Our Loser Friends

We have losers for friends...BIGGEST LOSERS that is! Our dear friend Moses and his daughter Kaylee will be on the upcoming 2011 Season of Biggest Loser. Starts Jan. 4th, so be sure to set your DVR and cheer on Team Kinikini! We couldn't be more proud of them!! (And don't tell me you are cheering for anyone else. I wish all the other competitors luck at losing weight, but I am fiercely loyal to MY team!)

Flat Callie

Our Texas cousin, Callie, did a Flat Stanley project for her classroom. Flat Stanley is the story of a boy who is flattened by a bulletin board falling on him. He's so thin that he can mail himself in a letter to visit other places in the world. Callie created a "Flat Callie" to visit us in Idaho. Here a few of the places we took her to visit.
She played in the snow with us. We even made her a coat and snowpants for the occasion.

We made sure she got a picture with some Idaho potatoes.

She got to see the museum.

And the falls of Idaho Falls.

She even got to feed the ducks by the river. She's lucky she made it out alive from this visit. Those ducks were HUNGRY and thought everything in our hands was food.

What fun we had with Flat Callie. We hope we get to do a Flat Stanley project sometime so we can visit Texas!

Girl Scouts

I know nothing about Girl Scouts, and I do mean nothing, well except that I love Tag-alongs and Samoas. But since Halle decided to join, it has opened up a whole new world to me.
She went to her first Investiture - where she was accepted into the troop and received several badges. Her troop earned a caroling badge, but Halle couldn't participate in that event since she was in the Nutcracker that night. Her troop leader surprised her with a Nutcracker badge. That was really neat.

She seems to really be enjoying girl scouts. And remember her should you need cookies come the next couple of months.

Gingerbread Houses

I don't know what it is, but I am having the hardest time decorating for Christmas. Its not that I don't have the Christmas Spirit, I do, but I just don't want to pull out all the decor. I have the minimum needed for it to still feel like Christmas in the house, a tree, the stockings, and the Santa cookie jar, but that's about it. And quite frankly, I think that's where it's staying this year. However, I did find time to let the kids do gingerbread houses. They are one part of Christmas I just really love.
Alyssa worked extra hard on hers this year. It turned out darling. She had some great piping work this year. Her decorating skills just keep getting better with age.

We were lucky to have our friends the Kinikini's join us in the fun. However, when I pulled the hot glue gun out to assemble the houses, Lanaya would have none of that. She wanted hers held together with frosting. I just don't have the patience to wait for the frosting to set up before we can start the decorating process, but we indulged Lanaya and made sure hers had no glue.

All the finished products. I'm such a mean mom, but I don't allow any gingerbread house eating until after Christmas. They can eat the candy while they decorate, but after its on the house, it's mine to enjoy until the season is over. I love my little gingerbread village.

Nutcracker "Sweet"

Halle joined ballet a few months ago. She got to be in the Nutcracker this Christmas and she was SO excited for it. This is her with a couple classmates waiting back stage for their turn on stage.

The mints ready to dance. They did such a great job and all their long hard hours of practice paid off. It was such a professional production. I was mighty impressed.

Her friend Taylor came to watch and surprised her with flowers

She also got a couple of nutcrackers for congratulation gifts. She carried her rat king nutcracker around like a baby doll for several days.

Halle loves ballet. She has practice 4 hours a week, and during Nutcracker time it was 8 hours a week. I keep waiting for her to tell me she's sick of it, but whenever it's time for ballet, she is so excited about it. I'm so glad she has found something she loves.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This year we gathered at my parents' home. All but Quin and his family were there. We had all of the traditional fixin's and we had turkey prepared two ways. Mmmmm!

It was so cold (sub zero temps), that Bryon had a little trouble getting the oil hot enough to deep fry a turkey. But, he got it done and it was appreciated by all. As were the wonderful turkeys my mom had baked in the oven.

Grandma braved the cold and slick roads and came to join the family for the meal. She had some back surgery a few months ago and is still sporting her "tortoise shell" as she calls it.

