Happy Anniversary Babe!

So for the last of my marathon posts, today is mine & Chandler's 6th Anniversary. I thought of trying to write a wonderful and witty poem, like my cousin Jaime (I think the theme of my blog is turning into "I want to be just like Jaime") but decided it would not even compare. Then I thought "Why even bother?" because let's be honest, Chan probably looks at our blog about as often as some of your cousin's friend's brother's sister-in-law's, but I don't want to appear ungrateful of my wonderful thoughtful husband. So Chan, thank you for a wonderful 6 years and I look forward to eternity with you and in order to avoid all the mushy talk let me just sum up with a cheesy but classic line from a film I never should have watched because of it's rating but did anyway because I was with someone who could fast forward through the bad parts (mom - I repented) and say "You complete me." I love ya babe.

Sledding with the Manwarings

The day after Christmas we called up the Manwarings to see if they wanted to go sledding and they said they were game so we went to the hill across the street from our subdivision to try it out. I thought McKin might be scared but she was loving it!Halle was quite the trooper too!

Yes, I did take her down a couple of times. I'm not a complete wuss. Is that even how you spell that word, you all know what I'm talking about right?
Justin and Chandler had something to prove because they both tried to haul all four kids up the hill but ending up needing some help to get it done. Here's Ellie, McKin, Ogden, and Anna.Well, that fun didn't last too long so we decided to step the fun up a notch and headed to Amber's parents house to hook the sleds to the four-wheelers.

They were having quite a bit of fun until.........

McKin took quite the spill and came in crying. She had snow stuck in places I didn't even know existed. As bad as a felt for her, I can't help but laughing at this photo. She was pretty much done after that, but we did take Halle for a quick spin since she looked so stinking cute in this little snowsuit that Amber let me borrow.
We ended the day by taking the girls to see Alvin and the Chipmunks at the good old Blackfoot Plaza Twin. Thanks to the Manwarings for the great time as always and the Ogdens for letting us use their home and 4-wheelers!

A Merry Little Christmas

So, we had a great Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we went to my parents house and played out the Christmas story. McKin was the angel, Easton was baby Jesus, Whit was Mary, and Garrett (very begrudgingly) was Joseph. Oh, and Tanner was a very weak Sheperd and Chan and Shannon were even weaker wisemen. In fact, reading this post might be this first time they even realize they were supposed to be playing wisemen. Here's McKin as the angel (how ironic that sounds to me) amongst our very wordly pile of presents.

We continued our tradition of giving our gifts to Christ via the white stocking and reviewing our last years gifts. I wonder if it's bad if you put the same goals for like 5 years in a row, oh well. We also shared some thoughts about what Christmas means to us, and I really lost it when I talked about my two grandmas and the way they always reached out to others. It was kind of embarrassing, but I'm emotional what can I say? Here's Mary, Joseph (did Joseph really eat chips??), and the angel (again, the irony.)

Then we dug in to the presents and McKin was so excited that she thanked the person for the gift and told them how much she loved it before she even opened it. One of my favorite parts about Christmas is seeing everyone's reaction to the presents that I've tried hard to pick out well. I was very excited to find out that Chan had gotten me a trip to NYC for Christmas!! We leave Jan. 2nd and he even got tickets for Phantom, Wicked, and the Conan O'Brien Show. I was shocked and very excited!

The next morning we woke up to find out what Santa brought. McKin got a barbie bike and a strawberry shortcake salon among other things and Halle got lots of clothes and a little bike/push toy. It is so fun to see your kids get so excited.

We then went to the Daws for a great prime rib dinner and more presents! YEA!! It was fun and it was also great to then have a relaxing night at home. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Marc & Hailey Farewell Party

So, I haven't posted anything for a while so I am playing major catch up. On the 20th we had a dinner with my family at my house since Hailey & Marc were leaving the next day to go to Boise for Christmas with the Bradshaws. McKinley had a Polar Express Party that day at Preschool so she was in her Pajamas all day. She had a great time and came home with all sorts of goodies. She got to open her present from Hailey & Marc which was Gabriella and Sharpay barbies from HS Musical and a coloring book. She has had to have them with her everywhere she goes and always wants to tell me stories about "a girl named Gabriella who was a really nice girl and a girl named Sharpay who was pretty rude."

