The BIG 7!

Yep, you guessed it! Our baby turned 7 this month!  Happy Birthday M!!

Wish came true... Pillow Pet

 Musical Chimes

 Zuzuh pets

CANDY!

Just one more month...

Is it really?.... Three weeks until Brock turns the big 16 years of age.  We have discussed having a party at the house which required A Rock Band marathon along with a DJ to have some dancing going on in our small backyard amongst lots of food, and roasting marshmallows... OR keep it on the download where he can invite a couple of friends to see the Suns play AND get is IPOD touch that was stolen a year ago... Guess what he said... (Which I knew he would) get tickets to the Suns game and the IPOD touch.

My little performer!

It was well worth the one hour wait for Madie to perform 15 minutes of her Christmas cheer! She is our most out spoken child as well as most energetic! I love this gal and when it comes time to doing things for school she is sooo excited to perform, especially when she knows she's going to get her picture taken.

Waitng for her turn...

 Singing her little heart out...

The song she always sung around the house

Just before she performed.

In a Nutshell...

Where did 2010 go? It feels like it was yesterday when we were celebrating the New Year!  So much has happened in the Russell home. Believe me we have had our many downs and a few ups. As we reflect this year we feel blessed and so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and to have the gospel in our lives!  As usual, we always update what we did throughout the year so here we go…

In the spring we took the kids to Disneyland/Sea World for spring break! It was a lot of fun and a MUCH NEEDED BREAK! Shortly after our trip on Easter weekend Madie broke her elbow from falling off the monkey bars and Jay’s back really flared up! He’s had problems with his back nearly our whole married life and the last 5 years it has progressively gotten worse. SO, 2 months later after much research and second opinions from doctors and trying all methods we decided that it was time for Jason to have back surgery.  The only time to schedule was either the week of my graduation in May or the next month when all the kids are home and have the surgery. I told Jay to get it done while the kids are in school (knowing that we were moving the next month helped make the decision as well). Jay’s surgery went wonderful and I have NEVER seen him as calm as a cucumber. While he was in the hospital drugged I was graduating in my cap and gown, walking down the aisle to receive my bachelor’s degree in special education. My sisters came down for the ceremony along with my in-laws and brother/sister in-law. It was wonderful to have the support! Two days later Jay came home and I started interviewing for a teaching job while he was recovering.  A couple weeks went by and we finally received the offer I really wanted! It was music to our ears!

The month of June, we stayed busy with Jay recovering, kids on swim team, and packing the house, moving on the other side of the tracks to a sub division called Verrado. Drake rocked in swimming and was on an awesome Dream Team!

July came and Jay and I celebrated our 17^th anniversary.  August is our birthday month for Jay and Drake. Drake turned 13 and I through a big 40^th birthday party for Jay, it was great! In October we made our annual trip to Idaho and absolutely loved the fall colors, weather, Bear World, hiking, and most of all our visits that we had with family.

Getting near the end of the year the kids are doing well in school. The boys both tried out for the school basketball team. Brock is starting for the Verrado JV team and dresses for Varsity team. Drake didn’t make the Verrado Middle school but he’s all right with that and loves his school! Madie is reading all the time, playing video games with the boys, and is ready to be on a basketball team.

So in a nutshell we feel blessed to have our health back and the kids being happy. We hope that your family is doing well and we would love to hear from you! Have a blessed New Year and a very Merry Christmas! 

The lost book....

After 17 years Jay's lost journal is found! I received this strange email on fb about a lady coming across his journal. She was kind enough to mail it to us from St. Anthony, ID... We have found out that she ended up reading the whole thing as well as her 16 year old. I wonder who else has read it.  We thoroughly enjoyed the many laughs as Jay shared memories. Oh, how you think when you are in your early 20's and flitting fancy free! I'm making a mental note to myself... I need to light up like a 2 year old on Christmas day when he comes into the room... that is one way I can please my man :) 

Top 25 Reasons to be thankful

Tis the month to be greatful. Here are my things that I'm greatful for.
1.  My healthy kids
2. My good husband
3. My health
4. To pay my bills
5. To be employed
6. My ancestors for their great sacrifice for me to have the gospel
7. For the Book of Mormon
8. This beautiful country that I live in
9.  My good parents who raised me
10. My siblings who I enjoy hanging out with
11. To have food on the table
12. To see, hear, and feel
13. To have grown up in Rexburg
14. To have a lovely home to live in
15. To have an active mind
16. To be able drive a vehicle
17. For the cooler weather
18. For the seasons
19. The modern day conveniences that we have now
20. For this free country that I live in
21. To know the basics of sewing, playing the piano, and sports
22. For being patient
23. Having funny kids and a funny husband
24. To attend the temple
25. To know the plan of salvation and return to Heavenly Father again...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone~

During our fall break....

Here it is nearly four weeks when we had our fall break and I'm just now getting around to it. I'm much better at responding to facebook than creating my blog.  Being a full time working mom really puts me to the test on time management and being organized. I thought I was pretty good on being organized but I'm not so sure these days... Anyhow, we all had a week off in October and decided it was time to head up north to see my side of the family. It was absolutely wonderful! WE ALL HAD IT BAD ABOUT NOT WANTING TO COME BACK TO AZ! Here are some of our highlights...

Conference Center in SLC...

We stopped here after spending a couple of day with my sister in Prove. It started to rain that day and we were loving every minute of it... Especially after having 100 degree weather still in October, UGH!

The awesome Harrison clan! Love these guys!!!

