November 2010

Well, I uploaded these pics last and I don't want to move them everywhere so I guess I'll start with Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was a great time like always. It wasn't the regular big crew like usual since G&G Smith went to Utah for Thanksgiving and some of my siblings were at inlaws this year-but it was still fun. I was impressed with how brave everyone was to face the freezing temps and go out side. Uncle Scott brought his huge kite which pulls ya skiing and can even lift you up in the air about 15 feet. The men(and my sisters) went and shot guns, the kiddos went sledding and snowmobiling.

This pic is of the kiddos sitting on my parents freezer while we were doing our pool tournament. It was a lot of FUN!

Because of all the snow Wes and my uncle and cousin were the only one's that could go up and get our annual cutting of the Christmas tree. I was a little worried when they'd been gone for over 3 hours. They Thankfully made it back OK- but it was quite the undertaking. They took the snomobiles but could only get up so far because of fallen trees etc. So they hiked about a mile in snow up to the waist. And then the trees just looked like piles of snow. I think they picked me out a pretty good tree if I do say so myself. Wes informed me if there was any snow on the ground next year we are getting our tree at a tree lot:(

We started off November with a Party Celebration for Jonathan's 8th Birthday. They went on a Treasure Hunt, made personal pizzas, and lots of fun games. He wanted a dragon cake so I had fun creating this all edible dragon cake.

The next day was the highlight of the month-Jonathan's baptism! Family made this such a special occasion by attending and participating. Doesn't Jonny look sharp in his Calvin Klein suit(a $20 dollar steal I found over a year ago at Macy's) We are proud of Jonathan and truly felt a great spirit that day.

Mid-month we got our first real snowstorm. The deer decided to use it as an excuse to eat 12 of my evergreens-UGHHH! The tree that you see in the bottom left corner is now pretty much a stick.

Hailey had her 1st grade Thanksgiving program. Out of all the programs-I think the Thanksgiving program is my favorite. They did awesome songs with indian sign language-quoted cute poems-she did an AWESOME job!(she's the cutest little pilgrim I might add)

I finally cashed in on my gift certificate Wes got me for mother's day/wedding anniversary. Only took 6 months-Ha! I decided to go back few years and put a little more of my blonde back in. It only took them a total of 5 hours to do my hair-tis why I don't get my hair done hardly. This was taken the day I got it-I wish I had a better pic of me-good as it gets.

Well, I am looking forward to this wonderful Christmas season coming up. It will be busy-that means I will have a lot to talk about next blog. Grateful for all the blessings that Heavenly Father has done for us and our family.
PS-Ethan has took up the hobby of reading-it looks like he found a pretty comfy reading corner-he's so stinkin cute!

October

Well, the biggest event was Jonathan turning 8 this month. This is such an exciting age-he'll get to celebrate with friends this week and then Saturday family will get to come and participate in his baptism and confirmation. So EXCITED!! He had a wrestling tournament scheduled on his birthday but chose to participate anyways. He did awesome-placing 1st- and then we had quite the experience of singing happy birthday in the car while Jon blew out candles half hazardly placed in a frozen cheese cake from the grocery store, lit by the car lighter-oh well. We'll make it up to him this week.

In October our family was introduced to "wolf 'ums" from Wes's 2 day scout training. It is a new favorite to cook outside in the fireplace. You can fill them with practically anything but our fav choice is pudding and whipped cream.

YOu just fit bisquit dough over a wooden dowel that we attached to our roasting sticks. My kids decided to stick a pile of pudding on Ethan's high chair one evening while we were cooking wolfums.-Tis the end result!

Brooklyn started preschool this last month. Another mother from my ward and I switch off every week with the curriculum and food. So Brooklyn only has one other classmate but it is a lot of fun-they are learning-and I get some grown up conversation during the day also. I did this with Hailey and it worked so well that I was glad to find somebody that wanted to do it with me. Pretty much everyone else signs up and sends there kiddos to a nearby preschool

but this way we save money and are hands on teaching our kids.

The annual carving of the pumpkin-it's nice when the kids are big enough to trust them with a sharp object-it saved Wes and I a lot less hassle of trying to carve a "million" pumpkins.

My parents stopped at our house for a few hourse on their way back home. Dad was nice and helped with some of the make up before our ward Fall festival-He's talented If I say so myself.
This is Jonny

Brooklyn was a beautiful Princess Aurora

Crazy Cameron was a cowboy

Zac-well, he's at that trying to be cool stage

The cutest little cowardly lion I EVER did see! Mr. Ethan

Hailey was a Princess Butterfly Fairy


The kids got to dress up for school Halloween party also

Jonathan the nerd

I was pretty impressed with Zac's own make up skills- even though it was for a clown.

This was my first butterfly art on Hailey-notice the butterfly from the ward Fall festival is quite different-fun though. Well-those are some of the highlights from this month-next month is going to be just as exciting-can't wait.

