Utah Red Rocks vs. BYU

 We started the night off at Hires.  One of my long time favorite burger joints.  Everyone was excited about the cheese fries.  Getting ready was so fun, just because Paisley was so excited.  I put a little bit of make up on her for the special event and face stickers.  She also got a new Utah Gymnastic T-shirt which she was just THRILLED about, and kept asking if I thought she looked cute in it, which I responded, "Yes" of course, 100 times.

 What a pretty girl in RED!

 We had a few BYU fans with us.  We gave them a hard time, but I did have to admit Grady looked pretty stinking cute in his get-up.

We got there an hour early so we could get the best seats possible.

By the end of the night all the girls were showing "U"s for support.  Utah beat the socks off BYU, it was great fun!  Those gymnasts sure are amazing!

We stayed and waited for the team to come out so we could get signatures on their posters after the meet.  They girls were in awe and so thrilled to meet them.  Paisley hung her posters on her wall the very next morning, and she has played "Gymnastics Meet" every day since then.  She is so funny.  She gets out her little gym mat, turns off the lights, and makes me shine a flash light on her and announce, "Now introducing!  From Lehi Utah, the amazing PAISLEY HEMMING!! The she comes out doing kart wheels and balk walk overs! It is quite entertaining!

She told me her favorite part of the night was "all the junk she got to eat!".  Then her second favorite part was meeting the gymnasts.  She kept saying how all she wants to do is be famous and be on posters and perform on bars.  Cute funny girl.  What a great night we had with our wonderful friends!

8 months old...

This is what I walked in to find on Sunday morning...yup, time to lower the crib!!

 This little cutie is all over the place, and just likes to follow me from room to room.  She just about climbed out of her crib, and attempts the stairs on a daily basis.  Oye.  Here comes the busy, watch out every second for Rowan stage.  She is a human vacuum.  The other day the kids spilt chip crumbs on the carpet, but a few minutes later they were gone.  Rowan had crawled to each one and enjoyed herself a snack...ugh that's one more things I have to watch out for, every little squinkie, polly pocket, princess, and super hero toy  appears to Rowan as her personal chewing/choking toys.  Also, just within the last few days she has began to notice when someone is eating, and is not happy about it if we are not sharing or there is not food for her.  It is fun to have her sit with us at the kitchen table now and have her eating smashed up whatever veggies we are eating.  Tonight she sat in her chair for about 45 minutes chowing down on one pea at a time.  I sure love her and all her new exciting things she is learning to do!

Hmm...I think I'll take a walk to the OTHER side of my crib.  Wow this is exciting!

 Hi Mommy!!!  Come and get me pleeease!!

 A few weeks ago Andelyn came up to me and asked if she could sleep over.  It was a school night so I told her on a Friday night she could.  So, the following Friday, Rebecca is about to put Andelyn to bed and she asks her mom, "Mommy, what day is Friday?"  Rebecca told her it was that day.  She then had a complete melt down that she was not sleeping at our house.  I felt SOO bad when I heard the story.  So, Ella and Andelyn stayed over night on Saturday, it was fun.  They thought Noah's pj bottoms would be funny to put on Rowans head.

I mean, really I can't handle how cute Ande is some times.  She just talks in the cutest voice and says the cutest things.  I can't say no to her about anything, even is she does forget who her uncle Ryan is.  Haha.

Her and Noah are quite the good little buddies.

Pretty girls.

Viva Las Vegas!!

For Ryans birthday (he turned a whopping 32!), we decided to take a little trip down to Vegas.  Brad and Rebecca joined us for part of the trip, it was so much fun!  His birthday was so perfect!  The buffet at our hotel, the Mandalay Bay was my favorite I've ever eaten at, and I'm not a huge fan of buffets.  But this one was really good! I especially loved the huge crab legs and the to die for Chocolate Cake!

Then we headed over to see The Lion King show.  I always heard this was a good one to see, but you really can't begin to imagine how amazing it really is until you see it for yourself.  I was left with chills the whole time.  LOVED IT!

Of course, what is a trip to Vegas without a day of Shopping!!!  Rebecca and I took a little more time at the mall then I think the boys wanted, but we found some goodies!  Thanks for being a good sport honey!

