A Christmas Eve Tradition

There they are with their new jammies. Emma was a little disappointed that she didn't get footie jammies. Oh, well.

When I was a kid I got to open one present on Christmas Eve. My mom usually steered me to the one I opened, but it didn't matter. So we have carried on the tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve. Every year I give my kids the one present they can open. They have since caught on that the one present they get to open is their new pair of pajamas. Now they get excited on Christmas Eve and ask when they get to open their new PJ's. They run off and put the new jammies on. Then on Christmas morning they are dressed in their new jammies already and ready to open presents.

A Visit From Santa

We had our ward Christmas party the week before Christmas. It was lots of fun with lots of yummy food. Of course, what Christmas party wouldn't be complete without a visit from Santa? Up until the party Caleb was planning his list of the things he wanted from Santa. He was very excited to see him. I think my other kids (actually I know) that they are over the whole Santa gig. But that didn't stop Emma from sitting on his lap and asking for what she wanted. She asked for an Easy Bake and Pixos. He brought her Pixos. Mom got credit for the Easy Bake. Caleb had a whole list...he wanted a Spiderman mask, Buzz Lightyear and Woody. There were other things but I can't remember. Santa brought him Buzz Lightyear. It's so interesting since we have had two Buzz Lightyears in past years but had long since gotten rid of them. Now we have Caleb and Buzz Lightyear has reappeared. I guess we should've kept Buzz and Woody...but who knew they would become popular again. Joshua actually sat on Santa's lap too, but I didn't know he was going to and didn't get a picture. Fun night!


Caleb and Santa.


Caleb telling Santa what he wants for Christmas.


Emma with Santa.


Emma telling Santa what she wants.

Shovelling The Snow

We've gotten quite a bit of snow already this winter. In fact it is snowing again right now. Here we have Caleb being a big helper to dad by helping him with shovelling the drive way. I think this was the third time it was shoveled that day. Scott wanted to keep on top of it. Caleb did a good job at helping. He was very proud of himself.

1st Snow of Winter '09

It started snowing a little on Sunday, but then of course it stopped. Bummer! But when we woke up on Monday morning there was a nice coating of the white stuff everywhere. I love the snow! It is so pretty just laying on the lawn...until the kids get to it that is. The boys went out shoveling the driveway before school. Scottie came in to call the school to see if it was a snow day...come on guys, it's just a little snow. No snow day to their disappointment. Luckily the snow was still intact when they got home. They were just dying to get out there and play in it. Caleb more than anything wanted to make a 'Frosty'. So the boys went out to help him make a snowman. It didn't take long til Scott and Joshua started throwing snowballs at each other. I got my pictures taken and went back inside before I got hit. Then Emma and Caleb ventured out back and bounced on the snow covered trampoline. What fun!


Caleb happy to be finally out in the snow.


How many boys does it take to make a snowman?


How long would he still be standing if he actually threw that? Yes it was aimed at me.


Joshua getting Scott.


Caleb abandoned to make his own snowman. It didn't happen.


Scott getting a little pay back.


Caleb on the trampoline.


Emma joining Caleb.

Cute Kiddos

I always try to get pictures of the kids by the Christmas tree after we decorate it. For some reason I didn't take any the night we decorated. I decided to take pictures with them all dressed in their church clothes today. Seeing them all standing there together makes me kinda sad....they are just getting so big! Time is flying by and they just keep growing up faster and faster.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

I love this time of year. Christmas is probably my favorite holiday. I love that the kids are excited about Christmas too. This past family home evening we decorated the Christmas tree. I always put up the tree and put the lights on during the day so we don't have to waste time doing that during FHE. I'm not very smart to put the lights on before plugging them in...a mistake I make every year but don't reap the consequences. This year was a whole different story. After putting the lights on and plugging them in I discovered the top strand (of course the top one) didn't light up all the way...just one color. After fiddling with it for a couple of minutes I got two other colors to work. Just the red lights don't light up. After unplugging every red bulb to discover none of them have blown I gave up. I don't care that there are no red lights on the top!!! Anyways....so the kids had a blast putting the ornaments on the tree. We don't have lovely organized, cutsy ornaments. It's just a bunch of ornaments that I love. Lots are from Scott's aunt that she has handmade for each of us every year...those are our faves! The kids rush to find their own ornament with their name on them to put them on. It is hard for me not to control the putting on of the ornaments. I do however move some around when they are done if there are too many clumped together and fill in where there isn't any. That's okay right?!?! We also blast Christmas music while we decorate...love it! The only fuddy duddy in the family is dad who while we are decorating is posting on his facebook that it was too early for a Christmas tree. Bah humbug! He did at least put on his ornaments.


