myBFFisMYsisBUTonlyIFiAMhers

Liz Communication project

2012-01-28T11:58:00.000-08:00

So Lizzie had a project for school and I was really irritated with the teacher because she gave the girls (Hanna and Liz have the same class but at different times) and assignment and didnt teach them how to do it. She told them that they needed to make a video montage of a story from their lives that had pictures, music and voice over. Again she didnt tell them or teach them how to do this and I am still bugged about it. Anyways Liz figured out that i have a program on my computer that does all this neat stuff and she put together this little story (her information is no where near correct, but we let her think getting Hanna was all her idea for the purpose of the video)

German Christmas Traditions!

2012-01-16T09:29:00.000-08:00

On Saint Nicholas' Day, the 6th of December, Saint Nicholas puts goodies in children's shoes! Hanna was telling us of this tradition and wanted us to do it as well. So we all lined up our shoes and hoped that St Nicholas would bring us some goodies!

Not St Nicholas but that's ok, Hanna filling the shoes with the gifts she bought for us.

Hanna smiling......I love it!

Oh boy the shoes are ready for the next morning! This is one tradition that we will do after Hanna has to return home, it was so much fun and we all love to learn new things!

Another tradition was lighting a candle each Sunday in December. Four candles, four Sundays. By the last Sunday the first candle had almost burned all gone, but it was still fun to eat each Sunday by candlelight.

All the kids with their surprise from St Nicholas!

November part 3

2012-01-14T13:14:00.000-08:00

The last part of our trip was to stop and see Nana and TaTa ( Jason's aunt and uncle) in flagstaff and of course since we are there we have to get a picture at the face. It looks pretty bad, it needs to be cleaned and the school has not taken care of it which is a shame because Jason did such a good job on it.

We got a few with just Hanna. Not everyday you get to sit on a big nose!

Next stop on our way home was the Coral Pink sand dunes in Kanab. Its miles of sand that is super soft on your feet and is a very pretty pink color. It was cold that day as well and our feet were freezing. If you didn't go to far down into the sand it was warm. We wanted to stay longer and play but it was just to cold.

My foot, it looks pretty cool huh?

The kids were all like "what do we do?"

Jason said......."Play!"

This is some of them running down the hill.

These next shots are some of my favorites, I wish I had taken some of all this kids doing this.

I set my camera to take 3 shots in a row and this is what I got..........

Lizzie!

Lexi!

This was before they all jumped for my header/Christmas card. They were waiting for my cue. I sooooo love my header, the colors are so neat with the blue sky and brown sand. Love It!!!

I threw this one in at the end because it shows you kind off how big the area is. People come out here to four wheel and camp and stuff. Its a pretty fun place, I can see us stopping here again sometime.

November part 2

2012-01-13T08:19:00.000-08:00

The best part of our November was spending time with the Ellicos! We love their family so much and always have the best time when we are all together. Here are some highlights!

Just a shot of the kids chillin, I am sure they were getting ready to eat something.

Jeff and Jason cheesing it for the camera, well at least Jason is....

Lizzie and Katie (I said smile big and Lizzie got it for sure!)

We celebrated Jeff's 16th Birthday, they were trying to hold up 16 fingers..

Hanna smiling for my camera!

Thanksgiving dinner!

This is what the adults did the majority of the time we were there, I am sure the kids hate when we play games because that is pretty much all we do while we are there.

Carving the turkey ( I don't really like turkey, but this one was pretty good. Mel did a fabulous job) and it was Hanna's first experience with turkey as well, she like it too!

Group shot

Kids goofy picture

The kids loved going outside and shooting the bow and arrows. They wanted to do it everyday.

Jason showing Hanna how its done.

She did really well; however then next day she had a nasty bruise on her arm where the wire hit.

Addi absolutely loved it! Of course he is a boy and it was a weapon and got to shoot at something.

Oh yeah did I forget to mention that Hanna was arrested?

They don't let Germans in Arizona, who knew?

(just kidding Jason is with hwy patrol and we thought it would be a funny pic to send home to Hanna's family)

November part 1

2012-01-12T17:40:00.000-08:00

Mr. Addason J. Lanegan turned six!

I never knew a kid so happy to be six, I think it was because it meant he could go to school. He had a chocolate cake and lots of cool stuff!

He always loves Spider man!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a just a funny picture of Lizzie. We went to an art show that was called "Gathering Friends For Heaven" and you were supposed to take Lisa as seen below and take a picture with her and print it and hang it on the wall at her show. I really liked the idea for the show, I thought it was very clever. Anyways this is what Lizzie did with Lisa.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We visited the Grand Canyon over Thanksgiving break. Our Exchange student Hanna has never been there and so since we were only 45 minutes away we knew we just had to stop there.

Hanna is not very fond of high places (neither and I) and so it was a challenge to get her to stand near the edge to get a good shot.

Lizzie was cool with it though.

All the kiddos ( It wasn't super cold there until the sun went behind a cloud and then we were freezing)

Here I am working my double chin!

A nice stranger offered to take a family shot for us, in turns out that they host exchange students all the time and they were from Utah as well.

It took some convincing but Hanna and I climbed out on this ledge to get a picture. Heights are not my thing, we all saw Superman save that kid and Niagara Falls, but that just wouldn't happen here!

By the end of the day, we were all just tuckered out!

We tried to sneak off the bus without waking Lizzie up but she caught us in the middle of it.... it was funny!

Anni using her scarf as a pillow

There is a place along the way to the Grand Canyon called "Bedrock" it has a bunch of Flinstone stuff there. Here are the kids posing on the Flintstones car.

I am Still Here!!!

2012-01-05T06:35:00.000-08:00

I have tons of posts to do, its been super busy! I will get them done, I PROMISE!!

German Deli? Better Luck Next Time..........:{

2011-09-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

So Monday (Memorial Day) we thought it would be fun to take Hanna on a trip to Salt Lake City and tour a little of Temple Square. I also looked around for a German Grocery store that we could go to so that she could get a little piece of home. I found one in Salt Lake and cool enough it was right around the corner from the South Temple visitors center. It was a German Deli/Grocery store......what luck!

So we set out Saturday morning a little late, but we made it and here are some of the sights that we got to see.

The North visitors center has the Christus in it and it is always amazing to go see it.

Tried to do an artsy picture of Hanna with the temple in the background.

Addi wanted a picture with Hanna

We went to the top of the Joseph Smith building before we took Hanna to see the Joseph Smith movie in the legacy theater about the life of our beloved prophet, if you haven't seen this yet it is AMAZING and you really should order it or get a copy from the distribution center. Anyways Hanna is scared of heights but she got close enough for a picture.

Got to get a picture on the "wedding" platform. (Anni, Leah and Jason were with us, however Jason wanted to look up some family history stuff and so he did that while we were here)

Hanna Banana!

Lizzie Loo Loo!

They also had the fountain going and it was so pretty, it was a great day to walk around too, nice and cool.

Addi kept asking me to carry him and so this was how I was packing him around most of the time, any chance to keep him my baby I will take it!

However Lizzie got a little jealous and wanted to be carried around too! She is defiantly not my "little" girl anymore, she is growing into a beautiful young women.

On a sad note, we had a great time at temple square and it was really quiet and not busy at all. This also meant that the Deli/grocery store was closed for the holiday and so we didn't get to try and yummy German foods. Its OK because now we have something to look forward to next Saturday! Hanna was bummed but we will go back and try again for sure!

More first days of school

2011-08-31T15:17:00.000-07:00

So we had 4 more kids start school this year. Lexi (13 1/2) started 8th grade and Annika (12) started 7th grade. I am so glad that these two are close enough that they see each other at school and at some point may even have a few classes together.

My girls look so big to me in these pics and its hard to believe that I have that many teenagers in my house.

Gotta do a silly

and another

Aleah (9) started school the same day as Lexi and Anni. She left half an hour after they did, and boy she is ready for fourth grade!

This silly one of Leah makes my eyes hurt!

Mr Addason (5) started school a whole week later and boy is that a long time to make a new Kindergarten kid wait for school after all his sisters went. He was super excited and wore his new spider man shoes that light up when walks. He also has a super cool spider man backpack.

First day in front of his classroom door

They had us do a few activities with our kids so they were comfortable when it was time for us to go. He colored a fish and cut it out, he found out how many times his name was in the room, we measured his height and weight and how big his hands and feet were.

He got a name tag and found his desk and had to sit and draw a picture of himself. At this point we were supposed to give our kids a hug and kiss and tell them we will see them later.

This was his look as I walked away and blew him a kiss, he wasn't to happy he had to sit across from a girl.

This is what happened after he got home and was supposed to be working on his homework. Being a kindergartner is hard work!

Lizzie and Hanna; first day of school!

2011-08-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

So Monday was the first day of school for Lizzie and Hanna. They are attending UCAS as seen above witch is a Early college high school and we are very excited for the opportunity that Liz has to attend. She will be able to graduate with her Associates degree and will be eligible for numerous scholarships if she keeps her grade point up. Not very many students get into this school and so we are very honored.

Lizzie (15) and Hanna (16) in front of the apple tree, Licorice snuck into the picture as well. First day of school Monday August 15th, 2011.

Addi jumped in to help Hanna hold up 11 fingers for her 11th year and Liz is a 10th grader this year!

