North Pole Breakfast

We started a fun Christmas tradition this year. We had a North Pole breakfast (which we actually had at dinner time because I didn't want to wake up at 5 in the morning to do it before school :)

\Mike made Rudolph pancakes. The kids thought they were super cool. The antlers are bacon, the nose is a strawberry, and the eyes are whipped cream and chocolate chips! And they were delicious with our home made syrup! Mike is famous for making great pancakes and syrup for us.

And what would a North Pole breakfast be without snowman and Reindeer donuts?! We also had white chocolate hot chocolate with snowman marshmallow stirring sticks.

We did this as a surprise for the kids we told them they had to stay down stairs and they could not peek up stairs, because we were making dinner for a special visitor to come to our house.

I decided to give the kids their Christmas Pjs on this night instead of Christmas Eve so they could wear them for the last couple of weeks before Christmas. So they each had a present sitting on their chair at the table.

After dinner we read Christmas books by the Christmas tree. And we also read The Elf on The Shelf. The Elf was the special visitor who came to dinner with us. This book is about an elf who comes to your house the last couple weeks before Christmas to watch and see if you are being good. Each night he goes back to the North Pole to report to Santa. The kids got to name the Elf who came to our house, and the name they picked was Frosty.

I'm glad we decided to do this the kids had fun, and we made some fun memories.

This is our elf Frosty. Over the next couple weeks the kids would wake up in the morning and go find him. He would always be in a new spot after he came back from the North Pole, and he was always doing silly things like making a snow angel in flour on the kitchen counter, turning Mikes deer into Rudolph, fishing for gold fish crackers in a cereal bowl, or taking a bath in marshmallow! We will be excited to have him come back again next Christmas!

Christmas at the cabin

The first weekend in December in our family always means going to the cabin to stay and have our family Christmas party. We always have a ton of fun and I feel really blessed to be a part of Mikes family and also to have a place like the cabin to go where we can all stay together.  This picture is all of the grandkids except for Shelice and  Macie, I was feeding her at the time. It's always fun to try to get so many little kids to look at you when your taking a picture.

The kids love making gingerbread houses every year, here is Dakota with his super cool house.

Madison had fun making her house, but she also had fun breaking her house apart.

This is Madison's finished product!

The kids also went fishing while we were there normally they would be ice fishing but not this year it was still to warm. Fun times were had by all, can't wait until next year!

Pheasant Hunting

Dakota had a fun time with all the Blad boys. Grandpa Blad took them all over to Delta Pheasant hunting.

Christmas Tree Hunting

It's tradition in the Blad family to go get Christmas trees on Thanksgiving morning, so of course that's what we did again this year. The weather was unseasonably warm so even tiny baby Macie got to come on the tree hunt with us.

All the kids even hiked all over the mountain side with Mike to search for the perfect tree.

Little Eskimo Maddy!

I have to admit Mike is very good at picking out Christmas trees every year he seems to find the most beautiful one on the mountain. And yes he carried the tree off the mountain with baby Macie in one arm and the tree in the other! After we got our tree we went home long enough to put it up then we headed out to Kanosh to eat Thanksgiving dinner at Paul and Carolyn's house with Mikes family, good food and good company makes for a great day!



2011 Hunts

Hunting is one of Mikes passions, he loves to go hunting for anything, infact if there was a mouse hunt I'm sure he would go on that! If he has a good friend who has a tag he is almost as excited as he would be if he was the one with the tag, actually it doesn't even have to be a good friend sometimes its a friend of a friends brothers uncle. Mike just loves the thrill of the hunt, and I think it's fun to watch him get so excited about it. So of course when our brother in law Shawn drew an elk tag for here Mike was stoked! And then he realized the hunt fell right at the same time our fourth baby was due! Needless to say I better be Shawns favorite sister in law because I was ok with Mike going hunting the day after I got home from the hospital. Shawn killed this nice bull opening morning of the hunt, and the guys all made some great memories. 

