Christmas 2009

This was our first year ever to have Christmas Morning all to ourselves and we loved it! The kids took their time opening each gift and were really excited about what the other person received. Kalli really wanted this dinosaur called Screature and she was so happy to open her present and get it. The dino roars, spits water and trys to bite you and she loves it... oh, no Barbie for my 6 year old!?! B got the Millenium Falcon and some Star Wars guys. And they got a b-ball hoop to share. Santa was very generous! (Good thing Ben drew us a fireplace so Santa could get into our apartment). The kids were so happy and exctied that they finally got to open the presents that everyone had sent them. After that we had a giant breakfast. Ben made eggs and bacon and I made waffles and cream and then we packed up for the beach.
I thought that not being around my extended family for Christmas was going to be hard but we had a great time and didn't miss everyone too much:)

These are just a few pictures of some of the things we did to get ready for Christmas. We went to a few plazas in OSJ to look at the lights and decorations, we made a gingerbread house, decorated our "mantle", Kalli had a school Christmas program, we watched the sun set on Christmas Eve and then enjoyed the gorgeous weather on Christmas. We had a great time!
This year for Christams my family decided that we were going to do a hat exchange. We drew names, adults and kids, and had to buy, make or a little of both a "hat" for that person to wear for Christams Dinner. The hat could be something the person likes, like mine (the domestic goddess), hates, like Ben's (Boston Red Socks), or is silly, like Kalli and B. Or it might be just a hat to wear. I am not sure what everyone in Utah got but I know some were very big:) I hope to see some pictures of them on my mom's blog soon. I think that it was a fun idea and I hope to make it a family tradition! Merry Christamas!

Trapped By an Iguana

So I usually keep my front door open because we don't have a/c in our house. I have a screen door that helps keep out the misquitos and this particular day it kept out a bigger pest! I was sitting in my kitchen chair texting Ben when I looked up and this 3.5 foot long (from head to tail) iguana was siting on my welcome mat looking in at me. I jumped up and screamed and ran to the door to shut it. The iguana ran away and towards the end of my porch. I slammed the door and looked out the window. It was at the end of my porch with no place to go, since I am on the second level, and it was just staring at me. These lizards are big and don't scare easily and I am a little afraid of them. So my neighbor saw me and the iguana and came over to try to scare it away. By this point Bronsen came into the kitchen and did not want to try to sneak past the lizard to go pick Kalli up from school. But we really had to go...

I had no idea how we were going to leave the house with this guy (above) now under the kids' picnic table facing us and looking at me with his scaley yellow eye. The first neighbor had called a second neighbor who by the time he got up to my porch with a broom the iguana was gone. I had looked away for 10 seconds to answer my phone and looked on the porch and the iguana was no where to be found! B. said he saw it run away but that would mean it would have had to jump off my 2nd story porch and run across the street! But the 2nd neighbor came up and did a full sweep and gave us the okay to pick up Kalli.

This is our "iguana tree" in the field right next to our house. I believe this is where our visitor came from. How many iguanas do you see?

Needless to say that this could only happen in PR!!!

Santo Domingo Temple Trip

We were lucky enough last month to take a fast trip to the temple in the Dominican Republic. It is the closest temple to PR and our stake was taking a trip there the week of Thanksgiving. We have been wanting to go at least once while we are here and just couldn't pass up the oppurtunity. It was a once in a lifetime experience and it truely strengthened my testimony about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We had 61 members from our stake participate in the trip. Ben and I were only there one day and could feel the love and sacrifice of those members. I took this picture (No, it is not from the church website or a professional photographer, or is it photo shopped. It shows exactly how naturally awe-inspiring the House of the Lord is!) A copy of this hangs in our living room as a reminder of the wonderful blessings the temple provides in our lives and to our family.
Even though all the workers and the words in the temple were Spanish it helped me to understand how important the temple is to EVERY person no matter what launguage they speak or where they are from. Our loving Heavenly Father wants all to know and understand His promises. I have never been hugged so much at any temple and could feel the love of all in attendance that day. Ben and I were able to do some sealings and baptisms for some of his ansestors and we were so lucky to be able to go. Ben says that he used to wonder how people could go to the temple all day. But now we know the excitement and blessings that come from serving in the temple. We are going to try to go in April again and stay longer:)

Ben and I right before we left to go home. The temple is made from pink stone. I don't know why so maybe do some investigating and post a comment if you know why...

