We Wish You A Merry Christmas

I used to send out Christmas cards, but the more kids I have the harder it gets so this is my version of a Christmas card! (The picture was taken after church with a tripod and timer. This was our first shot! Not too shabby!)It has been a great year for our family. ERIC finished another year of teaching in May and this school year is finally a full time school counselor. He loves it and I love it. Less hours after school and a more relaxed working atmosphere (for the most part). It is great! He has also been serving as a Primary teacher for the CTR 8 class so he has gotten to go to a lot of baptisms this year. This summer he worked really hard around our yard. He planted trees and shrubs, built gates for our fence, made our garden grow and best of all built an awesome play set for the kids. We love him and couldn't ask for a better husband or father for our family.

ANGELA has been busy keeping up with three kids. Carter came into the world in a crazy way and it has stayed crazy ever since, but we wouldn't change it for the world. The Relief Society also keeps me busy, but the calling has also been such a blessing. I get to meet and visit with some very amazing sisters and am so grateful for the opportunity. I also get to work as a nurse once a week at the best job in the hospital. I am in the outpatient IV Therapy clinic where we get to take care of some wonderful people. Every time I work I talk to people with incredible faith and strength and it helps me to want to be more like my Savior.

TADE is getting so big. He is a great helper and loves to be with his family. He started Kindergarten! Ahhh! But he loves it. He rides the bus in the morning and still lets me hug and kiss him everyday, even in front of his friends. I am not looking forward to the day when that changes. He is learning to read and his writing is continually improving. He loves playing basketball, football, wrestle or whatever with dad and he will unload the dishwasher, cleanup messes (even when he didn't make them) or do whatever mom asks. He is so great!

ASHLYNN is our baby girl, except she is such a big girl. She knows she is the only girl and loves anything pink or girly. She has started going to Joy School this year and has loved being with friends and learning. I am always amazed at what a three year old can learn and remember. She is a big helper when it comes to the baby and can put away laundry like a pro. She will be going to Primary next year. I can't believe my baby girl is so big!

CARTER is a sweetheart. We love having him in our family. The last seven months have flown by and I can't believe how much he has grown and developed over that time. He is sitting, crawling, trying to stand, eating food, sleeping through the night (mostly:)), and just making us smile with the silly things he does everyday.

WE have been very blessed this year and we know it is because of our Savior. Trials come and go, but we know that if we rely on our Savior, Jesus Christ, He will help us through any struggle we are facing. We wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you have a great New Year!

Let It Snow!

For awhile I didn't think it was ever going to stop snowing! Now that it has and the roads aren't so bad, I realize that I like snow on the ground because it makes it seem more like Christmas.In the picture of just Ashlynn you may notice electrical tape around her wrists. That is so her gloves won't come off and/or snow won't get up her sleeves. She also has baggies underneath her mittens to keep her hands from getting wet. Pretty white trash, I know, but it is the best we can do! Also, her hat kept falling down, but it worked. Her ears were warm. They actually played out there for over an hour, which was way longer than I thought they would. It definitely made all the "prep time" (getting dressed) worth it.

Disney On Ice: Princess Classics

Wow! I have been really bad at posting these last few months. Oh well! I guess, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit, right? At least that is what we are always saying at our house. Anyway, about a month ago we dropped Carter off at my mom's house and headed up to SLC for Disney On Ice. It was so fun! The kids were the perfect age. Tade is young enough that he still thought it was cool and Ashlynn was old enough to LOVE it! It was a great night.

Eric looks goofy in this picture (which isn't unusual), but look at the JOY on Ashlynn's face!

Note similar joy in my face.

Tade and Eric being silly boys. (Sitting next to Eric was a couple and their one or two month old baby. There were quiet a few people there in the same situation. Really? You like Disney that much you would come without a kid that could enjoy it to? I don't know. I guess I just don't like Disney THAT much, but whateves. I guess that is just their thing.)
Ashlynn would just spontaneously start applauding, even when no one else was. It was so cute!
Having so much fun she can't even tear her eyes away for a second to look at the camera.

Pictures of Pictures

I took pictures of the pictures we had taken at a local photo place so that Bobbi could see them. All the grandkids on the Gapp side got together for pictures and these are just a couple of the ones that got taken. It seemed like there were a million. At least, I am sure the kids would say that!

Smiling Carter

LOVE HIM!!!

Park City Trip

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I went up to Park City for a few days of rest and relaxation. My mom and dad had a condo timeshare that they had to use and I wasn't about to let it go to waste. Throughout the week they had it, several of my siblings were in and out. We stayed for three days of fun! We were so busy with all the fun stuff that I took a ton of pictures. The only downside to the resort was that they only have outdoor pools. WHAT?!?! Who only has outdoor pools in Park City? Keep in mind, this was the week it snowed. Fortunately, they are all super warm heated pools or hot tubs so it ended up being really cool! The kids loved it!!! I'll try to give a little explanation to each set of pictures. Just FYI the resort had a game/kid/activity room where most of these pictures were taken.

Hungry Hippos Tournament

Ashlynn's game face!
Matt and Mary (my youngest brother and sister)

Carter trying to sit. Carter sitting!!! He is getting pretty good, but still not quite stable all the time.

Painting pumpkins
The Scarecrow Walk (in 30 degree weather with a canyon wind and some snow flurries). These three didn't quite have as much fun as the rest of us!
The kids got pretty lazy cause our room was sooooo far away from the elevator. This was their usual mode of transportation.

