Merry, Merry!!

As tradition has it, we spent our Christmas Eve with Dale's family, Gretchen and Steve. Steve is always such a great entertainer for the kids -- but, I'm not sure who the kid is!! What a great time they all had being pulled behind the four wheeler in the sled! Only at Gretchen's can you four wheel in your backyard!

The kids were so excited to open their traditional "Christmas jamies!"

As usual, Sid - Cole - and Rett - were spoiled rotten by Santa and everyone else!

Rett only cared about playing with his Tonka Trucks -- forget opening presents!

Briggs loves his cousin Rett!! They can't get enough of each other!

Merry Christmas to you all!!

Charles

Introducing Charles . . who receives so much love from Sidney, Cole, and Rett! He is very spoiled, Rett even lets him ride in his cars and on his motorcycles! (I am amazed he is still alive!) Welcome to our family Charles!

Tradition . . .

All of you know -- we LOVE to wait to get the tree put up! Yes -- today was the day!! With just 10 days left until Christmas, the kids could wait no longer. We did it! We loaded in the car -- mind you, it is about 20 degrees outside and the wind is blowing. As we arrive at the tree lot, Cole notices the trees are now 50% off (see it pays to wait)! We get out, tell the nice gentleman stoking a fire we need a beautiful, small tree. The kids went staight to the tree they wanted -- $20.00 later -- we are now the proud owners of a beautiful 5 foot tree! We were in and out of the car in about 3 minutes flat!! As you can see, Rett thought we were nuts for getting out in that weather!

One side note -- Dale is frantically working to finish his work in the Draper temple -- so needless to say, he is out of the house at 6:30 a.m. and gets home at about 9:30 p.m. -- the kids think he is out of town all week.

Back to the events of the evening. Sidney and Cole haul the tree in. After much discussion I had with the lovely tree stand to get it to work, I finally did it. I put the thing together "by myself!!" Cole then tries to help me put the tree in that darn thing. Just when I think we have it -- Cole lets go of the tree and there it goes -- leaning to the right. I had to call Ernie to the rescue!! Ernie stopped by and had that lovely tree standing straight and tall within 5 minutes! Thanks Ernie. Now -- thats not all. Cole and I check the string of lights we had to make sure they worked. All is well -- lets get to decorating! I string the lights around the entire tree -- plug those babies in and WHAM -- there are only about 20 out of 100 lights that work!! Just my luck! Oh well -- it looks beautiful! The kids put all the ornaments on this year, finished that tree and we are READY FOR CHRISTMAS!! Come soon Santa . . . Please bring us a new string of lights!

Santa!

We finally got to SEE Santa! Grandma and Grandpa Barton had a little Christmas party at the assisted living center. Rett was so excited to go and see Santa . . . . until we were next in line! Then he would only go and see Santa if he was with me! So there you have it, both Rett and I got to sit on Santa's lap! (of course, I was the only one doing the talking!) Then, Cole has this great idea that he would get out of sitting on Santa's lap and just steal some of Rett's candy cane -- WRONG! Rett was not going to share for anything . . . so yes, Cole had his turn and got his own candy cane!



This is the best part of the whole night -- while Cole was busy telling Santa about the DS he wants along with the DOGZ game, Rett was sneaking in for another treat! (Sidney was hiding behind the door! Who knows why my kids are frightened of Santa -- could it possibly be my threats to put them on the "naughty" list!!)

Now for the bad news . . . I know you were all waiting for the fun Thanksgiving photos, well, I went to post them last night and you wouldn't believe it . . . no photos on the memory card. I didn't get them downloaded and now they are gone! I have realized something this week and called Mom to tell her -- "Nothing is my own anymore!!" All she could do was laugh and tell me it will never be! So -- one of those kids must have got a hold of the camera and deleted all of the wonderful Thanksgiving photos -- the best photo that will be missed is one of Rett kissing Gretchen's sister-in-law's dog. The dog standing on his hind legs and Rett leaning in for a kiss! DANG! Yes, we had a great Thanksgiving. Spent the day with Dale's sister, Gretchen and her family. I baked my usual rolls, pies, and chex mix!

