MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE DOWDLES!!
Every year our cute neighbors, the Palmers, have a Christmas party in their backyard. They invite Santa and Mrs. Claus, have all you can eat donuts and hot chocolate, and fire pits to help keep us warm. It's our Christmas present from them and we love going!! Before the party my girls wrote up their Christmas lists to give to Santa. This is what they wrote...
Dear Santa Claus,
This year I want a REAL dog that barks, eats, poops, and pees. DS games (Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure and Phineas and Ferb), Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure DVD. If the dog thing doesn't work out, I'll take a Wii.
Dear Santa,
For Christmas I want the 3 Musketeers Barbie movie, Barbie 3 Musketeers dolls, a pink doll with skin that looks like mine, a doll that can talk and is as tall as me, and a REAL dog that barks, eats, poops, and pees. That's all!!!!
Love, Brinley
Dear Santa Claus,I want a Belle doll, a Belle dress, Tinkerbell doll, a Barbie, a REAL dog that barks, eats, poops, and pees, Snow White, a butterfly fishing pole, and a hanger!
Love, Ry Ry
At least they're not asking for much!?!?**November 28, 2009**
We started with our first dinner at my parent's house with my Mom's side of the family. We ate until we were stuffed. It makes me hungry again just thinking about it.
Rylee had a little bruise on her cheek and insisted on wearing a band-aid to make it feel better. Isn't she so cute??
So Rylee's birthday celebration didn't end at Red Robin, it continued on to the next day (which was her actual birthday). She was the Princess for the Day (although in her mind she is THE Princess everyday). She has on her new birthday outfit. Her skirt has sparkles on it and really sparkles when you are outside. Dan said it reminded him of Edward and asked if I bought that particular skirt on purpose, I really hadn't thought of it that way but now it is my favorite skirt on her. He calls this skirt her Edward skirt and thinks I should take it back to the store. 
I wasn't surprised when I asked Rylee what kind of cake she wanted for her big day and she answered with "pink cuk cakes". It seems to be the favorite birthday dessert with my girls. If you look close you can see that Rylee put her finger in 2 of the cupcakes marking them for her. She wanted one with sprinkles and one without. 
She blew out her candles and quickly had her 2 cupcakes gone. She didn't waste anytime because she new presents were next.
We told her she had to go sit on the birthday chair and be good and we would open presents. She quickly got there and folded her arms and waited patiently.
She got some fun presents...money, baby dolls, Christmas dolls, a princess crown, Sleeping Beauty dress, glitter ball, really cute clothes, and some magnet letters. Can you say spoiled?!?! She loved it all!!
Red Robin was the choice for her birthday dinner. She loves, loves, loves the mac-n-cheese and chocolate milk there. She was being silly at dinner and loving all the attention.
They brought us some ice cream for her birthday. It was bigger than her, but she didn't have any problem eating the entire thing with a little help from her older sisters.
Since Brinley's birthday back in August, we have been telling Rylee that she has the next birthday in our family. So for the few months before her birthday she kept telling us that "her birthday was next year". Everyday we would hear her say "My bird day next yeear". We would try to correct her and say that it was next, not next year and she would get mad at us and say next year. So we just went along with her until the big day. Then on the big day she kept saying "my bird day all da time". Happy 3rd Birthday you crazy little monkey!! Our family would be pretty boring without you!
**Celebrated the day before on Saturday, November 7, 2009**
My 3 little girlies were so excited to carve their home grown pumpkins this year. They had so much fun watching THEIR pumpkin grow all summer long.
Cleaning out the guts is sooo messy!
Oooey Goooey!
Brinley even got pumpkin guts on her head. She was trying to look inside her pumpkin and went a little too far in.
Rylee loved it. This is the only time she can make a big mess and get away with it.
The top green pumpkin is Baylee's she painted at school and named Frankin' Poo. The next one down is Brinley's. She wanted the whole family on her pumpkin. We only cut out one person and she drew the rest on. That one person took a while to cut out. The bottom pumpkin is Baylee's also. She cut out a Tiger and it was her own design. She wouldn't let any one help her or see what she was doing.
