I've been tagged!

Well, I've been tagged. For those of you who have never been tagged before, it means that someone somewhere has decided that you need to share a bit more in your blog :) (At least I figure that's why they pick me !) They give you an assignment and you get to fulfill it. This time it was much easier than when I had to show off my toilet, my refrigerator, my closet, etc. and prove once and for all that I am certainly not a clean freak. Here's the tag: Go to your pictures folder, find the 6th picture in the 6th folder and post it with an explanation.

My sister tagged me having posted a great 80's photo of our family. Hilarious. How do you have those pics on your computer anyway? I wish I could share one so funny.

But, here's the pic.

It was taken a few days after my Mom arrived for the birth of Jordan. She arrived on September 8th. We were sure he would be coming that weekend. But, he didn't and here we are at Kyler's Parents Night at the school where he showed off his classroom and continued to announce to everyone that our baby was coming that week. (which he didn't....incidentally Jordan didn't come until the day Mom was scheduled to leave 2 weeks after she came...grrr!)

But, I'm not bitter. Back to Parent's night. The kids decided that the lockers served better as hide and seek spots. You should have seen us. We had the darndest time finding them :). It was cute, though. It took me back to playing hide and seek at home and hiding in the built in lockers in the laundry room. Did we ever do that? I don't actually completely remember, but it seemed like somewhere we'd probably hide.

Now, I get to Tag someone else. How about, Adrienne Bybee, Jenn Moore, Tauna, Heidi, and Cheri. You're it!

Homemade Christmas Gifts

This was the year of Homemade Christmas gifts. Like so may people this year, we found ourselves looking for inexpensive ways to celebrate Christmas. I'm so glad. It brought back so many great memories of making presents for my siblings. Ryden made a wallet card for Dad...a credit card covered in a collage of pictures of his kids so he can always have their pictures close at hand. Aspen made a pencil holder made out of a peach can, but plastered with pictures of the kids. Kyler drew a beautiful picture. The kids made each other fleece scarves, hats and mittens. Ryden made Kyler and Aspen tooth-fairy pillows and Kyler made Ryden a hand-drawn village mat, complete with Fire Station, the bank, the school, our house, Sierra's house and much more. All of the kids made soap for their teachers. It was so much fun spending so much time helping the kids get into the spirit of Christmas. I honestly think I won't go back to store bought gifts. It just meant so much more this year.

As for Enoch and I, our favorite gift to give was the doll house we bought at a garage sale for $6. We then wallpapered it with scrapbook paper, carpeted it with hand towels and painted the accent walls. You have to check it out.

Then for Aspen's birthday, the boys made her furniture. They were all so cute. I even slipped into her room on Christmas day to play with it for a little bit. It took me back to those days when I was a little girl dreaming of a gorgeous dollhouse. I remember the day my brothers gave me one. It was magical. Somehow, I still love those things.

Aspen the Ballerina

Here's just a bit of footage of Aspen's dance class. As you can see, they learned all sorts of important moves, like how to get really dizzy and how to make your hair stick up. It's so fun having a girl so I can do all the girly things with her. But, being raised with 3 brothers, she still has the rambunctious boy in her to make sure the bar gets used for the right purposes...

Joy School Christmas Show

Ryden's Joy School class put on a little show for Christmas. It was really cute when we saw it live, but it became hilarious when we reviewed the footage. I especially love Ryden's one-word catch ons at the end of each phrase and Aspen's game of "Peek-A-Boo" with Jordan half way through. Let me know if you laugh as hard as I did....maybe it's just because I'm their mom!

They also did a little nativity that was so sweet to watch. Ryden was a shepherd...

Kyler and Renen were innkeepers (they asked for help from the audience)


Aspen was Mary and did great. She did have a bit of trouble wrapping the child in swaddling clothes, though. But, she finally just tied him up good and moved on :) Her sweet husband just stood watching with a big grin on his face.


And Jordan was the unexpected modern day visitor who came to see the Babe in the Manger....actually he came to grab it and run away, but Mary did a good job of protecting her baby.

Aspen's Hawaiian Luau Party

Aspen's Birthday was so much fun to plan, execute and remember. Ahhh how I love when a party goes well. She wanted to have a Hawaiian Luau. Hmmm, I thought, a Hawaiian Luau in December. Sounds interesting. Well, we plastered the house with floral garland, hung flowers outside amidst the bitter cold wind, hung colorful streamers and decked out Aspen in a grass skirt and lei. Then, we gave each child a lei when they got there. We had live Hawaiian radio playing in the background. I actually felt warm in my bright pink capris and flip-flops.

