The Children were nestled all snug in their beds.......


Yeah Right!! I was lucky enough to get them to sit still for a few minutes to take a picture in their new christmas pajamas. They are bouncing off the walls tonight!!! It is so fun to see them caught up in the "Magic". I don't think Morgan will even sleep tonight because she gets so excited!! Good luck to all of you and Merry Christmas!!

Easton's Christmas songs

Easton loves Christmas songs. His very favorite one is Jingle Bells and he has even learned some of the words!!! This video is super cute of Easton's version of Jingle Bells----sorry that you have to hear some of my singing?!? too!! Ho! HO! HO! Merry Christmas to you from Easton.

Flashback to 1980

This is a picture of my family doing the nativity scene. It was taken in December 1980 so I was 5 years old. This picture cracks me up because everyone in this picture is in their own little world. I am trying not to laugh and I love how "lady like" I am sitting! My brother Tyler is playing Joseph---so serious! Then we have the sleeping shepard played by me cousin Travis. My oldest brother Kameron is the wise man starring into the distance, and last but not least my Uncle John playing the part of......I don't really know..maybe the angel!?! Merry Christmas everyone!!

Sneaky little Elves

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Sorry Mindy, I just couldn't help myself....This is sooooo much fun!!! Grandpa and Grandma look out....you never know when the sneaky elves Morgan and Ashlyn will get you with a snowball!!

Flashback Friday!

I'm not sure if I'm doing this for your entertainment or my own but I've decided to post pictues from the past.....since Christmas is coming soon I dug up some old Christmas photos....hope you enjoy them!

This first one is a picture of Cecil(in the red PJ's) and his older brother Eric and sister Heidi and his younger brother Jacob(December 1978)



I don't have a date on this one but I look about 1 years old(I'm the one crying in the back!!)and my cute older brothers Kameron and Tyler!!! Santa looks extreamly happy as well!



This is a Christmas photo taken with my moms side of the family--Her mom and Dad and her sister Sandy and husband John and her brother Steve(back row). Yes, we are all in our new Christmas "jogging suits" that we got every year and I remember getting in trouble because I kept making funny faces in the pictures---I was an angel---most of the time!!

Which Disney Princess Are You?
	You are part Cinderella. You are hard-working and never complain, however, your trust is sometimes misplaced and people sometimes take advantage of you. Still, you are beautiful inside and out, and one day you will realize it and find true love.
	You are part Pocahontas. You defy convention and sometimes do what is considered taboo. Unfortunately, others do not always appreciate your differences, so it's good that you are so strong-willed. You are loyal and you believe in fate. Your true love will find you one day.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

So I saw this funny quiz on Sunshine's blog and decided to see what princess I was most like...I don't totally agree with the results. The Pocahontas stuff doesn't sound anything like me----maybe I'm in denial!!!! I think it's funny that I'm half Cinderella because Ashlyn and her friend Ashley call themselves Belle and Ariel and they call me Cinderella---so it must be true!!

Morgan had an assignment for her art class to draw a picture of the 1st Christmas...She came home and worked on it for quite awhile until it was "just right" and then returned it to her teacher who was entering all the pictures in a contest. Well, Morgan just happened to be one of the 70 chosen (out of about 200). So we went to the Springville Art Museum last Saturday for her to recieve her award and $10!!!! She had a perma smile all day......We are very proud of you Morgan...Good Job!!!!

SNOW!!

The kids were so excited to wake up to snow last Saturday!! I don't even think they ate breakfast before climbing into all their snow gear and heading out back! This is Eastons first time ever playing in the snow....He thought he had died and gone to heaven!!

Oh Christmas Tree......

Well, it's sad but true... We finally bought a fake Christmas tree. We have bought a real Christmas tree for the past 10 years but this year we decided that it would be fun to decorate the tree the week after Thanksgiving. We miss the fresh pine smell but I know I won't miss cleaning up the pine needles and remembering to water the tree....for fear of a fire hazard...(We have had some pretty crunchy trees in the past.....OPPS!)

My BIGGEST Helper!!

This is how my kitchen floor looks lately thanks to my BIG helper Easton!! He is all boy and loves to get into everything and see how big of a mess it will make!! So far he has experimented with Cherrios, Graham Crackers, Pasta, Suddenly Salad and GoldFish Crackers.....Oh! if only I had a pantry!!!

SHADOW

It's True...Morgan has worked her magic again, with those big beautiful brown eyes of hers and somehow conviced us that she should have a pet bunny. She is good at that magic stuff because I believe one pet is plenty---so having a dog AND a bunny goes against everything I believe in. Morgan, A.K.A Dr. Doolittle, has been saving her money for months ever since she found out that our neighbors bunny was going to have babies. She has been obsessed with bunnies---every week she would come home from school with a new library book that talked about bunnies. She has become quite the expert!! She even dressed up as a bunny for halloween this year because that is all that she can think about, talk about, dream about.....so we bought a cage and here is the newest member of the Read gang......


Introducing....Shadow the 5 week old bunny



And as you can see, she is already recieving lots and lots of love!!!!

