What? My LITTLE brother's MARRIED!!!

Tyler made the big leap! He was married to Mallory Roberts on Friday January 2nd and it was SUCH a wonderful day! Tyler looked very handsome, and Mal looked GORGEOUS! Mylie Jane, my niece, just stood by here during the reception for like 30 minutes and didn't move. Just kept on looking up at her and smiling, and caressing Mal's dress and stuff....it was SO cute! Anyways, it was wonderful. The temple ceremony was at 9:40 in the morning and my Grandfather performed the ceremony and it was beautiful. That is seriously always the neatest thing to see a couple so in love go into the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. SO NEAT! Then they had a wonderful luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was so fun. We had yummy chicken to eat, but the highlight of the lunch was that all the kids got NUGGETS! Yeah, they were pretty stoked. Payton and Lincoln of course scarfed everything on their plates, and Drew was doing Dinosaur noises the whole time because they were dino shaped nuggets. SO funny! We were getting quite the collection of looks towards our table.:) Then that evening was the reception that was also held at the JSMB. IT was SO beautiful! The Roberts and Miles did quite the job at planning all of this, and it was so worth it. They had a hot chocolate bar, mashed potato bar, desert bar, salad bar, and every other kind of bar that you can think of! They even had some of the SAME band members that played at both Courtney and I's weddings! How bout them apples! Still alive is what is the crazy thing! The Utah game was going on, which was amazing by the way. The snow was falling outside and it was all in all a wonderful night. Payton was REALLY sick during the whole day, so he smiled a total of 3 times during the whole day! Not the best for pictures, but what can you do!
But I can't believe that my little bro is all up and married and on his HONEYMOON right now! How fun is that. Anyways, we are SO excited to welcome Mallory into our family. She fits perfectly and we are so happy that her and Ty found each other! HAPPY WEDDING!
(Note I do NOT have a picture of the happy couple...they are all on my mom's camera. I will get one on here when I can!)
1st of 3 smiles
My little family! How cute.
Running around waiting for the happy couple to come out!
What we had to deal with most of the evening the boys were there! WRESTLING on the stage where the band was playing! Hey, no one was paying attention to the band because the game was on, so the band really appreciated that they were listening!
Payton admiring Ms. Beverly

More bombarding of the stage.
How cute are my boys! This is the TJ (tear jerker) for sure!
One of the 3 smiles...Oh man how cute is he in his little groomsman outfit!
The normal face throughout the night.
3rd of three smiles
Dapper Dan

Christmas Goodness

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!! By far, best time of the year-hands down! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! Growing up, we did SO many fun things around Christmas time, and now that I am not by my family any more, I can't mooch off of them for my Christmas fun, so I have to try and start my own! Here's just a few things that we have done in the past few days.
~We TRIED to go to the zoo lights on an absolutely perfect night for it! It was snowing really hard, the kids were SO pumped, Lincoln just got a new snow suit (for Christmas of course), and we had Hot Chocolate and fresh cookies all baked and ready to go! We got up to the gate and they informed us that the lights didn't actually start for another couple of days, and that there was a private party going on! What is THAT all about! Oops, on my part. Forgot to check that out! So, we decided that we would go to the mall instead and see if we couldn't get a peek at Santa. And get a peek we DID! I wanted to take some pictures, but my ghetto camera battery of COURSE was out, and we opted out of the $50 package that they were so kindly offering and just decided on the visit. Lincoln was a little bit leary at first, but I whispered to him in his ear that THIS is the guy you ask for your gifts! He wiggled right out of my arms and promptly climbed onto Santa's lap and asked him for all the trains that he could think of! He then proceeded to tell Santa that Payton wanted some trains for Lincoln to play with to! Such a thoughtful bro. Payton, of course, was enthralled with Santa's beard and kept trying to pull it. It was real so it wouldn't have made TOO much of a difference, but hey, we can't let our kids do EVERYTHING right? Like I stated earlier, my camera was out of batteries, so maybe it was a good thing that they didnt' let us into zoo lights. That would have been sad to have no pictures!

