Danny's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Danny! As you know, I'd rather do just about anything than a birthday party. So we loaded all the kids and headed to Pirate Island Pizza in Orem. It was pretty much a new and improved (and sanitary) Chuck E Cheese. Everyone had a great time, thanks to our friends Casey and Ashlee for tagging along so Danny could have a friend with him!

the birthday boy....dang side-ways picture!
All the pirates singing happy birthday to Danny

Danny got a new bike and an optimus prime transformer

Blowing out all 5 candles

After telling Danny about 500 times to come in the bathroom and comb his hair, he finally came in and told me so so proudly, "I'm 5 now so when you yell at me, I don't get scared." Thats the truth!

Indianapolis

Well, my trip has come and gone. Time sure has a way of flying by. It was great to see my parents! I'm glad I saved the trip for the end of their mission and not the begining. I'm missing them bad all over again and glad they're almost done. The weather ended up being crummy so we spent a lot of time just hanging out and visiting. It was great....so relaxing. They did drive us around and show us where their office is and a few other places. I was pretty proud of my dad, we never got lost! Some of the missionaries came over one night and you could just see the love they had for my mom and dad.....especially my dad! It made me realize why they are there. I guess I can share them for a little while.
The AP's and my dad
Lucas Oil Stadium. Go Colts!

I wanted to buy Jonah an Austin Collie jersey so bad.....

til I saw the price tag! Ouch!!

Dad, Mom, Me

The girls. Leaving for the airport in a blizzard!

It was so fun to take this trip, and I couldn't have done it without Justin keeping ALL the kids! He's awesome.

I get to see these two in a couple days. Its been 8 months and 2 days since I've seen them (whose counting?) I'm so proud of them for serving a mission but I can't wait to have them back. I am lucky to have such great parents.

Hailey's friend

Hailey has made a special friend in school this year. I never really thought Hailey would be interested in helping handicapped kids but she has really proven me wrong! She loves to visit Talyea every day during recess. She reads to her and paints her fingernails. Today was Talyea's birthday so Hailey planned a little surprise party for her, and she loved it! After school we took her some presents at the care center. I'm so proud of Hailey, I really believe she has a gift!

Snow Fun!

Justin took the kids and some of their friends sledding over Christmas Break. They LOVED it! I was perfectly happy to stay home with Max in the warm house. I sent plenty of hot chocolate to keep them warm while they were gone. Good times! (why is this post blue and underlined? I don't know)

Merry Christmas!

Whoa! What a year. Christmas came and went in a blur and I hardly took a picture! We were so busy this year I feel like I hardly took time to slow down and enjoy it. Here is a little of what we did:
Danny had the cutest preschool program, but when I pulled out my camera...the battery was dead. But I did have my video camera so I do have some video. Hailey had her first orchestra concert. She is learning to play the violin and doing a good job. I hope she will stick with it. Have you ever been to a 5th grade orchestra concert?! They can only get better! Jonah's whole class wrote letters to my parents on their mission. I thought that was pretty sweet, and so did my mom and dad.
I was in charge of the Bliss family Christmas party this year. That was a little stressful...there are a lot of Blisses! It turned out great though, thanks to lots of help from the family. We had a good dinner, a nativity with LOTS of angels and shepherds and opened gifts. When I pulled out my camera, my memory card was full. Nice. Christmas Eve dinner with my family was at my house this year. It was a little lonely without my parents but we still had a great time. We opened our gifts from them and we are all official Colts fans now! Justin set up a video messaging online so they got to see us all. It was fun.....til the call came from the dairy that two workers decided they didn't want to work Christmas eve night and Justin ended up milking all night!! Lets just say Santa did not like working alone.
When the kids woke up they were pretty excited to see what Santa had brought and I think everyone was happy.
I really wish I had more pictures :(

Next year I'm going to do better.

Max with his farm.

Here are all the Colts fans on Christmas Eve

Danny the little shepherd boy

Making Gingerbread houses at Grandma Judi's

Hailey got her reborn doll, Syd got her ipod, Jonah got his nintendo DSi, and Danny got his dinosaur castle. All in all a good year.

A trip to Texas Part:1

Our family took a road trip for Thanksgiving this year. Justin grew up in Texas and still has one sister that lives there so we decided we'd get a motorhome and take a drive half way across the country! It sounded really fun til it came time to pack and go. But it was definitely a trip we will never forget. We had a great time! Our motor home isn't exactly brand new :) it was a total trip back in time!!! It is definitely the way to travel long distances with five kids. We listened to books, ate breakfast, lunch and dinner on the road. The best part was just letting the kids sleep while we drove early in the morning or late at night. What a trip!
This is Max after I told him he was going to be in his
car seat for the next 24 hours or so


Hailey and Claire helping with the Thanksgiving food

Black Friday!!! Woot Woot!

Of course the best part of the trip was getting to spend time with Heather and her family. We only get to see them about once a year so it was really fun to be able to spend time at their house. Our days and nights consisted mostly of movies, dutch blitz, yahtzee, dr. pepper and lots of food! What more could we want?!

Here we are ready to pile back in the RV and head home. The ride home wasn't nearly as fun and exciting as the ride there, but we survived......and we hope we can do it again!!

Bliss and Christiansen kids!

We did take a trip to Justin's home town and our first house we lived in on the dairy. When I have time I'll post part 2!