christmas 2011

 

I love Christmas so much, especially when NO one in our entire family is sick this year!! It makes it so great when everyone gets to be there. For Christmas Eve this year we had my parents over for our annual Christmas turkey dinner. It was DELICIOUS! We then had all my siblings come over to decorate sugar cookies i made so they could take them to santa. We then let all the kids exchange gifts and then it was the birthday cake story. Every year since i was a baby my mom reads this story called the birthday cake. It helps set the story for Jesus and the real reason for christmas. So everyone gathers around her on her chair and candle and listen so quietly. Well this year Cam was actually paying attention to the description in the story of the cake. As my mom read the description and the part that says it had raisins cam said,"EW GROSS!!" Everyone broke out laughing for a good few minutes because it was so funny and timed perftectly! I know it is going to be a memory we all will carry forever because it was so cute to see this three year old trying to listen so intently and realize it sounded so gross. it was hilarious!

Christmas Morning is my favorite part! I even made Fro and the kids do our family tradition train. As a kid I loved doing the train. We all wait on our pillows in our door way. My dad would come around with his train whistle and one by one pick up all our family members. He would make it so fun and I was so happy my kids and Fro participated this year just for me!!
When we got downstairs it truly was amazing. I love watching ali and cam get so excited! Their eyes went CRAZY!!
Our game this year was Shoot the Christmas Bingo. It was Bingo, but you had to shoot a dart at the clues to match to the bingo board. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. Each person had a specific color of smiley face sticker on their present and Cams was green so all day he just kept saying, Mine were the green ones. He loved opening so many fun things!!
Ali has been wanting a Telescope for 3 years now. I kept thinking she would grow out of it, but it was put on the TOP of her list this year. So i hid it in the other room and left a note on one of the other presents to have her look in the office. I told her it was from her mom and dad because she is such a bright star to us everyday and she was SOOOOOO excited about it.
Cam had asked for a green or BOY dollhouse. He loves playing with alis stuff but wanted a boy version of things, so he got a big BATCAVE and a lot of Heroes to play with it like batman,and superman, and flash, and batgirl, and a bunch of others.
We were all spoiled and had such a great day. It was just fun getting to be together and play . We then had to drive up to fros sisters house in kaysville for lunch and play with the uncles and cousins. It was a fun day and we were all tired by the end of it!!

More Christmas time fun

 

At christmas going iceskating is a must for me. I have always loved going iceskating in december, it just makes it feel more festive to me for some reason. This year fro couldn't skate again and we didn't want to have to drag cam around the rink- that is no fun for anyone, so this year I got to take just Ali and my neice madison. We had a great time and they skated non-stop, except for the zamboni, for over 2 1/2 hours. My legs were pretty tired and they didn't want to stop, but it was tons of fun, and really special that it was just me and the girls!
We also took the kids to South towne mall to see santa. My sister Brittany and her kids came and they each took thier turn to tell santa what they wanted. Ali wanted a telescope and Cam wanted a boy dollhouse (batcave), and heros to go with it. We then went to Cafe Rio and b98.7 was there and i won a family 4 pack to the aquarium and to Planet Play. It turned out pretty good for us, and gave us even more things to do with our time off!!

Browns Talent show 2011

 

What my sister Brittany wants, my sister Brittany gets and in all our glory~~ Brittany came up with doing a christmas talent show last year and we thought that was good, but NO she came back again and said she wanted everyone to perform a talent this year also- since it was on her birthday!! So since we all love britto we all tried to come up with a talent. My family decided to do a family dance to LMFAO party anthem and it was pretty dang awesome. My sister Brooke and her two girls did the three amigos my little buttercup dance, Noah and steve amazed us with their jump rope talents, Kate and maddie did a penguin dance, My mom played the harmonica, and my dad played the piano upside down, and to top the night my sister britt pulled our our old school keyboard from when we were little and played a "demo" song we all grew up pretending we knew how to play and it was Hilarious. It brought back so many memories, and her doing it again with a wig made so many more. It was a funny night and so fun to share with my family. We had our annual white elephant auction and among the greatest gifts were gifts fro and I stole from my sisters houses and wrap up and gave away. it was priceless watching thier faces realize the gifts being given were their things they had no idea were missing!! It was a lot of fun- lots of chia pets, roosters, and cut up credit cards thanks to the year of Dave Ramsey revisions!!

