Happy Birthday Abigail!

My little Abigail turned 6 on January 25th! She is getting so big. She decided this year she did not like cake. So we had an Ice Cream Sundae party. It turned out so fun! Abigail loves kindergarten and is starting to read. It's so fun to listen to her read the books she brings home from school. We LOVE her teacher Mrs Kershaw! A few things Abigail got for her birthday are puzzles, movies, Littlest Pet Shops, Model Magic Clay, a much needed BIKE, Flexeez (that's whats on her head in the pictures-Abs and her cousins made bday crowns) a new dress and a bunkbed for her baby dolls. It was a fun day!! We also went out for ice cream with the Keyes. It's a fun tradition to go to LeatherBy's on the kids birthdays.

Some of Abigails favorite things are:

Color-Red

Animal-Horses, Lions and Tigers

Food: Mac and Cheese

Favorite Movie:Cats don't Dance

Favorite Holiday: Easter, Christmas, and Valentines Day

Favorite Season: Summer-so she can ride her new birthday bike

We love you Abigail!! Thanks for being my little sweetheart!!

December 2010

This year we decided to get the Christmas season started off early. We know how fast it comes and goes, so we wanted to enjoy it for as long as we could. We even decorated a little early this year, a few days before Thanksgiving. We went on a trip on the North Pole Express on the Heber Valley Railroad. We got cookies and hot chocolate and a visit from Mrs Calus and Santa. We also heard christmas stories and sang Christmas songs. The kids had a lot of fun. We rode the Front Runner downtown to temple square and rode the carriage ride around the temple, and saw the lights. There was a man playing the bagpipes. That really was what made me feel the Christmas spirit. It was amazing the feeling that was there. We went back another time with my siblings and the kids' cousins to look at the lights. If you ever go see the lights, go to the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It's pretty cool looking down and seeing all the lights.

My Grandma passed away in December. I am so grateful for the many times this year that my family and I went to visit my Grandparents. We have lots of great memories and some fun pictures that we will cherish forever. The picture shown with my Grandma was taken in November when we went and raked leaves and played in them at my Grandparents house. It's something we've been doing since I was little, and something I hope to continue while my Grandpa is still with us.

Christmas came and Santa spoiled the kids. They loved everything! My favorite gift that Santa brought were some BROWN boy cowboy boots for my little Cowboy. Now he doesn't have to wear the girls pink boots. He even sleeps in his new cowboy boots. He is so funny. I gave in and let the girls ask for anything they wanted. And of course they wanted ipods (shuffles) and DS'. They did get some new LIV dolls and moxie dolls, zhu zhu pets, and my parents gave them some dolls. So they do still play with little girl things, which I am happy for. They aren't too big for babies and barbie dolls. hooray! Tanner got a really cool train table that he loves! Lots of new horses, and some Utah Utes things. The kids are loved that's for sure!!

I am excited for what this new year brings, I hope it's a great one!!

Tanner thinks he is a cowboy!

Most of you know that Tanner is a big time horse lover!! He is either playing with his horses, acting as a horse, or riding on his sisters who are horses. Well a few weeks ago we put Tanner on Toby's back. Normally Toby doesn't like it, but this one time, he let Tanner ride him (of course we were holding Tanner so he wouldn't fall off). A few days later Toby was in the kitchen laying down, and Tanner went up to him and was saying "Neigh Up" He was pulling at Toby's collar to try to get him up. He needed to ride his horse. It was so funny! Toby sat up for a few minutes so Tanner could sit on his back.

Go Utes #1!

On Saturday Nov 6th, Cassidy and I woke up at 5am and headed to Rice Eccles Stadium for the ESPN College Game Day. It was a lot of fun. There were lots of great posters and Ute Outfits supporting our team. There were 2 TCU fans right next to us, and all the Ute fans around were giving them a hard time. It was fun cheering infront of the camera's and watching people go crazy! The guys right infront of us had some pretty funny posters, Their friends were texting them saying that they could see their posters on TV. So I bet Cassidy and I were in a few of those shots. We were in the crowd for 4 hours. The crowd cleared away pretty quickly and we were able to take some pictures. The Utah vs TCU game started at 1:30pm, I think we were in our seats at 11:30am. The game started and we knew we were in trouble....Utah didn't have very many good plays. We ended up leaving in the middle of the 3rd quarter, which is something I regret. If I am going to be a Ute fan (this is my first year) then I need to cheer for them win or lose. They did end up scoring after we left, but didn't have time to catch up. It's sad because they weree undefeated. We'll see how they do the rest of the season. Cassidy was able to go to all their home games except the upcoming BYU game. Maybe he'll get lucky and score some tickets! Tanner has been saying "Go Utes" for along time, he has recently added baby at the end. So it's "Go Utes Baby". He is as big a fan as his Dad...the girls too! The kids all wear their Ute shirts on game day... a few days later on Nov 9th was our 9 year wedding anniversary. It only took 8 years for Cassidy to convince me to be a Ute fan!!

