No longer Private!

After much consideration I decided that my blog will no longer be private that way more of my family and friends can keep in touch with our family and what we are up to.
We had an awesome spring break so I will update soon!

Birthdays!

The First of the year is ALWAYS a busy time for our family.  We have 3 birthdays right together.  And Brayden's always starts it off.  Brayden turned 8 on January 29th and was very blessed to be baptised on his birthday.  He was so excited and could not wait to be baptised.  We had so many of our family and friends that came to celebrate this special day in Brayden's life.  (We also had lots of wonderful family and friends that were here in spirit but lived too far away to come.)



Our ward does this thing they call "Eight is Great" before all the kids get baptised.  I thought this theme was very fitting!  Brayden treasured his baptism, his scriptures, his journal, and his CTR towel on his special day.



Later that afternoon several of his friends came over for a football party.  Brayden usually LOVES the gifts he gets from everyone but this year the toys didn't mean as much to him, which was very surprising to me.  I am truly amazed at this little boy.  I have never seen a kid so excited about his baptism and the spiritual aspects of it and not care about the toys.  He truly treasures his membership in the church and his scriptures, that was all he cared about that day.  I pray we all can be like this!

Savanah girl turned 7 on February 9th.  She wanted a FANCY NANCY birthday party.  Was it ever fitting for Miss Diva herself.  She had alot of fun.  The girls all dressed FANCY and as soon as they arrived Savanah took them to her room and put makeup on them.  Then we made all the girls pictures and they made fancy picture frames for them. 

Savanah, Sierra and all her friends all dressed up for the party!

They then had fruit cabobs, princess cake, and "tea" (apple juice).  Afterwards Savanah opened up all her FANCY sparkly gifts.  She isn't a little girl anymore.  She got a sparkly sequin purse, sparkly sequin clothes, jacket and clothes, jewelry kit, necklaces, fancy nancy doll, tye dye t-shirt kit, a diary, sequin scarfs, and a sequin hat.  The girl was in hog heaven with all the bling.  She is such a teeny bopper in a 7 yr. old body.  Boy am I in trouble when she really is a teenager. 

Bryce turned 10 on February 7th.  (I can't believe he is 10.  Where did the time go?)  Bryce LOVES Lego's.  So he decided he wanted to go to the Lego store this year for his birthday.  Some of his family and friends gave him money so he really had a good time and spent every dime at the lego store.

Bryce, Brayden and his buddies all excited to go into the Lego store.

And you can't have a lego party without a Lego cake!  We also served lego pizza and lego pretzels.  (I made square pizza with pepperoni to make it look like a lego and found square pretzels)  These were a big hit with the kids.
After 3 birthdays in 11 days mommy was pretty birthdayed out.  Thank goodness, for mommy, we have 6 months before another one, but not so fun for sweet Sierra to have to wait so long.   

Texas Black Ice!

(Brayden's baptism!)

This week the kids went to school on Monday and then during the night the Famous Texas Black Ice hit.  What was different about this winter storm is that it hasn't gotten above 19 in 3 days, with a windchill that has stayed about 0 or -4.  With it that cold and all the ice schools and business' have shut down.  So, we have hunkered down and spent the week inside.  Normally we would all be going crazy by now, but amazingly enough we have had a really good time.  We have played games, made crafts, played WII, watched some movies and made Valentines.  I made sure that we did activities together and we have had alot of fun together. 
Bryan and I have been going through this amazing program called Landmark.  It has changed my life!  Seriously!  It helps you let go of things that cause you stress and hold you back in life.  Ever since we took the seminar in Houston 6 weeks ago I have been a new person.  I can't believe how different I feel (so calm and free).  The kids don't drive me crazy, like they usually do, and I just don't get stressed out about everything anymore.  On a week like this I would usually be going nuts, which would make them all crazy too.  Even my mom and Bryan have noticed a difference in me.  It has been transforming! 
Thank you Landmark!  I am so thankful for being about to participate in this seminar which in turns helps me to be a happier and calmer mommy and wife.  This week was definately a good test after taking Landmark.

Brayden's baptism!

It was almost 8 years ago that I was blessed with THE cutest little redheaded boy I had ever seen. I still remember the day you were born and the nurse announced that I had a little boy with tons of red hair. I hardly slept for days because I couldn't take my eyes off you. I don't know if you know it, but ever since I was a little girl I wanted a redheaded boy. You were and will always be an amazing blessing in my life.
I love this little redheaded boy that is full of life. He has many names. Big Red, Red, Torch, Sunshine and his new football nickname BA.


Brayden LOVES life. He is full of energy. He loves to make people laugh. He loves hugs and kisses. He loves to drive his sisters crazy at times (you can see the mischievous grin all over his face). He loves football, really loves it. He started tackle football this year and loved it. It was very hard for me to watch him, at first. My sweet little boy getting beat up, but he loved just about every minute of it. He doesn't like getting tackled but he loves to tackle others and has gotten really good at it. He can even make some of the older neighborhood boys cry when he tackles them. (And he is very skinny, might I point out!)


He loves to smile, which lights up the room. Which is where he got his nickname of Sunshine, from his Grami. Girls of all ages love him, how could you help it when you see that little man smile.


Brayden turns 8 on Saturday, January 29th and is VERY excited to get baptised ON his birthday. I am so proud of him and his desire to follow Christ. I can't believe my little man is turning 8!



