Sledding

We got to go sledding the other day. Tyler thought it was the best. He and Kevin went out and scouted out the hills to find one small enough for the boys. They found one just a few minutes away. Tyler and Jay had a blast. Kevin was too big for the small hill, and I smashed my finger on the way down ( a rookie mistake, I was holding onto the side of the sled, leaned too far over, and squash, there goes my finger). But fun was still had by all, even though it was FREEZING and we didn't stay out long.

Attack of the Gingerbread Men

Tyler and I finally got around to some Christmas cookies the other day. We decided to do gingerbread men. They are so fun for the kids to decorate, and I have not had a gingerbread man for a long time. Tyler helped in the entire four step process: mixing, rolling and cutting, decorating, and of course eating. It was so fun, and Ty loves to help in the kitchen.

I feel so bad for these guys-they get decapitated every year :(

I've been Tagged

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?Wrapping paper, for sure. Although, my mother in law has some really cute gift bags.
2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial. I've only had a real one once, and it didn't hold ornaments very well.
3. When do you put up the tree? A couple days after Thanksgiving.
4. When take down? New Years
5. Do you like eggnog? NO WAY!
6. Favorite gift received as a child?A "Courtney" Barbie doll. My sister asked for it, but I got it instead, I was pretty happy.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes
8. Hardest person to buy for? My dad, he buys everything he wants anyway. It doesn't leave much for the rest of us to get him.
9. Easiest person to buy for? my kids, anything cars or sports and we are in business.
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received?Is there such a thing as a bad gift?
11. Mail or Email Christmas card? Mail, not that I am so good at sending them.
12. Favorite Christmas movie? White Christmas- you can't beat Bing Crosby.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? August or September. Whenever I see a good deal.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Sugar cookies-the soft kind,not crunchy. And only if I'm not the one who made them. Things just taste better if you don't put all the work into it.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?colored
17. Favorite Christmas song? Sleigh Ride-sung by the Disney characters.
18. Travel for Christmas or stay home? Iwish we could stay home and see family, but we travel, Christams isn't Christmas without family.
19. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Who can't?!
20. Do you have an Angel on top or star?Star
21. Open presents Christmas Eve, or Christmas morning? Christmas Morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? WAL-MART, WAL-MART, WAL-MART
Tag you're it: Jenn, Karla, Rachel, Melissa, Heather

GO COUGARS!

We took a weekend trip to Utah last weekend. Brandon called and said he had extra tickets to the BYU /Michigan State basketball game. Not only did he have tickets, but they were in the front row. It was great. We were sitting in the front of the student section. It was really loud, and I felt a little old, but none the less we had a great time.

Ever since Tyler got his new BYU shirt from uncle Brandon, he has a new obsession with them. So we took him to the BYU bookstore. You would have thought it was the greatest day in his whole life. He was pointing at everything, talking to the workers, and asking for everything with the BYU logo on it. It was Hillarious! He finally settled for a golf ball (staying true to his golf fetish),and two BYU pencils. Who knew four dollars could make a kid so happy?

We were waiting for the game to start, when Kevin said-"Hey,look on the big screen, there's that kid from Gresham." So I looked up and there was Troy Treanor-cousin to some of you friends out there. It seemed like something to get a picture of, so we hunted him down.(Actually he was only down the row a short way from us, when we looked over he was waving frantically at us.) I guess it goes to show you never know who you'll run into.

This is how close we were to the game-I wasn't even using zoom.

Kevin and I enjoying the game

My most favorite brother ever!

Aunt Kristi bought the boys these antlers while we were there. They light up and are apparently one of the coolest things ever. Thanks Aunt Kristi!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. It was great having my family all here. We ate tons of food, went shopping the day after, shot some guns, and watched Christmas movies. What a week! W also celebrated Kevins Birthday-the big 30! Oh-No!! The Sunday after Christmas we put our Christmas tree up. Things are so much more fun during the holidays when you have little kids. They think everything is so exciting. It would be nice if we could keep Jay out of the tree, but I'll deal with it. We watched "The Polar Express" with the boys last night. (A WONDERFUL movie, if you've never seen it) I don't think Tyler blinked the whole time. He is so excited about Santa. We had a town Tree lighting the other night, Santa was there, and Ty was so pumped. He told him he "wants boxing gloves, and bowling. And Jay wants cars,because he likes to play with cars...and so do I." Jay can say Santa, but as for seeing the real guy,he's not so thrilled. Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season, and remembers the real reason for the season. Merry Christmas!!!

Shootin' guns

My sisters and me(minus Tanya)

Kev's Birthday

Decorating the tree

Our tree

Ty and Jay with Santa(sorry you can't see their faces)

SNOW

well, we got our first snowfall last night. Actually, we did have a freak snow storm at the end of September, but I think it is here to stay this time

My family is here for Thanksgiving. It is nice to not have to drive anywhere, but we will miss seeing everybody from home.

Brandon and Tyler showing off their matching BYU attire

And I just had to put on a picture of Jay-It's only fair.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

My Small Town

I know that sometimes I complain about living in such a small town- but here are some pictures to show why I LOVE my small town.

