Tee It Up With Tiger!

So here is my husband's claim to fame and dream come true! Last October Brandon won the contest of a lifetime called "Tee it up with Tiger". There were 2 ways to enter the contest. One was to get a special platinum golf ball in a sleeve of Nike balls. Brandon tried that but after buying a few sleeves he had no luck. The other way to enter was buy buying "virtual" golf balls online and hoping to get a platinum one that way. Brandon kept trying to do that online and I was teasing him that it wasn't going to happen. Well he got lucky and got the platinum ball that entered him into the contest. There were 2000 platinum balls and out of those, 24 were drawn.
Brandon was one of the lucky 24! (He got "the golden ticket") They flew him to California where he was picked up in a limo and taken to an amazing hotel in the marina. He was treated to a nice dinner and given goodies from Nike and Golf Digest. The next day was what he'd been waiting for. He went to the new Trump National golf course and got to play 18 holes of golf. Tiger was waiting for his foursome at the 10th hole. He watched them play, gave them tips and just spent time talking with them. After that, Tiger and Anthony Kim (another golf pro) put on a golf clinic for them and gave them tips, answered questions about anything and just hung out with them for awhile. The Golf Channel filmed the whole thing and they interviewed Brandon as one of the featured winners. It was fun to watch him on t.v. and get to see part of his amazing day. Anyone who knows Brandon knows how much he LOVES golf and also Tiger Woods. If he could meet anyone famous, Tiger would be the one. He called me that night after golfing and meeting Tiger and said "After our wedding day, birth of our children and some other wonderful days in between, this day was one of the best!" As you can tell, he obviously thought about it before and made sure he put those other events in their first! Good move on his part. Anyway, I was so happy he had the opportunity and he came away an even bigger Tiger fan than before. How cool is that?!?

Baby Sydni is here!

Baby Sydni is here! She was born today around 4:30pm. She weighs 6lbs 1 ounce and is 18 1/2 inches long. She is so beautiful and sweet. She surprised us all by arriving about 4 1/2 weeks early.

Because she was born so early she has to have oxygen but so far is doing great. Jill is doing well considering all she has been through. Having a baby is truly a miracle. Please keep Jill and Sydni in your prayers in hopes for a smooth recovery for baby and mommy. I will post more pictures soon.

Playing Blog Catch-Up

Well, I have ignored my blog for a couple of months now for a few reasons: 1) My computer freaks out whenever I go on blogs, but nothing else. It is really annoying! It takes forever for the pages to load and then it stops half-way through. 2) I joined facebook and what little time I have on the computer I have been distracted by that. Please forgive me as I am going to be going back in time doing posts because this is a type of journal for our family. So don't give up on the blog. I will be posting soon.

O Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we decorated the Christmas tree. It couldn't have been soon enough for the kids. They wanted it up the second Thanksgiving was over. It's fun now that they can actually help now. We have a fake tree and it is very kid-friendly.
Kamree had lots of fun. She was too young to really help last year. What a difference a year makes.
It was hard to get a good shot of the tree so I just went for a shot of the kiddos. They were fighting earlier but this is proof that they do get along and love each other.
Parker's favorite part is setting up the train under the tree. He LOVES trains and it's so fun having this one under the tree.
Of course you have to end the night with hot chocolate. They are really into it right now. We had a fun night decorating and love the Christmas season. Easton slept through all of this but will hopefully be awake for the fun times next year!

Nutcracker

On Monday night, Kamree and I went to the Nutcracker with my sis-in-law Ashlee and niece Ellie. We started the night off with dinner and then off the the ballet. It was a local dance company that put it on and some of the dancers are in our ward. They did a great job and the dancers from our ward were amazing. Kamree liked it better than I thought she would. When the SugarPlum Fairy came on stage, Kamree said "Mom I want to be her when I grow up". She loved all of the different costumes and of course the ballet dancers. We will be adding this to the top of the list of holiday traditions.
Thanks for the fun night, Ashlee and Ellie!

Parker is 5!!!

Parker turned 5 on November 26th! I cannot believe it. Whenever one of my kids has a birthday, I always like to think about the day they were born and what I was thinking and feeling. It is so crazy to reflect and realize it has been 5 years ago. That was the day that I became a mother and I didn't realize at the time how my life would change. I am so glad that Parker is my son. He has brought so much joy and happiness to our life. He is like a little man now with his own opinions and thoughts. He is so considerate of others, especially Kamree. He is also learning a lot about the Gospel and his prayers are very cute to listen to. He is very into sports of all kinds and will sit and watch a whole Jazz game and not stop cheering. It's pretty cute to hear him say "Defense, Jazz or get the rebound!" He picked out the decorations for his cake and helped Brandon decorate it.
Parker had a small party with a few friends. Of course it was a sports theme so they played all sorts of games. His favorite game was when they had to shoot the basketball from different spots. We also had a party on Sunday with my family and he loves having them around. He always wants to get together with them.
Can you tell he is excited about opening his presents? That one was a Transformer and he absolutely loves it!
One tradition we have on birthdays is lunch at Applebee's with Aunt Jill. He especially loves when they sing and bring dessert.
The night before every birthday we blow up tons of balloons and put them all over their bedroom floor. They love it! Before Parker went to bed he even asked if we doing balloons and even though he knew we were he was still so excited when he woke and they were there. Parker also got to choose his favorite breakfast. I gave him tons of choices but he wanted a blueberry (Eggo) waffle with sprinkles and of course there had to be 5 candles in it. We had lunch with Aunt Jill and dinner at Panda Express, Parker's choice of course. Here are some of Parker's favorite things at age 5:
Favorite food: Mac and Cheese and anything chocolate
Favorite color: Blue and green
Favorite book: Fred the Firefighter and The Polar Express
Favorite t.v shows: Curious George and Sid the Science Kid
Favorite Movie: Cars, Polar Express and Peter Pan
Favorite Animal: Tiger
Favorite Song: Families Can Be Together Forever, Any music by Rascal Flatts
Favorite things to do: Play sports of anykind, especially basketball right now. He loves to play with Kamree and his friends. He also loves to color and draw.
We love you so much Parker and are so happy you are part of our family!

CHRISTMAS HELP WANTED!

With the holidays quickly approaching, I have been thinking a lot about how we do things and our traditions. While my kids are still young, I feel like it's still easy to change or add to the way we do things. I am just wondering if anyone has any fun traditions or things they do? Also, I was talking with a friend about Christmas and what Santa brings. Does Santa bring all your Christmas presents or just one big one and parents do the rest? This is a shout out to my "peeps". I am wanting to hear from you! I would love to know how you do Christmas and what fun traditions you have.