Travis Must Be Tired, Because He's Been Running Through My Mind All Week!

I have been thinking a lot about Travis lately, and how lucky I am to be his wife! I have really enjoyed these last few weeks of quality time with him. Travis always works so hard and because he has so much on his plate, I hardly ever get to be with him without being interrupted with phone calls. He decided the week before Christmas that he wasn't going to work and he spent the whole week with me and the kids. Having Travis to myself for Christmas with no phone was the best gift ever! The kids had so much fun playing with their dad and I was so much happier with him around. It's weird to think that I have known Travis for seventeen years. Time sure flies by fast! It seems like yesterday when my friend Deawn, introduced me to Travis in front of his parents house. I was only thirteen back than and all my friends loved Travis! We would day dream about him all the time. I was the lucky one in the end! Travis is always making me laugh and that is one of the many things I love about him. I love how he looks in his wool socks and his winter hats. I love how he even wears them in the summer, it makes me laugh. I want to thank him for putting up with me over the past twelve years. I know that I'm not an easy person to live with and that I get pretty grumpy but I'm trying to do better. I love you Travis!!

Mary's Birthday Party

A few friends got together and had a surprise birthday party for our friend Mary at the Olive Garden. It was lots of fun and Mary was very surprised! Mary is such a sweet lady and everyone just loves her including me. Lexie had her as a primary teacher and she told me that Mary was the best primary teacher she ever had. I hope you had a very happy birthday Mary!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

We had a fun night last night. Robby came over and made us a huge Christmas Eve meal and then helped us set some things up for Christmas. This morning the kids woke us up at six and when Lexie walked in and saw her new drum set (she asked Santa for) sitting in the room she was in shock. I have never seen Lexie so happy! Seeing my kids faces when they get what they have always wanted for Christmas is the one thing I love and look forward to every year. All the kids got everything they asked for and they are all very happy. Poor little Bryson had a fever last night and this morning he has a rash and a fever. We think that he might have strep but he is still happy and having fun playing with his new toys and Lexie's drum set. We hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas day!

I got very spoiled this year from Travis and the kids!! I got a cute purse filled with money ($250 in ones) I'm so ready to go shopping. I also got Rock Band 2 the game and the Rock Band 2 drum set with the symbols. I'm so happy!! I can't wait to play my game!!

Visit With Santa

Christmas Party

We had a very busy Saturday. Lexie had a piano recital and the community center and she did so good. She played Good King Wensless and she did a duet with her piano teacher and they played My Heart Will Go On. Lexis is doing very well with piano and is picking it up very fast. Right after the resital we ran to our ward Christmas party and watched the primary program. Lexie was an angel in the program and she sang her first solo and did amazing. The kids had a great time singing and visiting with Santa. They all were excited to see Santa except Bryson. If we even brought Bryson near Santa he started screaming. We all had a great time together at the ward party.

My little Stinker

My little stinker Bryson loves to play in my kitchen sink. He will move the chairs from my kitchen table over to the sink and climb on the counter top. He was doing this today over and over and I got really tired of moving the chairs back to the table. I decided to put the chairs on the table and the other chairs close to the window were already tied to the table with an exercise band. I thought that there would be no way he could get into trouble and went back to curling Lexie's hair. It wasn't long when I heard the chairs moving in the kitchen. I ran in the kitchen only to find Bryson sitting high on the chairs that I had just put on my table. He had a big smile on his little face and was looking at me like "you thought you could stop me? I don't think so!" What a little stinker!!

Here's A Little Dance For Travis

Travis rented this movie just to see Mr. Bean dance. He told me that he thinks this is the funniest thing he as ever seen in a movie. When he watched this a while back with Lexie and Ethan they couldn't stop laughing.

Christmas

Lexie has been doing the twelve days of Christmas to me. She wrote this poem for me for the seventh day of Christmas. The other days she strung Popcorn for our Christmas tree, made me ornaments, and gave me a a pretty heart necklace and scarf. Thanks for all the gifts Lexie, I love you!!

Christmas is almost here
It will be full of fun and good cheer
We will have cookies and milk
For the guy with a coat made of silk
Down the chimney click click click
I think it might be saint Nick
We'll open our presents and have lots of fun
Until our Christmas day is done
We will do the same next year
Only if we have great Christmas cheer.

Brunettes Have More Fun!!

Do you like my hair? I have always loved brown hair! Every time I dye my hair (I always dye my hair with permanent hair color) the color doesn't stay that long. My color always fades to almost a dark blond. I can never tell what brand of color to get, because all the brand colors are different. Even though all the dyes I get say light ash brown on the box, I don't always get that color. This time I got the color I wanted. I hope that this one wont fade as fast as the others.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Aaron, We hope you had a very happy day today! We wish we could have been there to celebrate with you. Our family misses you and Carrie so very much!! Happy Birthday Aaron, We love you!! Hugs and Kisses from all of us.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

We woke up to snow on the ground this morning so the kids had a two hour delay and didn't have to go to school until ten. It is so funny how fast they cancel school here when snow's on the ground. I don't remember ever having more than one snow day growing up in Utah. In Oregon in you get just a little skiff of snow on the ground they cancel or delay school.

