Family Armor

I'm so excited to tell everyone about this new reality show on TLC. The best part about this show is that it stars Clay's family. His two sisters that live in Texas and their families make up "Family Armor". It all started a while back when some producers from TLC saw my brother in law Trent's business featured on CNN. Trent owns a armor car company that armor's cars for pretty scary people, you know people who need their cars armored for protection. Then they found out he had six kids and was LDS and well, the rest is history. Our daughter Jessica will be featured on this hour long show because she was living with them at the time.(whenyou watch you will understand why) Clay and I also did some "phone calls" that were taped for the show, but I don't know if they made the final cut. You'll have to tune in to see. Anyways I just wanted to give a shout out to everyone to tune into TLC on Thursday, November 19 at 9:00 (it might be 8 our time).
If you want to see a clip of the show here it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0UimhuDbJw

Cody and Unga

We went to our last years Lone Peak team play off game this morning and Cody bumped into this guy. Now, I thought, who cares, but Cody was in HEAVEN!!!! It's Harvey Unga with Cody in the picture. He has already had me get it printed out and blown up into an 8X10 picture. I thought this would make the Collins family elated!

Happy Halloween

Halloween is going to be posted in parts because not all my kids were around for me to be able to photograph them all at the same time. Here is Brittany this morning dressing up so cute for school. I'm so proud of my girls for going to school dressed up and showing that they actually have a fun personality. They told me most kids wont dress up because they don't want to look dumb in front of the other sex. I told them it will show the boys that you're actually fun and not all stiff and worried about impressing others.
Savannah spent the night at a friends last night so that they could get ready all together. I'll post her pictures later.
Cody went as "Death". This was taken during the parade at the school this morning. Cody wanted me to paint his face black, but I had to explain to him that the school would of sent him home if he showed up with his face painted black. He didn't understand that it was offensive to a certain race if he painted his face black. He then said "what if you paint my face black and my eyes white"? I then explained that that was worse. He compromised on having his face painted white with his eyes black.
Luke is really bat man this year for Halloween but didn't feel like wearing that costume all day at school. So after explaining to him that I wasn't going to buy another costume just for him to wear to school, he came up with being a person who had been attacked by a monster. I went into his closet to find an old shirt and found one of his Ute shirts. That's when I had a great idea. We put claw marks across the shirt and some across his face with blood (red food color) all over the shirt. I told him to tell everyone he was attached by a "cougar". Pretty funny huh? I wanted to write on the back, "this is what happens to a Ute who lives in Utah Co.", but Clay thought that might offend people, so I didn't. But at the parade it got a few laughs from the parents, so I knew they got it.
After the parade I went to Luke's class for his Halloween party. They played Halloween bingo first.

Then they had a doughnut eating contest.

Last, they made Frankenstein out of green balloons. I thought this was such a great idea, and the kids loved it!

UEA break

Clay and I decided for UEA we needed to go somewhere it was warm! So of course the first place that popped into our minds was sunny Southern California, and Disneyland!

We left Wed. evening and decided we wanted to break our driving part up so we stopped in Cedar to spend the night at my parents home. The next morning we took off for California, only to get 45 mins. outside of Las Vegas when the car broke down. We called AAA and got a tow truck out (an hour later) and they towed us back to Vegas to a Chevy dealership to hopefully fix what ever was broken. Not to our surprise, they couldn't fix the problem that day, it would take at least a week. So we found a car we could rent and after our 5 hour detour we were headed back towards California. A quick story about the car we rented, it turned out to be a mini van. I was stressed when Clay first pulled up in the van because we had our entire suburban filled with two pieces of luggage strapped to the top too, so I didn't think there was any way we would all fit in the mini van. Well to my surprise we fit everything in the mini van and didn't even need to strapped any luggage on top. There were so many secret compartments in this van it was incredible! I have to admit by the end our trip I was sad to give this car back. I know my sisters are in shock right now, but I was really loving the mini van!
Anyways, the next morning we rose early and went to the happiest place on earth, Disneyland!
My parents happen to be in So. California for a funeral and decided to stay a few days longer and go to Disneyland with us.

Here is my mother modeling her favorite Halloween Mickey ears!

The boys decided they wanted to get in on the fun as well!

