Dear Santa...

We have been busy (just like everyone else) getting ready for Christmas. The other night Brielle showed me this sweet letter to Santa that "Kiersten had written." She is the cutest girl, I just want her to stay as sweet as she is forever!

"From Kiersten, The American Girl. Braces, Earrings (luckily I ordered the earrings for her...but unfortunately Kiersten won't be getting braces this year). I love you Santa."Deano looked so cute on our way into Sams club yesterday, that I had to snap a picture! I love this boy...he is such a crackup...he constantly says things that make me laugh! A few minutes before this picture I grabbed his hand in our garage (b/c he'd been riding his razor scooter in the snow and now he was eating the snow off his scooter) and led him to the car--he said to me: "whoa mom, you are really tough"...where does he come up with this stuff? Temple Square Christmas lights...my 2 cuties. (p.s. yes, I'm obsessed with my kids....you would be too if they were yours :)

Thankful

I'm thankful for SO much! Sometimes it is overwhelming how many people bless our lives!
This precious little girl lost her 2nd front tooth on Thanksgiving morning...now, all she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth. Her crazy little brother helped her lose that tooth by hitting her in the face with a toy microphone...oh, the joy of having a little brother!

Deano, Deano, Deano...this kid makes life SO interesting! He has so much personality! He gets so angry & frustrated, yet he is so sweet & cuddly. He adores my uncle's dog Royce...I wish you could see how big Royce the Great Dane is! He'd make a great horse for Deano the Great Swede!

My newest little love...my nephew Nolan. My "original child" my sister Nat, had her baby on Tuesday (Nat always hated how I 'mothered' her...but that is a big sisters job)! Nolan Robert was a big boy (9lbs9oz) and he is so sweet, I'm so glad he joined our family. Nat & Ty are such proud parents...Tyler is sitting next to me right now, telling us that Nolan just laughed...it's so sweet to watch two people melt like butter when they look in the eyes of their child.

Motherhood--I heard a line in a movie "Motherhood is like getting a tattoo on your face, you'd better make sure you are fully invested before you do it," this is the truth b/c motherhood is always and forever...there are no sick days! I was really sick on Tuesday, I was lying on the floor of my mom's house (while my mom made my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner...b/c I was too sick...I'm 32 and she's still taking care of me...I am grateful for my parents) and of course I immediately had company. There is no rest for the weary, but I still love being a mother.

My crazy cousins. I could not leave these funny Thanksgiving pictures out. Thanksgiving was my uncle's birthday...so my crazy cousins put on a crazy production for their dad. It was hilarious! LAST BUT NOT LEAST...I'm so grateful for Chris. He's taking care of the kiddo's so that I can be with my sister and he is in the middle of 'fixing up' our bedroom...going above and beyond my request to simply repaint. He is awesome!

Pippi & the Storm Trooper!

Cutest little Pippy Longstocking and Storm Trooper I've ever seen!Bri & Deano were so excited to go trick o'treating with their little friends! I love this picture (above) because it shows each of their personalities perfectly! Brielle and Starli are totally posing while dean & cash are doing "tough guy moves" and Gracie is just "doing her own thing!"Brielle & her buddy Kastle showing off their missing teeth!

Chris & I were not planning to dress up this year...until the night before Halloween when we were driving to SLC with our friends the Asay's. The boys were sitting in the front seat talking (very enthusiastically) about their cycling clothes and then they started talking about how they wanted to start running but they would have to get the right 'gear' (which means they'd need the right outfits)! It was hilarious...they are obsessed with their gear. This was when Brittany had an idea...we should dress up as "them in their bike gear...or outfits (as I like to call them)."

The only problem was that we now had 24 hours to come up with a costume for our 'gear obsessed guys'...this time I had a little idea....If we were dressing up as them, they should dress up as us! I still cannot believe that Chris agreed to this! Chris was "Miss Provo" and it worked out perfect because Britt was 1st runner up to Miss P.! Chris could not wait to get this dress off! One of the biggest reasons was that Brielle told Dean that "Daddy was a princess" (b/c she did not think that he'd know what 'Miss Provo' was....so all night Dean kept walking around announcing that his "daddy was a princess!" I tried to stuff my upper body with all kinds of dish towel's...in an attempt to make my upper body look like Chris'....it did not work...I should have used shoulder pads!

Pumpkins!

Brielle & Dean had SO much fun decorating pumpkins with their buddies Cash & Grace! The big kids LOVED digging out the 'guts' while the little kids painted some really fancy pumpkins!

Fall 2010

October has been a crazy busy month...and it's not over yet! We took our annual trip to pick out pumpkins with the Asay's...and sadly I didn't take any other pictures. Brielle did a little cheer clinic at Timpview High School with our family friend Eden and her friend Faith from school.
One night I was going to check on the kids before I went to bed and I found this little cutie at the bottom of the stairs. I'm guessing he got out of bed and came looking for me...but got too sleepy!

