Our "Most AWESOMEST" Christmas Sweater

Paul and I went to a party at our friends the Websters, Saturday night.  We were all suppose to wear our "most awesomest" Christmas sweaters.  This is how Paul and went.  Paul's blazer was striking and my sweater was actually pretty cute with Santa on the back and Santa button's on the front.  We did a lot of searching to find just the right outfit - from DI to Savers to TJ Maxx, and in the end, we just borrowed stuff to put together our attire.
Paul and Paul's brother, Ryan were the hit of the party.  We had to get a picture because we will never see either of them in red again.  Their blood runs blue.  If you look close, Ryan even has a red dicky turtleneck (remember the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?).

Here are some of the guys at the party. 

Here are the girls.  What a fun party!  Of course we had a white elephant exchange too which was hilarious!  Our white elephant had been regifted a couple of times, but it was pretty funny.  It was a Santa that passes gas when you pull his finger.  The boys were pretty sad to part from this one.

I'm Thankful For...

What a fun Thanksgiving!  I started a new little tradition this year and put five popcorn kernels on everyone's plate.   We then went around the table before we ate and everyone had to say five things they were grateful for.  Of course, all by boys were a little silly about the whole thing.   But I enjoyed doing it and hope and this tradition sticks.  Here are five things I am thankful for:

1)  For my sweet little Logan, and how he simply adores me.  Sometimes he can adore me more than I like, but I know that soon he will not want to cuddle with me all the time and I will miss that. 

2)  For my wonderful husband who was such a help to me getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner.  
3)  For good friends who are always there for us and make yummy pies.
4)  I am thankful for all my boys that can't think of anything else to be thankful for besides BYU (even after the horrible BYU/Utah game).

5)  For my wonderful parents - it as been so fun to have them around again and I loved not being totally in charge of dinner this year.  Mom cooked an amazing turkey, stuffing, and rolls.  

Now on to Christmas, I am ready...(not really) but, bring it on!

Turkey Time

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, we had a really fun FHE this week.  They brought all the supplies to make pinecone turkeys.  The boys had a great time making their turkeys...



Gobble, gobble!  Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Mommy's little helper...

In the mist of science projects for two boys and trying to clean up dinner, this is where I found my little helper.  It turned out to be a great place to keep him for awhile, he was totally entertained.  Its amazing what I let my kids get away with sometimes for a few minutes of sanity. 

Talking about sanity time, I had a fun girls night out this weekend and went to see TWILIGHT. It was great!  I was surprisingly pleased with the movie and can't wait to get back to reading the series.  You've got to see it!

I looked out the window at what did I see...

We have had a little friendly dispute this football season with our neighbors who are huge Ute fans.  They have had a Ute flag hanging up every game day off their back porch so it is framed perfectly in our family room window.  Needless to say, this does not settle well with our boys.   Garrett has left numerous letters for our friends at their door and Bryson has thrown water balloons at their flag.
So, on the biggest duel of the season, we both went all out.  Paul and I stayed up until 1:oo a.m. decorating our neighbor's home.  It was awesome!  My favorite was the poster I made for the front door that had a big "Y" and said "Y fans live here".  There was blue everywhere - spray painted grass, duct tape Y's on everything, sidewalk chalk, Y stakes all in their yard, and a big sign on their garage door.  I made Paul go take the camera out early Saturday morning, but they had already taken everything down, and this is what we found at our house.
I told Paul I woke up with butterflies in my stomach for the game.  We were asked to host a Elder's Quorom party at our house to watch the game.  So while all the Elder's watched the game downstairs, my parents, Ryan and Karen, and the boys and I watched it upstairs.  We had a really fun party, but were all greatly disappointed.  My boys were very upset.  Bryson doesn't want to go to school on Monday and face all of his peers.  Garrett wanted to rip all of his BYU t-shirts and told me he doesn't want to go to BYU anymore.  The saying, "Its just a game"  doesn't work at our house.

Colorado Springs trip

As most of you know, BYU played Air Force this weekend.  Being the devoted fans we are, we decided to go and support the team in person.  Actually, Paul tries to take the boys to at least one away game each year.  This year I was lucky enough to be invited to come along.  Grandma and Grandpa watched Mckay and Logan for a couple of night for us while we played with the older boys.   

This picture with Garrett is at the Garden of the Gods by the balancing rock.   It looks like that rock is going to tumble down any second!  This whole area was really fun to look at, it reminded me a lot of our red rock in Southern Utah.  We spent some time checking the place out Saturday morning before going to the game.


Here we are on the way to the football game by the Academy.  Can you believe we are standing in snow?  I told Paul next year choose somewhere warm to go watch the game!  It actually wasn't that bad as long as you stood in the sun, not the shade.
Before the game, the boys did this trampoline/ bungee jump thing in the parking lot.  They kept saying how easy it looked to do backflips until they were up there and tried it and decided it was harder then it looked.

Go mighty Cougars!  We had so much fun at the game.  Yes, it was long, but my yummy warm kettle corn kept me happy along with the sun shining on my face.  Thanks to Garrett for telling me when to cheer and not to cheer.  Thanks to Tanner for laughing lots during the game.  And thanks to Bryson for telling me after the game how fun it was to have his Mom there.  Oh, and a special thanks to Paul for letting us sit in the sun, even if the seats weren't very good, they were very warm.

After the game, we went to dinner and then saw a special screening of the new movie BOLT that is 3 -D.  It was a really fun show to watch, especially when you have a 7 year old who is laughing like crazy sitting next to you.   After the show we went and got a Cold Stone ice cream, yum!  Of course I got my favorite...sweet cream and brownie.