(Scroll down for MORE posts about Christmas going-on's)

Gingerbread Success

Another fun family tradition that we won't be able to participate in this year is decorating Gingerbread houses with my family. My wonderful mother gave my sister and I the same gingerbread mold that she has for Christmas last year, and I was SO excited to try it out! MAN they take a long time to bake, but they sure were fun! We had a few friends over for a little bit of soup, and then some gingerbread house making, and it was a great success! We had such a fun time. I wish that we could have had tons more people over, but just not possible you know?! It was a little bit hectic to say the least with four 2 year olds and three under (or slightly over in Paytons case) the age of one! There was a lot of time out happenin at our house:) I was hoping that the children would really enjoy this exercise, and Lincoln didn't disappoint! He LOVED it! He really enjoyed coming every now and then, eating a few pieces of candy, and then putting a few more onto the house our the grounds surrounding. Here are a few pictures of those involved, and their marvelous houses.
The boys muchin on some Mac n' cheese. We were missing Carson, but that's because he only ate like 2 bites. Better than nothin eh? Warren, Calvin and Lincoln
HIM on the other hand...He ate more than all 4 boys, maybe even combined! Maybe it's because of his cute little hippo pegs! Can you spot them?




All the loot before we started the construction process.

Lincoln and Cole getting started. If you can't tell, Lincoln's mouth is CHUCK FULL of candy!Our finished productJonny and Lindsay Moss contemplating where to go from there.
Hello...sweet little Edy didn't make a peep the whole night! SO CUTE!

The Moss's finished product. Taylor and Steph Dix- Taylor couldn't (wouldn't) look at me because he was focusing on the walls:)
Finished product...They even had a guy roasting marshmallows in the front yard, AND a llama!
What the boys did most of the time. Bless this train table!Anna was flying solo that night because Chris had to go and study for his finals! Thanks for coming Anna!

Picture of perfection-as always!
Tim, Laura and Carson Cronin getting started. Carson had a mouth full of candy as well! They were all bouncing off the walls!Thanks for the sweet smile Tim! Told you it would make the blog:)
The ladies with the finished products. We all decided that they were much like our own houses in some ways! Mine being cluttered, and with WAY to much on it!:) Well, that's the way I roll I guess! Thanks for the INCREDIBLY fun night guys! You are all the best.

Freshly fallen snow

Oh how I LOVE the snow. I don't think there is anything better than when the snow is falling and you can either just sit and watch it, or you can actually go out and play in it! Such a Christmasy feeling too, and we all know how I feel about Christmas! So it snowed on Sunday morning, and before church, Lincoln was able to go out with Cole in the frigid cold and shovel the snow. This kid LOVES the snow, and he loves to shovel, and he also loves his dad! So it was all in all, a great morning for him! He is donning his new snow suit, and lovin it!
Handsome boys! Payton can't WAIT to be joining them. He was trying to crawl out the door the whole time!
Hard at work. His favorite is going to the neighbors house and trying to shovel their snow. Little service man!

Cheese! He is getting really good at that!

Fondue Dinner

Since we are with the Smith Family for Christmas Eve this year, I decided that I would carry on my most favorite Christmas Tradition of all with my own family since we will be missing it with the Miles family, and that is to have a fun Fondue Dinner! It didn't even hold a candle to my mothers, but we ate like KINGS! (Well, three of us at least! Lincoln decided that he just wanted bread) I bought some yummy steaks, fresh shrimp, and chicken and fondued it all up! It was SO delish. I tried for the dimmed lights to help with the ambiance, but Cole didn't like that one bit! SCROOGE! :) Just kidding. Here are a few shots of the fun night.

The YUMMY feast!
Hello! Isn't he the handsomest in the land?!
Enjoying our feast in the BITTER cold! Outside I mean...it was a whopping 5 degrees when we were eating!

