Holidays 2012

We had such a fun time this Christmas! We spent a weekend in the country with Grandma & Grandpa Gibbles and my entire family. We had delicious food, fun games, snowmobile rides with sledding, and lots of good laughs. We love spending time with our family!

On Christmas Eve Brynn and I made Santa some cookies in the morning.The cousins spent the afternoon sledding and Daddy got off work early to take our kids. We spent Christmas Eve night at Grandma & Grandpa Mills and had the most delicious prime rib and Grandma made her famous cinnamon rolls. YUM! The kids watched movies and played and opened up their jammies. We came home and set out "Jumbo Kringle Cookies" for Santa and wrote him a note and the kids were off to dream land.

We spent Christmas morning at home. I woke up at 5:30 and figured since I was already up... everybody should be so I jumped on everyone's beds and yelled "SANTA CAME!" lol. I love the excitement in our children's eyes on Christmas morning. The kids came down to our Christmas tree on the main floor and opened their stockings by the fireplace while Daddy went down and lit a fire in the fireplace downstairs. We went down stairs and the kids were so much fun as they opened their gifts. They took their time with each present and we had a lot of fun playing and reading and just enjoying each other.

Brynn got McKenna! She has been begging for her all year and planning every detail of their lives together with each new American Girl Doll magazine she received in the mail. They are pretty cute together! They have the same color hair and eyes and they both do gymnastics!


Gavin got a new horse that he named "Horsie". The faster he rides him the faster the sound effects are and he LOVES that. He can also feed him a carrot and listen to him munching it. (Gavin also got these OBNOXIOUS teenage mutant ninja turtles that have sound and the longer you pull back their arms and legs.... the longer the sound effects last. I'm not quite sure what Santa was thinking on that one.)


Daddy made his delicious crepes with strawberries and chocolate and powdered sugar for breakfast on Christmas morning. We played all day and Grandma and Grandpa came by to see us. We all took a much needed nap that afternoon. When we woke up I made honey ham, cheesy potatoes and candied carrots. We set up our new TV and watched Brave with the new surround sound. It is definitely a much more fun experience and the kids were enthralled! I love my family with all of my heart and I'm grateful for these memories we get to make together~!

Before Christmas, we had a big snow storm and Daddy and the kids went out and built 5 snowmen/women/children! They had so much fun and our snow family turned out pretty cute!








Did you happen to notice the teeny tiny baby snowman in the picture on the left? We are expecting our third baby in July!!! YIPPEEE! I am pregnant! I never thought I'd say that, to be perfectly honest, but we couldn't be more shocked and excited! Brynn has been telling me for years to fix my belly and have more babies and we've told her that it doesn't quite work like that. We were perfectly happy with our daughter and our son and felt like our family was complete but God had other plans! We've had 2 ultrasounds and the baby is growing healthy and strong! We couldn't be more excited and it was super fun sharing the news with family over the holiday. We'll find out if it's a boy or girl in March so I will post more later.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a very joyous New Year! Love you!

Nightly readings of Christmas books!

Annual SLC trip!

The lights were AMAZING this year!

It was SUPER cold and the kids would rather be back swimming at the hotel ;)

Morning of Thanksgiving... I'm so thankful for my kids!

Spring Break 2011

We had plans to go to St. George for Spring Break and Brynn and I were counting down the days til we could have some FUN in the SUN. We checked the weather several days before we were going to leave and found that St. George was going to have SNOW ALSO :0(. We didn't want to drive 6 hours just to have the same weather we have here so we decided to cancel.

We still wanted to get away so we decided to get reservations at the Marriott in Layton... ha ha ha. I know you are thinking that Layton is NOT a vacation spot many choose but we actually had lots of fun. We did a lot of swimming, went to Chuck-E-Cheese(their pizza is nothing to write home about but the games are fun!), went shopping for our babies' birthdays and Easter stuff, and enjoyed a day at the Treehouse Children's Museum. We also stayed up late snuggling, watching movies, and eating junk each night. It was a lot of fun to spend time together as a family and to have Daddy's undivided attention :).

Chuck-Your-Cheese (Ski Ball was my fave! But Mommy & Brynn tied Daddy and Gavin shooting hoops too! Girls Rule!



Treehouse Museum... Yee- HAWWW!