These were just a few pictures that we took of OSJ from the sky and of the amazing sunset as we left PR.

More Temple Pictures

Morning at the temple.
These pictures are for my dad who likes to take pictures from odd angles

Another for Dad!

Why This Explains EVERYTHING!!!

So I was, until recently, unaware of the boundaries and boarders of the Bermuda Triangle. After discovering that Puerto Rico was at one of the points of this unexplained anomaly I now understand EVERTHING about my life on this island.
It explains why this supernatural vortex sucks every rational thought and logical behavior form every member of society, it brings to light the fact that 5o year old men standing in the middle of two lanes are possessed with the undeniable faith that they are invincible to death or injury as speeding cars rattle there endless supply of M&M's and water bottles. This static electricity justifies planes full of passengers applauding and hailing Mary for the safe arrival of their passenger jet through what was sure to be an inevitable death thousands of miles high in the center of an unexplained magnetic deviation. With San Juan being one of the paranormal apexes now clarifies why the word “appointment” means, “just sometime between the end of lunch on Monday and the end of lunch on Friday. Because who knows, you might be sucked into the mystical geometric shape over the ocean and the doctor might have to wait for you.” And now I understand why Americans move to this island and feel as if a tornado blew them here and open their door to find strange little people, wearing weird clothes, sporting odd hairstyles and playing mesmerizing music.
Puerto Rico sure aint Kansas, but it sure gives me daily reasons to believe in the powers of the numinous "Triangle."

Halloween Festivities 2009

The kids trick-o-treating. Their bags were full after about 12 houses! They give out candy by the handfuls here. We will miss that next year...
All month I tried to be Halloweenie for the kids. These are our Mummy Dogs we made one night.

This is the huge web that Ben put up in our kitchen. The picture can not do it justice. Again Ben is very OCD about things and this was one of them. He hammered nails in the wall and the ceiling just so the web could look just right...

These are Monter Burgers. They look more like Kermitt the Frog to me, but the kids loved them and Ben always makes a great burger no matter what Muppet is looks like.

This Halloween I decided to sew costumes. I think that they turned out pretty well. Kalli LOVED her Jeannie costume (I was a Jeannie when I was about 6 and I loved it too) and B. loved his bat wings and ears. And at the last minute I decided to be Minnie Mouse and made myself this skirt.

This is all of us. Ben is a Yankee fan (not much of a stretch). Kalli is granting a wish and B. is getting ready to fly.

Cute picture of my cute girl.

Bronsen is very serious when it comes to shooting things, especially when it involves candy!

Just the kids having fun.

I Can SEW!!!

This is our table at the boutique my friend had this past weekend. This is our table and all of our fun stuff we made.

These our some of the skirts we made for the older girls.

And these are some of the onsie dresses we made. I just loved every one of them! If you want to see more and maybe have us make you one, or two (we also make matching ties) if you want!
Click below to go to our dress blog.

Do You Feel the Zen?

We do the storytime at the English library and the storyteller is great! She is all about creative movement and yoga and all that love and zen and getting your yen to match your yang...or something like that. But she had Bronsen teach the class for a little bit and I just had to grab a picture...
This is Emma and Nellie feeling the love and I was lucky enought to hold Nellie's beautiful baby while they were trying to connect to their inner selves.

Hunter takes this stuff very seriously! And I think that Luke thought she was a little out of her mind!

Kalli's B-day Party

We had a swim party this year for Kalli's b-day and invited some friends over for hot dogs and to get wet! The girls played with the girls and the boys played with the boys. We have this weird tradition of taking a bite out of your birthday cake that everyone at the party thought was odd, but Kalli loved it!

Not many people know this about Ben, but he is a little OCD about things. That is why he decorated Kalli's cake and does little projects with the kids and I just laugh because he takes it so seriously and it has to be "just so." Didn't he do a great job with Kalli's cake? I think of the ideas and he executes it. We are a great team! The cake did crack in the heat and with the weight of the candle, but Kalli loved it anyway...

Kalli being thrown by Daddy.

The girls poising at the party!!!

