Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Its Christmas Time AGAIN!!!

Kids just wait and wait for Christmas, the anticipation almost kills them.  The excitement is just almost too much to bear!!!  For me on the other hand...it always seems to come to quickly.  I never seem to be prepared enough.  I have never been the person that over thinks, over plans and is over prepared for any holiday!!!  I hope my kids will forgive me for that!! Most times we're just flying by the seat of our pants.  I do love Christmas, but as happy as I am to see it come, I am equally happy to have it over!!
Here are a few pictures of our holiday fun!!!

Of course the beginning of December is the prep time!  Decorating...trimming the tree....and how could we be without the Christmas cookies!!!  I love, love, love Nutcrackers...can you tell?

The Saturday before Christmas is always our family Christmas Parties...this year we decided to have a PJ Christmas so everyone gave each other jammies!!!  I thought it was so fun!!! Now we need to find a new theme for next years gifts!!!

 Santa ALWAYS comes to the party at Grandmas and sings some songs with us...this year Aunt Teressa  has the kids come to her house and decorate gingerbread houses.




Santa brings the kids their matching PJ's and gets in last minute requests!!!  Don't they all look so great!?!?



 Present time!!!  Thanks everyone for making our Christmas so fun!!!


 Christmas Morning!!!


Christmas was on Sunday this year....here are all the kids dressed up in their Sunday best!!!  What a great time of year, its so nice to be able to focus on the true meaning of Christmas...our love for our Savior and the love we have for each other...and to focus on serving others.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Thanksgiving Pumpkins

Pinterest....do I need to say more???



Family Picture Time

 Another thing I haven't been great at...having family pictures done!!!  But I finally did it.











October 2011

I am just going to try and get the whole month of October in one post....I hope you can keep up!!!

 Ok, September was so busy for me because of the School Carnival and poor Abbie didn't really get a birthday of any sort...so finally after it all calmed down I took her to get a pedicure.  Cierra came too, but didn't get her toes done.  I told Abbie today that I have prepared her good for a husband...her expectations are really low when it comes to birthdays.  I usually never wrap their presents and they are hardly ever a surprise!!  I don't do traditions because I know I'll just disappoint people because I would end up forgetting what I was suppose to do!!  I guess my motto is keep their expectations low!!!!


 Cierra was really sick for a couple of days and we went through her closet and cleaned out a whole bunch of stuff....I think we got rid of over 40 shirts and she still has 30 in her closet!!!

 Snakes...I don't like them, not even the little garter snakes that hang around our yard.  Cierra on the other hand is a different breed.  She caught a snake one day and decided to keep it as her pet.  I wouldn't let her keep it in the house so she kept it in a bucket in the front yard.  Everyday after school she would come home and put on her gloves and take it out of the bucket...let it down in the grass and watch it for a few minutes, then pick it up and put it back in the bucket.  I asked her what she was doing and she told me she had to let it out or else how would it ever learn to trust her?  Hmmm....do snakes learn trust??  Well it ended up dying one cold night so she came home from school and cut it into little pieces and put it in a baggie!!!!  These three girls were having a blast watching her, not being grossed out by it at all.

 So contention arises in our house when it comes to lawn and getting it mowed.  We had our last mower for about 8 years..not nearly long enough for it so be falling apart like it was, but it had had a couple of accidents and mishaps in our yard.  Jesse had been complaining about the handle falling off all year and how he was having to stop all the time and adjust knobs just so he could turn and stuff.  Bill told him to quit complaining...I told Jesse to ask his dad to mow the lawn 2x and he'd get a new mower.  He mowed it once and swore the whole time...the next week when it was his turn again....well lookie what we ended up with...a rider.  Personally I would have mowed the lawn for nice self-propelled mower to replace the other one, I don't love the new rider I think its more hassle than its worth to turn and get into small places etc.  Bill still isn't the one to mow the lawn either!!!

Jesse finally is a working man!!!  He got a job at Men's Wearhouse.  Here is a picture of him in his new suit looking pretty dapper if I must say!!!   Abbie made her own birthday cake to go along with the pedicures....a month late!!!  And FINALLY I finished the curtains for my living room!!!  How about that!!!



Halloween....our favorite time of the year.  Here are some pictures of the kids at their school costume parade and getting ready to trick or treat.  Abbie had a Halloween party to go to so we made Jello worms...I think they turned out awesome but no one would eat them because they looked to real, so she brought almost the whole plateful back home!!  And me in my Zumba tutu..It was super puffy...me and a couple of friends made matching ones to go to our Halloween Zumbathon!!!!  We were so awesome!!!!

Hillcrest Homecoming!

As everyone knows Homecoming week for any High school is a week of frenzied activities to help unite the school in hyper school spirit...I didn't love high school, but homecoming was a week that was always fun and filled with excitement. One of the activities they have at Hillcrest is a parade. They take the parade around a couple of elementary schools and let the community know so they can bring smaller kids or come watch their own kids in the parade.  Its pretty cute.





Jesse asked a girl to Homecoming and she answered him on a cob of corn...it was very cute!!

