It's Christmas time again!!

The day after Thanksgiving we always put up decorations and that is what we did again this year. I had some problems with my Christmas tree though. I plugged in the bottom section(of course it is fake) and the bottom lights didn't work. I kept asking Dan if we should go get a new one but of course it wasn't the smartest thing to do. Then I thought I could just take off the strand that is not working or it turned out to be 3 strands but of course they are built into the tree. So the last thing I could think of was I had a strand of icicle lights that the middle was out on so I wrapped them around the tree and put the dead ones in the back. Now I have a big clump of lights on the back of my tree but it has lights. Then we started to decorate and it didn't turn out as bad as I thought it would be. During this process we managed to only break one bulb but it did shatter all over the place.

Bailey putting her things on the bottom level.

I guess I can do this with my eyes closed.

Bria pointing to her things she put on.

Thanksgiving feast!

Bria got to have a Thanksgiving feast at school for kindergarten. All the kids got to dress up in either an indian or a pilgrim. Bria decided she was going to be a pilgrim. There was a lot of food, they had meat and cheeses, rolls, fruit, muffins, and all sorts of things. Bailey and I went there for part of it to see what it was like and Bailey jumped right in and made herself feel at home with her big sister.

Bria in her cute pilgrim outfit she made

50th Birthday Surprise!!

The kids in my family (Jessica) decided that we were going to throw my parents a surprise party for there 50th birthdays. My dads was in September and my moms is in December so we had the party on November 22. It was a lot of fun we had way to much food and cake. My sister made a really cool slide show and timeline of the last 50 years of my parents life and just life in general.

When my parents came in finally, we had a hard time getting them back to the house, anyway when they came in they had no idea what it was for. They thought it was Syd's friends being funny but then they saw there friends. I guess we should have had something there to say what it was for. My poor dad thought for the first part of the party that it was just for my mom and he felt bad that he didn't help out, but then soon realized that it was for him as well. It turned out to be a lot of fun and I hope everyone else had fun that came.

All the food and the timeline on the wall


My beautiful cake!


My parents walking in being surprised!

Buffalo Bills attire!

The kids and I decided we were going to surprise our Dad and put on our Buffalo gear for him for the Monday Night football game. I guess they are not on Monday nights very often. I thought we looked good.

Don't we look GOOD!

Burning Down the House!

A while ago I almost burnt my house down. Our toaster is not working properly and I was cooking lunch for the girls and went to go look on the computer for a recipe that I wanted all forgeting that I had stuck a piece of toast in the toaster. While I was in there Bria yelled mom your toast! I ran out of the den and my whole house was filled with smoke. It was a lesson to show the kids that smoke really does rise. It took days to get the smell out. I can still smell it on my cupboards.

This is the toast that almost took my house away!

The darndest things kids say!

I wish I carried around a video camera all of the time just in case there was something funny I wanted to catch on video. Well the other night was one of those times. We were over at my parents surprise birthday party and we were getting ready to leave and Bailey was giving my Dad (grandpa) a hug goodbye and then started naming the different things on your face. She said chin, cheek, eye and then nose, but then she stopped leaned back a little and pointed to his nose again and said BIG nose. It was the funniest thing I had heard in a long time. I thought that this would be a good thing to write down for later use.

Halloween Night

During the day we went over to Dan's work and went trick or treating. We also got to see for the first time where he works. So that started off the candy pile. Then we had Grandma and Grandpa VanZandt and the Ashby's come over and we all went Trick or Treating. It was a lot of fun. The girls had a blast. They had so much candy that they didn't want to hold their bags anymore. We just went around the neighborhood to some houses. This was the nicest night there has ever been for Halloween that I can remember. It was so warm, all we needed was a little jacket. It made it much more enjoyable. When the girls got home they had so much candy that Bailey said her tummy hurt. Then after all the eating they fell asleep so fast. It was a fun Halloween night.

My cute little girls all dressed up.


