Warm Fuzzy Mom Moment...

December 18, 2012

Tonight I got home at 12:45 at night from a girls night, and this is what I found...  Coming home to such a thoughtful note from my son was truly a warm fuzzy Mom moment.  It is these special surprises that make being a Mom awesome.  

Little does Dax know just how much this little act of kindness meant to me.  With this simple note, I knew my son thinks about me and loves me :).  I am so blessed, and have amazing kids.  I LOVE being a Mom!!!

An Early Thanksgiving!!

November 10, 2012 

(starting from the left corner of the table: Tahnee, Corey, Becky, Laura, Ken, Wendy, Me, Dave, Austin, Chelsie, Nate, Marlene, Liz, and Grandma Hamilton Oh and Cindy poking her head out from behind the lamp)

Since James Homecoming was so close to Thanksgiving, my family decided to have an early Thanksgiving. That way family that live far away didn't have to travel here twice. Everyone was able to make it except Julie and Lizzy's families, Matt, Jessica and Raghu, and Alex :(. We sure missed them. We had it at Grandma Hamilton's house. We were a bit squished, but hey it makes for awesome memories. We actually had a total of 44 people come, so there were tables set up everywhere.
Infact, Ken was too buff to fit in at the adult table, so he got his own tv tray :). He looked so funny crammed in between tables.
  (Allyson, Dax, Andrew, Anthony, James, Tannon and Erica)

Oh so many tables...

(Senora, Meg, Madison, Emily, Kennedi, Brayden ad Sarah)

Here is the newest addition to the Hamilton Family. Chelsie and Austin had a baby girl, Kaylee Atckinson. She is such a cutie! She is the first Great Grand Child for the Hamilton Family.  At one month old this was her first time to one of our family parties. She was so good, especially being passed around to a million different people. Everyone wanted to hold her :). There are now 41 grand kids and 1 great grand child. There is also 1 grand kid and 1 more great grand kid on the way. Wow, our family is growing!!

My cute brother Nate, he is one happy Grandpa!! 
(Dawson, Aiden, Brayden and Knightly)

After dinner things always get so crazy with so many grand kids.

I guess it is good most of the little kids were in the basement, and Grandma didn't have to witness all the wrestling and craziness. She might have freaked out ;).

Cute Grandma Hamilton so proud of the newly returned Elder Conder!!

See Grandma was oblivious to all the craziness happening in the basement...

Time for all the amazing desserts to be brought out...

Elora's Taylor made these amazing pumpkin rolls...

Would you just look at that....

Wow, those must be amazing pumpkin cookies... I wonder who made those :).
Okay, it was me I make awesome pumpkin cookies!!

Our plan was to let the little kids fill up on pumpkin cookies, and save the awesome pies for the adults ;). Turns out there was plenty of pie for everyone, how selfish of us big women ;).

Dessert brings out the best in everyone...

Turns out the adults went a bit wild also, just look at this place card tower that Corey built :). He is just crazy!!
With everyone in good spirits thanks to the dessert, people started to make announcements. Andrew announced that he had submitted his mission papers, way to go Andrew we are so proud of you.  Then people tried to be funny with their announcements. Lorrin announced that they would be having a baby 9 months from that morning :), Wendy announced that she was pregnant (she is already 5 1/2 months), ha...ha... We are such a funny bunch ;).
Here is the best picture of the night... Uncle Nate has taken the place of Grandpa Hamilton. He was hiding back in Grandpa's room, in his recliner watching tv and away from all the noise and craziness. He defiantly is a grandpa. It almost was as if Grandpa was still with us ;).

Such a great early Thanksgiving. I sure do love my family!!

It's That Time Again...

October 30, 2012

Well, it's that time again... Yep, time to carve pumpkins :). Such a fun tradition, but sooo messy.

This is the first year I let Dawson do most of his own cutting :/.

 I was so nervous, but he did a great job.

