Merry Christmas to you . . .

. . . from the Burgess family!

I thought we'd share a bunch of photos from our Christmas card 'photo shoot'. Enjoy!!

Kory doing what he does best, just goofing off:

A little bit of randomness:

Cousins:

Let's see if this will work. Hmmm . . . not quite:

Slowly getting through:

Well. I think that's as far as Josh will get:

Halloween 2010

Wahoo! I'm actually posting about Halloween before Thanksgiving. That's pretty good for me.

This year Sophee was a little devil (how fitting-and yes, she picked that out all on her own) and Audree was a 50's girl:

Josh was the 'Karate Kid':

And Kaylee was MIA because she had gone over to her cousins house to get ready.

Since Halloween was on a Sunday we just went to our church's Trunk-or-Treat carnival this year on Saturday night.

My SIL was in charge of a few games and decided that we needed a petting zoo. So she came up with a "Shih Tzu Zoo", and gathered up 6 Shih Tzu's, include ours-and gated off the 'mothers lounge' and we lifted the little kids over the gate to go see the dogs. This was actually a huge hit!! Coal is the black one with the red bandana:

Here are the girls searching for treasures:

And playing miniature golf:

The purpose of this game is to 'catapult' fake spiders onto a giant spider web:

I had planned to get pictures of Kaylee but I didn't see her and her cousin too much. You know, she's at that stage were she is too cool to hang with the fam.

When we first walked into the carnival Josh spotted the booth were someone was making balloon animals and headed straight for it. Of course that had the longest line and he stood there, patiently, for at least half an hour to get himself a spiderman balloon-which I didn't get a picture of-darn it.

Afterwards, we came home and the 'bargaining' began. Oh look, there's Kaylee. She was a 'punk ballerina'. She had some black gauze all wrapped around the top of her but had taken it off before I got a picture.

Making the trade:

The kids had a really great time at the carnival and didn't seem to mind too much that we didn't trick-or-treat on Sunday. Infact they had forgotten all about it until some kids came over that night and rang the doorbell while we were having dinner (we forgot to turn off our outside lights). Then Sophee realized she was missing out on it and cried for a little while. Poor Girl.

The rest of the kids were fine with it.

I'm so glad it's over though! Now onto the Thanksgiving!

Family Home Evening with our cousins . . .

. . . carving pumpkins!!

I love the above pic. It just captures the craziness that is when we get the youngins' together. Add a sticky, gooey mess of pumpkin guts, somewhat sharp objects and hey, now we're having a good time!!

I had pretty much decided that I wasn't going to do our traditional 'carving of the pumpkins' this year. Then my super fun SIL called and invited us to come over to Grandma's with them and have a BBQ and carve up some pumpkins for FHE. Oh the guilt!!
I caved. Mainly because I'm trying to be better about having FHE every week. That, and the fact the I didn't have to actually plan a lesson or make dinner? I was so there!!

Here's Dad, Audree, Sophee, and Josh (Kaylee was on her way from soccer practise):

I usually only buy 2 pumpkins every year, then we split into teams-one team with me, and one with Kory-that way it's not so chaotic with just 2 adults trying to simultaneously trying to help carve 4 pumpkins. The kids don't seem to mind at all, it's cheaper, and I think they like having a little 'competion' with the other group.

Sophee and Josh with their pumpkin:

Kory, Audree, and Kaylee's pumpkin is on the right:

The whole gang showing off their creations:

It was fun to get together with family for FHE. These are memories in the making!!

Us girls love our shoes . . .

Especially when they're super cheap!!

I had to run and get a couple of things at K-mart the other day. The kids and I happened upon a huge shoe sale. They were clearing out a bunch of summer shoes for over 75% off. Wahoo!!

Here's Sophee's $2.50 sandles. They have a little heel to them, which she absolutely loves. Check out these gingham checked shoes. I totally love them. Haven't worn them yet though.
They were $3.50. Even Kaylee likes them. That's a good sign when your teenager approves. I think it means I'm cool.

Audree opted for some simple white flats. $2. Thank-you-very-much.

I also happened to get these brown heels (which is actually something I needed):

A side view of the cute buckle:

And the best part? They were only $2. I'm such a bargain shopper.

