to pay a $40 copay. We are so lucky to have a doctor for a grandpa!!! The advantage to having 21 people staying at one house, is that Alyssa's cast was immediately filled with signatures. There were a lot of disadvantages to having that many people in one house. On Saturday, my 10 month old niece started throwing up with the stomach flu. Hunter came down with it the next day, and then it dominoed throughout the family. By Thursday, the 19th and last person out of the 21 got sick. Ashley and I are the only ones that didn't get it. That is especially amazing, because Brooklyn and Alyssa threw up the entire way home from Utah. About 30 minutes after leaving Alpine, Alyssa threw up all over the dashboard of the truck. An hour later, Brooklyn was throwing up. Alyssa even threw up in my mouth, and I still didn't get it. Rob was supposed to go on a fishing trip in upstate New York with his boss on Thursday. His flight left at 6:00 am, and at 3:00 am he woke me up and informed me that he was finally sick. What are the odds? At least he got sick before he boarded his 5 hour flight to New York:)

Rob loves having a son that will spend hours looking through binoculars for deer. My parents always have so many deer in the field behind their house.

The is apparently the largest non-typical elk to ever be shot in the world. It was shot in Utah so it is on display at Cabelas. Of course Rob had to take Hunter to get a picture with "Spidey".

Dave wanted one too:)

This picture is so sweet, because all the little grandkids are looking at the pictures Dave has from Iraq. They think he is so cool!

Now that the go-cart track is paved, the grandkids all spend so much more time at the bottom of my parent's yard. Just about everything in my parent's yard is named after the grandkids. This is Marshal Cooper's office...named after my nephew Cooper. My dad better get busy, the 18th grandchild is going to be born in December:)

Hunter (I don't really know what he is doing)

We took the rhino up American Fork Canyon with the kids that were not under quarantine for being sick...Even though in the end we almost all got it anyway:) Libby and Hunter had so much fun on the rhino.

Hunter, Jaxon and Libby had fun throwing rocks into the river. Jaxon almost fell in as well when he tried to throw a rock in that weighed more than he does:)

Hey Dave...What are you doing walking out of the trees with a package of wet wipes?:)

My sister Jessica, my sister-in-law Maren, and myself...Rob almost ran into me with the rhino as we were posing for a picture. Nice Rob!

Hunter's wound from running on the go-cart track

Jessica, is that you driving the rhino??? Do you see that Mom?

I love the mountains in Utah!!!

Adam took all of the little kids into the front yard to play golf. It was a great idea until he left and the kids started hitting each other with the clubs:)

Hunter and Jax

Rob drew out for a deer tag in Utah this year. He hunted around Strawberry Reservoir this year instead of going to Vernal. Ashley went up with

Rob the day before opening day to scout the area with him.

On opening day, my brother Dave and Alyssa went hunting with Rob. Too bad I don't think they even saw anything more than a spike.

Rob had his gun out, but never got to shoot it at anything other than a target:( The next hunting day, all of the kids and I went hunting with Rob. We drove all over and saw nothing but doe.

Ashley's 1st Grade Field Trip

Ashley's field trip this year was to the Phoenix Botanical Garden. The only highlight was the butterfly exhibit. This kids loved seeing hundreds of butterflies.

A butterfly even landed on my friend Sarah's head.

Ashley and her friends

Ashley was chosen to hold the mouse. Hunter got it next, and lost it. Luckily I found it because the guide was a little upset when she noticed Hunter didn't have it in his hand:)

Pumpkin Patch

Why is it that kids pick the first big pumpkin they see, and then they change their minds as soon as you've put it in the wagon??? Ashley is my most indecisive child!

The pumpkin patch we go to every year always has cute photo ops.

Halloween

This year Brooklyn was a gothic witch, Alyssa was a candy corn witch, Ashley was a pumpin princess, and Hunter was a fire fighter one day, and Lightening Mcqueen the next.

Rob was nice enough to be the only dad helping with games at Ashley's class Halloween party. The kids in the girls classes always think Rob is so cool!

Hunter wasn't thrilled to be a firefighter...hence the sad face:( Alyssa was sure excited to have him come to her party though:)

Alyssa and her BFF Courtney

Brooklyn's classmates were all so excited to meet Choncho...I swear nobody knows his real name:)

Rob carving the pumpkins with the kids

Hunter was proud of his little spoon that he used to carve out the tiny pumpkin that he picked at the pumpkin patch.

The kids STILL carving

Voila! They turned out so cute!

We had a party again on Halloween night before the kids went trick-or-treating. I seriously spent 8 hours in the kitchen getting ready.

The spider cupcakes that I made took me forever!