The big U was Dan's this year. I usually do the U but let him do it this time. Our neighbors give us a bad time because we like the Utah Utes so much. My pumpkin is a bat. I never go into this much detail for pumpkin carving but thought it would be fun to do this time. It took way too long (thus the reason Brinley only got one person cut out of her pumpkin!). It took forever and made it hard to help the girls. It was fun though. I think I'll stick with the U next year.
I love Halloween and carving pumpkins!!
Dan gave Rylee the job of picking tomatoes. She loved it. Our tomatoes were mouth watering. I would eat one almost every night with a little salt and pepper--yummy!!
We had to sneak in one more time camping for the year before the campgrounds close for the season and the snow arrives. We headed back to one of our favorite places--The Uintah Mountains.
We went back to Mirror Lake. We had so much fun last time that we decided to go have some more fun! Grandma Debbie had some fun crafts for the girls. They enjoyed the paints and painting on each other.
The rest of us enjoyed a little nap in the fresh mountain air...
We headed to the lake to fish. Baylee put a "curse" on Grandma Debbie and she was pouting because she wasn't catching any fish. Poor Grandma!!
But then Baylee lifted the "curse" and soon she got a fish and a big one at that!! Now she's happy.
My second set of parents, Gary and Rozana Wilkey, went with us this time. They have been a big part of my life. It was fun to be around them again and enjoy their company. Their oldest son Tyran and his family came up too. Gary or who I like to call Nerd got a baseball game going, right in the middle of the trees. It was crazy fun!
The best part is seeing Mallory (she's new to the family, marrying my cousin Ryan in November) doing it too. We were all laughing and causing the other people at the tables to look at us.
Brinley is set for kindergarten! This girl has been counting down the days. Baylee started school a week earlier than Brinley and that was torture for her (and me). All I heard was, "is it school day today Mom?" for a week. Finally the big day came and she couldn't be more excited!! 
We will miss you SUMMER!! We're not ready to let you go. We love the long warm days, running around in our swimsuits, having fun. It's been another great SUMMER. We were busy as always...camping, fishing, swimming, bike rides, swinging, playing at the park, picnics, family walks, ice cream, BBQ's, counting the stars, selling suckers, playing with friends, getting a tan, relaxing, and just having fun!
Until next year...I think I need another Popsicle to make the sadness go away!
Elsie, Brinley, Baylee, Lillie, and Maddi enjoying their last days of SUMMER!!
It brought us many opportunities to serve even before it was dedicated. I worked with the Youth in our Stake as we prepared a dance to celebrate this new temple. We performed the dance for President Monson. Then Dan and I volunteered with the open house that was held during June and July. We helped with food, parking, security, and I even got the chance to sit at the front door and count (with a clicker) the many people that came from all over to see the beautiful inside. In my small 5 hour shift that day, I counted almost 2000 people. I read that over 600,000 people came to visit the temple before it was dedicated on August 23rd.
During June we had horrible weather. Rain, wind, hail, and lots of lightning. Angel Moroni was struck by lightning during that time and his right arm and face turned black. It looks like a shadow on his arm but really it's burnt. It stayed that way until right before the dedication. They replaced it with a new and very shiny Angel Moroni. We sat out in our driveway and watched them take down the burnt one and replace it with the new one. It was pretty fun watching that amazing task.
Last February, my sweet little sister Krista gave me one of my all time favorite birthday gifts, a ticket to the Kenny Chesney concert that was coming in July. She bought one for my Mom also for Mother's Day. What a sweetheart! We all love Kenny and have seen him in concert every summer for the last 4 or so years. Krista told me they were good seats, but I didn't realize how good they were until we kept walking closer and closer to the stage... 
It was so HOT that night. It seriously was like a 120 degrees (and that's not an exaggeration) in that stadium. We were sweating so bad. We joked all night that Kenny was sweating on us because we were so close to him. Might I say he is a hottie with one sexy voice!
The concert was awesome! I filled all four of my camara disks up with pictures. He is quite the entertainer. We were groovin' all night!
Every July, my Dad's side of the family holds the famous Harris Reunion in good old Portage, Utah. It is a very little town that truly does exist. Sometimes when I tell people about it, I wonder if they really believe me. So here's the proof...