Emma dancing away.


Scott...don't know what that side glance is about.


Caleb went as fast as he could so he can try to get the most ornaments on.


Joshua being silly.

Cute Little Pilgram

The week before Thanksgiving, Caleb's class was learning about the first Thanksgiving. They talked about pilgrams and indians. They had two feasts. One day they had foods that they thought the indians ate and then the second day they had a pilgram feast. Caleb had lots of fun. He came home dressed in a little pilgram outfit one day and then an indian one the next. I only got pictures of the indian outfit. What a cutie!

I'm Not Tired!

I just love walking into my kids rooms at night before I go to sleep to check on them and discovering that they tried their hardest not to fall asleep. One night I found Joshua had fallen asleep reading the newspaper comics. Then another night I found Scott had fallen asleep while playing his gameboy. It is just too funny that both the newspaper and the gameboy are being held upright still after they fell asleep. Scott's game was still going. Silly boys!

Re-united At Long Last

I haven't seen my brother in ten years. Scottie was 2 years old and Joshua was 5 months old the last time I saw him. My brother, Sam, has never even met Emma and Caleb. The other day I was on facebook and I was talking about something about Sam and my kids said, 'you have a brother?'...ok, how sad is that! Now granted I do have pictures up of him and his family, but I guess my kids don't pay much attention or don't put two and two together. Anyway...Sam is a truck driver and the closest he's ever gotten to us is Utah. Oh, I have to mention that the reason that we don't get together is he lives in Florida....So then a few days ago he called and said he was going through northern Idaho and wondered how far that would be for me....it was about eight hours away...bummer. But then on the way back east he was driving from Oregon and right through my town....YEY! So we met at a truck a stop in town. We only got to spend about 30 minutes together but it was so good to spend any time with him at all. It was so good to see him and give him a great big hug. The kids all got to meet their uncle. Sam let them all get up in his truck and look around and so graciously gave them his candy which they spotted and begged for. I think he was just glad to meet them and would've given them anything they asked for. I just wish we all lived closer and could spend lots of time together. But I guess we have to take what we can get. Hopefully for us his travels will bring him back to see us again soon. I miss him already.

Happy Halloween!

We had lots of fun this Halloween. First with the BSU game and then back home for dinner and then a race to get ready for trick or treating. I really didn't want to have to buy costumes this year so I rummaged through the box and found a costume for all. Scott was a vampire, Joshua was the grim reaper, Emma was a good witch, and Caleb was Robin. We went around our whole developement. The kids got so much candy..it was crazy. But they had fun.

Boise State vs San Jose

Scott's dad called and told him that he was going to get six free Boise State tickets and asked if we would want them. Of course how could we pass that up. Only Scott and Joshua had been to a college football game before so this was a new adventure for most of us. We left early and went to McDonald's for lunch. Then we parked miles from the stadium and had to walk. It was amazing looking out at the crowd and seeing all the blue and orange. People here are die hard fans! We felt a little out of place. When we got in I asked a security guy where our row was...we were at the very top. Row EE. Holy cow...that was exhausting walking all the way up there! It was kinda nice though, we didn't have people sitting behind us at least. The game was really good. Boise State won 45 - 7. What a fun afternoon!

Carving Pumpkins

I was on this kick this week trying to come up with fun things to do as a family. So the day after we did sugar cookies we carved pumpkins. I found pumpkins for pretty cheap at Wal-mart. The kids were kinda grossed out at first cleaning out the guts of the pumpkins. I just told them to get in there and get dirty! They did a good job at carving out the faces as well. We had lots of fun! Mom got the exciting job of sorting through the guts and getting out the seeds to roast. Fun, fun!


Getting the tops off.



Caleb cleaning out his pumpkin. Just look at that face.


Scott still working on getting his top off.


Joshua starting to carve his pumpkin.


Emma having a go at carving. Of course she didn't want to do it all herself.


Scott carving his pumpkin. Not sure why the shirts came off.


The finished product.