Christmas 2009

Here is our Christmas slide show. It has a lot of different Christmas activities on it like the kids seeing Santa, Jacklyn's field trip, the Christmas party at Martin's house, and Christmas Day. I hope you enjoy the slide show and that everyone had fun over the holidays.

Jacklyn's Field Trip

On Friday, Jacklyn's kindergarten class went on a field trip to the mall and all of the parents and younger siblings were invited, so Addison and I decided to go. We met at the mall at 12:45 and we all broke up into groups to go on a scavenger hunt through the mall. We went to McDonald's and got some mini ice cream cones, then we went to the cinema to find which Disney movie was playing, and then we had to go and look for a Cat in the Hat tie at one of the mall stores. It was a lot of fun. I took some pictures of the kids which I hope to get posted on here. We all met back as a group at 1:30 and had cookies and drinks. Then we got in line to see Santa. All of the kids were really excited. Jacklyn said she wanted Addison to come with her to see Santa. She also told me that the thing she wanted most for Christmas was a purple pony, I thought it was really cute. When we got done seeing Santa it was time to go. All of the kids had a lot of fun. While we were on the field trip I got to met Jacklyn's best friend, CJ. CJ's dad told me that CJ is always talking about Jacklyn. It was fun to see Jacklyn's friends. Then we went home and had a great weekend. I'm bummed that tomorrow is another Monday. Luckily, in a few weeks it will be Christmas. Jayden tells us every day how many days are left until Christmas. Bye.

Slideshow of Thanksgiving 2009

Here is the slideshow of Thanksgiving weekend that I promised to post, so enjoy!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We've had a lot going on the last week, so I decided to make a slide show of all the fun stuff that's been going on. First of all, Jayden's birthday was yesterday. He turned 8 years old. We got him a cake at Wal-Mart and we came home and sang Happy Birthday to him and he got to open the rest of his presents. He really liked the marbles that Nana and Papa Mike gave him, and after we set up the Christmas tree we played marbles and watched The Polar Express. We need to get him a marble bag, so in the meantime, while we are looking, he has his marbles in a plastic bag under his bed because Jacklyn and Addison keep stealing them. Jayden wanted me to tell everyone thanks for all of the birthday presents. He really liked everything that everyone gave him.

As for Thanksgiving weekend, as most of you know, we went up to Idaho and spent the weekend with Matt and Amber. It was a lot of fun. Amber and Matt made a really great Thanksgiving dinner, and all of us especially liked the fruit pizza made to look like a turkey. Very creative. Thanksgiving evening was spent bumming through the ads and just hanging out with everybody, then we woke up early to get in on all the Black Friday action. To make a long story short, we did lots of shopping, went to IHOPS, had a run with FAT MAN (Hahahaha), and came home for a nap. Later on, we went to watch New Moon in the theaters because Natalie was dying to see it, and we all made a deal that we would watch it together. So there I was watching Twilight, and Natalie would lean over to me and say, "Isn't Edward so hot?" Then I would have Amber lean into me and say, "Isn't Jacob so hot? Don't you just want to touch his chest?" Then Dad would let out a loud sigh every twenty minutes or so because he was watching a chick flick instead of an action movie. Fun times. Before the movie started, Dad kept saying we needed to switch our tickets and go see 2012, something with some action. I wouldn't have minded doing it, but I had told Natalie that we were all going to watch New Moon together, so that's what it ended up being. Then Saturday afternoon we came home. Thanks Matt and Amber for feeding us and letting us stay at your place.

We did have one more thing happen this week, and it was a very sad thing. Our cat, Tanner, died while we were up in Idaho. She wasn't doing too well a week before we left and Micah and I were wondering if she was going to make it through Thanksgiving weekend. We brought her in the house a week ago, because she had been missing for a few days and when she came home she looked really weak. Micah put her food dish and blanket inside the house by the door, but she wouldn't eat or drink anything. Micah did manage to get her to drink some water with a dropper but that was it. Three or four years ago she drank some stain remover fluid that fell behind the washing machine and leaked onto the floor, and her health was never the same after that. She was a really good cat. She would follow us around when we would go trick-or-treating or over the Nunn's house because Jacklyn likes to play there; and in the summer, when we would sleep out on the trampoline she would jump up onto the tramp with us and give us massages. We had a small funeral and had the kids say good-bye. I was sad. Tanner, you will be missed.

Change of plans, I will post the slide show on the next post because it's really late and I need to download all the pictures from the camera onto the computer, and it's just too much work for 11:30 at night. So I will post the slide show in the next day or two. Now I'm wondering why my time at the bottom of my blog is always off.

