Garrett turned 8!

I can't believe my baby boy is already 8 years old. The time has flown by so fast. He is such a great kid with a great personality. It has been so much fun watching him grow and seeing what kind of a person he is going to grow up to be. I love every thing about him. He is such a great joy in my life and I'm so glad he is in it. I love you Garrett.

This year he had 2 parties. He had a party on Friday with some friends from school. We went to Jumpin Jacks and had a great time playing, had cupcakes and ice cream and he got lots of great gifts. Then on Sunday night we had a family party. He got lots of great gifts too. Here is one of his favorite gifts. Granny and Grandpa gave him Geico money. It all started one day when he was with Granny and Grandpa and they were drawing pictures and then the other person had to guess what they drew. Garrett drew Geico money and thought it was so funny. So it has kind of been there joke ever sense.



Then we found this Utah Utes jacket for him. He love the Utes. They are our favorite team.


This wasn't a picture of Garrett loving that he got a gift card. My brother Chad always loves playing tricks on the kids. On Christmas Chad asked Garrett what he wanted for his Birthday so Garrett told him he wanted a gift card with $100 on it. So Chad had this gift card. It was a card with $100 value written on it. Of course the card was empty but he gave it to Garrett. So when Garrett saw the card he was so excited because he thought he got a $100 gift card. When Chad told him that there was nothing on it Garrett got pretty upset. This was probably the meanest trick Chad has played on Garrett. But Garrett was still a good sport and smiled but it made him sad.


Garrett wanted a Utah Utes party this year. So here is his cake that I made. He saw me making the cake before he went to be on Saturday but he didn't know that I wrote Utah Utes on it. So when he saw it on Sunday he said it was the coolest cake ever. I felt good knowing that he was happy with his cake.

My Award Winning Treats!

So this year for James' work party they were having a dessert contest. It was bring your favorite desserts and the winner will get a $200 gift card. So my thought was... Bring it on! James came home one day and said that a couple guys at work said that their wife's were going to win. So all of a sudden my competitive side came out. So here are the yummy things I made.
I made Chocolate covered Cheesecake bites, Peppermint Oreo Balls, Peppermint Sugar Cookies, and the Award winning dessert was Raspberry Chocolate Truffles in a White Chocolate Cup.
So yes, I won the contest. All I can say was I was in my kitchen for 3 days straight. But around Christmas time, that is normal! I love baking treats and I'm always thinking about what else I can make or what I can add to something to make it better.

The past couple months...

I know I have been a slacker but I have had alot to do. So here is a update on things that happened the last couple months.

My brother Adam and his wife Cassie went to Hawaii for Christmas. I told Adam to bring me back some Chocolate Macadamia Nuts and he did. But he didn't just bring me 1 box he brought 2. What a good brother. He also brought James back some Kona coffee. He loves that coffee.

Next is Christmas Day. Okay so my pictures were awful this year. They were so dark that I stopped taking pictures and I was going to take more once my kids finished opening their gifts. But by then, I forgot. So no pictures this year.

Back when I was little my mom always tried to do fun things with our Christmas presents. There were 5 kids and so one year she would write all the reindeer names on the gifts so we didn't know who's presents were who's. One year I remember that she wrote our names on the presents and that year my name had the biggest present. (Amy said it was the blinds I wanted for my room but I don't remember that) Anyways, Christmas morning my mom said "Okay go get one of your presents and hold on to it, But don't open it" so of course I went and got my big present. Then she said okay Chad you give your present to Amy, Jaime you give your present to Chad and so on. I was so mad because that wasn't my big present that was his. And it was his BB Gun. I don't remember much else about that but I remember my mom would always try to do fun things on Christmas.

So this year I decided to do different names on our presents. So on Christmas morning I pointed to a present that was for James I asked Garrett what it said and he said "Snow Daddy". So then I asked him who's present could that be. And he said Daddy. Then I asked him what another one said and he looked and said "Snow Angel". So I asked who's is that? He said Katelyn's. Then I showed him another and it said "Snow Man". He said that's his. So of course I said hold them and don't open them. Daddy gets to go first. After James opened his present I told Garrett give your present to Katelyn and Katelyn give your to Garrett.
He did not like the fact that he was "Snow Angel" But after opening his gifts he really didn't care.

Katelyn thought it was funny that she was "Snow Man". It was fun this year to do something different. I'm going to have to think of something else for next year.

Every year Grandpa Ed and Granny give the kids ornaments and us a family ornament. The kids have been getting them since they were born and so this year Granny got Grandpa Ed an ornament too. This is what Sadie (their dog) made. Granny said it took Sadie several times before the finally made the prefect one. (Sadie really didn't make it, she got it as a white elephant gift this year at a party.)

Here are some pictures we took at Gardner Village for our Christmas cards. They were very cute and loving that day. I just can't believe how fast they are growing up. My baby's aren't baby's anymore.



Here is a picture Uncle Adam took at Aunt Amy's house on Thanksgiving.


