Wishing you...

...and a very, merry Christmas!!

Gingerbread Houses '09

Once again, we decorated gingerbread houses. Hudson was a little bit more into it this year, he helped put the skittles on the house. Other than that, the boys pretty much just wanted to eat all the candy. Boston kept stealing things off of other people's houses:)

Here is Hudson putting on the Skittle's. I am surpriesed that he used more than just the green ones.
Our finished house. Talen made the fence out front.

All of us with our house:)

I really like this tradition in our family. It seems kind of hectic at the time, but I think it will be even more fun as the kids get older and are able to do most of the work themselves.

Welcome Home Unlce Bull!

Talen's brother, Trumbull, has been serving a mission for the last two years in Argentina. Yesterday, he finally came home!!

We were all at the airport a little early and the kids were so excited. They loved seeing all the airplanes and running around with their signs.
They kept waiting and watching the sky for 'Uncle Bull's' plane to fly in.

Coming in from the airplane.

There was quite the large group there waiting to mob him the second he walked through the doors!

He still looks pretty much the same to me:)

We've been prepping the boys for quite a while now...but I was a little unsure of how they would react to him. Hudson ran right up to him and gave him a big hug...he says that he remembered who he was.

I was even more worried about how Boston would react. But, when we woke up that morning to him saying "Uncle Bull, Uncle Bull" over and over in his crib, I wasn't quite as worried. He also went right up to him and gave him a big hug.

The kids with their signs, waiting to leave the airport.

Trumbull with all of his neices and nephews. As Ashten would say...Holy Moly too many kids!!

WELCOME HOME TRUMBULL!! WE ARE SO GLAD TO HAVE YOU BACK HOME!!!

I'm a Worker!!

One morning while I was getting ready for the day, Hudson came into the bathroon and told me, "Look mom...I'm a worker man!" He'd put on all of Talen's work clothes that he hadn't worn to work that day. He sure loves his dad, and always wants to be doing just what dad is doing.

The 1st Snow of the Season

It wasn't much, but the kids were sure excited to see it!

I'm just glad it happened on a day Talen was home so he could go out with them...it was much too cold for me:)

Hudson's 1st Visit to the Dentist

Hudson finally had his very first visit to the dentist office. At first I didn't think it was going to go very well. You can see by the first picture that he wasn't too thrilled.

But, the dental assistant, Ashley, was so great with him and she got him to open right up. He was excited to learn that he has 20 teeth and that he is not supposed to let dad use his tools on his teeth:)

I'd have to say the highlight of his visit was the new green toothbrush and green bouncy ball he got to take home. He also loved going to see grandma at her work! I'm glad he had a good experience for his first time...I'm hoping that he won't have to have too many visits! I'm crossing my fingers that he gets Talen's teeth and not mine:)

Family Pictures

Back in November, Talen's aunt Margie took some family pictures for us...and I think that they turned out great. There are some I put over on the right side of the page...the rest of these are just others I liked or funny ones. Enjoy!

I Need Addresses!

I know that I haven't been the best at posting for the last couple of months, but I promise there will be more posts to come.

But for now...I am getting my Christmas cards ready to send out, and if you haven't gotten a card from us in the past but would like to get one this year, I NEED YOUR ADDRESS!

I do need to say that our cards this year are very cute...Talen's Aunt Margie took our family pictures last month and they turned out so good! She always does a really great job. I will get our family pictures on here at some point...I promise:)

Happy Halloween!!

Our cute little cowboy and indian! They had so much fun this Halloween. We actually did a little more trick-or-treating than we've ever done before and they both did really good. I didn't notice until after we got home that night, but both of their pumpkins were mostly full of m&m's...I guess I should have known that's what they would pick! They love their m&m's.
All the cousins (and most of them not too happy to be taking more pictures). L to R: Oaklee-witch, Bladen-pirate, Treyson-bull fighter, Traxton-lamb, Ashten-Little Bo Peep, Boston-indian, Hudson-cowboy. They were all much happier once we left to go get some treats!

Hudson's Halloween Parade

On Thursday, Hudson had his preschool Halloween party. Boston and I were helping with the parade, so he got to dress up too.
Right at the beginning of the party, all the kids got to parade around our neighborhood block for all the parents and neighbors to see.

Hudson did good waving and saying "Happy Halloween" for the first few minutes. After that he wasn't having any of it. He wanted to get to the partying!

OooooOOOOooOOOoooOh!

Okay, so this is my first video post, so hopefully it works.

