snow!

 We didn't have much snow last winter, so when we got a good snow in November, the kids were all over it!  They built a snow cave in the back yard -- that's Ryan peeking out in the above picture, and him sitting in it below. 

 That's Jacob rolling snowballs to get all the snow into place for the snow cave. (pictures are a bit out of order) The kids also did some sledding at the school. Jared & Ryan spent quite awhile shoveling driveways at the twin homes as well.  All that sledding and shoveling can wear a kid out!

 These next pictures are from today.  We had a pretty big storm just after Christmas and the kids headed to the sledding hill at the school.  Jacob is trying out his new snowboard.

 Oops!  Crash!

 Ryan and Matthew on the sled.

 Mark gets in on the sledding action -- I love how Matthew's eyes are closed as he takes this thrill ride!

matthew's tricks

 Matthew is amazingly strong!  He loves turning upside down and has taught himself to stand on his head, stand on his head and do the straddle, and even clap his hands while standing on his head! 

 He can also do this bridge!

I think I'll be signing him up for some tumbling classes in the near future!

Christmas

 We decided we should try a real pine tree for Christmas this year!  Well, we didn't realize how pricey they can be since we haven't had a real tree for years.  So, we found this cute little inexpensive "Charlie Brown" tree at the lot and brought it home.  With lots of white lights and just a few homemade decorations it reminded me all month of the little trees that my G&G Brady used to have in their home while I was growing up.  Good memories.

Here's the boys in their matching pj pants on Christmas Eve -- the little goofy's!

 Christmas morning!  We made the boys sleep in till 7 AM.  They came in and woke Mark & I up and then we all headed down to the living room to check out what Santa had brought.  Jared & Ryan both got those colossal lego sets.  Ryan's is a remote control jeep and Jared's is the Millenium Falcon.  Hopefully they'll have fun putting them together and it will keep them busy over the Christmas break.

 Jacob got a remote control SUV.

 And a 3 in 1 lego set.  Those were the two things he wanted this year!

 Matthew got some Batman toys and this race car track.

 After playing with toys, opening gifts and having breakfast, we headed over to G&G Vawdrey's for awhile.  Of course there were a couple of gifts to open there.  Ryan got this snowboard to try out on the sledding hills.

 Matthew got avenger guys,

and Jacob got walkie talkie watches.

 The cousins came for a couple hours later in the afternoon and they had fun playing the Logo game and having more foosball tournaments.

 This picture is in the wrong order, but Jared got a BYU t-shirt from G&G.  A good Christmas was had by all!

marks new job

Mark was offered a job this week as the Budget Manager for the Central Lab! Wahoo!  He has been trying for a very long time to switch jobs because he needs to do something new (to keep him sane) and get some different work experience. Unfortunately, the job will be a longer commute (mileage-wise, but not time-wise) and a cut in pay, but it will hopefully help him be a happier person and give him the experience he needs to move up in the future. We are grateful that we'll be able to keep our benefit package and that it won't require us to move, so the boys will be able to continue with their schools and activities.  Change always requires us to stretch in new ways, so we'll be stretching!  He will start mid-January.

newtown

On Friday, back in Newtown, Connecticut, a crazy guy forced his way into an elementary school and opened fire.  20 students and 6 or 7 adults died.  A horrible tragedy.  The school was in a great community, it had safety/locks in place and still this horrible thing happened.  I felt really sad.  It really makes me and a bazillion other people wonder if our kids are safe at school?  What needs to be done to keep them safe?  Not sure of the answers. Everything totally hit home to me on Monday morning as I walked my boys to school and there was a police officer standing at the front of the school along with the principal trying to help everyone feel safe about coming to school.  I shed a few tears on the walk home.  Extra police presence continued throughout the week.  Thursday was my jr. high carpool day.  As I pulled up to the front of the school to let everyone out, I noticed the police car in front of the doors.  It has not been unusual to see an officers car parked in the front designated parking space at the school, but to have an officer's car on the sidewalk entrance in front of the doors was definitely different. I'm pretty sure I shed a few more tears.  I'm glad that our school administrators are taking this kind of violence seriously and trying to make sure our schools remain safe.  I hope it works.

jacob the ukulele player

 Jacob learned to play the ukulele last year at school and has continued to enjoy it.  Our elementary school started a ukulele club this year and Jacob is part of it.  They performed a small Christmas concert and did a pretty good job -- especially considering that some of the kids are learning ukulele for the first time.  Anyway, since Jacob is already pretty good, the teacher lets him play the bass ukulele.  It's amplified and very cool!
Jacob also spent some time playing ukulele with his cousins, Kaymi & Colton, at Christmas.  They really added some good singing!

thanksgiving fun

 G&G V filled a pinata with candy and let the kids whack away.  It was great fun!

 Mark's cousin, Pam, was here for Thanksgiving with her family.  Her kids match up in age darn close to mine and they had a wonderful time playing together.  This was a new game they invented with Jacob's soccerball-on-a-rope.  The center person swung the ball around and everyone on the outside had to jump over it as it came around.  If the person missed, they traded places with the center person. 