They get to ride the city bus system to and from school everyday, I am glad that they are all able to go together and be each others buddies. Dev got into the school 4 days before it started and so we were excited that she could attend there as well. They leave at 8:15am and get home about 4:30pm. Let the studying begin!

There are some other students that catch the bus as well and all get to enjoy the ride together, Hanna had fun yesterday talking or as Lizzie said "flirting" with another fellow Jr. I laughed because we all love to hear Hanna talk, her accent is so amazing!

For Family Home Evening we watched how to train your dragon and had Root beer floats. But first we had Hanna try some pop rocks!

She wouldn't do it alone and so of course I stepped in to help. I love pop rocks!

Lets just say she wasn't impressed....hahahaha!

2 kids down only 4 more to go. Lexi, Anni and Leah start Monday and Addi starts school the following Monday.

I need to get a hobby! I will be alone for the whole morning!

Hanna's Happenings!

2011-08-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

So we finally got our exchange student that we have been planning for. Her name is Hanna Schurer, She got here July 28th 2011 and she had a very long and tiring time flying for so many hours. I was at girls camp with the three older girls but Jason, Leah and Addi were all there at the airport to meet her.

Since then we have all been asking her tons of questions about Germany and what they have there that they don't have here in the USA. Lizzie was asking all kinds of silly questions and finally Hanna said "I live in Germany, not on the moon!" I laughed and laughed because it was the first time I felt she was relaxed within our family.

Lizzie and Hanna start school on Monday and they will be going here for school. They will ride the bus to and from school and so they will be gone for the majority of they day. They will be taking seminary and I think they will have fun taking it together. Life is going to get very busy in the Lanegan house with 2 kids in high school and 2 in Jr high and 2 at the middle school, my days will be nice and quiet! I want to start a blog that is just about Our exchange student and it will be something that we can print and give to her at the end of her time with us, sort of a book of remembrance! For now here are some pics and randomness of what we have been doing.

Monday night is family night at the pool and so we took everyone over for some water fun. We even got Hanna to go down the water slide!

Since getting a week off of work for girls camp and having the other person that closes at the restaurant get married I had to take a few extra shifts. While I was at work Jason took the kids to Bridal Veil Falls and hiking at a few other places, here are some highlights!

See their faces? The water was about 50 degrees!

Lizzie has been wanting to earn extra money this summer and so she had been doing chores for me to get that, Jason decides that he will give her 5$ if she will go under this freezing water all the way...... and she did! I don't think it was worth only 5$ but she thought it was totally worth it.

Lizzie said she would give Leah one of her dollars if she did it too.

During all of this Anni and Lexi were trying to get to the top of the waterfall, they didn't get that close and by the time they got back they were sooooooo hot that........

They jumped in without any monetary bribery!

After the falls Jason took them hiking up rock canyon, this is Hanna pointing to Spanish fork, Utah!

This is the trail that the kids were hiking on, we didn't find out that Hanna is deathly scared if heights till she was part way down the trail and then she just froze in place and would go no further. But she was a good sport to even go that far!

Lexi disagreeing with something Jason said about her.....I love this picture and you better believe it will be shown at her wedding.

Addi is king of this mountain!

Jason and I have decided to blame Lizzie's weirdness in these next photos on her grandparents.....

Especially this one!

Addi has a new weapon?

2011-07-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

So Addi came up this morning with this new style weapon that he made out of his snugly, tea party plates and his church belt.

He has 11 plates called "cutters" (his words) that he can throw. They can slice things, cut metal, and stop things that are coming at you. They can also catch what gets thrown at you and turn it into a fire ball that you can throw back at your "bad guy".

I love it when kids let their imagination run wild!

Today is the..................

2011-07-04T10:38:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July!

I gave Addi these to take into the house and this is where I found him.

The kids are all very excited to set these off tonight, we have Na's kids here too and so we are gonna have a BLAST!

Temple Square!

2011-07-04T10:31:00.000-07:00

I didn't get a lot of pictures while the Ellico's were here, but I did get some while we were at temple square. Here is a highlight of our trip, we will have to go back next year because we didn't get to all of what we wanted. Until next year! We love the Ellicos!

Back to front: Jeff (15 1/2) Lizzie (15) Katie (13 1/2) Lexi (13) Addi (5 1/2) Rachel (7 and 355 days) Aleah (9) and Cassie who is (10).

Fabulous Ellico family

Our Family

These pics are on top of the Joseph Smith building, we watched the movie there about the life of the prophet and it was impossible to deny the truth of what he did, amazing!

Yay for good friends!

Moving

2011-06-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Jason had his reception for the show he has up at Art Access in SLC. Here is the blog if you are interested in seeing what he has accomplished this past year.

http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/blog-5860-june-gallery-stroll-jason-lanegan.html

While waiting for Jason's show to open Mom, dad and I walked through the church history museum and saw some of the shows that were up, these next pictures were so moving to me and I thought I would share them with you.

This one was called "Behold The Man" painted by Christopher Young. I love the purple in this painting and the expression on Christ face.

This one you couldn't help but start crying as soon as you saw it, its called "No Greater Love" and is painted by Adam Abram. I think the painting says it all, don't you? What wonderful talented artists we have in this world of ours!

Ian & Karissa!

2011-06-23T13:17:00.000-07:00

So last week Ian and Karissa got to go to the Mt Timpanogos Temple and get their Endowments! It was amazing and very cool to be there to witness this. Here are some shots from after the temple. It was dark and the sun was setting, sorry if the pics are a little dark I should have used the flash more. We are super proud of these two love birds and especially Bud who we have all been praying for.

We Love you Ian & Karissa!

Cant wait till July!

I think its funny they both closed their eyes!

Until the sealing!

Hiking the Grotto with dad

2011-06-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

I had to work last Saturday during the day (not normal) and so the kids got to go hiking with their dad! He takes them places like this all the time. Jason's dad liked to do stuff like this too!

This particular place is called "The Grotto" you hike for a little bit and their is a waterfall at the end. Its not huge but pretty nonetheless. Here are some highlights!

I like how Addi has his head almost falling off in this pic and Aleah looks a little like an owl with her eyes so WIDE open.

The waterfall at the end of the trail

I don't like seeing the kids so close to edges....yikes!

Jason was trying to have all the kids run off this log and jump so he could get their picture, it only worked with Addi and he jumped super high!

As they were driving there was this random snow bank that they stopped to play on, it was slippery and muddy on the edge but they had fun sliding down it.

This shot show you how much snow there really was.

Just a silly shot to finish out a super fun day with dad!

Anni graduates 6th grade!

2011-06-23T12:47:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post, Anni will be in 7th grade next year at the Jr high with Lexi and 9th graders (Yikes)! She said she is most nervous about getting lost and most excited about meeting new friends. This year they got these super neat graduation books with their "diplomas" in them. Yay for Anni!

Sweatin to the Oldies!

2011-06-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

So the girls had a Young Women's activity where they were supposed to dress up in their favorite 80's workout wear and come and have a sweating to the oldies party. I had to work and so told the hubby to grab a few snapshots of the kids before they left, he really had them ham it up!

FYI: these purple shorts are Aleahs.....to funny!

This is the girls at the leaders house, they are doing the buns of steal video.

At the church for opening exercises (ha get it?) After the "workout" they had soda and cookies and chips or something along those lines. They had fun and I think they looked great doing it!

Easter Pictures!

2011-05-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

We didn't do a whole lot for Easter, it is the Sabbath day and we don't celebrate it until after church is over. The kids were able to get their Easter baskets and then we went to Warren and Autumns house for dinner and an Easter egg hunt.

The kids also got a special treat from their Aunt Kim! These were so cute and very easy to make.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter that was filled with the Spirit of the Lord, we are grateful for his Resurrection and the blessings we all enjoy.

2011-04-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

My littlest sister is married! Nancy got married in the Idaho Falls Temple this last weekend, and the whole family was there to share in this wonderful day. Here are a few pics to highlight our weekend.

Gotta have a silly one, you cant see annika she is being squished!

Grandpa Weber with the older girls, Lizzie, Lexi and Annika

Grandma Weber Seeing if we are ready for Nan and Treavor

Me and my sister Beks!

The Happy Couple!

These next few pictures are my favorites!

Welcome to the family Treavor, better stay on your toes around us!

Jason with Addason, are they not so handsome together?

Grandma and Grandma Weber with all 28 grand kids and lets not forget the one on the way...Yay shavonne and Derick!

Me with sisters Corks and Na (BFF)!

Just the originals, all 10 kids with mom and dad!

Just the 10 of us in order from youngest to oldest

Nancy, Ian, Sharon, Beks, Corks, Shavonne, Shaina, Kim, Jamie, Warren

In front of the temple

Our Eternal Family! I cant wait till July for our next reunion!

Love you all!

Hide and Seek!

2011-03-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

These are pom poms made from tissue paper for Phena's daughters wedding, she used the to decorate the gym and they looked really good and were super easy to make. Autumn and I made over 50 of them. These were some that I was going to take to the church and I kept hearing a rustling noise coming from the middle of them. All of a sudden one of the cats jumped from inside this pile and it was so funny. They continued to play on these till I moved them to the table before they could get torn, but not before I took some pics of Rascal and Licorice playing hide and seek with each other.

Can you see Rascal?

If not here is a better view!