This is a shout out to my wonderful cousin Jaime Grant, who introduced me to my newest love in life, the Back to Basics Cocoa Latte. The Cocoa Latte debuted at my party as the main character in my hot chocolate bar (also Jaime's idea) which was full of all the great things you see below. We have had hot chocolate nearly every day since and yes my fridge is still full of coffee mate. I went a tad overboard, but I hate for people not to have options.

It was a great party, thanks to my great family. We definitely missed the Bradshaws for Christmas but were glad to have this little substitute.

Kin's Photography

So these are some pics I found on my camera, apparently at 9:48 a.m. on the 23rd someone had some fun. Where was I you might ask??? Probably looking at all of your blogs. She actually got some pretty good shots of Halle, so I can't complain.

The White Stocking

At my parents house they have a white stocking hanging up that is "Jesus's" stocking. Every year we write down a gift we are going to give to him and then the next year we can pull it out and read what we gave Jesus and evaluate our performance, for lack of better words. McKinley asked who's stocking that was and I told her it was Jesus's and asked her what gift she wanted to give Christ this year. She said "Ummmm...probably a gift card." Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!

Hope Big Brother isn't watching

Recently, Halle has taken up the use of biter biscuits or infant "crackers." McKinley has started to call crackers "crack," and Chandler and I have followed suit out of nothing more than habit and the hilarity of our daughter using a street drug as a name for Halle's infant food. If the government randomly decided to put audio only surveillance in our home, this is what they would hear:

McKinley: "Halle, do you want some crack?"

Angie: "That's a great idea, McKinley would you get Halle a crack?"

or

McKinley: "Dad, I'm going to get Halle some crack."

or

McKinley: "Halle, you just love crack don't you?

Chandler and I have started laughing so hard every time one of these conversations come up that we haven't felt compelled to correct it because of the laughter it brings to our home. Once our girls get older and have to face the mean streets of Blackfoot we'll enlighten them to the fact that crack is a horrible and dangerous drug and not an infant food, but for now we'll just laugh.

Belated Christmas FHE

I got this gingerbread house kit at the store (I know I'm extremely craft challenged and not afraid to admit it) and thought it would be fun to make for FHE, but Chan played raquetball on Monday night, so we decided to do it last night instead. McKinley was extremely excited to make the gingerbread house, she was jumping up and down and wouldn't even stop talking to breathe. She has started to say "Take it down a few knotches" since she hears it so much from Chan & I.

Chan did all the frosting and then let McKinley put on the candy. Whenever I would make a suggestion she would say "Oh, that would be perfect," or "That's just a great idea."

This is what is was supposed to look like.This is what it really looked like, not too bad for an outdated jock, a 3 year old, and a craft challenged woman...well ok, it's pretty weak but we like it. We'll say it has personality.
McKinley took this photo of us at the end and I thought it turned out pretty well. Maybe photography is in her future.....
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Just the housekeeper

Frequently McKinley likes me to be the "payer girl" aka the cashier at a pretend store where she purchases our household items with credit cards aka Albertson's preferred customer cards. Tonight she came up to while I was on the computer and said "ding, dong." This means she is ready to make her purchase. So I said "Hello, what would you like to buy today?" She sighed and said "Nothing, I just have to pay the housekeeper," and handed me her "credit card." I have no idea where she even learned what a housekeeper was but apparently I'm it. It reminds me of a cartoon my mom used to have on her desk where a child was looking at a picture of his parent's wedding day and asked his dad "Is that the day Mom came to work for us?"

Happy Birthday G-DUB!