Sand Dunes

Okay, this might sound a little "red-neck" of me to say but I LOVE the sand dunes!!!This past weekend we piled the kids in the truck and headed for the dunes. I have lived here my whole life and had no idea that we lived so close to such a fun place!! We spent the day riding 4-wheelers with Cecil's brother Eric and his family. I am pretty sure that the big smiles on all the kids faces is a sign that they had fun too!!



Boys and their toys....Easton is just like his daddy!!!

Cecil giving Morgan a quick lesson on how to ride the mini 4-wheeler.....


I think this picture is saying..."EAT MY DUST!!!"

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween from Morgan the bunny, Ashlyn the princess, and Easton the dancing dragon!!!

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Very Scary....

We decided for Family Home Evening it was time to carve pumpkins for halloween....We invited our friends over to join in on the fun!?! Roland and Azlyn Sawyer came over---His wife Debbie had to work that night(we missed you Debbie!!)The kids had a lot of fun deciding how to carve their pumpkins and Easton's favorite part was scraping out all the seeds with his hands then putting all the seeds back in the pumpkin and starting all over again. For dessert we had eyeball brownies( ice cream with M&M's an strawberry syrup for the blood shot effect set on top of a brownie.) My family knows how much I love making creepy halloween food---so let me know if you have any good ideas for next year!!!
The end results......

Surf's Up in St. George

For Fall Break we hit the road and headed to St. George for one last time on the boat. The water was a little cold but that didn't scare Ashlyn from doing a little surfing behind the boat with Daddy---how cute is that?!?

Kauai or Bust!!

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ALOHA!!! Cecil and I went to Hawaii the 1st week in September with his brother Isaac and sister-in-law Amy and I am finally posting the pictures-----(because of a few minor setbacks--like loosing the digital camera that had most of our pictures on them!!!) We had such a great time relaxing on the beach, eating, kayaking up the river, sight seeing, enjoying shaved ice, snorkeling, chasing chickens, scuba diving, hiking to the waterfalls, did I metion relaxing on the beach!?! Anyways! I don't know about you but watching this slide show just makes me want to go back----what are we waiting for!?! LET'S GO!!!

The Funny for the day...

Some of you have already heard this story.... but here are the pictures to go along with it. Easton is such a funny little boy!! Last sunday we were all in the kitchen watching Cecil "Chef it up" which doesn't happen very often these days....He was making us breakfast bagel sandwiches and I noticed that Easton was not in the kitchen with the rest of us so I started walking towards the bedrooms to see if he was climbing on a bed or pulling clothes out of drawers or doing his own computer programming. Well, he wasn't in any of the bedrooms but I did hear water running so I opened up the bathroom door ----the light was off and there was Easton sitting in the tub in his PJ's with the water running and he looked up at me and said TUB!!! I do realize this could have been very bad....the water could have been turned to way HOT or the tub could have filled up to the top before we realized he was MIA but thankfully those things didn't happen and we can call that story FUNNY!!

School Days....

We keep telling our kids to STOP growing because they are growing up too fast...and getting too big and too smart----Morgan started 2nd grade the end of August---Where does all the time go?!? Our "social butterfly" was very excited to get back to school and be with all of her friends.



Ashlyn is in her second year of preschool...3 days a week. She loves it and so do I!! Easton is not so sure about everyone leaving him behind. He loves his sissys!!! Who can blame him... They are pretty darn cute!!!

GOOD BYE TRAINING WHEELS!

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Ashlyn is so very HAPPY---she can finally ride a bike without training wheels! This was the first attempt and she had no fear at all. After she got the hang of it I was standing in the road just watching and she started pedaling towards me and said " LOOK OUT LADY!" -----That's exactly what I was thinking! Good job Ashlyn, we are proud of you!!!

Summer Fun

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This video montage shows everything the kids have been up to (so far) this summer--Dance recitals, Park City for the 4th of July, Swimming lessons, Thanksgiving Point childrens garden, St. George, Playing with cousins, and having lots of fun always on the move! gotta go----you know, places to go, people to see! Hope you're summer has been super fun too!!

Perfect Princess

Ashlyn is 4 years old!! She had a princess birthday party and a special guest came to join in on the fun----Belle!! Ashlyn absolutely loves Belle--in fact, that is what she calls herself most of the time. So, you can imagine how suprised she was when she opened up the door and saw Belle standing there. The look on her face was worth every penny!! They played princess, princess, Queen (duck, duck, goose), and had story time with Belle and also did The Hokie Pokie--princess style of course!! It was a perfect birthday party for our perfect little princess!!!

Wa-Wa!

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Easton's 2 favorite things--outside and Wa-Wa!! He is a very HAPPY camper if his day involves either one of them!!!

Morgan turns 7!!

For Morgan's birthday we had a carnival party---it was alot of fun and a TON of work---What was I thinking!?! We had different booths setup---pin the tail on the monkey, ring toss, ball toss, fishing for treasure, clothes pin drop, spray away(ping pong balls on golf tees that had to be knocked off by squirting water from a little squirt gun), tattos,guessing game(guess how many gum balls in the jar), and a carnival just isn't a carnival without all the sweets----popcorn,cotton candy and drinks!! I know---I'll be the first to admit it---I really went over board on the birthdays this year---but it sure was fun while it lasted!!!