Jamie Keller, Ella and Baylee Sue getting ready for their gymnastics performance. "Go girls Go!"

You have to love the innocence of children... The only way Drew placed 2ND was because the other boys all tied for first and he was the only one left in that weight class. Remember now, Drew withdrew himself from the tournament because his eye was scratched. Even still they gave him a medal and as you can see he was proud as can be!!! He would wear that thing all day long and to bed for days to come. In his mind he earned it!!! Just as I'm blogging about this he comes up to me and says "Second place, not too bad huh mom!" Oh what a kid!!!

To Wrestle or not to Wrestle????

This day was almost as bad as the Carbon Monoxide day.... Drew joined the Wrestling team and after the first practice where I had to throw him over my shoulder kicking and screaming he loved it! We had so much hope that he was growing out of his being "scared" faze that we woke up early one Saturday morning to drive to Panguitch by 7:00 am to watch him Wrestle....As you can see it didn't turn out as we had planned. Needless to say Tyler was devastated because his only son was not the competitive boy he had dreamed of. My heart actually ached for both of them as we immediately drove all the way back to Kanab. It was a bad day!
Match #2... our son was the only boy with ear guards, Hey if he will wrestle this time he could wear a too too..... We were so Proud of Drew today, he went out there and worked it! BUT... since this was our first try at the sport we didn't know the rules. He lost his first match even though it looked like he "schooled" the kid.
Match #3... "Go Drew! Go!"
Not even 30 seconds into the match he got his eye scratched by his opponent and that was all he wrote. Drew's Wrestling career came to a halt. By this time we were all ready to throw in the towel.

"Hi Grandma! Guess what???"
The start of the cricked smile....Ella used to have this cricked smile and it would just crack us up. She wouldn't even know she was doing it until she noticed us laughing. She soon grew out of it which was sad because it was so cute! Well.... guess who has it now??? Ava!

I Just LOVE this picture! It's on Valentine morning and the kids just woke up to see their little "love day surprise." It reminds me just how funny and cute they all are. I think it's one that will make me cry when they are all grown up. :(
Once again Maya has a chocolate face. If you look close you can see her red rash underneath the mess. This still is very very mild. I hope I took a picture of what she looked like when it was worse. I may not have because it was so sad to see her like that.

Mmm, yummy chocolate candy bar....
Mmm, even better all over your face!
Look dad I can fold my arms.
She loves these shoes. When she would walk in them she would hold her knees up really high each time she took a step. It was hilarious. They don't fit her now but she still grabs them to put on when I tell her to go get her shoes.

No more yucky tonsils!!!
We were so proud of AVA! She is an AMAZING little girl!

Ella was the first to get her tonsils out and she had the hardest time! She could not eat for 3 weeks after. I thought it was the worst decision we could of made... after that she was great! Drew came home and ate waffles and peanut butter only hours after he had his surgery. We really didn't know what to expect with our "Drama Queen" but she surprised us all! Way to go AVA!!
Grandma Hafen brought her this kitty to keep her company while she was having her surgery and she kept it with her at all times (or so she thought, as soon as her surgery was over the nurses gave it right back to her as though it was never missing). I just asked Ava what she named her kitty and she said it was "Whykee." Ya, she comes up with some doosies!

And here we are again, child #3 and getting their tonsils out. It's always a fun day... ya right! We have been dreading the fact that Ava may need to get her tonsils out because she can at times be very difficult! But the hardest part was before she even had it done. She hated the bracelet on her leg and of course the IVs in her arm but other than that she was a "Trooper." The Dr's said she was so funny and talkative and didn't seem to be scared a bit. We even went to Walmart afterwards and she just walked around like nothing happened.
That dang bracelet...
This was right after the surgery and she realized she had IVs.....
All she needed was her daddy to calm her down.

We all went to Mesquite sometime around the end of Jan. for a baseball tournament (except Ava, she was home sicker than a dog, those dang tonsils) and the kids got to play and go bowling. It's always fun when the cousins are together.

So this is what happens when Ella takes my camera... should I be scared??

"Look mom, It's a sexy Barbie I get to put make up on." Thanks Klee... Hee, Hee.
Ava wanted a mermaid cake with flowers on it. I guess she forgot how I'm not a good cake decorator. What's even funnier is I had Casey and my mom come over to check out this masterpiece and they had me take the petals off that were surounding the big round thing in the middle (it was one giant flower). If I can find a picture I will post it... I may have deleted it.
Princess Maya and her face issue.... This poor little girl has had problems with her face and it all started in January, we finally figured out what is was in June. These pictures are very mild. Her little face was completely covered with red rashy pimply bumps and swollen eyes. It was not good!!!

Little Miss Monkey Maya... she loves to dance with the big kids.
You would think with two of my friends being such picture takers I would of got one with all the little princess together...you would think.
Baylee and Ella the party planners.

Ok, so here's the thing... I have been wanting to turn my blog into a book and I didn't want to mix '09 into '08... but it is now July 1st 2009 and I have a lot of catching up to do. Needles to say I still have yet to make my book. It is NOT EASY!!! (for me anyway)
This is Ava's Birthday party. We decided to have it in January because the poor girl is just trying to take in Christmas and her birthday is three days later. We had a lot of fun, played princess games and had a dance party. I had Ella and her friend Baylee run the show and they did a fantastic job!!
This would be Ava hiding behind the couch because you see she is a little sensitive sometimes, and the first thing she does is run and hide for cover.

It's been a Great Year!!!

Looking back we really must not complain, 2008 seemed to be a very good year...always entertaining and full of surprises!

We were trying to get all of our Christmas put away and Maya really wanted to help.... I asked Ella to watch her for a while but she couldn't pull herself away from her computer game. It seemed that Maya liked it too, she sat on Ella's lap forever (well as long as forever could be with a 17 month old).

Tyler was putting in my Christmas present a new faucet... and of course Drew was right by his side!!!

Ava and Grandma Carol doing their annual Christmas cleanup!