Our Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had an amazing Christmas. The week before was really rough but as soon as we got Christmas started we smiled, laughed, spent time with family, felt the spirit and remembered why we celebrate Christmas. When was the last time you watched a Charlie Brown Christmas? Last week my boys climbed into my bed and we all watched a Charlie Brown Christmas. Through the whole show Charlie Brown is wondering what the meaning of Christmas is and the show ends with Linus telling the story of baby Jesus and the Christmas story that started the biggest holiday of all time. What a wonderful show!! Unfortunately after it was over we stuck in a Sponge Bob Christmas DVD and there was NO message at all with that show. Big surprise right? What has happened to child entertainment these days?
Anyways, we spent Christmas Eve with Drew's parents. We rode the trax to Temple Square and ate at Crown Burgers (YUMMY). I haven't been to Temple Square at Christmas time for as long as I can remember! It was so beautiful and we had SO much fun. Thank you Garry and Marie! The next day Christmas was your typical open the presents and stay in your pajamas all day kind of day. And you know me and my boys...any reason to stay in your pajamas will work for us! The day after my parents took all of us to see the new A Christmas Carol and I LOVED it. It was fabulous! What a perfect week! We were missing a few family members but we were so surrounded by family and friends that it was a complete success. Thank you all of you for your love, support, and friendship. I love you all! I didn't take very many pictures this year. I sat back and just enjoyed watching. I realized when doing this that you see a lot more when your not fussing with a camera! So here are our favorites...

Gage's favorite present this year was definately his nintendo DS! He didn't even ask for it this year and boy was he surprised.

Kyler's favorite present this year was his keyboard! He has decided that he wants to take piano lessons and so now he can. He also LOVED the ipod shuffle that he got from Uncle Josh and Aunt Michelle. Kyler is helping me blog tonight!

My special gift!

This was my favorite gift. My Mom found this ornament and bought it for me before Mitsi died. She almost didn't give it to me because she didn't want me to cry on Christmas... so she warned me before I opened the present and I am so glad that she gave it to me. It means so much to me and it will sit on a shelf year round to represent Mitsi. I have a couple other willow tree peices in my living room that I hold close to my heart also. I love em!

Scrooge as a boss

So...I used to work for Scrooge and Marley (before Marley died and Scrooge was haunted)! Yesterday I was laid off a few days before Christmas!! Seriously?! So I lost my Dog and my job in the same week. Talk about getting kicked when I'm already down. But at least I get a little unemployment and I get to spend Christmas break with my kids.

It's Great to be 8!

Kyler was baptized on Dec. 5th. What an awesome day! He was able to share this experience with one of his best-friends Riley. How cool is that? They are only one day apart. When I think back to my baptism I remember being baptized on the same day as my cousin Carrie and we are only a day apart also! After we were baptized we went to dinner with our families and Carrie and I got a free piece of pie. Anyways... My brother Josh baptized Kyler. He was also the one who baptized Gage. He has always been there for me and my boys! He has been an amazing example and the boys really look up to him. Thank you Skwosh! And thank you everyone who came and shared this day with us! I love you all!

To Grandmothers house we go!

This year we went to California with my parents for Thanksgiving! We stayed with my Grandparents and I got to see family that I haven't seen for 8 years! It was so wonderful to spend time with them. I am so grateful that I was able to take my boys out there. I only wish we were able to stay longer.

Here are the men watching the BYU and U game.

The house we stayed at was right next to the river! The boys had fun trying to skip rocks.

Our Ocean Experience

While we were in California my Dad took us to the Monteray Bay Aquarium! This was so exciting since it was the first time my boys saw the Ocean! Kyler has had a passion for sharks ever since he saw the movie Jaws and so he was in his very own little Heaven. I was so proud of both of them for touching things in the water since they refused to touch anything when we went to the aquarium in Sandy a few years ago. After seeing everything at the aquarium we went to the beach. My Dad took pictures of us at the beach with his camera and so I will post pictures of that experience as soon as I can. What a wonderful experience this trip was! I am just so sad that Drew couldn't be with us.

Me in the kitchen?

Yay me...I canned for my very first time and I did the first batch all by myself! My parents have an apple tree and this year I canned apple pie filling. It was so much easier than I thought it would be.

The Queen, The Thing, and a Zombie!

Mitsi was a Queen for her first Halloween with us. You can't see it in this picture but her little robe has THE QUEEN written in gold on the back. She went trick-or-treating with us and loved it! She loved wearing the costume too. I was really suprised that she didn't try to take it off!

Gage was pretty difficult this year. We originally got THE THING costume for Kyler but Gage couldn't agree on ANYTHING! Gage liked THE THING costume and when Breanna asked Gage about being a ZOMBIE Kyler decided that HE wanted to be a ZOMBIE so they traded....Thank goodness....I was getting ready to freak out!

So Kyler was a Zombie this year. Aunt Breanna did his make-up for him! She actually did his make-up 4 times since he needed it for school, ward party, and trick-or-treating...and once for practice. Thank you so much Breanna for all your patience and hard work!

Happy Halloween

One day, back in May, Kyler came home from school with a little Styrofoam cup. In this cup was some dirt with a seed in it. Since this seed was a pumpkin seed we had to borrow some (a lot) garden space from Grandpa (since I only have a flower bed). Now look what Kyler has grown! And this isn't all the pumpkins either. He has managed to put pumpkins on several porches this year! He has been almost as proud as I am. Thank you Grandpa!

This has been a very exciting month for Kyler!! We all remember when his front teeth were knocked out... and 3 and a 1/2 years later he finally has front teeth again! YAY!

Back to School!

Yay Summer is over! Only a mother would say those words. This year Gage is in 5th grade and Kyler is in 2nd grade. I am not looking forward to doing the homework battle but I am looking forward to this school year. Stepping down as store director was a scary experience but my new job allows me to be with my kids. I only work Mon-Fri from 7am to 1:30pm. I make less money but I am off work before they are out of school! It was definately worth it.

Happy Birthday Gage!

For Gage's 11th birthday we went to Libertyland... I would NOT recommend this place to anyone... and we rock climbed and played laser tag. The boys had a blast.

So Kyler made it 3/4 of the way up the rock wall!!! I hadn't been watching him since I was taking care of a whole party and when I saw how high he was I expressed my excitement. He looked down at me and then climbed down as fast as he could. He was so focussed on climbing that he had no idea how high he was! He spent most of the party climbing.

Everyone meet Mitsi!

This is our new dog Mitsi! Isn't she beautiful? We love her so much! Michelle's mom was looking for a good home for her and we were the lucky family. Thank you Linda! You have given us a priceless gift and we will take good care of her.

Take your kids to Iggy's Sports Grill!

Yes that is a ginormous meatball! Iggy's is a great place to take your kids! For only $5 your child gets a great meal all the drinks they can slurp down and after a huge ice cream sunday that my boys couldn't finish!

Look at me Michelle I did it! I have finally made my own Blog! Being computer stupid is a huge challenge. You would never guess that I sit at a computer at work! So I will start out simple. This is me and my little family.