Christmas with Gma & Gpa Berry

What we did on Christmas Eve

Josh helped make dinner for us and his parents.


I drank a Coke and read a non-textbook book!


Haylie Jo played the Wii


Jozlyn did fun little crafts, like this scratch ornament.


Jozlyn had princess hair!

Making Sugar Cookies at Grandma's House!

Christmas Dresses

Every year my mom buys the girls new Christmas dresses. My mom is so funny. She will call to tell me what stores are having a sale on dresses, then she'll call back a few hours later and say she is at the mall and wants me to come look at dresses with her. We'll get there and she'll have some picked out for the girls to try on. Then she'll take them from the fitting room and say, "I'll just buy them for you." She does this every year and I am so grateful. She has great taste in dresses and often buys dresses for them that our little college budget can't afford. Thanks mom, you're the best!

Getting ready for Church


Jozlyn's dress had a gold satin skirt overladen with black lace and sequins. We did her hair in a braided headband with ringlets. She thought she looked like a princess. Her dress was so poofy that if poofed up to her chest when she sat down!


Haylie Jo's dress had a white skirt embroidered with red and green flowers. Her's was super poofy too!



Just a side note. I love doing Jozlyn's hair in fun created ways when we are out of school and have a little more time. I get almost all of my ideas from hair4myprincess.blogspot.com There a link to the site on my blog list. The blogger Kori, posts step by step instructions for her hairstyles. We have tried many of the Christmas hairstyles including, a wreath, a christmas tree, a star, and a present. Check it out!

A Little Taste of Christmas

This last weekend we got an early little taste of Christmas. On Friday at the girl's school, they had a Christmas sing-a-long for anyone that wanted to come. I am Haylie Jo's class room mother so after the sing-a-long, I helped with their Christmas party. Then, we packed up and headed to my dad's cabin in Palisades for the night. We stayed up watching Pixar Shorts with Papa Joe and Grandma Mie. The next day, the kids played in the snow, sat in the hot tub, and played games until it was time to leave. After we got back from the cabin, we had my mom's family Christmas party at my Grandpa Storer's house. We had some dinner, watched "Joy to the World", opened presents, and got to see Santa Clause. Here are some pics from our whirlwind Christmas weekend.

Jozlyn with Papa Ray at the Storer family Christmas party

Jozlyn, Haylie Jo, and my cousin Lisa with Santa

Haylie Jo with Santa

Jozlyn with Santa

Haylie Jo with my dad's dog Zena. She just can't put that dog down whenever we're around her.

Jozlyn drinking hot cocoa after sitting in the hot tub

Haylie Jo playing the bells at her school Christmas sing-a-long

Nutcracker 2009

Another year, another Nutcracker! I absolutely love our studio, Idaho Ballet Theatre. This year I got quite a few behind the scenes pics, but I'm sad I didn't get very many of Haylie Jo. I did order a professional pic of the two of them in their tutus, but I haven't got it yet. I'll add it when I get it. Well, this year Haylie Jo was a mouse again, and a butterscotch in the overature. Jozlyn was a little party girl, a licorice in the overature, and chinese. No words can describe how much it brings me joy to see my little girls on stage. They even got to be on stage the same time as the professional ballerinas! This year Jozlyn was in the finale and as such, we were one of the last to leave. When we got out into the lobby, the Sugar Plum Fairy was out in the lobby too. Jozlyn got the courage to go and talk to her. Sugar Plum asked Jozlyn, "What dances were you in?" Jozlyn told her and Sugar Plum said, "You must be really good to be in 3 dances." Jozlyn said, "I was the 3rd one out." Keep in mind there are over 100 little kids that perform. Sugar Plum said, "I remember you!" Sugar Plum made little Jozzy feel like a hundred bucks! The star professional from the show knew her! Here are the few pics I just had to show off!

Jozlyn with the other little party girls hanging out backstage

Jozlyn in Licorice

I love tutu bums!

Jozlyn in little Party Girl

Me with Jozlyn and Haylie Jo in mouse

All of us

Me and Jozzy after the show

This will put a smile on your face!

Today I was chatting with my little brother online. He is on a mission in Coolidge, Arizona. I asked him if he got a new companion during the last transfer, this was his reply:

"Nope. I'm with the same one. He's kinda getting on my nerves. He farts in the car, then won't let me roll down his window cuz "I get cold". I don't wanna sit there and smell him. So that's pretty gay. But we're doing pretty good."

