Post Marathon

Okay I hadn't posted any of my photos over Christmas, and It was just too much stuff to put in one post. So I did six separate ones. So be sure to scroll down and check out the other five posts I did today.

Day after Christmas Sledding

Kaylee and Brianne got new sleds from Santa Claus. They were dying to try them out but we ran out of time on Christmas so first thing the next day we suited up for sledding. We are fortunate to have a sledding hill just up the street in the park by our house. The girls had fun going down the hill, even Sydnie went down a few times and seemed to like it.

Kaylee at the top of the hill. If you know where to look you can see our house in the background. I just wanted to note the amazing view in the back ground of a frozen Utah Lake and Mt. Timpanogos. Sometimes I forget until I see a picture like this what a beautiful place we live in.

Kaylee going down the hill.

Brianne going down with mommy. It took her a few times but she finally dared to go down by herself.

Sydnie and Daddy headed down the hill.

Sydnie playing in the snow.

Ice Fishing and More Sledding

The next day Jackson's came to stay with us. And the girls were excited to go sledding again with their cousins Hayden and Hannah. We spent about an hour sledding then went ice fishing at a little spot about five minutes from our house on Utah Lake. Shaun helped the kids catch about five little perch and then they were cold and hungry and ready to go home for lunch. Grandma and Grandpa Thornton came later that day. Everyone had come to go to a mixed farewell and homecoming. My oldest brother and his wife are going on a couple mission to Seattle WA and my niece Katie (their daughter) just got back from Spain. They are quite the missionary family right now. Their two other sons are also out on missions. Sean has almost been out a year to Italy and C.J. has just left a few months ago to Kenya. We will miss all of them.

The sledding crew ready to go in the back of Jackson's Explorer

Brianne and Hayden finally daring to go down on their own.

Nancy and Hannah on their way down. Eventually even Hannah dared to go down on her own.

Brianne, Shaun, Hayden and Kaylee waiting for a fish to bite.

Brianne holding the first catch of the day.

Sydnie Learns to Walk (FINALLY!!!)

Our babies have typically been slow walkers, and Sydnie was no exception. Anyone who says don't wish for them to walk too soon, must not have kids who wait as long as mine to walk. Sydnie is nearing the end of her 15th month and is finally walking. Shaun and I finally had to start giving her some lessons. We started the first part of December and she is finally starting to take steps of her own. She isn't cruising around yet, but she will walk from couch to couch or down the hall until she falls down, all on her own with no prompting. Other mile stones of note, she has finally started to say a few words on her own. My other two were such early talkers, that even though she probably is just normal, it seems late to me. Her first words are Hi, Uh Oh, and she also says Da Da occasionally, and seems to use it at the right time, so I will count that one too.

If at first you don't succeed

try, try again

Success!!!

Christmas 2008

Santa Claus found our house despite all the snow. We came home to 13 inches on top of what was already there before we left. then it snowed another 6 inches once we got home. The girls were happy to find Santa Claus had left them everything on their lists plus a few items. Kaylee had asked for, an MP3 player, Pixos, Littlest Petshop VIP, Barbie rescue pet, a Goldfish Webkinz, and an Easybake oven. Brianne asked for, big surprise, pretty much the same thing that Kaylee had asked for. Sydnie of course was happy with the presents Santa had picked out for her, she got a new baby doll, a keyboard and a ball popper. Shaun put in a special request for Santa to bring his girls Air Hogs helicopters. And spent most of the day terrorizing us with them. I think this is the way Shaun deals with the mountain of girl toys that Santa brings to our house every year. We also had My oldest brother Mike and his family come to dinner later that day. It was good to visit with them one last time before they leave on their mission to Seattle. My Niece Katie had also just come home from her mission in Spain and it was good to see her again. It is always nice to spend Christmas with family so we were glad they could come.

Kaylee reading the letter Santa Clause had left them.

Opening up the presents

Sydnie in a mountain of presents. I included this one because her hair made us laugh in this picture.

Kaylee flying the helicopter, that is, when she could get it away from Shaun.

Huls Christmas Party

Everyone on Shaun's side of the family looks forward to Christmas Eve dinner. Shaun always makes his coconut shrimp and his dad makes the main meat dish, this year he did beef tenderloin roast, it was very good. Everyone else contributes yummy side dishes. The cousins had a fun time playing together while the adults enjoyed a great dinner. After dinner Christopher surprised Shaun, his dad and other brother Josh with a birthday gift. of Sage fly rods he had made himself. He had everyone in tears with his thoughtful gift, everything was hand made he even hand turned the cork handle and shafts. When I say Shaun misses Idaho this is the reason why. His brothers truly are his best friends. And I know he will miss not trying out his new rod for the first time with them. We had a great time seeing everyone (minus Katie and Jeremy, they were at his parents house) However, we were sad to leave just as the party got started. We had to get home before Santa Claus arrived and the roads had been bad all week.

