Birthday, Vegas and Valentines Day

So... I'm not doing too well at keeping up with my blog! I guess since I started facebook my blog has been on the back burner. Facebook is too addicting! Well anyways, I had a birthday. Not too exciting since it was my 32nd birthday!! I feel so old! Brad was going to work on my birthday, but as soon as he woke up that morning he decided to call off. Funny how that works, he really just used it as an excuse to not go to work. Haha. We had fun cruising around town and stuff. I promised the kids that after school we would go to Daddy O's to celebrate, so we went. Yum.. I am a fan of their yogurt!

Since my birthday was on a Thursday, we got to go out on Saturday thanks to my Mom and Dad watching my kids and John's kids. We went to Akira (another favorite).

I made my brother John and My friend Leia come with us!

Becky called me a few weeks ago and asked if we wanted to meet in Vegas and hang out with them and Jeff and Laura. The kids were so excited to go play with all the kids!

Of course all the kids wanted to all ride in the same car together, we need a bigger car next time! Maybe a 15 passenger van, but I don't think Brad would go for that!

First stop was Bowling, I was surprised that the bowling alley wasn't very smoky at all, since we were in "Vegas".

Nixon and Blake BFF's :)

The next day we went to Red Rock Canyon. The kids loved hiking to the waterfall that we found.

Carsyn and her little side kick.. Emma.

I love the little head poking in this picture.

All the fearless kids!

After the hiking we went Geocaching. It was such a nice day!

The kids checking out the treasures they found.

Since the last day we were in Vegas was Valentine's Day, we had a little Valentine's Day Party for the kids. They played games that were made up by "the Party Planners", Becky and Carsyn.

Okay that was another long post, we'll see how long it takes me to post another one!

Happy 5th Birthday Nixon!!!

Nixon turned 5 today! He is growing up so fast! I love this little guy!

We had a family party for him on Saturday because he wanted to make sure his buddy Blake would be at his party!

Here he is with Jack!

It was a simple birthday party just like I like to throw! Here are the 4-5 year olds! They are getting so big! We are missing a few of them in this picture. I love that our family has so many kids the same age, it's so fun!

Happy Birthday Nixon!!!!

New Year's Eve!

My sister Becky and her family came into town for New Years. It was fun to have them stay at our house! The kids loved having their kids to play with all the time! New Year's Eve we all went out to dinner to P.F. Changs, then came home and played games made up by Carsyn and Aunt Becky. They even made party hats, everyone wore them, they were awesome! After games we watched a movie and Becky's whole family fell asleep before midnight! Haha! Becky did wake up and threw poppers with the rest of us. The next day of course Brad and Caden had to leave to watch the college football games allllllll day long! As long as they have fun! :)

Caden and Blake

Nixon, Caden, Camden, and Carsyn sporting their cool hats!

Christmas 2009

Christmas seems to have come and gone so quickly! I can't believe it. I'm a little sad that it went by so quickly! I love all the traditions that our little family has and also all the traditions of our extended family! We always start out decorating our christmas tree of course, and the house. A couple weeks before Christmas we go take a drive and look at Christmas lights. I think I enjoy the lights more then the kids.

I always have to have a picture of the kids dressed for church the Sunday before Christmas. They are such funny kids, I soooo love them!

The Sunday before Christmas we go to Brad's parents, to do a little Nativity play. The guys always make me laugh, they come up with some funny costumes! This year Brad looked more like a transvestite, then a wiseman! Haha.

Christmas Eve was at our house this year and we missed having it at my Aunt Sharon's house! It turned out alright though. Thanks to my mother in law we had some costumes to do the Nativity also!

Christmas Eve night the kids always get a new pair of pajamas! Here they are being nerds! I'm telling you, I have the goofiest kids!

We normally get Smiths thumbprints for Santa, but this year Smiths was all out! Poor Santa, and Poor Mrs. Claus! So we had to give them Smiths maple bars instead!

Christmas morning is always so fun! It's the one day a year that all the kids wake up in a good mood, even when it's 6 in the morning!

This year all the kids got IPod touches, they were so excited! Now they don't have to play on our phones all the time! Poor Carsyn has had a cold the whole vacation, she is addicted to breath easy strips!

Brad got a new wakeboard to use this Summer, he warned me that he might kill himself on it, so maybe it needs to go back to where it came from!

After we open gifts at our house we always head over to The Race house and eat breakfast burritos made by Brad and his sister Alyson! They are so good!! Granny and Poppy always get everyone ornaments having to do with something that happened that year. We got a boat ornament, because we bought the boat this year. Caden always gets some kind of Snowman ornament, Carsyn gets a Cat ornament, and Nixon gets a Santa ornament. It's always exciting to find out which ornament we will be getting!

