Visiting Grma & Grpa at the North Pole!

We decided on the spur of the moment to drive up to VA and surprise Justin's Mom 2 days before Christmas. Here are a few pictures of our fun times.
I guess I should probably start with the quote of the whole trip.
Payton- "Grandpa, why are we still awake if we are not playing the wii?"
Mom- "Oops time for bed!"
I am sure he was trying to find a way to tactfully ask if he could play the wii but boy did we all get a laugh out of that. Of course it was probably only five minutes after we walked through the front door when he asked it.

The Night Before Christmas reading


I loved FROSTY's twinkle in his eye! It must be snow right?
I must say he was the cutest snowman I have ever seen.



The snowballs got bigger and then they turned to snowmen.

Justin picking people off from his vantage point at the top of the driveway.

The kids were so greatful for a white Christmas. They were praying and praying for one and I guess this counts. (When we pulled into our driveway in NC we realized it was still 62 degrees, not much chance of a white Christmas. The kids went sledding down the hill, went for a walk, played in the snow and then a few little balls tossed in fun turned in to an out and out war of snow. What a perfect way to enjoy the snow, I only wish we had more snow gloves, burrr.

Zag chasing stray snowballs

Helping out a brother

I was just about to type I have no idea where this kid got his great balance but after looking at the next picture I decided that probably answers it. Payton has always been very coordinated and fearless, so I shouldn't have been so surprised when he hopped on this board with no straps or instructions and took the sled hill to the next level.

Christmas morning.

What a Cute Couple!
(Santa's helpers)

Check out the young ones conspiring and sneaking around the back.

All in Good Fun!

Payton say hello to the ice burg that sunk the titanic!

Family Picture with FROSTY
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the Fun Christmas!

Yesterday

Sorry this isn't a very good picture but the girls wanted a picture with the roses Justin brought home with him.

Here is Avery. She has seen a few versions of the Nutcracker in school this year and someone said they were going to do the Nutcracker in music class so she was soooo worried about her being the Sugar Plum fairy and wanted a tu-tu to wear to school. This was the compromise.

Yesterday we had a scare. Justin was coming home after being in the field all week and we were going to make brownies for him. Well while I got distracted I came back to this. Ben and Paige opened the box of brownie mix I had left on the counter, and they chewed a hole in the corner and were sucking out mix. I wish the mix all over the wall and counter were more visible. It was all over. So I cleaned them all up and pulled them off the counter. Well later after making the brownies and while they were cooking I started working on dinner. I guess Ben and Paige climbed up on the counter while I was turned around trying to get to the mixer to lick the bowl. Well I turned around to see Ben fall from the counter onto his head. I guess he had used the microwave handle to help him walk and it opened making him lose his balance. Well he landed right on his head. It was a sick sound and a terrible thing to see and just makes me sick. I was so upset. Of course this was just 2 minutes before Justin walked in the door from not seeing or hearing from us for a week. He walks in to find me bawling putting ice on Ben head. He was so calm and gave him a blessing. He then offered to drive him to the hospital. Ben fell asleep right away but the side of his head felt squishy which made us fear the worse. So Justin went to the army hospital and sat in the ER waiting for over 2 hours just waiting to be seen. Finally I called as I couldn't wait any longer to hear how he was and asked him to ask if he could go to another hospital. They ended up taking him back and with in a few minutes got x-rayed and finally got some good news. What a relief, what a blessing. Poor Justin hasn't slept all week and then he spent a few hours last night at the hospital. What a good dad. I am so grateful for my family and for the Priesthood.

Mostly Paige

Best friends

This picture with the soap is the only shot I could get of Paige's new trim. She really gets camera shy.

Christmas dresses

I found Paiges dress with a matching doll dress for like $8 I thought it was a great deal.

Avery is excited to have a super long dress.

Happy Day!

Justin's sister and her husband adopted this sweet baby and were sealed over Thanksgiving in the LDS Temple. All of their family were able to go for the special occasion.


Being sealed for time and all eternity, that is what family is about. That is what the gospel offers.
We are so happy for you guys and so grateful that everyone had such a great time together.
I have to say my favorite pictures that Justin returned with were of this cute kid and his cute faces. He sure makes a lot of them.

Chilling with his bro.

Well Justin had a great Thanksgiving. He was pretty excited to spend time with family and friends and do all the things he loves. Turkey Bowl I think was high on his list. I would have posted a picture of him there, but I didn't see any of those.

But seeing family was awesome. Good food is also nice but I think the company and the occasion is what makes a person smile from the inside out.

Congrats Lukas, Jess, and Jared. We love you and wish we were there!

Happy Thanks

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with Family and Friends. I hope you got in on some great food.

