Funny Ella Moment

Just thought I would share one of the silly things my little Ella Mae has done recently (there are SO many!).

We had pancakes for breakfast this morning, which the girls LOVE. Aspen get's her with syrup and she is learning how to cut them up herself, on the other end Ella gets them plain and I cut/tear them up for her. Well....she was whining for another one and I was busy so I just tossed another pancake on her plate (I was close enough to make sure she didn't shove it all in!) The very first thing she does it pick it up and tear it into little pieces just like mommy does! It was so cute to see her concentrating on her pancake making sure it was all in nice little pieces before she started eating.

We can't believe how much she is growing and learning everyday. We love our little EllaBella Mae.

Tonight's Fireside

Tonight Brent, Dane, and I had the opportunity to see The 5 Browns. We had never heard of this group till word came around they would be doing a fireside for us. They are 5 siblings that are all piano prodigies. They have all studied at Julliard! They are members of the Church and from Alpine Utah. They are AMAZING. Their piano playing was beautiful, they each played a song that meant something to them, some shared experiences and meanings and others scriptures that went with what the song made them feel. They also took about 15 minutes each to share a message. Though they didn't 'plan' their talks together, they all shared about having the Lord and Heavenly Father in our lives through the hard times and in making life decisions. It is amazing to hear such talent on the piano, then they talk to us and we realize they are just like us, they even get nervous still when ti comes to talking infront of people!
They will be preforming at the Barbara B Mann Performance Hall (they local College that is our largest theater) and their performance has been sold out for weeks! They have also been on Oprah, Jay Leno, 20/20 and others. Here is their web site, check them out! The 5 Browns These are the kind of roll models I want my daughters to have to look up to!

Out with the Old in with the New

As much as I'd love to post Christmas pictures, our camera died on us 2 minutes into our morning. I'll have some Christmas Eve pictures from my in-laws here some time thought...

Anyways, here is a summary of the Brent Culbertson Family's 2008

Ella

The youngest member of our family has changed so much. She turned 1 in November and is becoming such a 'little girl'. Now that she is officially walking (started about 13 1/2 months) I'm am suddenly babyless again *sob* Ella loves to cruise around the house, talk, squawk, chase and be chased by daddy, eat cheese, and snuggle her baby doll. She has two bottom teeth now, they cut through at about 11 months and she is now painfully cutting her two eye teeth, gotta loving teething! Now we are counting down the months till she can go to nursery during church (4 months and 4 days...) and we continue to enjoy her spirit and personality and the depth it adds to our family group.

Aspen, oh, Aspen

Our little drama queen, everything is either the most happiest thing or the worst most terrible thing, no middle ground for our Aspen. She turned 3 years old in August this year but if you have a chance to spend anytime with her you would probably think she was closer to 4. Not because she is academically advanced or anything, just spend sometime with a 4 year old attitude and you would know what I mean. She is bossy, and smart mouthed, manipulative, and lazy, and everything she can think of to make her parents CRAZY. She is looking forward to starting VPK-Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten next fall and wants to take dancing lessons. We can't believe how much she has grown and her mother is still suffering bouts of hysterics facing Aspens first Sunday as a Sunbeam.

Dane

Now half-way through his sophomore year is HS Dane has enjoyed 2 season in the Cape Coral Marching Sea Hawks band as a member of the percussion pit(plays on the side line) next season he hopes to move up to the marching drum line. We were able to go and see one of his halftime performance during the football season, and though they are very small (less then 50 members) they have good talent. Dane is now 17 years old (October) and enjoying life. He is the center of the social group in our Young Men in our ward (and for most of our Young Women too!) We love having in our family!

Brent

Now almost 1 year into selling Health Insurance we are getting a grasp on the field and settling into the career. He is working on building his clientele and his own team to sell under him. He is now only working part time from home and part time from an office, instead of full time at home, which was a challenge! However, the girls do seem to miss not having him pop out of his 'office' a few times a day to play with them. Brent is an amazing father, he loves to chase, tickle, and cuddle his little girls, and they love to have him do it. He is still young men's president in our ward and is working hard with the youth and our newly formed scout committee to get the scouting program flowing for our boys.

Sara

Well I'm pretty much the same as I've always been. I am happy to still be able to stay at home with the girls, we joined a play group this fall and have been enjoying making many new friends and going on some exciting outings. I'm still primary president, we have been very excited to see our primary go from about 7 active kids to 15! I am on the Boy Scout Committee heading up the activities/tour permit end of things, something I basically did anyways for Brent! I discovered the Twilight Phenomenon and read the 4 books in the saga and saw the movie Twilight on opening night.