She was so funny!

Here comes DIVA!

They had fun, and it was fun watching them. I might just make some for them to play in!

Spare Room Makeover!

2011-03-20T16:17:00.000-07:00

So we decided that when we got our tax return we would get the spare room ready. Many of you have seen the spare room before and knew that we had the washer and dryer in there and it took up a lot of space and made that room very cluttered and crowded. There was a perfect spot for the washer and dryer downstairs and so we begin the monumental task of transforming the spare room. It took us about a month of weekends to get it complete but we did it together!

Here we go!

We started by moving the washer and Dryer out and having a good friend in our ward that has a business called G5 plumbing and he came and did all the plumbing for the move to the downstairs, they did it in a day and that was great because you don't ever want to miss a day of laundry! So then Jason started the demo and ripping out the carpet ( I didn't get a pic sorry). I did however get a picture of what I was doing and that was the tile in the hallway. The bedroom was nice wood floors, but the hallway had linoleum. I chipped away at that all day one Saturday and it was the WORST. I got the top layer and under that was a layer of black tar paper. That would not come off no matter how hard I worked at it. We finally had to but some caustic material to eat away at it enough for us to scrape it off. But guess what was under that tar paper? GRRRR another layer of linoleum! The hallway took up the majority of the work but it looks much better now, more pics to come on that one.

We sanded the floors in one night, we rented the sander late on a Monday and took it back Tuesday morning. We sanded till about 12:00 that night. It was loud and the kids had a hard time getting any sleep because as soon as we would stop, we would start right up again. There was dust everywhere but in the end we had a very nice sanded floor and hallway. (We used 25 grit sandpaper to eat through the tile in the hallway)

This is the wall where the washer and dryer was, it was in a big closet. We had to repair the wall with drywall and seal around the window.

See the drywall behind Jason? Right now he is putting the primer on the walls.

Can you see the floor through the plastic? We didn't want to get paint all over it. This is the first coat of primer.

I wanted and accent wall in brown, Jason picked the light brown that looks more yellow (I called it baby poop) I went and picked out the darker brown and got to work covering the other stuff.

I did the first layer and Jason came in and finished the rest.

This is the new home of the washer and dryer, it fits perfectly right here and the space around was really not being utilized for anything and so why not? It already had a floor drain and everything. We used to store the winter totes and other random items here.

We moved our shelves down too and now whoever has the downstairs living room, is in charge of changing out the laundry everyday.

Our finished product upstairs! I got the comforter to match the accent wall. The curtains also match the comforter. It turned out so so beautiful that I like to keep the door to this room open so that I can see it whenever I walk by.

This bookshelf sits where the washer and dryer closet used to be.

This is the view into the hallway, I stand right in that doorway and admire our handy work, its so great!

This is what I did when we were all done!

Jason worked so hard and so did the kids (we used a lot of FHE nights to work on this).

But now are open for business, any takers?

I know someone out there wants to stay in this beautiful bedroom!

An Artfull Saturday!

2011-02-16T16:11:00.000-08:00

This last Saturday Jason was invited to participate in an event at the Nox Contemporary Gallery called "Draw".

For the exhibition, all participants were given the same time frame (8 hours) and the same size paper on which to work. The catch: Each artist will be limited to using only a over sized No. 2 pencil and one other drawing medium of the artist's choice, the latter of which will be attached to a dowel the length of his or her body height.

Jason brought his pen and ink supplies and went to town! I was there for the day as well cheering him on while I worked on my latest cross stitch. It was a really long day, but fun to see what the other artists did. The opening for the show is this Friday, I hope lots of people come to it!

Jason does some Amazing pen and ink drawings, many people liked this tree that he did. He spent the majority of his time on it and didn't have time to finish much else. I think it looks fantastic!

By the time he was done his back was killing him, but I think he had fun.

Addi's randomness....

2011-02-16T15:53:00.000-08:00

So lately I have found some of Addi's toys in random ways. You saw what he did with poor spider man, well here are a few more unusual setups.

Woody on a skateboard on top of a box of play dough? I asked Addi what Woody was doing and he told me that he was tired from skateboarding and playing with the play dough when we weren't looking.

Of course he said the was a battle between good and evil, not sure who won this one. Maybe that's how spidey ended up taped to the table?

Another stack of randomness? I have no idea why....

Addi doing his Webb Shooters!

Spidey looks beat!

Spiderman has been Kidnapped!

2011-01-23T15:07:00.000-08:00

(click on photo for a closer look)

If anyone would like to see this webbed crusader again, you will send Addason $1 million pennies care of Kim (his Mother).
MWHAHAHAHA!

I was going into the kitchen to make lunch and I saw this. I quickly grabbed my camera because it was so funny! Addi had taken the red tape off the Bananas (the red tape bananas are cheaper, and go bad faster for banana bread) and wrapped up Spider man. I guess Venom won this round!

Do you have a shadow like mine?

2011-01-21T09:46:00.000-08:00

So you all know that Licorice is MY cat. She really tolerates the kids and she likes other adults but for some reason she really likes to follow me around. She is literally my shadow. For some reason on this day she would not leave me alone. She followed me everywhere and whatever I was doing she had to get in the middle of it. I LOVE her but sometimes you need a little space from your shadow.

After showering (she hung out in the sink, till I was done) and then I was trying to get dressed and all she wanted was for me to pick her up and carry her around on my shoulder.

So I did for a little while, but I really needed to get some work done and sooooooo

She decided to help me out by sitting in my chair or right on my keyboard, locking out my computer and I had no idea how to unlock it. I finally got it unlocked but had to put her outside my room and close both doors.

I got up a little while later and there she was waiting for me outside my door and followed me as I went into the bathroom.

I eventually had to put her outside so she could get some air and clear her head. It didn't work because when she came back in she was right there with me till I went to bed that night.

On a good note she is getting much better at getting along with Rascal and Pearl, she will actually play with them now! She still is the head honcho and we are all impressed; however we are starting to see her softer side as well.

I just love out kitties!

Pecan crusted French Toast......so Yummy!

2011-01-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

We went to a restaurant in Washington once that had the Yummiest breakfast choices. I chose Pecan crusted french toast and Jason had the cinnamon role french toast. His was good, but mine was better. I have been recreating this dish for a while now trying to get it just right. Here is what I came up with. Its super easy and uses items that I usually have at home.

I always have some sort of French bread laying around that has gotten old, and this is perfect for french toast. Did you know you were supposed to use stale bread to make it? I learned that on the food network.

Melt some butter in your pan. Get your egg and milk mixture all ready. I always add a little flavored creamer to my mixture; it gives it a nice flavor. This time I chose Hazelnut.

My coating is cornflakes, pecans, cinnamon and sugar. I crushed the cornflakes and pecans and added a teaspoon of cinnamon and a teaspoon of sugar. I rolled my bread in this and made sure to coat all the sides.

I cooked it on both sides till it was a golden brown. I like to put my french toast in the oven for ten min or so, because I don't like the middle to be SOGGY....that's just gross!

I took the leftover coating and fried it up in the pan; it gets nice and toasted.

I top my french toast with this Syrup; we have a local restaurant that uses this same syrup and it is to die for! We had a good breakfast that lasted us most of the day, they are very filling!

Items needed

Eggs

bread

milk

cinnamon

sugar

cereal (cornflakes, honey bunches of oats)

butter

buttermilk (if you dont have it you can make it by adding a tblsp of vinegar to a cup of milk and let it sit

pecans

Christmas, New Years and All That Jazz!

2011-01-13T12:58:00.000-08:00

So we had a busy few months after Addi's birthday.

This is the last few months in a nutshell.

Enjoy!

Aleah had her Christmas singing program, she had to dance with a BOY! It just so happened that the boy she was assigned to dance with is in our ward. It was super cute, when they went to go up the steps to dance he waited for Aleah and then held her hand all the way up the stage, it was soooo cute. I like the picture cause she is clear and the others are blurry, its a cool motion picture. When they were done he held her hand and walked her back to her seat.

She would practice the songs and home and she did a really great job!

She wanted a picture with this snowman...?

Alexia turned 13 (WOW)! She invited some friends over to spend the night and she also wanted to go see Harry Potter #7. She had four friends show up a few stayed the night and the rest went home after the movie. Pretty soon I will have 3 teenagers in the house and 3 girls in Young Women's! I love it!

Aunt Beks came to visit!!! We did lots of fun things. We went to see the Carl Bloch show at BYU and that was so great. We went and saw Narnia, we went shopping and played games. Here she is cooking dinner for us. Sharon came over and hung out that night as well, the pics are out of order. I laughed cause the way Beks was wearing her apron? Never seen that before! HAHAHAHAHa

We went to temple square and ate in the cafeteria before we did some temple work. Beks helped me do some of Jason's family and it was really great. We went to a live session, and then walked around temple square for a bit looking at the lights, they were so pretty!

Goofy sisters!

and again!

Lights on Temple Square, it was a really nice night. Not to cold; however it was a little crowded.

Salt Lake Temple Ariel view

When Beks came she brought all the snow from Washington with her and the kids had a blast playing in it all. We got around 2ft that day.

The kids made a sled run off our porch, here Beks is trying it out before she left to go home.

Gotta do a goofy shot...its a must.

We love you Uncle Beka!

