January 1st

Kip & Makade

Sier

Brooklynn & Makade

Mark on Kip & Sier's four wheeler

Sneakin' a treat

Jax, Kip, Makade

Braxton taking a break!

Alex, Sier, Grandpa

Kip & Nicole

Gus

All the Kids racing for the hill

My Family is trying to start a new tradition to go to tubing/sledding/four wheeling every January 1st. We started it in 2008, and hopefully it will continue. This year was great...the weather really was perfect. No wind, it was warm- but not warm enough to melt any snow. I forgot my coat! But I had enough layers on to keep me nice and toasty! The kids had a ton of fun, and the fire was great. Now all we need is snow every year ;)

My Guilty Pleasure

I admit it, I LOVE American Idol...I'm obsessed. Who do some of these people think they are?

True Love

Did you know that both of my kids could name every NFL team just by the symbol they have on their helmets? I doubt any other 3 or 5 year old could do that. They can only do this because their Dad watches football whenever it's on. At the begining of the season the kids were so excited for it to start, but for about a month they have been ready for it to be over. I think the only reason why they love it so much is because Mark does, plus he lets them wear his old pads!

BRRR!!!

We went sledding a couple days after Christmas at the point of the mountain. It was a ton of fun, but VERY cold. The weather was actually great, but it was the stupid wind that made it so cold. Kurt and Jesse were the ones who really wanted to go, but they didn't get there until we were all about ready to go home! Kip had so much fun with Kayden & Ethan; they made trains, hit jumps, and walked up the hill more times than I want to count. Poor Kip would get so tired of walking up the big hill, so he would just play at the bottom for a while until he felt like making the 15 minute treck back up! Sier hated the whole thing, the only time he was having fun was when he was going down the little hill with Lauren. By the time everybody was ready to go home, the kids had been crying sitting in the back seat of the truck for about a half an hour until Mark & I were ready to go....I know...great parenting! Joni and I crashed sooo hard, only making it down about 5 ft of the hill. I really don't know how neither one of us got hurt because we rolled over each other about 4 times.....It was hilariouse, I'm sad nobody got it on camera!!! Fun times.

Christmas!!!

I'm finally posting about Christmas!!! Sorry it's taken a while...busy times.

Christmas Eve I was sick ALL DAY, so my great Mom came and got the boys while I laid in bed all day. She was so nice to do that for me, since she was trying to get ready for our family Christmas party!!! When Mark got home he took the kids to that, and they had a lot of fun. Sier was sooo excited about a rubber ducky that he got from the "Auction". And of course Santa Claus came...Sier's favoritest person on earth. A lot of the older kids have figured out who Santa really is in the years past, and Kip keeps telling me that it's Grandpa Joe, but I keep telling him he's wrong....I think I'm in denial. My dad does such a great job as Santa but I think he secretly wants all the kids to know that it's him.

Christmas morning was so much fun. Kip woke up at 7:45 and came in our room to wake us up. They were both so excited to open their Optimus & Storm Trooper Helmets. They had a great Christmas, and of course got way more than they asked for. Here's the list....Kip; Storm trooper helmet, DS, remote control car, Batmobile, Wall-e, clothes, candy, Lego's, clothes, hats, and games for the DS and PS3. Sier got; Optimus Prime Helmet, Hand held v-smile, Batman Cave, remote control car, candy, games for his V-Smile PS3, and hats. Mark; PS3, which can play PS2 games, I-Pod docking radio, shirts, games. Lara; New tires for my car!!, I-Pod touch (yippee!), clothes. We all got very spoiled.....

After we opened presents we went to my brothers house for breakfast. It was a lot of fun, and the food is always great. Everybody got stuck going up there, and Mark spent the whole morning pulling, pushing, and digging everybody out.

Next we went to Marks Grandmas house to eat some more. Most of the cousins and aunts and uncles were there as well.

After Grandma's we were able to go home for a few hours before we headed over to Marks Mom & dads. We ate more, and exchanged gifts. Danny & Gaylene gave the kids Boogie boards to take to the lake with them, and Keith and Laura gave us a fire pit for our future patio....we just need to rip down our awesome deck!!

We had an awesome Christmas and we realize how lucky and blessed we really are this year to have all of the things we do. We have a house!!!...we have our health....and we have great family around us. What more could we ask for??? Merry Christmas.

Family Parties

"I am Santa Claus"

Helping with the 12 days of Christmas song

We went to the Zismer family party the Saturday before Christmas. It's great to see all of Marks cousins who we only see about 3 times a year. The family is growing, and all of the little kids are getting so big. We played a ton of fun games, and there was a lot of great spaghetti and meatballs to eat! Thank you to my Favorite Uncle Kevin & Aunt Lori and there kids for putting so much time and preparation into it!!