Justin (and our camera)spent the day flying to California for the special weekend with the rest of the family, so we shared our great Thanksgiving with our good friends the Matthews. What a fun time we had and boy what good food Sheryl made. I love this holiday and I am so grateful for my many blessings. I do love and miss my own family but feel very blessed to feel my families love and support so far away and am grateful for the support I have found here. I know that my Savior will always be my support my rock. What a comfort that is.
Thanks to you all for being a part in my life. May you see your blessings this Thanksgiving.

Our weekend

Just a quick post, no pictures sorry. We are pleased to announce the opening of our new playground. I am sure you will see plenty of pictures in the future. Also we did a craft fair this weekend. Justin decided to come with. I thought it was way fun even though with him there I was a little more cautious with my money. We did do the Secret Santa Shop which I thought was super cute. We gave the kids their birthday and tooth money that they kept trying to spend on the first thing they saw. ("I really wanted one of those, even though I have no idea what it does, but it cost money and I have money, I am going to buy it.??")
But the parents and kids sign up and then an elf takes them to a different room to do their shopping with the helper. We said they could get a present for each other but both of them decided to get a gift for Justin and I with their money. So they have donated items and different priced items in their little santa shop. Then they help them wrap it and wa la shopping is done. They had so much fun and the kids are SO excited because they did something on their own and made their own decisions. Avery keeps trying to re wrap and spruce up the ribbon on her gift and tell me just a little about what is in my gift. It is fun to have them excited about giving something. When we went in to sign up they asked who we want them to spend money on. Payton chimed in that he just wanted to get himself a gift really. But he was excited to get some one else something.

Blog help

Ok I need a little help here. I am trying to copy everyone that has the cool little list of friend and family blogs on the side with the title of their last post and how long ago it was posted. I heard it is under gadgets but haven't figured out where. If anyone has a moment to walk me through it or leave hints in the comment section I would appreciate it. I am sure it is easy and I am just missing it. I tried to make something work and it must be the wrong gadget because it confused my whole computer and couldn't get the blog to even work for a while. So hopefully I haven't ruined the blog. Thanks.

Myrtle Beach in Nov

We took a last minute trip down to Myrtle Beach on the 6th and 7th. Who knew it could be so much fun to go to the beach in the winter. The kids did get in the water and Payton was disappointed that we didn't let him bring the boogie board. I am surprised they even brought swimming suits. But we had lots of fun and were pleased to keep it cheap. I guess the condos have big discounts in the off season so we had a cool big condo with a great view. It was a great get away for us. We played at the beach all day. When we were about to leave Justin found the coolest find of the trip. He was in the waves and caught a glimpse of a shell. It was one of those that the next wave is going to cover up if you don't grab it now. Well it turned to be a huge shell all intact. It is bigger then my hand it is so big. We found much cooler shells then the broken pieces I am used to seeing.


Searching for sea shells in the dark. We got there after dark but had fun running around on the beach and finding fun stuff in the dark.


The sunrise was beautiful over the Ocean.

The family

Humm I never noticed...

So maybe this isn't appropriate but I keep forgetting to record the funny things that go on. So please excuse this crude humor. We had family prayer in our bedroom last night so we let Payton use our bathroom as they headed to bed. He came out looking a little confused and a little embarrassed. He came over to me and kind of quietly asked, "mom why does your toilet say Come Fart?" I was a bit surprised and didn't know what he was saying. But after some chiding from mom and dad about potty jokes and bathroom humor he dragged us in to show us that he truly did read that the toilet says Come Fart. Well to my surprise our toilet seat says Comfort, which I can now see the easy slip, and a poor kids embarrassment. Oops.

Update

Here is a few of the things I missed blogging about when we had no internet.



Avery's birthday

Just a quick update, Avery and Payton both lost a top tooth!! That was exciting for both of them. Payton's dentist pulled his out and Avery pulled out her own.

Grandma and Grandpa Meredith came to visit last month. It was a quick fun visit for Avery's birthday and they brought down a few bikes!
Avery and Payton learned to ride 2 wheeler bikes. One of the neighbor girls asked Avery to ride bikes with her and she said she didn't have a bike and didn't know how to ride. So this little girl was determined to teach Avery how to. So I think they tried it about two days and Avery was riding. They took her to the top of the hill and she just tried to pedal pedal pedal until she crashed. She still hasn't figured out the whole break thing. She just goes and coast and turns uphill until she comes to a stop.
Payton wanted to learn too so that next day he went down to a neighbors house who had a little bike and asked to borrow it and taught himself.
That was a big step for us. The kids love their new freedom and speed.

Avery hanging out.