Her cake was a flower and we served it with rainbow sherbet...perfect colors for a luau. The hawaiian pineapple mango juice was served with little umbrellas. It was so cute!



One of my favorite games was the limbo. It was hilarious watching some of the kids work so hard to keep their back arched while others just approached the bar and ducked under. What a riot.


Here's my favorite game of all. Keep in mind, we had 18 kids for the party. Thinking it was Christmastime and a lot of people probably wouldn't come, I let Aspen invite 16 people to her party. All but 1 came!! Add my three kids and you've got 18 kids! It was crazy. At one point, the kids were all bouncing off the walls (right after cake and ice cream, of course). Enoch announced the next game: The rock game. He talked it up to be such a fun game. Here's how you play. Everybody tries to act like a rock. Whoever looks and acts most like a rock wins! It's that simple. All the kids did a terrific job. It was so hard to pick a winner! Except, of course, for Enoch who saved the day and calmed the crowd. They played rock for a good 5 minutes before we felt guilty and decided we should go on with the party :)
On top of all that, Enoch painted hawaiian pictures on each of the kids' cheeks. And we made little sand art jars that each child got to take home. They were so cute and the kids had so much fun.

But, now for the funniest part of all. A woman from church gave me the idea to send each of the kids home with a goldfish. Perfect!! Well, after getting rejected by one pet shop who wouldn't sell goldfish for birthday parties due to animal cruelty acts, etc., Enoch finally found a store that would send him home 25 goldfish to 18 crazy kids. We had them swimming as the centerpiece during cake time. Which worked until one by one they went belly up! The kids were so worried about the fish. One by one we removed the dead ones until we had just enough to still send home with the kids. Luckily, they had already gone through the grieving stage with us so as they left with their fish, we heard some exclaim, "This fish will probably die soon so we have to have as much fun with it as we can right now!". One kid actually came back to the kitchen because his fish died by the time he got to the door. It was so sad, but so hilarious at the same time. Here we are throwing a big hawaiian luau and sending home 5 and 6 year olds with dead fish and a can of sand as their goody bag!! WOW!! We laughed 'til it hurt over that one. I guess I'm starting to see why Pet Shop #1 called it an "animal cruelty act" to send goldfish to birthday parties. Oops!

Icy Fun

What does icy driveway + large cardboard box equal?

Poor Man's Sledding. Check it out. We had such a blast with this!

Hanging Out at The Food Court

For family night, we headed up to the Food Court at the mall to play and to see the snow globes. The kids had a blast! Jordan had his first experience with being completely distracted by the opposite sex. Check it out:

And here's our entry for the new Uncle Sam recruiting posters:

Kyler's Chess Tournament

At the beginning of December, Kyler was in his first chess championship. He did a great job and had a lot of fun. He, and 2 other of his close friends, were all competing, so we had a great time together between events. The cutest moment was when he and his best friend, Hayden, played each other. Hayden hadn't won a game yet. Kyler ended up beating him, but didn't want him to feel sad, so he told him he won. Naturally, that caused confusion with the judges. When the boys ran back to find us, they were hestitant to say who won. We couldn't figure out why but left it at that. Soon, the judges came and asked the boys to come back to the competition room. Confused, we just waited until they came back. Apparently, they had each turned in a win for the game. The judges had them replay and Kyler won again. He was so sad that he won. He wanted so much for his friend to win a game. And here's the irony. Kyler hadn't won one either up to that point, but he was more interested in his friend winning than himself. He is so kindhearted that way. I love him for that.

Dinosaur Museum?!

On the way back from Arizona, we were excited when we saw a sign for a Dinosaur Museum. We could sure use the chance to stretch out our legs and the kids were so excited to see Dinosaurs. After 3-4 more signs, we got more excited. They had replicas of real dinosaurs, hands-on exhibits and much more!! It seemed too good to be true...a cool museum in the middle of nowhere? As we pulled off the exit, we knew we'd need directions. All that was there was a gas station and a dirt road leading out to nowhere. I ran in and asked about the museum. The attendants gave each other a confused look and then said, "Oh, yeah. I think we had a museum like that years ago, but it closed awhile back. They've now spread the replicas all over the place. There's 2 out front you can see". Wow!! Talk about wasted advertising space! If you're looking for a cheap billboard, I know of 4 you could probably go ahead and use. No one will notice! Still, we had fun and stretched our legs for a few seconds!

