Parties--Parties and more parties

Carlee's party was the first party--I am not a big party person but Carlee hasn't had a party in a couple of years so I thought why not--I certainly didn't have anything else to do!

She invited 10 of her friends and we were going to heat up the jacuzzi in the pool but....Russ tried getting it to start about 15 min before everyone was suppose to get here and still couldn't get it to kick on 15 minutes after everybody was already here. I didn't have a lot of stuff planned because this was going to be a big part of the party. I asked him (very nicely) to try again because it was freezing outside and we really needed a jacuzzi. He went out and started crossing wires and heard a loud pop--not a good sign! He thinks he might have blown the whole motor and luckily for us not himself. I was proud of myself for coming up with the idea to use our jacuzzi tub (that we haven't turned on for over 10 years.) It worked! We put some candles in the bathroom and played Christmas music and changed the party to be in rotations. Since it was in our bathroom we could add bubbles and the girls loved it. I was so glad they were only 11 and we were able to pull this off. Carlee told me it was her favorite part of the party. (and we aren't going to worry about the pool jacuzzi for a couple more months!)

Lovely green masks!

After the rotations, the girls watched Ramona and Beezus (such a cute show!)


Christmas cupcakes for dessert. The girls seem to have a good time but maybe they were just being nice!

Carlee's Birthday

It's hard to believe Carlee turned 11! She really doesn't like to be referred to as the "three little girls" anymore and I guess that is understandable since she is so close to being a teenager--but it might take a while for it to sink in with Russ and I!

Carlee's favorite dessert is mississippi mud (ice cream, cool whip and oreos!)

11 things you might not know about Carlee--

1. She is super sweet!

2. Always caring about other people and their feelings.

3. Worries about the disabled and always tries to be their friend.

4. Great at dancing and loves it.

5. Aggressive soccer player

6. Best big sister to play with (for Cami and Chloe)

7. Always feels guilty whenever she does something wrong (even the smallest thing--the teenagers are trying to get her over this one...I personally like it!)

8. Loves to babysit and is so excited to babysit for other people.

9. Peacemaker

10. Learned how to play "Mormon Bridge" with the adults (teenagers)

11. I love her and we are so lucky to have her in our family!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARLEE!

Okay--so I have a new plan--Thanksgiving

My kids keep complaining that I haven't updated since summer (really it was Sept but I was behind) anyways...I keep getting further behind. Our life just keeps happening and I'm taking lots of pictures but no time to post. So...my new plan is to start with Thanksgiving and catch up from there. Slowly but surely I will go back and update and lie about the date so it will be in order. Hopefully this will work--at least that's my goal!

For Thanksgiving we always rent a cabin in Pinetop and spend the weekend with just our family. It was freezing this year and there was snow on the ground when we got there. You realize after a few short days that we do not like the freezing cold. Maybe it's because we don't really have the clothes to keep us warm and we think we will be fine with a sweatshirt. After all it is still pretty hot in Gilbert!

Each of our kids get to pick something to make for dinner. Clay always goes for the mashed potatoes because they are not his favorite and he doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings for not eating them. We love this dinner because it is all of our favorite things and we just eat until we can't move anymore. In our defense...we do go for a walk afterwards but it was freezing!

Yes...we do use paper plates. We always have to make sure when renting a cabin that the table is big enough to accommodate all of us at once!

Happy happy dishwashers!

The rest of the week is just spent relaxing and doing pretty much nothing. We take a few quad rides...

Read Harry Potter....
Getting ready for our annual kickball game...

Everyone definitely inherited the competitive gene!

too bad it was a foul--way over our heads even with the ball from Walmart!


After church we packed up and started for home. It was snowing like crazy and we couldn't even see the roads. I was driving and we were pulling 4 heavy quads with no brakes on the trailer. Traffic was moving very slow and it took us almost an hour to go 10 miles. I was glad I was following a big truck because I knew if I hit him it wouldn't do too much damage. I did go sliding once and luckily was able to stop a couple feet from the truck who was also sliding. By the time we got to Showlow I was done driving. They had closed the road going through Payson so everyone was going through the Salt River. They had threatened to close that road also but we had to get home. Chantz had a final on Monday and Russ was suppose to set apart a missionary that afternoon. Russ said he would drive and proceeded to go down the mountain very slowly. Luckily we made it home safely--what a blessing.