Merry Christmas

 Christmas Eve Dinner

Opening Christmas PJ's

All I want for Christmas is . . .

The shepherds were watching their flocks . . .

The Christmas Nativity

  

The stockings were hung . .

 

Nestled all snug in their beds . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He came.

 

 

 

He played.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The morning came. (All captured on video).  Kids happy.  Parents sleepy. 

Merry Christmas!!!

First Day of School

Yesterday was the first day of school.  (Technically, Ruby doesn't start until next week but she had her appointment with her Kindergarten teacher yesterday.  Which was nice, since it let her partake of the" first day of school excitement" with the rest of the group.)

I think it was a good day on most accounts.  Everyone really liked their teacher, even the ones who were a little hesitant about who they got.  Three of the kids are at the charter school that only Aaron was at last year.  So Caleb struggled a little with being the "new kid" and really missed his old school and friends.  But he is so fortunate to be where he is at, and I think he knows that, he just doesn't quite feel it yet.  I am very optimistic that everyone will have a great year and I look forward to all the school year will bring!

Out With a Bang!

Tomorrow our summer will be officially over.  We had a GREAT summer.  I have mixed feelings about saying goodbye to the schedule free months that I cherish.  I love the time I get with my kids and the things we are able to do.  I wish we had gotten some things done we didn't (like more math), but we did get a lot done and there is no point in worrying now.  It's all over.  And this school year is especially exciting so I am really happy for my kids.  They all have great teachers and everyone is excited for what the new year will bring.

We loaded Friday and Saturday with lots of fun for a fond farewell to Summer.

Seven Peaks with friends from the ward. (Obviously, these are old pictures.  I didn't take any the day we went.  But the picture on the right is one of my favorites -poor Caleb is terrified!  In his defense, he loves this slide now.  It's his and my favorite slide in the park!)

An Arlington ward reunion (my personal favorite)

And a night as a family at Trafalga.

Good Bye Summer!

Happy Birthday Christy and Benjamin!

Christy and Benjamin share a Birthday.  We celebrated by going to a new pizza game center near our house that specializes in Birthdays.  Christy and Benjamin got a roaring song of "Happy Birthday"  from the whole place.  In addition to singing, the place boasts lazer tag, bumper cars, go-carts, glow in the dark put-put, bowling and an all you can eat buffet.  The laser tag and buffet were the most popular attractions for everyone but Benjamin.  He rode this little car over and over and over and was very cross when some one else wanted a ride.  

Christy's good friends that she has known since she was three came up and spend some time with us.  It was really nice of them to come up.  I know it meant a lot to Christy.  It was so fun for me to see them too!  It had been a REALLY LONG time.


We had such a good time that we spent the whole day and evening there.  We came back so late, we put off the Birthday cakes for the next day.

Since I was making two cakes,  I wanted to make a really easy cake for Benjamin.  And honestly, my drive for spending hours on darling Birthday cakes is faltering.  So we bought this cute little dump truck and filled it with chocolate cake.

Here is Benjamin blowing out his candles. (Honestly these videos will only be interesting if you are his grandparent, or aunt . . feel free to skip them.)

He had so much fun.  He sat in the high chair eating and dumping cake for over an hour and a half. (My favorite part of this video is the one second token smile he gives when Adam is taking the pictures.  He has learned to pose for pictures.  It is so funny.  But I had to shrink the file down so much I have lost a lot of quality and it is hard to see.)

Eventually, he added his new Buzz Lightyear from Grammy and Grandpa.  Complete bliss!

I think they both had a great Birthday.

Happy Pioneer Day!!!

Pancake Breakfast and Children's' Parade.

Followed by an air-soft war with 13 boys that lasted over 3 hours!!!

And ending with Toy Story 3.

In-N-Out

If you haven't heard, In-N-Out has moved to Utah.  In the last year, they have opened several restaurants in the state.  Whenever they open a new shop, they have an invitation only party the night before.  They invite the mayor, the police and fire departments, the families of the employees,etc.  You have to have a wristband to attend but you can order whatever you want - and as much as you want . . . for free.  Our neighbor is in charge of all the In-N-Outs here in Utah.  She has kindly invited us to several of these parties.  They are so Awesome!!!

We've been to enough of these that we have learned how to optimize our experience.  We always get there at the very start of the party.  That way, we get a seat and the food comes quickly.  Today was no exception and we were one of the first to arrive.  When I walked in, with 6 kids in tow, ALL the employees started cheering for us.  It was a little overwhelming and none of us were sure how to respond, but we got a good laugh out of it on the way home.  All of the employees were super friendly and helpful, adding to the very great evening.

