christmas ANgels

Every year since we got Married we have gone and picked a name off the Angel tree, when we were newly weds we picked a baby that we could buy for cheaply, Now we get a child each of our child's ages. So this year we did it for family home evening. What a horrible experience. It started out smoothly we went and helped all the kids pick their Angel Friend off the tree. Then we headed over to Walmart to buy their stuff. No offense to the mall but I can buy for three kids a lot cheaper at walmart then I can at the Mall. So Walmart didn't have anything these kids wanted, Jacob Whined the entire time about what he wanted and I kept telling him this is not about you we are buying for our angel friends. and when he wasn't whining he and Hailey were fighting and I mean screaming at each other in the isles of Walmart. I told them it's a sad day when Ben's the only one being good. We're at the checkout line and they start again with wanting stuff. At this point Ryan looses it and starts quietly yelling at them. This continues all the way out to the car. Ryan has lost his patients by this point and when we get in the car he really starts yelling at them and telling them they are ruining Family home evening and that they were driving the spirit away with their contention and letting Satan into our Family home evening. It was all I could do not to laugh, he was right. But I wondered what he thought yelling at them was doing to the spirit. Then he lectures them about we are doing something nice for another family and they should be greatfull for all we have and they better straighten up while we went in to Toys R Us. And the big kids were better but then Ben Started freaking out and A lady was helping me and I could hear Ben screaming all the way across the store. They were better but not great. But I was so annoyed we took our kids to show them that Christmas is about giving especially to those who our less fortunate then ourselves and instead of getting that out of the night all they got was to be horrible to each other and yelled at by me and Ryan. Not quite what I had planned

hiking

We went to the Chiricahua National Monument outside of Wilcox Arizona and went on a nature walk. The Kids loved it.




2 cute kids with Pooh pa.


I climbed back up the hill part way and took a picture of everyone.


Kids with Tasha


Tasha with Benners and Ryan with Ben



My Mighty Explorers





Ryan climbed up on this rock and the kids had to get up there with him. I made Ben stay with me. He didn't appreciate that but I was worried he would get hurt.



Hailey told Ryan she was Indiana Joanna


Poor Tasha she was so stressed out. I'm not sure if she was afraid Ben would fall down or if she was afraid he would fall off the side, but she kept saying don't you think we should turn back? When we would let Ben walk instead of carrying him she would get all nervous. She's so funny

Ben's new shoes.

I was in the spare bedroom and Tasha was in her room, and I heard this strange click click click noise and I went to see what the kids were in to and I found Ben walking through the kitchen in Tasha's high heals.

Thanksgiving

This is going to be hard to believe but I didn't take any pictures today. We came to Safford to Spend thanksgiving with Ryan's Dad Steve aka Pooh Pa and his wife Tasha. We had a good time. Tasha is from Russia so she had never made Thanksgiving dinner before. So we teamed up and got it done. We had a good time we brought the kids bikes so they got to ride around a little bit. and we visited and had a good time.

Thanksgiving through the years

2002


2003



2004


2005



2006


2007

Ben and Hot Sauce

We went to breakfast one morning and kept taking the bottle of hot sauce and asking Ryan to open it. So finally Ryan got sick of it and opened it and put a drop on a spoon for him. Thinking Ben would hate it and leave him alone. Well we were wrong and Ben kept asking for more, so Ry kept putting drops for him and he kept eating it. Goofy baby!

Little Athletes Awards

This is the awards ceremony I missed.

Parent teacher confrence

Went to Hay's parent teacher conference. She is doing great. She is super Smart like her dad. Funny for the day. The kids had to fill out a survey and the question was "The subject I have the most difficulty with is" and "Because" and Hailey put "Nothing, because I'm really smart" I think we might need to work on being ...a little more humble

Little Athletes

Jacob has been playing sports for the past month or so. It's called little athletes. They didn't have any games just practice twice a week. They did 2 weeks of soccer, 2 weeks of T-Ball, and two weeks of Basketball.





Don't tell Ryan but he said his favorite was T-Ball

I felt like the worst mom in the world. The last practice of the season Ryan was home early from work so I sent him so I could get dinner ready. Well I called him to see if they were leaving the practice and he told me they were having an awards ceremony and giving out trophies. I felt horrible for missing it. I'm not that mom. I never miss any of my kids stuff. I was on the verge of tears, but Ryan talked me down off the ledge he told me Jacob didn't even notice I wasn't there. He was to busy being pissy that he got a soccer trophy when he wanted a T-Ball trophy.

Mommy Date

I haven't been very good about taking the kids on dates lately. I would like to do better so they have memories of special mommy time. When I was at the scrap booking store I noticed they had kids classes so I signed Hailey and Jacob up and I went with. It was a lot of fun. The kids love to "crap book" as Jacob calls it. They enjoyed making there own pages. I had to laugh at Jacob because when she handed out the example it had a picture of her grandson on it, so Jacob looks at it and wrinkles up his forehead and says "I don't want a picture of that boy on my page" so I had to explain to him that we would put our own pictures on it when we got home.

primary program

This is the first time in 3 years that I have gotten to enjoy the primary program. Last year I was up on the stage helping direct traffic as we had just been called to the presidency and we really didn't know what we were doing. The year before that I was pregnant with Ben and having terrible Migraines so I had worked with Hailey to know her line and Ryan wouldn't let me go because I was in so much pain. So instead I called my mom and cried to her that I couldn't go.
This is also the first year Jacob got to participate as he is a sunbeam also the first year my mom was able to come and watch the kids. I loved having her there.
Hailey ran up there and found her seat she's going to be our little performer. Jacob cried the first 5 minutes he wanted to color. Our rule is you can't color until after the sacrament is passed so he is use to the routine so after the boys sat down from passing the sacrament he was ready to color but instead he had to go up on stage he was not happy so he refused to sing.
Here are the parts they said. Hailey knew hers but when she got up there in front of everyone she froze and needed some help

Hailey Owens---There are many different kinds of families. There are families with single parents. There are families with step brothers and step sisters. Some children live with their grandparents. Some families adopt children.

Jacob Owens---I am Heavenly Father’s spirit child.

I was very proud of them and look forward to next years. Lets just hope Jacob will sing.

Jack and the Bean Stalk

Grandma Jammie takes the kids on dates to different places and this time she took the big kids to see the children's production of Jack and the Bean stalk. Aunt Mandy Tagged along. The kids loved it and were asking when they could go again.







Jacob told me I didn't want to have my picture taken with the Characters.

Ben loves books

Hailey called me into her room to see how cute Ben was being so I found him sitting on her couch reading one of her books. I was really surprised. He can be such a monster but he is so soft with the kids books he just loves to sit and look at the pictures. And he loves when Hailey or I will read to him. at night after family prayer Ryan or I will read the big kids a bed time story well lately Ben has been running over and jumping in the middle of the person with the book. He doesn't want to get left out of reading the story.

The big kids didn't want to be left out of the picture taking so they had to jump up there with Ben.

Fall Garden part 3

I'm really happy at how well our garden is doing. My first couple of attempts didn 't turn out so well and then I was huge prego with Ben so gardening was not an option and then I got called to the primary so I didn't have time. So this is the first Arizona garden I've had that has really done well.

Broccoli-----------------------------Green Beans


Carrots-----------------------------Marigolds