Happy Birthday Kalli

This movie is to celebrate Kalli. We are so happy to have her in our family and so glad that she is our oldest. (I am sure that she pushed or bribed her way in front of Bronsen to get here first). She is so smart, independent and full of drama. I just don't know where she gets it??? But most of all she is full of love. She wears her heart on her sleeve and is always so thoughtful to Bronsen and her friends. But one of my favorite things about Kalli is her "can do" attitude. I mean she is learning Spanish at a PR school and is always telling me, "You can do it, Mommy!" At times she is so much like me it is scary and causes us to bud heads but I wouldn't change her for the world.The video is 5 minutes long, but she sure is cute. She was the best baby EVER! We had a baby sitter watch her for a year and a half and after about a year she said Kalli cried one day and she didn't know what to do because she had never heard her cry before! She really was that good. As she grew she just got smarter and has always been wise beyond her years. I have learned more from her little spirit in 6 years than I think I will teach her in a life time. Kalli loves to sing and boss B. around. She also enjoys dance and school and loves to bossy B around. She "LOVES" to bare her testimony at church (more to be the center of attention) and is a natural artist. Her favorite food is mashed potatoes and favorite color is blue. Her daddy is her best friend and she wants to be a karate teacher when she grows up. Happy Birthday Kalli!!

These are some pictures of the kids playing T-ball this summer. They had so much fun and they both did a really good job. B is a switch hitter and Kalli is all smiles when it comes to playing.

I Know What We Did This Summer...

The kids were so excited to be in the states by all their family and friends. It was hard to have Ben in Pittsburgh for 7 weeks but we stayed busy and the time went buy much faster thanks to all the activities we were able to do.

The kids love olives. And who hasn't put olives on their fingers and eaten them off?

June was so cold! I didn't pack any pants and I had to end up buying a pare because all it did was rain for a month! This is what B wanted to wear while watching TV at Grandma's. He said that his head was "really cold." He has definitely acclimated to the Caribbean.

Kalli is our thrill seeker. She always wants to ride the biggest and fastest ride at any carnival or theme park. So she found this opportunity to ride the ferris wheel at the Riverton Town Days with Abuelo and Tayah.

We were very happy to visit with the Moons a few times while we were in Utah. They took Kalli and Bronsen over night while I was in Pittsburgh. Aren't they great? But this is Mylee, Kalli and Tyler (He is practicing to be a male model:)) at this great "cowboy park" in West Jordan. We really miss them in PR...

The kids were ready for business at the 4th of July parade. We always have squirt guns and the kids and the parade people love it!

This is my dad who got hit with silly string. The clown was retaliating after being Super Soaked. (That is a sucker stick in his mouth. It was a tobacco free parade.)

We went to a movie at the park night and watched the princess bride. They had a costume contest and different activities related to the movie, "The Princess Bride." So Cortanie, never missing a chance to dress up, helped get Kalli, B. and Jamie ready for the fun! I think Corky is the perfect "man in black."

This is what Ben did this summer. But is was worth it because he passed!

We took the kids to the Murray Arts in the Park summer musical, "Beauty and the Beast". They both loved it and Kalli got to meet Belle. She is her favorite!

This summer was all about hanging out with cousins and friends. It was so nice to see all of you and we miss you so much. It was nice to have all the grandkids together, on both sides, and see how much each child has grown. I mean Kelsey is almost 14! I can't believe how big my nieces are. They make me feel old... But anyway, we made some "Monkey Cupcakes and every kid thought it was fun and the turned out pretty cute.
This is Kalli and Bronsen with Great Grandma and Grandpa Barton at their B & B in Kanab, Utah. We stopped by there on our way to Arizona to visit the Brownings.

We went swimming at the new water park in Draper and the kids had a blast. Tayah and Heber are also getting so big! And it was fun to have tw0 new additions to the Yost side of the family with Kori and Lauren. Bronsen couldn't get enough of those babies. He tells me that he wants a baby sister:)

We were so luck to go to Bear Lake the last week we were there. I was beautiful and very cold. The water may be the color of the Caribbean, but it's not even close to the same temperature! But Ben and I both wake boarded anyway...

This was my first time to wakeboard and I go up right away... I was so happy and I felt so youthful out there behind the boat, until the next day when I was soar from head to toe!

This is all of my family at the 24th of July parade. It is crazy because I think about how the six of us, my parents and siblings, use to go every year and now look at us! There are a lot of us. We were so much fun that even the missionaries hung out with us there:)

But over all it was a great summer. We were there for 6 weeks and had a ton of fun with everyone. Now you have to all visit us here...