Oh how I love the spirit of Christmas!

Christmas Eve we did our traditional breakfast for dinner with my parents. Then we had a special visitor from Santa (papa jack) Benjamin figured it out, but then was in awe that our grandpa was one of thee Santa helpers. Noah was in awe again. He just can't get enough of Santa. Santa brought our Christmas Eve Jammie's. We all love those! Before he left Santa read us one of my favorite books, I Believe in Santa Claus. I just love how the book states so simply the similarities between our Savior and Santa. He really is the true meaning of Christmas.

We came home and the kids went straight to bed. This year I read something along the lines of we thought Christmas as kids was the best thing ever, but watching your kids enjoy Christmas is truly the best. I love seeing the excitement and the magic in their eyes. Noah got trains, balls and cars. He love opening the presents more then what was in the paper. Emma got a bike and these little Anne Geddes animal sleeping babies, she adores! Benjamin got his Nintendo ds that he has been wanting. This year we went on a family shopping day and got gifts for each other. The kids were so excited to see the others open their gifts. It was a family tradition that we had and now I'm excited to have it in our family too.

Next stop was grandma Deedee and grandpa Fadi's. Deedee makes scones for breakfast every year that everyone devours! We had a gift exchange and the kids went first. It's so fun watching the cousins excitement. The adults went next and DeeDee and Fadi also got each couple a box of their favorite things. After gifts we all sang happy birthday to Joey and he blew out the candles on his cake.

Next off to my parents. We exchanged gifts from grandmas and grandpas, it's so fun seeing everyone together. Next we did the sister exchange and my adorable sister Taliah picked up on my hints and got me an adult Harry Potter coloring book! Um what?!? Yes! It is completely amazing! All of the sisters helped with making large wood frames and prints of The Living Christ and A Proclamatiom to the Family. We have some at our house too and I love the spirit that it brings as we our constantly reminded of our Saviour and our families. 

We had a deep fried turkey and of course it was delish! We all enjoyed the food and having everyone around. I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas as much as we did. I truly love this time of the year and the spirit it brings with giving and family. We are all so blessed!

Fa la la la la la

That song was Noah's favorite and it was so cute when he sang it. It cracked me up every time! We have enjoyed lots of baby Jordan time. We made our annual chocolate covered cherries and treats! So yummy!

This year we went to a fun place with part of Jake's family. They had lights and rides. The kids loved the slide, carousel and train. We enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies and cousin time. This was our visit to Santa. He had he best conversations with Benjamin and Emma. I love when they see the magic and love. Noah was obsessed and didn't want to leave. He couldn't stop smiling! 

We had a fun early Christmas with aunt Rachael. She got us couples all these amazing back massagers and mine had already been put to plenty of use. The kids got spoiled with so many things. We loved having her here, there is always so much laughter and so many memories to enjoy. My dad is an avid Seinfeld fan and Rachael got him the pose of George on a shirt! Ahhhh so dang funny! We love that :)

Lucky 7!

I can not believe that my handsome little man is now 7! He is such a joy and we all love him so much. He is so happy and makes sure everyone is happy too. He loves so many people. His laugh is still contagious and melts my heart. He is in first grade and doing great. He is quite the little reader and so smart. He is always sharing and helping others. It is so weird to see him turn into a growing boy rather then my little baby. He is always growing, I feel like every laundry day I am pulling something else out that he has already grown out of! 

For his birthday we celebrated at my parents house and were so lucky to have so much family here for the night! Benjamin asked grandma for an ice cream cake (which is usually 2 layers), but Benjamin asked for 3 different ice creams so sure enough we had our first three layer cake and had 4 different flavors. He sure is loved. He was so excited to open present and was very spoiled and loved by everyone. Thank you to all that came and sent love for our Benjamin! It's hard having his birthday by Christmas, but I try and do my best that he still feels all the love we have for him! He is such a good sport. The first thing he said when he woke up was, "Mom, it's my birthday and there is only three days to Christmas!" I love you my prince Benjamin! 

Say cheese!

We took family pictures a little over a month ago and are excited we now have them to share! We went with all of Jacob's family up to Red Rock Canyon. Everyone dressed up and got ready to put those smiles on. There is just something about family photos that puts a stress on some people. I tell my family every time that if everyone is just smiles and listens we will be done so much faster. I was very proud for how well the kids did for how cold it was and everything else. Noah was very good with no fits, just low on the smiles ;) Benjamin loved playing around on all the rocks and seeing his cousins. Emma is my sweet girl that just stood there and smiled, at the end we learned it was because she was too cold to move! Ha ha ha

Dee Dee and Fadi are the ones we owe thanks to for this shoot. We really appreciate all they did to pull this together for everyone. We all have pictures and memories to last a life time. It is so fun to look back on our pictures to see how much we change and how fast the kids grow. I love looking at the pictures and seeing the love between parents and kids, husbands and wives and all of our little and growing families.

