MY BOYS

I took this picture of my boys in Missy's backyard. I thought that it really showed off their personalities. We had a wonderful time with Missy and her family. We went to the Jelly Belly Factory, the San Fransisco Exploratorium, and Pier 39. I'll keep posting so keep watching.

Missy's boys

We went to Lafayette this last weekend to see Missy and her family. I took some way cute pictures of her boys that I thought I would share. Aren't these boys just so cute?!! I'm going to update a little more later with some pictures of the Jelly Belly factory and the exploratorium so stay tuned....

A Fun Weekend

I had a great weekend. Anjeanette (a friend from Idaho) came down to visit and we just had a blast. We saw a show (V - the ultimate variety show) and we people watched the masses of people that were on the Las Vegas Strip this past weekend. Holy Cow, there were a lot of people. We were even driving down the strip at one point and saw some plain clothes cops tackeling some guys and putting them in cuffs. It was wild. I think it might take Anjeanette some time to recover from all the excitement.

This next weekend I am going to Oakland to see Missy (my sister) and her family. I haven't seen them since before they left for England, so it's been awhile. I am looking forward to a fun weekend with them. Alex also has a meet (which is the main reason we are headed to Oakland). Joy was going to go with me but Caitlin is having a hard time with her little ears and Joy has scheduled surgery for Thursday so Caitlin can get tubes and maybe get some relief. We will keep them in our prayers. So, since I lost half my traveling companions, it will just be me and the boys. Darrel will join us on Friday and help me drive home on Sunday. I'm glad that I will have some help on one of the legs.

I am planning on taking a lot of pictures at this meet and while I am at Missy's house so look for some great pictures after the weekend. Talk soon!

the photo shoot

Some photos of our photo shoot. I played around with these in Photoshop so take them as they are. I hope you like them.


This one is interesting. I need to still fix it, but I thought I would post it and see what you all think.

Elise is here!!

My sister, Elise is here to visit. This is her oh so cute little daughter with the red hair. We're going to have so much fun while she is here. I'm excited to have her visiting for awhile. I have to go now, but I'll update again soon.

playing doctor

Daniel and Zachary are right now playing doctor in the preschool while I am working on the computer. I just couldn't resist taking some pictures. Are these not just the cutest things you ever saw? They were so proud of themselves, taking temperatures, giving shots, etc. They are so fun to watch and they just crack me up. Just thought you'd get a kick out of it too. Enjoy!!

Johnathan's basketball Saturday

The pictures are all different, but enjoy.

Johnathan had a basketball game on Saturday and so Darrel took our new lens and took some shots of him on the court. He did great in the basketball game. The next picture is him standing with his team; the third is Kenneth (his cousin) getting ready to pass him the ball (the pass was good by the way). The last picture is of Johnathan climbing the rock wall at the rec center. He did a great job and had a wonderful time during both his game and the climb. Way to go Johnathan!!

Look at the size of that trophy!!

Alex was in a meet this weekend and did great! He placed in four events and took sixth overall in his age group. It was the best meet for him this season. In the top picture he is posing with the team trophy (3rd place) that they won. The boys all did a great job and it was a very fun meet. I am starting to get to know the parents and so it makes it a lot nicer to go and have someone to sit by and cheer with.

In other weekend news, Joy had her 30th birthday on Friday and so we watched her kids from Friday night to Saturday morning so she and Steve could go to dinner, a show, and then they stayed overnight at the Alladin hotel as a surprise to Joy from Steve. On Saturday morning Kenneth and Johnathan had a basketball game and then Joy and I took off to enjoy a Saturday together shopping. It was so much fun and I was so grateful to Darrel for being so kind to insist I take my time and have fun. I did have fun. Joy had some birthday money from my mom and dad so we hit a bunch of jewelry stores looking for just the right gift. She ended up buying a very nice omega necklace at Crescent Jewelers for $100. It is reversable (yellow and white gold) and I bought a beautiful ring. We went to lunch at Chevy's and we just had a great time. I haven't enjoyed a weekend that much since summer so it was a wonderful break for me.

