Nature is a funny thing...

So way back in September our 7 year old Basset Hound Molly and 7 month old Lab Flash were out in the yard like always enjoying the warm day. Well they enjoyed it a little too much and now we have 8 puppies!!!! Not only do we have puppies we have Bassador Puppies. Yeah they have a NAME!!! According to the Internet they will look like labs but have short legs, and basset feet. They will be low key like Molly but smart like Flash.

It's been quite an experience to have puppies. Growing up we always had boy dogs which meant NO BABIES!!! They're a month old and pretty cute. We have 4 girls and 4 boys and 6 of them are yellow and 2 black. My kids are in love of course and when there were 8 born my son said "there's enough for each of us to have our OWN!!!!" Oh my gosh NO!!! So in about a month they'll be ready to go to a new home and Molly will be visiting the vet.

So if anyone out there wants a VERY CUTE puppy, just let me know!!!

What to do????

So here we are the beginning of day 3 of Christmas Break. It's bleak outside, gray and cold, the high is low teens. And what do I hear ALL DAY LONG??? "I'm bored there's nothing to do." Now please understand that my 4 children were blessed with a pretty good Christmas. And there is a TON to do!!!! But apparently playing wii (rock band, scooby doo, resort, play, sports, fit, fit plus, music, etc.) is nothing to do. Or make necklaces from new charms and beads (for the girls) or build dinosaur models (for Zach) listen to their new i Pods (they EACH got one) or read a book, play one of the 5 games they got....the list goes on and on. And granted we are an hour from ANYTHING that resembles society, but still we have stuff to do here. So I'm preparing myself for another day of suggesting all of the above and anything else I can think of to amuse my wonderful bored children for 4 more days!!! I was trying to think why I survive all summer but not one week of Christmas??? The it hit me...DUH!!! Summer = warm = OUTSIDE!!! Heaven Help Me!!!!

I've survived.....

I hope everyone enjoyed and survived Christmas here's what did..... first the kids got wii Rock Band - and it's been on ever since Christmas Morning (See how happy Ben is I took his picture HA HA HA)

Here's the tree BEFORE the carnage....

The stockings are all filled.....

Grandpa is reading the Christmas Story - one of our traditions

Ben is reading "The Night Before Christmas" another tradition

Cute kids is Christmas PJ's also a tradition

Here are the fruits of the kids labors....Christmas Cookies!!!!

My child laborers..JUST KIDDING they LOVE doing cookies

3 of the kids waiting to see Santa after the school Christmas Program

Zach during the program

Dani (in preschool) doing her part...what a cute ELF!!!!

Michaela in the recorder Choir and also the Christmas Play!!

Jordynn as an Elf or her classroom Christmas Play!!

We had a VERY busy Christmas FULL of family!!! Ben's parents and brother came up for Christmas Eve and morning and my parents and siblings came Sunday!!! All in all it was a WONDERFUL Christmas!!! Have a great vacation and NEW YEAR!!!!!

Wheww........

So we've been soo very very busy and here's the update.

We went to get a tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It was quite the adventure full of walking around the Forrest in the snow, not finding a tree, walking some more, still no tree, walking some more maybe this one....nope, more walking, getting a little lost, and loading it in the DARK!!!

This is NOT the tree we got it was a POSSIBILITY.....

Well it's home and up and going well. We haven't had the cat climb it or the dogs use it as a bathroom (yet)

Besides the tree we've had some additions to our family...not by choice. Our OLD (almost 8) Basset Hound and our YOUNG (7 months old) Lab had fun one afternoon and now we have 8 PUPPIES!!! So what do Basset Hound Labrador puppies look like??? Well ours look like labs. Everything I could find on the Internet says they will basically look like short legged labs. They'll be smart like a lab but low key like a Basset.

All in all pretty cute but we have 8 of them...so if anyone would like a Bassador (that's really what they're called) let us know. They'll be ready first of February.

And finally this is what happens when you let the kids play with the camera. By the way there are 26 pictures of the TV

I'm not sure WHY?????

Thanksgiving Update...finally

This year for Thanksgiving we went down to Salt Lake to spend time with both families. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with Ben's brothers, parents, and wives and kids. It was a great time and we laughed a lot. But before we headed over to their house I was helping my mom in the kitchen when the sun went away. It was sunny and bright then DARK. We looked out the window and this balloon was right over the house!! It was VERY cool.

After a great dinner at the in-laws we headed back to my parents house for our traditional after dinner game of B-I-N-G-O!! It's so fun, and we all win prizes. It's quite a gathering and we all have soooo much fun!!

Even Ben got in on the fun...he's concentrating hard not wanting to look at the camera.

On Saturday we had the pleasure of going with my brother through the Temple for the first time. He's getting ready for his mission to Brazil in March. When we got out of the Temple it was too dark for pictures so we took these at Red Robin (where we had dinner) We had WAY too much fun with the stars of New Moon.

I am SUCH a DORK!!! This is not new...but I thought I should mention it....again!!!!

Here's sister Alice with star of movie Alice, CUTE!!!!

It was a great weekend fun of fun, family and FOOD!!! Now we're back in Manila and getting ready for the BIG DAY (Christmas). I hope all of you out there had a great holiday and enjoy this time of year!!!!