Today is my little brother Garrett's Birthday. Garr- this is a picture McKinley drew of you for your birthday, she also says she wants to get you lots and lots of presents, so we'll try. Garrett is such a wonderful kid who always tries hard to do what's right. He's the more soft spoken of the Wahlen Clan but when he speaks up we can expect to be laughing, he's quite the comedian. He's a great uncle to our girls and a great example to us, especially of non-materialism. It's like pulling teeth to get that kid to spend money or to say something he wants. Happy Birthday Sweet G, Buckwheat, G-Dub, etc. we love you! We'll see you tomorrow night at the Ririe game, hopefully we'll get to party afterwards. We fully expect you to beat your 3-point record this year. For those who don't know - last year Garrett scored EIGHT 3 pointers in one half of a basketball game, yes he's quite the baller!

I think someone must have been playing with my camera since I'm not quite sure where this photo came from.

Rise and SHOUT, and the rest of our Thanksgiving weekend.

Well, my camera went defunct so I don't have many pictures of our great Thanksgiving Day which we spent in Aberdeen at my parents home. The "highlight"of the dinner was when it got really quiet and McKinley looked at all of us and said "I hate you guys" AAHH, how do you react to that? Everyone was laughing and I knew McKin was joking but we should probably try to kick the habit of expressing "hate" right now.

The highlight of the weekend was definitely going to the BYU game and seeing our Cougars beat the Utes once again. Is there anything sweeter in the world? There are not many things in this world that will result in Chandler and I jumping up and down, screaming and hugging each other but 4th and 18 from Hall to Collie did it do us. Not quite as awesome as Beck to Harline but we'll definitely take it. I definitely need to repent for finding such immense joy in the broken hearted faces of the Ute fans. Even though I could tell they were hurting I had a overwhelming urge to look right at them and scream "Go Cougs" or even worse "Utes Suck." Man, the things sports do to us.... well maybe just to me.

Finally to end the crazy weekend we went to the Choir Broadcast on Temple Square Sunday morning and then to the Little America Brunch (yummmmm) and towards the end of the feeding frenzy I put Halle on the floor right next to me with a toy. I perhaps should have surveyed the area first because a minute later my mom found Halle with a piece of broken glass in her hands and in looking around there were pieces everywhere. The waitress hadn't done a very thorough job at picking up a broken glass. We did a quick inspection of Halle and didn't find anything and she wasn't crying or anything. When we left a few minutes later I saw that I had blood all over my shirt and checked out Halle and both of her precious little hands were covered in blood. Halle was so brave and didn't even cry as the waitress rushed us to the back to get her all bandaged up. Of course all the management was very apologetic, but now the question is to sue or not to sue? Just kidding...........sort of!

What Team? Wildcats!

Saturday my mom and I took Whitney and McKinley to Salt Lake to see Disney's "High School Musical, the Ice Tour." After she stopped screaming that she couldn't have a $40.00 t-shirt McKinley had a great time. She was singing, dancing, and clapping and it was a really cute show. We tried to take a picture out front, but couldn't get McKinley to take her eyes off her "High Schoo Musical Yearbook."

McKin just singing along, wearing her $10 plastic hat (it did come with cotton candy)

The Plague

So the last few weeks have been full of constant sickness on some level for our family. After all the ear infections, sore throats, runny noses, smokers coughs, and our kids waking up covered in throw up we are now only left with lingering coughs that I hope won't turn into anything more.

A lovely combo of green beans and amoxocillin.

Happy Late Birthday to the Best MOM Ever!

Sorry mom that this post was very late, I had a one track mind last week (primary program, primary program, primary program...) so here's hoping you had a great birthday, even though you spent your day celebrating Aunt Lovinia's. Thanks for being a great mom, my best friend, and a wonderful nana! We love you!

Happy Halloween....Wizard of Oz Style!

