Schraft Family Photos

Every year all my parents and grandparents ask for for Christmas is family pictures. This year we all came together to get it done a little last minute, but perfect nonetheless. We got to take pictures with my grandparents. Thank you to everyone for being there and putting on those smiling faces. I love you all so much!

Merry Christmas

This Christmas just went so fast and I feel like I didn't even get time to stop and enjoy it... Luckily we do have incredible family that made the actual Christmas so special. We did our annual Christmas eve breakfast dinner with pajamas at my parents. I always love seeing the kids in their matching pjs.

     We woke up Christmas and had the best time opening presents with the kids. The big hit this year was rollerblades and finger monkeys. They got lots of craft and science kits and lots of fun books. Jake got new clothes, shoes and an iPhone x, which he has been playing on just like the kids with their new toys! I got spoiled with new shoes I wanted and a big oil diffuser along with some clothes. We had so much fun playing with toys that morning and being together.

      Grandma DeeDee's breakfast was next and we had it at Tara and Drew's new house. She made us yummy scones with her special sauce and lots of bacon and sausage. Her scone sauce is amazing and we had so much of it! This year we had all five of her kids at breakfast. We had our family gift exchange and everyone got really fun games. One of these nights we will have to have time for a family game night! Deedee spoiled all the kids and working so hard made each one of the kids and the moms super soft and cozy blankets. Benjamin got a green sweater and plaid blanket. Emma is obsessed with pink and blue and got flowers and plaid in her favorite colors. Noah got little fish all over his blanket. Navy's has stripes and flowers in the prettiest mauve and plum colors. We love blankets at our house so these are so perfect.

       We headed to my parents next. We had a delicious ham and my mom's rolls which are the best rolls ever! I think we could all eat just these rolls all day! Our sister gift exchange was so fun. I love seeing what everyone gets each other. Kylee got me a dot to dot coloring book where some of the pictures have over 1000 dots!! The kids got super spoiled by grandma and grandpas! They each got the cutest nike outfit and fun gifts. My mom works so hard to find the perfect things for everyone and all the little things she does mean so much. Thanks mom for feeding the whole tribe this entire season with everyone here!

      Thank you all for spoiling our kids and making our Christmas so special by just being together. I truly enjoy watching everyone open presents and their excitement over the gifts and the givers excitement for working so hard to think of the other person. We all love each other and are so blessed!

      This year was really special to me and I had my grandma and grandpa Jardine and my grandma Schraft with us for our holiday events. I am so grateful they both made the trip. It is the best getting to spend time with each of them individually and together. I miss them so much everyday. They are all the perfect grandparents everyone wishes for and do so much for us in their own ways!

      The most special time this entire holiday season was on Christmas eve. We went to my parents church. What a magnificent way to spend Christmas eve. Even though we had kids up and down and books and treats to keep them quiet I would not have chose to be anywhere else. I was there with my parents and all of my sisters and brother in law.  Jake's brother Chad and his family was with us. We had all my parents grandkids drawing and smiling and Navy dancing :/. Grandma and Grandpa Jardine were there to cuddle little babies. Grandma Schraft was there to add her beautiful singing voice to the hymns and to sit by my dad where I know that Papa Buzz was right next to them in spirit. It was the epitome of a perfect sacrament and ended with a beautiful song where everyone there felt the spirit so strong. I marvel at the blessing I have and that this family has. We all have had a lot of ups and downs this year which can make for really hard times. How perfect though to end the year together and knowing our Savior's love for each and everyone of us.

      My dad sent us an email Christmas morning and said it all so perfect. Here is a part.
"I can picture parents and grandparents pleading on that first Christmas eve and being comforted by the voice of the spirit. I think the same words that came to Nephi would have come to them. I testify that similar words have come to me as I pour out my heart for each of you. I know God is mindful of you and He knows your yearnings, He sees your tears, He hears your prayers. I know this because the Spirit testifies to me that angels are round about my family. ...
I hope and pray that your Christmas Eve was full of hope and anticipation! I pray that we can all wake up this morning to see that the darkness of the night has been replaced with the glorious light of the Son, even the Babe for Bethlehem. I pray that there is room in the inn of your hearts this morning and every morning for His light and life and joy. After all, we are to lift up our head and be of good cheer!"

