Here comes Santa Clause

Every year we go to Riverton City Hall and see Santa and Mrs. Clause. My mom works there and this year we got to join all the employees and see them early and beat the crowds... The boys loved it. The girls, not so much. Brooklyn cried and Alex cried and ran for the door. I had to chase her down and I am so mean, I made her go back and tell him what she wanted. Every year we go with my Mom and Kane, Mark and Lara and thier boys and Eric and Amy and their kids have been coming with us the last couple of years too.. It is so much fun. You get to see Santa and then you get to go decorate a cookie, do a craft, go on a hay ride and eat scones and have hot chocolate. This is a fun tradition that we intend on keeping up.

Uncle Mark really likes the scones :)
Jaxon is so funny. He got a new scarf that his grandma Bearden made him that he has to wear everywhere and of course he had to wear his Santa hat.
Sier, Kip, Makade, Trett, Jadd, Jaxon and Alex
Our HAPPY family with Santa and Mrs. Clause

Halloween

I know I am really late at posting this, but here you go anyway...
We had a lot of fun this halloween. The kids got to dress up so many times. They had their school parties, a neighborhood party, a party at Grandma Beardens and then Halloween itself. Makade wanted to be Indiana Jones just like last year, Jaxon had to be a Vampire and the girls of course wanted to be princesses.

All of the Bearden cousins at Grandma's party
Our little family at the party

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

So this year I celebrated my 30th birthday! Craig, Amy, Jory and Lara gave me a Surprise Party! It was so much fun. We had it over at Eric's house and they had it a Sugar-Free party just for me:) All of the food there was sugar-free so I could eat it and enjoy. We had such a great time. Some of Craig's family came, all of my family came and some of our friends. It was soo much fun. Here are a few pictures of the night.

My Sugar-Free icecream.. Yum!
All the girls at the party
All of my family was there except for Jory's husband Chet.
Craig and I

The Zoo!

All the kids.
Me and my kids..

Looks like a good time right??.... It really was, but we had 16 kids and 4 adults. Something is wrong with that. It was UEA weekend. We thought since the weather was bad no one would be at the zoo. We weren't the only ones that thought that. It was packed. It was a lot of fun though. The kids had a blast! AND we only lost one kid. Of course it had to be Brooklyn. Luckily it was only for a minute. We were really lucky and found her. She had wondered off looking for a drink. Over all it was a good time.:)

Football

This year was Makade's first year playing football. We put him in flag football with his cousin Kip. He loved it! He did really well. The beginning of the season was a little slow for him, but by the end he was doing awesome. We all had such a great time watching him. He is anxious to play again. This time he says he is ready for tackle football. We will see....

Makade is the QB in the gray in this picture.
Makade
Brooklyn loved watching the football games...

Alex's surgery

Alex had to have her tonsils out and a patch put in her ear. This poor girl has been throuh enough. She did really good. The surgery was at primary childrens, she was very anxious to get home and as soon as we did she was ready to eat and run around. The next day wasn't so good.... She is doing really well now. She is sleeping a lot better and loud noises don't hurt her ears anymore. Because of that we call the surgery a great success.

Bear Lake 2009

Hanging out on the beach
Makade water skiing
Jaxon water skiing
The girls playing at the beach
Most of the grandkids at the condo.

We went to Bear Lake again this summer. It was such a great time. We all stayed in condo's. That part was great. The first couple of days that we were there the weather was really bad. We went swimming at the pool at the condo. The rest of the week was perfect. We had such a great time playing on the beach, riding on the boat, skiing, wakeboarding and tubing. We all had a great time and can't wait until next time...:)

Girls Birthdays!

