Things have been kinda crazy lately. We had a fun family baby shower for my sis-in-law Ashley and her husband Morgan. That was really fun! My mom watched the kids and we got to stay up late with everyone. I was so glad to get to see Joe's brother Randy and his family. It was really great to hang out with them! On Sunday we celebrated Brady's third birthday. Brady was so happy to have most of his cousins there to play with. He thinks it's his birthday everyday now. Monday night we spent the night at Joe's parents house so we could stay up late with Randy, Alicia, Morgan, and Ashley. I woke up the next morning with the worst flu symptoms ever! It's now Wednesday night and I still can't eat much or walk but I am doing much better than before. I forgot how sucky the flu is. I really felt like I was dying! I just hope it doesn't spread to too many family members! Here is a picture of Brady with some of his gifts from his party. Thank you to all of you who came and helped out! Thank you for all the great gifts! I really can't believe I have a three year old.

Naughty Thor

That's Thor eating part of our Christmas tree.

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Funny Brady

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I love December!

I am sitting here thinking about how much I love Decembers and this December is going to be a special one! Here is why:

We are thinking of going to Snoqualmie and playing in the snow. I have great memories going with my parents and sliding down huge hills in a tube. I don't know when we will do this but I hope it's soon.

Joe has finals next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday then he is done for a month! yay!

I might be going to Yakima next weekend. Not for anything fun, it will be quite draining actually (emotionally) but I will be getting free food and I will get a much needed break from the kids and the puppy.

Brady boy is turning 3 on the 15th! I can't believe I have an almost three year old!

Randy and Alicia will be coming into town on the 16th! I really miss them and their cute boys!

Morgan and Ashley are also coming! They come on the 17th. I'm exited to see her big belly full of little girl sweetness. I am also excited to have some adult party time with the family that night too!

On the 18th I am throwing Brady a spiderman birthday party. I am excited for this. Especially because we are making Cafe Rio. yum.

participating in our annual tradition of making Christmas sugar cookies and funny decorated shirts!

And of course I am excited for x-mas eve and Christmas!

Another one of Thor pup

My friend took this picture today. Isn't he cute?

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Thor

We have been wanting to get a puppy for a couple months now. We really wanted to make sure we found a good and nice dog because it was so hard to have to give away our last dog Max for being aggressive. Joe and I both really like beagles but we don't like how most bark all the time. We heard about puggles, They are a mix of beagle and pugs. They are mostly tan with a black face (like a pug) or black. We saw an add and went to check out some puppies. They had 3 tan ones and 6 black. We wanted a male because they are cheaper and I guess the black puppies were $100.00 cheaper than the tan ones so that's what we got! We chose him out of 3 other males. He was the one not jumping all over my kids and biting them. His mom is an akc beagle and his dad is a akc champion black pug. overall he has been a blast to be around and is doing very well with potty training. We asked Brady what we should name him and he said "Thor!" so now we have a puppy named Thor.

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Thanksgiving Dessert

I am in charge of doing the thanksgiving desserts with my family. I couldn't decide one one so I am making all of these:



These cookie oreo brownie bars just got out of the oven and they smell heavenly!

Right after this post I am going to make this four-layer pumpkin cake with pumpkin cream cheese frosting topped with pecans and caramel. I hope it tastes as good as it looks!

Last I will be making a couple pumpkin pies.

What are you making for your thanksgiving dessert?
Happy cooking everyone!

Funny Brady

Brady is starting to say the funniest things and I never remember to write them down. Here are a couple funnies that I can remember.


Brady: "I'm so proud of Joe, Dale, Doc, and Uncle Matt for building our new home."
Me: "You're proud of them for building our tiny apartment? Bud, I don't think they built it.'
Brady: "Ya, they did."


Brady: "I don't like Santa, he needs to go away. Santa too scary."


Joe: "Brady how old is your cousin William?"
Brady: "um fourteen" (Brady can't even count to fourteen)


Brady: " Mommy I want to play with cousin Ethan so bad"
Me: "I know bud but he lives in Utah"
Brady: "Why!?" (in a very very sad voice)

pumpkin patch pt 2

I forgot to post these pictures I took with my moms camera. Aren't these little monkeys the cutest?