Ryan's one request while there was that we watch the bowl game together.  Utah came out with a win, good thing too.  It would have dampened my hubby's spirit!  A good way to end the season, and a great way to start our new years celebrations!  

Our hotel was having a beach party by the pool on New Years Eve.  Joe Nichols performed, along with Lauren Alaina, Rodney Atkins, and David Nail.  It was televised, and they kept hopping back between us and New York with the performances.  It was SO MUCH FUN!

The weather was fabulous!!!

The concert ended on New Yorks time, 10pm.  So we still had a few hours to kill.  We went back to our room and ate our Cheesecake and toasted with our Diet Cokes.  Then we were about to fall asleep.  I told Ryan we can't be such losers, we are in Vegas with no kids on New Years Eve!!  So we decided to be brave and head down to the strip.  IT WAS CRAZY!  We were probably the only sober ones there.  But we had fun laughing at funny drunk people, and the firework show was pretty cool to watch with all the hotel rooftops shooting them off in sync with each other.  It truly was a night I will never forget and always look back fondly upon.  I sure am lucky to have such a great hubby and best friend!

The end of the strip...once you ventured further in there was no getting out!  Haha.

Happy New Years!!!!  2012 is going to be great!

Christmas in McCall

There were so many great memories created this Christmas!  We were all together in a Cabin tucked away in the woods near McCall, ID.  The kids were so relieved that Santa found us on Christmas morning.

Of course the first things the girls did was play dress up with Aunt Melissa's clothes.  The kids sure love their Aunt Melissa.  They rally around her whenever she is around, and every night begged for her to put them to bed.  It was so cute.

Oh Christmas Eve, we made these darling wreaths out of died green rice and red hots.  Later they would hang on our tree.  

For lunch on Christmas eve we went to "My Fathers Place" in McCall for some grub.  That place has a to die for burger, unfortunately I had come down with the stomach flu that the kids gave me from the day before.  But I think everyone else enjoyed it. (Minus Dad and Ryan, who had to make a little trip to my parents to grab a present Santa left behind...dang it!)  Anyway, we drove around looking for a tree farm, but nothing was open.  So, when we got home my ambitious mother goes down to the basement, finds a tiny little hand saw (that looked more like a kitchen knife), and says she'll be right back.  Within 20 minutes she comes back out of the woods dragging our classic, WONDERFUL Charlie Brown tree.  It was perfect!

We made paper chains, a few different ornaments, and got to town decorating.  Melissa climbed up like a monkey to the top rafters to hang our tree topper.

Then we opened our pajamas that my mom and I made.  I think I made um...10, no 12 pairs with the Sock Monkeys included.  It was quite the task but oh so fun!

Our Tree Topper that I made.

The whole Fam Damily!

Noah was SOO tired he fell asleep on me before the festivities even began!  Poor kid.  Paisley started to struggle that night after all was said and done too with her asthma, and had a pretty bad attack in the middle of the night.  It was sad, but in the morning all was well, so I was very grateful for having all my kids healthy (somewhat) on Christmas!

Aunt Shanna got the boys these matching shirts.  Noah is obsessed.

The beloved gifts that Santa brought this year was an Easel for Paisley, a Bat cave GeoTrax set for Noah, and a Leap Frog Puppy for Rowan.

Paisley was so excited to open her Ice Cream maker too!

And her makeup...and everything else she got.  Spoiled little kids they were, but not rotten. :)

Playing all together with their new toys.

The crew.

Christmas Eve, with everyone in their PJ's!

I will never forget the talent show the kids put on the first night.  We were all rolling laughing so hard at the cute things all the kids were doing.  I will never forget Kimball's face while heading for the weeds on the sled. Priceless.  Our tree.  Shanna's pancakes with that to die for syrup!  Each of my kids taking a fall on that dang landing step.  Of course all 3 of my kids would have their turn.  Santa was so loud here too!  We could hear reindeer hoofs on the roof, and the loudest, "HO HO HO" and jingling of bells you have ever heard!!  The excitement in our kids eyes made everything so magical, and you could hardly contain their squeals of joy at hearing these things before bed!!  What a great time enjoyed by all!  Merry Christmas 2011!!