Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays!!

BIRTHDAY BOYS!!!

Michael celebrated his 25th Birthday here with us in Utah. The kids made a poster for him and we decorated the house. It's been fun having him live with us for a few months. Now he is off to greener pastures(and cuter girls) at BYU.
On Sunday we had dinner and cake & icecream for his birthday. Paul, Laura and Parker came. Man is he getting old....someone find him a wife!! haha

Ron celebrated the big '40' last week. He doesn't look that old. He says he feels that old though. We went to the movies in the afternoon and then out to dinner that night. I guess old age is getting to us, we are not that exciting.
Once again, here we have the kids at a hotel. Can you guess what they are doing? Hint, it starts with 'SpongeBob'! Ron's work party was at the Zermatt Resort in Midway this year and we decided to take the kids this time and stay overnight. They stayed in the room while we had a fun time downstairs at the party. We took them snowboarding the next day since we were so close to Park City.

Here we are with some friends from our ward at the party.

Starting Christmas out right!

I know I just blogged yesterday but I just had to comment on our evening last night. If you have never been to the production of 'Savior of the World' put on by the Church, it is worth being put on hold for a half an hour to get tickets the 1st day they are sold. I saw it 3 years ago and have wanted to go back and take my family ever since. It is held in The Conference Center in Salt Lake and is such a wonderful play.

The play is about The Saviors Birth and His Ressurection. It's 2 hours long and the kids did a great job sitting for that long. They really paid attention and even Cullan understood it.

It made me remember what not just this 'season' is about, but what this life is about. It was a Great way to start out the Christmas Season!

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the theater so here we are waiting out in the lobby.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! Our family had such a good time this past week. We drove to California and spent Thanksgiving with my family. Everyone was there! It was amazing. We were constantly busy and all the kids had fun getting reaquainted with their cousins. Monday we took the kids to the park and then to Chuck E. Cheese for Family Home Evening.

Cousins at the park.

Cousins keeping cool!!

Trying to get Isaiah to hug me!!!

Parker on his 1st horsey ride. Giddyup!!

Laura choreographed a dance for the kids to perform on Thanksgiving. They danced to a song from High School Musical. They were so proud of themselves. This was only 8 of the 22 grandkids.

On Saturday night we all went to downtown Riverside to see the lights on the Mission Inn. It was crazy trying to keep everyone together.

On Sunday John & Emily blessed baby Kaylee. It was nice to be able to be there for that.

The whole crew minus Trena, Jordan, Cory, Jamal and Michael.

Cullan and his cousins Isaiah and Adam

Nelson and his twin seperated at birth, Hannah

Our Family!!

Mom's 60th Birthday!!

I don't have anything new to blog right now so I decided to tell about my mom's 60th birthday last May. It definitely deserves some blogging.

All 8 daughters(sisters and sisters-in-law) plus my daughter Lauren, surprised my Mom and took her to her favorite Beach House for her Birthday. It was so fun. The best part of it was how suprised she was. Dad did a good job of keeping the secret and packing Mom's things for the weekend.

Here's how it played out. Lauren and I & Laura and Parker drove down from Utah(everyone else was already there). The next day my Dad brought my Mom down to the beach for dinner for her birthday. We were all waiting in the restaurant. She was so surprised; as you can see from the pictures.

After dinner we decided to go for a walk on the boardwalk. We walked her past the beachhouse and started kidding around about trying to see who was staying in the house. I snuck through the gate and started for the front door and my Mom was saying "Get away from there, what are you doing?; someone is going to see you". Meanwhile my sister Angie had gone around the back of the house and gone in. When I got up to the front door Angie opened it from inside and we all yelled "Surprise!"

Here she is opening her presents. Cute hat Mom!


We all stayed at the beach for 2 days and just shopped and stayed up late and watched movies. We had such a fun time. Oh and we ATE!!

Okay so the weather wasn't great for tanning but we had to at least try.

OH MY GALLBLADDER!!!

