Bella's Thanksgiving performance

Bella was the sixth little Indian in her song...
She was so cute up on stage with her
fellow kindergartens!

She knew all the words and we had so much fun watching
her cute little show.

Grandpa Duane came over from work to
watch!

Auntie Camey also came before her busy
day of school.

Here's Bella and Olivia,
what adorable little Indians
they made!

I am so thankful for cute little moments
like these. Our kids are growing up
so fast and I am going to miss these
sweet little activities.

Happy Halloween 2011

What a great Halloween we all had this year.
Not only was it Halloween but it was also my
Dad and Amy's 20th wedding Anniversary.
Jack Sparrow

Rapunzel

Ariel Alice

Scarey DallasThe kids all had such a fun time with their costumes and
were so excited about getting all dressed up.

Even Ben got into the fun!We walked all over my Dad and Ami's neighborhood. Till our buckets were full and the kids were tired...
Their buckets got so heavy from all
the candy that the parents
ended up carrying them back to the house.

Bella even managed a ride from Grandpa's
poor shoulders.

Chelsey's cute kids were the best
Mickey, Minnie and Goofy I have ever seen.
Emry was such a great sport dressing up
and even helped Abriana get her candy.

My sweet sister Camey was the Mad Hatter with Alice this year.
They were so super cute together and Bayleigh love it.
(So did I)

Our big group shot of all the kids...

Grandpa Duane and Grandma Ami always
make it so much fun. The kids all love
coming over to their house.

They made their amazing chili also. We always eat
this on Halloween and look forward to it all year long.

This Dracula has met us at the door every year since
I can remember.

Thank you both for another great Halloween.
Happy 20th Anniversary to you also.
It sure was nice being part of such a special day.

Heaven got another Angel

Where do I start when it comes to talking about my
"GRANDFATHER."
He was an all around amazing man. People who knew him only ever had great things
to say about him. He had a true, unbreakable faith in his religion and lived his life by it everyday. Family is everything to him after God and no one would ever question that.
My Grandpa Jack means much to me.
He is someone I will always love and miss so much. He was a man who showed me what it meant to love unconditionally. He excepted me for who I am and what decisions I have made in my life. He always wanted me to stay strong to the Mormon religion but knew it was up to me to do it. One of my favorite things he would tell me was "EVERYONE has THEIR own free agency, it's up to them to decide what to do with it". He was a man who started off as the youngest of 5 boys, a farmer from Willows, CA, who loved his mother so much. He ended up a man with his doctorate and professor at Sacramento State University, husband to 2 amazing women (his 1st one passed away from cancer and his 2nd just passed away 8 months ago,) father to 4 children of his own and 4 of Grandma Pat's children, 27 amazing grandchildren and 16 even more amazing great-grand children. He loved to get together for any reason we could to celebrate. He was an amazing cook, a pro at card playing and always a great story teller. He had a ton of adventures in his 86 years of life and could remember dates like it was going out of style. I was lucky enough to be able to spend a lot of time with him. I will miss having our weekly conversations. We would talk all the time over the phone and got together as offend as we could. As soon as I could drive, I would go out and visit him and my Grandmother every week. Once they moved out to Utah, Ben and I traveled back there a few times for visits. I will always remember the great times we had with them. Thank you Grandpa Jack for loving me so much! Thank you for always being nothing but a great example to me. Thank you for loving me unconditionally. Thank you for helping me be the person I am today. I will miss your face so much. I will miss hearing your voice on the other end of the phone. I will miss making unforgettable memories with you. I am grateful that you got to know my amazing husband and he got to know you. I am grateful that ALL of my children got to know who you were and how much you've always meant to me. I am grateful that I got to do almost 31 years of life with you. I will always be grateful that I got to and will continue to call you GRANDPA. I know you're having an amazing time where you're at now. I know you have a huge group of people with you now, who have been waiting for you for a long time. I look forward to the day we meet again and know you'll be watching over me till then. I love you so much Grandpa Jack and "THANK YOU" for everything you ever stood for.

Army pride...

While Ben was at training this
last time he picked up these
great shirts for the kids!

They love wearing his big
ones as p.j. shirts.

They were so excited when he gave them
the shirts and had to wear them to school.

It's super rare to get the all in the same thing
and I love it!!!

Great idea Honey. :)

1st day of school 2011

Well the day has finally gotten here...
We now have 3 kids heading out the
door in the morning for school.
Blake is now a 4th grader,
Brooklyn is now a 2nd grader
and
Bella is officially a kindergartener!

Camey came over in the morning to wish them a
great first day of school. They were so excited to see her!

We met over at Kacey's house for the traditional
walk to school with all these great kids.
(The crowd is getting older and older)

We always look like a parade, I love it.

Our little group shot!

Bella was so excited to have her bff in her class!

Bella with Ms. Jordan

Brooklyn with Mrs. Jennings

Blake with Ms. Ankley

The kids all got great teachers this year.
They always do!
(We love the kids school)
We're looking forward to a great
2011-2012 school year!

Our amazing American Soldier

On August 19th we found out that Ben will be leaving in
January 2012 to sever his country in Afghanistan.
Even though being away from our husband/daddy
for so long will be difficult, we are so proud of him
for being so brave and serve his country. We love
you so much Ben!

Grandma Jan's corn festival...

Brooklyn and Grandma Jan came up
a fun idea to harvest Grandma's corn.
They decided to have a corn festival and
serve all corn related food.

It started off with the kids picking all
the corn off of the corn stocks.

Grandma gave them each a basket to
put there corn in.

They loaded up their baskets!!!

Once all the corn stocks were bared it was

time to shuck the corn.

It was such a great time!
They didn't stop till every last piece was done.

Then for dinner we had corn dogs, chips with corn salsa,
corn on the cob and corn bread.

Then for dessert we had vanilla ice cream
with candy corn jelly bellys on top.

At the end of the night Ben and Joe had
a bobbing for apple race. It was a super close race
but Joe won. It was so funny watching them try to
figure out how to get the corn out of the bowls
and then chuck them on the ground.

Thank you Brooklyn and Jan for such a great family night!
What a great way to spend time together.