Merry Christmas!

 

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We really enjoyed ours. We started off with having Casi (CJ's sister) Greg and Nile over for games and goodies on Christmas Eve. After they left we helped the girls leave cookies for Santa. Kirstee really wanted to put milk out, but we told her it would be warm and gross by the time Santa came. So we left an empty cup and a note written by Kirstee with directions to the fridge for milk. She was so worried he wouldn't find the milk!

Christmas morning came...I think it came at like 4:30 for me...I couldn't sleep! I was so excited I could hardly stand it! CJ made me stay in bed until 6:00, but luck was on my side, Makadee woke up screaming at 5:55. (We still don't know why she was screaming, nightmare I guess.) But I was glad, albeit it was only 5 minutes early, but the girls had finally gotten up so I could. :) We had a lot of fun opening our presents. We started a new tradition this year, they are called runner gifts. Inside one of their presents the kids found a note, on the note it told them to run look somewhere for the present. When Makadee opened hers she looked at CJ and said, "Dad there's nothing in here." The look on her face was priceless. After I explained that we needed to read the note and find the present it was all better. When Kirstee got hers she read it to herself and then took off running. We had to tell her to wait for us. It was a lot of fun to follow the kids and see their faces when they found their present.

After we opened our presents we went to Eric and Briannes for breakfast. I greatly appreciated them having us over so that I didn't have to make breakfast. Grandma and Grandpa Rushton were also there. The kids had fun playing and we thoroughly enjoyed the breakfast

Then we were off to Grandma and Grandpa Woodcox's house. Upon arriving we discovered that Grandma was going to let us open any presents until we had had brunch. It was pure torture! But it did make it last longer and was a lot of fun in the end.

All in all we had lots of fun and a very good Christmas fille d with memories and lots of family time. We hope you have a great New Year!

Christmas Dresses

 

The girls are very spoiled when it comes to dresses. We are very lucky to have a Grandma that can sew. They looked so beautiful in them that I had to share.

Happy Birthday Makadee

 

It's official! My baby is 3 years old. It happened on December 19th. I think she had a wonderful day. I know she was very happy that it was snowing.

 

She got spoiled rotten as usual, even with Christmas being just a week away.

 

Thank you to Grandma Woodcox for the yummy and very cute Strawberry Shortcake cake.

 

And then it snowed...

We are having a big snow storm today. This is the first big one of the year. We had one about a week ago, but nothing stuck to the ground. This is the first time my kids have had snow clothes and have been allowed to go out and play. They could not wait! I got Makadee all dressed and she looked and me and said, "I look funny." I told her she looked cute and then she said, "I can't walk!" I told her to deal with it and go have fun. And so she did.

 

Pictured here is Makadee, Sydnee (the neighbor) and Kirstee.

 

Makadee had loads of fun. I couldn't get her to come back in. :)

Trying to catch up

I just posted 4 posts...wait now it's 5! I am so proud of myself. If you are bored read them all, if not at least look at the cute pictures ;-) Have a great day!

Christmas time

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! We enjoyed seeing all of our family that came for the occasion! Sorry everyone, but my favorite was Abigail :) Unfortunately we forgot to take any pictures :( But we did have a great time. We had dinner at my Parents home. We enjoyed being there with Tyler, Rachael, Abigail, Dallin, Liz and Alex. After enjoying their company we went to CJ's parents house for dessert and a round of Bunco. Royell and her family were there among a lot of others that live close by. Over all we had a great day!

 

As the tradition goes, we always put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving. We got it up on Friday, but didn't decorate it until Sunday. The girls had a lot of fun doing it this year.

 

As you can see, we left everything where they put it...therefor all of Makadee's stuff is in one section on the bottom. Kirstee did pretty good at spreading hers out. I debated on moving them and making it look pretty, but decided not too. Why let them do it if I was just going to redo all of it anyway? We hope everyone is enjoying their Holiday season. Be safe and we love you!

Fun in the leaves.

 

We had the privelage to have my cousin/friend Jana and her kids come visit us in November. Makadee had so much fun playing with them (Kirstee was at school.)

 

When the kids got bored of the house, we put on jackets and shoes and went into our backyard. Jana and I raked up a big pile of leaves and the kids had a blast in them!

 

We had a hard time letting them go, so we made sure to make plans with them before they left. And they came back again last week.

