Merry Christmas!

Christmas was wonderful as usual. The kids were so excited and had a hard time falling asleep but they were pretty good about sticking to our 7am wake up time. Getting 7 kids to go to bed knowing that Santa is coming is not easy but they are getting older and that helps.

They are so excited to see what santa brought them. They are all decked out in their Christmas Eve pj's.

Austin all decked out in his Cowboy gear that Santa brought him.

Grandma Gailey got Shaylyn this horse that she loved and the doll in the next photo.

She loves them both as you can tell.

Grandma Gailey also got the boys these huge nerf guns which was exactly what they wanted. They can barely hold them up they are so big. They actually come with a tri pod because they are so big.


We had a great Christmas. We are very blessed to all be healthy and to be with our family. I am grateful to have such a wonderful family and to have 3 children that I love dearly. And a husband who means more to me every year we are married. Thank you to all my family. I love you all.

More Fun in the Snow

My mom and dad have a big turn around drive and quads. That with snow, sleds and 7 grandchildren make for a lot of sledding fun. Grandpa pulled the kids on the sleds behind the quads the other day. I'll let the pictures tell the story. They had a great time. Thanks Grandpa!

Snow, Snow and More Snow

We have had a lot of snow around here lately and the kids have been loving it. Fortunately we invested in warm coats, snow pants, gloves and boots last year so they have spent a lot of time outside. They got an extra 3 days of vacation due to the snow. We have this great sledding hill right behind our house and it is perfect for the kids to play on where there are no cars. Anyway they have been having a great time back there. Here are some pics of their good times.

Dinner Conversation

The other night we sat down at the dinner table as a family and starting talking about things. A hot topic was the snow of course. But somehow we got telling jokes and everyone took a turn. The boys told a few blonde jokes, Doug and I told a few... and Shaylyn wanted in on the fun and started telling jokes that she totally made up but they were the funniest ones of all. I laughed so hard because she was so proud of her jokes. It's days like this that make me realize how very lucky I am. I have a wonderful family, a warm wonderful home and my husband has a good job. We are truly blessed and I am grateful for every minute I can share with my wonderful children and loving husband. I will try to post snow pics soon. Take Care!

Out of Order!

I did 3 posts this morning and I first started on our anniversary and then realized I needed to do Shay's birthday and Thanksgiving so I saved our anniversary as a draft and did the other ones. I was thinking my anniversary one would be on top but it is not. I am kind of sad but not enough to delete it and redo it. So my posts are not in order. Oh well. Have a great day!

Thanksgiving Fun!

Thanksgiving started with a Cowboys vs. Seahawks game in grandma and grandpa Newbold's back yard. Some of the family are Cowboy fans and some are Seahawks fans (I won't name names) so they had a game before the game in the back yard I don't know who won this one but some family members won't let us forget who won the real game (Sean and Austin). It's all good!

Even with a division in the house they are all still friends.

We did have some excitement. As I am saying the blessing on the food I hear Chance kind of gasp and then everyone starts freaking out. The yams that were in the oven caught on fire and the marshmellows were burnt black. :) We got the fire put out with no problems and now we have a funny memory about thanksgiving we will talk about for years.

The yams didn't actually burn at all so it was all good.

The turkey turned out great as usual. Thanks Mom.

Chance and Kaylee going through the ads making their Christmas list.

The day ended with lots of games. Thanks to grandpa for playing clue with the kids. He has a lot of patience.

We had a great day! I just want my family to know how thankful I am for everyone of them. I am very blessed to have wonderful supportive parents who are close by and a sister that I am close with even though she doesn't always remember things correct because that is definitely my PUSH PULL STICK we found:) Anyway I love you all, thanks for a great day.

The big "6" girl party!

I am a little behind on this post Shay had her birthday party 2 weeks ago. She had four friends over and had a lot of fun. There was lots of high pitched screaming! They started out running through Doug's pile of leaves he had raked up in the front yard.

Then they moved into the kitchen for a princess crown craft which the had fun making them.

Then we played "Pin the crown on the Princess".

We then had presents and they frosted their own ice cream cone cupcake. It was simple but they all seemed to have fun. She is growning up so fast. I hope she had a great birthday.

Happy 17th Anniversary!

Today Doug and I have been married for 17 years. It doesn't seem possible. We have had good and bad times but the good times far out weigh the bad in fact we have been very fortunate in our marriage. We get a long great. Have similar interests and rarely fight. We are not perfect and we have our stages of difficult times but we are truly blessed to have a wonderful marriage. I cannot image life without Doug. He is a wonderful person. He is a better dad and husband then I could have ever hoped for. He will help anyone out in a heart beat. I am so proud of him. He has a really giving heart. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday that he is my husband. Thanks Doug for a wonderful 17 years and I look forward to 50 or 60 more:) Here are some wedding photos I thought I would share.

I also want to post about my wonderful father-in-law. He was taken from us 6 years ago Thanksgiving night. I can't believe it has been 6 years already. We miss him so much. He treated me like one of his daughters, I always felt loved by him and I will never forget what a wonderful man he was and what a wonderful man he and Joyce raised to bless my children and my life forever. Thank you Verge. We love and miss you!

Memories

Two years ago just after Thanksgiving Doug and I took off to Hawaii to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. My sister was watching my kids and I remember saying you will have it easy they will all be in school except Shay. The day we left it started to snow and they ended up out of school for several days I remember she emailed me this picture. Oh how I wish I was in Hawaii now. I am sure Jodi is grateful we are not:) You still owe me though:) Thanks!