katey's wedding

We spent the week after Christmas in Arizona. The highlight of the trip (and reason for the vacation) was to attend Katey (my niece) and Jason's wedding. Here they are coming out of the Mesa LDS Temple: Here's the kissing picture. I don't normally like kissing pictures much, but I loved this one because you can see Katey's hot pink sneaker under her wedding dress. You also get a glimpse of the pink shoe in the picture above! So cute.

Here's all the single guys who attended the wedding. The pink tie boys are Jason's brothers and the rest are Katey's cousins. I love this photo because of the expression on Jacob's face. It pretty much sums up how he feels about wedding photoshoots!

Matthew refused to be in the above photo, so he spent his time exploring the grounds and fountains surrounding the temple. Note what he's wearing. Short sleeves, in December! The weather was a beautiful and sunny 65 degrees! :)

Congratulations Katey & Jason!

christmas afternoon

On Christmas afternoon, we headed out to G&G Vawdrey's house to open presents and eat dinner. One of the first packages every kid opened contained a snuggie. Jacob & Matthew had Jazz snuggies: Jared & Ryan got BYU snuggies:

There was a little confusion as to how to "wear" them, but either way, they keep you warm! Next came the big guns, literally:

Jared, Ryan, Jacob & cousin Ethan each got these monstrous Nerf guns that required a bit of "manpower" to get assembled:

It was a good thing we had 4 men to put 4 guns together! With snuggies and guns at the ready, the boys had a fabulous afternoon!

Poor Rachel, being the "only" girl (Katie spent most of the afternoon napping) got lots of other good girlie stuff, but not a gun to keep up with the boys that afternoon. After awhile, Jacob realized that he could share his gun with Rachel. The big gun actually breaks down into two separate smaller guns. This worked great for both kids because now Rachel could play and Jacob actually had the strength to haul the gun around (the big gun was nearly bigger than he is!!) Merry Christmas to all!

christmas morning

Well, we finally broke down and bought a Wii. The boys were thrilled and immediately set to work creating our family as Wii characters and trying out the bowling and tennis games. We took turns opening the gifts under the tree and admiring what each other recieved as well as gave. Here's Jared with his new ipod.

Ryan got a projector clock radio that also plays his ipod. Pretty darn cool!

Jacob got a couple of new DS games and a couple Bakugans so he can play with his friends.

Matthew got a Lego bus with people, luggage, and a bus stop included.

He also got a remote control car. He was so funny figuring it out -- it kinda scared him when the car would follow him around or come at him because he was just learning how to control it. I hope he's a better driver when he's a teenager! I was totally surprised when I opened the gift from my parents. My Mom started this quilt when I was engaged and wanted to get it done for my wedding. That didn't happen, so she put it away for awhile. She pulled it out now and then to work on for years and this summer she got serious about getting it finished. (I've been married for 15 years now!) The quilt top is all hand embroidered (cross-stitch) and then the whole quilt is hand quilted. Ninety-nine percent of the hand quilting was done by my mom (her friend spent a couple hours helping her one day) I love it! I'm proud of my mom for finishing that project!

christmas pj's

It was impossible to get a good shot of all of us in our new pj's, so this is the best I could muster.

We spent Christmas Eve at our neighbor's house eating taco salad, visiting, and playing Uno. We came home around 10:00 p.m. and hung our stockings, changed into our new pj's, and read the Christmas story from the Bible. A wonderful evening!

ice cream palooza

Tonsillectomy = ice cream. And boatloads of it. Our freezer has never seen this much ice cream at once. This picture doesn't even show the creamies, otter pops, and quickly devoured Dreyer's fruit bars. I only supplied the otter pops, so thankfully Ryan's friends and family pitched in to supply the good stuff!

fudge -- it must be christmas!

Every year we wait anxiously for the arrival of the fudge bear, which truly means it must be Christmas. It arrived yesterday evening. Hooray! Our neighbor gives us a cute little homemade fudge bear every year. We LOVE it! We love carving off the ears first and eating our way through the rest of the little guy over the next few days.