Warm and Cozy

Our house is pretty cold in the winter if we don't have our pellet stove running. I think Bryson was a little cold last night because he got dressed up all warm like this while we were watching a movie. When I looked over and saw him like this I just had to get out my camera and take some pictures of him. He was stinkin' cute walking around the house with my scarf, a shawl, a hat, and pink boots on. What a funny little man!!

Isn't your mouth watering? Mine is! You may be wondering why I took this picture. I just couldn't resist! I love Bryson's little chubby legs, they just look so yummy!! When Bryson gets older, I want to be able to look back at this picture and remember just how cute his little legs were.

Bryson's Sniffies

Bryson is two now and he still loves his Sniffies. I guess we shouldn't call it a Sniffy anymore because he no longer sniffs the little tassels he just tickles his cheeks with them. I can't believe how fast Bryson is growing! I just love that he can talk and I can understand what he's saying most of the time. He is my little buddy while the kids are in school. Just last month he started to wipe my kisses off. After giving him a kiss he will wipe off his face with his little hand to get rid of the kiss. He's so funny, he loves to make me laugh and he still loves giving me hugs and kisses.

The End Is Near

One thing I really have a hard time doing is cleaning up leaves. It seems like it never ends and when you think you are done, you find you still have more to do later. Since all my trees are finally bare I decided to go out and try to get them all cleaned up before the weather gets bad. I had the hardest time cleaning my driveway. Off to the sides of my very long driveway I have gravel. It makes it hard to clean and bag leaves when you have gravel underneath. The driveway took me one full day to do and I didn't have gloves to wear so my hands were all gross and slimy from all the wet leaves and dirt. I got the front yard cleaned up and I did most of the backyard yesterday. I still have just a little more I need to do but the end is near. After Travis got home last night I had him help me take the leaf bags to the curb so they can be picked up. We started off walking the bags down the long driveway one or two at a time and that got tiring real fast. Then Travis had a smart idea, we piled all the leftover bags in the van and even on top of the van so we could get the job done faster. It was hard hard work to get all those leaves bagged but I'm glad I got it taken care of. My yard looks so much better now!

Ornament Exchange

We have an ornament exchange every year here in Medford at the Bennions. Everyone gets together with friends and ladies from different wards and each one brings a wrapped ornament. We all draw numbers to see who goes first. The rules to the ornament exchange is to try to get the ornament that you love. You can pick a wrapped ornament or steal one from someone else but in order to keep your ornament it has to be in your possession three times. Yesterday was my sixth time going. I got number 36 so I was the second to the last one to pick. I had my eye on this awesome ornament and when it was finally my turn, I got it and was so very happy until my friend who I invited to come with me stole it and broke my heart. I'm just kidding, I still love you Christy! I have been pretty good over the past five years at getting the ornament that I want, but this year I didn't do so good. I will have to work on my ornament stealing strategies. The pictures are of ornaments I got over the past six years. The ornament pictures go in order from the first year I went until now. I look forward to these ornament exchange parties, they are always so much fun!!

Fun with Gingerbread!!

Last Wednesday while Christmas lights were being put on my house, I helped the kids make gingerbread houses. We made them from kits and I had a very hard time getting the gingerbread walls to the house to stay together. Everyone had their own house to decorate and they all turned out very cute and each had their own different style. I will have to post the rest of the houses after I can get my kids to let me take a picture of them with the houses they made. After making gingerbread houses Madison wanted to help me make gingerbread men. Yesterday Madison cleaned the kitchen so we could make gingerbread men. Madison had so much fun helping me make the dough and cutting out the men. We told the story about the gingerbread man that ran away saying "run, run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man." I told her that she needed to keep her eyes on the gingerbread men while they are cooling down or they will try to run away. Madison laughed and told me that they can't run away because they are cookies. We had so much fun making cookies together. Do you like Maddy's new glasses? I think she looks so cute in them! She lost her old ones so we had to buy her two pairs of glasses. One pair to wear and one to leave at school so she will always have a pair at school if she forgets to wear her glasses. As you can see Maddy doesn't do very well at wearing her glasses. Lexie finally decided that she wanted to put decorate her gingerbread house. Jaclyn helped Lexie put the house together and decorate it. They were very creative with their house and they made a cute little Christmas tree out of marshmallows to go in the front yard. Their house turned out really cute! I didn't get a picture of the rest of the kids with their houses but I got one of all the gingerbread houses together.