Christmas Eve

I love having Christmas Eve at home now that we have a bigger family of our own. My poor mom had to work so my dad came and joined us. We always have fish, steak and alfredo for dinner. We decided to finally use my wedding china. I grew up always using china on special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas and loved it. (Actually when Jess and I got engaged I told him we needed to go register for a china set and he was like "Ya...OK!" He totally thought I was kidding.) So my china has been sitting in a cupboard for these past nine years. It was fun and nostalgic to use it. The kids did very well. Even with their goblets. Kameron had to use plastic- still don't trust him!

Isn't he so cute? Oh...Kameron too!

And of course we have to act out the nativity. Ellie of course plays the roll of Mary. Jess is always the donkey/camel. Kaden played everything else and Kameron just wreaked chaos where ever he went! But he sure is cute when he's doing it!

Kaden the shepherd.

Kaden the wiseman. Notice our camel is a little tired.

And then the kids open their pjs. Kaden finally realized this year that it's always pajamas. But they got to open an extra present this year....

inflatable beds! I thought this would be fun for them to sleep in on Christmas Eve. They actually turned out to be really handy. All the kids slept in Ellie's room. Even Kameron stayed in bed all night!

Christmas time is here

I decided to finally redo my tree this year. I was previously made up of mismatch ornaments and the ones the kids made from school. These ornaments have sentimental value but I wanted a nice tree for my front room. I've wanted to this for years. One more thing checked off my perpetual to do list!

Christmas isn't Christmas without sugar cookies. And not just any sugar cookies. They have to be Jesse's mom's recipe. They are amazing. And I don't even like sugar cookies. And of course the kids love to help!

Thanksgiving Bowling

We went bowling as a family the day before Thanksgiving. It's always good fun. Mom is always the loser. Even Ellie beats me. Kameron did his usual throw his fit on the floor. Doesn't matter if it's on the disgusting floor of the bowling alley.

Jesse is 31!

It's always hard for me to come up with good ideas for Jesse's birthday. He's kind of hard to shop for since all he really wants is computer stuff that he buys for himself anyway. So I was really excited this year when I got him tickets to the 2011 MAACO bowl in Las Vegas to see Boise State vs ASU. We went down with the Edwards. It was a very short trip. We were only gone for 40 hrs but loved every minute of it. Lots of driving, lots of laughs, lots of disagreements on the music we listened to. (Yes, Nick I am talking about your Five Finger Death Punch!) We went shopping on the strip when we got to Vegas, went to eat dinner and then went to the game. Of course Boise won in a blowout so we actually left in the third quarter because it was FrEeZiNg! We then woke up at 3am for the long drive home! Gotta love it! Happy Birthday Jess!

Since we left on Jesse's bday we celebrated with the kids at breakfast. Breakfast is Jesse's favorite meal anyway. I made him breakfast burritos and had his favorite orange juice. Pure Orange, of course. It's really the only orange juice worth drinking.

It was nice to get some last minute Christmas shopping done on the strip. I thought it would be semi nice weather. No- it was WiNdY and COLD.

The game had it all. Fireworks, fly by from jets. Pretty cool.

Kaden is 7!

I sent Kaden balloons at school for his birthday. When I went to go pick him up I sat there and waited... and waited. He was practically the last kid out of the building. I asked him if he liked his balloons and he got all quiet and said yes. Then he said "I don't like getting balloons at school because everyone touches them!" So I guess that's the last year I'll do that! Totally something Kaden would worry about!

And of course we made our usual trip to the Fun Zone for his bday! It isn't a birthday unless we visit the fun zone!

Here's a list of 7 things about Kaden:

1- He will only eat waffles, pancakes or french toast for breakfast.

2- He HATES reading but is a whiz at math.

3- He keeps his room very clean.

4- He packs the same thing for lunch every day of the year. Peanut butter sandwich, cheese stick, fruit snacks and water in his Batman water bottle.

5- He will do anything I ask him to do and he does it quickly. He is very obedient.

6- He doesn't like sports. They are too competitive and he is not aggressive at all. He goes to tumbling and he loves it and is very good at it. His teacher told him he does the best splits in the class!

7- He has a very tender heart. He tears up a lot just thinking about things that make him sad. For example, he got all teary eyed the other day when he thought about when Grandma Hiccup might die. He's a pretty sweet little guy!

Christmas 2011

Christmas morning!

I got Kameron this bear that plays peekaboo. He saw it on QVC and was playing peekaboo with it on TV. He was laughing pretty hard!

Ellie had been asking for a happy napper since the summer I think. She finally got one!

And Kaden finally got his dog! It's a shih tzu and he named her Fifi. He kept begging for one this summer and we were able to fight him off. Then he started asking again for Christmas and we caved. He's actually quite protective of her and will always take care of her when I need him to. When we went to Malad that day Jeramy was holding Fifi and she crawled up on his shoulder and fell asleep. Later Kaden told me not to let Jeramy hold his puppy anymore because he wasn't responsible enough- he just let her sit on his shoulder and she could have fallen off. We laughed at that one for a while. Let's just say Jeramy doesn't get a turn holding her anymore!

Halloween 2011

Jesse dressed up as a couch potato this year. I kept calling him my sweet potato. Isn't he cute? Once again I dressed up as Jen Wakley.

Instead of making the huge mess of carving our pumpkins this year I decided to paint them. It was so much easier and the kids loved it! We did our usual boys vs girls contest. They both turned out cute.

Kameron was a green dragon this year. He didn't mind his costume at all. At every door he would drop his candy in his bucket and then say "See ya!"

Ellie was a princess again this year. Rapunzel to be exact. Kaden was a hunter. He's pretty much been obsessed with hunting since he went with Jess. But I didn't mind because it was the easiest costume ever!

