Temple Square

We finally made it up to see the lights the Thursday before Christmas.  Jay doesn't really love this tradition that I love to do with the kids but he goes anyway.  The kids loved it and were really good.  It worked really good having the stroller for Drake because the boys took turns pushing him.  Mason got a little cold when we were almost done with the light because he didn't put his snow pants on, but he said he wasn't too bad. 

This was the first time I have ever been to Temple Square and been able to walk in on the temple grounds.  The kids were very excited to climb the stairs and see those beautiful doors.  This was the only time we let Drake out of his stroller.

This picture is dark on the kids but the red lights are my favorite ones and I always make my kids get a picture here.

This is always a favorite of all of ours.

Some of the pretty lights reflecting off the water.

Of course I loved this tree all covered in red lights.

The Temple is so beautiful.  It is fun to hear the things the kids said about it when we were there.  I want them to love the temple so much.  I feel like taking them to see the lights is a special thing because they also get to see the Temple and feel the spirit that sounds it.

Gingerbread house

The kids loved doing the gingerbread houses so much last year they wanted to do it again this year.  This year we decided it might be easier to do one house instead of the village.  It was and the kids stayed for the whole thing this year.  They all help and had fun putting the candies on the house.

They of course have to have one picture where they can be weird.

Our sweet little Drake loves pictures.

Elly loves having hers taken too.

These two are getting to be pretty good friends.  They sure are cute too!

Sleepy boy!

I noticed it was really quiet and Elly was sitting by me so I started yelling for Drake.  Normally he comes running to see what is going on, but when he didn't come I started to think great what is he in to, how bad is it and how big is the mess.  So I went to find him and this is what I found.

I love finding kids fast asleep instead of making a big mess.  This just made my day.  The crazy thing was it was about nine thirty and he wasn't sick.  I love this boy.

Elly's First Gymnastics meet

I decided to let Elly try doing a gymnastics meet.  They have three events they compete in.  She started with the trampoline.  She did a level one and did really well.  She was really excited to do this.  Her and a little friend of her stayed right with each other the whole time.

The next event was the floor.  She did a level two on this.  I think she did pretty good but we need to work on the back rolls.  She was still having fun at this point.  

When it came time for the double mini she had had enough.  Her three events were all right after the other and I don't know why but she didn't want to do the last one.  Me being the mean mom that I am told her she needed to do it because I paid for it.  She went back to do her first try and walked all the way to the double mini stepped on it did her jump and jumped off all the while sucking on her fingers.  Then she turned to go back to the back of the line to wait for her next turn all with such attitude I wasn't very happy.  I went over and we had one of those fun talks you have with kids.  When it came her turn to go the next time she ran and did it like nothing was ever wrong.  Kids! 

She ended up taking first in all three things and was so happy she wanted to hurry and get home because the boys were going to be so proud of her for getting three gold medals.

She said she loved it and wants to do it again.  

Drake and I were the only ones there to see her get her medals because Tyler had a basketball game and Jay is his coach.  They came and watched her do the tramp and then Mason went with them to Tyler's game.  Tenor was down for a visit so he went with the boys too.

Cute little kids!  It was fun to watch her.  She is getting to be pretty good and she loves it.

I can't believe she said THAT!

Elly and I were in Wal-mart the day before one of the hunts was going to open so the store was packed with men and their carts were all loaded.  By the time we finally finished loading our cart we headed to the front to find most of the check-out where opened, which is amazing.  We soon found out all of them had a long line.  We headed to the shortest line and started to wait.  We had three people in front of us all with very full carts.  I stood there just waiting and trying to keep the kids from crying and adding even more stuff to our all ready full cart.  After a few minutes Elly turns and asks me why it's taking so long.  I explained to her and thought she was satisfied with but answer.  It turns out she wasn't and was going to do something about it.  There as a lady standing in front of us waiting her turn.  Elly turned to her and in her loudest and rudest voices says, "Hey Lady! Move it"!  I wanted to die.  I was so embarassed and started having the talk about how rude and you don't talk like that.  The lady turned around a just started laughing.  She then told me she was a pre-school teacher and hears kids say things like that all the time.  She told Elly she wished the line would go faster too.  Thank goodness she was so nice about it.  I hate when you get people that give you rude looks over things my kids say.  I don't like what they say either but they are just kids and say what they think.  I don't think I will ever forget that day.  I wanted to hide and act like I didn't know her.  It is funny now but wasn't then.

Mason lost his first tooth

We have been wondering when Mason was going to lose his first tooth.  It finally happen!  He came home from school and showed me it was loose.  I told him he should keep moving it and in a couple of days it would come out.  Well at wrestling practice that night the kid he was wrestling moved his head and hit Mason in the mouth and made his tooth even more loose.  When we got home he told us he wanted Jay to pull it out.  So Jay wanted to try it with just numbing gel.  Mason didn't want that he wanted the shot so he could just pull it out.  He was better for the shot then most adults are.  Jay got that tooth out before Mason even knew what happened.  He was so happy!

He was so excited to put his tooth under his pillow and see if the tooth fairy would come or not.

A Dream come true

A dream finally came true at our house for my husband. 

For as long as I have known Jay he has wanted to put a lift and bigger tires on his truck.  Well it finally happened.  He loves it.  The kids call it the monster truck.  He looked like a kid when he saw it all finished.

Our Robbers

The last couple of days Elly and Mason have been working on a "collection."  They have been finding stakes and sticks out in the field and putting them in a line on the yard.  They get very mad if anyone touches it or moves it.  While they are outside they have been wearing these masks.  They call themselves robbers when they have them on.  It has just been nice to see them playing so well together.  As soon as Mason gets home from school they have gone out and worked on this together until past dark.

The other two needed to get in on the picture too.

Cute little robbers!

Veterans Day program

Elly, Drake and I went and watched the boys Veterans day program at school.  Mason's group sang a cute song with actions.  He did a good job and acted pretty shy, but that doesn't surprise me.

Tyler had a little speaking part before they sang their song.

He does a good job and gets into it a little.

Enjoying the leaves

The kids had fun playing in the leaves with their cousins one day in November.  We had them all raked into a pile so they jumped in them and then decided to have a fight with them and throw them at each other.  

The kids took turns piling the leaves on top of each other.

Under this pile of leaves we had Kason, Tyler, Autumn, Karleigh and Elly.  Elly didn't like that very much.

Elly had fun playing in the leaves with Porter.

I love this picture of Tyler.  I think he looks so cute!

Mason finally came out and got in on the fun.

Tyler, Kason, Autumn, Karleigh and Elly got the leaves on their rakes and threw them in the air on the count of three.  These kids played out in the leaves for a couple of hours.  The only bad thing was by the time they were done the leaves were mostly in little pieces and hard to rake up.