Thanksgiving and Trip to Utah

SO, after LOTS and LOTS of driving, we finally made it to and from Utah for Thanksgiving! IT was way worth it! We had so much fun with everyone, and are so glad that we were able to go! Plus, with teh gas prices so low, it wasn't such a hit on the old pocket book to go! The drive to Utah wasn't too bad, because we left at 4 in the afternoon, and only had to stop once to eat, and then the boys (and myself) were out and Cole and I were able to listen to a book on tape to help the drive go by faster! We made it in an astonishing 8 1/2 hours! GO COLE! We had so much fun at both of our families houses. While in Bountiful, we were able to do lots of fun stuff. We had Thanksgiving up at the Midway cabin, and had 83 people there according to my Grandfather who is the numbers man! It was CRAZY! It always is. Cole and I felt pretty proud of ourselves though, because we really didn't eat too much! You can't really though when you have two little squirts to take care of! Payton had Jell-o smeared EVERYWHERE along with everything else, and Lincoln was constantly needing more BUTTER for his roll. He is so flippin cute. Loves his butter! Cole had fun playing football, and I had a blast just hangin with the girls. I even got to see TWILIGHT which i LOVED! Of course, it wasn't as good as the book, but what movie is? What director could do as good of a job as my imagination? You find that guy, and I will go and see all his movies! I am excited for the second one, that is for sure.
The day after Thanksgiving, Cole was able to go hunting with my dad and all the dudes on the Miles side of the family and had SO much fun! He loves to do that, and I am glad that he does. He is sort of the "hunter-gatherer" type I would say! Manly man for sure. That night, we were able to go to the Jazz game with the fam, thanks to my angelic mother who stayed home with ALL FIVE grandkids! Bless her heart! Best Grandma ever...seriously! So thanks Mama.
The next morning, COle headed up to Richmond with the boys, and I stayed in Bountiful for a wedding shower for Mal and Ty! It was so much fun. We are SOOOOOO flippin excited for Mallory to become part of our family. We love her, and think that she is a perfect match for Ty (aka. the Golden Boy- love ya ty!) After the shower, I headed up to Logan and we had a wonderful birthday party for Payton, and a post Thanksgiving dinner too. We love it up there, and Lincoln was again in hog heaven because Grandpa took him on the four wheeler, tractor, and everything else it takes to do all the chores. He LOVED it! We had fun up in Richmond just relaxing and chatting and eating and everything else.
The drive back was a different story than the way here. We drove during the day and the boys were a bit cranky! They were so sick of the car, and I don't blame them! Finally, at like 8:45, 20 minutes before pulling into our driveway, Lincoln and Payton were asleep for the night! Thank heavens! But we are happy to be back home, but are looking forward to coming back in just a few short weeks! So we'll keep you posted until then! I have about a ZILLION things to do before we get to go home so we'll see if it all happens! CHAO!!!
Cleaning and playing in the leaves a little bit before we left.
While we were up at Midway, we had to see the cows, and this is Lincoln and Drew who are usually boxing each others ears! We HAD to document this for future posterity! What cute little dudes.
My sweet little boy
Riding on the four wheeler with Grandpa Smith....look at that SWEET hat! I seriously LOVE it!
The two supermodels at the Jazz game...we should be the Jazz dancers don't you think?
Watchin the game
Rock sportin his new hat for the jazz. GO JAZZ!!
All 5 of my mom's Grandbabies! SO FLIPPIN CUTE! I can't believe they were all smiling!

My little ONE year old!! WHAT!!!

