Not a good suprise

I'm in the kitchen making dinner. McCoy and Coleman come in from outside declaring,"Mom! We have a suprise for you! Stick out your hand." I stick out my hands thinking they brought me a flower or a pretty leaf or some other thing they know I like. Bad descision #1 "Don't look," says McCoy. I don't. Bad descision #2. He drops it, I look...I scream. There sits a fat, ugly, dirty worm. I fling it across the kitchen. My boys go into hysterical fits of laughter. Ahhh, the joys of raising boys.

Really?

My 5yr old, McCoy, asked me this today in total sincerity," Mom, from now on do you want me to call you woman or mom? I'm thinking woman?" I don't know if I'll ever get this one raised well.

not a sporting event

Yesterday we called the kids into watch the last session of conference. We had watched the three previous sessions and the last was getting ready to begin. They all came meandering in and finding "their" spots on the floor. McCoy sits down by our feet, looks at the tv, then looks and us and says, "We're watching General Conference?". Yes. "Again?" I'm just beginning to say,"Are you serious?" when I saw the light come on in his eyes and he says," Oh yeah. That was halftime." :) We cracked up. Love that kid.

Flipping out for a good cause

I am so behind in posting and need to play catch up, but I had to jot this down before I forgot.

Friday night we had an activity at church and got home kind of late. We let the kids come in and watch part of a movie to wind down. At 10:30 we had kids nodding off and some others who were pretty cranky so we sent them upstairs to brush teeth and get ready for bed. When we got up there, they were all in bed already so we made the rounds to tuck them in...we skipped family prayer (not good but some were already falling asleep.) When we got to McCoy he was crying because we didn't have family prayer. We explained that kids were sleeping and we weren't going to make them get up. He started crying LOUDLY, I'm talking wailing...flat out screaming and crying. We told him we were sorry, it wasn't a good choice not to have family prayer but we couldn't tonight. We walked out of the room and he yelled after us, "Jesus is not happy with us! Jesus doesn't like this!"

Dramatic and heartwarming all at the same time :)

Wecome home Uncle Kaman!!

My brother-in-law Kaman returned tonight from a year long deployment in Afghanistan. We are so excited to have him back with Jen and the kids.

Kaman, we are so proud of you and the sacrifice you (and Jen) made for us. We are so glad to have you safely back with Jen and the kids. We love you!!!

SNOW... finally

We finally got snow the day after Christmas (so not right) but these pics are of our January 2nd snow storm and tubing adventure. We were so excited to finally get to go tubing. We had a blast inspite of the cold winds and relentless snow, even Madden liked it.

Christmas Eve bowling

We were so bummed this year not to have snow for our traditional Christmas Eve morning sledding. After much debate we decided we'd going bowling instead. Even though it wasn't our usual activity it made a great substitute. We all had fun, even the little ones.

I love this pic of Makayla and Coleman...it looks like thy're praying for Coleman's ball to hit the pins.

Coleman rolled his ball so slow that he always would lay on the floor and wait for it to hit the pins. So cute.

I just loved this pic of my red headed cutie :)

Christmas sugar cookies

We always make sugar cookies a few days before Christmas. Another activity the kids love. We always see who can decorate the best cookie. Everyone chooses 2 of their own to "enter" the competition and then everyone votes. This year the winner was a tie between Mariah and Wyatt. We then set aside the best ones for Santa. We were blessed this year by my sister Jenny's family and also the Johnson family giving us some great new cookie cutter and decorating funness (is that even a word?). Thanks you guys for making this tradition even more special.

Gingerbread house

We have a tradition of doing gingerbread houses on the Sunday before Christmas. The kids love it, even though we've started using the boxed store bought versions (so much easier). Each year everyone says it's the best one yet and no ones's going to touch it until after Christmas and yet by night's end, the house starts loosing candy and slowly it is almost "naked" by Christmas. Amazing :)

Smells so good...not

I know this picture is hard to see, but I had to post this. We had our annual Christmas open house on the 16th of December. It was scheduled to begin at 6:00 and right before it began, Tyson thought the fire needed a little boost...he dosed it with lighter fluid. Holy heck did that stink. This pic is of Tyson trying to fan the fumes out the window. Lesson learned...if don't want your house to reak(and boy did it) before 70 of your closest friends come, don't add lighter fluid! It still ended up being a great night full of food and friends.

Christmas concert

We had the annual 2nd and 3rd grade Christmas concerts again this year, our 4th year in a row (only 7 more years to go). Wyatt and Makayla were this year's participants. They did such a good job. Wyatt got to play the xylaphone for one of the songs. I love that our school still celebrates Christmas by singing about our Saviour's birth. It was a great night.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I absolutely love hosting the dinner and all of the family.I love the days of cooking and the anticipation of cousins arriving for the weekend. I love trying new recipes in hopes that they will become new holiday traditions. I love that feeling that permeates the house as the holiday season begins. Love it. Love it. Love it. Not all of the family was able to come this year :( but we still had a blast. Katie and her 4 kids (my awesome niece and nephews), Evan had Amber and 3 more of my beautiful nieces, my Mom and Dad, and Emily were all here (missed you Lykins, Richard's clan and Aunt Jan and Uncle Butch). It was a fun filled 4 days. We ate ourselves sick and shopped till we dropped. What more could you ask for?

The menu: turkey (first time I brined it...so yummy), ham, mashed potaotes and gravy, stuffing, corn, onion casserole, bread braids, green bean casserole, chicken and noodles, sweet potatoe casserole, jello salads ,cranberries, my favorite salad ever (Annie Gardner's super salad... wierd name), yummy fruit salad, 13 pies, 3 kinds of cookies, rice krispie treats, and hot spiced cider. So good.


Only 10 more months till we get to do it again :)