The dads enjoyed some football which inspired the boys to play a little themselves. It was much too cold to play outside, so they played a mild game indoors.

My nephew Brancyn has an obsession with anything "sport" and has quite the arm for throwing. It's so cute to watch him. Carter and Kayson we so good to share the ball with him and tackle him gently.

The next day, it warmed up enough to pull out the snow clothes and sleds. Grampy wanted to get in on the fun, so he hooked the train up to his tractor, tied a sled to the back end and took all of the grand kids for a ride through the yard and out into the "forest". They were really cruisin' on this thing and loved every minute.

Friday night, Jarom and I went to dinner with our high school friends, which we try to do each Thanksgiving weekend. It is always so fun to see everyone.

Justin and Amber, Becky and Kevin, Brandon and Emily, Ben and Kaylin, Grandma Eva, Melissa and Blake, Gregg, Jarom and Elena, Katie and Chris, Natalie, Anna, and Granda Freidenberger

37 years ago, on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, Jarom's parents were married in the Idaho Falls LDS temple.

The Saturday following Thanksgiving this year, 37 years to the day they were married, Jarom's ENTIRE family was in the temple together. His sister Natalie had decided to go through for the first time and we were all able to be there with her. It was a special and sacred day for our family.

After a nice adult only lunch, we all headed to Blackfoot to watch the BYU vs UT game. (Which ended sadly as I mentioned in the previous post.) The little boy cousins had a full on boxing match going on. Complete with trainers in the corners wearing towels, referees, and time outs and warm ups by punching pillows. IT was HILARIOUS! These little cousins can be so funny sometimes. And the best part of this was that there were no tears shed. These are some tough kids.

And now we're hitting the craziness of the holidays. Many fun, exciting, and exhausting things to come.

Thanks to my sisters-in-law whose words and pictures I borrowed. :)

BYU Fans on ESPN

Okay, it apparently it wasn't ESPN, it was The Mountain station, see how much I know. LOL! I meant to post this last week when talking about BYU football was a happy thing. (FYI, they lost to their rival, University of Utah this weekend by one tiny point. It was a heart breaker.) Our neighbor had a couple of extra tickets to the game last weekend and offered them to Jarom. (Third row, end zone seats. Who'd say no to that?!) So Jarom hopped right on that train and called our brother in law, Brandon (who has been so kind as to offer Jarom a couple of tickets this season as well) and they all headed to LaVell Edwards Stadium to watch their beloved BYU.

The kids and I joined Justin and Amber in Blackfoot to watch the game and HOPED we'd get a glimpse of the guys on tv. With such good seats, we were bound to at some point.
Sure enough, near the end of the game (which BYU won!) a big ol' close up! Jarom is in the white BYU sweatshirt and Brandon is the right in the black and white stocking cap.

The kids were so excited to see Jarom and Brandon on t.v. It was hilarious to see them all cheering right along with them. What a fun day for everyone!

It's COLD Outside

We've had our first official blast of the arctic come through here this week. A little over a foot of snow has dropped and the winds have been insane. Shoveling the side walk is about an every 2 hour event. Yesterday every single freeway and highway was closed due to blizzard conditions in the entire Eastern half of the state. Today's high I think has already been hit (at 9 AM) and is 5 degrees and dropping. Add some wind chill to that and it's -12ish outside. Brrrrr...

All this cold air plus a dose of the seasonal cold bug has caused Kate's asthma to rear it's ugly head. Poor girl is hacking like a smoker. We've got her on some steroids and breathing treatments for the next few days and hope she'll be feeling better soon. I'm so grateful for our own personal nebulizer we bought through ebay to keep on hand for just these kinds of events. Hopefully that will lessen the midnight ER runs for us.

We've been enjoying staying warm and cozy in our pj's all week (as the kids have school off for Thanksgiving break) watching movie after movie. Including, but not limited too, a Harry Potter marathon. Saw the new movie last night and thought it was fabulous.

Tomorrow we will attempt to forge our way out to my mom's house (actually the roads are much better now, it's just freezing cold) to enjoy a yummy Thanksgiving feast. We have much to be thankful for and it is nice to have a holiday dedicated to just that. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday and stay warm!