For Halloween, McKinley was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Halle was the cowardly lion. At the last minute we talked Annie into being the scarecrow. I chickened out and went as a "BYU Fan." Chandler took McKinley around to get candy while Halle and I did hand out duty at the ward Trunk or Treat. My $0.06 24 pack crayons from Target were a hit. Here's Chan, McKin, and Dustin Albertson (Annie's little brother)

More Fun at the Trunk or Treat

If that isn't the cutest little lion you've ever seen in your life, well then I just don't know what else to tell you. The girls and I next to our Jack-o-Lanterns that we did at the Montanos. Don't you love McKinley's painting job? Whatever artistic talent she has is worlds more than mine. Is that some unique and creative pumpkin carving or what? HA

After the Trunk or Treat, we went around our neighborhood with the Whitney's and the Manwarings. McKin hasn't been feeling too hot and so we called it a night a little early. Can you beleive we still had little kids ringing our door bell at 9:30?? I was like "HELLO, School night, kids in bed," I think I made some high school kids feel bad when I opened the door and without thinking said "It's kinda late and we are trying to put kids in bed guys" and then I noticed one of them was a good kid from my ward. OUCH! Leave it to me, I guess. Those guys definitely weren't as bad as the probably 3 and 5 year old kids that rang my doorbell at 9:30 with their mom in the car waiting. By the way - if anyone who reads this was trick or treating at 9:30 then please disregard all of the above. This is a photo from the end of the long night.

Happy Birthday Whitney!

This post is a little late, but yesterday my beautiful youngest sibling turned 13 and is entering her teenage years, watch out! My parents took us to Texas Road House for dinner and then we went to Jill and Shannon's to open gifts. Happy Birthday Whitney - you're a great girl, well-liked among all your peers, a wonderful aunt and good example to everyone around you. We love you!

Weekend of Halloween Parties

Well we had a fun weekend of parties, on Friday we went to a party with some of Chandler's high school friends and on Saturday we had an Elder's Quorum party. To both, Chan and I went as Jim and Pam from the Office. It was pretty fun, watch the Manwaring's Blog for a photo. They went as Dwight and Angela and were perfect! Last night we had a great time carving pumpkins at the Montano's house and we are looking forward to tomorrow!

Our BIG BREAK!

Well, our little family is going to be movie stars...not really, but we are going to be Southeast Idaho's newest faces of the Bingham Memorial Hospital Birthing Center, pretty much the same thing right? On Friday we spent the whole afternoon and into the evening, videoing a television commercial telling about my experience having Halle at the hospital in Blackfoot. I even had a very pregnant stunt double! It was only a 60 second commercial but I now have a respect for movie stars and producers because it took FOREVER (everything we did had to be done at least 10 times) and acting is not Chandler's or my greatest quality. When they told Chandler and I that we had to look at each other and look concerned about our baby's cord wrapped around her neck, we both agreed that taking drama in high school may have come in handy. The video guys needed a subject to check their lighting on, and McKinley was all too happy to volunteer, she thought she was pretty hot stuff. Of course when it came time for McKin to really do her part (play with Halle) she was totally uncooperative, so we're not quite sure if she'll get left on the cutting room floor or not. I'll post a video of the real commercial when we get it, since they are supposed to get us a DVD. So watch for us on tv and in the newspaper in the upcoming weeks and hopefully no one will be embarrassed to admit they know us after the debut since we feel a little silly ourselves. Now I'm just getting up the courage to ask for money off our very large hospital bill.

Detroit, Michigan here he comes!

Well, Tanner opened his mission call on Saturday and he leaves January 9th for the Detroit Michigan mission. He is very excited and we are really proud of him and the great kid that he is. He will be a great missionary but we will really miss him.

McKinley's funny comments

McKinley was really on a roll yesterday, so I have to share her two funny comments she made.

First, I was laying on the ground with Halle's legs around my neck so that her face was right above mine. I told McKinley to come over because I needed to tell her a story. I told her that when she was a baby she was sitting like that with her "Bompa" and she spit up all over his face. We had a good laugh (sorry dad) and then she said "What's the next page?"

