Christmas Village in Ogden

Our annual trip to Christmas Village. This year, Allie sat on Santa's lap and asked for "A baby brother." Well, Santa didn't know what to say to this one. Mrs. Claus was there and quickly answered, "Santa can't help with that one." Mom and Dad aren't giving in on this request either!

Family Pictures

We had my mom take some Christmas pictures for our Christmas Card. With some cropping and color enhancing they didn't look too bad--they were being a little silly, so we didn't get too many good ones though. Love my family!

Getting our tree!

The finished product.

We got our tree the fun way this year--with snowmobiles! Thanks Brad and Jen Osguthorpe!! We found our "AH-HA" tree--but Brad found it. Teresa and her kids came up minus Lance and Chick. They found there tree too. This year we also brough Marissa and her roommates and they also found a tree for their dorm and named it Stanley. We always have so much fun finding our Christmas tree.

Hanging Christmas Lights!

After hanging the lights. He needed some football. Chris agreed to hang Christmas lights on our house for the first time in 13 years of marriage. He even had a fun time doing it--Cooper was quite the helper too. Our house was quite festive this year for Christmas! (Maggie was the photographer.)

Mommy cut an A-line

I cut the boys' hair and cut the girls' hair straight--but no fancy do's. Well, Allie really wanted a hair cut, so we attempted a stacked bob or A-line. It wasn't perfect, but it didn't turn out too bad. She was happy with it.

It's Cooper the Cub Scout!

Cooper's first day of Cub Scouts with Tracy Scadden his Den Leader!

Halloween 2011

Gutting the Pumpkins

Allie, the Fairy Pumpkin Princess--but on Halloween she added Zombie to the tital.

Maggie as Malificent from "Sleeping Beauty"
Cooper as Darth Maul from Star Wars I
We had our annual pumpkin carving night for Family Night on October 24th. Pumpkin guts, magic markers, newspapers, knives, and children standing on chairs are always the things to make everyone happy. Chris always has to blow a little pumpkin guts out of his nose to round off the pumpkin carving extravaganza.

Friday, October 28th, I was in charge of our ward's Halloween Dinner and Parade. We just had hot dogs and the kids walked up and down the street trick-or-treating. It had a good turn-out and we were done by 7 PM. (Oh, Cooper and Miles decided to go around twice and collected too many treats!)

Saturday, October 29th, after Maggie's soccer game, we had another trunk-or-treat. It was with her soccer club. We had Chili at this one and then the treats...at this point, too many. Allie decided she wanted to hand out the treats instead of collecting them and Cooper only went around once.

Sunday, we went to the Hislop's for dinner and Cooper decided he needed to get sick there and had a temperature of 101.3. So, we went home early.

Monday, October 31st, the girls went to school and Cooper stayed home. He was one sick little boy. His temperature would stay down only with ibuprofen. He didn't even care to go Trick-or-Treating. Chris stayed home with him and the girls and I went to the Davidson's first. Jeff, Lucy, and boys were there. Kevin, Stacy and kids were there. Denise & Roger and Kristen & Nate were there too. We had chili and hot dogs--I am all hot-dogged and chilied out! We went treating around their neighborhood.

After the Davidson's, we went to the Hislop's. Jill, Kurt and boys were there and we went around their neighborhood with AJ and Kurt. AJ just wanted to go see their houses and asked to go in. It was pretty funny.

Our final destination was our neighborhood, but by then, it was 8:30 PM and not many porch lights were on, so we called it a night at 9:00 PM. It was a good Halloween.

Chris turned the big 4-0!

Chris turned 40 today! He is now catching up to me. We had a great day. We had our usual morning party of presents and breakfast. We made a special book of letters from family and friends that he loved. We also made a picture of fun sayings or memories and made the words DAD. You'll just have to see it. He had the same type of picture made for me for my last birthday that says MOM. Chris also got a firepit, swimsuit, jerky, pants, shirts, jacket, biking shorts, hats, and candy. After that we went to Allie, Cooper, and Maggie's soccer games. The night before, we went to "Captain America" as a family. After the games, we had a crab and steak dinner for him followed by cake and ice cream bars. It was a low-key birthday, but he loved it!

Fort Buenaventura for Labor Day

We decided to go on a picnic for our Labor Day outing and ended up at Fort Buenaventura. It was a beautiful day and we had a nice, relaxing, and adventurous day. We had our picnic first and then did some exploring. After learning about mountain men, the fort, beaver pelts, trading, and grasshopper hunting, we went canoeing. It was a fun day for the Hislops.

Maggie's 11

I can't believe how fast time flies! My baby is 11 years old. We started with a morning party of presents and her choice of breakfast: breakfast burritos and donuts--HEALTHY. Maggie got an office chair, The Red Pyramid II book, A Walk to Remember DVD, CTR ring, and more. She wanted a hamburger cake and a late-over with Kaydree. We went to Nickelcade to play games too. Her menu for dinner was crablegs and chicken. Grandmas and Grandpas came over too. She had a wonderful day.