December Recap

WOW!!! I can't believe that that this month went by sooo fast! I have been horrible at blogging. I have been taking pictures..... but the I haven't taken the time to put them on our blog. Well, December has been crazy busy. I have been hanging out with my sister (so much fun!) crafting, sewing, cooking, playing, shopping:), hanging out with family and friends, and loving the holiday season. So here are some pictures of the last couple of weeks.....
Here we are Christmas tree hunting. There wasn't any snow which bummed out the kids (and Rex) but we found an amazing tree....maybe the best one yet....
It was fun to get out and hike around
I love decorating the tree as a family. The kids are so excited and it really starts to feel like Christmas.
Rex and Olivia and their new trick....it freaks people out all the time.
Annie had her first Christmas program with her preschool. It was soooo cute! I can't believe she is old enough to have school programs..... I remember when I had those as a kid!
Me and Macey smiling after we finished decorating gingerbread houses. So. Much. Candy.
Brianne and I have so much fun together. And our babies are super cute! I love having her here....please don't ever leave :)
Having Christmas dinner with our family. Macey took this picture of Heather, Papa, and Annie....not bad!
Christmas morning! Tearing through presents. We did enjoy a nice church service and yummy cinnamon rolls too!
All the kids together! Ok it goes Brianne's kids: Ezra, Micah, Ryan, Brady's baby: Adelaide and our kiddies :Annie, Olivia, and Macey! The whole bunch! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

I am thankful.....

I love this time of year. I love that there is a day devoted to giving thanks.There is so much for me to be thankful for. The list could go on forever.... but I won't do that to you so I will keep it short and sweet. I am thankful for my sweet husband. The most amazing man and best friend. My incredible children that make my life complete. I love everyday because I get to spend my time with them. I am thankful for my parents, sister :), brothers, my friends, healthy body, my talents, the Gospel, employment, our house, modern medicine, America, laughter, this beautiful world, and my wonderful life. I have been so blessed and I am thankful for that. ok..... moving on :)

Every year we have two Thanksgivings. Yep. One Basting family and one Beard family. Really it is the best of both worlds. I love it. No choosing who to spend time with, we get it all! We went to Bend to spend time with Rex's siblings. They are so fun! Rex's parents couldn't be there because they are in Canada on a mission.... super cool! But we had good food and a lot of laughs! Then two days later we did it all again with my family at my house. It was the BEST day. I got to do my two favorite things. Cook and spend time with my family. Brianne, me and Heather had a blast in the kitchen while the guys watched football, when shooting and played with kids. They food was perfect and I am so happy we had a great day!
I love my famliy!!! Our Christmas picture...what do ya think?
Aunt Christine is the coolest! She painted the girls nails and they are still talking about it. Thanks Christine for a great Thanksgiving!!
Me and Olivia hanging out in Bend.
Papa and Olivia watching football.... GO DUCKS!
Annie and Ryan eating dinner at the counter.
Oh and how could I not post a picture of us girls at Breaking Dawn. So good.... we had a blast. Brianne, Kari, Heather, Heidi and me all loved it! Thanks again Heather!!

Annie turns 5!

I can't believe that I have a 5 year old. I mean, seriously, Annie was just a baby. She is the most amazing girl ever and I love her soooo much!! I am so grateful for her and blessed that she is my sweet daughter. I love that she watches the food network with me, entertains Olivia so I can finish my workout DVDs, loves to snuggle, paint nails, do crafts, help with housework, play with Macey, hold my hand, hugs me when I pick her up from preschool, draw my pictures, and let me play with her hair and try new french braids. I am truly blessed to have all my girls. Here are some pictures from the celebrations!!
Starting off the day with our birthday traditions: favorite cereal for breakfast! I am not sure why she picks this one every year, but she must love it. And Rex. And Macey. It lasted about 2 days. Back to whole grain cereal :)
Here are the requested HELLO KITTY cupcakes that were pink and purple. It was a Hello Kitty party.... all the way.
Annie had her first all girls and no parents party at my good friend Amy's house. They had a blast. They got to each decorate their own personal mini cake and I made cute pedestals for them to each take home. There was also dancing, dress-up, games, and the fastest present opening in the history of birthdays! Thanks AMY!!!
We went out to dinner at Red Robin (YUM) which the girls call "The bird restaurant". Here is Macey concentrating on her coloring, cute!!
Annie sipping away!
Ahhh, the Hello Kitty cake at her small family party, she was so excited!
Us all singing to her.... ok mostly me and rex.
And a Barbie and horse....just what she wanted :)

Halloween 2011

WE had a blast on Halloween this year. It was our first year to take the kids trick or treating and it was a huge success! We had a fun day too!