Christmas Activities

 

Even though my husband is not working and that sucks for everyone, it has been pretty fun to see more of him and get to do some fun things while ali is out of school. Every winter for the past 4 years we have had someone injured or a new baby or some reason we couldn't go to temple square. Despite Fros arms being broken i decided it was no excuse to miss it and we needed to go. I was glad we did!! The weather was great and we went at about 5ish before it got crazy busy! we got a parking spot right outside the temple and that made our whole night!! that doesn't happen often! We showed the kids the lights, and went to the top of the JSM building and looked out and had dinner- it was a lot of fun.
My sisters neighbor makes the best toffee and i was wanting to learn how to make it so my sister in law camille came over and between the two of us, we made some pretty good toffee. I learned some tricks to make the next batch even better, but it was fun to finally get that under my belt! We had a night to make gingerbread houses, and my sister brittanys birthday, and the time off was just getting started!

Phinney 2011

 

Every December 1 we get our first visit from Phinney our Christmas Elf. He comes to watch over all of us to make sure we are being on our best behavior. My kids look forward to Phinney coming all year long. It is so fun to watch thier excitment as he moves through the house at different times of the day to keep an eye on them. They behave so much better and they love asking him questions and getting answers from him. This year as a special gift he brought both of them remote control cars. They have played with them everyday!! I love Christmas and the magic of it all!!

My kids

I feel like I have not updated on my kids lately- so this is my update....
Ali- She is my little 8 year old blessing from heaven. She has just enough sass, and just enough sweet. she is always trying to help and wants to do what is right. She loves music, books and MOVIES.she loves writing stories and making pictures to go with them. If she had a day to do whatever she wanted it would be at home playing a "craft" with mom and watching movies as a family. she loves being home and just having her time. I am not crafty and she is so patient with me to be creative. I love her so much!! I constantly take in all of her hugs and hope that there will NEVER be a day she doesn't give them to me. She is very picky about who she tells she loves and gives hugs to, and it makes me smile bigger when she gives them endlessly to me. She wants to play the violin, which is the first thing she has shown any interest in doing and I am really excited to see how that goes. She has a funny personality and loves telling jokes. But out in the world she is so reserved and a little on the shy side and i love knowing i get to see all of her all the time!! She is a great student and tries so hard at school. She still loves riding bikes and we are bummed the weather is a little to cold to do that everyday. She constantly changes her room around and everyday i go in there something new is out or some stuffed animal has made their way from the basement to have a luxury bed in her room. She is funny and crazy and loves dancing in the family room with me for ever!! I am so proud of the little girl she is and am so grateful for her example to me.

Cam- he is my crazy, full of energy, sass, spunk, and character. He is the never ending facial expression that makes me laugh. The squeeze around the neck right when you need it guy. He is always on the move, but if there is a movie on- bam he is all in. he loves playing. Playing cars, balls, trains, anything! He loves turning on music and dancing his dance moves to it. He loves being outside, and loves riding his big bike! He is in a constant phase of holding his weiner and it is driving me crazy. I hope he grows out of that phase soon!! He says funny phrases like - watch and learn mom, or are you kidding me, or what the..... He is constantly suprising me. We were watching tv and a commercial for a victoria secret tote came on and the girl was dressed but flaunting the bag and when it ended he looked at me and said, "I like that girl!!" YES he is 3!! I am nervous about that!! He loves making us laugh and loves being with his family. He follows me around that i knock him down daily because he is standing right behind me all the time. I love that he crawls on top of me just to get closer. I often feel guilty that he isn't in preschool because he wants to go to preschool so bad. He loves other kids and wants to play any chance he can get. He loves playing with his cousins christian and Jamison and loves when Ali gets to stay home from school. They are best buddies!!- He is such a great blessing to me and makes this family even more fun!!

