Yeah!! We got some pics from Montana!!

My sister in-law Lisa sent me some pictures from last weekend and I was thrilled to have the memories on disc!!
You have to come down a big hill to get to their house and the kids had a ball sledding down on sleds and snowboards. Ashton loved this helmet! He would not take it off. I love this picture of him!

Ellie and Logan were such little buddies this trip. I think they had just come down on a snowboard together and couldn't have been happier.

Burke workin' it in his helmet.

This is Dalin, Landon, Brax and Ash coming down fast!

Me, Haley and Emily on the back made a train and it was so fun! Bradley loved it! He wanted to go over and over; needless to say I was worn out by the time we were done.

Later that day we went skating at the boys and girls club. It was my kids' first time skating and they had fun. Uncle Ryan was a big help!

Ashton and Briar were so funny on their skates. The wheels were locked, so they mostly just walked around, but they thought they were so cool! Ashton kept jumping up and landing on his haunches like it was the most amazing trick!

They had a limbo game where you had to skate under the bar. Logan, Landon, and Ellie were great at it.

All the kids slept on the floor in the front room and it was near impossible to get them to sleep. Who wants to sleep at a time like this?
P.S. those big glass windows overlook Flathead Lake. It is an amazingly beautiful view!

On Saturday we went snowmobiling. I have to say this is one of my favorite things ever!! I haven't been for years and I was so excited to take my kids. They all LOVED it!!

Burke, Uncle Bill, and Braxton. Thank you Uncle Bill for treating us to this awesome day!

Haley, Ryan, Ellie, me and Ricky. It just doesn't get better than this!

Ellie, Ash, Brad, Landon and Briar. These little rascals were raiding the treat box. Brad hung out here most of the day in is snow pants. He was cold and he loves snacks.

Where will they serve??????
Well, the days has finally come for us to tell where my parents will serve as mission president. I have to say it is has been a suspenseful three months waiting to find out. My mom and dad will have the privilege of presiding over the Rochester, NY mission. I have been there with many of you friends over the years and you know what a special place this is. There mission covers the Sacred Grove, Palmyra Temple, the Joseph Smith homes, EB Grandin Building-where they published the BOM, the Hill Cumorah, The Peter Whitmer Farm, and Niagra Falls. We could not be more excited about this call! They are thrilled and humbled at the opportunity to be in this sacred place for three years. We can not wait to take our kids there and have their testimonies strengthened at these sacred places.

I just have to say that I LOVE Montana! We came up this weekend to visit Ricky's brother and sister. I am very, very, very bitter that you will not see any fabulous pictures of snowmobiling, or sleding because I forgot my camera!! Yes I am bitter about it. Anyway, if you ever have a chance to visit this beautiful place don't pass it up! It is well worth the drive to get here.

Humor at it's Best, I guess!
About three weeks about three weeks ago I was getting dinner ready and Ellie walked in the kitchen with her hair looking like this....
And this...

And this...

And my front room floor looked like this. I about died!!! Those of you who know me know that I am very partial to long hair. To make the story even better, her little brother Ashton is the one who cut her hair, but under her direction. What do you DO!! Thankfully I have a neighbor across the way who was home and took the time to fix what had been done.

Thankfully it is cute but let me tell you people, I don't have 20 extra minutes Sunday morning to round brush my 5 year old's hair. BAH!!! Ellie told my friend Lisa something like this, "yeah, I wanted short hair but I knew my mom would say no, so I had Ashton cut it." For those of you who know Ellie, this isn't that shocking. All I can say is I love my daughter! I am pretty sure she figured that Ashton would be the one in trouble, since he did the cutting. Who did she think she was kidding?? Poor Ash was the innocent bystander. What a fun day!

Christmas Happenings

We had so much fun over Christmas so I thought I should post some happenings. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents with all the family.
Brax, Maggie, Burke, Ellie, Josie and Cora.
My sister Molly and her family came from Missouri for two weeks and it was so fun to have them here. Rebecca wasn't there yet for this picture and we forgot to take one when she came. Duh!!

After our lesson about Christmas we went out on a caroling hayride. It was so fun!!! It was cold, but so fun to carol together to the neighbors.

Me, Brad and Ash.

Rebecca and Colby

Molly and Burke

Brigham and Lily. This is sheer excitement.

This is just one of my favorite pictures from Christmas day. My sweet Bradley.

What is better on Christmas than p.j.s and cousins?

Classic cousin pic. Brad, Ash, Maggie, Josie, Savannah and Ellie.