Brielle has been asking me for weeks if she could get her hair cut...I finally relented and let her chop it off. She looks adorable. Brielle lost one of her front teeth...so she could be our little jack o lantern! She was crossing the monkey bars with her eyes closed when her hands slipped and she fell. When she hit the ground her knee hit her lip/tooth and her (already loose) tooth popped out and was lost forever in the wood chips! She was quite shaken up and even told me that she saw "black bubbles" while she was sitting in the office holding an ice pack on her lip & gums....what a sweetheart. She was so worried about the Tooth Fairy finding her tooth, so we left ''her'' a note under Brielle's pillow telling her where to look. Luckily "she" has a special ''tooth locator" that will help her find it in the wood chips! :)

Two weeks ago my mom went to Paris. She was having a wonderful time until she lost her footing on a cobblestone street and fell...breaking her pelvis. Poor Di...she had a miserable week staring at the walls of her hotel room! The Lord answered our prayers and she was able to fly home...now she can be miserable at home. Before she came home my dad got a few things to make life a little easier for her...Deano thought they were super cool!

P.S. The neck brace is not my mom's, the kids just found it in the garage and thought it 'went well' with the other 'injury stuff.'

Chris had a birthday this month too...we celebrated by meeting him (he rode his bike) up Provo Canyon for a little hot dog roast & smores with our friends the Asay's.

Cash & Brielle
BEST BUDDIES

Deano & Gracie

Last week Brielle told me she was supposed to dress up the following day in clothes representing what she wanted to be when she grows up...

Me: "What do you want to be when you grow up?

Bri: "Umm....a mom"

Me: "OK..I'm not sure how you can dress like a mom, is there anything else you want to be when you grow up like a teacher, doctor, nurse..."

Bri: "No, I don't want to be any of those things but I would really like to work at The Italian Place with Daddy"

So, she dressed up like an Italian Place Employee...hilarious! I love this girlie!

Annual Bryant boys BYU visit!

The Bryant boys came to town in September for their annual BYU football game...these boys are FULL of energy...my sister in law Elise (the mom) is a super human (you'd have to be to have 5 boys between 3 & 10)! Brielle and Dean love having their cousins come, they were SO disappointed when they left! Deano thought he'd died and gone to heaven...he LOVED having all these boys to play with. I wish I'd taken better pictures...this was during a little birthday party we had for Matthew (who turned 3 while visiting us).

Mini Swiss Getaway

We LOVE Midway (a cute little town about 25 minutes up Provo Canyon that has very strong Swiss roots...most of the homes & building look Swiss, they have a Swiss days celebration every year etc.), it is such a charming town. We had a free nights stay (thanks to my parents) at the Zermatt Resort. We've been to dinner several times at Zermatt, but we'd never stayed there. It was SO much fun to be together and have nothing to do but hangout!
We went swimming in the indoor/outdoor pool...the kids LOVED this waterfallPlayed giant chess Took a ride on a cougar & hog

It was only an 18 hour vacation but it was so relaxing because we just hung around the resort... we've decided we need to take these little mini getaway's more often!

STAR WARS!

Deano is obsessed with Star Wars (there are light "savers"--as he calls them, all 6 movies & star wars guys, coloring books etc..EVERYWHERE I look) so of course we had a Star Wars Party! FYI- I spent a billion hours making the "Happy Birthday Deano" sign above...totally obsessive...I'm a mess!

We had a million little kiddo's join in the celebrating! Deano loved it!We decorated Star Wars sugar cookies, played a couple games & ate cake...I've never seen Deano so excited, he had such a great time!

He LOVED his Darth Vader pinata so much...he even wanted to wear it while he blew out his candles!

My "idea" slave!

This guy is my HERO! Chris is so patient with me and my "ideas"! He has been my 'idea slave' for the last few weeks...

A couple of weeks ago I saw some bar stools that I liked (they were really nice but not terribly priced for nice stools. I've wanted new bar stools for awhile--a couple of ours were breaking)...so I drove to SLC to find four of the same stool, brought them home...decided I had a bette idea...then took them all back! I spent hours researching "how" to carry it out and then on Saturday morning I asked Chris if we could build an island...and by the time we went to bed...

VOILA...a Kitchen Island custom built for me! We used unfinished oak cabinets (which happened to be 30% off at Home Depot)...Chris painted them, put bead board on the sides, added trim pieces and topped it all off with a butcher block counter top that the kids and I ran to Ikea to buy (while he slaved away at everything else! I got some really great/cheap stools at Target and now I have what I've always wanted in my kitchen...and I love it!

Unfortunately (for Chris), I was not satisfied...all the next week I researched again...I had another project in mind! I wanted to paint the kitchen cabinets! This is something I've always wanted to do, but I'd heard a million horror stories about how much work it is! The next Saturday morning I woke up and went to spin class (I thought this would butter him up...he loves the fact that I like going to spin at the gym...he keeps trying to get me to buy clip in bike shoes) and when I came home, I casually asked him (as he walked out the door for his bike ride..."Hey, what if we painted the kitchen cabinets white" and he agreed...I was ecstatic (obviously he has never heard the horror stories about painting cabinets)! After a week of sanding, priming, sanding, priming, sanding, painting, sanding, painting etc...our kitchen looks AMAZING! I cannot even tell you how much I love it! Chris wanted to kill me by the time it was over (b/c it is a lot of work) but it was worth it...he even thinks so now!

The finishing touch was this light fixture from Pottery Barn that my mom bought me for my birthday (in a few weeks). I love everything about our kitchen now, this is definitely my favorite update we've done to our house...it is ironic that it was by far the least expensive.

I am SO lucky to have a husband that is such a good sport!