Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning:

 This was the first year that the boys woke up on their own before 6 o'clock. We could hear them talking and laughing but we had given them strict instructions not to come out until it said 6:00 on the clock. This year we all took turns reading Luke 2 and then had our family morning prayer. 

It looks like Santa came :

 

Here are few of Nathan's Presents:

Mud slinging Monster Truck

  Rescue Bot

A couple of Kyler's

 DS with a case and a couple of games

 Hex bug, pokemon, and of course legos

  A couple of Landon's gifts:

 A pocket knife

 His very own camera (mainly because of his DC trip this summer)

 The entire Harry Potter DVD collection

 Santa brought the boys Skylanders Swap Force to share

 And of course Dex needed some new toys as well

 Jon got a Utes polo

And Ky made me this awesome calendar.

And THEN there was the LAST PRESENT!!!

Clue #1

Sent them to the garage, where they found a small cooler filled with snacks and another clue.

 

Clue #2

Sent them to the living room and was found in the piano bench... it was a calendar with a car driving. At this clue Landon figured out that we were going to a road trip

 Clue #3

Led them out to the trunk of my van where they found a suitcase. Inside it was an awesome map that Jon drew on the computer and the FINAL clue. Thanks to the map they learned that their destination  was California.

 Clue #4

Sent them back to the toy room (Where we did our Christmas) 

There they discovered that we leaving the next morning for Legoland. We have a video of there reaction but it wasn't loading correctly. They were so excited!!! We took a ton of pictures but that will be yet another post.

Christmas Preperations

All tuckered out. Nathan was really tired one day and ended up crawling under the Christmas tree for a little nap. He NEVER naps anymore so this is a rare treasure. I love it!

Nathan's preschool does an annual trailer ride a caroling through the outlet mall. They practice the songs all month long to learn the songs. All of the parents and siblings walk behind the trailer. It was very cute

 Afterwards, the teachers had a mug of cocoa for each child (that they got to keep) and a giant Christmas coloring book. He had a blast. Here he is sipping his cocoa ready to head home.

On Christmas Eve, we had a few errands to run but we had to stop by our library. Miss Gloria (in our ward) is the story time lady and she was doing a special story time. She arranged for Santa and Mrs. Claus to come to see everyone too. The boys, however, didn't want to go sit with them for a picture. In fact, Nathan told Jon that it wasn't really Santa because the real Santa was way too busy to come that day. 

Aunt Jeni has the cutest things... she pulled out these cute aprons for the boys that her girls had out grown. This year we decided to just make easy cookies. We made my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe and simply but in red and green M&Ms instead chocolate chips.

Of course what is Christmas Eve without new pajamas. 

Stay tune to see pictures of Christmas Day and THE BIG SURPRISE!

Thanksgiving Weekend

For Thanksgiving this year we stayed close to home. We spent it with Jon's sister and his parents. It was a very low key day. Of course I forgot to get a picture of my handsome boys in their nice close. So here are the only pictures I did get on that day. 

Jon carving his smoked turkey. It was AMAZING!

 Here is my pumpkin swirl cheesecake. It turned out great if I do say so myself. I'd never made a cheesecake before so I was a little nervous.

On Friday, we went out with the boys to find a small tree for Jeni (Jon's sis). While we were there Jon ran into one of his good friends from high school. She told us that her parents were doing a huge house lighting that night and for us to come. Well, she wasn't kidding.... it was huge. He had an entire program: singers, some one dressed up like the Grinch, hot cocoa, etc. Here are a few pics of the house.

My 3 stooges...

On Saturday we got together with my sister Melissa and her family. In the morning Scott and Jon took the 4 oldest boys to go shooting. They had a blast. After nap time, we met back up to do some climbing at Dixie Rock.

 Here's all 9 of the kiddos

 We went through some narrow alcoves. That would be baby Violet (almost 4 months old) riding on her daddy's shoulders.

Jon decided that instead of going with the rest of us, he would climb up between the two cliffs. There he is at the top.

 

Day Trip to Zion

Jon has been working very hard trying to finish his schooling, so on Saturday we decided to take a quick trip to Zion National Park. We ate breakfast and packed a picnic lunch and head out on our day adventure. The weather was great. We are really enjoying this nice southern weather down here. My boys are still wearing shorts and short sleeves to school most days, but due to the location of Zion we busted out long sleeves. We drove for about 45 minutes and voila we were there.  

 The boys riding the shuttle

Nathan did pretty well. He walked a good portion but then got tired so Jon carried him on his shoulders for a while, then it was my turn. Nothing like hiking with an extra 40 lbs on your shoulders.

 Kyler is pointing out the mama deer and her baby... they are a little hard to see. And for those of you that notice, Ky's eye is still black but looking tons better.

 Here's our whole family under the waterfall at the Emerald Pool hike

Our boys in the great outdoors.

After we hiked we rode the shuttle back to the truck and had our picnic lunch. We drove back and still had time for Jon to write one more paper for his marketing class before dropping the boys off with Grandma and Grandpa so we could go on a date.

November Excitment

Its Autumn Time

The boys got to jump in a pile a leaves for the first time. We've never had trees that produced enough leaves to have to do this but now... the boys have the privilege of raking leaves at least twice a week. (actually the are out doing it right now while I play on the computer)

 Field Trips

This last week our local high school was doing the play production of The King and I. They invited the boys' elementary school to come to dress rehearsal during the day. They simply had the children walk over (it was only a block away) So, I had the opportunity to go with Kyler's class on Monday. They Landon's class went Tuesday morning but I didn't get to go with him because I was already committed to helping at Nathan's field trip to the fire station. On Tuesday evening Jon got to attend the play with youth of our church. Well, Ky liked the play so much he asked if I could take him again. So the pictures below are of Kyler and I on our King and I date. The next day he was walking around the house singing some of the songs from the play and saying etc, etc, etc!

Veteran's Day

Landon got to be an announcer for the Veteran's Day celebration. They asked that he wear his scout uniform for it since he was calling in the flag bearers and leading the audience in the pledge etc. They sang about 6 patriotic songs, did some speaking parts, presented the flags, and even had one of the teachers play Taps.

Kyler's Trip to the ER

I got a phone call from Kyler's school saying that he had hit his head and I needed to come and make sure he was okay. When I got there he looked like this...

He had tripped/been pushed while playing at recess and hit the cement face first. He didn't lose consciousness, and  wasn't vomiting or bleeding. Which was great! But his one eye was dilated more than the other so I checked him out of school and took him to the insta-care and then was sent to the ER. Jon met us there to ease my nerves a bit. After the pediatric doctor in the ER evaluated him they concluded that he had a mild concussion and to just keep a close eye on him. They gave us all of the cautions on if this happens.... then bring him back in. I had to check him every 30 minutes to make sure he was doing alright and give him Tylenol for the headache and pain and an ice pack to help with the swelling. This next pic his him at dinner time. Starting to swell more and getting more bruising by the eye.

 And last, this is what he looked like when he woke up this morning.(actually this picture makes it look better than it really is. The picture didn't capture the magnitude of the bruising)  Way more swelling and his eye is all black and purple. He said he really wanted to go to school and said he felt fine so I gave him more Tylenol and sent him on the bus as normal. I did check in on him at lunch time to see if he needed any more medicine but he said he was fine... what a trooper.