Weylon is 6!

I dont know what we were thinking having two birthdays so close after Christmas and to have Weylon's birthday only 11 days apart from OakLeigh. That's too much birthday cake in too little time! But I am so glad we have birthdays! Weylon was so excited! He got night vision binoculars and they are pretty darn cool. They are kid ones, but actually work in the dark. Brandon now wants a pair as do I! He got a couple car games, and a diesel log truck. Then he also got a bike helmet, a shark, as you will see in the pictures and a bike horn. I took it out the next MORNING and hooked that sucker to the bike just to get it out of the house! PHEW! It was loud! His cake turned out really cool if I do say so myself. It was a race track. I also made bright blue cupcakes with orange frosting and a blue #6 for his class. I wish I would have taken my camera to his class, but here are some pics. I Love you Weymore!

OakLeigh is 4!

I can't believe my OakLeigh girl is 4 years old. She is quite the handful. I can tell you there is no other like her. She is a HORSE FANATIC. I showed her the old black and white TV show, Mr. ED (the talking horse). She now goes around singing the Mr. Ed theme song. It is hilarious! For Christmas she got some horses, and a barn and wooden corral, and that is all she will play with. Forget the rest of her gifts, they don't exist to her. So for her birthday she really wanted a horse that could walk. Since we really aren't in a spot to get her a real horse yet, we got her the MOXI Girl walking horses. What a bargain I found. Buy one get one half off. So she got 2 horses and a cowgirl for them. And from the time she wakes up till the time she passes out at night, she is playing horses and watching horseland or Spirit. She is so funny, at night to go to sleep she even tells herself the Spirit story. I made her a horse cake. It turned out cute, but not how I had imagined it in my non creative head. But it tasted good. She got her cake and "masagna". Garfield the cat loves lasagna so OakLeigh does too. We had birthday doughnuts at Uncle Ryan's house with her cousins and then drove on home. I think she had a good day. Here are some pictures! They are a bit blurry because I had to take them with my cell phone, but you get the idea. I still need to get the other pictures of her and her horses on here!





HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY OAKLEIGH LYNDELLE GIRL! We love you so much!

Starting 2012 off with a bang!

Well we definately started off 2012 with a huge bang! And a huge reminder of what is important! Sunday morning Brandon went off to work. The kids and I went off to church. After church around 12:15 I called Brandon. He was at his last well site, I was going to get gas because the suburban was empty. He said he would call me in a few minutes. The roads were extremely icy because of the storm the day before. I was driving slow. Tried calling him a few times. NO answer. Then just before I got on Adon road to head home, Brandons mom called me screaming. I couldnt understand a word she said except for that Brandon was hurt. Head to the hospital. I headed for home to drop the 3 bigger kids off with his mom so his dad could drive me in to town. We were both crying. He said that there was an explosion at an oil well site. Brandon was burned bad. We got almost to Gillette, praying the whole entire way, and dispatch called me to tell me they were going to life flight Brandon to Greeley Colorado to the burn unit there. I freaked out. You hear LIFE FLIGHT and automatically assume the worst. We actually got to the spot an hour later that the ambulance was and life flight was. We got to climb in ambulance and see him before they took off. He was already intubated and he looked bad. He was swollen and burned bad. We drove on to Greeley and it took 5 or 6 hours. It is all a blur really. Thankfully his sister Dusti lives in Fort Collins and was able to be at the hospital when he arrived. So glad he wasn't alone. When we arrived he was already scrubbed and very sedated. I have never prayed so hard in my life. I never want to think about how I am going to raise my kids alone again. But I didn't know how bad he was hurt. I didn't know if he was going to be ok. I didn't know if my prayers would be answered how I WANTED THEM TO BE! I am so thankful that Brandon is alive. I am so thankful he was given another chance. He says he must have 12 lives and that he was on his 9th. He has been through a lot and is so very blessed to be alive. His face, neck and hands are burned badly, but they are 2nd degree burns. He will heal fully. He doesn't have to have skin grafts. He is in pain and hurts, but he is so blessed. We are so blessed. I have such a wonderful branch. They were at my house immediately upon finding out and didn't leave Brandon's mom or my kids alone for a minute. My RS president, Penny, stayed here the whole time, day and night. We have groceries in our pantry, food in our fridge. Someone cleaned my house. Gifts were brought to my kids. Our animals were all fed and taken care of. We left in such a hurry we didn't even have baby food for Memphis. Our friend Clinton drove all the way to Greeley to bring us supplies. My parents left Texas (they were at Kel and Sara's house) and drove all night to be home. Then mom drove all day to be with my kids. Emily drove 6 hours to be there to help me with Memphis and to just be there for me. What a terrible way to start off the new year with such amazing results. We are so blessed. Brandon is alive due to so many prayers and the power of the priesthood. When the dr spoke to me Monday morning, he told me we would plan to stay 3 to 4 weeks. We left the hospital for home on Wednesday. Miracles exist. Prayers are heard. Trials bring out the best in people and we have been so thankful for it all.

December 2011

My kids are just a crack up tonight....first of all, Brandon and I were in the laundry room trying to fix the washer. And I could hear the kids talking at the table. Weylon says to his sister, "when I grow up, I want to be Jesus." Brandon and I look at each other and smile. Then in the same breath he says, "or maybe a home depot worker." And our smile faded. HAHA What a hoot. And well I guess Jesus was a carpenter, so they do have something in common right?

