Mr. Snowman

While we were staying with my parents we spent a lot of time playing Guitar Hero. It was a lot of fun, but I don't really have any good pictures of us doing it. :( Bradley also really enjoyed playing Mario Kart. Man, it was so funny to watch him move all over the room with his little steering wheel. I didn't get any pictures of that either. Sorry . . . just imagine . . . little kid with a steering wheel, eyes fixed on the humongous TV, turning his whole body to get Mario around the next corner.
This slide show is from our adventure out in the snow at my parents' house. It was actually really warm outside, and the snow was PERFECT for building a snowman. I mostly walked around taking pictures, but Cristi and Melissa and the boys had a lot of fun building this massive snowman! We were thinking he and Melissa could hook up, but I guess Melissa found someone else who wouldn't melt (except maybe melt her heart). Ha ha ha . . . I am so cheesy.

More from the break . . .

Sorry, I know everyone is probably sick of looking at old pictures, but I really want to catch up on everything - mostly for me. This first picture just makes me laugh. The boys were watching a DVD Melissa made of family pictures, and obviously, they all really liked it!
These next ones are from a photo shoot we did of the Broderick cousins. I am just putting a few in, but there are tons of cute ones.
Here is a cute picture of Halley in the coat Cristi got her for Christmas. Everyone here loves that coat. She looks so cute in it.
And the last couple were taken at Kirsten's house after she gave Halley her first hair cut! She had some really long hair on top so Kirsten trimmed it a little. I wish the pictures had turned out better, but you get the idea. She is adorable! :)

Christmas Day

It took me a few hours to go through all the pictures from Christmas Day. I picked a few for a slide show. I think the whole day was kind of a blur of craziness!
We opened stockings on Dave & Rhenda's bed in the morning (a Power family tradition). Then we went out and opened all our other gifts. Bradley and Connor were pretty excited about all the gifts. Ya know, it's crazy how much stuff they got. We actually hardly spent any money on Christmas, but somehow they ended up with all sorts of new stuff! We had to rearrange our storage/toy area when we got home so we could accommodate everything. :)
The boys got their Transformers and their Dalmatian puppies. Bradley calls his "Awesomest Prime." It's hilarious. We have even showed him how it's spelled, but he insists his name is not Optimus Prime. Ha ha ha . . .
One of my favorite things about Christmas Day was being able to spend time with my extended family. We got to see my dad's side of the fam for Christmas brunch, and my mom's parents were at my parents' house for the party later that evening. I truly love all my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and I miss them a lot!!
Anyway, here it is:
2008 Christmas Day Craziness

Christmas Eve

So, I have been going through pictures like mad this week trying to figure out which ones to use. I am not going to get behind like this ever again! Ha ha ha . . . I say that now, but I can't make any guarantees. Life is so crazy and busy.
On Christmas Eve we actually went to my parents' house for a little while, but I forgot to take any pictures. :)
Later that evening we had a great time with the kids and some of Wes' family.
I love this picture of Dave with their dogs, Reggie and Gretel. The boys just adore these dogs.

Derek gives Wes' mom a book every year for Christmas and then reads it to everyone who is there. We really enjoyed that.

We also enjoyed spending some more time with "Mudder."

The kids all got to open some new jammies for cute pictures. Which, by the way, I think I took about 15 that night, and that one up top is the best I got! Getting all three of them to look at the camera, smile, and hold still is pretty much impossible!

I love this picture of Karina with Halley. It was so fun to watch Halley throughout the trip. She got more and more comfortable with everyone every day.

The highlight of the evening was definitely reading the Christmas story and then having the boys sing "I am a Child of God" for us. It was a very special night!

