Birkinshaw Christmas Party

Christmas Eve was the Birkinshaw Christmas Party at my cousin Calie and Dave's house in Salem. This party started out when I was a kid and was always at my Grandpa and Grandma Birkinshaw's house and was with my grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins there was around 24 of us. It has now grown so much with some of the grandkids married and now all the great grandkids added to the family. There were just 7 not there and even with them missing there was still 31 of us, I think.

We always have good food, it is nice to see family we don't see that often, and then there is always gift exchanges. Thanks Calie and Dave for sharing your house with so many of us for a night.

I forgot my camera so just snapped a couple with my phone that didn't turn out very good.

Bennett Christmas Party

December 17th was the Bennett Christmas Party. We always have a good time there with all the good food, socializing with family (some we see all the time and then some not so often), playing the fun and wild games, and then the kids get really excited with a visit from Santa Clause.


Houston hitting the pinata


Peyton hitting the pinata while peeking under the blind fold


Houston gathering up all the broken candy canes and garbage none of the other kids wanted


The kids playing musical chairs


Houston wasn't too sure about Santa at first but then warmed up to him


Peyton has always loved Santa



Peyton with her cousins Preslie and Raylee showing off what Santa brought them


Houston playing with the truck, trailer and skidsteer that Santa brought him

Not Much New With Us

It seems like we have been nothing but busy but I can't seem to think of anything we have done that really stands out.

We had a good Thanksgiving weekend. My mom was able to come to town again so that is always nice to be able to spend time with her. She flew in on Wednesday, we had Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandma Pat's, the rest of the weekend we mostly spent trying to get a lot of our Christmas shopping done, and then she went back on Monday leaving a big box of gifts for the kids for 27 Days of Christmas. That's right, we don't do just the traditional 12 Days at our house. Not with my mom involved anyways. The kids are really enjoying it. Thanks mom!

Since then we have just been doing the day to day things while trying to get ready for Christmas. Bradyn has started working on the basement a little again while keeping busy at work. And I don't seem to have many spare moments with work, running Peyton around to school and dance, Houston has turned into a wild man, and we have been watching the National Finals Rodeo on tv every night for the last 9 nights. I have enjoyed it, but am looking forward to something else to put my attention on at nights after tomorrow.

I am usually really good about snapping pictures, but when I pulled out my camera to take these pictures of the kids today I had to blow off dust. Enjoy! I thought they turned out pretty cute even with my not so fancy camera. I had to make sure it still works in time for the busy next couple weeks with parties and the holidays.

Halloween Weekend

This year our kids definately got use out of their Halloween costumes between the Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland earlier this month, Peyton's dance and school parties, and then the Halloween weekend festivities.


Peyton and Houston on Halloween


Peyton the Champion Barrel Racer


Houston the W/G Racing Stables Jockey




Getting down and riding

Because Halloween fell on Sunday this year, we mostly celebrated it on Saturday. It must be a Utah thing because friends that I have in other states still celebrated Halloween on Sunday.

On Saturday afternoon we took the kids to my Grandma Pat's to visit with her and my Uncle Wade. There we loaded up on candy, homeade sugar cookies, and popcorn.


That night we went to Bradyn's brother Hadley's house. Hadley and Haylee invited us over for dinner and Trick or Treating through their subdivision. It worked out perfect since our subdivision does the Trunk or Treat and I prefer the traditional Trick or Treating.


All the kids before they went Trick or Treating (Houston in the back, then Preslie, Peyton, Raylee, and Hallie in the middle, and then Hazen and Colter in the front)

Hadley and Haylee were even brave enough to take on 5 other kids besides their 2 for a sleepover. Thanks guys for inviting us over for a fun night and for letting Peyton stay over! We all had a lot of fun.

On Halloween (Sunday) we went to Bradyn's parents house for a yummy dinner and visited with family while the kids all played together. Thanks Brent and ReNae for having us over!