"live like no one else so you can live like no one else"

Okay I am going to be a hypocrite for a minute!! Last year my little sister was on a HUGE Dave Ramsey kick. They had a strict budget and we all got really tired of hearing "it's not in our budget!" Well after they overcame a huge amount of debt in 18 months we realized that if we save as well as they budgeted we could really get ahead. So as a family we all started watching the Dave Ramsey teaching videos. I wasn't super thrilled at first but it really has helped to focus on down the road where you want to be and being in control of your money. Two areas i don't really focus on. After doing our budget,which by the way was really fun with fro not working, We decided to make several changes. Fro continued to push selling the truck to have 2 paid for cars. He really pushed being debt free. I kept dragging my heals because lets face it, I LOVE MY TACOMA! I have always loved it and being an '04 with 53 K miles I was pretty proud of it!! I kept hoping he would grow out of this debt free faze and we would keep it. But realizing that "IF we live like no one else, later we will live like no one else" - dave Ramsey- I realized not only will it help us save now and get ahead and be debt free but it is also what the prophets have been encouraging us to do. So i said good bye to my wonderful, beautiful, freakin awesome truck and said Hello to our first step to being 100% debt free!! Next goal-- the House!!

Yep It's November and we have another ACCIDENT

Ali made this poster for Fro for when he got home from having surgery on his arms. He broke both of his arms biking last week at the bike park. He went up on a metal ledge and his bike slid out from under him and he landed on his arms. He ended up being in surgery for 4 hours and they put a plate and screws in his left arm. His right arm had two fractures that they thought would need surgery but ended up just needing to be casted. It is really difficult to do anything with NO arms!!

He has been very sleepy the last week and hopefully it will start improving for him- he is miserable. He said that this totally is worse than his ACL surgery last year. That at least allowed him to do things for himself he just couldn't walk. This has made him very dependent on us for everything. He had his temporary casts taken off and know that he can move his elbows it has helped alot, but still is not fun!! He is out of work for at least 2 months. His boss said "You just got back to work and now your out again!" That is sometimes how life works and you just have to roll with it. We can't believe it happened at the same time of year. I told him there are better ways to get the holidays off!!!

Tron Family

 

I have not always been a big Halloween fan, but several years ago I realized you can make it fun. Every year Ali usually decides what she wants to be and we do a theme around that. I have never been a "theme" kind of person but it does make it a little more fun and creative. Well this year Cam was pretty set on being Sam Flynn from Tron. I kept thinking he might change his mind, but NOPE. So TRon it was!! I am not crafty in any way so i looked online to find some tron costumes. yeah not cheap and none existant for a little girl. So I let my creative juices work and decided to do a little experimenting with Duct Tape. Love the stuff and the variety of colors. We had a fun Halloween being Tron and Ali loved no one else in her school had her costume!!

Moab with the Derricks!

 

Last Year we decided that we don't spend enough time with Fros side of the family. We wanted to do fun things with them since we try to do yearly trips with mine. Last year we went to St. George and had a lot of fun so we decided to do another trip this year. Moab was decided and I am glad we chose moab. There really is A LOT to do in Moab. There are NO stores or restraunts, but tons of fun activities.

My favorite thing of the whole trip was watching Ali ride the same trails as all the adults. I was SO proud of her. She peddaled over everything and tried everything. I was worried she would panic and get off and walk, but NOPE!! She showed us all up. It was so much fun for me to ride right with her. I loved every minute of it. It was also fun for fro to ride with his brothers. He rides a lot with us, but not usually with them.

We stayed in little cabins at a campground and it had a pool and was warm so in the October chilling mornings we were perfect. We went to delicate arch, bowtie arch, went jeepin' at least Cam and Ali did. We hiked to dinosaur ruins, we swam, we went to Music park. This way awesome park that has all kinds of wind chimes and musical things for kids to play. We went to the sand hill where YES I broke another camera. It just goes to show I can't go on vacation without braking one. Good thing I had a back up!!

It was fun for everyone and I was glad almost the whole family was there. And we will see where next year takes us.

FALL--I love it!!

 

I don't remeber how much I LOVE fall until it is here each year. THis year we were taking Fro up biking in Provo Canyon and I requested a family picture because I couldn't get over how awesome it was!! So gorgeous!! I love spring and fall and I am really glad we got a little bit of fall this year especially since Spring got skipped!! I also love that my son has pictures everywhere we go PEEING!! You have to admire his height and flow!!

My Drama!!

