How does everyone else do it?

With the holidays here and our coming new addition, my mind has been occupied obviously with finances. The thoughts of providing for and clothing one more child, and for my growing children have just overwhelmed me. So I've been wondering...how do you all afford to dress your family and not neglect yourselves? Does anyone have an actual clothes budget and stick to it? If you do how does it work for you? Daniel is constantly growing, and is getting passed the age where I feel like I can get things for him without him there. Those of you who have older children how do you manage that? Does everyone just have the cash to buy clothes all the time or do you have to do credit?

Any ideas or input on the subject would be appreciated!!

Happy Birthday Dennis!

Yesterday was Dennis's birthday! We had fun getting together with his brothers and he played games, which is what he loves to do! I took the camera, but never took any pictures, shame on me! We had a good day

Rose Garden Ward Christmas Party

Saturday was our ward Christmas party. Allison was the only one interested to sit on Santa's lap. There was no way Daniel and Cade would and Ethan was off somewhere. We had a great time, wonderful dinner, and a nice nativity program. Thanks to all those who put so much work into it!

My one and only

Allison and I were sitting in the car playing with the camera and waiting for Dennis to come out of work. Man, I love this little girl even though she makes messes all the time! I'm so grateful that I have her and I hope that we can always be best friends! I love that she likes to go shopping and we look at clothes and things together, and she likes to "do" my hair sometimes. The Lord knew that I needed her, especially now that we are having another boy!

Can I just eat it?

Allison made this gingerbread house in preschool, which was supposed to be a decoration. But she was bound and determined to eat it! I told her she had to wait until her brothers and dad got home so they could see it, and I wanted a picture of it. She waited all day and I kept having to remind her she needed to wait, then right after this picture she took it to the table and broke it apart, it made a huge mess! I should have gotten a picture of that!

Happy Birthday Ethan

Ethan's birthday was on Wednesday the 10th. He is now 9 years old, oh how the time flies!
And to think that I am adding to this craziness!!!

Thanks to everyone who helped us have a fun time. on the way home we met up with Darren and cody who were on their way home too. We stopped at Jacob lake at the North Rim and found some snow.

Rachelle leading us all in christmas bingo, Taryn ( I thought this picture was great in so many ways), and her mom and dad (Anthony and Heather.

Thanksgiving

We were able to safely arrive at my brother Jeff's house in Riverton, later that night thank goodness. We had a great time seeing my family and are very grateful to Rachelle and Jeff for letting us stay at their house for 4 days! The cousins all had a great time together, and are fast becoming little computer nerds as you can tell. Putting together puzzles is a family tradition at these gatherings, you can see my brothers, Jeff, Anthony, and Larry all working on one.




Dennis loves to do puzzles too and he was right there with them. I don't get in to it much, I'm not patient enough.

Thanksgiving blessings

We ended up going up to Utah for Thanksgiving. My doctor gave me the ok. It had been rainy all Wednesday, and just as we were driving into Boulder City this grey car , which was going the other direction on the other side of the median, for some reason jumped the median right in front of the white car, which was right in front of us. Well the white car had no chance and hit him, and Dennis had to pull some good defensive driving techniques to avoid hitting both of them. Just as he was swerving around them, we got a shower of debris and glass all over our car. The whole experiance was very scary and we know that Heavenly Father was watching over us. Unfortunately the battery on our camera gave out so we didn't get any pics of our van, which was covered in glass. Our windshield is all nicked and cracked , and our car hood got some scratches and stuff all over. We are still waiting to hear from our insurance company how everything will get fixed.There were two people, a girl who looked about 8 and an older man(who was driving the grey car) that were taken to the hospital in a helicopter, they landed right in the road. And another lady was taken in an ambulance. We were very blessed, and no I didn't go into labor or anything!

Cade

So Cade and I worked like crazy to get his Arrow of Light Award done. I feel like I definately earned that pin! I learned that it really is alot up to the parents to help their kids achieve, it is an overwhelming feeling.

THE Deer Hunt

In October Dennis went on a deer hunt with his brothers, cousin and a friend, and he took Ethan with him. They had some interesting adventures, but had a great time and Dennis got his first deer. He was pretty proud.

In October we took a little ride up South Mountain and hiked a little bit. The view was not as clear as we had hoped, and it was windy and cold! It was fun to get out and the kids love doing things like that. Daniel also got a lot of scout awards that month. Here he is giving me a pin, and trying not to stick me!

Backing up............

ok, so back in September, Allison started preschool at North Canyon High with their vocational preschool program. The high school kids help teach the kids. She loves it! She was also invited to a birthday party where there was a petting zoo, and pony rides! And finally my little nephew Braxton was blessed!

Sigh......................

ok, so one of these days I'll get to updating my blog better with all the pictures I have. But for now, I just had to say that I am 33 weeks! Yay, me. I have to celebrate every Tuesday when I hit my new week mark! So far so good, except my body is way too old for this! We had a great Thanksgiving up in Utah with my family. Interesting trip up there, we narrowly avoided being in a bad accident thanks to Heavenly Fathers protection. Dennis had to do some Nascar moves, but we are all alive and well. Dennis took some pics that I will post..............sometime......