Sisters! Love you Beks, you are so strong and working so hard. I am so so proud of you!

Jason kept throwing the kids in the snow, here is Addi catching some air.

After he landed, see how deep it is?

Anni taking her turn on the sledding hill.

Christmas Eve, we went out for Chinese food with Warren, Jamie, Phena, and Jim. It was good and we had a fun time.

We totally filled up the restaurant, its not very big either. We had a lot of kids there.

Christmas Morning! Santa came and filled the socks. The kids were up for awhile but they were not allowed upstairs till I came and got them. I like to record their reactions.

A picture before the kids came upstairs (Thanks Aunt Kim, Uncle Scott, Grandma Crickett, Aunt Carol and Uncle Ray) we had a wonderful Christmas day.

Christmas Morning 2010. We had to hurry because we had to go clean the church (I know right? on Christmas Day?) however when we got there someone had already done it as a gift and those of us that showed up all got to go back home and enjoy our day. Thanks to whomever it was!

Later on Christmas day, we did our gift exchange with Warren and Autumns Family and James and Mel. James and Mel always do boxes of Cereal for the kids (I love that!) Here are the kids with their boxes and other gifts.

Jason gave Warren a photo of a Cactus so he wouldn't miss AZ so much.

I gave Autumn a Gourmet cupcake book, you can make a gourmet cupcake with just a regular cake mix. I am still waiting for a Key Lime one!!!!

I gave Mel an Umbrella with Edward on it, He will keep her nice and dry!

Jason gave Jamie a sign that says "show off your rod, fish naked" (it was more of a joke (sorry mom) and he loved it.

The real gift was another picture of him fly fishing, those never get old!

For New Years we were at the Ellico's. We played games and ate LOTS of food. The day after we got there it started to snow, and snow, and snow. This is what it looked like after it was done. Needless to say, we didn't go anywhere. That was fine with us, because we got to play more games!

They got like 18 inches I think? But it was sooooooooo cold and the kids couldn't play outside really because of the low temperatures. I think the high was around 18?

The kids exchanged gifts, we love visiting our friends!

Anni and Cassie

This was Katie and Lizzie's Model faces? It looks more like something stinks and they don't like it?

I hope all of you had a great year end, we did and we look forward to more fun times in 2011!

The last Few Months!

2010-12-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

Over the last few months this is what we have been up to!

My baby boy turned 5! Can you believe that? He is excited for kindergarten next year and I just cant say the same thing. It will be weird not to have him home asking if he can watch spider man!

Sorry its sideways, he got a spider man cake and had all the people over that he wanted.

We had tons of fun at thanksgiving. For those of you who were there, this is a picture of warren before he got "fake" mad at Trevor (Welcome to the family TBone!) you were a good sport.

My bff and my boss feeding Kimble and having a chat.

Lizzie with baby Andelin.

Mom and Dad finally made it! We were able to get a grand kids picture, we were only missing Beks girls Kristen and Bailey.

Here they are all together!

My BFF! Love you!

Nan with her soon to be!

We got this shot and then we got a visitor by the name of......

HEATH!

Our ward had their Christmas party at the church and we did "A Night In Bethlehem". A fun time was had by all. Here we are eating our dinner on our quilt.

We tried to dress in period clothing, that meant putting on our bathrobes and for Jason his Karate Kid headband...hahahah!

Our little Angel Lexi played the part of ???? yup the angel. We actually put her in a scissor lift and she was raised up about 20 feet in the air. I was nervous, but she was a natural!

Mom and dad dressed up to, I though dad looked a little like King Tut. They let the "Honored Citizens" sit at the tables. (This was anyone who couldn't get up and down very well)

Sorry random picture but I liked it. I guess they didn't want to sit TO close to each other! (Jason just told me that you need to have the "Manly" buffer)

We had a great few month and cant wait for the new year to come and bring more memories!

Zions national park!

2010-10-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

So on our way back from Flagstaff to visit the Ellico's we drove through Zions. (we had to pick up Jamie's car and it was easier to go through Zions and up then to Cedar City and down, then back up). We took some candid shots of the kids and the area. I think it would be a great place to camp and have a Family reunion! We might do that sometime next summer as our family trip.

There were these really neat over hangs of rocks, good place for a picture!

This was a huge rock wall that was easy to climb up but you had to be super careful coming down. If you tripped you would just roll and roll. ( I didn't love seeing the kids up there)

I didn't like being up there as much either, that's why I am hanging on to Jason for dear life!

Lots of pretty colors in the trees.

Addi was getting ready to jump to lex and I caught his "spider man jump!"

There were 3 old cars in front of us going down the hill that slowed our decent. That was fine with me, the slower the better.

There was a neat arch in the rock that the kids pointed out. There was a lot to see and hiking trails, oh well we will have something fun to do next summer for sure!

More Halloween fun!

2010-10-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

For our Relief Society activity we did "The Witch is in" and it was for any girl 0-99. Since I have 4 girls we all decided to dress up and go (amazing right beks?). We went and had a light dinner and they did some crafts. The girls had fun. I got these socks and hats from the store and said ok now go make an outfit with it, and this is what we all came up with. We were a cute witch family.

Gotta have a silly shot. I am not sure what Jason and Addi did while we were gone, but I am sure they had some good father and son bonding time.

Halloween window design for 2010

2010-10-19T07:48:00.000-07:00

We chose to make a cat for our window design and it is so cool! You can see our cat window from main street at night, it glows orange!

I like that Jason got a picture of Licorice in the window, I think it adds to the effect.

I hope we get a lot of Trick or Treat-ers (on Saturday) since Halloween is Sunday this year, in Utah kids go out on Saturday. I am sure we will have a few that will come on Sunday. On a side note Jason and his Elders Quorum have to speak on Halloween which I think is to funny, hope its not to SCARY!

I need ideas for next Halloween...leave me some!

Rascal is great!

2010-10-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

Rascal is doing great and has recovered from her trauma. She is more loving and I think a little more cautious about going outside. We are so happy that our prayers were answered. We love you Rascal!

I found her sleeping in the sock basket, Addi was kind enough to cover her up.

Rascal Update

2010-09-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

We took Rascal to the vet and she got an exam and was also given some antibiotics. She has something called Sodium Ion Toxicity. This happens to animals when they have gone with out water for a long period of time, and when they do get water again it causes their brain to swell. Right now she has almost no motor function. She acts dizzy and blind. We are praying that her swelling goes down and that she will make a full recovery. We know she is strong, the vet says all we can do is wait and see. Please help us pray for our dear Rascal!

Even Georgie loved Rascal!

A faith building Experience...

2010-09-26T12:25:00.000-07:00

So there are those out there that know our family LOVES cats (with the exception of Jason; he tolerates them). Our tiger cat Rascal went missing around September 2nd.

I called Jason who was camping with James at this time and asked him if he had seen Rascal, he said he saw her Wed night and he left Thursday morning of the 2nd.

I call the kitties in at night and Rascal never came in, which is not unusual if its a warm night, they like to stay out and catch grasshoppers or whatever. So all weekend the kids and I looked for her, we checked garages and asked our neighbors if they had seen her and no one had.

So we decided to say a prayer that night, and each night and day that went by the kids would say a prayer and ask that if someone took her that they would love her as much as we did or if she was lost and couldn't find her way home that she would be able to. We prayed that she was safe and not hurt.

We did this for 3 weeks, we went to the pound to see if anyone had turned her in as a stray and she wasn't there. We were resigned to the fact that she was gone, or I should say I was, but the kids kept praying for her.

Saturday September 25th I was at the Relief Society broadcast and Jason called me and told me that I needed to come home right away because they found Rascal. My heart dropped, I love our cats and knowing that they found her I knew she was gone.

When I got home Jason told me the story. Our neighbor kids (who love our kitties to) scared Pearl, one of our other cats, when they were closing a car door and she ran off. They decided to follow her to make sure she was ok. She ran into the back yard of an abandoned house 2 down from ours. The backyard is HUGE, and dirty. They could hear Rascal crying and they ran and told the girls, who then ran and told Jason. These are the photos of where she was found.

Can you see the arrow I drew in? This is at the back of the property, its an old swap cooler.

This is the inside of the cooler. It has a wheel that turns round and round.

Can you see in-between these slats? That's where she was for 3 weeks. When she would try and get out the wheel would turn and so it acted like a big exercise wheel. She was a pretty hefty cat when she got lost and so because of her size she wedged herself in really good.

She was filthy and so very skinny. I cried and cried thinking of how much she had gone through. That was my one thought that if she was gone, I had hoped that she didn't suffer from whatever happened to her.

Our cat lived just over 3 weeks with no food or water, I know that she should not be alive right now. We cleaned her up and gave her some food, water and a lot of love. She is still skinny but is walking around and acting like nothing happened.

I know that the faith of my children kept her alive. They knew that Heavenly Father would take care of her. The kids came up to Jason and told him that they know they Heavenly Father hears and answers ours prayers, "We know he heard us dad, because he gave us Rascal back".

Last days of summer pictures...

2010-09-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

Here a few last pics from the summer, not sure if I showed these of the girls from Girls camp, in Heber Valley. We climbed up a post that was 30 feet up and then had to walk across a beam that wasn't flat and then at the end you got to ride a zip line down. It was very scary but very spiritual at the same time, because it was all about teamwork and leaning on our Father in Heaven for support and Guidance, the girls did great! I was the scardy cat!