Shaun with his brothers and Dad, showing off there new rods.

Shaun with his brothers and sisters minus Katie.

from left to right, Christopher, Lacie, Josh, Natalie, and Shaun.

All the cousins minus Mia (she was taking a nap)

from left to right, Brianne, Braden holding Tyler, Keagan, Kaylee holding Sydnie, Morgan holding Katelyn, Lincoln, Layton, Logan holding Keaton, and Parker.

Cousins playing with Grandpa's electric train.

Thornton Christmas Party

We had so much fun this Christmas break that there is no way I can fit it all into one post. So I thought I would break it down into smaller post. We will see how many I get done before Sydnie wakes up from her nap.

The first Christmas party we went to was at Grandma and Grandpa Thornton's house. My girls are so lucky to have such a talented grandpa. He made all the little kids wooden rocking horses and the older girls got wooden jewelry boxes. Kaylee was excited about her jewelry box but you could tell she was a little sad about being too old to get a wooden horse. However, she has had a lot of fun riding Sydnie around on her horse. The kids figured out how to scoot the horses around on the carpet and we had a regular rodeo going on in grandma and grandpas living room. Who needs biscuit the $200 horse when you have a grandpa who makes homemade ones just as good.

Sydnie on her horse

Kaylee showing off her jewelry box

Brianne, Kaylee, and Sydnie going for a ride

All the grandkids on their horses.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAUN

At our house Christmas time is extra busy. Not only do we have to get everything ready for Christmas, but we also have two birthdays right before. First, Brianne's on the 22nd and then Shaun's on the 23rd. At least now they have each other to sympathize with. For Shaun's Birthday we are planning on going to see the movie "Seven Pounds" and go to our favorite resturant in Idaho Falls, Jakers. We love to go to Jakers anytime, but it is esspecially fun on your birthday because you get your dinner half price. So happy Birthday to Shaun. We love you! You are a great husband and dad. Hope you have a great Birthday!

Here is Shaun on one of his many fishing trips with his brothers, they go at night at palisades dam outlet.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIANNE!!!

It's Brianne's 5th Birthday today. We are not doing a whole lot to celebrate her Birthday today, because she has already had it celebrated two times. As you saw from a previous post, she already had a fun Birthday party with her friends. Then last Wednesday we took Brianne to the Build a Bear store, because that is pretty much the only thing she wanted for her Birthday. We are in Idaho Falls today, and there is no Build a Bear store here, so we had to chose a night to go to the mall in Utah last week. She chose a Zebra and got to pick out a cute outfit for it. Afterwards we had dinner at the mall and went home to open the rest of her presents and have cake. She had a fun time. Even though she dosn't get a party today, don't feel too bad for her. She has opened presents from Grandparents and cousins, and any day is a party when you get to play with cousins.

We love our Brianne and are so glad she came to our family 5 years ago. She is such a fun girl to have around. Always saying funny little things. We call her our little bunny because she is always hopping around, in fact I am constantly having to tell her to stop jumping around because Sydnie or Daddy is sleeping. She is a little bit shy and doesn't have a lot to say most of the time, but once she gets to know you she will snuggle right up to you and is very loving. She is my helper and loves to help me do just about anything (now when it comes to cleaning her room, that's another story). We love our Silly Sweetie. Happy Birthday, Brianne!!!!

At the Build a Bear store Brianne filling up her Zebra

Her Birthday cake, she loves penguins.

Getting ready to blow out the candles.

Opening her presents.

Lights at Temple Square

We had a surprise visit from Christopher and Lesli yesterday. They called in the morning to say they were coming up to see the lights. We finally managed to connect up with them later that afternoon at IKEA. The girls had a lot of fun playing with their cousins and the lights at Temple Square were beautiful as always. We talked Christopher and Lesli into spending the night because the roads were so bad. On the way home from the temple, we saw several accidents on the freeway. Kaylee was (as she said in her own words) "a little freaked out". I think she was glad when we finally got home. We always love it when family comes to visit. We don't get to see everyone as much as we used to, and it is good to get a little one on one time with family when they come to stay.

Parker, Morgan, Lincoln, Brianne, and Kaylee in front of the Salt Lake Temple.

