My Birthday!

This is the surprise I got while at work today!!! LILLIES! They are GORGEOUS! Thanks to my hubs! he is the BEST! I seriously was so shocked that they were mine! I also got a new outfit, that I LOVE!(sorry no pic) and we ended the night on a date to Steves Steakhouse which was absolutely DELISH!! The steak ends were to DIE for! perfect way to end a birthday!

Gingerbread houses and SANTA!

 This past Sunday was the Payne's annual Gingerbread house making and a special visit from the big jolly guy! my mom made wonderful soups again this year! clam chowder and chicken tortilla soup! they were sooo yummy!! I went down on Friday to put all these darn gingerbread houses together.....10 of these suckers!!!

 This is what happens when you let a 3 year old get ahold of the red frosting! LOL

                                    Brynlee and her finished gingerbread house!

                                                   Porter and his finished house! Braxton wasnt done with his yet and then santa came and I totally forgot to get a pic of it later!

                                  here is Elder Harlan sitting on santas lap telling him what he wants for Christmas!!

                                            Brynlee telling santa what she wants!

                                                     Braxton telling Santa what he wants!

                                                    and Porte telling him what he wants!

                             Brynlee was SO excited that she got not only a Barbie, but a BELLE one!!

Pumpkin Days and Halloween!

Once again we had our annual Pumpkin Days with the Utleys. we had great food, and great laughs! we always have a good time carving and painting our pumpkins!  But I didn't get any pics of the after looks.

                                        Braxton and Eli (what a good babysitter!)

                                             Porter picking out his pumpkin!

                                                                      Best Friends!
                                                                  Brynlee and Scarlet

                                                   painting their pumpkins!

                              of course we went apple bobbing!! always a good laugh! Porters turn!

                                                                Brynlee's turn!

                                                                  and......she got one! :)

I was TERRIBLE about taking pictures on Halloween! Terrible I say! But here is Brax all decked out!

   Porter....not quite sure what he is suppose to be...I guess some wierd baseball player! LOL he changed his costume about 3 different times!

                                                cute little witch!!!

and then there is this..........
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Josh decided it would be a great idea to go and scare people (family members) by just walking in their homes and not saying a word. just walk around and then walk out of the house! he said it was the FUNNIEST thing EVER!! LOL! he said he has never seen some of the people so scared before! Nobody ever thought it was Josh because he normally would not do anything like that! He sure looked scary though! we had a good laugh!!

Gooseberry!

At the first of the school year, Porter got to go on the anual Gooseberry Field Trip where all the 3rd grade get to go to a little camp and stay overnight and learn about many different things! I got the opportunity to go along with him! (and I got paid to go too...BONUS! thats the perks of working at a school!) anyways we enjoyed being up there and Porter got to learn about Fire Safety, Mapping, ATV Safety, Wildlife, and of course we can't forget about seeing Annie Bangs that night! she was the talk of the whole grade!

                                              This was a live BAT! eewww! sick!

                                                          Ellie the Elephant was even there!

                                           Smokey the Bear stopped by for a visit and we got a group picture!

                                              making the tree cookie! (yep the still do that)

 Then, after a couple of weeks after we got home, the 3rd graders had a program where they sang lots and lots of songs about Gooseberry for the entire school and Smokey the Bear even made a special appearance!!