Today I am watching Joy's kids while she is working. I am also doing laundry and cleaning. I thought I would take a minute to update our blog. I have to get back to that wonderful housework soon and I'm just putting it off as long as possible. I also need to prepare for preschool today but I am pretty much ready.

Talk to ya soon!

pictures from the weekend

Grandaddy and Johnathan
four generations
fun at Boondocks
I can't believe he's eight!

Our fun weekend...

We had a wonderful weekend. Johnathan was able to get baptized and many family and friends showed up to support him and our family. Dad baptized him and Grandaddy confirmed him a member of the church. We then went to Boondocks with Brian and his boys and had a great time. We got unlimited passes for all the boys (except Zachary) and they were able to play laser tag, go on the go carts, and play the games with the tokens. We then went to church on Sunday where Joy and I sang in Sacrament meeting with my mom and then in Relief Society with my mom again. My mom was in heaven. Anyway, we're glad to be home and excited for the week.

Growing up Johnathan...

Preparing for the weekend...

We are going to Utah this weekend. Johnathan is going to be baptized and we're so excited for him. We're proud that he's made this important decision. After the baptism we're going to to take Johnathan and his best friend to party on at Boondocks. Johnathan can hardly wait for the weekend to come. He is also excited for his birthday which is tomorrow. I can't believe that eight years ago tomorrow a beautiful baby boy joined our family. Johnathan was such a good baby, so content and loving. He has always loved his family so much and still calls his older brother, Alex, "brother". I think it's so cute...I hope he never stops. I love him so much and I'm so proud of him and how kind he is to others. I'm so glad that he is a part of our family and I hope he continues to grow strong.

Some cute pictures of Caitlin and Zach

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. What a wonderful man to celebrate today. He was such a strong leader. I'm grateful for his persistance in the face of great trial. I get to teach my preschoolers about Martin Luther King, Jr. tomorrow. I hope that in some small way they can understand him and what he did to shape our country.

This last weekend Alex had another meet and Johnathan had another game. On Saturday our family all got up and went to see Johnathan play basketball. He did great and I got to see him make a couple of baskets and one foul shot before Alex and I had to leave for his meet. We drove all the way across town (about 30 minutes) to find out that there had been a miscommunication and the meet wasn't until Sunday. I was bummed. I missed the last part of Johnathan's game because of a miscommunication. Hopefully this won't happen again!

So, on Sunday we all went to Sacrament meeting and then Alex and I slipped out and went to his meet. He did a great job, coming in 7th overall in his age group. He had a pretty good meet and scored some decent scores. Today (Monday) he has practice from 11-3 so we're just about to leave to take him to gym.

Later today we'll clean the house and get ready for another week of preschool. Wish me luck!

Last Weekend

These are pictures from the meet last weekend. Alex doing his different events. We had a good time together. Alex did a great job. There were so many awesome gymnasts at the meet, Alex didn't win a medal, but I was very proud of his effort and hard work. We went to a fun pizza place and stayed in a nice hotel. We watched movies together and spent a lot of time at the gym. I hope you enjoy the pictures from the meet.

Our weekend

Alex and I are heading out today to go to Bakersfield to attend his first meet. He is very excited and I am too. Johnathan and Kenneth have their first basketball game tomorrow. I'm sad that I'll miss seeing that but Darrel, Steve, and Joy will make a great cheering section for them. I'll be back Monday morning and I'll post some pictures of our trip then.

Here is a picture of Zachary's boo boo. He is trying to look at it and every time I took a picture he wanted to see the image. He's a character!! Anyway, we hope you all have wonderful plans to celebrate the New Year. There are supposed to be almost 500,000 people on the strip this year to celebrate...we are so not going anywhere near there!!! Happy New Year everyone.

