Merry Christmas!

Since I now work full time at Walmart I've barely had time to breathe this busy shopping holiday. I didn't have the energy either to put into a big Christmas celebration, so I let Tim take over. I let the kids decorate the tree all by themselves without any interjection from me, and the stockings weren't actually hung until Christmas Eve. It all turned out wonderful though, the kids had a great morning opening gifts. Thanks to an over-ambitious neighbor with acute mothering syndrome my kids made sugar cookies and frosted them and also went caroling. I'm greatful someone was there to mother my children when I couldn't be :)

Kadie all grown up with her braces off! She got them taken off on the 23rd. She's very excited because I finally relented and let her have makeup. And Daisey with her pink princess everything.

And the biggest surprise of all, a new wedding band! It has 5 inset diamonds to represent each of the kids and are separated by Emeralds, the birthstone of the month Tim and I were married. Well, I think anyway. I just like emeralds and have always felt jipped because I allowed the jewler to talk me out of emeralds in my engagement ring, he said they were a weak stone. Tim remembered after 13 years! Merry Christmas everyone!

Check Out our Pics!

Photobucket Album

Tag Tag I'm not it anymore

Thanks to Beth and Emily T. I have been tagged TWICE but I don't know 12 people who have blogs so sorry if I broke the tag chain and will therefore have bad luck. So, here are the rules, and I'm adding a new rule NO TOUCH BACKS! If I've tagged you, you cannot tag me back! You now have to come up with 6 quircks about yourself, and then choose 6 people you are going to tag. My 6 people (or well, atleast all I know who have blogs are: EMILY WALKER! JAMIE ALLEN! SHELLY LEAVITT! (OK, Shelly, I know you don't have a blog but you've been wanting to start, what a better way?) Sorry I'm such a chain breaker.

OK, Here are my quirks:
1- I too, same as Beth, have a certain way to load the dishwasher; however, I have turned that responsibility over to my girls and have to bite my tongue everytime they load the dishwasher. Surprisingly, they come out clean anyway! (Probably because I make them scrub the dishes first)
2- Whenever I have a bath, I stuff the overflow drain with seran wrap so I can have the tub just as full as I possibly can without all that water running out. I did see on Amazon that someone invented a cap that goes over the overflow, now why didn't I think of that first?
3-I HAVE to check my email dozens of times a day. Why, there might be a SPAM that I might actually be interested in.
4- On that note, I also check my SPAM file as well, because there might be a SPAM that I could actually be interested in.
5- When I read, my children cannot be in the same room as I am when I'm reading the last chapter. Why ruin the best part of the book with them bugging me?
6- I cannot sew anything with my children in the same room either, they might hear something they possibly shouldn't have.
7- OK, some of Tim's quirks since I've run out of my own: Tim's underwear tops and bottoms (if you're LDS you'll understand) have to be folded together, with socks located directly on top, because who knows if your house is going to be on fire and you need to hurry and grab a change of underwear in the middle of the night?
8- You are not allowed to unstrap the velcro on the top of his sandals. Don't mess with the velcro.
9- Tim thinks that if the bed is made immediately after we get up in the morning that I won't be tempted to go back to bed. What he doesn't know when he leaves for work won't hurt him.
10-The basement windows cannot be left open at night. Baby black widows might come in through the screen.

OK Tagged ones, I want to see your blog!

Memory Lane

Here are the directions:1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.It's actually pretty cool (and funny) to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you

The Tale of Three Reunions

FAMILY REUNION FUN- WHAT A GREAT WEEKEND!

July 24th in Kanab, UT - Let the Allen Reunion begin!

Because Tim and I had 3 reunions to attend this week, we were only able to spend a short time with the Allens. It began for us on July 23rd when cousins started to show up. By the morning of the 24th, Shawn, Dan, Brenda and Shelly's families were there along with Tim's. Jeremiah is to be photoshopped in later!
Grandpa Allen loves Grandma's rose bush. Yum!

Now on to marble racing. Shelly provided the fun.

I think Grandpa Allen II tells the best stories, and I think his grandson would agree. I don't think I'd be able to tell anyone which twin this one is!
Grandma and Grandpa were so happy that weekend to see all their children!

Inside, the older grandkids were participating in Lucie's Birthday Games. The object of the game was to roll a 7 or an 11 in order to start unwrapping a prize. The prizes were wrapped several times with newspaper and duct tape. After rolling a 7 or 11, they opened the prize as quickly as possible, with two spatulas, because if someone rolled a 7 or 11, they got to take over!

