And I thought he was old then!

This is a picture of Shaun and I at his 25th birthday party at his grandparents house. (I guess it was technically our house too since we lived in the basement!) It was his first birthday we celebrated as a married couple. I remember teasing him about how old he was, a quarter of a century! Being 5 years his junior I could do this! Yesterday Shaun turned the big 4-0! Now I really am married to an old man! Old or not I still love him as much as I did that first birthday we celebrated together, maybe even more! I don't really ever sit on his lap like that anymore, after all he is getting old, plus it is usually taken by one or two kidos! Love you Shaun and Happy Birthday!

Happy Turkey Day

Nothing says Happy Thanksgiving like a hand print turkey...


...and a couple of turkeys!
Happy Turkey Day!

Good times

We've sure had a good time with Grandpa and Grandma and McKinsey here. Here are a couple of the highlights!

The girls having a "spa" night.


A visit to the Wild Animal Park.

Champions

This weekend Sam's soccer team played for the division championship and won! To make it even better her Grandpa and Grandma and her cousin McKinsey were here to watch her game! She had great coaches this year and played with a great group of girls. Congrats Sam!

One of my favorite things

Don't get me wrong, I am no music critic. I don't know all the jargon that goes along with critiquing music. If you want a great music blog to check out, that has real music critiques, have a look at my brother Logan's. All I know is that I really like the new Taylor Swift CD, Fearless. These are the reason's I like it:
1. It has good songs on it. My favorites are, Love Story, So Sorry, White Horse,&
The Best Day (If you're a mom you'll get choked up listening to this one), but I like them all.
2. When I put it on in the car my girls can sing along and don't have to skip the inappropriate words (she does say stupid in one song and that word is as good as a cuss word at our house, so it gives them a chance to rebel!)
3. It's not Miley Cyrus-C'mon a mom can only take so much!
4. All the songs are written or co-written by Taylor Swift herself. I just think that is amazing.
5. When we saw that she would be performing at the CMA's last week I knew I wouldn't have to preview before I let my girls watch. Let's hope she doesn't go all Britney on us.


This is her performance from the CMA's, watch and enjoy! I know, it may not be your cup of tea, but to find a CD that my whole family can enjoy (even Shaun!) is such a bonus at this house!

End of the season

This week was Amanda and Connor's last week of the soccer season. They both had a great year. Amanda said it was her favorite year playing and I think it was because she got to have her dad help coach. They had a lot of fun! This was Connor's first season playing and he really had a blast! Ever since Connor was a baby he has been my most easy going, laid back kido. While I've always enjoyed that about him, easy going, and laid back do not equal aggressive, goal scoring soccer player. So while he was probably not the highest scoring player on the team he LOVED every minute of it! The last game of the season he scored his first goal and I happened to be recording it. Unfortunately it was on my non-digital video recorder so I can't share it with all of you out there. Really the best part was the celebrating after the goal. He was so excited and so were all the parents on the team! After the game he asked me, "Mom, don't you think I'm kind of an expert at scoring goals now?" Maybe it's a good thing he didn't score more than he did, or he could have gotten a pretty big head. This picture is a picture of him with his coach, Coach Rick, and his first ever trophy. He's carried it around with him all weekend, slept with it, ate with it and unfortunately used it as a weapon (just ask Sam) or in self defense (if you ask Connor)! As great as the soccer season has been, it's time to move on. Softball sign ups were for the girls last week and Connor just signed up for his first season of Little league. T-ball here we come!

Wild Animal Park and friends

On Veteran's Day we got to spend the day with some of our best friends, the Bergeron family. We don't get to see them as often as we'd like and so we make the most of our time with them. We spent the day at the Wild Animal park and had a great day. The tram ride is new since the last time we were there and we got to see a lot of the animals up close and personal, always a bonus! I think Denise and I spent most of the time talking and catching up so we missed a lot of the animals, but fortunately Sam and Marissa took A LOT of pictures of them! Even though those two girls haven't seen each other for months they were immediately joined at the hip. I think those two must have been separated at birth. I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise to me how well they get along considering how well their mother's get along, but it was just so much seeing them enjoy each other's company all day!
This is how the girls spent most of the day, heads together, chatting, planning, and giggling!
Now they really are twins!
Some more pics from our fun day!

Morning after

It is quite possible that the only thing I like better than piggie tails in little girls hair is the morning after version of those same piggies. The little rubber bands just hanging on to the very end is so adorable to me!

I voted today, and so did Connor

I need to preface this post with what Connor has been learning in school. They have been learning about word "chunks". For example "ing" and "er". As a mother, I love hearing him recognize when he or someone else uses a "chunk", but my older girls think it has gotten really annoying. They go out of their way to not use a word ending in "ing" or "er" so they don't have to hear him exclaim "You used a chunk!"

Today in Connor's class they had a mock election. His teacher showed them small clips of speeches each of the Presidential candidates had made, and then the kids got to decide who they wanted to vote for. When Connor got home he had his "I Voted" sticker on so I asked him who he voted for. He gave a resounding "Obama!" Interesting, seeing as how our house is a McCain house. I asked him why he voted for Obama. He said, "Because when he was talking he pointed a lot, and pointing has the 'ing' chunk" I guess I can't argue with that, but I hope you all out there make a more informed decision on who to vote for today!

I love Halloween

I really love Halloween and this year did not disappoint! We carved pumpkins first thing in the morning, (the kidos were still in their jammies!) and they all did great, Mads especially loved it. She loves anything that involves a big mess and so carving pumpkins was right up her alley! That afternoon we headed over to our friends house, the Joses, for their annual Halloween party. It involves hot dogs tamales and Que Bueno. You cannot beat that. As soon as it was dark we all headed out to trick or treat. I had complained earlier in the day about how hot it was, but it sure makes for a great night for trick or treating. I grew up in Utah where you never got to see anyones costume because you had to be so bundled up. Last night was perfect weather. Then it was back to the Joses for the traditional candy dump and then the trading begins. This is serious business to the kids and quite possibly the most important part of the evening. We all came away tired, sticky and full of junk food! A perfect night all in all.