Gavin's deciding whether he wants to be an archaeologist or a firefighter.



How fitting - Princess Brynnlie and her Subjects ;). (Queen taking picture)

The World Of Color

Last Sunday my friend Amy and I decided spur-of-the-moment (just our style ;)) to take our girls to Disneyland for the week. We left Monday afternoon and spent the most amazing SUNNY week in California and we loved every minute of it! We lucked out and had weather between 75-80 degrees the entire week. It did mama's body good....











Brynn surprised me by being 42 inches and could ride most of the rides in the park (she liked Thunder Mountain and Maderhorn the best I think and didn't really like pirates). We really enjoyed The World of Color show our second night there - it was amazing! We also took the kids to Ariel's Grotto one morning to have breakfast with the princesses. Brynn was in complete awe and was so adorable to watch with the princesses. She went right in for the hug and had them sign her autograph book. She was a little disappointed that she never got to see Jazmin and Princess Tiana on this trip but we'll have to go back another time to make sure to catch up with them.




I can't tell you how wonderful this week has been. It was totally worth it to soak up some rays and see the light of day for a week. After Amy and I put the kids to bed each night we ordered fruit smoothies and sat out in the warm night air on our awesome patio and talked and ate sunflower seeds. We walked to the park each morning and you couldn't wipe the smile off my face as we walked along in short sleeves underneath the palm trees... ahhhhh. I told Matt at the end of the week that he may just have to come down and drag me back to the cold dark valley cause I couldn't force myself to do it ;). We made it home all safe even though it ended up being quite the journey! Brynn & I were so excited to see Daddy & Gavin.

We hit Sea World the last day of our trip and Brynn loved the dolphin/diving/dancing bird show the very best (the frozen lemonade & popcorn topped it off). It was a wonderful trip & we can't wait for our next Sunny trip the end of February. This time we get to go with Daddy and Gavin along for extra amounts of fun.


Thanks Amy, Tia, & Kendall for sharing this awesome adventure with us~!
And Thank You Auntie Ellie & Grandma Miller for watching Gavers while we played!

Oregon Reunion

We had a great time at our family reunion in Oregon the first week of July. My amazing Grammy rented us 6 beautiful cabins in Mt. Bachelor Village in Bend, OR. The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed spending the 4th of July with family we haven't seen in a long time.

Matt went on a 25 mile bike ride with a total drop of 3,000 feet. He said they went off 12 foot table tops. Mind you... this is my husband who spends his days at the office. He came back with bruises and scratches all over his whole body but said he really enjoyed himself. He and Brynn also rented tubes with some of my other family and floated down the river. They came back with big smiles and blue lips. :) I went on a beautiful hike with my mom, cousins, and all of the kids. Brynn decided to stop hiking as we turned to head home so yours truly got to carry her and Gavin the 1 1/2 miles back. She was obviously pretty tired though cause this is what she did as soon as she walked in the door to our cabin.


We celebrated Grammy's 90th birthday in style at a beautiful restaurant in downtown Bend. We got to here stories of her life that most of us have never heard and shared many laughs.




One night my sister-in-laws, cousins, and sister Julia and I went to Twilight. I decided I can't see those movies at the theater any more. I laugh at all the wrong spots and leave feeling like I wasted another $9. It was fun spending time with the girls though ;).

There was a river right by the cabins so we had to walk down to play in it a couple of times.






We had a blast & it was great to get away for a few days. Our new van was very comfy and the kids traveled really well. We decided we will have to take lots more road trips in the near future.

Viva Las Vegas

In June Matt's brother Kyle got married to our gorgeous Caitlin. We are so happy that she is now a part of our family! It was a beautiful wedding & we had a lot of fun. We really enjoyed the time we spent with family.

We went to the strip with the kids on one of the days (pretty sure that wasn't the brightest idea we've ever had). But other than the occasional stripper and nasty billboard... we enjoyed ourselves ;).




We had a lot of fun dancing at the reception. Brynner's favorite thing in the whole world is dancing with her daddy. Kyle's friends got an Elvis to come to the reception and sing a few songs. After he was done, all of us girls took the opportunity to jump on the sketchy character... looking back at the pictures I think... ewww...ICK! But it was fun at the time. :)








We wish Kyle & Caitlin all of the happiness and love that can possibly fit into an eternity! Love you two.