Halloween!

This year for Halloween I wanted 3 witches and a vampire. I'm thinking this was my last year to have the kids all dress in the same theme. Last year they were Ute Cheerleaders and Tanner was a Ute Football player. And another year I had 3 ballerina's. I think it's so fun when they match. But they are getting too old for me to tell them what they are going to be. As you can see in the picture, I didn't get my Vampire. And I kinda lost on the 3 witches too! Alyssa ended up being a Vampire. We had been looking everywhere for Tanner a vampire costume, no stores had them in his size. The last store we were going to look at was Target. Tanner loves horses! And when he saw the horse costume, he wanted it. We tried it on him in the store and he went galloping through the store. It was too cute not to get it. He threw a fit to take it off when we had to take it off in the car. He wore it a few days before halloween, it was so fun for him. He even took a nap in it one day. Then we had our ward halloween trunk or treat, and everyone put their attention on Tanner and his cute costume. It was too much for him and he wouldn't put in on after that night. I carried the costume around so people could see what he was supposed to be wearing. I'm glad we got one good picture with him in it. My favorite thing about halloween this year was that the girls wore their costumes 4 days in a row which kept my laundry low. Some of the fun things we did were: We had our Ward Trunk or Treat, a school Halloween Dance, went to wheeler farm and went on a wagon ride, corn maze, and picked a pumpkin to take home. Visited the witches at Garnder Village, and went trick or treating. Everything was so much fun!

Peanuts, get your peanuts!!

I had some extra space in my garden this spring, so the kids and I went to J&J Garden Center, and all they had left were peanuts. Yes, Peanuts! So we thought we would get some and try them out. My garden wasn't very successful this year, so sad! I tore it all out last week and decided to dig up the peanuts. From the pictures you can see that I didn't get much. But something is better than nothing. I feel like I succeeded with the peanuts, I didn't know if I would get any. Next year I would like to try again. I pulled them up way too soon. There were tiny little peanut sprouts that I am sure would have grown if I would have left the plants in the ground. When Aniston and I opened the peanut today, they were small like pinenuts and did not taste very good at all. Better Luck next year!!

Tanner is 2 !!!

On September 22, 2008 I was blessed with the sweetest baby boy, and now he has turned 2!!!!It's bitter sweet. I want him to stay my baby boy forever, but at the same time, the older he gets, the funner he is. He still won't talk to most people. He gets really shy and embarrased for people to hear him talk. Tonight he finally said infront of his Daddy "I am Tanner" and "I am two". He goes around saying "Go Utes" and "Hi" and "Bye". Those 3 things are about the only things he'll say around other people. He'll try and repeat most words that I ask him to- It's so fun hearing him talk.

His favorite animal is a Horse. He's obsessed! He loves playing with his horse toys, and he pretends to be a horse all the time. We bought a new horse movie called "Flicka 2" He watches the whole movie and pretends the whole time that he is a horse. He is like a wild mustang!! He'll also pretend to be a dog and give me wet doggie kisses. When he wants people to follow him (when he is Tanner and not pretending to be an animal) he will try and snap his fingers and he kinda whistles for whoever to follow him. It's pretty funny. And when he isn't playing with his horses, he loves to look at books and also play with cars and airplanes. He loves looking in the sky to see all the planes that go by. He is fascinated with the jets and huge airforce planes. We see a lot since we're by Hill Airforce base.

Tanner loves his sisters. He calls them Sissa (Alyssa) Nannie (Aniston/Anna) and Babbie (Abbie). He plays with them all the time and loves hitting them and then giving them big hugs and kisses afterwards. The name we call him most is TAK (Tanner Andrew Keyes) it seems to fit him well. We also call him Mack. Just a take off from TAK.

He's my sweet boy and I'm so glad he is part of our little family!

P.S. Note to self: STOP buying cakes with black and green frosting!!!!!