On the Sunday before Christmas we went of to Marks parents and had another little party. It was really fun. Gaylene gave us all hand-powered wheat grinders!! She made us grind wheat, and make home made wheat bread to have with dinner. It was hilarious watching all of the big boys (Mark, Kurt, Kary, and Jorge) trying to grind wheat the fastest. The bread turned out great, and I'm glad I have a wheat grinder now!

On the Monday before Christmas we went the the Rentmeister Family party...what a BIG family! I have to say I've never had meatloaf before, but Uncle Dave made some that I actually really liked! It was a really fun party.... The little kids did a pinata, and opened presents, and people of course performed little things for all of us. I found out the Easton, and Sara can actually SING...they were both very good. I'm excited already for next years party!

Pinata

Kip got 2 bucks to hit Steve in the "You know whats"

JR stuffed Siers pockets full of Candy, which half of them made it to the wash!

Greatest presents ever!

Desert Star Theater

My brothers and sisters have a tradition of going to some kind of Musical or play during Christmas. We've gone to a lot over the years...This year we went back to the Desert Star Theater. It is always so much fun to go to dinner and then to the show. We missed Steve this year but it's okay because he was out with Whitney (his "ex" girlfriend, who he sure has been spending A LOT of time with lately, and we all LOVE her). Amanda didn't come because she is TERRIFIED to drive in the snow, and she lives in Layton. Without them there was no one to tease, or to drop new phones in drinks...(I was so glad when your phone started to work again Steven!) Hopefully we can keep up the tradition, and everybody can come next year!

December Update

Since I haven't blog about so many things that have been going on lately I'm starting to now. I'm going to do it over a few days time so it's not all at once....sorry. I'm just starting to put some together now, so stay tuned.....and we can all catch up! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Marks Birthday Surprise

To make a long story short this is what happened.
1. Bought season tickets to Six Flags for Mark and Me.
2. Thought I would surprise him on his birthday with them and we would fly there.
3. Arranged for a Baby sitter.
4. Woke Mark up at 5:00 am on his birthday to surprise him with the news.
5. Flew to California.
6. Spent 2 1/2 hours in LA traffic driving to Six Flags.
7. It was closed because it was raining..(Disney was still open)
8. Spent 2 more hours in the car driving around Santa Monica, trying to find a Mall.
9. Decided to head back towards Long Beach, ending up in Inglewood.
10. Went to the greatest ROSS ever...too bad the line was sooo long to check out. (45 min. wait)
11. Found a Mall .
12. Spent 1 hour driving back to the airport. (which was only 20 miles away...traffic)
13. Got home at 11:30.

Thanks to Mark for letting me think I surprised him (JUSTIN!!!)...Thanks to my babysitter for watching the kids....Thanks to Mother Nature for having it RAIN all day....Thanks to everybody driving in LA.....Thanks to JetBlue for letting us fly for free!!

I have no pictures, since there was NOTHING exciting about the day. No matter what happened it really is a birthday Mark will NEVER forget!

"I will NEVER, NEVER"

Sier turns 4 the end of February, so I finally decided to have his 3 year old checkup! ( I know, I am President of the "Bad Moms Club") I told him yesterday about the things we needed to do today, and on the list was of course take him to the Dr. The first thing he asked me is if he needed to get shots- I couldn't lie and tell him no, so I just told him "I think so, I'm not sure how many". Ever since then he has been telling me "I will NEVER, NEVER, EVER go to the Dr. again!" or "I'm NEVER, NEVER, EVER going to take my clothes off for her either!" You see, he watched Kip get 4 shots a couple of months ago and has been terrified ever since. Finally after a lot of "deal making" (I would buy him a cookie) we were off to the Dr.'s office. While we were driving there I was telling Mark about the "NEVER, NEVER" comment and he wanted to talk to Sier. So after talking to his dad he was set because Mark made him another deal that if he didn't cry then he would take him to the store and buy him some LEGOS. (the awesomest toy ever in this house right now) So Sier had a great day at the Dr.'s. He took off his clothes and ran around in his underwear, he talked to the Dr., he told her some of his jokes, and when the shot was done he yelled "YES!" I'm assuming he said that because he was so proud of himself for not crying. Needles to say, he got a cookie and his dad will be taking him to the store. And just another thing....I always think Sier is sooo small for his age because I only have Kip to compare him with. It turns out his 87% for weight and 79% for height. His Head? I'm not sure, but it is BIG.