Nana and Papa's Christmas Dress

Back in October when Andersen's parents came to visit, I got to do a little shopping with his Mom. And she picked out this sweet little dress for Waverly to wear for Christmas and I have been waiting till she can fit into it. She just looked so cute in it, of course I had to take pictures. Thank you Nana and Papa for the Christmas dress!

Will, Christy, and Opryland

This last weekend we were able to go and visit Will and Christy and their girls in Tennessee this last weekend. It was a great trip and the boys love getting together with their cousins, probably because of all the unusual girl's stuff they get to play with while we're there :0) This was some kind of store they had set up, complete with shopping cart.

Kaylee and Cambri cannot get enough of Waverly! They loved holding her and helping me get her dressed. They had lots of really good advice for me on how to take care of a girl. Thanks girls! I need all the advice I can get in the girl department.

Then Will and Christy took us to Opryland which is a Hotel/Convention center but soooo much more. This place was HUGE and completely inside. This is a map of Opryland that they had there, complete with all the holiday attractions they had going on.

It was an incredible place and all decorated for Christmas. Here we are standing by the side of the river that goes throughout the "Delta" and that's the actual hotel in the background.

There was so much to see. Lots of plants and gardens and waterfalls, all inside, did I mention that?

This was the life sized nativity in front of the hotel. And you can see the trees in the background completely strung from top to bottom in white lights. These trees lined the drive up to the hotel. I still cannot even fathom how the wound lights around every single little branch!

Here are the kids trying to see the water show they had in the Delta. It was set to lights and music.

This is a little video of the finale. It was really impressive. And luckily none of the boys had a desire to run through the water.

Thanks Will and Christy for a wonderful weekend. We had a blast! A great way to start off Christmas vacation! We love you guys!

Sugar Cookies

This is one of my favorite memories of growing up, making sugar cookies with my Mom. But it is extremely time consuming so about once a year I talk myself into making them. The boys were super excited when Saturday I decided that I felt like baking cookies. We all had a great time decorating the cookies and then taking them to our neighbors.
And then we spent all of Sunday in a sugar coma.

Packages Arrive!

This is mostly for my parents so they can see how excited the boys got when their Christmas packages arrived. I had to break up the first video into two parts and the last video is of the next day after we got the train all set up under the Christmas tree. Thanks Dad and Mom!

Dancing With Waverly

The other day, after Porter and Campbell got home from school I caught Porter NOT doing his homework. Instead he was "dancing" with his little sister. I had been attracted by the sound of Waverly giggling and went in to see what had her laughing and there was Porter holding her up by her hands and twisting her side to side, signing some little diddy. I couldn't resist, I had to take pictures.

Christmas Tree Outing '09

One of our traditions each year is to go out the day after Thanksgiving (or some time that weekend) and get our Christmas tree. Sometimes we just go to Home Depot and pick out a tree, but our best trees have always been the ones that we've cut down ourselves. And since we had Will and Christy with us we decided to make it a day outing. Luckily there was a tree farm just down the road from us, AND over the river and through the woods. It was a beautiful day so it turned out even better than we had expected.

First, to get a across the river we had to take a ferry. This ferry claims to be the oldest working ferry in the United States and I believe it. Here is everyone watching a load of cars coming across.

This thing was even paddle powered!

The kids loved being able to get out of the cars and by fortunate luck no one fell in. I think we were all more aware after loosing Mason the day before ;0)

Then, just a few more miles after the river we reached the tree farm. It was called Baldwin Farms in Richmond, KY. It was a great little farm with animals the kids could pet, free hot cocoa, a small country store, and even some reindeer antlers to try on. Not bad Waverly!

Coolidge LOVES dogs and couldn't get enough of this little guy.

The boys thought for sure this huge white rabbit must have been the Easter Bunny.

Oh, and no farm is complete without a huge dirt pile to climb!

This picture cracks me up because it looks like Coolidge just caught a whiff of ...

They even found Santa, although he looked pretty busy. As hard as they tried to pull him out to tell him what they wanted for Christmas, he just wouldn't budge.

Keep pulling Porter!

Then finally, success! We found the perfect tree, but it was a little tricky cutting it down, even though there were plenty of helpers.