Other missing photos included those of our newest family member, Charles. After much begging and Dale finally telling me we are too hard on the kids and we should let them have a pet -- we found Charles, the hamster! (I will take new photos of him and post them soon!) He is a very nice little guy and rarely bites, but the other night -- he was up playing on his wheel ALL NIGHT long! The kids had left him in the living room. Needless to say -- both Dale and I were up all night with the noise of the wheel and questioned what we were possibly thinking in letting the them get a pet!! So -- last night, Charles slept in the bathroom upstairs (Cole wakes up with his running too --so he is banned from their room)! I went to check on the kids before putting myself to bed last night and there Sid was -- curled up on the bathroom floor with her blanket, right next to Charles! (She is protecting him from being thrown out in the shed!)

Last, but not least, Cole lost his second tooth! He was so excited and wanted me to take a picture for the blog -- yes, that too is now gone!

So there you have it -- the Gierisch happenings in a nut shell!

Random Thoughts and Updates

Hello everyone!! We're back!! I finally have a quite moment to update you on our family happenings! It has been a rough week at house at the winter sickness sets in. Rett had croup this week -- full on -- which included steriods and nebulizer treatments. Following three days of that, he then wakes up with a runny nose and cough -- A good old fashioned cold! Here we go -- Welcome Winter!! Rett's favorite towell is the "pink one" -- so here's to ya all!!

Congratulations Sid!! Yes -- Sidney won an award at the Reflections contest for those cute little clay birds! Happy Day! Cole was upset he didn't win anything but a pack of colored pencils and he believes Sidney won due to her photos of those little birds taken by a "professional photographer!" Thanks Ernie!

Leah, Jessica, and Brigham

Who's who?? Could they be cousins? A couple of weeks ago we had a great weekend when Dad, Lynnea, and Jessica all came to visit. But the best part of the visit was meeting that cute little baby, Leah. Leah is two months younger than Brigham. It was so fun to see them together especially since Brigham weighs about 10 pounds heavier than her. They are both such good babies -- I would forget they were with us!

Grandpa treated us all to a bowling game! We all had so much fun! Rett would "gently" roll the ball down the lane and then stand there with his hands up ready for a cheer -- as long as it took to hit those pins -- he was ready! We all tried to break the 100 score and Cole was excited he beat Grandma Lynnea!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all --- Can't wait to hear about all of the festivities!

Happy Halloween!

Here the are!! The pizza factory waitresss, the bunny, and the firefighter! (My firefighter was a little sick of wearning his costume after having it on all day for school)! What an evening! Dale is the ward activities committee chairman and I am on his committee. We had this great idea to have a chili cook-off on Halloween with trunk-or-treat after. It was a great evening and we had a huge turnout to the party -- but boy were we tired!!

Sid and Cole ready to go to school!

Book / Internet Party!!

Have you ever used a cookie scoop?? My cookie scoop I have had for 10 years finally broke. So -- I turn to the lifetime warranty Pampered Chef. All I needed was a cookie scoop, but it tuned into a book party! So -- if you are looking for Christmas ideas for someone who loves the kitchen and all of its gadgets, look no further. Go to www.pamperedchef.biz/ale. If you find something you love - type in my name and wah-lah -- you have just participated in my first ever -- pampered chef party! Thanks!

The Great Pumpkin Carving!!

The moment Cole has been waiting for, finally arrived. He has been so excited to carve pumpkins for the past three weeks he has been waiting to put a face to that guy!

Rett thought the pumpkin was "stinky" and "yucky!" He loved stabbing the poor thing, but didn't like to touch the goo!

For the first time ever, Sidney and Cole did their entire pumpkins from start to finish! What an accomplishment! Dad had to do the work on Rett's -- after Mom got all the "goo" scraped out!

Zoo Day!

(Drew, Brigham, Cole, Rett, and Emily)

The kids were out of school on Thursday and Friday this week. So -- my friend Lisa and I decided we should take the kids to the zoo. We had it all planned out -- then Sidney decided to go to St. George with her girlfriend and her family. WHAT?? We can't go to the zoo without Sid -- but, yes we can! We took Brigham with us too, he didn't want to be left at home! It was a great day -- I got all my excercising for the week in one day just chasing my 2 year old. He has no fear of going off on his own. I can see why people have leashes for their kids. But then they are the one missing out on all the exercise! We'll have to keep the tradition going and go to the zoo for every fall break!


