Christmas Eve

The Christmas Eve program has been a tradition for my family and I was so happy to have my kids be apart of it this year.  All the kids learn songs and get to be on stage to sing them.  If you participate in the program, Santa comes and gives you one present to "get you ready" for Christmas morning.  The kids all had a great time...

Brindee, Jacob, and Gavin

Their age group sang Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer

Hannah, Luke, and Laura

Their age group sang Santa's Coming To Town

The kids did such a great job, and were excited for their presents from Santa

Below is the ONLY picture I have of my Sister and me pregnant together.  She is due the middle of January, and I better get down to St. George before she has the baby so I can get a real prego picture of the two of us.  Our last sets of kids are all the same age and TOTAL buddies.  They could play for hours and never get sick of each other.  I was hoping for a girl just so that these last two could be as good of friends as the older ones.  But, not that lucky I guess..

PJs are a family tradition on Christmas Eve... The boys were happy about their Cowboy robes.. Thanks Heather for finding those!

A shot of the grandkids in their new Christmas Jammies.  Can't wait for tomorrow!

Ice Skating and getting ready for Christmas

Our little family tradition at our home is to string the small tree with Popcorn and Cranberries.  The boys were actually a big help this year and only poked themselves a couple times with the needle.  Luke holds the record for the best sewer around here.

Next on the Christmas agenda was Ice Skating.  It's nice living here in Utah County because there is ice skating just 10 minutes away.

They were very excited to start the process..

But soon realized they couldn't do much without daddy's help.  Being pregnant and holding sam -- I wasn't much help at all. :)

They loved it though and want to go back on a less crowded day so they can use the skate aids to help them.  They are cool little walker type tools that all the little kids were fighting over.  They had them all rented out by the time we arrived -- bummer.

We got to see Santa too...

Jake Loved it, and told Santa just what to bring (a 4-wheeler).

Sam was a little cautious, but didn't cry...

And this is as close as we could get Luke to Santa...  He liked him from afar. :)

Sleepy Sam

Cute little Sam .. Begging for a nap.  I love when my boys fall asleep at the table.  I know it just means I'm a bad parent, but I still think it's cute.  We sure love this boy.

Sam is our little sunshine.  He smiles all day long.  He loves to walk around and follows the boys everywhere.  I just think he is the cutest thing around!!

Seeing the Lights at Temple Square..

We got together with some Ohio Friends and ruffed the cold at Temple Square.  It was a lot of fun and very cold.  We saw the lights and the nativity and watched a short film to help us defrost at the visitors center. 

Although the adults were all freezing the kids didn't seem to mind.. They never do.  After the lights we stopped by the Crockets for hot cocoa and cinnamon rolls.  Yummy!

Good times with Good Company!!

 

Boy or Girl!!!???!

So I had my ultrasound on Wednesday --- the doctor knows what we are having, but I decided I wanted to wait for Christmas to find out.


I just had the doctor write it on piece of paper and put it in a sealed envelope. It's the only present we have under our tree right now!

I know it's kind of dorky -- but I was thinking since I can't wait an entire 9 months to find out (don't have that much will power), I would make it a special occasion anyway!

I'll post what we are having on or after Dec. 25th! Stay tuned...

Sam is Walking!!

He is following in big brother's footsteps so far!  9 1/2 months and he took his first steps. Just like Jacob.  He isn't walking as his primary mode of transportation, but he is getting better each day.  I love when they can walk!  They are so much happier.  No more scraping knees and picking up every little piece of lint they see in front of them!  On to bigger and better.

We sure love this kid -- who wouldn't???

Cold day outings!!

Our first real snow!  The boys were thrilled to play in it and we dug through the winter box and pulled out the gear.  Jake was very thoughtful to shovel the sidewalk for us -- hopefully that will carry over into the teenage years!
 

Our friends the Cleggs called and invited us to go to the BYU Bean museum since it was going to be a long cold day -- we were totally up for it! 

The museum, has live reptile shows that are free to the public and was a perfect way to entertain some rowdy boys.

Jake was totally into it as you can see...

Luke wasn't quite sure he liked all the life-size, life-like animals. But none-the-less enjoyed getting out of the house.

But, we couldn't forget our tradition of "snow ice-cream" when we got home.  We introduced it to the Cleggs.  I don't know if they liked it as much as we do, but it was a perfect treat for the perfect snowy day!!

Happy Halloween!!

The boys both missed their school parties due to the "Piggy Flu."  So, I was so happy they were feeling well enough to actually trick or treat on Halloween.  
  

These first pictures are from the ward party.  The boys decided to be 2 things for halloween, the first round was (oldest to youngest) BYU football player, Indian, pumpkin.

  

Second round - Halloween night (again, oldest to youngest) - Power Ranger, Ninja Turtle, and Happy observer.

They got enough candy to keep them happy, as well as mom and dad!  I think it lasted about a week.  Pretty good for the rate they were eating it!!!

Exercise before the Candy

Halloween day was so nice, we decided to take the boys to hike the "Y."  I think I was in better shape in college, because it was a lot harder than I remembered!!! 

The boys walked the whole thing themselves and although Luke was ready to just sit and wait for us to come back a few times, we convinced him to keep going.

  

These rest breaks happened every 30 seconds or so.  Luckily I could blame my own desire to take a break on the kids -- arg, I need to get into shape!!

But, we did it -- we made it to the top and watched 2 people sky dive, or wind sail or whatever you call it with big parachutes and seats, take off and head down the valley.  It was pretty entertaining.

Sam even got exhausted - what effort on his part. :)

Pumpkins Pumpkins

We got to go visit the pumpkin patch this year at "the red barn."  Not as much fun as Circle S Farms, but it was a fun outing.  The weather was nice and we got to go with our great friends the Brostroms! 

Boys boys boys.. We sure love boys.  I have 4 friends that all have kids the same ages and it just so happens we all have 3 boys.  I'm was the first of us to have the 3rd boy and hope this 4th child doesn't keep the trend going.  We need some girls around here!! 

Luke and Jake with their sweet "finds."

Thanks Brostroms for coming!  and for a yummy dinner afterwards.  Good thing we got together this night, because our 2 weeks of swine flu started the next day and both families were out of commission for way too long.

The best part about pumpkins is carving them -- so the kids think.  I dread it every year!!  But I have to admit it wasn't so bad this year and the boys actually did quite a bit of the gutting themselves.  I think they turned out cute!!  The extra boy is our cousin Porter -- he fits right in huh? Sometimes I think he and Luke are twins. We love having him as our neighbor and buddy!

One of our October traditions is to make doughnuts and watch "the legend of sleepy hollow"  We were a bit late this year, but it happened.  Jake asked me to remind him never to go trick or treating past midnight on halloween because the headless horseman might get him.  Maybe it's a little TOO spooky. :)