CHRISTMAS!

We had a very fruitful Christmas thanks to our wonderful ward! The relief society president called me a month before Christmas asking me if it was okay to put our family on the giving tree this year, we've been struggling financially for a few years and they know of our situation and wanted to help us have a Christmas. I of course said no and urged her to use some other family in need but she didn't listen and so a week before Christmas we went to her house and picked up four garbage bags full of gifts! So with that and the gifts from grandparents and the few that we bought our tree was stuffed with presents. As much as we appreciate it we feel bad at the same time because we don't feel that we're missing out on anything despite our financial situation and we just feel that somebody else was more deserving of all those gifts. It did make our Christmas very special and we hope that someday we can make Christmas extra special for someone else. We were also supposed to go to Utah to spend Christmas with Brock's family but it didn't work out because of cost. Since having Joshua we've been unable to get a car that seats our whole family so we were going to rent a van. Did you know it costs 14-1600 hundred dollars to rent a van!! INSANE!!! There was no way we could do that so we missed being with family but still enjoyed our Christmas very much and are so grateful for everyone who made it special.

Joshua at 2-3 months!

I know I promised pictures and these aren't up to date but these were taken a few weeks after he started smiling so I thought I'd share them and I will, at some point, get some more recent ones up!

Brithdays!!

Kiera turned 4 on Novemver 13 and Kayla turned 5 on December 12 and we didn't celebrate their birthdays on the same night but because we did exactly the same entertainment for both I have choosen to post them together.It was very laid back and low key. We didn't even have a bunch of friends come over this year. The Wurstens did attend and we ate dinner together, opened presents, ate cake, and went swimming.

We had so much fun with both birthdays and love our girls so much! I can't believe we have a 5 year old!! They are growing so fast and we love the individual talents and blessings they bring into our home and add to our family.

I'm Grateful For....

Both Hands! 3-4 years ago I fell on my wrist and had an excruciating amount of pain. I did not go to the doctor because it didn't swell or turn bluish black so I figured whatever happened would work itself out. Well the pain continued to get worse over the course of a few years and a bump appeared on the top of my wrist. A year ago I went to the doctor to have it x-rayed and although the x-ray showed nothing the doctor believed it was a ganglion cyst so to be sure she sent me to a wrist doctor. Well, being pregnant with Joshua, I was unable to get to the specialist but about a month ago I finally made it in and sure enough it was a ganglion cyst, which is just a fluid filled sac that plants itself between the joints most commonly the wrist and hands. 10 days ago I had it surgically removed and had to wear a cast. The cast came off yesterday and though my wrist and hand aren't yet that functional and I'll have to do a month of physical therapy to get it working fully again I am sooooo glad to have both hands free again! The doctor had to chisel some of the wrist bone out in order to get the root of the cyst to lessen the chances of it growing back so my wrist is swollen and my hand is bruised so, because of the pain and discomfort, I was unable to use my hand as a support to pick things up, change diapers, load kids in the car, cook, clean, drive, and anything else. It was a very frustrating and interesting 10 days. And it was only 10 days and I'm grateful for that and I've never appreciated both hands more than I do now!

THANKSGIVING

This year we got to enjoy the company of my two sisters, Sarah and Rachel, and my brother, RJ. It's rare that our whole family or even some of our whole family is ever together at the same time anymore so having all the siblings minus one was a lot of fun. The weather has been warm for this time of year so the kids got to enjoy some trampoline wrestling with Uncle RJ and flips with Aunt Sarah. They got to do the fingernail painting with Aunt Rachel and all of us enjoyed swimming at our rec center on 3 different occasions.

