February 2011

My Valentine of 14 years now!!! My Dear Sweet Wesley. Our first Valentine's together, right after we were engaged, Wes got me a blown glass replica of the Salt Lake Temple where we were to be sealed for Time and all Eternity. It adorned the top of our wedding cake. This year he got me another replica of the Salt Lake Temple. The detail is amazing-I LOVE IT! For Valentine's dinner I asked the kids what they wanted to eat. Zac commented "EVERYTHING RED" thus- our menu- Roasted red onions, red peppers, on top or roasted red potatoes with garlic butter cream sauce. Red leaf lettuce with red roma tomatoes and Red french dressing. Grilled steak(not so red after cooked:)adorned with sauteed mushrooms(not red but for Wes a must) and for dessert-Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting-MMMmm!

This year Cameron's Valentine Box for school was a skunk that held a Valentine that says "LOVE STINKS" Something Cameron would say. Anyways, We inserted my Airwick sprayer with motion sensor on it- so everytime you lifted the skunks tail it would spray.

Zac's BIG idea was this Love Bird. I think he got quite a few extra Valentines' because the kids enjoyed sticking their Valentine in the bird's mouth and hearing it travel down its throat into the bird's belly-HA!

We went to St. George President's Day Weekend for Cameron's soccer tournament. The Utah President's Cup. They were in the Gold division. While we were there we stayed with my Cousin's Jason's wife's family. The Slater's. They were so kind and hospitable. We enjoyed our stay and the chance to meet such a great family. We appreciate their generosity. We took the kids on a tour of the St. George temple. A sister missionary from Bakers, Calif led us in the tour-she was AWESOME! We enjoyed listening the history of this beautiful temple.

The McKinney Clan

While we were in St. George Wes had a big day. It was his 37th birthday on Saturday. He got a "special" birthday card ;) and I made a big dinner for him on Sunday Hope he had a memorable week.

So Cameron's team, from our little valley, SWAT VALLEY UNITED, WON the Championship! On Saturday we got rained on all day for the games, we enjoyed a nice pasta buffet as a team afterwards, and then on Monday finished off the games. The championship game was a close one. Going to overtime and then ending with a shoot-out. The boys did great-we were proud of them whether they won or not-but it's always funner to come out on top I guess.

SWAT stands for Soccer With ATTI-TUDE!

This is a friend to Cameron and Zac, Nate Preston, who flew out the next day to New Zealand, the day of the devastating earthquake. Their family is moving back their but they are in a different part of the country so seem to be doing fine. Best of Luck to them and their family.

On our way to California we stopped at our dear friends, the Bainbridge Family, WE LOOOOOVE spending time with them and the kids all do well together. They are always so hospitable and we always feel at home.

Wish we could have spent more time with them but we had a very important meeting with some very important people:)

The Happiest Place on Earth with Special Family Members!

Especially THIS little Cutie Patootie!!!!!

Three of my main men waiting in line for Pirates of the Caribbean. Ethan was quite enthralled with it all. He even kept his glasses on and sat like a statue during the 3-D movies. He cried a few times in some of the rides, but I think overall loved it.

The boys weren't actually all that thrilled to ride the teacups but it was a MUST for their Disneyland experience. Notice the matchy matchy shirts. I totally recommend it for any family going to a crowded place with lots of kiddos, although, we got quite a few stares and comments when Wes and I had Dallin and Jocey by ourselves with our kiddos-HA!

One of the highlights was the girls getting to meet the princesses. The Disney workers were very kind and let us meet 3 of the princesses before the next shift of princesses. They met Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Belle, and Aurora. They were soooooo sweet and very much in character and gave each of them special attention. Lucy LOVED It!

and I can't say enough of how Sweet Tinkerbell was. You can tell that their personalities are genuinely that sweet. Overall we had such a great time. The kids had so much fun and it was even magical for me. We love our hotel-Radisson Suites in Buena Park, the breakfast's themselves were Amazing. We relished in getting to spend time with family even though it can get quite chaotic with so many people. Even Mel got to spend some time with us. We appreciated my parents help and Ryan and Meagan's help. I know they would have probably had a lot more fun if they were just by themselves but they were so patient. THANK YOU!

December 2010

Well, the kids have "adopted" this new pet that's made a home under a pile of concrete slabs by our back door. The kids will throw a carrot, apple, or few leaves of lettuce every once in awhile. It was eating a tree close to it's home so Zac wrapped cardboard around it. Little Bunny FOoFOo fits don't ya think.

Brooklyn has got to do some fun things in preschool- this was H is for house. The Christmas season really does make it easy for endless crafts and ideas to make learning fun for the kids. In school Zac did his first science project entitled SODA or SMILE. He did a good job and is quite the presenter.

The week of Christmas we found out that my cousins little boy Andrew had passed away through the night of SIDS. He was only a month younger than Ethan. We mourn for their loss, especially at this time of the year, but are grateful that they have the same knowledge that we do-that Families are FOrever-and the Savior takes the sting of death away. It made it more memorable this season to really enjoy spending time with family members, especially my children. The kids had fun playing with cousins and Grandma's and Grandpas.

Christmas Eve we did our annual reading re-enacting of the Nativity.

Twas the Night Before Christmas. . .

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care. . . .

in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. . . .not quite Santa, but we'll take him!


Wow-Santa came! The kids must have been really good this year! A little spoiled I might add. Elf Aunt Angie gets a little carried away ;)

I had fun playing with the kids new games and putting together their bikes and toys.

The end of this month I did a wedding cake for a girl I used to teach in my Laurel class-chocolate mint ganache cake with fondant and white chocolate snowflakes with edible pearls. We've enjoyed this season-making snowmen, going sledding, and drinking lots of hot chocolate and playing games with each other. We look forward to another great year-creating memories with our loved ones, learning, loving, and are so grateful for all that our Heavenly Father has blessed us with and continues to bless us with.

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!