B's Christmas Program

Brennan's preschool had their annual Christmas Program on Tuesday night. It was so cute. The preschool has a 4 yr old class and a 3 yr old class. Brennan's class is the 3's class, he did a great job. We worked on his songs over and over again so he knew the words. There is nothing worse for a teacher than a bunch of kids standing on a stage not singing the songs you've worked on for weeks.

(Sorry about the picture quality. I'm asking santa for a new camera.)

He did a great job. You can see in the video that he knows his stuff, he also felt inclined to bow after ever song. I just shook my head. Ryan said, "he is such a ham, where does he get that stuff?" Oh, yes we really wonder where he gets it.

Thanksgiving!

I am so grateful that we could spend Thanksgiving down in the valley with my parents and both my brother and sisters family and my Grandma and Grandpa Denler. We had a wonderful time. We started out the day with the Mesa Turkey Trot. My mom, Alex, Syd, Morgs, Mattie, Aspen, Kamden, Brennan and myself all joined the 2 mile fun run. Dev, Tonya and Brecken did the big 10k. We had a great time.

Mom made a huge spread as usual for our wonderful dinner. Thanks to Chels for the great rolls. I think they are the best ones yet. Tons of fun and eating. After lunch we all tooks naps, played the wii and then started in on the games. We love to play games. What a blast we had.

I'm thankful for my wonderful family. We are all so close and it is so fun to just be together.

Friday the small kids helped grandma with her small Christmas tree. They were so careful to place the apples just so. After that, we all headed to Scottsdale to watch Syd play soccer.

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving. Now, hurry up and get ready for Christmas. Thanksgiving fell late this year which only leaves you like 3 weeks to get Christmas all ready to go!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEV!!!!

We want to wish Uncle Dev a spectacular birthday from all of us at the Zerr house. We love our Uncle Dev and hope he has a great, wonderful, happy day. Thanks for being the best big brother a girl could ask for. : )

And our delayed congrats on the New York Marathon, what an accomplishment, we're proud of you and we love ya!!!!!

This past weekend

Claire not wanting any part of pictures

Princess Sophie

All the kids throwing rocks in the lake.

Turkey puppets.

So our wonderful friends came up again this weekend to spend some quality time with us. We are so thankful for them and the wonderful people that they are. It is always so much fun to spend time with them. Our kids love to play together, and we just have a blast. We started Friday by going up to Lynx Lake and having a great picnic, then walking approx. half way around the lake. We didn't think the stroller would do very well on the unpaved part of the trail, thus the half. We were walking at about a snail's pace and then stopping every so often to try to skip rocks or just toss them into the Lake.

Saturday morning, the Dewey-Humboldt Library, had their November Kids story time and craft time. I love going to it because of the intimate nature of the whole thing. P and C got to come with us so we doubled the size of the group when we showed up. They read some great Thanksgiving stories, sang songs, made Turkey hand puppets, had cornbread and pumpkin pie, and had tons of fun doing it all.

Thanks, guys, for coming to visit, it means so much to us.

Montana Fun!

Montana

So we spent the week with "Gramma Sweetheart" (Ryan's mom, Pam) in Lewistown, MT. The kids had a blast. They played with Gramma and Maggie (Pam's dog) and the wonderful people at Pam's office. We enjoyed Taco Tuesday at Taco Time, eating at the BonTon and even went to the movie. The day we arrived it was about 60 degrees, so we played in the park for the first couple of days then the snow came all day on Wednesday. It was very cold, but Brennan couldn't wait to go have a snowball fight and build a snowman, he promised Pam he would wait for her to come home from work so she could help him. Pam was so great to come home from a long day at work and change into full snow attire, they all went out there and built that snowman at about 7 pm. It was great! The kids had so much fun. Thanks to all who donated the snow attire for the kids, it would have never happened without it. It was fun to go and just enjoy our time there. Thanks Pam for everything we had a blast.

While we were in Billings on Saturday, we met up with a good friend from college, Mark Nitz. He had never met the kids, so we had lunch at Red Robin. Thanks Mark for the fun time we loved seeing you.

Sorry!!!

I am so sorry for the lack of updating on my blog. I have been in Montana for the past week without internet access. I am posting all new pics and posts tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

Halloween Activities

This weekend brought lots of Halloween fun for us. My dad had his annual carnival for his ward, but this year he combined it with a Trunk-r-Treat. The carnival was on one side of the church parking lot, until dark then over to the other side for the Trunk-r-Treat. I'm telling you for parents of young children, it just doesn't get much better than a Trunk-r-Treat. The kids love it and it's all over in about 15minutes or so. After grandpa's carnival we headed over to Chelsea's church where she planned a great ward party for her ward. They had every room or so a different theme or activity, it was great. They also had a Costume Fashion show and cake decorating contest as well as pumpkin decorating/carving contest. It was great fun for everyone. Kyson dressed in full Army/Navy garb. He looked awesome. His own sister walked right past him in the hallway and didn't recognize him. Brennan had to have his picture with Kys, whom he adores. We're headed back next week for our old ward's Trunk-r-Treat. We'll keep you posted. Oh, by the way, you'll notice there aren't any pics of Peyton in her costume, sometimes she'll participate and then again sometimes, not so much :) I'll catch her in a better mood next week I'm sure.

Love this site!