Microwave Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments

Since opening up the Christmas ornament box and finding some of their old salt dough ornaments they had made in past Christmas's, that is pretty much all my girls have been able to think about. So when we finally sat down to make them they were more than a little bit excited. I got online to find a recipe, and was excited to find one that you could bake in the microwave! I decided to give it a try, and although the ornaments came out a little bubbly, I thought it was great. Instead of waiting over an hour for the ornaments to dry in the oven it only takes about 3 minutes in you microwave. The girls had a lot of fun painting the ornaments and applying lots of glitter and sparkles. I have included the recipe and directions at the end of this post.

Brianne and Kaylee busy painting their ornaments

Kaylee's finished product

Brianne's finished ornaments

Since I don't have a kids tree this year we strung them up over one of the archways. Its fun to see them displayed all in a group.

Recipe and directions

2 c. of flour

1/2 c. salt

3/4 c. water

mix together and knead

then roll out and use cookie cutters for desired shape, poke a hole with a blunt pencil for the string to go through.

Place on a plate and microwave for 2-4 minutes. be sure to keep checking on them they will burn if you leave them in too long.

Let them cool and add paint, glitter and other embellishments. Like I said they do bubble so we found painting the side that had been against the plate was the easiest.

After the paint dries spray with an acrylic clear spay to add shine and preserve your ornament.

A Unicorn Birthday Party!

We had Brianne's friend party this last Friday night. She doesn't actually turn 5 till December 22nd, but last year we waited to have her party a few days before her birthday and a lot of people were not able to come. So we decided to try it earlier in the month. The party was a success. Brianne chose to have a Unicorn late over. I was surprised to find that there wasn't a lot of Unicorn party accessories so I had to be creative. I made Unicorn horn cupcakes. And I ended up spraying a horse pinata purple and adding a horn. The girls had lots of fun eating pizza, playing pin the horn on the unicorn, hitting a pinata, making unicorn horns, and watching a movie.

The unicorn horn cupcake cake. I know it looks a little crazy when you put them all together like that.

Brianne with her unicorn pinata

Brianne opening her presents

The whole crew modeling their unicorn horns.

Real or Fake?

Well, we finally broke down and after thirteen years of marriage, and twelve real Christmas trees we finally took the plunge and bought a fake Christmas tree. A few things influenced our decision. Shaun actual had gone up to the forests in Idaho with his brothers and gotten us a tree. But on our last night in Idaho Sydnie burnt her hand on Shaun's parents fireplace. We knew we would be in for a sleepless night if we stayed in Idaho. So, I packed our things in a huge hurry (I think I left a few things behind) and we left about an hour later. Sydnie had been inconsolable until I put her in the car. Then she immediately stopped crying, must have been the familiar surroundings. Anyway, we got in the car and realized we hadn't got the tree strapped to the top of our car. We just couldn't chance it. It would have taken too long to strap it on, not to mention we would have to drive a lot slower. We had a baby almost a sleep and we just decided to leave it. So anyone living in Idaho looking for a real tree we have an extra. So as far as the fake tree goes. We got a good one. Just what I wanted, tall and skinny and pre-lit. And they have such realistic looking trees now that I really can't tell the difference, except for the smell and the itchy eyes, nose, and arms from stringing all the light. I guess I'll have to get a pine scented spray.

As much of the tree as I could get. I couldn't back up far enough to get the whole thing.

one more picture of our mantel. I embroidered the stockings last year but didn't get them done in time for Christmas. I was so excited to hang them up this year.

Close up of the stockings.

Thanksgiving Fun

(and some not so fun moments too)

We had a fun Thanksgiving. We spent it at my parents house. Almost all of my family was there. It was especially nice to see my sister Janet and her little girl Abby. We had not seen them in a long time especially Abby, I don't think she had even seen Sydnie yet. Abby and Sydnie were buddies for the weekend. I don't think Abby put her down for more than a few minutes the entire time we were there. Besides Thanksgiving dinner we did some other fun things. Shaun of course was fishing or hunting any chance he could get. I got to see the movie Twilight and get some Christmas shopping done. And the girls just had fun playing with all of their cousins on both sides of the family. We only had one misfortune at the very end of our stay Sydnie burnt her hand. And we had to cut our vacation a half a day short.

Sydnie and her new buddy Abby.


Adding the finishing touches to the gingerbread house Janet brought for the kids to decorate.


Brianne adding her gingerbread man.




The whole gingerbread construction crew.



Sydnie's poor little burnt hand.



All bandaged up.



We had to put a sock over her hand so she wouldn't rip the bandage off. Then we had to tape the sock to her sleeve so that she wouldn't take the sock off.