These are out of order, this is Liz going down the zip line.

She just got done walking across the beam.

She is very intent, she wasn't gonna go if I didn't do it too. I told I was and so she did!

Zip line

Walking across, she was like la de da no big deal....

from the ground up it didn't seem that far up till you were at the top.

Cousins!

Don't have any idea what they are doing????

I like this pic of all of us, you can hardly see lexi we are all so close

riding the bus to girls camp

It was Lexi's first year!

We had a rain storm and Jason told all the kids to go play in it, so they did, and it was coooooold!

Kinda blurry one of Addi jumping in the rain

Liz decided that she didn't want to get her hair all wet, so she missed out on the fun!

I found Addi one morning sitting here watching the rain fall so I decided to take a picture. I like the next one alot.

He was being so quiet, I asked him why he was sitting there and he told me he was waiting for the rainbow.

Creative happenings, but not mine...

2010-09-06T14:47:00.001-07:00

These don't make any sense so read below first and then come back and look at this....

As most of you know I married to a very talented artist, for those who don't you are missing out! He has come up with some pretty cool stuff lately and I thought that I might share what he has made with the rest of the family!

This is something he did for work, they are going make 2 more of these "Smart Space Gallery's" for students at BYU to display art work. This stands outside the art dept in the HVAC. Its really neat and looks really cool! Right now the artist is showing her work in it and more will in the future. If he can get it to grow he might add some to BYUI and BYU Hawaii!

To bad this piece is sideways, its really a simple piece and apparently if you understand art you would get this piece, I kinda do but not really.

This is another coke bottle piece and it looks really cool next to the other coke pieces he has done.

He has done a lot of neon type pieces, this one is called Sundowner Lodge.

The inside

This one is really so cool, he did this after the Grand canyon trip with the BYU kids and when he took Lexi and Anni.

Close up.

Jason had a bunch of kids from the trip write their thoughts on the back, including the girls.

He is making a bunch of pieces now because he has a show summer 2011 at a gallery in SLC. I will post more of those as he finishes them.

First day of school 2010

2010-09-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

Lizzie is a Freshman this year! We are fortunate to have the Jr High grades be 7th thru 9th grade. So technically she is a Senior at the Jr high, weird I know. She is excited for school but I think that wont last long when school really starts to get going for the year.

Lexi is in 7th grade and is now part of the big kid crowd even though she is probably the smallest in her class. She says that she can never open her locker and gets lost in the halls a lot. She didn't have school the same day as Liz, because they let the 7th graders go by themselves the first day and then the 8th and 9th graders go the next day and then everyone goes together on the third day. Its is nice because they have a chance to get the hang of things before the bigger kids get there. So even though she didn't have school she still had to get up for this picture and scriptures and prayers before everyone left for the day.

For some reason my kids think its cold when its really not???? Aleah is in 3rd grade this year and has 2 teachers. One teaches math and science in the morning and the other she goes to teaches English and history after lunch. Its kinda neat that they do that.
Annika has the same teacher this year that Lexi had last year (Mr. Murry) he is a great teacher, lots of fun and Annika came home the first day and told me that he had a real live tarantula in his classroom that she was gonna find grasshoppers for. (Gross and Creepy) if it was me I would check everyday to make sure he was in the cage (remember arachnophobia NA?)

I think this will be a fun year for them and full of exciting things!

Addi has to wait another year for kindergarden, he is really wanting to go to school, but for now he will just have to play with Tucker a bunch!

Pioneer day Celebrations!

2010-07-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

So here in Utah Pioneer Day is bigger than the Fourth of July. I know weird right? Well they have all kinds of actives and fun stuff to do. One of those activities is the kids parade, last year our wards kids float made it into the big 24th parade. This years theme was "surround Yourself..." and they did surround yourself with happiness. Our ward won best use of the theme. We only have 3 kids left in primary, they had fun but it was already hot and it was only 9am!

Can you see Aleah?

I didn't know Addi rode here in the corner "with no hands Mom!" I was a little freaked out till one of the leaders said that he was holding onto the chair...whew!

Notice Annika's runway stance again?

I turned these pictures, sorry. This one was facing away from the sun.

This was the end of that day and the sunset was just so pretty.

More randon pics from July

2010-07-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few more pictures that I have from the Nunnellys visit and the Fourth of July. We got this trampoline at the beginning of summer and boy have we ever gotten our moneys worth! Even my neighbor said so and the Stake president commented on it (more on that later). We are so happy to have a trampoline, I have always wanted one!

The kids are all taking turns at Trampoline dodge ball, 4 on at a time and when one gets hit with the ball they get off and another from line gets on. We had some bad throws by the dads, kids were getting hit Above the waist..not good!

Georgie is telling her dad how to throw the ball.

Uncle Warren throws pretty hard!

We lost the ball in the street a couple of times and the kids were relaxing and taken unaware when the dads would throw it super fast.

After baths and and Jammie's we got to go outside at light our fireworks. In Utah you can light 3 days before and 3 days after, the kids have a lot of fun watching and lighting those.

Georgie would get sooooooo excited that she would hug you and just about pop your head off!

All the kids were scared to light the fireworks, that's good because it shows that they don't play with fire that often.

The colors were super cool!

Notice that Kamy is covering her ears? She didn't really like the loud ones. We had tons of fun with all the kids, we hope that the Nunnellys can come again, only this time with the whole family and under less stressful circumstances. We are all so happy that our little Nephew is doing well. We love you Kimble!

I learned to Swim today!

2010-07-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

The kids could hardly stand here for this picture, they wanted to swim so bad. I like Anni in this picture, she looks like she is getting ready to walk down a runway or something and see the wind blowing her hair back. I think its funny.

It was a HOT day but also cold cause the wind was blowing. If you got out of the pool you were cold, but if you stayed in it was just right.

George was ready to swim! Although I had her change her suit cause the top on the other one protected her arms and shoulders and that is what we like.

In this pic Keaton is telling me that he taught himself to swim and I was to watch what he did.

This is what he did, I tried to get him to not hold his nose but he said he was still learning. I told him good job and he would be a pro in no time!

Eating fruit snacks, cheezits and drinking ice cold juice boxes. They do a pool check every hour and so we would lay on the cement to get warm and dry off a little before they let us go back in.

Kami at first didn't want to go on the slide, but after about an hour she decided she was gonna go for it.

You really don't go very fast unless your name is KIM.. I cant seem to slow myself down enough and I always hit the water doing 60!

Lexi went with her.

Cousins having fun! Emma got to come with us while her mom was having a baby, yea Aunt Autumn!

Can you see Keaton?

He went down the slide like 10 times.

We had fun! I wish we could go again tomorrow, but its supposed to be only in the 80's. It will also be super crowded cause of the fourth of July holiday, so we are gonna go have a picnic in the park!

More Nunnelly Fun!

2010-06-29T07:49:00.000-07:00

Today is Tuesday and we are gonna have some fun, its free movie day at the theater!

Here is some pics of what we did yesterday!

Georgie asked me if I would do her hair pretty. I put it into a side pony tail with a flower for flair. She loved it. I don't know if Shaina rocked the side pony as well as Georgie......

Remember the cats? Well George sure does and I found her by the cat food. She would pull the bowl closer and closer to her each time the cat would go for it. I finally had to tell her to let Rascal eat and then when she is done you can hold her.

She is waiting so patiently.

Kids played on the tramp again, this time with the sprinkler going. I asked them to do a trick for me, below is what they did.

This is Keaton's cannonball.....that's what he called it.

Nice tuck Keaton! I gave it a 7.5

This was Georgie's signature move, the jump and spin.

We had mini pizzas for dinner, my kids love these. Kolby was my assistant (like that Shaina?) for dinner and he did a great job saucing up the muffins.

The kids had 3 each and were stuffed.

I took the older kids to the farm with me to pull weeds for family home evening. It was SUPER hot and I told the kids if they did a good job they could get and ice cream cone. If they did a really, really good job they could get a Kong Cone, pictured above. They all did awesome!

Later as Kami was talking to her parents I heard her say she pulled out a Decade of weeds and that Aunt Kim's shirt was all sweaty. In my defense it was really hot.

Keaton did great and he was quick to tell me that he was almost a man. This is because real men sweat and you can tell that your almost a man when you start to sweat and he had sweat on his head. He was totally exhausted after picking weeds and so he really deserved his ice cream!

We got some weird stares while we were at the store, of course we were covered in dirt and sweat and so I imagined we smelled bad to. Oh well the ice cream was great!

The younger kids stayed at the house with Jason and jumped on the tramp some more. They also had pudding cups and banana bread for a treat.

George doing her signature move again.

It was a nice end to a long hot day!

What are the Nunnelly's doing?

2010-06-28T08:28:00.001-07:00

So this week we have the pleasure of watching my sister Shaina's aka my BFF's kids while they are taking care of their sweet baby Kimble (my Nephew). For Kimbles story and to participate in her blanket drive, please visit her blog http://just-because-i-am-me.blogspot.com/ .

Here are some things we have done since Friday....lots more fun things planned this week! Movies, swimming, ice cream in the park, pulling weeds, mini pizzas and more!!!

We had a game night on Sunday and we had 19 kids here! We were only missing 9 of the grand kids...amazing huh?

