the one about the SuperBowl and my sister

I gotcha with my title, didn't I? I don't have a sister. Well, a real live biological sister, that is. I do, however have my Brynn. She is my sister-in-law and one of my very best friends. We are married to brothers, and both of us will argue that we each married the best brother! And we will agree that we are thrilled that we didn't marry the other brother, Cory! HaHaHa!!! Neither Brynn or myself have sisters, so we decided years ago that we would just be each others adopted sister. We have also adopted our husbands' sister, Talia, as one of our sisters. The three of us are so happy to have each other and we share such a special bond. I don't know what I would do without these girls.

Early last Friday morning, Brynn's mom, Wendy, passed away. I feel so bad for Brynn. She is very close with her mom. Wendy has had many health problems and has really struggled over the years. Brynn has done everything possible to help her mom. Wendy passed very unexpectedly, but also very peacefully in her sleep. Brynn's family is doing quite well considering the circumstances.

Friday evening, my mom and I took dinner to Brandon and Brynn. When I left, Beau'D wanted to come home with me and play with Quayd. We decided to go swimming at the rec. center. After swimming, we took Beau'D home and Brynn invited us to eat dinner with them. It was so nice. The next night, Saturday, there was a UFC fight on pay per view so Brandon invited Brett to come watch it with him. I wasn't to interested in the fight, so I went to see my Brynn. When I got there, she was working on a project for the funeral. She was doing some photo collages and she was having a creativity block. I was excited to get my hands on something crafty, and I think she was happy for the help. We finished the project and it turned out very nice. Once we finished, she was just spent. I could see it in her face. She looked at me, sighed, and asked if I would come lay by her in her bed and cuddle. I was happy she asked! We went in her room and got the bed all ready. Just as we were getting comfortable, the guys emerged from the basement because the fight was over. No cuddling for us. :( We stood in the kitchen and visited and decided to get together for the Superbowl the next night. We made food assignments and invited Brett's other siblings, his mom, and Brynn's dad. Sunday afternoon, we headed over to Brandon and Brynn's. Three nights in a row! Of course, Brynn and I were not into the game at all! SO here are some of the things we did instead. Brynn read a book. We watched Twilight. We made a bed on the floor and got our cuddle on! Ran to the store. We had LOTS of delicious beverages! We ate things that were NOT on our diet.

I waxed Brynn's eyebrows and face, and I gave her a pedicure. It was such a fun night!

The kids had a blast running around, eating non-stop and making a huge mess!

Brynn's dad, Tom, was right in the middle of all of the kids!

Brycen rolling on the love sack.

Sweet Little Kelby. He is such a good boy!

The boys of course watched the game, but they also had some type of wrestle mania thing going on.

Talia's boyfriend, Chance (in the darker colored shirt) and his buddy Pat (in the red).

Beau'D trying to referee Brandon and Chance.

They were also having wars with a marshmallow gun, drank LOTS of delicious beverages, ate lots and lots of food and made a huge mess!!! After the game, everyone cleaned up, I washed all of the dishes then we headed home.

We have had a blast with Brandon and Brynn and their family the last few days. My poor little Brynn. I feel so bad for her. I feel bad that we have been at their house everyday for the last 3 days and we have made mess, after mess, after mess! But we have cleaned it all up and we have sure had fun together. I guess that makes it worth the mess, right?

the one about ROCK BAND!

We totally love playing Rockband. Its one of our favorite games on the Wii. On Christmas Day night, we went to Brett's brother Brandon's house and played for hours. Brandon and Brynn have a huge projection screen TV and it is so fun for the Wii. The pictures didn't really work, but see that huge white space behind Brandon??? Yah. That is the screen. You can kind of see it behind Quayd in this picture.You totally feel like you ARE the Rockband. Of course we are good enough to really be a band, but, whatever.

