Weekend in the Snow

We had such a fun weekend. We started in Prescott and ended the trip in Flagstaff. It was so fun to see my brother Jay and his family. My kids were in Heaven. McKay is always in Heaven when we visit Prescott because he instintly has four brothers to wrestle with for hours on end. Jaden loves it because they dote over her so much. My brother and sister n law are such amazing parents. You truly can feel so much love in their home. We all know in my family that if you visit Jay and Heather, and plan on staying for just a day, it won't happen. They can always convince anyone to stay longer. Their home is always open to anyone and it truly feels that way. Love you guys.

Jaden looks like she has had one to many rides down the hill in her sled. :) My kids had so much fun sledding. They were so crazy. McKay kept wanting to go down the hill that had all the jumps. No matter how many times my kids fell down they wanted to sled more. I of course was having a blast my self. I don't think anyone can ever be to old to enjoy sledding. I was laughing, snorting, and basically being a spaz the whole time. Almost all of my brothers, sisters, sister n laws, and neices and nephews came up to Flagstaff on Monday to sled. It was so fun!! We did miss Adam, but I have to publicly thank him for the daddy day care all weekend. What a good guy. He watched Roxcy while we sledded and took McKay and Jaden part of the day also. Thanks for the help!

My little snow Angels

Hiedi and her cute kids came to hang out with us during Christmas break. It is amazing how kids can remember each other and just jump back into playing with each other after such a long time. I have to admit that I miss having the Cossebooms close by. It was so much fun to chat and catch up.

"The Seven Year Itch"

Shaun and I just had our 7 year wedding anniversary and I can't believe how time flies. As the years go by I can truly say that I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have found and married such an amazing guy. Here's a little shout out to my better half. (I'm not kidding about the better half. :) ) Here are just some of the reasons I love this guy.

1. Shaun puts up with my crazy habit of always planning a party at our house or planning to go to a party somewhere else and forgetting to tell him until 2 minutes before. He is so patient with me.

2. One time Shaun came home from work and I had our kitchen table and chairs in the garage painting them black, and the wall in the living room repainted with diamonds on it. He looked at me and asked what I was doing and I told him that I thought I had told him. He literally smiled, shook his head and then said, "I loved it!" Again, very patient.

3. When we first got married we got two of the same things when we opened gifts. We did not know which stores some of the gifts had come from, so I had the idea to keep those gifts in the car in case we came across the store and then we could run out to the car and return the gift. Shaun had another idea. One day he was helping some of his old roommates move into a new apartment and they commented about the awesome crock pot, blender, toaster, etc. that were in the car. Shaun (aka, Santa Claus) then took the liberty of handing out every last Wedding present to anyone and everyone who wanted or needed something. He has always been generous. I have to say that I was not jumping for joy when I found this out, but we laugh about it now.

4. Whenever Shaun sees someone in need on the side of the road, he always stops to help them. He is very charitable. I get nervous about this habit of his and I think he has stopped telling me how often he does this.

5. He is the most forgiving, non judgemental person I know. Always giving others the benefit of the doubt even if someone has wronged him.

6. Very goal oriented. Loves learning and is always trying to better himself.

7. Loves to make me and the kids laugh. Shaun has such a witty sense of humor and loves to make others smile. He is not afraid to be silly or make a fool of himself. What I mean by that is, he puts up with my crazy collection of costumes and wigs and is always game to play a joke or dress up crazy with me.

8. He spends so much quality time with the kids. The kids hide every day when Shaun gets home from work and he pretends he can't find them. Then, when they finally come out they all wrestle and laugh so hard. The kids adore they're daddy. He never complains if he comes home from work and I say, "you get the kids tonight, I am going to run away for a while." He just smiles and says, " We will miss you, but run away for as long as you need."

9. Loves the gospel. When Shaun and I were dating, Juliette and my mom were snooping in Shauns truck (why you ask, I have no idea except that that is what families do. We have got to watch out for each other.) Anyway, Juliette came in and told me that he had two book of mormons to hand out and his goals for the year posted on his dash. She was the hardest person to impress when I was dating someone. She gave her full approval after that.

