pinata fun

Mark decided to get crafty and so he got the boys to help him make a pinata during the holidays. The paper mache part of things didn't go as well as expected, so he pulled out the duct tape to finish it off. Once it was deemed strong enough, he wrapped it in yellow crate paper, cut a green spikey top, stuffed in a bunch of candy, and our pineapple pinata was ready for action! We started with little people at bat first -- that's Matthew (above).
Then Jacob:
And now for the big guns...Ryan broke through to the candy! Wahoo! Candy for all!

totally on two-wheels

Matthew can ride on two wheels!! Wahoo!! He hasn't really liked his bike much because he does so well on his scooter, which he's been riding for a year and half at least! This summer we put training wheels on the bike hoping it would peak a little interest for him. He tried a couple of times and just didn't have any interest. With the weather being so nice these days, I decided it was time for him to get rid of the training wheels and learn to ride a bike like a big kid. Mark & I took the training wheels off and took him up the street a couple houses. We set him on the bike, turned him toward home and gave a gentle shove. That's all it took -- he was off! A couple more times and he was riding around like a pro!!

Now he totally loves his bike! Everyday he wants to practice riding. We even took him over to the bike trail and he did awesome! Way to go, Matthew!!

tubing

We decided to go in search of snow. We found a little patch up near the summit at the tubing park. The snow wasn't great, but we had fun tubing for a couple hours. First you had over your money, then pick a tube. They have little ones for little kids and bigger ones for bigger kids. Everyone has to have their own tube, although you can hook tubes together to slide down if you want. This orange tube was just Matthew's size! Next, you hop on the conveyor belt and get a ride up the mountain!
The conveyor belt makes the first stop and little people, or anyone wanting a shorter tubing path, get off and take a ride down the hill. Loved it! If you want to go further up the mountain, you hop onto your tube and the lift guys hook you up to the tow rope to go all the way to the top! This is Mark & Matthew:

So fun! Two hours is perfect timing -- long enough to get in lots of rides, and short enough not to get bored. A few more pictures:


Hard to tell, but there's 3 boys piled on there! After tubing we decided to take the long route home and stopped in Heber at Dairy Keen for lunch and then went over to visit Will & Laura before heading home. A fun day was had by all!

things to do after christmas

Ryan finally started to feel better a couple days after Christmas, so he pulled out his catapult kit and built it. Then started to flip the little bean bags around. Since the weather has been unusually dry and sunny it was good bike riding weather. Jacob took his new bike for a spin and then we even headed over to Legacy trail for a real ride. This was our first time on the trail - finally - and it was fabulous! Can't wait to go again!

christmas presents

So I have these images in somewhat the wrong order, but oh well, I'll just go with it! Above is the completed Lego space shuttle that Jared received from Santa. He loved putting it together and it took him only 1 day! (I was hoping it was going to keep him occupied for several days!) The shuttle comes off the launch pad and there's a whole bunch of cool stuff inside the shuttle too when he opens it up. This is one of those Lego projects that should NEVER be disassembled. It is definitely more a model than a toy.

Jacob got a ukulele. He has been learning how to play it at school. He's pretty darn good at it too! I had no idea he knew that much until he picked it up and started playing a few tunes for us. Wow. He is really enjoying it!
Ryan got a cell phone. He was very excited to finally have his own. We bought the phone, but he has to pay for the minutes. Unfortunately, Ryan had a very bad sore throat and cold during the holiday. He was pretty miserable. Poor kid.
Jared also got a phone. He's had a very basic phone for about a year, but this one is a bit fancier with a slider qwerty keyboard. Same rule applies here -- we gave him the phone, but he pays for the service.
Jacob got a new bike. It's got gears and is big enough to last for quite a few years. This year was a good year to get a bike since its been so dry. There's no snow, so he was able to get out and ride.
Matthew got a batman plane and a green lantern plane. Both toys shoot projectiles. Wahoo!
Because Christmas Day fell on Sunday this year, our morning started pretty early. The boys woke us up at 5 a.m. and we headed downstairs to see the santa gifts & stockings. After playing with those for a bit, we opened our gifts to each other. We ate a quick breakfast and got ready for church. We decided to attend G&G's ward, which started at 9 a.m. -- which meant we left here at 8! I love having church on Christmas because it helps me remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas -- the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. Grandma was in charge of the choir program after the sacrament and it was very nicely done. After church we headed over to G&G's house to open gifts, eat lunch, and play with cousins. A very nice day indeed.

