Welcome Joshua Daaron!

On Sunday, November 1, Joshua Daaron was born into this world. My sister and her husband had their little boy at 3:55 am via emergency C-Section. He weighed in at 5 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 inches long. He is healthy and beautiful!

Fish Lake 2009

Once I was done with finals, we decided to take off and go camping at Fish Lake with my parents. It was a lot of fun and a much needed vacation. We threw rocks in the lake, played in the stream, and even saw some deer that were in the woods behind my parents campground. There was about 7 or 8 deer, most of them being buck and about 2 doe. My dad and I followed them to get some pictures of them. Emma had a blast making ice cream when my dad wasn't using the hand crank.

This is the best picture that I got of the deer. It's only one of the many, but I must say, I did a good job of getting this one.

Payge and Emma throwing rocks in the lake.

We let Eran and Grady roast their own hot dogs.

At the stream

I don't think I've seen a more dirty little girl in my life. This was taken after being at camp for a couple of hours.

Happy 9th Birthday Eran!

Eran's birthday is on New Year's Eve. This year, she opted on having another sleepover party, only I got smart this time. I only allowed her to invite 4 friends. Not 9 like last year! She had a lot of fun and got quite some nice presents. Her dad and I gave her little camerathat only takes 40 pictures, but she loves it. It's hard to believe she's 9 and next summer we are going to have another baptism. They grow up so fast!

We also got a new addition to the family yesterday. He's a guinea pig that's named Ding Dong. The kids just love him. Maybe a little too much though.

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! I hope that you were able to experience the joys of family, food and fun! And always remember the reason for Christmas is only about one gift, and that's the birth of our dear Savior.

Last night the kids acted out the manger scene before we went to bed. It was such a neat experience for them, and they really enjoyed it.

Have a wonderful holiday! We love you!

PS. I will be posting pictures of our adventures here as soon as we get home on Saturday!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to wish all my friends and family a Happy Thanksgiving and tell you all that I am thankful for each and every one of you! There's so many things to be grateful for, and so many blessings that are in store for us all!

I'm thankful for a roof over my head, food on the table (as long as it's good, wholesome, nutritious food so I don't gain back the 30 pounds I've lost!), friends and family, The Book of Mormon, the Gospel, and of course, Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.

We love each and every one of you and wish you a wonderful day!

May your stuffing be tasty, may your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes 'n gravy have nary a lump,
May your yams be delicious,
May your pies take the prize,
May your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off of your thighs!

Halloween

Here is our Halloween picture for the year. The kids had a blast. We went to my mom's work for her lunch break and the kids walked around to everyone there. Some people gave them full size candy bars, and even those big things of Teddy Grahams and Chips Ahoy! cookies. Ugh! Tummy aches waiting to happen!

Last night they wanted to go around our apartments, so I took them out. They hit all the buildings in our ward, and even though not many people were handing out candy, they still got tons of candy again. More tummy aches waiting to happen. When we got home, we watched Avatar, the Last Airbender (I'm a geek, I know!) and then went to bed.

Kids woke up this morning, and the first thing they wanted...CANDY! If I had gotten up and not stayed in bed, they would have had blueberry pancakes, but since I was being lazy, Daddy let them have candy for breakfast. Lucky kids!

Primary Halloween Night

Last night we had our Primary Halloween activity. It was such a blast! They had games such as a Pumpkin Walk, Pumpkin Seed Spitting (which I believe my son got the farthest on that one!) and they even did a Spook Alley at one end of the building. Eran went through it and came out crying because it scared her so bad. Grady went through and came out laughing. Payge refused to go through. She got to the door and ran back to her daddy. Emma laughed at it. The only part she pointed at and said, "Ooh! Scary!" was someone dressed up as this really, freaky, freaky clown. One guy told her he lost his snake and pulled a string and this rubber snake came up behind her and I thought she'd get scared. Nope. She started hitting the snake and saying, "Look Mommy! A snake!" Our Stake President was there with 2 of his grandkids. I've never seen a man take so many pictures! WOW!

Eran (A.K.A. Midnight Fairy)
I don't know what that circle is by her, unless it was a ghost.

Grady (A.K.A. Jeff Gordon)Payge(A.K.A. Fairy Princess Butterfly)Emma (A.K.A. Tinkerbell)
Or as she calls her, Ti-Ti-BellI was trying to get Emma to come back to me, but she decided to go the other way, so I got a picture of her Tink Wings.

