HAPPY Birthday Logan!

Happy Birthday Logan! You big teenage boy!Yes, it is official! We now officially have a teenager in our house! And boy, do we know it!

Logan had his 13th birthday today! He is such a great boy! He is always such a great help for his dad! He knows how to do most ranch duties as well as any grown man! He is such a great inspiration to us! He is always looking for a way to serve others. I can't believe every time I look at him how tall and handsome he is getting. He is learning lots of things in his life right now and he always seems to keep us on our toes! He got a roping dummy for his birthday that he has been begging for since this summer, which we didn't even get a picture of. He also got a new black hat and a belt.As tradition would have it, we did our usual New Years sleepover. This picture was taken the day after when Logan had a sledding party. He had Eric and Trent stay the night. They went to their first Young Men/Young Women New Year's Eve party. They could only stay until 10 p.m. when the dance started, so I went in and brought them home. The next day some friends from school, Paige and Maddie came over to sled. Carson also had his birthday sleepover. He had Dylan and Bryant stay the night. They had a lot of fun running around playing and staying up until at least 1:30 a.m. (that is when we went to bed! I am not sure how much longer they all stayed up after that!) They all went sledding on New Year's Day.

Lots of hot chocolate, pizza and fun was had by all!How many kids can fit in the hammock?

When they were done sledding and headed home, Eric and Trent gave Logan an appropriate 13-year old white washing!!!!
When I asked them to lay down for this picture, they all agreed they would like to just stay here and go to sleep! They didn't care how much it snowed on them! So typical!!!

HAPPY Birthday Justin!

Happy Birthday Justin!

Thanks for letting us help you celebrate your birthday on Christmas Eve! We went to some friends and played games for a little while and once again, didn't have birthday cake on the birthday, just two days later! (Hopefully this doesn't become a trend! We have one more birthday this month to try and get it right!) Everyone must have thought Justin was getting cold feet, because he ended up getting five pair of socks. And they were even the right kind! They had enough wool in them to be considered worthy by the great sock coniseurre! We love you and we are grateful for all you do for our family! Thanks for being a great dad and a wonderful husband! We are going to skip his birthday altogether next year! JK

HAPPY Birthday Carson!

HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY CARSON!!

We started off our holiday season by celebrating the birth of someone special in our family.

Carson turned 9 on the night we had our ward party, so we did a quick gift opening and then rushed off to the party. We got to the cake two nights later :( (Bad, bad mom!) But we did get to see grandma, Jordan and Batista the night after his birthday. He had a hunting cake, for the third year in a row-what a boy wants is what a boy gets!

Aside from Dana Carvey, Carson is the only one I know that can do an impression of anybody and it really does sound like who he is imitating! He has such a soft heart and when he remembers to be kind, he is the kindest boy ever. He loves to find new friends and he is ALWAYS the life of the party! He is my biggest helper around the house and he loves to keep his stuff in his bedroom in order, that doesn't mean he likes to hang up his clothes, however. :0) What a great joy he is to our family! We love you Carson!A new sled from Grammy and Grandpa. The fastest sled in the West! We have since found out! Joni loves being pulled around on it all through the house.

New snowboots! That was all he wanted for his birthday.

Progress

The first video is beginning of Joni "crawling", which is actually scooting. The second video is the progress that she made over a week or two! It is HILARIOUS!

Catch up before the New Year!

I will apologize ahead of time that the following pictures and events may not fall in chronological order, but they will be posted just for the record. :-)

Everyone was happy Christmas morning to see that Santa had found us in the different location this year! Some of the other pictures are on my other camera, not downloaded yet.
I wonder if Logan even slept all night long?

Joni found a candy cane and LOVED every second of it! Can you tell she has been eating her fair share of the orange vegetables? Her nose is really got an orange cast to it! Ha Ha!

It almost looks as if Joni is counting how many gifts she has had to open! LOL!

Carson was tickled to DEATH for the knight figurine toys that his brothers (via his mother) so lovingly thought of getting him for Christmas! HA

Joni's first encounter with Santa- It starts out completely harmless, looking him over, assessing the situation and then the inevitable happens . . .

NO MORE OF THIS FUN!!!!

But as for Monte. . .

Monte was so geared up to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas, that when Logan and Carson told him it might not be the "real" Santa, he was sure to ask me. Logan and Carson started noticing that not all the Santa's looked the same when we would go to ward and family Christmas parties, so we had to tell them that sometimes Santa has to have a helper because he can't be everywhere at once.

While we were standing in the line waiting to get up to Santa, Monte said, with all the excitement a five year old has at Christmas time, "Is this the REAL Santa?" I said, like any good mother would do, "Yeah! It is real Santa and he is here just to hear what YOU want for Christmas!"

Well, he must have heard because Santa brought Monte the Hunting Playset he has had circled in the Cabela's magazine for the past two months now! Good Santa!

Carson's birthday. It also fell on the night of the ward party, hence the reason for the birthday cake two days after his birthday. He did get gifts on his birthday, just not quite the cake. P.S.This just about wins me the mother of the year award.






The Great Christmas Tree Fetch

Bringing the tree down off the mountain - Where's Logan?


The great Christmas Tree fetch. The pictures say it all, especially when you find out that these pictures were all taken from inside the truck. The terrain is steep and the weather was less than ideal. Note to self: If we get a tree from this location next year, go the day after Thanksgiving so you can actually see the road, where to turn around and then be able to climb a mountain WITHOUT the snow. Lots of fun!

The funnest gift Carson got for his birthday was this sled from Grandma and Grandpa! Joni loves to be pulled around the house on it.

Carson was a shepherd for his school christmas program. I would post the video, but Logan did the video taping, so I will spare you the motion sickness. It was a wonderful program, with great Christmas songs.

She loves to empty the clothes boxes for each of the boys as fast as I can get them folded and in the box. See the great look of accomplishment?

Monte thought it would be great fun to make a snow angel on the hood and windshield of the car! Pretty nice, isn't it?

Joni loves to eat cheerios. This particular time, she got one stuck on her nose. She could see it, but she couldn't quite get it. Hilarious!

A little bit fuzzy, but you still get the jist of the picture.

And the final shot with the cheerio on her nose.