This is Brett and his crazy brothers!
Brandon rocking the whammie! Brett on drums and me on the vocals!
Me, chillin with Finn.

the one about Brycen and costumes

It was my sweet little nephew Brycen's 1st Birthday on the 10th. We went over to his house and had a fun little party! We had pizza, cake, presents and lots of laughs! Here he is getting his cake. Isn't he adorable???
Now this might be one of my favorite pictures of all times. It was taken at the party and I think it is darling!!! Quayd and Talia. ahhhhhhhh.....

Now, on to the "costumes" part of my post. Two years ago, I bought Quayd a bunch of Halloween costumes at the after-Halloween sales. He has LOVED having them for dress up stuff. He and Brennen (and sometimes Brayden) wear them all of the time. Quayd's other friends love them too!!! (Quayd and Kasen)
Brennen, Zoey and Quayd
Quayd and Brennen go trick-or-treating at my mom and grandma's houses all year long!

They have also come in handy for different dress up activities at school. (Kindergarten-Fairy Tale day) Ha Ha, that reminded me that Shae was having a Superhero assembly on the first day of school and needed something to wear, so she came and hit the costume bin.

Here is a picture from early this October. Quayd, Brayden and Brennen had a 4H activity where they had to go trick-or-treating for canned foods to donate to the food pantry. Danette and I didn't have their costumes ready, so we just let them rummage through the costume bin. Brayden even found some things to use. I have started to notice the costumes are getting super small. They don't button up anymore and they are all high-waters. I went to "the marts" (Wal and K) on Tuesday and hit the JACK POT! Costumes were 90% off! I got so many costumes for them and the most expensive one was $1.99 and the cheapest was $.49. I got home before they got off the bus so I laid them all out on my couch. I intercepted them in the driveway and told them I had a big surprise in the front room. They took off RUNNING! You would have thought it was Christmas morning. They were THRILLED! They were tearing into them and trying them on before I even made it back in the house. It was so awesome that I was able to get them so many new ones. And I only spent about $20.00. Here they are in some of the new costumes. Brayden and I are OBSESSED with aliens, so he snatched this one right up! The only rule is that they have to stay at my house and they have to keep them picked up. Otherwise, it is a free for all! The best $20.00 I have spent in a long time! :)

the one about Halloween (finally!)

Yay!!!! I found my camera tonight! I had almost given up, and then I was helping Quayd in Brett's car tonight, and Ta-Dah!! There it was. I love when that happens! So, I am sorry for the delay, but here are some pictures I had to share!

Pumpkin decorating contest for school.... Quayd & Brennen.




Friday morning before school. I think it is so lame that kids cannot dress up, so I decided to push the boundaries a little bit and give Quayd and Brennen a little Halloween spirit.



Friday night, Danette and I dressed up for "Witches Night Out" in Downtown Vernal. It was pretty fun. I hope they do it again and can expand on it a little bit. Here we are in our costumes that I made. Danette has her cute little dog Izzy.


Later that night, us and our husbands went to a Halloween party.

You have to look closely at Brett's costume....

Halloween morning was busy! Quayd had a soccer game, then he had bowling league. They had a little party at bowling and the kids got to dress up. (By the time I took pictures, Quayd bowling team had already ditched their costumes.) These are his bowling buddies, Payton and Gage.




After bowling, we all had a little nap, then got ready for trick-or-treating. Brett stayed home this year, and Brandon wasn't able to go, so Danette and I loaded up the boys and had a great time. We even decided to wear our witch costumes! We also went to the rec. center for the annual Halloween celebration. It was really cool!!! Around 8:30, we came home, and decided to go to my mother-in-laws. She was fixing her famous tacos! It was really weird... we had not planned on that at all, but all 4 kids and their families ended up at her house and we had the funnest time EVER! We all stayed there for hours and we laughed and laughed. It was so cool. We haven't all been together for the longest time! Here is me and my crazy sister-in-law Brynn, and our cute boys.

All in all, it was a pretty great Halloween. I love Halloween!!! I love my family, my little mummy and my mammogram machine. :)