Catching Up!

Why do I do this every time?! I wait until there are months and months to catch up on before I finally jumble everything together into one post. But I'm not even going to kid myself into saying it's my New Year's resolution to be better. Cause I know i won't. Anyway, since my last post, Austin's parents came to visit for a few days. It was so nice to see them! I feel bad cause we really didn't do much with Brynnlee in school and Austin working, but the kids loved showing them our house and just hanging out here with them! For Thanksgiving we spent it here in Cali with our friends the Wilsteads. There was lots and lots and lots of food. It was really yummy. Austin got his smoker out finally that I bought him for Father's Day a few years ago and attempted to smoke the turkey. Well..... everything was going fine until the thermometer stopped working. So we were just guessing the temp. Ya. Well we were way off and ended up having to put the turkey in the oven to cook it and it still took a few hours! We'll try again sometime! Our biggest highlight of course was getting to go home to Idaho for Christmas! The kids had calendars in their rooms counting down the days and Brynnlee would tell her teacher everyday how many more days it was until we would be going to see Grandmas and Grandpas! We left a little after 6:00pm Thursday the 20th after Austin got off work, and we drove straight through and got to St. Anthony at about 8:30am Friday morning the 21st. Austin drove the whole way and I tried desperately to stay awake and talk to him but I'm not gonna lie. I kept nodding off... A lot! But I would jerk awake and ask him how he was doing and strike up a conversation with him every 15-20 minutes. So even though I got more rest than he did, we were both pretty exhausted. The only great thing was that the kids slept almost the whole way. We even made it to Idaho Falls before getting pulled over! The state trooper wasn't very happy to see Brayden asleep on my lap and Brynnlee asleep on the floor of the car with Tayson hanging out in Brayden's carseat without his belts on. After I told him we had been driving all night and the kids actually had been in their seatbelts most of the way he let us off with a warning. That would've been a heafty heafty fine! We had a great time while we were home although the time went by way too quickly! I was able to see a lot of my close friends but there were still quite a few that I missed! Brayden got sick and was pretty clingy so we spent a lot of our time just hanging out at my parents or Austin's parents. I hope next time we come home we will be able to see more people! We decided to break up the trip on our way back and we stayed at my sister's in-laws house in St. George. It was still exhausting but definately helped to get some rest! We showed the kids where I used to work in St. George and where I lived. Then we took them to the visitor center in St. George and of course up to the red rocks for a little bit. We didn't stay very long but it was nice to get out of the car for a little while. When we arrived home everything was still in our house so that was good! The kids wanted to stay in Idaho but were excited when we came back home and they could play outside at the park again. Austin's birthday was on Friday after we got home but I must admit I was kind of a slacker this year. Usually I get up and make him pancakes with sausage or his favorite muffins.... or something but I didn't this year. I was still so tired! But we had a fun time after he got home from work and the kids were pretty excited for him to open his presents. Brynnlee went back to school on the 7th and loves it! It's so fun to see all the new things she's learning. I can't believe how fast she is growing up! Austin left on the 6th for Kansas City for some training and is coming home tomorrow on the 11th. We are all pretty excited to see him. It's been kind of a long week. It was great to have the car but we actually didn't go anywhere cause anywhere we would've gone I would've spent money so we still walked Brynnlee to and from school and only took the car a couple of times to go to some friends' houses.

Visitors!!

So my brother and sisters came at the beginning of Oct. for a little over a week so I figured I'd better blog about it! We didn't get as many pics and I would've liked but we had lots of fun! They flew in to LAX and Tosh got a rental car and drove the rest of the way to our house. They kids were SO excited that they came! Brynnlee had been promising me that she wouldn't fight with Chalese at all while they were here and she was right! That may sound funny.... but seriously those two have always been more like sisters and Brynnlee sure was the little sister who liked to push Chalese's buttons any chance she got! But Brynnlee thinks that the reason we moved is because she fought with Chalese so much..... we keep telling her we moved because Daddy got a job and we're really lucky he has his job that he really likes so we're going to stay here for a few years at least. But for some reason she still thinks it's because she used to fight with Chalese a lot and get into her stuff all the time!
 They were so cute. Chalese painted Brynnlee's nails and played with her non stop. Brynnlee loved having her "big sis" around again! They really have always had a special bond since Brynnlee was born and it's definitely been hard being away from home! The kids still say daily that they want to move back in to the blue house by Grandma and Grandpa Flamm's! Even though they get their own rooms here and we have a little more room! Tosh spoiled the kids AS USUAL, and Spence was a great buddy for Tayson to have around. He played ball with him and took him to the park and kept Tays from beating up on Brayden. Spence could definitely handle Tayson's craziness a little better than Brayden does! It was fun for Austin to have someone to play basketball with and play football on the play station..... cause I am so not in to doing either one of those things with him! The only hard part was that Brynnlee was in school all week and of course Austin worked so we weren't able to do as much as when my sister Maurcine came to visit but we still had fun together!

Picking Apples in Tehachapi (It's a town that is up in the mountains with about the same elevation as St. A! And it was a little chilly!) They even get snow in the winter!

We had to play at the park after picking apples

Cute park with faces cut out of a lot of the trees. They also had one shaped like a turtle and other faces

What kind of trip to California would it be without going to the beach?! This was Chalese's and Spence's first time seeing the ocean!

Austin taking Tays out into the waves and pretending he was going to throw him into the ocean

He threw a fit once he got back on shore. It was pretty funny!

Austin helping Chalese jump some of the waves

Playing badminton at the school

Sadly the best pic I got with Spence

My sister who's 16 1/2 years younger than me! She's growing up so fast! (But I'm still staying young right!?)

Three out of five sisters

Brayden still remembered Chalese! He was a little iffy about Tosh and Spence but he clung to Chalese!