Brooklyn on her 2nd Birthday.. We celebrated Brooklyn's birthday at Bear Lake. We had so much fun celebrating her birthday there. A week after we got back from bear lake Brooklyn was potty trained... Yay! Brooklyn is such a fun girl. She is always making us laugh. Everyone that meets her instatly falls in love with her. We are so lucky to have her in our family. We love you Brooklyn!
Alex had her 4th birthday. For her birthday I got Faith, her best friend, and took the two of them to get pedicures. They absolutely loved it. They are such girly girls. Alex is such a sweet girl, when she wants to be. She definately has a lot of attitude. It is great. We feel so blessed to have her in our family as well. We love you Alex.
We ended up having a combined party for the girls with our families. Everyone came over and we had cake and ice cream. We had such a great time celebrating with everyone. Happy birthday girls.

First Day of School....

Alex
Jaxon
Makade

Okay, I have been such a slacker on posting. These next few posts will be a little back tracking. These are the kids on their first day of school. Makade is in 2nd grade now and Jaxon is in Kindergarten. They are both really enjoying school and love their teachers. Alex started preschool this year. She is loving it.

All I want for Christmas......

Is my two front teeth.
Makade

Graduations!!!

Makade got the High Flying Hawk award, which was the highest award. Good job Makade
Makade at his end of the year program
Jaxon with his preschool teachers at graduation
Jaxon at graduation

Jaxon had such a great time in preschool and will miss his teachers and friends, but he is soo excited to start kindergarten.
Makade did very well in 1st grade. We were very lucky and got a great teacher. He is excited to start 2nd grade.
Okay, so I am so far behind on my blogging. I am going to try and catch up over the next little bit.
I figured I should get these pictures posted since school is starting back up next week already.....

Happy Birthday Makade!

Mom and Makade
Makade blowing out his candles
Makade with his new bike

I know this post is sooo late. Makade turned 7 in June. We had a great day. He got the bike he wanted and we had a party with all of our family. He wanted brownies and ice cream instead of cake. It was a great time.
We feel so blessed to have Makade in our family. He is such a good kid. He is so sweet and a big help. He is always making us laugh. We love you Makade....

California Vacation

We were able to do our family vacation a couple of weeks ago. We went to California and had such a great time.
We started off by driving to St. George and going to my cousin, Cheyenne's wedding. Then we drove to San Diego. That first night we got there we of course had to go swimming at the hotel. The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo. The kids had so much fun there. They loved seeing all the animals. This is where Jaxon had to buy his Safari hat. He loves stuff like that.
Next we were off to Sea World. That was a lot of fun. We went to all the shows and of course sat in the splash zone. The boys loved that part. The girls not so much. They fed the dolphins and pet the sting rays. It was great.
The next day we started our drive to Anaheim. On our way we stopped at Lagoona Beach and played there for a while. We had a good time jumping the waves and burying everyone. That night we went to the Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament. The boys thought that was really cool.
The next three days were spent in Disneyland. It really is one of the happiest places on earth. This was our first time taking our kids there. They LOVED it. They loved going on all the rides. The boys got to do the Jedi Training, which for them was the best part. Jaxon got to fight Darth Vader and Makade got to fight Darth Mal. Alex loved going to see the Princesses. Brooklyn love the Dumbo ride. She was just happy to be there. I was glad the kids would do every ride they could. I worried a little that they would be scared, but they weren't. They loved it.
We ran in to some friends at dinner in Down Town Disney one night. That was a lot of fun for the kids. They got to go do some rides together. We also ran into my step-brother Andy and his wife and kids. We watched the fire works with them.
Over all this was such a great vacation. The kids were so good and had such a good. time. We can't wait to go back......

Worlds Cheerleading in Florida

Jory, Jera, Bailee and Mom
Bailee's Cheer Team

Bailee's Cheer Team made it to World's this year! I was lucky enough to go and watch her and spend a great time with my mom and sisters. Bailee's team did awesome! I am so proud of you Bailee.
We all had such a fun time. We laughed so much! Thanks for the great trip girls!
Also, thank you Craig for taking care of everything for me while I was gone. Thanks Lara and Cami and everyone else that helped out with the kids. You are all great.

