WHAT THE JANUARY??

I love this picture.  What I love more about this picture is that I have no idea when it was taken and by whom (I'm guessing Seth himself?)  Crazy kid!  He really has become such a fun kid right now.  It hits me all the time just how excited he is over the little things in life. Like the other day we were driving down to St. George and he got so excited when we passed the lighthouse (where we normally turn off the freeway to go to Walmart) because we were driving straight and leaving Cedar City!! --or maybe that just means we need to get out more?? :)  But really, whether its a game, or special dinner he loves, or 5 extra minutes of StarWars legos this kid is elated to get even a little extra anything and I think that is getting more and more rare these days. I know I am going to miss this one day when he's moody and dragging his feet to do stuff as a family or little things in general.  So right now I am so thankful for him and his reminder to me that even the little stuff is worthy of getting excited about.  Oh yea, and I have to include this; whenever you take him off guard or he's excited about something he exclaims, "You gotta be seriously!!"  cracks us up.

COLLIN

Collin is just pure JOY.  I really dont know how else to explain it. Its like his mission was to come to earth to make people smile.  He laughs and just melts hearts everywhere he goes.  Here's one of may tickle sessions with Dad.

NEW YEARS EVE

This is probably one of the only New Years Eve pictures I have.  This New Years Eve was different.  We actually hung out with friends (till like 9). *shrug* The Losee's had us over with all the kids and the Marriotts came over to for like an hour.  It was fun.  I'm really good friends with Tawna and Jenny but we usually do stuff without our kids so as weird as this may sound, it was off having our kids all there.  But the night was filled with food and Rock Band which Jaq just ate up (they gave her a microphone and she thought she was a little rock star the whole night...see above pic) So we jammed out for a bit and had a good time.  Put our kids to bed by 9:30 and watched a White Collar until 11.  LAME. I know.  Neal joined us for awhile but he was probably bored out of his mind too.  :)  He left a little early to meet up with Brittlyn before she got off work at 11.  Oh well here's to 2013!!

THE DENTIST

This was a funny day. Jaq went to the Dentist for the first time and Seth was so excited for her.  He could not stop jumping, telling her all the things to watch out for and do (since he was totally experienced with the whole dentist thing).  He was just so thrilled to have her be the patient enstead of him.  But....it didnt last long.  We were also there to get a cavity filled for him and to get a tooth pulled.  And man, did his attitude change once we left.  Dont get me wrong my kids are AMAZING at the dentist (they dont move an inch the entire time - even when they are getting cavities filled) but once we left and he was numb and bleeding with saliva soaked gauze he remembered that he doesn't really like going to the dentist anymore.

Seth remembering that he now only had minutes to wiggle his tooth out before the Dentist was going to yank it.  Needless to say his last minute wiggling didn't do much.

Waiting on the kid couch at the Dentist office for Jaquelle's first dental visit

PUZZLE TIME

This puzzle was SO fun to put together!  Seriously.  My parents brought it back from Disneyland and it probably had like 500 pieces but every piece had at least part of one of like 100 characters on it so you literally could pick up a piece and put it right where it went.  The kids helped a little (I'll be honest I am a little of a puzzle hog) but they loved it too.

PRESCHOOL PARTY AT MAGGIE MOOS

They were cute and showed all the kids the store and the back and how to make ice cream out of their simple ingredients.  They loved it!

Then they let them choose an icecream flavor and add a mix in

Can I say future High School career here?

Lily, Luke Hailey and Sam

Deliciousness!

Random Iron man picture (Christmas Gift 2012)

Christmas Mornin

ChristmasEVE2012!!!

so....a week before Christmas Seth gets Type A of the flu....then Cordelle gets it, followed by Collin and then I thought Jaq had the tail end of it....but come the Saturday before when all of Krista's kids were coming down, little Jaquelle ended up still having a fever.  SAD!  She spent Christmas coughing and quarantined and feverish.  And I just knew everyone was going to get sick.  But I gave them all fair warning and they all knew we were sick and especially the kids had a pretty good chance that they too would fall victims to our Christmas flu bug.  (And they did- luckily with no symptoms until a few days after they went home....but they all got it.)  But other than that, I would say Christmas was a success and with some pretty relaxed fun!!