Peyton's Adventures

So, I in no way want to take away any attention to the wonderful time we had with Mattie, Morgan and Grandma Cristi, but I can't help but share with you the adventures of my two year old, Peyton. As you know she broke her fingers a few weeks ago playing with a universal gym. That is just the beginning of her escapades, when Mattie and Morgan came to visit, within about 1 hour of arriving, Peyton and Brennan decided that instead of participating in painting pumpkins again, they would well, paint themselves. I came out to the garage to find them both with their faces covered in paint and Brennan had painted his legs and one arm. I immediately told them to get to the shower so I could scrub off the paint. Peyton went to step in the shower and slipped right away hitting the back of her head on the edge of the shower. (OUCH!) I was standing right there, so I picked her up and already there was red in her beautiful blonde hair. I wrapped her in a towel and ran to the counter, I had yelled to my mom who wasn't quite sure what was going on or where we were. Sure enough she had cracked her head right open. There was so much blood, that I couldn't quite tell how bad it was. She was screaming and in a little bit of shock, I finally was able to see it and it wasn't as bad as I thought, luckily she didn't need stitches, but we were still cautious of a concussion.

A few days prior to this, I found Peyton, well.......the picture will explain it. This was in my pantry.

I have been told to take pictures of these situations in the past, but my rational thinking doesn't always prevail. She has dumped numerous boxes of pasta all over this same floor. She recently took my feather duster and decided to tear it apart and leave the feather remnants all over the office. She loves to get a hold of the wipes and scatter them throughout a room. A few weeks ago she got a hold of a highlighter and highlighted several walls in the house, then spread desitin on the wall with her hands. (Art I'm Sure) Needless to say if Peyton is too quiet for over about 3 minutes, I have learned to go searching.

Last Sunday I found her in the garage with those same (non-washable) pumpkin paints painting the inside of a brand new coat we just bought her. She also ruined the shirt she had on, but I was able to salvage the jeans. I love her, she's a cutie, but she may be my undoing. I just have to say to myself each day what a blessing I have. It's true, I am blessed, but with blessings sometimes come trials. Funny, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Be a joyful mother of children. Psalms 113:9

The Cousins Come to Play

Morgan and Mattie and Grandma Cristi came on Tuesday. We were so excited to have them come, Morgan got her cast off in the morning then they headed up to see us in the afternoon. We were all excited to see them but Brennan and Peyton just couldn't wait. We were able to play outside, paint pumpkins, have "2 sleepovers" as Brennan puts it and tons of other fun things. My mom and I actually tied a quilt for Peyton and have the makings of another for Brennan. I should be able to finish that one myself. Thanks Mom for getting all the stuff and bringing your frames, and most of all for doing all my laundry. You amaze me and I Love YA! The quilts are so cute, the kids will love them,.

We went up to Lynx Lake to collect some Fall items for Brennan. His preschool is doing a fall collage and wants them to collect things like leaves, pine cones, seeds, twigs, etc.... So we all joined in the fun.



After collecting the Fall items we headed to Peyton's favorite place to eat, Red Robin. We had tons of fun and Mattie talked me into trying the "Crane" game for her, you know the impossible claw game that is filled with tons of stuffed animals. I pointed out to her which animals I could possibly get for her, even though they weren't the ones she wanted, I ended up getting 6 stuffed animals with $4. Each try was $.50. I must say I even surprised myself. I got 3 animals in one try by knocking two extra over into the drop slot. That was the highlight of the trip for Mattie. She just kept telling me all day how great I was at that game. Thanks Mattie!!! It was so much fun, next time you guys will have to stay longer.

Brennan's First Fish

Well, you all know that Brennan got a Rocket Fishing Rod for his birthday. He finally got a chance to try it out this weekend. Our friend Brian took us fishing at a private pond, so of course it was just us and a ton of fun. Brennan got so excited, Brian rigged up his pole for him with a live worm and Brennan shot it out there. It wasn't quite where he wanted it so he reeled it back in real quick and shot again. It wasn't in the water for about 30 seconds when he got a nibble, Ryan helped him hook the fish and then Brennan reeled it in. He caught a small mouth bass, it was probably about 1-2 lbs or so, it was a decent size, but Brennan didn't want anything to do with the fish. He was quite scared to even stand near it, let alone touch it. Unfortunately for me, my camera ran out of battery right as he was ready to pose, I had new batteries, but we didn't want the fish to die so we released him. We did however, snag a photo or two with Brian's camera, so I will post them as soon as I get them. After that Brennan really had no interest in fishing anymore so he told his dad to let him know when he caught a fish and he would come reel it in for him. Here are some other photos I took throughout our excursion. The pic with a fish in it is one of the many Brian caught. Ryan and I had several bites but just couldn't catch em. Thanks Brian for a fun afternoon. We'll catch more next time!

The Weekend

This weekend was a surprise for us. We had no idea that it was Agua Fria Days here in the good ole' town of Dewey-Humboldt. So we thought we would go down and partake of the festivites. It was like a very very early Alpine Days. There were all sorts of vendors set up along both sides of the street, there was a band playing in front of one of the churches, they had a parade, a chili cook-off, and topped it all off with a street dance Saturday night. Here are a few pics of the parade. Lots of classic cars, refurbished John Deere tractors and horses. The parade probably lasted all of about 20 minutes or so, it was a fun, cold day.