Bierstedt Family Photos

Every few years we get pictures done with Jake's family and this years theme was Boho which is very muted, flowers/ layers/ lace to us. :) We had the best photographer from Idaho Brittany Bunker Photography. She is my best friend from high school and so talented!
Everyone in the family looked great. Navy didn't like to smile when she was being forced and held.... she is a pill all she wanted to do was run and play around. The boys looked so handsome and smiled perfect so they could keep climbing trees. The girls looked beautiful in their dresses, vests, flowers. We used the tent that Deedee made and the pictures are just perfect! Everyone's pictures turned out so great and the whole morning went so smooth. I just love them!

Benjamin went in the upside down!

For Benjamins 9th birthday he wanted a Stranger Things Party. I ordered a special cake, Taliah painted awesome posters and Kylee made fun wanted posters. Everyone helped to make it so great! He had the best time. Thank you to all who came and made it fun for him, I know its always hard around the holidays. He was so spoiled by everyone getting stuff for Basketball. He loves learning and got fun science kits and books. He got a ukulele and a Nintendo game system. This kid is the best and I love him so much! He is so tall and keeps growing. Benjamin is always always going and going and going, he still has his squirrel mentality. He loves to read good books and to be outside. We love you Benjamin and hope you have a great next year!

Thanksgiving week

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had such a crazy, but fun week. I love having my kids home and spending time together. We went to the drive in movie and saw Coco which included the new Frozen short. Then the littles fell asleep and the boys and us adults watched Justice League. Two very good movies and we had a great night! 

For Thanksgving day we celebrated at Grammy Vicki's and Grandpa Jeff's house. They warmed up the pool for everyone and the kids had a blast. Only in Vegas are we swimming on Thanksgiving. As we were leaving to get shopping Benjamin jumped and tripped and busted his shin open. Our Dr. friends said he needed some stitches so it would scar better. They were unavailable though as were all of the urgent cares closed! I was a mess and stressed out and luckily Jake's cousins saved the day. We headed over there where they stitched him up with no pain meds or numbing anything. The needle was also so dull we watched it pull the skin... EEK!!!! Benjamin is a trooper and I'm so proud of him, the day before he got a concussion at basketball practice so my poor kid had quite the week. He joined Kyler, Grandma Deedee and me black Friday shopping all night long! We scored on quite a few little items. 

The Next day we went to Mt. Charleston for the day and met Uncle Jeff and Umi. We helped set up camp, had lunch and played some games. We were not prepared to spend the night, our older three kids sure were ready to though. So Navy and I headed home as the temperatures dropped while we left the rest of them for the night.

The next morning I woke up at 5 am and met Deedee and Emylee at Best Buy to help Santa. We totally scored with being the first in line! Then the next morning Tara, Emylee, and I headed to ToysRus to help out Santa again. Again we completely scored being the first in line at 5am and got 1 of 1 items and 2 of 2 of another item we were waiting for. WHAT?!?!?! We totally scored! I love happy faces. We did lots of black Friday shopping that weekend and got so much done.

Sunday we had Thanksgving dinner with 4/5 of Jake's siblings. We had a great day with yummy food and cousins playing. They love Uncle Jeff's with the zipline and game room and all the yard. Thank you Deedee for cooking for all of us and all of our memories.

Panaca Weekend

 

We had so much fun in Panaca a couple weekends ago. Our family, Jeff and Deedee all went to the Bulloch property for a long weekend. We seriously had the best time for a trip that was such short notice. The kids loved hiking and playing in the caverns. Jeff made a pile of leaves bigger then my van and the kids had a blast jumping and running through them and had the pile destroyed in about 10 minutes. We stayed up and watched movies and went on rides in Jeff's ranger. We all had the best and a very relaxing weekend. I can't wait to go again!