BWAAAAA! I laughed out loud in the quiet computer lab at school. This just gives you the "essence" of Brian.

A Whirlwind Thanksgiving

I absolutely love Thanksgiving. I love the crisp autumn air and the smell of pumpkins everywhere. This year we got to spend a lot of time with Josh's family. Josh's brother Mick, his wifey Brooke, and little boy Jett stayed with us for a week. Brooke and I always have the best time together although I think we bring out the brat in each other a little bit :). It was so much fun to have a baby in our home again. Even Josh couldn't help picking him up and cooing at him every chance he could. Our little house was bulging at the seams. Every night we'd all congregate at our house to play games, we are big into games in the Berry family! Our brother-in-law Taylor, the technological genius of the family, juiced up everyone's ipods, Wiis, and computers. He is the official photographer of the family and I need to get his pics, I'm sure they are way better than mine (although I will not show any of the scary candid pics Brooke, I promise)! Well, here is a fast run-down of things we did: Jozlyn had a school fall choir concert, Brooke and I went to New Moon, I read a book that wasn't a textbook, we played card games every night and laughed our pants off, baked pies, ate pies, and did a little shopping. I didn't get many pictures this time, so here are the select few.

Brooke and I making pies that were to die for (literally, we almost fought Josh's mom to the death for the leftovers)

Aunt Heidi playing with Jozlyn

Jozlyn with Lilee Heath, Josh's bf Brad's little girl

My sister's dog Pepsi, and her puppies. They were born on Thanksgiving day!

Jozlyn at her school fall choir concert

All I Want For Christmas....

is my 2 front teeth! This actually happened a few weeks ago but I haven't had time to blog for a while. Get ready for the onslaught of posts coming soon! Well, on a Sunday morning Jozlyn slipped on the tile getting out of the shower. She started bleeding and I saw her spit out a tooth. I went to look closer and sure enough, she split her chin clean open. I had to run to the church to pull Josh out of a meeting. I was in my pj's, glasses on, teeth unbrushed of course! Every member of the auxillary was in that meeting, not to mention that the other ward was just getting out of sacrament meeting. I was a sight to see! Well, she had stitches and the other tooth fell out the next day. Don't worry, they were baby teeth and already loose. Jozlyn was okay with everything. She was excited for the tooth fairy to come 2 nights in a row! And, now she can sing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!"

Stupid Zhu Zhu Pets!

I'm sure everyone has heard about Zhu Zhu pets by now, the little hamsters that are supposed to be like real ones. Well, here is my rant. Yes, I can see how little ones would like them, but why all the hype? Why can't they make more? Are we really that out of ideas that this toy is the hottest toy of the year? Now, here is my story of woe.
In October, before I had ever heard about the stupid Zhu Zhu pets, my mother in law called and told me she was at Toys R US and was holding a hamster toy. She said all the other women there told her to buy it because it was so popular. She tried to explain it to me but I told her I had no idea what it was. In my mind I was thinking it was a Furby and I wondered why people would be excited about furbies? 2 weeks later she was at ShopKo and called again with two hamster toys in her cart. Once again, there were other grandmothers and employees telling her to buy them because they sell so fast. I told her, "I just don't know what they are, and I don't think my girls would play with them." So she put them back. 2 weeks after that my sister was telling me about the hottest toy of the year....the Zhu Zhu pets. I looked them up on UTube and thought Haylie Jo might actually like them. I figured I'd look and if I couldn't find any right now, I could get one for her birthday in March. We were at Wal-Mart when Haylie Jo told me, "Mom, I want a Zhu Zhu pet. I'm going to ask for one from Santa." Yikes! By now all the pets were sold out in stores and going for $50 online. I saw a few accessories but wanted the hamster first. My mom got a little overexcited and bought one for $45 on ebay! I heard yesterday they would have hamsters at ToysRus in the morning. I got up at 4:30, put on all my winter clothes, and waited in line for 1 hour 15 minutes in the wind and bitter cold for a stinking hamster, and they were sold out of accessories. I drove all over town and found that all the accessories were now gone too! WHY ME? I missed so many opportunities to buy those stupid pets and accessories when I had the chance.

I can't be good all of the time!

