Christmas 2009

Santa did come! The magic of the first view of everything on Christmas morning has always been one of my most favorite parts of Christmas.

We were fairly spoiled this year by Santa, but hopefully not so spoiled we forgot the true meaning of Christmas. We are so grateful to have this fun season to remember our Savior. Of course any child has a hard time not getting too excited for the things Santa brings. Here's what the big guy brought these good little boys.

A Thomas train track and carrying case - perfect for Ethan!

Dylan was so excited to have his "bad guy castle."

A new bike for Jayden.

Mmm. Thanks for sharing Ethan.

How did we go from this happy boy...

to this sick boy in a matter of a couple hours. Poor kid. We were hoping it was just because he ate too much chocolate, but over the next few days all of us got a turn being sick. Lucky us.

I got all the boys BYU shirts, which they love. I have been suprised at how much Ethan LOVES his, especialy since most his favorites have pictures of tractors or trains.

We also had fun visiting both grandparents and extended families during the day. These next few pictures are at my parents house.

I love these expressions. What do you think... does he like it?

This one is taken a few days after Christmas. I never did get a picture of him wearing it on Christmas day since it was washed twice after being.... well you can probably guess what happened - yuck.

Master Yoda

The day after his birthday, I could hear Jayden in the other room asking Yoda more questions:

"Master Yoda, can I be a Jedi?"

"Master Yoda, do you like my light saber?"

"Master Yoda, I love you, do you love me?"

Master Yoda...

...can I be a Jedi. This is the question all the kids at Jayden's party had to ask. This Yoda is like a Magic 8 ball, and would respond with answers like: "the answer you seek is... yes" or "no, I feel it is." If they got a no answer they had to show some trick or skill to yoda and try again. It took Jayden 7 or 8 tries!


Here is Jayden's cool cake. We were going to do cupcakes, but Jayden changed his mind at the last second, so this is our quick and easy cake. I just put Press and Seal on the bottom of the toys so they stay clean, and so does the cake. Jayden is wielding his imaginary light saber.



Once the Jedis were accepted, we did some Jedi training. We had an obstacle course and did agility training (tie balloons to the ankles and see who could keep their balloons from getting popped). Then we took a break for presents, cake, and ice cream.

Our next stage in Jedi training was to defeat the infamous Darth Vader, and retrieve the candy. I thought this Darth Vader pinata was a fun splurge-- it turned out he was quite wimpy. Jayden was the first to fight him, and after his couple of tries, Vader's head was nearly completely separated from his helmet.

To try to get everyone their turn, we did a repair job, and then it appeared that Darth Vader had the mumps.

Dylan was the last of the group. We made it through, but just barely. Can you see the pinata in two pieces? Darth Vader was defeated!

Here are all of the young Padowans: Jayden, Zane, Ben, Benson, Paige, and Dylan. We missed Jessica and Tess, they couldn't make it.

Silly Jedi faces!

We later thought we could have some great fun with our pinata. A few modifications... and here is Darth Vader Dylan.

And Darth Jayden Maul, Storm Trooper Dylan, and Darth Zane Vader.

Last but not least, Darth Ethan Vader.

Happy Birthday Jayden

Here's a birthday shout out to Jayden. His birthday is this week and he is turning 5 years old. He has had such a great year this year. He has finally gotten to play soccer, and what a fantastic player he is! At the first game of the year they kicked off and he took that ball straight down to the goal before any of the other kids even knew what happened. He scored multiple goals each game, and we just had to work on keeping his head from getting too big. He is an aggressive soccer player, and we are excited to see his skills continue to improve each year. (he's in the blue with the ball)

Jayden learned to ride his bike this year. He was unsure of learning at first because his friends hadn't started learning, so we held off. Then once his friend Zane learned, he wanted to. It took 5 minutes with Daddy, and then he was a pro. He was definitely ready.

Jayden is such a sweetheart. He is very kind to his brothers. He is the quiet helper that does things in the background that he sees needs doing. If Austin is crying, he will quietly sit by him and try to help him with a binky. Or if someone wants to sit by Daddy for family prayer, he will quietly give up his spot so they can be by Daddy.

Jayden is a happy and fun kid to have around. One of my favorite phrases of his is "Okay, Mommy." Music to my ears!

Jayden is also very adventurous. He is usually the first one to try something new. When we went boating with my family he was the literally first kid out on the wave runners. Once out on the boat, he was one of the first out on the tube. He couldn't get enough of any of it. He LOVED it!

We are so glad to have this boy in our family!! Happy birthday Jayden!

Christmas Programs

Jayden's Christmas program



Jayden saying his part - I am not sure why he looked down while he said it, but he did a great job!



The visit from Santa was fun!

This is Jayden's teacher Miss Suzee. We have loved having her for a teacher the last two years. I was hoping she would be doing a three-year old preschool next year so Ethan could have her, but she decided to do four-year olds next year. Bummer!

We had fun watching Dylan's program, too. I got there early to get a good seat, hoping I was on the right side. Of course, I wasn't. He is on the front row, 5th from the end.

Battle Wounds

Looking good from this side. You'd think everything was fine.

Then... from another angle you see...

Poor kid. I don't think it looks too bad in the pictures, but I still feel sorry for him. He has been trying to figure out how to suck his thumb, but his fingers like to grab. I had just tried cutting his nails shorter the day before he got himself with the long scratch. Hopefully he'll figure it out soon! I would put socks on his hands, but I think he might be a good one to learn to suck his thumb - I think it will help him to be a little easier.

And look how sweet my boy is! I love these smiles, and I'm glad I finally got a great smile picture, even if it is a little out of focus. Don't you just want to kiss him?!

Wax On, Wax Off

Dylan and Jayden had belt promotion this week. It was Jayden's first, so he was pretty excited.

Brothers. Best buddies.

To me these pictures are classic Dylan. LOVE that boy!

Blessing Day

Today we blessed Austin at church. We were glad to have nearly all of our family there. We missed Steve and his family , as well as Lance. We wish we could have caught everyone, but with large families I guess you do the best you can.

Devon gave a beautiful blessing, and how grateful I am for him and his worthiness to hold the Priesthood. We love our Austin-boy and we are so happy to have him in our family.

We wanted to get a few pictures of our family together, but the weather was too cold to go outside for pictures, and a few family members needed to head out quick. Then once we got home, Devon and the boys changed because we forgot about doing pictures. So I did my own little photo shoot, and I had Devon take a picture of me and Austin. Good enough, I guess.