The spider web dip

The Spider Deviled Eggs

The cousins eating dinner

If you saw this crazy witch trick-or-treating with Brooklyn, just know it was NOT me! This is Rob's mom:) She is a great witch every year...the kids love it!

The kids decorating their Halloween cookies

I love decorating for Halloween even more than Christmas. It's a lot less work! I was so sad to take my decorations down:(

Rob is the master outdoor illuminator. The picture doesn't quite do it justice. He put about 30 sets of eyes in our ficus trees over the porch. So cute!Kaibab Hunt

This year both Rob and I drew out for the deer hunt in Kaibab. Rob went up 2 days before me to hunt with his brother Kris. I thought for sure he would have something by the time I got up there, but he didn't:( He even passed up a 4 x 3. Once I got there, the biggest thing we had a good shot at was a 2 pt. Ashley found a 4 pt., but as Rob was getting out of the truck to shoot it, Hunter started yelling, "I want a deer!"...over and over. That buck ran away really quickly!!!

The lodge that we stayed at in Jacob Lake had a fun little playground for the kids. Is it any wonder why Alyssa is always breaking bones or getting stitches???

Ashley hanging upside down

My girls always flash a peace sign in pictures for some reason:)

Rob and Hunter on the swing

Rob wanted to take my car out the first morning we were there because there was more room for the kids to lounge around while we hunted at 5:00 am. I was so proud of my car and all the places it could go. There was seriously an inch of dirt on the back of my car. After the morning hunt, we ditched my car so that we could take Rob's truck and the rhino out. When we got home that night, my tire was COMPLETELY flat. I mean completely!!! Rob successfully put on my spare tire, I only had to help him jack up the car:) He was constantly looking around to make sure that no other hunters were watching his wife jack up the car:)

We actually really had a lot of fun on this hunt. I was kind of dragging my feet about going, but we had a blast! Rob may be sad that we didn't come home with a trophy, but I like the hunting... minus the killing and the gutting:)

Hunter was determined to find a buck for us:)

Brooklyn is my only child that doesn't like hunting. The other two girls LOVE it! She and I were the "rhino hogs"!

This is the only picture that Rob took while hunting with his brother Kris. Thanks for going Kris!

Labor Day in Utah, Star Student & Poor Lonely Choncho

Ever since I can remember my parents have hosted the Neider Family Reunion at their house almost every year. It is usually around the 4th of July, but this year it was the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. When my mom told me the date, I knew we wouldn't be able to sacrifice any school absences to attend. On Friday morning of Labor Day weekend, Rob woke up and said, "Why don't we just make a quick trip to Utah for the weekend?". My first response was, "You're nuts! A 10 1/2 hour drive each way for a weekend trip???" After first questioning the sanity of his suggestion, I quickly agreed that it would be fun and I was on board. We hadn't surprised our kids with a trip to Utah for a while since they have gotten smarter. I knew it would take me a couple hours to get ready, so I sent the kids off to school with them not knowing we were going anywhere. (I was also hoping if I checked them out at noon, we would only get a half day absence instead of a full day:) The girls knew our friends were going to Lake Powell for the weekend, and since our girls have never been there, we told them we were going to Lake Powell and that it was on the way to Utah. It worked beautifully until about Fillmore (about 2 hours away from my parents) when Alyssa asked me if she could play with my iphone. As she was playing, my sister sent me a text message asking when we were going to be arriving. All you iphone users know that when you get a message from someone, above the new message is all of the past messages that you have exchanged with the sender. Alyssa read off all of the messages to Brooklyn...including the one that I wrote to my sister saying, "My kids have no idea we are coming to Utah...they think we are going to Lake Powell." Luckily Ashley was asleep so we could still have one surprise. We also hadn't told my parents or grandparents that we would be in town for the reunion. We stayed at my sisters house that night when we got in town and Ashley was so funny because after we had been there about 15 minutes, we started talking about surprising my parents at their house in the morning. Ashley piped into the conversation and said, "We're going to Utah tomorrow???" My sister only lives about 15 minutes from my parent's house, so apparently Ash isn't as quick as I though she was:) I guess that makes for great surprises:) When we got up to my parent's house Saturday morning, my parents were both gone. We all hid down in the backyard and surprised my mom when she went into the backyard frantically looking for my niece that she thought was lost (thanks for the trick Natalie:) I will say that my mom screamed like a little girl when she saw all of us! My dad's cousin, Cory, has an awesome band that played for us Saturday night.