Those of you who know me, knows that I am a reformed, in-your-face, brat. When I was a angst-ridden teenager I had no trouble telling you how it was and setting you right. I was exactly as I said, an in-your-face, brat! I'm not proud of this, in fact, I get embarrassed when I remember those times and how immature I was. Now, I'm reformed. I tip-toe around everyone in hopes that I will never offend anyone. I have realized that I want everyone to love me instantly, and I get really uncomfortable when I feel like I've said something wrong. As a result of this new found attitude, I feel much better about myself and my relationships with others. I pride myself on being able to talk to anyone and form a friendship. I smile at people in the halls at school, I strike up a conversation with the next customer in line at the grocery store, I find something good in everyone. However, there are still a few times that I wish I had a little of that spunk I had as a teen. I'm afraid of the spunk, tell it as it is, person I was and have gone the opposite way. Every once in a while I wish I didn't hold my tongue and let that spunky old me take over.
Well, it happened tonight. My two nephews had wrestling meets tonight (they are 7 and 4). I have found that the only time that spunk comes back is at sporting events. There have been many times when I couldn't hold my tongue at Josh's soccer games. I just get so riled up and can't seem to picture the other team as being friendly, I always think of them as "the others". Wrestling is even worse. There is so much pressure on 1 person. If you lose, your team doesn't lose, you do! This makes it ultra-competitive. Well, tonight my nephew was wrestling and long story short, the mom of the other wrestler was saying negative things about my family. After the meet I told her in a calm manner, "That is my family you're talking about and I'd appreciate it if you could stop talking about them like that." She of course had a rebuttal and from there the spunky me came out something fierce. We traded words for a few minutes and went on our way. I was slightly proud of defending my family's honor but felt like I let the immaturity slip back into me. I only allow myself to watch my nephews wrestle a few times a year because it just brings out the worst in me. I guess that the spunk isn't gone for good. I can keep it in check most of the time. But mess with my family....and the fierce mama bear comes out! I just can't be good all of the time!

You know it's time to finish college when...

10 - Your window seals have 5 years of dust on them
9 - You plan your life in semesters
8 - You don't believe anything the professors say anymore
7 - Instead of doing laundry, you go out and buy new underwear (only once)
6 - Financial Aid won't give you anymore money....you've maxed out
5 - You dream of taking a final in a class you've never attended and need to pass to graduate
4 - You think of getting a wheelie back pack
3 - Your kids pray for you to be able to finish your homework
2 - You can't have a normal conversation without bringing something up you learned in class the other day
1 - When you see the new freshman on campus you feel that slight pang letting you know you're way too old and too mature to still be there. But that feeling passes soon and all you want to do is yell "Suckas! I'm done. Peace Out!"

Halloween with the Grandparents

Grandma and Grandpa Berry with the girls.


Haylie Jo with her stash


Jozlyn got lots of candy too!


The girls at Grandma Gay Lyn's. I'm not sure why Jordyn is holding a candle :)

Trunk or Treating

The last few years we have gone to my sister's ward for trunk or treat. Our neighborhood doesn't really do trick or treat, they all go where the good candy is...in Stonebrook! Anyway, it's a lot of fun. The cousins get to hang out and so do the guys. Josh and Roudy got a little too cozy last night. First they handed out candy together at trunk or treat, then they went to get a soda after dropping the rest of us off to go trick or treating. The highlight of the night was the two of them, in the minivan, with the music turned way up, dancing to "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus (Roudy's favorite song). The kids had fun too! My sister, Mindy, is a die-hard trick or treater. She makes the kids go until they either can't hold their bag anymore or they have blisters on their feet. Growing up we only got to go to a few houses, so I guess she's making up for all that lost candy. Jozlyn, my little girly-girl, would tell everyone who gave her candy, "Thank you, Happy Halloween!" Oh, and in case you can't tell...Jozlyn was a mermaid (a generic one, NOT the little mermaid), and Haylie Jo was Alice in Wonderland. Here's some good pics of the night.

The kids, Trason was a storm trooper, Haylie Jo was Alice in Wonderland, Jozlyn was a mermaid, Jordyn was a midnight fairy, and Jaxon was Darth Vader. They lined themselves up like that. I couldn't help thinking, "More bars in more places."


Josh and Roudy rocking the trunk or treat


The girls passing out candy at trunk or treat. They ran the whole way and finished way too early. They thought they were big.

School Halloween Costume Parade

This is how I feel after Halloween too!

Crazy Hair Day