Today I got an extra fudge surprise. My visiting teaching brought over a few pieces of rocky road fudge. Oh heaven! Melt in your mouth chocolately goodness. I ate it all. Pure chocolate with little marshmallows and absolutely NO nuts involved. Yes, it must be Christmas!

kinda busy

I haven't posted much because we've been pretty busy lately. Jared had a Christmas concert to sing in with his school music class and performed in a piano recital too. He did a great job! It's very pleasant to hear him practice the piano these days. He's had tons of homework and has also been playing a little church basketball. Last night he hit a bunch of 3 point shots and the team got their first win -- too bad it was also their last game! He's looking forward to playing rec basketball beginning in January.

Ryan also played in the piano recital and did a nice job. I'm proud of Ryan & Jared for having their pieces memorized. They worked hard on that. Ryan's basketball team completed their season and it is amazing to see how much they have improved and learned over the last few months. Ryan makes a good little point guard. On Wednesday, Ryan had his tonsils and adenoids removed, so he is currently in the healing process. He's really grumpy when the pain meds start to wear off. I am trying to force fluids and popsicles and a little food now and then.

I guess the rest of our "busy-ness" can be chalked up to normal activities, Christmas parties, and all the good stuff that goes along with being in the thick of the Christmas season. I've still got a few Christmas projects that need to be finished, but the shopping part has long been completed -- yay! Guess I better get going...

thanksgiving review

We spent Thanksgiving with ALL of my side of the family. Everyone was there and we have the picture to prove it! (See the previous post) Anyway, besides having the family together, we had lots of yummy food to go with it. Here's a brief look at the pie smorgasbord (and there was other pies that didn't even make it into the pictures!)

One of the best events of the weekend was assembling a bazillion hygiene kits for humanitarian aid. My family chose to put our "gift" money toward humanitarian projects instead of buying gifts for each other. Everyone enjoyed putting the kits together and it just gives everyone a good feeling inside knowing that someone out there who has been through some tough times can get a little relief by getting a bag full of basic hygiene items to clean and care for themselves during a tradgedy. These bags will go to people all over the world. Here we are assembling them:

This is my dad packing up the completed bags.

We were also able to assemble a ton of newborn kits. All babies need and deserve a warm gown, socks, and a blanket.

Another look at our completed hygiene kits.

There was plenty of time for games with the cousins. I think this game was called "signs" or something like that, and anyway, the cousins literally played this for HOURS! Robert is trying to catch someone not fast enough to give a sign to another player. I'm not sure why the person in the middle always had to hold the monkey, but it was hilarious just the same.

Another event of the weekend was having a bridal shower for Katey. She's getting married in December. We bequeathed her with "The Aunts Cookbook" -- a collection of family favorites.

Here she's chewing a mouthful of bubblegum because she missed a few "how-well-do-you-know-Jason" questions. (He's the groom-to-be) She was glad to get that wad of gum out of her mouth!

And this is one of my favorite pictures. After all this cousin-bonding time and yummy food, one can get a little tired. I found Matthew upstairs in the bedroom tucked inside his pillowcase fast asleep.

Note: He was removed from the inside of the pillowcase and restored to much more airy sleeping facilities ASAP.

the whole clan

Sometimes family photo shoots make everyone feel like this: But somehow, we managed to get this mostly decent shot of all 42 of us:

This is everyone in the family. All of us in one spot. At the same time. Looking at the camera. A major miracle. I'm grateful. Our family is wonderful!

quite the game

I always forget to take my camera to Ryan's basketball games. I should have videoed parts of the game last night. It was awesome! Ryan was awesome! Unfortunately, his team didn't win. Every time Ryan went in, the intensity of the game went up about a zillion notches because he was everywhere -- running plays, getting run over, getting steals, getting floor burns, and making shots at critical times. Early in the game our team was behind by about 8 points and the boys were discouraged. Ryan came back into the game and quickly got 4 points up on the board. He fed the ball to another guy and he put up two more bringing our team back into the game. We never got too far behind after that, and even took the lead once. Our team had the other team so frustrated by the end, that parents (of the other team)were coming out of their seats trying to coach their kids! It was awesome to watch one of our favorite TV sportscasters get up and coach his own kid -- he just couldn't hold back anymore! The thing that won it for the other team was their foul shots -- it seemed they were making all of them and we were making none of ours. Both teams played really well and it was a good matchup, so it was a tough loss. However, it has been really fun to watch Ryan's team progress throughout the season. They have improved their defense and are able to effectively run some great plays now. That really makes the game more fun for the players as well as the spectators!

a thanksgiving story

"Run Turkey Run" by Jacob

Jacob wrote and illustrated this book a week ago Sunday when he was bored. I can't help but laugh every time I read it. He loved reading his book to Matthew, but I'm not sure Matthew could fully appreciate his humor.