Yes, that's right, I had my gallbladder removed friday and anyone who tells you it doesn't hurt is lying! I'm pretty sure in about a week when the pain is gone I will say the same thing so I am documenting that it really does hurt at this moment. I am trying to get through this with out pain medication but I guess I'm not that tough. Tonight I will be taking some hard narcotics so I can sleep! There are pictures of my gallbladder I could blog but that is just too frightening. So here is a picture of the beautiful flowers my sister Laura brought me in the hospital. Aren't they gorgeous?!!

Here's the real kicker....they found NO gallstones when they removed it!

Oh wait here is a picture of me with Parker after the surgery.

Happy Halloween

Here are our 2 little IPODS!! Nelson and Cullan had a candy filled day! 1st parties at school, then Ron's work party, then off to the church where we had trunk-or-treat and finally the actual Trick-or-Treating!!

Laura, Paul and Parker came Trick-or-Treating to our house. What a cute Lion! I think they should have dressed up Otis to look like Toto and taken him with them..haha

This is Nelson's class at school. He loves his teacher Mrs. N.

And this is Nelson's teacher from last year. He wants his Uncle Michael to go out with her!!

Party, Party, Party!!!

Have you ever been to a 16th Birthday Party? Can you say Awkward? Boys on one side, girls on the other.

It was quite entertaining; although not something I would ever want to have to repeat for myself. It was a nice day for the end of October; mid 60's; so we had it in the backyard. Paul (Lauren's Uncle) got a big blow up ball from BYU and the kids had fun throwing it at each other or running each other over with it.

I think everyone had fun. Who knows with a bunch of teenagers??? Afterwards some of them went over to the Highschool for the Stomp(dance).

Andrew & Trena came and visited after they were done looking for a house to buy in Pocatello. The kids were glad to have Jordan to play with. He's such a cutie. The boys can't wait to be able to visit him more often now that he will be closer and to go to his birthday party in January.

Yes we were also watching the Red Sox game!!
Go Sox!!!

Lauren's 16th Birthday!!!!

Well Lauren thought the day would never come but it did. She turned 16 yesterday. After a homemade breakfast of cinnamon rolls(pillsbury) and Poptarts(Kelloggs) she was amazed when her Dad told her that her present was a car! She thought he was kidding and then ran to the garage(followed by the boys of course) to find a shiny red(what were we thinking) Honda Accord. It's not new but she doesn't care. At lunchtime I surprised her at the school and took her and her friends to lunch and then we all went to the DMV together to get her License. They had a great time goofing off at the DMV. She is the 1st one of her friends to get her license.

Here she is showing off her car to her friends.

Lauren and her friends at the DMV!!

If you look closely you can see the sign I made and put up across from the highschool for all to see. It has her school picture on one side and her baby picture on the other. Real embarassing!!

More pictures at the DMV!!

This man thought the girls were being funny at the DMV so he had his picture taken with Lauren.

St. George Marathon

This past weekend we went to St. George Utah for the annual event I call torture. I did not run this year as I have finally concluded that races that long are very hard on my body. I will stick to shorter races like half-marathons and such. Ron ran the marathon again this year. This was his 13th year running it. He said he didn't train as much as he usually does and he has an injured hamstring so with those things in mind I still think his time was awesome. He did it in 2:40. Not bad for an old injured man.

Ron is the one closest to the fence.

The kids have a great time in St. George. Just being at the hotel where they have CABLE is a treat for them. As evidenced by the picture of them watching SpongeBob which you can see in the reflection in the picture behind them.

Lauren playing soccer

Well I figure we ought to let you see a few pictures of Lauren playing soccer. They had their last game up in Salt Lake on Saturday at Rice Eccles Stadium where the Real Salt Lake soccer team plays. Their game was right before the Real game so it was pretty cool. They won 3-0 against Copper Hills Highschool.

Also here is Lauren's cousin Parker with Austin at her last game at the highschool. He had a good time eating popcorn off the ground.