So you will notice that the kids are being pretty silly in most of the pictures. It was their plan to see who could be the most crazy in all the pictures. This is the kids on their favorite ride of all time....Tower of Terror!!

Yes, they even posed with the employees.

Now the best part about going to Disneyland with older kids is 1. we don't have to spend all our time in Fantasy land and 2. we don't have to spend hours in line waiting to take pictures with all the characters. After lunch Clay, my mom and dad and I were sitting relaxing with Luke while all the other kids went back on Tower of Terror for the 5th time, when a show started up right by where we were eating. We decided we would watch it, what the heck, we were all ready there when Mickey and Woody came out and we just happened to have the camera ready and took these fun shots. No waiting at all!

After many big rides, Luke decided he wanted to go on the Pooh ride. It was his favorite ride back when we lived in Valencia and went to Disneyland all the time. So we made all the kids go on it with us. As you can see, some kids were more excited then others.

Here was our second favorite ride, California Sreamin! Seriously, it is the best roller coaster ever! And even when we are about to blast off Savannah is texting! It just never stops with these kids.

This used to be Luke's other favorite ride back in the days, but now he likes the new Toy Story ride in 3D!

Finally sitting and enjoying the parade!

This was what Cody and Luke were doing the entire time walking back to our hotel.

This was after day two of Disneyland on our drive back home.

We decided to stop and check out the new Newport Beach temple. It was really dark and most of the pictures didn't turn out really well. But once again my kids were being crazy in the picture, even at the Temple.

Even with the car breaking down, it was still a fun trip. We even got to spend a day at the beach with some friends from our ward. We ended up having about 8 families from our ward go to Disneyland the same time we did. We ran into just about all of them while at Disneyland and decided to meet two of the families at the beach the next day. These two families have kids all the same age as my kids and it turned out to be really fun having them their with us.

Another week gone!

I swear if I could have one wish it would be for more time during the day. I don't know what has really cause it, but I just never have enough time in the day to get everything done. I go to bed completely exhausted, wake up the next morning still tired, then run, run, run all day long. Well, I should say drive because I spend most of the day in my car. Thank goodness for I-pods because I would go completely crazy having to listen to the radio that entire time.
Well my cute Brittany got herself her first job. Yes, she is a sign holder! She is trying to save up enough money so that she can go to Costa Rica with her Spanish class at the end of the year. It cost $2000 for the trip, plus spending money once your their. We told her she would have to pay for half of the trip if she wanted to go.

These pictures are so much cuter when they are big. Wouldn't you buy a mattress from such a cute sales girl??

Cody had his last football game for the season today and it couldn't have been better. He was on fire the entire game, even took out 3-4 players all by himself. They were not hurt too bad, but they needed help walking off the field. Clay and I were so proud!!

I wish this picture was bigger too because then you could see this guys eyes, he has a look of terror on his face! He knows who's coming after him!!

I love this picture because it shows Cody's "angry eyes" (yes, that is from Toy Story) He is ready to take some off the field with those eyes!

I'm so sad football is over! I love watching Cody play (if you couldn't tell). I'm already looking forward to next season.

Well two funny stories that happened this week, first, Luke came home from school last week and declared he was going to serve a mission in Chinese. I asked "Do you mean China"? "No", he said "Chinese". I then explained that the people were called Chinese and the place they lived was called China. He didn't really care and he continued to tell me that he already leaned some of the language. He proceeded to talk in Chinese and said "Bonjour, Madre"! My cute boy spoke french and Spanish and thought it was Chinese. Who knows maybe when he is old enough to serve a mission there will be a French and Spanish speaking mission in China!

Last story, today we were sitting out front waiting for all the parents to show up to pick up their sons from our end of the year pizza party at our house when all of a sudden two horses came running down the street. We didn't think anything of it until we noticed no one was riding the horses. A few seconds later a girl came running down the street yelling "wow, horse, wow". Clay didn't hesitate, he jumped into the car and started chasing the horses down. Luckily, they turned down another street and stopped to eat a neighbors lawn. Clay jumped out of the car, grabbed the reigns and held the horses until some parents showed up. What happened was a couple girls that were friends with Brittany were riding thier horses, one got bucked off and while the other girls was checking on her friend the horses got spooked and took off running down the street. I swear this happens at every house we live in, a horse gets spooked and Clay, always in his flip flops, has to chase them down and catch them. When we lived in Cedar Hills a horse ran away and Clay caught him and used some old computer wires for a harness to hold him until his owner could come get him. Clay did this a lot growing up on a ranch in No. California. He was always chasing cattle and horses that got out, mostly during the middle of the night! When he got back he said "I'm always in flip flops when this sort of thing happens"! I think maybe he should find a different pair of shows to start wearing!