They are pretending to be asleep? It didn't really work..hahaha!

Playing dodge ball on the tramp. If you got out you would rotate and someone else would get to come in.

Another goofy picture...gotta have one of those!

Eating Uncle Jason's Nachos for dinner...we had lots of seconds and thirds!

Georgie playing on the computer. There is a barbie website where you can dress her up in a ton of different outfits...its a favorite of my girls.

We have 2 kitties and this is Rascal, she loves to be held....but not by Georgie. She has been trying and trying to hold the kitties, but she runs after them and then they run away and so now when they see her coming they run even faster. I will post more on this later...its really quite funny.

When Georgie got here she found the dress up stuff and had some fun playing with Addi.

Aleah and Keaton climbing our Harry Potter tree outside.

We are old school with our video game system, we have a Nintendo 64 but we have lots of cool games for it. This is what the boys love to do.

More barbie game fun.

Ellico Visit 2010!

2010-06-26T07:57:00.000-07:00

We had our annual visit from the Ellico family! We have been friends with them for 14 years now and they are not tired of us yet...YEA!

We did a bunch of fun stuff this last week and here are a few pics to highlight our week.

We went to the Bean museum on BYU campus. Its a really neat wildlife exhibit that has a ton of animals. We are all sitting around watching a video on spiders. It was pretty cool.

We also went bowling at BYU, we have done this I think the last 2 times they have come up and we try and take pictures of the kids in the same spot, its neat to see how big they are getting.

Jeff finally decided to not use the rail, he was big enough to bowl without it...haha just kidding. Jeff actually won all of us with a score of 127 and no bumper strikes!

Addi used it for a few turns and then decided he didn't want it. I think his score was around 90? Well he beat a few of us anyways.

This is at the bean museum to. Its a butterfly, made from butterflies. Really neat!

We took some time to cool off at the pool. It was a nice hot day.

This picture is from 2008 in front of the lockers before you enter the bowling alley.

This one is from this year 2010 !

We have another of these from earlier years too!

We wasted no time and played games whenever there was free time!

Kids went on a hike to the Grotto, its a waterfall in Payson.

Church day

Jason bragging that he won first in Settlers!

Overall a fabulous weekend!

Thanks Ellicos see you in December!

Letters to the Tooth Fairy

2010-06-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

Aleah lost another tooth! She really did loose it, but the tooth fairy has a way of finding them so we don't worry about teeth that are lost, left in a restaurant, swallowed, thrown away, etc (these have all happened to us). Here is the letter that she wrote the tooth fairy...I just love it!

(Translation)

Dear Tooth Fairy I pulled my tooth out all by myself but it did hurt, I floss and brush and rinse and my teeth are clean I hope you like it but the only dirty spot is the blood. It was hard to pull out.

From : Aleah

To: Tooth Fairy, I believe in you I hope I get a big chocolate bar and ten dollars.

The picture shows what she wants and pictures of her and teeth dancing around.

She didn't get ten dollars, but she did get three dollars and a bag of M&M's.

Family Reunion 2010

2010-06-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some highlights from our big trip to Washington for Nans graduation, Ian's Wedding, Aleahs Baptism and Mr Max's blessing!

! We are so happy to be home, but we had so much fun!

I know many have seen this but I just love it! My BFF!

Yea for Nan the last of 10 to graduate all from the same high school....they will miss the Weber's there for sure! (we missed you Corks)

All of us in front of the high school. Nan had a lot of fans that day!

We are at the church a lot, this is most of the grand kids having diner after the graduation.

Moms girls minus one...corks.

Kinda a dark picture of all of us...sorry. Ian and his new bride Karissa. Believe it or not we are missing 8 grand kids and 3 more adults. Welcome to our very large family Karissa!

After the fun filled weekend we headed over to Jason's sisters house and invaded their space for a while. We were invited back and so I guess we did good!

These are out of order, this is the morning we left. You have to have a goofy picture.

We took the ferry over to Bremerton and saw Uncle Kevin! We had dinner and got to see his beautiful home. The kids loved it and wished we could stay longer.

We got to see Laura to. We miss her and don't get to see her often.

Addi looks mad....

These are out of order, this was the ferry ride over. The kids loved it, I hated seeing them so close to the edge. I get REALLY paranoid on these kinds of things.

Kids with the Seattle skyline.

I was taking a picture of Addi and little did I know he was trying to lick me...little stinker!

Inside the aquarium they had this room that was all fish tank, it was above your head and all around. I didn't like this room very much.......there was a lot of water! The fish were amazing though!

There was this funny bench shaped like a beaver and the kids all wanted a picture by it.

We loved the aquarium..thanks Aunt Kim! It was so much fun!

We took lots of pictures in front of the fish tanks.

Our kids got caught by an Octopus!

We got to pet a sea cucumber and it was really slimy!

We also got to tickle some sea urchins too!

Love Addi's expression!

Conrad was kind enough to fix my hair for me.

We met Jason's Uncle George Bernethy and his son Ray. We got to see the Banta family bible and it was amazing. We learned some neat family history to.

This is Uncle Doug and Gerald Ray. Jason said they were so happy to see family, so anyone that is in the area, please stop and say hi, they would love it!

There is a street in CleEllum Washington that is named after the Lanegans, ( we think) we are still trying to find out the history of the street names. This is spelled Lannigan but this is also how they have it at the cemetery too.

Lexi and Anni go on a college trip!

2010-05-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

So these pictures are way out of order, but oh well. Jason had the opportunity to take a group of BYU students on a trip to the Grand Canyon. Him and a couple of other professors got a grant and the cost was very minimal for the students. Jason asked if he could bring a couple of the kids and Lexi and Anni were the lucky ones that got to go. The idea was to paint, draw, photograph and generally take in the sights and then have a group show later on to show what all the students did. The show will go up in July at the BYU student Gallery and then we can all enjoy what others did.

This was a pet cemetery, Jason said it was HUGE! I have never seen one so its cool that he got a picture.

A beautiful shot the the North Rim of the Grand Canyon!

The girls kicking back and enjoying the sun and view.

This was a chair in the Maynard Dixon studio that the girls didn't like. It was made of cow. The fur is the covering and the horns are the chairs handles, they thought it was GROSS!

This was a sheer rock drop off. It was good I wasn't there or the girls would never have been able to even get close. I hate sharp drops like this....can anyone say Niagara falls? Hey Ma no hands? There is no Super Man here to save you!

This bowl was created by the wind that goes through this area. Its so cool right?

Ok so really a backwards picture, the group stayed by the Coral Pink sand dunes and it was super windy. They had sand every where. This is the kids climbing back up after running and jumping off. They had a blast!

Get ready get set, go!

Maynard Dixon studio.

Sand dunes again

They made lots of stops along the way to paint and draw different areas

My kids favorite past time.....collecting cool rocks!

Pit stop in Cedar City to eat and stretch.

This picture of Anni is cracking me up...can anyone say CRAZY EYES?

This is a super creepy lady!

Lexi's 6th grade graduation

2010-05-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

I have never attended a 6th grade graduation before, but we went to Alexia's this last week. Our middle school here is 7-9 and so I wonder if there will be a 9th grade graduation? Well we had fun, they had a slide show of trips they went on throughout the school year and then one at then end where they showed a baby picture and then their class picture after. I think Lexi was the cutest!

In this picture she just got her diploma and is telling us what her favorite things were about 6th grade.

They have a cute bench right as you walk in the school where I was able to get his family shot. We had alot of people staring at us because you have to walk past it to get outside. However there was no one around when we decided to get a quick shot.

What a hottie!

Lexi with a couple of her bestest friends.

Alexia and Mr Murray her teacher.

Now I have two kids in the Jr high! One in 7th and one in 9th.....yikes!

Mothers Day!

2010-05-13T10:42:00.001-07:00

I had a great Mothers Day! Addi had a talk in church and Jay asked him what he wanted to say and this is what he said to Jason. I hope you can read it, if not leave a comment and I will translate it better.

This is what is says......

Jesus gave me my mom.

I am so much happy to have my mom.

I spend a lot of time alone with mom when sisters go to school and dad goes to work.

Mom works with me on writing letters, learning shapes and colors. She teaches me to be patient and to be a servant or a gentleman by opening doors, pulling out seats, and fixing curtains.

I am happy when she lets me use her tape and band aids.

I like to give mom pictures I draw.

My mom loves me.

I love her and tell her everyday.

I am happy that Jesus gave me the best mom.

On a side note, he wouldn't read it at all. He went all limp when it was time and hid his face in Jason's chest. He was a little shy and it was ok, Jason read it for him and it was great!

I wanted to take some pics of the kids together, here they are! I love being their mom!

Gotta have a silly shot!

Me and my fabulous kiddos!

Annika is actually bigger than Lexi, although alot of people are bigger than Lex. She is very small for her age. Anni is almost 11 and Lex was 12 in Dec.

Love it!

Happy Moms day to all my sisters and Moms!

Love u!

Its been FOREVER I know!

2010-05-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry all you fans out there! Its been a long time, I know! Here are some highlights from the past few months. We have been super busy and are getting more and more excited for school to be out in a few weeks. We have a busy summer ahead of us! We are excited to see all of our family in a few weeks and hope to share some fun memories! Enjoy these memories of ours!

