Christmas traditions and parties.

Traditions are awesome. I love getting together with family for the holidays. It's all about being with family and making memories for me. This year my mom started a new tradition. She read us a book about Pennies Christmas Jar. It's an adorable story about a little girl, whose family saves money in a jar all year long, and then each member of the family gets to take a turn choosing who to give it to on Christmas. It was Pennie's turn and she chose an elderly sick man in her neighborhood. My Mom gave us each a Christmas jar so we too, could save our pennies and give to someone less fortunate. I love this new traditon! I am looking forward to it.

My Mom's house on Christmas.
The kids got some pretty awesome stuff from their Grandma and Grandpa M.

Papa Tod & Grandma Fran's house on Christmas.
We had a yummy mexican lunch and the kids got some pretty awesome stuff again. We are so grateful for Grandparents!

So glad my brother was around for the holidays this year! I loved him and Shannin's matching Christmas sweaters!

Grandma Andi & Papa Bill's on Christmas eve. We had an amazing turkey dinner and some good times watching all of the kids perform songs for us. Ryker likes to wear this hat and strum the guitar and sing for us. He sings jingle bells, pirate songs, and whatever comes to mind. He's such a little character.

The kids are so lucky to have so many cousins to play with.

The kid table!

Looking back on all of these pictures just warms my heart. I am so thankful for my family, each and every member of it. I love spending the holidays with them and look forward for the years to come!

Getting into that Christmas spirit!

This is a letter Ryker wrote to Santa at school. Notice all of the skulls he drew on his paper. I bet his Teacher just loves that.Here we are reenacting the manger scene for FHE. It was Ryker's idea, he got out all of the stuff. He was a shepherd (notice the shepherd's crook in hand). Gary was the angel/ shepherd, Jonah was Joseph and Violet was Mary. I was the narrator and of course we have our baby Jesus lying in the hay.


We also made cookies that same night. My little princess "helped".

Next we headed for the Layton Park's lights!

Jonah was mesmerized by all of those sparkly lights.

Ryker's favorite was the snake and Violet's was the mermaid.

We had a family party with The Mitchell's and every year they have Santa come and bring an early Christmas present for the kids.

Ryker asked for a B.B. GUN.

We let him watch the Christmas story just so he knew what Gary and I meant when we said "you'll shoot your eye out"!

This was a breakthrough for Vi. She has been terrified of Santa this year. She has had a couple of opportunities to sit on his lap but she would always cry and scream NO! But this Santa was persistent, he bribed her with a shiny wrapped present and a candy cane. Violet conquered her fear of Santa! Yay!

I don't think Jonah was quite so sure of old Santy clause either!

But at least he didn't cry.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Happy 3rd Birthday Violet!

Here is the afternoon of your 3rd birthday! We bundled you all up to go ride a horsey. All you wanted for your birthday was a horse so this was the next best thing.You got to meet lightning the miniature pony. He was adorable!
Our whole family came to watch you ride the horse. We got to pet some of the other horses in the stables too.


Here is your horse you got to ride her name was Senora and she was blind in one eye. Here you are leading her with a rope!

You and your brother got to brush her for a long time.

You loved it you kept smiling the whole time and you kept complimenting the horse. You said "you're such a great horse". Senora loved being brushed and pet by you!

You and Ryker got to feed Senora peppermints.

When it came time to ride you were pretty nervous so Ryker went first and showed you that it's not so scary.

Once you got on that saddle you were hooked! You were laughing and smiling the whole time!

You rode for a long time.

and LOVED it.

Then we had to leave because Jonah's diaper leaked but you had a great time and we loved watching you on that Horse so happy!

We went home and Papa Reyza had brought you a new bike!

Dad and papa took you to cafe rio and the sweet tooth fairy for cupcakes.

When you got home we all sang Happy Birthday to you and you got to eat this amazing strawberry shortcake cupcake!