Brock and RJ fearlessly headed out to our wards annual Turkey Bowl Thanksgiving morning.RJ came home with a nice bruise on his back side and Brock's still complaining about how sore he is but they still managed to maneuver around the roof to get our Christmas lights up! After that it was football, football, football and then.....TURKEY! And I was so excited because this year I managed to do it right and it was yummy. We really enjoyed our holiday and are so thankful for our friends and family that make these times so special

4 MONTHS!

On November 25th Joshua turned 4 months. He is 16 1/2 lbs. and 25 inches long (50-75th percentile for both). He likes playing with his feet, chewing on his toys, sitting up in his bumbo, sucking his tongue (very interesting looking and hard to do), jumping up and down, playing pat-a-cake, and laughing at his goofy sisters. He has struggled with acid reflux and colic which has made things difficult but he is such a joy and despite the extra challenges he's brought time is still moving too fast. He is such a blessing and we love him to pieces. I'll have to post some pictures later.

BYU vs. Airforce

On November 15 we went to the BYU vs. Airforce game up in Colorado Springs. We drove up with our friends Jeff and Jamie and then met up with another couple, Curtis and Jen, once we got there. We were at the 50 yard line and only like 10 rows up. The weather was perfect, sunny and 55-60 degrees. It was a close first half and BYU was making us nervous but they came through in the second with a final score of 38-24. Before the game ever started Airforce had their jets do a fly by and poor Joshua got so scared from the noise. He freaked out and was difficult the whole first half so I missed most of that but by the time the second half started he had passed out. THANKFULLY!! Here are some pictures from the game.

HALLOWEEN '08

WOW! I can't believe how long it's taken me to do this. So Halloween this year was pretty uneventful but still fun. We had our traditional chili and very greasy, buttery, and oh so yummy bread sticks and then headed out for lots and lots of candy. Last year Halloween was soooo cold that the girls wanted to come home after like 5 houses so this year I made sure their costumes were very warm.

Of course it ended up being like 50 degrees and the girls wanted to come home because they were too hot. Oh well, we at least managed to make it to more than 5 houses and candy was everywhere for the next 7 days and then they went through very cranky withdrawls. It was fun and the girls are still talking about what they want to be next year. Kayla was a kitty, Kiera a "toodle" (poodle), Ella a dinosaur, and Joshua a dragon.

Stage Fright!

On Thursday and Friday I got to go watch Kayla and Kiera sing Halloween songs with their preschool classes. This is a photo of Keira and her class. Kiera is the poodle right in the middle, with her hand in her face, directly in front of her teacher. She sat on the couch with me the whole time and didn't even watch her class perform. I'm actually surprised we got her to stand in the picture. I don't have a picture of Kayla because she actually sang and danced so her performance is all on video and it's 15-20 minutes long so I'm not posting it. The songs were so cute and it was fun to watch.

Pumpkins!

So I'm finally posting our pumpkin carving fiesta from a week ago. We went to Walmart where pumpkins were only like 3 bucks each and had our girls pick out a pumpkin. Later that night they got to get their hands all slimy while they pulled pumpkin guts out.

Then they each picked a face from our pumpkin carving kit and I carved them. It actually took about 4 days to complete all three of them. Kayla picked the kitty cat, Kiera picked the scarier looking one, and Ella picked the friendly face, of course.

After cleaning what seemed like an endless supply of pumpkin seeds we then boiled and soaked them in salt water and then cooked and ate them. Yummy!

Earlier that day me and the girls made some caramel apples dipped in heath pieces. And on one of the four days of pumpkin carving we enjoyed them. Delicious!

It's a lot easier to see the design the girls picked for their pumpkin in the dark so that's why I posted them like this. All in all it was a fun time and I'm so glad we only do it once a year! I'll be posting Halloween soon so check back!

Rollin' Rollin'

Yesterday afternoon I had Joshua on his tummy, which he hates but we've been advised that he needs 30min of tummy time everyday, and we were singing and talking and then....ROLLING! I couldn't believe it. My little man is growing so fast and because he's probably our last one it was an exciting but sad moment all at once.

Joshua's Big Day!