My niece, Amber, is quite the dancer! She had to ditch the Princess Belle dress so that she could show us all of her SEXY moves:)
The lead singer of the band decided she needed to teach us all how to dance...Some of us Clarks are extreme introverts!!! I always think my dad is, until we do something like this. He was just like the other Neiders out there on the dance floor:)
Ashley is another grandchild that knows how to dance:)
The kids doing their own routine

Brooklyn decided she would look better sitting on the chair most of the time:)

Kinzie teaching Hunter how to dance

Rob and my brother Ryan took Cooper and Hunter out on Ryan's rhino one morning. Hunter had so much fun just being a boy...That isn't always easy in our house:(

These boys thought they were so cool with their helmets on:)

Buddies

Cooper is all boy throwing the stick in the lake.

Rob and Hunter...Both are dreaming of owning their own rhino:)

I'm glad Hunter can raise his arms in a rhino, because he would NEVER do this on a roller coaster:)

A couple of weeks before we arrived, my sister-in-law Stephanie had their 3rd baby. His name is Colton and he is so beautiful and so sweet! Yes Ryan, I called your son beautiful:)

Ashley was star student this month.

Hunter's new favorite toy is my iphone. He loves to play games on it...I'm not quite sure why he likes to play it sitting under the bar stool, but here he is:)

Hunter staring over the fence into the park behind us. I don't know if he was watching all of the cool boys playing football, or maybe he was checking out the girls??? He is getting better at entertaining himself since all three girls are in school all day.

Happy Birthday to Me!

For my birthday this year we decided to go to a local resort for the weekend before my birthday. We went to the Squaw Peak Hilton where they have a great water park complete with a lazy river and water slide. Hunter wasn't quite tall enough for the water slides, however, the girls had a blast...Rob and I only lasted a few times. Alyssa and Ashley could have spent all day on the slide:)
The girls playing under the waterfall

The hotel was having a Hawaiian themed weekend with a luau and fun games for the kids. They each got to take a turn at pineapple bowling using coconuts to knock over the pineapples. Ashley threw hers so hard the coconut broke in half.

Alyssa tried really hard to knock them all down:)

Hunter ditched his water wings on the first day of our trip. Rob and I were amazed to see that he can actually swim without them. He has turned in to quite the fish now...He jumps off of the waterfall in our pool and can swim to the side without any help. It is such a relief each time one of my kids has learned to swim on their own!!!

Brooklyn managed to avoid the camera most of the weekend...We finally got a picture of her laying out:)

Alyssa and Hunter spent about an hour breaking part of a coconut into tiny pieces to use as "moisturizer". They even brought some back to the hotel and added it to all of the shampoo and lotion bottles...I'm glad I brought my own!!!

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with my birthday, but I'm posting it anyway:) My girls love to play school and it actually comes in handy sometimes. This is Alyssa going over Ashley's sight words with her. Hopefully Choncho will learn them too:)

On the day of my birthday, I went to lunch with some of my friends. When I came home, Rob had decorated the house with streamers and balloons...Isn't that so sweet?!!!

He also ordered this cute cake for me. Thanks for the great birthday Rob!!!

Best Anniversary Ever!!!

Rob and I have now been married 13 amazing years! This year Rob had to leave the country on a late night flight the day of our anniversary. Because of this, Rob and I celebrated our anniversary the day before. The kids wanted to surprise us with a "romantic" evening before Rob left town. They started planning early in the morning and kept all the details mum, except that we were going to have a romantic dinner on the patio...complete with dessert. They set up on the patio in the backyard and closed all the blinds so we couldn't see what they were doing.

This is the sign that they made...complete with a stand and balloons. I love the way Alyssa spelled anniversary:)

The girls got our card table out of our garage and set up this "romantic" table for us to eat dinner on. They even brought out my ipod with speakers and had the song "Everything I do, I do it for You" playing for us. I especially liked the shoe box lids they used to put the silverware in:)
This was the card they made for us

Here is Rob and I eating our dinner. Brooklyn kept peeking through the blinds trying to get a picture of us kissing...Sorry Brooklyn, we did it while you weren't looking:)

The girls were terrific servers for us. Rob and I were almost in tears it was so adorable!

Alyssa made this for Rob as a present. She also bought us a box of Nerds to share along with a card she bought at Trader Joes. We had gone to Target earlier in the day to get a few things. Alyssa stood in line after us with her money and told me she was going to buy herself some candy. This is quite common because Alyssa has a sweet tooth...Candy is one of the few things she will actually spend her money on:) She is so sneaky, we had no idea those Nerds were actually for us...Thanks Lulu!!!

Alyssa ended our evening by doing a "show". She danced and did some tumbling for all of us:) The only thing as good as being married to Rob for the past 13 years, is having 4 wonderful kids to go along with it:)

Okay...Okay...Here is the Picture of Rob

There was a little confusion on which way he was supposed to point his toes...up, or down...:) Down was what he chose:)