Hudson has been learning Halloween songs in preschool, but I am the only one he will sing them for. It is so cute that I have tried to get him to sing it for some other people, but no deal. He won't even sing them for Talen. So, I decided this may be the only way anyone else will get to hear these cute Halloween songs sung by Hudson! Enjoy!!

Haircut and Funny Pictures

Earlier this week, I got my hair cut (thanks Melissa!!). It was getting way too long and driving me crazy, so I took off a lot. It feels so great...I am loving it!! So, tonight I had Talen take a picture of me to send to his brother on his mission and he decided he needed to be in the picture too. Usually these pictures are just supposed to be spur of the moment and random...but it took us a lot of tries to be satified with one. Here are just a few:

This was our first try...Talen thought his face was too high:)
This was definitely probably one of the better ones.

I couldn't figure out where to point the camera.

Scary.

Now my hair's getting a little crazy.

This is where we had to end...Talen was starting to get a little crazy.

I guess we're just not very good at the spur-of-the-moment pictures. Oh well:)

School Boy!

Hudson had his first full day of preschool today! He was so excited that he practically ran down the road leaving me and Boston behind. We're very lucky that his school is just 3 houses down from ours!

This is Hudson with Teacher Jackie at our mom and me class on Tuesday. We got to go on a fun treasure hunt to get to know the school. Hudson had so much fun then that he didn't want to leave!
Hudson with his first homework assignment. He had to make a picture of himself and tell why he was special. He said, "Because I have lots of tractors, trucks, and trailers to play with."
So Hudson!

Outside the preschool after his first day. He had so much fun and couldn't wait to tell me about the trucks and tractors they had to play with...but no trailers:(

We're so excited for Hudson to learn so many things at preschool this year. He is getting so big!!

Kelly Point

Last weekend, Talen and I went camping with Talen's parents and another couple (Hilton and Mary). It was just an over-nighter, but we had a really good time...especially because we were kid-free! Thanks to Dally and Margie for watching our kids for us!!

This old car was right at where we stopped to camp. There were a couple of them like this. The roads were really bad to get here, so we joked that these cars probably only made the one trip out and couldn't go any farther!

Getting on the bikes for our looooooong trip to Kelly Point.

At Kelly Point.

I was told that this is the southern most point on the Arizona Strip, where it ends, as you can see, at the Grand Canyon.

The view was amazing.

This was another place we found the first day. There were all these neat pockets of water going down into a canyon. All the guys climbed down to get a better look.

Talen had to see how deep the water was:)

Bundy Reunion '09

We had a great time at the Bundy Reunion this year, even with the three days of rain. There were over 1200 people there...which is the most I've ever heard of...there were sooo may people everywhere! I have to apologize for all the pictures...I thought about halfway through uploading them that I should have made a collage, but, oh well! Bare with me:)

This was on the ride out. Boston slept. Hudson didn't...he was way too excited.
Hudson raising his arms while going over a cattle guard...he does it every time!

Digging in the rocks. This pile of rocks has saved us the last couple of years. It makes our camp much cleaner and the kids love to play in it.

Boston loved the swing!

Hudson digging in the dirt...suprise, suprise!!

We brought our slide out this year, and it was a big success. We did have a few mishaps with kids falling off, or being pushed off:) But overall I loved having something else for the kids to play with.

Hudson collecting cans on one of our many four wheeler rides. He loves collecting cans, but has no idea why he's doing it!

Boston felt left out that Hudson got to get all the cans, so we started letting him off to get some of the easier ones...which (by the looks of it) weren't so easy for him:)

Talen getting ready for the big roping contest.

Grandpa helping Hudson in the roping contest. I love this picture because it is SO Talen with his tongue sticking out!!

Talen getting Boston ready for the races(Talen is in yellow, Boston in brown). Boston didn't want to have anything to do with racing, which sucks because he totally could have won it this year!

Hudson getting ready to race. He did really good, but didn't quite make it in the top three.

Going on a long four wheeler ride to Point Lookout. And I forgot to put any of the pictures we took at Point Lookout. It was really neat and you could see so far!

Dressed up and ready to go dancing!!

Hudson at the dance and already dirty!

Boston had so much fun dancing, but would absolutely not dance with anyone! He just twirled all over the place by himself!

Hudson dancing with Ashten, his favorite little dance partner!

So tired on the ride home!

I wish the pictures showed how dirty they were! I don't think I got everything cleaned until a week later!