BYU vs Utah

Rivalry week came, excitement and shouting filled my sister's house for the game... and BYU came out victorious in overtime.

Alex played football for BYU, so of course he is a Cougar fan. I have grown up a Cougar fan... but went to U of U and so had to switch for that time... now don't tell Alex this, but I am most definitely a Cougar fan, but I just LOVE to get a rise out of him. So I dressed in red (U of U's colors), and dressed both the kids in red for the big day. This was my cute, sweet Ally in all her Utah glory.



Now, do you think that Alex let this fly? Heck no! He had to pull out his old jersey for her to wear... even if it was a dress on her.

Devin the Menace

That is what we have taken to calling him these days.



Childproofing is virtually useless with this child. It doesn't matter what you do, or how you try and keep him safe, he will find a way to put his life in danger. We put the Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving and blocked off the living room with gates. It didn't take long for Devin to learn how to scale the gate... I would say less than 30 seconds.



He has also learned how to climb onto our fireplace in our family room now. There is no way to keep him off of it, as it is our main living space... so far there has been no boo boos... please pray when it happens it doesn't require stitches.



He is exactly like Alex, full of fun, mischief and excitement... and just dang, CUTE!!!

Why do all good things have to end?

Why does every Friday have to eventually lead to a Monday?

On Friday, I pulled Ally out of school a few hours early to head up to Salt Lake. A month earlier I had won 4 tickets to Disney Princess on Ice on the radio, 97.1 ZHT, to be exact. Alex decided taking care of Devin for the night would be less torture then watching skating princesses. So I took my mom, Ally and her friend Marisa. The show started at 4, and we rode Trax along with tons of other little girls dressed like princesses (not Ally and Marisa though, they were "too cool" to wear a princess dress... in public anyway). It was a lot of fun and the girls LOVED it! I was so happy that Devin was still awake when I got home. As much as I am always saying I need a break from him those 5 hours without him made me miss him soooo much! I loved cuddling him to sleep that night!


Saturday morning I captured a rare moment of my two favorite kids cuddled up together watching Saturday morning cartoons... it only lasted 5 minutes though, as Devin doesn't sit still longer then that.


Later that day we saw an AMAZING sight. Literally thousands of birds were flying from roof to roof top working there way north... don't ask me why they were flying north in the middle of a snow storm. Ally loved watching it, Devin couldn't stop jumping up and down with excitement and I loved seeing it too. Pictures can never do it justice, but here are a few snap shots.


Sunday was a nice day. First of all I have to say I LOVE our new ward... I mean ABSOLUTELY LOVE our new ward. I have never been to such a friendly, welcoming, genuine ward before. We have the 9:00 time, and we only arrived 10 minutes late. After church we had 3 different neighbors come over and visit. We are also invited to a neighbors house for dinner next Sunday, playgroup on Wednesday and are hosting a little girl Ally's age at our house for a play date on Tuesday. We are making so many great friends already! We feel truly blessed to have moved into tis ward.

So, why does this beautiful weekend have to end?

And Ally Turns Eight...

She finished opening her presents...


We took treats to her school...


She chose to go to the park and pick up Little Caesar's for dinner...







I can't believe that my little girl has been with me for 8 long years... and yet I can't even imagine a day that she wasn't there filling my days with giggling and nonstop chatter. There are moments that I want to turn back the clock and experience the world through her eyes again, and there are times I want to freeze time so I can keep her with me in that moment forever. And there is also a small part of me that can't wait to see what she will do tomorrow.

There are so many things I love about her. I love how sweet and tenderhearted she is, even so much that she offered to get shots for her brother so he wouldn't hurt. I love that she still thinks that it is cool if we blast Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" and dance around and sing full blast in our pj's together. I love that she is a girly girl that wants her hair curled everyday yet has no qualms about digging wholeheartedly into her chocolate cake and still manages to get it all over her face. I love that she is an excellent reader, but still loves it when we read her a story. I love that she will still snuggle up next to me and cuddle in the same blanket. I love that even though I could be easily laughed at on an American Idol audition, she still wants me to sing her a song at bed time and tells me I have a beautiful voice. I love that she gets frustrated so easily, yet has the patience of a saint when it comes to her little brother. I love that she is big enough to fix her own breakfast, yet tells me I am "the best mommy in the whole world" when I fix her pancakes. I love that she tells her daddy that he makes the best french toast ever, and secretly tells me mine is better but she doesn't want to hurt his feelings. I love that she always thinks to pray when she has a bad dream and has complete, simple faith that it will all be well. I love that she is scared to be baptised but has so much faith and knows what she wants enough to be brave enough to try it. I love that she will still hold my hand when we walk home from school...

I cannot even describe to her how much I love her... she will only understand one day when she has her own little girl one day that brightens the whole world when she runs into her waiting arms after school. How blessed and humbled I feel that my Heavenly Father trusted me with someone so special.

The New House

Here are a few pics of our new house. As you can tell we haven't finished putting everything away, and haven't found time to hang all the pictures yet, but this is a sneak peak.

The entryway


The living room


The kitchen


The family room

Walking Along the Provo River

We live really close to the Provo River and it is nice to walk along there and see the leaves, swing on the swing... and just get some fresh air.



So far we love the neighborhood we live in.

Ally's 8th Family Birthday Party

Ally will be 8 years old on the 11th! I can't believe she is getting so old. We had the family over on Saturday to celebrate her birthday.

We let her open a few presents from us in the morning, and saved the rest for her "real" birthday.


Then almost the whole family made it that evening.


She just had to have a monkey cake like Devin did for his birthday. Only she wanted it to be a pink monkey instead.


I love how supportive our families are!!!

Now, we just have to figure out when she will be baptised!

Halloween 2009

So, we moved into our house on Halloween morning. Which was great, but caused me to lose sight of my camera for a few days, so I didn't get the pictures I wanted... I have been threatening to make my kids dress up again so I can get more pictures.

Devin was a horse... a horse that said, "woof, woof" that is.


The morning of the 29th we went to Ally's school to see her in the parade. Somehow, 4 adults missed spotting her and we waited all the time and didn't get to see the cutest vampire cheerleader around! This is Devin watching all of the fun costumes walking by.

Alex and I raced to her classroom to see her parade by her door.

Then I volunteered in Ally's classroom with the party. I helped the kids make spider cookies.


This was also Ally's last day at Calvin Smith. This is her best friend, Marisa. She is definitely going to miss her!


This is her with her teacher, Mrs. Carter. Crazy enough, she taught school when I went there 20 years ago!... only I never had her as a teacher. She worked the kids hard and I will miss that.