45 degrees and LOVING it!

Just had to say that I loved the weather today. Marissa, Tanner and I were out in the front yard for over 2 hours today. I even got a little warm! It was so nice to play in the sunshine and let Marissa run around. Too bad the backyard is still totally full of snow or we could play on the swing set. Patience Stacy - spring will come! But horray for today - it was great! I love the sun!

Marissa is so cute

I just wanted to put some cute pictures up of my little girl. It is really fun having a girl in the family. She cracks us up so much with her personality. She loves shoes - and wants to change them regularly. She loves to tackle Tanner. Her hair is getting long and is still curly - I love it and am a bit jealous too! She is also always wanting to eat - going to the refrigerator and yelling for us to come and get her something. She is also a Daddy's girl. She loves her Daddy and is so excited when he comes home! And she is always getting into trouble - whether that be running to the toliet anytime the bathroom door is left open or stealing Daddy's ipod off his night stand or pulling all of the kleenexes out of the box. She is a handful of fun! We love Rissy Robin!

Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah

And one more BLAH just for the heck of it. I so hate this nasty INVERSION. It is making me crazy cranky and feeling as I said before BLAH. I need some fresh air and sunshine! Or some new fresh snow! I will take either just please get rid of this poop in the air! I know my bad attitude stinks - sorry! Just had to get it off my chest - maybe now I will start to feel less BLAH!

My little Tanner

I can hardly believe that my little boy is 5 already. As I was making this slide show I was getting very sentimental remembering all the fun times we have had with this little guy. We love you Tanner - you are awesome!

Basement!!!

Our basement is nearly complete! YEAH! We moved the boys in last Monday after the carpet was laid. I LOVE it. We only have a few things left to do with the rooms. We will tackle the bathroom when JD's shoulder heals! JD has done a great job and so much thanks to all those who have helped!

Catch Up....

It's only been a couple of weeks and so much has happened! Here are some highlights!

I don't know if I call this a highlight but what a clever baby! She knocked down the trash can and then pushed it all the way to the gate. I watched the whole thing and just loved her face when she could see over the top! Funny girl!

Tanner's preschool program at a retirement home. At first he just did not want to do it but finally decided he could and we are so glad he did because it was awesome!


Definitely not a highlight but definitely a big happening! JD dislocated his shoulder. In the xray you can see that he shoulder is like 2 inches away from the socket - disgusting and extremely painful. He's been in a sling for a couple of weeks now. Let's hope no surgery is required! Church basketball - need I say more!

Snow fun! We have had TONS of snow! The boys were out there for hours- burrrr!

The Sunday before Christmas! They all look so cute!

Christmas Eve dinner with the Farrells. Best Christmas present ever - Dad got the news that he has no active cancer in his body - way to live strong Daddy - we are proud of you! We are so glad they came down for our activities even though my brothers wouldn't sing with us - we loved having them here! Dinner by candlelight and a program on the nativity!

Christmas morning! Marissa got her own Dora phone! Hola!

Christmas morning! Dawson the rock star - his first guitar - thank you Santa!

Christmas morning - no pictures of Josh and his new IPOD shuffle but he sure loves it!
Christmas morning - no pictures of Tanner and his new Pokemon stuff but he loves it too!
We didn't do too good on Christmas day with the pictures - bummer! But we did have a great Christmas and hope you all did too!
P.S. I forgot to add that Josh sang a solo in our Primary program at church and did so great! And that evening at a stake music of Christmas, he and Tanner sang in a children's choir and did so well too. For one of the verses of the song, Josh sang a solo. He really is so talented. That day was definitely a huge highlight but no camera in church!

Santa and Staples

On Thanksgiving Morning our family was lucky enough to have a Thanksgiving breakfast with Santa Claus. Well Santa's helper - Grandpa Hanks! Grandpa is Santa for Christmas this year and really is living up the part. So we got lots of pictures with the kids and Santa and had a great big breakfast that Daddy made of bacon, sausage, hash browns, waffles and eggs! Yum! Since we weren't going to be with the Hanks' clan for dinner that day we thought we would have a breakfast instead! It was fun!

Marissa wasn't too sure about this big, hairy guy!


On Monday night after Thanksgiving, we had FHE and a great lesson on service given by me. Things were going smooth for a Monday and as I was sweeping the floor that night - I thought "things have been pretty calm lately." Then that feeling of dread wondering what was going to happen to break the good happenings! Well as I was calling everyone to come sit down for scriptures and everyone was ignoring me because they were wrapped up in a game of football, Daddy proclaims "You guys know how this always ends - somebody gets hurt." Then about 4 times more of saying stop to the football playing. "One last play" was what we hear and then Dawson takes Josh down backwards and hits his head on the bookshelf. It was one of those where you know it's going to be bad before you even see it. So yep a trip to the ER and 2 staples in the head. You should have seen the look of dread on Dawson's face when the doctor said "Staples are best for this part of the head." WHAT! Priceless! But we all survived even Daddy who was about to blow a gasket when there was an injury after so many times of being asked to stop! And even Tanner who cried because he was so worried about Dawson. Hopefully we have all learned our lesson and will not be playing football in the house any more! YEAH RIGHT!