A Family mission statement....what do you think?

I have created a "rough draft" family mission staement both of what I percieve our family to be like, as well as how I hope to raise our family to be.

"The mission of our family is to create a nurturing home of faith, love, happiness, and relaxation thus allowing each individual to learn to love unconditionally within the family unit as well as all of God's children on this earth in order to help Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ bring eternal life to all of His children."

My new favorite picture...

This was taken on Sunday...I am not the only one who is excited to get another sister!

Why My Civil Rights Day Rocked...

Harrison Durrant, Chauncey and Jack at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

1. We went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the first time and got to see some really sweet things including Michael Jackson's jacket from the "Thriller" video and his outfit from the "Bad" video.

2. We went sledding on this really steep hill that Jeremy Wilde introduced to us, it was fantastic! See next post for details...crazy!

3. We ate dinner at Wendy's and got a lot of frosty's and frys and warmth. Fun.

4. I LOVE HOLIDAYS!!!!

I hope yours was great too!!

Sledding on Civil Rights Day

We decided to go sledding on Civil Rights Day. We had a blast. The hill was perfect and the snow fast. Big Chauncey decided to take Kate down the hill and they ran into a problem that has been Beautifully documented below:

Going down the hill....

Approaching the ominous jump....
Hitting said jump....
Face planting little Kate into the icy earth...
Click on this picture for an upclose visual of her pain.
If you think big Chauncey's nose is bloody you should see little Kate's.(no pic included)

These are some other pictures of us sledding. Click on the pics to see the facial expressions. The hill was really fast.

Mels softball days...

Here I am! This was me 10 years ago! Do I look just the same?! I think so too. My amazing softball coach Jerry Hall sent me this picture today and I had to share. Thank so much Jerry, your the best ever!

Back in these days, I could bench press 140 pounds, play 12 softball games in one day with getting sore, and I had a 6 pack stomach. Ahhh, those were the days!!

Some of my favorite pictures...

We had such a great Christmas! Our best yet. We were lucky to have my mother here for a week to visit with us over Christmas. The kids were in Heaven. Following this post are 7 or so posts of different aspects of our December vacation, with as hidden suprise in one of them. Enjoy. love the Wests

TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE!

Jack's hair was so staticky(sp?) when he was playing with his boxing "gloves" that I had to put a hat on him to keep it out of his face.

My Christmas Eve princess.

Our best presents...

Our very best present won't be revealed at this time, but can only be revealed at a later time in these postings.

The Wii....need I say more?
Melly's new frame....we will put a picture in the center soon...
Hearing from all our friends that we miss....
The bouncer...
This was from Santa Claus...it has two basketball hoops on each end...so cool.

Christmas Morning in the West Home.....

Kate got many new girl toys from us for christmas. She hasn't had anything but trucks and star wars figures for her first 1.5 years of life, we figured its time.
Just funny. This is typical Jack behavior. He's hysterical!
I was also spoiled this year.
Boxing "gloves".

In AWWW.....

Do you think he likes chocolate snowmen?
Kate with her best friend, Mickey.

Christmas Eve....a new tradition.

We decided that a new tradition for us would be to have a chocolate fountain on Christmas eve. Looks good huh?!

Christmas Pictures ( Part 1 of 4)

December 22nd....Christmas begins in vthe West home...

The boys got to open thier "Special Presents" that Daddy had been building up for weeks. They opened them the Saturday before Christmas. Jack got a huge Remote control Jeep. Little Chuancey got millions of little plastic football helmets.

Batman capes and other good things...

Christmas with the Wilde's before they left...the kids had a great time flynig around with thier new batman/superman capes Chelle made all three of them.

And we ate and decorated sugar cookies. Yum!

Our first sledding adventure for the Season...

We had a great time sledding suring this first real snow for the season. We got about 1.5 feet and the kids were loving it. To my suprise, even KATE loved it! She loved sledding!

The next morning we went to a great sledding hill, steep, but short enough to climb it fairly painlessly. We all went sledding and had a terrific adventure together.

One SUCCESS, one Failure......Atleast we tried?!

Chauncey and I (well mostly I) decided that we can do anything myself, and don't need to pay a mechanic for something I can do! So, I studied up , and ventured out to buy all the tools brake pads and everthing I needed to change our own brake pads.

And we would have done it too, except for the fact that we couldn't even get the bolts loosened to get to the pads! Oh well. We gave it our best efforts.

We did have one success with only one try.....we are pregnant! Its still really early for us to be telling. We are certain it is a girl and I am certain she will be born by the end of the summer. Wish me luck in my next 13 weeks of sickness. : (