Mikes good friend Jason moved to Flowell a couple of years ago and Mike has been teaching him the ropes of hunting. (which Mike was thrilled to do) This is the spike elk Mike helped him get this year.

This is Mikes general season deer that he got this year. Pretty Awesome! He got it at Kanosh... I mean Sugarloaf.(thats the answer I've been instructed to tell everyone when they ask where Mike kills a deer)

Mike and his friend Brian with their bucks from this year.

This is a bull that Mike helped spot for on the hunt.

And he packed out a couple bulls for people this year.

Mike has a friend who owns a ranch in Colorado that made Mikes day by letting him go with him and hunt on it at the first of December.

Mike took his Dad with him this year and he had a great time and was grateful to have him with him to share in the memories.

It was kind of funny Mike went with the intentions of killing a whitetail and his friend Doug was going to get a mule deer and they each ended up getting the opposite.

This year was a very successful hunting season!

Brielle's 7 yr. Interview

Brielle's 7 yr. Interview

* My favorite food is apples.

* My favorite sport to play is soccer.

* The best show on TV is the news.

* The coolest person on Earth is my Mom.

* My favorite thing to learn about in school is animals.

* The thing I do most awesomely is cook.

* If I could go anywhere in the world I'd go to Disneyland.

* My favorite color is white.

* When I grow up I'm going to become a teacher.

* My favorite song is I Love To See The Temple.

* My favorite book is Heckedy Peg

* Three words that describe me are: Toothless, Funny, and Artistic.

* My favorite season is summer.

* My favorite thing to do with my family is have Family Home Evening.

* The snack I like best is fruit.

* One food I really dislike is onions.

* My best friends are Carrie Ashman, Kambell McPhail, Devin Roper, and Dakoda Ellison.

* If I could have one wish it would be to have a party all year.

* My best memory is Christmas 2010.

Happy Birthday Brielle!!!

Our sweet little Brielle turned 7! She loves to help me cook in the kitchen so she said she wanted to have a baking party this year. She also asked for cooking stuff for her birthday, so she got some kids cook books and baking sets from me and Mike, she has made us a couple recipes out of them so far and she did a great job. She's going to be a great cook when she's older.

For the treats we had ice cream cone cupcakes, lolly pop cookies, bright colored mini cupcakes, and party punch.

The girls each got to make their own mini cake stand.

I bought 2 poster boards and some tissue paper, and made each girl a chef hat that had a flower on it made from cupcake liners. And I totally scored on Amazon, I got a pack of 12 aprons for 9.95! Less than a dollar and apron

During the party the girls dipped pretzels and marshmallows in chocolate, and they decorated mini pies.

After the girls made their treats Brielle blew out her candles, the girls ate cupcakes, and then Brielle opened presents. Later that night we went to Grandpa and Grandma Jacksons for more cake to celebrate Candace, Paisley and Brielles birthdays. And the next day on Sunday we celebrated in Kanosh with the Blads, shes one lucky little girl!

Glow Bath

Brielle and Dakota were both extra good the other day so I suprised them with a glow in the dark bath at night. They both thought it was really cool and they did not want to get out of the bath, its funny how the smallest things impress children.

First Snow

Dakota got excited about the first snow of the year. He went outside and made a snow man, and when he got done he came running inside and asked me to take a picutre. He did a pretty good job!

Halloween 2011

We had a great Halloween this year! The weather was perfect! We started the night off by going out to Kanosh to Grandpa and Grandma Blads where Blaine and Virginia, Paul and Carolyn, and Grandpa and Grandma all give out hot chocolate and hot dogs. After that we went to Fillmore and jumped on the hayride that Grandpa Jackson pulls behind his truck, and we went trick or treating all around Fillmore. The kids all had a lot of fun, it was especially fun to watch Maddy this year because it was the first year that she has been old enough to get into all the fun, and she thought it was super cool!

Dakota was a monkey, and Brielle, Madison, and I were all witches. Poor Mike had to work and we really missed him!