 

I love this picture of Bella!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Kirstee!!

 

Kirstee celebrated her 6th Birthday on November 5th. She had a very fun party with lots of friends. It was a Tinkerbell themed party. All the girls got fairy wings and wands and the boys were pirates.

 

We played pass the wand, pin the star on Tinkerbells wand, ate cake, opened presents and then watched the new Tinkerbell movie.

 

Later that night Grandma's and Grandpa's came to visit. Over all I think she had a great day!

Happy Halloween...

 

Happy Halloween!....A few months late I know. As you can see we had fun decorating our pumpkins. Kirstee did hers all by herself this year. She was pretty proud of herself.

 

Kirstee was a cowgirl and still insists on wearing her boots against her Daddy's wishes. Makadee was a ballerina and still to this day insists on being called ballerina. We had a fun time attending Grandma Woodcox's Trunk or Treat the Tuesday before. Then we had Casi, Greg and Nile over for pizza and games on Halloween. Over all it was a great Halloween.<

Finally an update...

I am sorry I haven't blogged in such a long time!!! So many things have happened in our lives that I need to catch you up on...Let's start with September.

In September we had the chance to go to Las Vegas to see CJ's Uncle Adam and cousin Mckenzie be baptised. It was such a wonderful experience and we are so happy for them. While in Vegas, we swam, played at the park on the toys and in the water, swam some more, went to M&M world and attended the wonderful baptism! We are thankful to Royell and Adam for hosting us the first night. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute we spent with them. The last 2 nights we spent in a Hotel with Grandma Woodcox.

In October we decorated cookies at Grandma Rushton's. Had Family Pictures taken. And Kirstee started dance lessons. The kids had so much fun decorating the cookies at Grandma's with their cousins. Kirstee has been wanting to do some at home ever since! Our Family Pictures were taken in Loafer Canyon, which is located between Woodland Hills and Elk Ridge. The girls were so good and patient, considerin it was freezing cold! Kirstee is learning to do Highland dancing. Which is a form of Scottish Dance. She has the privilage to be taking it with her cousin October. She seems to be enjoying it, although I can't seem to get her to practice much. Makadee gets mad every time we take Kirstee because she wants to dance too. I think she will be more into the dancing than Kirstee, 2 more years and we will try it. :-)

Tag your it...

ABC's...
A-Attached or Single? Attached...7 years this month!
B-Bestfriend? CJ
C-Cake or Pie? Cake
D-Day of Choice? Birthday
E-Essential Item? Cell phone
F-Favorite Color? Blue
G-Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms? Gummy Bears
H-Hometown? Payson
I-Indulgences? Caffeinated drinks
J-January or July? July, I like it warm!
K-Kids? 2
L-Life is incomplete without? My husband and kids
M-Marriage Date? September 28, 2001
N-Number of Siblings? 4 brothers
O-Oranges or Apples? Apples
P-Phobias or Fears? The freeway, but I am trying really hard to overcome it.
Q-Quotes? "Never give up."
R-Reason to Smile? My kids
S-Season? Spring
T-Tag 5 People? ...only 5? Royell, Casi, Liz, Sam, Michele and Brianne (6 ok?)
U-Unknown Fact? can't think of one...
V-Very Favorite Store? Target
W-Worst habit? eating junk food
X-X-Ray or Ultrasound? Ultrasound
Y-Your Favorite Food? hmmm...Fried Chicken
Z-Zodiac Sign? Virgo

It was too quiet...

 

You always know that Makadee is up to no good when it is quiet in our house. As you can see, her adventure today was in Mommy's makeup. Isn't she beautiful! ;-) I had a really hard time not laughing at her. Oh well, at least it will clean up fairly easy.

First Day of School!!

 

This may confuse a few of you, since in my last post I said Kirstee was starting Kindergarten. But after she had her Kindergarten assessments last Thursday, and lots of thought and consideration on the matter...Kirstee started 1st grade today!!! I still can't believe it, but it's true. She was sooo excited! We went on Friday and bought her a lunch box, since she now needed a lunch, and on Saturday she wanted me to pack her lunch. ;-) I am so proud of Kirstee, she is such an amazing girl. She continues to teach us more than we teach her.