Poor Dawson was so upset the night before. I had told him we would carve pumpkins that day, and things happened and it got to late, so he freaked. I mean he was screaming at the top of is lungs, "let's carve pumpkins!", "you promised that we would!". He was screaming for 30 min :(. Finally I felt so bad for changing plans on him when he was so excited, that at 10 pm I said okay let's just go carve one of yours (he had 2 because of a field trip to the pumpkin patch). At that point he wouldn't carve one, but was still very angry and I reached my breaking point and was crying. He came up to me and told me to go to bed, and that he was just going to stay awake all night. When I didn't go to bed like he told me to do, he said, "fine I will just leave. If you don't go to bed it means you don't love me...". Finally I picked him up with him fighting me, and went and sat on the couch to hold him. We both fell asleep sitting there until about 1 am. Yes, I had a kink in my neck the next morning. The moral of this story, do not change plans on a six year old, their little minds can not deal with the change :(. Poor Dawson, so we carved one together right when he got home from school, and then carved another that night with everyone else.
Please don't look at Daxtons extremely short shorts he is wearing in this picture. Aunt Becky thought it was really funny to give Dax these scary shorts that James used to wear. I throw up a little every time Dax wears them :(. Thanks Becky, pay backs are a you know what ;).
I was in charge of cutting off the tops of the pumpkins,  and Dave cleaned out all the guts.

Our cute Jada Babe!

Brayden is such a good boy. He was working so hard on finishing some homework that wasn't even due yet. Me being the good mom that I am got mad and said stop doing homework, and get over here and carve pumpkins with us. Yep, I am a great mom! Brayden is always so good about doing his homework right when he gets home. You are awesome Brady Boy!!

Hard at
work...

Everyone did an awesome job this year...

Jada wrote Psych on hers, because we have become a Psych family. We watch it almost every day. It is so dang funny! This year our kids opted to write words, and traditional faces on their pumpkins. Finally a break from the tedious carving of amazing pictures from patterns. I used to love that, but I am loving the simple things lately.

Daxtons's

Jada's

Brayden's

Dawson's 1st

Dawson's 2nd

Fun times!!!

Halloween 2012

October 31, 2012

Another Halloween has come and gone. This is the first year that Dax didn't dress up :(. Why do kids have to grow up? So happy Jada and Brayden will still dress up, I just love Halloween. I dressed up as a nerd for crossing guard.

Here is Dawson at his Halloween parade at school.

Wow, my baby is getting big.

I am so glad I got to help at Dawson's class party. He is in the Chinese Immersion program so they combined the two classes, and there are so many parents that want to help.  Unfortunately, that means I can't help at every party :(.


This crazy dressed up lady came into his class and taught them a funny Halloween dance. The kids loved it. I was surprised how big of a smile Dawson had while doing it. Usually he is to self conscious and won't do it. So glad he let loose for once :).
These are Dawson's two first grade teachers. The panda is Mrs. Ackerson (Chinese), and the pirate is Mrs. Helms (English). They looked so good :).

(14 years old)

Jada Babe our beautiful pirate...

(12 years old)

Brayden our freaky alien...

Brayden had been telling me all month that he wanted to be the same thing he was last year, his light up stick figure costume. Then he comes home from school the day of Halloween wanting to go buy a mask of some kind :? I told him no over and over, then I felt bad and wanted him to have a happy memorable Halloween. So I finally gave in, rushed to Walmart, and he found this awesome alien mask. I hope he realizes what an awesome mom he has ;). Ha...ha...

(6 years old)

Dawson our fearsome roman soldier...

Aunt Julie gave us this costume, and Dawson did not want to be this until Dave promised to buy him an awesome sword. Doesn't this sword just complete this costume perfectly :). Oh well it made him happy!
Well, they are off. It was a sad Halloween for me, because Dawson did not want to go with Dave or I :(. He started off with Brayden, and then went with his best buddy Ollie's family. This can't be happening to me, he is only six years old. I should have another good couple of years of trick or treating :(. So sad for me!

Shawn, Ollie, Lincoln, Dawson, and Elliott oh and Kristin

Here is Dawson with his buddies, at least I have this picture thanks to my awesome neighbor Sinika. I love this picture because my cool neighbor Kristin made all these cute minion pumpkins for her porch. It was so darn cute!

Wow, look at all the candy they got...

Even though I am a bit sad about my baby trick or treating without me, it was a great Halloween. The weather was perfect. It was the warmest Halloween in Utah's history. The high for the day was 75 degrees! Also I enjoyed hanging out with Dave, and passing out candy.