Sadie's Christmas Dance

We got to enjoy another one of Sadie's Christmas Dance Concerts. She performed the cutest jazz number to "Run Run Rudolph". Of course, the costumes are always so cute. Sadie is really enjoying dancing with the troupe and is looking forward to dancing in Disneyland this spring.

Merry Christmas!!

Great Grandma Weston

On Christmas Eve we spent time in Airdrie with the Weston side of the family. Great Grandma Weston was even there to celebrate with us. She has moved into the Old Folks Home in Cardston but is still getting around real well. While cleaning out her house she was asking if anybody was interested in learning how to play her acordion. I jumped at the chance and inherited this amazing music making machine. (Or as Darcy calls, "the noise making machine") I have been teaching myself how to play it and it has been a lot of fun. I brought it with me Christmas Eve so that Grandma could play it for my kids - to show them how it was really done. We enjoyed listening to her play all kinds of music (with no music in front of her as she plays by ear). She is so talented when it comes to music of any kind. We also enjoyed listening to Grandma play Christmas carols on her old pump organ, which Tracee inherited. There is something special about Christmas music!

Decorating Gingerbread Houses

One thing we like to do every year is decorate Gingerbread houses. This year Sonya's family came up for the whole week before Christmas so we decorated our houses with them and Allaina's kids. The kids were paired up and away they went to work on their gingerbread houses.

Kailey and Calli were very precise and detail oriented while decorating their house. They wanted it to look like a real gingerbread house. And then there are my boys - BOYS WILL BE BOYS! Why decorate the house with icing when you can decorate your little brother's mouth instead?

I'm always glad when all the candy is picked off of the houses and I can throw them away. It is such a mess having all that hard icing spread all over the counter as the candy gets picked off.

Kailey's 12th Birthday

Kailey turned 12 on December 22, 2010. She is officially a Young Woman at church and is very excited to be graduated from Primary. It has been a long year for her as she is the last one in her class to move on to Young Womens. For her birthday we spent the day with all of her cousins going to Village Square Leisure Center and then out for Chinese Food with the whole Family. Of course we had birthday cake afterwards. Happy Birthday Kailey!

Bringing Home the Divisional Banner!

Winners!!! Carson's volleyball team won Divisonals tonight and brought home the banner for their school! They went undefeated for the whole volleyball season! Way to go Carson and all his teamates you all played awesome - amazing team work!

Carson's coach congratulating him after the big win!

Mrs. Davidson presenting the gold medal to Carson and his team.

The boys checking out THE BELOVED BANNER!

Way to go boys! What a season!

Can you say KILL?

This is Carson's most recent favorite picture. You've probably all seen it as his profile picture on facebook. Just happened to get the pic at just the right moment. Carson's team is ranked #1 going to the Divisional Playoffs this Friday. Good Luck Carson. We hope you guys bring the banner home this year!

Sports and More Sports

We are into full swing sport events now. Between Volleyball with the school teams and 3 of the kids playing basketball along with Sadie dancing 3 nights a week it is a busy schedule. I am having a lot of fun taking pictures of the kids in action now that I actually know how to use my camera. Now it is a matter of lots of practice . . . so I am taking lots of pictures. Here's a few over the last week.

Carson is LOVING volleyball this year. He is actually quite passionate about it.

Even though he can pound the ball fairly hard his coach needs him to set because of his soft touch and quick hands. Being the setter you don't often get to hit the ball but when the opportunity arises, Carson's eyes light up and he hits away!

JJ's first basketball game was a very exciting night for him. He expected us all to come and watch because he has sat through countless basketball games for the other kids. He is actually a year younger than the other kids in the league and of course probably the shortest but he holds his own quite well.

Kailey has played 5 games in the last week. She's got a great coach and an excellent team! Let me tell you, these girls can run. Some of the teams don't know what has hit them when these girls turn on the steam and fast break all game long!

And then we go from Kailey's games to Carson's games.

Here he is popping a 3.

Last weekends game was especially fun because Carson and his good friend Benson Ehlert finally got to play against each other! It was so cute to watch them battle it out on the court with smiles on their faces! They had a great time egging each other on throughout the game.

Before tip off Benson called out Carson's number because he wanted to guard Carson. Then he whispered to Carson "go easy on me!" Carson just laughed and said "Benson, you know I can't do that!" It was a game time!Carson got off to a great start by scoring the first 7 points of the game.

