Billy's Outing

The day that Todd, Katie, and I went skiing Typhena and Jesse took their girls and Billy to the dinosaur museum. Billy had a great time and here are some cute pictures!

Billy

More Pictures

Here are some more pictures of our fun time in Manti. We love coming to Grandma and Grandpas! Billy wanted to get Daddy a new cereal bowl for Christmas and it ended up being really big. I let him pick it out. Todd helped lay down the tile in his parents new bathroom.

Skiing

Todd, Katie, and I went skiing on Monday. I have only been one other time so I wanted to try it again. We went to Sundance which is really good for learning because it has a great "bunny hill". We took the lift up half way and got off. I fell right off. Then Todd told Katie to go ahead and remember what she had already learned and she took off. Then it was my turn. I was so scared. I couldn't even go down a very gentle slope. It took me a half and hour to go a football field length. After that I realized that skiing is not for me. I am a scardy cat. My heights fear has gotten the better of me. But at least now I know I won't ever do it again and I am OK with that. I want all my kids to learn or at least try it while they are young. maybe if I had done it when i was little i wouldn't be scared of it. Katie did awesome. I didn't know she could ski so good. And she was so brave even when she went on a couple of blues that looked scary to her. I took some video of her because i was so proud of her!

Ellie's First Christmas

Ellie had fun playing with the presents. She loved the paper. Ty got a new camera and took a couple of pictures of her and here they are. She is so sweet!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Billy, Katie, Ellie, & Johnny


Sisters


The Boys


The Girls


We read the Christmas story and hung up the stockings. Then the kids and Todd and I got to open up our one present. PJ's. I tried to get a family pics but it didn't work out too well. Here is the best I could do. We have too many goofballs or babies in the family. All the girls and boys got matching pajama pants. I thought it was fun! Especially since I matched my two girls:)The kids got to talk to Santa on the phone today. Katie asked for a flute, Billy for a car, and Johnny for a sword. They also made some cookies to leave out for Santa. We had a fun evening!

Dress Up

The girls wanted to play dress up so they pulled out the dress up cloths. Johnny just loves playing with other kids that he wanted to join in too. I told him he looks so pretty. Todd won't be too happy:)

Snow and Ellie

The boys wanted to play in the snow so they went out and had fun. Johnny doesn't like the cold so he doesn't stay out very long but he has fun when he is out. Ellie is now 7 months and her hair is long enough for pig tails. She is so cute!

Vacation

It is finally vacation:) We drove to Manti on Saturday for a couple of weeks. I like going on trips. Especially to Todd's family. They are cool. Todd, Ty, Jesse, Jen and Travis and their kids all went skiing today. Todd and I are planning on going next week with Katie. I will try some bunny hills. See if I can do it. I have only been skiing one other time in Germany and it was scary. I don't like hights so it is something I need to get over.
The kids have been having so much fun with there cousins. We have played pinochle and I have been working on some geneology. It can get addicting. Not much else. Just relaxing and enjoying family:)

Company Holiday Party

The FRG put together a Holiday party last night for Todd's company. I can't take much if any credit for it. Lauren and Monica put the whole thing together. I couldn't find anywhere that we could aford so I asked Lauren if she could look for a place for us. She and Monica went out and found a place on Base that was perfect. And we didn't have too cook anything and it was in our budget. Danna came up with the idea for a cake. She went to Sams and they even were able to put our crest on it. It turned out great! It was great not to have to cook and try to decorate a place. We had a great turn out too. Over 200 people came. The kids had fun with Santa. I tried to talk with as many people as I could (which isn't in my comfort zone) since I am the FRG leader. We are trying to set a good impression for the FRG as a lot of people have had bad experiences with them in the past. I definatly wouldn't want to be the FRG leader without my leadership. They have taken most of the burden off of me and it is nice. We still have a lot more to do to prepare for next summer but we will get there. Oh and I am proud of Todd. I think he is great! I am very lucky to have him!

Office Party

I was on my way to pick up Billy from school and was listening to the radio. It said that if you wanted to win an office party then be one of the first six callers. What it was was for a free steak or chicken dinner at Cowboys East for 20 of your friends for the next night (Friday). I thought that would be cool. Plus Todd and I have been country dancing there. So I called. It took a few tries to get through but I won one of the spots. YEH! I called as many of my friends as I could think of to come. I called our normal babysitter and she was able to babysit. Last night we were able to get 15 people at Cowboys for the "party". It was a lot of fun. the food was OK but heh it was free for all of us. You can't beat that. Here are the people that came; Todd, Me (of course), Mom, Becca, Jeff, Jeff's sister, Rebecca, Damon, Bridgette, Micheal, Bridgette's friend, Johnny, Liz, Bryan and Kristen. We played some pool, hang out and danced. It was great!I forgot to take my camera in to the club but here are two from after we left.

