Twins in Their Sunday Best

I thought the twins look especially cute on Sunday, so I took a few photos.

Porter is starting to get fascinated by the TV. Notice what he's looking at on the TV. He loves wildlife animals, so this is fitting.

Dad and the kiddos

Here are the cuties. When Autumn gets excited about something she will double point and get a really excited expression. It is really fun to see how kids have no reservations.

As you can tell he was really excited to get his picture taken.

Autumn also wasn't very excited to get her picture taken, but she posed anyway. She was really funny when I put on this dress. She got really excited and looked down at her dress. Then she proceeded to lift up each layer and study out how it was put together. I could tell she thought she looked really cute and was excited to have a girly dress on.

Christmas Tree Hunting

We finally went out to get our Christmas tree last week. We went above our house in the Beaver mountains. We found a great tree. The kids came along and had an okay time. Porter enjoyed it more than Autumn did, and the dogs loved it.

Brayden chopping down the awesome tree.

Autumn doesn't know what to think. She had a hard time walking in the snow with her boots. They were a bit too big, so I'm sure that didn't help the situation.

Porter had a good time (even though he does look a bit dorky). He likes the snow.

Brayden's Texas Whitetail

Brayden went on a whitetail hunt the first week of December in Texas with our good friend Adam. They went with the owner of PearTree Game Ranch. He had a great time and shot a beautiful whitetail with his bow. He was spoiled and got to fly down on a private jet, eat great food, and stay in a beautiful lodge. I was really jealous, but very happy he got to go.

My Talented Sister Tonia Webb

My sister was in the 2News kitchen this morning showing off her skills at making gingerbread houses. Each year she makes a gingerbread house for Midway's Swiss Christmas. These are not what you typically think of when you think of gingerbread houses. They are HUGE and immaculately decorated. She incorporates so many details that really make her houses one of a kind.

2News hasn't posted any pictures on their website, all I could find was this link http://www.kutv.com/content/morning/story.aspx?content_id=53bb3952-ce21-4c10-9853-537727bb9b23 referencing that someone was coming. The house she made this year is unbelievable.

Here are some pictures of 2006's gingerbread house to give you an idea of what she does.

You can't see it, but there's a little girl at the top of the stairs peeking down at Santa.

She puts pictures on the wall and decorates every nook and cranny.


The outside view. On the right is a picture of the actual house she replicated.

Way to go Tonia for sharing your talent and donating so much time to a worthy cause.

Here is a link to Midway's Swiss Christmas site. http://www.midwaychristmas.com/cottages.htm In the slide show, the house after the barn is another one that Tonia made. If you're up there is weekend it'd be worth it to go to Midway and check it out.

iDog

Autumn and Porter received an early Christmas present from Grandma and pa Tippetts. They are called iDog. They play music and flash lights on their faces. They absolutely love them. Autumn will dance and get a huge smile every time the music comes on. There's more they can do, but for Autumn and Porter, they just like the music and lights. These dogs kept them entertained for a full hour on our drive home. They are great gifts. Thanks grandma & pa Tippetts.

Here's Autumn dancing to the tunes of her new iDog.

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving was a little crazy this year. We ended up hitting four different parties in three days. We started out going to my dad's Thanksgiving dinner in Spanish Fork on Thanksgiving day at 5 pm. We left at about 6:30 to meet up with Brayden's mom and sisters in West Jordan to go to the Twilight movie (Brayden stayed home with the kids :) Thanks babe). On Friday Brayden's family had Thanksgiving at about 3 pm. I made the rolls, so that took most of the day. I was able to slip out and go shopping with Brayden at Costco which I love at Christmas. There is so much to look at and so much to see. After dinner we went up to Salt Lake to stay at Spring Hill Suites Marriott with my dad and family for our Christmas party. They all went to see the lights, but we decided with the kids it would be too crazy, so we stayed back at the hotel. When everyone returned they went swimming. We didn't bring our suits, so we sat on the sideline. Porter was going crazy trying to get in so we stripped him down (with a clean diaper) and put him in with his uncle Dave. He loved it. The last time we went swimming was the end of June and he wasn't a big fan back then. He has changed his ways now and he had a ball. We asked Autumn if she wanted to go in and she just shook her head very slowly with a serious face. It was pretty obvious she didn't want in. After swimming we played games and went to bed. Autumn was so wound up she didn't fall asleep until 1 am. In the morning we ate breakfast and were on our way to my mom's Thanksgiving dinner. This is the only place I got pictures of. I was slacking the rest of the weekend. All of the cousins made gingerbread houses that turned out really good. My sister is a master gingerbread house maker. She always makes gingerbread houses for the Midway Swiss Christmas. See future posting for more details. Autumn and Porter loved playing with their cousins. It is fun to see them interacting with other kids now. They absolutely love playing with other kids. Shortly after dinner we headed home. My cousin Aubrey Walker from Idaho passed through and stayed the night with her five children. What an awesome family. I was so impressed with their manners and their concern for others. I hope to raise my kids to be as polite and helpful. Her older boys (7 & 9) offered to help set the table and get things ready for breakfast Sunday morning. They are great kids with great parents and we loved having them come by.