Hope you all have had a great year to reflect on and many blessings and much love for the coming year of 2009!

Rodolf the Red nosed Raindeer

Brent and I have been messing with our new web cam. Here is a video of Him and Aspen singing.

Disneyworld!

For Christmas this year Grandma and Grandpa Culbertson took us to Disney World. We spent an entire day at the Magic Kingdom and had a blast! G&G and Uncle Brad went with us.

The most important part of the trip to Aspen was that we were going to where the Princesses lived. We told her she might even get to talk to and hug some of them and she would go crazy talking about it! Here are a few pics of her with the Princesses.
Ariel was the first one we got to see. Look at that cute pose!

We then waited for about 1/2 hour to see 3 princesses at once. There we saw...

Snow White

Belle

This is Belle and Aspen playing Peek-a-boo with Ella.

And Cinderella.

We had to drag Aspen along from Princess to Princess because she just wanted to chit chat with them all day long! She loved meeting them and said Belle was her favorite.


The boys got into a little trouble in the park....had to be restrained for awhile ;).

Aspen and I watched a show about Dreams coming true. It has Mikey and Friends, Princesses, Pirates, and even a Villain or two! Aspen loved it. It was also the only chance we had to see Sleeping Beauty that day.

Aspen watching the show.

Waiting for the Parade to start.

This is on "It's a Small World". Ella's face never changed through the entire boat ride. She couldn't get enough of it!

You can just see us in the second back row. Aspen is riding on the outside horse (Harry) , Ella and I are in the middle (Hennerietta) and Brad on the inside (poor nameless horsey)

Waiting for the Teacup ride to start.

Ella conked out as we were heading in for some lunch. She slept for about 15-20 minutes and that was the extent of her napping for the day.

Here's Brent and Brad in front of Cinderella's Castle. Sadly, my camera pooped out right before they turned on all the Christmas lights on the Castle. Apparently Cinderella wanted the Castle to look like her glass slipper. It is draped in white lights and is very beautiful. I'll have to work on getting a pic of it!
Thank you so much G&G Culbertson for a great day at Disneyworld!

Believe it or not, this is NOT all of my pictures, but I'm sure you get the idea. Hope you all have a great Christmas Holiday!

ABC TAG

A--Attached or Single: Attached for over 4 1/2 years!
B--Best Friend: My Husband
C--Cake or Pie: Cake
D--Day of Choice: Fridays-really Friday afternoon/evenings
E--Essential Item: sun glasses
F--Favorite Color: Purple
G--Greatest Accomplishment: My two beautiful Daughters
H--Hometown: I was born in Portales, New Mexico but claim South Jordan, Ut as my hometown
I--Indulgences: sweets
J--January or July: January (especially since moving to FL!)
K--Kids: Aspen Elizabeth, Ella Mae, and Dane
L--Life is incomplete without: Family
M--Marriage Date: April 2, 2004
N--Number of Siblings: 4 Keith, Heather, Kimberly, Adam
O--Oranges or Apples: Apples
P--Phobias or fears: Tragedy in my family
Q--Quotes: "All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny." The Family: A Proclamation to the World.
R--Reason to Smile: kids, mine and all others I come in contact with!
S--Season: Winter-Florida Style
T--Tag 5 Friends: anyone who wants to do this!
U--Unknown facts about me: One of my favorite things to do, no matter the season, is buy things for other people! I have to be forced to buy for myself, but when it comes to ANYONE else I could spend spend spend!
V--Very favorite store: Joann's
W--Worst habit: Stress Eating
X--X-ray or Ultra Sound: never had an x-ray...ultrasounds gave me my first peak at my babies and helped us know they were still healthy and strong.
Y--Your favorite food: Anything Italian
Z--Zodiac: Tarus

Our Christmas Corner

Since we have always been renting, we don't have many decorations, but we have our little 'Christmas Corner' in our Front room and little decorations through out the house.

Brent, Sara, Aspen
Dane, Ella, Jules
I haven't gotten to the names on the stockings yet but will hopefully get that done this week. The are in order of coming into our family (except Jules because her's faces the opposite way of mine and Brent's causing all sorts of decorating trouble!)

This is our little 4 ft tree that I was sad to have to get a few years ago because I wanted a nice big one. Now, two kids and a dog later, I've never been more grateful for this little tree and being able to put it up on a table!