Christmas pics. (pt. 1)

I'm tired of seeing the santa pictures on my blog so I know you must be too. With the kids off of school, I get NO computer time. Everyone is always fighting about who's turn it is and the minute I get to sit down to check my email, someone is asking me when I'll be done. I'll write more next week when they're back in school but in the meantime, here's some pictures for your viewing pleasure. The one of our family is on Christmas day down at my parents house. The other is my parents with all 9 of their grandkids ( I had to bribe Josh to be in it. To get him to smile was pushing it.) We hope you all had a great Christmas!

Naughty or Nice?

We had our church Christmas party last night. It was up in the canyon at a big, beautiful cabin with a nice fire in the fireplace. After the kids had been singing for a few minutes, lo and behold, Santa came! Each kid got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. I was so surprised that Josh hopped right up and told him he wanted a "red hotwheels" (WHAT? that's different than the marble game he's been saying for months!). Taylor wants an icoaster (whew) and Lauren wants a Nintendo DS (she dreams big). It was so nice to have Santa come so we didn't have to stand in the LONG line to visit him at the mall. Only 3 more nights until he comes to our house!!

Long Awaited

It's finally snowing. The boys in this house have been watching the weather channel with baited breath. It's finally looking like Christmas. This is only after 3 hours and it's still going - yikes!

Best Outcome

Today Taylor played his best buddy, Jake's Jr. Jazz basketball team. Taylor's team has been undefeated and Jake was so worried that they'd get slobbered (slaughtered). They didn't and they both did great. A tie was the best outcome for both of them, I think.

It's Hard to be So Cute!

Last Saturday night Taylor was invited to Chloe's birthday party. I had never met Chloe but Taylor was really excited to go because it was an ice skating party. Being the over-protective/nervous mother that I am, I didn't want to just drop him off and hope he stayed with his group and didn't get hurt. He has never ice skated and hasn't even really roller skated. Since Lauren has always been dying to go she got to bring a friend and come with us.

Josh was going to stay home with Parley and play Wii games but at the last minute he couldn't stand to be left out and cried hysterically that he wanted to go with me. Parley's a good sport and he came too for a while until Josh realized it really wasn't going to be fun for him and he got to go have some good "bonding" time with Parley.

Taylor never really strayed from the wall. He and his friend Truman had no fear as long as they always had one hand on the wall. By the end of the night they were wet from falling but actually had some balance and skating ability. On the way home I tried to figure out why Cloe had invited him. I asked if she had ever been in any of his classes, he said no. I asked if they played together at recess, he said no. I asked him why he thought Chloe invited him to her party. After a long pause, and with his head down, he replied in a quiet voice, "It's because she thinks I'm CUTE." And he is :)

All Ready

The decorations are up, most of the shopping is done. Let the season begin!!

Picture Tag

Since there's not too much excitement going on at our house right now, I thought I'd finally do the picture tag that Carrie tagged me with a couple of months ago. I guess it's kind of appropriate now. This was right before Christmas last year (2007) when we rode Trax downtown to look at the lights. It was nice and cold but no snow. Some of us will hope for snow this year.

p.s. It was not a happy night in our house Saturday night when the cougars lost :(

For Your Amusement...

The other day Lauren and I were in the car running errands. We were listening to the radio station that is playing only Christmas music (I know, I know, some of you are saying it's too early but I don't care :). Anyway the song "Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music came on. After they sang, "When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad..." Lauren piped up from the back, "Mom, why do they sing about when the dog bites and the pee stains?" She couldn't understand why I couldn't stop laughing :)

Last night the kids wanted to hear Parley talk in Spanish (he served a mission in Mexico for two years). After rattling off a bunch of stuff in Spanish, Josh said that he wanted to hear how he laughs in Spanish. After Parley laughed naturally from the question, Josh said, "Huh, so that's how it sounds in Spanish."

And I couldn't leave out Taylor. He hasn't said anything too funny, although, lately he's been asking me all kinds of questions that I have to think hard about answering. Like "What is the scariest storm you've ever been in?" "What was the longest airplane ride you've taken?" "When were you the most scared that you've ever been?" Most of these I have no answer for :(

The Big 4 - Ohhhhhh!!

So Parley hit 40! It was a little traumatic, but not too bad for him. I guess having birthdays makes you reflect on where you are with your life and how you are, sometimes, not where you thought you'd be. I think he's doing great and I told him he's lucky because men just start looking distinguished as they get older, women, just look, well, OLD.