Brayden, I love you and I am so proud of you. You are and will always be My Sunshine. Thank you for all your love, your smiles and your hugs and kisses. Thank you for always reminding us to pray and read our scriptures. Thank you for setting a good examples for your little sisters and your friends by getting baptised, but not only getting baptised but by being so excited about it and knowing that you are doing the right thing. I love you, my little redheaded man!

Sad ending!

A very sad ending for the WHO DATS!

For those of you that know our family we are HUGE WHO DAT fans. Yes ALL 6 of us love the SAINTS! We even have a Saints Football Room in our house. Really. It is pretty amazing for those of you who haven't seen it. So as we sat in our Saints room on saturday watching the game against the Seahawks it turned out to be very sad and disappointing. But we have had alot of fun cheering them on this year.

Bryan has a really good friend that is an NFL photographer and has let Bryan come with him to the Superdome for 2 of the games this year. WAY FUN! Bryan got to go down ON the field and BE a photographer. This picture of Drew Brees is with my camera right on the field. What an amazing experience for Bryan who has watched the Saints and cheered them on his WHOLE life even when it was a big joke to be a Saints fan.


This picture Bryan took was from one of the games he got to go to. Look closely in the smoke and you will see Jonathan Vilma. Way cool! Good shot Bryan.


Another exciting experience for our family was that we all got to go to the Cowboy/Saints game on Thanksgiving Day. That was way cool!
Bryan and Brayden cheering when we pulled off the win right at the end.


2 of the BIGGEST Saints fans there are. They both wear Saints stuff year round. If the shirt or hat doesn't say Saints they don't want to wear it.

Bryce and I enjoyed the game. It was very exciting and even tense at times, but I am so glad we got to go to the game and experience it together as a family!

Cheerleader Sierra loves to go around singing the WHO DAT song. Yes we even have a Who Dat song and all know it by heart.

When deciding to go to the game I knew we HAD to take Brayden. But since the tickets were so expensive Bryan wanted it to be just he and I. But I knew that Brayden would be DEVISTATED if he wasn't there and we went. And if Brayden got to go everyone else would want to go. SO Saints, you were worth ALL the money it cost to see you play.



Savanah cheering on our team at the awesome Cowboy stadium.

Outside the staduim.



Freezing our booties off tailgating outside Cowboy Stadium.

Saints we will miss cheering you on until next Season Starts! BUT next year will be OUR YEAR!

Merry CHRISTmas!

MAY THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST BLESS YOUR HOME THIS

HOLIDAY SEASON!

LOVE, The Ardis Family!

I love Fall!

I love Fall! There are so many awesome things about fall. For one I love that the weather cools off and it is perfect playing outside weather. Our family loves being outside and on adventures. So we love fall! Especially October. Here are some of the things we have done so far.

Boys camping out in the backyard on Friday nights. The boys look forward to Friday night because we have been letting them sleep in a tent in our yard. They love camping!



With Fall brings school field trips. I got to go with Sierra & her class to the Dallas Arboredium. It was so fun. They had lots of things for the kids to see and do. They all had so much fun that they were actually tired and ready for the bus when the day was over. I also got to go with Savanah on a field trip, but Bryan had my camera in NO at the game so I didn't get an pictures. It was killing me to be without my camera. Will post some of his Saints pictures later.


We also went with our best friends to a Pumpkin Patch. It was so much fun! There was so many fun things to do & it was free, even better. This is Sierra's best friend!


Savanah with her friend!



At the Pumpkin Patch they had a hayride. The boys with their good friend.

The Pumpkin Patch also had this fun train. Only Brayden & Savanah got to ride before the Texas Fall Thunder Storm hit.

Turkey Legs! Gotta have a Turkey Leg when you are out at the Carnival.


They had lots of wooden cutouts, which those that know me know how much I love them. This one was too funny. I think Bryan makes a good Dufensmirth. What do you think? I think we found his Halloween Costume.

They also had this awesome hay maze. The boys spent hours in there. They LOVED it!

What a cutie!



And then the pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins. As well as the jump houses, which the girls loved.

They had lots of wagons to collect your pumpkins that you wanted to take home. So Bryce decides to collect friends.



Fun in the Hay! Talk about itchy.

We went with our best friends and had tons of fun.


Sierra's friend had a Halloween Birthday party and invited all the kids.

Brayden dressed up as Ash. If you know Pokemon you will know who he is. Boys his age are obsessed with Pokemon.


Bryce loves, and I do mean LOVES, Lego's so he wanted to be a Lego Man. This is my creation of a Lego Man costume. He loves it so that was all that mattered to me.

The girls went as dancers. What made their costumes so special was that these were mine when I was 6. I was in Dance all growing up and my mom kept some of my dance costumes. She gave them to me recently and the girls wanted to wear some of them. Can you believe these are 30 years old. I loved seeing them in my old dance stuff. What beautiful little girls!


And Football. You can't have Fall without some good ole football. Brayden is playing tackle football this year. AND loving it. He practices 3 times a week (2 hr. practices each) and has a game every saturday. It has taken over our life but he is having so much fun and we love watching him play. He is a tightend and wants to be like Jeremy Shockey one day. (Saints player for those of you that don't know who he is.)


We also went to our school Fall Festival and had lots of fun. They have this great festival every year and the kids love going to it.

And if you live in Texas you can't miss the TEXAS STATE FAIR! We took the kids out of school one day and went to the fair. They have lots of things for kids to do. We went to an awesome Bird Show, a Dog Show, petting zoo, rode some rides & lots more. After 7 fun hours we gave out and headed home.

What a great Fall we have had so far. Can you believe we did all this in October, and Halloween isn't even here yet. I hope you have a great Fall & enjoy it as much as our family has.