PS. We always get "matching" new pajamas for Christmas. I simply didn't have the time to sew this year and I couldn't find any fabric to be excited about, so if you notice in the pictures, we have a plaid theme going on. Each person has different plaid pants and we all have navy blue shirts.

christmas countdown

Matthew brought this Christmas countdown poster home from preschool. He has loved creating Santa's beard through the month of December!

upside down

Matthew has taken a liking to being upside down. Anywhere, anytime. He just flips over. His personal favorite place to be upside down is on the stairs.

Crazy kid!

francine

My dear friend Francine passed away this week. Her funeral was today. She was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer about 18 months ago. Because she was in her late 80's, she opted not to treat it and let nature take its course. She really didn't experience too much setback to her daily activities until about 5 months ago and then things gradually started to slide. Her last 2 weeks have been especially uncomfortable. She was an amazing lady in many ways, but I most appreciated her ability to see a service opportunity, not readily realized by others, and then seize the moment. She spent many hours reading to friends who couldn't see the printed page anymore, walking with people who had physical disabilities, and for me -- spending time with my children so that I could have the opportunity to learn to play/practice the organ at the church. Matthew especially loved the Monday mornings when "Sis. Holt" would come play with him while I went to the church to practice the organ. She loved that time with Matthew too. Francine especially enjoyed music and walking. She was a very good organist and has played the organ since she was a young girl. I often saw her out for her daily walk early in the morning when I was out running. A spray of flowers beside her casket featured a book of organ music and her walking shoes. It was a beautiful tribute to a wonderful friend!

christmas house making

After Rachel's baptism earlier this month, all the kids gathered to decorate "gingerbread" Christmas houses. Above is Devin, Chase, Ethan, Jared (who's too old for this kid stuff), and Ryan. Here's a few more random pictures of the event:

Jacob & Katie

Matthew

Chase

Morgan, Rachel, Katie, Jared, Matthew, Jacob

Jacob & Matthew

A good time was had by all!

we are santas elves

Right after Thanksgiving we pulled this charming little elf (the toy) out of one of the Christmas decoration boxes. It sings the song "We are Santa's Elves". Which is delightful if only played once in awhile. However, Matthew couldn't stop playing the song over and over and over and over. It thoroughly annoyed us all. We suffered through a few days of this thinking Matthew would lose his infatuation with it. Wrong. The elf went back into the storage box before the month of December ever began.

all i want for christmas is...

my two front teeth!
Jacob actually lost his second front tooth in November, but I'm just now getting around to posting the photo, which combines perfectly with the Christmas season!

triple J

Jacob, Jr. Jazz = triple J Jacob's first session Jr. Jazz is almost over. Last game is Wednesday. He's a pretty good little player -- he is surprisingly agressive on defense. One particular game this year he had to guard a big kid and he was in the kids face All. The. Time. I guess he learns that from playing with older brothers. He has been an all-around consistent leader and player for his team.
Mark has been the coach for Jacob's team this session. It is a definitely a time commitment, but a good opportunity to do some worthwhile community service and spend some time with Jacob.

round 2

Another wind storm was supposed to kick up Sunday night, so everyone went into "prepare" mode. Notice I did not say "panic" mode. We had sacrament meeting two hours earlier than usual and it only lasted for about 50 minutes. Then everyone went out to spend the rest of the day working in the neighborhoods. The whole city did this. Debris was cleared up and hauled to drop off points, roofs secured, and any other preparations were made for the storm. The National Guard was called in to help with the unloading of debris. One of the debris drop off points was the city park right by our house. There was a constant procession of vehicles on the road all afternoon. The debris pile at the park (one pile of green and one pile of other) is literally a mountain range. Amazing. We decided to prepare by pulling out the basketball hoop, so the wind wouldn't finish it off. Surprisingly that was about a one minute job! We pulled the slats out of the fence, again, too. We charged phones and ipods. We filled pitchers with water and put batteries in a radio. We moved garbage cans and lawn chairs in the garage, again. The wind kicked up a bit around bedtime, but never really got going. The gusts that were predicted never really happened. Not sad about that! Now, to put all those slats back in and decide what to do about a basketball hoop...