Portage is a small town that was founded in 1867. There is a population of about 218 people but when we have our reunion we almost double that. There use to be a little store called Moe's that was just outside of the town, but Moe died and the store closed up. So now it looks like this (above picture). Someone painted part of it. It was all white.
Portage is about 5 minutes south of the Utah/Idaho border. Seriously if you blink you will miss it. It is a little clump of trees just west of the freeway. When you get off the freeway you take a llllooonnngg road into town. The top picture is driving into town (see the trees?). The bottom picture is heading back to the freeway. Funny both pictures look the same. Did I mention that it's in the middle of well nowhere?!
This is the white house my Grandpa Harris grew up in. There are 6 brother and sisters that grew up in this very small house. When it was first built, the right side of the house wasn't there. It was added on years later. It's very old!! Sometimes when I'm in the house I wonder if the floor is going to fall in. All the pictures and furniture are the same from when Grandpa was younger.
This is my Grandpa Norman Harris. He is 1 of 4 still alive from the Big 6.
We have family come from all over to stay for the week. We all just pick a favorite spot on the lawn and either set up our tents, trailers, or tent trailer. That's my parent's trailer in the front. They park their trailer there every time. This is the front of the house...
We have been going to Portage for years. I remember being this age standing in front of the house. My girls love it and love seeing their cousins. We always joke that it's so boring and hot, but I think if you asked any Harris, they would tell you they love going. Until next year...
I think Rylee wore herself out eating 4, yes 4 big s'mores. She was out after 1 game.
We slept with the rain fly off so you could see all the stars and the very BRIGHT moon. It made for a cool night. It didn't matter though, we snuggled into our beds and slept tight. 
Then it's time to get up early on the 4th and head to the park in Murray for breakfast with the Dowdles. We had so much food there we could have had breakfast every morning for a week. It was good food though and it's always fun to eat outside in the early morning!!
As Rylee would say, "Yummy, yummy to my tummies!"
After watching the fireworks at Riverton Park, we headed back to Carter's house for more fireworks. I think we were the last 2 houses to go to bed that night. We just wanted to stay and play outside!
After her baptism we had a luncheon in our newly finished backyard. Dan and my Dad worked very hard to get it done before this day. We had a BBQ and cake. We had a very special day celebrating with our family and friends. Thank you to everyone that gave her a special gift for her baptism day. She has enjoyed all of her gifts! 
Then it was back to our house for PRESENTS!! Aunt Krista gave Baylee this Hannah Montana wig. It made her look so different with long, blonde hair. 
Baylee got a new Madam Alexander Birthday doll to go in her new room, lots of money, clothes, and some toys. She also got her new scripture bag and scriptures, and her CTR ring.
That's right it's PARTY TIME!! Baylee has been planning her High School Musical Party since last year. We didn't let the girls have parties last year because they got their swing set instead (although they really didn't get it until a couple of months ago because we were trying to get the backyard finished). So since March Baylee has been planning the food, games, prizes, friends to invite, and even the PJ's.
After cleaning up pizza sauce, we managed to get them to settle down a bit and play some HSM games. Baylee planned all the games and even helped me put them together. We played Wildcats Basketball (throwing paper balls into a laundry basket), High School Musical Walk (like a cake walk), Wildcats Bingo, and HSM Trivia. Again lots of giggles and screams. They ended up having a screaming contest to see who could scream the loudest. The dogs in the neighborhood all started barking because they were so high pitched and loud. They wanted to stay outside all night, finally at 10:00 we made them come in.
Then it was Baylee's favorite time-time to open presents. She got some fun gifts. Her friends spoil her!
You can't have a party without cake, however my girls like donut cakes better, especially when the donuts are from Dunford Donuts. Yummy!!
**She is a great helper**
Seriously, she would rather pose for the camera instead of playing!!!
At the end of the school year, I volunteered to help with the 2nd grade field trip and go to the Monte L. Bean Museum in Provo. It was a fun day with Baylee. 
We had a scavenger hunt finding different animals around the museum. I had 4 kids to watch over and help with the hunt. This is Cooper, Baylee, Madi and Drew. 