I'm 25

This is me at a whopping twenty-five years old:

I went to Utah for a couple days to celebrate my birthday with my best friend Brooke. It was also her birthday the same day! It was a fun short trip. I miss Utah, I want to go back for longer so I can visit my family that live there (sorry I couldn't come visit family).









We are already making plans to go to Hawaii for our 30Th. I better start saving now!

This deserves its own blog post

My father-in-law sleeping in the middle of a loud halloween party. He's the guy from the movie ” Up”. I might have peed my pants after I took this picture. I can't get over how funny this is.

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I visted Hell on Saturday.

So my friend Beth signed me up for this gladiator rock'n run. She bought me a ticket for my birthday and I though a little fun run would be great to do. This wasn't just a fun run. This was a nice trip to Hell and back, no joke I had to jump over fire. This "fun run" was 5 miles and 14 obstacles. Here are some obstacles I can think of that we did:

Up and down stadium bleachers..never ending bleachers. My legs were shaking and I really thought I was going to fall down them from the lack of strength keeping me from falling. This was one of the first obstacles and It was a doosie!!

We had to crawl through mud tunnels that had mud and water probably a foot high...I think I may have swallowed some mud..

Jumped over giant spools

Almost died on a tire mountain...I started to fall off face first, I had no strength to keep me from falling but at the last second I did a spin and landed on my feet. I saw my life flash before my eyes.

Huge mud slide. I was going at a good speed until this really big girl came and took me out. I was flying down the slide and landed in a huge mud pool.

"Polar bear plundge"..people were shoveling ice into the water we had to run through. This didn't help my already tight muscles.

"Hells Hills" lots of hills with mud. not fun.

There was this mud mountain that you had to use a rope to get up it.

There was a 8 feet wall of fame and a 4 feet wall of shame..I walked between the walls. I was so done at this point.

We dodged wrecking balls

Carried 40 pds sand bags to this huge buddha

Jumped over fire.

I tripped over a sticker bush and landed on some rocks. My knees are bruised and scarred.

it's been two days and I still can't walk. I have never in my life been this sore and that is crazy to me because I was an athlete for 16 years. I am going to start really working out so when I am forced to do this next year I will be a little more ready for it. walking an hour a day and eating healthy isn't good enough for this "fun run"..It was a great work out at least. I probably lost 7 pounds.

I love these kids..

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"Grandma Bell"

My Grandma passed away yesterday. I guess she fell and broke her leg, her kidneys shut down, and half her heart stopped pumping. She was in the ICU for a couple weeks and they sent her back to the nursing home when nothing could be done. I pray that she went peacefully and I am praying for comfort for my grandpa. She was my grandpa's whole world. She is my moms step-mom. I don't see her as a "step" grandma. I have only met my moms "real" mom once. She has never been present in my life and I don't consider her my grandma. MaryLou (my step-grandma) has always been my grandma, She was the one I would run to every year on our Idaho trips and say "hi grandma", and "I love you Grandma". I have lots of fun memories of my cousins and I playing at my grandparents down stairs and we seemed to get into trouble constantly but it was fun. The last time I saw her was in July of this year and she wasn't doing well at all. I honestly didn't think that would be the last time I was going to see her and really wish I could have given her one more hug and kiss and told her that I love her.

Today my Dad, Mom, sister, and I are driving to Moscow to spend the night and help my cousin Mindi and her two cute girls drive to Rexburg, Id. The funeral is on Tuesday, which is good because I can't bring my boys because there isn't room in the car and I don't want to be away from them for too long. Joe has school and I feel bad when people have to watch my kids (Connor is quite the screamer these days) Anyways, it will be nice to see my family again and to give love and support to my grieving Grandpa.

I'm really glad we got some pictures with my grandma and Grandpa. These are from summer of 2010. Connor was only 5 weeks old. Brady was 19 months.


We all got to see her in July of this year and got some pictures done. This is the Bell family. I am glad we got to see her one last time.

Rest in peace Grandma.