On Christmas day we had a surprise visit from Santa Claus. He was very tired after such a long night. It was so fun to see the reaction of the kids when he showed up. They weren't sure what to think of him, but they were excited he came.

Our favorite winter activity is to pull the kids on sleds behind the four wheeler. This is about a week after Christmas when it snowed a ton.

The kids can't get enough of this.

Nothing like a lap full of snow to cheer you up!

Ricky took it up a notch and used 5 sleds this year instead of three. We had Molly's girls with us and they had a blast!

Ash and I played in the snow longer than anyone else. I am a snow lover and loved playing with my little buddy!

This was perhaps my favorite day of Christmas break. We went to Sundance on New Year's Eve and it was the BOMB!!! The snow was amazing and I got to be with my dad, Molly and Ricky. All I can say is I love Skiing.

My own personal heaven would be to have all of my kids old enough to ski and spending time together doing just that. We saw a family getting out of a suburban and there were like 6 snowboards on the ground. Someday that will be my family only with skis of course.

The evening of New Year's Eve we went to Salt Lake to a Pow Wow were we saw Tanner perform. It was so neat to see him do what he loves to do. His mom made all of his costume by hand. It is beautiful! It was so neat to participate in his life.

MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!!!!!!

Our family had a true Christmas miracle this year. Many of you may remember the story about my parents trying to adopt a baby boy 20 years ago. When I was 11 years old my family had the opportunity to adopt Native American baby boy. You can imagine that in a family with four daughters, this was a HUGE deal. We got him and named him Tanner Jack Christianson and loved him with all our hearts. Then when he was 3 months old he was taken away from us. Because of tribal laws, we were not able to legally adopt him and so we lost him. As you can imagine, it broke our hearts, and my parents were devastated. We were able to see him a few times after that, and we knew that he had cerebral palsey pretty bad. After he was about one and a half, we never saw him again. We heard that his grandmother had taken him to a reservation and that was all we knew. My parents felt very strongly that he had died, and so to us we had lost our little brother.
Well, two days ago on Christmas Eve, my parents had the most amazingly happy shock of their life! A woman came over and asked if my dad was Jack Christianson and she had pictures of her son, Tanner Jack. It was indeed the Tanner that we had lost and she has had him for the last 10 years, living in Alpine, UT. Can you believe it??? For 10 years the son my parents had lost was living only 15 minutes away!! We don't know much about the first ten years of his life before she found him and took Tanner into her home and family. This woman's best friend attended an adoption conference my dad spoke at a few months ago at UVU. He told his experience about losing Tanner 20 years ago and this woman thought for sure it had to be the same Tanner. They put the pieces together and realized that it was indeed the same person. Tanner had no idea that we had ever had him. He didn't know that he had a family that loved him and wanted to keep him very much.
On top of that great news, my parents called today and said that Tanner was coming over to visit and could we come over to meet him. Stupid question! So, we went to my parents home and got to see this brother we haven't seen in 20 years that we thought was dead. It was awesome! He was so funny and told us all about what he does and really neat things about the Navajo culture. He is very involved with that and plays his drum at Pow Wow's often. In fact, he invited us to come and see him perform on New Year's Eve. I am really in a state of shock that this is really happening. I am so happy for my parents. This is such a blessing for them at this time of life. They have been called to serve as mission president and will be leaving for three years and it is such a blessing to have found Tanner before then. Who knows if it would have happened after.
I have an absolute testimony that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. My parents have prayed for 20 years that they could know something about this lost son, and by the hand of God it has finally happened. They were put in the right place at the right time and people were put in their way to put the pieces of the story together. I know that Heavenly Father has a purpose in all things, even when trials are so hard and we can't understand why, he knows what we need and he always has a purpose in trying us. I love Him for that. I am so grateful to see and meet Tanner. He is an amazing person!

I have so fallen off the blog bandwagon!!
We have had so much going on the last couple of months that now I feel like I can never catch up!! I have also been having issues with my computers and pictures and what not. Anyway, for anyone who cares, here is a summary of what we've been up to; hopefully some pics to follow soon:
-went to Jackson Hole
-went to Montana for two weeks
-school started
-went to Montana for labor day
-celebrated Ellie's 5th birthday
-started and finished flag football
-went camping
-just living everyday life

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

Let me just start by saying that this is probably my favorite holiday. I look forward to it all year and it is always gone too fast. That being said, pardon the length of this post, but, I love America and the chance to celebrate our freedom!!

