Thanksgiving 2013

This year for Thanksgiving it was just our little family. We did a ham dinner instead of the turkey. We had a small Thanksgiving dinner while my parents were here so we decided to not do it for Thanksgiving. They came in and surprised us. And it was a HUGE surprise! It was just about 11:30pm when they showed up at our door-and well, I had to get Danny up. Cause nothing good is knocking at your door at that time. So he jumped out of bed, grabbed pants and loaded his pistol. He yelled out asking who it was, and well, the reply we got was "It's a stranger." At this time I was standing in the hallway with Audrey when I slowly thought that I recognized the voice. It finally dawned on me that it was my dad's voice. I was actually on the phone with my mom while this was all transpiring. So, the funny thing is that they got a shocking welcome as much as it shocked us to have them just show up. But we have surprised them a few times as well so it's all fair. This was what the kids spent their time doing-hanging all over Grandma and Grandpa.

Anyways, back to Thanksgiving. We kept things small and simple. We did go see the new Disney movie Frozen. I thought it was really cute. I really liked the music, it seemed to be more heartfelt music to me and more of it. And consequently, it didn't appeal to Danny. But the rest of us enjoyed the show and totally enjoyed in. We came home and got our ham in the  oven and got the food all prepared. As we waited we just relaxed. It was a very yummy ham and trimmings.

We only had 2 pies since there is only 6 of us. I made some homemade mini smores pies. They were really delicious. We each got one of our own. Of course I found the recipe on pinterest. The other pie was a frozen Marie Calendars peanut butter cream pie. It was good too.

I thought I'd do something different this year. I am going to have each  of the family members write their own little paragraph about what they are grateful for.

Nathan
I am grateful for technology and entertainment, I like them because technology make our lives easier and better and entertainment keeps us from being bored all the time. I'm also grateful for family and the gospel because we get to go and do things with family and I'm thankful for the gospel because we learn about how we were created and what will happen through life and death.

Joshua
I'm    thankful   for    friends     family            toys        cousins         clothes     book    of     Mormon           church       houses     cups     forks       pens     pencils    tape     balls .

Colton
I am thankful for Mom, Dad, cars, couches, pillows, blankets, windows, and dogs. Thanksgiving means we eat turkey and pies and spend time as a family.

Audrey
I like my turtle. I like playing with my dolls and the box to hold them in. I like playing with my bean bag that mom made. I am thankful for my legos. I am thank you for my books. I am thank you for my friends and Jesus and Grandma and Grandpa.

Dan
Thanksgiving means to me a time to kick back, relax, and eat good food. It also is a brief period of time in our life where we are forced to reflect on the things in and aspects of our lives for which we are grateful. The things for which I am most grateful are my family and friends. These are the things in my life which remain the most constant and are with me regardless of what else is going on in my life.

Jen
Thanksgiving to me means a celebration with family and loved ones. A time when we can relax and think about our bounteous blessing. I know I am truly grateful for the people and  the things in my life. I have been given more than I need. I don't want for much. I am grateful for a warm home, a soft bed to sleep in, shoes on my feet from the cold ground, a car to travel in, food on my table everyday. The free country that we live in to worship as we'd like is a great blessing. A knowledge of the Plan of Salvation has been a tender mercy to me in times of hardships and trial. I always like to think of one of my favorite hymns on page 219, "Because I have been given much." In it my favorite phrase is: because I have been given much; I too must give. I try to live by that mantra in my life. I try to give back in any way that I am capable. I hope to teach that to my children as well by seeing my example. For my Heavenly Father has blessed my with more than I can ever repay Him thus I try to thank Him by acknowledging His hand in my life
 and obeying His commandments.

One Decade Nate!

 Happy Birthday to my oldest little man! He had his 10th birthday on Nov 20th. I can't hardly believe he's already a decade old (those are his words). I don't know when this little guy grew up so fast. I still remember the day he was born. He barely made it into this world on the 20th. It was 11:50pm when he finally made his appearance. He barely made it in at 6lbs 13 oz. He was my littlest guy but he was born 3 weeks early. I believe if we'd left him in to cook longer he'd have been an 8 pounder. But I couldn't wait that long back then-too many factors were involved in that decision. He was still a cute little stinker. Anywhoo, back to birthday celebrations.

Reading his birthday card.

Yes it is 5pm but he's in pj's. He had a pajama party at school so that's what he stayed in all day. I didn't really give Nate much of a choice on what he was getting for presents. I just knew what he'd been asking for and went shopping on Amazon. I love Amazon shopping, don't have to leave the house and it all comes to me. Yay!

A new alarm clock that he'd been wanting for a long time. The cool thing is that the snooze is motion sensered so all you do is swipe your hand over that clock and it snoozes itself. How cool is that!