I thought this pic was funny! I think he just discovered his finger fits perfectly in his nose!

Jesse's first elk

Jesse shot his first elk this year. It was only a spike but it was the first one he saw and he doesn't care about the size too much. Especially since I don't like the meat anyway! Unfortunately for the elk his first shot wasn't fatal so they had to track the poor thing down for four hours before ending it's suffering. (I'm trying to not let my personal feelings about hunting come out in the post. Is it working?)

He had a lot of fun with Nick either way. We all went up the week before to try for his deer tag. But Kaden and Brayden were with them so it was hard to really see anything. And they almost got their licenses taken away by the Fish and Game for riding four wheelers on a closed trail. :) Me and Ellie and Kameron had a much more comfortable time watching movies and drinking hot chocolate in the trailer.

Here's our full freezer. I don't know who's going to eat all of this meat.

Welcome home Nick!

Jesse and I have been best friends with Nick and Tami Edwards for years. I think our relationships work so well because Tami is just like Jesse and Nick and I are very similar. Nick left for Iraq last August. It was a long year for Tami and Jess to have Nick gone in Iraq. But on September 13 he finally came home! He flew into Pocatello with about 30 other soldiers. It was so cool to see him come home. I was crying and I'm not even his wife! My eyes watered the whole time I made this post. I never realized until seeing it first hand how big the sacrifice is for soldiers and their families to go to war. Thanks Nick! Glad your home safe soldier!

Where's Nick? He's actually at the very top of the picture holding Jaycie.

Jaycie doesn't let Nick out of her sight for days when he comes home. She's a daddy's girl!

Kaden told Nick, "I'm glad you didn't get shot in Iraq!" So are we!

Nick always gives Ellie what he calls a tight squeeze. Here she's catching up for a year's worth I think.

This picture makes my eyes water. Nick you have no idea how excited Tami was for you to get home. We sat at her house fussing over what outfit to wear, how to do her hair, if her makeup looked ok. I'm sure Nick would have thought she looked hot even if she came in her pajamas!

I think Kameron thought we went there to give everyone hugs!

Home at last. Finally, Jess can have someone to laugh at his jokes again!

Wasn't that sweet of Nick to bring Tami a flower?

Here's the happy family. Together again at last. Life can continue now :)

First day of school 2011

Ellie missed the real first day of school since we were in California. Oops. Oh well. So here's a pic of Kaden and Ellie on like the fourth day of school. Kaden got two days in before we left. Ellie has been dying to go to school all summer. Not Kaden. He would be content to stay at home with mom all the time. (And honestly, I would be good with that too.) Kaden doesn't do very well emotionally for the first couple weeks of school. It's so funny how completely opposite they are. When we were walking to school Ellie was running ahead and making jokes and laughing and Kaden hung back by me and was trying not to cry. Luckily we got Kaden to laugh when I pointed out that Ellie's back pack was so big that it went clear past her knees. (Or is it because Ellie is still in 4T clothes?)

Disneyland and San Diego

We go to San Diego every year but the kids are little enough that they haven't quite caught on to that tradition yet so we decided to "surprise" them this year. After staying up for hours packing all night so the kids wouldn't see, we woke them up in the morning and told them we were going somewhere for a surprise. Jess wanted to wait until we actually pulled up into Disneyland for them to figure it out so we didn't tell them anything about where we were going. We flew out of Idaho Falls so on the drive there we were all trying to guess where we thought we were going. Ellie was so funny. She was saying places like "Blackfoot! Wait! I know! Malad!" She was excited to go anywhere! When we pulled into the airport they were excited to see we were flying somewhere. When we were driving to our hotel the GPS voice said, "Turn left on Disneyland Drive.'' Jess and I thought for sure they would figure it out so we turned around to look at their faces. Nope. Still no clue. We finally had to help them out a little bit but once they knew they were at Disneyland they freaked out and were so excited. (Oh ya, Kameron was a total bear on the flight there. Not that we expected anything different!)

Something about this castle. Have to stop and take a picture in front of it every time!

Kaden was so excited to do this Jedi training. You have to jump up and down and be really loud to get picked and that is so NOT Kaden. So I put him in a Star Wars shirt that day hoping it would help. He got picked and loved every second of it.

Night time firework show, another must. We stayed on the resort this year so I was able to go back and have Kameron take naps and bathe the kids at night before the firework show. So nice to be so close.

Kameron loves to say cheese for the camera!

Another Disneyland must. Mickey Mouse ears. Much to Jesse's dismay :)

It was so hot the second day we were there! In California Adventures they had some little water parks for kids. It was the most fun poor Kameron had all day. He was pretty much stuck in a stroller for two days except for the carousel and the teacups. He got completely soaked and finally had a smile!

After two days at Disneyland we went down to San Diego for Jesse's conference. Usually the kids have a quiet day at the beach. Not this year. Kameron smashed their sand castles and threw sand in Ellie's face. Never a dull moment!

This picture sums up what Kameron thought of the beach. He hates sand. He was constantly trying to wipe it off his hands and feet. When we all walked out onto the sand he stayed back on the cement and wouldn't walk on it for a while. And then the waves would come and he would scream at them. My poor baby.

Definitely not Kaden and Ellie. We always have to drag them away.

San Diego Zoo. I'm actually lucky I have this picture at all. I lost my camera at the zoo and a good samaritan turned it in to lost and found so I got it back. Yeah! Oh ya, and the zoo was awesome.

Kameron hated his mustache. It didn't last very long. I thought it was super cute. After posting about our vacation I realized there isn't a single picture of me on our adventure! I guess I need to pass the camera over more often! I promise I was there!