Her name is Kendee Owens.

Founders Day 2011

Wellsville's Founders Day...what more can I say!!!  Its on Labor Day and was the day that is celebrated in Wellsville as the day the city was founded.  Grandpa and Grandma McCammon  always make a big pancake and egg breakfast...we go down to the parade...after the parade some attend the Sham Battle (a play performed by members of the Wellsville Community) about the founding of Wellsville, then some go to the City Square where there is a carnival going on with games, booths and a few small rides.  Its a wonderful relaxing day and a fantastic way to wrap up the summer with family!!!



Abbie's birthday always is around Founders Day.  I remember going to the Founders Day Parade the day before she was born...she was a week over due and I was so ready to have her!!!  Now she's 12!!!  She is growing into such a beautiful young woman!! We love her so much and are so proud of the person she is becoming!!!


 The morning of Founders Day, Jesse decided he was going to run a 10K.  He had not trained a bit so we thought it would take him more than an hour to run it.  So after breakfast we went down to the square to see him cross the finish line...he finished in 50 min about 2 min BEFORE we got to the finish line....I felt so horrible that we under estimated him!!!  Way to go Jess!!!


 After breakfast at 10 is the parade...there was a lot of family that came this time!  Like a said a great way to end the summer with a bang!!!

2011-2012 School Year

Jesse hasn't let me take a picture of the first day of school for a while, but the girls still let me!!!  Cierra is now in 4th grade and Abbie is in 6th.  Can't believe how fast time goes by!!!  I love these adorable girls!!!  Abbie is growing up way too fast...she started shaving her legs, wearing makeup and using real bra's!!!  Am I really ready for what comes next!?!?


 Abbie in Mrs. Cranes class

 Cierra in Miss Hammonds Class

Venture Scout Super Activity!!

Bill went to a Scout training meeting and they were told that the High Adventure is for the Varsity scouts...Venture scouts have a Super Activity!!!  It made me laugh so I thought that's what I would name my post!!
Last Fall Bill took his scouts to Yellowstone National Park to bike through the park for their week long adventure. As luck would have it I was invited to go along as their cook!  I love to camp and its something that we don't get to do as often as I would like, so I was excited to say yes.  Bill asked his folks to bring their trailer along and come with us too.  They only had 5 boys so it wasn't too bad.  The first night we got there they took off on their first bike ride...we were staying at the Madison Campground they set up camp and they rode their bikes up to Norris.  I stayed back and started dinner, they said at the end they were glad that bike ride was the first day, because on a map it doesn't look so far away, but its up hill both ways!!! They came back, we had dinner and they played in the river for a while.

 The second day the guys woke up and it was drizzling and they weren't sure whether or not they wanted to bike in that weather, after eating breakfast in the trailer the weather cleared up and turned into a beautiful day.  They rode to Old Faithful and I drove up a couple hours later to meet them for lunch at a cafe there. We watched Old Faithful errupt...I left and went to start dinner and the boys went exploring some more and rode back to the campground.

 The third day we got up and had breakfast and packed our lunches for the big hike day.  We were hiking the 7 Mile Hole trail to the bottom of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  This day I got to go to!!!  We took a lot of pictures...it was a beautiful day!!!


 Here are just a bunch of random pictures of us on the way down.


 When we got to the bottom of the river, Bill had his water filter and filled up everyone's water pouches. I took off my shoes and socks to soak my feet in the river...Bro. Hermanson wanted to take my picture like those of Bill and Jesse's below, and when I stood up my foot slipped off the rock and I jammed my toes into  another rock...you guessed it I broke my middle toe it wasn't pleasant hiking back up, but I did it and in my opinion with little to no whining!!!  It was hurting but I didn't think I broke it until we got back to camp and took my shoe off again!!  On the way back out it rained on us for about 10 min and we had to get our poncho's out, but it didn't last long enough to really bother with them and the poncho's just made us sweatier!!!

Anyway it was a pretty fun trip!!!

Night at the Chuckars

 Every year Melaleuca holds a Night at the Chuckars for employees...this year Grandpa and Grandma C were here to enjoy it with us!



 The kids are huggin' on Charlie the Chuckar!!!

 Getting ready to run the bases




 Look at them go!!!

 She said she was tired, but I don't think this kid is EVER tired!!!


One of the funnest weeks of summer for my family is when we go spend a week at a cabin or hotel or something for a week with my parents, brother and sister and their families!  For the past few years we have stayed in Eden Utah up by Pineview Reservoir at a home at the resort up there.


Getting ready for the...well not sure if it was lake day or pool day when I took this picture!!!


Here are some pictures of the lake.
Kiera looking in the water.

 Grandpa canoeing around the lake

 My cute kids!

 Grandpa fell into the water when he was getting into the canoe!


 It wouldn't be cabin week without morning Tennis!!





 Pool Day!!!




 Abbie...being the monkey she is!!!


Dev jumping on his BMX!!

 Ju chugging his coke!

 A second later these two boys were throwing sand at each other!!!

 The girls' room.