sledding

We managed to get some new snow during the Christmas break, so the kids took advantage of it by going sledding at the school. It was good to get out and get some fresh air, even though it was very COLD air.

how much stuff do you need to be happy? i don't know, how much stuff is there?

I LOVE that line! Anyone know what it's from? If you said VeggieTales, you'd be right! Anyway, I think that describes Christmas...somewhat. The kids didn't get a lot of stuff this year -- as planned-- but they got plenty, and when each child gets a few things and then you times it by 4, it can get to be a lot of stuff. It did make for some happy kids though! We had a wonderful Christmas, a loooong Christmas even. We decided to head to Idaho for Christmas Eve, so we opened a few gifts from each other on Christmas Eve morning. The boys drew names. Jacob gave Matthew the above Yoda green lightsaber. Matthew had Jacob, and got him a nice little Lego racer.
Jared gave Ryan Sprite and cherry candy canes (that's what he asked for!)
Ryan gave Jared lemonade mix and a snicker bar (also a request!)
We enjoyed those gifts and then packed the car and headed to Idaho -- cousins and grandparents! Yay! Here's Jacob with his cousins Stephen, Colton, and Kaymi crowded around one tiny DS, having a great time!
There's always good food. Our family tradition for Christmas Eve food is taco salad. Weird? I think I'm the one that came up with that eons ago -- I love taco salad. This is the cousin table.
Ready for bed with our new pj's. This is posing in front of G&G Brady's Christmas tree. Notice the socks hanging in the background between the two doorknobs!
On Christmas morning, the kids woke us up right at 7 am on the dot. We hurried upstairs to see if Santa had found us in Idaho this year. Sure enough, Santa got our location and delivered. Grandpa B. is checking out Matthew's new Batcave.
After Santa presents and a delicious Christmas breakfast, which included a ton of link sausage per Ryan's request, we headed over to my brother's house to see what was happening there. All his kids and grandkids were home for Christmas, so it was quite a houseful of people and gifts. We didn't stay there long though because we wanted to get on the road to join G&G Vawdrey and the Vawdrey cousins for lunch and more presents. We even showed Sarah & Zach our stuff via the webcam. Here's some "stuff" that Matthew got for Christmas from G&G Vawdrey. Dual light-up lightsabers with sound effects! Totally cool!
Ryan checking out the PSP Santa left for Christmas.
And the basketball from G&G Vawdrey. Love that grin!
Jared with his new cell phone from Santa. I hope he texts or calls to say thanks!
And the football from G&G Vawdrey. Move over Jake Heaps.
Santa knows how much Jacob loves a good Lego set.
Another item of "stuff" -- a new watch from Mom & Dad.
And the finished product of a different Lego set (from G&G Vawdrey).
When we finished up gifts, food, and fun at G&G Vawdrey's we headed home so we could open a few remaining gifts. I think we ended up at home around 7 p.m. Matthew received his very own scooter so he won't have to borrow the brothers anymore.

Jacob got a ripstick so he can keep up with Ryan while cruising the neighborhood.
Its gonna take a bit of practice to learn to ride it, but he's definitely got the idea!
We all went to bed tired and happy with all our new "stuff". Even though all our travels made Christmas Day long, it was really nice because we all got to enjoy things a little at a time instead of trying to rip through everything at once. Even better, we got to enjoy it with lots of family. Indeed, a Merry Christmas!

gingerbread houses

Decorating "gingerbread" houses at grandma's with the cousins has become an annual tradition. However, Jared pronounced himself "too old" for this anymore -- although he did decide he could take on the job as frosting squeezer. Here's a look at our decorating party:

Thanks grandma!

breakfast with the grinch

Our ward Christmas party was "Grinch" themed. It was awesome and the kids loved it. The Grinch roamed around the room and gave candy canes, hugs, whatever, to the kids. Matthew couldn't stop talking about it. Oh, and the food was delicious -- ham, scrambled eggs, hash browns, yogurt parfaits, fruit, muffins, donuts, french toast sticks, juice, milk, and chocolate milk. Before we left, Matthew agreed to pretend he was Max. Can't have a Grinch without a Max!

he ain't heavy, he's my brother

Enough said. Love these boys!

hoover dam

We decided we needed to find a bit of warmer weather during our Thanksgiving break, and that we needed a little vacation, so we decided to head south to Hoover Dam. We've driven over the dam a bunch of times as we've gone to Arizona, but we wanted to actually take a tour and do some exploring this time. Learning about the dam and how it was constructed was really interesting -- even for the boys! There's a couple different options for tours, and we chose the power plant tour. Here's the turbine room:
There's like 14 or so turbines in here, but since this is "maintenance season", only two were generating power that day. "Peak season" is of course summer evenings when everyone is turning up the AC, cooking dinner, and doing laundry.

A new highway over the dam has just been completed and opened to traffic. This bridge is AMAZING! When joining the two sides in the middle to complete the arch, the meeting parts were only 3/4" off -- that's an amazing engineering feat.


A panorama shot of the dam and new highway:

A look at the dam and Lake Mead:
Jacob straddling the Arizona-Nevada state line on the new highway pedestrian walk:

Walking across the new bridge:
We probably spent about 3 to 4 hours here touring, exploring, and eating lunch. We all had a great time!

family picts

On the spur of the moment, we begged Heidi to do a quick family photo shoot at Wheeler Farm. My older boys (mostly just Ryan) detest having pictures taken. I thought I was going easy on them by letting them wear t-shirts and sneakers this time, but they didn't think that was "easy". Smiling apparently is very difficult at times. Here's what we came up with:




I think they'll do just fine! Thanks Heidi!

snow fun

This was from the very first snowfall of the season, a few weeks ago. It was just enough snow to play in. It was great snowman snow. Matthew couldn't contain his excitement to play in it, so we had to head out as soon as the big kids left for school. We built 6 tiny snowpeople. They melted by the afternoon, so it was a good thing we headed out early!

This is from a more recent storm. Ryan and Jacob began the makings of a snow cave. You can see Ryan's legs poking out of the cave (on the right) and Jacob & Matthew patting more snow on the top and sides.
This is Ryan & Jacob rolling the huge snowballs to begin the cave.
We have since had two huge snowfalls and Ryan has turned his backyard cave over to Jacob or Matthew (whoever claims it) and moved his serious cavemaking skills to the front yard. (No, I didn't take a picture yet) He and a few buddies have really got a huge cave going now. It kept Ryan busy outside for over an hour yesterday afterschool! Gotta love that! Note to self: take a picture.