Halloween Pictures

The time has just flown by. I was going to take pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes like I did last year, but we got so busy that we never got around to it, and now here it is the middle of November and I'm finally getting around to getting the few pictures that we had taken posted. Jacklyn was a witch for Halloween, which was really cute. Everyone in her class dressed up, including her bus driver and helper, and they took the above photo when they had their Halloween party. Jayden finally decided that he wanted to be a transformer for Halloween. His costume looked pretty cool. And Addison was, of course, the cutest baby alligator that you've ever seen. Halloween was on Saturday this year, as you all know, so we had all of parties on Friday. At 4:00 we had Micah's work party, which is really fun. They had a haunted alley and would go trick-or-treating to each cubicle, and then they had donuts and punch after wards. I dressed up this year with the kids, which they thought was pretty cool. I dressed up as Hermonie from Harry Potter. I wish I had taken my coat off for Micah's work picture, but we had just walked through the door and I wasn't expecting to be in it. I'll try to get some better pictures next year. Then at 6:00 we had the ward Trunk-or-Treat party. That was a lot of fun. Our relief Society president dressed up as Professor McGonagell, so we had to get a Harry Potter picture together. Micah had to work late, so he missed coming with us to the Trunk-or-Treat party with. He missed it last year because he had to work late, argh. Then on Saturday we all dressed up and did the real trick-or-treating around the neighbor. I was glad that the weather wasn't too bad. I remember when Jayden was a baby, and it snowed on Halloween. That was yucky. All right, with that said, it's time to start thinking about Thanksgiving and turkeys, and I hope everyone enjoys the few pictures that we had taken, and I will do better about taking pictures next year. Bye.

Pinewood Derby

So on Thursday we had the Pinewood Derby racing. We went down to the Church at 6:30 and they had a movie going about racing and how to build a car and stuff. Then they took all the kids into the gym where they had the racing set up. I had never seen the Pinewood Derby stuff before so this all new to me. They had four metal tracks where you would set you car and at the beginning of the race the track lifted up so your car would go. They had pins at the front and then someone would push a level and all the cars would go off at once. At the end of the race they had a board with digital numbers on it and when your car went across it posted your time. The guy had a computer that would keep track of all the times and the person with the best times after eight races was the winner. The kids were really excited to see this, especially Addison. He loved to watch the cars race. Jayden and Jacklyn both had cars but couldn't race theirs until the end because they aren't in Scouts. By the time it came for them to race, Jayden took off with friends and Addison was super excited to race Jayden's car. He waited in line with everybody and then when it was his turn he would step up on the chair and put his little car up and run to the end of the race to see how his car did. I couldn't believe how excited that little kid was for Pinewood Derby. It was really cute. After racing we chatted with everyone, had cookies, and went home. It was a really fun night, and all the kids enjoyed racing their cars.

Halloween Costumes

In September, we were walking home from picking up Jacklyn at her friend, Jenna's house, and Bro. Davis saw us and stopped to talk to us. He said that since Jayden is going to turn 8 in the next 60 days he was invited to the Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby. He also said he could build a car and race it if he wants to, but he can't race the car until the last 30 minutes, since he's not 8 and officially in Cub Scouts yet. Micah was pretty excited and took the kids home to show them the car kits he had stuffed in the closet. The kids were pretty excited, so the next night we had them build their cars. Micah said they had a blast painting their cars and decorating them with stickers. I actually didn't help them because I had an NEI class that night (Natural Eyesight Improvement). The kids now have their cars all done, and tomorrow night is the Pinewood Derby. They are pretty excited. I will have to write it down on the blog when we get done.

Now on to Halloween. I have been so busy this year with homework and getting kids to school that I haven't really had much time to think about Halloween costumes until a few days ago. I didn't want to wait until the last minute because everything gets picked over. So yesterday we went to the store and Jacklyn picked out a really cute witch costume. She really loves it. I will have to post pictures on the blog when it gets closer to Halloween. Addison is going to be an alligator again, because he's too young too care and he looks absolutely adorable in his alligator costume. Jayden wants to be Indiana Jones again. The problem is that when I bought his Indiana Jones costume last year I thought they measured the costumes according to regular clothes, but they didn't. A 6-8 is actually for a 4-5 year old, so the costume was small last year, and I know it is going to be way too small this year. We went to the mall today to see if anyone had an Indiana Jones costumes, but they didn't. I don't know why he has to pick the most complicated thing for Halloween. Then as we were leaving the mall he said that he wanted a costume that he had seen at Wal-Mart yesterday, so now I'm not sure what he wants to be. Now as for me, I decided that I am definitely dressing up for the Ward Halloween party this year. Last year I wanted to dress up as Harry Potter but I didn't decide that until a few days before the party and all the local stores were out of the Harry Potter ties and I didn't want to pay for express shipping, so I ended up not dressing up. This year though, I am prepared. I got my Harry Potter tie and I am going as Hermonie. I decided that the short hair and glasses just weren't working for me. It should be lots of fun. I will have to keep everyone posted on all the Fall and Halloween activities. Bye.