Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is the busiest day for us. The last 3 years now we have had a Christmas Party at our home with all our friends in the neighborhood. So I mostly cook all day, but for 5 years now Brax and I always start the day making Christmas cookies. She then picks her 3 favorite ones to give to Santa, Mrs. Clause and the head elf, then 9 carrots for the reindeer. She writes out her letter to Santa which I make her do on scrapbook paper so i can immediatley put it in her scrapbook (this was the 1st year she herself wrote her letter and list!) Ty takes her out front to sled and through snow on her, his highlight of the day and we finish with Brax and Bro opening some presents (the ones not from us, i.e. cousin presents and the ones from Grandparents).

Christmas Sunday

I love the Sunday before Christmas. Its very possibly my favorite Sunday of the year. I love singing Christmas songs and listening to the primary and our Ward Choir Sing. That's when it starts really feeling like Christmas. Our Ward also only has Sacrament which is something new for us but has started a nice tradition in our family!

Zoo Lights

I so recommend Zoo Lights! It was absolutley beautiful. Even Brolli loved it. Some of the animals were asleep, and some exhibits were closed, but the animals that you could see were awesome. Running around, playing, swimming and the huge Bengal Tiger was roaring the whole time. We had the whole place to ourselves and we loved every second of it.

Bolt

It was such a great week with my dad here. The kids love it especially because he spoils them rotten. He took them to Madagascar and Bolt, treated Brax to lunch twice at California Pizza Kitchen and sat hours on end with Brolli when he wanted no one else to hold him. He drove Cami and Garrison all the way to meet their father just so my sister wouldn't have to. He treated us all to dinner and Zoo Lights and I'm sure I'm forgetting much more. I hate that he won't be able to come for Christmas and that it will be another 6 months before I see him again.

Happy-Belated Thanksgiving

So our first Thanksgiving in 7 years without Ty went by quietly. It was a hard day for me which I cried for most of it. The silver lining...I hadn't had Thanksgiving with my parents in 6 years. It was so great to be able to spend it with them. After dinner we went to Sparetime Family Fun Center for 2 hours of bowling! It was such a blast, even though my mom killed all of us! 1 MORE WEEK UNTIL TY IS HOME!

Warning; a really long pitty party!

For whatever reason, this has been the longest week ever. I miss Tyler so badly and usually I keep myself and the kids pretty busy when he is TDY and the time flies. So naturally when we came down to Utah, I thought for sure the time would go by even faster...boy was I wrong. Maybe its the fact that we just went through the Temple and had literally no time to celebrate after. He left so soon. These back-to-back-to-back trips are killing me and my sullen attitude rubs off on the kids. I try so hard not to cry on the phone to Ty, I know that only makes it harder on him, but sometimes when I hear him say "hi baby!" I can't help it, I just lose it. During the days its not so bad, but at night when its time to put the kids to bed, i can't help but feel our family is incomplete at that moment. I know how important his job is and how much he loves it but I get so jealous sometimes.

I have to tell this story about him and I: During my senior year in high school, my dream was to go to LA and be a back-up dancer. Britney Spears was holding open auditions the end of September for a new video and I had been invited. I had a dance scholarship to SDSU in San Diego. I was already to leave at the end of summer, my mom had my apartment ready and waiting, i had transfered to the Nordstrom down there, ready to work for MAC. But 2 weeks before I was to leave, my best friend/sister came down to Dallas for a visit. And with her she brought some pictures of prom, and immediatley I asked "who is this?" (pointing to Tyler) She told me all about him, how funny he was, "Mr. High School", even about his girlfriend (obviously that didn't stop me)! I then talked to him on the phone a little bit later that evening, I couldn't stop smiling! I prayed very hard about my decision to go to San Diego, always feeling that it was not quite right...By the end of the week I had called and broke up with the boy I had been dating for 2 years, packed my car and drove to Utah. My parents arranged a small basement apartment in Bountiful for me to stay in, I found a great job at a doctors office in Ogden and last minute taken my scholarship to Weber State. I met Ty in person 3 days laletr and we have been inseperable ever since!

i never believed in fate, destiny, any of that stuff until Ty. He still gives me those butterflies in my stomach, that nervous/akward feeling when he comes home early from work. I love being the mother of his crazy children and most of all; being his eternal wife. I really needed this time to rant and rave over my husband. You wouldn't believe how theraputic this has been!

Disney On Ice

Granny spoiled them with there choice of toy. Brax picked a heart septer that lights up and spins


Here they are enjoying their $10 snowcones!


The dragon from Mulan was really cool...the whole show was really amazing, except for when Buzz LightYear fell in his triple axel and then again fell into the wall.

NKOTB Forever!

After waiting 6 long months, the night finally arrived! it has been 20 years since our last New Kids On The Block concert...way to long if you ask me! We were able to find our original shirts, pins, Jamie's locket and my earrings! People were going crazy asking if we had found our stuff on E-Bay, another good reason to be a pack-rat! We got to see Donny (my fav!) at the will-call doors, he came out and was touching people's hands. Then when we went through the door, they upgraded our tickets to 7TH ROW! Natasha Beddingfield was absolutley AMAZING and of course so were the boys! NKOTB Forever!

Remarried and Sealed

I don't have the official pictures yet, but here is one that my sister took of us. It was such an incredible experience. And the best part was getting to share it with all of our family. Thank you so much Brian and Emily, Jen, Alicia, Kristi and Eric, Ryan and Shalee, and Jamie for being there in the Temple with us to share in all the joy and blessing that we have worked so hard to get. We love all of you so much and couldn't have asked for a more special day!

SLC Temple...Here We Come

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I am SO SO EXCITED! I just got off the phone with the SLC Temple and finally got an appointment for Tyler and I to take out our Endowments and to get sealed to our beautiful babies! I absolutely cannot wait! We have been waiting for this day for almost 6 years now, and for whatever reason it has taken us this long to get to this point, we can truly appreciate all the trials and struggles we have gone through. It has made us the strong family that we are today and it has gotten us to this point in our marriage where it has never been better!

November 11, 2008 9 AM Session

Front-Yard Picnic

Braxton has waited for 3 1/2 weeks for her daddy to get home so that she could have a picnic in the front-yard with him and Bro. She had me make their favorite lunch, shells-n-cheese. On the rare occasion that he is home for lunch, she requests that every time; that is hers and her daddys lunch! Please though, don't ask about the headband!?

Happy Halloween!

Another freezing halloween in Washington! We started out with a spaghetti dinner at Laura's with the Leuck family followed by a wintry evening of trick-or-treating. Braxton literally ran back and forth across the streets making sure no house was left un-treated.

Braxton and her partner-in-crime Lilly.

The scariest house on the block

This is her 'boyfriend' Logan Leuck

The 3 freezing mommies

Polar Bear Bro...it was just too cold to have him out that long in a costume.

School Party

Party on the bus! Brax was so excited to dress up for school today, but I only got her to smile this morning when a large group of boys started walking our way. Uh-oh Ty...she's going to be trouble!



Your chariot awaits!

Not-So-Scary Halloween Party

It's time for The-Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at the library! This is something we get to do every year and it's so much fun! They start with story time, snacks, crafts, trick-or-treating down the aisle's and end with a haunted house...really it's an isle with bats hanging down from the top shelf. Oh well, Brax went through 5 times!