Now for some videos showing how much fun these kids had!

July 24th Part Two: Terry Family Reunion on Cedar Mountain

(DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING PICTURES ON CEDAR MOUNTAIN WERE NOT TAKEN BY ME, THEREFORE I CANNOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR THE IMAGES CONTAINED THEREIN. THESE PHOTOS WERE OBTAINED VIA PHOTOBUCKET FROM JOELLEN TERRY'S ACCOUNT. PLEASE CONTACT HER WITH ANY COMPLAINTS OR ISSUES)

We all met the afternoon of the 24th on the mountain with picnic lunches. After a trip to the ice cave for snow to make icecream, we enjoyed a dinner of nachos, Navajo tacos, and frybread dripping with honey butter; and of course, hand-cranked homemade icecream!

Please Uncle Tim! Unload your motorcycles!

It was wonderful to be able to visit with Aaron all weekend. He is preparing for his mission to visit the far-away, foreign land of none other than (drum roll) North Ogden Utah Mission! Spanish speaking of course. We were also very blessed to be able to have Great Grandma Thorley on the mountain as well. No family reunion on the mountain would be complete without Grandma there!

Very nice Shawn, wanna share?

Was Tim really happy to be among his in-laws, or is this just his way of dealing with it?

Thanks to Tom, Michelle, Shawn and Emily for providing the annual pinata!

July 25th - July Birthday gathering at Grandpa and Grandma Terry's.
We all met on Friday to celebrate the July birthdays: Lucie, Issac, Emily and Shawn all celebrated their birthday in July. No July celebration can be complete without the fireworks!

Hot dog and marshmallow roast. I think the fire was a little hot and the sticks a little short!

Issac, Alex and Lucie dancing it up in the back of Tim's truck.



July 26th - Terry Reunion at the Terry Ranch

Every year on the weekend closest to the 24th of July, hordes of Terry's flock to the ranch outside of Enterprise, UT. This is a photo of the surviving siblings of Grandpa Terry.

Siblings and their spouses:

From Left to Right start on Top Row: Uncle Vance, Aunt Alta; Aunt Camilla; Ann Terry; Aunt Elva; Aunt Afton (not pictured, Uncle Paige)

Bottom Row: Carlos Terry, Clark Terry (who obviously objects to having his hat on backwards)

(or his hair messed with either!)

E'owyn, Lucie and Sidney had a blast the entire weekend.

It was a great weekend, good food, tons of fun, and most importantly, we all got along!

And I KNOW Tim cannot wait until next year!

Swimming Lessons

This year we had all the kids in swimming lessons except Kadie (she did well enough last year). Alex and Daisey were placed in the intermediate beginner's class. Alex really should have been moved up with the older kids because he did so well. All the teachers were disappointed that we were moving to Enoch because they would have done well with swim team.

Learning how to dive

Alex and Daisey would beg the teachers to let them jump off the diving board. Finally on the last day they were able to. They loved it and went over and over again! Check out Daisey, she was the shortest (and probably youngest) in their class.

Alex's teacher wanted him to swim the length of the pool. He did a great job, but was so exhausted when he was done!

Lucie and Sidney's turn! They both learned so much this year and did very well. Again, the coaches wished we were staying because both were very smooth and fast swimmers.

Lucie and Sidney with their friend Brinley (in the middle) practicing their kicks.

Lucie and Sidney's turn at the diving board. I couldn't get either of them to dive or flip. But they loved to cannonball and splash the lifeguards.

All Moved In!

We left Fredonia with a giant moving truck packed full and arrived in Enoch at 5 pm, just in time to find out that the city hadn't turned our water on! Luckily there was a nice guy in our new ward who was willing to come out and turn it on for us and we didn't have to go through the weekend. These pictures were taken a few days before we moved in. As soon as we have everything organized and put away I will update. We have a lot of landscaping to do as well as a basement to finish, but we plan on being here for a while (at least 2 years, I promise!)

I am so excited for this kitchen! I have been without a pantry for so long. Every bed at our house in Fredonia had food under it and we had to use one of the kids closets to store food in. I spent the morning organizing the pantry and the cabinets. So much fun!

Tim's dream garage, sadly enough, it still isn't big enough for his stuff! My van will probably remain outside.

Our unfinished basement. We have a TON of work ahead of us!