New Ride

I think I mentioned that our 1998 Camry died, so our plan this year was to use our savings and tax refund to buy a new (used) car. Kevin's parents had this car that they bought for Kevin's Granny Bowman who recently passed away. Their son Brandon was driving it, but he's leaving on his mission in a few months, so he decided we could have it.

It's a 1995 Chrystler Cirrus, but it only has 59,000 miles! I think Kevin's granny drove it to the grocery store and the temple, and that's it. It's always been parked outside in the sun, and the paint was in bad shape, so we fixed it up with a new paint job.

I love this car! Right now I carpool, so I have to drive the big car to school most days, but I think when I'm done carpooling, this will be my car. It looks more like me than Kevin anyway. ;)

Christmas in February!

I was going through some pictures I recently took on my camera and realized that I never posted my pictures from Christmas! I just have a few to share.

Here are the kids on Christmas Eve in their Christmas jammies from Grandma, freshly bathed and ready for bed.

William and Braden got light sabers from Santa. These boys are obsessed with Star Wars lately, and every time we passed these sweet light sabers in the Target toy section, they had to turn them on and wave them around a little before we could leave.

Rebecca loves Polly Pockets and Disney Princess Polly Pockets, so she got a castle for all of her Polly Pockets for Christmas.

Christmas was just okay for us in 2011. Kevin had to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, so I think that's why I never posted anything here about the holiday. The kids and I did a lot of Christmassy things together like visit lighted neighborhoods and The Festival of Lights at the Las Vegas Speedway, but it wasn't the same without Kevin. We're hoping he's around for more of the holiday this year!

Holy Updates!

I have lots of pictures on my camera of things I want to remember, so here are a bunch of new posts for your reading pleasure. ;)

Milestones

We've hit a few fun milestones at our house lately.

1. I've reached 200 posts! Not very many considering I am going into my 5th year of blogging, but I am happy with all of my posts. I know I joke about blogging getting me out of having to scrapbook, but I honestly feel better that I am doing something to document what's going on with our family.

2. This cute girl turned 7 years old.

3. We sold our 1998 Camry that has been in my family since 1998. My brother bought it brand new. He sold it to my mom a few years later, and we bought it from her a few years after that. It started acting funny last week, so we took it in, and they told us that the engine needed to be replaced. We've known for a while that we would need a new car soon, so instead of putting more money into this car, we decided to sell it. We put it on Craigslist, and we had 4 phone calls about it within a half hour - busted engine and all. We sold it for a lot cheaper than we had hoped because of the engine, but really I am happy to be rid of it with all the problems it's had recently.

4. I've recently passed 50 songs that I can play in the hymn book. This is huge for me! Six months ago I could play about 8 hymns. Then I got called to play piano for Relief Society, and now I am forced to practice and learn new hymns almost weekly. My mom is an amazing pianist, and playing piano was something that I picked up quickly when I was younger. But I gave it up, and I've been regretting it for the past ten years. I feel a lot better knowing that I am finally developing a talent that I have always enjoyed.

All of these crazy things have occurred around the same time, so I feel like they need to be recorded!

Thanksgiving Week

My kids go to school on Veteran's Day so that they get the whole week of Thanksgiving off. It's so wonderful. We spent the entire week at my parents' house in New Harmony, Utah.

Rebecca's birthday was on Tuesday of that week, and for her birthday she wanted to go to Uncle Buck's and Aunt Denise's to ride the horse.

This is Rebecca on Nelson with my brother-in-law Buck.

While we were there we also got to see the new baby chicks and the big chickens, the outside cats, Sam the dog, and the rest of the horses. There are LOTS of fun things to do at my sister's house.

For the rest of the week, we did a lot of relaxing, some shopping, a little four-wheeling, spent time with cousins, ate lots of pumpkin pie and letfovers, and saw Breaking Dawn and Jack and Jill at the movies. It was a nice week break.

I hope everyone else had a nice Thanksgiving!

Rebecca's 7th Birthday Party

The Saturday before we left for Utah, we had a small party for Rebecca. We asked her if she wanted a friend or family party this year for her birthday, and she said family party, so we invited our families over to celebrate.

Every occasion where there's a bouncy castle, my sister-in-law Emily always jumps right in with the kids. She's so girly and classy (she took off her 5 inch stilettos to get in) that it's so fun to see. She hopped right in the bouncy castle at her brother Bryan's wedding too - dress and all. I love it, so I had to get a picture this time.

Some of the guests at the party:

I came around the counter to get a picture of Rebecca in front of her lit candles, and she said, "I'm going to make a face that looks like I'm blowing out my candles." In making that face, she actually blew them out before we sang Happy Birthday. We relit them, and that's why she's covering her mouth in this picture.

I love all of the following pictures because my nephews Gage and Ryder seem to enjoy doing bunny ears:

Kevin got her a snowboard this year because she's been asking if she can try it with us. We found her a nice, unisex board so that if she hates it, she can pass the snowboard down to her brothers.

We love you, Rebecca! We hope you enjoyed your birthday!

Breaking Dawn!

I got a call the week before from my friend Julie telling me that she paid to go to a Breaking Dawn party on Friday night, but her family had decided to go to Disneyland instead. So she offered me her spot. My good friend Kellie was going to be there, so I told her I'd go. And it was a blast!

We had dinner at Brio, and the girls who organized the party decorated and had a wedding cake just like we were attending Bella and Edward's wedding. They had tons of prizes they raffled off during dinner. After dinner, all of us who attended the party got our own private theater for the movie.

I have to say, I thought the movie was really corny the first time I saw it. The music was loud - overpowering the dialogue a little bit. It made a lot of parts seem cheesy. But I saw it again a few days later with Kevin, and I liked it a lot more. The music wasn't as noticeable the second time. I think I can say that this one is my favorite of the four.

And it was nice to hang out with Kellie. She and I and her sister Brook were the only girls in a group full of guys that hung out in high school. With our kids, we don't get to hang out with just each other anymore, so it was fun to do that again. Thanks for the fun night out, Kellie!