Usually we go to my parents in the afternoon, but this year my mom was really sick! So she sent my dad over with their gifts. The kids loved their new beanies! They turned out so cute!

Christmas was fun this year, but I was glad to get my house back to normal after putting all the decorations away!

Thanksgiving

To start off our Thanksgiving Brad had double hernia surgery! He was in a lot of pain for about a week. Poor guy, the funny part was when they brought him into the recovery room and he was totally drugged up! He sounded like a drunk man.

We did our traditional Turkey Bowl. The kids love being able to play in their own game of football.

Caden and some of the cousins playing flag football.

Brad had to watch this year because of he was recovering. Here he is watching from the side lines. So sad!!

My brother John got to have Thanksgiving at his house this year, Lucky him! :) We didn't have your traditional Thanksgiving feast, we had ribs, hot wings and ham. All pretty tasty.

Here are the some of the oldest boy cousins.

The kids making a mess of John's house.

After the party for my family, we were off to Brad's family's. The get togethers were one hour apart so we had to pace our selves on eating the food.

This year my mother in law had to get a few more tables. The family is getting pretty big!

To top off Thanksgiving, we did our after Thanksgiving Black Friday shopping! We missed my sisters and my mom this year but it was fun hanging out with my cousin Amy, my aunt Sharon, and my cousins Brent and Samantha!

We also got to take Amy's baby Brett with us. Here his is modeling his Christmas gift from his grandma, what a cutie!

On to Christmas now!!

Blog Overload again...

October and the first part of November have been pretty busy! First off Carsyn was awarded Student of the Month! We are so proud of her, she really works hard and is a good student!

Nixon had his first official field trip with his pre school. They went to the Pumpkin Patch and had a fun time going through the corn maze and picking out their own pumpkins! The good thing about Brad working nights, is that he is able to go with me on the kids field trips during the day! The kids love that he gets to come!

Carsyn wanted to do a girls night out when my sister Becky came into town. We went and got pedicures and out to dinner. Next time I'll have her bring a friend because I think she gets a little bored with the adults!

Me and my sisters at Olive Garden.

It was fun having my mom and my sisters along for the girls night.

While my sister was in town we decided to let the kids hang out at the park. My grandparents came and joined us, it was fun to chat with them too!

Halloween is not my favorite holiday!! But this year we decided to have a party because Carsyn wanted to plan one. She decided what games to play and what we did! She is my little party planner! She makes me laugh! They all decorated cookies and played pen the nose on the pumpkin and then my mom dressed as a witch and had the kids put fake ears and fingers etc, into her witches brew! It was cool she scared some of the kids though!:)

Caden was Nepoleon Dynamite, Carsyn was a pretty bat, and Nixon was Megatron.

I never dress up for Halloween but this year since we threw the party, I dressed up a little, I was a nerd, but I just looked like I was going to school or something! :)

Here I am with my friend Leia the 80's chick.

This is were the men were the whole night, I can't remember if it was baseball or football, all I know is that it must have been more interesting then our Halloween party. Haha.

All the people who dressed up, the kids had some cool costumes! Notice the scary witch in the corner, she looked cool too!

I had to put these pictures of Blake and Nixon on just because they make me laugh everytime I look at them!

Caden and Nixon both had successful soccer seasons and they are finished now! Nixon had his first season and did very good. I couldn't believe he actually let go of my leg and went out onto the field every game without me! He even scored a goal!! Caden did well also! He's a pretty good little soccer player! He made at least two goals every game, except for his last game of which he had a few assists! We are proud of both of them. Carsyn is a good sport! She hardly ever complains through all the soccer practices and games. She sits and Cheers them on! I asked her if she wanted to play this year and she said, "Why would I want to do that?" Funny girl!

Brad took the boys to watch the monster truck show! Nixon was in Heaven, even though he was tired and a little sick, he had a blast!

The boys

I love when the kids have programs at school! Carsyn had hers, it was for Veteran's day! She had to memorize about 15 songs! She did great!!

We went to the annual Veteran's day parade this year and got to watch my nephew Tyler marching with the BHS Air force ROTC. He looked so cool!

Brad and I enjoying the parade. :)

Here is the crew we brought this year!

Tyler is the second from the left! I can't believe he is getting so old!

This past weekend we had the 5K fun run that Brad puts on. It was fun just to get out and exercise with family and friends!

Me and the kids before the run!

We have been busy but life is only getting busier! Now on to Thanksgiving and Christmas!