All of the trick or treaters there was a bunny, a poodle, Minnie Mouse and Cinderella

After getting home from trick or treating counting all the candy

Night Before Halloween

We waited until the night before Halloween to carve our pumpkins. Might I add that they turned out pretty good. Not to brag or anything buy I think that these are the best pumpkins we have ever carved. I helped Bailey carve her Minnie Mouse and then I did a ghost on mine. Dan helped Bria do Cinderella and he did BSU on his own. We had a lot of fun doing them. Bria decided she was going to carry hers outside and dropped her lid about 20 times so we had pumpkin all over the floor. My sister Sydney came over that night and carved hers with us because parents were out of town. (Can you believe it the grandparents didn't see their grandkids on Halloween.) Anyway Syd was having quite a hard time. She kept cutting out pieces and then having to put them back in with toothpicks. It turned out cute though. They all did. We carved Bria's and Bailey's pumpkins what they were being dressed up for Halloween, so Bria's was Cinderella and Bailey's was Minnie Mouse.


Bailey with her Minnie Mouse pumpkin and Bria with her Cinderella pumpkin

BSU, Cinderella, Minnie Mouse, Ghost

Sugar!!!

The other night Dan went to the football game so me and the kids stayed home and made some sugar cookies. It was pretty fun except the girls I think had a little to much sugar. They would frost a cookie as fast as they could and then shove it in their mouth and soon as they were done. After, they were running around all crazy and it was time for bed so it took them a while to settle down.

The girls right before the running around incident

All the pretty cookies that we made.

Bria's Halloween Party

Bria got to go to her very 1st Halloween party. She had so much fun. They got to play musical chairs, and might I add that she won quite a few times. They also bobbed for apples, she didn't want to stick her face in so after a few times of trying to get the apple by the stem of it she gave up and we finally took the apple out by hand. She got to cut out sugar cookies and then once they were baked they decorated them. They were lovely let me tell you. The last thing they did was to eat a krispy kreme donut without using there hands, she did quite well with that as well.

Here are all of the girls with the apples in there mouths after getting them with their teeth.
Bria after eating her donut with stuff all over her face.

These are all the girls that went to the party. All of them looked very cute.

Bria's Fun Fest

Bria had a fun festival night at her school so we decided to go. Jessica and her kids came as well. As soon as we got there Owen saw one of those big blown up jumping things, sorry I don't know what they are called, anyway, he ran straight over there and wanted in. So we told the kids that they could stand in line and wait there turn to jump. Once they got in Bria and Ainsley started jumping and Owen and Bailey were so scared of it that they wanted out immediately. It was kinda funny. After that we went over and did the ring toss, the hula hoop contest and a few other games they had. Then we went inside and painted pumpkins. It was a lot of fun.

Here are the kids posing so cute

This is the kids painting there pumpkins

Here is our family picture(except Dad because he was gone still for work)

Bailey's Favorite outfit

We got out our Halloween decorations the other day and Bailey found her new favorite outfit. She is 1/2 minnie mouse and 1/2 witch. I think it is pretty cute. She won't be wearing this for Halloween though.

Dad's 50th Birthday

My Dad turned 50 on Sept 19 and I was in charge of the cake so I thought of something that made him happy which is Disneyland, then it had to be black so what is black at disneyland "Mickey Mouse". So I put a bunch of Mickey Mouse faces on the cake. I thought it was cute and I hope he liked it.

Daddy's Gone!

Now that it is out in the open, Dan has started a new job and boy has it been fun. He was first told that he was going to be working inside at an office job, ya know the kind where you wear a nice pair of pants and a little dressier shirt. Well, then we found out that he was going to be taking down a garage that was out in front of their warehouse that was made of logs. Now he is down in Arizona building a log cabin and boy have they had a lot of problems. The framer did a terrible job and so it is making them stay maybe even longer than he is suppose to. I thought that 2 weeks was long enough. Not only am I missing him but the girls especially. Bria has not been as bad as I thought she would, but Bailey OH MY GOODNESS. Everyday it is Daddy home, and cries all day long. But hopefully after this he will stay here and do the whole office thing. We love our Dad!