We flew back first thing this morning.  With all of us dressed up for church, it made us really stand out.  People kept asking where we were going all dress up like that.  It seemed so weird to me that we stood out so much on a Sunday all dressed up.  Its was like nobody goes to church dressed up anymore (or they don't go to church at all).  

We rushed to our car and then went to my sister-in-law's brother's "farewell".  Her brother, Ryan, did a great job and I was happy my boys were able to go and look at good examples like him.   Natalie's mom ended up making lunches for all of us to eat on the way home.  That was seriously so nice of her!  We were all starving and it hit the spot.  I was so happy to have the chance to hang out with the big boys this weekend, I think we really wore them out this weekend, try to squeeze in as much as we could without the younger boys.   They all were excited to go to bed tonight and get some sleep. 

Halloween Parties...

I have literally been exhausted today, but now after looking through my pictures of this past week I know why.  I have been to 3 neighborhood Halloween parties, 2 family parties,  and helped at 3 school parties this week.  What a fun week!  Here are some of the highlights of our week...

Carving pumpkins at our neighbor's house with a bunch of friends.  We carved them in their garage.  My neighbor Rena served hot chocolate and donuts, we even had a campfire going outside.  
Paul used a "special" tool that our neighbor let him borrow.  He had bought it for $20, now Paul thinks he needs one for next year, since he seems to do most the work while the kids watch.
The final product:  Pumpkin #1 - A squinting pumpkin

   #2 - SpongeBob (I can't stand that show!)

    #3 - Patrick (from SpongeBob)

     #4 - Blue's Clues

Garrett learned how to weave at his Indian party and worked on it all night.  He would have been happy to not even get dressed up for Halloween, but he was torn, because he needed the candy!

Here is Logan in his firefighter costume, he had a cute little hat, but he wouldn't wear it.

Bryson and his trick or treating buddies.  They were out for 3 hours!  Peace, dude!

Garrett was our beaten up Ute fan.  He is a true blue BYU fan, everyone loved his costume. This picture was taken at our friends the Bergs.  A bunch of us got together for soup and bread before hitting the road for some good old fashioned trick of treating.

Here is McKay at his preschool Halloween parade singing his spooky songs with his cousin Heath.  Mckay is a SWAT guy with all the gear (he only changed his mind 3 times).

Here is Tanner, our little nerd.  Look at that smile!

and a few more parties...

The highlight of our Halloween this year was the traditional Edwards' Eeerie Edibles!  We haven't had Mom and Dad around for three years to celebrate Halloween.  We had a yummy brunch on Saturday morning, and best of all, Ryan brought up his fiance! 
Here is the menu, which we had to decode before eating.  The boys had so much fun with this!
Ryan and Karen... they are seriously so cute together.  I simply adore her and can see she will fit right in with our family.  We had so much fun hanging out with them all day Saturday... they entertained our kids, played our favorite new card game with us (Five Crowns), and then stayed up late with us and talked after the kids were all in bed.

Yes, my Mom is superwomen.  She also decorated sugar cookies with the boys this week too. The cookies were extremely decorated with lots of candy, yummy stuff!  Thanks Mom for the fun parties!

The Birthday Weekend

Wow!  Bryson is 12, I can't believe I have a 12 year old.  Bryson was ordained a deacon last night from his Dad.  I couldn't be more proud of him.  He seriously is such a good kid and has really grown up a lot this year.  It has been fun this year having a little extra time with him each day. We get up earlier than the rest of the boys to get him off to school first and then he comes home an hour earlier than the rest of the boys.  I've enjoyed having some one on one time with him.  He is fun to have around and a great help to me.
Bryson with 12 candles (in the shape of a Y - thanks to Garrett).

Late night party with Bryson's friends.  They had a great time playing capture the flag outside with glow in the dark sticks, playing the Wii, and eating barbecued hamburgers.  Hey, Easton, do you see anything special in this picture above?

Mckay's gifts to Bryson - his Iron Man sunglasses, a used autographed Disney book, and his cow flashlight.
Oh, and Bryson's favorite gift... the Ute's t-shirt!  He actually got two of these, along with a cute little purple purse.  Thats what happens when you give gag gifts to your friends.  Bryson just gave a friend a barbie for his b-day a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping we can using this Ute t-shirt for Halloween somehow.  Any ideas?  I thought he and Garrett should be beaten up UTE fans.  We'll see...

FUN IN THE SUN

We went with our friends the Bergs and Jensens to St. George over UEA and stayed in the Ritchie get away home.  Our friend, Mandy had never been to St. George, so we took it upon ourselves to show her the sights of the town.  We did everything from hiking to swimming, to playing football, and eating yummy food, then we would stay up late playing games.  It was a blast!

Logan warming up to the swimming idea with his Dad.

Logan discovering licorice for the first time, yum!

Once again, Logan. . . determined to hike alone.

Here are the Dads with the baby boys starting the hike in Snow Canyon.

Bryson with his cute cousin, Kinzie Parker, who lives in St. George.  We meet the Parkers at a corn maze.  It was totally crazy, there were so many of our kids running around in the maze, I'm glad we all made it out before dark!

Garrett riding some kind of swing at the corn maze.

Mckay and Mac Berg.  We call them the two Macs!  We were being pulled by a tractor over to the cornmaze.

Its was so fun to get away for a couple of days!  The only negative to the trip was I lost my cell phone.  I seriously have no idea where it could be.  But, I did get a new cell phone out of it! Yippee!  I don't know who is more excited about my new phone, me or my boys.  All I know is that me ring tone keeps getting changed, it has become the new toy of the house.