We also had a family party for you over the weekend! Lots of people came. Grandma and Papa Mitchell, Grandma and Papa Minson, and Grandma and Papa Smith all came. Plus aunts, uncles, and cousins made for one big birthday bash!

You opened lots of neat gifts and we sang Happy Birthday again.

I made you these horsey cupcakes. Toothpicks and scrapbook paper can do wonders!

I love you Vi, Vi. I can't believe your three already. I am so grateful to be your Mom!

Thankful.

I am so thankful for all of the many blessings in my life. We have been very blessed with beautiful children, healthy bodies, a warm place to live, heat, food, and clean water. There is always something to be thankful for no matter how drab life can get, and for that I am thankful.Gary

My handy dandy fixer-upper repair man. He is pretty amazing this guy. He hung our Christmas lights on our house after coming home from work and in the dark. Our T.V broke and he ordered a part and fixed it right up!

He got a new job in August which I forgot to mention. He works for the National Weather Service now and he loves it. He works with the Radars and he gets to be in the great outdoors. He brought home this weather balloon one day for the kids to play with. They think he's a pretty cool Dad. So do I.
Me
I have been loving being a stay at home mom. I love to be able to volunteer in Ryker's class at school, take care of my young ones at home, keep our house clean, and cook dinners. I really like trying out new recipes. The only thing I dont love is Laundry that is a battle I can never seem to win. I get it washed and dryed. Then the folding part comes and I put it off until there is a permanent mountain in Gary and I's room. Ah well what can ya do?
One hobby I have picked up lately is Zumba! I love zumba, I have been going about twice a week in the evenings. It's an amazing workout and so much fun!

Jonah
How could you not wanna squeeze these little cheekies?! This big baby is turning one soon. I can't believe my Christmas baby is already going to be one. Time flies when your having fun I guess. He brings plenty of fun wherever he goes. He loves to explore the nooks and crannys of our house, he loves following around his sister & brother, and playing ball. He says Mama, Dada, and HI. He likes chasing ripley around the house, and he prefers to feed himself these days. Such a big Boy!

I guess you could say he is getting too big for his bouncy! Whenever I put him in it he manages to flip over and crawl with it on his back. Gary and I call him our little turtle.
He loves eating peaches. I am giving this boy lots more baths now that he is feeding himself!

This is my brother Dallen. Doesn't he look like a caucasian Bob Marley? Jonah was loving the Guitar strumming by his uncle Dally.

Violet

My little lady knows how to hold her own when it comes to wrastlin' with her brother! She loves playing with her brother, eating cereal, being super snuggly, horses, puppies, and french fry days with her Mom. Every time I ask her how old she is going to be on her Birthday she tells me "eighteen". I don't know where she got that from!

I can never keep her hair done anymore so I just leave it down most the time and everytime I comb her hair she sings that song from tangled " flower gleam and glow let your power shine"..so cute.

The Weather Balloon above.

We got invited to do a Joyschool and she has been loving it! She gets to play with kids, learn about letters, and read stories every Wednesday. Here are some pictures of the last couple of times at our house.

Ryker

Here is Ryker being Santa. He dresses like this every year without fail. He stuffs his belly, puts on boots, and wears our Santa hat on his head. He also makes a paper beard and then pretends he is Santa asking everyone what they want for Christmas. Violet loved it! She is pretty terrified of the other Santa's out there so Ryker's little gettup will have to do. He's such a funny guy!

The weather balloon pretty much made his day! Gary had a Christmas work party for the Air National Guard. He took Ryker to the inside of the Radar he works with. Ryker thought that was probably the coolest thing ever! He told Gary he wants to be a Radar man like him when he grows up.

Wrestling! We put Rykes in wrestling, he had a pretty good time and pinned a couple kids. He also got pinned pretty good too, but he was a good sport about it! He even wrestled a 2nd grader in a unitard. It gave Gary and I some pretty good laughs!

I love how serious these boys faces are!

Funny kids.