Welcome to the Woods

Monday, December 3, 2012

Bell Ringing

Last year, we had such a great time bell ringing for the Salvation Army that we signed up to do it again this year. It was entertaining to say the least! The kids loved ringing their bells and wishing everyone a merry Christmas. Their cute smiles lulled lots of charitable people in, ready to donate. We even had someone that was driving by pull over and donate just because they saw our kids. This is what Christmas is all about!

Sunday, December 2, 2012

The Tree is Up!

Everything is looking festive over here, including these cute kids that I am lucky to call my own.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

10 BLING!

Jack's school uses a discipline system that rewards you with a "bling" or little jewel every time you have an outstanding day. The little jewels get put on a clothespin that has their name on it. Well, once you get 10 jewels on your clip, it gets retired to the hallway. This happened to Jack last week and it was a very exciting moment for him. Here he is pointing to his clip:

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Thanksgiving

We were happy to be able to host Thanksgiving dinner this year for most of Ty's family. His parents and two sisters with their families all traveled to Phoenix to enjoy a very warm holiday weekend. The best part for me was watching all the cousins playing for hours and hours on end.

Quinn and Audrey (These two were inseparable. Audrey always had to know where he was. She'd ask me, "Where's my Quinn?")

Elliot and Kenna

The night before Thanksgiving, all the girls made a dessert and we stretched our stomachs for the meal to come! (Granna, Savannah, Kenna, Me, Leslie, & Andrea)

Thanksgiving morning, we went for a hike on South Mountain up to Fat Man's Pass.

(This is why it's called Fat Man's Pass)

All the kids ready to eat!

Our best news of the weekend is that we have all the signatures we need to finalize the adoption! Our court date is set for December 13th and then it is official. We are so grateful for the blessing of three children this year!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

End of Soccer Season

This weekend was Jack's last soccer game. He had a great season and loved being the big brother that Elliot and Audrey could cheer on.

Jack with his trophy ("But, the little guy doesn't really look like me...") and Coach Dad

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Grandpa Burch

Ty's Grandpa passed away last week. He was such a special man. Grandpa Burch has been an example to us of hard work, dedication, sacrifice, and love. We are sad that he's no longer with us on Earth, but we are also overjoyed that he's been reunited with Grandma Burch, who passed away 18 years ago. We know the years without her have been long and painful for him.

We were able to travel to Utah for the funeral and we're so glad we made it. This was our first big trip with the twins and we had to take lots of stops to keep all the kids happy.

The next two pictures are courtesy of Jack - "For the blog, Mom."

My brother Paul and his girlfriend Tara also happened to be driving south to Page from Utah that day, so we met at a park in Scipio and played for awhile.

We loved playing at Aunt Kaye's house in American Fork. Her backyard was full of crunchy Fall leaves for the kids to play with. There were also cousins everywhere. We had a wonderful time catching up with everyone (and showing off the twins!).

Aunt Les and cousin Reese

The funeral was beautiful. All of Granpa's children shared memories and stories, Uncle Max played some cowboy songs on the guitar, the great-grandchildren sang, and Andrea, Amber and I played a violin/piano arrangement of Come Thou Fount. Grandpa's casket was taken in a horse-drawn carriage to the cemetery.