He was thrilled to get his mine craft Lego's from Grandma and Grandpa. He built them that night.

I like this shot of him. Another Diary of a Wimpy kid book

And I loved this of him, immediately diving right into the book.

And lastly this is the cake I made for him. I chose a mine craft cake, the creeper. So this is what I was able to pull off. It wasn't the greatest but I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. And so where all the kids, they loved it. And this was by far the easiest of all the cakes I have made for them.

All smiles for his birthday cake.

We are so grateful to have our Nathan in our family. He is a very good kid. He wants to do what is right. He knows what he's suppose to do. He knows all the answers at church and I'm sure at school too. Nate loves to tease and wrestle with his siblings. He plays the big brother really well. He likes to hold and read books to his baby sister whenever the little stink will let him. He loves Cub scouts, he is now a Webelo and will be working on his Arrow of Light and earning his Faith in God. He loves to talk (and maybe just a little too much). He likes to hear himself talk. He's beginning the preteen phase of talking back and really wanting some independence. And well, Mom and Dad are having a hard time adjusting to that idea. I think we still see him as our baby Nate. He's growing up and needing more freedom to make his own decisions and mistakes. That's the hardest part watching him make the mistakes and having to let him learn from them. And then realizing that he only received one toy, his Lego's, and everything else he got was more grown up type items. He's not a little boy anymore. We sure do love our Nate. We are very blessed to have such a terrific boy in our family.

Colton's 1st lost tooth

Colton has lost his first tooth!! He came to my one night and said he had blood in his mouth and said he'd brush his teeth again. When I went to check on him and see which tooth was bleeding. And discovered that it was loose. So, when he was done I told him that he would be loosing a tooth soon. I sent him on his to bed. Well, he immediately came back up with a tooth in his hand. He was so excited!

Thought you'd all like to see the bloody aftermath. I think it bleed more than other lost teeth because it probably really wasn't time to come out. This was a tooth that had been crowned and I wonder if it may have decayed enough to  just fall out. But who cares, it still warranted a stop by the tooth fairy. Colton was super excited that the tooth fairy left him $1. Ya, I know, our tooth fairy isn't very loaded.

Halloween 2013

This Halloween I was an Indian girl.

Dan was a old time cowboy. He tried using some cheap spurs but they broke. And this is all I got of him for the night.

This is our beautiful Barbie princess.

Mr Batman was with us.

We had a fierce ninja protecting us.

And we had a minecraft figure around.

They are all ready to get going. This year we went to Zona Rosa (a local outdoor mall.) They had some games, haunted house and of course lots of candy. They ended up with a good amount of junk.

2013 School Year

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of the kids starting school the 2013-2014 school year. Summer went by way too fast for me. We had a good summer and I wasn't really ready to have it begin again. Mostly cause it means I have to get up in the morning and I hate mornings. I'm a night owl so mornings come way to fast. Anyways it has been a good year so far. These first few pictures are in front of their school on meet the teacher night. I refuse to go and get pictures on the actual first day of school because there are just too many people there and I don't really like big crowds either. And doing it this way gives me all the time I'd like to get a shot of them.

 

Here's my Nate ready to begin a new year and discover who his teacher is and if any of his friends are in his class. He is in the 4th grade and has Mrs. Bearden  and seems to be a good teacher for him.

Oh my little Josh is growing up. He was pretty ready to begin school again. He is now in 2nd grade with Mrs. Lynn as his teacher. It appeared that a lot of his peers had grown over the summer but our little Joshy seems to be the runt of the liter. Oh well, like the saying goes: He may be little but he is fierce!!!!

My baby boy! My baby boy Colton has grown enough to enter the world of school. He was so ready and excited to go to school this year. He is in Kindergarten and got Mrs. York who Josh also had for kindergarten. So, I know she is really good and I really liked her. But I have to admit I hated the idea of him going to school because it's all day long and I still wanted more time with my  little sweet boy.

All my guys in front of their school.

Mr. 4th grader ready for his 1st day of school.

Mr. 2nd grader anxious to be on his way.

Mr. Kindergartner excited to ride the bus to school.

The brothers waiting for the bus. I can't believe that all 3 of my guys are in school all day long.

And off the go to get on the bus. Colton was nervous about finding his classroom. And fortunately Nate's class room was in the basement near Colton's so it worked out that Nate took Colton to his classroom for about 2 weeks. It was great that it worked out like that.

And of course we couldn't leave out Audrey. She was waiting for her brothers to get off the bus. She demands a hug from each of them before they go to school still does. I think it's been an adjustment for her to be the only one home but I don't really think she minds too much.

