Cade's Christmas Program

We got to go to Cades 1st grade Christmas program. His teacher, Mrs. Mac is the music teacher for all the 1st grades. They did such a great job! They sang a bunch of Christmas songs. Before the program started I couldn't keep Chase off the stage. He just stood up their "cheesing it" because everyone was laughing.

FUN IN THE SNOW!!

We have gotten so much snow this year! We have the perfect snow hill in our backyard--perfect for the little kids. Olivia and our neighbor, Jenna, are having fun sledding! One time Olivia went down the hill and ran into the fence at the bottom of the hill and I was worried if she was hurt ,so I asked her if she was OK! She replied while laughing..."I hurt my chinny, chin, chin!" I was laughing so hard!

Every year we get together with my family and do a Sub for Santa. This year we met and went shopping for our family and then we went to my Mom's house for Family Home Evening. We ordered pizza and read Christmas stories. I love the holidays and all the parties. I love going to Olivia and Cade's school programs. I love having the kids home from school and not having to rush in the mornings. We've enjoyed the holiday season and we are grateful for this time of year to reflect on our Savior, and His sacrifice for all of us!

My cute nephew! Jensen Grimshaw!

Olivia's 1st Dance Recital

This is Olivia's first year in dance and this was her first dance recital. I was nervous and thought she was going to be scared going on stage in front of a lot of people, but she did so good! It brought back memories of when I danced and my dance recitals. I helped Olivia put on her costume and make-up back stage and it reminded me when my mom would be back stage with me before my dance recitals. Olivia did such a great job! It was a Christmas concert and her class did a tap number to "Santa Clause is Coming to Town"




This is a picture of Chase on Rich's lap. He didn't move the entire dance recital. He sat their watching the entire time. It was great, I thought for sure he would want to run up and down the isles.

Santa visited after the concert. We were lucky and only had to stand in line for about 45 min. I wasn't sure what Chase would do, so I sat him on Cade's lap. He just kept looking at Santa, but he didn't ever cry!

THANKSGIVING

We had Thanksgiving this year at my Mom's and Bob's house. We had a craft table for all the grandkids and made Indian feathers. The kids loved it! The food was great-my Mom is the best cook!


Every year I do an ornament exchange with my mom and my sisters (this year my niece). It is a fun way to get new ornaments for our trees. We've been doing it for about 5 years now--it is a fun tradition!

My two cute nieces! Alex and Kate!

The grandkids at the craft table.

December 2008

Horray! I've been posting all night to try and get up to date with all our pictures and I'm pretty close now! All I have to do is our December pictures!! These were a few shots taken at Rich's Mom and Dad's house.

I love this picture of Chase! He was not the happiest during pictures. He has started to "cheese it " when ever he is getting a picture taken, it is adorable! Although in this picture, he is not so thrilled!

Frank and Maureen with all their grandkids!

Leaves, Leaves, And More Leaves

I love this time of year when the leaves are turning, but with this comes A LOT of raking. I decided to hire Ty and Jace, the two neighbor boys, to help out this year. The kids had so much fun playing and burying themselves in the leaves.

Olivia and Alaina would climb into the garbage can and smash all of the leaves down. The older boys also thought this was fun!

This is Cade hiding in the leaves! CUTE!!

Best Friends! Olivia and Alaina Roberts!

TRICK OR TREAT

I've always wanted to dress my kids up as pirates! This year they decided (after a lot of pleading) that it would be pretty cool and I think they look great! They had so much fun trick-or-treating with their friends throughout the neighborhood!

Check out the power drill! The drill actually is fun to use when you're carving a pumpkin!

The kids loved carving their pumpkins they got at the pumpking patch.

Our annual HALLOWEEN PARTY at Nana's house!

The kids loved this witch's brew!!




This is Rich doing the limbo. It was hilarious to watch the men--they were actually really good!

We ahd fun playing games, making a craft, playing limbo, and even destroying a pinata. The kids had a great time.

Halloween Party

Every year we have our tradional Halloween party at my mom's house. The kids dress up in their costumes and we have a great time partying.

Nana and her grandkids

Every year we do this donut on a string game. The kids go first and of course the adults do not want to miss out on all the fun!

This is a picture of the girls. I usually end up laughing so hard that I can't ever get to the donut!

Halloween 2008

Halloween is a very busy holiday for us. Right behind Christmas, it is the busiest holiday. This year we took the kids to a pumpkin patch and let them pick their pumpkins. I think we got home with about 16 pumpkins this year. Hopefully they won't get stolen like they did last year!

Olivia's Birthday!

Olivia's 5th Birthday!

OK, so what if it is December and everyone is posting their Christmas pictures. I am playing catch up (again) and I'm beginning with Olivia birthday which was back in October!

Happy Birthday Olivia! I can't believe she is 5! She is the sweetest little girl and we love her so much. This year we went to Las Vegas over UEA and celebrated Olivia's birthday with her Grandma and Grandpa Leifson. When we got home from Vegas we got several of her friends and had a birthday party at the PG rec center.

Olivia and her Nana!

Birthday in Las Vegas

Party day with her girlfriends (and two boys)!

These are the cute monster cakes the girls made.

NEW YORK CITY

Friday, October 8 2008

Rich and I had a blast in New York! We've been home almost a week and I can't quit talking or thinking about it. New York city is an amazing city. We were there for five days and for those five days we were constantly going. We saw two Broadway shows, Letterman show, Rachel Ray (thanks to Cassie Kerby), Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, China Town, Empire State building, and the list goes on! We had a great time with the Sautters and the Wards!


This picture was taken while at lunch the second day we got to the city. If you look closely in the background you will see Mark Consuelos (Kelly Rippas husband).

After we ate lunch, we headed to Chinda town and Little Italy and did some shopping!
Empire State building. We went by during the day and went back at night and took an elevator to the top.

We took a tour of the city on a double decker bus! This is us waiting for the bus!
I swear one day we probably walked about 10 miles. We walked across the Manhattan bridge. This is a picture from the bridge. Our waitress said there is a place called Juniors and they have the best cheesecake, so we decided to walk and we took the subway back. As we were walking back into our hotel, we looked across the street and saw a Juniors! It was kinda funny!

Rich and I at Rockefeller Center! Crystal, Anna and I at the Today Show! This was also super cool to see! We actually got on TV! I even got to shake Al Roker's hand. Alecia Keys was the guest that day and it was fun seeing Ann Curry and Meredith Vieira!
We visited Ground Zero. We saw the fire station across the street from ground zero, and they got called out when we were there. It is crazy to think about September 11th and what our country went through. I remember life seemed to stop for those few days after.
Statue of Liberty

Rich and I on the ferry going out to the Statue of Liberty! Look at the city in the background. I have to say that the Statue of Liberty was probably one of my favorite things we saw. It was just an awesome sight!

We got tickets to the Racel Ray show! Rich , me , Crystal and Rob got tickets to the Rachel Ray Show! Thanks Cassie! Thanks for your awesome connections! It was so cool to see a taping and see what it takes behind the scenes to actually do a taping. FelicityHoffman (from Desperate Housewives) and the Roloff's (from Little People, BIG World) were the guests that day.

We got to see the Letterman show!
The Subway with our friends!! The subway was great once we figured out how to use it!
Rich and I enjoying a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity--YUM!!!

Central Park--it was beautiful!!