Christmas Day!

Christmas Day was fun and didn't start too early! Brayden got up at 6:15 but we told him he had to wait til atleast 7 before we would wake the others up if they weren't awake. Adi woke up about 7 and we let Jace sleep til 7:30, he doesn't take to well to being woken up. Brayden was so good for being up for over an hour before we would let him go out! Christmas morning was fun and the kids got what they asked for and had a good time. Brayden got a BYU football helmet, shoulder pads, football pants, Colts jersey, and tickets to Walking with Dinosaurs. Adi got Barbie TV chef, and a cd player/karaoke machine(HSM3 cd). Jace got a rocking horse, and a geo trax airplane. Plus plenty of other things from grandparents, mom and dad, and each other. Another thing different this year was we didn't go to my grandparents like we usually do. It is hard for everyone to get there and everywhere else they need to be on Christmas Day so the parties changed to after Christmas which we had to miss this year. The kids were sad but we'll be there next year!
Maybe a little big!

So cute, I mean tough!

Look what I got!

Yee haw!



BJ enjoying Christmas!

You'd think that an xbox 360 and guitar hero would get a smile!
Ok maybe I see a little smile!

Giddy up!

All the kids with their treasure aunt Bean crochet for them. It makes her sound like an old lady!!

My new niece Laici. This is the first time I saw her!

Watching the Cosmo DVD with Yaya


Merry Christmas! It was a good one!!

Christmas Eve

This year our Christmas had a few wrenches thrown in it so we had to do things a little different. The weather played a part and BJ's sister getting married 2 days after Christmas made things a little different too. First off because the weather was suppose to be so crazy Christmas and that was the only day we had to spend with my family we decided at midnight on the 23 to go to my moms on Christmas Eve to beat the storm. I had to get everything ready and when I finally got that done and about to sleep Jace woke up throwing up, great! So I was up til 4:30 with him and worrying that we would be stuck home. Luckily he was all better when he finally woke up Christmas Eve so plans were still on. My sister came to pick us up since BJ took the van to work and was meeting us in Brigham after so we would only have 1 car for the weekend. We all finally arrived and we had a fun Christmas Eve eating, playing games, reading books, and hitting each other with empty wrapping paper sticks!

Reading Christmas stories with Nana

Having fun!

Jed and Kev

Jace wanted his picture with the Horse aka donkey from the nativity

New jammies

Stockings

Whole family

Cookies for Santa and carrots for reindeer!

Sleeping under the Christmas tree

It was the kids 2nd annual sleep under the Christmas tree. I always let them do it on the night of the 23. This year went better than last year, kids stayed in their sleeping bags and the boys went to sleep fairly quickly. Adisyn, however, was a different story I think it was 11:30 before she was finally asleep! The kids think it is great fun so I guess it is a tradition we will keep for now!

Let it Snow!

What do you do when it snows 9 inches in one day? You go sledding of course!! Sandra hooked up the sleds and the kids had a blast being pulled up and down the streets! Jace even got in on the sledding action till he fell off and then he was upfront with Sandra. Thanks Sandra for entertaining my kids while I shoveled my driveway!! Sandra and I even got in on the action, it was however at 9:30 at night, but I can see why the kids love it so much!

Adi, Sandra, and Jace

Eskimo Carsen, and Bray

Christmas Sing

Every year Brayden's school has a Christmas sing. Each grade sings a few holiday songs. It is pretty fun and something I look forward to every year. I will probably look forward to it more in 3 years when all the kids are performing, Jace and Adi got a little restless, but it was fun anyways! This year we went same time we went last year, but there must have been more people cause we were way further back, which was fine we still saw and heard them. This year the 1st grade was first so that was nice, but we stayed the whole time anyways. This year they sang Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, and the one the chipmunks sing, don't know the real name of it, Brayden says it is Christmas Christmas time is here. They had to wear their best dress for the performance and we had a bit of a battle that morning trying to make Brayden wear his church clothes to school. He was not happy, but looked great!

Gardner Village

We decided to go up to Gardner Village and see the elves! They have a sheet you can print from the website to find all the elves then you take your completed worksheet to the candy store and they give you a treat. We did this last year and it was alot of fun. This year we went at night and on a rather windy and cold night, so we bagged the worksheet and just let all the kids run around finding the elves! We didn't stay too long since it was so cold. After Gardner Village we went to dinner at the Training Table. It was a fun outing with friends and food, so you can't go wrong!

Brandon, Carsen, Brayden, elf, Adi, Mckay, Whitney, & Sandra

Mckay, Bray, Carsen, Brandon, & Adi. Yes Jace came with us, but he refused any pictures

Training Table coloring waiting for food

Santa comes to Lehi

Saturday we decided to head into town to see Santa. First we saw the "Santa parade" it was pretty pathetic, Santa on a fire truck and a band on a wagon playing Christmas music. Then Santa was suppose to light a tree and it was still light so it wasn't very exciting, we thought it was kind of weird, but oh well. Then we decided we better actually sit on Santa's lap and Sandra was all over getting in the front of the line that we waited maybe 5 minutes or so to sit on Santa's lap. Brayden and Adi were thrilled to sit on Santa's lap, but Jace not so sure. Since BJ was there he of course didn't make Jace sit on his lap(I would have made him)so I only got the older 2 with Santa, but as soon as our turn was over Jace decided he "needed to talk to him" his exact words. So I asked the nice people if I could just hurry and sit him on Santa's lap real fast and they were so kind to let us sneak back in line to do it. Maybe one of these years I will get a picture of all 3 of them on Santa's lap at one time! After seeing Santa we had just enough time to go on a hayride to the arts center and back. It was pretty cold, but fun none the less. It wasn't too crowded, not too long, we were with friends, and the kids had fun so I would say it was a successful outing!

