Saturday, December 29, 2012

Big Man is 8!

Where does the time go? I can't believe Big Man is 8 already. He's so excited to get baptized. We took some pictures today to get ready for the big day next weekend.

Christmas Pics

We had a wonderful Christmas. It's always so much work and over too quickly, but we had a great time. Here are some pictures from our Christmas Eve party and Christmas morning.


Christmas Day would not be complete without Brownies for Big Man's birthday!  I can't believe he's 8!



Here is his completed Lego set!  He worked hard to get it all assembled  (so did Jeff)!









I tried to get a decent PJ picture of the kids on Christmas Eve, but alas The Mover would not cooperate.  The little stinker!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Live Nativity

We've heard how great the Fountain Green's Live Nativity is. We were able to go last night as a family. You get to go on a hayride from the church up to the location of the nativity. It was cold, but we were bundled up pretty good and kept warm.


After the hayride, we watched a short video in some warm tents and then walked through different scenes from the events of Jesus's birth. It ended with Mary and Joseph in a small stable with a donkey. There in a small manger was a cute, content 'baby Jesus'. Each group or family took a few minutes to look in at this scene. Little Princess stayed there for a quite a while and just stared. When we asked her about it later, she said 'Jesus really is alive and he's a baby'. It was the perfect way to remember the true meaning of the season.

Monday, December 10, 2012

The Perfect Christmas Card

Every year I have visions of "The Perfect Christmas Card" and somehow it never quite turns out as I plan.

Jeff pinned this picture on Pinterest and it made me laugh. Mainly because this is what usually happens during our family photo shoots. Our last large family photo with my side of the family had Big Man making some weird face. Everyone else looked great, except him, and that's the best one we got.  Little stinkers.

I told Jeff I wanted to get the Christmas pictures done before church yesterday when the kids were all dressed up. Bless his little heart, he started doing pictures while I was still getting dressed. By the time I came out to help, the kids (The Mover mainly) were done. GRRRR. So now I have to try again or use the ONE that they all look okay. I was hoping more than ONE would turn out, so I'd have a few to choose from.  Curses to Christmas pictures. Next year they may not happen at all!  These are definitely in the do NOT use pile!


Visiting Santa

Mona City has Santa come to the city office every year. That part is great, but the part the kids love best of all is the big bag of candy they give out after you sit on his lap! The Mover sat still just long enough to get a picture. It's always interesting to hear what they want after the shopping is all done!




Saturday, November 24, 2012

All in a Day's (hour's) Work

The Mover has never been really destructive...until now! Both within a 1/2 hour, she made these two messes.


and I thought I'd only get to decorate the tree once!

In other events: Big Man and Little Princess are in the Nutcracker this year. Last week was their first dress rehearsal. They thought it was pretty fun to be in costume and makeup. Little Princess looked so old with her makeup done.

This is our first year getting a real tree.  We went up Log canyon in Fountain Green to cut it down. 


It looked a lot smaller on the mountain.  We got it home and it was huge.  Now to decorate it!

We spent Thanksgiving with my side of the family this year.  I had this brilliant idea that we should go see the lights at Temple Square.  I didn't know it was opening night for the lights.  It was insane.  We rode Trax down and visited City Creek for the first time too.  That was fun, but super crowded.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

This and That...

Big Man is almost 8. I've been wanting to get him a suit for his upcoming baptism.  I finally got it the other day.  He was pretty excited to try it on.  The white socks will definitely go when he officially wears it!  He was so cute, it was still laying on the couch today after school, so he put it on and wore it to Parent Teacher conferences.  His teacher was pretty impressed :)  I can't believe he's getting so big. 



I'd like to thank Pinterest for these next pictures.  I was put in charge of the Pinewood Derby treats, so what better place to look than Pinterest.  Mine didn't turn out nearly as cute, but the 8 year old boys (and their younger siblings) didn't care as they were snatching them up.  It took a lot longer to do than I thought, I was exhausted by the time the night was over.



Little Man came home the other day kind of quiet.   When we got in the house, he followed me in my room and then pulled out a little dog tag he'd got at school.  He won an award for Math.  He was so excited, but kind of quiet and shy about it too.  It was really cute.  I like how their school does awards.  The kids get these little dog tags that they can put on a necklace.  Big Man has several from last year for various things-attendance, etc. as well as awards they earn.  If you can't tell from the picture, he looks pretty proud.  He loves school and is doing so well.  I'm proud of him.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween

I did a horrible job of getting pictures of my kid's costumes this year. The ones I did take are random.  Jeff's sister had a party last Saturday.  The Mover looked pretty cute as a butterfly.   We only had the wings on long enough for a picture.  


Little Princess had a Halloween dance performance.  She was a spider.  Her spider headband is sideways so you can't really tell.  She did great and had a fun time.

Nephi City has a Main Street trick or treat.  A bunch of the stores participate.  They hand out candy and tickets.  The kids redeem the tickets at the park for prizes.  While we were there, the headless horseman came through.  It was pretty cool.

Little Princess wore several different outfits for Halloween.  For Jeff's sister's party, she was Snow White.  I bought her a cute Tinkerbell costume, but she tried it on and said it was too itchy.  So today, she went with this dress from her dress ups.  We decided she was 'Tangled'  or Rapunzel.  We had straightened her hair and it looked extra blonde!  What a cutie.  She had a fun time at a preschool party today.

This was the only picture I got of the boys at their school parade today.  They walked by way too fast.  Big Man was already past and I didn't have my camera ready.  Oh well.  I didn't get a picture of him at all.  He was a ninja.  I will have to dress him up tomorrow :)

It was a fun Halloween.  The kids ended the night with trick or treating.  They had fun but got cold and made it short. 

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Day 5

Driving home and Las Vegas.  Instead of driving home all in one day, we decided to stop off in Vegas. 











Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Day 4

Today was San Diego Zoo, the beach, and the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center.