My cute neighbor helps me watch my kids when I am at work and the other day they all experienced one of the most "dramatic" days ever!!
Ali was scheduled to get out early from school and was headed home to my neighbors house when there was NO answer at my neighbors house. She had gone upstairs to change her clothes and didn't hear Ali knock. So Ali having to go the bathroom so badly ran to our house. After trying to get in through the garage she finally made it inside. But as she ran to the bathroom she ended up peeing everywhere. She was of course tramatized. She didn't know what to do and she was so scared, sad, etc.

As she was sitting there wondering what to do, she decided the best thing to do was say a prayer. She said a little prayer that she wouldn't be scared and she would know what to do. As she finished her prayer she said that all of a sudden she remembered her dads cell number. She called him and all he could hear was crying, and crying, and crying. He found out what was wrong and then told her he would find our neighbor or someone to help her.
I am so grateful for great neighbors!!! He got a hold of one of the other neighbors who immediately went to our house and got her. As they were walking home my other neighbor saw Ali walking by and told her she was home. She hates when you tell her the plan and then it doesn't work out exactly the way you told her, so my neighbor felt so horrible.

then to top off the drama from that my neighbor was trying to help Cam get to the bathroom (same day) and when Cam has to go really bad sometimes he will start crying he has to go so bad so she was trying to help but as you try to help it ends up that he sprays EVERYWHERE. He can't focus to keep his little Weiner down and Pee ends up everywhere. So cam ended up peeing on my nieghbor and Ali and it was just the way you want the day to go!! DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA!! I can't believe she will still watch my kids, but I guess it is because she loves me!! Thanks Marcy

Airbourne

 

We had never been to airbourne in Draper but a lot of people told us how much fun it is so I finally broke down and took the kids.Of course i made my sisters come to expereince over 75 trampolines and fun foam pits with me. The kids LOVED it!! I had to closely follow cam because he wasn't satisfied with the "kid zone". He wanted to play in the BIG kid zone. I was terrified that someone was going to bounce him and launch him. He didn't even seem to be phased by all the other big kids bouncing around him he was loving it. They had a bigger foam pit you could do tricks into and after he watched some of the bigger kids jump into it backwards he was determined to do it also. He ran to the edge and with a crowd of kids watching turned around and fell backwards into the pit. The only problem was he wasn't close enough to the edge and as he fell his but hit the edge of the pit and it tossed him backwards. His poor bum!! I had to of course dive in after him because he was then stuck upside down in the pit and couldn't see anything. I was trying to scramble out with him in my arms gracefully and realized no one can gracefully get out of those pits. Once out he was determined to try again. One of the bigger boys said, "Do you know there is a kids area for his age." My reply was "yeah but in his mind he has already mastered that and wants more!!" That is Cam and he is one of the most fearless little guys ever.

Ali had a great time also other than needing her inhaler every so often. She was having so much fun bouncing every where with her cousins. They would get so excited when one of them would do something so daring and brave. I loved watching them all have a great time. The best part for me was watching my two sisters be constantly concerned that someone was going to break something. I am super suprised there were no major injuries, but glad they all had fun and want to go again soon!!

Third Grade

Can I even begin to describe how with each year comes a sense of craziness that my baby girl is not little anymore!! Realizing that next year she could be the same size as me has really begun to make me miss her as a little girl. But with each year it has been amazing watching her figure life out step by step. She is so mature and fun, and makes me smile like no one else. she is so special to me!!

She was really excited to get Mrs. Matthews as her teacher this year and she was counting down to the first day of school. That is also a wonderful feeling knowing she loves school!! Each year she takes a little momento from home to keep in her pocket or on her somewhere so if she gets nervous she can hold it and know I love her and am thinking about her. This year she took a little necklace that I put some stickers on the back that made her smile. She said if she was nervous she would turn it over and rub the stickers and she felt all better!!

After all the anxiety that comes with letting your child go off on their own to experience school for the first day came a big smile and a thumbs up!!
Her teacher found a book about an elephant named ALi who had a peanut allergy just like Ali and it made her entire day to know her teacher was really thinking about her!! They spent a lot of time explaining peanut allergies it to the other kids and it meant the WORLD to ALi!!

Bikers!!

okay first off, the majority of the year my garage is found completely immaculate, but summer comes and BOOM!!! It has become an obstacle of bikes to get out of the garage. We have decided we really need a third garage just for our bikes. The saddest part of this picture is that there are 3 bikes that are not even in this picture because they are downstairs and one hung up!! Seriously how many bikes does a family of 4 need!!! But they do make me smile just thinking of how much our family loves to ride them!! Well worth the mess!!

