Christmas

Wow we have had a crazy Christmas season. We started out with Samantha's school Christmas program. Here is her class singing Jolly Old St. Nicholas.

Above are the boys talking to Santa at the ward Christmas party. Below is Samantha and her friend Maggie talking to Santa.

We went to Grandma Ruth's for dinner and to open presents with her. (forgot to take pictures)

Below is Samantha opening her gift from Colin. The kids opened their present from each other early so we wouldn't have to take them to Oklahoma with us.

We had Grandma and Grandpa over for dinner and to open presents with them. Then after giving away candy canes we came home and opened the rest of our family gifts.

On Christmas Eve we made the 12 hour drive to Grandma Connie's and Grandpa Don's in Oklahoma. The kids and Dot did great in the car. We all had a fun time.

Here are the boys with their stocking loot. I was completely exhausted Christmas morning and only took 2 or 3 pictures. We stayed in OK until Sunday. On Saturday we went to a wildlife preserve. We didn't get to see any buffalo or long horns but the museum had great exhibits that the kids loved. After we went to Meer's restaurant. That was quit an experience.

When we got home Sunday Samantha had a gift waiting under our tree. Apparently Santa's elves put it in a different place than the rest of our gifts and Santa didn't see it until he was over Arizona.

A Family Tradition

This is how Dale's family counts down to Christmas. Dale made these as a kid and now we make them too. They are super easy and fun. Each kid colors their own paper with Mary and Joseph. When they're colored, cut them out and glue the path to the top of an egg carton. Bethlehem is glued to the end of the path. Mary and Joseph are glued to a craft stick. With a knife poke 12 holes in the path for each egg cup for Mary and Joseph to go in. Put a candy kiss in each cup. For each of the 12 days before Christmas the kids get to move Mary and Joseph one spot closer to Bethlehem and get a treat.

Christmas Crafts

The kids and I went to a friends house after school today for some Christmas crafts. The kids ate mini candy apples and decorated rice crispy treats and fudge. They did Nativity stickers, painted a Christmas tree ornament, made a scarf & a jingle bell necklace, and did a whole lot of playing. A good time was had by all!

Our Beautiful Gingerbread House

The demo crew

Three days ago

Rizban

We have an elf named Rizban visiting us until Christmas.

To quote Samantha," He looks like a toy but I know he's real"

Every night Rizban flies to the North Pole to report to Santa.

The first thing we do in the morning is to see where Rizban is hiding.

Samantha has even started leaving dinner for Rizban every night.

We love Rizban and hope he's giving Santa a good report about us.

Our Fun Weekend in Roswell

We spent Thanksgiving at Dale's sisters house in Roswell this year.

We all had a lot of fun. Here are the highlights.......

The yummy Thanksgiving food. Heather (Dale's sister) and Dale are awesome cooks!!

I helped the kids make these corn "poppers" for everyone. They were filled with candy and homemade turkeys (I should have taken a picture of the turkeys, too cute)

Dot loved playing with her "cousin" Holly

Dale and the kids playing Jason's Nintendo after a big Thanksgiving dinner

The kids had too much fun playing Heather's toy violins. Here are all 3 preforming.




They also couldn't get enough of Heather's skeleton puzzle. Samantha was extra impressed that it was her exact size.

We did lots of other fun stuff too. All the girls went shopping one afternoon. We even met Santa Ros (an alien Santa) at a craft show. Too bad I left the camera for Dale. While the girls were out the Big boys took the little boys to a park with a zoo. Did they take any pictures? NO! The highlight of their outing was Dale climbing into and shaking a pecan tree so the little guys could gather fresh pecans. They were very proud.

We also got to eat at a spaceship McDonald's. A big hit with the kids!!

ONLY HOURS AWAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATRICK!!

Today is Patrick's 4th birthday so here are 4 of the many things we love about Patrick.

1. He is such a sweet, loving guy.
   
2. He's a great helper.
   
3. He loves to cook. When Dot runs out of bones Patrick is there helping from start to finish.


4. He is a wonderful singer and knows a lot of Primary songs by heart.

The list could go on and on. We love you Patrick!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLIN!!

Today is Colin's 4th birthday so here are 4 of the many reasons we love Colin:

1. He gives the best huggin's around.



2. He is super smart and always thinking about everything!



3. He is an excellent builder, Lego's, Lincoln Logs he can build with it.



4. He very artistic. He can draw our family, write his name (almost), and just this morning he made a "sculpture" of me out of Playdoh (complete with ponytail).

I could go on and on, he's just a great guy. We love you Colin!!!!

The Boys Birthday Party

Today we had the boys birthday party. The boys saw this cake in a magazine and loved it. I think this a pretty good recreation.
The boys got some great gifts.
Thanks everyone!!

Patrick blowing out candles.

Colin blowing out candles.

This is the twinkie cake I wanted.

1st Snow of the Season

Impressive!

Pretty Patrick

Today is laundry day. Never Patrick's favorite day because his favorite clothes are being washed.

This morning he needed a pair of his "pretty paints". By some miracle I found a clean pair in his drawer. A few minutes later I went into his room and he was on his bed whining. Why? Because he couldn't find "a beautiful shirt" in his closet. I looked and was able to find this shirt, a duplicate of his currant favorite.

I feel so lucky to have avoided a major melt down first thing in the morning and to have such a pretty and beautiful son!!

We Voted

In an attempt to teach the kids about voting we had a family vote for election day. On the ballot:dinner choices of pizza or haystacks, for desert: root beer floats or cake, and Samantha's proposition (prop. 1) computer use at meals. Pizza and root beer floats won and prop. 1 was voted down (sorry Dale). I even got extra stickers for the kids from when I voted.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Enjoying a day of leisure. Yeah right!!

But who can complain with gifts like these??

Who knew baby Gouda wax was an art supply?

GOAL!!!

Samantha has been having a great time playing soccer this year. She played last year but this year she's really getting it. She's a fast runner and is always up by the action but she's not very aggressive, she doesn't get the ball very often.

That all changed today. In the last half she got the ball, ran it down the field, and scored!

It was so great, she kicked the ball at the goal and it rolled right up to the goal. I was afraid it was going the stop or the goalie would pick it up. Dale and I were yelling for her to kick it in and it just kept rolling and went in. She was so proud of herself.

O.K. so I'm sure you noticed she doesn't have the ball in the above picture. I was too busy watching the action I didn't even think to get out the camera. Oh well.

Happy Halloween!!

Commander Samantha and two of the cutest aliens in the universe!!
I don't think I'll win any make-up awards.

UPDATE

I am the worst blogger of all time! Sorry I haven't posted in about forever. We have had so much going on. Dale's parents come out for a visit just in time to catch Grandparents Day at Samantha's school.
Dale and I had our 7th anniversary and the same day was the 2nd anniversary in our house.
Samantha some how was student of the week and student of the day at the same time.
The kids & I made the above bird feeder. (I couldn't get the picture to rotate!!) One down 2 to go.
Our family went to the local pumpkin patch for pumpkins and a few days later Samantha got to go back with all the 1st graders from her school.
The kids and I had a fun Halloween crafts day with some friends over fall break.

The kids decorated cookies.

They made candle holders.

I was feeling very ambitious and we made these spider egg sacks (again wouldn't rotate) and we all made Jack-O-Lantern shirts.