Our New Addition

The kids worked really hard and put together a garage sale a couple of weeks ago in hopes to raise enough money to get a new dog for our family. The plan was to wait until summer when they were out of school, but plans change. Scott had his heart pretty set on wanting a German Shorthair Pointer this time and I have been looking at Craigslist daily to see if the right puppy would surface. We were going to go with another Lab or a Pointer. I just so happened to come across a listing one day and texted them asking if they had any girls left. The reply was that only 3 boys were left and so I thought that would be the end. A little later the owner sent me a link to video of the pups and I was a little taken with them. I never wanted a boy dog, have always preferred females, but this little boy was cute enough to warrant a visit out with the entire family. We all fell in love with him right away. He had the best temperment of the 4 pups that were there (including a little girl who was already sold) and the kids had made just enough money to work out a little deal for him. SO we are happy to have 4 paws back in our house and he is getting a lot of attention. Meet Maverick our new baby boy!  It took a little while to all agree on a name, but Phoebe came up with Maverick and it seems to fit and we all like it. Pretty good for 6 people to agree.

 Maverick 7 week old little stud!

He has a little bleach spot on his head, but that will go away when new hair grows in

there aren't enough hours in the day for everyone to cuddle on him enough

A Teenager in the House

Ethen had his golden birthday and with that he also became an official teenager! He turned 13 on Friday the thirteenth 2012. Scott and I spent an hour and a half blowing up around 200 balloons and filled his room with them while he was sleeping. He is a pretty hard sleeper so we were not worried about him waking up during the process.

He had to dig down under the balloons to find his basketball clothes he had laid out for practice.

We got lucky and were able to get a cake from The Cake Stand (thank you Tina) and I thought it would be funny to just put his BBall on top. It worked.

Happy Birthday Ethen. We sure love you!!!!

A Wedding!

We were soooooo thrilled to be able to attend the wedding of my brother John to Liz in the Salt Lake City Temple. They are a beautiful couple and we feel blessed to have gotten to know Liz so well and have her join our family. She is just perfect for John and we love her so much. Paisley was taken with her the second they met and we are happy to have them so close to us here in Texas. They both looked incredible on the wedding day and so so happy.

 

All the Perriton kids, we were just missing Alana who recently had a baby and it was a little early to travel so far from Australia

 Mom and Dad with the bride and groom.  Ethen and Graeme are in the corner there.

Cousin boys Graeme, Ethen and Max were in charge of the hot chocolate and drinks at the reception

 

Cousin girls Claire, Annie, and Phoebe were in charge of the french toast and other food to be refilled.  (And Look at my baby bro James all grown up and hott)

 

Paisley eating some cheesecake after getting out of her dress

Lots of Perriton Cousins were able to attend. It was so good to see everyone

Scott was sure to have the car decorated a little for embarrasment factor, and yes he spelled incorrectly

 Off they go :)

Christmas Morning 2011

This year we spent Christmas in Utah at my parents new house.  We headed there the week before to see John and Liz get married in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple.  It was a beautiful day that I will blog about later.  My parents house is giant and we had such a great time with so much family visiting. Nathan and Jen and kids all came and stayed there too so the cousins could get in as much together time as possible.   Christmas morning was all full of excitement for the kids as we had them line up at the top of the stairs and wait til all the grownups in the house were settled in the family room.  It was good torture as it is every year, but they finally were able to come down and we had a great morning together.  We were only missing Alana, Brian and new baby Hailey.

Waiting at the top of the stairs to be told they can come down

Luke in StarWars Heaven

Some sweet headphones from Nana and Papa

A super thoughtful gift to Ethen from Graeme. He made a longboard for himself and bought one his teacher made for Ethen.  It is so cool!

Thank you Grandma Bergen for the sewing kit

Christmas Eve 2011

Jen reading a story to the kids

The kids in new Christmas jammies 

Graeme rocking out some tunes

 Cousins reenacting the Nativity

 Mom helping Toby get some of his costume off

 

Dad taking pictures with the tripod attached :)

James' beautiful picture of the Christmas Tree

Skiing Powder Mountain

We had an amazing day of skiing on Powder Mountain as a family. For the first time we were all able to go together! It was a such a great feeling to have all the kids with us and do a fun, bonding activity together. This was Paisley's 1st time on skis and Luke decided to skip the board this year and try out skiing as well. Luke took right to it and was flying down the mountain with us trailing behind him. He only rode the lift up with me about 2 times and then didn't want to wait for us so he was riding all by himself or with Ethen. Paisley only needed a few times on the bunny hill and had pretty good control so we took her up the lift and she had a blast. She would go most of the way herself and only needed to a little help down the steepest parts. It was so much fun and no one complained all day! Paisley started crying at the end of the day and didn't want to leave. The only way we got her to take off her skis was when we told her that John and Liz would be at the house when we got back. Thankfully they were there when we arrived. We are looking forward to many ski trips back to our favorite resort, Pow Mow!!

Waiting for the shuttle

Paisley all bundled up in her cute snow jumpsuit! It kept her cozy warm all day.

Ethen on top of the world

Scott in his element

Taking a little break to refuel. Paisley had to put all her gear on by herself.

Luke and Mama on the lift

Phoebe and Mama on the lift

Our incredible kids at the top of Powder Mountain

Paisley riding her way down