inaD dna lliJ em pleH

ESAELP golb ym xif emoC .sdrawkcab si gnihtyreve tub enod evah I tahw wonk t'nod I

This is for you Dani

We took Christmas down yesterday. I feel much better. Happy 2009.....

I Can't Believe He is Already 9!!!!!

Clay got a Rip Stick. He aldreay has a skined elbow.
Mom says He'll Shoot his eye out. This was Dad's gift
Clay wanted Tad's Leatherman so Tad gave him his own Leatherman


Clay's Birthday is today. Wow I can't believe he is already 9. We are so blessed to have him still here... I don't know if you remember and for those of you who are new friends. Clay was really sick as a baby, he spent 2 weeks in the Primary Childrens Hospital with RSV. He got really sick and we almost lost him. I think that made him stronger as a person and he is better because of it. He has kept us busy for 9 years and will for another 100. He is an amazing kid and he helps me so much, its nice to have a kid like Clay. He keeps his room clean and wants to make my life easier by asking to help me clean up. I just want to wish him a happy birthday and hope he had a nice day. We are going to have a birthday party for him next weekend and some family, friends and the missionaries will be over on Sunday for his Birthday Dinner.
Love you Clay, Mom and Dad

The Bucket Project

Wow, It was so organized
Look at the top of the picture. Those are the buckets that were done earlier in the week.
Don't tell Clay but Lily was touching him.
Cole is adding the lids
Lily and Mom folding masks
breaking up the boxes

So I have been thinking of a service project to do for the holidays. The Humanitarian Services Room at the DI was doing a huge project we call the Bucket Project. It is like the Hygiene Kits but for cleaning your house or area you live in that has been destroyed by natural disaster. Anyway. Tad the kids and I went to the Bishops Storehouse early Saturday morning and gave service filling buckets. We were there The Anthem Stake from Henderson. We did 17,000 buckets. Wow, we were there for 2 hours and had a blast. The Clay helped manage the empty boxes and fill the buckets, he got to use a box cutter. Cole also helped pound the lids on the buckets after they were filled. Lily had a bunch of fun, she did a little of everything. She filled some buckets, put the masks and towles in zip lock bags and helped break down boxes. Tad helped restock supplies and helped to organize the crews. I was put on bleach duty. I put bleach in peoples buckets for 2 hours. I have a blister on each finger and sore arms.
I am so greatful to have been able to do this. Brother and Sister Hoogland were so nice for letting me bring the kids (16 and older is the rule). They are amazing missionaries and have taught me alot about service and the community around me. There is an amazing couple that are missionaries, they are the Ankenmans, Brother A is my Grandpa Hardman only not really. He sharpened Tad's knife to better than new and showed the boys a bunch of cool things. A super nice man that I am happy to work with. Well I hope you enjoy the pictures and have a Merry Christmas.

Tab

Aunt Jill is the best

Aunt Jill is watching the kids this week while they are on track break. She is the best. She has taken them to the store, by her self with Daven. Wow I dont even do that... The kids are having a blast and love playing with Daven all day.
I just want to say a huge THANKS to Aunt Jill and Uncle Trevor for helping us out.
WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

The Mini Grand Prix

Tad and Clay on the GROWN UP ride

This almost never happens. They are touching

Look at my handsome men. I sure

am proud of Cole.

My sisiter fam came with us.

This is Jessie our cousin and Lily's

BFF&E&E

Clay on his first solo ride on the go carts

So we went to the Mini Gand Prix over Thanksgiving weekend and had a lot of fun. Its nice to sometimes let go as a mom and jusr have fun with the kids. Clay was finally tall enough to go on the "big" go carts. He was so proud, he stood as high as he could and just barley made it. Yeah...

We went with Tiff and Dave and the girls. Here are some pictures of the festivities.

Happy Thanksgiving

My Sister, My Friend

The cousins watching UTUBE

We are just missing Alex.

Cadence my 4 year old free spirit

So, I ran into a friend today and she got me thinking that I need to update my blog. Sorry its been a while. Ya know I still haven't figured out the balance between work, home and blogging.

Anyway, we had a great Thanksgiving!! We had Tiff, Dave, Cort, Jess and Cadence in Vegas. We had so much fun. First off, love the sis to death but don't attempt Thanksgiving on your own, just come here and I'll take care of everything. Just kidding, you did good as the assistant. We were lucky to have Tad off on Friday, the first time in forever he has been off the day after Thanksgiving. So we went to the Las Vegas Mini Grand Prix and had a fun time. The kiddos played on the mini go cart track and the slide and roller coaster and the big kids got to ride on the big go cart track. Clay was able to go on the bigger track this time. He has gotten tall enough and was so proud, he kicked butt to. Saturday we had the whole crew over for dinner, Flick and the fam, and Tiff and the fam and Jill and the fam. 15 people, that was bigger than Thanksgiving. Can I just say some people run at that amount of people but I love it, especially when it's family. We don't see the cousins very much but when we do we laugh our heads off, we had Flick and Tad as our famous movie quoters, who get us rolling in the isles and Dave with his off color jokes. The kids had so much fun hangin with Tasha.

Anyway, thanks for the fun weekend and now we are on to Christmas, what a great way to start off the holiday season.