Happy 14th birthday, Emily!

Happy Birthday, Emily. We are so blessed to have Emily in our family! She is beautiful, talented, thoughtful and a good friend to all. Emily loves ice cream, dancing, being with her family, babies, photography, making movies, and she plays the piano beautifully! She also just joined the Venturing group with Ashlee. We love you, Em. Thanks for coming to our family! We love you!

Some funny things Emily has done or said:

Emily loved to pretend to talk on the phone when she was little. She had four play phones and would sometimes talk on them, but she always wanted the real phone. She would have pretend conversations on them all day. (She pronounced phone, own) A sample conversation, "Hello. . . uh huh. . . My daddy's no home. My mommy's home. . . me read books. . ."

Emily was very much a daddy's girl. If dad was home she insisted that he change her diaper, get her in and out of her car seat, push the stroller . . .

At 2 1/2 she already had an eye for nice cars. We were heading to our car after church when she pointed to it and said, "That no my car" Then she pointed to a brand new, green, sports utility vehicle and said, "That my car"!

At 3 she still couldn't pronounce her Ls. She pronounced her name emoey. One day she said, "I know how to spell my name, M-O-E". She figured that out because if you just say all the letters, that's how she said her name. One of her nicknames after that became, Moe.

At 4, Emily was trying to do a perfectly straight front roll, she kept going side ways, and was getting frustrated. I told her that if she would practice she would be able to do it. She ran to the piano and played on it for a few minutes. She tried her roll again and still went sideways. She said, "I practiced and I still can't do it!" (Both Amber and Ashlee took piano lessons and I would ask them to practice. Emily had only heard the work practice used with the piano!)

Ashlee's senior Pictures

I am going to have a professional photographer take Ashlee's senior pictures in the spring, but I decided to take Ashlee out yesturday to get some pictures. She didn't have any taken at school this year and I want a current one for her frame.

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!