This was one of our rare sunny days the last month and Aleah just had to go outside, even though it was still cold out.

No matter what I tried I couldn't get this picture to show right side up....grrrr! Anyways this is a piece that Jay finished and I love it! BOBS BIG BOY ROCKS!

The same with this picture? Weird. Anyways just Lexi with Pearl and Raskel. They have gotten super big since Christmas. We love our Kitties!

Easter morning. It was nice to wake up and have a relaxing morning listening to conference and enjoying our family.

Just the kids.

It was Annika's turn for the annual Wax museum project at the school. She was Mary Cassatt a famous (American) impressionist painter. She is actually the only female impressionist painter that is American. (this was a Jason pick, and it was a good one since we had all the props!)

Another sideways shot, sorry!

The kids love to play with chalk in the road. This picture says...Lizzie,Lexi, Anni, Leah and Addi Rock the world! I like this pic of Addi with his shadow and head turn.

Kids were building Lego and building block villages, they made some pretty cool ones!

Thanks for sharing these with us!

Flowers and scary faces...Ooooooh!

2010-02-19T12:32:00.000-08:00

Addi wanted me to tape this napkin to his face. It was weird but he thought it was pretty funny.

He is pointing to his mouth, so that I knew where it was. Thanks dude!

See the tape over his ears?

I love boys!

Here are some of the flowers we made. Lexi is modeling them for me.

Dev came over and made some to!

These were the ones Lizzie made; incidentally she made her sweatshirt to!

Our completed work! Now the girls have flowers for church.

Does this look comfortable to you?

2010-02-12T10:33:00.000-08:00

Thursday night the girls and I were working on their Valentines for their class parties. I was thinking Addi would like to help and knew that he was watching T.V.
So I went to go get him and this is what I found....does this look comfortable to you? Could you sleep this way? This is exactly what Jason does, he can sleep almost anywhere. Sitting up, on the HARD floor, literally anywhere. He may not feel good when he wakes up but I guess when your tired you can sleep anywhere. Hmmm that must be nice, because I cant do it.

Oh to be young and pliable!

2010-01-25T09:16:00.000-08:00

http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-spanish-fork-protesters-udot-crosswalk-remova,0,7990271.story

They took out our towns crosswalks last month and we had a protest over it. Follow the link above to see this amazing story and my "Oh so intelligent" (for you BFF) comments!

What could be better than this?

2010-01-22T08:56:00.000-08:00

There are dog lovers and then there is me. I LOVE cats, I would have a ton of them if the husband wasn't so intolerant of them (however he let Rascal sit on his leg for like 3 min...wow!). What could be better than the Purr of a kitty? Since we have gotten the kitties we have had so much fun with them. They are loving and like to play. They sleep with the girls, cuddle with Addi, torment Licorice and generally act like kittens. Here are some highlights of life at our house with them so far.

They totally relax when they sleep, its really cute.

Pearl sleeps with her tongue out pretty much all the time. As a matter of fact, her tongue is always hanging out of her mouth and with her being cross-eyed...well you get the picture.

Addi was reading to them one morning. He had each of them on their own cushion, it was really cute. He also gave each of them a toy to play with if they wanted. Raskel has a mouse and Pearl has Addi's klees (not keys, klees).

Since they are sisters they like to sleep together. Today they just happened to pick me to sleep on.

Ahhh what could be better than a purring kitty and a warm fire?

Merry Christmas 2009!

2009-12-26T14:09:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

We hope you all had a great Christmas, we did and here are some highlights from our week!

We love and missed all of you!

This was Christmas morning. The kids were not aloud to come upstairs until we came and got them. I woke up at about 7:45 and told Jason that we better go and get the kids. They were nice and quiet for us. We stayed up late wrapping presents and so it was nice to sleep in a little.

We went out for Chinese food Christmas Eve, from these pictures it seems like the kids liked the ice cream the most. It was a buffet and the food was great, only one thing was missing and that was Grandma Cricket!

I think was was Aleah's third bowl full!

Kaleb, he keeps stealing my freckles.

Lizzie and Lundie doing the impression from Night at the museum.

Addi loving the ice cream too!

After dinner it was back to the house for our gift exchange with everyone.

Jason took a really good picture of Jamie fly fishing in Montana and framed it for him, it looks amazing and so clear you can see the fish that he caught on the end.

Our family knows Jason so well, he will do anything for PB and Chocolate.

This picture was at 1:30am Christmas Day, we had just got done wrapping presents and were taking a break.

Christmas morning, Santa came!

This was when we let them out of the depths below!

A shot of them before they attacked their stockings!

I loved it Nan!

Addi in his Buzz Lightyear Jammie's (thanks grandma and Kim)

Anni and her loot.

Lizzie and her loot.

Lexi guarding her loot!

More gifts from Grandma!

While waiting for our Christmas breakfast Addi and Jason had a wrapping paper roll war. Addi of course won cause he did a bunch of cool turns when he would strike!

The babies sleeping through it all on the couch.

Our breakfast of sausage gravy, potatoes, eggs, biscuits, sausage links and orange cinnamon rolls. It was super yummy and very filling!

Hope your Christmas was just as fun as ours. Happy New year pictures to come next! Ellico's here we come!

Keep reading, I did 4 new posts!

2009-12-19T17:01:00.000-08:00

Ok needed to add a disclaimer, cause I did 4 posts, so just keep on scrolling down!

Added a pic for fun..needed somthing here!

Our Newest Addition!

2009-12-19T16:56:00.000-08:00

So we have a new family in our ward and they were living with their parents until they got into their house. Well Jason went to visit them and he found out they had two kittens that somehow got left in their backyard. They were so tiny they had to bottle feed them still. Well Jason told me about them and said that if I wanted them I could have them. (he is getting to be a softy right?) Well today we went and looked at them and of course I couldn't resist, I mean who could? I love cats and so do my kids. Well here they are the newest additions to the Lanegan household. Their names are Pearl (Siamese) and Rascal (tiger). These are the names they came with and so we are keeping them. Don't you just love them? I have wanted a Siamese for so long, and her eyes are so blue. The girls got an early present from us, I just couldn't say no!

Christmas Stocking!

2009-12-19T16:52:00.001-08:00

Ok so here are the stockings! I have a few more things to finish on them but I wanted everyone to see how they looked. I thought the Buzz Lightyear turned out awesome! I think that I will have beks take a picture of our socks at the house when she goes, it would be neat to see all of ours together again.

I still need to do mine and Jason's....any ideas?

The girls wont see these till Christmas Day.. I will take another pic of them filled and with the girls diving in! Merry Christmas!

Colorado fun!

2009-12-19T16:31:00.001-08:00

My sister (her blog address) http://just-because-i-am-me.blogspot.com/recently had a baby boy that had some problems with is heart. He had to have surgery's and other invasive procedures for a newborn baby. My mom was able to stay for a month with them and after she left he developed some more problems, so I decided to go over to them for a few days. They were able to come home soon after I got there and so here are some highlights from our trip!

Addi had so much fun playing with REAL boys! They played Lego's and star wars, all kinds of stuff. It was great.
Georgie gives the best hugs and loves to pose for the camera! Kinda washed out, sorry!

Of course I had to take a ton of pictures of Kimble, he was so tiny and cute.

Oh look at that another picture of Georgie!

This was Sunday right after Shaina got home, the kids were so excited and everyone wanted to see Kimble.

I love this picture. Right when I went to take the picture he opened up his eye to look at me.

He almost smiled.

Boys having fun.

Shaina's kitchen is in roosters and the sun was coming in through the window and it was so nice to see the sun, however it was sooooooooooooo very cold when we first got there.

Sleepy baby, when he was totally asleep he would sleep with is mouth open. It was cute!

The Harry Potter Tree!

2009-12-19T16:18:00.001-08:00

So for those of you who have been to our house before, we have this huge tree in our yard that we call "The Harry Potter Tree". It looses all of its leaves at once. Its really cool to watch it, its almost like a telephone and when one leaf falls its like a cue for all the others to follow. While it is fun to watch, it is not fun to rake up. There are SO many leaves. Fortunately for us this year the day after they fell there was a huge wind storm and it blew most of them away. (sorry neighbors!) I got some shots of them raking all the leaves with Jason's help. I was inside cooking a big breakfast for them as soon as they were done.

Leah doing what she does best....watching!

Licorice hung out outside the entire time, she loved climbing in the empty trees.

Team work!

It really wasn't that cold outside but Anni makes it look freezing!

We have a leaf blower and we let Addi run it. I was surprised when I saw him running that cause he is scared of the vacuum and that is what it sounds like. Its really heavy too!

He said to me "Mom I just love it!"

Addason Jay is 4!

2009-11-12T14:43:00.000-08:00

So my little boy is 4, I know cant believe it either! He has been asking me the last few months if he is 4 yet. I told him no, but soon. We decided to start a new tradition for birthdays of taking the birthday boy/girl out for breakfast. I remember going out to dinner when I was a kid with mom and dad to a Mexican restaurant in Show Low, AZ and it was so good. Also it was a great memory. Here are some highlights of his day!

I wanted to get a few pics before we went to breakfast. He posed on the swing for me.
He never missed a chance to get Jason back for licking him, I loved that he did it in this picture. I didn't even know he was doing it. So great!

