"Shut-up! your totally kidding me...."

You wonder why the title?  Well, that's exactly what I said to Troy on the phone yesterday when  he called saying he'd just gotten a call from his friend Cyndi Gilbert owner of Diamond G Rodeo asking if we wanted a few tickets to round 7 of the NFR in Vegas.....YES WE DO!!!! We love the NFR and have been 4 out of the last 6 years, we were also excited to take  Braxton with us this year.  We had awesome 3rd row stock contractor seats and Braxton laughed when he  got hit by a few small chunks of what he hopes was just dirt! We also appreciated the close  Gold Buckle parking pass, cause it was actually a pretty chilly night for Vegas.   I forgot my phone and camera so Troy got this shot of the Grand Entry for me.

I told Braxton he could go when he was 8 and not have to make 20 trips to the bathroom....he only went once :)

We love saddle bronc riding and cheering for our Beaver County boys, brothers Cody and Jesse Wright from Milford.  Cody had a great 82 point ride, but didn't place.

Jesse scored 84 points and finished 4th for the go-round.

Thanks Diamond G for another round of great seats and a fun, fun night!

Literacy night

Sunset held a literacy night last month which was a lot of fun.  Braxton's 2nd grade class put on a short play called "Click clak moo."  Braxton was a red hen and did a great job.  It was a cute, catchey little play, and we've been singing the little chant the animals sang ever since!

We went around to the different classrooms to listen to stories, and play math and reading games.  Tanner and Camrie even had fun getting into the action! Afterwards we had pizza in the cafeteria.  What a super fun night!

More fun art...

Braxton's salt dough topography map of the continents and oceans

Braxton's baptism -



Braxton was baptized November 5, 2011 at the Green Valley Stake Center, St. George Utah.   He had to be baptized 2 times because his wrist poked out of the water just a little.  We love you Braxton and are so proud of you!

Lunch time - it was too cold for the park, so we ate at our house

Grandma/Grandpa Smith & Grandma/Grandpa Webb

Grandma Smith makes her grandkids their own porcelain doll dressed like something they like for their 8th birthday.  Braxton was super surprised and excited that Gma made him a doll dressed as Carl Edwards, Braxton's favorite NASCAR driver.  Gma and Gpa Smith also gave Braxton a Baptism book and a new set of scriptures with a case.  Gma and Gpa Webb also gave Braxton a special Baptism book. Gma has her eyes closed again!!

Halloween Carnival Pics 2011



Minnie standing on one foot




Buzz has some BIG muscles!



Cute lil duck!

Professional pictures taken by 98 east photography at the DRMC Child Development Center Halloween carnival.

Our spunky 9 month old!

Kason turned 9 months the day before Halloween:

~ He's up 1.4 lbs in the past 2 months...now a whopping 15.9 lbs! Dr. Nygaard is ok with him still lingering in the 1 % since he is so active, and crawling up the stairs, happy and healthy, and eating well despite what the scales say.

~ 4 teeth and the 5th is on the way.

~ Will eat little pieces of bread, baby puffs, and Cherrios, although most of it goes in his chair or the floor.  Mom shared some strawberry jello with him last night and he liked it.

~ Giggles so hard when mom plays and sings "I'm a little teapot" with him.

~ Tanner can make him laugh so hard, that I bet he pees his pants every time!! :)

~ Hair is getting darker so you can actually tell he has some.  Enough hair on the back and sides of his head to comb with your fingers.

~ Makes sounds that almost sound like 'mama'
~ Has a bit of a temper, especially in the middle of the night, when he's not getting what he wants...to play!

~ Dramatically gags when eating peas, but has learned to tolerate green beans.
~ Has apparently made known where he stands in Coke vs Pepsi.  Maybe when he turns 1, he can graduate with mom back up to the good stuff - caffeine induced Diet Coke! That's my boy!! :)

October....Birthday, Carnivals, parties, Halloween.....

 The last couple weeks of October was crazy busy, I'm glad we made it through!  It began with Braxton's 8th birthday party, (see a few posts below) then on to Josh's 2nd fun birthday bash.  Next up began all the Halloween fun....This year Braxton chose to be a baseball player and wore his baseball uniform, Tanner was Buzz lighter, Camrie was Minnie Mouse, and Kason was a cute little duck.  Mom & Dad seem to wear the same costumes every year...they dress up as a nurse and an X-ray tech! (they don't get points for originality!) The kids started off with a super fun carnival at DRMC's child development center.  They all played games, won prizes, had their pictures taken, ate treats, got their faces painted, and had a great time seeing all their friends and teachers in their costumes. Mom was working, but had time to run over and join in the fun. While our amazing Dad was wrangling 3 little kids and trying to reason with a hysterically screaming Camrie over a barking dog across the street from the Center, Kason wiggled right out of  Dad's arms and toppled right  down onto Flood Street.  Thankfully, he was ok thanks to the extra padding of his cute little yellow duck costume.  A couple days later we went to Braxton's carnival out to Country Kid's Daycare.  Again, more games, more treats, and lots of fun.  Then it was time for our Ward Trunk or Treat down to the church.  Mom was gone with her sisters and Gma for the weekend in SLC, so once again Dad managed to feed the hungry tribe of children, hand out candy, and make sure the kids made it to every trunk....(we are so lucky to have our dad!) Finally, it was HALLOWEEN!!!  Dad ended up having to work in Hurricane until 9 pm, so it was mom's turn to have all 4 kids for the evening.  We went up to our ward neighborhood and joined in the swarm of kids flooding the streets and doorsteps.  We approached one very ominous looking house with adults with painted faces making cackling noises, I watched Camrie thinking there's no way she's going to go, but she followed her brothers in and came out screaming that she was going home!  I assured her she was fine and that we had lots more houses to visit.  The next house was very calm and Camrie came back to me saying, "Mom, look I was sooo brave!" and from that house on, Camrie was 'so brave Mom!'  She even went up to a house and yelled "Trick or treat, now give me some treats!" so we had to have a little reminder that we still have to be polite.  The night was great and we even got a couple trick or treaters at our house house which I was not prepared for because we never get them on our street other than Josh,  so I just shared some of the kids' treats out of their pumpkins!  I better mention our Halloween dinner, we ate again with just candles, and had 'Ratloaf.'  Meatloaf shaped to look like a rat with carrot and apple slices shaped like ears and eyes, pieces of broken raw spaghetti noodles for whiskers, and a 1/2 cooked spaghetti for a tail.  He actually turned out pretty cute for a rat, and tasted good too.  The kids loved the whole Halloween thing this year, and I can say we got our money's worth out of the costumes! Pics from the DRMC carnival are on dad's camera but I did get Tanner & Camrie's faces with my phone. The rest of the pics are from the Country Kids carnival:

Tanner & Camrie refused to wash their faces after the carnival at the DRMC C.D.  Center

Donut eating contest at Country Kids

Kason had fun playing in the infant room while the older 3 decorated their treat bags at Country Kids

Halloween twister

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!