In case anyone needs a translation: "Run Turkey Run" It is the day before Thanksgiving. And turkey escapes. The End.

manicotti mania

I'm happy to say that I have successfully survived the last RS weekday meeting of the year! We chose to do a "progressive" dinner. Along with each course, we asked a sister to share her thoughts about a certain blessing -- family, friends, country, and temple. I took on the assignment of the main dish. I chose manicotti and french bread -- for 50 people. I made a gazillion tubes of manicotti and opted to buy the bread just because I couldn't do it all. Thankfully, one of the leading ladies on my committee helped me stuff those things or I wouldn't have made the deadline. I had lots of leftovers. We're manicotti-ed out. Good thing for a freezer. The whole evening was really great except for one person choking (not on the manicotti) and another person puking (again, not the manicotti). At least they were OK. I learned that church buildings really need to have a bag of kitty litter and some clorox wipes readily available in the janitorial closet.

i'm losing it

I think I'm officially losing my brain -- the part that remembers stuff. I completely forgot about pack meeting this week. It was written on my calendar, I had talked to den leaders the day before about awards, I had reminded Ryan the night before, and Mark even asked at noon (the day of) if we had someplace to go that evening. I realized we had all missed pack meeting during family prayer the next morning -- weird. I also completely missed Jared's piano lesson yesterday. Again, it was written on the calendar. However, Jared came home and didn't have homework (which rarely happens) and it was a nice day, so he went outside to play football and I completely forgot about piano lessons (not that he minded missing). I realized this mistake when the kids were going to bed and we were reviewing the day. Frankly, I'm a little freaked out by my not remembering stuff like this because I'm normally very good at it. Is there something wrong with me? Am I getting alzheimer's? Am I getting old? Is my plate (life) a little crowded right now? I'm going to stick with the last one, thanks. In the meantime, I'll be looking at my calendar more frequently.

the longest day

Sunday had to be THE. LONGEST. DAY. EVER. Consider the fact that the time changed (and the kids internal clocks didn't), the kids were still charged from Halloween sugar, it was fast sunday (so we tend to get the hungry-grumpy's), AND we don't go to church till afternoon. By 8:00 a.m. everyone was up, the little kids had had some breakfast, and Matthew had already had his first meltdown. To help pass the time Jacob learned to blow bubbles with his bubble gum, there was lots of wrestling, and a few rounds of Uno and Sorry. By 7:00 p.m. we were ready to send the kids to bed because it was so dark outside. But we didn't. We waited until our "normal" bedtimes. FINALLY.

halloween

I just wasn't into Halloween much this year and neither were the kids, until it was actually time to go trick-or-treating, of course! I have to say I loved the costumes this year because the kids just pulled stuff out of the box and I didn't have to spend money on anything or sew anything! In fact, no one decided on what they were going to be until about an hour before going out! Here's what we came up with:
Matthew as Tigger:
Jacob is all action and raring to go...what is he?

He's a karate kid! He also wore the padded helmet when he went out and about. (Gotta love getting more use out of Jared's old karate uniform and pads!!)

Ryan was all about the candy and would have gone trick-or-treating dressed as himself if I hadn't insisted that he actually wear something that somewhat resembled a costume. He opted for all black clothes topped with a hooded black cloak and tied with a karate belt. A ninja??? Who knows. Jared decided he was too old to actually go trick-or-treating, but he was way excited to help Matthew knock on a few doors! And hand out candy.

The return -- what's in here?

Matthew loved watching all the candy fall out of his pumpkin. His first choice of the evening was a box of Nerds.

Jacob and his cache:

Ryan was on a quest this year for more candy than ever before. Here's what 5 pounds looks like:

All three boys helped sort Ryan's candy into piles on Sunday morning. It's a good thing he is willing to share (and trade, of course!)