And poor Will even got crushed in the process. He thought the tree was going to fall the other direction.

Oh, Christmas tree! Oh, Christmas tree!

It was a great day and we were glad that Will and Christy and kids where there to help us pick out this year's Christmas tree. We think it's our best one yet! Our tallest tree at 9 feet. And it only cost us $60. We are definitely coming back here next year. Thanks guys!

For Family Home Evening on Monday we put all the lights on the tree and Coolidge was the lucky kid to put the star on top. Although, I don't think he liked being up so high as he kept arching his back and screaming. Oh well, nothing like instilling a fear of heights in them while they're young.

Black Friday

The day after Thanksgiving we had the brilliant idea of going to the Mall to check out the deals. This is a tradition in MY family and I have pretty fond memories of this tradition, which means that for me to have any memories of it I was probably a lot older than my kids are currently. Taking 7 kids under the age of 8yrs to the Mall on Black Friday is not a good idea. Fortunately there is a small play area in the Mall where we were able to corral them all and I think they were having a pretty good time. At least Coolidge looks like he was having fun.

Andersen and Will...not so much fun. Thanks Will for the courtesy smile.

After braving the crowds we finally made it to the church to play some volleyball with some of our friends who were still in town for Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, when we got there the main doors were locked and since we do not have keys to the church we decided to settle in and wait for someone with keys to show up. But our boys, being the patient little dears that they are, insisted on checking ALL the doors around the church even though we assured them that all would be locked. So, off went Porter with Campbell close behind and Mason in a definite 3rd position. As we waited with a parental "I told you so!" ready for their return we were much surprised to see them coming OUT of the church saying that the kitchen door on the other side had been unlocked.

Eating our words, we gathered up the rest of the kiddos and headed into the church to set up volleyball nets and literally get the balls rolling. Not wanting to keep Waverly from physical sustenance any longer I headed for one of the foyer chairs to feed her. After about 15min (well, 15min exactly because I always time each side when feeding her) I see a police car pull up in the parking lot and start wondering if we had set off an alarm in the church or something because we didn't have any keys and wondering how to explain ourselves to the officer now getting out of his car and heading for the doors. Quickly trying to pull myself together so I don't have anything unusual hanging out the police officer enters and, to my utter bewilderment, begins the following condensed conversation with me:

Officer-"Hello, Miss. We have a little boy by the name of Mason who was found wandering in the area and are just looking around to find someone who may know anything about this."

Me-"Mason?!? I have a son named Mason, but-"

Officer (with raised eyebrows)-"Do you know where your son is at?"

Me-"Well, I assumed he was in the gym with his brothers where he is SUPPOSED to be!" motioning toward the gym doors.

Officer-"Do you know who is supposed to be watching him?"

Me-"Well, me and my husband."

Officer-"And how many brothers does he have?"

Me (not quite sure why that is relevant)-"Three, and then the baby here."

Then the officer turned to talk into his radio saying, "I've found the parents of the little boy. They are here at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sir Barton Way. I figured they would be close by."

Officer (turning back to me)-"Do you have a car seat in your car so you can come and get him? He is at a store up the street."

Me-"Yes, of course. Let me just go and get my husband real quick."

Shaking, I enter the gym to retrieve Andersen and give him a short up-date on Mason's whereabouts. So, Andersen followed the officer to "My Favorite Things" to pick up our lost Mason while I sat back down to finish feeding Waverly. After what seemed like forever, Andersen finally shows back up with Mason carrying a huge bag of toys slung over his shoulder.

Andersen said that when he showed up at the shop, Mason was in the manager's office, eating a Subway sandwich, coloring in a coloring book with some one's coat wrapped around him, as happy as can be. The couple that had found Mason made sure to glare at Andersen until they left. Andersen informed me that the next time we loose someone (which I hope never happens again) that I get to go because he looked like a complete idiot when the officer started filling out his report and Andersen couldn't even tell him when all the kids' birthdays were. Then the officer told him that someone from child services MIGHT come out to our house to follow up on the report.

