Please, don't have a heart attack!!

Okay, so it has been FOREVER since I have updated you all on our little family so grab a snack before you read this -- it's a long one!!

Things were so crazy at the end of the year and more than one thing had to get put aside until I could get CONTROL of our crazy lives. In a nutshell, here is how our summer/fall/holidays went:

SEPTEMBER - Went to Labor Day Reunion, Alli started pre-school, Dana surprised me with a get-away to San Diego for my bday, got called to be Primary President, Connor became obsessed with golf, Emma taking cheer/pom classes, Alli continuing her dance lessons.

Connor, Emma & Alli at Labor Day Reunion with counsins, Wendy & Emily

OCTOBER - Ran kids around, went to Lake Powell for annual siblings reunion, Emma lost both front teeth, tried to get control of my life...failed, pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, celebrated(??) Halloween.


Doesn't she look too cute without her two front teeth??


Alli's best friend is also named Emma and they had so much fun at the pumpkin patch.


Alli sorting through all the little pumpkins trying to find the perfect one!


The tractor at the pumpkin patch was a big hit.


The kiddos with cousins Kenzie, Steven & Bradley after carving their pumpkins.


Alli LOVES princess Jasmine & looked super cute all dressed up.


Emma LOVES all princesses and was a very beautiful Cinderella this year.


Connor was my little vampire - even if he doesn't know how obsessed I am with the Twilight books =)


Here are the little trick-or-treaters - boy, did they have a huge stash of candy by the time the night was over!

NOVEMBER - Ran kids around, celebrated Alli's 4th birthday, had an awesome Thanksgiving, shopped 'til we dropped with my mom and sisters after Thanksgiving.

My mom helped me (thanks, mom!!) make cute aprons for the girls for Alli's party - they all looked ADORABLE wearing them!!


Alli wanted to decorate cookies and have a chocolate fountain at her party. I think the girls were pretty sugared up by the time they went home.


Here is her very simple but cute cake that she helped me decorate.

DECEMBER - Celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary, celebrated Dana's birthday, attended Emma & Alli's dance recital, decorated gingerbread houses, went to see Santa, enjoyed kids' re-enactment of the nativity, had a wonderful Christmas with Grandma at our house, spent some time at Grandma's and played in the snow, had Tim & Steph's family at our house with their kids and had SOOO much fun, went to Wickenburg for a few days to ring in the New Year!! Oh, and FAILED to get a Christmas card in the mail but I still have high hopes for getting a New Year's letter out!!


The kids decorating their gingerbread houses. I'm quite certain Connor ate more candy than he actually put on his house.


Alli was Mary in the Nativity, Connor was Joseph and Emma was a donkey. Cerise's kids were there, too, and Kenzie was a very cute angel and great actress!


Alli loves babies and was so excited by what Santa brought for her.


Emma loves anything to do with ANIMALS and asked Santa for a sleeping lion. Luckily, Santa found exactly what she wanted!!


When Connor sat on Santa's lap he politely asked if he could ask for two things - Golf shoes and Roller Blades. Santa said he would see what he could do and he totally came through for Connor!!


Alli did NOT like the snow last year so I was a little worried but she jumped right in and had a ton of fun. She also helped me make a little snow man!!


Emma is super photogenic and looked like quite the model in all her snow gear!


Connor was really into making snow balls and throwing them at everyone.

ONE LAST THING -- We loved getting all the Christmas cards and letters from everyone. We are so thankful for all of our family and friends and the many blessings we have been given. Thank you all for your cards and letters and for being our friends =)

We are Alive!!

Hey friends & family --
I just wanted to post a quick note to say thanks for checking in on us and yes, we are alive & well!! Things have been really busy and more than one thing has been pushed aside and my blog is in dire need of updating!! The kids are doing so great and I will try to get some pictures posted soon. Don't lose faith in us just yet...Jenny

1st Day of School

Connor & Emma started school last week. It was a day of mixed emotions for me. I don't want them to grow up so fast but I was a little excited to have a little free time (is that bad??) Connor started 2nd grade and has Mr. M this year. I'm glad Connor has a guy teacher this year - I think he'll do really well and Connor thinks Mr. M is the COOLEST! Emma has a very sweet but strict teacher this year which I think will be a perfect fit. She has lots of cute friends in her class and seems so grown up now that she's in 1st grade.


Emma is all about fashion. Last year I just shopped for her and then she wouldn't wear half of what I bought. This year we went shopping with my sister, Julie and her daughter, Shaelee and also Grandma. It was a fun girls shopping day and I was really proud (or should I be scared?) of Emma -- we were gone the whole day and she didn't complain once. I'm afraid she likes shopping WAY too much!


Connor is such the GQ little man. He would wear anything I bought for him but of course he is loving the plaid shorts and anything surf related. He looked so handsome and grown up when he walked into his classroom. He's getting so stinkin' tall that I'm afraid he'll probably outgrow me by the 4th grade. Oh, well, I guess that's not really much of an accomplishment =)


Anyway, it's now just Alli & me during the day and she asks me (or tells me) every day where we are going. She starts a 3 day preschool in September and is really excited about that. I'm sure she'll be bossing everyone around in no time!