Stitches

Well it's turning into a Christmas tradition to visit the emergency room while we are in Arizona. I wonder if they have any special considerations for visitors from out of town that come to see them every time they are here. Anyway, the day after Christmas Zachary was running down the hall and fell on an open tape measure. He cut the middle of his forehead open and required 5 stitches to sew it up. He was so brave and hardly cried during any of it and not at all while they stitched him, even though they had his face covered. He now has his official first real owie that will probably leave a nice boyhood scar and make him look tough.
Other than that we are having a great time here at Grandma Miki's house. It snowed last night about 4 inches and the boys are having a ball today playing in it. Even Zachary is out there ripping it up. They are sledding and riding the four wheeler. We got some very cute pictures but we'll have to wait until we get home to post them.
We are leaving for home tomorrow morning(ish) and should be home by late afternoon, early evening. We'll catch you on the flip side.

Merry Christmas to all!!

We are about to leave for Arizona and unless I decide to get inspired in Arizona I don't think I'll post another update until we get back. We are looking forward to a wonderful Christmas surrounded by loved ones. We are counting all of our blessings today. These past couple of days have been fun because my dad was here. He came down on Thursday night and took me to the Las Vegas Bowl game. The BYU Cougars stomped on the Oregon Ducks 38 to 8. It was a fairly one-sided game but very enjoyable. I LOVED being with my dad. (Thanks for taking me dad) Darrel right now is loading up the car for our trip and I am supposed to be making breakfast before we go. I will in a second.

Yesterday we opened some presents from Grammie and Grandaddy Fellingham so my dad could be here to see the expressions on the kids faces. Zachary (in my humble opinion) had the best faces and was so excited. He played with the tool set the entire night. I can't wait to see all his fun expressions on Christmas morning. He is finally starting to understand and I love to see the happiness and excitement that he has for all of it.

I'll post pictures when we get back from our trip but until then, Merry Christmas! I hope your holidays are filled with love, laughter, family, and the spirit of Christ! May His blessings pour over you this holiday season.

Snow in Vegas??!!!

There is snow in Las Vegas. There is snow on the palm trees in Las Vegas! Holy Cow! I've been around snow before, however, I have never seen snow on palm trees. I just had to share. 

Letter to a soldier

Our family is sending a couple of boxes to some Special Forces soldiers that Danny has helped us find and I told Alex to write a letter that we could include in the box for them...here is what he wrote:

Dear souljers,
I hope you have a safe time in war. We are sending cofe to you for a gift. I hope you like it. frome, Alex Webb


He drew a cool picture at the bottom and by the way cofe is coffee. We are sending some fancy Starbucks coffee because that was on their wish list.
Anyway, thought I would share.

Get ready Christmas - here we come!

Yesterday was my last day of preschool until Jan 2, 2007. We had a great time at our party and I am very much looking forward to my break! Today is supposed to be 68 degrees with a cold front coming in this weekend so we took advantage of the nice weather and went to the park. We had a great time and now Zachary is fast asleep while I try to get a few things accomplished before I have to race out to something else.

Alex and Johnathan are enjoying their last day at school playing golf. Alex has gymnastics today from 3 to 6 and so we're going straight from school to gymnastics and straight from gymnastics to the ward Christmas party. Tonight is going to be fun! I'm really starting to get into the Christmas spirit and I'm looking forward to days without school and major responsibilities. I have such awesome boys and I really do love spending time with them. Christmas is going to be so fun this year. We really hope Grandma Miki orders up some snow for us so we can play in the snow while we're in Arizona. If Grandma Miki doesn't get any we'll just have to hunt some white stuff down for ourselves.

Next week is supposed to be hovering around 40 degrees here which is a little on the chilly side. I'm glad that we were able to get out and play a little today.

I don't have very much shopping left to do, which is a nice feeling. I did mail the majority of my Christmas cards today, which was a very nice feeling. I will get some more out tonight and then I should be about done. It's always hard to know when you're all the way done because just when you think you've sent the last one out somebody sends you a Christmas card and you have to recipricate with one of yours. Hopefully I will have gotten most of the people that send me cards so I shouldn't have too many straggler cards this year. It's always nice to get that part of Christmas done!

