Family Home Evening Fun

We were so excited to have Grandma and Grandpa Bagshaw over for dinner and FHE a few weeks ago. We had planned on dinner and bowling but the kids lost that privilege through a series of fights, that NEVER happens at your house, right? Anyway we had dinner and then FHE. For our activity we decided to play Would You Rather? a game we got as a family at Christmas. It was SO much fun. There are questions about what you would rather do IE Be very smart and alone or dumb and have friends. Anyway I got a challenge with a list of things to do for the rest of the night and I had to pick one. So I picked having someone draw a mustache and glasses on me with make up. My poor mother in law just about died when she saw my make-up. She kept saying..."This is it! I am so disappointed." It was so funny. All my make up is pretty flesh colored so it looks "barely there" if I ever wear it. So there was nothing to really draw a good face so the poor woman broke out her own lip stick...

Grandma did good huh? We all had so much fun and it truly was funtastic. The kids loved every minute and although we did not get to bowl I think it was worth it.

Catchin' Up with the Bagshaws in 2012

Bowen
Bowen is our happy little camper. He has this amazing long curly blonde hair that makes his mom so happy. He is still such a ham and smiles at everything. His favorite new toy is emptying the shredder and playing with all the little piece...oh goody. He loves his binky and is still our little sunshine. He crawls around like lightning so has found no need to start walking. He has however taken his first steps. We love our little man.


MaKynzee
MaKynzee is our little "flairy". She is from another world entirely and likes to spend her days there up in the clouds. She finds it hard to come back to earth and listen to her parents. Her two favorite things are Hippo and Kira. She love her new preschool and can spell her name. Her parents are SO excited since most people told them that she would hate us because she won't be able to spell her name. Well she isn't in Kindergarten yet so HA! Anyway she had a cute little streak where she tried to rename Hippo, Sparkles because she was sick of everyone call her a "him". It didn't last very long. Here is how I found her the other day with her two favorite people...Sh is very loving and likes to cuddle.


Lukas
Lukas is a class clown. He is so funny and finds ways to make us laugh daily. He has this cute little ritual he dose when I drop him off at school. He rolls down the window, gets out and runs to school. So mom is sitting there with the door wide open and snow coming in, my door and window wide open. I get some pretty good looks but when Lukas is just about to school he turns around and laughs his infectious giggle and I can't help but grin. I love it! We are moving on to chapter books now so we will see how that goes. This is him telling me that he is ready for church...he was in Bowen's dress shirt. The funniest part was watching him try to button it up.


Brandee
Well Brandee is well Brandee. I have decided to be Brandee "uncut" this year and try to be honest with myself and all of you. I am going to revamp my blog and use it as my sounding board/ my therapy. I am going to be honest with myself and you. If you want to know me, the real me you can check it out. I am staying insanely busy with work, home, kids, husband, Primary, church and everything else. Primary is my therapy. I love it. I was bearing my testimony Sunday and told everyone that I had no idea I would have 75 kids at 27! Shhh Spencer might kill me, LOL. SO this new year our theme is Choose the Right. I love it. I came up with this "super" cute bulletin idea. I really like it and thought about putting it on sugar doodle but don't have the guts. I LOVE IT! On Sunday the kids are going to draw a picture of themselves and write their names and we will put it all over the board by Super Right....



When I was working I turned around and found Bowen doing this...

I turned the mic on and listened to him giggle, ooo, momma and all other cute noises. It was fun. He wants to be a big kid. I LOVE the tippy toes.


Spencer
Spencer gave us all the best Christmas/ New Years present EVER. He got a full time job offer with Premier Technology in Blackfoot as their IT department with one other guy. He LOVES his job and after he negotiated vacation time so he could still go backpacking every summer, he signed a contract. I am so very proud of him. He still has 3 classes left and will graduate in May. He is busy like never before but he is balancing quite well. We hope this is the end of school and so does he because I have promised him a cruise. We will see...

MaKynzee's First Dance Recital

MaKynzee took a Cheer and Hip Hop dance class. She had a really good time but really wants to do ballet. After her dance recital she said, "Mom can I do real dancing now?"

Before the recital,

she was in the class with Kira of course!

I thought MaKynzee was the best but I AM her mother!

She did SO awesome with the cheer part...we always knew she was LOUD! Just like her mom!

Daddy was on his frst buisness trip so Grandma and Grandpa filled the void. As soon as MaKynzee learned about the recital she wanted to invite Grandma and Grandpa. It was so nice to have them there. THANKS!

I guess that means we are on to "REAL" dancing now.

San Diego Here Comes MOMMA

So my parents, my sister and her husband and me hopped in a car Christmas night and began our travels to my cousin's wedding in SUNNY San Diego. We just went to Lehi, Ut Christmas night and then we took another 12 hour drive to San Diego. The drive wasn't too bad there, we had lots of Christmas movies to watch. We arrived, checked in, pampered ourselves and then went to a dinner for family of the wedding party. The Groom, Spencer (my cousin) being from all around the US (due to military family, my uncle is a Colonel in the Air Force, yah I'm braggin') had a wonderful 10 attendees, we doubled the group! Well the dinner was on the freakin' Pacific Ocean! The restaurant is called Ruby's and it is a quarter mile walk on a bridge to get out to it. It was AWESOME...

The "favorites" table.

(R to L) Bryonna (cousin/ sister of the groom), Me, Krystal (cousin/sister), Arik and Christina.

After dinner Bryonna and I walked along the beach bare foot. It was AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL and some serious therapy!

Ok, just the majesty of this building is unreal! I felt so overwhelmed by the spirit and a knowledge that families are truly for all eternity. It takes work but this reminded me that it is all worth it!

