M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

You have not experienced Disneyland until you have gone with Grandpa John! A three year old? No problem. Hold 'em tight on Space Mountain. And that's exactly what we did. By the way, the 40" height rule can be bent if you are 38 1/2".

We spent fall break in Disneyland with Grandma and Grandpa and had a blast.  It was Payton's first trip on an airplane and she loved it!

The first day we arrived it was a little bit rainy.  On the Disney website it said, "If it rains while you are in Disneyland, consider yourself lucky."  We loved our rainy day.  There was nobody there and it doesn't really rain in California.  It's more of a mist.

Occasionally Grandpa let us go on some of the little kid rides.  Grandma and Payton are now officially space rangers.

Grandma and I just about got kicked off of Main Street USA for running, but Payton was FIRST in line to meet the princesses.  If you want a heads up on how to make this happen, let me know. We were successful!

The boys loved California Adventures.  We "Soared over California" several times.

No trip to Disneyland is complete without the family picture with Mickey.

So much to blog about.....so little blogging!

Okay, so obviously school started. My goal was to update our blog as soon as I got caught up at work. Well guess what? I'm still not caught up but I thought I'd update anyway. Fall has been crazy at our house as usual. Although it is my favorite season, it also seems to be the busiest. We love football and have spent many hours at games this year. Corbin played on both the JV and the Varsity teams this year, Bryce coached an 8th grade team, and we had season tickets for BYU. One week I physically attended SIX different games. That doesn't include our beloved Cowboys that we watch on tv. That's a lot of football for one mom. In addition to standing on sidelines, here are some other things we have been doing:

The 4th of July was spent in Idaho with the cousins. We also took the kids to the Tauphus Park Zoo one day.

Corbin sitting on a chicken....not sure why!

Bryce, realizing he is getting old!

Bryce and I celebrated our 5th anniversary in St. George. We went to the Tuachan Theater and saw Annie. I loved it, he survived it.

Before school started, mom and Payton fit in a few more goofing around days.


The annual tradition for Labor Day? Onion Days of course. You can't be a resident of Payson and not attend Onion Days.

Grandma Deana has even gotten in on the Onion Days tradition for the last three years!

Cameron John got his Aarow of Light award. Way to go buddy!

Fall came and with it the yummy food, colors and activities. We always take the kids to the pumpkin patch in Santaquin.

Dad and his girls!

The boys had their pumpkins picked out pretty quickly.

Payton, however...not so fast. So many pumpkins...so little time!

Her biggest challenge was choosing a pumpkin she could carry.

Finally, the perfect pumpkin!

The thing I'm most excited about this fall: Payton started DANCE LESSSONS!!!!!

And Bryce's biggest event: His team went 13-0 for an undefeated season! Go Cowboys!

(Is there any other name for a football team?)

Aaahhh...finally a girl!

Although I have thoroughly enjoyed my boys and all the "boy things" we've done over the years, I decided officially today that every mother needs a girl. Oh yeah, and did I mention...we LOVE SUMMER!

We Love Summer

Every morning Payton wakes up and asks me..."Are you staying home with me again today mom?" WE LOVE SUMMER!

Day Camp

I got to spend the day with Cameron John today. We went to Camp Jeremiah Johnson for his Webelos Day Camp. It's been a while since he and I have spent a day together and it was lots of fun. He got to shoot BB guns, play in row boats, make rope, pan for gold, and shoot a bow and arrow. It was such a boy day!

Look at me, me, me...I'm three, three, three!

We celebrated Payton's Birthday this week. Grandma Deana came from Idaho and brought our cousins Blair and Royce. Because we now have a back yard, we bought a trampoline that the kids loved!

We braved the elements and took a shot at the pool. We got really lucky and ended up with three hours of sunshine (or at least not rain which is as close as we can get to sun this summer) and enjoyed the waterpark.

Cameron, Payton, Royce and Blair

Best Buddies!

Payton said over and over, "This is the best birthday EVER!"

Get ready....set..... GO!
Even daddy took the day off to get in on the fun!
Happy Birthday to you....

I want a trampoline, a pink ipod, a nintendo DS, and a pink digital camera. Big wish list for a little girl! She loved the family trampoline and her ipod...the nintendo and camera will just have to wait.

It was such a great day and we love having Payton as part of our family. Happy Birthday Payton!

My parents best revenge

I remember my mother saying more than once in my life, I can't wait until you have kids one day. Well guess what? One day has arrived, and so have our increased car insurance premiums. For those of you who have talked to me in the last week, you know this is my biggest complaint of the week.

• Not the fact that we have put in a yard this week


• Not the fact that it is the last week of school


• Not the fact that we had to deal with an ex spouse this weekend (although this is my 2nd biggest complaint)


• Not the fact that all of our children hate us (my response to this...cool stay in your rooms for the rest of your lives then)


• Not even the fact that I have had at least 185 kids ask me to change thier grades this week. Nope, all of that is just great compared to my car insurance rates.

Being the model citizen that I am, when Corbin got his license I called my trusty insurance agent and asked him to add Corbin to our policy. The laws in Utah are kind of shady on this whole teen driver thing. Technically, your insurance follows your car, not the driver, as long as the driver has permission. So I originally thought, cool...I'll just wait until Corbin wrecks (notice I didn't say if, but when) and then say I gave him permission. The problem, I have discovered though is that insurance companies get cranky about teen drivers and if Corbin were to ever try to insure himself, it would show that he hadn't had insurance for years.

So back to me, being a model citizen. After hundreds of calls to my aforementioned trusty insurance agent, I finally caught him in his office between 2 and 3 pm one Tuesday. I guess those are his office hours. He told me he would take care of it and get me a great deal. Do you want to know what his great deal was? An increase in my premiums of $260 per month. Yeup, you heard me...TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY DOLLARS. That's triple what I currently pay. Needless to say, Corbin "currently has permission to drive my cars" and I am shopping for insuarance. So if you happen to be one of those "trusty insurance agents" looking to give me a great deal, lets have lunch. Let's just pick someplace that will be quick because I wouldn't want to interrupt you during your office hours.