These are 2 of Brin's best friends, Jane and Maddi. Maddi (the one in the middle) is like my 4th daughter. She lives next door and is here almost everyday. We love having her here, she just seems to fit right in with the fam.
Here are some of the little grads...
Hopefully by the time she graduates from High School she won't have this same look. This was the perfect way to end a perfect preschool graduation. Good job Brinley!! We're so proud.
It really can't be that comfortable!! The best part is when we drag her out from under the bed, she wakes up and tells us that she needs to stay in her bed!!
Sweet dreams Ry Ry!!!
This is some of our Mia Maids on our last rehearsal night. They are just waiting for their costumes. This same night some of the leaders were starving, so during the second time through the program we snuck out for some Lion House rolls, but unfortunately it was closed. So we headed up to the Garden Restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and the sweet Hostess gave us some rolls and tons of butter and we headed outside by the Reflecting Pool in front of the Salt Lake Temple and ate our rolls. What can I say, we had been there since 4:00 PM and didn't get home that night until 11:15 PM and we were starving. It was a lot of hard work watching the youth dance. 
It was a very stressful time watching our youth trying to pull this dance together. Many long hours and some very tired kids and leaders (myself included!!), but on the night of the Celebration it all came together. Many prayers were answered. President Monson was there and sat right below us. I could see him all night. President Eyring and Elder Perry were there also, along with many members of the Seventy. It is always a privilege to be in the same room as our Prophet. He brings such a special feeling to the room. Our youth were thrilled to see him. The Temple Celebration was amazing. There were 15 dance numbers from Stakes in our Temple District that all danced from some era or country. They were all awesome. They ended the Celebration by raising a Temple above the Mountain while the choir was singing. So cool!
As tiring as it was I am so thankful that I got to be a part of this special Temple Celebration. Check out our 
A big CONGRATULATIONS to the newest Captain in the West Jordan Fire Department, my Dad!!
The girls loved the tunnel. Rylee said it was scary and covered her eyes while driving through it. Baylee couldn't believe that we were driving in a mountain. 
I loved the beautiful scenery around us. The colors and shapes of the rocks were amazing. We did a little hiking in the rain but soon got very cold. We even saw a wild turkey--two of them, but they ran into the trees before we could get a good picture. 
Rylee stayed on Dan's shoulders most of the day. She was his ear muffs. While eating lunch, there were a lot of caterpillars on the ground. Rylee freaked out over them and refused to walk. She kept saying "the color papers get me, I hold you Dad, I hold you". It was pretty funny watching her run from them.
Sunday morning before heading back home, we stopped by the St. George Temple and walked around the temple grounds. The weather was perfect!! The Temple was beautiful!! It was a nice way to end a very busy week.
Rylee still refusing to walk. She's searching for "color papers" (caterpillars). Dan packed her all day. She wouldn't come to me, she wanted the safety of her Daddy.
It was then time to get dressed up like a "Ballabina" (again Ry Ry's words) that would be a ballerina. The girls loved their new dresses. However it was almost impossible to get a good picture of these 3. Baylee smiled perfectly, Brinley kept pulling faces and Rylee wanted to sing the ABC's instead of holding still for her picture. O-well, they're still cute anyway!!
After attending church we went to dinner and yes another egg hunt at Aunt Judy's house with my side of the family. Dinner was delicious and can I say that we had so much food that we could have fed everyone on the block--twice! It was sooooo very good though. This family loves deviled eggs. We fight over who gets them and how many we can have. Baylee has caught on to this quickly. She would eat a whole plate herself!!
I had a great day. Everyone spoiled me! Besides watching Twilight 3 times, the best part of the day was just being with my family. I love you guys!! 
We also made chocolate covered strawberries. Baylee and Brinley were my good helpers!! They had a blast eating all the leftover chocolate.
Rylee however, was the BEST helper of all. She slept the entire time we baked. I can only imagine what my kitchen would have looked like if she would have been out there to "help". She also insisted on wearing a heart sticker on her forehead all day. She didn't take it off until she crawled into bed that night.