So this past Sunday was Paytons BIRTHDAY!! ahh! I can't believe that he is already one! that was seriously the fastest year ever. He is such a blessing in our lives. He is the sweetest, cutest, most loving little guy. He LOVES everything around him...mostly food-thank heavens! That little guy can EAT! He LOVES his brother and always wants to be around him. I love him and I am so grateful that he is a part of my life.
For his birthday, we were actually in Utah, so we were able to have two parties with each side of the family! We got into Bountiful and had a party with the Miles side of the family where we made him a caterpillar cake and let him dig into it like it was his job! He didn't have quite the apprehension that Lincoln had, probably because he has already had so many sweets! OOPS-bad mom alert! He loved opening his presents, as did his brother who "helped" him with each one! Then we had a party up in Richmond where all of Cole's family was, and BOY was that a fun one too! He has so many cousins that take great care of him up there, and just loves them all! He had some pumpkin pie for his cake there, and loved that too! Poor little guy woke up in the middle of the night with a tummy ache, but it was worth it right? Thanks to all who were there to celebrate with us. We love you all, especially Payton!
He was so funny with his cake! He had every part of his body covered in cake, but when it would touch his foot, he would lift it up way high so that it wouldn't get all over him! :) So cute.
Munchin away!
Payton with his little present opening helper

The big man with all his loot!Opening p resents at Grandma Smiths
Eating the coveted Punkin pie...

First snow, great visits, and birthday wishes!

So, we FINALLY had our first little snow storm here in Denver for the year! If you didn't already know, I LOVE the snow! I LOVE to watch the snow fall from the sky, and I love to play in it. I also love to ski, but unfortunately, that hasn't happened in a few years. I guess that's what I get for havin babies.:) I'll skip a year of skiing any day if it means that I get to have a baby! ANYWAYS, we woke up this morning to a few things. First, Payton had barfed all over in his bed, Lincoln had pooped his pants, but it had SNOWED! So all in all, our spirits were up. Poor Payton has a mean case of the flu, and Lincoln has a mean case of the potty training blues....what can you do! So, needless to say, it is almost noon and I am still in my pajamas, and have absolutely NO intention of ever changing out of them! I have WAY too much laundry to do, and when Payton is awake, he just wants me to hold him, so pajamas it is! I guess, if you twist my arm and force me I will stay comfy all day. :)
In other news, Cole's big brother Spencer came to town this morning for a few hours! He had a 4 hour layover here in Denver before he went to SLC, so we went and picked him up, gave him a home cooked breakfast, which he hasn't had in a few months, played in the snow a little, and turned back around and took him to the airport! So we have had quite the fun filled morning!
Playin' with Uncle Spenc. Lincoln was SO pumped to play with him!
Playin with Daddy.....Sportin' the camo jammies! Atta boy Link!
Playin on the deck. It's a good thing we played when we did, because shortly after this, the sun came out and now there isn't much snow left! Gotta love Denver snow!

Also, I just want to give a shout out to my baby sister! It is her EIGHTEENTH birthday today! WHAT! My baby sister is 18 years old? That must mean that not only am I old, but my parents are as well! :) Just kidding...they are still young for sure. They just have old kids that's all! But Rachel is the best ever. She is the sweetest little thing and LOVES my kids, and that makes all the difference in the world to me. She is SO great at everything that she does, and boy does she do alot of stuff! She is such a great friend to me, and it is so much fun to see her grow up and do all sorts of new things. I love her so much, and I am so grateful for her example to me in my life! I want to be like you when I grow up Rach! Happy B-day, and go order something off the T.V. for me would ya?
High flyin on the wakeboard. Rach is seriously SO good at all sorts of stuff like this. She started wakeboarding when she was like 8 or something like that. She couldn't even hold up the board, but she surely could jump the wake! I remember after every time she tried to get up and couldn't, or every time that she fell, we would have to come around and flip her board over because she wasn't strong enough to do so herself! Quite the maniac.

Hello!!!!Rootin for the Jazz at a playoff game last year. GO JAZZ!
Of course, on the boat with the Linkster
All the Miles girls...add two more now! Rubydoo and now Mallory!
Common scene when Rach is around. The kids just LOVE her!
Happy B-Day baby Rach...we love you!