Jeremy and Jamie

These are my really good friends. They are now ready to adopt. This is their profile. I would like to post it and have you all look at it and send it along to anyone you can. They are such great people and will be such great parents. I wish you two the best. Love you two.....
https://beta.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/7359889/ourMessage.jsf
I can't get this to work, so you will have to copy and paste it.

Catch up post.

I haven't posted for a while, so I thought I would put some of our highlights down.



These are pictures of Jaxon's field trip to the planetarium. We had such a good time. We got to pretend to be on the Moon and on Mars. He loved it. They got to watch a movie about planets and of course he had to get popcorn and space ice cream. It was a great time.





We are building a playground for the kids. It still isn't done, but it is getting there. If only the weather would cooperate....







And finaly Easter. We had such a great time. The kids loved the Easter egg hunts.
On Saturday we started off by going to the Herriman hunt. It was great the kids got lots of stuff. I did manage to loose Makade and Jaxon and had to have them paged, but it all ended well. Next we were off to the Butterfields hunt. It was very nice of them to invite us. Jane did a great job and had all sorts of great prizes for the kids. After that we headed to Grandma Gins for her hunt and BBQ. The kids had such a good time. She had the hunt and played games with the kids and then we ate. It was good to see everyone. All my brothers and sisters made it.
Sunday we had a good time seeing what the Easter Bunny brought, then we went to church and even with four kids it was a great day at church. After church we went to Grandma and Grandpa Bearden's for their Easter Egg Hunt and dinner. The kids loved all the prizes they got there. Brooklyn loved the reeses peanut butter cups. That is all she wanted. Thank you everyone for making our Easter a great one.
I know this post is long and I am sorry, but you are all caught up now.

Happy Birthday Craig!

Yesterday was Craig's Birthday. We started the day by opening presents, having breakfast. Then, Craig went to work for a little while. We all went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. The boys needed their Steak. This was the only picture I got. It is of Craig and Brooklyn on the saddle while we sang to him at the restuarant. He was a good sport. We went shopping and then ended the day with some cheesecake. I think he had a good day. I know the rest of us had a great time with him on his birthday.
Craig is such a great person. He is the best dad. I couldn't ask for a better husband. Thanks for everything Craig. I love you!

Such a Girl!!!

Those of you that know Alex know that she is as girly as they come.
Last night she got out of her bed to reapply her lipstick. What three year old does that....
The other night she and I were having a girls night. She picked a movie for us to watch and she wanted to watch Thirteen going on Thirty. We were watching it when all of a sudden they kiss. Alex says "ewe gross" I am thinking it is because they are kissing, but no, she continues to say "he is kissing her and she has on lipstick" or as she calls it whipskick. I thought that was so funny. It wasn't gross that they were kissing. Only that he was kissing her with her lipstick on.
Alex is such a fun girl. She love to have her hair done and get dressed up. She loves purses, shoes, nailpolish and of course lipstick.....

Poor Alex...

This last weekend I had to take Alex in for a sleep study. Again!
This girl has been through so much in the little time she has been around. In the past three and a half years she has had toe surgery for her webbed toes (which didn't work, but I am glad because I love her little webbed toes). She has had a sleep study finding out she had sleep apnea and had to have her adnoids out. She was too young to take her tonsils out too. Then she had to have tubes in her ears. They only lasted a few months, so didn't really work. Then she had to have her tear ducts unplugged with a little surgery so her eyes wouldn't always run, but it didn't work. Now we are starting over with the sleep study again thinking her apnea is back. They think she may need her tonsils out now. We won't know for a couple of weeks. She is such a good sport. As you can tell in the pictures she was just happy to be there. She was so excited, because the next day she got to go pick out new finger nail polish. That is the one thing she wanted.
We are very blessed that the things we have had to go through with her have been very minor. We love you Alex! Thanks for being such a good little girl....