Then we were getting the kids to bed, and Brandon had his little notebook on and was reading facebook. He says to me, "it amazes me how many people out there just can't grow up..." And well, he was referring to someone who is in mid 30's and acting like he was 16 still. But to Weylon, that meant a whole different ball park. He says, "so like a midgit dad? Cause midgits aren't very tall. They don't grow up to be too big." And once again, daddy and I busted a gut laughing.

Then I was telling Brandon about an email I got about onions. And how if you put an unpeeled onion in each room in your house, you could avoid getting the flu and other viruses. Savanna was listening to us. She pipes in, "a virus? I thought only computers could get a virus." Then I had to use a phrase I didn't think I was old enough to have to use until I was at least in my 50's....I said, "well Savanna back in my day, when I was a kid, we actually had viruses that had nothing to do with a computer." So then she had to get smart on me and say, "I know mom. You didn't even have computers when you were a kid. You didn't even have tv's either. Well you didn't have colored tv's anyways." Darn kids. HAHA. I still had to laugh.

Savanna was in charge of family home evening tonight. She picked something wonderful to do, and did it all herself. She had a big tree and hung it on a bedroom door. Then she made several Christmas tree ornaments out of paper. She then read us a story out of the children's friend about a family that wanted to remember Christ at Christmas time. So they made ornaments for a paper tree and wrote something on them that they knew about Jesus. And every day they would write something about Jesus and hang it on the tree. So that is what we did. She did a great job. I am so proud of her. On Sunday, I was sitting there during sacrament, and I look up to see her walk up to the front of the chapel and bear her testimony. It made me cry. It was short and sweet. But SO to the point. She has such a pure love of Christ. I love her innocence and purity. I am so proud of her. What a great thing to see your child bear her testimony to others for her first time!

Merry Christmas!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas! We have up our tree! We have lights around the house! Even red lights on the outside of the house! And of course Christmas music is on basically 24/7! We LOVE the Christmas season! I even did most of my shopping this year on Amazon. But I still made Brandon go with me on black friday just for fun. He hates all the people, but that is the 1 time I LOVE it. But we went later on in the morning and didn't even have to wait in line or anything!

Santa sent a package to the kids and inside was a tiny little mailbox. If the handle is ever up, either Santa or one of his elves will have a letter in the box for the kids. So far Marlo and Oscar the elves have written to the kids. And also Santa himself! Marlo the elf even told the kids that he rode our Christmas train around the tree while we were at church! That got the kids really excited! I will post a picture of it all. It makes them behave so much better! So I owe a HUGE thank you to Jo Clause...She had a wonderful idea sending this to the kids!

Weylon has his Christmas program next week and then we only have 1 week left of school after that before the break! There isn't a whole lot of excitement at our house other than the hustle and bustle of Christmas...But I am so proud of my kids. They came home from school really excited about the Toys for Tots program. They really wanted to be able to donate some gently used toys for the less fortunate. So last night we got a box out and they went through all the stuffed animals we have. (A huge rubber tote full of them. Most of them are brand new!) And they filled the box for the kids! I am so proud of them for beginning to understand what it means to give and serve others. It makes me feel good. OakLeigh still didn't quite understand the concept, and she was pulling things out of the box just as fast as we were filling it. But eventually she did put them back in. Then they went through the pantry and filled another box of canned goods. It does a mother's heart good to see her own children wanting to give to others!

The kids wont leave the train or track alone so its broken apart again! But its so fun to have! Look close at Weylon you may be able to see his black eye. Savanna elbowed him last night. Poor kid! This is about his 8th black eye!


Santa's mailbox and 1 of his letters.



OakLeigh and Memphis being silly...

Thanksgiving 2011

Oaks and Memphis had the same face. It made me laugh.

Had to get a Halloween pic or 2 in. Savanna the ice queen. Weylon the ape. OakLeigh the donkey. Memphis the Puppy.


This was our first snow fall of the year. It was barely a dusting of snow but Weylon was so excited he got dressed in ALL OF HIS SNOW GEAR and tried to sled. It didn't work too well but he stayed out in that snow as long as the wind didn't blow it away. Silly boy.




I have so much to be thankful for this year. As you can tell from the pictures everyone is doing great. I have a huge list of thankfulls. I am first so very thankful for my new baby boy (well he is now 6 months old), Memphis Treyne. He is such a delight to have in our family. He is the happiest baby. He is such a blessing after the loss of our little Steven. I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father brought him into our home. I am so thankful for Savanna, Weylon and OakLeigh also. Each of them brings so much into our family. Savanna has the kindest heart of anyone you will ever know. Weylon is the hardest worker and will do anything to help me and daddy. OakLeigh is a crazy, happy, girl. She loves being home to help me with Memphis. Brandon has a great job and we are so blessed for his work he does for our family. He works very hard to provide for us. And we are so glad he does. I am thankful I get to stay home with my 4 kids. It is a challenge sometimes, and I may complain more than not, but I wouldn't trade this time for anything. I am so very blessed. I know that everything I have, is because of my loving Heavenly Father. Its been a good year. I pray that 2012 will be as amazing and fulfilling as 2011.

Halloween pumpkins