Thanksgiving in Arizona

This year for Thanksgiving, we headed to Arizona for some fun times with my sister, Cheri and her husband Braden. We used to live 3 doors down from each other in Utah, so we were so excited to spend time together again playing games, chatting and having fun. It was a blast. Between the excellent food, the incredible creativity of my sister, and the fun games, we hardly had time for anything but fun. The best part of all was all the fun times the cousins had together. Keara and Taryn were so much fun!! And, Keara successfully got potty trained while we were there!! If only I was that good with my own kids :)


While we were there, we went swimming. While our kids had a blast, Cheri and Aunt Katherine who are both local Arizonians were quite cold. We were the only ones at the pool!! Apparently, 75 degrees is way too cold in Arizona to think about swimming in a heated pool. Jordan especially loved swimming. He'd jump off the edge and swim over and over again. Check him out:

Well, we had a blast, but we soon found that even the kids got too cold after a bit. Their lips turned blue and they shivered while they hustled to the dressing room. Cheri saved the day!! She took them all into the shower and doused them in a hot shower. They just loved hanging out together enjoying the heat!

I got a kick out of Keara when I did Sunday baths while we were there. She apparently doesn't have brothers. She couldn't stop staring at poor Jordan :)
Here's a cute video of the kids in a splash fight:

Thanksgiving arrived and boy did we have the spread! Cheri made the yummiest potatoes, stuffing, turkey and jam. YUM!!! But on top of that, she and the kids had put together the cutest table settings while Enoch and I were at meetings the week before. They made napkin holders, seat covers, and turkeys for each place setting. It was so cute!!


Aspen is notorious in our family for loving the chicken legs when we have chicken. All of Thanksgiving day she begged for a leg. I'm not so sure she knew what was coming with the size of a turkey! But, she ate a bunch of it before she finally gave up.

FHE Idea

I thought I'd share a Family Home Evening lesson that went really well for us tonight. Ryden picked the topic of "You are Special/I am a Child of God". We talked about how even though everyone is different, we are all children of God and we are all special. We talked about how we all have special talents and that everyone, no matter how different they are from us, have something special they can teach us. First we read the book, You are Special, by Max Lucado. Then, we went in the kitchen where Ryden passed out a bowl of plain cookie dough (ie no chocolate chips yet) to each person. Then, everyone picked a kind of candy from their Halloween bag and chopped it into little pieces. These served as the chocolate chips. When everyone finished with their dough, we made the cookies. While they were cooking, we went around the room and said why we thought each person was special. Finally, we ate the cookies. When we tasted them, the kids discovered that even though they were all different, they were all yummy!! We had a great time, it was a great way to use up some Halloween candy, and they learned a good lesson. Use it if it interests you!

Our first snow of the season!!

On Friday, November 14th, we had our first snow. I didn't expect it one bit!! It was 65 degrees the day before, but on Friday morning we woke up to snow covered ground and snow still coming. I was so excited. I LOVE playing in the snow. As soon as Kyler was off to school and Enoch was off to his meeting, Jordan, Aspen, Ryden and I donned our gear and headed out. We had a blast. We had a snowball fight, made snow angels, and built a snowman. And, then, without much warning, I got tackled by Aspen and Ryden. It was so much fun.

I've had complaints that I'm not seen in enough pictures on the blog. Well, not this time! If you look closely, I'm in the red coat on the bottom of the pileup :)

Aspen and Ryden immediately started a snowball fight. As you'll see in the video, I did not expect what happened next when I started filming Jordan. What a good sport!

For the record, it's hard to take pictures when snowballs are being thrown at you!