CALIFORNIA BABY!!

Vegas-First stop to California!!

 

My family decided a couple years ago that every other year we would do a week in California and go to disneyland with all the kids. Well this was the year once again. We started planning a while ago where to stay this time, what we did and didn't like and had our plans underway. With everything planned and we were getting closer to go, fro realized he hadn't asked for time off!! Big URG!! He normally wouldn't have a problem but a lot of other guys were scheduled to be gone for school. So he couldn't get the dates off we had planned. SO I set into REVISE mode. We had to reschedule everything. It was a bit of a pain, but i would much rather do that than go on vacation without my husband. Once we got it figured out with everyones schedules, and the condos we were good to go!!!
We planned to stay the first night in Vegas to break up the drive. Our first road trip with the kids and I was a little nervous!! They did awesome and it was fun having Bud and Camille with us in the rented minivan!!
Our night in Vegas was fun. There is just some crazy energy there that makes it crazy and fun. I could just sit and watch the crazy people there. We happened to be there sunday night of Labor day weekend so it was really Crazy!! We took the kids on some tours around the strip explaining before hand not to take anything from anyone and that there would be some inappropriately dressed people.I was crossing my fingers nothing to bad would be seen. You never know in Vegas!! I hadn't been there in a while and it was fun to see all that had changed. We all loved the water show in front of the bellagio, and then my sister in law camille took us to her favorite little pastry shop- i don't know the real name sorry camille!! Ali loved the chocolate waterfall it had. There were so many fun colorful things to see and my kids were pretty good, but very tired from the drive.
The next morning we just relaxed and took our time at the hotel pool. The kids had fun and got to play with their cousins. We then headed out only to hit HORRIBLE traffic. How come no one told us the secret rule that you don't drive from Vegas to California on a sunday or on a holiday!!! That was a huge mistake on our part!!! It took us over 7 hours to get from Vegas to Carlsbad which should have been under 4. It was a long day in the car, but it made us REALLY excited when we got to Carlsbad.

We stayed at a fun resort just off the ocean and all of us had our own condo next to each other so we were close, but also far enough away it wasn't total chaos with all the kids!!
We played tennis and a few matches i want to forget, and we swam, played, played some more and just enjoyed vacation schedule!!

First Beach Day

 

The Beach to me is the ONLY reason to go on vacation. I think I get that from my dad since he grew up in California by the beach. I love it!! Everything-- The hazy morning air, the saltiness, the water, the sand (not so much the chaffing from body boarding) but Everything else. I love that you can sit there all day and not even realize the whole day is gone!! I loved just watching my kids run from the waves, and I loved the endless fun Cam had chasing the seagulls that stole our chips!! Ali hadn't body boarded since the last time in Cali which was 2 years ago and it wasn't very successful at the time. So we encouraged her and with the help of Madison her cousin who was fearless they both attempted the waves. She loved it and had smiles most of the afternoon. She went under a few times and it scared her but luckily she got back out and had a lot of fun. I loved body boarding and watching everyone catch the waves, and the fish come up with the waves. It was such a great day and a great way to kick off the vacation!!

Second Beach day and Huntington Beach

 

We had planned for at least 2 Beach days and were trying to squeeze in a third. We love the beach!! The second day we stayed at Carlsbad again and soaked up the sun some more. Some of my family were already very sunburned from the first day so they were not as enthusiastic about the sun!! We spent the whole day body boarding which ali was now really getting good at. We played a little paddle ball in which we smoked bud and Camille!! (they then beat us, but we didn't get to rematch!!) then just enjoyed more of the water!!
Our last day after Legoland and Disneyland just me fro, ali , cam and baby Chapin, headed to Huntington Beach to squeeze in one more beach day. I was so glad we did because there is nothing better than ending a vacation with the beach. We played, build a sand lady, chased the seagulls, and watched some guys play a very funny football game that envolved hitting each other where it hurt! Hilarious!!! It was so great and fun to have a little alone time with just my kids. I loved Huntington Beach and we decided to go again next time we visit!