Hiked up to Stewart Falls... Its along the way to Timpangus hike

CLASSIC... I have lived in Rexburg my whole life and I don't recall this lovely scenery out in Plano...

While visiting my parents in Rexburg they treated us to Bear World. Always a highlight to see God's creatures... These bears look very friendly :)

Getting some wrestling action amongst these two right by our car.

Unique looking animals in Bear World. White Elk...

That's my babe!

The awesome hikers! The kids enjoy hanging out with their cousins... Especially playing Fugitive. That was an experience!  Drake almost got hit, then he got lost and almost got picked up by a police officer. It happened to be BYU's homecoming that night so traffic was hectic and some weird stuff was going on in the neighborhood as well. Glad to have my son with us!

I was trying to capture the fall colors in the background... I wish my camera did a better justice than what it does! Always much prettier LIVE than in pictures.

During our time in Idaho we walked the BYU Idaho campus... It sure doesn't feel or look like Ricks College anymore! Jay had Brock talk to the dean for some academic fields that they teach to help prepare Brock to know exactly what he wants to be when he grows up. That kind of back fired on Brock but made Jason want to go back to BYU Idaho... It was fun to have lunch with some girl friends back in high school and visit with them.  With the siblings and their kids we made a trip to the corn maze.  Had a blast until Drake lost his cell phone. ONLY IN ZION would it show up by an honest person finding it. He received it the next day and Madie lost her jacket at a store in Idaho Falls. I called the store and once again ONLY IN ZION would we be able to receive it. That is one thing we DO MISS... HONESTY!

Coming up for air!

Since the beginning of September school has picked up. IEP's are due... now progress reports along with the grades. GOT TO LOVE THE PAPERWORK :)  Not to mention; learn the whole new curriculum, curriculum mapping, RTI meetings (galore), and my favorite the new grading technology that they threw in this year. I'm so glad this is my first year because the teachers are learning right with me so I don't feel left out. I LOVE what I'm doing! It definitally has its challenges at times and when I teach my social skills groups I literally feel like I'm teaching them a little part of the gospel. How to act kind towards each other and so forth. Once again, the spirit has born testimony of being greatful for the gospel principles! The life of a teacher... and to think Jay wants to do what I'm doing?

Things will get picking up even more once the boys start basketball season... Madie wants to join a sport club as well... there goes my Saturdays. I'm already counting down for the fall break and desperatly looking forward to our drive up to Idaho! Can not wait to enjoy seeing my family, cold weather, hopefully fall colors, and maybe some snow.

Tonight... Madie learned the hard way just like Jay and I when we were kids about getting motion sickness by spinning around too much. Yes the good old tire swing did it to us and to her. Poor thing, came home and went right to bed because her stomache hurt.  She now has two missing teeth in the front and looks like a beaver with the two big front teeth all by themselves.  The fun and yet ugly stage... Boys are loving school, girls, and growing more and more each day. Brock is 6'5 and Drake is nearly as tall as me now! Couldn't ask for anything less with two tall parents :) 

Jay's 40th Birthday Bash!

What a fun year to tease Jason. He turned the big 4 0! After 17 years of being married, never throwing him a big party I figured it was high time, reguardless if he wanted it or not.  So on his birthday I made a card out of a candy gram. It was great and made him feel good.  The kids picked out a card that was a funny one and teased him for being old.  The following weekend is when we had the party. Jay received a Grim Reeper cake, 40 signs everywhere, caution tape of being old, a blinking light that had caution seniors around, with fun gag gifts. I also created a power point that was a memory lane along with a time capsule of favorite 70's (mostly candy).  He loved every bit of it and was a good sport to take it all in. Jay's mom had old pictures of him all over the place and had Barber shop music as background (this is when I should have brought my 80's cd and U2 but forgot).

The awesome cake!

Blowing his candles.

People visiting...

Okay so I had a crappy, chip camera... more visiting

In the backyard the kids were in heaven by checking out the horses, chickens, and jumping on the blow up jumper, and wrestling... They would come in all sweaty needing a drink and would run out for some more.

A HUGE THANKS to my in-laws crashing there house, family and friends who attended and supported him! We LOVE you guys!!!

Sedona Trip

Highly recommend going on a rainy day to Sedona! Not as busy so the traffic was great!  The rain coming down was soft and warm, along with the lush green scenery and red rock!

I don't have a picture of this but when we pulled up to Slide Rock (mind you it was pouring down) a whole bunch of "Jacob look alikes" accept a bit not in shape was walking along in the parking lot. Being in the mountains, raining, and shirts off with levi short guys walking around - we all said, "Look there's Jacob!"

The boys were brave to go down the slide in that freezing cold water. Jay even went all the way under twice! That is a record!!!! Madie couldn't handle the cold... my brave daring girl wanted badly to go down slide rock but the water was too freaking cold. I couldn't bring myself either, but I did get in waste deep and took  pictures.

To and from Slide Rock path...

Just finished going on the slide...

bottom of the slide... no he didn't go down it.

I can't believe I'm even putting this picture in.

gorgeus scenery...

my main squeezes!

On our way home we decided to take the scenic route and traveled through Cottonwood, Jerome, Prescott, and coming through Wickenburg.  Lots of fun camping sites to go camping between Jerome and Prescott. Gorgeous scenery, winding roads, and lots of tarantulas walking on the road. I guess when it rains the spiders come out to get dry on the pavement. We stopped and pulled over to take a picture of this huge spider!

No Drake did not kill it, just petted it with his foot, yuck!