Porter at Grandma Guymon's Thanksgiving dinner.

Autumn playing with her older cousins. They are all so awesome.

The gingerbread houses that turned out AWESOME.

Whew! This one is finally done. It's a wordy and crazy post, but that's how the weekend felt for me. CRAZY!

I love sunset pictures

I love taking pictures at sunset. It gives such an awesome glow to the kids. Autumn has an awesome cheese face in this picture. It almost doesn't look like her.

Autumn's Curls

I'm starting to discover that Autumn has a bit of curl in her hair. Brayden has been saying this for a long time, but I wouldn't believe it. I just thought it was from laying on it and sweating making it look like it had curl. Well now I believe. It needs some coaxing, but it's there and very cute. I would love it if she continued to grow beautiful soft curls.

Autumn and Porter hanging out.

Here are the curls (more like waves). Aren't they cute!

I was trying to get her to smile and was pointing at my smile. She just put her hand up to her mouth! Not what I was looking for, but still cute.

Just Some Random Cuteness

Autumn and Porter were so cute on this day (11-11). They played together so good and were happy little kids. I love it when they have days like this. It makes me so happy to be their mom and love them even more.

So handsome!

Look at that darling face!

Cousin Fun

Porter hanging out with Grandma Richmond before church.

We had some of Brayden's family come over for the San Juan Bronco's semi-final football game on 11-08 in Cedar City (unfortunately they lost to Manti, they didn't play very well that game). Regan and Mori came with Sierra and Savannah. Autumn and Porter love their cousins and had a great time with them. Grandpa Richmond and Dylan came as well. Grandma Richmond stayed a couple extra days to attend work meetings in Richfield. She is such a great grandma and I am so happy that Autumn and Porter are lucky enough to have her. Grandpa Richmond is an amazing grandpa too. I really do have the best in-laws in the world.

Frankenstein and the Mad Scientist

For Halloween this year we had Autumn as Frankenstein and Porter as the mad scientist. I decided Autumn is too cute to be scarey looking. I've been letting Porter's hair grow so it would be wild. It turned out great. We all went to the ward trunk or treat party and had fun seeing all the kids dressed up.

Autumn as Frankenstein.

Porter as the Mad Scientist

This was before the Trunk or Treat

Earlier in the day.

Zion's and Angel's Landing

Last weekend we decided to go to Zion's and see the sights. We also decided to hike Angel's Landing. The trip started out pretty comical because our camping trailer crank attachment (the thing to crank up the tent part) got lost. So we were pretty much out of luck unless we could find someone in the campground with the same crank. Well I went on the search and after two full campgrounds being searched I found one. I came back to a fully raised tent trailer and thought Brayden found one. Well he used the crank for the jack lifts and ended up bending the crank. So we had a working trailer until we took it down at the end of the weekend. That night the kids did not sleep good at all. We were up about every half hour or hour. I don't think I slept for more than two total hours that night.

Saturday was a fun day. We checked out the visitor's center and rode the shuttle to Weeping Rock. It was so pretty. The colors were amazing.

Brayden & the kids at Weeping Rock. You can see the water dripping down in the background.

The hike up to Angel's Landing was so pretty. The leaves were changing colors and it was amazing. The hike about killed me in some places. I knew I was out of shape and this hike proved it! The kids did awesome. They didn't complain at all and both even fell asleep at different points in the hike. It was well worth the hike. I was pretty amazed at how precarious it was at the top. It was like boulder climbing with the aid of a chain. I thought they would have fences along the drop-offs to stop you from falling a thousand feet. It made it exciting, especially with the kids in backpacks. I never got real nervous, but I can see how people do get scared.

Mid hike with the beautiful fall leaves.

Brayden going down some of the boulders. Notice the sheer drop-off to the left.

All of us on the top.

Here is some video of the rocky section of Angel's Landing.

We had a great time enjoying one of Utah's many beautiful parks. Zion's is awesome. Now that we live so close to many of Utah's parks we hope to do more exploring.

Anyone Wanna Jump?

Autumn and Porter love to jump (or run around) on the trampoline. They have a blast running from one end to the other. They also like to tackle each. It brings out the cutest laughs from them. We put them in there when we are doing yard work and its kept them entertained for up to an hour.

Their hair gets really crazy and stands up on end. Right before I took this picture Autumn's hair was full of static and standing up all over the place. I touched her and got a big shock and her hair went down significantly.

Just Hanging Out

These pictures are just for fun. I thought they looked cute in their new outfits.