Our family is blessed and we hope that everyone that reads this blog feels blessed also. We hope that you feel the light of Christ this Christmas season. We are so blessed to have each other and to have our health and happiness. We are blessed to enjoy large families who love us and take care of us. We are certainly watched over and we hope you feel the same. My God bless you and your families this Christmas season and throughout the coming year!!

hello

I'm back - sorry it's so long between posts. Today I am making cookies that I've never made before so we'll see how they turn out. They are the cookies with Hershey kisses in the middle of them. I always thought that you were supposed to put the Hershey kiss in after but apparently that is not the case. The recipe also told me to put a little dough around the Hershey kiss...I wasn't sure if that meant just a little around or all the way around. I know, I am cooking challenged, but I put it both ways and now I'm cooking the first batch. We'll just see which way was right when they come out.

Alex and Johnathan are at school right now playing golf. They are actually in a class about how to play golf but I am assuming that they will also play (at least putt) a little today. This is the last week of off-track extra curricular classes. I am looking forward to having them home full time next week to really gear up for Christmas.

I've done most of my Christmas shopping. I actually bought Darrel something that is going to be a complete surprise (I hope). I'm looking forward to Christmas. It's going to be so fun! We are going down to Darrel's family in Arizona (here's hoping for a little snow). Oh and by the way, they live in the mountains, in case you thought my last comment was completely insane. Anyway, we have cool gifts for the boys that I think they're going to love so it will be fun to see their faces Christmas morning.

Tomorrow I am having a "sibling day" in preschool. I'm anticipating at least 6 extra kids along with my seven. It's going to be fun. I'm putting the preschooler in charge of their older sibling and they will tell them the schedule and the rules. They will tell them what to play and how to help them with the craft. I think we'll just have a great day.

OK - I just pulled the first batch out of the oven. Just so you know, I was not supposed to completely surround the Hershey kiss with cookie batter although the effect is quite interesting. I'm just supposed to gently push the Hershey Kiss into the cookie dough. Hopefully the next batch will turn out a little better. If not, these cookies will be for family only or really, really good friends.

With Joy's help I got most of my Christmas cards ready to mail. I hope to get the rest done by tonight so I can put them in the mail tomorrow. It will be good to get that done. That will be one less thing to get done before Christmas.

Well - after the Hershey Kiss cookies I'm making a batch of gingerbread cookies to decorate tomorrow - wish me luck!

updating the blog

Today Joy (my sister) is having a cyst removed from her gums and a skin graft to patch up what is left of her gums. All I can say is, good luck Joy, we're praying for you, and I'm so glad it's not me. I cringe everytime I think about how much pain she is going to be in. They are taking the skin for the graft from the roof of her mouth. They told her that it was going to feel like a pizza burn for about 6 weeks. I don't envy her recovery time.

In other news my mom is coming today to help out for a few days and that will be fun. The boys and I are looking forward to seeing her and getting in some good visiting time. Today I have all of Joy's kids and my kids so I'll have to try and keep the house reasonably clean because I have preschool tomorrow and I don't want to be cleaning all night to get ready.

I finished my Christmas letter and printed it out now I just need to address the envelopes and get them in the mail. I was hoping to get these out before December but no such luck. Hopefully by the end of the weekend they will all be in the mail.

Darrel's birthday is tomorrow. He is going to be 34. Mom is staying until Friday morning so Darrel and I can go out and enjoy his birthday. I am looking forward to some quality time with my sweet husband. He is such a good man and I love him so much. I was so lucky to have met him when I did. I'm so glad that he chose me to be his eternal companion. I couldn't have asked for a better, sweeter companion than Darrel. And I guess it's just a bonus that he is the all time world's best dad. Happy Birthday tomorrow honey! I hope it's a great one for you!

Well, wish my luck with a house full of kiddos today. I'd rather be me than Joy, though, so I'll take the house full of kiddos over the painful mouth surgery any day. Good luck Joy!

Fun Weekend!!

We had a very fun weekend with the Armstrong family. We went to the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur and to the M&M factory. The kids had a great time playing with each other and Brenda and I got some good shopping time in at the Forum shops. Since Celine Dion was sick and cancelled her shows, we rescheduled for March. We are still excited to see her show but going to the Tournament of Kings as two families together was just a blast. Thanks Armstrongs for a very fun filled weekend! We hope to see you soon!