 

As for Makadee, she had to hurry and get dressed, find her backpack, wanted food in her backpack like Kirstee and had to have her picture taken too. She thought for sure that she was going to school too. It was so sad! She wants so much to be big like her sister. Starting Wednesday she will be going to daycare in the mornings while I work and I hope that satisfies her enough.

 

Here is Kirstee with her new teacher, Ms. Leddingham. She is a new intern, but we have great faith that she will be wonderful! We learned that she is from Mt Pleasant, and is still living there, so she makes quite the commute everyday. I talked to her after school today, and she said Kirstee had no problems. She fit right in with the rest of her class. Kirstee is excited to have her friend Savanna in their with her. But most of all, she loves to play with her cousin October at Reccess! Good Luck Kirstee!!

Going back to school...

As we get close to sending Kirstee to school for Kindergarten, I have exciting news!! I am finally going back to school myself. I am so excited and can't wait to get started. I just received my acceptance letter from UVU. I am going to get my associates in Art and Visual Communication with an emphasis in Photography. AKA I will be a photographer in the end. :) I am very excited and nervous, it has been a long time since I went to school! I will start back in January, CJ says I better start saving my pennies, lol. I can't believe how much it costs!! But penny saving I am doing. UVU here I come!

Swimming Lessons

 
Kirstee had the opportunity to take swimming lessons this year. She was also lucky to get to be in the same class as her cousin October. Actually all but 2 (Makadee and Trevor) of the Rusthon grandkids that live in Payson go at the same time. It is fun to get to watch all of them.

 
I have been very excited to see Kirstee progress as well as she has. She had a hard time putting her whole head under the water. She can now do "bobs" as she calls them and get her whole head wet. She is also learning to float on her stomache and her back.

 
Taking her to the pool is a whole new experience now. We went last night with Grandma Woodcox's ward and I actually got a little nervous with her. She used to be so afraid of the water that she wouldn't wander off on her own. Not the case last night! I kept having to find her and remind her I need to know where she is. I am so glad she is finally gaining confidence in being in the water.

 
As we were leaving this morning, Aunt Brianne told Makadee and Gavin to hold hands so we wouldn't lose them. It was so cute the way they were walking together. I couldn't resist the urge to take a picture. Makadee has been very mad at me since she doesn't get to do lessons this year. But she is surviving.

Happy Birthday old man ;-)

Happy Birthday to my husband, best friend and father of my children. I am very blessed to have this amazing man as my husband. CJ is caring, selfless, funny, lovable and hard working. He enjoys gaming, being in the mountains and playing with his girls. We wouldn't survive without him. Thanks for all you do. WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

Makadee is fearless!

So, we finally went to the new Payson pool! My kids were so excited. I found that Makadee is not afraid of the water like Kirstee is. She was the first to go down the water slide, she was the first to put her head under and so on. At one point she decided to climb up the water slide. Right as she was going up, the big bucket dumped! She got a face full of water and took a little too much down. Made me very nervous! It took her a minute to breathe again, but she was right back at the top coming down again. Then a little while later, I turned my back for 2 seconds, and she ran over to the 3 ft deep area and jumped in!! I turned around just in time to see her jump. I got to her just as the life guard pulled her out. It was so scary!!!!! So needles to say, Makadee is not afraid of the water!

Kirstee surprised me this year by all that she would do at the pool. It only took Makadee going down the slide 2 times before Kirstee decided she could do it. And from them on she wasn't afraid of anything. She was even jumping into the 3 ft deep part (hence why Makadee decided she needed to,) and would run over when she heard the bell for the bucket and stand under it. Kirstee does not like the water in her face, so this was a big feat for her. I was ready to go home after 1 hour, because the air was cold and the kids were shivering, but I couldn't get Kirstee to leave.

All in all, we had a lot of fun. I can't wait to take them again, but I am going to find some kind of floating device for Makadee!

Precious Moments

 

Last night, after enjoying an evening at Grandma and Grandpa Rushton's for fhe, we put the kids to bed and went downstairs to play a game together. The girls were up and down with every excuse in the book to not go to bed! At one point they started to complain that there was a bug upstairs. We got mad and told them we would come squish it in a minute but they need to go to bed! At about 10:00 it finally got quiet upstairs. When we went up to go to bed, we discovered they had fallen asleep in Makadee's bed. With a bag of pretzels and all! Apparently they had been having a party without us. It was so cute! I couldn't resist taking a picture. In return for letting them sleep together, they decided to get up at 5:30!! (New pictures on the summer fun slide show.)

