I think I'm on the naughty list...

I know I have been a terrible blogger lately, but I have a good excuse.  My laptop has been dying a slow death, and every time I do anything on it, it takes about 10 minutes to open stuff, and internet explorers shuts down, and I get frustrated and want to throw it out the window.  Scott has recently gifted me his old work laptop, but it's an apple, so I have to learn how to use it, but I plan to start blogging again, and to update the past year on this little old blog of mine.  It's an overwhelming project, but needs to be done - for posterity!

Anyway - I need to blog about two things that happened over Christmas, before it's all fallen out of my head.  I'm attempting this on my iPad, which means there's no pictures, and probably lots of typos, - but here goes...

First - Tiff is here to spend Christmas, and we LOVE it!  It's so fun to have her here!  We picked her up at my parents house on Christmas Eve.  We enjoyed a lovely dinner with my parents, and Hyrum who is here from Colorado, and then read the Christmas story from the Bible, talked about the different pieces of the he nativity, opened some new Christmas pjs, bathed and dressed the kiddos, and headed home.  At home, the boys put out cookies and milk for Santa, water and carrots for the reindeer, and went right to bed, after checking on Santa's whereabouts on dad's phone.  They were so quick to get into bed, and we didn't hear a peep.  That's when Tiff informed Scott and I off the conversation she overheard In the car on the way home.  She said Jackson leaned over to Adam,and whispered "I think I'm on the naughty list!" To which Adam replied "well, you never really know."  And then Adam informed Jackson "I don't think AJ (our elf) is real.  I noticed a tag on his back the other day."  I'm not sure if Jackson had response to that or not.

Well, Christmas morning, Adam was up before Jackson, and he came and climbed into bed with Scott and I.  So we decided to ask him about AJ not being real.  I loved Adam's answer.  He said "I think what happens is that a mom or dad that want an elf for their family, go to the store and buy the elf.  Then, if the kids have been good, Santa makes a special trip and sprinkles the elf with his Christmas magic, so he comes alive just for that family."   I'm not sure how much  longer Adam will believe in Christmas magic or Santa, but I love his innocence and trust.  

Merry Christmas everyone!  

More Kate Pictures

What can I say - this girl is adoreable and snapping pictures of her is soooo easy to do!  These are from the first part of the year...

One day I found Kate laying like this coloring...

She does it all the time...

She only wears these cute headbands from Aunt Tiffy on her own terms.  Three or four at once.

She was worn out one Sunday evening and fell asleep during out ritual popcorn, orange julius and AFV.

Spider-girl!

Messy FHE treat.

 Chillin while mommy does some grocery shopping.

Saturday morning smiles.

She loves this stroller that Santa brought her.

Big girl at one of Adam's baseball games this spring.  She was the entertainment for everyone during some of those long innings...

Big Brother

Last weekend, we became a two kid family for a night.  Jackson went to spend the night at Grandma's house with Robyn, so we just had Adam and Kate at home.  We headed out to watch some of the young men in our ward run at district wide track meet.  On the way out, Kate took Adam's hand and let him help her through the maze of cars.  It was so cute, we had to snap some pictures!

Adam looks like a giant next to her, and she totally adores him!  They are 6 years apart in age.

The mighty, mighty spiderman

Jackson has had a long obsession with Spider-Man.  It went away for a little bit, but yesterday morning, he found his spiderman costume and wanted to wear it.  We put it on, and it's a little bit short, and has holes and runs all over it, but it didn't matter to this kid.  He wore it on our walk to drop Adam off and school, and he was the hit of the morning!  Big kids and little kids alike came up and gave him 5 and let him shoot webs at them.  I wish I had gotten a picture of Adam's face as all the kids in his class asked him if that was his brother.  I think he was a little bit embarrassed and proud all at the same time.

Jackson was Spider-Man all day!  He wore it to his friends house while I volunteered in Adam's class and decided that being Spider-Man protected him from their dog (who he always hid from before), and they didn't have to put her in the kennel.  He wore it to pick Adam up from school and got more hi-5s.  It was a spider-riffic day!!

Reading

Just going through old pictures and found these from back in February.  Reading bedtime stories!

Great Wolf Lodge!

We planned a quick weekend trip to Great Wolf Lodge.  Just one night - which was plenty of time!  We had a great time!! 

Posing in front of the picture window...

Ready to go swimming!
 

Kate was a wild girl in the pool.  She loved the slide and spent the whole time going around and up the stairs, through the sprayers and down the slide.  Most of the time, she didn't want any help - except when she would trip and go all the way under the water.  It was pretty crazy to watch.  We had several people come up to us and comment on how brave she was!  She would do the slide all by herself, then get up and head right back over to the stairs to do it again.  Scott and I took turns hanging with Kate while the other did slides with the boys.  Jackson loved going down the body slides, and Adam had a great time on the big slides. 

After dinner, we settled everyone in PJs and got a treat to wait for the bedtime show.  Kate enjoyed a chocolate covered banana...  Messy!



Here's the whole gang - waiting!

Blue-eyed girl - waiting...

The next morning, we headed down to breakfast, and then spent some time in the arcade.  Kate wasn't quite sure what was going on, but she had fun wandering through the games.

The boys had a blast playing games...

...and winning tickets.

They earned 433 tickets, and were pretty excited about it!

After playing in the arcade, we headed back to get ready for some more swimming.  We spent a fun afternoon swimming before heading home!  It was a quick, but fun little family get-a-way!

Blowing Bubbles

One last post from Idaho Falls.  Nate and Shae brough bubbles, and Kate was so cute trying to blow them by herself....

Then, she got great grandma to help...

What a great time we had!  I feel so blessed that my kids get the chance to spend time with my grandma.  I'm thankful that we had the chance to go!

Picture Time...

We had to be sure to do some group pictures while we were together for a week.  It was tough, but we got all the kiddos to sit on the couch with Great Grandma.  We've got Noah, Aiden, Asher, Kate (on great grandma's lap), Talia, Eli (sitting on the back of the couch with Nate hiding to hold hime up), and then Jackson and Adam.

Here's another one - minus Eli...

Three generations...  My mom, Me with Kate and my grandma.

We took this picture th night before we left... Kate finally warmed up and let Great Grandma hold her.

All the kids cozyed up to watch a movie.

And finally getting a hug from great grandma!

Texting with Dad

Scott didn't go with us on our little trip to Idaho.  He had a trip to Oregon for work, and then went on a little fishing trip with a buddy.  The kids really missed (me too!!).  Adam stole my phone and did a little picture texting with his dad.  Crazy boys!

More Playing at Great Grandma's house

More random pictures of playing...

Kate and Eli.  Eli turned 3 this past May.

Kate helping Grandma make a salad for dinner.

Dancing!!

Aunt Tiffy joined us at the end of the week, and painted everyone's fingernails and toenails - including Jackson's....



Saturday was General Conference.  My cousin and his wife came over to watch conference with us.  In between sessions, the organized a game of soccor with the kids.

Kate showing Aunt Tiffy how good her thumb really is...

Night time...