Christmas Eve was cold and snowy.  Luckily Uncle Aaron braved the weather with the kids for a couple hours so that the rest of us could find some sanity and Cordelle could spend some one on one time with Jaquelle playing puzzles cause she couldn't really do anything with the other kids.  Anyways the "outsiders" created a wicked cool snow man and a huge snow slide for the kids and some mini forts to accompany them.  :)

THE NATIVITY!!
Most of the angels were too busy taking pictures to be considered herald but someone had to document it all.

Jaq was Mary, Scott was Joseph, Collin was baby Jesus and Cordelle was the manger/bed

Wise men Brett, Aaron, and Mason.  Seth was a donkey I guess.  Cordelle helped him with his "costume"

The kids opening their cousin gifts

We got our kids new SUPER soft blankets and I made them ULTRA soft pillow cases and I know my kids and they loved them just as much as I thought they would!

Neal and Cordelle playing a game

Jaq all cuddled

I got my mom this retro phone receiver that she could plug into her iphone and she just about lost it she was laughing so hard!  To get that reaction was just priceless.  So fun when you find the perfect gift for someone.

Jaquelle and Anna coloring in their LaLaLoopsy books they got from each other

My Christmas Eve Cuddle bugs.  I am mad I didn't get Collin in here for this picture with his blanket too, but he was long gone asleep by this time.

Seth and Mason coloring in their new coloring books

I'll tell you, by the time Santa came, I was exhausted!  No late night games for me.  I went straight to bed leaving my family to whatever it was they were doing all night long.  Only person who beat me to bed was Cordelle who went to bed at 9 with the kids and left me to do everything else alone!!  Lame. Next year Santa's on him! (ok, so he was still not feeling well either, I guess its a good excuse).

