Extended family pics

The happy couple!!!

Our darling kiddos!The whole family!

Christmas Eve Party

This year we were the lucky ones to host the family Christmas party! It was so much fun to plan and organize!
Below: This is Konnor's gift from his aunts. BIG HIT!
Here is the family doing the "Chimes". We do this every year, and it is so fun to play Christmas songs all together as a family...
Table one...
Table two...
The appetizers!... YUM YUM (shrimp, eclairs, truffles, cookies, caramels, etc...)
This is my holiday Brownie Trifle! MMM mmm Good!
I had to take a pic of the place settings! I made place cards for everyone.
Take note to the solid gray plates... that was my Christmas gift from Kyle! I love them!
We also did a Nativity puppet show. I was in the puppet show, and didn't get any pics. But it was very cute. Grandma Valentine played the piano, we sang 3 songs throughout the puppet show, and Kyle narrated. Here were the parts... Kaylee- Mary, Danny-Joseph, Emily- Baby Jesus, Kellie- 3 Wise Men, Kim- Shepherds, Karen-Star, Danny-Nephites, Emily-Angel.
We hope to never forget the REAL meaning of Christmas, so the Nativity Puppet Show is going to be our new Christmas tradition.

Brothersen Christmas Party

Our little family with Grandpa Brothersen!
Konnor with Santa
Kaylee with Santa
Me and my little sweetie!
Kyle with a snuggly Konnor
Our family waiting on Santa to come, singing Christmas songs.

My NEW SMILE

If you want to see the Before Braces and with braces blog...Click on this; Last year

First of all, I have the best Orthodontist EVER! Dr. Thompson in Orem. They have a super fun staff and the appointments are VERY fast. Before getting braces, I did A LOT of research. I narrowed my search for a good ortho down to 5.. I did consults will all 5 doctors. Dr. Thompson was the cheapest, fastest, and the most fun of all 5! So I picked him. Now I have a great smile, and I even got them off 3 months faster than he initially predicted! So, if you are looking for an Orthodontist, Dr. Wade Thompson is where it is at! If you use my name for a referral, you will get $100 off your braces!

Disenyland!!!!

WOW! What a fun trip! We were able to go to Disneyland. Kyles work took all of the employees and families! Thank you DigiCert! Above: Our little family with Goofy. (my favorite)
Jasmine, Kaylee, and I.
Kaylee got to meet her new favorite princess, Belle! She was SO excited about that!

Kyle and I in front of the castle! It is so pretty at Christmas time!

-More pics to come. And check out my facebook for more too.

Kaylee is learning English!

A couple of nights ago we were all coming home from shopping. Kyle was driving and was playing some rock-n-roll music, a little on the loud side. Kaylee was in the back in her car-seat and shouts in a very grown up tone, "Dad, TURN THAT DOWN!" Then Kyle turns it down a bit to appease his little girl. But that wasn't enough for Kaylee, she then shouts out, "DOWNER!" Kyle and I started laughing hysterically!!!!!!
The cute ways kids learn English makes for fun parenting!

Just had to share and record!

NEW MOON!!!

Here is our New Moon Crew!!!!!
Top Row: Becky, Sarah, Kathie, Paul, Ron, Candace
Bottom: Marie, Me

Cast Off Party!

KONNOR GOT HIS CAST OFF! What a celebration! Ha ha. He got the cast cut off and immediately after, he straightened his arm and bent it waving at the nurse! It was like he was cheering her on! The Dr. was very impressed with his mobility and strength! He is a lot happier now! So, when we got home, we ate a little dinner and then I gave him a spoon and a container of chocolate pudding and let him go to town! He hasn't had any messy foods for a whole month!

Then we GOT TO GIVE HIM A REAL BATH!!!!!!!!! As soon as he got in the tub, he started splashing like I have never seen anyone splash before! It was soooo fun! Mostly for me, but he was having fun too! Kaylee jumped in the tub with him, and they played in the bath until their skin was wrinkly and pruning! Yeah for Konnor, all healed!

The First of Many!

November 8th was our wards' Primary Program. This is a sacrament meeting where the children of the ward are the only contributors (ages 3-11)! They sing songs, speak their parts, etc... Kaylee was the first child that spoke from the pulpit! She did very good! We are learning that she is like her father- she likes to speak! She was asked this question: "Kaylee, where did you live before you came to this earth?".
Kaylee responded, "I lived in heaven with Jesus and my Heavenly Father." They sang this song... and it was sooo cute!
The Family Is Of God

1. Our Father has a family. It’s me!
It’s you, all others too: we are His children.
He sent each one of us to earth, through birth,
To live and learn here in fam’lies.