Riding on the "COOL" Scooter

Dan decided to take the kids around the block on our neighbors scooter. But Dan thought he would be "cool" and wear his snowmobile helmet and the goggles. While Dan was going around by himself the first time he got stung by a bee on the inside of his arm. If that would have been me I would have been crying like a baby. Anyway, then the kids decided to try the "cool" helmet on as well, here they are trying it on.

This is Bailey trying on the goggles upside down. She didn't want to try the helmet on because she already had hers on.

Bria wanted to try everything on and doesn't she look good. I wish we had a closeup of this picture because the tip of her nose is getting pinched by the goggles and it looked really funny.

These are the girls and there friends. They look really cute all together.

Bria's 1st Day of Kindergarten

Today is Bria's 1st day of Kindergarten. I can't believe that I have a child that old. She has been so excited the last few days and this morning I think it got to her a little bit and I think she was a little nervous. She looked so cute with her huge backpack on. This is her right before we left home. Her grandma came over to see her right before she left, she really liked that. Then we rode our bikes to school it was only 95 degrees outside I was really hot. This is her standing in front of her school getting a little more nervous. Doesn't she look cute
This is her in line getting ready to go inside. Her teacher came out and told the kids to say goodbye to their moms and dads and that is when I got a little sad. I thought I was going to be fine but it was a little sad sending her off to her first day at a real school. Doesn't she look like the happiest little girl.

McCall Summer Trip 2008

We decided to go to McCall after we traveled to Twin Falls so after about an hour of being home from Twin we headed off to McCall to go have some fun on the water. We went waterskiing, we went to a huckleberry festival in Donnelly and they had a car show there that was kind of depressing because there were no cars, well about 6. We also had a lot of campfires and just plain old hung out at the cabin with grandparents and friends. I have kind of a funny story but I won't give one name away. We were out by the lake eating licorice and Bailey was getting sick of the one that she had so she stuck it in someone's shoe, and then went to to get another one. I asked her where she had put it and she pointed to the shoe. Well everyone left it there, and don't foreget that we are out in sand and water so there is sand all over the shoe, so when the person came back to get there shoes they said huh must have left a piece of licorice here and decided to eat the rest of it. Now when Bailey eats this she sucks on it so it gets slobery all over it. Anyway, I am not a very good story teller and maybe you had to be there but it was hilarious. Over all we had a very good time and all of us are sore that wake boarded. Here are some pictures of some of the things we did.

Bailey, Bria and I on the boat going for a ride.

Dan and Bria out on the water tubing. Bria was really brave and did it with no hands.

Bailey was posing for the camera all weekend long. She did not like to get in the water and play in the sand like her sister did.

This is Bria playing in the sand and water this is what she did all weekend long.

Bailey was so excited to put on her new(or Bria's old) tennis shoes so we took her picture in them

"Lord of the flame" he was so proud of his fire making skills


This is our family out by the campfire having a good old time.

Bria and "Brandon's" grandma got to ride in the jeep on the way to pick up huckleberries

Bailey being cute



This is Grandma and Grandpa and Bria picking huckleberries



This is Bria on top of the tree stump



Bailey posing on top of a tree stump (the same one that Bria is on). It is bigger than is looks



The girls sitting at the river, I just thought it was a cute picture so I thought I should share.

Twin Falls Temple Open House

My Family decided to take a trip to Twin Falls to see the open house of the temple. We took Bria with us but poor Bailey didn't come with us (that is why she isn't in the family picture). Bria thought it was really pretty and liked looking at all the different things that they have inside of it.

Bailey's 1st Haircut

Bailey finally got her first haircut and she was so excited. Except it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. She wouldn't hold still so our first go around it was a little slanted. So the next day when I noticed it we made it look a little better, so now instead of having it come to a "V" in the back it is straight across. She kept telling everyone that she got her hair cut and is still talking about it.

My Cakes

Some people have asked me to put some pictures of some of my cakes that I have made on here so here they are. They are not the greatest but I am getting better, or at least I think so. I will start with some of the older ones to newer ones that I have done.