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.