Christmas 2009

My favorite holiday is Christmas. I have tons of decorations and I love the whole season!!! This is our tree this year with the presents under it. My mom and Pat gave us this tree when Doug and I got married. I love it!!! Everybody who comes to our house thinks it is real, but it is not!!!

This year was wonderful. Christmas Eve we spent with Doug's family. It was lots of fun and lots of really good food. The electicity was out on that side of town most of the day and so we thought we might have to have it at our house. But the electricity came on and all was well and we all went to Tammy and Dane's house for the evening. It was supper fun. Ed and Tasha got to go with us so that was great!!! Christmas morning Doug and I woke up by Bethanie calling us from her dad's at 7:11am. So Doug and I got up and opened our presents from each other. Than we got ready and went to breakfast over to the Maxwell's house. It was delicious. Then we visited with them until we had to leave to go get my kids at Grandma Hills. We got there and had a Christmas celebration with that whole family. It was fun to see them and spend time with them. I haven't had a Christmas dinner there in a long time. It was good to see that side of the family again. I miss them and they have missed me!!!! :) They treated Doug just wonderfully!!!! Then we came home and opened our presents here at the house with Doug, me, Ed, Tasha and Bethanie. Then we played games and had so much for the rest of the evening. Then Doug go to go get the Buddenbohm kids the next day and we got to open the rest of our presents and have them open theirs. It was lots of fun!!! Everybody very much enjoyed what they got!!!

This is Doug and most of his Christmas presents. We opened the rest the next day when all the kids were here. His big gift this year was a Garmin GPS from me!!! :) He also got several Soduko game books. He loves dark chocolate and he got some of that from the kids.

I got 3 beautiful sweaters from Doug!!! I love them. I got the black boots I asked for from him too. I got some comfy pajama bottoms and a pair of pajamas, I got a cute Christmas mouse and tons of other fun stuff.

This is Ed and all of his loot!!!! He was happy to have his fun stuff. He got a gift card to Edwards from us.

Tasha and her loot. She loved the clothes she got!!!! We got her several fashion scarfs too!!!

Bethanie and her loot!!!! She loves anything you get her!!!! She got clothes, My littlest Pet shop, Sponge Bob pillow and blanket, and Bratz doll stuff.

Ryan and his loot. He got some great shirts, sponge bob blanket and pillow, and games and food.

Alex and his loot. He loved his new basket ball and he got a table top pool table. He got some little basketballs and some shirts.

Mariah and her loot. She got clothes, Bratz doll, My littlest Pet Shop, Tinker Bell pillow and blanket and tons of stuff.

All in all it was a great year and everybody was very happy!!! I love Christmas!!! I hate when it is over!!!!! Now on to Mariah's birthday and Doug's birthday!!!!!!!!!

Our Family Photo 2009

This is our old family picture from our wedding and this is our new family picture we just got. Wow how the kids have changed!!!! It is amazing how much they have changed in almost 5 years!!! Time flies when you are having fun!!!! We love our family!!!!!!

Halloween 2009!!!!

Here are the girls on Halloween!!! Tasha was a dancer, Mariah was Tinker Bell, Bethanie was a dead baby and I was Cat in the Hat!!! It was such fun!!! This is us as we were getting ready to go out to trick-or-treat!! While we were trick-or-treating every time little kids would see me they would say "Hey there is Cat in the Hat!!!" I love it!!!!!!

This is Ryan as Santa Claus and Alex as a gangster. He is not bucked toothed he has grills on his teeth!!! This is just as we were getting ready to go trick or treating too!!!

This is the Maxwell family. They came over for a Halloween party and to trick or treat with us. Kim is a gypsy lady, Larry is a train conductor, Kyle is Wolverine, Wes (Brittany's boyfriend) was a redneck, Brittany and Heather are ladybugs. Wes's costume made me laugh all night long. It was a fun night!!!!

This is Tyler and Nicole Maxwell. They are our newlyweds!!!!! Aren't they just so cute!!!!! :)

Here we are carving out our pumpkins very late on Friday night after Doug and the kids got here. Bethanie and I gutted all of them so all everybody had to do is figure out the design they wanted and get them carved up!!! It was lots of fun to see everybody's art work!!!!

This is our lovely art work on our pumpkins. The big smiley face on the left is Ryan's on the other side it says "Rocky Mountain Grizzlies. The one eye ball is mine. The one on the right is Tasha's.

The one on the back left is mine. Front left is Alex's. Back right is mine. Front left is Mariah's.

Then Mariah's again and Bethanie's. Bethanie's says Trick or Treat on one side and is a smiley face on the other side.
This is early on Friday evening at our ward Trunk-or-Treat!!! Tasha is face painting. The Young men and Young women were in charge of games and activities. It was a really fun night. The only bad thing about it was that Doug was going to get the kids and so he and them were not there.

This is Bethanie working at the sucker ghost station. The beehives were in charge of that.