Lots of posing for pictures! Me and Tade in the arcade.

My mom and sister Halee at the crayon shaving card class.

Halee is a goof!

Me and Halee posing.

Ash showing off her necklace after the child's beading class. Halee kept calling it the child "beating" class and talked about how excited she was to attend. What a dork. (I am laughing thinking about it though.) :)

The Child Beading Class
Tade made me a necklace. It was so sweet. I got to wear it the whole time we were there.

Lots of PS2 and Wii were played.

While babies chilled.

And girls posed.

My Boys

Tade and I went on a date to an Orem Owlz game before the season ended. It was so much fun! We drove in the truck, which is great because then he is sitting right there and we can talk and sing and be together. Tade thought Hootz the Owl was so cool! (I think he is pretty scary, but not as bad as Holly the girl owl!)Carter used to love sitting in the Bumbo. He would grab the middle thing an it looked like he was riding a horse. Now I think he wants to crawl, but is just too little to do it yet.Tade was the "Everyday Hero" in his class a couple of weeks ago. He got a medal. We went to his class and told everyone why we thought he was a hero in our family. We read his favorite book and then his class sang a song to him. He thought he was pretty special and so do we!Carter sometimes likes to sit in the high chair. He is still too skinny so we have to put a blanket around him and stuff the sides so he doesn't slip out. Me and my baby boy! I love this kid!!!

Princess Ashlynn

I keep thinking that I will do a few posts each week and get you all caught up from the summer, but it's not going to happen so I will just start with what's going on right now. Ashlynn turned three this month. She had a great birthday weekend. We went to a movie and dinner the night of her birthday. We got home late so the next morning she opened her presents and then we didn't have time to eat her cake that day. So we had it for breakfast the next day. Everything was pink or princessy just like Ashlynn. She loved it all!

Believe it or not this video was pretty fast. She used to be a lot slower. Now we have made her show us her fingers so many times she is really fast. I am glad I have this video so I can remember what it used to be like! We love this girl.

The week after her birthday Ash did a Jr. Drill Clinic at the local high school. It was their fundraiser and we know one of the girls so we let Ashlynn sign up. She loved going to dance class and on the last day they performed their dance at the halftime of the JV football game. Super short dance, but it was cute nonetheless!

We love Ashlynn in all her pinkness and even when she uses her whiny voice. She is our princess, but luckily, she understands that mommy is still the QUEEN!

I Love Being A Mom

Tade and I haven't totally been seeing eye to eye lately and it seemed that we were getting in more and more "fights." One day I asked why he was getting so angry and yelling and being mean. He said, "Because you never say please." So that is what I've been working on that last week or so. Saying please. Speaking softly. Using kind words. It seems to be working. We still have our moments, but I feel more peace in our home, which is always a good thing! We have been doing so much lately and at some point I'd like to sit down and catch up, but that is not today. So here are a few random pictures of my awesome kids!

These are the new Clement grand babies. Kennedy was hungry. I love Carter's face!Ashlynn loves playing dress-up. Usually, it is princess stuff, but this day Tade shared his pirate clothes.This is me and the kids at $2 Tuesday at Thanksgiving Point. It was a fun day with the cousins.Tade's first day of Kindergarten.How can you not just adore this kid?

Carter's New Favorite Game

My baby boy is getting so big. He is learning new things all the time. This is a new game that he and Eric like to play.

August First Sunday Lesson

The first Sunday in August I had to give the lesson in Relief Society. On the church website it was recommended that as a Presidency we should use a talk given by Elder Bednar in a May CES Fireside. I thought sure, if it is recommend I better do it. Well, I started reading it and realized it was a pretty blunt talk. (That's the only word I can think of.) Anyway, I thought about waiting and passing it on to one of my counselors, but realized that probably wouldn't be nice. So I decided to give it a go. The more and more I read it the more and more I realized what an AWESOME talk it was and how much I need to listen to Elder Bednar's counsel. Hopefully, you guys will all get it as a first Sunday lesson, but if not click here and read it. It is AMAZING!

Worth The Work

Carter has smiled a few times for me after lots of silly faces and even more silly noises. I was lucky enough to catch this one on camera this morning so I thought I would post it so all of you could enjoy my adorable baby! He is getting so big!!!

Bobbi's Keeping Me Going

I know I haven't been doing a great job of blogging lately and the only thing keeping me somewhat updated is my sister, Bobbi (who is on a mission). So these are just a few random pictures and videos from the last week. Hopefully, I will blog about all the other stuff that we have done before this, but I guess we'll just have to see. I can't make any promises. :)

One of these things doesn't belong? Can you figure out which one?

This picture was taken at Carter's blessing. Everyone in my family was there, except Bobbi! :(

(We would rather have her on her mission, though.)

My dad wanted a picture with his favorite child. What can I say? Isn't he cute? I love my dad!!!

My three beautiful sister-in-laws.
Staci (John)-Stephanie (Chris)-Lisa (Daniel)

Halee and Carter on his special day. He was such a good baby!
I am a bad mom and didn't get any pictures in his blessing outfit.
We will get those later, I guess.

Two of my sisters. I just thought they looked cute so I wanted to post it!

We went swimming tonight and these are just a few short videos of my crazy fish kid! He loves the water!!!