Emilee's 15th Birthday!

I can't believe Emilee is already 15!!  Next year she will date and drive!  She was sure to get her driving permit only days after her Birthday. Now she begs to drive everywhere we go.  All she wanted this year for her birthday was money.  She wanted to be sure that she has plenty of money to spend in Disneyland when we go with the Hadley family in February.  She is determined to save it all and get her name done in Princesses like Kylee did.

Some fun things about Emilee at age 15...

* She has tons and tons of friends.  Everyone loves her!

* She is really picky about her clothes.  She makes very careful decisions when buying them, but she always looks cute!

* She loves volleyball...she is on the Box Elder freshman volleyball team.

* She loves to play the piano in her spare time.  We love listening to her learn new songs.

* She can talk for HOURS on the phone with her friend Lexi!

* She loves to hang out with the Teachers in our ward who are her age.  We might be in trouble next year when they can take her on dates!

She loves it when Kylee comes home from college and she has someone to share the basement with again!

She is a talented, beautiful girl and we are so glad she is ours!!

Happy Birthday Emilee

Halloween Sugar Cookies!

You can't have Halloween without making Halloween sugar cookies.  I loooove sugar cookies.  I have adapted our recipe so that it uses half the fat than it used to and we add about half wheat flour...much to Kade's demise.  The final product is a little different than they used to be but still a great cookie.  And we can eat them without feeling terrible afterwards!!  Who doesn't love to frost and decorate a sugar cookie?? 

Grandpa Wyatt's Funeral

On October 23, 2012 Grandpa Wyatt passed away.  We are sad to see him gone but oh so happy to know that he is free from his body that wasn't working anymore.  I just know that he is having the best time in Heaven walking and talking!  He has spent so many years confined to his chair and the last several years unable to talk or communicate.  He loved to talk and I know he is enjoying having that restored!  Even though a funeral isn't the most favorable of circumstances to gather for, it was fun to see all of our family.  Almost eveyone was there.  Grandma Wyatt did a great job caring for Grandpa until the very end.  It was a huge sacrifice on her part and she has been a great example to all of us.

What a blessing to know where he is and that we will see him again.  What a great reunion it will be in Heaven.  We love you Grandpa!

Layton Surf & Swim

Over Fall Break the kids had several days off school...but Chris did not have any days off of work.  We had Friday night though...so we met Chris at Layton Surf & Swim.  The waves were fun and we were some of the only ones there.  We almost had the whole place to ourselves.  We got Subway sandwiches for dinner and stayed until we were swam out.  We stopped on the way home and got a movie to watch at home.  Turned out to be a pretty fun night.

We had our own little tornado!!

Perry can be a windy city so it's not unusual for the wind to blow often.  One day the wind was getting pretty brisk.  Quincy and her friends were out playing on the trampoline.I went to the window and knew just by the looks of things that something crazy was coming.  I ran to the back of the house yelling to Chris that we needed to get Quincy and the girls in the house.  At that same moment they had figured that out themselves and were trying to run inside.  A microburst landed right on our house.  It tore off several of our shingles and pounded them into the side of our neighbor's house.  It also picked up our very heavy gas grill on the back patio and turned it upside down on the deck, swirling ashes everywhere.  And it ripped the full grown tree in our front yard right out and onto the ground!  The poor girls were so scared.  They had a hard time making it into the house with shingles and ashes flying through the air. I am just grateful that no one got hurt.  You should have heard the stories those girls told for days after their incident!!  

Our poor tree...it took 12 years to grow that tree!

Caramel Apples

During October they sell these cool little caramel wraps at Wal-mart so you can make your own caramel apples.  Chris was shopping with me and happened to see them.  That was all it took.  Good thing we have him because he definitely adds some fun to our lives.  We bought them, took them home and had 4 very happy children excited to try making their own caramel apple.  They were very easy to use.  We even rolled them in smooshed oreo cookies.  Yum!

Room Makeover for Quincy & Brinley!!

For as long as these two girls have been alive they have been using the hand-me down quilts and room decorations from Kylee and Emilee.  The quilts were almost 16 years old!  I think we got some great use out of them!  Quincy has been saying for awhile that she wanted her bedroom painted a different color.  Her tan walls were way to boring for her.

So....we had Dad get out his handyman skills and he put up some cute woodwork on the bottom half of their walls.  They wanted PINK...but decided they would have green walls and pink curtains.  We got them some cute matching green and pink bedspreads, pillow shams and sheets.  I used 2 old cork boards and covered them with cute pink scrapbook paper and put black and white pictures of the 2 of them together all over them.  I think it turned out really cute.  The best part...Quincy and Brinley love their new room and have made their beds everyday so far and are actually keeping it pretty clean.  We will see how long this lasts!!

Dad was really nice and let them each have a turn painting.  They thought this was very awesome.  We got the top all painted in one evening and the bottom in a day.  It was a quick but drastic room makeover...my favorite kind!!

Chris' Birthday Party

We always celebrate birthdays with the Hadley family on the Sunday closest to the birthday.  He wanted eclair dessert instead of birthday cake and lots and lots of ice cream!  He got lots of cards with money so he could get some fun things for himself.