This is me and my friends at school on Friday. Our theme at school was Dr. Seuss and so Lori is Horton, then Thing 1 and Thing 2 and me as Cat in the Hat. I love being Cat in the hat!!!!

Tasha goes to Idaho Falls High Schools Homecoming Dance!!!!

Liz, Ben, Brandon, and Tasha

This was the group Tasha went to Homecoming with. They had their day date at Tauphus Park and then I took Tasha to get her hair done. She then came home got ready and went to dinner at Olive Garden. The dance was at the Snake River Landing.

The full body picture

Liz and Tasha in their cupcake pose!!!!

Tasha after she got all ready and waiting for her date!!

The front view of Tasha's hair.
I think she looks beautiful!!! She does a Mom proud!!!!!

The back view of Tasha's hair!!
She got her hair done at Austin Cade Academy!!! I think it is beautiful!!!

My mom and step dad Pat came for a visit!!!

My mom and my step dad Pat came to visit on weekend of July 17th. It was so great to have them here for the whole weekend. They got her on Friday and didn't leave until Monday morning!!! It was so nice to have them here for a longer visit then they usually are able to do. Thank you Mom and Pat for taking time to come and visit. On Friday when they got here we just hung out and barbaqued chicken. Then on Saturday we went and saw the new Harry Potter movie. It was so good!!!! Thank you Mom and Pat for taking us to that!!! That evening the adults went out for dinner together. We went to Smitty's. It was very yummy!!!! Sunday we just enjoyed each others company!!! I could just kick my self though because I didn't take any pictures!! How stupid is that!!!!???? Mom and Pat come back so I can get some pictures please!!!!!! :) :) I love it when my mom and Pat come visit!! They are amazing people and I love them very much. Thank you again Mom and Pat!!!!

Rine Family Reunion!!!!!!!

Well here we are sitting in an airport!!! Who knew that this would be the first of many hours stuck in airports!!! We had this family reunion to go to in Rhinelander Wisconsin. We thought we would save money by buying stand by tickets on US Airlines. My sister works for them and so she gave us passes to fly standby. At first we were supposed to fly into Milwaukee, but we missed our first flight we tried for. So we had to change our plans to Minneapolis. So we got up at 4:30 am on Thursday July 23, and got to the Salt Lake City airport. We did not get on the first flight we were trying for. We got on the second flight to Pheonix. Then we did not get on our first flight to Minneapolis, but got on the next one. We got to Minniapolis at 8:30pm. Got our rental car and off to Rhinelander we go. We got lost 3 times trying to get there because the map quest directions SUCKED!!!!!!!!! We finnally got to Rhinelander at 2:15am. My dad met us and took us to my cousins house that we were going to stay at. Finally to Rhinelander!!! YEAH!!!!! We slept until 9:00 am the next morning.

I wanted to go see Elco and Post lake. That is where my dad grew up and we spent our summers as a kid. So in order to do that we had to go bar hopping with everybody. That was very interesting. But we made it tons of fun!!!! I am so thankful for non smoking places. My family is a ton of fun though!!!!! This is a picture of the first bar we stopped at. Kids can go into the bars back there as long as they are with an adult!!

This is the Rhinelander Hodag!!! It is a mythical creature. Isn't he cute!!! I wanted a family picture in front of it. So here it is!!! Thank you family for doing this for me!!!!

This is my dad with his sisters. My Aunt Fern is on the left and my Aunt Edris is on the right. My dad is the youngest of 5 kids. He is also the only boy!!!

This is my family!!!! in order from left to right starting in the front and working back.
Crystal (my neice), Jr. (my nephew)
Cherri ( my sister), Nikki and her baby Brooke. (Nikki is my neice also) Judy (my siter in law)
My sister Terri, Doug, Me, My dad, Kris (my step mom), B.J.(my nephew), Jim(my brother).

Siblings-Jim, me, Cherri, and Terri
This was Saturday night around the fire at Cherri's house. What a great day of family reunioning!!! Thank you Cherri for putting it all together!!!!

This is the hotel we stayed in the 2nd night we were stranded in Minneapolis. That is right I said the 2nd night!!!!!! We got back to Minneapolis on Sunday morning and NO standby's got on any flights to Pheonix. It was a nightmere. So the first night we got a hotel at Hoiday Inn. Then we got up at 5:30am again and went to the airport and thought we were going home and no such luck. They had a mechanical problem on the 8:00am flight and so again no standbys!!!!!! So by now we are exhausted and going crazy so we called my sister and told her to book us tickets and we would just pay for them. :) :) So we got tickets from Minneapolis to Pheonix for the next day. So we got to go to a hotel for the night again. We stayed the second night at La Quinta. It was a great hotel and had free breakfast!!!!! We didn't have to be to the airport until 1pm the next day and so we could sleep in. So we decided we where there and the hotel had a free shuttle to the Mall of America. So we went!!!!!