Any of you who know Parley, know that he doesn't love being the center of attention and all the fanfare that some others enjoy. I didn't think he'd really get into a big party or anything. Since his birthday was on a Sunday and he has lots of church stuff to do every Sunday I knew the only way to get him to have a "real" birthday was to take him away. As luck would have it, Lauren has a friend who's parents have a SWEET cabin up at Bear Lake (Utah/Idaho border). He didn't have cell phone coverage and there was no internet. It was wonderfully quiet. One other thing that made him happy, they had a satellite dish and so he was able to watch the BYU game on a big HDTV. It was fun. Happy Birthday Parley. Thanks for being so GREAT!!

Last One

Here's one last Halloween picture. At church we did trunk-or-treating and got waaayyy to much candy. Parley wanted to dress-up, too. He was having fun until someone told him he was wearing his head/sweat band like a girl :)

All Grown Up

It was a sad Halloween day for Parley. Lauren decided it would be more fun to trick-or-treat with her friends than with her family. I drove her up to Josie's house about 5:30 and she and Josie and Kirsten all went trick-0r-treating together with Josie's dad. She had a great time and was even too warm! She got lots of full-size candy bars and full cans of pop. Parley and I took the boys around. We don't usually get too many trick-or-treaters at our house so we just left a bowl on the porch with a note. There was even some still left when we got home.

Taylor was his usual BYU fan, but Josh wanted to be a Power Ranger. I borrowed the costume from Jen and just told him he was a Power Ranger. He never knew the difference :) The lady in the third picture is Josh's AWESOME preschool teacher. She has really helped him to come out of his shell this year. She even told me she takes pictures in class sometimes and he even smiles for them!

The Big 7-4

Last Wednesday Parley's mom turned 74. We went up to celebrate with Parley's sister Kim and family and his brother Bruce and his family. For those of you who don't know, she fell and broke her femur a little over 2 months ago (you can see the brace in the picture). She has been in a rehabilitation center for almost that whole time and has been such a trooper. Although they were so nice to her there, she was soooo ready to come home. After some finageling (sp?) she was finally able to come home the morning of her birthday. We had a fun time celebrating with her. Kim made an awesome cake!

School Parade

Today was the halloween parade at school. For some strange reason the kids don't have school tomorrow on Halloween. What are WE (the parents) supposed to do with wild kids all day while waiting for it to get dark? We had a trunk-or-treat party at church earlier in the week so the sugar high has begun. I know I've mentioned this before, but sugar INSTANTLY goes into Josh's veins. He literally starts bouncing off the walls. Should be an interesting weekend. At least it's supposed to be in the low 60's high 50's for trick-or-treating time! Yea! Finally (hopefully) a year where we won't freeze our jibblets off trick-or-treating!!

U.E.A. (pt. 2)

The last day of our fall break we went to a fun place called "Cornbellys." It has slides and a corn box (sand box) and a little train thing, hay rides, a big "pillow" to jump on, face painting, etc. We had a great time with Jen, Emily and their kids. We avoided the David Archuletta shaped corn maze because we heard horror stories about getting lost in it for two hours. I didn't think I could take it. As you can see the weather was awesome!

U.E.A. (pt. 1)

This past Thursday, Friday and Monday was our UEA (or deer hunt or fall break whatever you choose to call it). Since we weren't going to California/Disneyland with the majority of the folks, we stayed home for a "stay-cation." Friday we went with some friends up to This Is The Place State Park. We've never really taken the kids there and it was great. They had it all decked out for halloween with train rides, hay rides and lots of crafts and candy. It wasn't crowded and the weather was great!

The kids were supposed to dress up, but since it is dirty and dusty up there I didn't want them wearing their "real" costumes. Lauren is dressed up as a cowgirl/rodeo princess, Taylor is a BYU fan and Josh is a rock star with orange and green hair. He loved it.

Witches Everywhere

Last weekend (before the snow flew) we went out to Gardner Village to check out the witches. It was pretty chilly so we didn't stay too long but it was nice to get out. I think the highlight of the trip for the kids was going into the big candy store. They each had $1.50 to spend and they were just like kids in a candy store. Too much to choose from and they had to look at EVERYTHING.

The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow (I hope)....

It snowed yesterday. They boys in the house were all excited about it. Lauren actually was a little, too. I was not! It's mostly melted today and true-to-Utah-form, it's supposed to be sunny and in the 70's by the end of week.

Pumpkin Patch Time

This last Friday we met Jake and Abby (and Jen) at the Pumpkin Patch. The kids have a great time in the hay maze, playing on the pirate ship, watching the model train and of course, getting lots of pictures taken. The weather was beautiful and in the 80's. I guess now it's officially fall.