The first shot of the game was a sweet 3 point shot that made that awesome sound when its all net (swoosh)!

Triva question on this shot! Is Carson on offense or defense and if he is on offense did he make the shot?? Love to hear your guesses.

Cute Kids

Kids really are fun to watch, especially when they don't

know that you are watching them!

One night we were watching Darcy play squash and I glance

over at Sadie and this is what she is doing.

Jordan and his buddy Grant doing what they love most! Even with socks tucked in their pants (because they are playing flag football) they still couldn't help but rough each other up just a little bit!

LUKE OUT BELOW! Carson took this picture of my nephew Luke! Pretty darn cute! And then there is my niece Mylee.

I asked what she was doing when I took this

picture and she told me she was washing her tummy!

I'm still not sure why but that is what she was doing!

You crack me up!

Baby Shower for Leah and Lilly

Little Girls are so much fun! I'm embarrased to say I don't even have a picture of my newest niece to put on my blog. I didn't get a chance to even hold her during the shower because so many people were there but it was a great baby shower!

We had so much fun decorating for Baby Lily's shower!

Auntie made the diaper cake and Candice made those cute little colorful chocolate cups with a decadent desert inside them. SOOOO CUTE (and delicious)!

The cake was made by a friend of Leah's mother. It was adorable.
Leah had so much fun opening all of her gifts.

Lily is now officially spoiled with everything a girl could want or need.

Waterton - September Long Weekend

Where does the time go? I just realized I'm already a month behind in a lot of things. You would think with all 4 kids in school full time I'd be right on top of everything. It just isn't so!

Rewinding back to September Long Weekend we went camping in Waterton with extended family. Anybody who has been to Waterton recognizes these fun bikes. (They are only fun for the kids riding in them. Why are they so darn hard to peddal?)

Us girls took a hike up Bear's Hump. This cute pic is of Kailey taking a little rest 1/2 way up.

Sadie on top of the world!

Kailey and Candice were so excited to be at the top but they nearly got blown over when we got there. It was sooooo windy!

Look at our hair! That tells you how windy it was. It was actually scarry standing near the edge because at any moment you could literally be blown off the side of the mountain.

While the girls were hiking the boys were building ramps to jump off of. This is JJ catching a little air!

This is JJ after he caught the air and forgot to brace himself on his peddals when he landed! He'll only make that mistake once!

We had a great weekend and as always had fun with the fam! Thanks Brandon and Candice for the invite!

Bitter Sweet Back to School

Back to School! I must say that today was a Bitter Sweet Day for me. Jordan and Sadie were really excited for school to start. Jordan was definitely the most excited out of all of them as it was his first day of school and the big Grade 1! You can tell how excited Kailey is in this picture to be going back to school!


The cutest thing was the day before school started I happened to look out the window and Jordan was outside snuggling and talking to his cutie wootie (Black Jack). I heard him saying "Now Black Jack, things are going to change around here tomorrow cause I am going to school all day. I won't be here all day with you but you can keep mom company while I'm gone. Don't be too sad Black Jack, it will be alright! I'll see you when I get home every day." It was so stinkin cute and brought a tear to my eye! Things did change around here today.

There's a whole new world out there for Jordan to

take on and he is more than ready for it!

Jordan waiting in line for the bell to ring. I think he is wondering

why this girl is standing so close to him!

I wasn't going to go into the school when the bell rang because he didn't really need me to. I never walked my other kids into their classrooms on the first day of school but I found myself following the line up of kids. I must admit I had a bit of a hard time letting go. I am so thankful I have independent children but today I guess I was wishing that Jordan needed me just a little bit! He marched right into his classroom, put his indoor shoes on and found his coat hook with his name on it.

He knew exactly what to do. He spotted his name on his desk

and sat right down ready for business.

As I left the classroom he turned around to wave to me and that is when the tears started. Not for Jordan, but for me! It is a bitter sweet day to see your baby wave good bye to you as he starts his journey at school. I'm so excited for him and all the fun times he will have at school but it is going to be an adjustment for me not having my little buddy with me 24/7. The house was quiet and Black Jack kept me company. I think as a mom you look forward to the day when all the kids are gone to school and the house is quiet but when that day actually comes (for me anyways) it is a little more bitter than sweet!