yes, money does grow from trees

see, i told you...

Will constantly wants to play a new game from our game closet. His new favorite is playing with monopoly money. Thanks for decorating our tree buddy:)

first snow!

Sam's Commentary: Kind of a wimpy snow - it didn't even stick to the road but we'll take it.

Little Boy and I had fun sledding. We even went to the neighbor's yard for a bigger hill. He wouldn't agree to try by himself - probably a good idea.

As I'm writing this, I regret that I didn't grab Ellie for a sled run! Would she have liked it?... probably not.

I was extra-nice dad and pulled Will up the hill in the sled every time - quite a workout on the quads.

Our beautiful house. We decorated with some lovely blue icycle lights this year :) We plan to add to our Christmas-lights stash a little bit each year. Maybe next time we'll get to the upper story or add a nativity scene.

i love my babies:)

Sam has been watching the kiddos a lot this week- I went to a play with yw, mutual, shopping night, enrichment...when I come home and they are all fast asleep I just want to eat them up.

how to nap while the kids are awake...

Just tell your son to put thousands of ribbons all over his head, and then sisters head and then your head and you should get about a 10 minute nap:)...I closed my eyes for a few needed minutes:)

Christmas Ideas

Christmas Ideas

Tree time and Thanksgiving

The Kid Table-- weird seems like yesterday I had to sit there...now I kinda still want to sit there!

Yummy rolls

The Table-- Couldn't get it all- we had our fam, 6 friends, 4 missionaries and 6 kids.

The cooks:) Katie and Dawn- we are pretty lucky to know these fams.

The Full Tummy CRASH....football time.

The Day After! Tree Cutting Time- This is Bright Family Tradition to cut your Christmas tree down the day after thanksgiving.

This was a really cute place just a few minutes away from our home. I family owned tree farm.

"This One Dad!" Ok, so we cut it down!

In the house

Putting up a few old west family ornaments

Elle watching- tell Will where to put the snowflakes

Sam on Monday- he left to New Jersey for the week- work training- We miss him!

Lena Attack!

5 Things I Like About Will

5 Things that I like about you. To Will from Dad.

1. I like it when you imitate me. You told us "bye-bye" and when asked where you were going you said "Work." You then pointed at your "Dad shoes" and "snacks" as evidence that you were prepared.2. I like the way you want Mom and Dad to do whatever you're doing. I especially like your new phrase "__ time". You often interrupt Dad's dinner to say very earnestly, "Football Time, Dad!" This is a pic of ice cream time.

3. I like it when you help us cook/clean/fix toilets. You are a curious boy and I'm glad you want to learn!4. I like that you look like you know what to do with that tractor. You must have been watching Dad drive a stick shift in the truck :) Nice work, son.

5. I like watching cartoons and football with you. Especially when you're tired and want to sit in a chair with me. You are a great little football buddy, and I sincerely enjoy a good cartoon show every now and then.

lots of pics, lots of updates

It's been a while- Since last time:
-Elle is attempting to eat rice, doesn't like it much. She is sitting on her own and rolling over both ways!
-Will is talking SO much more. He counts to 10! The first time I heard him count all the way to 10 was in the car-- He looked outside and counted the balloons on cars at a car dealership while we were at a stoplight. Now we ask him to count everything for us.
-Sam is a hard working man; For the last couple weeks he has had meetings with people from China and Indonesia-- He has been in charge of designing part of their plants. He got a lot of free lunches, and we even got a free five course meal together...with co-workers. The Chinese guys gave us a look when we got soda instead of alcohol; besides that, we did our best to fit in! The picture of Sam and Will shows what Will does when dada gets home...attacks him and then immediately makes him play. Sam was my hero this weekend...He fixed problems in our home, help me plan a fun murder mystery party, had patience with me when I yet again wanted to move furniture around in the house, He also got asked to help some other families in need, and the biggest thing-- He sacrificed football time to walk outside with Will while I prepared for a young women's in excellence program.
-I love wogging with my kids and taking care of them. I can't get enough kisses and hugs from them. I am going to sub in through the rest of the year at the Y- a co-worker is having surgery. I will teach the beginning classes three days a week. Will and Elle did awesome in the daycare together- it's only 1-2 hours at a time. I finally picked up my own tennis racket again and paid for a clinic...it felt AMAZING! If you have a passion you have to keep it up- Tennis is a passion of mine for sure. I get frustrating moments when I can't get it all done, but that's normal. I quickly get over the tough moments when I am humbled by hearing about someone elses needs. My love goes to the Hemming family at this time.
-Pics- Most are from our trip to gg and gpa. Enjoy:)

6 month elena
Will at "Totsickles"- toddlers on ice!

Giving his duck a bath.

Umm, yeah, mom seriously, the bowl is more exciting than the rice.

Will trick or treating at the gparents:) Gg made dad into a bloody dentist- dad was a little concerned he might scare new patients away..haha.

Fishing at the "Magic House" in st.louis.

Will learning young how to change a tire!

This was awesome-- and all free-- "Ekerts Farm"..free games, apple picking, feed animals..lots to do. Awesome for kids...