Here are the kids in their very cool hats.  (Adam is out of town so we used his wristband for one of Isaac's good friends.)  Everyone ordered meals with fries, drinks and shakes.  Something we never get.  Thank you to my AWESOME neighbor for another YUMMY meal . . . on the house.

Slumber Party

I love it when my Aunt Barbara is in town.  Not only do we get to enjoy her energetic, fun and loving personality,  we also get to see my cousins!  Even though many of my cousins don't live very far away, it seems we rarely get together without my Aunt here to orchestrate things.  I really love my cousins, their kids and my Aunt.  I am so glad we were able to get together several times in the last two weeks.

On one of those days, we had played and had dinner at our house.  The kids had so much fun, they wanted a sleepover.  We only do sleepovers with family so it's been a long time since we've had one.  All three older boys share a room and Ruby has a room of her own.  While most girls would be thrilled to have a room of her own,  Ruby thinks she has been jipped.  She thinks she's missing out on a party while she is in her room ALL ALONE!!  She was so happy to have more girls in the house.  Tonight, she was not alone.

Family Birthday

It's our Family's Birthday. Since we have just came back from our big trip (post to come) we decided to keep things simple. We wanted to go camping at one of the many campgrounds within 20-30 minutes from our home. I tried to make a reservation.  However, the lady on the phone (who is actually in New York) told me we have to stay for at least two days to make a reservation and have to make the reservation at least 3 days in advance. Since I was calling 2 days in advance and we were only staying for one day, I did not get a reservation. So we decided to try our luck with the "first come, first serve" sites. Needless to say,we drove around for four hours stopping at SEVERAL campgrounds only to find they were all FULL. On the bright side, we did find some really cool places we would like to come back to - with a reservation of course.

So we fell back to our back up plan - camping in the back yard. We were all really disappointed and decided to stop at one of the picnic spots in the canyon to roast our hot dogs for lunch. It was a good break. It gave the kids a chance to run around, cook over a fire, play in water, and get dirty.  Really, that's all of the highlights of a good camp out, right?

Our back yard camping turned out to be really fun. We didn't answer the door or phone and kept going inside to a bare minimum. Plus, we had clean bathrooms! We all slept outside, except Benjamin who got to sleep in his crib - which translates into a really great nap and nights sleep. And camping on grass is always nicer than camping on dirt. We cooked our foil dinners and roasted s'mores. We played games and made projects. Isaac insisted on putting up his own tent, but when night came, he decided he would rather sleep with everyone else. (Good move, since we had a lightening storm that night.)  I think we'd all say it was a great family birthday!

Moving on . . .

Today, Ruby graduated from preschool . . .

 . . . and Isaac received his Bear!

Ballet

Today was Ruby's second ballet recital.  She danced to "A Whole New World" from Alladin.   She did a great job!  It is so fun when you find something your kids REALLY love - for Ruby, it is ballet.

She had a great group of girls in her class including two of her best friends.   She also had a great group of supporters including Grammy, Christy, and of course,  all of us.

Because there were so few specific choreographed poses/positions.  I had her pose at home and take a few pictures before the recital.  Ruby darling, you look FABULOUS!

Oh Happy Day!

It's been  . . . rewarding, challenging, immensely time consuming, bonding, gratifying, fun, trying, stressful, exciting, exhausting, character building, thrilling, stretching, rigorous, fascinating, and hopefully very educational.  But today, it's DONE!!!   

I pulled Isaac out of school for the year to homeschool him through the K12 program. He'll return next year to public school, but I will always be grateful for the one on one time we had together.  And I am so proud of how hard he has worked and all he has accomplished.   Way to go Isaac! 

Our Subject buckets.  He had science, math (two years worth - 3rd and 4th), literature, state history, spelling and language skills (vocab, grammar, composition and test readiness).





One of the greatest things about this year is that Isaac had his good friend Ethan.  (Ethan we LOVE you!!) We did Science together on Fridays and it was so awesome to have a good friend at all of the field trips. 

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So here's to a year of HARD WORK and to being DONE!  (When we finished his last assignment, we screamed, we cheered, we jumped up and down, we hugged.  A few minutes later I went to change the laundry. . . and I cried.  Then I went and told Adam, and cried again.  We made it...)