Fun at the Tykson's cabin with Jones cousins!

We went to Kerstin's parent's cabin this past weekend. The cabin is huge and we all had a lot of fun. I think there are 9 bathrooms and I don't know how many bedrooms.

Matt made a treasure hunt for the kids without any of us knowing. The cabin is full of junk food and it's hard to keep the kids out. After the parents saw the treasure hunt prize, it was reduced to just the fruit snacks.
The most popular activity for the kids at the cabin was playing Guitar Hero.

Amy brought cookies for the kids to decorate!

The four wheeling was also fun. I wasn't very thrilled that there were not helmets and relieved that no one got hurt.

Tyler's roller coaster

Tyler got this roller coaster last year for Christmas. He finally put it together. We were impressed how well he followed the instructions. He did it all by himself up until the orange track and the chain. Emily helped him with that and we have all enjoyed watching it go!

Danica Marie's wedding

Danica and David Bingham were married in the St. George temple on October 9, 2009. The ceremony was nice and the reception was beautiful. The reception was in a large reception center with a lot of room outside and in.

Danica dancing with her daddy, Roger.
My grandmother Martha and my mom
Grandma Martha (91) will be a great, great grandmother in February.(Bailee is expecting a boy in February and Kelly is expecting in April)

Daddy and Brittany
Emily, Brittany, Brooklynn (my sister, Cheeri's daughter)
Me, with my sisters, Cheeri and Danica
Boy cousins and a lot of them! Fun! All of the Russell cousins over the age of 9 are girls (11 girls), except for 2 boys! All of the cousins 9 and under are boys (13 boys), except for 1 girl!

Kyler (Troy's), Stetson (Cheeri's), Jarom (Danica's)
Tyler, Collin (Troy's), Heath (Roger's)
Michael (Roger's), Abram (Danica's), Porter (Danica's), James (Danica's)


Boy Cousins missing, Dallen (Cheeri's), Austen (Troy's) and Cameron's 3 boys, Andrew, Ben, and Ryan.


Tyler, Jarom, James
The boys all had so much fun at the reception. There was a photo booth. It printed 2 photo strips, one to tape into a memory book for David and Danica and one to keep. The boys had so much fun dressing silly and taking pictures!

We also had a lot of fun over the weekend at Roger's and my mom's homes. We stayed with my mom, but spent a lot of time at Roger's too.
Tyler and Heath

Ashlee and Breanne (my sister, Cheeri's daughter)
Of course a trip to Roger's always includes fun in the pool and or hot tub!

We love our extended family!

BYU football game!

For James 8th birthday he really wanted to go to a BYU football game. They invited Tyler to go with them and he was so excited. Danica said the boys cheered, did the wave and had a lot of fun. They went to the Utah State vs BYU game.

James, Nathan, Tyler, Jarom

Go BYU!

Marriage retreat in Aspen Grove

Mike and I went to Aspen Grove for a marriage retreat this past weekend. We enjoyed listening to Scott Anderson speak and did a lot of other fun activities. Saturday morning before going home we played walleyball for 2 hours with my siblings and their spouses. It was an aggressive and fun game!Dad, Nancy and most of my siblings were there. Two of Mike's brothers also came. It was fun to be there, especially with family!

Nancy, dad, Greg, Dione, Mike, Heather, Deedra, Troy, Cameron, Connie, Danica (Nathan had to leave early for work.)

Brian and Kerstin
Melanie and Chris

Mike and I went mountain biking Friday afternoon right after we got there. What a fun weekend!

Happy 11th Birthday, Brittany!

Happy Birthday, "Britty Bee"!

Brittany loves Grandmas, Papas, cousins, family, friends, playing, holidays, and soccer. Her best friend is her sister, Emily. They get a long so well and have so much fun playing together. She is currently on two soccer teams. Mike coaches her recreational league and has for years. A few weeks ago Mike was approached by a coach of a competition league asking her to be on the team and Mike to be the assistant coach. They both accepted and have been very busy with soccer ever since and loving it! Mike overheard the coach say to his wife while watching Brittany, "See I told you she was fast!" Mike is beaming and is loving that she loves soccer and is good at it!

Some funny things Brittany has done or said:

2-loved dolls- She forgot her doll on a trip to Grandma's. She found a mini pumpkin. She picked it up, rocked it, put it up to her shoulder, patted it and said, "Shh, baby sleeping."

2- loved all animals and had no fears of any- One time she picked up a bee off of a flower and she got stung. After that she decided that she didn't like bees, but she still had no fear of any other insect or animal.

2 1/2 - Brittany got hurt, she ran to her daddy and said, "Daddy, your Britty Bee got hurt!"

2 1/2- loved to tell stories- One time she entertained a large family group and Grandma Nancy and Papa's by telling us a story about a Brady bunch she saw. The story began at 11:00 pm and went until midnight. Everyone was laughing and entertained the whole hour. We knew she had a story telling gift then! Friend's parents, teachers and others told us many times of her funny, partially true and really embellished, stories! She was told once by a missionary that came over for dinner, "You are the coolest 2 year old I have ever met!"