Thanksgiving happenings

We sure have been busy! The week started off with Jake and I taking the girls and our kids to the peanuts movie. I loved it and thought the story was adorable. Emma is now all about Charlie Brown and snoopy she was so excited to find other movies on tv. 

Emma had a couple visits from a special lady! Saturday at 1 am she came in our room so excited and started to tell us that she was in bed wiggling her tooth and that it came out and is the tooth fairy coming? And so many more fun things. It took Jake and I a second to realized what was going on. She was so cute and so excited to tell us the tooth right next to it was loose now also! She just bounced right back to bed! So Saturday night the tooth fairy came, whoooo hooo! Sunday night at my dads house her tooth was really loose and she wanted to use her money to go to build a bear to build the prettiest reindeer ;) so I pulled her second tooth right out! This lucky lady had two nights in a row she was visited by the tooth fairy. I love her little excitement.

 On Saturday dad, Jake, Madi, Vernon, Taliah, Charlotte and I all went to see the mocking jay part two! I love spending time with my family it really is the best!

Noah is just being cute and being two. He is a pretty happy baby, loves to be big and copy all of us. He talks amazing and we love our little parrot. He loves cheese, snacks on it like popcorn or something. He is the best sharer and so sweet. He definitely has his moments but they don't last long at least. :) 

Benjamin had a thanksgiving program where they sang songs and told the story of the mayflower. He even had is own part and did absolutely perfect with his lines! I love his smile and the joy he brings. Noah was so cute and sat really well clapping and trying to sing a long with the class. 

For thanksgiving dad and Jake decided to fry up some turkeys. Yes, they did two so we could have left overs for sandwiches. They were excellent I've never been a huge fan of turkey but these were amazing! We all ate so much, isn't that the point.. Haha. We got spoiled with dads chocolate chip cookies and Taliah and I made sugar cookies.

We brought out games and played them. The hit with us adults was the old school bop it. My mom got it for us one year when we were kids! I was the proud high scorer of the game until Madi came over and beat me! The men all fought valiently but to no avail. The real comp is between Madi and I and I will get high scorer again! Hahaha love you all. 

We ended the week at the movies again with the good dinosaur. It was so cute! We laughed out loud, we cried we laughed and we cried some more. The animation was beautiful and the characters adorable. It is definitely on the favorites list now. Such a great movie and headed to papas house afterwards for some hot tub swimming! :)

We missed mom, Kylee, Taylor and Jordan, we are glad they got to be together though. We are all so grateful for Kylee and Jordan's health. I am so grateful that our family grew over the week and that we are all so close and can laugh and have fun with one another. I am grateful for the gospel in our lives that makes it so we can all be sealed together forever. I love all our family and we are so blessed with all we have. This year I really want to try harder to live more in the moment appreciating all the little things and having joy in our lives! I hope everyone else had a great thanksgiving too.

Jordan Taylor Funk

Yay! My nephew is here!!!! He was born November 22 at 10 am. He was 7lbs 13oz and 21 inches long. He has blonde hair that is too cute, it is enough that you can put it in a little faux hawk and it hangs over is shirt collar in the back! Almost hair cut worthy ;) 

Kylee's middle name is Jordan and of course Taylor's first name; so this is the perfect name for this little boy. Kylee is so cute and has already decked him out in little Jordan outfits, socks and hats!

My mom got to go to Chicago to help out with kylees recovery and with cute Jordan. Kylee did great and had a lot of pain to deal with. She is loving being a mom now. The cute family is all back at home as Kylee tries to recover. Roxy met Jordan and they got it all on tape, we just love them! Lucky for us we get updates all day long with the cutest photos of this baby! I love seeing as many pictures as I can and we all love face timing to be able to share this sweet boy. He is so dang cute and looks a little like Benjamin when he was a baby. Jordan makes the cutest noises and faces. We have already got to enjoy smiles, little grumpy faces, yawns, and just peace. When we face time it's as if he knows he is talking to us, he will make faces and squeaks. I can't wait till I get to hold his little boy. He will be so spoiled when they get here and it couldn't come sooner! Congratulations Kylee and Taylo on the sweetest boy. We are so grateful they are home and healthy, now just to be here! Love you all!  