This is Tasha and Doug looking up Spongebob Square Pants, pants!!! They are crazy. This was at the Nicolodean theme park in the middle of the Mall of America!!!!! We were at the mall for almost 3 hours and didn't even make a dent in it!!! It would be fun to go back to some day!!! An ammusement park in the airconditioning!!!!!

Here is our picture of the sign as we were leaving!!!! Good bye Mall of America. It was fun, would have been more fun had we had any money to spend. But since we spent so much money on tickets to get home and food in the airport for 2 days. We are BROOKE!!!!!!!!!! But it was fun and the family reunion was a blast!!!!!!

Lunch with the morning team from Channel 3!!!!!!!!

I watch Channel 3 news every morning while I am working out!! They have a contest thingy, that if you email Tommy Noel or Justine Beauvais you can win lunch with them at Sizzler!!! So I finally could do it because I am out of school for the summer. I emailed on Wednesday (it was the last day you could email in) and hoped to win!!!! I DID!!!!! I WON!!!!!!!!!! I won lunch for me and a guest to have lunch with Tommy and Justine!!! It was so much fun and yummy food!! They are such nice people!!! I always thought Tommy would be so nice if you met him in person and he is!!! Justine is new and so it was fun to get to know her. It was fun to get to know where they are from and a little of how the news industry works!!! Thanks so much Tommy and Justine!!!!!! We had a blast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Teenagers!!!!???

This is what happens when you going mudding at 3:00am!!!!!!!!! Boys will be boys!!!!!!!! I guess!!??? That is what everybody always says. Ed and his friends went out mudding at 3am and got stuck in the mud. They called at 5:45am and need out. My neighbor tried to help but all we had was a rope and it kept breaking. Finally Austins mom Jill came to the resque!!! She has a truck and she got a tow rope and out the truck came!!!!!!!!!!!

Austin, Ed, and Conner!!!!

Yeah the truck is out!!!! Yeah for Jill!!!!!!

This the boys after the mudd was cleaned up!!!! I had them clean up and warm up!! Crazy boys!!!!!

Sacramento Ca, Memorial Day Weekend!!!!

Here is our proof that we went to Fisherman's Wharf in San Fransisco!!!! It was a cold day!! San Fransisco is never very warm, but it was really cold this day!! We still had lots and lots of fun!!!

Here is Doug and I standing on the Wharf getting our picture taken so that you can see Alcatraz in the background!!! You can see how darn cold we are!!! But we are smiling so you can see we are having lots and lots of fun!!!!!!

Here I am eating Dungenous Crab!!!! I LOVED it!!!! It was sooooooo good. It was really messy because they put this stuff all over it, but it was worth it!!!! :) I can't believe how much I love crab!!! I like finding new things to eat that I love!!!! Who would have thought!!?? :)

Here we are on the Ferry to San Fransisco!!! It was a great ride!! We got on the Ferry in Valejo and rode it over!!! It is just over and hour ride. I kept going outside of the ferry and taking pictures of the bridges we passed and the shore line. It was really fun stuff to see!!!! It was cold out there though!!!! I about blew away once!!! :)

Jim and Judy on their new boat!!! It was lots of fun going on their boat with them. :) Judy even got to learn how to drive the boat for the first time!!!! :) There were turtles all over the place and lots of restraunts along the shore!!! You can just pull up to the docks and park your boat and go eat if you want too!!! How cool is that. We are on the Sacramento River!!! It was much warmer than in San Fransisco!!! Sacramento is a beautiful place!!! We loved eating breakfast out on the patio every morning. Dinner out there our first night!!! It was just Wonderful!!!!!

Here is Doug and I enjoying the boat ride!!! We were the second ones to get to go out on the boat!! We feel privledged!!! Thanks Jim and Judy for a great trip and a great weekend!!! You are the bestest big brother and sister-in-law ever!!!!!!!!!

This is their way cool boat!!!! How lucky are they!!! They will have lots of fun on this for years to come!!!!! Thanks for the adventure!!!!!!!

Ed's Graduation May 20th, 2009

Here is our Rigby High School 2009 Graduate!!!!!!

Ed we are so very proud of you and love you very much!!! It has been a long road and you have done us all proud!!!

This is Jill and Carly Mugelston. Everybody is standing on stairs and so Carly isn't really that tall and Jill isn't really that short. Carly is Ed's girl friend and Jill is Ed's 2nd mom. They are a big reason why Ed graduated and I will be forever grateful to them!!! Thank you so much!!!!

This is Ed after he has received his diploma!!! What a happy proud day for us all. Ed you ROCK!!!!!!!!!

Tasha and Bethanie loving on Ed after he graduated!! What a very great day!!!! Aren't these three beautiful!!!!! I am so proud of them all!!!!

Doug and me with Ed!!! Don't we look proud!!! Ed has grown up to be such a handsome, great kid!!! Now off on a mission hopefully or on to college. We are happy to have this day over. It has been a long time coming and a lot of work, but it was well worth it!!!!! Way to go Ed and you will never know how much we love you and are proud of you!!!!!!!!