The boys also had a foosball tournament in the basement.  They can't wait to play again at Christmas!

photo

Here's the photo.  A quick family photo from Thanksgiving day. 

update

I was going to post a photo, but apparently I'm out of space according to blogger here.  I'll try to fix that and get a photo up.  Too bad, it was a nice photo.
Anyway...We had a nice Thanksgiving with Mark's family.  The boys had a great time playing games with their cousins, and it was really fun to have Pam (Mark's cousin) and her kids join us. The boys were loving the foosball table that Grandpa dug out and had a good time making up jumping games with Jacob's soccer-ball-on-a-rope too.

In other news, I was finally released from my Relief Society calling back in September.  It had been close to four years serving in that calling and I was starting to burnout, so it was a welcome change, but I do miss seeing and talking with some good friends every week.  My new calling was finalized about a week and a half ago.  I'm the new Bear Den leader for our ward.  I have some mixed feelings about it -- I'm really glad that I get the opportunity to hang out with Jacob, but the leader who was released was doing such a great job and loving it, that it makes me sad to replace her.  Although I really feel like the more I get going with this calling, the more I'm going to have fun with it.

And finally, after three plus months of pain in my heel and foot, I decided it was time to see a doc.  Diagnosis: mild case of plantar fasciitis with a particular point of painful scar tissue in my heel.  Pretty much expected that's what was going on.  I got some arch supports for my shoes and some home exercises to do.  I was also told to roll my heel around on a frozen golf ball to work on the scar tissue.  Anyone have an old golf ball hanging around?  I swear it's the only kind of ball we DON'T have in the garage!  Hopefully with time it will feel better and if not, I'll sign up for some physical therapy.

basketball time

 My boys love basketball, and its basketball season around here!  My camera stinks for action shots in the gym, so I take what I can get.  This is Jacob.  He has a couple friends on his team and the rest of the kids are from all different schools.  They have done a good job of getting to know each other so they can play as a team.  Unfortunately, they haven't won a lot of games so far, but they go out and do their best every time and its fun to see the improvement over the last month.

Ryan started basketball again too, but I don't have any pictures yet.  His team is playing in a league that is for older kids, so they are currently on a losing streak -- very much so!  Most of his team consists of the same kids that he's been playing with for the past couple years, but there are some new players too.  Hopefully his team will be able to play in a different league this winter where they will all be the same age and be able to compete better.

happy time of day

 One of the happiest times of the day for me is meeting Matthew after school.  I love to watch him come out the school doors and race down the grassy hill to meet me!

On the way home we'll talk about what happened at school or recess and he'll tell me the new words he learned in Chinese class. It makes me happy.  Matthew, I love you...VERY MUCH!

ho ho ho halloween

 Ho! Ho! Ho!  Happy Halloween!  Jacob wanted to be Santa Claus this year.  It was the best idea ever -- very clever, and VERY funny!  But wouldn't you know it, the one year we come up with a WARM costume, the weather is actually unseasonably warm and the costume downright hot!  Oh well!  Our Santa had a great time trick-or-treating and brought home a sack full of goodies.  Matthew chose to be Captain America - awesome!  I love his "grin".

 The kids are ready to start knocking on doors!

We had to get a picture of Captain America sitting on Santa's lap letting him know he's been a good boy this year.

 We carved pumpkins the weekend before Halloween.  Maybe we should just call it "decorating" pumpkins, since Jacob was the only one that actually did some carving.  His Jazz logo turned out pretty good!  Matthew's "Y" pumpkin did get gutted though, so that we could put lights inside to make it glow up. Me, I just opted to stab my pumpkin with a few sticks this year and bag the gutting!

uea - part 2

 We've driven by a million times, but never stopped.  On Friday we decided it was about time we explored Valley of Fire.  It's a state park in Nevada located between Mesquite and Las Vegas to the east.  It makes a nice little day trip.  It's a lot like the red rock parks in Utah, but I think more desert-like with random awesome red and white rock formations popping up.  The above picture is a little canyon on the Mouse's tank hike (short 1/2 mile).  There's lots of little caves and hiding spots in the rocks.

 A very pretty desert flower -- and apparently VERY poisonous!

 It wouldn't be red rock country (desert) without seeing a few lizards.

 Lots of great rock formations to climb around on.

 Matthew found a great little cave to climb up into and then found this little peekhole.

Ryan needed to do an ecosystems assignment for school, so he's filling in his worksheet while joining his brothers for a break on the rocks.

 This is mouse's tank -- a little bathtub of water in the desert.

 There are tons of petroglyphs on the rock walls.  They are well preserved and easy to see.

 We ended our day at Elephant Rock.  Can you see the trunk and body?

 Another great cave here -- Matthew had the whole caved mapped out into kitchen, bedroom, window, doors, and living room.

 Mark atop Matthew's cave.

 Me & Jacob on top of a bunch of rocks (that you can't see).  But at least there's one picture of me to document that I was there!

 On our way home on Saturday, we took the long route, going up through Pine Valley and then over to the Mountain Meadows Massacre site.  There is a nice monument there and this wall lists all the people/families that were massacred there - sad to say the least.

After lunch in Cedar City, we headed for home.  A pleasant way to spend a lazy weekend.