This is what Brigs thought about all those stinky animals!!

Our Little Artist

Last weekend, Sidney decided she wanted to enter the "Reflections" contest at school. The project is due on October 14. Students can submit work from categories such as literature, photography, dance, visual arts, . . . . Sid chose 3D Art. So, she began sculpting birds. Birds of all kinds. She is so creative and artistic! She can just decide in her head she is going to create a penguin - and she does it! No pictures to copy, just her memory. Amazing! She takes after her Dad! The theme of the contest this year is WOW. So her statement for this art is "Wings Of Wonder." I'll let you know how she does in the contest!

By the way -- Dale is back in Mexico City. He had the oppotunity to go back down and "fix" the bad paint job on some furniture they had ordered. He will just be away for 10 days . . . so lucky for us he won't miss Halloween!

I'm Engaged!

I feel like I am 20 again! Dale surprised me with this "anniversary" ring tonight! I am so excited. You know I always said on our 10 year anniversary I want a bigger stone. (I know that is very materialistic, but hey, you can never have enough jewelry, right?!?) So 10 years passed, 12 years passed, 15 years passed, and this year was our 16th anniversary. So -- there you have it! I love it! Dale is teasing me because I can't stop looking at it! I'll have to get my nails done tomorrow for all this showing off!! YIPPEE!!

*** Dale on the other hand, is looking forward to the honeymoon tonight!***

Time Passes Quickly . . . .

WOW! I can't believe it has been so long since I have updated this!! Thanks for all your comments on encouraging me to give you all the updates! Time is moving quickly in our family. Dale returned from Mexico City the first weekend in September. He is now working on the Draper temple for the next couple of months. Grandma Lynnea came in town last weekend. We had a fun filled soccer, shopping, and bottling tomatoes weekend. Cole's city league soccer started this month -- so we are going to either games or practices at least 5 days a week! WHEW! They are both playing really well -- Sid's team has only lost one game so far this season!


The boys have been playing on this 1978 "micup (as Rett calls it). Where you get "micup" out of motorcycle - who knows?!?! Even though it is not street worthy -- they try their luck and go for drives up the canyon! Cole wants his own now!


My baby is now a "big boy!" No more crib! Grandma Lynnea traded us the crib for a twin bed. Rett definitely has his own personality! When Sid and Cole moved to a big bed, they would stay in bed at all costs -- even go as far as when they woke up in the morning they would stay in bed and just holler for Mom or Dad to come and get them. Not Rett! He just gets out of bed and comes downstairs to find us -- dark or light!! What a kid!

First Day of School - Need I Say More?!?!

Sidney started 5th grade.


Cole is in 2nd grade.



Rett really wants to go to school!

Continued . . .

When the kids and I arrived in Ogden, Dale was still working in the temple. But -- that didn't bother the kids -- they saw the pool -- end of story!!



I wouldn't call sleeping in a hotel with a 2 year old exactly fun. Rett was so wound up Friday night with all the excitment of seeing Dad and jumping from bed to bed (I know all of you with kids totally understand!) that we didn't actually get to sleep until after 11:00 p.m. (this is WAY past our kids bed time!!). Needless to say -- the kids and I slept in until 8:30 Saturday morning. AHHHH! Just as soon as we could get dressed, we were up and at it feeding the fish in a little pond behind the hotel. I think this was the highlight of the trip! Sidney loved it so much she caught a guppie in cup and took care of it all day and brought it home with her! Yes -- it is still alive!





Then we went to the food court in the mall for lunch Dale - -which was very fun for me, but I think the highlight for the kids was the time they spent in the Arcade! The adventure didn't stop there -- Dale went back to work and the kids and I went to the Treehouse Children's Museum. It was super fun. They had a magic show, arts & crafts for the kids, treats . . . . it goes on! After having so much fun at the Treehouse, we topped the afternoon off with a trip to the Farr Ice Cream Parlor! I really wish I would have taken a picture of Rett after he finished his cone -- we had to change his clothes for the ride home! All in all -- Ogden is a very happening place. Who knew there is so much to do there?!?! We want take another trip there just to go to the Dinosaur Museum -- I hear it is amazing! We avoided the crime and had a great time!