Kacie's 13th Birthday!

I can't believe Kacie is a teenager now. Wow where did the time go?!? We had an awesome fun-filled Harry Potter party. We had lots of fun HP food, glasses and the works. I thought the best part was when we had a "Sorting Hat" ceremony to divide the players into houses for our Tri-Wizard Tournament which was HP Scene It. Tommy read the "Sorting Hat" poem from the book and Stacie sorted everyone into houses. Kacie was Ravenclaw along with Brooke & Valeda. I was Hufflepuff along with Tara, Howie and Taylor. Scott was Griffindor along with Tommy, Kyle and Brittany. The Slytherin house players were Stacie, Kim, Ryan and Mckinley.

I thought Kacie's cake turned out really cute even though she didn't like her picture on it. I was amazed how much she looked like Kaylin with the curly hair from Sirius Black.

Tara made the yummy pumpkin pasties and Herbology bites. Wanda made the Polyjuice Potion, which was chili-cheese dip. Stacie brought a veggie tray and I made the rest. We even had butterbeer that I forgot to take a picture of...I sure couldn't have done it without everyones help.

Way cute!!!
















The winners of the Tri-Wizard Tournament! How fitting that Kacie's house would win. I bought the cup from Amazon and put vinyl lettering on it and filled it with Every Flavor Beans...




The boys were teasing her for taking three breathes to blow out her candles

Kacie has wanted Stacie's house cups ever since we went to the Wizarding World of HP so Stacie ordered her a set.
Grandpa & Grandma Talbot gave her the calendar along with a cute card and $10.T-shirt from Mom and Dad along with a huge HP picture book. Funny thing was that Kim, Brooke & Brittany gave her the same book. Tara & Tommy gave her a subway gift certificate which is perfect since that is her favorite place to eat. Grandpa & Grandma Schulthies gave her the complete HP hardbook set for Christmas and her birthday along with some YW value bracelets. Rosie & EJ gave her some nice Adidas sweats and T-shirt and Teniele & Ruben gave her a HP sticker book and Valeda gave her a really cool handmade wand. I say she was a little spoiled...

I even gave Kacie an acceptance letter to Hogwarts.
It was so much fun, but boy was it a lot of work...but I would do it all over again, lol!

Christmas

On Dec 18th we went to Dylan Mitchell's homecoming address at the 1st ward. After we visited Wanda to see how she was feeling and deliver some Christmas goodies. She thought we looked so pretty she wanted to take our picture.

We had the Talbot Christmas party at our house on Christmas Eve. We had a great time, but we missed Nanette & Kristen's families.

Steve, Tyler and Carisa

Taylor and Kacie

Brady and Stephen aka Bubba

Lindsay...

I had a major flashback seeing her wear one of Kacie's dresses riding that horse.

We had our usual white elephant gift exchange. Steve surprised us again by giving Grandma Talbot's old belly buster with that poster that you can see behind Lindsay. It has a picture of him poking out his belly and then one of him all buffed. He added a poem about how the belly buster changed him. It was hilarious.

The kids in their new pajamas.





Christmas morning...I think the kids were pretty happy. After they opened their presents we went to Sacrament meeting and then ate at Mom & Dads. I felt really bad for Mom, she fell the night before and broke a rib. She was in so much pain. We really missed Anita. She had to go into Presbyterian Rehab Center after breaking her hip. Brandon was pretty quite and sleepy the whole time he was home...

Joshua and Brady watching Cars 2...Around 9pm Scott took Kacie over to Stacie's house and then he didn't come back till after I went to bed so it was a pretty quiet depressing evening. I'll never let them do that again.

On the 26th Brandon and I went to see Anita. She was pretty sleepy. I hope she is not giving up. Mom and I went to Eldredge's to get Brandon a new mattress. Anita was determined to give that to him for Christmas, which was so nice of her. While we were there Mom found a new lift chair for Anita. We then went back to spend more time with Anita. I felt so bad that this happened, she was so excited about Christmas. Just after we got back they decided to shower her so I stayed to keep Mom company. I really enjoyed our visit. That evening, Taylor spent the night with Kacie and Brady spent the night with Ryan. I spent the evening making licorice wands and cockroach clusters for Kacie's birthday.

On the 27th I had to work and so Dad & Scott took Brandon home and delivered his mattress. I then decorated Kacie's birthday cake and finished getting ready for her party.

Trip to Las Vegas

We had a fast and furious, but fun, fun, fun trip to Las Vegas. We left Dec 21st and got there about 10:30pm pacific time. We visited for awhile and I went to bed with Brady. I guess Reid and Scott stayed up until about 3am which was 4am for Scott. We had 1 1/2 days to play and then headed back on the 23rd to get ready for Christmas.

The kids decided to brave the cold wind and play at the park for a little while.

The Talbot's Lighter Side....LOL!

Getting ready to go to the Las Vegas Bowl...BSU vs ASU

We had sooooo much fun...We were right in the middle of some crazy fans.

Wanda took these pictures of us on TV. Can you believe that...we made it on TV and we didn't even try... After the game we had to take Brady to the Bellagio. We could never make the trip back if we didn't make it to the water show. We saw three shows and he would have stayed longer but Scott and Reid were pretty tired...imagine that!

WINTER WONDERLAND!!!

Brady loved this!

I was so glad the girls loved their Christmas presents.

As we were leaving Connie and Dave came over to give Reid his present. It is a potato gun and boy did they have fun with it. That thing can really shoot far.

When we got home, I surprised Scott with a Traeger Grill for Christmas. While we were gone I asked Tyson if he would put it on the porch for me. He was pretty happy, but I wished I would have waited to give to him on Christmas day because he was so stressed about trying to use it for our Christmas Eve. He finally decided to cook the chuck roasts in the oven and he made some chicken wings in the grill. It was delicious.