My thoughts Today

First of all, it is amazing to me, how one little girl can be such a menace. Today she decided to bather her stuffed dog and then drag him all over my house. Thus leaving me a trail of puddles to clean up. Oh, and then I walked back in the bathroom and she had thrown 3 towels into the bath and a small wardrobe of doll clothes too. She was so proud of her clean dog, though. Good thing she is cute.

Tyson won't let me burn the Christmas tree. He says it will make Jesus sad. Not quite sure what to do about that. I may have to have Josh take it away one morning and throw it in the dumpster at his work.

J.D. has a girlfriend on his DS. Strange? He's made one of the computer's players his DS girlfriend. Things that make you go hmmm.

I'm conflicted about sending my kids back to school tomorrow. Part of me wants to dance a jig and part of me wants to cry. We have had a lot of fun hanging out together and working together. I have pretty fun kids. The part of me that is sick of whining and fighting is the part doing the jig. And maybe a cartwheel or two. I don't know. I am looking forward to some me time to work on a few projects, though.

I finally picked out my theme for 2010 and it is going to be "Be Still". Sometimes I think the world is just so fast paced and crazy that there if very little time to "Be Still". I need to make the time to listen to the spirit and to do the things that I should. Read my scriptures, make my prayers more personal and to just listen and think. We'll see how well I can adjust that to my life. :)

New Years Day Tradition

We have a tradition that every New Years Day we go riding and then we shoot our Gingerbread houses. That usually leads to shooting clay pigeons. It's so much fun!

J.D. and Josh riding.

Piper loves the 4-wheeler and would go anywhere on it. I think she loves Poppa just as much!

The kids checking out Josh & Gabe's accuracy.

Me and my boy!

Piper and her pig skins. If your smart, you won't try to steal one! Good thing nobody but me lieks them! And she loves me!

Not sure what Gabe is looking at. It was so funny. Somebody left a bunch of garbage out there, a computer monitor, a table, and lot's of other stuff. Here comes Josh packing the leaf of the 3 legged table to set up and tape targets to. A few minutes later, here comes Gabe packing the 3 legged table on his back like a turtle. He told Josh, "Hey, you missed the table." It was so funny for some reason!

Heather, J.J. & my kiddo's going for a little ride. Piper and Tyson were making me so nervous. Usually we do okay with the guns, but for some reason today, I was a little bit nervous about one of them getting shot!!

J.D. was the only one of the kids who was really into shooting.

My freezing kids. It was cold, especially if you went on the 4-wheeler. Here they are curled up and sitting inside the truck.

It was a fun day!

We took the pigeon thrower with us, but were having some technical difficulties, so Varney got out his hand thrower. You should have seen Grandpa trying to throw it. Poor Josh almost got his head taken off by grandpa and then Varney hit him with a pigeon! It was hilarious.

Hanging with Uncle Danny

We hardly ever get to see Danny. He lives up north and neither of us travel very often either direction! It's always fun to see him and to hang out.

He's a big geek! But I love him. He's way into snow boarding, so that is what he did with the kids. Here are just a few of the many pictures we took!

Danny says that Tyson has lots of talent. Apparently he has really good balance and is a natural on a board. Hmm, Olympic gold medalist?? Maybe, I think Santa is going to bring my boy's snowboards next year for Christmas!

Danny is so good with the kids. He really needs to have a few kiddo's himself. I guess he better get married first. Hmmm, he may just have to play with his nieces and nephews, because I don't think the boy will ever get married.

Piper n' Riyo

These two fight like crazy. They are six months apart and the best of friends!
Here they are as twinners in their fun purple dresses. I saw a good deal on these at Target and had to buy them for the girls.

Making m&m cookies on a Sunday afternoon.

Tea Time! The girls had so much fun playing tea party.

They ate m&m's and potatoe wedges.

I hope they alway's will be the best of friends.

Christmas Morning

As usual, we were spoiled. I've gotta say, Santa must shop all year round to do what he does :).
J.D. got a DS from Santa with 2 games, Tyson got a Transformer scooter, and Piper got a Dolly and a cradle. Thank you Santa!
We got tons of board games. We played Don't Break the Ice all day on Christmas. Piper doesn't understand the concept and just likes to smash all the ice. Tyson, who does get it, prefers the just smashing part.

Which means I get to enjoy putting it together a million times!

I think the DS has hardly left J.D.'s hands since he got it. I am going to let him play to his hearts content and the day we start school, there will be a time limit on that thing. We also told him that he has to buy his own games.

The 16-in-one game table. Yikes! I had no idea that it would take forever to put together. My kids are way excited about it though. We, I mean Josh, didn't even put it all together. They get pool, air hockey, Foosball, and ping-pong. We will keep the rest of the pieces in a tote and if we get around to it great. If not, oh well.

Ponies, dollies, and princesses, pretty much sums up Pipers Christmas!

Tyson opening up Ice Age. He was dying to get that movie. And we've watched it probably half a dozen times already.

Piper and Daddy!

I got a couple of these awesome Moon Chairs for my kids. Not quite sure if we will put them in their rooms or leave them out in the living room. They will probably travel for awhile until we decide.

Stocking time!

J.D. was so excited. He woke up at like 5:30 and we made him come and get in bed with us. He tossed and turned. About 6:30 he got up and went to get a drink. He came back in and said, "Mom, I saw the outline of a skateboard and I think I saw some DS games in the tree, but I can't be sure about that!" Around 7, we let him go and wake up Tyson. He found the DS games but couldn't find the DS. He was so sad, that Santa had only brought him games. Santa had hung the DS off of the curtain rod, right next to the stockings, but he had totally missed it. It took him about 15 minutes to find it!

Christmas Eve at the Doty's

Every year we spend Christmas Eve at my in-law's house. It's the only place big enough to hold all of us. You can tell by the amount of presents, that there are quite a few of us.
I told my mother-in-law that next year we need to simplify!

Grandma and baby Kassie.

Aunt Heather and Piper.

Sorry for the blurry picture. My new camera, (makes me mad!) is taking not so great photo's. But here are the kids eating dinner. We had lot's of yummy soup and snacky foods.

Everyone loves to pass Piper around. Here is Aunt Mags and Pip. Aunt Maggie is expecting her very own bundle of joy in June! So excited!

All of the kiddo's watching Prep n' Landing before dinner.

Ah, what a cute little shepherd. Piper wanted no part of being the angel.

Harley dressing up as a Shepherd. I tell you what, if I could pick a kid to take home and keep forever, it would be Harley. She is so fun and so cute. I asked Varney and Heather if I could keep her and they said no :(.

Since Piper didn't want to be the angel, Kasen jumped in and took her spot. He even put on her white dress.

This was the first year we have ever put on the nativity with the kids. They all didn't want to participate, but those that did had a lot of fun. There was alot of giggling during the nativity. There is Tyson right by the baby, being a Jedi Shepherd again.

J.D. the wise man.

And the gifts. They went on, and on, and on!! Overboard, I tell ya. Not that the kids mind.

Each year my kids get new PJ's for Christmas. Here is grandpa, modeling Pipers for her.

It was a great Christmas eve!