Baptism photo shoot

Well, Destinee dear is getting baptized next weekend. She is getting so excited and I am starting to now freak out a little bit! I took her up to Timpanogos Temple yesterday to kind of do a little photo shoot so we could get her invitations sent out. It ended up being way more fun than I could have hoped for. I am not photographer of any kind, but I did the best I could! She was super photogenic, and the more pictures we took, the more relaxed she became. She started adding some input of what she wanted and it was nice. We were lucky that it wasn't raining all that much, cause after we finished it started coming down. What a little cutie she was! Here are a few of the pics at the temple...

Chadwick Family photos

This post is only about a month late but I thought they would be fun to put up. In the middle of December Steve's immediate family got together for a family photo now that 2 of his siblings are home from their missions. We wanted to do a snow in the mountain picture and it wasn't working out so well. Everyone was freezing cold and not cooperating. All that aside, I think we got a few cute pictures. Peyton would not look at the camera and smile. The few that we had that she did, no one else was really smiling. Go figure! So here they are.


Here we are! Mom and dad, 13 siblings, 3 spouses, 6 grand kids, and one on the way. What a group!!!!


We had to walk into the trees for this picture and the kids were so so cold and not having it. All of my kids were crying. It was honestly kind of funny.


Here is Steve with his sister Brittanie and brother Kyle, both of whom just came home off missions. This was the picture to check lighting. What a handsome man I have I must say!!!

Hopefully we can do pictures in the summer when it is much warmer and I think we will have better luck!

Its great to be 8!

Well my little (not so little) Destinee turned 8-years-old on Wednesday. It was all so strange to have her turn 8. She is my oldest and I am thinking that I myself don't feel old enough to have a daughter that is 8. That aside, I am so happy to have her in our lives and she is such a blessing to me. She is getting ready for her baptism that will be on Feb 4 and she is beyond ready. She is quite nervous but I told her that she has nothing to worry about because her daddy will be with her every step of the way. So on her birthday she went to school, and got a surprise visit from her dad (who was only off for a few hours) and took her out to lunch. It was so neat that they got to spend some quality time together just the two of them. She came home and opened presents. Not all of her presents were there though because Steve ordered something special just for her that won't be here till the end of the month. We ended the night with a dinner of her choice, my parents and brother coming over, playing a game of her choice and eating cake and ice cream. It was such a nice night. We decided that we would kind of make it a birthday weekend. So yesterday we went shopping for a new coat, some new church shoes, and then we took the kids to see Puss in Boots (which was really cute). Tonight we are going go roller skating, her choice. It has been such a fun week and I hope that she has had a fun birthday! Here are a few pictures...






What a lame cake, but what do you do. She looks so much older to me in this picture. It might be the little bit of makeup that she got for her birthday.


Singing to Dez. My mom would be mad if she sees this picture posted. Kind of funny.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DESTINEE!!!

Utah Valley Marathon

My mother-in-law (who is totally amazing) came to me and said so what races are we running this next year? Last year I got her and some of Steve's siblings into running. I talked her and Steve's sister Nikki into running a half marathon. It was a blast being able to run that with them. His mom ended up beating both of us by about 10 mins. Yes, I feel like a loser (haha). So in November she decided that we were going to run a marathon. I am thinking to myself, are you insane? I just finished a half, I don't think I could even think of doing a full marathon. Needless to say she pushed and I gave in!! So I will start my "official" training at the end of this month. She will turn 50-years-old the month before the race. How crazy. She acts and looks like she is in her 30's. I guess with 13 kids it will keep you young! So lets all keep our fingers crossed that I don't kill myself in the process. What are mom's for right? Go big or go home.

Temple square

I took the girls last night to temple square to see the Christmas lights and the temple. I am a little behind on this, seeing that Christmas is over, but I think we picked the perfect night! The weather was so nice that we started taking our coats off. Peyton was fascinated with all of the lights and she thought the temple was the most beautiful thing. It was so much fun to take the girls. Destinee got a camera for Christmas and is picture happy right now. So she wanted to get a few pictures while were at the temple (a few, meaning a ton!!!) I figured since Steve is working and I can't do a date night that I could do a kids night. I took the girls out to eat before going to the temple. It was such a fun night with my cute little kids.


Destinee documenting our driving also. What cute little stinks.


I always love the temple in the background. So pretty.


I love this pic of them. This one will get framed and put in Destinee's room for sure.


This pic was not planned. Oakie and Peyton happened to look at each other right when Dez took the picture. My face looks a little fat but what a cute pic!


I love these little girls. They did so good with all the walking around and driving!!


Destinee had to take several pics of the temple. She did a pretty good job. Its really pretty with the bright red lights in the picture. All in all it was a fun night and one we will do again for sure!

My Christmas gift

This year I was very very spoiled by my wonderful husband. He is so talented and has the capability to build cabinets. When we first moved into our house we knew that we wanted to build an entertainment center as soon as we were able. So I figured that it would be months before we would do something like that. When Steve got off work in the middle of December he told me that for Christmas he was going to build an entertainment center for our living room. I really was shocked that he would do that with such limited time. So we started purchasing tools and wood to make it. I ended up helping Steve a lot with cutting, sanding, glazing, etc. I had no idea that there were so many steps in making something like this. He got done and it is absolutely beautiful. I couldn't be happier with it. The process was quite the challenge. We decided that we wanted to build it in the wall, so we had to tear down the wall. Here are the before and after pics of what we did!!!