Happy Birthday to Emma!!

Our sweet Emma turned 6 last Thursday. We started out her morning by piling presents all over her!! She loves little animals and all things girly. After the presents, we took the kids to Lego Land for the day. Here are some fun pics of her special day.


Where's Waldo - I mean Emma in this pile of presents??



Lego Land was fun - the rides were geared to smaller kids so all of us could go on the rides together.

Okay - so my favorite ride that the kids got to go on was the Volvo driving school. There were two separate courses - one for the 3-5 year olds and one for the 6-13 year olds. The two older kids headed to the big kids course and Alli to the little kids course. They all got to drive their own little Lego cars and it was too cute. Dana said when Emma turns 16, she's all mine to teach!! She was the craziest driver and it's a good thing those cars don't go very fast =)

Here's our Birthday Girl!!

Connor was an awesome driver and he even got his Lego Land driver's license after the ride!

I was a little worried about Alli driving by herself since she'd never done it but she did great and had a huge smile on her face the entire time.


Since we were at the beach, we made a beach birthday cake and decorated it with sand (graham crackers), shells and sea creatures! Hope you had a GREAT 6th birthday, Emma. We sure love you!

San Diego was a BLAST!!

Thanks to my sister CERISE we headed to San Diego last week for a quick vacation before school started. We stayed in a condo right on the beach and it was so much fun!! My kids all loved the beach and it was so relaxing to just sit and watch them and, of course, read my Stephenie Meyer books (yeah, I'm addicted and have already finished Breaking Dawn...sooooo good). Anyway, back to the vacation. Dana was lucky enough to go golfing at Torrey Pines (where the US Open was just held). He loved the course but said it was BRUTAL!! We also took the kids to Lego Land on Thursday for Emma's 6th Birthday. I can't believe my little Emma is 6 years old and now in the 1st grade. Happy Birthday to Emma - our little princess!! Here are some fun pictures of our awesome week!

Alli loved playing at the edge of the water but wouldn't go much farther than that - thank goodness!! She was usually completely covered in sand and loved digging in it.

Emma is a SEA SHELL lover! She was constantly scouring through the sand trying to find any shell she could. She got a little braver by the end of the week and would go out in the water until it was almost to her waist.

Connor is a WATER lover and learned to boogie board. He's such a natural athlete and once he learned how he spent all his time catching waves!!


Here's a super cute picture of Emma and Alli with their cousin, Kenzie. They all play so great together and we love spending time with cousins.


Connor and his cousin, Steven both love to golf. Luckily, so do both of the dads so they both got to go golfing and had soooo much fun!



Cerise has two older kids - Ashley and Bradley. They are both such awesome cousins to my little ones and we really appreciated having them there to help with the kids. Also, Ashley loves the Stephenie Meyer books too so she went with me at midnight to Barnes & Noble to get our books!!

Hat Club

My mom has a small collection of old hats. When we were at her house this past weekend the kids all decided to model the hats and it was so completely adorable. I had to share some cute pics of our little hat club...

Here's most of the girl cousins having fun playing dress-up with Grandma's hats.


Alli, Emma and Connor - aren't they sweet??


My nieces - Kenzie, Natalie and Shaelee


More nieces - Ashley (the oldest cousin at 15) and Hailey (the youngest at 8 months)

4th of July Fun

I love the 4th of July and dressing the kids up in red, white & blue. I'm so grateful for all the men & women that have served or are serving our country. I feel so blessed to have freedom and love to CELEBRATE the 4th of July!! We escaped the heat and headed up to Snowflake/Taylor for the 4th of July. The weather was SOOOO nice and we had so much fun. My entire family was in town and the cousins had a ton of fun playing together. There are 18 cousins - oldest is 15 and youngest 8 months - CRAZY TIMES!!

Friday morning we headed up to the Show Low parade. Here are some cute pics from the parade. All the kids were lined up waiting for someone to throw some candy out.



After the parade we hung out at my sister's house. The kids all went swimming in Aunt Julie's pool - thanks Aunt Julie for letting us all crash (destroy?) your house!!


On Friday afternoon we decided to head down to the ball fields and play a family baseball game. It was super fun and the kids all had a blast! I also got to visit with my bestest friend in Taylor - Jolene. She has a little girl (Brooklin) a few weeks older than Alli and she happened to stop by the ball fields while we were there. It was so great to visit with her - if only she would update her blog more often (just kidding Jo!!) Here are some pics of the kids getting ready for baseball...



Taylor celebrated the 4th of July on Saturday morning with their traditional anvil explosion and the Jennings band. Dana headed out the door at about 5:00 in the morning with Connor in tow. Connor loves following the anvil and watching it explode into the air. I didn't even think to send the camera with Dana - so unfortunately no pics of that. All in all a great weekend with family, good food and all American FUN! We hope you all had a great 4th!!