This is my advent calendar I made this year for this kids. They had alot of fun each day opening them to see what small treat was inside. I put in bubble gum, york peppermint patties, crunch bells, and peppermint kisses. They did not like the peppermint kisses and every time they got those they would get mad and say "We don't like these" and I was mean and didn't change them out the first time they told me that. But it's not like the didn't get a different treat. And then my JOY blocks. We love the word joy because it makes us remember Mimi. (James' grandma)

This was disgusting. When we were putting up our Christmas decorations I opened up my water globe and this is what it looked like. The water was dark brown and moldy on the bottom. I have never seen this happen before. And I don't understand how that could happen because it wasn't leaking anywhere. Go figure! I also had another water globe and that water was bright yellow. Weird stuff! So yes, if anyone is wondering I did throw them away. Sorry Michele!

Our Crazy October!

I can't believe how fast this month went by. Here is just some of the things that happened.

Garrett lost another tooth. After school one day he came to the car and had a little tooth necklace on and he said he lost his tooth. He said that he was playing Football at recess and he got tackled and out came his tooth.


Our Winter friend is back. For about the last 3 years we have this hawk in our backyard often. The sad thing is, is that we have about 5 different bird feeders in our yard and we usually have a lot of little birds in our yard eating and hanging out in our trees. And in the colder months the hawk will catch a bird and then it plucks out all the feathers and eats the poor bird right in our yard. Let me tell you, it is disgusting. There are feathers and blood spots everywhere. For as much as we enjoy feeding the birds, I don't like seeing the hawk eating one of them, but there is no way to stop him.


We had our Annual Halloween Party at Grandpa Dan's house. The kids have alot of fun. They played games, had a pinata (chuck full of candy) and decorated pumpkins. We had a great time.


Here is Katelyn and Garrett's pumpkins from Grandpa Dan's House.



Katelyn had a good time helping James rack up leaves in the back yard. She had a better time jumping in the leaves. I love Fall when they leaves fall off the trees. It sure keeps the kids entertained for a while.




Poor Garrett was sick that day and couldn't play in the leaves. The hard thing about the Fall is getting sick. But after a few days with a cold he was back to normal. So leaves... Here he comes.


Don't forget about our Utah Utes. We went to the game on October 24th and watched the Utes play Air Force. As you can see from the pictures the weather was crappy. It was cloudy, cold and rainy. And of course we didn't plan on the weather well. I left the blanket at home and we were just wearing jackets and vests. Garrett and I wore our hats, Katelyn had a hood on her jacket and James brought his poncho. So we stayed kind of dry. It was a fun game but next time we are leaving Katelyn home. We got to the game a little late because of the traffic and having to park then walk. Then we get to our seats and immediately Katelyn starts saying... I need to go potty... I need a drink... I need a treat... She just didn't want to sit and watch the game because it was boring. Then we had to leave the game early because it was James' Grandpa's birthday and we had to go meet his family for dinner. When we left the Utes were winning and as we were walking out of the stadium Air Force tied up the game. James was so upset that we couldn't stay and watch the rest of the game. But he listened to it on the radio and the Utes still won the game.




Here is the whole family having dinner at the Olive Garden. It was alot of fun and Grandpa Ed's sister Cheryl and her son Jeff were in town so we were able to get together with them too.

Happy 80th Birthday Great Grandpa.

We went to a fun Halloween party at our neighbor's house. We had dinner, played games and got to visit with friends. It was great. We did donuts on a string and it was so funny watching the kids try so hard to do it. Garrett did a great job.



It is hard to see but he has glaze all over his face from his donut.


Here is Katelyn trying so hard. She just keep laughing. She got a couple good bites and she sure had fun trying.



Here are my cute kids on Halloween. I went up to the University bookstore on day with my friend Jen and decided they should be a football player and cheerleader. So I bought their costumes and showed them when they got home from school. They were really excited because my kids are major Ute fans.




We had such a fun and crazy month... Just think how the next couple months are going to be...

Crazy Hair Day!

At school on Friday was crazy hair day. So Garrett and Katelyn wanted crazy hair. Garrett did his own hair and I allowed him to go to school this way just because it was crazy hair day. He spiked half of his hair and then slicked down the other side. I know I am a mean mom but I don't want him to look at pictures later in life and be mad at me because I let him go to school like that.



So with Katelyn's hair we put a plastic cup inside her pony tail. It looked so cute and she liked it until we got to school. Then she started to get shy and wanted me to take it out. But I told her to lets walk over to her class to see if any other girls had crazy hair. And they did. So she left the cup in her hair until after school. It looked really cute. We love crazy hair day.

So Cute!

Katelyn is so cute. She likes to call James when he is at work. So she calls his cell phone and if she gets his voicemail this is the message she leaves...

Hi Daddy, This is Biggs from the K family. I just wanted to call and talk to you so call me back. Okay. This is Bigg's from the K family. In Utah. Call me. Thank you.

It is the cutest thing ever. She talks in this little sweet voice. You hear her talking and think... How cute!

Stewart Falls Hike!

On Saturday we went for a hike up to Stewart Falls. It was suppose to be an easy hike, but I thought I was going to die. That is the great thing about having asthma, the easy hikes almost kill me. My lungs were on fire. James, Garrett and Katelyn did so good and of course Garrett wanted to be in front. It was a 2 mile hike each way and so when we made it to the falls Garrett and Katelyn had fun playing in the water and with the rocks. We stayed for about 20 minutes then started our hike back. We probably had about 1/2 mile left when Katelyn started complaining about her legs being tired and wanted me to carry her. When we got back to the car we were so dirty. Our shoes and legs were black from the dirt. But we had a great time. And the falls were really pretty.