wind storm

Wow! What a wind storm! We had wind for a solid 9 hours with gusts up to 102 mph! Our little neck of the woods seemed to get the brunt of the storm. We are all fine with little personal property damage -- our siding, roof, and shed are all intact. I can't say the same for many others in the neighborhood however. With winds predicted to be strong we took what precautions we could and took slats out of our fence, put garbage cans and lawn chairs in the garage and outside toys and such in the shed. Our fence sustained the most damage -- it is leaning a little more than usual and a large branch from our neighbors tree fell on a section of fence near the shed putting a nice dent in the top horizontal post. Our basketball hoop is also leaning now, but still usable. Our roof and siding stayed intact, and our trees stayed in the ground :) The winds kicked up at about 2:30 a.m. and we lost electricity. We laid in bed listening to the wind and hearing objects hit the house. We saw what looked like lightening light up the darkness every so often -- it was really electrical transformers blowing up! The house shook occasionally, feeling like an earthquake, and we heard lots of odd noises and bangs. At one point I thought I heard the siding being ripped from our house, but apparently it was one of the neighbors decks being obliterated. Most every house had trees uprooted, with some landing on homes or cars. A couple homes had broken windows. There were tons of lost shingles flying through the air. I watched one of the condos lose half the siding from their home. One trampoline came to a brief stop and was rescued on the fence across the street during the storm. It was in shreds (metal posts too), by the time the owner and about 10 others worked to rescued it. Mark and Jared helped a few neighbors pull some trees from the roofs and rescued a neighbors trampoline from the fence between especially strong wind gusts. The wind finally started to wind down around 11:30 a.m. and we were fortunate enough to have our power back on around 2:30 p.m. The kids have been out of school for two days. One of our neighbors has access to a dump truck and wood chipper, so he and everyone who is willing to help went through the neighborhood and cleaned up the trees yesterday. We have good neighbors. We are so glad that our next door neighbors followed the prompting early in the spring to remove two large trees that were situated between our homes. Had those not been removed, we would have been in some serious trouble. We are grateful that everyone is safe and glad to have this storm over!

PS. Ryan had a lot of fun riding his ripstick in the wind! He really got a good ride with the wind at his back. And then he hit a rock and banged up his knee. Game over. (He's fine though)

halloween

Matthew was many different characters for Halloween this year, but I only took pictures of him being Indiana Jones for the actual Halloween night of trick-or-treating. He has had a ton of fun wearing this hat we dug up from David's stash in G&G's basement. The hat is made of coconut and is from the Philippines. Mission goodies, love it! We were also able to dig up this awesome whip from Eric's stash and a rope from somewhere. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything to resemble Indy's leather bomber jacket, so we had to settle for the western vest. So, he kind of looks more like a cowboy, but you do what you can do, and in his mind, which is most important, he was Indiana Jones! His other costumes were Spiderman at his preschool party, and a fireman for the ward trunk-or-treat.
Because Matthew had been to what seemed like a bazillion Halloween functions, he only trick-or-treated the immediate neighborhood on Halloween night. This was his haul of candy. A reasonable amount -- especially when he shared it with everyone in the family!

stupid deer

What a crappy day! On the way to work this morning, about 8:30 a.m., Mark was on the freeway in the middle lane when he hit a deer and consequently the impact pushed him into another car. No one was hurt -- except the deer -- thank goodness. The "new" car is smashed up with a ton of body damage, so we're out a car for awhile. To top it off, the police gave Mark a citation for an improper lane change. He's VERY upset and will fight the courts on that one.