Autumn showing some attitude

I am embarrassed to say this, but Porter would do a funny arm fling across his chest, so Brayden started calling it the retard sign. Now when we tell Porter (and now Autumn) to do retard they will fling their arm onto their chest. It's quite funny, but to some it may be offensive.

Here they are just showing off their good looks.

Little Kissers

Autumn and Porter are learning to give kisses. This started from me asking them for kisses, then they turned to each other and decided to give each other kisses. I thought it was really cute because I didn't prompt them to do it. They just did it on their own. They also love to wrestle. It's pretty mellow at this point. They mostly just fall on each other and laugh about it. It's really cute to see them having so much fun together.

Grocery Shoppers

Here's a little video of my grocery shoppers. When I need to get just a few items at the grocery store I'll let Autumn take over the cart pushing. Porter has a good time riding, but Autumn definitely likes it more. She is still a little out of control and needs constant steering help, but she's catching on. It's cute to see them doing grown up things, and it's cute to see how proud of themselves they are.

The Boy is his Daddy's Son

So like his dad, Porter loves to look at hunting magazines. It will entertain him for a good half hour. He will turn the pages and look for deer or elk, point, and say "du". Since his eyesight is so bad, he has to lean way down to look at the pictures. He's usually closer to the page than the above picture shows. We have glasses on order for him, but Eyeglass World sucks and have failed to get his glasses to us from an order back in FEBRUARY! Never go to Eyeglass World.

Porter is really becoming quite the character. He makes me laugh every day with the new things he's doing. And YEAH!!! He's finally walking. It took him 20 months but he's doing it. It is the cutest walk to. He picks up his knees really high and holds his hands out to the side. He's so proud of himself and always has a big smile. He now has one kind of legible word, "cheese". It sounds more like "seeths" but he knows what he's saying. It's for taking pictures, not the food. He talks all the time, we just can't understand him! He is such a happy boy and I love having him around.

Memories

Memories
I thought that this one would be fun to look back on memories.Here are the rules:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

The Elk Hunt 2008

Brayden drew the coveted archery elk tag for the San Juan unit. He's been putting in for 18 years and the past 3 years he thought he had it for sure. So needless to say he was very excited to have drawn this year. We went to Blanding on August 12th and started camping with Adam Bronson and Regan. I ended up camping for the next three weeks with different people coming and going. The second week of the hunt we were lucky enough to have almost all of Brayden's high school friends come hunt. Adam Bronson, Dave McPherson, and Steve Kartchner came to hunt with Brayden. It was so fun to have them in camp sharing stories and catching up. A big thanks goes out to them for taking the time to come out and help. I must also mention that thanks to Adam, everyone ate very good. High grade meat and potatoes every night. It wouldn't have been the same without you guys.

Camping was really fun and Autumn and Porter had a great time in the dirt. These pictures were taken about 10 minutes after we got to camp. They wasted no time getting dirty. We went for a lot of walks in the stoller and ended up bush wacking a few times to take shortcuts. I love our stroller, it can go about anywhere.



The third week into the hunt Brayden made it happen and put a beautiful bull down. It came into a pond he'd been sitting on and hunting around for the majority of the hunt. It was about 3 in the afternoon. He shot it at 45 yards, and the bull went down about 50 yards from where he shot. When he walked up on it he saw that one side had broken off a brow tine. It's a 5x6 with a lot of character.
We packed the kids in and took some pictures. They thought it was pretty cool. Autumn just pointed with wide eyes and would say "da, da". I think she was trying to say deer, but I'm not sure. When we moved the elk for another position it made some gurgling noises and Porter about freaked out. He cried pretty hard about it. He didn't like that at all. I posted video of his reaction at the bottom of this post.

We stayed another week in Blanding while Brayden helped Regan hunt. Autumn and Porter love their Richmond grandparents and had a blast playing with them and their cousins Sierra and Savannah. We love Blanding and enjoy every trip we take there.

More Camping Pictures

Here Autumn and Porter are hanging out with their cousins, Sierra and Savannah. Notice Porter's "I'm bad" expression and posture!

The enjoyed eating in the camp trailer. We bought a used one just before the hunt and I must say it made camping so much better. Autumn would climb from one side to the other going over obstacles and feeling like she was so cool. Porter is sporting his sunglasses that we got shortly before we left.

Here they are having fun in the firewood. In the background is another one of our purchases for the hunt. The blue motorcycle is now ours. My first attempt on the bike ended up with me laying it down after five feet and it putting a nasty burn on the inside of my knee about five inches long. By the end of the hunt I was able to ride on straight roads and to do wide turns. I still have a long way to go. Funny thing (not really), Brayden took the bike out toward the end of the hunt and layed it down and got a huge burn on the inside of his lower leg. We now both have burn scars from this motorcycle.

Autumn and Porter spent quite a bit of time hanging out in these little chairs. They liked to sit around with all the adults and feel like they were part of the action.