The Joys of Parenting

Ok, so I have to tell these stories really quick or I know I'll forget them. Wes and I have been really struggling with figuring out how to be good parents. It's good to have moments like this that help us laugh a little.
This past week Connor had an episode with a marker and his belly. Yah, I should have taken a picture, but I didn't want to encourage him.
Well, I talked to him a little bit about how his body is a special gift from Heavenly Father and that he should treat it like a temple. A few days later we're driving back home from dropping Bradley off, and he starts asking me what's going to happen when we die. I explained everything to him, and then he said, "What will we be when we come alive again?" I told him we'd be ourselves, but he didn't think that was right. He told me he is going to be a temple, and that it's going to come out of his belly button! Ha ha ha . . . I think somehow he got the whole "your body is a temple" thing all mixed up. And there was marker all over his belly button. :)
Ok, on to our little reader. Today, we are driving to church, and Bradley's new favorite thing is spelling stuff. So, for awhile he was asking us to find signs, tell him the word, and then he'd look at the sign and spell it. Then he decided he'd read the signs to us, and we'd spell the words. So, he says, "Wendy's." We spelled it. Then he says "Long John Sliver's." (We still can't convince him it's "Silver's.).
Ok, you ready for this, he says, "Spell Bad *** Coffee." We couldn't do it! We were trying to contain our laughter. While we were trying to control ourselves he and Connor were telling us to spell "Bad *** Coffee" again and again. Oh my, it was hilarious. I am not a fan of lying to my kids, but we convinced them that we were laughing at something Daddy said. Oh man, I wish you could get the whole picture. It was absolutely hilarious.
When we calmed down we had a serious discussion about words we don't say in our family, and Bradley felt pretty bad. He was just reading the sign after all.
Needless to say, parenting is hard work. I told Wes we're not going to drive to church that way ever again so they can forget about it. If not, I know they'll enjoy saying it much more often - especially if Wes and I can't contain our laughter the next time!!

Temple Square

Ok, for those of you who haven't been keeping up (me, for instance, these pics are from 1 1/2 months ago), I am currently trying to catch up on all my old blogging stuff from the holidays to now. I keep wanting to just give up and start current, but there are so many fun pictures that I don't want to miss. So, my goal is to work on it every night this week!
Normally, I don't like to do slide shows, but this night had sooooo many fun pics that I decided to do it. This was a really fun night out with the Power family. Yet again, everyone but Garon was there.
Some of us rode Trax downtown, and then we all went to Temple Square and looked at the lights. After that, we all went out for pizza. It was such a blast. Fun, fun memories!

Power Family Christmas Party

The Sunday after arriving, we headed over to Kirsten's house for the annual Power Family Christmas Party! It was such a fun night. I cannot even tell you how much I had been missing all these special people. Just looking through these pictures makes me miss them all over again! The only person missing from the festivities was Wes' brother Garon. He was off in Australia for his two week break from Afghanistan! We missed him a lot.

The boys spent some time playing Foosball with Uncle Spencer and the cousins!

This is a picture of Wes' sister Karina, and his grandma who the boys call "Mudder." She gave Halley the cute dress you see below.

Here's Rhenda working away in the kitchen! I think we were all really happy to be together. I have to say, it felt so good!!

It was so fun to see our nieces and nephews. I cannot believe how much they have grown up. Austin's voice totally changed! The boys were way excited to see Hailey and Chelsea. It was so funny though. We hadn't seen them for almost nine months, and Connor couldn't tell them apart! He would ask them about every five minutes, "Are you Hailey or Chelsea?" The girls were so good about it. They just had to answer his question, and then he'd say, "Oh," and walk away. We all laughed!

We spent the night catching up on things and talking about Kirsten, Tom and Brittany's new healthy lifestyles and sampling different protein bars! They have each lost over 20 lbs! It's crazy! Good job guys! You all looked so dang good!

The boys got to open some fun new games and then went off to play with the girls while we did the movie exchange. That's always a lot of fun. When we first got to Utah, Halley had a really hard time with being around so many people. She has just been around our little family for most of her life! Anyway, it was really cute because she got really attached to her uncles. She even snuggled with Tom! It was absolutely adorable, but I think it made Kirsten a little jealous. :)

Overall, it was a wonderful night! I love Wes' family so much. I am so blessed to have such great in-laws. I really enjoy spending time with all of them. They teach me so much, and I truly love and admire each one of them!