Trick or treat, smell my feet

This year the kids thought that phrase was HILARIOUS.... They kept making up different songs to go along with it and would Sing them over and over! We went trick or treating in a neighborhood by DeeDees house and it is so much fun. This is the second year we have gone over there. These houses all go full out decorating. There is a street where one house does the whole front of a pirate ship with a beach of treasure and haunted porch and the houses next to it all do little pirate ships too. Multiple houses go spiderweb crazy and one house has movies with multiple big spiders that fall on you and a lady trapped in a spider web screaming and talking. There were so many fun houses we all enjoyed so much. We couldn't keep up with Benjamin, Emma and Olivia and little Noah wanted to carry his candy bag so bad even though it kept getting heavy. He dragged it behind him as he went to each house wanting to be just like his big brother and sister. Emma looked in her bag after each house for a fun dip and sadly didn't get one so grandma DeeDee said she would find one for her. :) Noah loved that he had unlimited candy he could go through. Half way through we met up with Jeff, and the kids and Kayla and her sister and kids. We loved kylers costume. He was in all black with a lighted stick figure on the clothes. As soon as he got there benjamin was glued to his side! Uncle Jeff our redneck hillbilly with a wig and jumpsuit :) Emma got spoiled and he pulled her and he girls on their wagon. The kids had so much fun. We didn't even go the full neighborhood and had been there almost 2 hours!! The kids fell asleep in the car and didn't even go through candy when we got home just went straight to bed. Yes they were really that exhausted. We had a great Halloween night, thanks everyone!

Fun run, cheer leading and bubbles!

The kids ran in a fun run for the school to earn money. The boys and I went and cheered on Emma and Charlotte in the morning and Benjamin in the afternoon. Emma was my little speed demon! I don't know where it came from but she did amazing and ran so fast! All the kids ran over 2 miles!!!!! Noah loved watching them run by and would yell their names and clap, he sure loves his big siblings! I was so proud and loved being able to watch, yell and cheer! 

Emma and penny have been doing a cheer class for the last month and have absolutely loved it. We have been hearing these cute fun cheers and finally got to see them perform for us. Emma's teacher Mrs. Rodriguez is who taught them and she did a great job. They did our team is boom dynamite, v dot that I rock that ctory for victory, spirit, colors cheer and a dance. Emma get quite shy sometimes but she did really well especially the first half of the performance those were her favorite cheers and mine too. 

Benjamin and Noah took a bubble bath at grandma and papas and I don't know if they had very much water in that jet tub!!! They were so cute and cracking us up, I just had to share! 

Madi wedding week

Madi is officially a Zurkle! It is so crazy we all joke that we could set up a family law firm with Schraft, Bierstedt, Funk, and Zurkle now. 

We all went to the temple on Tuesday and it was so amazing being there with all of our family and loved ones. Kylee came into town so we had so much fun auntie and sister time. She is 8 months pregnant so we are so glad she could make it here to celebrate. We can't wait for that little munchkin! We celebrated kylees 24 birthday a little early while she was here too. Grandma and grandpa Jardine came and I took grandma to Zumba and we took her shopping for some cute outfits that included leggings! If you have great legs why hide them even if you are almost 80! She was awesome at Zumba and we had the best time. My mom, grandma j, all of the sisters, and Kelsey all went out to get out manis and pedis done. Then met grandma s, aunt Joyce and Nancy met us for dinner and pizookies. It was so great chatting and having fun all together.

The kids were so excited to have family here. Emma did grandpas hair and Noah was so cute saying "papa jack and Peggy".

My mom and all who helped with the wedding did an incredible job. The yard and patio looked beautiful. The food was great. We love our fair food that Madi requested!!! Madi and Vernon are just perfect for each other and we wish them the best of happiness. Congrats Zurkles!

Noah is 2

These two years have gone by so unbelievably fast. We have cherished every moment. Noah is such a big boy. He talks up a storm and really well. My favorite words he says are pumpkin which he says "punkin" and if you say uh oh or ouch something goes wrong he says "what happen?" He has the sweetest voice. We love how he says everyone's names so well. It's just too cute seeing so many words come out of such a little body. Noah loves to play with all boy stuff; balls, cars, blocks, bikes, etc. One of his favorite things is to color. He is still having stomach and weight issues but we are in the dr process still. Hopefully we will figure it out soon. We went to Noah's first movie in the theater, hotel Transylvania 2. He did really well the first half of the movie and just wanted to be held and standing for the last little bit. I was so proud. He tried making breakfast for the first time also by cracking and smashing eggs on the couch table and rug.... Yes so much fun! He loves when you read him books or when he reads himself. He also loves watching movies on our phones. She asks for Elsa, Anna, Olaf for frozen and yes he sings along. For big hero six he asks for baybay (short for baymax). For hotel Transylvania he asks for," blah blah blah" it's too cute! 

He got so spoiled for his birthday and thank you to everyone that made it! Noah's favorites are cake pops and donuts and he chose a donut cake so we took a trip to Krispy Kreme and he loses watching them cook his donuts.  He got so many fun gifts bike, cars, books, but one of his favorites was a fishie from

Nana and papa. He loves it and still has to check on it when he walks by. He loves his bubba and Emma. He thinks he is such a big boy when he plays with them and he will also be content entertaining himself. He has the best personality!