And guess who showed up today? That's right, a social worker from Child Services. Luckily I had listened to that "still small voice" this morning and cleaned up the house, including the very dirty and nasty basement. Both Mason and Waverly were asleep when she showed up asking if now was a good time? As if they are really concerned if it is a good time, the worse the better, right? Then she went into the 20 questions: names of children and birth dates, highest education received, disciplining techniques, have you ever lost a child before, do you take drugs, have any history of mental illness, etc... I think she was able to tell pretty quickly that our loosing Mason had been a legitimate mistake. Porter and Campbell came home from school while she was still there and amazingly started right into their homework. She even commented on how well behaved the kids were (if only she knew :0) ) until Coolidge decided to get a chair and climb up on the kitchen counter to get some pretzels out of the cupboard. Luckily this didn't seem to be a huge deal to her. And of course she commented on how lucky were were that good people had found Mason because she knew the guy as one of their emergency parents. Apparently he is one of the people they will place children with until a more permanent home can be found.

And although I am eternally grateful that good people did find Mason and took care of him for us, I am a little irritated that these people didn't try looking in the church for "the little boy's" parents. According to the police officer that was the first place he looked and of course that's where we were. And the people's story was that they had found Mason "wandering" on the sidewalk (in front of the church)! I can't help but feel that these people were trying to make an example of us by picking him up and taking him to a store a mile down the road and calling the police. What we think happened was that when Porter and Campbell and Mason ran around the church to find an unlocked door, in their excitement forgot to hold the door open for Mason who could not open the door himself. On the way back around the church these people spotted him, picked him up and called the police.

I am so grateful for our Heavenly Father who loves all his children and watches over us whether we realize we need his help or not. I am also grateful for all of the children He has entrusted me with. I have never and would never claim to be a perfect parent and this is fitting proof of that, but I am thankful that He knows the true intentions of our hearts and is there to help when I fall short.

Thanksgiving '09

This year we were able to spend Thanksgiving with Will and Christy. It is wonderful to have some family close by. Even though we at at 2pm I think everyone was tired of waiting. Luckily we had the rolls ready first ;o) Here are Campbell, Kaylee Porter, Will, Mason and Cambri patiently waiting.

Here is Andersen NOT waiting so patiently :o)

How are the potatoes Will?

Waverly's 1st Thanksgiving. And we are thankful she's a part of our family!

Happy Thanksgiving from Kentucky!

We Start 'Em While They're Young

I've been trying to teach Waverly that the way to her Daddy's heart is BYU Football!
Thank you Tiff for helping us indoctrinate our children. Love the hair band!

My First Half-Marathon!

As most of you may know, I am a life-long runner. I think it all started in elementary school where I prided myself on being at least as fast, if not faster, than the boys in my class. I just loved to run! So naturally I ran Cross Country and Track in high school and even in college. Many of my summer Saturday work-outs at Ricks (now BYU-Idaho) included 2 hr. runs where we could easily get in 13 miles, but on Halloween morning I finally ran my first official half-marathon (13.1 miles). Luckily, I was able to train with this amazing group of ladies from my ward. I don't think I would have kept with the training if it weren't for them. We started training about 3 weeks after Waverly was born, but they all made running fun again!

The race was in Eaton, OH so we all drove up the day before and stayed in a hotel. Here we all are, ready to run. From left to right, Lora, Angela B., Angela N., Me, Ashlee, and Nancy.
Nothing like a little Pepto Bismol to calm the pre-race jitters!

Since I'm still nursing Waverly the whole family had to come too. Which was actually a lot of fun. It was nice to have some one cheering us on.

It was a really cold and WINDY day. In fact, my one mile that was completely into the wind was a whole minute slower than any of my other miles, even my last mile.

Well, it was nice having some one to cheer us on until Andersen decided to run behind us for a few yards spanking me! NOT a motivational tool. I almost broke stride to turn around and deck him!

Lora and I ran the whole way together. It is so much better when you have someone to talk to on a 2 hr. run.

Our goal was to finish in under 2 hours, and I did it! 1hr. 56min. Not bad for my first time.

Andersen wasn't quite at the finish line when I got there, so here is a fake picture of me finishing :o)

I ended up coming in 40th overall, 13th woman, and 2nd in my age division (W25-29) which meant that I got a nice little trophy. Here is a link for the full results http://www.preblehalf.com/img/PrebleHalfResults2009.htm