10. I have to throw in this story just to keep my husband humble. I don't want his head to get to big by saying all these nice things. We met on a blind date. On this blind date we went swimming!!!!!!! I know, isn't that the worst. Anyway, he later admitted, after we had gotten married, that before I saw him in his swimming suit that he went around the corner and did a bunch of push ups so his arms and chest would look bigger. I laughed so hard and still do at the sight of that.

I love you Shaun, Happy Anniversary!!!

FAMILY

It has been a year in March since my Nephew was diagnosed with a very fast growing cancer and had to have a brain tumor removed. He is still coming down from Prescott every week to get radiation. I got to see Jonathan a couple days after Christmas. It is always amazing to see him. Look at his countenance and smile. It really puts life into perspective to think of this 14 year old boy going through what he has been through, so much pain that no one on Earth could understand,countless hours of radiation and Chemotherapy, and still have the cutest sense of humor and love for life. He is truly an inspiration not just to me but to many, many, people. I love you Jonathan, you are a Hero! Roxcy(7 months) and Jonathan (14)

Cousins at the Dinosaur museum. Carson, Jaden, Malloy, and McKay. We have been to this place more than I would like to admit, and more than I would ever like to go. My kids seriously love it here and act like it is the first time they have been here every time we go.

This Christmas was one family party after another. Juliette was down for a week and we went to movies, had spend the nights, and went out to eat almost every day. Here is me, Juliette, Cherisse, and Amber (Our adopted sister) at Oregano's our favorite place on Earth. I feel so blessed to have such amazing, talented, loving sisters. We can laugh so hard that we pee, and cry so hard until there are no more tears. We know every shortcoming and weakness about each other and still love each other anyway. Thank goodness for my sisters.

MUD MANIA, THE GOOD DEEDER, AND THE DANCING DIVA


We have started giving Jaden and McKay chores to do. One of them is to water the plants out front. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that they would take this job so seriously that they would water the flowers not once a day, but every time they went out side to the point that we had a literal swamp in the flower bed. We finally had to take the hose out of the front because they were obsessed with watering. My friend once told me that she did not think she had ever picked up her son at my house without him being soaking wet or muddy. Here are some of the neighborhood kids with McKay and Jaden having their mud bath for the day.

So this kid has put a bug in his sisters nose, put markers all over his sisters face, taken his goldfish out of the fish tank with his bare hands and put it in a cup of ice, then put it back in the fish tank where we all thought it was dead, but were informed an hour later that a miracle had happened and that his goldfish had been resurrected. But, McKay is also the most sensitive and in tune kids I know. Tonight after dinner he told me he wanted to go take treats to his friends in the neighborhood. I asked him what treats he was going to give them and he said his Halloween candy. Since it is January 2nd I thought that candy from October would not be the most desirable treat to give out, but he was insistent. I thought he was going to knock on the door of two or three friends homes and give them a sucker or something. Instead, he got on his bike and put his Halloween bucket on his handle bars and rode down the street 7:30 at night stopping at each house throwing candy in the driveway. He was beaming and thought he was being such a good little friend. I followed him up one side of the street and down the other. He turned and said, "Mom my friends are going to be so excited when they wake up tomorrow and find my candy!" I didn't have the heart to tell him that it probably would be covered in ants and be thrown away by all the moms and dads. I just agreed and kept following him down the street on Jan. 2 with his Halloween bucket. Aren't kids the best.

This was Jadens first day at dance class and she loved every minute of it. The teacher told me that she did great and said that she kept trying to help her as they did some dance moves across the floor and Jaden just kept looking up at her saying, "I already know this, I can do it by myself." She's not independent in the slightest. I think it is an exciting moment for a parent when their child seems to be taking an interest and loving something that you have loved your whole life.

"WWF"

My kids looked so adorable for church all dressed in their Christmas attire that I thought it would be so nice to snap some photos before we left. McKay and Jaden apparently interpreted me taking pictures of them in their Sunday best as let's have a "WWF" tournament and see who can rip their clothes to shreds the fastest.