Update: For my warm and balmy weathered Southern friends, here are pictures.
Snow in the middle of the road waiting for the snow plows to scoop it all up.

Iced over round about. (And a lovely shot of my cracked windshield.)

A path for a turn lane equals big piles of snow.

Home Sweet Home, snug and warm inside.

The reality of snowy days.

Halle's Directorial Debut!

Halle has been hard at work capturing magic with her new Flip. With some help of her family she's produced her first movie. She couldn't be more proud to be on YouTube. ALL of the kids feel famous. Help us get atleast a dozen views on this video so their little bubbles don't burst. ;)

The Littlest One Grows Up

Kate turned FIVE today!!! Yes, we're a little birthday crazy around our house this time of year. Everyone has a birthday except Carter, and he is feeling rather left out at the moment.

No matter how brother was feeling, Miss Kate had a glorious day. It started with birthday pictures with her best buddy "Hearts". After this picture she informed me that she was ready to open the "new pretend shoes" (dress up high heels) that she had noticed in my room. The little peeker...although it was my fault. I thought I had hid them, when really all I did was set them on my nightstand. I swear I'm going crazy.

Then off to preschool with some more buddies. Actually, I had NO clue Kate felt as friendly towards these girls as she acted for these pictures. She's normally ULTRA shy and a bit picky about who she views as friends. I walked in to watch her cute little preschool program and she instantly demanded pictures and started posing. It was quite hilarious really.

Miss Kris, her teacher, made her a crown for the day. Kate wore it proudly, even to the store.

To be quite frank, I was a little partied out, and opted to let Kate pick a cake from the store rather than make one. A task which required 3 different stores and a pit stop at McD's, until we found the perfect one, but when she saw it, it was love at first site.

We are so glad we have great family and friends who could pop on over and make it feel like a party for Kate. She had a ball, and is in love with every gift she received. (By the way, check out the SUPER cute hat my sister made. So fun!) I'm missing this fun toy stage with my older girls. It goes WAY too fast.

Happy Birthday Kate!! May all your dreams come true. I ADORE this little spunk! Side note: Notice that Flip documenting every moment of the party. (Halle is still loving her b-day gift.)

And a little funny before I end this post Kate:

She's still learning her ABC's but she gets tripped up on K every time.

She sings, "ABCDEFGHIJK-A-T-E".

Well, the alphabet needs some work, but at least she knows how to spell her name.

How Can She Possibly Be 10?!

My babies just keep growing and growing. Halle hit the double digits yesterday. It is crazy to me that she can really be 10. She was 6 months old, 6 MONTHS!, when we bought our first house in Nampa. That seems like such a short time ago and here it is 10 years later already!
Halle has partied all weekend long. It started with a sleepover with cousin Liberty on Friday night.

Liberty gave Halle a scrapbook for her birthday so we had to have a quick photo shoot and print of some pictures to create the first page.

Oh they were silly.

But nothing says "I'm Halle" better than a few silly and fun poses. This girl is ALL about fun.

The next day she had a party with some friends. She wanted a "rock star" themed party, so I attempted to make little microphone cakes. (They were so much cuter in my head.)

But Halle seemed pleased with them, so that is all that mattered.

The "rockers" ready to PARTY!

We borrowed a karaoke machine from a neighbor and the girls rocked out to Hannah Montana and Disney remix songs. They had a riot running the lights, being back stage dancers, audience members, and of course performers. So funny to see each of their personalities come out on "stage".

Halle and all her little guests. You really should click on this collage and make it come up large size. Halle is just such a photogenic little thing (as are all her beautiful friends); I just can't get over how pretty she is.

Halle is CONSTANTLY running the battery down on my camera by making videos. So we decided to give her her very own video camera for her birthday present. I have never heard of a "Flip" before, but the minute she saw it she said, "I got a FLIP!!!" She knew exactly what it was. We've been filming away ever since. She's currently working (with her dad) on a darling little video which I will share as soon as it's done.

I hope this little girl's every wish comes true!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Halle!! I love you Baby.