Waiting for Santa

The jolly old man!

Adi and Bray with Santa

Jace's turn

Brandon was not happy about it!

Adi,Bray, and Carsen on the horse ride

It was so cold, Jace's poor red face!

Brayden gives it 2 thumbs up! What a nerd!!

Cheer Showcase

Adi has been taking cheerleading for the past few months and last night it was her showcase. I hadn't seen any of the cheers or dance because I would just drop her off and parents couldn't stay, so I was anxious to see if she remembered anything, and she did! She did cheer last year and loved it so we tried it again this year and again she loved it! She is such a little performer she gets up on the stage and is all smiles and thinks she is pretty hot stuff! She did such a good job! We are so proud of you Ads, keep it up!
Before the showcase, she posed herself!

As soon as she got on stage. Seriously she didn't stop smiling!

Doing her dance

Cheering with all the girls

Thanksgiving

We started the Thanksgiving weekend off Wednesday afternoon when the kids and I rode frontrunner up to Ogden. Well we thought we were going to ride it to Pleasant View where my mom was going to pick us up, but come to find out it only makes that trip once a day and we weren't on that train. So we made it to Ogden and had to wait about 20 minutes for our ride, but it worked out fine. The kids had fun riding the train to nana's, and it really went by pretty fast and was kind of fun. This year we were with the Taggart's for Thanksgiving. We had it at grandma's church and of course all the yummy foods and pies. Friday Maegen and I did the early morning shopping. It was lots of fun, and crazy and insane, but we both got what we wanted so it was successful!! Friday night we went to dinner at Chili's with everyone and then to Willard Bay to see the lights. Saturday BJ went where else, but fishing, so my dad and I took the kids to Madagascar 2. They loved it! Not sure if I have even seen the first one, but it was good anyways. Saturday night we went out to my grandma Graves' for dinner. Since we didn't have Thanksgiving with them this year it was nice to get to see them. Sunday we went to church and then came home. Any free time we had was spent watching Prison Break, thanks to my brother he got us hooked on it! It was a nice 5 days away, but we are oh so glad to be back home!!

Jace, Bray, and Adi on Frontrunner. It was the only picture I got of the weekend. I forgot I had brought my camera!!

GO COUGARS!

Saturday Brayden got to go to the last BYU home game with his dad. Yes, I was a very nice mom and gave up my ticket so he could go. We may have to get another one next year cause I am not going to be so nice next year! Brayden absolutely loves the Cougars! BJ is a pretty big BYU fan, but I am pretty sure Brayden out does him. Its hard to say where he gets this craziness from since both our families are huge BYU fans too. It is so funny to listen to Brayden after he goes to a game talking smack about the defense and this and that about the offense. He has so much fun at the games! Well on the way out of the game BJ bought Brayden a BYU football, and I have not seen him put it down since! The second he got hoem from the game he was outside playing football, and once Carsen got home those 2 were out there till dark playing football with whoever would come and join them!

Funny conversation. Let me set it up. Brayden and Carsen were sitting at the counter eating ice cream and talking about the BYU game. After the game Carsen got an autograph from one of the players.

Carsen: The guy who signed my hat was a chocolate guy.

Brayden: You didn't have one of the football players sign it you had a guy who makes chocolate sign your hat?(very confused)

Carsen: No he played football

Brayden: Oh so he plays football and he makes chocolate?

Carsen: (in a hushed voice) No, he is black, but I just call them chocolate.

Brayden: Oh.

I had to turn away and couldn't stop laughing! These 2 kill me and that conversation was hilarious. They are both so innocent and clueless and had no idea what the other was talking about. Loved it!

Halloween

Cosmo, The cheerleader, and our cowboy!

We had a fun and busy Halloween this year. We started off the day by going to Brayden's school's halloween parade. The whole school parades around in their costumes. It takes forever for them to start and get around the school, but it is fun and somthing we will be doing every year for along time I imagine.
Before we left for the parade

Waiting for parade to start

Finally they come. They came so fast I only got a few pictures

Carsen aka Ghost Rider

Cosmo!!!

He got hot so he ditched his hat/head.

After the marathon parade we had just enough time to grab some pizza for dinner and some lunch before I had to be back to the school to help with Brayden's class party. I helped with one of the crafts, it was really easy and I had a good time!

Brayden enjoying one of the games(thanks for the picture, Emily)

(Notice no cougar costume? When I got to the school to help with the party, he was so grumpy and near tears. He was so hot and had to go to the bathroom but because he had his jersey on over the costume poor guy couldn't figure out how to get the costume off to go. So we stepped out in the hall and ditched the rest of the costume, so he could enjoy the rest of the party!)

Finally it was time to go trick or treating!! We had a great time and the weather was perfect!! Happy Halloween!!