Who's who?

Yeah, Mommy/Daughter relatoinships are just special.

We found GEORGE!! Will's Favorite cartoon to watch in the morning!~ Sam and I were just as excited as Will was to find this George room at the magic house.

One of my favorite casual outfits for Elena:)

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween! I had SO MUCH fun trick-or treating with my little boy. Jenny made these rockin' costumes. Wall-E and Eve :-) We were in St. Louis for the big day with Steve and Gloria. More pictures from our fun weekend to come later...Little Eve. Jen stuck some fabric on a hat and made the little green leaf for the chest. Put the girl in a white sleeper and it's Eve!Will's got his game face on. I think he sensed from Dad that Trick-or-Treating was serious business. Once he had the bucket he knew what to do - thanks for the cool bucket Gpa and GG! Will didn't say much at doors. Not even trick-or-treat. When someone held out a bowl of candy he would keep grabbing pieces for his bucket one at a time until they took it away :) Check out the back of the costume - Jen added some trash and a spork :) Will filled that bucket and then some :) He'll probably need some help from Mom and Dad to eat it all :)

Halloween Craft Idea

My creative neighbor Jackie brought these over for the kids-

they are those craft pumpkins from Micheals- she carved their names in.

Cute idea huh? Thanks Jackie!

Happy Halloween!

We are going to St.Louis for Halloween- Excited for candy and family...ok the other way around.

Enjoy our spooky babies and the charleston fall colors!

We have this great wog (walk the hills, jog the straights) that is 3miles and half way through we stop at a neighborhood park. Fun work out for mom and kids!

Talking Babies

Sam wanted some more videos to look at during his lunch break! I thought this was a good one of both the kids.

Expressions

got a cd of pics in the mail today from my aunt peg- had to share some

expressions...of love

The cutest picture ever + Goodreads

These two are so cute! Ellie loves getting attention from her big brother. She is almost six months old now! I love these kids :)

Goodreads is a book review website my little sis got me into. She is a brilliant English Teacher-in-training (soon to be student teaching at the middle school where my mother teaches!) and always has great book recommendations. I joined the site and I love keeping tabs of what I've read - kind of like a book journal. Check it out: goodreads.com.

A few recommendations from Elisa that were winners:
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Foer
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

Other books I've finished recently that were worthwhile:
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
The Gambler - Fyodor Dostoevsky

And my To-Read List:
The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
A Christmas Carol - Dickens
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

Happy reading!

Sam's Whitewater Adventure

A couple weeks ago, I went whitewater rafting with some co-workers. This is us on the Gauley River, in Southern West Virginia. The Gauley is one the best whitewater trips in the US. 23 days a year, they let water out of a dam to control resevoir levels and it makes for HUGE water on the river. Our boat almost tipped at one of the rapids and everyone except for the guide fell out - that was intense! I wanted bigger rapids until getting sucked out of the boat - that scared a little sense into me. I'm in the front right of the boat with the red jacket.

Here we are, heading into the first Class V of the day.

And BAM! Water right in my face - you can just see my helmet through all that water. Awesome. I loved being in front for all the action.

conference, clifford & cuteness

plain cuteness!

more cuteness

The only time Sam fell asleep during conference.
Hey anne/rach...do you recognize the halloween tin?!

making...black bean lasagna...hmmm, that didn't go over too well

Making "temps"..temples while listening to conference

Clifford at the clay center on wed! Will attempted at giving him a high five.

a gramanda wedding!

Presenting- Grant and Amanda Wills!

Married in The Orlando Temple!

Their wedding colors were blue and yellow- I think I'll hire amanda as my kids wedding planner, she did a fabulous job.

So, Let me tell you who these people are. Grant is my bonus brother through gloria. He has parties late at night the Math Cad and his spiffy calculator. He also is in love with Amanda. Amanda, used to live in St.Louis, which makes her cool, AND she went to BYU, which makes her even cooler, AND she was in the Women's Chorus choir with me (but we didn't meet....), which makes her extra cool. Anyway, I'm pretty proud to have Amanda and Grant as bonus sibs.

Some last touches for the entry way...cheesecakes from amanda's dad soon filled over the plates-- YUM.

This is Tessa, gloria's sister in law- she pretty much attacked elena the whole day! Thanks for the help tessa.

dad, gloria and gloria's parents- leora and dale,

leora looks 50 and dale tells 50 hilarious jokes a day!

me and dad:) yeah, he's pretty cool too:)

White paint and a white butt

There's the white butt- I think it would be better to get paint on clothes rather than on skin-- it took days to get off!

Our porch was dirty...so instead of cleaning it, we started to paint it!

Ok, we did wipe it down...but there were many years of stains on it- thanks Sam for giving into a bigger project than I thought....we still need to do the next coat:)!

So there are a lot more pretty pics of Mom, but this was every day with her--
2 years from today we had to give her to heaven. I guess she is needed there- but I sure have a lot of things I could be doing with her here! I'm not angry, but I do miss her. I'll just have to wait about 70 years or so to see her...shoot thats a long time.