Originally posted on July 8th, just trying to get the picture to work.

Sunday fill in

1. Oh, I can't wait until I have a vacation.

2. Milk is the first thing I see when I open my refrigerator.

3. I never leave home without my cell phone.

4. If I were a condiment, I would be mustard because I like it.

5. Nosy people is really high up on my list of pet peeves.

6. The last thing I thought of before I went to bed was giving CJ a kiss.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to going to Casi's, tomorrow my plans include cleaning the house and Sunday, I want to be lazy like always!

Sunday Fill in

1. Holidays in the summer are patriotic.

2. Steaks are my favorite things to grill.

3. My thoughts are life goes by too fast.

4.Time with my family is what I'm most looking forward to this weekend!

5. My favorite book so far this summer is The Host by: Stephanie Meyers.

6. Praying is the best way to begin a day.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to FHE, tomorrow my plans include Shopping and Sunday, I want to relax!

Link to Sunday fill in

I get my "Sunday fill in" from fridayfillins.blogspot.com
I don't want to take credit for other peoples work. :)

Sunday fill in

1. Birthdays are fun when little, dreaded when older.

2. Spring is my favorite season because it is warm, not hot. And because everything is fresh and new.

3. I feel my best when I have accomplished something. Even if it's just a simple task like cleaning my house.

4. There are too many to have a favorite...is my favorite food!

5. First impressions are overrated. (What if you are nervous and totally don't act like yourself?)

6. The best piece of advice I ever received was save your money. (Too bad I don't know how to use it.)

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to Eating Navajo tacos, tomorrow my plans include Cleaning the house and Sunday, I want to be lazy!

Need to think things through...

So, I have come to realize that I need to think things through before I act. I had an embarrassing moment this week.

I decided the girls needed a swimming pool to cool off in. I refused to buy another blow up one that they would pop in a day. So, I set out in search of one of the hard plastic ones. I finally, after going to every store in Payson, found one at Rite Aid. I was so excited that I just hurried in and bought it. Once outside with our new pool, I realized there was no way it was going to fit into the car. So now here I sit, on Main street, with an empty swimming pool that my kids are insisting on sitting in! Oh the looks people were giving me. I quickly called Cameron to come rescue me. And of course, he is out riding his 4 wheeler. But none the less says he can come get it. So, we sat on main street, the girls jumping in and out of the pool like it already had water in it, and waited for Cameron. It took him about 1/2 hour to get to us. I had never been so happy to see him, until I realized he had a friend with him. I am sure they were both laughing pretty hard at the fact I had tried to get this big pool into my car. None the less, Cameron got the pool home for us. And I can't seem to keep the girls out of it. I will have to get some pictures and post them.

Living without internet...

I would like to know how people survive without the internet...oh wait I do know since we haven't had it since October! But that is no more, we now have internet and I can finally stay in touch with everyone again.

An update on the Family-

CJ is still working for Wencor, although he was promoted from CMM machine operator 1 to CMM Machine operator 2. Which means he now reverse engineers the parts instead of doing quality checks. He seems to be enjoying it so far.

Kirstee has graduated from Pre-School. She claims she hated it because it was boring. In the last 4 months, she has taught herself how to read and how to ride a bike without training wheels. She is very excited to go to Kindergarten! I just hope she gets Aunt Clea so that she will be challenged. She is having fun with what little warm weather we are having. She loves to be outside and is always begging to play in the sprinklers. We have great hope that the weather gets warm soon!

Makadee thinks she is as big as her sister. If you ask her how old she is, she will tell you she is 5. If you try to correct her she just gets mad. Makadee is truly the light of our lives. She is always doing something to make us laugh. Nothing stops her! She is always on the cupboards or into something you wouldn't think she could reach. She definitely keeps us on our toes. She is potty trained!!! About 3 months ago she decided she was big like her sister and wanted to use the potty. It took her a couple weeks to really get it down, but I am loving not having to change diapers!!

As for me, I worked as a Star Tutor and Kindergarten Tech this last school year. And am currently teaching Kindergarten for our summer school. This has been a little stressful, but with the help of the Kindergarten teachers, I was able to make some fun plans for my class. I still love to scrapbook, read sappy romances and spend time with my family.

That pretty much sums up our lives for now. Hope all is well with you and your families!!