It was Jordan's first time playing in the snow. He seemed to be having a great time!! He was so cute out there. Check it out:

The Snow Globes

One of the traditions we've grown to love about Denver is the snow globe display at a local mall here. It's a lot like the Marshall Fields' Christmas Windows for those of you from Chicago. The perk, though, is that they're located inside instead of outside. A big perk if you ask me. Well, 3 years ago, when we came to visit my brother for Thanksgiving, we went and saw the snow globes. That year the theme was "The Chronicles of Narnja". I remembered it and couldn't wait for them to start this year. This year the theme is "Polar Express". We went this week with our playgroup. It was so well done. Each globe had a button you could push and something would happen. One globe showed a portion of the movie. Another had Tom Hanks voice calling, "All Aboard". Another showed the ticket with the word "Believe" punched out. The third snow globe was big enough for you to walk through. As you walked through, snow fell from above. Naturally, this was the kids' favorite one. They played in it forever, never tiring of the snow falling down. Ironically, as we walked through the mall, one woman asked us if it was really snowing that hard outside!! I had to laugh. Apparently, she hadn't been to the other side of the mall yet!

Anyway, check out the photos and then get really tempted to come for Christmas. We promise to take you! That's an invitation and a plea!

Learning to Read

I'm so proud of Ryden. He announced several weeks ago that he wanted to learn how to read. So, every day, he and I will spend some time together reading while the kids are at school. He never forgets. He looks so forward to his reading time each day and he's doing such a great job. Check him out!

An Unwanted Critter

Two weeks ago, we had a little critter decide that he'd rather warm up in our garage than brave the cold outside. Luckily, just as Enoch was leaving the garage, he noticed a tw0-foot long snake come in and hide behind a pile of concrete mix. It took several minutes, but finally we coerced him out and into the garbage can so the kids could see him later. Naturally, when my neighbor, Annie, came to pick up her son from our house, he told her we had found a snake. Little did I realize how much she loved snakes. She quickly grabbed the snakes and let the kids come up and touch it. They were so excited. She is such a fun neighbor. I just love my neighbors (the people, not the snakes ;)

Once the kids (and Annie) got their fill of the snake, we headed out to a nearby hill to let him go.

I have to tell you about these neighbors. They're so much fun. They have a little boy Ryden's age named Dawson. They play all the time together, but for some reason Ryden won't call him by his name. He always calls him, "The friend that lives 2 doors down". What a nut. Foster, the one letting the snake go in the video, is so sweet. He's in 5th grade and goes to Kyler and Aspen's school. Every day, he stops by and picks Kyler up to go to the bus stop. If I don't quite get to the bus stop on time, he walks them home. What a kid!

Old but Hilarious Video

I'm going through some old pictures to put together Aspen's scrapbook for the year. I came across this video taken before my blogging days. Enoch and I got such a good laugh, we thought you would too. Enjoy!

Fun with Grandpa Hicken

The next night, Brent and his family came back for a BBQ and Hot dog Roast with Grandpa. If you can believe it, we celebrated Halloween with 75 degree weather. It was beautiful. So, we took full advantage! It was so much fun spending time with all the family. I have to admit, I tried something new tonight. Instead of the traditional Hershey bars with the S'mores, I had one with a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup, one with a Ghiardeli Mint Chocolate Bar, and one with a Ghiardelli Pecan Pie chocolate. Any way you do it, they're all way yummier than a plain old Hershey Bar. I highly recommend it. It was so yummy!!! I got a kick out of my nephews, though. Apparently, they don't like S'mores but love to roast marshmallows. They'd beg and beg people to want more so they could cook them but never had any themselves!!

Brent, Dad, and Jordan in the smoke by the fire

Jordan and I staying warm by the fire.


Enoch and the boys, barbecuing. If you want a yummy and easy grilling recipe, get some Chinese Sweet Chile Sauce. Mix 5 Tbs of the sauce with 1 Tbs soy sauce. Put them in a gallon size bag with the chicken and let marinade for 2 hours. Grill and eat. YUMMY!


Talon, stoking the fire.

We couldn't let Grandpa go without some of this expertise. Our downstairs bathroom toilet had been running water since we moved in. Our goal was to get that fixed before Grandpa left. Well, a new pump and 2 trips to Home Depot later, we have a toilet that works great!! We also have a working ceiling fan, a repaired hole in the wall, a door that now fits its frame and a new toilet seal on the other toilet. He keeps thanking us for all we did this weekend. I don't remember doing anything besides handing him tools!! Thanks Dad!! But, the expertise I'll never be able to repay him for was his incredible "know-how" secrets he left with our kids:

Like how his arms get longer and longer

And how he can "crack" his nose

Aspen tried and tried, but finally gave up because her nose hurt too much!