I love you Noah and we are so grateful for your sweet love, cuddles, and spirit in our home and forever family! Happy birthday! 

Fall festival

Benjamin and Emma's school had a fall festival. Of course we had to get all dressed up as a princess, m and m and a cow! They had so many games and bouncy slides, houses, obstacle courses. We went through a haunted trick or treat down the hallways and hit up all the games and rides. We won so much soda at a ring toss that was the kids favorite. Benjamin even dunked one of the teachers in the the dunk tank! We had so much fun. Noah blended right in as a cute little cow in the petting zoo. He loves animals and was so excited to be in there with them! We had a great night! 

Girls night and madis bridal shower

I'm Our night started with Kelsey and I going to look for "gifts" for Madi for her bridal shower. We went to the mall and had a blast! We found amazing deals that might have detoured from Madi to us ;) We took a lot of pictures and tried on clothes. We then went to our store for Madi and laughed so much! Looking for Madi (and Vernon) was quite the feat, I am pretty sure we got it covered though! 

After shopping we ended up going to a movie. It was such a good night having girl time with no schedule and just fun with lots of laughs!

Saturday morning we woke up and got ready for ghe shower. We had fruit crepes and bisquits and gravy! They were so amazing. Really really good. I'm not going to mention how many we ate ;) Gift opening was entertaining as always! We got our sister covered!!!! Hahahahaha we played a game where you listed words and names and then we plugged them into a story of how Madi and Vernon met. I was crying laughing at how some of them ended up. We are happy for the soon to be couple. Wedding bells are just around the corner for the soon to be Zurkles... Haha I had to say that I can't believe my little sister is about to be a zurkle?!

Pumpkin fun

On Thursday night we went to dinner with grandma DeeDee and grandpa Fadi. We went to red robin and we love that place! The kids love getting balloons every time. Afterwards we went to the pumpkin patch that's over there. The kids were so excited. Benjamin and Emma love the bouncy slides and obstacle courses. Benjamin was such a big kid and wanted to go on some of the rides by himself. The kids got going and spinning so fast in a couple of them. Emma and Noah loved the swings. It was so fun to see them laughing every time it went by. Noah was just kicking his feet and loving it. He wanted to go on all the rides with the big kids. At the end I went on the slide with him so I could help him up the ladder. I couldn't see his face while we were going down, but as soon as we started bouncing and hit the bottom he let out the biggest giggle! I love hearing and being in those little moments. Noah loved having grandma walk around with him and play. We ended the night with a

Giant bag of cotton candy and had such a fun time. Thanks grandma Dee dee and grandpa Fadi. We had a great night :)

Fun times

We have had fun times and busy times! 

We have been in school for a little over a month and the kids are doing so great. Emma loves Ms. Rodriguez and is learning so much. I am so glad that she is connecting with her school work and loving it. Uniforms are a bliss! I couldn't imagine fighting with this girl over outfits hahaha. She does really well just getting her uniform on and we have do her hair. We will see if that cute, curly messy bun comes back before the end of school. ;) I love having time with just her while Noah takes a nap, she is the sweetest girl. I am still so amazed at how amazing she is. She stays out of drama and is so good and removing herself from not fun things. She is smart and kind. She is still very motherly and a doll! 

Benjamin is doing amazing at school. This kid is just so smart and social. I love how happy he is and how much everyone loves him too. This kids smile will definitely break hearts! I have started teaching Benjamin piano and he is doing really well. He gets frustrated sometimes to practice but he gets the songs memorized and whatever else I teach him within days. He loves when he gets it right and says it sounds so good and can't wait to play lots of songs. I can't wait either. I love being able to bond over something with him.

Noah is so good. We are really enjoying our little mornings just the two of us. He is getting so big and I will fill you in more on him next week when he turns TWO! What?! I know. 

I am babysitting cash and penny now so we are busy and crazy over at this house when we have 5 kids! Between hair clients, errands, cleaning, laundry, ect... I am a little crazed sometimes!! The weather is getting colder and I am loving it. It is such a stress relief to me not having it be hot. The fall and the holidays just calm my nerves. I have been working out five to six days a week at the gym and it's exhausting but I love it! 

 For general conference we went to my parents house and my mom made traditional homemade pretzels and lots of dips for them. SOOO good! We played a jelly bean game between sessions where you spin a wheel for a color. each color either is a good flavor or a bad flavor. I got puke and literally almost did everywhere! Poor Benjamin got canned dog food and it was so bad he started crying and couldn't get it out fast enough. He is such a good sport. The talks were all so good. They seem to be just what we need to hear and I definitely needed to hear some of those words of wisdom. I love being able to listen to the prophet and his apostles. I love being a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I am so grateful my family will be together forever.