He wanted Pizza for dinner, so we did mini English muffin pizza's. They were super yummy and fast.

I asked what kind of cake he wanted and he said blueberry, then the next day he said root beer cake. So I got him this blue cupcake and we also had root beer floats.

Super cute candles from the 1$ store.

Making a wish.. He didn't know what that was, so he just blew out the candles.

Had to get a pic of that REALLY blue frosting. I didn't let him eat to much of if, cause I have no idea how they got it so blue. He just ate the cake part. His teeth were blue for hours!

He wanted a remote control helicopter and we couldnt find one so he got a car. He also got his dart guns which he loves (thanks Aunt Kim and Grandma!) with extra darts. He keeps shooting the windows and the ceiling fan to see if he can hit it while its spinning. He is a really good shot. Boys are so fun!

Halloween Happenings!

2009-11-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

So we had a great Halloween. This picture is totally blurry and I am bummed because it looked so cool from outside. Jason had the neat idea of turning the window into a pumpkin. It worked great because of the orange curtains curtsy of my sisters. It was so neat, we got alot of compliments. You could even see our pumpkin from main street. It totally glowed. We will definitely make that a Halloween tradition for sure!

One of these things is not like the other....Addi loves toy story so it made a great picture. I think other people thought the same thing because these guys were stolen off main street. The city does a scarecrow contest on main street and anyone can enter a "scarecrow", these guys were one of the winners.

Aleah scared some kids during the downtown trick or treating. I do have to say she looks nothing like she normally does. Shes got bugs crawling in her hair. It was pretty freaky!

Mickey hugging Casper?

Jason's mom and sister Kim came and spent the weekend with us. It was great, Kim dressed up as a witch. The big kids went off on their own and we took the 2 little ones to the trick or treating on main st. It was a really nice day, it got hot. I hope they can come again next year, we had a blast!

From Sharons Blog!

2009-10-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

For the full story see http://sharon-c-thats-me.blogspot.com/

The meeting house!

He stared for at us for like 5 min. I admit we looked away first!

Little Bro has some Sweet Moves!

2009-10-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

Ian came down for his "shaker board" competition. Me and Jamie met him at the location in Sandy. It was a cold, windy, rainy day. Bud wasn't fazed. He rocked it even with the weather elements against him and took first; like we all knew he would! Good job E!

Chillin before!

What was so funny?

Showin his sweet skills!

Some floor action...

My favorite move of the day!

More pics!

2009-10-07T07:50:00.001-07:00

So by the third day Anni was starting to feel bored.. We watched movies and TV, but you can only do that for so long. The nurse came in and told us that they had some games and would she like to play? Anni asked what kind of games and when the nurse got down to the Nintendo and sat up a little straighter and said she would like to play that. I thought that it would be this little box that they brought in... no way it was this huge rolling game center that seriously took up the whole room. But she was entertained and it was great! Its neat that they have stuff like this to keep kids happy. They also had a Wii, game cube, play station..etc!

Here is a shot of the room on our last day. I slept on the fold out in the back. It was not very comfortable, but really cool that they have that option for parents.

I asked Anni if she was ready to go home and this is what she looked like...Oh Yes!

Uncle Jamie came to visit. He stayed with Anni for a couple of hours so Jason could go to the school and I was at home. He brought her a bucket of candy so she could "reverse trick or treat" her nurses, to say thanks. We had some great nurses and they totally deserved those treats. They kept saying how impressed they were with Anni, because she never complained about anything. They had to ask her if she wanted pain meds. She was a trooper and a very strong kid. She is back at school and wants to run and play but has to wait till her 2 week checkup. I hope we never have to go through this again!

Annoying Little Organ!

2009-09-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

I didn't bring my camera to the hospital (Jason will today) so I don't have a good shot of Anni living it up. Having to sit in a hospital bed all day is not as great as it seems. Even getting all the ice cream you could want doesn't make it any better. On a side note the appendix does absolutly nothing! But once it gets clogged watch out!

So here is the scoop. Many already heard it, but for those who haven't, here's how it happened.

Friday Anni complained that her tummy hurt and she didn't feel good. Oddly enough so did Aleah. Because they both felt bad we thought, well you must be getting the flu. The kids didn't have school on Friday and so were able to have a 3 day weekend. Well they laid around in the spare room and watched movies. They both ate food and never threw up. Anni started to run a low grade fever by Saturday night. By Sunday they were still hurting and stayed home from church. During this time Aleah was acting better, she wanted to go play and then would complain that her tummy hurt. I was like "if your sick you cant play outside and if you are better you can". She decided that she was sick. Sunday night Anni felt worse and her fever had gone up. We decided that Monday I would take her to the Dr.
The next morning the earliest that they could get us in was 9:40. Well that was just to late and so I decided to take her to the Instacare which takes patients as early as 8am.
After he examined her he thought she might have appendicitis and sent us for an ultra sound. As we were walking out the office to get the ultra sound they called and said it was rescheduled for 2pm. That was about 7 hrs later. We went to that and they did the scan, at first they didn't see anything but stool and were gonna send us home with the instructions of "moving her Bowell's". After we started to get ready to leave the Dr came back in and said; well the orders told us they wanted us to look specifically at your appendix and so why don't you try going to the bathroom here and we will try again. She was able to go and push it all out (she said she was holding it in because it hurt to bad to push). He scanned her again looking only for the appendix saw that it looked a little large and called for a 2nd opinion. The 2nd opinion really new his stuff, because he took one look and said "whoa! We got a hot one here!"
We were then told to go straight to the emergency room. From the time we got the ultra sound till when they took out her appendix was about 4 hrs.
It had ruptured and required a little more attention to get all the infection contained and cleaned out. We are now on our 3rd day in the hospital and will more than likely be here another 2 days. I am hoping by Friday we can go home. We will see. She is doing well and is currently playing supermario brothers. With the movies, Nintendo and all the food she wants; she may not want to leave!

Thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts.. We love you all!

My Tree Runneth Over!!!

2009-09-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

When we moved into the house we were excited to have an apple tree in the yard. This year was so good that the tree branches were hanging down really far. We will have to trim it up this year, so that next fall we get even more apples. I am gonna take a bunch of apples and make up a basket and take them to friends!
These were all the bad apples. We are gonna find someone with horses and donate them for them to enjoy. Why waste right?

Addi helped for about 5 min and then said he was really tired and decided to go in the house...Hmm he seems to do that alot when we have chores too?

Out of the tree we got a laundry tub full! They are so good; sweet and tart at the same time. I think they are Macintosh, but not sure. ( I am not an apple eater, but these are pretty good)

We are gonna dehydrate a bunch and make apple pie and cobbler for the next few months. Guess we need to stock up on ice cream to!

This is for Beks, who is the only one who reads my BLOG!

2009-09-21T17:11:00.000-07:00

So Beks asked me to update my blog.. Here goes. These are a few pics from this summer. Here is the kids on their first day of school. Fingers equal the grade they are in this year.

Picture of Liz her first day of eigth grade. Right now she has a 4.0 and says that she will try and keep it all year. (getting money from mom and dad for every A helps!)

We went for a hike up Provo canyon it was a nice view!

Participated in the Parade this year for church; theme was familes together and we had a big temple on our float and everyone whore white, it was great.

more parade pics

Ellicos came to visit and we went bowling again!

We took this same pic the last time they came and decided to do one each year they come to see the kids grow!

Another pic of the kids~

Another Year Gone!!!

2009-08-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

Its been 14 years!

I had Lizzie take our picture before we left for dinner...It came out fuzzy; however you get the general idea!

For some reason whenever we do a "silly" picture Jason feels the need to lick me. I was trying to keep him from licking me by biting his forehead!

The girls didn't know it was our anniversary until we were leaving for dinner. When we got home they had made us some cards. This is the front of Annika's.

This was the inside. I asked her why didn't she color the hearts inside and she said it was because she was so tired from coloring the outside.

This is Lexi's card.. This was us before we left for dinner.

This was us when we got married. Notice I am saying "I DO!" as I throw my bouquet.. I have to say we look pretty snazzy in our wedding duds!

Rainbows and funny Faces

2009-07-17T16:59:00.001-07:00

This picture of Aleah creeps me out! She looks like the pigman!

Addi wanted to make the same face, but settled for this one.

We had a neat thunder storm the other day and after it was over there was a double rainbow. I absolutely love rainbows after rain!

Got a neat color shot with my camera, its so pretty!

GoodBye MarshMellow!

2009-06-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

I only have a couple of pictures of marshmallow on this computer and they all have Addi in them, which I think is appropriate since he was always on his bed or being held by him.

Mellow was MIA for a couple of days. It wasn't until Friday that I noticed he was not around. This is not unusual for him since he likes to explore the neighborhood. He finally came home Friday but was limping and really tired. The girls were taking care of him really well but when I went downstairs to see him I knew that something wasn't right. He couldn't use his leg at all and basically dragged himself around. He had been hit by a car and it took him that long ot get home to us.

Long story short, we took him to the vet and was told his Hip/leg was broken and it would be at least $800 to get him fixed. He would need surgery. That was just not feasible for us and so we made the decision to put him down. It was really sad and the girls and Addi cried for him. We had a funeral for him and all the kids said some things that they remembered about him best. We loved that silly fluffy cat and will miss him. Goodbye Marshmallow!