The hottest Girls on earth!! Brian

Christmas Morning 2009!

Alyssa and Jordan were so excited to see if Santa come. The other two...not so much! They didn't like to be woken up!

The main gifts this year were all homemade. Brian made these fences for the animals to have a coral!

We had a lot of fun painting these cars, trucks and trackers (Brian mainly)!!!

They turned out really cute, I think!

And lastly, here is the finish product of the stick horses! This time we went pro! It took a while to figure it all out but it was a lot of fun and the kids loved them (and all their homemade gifts)!

We had a lot of fun this morning. We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

PS - Thank you to everyone who gave us gifts, cards, goodies and kind words and action during this Christmas season. We are truly blessed to have such great families and friends in our lives. We love you all!

Christmas project

So here's what I've been working on for Christmas gifts this year for my kids. I can only get the stuff out at night and most nights I don't have enough time to get it out because I'm too busy cleaning up the messes from the day. I'm not finished yet. I still need to stuff them, put a bridle on and then stick a stick up 'em! A few years ago I made stick horses for Alyssa and Jordan. They are sooooo ugly but they still use them every day. Zaiden and Emree don't have horses to ride so this year Brian helped me with a new pattern and I went to the fabric store with a friend and picked some fun fabrics to use. I think they turned out so cute (so far!). I'll let you know how the finish product turns out!

PS - My Mom would be so proud of me that I'm even sewing! Miracle do happen Mom!

Olive Garden copycat Zuppa Tuscana Soup

Each week our Relief Society puts a new recipe in the bulletin at church. This was one of the recipes on it last week. We made it yesterday and it turned out so good so I decided to share too! The picture doesn't give it justice. Infact it probably does the opposite, but it still tastes (and smells) really good! WARNING: this recipe contains a LOT of calories, just look at the ingrediants and you'll know why! Ü

Olive Garden copycat Zuppa Tuscana Soup

1 lb Italian sausage

Cook sausage in 300 degree oven for 30 min. or so.

Drain and cut up. Set aside.

Combine in pot:

2 large russet baking potatoes, peeled and cut into soup size chunks

1 large onion chopped

2 garlic cloves minced

2 cans chicken broth

1 quart water

Cook over medium heat until potatoes are done.

Add sausage and bacon chopped into bits

Salt and pepper to taste, simmer for 10 more mins.

Turn to low heat and add:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 cups Kale, chopped

Heat through and serve!

October Happenings!

Hurray, we finally updated our blog! Instead of boring you with all the rest of the months we are just going to move on to October. And since I can't seem to keep anything in order we are starting backwards in October. Soooo....Here is our Halloween Fun!Introducing....Emree the Lion!

My friend made this AMAZING lion costum for her son last year and let me borrow it this year for Emree...She was so dang cute in it!

Zaiden the Dragon!

Jordan as Buzz Lightyear (by the end of the night he was sweating to death!)

And Alyssa the Princess!

The day before Halloween it snowed and we thought it would be freezing on Halloween but it actually wasn't. The snow melted that morning and it was great weather!

We had a lot of fun carving pumpkins!

I love FALL and all the colors on the trees, it's so pretty here!

What a cute baby (even without any hair)!

Brian got a big head (he he)...

...and turned 34!!

We made delicious carmel apples!


Gave lots of hugs and kisses to our baby (and other kids)!
...And Alyssa had to get glasses!

She looks so cute in them, I think! She wouldn't wear them when we first got them but a little Elmer's glue and pink glitter on the sides solved that problem!

We had a lot of fun last month!

In March...

Brian's parents came up to visit and to help out while Brian had his surgery. There was still snow on the ground so the kids had fun sledding...
and just hanging out with grandpa and grandma Mowers.

Lots of fun! We are so THANKFUL they were able to come help us out with the kids while Brian was in the hospital.
On March 12th Brian had the right side of his Thyroid and a large goiter removed. The surgery went well...

...but afterwards was not fun! Doesn't he look so tired and out of it?! He was such a trooper! About a week later we found out that inside the goiter they found some cancerous cells. They were contained within the goiter so they didn't spread to any other part of the body, however he did have 2 smaller goiters on the other side of his thyroid they were concerned about. We decided to do a biopsy to test for cancer on the other side and it turns out there was no cancer cells found. We were releaved!!!! He is doing great now and has had no side effects from having half his thyroid removed! While Brian's parents were here we decided to bless Emree! Brian was a little out of it from just having surgery 3 days before and on pain killers but he still gave a beautiful blessing to our sweet little baby.We tried to take a family picture at the church but this is about as good as it gets! It's a little rough taking pictures when 4 out of the 6 people in it are 5 and under :/!

On the 21st of March we moved just down the street to a cute little house. We were able to find a property management position taking care of 15 units. It's been a challenge for us and especially for Brian because they are old buildings and need a lot of fix up! But I'll leave that for April's post!

I'm BAAAAACK!

We took a break from blogging for a while. It seems like we have been so busy these past couple of months that I haven't been able to blog. But I'm back with updates on all the months I missed. (You don't have to read them all...it's mainly for my journaling purposes!)

In February...

Alyssa turned 5!

She was so excited to finally have "the princess cake she always dreamed of", she said!

Aunt Kalee came to visit us in Idaho!

We LOVED having her there and had lots of fun while she was here. We even want her to come live with us for the summer!

Emree keeps getting way to cute! This is one of my favorite pictures of her!

Cocoa Catastrophe!

This is what happens when mom tries to take a 5 minute bath; actually more like a 2 minute bath!

Snow much fun!

The past couple of days it snowed here. Yesterday we made a snowman and snow cave! Here's some pictures of the event:
Packing down the top of the cave. Brian coming out of the cave! Close fit!

They (Brian, Jordan and Alyssa) stayed out there for a few hours. Zaiden and I only lasted 30 minutes or so, then went inside and made hot chocolate and chicken noodle soup for everyone to warm up! We had "SNOW" much fun!