Daaron and Nikki Bleyl - October 11, 2008

Nikki's wedding is FINALLY over with! I do have to admit, it was a lot of fun, and not just for the kids. There was dancing, and dinner, and it was just, well, fun! Nikki looked gorgeous, and Daaron wasn't so bad himself. It was a long night, and Emma fell asleep in my dad's arms while he was dancing with her right before we left. Payge was a flower girl, and she did a wonderful job of spreading out the petals. Emma screamed so much that she finally came and stood with me in the wedding line. All in all, it was nice to see family I haven't seen in a long time. Craig and his son came from Idaho. His wife, Pepper, had other things going on that she couldn't get out of. And at the end of it all, I got myself another new niece, Mallori, and a new nephew, Eric. But best of all, Nikki has someone that is so good to her and treats her wonderfully. Something we've been hoping for her for a long time. And I know, I posted a lot of pictures, but it was a wedding! A big, huge PAR-TAY!!!

Nikki and Daaron Bleyl after the ceremony

Eric and Nikki

Dad, Nikki, Daaron and Mom

Chelsey, Nikki, Daaron, Mallori and Eric...One big, happy family at last!

Nikki almost passed out from lack of eating all day

Mom and Grady dancing

Daaron and Nikki's first dance as husband and wife

Emma and my dad dancing

The traditional cake-in-the-face moment

Nikki dancing with Eran

Heber Valley Camp

The view from our cabin

My mom's ward had a Mother/Daughter camp-out at the Heber Valley Camp this weekend. It was quite an experience! We didn't even leave Salt Lake until about 6:00 Friday night. My mom got out of work late then had to drive out to Tooele to pick up my niece, Ashlinn. The kids were hungry, so we stopped at McDonald's to eat (not exactly my idea if eating, but hey, the kids like it for some reason!)

We didn't have a problem finding the actual camp, but in the dark, it was sure hard to find where Mom's ward was. It took us almost 30 minutes, and when we did, the kids were all freezing cold and wanted some Hot Chocolate, which luckily, they had provided.

Payge by the firepit

Pyage, Eran, Emma and Ashlinn on the bunk bed

The cabins weren't bad, however they didn't have any mattresses. We were sleeping on wood, which we tried to soften with extra blankets, but that didn't work well either. It was a horrible, horrible night. Eran and Ashlinn wouldn't quit talking about Bears being in the woods, Emma and Payge fell asleep right away. At 3:00 in the morning, my mom woke me up to go to the bathroom with her because she didn't want to walk through the woods by herself. When we came back from the bathroom, one of the ladies in the cabin was snoring, Ashlinn moans in her sleep, and I laid there and listened to it. The lady that was snoring, got up when she heard Ashlinn moaning, flipped on her flashlight and asked Ashlinn if she was okay. My mom told her that she was sleeping, and then she told my mom how her daughter wet the bed one night because she couldn't get up to go potty fast enough. Who cares?!? It's 3 AM!!!

The lean-to that the kids found

Finally, morning came. We got up, ate breakfast, then told the girls we were going to go hiking. Ashlinn and Eran whined about it. They didn't want to go, but once we got going, they were excited to see what new bugs and flowers they could find. They did find a little lean-to that someone had built, and there was evidence of deer sleeping in it, so they thought that was cool.

My mom and Emma at our picnic

On the way home, the girls all complained about being hungry. We were going to stop at Jordanelle Dam, but ended up going on because there wasn't any "day parking" there. Instead, we drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon and had a picnic at Ledgemere. We had to improvise, big time. I couldn't find the knife I brought for the sandwiches, so we used String Cheese (it was still in the package, don't worry!) as a knife to spread the Mayonnaise. We didn't have plates, so we pulled a blanket out of the van and used that as a tablecloth/plate for the kids.

The boys had their own little party. Grady slept in the living room in his tent, and they ate pizza, hot wings and Poppers and drank lots of Mountain Dew.

Happy Birthday Payge!

Payge turned 4 years old today! She has been looking forward to her birthday for 2 weeks now. I think mainly because we took her 2 weeks ago to get her ears pierced. I was going to wait until this week, but my sister bought her some earrings to wear for her wedding in October, so we had to do it sooner. I didn't mind though. And she didn't seem to mind either.

Nanny and Papa bought her the new Little Mermaid movie, The Little Mermaid, Arie's Beginning and a new outfit, and of course, Princess shaped Graham Crackers.

Grandma and Boppy sent her some money to go buy what she wants, and she's all ready picked out the Mariposa Barbie to buy with that.

And her Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Banks also gave her some money to spend on her new Barbie.
















If you haven't noticed all ready, she really loves Ariel. She was so excited to pick out her cake and had a hard time deciding between two of them. She finally settled on this one because it had a "shiny Ariel" on it.

It's hard to believe that she's 4 all ready, and getting ready to go to Preschool and soon after that, she will be going to Kindergarten.

Happy birthday sweetie! We love you!!!

Starting Over

Somehow, I accidentally deleted the other posts we put on here, so I'm having to start over. And, what better way to start over, then with FINALLY posting the pictures of the kids first day of school?!?

Eran started 3rd grade and Grady started 2nd grade this year. And starting on September 15th, Payge will go in to Head Start. Which means, I'll only have Emma home for half a day, 4 days a week!

What a couple of goofs...

Eran

Grady