3- I had heated up a bunch of leftovers and put them on the counter. I asked everyone to serve themselves, not thinking about Brittany not being able to reach. We prayed, sat down and began eating when Brittany said looking at me and Mike, "Let me tell you a story. There once was a little girl. She was very, very hungry. Her parents didn't get her any dinner. And that little girl is me!"

3 1/2- Didn't like something that Heidi (dance teacher) had them do in their dance. (I don't know why, it was just putting some accessories on a large paper doll.) She refused to do the dance. For weeks she wouldn't even practice it. She would sit down at dance and watch during that dance. She had such a strong will. We couldn't do anything to get her to do that dance. Heidi changed the dance just for her right before the recital. She got up and did the whole dance perfectly as soon as that part was removed. Stubborn! During that recital she had 2 dances, the Bee dance (above picture) and the paper doll dance. She was adorable and did both dances.

Brittany you are a joy and we love having you in our family! We love your hugs! We love your joy and laughter! We love you!

Homecoming 2009

Ashlee went to the Homecoming dance last night with Thayne Thompson. They also went together to the Homecoming game the night before. Lone Peak played Brighton and won 23 - 7. It was an exciting game. Brighton has not only been undefeated for years, but no one has even scored on them for years!

Thayne, Ashlee, and one of her best friends, Whitney.

I made Ashlee's dress. It was much more of an ordeal than I planned on, but it was worth it. She loved the dress and looked so beautiful! The skirt didn't mach up to the bodice and so I unpicked all the pleats and redid them. . . (about 2 extra hours). When I had the whole dress sewn and ready for the zipper, which is the very last step, Ashlee tried it on and the skirt was twisted funny and didn't hang right. I looked over it and realized that the bubble on the bottom was twisted. After 2 1/2 hours of unpicking (I had to take dress apart to get the that seam), the dress was ready to be sewn again! Then, when I was about to sew the zipper in, I realized I had purchased the wrong size zipper!

Family Night at Liberty Land

For Family Home Evening last night we went to a new family fun center in Lehi called, Liberty Land. (libertylandfuncenter.com) They had a fun miniature golf course featuring sites in the US. Right now they are running a 1/2 price special every night after 5:00. That made it a really good deal. The kids had a lot of fun. There was a roller coaster that ran through "Mount Rushmore", bumper boats around "The Statue of Liberty", bounce houses, small swinging boat for little kids, a merry-go-round, go-carts, a rock climbing wall, Frog Hopper (a fun ride for younger kids that my kids loved years ago in Hershey Park. We were excited to see the ride), and a few other rides.

Brittany, climbing the wall

Mike, climbing

Emily, getting ready to climb
Tyler, climbing the wall
Ashlee, just finished climbing the wall
Fun on the go-carts!

Brittany and Emily at the "Empire State Building"

Amber, waiting for her ball to come out and Emily and Ashlee trying to help it along!
Tyler hit quite a few hole in 2s! He had a lot of fun!
Tyler, in front of "The Lincoln memorial" while waiting for his turn to golf! We had a really fun family night. We were only planning to golf, but when we saw the 1/2 price deal for unlimited rides, were purchased that for only an additional $2 per person. We ended up staying until 9:30. The kids all had to leave by 7:45 the next morning for school!

Tyler finished Harry Potter!

A few months ago, Tyler decided he wanted to read Harry Potter. It really is far above his reading level, but he wanted to read it anyway. He's watched all the movies a few times with Amber and so he is familiar with the story. He would read the words he knew and just skip the other words. Since he already knew the characters names and the names of the spells . . . he could read those. He finished it last night! He did a little move and chanted, "I'm on the last page, I'm on the last page!" Then he finished reading and looked up and said, "Where's Harry Potter II?" I convinced him to read a Horrible Harry book instead. I want him to read books at his own level. He sure was proud to have finished such a large book. What an accomplishment for a six year old!

First Day of School

School started yesterday. Ashlee is a senior, Emily is in 8th grade, Brittany is in 5th, and Tyler is in 1st. Amber will start her second year at BYU in a little over a week.

Fun with cousins just before school starts!

Last week Danica and her kids came for a few days. Tyler loved having a lot of boys around. We went to the Dinosaur Museum while they were here.

This past weekend we went to the Jone's family cabin with Chris and Melanie and Amy and their kids. It is always so fun to be there with family. We played a lot of games and had fun talking. Then, on Monday, we went to Lagoon with Amy and her kids. We had a lot of fun. Multiple times over the next few days, Tyler would say, "Thanks for taking us to Lagoon!"

Lauryn, Sydney, Jack, Tyler, Brittany

Avery and Tyler riding the Ladybug Bop. This was Tyler's and Avery's favorite ride.

When we first arrived, I took Tyler on Wild Mouse and he did not like it. It was so jerky and it scared him. He spent quite a while in Kiddie land with Avery after that. Amber finally convinced him to try the Bat, their smallest roller coaster that's not a kiddie roller coaster. He loved it! He then road on Spider (a new large and fast roller coaster) and loved that! He had a lot of fun riding these rides with Jack. As we were leaving the park we walked by Wild Mouse and he said he wanted to go again, even though he hated it the first time! Ashlee rode it with him. This picture was taken at the end of the ride so he must not have been as scared as the first time, but when I asked him if he liked it he said "no". He had a really fun day, but he started and ended with a ride that he did not like.