[Chorus]
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—
This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God.

2. A father’s place is to preside, provide,
To love and teach the gospel to his children.
A father leads in fam’ly prayer to share
Their love for Father in Heaven.

3. A mother’s purpose is to care, prepare,
To nurture and to strengthen all her children.
She teaches children to obey, to pray,
To love and serve in the fam’ly.

4. I’ll love and serve my family and be
A good example to each fam’ly member.
And when I am a mom or dad, so glad,
I’ll help my fam’ly remember:

[Chorus]
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—
This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God.

Emily's shower

This was a fun day! Emily is getting married. (Kyle's sister). So, I got to throw her a shower with her good friend Ashley. We had a lot of fun planning this! Here is Emily with her cake.
It was a triple chocolate cake with butterfinger crumbles, and a white chocolate bride.
Here is the whole crew!
Congrats to Emily and Tyler! We wish you all the best!

Halloween!

Halloween was two days long for us this year! Friday night, we went to Ken and Patrice's house for a Halloween/Pirate party! It was very fun! Here is our little family dressed up for day one: Konnor and I were Pirates, Kyle was beaten up by pirates, and Kaylee was the "Belle" of the ball.

It was VERY hard to get Konnor to hold still for a picture! As you can tell....
Kaylee smiling as we are driving to the party!Our darling kids dressed up!
Konnor as: Captain "Hook" (broken arm)
Kaylee as: Princess BelleBelow: The kids and I about to go trick-or-treating on day two!
It was fun this year. It was FREEZING outside and Kaylee would NOT put on her coat over her dress, so we compromised. I got to jog with the kids in the stroller bundled up under blankets! Kaylee would get out and run to the house.... knock and say, "Trick-or-treat, thank you, and Happy Halloween!" Then she would jump back in the stroller under the blanket with Konnor and away we would jog to the next house with lights on. The three of us had a blast for about an hour.
Meanwhile, Kyle was at the house SCARING the kids! Just like we do every year! :)
You can not get the cool affect from this pic.. But we had 2 fog machines going, 2 black lights, and a strobe light going. Kyle is sitting in the Grim Reaper costume in the swing!
Then when we got home, we put Konnor to bed, and Kaylee and I helped with the scaring and passing out candy!Kyle was the super scary one this year, and I helped a tiny bit. And princess Kaylee opened the door and handed out candy!

Another successful year of Halloween fun at the Brothersen house! We didn't go all out this year like in years past. We are in a new neighborhood and we didn't want them to know just how "cool" we are just yet! ha ha

My Birthday!

This was a total last minute BBQ.
(It was a potluck style dinner.)
If you are reading this post, and you were not here, please don't be offended. :)
Thank you, Heather for making my super-duper yummy chocolate cake from scratch!
There was a LOT of love in the air at the BBQ.
Below: Candace and Ron, isn't that a sweet picture!
Below: Anthon & Marie-- My lil' lovebird friends!
Below: Kyle and I-- I am THE luckiest girl in the world to have him for a husband! He was super sick that day, and he just put on the "game face" for the party, bought the chicken, marinated, cooked, AND cleaned the house!
My mom drove up from Arizona with Lynn for my birthday again this year. It was so fun to see my BRUNETTE mom! Thanks for driving all night you two!
I had a wonderful birthday. Thank you to everyone who called, texted, emailed, facebook'd, or came over! It was great!

And There Was Light

Kyle installed lights under our kitchen cabinets a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was blog-worthy, because it is so nice looking! I love it! My pictures don't do it justice. So, I guess you will just have to come see for yourselves!
There are 6 lights, and they are have 3 levels of brightness. Thanks Honey! I love it!

Kathie's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Kathie!
We had a fun little party! She had pizza, I made queso, and she made her own cake, (lame huh). That morning, Kaylee and I were talking about grandma's party, and we decided to all wear her favorite color, orange. So the four of us all wore different shades of orange, and grandpa Paul was the first to notice! ha ha
Is this not the cutest picture ever? (Grandpa Paul & Kaylee)Kaylee always loves to help open presents! (Kyle, Kathie, & Kaylee)
Kathie, we hope you had a great birthday! You are a wonderful mother, mother-in-law, and grandma! We are very blessed to have you in our lives. We love you!