November

So two months later....we are still alive. I still can't find my cord but when I do I have some cute pics. Katie and Billy are enjoying school. Johnny wants to go so bad. I tell him he gets to go next year. Ellie is six months. She wakes up once a night for a bottle but other then that she sleeps great at night. I like putting all the kids to bed at 8 and then having the evening to myself. I have been reading a couple of new authors. One is Anne Perry. I like her books. I have never been able to guess who did it and why until the end of the book which is saying a lot. I also started reading Robert Jordan. I read the first book in his series and now I am looking for the second book. They are hard to find.
I have been busy with FRG stuff. There always seems to be something going on or some meeting to go or some event to plan. Mom is a great help because she watches the kids for me when I need to go somewhere without them. It is a blessing! Todd and I just finished the boy's bunk beds. It only took over a year and I am very happy they are finally done. They look cool too. Billy fell off the top bunk once already but hopefully he won't again. He is too much of a wiggle worm.
New moon finally came out and I love it. I thought they did a great job with the movie. I went to the midnight movie with mom and three friends. Then I dragged Todd to see it with me yesterday. He is a good sport and came.
Katie and Billy both played soccer this year. Katie is a great midfielder and she loves to play. Billy at least kicked the ball a few times. He still seemed to have fun though. Katie just started dance. She is in a Pre Ballet/tap/jazz class. It was fun buying her ballet stuff. She looks cute all dressed up. I hope she enjoys it this year.
Halloween was fun. I made costumes for the kids and Todd. Mom found my outfit at a yard sale. I was Tonks, Todd was Lupin and Ellie was Teddy Lupin (Tonks and Lupin's baby in the seventh book)Billy was Harry Potter, Katie was Ginny Weasley, and Johnny was Ron Weasley. WE had way too much candy after Halloween but got rid of a good portion last week when we made pinata's for cub scouts. They were fun to make.
We are staying here for Thanksgiving as Todd is serving Thanksgiving at the DFAC on Thursday. We will have a great week though and enjoy our time together.

Life

It has been a couple of months since I have written. I just keep waiting till I get pictures on the computer and I seem to have misplaced the cord. What a shocker. So I decided to write anyway. It has been a busy couple of months. Todd took command a couple of months ago and so I decided I could be the FRG leader. I new it would be busy and crazy and hectic but I am getting the hang of it. I bought a planner. I don't know how I would survive without it! I have had training classes, meetings and am currently trying to get a list of everyone in the company. Lots of paperwork. We had one FRG meeting and our second one is in two weeks. Quite a few volunteers have taken most of the leadership roles so it is fun working with them. I also think it is fun because I get to work with Todd. He doesn't really like it because I talk about the FRG (which is work for him) at home and now he gives me a time limit that I can talk FRG when he is home. There is a lot to do. We have some fun activities and some fundraisers planned for the next couple of months. My goal is to make sure that every spouse had a good experience with the FRG.
School started. Katie is in first grade. She was so excited to go back. She is doing good in school and has spelling tests this year. I was pretty shocked at some of her spelling words. Like this week her four hardest words are seasons, animal, flower, and enough. Enough is her challenge word. So I now work with her throughout the week to help her learn the words she has a hard time with. Billy is at preschool again but this year he gets to go four days a week for three hours. I enjoy Fridays now because that is the day he doesn't go so I don't have to rush in the morning with trying to get everyone ready and the baby fed. Ellie has decided she doesn't like to eat right away in the morning. There are too many things going on and she doesn't want to miss them. Which makes my morning easier. She sleeps from 8 to around 5am when I feed her and she goes back to sleep. It is nice! Johnny is Johnny. He is two and I think that explains everything!
We have made some new friends in the neighborhood. Caleb is four and his grandma Theresa watches him and so we hang out at least once a week. She watched Ellie this morning while I took Johnny to the dentist. Then There is Emma and Ellie. Yep another Ellie. Emma is 4 and Ellie is 2. Emma just loves Katie. We have the only other girls on the block. So we have been having a good summer.
I started reading two new authors. One is Anne Perry. She writes murder type mysteries and Robert Jordan who has a series of books. I have only finished one as I am looking for the second one in the set. Reading with 4 kids isn't easy so it takes me a while to finish a book. I am so tired by the end of the day I only get a few pages read before I can't keep my eyes opened.

Mountains and Trucks

The rest of our vacation was fun. It was non stop. We took the kids to the pool, played some pinochle, and took the kids for ice cream. On Friday we had a girls day shopping after dropping Tori at the airport. Of course we went to Olive Garden for lunch. On Saturday we went for a ride in the mountains. We stopped and ate lunch on top of Skyline. Then on our way down the mountain we stopped and took pictures on horsey trees (Aspen trees that bend.)On Saturday there was a race and Todd. Jeromy and Tabitha raced in the though trucks. It was fun to watch because they all ran at the same time side by side. They all got to race two times and the third race was only the top 4 trucks. Todd was in the lead on the first race but then ran into another truck that was already out so he ended up 4th. In the second race he had to start from them back and made it up to about 5th. He ended up being in the top 4 after they took both the scores from the two runs. Todd got second after Jeromy in that race so he got another trophy. It was fun to watch and Todd had fun racing. Sunday came all to quickly and we headed home. We had a great vacation. I love Todd's family and it is so much fun when all of his siblings are able to get together.