I love these old rustic fence lines,they just seem so..simple.

Really,can you beat the sun setting over the mountains? O.K., so the beach might top it,but this in definately the next best thing.

This is just really random-cows crossing the rivers wherever they want. It just seemed so funny to me that I had to take a picture.

Fall here is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! I should have taken pictures when the leaves were changing colors-they are so bright! But I think I like the leaves off of the trees better.

My new dishwasher

Is it really pathetic when the most exciting thing in your life is a new dishwasher? My old one was finally on the fritz. Even though it was really old,and yellow,we decideed to keep it when we bought our house-hey-it still worked. Well,not so much anymore. It was making a weird "ka-clunk" sound and the heat element stunk really bad when it was in the dry cycle. So my poor little dishwasher had to go. Our first kitchen upgrade-what a big milestone in our lives. Ha Ha.

The old yellow monster-I will say that it matched our cupboards nicely.

The new dishwasher-now our cupboards and counter tops look REALLY old and bad,but hey-one thing at a time right?

Kevin,who is not much of a handyman,(it's o.k. to say that,because he knows it) had someone from church come and help install the new dishwasher. How hard could it be,right? Well, apparently it can be pretty difficult. The people who lived here before us replaced the kitchen floor,and instead of laying new vinyl over the existing flooring,they just built a new floor. The only problem was that they built the floor around the dishwasher, so it was pretty stuck. There was no room to pull it out,so they had to saw the legs off and pull it out. Which meant they had to saw the legs off the new dishwasher just to be able to fit it back into the slot. What a mess-a 45 min job turned into 4 hours. However, I no longer have to listen to a "ka-klunk" sound,my dishes are sparkly clean,and my new dishwasher is "oh,so quiet".

My Little "Idiots"

Tyler wanted to have an art project to do yesterday. All I could come up with, spur-of-the moment, were Indian hat things. I traced the boys' hands to use as the "feathers" and let them color a headband to connect them to. Tyler thought it was pretty cool. They had fun doing it,and it took them away from the t.v. for awhile. The only bad thing was that Ty kept calling them "idiot" hats. He didn't really know what indians were, and I guess idiots is the only word he knows that sounds like indian. It was pretty funny. All day long I had to keep making him say "indian".

I am pretty sure Jay is coloring the chair here.

You can't even see the hats here,but Tyler has a great face in this one

Jay kept taking his off, and putting it on the pumpkins. And yes-I do still have jack-o-lanterns on my porch.

Ty was so proud of his,he even wore it over to the school and told everyone about how he made his "idiot" hat.

More Fall Pictures

Sorry- I couldn't get all the photos on one post. Here is round numero two. Our nephew Brian came over to help us carve pumpkins. It was fun,but I don't think he was as excited as everyone else. The last picture is from the carnival at the school. kevin sure confused some of the little kids, dressing up as Santa Clause, they thought it was a Christmas party...funny.

Fall Photos

I love Fall! I think it is my favorite season of the year. I love taking the boys on walks, I love sitting on my couch and looking outside, and I love grabbing a sweater to put on when I go out. Oh, and I also love baking all the wonderful smelling food that goes along with Fall time. I thought you all might enjoy some random pictures we have taken this season. There are some from the pumpkin patch, some from fishing with dad, and of course, some more from Halloween....Enjoy!! I think Tyler is strangling Jay in the first picture.

Tyler loved the Pumpkin patch

Kevin's first trip to a pumpkin patch

I don't think Jay knew why we were there

Halloween-Why does it have to come once a year?

Some of you may know that I am not a huge fan of Halloween. I actually enjoy sitting at home and handing out candy,but the dressing up,having my kids change their minds about their costume every week,and trick-or-treating in 20 degree weather I could do without. However,since I try to be a good mom,I go along with the whole shabang every year. Tyler decideed way back in August that he was going to be Superman for Halloween. So I went out and got him his costume in like September. Two days before Halloween he was throwing a fit that he had to be a Ninja Turtle-thank you Saturday Morning cartoons. He didn't win the fight though,he was still Superman. Once we got to the carnival at the school and all the high school bays were telling him how cool he was, he seemed to be better. Jay on the other hand could care less what he is for Halloween, so he got a hand-me-down costume from my sister. He was a tiger, and was actually pretty happy about it. Since we live in a really small town, we only had to go to like eight houses to trick-or -treat. They give you so much candy at once that your bag is full in like 15 minutes-it's great. I also tried making doughnuts for the first time this Halloween. My good friend Karla's mom always made doughnuts on Halloween, and for some reason I can't celebrate halloween without them-thanks Gaye! Usually I just buy them,but this year I went all out. My boys loved them!! I should have taken some pictures-oh well. Kevin says I have to make them often now-we'll see.

Did I really just open a blog account? I never thought that I would get so technologically advanced! I never even took computer classes in high school-Look at me now baby!! So I am sure that compared to other peoples posts,mine will be completely LAME-O. However, i do like to look at other people's on occasion, and check up on them, so i will attemp as well. Hope I can keep up with all of you!