Christmas Eve

Laugh or scratch your head if you must but one of our family's Christmas traditions is to go swimming with our good friends on the morning of Christmas Eve. We have been doing it for years and it is fitting for us and our families because that is where all of us parents met years and years ago. The pool is a great place to spend a fun family day. Our kids were so excited i couldn't even get a good picture but I had to laugh at Jaron in his moon boots and swimsuit. All for the love of swimming!


For our next Christmas Eve Tradition we head to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner and a talent show. Then we act out the Christmas story. Jaxon played the piano and mommy joined him for one song. We both had to concentrate really hard on our duet, especially mom. Jaron danced with Alida, so cute. And Grif really wanted to sing Jingle Bells until it was his turn and then he decided it really wasn't what he wanted to do. There were too many people staring at him.











Jaron and Gretchen LOVED being Mary and Joseph. I don't think they will give up their parts next year. They were sweet and quiet and just right for the story. Grif only wanted to be the Angel and didn't want to share his part with everyone else wearing halos. Jax seemed like a slightly disgruntled shepherd. Either that or I just can't get a normal picture of him lately, he must take after his silly face making dad.

Christmas Eve's Eve

Hooray for time with daddy. It is so fun to surprise the boys with family outings. We decided to take the boys downtown for a movie and dinner. I wasn't so sure if they would like Tangled much or not but it looked entertaining. We stopped at daddy's office and walked past the movie theaters and said "Hey, let's go see a movie." "Really?!" the boys responded. It is more fun to surprise them than plan for it. They seem so much more naughty when we have fun things planned.

After we got tickets we headed to get Happy Meals. To bad they just don't fill our growing boys any more but they love the toys. I just love the blackened Mahi from Rumbi so that is where we headed for a real dinner.


The boys wore their cute Santa hats and we just had an awesome time hanging out together.

The Christmas Sing Along

My family decided to go to the Annual Sing Along. Grandma hopped in our car with us and we headed Downtown. Daddy was working so we just said hi to him in the control room. This year they did not do dinner and cookies just didn't quite cut it. Jaron couldn't eat them at all and I didn't really want grumpy boys, SO grandpa and I made a run to McDonald's for burgers.

Most of the time I just ran around in circles taking boys to the bathroom, burgers to daddy, and more trips to the bathroom.

BUT! Jaxon loves the Special Guest that is an amazing pianist, Jon Schmidt helped inspire him to want to start taking piano lessons and he loves watching him. He likes him so much he begged to stay and get his autograph. Jaron loves conducting along with the music. You can see from his dimples how happy he is. So those are big payoffs. Strange, I know, but when my boys are happy, I am happy. We love singing Christmas songs with grandma, grandpa and cousins too. Hooray for Christmas!!

Oh yeah, one other funny thing. So, Bear is the guest conductor, and Grif loves Bear, he come in on his Harley and left it running with the lights on. Grif could not concentrate on anything else until Bear's motorcycle was safely put away. Whew! We could go on with the caroling.

Candy Houses

Let me just pat myself on the back for a minute. We invited friends over and made candy houses for Jamie's Birthday. It was a great idea but it was harder to do than my plan made it out to be. I really just did most of the little boys myself because they just do not have enough patience. But we were all happy and sugared up in the end. Merry Christmas!

Jazz Game and Christmas with Uncle Charlie

To make a long day even longer we decided to go the Jazz Game before Uncle Charlie had to go home. Daddy even got to come with us this time. Hooray! Jaron was sick again with his horrible mouth sores so he went to sleep at the game. He just curled up on my lap and slept through 90% of the game. Poor Guy!



We came home and celebrated Christmas with Charlie. He got his very own stocking with his name stitched on it, a patriots blanket and Jazz hoodie from the boys and then he totally spoiled us. The boys all got new Nike's and then an awesome toy and some puzzles. Thanks Uncle!

Our Reflections Winners

I am so proud of our boys. Jax and Jar both entered the Reflections contest and won in their division and went on to Region. The awards assemble was fun and Uncle Charlie got to come wee them receive their medals. They also each won a prize from the drawing. So now they can do more creative things at home.

The theme was: Together we can.....
Jaxon wrote a song entitled "Together we can win this war" He wrote the music and words all by himself. He can even play it and sing it at the same time. Watch out Josh Groban here comes Jax.
Jaron wrote a really neat poem "Together we can play" It is about all of the different adventures we can have together.

Unfortunately their projects did not go on to State but there are only 4 from each category for the entire State.

Nutcracker 2010

Jaron and two of his cute cousins (Gretchen and Alida) were in the Nutcracker this year. They practiced all fall their parts for the big production. Jaron got to dance in the Party Scene with a cute partner named Maggie. She was so cute and patient with him. He did pretty amazing for his very first time dancing ever. You could see his dimples from a mile away. That's how we knew how happy he was.










Gretchen got well enough that she could dance and be the Owl. She was also a little snow flake. We were happy she was doing so much better. Alida was also in the party scene with Jaron and a Japanese dancer.

He really is my child....

I am going to look for a picture of me from when I was little and I used to do the exact same thing. I could not stand going to bed when I knew there was a party going on without me. This is not the first time and probably won't be the last. i just think it is so funny to see him do things I used to do. Silly boy!

Christmas Lights at Temple Square

Oh, the weather outside is frightful but the lights are so delightful! We spent the evening downtown with our good friends the Smart's. It was a beautiful fun evening with a little too large of a crowd for me to completely relax and enjoy. i was too worried about losing a little boy. But we still had a good time.





We ended the night with a fun trip to Build a Bear to get a new horse for the family. We have decided it would be fun to start collecting the animals for each state we visit.