Trick or Treat

Kids had a blast at our last Halloween event! Trick or treating in our neighborhood, we have way too much candy in this house now. I love all these characters! I had fun doing some Halloween makeup this year too!

PBR

We had such a fun family night at the rodeo! Benjamin was totally into the cowboys and was watching every second. Emma kept asking questions if the cowboys were ok. Noah and Navy loved watching the animals and were dancing all night! They went all out and we loved it! The opening ceremony they had fire and fire works and flashing lights! We got to listen to multiple country artists perform and they did great! The opening ceremony was beautiful as first responders and survivors of the Las vegas attack brought the flag out. True Americans were all with us in the stadium as everyone stood for our flag and our country. It gave me the chills and I am absolutely proud to be an American. Thank you to all who fight and serve our country!

Zerkle Halloween party

Madi and Vernon had their first halloween party with their families. We had dinner, snacks, decorated cookies, had a fire, played games and watched Hocus Pocus. We had fun chatting with everyone. The kids had a blast playing with all the other kids. Navy walked around eating all the candy people kept giving her and loving every minute of it. Noah fell in love with Hocus Pocus. He calls it Pocus Pocus and wants to watch it all day! Benjamin and Emma didn't stop running around and playing with glow sticks and friends.

Jake and I were half pumpkins, Benjamin was a shadow, Emma was Mal (descendants).

Noah was Sully, Taliah was Mike Wazowski, and Navy was Boo all from Monsters, inc.

We had superheros and so much fun all together. Thanks for a good family night of spooks and treats!

Noah is four!

We had the most fun fourth birthday party for the cutest little boy around! He loves lightening McQueen so we had cars boxes made into cars characters. Noah loved racing around in them all day. He was spoiled by our family and just loves being with everyone. He got McQueen toys, books, rollerblades (like his big bro and sister), and more. We have had so much fun playing with his toys, he really wants to get his rollerblading down. Two years ago my mom got him a fish for his birthday and he loved that little fish. Sadly we lost the fish a few months ago. Well to end the night Noah got surprised with another fish from my mom! He was so excited, his little face was pure joy to see that little thing. I tried making a fun cake and it just kept falling apart so I let Noah finish helping me make it and he decorated the whole thing. He kept saying he loved it so much and it was some creative, sprinkled art work!
Noah is the absolute best hugger. He is kind and funny. Some of things he says are just crazy and he thinks he is such a big boy. Noah is my buddy and we  hang out all day. He loves to read books and be outside. He is an awesome helper. Noah you brighten our home with your smart self and your laughter. I love you buddy, Happy Birthday!

Fall Festival

The kids had their annual school fall festival. We have so much fun here every year. There are bounce houses, trick or treating, games, prizes and more! Benjamin was a shadow, he looked pretty creepy in the fully body suit. Emma was Mal from Disney's descendants movie, she absolutely loves that movie and that she got purple hair. Noah was Sully and Navy was Boo from Monsters Inc. They both looked so dang cute. Noah is the perfect cuddly monster and Navy is pretty much a real life boo.
We had a great family night together!

Labor Day

We spent the long weekend in the mountains and Jake's family cabin. We had a great time. The kids played on stop from sun up to sun down and beyond. They enjoyed glow stick nights, branding in the wood benches, four wheelers, shooting, hornet toads, snacks, walks, river swims and so much more. I love seeing the happy faces of my kids as hey created these memories with their cousins and family. Jake and Jeff worked like crazy and did some projects that made it so we could create even more memories. The guys got a tree and cut it all up and then we branded our initials on it around the fire pit. They fixed and cleared up a road so we could make it down to the creek and swim and play. They worked so hard and helped so much this weekend! We sat around and chatted and played games where we cried laughing so hard. We went off roading during the days and sat up by the fire with the stars. The land up there  is beautiful and I am grateful we had this weekend together!