Where has the time gone?

It's been so long since my last post, at yet, it seems like just yesterday. I was hoping my days would become relaxing and I would have all the time in the world to get the things done that I need too now that my kids are in school full time, but it's just completely the opposite. I'm so much more busy than I ever was and the days and weeks go by so quickly I can hardly keep up.
The number one thing taking up so much of our time is football. We have practice 3 days a week and then a game on top of that. I know it doesn't sound like much, but because Clay is the coach practices are longer for us, planning, making calls, sending emails and even game day is longer.
But I'll admit, I will be sad when it's all over. I love to go to practice and the games and watch Cody play. I can't wait until he is in High School and we get to go to all his games and watch him play.
Anyways, enough about that, for the past few weeks we have done some pretty fun things. First, we got to babysit our cutest niece Lily. Cody and Luke act like it's Christmas morning when Lily comes over, especially Cody. He has a special little place in his heart for babies. He would love for me to have another baby, but I keep trying to explain, it's just not going to happen.


He is so cute with Lily! He just wants to hold her and take care of her the entire time she is with us.

We also had everyone over a few weeks ago for my mother in law's birthday.

I love to have people over for Sunday dinner so we decided it would be fun to celebrate her birthday and have all the Collins' that live in Utah over to help us celebrate.
I don't know why Jessica didn't get in on this picture, but here is Nana Collins with 4 of her grandchildren. Happy Birthday Susan!

After the team's win on Saturday Clay announced he was throwing a pizza party at our house!
So I hurried after the game to the store to buy 4 cases of the 24 pack of soda, 8 pizza's, 6 bags of crazy bread, five bags of cookies and a few bags of chips. We didn't have any leftovers!

20 boys ended up coming for 2 hours of more football, 4 wheeling, food and of course a water fight to end the party!
This is Cody's behind! His friend picked him up so that the other boy could dump a cup of water on his head. Now that is what I call team work!

This past Sunday we decided, along with most of Utah, to take a ride up American Fork canyon to see the pretty fall colors.


So there they all are, our trip to Cascade Falls in American Fork canyon.

Yesterday the kids came running into the house and announced they had caught a snake in the backyard. Now for those of you who have never seen our backyard, we have a huge empty field behind our house, which hopefully soon will be a park, but right now is full of all kinds of furry friends. We have snakes, mice, moles, deer, fox and even a cougar sighting back in the field. But I have to say this is the first snake that has been caught. Susan, if your reading this, you probably want to stop right now.
Now your probably thinking after seeing this picture that we let the kids keep the snake, but in fact he is free, back in the field as we speak. The kids thought they would keep this snake happy and fed on insects, but I informed them that he is used to eating the mice in the field and there is no way I'm going to provide this snake with that sort of meal. So back wild and free he went today, and I'm guessing pretty starving as well!

Homecoming 09

This is Jessica's last year to go to Homecoming. I can't believe how times flies! This year she went with a big group of her friends and the guy she went with is just a friend as well.

Jessica with her best friend, Kaylie, or just "best friend" as she is know to us.

This is just the start of the big group she went with. They were meeting up with the rest of the kids at another home.

It's so nice to see boys being gentleman. Sometimes I think it's a dying breed!

Keith Urban concert

On Wednesday evening, my good friend Stephanie and I went to the Keith Urban concert. Not only was it an amazing concert, Keith is just yummy to look at! I could spend every night of my life just sitting and listening to that man sing and play the guitar.

It was so completely hot in the building, if you couldn't tell from my very shinny face, but it was all worth it to be up close and next to this guy!

Yes, he was pointing right at us. OK, maybe not right at us but it's fun to think so!

It's the Stephanie's at another concert together!

Unfortunately, we didn't win back stage passes to this concert, even though we tried our hardest. This was as close as we could get to him.