The sweet and ever so in LOVE Mr and Mrs Bowen.

Me with the lovely couple. I was SO glad that I could go! Congrats guys, I LOVE YOU!

My favorite man at these Bowen gatherings! My Uncle Alan, he is just flat out AMAZING and every time I see him I love him so much more! He has never aged a DAY! I want to be just like him, I love his smile and laugh.

Just an amazing place to be with your favorite uncle!

One thing that I have noticed missing in my life is my own devotion and drive to make it to eternity. So this was some serious WAKE UP and smell the roses. I realized that no matter what happens in this life I want to be standing on the other side with my Savior smiling arms out wide saying, "Thou good and faithful servant." With my Father and Mother in Heaven there looking on to welcome me HOME. The only way to make it there is to make some serious changes and be more focused on my Savior and I am ready!

Christmas Joys 2011

This Christmas we had a great time! I was a little over ambitious with our parent gifts and lost half of the other presents but hey Santa was really busy this year.


So I don't know what possessed me but I came up with this idea all on my own. I decided to quilt our parents temple (everyone keeps asking but NO, I did not use a pattern I made my own) and then add the grandkids hand prints as "flowers" on the bottom because temples are always surrounded by flowers...

Spencer's parents were sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple.




My parents were sealed in the Oakland Temple. I am sad that you can not see the detail. As you might know the temple has Jesus and his disciples on the front, well I hand stitched each one. You can't see it but it is there. It was Christmas morning and no one waned to be in the picture :(


We celebrated Christmas Eve with caroling to nursing homes with a family in my sister's ward, it was the first time I felt the Christmas spirit and just basked in it. It was good to do some service with the kids to celebrate. Then ...Tradition! We acted out the Nativity. Did Baby Jesus have bottles??



Hanging our stockings by the "chimney"


Christmas morning was full of LOTS of JOY! All the adults woke up before the kids. Dang, that won't happen again. We were awake for a good hour or two and then finally woke up the kids, we did have to get to church at 11:00. The best Christmas gift was being with family. Christmas morning Santa brought the kids...

Bowen...

A rocking horse and clothes. He loved the horse can you tell.

MaKynzee...

A Princess vanity and more mini princess dolls to replace all the ones that have been beheaded or lost their hair, LOL.

Lukas...

His very own computer complete with desk, he is becoming more and more his dad every day! And a remote helicopter.

Then when the excitement was just at its peak we went to church to celebrate in the TRUE meaning of Christmas. The grandkids in their Christmas dress clothes.

Bowen's 1 year Pictures

We did Bowen's one year pictures last week and they turned out awesome. Spencer took the pictures. I set him up and changed the clothes, positions and perfection. I think we are getting pretty good at this tag team photography stuff.

We used some wrapping paper I picked out as the back drop, it turned out better than expected, I think Spencer was a little hesitant but I think they are amazing!

My sweet angel boy

GO Broncos, I love this one cause he is so happy. The expression is priceless.

Then we went for nothin' but diaper and this cute hat he got for his birthday. His "animal" has been dubbed the bear and so it was very fitting.

We are totally in love with this kid!

How could you not LOVE that smile?

Ok the story behind this one is that Bowen was done and so he decided he was going to walk toward us, so we got his first step on picture! He stepped out from the hippo and then took one more step without holding onto anything! WAHOO! We better watch out.

Gone but NOT without a good excuse!

Ok so I finally am here up dating our blog. So many things have been happening and keeping us on our toes and off the "enjoyment" activities list. Halloween was a roller coaster but so much fun. A family update...

Lukas has totally soared in school. He is doing amazing with his reading. The teacher keeps telling us that he just keeps surprising her. This boy is all about games though. All he ever wants to do is play games... his current favorite is Stratego. We are still trying to teach him the right way.

MaKynzee is still such a "sweetie". Her teacher keeps telling us she has two "problems" with MaKynzee during school.
1. She won't sit down, she is always standing at the desk.
2. She won't stop talking.
Well her parents would agree. Our biggest problem with MaKynzee is she just won't sit down to do anything, especially eat. She's always standing and creating quite the mess. We need to get a dog to hoover under the kitchen table.
About her talking...if she isn't talking she is singing, and if she isn't singing she is yelling and if she isn't yelling she is "whispering" and if it isn't any of the above she is WHINING! Heaven help us! Hippo is still her best friend and companion. She is ALL girl and we love her!!

Bowen's first birthday party was a huge success! The boy won't stop growing. At his ONE yr apt the boy weighed in at 21 lbs 30z (5% for wt) and a whooping 31.5 in long (90% for ht). Gee I wonder is that a Bagshaw or a Bowen?? Maybe he looks like a Bowen and is perfectly named but he is a Bagshaw build. We regifted Lukas' hippo walker/ride-on that he got for his 1st birthday and Bowen LOVES it. He is always trying to walk with it. He throws a little tantrum everytime the hippo pulls away and he has to sit down. Such a little temper. He is walking along everything and crawling UP everything too. Nothing sacred anymore.

Spencer only has 5 more weeks of full time school, with one class in the spring. I can't even tell you how blue in the face I am from holding my breath that this is it. This is finally happening right?? We are hoping the "real" world will be nicer to us this time around.

Brandee is going crazy and would love to be 6ft under....I am not laughing. It has been so crazy but the Lord keeps making it work so BRING IT ON! Work has got increasingly hard and emotional... I just get so attached and maybe I see the end... where I don't HAVE to work anymore. I just HATE being away from the home and my other duties. Kudos to those who can work and like to... I just really don't.