Kaylee also got some shoes, but was not home when I decided to snap some pics.

Poor Josh. We tried really hard to find him something, but there wasn't a very big selection of men's shoes on clearance.

I just love me a good clearance sale.

Josh-isms

Today I was in a mood to get my disgusting floors cleaned. I realized a long time ago that when a 'cleaning mood' strikes, you better go with it right then and there or that mood might not be back for awhile. Although, I really prefer to mop when the kids are either in bed or at school (since our kitchen is the 'hub' of the home, mopping while 8 little feet are running around underneath me really isn't a great idea). But, alas, the mood was here and I had to take advantage of it. So, after vacuuming all the carpet downstairs, removing all the little rugs to be washed, moving all the chairs onto the carpet, sweeping the tile, and finally starting to mop I guess Josh noticed that I was working a little harder than I normally do on a Saturday.

He then came up to me, just before I was finished and said, "Mom, if you clean this whooooole house you can have a dollar!" Me: "Really bud? I can have a dollar?"
Josh: "Not until you're all done."
Me: "Thanks bud."

I'm still waiting for my dollar. I guess maybe I didn't do a good enough job.
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This next picture is a little blurry because it's a picture of a picture. But, I need you to see it so you'll understand the next story:

That's Audree's face in the picture. Our stake primary presidency came down and did an activity with our primary kids at the beginning of the year. While here they took pictures of all the kids. Then, some super creative lady photoshopped the kids' faces into this picture with Jesus. When Mother's day rolled around this was the little gift that the kids gave their Mom's. It was such a precious idea! I got one from Kaylee (who was in the primary at the time), Audree, and Sophee. Poor Josh missed out because he's not in Primary anymore.

So after church that day, as we were heading home I was admiring my new gifts from the girls. Josh wanted to see what they were. He grabbed Audree's picture, took a lengthy look at it, and said, "Heeeeey! When was Jesus here?"

Poor kid, no matter how many times I tried to explain how you can 'photoshop' things he just wasn't getting it. He still feels like he got jipped out of seeing Jesus.

Hometown Parade

It's a nice, quiet evening tonight. Kory and Audree are down at the soccer fields watching Kaylee's game, Josh is at the football game with his respite worker, and Soph and I are just kickin' back at home watching Bugs Bunny. I just pulled a coffee cake out of the oven and the house smells all cinnamon-y. Mmmm. I'm just loving it. So, since I have a free moment, I decided to do a little post.

Today is the High School's homecoming football game. Since Kaylee and her cousins would be participating in the Homecoming parade I decided it might be fun for the kids and I to go and watch. We ran and got slushy's and then set up our chairs along side the road. Here are the 'patiently' waiting cuties:
Here are the girls waving some banners that the football team was passing out.

Josh got a football tossed to him. He was pretty excited about getting that. Oh, and he decorated his t-shirt in the school colors all by himself:

Here comes the Jr. High marching band:

There's Kaylee-second row, second one in, wearing the black shirt with the big "S" on it (for SADD club), and white t-shirt hanging out the bottom:

Her first parade! I'm such a proud Mother!!

Audree turns 8 !!

Our sweet little girl just turned 8!!



She requested that I make 'ring' cupcakes-again. So I decided to change things up a bit and make them into cupcake cones. Yummy! I hadn't has these since I was a little girl. Oh, and since she has a super sweet tooth, just like her Mother, she helped me dip them in colored sprinkles after we frosted them.

Here's Audree getting ready to blow out her candles. We just had a simple little party at home since we would be having the baptism with all the family members later on in the week.

The following Sunday was the big day!! Grandma and Grandpa Evans even got to come, and Grandpa snapped this shot of Audree getting her hair done before leaving for the baptism:

All ready and patiently waiting . . .

Audree was baptized by her Dad. We are so proud of the decision she made to do this!

Kory and his 3 girls. They all seem so angelic now. Life is going to be interesting once they all hit their teens ;-)

Our family:

All in all it was a great baptism. We had all the family members that live in the area here-plus my parents. We are so grateful that they made the trip up to share Audree's special day with her.