My little Rylee is 2 going on 17. This little girl is a handful!! She keeps us on our toes 24/7. There's not a minute in the day when she is not trying to make us laugh. She is always putting a smile on our faces. However, I could not get her to smile for these pictures. This was on Valentine's Day and she wanted "tails" in her hair. She looked so cute and I wanted to get some pictures, but she was not about to smile.
My favorite part of the morning is receiving the homemade gifts the girls make for us at school. Brinley was tickled that she finally made an ornament like Baylee to go on our tree. 
Baylee made us this fun card with her ornament inside. 
I will treasure these moments forever. I hear to enjoy them now because they grow up so fast! We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, we definitely did!!
Our Christmas Days are always crazy. This year we celebrated 4 Christmases with 4 different families before 12:30 PM. We had to get our girls up at 6:45 AM and have our own Christmas. Then it was off to my parent's house at 8:30 AM for Christmas all over again (they spoil us!!). Open presents there and then rush off to my Grandma and Grandpa Cowdell's (Mom's side) house for the BEST Christmas breakfast ever! It is my favorite part of Christmas Day!! Then race back to my parent's house for the Harris (Dad's side) Christmas party at 12:30 PM. CRAZY but fun! However this year we had soooooo much snow that we were late for everything because the roads were horrible. It usually takes us 8 minutes to get to our parent's houses, but with the snow it was over a half hour before we got there. As crazy as it always is, we have a lot of fun.
This year my Mom made all of us a patchwork quilt. Each one fit our personalities. My Dad's was a fireman one, ours was a Utah Ute one (AWESOME), Krista's was horses, and the girls were all fairies, flowers and princesses. She started sewing these well before Halloween. She made us all think that she was just making them for the little girls, but surprised us with one for each of us. There were hundreds of hours of sewing in all of these. We love them! With it being so cold lately we have enjoyed having them to cuddle in and stay warm!! Thanks Mom!
I'm so excited that I have girls (however I would take a little boy anytime!). One thing I love about having girls is that I get to dress them up in their cute dance costumes and watch them dance. Baylee and Brinley had their Christmas Dance Concert a couple of weeks ago. They both did a great job. I think they were the cutest ones up on the stage (Mandi, your girls were the cutest too!!). They take dance with one of my best friend's little girls.
Baylee is a very dependable girl. She's smart, loving, and always cares about others. She helps me with whatever project I have going on. She's very creative and curious, always wanting to learn. I'm very thankful she's my oldest. I can always count on her. I love you Baylee Roses!
Brinley is my laid back girl. Not much bothers her. She is my cuddle buddy. We can't start the day off without our cuddles. She is the quiet one of the bunch and the most like her Mommy. She has a big heart! Always watching out for others. She has quite the imagination. Always making up stories. She's my funny one that always has something crazy to say. She's also my shopping buddy. This girl likes to shop. I love you Brinley Bear!
Rylee is my adventurous one. She is not afraid of anything! She is our family clown. She loves to be center of attention. She will give you the biggest squeeze ever and tons of kisses to go along with it. She loves to follow me around and ask a billion questions, sometimes the same question all day long. She will light up any room with her big smile.
Baylee and Canon after their last game.
Go Lightning Bolts!! Yes, she was the only girl on her team. That was good because she probably would have linked arms too with the other girls like Baylee did.
We celebrated Rylee's 2nd Birthday yesterday at Chuck-E-Cheese. What a party! We partied with the Grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles and of course Chucky himself. We ate yummy pizza, cake and cup cakes, played all the games, and rode all the rides. I think the kids wore the parents out. 
Brinley's
Rylee's
But all in all it was a fun night...
Baylee and Canon spent 95% of the weekend playing their DS.
Oh look, they came up for a smile!
Brinley and Easton played "house" all weekend. Brinley was the Mom and Easton was the dog. Sometimes I wonder what is going on in a 4 year old's mind. Right before we left we caught Brinley and Easton holding hands. Hmmm, we might have to put a stop to that right away.
Rylee and Hudson played until they crashed. These two followed each other around everywhere and found anything they could to play with. Most of the time it was something they shouldn't be playing with.
Double Trouble right here!