Sorry for these next pictures they aren't pretty.
I broke my ankle at the end of September jogging. Of course I don't think it was a coincidence that just the evening before I was commenting to Justin how I feel like I have it too easy. Now that two kids are in school, life just feels too easy, it shouldn't be this easy, maybe I am not doing enough, maybe I should be some schooling or just do more. Well I seemed to have taken care of the too easy part. I stepped on an uneven part of the edge of the road and tumbled into the middle of the road at 5 in the morning. I had to walk home as I came up with a few good reasons to ignore the feeling to take my cell phone with me. I ended up driving to the hospital, and switched the kids with Justin and ended up spending 9 hours there waiting to see a doctor. It was kind of funny as we all sat in the overfilled waiting room and an ad for government run health care came on we all started looking around. Yeah I don't think anyone in that waiting room suffering mostly from neglect more then the ailment that brought them in and kept them there, will be voting for any such health care. We all vowed to go to a private clinic next time and pay out of pocket if we must. It was not a fun experience. But in the end they said I did the same thing I did 9 years ago. It was such a bad sprain it pulled a chunk of bone away from the ankle bone. So they put me on crutches. I was pretty good about staying off it all week, then I got a walking boot and after a week of that I felt good enough to run. My kids were the best they wanted to help all the time. Paige gave the sweetest prayers and I attribute my speedy recovery to them and all those praying for me. That was the quickest, most painless recovery ever. After my one last time I did have something to compare it with. Last time I was limping all semester and this time I am back to running and anything else I feel like doing. What a blessing.
The knee picture was just to show how my right knee took a good part of the spill. Boy did it hurt almost worse then the broken ankle.

Here is a picture of the broken left ankle, I took a picture before I even went to the doctor as I was debating if I should go in or not, so the coloring didn't even show up yet.

Avery got another haircut

Avery has been begging for a haircut, and with her motivating to brush her long hair waining we finally gave in. It is shorter then we had planned but every day we are both glad it is short. It really fits her spunky attitude. It is also much cuter and just seems like it is perfect for her and not to mention effortless to maintain. Of course we did have a few tears when all the cutting was done. But we are much happier and I am glad she doesn't look like Marsh Brady.


So Avery wanted me to post these other pictures of the wig.



Avery wanted me to post these pictures.

Happy Halloween

I wanted to start this post by saying I really had goals to get great pictures this Halloween and get a group picture. I really wanted to show how cute and fun the kids looked and how much they enjoyed the experience. Well I totally remember why I have terrible photos some times. So here are some OK photos. I tried to throw in a lot of them to make up for their quality and to get the many moods and costumes.
We had way too many parties and way way too much candy.
We started out with the community party. The kids got off the bus after the party started so we skipped the costumes and it was just a lot of people and a lot of lines so it didn't make for good pictures. But it did have a lot of candy.
The next night was the Church party. Dinner was great we had fun games, the kids dressed up and Justin dressed up as a construction worker. Again lots of candies. But the picture problem continued as some feelings were hurt and before I could get individual pictures or another fun family one I lost two of the kids, or they were stuck to my leg.

Payton was a knight, Paige a fairy(she did her own eye shadow, it isn't a black eye), and Ben a horse, Avery the witch.



This is our friend Paige (too). Paige wouldn't go near her so we had to take her picture with Avery.

The next day (Sat.) was Justin's work party. That was fun but unusually warm and a lot of walking. So the kids were tired and grouchy(from 2 days of endless candy.) So they were not in a mood for pictures. Most turned out with sour faces or the back of heads. They did have a bounce house, haunted house, hot dogs and pony rides. Oh and of course endless Candy.

Our pirate!

We finally know where Avery and Ben's blond hair comes from.





Paige LOVED riding!! I know what she wants for Christmas. Yep, they traded costumes.
This picture just makes me smile. Most of the time she had a huge smile on her face.

Trick or Treating (FINALLY) Here we are with our friends.

All done collecting candy and boy am I wiped out. Avery spilled water on the witch costume so she spent most of the trick or treating time changing. She did catch us at the last few houses. Paige slept through the whole thing, but that was probably good. Ben gave up his gun, stick horse, and boots by the end. Payton was down to half a costume as well. I have to say that was the hottest Halloween I ever had. So hot and humid. On the positive side, I decided I am putting away half the candy for 72 hour kits (emergency kits). And Paige has endless potty treats if I can just find a place to stash them where Ben can't get (or break his leg trying) to get them. Ben has increased his vocabulary, CAN-D has become integrated into his daily language and he has learned both the passive, and command forms of the word. I have lost all desire for candy and and just get sick if I watch my kids eat it. (Must be from a childhood binge or something, UGH) But I will scrapbook a page or two and remember the fun times. In all I am happy with the time we spent together and with friends and hope that can some how come out in the pictures.