Annie was in charge of bringing treats to preschool so we went all out and did Halloween treats. Then we decorated sugar cookies, had mummy dogs for dinner, and went out with our neighbors to load up on candy. The girls looked sooo cute in their costumes and all in all..... a great day!


Here are the girls all wearing their Halloween shirts....cute!

Another one...they were laughing at something while I was trying to get Olivia to not be upset about the photo shoot:)

They are so patient to put up with all my picture taking, cute!

Decorating cookies, kinda....They end up eating all the toppings and licking all the knifes. They are only allowed to frost their OWN cookies....Nice Macey,

All dressed and ready to go! I just love Halloween!

Trick-or-Treating

One of the neat things about living in a small town is that they have a lot of community involvement. Like.....yesterday all the businesses on Main Street opened their doors and allowed kids to trick or treat into their stores. Wow, what a turn out! It was so cool. Everyone was dressed up and my kids cashed in on the candy!


There we all are. A "nice" witch, cowboy(she really wanted to be a cowboy, not a girl) a cute pumpkin, and me....lame, I don't have a costume.

Walking up and down. There were kids EVERYWHERE

Thought this was cute. Rex took this and I didn't know.

A few pictures from carving pumpkins. Olivia sitting in the pumpkin patch on our counter.

Annie digging out the guts, she thought it was gross and Rex did most of it :)

Olivia trying to get into the guts

And little Macey pulling one seed out at a time.... Rex dug out hers too :)

Pumpkin picking fun!

We ventured out last weekend and went to the pumpkin patch. It was so much fun and really cute! There was a hay maze for the kids, lots of fresh fruit and produce, ice cream, and a pumpkin patch. The weather was perfect and we had a blast!

Macey picked this baby out all by herself, pretty good huh?
All us girls, we take this same picture every year....
Our family picture....it was pretty sunny so everyone is squinting, but not to bad :) I think we are cute!
I love Olivia's expression.....so. not. impressed. Good heavens, I love these kids!
Annie and Macey playing on the pumpkin wagons. They loved the pumpkin patch!

Finially.... I am back!!

You might be wondering where I have been. Well, we moved!! Yep, new town, job, the works. It was a bit crazy but we survived and we are all settled in and loving our house!! Thank goodness Rex is kinda like me in that we moved in and had everything in, unpacked, pictures hung, garage organized in a matter of days. I wasn't a total slave driver and he never once complained. It just feels good to be moved in and back to normal, ya know? So here are some pictures showing why life has been busy....

All the girls on the porch. I love this porch. Covered and wraps around the house. They can run, play, scoot, and I have nice big windows to see them.

Just being cute. The girls are really excited about having a house. They love it. They run all over and the open floor plan is wonderful. Not to mention the playroom (I will get a pic of that room soon) to contain all the toys... but somehow a few toys still make their way out into the living room....

See, their they are. My goodness we have a ton of stuffed animals. But that cute baby on the right is mine :) This is the living room. It is hard to take pictures but this is the best angle I could get. Lots more space. Love it!

The kitchen. Oh, I am so happy. Do you see all that counter space? I do and I love it. Not to mention cupboard space too. I love cooking up a storm in there! Love all the sunlight too! I caught Macey yawning....cute!

So a week after moving I thought it would be a grand idea to can pears. I have never canned pears. SO why not start now? It was a bit ambitious but 24 pints of pears later, I did it!! I kinda never want to peel a pear again.

Then days later Macey turned 3!!! I can't believe it! What is going on, my kids are growing at an incredibly fast speed. She was so stinking cute and wore the birthday hat through her special breakfast with her very special cereal :) Love her!!

Then we threw a toy story party (she loves Jessie and Woody, just wait for Halloween) and she had a blast!

Then somewhere in the middle of all this Olivia turned 6 months! AHH, did you know that is half a year? I know, weird, but look at that smile! Oh, I love this baby!!

And most recently (as of today) Annie had her first day of preschool. She loved it! She is standing by her coat hook and Macey wanted to be a part of the action too:) I can't believe Annie is in preschool. My baby. She is so smart and loves to learn. Wow, time flies when you are having fun, and the past 7 years have been super great!!