And this is why I say that I don't think she minds being the only one at home. She is such a mommy's girl. She tends to get a little spoiled with just her and I. So, I took this of us because I was so bored waiting for the kids to get home from their first day of school. They got out at 4:10 and it was after 5 before the bus finally arrived. Thankfully the bus routine has gotten better and they now get home around 4:30. It's just such a long day for them. They leave the house at 8:35am and get home at 4:30. Because of the long hours they tend to get away with very few chores. Lucky them!!!

Revenge can be sweet

Hello there???? It has been a rather long time since I posted. I kind of took the summer off. I didn't even upload any pictures to my computer all summer long. I barely got the camera out and uploaded like 230 pictures and videos. I do plan on catching up on some posting of pics. It's my way of journaling so I am going to be trying to play catch up. Some may get tired of seeing all the pics I have but again, it's my blog so I'll do what I want.

Anyways, my first post into the blogging world again is one of Josh. We bought a scary mask to scare Josh and we filmed it. A little back story to explain why. Josh and Colton share a room. And well, Josh likes to get down there first and scare Colton each night. Colton hates it. We begged and demanded he stop. He didn't. It got so bad that Colton didn't want to go downstairs to his room alone and he also began wetting the bed-btw, he'd never been one to do that. We had been warning Josh that he'd pay for scaring him and that we would get him back. We switched Colton to the bottom bunk and put Josh on top. That seemed to help. But he wouldn't stop. One Monday we spent the day at Halloween stores and departments stores in search of something. We found one that we loved but didn't buy because it was a lot. Came home and searched for it on Amazon. Bought it and waited for it's arrival. Well, this is the fruit of our efforts. Not the best reaction. But we are continuing to scare him  at different times too. He has laid off of Colton now. Parents of the Year here? Probably not but it worked for us.

Smithville Fishing

 

We went fishing this spring with some friends at Smithville Lake. We caught a couple but nothing big enough to keep. Justin and Lindsay Dill kicked our butts in the fishing. Here are a bunch of fun pictures from that trip.

 

Josh, Whitley, Colton and Nate playing in the minnows.

Although everyone played with the minnows, Audrey was relentless with them. I caught her grabbing them and slipping them into a water bottle. Another time she had it in her hand ready to smash and squish it. That was disgusting.

Josh loves to tease his little sister.

Big big toothless grin.

Audrey and her good friend Whitley

Nate is showing me that he actually hooked his own minnow. This was a huge feat for him cause he hates anything wet, squishy, etc.

Another huge feat, he's holding his own crappie

Family fishing along the shore

Fishing requires more patience than Colton really has

Pretty setting. And notice the boys in the bucket of minnows. That kept them entertained all night

Josh's music program

Can you tell this boy was just thrilled to be in a music program. He was front and center because they go by height. And unfortunately he didn't get a lot of height from his parents. This boy is one stubborn little guy!

I had a video that showed his personality.  But there was problems with it uploading. It shows that no one is going to make him do anything he doesn't want to. He had done most of the actions for most the program. But this was near the end and he was done! He quit doing any of the actions, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He just wanted to be finished. And the final shot of him cracks me up! He was picking his nose then looking at it. Kids are shameless!

 

Colton graduates from North Cross Preschool

Colton with his friends Cash and Lauchlen.

Paul, Colton and Caleb

My newest preschool graduate!! Go Colton!

Mrs Ford, Colton and Mrs Arnone. They were fabulous with Colton!

Colton receiving his diploma

His entire preschool class

My cute little graduate

Cute little display for their cupcakes

 They had a cute little slide show to play during the ceremony and this is a few of the shots that they had of Colton.

 

This is a cute little song of Colton singing at his ceremony

Colton loved his preschool and his teachers. I have really enjoyed North Cross Preschool. Colton's teachers did tell me that they had just discussed how far his speech has come over the year and if they couldn't understand him, they said he worked really hard to make it so that they could. It's been a great experience for Colton and for Josh and eventually for Audrey too. Colton went to preschool on Tues and Thurs from 9-3. I worried about him going all day but he did great. He loved his preschool days and wished he could go more.  So, I know he's going to do just fine in kindergarten. I just can't believe this school year is over.

The graduation was really nice. I held it together that night. I just didn't think about it. I mowed the lawn earlier that day and certain songs would come on and would make me tear up. I just can't believe he's done with preschool, before I know it he'll be graduating high school. So, I just don't like to think about it cause I don't want to cry. My kids are growing up so fast and I don't think I'm ready for it. Sometimes I miss the "easier" days of little ones all at home, no school, no extra activities, a little more carefree. Don't get me wrong, although I miss that, I am enjoying the freedom that comes as they age. Anyways, I am very proud of Colton. He's a great kid. He's very smart and caring and social. I just know he's going to excel in kindergarten. And it'll be here in a couple of week. He's doing a 2 week kindergarten kickoff in June with his new teacher. So watch out Meadowbrook and Mrs Deason here comes Colton!!!