Canned Chicken breasts

On New Years Day, Matt and I canned chicken breasts for the first time. It was so easy. I only bought 10 pounds to experiment with and wished I'd bought more.

Elody at 6 1/2 months, finally sitting without support

Finally, on Dec 26th, Elody stayed sitting up without support, playing with a toy while we were separating laundry.

Christmas 2009

Christmas week was a hard week. Beauchene and Elody were both sick and very needy. Matt was working in the garage
on Jileigh's shelves and the girls' doll house most of the time. I missed being able to go to Matt's family dinner party, which was emotionally hard on me. Matt did bring a plate of yummy food for me. I spent the evening holding my two babies. I am grateful to my parents and Candy for calling me regularly checking up on me and the kids.

Christmas day was nice with the kids. Matt's mom came by but we were asleep and the kids didn't wake us up. I missed being able to visit with her.

Ward Christmas dinner

Matt stayed home with Beau since he was sick and I took Talon, Safia and Elody with me to the ward Christmas party. Angelique and Jileigh went to Mesa with Matt's mom to see Grandma J (Matt's Mom's mom )and Grammy (my mom). Shari is my friend that has been Elody second mom at church while I lead the music. Shari held my Elody so I could pay attention to the nativity play and take pictures. Talon was Joseph and Safia was an angel. Shari has really been a good friend to love my baby. After this evening is when Elody started getting sick too.

The kids each got a turn to sit on Santa's lap. That's when I really was able to find out what the kids wanted. Talon asked for a nerf gun, Jaren a basketball, and Safia a doll.

Snow day at Matt's mom's house.

The Saturday before Christmas, we went to Matt's mom's house to play in the snow. She got about 9 inches of snowfall in her large yard. Matt and the kids made an igloo. I went out and helped for a little bit while Elody slept. I started a snowball fight. We had a nice day together.
Beau and Elody stayed inside the whole time.

Elody at 6 months old with her bear

I just can't seem to take enough pictures of her!

Thanksgiving 2009 at the ranch with Matt's extended family

We spent Thanksgiving day with Matt's extended family at the Ranch. The kids enjoyed their day playing with their cousins. We all enjoyed our visiting. Grandma always requests that the men in the family sing together, "We Elders of Israel." It sounded so nice.

Cousin fun

I have been babysitting (Matt's sister) Esther's little girl on Wednesdays. This particular Wednesday, I had Candy's Brandon and Sariah for a couple of hours too. I put the girls in pig tails and took a picture of them together. They really enjoy being together.

Talon's science fair project

Talon did his science fair project on spot remover cleaners with enzymes. He used Awesome, Oxy Clean and Shout Advanced sprays. Oxy Clean came out on top. I use it now for all my pre-cleaning especially baby poop stains.

Too cute to not take a picture

We figure that Elody at 5 1/2 months old is the size and weight that Jileigh was when she was a year old. These clothes are 6-9 month clothes. I finally figured out how to have healthy sized babies.

Elody is 5 month old with her bear

Words cannot describe how much I love this little girl. I can't seem to take enough pictures of her to show how adorable I thinks she is. On Nov 7th she turned 5 months old. After she nurses in the early morning hour, she likes to snuggle in bed with me instead of going back to her crib, and like a sucker, I let her. I love it as much as she does.

My three little kids

I have three little kids. I have had three little kids for 9 years. lol!

Halloween

Halloween, my most "favorite" holiday. If you know me, you know that is far from the truth. I personally wish to take it off the calendar; but since I am near alone in my belief, I comply to the minimum.

Jaren brought home the 3-D puzzle from school and Jileigh put it together. It was rather complicated. He also brought home a coupon for a free pumpkin at our local store. So we went to the store, he picked out a pumpkin, drew the design he wanted and Matt cut it out for him.

For Halloween night, we went to Dave and Aaron's house for a family party. Jileigh was a wizard, Talon was a burglar, Angelique was a girl Dracula, Jaren was batman, Safia was sleeping beauty, Beauchene was Lightning McQueen from Cars, and Elody was a Christmas candy cane. They had a good time with their cousins and managed to sneak a little candy into their bodies. I was just glad it was over when we got home. A couple of days latter, Jaren came down with the flu and Beau and Angelique got colds.

More apples

Matt's dad brought us some apples that he picked from an orchard. I already did my applesauce so I decided to just can them like I do peaches. On Oct 24th we canned 22 bottles of apples.

Also on that day, Safia decided to put one of her old dresses on Beauchene to make him a sister.

Washing machine overflowed

On Friday, Oct 23, I was doing laundry. I put the last load in the washer and then left to take the kids to Candy's house to play. I knew Matt would be home in about 10 minutes and told him where I would be. Well, the washing machine "fill-sensor" decided not to work. It filled my machine and laundry room and Jileigh's room and the garage with water. Matt, bless his heart had it all cleaned up by the time we came back home. It didn't do it all the time after that but then the turn thingy wasn't turning very well either. So we decided it was time to get a new washer. I love it! It is somewhat of a bigger capacity than my last one and now I can put my whole pile of whites in one load in the washer. Jileigh took the first picture and the second picture is of my new washer.