Here is the wall as we started tearing it down. We had already taken a layer of sheet rock off and the 2x4's that were holding it together. So this was the other side of the wall.


I think this is how Steve felt about half way through this project. What a funny guy.


The wall is gone! On the other side of the wall was our closet (which you can now see is a massive disaster. It was funny to see.


I took this picture standing in the closet. We had to have a little fun with this!


Here is the finished product. The pictures do no justice. This looks so beautiful.




Merry Christmas to me!!!

Christmas fun!

Merry Christmas! I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone already. So much work and preparation for that one magical day. Well first things first.. My little brother Andrew got home off his mission. He came home the 21st. (of course I have no pictures). It was so neat to see him and that he was able to come home before Christmas. On Christmas Eve Steve's family came over to our house for a yummy roast dinner. It was so much fun having everyone come over for the night. Steve's sister Nikki has a son that is 1-years-old and he gave out little mini presents, and they were little sticky slap hands. Well, little did we know that it would turn into a slap fest. Everyone jumped in on the fun and sticky hands were flying everywhere. It was fun!! The pics I have are a little blurry and not the best, but it was a blast.


A little blurry, but everyone was running around.



Then on Christmas morning the girls had so much opening gifts and playing. Destinee got a camera for Christmas and was so excited. It was something she has wanted for a long time, so we finally got one. She is having so much fun taking pics everywhere she goes. Here are a couple...




Christmas pajamas.


Steve's sister Cherissa and Dez takin a pic together.



Christmas night we went up to my brother's house in Heber and had an awesome night. We exchanged Christmas gifts with everyone. My brother brought back a ton of gifts from Peru where he served his mission and then he surprised all of us and proposed to his girlfriend. It was so sweet. She of course said yes. I have never met anyone to propose so quickly after being home, but they had been dating for about 2 years before he left on his mission. It was very cool!! We ended the night with some rock band on the wii!!

O Christmas tree

Well in my last post I wrote that I was finishing up a tree skirt. Well I can finally add pictures, so now I am. Here are a few pics of the tree skirt and tree. I love the colors of the skirt together.




In the midst of all of my skirt making Peyton and Oakley were playing in some boxes that I still had left in my room. So when it gets quiet I start to worry. When I went into the bedroom this is where I found her...


Steve's brother came home from his mission about a week ago. He was serving in Canada. So we went to see him at the airport. It was a lot of fun to see him and the girls were so excited. Destinee told me that she forgot what he looked like. Kind of cute.


All the kids running to greet him.


Steve's family all together (except Steve and his brother Brian, his wife, and their kids).


I am cheesing it real bad. So I am really short next to Kyle, and I was actually wearing 4 inch heels this day too. How funny is that!

Not much snow has fallen, but there was a day that we got enough on our driveway that I needed to shovel it off. So while I was out there, the kids wanted to play. So I took a picture of them on their first snow day playing. Cute little farts they are!


Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Christamas decor

I love to decorate for Christmas, more than any other holiday of the year! So much to celebrate and be greatful for during the season. So as I was pulling all the goods out of storage, I realized that I did not have a tree skirt. I had one previously that was kind of ugly and I believe I just threw it out. So in search of looking for a new one I was pretty disappointed. I didn't find very many that I really liked, or they were pretty pricey.. So what's a girl to do? MAKE ONE! I decided to make a litle ruffle tree skirt and I loved the end result. It was a little more work than I was anticipating (as usual), but all the time spent was so worth it. Peyton told me just as I finished, that it was the most beautiful tree dress she has ever seen. Oh, she is so dang funny. While making the skirt the girls were playing with some boxes I still had in my room, and it became very quiet. I went to check on them and I found Peyton currled in a little ball in the box asleep. So sweet. I have a good majority of my shopping done for the girls, yipee! There is more shopping, wrapping, and baking to be done and I can't wait to do it all!

I will add my pictures of these events when my dumb computer works properly...

To eat or not to eat...

Thanksgiving this year was truly a treat for me. Now that I am back closer to family I was so excited to sit around the dinner table and have a feast! It had been 3 years since I have had Thanksgiving with my family, so my mom and brother asked if I would be willing to host it this year. Well, of course I said yes because I love to entertain! I ended up having some fun and making some cute little turkey name holders and some fun napkin holders. I got pics of the turkeys but not the napkin holders. Everyone came over around 11:00 am and was there till about 7:30 pm. It was great! We started the cooking the turkey that my brother Spencer brought and continued to make other foods, snack, and play a little Wii. My sister-in-law and I got playing Just Dance 3 and had a blast!! We were laughing so hard I thought I was going to die. It was great. We played again after we ate and had my parents and grandma just rolling, and did some Sing It also. All the kids had a ton of fun running around outside and playing, and making a great mess in the toy room (which I love having)! I had the chance for my grandmother and uncle to also come. My grandma is now 98-years-old and still kickin. She was so happy to be surrounded by family and I couldn't have been more happy. Steve came home about 8:00 after he got off work, so it was really nice to spend some time with him also. The girls are always thrilled when he comes home. I could not have asked for a better day! I did a little black friday shopping just before Steve left for work at 3:00 am. There really wasn't much, but I did find a few cute toys for the girls. It sure is nice shopping ALONE!!! I love Christmas shopping!!!


Peytie had to take a picture with the turkeys in her crazy outfit. She is determined to dress herself daily, and this is the result...


Our little family!


Here are Steve and I in all our turkey glory!