Payton's Family Birthday Party

My BIG seven year old!

Payton is absolutely obsessed with Pokemon! He LOVES collecting the cards and so I thought that it would be fun to make him a Pokemon cake! They do not have any kits for those, so we bought a bunch of the caracters from Toy R Us and it worked out great!


Blowing out the candles



Tanner was having fun too!



Tanner is so funny! He sometimes likes to eat like a dog or cat and not use his hands.

Payton got alot of fun new things! Thanks everyone who could come! Not everyone could since it was the crazy Christmas Season...he kept saying, "where is everybody, I need just 1 more person to come!" So sad! But he was a good sport! Love you Payton!

Christmas 2009

Our tree...as you will see below, it is one of Tanner's favorite things.

The kids "loot" from Santa. He also got them the new Super Mario Game and Beatles Rock Band; we got them new DSi's with some games and ipods. They have loved their DSi's.

"Santa" could not justify buying Tanner anymore toys! He has so many already!


The boys were SO excited! They couldn't wait to go and see what Santa brought them

I get the boys cute special "Santa" jammies every year-they love getting them and think that the jammies are very special. We open them every year on Christmas Eve.

This year the theme was snowman.

Parker opening his pile of presents

Tanner was interested in only one thing! The tree!

and the ornaments!

He didn't care at all about opening presents. After a while, all he wanted was his quiet, normal morning routine of drinking a bottle & watching word world-his favorite show.

Christmas Playhouse Giveaway!!!

This year Salisbury Homes decided to giveaway 8 playhouses to families in need.

4 were given to families in Utah County and 4 to St. George families.

Vickie and I were in charge of the Kuester family.

We bought lots of clothes and toys and some food and delivered it with the playhouse

on December 23rd. After it was unloaded, the kids came out and were able to see it!

It was a really fun experience!

Check out me and Vickie on the News! I was so nervous!

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9132261

"Family Receives Playhouse After Real One Burned Down"

By Nicole Gonzales
OREM -- The Kuester family has gone through so much this year, and people in the community are really reaching out to help. On Wednesday, Salisbury Homes wanted to pitch in with their special Christmas gift. The Kuester family was excited to get one of four playhouses awarded to Utah County families this holiday season.
Mother Jennifer Kuester said, "We were like really surprised actually. It's going to be really good. The kids are going to really enjoy it."

Rick and Jennifer Kuester
The family has five children and many small cousins who live in the neighborhood. Salisbury provided the house and stocked it with presents.
Michelle Armstrong, with Salisbury Homes, said, "[The playhouse is filled with] toys and clothes and food, and we were really excited to do the playhouse because we thought that could be something for several of the family members."
The company gave these playhouses to three other families in Springville, Provo, and Spanish Fork. They chose the Kuesters because of their tough year.
"Their child died a couple of months ago from the H1N1 virus, and they also just had their house burned," Armstrong explained.

The raging fire consumed a bedroom. Water and smoke damage made the rest of the home a complete loss.
In October, their 9-year-old daughter died from swine flu complications.
Last week, the Kuesters received a check for $2,000 from a local construction company and the promise of free labor once they start rebuilding their house.
Until then, Utah Valley Regional Medical Center is lending them a house rent free for a year.
Jennifer Kuester said, "We're thankful for what we have. We're thankful for our family, and we're really thankful for the outpouring of the people."

Me and the Channel 5 Camera Man

Vickie and the Channel 5 Camera Man



They had to lift the playhouse with a crane up over the house-it was so heavy!

Parker's Preschool Christmas Program

Parker and Ellie's Preschool Christmas Program was super cute!

They did a great job and sang the songs really good!

Payton's School Christmas Program's

Payton has a GREAT teacher this year that has gone the extra mile to do special things

for the kids and parents. The school has an annual singalong that all of the classes

participate in, and Mrs Goettche had them prepare for that as well as a private

performance for all of the parents that had a bunch of different songs. I'm certain

that it took a lot of extra time and effort to have it perfect. It was such a cute

performance! The kids sang several songs with actions to go along with it and all of

them had speaking parts! It was seriously so cute! Before we went to the

performance, Payton had said that he hated singing and doing stuff like this,

but I swear, you would never had known it...he went all out and was totally

into all of the songs/actions. It was awesome to watch.

Payton's class sang two songs at the Christmas Singalong for the entire school.

It was really cute and he did a great job.

We had to leave right after the performance because he had an appointment with
the dentist to get his two crazy extra front teeth pulled...unfortunately, it didn't work

and we had to reschedule to have him sedated to get them pulled...he definitely does

NOT like being numb from the shots!

Christmas Pictures

My handsome boys in their church clothes...Tanner is always sleeping,

so we never got a picture with all three of them together...dangit!

Armstrong Christmas Party

Fun times were had by all at the Armstrong Christmas Party!

The kids all exchanged Christmas presents and had a great time playing together.

All of the kids got to choose to do something during the program.

The boys didn't want to sing, instead they wanted to show their soccer moves.

Payton got up and was dribbling the ball with his feet and showing a bunch of cool moves...

then Parker joined him and kicked the ball hard away from him...

not once, not twice, but three times!

We were all laughing so hard!

Luckily, I got it all on video! :)

Cristal and Alisa have their own band called the Blue Aces.

They have amazing talent and sang a really cool song for everyone!

It was "Last Christmas, I Gave you my Heart"

Payton is still talking all about it!

Annual "Girls Night Out" Christmas Party

We had our Annual Girls Night Out Christmas Party at Michelle Burgi's parents home.

We had so much fun! I love all of these girls-we have been in this same group forever!

Kristi, Jenn & Me

Shea, Kellie & Sommer

Me, Brittany & Audrey


Brittany, Sasha, Sommer & Shea

DeGroff Family Christmas Party...with Santa too!

The Annual DeGroff Family Christmas Party was a hit!

Payton decided that this year was the year that he was going to see Santa getting on his sleigh

with his reindeer...I'd hope that he would forget...but after Santa left,

I saw Payton just up to chase after him while everyone else dove in to open their presents.

What if he saw Santa getting into a car??? That would totally ruin everything, so I quickly

distracted him by telling him that if he saw Santa leave then he wouldn't bring him any presents.

Whew! It worked this year, but I have the feeling that it won't be too many more years until he

figures it out...so sad! I don't want him to grow up!

This year Burke and Alex got wrangled into doing the jingle bell song/dance with the bells.

It was hiliarious! Ben had to do it last year (I about died laughing),

and Bryan did it the year before.

It is always the highlight of the party for me!

The Whole Fam Damily

Sitting on Santa's (aka Dave Carter) lap

My mischievous little guy...he is always getting into everything

I seriously just love my little tantan...what a sweetie he is

Us three sisters at the party

Megan came to visit us and...she's engaged!

We love Megan! Thanks for coming and introducing us to Adam!

It was so great seeing you! The boys had a blast! :)

Megan rolled Payton up in several blankets-he loves playing with her

Megan, Payton and Adam, Megan's new finance! I am SO excited for them!

They got engaged the night after they came to visit us!!! They are so cute!

Cute Megan with cute Payton