The cousins on Halloween (Colter, Houston, Preslie, Raylee and Peyton)

Costume Parade

Today Peyton had a Halloween party in her Kindergarten class and after the party the school had a costume parade with all the grades. Houston and I went to her school to watch. There was a lot of cute and creative costumes and the parade ran really well. I have been really impressed with Peyton's school so far. They seem really organized and if Peyton's future teachers are anything like her Kindergarten teacher then she will be in good hands.


Houston waiting for the parade to start


Peyton wouldn't stop for pictures so I didn't get very good ones.

Carving Pumpkins

Last night we finally carved our pumpkins. Peyton had been so excited waiting for the day and had her design picked out for a week.

But first I have to tell you about a little incident we had with the pumpkins before the carving began. While waiting for Bradyn to get home from work, I had brought the pumpkins in the house to warm up a bit and had them sitting by the front door. All the sudden I heard a thump, thump, thump and I knew. I went running over to the stairs to find Peyton's pumpkin at the bottom of the stairs broke in half. Houston had rolled it down the stairs. Luckily, Bradyn was at the store picking me up some other stuff so I had him grab another pumpkin for Peyton.

Peyton loved the digging out all the seeds and did all of her own carving. Houston wasn't really sure what to think. I put his hands in a little bit and then was off to play.



Houston didn't know what to think





This was the joke for the night. Peyton started carving Houston's pumpkin for him and this is what it looked like before Bradyn fixed it.


The finished products (Bradyn's - traditional, Cindy's - monster peaking through blinds, Peyton's - alien, and Houston's - traditional)

Pumpkin Patch

We have made it a tradition the last few years to go to the same pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. The kids love it there because there are all sorts of tractors for them to climb on, a little corn maze to go through, and lots of pumpkins to choose from.

This year we kind of waited until the last minute to go and had a hard time finding some good ones since they were picked over and quite a few were spoiled since it had been so warm the beginning of October. But we did find 4 for carving, some smaller ones in really cool colors and shapes for a crate on my porch, and a bale of straw for my porch for decoration and then to keep our dogs warm in the winter :).

California Trip :)

We have been wanting to go to Disneyland during Halloween time for the past 3 years. We heard it is so much fun with all the Halloween decorations and the parties that go on there. So this year we finally did it. WARNING: This is going to be a really long post.




We flew out to Orange County on Monday, October 11th where we my mom was flying into from Albuquerque. We met her at the airport, picked up our rental car, checked into our hotel and dropped off our luggage, and then headed to Huntington Beach. By the time we got there it was starting to get dark and cold but the kids still loved it.






That night we went swimming and sat in the tub. Actually Peyton was the only one that really went swimming. The rest of us thought the water was too cold.




After swimming we got ready for bed so that we could get some rest for a busy day at Dineyland.


On Tuesday, we got up early and spent the day at Disneyland visiting Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Micky's Toontown.












That night we had tickets to Mickey's Halloween Party so we want back to the hotel and got cleaned up and the kids in their Halloween costumes and then headed back to Disneyland.


Houston the future Jockey for W/G Racing Stables and Peyton the future Champion Barrel Racer

The Halloween Party was so much fun. When we got their we watched the parade that is put on daily, we went on rides in Adventureland, New Orleans Square, Critter Country, and Tomorrowland while the lines were short, then we went trick or treating and loaded up on tons of candy, watched the parade with the characters dressed in Halloween costumes, and ended the night with an awesome fireworks display.


















On Wednesday we spent the day at California Adventures and made it through most of the park.









While in California we also really wanted to take our animal loving kids to Seaworld. So on Thursday morning we drove to San Diego and spent the day at Seaworld and drove back that night. The kids loved it and it was nice to have a change of scenery and do something a little different on our trip.















On Friday we spent the day at both California Adventures and Disneyland riding rides and seeing things we hadn't already.




And on Saturday it was a sad morning because we knew we had to come home. Before we went to the airport we drove down to Newport Beach because Peyton was begging to go to the beach again. It was rainy that day so neither trip to the beach was very good. And I wasn't super impressed with Huntington or Newport Beach. Hopefully our next trip we will be able to beach around San Diego and it is warm so the kids can play in the water more.




We had such a fun time!!! It was a much needed vacation. Thanks so much mom and for going with us! We loved every minute of it!!!