November & December 2103

 What a busy holiday season it has been!  Todd and Gary have been taking karate classes together.  The passed their belt advancement test and are now yellow belts!

   We are always excited when the leaves start to fall.  We have more fun than work when it comes to piling them up!  The pile usually stays a few days until the wind blows it away or it finally makes it to the garbage.  The kids just have too much fun jumping in them!  I grew up in a yard with not a single tree so this is still super fun to me too!

   Thanksgiving was a treat as always!  For the last six years (I think) I have been making my family write in a thankful book.  This year we threw a twist in the tradition by making each person draw a letter of the alphabet.  Whatever they wrote about had to have that letter as it's starting letter (or at least one of the words letters).  It turned out some fun results!  Made people think outside their normal list :)

   Our new loved tradition, going to an Aggie football game, was absolutely fabulous this year!  The sun was warm, the air was crisp, it was the perfect weather for a football game!  And, we won :D

   In December we were busy with parties and performances!  Miss Liv danced a jazz and ballet routine in the winter recital.  She's been taking the class with one of her good friends, so it's been an extra treat!

   We traveled to Salt Lake for the annual Montgomery Christmas party.  Every year we squeeze our ever growing family into the basement for the nativity, some songs, games, and a special visit from Mr. and Mrs. Claus!  We always end up spoiled and having had a good time!

    Miss Liv played the violin in her school orchestra.  She is really enjoying this new talent :)  I am happy because I don't have to fight her to practice!  And she likes it cause she gets to play songs with her Gma Linda!





   Gma Young hosted another fun Christmas party at her home.  They have a lot more grandkids to put on their nativity.  I guess that happens when Gma and Gpa had seven kids!  I'm grateful for grandparents that still like to spoil their large families :)
   Overall Christmas was a success!  Everyone got what they wanted or got surprised with something they didn't know they were getting!  Liv and Todd both got fevers Christmas Eve so we weren't able to celebrate with family like we normally do.  That was a little odd.   But thankfully both were able to get up and enjoy the morning!  Liv's fever didn't come back, Todd wasn't as fortunate.  Turned out he had pneumonia, but thankfully he actually went to a doctor after a couple days and was able to get the medicine he needed to start feeling better!

   To end 2013 we lit sparklers... lots of them!  And welcomed 2014, as it is going to be full of more fun stuff!  Including a new baby in July :D

October 2013

 We kicked off our October by meeting with friends in Las Vegas.  Our husbands wanted to get together to play Dungeons and Dragons... yes, I married a nerd!  Us wives established the "Gamer Wives Club" and had a great time visiting with each other!  We are planning in making this an annual thing, it was that good!

Olivia keeps getting older despite what I'd like ;)  So she decided she was ready to be a Junior Girl Scout and bridged from Brownie.  I think she looks good in green!  When I was in Girl Scouts I was junior age, it's coming full circle and making me feel old!

Every October we traditionally have carved pumpkins the Monday night before Halloween for Family Home Evening.  I think Miss Suzy has been the least scared of pumpkin innards of al my kiddos.  She was almost happy enough with just cleaning it out, but she wanted to try carving too... very nerve-wrecking!  It's still nerve-wrecking when the big kids carve!

The Hurricane Elementary Dance Festival came early this year!  The kids were into their dances and super cute at them.  Liv was a little disappointed because we chose a "cute monster" for her to be in the Monster Mash whereas her friends were creepy looking... now I know!  I'm proud of them for giving their all every time!

Halloween is my favorite, so I still dress up with the kids!  This year we went with a Super Mario theme.  Liv was Princess Peach, Gary was Mario, Suzy was Princess Daisy, Todd was Luigi, and I was Toadette.  The kids had  great time trick-or-treating.  Suzy caught on right away, and would grab a handful at each house!  Liv and Gary wanted more this year, so we went out for another half hour or so after we dropped off a tired Suzy Q.  I hope the kids want to keep doing themes for a long time!

July 2013

  Our month started with a camping trip with friends, the Thayers, to a place in Beaver.  It was beautiful weather with some small sprinklings to keep it cool!  We weren't allowed to do fireworks here, so we came up with our own firework style... adding mentos to soda bottles!  The guys got inventive, trying different techniques besides just dropping the candy in and watching a geyser, so it was actually very entertaining!

  The next week I made a trip to Salt Lake to take bridal pictures of my soon to be sister-in-law, Mac, and to help throw her a bridal shower.  I loved this shower!  I went with a "Something Blue" theme.  Each guest was asked to buy a gift for an assigned room and to incoperate the color blue :)  I was so pleased that every guest actually accepted the challenge!  It made watching the gift unwrapping even more fun to see how they accomplished their task!  The picture shows Mac's excitement as I did not fail to deliver my "special" blue gift for the bedroom! *wink wink*

  Olivia took her friends to the Paul Mitchell hair school to get pampered!  They got their hair done and nails painted.  I brought them dress up clothes and glitter tattoo stuff.  They giggled a lot and had fun acting like the ponies from the "My Little Pony" show.  I love that Liv has a good group of friends!  Her birthday gift from her mom and dad was her first two wheeler bike!  She's super excited about learning how to ride it :)

We love to go boating, and we love taking friends with us!  The kids each brought a good friend.  They could've rode that tube all day! Karlene, Todd, and I got to ski, but big Gary wasn't able to this time since he broke his foot.  Trouble maker ;)

  East Canyon is a Montgomery tradition.  Since we moved to southern Utah we haven't been able to participate for several years, but thanks to the wedding we were in town!  The kids had fun hanging out with their cousins, playing games, doing crafts, swimming, and golfing!  I enjoyed watching my kids make memories that I had at their age! 

  On Pioneer Day we walked/rode in the Toquerville parade.  Gary boy was singing with the ward primary.  Gpa and Gma Young and Suzy rode in the old red car and threw candy at the spectators :)  I rode along side our girl scout troop on the tiny red car :)  Then we had breakfast at the park and later went to festivities in Springdale. (pictures out of sequence...)

  My aunt, Shannon, her daughter, Alexis, and Gma Betty flew from Texas for the wedding, so we got to hang out :)  One of the down days we went to the Clark Planetarium.  They have some fun exhibits there that the kids loved.  Suzy's favorite was the moon... she kept pointing at it saying "My moon!  My moon!"

  The month finished off with a bang as Nate and Micheala (Mac) was married in the Brigham City temple on July 30th!  They are very happy together and I'm excited for their life together!

June 2013

 We kicked off June by with a party!  Liv had I hit the Salt Lake Girl Scout Cookie Celebration!  We had a good time playing games and getting dolled up.  Good times!

We went to a boy scout encampment.  This was a unique experience, our stake put on a weeklong campout inviting the whole family.  The boys had their age level camps and the leaders went to woodbadge.  The wives and children were kept busy with various activities, crafts, and entertainment.  I was very impressed with all the things they had planned.  The camp was put on very well, we had a great time, and Todd learned a whole lot and was inspired on how to lead his troop!

  Since we were in Salt Lake Liv and I decided to hit Trefoil Ranch for a Girl Scout Mom and Me campout!  This was a very relaxing camp, and I was so grateful for the opportunity to bond with my girl!  They had crafts to keep us busy, some team leading exercises, some little hikes, and down time for us just to chill and bond.  I would do this camp again in a heartbeat!

   To keep busy and cool when we're not camping we hit the splash pad in Hurricane.  We do this every Tuesday morning with friends.  It's good to get the kids out and to visit with my adult friends :)

 I'm getting used to my new light kit, so I took some fun portraits of my kids.  They were good participants