Our trip to paradise!

We waited 6 months for our trip to Cancun, Mexico and it was definatley worth the wait. My mom came over from Utah to watch the kids(thanks mom for watching our kids for a whole week!) while Brian and I went to play in the sun. We had 7 glorious days to enjoy and we enjoyed every minute.

Here we go!

We stayed at the Cancun Palace which was an all inclusive hotel, so all the food and drink you want.

View from the beach in front of our hotel.



View from our room. We fell asleep many nights to the sound of the crashing waves.

BPit stop on our way to Chichen Itza. We are with the Houser's and Roenfeldt's.

We drove through a Myan village that was a few miles from Chichen Itza and here are a few of the houses and yards.

This is the biggest Myan temple at Chichen Itza. This is something that Brian has always wanted to do so I am glad he was able to see it. We had a 2 hour guided tour.

Playing on the beach. This was one of the days that the whole group was together.

Tracy, Stephanie, Tammy, Jackie, Anna, Tara, Camille and Nanette.

We all surprised Nanette for her 40th birthday(she did not know that any of us were coming). Brian also turned 40 while we were in Cancun so we celebrated his birthday as well. All the boys had t-shirts with Brian's face and Popeye's body and all the girls had Nanette's face with Betty Boop's body. There were 16 couples in all.

Happy birthday Nanette and Brian, if you have to get old this is the way to go!

The highlight of my trip (besides being with Brian) was swimming with the dolphins.

Who's that good looking guy?


Our tip out to Paradise snorkel for a fun day of snorkeling, lunch, enjoying the beach and parasailing.

Isla De Mujeres

This island had the cutest town. Lots of fun, brightly colored buildings.

While walking around town Brian finally found a vendor who sold cocconut water.

Reminds him of his days in Brazil.

Last dinner in Cancun with the Biddulph's, Houser's and Hatch's.

Adios Cancun, we will miss you!

Turning the big 12!

I'm about a month behind on blogging Austin's birthday, but better late than never....

Our sweet boy is growing up so fast and has turned 12 this year. He is such a wonderful son and a great big brother. His younger brother and sisters just adore him. He has also turned into a

great baby sitter (whoohoo, freedom for Brian and I).

For Austin's party this year he chose to play flag football (well he wanted to play tackle but Brian said only flag) and then dinner at Godfather's pizza.

Try getting ten 11 and 12 year old boys to stand still for a picture and this is what happens...dog pile.

There were 10 boys so it worked out great having 2 teams of 5. The boys played for about 2 hours and then decided that they were all hungry so off we went to get pizza.

Going around the table: Seven, Nick, David, Drew, Corbin, Gavin, Cole, Benjamin, Jacob and Austin.

All the boys thought this card was hillarious. A naked baby sitting on a potty seat (typical preteen boy sense of humor).

Happy Birthday Austin, we love you!

Fall Festivities

Fall is one of my favorite season's. I love the excitement of going back to school, the leaves changing colors on the trees, the days getting a little cooler and the beginning of all the holidays.

One of our favorite pumpkin patches is Spooner Farms. They have it decorated really cute and the kids love it. Austin loves the pumpkin slingshot but we didn't have time to do it this year.

Sienna doesn't remember the pumpkin patch last year so she was SO excited to see all the pumpkins everywhere. She kept saying, "look mom, more pumpkins."

Colin wanted to show us all how strong he was.

My girls were more excited about pulling out the pumpkin insides then the boys. We had to force Colin to stick his hand in the slime.

Colin's Halloween party at preschool. Sienna wanted to join in the picture as well.


Austin and Rylie can't wear costumes to school on Halloween but Rylie's school had a spirit day where they could dress up as a cowboy/cowgirl. I think I have a pretty cute little cowgirl.

Halloween day Brian's work has a party where the kids can go trick-or-treat around the office. The kids love it because they not only get to see dad but they get SOOO much candy. They also got to eat cookies, brownies, cupcakes, candy and soda pop for lunch. This is a dream for any kid!
Colin wanted to wear his bat costume form last year to dad's work. Maybe because he wanted to be like his friend Jacob who was Batman.

My cute little clown. All my kids have worn this costume that my mom made for Austin when he was two.

Anakin Skywalker

"Peace Out" girl

Scary something....Sienna wouldn't stand by Austin when he had the mask on.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Who's that good lookin' couple?

We went to a Halloween party Friday night dressed as DOG the bounty hunter and his wife Beth. The theme of the party was white trash so these costumes were perfect. Luckily some friends of ours had them so we didn't have to spend any money on them.

The kids thought we looked great, except for Sienna , who just kept staring at me and wouldn't talk to me. I guess all that hair scared her.

You can see in the dark?

The other day as I was leaving the house to go running, Colin and I had this cute conversation that I what to remember.

Colin: Mom, are you going running in the dark?

Me: Yes

Colin: How can you see where you are going?

Me: I just can (not the best answer but I was in a hurry)

Colin: Yea, I know how to get dressed in the dark too.


I love the cute things that kids say.

Horse Farm

Colin was up and dressed for school at 6:30 this morning. He was so excited for his field trip with his class to visit the horses. Miss Cindy knows a lady that raises horses and she lets the kids come pet, ride and feed them.

Listening to Mrs. Houser talk about what horses like to eat.

There were two shetland ponies, just the right size for the kids to pet and brush.

Sienna had no fear and joined right in with the other kids.

This was Sienna's first time being on a horse and the first time that Colin can remember. They both were not afraid and really like going for a ride.

After riding the horses the kids got to feed them apples. This horse was so excited about the apples that it slobbered apple juice all over Sienna's coat. She didn't seem to mind. Colin thought it was pretty cool to hold onto the horses rein.

We had a great time at the horse farm and maybe we'll get to go back again when Sienna is in school.