Winter

This past weekend we decided to take a trip to the ranch. The boys didn't have any games, so at the last minute we jumped in the car and drove to Bicknell. This time of year is the reason that I couldn't live there in the winter. It is so dang cold-the wind blows and so I sit inside trying to get a few projects done, but mostly I sit by the wood-burning stove and read a good book while my husband braves the cold and does projects outside, (silly Dan). My boys ride the motorcycle and go-cart until their hands are about to fall off, then come inside to do some of their favorite activities.......Luke (aka Luke Skywalker), can't get enough of the Star Wars series that we keep down at the ranch.....Do you think he is close enough to the action?
I was curious when everything was quiet so I went looking for my children. Then I walked into the pool room and saw this scene....what could all four of my boys be doing?
Oh........they were all envolved in very intense game boy games, even my youngest, and people wonder why we don't get a Wii or Game cube etc. My boys would turn into robots.
This is what we came home to on Monday. I got stuck at the foot of our driveway trying to plow my way through a couple feet of snow, somehow my minivan just didn't cut it, go figure. It took us awhile to dig out. FUN STUFF!!!

True Love

Joe and I had a very interesting conversation the other day after school. I asked him how school was, and he said "fine, but recess was GREAT!" So, I, of course, asked about recess and his response was, "Mom, you are going to think this is WAY too old for me, but, I am in love." As I probed, he continued to tell me this story. "I was at recess and Lizzy, (a name we will be hearing a lot of in the near future), came up to me at recess and asked if I loved her and I said 'yes' and she said, 'me too'. Mom, I love her and want to marry her." I was trying to keep a straight face, because if you know Joe, he relates things in a different way, I love to hear him tell stories. He continued to tell me that, "dad was right....the girls are all over me, well....one anyway. Ben will not even believe it." He went on to tell me his real feelings as we went to my sisters house. When we got to her house, he was beaming and told her the same story, and at the end he said to her, "well, it looks like you're going to have another granddaughter." What the heck? What kid says that? We were dying. Joe is in love!!!!

New Year

This is what our New Year has started off like. LAZY!! Notice anything wrong with this picure? This is Dan and my bed, but where are we??? This is how every morning on this holiday vacation started off like. One by one, the rugrats would get into our warm bed with us until there was no longer any room and we would get pushed out of bed. We enjoyed the time off of school, work etc. I feel that the holidays went by too quickly and was one big whirlwind. Now that the kids are back in school and Dan is back at work, I feel like I am getting a little bit more accomplished. I am getting back into the routine etc. I still wish that we could all sleep in again for a little while longer.

Merry Christmas

These are four happy boys on Christmas Day. Josh's big present was the 'Go Diego' backpack that makes lots of noise and sings all kinds of songs. He has such a groovy dance that goes along with the music that I recorded on our video camera, but unfortuneately I don't know how to download it to the blog. Luke got a 'power ranger' phone (that cost $20) and he loved it until he saw his best friends 'power ranger' phone (that cost $2) and said he wanted one like his friends. He still loved the gameboy games he received. Joe got a helicopter and some art stuff. Joe is happy with anything and everything, to him this was the "best Christmas EVER". Ben got all of the accessories for a Gameboy DS. He was thrilled. His DS will be coming in February after he is finished with his 1 year without candy deal. We had a nice Christmas. I love getting together with family and friends.
Christmas breakfast (compliments of Dan the chef)....Fresh squeezed orange juice (shipped straight from Arizona from my sister), bacon and eggs, and toast. Love Christmas morning breakfasts!!!
Christmas Eve, we went to my sister Lindas house. We had a yummy dinner and then, as tradition has it we act out the nativity. We have had the baby Jesus for many years now and I think that we will have to retire our parts so that someone else can have the opportunity to play Mary and Joseph. We are hoping for someone to take over, we need some new babies, if not, maybe we can handle it for another year. Cutest baby Jesus you have ever seen???
Absolutely adorable wisemen singing "We Three Kings".
Here are some handsome shepherds abiding their flock, waiting for the angel to appear. We also had some REAL talent by Austin playing the guitar and his girl-friend who played the violin. We played the bells and sang Christmas songs. We love this time of year. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and enjoyed the spirit of the season.

Happy Birthday Ben

For Bens birthday we went skiing. We invited the Williams family to come with us. I can't tell you how much of a birthday present it was for me, rather than Ben. It had just snowed and the powder was amazing. I (I mean WE) had so much fun. It was a little harder for the boys to ski in, but it was such a great day for skiing.
The morning was warm, but it got colder as the day went on. We stopped in for hot chocolate.
We came home and got cleaned up and went for a competitive round of bowling with his friends. Ben is now 10 (no more single digits for him). We love him and hope he had as good of a birthday as I did:)

Thanksgiving

This is how we all felt after a delicious meal at my mother-in-law, Nancy's house. The morning started off with a large famiy photo downtown at Busaths. It was cold. All of Nancy's children were there with their families, so it was a lot of fun for her to get a picture. Everyone (including the kids) was very patient. After the photo, we went home and finished the baking and took our portion of the meal to Nancy's. We ate and ate and ate, then played games and then ate some more, because you have to finish the meal with pie and ice cream. We had a lot of fun with the cousins. Especially the ones from out of town. Not because they are the same ages as my boys, but because they are GIRLS!!! We have one girl cousin that lives here in Draper, and we love her, she babysits for us and is wonderful. We went to the Hale Center Theatre one night...
we went downtown to see the lights at Temple Square and went to the Discovery Museum at the Gateway Mall, which was a lot of fun.
Josh barely had to walk, he was carried on someones shoulders the whole time....lucky sucker.
Josh was ready for the cold.
Thanks to Nancy for having us all over for Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun and I am pretty lucky to have married into a great family. I have a lot to be thankful for.

Tuscon

It looks like our kids really missed us while we were gone last week, doesn't it? Our cute niece Kailan watched them for the weekend-they look miserable don't they. Good thing we weren't gone too long...who knows what shape they would have been in:)

Dan and I had the chance to go to our annual conference for camp. This year it was in Tuscon at a ranch called Tanque Verde. Our accomidations were really nice and we had such a great time. Not only are all of the people in the association really good people, but they are a lot of fun too. We played in the annual golf tournament on a beautiful course. The desert is actually very pretty. We were able to play tennis, go mountain biking, hiking, swimming and golf (twice). Oh yeah, did I mention we had to go to a couple of meetings here and there, but overall we were very active. The food was amazing and pleanty of it. It was a nice break and I think our kids had a ball without us for a few days. Thanks for all of the people who made it possible for us to go. We have amazing friends and neighbors.