Since we moved back to Utah 4 years ago we started the tradtion of going to the ballon fest the day before the 4th. It is such an early morning, but so fun to see all of the balloons blow up and then take off. The kids love it, and they hardly know where to look first. As cheesy as it sounds, I find myself teary eyed every year as I watch the kids so happy as we do something that can only be done once a year. In fact, I find myself choked up a lot on this day as I will explain farther down the page.

This balloon went right over us; I had to duck so I wouldn't get hit by the basket. It was awesome!!

Parade

No 4th of July would be complete without the Provo City parade. Again another early morning, but there is serious competition to get a good spot. This year Ricky tried something new. If you notice the tent in the top picture of this post you will realize that people actually sleep out to save there spot for the parade. Crazy? This year Ricky joined those crazy people and took Brax, Burke, Ellie and Ash and they campled out all night on the side of University Ave. They actually did get some sleep despite the rain at 1:00 in the morning. This is one of those things I get teary about because the kids will never forget the year the slept on the side of the road to get a good spot. So Fun!!

Ellie loves these little crown things they sell every year. Since she is the only girl she gets one without having to ask more than once.

At the beginning of the parade they had all of the emergency vehicles with their sirens on. Holy Moley it was so LOUD!! For like 5 minutes you coudn't hear anything but sirens. It was great! Ashton was in heaven and we could barely get him to sit down for this picture. He jumped and pointed and yelled with joy at sight of endless fire engines.

Annual BBQ
After the parade we always head to my parents for a BBQ witht he neighbors who are like family which ends in a water fight without fail.

Before everything got started we had a snake cathing party in the backyard. There are two garden snakes that live under the patio and all the grandsons wanted my dad to catch them. To do what with I don't know. So, my dad put the hose under there to force them out. All of us womenfolk thought it was mean and that they would drown for sure. But as you can see it worked and the both came out and were terrified I am sure.

This was the highlight of the afternoon for Braxton. Since he has a broken arm he couldn't play outside with everyone because he couldn't get wet and the kids are so crazy. He actually fell on the stairs and hurt his arm, so he opted to stay inside and watch a movie. Thankfully he made the most of the snake situation which he totally enjoyed!

Bradley was a hoot to watch. Ther was a slip n slide fort he kids and he thought it was the neatest thing. He would walk on it and slip and then he woul laugh and laugh at himself. He is a water baby and could't get enough of everything going on.

This is a perfect picture of summer to me. Sitting on the sidewalk eating popsicles. Does it get better than that?

Stadium of Fire
At the last minute we decided to go to the Stadium of Fire. I love going to this and go as often as we can. This is one of those times when I am emotional the whole time! My favorite thing about the Stadium of Fire is when the F-16's fly over. I love seeing them because it means that we are free and there are people protecting us. There is nothing that can immitate the noise and the rush that comes with those jets. It is awesome to me!

This is just us waiting for the show to begin. So much anticipation!

The main perfomers for the night were the Jonas Brothers. As they are on the Disney Channel all the time the kids were excited. We pummed up for the concert by listening to their popular songs all week long in the car. It was so fun to know almost every song they sang and the kids loved it. Ellie was singing and was thirlled when they played her favorite song "Year 3000." This is her with Joe Jonas in the background.

The neatest thing they did all night, to me, was the retirement of a giant flag that nearly covered the football field. The had probably 20 soldiers each carrying an American flag walk in and line either side of a pathway. Then they had another 20 or so soldiers slowly walk in this ginormous rolled up flag which they walk to a big torch to burn. It was dead silent as they slowly walked in; you could have heard a pin drop. All of my kids, even Ash watched reverently as they waked it in and placed it in the torch to burn. As you can guess, I was nearly a puddle. Thankfully the lady next to me was just as emotional. As soon as they lit the flag on fire, a choir started singing patriotic hymns and the fireworks started and were unbelievable! It was grand if that can even describe it. I love fireworks, and even watching them I get emotional. I have such a deep love for America and the freedoms we enjoy. Simple things like watching fireworks with my family. We are so blessed to be Americans. God Bless the USA!!

Summer Bummer !!

We have had the first broken bone in our family. Braxton broke his arm three weeks ago and it is a major bummer for everyone!!! He fractured his arm right above the elbow playing football. Boys will be boys! We are very grateful that he did not have to have surgery as it was a pretty bad break. He even got by without having a hard cast on it so he is much more mobile. He has been really good about it and the good news is he only has three weeks to go and then we will be back at the pool 3 days a week. Fun times!!

T-BALL

Burke had his first t-ball game last week and he did great! He loves being part of a team and of course running the bases. I am pretty sure he is the biggest kid on the team, but he doesn't care. He is shaping up to be a ball player!!