Christmas Prep - and the ultimate Parental Christmas Debate

 Meet Melf and Kelf.  They are our elves.  (Ring any bells Annie or Michelle?)  Anyways it was the only names I could come up with on the spot.  These are our two "elf on the shelf" elves.  They appeared to remind the kids of Christ and get them excited and to be good for Santa. Here they are getting into a snowball fight with mini marshmallows.  Melf is the serious one, Kelf causes trouble.  They sometimes bring treats, but they also bring Christmas stories or remind the kids about Christ and the nativity.  I dont know why I always thought the Nativity and traditional Santa Claus had to be distinctly different so this year I had our elves continuously talk about the baby Jesus, wise men and star.  It was cool that even though we still do the make-believe stuff, the kids knew that the elves knew the real meaning behind Christmas too.  Of course the big fun was seeing what mischief Kelf got himself into.  He unwound the toilet paper rolls in the bathroom, door bell ditched the house, hid the baby Jesus, took apart our Christmas countdown rings, stacked our The C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S blocks into a high castle on the kitchen table.  He was naughty but the kids loved it.  It was hard to keep up and remember to do it, but well worth it.
  I dont know how I feel about the whole Santa Claus thing recently.  Of course we are still doing the whole big day cause my sister and her kids will be here this year.  But I wonder every year if I am kind of shying away from it a little more and more.  I CANT BELIEVE I AM SAYING THIS TOO, cause Cordelle and I's first real argument was over Santa Claus and when or when not to tell our kids.  I came from a home where it was full fledge SANTA and Christmas morning was magical and exciting and of course we all knew the real meaning behind Christmas but it was way more reindeer and the big Jolly guy. We believed till we were probably way too old to believe, but we wanted to.  And Cordelle just thought there was an age where you should tell your kids the truth.  I was mortified.  But now, I dont know....things have changed.  I want my kids to know and understand CHRIST and not just Christmas.  So I see things differently.  Of course you can still do Santa and it can still be as exciting.  But as a very good friend of mine told me, its really no different than make believe with princesses and super hero's.  I mean really, kids go to Disneyland and its magical and they see people dressed up as Sleeping Beauty and Mr. Incredible and even though they know its pretend they still LOVE it.  Why wouldn't it be the same with Christmas?  We tell them the truth, but still make it fun.  They can pretend that Santa is coming bringing them toys but they know its really us.  But while they are young and its more fun to pretend or believe, they will.  They are still getting presents that they dont know about and the excitement is still there to see what you got Christmas morning right?  So it just makes sense that you could maintain the magic of Christmas but keep kids knowing the truth, the real meaning behind it all.  Perhaps you could state that Santa is a symbol of Christ giving gifts to make people happy?? And I know as they grow and go further into Elementary, this traditional Christmas will get pushed and flood them and I am totally fine with that actually, but I kind of want them to get as much of the Christ and his birth stuff at home and from me.  The truth first and then the worldly fluff and let them choose what they will believe.  Ok, like any kid will still believe if their parent tells them its not true. Still though, does that make sense?  Thats not saying we wont sing silly Christmas songs or totally get into the fun of make believe reindeer and elves.  Thats fun!  I totally love that!  But I want them to know that its all pretend and just like when Seth dresses up as Iron man and I have to tell him he will not really fly if he jumps off the top stair, I think he will be ok with that and you know what the next day he's still going to dress up as Iron Man again cause its fun to pretend.  What do you think? Does it matter if they believe?  Maybe not.  Will I really go this direction next year?  I dont know.  But it feels right somehow.  Does that make me a stick in the mud parent?  I hope not.  I feel like I can be fun and play with the fun stuff and be serious about the serious stuff and not feel guarded that the truth might get out and shake their world.  Hum... food for thought eh? Anyways we'll see how this Christmas season goes (I have determined not to say anything this year....I think my kids are young enough that either direction I go, I'll be okay with it for next year. I'm not going to force any Santa down their throats but I'll sit back and let them believe or dont believe in what their cousins do since they'll be joining us this year--I'd hate for anything to be said to people's kids that i love that don't share my same opinions).  ANYWAYS.....

And this is my fireplace!  I spent about 3 hours one weekend and went to down.  We had this big tall book shelf we were going to take to DI and this old bed frame and it just clicked.  So I found some thick butcher like paper and went to town painting and drawing my bricks. This took forever but i love the end result. So fun, when you dont have a real fireplace at Christmas time.

This year my ENTIRE family is coming and I'm pretty excited.  We've never done a Christmas that wasn't up north.  But we decided to FINALLY stay home this year and my family decided to follow, cause it was "my year." (Which really just means my year to pick a family to do Christmas for in my ward).  What they don't realize is, we are probably going to continue doing Christmas at our house even when its not "my year." Oh well.  It should be fun this year to switch things up.....and tight.  Tallie and Jim have to work and I guess Mark too, so they won't be coming but everyone else will be here at least for Christmas Eve (thats 18 people!) Krista and Aaron are coming down the Saturday before and staying for 4 days.  Our kids are SOOOO excited.  I asked my kids who they were more excited for, Santa or their cousins?  And believe it or not it was a toss up.  I finally told them that they didn't have to choose cause they really were upset about the "one or the other" hypothetical question we had presented to them :)  So....lots of Christmas preparations but I am excited to be host this year. 

Jaquelle's fall dance

Jaquelle has once again loved this year of dance!  She is getting better and better and can't get enough of the make-up and performances and uh um, attention!  Love this beautiful girl.

Hadley, Jaq, Jaleigh, and (hum...what is that girls name?)

And of course after every performance her daddy brings her flowers!  I love this picture

Storybook Parade

Random I know.  But this is a fun, yet cold parade Cedar City does every year.  Pretty ghetto costumes but if the kids recognize the characters I'd say they accomplished their goal.

Family pictures 2012