September 7, 2008 was a special day for our family as we got to bless Joshua. We were able to share this special event with Grandma and Grandpa Brockbank and our friends Jeff and Jamie. Grandma and Grandpa flew in from Salt Lake City, UT and Jeff and Jamie came from Arvada which is about 40 miles away from us and because we have 9:00 a.m. church they had to get up super early to get there 3 kids and themselves ready in order to be at our service on time. What great friends and family we have! Brock gave a very touching blessing and we really appreciate those who were able to be there to support our family. Thank You!

Brock's Birthday!

September 26 was a day of celebration! Kayla didn't have preschool so we were able to meet Brock at work and have birthday lunch and then later our friends Jeff and Jamie and their kids met us for some birthday dinner, birthday ice-cream cake, and birthday presents.

The girls made him some birthday cards and got him a game called 'RAGE' that we had fun playing with my mom and brother, RJ, when they visited for a few days before heading out to Provo, UT to drop my brother off at BYU.

For those of you who know Brock well, then you know that he is a die hard Cougars fan with no apparel to show for it so I thought it would be nice to grace his wardrobe with some Cougar sweatshirts. The second one says "Friends Don't Let Friends Go To The U of U". We also got him tickets to attend the BYU vs. Airforce game on Nov. 15.

Happy Birthday Honey we had fun celebrating with you!

Christmas Wrapping!

A few weeks ago while I was getting some things done around the house my three little angels were playing so nicely, too nicely, in our basement so I went to see what was going on and to my surprise I found them rolling around in 3 large, Costco bought, UNRAVELLED rolls of Christmas paper. This picture doesn't even accurately show how much paper was spread all over the floor. I was annoyed for a second and then just had to laugh. Hey, it kept them happy for a couple hours a day for almost a week until we stuffed it all in more than a few garbage bags for trash pick-up. My house was very clean that week!

Bear Creek Lake Park

On Tuesday we got to go to a place called Bear Creek Lake Park with our friends Jamie, Matthew, Ashley, and Brandon. This place has a lot of fun things to do like horse-back riding, water skiing, boat rentals, swimming, picnic area with a park, camping, and more. We enjoyed swimming in a nice little lake with sand like a beach and when we got cold we walked over to the park for some swinging, climbing, and sliding. We also had fun driving our toy trucks through the sand, finding hidden treasures, and collecting rocks. It was a fun-filled day! Thank you Jamie for having us!

Kiera's first day of Preschool!!

Kiera had her very first day of preschool on Sept. 9, 2008. She was so excited and had to wear her favorite dress. She gets to go to class with a lot of her buddies from church because she's taught by one of the ladies in our ward. She is highly coveted as a preschool teacher and her classes are usually booked by October, for the next year, so we were very excited when she told us, in February, that she still had a couple spots available. Kiera's completed her first month and she's loving it. It's all she talks about is Miss Kim and how she learned this and that. I love her enthusiasm and I hope it sticks all the way through college. Probably wishful thinking.


Kayla and Ella were excited for her too!

BOONDOCKS!

We had the privilege of having Brocks parents stay with us last weekend and so we decided to take the family to Boondocks, a fun center with tons of arcades, golf, go-carting, and much more. We've been before but the kids weren't old enough to really enjoy it. Our good friends, Jeff and Jamie, also came and we had a blast!

Matthew and Kayla vs. Ashley and Kiera

Can you tell who scored???

Grandma and Ella riding the motorcycle

This is Grandma and Kiera waiting for lunch, which was quite the wait. We had put in our order and then waited and waited and waited and after 45min. I went to see what was taking so long. They gave our order to one of the party groups and forgot all about us! With 7 hungry kids all 4yrs. and under this was just not acceptable so grandpa made sure we got some extra fry baskets (Thanks grandpa). Another 10min. later we got our yummy pizza. Luckily the guys were able to keep the kids occupied with games for most of the wait.

Matthew and Kayla racing on the go-carts. My camera died right before Kiera and Ashley had their turn so I can't post any pictures of them. We also enjoyed the fast track on the big go-carts and the bumper boats, me and Kiera got soaked but it was so much fun! Thank you Grandma, Grandpa, Jeff, and Jamie for a fun day!