September

We've kept busy-If there's not a soccer practice, game, scouts, dance, or homework that has to be done-who knows what we're doing! I put up some strawberry and peach jam a few weeks back, and salsa a few weeks before(I decided to get creative and did a batch of peach salsa, black bean and corn salsa, reg salsa, and chili sauce-MMM!) I love feeling a little self-reliant when I put up some of my own food storage-I wish it was more often than naught though. My garden pretty much turned out to be an Obedience Garden. I planted it, weeded it, watered it-and got NOTHING out of it(well, does six cobs of corn and carrots count)-sigh! But I believe we were still blessed by trying to be obedient-we got a plethera of produce from kind neighbors gardens. Ethan turned 1 year old the end of September. He's been walking like a pro for over a month now. His siblings think everything he does is awesomely entertaining-they can't get enough of him-either can I. His personality is really starting to blossom-fake laughs, temper tantrums, dancing, making silly sounds, cheesy grins, peek-a-boos, wrestling, and nice big bear hugs. I just got a phone call from the Weber County Planning about my business license-every thing so far has been approved-my drive way even had to get a $13oo make over-EEEK! That hurt the pocket book but it actually is a lot nicer and usable for my students- and us! I really enjoyed conference weekend up in Idaho. It's always nice to relax with family and partake of the spirit and the messages. We are so blessed to have living prophets to guide and direct us. The Holy Ghost to prompt and inspire us. Our Savior who gives us hope and a path to follow. A loving Heavenly Father to bless and help us. Family to support and teach us. Friends that serve and show kindness. WE ARE SOOO BLESSED!

We went with(took the 3 older boys) the YM and YW to Music and the Spoken Word one Sunday-I can never get used to the goose bumps and hairs rising on my arms when I listen to them sing LIVE-the orchestra was there too. Senator Orrin Hatch passed us by-I was polite and didn't take a pic-but he sure had on enough make up for his own funeral or something-anyways. Our YM pres. dad works @music & spoken word and so hooked up our youth group to a tour underneath the tabernacle building(litterally underneath the tabernacle, assembly hall, and beautiful landscape. The church does everything top notch. Everything was aesthetically beautiful and technically advanced. Amazing to see where all the Tabernacle choir gets their music(it's like a mini post office), and dressed, and practices, and records etc. We had time before we had to get back for sacrament so some Sister missionaries took us on tour. There is an awesome new set up in one of the visitor's centers that has a mini replecation of the SL temple. It's like a doll house-detailed down to the paintings, lighting, and furniture-COOL! They also have a big screen where you can touch it take your own 3-D tour of the temple. I can't believe they even got the detail of the ceiling in the Celestial Room-amazing. We ended @ the Christus-special!

So instead of buying the regular presents for our kids this year for their birthdays-I bought tickets to the Lion King. We went early, ate at a authentic Italian pizza restaurant called Settebello's(YUMMMMMMMMY!) THe pizza's only took like 3 min to cook and it was soooooo fun for Wes to incorporate stories from his mission on "pizza" experiences and etiquette. The kids really love it when Wes talks about his mission-they think he's the coolest and they felt like they were part of it. THe show was AMAZING!!!!!!!! Even though we had nose bleed seats I just couldn't get over the costuming, puppets, music EVERYTHING!!!!!! I'll take this kind of experience over picking up toys off the floor and taking un-played with toys to the DI every year that they got from their birthdays the year before.

The kids LOVE school (so far) They all have great teachers and seem to be doing well in their studies and keeping up with their curriculum.

We had a nice experience going to Bear Lake this year. A guy Wes works with invited us to his family cabin. We had a panoramic view of the whole lake. Another family came also(he works for Layton too) It was good to meet the people that Wes spends so much time with other than home. These were two good men and I'm glad Wes has friends that have the same standards etc. We had fun playing @ the beach, talking, playing games, and of course-eating! We went up to Idaho afterwards and spent some time @ my mom and dad's. Grandma Smith had an accident a week before (fell and broke femur right under the ball) She has a metal rod and screws in her leg now. My aunts have been taking turns taking care of her because she needs a lot of help just getting around and grandpa's health is not good. It was good to see her, she is always in good spirits-soo funny!

I've been keeping busy-with household and kids- but also with dance. let's just say I have A LOT of students this year. Every year the word gets around I guess. Most of my students I never knew before dance where before they were all neighbors or ward members. I enjoy myself and being able to be creative in my own element. oh, and the little excercise I get with it is a plus. Ethan is big time walking EVERYWHERE! He is so cute with his "cheesy grin" expressions and little noises that come out of his mouth(especially mmmooommmm) He cuddles with me and gives me big hugs as he wraps his arms around my kneck while he holds my hair;) Wes is enjoying his new position @ work in the detectives division as an SRO. Surprisingly he's kept really busy but likes being around kids and youth. They like him too I think. Well, that's it for now. Ta Ta

Summer 2010-sorry-ALL over the place

This morning I saw my link from my a friends blog post-updated "3 months ago" EEEEEK! Fortunately, I've been better @ keeping my personal journal but I still would like to keep up with basic happenings and pics of the McKinney clan. Now, just where do I begin. . . . . .

Zac's first year scout camp-Cameron@ day camp

Hailey turned 6!

Free Fishing Day in Idaho!

Dance Recital-Success!

Dad finished our built-in Cabinets YEA!

California 2010-fishing and BBQ w/ Cher's friends

Beach-what more can I say

Lucy, Lucy, Lucy! LOOOVED Lucy!!!!!!!!!!

San Fransisco

Swimming and fun fun fun

The infamous bridge!

Sand Castles

Waves! We also went to the "Mystery Spot", saw the Last Airbender, went to SF GIANTS game, but best of all, played at the park with the cousins! LOTS OF GOOD GOOD MEMORIES

Smith Family Reunion-Lots of cousins and lots of fun!

Family Night-talent night-the Haka

2 soccer tournaments-2 soccer championships

Cameron turns 10!

Zac had a birthday in July-11 years old!

This year instead of buying toys and other things that the kids play with for about a week-I bought all the kids tickets to the Lion King for the end of this month-I consider that a better use of our money.