PS -- Update (11/9/11) Mark has spent the last two weeks worrying and being upset about the ticket. He spent half a day at the courthouse waiting to see the judge to plead his case today. The courts were very backed up and when he finally got his turn, the judge took one puny glance at the citation and immediately threw it out all the while muttering about why in the world the police would even try to take up his time with a silly deer accident... We are all very relieved and happy about the outcome. We should have the car back before Thanksgiving.

new york and ohio

Guess where this is? Niagara Falls, NY! Mark & I spent a few days with my parents, siblings & their spouses on a vacation to New York and Ohio to visit the church sites in Palmyra and Kirtland. We flew into Buffalo, so our first stop was Niagara Falls. The falls are amazing. Here's our group:
Here we are in our rain gear riding on the Maid of the Mist.
This is my mom & dad with a nice view of the "American Falls" in the background.


Yours truly.
The squirrels were very busy collecting their winter stash of nuts. I'm always impressed with their big bushy tails. Squirrels in the west don't have tails that glamorous.
After Niagara Falls, we headed to Palmyra. First stop was the Hill Cumorah. This is looking out over the valley from the top of the hill.
At the top of the Hill Cumorah is this monument with Moroni standing atop.
Our next stop was the Palmyra LDS temple. My sister, Kathleen, had made arrangements for us to do a sealing session there. She was able to find a few ancestors from my mothers side of the family that needed to be sealed. It was really awesome to be a proxy for people that I'm related to -- much more meaningful. And many thanks to Kathleen's good friend who provided a bunch more of her family names for us to seal while we were there. One thing I love about the grounds of this temple is that there are no fences around it. The grass just gives way to the forest and trees that are so abundant. It is so peaceful there.
This was our first visit to the inside of the temple. This temple is unique in the fact that it has a huge picture window just past the recommend desk that looks out over the sacred grove. What a beautiful site. All the other windows in the temple are stained glass that also feature the trees of the sacred grove.
Our group: In the back row is David, Karen, John, Kathleen, Michael, & Mark. In the front is GayLynn, Mom, Dad, & me.
The next day we visited the Book of Mormon printing shop. I didn't take many photos this time, but I did like this one of the book being stitched together.
Our next stop was the Joseph Smith farm. From the farm you can look across the road and up into the trees to find this beautiful view of the Palmyra temple.
I just love how it is nestled into the trees.
It's probably hard to tell from my pictures, but the scenery around the farm was just gorgeous!
Love this picture of my parents!
This is GayLynn and David standing near the "Alvin" tree. This is the tree that was planted by the Smith family following Alvin's (Joseph's oldest brother) death. It is huge and thick!
This is a view of the inside of the cooper's shed. At one time Joseph hid the gold plates up in the loft here to keep them safe from the mob.
John & Karen on the path that leads into the sacred grove. Love those autumn leaf colors!
Mark, me, Kathleen & Michael.
Inside the sacred grove.
The path in the grove was so covered by leaves that sometimes it was hard to tell where it lead. We loved hearing the crunch of the leaves under our feet.
Here we are at the Peter Whitmer home. This is where the church was officially organized on April 6, 1830. This was our last site in New York.
Our first stop in Ohio was at the John Johnson home in Hiram.
This is the room where Joseph received many revelations. One of particular importance is D&C section 76.
Elsa Johnson must have loved color. The Johnson home is very colorful -- here's an example of the orange painted woodwork. There was also green woodwork, feather painted woodwork & doors, and a red and black tile floor.
Our group again, at the Johnson home.
Our tour of the main Kirtland area was absolutely fabulous! Here we are at the Whitney store. The Whitney's were amazing people who gave literally everything for the forwarding of the gospel.
This table in one of the rooms above the store is a table original to Joseph Smith.
This is kind of an odd picture, but as I was listening to the sisters talk while we visited the Whitney home, I couldn't help noticing how beautiful the tree was just outside the window.
Here's me taking my own picture at the Ashery -- looking into one of the ovens.
We had a WONDERFUL tour of the Kirtland temple! We were able to see all three floors this time! No pictures are allowed to be taken inside the temple.
I love this picture of the temple surrounded by the trees and bushes.
Our last stop was the Isaac Morley farm. Here's my parents:
I like this shot of our backsides, because it shows us leaving. It's our parting picture of the wonderful vacation we had together.
I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to spend some time with my parents and siblings. It was a rare and memorable treat. I'm also grateful for G&G Vawdrey who took care of our boys while we were away. They had such a good time with their grandparents and cousins that they didn't even miss us!