McKin barely touched her dinner last night, so after she proclaimed she was done after one bite, we told her that if she didn't eat more dinner there would be nothing but water for the rest of the night and she said ok. So of course all night she was begging for food and I kept repeating the consequence of her earlier choice and that she could only have water. She was trying to pull some major negotiations asking for all kinds of food and then she gave up on that and starting asking for chocolate milk and juice and I kept repeating that all she could have was water. After a while she gave up on those and came and said "Can have some chocolate water?"

What a funny girl!

I have been tagged!

My friend Kamber has tagged me so here it goes -

The Rules are:
A. Each player create a post listing 6 facts/habits about self.
B. At the end of the post the player then tags 6 people and post their names. Then go to each of their blogs and leave a comment letting them know they've been tagged and to read your blog for the rules.

So my 6 things are...
1. I am a total nighttime person, I rarely go to bed before midnight.
2. I also often myself dancing, McKinley really thinks its a rule in our family that when I turn up the music, you have to dance. (Kamber - remember the good old Rexburg days when we were awesome dancers?)
3. I really dislike Chinese food (Not the nice stuff like PF Changs, we are talking the places that barely pass health code inspections and buy MSG by the barrel like my husband loves)
4. I am always late, not because I'm lazy but because I hate the idea of getting somewhere early and having to waste precious time waiting. Consequently I always cut it way to close and am late.
5. I too have an addiction for the office and desperate housewives is my guilty pleasure. (It's really not as bad as it sounds)
6. I'm the oldest of 6 and am fiercely protective of my younger brothers and sisters. If someone hurts them, you'd better watch out. They all feel like they have 2 moms - sorry guys.

There you have it... I tag Jill Lucas, Hailey Bradshaw, Whitney Wahlen, Amber Manwaring, Emily Hanson, & Annie Albertson.

Halle's Makeover

Yesterday, McKinley got some Halloween stickers at pre-school. I left the room for a moment and came back to find Halle all decorated!

Happy Birthday Celeste!

Thanks for being such a great friend and neighbor as well as a person who will always listen to my perpetual weight loss battle stories! We hope you have a great day!

Painful Night

Tuesday morning, Halle woke up at 5:00 and half asleep I went to get her. We usually always leave our bedroom door open but McKinley had came in and closed it. Anyway, it was pitch black and I was hurrying to get Halle and ran smack into our bedroom door! It killed my nose and I thought I broke it at first but everything appears to be fine. Chandler woke up to a huge crash and turned on the light to find me on the floor with blood everywhere, so he was a little freaked out. Everything turned out ok and my nose is just a little sore still, especially when Halle bats at it and my ego is a little bruised as well. All worth it to get out of a nighttime feeding, I suppose!

Our little dancer

Today was McKinley's first day of dance class at Downtown Dance Studio. She was so excited! About 50 times this morning she told me "I'm so excited to go to dance mom" and was prancing around in all her new leotards and skirts. Her friends Baylee Whitney and Marin Montano are in her same class so she was really excited about that.

Maybe I should have asked her beforehand if she needed to go to the bathroom.

Pretty sure she's not supposed to be laying on the ground right then, but oh well. She's having fun!

This pic was real blurry, but I needed to prove that she was actually doing what she was supposed to some of the time.

Easton is HERE!

Easton Shannon Lucas was born on October 2nd at 3:45 in the morning. He is healthy and Jill is doing great! He looks just like his dad. My camera wasn't working very well so Hailey took some pictures for me, so I'll have to add more pictures later. We are so excited to have little Easton in our family and McKinley and Halle are glad to finally have a Wahlen cousin! When we told McKinley that Jill was Easton's mom, she said "No, your not his mom, your Jill" Lately she's been having a hard time knowing that one person can be two things. She doesn't think Jill can be her aunt AND Easton's mom, but I guess she'll figure it out. We love you Easton!