Lego Land

 

Lego Land-- Many people told us to visit Legoland because the kids would love it. It is very kid specific (meaning a lot of rides are just kids- they even had ones that let 3 year olds drive cars) Cam loved it all from the miniland- that had miniture lands built out of legos -to the rides. It was amazing to see all that were built from legos and the rides were a great warm up for Disneyland. Fro kept calling it the Getto, but we still had a good time. The last hour we were there the power went out in parts of California, Arizona and Mexico. We didn't know it was that big of a power outage at the time, but that the whole Area of Carlsbad was out. Luckily Ali had just finished a ride and we were seated to go, when it went out, so we were not stuck on top of some ride. It made for a litte adventure and we all got free tickets to go again!! Though i am pretty sure now that we have seen and done Legoland we won't for a very long time!!!

Disneyland 2011

 

Disneyland September 2011!!
From Day one Fro decided we would only do 1 day at Disneyland because we could do the beach everyday and be happy. I was a little nervous at first that we wouldn't be able to see everything. I kept pushing for two days. He held strong and I am glad he did. One day was plenty for me. I know many people would think I am crazy but after fun, chaos, waiting , more people, expensive food, and tired kids, I was good!! I love the fun and excitment of Disneyland for kids, but I LOVE the BEACH a lot more. We had a great time and the lines were not bad. Cam was excited that he could go on EVERY ride (except Indiana Jones) because he was tall enough!! He also wanted to go on the Buzz ride all day, and of course once we get there he had fallen asleep and missed the ride!! bummer!! He got to do the Toy story ride and that made up for it. Ali was really nervous at first to ride anything and the motto of the day was convincing her that she would love it and sure enough after enough coaxing "she loved it!" It was a great vacation and I am so glad a lot of my family got to come and have fun with us!!

Baptism Pictures

 

Here are some of my favorite pictures my best friend Lindsay took of Ali and My niece Madison before they were baptized. They had such a fun time doing them and they were adorable in their matching baptism dresses. I love they are the same age and best buddies.

Alis Baptism

 

It is amazing to me how time always flies by. In every aspect of life but especially when it comes to children. I can't believe she is 8 and I really can't believe we just baptised her. She is the most amazing example to me of how Christ wants us to be. She always wants to do what is right and she is CONSTANTLY reminding me to be better. I can't even express how much love I have for my little Ali-gator!! She is my brightest star and makes me so proud as a mom. The past year we have really tried to focus on what it means to be baptised because we we wanted her to know what it means. She caught on fire wanting to know more and more. She would remind us to read our scriptures and pray and she wanted to know all she could. She is AMAZING!
Since her birthday is the same month as my niece Madison she was able to do it together. They were originally scheduled to be baptised the same day, but different times, so we made it work to have them baptised together. It was so special to see them both so excited and full of life. My dad baptised her and she was so cute the whole time. She wanted to just stay and swim in the water with my niece. It was a great day and so fun to have family and friends there.

catching up with summer

 

In August my brother in law Alex got married!! He married Amy Andrus. They were very cute and it was a good but busy day!! They were married at the Oqquihr Mountain temple. Ali and Cam were not big fans of all the waiting for pictures but they did a good job. After all was said and done we decorated Als car to leave with a huge bag of packing peanuts and then decorated the outside with whatever we could find. My little nephew accidentaly got mustard on the outside of the car and made the paint turn a little yellowish. SO never use mustard on a car!! Then we almost ran out of gas on the freeway and it made for a very eventful night.We are excited to have a new sister in law in the Derrick family!!

Annual Alpine Slide 2011

 

A tradition in our family is that every year for Alis birthday we take her to ride the Alpine Slide in Park City. This year Fro had to work on her birthday so we took her the week after. We love going up to park City, it is so fun and it feels like your on a mini vacation.
We went up to buy the tickets and Ali walked up as the girl asked if she was one of our riders. We told her she was and the lady said,"She is to tall to ride with someone she has to ride the Alpine slide by herself." Ali got all nervous and didn't want to do it. We kept telling her it would be fun and she wouldn't have to go that fast, but she was so scared. The whole lift ride up she was quiet and didn't want to do it.
As we got to the top we kept trying to convince her that she would be fine and practiced the stopping with her.
After one run she was convinced that it was SOOOOOOO fun and she wanted to do it again and again. So we did the Alpine coaster which was so fun, then headed back to the slide so Ali could do it again and again!! It was a great day!!